The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

State to target “frankenstein” apartments in rent law regulations

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 03:15 PM PST

The state’s housing regulator plans to target “frankenstein” apartments — the primary remaining strategy for landlords to jack up rents on regulated units. Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas indicated Wednesday that the agency will issue new regulations on the application of the new rent law sometime in the spring. The regulations will address the practice of combining vacant rent-stabilized apartments in order to achieve a one-time rent increase. Assembly member Linda Rosenthal referred

Corcoran’s first franchise opens in San Fran and Lake Tahoe

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 02:45 PM PST

The Corcoran Group’s making good on its ambitions to franchise its branding and it’s starting in Silicon Valley. The franchise affiliate will be called Corcoran Global Living and will be led by founder and CEO Michael Mahon, the New York City-based brokerage announced. Mahon has previously led independent brokerages HER Realtors of the Midwest and First Team Real Estate of Southern California. Inman first reported the news. The new company consists of 450 agents and

Inside the coronavirus epidemic’s impact on US real estate

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 01:39 PM PST

When real estate broker Sunanne Zhu brought a group of Chinese clients to visit a Manhattan luxury apartment tower last week, the building’s staff had some concerns. In the wake of the Chinese government’s decision to put the central city of Wuhan on lockdown, and following reports of coronavirus cases in Seattle and Chicago, many of the prospective renters — mostly international students — had taken the precaution of wearing medical face masks while in

Second SoftBank executive plans departure from troubled conglomerate

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 01:31 PM PST

A SoftBank executive who led some of the firm’s investments in the United States is in talks to leave, after expressing concerns over “issues” at the troubled conglomerate. Michael Ronen, who joined the firm’s $100 billion Vision Fund in 2017 as a managing partner, told the Financial Times that in recent weeks he had been “negotiating the terms of my anticipated departure.” Ronen could not be immediately reached for comment. Another executive, Michelle Horn, a

Queens tower led Brooklyn-saturated list of outer-borough loans

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 01:15 PM PST

Brooklyn dominated the list of largest outer-borough loans in January even more than usual, but a Queens deal claimed the top spot. Seven out of the top 10 loans last month were solely for properties in Brooklyn, while two others were for portfolios that included Brooklyn sites. The only loan not involving Brooklyn was the biggest: $580 million from Apollo Global Management to Savanna for One Court Square in Long Island City. The deals across

Lender moves to foreclose on site of NYC hotel linked to Adam Neumann, Mexican magnate

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 12:15 PM PST

East West Bank is moving to foreclose on the loans secured by the Selina Chelsea NYC property, citing a missed payment last month. In a complaint filed in state court Monday, the bank said it issued two mortgages totaling $31 million in 2013, but the borrower — a limited liability company led by Mexican hotel magnate Moises Micha — is in default. The filing says the debt — now $25.6 million — was technically not

2020 “will get a little better” after peak year for retail bankruptcies: Brookfield

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 11:35 AM PST

Just days after making an $81 million bid to save tapped-out retailer Forever 21, company executives at Brookfield Property Partners think the worst of the bankruptcy bloodbath is behind them. “We had 3.5 million square feet of closures due to bankruptcies,” last year, Brookfield CEO Brian Kingston said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday. “It’s difficult to say in January how the year will pan out, but it feels as though the holiday season

Owners of $800M skyscraper skipped on $700K rent for sales gallery

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 11:00 AM PST

If selling apartments at one of Manhattan’s most troubled residential condominiums wasn’t hard enough, now its owners can’t even afford to rent a sales gallery to sell them. The sponsors of the under-construction 125 Greenwich Street tower in Lower Manhattan, where construction has all but stopped and two foreclosure proceedings are ongoing, are being accused of failing to pay rent for a sales gallery at One World Trade. The landlord at One World Trade, the

Sizing up Cuomo’s Penn Station plan by the numbers

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 10:30 AM PST

The latest proposal to expand Penn Station — given new urgency by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month — includes plans to acquire a full city block to the south for an entirely new terminal with eight tracks. The governor now has his sights on West 30th and West 31st streets between Seventh and Eighth avenues for the “Empire Station Complex” megaproject. The proposed terminal would connect to both Penn Station and the Moynihan Train Hall,

“Smart” kitchen and delivery startup raises $60M for US expansion

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 09:00 AM PST

A startup that provides kitchen and delivery services to restaurants has raised $60 million to expand its operations in the U.S. Kitopi is among a growing suite of companies that provide “ghost kitchens” — or privately managed cooking spaces and staff — that can deliver on behalf of restaurants who are unable to keep up with the rising demands of food delivery. The firm launched in Dubai in 2018 and opened a Brooklyn kitchen in

Landlords, not tenants, must pay rental broker fees: state

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 08:36 AM PST

The Department of State has intervened in the economics of New York’s rental market. Landlords must now pay the broker fees for real estate agents they hire to represent their interests, according to new guidance from the DOS. This is a reversal from the tenant-pays system that is the norm in rental transactions in New York City. Any real estate agent acting on behalf of a landlord that accepts a broker fee paid by a

For-profit Whittle School inks lease for Tishman Speyer’s The Wheeler

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 07:32 AM PST

The private, for-profit Whittle School and Studios has inked a long-term lease for the entire office space of Tishman Speyer’s The Wheeler in Downtown Brooklyn. The deal comes almost a year after negotiations began. The Whittle School, a franchise of education entrepreneur Chris Whittle, inked the 20-year lease to occupy the 620,000-square-foot space at the 10-story development, according to Commercial Observer. Asking rents at the building were between $60 and $70 a square foot when

“It’s all working”: Trump lauds Opportunity Zones during State of the Union

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 06:38 AM PST

President Donald Trump hailed the troubled Opportunity Zones as an unqualified success during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. “Jobs and investments are pouring into 9,000 previously neglected neighborhoods thanks to Opportunity zones,” Trump said during the joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill. “Wealthy people and companies are pouring money into poor neighborhoods or areas that haven’t seen investment in many decades.” He added: “This is the first time that these deserving

Intel is now investing in real estate tech startups

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 06:28 AM PST

After decades of fostering startups, Intel is breaking into real estate tech. Intel Capital, the technology giant’s venture capital arm, led a $16 million funding round into Cherre, a software-as-a-service platform for landowners and real estate investors. Cherre is the first real estate technology investment by Intel’s investment arm since it launched almost three decades ago. With investments in more than 1,500 companies totalling $12.6 billion, it has become a powerhouse for accelerating young startups.

Hamptons’ Bespoke Real Estate and former employee tangle over trade secrets

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 06:05 AM PST

Hamptons brokerage Bespoke Real Estate and Bespoke Luxury Marketing are suing Preston Kaye, a 29-year-old Sag Harbor resident who worked for the company for more than three years, for theft of trade secrets and breach of contract. Kaye and his attorney Erroll Margolin contest Bespoke’s claims and said they plan to sue for owed commissions. The suit, filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on Jan. 24, 2020, argues

Compass co-founder Ori Allon gets into the movie business

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 05:30 AM PST

I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. Allon? Compass co-founder Ori Allon is getting into the movie business. The tech entrepreneur, who has sold startups to Twitter and Google, inked a deal with Israel’s Keshet Studios to develop and finance movies, Variety reported. According to the publication, Allon and Keshet execs made an appearance at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, last month to hunt for scripts and to scout talent. Allon, who co-founded

This is how presidential elections really affect home sales

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 05:00 AM PST

Who will be president come January? It’s the biggest question of the year — and a thorn in the side of brokers, who regard uncertainty as an enemy of sales. “Election years are always the toughest years because people are hesitant,” said Stephen Kliegerman of Halstead Property Development Marketing. “They’re waiting to see an outcome.” But do elections really influence the market? Yes, according to a data analysis produced for The Real Deal by Miller

The squeeze on resi brokerages is forcing consolidation, cooperation

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 04:30 AM PST

Corcoran is consolidating. Compass is making lay offs. Residential firms are going lean. Call it a sign of the times that these days brokerage executives show off their smarts by pulling out financial statements and reviewing expenses line by line. “Everybody is doing that right now,” said Steve Murray, president of Real Trends, which analyzes brokerage valuations. The question is whether they’re making the right choices on where to save versus splurge. Murray recalled one

Revenue pivot or hostile takeover? Industry leaders grumble about Zillow’s latest power move

Posted: 05 Feb 2020 04:00 AM PST

Zillow Group’s bid to get broker licenses from coast to coast is no surprise to New York City brokerage chiefs, but they disagree on the significance. “They’re inching their way into becoming a brokerage. There’s no secret here,” said Eddie Shapiro, CEO of Nest Seekers International. “We’d be naive to think that it’s anything different.” However, Richard Grossman, president of Halstead, argued that the license would enable the company to take a split of agents’