The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Billionaire Larry Ellison plans to knock down $80M mansion

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 02:30 PM PDT

Billionaire Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison plans to demolish the North Palm Beach mansion he acquired last week for $80 million. In a letter to Oracle employees, Ellison said he will not be moving to Florida and plans to stay in Hawaii, according to Recode. Ellison acquired the oceanfront home at 12525 Seminole Beach Road from hedge fund manager Gabriel Hoffman, who heads Accipiter Capital Management. But he’s been based in Hawaii’s Lanai, an island

Phil Falcone files appeal halting foreclosure of UES, Hamptons homes

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 02:23 PM PDT

An auction of interests in two of Philip Falcone’s New York homes was canceled after the financier filed an appeal. Falcone is appealing a New York Supreme Court judge’s dismissal of his lawyers’ request to stop Melody Capital’s UCC foreclosure auction of an equity stake in a 24-foot wide townhouse at 22 East 67th Street on the Upper East Side and a sprawling 14,000-square-foot Hamptons mansion at 142 Crestview Drive. The financier’s attorneys had argued

Black Spruce eyes $700M+ valuation for multifamily portfolio

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 12:45 PM PDT

Owners of a large multifamily portfolio in Manhattan are looking to bring on a partner who will value the “recession-proof” collection at north of $700 million. Josh Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management is looking to recapitalize its 1,800-unit portfolio of workforce-housing buildings in Manhattan by selling a stake in the collection of buildings, according to marketing materials for the offering. The collection of buildings is made up of five smaller portfolios mostly concentrated in Upper Manhattan,

HomeX nabs $90M to connect homeowners and repair techs

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 12:10 PM PDT

The burgeoning market for home-maintenance technology has crowned another winner. HomeX, a startup that connects homeowners with licensed technicians, raised $90 million after demand for its remote service tool surged 400 percent over the last 12 months, the firm announced. New Mountain Capital, a New York investment firm with $30 billion in assets, led the round. Michael Werner, whose family started Werner Ladders, and Vincent Payen, a longtime eBay executive co-founded the startup in Chicago

Institutional investors, higher material costs lead to rising home prices

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 11:30 AM PDT

Homebuyers may think prices are rising and supply is dwindling because of low interest rates and increasing demand. But two of the main reasons for the skyrocketing prices are actually a huge buying spree from institutional investors and surging building materials costs, according to Inman. Rick Palacios Jr., director of research for John Burns Real Estate Consulting, said that investors are buying 20 percent of all homes in the U.S. He points to Phoenix where

Landlords try to push AWOL attorney Kossoff into bankruptcy

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 10:49 AM PDT

Real estate investors who say they’ve been scammed out of millions in escrow funds from attorney Mitchell Kossoff’s law firm now want to push the firm into bankruptcy. A group of four investors filed a petition for involuntary bankruptcy Tuesday against Kossoff PLLC, listing slightly more than $8 million in “misappropriated” escrow funds, filings with New York’s Southern District bankruptcy court show. A representative for the Kossoff firm could not be immediately reached. The company

Canadian pensions, Asian wealth funds eye single-family home rentals

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 10:21 AM PDT

If you rent a home in the suburbs, your landlord could be a Candian pension fund or a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund. Foreign investors are increasingly targeting the single-family home rental market as more American flock to the suburbs for larger spaces. Foreign investors now account for almost a third of the institutional investment in single-family rental homes, according Alex Foshay, head of international capital markets at real-estate services firm Newmark, the Wall Street

Kent Swig launches his own cryptocurrency

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 09:15 AM PDT

Real estate investor and Terra Holdings owner Kent Swig has secured $6 billion in gold reserves to back his new cryptocurrency. DIGau, his digital token, will be pegged to the market price of the gold, Bloomberg News reported. The gold is guaranteed by liens that Swig and partner Stephen Braverman secured against mining claims in Nevada and Arizona through their company, Dignity Gold. “Gold was one of the original rock-solid backings of all currencies,” Swig

New York’s venues operators say reopening isn’t “financially viable”

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 08:35 AM PDT

New York City’s live music scene went silent when the pandemic began last March — but even with loosened restrictions, venue operators are hesitant to reopen. The state gave permission for small and medium indoor arts venues to reopen on April 2 at one-third capacity with a maximum of 100 people, according to the Wall Street Journal. But some venue managers claim these restrictions make it impossible to turn a profit and are keeping their

Manhattan’s retail loss is outer boroughs’ gain

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 07:00 AM PDT

Manhattan retailers are still waiting for the return of tourists to 5th Avenue and employees to Midtown offices, but some retail corridors outside of the central business district have seen metrics return almost to where they were before the pandemic. Vacancies and rents in the Bronx’s main retail area, Fordham Road, are near normal, the New York Times reported. The vacancy rate is 3 percent, according to the Fordham Road Business Improvement District. Meanwhile, in

RXR makes $220M apartment bet in Brooklyn

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 06:01 AM PDT

As New York rents’ nosedive shows signs of leveling off, a big apartment deal in Brooklyn might brighten investors’ spirits. RXR Realty is in contract to buy the rental portion of CIM Group and LIVWRK’s Dumbo luxury development at 85 Jay Street for $220 million, sources familiar with the sale told The Real Deal. It’s the first big deal for a market-rate rental building to come up for sale and go into contract since the

Bulk condo deal leads Manhattan’s mid-market i-sales

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 05:30 AM PDT

A bulk condo deal was one of three mid-market investment sales recorded in Manhattan last week, the only borough to notch such deals. Altogether, the transactions, each between $10 million and $30 million, totaled $46 million — about half the amount compared to the week prior. Brooklyn didn’t see any deals of that size, but a mid-market development project took a step forward. Here are more details for the week ending April 9, 2021. 1.

When big-time projects are stopped by small-time judges

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 05:00 AM PDT

“These are huge towers. I’ve lived in the city my whole life. You can’t just do this because the zoning allows it. I just can’t believe this is the case.” — State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron Early in my career, I wrote about the backroom dealmaking that produces state Supreme Court judges. Now, at The Real Deal, I see the havoc these jurists wreak on the city and its real estate industry. It compels

Heavy hangover: Air rights purchased for massive cantilever

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 04:00 AM PDT

An architectural oddity is set to rise above Bryant Park. H Hotel purchased air rights for $11 million to build a massive cantilever — a horizontal extension secured at just one end — at its development site at 58 West 39th Street. Wei Hong Wu acquired the 23,500 square feet of development rights for a forthcoming 29-story hotel from the adjacent 13-story Refinery Hotel at 63 West 38th Street. The agreement for air rights was