The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Normandy seeking $440M refi at three office buildings

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 03:20 PM PDT

Normandy Real Estate Partners is hungry for a refinancing at three office buildings it’s planning to overhaul. The New Jersey-based real estate investment firm that specializes in office repositionings is seeking $250 million for a two-building, 610,000-square-foot Financial District complex at 80 and 90 Maiden Lane and $187 million for a 140,000-square-foot Greenwich Village property at 797-799 Broadway, sources told The Real Deal. At 799 Broadway, the funding would in part go toward the construction […]

Sheepshead Bay is getting a 16-story care facility on Avenue Z

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 03:06 PM PDT

Investor Emil Blank filed plans for a 16-story long-term care facility at 1508 Avenue Z in Sheepshead Bay. Plans call for a 50,000-square-foot property with 78 residential units. The building would contain 42,600 square feet of residential space and 3,900 square feet of retail space. It would also include 3,100 square feet of community facility space for a medical office on the ground floor and second floor. The previous owner of the property, Eugene Khody, filed permits […]

WeWork raising money at $35B valuation: SoftBank exec

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 03:00 PM PDT

WeWork may nearly double its worth. The co-working giant is looking to raise money at a $35 billion valuation, according Rajeev Misra, head of SoftBank’s Vision Fund. “A year ago, we were told that WeWork was overvalued at $17 billion for real estate,” the executive said at a conference in London on Tuesday, according to Business Insider. “Guess what, they are looking to raise capital at $35 billion today.” Meanwhile, sources told the Wall Street […]

Silverstein inks ground lease for massive Astoria dairy plant site

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 02:32 PM PDT

Silverstein Properties acquired the ground lease on a seven-parcel Astoria development site in what marks its first major outer-borough expansion, property records filed with the city Wednesday show. The site stretches two blocks between Steinway Street and 42nd Street in the most southeastern part of the Queens neighborhood. The properties, which stretch across 390,906 square feet on the ground and house the dairy plant owned by Queensboro Farm Products, but carry more than 1.5 million […]

Jeff Greene says he’ll spend “whatever it takes” to win nomination for Florida governor

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 01:45 PM PDT

He’s late to the game, but real estate mogul Jeff Greene is prepared to spend “whatever it takes” to win the Democratic nomination for Florida governor. The Palm Beach billionaire, worth about $3.8 billion, says he could spend $100 million of his own money to fund his campaign, according to the Palm Beach Post. He officially joined the Democratic race for governor earlier this month. Greene told the newspaper he plans to give away half […]

Broker faces fraud charges for allegedly stealing millions from 91-year-old investor

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 01:20 PM PDT

Real estate broker Lyndon Chin has been indicted for obtaining $8.5 million in unauthorized mortgage loans for properties that belonged to a 91-year-old man, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Chin has been charged with two counts of first-degree grand larceny. He had previously acted as a real estate broker for his victim and used the knowledge he gained doing this to falsify documents in his company’s name and land $5 million in mortgage […]

Fed hikes interest rates again, raises outlook for more increases in 2018

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 12:59 PM PDT

The Federal Reserve announced it will raise interest rates a quarter percentage point on Wednesday, and signaled that it could raise interest rates at least twice more this year. Most Federal Reserve officials now expect at least four rate increases this year, up from a previous projection in March of three rate increases, according to the Wall Street Journal. Most officials also expect the Fed will have to raise rates at least three times in […]

NYC remains the world’s priciest place to build and more of the biggest trends in CRE right now

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Multifamily sales reach highest level since 2016 New York’s multifamily sales market notched its strongest month in more than a year. The dollar volume of transactions crossed the $1 billion mark in March, the highest level since hitting $2.3 billion in December 2016, according to data from Ariel Property Advisors. Manhattan deals accounted for a bulk of the total, with almost $600 million in property trades. The largest deal was A&E Real Estate Holdings’ $287 […]

Mergers and acquisitions are coming on strong in the REIT industry

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 11:41 AM PDT

Mergers and acquisitions are heating up in the world of real estate investment trusts, thanks largely to cheap stock prices. Buyers are going after REITs that own properties likely to do well during downturns, according to the Wall Street Journal. These include nursing facilities, industrial properties and student housing, but some buyers have also placed bets on riskier properties like hotels. There have been eight deals announced for REITs since April totaling $16.5 billion, up […]

NYC commercial construction valued at $23.8B between 2013 and 2017

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 10:53 AM PDT

According to this week’s market reports, Manhattan rents dropped slightly in May and commercial construction activity in NYC totaled $23.8 billion between 2013 and 2017. Residential Rentals | MNS In May, rents in Manhattan dropped by 0.52 percent on a month-to-month basis to $3,944. Non-doorman one-bedrooms in the Financial District and Tribeca, however, posted increases of 10.5 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively. The biggest bargains, meanwhile, are doorman one-bedrooms in Soho and non-doorman studios in […]

Vincent Viola’s record-breaking townhouse deal falls apart

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 10:35 AM PDT

Vincent Viola’s deal to sell his Upper East Side mansion for $80 million has fallen through — crushing expectations that the sale could set a new residential townhouse record for the city. In December, a Chinese buyer reportedly went into contract to buy 12 East 69th Street, a 20,000-square-foot mansion with its own movie theater and panic room. Viola, CEO of Virtu Financial and President Trump’s first nominee for Secretary of the U.S. Army, purchased […]

Chinese EB-5 investors in major New York developments want their millions back

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 10:00 AM PDT

When eager Chinese citizens invested in the Times Square Edition Hotel through the EB-5 visa program roughly four years ago, they expected to secure green cards within five years. But the controversial program, which has brought billions into New York City real estate projects, is facing a major backlog in applications that has driven up wait times. Some Chinese investors, now facing waits as long as 15 years, have enlisted American attorneys to help them […]

Sam Zell said another inappropriate thing about women: report

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 09:06 AM PDT

After apologizing for using a vulgarity to talk about female employment, news has surfaced that Sam Zell said another offensive thing about women earlier this year. Zell, 76, spoke at a panel discussion at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in April. In response to a question about his company’s investment in Argentina, he said, “Argentina is like a beautiful woman — her greatest asset is a man’s imagination,” Politico reported, based on […]

REBNY hands out awards for top retail deals

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 08:46 AM PDT

The brokers behind Peloton’s new outlet at Manhattan West and FAO Schwarz’ rebirth at Rockefeller Center took home the industry’s top honors for their work. Newmark Knight Frank’s Benjamin Birnbaum shared the Real Estate Board of New York’s Most Ingenious Retail Deal of the Year award with a JLL team of Patrick Smith, Matt Ogle, Corey Zolcinski and Bob Gibson for their work bringing cycling studio Peloton to Brookfield Property Partners’ 5 Manhattan West. Peloton’s […]

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Posted: 13 Jun 2018 08:10 AM PDT

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Home flipper Opendoor raises $325M

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 07:27 AM PDT

House flipping company Opendoor has raised a $325 million Series E and plans to expand to 50 markets by 2020, the company said Wednesday. The latest round — far more than the $200 million it was rumored to be raising — was co-led by General Atlantic, Access Technology Ventures, and South Florida-based builder Lennar Corporation. It brings Opendoor’s total funding to $645 million in equity and $1.5 billion in debt. Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, 10100 […]

Advice for Hudson’s Bay: build condos

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 07:17 AM PDT

Hudson’s Bay Companies, the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, is looking to reclaim capital, and one of its shareholders has offered a solution: cash in on condos above its stores. The Canadian retailer has been cutting losses across the business as its share price has dropped 22 percent in the past two years. This month it announced the closure of its flagship Lord & Taylor store at 424 Fifth Avenue after […]

Dubai’s skyline serves as a haven for the criminal elite

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 06:30 AM PDT

Dubai’s real estate boom was in part funded by gun-runners, terrorism financiers, and warmongers, according to a new report using leaked city data to prove what has long been suspected. The Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies found $100 million in suspicious real estate purchases in the city, that included apartments owned by a Hezbollah financier and a cousin of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad who was sanctioned by the United States, according to the Associated […]

Arquitectonica’s Bernardo Fort-Brescia talks “Miami Vice,” breaking into new markets

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 06:01 AM PDT

Punctuating a montage of palm trees, flamingos and bikini-clad citizens is a building with a hole in the middle of it— missed in a blink. But this seconds-long cameo in the opening credits of “Miami Vice” helped make the condominium’s architect a household name. Since designing the Atlantis, Arquitectonica has worked on more than 240 projects in the U.S. alone, with another 100 currently in design. In addition to its headquarters in Miami, the firm […]

City says it will spend $500M on new housing for seniors

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 05:30 AM PDT

The de Blasio administration says it will build thousands of affordable housing units for seniors on vacant parking lots, green spaces and other unused land, in the hope of chipping away at a public housing waitlist that currently exceeds 200,000 families. The city made an initial commitment of $500 million to build a “few thousand” units in its proposed $89 billion budget released this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. The news comes after […]

Saunders vs. Compass: A look inside the long-brewing legal battle in the Hamptons

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 04:30 AM PDT

Against the backdrop of the serene waters of the Hamptons and its laid-back, resort-style living, a bitter legal storm that’s been long brewing between Compass — a relative newcomer to the East End — and the more established Saunders & Associates reached the boiling point. A jury in the case in question, which revolved around charges of computer hacking, ruled this winter against Meg Salem, who was a top agent for Saunders & Associates before […]

At star-studded 443 Greenwich, condos are smaller than advertised

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 04:00 AM PDT

UPDATED, June 13, 1:40 p.m.: Perched atop a 1880s bookbindery with views of One World Trade Center, the sprawling penthouse at 443 Greenwich Street was poised to shatter the city’s Downtown sales record when developer Nathan Berman priced it at $58 million. But when serial entrepreneur Marc Lore closed on the triplex last month for $43.8 million, the Jet.com founder snagged a discount of $14.2 million. A closer look shows that the 8,569-square-foot condominium didn’t […]