The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Real estate stocks end week mixed as virus fears rise and markets fall

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 03:00 PM PDT

Real estate services stocks largely ended a dismal week unscathed, as the broader markets fell for a second straight week amid mixed earnings reports, stalled stimulus talk and another Covid surge. Office and mall REITs didn’t fare so well. The S&P 500 fell 5.59 percent to end the week, with the tech and real estate-heavy Nasdaq Composite also down, 5.39 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its worst month since March, ending Friday at

“Sad day” in LA: CBRE’s corporate exit latest blow to dented office market

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 02:45 PM PDT

CBRE’s decision to shift its global HQ from Los Angeles to Dallas wasn’t mentioned on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Thursday. But the move, which the Dallas Morning News first reported earlier that morning, didn’t go unnoticed. “It’s yet another sad day in the city of Los Angeles,” said Ryan Leaderman, a real estate attorney at Holland & Knight’s L.A. office. CBRE, the world’s largest real estate services firm, later confirmed the change. “It was

Vornado sues Planet Hollywood for $6M in missed rent

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 01:50 PM PDT

The lights have dimmed on Planet Hollywood. The memorabilia-laden theme restaurant chain is being sued by Vornado Realty Trust for $5.5 million in missed rent at its Times Square location at 1540 Broadway, Crain’s reported. A lawsuit filed Thursday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan alleges that the restaurant — which has a 10-year lease at the location — has had issues paying rent since December 2018, and the situation has only gotten worse. Vornado

Montauk squatting dispute ties influencer to Cuomo

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 01:30 PM PDT

A lengthy dispute between a Montauk couple and the social media influencer who rented their home this summer is the latest case highlighting what appears to be misuse of coronavirus tenant eviction protections on the pricey East End, according to the New York Times. After Marisa Hochberg failed to pay the second $14,000 chunk of agreed-upon rent for the home, owned by Cheryl Berman-Schechter and husband Matthew Schechter, Hochberg claimed she was protected under the Tenant

Redfin accused of redlining in lawsuit

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 01:00 PM PDT

The National Fair Housing Alliance has accused Redfin of discriminatory policies and redlining, months after the national brokerage’s CEO pledged to address systemic racial discrimination. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the United States District Court in Seattle, the alliance argued that Redfin’s minimum home price policy violates fair housing laws. “Redfin redlines communities of color in this digital age by setting minimum home listing prices in each housing market on its website under which

Columbia Property Trust collects 98% of its rent in Q3

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 12:30 PM PDT

Columbia Property Trust boosted its financial performance in the third quarter by collecting almost all rents from its office tenants. On an earnings call Thursday, the real estate investment trust reported that its normalized funds for operation during the third quarter of 2020 was 42 cents per share, up from 39 cents per share a year earlier. The result was even better than the second quarter, when the figure — 40 cents per share —

Bieber and Baldwin list Beverly Hills home

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 12:00 PM PDT

Less than two months after buying big in Beverly Park, Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin are looking to sell their Beverly Hills digs. The pop star and his wife listed his 6,100-square-foot home for $9 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. He paid $8.5 million for the home in March 2019, shortly after they married. The two-story Beverly Hills home sits on a small lot part of a cul-de-sac. It dates from the 1930s

JLL, CBRE keep cutting as recovery drags

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 11:07 AM PDT

The commercial real estate industry’s biggest service firms continue to slash expenses as the economic slowdown squeezes their business. JLL and CBRE recently made layoffs and budget cuts to trim costs as revenues from business lines such as office leasing and property sales continue to dwindle, according to sources and company disclosures. Chicago-based JLL, the second-largest commercial real estate services firm with a market cap of $5.8 billion, made a round of national layoffs in

Four Brooklyn landlords accused of illegally inflating rents

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 11:01 AM PDT

UPDATE, Oct. 30 2020, 2:30 p.m.: Four Brooklyn landlords have been hit with class action lawsuits accusing them of illegally inflating rents at four rental buildings dating back to 2015. The suits, filed Thursday in Kings County Supreme Court, allege that the landlords separately used the same fraudulent scheme to undermine the 421a tax abatement program and illegally inflate rents at their respective buildings, which altogether contain about 370 rental units. The landlords named in

Open air windfalls: Shopping centers breeze past malls in their recovery

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 10:30 AM PDT

Since reopening in May, Miami’s Upper Buena Vista has seen its foot traffic surpass normal pre-Covid levels, according to the shopping center. And the mixed-use “pocket-village” with 21 stores, 12 of which have opened during the pandemic and five more that are slated to open soon, is now back to almost full occupancy. The increase in business for the 60,000-square-foot open air mall, which was built around two large centenary trees, is impressive during a

Inside LA’s opaque program to house homeless in hotels

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 09:30 AM PDT

Less than a year ago, black SUVs and international tourists crowded the L.A. Grand Hotel Downtown, a prime property near Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Broad Museum. Today, Salvation Army tents surround the hotel on South Figueroa Street, and a flow of homeless men and women stream in and out. Chad is one of them. He said he’s been staying at the L.A. Grand since March, after spending nights next to the Harbor Freeway.

Airbnb costs New York City renters $178M a year: study

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 09:00 AM PDT

Tech founders have long proclaimed that their products or services will change the world — to the point where it’s become a cliche — and Airbnb’s founding team is no exception. “What we’re doing with Airbnb feels like the nexus of everything that is right,” Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia once said. “We’re helping people be more resourceful with the space they already have, and we’re connecting people around the world.” But that resourcefulness has also

Hudson Pacific studio revenue takes hit

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 08:40 AM PDT

Hudson Pacific Properties achieved a major milestone this summer when it sold Blackstone Group 49 percent of its $1.65 billion Hollywood real estate portfolio, which includes 1.2 million square feet in soundstage space — a fifth of L.A. County’s supply. The deal represented a bet on the long-term growth of content creation for streaming services. But for now, HPP’s studio properties are suffering through the pandemic. Same-store net operating income in the company’s studio portfolio

NYC offices get creative to lure workers back

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 08:18 AM PDT

Some New York City companies are offering perks to entice workers back to the office. Private rooms for children, free lunch and cubicles with plastic shields are just some of the sweeteners being dangled by companies, including office landlord SL Green, the New York Times reported. Employees allowed to work from home have been reluctant to return to workplaces. But real estate companies, especially those with significant office holdings, have good reason to demonstrate a

Knotel slashes its workforce again

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 06:31 AM PDT

Flex office provider Knotel is tightening its belt even more as Manhattan workers balk at the idea of returning to the workplaces. On a conference call Thursday afternoon, the company announced it has laid off about 20 people, bringing its total headcount to 250, Business Insider reported. Amol Sarva, Knotel’s CEO, said he hoped the company would achieve profitability by the end of the first quarter of 2021. During the call, Sarva said that Knotel

Spinning crane at 111 West 57th Street casts debris on street

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 05:48 AM PDT

UPDATE, Oct. 30 2020, 3:30 p.m.: A wildly-spinning crane during high winds cast debris down on the street Thursday night. The Department of Buildings and the Fire Department were called to the scene, the New York Post reported. The crane was connected to JDS Development’s luxury condominium at 111 West 57th Street on Billionaire’s Row. No one reported injuries, according to the New York Daily News. On Oct. 28, ahead of the arrival of Hurricane

Cohen Brothers employees allege harassment, endangerment

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 05:00 AM PDT

In March, Charles Cohen, the billionaire head of Cohen Brothers Realty, complained that it was “ridiculous how the news was portraying the pandemic.” Instead of allowing employees to work from home, he allegedly told one of his executive assistants “we have to be a soldier and soldier on.” Two days later, he and his family took a private plane to Palm Beach, and later boarded a private yacht in the Caribbean, according to a lawsuit

Here’s what tenants are paying at the Factory in Long Island City

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 04:30 AM PDT

Originally built in 1926 as a Macy’s furniture warehouse, the Factory at 30-30 47th Avenue in Long Island City has many of the features favored by tech and media tenants nowadays, like large floor plates and high ceilings, with a dash of historic character. Atlas Capital Group, Invesco and Square Mile Capital Management acquired the property at a bankruptcy sale in 2013, and invested more than $90 million to redevelop it into creative office space.

Lost summer, failed plan haunt Coney Island

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Coney Island was eerily quiet this summer. The Cyclone did not clickety-clack, no screams pierced the salty air and tourists who normally roam the boardwalk were nowhere to be found. The seasonal destination missed its season. Now businesses, like squirrels who failed to stash acorns for winter, are wondering how they will survive it. “I didn’t do this year what I would do in a summer week,” said Jimmy Kokotas, the owner of Tom’s Restaurant.