The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Rent board grants six-month rent freeze, then 1.5% hike

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 06:35 PM PDT

A raucous gathering for the Rent Guidelines Board vote Wednesday night showed no proposal on the docket could have satisfied either landlords or tenants after their year of trauma. The board voted 5-4 to freeze stabilized rents for the first six months of one-year leases beginning on or after Oct. 1, 2021, then raise them 1.5 percent for the next six months. By the same margin, it voted to raise rents on two-year leases by

What’s next for the East End’s community preservation fund?

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 02:41 PM PDT

Objectively, the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund has been a massive success. Funded by a 2 percent transfer tax on real estate sales in the five East End towns — East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southampton and Southold — the fund has raised about $1.6 billion and preserved 10,000 acres of East End land in its two decades of existence. Each town collects and distributes the revenue as it sees fit, using it for

Port Authority inks deal to bring $145M cargo hub to JFK

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 01:30 PM PDT

A massive cargo facility is en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport — scheduled arrival, 2023. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey signed a long-term lease with Aeroterm to develop the $145 million, 350,000-square-foot facility on more than 26 acres. It will be the first such facility built at JFK in two decades and is part of a larger plan by the Cuomo administration to improve the airport complex. Aeroterm will

A-Rod rents Bridgehampton home, stone’s throw from J-Lo’s

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 01:00 PM PDT

UPDATED June 23, 2021, 8:50 p.m.: Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez may have split, but it seems they’ll be sharing a piece of the Hamptons this summer. A-Rod rented a home in Bridgehampton just a mile away from his ex’s Water Mill home, where they spent last summer together, Page Six reported. It is the same home that Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle sold in March for $8.1 million, The Real Deal confirmed with

Harbor Group, Cammeby’s team up on $1B NJ apartment buy

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 12:55 PM PDT

Harbor Group and Cammeby’s International are set to ink one of the biggest New Jersey apartment deals in recent memory. The two investors are in contract to buy a portfolio of 5,300 units for more than $1 billion, sources familiar with the transaction told The Real Deal. The apartments are spread across 41 properties in the northern and central parts of the Garden State. The apartments are mostly Class B properties with an average age

Gary Barnett has another problem at UES site: a stabilized tenant

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 12:15 PM PDT

Notorious landlords aren’t the only thing standing in the way of Gary Barnett’s vision for an Upper East Side development. There’s also a rent-stabilized tenant still living in one of the remaining buildings at Barnett’s $80 million assemblage on First Avenue between East 85th and 86th Streets, court documents show. But technically it’s not the tenant who’s holding up Barnett’s firm, Extell Development. It’s the state agency that administers the rent regulations, which is refusing

ING “green building” loan program targets energy upgrades

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 11:47 AM PDT

It seems like every large real estate firm is going green, but those efforts have had some seeing red. Landlords are targeting net-zero emissions to attract investors and eco-conscious millennials, but when it comes to securing financing to make upgrades, options are limited. The latest entry in the loan market is ING, the global financial behemoth. The Dutch banking firm is rolling out its “green building incentive” loan, which funds energy efficient retrofits on multifamily

LA extends eviction moratorium

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 10:45 AM PDT

Los Angeles County renters have gotten another reprieve. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday extended its coronavirus eviction moratorium through the end of September, according to the Los Angeles Times. The measure bars landlords from evicting tenants who suffered a financial hardship brought on by the pandemic. The county, the city of L.A. and California have separate eviction moratoriums in place. The state’s measure ends on June 30, when the federal moratorium expires. Gov. Gavin

Black and Latino homeowners left behind in mortgage refinancing wave

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 10:00 AM PDT

Low interest rates encouraged millions of Americans to renegotiate their mortgages in 2020, but a litany of new and existing barriers have left many Black and Latino homeowners unable to take advantage. While eight million mortgages were refinanced in 2020, only 6 percent of Black homeowners and 9 percent of Latino homeowners renegotiated their mortgages, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from Equifax and Black Knight, among others. That’s compared to 12 percent of

Naftali Group picks up UWS apartments for $71M

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 09:15 AM PDT

Miki Naftali doesn’t buy that New York City is dead. He buys apartment buildings. The Naftali Group picked up a multifamily building at 215 West 84th Street on the Upper West Side for $71 million, the Commercial Observer reported. The building spans 100,000 square feet and has 128 units. The private real estate firm financed its purchase with a $46 million loan — 65 percent of the purchase price — reportedly provided by an undisclosed

Morgan Stanley bans unvaccinated staffers from offices

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 08:30 AM PDT

It’s not easy to get inside Morgan Stanley. For those who aren’t immunized against Covid, it will soon be impossible. Starting July 12, the elite investment bank will only allow people who have been fully vaccinated to enter its New York offices, according to an internal memo reported by the Financial Times. Visitors and employees will be taken at their word rather than needing to verify their vaccination status, but that could change, the publication

Mall landlords turn to pop-up stores to boost revenue

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 07:15 AM PDT

Retailers aren’t the only ones working their way back from the ravages of the pandemic. Mall landlords have been decimated, and many are now courting temporary tenants, pushing the pop-up stores to boost revenue and fill space. Mall operators on Long Island and across the nation are trying to entice retailers with cheaper rents — sometimes a few months free — and flexible lease terms, according to Newsday. The pop-up stores are considered a low-risk

Office investors Tishman Speyer, Brookfield put money where mouth is

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 06:35 AM PDT

Since early in the pandemic, office landlords have maintained that work-from-home would not cripple their big-city portfolios. But talk is cheap. Who backed up their bluster with billions of dollars in office investments? Tishman Speyer and Brookfield did, their executives said Wednesday at a forum in Qatar. Rob Speyer said that since March, his firm had plowed $12 billion into properties that represented “generational buying opportunities,” Bloomberg News reported. “We have been active during Covid

Reading the Room: Sales launch at “Library” condo

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 06:00 AM PDT

Living in a library sounds like a bibliophile’s dream. Now, some may get that chance — sort of. Sales start today at a condo that was once the Downtown branch of the New York Public Library. The brokerage Serhant is leading them for developer Horizon Group. Appropriately called the Library, the luxury residential building at 61 Rivington Street is welcoming buyers as they return to the Lower East Side: Transactions in the neighborhood are up

Lifeline for canners needs city’s help to buy redemption center site

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 05:00 AM PDT

Sure We Can, a nonprofit recycling center in East Williamsburg, is a lifeline for hundreds of can collectors across New York, who last year redeemed 11 million cans and bottles at the facility. But unable to afford a pending rent hike and facing eviction, Sure We Can is calling on the city to provide $2 million to help buy its longtime space at 219 McKibbin Street. Sure We Can has been trying to purchase the

Suburban homebuying frenzy rages on even as NYC reopens

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 04:30 AM PDT

In April, a modest three-bedroom split-level hit the market in New Providence, New Jersey, about a one-hour NJ Transit ride from Manhattan. It was listed on a Friday at $699,000. The property attracted 90 showings. By Sunday, there were 40 offers. “We needed a flow chart to compare options and bids,” said Winifred Cavazini of Prominent Properties, the Sotheby’s affiliate that represented the seller. The winning bid came in $100,000 over ask. Even as New

Homes on the range: Luxury ranch sales are booming

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 04:00 AM PDT

By 9:30 a.m. on a recent Saturday, Paul Johnson had already caught six brown trout on his sprawling property about 40 miles southwest of Billings, Montana. An anesthesiologist from Southern California, Johnson and his wife Roberta bought the 879-acre spread in December. Called Sanctuary Ranch, it includes a 12,500-square-foot mansion — along with three guest houses — an 1,800-square-foot pool house, a 1.5-mile private spring-fed trout stream, nine stocked ponds and views of the Beartooth

Eric Adams leads mayor’s race after initial ballot count

Posted: 22 Jun 2021 08:20 PM PDT

Early results in the Democratic primary for mayor show Eric Adams, a candidate favored by the real estate industry, in the lead. The Brooklyn borough president captured about 31 percent of Democrats’ No. 1 picks in the initial tally under a new, ranked-choice voting system. But other candidates could overtake him as subsequent rounds of counting — including of absentee and affidavit ballots — add to their totals. Maya Wiley — the candidate who most