The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Federal relief favored restaurants in wealthy areas: study

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 03:18 PM PST

In low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund was a low tipper. Of the nearly 5,500 awards to New York City eateries, approximately 28 percent went to businesses in low- and moderate-income communities, data compiled by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office show. Furthermore, many of those loans were for relatively small amounts. The average business in a low-income community received about $276,000, compared to more than $590,000 for those elsewhere. At a more granular

Slate lends Rabsky $72M for Fort Greene multifamily project

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 02:45 PM PST

Rabsky Group is ready to roll at 240 Willoughby Street. The secretive developer led by Simon Dushinsky secured a $72 million construction loan from SCALE, the lending arm of Slate Property Group. Rabsky will use the money to construct a 30-story, 300-unit multifamily building near Fort Greene Park. It also plans to renovate an existing 21-story apartment project with 189 units. SPR Group arranged the financing. Thanks to the 421a tax exemption, the building will

Industrial vacancy rate hits record low: report

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 02:00 PM PST

The squeeze is intensifying in the industrial real estate market, which is seeing record low vacancies and enormous net absorption, pushing up rents and following one record quarter with another. Cushman & Wakefield’s industrial market report Wednesday found vacancy across the United States at 3.7 percent for the fourth quarter. It was the first time the vacancy rate had fallen below 4 percent since the firm began tracking it in 1995. Vacancy rates could continue

New dev contracts cap boom year with $1B December

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 01:15 PM PST

New development contracts finished the year with a slight holiday dip, capping off a promising 2021. Buyers signed contracts for 341 new development condos across the city in December, according to a monthly analysis by Marketproof, a 15 percent decrease from November’s 413 deals. The 341 units were asking a combined $1.03 billion. Still, contract activity was up 44 percent from December 2020 and 65 percent from December 2019, a sign that the market has

Cheskel Schwimmer plans 218-unit apartment building in Vinegar Hill

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 12:30 PM PST

Months after purchasing a Vinegar Hill development site for nearly $50 million, Urban Realty Partners is turning the keys to the project over to fellow developer Cheskel Schwimmer. Schwimmer recently filed an application for a seven-story mixed-use development at 218 Front Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Perhaps fittingly, given its address, the building will include 218 residential units. A memorandum recorded at the beginning of November showed an LLC linked to Schwimmer’s firm, Chess Builders,

Turnbridge, Dune snag elusive Brooklyn industrial property

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 12:00 PM PST

Turnbridge Equities and Dune Real Estate Partners recently notched a rare find, nabbing a site in Brooklyn to begin ground-up construction of a warehouse. The real estate firms bought two vacant warehouses at 807 Bank St and 300 DeWitt Ave in Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighborhood from two separate sellers, according to Turnbridge Equities’ Ryan Nelson. The price on the deal came to $22.5 million. The developers plan to tear down the existing properties and build a

Lake Tahoe feels the heat

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:00 AM PST

Working 12-hour days in San Francisco, Jaqui Braver’s thoughts often drifted to the mountain villa she was building in Lake Tahoe, where she pictured herself skiing powdery snow and breathing Alpine air. This past summer, a year after leaving the Bay Area for her “fairy tale” log house, her journey to happily ever after hit a speed bump: The wildfires that are now an annual occurrence across the West threatened her brand- new home. “I

Texas teachers’ pension fund buys new Austin office building

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:47 AM PST

The Texas teacher’s pension fund is leaving its longtime downtown Austin headquarters for a shiny new apple of a building in the nearby Mueller community. The Teachers Retirement System purchased the newly built, six-story Alpha Building from San Francisco-based Shorenstein. Designed by Page Sutherland Page, the building has approximately 210,000 square feet of office space with 35,000 to 50,000-square-foot floor plates, 14-foot ceilings and outdoor spaces on each floor. There’s also a landscaped courtyard at

Flight to quality drove gains in Manhattan office market

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:45 AM PST

The Manhattan office market’s gains in the wake of the pandemic appear to be centered on a continued flight to quality. CBRE data show 105 contracts were signed for spaces priced at or above $100 per square foot, as reported by the Commercial Observer. The contract signings marked a 114 percent year-over-year jump and an 18 percent rise from a five-year average. Spaces priced below the triple digits are also exceeding pre-pandemic numbers, but aren’t

Hochul: Supersize NYC apartment buildings, replace 421a

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:13 AM PST

UPDATED Jan. 5, 2022, 3:53 p.m.: Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to repeal a key property tax break, lift a cap on apartment building density in New York City and provide free lawyers to tenants statewide. The governor will propose a replacement to the 421a tax exemption, requiring deeper affordability and mandating green building systems, such as carbon-neutral technologies and electrification. She also will call for the creation of an affordable homeownership option in the program,

Proptech firm Entrata’s chairman resigns after anti-vax conspiracy email

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 09:45 AM PST

The chairman of the company that pulled off 2021’s largest proptech fundraise resigned Tuesday after authoring an anti-vax email that framed the pandemic as a Jewish plot to euthanize Americans and take over the world. David Bateman, co-founder and former CEO of Utah-based Entrata, the unicorn multifamily property management platform, sent an email to more than 50 investors and Utah tech and political leaders early Tuesday morning entreating them to oppose vaccinations, which he claimed

Lender suspicious of “missing” billionaire in 432 Park foreclosure

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 09:15 AM PST

Maverick Real Estate Partners is raising suspicions about the status of purportedly missing Chinese billionaire Whitney Duan — the latest development in the foreclosure saga surrounding condo unit 72A at 432 Park Avenue. At issue is whether Duan, who purchased the unit for $30 million in 2016 but has not spoken publicly since being detained by Chinese authorities three years ago, legitimately claimed financial hardship under New York’s Covid-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act

Verizon pays $75M for Lightstone’s Bronx warehouse

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 08:00 AM PST

Verizon isn’t dropping any calls in New York City, continuing a flurry of recent moves within the market. The telecom giant purchased a warehouse at 325 Exterior Street in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx for $75 million, the Commercial Observer reported. Verizon previously rented the 26,000-square-foot facility from Lightstone and had a five-year option on the space. Lightstone has owned the property since purchasing it from ABS Partners Real Estate in April 2019.

ASB, 60 Guilders sell Sunset Park warehouse for $85M

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 07:15 AM PST

ASB Real Estate Investments and 60 Guilders have traded a Sunset Park warehouse for $85 million. The investors sold the roughly 200,000-square-foot warehouse at 5112 Second Ave. to a team of O’Connor Capital Partners and CBRE Investment Management, a source familiar with the sale told The Real Deal. A spokesperson for ABS Real Estate confirmed the sale and the price, though declined to comment on the identity of the buyer. “The sale takes advantage of

Life sciences firm inks 65K sf lease at New Haven complex

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 06:00 AM PST

A technology and life sciences complex near Yale University has locked in a major tenant as New Haven continues to position itself as a hub for biotech firms. Quantum-Si, a Connecticut-based provider of protein sequencing technology, said Tuesday that it will move its headquarters to Winchester Works, an office building at 115 Munson Street. The firm will occupy about 65,000 of the building’s approximately 130,000 square feet, paying $34 per square foot over the course

With evictions clock ticking, tenant advocates throw Hail Mary

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 05:00 AM PST

In just 10 days New York’s nearly two-year ban on evictions will likely be history. For landlords, Jan. 15 cannot come soon enough. When the latest extension of the moratorium lapses, owners will finally have a legal route to reclaim their property and an estimated $2 billion in back rent from nonpaying tenants. But that mid-January day also looms as a boogeyman for landlords. Tenant advocates, while resigned to the moratorium’s sunset, see it as

The Closing: Todd Michael Glaser

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 04:30 AM PST

Development is brain damage, at any budget. So if you’re signing up for it, says Todd Michael Glaser, you might as well aim for the stratosphere. “The problem is, to build a three-bedroom, two bath, $400,000 house and build a $200 million house, every part, every moving part, is the same — it’s just more money,” Glaser said. “So why would I choose to build a $400,000 house 400 times when I can build one

3 things you missed while cheering de Blasio’s departure

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 04:00 AM PST

New Yorkers could be forgiven if they missed some real estate news as Bill de Blasio’s mayoralty ended, which many have been pining for — for eight years, in some cases. Euphoria over de Blasio’s exit wasn’t the only distraction. The conflicting emotions of the holiday season and soaring omicron cases clouded our consciousness. Still, although The Real Deal didn’t cover the following three stories last week, it wasn’t because they weren’t important. We just