The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

SoftBank won’t invest in Cadre after all

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 03:18 PM PDT

SoftBank’s Vision Fund decided against investing in Cadre, the real estate investment startup co-founded by Ryan Williams and Jared and Joshua Kushner. Cadre is still in talks with other investors for a funding round that could value it at $2 billion, according to Bloomberg. SoftBank and Cadre were in talks over an investment of at least $100 million, Bloomberg reported in May. The talks raised conflict-of-interest concerns because SoftBank’s Vision Fund gets almost half its […]

WeWork will renovate the UBS office in Weehawken

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 03:06 PM PDT

WeWork has scored its biggest design deal yet. The company’s Powered by We division will spearhead the renovation of the UBS office in Weehawken. WeWork launched the venture last year to offer expertise on real estate, design and office management to companies, according to Bloomberg. It will begin work on the UBS space in 2019, and the terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. Powered by We currently has 30 customers and 11 spaces, and it […]

Normandy inks 34K sf lease with red-hot software company at 888 Broadway

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 02:20 PM PDT

An Australian software company that counts SpaceX and NASA as clients is moving into Normandy Real Estate Partners’ conversion of the ABC Carpet & Home building into high-end offices. Atlassian, which has a market capitalization of roughly $15 billion after going public in 2015, signed a lease for almost 34,000 square feet on the third floor of 888 Broadway, according to Compstak. Starting rent in the 10-year deal was north of $100 per square foot, […]

Lee & Associates opens I-sales shop

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 01:35 PM PDT

On the heels of launching a residential division, Lee & Associates NYC announced Monday that it formed a nine-person investment sales team. The group will focus on sales between $20 million and $200 million in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, Commercial Observer reported. It has three managing directors: Vickram Jambu and Chris Varjan, both formerly of Venture Capital Partners, and Paul Popkin, formerly of the Popkin Group. The team also includes three brokers from the recently […]

Here’s what the $10M-$20M NYC investment sales market looked like last week

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 01:05 PM PDT

UPDATED, July 30, 6:04 p.m.: In the world of mid-market New York City investment sales last week, FBE Limited and Greenroad Capital sold an apartment building in Crown Heights and Prana Investments acquired a pair of Bronx residential buildings. Abraham Fruchthandler’s FBE Limited, David Natanov’s Greenroad Capital and investor Zev Marmurstein sold 1030 Carroll Street, a six-story apartment building in Crown Heights, for $18.4 million. The 41,000-square-foot building property is located near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden […]

Lightstone planning fourth Moxy Hotel at 151 Bowery

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 12:30 PM PDT

Hotel and condominium developer Lightstone Group plans to build a fourth Moxy Hotel in Manhattan at the site of a lighting store in the Bowery, the company said Monday. Lightstone is in contract to acquire the building at 151 Bowery from Emmut Properties, a memorandum filed Monday with the city’s Department of Finance shows. Lightstone declined to provide the amount that it would pay for the site at closing. Emmut Properties’ John Young did not […]

Bentley Zhao’s New Empire hits Town with $250M defamation suit

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Bentley Zhao’s New Empire Real Estate has slammed Town New Development with a $250 million defamation lawsuit after the brokerage firm said it was owed $2.4 million in fees. In an eight-page complaint dated July 27, New Empire said Town’s claims were “untrue, false, slanderous and defamatory.” What’s more, the suit claimed, the “malicious” nature of Town’s accusations had “damaged the plaintiff’s business reputation,” impairing its ability to obtain financing and market projects, and causing […]

Howard Lorber, Michael Stern, Mauricio Umansky and more sign on to TRD’s South Florida real estate event

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 11:30 AM PDT

The Real Deal’s fifth annual Real Estate Showcase + Forum in South Florida is shaping up to be our best event yet. Developers Moishe Mana, Louis Birdman, Kieran Bowers and Michael Stern have signed on for our top developers panel; Turnberry’s Jackie Soffer and East End Capital’s Jonathon Yormak will be among the experts sharing insights on our commercial panel; The Agency’s Mauricio Umansky — also of “The Real Housewives” fame — and Howard Lorber […]

Long Island Cheat Sheet: Nassau property tax assessment chief wins 5 reductions in her own home’s value … & more

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 11:00 AM PDT

Nassau property tax assessment chief wins 5 reductions in her own home’s value Robin Laveman, chairwoman for Nassau County’s Assessment Review Commission, has won five challenges to the assessed value of her Oyster Bay Cove home, bringing it down so she can pay lower property taxes, Newsday reported. The assessments, which her commission undertakes, are used to generate next year’s tax bills. She’s won such challenges each year for the last five years — cutting […]

Toby Moskovits files plans for 150-unit resi building in Greenwood

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 10:30 AM PDT

Toby Moskovits’ Heritage Equity Partners is planning an eight-story, 150-unit residential building at 875 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. The project will span just over 102,000 square feet and stand 86 feet tall, according to plans filed Monday with the city’s Department of Buildings. The property is a former ExxonMobil gas station, and Heritage purchased it last week from a joint venture led by Renaissance Realty Group for $19.8 million. Moskovits did not immediately respond to […]

California-based Propy records first US real estate sale on blockchain

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 10:00 AM PDT

The country’s first blockchain-only real estate trade involved 10 acres of land just north of Los Angeles County. The sale was made through a platform developed by Palo Alto-based real estate startup Propy. The company’s platform records the information of the sale — the purchase agreement, payments, and other essentials — on the public Ethereum blockchain. The amount was unknown. An unnamed New York-based buyer paid a California seller in Bitcoin for the 10 acres […]

Judge dismisses discrimination suit over Rabsky’s Broadway Triangle development

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 09:30 AM PDT

A judge has dismissed the lawsuit against Rabsky Development’s Broadway Triangle project, helping clear the way for the controversial development to proceed. Churches United for Fair Housing and other groups filed a suit against the city and Rabsky earlier this year, arguing that the project would discriminate against people of color. The plaintiffs asked the court to nullify the rezoning of the former Pfizer site for Rabsky’s project and require the city to conduct racial […]

Here are the week’s top luxury sales

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 09:00 AM PDT

Each week, The Real Deal and CityRealty look back at Manhattan’s priciest apartment sales.

Knotel takes 45K sf at Sapir’s 261 Madison

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 08:30 AM PDT

Knotel signed a management agreement for just over 45,000 square feet at the Sapir Organization’s 261 Madison Avenue, the company announced Monday. The flexible office company will lease the entire fourth and 18th floors and part of the sixth floor. This is Knotel’s first lease deal with Sapir, which invested in its $70 million Series B funding round. Knotel, which leases furnished, serviced office space to companies under flexible terms, claims it now runs more […]

Extell lands $530M loan package for Brooklyn Point development

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 08:00 AM PDT

Gary Barnett’s Extell Development finalized a $530 million loan package for Brooklyn Point, a 68-story residential tower in Downtown Brooklyn. The deal includes a $425 million construction loan and $105 million mezzanine loan, completing the financing for the 485-unit project, according to documents filed with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The condominium tower, at 138 Willoughby Street, was designed by Kohn Pederson Fox, and has a projected $901 million sellout. It is the third tower […]

National Debt Relief takes another 30K sf at 180 Maiden Lane

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 07:30 AM PDT

Debt-consolidation firm National Debt Relief signed on for another 30,000 square feet at 180 Maiden Lane, just months after it inked a lease in the Financial District office tower for 95,000 square feet. The company is taking the full, 30,810-square-foot 28th floor at the tower owned by MHP Real Estate Services and Clarion Partners, Commercial Observer reported. Asking rent in the 13-year deal was in the high $60s per square foot, according to the publication. […]

Brooklyn luxury market saw 12 contracts signed last week

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 07:00 AM PDT

The Brooklyn luxury market saw 12 contracts signed last week, split between seven houses, three condominiums and two co-ops. The properties sold for about $39.3 million overall and went for an average price of about $3.3 million, according to the latest report from Stribling & Associates. The firm defines the borough’s luxury market as all homes priced at $2 million or higher. There were also 12 contracts signed in the Brooklyn luxury market the week […]

Cheskel Schwimmer refis Flatbush building with Valley National loan

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 06:30 AM PDT

Cheskel Schwimmer refinanced his 116-unit rental building on Ocean Avenue in Flatbush with a $42 million loan from Valley National Bank. The new mortgage replaces a $24.2 million loan first provided against the building by First Niagara Bank, Commercial Observer reported. KeyBank took over the loan when it bought First Niagra in 2015. Schwimmer’s Chess Builders finished construction on the eight-story building at 1325 Ocean Avenue 10 months ago. The building has a roughly even […]

Airbnb calls the de Blasio administration’s lawsuit a “fishing expedition”

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 06:00 AM PDT

Airbnb claims the de Blasio administration is going on a “fishing expedition” as it requests info on thousands of the home-sharing website’s users in Hell’s Kitchen. The city served the company with a subpoena demanding records related to a $1 million-plus lawsuit the de Blasio administration filed against landlord Big Apple Management, the New York Post reported. The city is requesting records related to 76 account holders who used the site to list apartments in […]

Manhattan’s luxe resi market notched 26 contracts last week: Olshan

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 05:30 AM PDT

Manhattan’s luxury residential market was red-hot last week, with 26 contracts signed at $4 million and above, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly market report. That was the most activity for the last week of July since Olshan started keeping track in 2006. But on the flipside, luxury homes spent an average of a whopping 536 days on the market. And almost half of last week’s luxury contracts were sold by developers, with an average discount […]

Selling a home? It takes a village (of real estate brokers)

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 05:05 AM PDT

A pessimist might say that the Golden Age for the residential broker has long since passed — that Zillow and broker-free platforms like Purplebricks, as well an increasing number of pocket listings services, are chipping away at the agent’s role in real estate to the point where it might one day disappear. But conversations with top Los Angeles luxury brokers paint a different picture, one requiring more agents in the field as big producers increasingly staff […]

Behind WeWork’s push to capture the elusive mid-sized tenant

Posted: 30 Jul 2018 04:00 AM PDT

When WeWork started off in 2010, it made a name for itself as a solution for freelancers and small companies in search of a desk. In recent years, it started targeting big corporations as customers. Now, the co-working giant is turning its attention to the office market’s forgotten middle class: firms with 10 to 250 employees. “You’re going to start to see us do more and more stuff that’s going to target this business segment,” […]