The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Chetrit brings ELO back to the table on $110M Diamond District deal

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 03:22 PM PST

Members of the Chetrit family were able to convince a developer to come back to the table to close on the sale of a Diamond District building. Ray Yadidi and Isaac and Eli Chetrit sold a 18-story building at 15 West 47th Street for $110 million on Thursday to an affiliate of the ELO Organization, according to property records. The ELO Organization went into contract to purchase the 120,790-square-foot building for $115 million in February.

“The home used to be just shelter. Now it is the hub of our entire lives”: Lennar reports strong Q4, full-year results

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 03:00 PM PST

Instead of spending on restaurants and movies, Americans’ funds went toward initial home purchases and upgrading to better homes. That is among the reasons Lennar Executive Chairman Stuart Miller attributed to the Miami-based homebuilder’s strong fourth quarter and fiscal year results, during an earnings call Thursday. “The home used to be just shelter,” he said. “Now it is the hub of our entire lives.” Lennar reported fourth quarter and fiscal year earnings of $882.8 million,

Visa-hungry investors sink $100M into L&L’s Times Square project

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 02:00 PM PST

EB-5 is still A-OK, it seems. Unnamed foreigners are using the federal program to invest $100 million into TSX Broadway, the $2.5 billion Times Square project led by L&L Holding, SoftBank-owned Fortress Investment Group and Maefield Development, Bloomberg reported. Modified loan documents filed last week in cooperation with TSX Broadway’s senior lender, Goldman Sachs, allow for another $250 million in EB-5 money, which L&L managing director David Orowitz told Bloomberg would allow the developers to

Knockout deal: Sylvester Stallone spends $35M on Palm Beach estate

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 01:15 PM PST

Sylvester Stallone is the buyer of a Palm Beach estate. The Oscar-nominated star and his wife, Jennifer Flavin, purchased the mansion at 1480 North Lake Way for $35.4 million, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. Records show Stallone bought the home in the name of Southpaw Trust — a clever nod to one of his most memorable films, “Rocky.” The sellers are Cindy L. and Ronald G. McMackin, who own the engineering subcontracting firm

Sam Chang sells Garment District hotel site for $32M

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 12:45 PM PST

Sam Chang’s McSam Hotel Group sold off a Garment District hotel site for $31.5 million, marking his firm’s second sale in the past two months. McSam sold the property at 338 West 39th Street — where the developer had been planning to open a 25-story, 175-key hotel — to the New Jersey-based real estate firm Ivy Realty. The Pestana hotel was scheduled to open for business this year but the pandemic likely threw a wrench

Editor’s note: Pain and promise as 2020 comes to a close

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 12:00 PM PST

They say hindsight is 20/20. And fortunately, 2020 is nearly in our hindsight as well. There are reasons to be optimistic heading into next year with the first vaccines being administered. A possible return to normal life seems within sight, suddenly. But, clearly, there is still pain all around. There’s the human toll with more than 300,000 deaths in the U.S., an unimaginable number. There’s the financial toll too. In our corner of the business

Land use overhaul faces challenging path forward

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 11:45 AM PST

The City Council is taking the first step toward transforming how land use decisions are made in New York, but it has a long road ahead. Council Speaker Corey Johnson will introduce legislation Thursday that would create a new framework for city planning by setting long-term goals for housing, infrastructure, climate resiliency and other resources. The bill lays out a 10-year planning cycle that incorporates more opportunities for community members to weigh in on land

Meatpacking’s 860 Washington valued at $80M in sale-leaseback

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 11:15 AM PST

A glassy building in the Meatpacking District that’s home to some of 2020’s hottest companies is now valued at $80 million after the partners who developed it completed a sale-leaseback deal. Romanoff Equities bought the 10-story building at 860 Washington Street from co-developer Property Group Partners, records filed with the city Thursday show. The purchase price works out to about $700 per square foot. At the same time, Romanoff leased the asset back to Property

Landlord groups slam lawmakers’ eviction moratorium push

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 10:35 AM PST

Groups representing property owners across New York State say their livelihood is at stake as lawmakers make a push for a blanket eviction moratorium. The Coalition of New York State Housing Providers penned an open letter to lawmakers Wednesday, pleading with them to not pass a bill which would put a blanket ban on evictions for a year after the pandemic concluded. The group includes Small Property Owners of New York, the New York Capital

Tech investor Keith Rabois pays record $29M for Miami Beach mansion

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 10:15 AM PST

Tech investor Keith Rabois paid a record $28.9 million for a waterfront mansion in Miami Beach, as the wave of Silicon Valley buyers intensifies in South Florida, The Real Deal has learned. Rabois, a member of the “PayPal Mafia,” who has invested in companies such as PayPal, LinkedIn, Square and Yelp, has been vocal on Twitter about his move from California to Miami. He acquired the roughly 15,000-square-foot Venetian Islands home on a 0.6-acre lot

TRD’s December issue is live for subscribers!

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 10:05 AM PST

The Real Deal’s December national issue is live for digital subscribers and will start hitting doorsteps around the country soon. The past year has wreaked havoc on the real estate industry — and the word as a whole — in ways that no one could have imagined. Lives were lost, markets fell and entire office buildings and shopping malls gathered cobwebs as we all wondered if this was truly the end of an era. But

Outdoor dining to resume in Manhattan after winter storm

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 09:12 AM PST

Outdoor dining can continue — in Manhattan, anyway — on Thursday after a temporary, storm-related pause. The resumption of curbside eating is still to be determined in the outer-boroughs, however. Starting Wednesday, restaurants were forced to suspend outdoor dining and remove or consolidate curbside streeteries, as the city anticipated eight inches of snow from a winter storm. An accumulation of snow could have led those structures to collapse, and the city worried that snow plows

Single-family housing starts now at 2007 bubble level

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 09:00 AM PST

The number of housing units under construction grew for the third month in a row, as housing continues to drive the construction industry. The last time single-family homes were built at this pace was 13 years ago, just before the housing bubble burst. Housing starts last month increased 1.2 percent, seasonally adjusted, with 19,000 more units getting under way than in October, according to the Census Bureau’s monthly report on residential construction. In October housing

Blackstone’s quarantine-themed holiday video stars sanitizer, sourdough starter and Santa

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 08:31 AM PST

Icons of quarantine life — including sourdough starter, “Tiger King,” hand sanitizer and Zoom — all make cameos in the Blackstone Group’s annual holiday video, a spoof inspired by “The Office” that’s usually cringeworthy, occasionally funny and at least somewhat entertaining. Blackstone started producing the videos three years ago. The video features company president and COO Jon Gray as Mr. Sunshine, trying to spread holiday cheer while outfitted in an ugly Christmas sweater and Santa

“Can’t live for free”: Weekly rental tenants face eviction despite ban

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 07:51 AM PST

Weekly rentals are a last resort for low-income tenants. But despite a national eviction ban, they have also become a battleground between landlords and renters. The reason: Weekly rentals fall into a legal gray area. Many are licensed as motels, which are exempt from the eviction moratorium, but they function as rental apartments for tenants who spend months or even years there. Some owners of weekly rental units aren’t waiting for the ban to expire

FTC approves CoStar’s $250M Homesnap acquisition

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 07:26 AM PST

CoStar Group got federal regulators’ stamp of approval to buy residential tech provider Homesnap for $250 million, but the data giant still faces scrutiny over another acquisition that would strengthen its grip on residential listings. CoStar said the Federal Trade Commission cleared its purchase of Homesnap after the two companies submitted the proposed merger last month. Homesnap works with multiple listing services around the country, acting as a front-end portal for agents. In a statement,

Yimby group backs City Council candidates

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 06:50 AM PST

A pro-development group is flexing its political muscle for the first time, backing candidates in upcoming City Council races. Open New York, which advocates for increased density in wealthy neighborhoods, is endorsing eight contenders for the 51-member Council, where two-thirds of members will leave office next year due to term limits. “A district-by-district fiefdom approach to development is not working and we need a smarter citywide approach,” Casey Berkovitz, a board member, told Politico. Berkovitz

How HFZ became the face of Manhattan’s condo woes

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 06:05 AM PST

“What’s the latest?” read the text that popped up on Nir Meir’s phone one Thursday afternoon in July. “Running out of time.” The message to the HFZ Capital Group managing principal was from Adam Gibbons, an executive at CIM Group. The lender was awaiting an overdue payment on $90 million of mezzanine debt it holds on four prewar Manhattan apartment buildings HFZ is converting to condominiums. “On it,” Meir wrote back. “2 min.” Four hours

Brooklyn landlords sued by city for “illegal” Airbnbs

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 05:53 AM PST

A Brooklyn couple who made headlines this summer for trying to evict tenants despite the pandemic also ran illegal Airbnb rentals, according to a new lawsuit. The city slapped Loretta Gendville and Gennaro Brooks-Church — the so-called “eco-yogi slumlords of Brooklyn” — with a suit accusing them of operating “an illegal and hazardous” short-term rental operation at nine buildings. The pair allegedly own five of the properties and illegally converted 14 of 22 units into

These were the largest outer-borough real estate loans in November

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 05:00 AM PST

While outer-borough loan activity in November fell short of October’s nearly $2 billion, it was an improvement over previous months. In total, the total volume of the top 10 loans was $1.34 billion — a big increase over the $494 million in activity in September. The largest loan was a $298 million refinancing deal for Eliot Spitzer’s massive development at 420 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, followed by a $193.9 million loan for Two Trees Management’s

Sentinel Real Estate pays $53M for mixed-use complex in Connecticut

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 04:30 AM PST

Sentinel Real Estate acquired a 136-unit apartment building in Norwalk, Connecticut. The development also has four commercial units. Sentinel paid $53 million for the mixed-use complex at 55 North Water Street. Avenue Realty Capital was the seller. Rosewood Realty Group represented Sentinel on the deal for the 145,000-square-foot building. Nicholas Stein, Sentinel’s managing director, said the five-story property fits in with the firm’s overall strategy of targeting “high-quality, walkable suburban housing with access to strong

220 Central Park South dominates NYC’s priciest resi sales of the year

Posted: 17 Dec 2020 04:00 AM PST

The biggest residential deals of 2020 are reminiscent of a different time — one when the luxury market wasn’t at the mercy of a downturn and a pandemic. The 10 most expensive home sales were all at the same address: Vornado Realty Trust’s 220 Central Park South. The deals all went into contract years before, between 2015 and 2019. And the buyers are all unknown, their identities masked by limited liability companies or other business