The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

WATCH: TRD talks shop with the developers behind Hudson Yards

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 03:44 PM PDT

After Hudson Yards’ official opening ceremony on Friday — which featured guest speakers including none other than Big Bird — The Real Deal got a hold of the development team behind the $25 billion project. Ken Himmel, the president and CEO of Related Urban, spoke about opening the seven-story Shops at Hudson Yards amid a troublesome time for retail. And in light of the controversy surrounding Amazon’s incentive package to come to New York, Related […]

European hotel group links up with Largo to bring art-inspired hotel to West Chelsea

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 03:30 PM PDT

A Netherlands-based hospitality group is partnering up with a local developer to launch a new hotel in West Chelsea — and its first outside Europe. PPHE Hotel Group entered a joint venture with Largo to bring a PPHE-branded “art’otel” to Manhattan’s West Chelsea. The project will be a mixed hotel-and-condominium development, with 98 hotel rooms and 55 condos, PPHE announced Thursday. The partners each have 50 percent interest in the venture, and PPHE said it […]

Naftali in contract to buy large UES development site

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 03:00 PM PDT

Miki Naftali has put another large development site under contract. The developer’s Naftali Group signed a contract to pay $167 million for an Upper East Side development site it has been eyeing for about a year, sources told The Real Deal. The site, owned by Muss Development and the Aryeh family, consists of six low-rise buildings at the southeast corner of East 83rd Street and Third Avenue, and has more than 250,000 buildable square feet. […]

Mark your calendars: These are NYC’s top real estate events next week

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 02:00 PM PDT

Here are a few real estate events to attend next week! On March 18, the Jewish National Fund is holding the Leonard Litwin Tree of Life Award Dinner at Ziegfeld Ballroom, 141 West 54th Street, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Bruce Mosler, a chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, will be honored with the Tree of Life Award. Lauren Roberts, chair of JNFuture New York, will also be honored at the event, receiving the Gregory […]

Condo at MoMA tower lists for $46M as developers fight over pricing and discounts

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 01:30 PM PDT

Stalled by the recession and afflicted by slow sales, the luxury condominium tower at 53 West 53rd Street hasn’t exactly been a roaring success. And in recent months, developers Hines, Goldman Sachs, and Singapore’s Pontiac Land Group have entered arbitration over disagreements about how far to cut prices. But that apparently hasn’t stopped the developers from officially listing a four-bedroom unit today for the first time. Unit 64 spans 6,000 feet, features four-and-a-half bathrooms, and […]

Hello Hudson Yards, goodbye uncrowded sidewalks: Related hosts grand opening ceremony for megadevelopment

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 01:00 PM PDT

New York’s mayor and governor didn’t attend the grand opening of the country’s largest private real estate development — but Big Bird did. The giant Sesame Street character, along with Related Companies executives, Oxford Properties Group public officials, celebrities and developers attended a ceremony Friday morning to mark the grand opening of Hudson Yards. The event followed a week’s worth of press tours and an extravagant party Thursday night that attracted thousands to the Shops […]

Related’s Hudson Yards: Smart City or Surveillance City?

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 12:30 PM PDT

In a scene from “Gattaca,” the dystopian 1997 film set in the “not too distant future,” dozens of people are seen entering the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation headquarters using their genetic fingerprint to pass security clearance. It may seem like a far-flung sci-fi reference, but at Hudson Yards, the gargantuan “smart city” that officially opened Friday on the Far West Side, there are elements of art-meets-life. “We said, ‘What should technology be able to do at […]

Fintech startup Better.com moving to 3 WTC

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 12:00 PM PDT

Better Mortgage is getting a better lease. The home-financing startup, also known as Better.com, has signed a lease for 44,000 square feet on the 59th floor of Silverstein Properties’ 3 World Trade Center, Bloomberg reported. The firm has an option to expand on two additional floors as well. Better.com has been in expansion mode hiring 480 new employees and moving from Soho to 7 World Trade Center in 2018. In January, Better secured $70 million […]

PHOTOS: Related kicks off festivities at Hudson Yards with real estate rager

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 11:30 AM PDT

Party on, Hudson Yards. Last night, Related Companies kicked off its grand opening festivities with an invite-only soiree, with major real estate players like Steve Ross (Related Companies), Ken Himmel (Related Companies), Bruce Beal (Related Companies), Jeff Blau (Related Companies), developer Harry Macklowe, Ziel Feldman (HFZ Capital Group), David Von Spreckelsen (Toll Brothers City Living), Doug Harmon and Adam Spies (Cushman & Wakefield), Dolly Lenz (Dolly Lenz Real Estate) Morris Adjmi (Morris Adjmi Architects), David Falk (Newmark Knight […]

DivcoWest snags $91M financing deal for Hell’s Kitchen office building

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 11:05 AM PDT

DivcoWest landed financing for the Hell’s Kitchen office building it just picked up from Billy Macklowe’s firm and one of its partners. The California-based company secured $91 million from Citizens Bank for the building, located at 311 West 43rd Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues, according to property records filed Friday with the New York City Department of Finance. The deal replaces previous debt from SunTrust Bank. DivcoWest and Citizens Bank declined to comment. Cushman […]

Abu Dhabi’s ties with Goldman Sachs sour amid 1MDB scandal

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 10:39 AM PDT

Abu Dhabi’s state investment company has hit pause on new business with Goldman Sachs, which has been embroiled in the multibillion-dollar fraud scandal tied to Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB. The moves increases pressure on the bank and threatens to affect its broader relationships in the region, the Financial Times reported. Goldman had become a top investment bank in Abu Dhabi and worked on the merger of two major state-owned real estate companies. “We have […]

Minor alterations sometimes take decades to complete. Here’s why

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 09:45 AM PDT

The year 2000 was big one for Stuyvesant Town. MetLife, the original developers of the massive apartment complex, became a publicly traded company in April that year. By the fall, big changes were in the works – a whopping 58 alteration permits were filed for “replacement of wet walls” throughout the development, covering nearly every building in Stuyvesant Town proper and adjacent Peter Cooper Village. Since then, Stuy-Town has been sold and defaulted on, surrounded […]

Send the date: Share your real estate events with The Real Deal

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 09:00 AM PDT

Each week, The Real Deal provides a roundup of the top real estate events in New York you need to know for the week ahead. Send conferences, panel events, networking opportunities and more to [email protected]. To search for future industry events or browse past ones, click here.

Buying a home just got easier for many in the gig economy

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 08:30 AM PDT

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who are self-employed or earn money on the side through freelance, contract or “gig” work, you may know the drill firsthand: Applying for a mortgage can be an intrusive ordeal. Compared with people who have W-2 forms or pay stubs to verify their income, you encounter a much more time-consuming process. Lenders want to see your full tax returns for a couple of years — the whole […]

“The beautiful señorita”: Architect David Childs talks inspiration at 35 Hudson Yards

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 08:00 AM PDT

It’s not all angular glass and steel rising above the old rail yards on the Far West Side. While the office buildings and vertical mall have garnered the most attention, the condominium building at 35 Hudson Yards is the “beautiful señorita flamenco dancer in the center” of the development, twisting and turning as it rises, said David Childs, the chairman emeritus from Skidmore Owings and Merrill. The architect, who worked with Related chairman Steve Ross on […]

“Bulk buyers” risk it all by snapping up multiple units in luxury developments

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 07:30 AM PDT

Conventional wisdom advises real estate investors to spread their risk across a diverse portfolio. But not so for “bulk buyers” who prefer to invest in multiple luxury units in single developments, often against the wishes of their financial advisors. “Bulk buyers” may use their multiple units to house guests or extended family, to generate rental income, or to cobble together a dream home, the Wall Street Journal reported. But the strategy requires total faith in […]

Insurance brokerage leases 49K sf at H.J. Kalikow’s 101 Park Avenue

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 07:00 AM PDT

The Museum of the Dog has a new neighbor. Alliant Insurance Services will move to H.J. Kalikow & Co.’s 101 Park Avenue in Midtown East, where the firm has leased the building’s 12th and 14th floors, Commercial Observer reports. The combined space spans 48,500 square feet. The insurance brokerage will consolidate and relocate from its current offices at 320 West 57th Street and 99 Park Avenue. Rents at 101 Park start at $70 per square […]

Mauricio Umansky hit with 2nd lawsuit over massive Malibu mansion

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 06:30 AM PDT

This Malibu mansion has caused nothing but misery. The vice president of Equatorial Guinea has sued Mauricio Umansky and his Beverly Hills brokerage, the Agency, in a case that tracks back to the 2016 sale of a 15,000-square-foot estate on Sweetwater Mesa Road. In the lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, Teodoro Nguema Obiang — who is the Central African country’s vice president — claims Umansky tricked him into selling the massive Malibu property for […]

MaryAnne Gilmartin’s L&L MAG to develop large site in Long Island City

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 06:00 AM PDT

Amazon may not be coming to Long Island City, but that hasn’t halted new development in the area. MaryAnne Gilmartin’s L&L MAG is planning a large, mixed-use project on the waterfront at 44-02 Vernon Boulevard, adjacent to Amazon’s abandoned site, according to Commercial Observer. The site’s current zoning allows 1 million square feet of residential development and 60,000 square feet of commercial space. Bruce Teitelbaum, once a chief of staff to former mayor Rudy Giuliani, […]

UWS tower may be in jeopardy following Supreme court zoning ruling

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 05:30 AM PDT

At a proposed 668 feet, 200 Amsterdam Avenue was slated to be the tallest tower on the Upper West Side. Now that may be in jeopardy. On Thursday, the state Supreme Court overruled a previous decision by the city to allow construction of the tower, according to Crain’s. It’s a serious blow for developers SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America. “The development team for 200 Amsterdam has followed the law completely and continues to make […]

National Cheat Sheet: Developers among 50 charged in college admissions scandal, Ben Carson wants to boost affordable housing in Opportunity Zones … & more

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 05:00 AM PDT

Real estate developers among 50 charged in college admissions fraud scheme Fifty people have been charged in a college admissions fraud scheme that allegedly involved parents handing out bribes to secure acceptance letters for their children, including three real estate developers and investors. Miami developer Robert Zangrillo and Los Angeles developers Bruce Isackson of WP Investments and Robert Flaxman of Crown Realty were among the 50 individuals ultimately charged in the scandal. William E. McGlashan […]

At the desk of: David Walker

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 04:30 AM PDT

Triplemint’s co-founder and CEO, David Walker, wants to shake up the brokerage model as venture capital continues to flood the real estate business (and perhaps before it dries up). When Walker, 30, and his former classmate Philip Lang launched the lead generation firm in 2013, their goal was to use predictive analytics to change the homebuying experience for both agents and consumers. The company pulls data from property registries and other public records and looks […]

Developer behind Tribeca hotel says Ponte family forced partnership into bankruptcy

Posted: 15 Mar 2019 04:00 AM PDT

Tribeca’s upcoming “Hotel Barrière Le Fouquet” seems to have encountered a barrière. The partnership behind the 96-key luxury hotel development at 456 Greenwich Street filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, claiming that it was necessary to protect its investment after its landlord made it impossible to secure financing for the project. “The partnership has been in discussions with various lenders to complete the project financing, but the landlord’s President, Vincent J. Ponte, has […]

“Sim City on steroids”: Inside Hudson Yards’ invite-only coming out party

Posted: 14 Mar 2019 09:46 PM PDT

On its opening night, the glittering new mall at Hudson Yards resembled more of a circus than the Far West Side’s newest retail destination. A marching band, tap dancers, a capella singers and other performance artists served as entertainment for opening night of the megadevelopment, which was nearly 15 years in the making. Liza Minnelli serenaded the crowd gathered in Neiman Marcus with a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.” Related Companies CEO […]