The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

A stunning 7,300 Covid-related layoffs in two days reported to state

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 03:50 PM PDT

The Mandarin Oriental. Soho House. Colony Club. Coronavirus-related layoffs continue to pile up. On Friday and Thursday alone, some 88 layoff notices were filed in New York, signaling that employers across the state would jettison more than 7,300 workers because of Covid-19. The 405 so-called WARN notices filed since March 20 dwarf the total of 76 for the entire year to that point, an analysis by The Real Deal found. In those two weeks’ of

Bernie Sanders calls for rent, mortgage freeze

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 03:43 PM PDT

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is calling for a freeze on rent and mortgage payments as part of the next federal relief package. Sanders urged Congress on Friday to suspend monthly expenses, including rent, mortgage payments, medical debt and consumer debt collection, for four months, as part of a list of priorities he believes legislators should include in the next stimulus bill. The Vermont Senator is calling for these payments to be completely halted during that

Nation’s biggest department stores could run out of funds in a month: Goldman Sachs

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 03:15 PM PDT

While experts debate how long the economy will be shut down, some major department stores and apparel retailers have as little as one month’s worth of funds to tough it out. Major department stores like Kohl’s, Nordstrom and Macy’s could run out of capital within a month, according to a liquidity “stress test” published Thursday by Goldman Sachs. Other retailers like PVH (the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger), Gap and Victoria’s Secret

Top multifamily lender lays out the terms of relief for landlords

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 03:00 PM PDT

Coronavirus relief for landlords is here, at least from one large multifamily lender. According to documents reviewed by The Real Deal, New York Community Bank, one of New York City’s largest multifamily lenders, is offering borrowers a break on their mortgage payments. Borrowers who show their cash flows are “impacted” by Covid-19 and may become “impaired” are given two options: six months interest only and escrow payments or deferral of principal and interest for six

Breaking in the outbreak: Five firms reeling from the coronavirus

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 02:30 PM PDT

No one is immune to the coronavirus, nor is any company immune to the economic crisis the pandemic is inflicting. And just as some people exposed to the virus barely get a fever, but others end up on a ventilator, some companies are taking a worse hit than others. There are thousands of firms reeling from the dislocation of seeing their customers disappear and their workers forced to stay home. And the effect can be

Layoffs and furloughs hit NYC’s biggest resi firms

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 01:41 PM PDT

New York’s largest residential brokerages have laid off or furloughed a significant chunk of their employees, The Real Deal has learned, as the firms and their thousands of agents grapple with a near-total market shutdown. Douglas Elliman, the city’s largest residential firm with nearly 2,500 agents, laid off approximately 100 people on Friday, sources said. The Corcoran Group, the city’s second-largest firm with just under 1,700 agents, cut 50 percent of assistant pay and enacted

Second Take: To show or not to show

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 01:05 PM PDT

Real estate agents are creatures of action. They’ve been grounded for several weeks by the pandemic, but a new state ruling Wednesday seemed to indicate that home showings — a crucial part of the selling process — could resume. That decision set off a wave of confusion among New York City agents and their managers, until the decision was hastily clarified the next day. TRD reporters Sylvia Varnham O’Regan and E.B. Solomont joined Associate Publisher

EB-5 fund administrator sells amid push to resurrect program

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 12:30 PM PDT

One of the country’s largest EB-5 and Opportunity Zone fund administrators will be acquired for at least $40 million amid a push to change EB-5 rules to boost the economy. San Jose, California-based NES Financial on Thursday agreed to be acquired by JTC PLC, a provider of fund, corporate and private client services. Combined, the funds will service $130 billion in assets, according to a news release. NES Financial has been a significant player in

Some luxury condos, office towers escape construction ban

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 12:00 PM PDT

A controversial Upper West Side condo tower is one of nearly 900 projects that have secured exemptions from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s order shutting down most types of construction throughout the state, according to a map released Friday by the city’s Department of Buildings. Certain work on SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America’s 200 Amsterdam Avenue — which faces potential deconstruction after a judge ruled the 668-foot tower was about 20 stories too high — is

March saw fewer CMBS delinquencies. That is likely to change: Fitch

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 11:10 AM PDT

The delinquency rate for U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities fell in March — but that is likely to change, according to a new report. Last month delinquencies dipped four basis points to 1.31 percent from the month before, largely because of new loan issuance and minimal new delinquencies, Fitch Ratings said Friday. So far for the year, delinquencies also are down overall. But the ratings agency warned that the coronavirus pandemic likely will cause the delinquency

As hotels across NYC shutter, David Marx’s fills rooms

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 10:30 AM PDT

David Marx’s newly opened Hudson Yards hotel, heavily reliant on conference-goers flocking to the nearby Javits Convention Center, found itself nearly vacant when the coronavirus epidemic hit. But with Javits now reinvented as a medical surge facility, the hotel is hopping. The National Guard has rented about 120 rooms at the hotel for staff now at Javits for a renewable two-week period at $262 per room, per night, according to an earnings report published by

NYC-based Corcoran broker dies of coronavirus

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 10:15 AM PDT

Marc J. Goodman, a broker with the Corcoran Group for more than two decades, died at his Upper West Side home on Sunday from Covid-19, according to the brokerage and a close friend. Pam Liebman, Corcoran’s president and CEO, informed company staffers and agents on Monday. “An unfailing optimist, Marc is remembered by his colleagues and clients as the most generous of agents, always willing to lend an ear and offer a helping hand,” Liebman

Watch tonight: Turning to tech on TRD Talks Live

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 08:35 AM PDT

Live at 5 PM tonight, join The Real Deal‘s E.B. Solomont as she talks to leaders from proptech companies that are changing the way we buy, sell, rent, and refinance our homes on TRD Talks Live. With millions of Americans stuck in their houses, many are turning to technology for solutions to help them stay safe and inside. And as high-touch sectors such as retail and hospitality struggle without patronage, online alternatives to our usual

The rise of the anonymous LLC

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 07:30 AM PDT

For more than four years, nobody knew who bought the only $100 million apartment in Manhattan. Real estate agents and architects who worked with the buyer were all sworn to secrecy, according to the Wall Street Journal, and even after several rounds of building permit applications to renovate Michael Dell’s 11,000-square-foot penthouse at One57, the name of the billionaire behind “P89-90 LLC” only became known after a loose-lipped insider told a reporter. Since becoming legal

Trump Org asks lender, landlord for a break

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 06:45 AM PDT

The Trump Organization, like many other companies, is hoping its lender will cut it a break. While it loses a million dollars a day to the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump Organization has been exploring whether it can delay payments on some of its debts, the New York Times reported. The company reached out to both its largest lender, Deutsche Bank, to see if it could postpone some loan payments. It also inquired with Palm Beach

Industrious slashes a third of its workforce

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 06:00 AM PDT

Industrious is the latest flexible-office startup to make significant cuts to its workforce. The company laid off 90 employees, or 20 percent of its total staff, in addition to reducing hours and imposing furloughs on another 10 percent, Commercial Observer reported. Most of the cuts were in the company’s design, real estate development and finance departments. “If you go from signing seven, eight new locations a month to signing two or three, that severely impacts

Virus crisis prompts MTA, city to end 347 Madison Ave fight

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 05:15 AM PDT

The governor has said New Yorkers coping with the coronavirus crisis should look for a silver lining. Now, his transit agency and his favorite mayor have found one. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has reached a deal with Mayor Bill de Blasio on how to share revenue on the redevelopment of the MTA’s former Madison Avenue headquarters by a private-sector player. It took years to come to terms. The MTA initially sought to capture the project’s

How will hotels and retailers survive until their customers come back?

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 04:30 AM PDT

By early March, Terminal 1 of John F. Kennedy Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country, was nearly a ghost town. The novel coronavirus was sweeping East Asia and spreading around the world, and the terminal — which serves departures for China Eastern Airlines, Air China, Korean Air and Japan Airlines — had taken a huge hit since carriers began suspending flights to Asia in February. Retailers there reportedly saw sales fall by

High court decision has tenants stewing, landlords oohing

Posted: 03 Apr 2020 04:00 AM PDT

A landmark decision from New York’s highest court has elated landlords, while tenants say it puts property before people. The Court of Appeals — the state’s court of last resort — found that retroactively applying a portion of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 to rent-overcharge cases violates the substantive due-process clause of the state constitution, which demands laws be “rationally related to a legitimate government interest.” The court ruled that the