The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Call me Houdini: Eichner gets Madison lifeline at Flatiron condo project

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 04:16 PM PDT

It was an opera, as it often is when the developer in question is Ian Bruce Eichner. But after a long battle with his partners, Eichner looks to have ensured that the saga of his Flatiron condominium project won’t be remembered as a Greek tragedy. Eichner’s Continuum Company just scored a $167.5 million condo inventory loan from Madison Realty Capital for 45 East 22nd Street, The Real Deal has learned. The financing, according to sources […]

Following DOB rejection, developer adds 62 apartments to Jackson Heights project

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 03:36 PM PDT

The city’s Department of Buildings last month rejected Mehran Cohen’s plans for a mixed-use building in Jackson Heights with 88 apartments, but the developer apparently has no plans to downsize. Cohen re-filed plans today that call for an additional 62 apartments at 91-09 Roosevelt Avenue. Cohen is now looking to build a seven-story, 150-unit building on the site, according to the permit applications filed with the city today. Plans call for a 91,500-square-foot building, which would […]

Here’s how much Westgate paid for the Hilton at Grand Central

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 03:12 PM PDT

Westgate Resorts has purchased the former site of the Hilton New York Grand Central for $50 million, according to sources familiar with the deal. The firm announced on Wednesday that it had acquired the 300-key hotel at 304 East 42nd Street, with plans to rebrand it as Westgate New York City. This marks the first urban hotel in the company’s portfolio, according to Westgate CEO David Siegel. The 23-story, two-tower hotel opened in 1931 and was known […]

Scorecard: Midtown office leasing reached highest level in 3 years

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 01:15 PM PDT

A roundup of news and data on the commercial market.

National Cheat Sheet: Home Depot and Lowes profit from the home construction slowdown … & more

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 12:45 PM PDT

Home Depot and Lowes are profiting from the home construction slowdown New home construction is slowing down — sending prices up — which means more and more homeowners are renovating their current homes, Bloomberg reported. As a result, stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s are seeing an influx of customers. Renovations and repairs may also be on the rise because homes throughout the U.S. are aging, according to the outlet. [TRD] Home flipping rates hit 6-year high […]

Former GE boss Jack Welch buys Fifth Ave. apartment for $19M

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 12:04 PM PDT

The famed businessman bought unit 7B at 834 Fifth Avenue for $18.8 million, according to property records. The unit contains two bedrooms and four bathrooms, and it was previously listed in 2017 for $24 million. The unit was sold by the estate of philanthropist Ruth Stanton, who was the owner of the home for more than 40 years. The 82-year-old recently put his four-bedroom home at One Beacon Court on the market for $25.9 million, […]

Target signs lease for a 50K sf store in East Flatbush

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 11:45 AM PDT

Target has nailed down a spot for its latest New York store, signing a lease for 50,000 square feet in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush neighborhood. The company said in a release that it plans to open the “small-format” store at Kings Highway and Utica Avenue in 2020. This will be its 27th store in New York City and its seventh in Brooklyn. Target leased the space from Bridges Development Group, but the length of the lease […]

Bessemer Trust in talks for more than 200K sf at 1271 Sixth

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 11:24 AM PDT

The family wealth adviser that Carnegie Steel co-founder Henry Phipps Jr. launched more than 100 years ago to manage his fortune is working on a deal to relocate from Rockefeller Center to more modern space on Sixth Avenue. Bessemer Trust, which today has grown to be one of the largest advisors in the world to high-net-worth families, is negotiating to lease more than 200,000 square feet at the Rockefeller Group’s 1271 Sixth Avenue, sources told The […]

Developer to construct 130-unit resi complex on Flushing church site

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 10:45 AM PDT

Developer Xin Xiang Lin is looking to building a residential complex on the site of a Flushing Mormon church. Xin filed a permit application to build an eight-story, 131-unit mixed-used building at 144-27 Sanford Avenue. The 113,000-square-foot property will be built on a 24,000-square-foot lot that sits between 147th Street and Parsons Boulevard. Plans call for 93,000 square feet of residential space, with apartments having an average size of about 710 square feet. The building […]

Western cities are struggling to stem the flow of Chinese buyers

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 10:15 AM PDT

As Chinese buyers flood the real estate market in Western cities, officials are seeking to curtail the trend — to no avail. Chinese investors drove an estimated $100 billion in property purchases outside China in 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported. Though the foreign capital was welcome after the financial crisis, officials in Canada and Australia are now concerned price bubbles threaten their regional economies, the report said. Governments “are still at the trial-and-error stage,” […]

Glenwood lands $98M loan for UES buildings

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 09:46 AM PDT

Glenwood Management received a $98 million loan from Prudential Multifamily Mortgage for a trio of rental properties on the Upper East Side. The money will go to 322, 330 and 350 East 79th Street, located between First and Second avenues, property records filed with the city Thursday. The loan includes $4.9 million in new financing along with two notes for $49.8 million and $43.3 million. The property at 350 East 79th Street is the Lucerne, a […]

One and done: Elliman’s Samantha Yanks resigns from top marketing job

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 09:17 AM PDT

Douglas Elliman’s chief marketing officer has resigned after just a month on the job. Samantha Yanks resigned Thursday morning, sources at the company said, becoming the latest executive to pass through Elliman’s marketing department, which has changed direction several times over the past few years. Yanks joined Elliman after serving as editor-in-chief for Hamptons and Gotham magazines. “We wish Samantha all the best in her next venture,” a spokesperson for Elliman said Thursday. Natalie Gilmore, […]

Subscribe to TRD’s China Watch newsletter

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 09:00 AM PDT

As you’ve learned from The Real Deal’s reporting, Chinese players have been pulling out of the U.S. property market amid a government crackdown on capital flight. The news and views on what’s happening change constantly, so TRD launched a weekly newsletter to keep you in the loop. Delivered every Tuesday morning, China Watch captures all the news on Chinese investments — and divestments — across the U.S. Subscribe today.

Should NYC’s pension funds profit from their real estate?

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 08:00 AM PDT

One way pension funds from other countries and states make their profits is by purchasing Manhattan real estate, but the pension funds actually based in the city have not taken up this strategy. All five of the city’s pension funds are tenants rather than owners of the places where they do business, according to the New York Times. The pension fund of city teachers, for instance, is a tenant at 55 Water Street, where it […]

The Closing: Sam Zell

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 07:31 AM PDT

Sam Zell is the brash and outspoken chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private equity and venture capital firm he founded more than 45 years ago. He made his fortune — which has been pegged at $5 billion — by investing in an array of industries, including commercial real estate, manufacturing, transportation and health care. As of December, Equity Residential, the REIT he chairs, owned (or had a stake in) 300-plus properties with more than 77,000 apartments […]

Wearable-tech maker Thalmic Labs near deal for first US brick-and-mortar store

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 06:30 AM PDT

UPDATED, 10:30 a.m., June 6: Thalmic Labs, the Canadian wearable-tech maker known for its futuristic human-to-computer interaction products, is close to striking a deal to open its first reported U.S. retail space in a Brooklyn storefront, sources told The Real Deal. The company is in advanced negotiations for an entire building at Lonicera Partners’ 178 Court Sreet in Cobble Hill, sources said. The company would fully occupy the two-story, 7,500-square foot building, with 50 feet […]

Home flipping rates hit 6-year high nationwide: report

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 06:00 AM PDT

Flipping houses, always a risk-reward proposition, is still very popular in the U.S. post-recession. The rate of house flips hit a six-year high as a share of sales in the first quarter of 2018, according to a report in ATTOM Data Solutions. New York City saw a 20 percent increase in home flipping year over year, while Chicago saw a 7 percent increase. But there were stark differences around the country. Tight markets made it […]

City Council bill regulating Airbnb has enough support to pass

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 05:35 AM PDT

A City Council bill intended to rein in Airbnb already has enough support to pass. Thirty-one Council members signed on the legislation, five more than needed for passage, Politico reported. Five more lawmakers said they would co-sponsor it, giving it enough support to avoid a veto. The legislation — to be introduced Thursday — would require Airbnb and other short-term rental companies to give monthly data on booked listings to the city’s Office of Special […]

For some tech workers looking to buy a home, a salary’s just a starting point

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 05:00 AM PDT

There was a time when buying a first home meant patiently saving money for several years — or cozying up to mom and dad for the down payment. While those practices remain, a growing number of young buyers in Silicon Beach are purchasing multimillion-dollar homes by liquidating stock options — or even cryptocurrency portfolios — in a bid to edge out the competition and boost their purchasing power. And cashing out is not the only […]

Architecture review: Beware World Trade weariness, with new tower

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 04:30 AM PDT

Roughly 10 years after ground broke on 3 World Trade Center, the tower is finally slated to open this month. And now that it’s near completion — rising to 1,079 feet and fully clad in glass — I can say with reasonable confidence that it will prove to be the least architecturally interesting of the four main buildings on the hallowed site. Two World Trade Center was in the running for that dreary distinction, with […]

Pricing power returns to Manhattan’s hotels

Posted: 07 Jun 2018 04:00 AM PDT

As Manhattan filled with tens of thousands of new hotel rooms during this building boom, hotel operators played a frustrating waiting game. Even with the flood of new supply coming online, hotel occupancies over the past four years have continued to rise. So, hoteliers were confident that once the delivery of new product slowed, they could push pricing upwards. Finally, during the first quarter of this year, average daily room rates in Manhattan grew, […]