The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Developer Fotis Dulos, charged with killing his wife, is dead: lawyer

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:08 PM PST

Two days after attempting suicide, a Connecticut developer charged with murdering his wife has died in a Bronx hospital, his lawyer said Thursday. But in an odd twist, the attorney requested that the case against Fotis Dulos proceed. “Mr. Dulos’ children should not be subjected to a lifetime coping with the fictional reality that their father murdered their mother in cold blood on the basis of baseless and rampant speculation,” lawyer Norm Pattis wrote in

“Million Dollar Listing New York” to get a new, female star

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 03:20 PM PST

For the first time, Bravo may be welcoming a woman to the cast of “Million Dollar Listing New York.” Compass broker Kirsten Jordan has been cast as the show’s newest co-star, according to sources. She’s one of 11 agents on the Hudson Advisory Team, which was founded by Stephen Ferrara and Clayton Orrigo. Jordan, Orrigo, Compass and Bravo declined to comment. Jordan would be the first female to join the cast of Bravo’s hit reality

Slowing sales and tumbling prices: A decade in Manhattan townhouse sales

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST

Sales of townhouses in Manhattan hit the lowest point in a decade last year. Year-over-year prices also took a tumble, according to Douglas Elliman’s 10-year report, which was authored by appraiser Jonthan Miller. The median townhouse price fell 7.8 percent in 2019 to $4.8 million. However, that figure was up on 2010 by 24.7 percent, showing that prices have increased while sales have largely stayed flat or declined. “Townhouses, in general, no matter whether the

All Year clears William Vale bond hurdle on second try

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:00 PM PST

Sometimes, 1 percent can make all the difference. A month after narrowly failing to get bondholder approval to amend prepayment terms on Israeli bonds backed by the William Vale complex in Williamsburg, Yoel Goldman’s All Year Management has succeeded on its second try. The key was doubling the prepayment penalty to 2 percent. The bonds in question were issued by All Year in 2017 for a $166 million refinancing of the then recently completed William

Saunders’ No. 1 agent Chris Coleman jumps to Compass

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:45 PM PST

Hamptons broker Chris Coleman — who was the No. 1 agent at Saunders & Associates last year — has moved to Compass. Coleman will join the Montauk office along with Kellie Baranovich and Sarah Birdsall, according to an email to agents viewed by The Real Deal. “Chris was the number one agent at Saunders in 2019, and has been one of the top in the company for several years prior,” wrote John Gicking, who runs

Doshi-Besen feud continues with lawsuit over Queens multifamily property

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:20 PM PST

Amit Doshi added another lawsuit to the infamous ongoing feud between himself and his former business partner Michael Besen. Doshi sued Besen and his company New York City Management over control of a multifamily property at 94-16 34th Road in Jackson Heights, records filed in Manhattan state supreme court Thursday show. Doshi and business partner Robert Farhadian are managing members of the LLC that owns the building, and Besen’s NYC Management began serving as managing

Michelle Pfeiffer makes another splashy real estate buy

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:15 PM PST

David E. Kelley and Michelle Pfeiffer aren’t done with the Pacific Palisades. A company tied to TV writer/producer Kelley — husband to the Hollywood actress — paid $22.5 million for a home there, county records reviewed by The Real Deal show. The purchase comes just after the celebrity couple closed on the sale of another property in the upscale neighborhood, and while they have one more still on the market. The 10,300-square-foot Mediterranean style home

How “third-grade math” led to one of Blackstone’s first RE deals

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:00 PM PST

It was the height of the 1990s when Stephen Schwarzman struck one of Blackstone’s first real estate deals — guided by little more than what he said was third-grade math. At the time, the U.S. government was selling off foreclosed properties to firms like Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Blackstone and Goldman had teamed up to bid on a portfolio of garden apartments, but the partners disagreed on price. “I looked at this transaction

“Scale is still our calling card”: Jon Gray talks Blackstone’s real estate strategy for 2020 and beyond

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:45 AM PST

UPDATED, Jan. 30, 2019, 2:24 p.m.: Following a year of mega-deals that brought Blackstone Group’s real estate assets under management to an unprecedented size, the firm’s executives sound optimistic about opportunities in the new decade — while acknowledging that it’s sometimes hard to find investments worth spending all that money on. “Blackstone is in terrific shape by any measure,” Blackstone president and chief operating officer Jonathan Gray said on the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday

US homeownership rate rises to highest level in 6 years

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:30 AM PST

The U.S. homeownership rate is now at its highest point in six years, signaling continued confidence in the market despite anxiety that the current cycle is nearing an end. Rates dipped in most big cities, which have priced out many potential buyers. According to fourth-quarter U.S. Census data released Thursday, 65.1 percent of Americans owned their own homes. While that represented a slight increase from the 64.8 percent from the third quarter, it highlights the

Cadre brings on former Four Seasons CEO as president

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:30 AM PST

Real estate investment startup Cadre has hired Allen Smith, the former CEO of Four Seasons, as its president. Smith spent four years at the hotel company, departing in 2018. Before then, he was the CEO of Prudential Real Estate Investors, the Prudential Finance subsidiary that was recently rebranded as PGIM Real Estate. In an interview with Forbes this month, he said he wanted to move more into the tech space, and described Cadre’s business model

Industrious reaches deal for 60K square feet in Midtown

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:45 AM PST

New York-based flexible-office space startup Industrious has signed a deal for two spaces totaling 60,000 square feet at 135 West 50th Street. Under the deal with landlord George Comfort & Sons, the firm signed a 15-year lease for 37,000 square feet of space on the second floor of the 23-story tower, where it will run a shared workspace. That lease, according to an Industrious spokesperson, includes a profit-sharing component with the landlord. It also signed

Eliot Spitzer and fiancee Roxana Girand pick up two UES condos

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST

Eliot Spitzer and his fiancee, Roxana Girand, have reportedly dropped $4.37 million on two Upper East Side condos. The real estate developer and former governor purchased the adjacent units inside the Concorde at 220 E. 65th Street in an off-market deal, according to the New York Post. The 24th-floor units measure 2,276 square feet, combined. Amenities at the building include a pool, a gym and valet parking. Girand, his fiance since 2017 and founder of

Less is more: Small Manhattan condos, co-ops ruled in 2010s

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:30 AM PST

Manhattan condos and co-ops sold in the past decade shrunk — literally — but the price of smaller units grew more than for large ones on a percentage basis. The average Manhattan apartment sold between 2010 and 2019 was just under 1,135 square feet, the smallest in more than three decades, according to Douglas Elliman’s 10-year report on the Manhattan sales market. It was authored by appraiser Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel and examines data

Walker & Dunlop acquires Aaron Appel’s AKS Capital Partners

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:00 AM PST

Commercial real estate finance company Walker & Dunlop has acquired Aaron Appel’s AKS Capital Partners just a few months after the former JLL heavyweight founded it, the company announced Thursday. The price was not disclosed. Appel and his colleagues Keith Kurland, Jonathan Schwartz and Adam Schwartz left JLL to found AKS in August, shortly after the firm officially closed on its $2 billion merger with HFF. Appel was arguably the biggest name to leave JLL

TRD’s founders share war stories from over the years

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:30 AM PST

Publisher Amir Korangy started The Real Deal out of his Brooklyn apartment nearly two decades ago, shortly before he was joined by Editor-in-Chief Stuart Elliott and Yoav Barilan, who today helps oversee sales operations. The publication was initially a Variety-style tip sheet with columns of text packed onto the cover. But a lot has changed since then: TRD is now a multifaceted media company known for award-winning investigative stories and the most popular real estate

Harvey Hernandez fights back against Airbnb

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:00 AM PST

Harvey Hernandez’s development group is striking back against Airbnb after the short-term rental company alleged he committed fraud and siphoned money out of an apartment-sharing concept. NGD Homesharing, led by Miami developer Hernandez, alleges in a countersuit filed Friday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court that Airbnb was actually the one operating in bad faith and caused delays and setbacks in opening its projects by going “radio silent” in communication. “This is a classic case of a

Welcome to the broker hunger games

Posted: 29 Jan 2020 06:22 PM PST

A decade from now, the real estate marketplace may not be swarming with as many agents as there are today. Automation and increased consolidation of business with top agents will whittle down the ranks. “The strong will survive,” Ryan Gorman, CEO of Coldwell Banker, said Wednesday at Inman’s conference in New York. “And others will find a new path.” Gorman was joined on stage by Guy Gal, CEO of Side, a venture-backed residential brokerage that