The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

WeWork’s first investor used his stock as collateral. Now his lenders are suing him

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 02:20 PM PDT

WeWork’s first investor, who pledged his stock in the company as collateral on loans, is being accused of short-changing his lenders. Joel Schreiber, a landlord whose firm Waterbridge Capital owns a vast portfolio of buildings in New York, used his stake in WeWork and properties he owned to back loans totalling almost $3.3 million, which he later defaulted on, according to two lawsuits filed Thursday. One plaintiff, Vikram Kuriyan, says that he provided Schreiber with

“Dozens of buildings” in LA receive eviction notices ahead of California’s new rent law

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 02:00 PM PDT

Landlords across Los Angeles have sent out scores of eviction notices in recent weeks, trying to get ahead of the “just cause” provision of California’s new rent control bill, which kicks in Jan. 1. “We’re dealing with dozens of buildings calling our hotline,” said Trinidad Ruiz, an organizer with the Los Angeles Tenant Union. And Katie McKeon, an attorney with the pro bono law firm Public Counsel, said it was “a massive uptick in no-fault

No criticism here: Nicolai Ouroussoff, Cecily Brown buy E. Village house for $7.75M

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 01:30 PM PDT

Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff has finally found a house he can live with. The notoriously prickly former New York Times critic and his wife, British artist Cecily Brown, closed today on a townhouse at 125 East 10th Street in the East Village, sources said. The purchase price was $7.75 million, confirmed Warburg Realty’s Jason Haber, who represented the seller. Ouroussoff and Brown did not have a broker. Located near the intersection of Stuyvesant and East

NYCHA strikes air rights deal with developer, WeWork shuttering its pricey private school: Daily digest

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 01:06 PM PDT

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 in real time, starting at 9 a.m. Please send any tips or deals to [email protected] This page was last updated at 4:06 a.m. Video produced by Sabrina He NYCHA is selling air rights in Brooklyn to a developer. Jorge Madruga’s Maddd Equities is nearing a deal for 100,000 square feet of

Watch: A-Rod on the benefits and pitfalls of being a celebrity investor

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 12:30 PM PDT

Alex Rodriguez has been investing in real estate for decades. He made his first purchase — a duplex outside of Miami that he needed a $48,000 downpayment for — when he was 22. But in the years since, the former Yankee third baseman, who is now 44, has built a sizable national real estate portfolio. He has thousands of units, all under the A-Rod Corp. umbrella, in U.S. markets like Chicago, North Carolina and Texas.

Recalling Cecilia Benattar, the “toughest woman in real estate”

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 11:30 AM PDT

The fourth episode of “People Who Made New York City revisits the legacy of Cecilia Benattar. She developed the iconic General Motors Building on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue more than 50 years ago, when women in offices were mostly employed as secretaries. According to her son Simon Benattar, “she would walk through walls, and nothing could stop her.” Watch this video to find out how she made the GM headquarters happen. Voice-over by Sylvia Varnham O’Regan

Kurz Real Estate joins eXp Realty

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 11:00 AM PDT

Virtual brokerage eXp Realty is growing by nearly 200 agents in South Florida with the acquisition of Kurz Real Estate, The Real Deal has learned. It’s the latest move in Florida by Bellingham, Washington-based eXp, which entered the Sunshine State nine years ago. “We are one of the largest brokerages to merge with eXp. Ninety-eight percent of our agents are moving with us,” Kurz Real Estate owner David Kurz told TRD. Kurz made the announcement

“I can talk about erections all day”: NAR tech consultant’s bizarre fireside chat

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 10:20 AM PDT

Fireside chats — one-on-one discussions between industry players at conferences — are typically genial events. But one such discussion held at a real estate conference in Munich this week was anything but friendly. At Real Expo 2019, New York-based tech investor and consultant Duke Long assailed Morten Lund, the co-founder and CEO of Danish vacation-rental startup Poshtel International. “Anyone want to ask, other than ‘how fucking stoned are you right now,’” he said, when asking

Here’s a look at Blackstone’s industrial plays after its record-breaking portfolio purchase

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 09:32 AM PDT

After Blackstone dropped almost $19 billion on an industrial portfolio in June — the biggest portfolio deal ever — the private equity giant’s industrial activity hasn’t let up. In the months following that deal with Singapore-based GLP, Blackstone’s industrial plays in the U.S. have ranged from one-off property acquisitions to a partial selloff of that newly-acquired portfolio. In another show of its interest in the sector, Blackstone also launched its own logistics firm overseas. The

WeWork is investing again with fundraise for proptech

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 08:55 AM PDT

WeWork has apparently recovered enough from its attempted initial public offering rollout to invest again. The coworking company recently took part in a $4.6 million venture round for the commercial real estate startup company Jones, Jones announced on Thursday. Hertz Ventures led the round, and other firms that took part included JLL Spark, MetaProp Ventures, GroundUp Ventures and 500 Startups. Jones focuses on developing software to help commercial real estate companies handle and simplify the

OneKey MLS launches in NY with 47K listings

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 05:15 AM PDT

For years brokers in the New York metro area have longed for a multiple listings service. And now it’s launching 42,000 subscribers deep. Realtors in Westchester and Long Island last year merged their systems into the New York MLS, which they’ve now renamed “OneKey,” they said Thursday. The platform currently has 47,000 listings stretching from the Catskills to Montauk, including the five boroughs of New York City, one of the only major U.S. cities without

Ranking NYC’s top real estate law firms

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 04:30 AM PDT

The calls began almost as soon as the new rent laws passed. Overnight, the sweeping regulations — which Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed in June — vastly restricted what landlords could do with rent-regulated apartments. And those landlords, crushed from a stinging political defeat and given no grace period to adjust to the new rules, turned immediately to their lawyers. Luise Barrack, managing member of the law firm Rosenberg & Estis, said her firm started fielding

Compass opens Long Island City office as new-development sales surge

Posted: 11 Oct 2019 04:00 AM PDT

Compass has opened an office in Long Island City as sales prices in Queens hit record highs. Located at 21-50 45th Avenue, the office will have 70 agents, including its “Real Market Team,” whose listings include a $3.75 million penthouse in Hunters Point. The firm is also exclusively marketing the One Sixteen building in Rockaway. And it was marketing the Ispica Astoria at 25-63 38th Street, which it says is now sold out. The move is