The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Brokers on rent law proposal: This is going to harm tenants

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 03:00 PM PDT

Commercial and residential brokers alike see big changes in store for New York’s real estate market under the state’s new rent reform proposals. One thing they agree on: those changes won’t be good. Residential brokers zeroed in on the proposal that would limit security deposits to one month’s rent, saying it could severely restrict the types of tenants who can qualify for apartments. Bond Real Estate’s Douglas Wagner said foreign clients with no U.S. credit […]

Home flippers beware: Hard money lending is on the rise

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 02:31 PM PDT

The number of “hard money” lenders is on the rise. The American Association of Private Lenders estimates that these types of non-bank lenders, who tend to give loans with higher interest rates, and similar “private money” lenders, are up 40 percent since 2016, according to Bloomberg. Though it’s hard to pin down the exact amount of hard money lenders, the group pegs the current amount of such lenders at 8,300. Much of those monies are […]

Hudson’s Bay looks to shed stores ahead of $1.3B deal to go private

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 02:15 PM PDT

The global retail industry’s identity crisis is taking a heavy toll on Hudson’s Bay Company. The Canadian parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor announced Thursday it will close 15 of its Saks Off 5th discount stores and four Lord & Taylor locations, part of an effort to cut fat ahead of its $1.3 billion move to take the company private, according to the Wall Street Journal. Hudson’s Bay shareholders including Richard […]

Community banks already feeling the squeeze of rent reforms

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 02:06 PM PDT

While it remains to be seen how Albany’s looming rent reforms will impact New York’s multifamily owners, the anticipated changes are already pummeling their lenders. New York Community Bank, Signature Bank and Dime Community Bank have lost a combined $2.5 billion in market capitalization since the spring when the debate over rent regulations began to paint an increasingly dimmer picture for multifamily financials. All three banks saw their stocks decline sharply on Wednesday, the day […]

LeFrak, Rudin and Durst called to sway Cuomo on rent laws. They failed.

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 01:24 PM PDT

As the state legislature agreed to advance sweeping changes to rent laws that would increase tenant protections, three titans of New York real estate made a last ditch effort to stop the effort. Richard LeFrak, Bill Rudin and Douglas Durst dialed into a call with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday to plead that he veto the bill, according to The New York Times. The trio in the past have donated millions in campaign contributions to […]

New Yorkers, how safe is the elevator in your building?

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 01:13 PM PDT

Search by your address on The Real Deal’s exclusive interactive map to see any elevator-related violations lodged with New York City’s Department of Buildings since the 1980s.  (Map created by Yoryi De La Rosa) Any building with a violation will include a description of the issue and the penalty imposed, as well as whether the problem is still ongoing. To date, the city is owed $7.3 million in outstanding elevator-related violations, nearly half of […]

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Posted: 13 Jun 2019 11:45 AM PDT

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NYC’s most profitable Opportunity Zones, the growing upscale food hall craze and more of the biggest CRE trends right now

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 11:00 AM PDT

NYC tops list of high-growth OZs The Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn leads a new ranking of top earning Opportunity Zone tracts, raising questions about whether it should be included in the federal tax break program. And it wasn’t the only area in New York City that contains OZs to have also seen its local incomes rise over the last decade. A report released in May by San Francisco-based consulting firm Webster Pacific found that New […]

Facebook isn’t moving to Vornado’s hilariously named Penn15 after all

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 09:30 AM PDT

Facebook Inc. apparently isn’t moving into Vornado Realty Trust’s planned 15 Penn Plaza office tower, according to a new report. “We constantly re-evaluate our facilities needs and we don’t have anything new to share about our plans in New York at this time,” Facebook spokesperson Anthony Harrison told Bloomberg in an email. Vornado did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Real Deal. Last week the real estate investment trust released renderings […]

Here are the numbers behind Michael Dell’s record purchase of the Boca Raton Resort

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 08:45 AM PDT

Billionaire Michael Dell’s MSD Partners is planning to invest $75 million into the Boca Raton Resort & Spa, according to a Fitch Ratings report that reveals a financial breakdown of the operations of the oceanfront resort. The 1,047-room resort, whose real estate sold for $462 million in May, sold for a combined $875 million, according to Fitch Ratings. That price breaks down to $589.7 million for the resort, including furniture, fixtures and equipment, and $285.3 […]

A sham $85M Manhattan condo listing has been pulled from the market

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 08:00 AM PDT

The listing for a phony $85 million penthouse at the Atelier is no more. The unit at 635 West 42nd Street had been on the market since 2013 but was just a huge bait-and-switch scheme, and owner Dan Neiditch has pulled it from the market, according to the New York Post. The penthouse was being advertised on the 45th and 44th floors but was actually comprised of 12 apartments that were occupied. The listing was […]

Lennar closes $1.3B fund to invest in multifamily projects across US

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 07:50 AM PDT

Lennar Corp.’s multifamily arm closed a $1.3 billion fund that will invest in apartment projects in large U.S. cities. LMC, a subsidiary of Miami-based Lennar Corp. announced the closing of the equity fund on Tuesday. It said eight institutional investors, including foreign pensions, sovereign wealth funds, banks and insurance companies invested in the fund. Lennar also contributed $381 million to the fund. The company said the fund, known as LMV II, will develop and acquire […]

Behind Bars: Bar Works co-conspirator James Moore convicted of wire fraud

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 07:15 AM PDT

The federal investigation into fraudulent co-working Ponzi scheme Bar Works has now landed its first conviction. Federal prosecutors announced on Monday that British national James Moore was found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy for engaging in a scheme to defraud investors, due to his involvement with the New York-based startup founded by fellow Brit Renwick Haddow. The trial lasted one week and the conviction was handed down on Friday. “James Moore was part of […]

Rents rise to $3K mark in Brooklyn, Queens

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 06:30 AM PDT

Rental prices in two of New York City’s outer boroughs have continued their upward march as property owners dial back potential discounts. In Queens, landlord concessions dropped in May for the third consecutive month, to 33.3 percent, almost half the record rate set in April 2018, according to the latest Douglas Elliman market report. At the same time, the median rental price in northwest Queens surged 15.4 percent last month, to $3,000, when compared to […]

Reconstructing Westchester’s Rivertowns

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 05:45 AM PDT

The massive Edge-on-Hudson project that’s transforming Sleepy Hollow isn’t the only development along the Hudson River. A slew of new projects in the area are either under construction, being planned or have launched in the past few years and are remaking the once-industrial waterfront into a hub of activity. But getting projects out of the ground — particularly in central business districts — is not easy. “The approval process was tedious and long,” said Bart Blatt, the […]

Manhattan landlords offering fewer concessions these days

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 05:00 AM PDT

Landlords are easing off on concessions in Manhattan’s tight rental market as vacancies gradually shrink. The tightening of vacancy in May is part of a wider trend seen over the past year, according to Douglas Elliman’s latest rental market report. The rate is now 1.65 percent, down from 1.85 percent at this time last year. The number of new leases fell 7.7 percent year-over-year to 5,796, according to Elliman. Compared with Brooklyn and Queens, where […]

Craig Deitelzweig, CEO of Marx Realty, talks building preservation and push to get the Guggenheim to Long Island City

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 04:30 AM PDT

Craig Deitelzweig’s first foray into real estate was as an attorney at Skadden Arps in the late 1990s, where he realized he wanted to be more entrenched in New York’s property business. More than a decade and a half later, Deitelzweig joined Marx Realty — the development and management arm of Merchants’ National Properties — as its president and CEO in 2017. Prior to that, he served as managing director at Stamford-based Building and Land […]

Don’t expect the multifamily market to pick up anytime soon, brokers say

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 04:00 AM PDT

The city’s multifamily market has had a very slow year so far, and brokers say they expect that to continue for at least another few months while buyers and sellers try to figure out how much of an impact the state’s new rent regulation proposals will have on the properties. “There’s going to be a period where buyers and sellers pause and reevaluate where these things are and see how it impacts their long-term cash […]