The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Goldman, Gluck land $118M loan for DoBro rental

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 03:43 PM PDT

Yoel Goldman’s All Year Management and Joel Gluck’s Spencer Equity landed a $117.5 million loan for a newly completed Downtown Brooklyn rental tower, property records show. The property, called the Azure, is located at 436 Albee Square, just a few blocks from Fort Greene Park. Spencer Equity and All Year are equal partners in the development, with each holding a 50 percent stake. The 28-story property contains 150 apartments and was previously appraised at $167 million. The […]

Westchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: New Canaan imposes temporary ban on “for sale” signs in yards … & more

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 03:00 PM PDT

New Canaan imposes temporary ban on “for sale” signs in yards “For Sale” signs will vanish from New Canaan for half a year starting on July 1 as part of a trial ban, according to the Stamford Daily Voice. Realtor associations in the area agreed to the experiment because many consider the signs eyesores that “can reduce a neighborhood’s beauty and appeal,” according to the outlet. The president of the New Canaan Board of Realtors, […]

“There is no beef”: Contractor group says nonunion org lacks enough clout to represent NYC labor

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 02:40 PM PDT

A Manhattan-based contractor group is taking aim at a nonunion organization, claiming it doesn’t have enough clout to be the voice of open shop labor in the city. The Building Trades Employers’ Association commissioned a report on the New York chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors — a group that bills itself as the “voice of merit shop” (an alternative term for the use of nonunion and union labor). The report claims that only […]

How Eastern went south: Inside the commercial brokerage’s demise

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 02:20 PM PDT

An ominous email went out Thursday evening summoning Eastern Consolidated’s 140-odd brokers and staffers to a company-wide meeting the following morning. Some knew what it meant; most didn’t. At the meeting, Peter Hauspurg and Daun Paris revealed that after 37 years, the commercial brokerage would be shutting down in late July. The founders said they had hired the investment bank Kimberlite earlier this year to review acquisition offers from other companies, and after months of […]

Corcoran’s top performers went on a weeklong excursion

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 01:50 PM PDT

The Corcoran Group’s A team spent a rosé-soaked week in Barbados last month as part of the brokerage’s annual President’s Council retreat for its top 40 agents from New York, South Florida and the Hamptons. On a conference call from the beach, with a fresh round of cocktails in hand, Corcoran president Pam Liebman and New York-based agents Jessica Buchman and Scott Stewart dished on the revelry. “I’m relaxing,” Stewart said, claiming the best part […]

NYU signs 125K sf lease renewal at Gramercy Park location

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 01:21 PM PDT

New York University is extending its stay at its Gramercy Park location. The university signed a 32-year lease extension at Related Companies’ 105 East 17th Street, property records show. The deal is for the entire 125,000-square-foot building. NYU first moved into the four-story property in 2012 after signing a seven-year sublease with Zurich Insurance Company. NYU’s New York City locations are scattered within a square area with borders such as 14th Street to the north, […]

HNA and MHP secure $342M refi at 850 Third

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 12:55 PM PDT

HNA Group has scored a financing lifeline at its Midtown East office tower 850 Third Avenue, part of a portfolio of U.S. office towers that the cash-strapped Chinese conglomerate has sought to sell. HNA, in partnership with MHP Real Estate Services and ATCO Properties & Management, secured $342 million from French bank Natixis, real estate investment trust Paramount Group and Virginia-based investment Harbor Group International, The Real Deal has learned. The deal included $100 million […]

Tee off with The Real Deal at our annual NY golf outing

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 12:09 PM PDT

The Real Deal is pleased to announce that we will be hosting this year’s golf outing at The Muttontown Club in East Norwich, New York. Muttontown is a beautiful private country club available exclusively to members and their guests and offers the perfect setting for meeting and mingling with NYC’s real estate elites. The day will include breakfast, a shotgun start and cocktails and meals, including a semi-formal dinner. For the first time ever, a […]

Paul Manafort sent to jail over witness tampering allegation

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 11:16 AM PDT

A federal judge revoked Paul Manafort’s bail on Friday, sending the former Trump campaign chair to jail ahead of his two trials on fraud charges. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Manafort tried to tamper with witnesses by contacting two journalists who worked on a lobbying campaign he led in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported. She explained that she needed to keep him from contacting others. “This is not middle school,” Jackson said. “I can’t take […]

Polish baker inks lease deals for first US locations, plans 50 stores in New York

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 09:54 AM PDT

Just Baked, a Polish bakery chain being rebranded for an entrance to the U.S. market, has signed two Manhattan leases ahead of a bold plan to open 50 stores in New York, signposting a direct challenger to French bakery Maison Kayser. The two bakeries, which will sell a range of sandwiches, coffee and pastries, are set to open in a 1,400-square-foot Tribeca storefront at 88 West Broadway, and into another location at Westfield’s Oculus downtown. […]

Brookfield mulling $700M equity injection into 666 Fifth Avenue: report

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 09:18 AM PDT

Brookfield Property Partners is considering a $700 million equity injection at 666 Fifth Avenue, where it already plans on acquiring a 49.5 percent ownership stake from Kushner Companies. It’s also looking to bring in a new $1 billion loan on the property, according to Commercial Mortgage Alert. The new capital would be used to update the aging office tower as well as pay off the building’s existing $1.4 billion in debt, which comes due in […]

Mitch Rudin is leaving Mack-Cali

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 08:33 AM PDT

Mitchell Rudin is departing Mack-Cali Realty, the company announced on Friday. Rudin served as CEO of the Jersey City-based company from June 2015 until April 2017, when he was demoted to vice chairman and replaced as CEO by Michael DeMarco. In an interview with the Commercial Observer last month, DeMarco said Rudin “didn’t have the right skill set for the public market, and I think he realized it. We had an agreeable meeting and then […]

House flipping: it’s harder than it looks

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 08:23 AM PDT

Prospective house flippers, be warned: the reality of the business is much tougher than it appears on reality television. The popularity of buying properties to renovate and sell at a profit is steadily increasing, and many people in the industry credit this to reality shows about the practice on networks like HGTV, according to the New York Times. In the New York area, flips made up 5.6 percent of sales in 2017, a 29 percent […]

Eastern Consolidated is going out of business

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 07:57 AM PDT

Commercial brokerage firm Eastern Consolidated will shut down permanently next month, the company’s founders said Friday. Peter Hauspurg and Daun Paris, the married couple who founded Eastern Consolidated in 1981, had worked with the investment bank Kimberlite to find a buyer, but could not find a deal with favorable terms, the Commercial Observer reported. They didn’t say who offered to buy the firm, however. “We went to the logical suspects,” Hauspurg said. The shutdown comes […]

Doomsday predictions over tax cuts have not come true — yet

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 07:00 AM PDT

What if Congress passed a massive tax bill with scary cutbacks in deductions for homeowners — prompting dire predictions of mass property-value declines — but nothing much happened? What if home prices in the market segments expected to be hurt the most by the tax changes actually rose significantly and showed no hints of decreasing? Six months after the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, where are we? The law slashed […]

Why savvy investors are using Alaska to avoid property tax caps

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 06:30 AM PDT

To get around a provision in the new tax law limiting federal deductions for state and local taxes to $10,000, investors in states like New York are turning to Alaska. Property owners have been establishing LLCs in no-tax states like Alaska or Delaware to get around the cap, according to Bloomberg. They then transfer parts of that LLC into several non-grantor trusts, which are treated as independent taxpayers. Each trust can take the $10,000 deduction […]

Investigators seize NYCHA records in criminal probe of agency

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 06:01 AM PDT

Investigators from the city and federal government seized records from the New York City Housing Authority on Wednesday, part of a criminal probe into the agency. Agents from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency and the city Department of Investigation carried out the warrant on NYCHA’s warehouse on 49th Avenue in Long Island City, according to the New York Post. They took computers with documents concerning asbestos and lead paint […]

Meet the Hamptons’ top resi agents

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 05:30 AM PDT

To keep their edge in the rapidly evolving East End real estate market, Zachary and Cody Vichinsky of Bespoke Real Estate are investing very heavily in technology, including a proprietary database that helps their firm analyze the luxury segment. “We have a very robust marketing division that is myopically focused on systems and marketing methodologies that are specific to $10 million-plus properties,” said Zachary. For the second year in a row, the brothers nabbed the […]

Nonbank mortgage lending skyrockets in Q1: report

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 05:00 AM PDT

Nonbank mortgage lending jumped nationwide in the first quarter of 2018 as some of largest banks continued to show sharp declines in home mortgages originations, a new report shows. Mortgage companies such as loanDepot, Fairway Independent Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage Solutions all reported that home mortgage originations rose by at least 27 percent in the first quarter of 2018 on a yearly basis, according to Attom Data Solutions. Attom collected information from publicly recorded […]

Six industry titans on the joys and pains of their first jobs

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 04:30 AM PDT

Donald Trump touted his — supposedly — humble start in real estate during his presidential campaign, when he cited the $1 million “small loan” given to him by his father. And while it’s certainly not uncommon for New York’s real estate elite to come from great fortune, some did a bit more tugging on their bootstraps. As evidence, The Real Deal talked to six industry leaders about the less glamorous jobs they worked before building and […]

New apartment permits in Brooklyn reach two-year high

Posted: 15 Jun 2018 04:00 AM PDT

Brooklyn has long been ahead of the other boroughs in terms of new multifamily construction. It recently added to its lead, with more new apartment permits issued in May than any month since 2015. There were 54 new apartment building permits issued in Brooklyn last month, according to an analysis of Department of Buildings permitting data by The Real Deal. Half of those were in Bedford-Stuyvesant, East Flatbush and Bushwick. The last time more than […]