The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

These 25,000 retail dinosaurs will meet the meteor this year

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 04:20 PM PDT

As many as 25,000 retail stores may close this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a majority closing in shopping malls, further hastening the industry’s decline. That number would dwarf the prior record of 9,800 retail closures set in 2019, according to a new report from the retail data firm Coresight Research. First issued in March, the report estimated that 15,000 stores could close in 2020, but as the reach of the coronavirus grew

Spelling Manor needs a Downton Abbey-like army of attendants

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 02:15 PM PDT

What does it take to run one of the largest private residences in the world? A full-time staff of dozens and a mind for management, for starters. That’s according to Sam Palmer, who lived in the 56,500-square-foot Spelling Manor in Beverly Hills with his fiancee, Petra Ecclestone, until she sold the estate last year for $120 million. Now, Palmer has some tips for anyone considering purchasing a palace. The sprawling Spelling Manor requires a full-time

Ariana Grande’s new Bird Streets pad was in Ponzi schemer’s portfolio

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 01:30 PM PDT

Ariana Grande’s new Bird Streets home had once been in the portfolio of convicted spec home investor Robert Shapiro. The pop star paid $13.7 million for the home in the Hills in an off-market deal, far less than the $25.5 million it listed for two years ago. The Los Angeles Times first reported the sale. The most recent offering was around $17.5 million for the four-bedroom, five-bathroom property. Compass most recently had the listing for

Marginal gain in hotel occupancy as unrest hit some cities

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 12:25 PM PDT

U.S. hotels last week continued their slow recovery from the depths of the coronavirus pandemic. National occupancy crept up to 36.4 percent from 35.3 percent the week prior, according to the latest figures from hotel data firm STR. That continued the pattern of 1- or 2-point weekly gains over the past two months. For the first time, occupancy for hotels at the lower end of the market topped 50 percent. All hotel classes are “comfortably

TRD Insights: NY investment sales hit the skids in April and May

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 12:20 PM PDT

March, what now seems like a lifetime ago, was a banner month for investment sales in New York City. That’s when two $900 million-plus office building sales helped propel total deal volume to over $4 billion, the third-highest sum in the past 12 months. But that data still largely reflected a pre-Covid world, because of the lag between closings and property record filings, as well as the pipeline of deals that were already in the

Related halts payments to Hudson Yards EB-5 investors

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 11:30 AM PDT

Related Companies, one of the EB-5 program’s biggest proponents, is halting payments to such investors in Hudson Yards because of volatility caused by the pandemic. In a letter sent last week, a copy of which was reviewed by The Real Deal, Related told EB-5 investors the project was facing a host of challenges, including delays and increased costs around the platform work at the site, as well as “extremely challenging conditions” in the residential condo

Realogy upsizes debt offering to $550M

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 10:50 AM PDT

Realogy Holdings just raised $550 million, bolstered by strong demand for a previously-announced debt offering. The brokerage giant announced a $400 million offering of second lien notes on Monday; it upsized that offering on Wednesday based on “improved market conditions” and “strong demand,” a spokesperson said. The upsizing is a vote of confidence from institutional investors — both in Realogy’s response to Covid-19 and long-term prospects for the housing industry. The parent company of the

Is Covid taking the T out of TAMI?

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 10:30 AM PDT

For those in the very physical world of commercial real estate, recent news from one of the internet’s largest companies has been hard to swallow. Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that many of Facebook’s 48,000 employees can work from home indefinitely — while the social media giant taps pools of talent in smaller markets — has rattled office landlords and many of their brokers. The decision, which Zuckerberg made public in late May, echoed similar messages from

Macy’s CEO says sales down 50%, less than feared, as stores reopen

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 10:00 AM PDT

As Macy’s reopens its stores, sales are down 50 percent — better than the retailer’s grim expectations of an 85 percent decline. So CEO Jeff Gennette is calling it a win. Gennette said during a virtual conference Tuesday that Macy’s sales since beginning to open stores indicate that the steep decline in retail sales is only temporary, the Wall Street Journal reported. “The lure of having appropriate fashion from our customer, all the way from

AMC may close some theaters in an effort to stay in business

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 09:26 AM PDT

AMC is pressed to get eyes back in front of their screens — but not without some cuts ahead. The world’s largest movie theater chain recently announced that it was facing billions of dollars in losses and was concerned about the company’s ability to survive the pandemic. Now, to compensate for such losses, AMC hopes to be fully operational by July but may cut some of its theaters in 2021 and 2022, according to the

Inside Related’s reach beyond real estate

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 08:45 AM PDT

It was the spring of 2014 when the Related Companies’ president, Bruce Beal, realized he had a façade problem. Construction was finally booming again after grinding to a halt during the financial crisis. But a scarcity of glass for a new crop of skyscrapers was driving up prices and delaying projects nationwide — including Hunter’s Point South, a 925-unit affordable development where Related and its partners waited several months for a $13 million delivery of windows.

111 West 57th sees two $30M+ sales in midst of shutdown

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 07:00 AM PDT

A virtual tour is responsible for at least one contract on Billionaires’ Row. Two condos, both asking around $30 million, have gone into contract at 111 West 57th Street since March, according to the Wall Street Journal. Michael Stern’s JDS Development, along with Kevin Maloney’s Property Markets Group and Spruce Capital Partners, are the developers behind the SHoP Architects-designed tower, also known as the Steinway building. The most recent contract was signed last week for

Simon axes $3.6B Taubman buy

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 06:56 AM PDT

Mall giant Simon Property Group is axing its $3.6 billion deal to buy Taubman Centers — the latest megadeal to fall apart due to the coronavirus. Simon executives on Wednesday said Taubman breached the contract by failing to take measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. “The merger agreement specifically gave Simon the right to terminate the transaction in the event that a pandemic disproportionately hurt Taubman,” Simon said in a statement. And Taubman’s

Mortgage applications to buy homes reach highest level since January

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 06:20 AM PDT

The number of homebuyers applying for loans last week reached levels not seen since January. The purchase index, an adjusted weekly metric tracked by the Mortgage Bankers Association, rose 5 percent last week, compared to the final week of May, and 13 percent year over year. That rounds out eight consecutive weeks of growth and marks a new high in adjusted purchase activity for 2020. The first week of June also saw refinance activity pick

What a toothless de Blasio means for real estate

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 05:00 AM PDT

“The most charitable assessment,” Neal Kwatra said of Mayor Bill de Blasio last week, “is that his mayoralty is currently on life support.” The remark, made to the New York Times, was devastating not just for what it said but for who said it. Kwatra is a Democratic strategist steeped in New York politics who has worked for de Blasio and whose most important client, the Hotel Trades Council, is a de Blasio ally. That

May’s biggest outer-borough loans led by $329M Brooklyn package

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 04:30 AM PDT

Dollar volume for the top-outer borough loans ticked up slightly last month but was still the second lowest total this year. The 10 largest loans were worth $828 million overall in May, the second full month of strict limits on business activity. That was 20 percent higher than April’s dismal total of $689 million but still lower than the totals for January, February and March. The largest deal last month was $329 million for Clipper

The REInterview: Real estate’s biggest VC on the industry’s existential shifts

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Think about the word “landlord.” It connotes a relationship in which the power dynamic is very much tilted in favor of the property owner. Highly coveted space in prized locations is offered up, and rent is paid for the privilege of occupying it. That centuries-old dynamic is now being questioned, with the coronavirus having forced people into a massive remote-work and remote-shopping experiment. The pandemic has wrenched real estate’s ingredients for change out of the