The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

More of your friends at Facebook may be checking into Hudson Yards soon. The tech company is reportedly in talks to lease an additional 500,000 square feet at Related Companies’ megadevelopment, according to Bloomberg. That brings the company’s potential footprint at Hudson Yards to $1.5 million square feet. The lion’s share of Facebook’s office are to be located in 50 Hudson Yards, as previously reported. However, the tower is still under construction, so sources told […]

Zillow Group’s bet on instant homebuying boosted its second-quarter revenues 84 percent to $599.6 million, the company said Wednesday. Revenue for Zillow Offers — which debuted last year — totaled $248.9 million for the quarter. Meanwhile, Zillow Mortgages revenue rose 40 percent to $26.9 million. In a statement, co-founder and CEO Rich Barton described demand for Zillow Offers as “incredibly impressive” and said the program is on track to hit an annualized run rate of […]

Olivia Gamber is the “farmer-in-residence” at Staten Island Urby, a 571-unit, 80/20 mixed-income rental building by Ironstate Development. “Most people, when I said, ‘I wanted to be a farmer,’ they laughed at me,” said Gamber, who lives in the complex and is one of 13 employees there. “If you’re in urban agriculture, there are huge barriers to entry.” In her role at the project, Gamber manages a 5,000-square-foot urban farm called Rabbit’s Garden, where she […]

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up New York’s biggest real estate news, from breaking news and scoops to announcements and deals. We update this page at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 4 p.m. ET. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com This page was last updated at 4:00 p.m.   Real estate billionaire Steve Ross is facing criticism by his own employees for hosting a fundraiser for President Trump in the Hamptons on […]

Real estate is breathing a sigh of relief. After a lengthy manual recount and fending off affidavit ballot challenges, Melinda Katz eked out a victory by a razor-thin margin in the Queens District Attorney primary race over Tiffany Cabán. The race was seen as a microcosm of a larger clash between far-left socialists and a more moderate establishment seen as favorable to business interests such as the real estate industry. “As a former DNC operative […]

Chris Cortazzo, the longtime Coldwell Banker star agent who had more than $500 million in sales volume last year, has jumped to Compass. Cortazzo — who has taken his 16-person team with him — will be based in the same Malibu office, joining Compass at a time when the Softbank-backed behemoth is preparing its initial public offering. The New York-based firm recently raised another $370 million in a Series G round, propelling its valuation to […]

Toll Brothers has scooped up the site of the Marrakech Hotel on the Upper West Side from Hank Fried’s Branic International Realty just days after Branic reached a settlement over the property with the city. Toll Brothers is buying 2686, 2688 and 2690 Broadway for $44 million, Fried announced on Tuesday. He indicated that Branic will now look to make new purchases, saying in a statement that the sale allows the firm “to engage in […]

UPDATE, August 7, 2:50 p.m.: Daniel Och is targeting an eye-popping $12,000 a foot for his penthouse atop 15 Central Park West, among the highest asks in the city. Och, the founder of Och-Ziff Capital Management, shelled out $22 million for the penthouse in 2008, which he bought as a white box from Zeckendorf Development that he then customized. The roughly 4,700-square-foot apartment comes with three bedrooms and a library, along with 1,600 square feet […]

There’s nothing quite like the looming threat of increased taxation to get real estate deals done. The sale of luxury homes in New York City reached record levels in June ahead of new closing taxes that went into effect on July 1. The peak in sales applied to all homes priced over $2 million, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal, and in total about $4.8 billion of property transacted in June — […]

On the heels of a strong second quarter for Starwood Property Trust, Chairman and CEO Barry Sternlicht spoke to analysts during an earnings call Wednesday about the slowing economy and “trade wars fought at 4 a.m. with tweets” that are eroding confidence in the markets. The real estate investment trust reported net income up 16 percent, year-over-year, to $127 million, or 45 cents per share for the second quarter, meeting analysts’ expectations. The company’s core […]

The We Company is expected to go public next month. A lot of people are betting big on its success. WeWork, the We Company’s co-working arm, makes up more than half of the rentable office space in 18 of its 61 buildings in New York. In at least five of those properties, WeWork rents all of the available office space, David Jeans reports. Office landlords, of course, have traditionally signed on anchor tenants — but WeWork […]

The Gray Lady is establishing a foothold in Queens. The New York Times Company has signed a lease for roughly 58,000 square feet across three floors at Court Square Place in Long Island City in a deal brokered by JRT Realty Group, the real estate company announced on Tuesday. The Times plans to relocate 350 employees from its Manhattan headquarters at 620 Eighth Avenue to its new location in Queens. It will occupy the ninth, […]

Douglas Elliman’s revenue soared 18 percent during the second quarter as New York City buyers rushed to close deals before a new transfer tax went into effect July 1, parent company Vector Group said Wednesday. The New York-based brokerage raked in $243 million during the quarter, compared to revenue of $205.6 million a year ago. Despite pressure on brokerage margins throughout the industry, Elliman reported net income of $15.1 million, up from $5.9 million, thanks […]

Add these ideas to the pile of ambitious and strange projects WeWork’s executives have pursued: an ad-campaign directed by Martin Scorsese and an NBC television show produced by actor-cum-tech bro Ashton Kutcher. The office space startup, whose parent firm The We Company is valued at $47 billion and expected to launch an initial public offering as soon as next month, has over-and-over again attempted to reframe its image as more than just a real estate […]

The death of a startup last month raises questions about the future of co-living in New York City — and whether such arrangements are putting landlords and tenants at risk. Bedly, a co-living company that launched in 2015, abruptly shut down July 21, leaving 600-plus tenants with invalid leases and roughly a month’s notice to find somewhere else to live. Though Bedly had raised $7 million since its start, according to its founder, the company […]

New York City’s top July projects were all about the Bronx. The borough was home to five of the top 10 largest projects in the city, including all of the top four. The project in first place was a planned development from the New York City Housing Authority at 373 East 183rd Street in Fordham, which will span about 165,000 square feet. A pair of Bronx residential projects from developer Peter Fine took second and […]

Seated at a long dining table in a staged $11.8 million apartment on the 65th floor of 35 Hudson Yards, Mensur Cekic looks out the windows and surveys his territory. Cekic, 39, is the “director of residences” for the Related Companies’ massive $25 billion Hudson Yards development — a vague title that masks the scope of his role. He is responsible for the needs of every resident across Related’s condo and rental buildings in and […]

In March 2009, a Queens woman checked into the Upper West Side’s Imperial Court Hotel for 10 nights. She requested a lease from management and became a permanent tenant. Her rent? Just $99 a week. Flash forward to summer of 2015. A pair of taxi drivers checked into the Chelsea Highline Hotel for one night each, requested leases, and became permanent tenants for under $300 a month and free rent for life, respectively. And in […]