The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Extell just went public with Central Park Tower listings

Posted: 21 May 2019 04:00 PM PDT

Seven months after launching sales at the most expensive condominium project in the city’s history, Extell Development has publicly listed the units at Central Park Tower. In a departure from a trend among developers who never release listings publicly, the Gary Barnett-led firm listed seven units ranging from a two-bedroom that’s asking $6.9 million to a five-bedroom asking $63 million. The latter spans 7,074 square feet and has estimated monthly common charges of $10,587 plus […]

Samvir Sidhu sues over squashed contract to buy Yorkville property

Posted: 21 May 2019 03:30 PM PDT

An apparent affiliate of Samvir Sidhu’s Megalith Capital Management is suing the property owner of a Yorkville walk-up he’s trying to buy. Suncore Group SA, LLC — of which Sidhu is the principal — alleges in its complaint that the owner of 1660 First Avenue wrongly scrapped Suncore’s contract to acquire the four-story mixed-use building. Suncore, which had wanted an extension to close the deal that wasn’t granted, alleges that the owner did not negotiate […]

Empire State Realty Trust’s CFO David Karp is stepping down

Posted: 21 May 2019 03:03 PM PDT

Empire State Realty Trust’s top beancounter is stepping down, the firm announced Tuesday. David Karp, who has held the chief financial officer role since 2011, is resigning for “personal reasons,” the real estate investment trust said. The move is effective Aug. 1. The REIT’s chief accounting officer and treasurer, Anthony Prentice, will serve as acting CFO as the company searches for a permanent replacement. COO John Kessler will lead that team during the transition. Karp, […]

HUD Secretary Ben Carson confuses REO with Oreos in congressional hearing

Posted: 21 May 2019 03:00 PM PDT

Milk’s Favorite Cookie, better known as Oreo, took center stage in a congressional hearing Tuesday morning. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson could not come up with a definition for the common real estate foreclosure term, REO, instead confusing it with the tastier alternative, Oreo cookies. REOs, Rep. Katie Porter pointed out, is an abbreviation for “real estate owned.” The California Democrat was attempting to ask Carson about the difference in REO rates between […]

Mack-Cali ends settlement talks with activist investor, American Dream opening day delayed again and more North Jersey real estate news

Posted: 21 May 2019 02:45 PM PDT

Mack-Cali board ends settlements talks with activist investor Jersey City-based real estate investment trust Mack-Cali Realty has terminated settlement talks with activist shareholder Bow Street, GlobeSt reported. In a statement, Mack-Cali accused the New York-based dissident investor of having a conflict of interest in launching its proxy battle more than a month ago. Bow Street, which owns about 4.5 percent of Mack-Cali stock, had sought the election of four candidates to the REIT’s board of […]

Bauhouse sues Herrick Feinstein again, seeks $270M over Sutton Place ‘scheme’

Posted: 21 May 2019 02:30 PM PDT

Bauhouse just won’t bow out. Two years after losing control of the development at 3 Sutton Place to lender Gamma Real Estate, Bauhouse Group’s Joseph Beninati filed another lawsuit against law firm Herrick Feinstein on Monday seeking at least $270 million in damages, Crain’s reported. There was an “inherent unconsentable conflict” between Bauhouse and Gamma, the complaint alleges, “due to the close personal relationship between the Kalikow Attorney and Kalikow Lender, as they were cousins […]

Tishman Speyer puts tower next to Chrysler Building up for sale

Posted: 21 May 2019 02:15 PM PDT

Fresh off the sale of the Chrysler Building, Tishman Speyer is putting an adjacent tower on the market. A partnership between Tishman and a pair of sovereign wealth funds is looking to sell 666 Third Avenue, a 32-story office building spanning 767,000 square feet, according to sources familiar with the deal. The property is located right next to the Chrysler Building and is also known as Chrysler East. A Cushman & Wakefield team led by […]

Dressbarn is winding down operations and closing 650 stores

Posted: 21 May 2019 02:00 PM PDT

Dressbarn is the latest casualty of the retail apocalypse. Ascena Retail Group announced on late Monday it planned to wind down operations for its Dressbarn chain and close all of its 650 stores, according to a press release. The company did not give a date as to when it would officially close its stores. Ascena Retail Group also owns the Justice, Lane Bryant, and Catherines clothing store brands. “This decision was difficult, but necessary, as […]

Modell’s Sporting Goods to trial small concept stores in New York

Posted: 21 May 2019 01:30 PM PDT

Retailer Modell’s Sporting Goods is planning to trial small concept stores across New York, in line with a growing trend in retailers seeking to reduce their real estate costs amid slowing revenues. The new plan comes after the 130-year-old sports retailer hired a restructuring adviser to guide it through a turnaround of its business in March. “The days of the 15,000 square foot store in the boroughs, are just not there,” Mitchell Modell, the company’s […]

Real estate magnates Rotem Rosen, Zina Sapir to divorce

Posted: 21 May 2019 01:06 PM PDT

Another real estate romance is ending in divorce. Israeli-born developer Rotem Rosen and Zina Sapir-Rosen, daughter of the late real estate mogul Tamir Sapir, are splitting after 12 years of marriage. The couple, who married in 2007, reportedly have two children. Their lavish wedding took place at Mar-a-Lago, and featured a fireworks display and performances by Lionel Ritchie and the Pussycat Dolls. (President Trump, a “good friend” of both the bride’s father and Rosen was […]

3 WTC could be the first New York home for CBRE’s co-working company

Posted: 21 May 2019 12:15 PM PDT

CBRE’s co-working company could be taking space at 3 World Trade Center. The brokerage has entered talks for its new co-working brand Hana to open its first New York location at the building, according to Crain’s. It has announced two locations outside of the city so far: one in Dallas spanning 67,000 square feet and one in Irvine, California spanning 60,000 square feet. Hana is considering taking two floors at 3 World Trade Center spanning […]

Top Greenwich architect denies accusations of recycled renderings

Posted: 21 May 2019 11:30 AM PDT

A white, expansive Colonial-style home — almost symmetrical and complete with columns and two dormer windows — could describe any multitude of suburban residences. But one specific design of such a property is at the heart of a copyright dispute between a luxury home developer in Westchester County and a top architectural firm in neighboring Fairfield County. In early April, Mamaroneck-based KOS Building Group sued Granoff Architects in federal court in Manhattan, accusing the Greenwich-based firm of […]

Did someone just drop $52M at Vornado’s 220 CPS?

Posted: 21 May 2019 10:45 AM PDT

Two Luxembourg-based entities have snapped up apartments at Vornado Realty Trust’s 220 Central Park South, for just under $52 million. “GNY22, LLC” bought the three-bedroom unit 44A, which measures 3,114 square feet, for roughly $26.47 million, pricing the deal at roughly $8,500 per square foot. The deal closed on May 9, according to property records filed Tuesday with the city’s Department of Finance. Meanwhile, another Luxembourg-based entity — “ANY22, LLC” — also picked up a […]

Clutter scoops up rival Omni Storage, three months after SoftBank-led fundraising

Posted: 21 May 2019 10:00 AM PDT

UPDATED, May 21, 10:35 a.m.: A few months after a cash infusion courtesy SoftBank, Culver City-based storage startup Clutter has swallowed up a competitor. Clutter has purchased the storage business of Bay Area-based Omni for an undisclosed sum, according to TechCrunch. Omni will remain an independent company and now focus on its platform that allows people to rent personal items from other users. Omni launched in Los Angeles last month. Some of that acquisition cash […]

Former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen to Amazon: “You can’t just show up”

Posted: 21 May 2019 09:15 AM PDT

Former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen thinks Amazon deserves “some significant blame” for its headquarters in Long Island City not panning out. “They picked a neighborhood that is undergoing a tremendous amount of transformation,” she told CityLab in an interview. “You can’t just show up. It takes more than that. I don’t think they acted as honorably as they should have, quite frankly.” Glen said the company should’ve known that it needed to “engage with community […]

Real estate seen as “safe haven” amid trade war uncertainty

Posted: 21 May 2019 07:45 AM PDT

While the stock market at large took a beating amid last week’s escalation of the U.S.-China trade war, one sector continued to show strong growth: real estate. By offering investors more exposure to domestically-oriented businesses, real estate investment trusts have largely established themselves as a safe haven from global supply-chain disruptions, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Our conclusion is that for U.S. REITs, it is mostly a nonevent,” Amanda Black, managing director of investment-management firm […]

NYCHA’s former elevator chief sues agency over wrongful termination

Posted: 21 May 2019 06:30 AM PDT

The former head of the New York City Housing Authority’s elevator division is now suing the agency over his firing. Ivo Nikolic, who was suspended in February and fired in March following an anonymous email alleging sexist, racist and anti-semitic behavior, says the agency hasn’t given him a specific reason for his termination, the New York Post reported. “NYCHA is always looking for a scapegoat,” Nikolic’s lawyer Marcel Florestal said. “Now they are under a […]

Budget hotel developer Sam Chang is retiring — to focus on pigeon racing

Posted: 21 May 2019 06:00 AM PDT

One of New York City’s most prolific hotel developers is checking out. Sam Chang, whose McSam Hotel Group helped pioneer a new class of budget hotel in the 1990s, began winding down his business last year, the Wall Street Journal reported. And a new law restricting hotel development in manufacturing zones was a major factor in his decision. “They are pretty much putting me out of business,” Chang told the Journal, referring to the lawmakers […]

Macerich exec says “the retail apocalypse is a good thing”

Posted: 21 May 2019 05:30 AM PDT

As e-commerce continues to kill brick-and-mortar stores, some landlords appear to be embracing the new reality for retail. “The retail apocalypse is a good thing,” said Jesse Franklin, the vice president of investment and innovation at retail giant Macerich, during a panel Monday at the International Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas. “It’s calling out all of those retailers that haven’t invested in their brand, that aren’t connecting with their customers, and it’s […]

Inside real estate’s surveillance state

Posted: 21 May 2019 04:30 AM PDT

The Edge in Amsterdam is widely considered the smartest building in the world. Since the 15-story office property opened four years ago, its 28,000 sensors have collected roughly 55 terabytes of data on everything from the air’s CO2 levels to workers’ daily coffee orders. If that information were stored as music files, it would play continuously for more than 100 years. And the more info the glass-encased building collects, the smarter it gets. “We think […]

Is Syosset Park’s industrial focus the start of a new era for LI developers?

Posted: 21 May 2019 04:00 AM PDT

One of the most ambitious real estate projects in Nassau County’s history is going back to the drawing board after developers faced a prolonged battle with both residents and a school district. First pitched to the Town of Oyster Bay in 2015, Syosset Park was proposed as a mixed-use project covering nearly 93 acres in the heart of the county, with Manhasset-based developer Castagna Realty and Simon Property Group, the country’s largest mall operator, behind […]