The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

The last rites: St. Patrick’s deal blocked by exclusive men’s club

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 03:00 PM PDT

If there was a commandment for not coveting thy neighbor’s air rights deal, The Brook would face damnation. The exclusive private men’s club agreed to sell its unused development rights to the owners of 405 Park Avenue, scuttling a previous agreement with St. Patrick’s Cathedral and costing the church millions. Back in March the owners of 405 Park, MRP Realty and Deutsche Bank, reached a deal to buy 30,000 square feet of air rights from […]

National Cheat Sheet: Zillow stock plunges, Softbank’s IPO could be the largest ever … & more

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 02:30 PM PDT

Zillow stock plunges 15% but its CEO says the company’s ‘long-term story is intact’ It wasn’t the best week for Zillow Group, which saw its stock plunge around 15 percent on Tuesday. The dip came a day after the listings giant announced that it would be getting into home-buying and mortgage origination — a move that may have worried investors, experts said. The company also lowered its revenue projection for the year. Despite Tuesday’s woes, […]

Here’s how investments sales fared in New York City in June

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 02:00 PM PDT

Investment sales in Manhattan and Brooklyn Manhattan investment sales retreated in June, with just over $2 billion recorded. The figure was a steep decline from May’s $3.6 billion, but was right on the average of the past year. The top sale was Invesco buying the office condo at 1745 Broadway from SL Green Realty and Ivanhoe Cambridge for a reported $633 million (although in transfer documents the price was $596 million). In Brooklyn, buyers recorded […]

HJ Kalikow lands a $365M mortgage loan for 101 Park Avenue

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 01:40 PM PDT

H.J. Kalikow & Co. secured a $365 million mortgage for 101 Park Avenue in Midtown. The new mortgage replaces a $300 million Bank of America loan from 2012, according to records filed with the city on Thursday. The new debt adds a $65 million gap mortgage, also provided by Bank of America, on the existing loan on the 46-story office tower. Last year, the American Kennel Club chose the building for its Museum of the […]

Johnny Carson’s former Malibu estate asking price trimmed by $16M

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 01:00 PM PDT

The Malibu home where “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson once lived is now more affordable than ever. The 7,000-square-foot home on a bluff overlooking the ocean just slashed $16.3 million off its $81.5 million price tag it listed for last October — a 20 percent discount, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. The new listing price is $65.2 million. The current owners are fashion and film producer Sidney Kimmel and his wife, Caroline, who […]

NYC’s resi market hasn’t been in a funk like this since 2009. Here’s what’s gone wrong.

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 12:30 PM PDT

New York’s residential market is still sliding. The city saw an 8 percent decrease, year-over-year, in overall transaction value in the second quarter, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s quarterly residential sales report. It was the fourth straight quarter of declines — which hasn’t happened since the third quarter of 2009. Transactions in the second quarter totaled $12.3 billion, according to the report. Homes sales volume dipped 4 percent to 12,262 transactions. […]

Ravitch strikes deal with city to keep 325 units at Waterside Plaza affordable

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Richard Ravitch struck a deal with the city that will keep about a quarter of the roughly 1,400 units at his Waterside Plaza apartment complex affordable for another 75 years. In exchange, the city agreed to extend the ground lease on the Kips Bay property for another 99 years and reduce Ravitch’s rent payments, the New York Times reported. “It’s a good thing for everybody,” Ravitch said. “The city is pleased. The tenants are pleased.” […]

Tenant at 990 Sixth dodges eviction in test case for commercial tenant harassment law

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 11:30 AM PDT

A tenant at Vanbarton Group’s 990 Sixth Avenue was able to stave off eviction in a test case for the city’s new commercial tenant harassment law. Law firm Schulman, Blitz & Williamson was granted an injunction to continue its tenancy at the 25-story residential and office tower, also known as the Vogue Building. The firm sued its landlord in June, claiming that it was being harassed through “unnecessary construction” under the guise of a renovation. […]

The Collectors: The industry moguls who have amassed the biggest art portfolios

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 10:15 AM PDT

Whenever Edward Minskoff sees the iconic image of a leather-clad Marlon Brando on a motorcycle, he thinks of the one that got away. Minskoff offered nearly $1 million in the late 1990s for Andy Warhol’s 1966 silkscreen, “Marlon,” which is based on a still from the biker film “The Wild One.” He was stunned when his offer wasn’t accepted. Minskoff claims that the art dealer misrepresented the situation and was actually not authorized to sell […]

Aetna consolidating NYC offices in Soho

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 09:15 AM PDT

UPDATED, Aug. 9, 3:05 p.m.: Aetna, which earlier this year pulled an about-face on plans to move employees from Connecticut to the Meatpacking District, will be consolidating some of its existing New York City offices in Soho. The insurance company signed a lease for a little more than 100,000 square feet at Stellar Management’s One Soho Square, sources told The Real Deal. Aetna signed a lease for the top four floors at 161 Sixth Avenue, the […]

Trump administration scrutinizing HNA’s stake in 850 Third Avenue

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 08:45 AM PDT

The U.S. government has questioned Chinese conglomerate HNA Group about its stake in 850 Third Avenue. The Committee on Foreign Investors in the United States, or CFIUS, had concerns about “unique facts and circumstances” regarding the location of the building, Bloomberg reported. HNA said it’s taking steps to address the concerns, the report said. The company didn’t provide details. The move comes after Congress approved expanded authority of CFIUS in August. The expansion gives more […]

Omni takes full floor at 909 Third Avenue

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 08:00 AM PDT

Omni New York is heading to 909 Third Avenue. Mo Vaughn and Eugene Schneur’s real estate development firm signed a 10-year lease for nearly 33,000 square feet on the entire 21st floor of Vornado Realty Trust’s building, Commercial Observer reported. The asking rent was in the $70s per square foot, the report said. Omni, which primarily builds affordable housing, will be taking the space previously occupied by a division of the Interpublic Group of Companies. […]

Rich New Yorkers are flocking to Florida. But soaring prices might offset the tax perks

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 07:34 AM PDT

The tax overhaul is fueling a luxury home boom in Florida. Prices for luxury properties in the state climbed 16 percent in the second quarter versus a year earlier, according to Bloomberg. And values for the top 5 percent of properties rose at the fastest pace in five years, even as prices in the rest of the Florida market increased only 7 percent. “The trigger is tax reform,” Jay Phillip Parker, CEO of Douglas Elliman […]

Tale of two boroughs: Rental concessions drop in Queens but double in Brooklyn

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 07:00 AM PDT

It’s a tale of two boroughs: rental concessions drop in Queens and double in Brooklyn It took 16 months, but Northwest Queens finally saw a decrease in year-over-year concessions. The amount of new leases with concessions in the borough dropped from 40.8 percent last July to 32.3 percent this July, according to the latest report from Douglas Elliman. This was the first time in 16 consecutive months that concessions did not increase year over year. […]

City Council passes Inwood rezoning

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 06:30 AM PDT

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Inwood rezoning has passed. The City Council on Wednesday voted through the controversial plan that would allow more development and increase housing in the upper Manhattan neighborhood, Curbed reported. The council’s subcommittee on zoning and franchises last week approved a modified version of the plan, which excluded the “commercial U” of Broadway, 207th Street and Dyckman Street. It aims to bring 5,000 units of housing to the neighborhood. Parts of the […]

WeWork’s answer to Knotel is already spreading across Manhattan

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 06:00 AM PDT

WeWork recently launched a new initiative to go after mid-sized tenants, and on Wednesday the co-working company shared an update on its progress. The company said it has signed leases for six spaces in Manhattan that it plans to use for the new product, dubbed “HQ by WeWork”: at490 Broadway, 149 Fifth Avenue, 115 East 23rd Street, 38 West 21st Street, 8 West 40th Street and 13-15 West 27th Street. A WeWork spokesperson said the […]

Another month, another decline: Manhattan’s rents stay soft

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 05:20 AM PDT

The Manhattan rental market is stuck in a rut. The median net effective rent, which accounts for concessions, fell 1.3 percent year over year in July to $3,307, according to Douglas Elliman’s latest rental report. It was the seventh decline in eight months, the report said. “We’re at the top of the seasonal peak, or close to it, and it’s still the same story,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel and the […]

How political infighting is choking efforts to expose dirty money hidden in US real estate

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 04:30 AM PDT

A Malibu mansion and Gulfstream jet were seized from the playboy son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, who pilfered hundreds of millions of dollars from his starving country. Authorities retrieved $100 million from a bank used by Hezbollah to wash money from drug trafficking. And a foreign not-for-profit is facing charges that it helped Iran evade sanctions by secretly investing in a Manhattan skyscraper. In each case, American shell companies masked the true identities behind […]

The Long View: Hudson Yards, Quayside and the return of the company town

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 04:00 AM PDT

UPDATED, Aug. 9, 11:47 a.m.: In October 1966, Walt Disney recorded a video to unveil his plan for the city of the future. EPCOT — or Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow — would be a master-planned city built on company-owned land near Orlando, Florida. It would include elevated high-speed trains, a wheel-shaped street layout and a city center covered in a giant, climate-controlled dome. “I don’t believe there’s a challenge anywhere in the world that’s […]