The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Lawmakers, advocates blame Heastie for holding up gas ban bill

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 02:30 PM PDT

As state budget negotiations drag on, lawmakers and environmental groups are fighting to push through a bill that would require new buildings to go electric within two years. Advocates have blamed Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie for “balking” at including the measure in the state budget. Gov. Kathy Hochul had proposed requiring new buildings to produce zero on-site carbon emissions by 2027. The Senate was more aggressive in its budget resolution, calling for a ban of

States bicker over rental assistance amid Treasury reallocation

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 02:15 PM PDT

Evidently, $46.5 billion of rental assistance is not enough to go around in the United States. The Treasury Department has started reallocating funds from states with excess funds to states out of funds altogether. The Associated Press reported the reallocation has created winners and losers, along with political debates among lawmakers, tenant advocates and residents in some states. According to the Treasury, $30 billion has either been spent or allocated through February. States have a

Watch: Lendlease COO on the next generation of megaprojects

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 01:30 PM PDT

Want a clue as to how the world’s skylines could change in the future? Look at the auto industry. “If you go back into the seventies, all cars were metal-based. Now they’re all carbon fiber,” said Denis Hickey, COO of Lendlease, the Australian-based development and construction behemoth that’s making a big push in New York. “Once you bring in a higher level of predictability and design engineering, can you bring in new materials for structure,

Mall giant Westfield to shed US assets, focus on Europe

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 12:45 PM PDT

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is shedding its U.S. assets as it narrows its focus to its core markets in Europe. The Paris-based company told investors last month it would “complete a radical reduction of financial exposure to the U.S.” through this year and next and “emerge as a focused European pure play.” Southern California is Westfield’s largest U.S. market, with 10 malls from Los Angeles to San Diego totaling about 12 million square feet of retail space. Unibail’s

Developer plans boutique office above Wall Street hangout Harry’s

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 12:15 PM PDT

The historic building that’s home to Wall Street power lunch hangout Harry’s has a new owner. SomeraRoad purchased a commercial condo unit above the popular steakhouse at 1 Hanover Square for $6 million, records show. The New York-based developer plans to spend up to $19 million more to convert it to boutique offices, according to CEO Ian Ross. Harry’s will continue to own and occupy its space in the basement. The rest of the building

Resi agent Steven Kramer returns to Douglas Elliman

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 11:30 AM PDT

Corcoran’s Steven Kramer, a Manhattan-based residential broker who completed $100 million worth of deals in 2021, is making his way back to Douglas Elliman. Kramer joined Elliman in 2009 and spent nearly a decade at the brokerage before moving to Corcoran in 2018. “Sometimes you got to step away from home a little bit to realize what you missed,” Kramer said. Kramer started his career at Gabel Property Group in 2006 before joining Hart Diamond

Asian grocery chain leases 45K sf in Westbury

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 10:30 AM PDT

A Long Island mall is looking to shed its high vacancy rate from mere months ago, bringing in a popular Asian grocery store chain for its first New York location. California-based 99 Ranch Market is opening a 45,000-square-foot location at the Samanea New York mall in Westbury. The company is only the second new tenant to come to the mall in more than two decades. The store signed a 15-year lease in April 2020, but

Should this dirty, waterlogged neighborhood be abandoned?

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 09:30 AM PDT

The Hole is still living down to its name, two decades after the city first moved to address problems in the low-lying, flood-prone neighborhood. The small neighborhood on the border of Queens and Brooklyn sits below the city municipal network, depriving most of the homes of the sewer system. The City reported stalled plans have left residents plagued by problems with flooding, dumping and garbage management. “Everything inside the house is pretty peaceful, but when

Manhattan’s apartment market kicked off 2022 with hot, expensive streak

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 08:30 AM PDT

Manhattan’s apartment market kicked off 2022 with its hottest start in over three decades. Prices last quarter remained higher than their pre-pandemic levels and the portion of bidding wars rose for the fourth quarter in a row to a four-year peak, according to Miller Samuel’s quarterly report for Douglas Elliman. Condos and co-ops saw a surge of deals totaling 3,585, the most since Miller Samuel began tracking sales in 1989 and 46 percent more than

Signature Bank picks up more space at ESRT’s 1400 Broadway

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 07:45 AM PDT

Signature Bank is ringing the expansion bell at its office once more, adding more square footage to a large stockpile of space in the Garment District. The company is adding nearly 33,000 square feet to its space at Empire State Realty Trust’s 1400 Broadway, the Commercial Observer reported, claiming the 16th floor on a long-term lease. The expansion extends Signature Bank’s footprint to more than 313,000 square feet between West 38th and West 39th streets,

Tal Alexander tapped to sell long-delayed new development condo in Noho

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 07:00 AM PDT

Sales are re-launching today at 22 Bond Street — for real this time. Douglas Elliman’s Tal Alexander, Jared Schwadron and Marc Riedel are taking over the five remaining condos at the luxury NoHo development, where asking prices range from $8.5 million to $18 million. The 12-story building, co-developed by Louis Greco’s Second Development Services and the Richport Group, has been plagued by false starts for nearly a decade. Its lone buyer to date is Jamie

NYC ads lure Floridians back following anti-LGBTQ law

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 06:15 AM PDT

To boost the city’s recovery and patch things over with the LGBTQ community, Mayor Eric Adams launched a billboard campaign to draw South Floridians disillusioned with their state to the Big Apple. The campaign kicked off Monday in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville and will run through next month, according to a press release from Adams’ office. Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that bans any teaching about

Tenants freak over rent board appointee. Landlords? Meh

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 05:45 AM PDT

Tenant advocates say the mayor’s appointment of NYU finance professor Arpit Gupta to the Rent Guidelines Board shifts power on the panel to landlords. Landlords’ response: If only. In a December Vox article, Gupta, a fellow at the free-market think tank Manhattan Institute, said he was a “little skeptical of rent control” because it only helps tenants in affected units, not renters overall. For tenant advocates, Mayor Eric Adams’ move was like putting the Grinch

What brokers are seeing as mortgage rates climb

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 05:00 AM PDT

In January, a flood of buyers hit what was already a hyper-competitive residential market. At the time, the Federal Reserve was signaling its first interest rate hike in more than three years, and more ahead. “Once the Fed said, ‘We’re going to start raising the interest rates in March,’ we saw everyone running to the exit, and people were just putting [in] offers left and right,” said Kobi Lahav, the director of sales at Living

Wash, rinse, repeat: How money launderers exploit real estate

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 04:30 AM PDT

In early March, Lakshmi Kumar got a chance to tell Sens. Chuck Grassley and Sheldon Whitehouse that crooks across the globe were taking the U.S. to the cleaners. She didn’t miss it. Kumar, the policy director at watchdog group Global Financial Integrity, told the powerful lawmakers that Congress had failed to close the loopholes routinely used by international criminals to convert ill-gotten gains into American real estate. Testifying before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics

March inventory numbers bode well for city’s housing market

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 04:00 AM PDT

Spring listing season is here, and not a moment too soon for New York City’s drum-tight residential market. New listings in Manhattan and Brooklyn increased year-over-year in March for the third straight month and newly signed contracts for homes rose annually for the first time in 2022, according to a report by Douglas Elliman compiled by Miller Samuel. New listings for Manhattan condos and co-ops rose 15 percent and 17 percent, respectively. The 45 one-

Valentino settles Fifth Ave pandemic rent dispute

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 03:40 PM PDT

Valentino fled for Soho more than a year ago, but only now is the retailer putting its Fifth Avenue struggles behind it. The high-fashion boutique settled a lease dispute with its landlord at 693 Fifth Avenue, the Commercial Observer reported. Terms were not disclosed, but Valentino called the settlement “amicable.” It did result in the termination of the brand’s lease. Valentino sued in June 2020, looking to terminate its 15-year lease at the four-story retail

Jamie Dimon to work-from-homers: You win

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 03:26 PM PDT

“People don’t like commuting, but so what?” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said a year ago. Since then, leverage has shifted to workers as it became clear they would ditch any employer that chains them to their desks five days a week. In turn, Dimon has softened his stance, recognizing the staying power of remote work. “It’s clear that working from home will become more permanent in American business,” Dimon acknowledged in his annual shareholder

Vlad Doronin nears massive refi for condo, hotel project at Crown Building

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 02:30 PM PDT

Vladislav Doronin’s OKO Group is closing in on around $820 million from JPMorgan to refinance its luxury condo and hotel project at the Crown Building, The Real Deal has learned. The project, which occupies the top 20 floors of the building at 730 Fifth Avenue, is expected to be completed in the coming months, about seven years after Doronin partnered with developer Michael Shvo to purchase the space for $475 million. OKO Group is converting

Park Slope penthouse tops Brooklyn luxury market

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 01:21 PM PDT

An elegant Park Slope penthouse topped a strong week for Brooklyn’s luxury market. Unit PHA at 1 Prospect Park West was the borough’s priciest signed contract last week, according to Compass’ weekly report on signed contracts for homes asking $2 million or more. The four-bedroom, four-bathroom home last asked $7.75 million. The 3,187-square-foot unit was built in 2020 and features 1920s architecture, according to the report. The condo has a custom chef’s kitchen, a formal

Editor’s note: Building the future, block by block

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 11:45 AM PDT

Maybe it was just the sun, sand and surf, but The Real Deal’s Future City event in the Bahamas last month left me feeling optimistic. The three-day event, which brought together C-suite execs, startup founders and investors to discuss the intersection of technology and real estate, was held for the first time since the pandemic hit in 2020. Events in the broader world since then may have contributed to the feeling that proptech can transform

Times Square tower lands $590M loan

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 11:00 AM PDT

The former Bertelsmann Building in Times Square landed a $590 million refinancing. Owners Edge Fund Advisors and HSBC secured the new debt for the office portion of the 44-story tower at 1540 Broadway from Apollo Global Management, Michael Dell’s MSD Partners and Monarch Alternative Capital. Edge, run by founders Mark Keller and Gary Siegel, acquired the office floors in the tower along with HSBC Alternative Investments in 2010. The new financing, arranged by a Newmark

TRD’s April issue is live for subscribers!

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 10:15 AM PDT

The Real Deal’s April 2022 issue is live for subscribers and due to hit your doorstep in the coming days. Major changes, both at home and abroad, make this issue one for the books. As editor-in-chief Stuart Elliott writes in his editor’s note, we are truly “building the future, block by block.” Can brokerages keep up? TRD knows rankings and analysis, and this month we have an abundance of both across each of our markets,

UWS brownstone tops Manhattan luxury contracts

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 09:30 AM PDT

A brownstone at 32 West 76th Street topped Manhattan’s priciest homes that entered into contract last week. The seven-story home on the Upper West Side was asking $25.975 million, reduced from $27.5 million when it was listed in August 2021, according to a weekly report covering homes asking $4 million and above by Olshan Realty. The seller paid $10 million for the home in 2014 before commencing a gut renovation. The property is 22 feet

Tech services firm takes 77K sf at Durst’s 1155 Sixth Avenue

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 08:45 AM PDT

The Durst Organization has reeled in another tenant at 1155 Sixth Avenue after a $130 million makeover, a shot in the arm for Manhattan’s beleaguered office market. Technology services provider Global Relay USA, a division of a Canadian firm, recently signed a deal to lease more than 77,000 square feet at the 42-story building, the New York Post reported. The firm is making the move from 286 Madison Avenue. Global Relay is set to lease

Chetrit seals the deal on Two Bridges site

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 08:00 AM PDT

Joseph Chetrit has finally closed the purchase of a Two Bridges development site, with the help of an acquisition loan. The developer purchased the site at 260 South Street on the Lower East Side from CIM Group and L+M Development Partners for $78 million, the Commercial Observer reported. Madison Realty Capital provided $70 million in acquisition financing for the transaction. The Real Deal reported in November Chetrit was in contract to buy the site. At

Inside Roofstock’s grand plan for single-family rentals

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 07:30 AM PDT

Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes made of ticky tacky Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes all the same The Malvina Reynolds song, immortalized in the opening credits of “Weeds,” is a dig at the numbing uniformity of suburbia’s single-family homes. One just like the next, interchangeable, generic. A commodity. Veteran real estate investors, however, knew the truth: The single-family home was far from a commodity. Pricing was all over the place, as

Mayor takes landlord Moshe Piller to court, part of promised crackdown

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 06:45 AM PDT

Moshe Piller, who ranked 28th on this year’s “worst landlord watchlist,” just got hit with a city lawsuit over 1,900 violations across 927 apartments, an average of two per unit. Mayor Eric Adams said the filing is a part of his “ramped-up” enforcement against owners whose buildings’ violations place tenants at risk. Adams said the suit should serve as a “clear message” that landlords “who break the law will pay.” “While Piller made millions in