The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

WATCH: Top resi players talk business of brokerage at TRD forum

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 03:30 PM PST

At The Real Deal’s fifth annual Miami Real Estate Showcase & Forum, senior reporter E.B. Solomont moderated a discussion among the leaders of the country’s top residential brokerages. Panelists included Robert Reffkin (Compass), Howard Lorber (Douglas Elliman), Pamela Liebman (The Corcoran Group), Mauricio Umansky (The Agency) and Julie Leonhardt LaTorre (Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates). Highlights included Liebman speaking out on Zillow; Reffkin fielding questions on Compass reputation for poaching; and Umansky announcing a new South […]

Cushman posts operating income of $11M in the third quarter

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 03:15 PM PST

Cushman & Wakefield reported revenues of $2.07 billion during the third quarter, an increase of 21 percent over the same time last year. Expenses during the quarter rose 17 percent on the year to $2.06 billion, for operating income on the quarter of $11 million. “We’re making good progress in our financial, operational and strategic growth objectives,” CEO Brett White said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Tuesday evening. It was Cushman’s second earnings call […]

MTA to buy Grand Central Terminal for $35M

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 03:05 PM PST

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to buy Grand Central Terminal for $35 million. The opportunity to buy the terminal is part of the agency’s long-term lease, which stipulates that MTA’s window to purchase Grand Central opened in 2017 and closes in October 2019. During an MTA finance committee meeting on Tuesday, members voted in favor of the sale, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal will include the terminal building as well as the Hudson […]

WeWork “cannibalized” office industry: Moskovits

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 02:30 PM PST

Landlords were asleep at the wheel in the early days of New York’s co-working boom and are in danger or repeating the mistake with co-living companies, according to Toby Moskovits. “We allowed WeWork to cannibalize our business,” Moskovits, CEO of Heritage Equity Partners, said at the 2018 Real Estate Industry Executive Forum hosted by Bloomberg and accountancy firm Berdon on Wednesday. Instead of analyzing WeWork’s appeal and starting to offer their own flexible, furnished office […]

Judge clears the way for Forest City vote on Brookfield deal

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 01:45 PM PST

An Ohio federal judge ruled that Forest City Realty Trust’s shareholder vote on Brookfield Asset Management’s acquisition of the company can go forward. Judge Christopher Boyko on Wednesday denied Albert Ratner’s request to temporarily halt the vote on the company’s sale. Ratner, formerly CEO of Forest City, had filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging that the Brookfield deal gave up $5.8 billion in shareholder value. He sought to delay the vote, which is scheduled for […]

Boston Properties looking to raise $1B for green projects

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 01:00 PM PST

Boston Properties is betting big on sustainability. The company, which owns and manages 20 million square feet of projects that have LEED Gold and LEED Platinum certification, is looking to raise $1 billion in a public offering to fund its green projects across the country. Boston Properties expects to make $988.1 million in proceeds from the offering, the firm announced in a press release on Wednesday. The unsecured senior notes have an interest rate of […]

Bronx investor nearly doubles size of Morris Heights resi project

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 12:30 PM PST

Thanks to a recent neighborhood rezoning, Bronx investor Arjan Gjushi is nearly doubling the size of his Morris Heights multifamily development. Gjushi initially filed plans last summer for an eight-story project with 94 units for a vacant lot in at 29 Featherbed Lane. He then filed plans on Wednesday for a 12-story project with 160 units at the same address. The development will now span about 116,000 square feet rather than 61,000 square feet. The […]

Bruce Eichner buys $20M condo at his Madison Square Park Tower

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 12:00 PM PST

Now that the power struggle between Ian Bruce Eichner and his partners at one of the city’s tallest new-development towers is over, the developer bought himself a full-floor condominium at the Flatiron District building for $19.5 million. Eichner closed earlier last week on apartment 61A at the Madison Square Park Tower his Continuum Companies is co-developing at 45 East 22nd Street with Fortress Investment Group and Dune Real Estate Partners, property records filed with the […]

Chinese fugitive’s Sherry-Netherland pad has new brokers — and another price cut

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 11:35 AM PST

Fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui has exiled Brown Harris Stevens’ Kathy Sloane from his Sherry-Netherland penthouse. Guo, who has been living in self-imposed exile, has booted Sloane and hired Douglas Elliman’s Richard Steinberg and Istvan Ritz to market the apartment. He also dropped the asking price $1 million to $67 million. The 18th-floor co-op at 781 Fifth Avenue was first listed in 2015 for $86 million. It was later re-listed at $78 million and then […]

Westchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: Michael D’Alessio pleads guilty to fraud, co-working space heads to White Plains … & more

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 11:05 AM PST

White Plains developer Michael D’Alessio pleads guilty to wire fraud Michael D’Alessio has pleaded guilty to defrauding investors in development projects across New York. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said last week that D’Alessio funneled investor funds that were meant for luxury developments in Manhattan, the Hamptons and Westchester into shell accounts. The White Plains developer then used that money to “cash out early investors, cover debts, and pay his own personal gambling debts,” said Berman in […]

Follow The Real Deal’s Deal Sheet on Instagram!

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 10:00 AM PST

Shaya Sonnenschein and Shaya Ackerman of Meridian Capital Group represented the owner, Marx Development Group. The loan was issued by Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies. #commercialrealestate #nycrealestate #trdny #trddealsheet #nyc #nycloans #trdloans A post shared by The Real Deal’s Deal Sheet (@trddeals) on Jun 20, 2018 at 10:17am PDT The Real Deal’s Deal Sheet is on Instagram! Our latest social media channel features snaps of retail and office leases, financing acquisitions and commercial and residential […]

“Too Big to Fail” author says WeWork may now be “too big to fail”

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 09:30 AM PST

It’s been called a “$20 billion house of cards” and a “Ponzi scheme.” Now, WeWork is being called “too big to fail.” Andrew Ross Sorkin — author of “Too Big to Fail” — argues in his latest DealBook column for the New York Times that WeWork now has so much space in so many cities, its landlords can’t afford to let it go under. The co-working giant now controls 15.5 million square feet across 335 […]

This dev site next to Amazon’s LIC campus could be home to an 800K sf project

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 08:45 AM PST

Plaxall isn’t completely handing over its large Long Island City project to Amazon. The family-run plastics company, which last year developed a 15-acre plan that appears to have been the key to luring Amazon’s HQ2 to New York, will retain a site just to the south of the tech company’s planned campus where it can develop its own commercial building, according to a memorandum of understanding between the company and the state and city’s respective […]

Financial services firm relocating to SL Green’s Tower 46

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 07:50 AM PST

SL Green Realty has secured another tenant for its Tower 46. XP Securities, a financial services firm, will move into a 22,500-square-foot space at the Midtown building at 55 West 46th Street, according to Commercial Observer. The new offices on the 29th floor are triple the size of its current space at Savanna’s 5 Bryant Park. The asking rent for the XP Securities deal was reportedly $88 a square foot. SL Green secured two other […]

Why eviction rates are dropping in NYC

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 07:15 AM PST

Evictions are down, and lawyers for tenants are up in New York City. The city’s Right to Counsel law, which rolled out last year, has provided tenants with free lawyers in 15 ZIP Codes and will serve 400,000 in 2022, once it is fully implemented, according to WNYC. In the first ZIP codes, 56 percent of tenants now have representation, and evictions have dropped by 27 percent. The city began a pilot program providing tenants […]

Office that produces “Worst landlords of NYC” list would be abolished under proposed council bill

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 06:40 AM PST

As Letitia James prepares to move into the New York Attorney General’s post, her current role as Public Advocate remains up for grabs. But while some local politicians are lining up for the job, Brooklyn council member Kalman Yeger, a Democrat, will introduce a bill Wednesday to scrap the position. “We never had a vacancy where we can actually say, ‘Do we need it moving forward?’ ” Yeger told the Wall Street Journal. If it […]

Brooklyn landlord with $87M portfolio charged with running prostitution ring out of his buildings

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 06:15 AM PST

UPDATED, Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 11:16 p.m.: One Ditmas Park resident thought he had it bad enough after enduring bed bugs, bulging walls and a hole in the ceiling. But then he learned his building was being used to service an illegal brothel. Another Park Slope resident also learned there were apartments being used for prostitution in her building. Both residents had the same landlord, Isaac Schwartz, a regular on the New York City public […]

Lennar leads $70M funding round for real estate insurance startup Hippo

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 06:00 AM PST

Lennar, the U.S. homebuilding giant, is leading a $70 million series C funding round for a home insurance startup backed by Fifth Wall Ventures. Mountain View, California-based Hippo Insurance, which launched last year to provide streamlined insurance policies that cut premiums by up to 25 percent, is the latest startup to be partnered with a traditional real estate firm by Fifth Wall Ventures. Fifth Wall, which led the startup’s $25 million series B funding round […]

Real estate agent fired after taunting Andrew Gillum supporters in viral video

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 05:00 AM PST

A South Florida real estate agent protesting Broward’s supervisor of elections was fired over the weekend after she was seen in a video mocking supporters of gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. In a video posted on Twitter, United Realty Group agent Liliana Albarino-Olinick chanted “count my vote” with a sign that read, “Fight Corruption in Broward. Fire Brenda Snipes”, and yelled “socialists, socialists” to three elderly black women demonstrating for Gillum at the elections office in […]

125 Greenwich: Against the odds

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 04:30 AM PST

In May 2014, a super-skinny, supertall tower was rising above the ground at 432 Park Avenue. The Rafael Viñoly-designed building — deemed an eyesore by some and a masterpiece by others — ultimately topped out at 1,396 feet, making it the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere. At the time, Michael Shvo, the flamboyant real estate broker-turned-developer, was looking to make a splash on the New York real estate scene, and an opportunity emerged […]

Glenwood’s return: Luxe developer and political kingmaker breaks into affordable housing

Posted: 14 Nov 2018 04:00 AM PST

When Leonard Litwin died at the age of 102 last April, he left behind more than two dozen luxury apartment buildings in Manhattan and the longest campaign contribution paper trail in the history of New York State. Since then, Litwin’s Glenwood Management, now controlled by his 71-year-old daughter Carole Pittelman, has taken an unexpected course: the developer is pushing into affordable housing in Coney Island, working as a construction contractor under the name “Surf Avenue […]