The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

One Vanderbilt to 1 WTC: My view’s $5 nicer than yours

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 02:47 PM PDT

Soaking in a panoramic view of New York City’s skyline can be a priceless experience — but not from the top of One Vanderbilt. Looking out from the tower’s public perch will cost you roughly $39, or $5 more than the standard cost of riding to One World Trade Center’s top floors. In a presentation at an investor conference on Tuesday, SL Green Realty revealed the average ticket price for admission to its observation deck, […]

Cushman’s Gene Spiegelman leaving company for Ripco

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 02:20 PM PDT

Longtime Cushman & Wakefield retail broker Gene Spiegelman is leaving the firm. Spiegelman, who last year returned to deal making full-time after serving as head of Cushman’s retail brokerage division, is joining Ripco Real Estate, Crain’s reported. “We can confirm that today was Gene’s last day at the firm,” a Cushman spokesperson said in a statement to Crain’s. “He’s leaving to pursue an ownership stake at a boutique retail firm. We wish him the best […]

The top 10 NYC retail leases in May

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 02:00 PM PDT

May’s top 10 retail leasing deals were just over half of April’s in terms of square footage. The 10 biggest retail lease deals signed last month totaled just over 165,000 square feet, down 145,000 square feet from April’s total of over 310,000 square feet. The largest retail lease in April was inked in Hell’s Kitchen. 1) Puma, 609 Fifth Avenue, Plaza District – 24,000 square feet The German Sportswear brand inked a 15-year lease for […]

Scorecard: Manhattan I-sales saw 50% decline in March

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 01:02 PM PDT

A roundup of news and data on the commercial market.

Join TRD in the Hamptons this summer

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 12:30 PM PDT

Don’t miss The Real Deal’s first East End panel event on June 30, where the top brokers in the Hamptons will discuss strategies for moving product in an increasingly competitive market. Confirmed panelists include Corcoran Group’s Susan Breitenbach, Brown Harris Stevens’ Christopher Burnside, Bespoke’s Cody Vichinsky, Douglas Elliman’s Enzo Morabito and Compass’ Lori Schiaffino. The panel discussion will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be followed by a networking happy hour alongside a showcase […]

Hamptons Cheat Sheet: Water Mill buyers say no one told them “trashy” Bravo show would film next door … & more

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Water Mill buyers say no one told them “trashy” Bravo show would film next door The buyers of luxurious homes in a gated Water Mill community claim no one told them that Bravo would be filming its raucous reality show “Beach House” next door. In the show, cameras follow young New Yorkers as they spend their summer partying in a Hamptons home together. “Not one of the buyers was advised before closing that their multimillion-dollar […]

Greenland pulls out of San Fran project

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 11:30 AM PDT

Chinese firms continue to pull out of the U.S. real estate market as quickly as they swooped in, with Greenland Group being the latest. The U.S. subsidiary of the Shanghai-based developer is divesting from a massive San Francisco-area biotech campus development, according to the Wall Street Journal. Greenland has sold the 40-acre property to Los Angeles-Kilroy Realty Corp. for $308 million. Greenland USA purchased the site in 2016 in partnership with Ping An Trust, Agile […]

Redfin CEO lashes out at Premier Agent and paid agent ads

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 11:00 AM PDT

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman lambasted the practice of letting buyers’ agents advertise on other brokers’ listings as a “fundamental misdirection” on Tuesday. During a workshop on competition in real estate convened by the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, Kelman said the practice is a cash cow for listings portals but is confusing to consumers. “There’s now a multibillion[-dollar] industry based on misdirection,” Kelman said. “Redfin makes money from this, Zillow makes money from […]

Lord & Taylor’s Manhattan flagship to close

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 10:30 AM PDT

After 104 years, the Lord & Taylor flagship store at 424 Fifth Avenue is set to close its doors. Hudson’s Bay Company, which owns the retailer, said it will shutter the location along with nine other unspecified Lord & Taylor stores by the end of 2019. “Exiting this iconic space reflects Lord & Taylor’s increasing focus on its digital opportunity and HBC’s commitment to improving profitability,” Hudson’s Bay said in a press release announcing its […]

Douglas Elliman launches third-party app store for agents

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 10:12 AM PDT

As the technology arms race continues in the brokerage world, Douglas Elliman is looking for new tools to help agents — but staying away from building its own. The brokerage launched “Douglas,” an internal platform that will give agents access to corporate resources like marketing tools as well as an app store, the company announced Tuesday. So far, the platform has more than a dozen partnerships with third-party apps and is exploring additional ones, according […]

Brookfield buys into Greenpoint Landing sites in $148M deal

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 09:25 AM PDT

UPDATED: Tues., June 5 @ 3:00 p.m.: Brookfield Property Partners bought into two Park Tower Group development sites at Greenpoint Landing, records filed with the city Tuesday show. With Park Tower Group, the joint venture stake in the two sites, one on Commercial Street and the other on West and Eagle Streets, is valued at $148 million. The sites are the very same where Brookfield announced late last month it would build two new rental projects, in […]

How real estate’s reality TV stars turn air time into dollars

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 09:00 AM PDT

When the Corcoran Group hired “Million Dollar Listing New York” co-star Steve Gold in April, it broke its own (unwritten) rule that banned its agents from appearing on reality TV. But Gold — who was at Town Residential before it collapsed — was apparently a big enough get to overlook the TV cameras. For agents (and their firms), international TV exposure can be a game changer. “It’s my hard work that got me there, and […]

$25K per undisclosed listing: New City Council bill will come down hard on Airbnb

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 08:27 AM PDT

The City Council is slated to consider a controversial bill seeking to fine Airbnb up to $25,000 for every listing it fails to disclose to the city. The legislation, which will be introduced in the City Council on Thursday, requires online home-sharing companies to submit data on individual listings — including the host’s name, home address and phone number — to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, which goes after illegal hotel operators, Politico reported. […]

Bad news for homebuilders is good news for Home Depot and Lowe’s

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 07:45 AM PDT

Factors ranging from rising lumber prices to a shortage of skilled workers are slowing down the construction of new homes. While that may be bad news for the housing industry, it’s good news for home-improvement chains like Home Depot and Lowe’s. As the production of new homes slows down and prices go up, homeowners start seeing their current residences more like investments, making them more inclined to take on renovations like a new bathroom or a […]

City releases proposal to revamp Gowanus

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 07:20 AM PDT

The city has released its proposal to encourage more residential development in Gowanus, an effort that officials hope will be a prelude to rezoning the neighborhood. As part of the proposal, Fourth Avenue would be upzoned to encourage redevelopment of the busy thoroughfare and would make the city’s mandatory inclusionary housing program applicable to the area, Politico reported. In exchange for the zoning change, owners would be required to build affordable housing. Fourth Avenue was […]

Landlord group seeks more control over Loft Law conversions

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 06:32 AM PDT

A group of landlords wants more control over how the Loft Law is applied in the city, adding to the chorus of officials and tenants groups who also want to tweak the legislation. The NYC Community for Improving Residential Conversions of Lofts has drafted legislation calling for a change to the law that would allow owners to collect rent from tenants while converting illegal lofts into complying residences, Crain’s reported. They also want to be […]

Savills Studley turns to artificial intelligence for competitive edge

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 06:00 AM PDT

Brokers, meet your machine sidekick. Savills Studley launched an artificial intelligence-based platform in partnership with the startup Leverton. The platform will allow office users to use Leverton’s AI technology to automatically extract information from leases, contracts and other documents, according to Savills Studley. The company claims its software can compile data and turn it into visualizations 30 percent faster than humans. “Portfolio managers spend several hours a week performing data entry, customizing and integrating data […]

Manhattan office leasing jumps ahead of 2017 thanks to strong May: Colliers

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 05:30 AM PDT

Demand for Manhattan office space was so robust in May that it pushed 2018’s leasing total ahead of where it was at this point last year. Thanks to deals like J. Crew’s 358,000-square-foot sublease at Brookfield Place and Facebook’s 319,000-square-foot expansion at 770 Broadway, Manhattan recorded 4.17 million square feet worth of new leases and renewals last month, according to Colliers International. That was a jump of nearly 83 percent over the 2.28 million square […]

South Florida is coming off its EB-5 addiction

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 05:00 AM PDT

A program that was once described as the “crack cocaine of real estate financing” no longer seems to hold the same addiction for South Florida’s developers. In 2014 and 2015, Rodrigo Azpurua’s Riviera Point Development Group financed two projects entirely with capital raised from the EB-5 program, which gives foreign investors a green card in exchange for investing in job-creating U.S. projects. At the time, Azpurua described such investors as “happy campers.” Non-Chinese citizens could […]

These Manhattan agents have the highest dollar volume in listings for 2017

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 04:30 AM PDT

They won the listings — but can they sell them? That’s a question New York’s top residential agents have been grappling with for the past few years, with buyers calling the shots in a slow-moving market. Amid tax-reform jitters in 2017 and a pileup of new condo inventory, an affirmative answer often boils down to one thing: price. This month, in addition to ranking Manhattan’s top agents by their closed deals, The Real Deal tallied […]

The top 10 biggest real estate projects coming to NYC

Posted: 05 Jun 2018 04:00 AM PDT

A mixed-use affordable housing development in the Bronx was the largest project filed with the city in May. Jorge Madruga’s Maddd Equities is planning a roughly 274,000-square-foot development at 1164 River Avenue. The 17-story building will contain 250 affordable housing units and is part of a 750-unit complex the company is planning across two buildings on River Avenue. Other large projects filed in May include a 201-unit residential project on the Greenpoint waterfront, a new […]