The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Barnes & Noble closing on Upper East Side

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 03:45 PM PDT

As New Yorkers on the Upper East Side transition to a city that resembles one they can only remember, with open shops and other businesses, an Upper East Side Barnes & Noble will close, and a new Target will open in its place. The bookstore is closing its location at 150 East 86th Street, and one of two new Targets headed for Manhattan will take its place, a source familiar with the retail space confirmed.

What reopening? Hotel layoff notices pour in

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 02:15 PM PDT

Hotels across Manhattan are letting staff go as rooms remain empty during the city’s reopening. At least 22 hotels have filed notices with the New York Department of Labor this month to announce that they will lay off their staff because of Covid-19. No hotel is safe, it seems. Those dismissing their staff include at least six operated by Marriott, luxury hotels such as the Knickerbocker, and brand names that have shaped the city skyline,

Manhattan listings are at pre-Covid levels but deals aren’t: Report

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 02:10 PM PDT

Hundreds of Manhattan homeowners looking to sell have returned to the market, but buyers are still staying away. Ahead of in-person showings resuming on Monday, listings for 352 homes went live last week, according to a weekly report on the Manhattan sales markets by data firm UrbanDigs. The number of new listings was actually 6 percent higher than the same week last year, when 331 homes were listed. It’s the highest number of new listings

Durst murder case set for next month after mistrial denied

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 02:05 PM PDT

A Los Angeles judge denied Robert Durst’s request for a mistrial in his murder case, setting up a jury trial to resume July 27th. In a live streamed hearing on Tuesday, Judge Mark Windham told a sparsely populated, mask-covered courtroom that while the 77-year-old Durst’s “health and safety concerns” amid the coronavirus pandemic are matters “I’m completely sympathetic to” such concerns “are not the issues before me.” WIndham told Durst lawyer David Chesnoff, who appeared

Judge: How can rent law justify free rent for a year?

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 01:35 PM PDT

Landlords challenging New York’s rent law got a ray of hope Tuesday when a federal judge questioned how it can allow tenants facing eviction to live rent-free for 12 months. During a hearing by phone to discuss motions to dismiss the lawsuit filed last year by the Rent Stabilization Association and Community Housing Improvement Program, Judge Eric Komitee pointed to a provision of the state’s 2019 rent law that allows courts to delay evictions for

Vornado looks to sell towers co-owned with Trump

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 12:30 PM PDT

Vornado Realty Trust is considering selling a pair of office buildings it owns alongside President Donald Trump’s firm. The real estate investment trust is looking at options to recapitalize 1290 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan and 555 California Street in San Francisco, Bloomberg reported. Vornado owns a 70 percent controlling interest in the properties. The Trump Organization could also sell its stake in the office towers, the news outlet reported. Representatives for Trump declined to comment

Presidential election may turn spotlight back to Opportunity Zones

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 12:00 PM PDT

November’s presidential election may turn the spotlight back on the Opportunity Zone program, which has faded from view after the initial rush to invest capital into properties and projects ahead of a key deadline late last year. And Steve Glickman, the former Obama administration adviser who helped map out the federal tax break program, thinks Opportunity Zones has become so highly politicised that people must wait before judging its effectiveness. “It is a program that

Feds charge LA council member with taking bribes from developers

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 11:32 AM PDT

The FBI arrested Los Angeles City Council member Jose Huizar Tuesday on a federal racketeering charge, culminating a near two-year probe into the lawmaker’s cozy relationship with real estate developers. Authorities said the investigation into Huizar had “pulled back the curtain on rampant corruption at City Hall.” The U.S. attorney’s office made the announcement, alleging Huizar — who once led the powerful Planning Land Use Management committee — operated a “criminal enterprise,” and accepted at

Politicians want Feds to rescue CMBS market

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 10:50 AM PDT

As hotels and retailers struggle to pay their mortgages in the age of coronavirus, political consensus is emerging around the need for the federal government to prop up the commercial mortgage-backed securities market. A bipartisan group of 100 Congressional representatives are expected to deliver a letter on June 23 to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell about the need for a lending facility to support commercial borrowers, according to the Wall Street

For LA’s malls, lawsuits could be the next crisis

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 10:05 AM PDT

In Jacksonville Beach, Florida, 16 employees and patrons of an Irish pub were infected with coronavirus in just one evening. And in suburban Chicago, Walmart was sued by the family of an ex-employee who died after she allegedly contracted coronavirus at work. These incidents are happening as brick-and-mortar shops reopen across the U.S. including Los Angeles County, which greenlighted the return of mammoth malls like The Grove and Del Amo Fashion Center that power the

Beekman Tower loan trouble reveals mystery behind landmark building’s owner

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 10:00 AM PDT

Located one block north of the United Nations, Beekman Tower was built in 1928 and is an early example of Art Deco architecture. In its early years, it housed sorority sisters who had moved to New York after having graduated college. Today, the 178-unit landmark property primarily serves as corporate housing for short-term and extended stays — an income stream that has taken a serious hit from the coronavirus crisis. Now, a $63 million CMBS

“Change is happening”: Inside real estate tech’s race to diversify their boards

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 09:15 AM PDT

As president of Ten-X Commercial from January 2019 to April 2020, Maureen Waters participated in an important quarterly ritual. Every three months, she helped to convene a meeting of the company’s board — an all-male group that included two of the auction website’s founders and three representatives of its private equity owners. But even as president, she had no voting power. “At one point, we talked about outside advisors,” recalled Waters, who said the limited

VTS launches office listings marketplace

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 08:30 AM PDT

In a post-Covid world, VTS is betting on remote leasing. The New York startup launched its much-hyped VTS Market on Tuesday as an online marketing platform where owners and brokers can see office listings, take digital tours and, eventually, complete the entire leasing transaction. “The way people were marketing space pre-Covid has to be different from how you market now,” CEO Nick Romito said, describing broker lunches with passed-around collateral. “Now, you can’t compete unless

“If offices don’t come back, we’re done”: Phase 2 off to slow start

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 08:12 AM PDT

Phase two of New York City’s reopening started Monday, with office workers allowed to return to their buildings, brokers allowed to resume in-person showings, and a limited reopening of retail and outdoor dining. But the city is still a far cry from its pre-lockdown self. Rudin Management Company reported that occupancy across its 14-building commercial portfolio was at just 5.2 percent of the normal level, based on initial data collected on Monday. Silverstein Properties is

“Phenomenal returns” for some distressed real estate investors in stocks

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 07:11 AM PDT

While investors in distressed properties are frustrated by sellers holding out for more favorable pricing, some seeking real estate on the cheap are turning to the public markets. Big firms including Blackstone Group, Starwood Capital and Oaktree Capital have been buying up real estate-backed securities in recent months in the belief that they are undervalued, the Wall Street Journal reported. “These are opportunities that just don’t exist in the private markets,” Madison International Realty president

A-Rod is coming for NYC and SoFla real estate

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 06:15 AM PDT

Alex Rodriguez has seen both his professional and personal life covered exhaustively in newspapers across the country for decades now. But since retiring as the Yankees’ star third baseman in 2016 — and, according to Forbes, pocketing over $480 million during his 22-year, pro-baseball career — he’s become even busier. He’s now juggling regular media appearances with color commenting baseball games (he’s a broadcaster for Fox Sports and part of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball team)

Peloton plots, paramours and other problems as buildings reopen

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 05:00 AM PDT

Dog walkers, nannies, housekeepers and contractors are back at work in New Yorkers’ homes. Even some buildings that barred moving — although the state never did — are loosening the rules. Reopening presents a challenge for those tasked with keeping the buildings safe while dealing with rulebreakers. Attorney Leni Morrison Cummins said she’s advising the 75 condominium and cooperative boards she represents to “take this opportunity to get ready for a second wave.” Preparations she

TRD Insights: Why mortgage rates aren’t under 3% (yet)

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 04:30 AM PDT

Days after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, the Federal Reserve took the drastic move of cutting its benchmark interest rate to near zero. Mortgage rates fell in response — but not as much as expected. While the 10-year Treasury yield has dropped by 1.2 percentage points since the start of the year, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage average has fallen by just half that amount. The gap of about 2.5 points between the two figures

Rent-rospective: Assessing the rent law, one year after its passage

Posted: 23 Jun 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Last year’s changes to the rent law brought the New York City multifamily market to a screeching halt. With nearly all avenues for raising rents in rent-regulated apartments closed, experts predicted capital flight, disinvestment and a deterioration of the city’s housing stock. A year after the rent law’s passage, The Real Deal’s Kathryn Brenzel and Georgia Kromrei set out to assess the impact the legislation has had so far. Some of the city’s top brokers