The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Investor alleges HFZ diverted funds to save XI condo project

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 04:33 PM PDT

UPDATED, June 10, 8:37 p.m.: As HFZ Capital began to run into trouble with its twisting XI condo project in Chelsea, an investor alleges the company fraudulently diverted funds from another deal to keep it afloat. New York-based Arel Capital is suing HFZ Capital affiliates over a $7.3 million investment it made in four former HFZ Capital buildings in 2014. HFZ Capital was seeking to convert four pre-war rental properties into condos: at 88 Lexington Avenue;

Tenants locking in longer leases as apartment rents rise

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 02:29 PM PDT

The days where you could easily score a Manhattan apartment for under $3,000 may be almost over, but tenants have a plan: Sign longer leases. As concessions fade and rents creep up in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Northwest Queens, tenants are signing longer leases to lock bargains in, according to the latest rental market report from Douglas Elliman. In Manhattan, 9,491 new leases were signed in May, while Brooklyn saw 2,506 new leases. It was the

Camber Property buys bankrupt Hell’s Kitchen building for $40M

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 02:03 PM PDT

Workforce housing developer Camber Property Group acquired a Hell’s Kitchen apartment building out of bankruptcy for $40.3 million. The acquisition brought an end to the five-year reorganization process involving the 96-unit building at 440 West 41st Street, according to public records. In early 2016, the entity that owns the building, led by Ben Zion Suky, fell behind on payments for a $28 million mortgage issued by Stabilis Capital Management. David Goldwasser of GC Realty Advisors,

Long-distance movers found cheaper and larger homes in 2020

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 12:15 PM PDT

Long-distance movers got more bang for their buck in 2020. The average out-of-town mover last year relocated to areas where homes cost less and had more space, on average, according to a Zillow report. If the pattern continues, it would help smooth over the extremes in the U.S. housing market. “Over the longer term, this trend could contribute to an evening out in home prices across the nation,” wrote Jeff Tucker, senior economist at Zillow,

Bill to fund hotel and office conversions heads to Cuomo’s desk

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 11:20 AM PDT

A bill that aims to convert distressed hotels and offices into affordable housing will head to the governor’s desk. The state Assembly passed the bill late Wednesday, paving the way for a government-financed conversion program run by nonprofits. Under the measure, the state agency that administers housing vouchers and other federally funded programs will gain authority to finance the purchase and conversion of hotels and offices on behalf of state-approved nonprofits. The Senate approved the

Ex-building inspector prosecuted for “double dipping” with construction firm

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 11:15 AM PDT

Prosecutors accused a former New York City building inspector of double-dipping after he allegedly took a leave of absence from his city job to moonlight for a private construction firm, the New York Daily News reported. Former Department of Buildings inspector Kevin Moroney now faces seven years in prison for the crime if convicted, the publication reported. Moroney, who has worked as a city inspector for about three years, told supervisors in September that he

Traders eye Fed pullback on mortgage bonds

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 10:15 AM PDT

Mortgage traders have eyes on the Federal Reserve’s purchasing of mortgage bonds. With the housing market booming and lending rates still low, suspicions are growing that the Fed will no longer keep buying $40 billion worth of mortgage bonds every month, Bloomberg News reported. Mortgage-backed securities lost 0.18 percent in May while Treasuries gained, the worst underperformance since January 2020, the publication reported. Robert Kaplan, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, said that the

Tax bills show how much Covid devalued NYC real estate

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 09:30 AM PDT

The pandemic hit the commercial real estate market hard. Property tax bills now reveal just how hard. New York City expects property tax revenue to drop by $1.6 billion, or 5 percent, in the coming fiscal year, Bloomberg News reported. That’s the biggest drop in the city’s largest source of revenue since the early 1990s. Office buildings’ market value — not their real-world worth, but the metric used by the city’s Department of Finance —

Inside Katerra’s final days

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 08:37 AM PDT

Katerra’s cash position was “perilous.” Its biggest backer, SoftBank, bailed out the construction startup with a $200 million investment in December. Three months later, Katerra’s primary lender, Greensill Capital, became insolvent, sending the startup’s clients scrambling to replace the general contractor on projects. Banks and insurance companies became increasingly squeamish about doing business with the firm, and a cash infusion from an expected deal with the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia never materialized. By

Manhattan contracts bloomed to all-time highs in the spring

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 06:45 AM PDT

Everything’s coming up roses in the Manhattan residential market. The borough saw a record-breaking $3.5 billion worth of contracts signed in April across 1,616 transactions — momentum that continued into May — according to a report from UrbanDigs. April’s numbers eclipsed the previous record, set in July 2014, of $3.36 billion worth of contracts. May also broke that record, with $3.37 billion worth of deals inked across 1,596 transactions, according to the report. The report

Westchester firm buys $54M Brooklyn medical building

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 06:16 AM PDT

A big deal for a medical building just went down in Midwood. An investment firm based in Westchester County paid $53.8 million for the Brooklyn property, Crain’s New York reported. Seavest Investment Group acquired 902 Quentin Road from Marx Development Group, the publication reported. David Marx, the owner of his eponymous firm, bought the property for $2.7 million in 2005 and redeveloped it. Marx, who also owns Flushing-based Atria Builders, erected an eight-story office building

Hedge funder Igor Tulchinsky spends $40M on oceanfront North Palm Beach mansion

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 05:30 AM PDT

UPDATED, June 10, 9:38 a.m.: WorldQuant Asset Management founder Igor Tulchinsky flew from New York to spend the day in Palm Beach and bought a nearly $40 million oceanfront estate in the process. “We flew down for a few hours, saw it, picked it,” said Ryan Serhant of Serhant, who represented the hedge fund manager in his purchase of 12088 Banyan Road in North Palm Beach. Ohio real estate scion and casino developer Jeffrey Jacobs

Small landlords’ raise-the-rent campaign lacks backing

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 05:00 AM PDT

After a year of unpaid rent and rising property taxes — what one landlord called “the American Hell” — a group of small property owners is pushing the Rent Guidelines Board to approve a hike on stabilized apartments. But the advocacy campaign, launched Tuesday by the Small Properties Owners of New York, has no fiscal backing. Instead it will rely on letter-writing and landlord testimonies. SPONY member Jan Lee said the campaign, dubbed “RGB Responsibility,”

These were the largest Manhattan real estate loans in May

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 04:00 AM PDT

The 10 largest Manhattan real estate loans recorded in May totaled $1.84 billion, more than double April’s total. More than half of that total came from a pair of commercial mortgage-backed security loans on Midtown office towers — the seventh time in nine months that the CMBS market has produced Manhattan’s largest recorded loan. Here were the borough’s largest real estate loans in May: 1 & 2) Durst quencher | $769 million, $331 million The