The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Waterford and state team up on luxury rental purchase from Carmel Partners

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 03:30 PM PDT

UPDATED, 2:40 p.m., April 27: Waterford Property Company and the state have closed on their fourth deal this year to convert a rental building to middle-income housing. The partners paid $300 million for the 507-unit Altana, a luxury complex in Glendale. The Newport Beach-based firm was issued $339 million in tax-exempt bonds from the California Statewide Communities Development Authority for the purchase. The seller was not disclosed, but sources confirmed to The Real Deal that

CoStar profits rebound with $74M in net income

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 02:52 PM PDT

CoStar’s profit machine is back in action. After four consecutive quarters in which its profits dropped, the real estate data giant said it generated $74 million in first-quarter net income. The firm’s profits are up from $36 million during the fourth quarter of 2020 and relatively flat year-over-year. During an earnings call Tuesday, CEO Andy Florance said CoStar started the year strong, with revenues and profits that both beat the company’s expectations. “We appear to

US home prices grow at fastest rate in 15 years

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 02:15 PM PDT

Home prices continue to soar to new heights. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index rose 12 percent year-over-year in February. That’s up from 11.2 percent in January, when the monthly index grew at the best rate in 14 years and 12 months, just shy of 15 years. “Strong home price gains continued,” said Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement.

Restaurants can apply for $29B in relief starting May 3

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 01:30 PM PDT

Help for restaurants promised by the federal $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package is coming to fruition. On May 3, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund will begin accepting applications for $29 billion in grants, according to the Wall Street Journal. The money is only available to restaurants, bars and other food-service businesses. Restaurants have been some of the businesses hardest hit by the pandemic. The industry saw sales fall by nearly a quarter from 2019, according to

Long Island sales reach new highs with inventory at record lows

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 12:45 PM PDT

Sales activity in Long Island was through the roof in the first quarter of 2021, spurred in part by the lowest number of homes for sale in years. The number of available homes plummeted by 33.6 percent year-over-year, according to the latest report by Douglas Elliman. That’s a 14.2 percent decline from the previous quarter, and the lowest the island has seen in the nearly 18 years the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, which prepares the

Vornado lines up $1.2B refi of SF tower co-owned with Trump

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 12:05 PM PDT

Vornado Realty Trust has lined up a huge refinancing for the San Francisco office tower it owns with former President Donald Trump’s company — a deal that could return hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to the owners. JPMorgan Chase is working on the $1.2 billion refinancing of 555 California Street and two adjacent buildings, Bloomberg News reported. The deal will fund improvements for the office tower and return about $617 million to Vornado

Domestic shopping is approaching pre-pandemic levels in NYC

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 12:00 PM PDT

Even with a pandemic still in the way, shoppers gotta shop. Domestic retail visits in the New York City area nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels during the week of March 29, down just 2 percent compared to the same period in 2019. That’s the strongest weekly result since the onset of the pandemic, according to new findings from Placer.ai, which tracks anonymized data from 30 million mobile devices across the country The data indicates a

Jon Stewart’s old penthouse trades for 26% less

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 11:15 AM PDT

An uptick in demand isn’t enough to upset Manhattan’s take-no-prisoners buyers’ market. Two condos that sold for more than $10 million last week reveal the depth of discounts that are still available, even as buyer activity in the borough’s luxury market has surged. Exhibit A is a sprawling Tribeca penthouse that once belonged to Jon Stewart. The comedian sold the 6,280-square-foot duplex in 2014 for $17.5 million to financier Parag Pande, chief investment officer at

New index topped by housing markets where prices have skyrocketed

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 10:30 AM PDT

Buy high, anyone? A new methodology from the Wall Street Journal and Realtor.com to track the nation’s “most attractive” housing markets puts smaller, cheaper cities in places such as Idaho and Montana dominate the rankings. But prices have risen rapidly in these areas, putting some homes out of reach for locals. Powering the phenomenon are — you guessed it — urbanites from expensive markets like Seattle or Los Angeles. The index ranked the top metro

Hall of Famer Mike Piazza sells waterfront Miami Beach mansion to Major Food Group partner

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 09:30 AM PDT

More than three years after listing his Miami Beach mansion, baseball Hall of Famer Mike Piazza caught a winning pitch for the waterfront property. Piazza, who is considered one of baseball’s best offensive catchers, played for the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, as well as briefly for the then-Florida Marlins. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016 as a Met. He and his wife, Alicia, listed their waterfront home

Miami’s mayor a magnet for Big Tech money

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 09:00 AM PDT

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s call to make Miami the new Silicon Valley has Big Tech and real estate pouring cash into his coffers. Newly minted venture capital billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya, crypto investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer and others are backing the mayor’s reelection campaign this year to the tune of more than $2 million. Suarez himself admits that many of the major tech players who have written checks “don’t even live

Malls are back, say mall landlords

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 07:45 AM PDT

After a devastating year for malls, landlords say shoppers are heading back in droves. In March, foot traffic was up 86 percent at 50 shopping centers tracked by the data firm Placer.ai compared to the same month last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. But that was still 24 percent lower than it was in March 2019. Mall owners say sales are also improving as shoppers look to get out of their houses and

Placer.ai raises $50M to track pedestrian foot traffic

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 07:20 AM PDT

Location data startup Placer.ai has raised $50 million after the company said it tripled its business last year. The California-based company uses cell phone data to track pedestrian foot traffic, predominantly in and around retail properties. It then gives building owners feedback on how stores and assets are performing. The Series B, announced Tuesday, was led by Josh Buckley, CEO of Product Hunt; angel investor Todd Goldberg and Rahul Vohra, CEO of Superhuman, an AI-focused

De Blasio’s own staff says his hotel plan could cost NYC $7B

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 06:47 AM PDT

As Mayor Bill de Blasio finalizes a policy to limit new hotels, his own staff has found it would cost New York City billions of dollars in lost tax revenue. Under de Blasio’s plan, the City Council would have to approve any new hotel built in the city. He says that will help organized labor and would-be neighbors of hotels by curbing the development of nonunion establishments. Critics worry, however, that adding public review and

Manhattan office properties trade at a discount

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 05:30 AM PDT

The biggest mid-market deals of last week — defined as ones that closed for between $10 million and $30 million — were office properties, with billionaire businessman Ron Perelman’s sale of two Lenox Hill buildings topping the list. Rockrose also bought a chunk of an office building that values the property at a slight discount from its pre-pandemic valuation. There were four deals for the week ending April 23, which generated $90.45 million, handily beating

WATCH: How the eviction ban is affecting landlords, renters

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 05:00 AM PDT

New York’s eviction moratorium has saved some from ruin, but threatens to cause it for others. The moratorium, which has stretched on for 13 months, isn’t the only of its kind: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced its own national eviction moratorium last September which, like New York’s, has been repeatedly extended. And the state moratorium’s most recent expiration date was May 1, but this week lawmakers voted to extend it to Aug.

Earnings up, stores down: Why successful retailers close locations

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 04:30 AM PDT

By the look of things, Best Buy had a great winter. Domestic revenue surged 11 percent in November, December and January to $15.4 billion. But in announcing the good news, the electronics retailer said it would lay off 5,000 full-time workers and ramp up store closings. In the crosshairs are 450 locations with leases expiring in the next three years. “There will be higher thresholds on renewing leases as we evaluate the role each store

SALT is crisis for Democrats, not for real estate

Posted: 27 Apr 2021 04:00 AM PDT

Remember when blue states’ home values were falling and the real estate industry was blaming the new tax law? That was barely two years ago, but not many people do. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the residential market is now hotter than fish grease. Bidding wars are the norm, and any house not in contract within three weeks of being listed is viewed with suspicion. That includes the tri-state towns hit