The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

WeWork slapped with $37M lawsuit by Chelsea landlord

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 02:55 PM PDT

A WeWork landlord has sued the coworking company for allegedly attempting to move its tenants to another location after defaulting on its lease in Chelsea. Walter & Samuels, the owner of 214 West 29th Street, filed the lawsuit on Friday in New York State Supreme Court, seeking to recoup damages — an amount it says would still need “to be determined at trial,” but estimated to be “in excess” of $37 million. The lawsuit alleges

Building owners crucial to Biden’s climate goals

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 02:32 PM PDT

If President Joe Biden is to slash the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, he will need a lot of help from residential and commercial buildings owners. The president announced the goal, which is based on 2005 emission rates, Thursday during a global climate summit. The new target greatly accelerates the Obama administration’s reduction target of 25 percent by 2025. Biden billed his goal as a way to both address an “existential crisis”

NYC rents hit record lows at the start of 2021

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 01:30 PM PDT

New York City rents hit record lows during the first quarter of 2021, but that could change as competition for apartments ramps over in the summer, according to a new report by StreetEasy. Median rents in Manhattan dropped to $2,700 per month, the cheapest StreetEasy has recorded in over a decade. In comparison, the median rent in the borough was $3,417 at the same time last year. Other boroughs were met with the biggest annual

New home sales soar 21%

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 12:30 PM PDT

The pace of new single-family home sales skyrocketed last month. That figure jumped a stunning 20.7 percent month-over-month in March to 1.02 million units, according to the Census Bureau’s latest report on new residential construction. In comparison, February’s revised rate of sales was 846,000 units. The median sales price was $330,800, while the seasonally-adjusted estimate of new homes for sale at the end of March was 307,000, or a supply of 3.6 months based on

HFZ, Marble Collegiate Church lose NoMad development site

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 12:09 PM PDT

After an 11th-hour effort to stave off foreclosure, HFZ Capital Group and the Marble Collegiate Church have lost control of their NoMad joint venture. Mezzanine lender Vanbarton Group took control of the development site at Fifth Avenue and West 29th Street, where the church has stood since 1854, in a UCC foreclosure auction Friday afternoon, according to Matthew Mannion of Mannion Auctions, which conducted the auction. Representatives for HFZ and the Marble Collegiate Church were

Falling rents double city’s supply of voucher-accessible apartments

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 11:45 AM PDT

Thanks to the pandemic, rental-voucher holders seeking a better apartment might actually get one. The amount of voucher-accessible housing in New York City has more than doubled, according to an analysis by StreetEasy. From July to December, over 40,000 more units had rents low enough for tenants to use Section 8 vouchers than during the second half of 2019. That’s an increase of 142 percent. The change was driven by record rent drops and an

Mountain high: Homebuyers flock to and reshape ski resort towns

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 11:15 AM PDT

In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, selling a home used to follow a reliable pattern for Latham Jenkins, a residential broker there for over 20 years. Even when a property went into contract, the buyer would still “fly out and take a look” before closing, said Jenkins, an agent for Live Water Properties, headquartered in the ski resort town near Grand Teton National Park. The pandemic changed that, as it did everything else over the past year.

First resale at 220 Central Park South closes at 23% premium for seller

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 10:30 AM PDT

The first resale at 220 Central Park South was a success for the seller. The transaction, which was first reported last month, closed on Friday for $33 million, the seller’s full asking price, according to the Wall Street Journal. That works out to $10,277 per square foot. The sale represents a 23 percent premium for the unknown seller, who purchased the three-bedroom unit on the 55th floor for $26.79 million in 2019. Early buyers at

Exaggerated exodus: Covid didn’t scramble people’s migration patterns

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 09:45 AM PDT

Cities won’t become post-apocalyptic graveyards and work-from-home urbanites won’t revive rural America. While many people moved away from New York City and San Francisco during the pandemic, migration patterns largely remained the same as before, according to an analysis by the New York Times. The analysis was based on the 30 million change-of-address requests made in 2020 to the U.S. Postal Service. Some smaller regional metros and vacation markets saw more residents come in. Still,

Thought your mansion had it all? Don’t forget the trophy tree

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 09:00 AM PDT

Baobabs, banyans and ficuses: The uber wealthy are spending green to see green. Trophy trees are the latest object of desire for well-heeled buyers, particularly as the pandemic has made many individuals more familiar with their home environs. For the horticultural must-haves, one modest South Florida landscaping company has pioneered novel ways to acquire and sell the arboreal attractions, the Wall Street Journal reported. Walter Acree, owner of Green Integrity’s in Deerfield Beach, drives his

DivcoWest JV will plow $1B into single-family rentals

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 08:32 AM PDT

Add DivcoWest and Atlas Real Estate to the growing list of industry players moving into the single-family rental market. The two firms have teamed up on a $1 billion platform to acquire single-family rental homes throughout the West, The Real Deal has learned. The venture will renovate and manage the properties and will target states across the region, including Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Utah. Investment company DivcoWest, which primarily focuses on commercial properties, provided

Optimizing the office: How flex workspaces will bring tenants back

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 08:00 AM PDT

Companies have accepted that work-from-home is here to stay. Commercial landlords need to stay relevant. Enter the flexible office. TRD Brand Studio will host its first virtual event, Optimizing the office: How flexible workspaces will bring back office tenants, on Tuesday, May 4 at 2 p.m. EST. This live event will feature executives from Essensys, IWG, Industrious and Studio by Tishman Speyer discussing the challenges and possibilities of the new office normal. Buy your ticket

Bill Gates-backed bio startup expanding in NYC

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 07:30 AM PDT

A Bill Gates-backed biotech startup that’s developing a sustainable alternative to palm oil is expanding in New York. C16 Biosciences is moving out of the NYU Langone biotech co-working space in Soho into 20,000 square feet at the Hudson Research Center on the Far West Side. Company co-founder Shara Ticku said she was drawn to the “location, flexible lab space and amenities” at the research center, which is owned by Taconic Partners and Silverstein Properties.

Big discounts on sale of Perelman properties and loans

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 07:15 AM PDT

Buyers are getting a big break on Ron Perelman’s properties and loans backed by them. Citigroup has sold loans secured by three of Perelman’s Upper East Side properties at a discount of approximately 40 percent, Bloomberg News reported. The loans, scooped up by an undisclosed party for $115 million, were in default with a balance of $193 million, according to the outlet. They mature in 2023. A Cushman & Wakefield capital markets team shopped the

Solly Assa delinquent on Mave Hotel loan

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 06:09 AM PDT

UPDATED, April 23, 2021, 11:40 a.m.: Salim “Solly” Assa is facing new troubles at the Mave Hotel in NoMad. The $19.5 million loan on the 72-key hotel at 62 Madison Avenue has been sent to the special servicer, according to Trepp. The loan is now more than 90 days past due. Cantor Commercial Real Estate issued the loan, which carried an original balance of $22 million, to Assa Properties for the firm’s acquisition of the

Home sales fall while prices reach all-time high

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 05:30 AM PDT

The pace of homes sales fell again as prices reached historic highs and inventory remained low. Existing home sales dropped 3.7 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted rate of 6.01 million from 6.22 million in February, according to the National Association of Realtors’ monthly report. It marks the second consecutive month-over-month decline in the pace of sales. Though it’s an improvement from March 2020’s pace of 5.35 million sales, the country was largely in

Manhattan home prices are rising as Brooklyn’s plateau

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 05:00 AM PDT

While Manhattan home prices and sales sank over the last year, Brooklyn’s surged, driven by higher demand and dwindling inventory. Now, those price trends appear to be slightly shifting, according to a report from UrbanDigs. It analyzed the latest asking price of homes that went into contract in recent months. While accounting for discounts, UrbanDigs said asking price remained a reliable indicator of what sale price would be. In March, the median latest asking price

Inside the quest to change single-family zoning

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 04:30 AM PDT

The white colonial at 2 Orchard Road is sorely in need of an update. Its orange and yellow floral wallpaper and abundant wooden cabinetry call to mind the year it was built: 1970. That same year, a study found, the Connecticut town where it sits, Woodbridge, had severely restrictive zoning and, not coincidentally, was among the state’s most homogenous. More problematic than the Orchard Road home’s dated decor, some say, is that the affordability and

Elliman property management breach: “Gold mine for cybercriminals” or “nothing new”?

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 04:00 AM PDT

What would you do if your Social Security number, address, financial data and other sensitive information were compromised? For some of the thousands of New Yorkers who may be in that position after a data breach at Douglas Elliman Property Management, the answer so far appears to be one of understanding — even as some cybersecurity experts and industry veterans sound an alarm. Leonard Steinberg, a Compass agent who sits on condo boards at two