The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Aby Rosen teams up with Rolling Stone publisher on $290M office deal

Posted: 20 May 2022 02:07 PM PDT

Aby Rosen closed the book on his latest office deal with help from an unlikely source. Rosen’s RFR Holding teamed up with Variety and Rolling Stone publisher Penske Media Corporation to finalize his $290 million purchase of 475 Fifth Avenue, where the glossy magazine company has its headquarters. Penske Media contributed 50 percent of the equity in the partnership, a source familiar with the purchase told The Real Deal. Representatives for RFR and Penske did

Office royalty talk conversions, distress and the “downsize upgrade” trend

Posted: 20 May 2022 02:00 PM PDT

Between inflation, rising interest rates, and employees working from home, there have been better times to be an office landlord or broker. Even some of the city’s largest commercial real estate landlords and brokers — folks not known for broadcasting pessimism — agree that certain properties are going to suffer and need to be converted for other uses. Conversions to hotels or residential are not easy but possible, according to panelists at The Real Deal’s

Jimmy Fallon, Amy Schumer selling Manhattan pads

Posted: 20 May 2022 01:30 PM PDT

Two famous comedians are moving from their respective Manhattan digs. Jimmy Fallon, host of “The Tonight Show,” and his film producer wife Nancy Juvonen are in contract to sell their penthouse at 34 Gramercy Park East, the New York Post reported. The couple listed the home for $15 million, but the buyer — fellow celeb Cara Delevingne — reportedly inked an off-market deal for a few million less. The six-bedroom, five-bathroom home spans close to

Crown Building notches another peak sale with $55M condo

Posted: 20 May 2022 12:30 PM PDT

Vladislav Doronin’s OKO Group has nailed down one of the biggest condo sales of the year at the luxury Crown Building. A buyer closed on a full-floor unit at the Aman New York condominiums for $55 million, the Wall Street Journal reported, roughly $8,730 per square foot. The asking price for the apartment was roughly $62.5 million, according to the condo’s offering plan. The 22nd floor apartment covers approximately 6,300 square feet and includes four

Columbia Property Trust signs investment firm to 71K sf at 799 Broadway

Posted: 20 May 2022 12:15 PM PDT

A Boston-based investment management firm has selected Columbia Property Trust’s 799 Broadway for its first New York City office. Wellington Management beefed up its real estate footprint by leasing 71,000 square feet across four floors at Columbia Property Trust’s new boutique office building three blocks south of Union Square. Wellington’s 16.5-year agreement makes it the largest occupant of the office complex, which sits on the corner of East 11th Street and Broadway where Union Square,

Boutique LES office scores blockchain firm as anchor tenant

Posted: 20 May 2022 11:30 AM PDT

A new, glass-encased boutique office and retail project in the Bowery has landed an anchor tenant. San Francisco-based Solana Labs, has agreed to lease the top four floors of 141 East Houston Street, a ground-up project by East End Capital, Grandview Partners and KPG Funds. The firms acquired the site by buying the Sunshine Theater in 2017 for $31.5 million. In announcing the lease, the firms identified the tenant only as “a global leader in

Refinery29 subleasing at 225 Broadway for move in with Vice

Posted: 20 May 2022 10:30 AM PDT

Figuring out office space is becoming a vice for a major media company. Refinery29 is subleasing 15,000 square feet at Braun Management’s 225 Broadway to healthcare technology company Tomorrow Health, the Commercial Observer reported. Employees of the women’s lifestyle media brand have already moved to owner Vice Media’s offices at 289 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. Vice, which acquired Refinery29 in 2019, recently scrapped plans to move to Rudin Management’s Dock 72 and renewed its lease

Miki Naftali, Meredith Marshall talk development, death of 421a

Posted: 20 May 2022 09:30 AM PDT

As industry leaders warn that the demise of a property tax break will mean fewer affordable apartments, one developer held out his Williamsburg project as Exhibit A. Miki Naftali, chair and CEO of the Naftali Group, said his company had planned to set aside 30 percent of the rental units in the second phase of a massive project at 470 Kent Avenue as affordable. But without the 421a abatement or a replacement, his firm will

How a basic Bronx supermarket rezoning devolved into food fight

Posted: 20 May 2022 08:30 AM PDT

How hard would you fight to save a batting cage and 12 vacant parcels in your quasi-suburban Bronx neighborhood? Pretty hard, if you wanted to keep 339 apartments — some of them affordable — out of your backyard. In what project supporters call a classic case of Nimbyism, hundreds of Throggs Neck residents are rallying against the development proposed for their community’s main thoroughfare. A rezoning sought by several longtime area businessmen would allow for

Real estate tech is coming for your business

Posted: 20 May 2022 08:04 AM PDT

Ignore proptech’s advance at your own peril. That central message emerged from an afternoon panel discussion at The Real Deal’s New York City Showcase + Forum Thursday, where the real estate industry was said to be undergoing its most profound transformation in decades. “I think we are actually in the midst of one of the most significant shifts in and around the real estate industry than we have probably been through since the Industrial Revolution,”

Home sales, building to slow: Fannie Mae

Posted: 20 May 2022 06:45 AM PDT

Home prices have reached historic highs in recent months, but low inventory and rising mortgage rates have some economists warning of a slowdown in both sales and homebuilding. A “meaningful slowdown” could be headed for home sales in the second and third quarters, according to an outlook from Fannie Mae reported by Inman. The economists forecasted 6.1 million total home sales this year, a reduction from previous estimates that would represent an 11.1 percent decline

Gary Barnett has something to say

Posted: 20 May 2022 05:45 AM PDT

Gary Barnett doesn’t do many interviews. But it turns out that he has a lot of opinions. The billionaire founder and president of Extell Development shared a few in a rare sit-down Thursday, including: that he should not have to pay millions of dollars to holdout tenants; that it’s wrong to say foreign buyers of luxury apartments are “parking their cash;” that rents are not soaring but returning to pre-pandemic levels; and that developers often

CBRE doubles down on flex-office provider Industrious

Posted: 20 May 2022 05:00 AM PDT

CBRE cast another vote of confidence in flex-office provider Industrious, handing the co-working startup another nine-figure sum. The company announced this week it was investing another $100 million in Industrious. Part of the investment will go towards accelerating international expansion for the co-working company, which recently announced international acquisitions in Asia and Europe. Jamie Hodari, CEO and co-founder of Industrious, said the investment assures the company can “grow on a global scale to meet current

Rising interest rates will dampen city’s investment sales market this year

Posted: 20 May 2022 04:00 AM PDT

Activity in New York City’s investment sales market continued to rebound in the first quarter of 2022, but a slowdown could be on the horizon as rising rates drive up borrowers’ costs. Dealmakers bought and sold 582 properties in the quarter, a year-over-year jump of 53 percent, according to a report by Ariel Property Advisors. Those transactions totaled $8.9 billion, a whopping 320 percent increase from the first quarter of last year and roughly in

Eric Adams critiques DOB, wants to roll out “red carpet” for development

Posted: 19 May 2022 02:00 PM PDT

Eric Adams knows his audience. “What oil is to Texas, real estate is to New York,” the mayor told a crowd of real estate professionals at The Real Deal’s New York City Showcase + Forum Thursday, noting the significant chunk of city revenue the industry provides. In remarks at the Metropolitan Pavilion, the mayor criticized the Department of Buildings, echoing previous comments that the agency’s bureaucratic processes stand in the way of projects. He said

Top resi execs talk brand building, tech and politics at TRD NYC event

Posted: 19 May 2022 01:30 PM PDT

UPDATED, May 20, 2022, 9:30 a.m.: Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman is no fan of the wave of real estate reality TV shows that made Ryan Serhant, founder of the eponymous brokerage, famous – and she let him know as much during a panel discussion for The Real Deal’s New York City Showcase + Forum. “I do think reality TV is very deflating to what we do because I think it makes it look

Southampton Village allows owners to collect summer’s rent upfront

Posted: 19 May 2022 12:30 PM PDT

Another Hamptons locale has passed a rental registry law ahead of the summer season. Southampton Village adopted its law last week, 27East reported, just before peak season begins in the Hamptons. The village is one of several to adopt a similar registry rule to get around a provision in the state’s ​​Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act that banned owners from collecting more than one month’s rent in advance. The state law was designed to

Rabsky Group scores $92M loan for big Gowanus project

Posted: 19 May 2022 11:30 AM PDT

Simon Dushinsky and Isaac Rabinowitz’s Rabsky Group scored a $92 million construction loan for a large mixed-use project in Gowanus as developers continue to flock to the recently rezoned Brooklyn neighborhood. The Brooklyn-based developer secured the loan for its project at 313-315 Bond Street — where it plans a 526,000-square-foot building — from G4 Capital, according to a person familiar with the matter. Henry Bodek of Galaxy Capital arranged the financing. Rabsky bought the property

George Comfort & Sons inks 62K sf tenant in Midtown

Posted: 19 May 2022 10:48 AM PDT

George Comfort & Sons has got the goods at its newly renovated office building in the Theater District, signing a “consumer goods company” to a long-term lease. The landlord announced the 62,000-square-foot lease at 135 West 50th Street, a recently renovated, 1960s-era building a block west of Rockefeller Center, but did not specify the tenant or the asking rent for the space. An in-house team including Matt Coudert and Andrew Conrad represented George Comfort, while

Destructive tenants driving upstate landlords to despair

Posted: 19 May 2022 08:30 AM PDT

Upstate landlords are fed up with tenants wrecking their rentals and getting away with it. Landlords and property managers took their gripes to the Schenectady City Council last week, the Times Union reported. They want more police help to deal with destructive tenants and less punishment for minor infractions. The landlords shared stories of tenants punching holes in walls, ripping out wiring and flooding basements. One landlord said tenants have caused tens of thousands of

Where have home values grown more, suburbs or cities? The answer may surprise you

Posted: 19 May 2022 08:00 AM PDT

First, let’s get one myth out of the way: Home prices did not rise faster in the suburbs than in urban areas when the pandemic hit. Urban home values outperformed their suburban counterparts for the first 15 months of Covid, through July 2021, as they had since the beginning of 2013. But in the past nine months, that trend has reversed, according to a report by Zillow. Since July, the typical suburban home has gained

NY Public Library leases 41k sf for Midtown offices

Posted: 19 May 2022 06:45 AM PDT

The New York Public Library isn’t taking a page from the rest of Manhattan’s beleaguered office market, instead signing a sizable lease in Midtown. The NYPL signed a 33-year lease at ABS Partners Real Estate’s 270 Madison Avenue, the Commercial Observer reported. The office space is across three floors of the 19-story building, covering 41,000 square feet. Financial terms of the lease weren’t disclosed. ABS did create a structure, however, that will allow the library

Old-guard landlords cash out in Manhattan, Bronx multifamily deals

Posted: 19 May 2022 05:45 AM PDT

Multifamily deals in Manhattan and the Bronx highlighted an otherwise slow week for mid-market investment sales as a handful of longtime New York City landlords traded apartment buildings for between $10 million and $40 million. Landlord Yechiel Newhouse bought a 96-unit apartment building at 1514 Sedgwick Avenue in Morris Heights, the Bronx, for $22.5 million. The seller was Sharp Management, which bought the building for $21.7 million in 2014. The 13-story property was built in

Compass aims to grow its North Fork agent count fivefold

Posted: 19 May 2022 05:00 AM PDT

Compass is planning an aggressive expansion on the North Fork as the market becomes increasingly like an extension of the Hamptons. The firm, which entered the market in March 2021, has opened an office at 54100 Main Road, Southold, and recruited three teams since the start of the year. In the months ahead, it plans to grow its agent count from six to 30 and could open a second location in Greenport. “It used to

Ben Shaoul plans 376-unit complex near L.A.’s Chinatown

Posted: 19 May 2022 04:00 AM PDT

A high-profile New York landlord has bigger plans for a multifamily project near Downtown Los Angeles. Ben Shaoul is looking to build a 194,581-square-foot, 376-unit apartment complex at 1457 North Main Street, according to documents filed with the Department of City Planning. The proposed structure, with the alternate address of 114-116 West Sotello Street, would replace a two-story food processing facility. The new plans represent an enlargement of a prior proposal for the site, which