The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

And the shoe has finally dropped: Steve Madden sells UES townhouse

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 03:00 PM PST

Shoe designer Steve Madden has finally sold his landmarked Upper East Side townhouse, which he had spent years piecing together with his now ex-wife. A filing with the Department of Finance on Thursday showed the buyer, an LLC tied to the Moinian Group, dropped about $8.97 million for the property, located at 175 East 73rd Street. Neither party could immediately be reached for comment. The historic building was built over a century ago and is […]

Guilty conscience? Mark Zuckerberg plans $500M affordable housing fund in Bay Area

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 02:32 PM PST

A week after Microsoft announced a $500 million investment for affordable housing in Seattle, Bay Area tech companies are preparing a $500 million investment fund of their own, with embattled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg playing a leading role. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, led by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, partnered with the San Francisco Foundation and other philanthropy groups as part of a larger project to coordinate solutions to the area’s severe housing shortage, […]

New City Council bill could exempt 1,000 more mom-and-pop shops from rent tax

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 02:00 PM PST

A little over a year after City Council passed a bill to exempt 2,000 businesses from the commercial rent tax, a new bill is now on the table that would scale back the levy even more. Councilmember Keith Powers introduced a bill on Thursday to exempt small businesses paying up to $750,000 in annual rent from the tax, which applies to businesses of a certain size operating between Murray and 96th Streets in Manhattan, and […]

Owner of record-breaking Walker Tower PH poised to take a frightening loss

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 01:30 PM PST

If you thought Ken Griffin’s record-shattering deal at 220 Central Park South might give a real jolt to the New York City ultra-luxury market, you might want to sit down. London-based hospitality mogul Neil Moffitt, who broke a downtown record in 2014 with the $50.9 million buy at Walker Tower, has announced to the world that he’s willing to take at least a $15.9 million loss on the penthouse pad. Moffitt first listed the unit […]

SL Green just put another office tower on the block. Here’s why

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 01:10 PM PST

The former Lefcourt Building on Fifth Avenue just north of Bryant Park is the latest property that SL Green Realty is looking to sell in order to finance its stock buyback program. The real estate investment trust its partners are soon going to put the 500,000-square-foot building at 521 Fifth Avenue on the market, company executives said on their earnings call Thursday afternoon. “Befitting of the program of trying to recycle assets like that into […]

Bank OZK finances GFI, Elliott Management’s Parker New York buy

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 12:25 PM PST

Allen Gross and the investment firm Elliott Management Corp. closed on their $420 million purchase of NoMad’s Parker New York hotel with financing from Bank OZK. Gross’ GFI Capital Resources Group and Elliott Management plans to pump an additional $100 million into renovating the 37-year old hotel south of Central Park at 119 West 56th Street, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new owners may convert many of the 729 hotel rooms into private residences, […]

South Korean arms manufacturer snaps up condo at 70 Vestry for $11M

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 12:00 PM PST

She was once described as a member of the “Korean elite.” Now Helen Lho Ryu has new home in New York City. Ryu, an executive at Poongsan Corporation, a South Korean munitions and metals manufacturer, bought a unit at 70 Vestry for $11 million. She signed the deed as a trustee for the River View Trust, using her maiden name, Helen Lho. The three bedroom, three bathroom apartment at 70 Vestry has views of the […]

Home builder stock prices are up, ending months-long decline

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 11:30 AM PST

There are promising signs in the housing market — share prices of the nation’s largest home-building companies are up. Builder confidence also ticked up slightly this month after hitting a three-year low in December, according to a monthly survey of home builders by the National Association of Home Builders. In January, stocks for home-builders moved upwards from the month before, but they remain down by at least 29 percent over the last year, according to […]

Leaving the front door open: Millions of mortgage docs exposed online

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 10:45 AM PST

A giant cache of 24 million documents from credit and mortgage reports was exposed online for about two weeks, according to a TechCrunch report posted Wednesday. Because it was not protected with a password, the 51 GB database was available for anyone to access and read. The data included sensitive personal information used for credit checks, from social security numbers and bank accounts to W-2 forms and bankruptcy filing information. “This information would be a […]

Isaac Kassirer refis part of Dawnay Day portfolio with $189M Freddie Mac loan

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 10:15 AM PST

Isaac Kassirer’s Emerald Equity Group refinanced a portion of its huge Dawnay Day multifamily portfolio in East Harlem with a $189 million loan from Freddie Mac – the largest deal yet in the agency’s small loan program. California-based multifamily lender Sabal Capital Partners originated the loan covering 39 of the 47 Dawnay Day buildings, Sabal announced Wednesday. The deal comprises 39 small-balance loans and covers 880 apartment units, which Sabal in a statement called “the […]

Millennial City: How the ‘selfie’ generation is revolutionizing real estate in NYC

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 09:45 AM PST

Mention the term “millennial” and you may as well run for cover. The generation of young adults who came of age during the financial crisis — and in the glare of social media — is both lauded for embracing innovation and social responsibility and despised for being lazy and self-indulgent. But the sheer numbers make millennials — those born between 1981 and 1997 — all but impossible to ignore. Currently 75.4 million strong, millennials surpassed […]

Lenox Hill townhouse where Andy Warhol partied sells for $18M

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 09:00 AM PST

A piece of New York pop culture history is off the market. A Lenox Hill townhouse designed by renowned mid-century architect Paul Rudolph and known for glamorous parties attended by Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli and Bianca Jagger, just sold for $18 million to an anonymous buyer. It was one of only three Manhattan townhouses designed by Rudolph. Known as the “Halston House” for its previous owner, the fashion designer Halston, 101 East 63rd Street was […]

Subscribers: Here’s the info for today’s call on elevator accidents

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 08:30 AM PST

Today at 2:30 p.m. (EST), subscribers will get an inside look at our January cover story–a seven-month investigation on elevator accidents in New York. The Real Deal’s James Kleimann, Kathryn Brenzel and David Jeans will discuss exactly what has impeded the safety of the city’s elevators in recent years, and more. Call-in number: +1-510-338-9438 Access code: 626 424 967 Do you have questions about elevator safety? What would you like to know about TRD’s reporting […]

Fake real estate agents are scamming New Yorkers

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 08:00 AM PST

Over a dozen would-be renters were duped into handing over thousands of dollars in security payments for apartments that did not exist. New York City Police Department detectives are seeking an unidentified man and a 24-year-old woman for two separate scams, in which they allegedly conned people looking to rent in Brooklyn and Queens, according to the New York Daily News. The unidentified man ran a scam from July to December, reportedly taking $23,000 in […]

Home listings startup launches in SoFla with expansion plans for NY, California

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 07:30 AM PST

A startup that takes the real estate agent out of the deal recently launched in South Florida with plans to expand throughout the state and to New York, California and other states. Richr.com, a real estate technology platform, will list homes in the tri-county area on the MLS for free, “But we’d like to help you find your next home,” said founder and CEO Glenn Orgin. “Once someone becomes a seller, they become a buyer,” […]

Inside job? Person anonymously terrorizing small business owners with 311 could be DOB employee

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 07:00 AM PST

Updated, January 24, 2019 at 1.44pm: For months, small business owners across the city were on high alert for an avalanche of complaints being made against unauthorized signs on their shopfronts. Who was responsible, and why, remained a mystery. But a theory has emerged. City Councilmember Justin Brannan, issued a letter this week to the NYC Department of Investigation, pointing to a city employee as the possible culprit behind a scam. The scandal erupted after […]

NYC transport agency to sign big lease deal with Rabsky in East Williamsburg

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 06:30 AM PST

The New York City Department of Transportation is on the move. The agency has signed an agreement to lease a vacant warehouse owned by the Rabsky Group in East Williamsburg. Under the deal, the DOT would take 92,000 square foot at the building, located at 101 Varick Avenue, for a 20 year lease, at around $30 a square foot, Commercial Observer reported. The site also includes a 62,000 square foot carpark, which would be leased […]

Knotel on the verge of deal to lease the entire Flatiron building

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 06:00 AM PST

Knotel, the flexible office startup that aims to rival WeWork, is nearing a deal to lease the iconic Flatiron building. Amol Sarva’s company is preparing to sign a long-term lease for the 22-story building, which it plans to open as one of its flexible-office locations either later this year or in 2020, the Financial Times reported. The building’s landlord, GFP Real Estate, denied that a deal was “imminent” at the property, and declined to comment […]

The waning number of Hamptons buyers are going big

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 05:30 AM PST

A cluster of broader economic concerns have kept buyers from closing deals in the Hamptons. In the fourth quarter, the Hamptons market saw a 35 percent decline in sales versus a year earlier, according to Douglas Elliman’s latest market report. At the same time, the median sales price held flat at $995,000 as listing inventory surged 81 percent. “Volatility of financial markets may have dampened the drive to purchase,” said Jonathan Miller, author of the […]

The resi world reacts to Ken Griffin’s record-setting buy at 220 CPS

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 05:00 AM PST

UPDATED, January 24, at 3:20 p.m. EST: Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin’s record-breaking purchase of a penthouse at 220 Central Park South is both a strong sign of confidence in New York’s real estate market and an exceptionally rare type of purchase that won’t happen again anytime soon, experts say. “It’s a massive deal in size and price, but it’s an outlier,” said broker Jeffrey Fields of R New York. “It doesn’t reflect market conditions—far […]

Behind 550 Madison’s messy makeover

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 04:30 AM PST

Craig Edward Dykers drove from Austin, Texas, to Manhattan as an architecture student in 1985 to see an imposing, 37-story tower at 550 Madison Avenue that AT&T just had built for its headquarters. Dykers made the more than one-day journey to view the latest work of Philip Johnson — the world-famous architect who had defined the ubiquitous glass and steel International Style decades earlier and was now taking a sharp left turn with the first […]

Inside WeWork’s universe of trademarks

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 04:00 AM PST

Two weeks ago, a Washington D.C.-based patent lawyer filed a trademark request for a client she’s had for the better part of a decade. It was routine for Allison Strickland Ricketts: The attorney had done this at least 94 times for the Delaware-registered holding company since 2011. But this trademark filing was more expansive than usual — the company’s listed goods and services included co-working services, household linens, educational services, apartment rentals and even restaurant […]