The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Trump Org CFO subpoenaed in Cohen probe

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 03:29 PM PDT

Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump Organization and a trustee of President Donald Trump’s personal trust, was subpoenaed in an ongoing federal criminal investigation of Michael Cohen. Weisselberg is a witness in the probe of Trump’s former personal lawyer, though the precise date of his subpoena and cooperation was not known, the Wall Street Journal reported. Federal prosecutors are known to be investigating Cohen’s private business dealings, including his arranging of a $130,000 hush-money payment […]

Dermot, Dutch pension fund in contract to buy Equity Residential building for $416M

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 03:19 PM PDT

Equity Residential is in contract to sell an Upper West Side apartment building to a joint venture of the Dermot Company and a Dutch pension fund for more than $400 million, sources told The Real Deal. Dermot and PGGM, the second-largest pension fund in the Netherlands, have a contract to buy the 503-unit 101 West End Avenue, sources told TRD. Representatives for Dermot and Equity Residential could not be reached. Equity Residential president David Neithercut […]

Outer borough apartment sales outpaced Manhattan in Q2: report

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 03:00 PM PDT

Apartment sales in the outer boroughs overtook those in Manhattan during the second quarter, according to a new report. The report from Real Capital Analytics found that there were approximately $1.7 billion worth of apartment sales in the outer boroughs from April through June, compared to about $739 million in Manhattan. This was the largest gap between outer borough sales and Manhattan sales since at least the start of 2013, with the outer boroughs outpacing […]

Most big cities across US show signs of housing market cool-down: report

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 02:30 PM PDT

South Florida’s once booming housing market appears to be cooling down along with a majority of other metro areas in the United States, as median annual home prices slowed in the second quarter. The Miami metro area’s annual median home prices rose 6.4 percent to $266,000 from April to June, compared to an 8.7 percent gain from January to March, according to a new report by Attom Data Solutions. Chicago and Los Angeles also reported […]

Westchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: Tommy Hilfiger’s former Greenwich manse hits the market … & more

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 02:00 PM PDT

Greenwich mansion once owned by Tommy Hilfiger hits the market A 4.6-acre Greenwich property that fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger owned until 2006 has hit the market, the New York Post reported. The seven-bedroom, seven-and-a-half bathroom home known as Appleyard Estate is asking $6.75 million and includes a movie theater, a tennis court, a spa and a pool. The home, which was built in 1999 and made appearances on two Hilfiger-centric reality TV shows back in […]

Big City Realty tenants win key court victory. Here’s what happens next

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 01:30 PM PDT

A class action rent-overcharge lawsuit initially dismissed by a state court judge was revived Thursday in a 3-2 decision by the first division of the appellate court. Tenants at 11 buildings owned by Harlem landlord Big City Realty attempted to sue as one, alleging in 2016 that the landlord violated rent-stabilization requirement of the J-51 tax abatement and charged inflated rents by exaggerating the costs of apartment improvements in filings with the state’s housing regulator. […]

Wells Fargo mulls sale of Eastdil Secured

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 01:00 PM PDT

Wells Fargo is considering selling Eastdil Secured as the bank disposes of its non-core businesses. The San Francisco-based financial institution has been gauging interest for the commercial real estate brokerage from private equity firms, the Wall Street Journal reported. It wasn’t clear what price Eastdil might fetch. Wells Fargo bought the company for an undisclosed amount in 1999. However, banks are not technically supposed to own brokerages, which might preclude other banks from buying Eastdil. […]

As analysts scoff, GGP shareholders approve $15B Brookfield buyout

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 12:30 PM PDT

Shareholders of the Chicago-based shopping mall giant General Growth Properties voted Thursday to accept a buyout offer from Brookfield Property Partners, sealing one of the largest real estate deals in recent memory over a chorus of analysts who say the deal lowballs GGP’s value. The real estate arm of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management had already owned a roughly 34 percent stake in GGP before November, when Brookfield made a $14.8 billion bid to buy out […]

Hampshire Properties scores $92M loan for Brooklyn rental project

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Hampshire Properties has landed a $92 million loan for its building at 1277 East 14th Street in Midwood. The money comes from Square Mile Capital, according to property records. It replaces a $70 million construction loan from Bank Leumi from last February. The Brooklyn project will be a 302-unit rental building that stands eight stories tall and spans just over 277,000 square feet. The site used to be a Jewish all-girls school, and Hampshire bought […]

Feldman’s HFZ adds to NoMad assemblage with $30M buy

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 11:25 AM PDT

Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group picked up a NoMad property for $30 million, adding another piece to an assemblage where sources say the developer is planning a nearly 600,000-square-foot office building designed by Bjarke Ingels. HFZ bought two lots at 20-22 West 30th Street from investor Henry Chen for $29.8 million, property records filed with the city Thursday show. A representative for the developer could not be immediately reached. A pair of five-story buildings spanning […]

The Wing expands Manhattan footprint

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 11:00 AM PDT

The Wing, a women-only co-working firm, has signed lease expansions at its first two locations. The company is taking an additional 15,000 square feet at Abner Properties’ 45 East 20th Street in the Flatiron District and Nathan Baden’s 52 Mercer Street in Soho. At its original location in Flatiron, the Wing is tacking on 5,000 square feet on the 11th floor, bringing its total square footage in the building to 14,000. Meanwhile, the company is […]

The secret’s out: New portal to display whisper listings

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 10:32 AM PDT

Access to whisper listings has long been tightly controlled by blue-chip agents and their clients. But a new portal wants to democratize some of the deal flow by charging brokers a monthly fee for entrée to properties that are quietly for sale. RealAgentz.com is the brainchild of Parish Pradhan, a former agent at Keller Williams NYC, and his business partner, Daniella Rinaldo, who bootstrapped the idea to create a marketplace for off-market listings. “There are […]

WeWork raises $500M for Chinese subsidiary

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 10:00 AM PDT

WeWork’s Chinese subsidiary landed $500 million in a Series B funding round from SoftBank, Trustbridge Partners, Temasek and Hony Capital, the company announced Thursday. The co-working giant officially launched the subsidiary, dubbed WeWork China, last July and landed a $500 million Series A investment from SoftBank and Hony. WeWork claims to have 20,000 customers in China — a number it hopes to grow to 40,000 by the end of the year. It runs close to […]

Partnering up: Brokerage affiliations in SoFla are having a moment

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 09:30 AM PDT

In late 2016, Miami-based Cervera Real Estate and Stribling & Associates in New York announced a brokerage affiliation, essentially utilizing the expertise each firm has in its respective market to sell homes. The companies had informally been partnering for years, but the timing of the official rollout, less than a month after Donald Trump was elected president, proved prescient. The federal tax reform bill Trump had been pushing passed in December 2017, with a provision […]

Dollar volume of Queens office sales went up by more than 15,000%. That’s not a typo.

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 09:00 AM PDT

Investment sales in Queens increased by every metric during the first half of 2018, but the starkest increase by far was for dollar volume in the office market. Office dollar volume shot up more than 15,000 percent to about $473 million in the first half of 2018 from a paltry $3 million during the second half of last year, according to a new report from Ariel Property Advisors. This was largely due to Atlas Capital […]

Cash is king: Millennials shy away from investing in real estate

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 08:00 AM PDT

Millennials would rather hoard cash than invest in real estate. Saddled with student loans and facing rising home prices, only 22 percent of millennials see real estate as an ideal investment, according to Inman. Savings accounts and other cash instruments are seen as the best option, the report said, citing a Bankrate survey. Real estate still ranked above gold and other precious metals — as well as cryptocurrencies. The findings are a departure from older […]

Here’s why more brokerages are taking developers to court

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 07:30 AM PDT

In the midst of an inventory glut, brokerages are taking their grievances to court. Since June, several firms have sued developers — seeking monetary compensation for what they deem were unfair practices or unpaid fees. The cases highlight the somewhat cyclical nature of this type of litigation: When the market gets tough, companies are much more prone to sue. “If pockets were full and markets were good, people might take a more conciliatory approach,” said […]

Sam Zell to exit Chicago office market with sale of corporate complex

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 07:00 AM PDT

Sam Zell is poised to exit the Chicago office market after finalizing a deal to sell his last remaining complex in the area. Zell’s Equity Commonwealth is working on a deal to sell the Triangle Plaza on the city’s Northwest Side to Hawaii-based Shidler Group for about $143 million, according to Crain’s. The plaza near O’Hare Airport is Equity Commonwealth’s last remaining Chicago-area office building. Equity has been shedding office properties for some time: the […]

Chinese buyers’ retreat could hurt US property values

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 06:30 AM PDT

For the first time in a decade, Chinese insurers, conglomerates and other investors have become net sellers of U.S. commercial real estate. Following Beijing’s tightening of capital controls, Chinese investors sold $1.29 billion worth of U.S. commercial real estate in the second quarter, while purchasing only $126.2 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The pullback could slow down growth in the U.S. real estate market, the report said. Though Chinese investors were only a fraction […]

Kenneth Patton, former REBNY president and right-hand man to Harry Helmsley, dies

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 06:00 AM PDT

Kenneth Patton, who lead the Real Estate Board of New York and for many years served as Harry Helmsley’s right-hand man, died last week. He was 87. The nearly 50-year industry veteran played an instrumental role in some of the city’s most iconic developments including Yankee Stadium and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Until 2009, he worked at New York University‘s Schack Institute of Real Estate, at different points serving as both dean and an interim […]

WATCH: Mary Ann Tighe on “getting into the room” as a woman in real estate

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 05:30 AM PDT

 CBRE tri-state CEO Mary Ann Tighe discusses coming up in an industry typically dominated by men, if real estate will ever have its #MeToo moment and navigating sexual harassment in the workplace during a recent sit-down interview with The Real Deal’s Hiten Samtani.

Is Phoenix a better place to rent than NYC?

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 05:00 AM PDT

You might be able to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Detroit for $500. But are you getting the most bang for your buck? Not according to WalletHub. The personal finance services company’s “Best and Worst Places to Rent in America” report has dubbed Phoenix as its top choice. The report counts the state’s capital and five other cities in its metro area among the top 15 of 182 around the country. The Motor City ranks […]

Why real estate firms are gobbling each other up at record rates

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 04:30 AM PDT

The recent bidding war for LaSalle Hotel Properties has played out like a high-stakes poker match. The price tag for the real estate investment trust — which owns 41 U.S. hotels — shot up nearly $2 billion in just 12 weeks. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust made an unsolicited offer for the rival company in late March, valuing it at roughly $3 billion. But as other potential buyers jumped into the fray, Pebblebrook increased its bid four […]

The market slowdown is seeping into the Hamptons: report

Posted: 26 Jul 2018 04:00 AM PDT

The bubbly may be flowing in the Hamptons this summer, but the property market is flat. In the second quarter this year, sales in the Hamptons slumped 12.8 percent, according to Douglas Elliman’s latest market report. It marked the first year-over-year decline since 2016. But with 601 sales, the total number remains above average, said Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel and the author of the report. “It is a large drop, but […]