The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Katie Couric sells Park Ave. pad for $7.8M

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 02:30 PM PDT

Katie Couric is officially leaving behind her longtime home on the Upper East Side. Couric closed on the sale of her five-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath co-op at 1155 Park Avenue for $7.8 million, according to property records. It’s unclear when Couric bought the property. However, her name has been in loan documents for the home dating back to 1998. The apartment was first listed last October for $8.25 million. It went into contract with a last asking […]

Oxford Property Group cut off from RLS

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 02:00 PM PDT

Oxford Property Group, a high-commission brokerage with 450 agents, has been abruptly cut off from the Real Estate Board of New York’s syndicated listing feed, The Real Deal has learned. Oxford also dropped its REBNY membership in recent weeks, though it’s unclear whether the firm was asked to leave or opted out on its own terms. But last week, the New York’s Department of State confirmed it is investigating complaints against the company. A spokesperson […]

State senate passes bill favoring the title insurance industry. Here’s what happens next

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 01:30 PM PDT

The New York State Senate has passed another bill attacking strict new regulations on the title insurance industry. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn), essentially says that the Department of Financial Services vastly overstepped its authority when it imposed new rules on the title insurance industry earlier this year. It states that the agency does not have the power to levy fees for “ancillary or discretionary non-insurance services” that title insurance companies provide. […]

Starchitect, schmarchitect? Why top-tier design doesn’t necessarily translate to premium prices in the Hamptons

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 01:00 PM PDT

In the Hamptons, oceanside compounds with formal gardens, turf tennis courts and sumptuous swimming pools are a given. Creating distinctions among its highbrow mansions can be, therefore, more about design than scale. That’s why top architects — think Stanford White and the Cross brothers — have been tapped to build one-off show homes on the East End since its inception as the gilded playground for moneyed Manhattanites. But while a home designed by a Pritzker […]

Financial firm Evercore near deal to grow by 170K sf at Park Avenue Plaza

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 12:45 PM PDT

Evercore will more than double its lease-space at Park Avenue Plaza, as three major tenants in the 44-story tower are preparing to move out. The New York-based financial-services firm, which currently occupies 130,000-square-feet at 55 East 52nd Street, is in the final stages of a deal to take over 300,000-square-feet, according to Crain’s. The company will move out of its office space at 666 Fifth Avenue to fill the extra floorspace. Details on the value […]

Brooklyn is the borough of rats

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 12:06 PM PDT

According to this week’s market reports, Brooklyn registered the most complaints over rat infestation in 2017 and median rents for Manhattan two-bedrooms rose by 1 percent. Residential Rat complaints | RentHop Brooklyn is the most rat-infested borough in New York City. In 2017, the area registered 7,253 rodent complaints, higher than the 4,507 in Manhattan and more than one-third of the 19,152 total complaints in the city. Bedford-Stuyvesant, Harlem and the Upper West Side were […]

Cushman files paperwork for its IPO

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 11:07 AM PDT

Cushman & Wakefield filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its long-awaited initial public offering, the company announced Wednesday. The number of shares Cushman plans to offer and the price range have not yet been determined, the company said. Rumors have been swirling since earlier last year that Cushman, which is backed by the private equity firm TPG Capital, would look to debut on Wall Street. The Real Deal first reported last month […]

Hamptons Cheat Sheet: “RHONY” star lists Sag Harbor home for $6M … & more

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 10:50 AM PDT

RHONY’s Luann de Lesseps lists Sag Harbor home for $6.25M Luann de Lesseps of Real Housewives of New York put her 2,500-square-foot waterfront home on the market for $6.25 million. A friend told the New York Post that the onetime countess wants to move to the Catskills. De Lesseps bought the home, which was built in 1835, in 2013 for $2.43 million before updating the interiors. It features four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a gourmet kitchen and […]

April is the cruelest month for New York’s multifamily market

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 10:25 AM PDT

The multifamily market in New York City slowed down significantly in April following a strong first quarter, with volume metrics dropping to their lowest levels of the year so far, according to a new report from Ariel Property Advisors. The first quarter of 2018 saw a solid rebound from the multifamily market’s painfully slow 2017, with dollar volume reaching almost $3 billion. But in April, dollar volume was at just $431.4 million, spread across 31 […]

RSA sues tenant leader Mike McKee for $40M claiming defamation

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 09:56 AM PDT

The Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group that is one of the biggest lobbying and campaign spenders in New York State, filed suit against tenant leader Michael McKee on Wednesday alleging he defamed RSA in statements about its 2010 campaign contributions. RSA alleges that at a City Council meeting in May, McKee testified that RSA had “promised” $150,000 contribution to three state senators if they agreed to vote down two tenant-friendly bills that had managed […]

No pooch left behind: Bill to protect pets during evictions advances

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 09:20 AM PDT

A bill meant to prevent pets from getting left in homes during evictions is almost the law of the land in New York. The bill has passed the state legislature and will now go to the governor’s desk to become a law, according to the New York Post. It would require officials carrying out eviction warrants to make sure any pets they find in the building are either brought back to their owners or properly […]

Tee off with The Real Deal at our annual NY golf outing

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 08:50 AM PDT

The Real Deal is pleased to announce that we will be hosting this year’s golf outing at The Muttontown Club in East Norwich, New York. Muttontown is a beautiful private country club available exclusively to members and their guests and offers the perfect setting for meeting and mingling with NYC’s real estate elites. The day will include breakfast, a shotgun start and cocktails and meals, including a semi-formal dinner. For the first time ever, a […]

Eastern Consolidated’s HQ space is up now up for grabs

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 08:20 AM PDT

Less than a week after Eastern Consolidated announced it would be shutting down, Rudin Management has begun the hunt to replace the commercial brokerage’s headquarters with a new tenant. The landlord has placed the roughly 20,000 square feet across the full 11th floor and part of the 10th floor at 355 Lexington Avenue on the market for lease, according to CoStar data and sources. The asking rent is $59 per square foot. Related: How Eastern […]

Russian buyers shelled out $109M in cash for dozens of Trump properties

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 07:38 AM PDT

Buyers tied to Russia or former Soviet republics dropped $109 million in cash on 86 Trump-branded properties in South Florida and New York City, according to a new report. A majority of the deals at the 10 Trump properties McClatchy analyzed were purchased using shell companies. While not illegal, all-cash deals raise suspicions of money laundering. Earlier this year, the Treasury Department released another set of rules geared at cracking down on money laundering in […]

Hello Alfred taking over Bjarke Ingels’ former space at 61 Broadway

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 07:10 AM PDT

Property management startup and in-home assistant Hello Alfred is taking over Bjarke Ingels Group’s former space at RXR Realty’s 61 Broadway in downtown Manhattan. Hello Alfred moved into its new digs from 55 West 19th Street the day after Ingels’ company moved into a 50,000-square-foot space at Two Trees Management’s 45 Main Street in Dumbo, according to the New York Post. It will take up just over 22,000 square feet in the building and signed […]

This co-working firm says its 400% markup is actually a big problem

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 06:54 AM PDT

Co-working companies are making a killing, but that’s of little solace to the commercial landlords who own the space. In fact, the CEO of one shared workspace company thinks landlords should enter joint ventures or profit-sharing agreements with co-working firms, scrapping the traditional loan in the process. At a panel discussion hosted by leasing management company VTS, Industrious CEO Jamie Hodari cited his firm’s space in Union Square, where his company pays the landlord $67 […]

Virtual reality brokerage EXp Realty doubles its agent count

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 06:32 AM PDT

EXp Realty, the cloud-based virtual reality office where brokers walk around and make deals with avatars, has doubled in size to 12,000 agents. The news comes after the company entered the NASDAQ exchange in May, trading at an astounding $1 billion. The huge entry meant it was trading higher than national franchise brokerage Re/Max, which at that point had a market cap of $944 million. Glenn Sanford, who founded the company in 2009, said the brokerage […]

Aby Rosen in talks to sell 90 Sands to affordable developer: report

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 05:59 AM PDT

Aby Rosen is in talks to sell his recently acquired 90 Sands Street in Dumbo to an affordable housing developer, according to a new report. Rosen had been planning to convert the vacant former Jehovah’s Witnesses building into a modern hotel. Rosen’s RFR Realty is expected to close on the sale of 90 Sands Street to developer Breaking Ground by September, with work to begin on the building in February, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. […]

Ashkenazy buys AMC theater for $53M

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 05:30 AM PDT

Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation bought a movie theater on the Upper West side for $53 million, after the Bromley Companies attempted to block the sale. The Midtown-based firm purchased 2318 Broadway from American Multi-Cinema, according to court documents and a source with knowledge of the sale. As part of the deal, AMC movie theater will lease the space back from Ashkenazy for an initial $3 million for the first year, with rent increasing 2 percent each […]

Will the Meatpacking’s retail renaissance flourish or fade?

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 04:30 AM PDT

On a recent spring day in the Meatpacking District, a group of tourists argued over dinner plans as they stepped off the High Line onto 14th Street, two girls walked into stalled traffic to Instagram the streetscape behind them and three neon-vested construction workers stood at the curb discussing the many visible changes in the neighborhood. This all took place in front of Jeffrey New York, the pioneering luxury clothing store that Jeffrey Kalinsky opened […]

Inside a new dev contract: What Halstead was paid at the Oosten

Posted: 20 Jun 2018 04:00 AM PDT

When Halstead Property inked a deal to market the Oosten condominium in 2013, there was an unusual catch: the Chinese developer behind the 216-unit Williamsburg project intended to sell 60 percent of the units itself overseas. Halstead would be paid $5,000 for each of those deals, according to a contract between the firm and the Oosten’s developer, Xinyuan Real Estate. Broker commissions are among the most closely guarded secrets in residential real estate, but Halstead’s […]