The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

SJP and Prudential buy 470 Park Ave South for $245M

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 04:05 PM PST

SJP Properties and longtime partner Prudential Financial bought the Midtown South office building at 470 Park Avenue South for $245 million. “The location of 470 Park Avenue South has become one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Manhattan for a diverse cross-section of companies,” SJP CEO Steven Pozycki said in a statement, Commercial Observer reported. The sellers are the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Real Estate and Nuveen, the subsidiary of TIAA formerly known […]

Brookfield secures $635M refinancing package at New York Times Building

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 03:59 PM PST

Four lenders are teaming up to provide $635 million to refinance the portion of the New York Times building now owned by Brookfield Asset Management, according to filings that hit city records Wednesday night. Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Barclays Capital Real Estate Inc. and Citi Real Estate Funding Inc. are providing the financing, which includes a $435 million gap mortgage. The borrower is FC Eighth Ave. LLC., a former affiliate of Forest City Realty […]

Doronin, Aman Group land $285M development loan for Crown Building

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 02:40 PM PST

Vladislav Doronin’s OKO Group and its partner Aman Group landed a $284.5 million loan from Cain International to fund the conversion of the Crown Building’s upper floors into apartments and a hotel. The partners plan to turn the upper portion of the office building at 730 Fifth Avenue into 20 luxury apartments and an 83-room Aman hotel. The five-story penthouse went into contract for $180 million earlier this year, which could make it the city’s […]

Here’s how much Fortis paid for its Jehovah’s Witnesses site

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 02:22 PM PST

Fortis Property Group has closed on its purchase of 30 Front Street from Jehovah’s Witnesses for $91 million, according to property records. The religious group had used the site as a parking lot, and it was the last remaining property that they had at their former Brooklyn headquarters. Fortis plans to build a 26-story apartment building with 74 units on the site. The project will span about 250,000 square feet overall, split between 178,000 square […]

A pair of East Village condo buildings are going up for auction

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 02:05 PM PST

A pair of new condos in the East Village from the Amirian Group are going up for auction amid concerns about absorption rates and a desire to speed up the sales process. Paramount Realty USA, a real estate firm that specializes in auction sales, announced Wednesday that it would auction off the buildings at 436 and 442 East 13th Street, which have a projected sellout of $37 million. Bidders will get to name their prices […]

Here’s what the $10M-$20M NYC investment sales market looked like last week

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 01:30 PM PST

In the world of mid-market New York City investment sales last week, a Nolita retail condo sold for $14 million and a parking facility in Hell’s Kitchen traded for $18.4 million. 1.) Madison Development sold a retail condo at 262 Mott Street for $14 million to a private investment group. The 5,831-square-foot ground-floor Nolita condo, located in a former armory, is comprised of five fully-leased individual units. The property features 120 feet of frontage on […]

Fed raises rates for fourth time in 2018 amid signs of market slowdown

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 01:00 PM PST

The Federal Reserve raised rates on Wednesday for the fourth time this year, citing a strengthening labor market and strong economic activity. The Fed raised the benchmark federal funds rate to between 2.25 percent and 2.5 percent. Rates are now at their highest level since 2008 amid many indicators that the housing market is slowing down. In October, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that new home sales dropped 8.9 percent compared to September, marking an […]

SoftBank’s investors pump the brakes on a WeWork takeover

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 12:30 PM PST

It’s a rare occurrence, but SoftBank’s investors said no. In this case, it was a majority takeover of WeWork for $16 billion that would have been a step too far. The potential deal, championed by the Japanese investment firm’s head Masayoshi Son, was reportedly squashed by investors concerned about the co-working firm’s astronomical valuation and its potential exposure in the event of a downturn. The Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth funds, which […]

Westchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: Moby sells Pound Ridge home for $1.1M, former GE building in Stamford set for senior living … & more

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 11:30 AM PST

Moby sells Pound Ridge home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright ‘disciple’ Less than a year after buying a house in Pound Ridge, the Connecticut-born musician and disc jockey known as Moby has sold the property to raise money for charity, Mansion Global reported. The two-bedroom home, which was built in 1956 and designed by David Henken, a “disciple” of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, took a slight price chop. Moby, whose given name is Richard […]

PHOTOS: Here’s a look inside Halstead’s holiday party

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 11:00 AM PST

Halstead headed to Guastavino’s, just under the 59th Street bridge, for its annual holiday party. Nearly 800 guests went to the brokerage’s festivities, where they were greeted with men on stilts passing out “starter” chips. Partygoers could use the chips for casino games including blackjack and roulette — and later cash in their earnings for raffle tickets. The prizes were largely for charitable donations, with some other perks like gift cards and marketing packages thrown […]

‘Crazy Rich Asians’ producer’s Manhattan pad is on the market for $40M

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 10:30 AM PST

A full-floor penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Residences just hit the market asking $39.5 million. The sellers are billionaire Sidney Kimmel, who’s produced movies including “Crazy Rich Asians,” and his wife Caroline, the Wall Street Journal reported. The couple bought the home at 50 Central Park South for about $29 million in 2001. The Corcoran Group’s Steven Cohen has the listing. The one-bedroom apartment spans about 8,000 square feet and can be configured to have more […]

Manhattan home prices see sharpest drop since 2009

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 10:00 AM PST

Home prices in Manhattan slipped to an almost three-year low in November, thanks to a supply glut. The average price of condos, single-family homes, co-ops and townhouses for sale last month was $1.1 million, a 3.3 percent year-over-year drop, Bloomberg reported, citing a new StreetEasy report. That’s almost the same level seen in October 2015, and marks the sharpest year-over-year fall since February 2009. It’s a well-known trend particularly on the luxury end, where many […]

Homeowners accuse SoCal Edison of sparking Woolsey blaze

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 09:30 AM PST

Homeowners affected by the devastating Woolsey Fire have accused their utility company of causing the blaze. A group of 170 homeowners and businesses filed mass tort lawsuits against Southern California Edison this week, claiming the fire was started by the utility’s overhead electrical equipment at the Rocketdyne facility in Simi Valley, the Los Angeles Times reported. Attorneys filing the lawsuits say that an hour before the fire started — on Nov. 8 — Edison’s power […]

GreenOak, Bentall Kennedy to merge

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 09:00 AM PST

Two major investors in New York’s real estate market are joining forces. Insurance and asset management company Sun Life Financial announced Wednesday that it plans to merge its real estate investment subsidiary Bentall Kennedy with GreenOak Real Estate. Sun Life will own 56 percent of the combined company, Bentall GreenOak. GreenOak’s shareholders will own the remaining 44 percent, and are also set to receive $195 million in cash as part of the deal. Sun Life […]

NYCHA could still face federal takeover, Ben Carson says

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 08:35 AM PST

A federal takeover of the New York City Housing Authority is still on the table. Ben Carson, head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, commented on the possibility of putting NYCHA into federal receivership during a tour at the Queensbridge Houses, the New York Daily News reported. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said it’s not an option he favors. “There’s a host of things that are going to be required that I think […]

How an MLS slipped through NYC’s cracks

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 08:05 AM PST

It was like the meeting of the five families. In 2001, the dons of New York City’s residential brokerages all gathered to discuss whether they should band together to create a formal Multiple Listing Service that would act as a clearinghouse and provide consumers with a searchable listings database for the first time. But tensions were running high. The meeting came after nearly a year of industry infighting that was sparked when the city’s two […]

After bizarre rent-stabilization case, Simon Baron says UES penthouse occupant owes millions in rent

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 07:46 AM PST

Simon Baron Development wants the attorney living in the penthouse at one of its Upper East Side properties to cough up millions in “unpaid” rent following a lengthy lawsuit over whether the unit qualifies as rent-stabilized. The landlord, which controls the property at 12 East 88th Street through an LLC, wants attorney Barry Fox to pay roughly $2.6 million in overdue rent and damages, according to a new complaint filed in New York Supreme Court. […]

Saturation nation? Developers to add 68M sf of office inventory in US: report

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 07:20 AM PST

The U.S. office market could turn to slosh in 2019, as developers were expected to add 68 million square feet of space this year — the highest increase since 2008. The massive development could lead to downward pressure on the country’s office rent growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. Citing a Cushman & Wakefield report, the Journal reported office rents have been rising across the U.S. for the past several years. From January through September, […]

For the first time since 2007, retailers are closing more chain stores than they’re opening

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 06:45 AM PST

The rise of e-commerce giants like Amazon have changed consumers’ relationships with their retailers. And the effects are being felt on the streets of New York City. For the first time since before the 2008 financial crisis, retailers are closing more stores than they are opening. This year, the number of chain-store locations in New York shrunk by 0.3 percent to 7,849, according to the New York Post. Citing a report by the Center for […]

Is WeWork getting too big for its boots as a landlord?

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 06:05 AM PST

As WeWork continues to shape the face of office leasing, its recent push into real estate investment is prompting a rebuke from landlords and other industry insiders. “A lot of people originally thought of the shared office-space providers as bringing tenants,” Tony Malkin, CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, told Bloomberg. “But I think now we’ve seen — particularly with WeWork and other providers’ expansion into the enterprise solution — that it’s really much more […]

Facebook is eyeing One Madison Avenue

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 05:30 AM PST

Facebook is in talks to lease office space at SL Green Realty’s One Madison Avenue. The move echoes that of companies like Google and Amazon who are expanding their footprints in New York and establishing the city as an East Coast tech hub. It’s unclear exactly how much space the social media company is looking to take, but landlord SL Green is looking to build an additional 18-story tower on the site, according to the […]

Elon Musk gears up to unveil LA test tunnel

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 05:00 AM PST

It’s been two short years since Elon Musk famously tweeted that he was going to “just start digging” in Los Angeles to avoid the gut-wrenching traffic. While the social media network hasn’t always proven the most rewarding outlet for the outspoken tech entrepreneur, it did pave the way for tonight’s big reveal. After several months of work, his company, the Boring Co., is scheduled to unveil its first tunnel Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported. […]

The industry is coming out swinging against legislation that would limit the ability to hike retail rents

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 04:30 AM PST

Don’t fret if you missed the City Council’s roughly eight-hour hearing on the so-called commercial rent control bill. The upshot is that the real estate industry doesn’t like it. The controversial legislation — officially known as the Small Business Jobs Survival Act — aims to alleviate widespread retail closures and vacancies. It would do so by granting retail tenants 10-year lease renewals at their existing rents as long as they meet the terms of their current […]

These were the 10 biggest new real estate projects of 2018

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 04:00 AM PST

Over the past three years, residential buildings have taken up an increasingly large share of new projects in New York City. While they made up less than half of 2016’s top 10 list, residential projects accounted for all of the top 10 real estate projects filed in 2018. As residential filings continued a three-year rise with more than 28 million square feet proposed, non-residential filings slid to a seven-year low with just under 12 million […]