The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

London borough solicits voluntary “mansion tax” from rich residents

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 01:00 PM PST

The governing council is soliciting a voluntary “mansion tax” in an affluent London borough with rich residents including soccer celebrity David Beckham. A spokesman for the council that governs Chelsea and Kensington told the Evening Standard that if Beckham donates a sum on top of his regular council tax, “we can encourage others to ‘pay it like ‘Beckham.’” Other affluent residents of the borough include the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Mansions can sell for […]

How it worked: Inside three ex-brokers’ $21M Airbnb scheme

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:30 PM PST

A former real estate broker the city is suing for running an illegal network of Airbnbs wants to tell his side of the story. “We’re not criminals,” Max Beckman, an ex-agent at Metropolitan Property Group, told the New York Times. The scheme, which reportedly grossed Beckman and his partners about $21 million, was conceived after the resi game wasn’t working out for him. Beckman said he rented the first apartment that he then leased out […]

The ancestral home that inspired the “Crazy Rich Asians” mansion has a crazy high value

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:00 PM PST

The real-life inspiration for part of the plot of “Crazy Rich Asians” is proving how crazy rich one would have to be able to afford a piece of property in the world’s most expensive city. A swath of land spreading about 52 acres in the former Tyersall Park in Singapore could be worth an estimated $3.5 billion, Bloomberg reported. The fictional Young family from the Hollywood blockbuster lived in the park. The real property is […]

Literary listing: Estate asks $3.2M for New York apartment of late author Philip Roth

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 11:30 AM PST

A Manhattan apartment owned by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Roth is hitting the market with a $3.2 million asking price. The listing agent, Lisa Lippman of Brown Harris Stevens, told the Wall Street Journal that Roth merged two units in a building on West 79th Street to form his two-bedroom condo with three balconies. Roth died in 2018 at age 85. His Upper West Side residence is a storied place that is almost […]

How urban redevelopment happens in Russia

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 11:00 AM PST

Amid a stagnant economy, a pension crisis and cuts to healthcare, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been planning massive development projects throughout the country to keep people from moving away. Some 80 percent of Russians live in cities, but they have been increasingly moving to the country’s bigger cities while smaller ones are emptying out, Bloomberg reported. The national redevelopment goal is to modernize smaller cities to make them more attractive to industries and families […]

Fake blues: Paid participants reportedly joined anti-Amazon demonstration

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 10:30 AM PST

A public demonstration in New York City decrying Amazon included people who were paid to protest, Patch.com reported. Some participants told Patch they were paid to join a crowd that gathered Feb. 15 outside an Amazon store in Manhattan to criticize Amazon for backing out of its plan to open a Queens headquarters. Sammy Musovic, a landlord in Long Island City, led the anti-Amazon protest after borrowing to upgrade his apartment building, in the belief […]

Imagine a city with no cars, free bikes — and 50,000 people in one square mile

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 10:00 AM PST

The brains behind a conceptual, planned community in Colorado is imagining a city where cars aren’t allowed, bikes are free and 50,000 people live within a square mile. Blogger Pete Adeney and Amsterdam-based property development agency, B4place, say that if their conceptual “Cyclocroft” community between Longmont and Boulder were to be built, they would start from scratch to avoid “antique car-based building/zoning rules,” according to Forbes. Adeney, who has 300,000 regular readers blogging as “Mr. […]

Newark native Queen Latifah is developing affordable housing in her hometown

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 09:30 AM PST

Actress and recording artist Queen Latifah is building an affordable housing development in Newark, New Jersey. Latifah, a Newark native, praised her hometown in a commencement speech last May at the Newark campus of Rutgers University, saying she was “proud to be one of Newark’s own today. This is home.” She is building a residential development in Newark with 20 townhouses and a rental apartment building with 76 units, including 60 market-rate units and 16 […]

EJF Capital’s Opportunity Zone fund backs new Marriott Moxy hotel in Oakland

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 09:00 AM PST

Marriott International is set to build one of the first new hotels that downtown Oakland has seen in years thanks to tax incentives stemming from the federal Opportunity Zone program. The 173-room Moxy hotel is set to open in 2021 and will be marketed to millennial travelers. The new hotel will replace a gas station at 2225 Telegraph Avenue in the Uptown neighborhood, which is a designated Opportunity Zone , a program created under President […]

Jersey joust: Biotech firms are in a race for space in Northern New Jersey

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 08:00 AM PST

Industrial tenants aren’t alone in the race for space in northern New Jersey. Biotech firms are also feeding demand. “There’s strong demand from [life science] companies, but with the industrial market so strong, there are limited options for them,” said Shawn Straka, a Morristown-based managing director in Cushman & Wakefield’s life sciences practice. “When you do find space, a lot of times you’re getting outbid [by] a warehouse user.” For life science companies, which often […]

Garden State gold rush: How can industrial growth continue in such an inventory-strapped region?

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 07:00 AM PST

The hot market for industrial properties in northern New Jersey continued apace in 2018 as the seemingly insatiable demands of e-commerce put a premium on warehouse and distribution facilities with last-mile delivery capabilities. In 2018, about $2.6 billion in industrial property changed hands in the state. That was an increase of 24.3 percent over the average sales transaction volume in the three years prior, according to Colliers International. The commercial real estate firm found that […]

Former Dodger looks to break record on $12M Encino mansion listing

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 06:00 AM PST

Jimmy Rollins is looking to break a new record in Encino, and not the kind one might expect from a baseball star. The one-time Los Angeles Dodger, looking to downsize, has listed his 15,000-square-foot mansion in the neighborhood for nearly $12 million, the Los Angeles Times reported. He broke a record in the San Fernando Valley when he paid $10.65 million for the home just one year ago. Before that, the record was held by […]