The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

State proposes zoning override for commercial-to-resi conversions

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 02:30 PM PST

For the next five years, certain New York City building owners may be able to get around some local zoning rules to convert properties to residential use. One of the bills in the state’s proposed 2022 budget elaborates on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to incentivize the conversion of commercial buildings into affordable housing. The measure applies to hotels with fewer than 150 rooms and other forms of temporary lodging, as well as class B and

Biden to extend limits on evictions, foreclosures

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 02:02 PM PST

President Joe Biden is extending federal limits on evictions through at least the end of March. Biden is expected to move quickly to extend protections for renters, Bloomberg reported, and may sign an executive order within hours of his inauguration. Biden will also ask federal agencies to consider extending foreclosure protections and forbearance options. The existing federal eviction order, in place since September, allows lower-income renters to claim financial hardship as a defense for an

Gene Martinez, early Compass recruit, dies

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 12:00 PM PST

Gene Martinez, a longtime New York City sales manager who was one of Compass’ earliest recruits, died Tuesday night. He was 60. Compass CEO Robert Reffkin informed managers of Martinez’s sudden death in an email Wednesday. Reffkin said Martinez played a “critical” role in helping Compass launch offices in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, where he was the firm’s first regional president. “We would not be the community we are today without him,”

This office redeveloper is going all in

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 11:50 AM PST

It was hard to miss the dozens of hardhats on lunch break as they poured out of a 20-story office building on Manhattan’s Far West Side. Some ducked into nearby shops, while others lined up at street vendors for chicken and rice. The construction crew has been working to overhaul the 636,000-square-foot property just across from Hudson Yards, a job that will transform the nearly century-old building into a Class A office tower. When 601W

Hotel owners ask NY for break on tax penalties

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 11:00 AM PST

Hotel owners are hurting, but they have scraped together some coin for an ad campaign to rally New Yorkers to their cause: a break on property tax penalties. It’s a modest request, by pandemic standards. The Hotel Association of New York City wants the city to stop charging 18 percent interest on overdue property taxes during the pandemic. The city has its own fiscal problems, of course. Mayor Bill de Blasio just presented a $92.3

Homebuilder sentiment falls for second month in a row

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 10:15 AM PST

Homebuilder sentiment fell again as 2021 got underway. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index this month decreased to 83, seasonally adjusted, compared to December’s reading of 86. January’s reading is the second consecutive month the index has reported a month-over-month decline. The prior month’s reading was the first time since April that the index saw a decline. Homebuilder sentiment was also lower when it came to current single-family sales, with a

David Werner sues All Year over scrapped $344M portfolio deal

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 09:53 AM PST

All Year Management’s financial woes continue to pile up, as the prospective buyer of a 72-building Brooklyn multifamily portfolio has sued to get its $15 million deposit back. The buyer, a group led by investor David Werner, signed an agreement on March 5 to buy the portfolio for $344 million — days before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. The deal fell through in May, after Werner’s group raised concerns that All Year was providing discounts

Don Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle get cold welcome amid plans to buy homes in South Florida’s Jupiter

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 09:45 AM PST

Residents of the high-end Admirals Cove community in Jupiter are voicing concerns about Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle moving into the neighborhood. Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle are under contract to buy the seven-bedroom, 12-bathroom mansion at 492 Mariner Drive, which is on the market for $11 million. And Guilfoyle, alone, plans to buy the estate next door at 494 Mariner Drive, which is asking $9.5 million, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Four bankrupt Brooklyn rentals look to escape rent regulation

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 09:15 AM PST

Four bankrupt rent-stabilized apartment buildings in Clinton Hill could have a path to deregulation, thanks to an obscure exemption intended to repair run-down properties. Rosenberg & Estis, the attorneys for the bankrupt properties, filed an adversary proceeding on Jan. 7, arguing that because the previous owner rehabilitated the buildings in 2002, 46 of their total 128 units should be deregulated. A little-used “substantial rehabilitation” provision allows landlords to deregulate units — even, at least theoretically,

NAR suspends federal political donations after Capitol attack

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 08:00 AM PST

Weeks after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol building, the National Association of Realtors has suspended all federal political donations, Inman reported. “Following last Tuesday’s meeting of the RPAC Board of Trustees, our association is temporarily pausing federal political disbursements,” NAR spokesperson Wes Shaw said in an emailed statement. “NAR will continue to closely monitor events in Washington in the days and weeks ahead in order to ensure our political participation most closely represents

Governors Island redevelopment opposed as excessive

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 07:30 AM PST

Opposition is cropping up to the proposed rezoning of Governors Island. The 172-acre island in New York Harbor has already been repurposed from a military base into a summertime recreational hub. Next up in redevelopment plans is to place a climate research center on the mostly green southern part of the island, according to the Wall Street Journal. The plan is part of a rezoning proposal that would allow for hotels, offices and other buildings.

Trump pardons Zangrillo, Jemal, other real estate figures

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 06:50 AM PST

In his final hours in office, President Donald Trump granted pardons to dozens of friends, partners and executives, including several from the real estate world. One went to Eliyahu Weinstein, who was sentenced to prison in 2014. He and his company, Pine Projects, were convicted for a Ponzi scheme that resulted in $200 million in losses. His jail sentence of 264 months was commuted, according to the New York Times. Another was received by Miami

Real estate investor Alex Adjmi receives presidential pardon

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 06:29 AM PST

Alex Adjmi, a mainstay of the Syrian Jewish community that dominates the Manhattan retail market, received a presidential pardon, the White House announced early Wednesday. Adjmi was convicted of money laundering for a Colombian drug cartel in 1996 and served 44 months in prison. Adjmi is the head of A&H Acquisitions, a major but under-the-radar real estate player across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Chicago and Los Angeles. A&H has or previously had stakes in properties including 529

Full-floor condo that belonged to Broadway titan heads to auction

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 06:05 AM PST

It’s not often you see a luxury home on Fifth Avenue hit the auction block. But relatives of the late Broadway theater producer James M. Nederlander are hoping the tactic will draw out a buyer for his estate’s full-floor condo at 838 Fifth Avenue, which has been on and off the market for more than a year. It’s a risky move. The auction, scheduled for Feb. 19, will have no reserve price, meaning the highest

Renovation of stately co-op pits gum surgeon against board

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 05:30 AM PST

A periodontist at a landmarked Midtown co-op is fighting a window renovation that he argues would close his dental practice and cost him half a million dollars. Stuart Froum is up against the co-op board of 17 West 54th Street, which says he is gumming up a badly-needed $16 million overhaul of the building’s decrepit windows. On Dec. 7, days before the renovation was to begin, attorneys for the practitioner filed for an injunction to

Multifamily’s trillion-dollar tango

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 05:00 AM PST

Multifamily lenders and policymakers have taken much the same approach with evictions and mounting debt during the pandemic: Put things off and hope the rental market’s problems resolve themselves before it’s too late. That strategy persists as vaccinations ramp up. But with a surge in Covid cases, restrictions on economic activity and evictions could continue for months. As landlords hold on, they are on the hook for more than $1 trillion in multifamily debt held

President Joe Biden’s real estate checklist

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 04:30 AM PST

With one exception, real estate is not in Joe Biden’s immediate agenda. But within the next few months, the industry will have a fight on its hands — and a few things to cheer. As Biden is sworn in today as the nation’s 46th president, his focus is on ending the pandemic. That’s good news for real estate, with the aforementioned exception: his proposal to continue the nationwide residential eviction moratorium until September. Biden wants

Homebuying up again, but rising mortgage rates depress refinancing

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 04:00 AM PST

Homebuyers are still going strong. An index that tracks mortgage applications to buy homes increased 3 percent, seasonally adjusted, last week, surpassing the prior week’s surge, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s survey. The MBA metric, known as the purchase index, increased despite mortgage interest rates rising for the second week in a row. The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 2.92 percent, up from the previous week’s 2.88 percent. It’s the highest rate since November,