The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

The secrets still to come in the FBI’s Jose Huizar investigation

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 03:00 PM PST

It was the fall of 2017 and Los Angeles City Council Member Jose Huizar needed a word with a longtime staffer about two real estate projects pending before the council. In advance of hearings, Huizar wanted to make sure the projects’ developers had funneled thousands of dollars to a fund set up to elect Huizar’s wife, Richelle Huizar, as his successor. “All commitments have been made,” his staffer, George Esparza, assured him. The exchange was

Related files “emergency” request for $5.3M in back rent from Hugo Boss

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 02:30 PM PST

Related Companies has filed an emergency affirmation to collect $5.3 million in back rent from Hugo Boss, along with nearly $700,000 in monthly rent for the retailer’s store at the Shops at Columbus Circle. “It is inherently and manifestly inequitable and prejudicial for the multibillion-dollar luxury retailer to arbitrarily decide not to pay its rent while occupying, using and doing business,” wrote Howard Kingsley, an attorney at Rosenberg & Estis who is representing Related, in

JDS Development gets a turn as bike shop’s legal target

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 02:00 PM PST

A Midtown bike shop has sued the developer of another Billionaires’ Row building, claiming it lost customers after debris fell from a supertall tower. Central Park Bike Tours claims JDS Development is to blame for nearly a week’s worth of lost business following an October crane accident at 111 West 57th Street caused by windy weather, Crain’s reported. After the crane began spinning and knocking debris to the ground, police closed down nearby streets out

Nassau County offers $6 million in rent relief

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 01:15 PM PST

Nassau County tenants suffering financially from the pandemic can tap into a $6 million rent relief program, officials announced Tuesday. The program will be administered by the affordable housing nonprofit Community Development Corporation of Long Island. It will provide relief using federal emergency grants for up to 900 tenants in the form of direct payments to landlords for up to three months of back rent, according to Newsday. Renters comprise about 20 percent of Nassau

Chetrit lands $90M inventory loans for Tribeca condo conversion

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 12:30 PM PST

Chetrit Group’s luxury Tribeca condo project recently received $90.75 million in inventory loans. Axos Bank provided a $49.25 million senior mortgage for 49 Chambers Street. Silverstein Capital Partners, the lending arm of developer Silverstein Properties, issued a $41.5 million mezzanine loan for 51 unsold units in the 97-unit condo development, sources familiar with the deal told The Real Deal. Both loans have a four-year term. The proceeds from the loan were used to pay off

Boca Raton real estate honcho James Batmasian gets presidential pardon

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 11:45 AM PST

South Florida commercial real estate developer James Batmasian was among the 26 people who received a pardon from President Donald Trump on Wednesday. The Boca Raton real estate mogul served eight months in federal prison in 2008 for not paying the IRS about $250,000 in payroll taxes tied to his real estate business Investments Limited. Batmasian’s pardon, announced by the White House, was supported by Rep. Brian Mast, criminal justice reform advocate Alice Johnson, and

Porch valuation soars to $1B after IPO

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 11:15 AM PST

After merging with a blank-check company, Porch.com is now a billion-dollar company. Despite recurring losses — which prompted accountants to raise red flags in the company’s IPO filing — the home-services startup made its stock market debut on Nasdaq today, with shares opening at $15.37. Even before the opening bell, Porch’s valuation soared to more than double its enterprise value of $523 million in July, when it struck a deal to go public. The company’s

DA moving forward with Manafort case after Trump pardon

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 11:01 AM PST

Manhattan’s district attorney is moving forward with his effort to prosecute Paul Manafort on mortgage fraud charges after President Donald Trump pardoned his former campaign chairman Wednesday. The case is likely to test a law New York passed last year to close the “double jeopardy loophole” for presidential pardons. District Attorney Cy Vance’s office said it is continuing its attempt to appeal a ruling from last December in which a New York judge threw out

Want to rent your apartment? Put “Peloton” in the listing

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 10:30 AM PST

Renters looking for deals have options these days — and landlords are upping their game by mentioning perks like … high-end stationary bikes? Believe it: Between March and September, StreetEasy reported a 170 percent increase in the number of listings that contained the word “Peloton,” according to Crain’s. The high-end fitness company is best known for its status-y bikes, sales of which spiked by more than 100 percent during the pandemic. Listings that mentioned home

Steve Roth slashes price on Montauk home once owned by Madoff

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 09:45 AM PST

The Hamptons housing market has been one of the strongest in the country this year, but that hasn’t helped move a home linked to notorious Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. Vornado Realty Trust CEO Steve Roth and his wife, Daryl, slashed the price on their 3,000-square-foot Montauk property to $17.9 million, according to the New York Post. The couple first listed the beachfront home in 2018 with a $21 million price tag, but didn’t get any

Here are Manhattan’s priciest retail leases of 2020

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 09:00 AM PST

This year’s most lucrative retail leases look different from the usual Manhattan fare. Generally an apparel or beauty store appears at the top of the list. Or, like last year, a luxury retailer. But this year, decidedly unsexy big-box operators dominated the charts. And though many retailers were wary of expansion, some were bullish. Target, for example. The big-box retailer had four of the 10 most valuable retail leases this year, ranked by annual rent.

Donald Trump asks court to throw out niece’s case

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 08:06 AM PST

Taking time out from issuing a blizzard of 11th-hour pardons, Donald Trump has asked a New York court to dismiss a case filed by his niece. Mary Trump, who published a tell-all book about her uncle in July, claimed the president and his siblings fraudulently cut her out of the family’s real estate fortune. But in a filing Wednesday, the president said the matter was settled in 2001, Bloomberg News reported. “Plaintiff makes outlandish and

Private credit funds expect rush as property loans come due

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 07:00 AM PST

With real estate loans coming due and developers scrambling for cash, private credit funds are gearing up for a busy year. More than $400 billion in commercial and multifamily debt is maturing in 2021, according to Bloomberg. Without fresh capital to survive the pandemic, owners of distressed property face default. The predicament for owners creates an opportunity for private lenders to buy up loans and offer new debt. “In the last 90 days, I’ve had

Kim Cattrall cuts asking price on Hamptons home

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 06:15 AM PST

As Samantha on “Sex and the City,” she reveled in excess. But in the competitive world of Hamptons real estate, actress Kim Cattrall is having to take a more moderate approach. The 64-year-old has cut the asking price on her two-bedroom cottage at 105 Gerard Drive in East Hampton, the New York Post reports. She is now asking $2.9 million, down from $3.25 million. “I think she tried to get that Covid premium and it

Here are Chicago’s 10 biggest investment sales of 2020

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 05:30 AM PST

As with most other cities, Chicago’s commercial real estate market went off the rails in 2020, upending what had been a promising start to the year. Demand for office space tanked, hotels emptied out leaving owners struggling to pay their loans and Covid restrictions strangled retailers whose customers dared to venture into brick-and-mortar stores. Investment sales activity, however, did not dry up. And six of the 10 biggest commercial investment sales in Chicago this year

Stakes are rising as Jon Paul Pérez takes the reins at Miami’s Related

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 04:45 AM PST

It took about three months for Jon Paul Pérez to persuade his father to invest in the luxury apartment tower Wynwood 25 back in 2017. The eldest son of Related Group founder and Miami “condo king” Jorge Pérez said last year that he negotiated the partnership with developer East End Capital “from soup to nuts.” East End was looking for a strong partner with construction expertise, and it found that in Related. Wynwood 25’s nearly

10 biggest proptech funding rounds of 2020

Posted: 24 Dec 2020 04:00 AM PST

Some got bailouts, others got boosters — but across the board, proptech firms continued to reel in cash in 2020 as the pandemic forced the slow-to-adapt real estate industry to fully embrace technology. As tech stocks led Wall Street’s recovery this spring, private investors also pulled out their checkbooks to fund hospitality startups and companies looking to digitize the home-buying process, from searches to securing titles. SoftBank continued to double down on real estate tech.

Charlie Kushner gets presidential pardon

Posted: 23 Dec 2020 06:03 PM PST

Charles Kushner, the Kushner Companies boss who spent over a year in prison on charges including falsifying tax returns, making illegal campaign donations and retaliating against a witness, received a pardon from President Donald Trump Wednesday, the White House announced. The pardon has significant implications for Kushner Companies, as it may make it easier for the landlord to secure financing for its projects. Kushner’s conviction had been a complicating factor in the company’s ability to