The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Dinkins is gone, but his real estate legacy lives on

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 04:18 PM PST

With the city gripped by recession, Mayor David Dinkins didn’t want to lose Morgan Stanley, a major taxpayer and employer, to the suburbs. In 1992, the city and state offered the investment bank nearly $40 million in tax credits and other incentives to keep its Midtown headquarters rather than move 4,000-plus employees to Stamford, Connecticut. “That was really a turning point in keeping major businesses in the city,” said Carl Weisbrod, of HR&A Advisors, who

Prologis picks up Maspeth parcel for $51M

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 03:36 PM PST

Prologis is broadcasting that the industrial market remains hot in the outer boroughs. The industrial giant picked up 223,000 square feet of land at 48-00 Grand Avenue in Maspeth for $51 million from a religious radio station, according to property records. The deal adds to Prologis’ already sizable presence in the Queens neighborhood. The seller was California nonprofit Family Stations, parent company of Nashville-based Family Radio. The nonprofit reported over $33 million in real estate

Manhattan, Staten Island enter lockdowns, but is it enough?

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 03:07 PM PST

With Covid-19 on the rise, more areas of New York City will return to lockdown Wednesday. West Harlem, Hamilton Heights and parts of Washington Heights will become a yellow zone in Upper Manhattan. Across the city, parts of Staten Island will be designated yellow and orange. In Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s system, these are not good colors. Under the yellow zone, gatherings are limited to 25 people and restaurants may only seat four people per table.

Apple snags more space at Vornado’s 11 Penn Plaza

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 01:30 PM PST

Apple is betting big on Midtown: The tech giant has inked a deal to expand its offices at Vornado Realty Trust’s 11 Penn Plaza. In February, the Cupertino, California-based company signed a sublease for 220,000 square feet spanning four floors of the building. At the time, the Art Deco tower had 638,921 square feet available on the 4th through 14th floors as a sublease from Macy’s. Now, The Real Deal has learned that Apple has

Vanke seeks to remove RFR from Midtown condo project

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 01:06 PM PST

RFR Holding is using the pandemic as cover to extract an exorbitant buyout for its minority stake in a Midtown condo project, partner Vanke US has argued in a new court filing. The allegations are in response to a lawsuit Aby Rosen’s firm filed last month, which accused Vanke, a U.S. subsidiary of one of China’s largest residential developers, of orchestrating a “backdoor deal” that put it on both sides of the borrower-lender relationship for

Home insurance startup Hippo raises $350M

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 10:59 AM PST

Home insurance startup Hippo has raised $350 million from Japanese insurance giant Mitsui Sumitomo. The deal comes just four months after the online insurance firm raised $150 million, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. The companies did not disclose a new valuation, but said the fresh capital would fuel Hippo’s growth in the U.S., where demand for all-digital real estate services has surged since the onset of the pandemic. Mitsui Sumitomo, a subsidiary of MS&AD

HFZ lays off staff as legal and financial problems mount

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 09:59 AM PST

HFZ Capital Group has laid off a number of employees as the developer’s financial and legal troubles mount. Two sources familiar with the matter said the layoffs and furloughs mainly affected people working in the construction side of the business and also those at the company’s main office at 600 Madison Avenue. “Unfortunately, due to the prolonged nature of the pandemic and its expected timeline, HFZ has to furlough some of its employees, with the

US home prices surged 6.6% in September

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 09:15 AM PST

Housing prices continue to soar into the fall. Prices increased 6.6 percent year-over-year in September, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index, which tracks the housing market in 20 cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago. In August, the price index jumped 5.2 percent. Phoenix, Seattle and San Diego saw the biggest gains in home prices, repeating their performance from August. Phoenix reported a 11.4 percent increase, Seattle a 10

Tech giants occupy nearly 600M-sf of US real estate

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 08:45 AM PST

The sluggish commercial real estate market is getting a boost from tech giants Amazon and Facebook, which have emerged as some of the largest acquirers of real estate in recent years. Five of the largest tech companies — Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Google’s parent company, Alphabet — now collectively occupy about 589 million square feet of U.S. real estate, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from CoStar Group. That is more than

Nazarian trades hotel assets including SLS, Delano to focus on virtual kitchens

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 08:30 AM PST

UPDATED, Nov. 24, 4:56 p.m.: As a rising star of the Los Angeles club scene in the early aughts, Sam Nazarian helped create the hotel-as-party-spot with properties like his SLS in Beverly Hills and Miami. He teamed up with A-list designers like Philippe Starck and took the mantle of boutique-hotel impresario from Ian Schrager when he bought the Studio 54 co-founder’s Morgan Hotels group in 2016. Now, Nazarian is cashing out of his hotels business

Hana Financial to sell loans tied to Manhattan office, hotel properties

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 07:30 AM PST

Korean lender Hana Financial Investment is selling $173 million in debt tied to two prominent Manhattan assets. Hana is selling off a $145 million construction loan on Caspi Development’s luxury hotel project at 456 Greenwich Street in Tribeca and a mezzanine loan on Real Estate Equities Corp.’s boutique office development at 1 St. Marks Place in the East Village, Commercial Observer reported. Newmark Knight Frank is auctioning off the debt with initial bids starting on

Mid-market investment sales record strong week

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 06:45 AM PST

A small office building in Brooklyn, an affordable housing portfolio in the Bronx and land parcels next to the Queens Coca-Cola bottling plant were among the six investment sales in the city between $10 million and $30 million for the week ending Nov. 20. Put together, the deals added up to just under $100 million. Bushwick was the most active neighborhood, with two mid-market investment deals; Manhattan and Staten Island did not record a sale

Regal Cinemas scores financial rescue package

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 06:19 AM PST

The owner of Regal Cinemas scored a lifeline to help the financially challenged movie theater chain stay afloat. Cineworld Group has secured a $450 million loan from lenders as coronavirus cases spike and theaters across the country remain closed. Other lenders provided increased flexibility on the company’s revolving loan and senior debt, adding over $750 million of liquidity to the company, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal comes just a week after reports that

What doom-and-gloom forecasts miss about the office market

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 05:30 AM PST

The short-term dive in office demand is not likely to continue far into the 2020s, according to a recent report form MetLife Investment Management. In fact, the cities where demand for office space is falling most — including San Francisco, Washington and San Jose — may attract the most demand over the next decade, presenting a “unique buying opportunity” for investors, the report says. The report identifies pandemic-related trends that have led to the drop

With NY poised to lose billions, socialists fight real estate

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 05:00 AM PST

What does a 14-story building proposed in Brooklyn have to do with New York’s quest for billions of dollars in federal aid? More than you might think. The mixed-income, mixed-use project at 737 Fourth Avenue has drawn the ire of Protect Sunset Park, a group that helped kill Industry City’s rezoning three months ago. This much smaller proposal is in Greenwood Heights, but the activists see market-rate development marching Sunset Park’s way from Park Slope

The Trump Reorganization: What’s next for the president’s firm?

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 04:30 AM PST

At a nighttime campaign rally in Macon, Georgia, last month, Donald Trump stood at the podium and tried to inspire his base. “Could you imagine if I lose? I’m not going to feel so good,” the president said. “Maybe I’ll have to leave the country — I don’t know.” It’s unclear what Trump’s life will look like after Jan. 20, 2021. Writers and political observers have speculated that he could start his own TV network,

These developers could benefit the most from Soho’s rezoning

Posted: 24 Nov 2020 04:00 AM PST

Sandwiched between two apartment buildings, a one-story, windowless warehouse on Thompson Street has been slated for demolition for more than five years. In that time, developers have planned to transform the property into a boutique condominium and then, when it changed hands last year, into a 10-story commercial building. But the plan for 30 Thompson Street may shift again if the latest owner decides to take advantage of the proposed rezoning of Soho and Noho.