The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Walker Tower PH sells for $31M

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 03:00 PM PDT

A full-floor penthouse at Walker Tower sold for $31 million — below the $42 million it was asking. The unknown seller, in property records as 210 West 18th Street 2012, LLC, paid $31.3 million for the condo in 2014. The buyer is an anonymous LLC, according to New York City Department of Finance records. The penthouse — at JDS Development Group and Property Market Group’s 212 West 18th Street — hit the market last year […]

Alan Miller to join Besen & Associates

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 02:30 PM PDT

Veteran investment-sales broker Alan Miller is heading to Besen & Associates. As a senior managing director at the brokerage, Miller will focus on middle-market investment sales including long-term ground leases and joint venture developments, according to the company. Most recently, Miller was running his own boutique firm called ALDO Advisors, which will continue to operate despite his departure. Before that, Miller worked as a managing partner at 5Points Group and spent more than 14 years as a […]

Dead rats and gallons of sewage: Joseph Chetrit sues hedge fund billionaire over UES rental

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 02:10 PM PDT

Once home to the late fashion designer Gianni Versace, an opulent Upper East Side townhouse was rented to developer Joseph Chetrit, who says it was plagued by a miasma of blocked sewage and a “raging” rodent infestation. Chetrit agreed to rent 5 East 64th Street, a six-story townhouse owned by hedge fund billionaire Thomas Sandell, in August 2016 for $65,000 a month, according to a lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court on Wednesday. Chetrit and […]

Westchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: Armonk estate to be auctioned online in bid to draw Chinese buyers … & more

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 01:50 PM PDT

Armonk estate hits online auction block in bid to draw Chinese buyers Real estate auction company Concierge Auctions is selling an estate in Armonk through an online auction in an effort to bring Chinese buyers to the table. Bidding on the approximately 9,000-square-foot home at 3 Tallwoods Road kicked off on Tuesday and will close on Friday, LoHud reported. The estate hit the market for $4.6 million last year, but is currently asking $2.9 million. […]

BK man who stole landmarked Fort Greene mansion gets 6 years in prison

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 01:20 PM PDT

A Brooklyn man will spend up to six years in prison for stealing six properties in the borough, including a 19th-century Fort Greene mansion. Crown Heights resident Aderibigbe Ogundiran pleaded guilty in March to grand larceny and fraud charges in the case, and he was sentenced on Wednesday to two to six years in prison, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Its investigation found that he stole six Brooklyn properties between February 2015 and […]

Paul Massey ready to launch new brokerage

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 12:54 PM PDT

Paul Massey is preparing a July 1st launch for his new brokerage, which he’s dubbed B6 Real Estate Advisors. The brand’s tagline is “Building by Building, Block by Block,” and the company already has about 20 people working out of its headquarters at 275 Madison Avenue, the New York Post reported. Massey said the new company will use the territory model made famous by his old firm, Massey Knakal Realty Services. “We were the authority […]

Midtown is the sixth priciest office market in the world

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 12:20 PM PDT

According to this week’s market reports, Midtown ranked as the sixth most expensive office market in the world and the late photographer Virginia Thoren’s home was the priciest residential deal in contract. Residential Sales | Leslie J. Garfield There were two closed sales and 14 signed contracts for Manhattan townhouses between June 9 and 22. The most expensive sale for the period was 37-39 Perry Street. The four-story property, which was the home of famous […]

RXR launches $50M tech investment fund

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 12:01 PM PDT

RXR Realty is raising a $50 million fund to invest in real estate tech startups. The real estate company hopes to close the vehicle by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported. “We’ve seen how technology has become more and more ubiquitous in our business and want both the opportunity to invest and to be at the forefront of leveraging these technologies that can help us run our business more effectively,” RXR’s CEO Scott Rechler […]

Apartment rental prices across US slow after years of steady growth: report

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 11:50 AM PDT

Tenants can rejoice. Landlords? Not so much. Apartment building owners across the country may be seeing the end of record rent growth, according to new nationwide data. Prices on multifamily rents ticked up just 2.3 percent in the second quarter year-over-year, the smallest increase since 2010, according to RealPage Inc. The findings were reported in the Wall Street Journal, and attributed in part to the increase in supply that has hit the market. Developers are […]

CBRE hires HFF I-sales broker David Fowler

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 10:56 AM PDT

Amid a wave of recent commercial broker shuffling, CBRE has poached HFF’s David Fowler to join its New York investment-sales division. Fowler, who previously served as a senior director at HFF for six years, started at his new firm earlier this week with the title of first vice president, a CBRE spokesperson confirmed. At HFF, he specialized in joint-venture equity and commercial real estate financing. He was part of the Andrew Scandalios-led team that brokered […]

Tina Brown and Sir Harold Evans sell Sutton Place pad for $6.6M

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 10:33 AM PDT

Media power couple Tina Brown and Sir Harold Evans finally found a buyer for their Sutton Place maisonette, where Brown hosted her legendary soirees in the co-op’s private, manicured garden. The triplex at 447 East 57th Street sold for $6.6 million, property records show. The purchase price works out to around $1,100 per square foot. The buyer appears to be Chilean billionaire Alvaro Saieh Bendeck, who is worth an estimated $3.2 billion, according to Forbes. […]

Real estate bet big (and lost) on outgoing Rep. Joe Crowley

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 10:08 AM PDT

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old socialist who made New York’s affordable housing crisis a focal point of her Democratic primary campaign for the House of Representatives, defeated Rep. Joe Crowley of Queens by a stunning 15 point margin on Tuesday. During the 2018 election cycle, Crowley, who represents New York’s 14th Congressional District and has long headed the Queens County Democratic machine, raised more money than he ever had before, bringing in $3.4 million, according to […]

The McGraw-Hill Building’s top half to receive resi conversion

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 09:35 AM PDT

The owner of the landmarked McGraw-Hill Building on West 42nd Street is planning a residential conversion of the office tower’s upper half, The Real Deal has learned. Deco Tower Associates has proposed a major redevelopment of the 35-story, 662,000-square-foot tower at 330 West 42nd Street, which sits just above part of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Plans call for a conversion of floors 16 through 34 from office space to Art Deco-style luxury rental apartments, […]

Lennar’s stock jumps as Q2 earnings beat analysts expectations

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 08:30 AM PDT

Lennar’s stock price rose 5 percent on Tuesday after the Miami-based homebuilder posted better than expected earnings amid a surge in new home sales. The company announced second quarter net earnings of $310.3 million, or $0.94 per diluted share, far exceeding Wall Street’s expectations of $0.45 per share. The earnings were largely driven by new home sales from Lennar’s acquisition of CalAtlantic, which it completed in February, making the Miami company the largest homebuilder in […]

Family feud: children of Starrett City developer’s widow suing her for $16M

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 07:30 AM PDT

The children of Carol Deane, widow of Starrett City developer Disque Deane, are suing her for allegedly stealing millions from the sale of the complex. Her children, 29-year-old Anne Deane and 26-year-old Carl Deane, have filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court that accuses her of stealing $13.6 million from the $905 million sale of Starrett City, according to the New York Post. Brooksville Company and Rockpoint Group closed on the massive Brooklyn affordable housing […]

575 Lex owners secure $415M refi loan

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 06:45 AM PDT

The owners of 575 Lexington have secured a $415 million refinancing loan from Paramount Group. Normandy Real Estate Partners, Angelo Gordon & Co. and George Comfort & Sons in 2015 bought the 34-story tower in 2015 for $510 million. The new loan will replace a Wells Fargo loan obtained by the owners in 2015, according to Commercial Observer. The financing makes up just over 50 percent of the closing value of $775 million parent debt […]

Berkshire Hathaway broker illegally possessed AR-15 rifle, shotguns: report

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 05:58 AM PDT

A Berkshire Hathaway broker was handcuffed and charged with illegal firearm possession after police found an AR-15 rifle and two shotguns at his apartment, according to a report. Adam Lichtin, who was last year charged with assault and harassment after he allegedly kicked his wife’s leg in November, arrived in court Tuesday for the earlier charges and was put in handcuffs on felony gun charges, according to the New York Post. Police visited his old […]

RGB approves biggest rent hikes since 2013, but landlords call increase “pathetically insufficient”

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 05:44 AM PDT

Even though it was the largest increase in rents on regulated apartments since 2013, landlords expressed deep disappointment with the Rent Guidelines Board’s Tuesday night vote. The nine-person body, among the few proxies through which Mayor Bill de Blasio can directly impact rental rates, voted 5-4 to increase rents on stabilized one-year leases by 1.5 percent and two-year leases by 2.5 percent. The increase is slightly higher than last year, when rents rose 1.25 percent […]

Why sellers have the upper hand in Greenwich Village

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 04:30 AM PDT

UPDATED, Wednesday, June 27 at 8:32 a.m: Developers in Greenwich Village might feel like they’ve been transported back to the height of the market in a time machine. The Village is rare example of a sellers’ market. Condo supply is low, demand is strong and the pipeline of new units isn’t going to take well into the next decade to burn off. And the neighborhood is not alone. The Flatiron District, Lenox Hill and the […]

Victoria’s Secret pushes Cushman brokers to bare all in 2 Herald Square case

Posted: 27 Jun 2018 04:00 AM PDT

True to form, Victoria’s Secret wants everything exposed at 2 Herald Square. The lingerie retailer filed a legal petition as it seeks to challenge the appraisal of its 22,200-square-foot space at the 11-story building. The Cushman & Wakefield team that conducted the survey — Marc Nakleh and Brian Corcoran — has refused to testify, and the retailer is seeking court intervention to compel the brokers to explain their findings, according to filings. Victoria’s Secret’s space […]