The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

WATCH: Brokers scramble to seal deals before rent laws take effect

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 04:16 PM PDT

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s announcement from the Senate and Assembly that the most sweeping expansion of tenant rights would soon be on Gov. Cuomo’s desk, brokers rushed to get leases signed for their panicked clients before the laws go into effect. Bohemia Realty Group’s co-founder Sarah Saltzberg explains why this package of legislation could be like a “bomb exploding” in the industry. Editor’s Note: This was filmed on Thursday, one day before Cuomo signed […]

Nick Mastroianni’s EB-5 firm signals intent to foreclose on 125 Greenwich

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 03:33 PM PDT

Few buildings in New York City have had a more complicated and troubled construction history as 125 Greenwich. Now the Downtown luxury residential tower – which has attracted some of the largest names in real estate – is facing a potential foreclosure proceeding. Nick Mastroianni, whose U.S. Immigration Fund EB-5 firm provided a mezzanine loan on the project, sent preliminary paperwork this week to signal a foreclosure proceeding to the project’s developers, according to four […]

Cuomo signs landmark rent regulation reform bill

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 01:44 PM PDT

The New York state legislature passed sweeping rent regulation reform on Friday, dramatically limiting how landlords can increase rents on stabilized apartments and opening the door for rent stabilization to expand outside of New York City. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the bill almost immediately. The bill includes the elimination of vacancy decontrol and new caps on the Major Capital Improvements and Individual Apartment Improvement programs, which respectively allowed landlords to hike rents on regulated apartments […]

WeWork is in talks to take $1.9B majority stake in India affiliate

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 01:30 PM PDT

WeWork is reportedly in talks to take a majority stake in its India affiliate as the company powers toward an initial public offering. The flexible office space giant could take a 70 percent stake priced at $1.9 billion in a cash-and stock deal that could close as soon as August, according to Bloomberg. The terms of the deal, which would reportedly value the India-based affiliate at $2.75 billion, have not been finalized. WeWork declined to […]

Wall Street warns against privatizing Fannie and Freddie without Congress guarantee

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 12:45 PM PDT

As the Trump administration gears up to end the decade-long conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, some voices on Wall Street are warning against doing so without congressional support. Only Congress has the ability to provide an explicit government guarantee for the $4.7 trillion in bonds backed by the two mortgage companies, and the lack of such a backstop may dissuade some financial firms from buying those bonds, driving up costs and hurting homebuyers, […]

Benchmark looks to sell BK Heights rental building for $70M

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 12:00 PM PDT

Benchmark Real Estate Group is looking to sell a Brooklyn Heights rental building for more than $70 million. The Plaza District-based investment firm, headed by Aaron Feldman and Jordan Vogel, has put the 67-unit apartment building at 25 Monroe Place on the market, brokers marketing the property told The Real Deal. The asking price works out to more than $1 million per unit. Representatives for Benchmark could not be immediately reached for comment. Jeff Julien, […]

Luis Ortiz is back

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 11:15 AM PDT

Luis Ortiz, the Douglas Elliman broker who gained fame for his starring role on Bravo’s reality TV show “Million Dollar Listing New York,” has returned to real estate. Bravo released the Season 8 trailer for its reality real estate show earlier this week. In it, Ortiz appears in a bright red sweater, makes a rock ‘n’ roll salute, and announces to the camera, “I’m back!” The broker, who appeared alongside Nest Seekers International’s Ryan Serhant […]

Resi scorecard: Manhattan condo inventory through April 2019

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 10:45 AM PDT

NEW DEVELOPMENT CONDO REPORT MANHATTAN • Inventory contracted as developers filed fewer units than were purchased • Developers filed six plans with a total of 163 units • The state approved five plans with 612 units valued at $1.6 billion • Buyers purchased 171 units valued at $639 million SUPPLY MANHATTAN NEW DEVELOPMENT CONDO SUPPLY MOST EXPENSIVE CONDO PROJECTS APPROVED Source: TRData analysis of plans submitted to the NYS Attorney General in April LARGEST CONDO […]

US government sells Palm Beach home of convicted Venezuelan money launderer

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 10:00 AM PDT

The federal government sold a high-end Palm Beach home that belonged to former Venezuelan treasurer and convicted money launderer Alejandro Andrade for $11 million. Property records show U.S. Customs and Border Protection sold the six-bedroom, 6,416-square-foot home at 1290 North Ocean Boulevard to Matthew and Astrid Womble of EverWatch, a family office in the Northeast. The Palm Beach Daily News first reported the sale. The government put the property on the market with Cristina Condon […]

Destabilized associations: Did RSA chief Joe Strasburg meet his match in the new Albany?

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 09:15 AM PDT

As the public policy debate on rent regulation kicked into high gear a few weeks ago, the state Assembly’s first hearing on rent reforms gave an indication of the kind of fervor to come. Joseph Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association, urged a group of adversarial lawmakers not to enact reforms he argued would result in the rent-regulated housing stock looking like the city’s financially strapped public housing system. “Do not NYCHA-tize [the] private […]

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

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 08:30 AM PDT

Here are a bunch of real estate events to look out for next week! From June 17 to June 18, IMN is holding its RealTECH 2019 event at the New York Marriott Downtown, 85 West Street at Albany Street. You can attend this event to network and hear discussions on the new ways technological innovation is influencing different sectors of the real estate industry. Speakers include Aviva Fink of Reonomy and Brian Lee of Common. […]

Big gains offset by bigger losses in Manhattan retail shakeup

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 07:45 AM PDT

This year, New York City will lose 340,000 square feet of department stores. While some are zigging, others are zagging: Lord & Taylor, Henri Bendel and Saks Fifth Avenue are out, and Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom are in. Nordstrom, historically reluctant to open physical stores in Manhattan, will open its flagship at Extell Development’s Central Park Tower, just across the street from its men’s shop at Moinian Group’s 3 Columbus Circle. “Manhattan does not need […]

Billionaires’ Row NIMBYs lean on Cuomo to stop shelter

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 07:00 AM PDT

The state agency responsible for giving the green light on a homeless shelter on Billionaires’ Row won’t open the doors as wealthy neighbors mobilize with lawsuits and lobbyists in Albany. The West 58th Street Coalition is leaning on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state officials in an attempt to stop the approval process on the application submitted in 2017, The City reported. The politically-connected group is represented by Randy Mastro, a partner at Gibson Dunn & […]

Collateral damage? Real estate sounds alarm on rent regs’ impact on condos, 421a

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 06:30 AM PDT

Changes to the rent regulation laws might’ve eventually driven some landlords to go condo or co-op. That is, if proposed legislation to renew the laws didn’t make such conversions more difficult. Part of the rent bill changes rules around rental to condo conversions, specifically in relation to how many existing renters must buy into the building before a multifamily building can go condo. Under the new bill, eviction plans — which allow landlords to evict […]

East Hampton may buy Ben Krupinski’s airport lease, Martha Stewart’s former Bridgehampton bungalow reborn as boutique hotel & more Hamptons real estate news

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 06:00 AM PDT

East Hampton looks to buy hangar of late East End builder A year after the sudden death of Hamptons builder Ben Krupinski in a plane crash off Amagansett, officials in East Hampton are negotiating with those handling his estate to buy out a lease on the largest hangar at the East Hampton Airport, 27east reported. Krupinski first leased the hangar, which is known as the East Hampton Executive Terminal, for $50,000 in 1996. Annual increases […]

How flexible is your floor plan? The .1% want to know

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 05:30 AM PDT

Jeff Bezos hunted for the perfect New York City apartment for months. But in the end, he opted to go a DIY route that’s increasingly popular among the superrich. Months after the Amazon chief’s people checked out HFZ Capital Group’s The XI in West Chelsea and Vornado Realty Trust’s 220 Central Park South, Bezos finalized a deal this month to buy three apartments at 212 Fifth Avenue — including the top penthouse and two other […]

Caps on IAIs and MCIs could spell disaster for landlords, lenders and workers: real estate pros

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 05:01 AM PDT

Real estate industry players say the caps on Major Capital Improvement and Individual Apartment Improvement programs will disincentivize investment and lead to a deterioration in the housing stock — and the effects may come swiftly. The new bill places a limit of $15,000 on Individual Apartment Improvements — in which landlords pass the cost of improvements to bathrooms and kitchens, for example — to over 15 years. The program currently allows landlords to pass costs […]

Day in the life of: Chany Rosen

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 04:30 AM PDT

Chany Rosen is on a path less traveled. The 28-year-old expeditor got her start in the real estate business a half-dozen years ago after discovering she had a penchant for battling the bureaucracy of New York City’s Department of Buildings. As one of the few women from her Hasidic Jewish community in Midwood, Brooklyn, to earn a college degree, Rosen spent a few years as a teacher before jumping into property management for a bigger […]

Hotel union files plans for $75M new LIC health center

Posted: 14 Jun 2019 04:00 AM PDT

New York’s hospitality workers’ union is building a ground-up medical office in Queens for $75 million. The benefits-providing arm of the New York Hotel Trades Council plans to construct a three-story, 76-foot-tall project at 43-06 38th Street in Long Island City, according to a pre-filed application recorded at the city’s Buildings Department Thursday. The development will span 84,000 square feet. Representatives for the union could not be reached for comment Thursday evening. In 2012, the […]

Top Hamptons developer slashes price on ultra-luxury “Sandcastle”

Posted: 13 Jun 2019 10:15 AM PDT

Weeks after reportedly hosting Rudy Giuliani’s 75th birthday party at his amenities-packed East End estate, prominent Hamptons home builder Joe Farrell has trimmed $10 million from its sales price. Dubbed by Farrell as the “Sandcastle,” the 17,000-square-foot Bridgehampton home at 612 Halsey Lane hit the market in early 2018 with a nearly $50 million ask. But last week the massive home, which sites on roughly 11.5 acres, got a new $39.995 million price tag, according […]