The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

SoftBank buys $72M of Compass stock

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 03:05 PM PDT

SoftBank has upped its stake in Compass, shelling out $72 million to buy stock in the newly public company. The tech giant, already Compass’ largest shareholder, purchased 4 million shares on April 6 at $18 per share, bringing its total investment to 132.4 million shares, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Sources said the transaction was made as part of Compass’ IPO. ade as part of the IPO. On Friday, following

Broker fee ban an “error,” court rules

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 02:50 PM PDT

An Albany judge sided with the real estate industry Friday, declaring New York state regulators’ attempt to ban tenants from paying landlords’ broker fees an “error of law.” The decision comes more than a year after the Department of State issued the guidance banning the practice. That guidance offered regulators’ interpretation of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, which became law in June 2019. In response, prominent real estate trade groups and residential brokerages

Oracle co-founder pays $80M for North Palm Beach estate

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 01:00 PM PDT

Larry Ellison, billionaire co-founder of Oracle Corp., paid $80 million for the North Palm Beach estate owned by hedge fund manager Gabriel A. Hoffman. The sale, which closed slightly above the $79.5 million asking price, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. It adds to a dizzying number of ultra-high-end deals to close over the past year in South Florida. Ellison is worth nearly $100 billion, according to Forbes. He’s chairman and chief technology

Christopher Riccio joins Douglas Elliman, bids Leslie J. Garfield farewell

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 12:15 PM PDT

It’s not every day that Leslie J. Garfield says goodbye to a top agent, but townhouse specialist Christopher Riccio has a new home at Douglas Elliman. Riccio and his teammate Elana Zinoman joined the Eklund Gomes team this week and will focus on selling high-end luxury townhouses, lofts and penthouses across the Manhattan market. He spent nearly a decade at Leslie J. Garfield — the bulk of his career — and brokered nearly half a

Dollar General thrives amid retail apocalypse

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 11:45 AM PDT

Don’t tell Dollar General that brick-and-mortar retail is dead. The retailer plans to open 1,050 new stores this year, Business Insider reported, part of an aggressive expansion plan that goes against the push many retailers have made to increase their online operations. That follows a similar pace of expansion in 2020, when 1,000 new stores opened and 1,670 were remodeled. The retailer’s expansion has focused on serving rural customers, while other companies have converged around

Lee & Associates founder Bill Lee dies

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 11:00 AM PDT

Bill Lee, who founded the commercial real estate brokerage Lee & Associates, died on April 5 at the age of 78. His eponymous firm confirmed the news via an obituary on its website. The cause of death was cancer. Lee founded the firm in 1979 in Orange County, California, out of a 4,000-square-foot office. It’s since grown to have 65 locations throughout North America, with more than 1,300 employees. It also claims to be the

Soho House files confidentially to go public

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 10:15 AM PDT

Soho House is once again taking steps to go public. The exclusive members-only club this week submitted a confidential filing for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Sky News first reported. The IPO would value the company, headquartered in London, at more than $3 billion. In February, the company hired JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to advise on its latest IPO attempt, according the Times of London. The company has

Stephen Ross puts $500K into PAC. Where’s the rest?

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 09:45 AM PDT

Related Companies chairman Stephen Ross has made no secret of his desire for a more business-friendly mayor in City Hall. But his efforts to get other industry leaders to pour money into the race might not be going as planned. Ross recently made a $500,000 contribution to Vote for NYC’s Future, a super PAC with ties to his development firm, The City reported. Charles John O’Byrne, Related’s executive vice president for policy, is listed as

Manhattan retail market awaits recovery as vacancies rise in Q1

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 09:00 AM PDT

Manhattan’s retail market started 2021 the same as it ended 2020 — with bad news in the form of rising vacancy rates and lower rents. Retail leasing velocity in the first quarter of 2021 fell for the seventh consecutive quarter, according to CBRE’s latest report on the borough’s retail sector. Total leasing was down 26.3 percent from the previous quarter, and by nearly 59 percent from a year prior — notably, before Covid lockdowns took

Coney Island Wonder Wheel reopens

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 08:37 AM PDT

An excursion synonymous with summer in New York City is back. Coney Island’s iconic amusement park will reopen today as its famous Wonder Wheel starts turning, the Brooklyn Paper reported. “It’s exciting, but at the same time, we know that we have a responsibility to open safely. And that responsibility comes before anything else,” DJ Vourderis, whose family has operated Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park since his grandfather Deno bought it in 1983, told the

McDonald’s to shutter hundreds of Walmart outposts

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 06:30 AM PDT

As fast-food restaurants with drive-throughs have gained popularity, those without have waned. Now, McDonald’s is planning to close hundreds of its eateries in Walmart stores by the end of the summer, the Wall Street Journal reports. That will leave just 150 of the Golden Arches’ Walmart locations across the country — down from 500 at the start of 2020 and a peak of roughly 1,000. The two chains began working together in 1994, but in

HuffPo co-founder, former BuzzFeed chairman sells Venetian Islands mansion

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 05:30 AM PDT

Media mogul Kenneth Lerer sold his Venetian Islands mansion for $25 million in an off-market sale. Lerer, a co-founder of The Huffington Post and a longtime former chairman of BuzzFeed, sold the 10,770-square-foot house at 33 East Dilido Drive, according to the Wall Street Journal. Lerer, now managing partner at his venture capital firm Lerer Hippeau, paid $7 million for the property in 2014, and built his mansion on the waterfront Miami Beach lot. Investor

Brooklyn’s median sales price hit record high in Q1

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 05:00 AM PDT

It was a banner month for Brooklyn’s sales market, with pricing and transactions both seeing increases in the first quarter of the year. The median sales prices in Brooklyn rose for the second quarter in a row, hitting an all-time high of $900,000, according to a Douglas Elliman report by the appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That’s an increase of nearly 3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2020, and a jump of 12 percent from

These were the largest Manhattan real estate loans in March

Posted: 09 Apr 2021 04:00 AM PDT

The 10 largest Manhattan real estate loans recorded in March totaled $1.95 billion, more than double February’s total and about the same as January’s. For the fifth time since September, the commercial mortgage-backed securities market produced the month’s largest loans. The top two deals, both single-asset CMBS loans for Midtown office buildings, accounted for nearly half of the total dollar volume of the top ten. Here were the borough’s largest real estate loans in March: