With its panoramic command view of the East River or more so the whopping $5.4 billion sale it attracted in 2006, the twin Manhattan apartment complexes of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Villages could still tickle the imagination of developers, investors and even speculators.

For a start, the collaborative efforts of Winthrop Realty Trust and Pershing Square Capital made some headway in securing the sprawling properties collection of 11,226 apartment units which the partnership intends to morph into an inexpensive cooperative and then earn some windfall in the process.

Yet the duo may encounter considerable opposition from the stake holders who footed the $3 billion mortgage bill on the property, balking at the idea that Winthrop and Pershing’s offerings of $45 million investment to control the apartment buildings could be a little minuscule as compared to what have been invested on the complexes.

Then there were more entities to contend with: the Colony Capital, the Westwood Capital and Manhattan’s dominant real estate families, the LeFraks and the Durst plus the apartment’s tenant association, who all expressed intents in acquiring and running the residential buildings.

Property experts privy to the dealings of the twin apartments were in agreement that Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were able to withstand the $5.4 billion acquisition proposal for the 60-year old middle-class apartment, which eventually fizzled out following the defaults of billions of mortgage loans in January.

Undaunted, the partnership of Winthrop and Pershing maintained that they are willing to sit down and work with officials of the building’s tenants association, stressing that “we are offering an attractive investment, for tenants to buy their apartments at below-market prices and for the first-mortgage lender to get back its money.”

Experts though were quick to suggest that such a scheme had been introduced before by the properties’ suitors which the tenants had flatly rejected as city councilor Daniel Garodnick, a long-time resident of the Peter Cooper, observed that “no entity can be successful without the cooperation and support of the tenants.”

Garodnick noted that tenants earlier fought attempts by the apartments’ current operators to peg the units’ stable rent rates with prevailing market rates in an obvious attempt to squeeze more juice from the properties and collect huge profits in return. Needless to say, the plan was thwarted.

For now, tenants are putting their heads together for possible transformation of the twin properties into a coop where tenants would enjoy the options of sustaining their rent status or buy out their units with specific prohibitions on the prospect of resale transactions.

Fittingly, Winthrop and Pershing are picking on that momentum and affirmed that the partnership fully intends to “do exactly what the tenant association wanted done,” though property experts observed that the partnerships’ concept of affordability may be hard to reconcile with the association’s plain idea.

Winthrop has recently availed of a $25 million discount on its $1.4 billion secondary loans on the property as experts explained that the cut was big owing to the properties’ estimated present value of $1.8 billion, which is a big departure from the combined first and second mortgages values of $4.4 billion, which left little room for back payment of the secondary loans.

Still, Winthrop and Pershing declared that the discount awarded them enable the partnership to settle the $3 billion first mortgage, offer the apartment units to tenants at reasonable rates and collect some profits along the way.

The partnership lodged a notice before the State Supreme Court that they were foreclosing on their $300 million loan and assume control of the properties but experts are raising questions if that is possible when the first mortgage still hangs in the balance and waits for final settlement.