The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Costas Kondylis, the “developer’s architect,” dies at 78

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 04:10 PM PDT

Constantine “Costas” Kondylis, one of Manhattan’s most prolific architects and President Trump’s go-to designer, died on Friday. He was 78. Kondylis is best known for his frequent collaborations with Trump, but his mark on New York City reaches far beyond those projects. During his 50-plus year career in the city, he designed more than 86 buildings, including Trump World Tower, Silverstein Properties’ Silver Towers, the Moinian Group’s the Atelier and J.D. Carlisle Development’s One Morton […]

Status update: HUD accuses Facebook of discriminatory housing ads

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 03:20 PM PDT

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is taking aim at Facebook, claiming the social networking website enables landlords and homeowners to discriminate against users. HUD filed a complaint against Facebook on Friday, alleging that the social platform’s housing ads violate the Fair Housing Act. A major selling point of Facebook’s ads has been its ability to target specific users. That feature, however, allows landlords and others to exclude specific users from seeing the […]

Joseph Chetrit’s townhouse sale is one of the largest such deals of the year

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 03:00 PM PDT

Developer Joseph Chetrit sold one of his three Upper East Side townhouses, marking one of the priciest townhouse deals to close so far this year. The property at 110 East 76th Street sold for a price in the low-$40 million range, the Wall Street Journal reported. It was originally asking $51 million. The largest of the trio, the house is 36 feet wide and measures 15,000 square feet. The design features marble, onyx and brass […]

Moinian just landed a loan on its Park Avenue South building

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 02:15 PM PDT

Moinian Group has secured a $55.3 million loan for 450-460 Park Avenue South. North American Company for Life and Health Insurance provided the loan on Murray Hill property, according to city records. The deal included $8.4 million in new debt. Representatives for Moinian and North American did not immediately respond to requests for comment. WeWork signed a lease in July to take roughly 50,000 square feet across six floors of the 12-story building. Other tenants include […]

Meet Michael Cohen’s brother, Bryan. He’s an Elliman executive with a $7M connection to Ukraine

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 01:30 PM PDT

Investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in New York have thrust Michael Cohen into the spotlight. But while President Trump’s former “fixer” gets grilled over his personal business dealings, his brother Bryan, who shares his strong ties to Ukraine, has largely avoided the media’s glare. Bryan Cohen, seven years younger and also an attorney by trade, is the chief administrative officer of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, the new development subsidiary of one […]

Ares Management makes $100M multifamily buy in Westchester

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 12:45 PM PDT

Ares Management bought a 400-unit garden apartment complex in Westchester County for more than $100 million. The Los Angeles-based alternative assets manager paid $101.3 million to purchase the 418-unit Ridgeview Apartments at 32 Nob Hill Drive in Elmsford, sources told The Real Deal. The seller is Scarsdale-based investor Frank Palazzolo. Representatives for Ares Management and Palazzolo were not immediately available to comment. Aliza Avital-Caplan of Emerald Equities NYC brokered the off-market deal, and declined to […]

The death of the all-cash Chinese buyer

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Late last year, Steven Ho saw alarm bells on social media: The Chinese government was gearing up for a major crackdown on foreign investment, and on messaging platforms such as WeChat and Line, Ho’s friends told him they were concerned that money would be tighter. In January, those worries became reality, as the government imposed exacting new capital controls that required Chinese citizens to disclose the purpose of their foreign investments. In the days that followed, numerous callers […]

Mark your calendars: These are New York’s top real estate events next week

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 11:15 AM PDT

There will be one new real estate event in New York City next week. On Aug. 27, Relinkup.com is hosting its monthly Real Estate Investor Meet Up event from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Cue Bar, 45-18 Bell Boulevard, Flushing, Queens. Attend for a networking opportunity in a casual setting. To search for future industry events or browse past ones, click here. And to submit more industry events, please reach out to events@therealdeal.com.

One of the city’s biggest concrete contractors, Navillus, saves itself from bankruptcy

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 10:25 AM PDT

Navillus, one of the city’s most active concrete contractors, has reached an agreement with the unions to toss a $76 million judgment against the company, potentially clearing the way for it to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In an order filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Friday, Judge Colleen McMahon signed off on an intention to vacate the the judgment, which plunged Navillus into bankruptcy back in November. The federal court doesn’t yet have jurisdiction to […]

Chelsea Riff Hotel to be replaced by 16-story condo building

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 10:00 AM PDT

Eastern Star Development pre-filed permits to replace the Riff Hotel at 300 West 30th Street with a 16-story condo building. The Flushing-based firm plans to construct a 59,700-square-foot building with 80 apartments. The property will be divided between 54,700 square feet of residential space and 5,000 square feet of commercial space. Planned amenities include recreational spaces at the rooftop and the second floor and storage space at the cellar. If approved as proposed, the building […]

Frozen credit files can delay process of applying for a mortgage

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 09:15 AM PDT

Nearly a year after the catastrophic Equifax hack exposed 147 million Americans’ personal and financial data to cybercriminals, consumers are about to get a break — something especially useful for home buyers and owners. Starting Sept. 21, credit-file “security” freezes will no longer cost you money. For years, you had to pay fees that varied from state to state to enact freezes — which nail down your credit files, rendering them inaccessible not only to […]

Millennials sour on homeownership

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 08:45 AM PDT

According to this week’s market reports, American millennials are down on the prospect of homeownership and New York registered an average asking rent of $64 for downtown office space. Residential Sales | ValueInsured American millennials have soured on homeownership. In the third quarter of 2018, only 48 percent of millennials agreed that buying a house is a good investment. This represents a record low and a decline of six percentage points from the previous quarter. […]

Here’s how much you can expect to pay in property taxes in the NYC area

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 08:00 AM PDT

For some homeowners in the tristate area, 10 percent of their annual salary goes right to paying property taxes on their homes. In Westchester, homeowners pay an average of $15,000 in property taxes each year, which equates to about 10 percent of the average income of $148,775, according to a new analysis from Bloomberg. Manhattan isn’t too far behind, as homeowners in the borough pay about $14,400 in annual taxes. However, this tends to be […]

“Total f*cking garbage”: RBS bankers joked about how bad their loans were prior to the US housing crash

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 07:15 AM PDT

The infamous 2008 housing market crash didn’t take everyone by surprise. Emails from Royal Bank of Scotland that the U.S. Department of Justice recently released include jokes from bankers about ruining the U.S.’ housing market. At one point, the bank’s chief U.S. credit officer described the financial products RBS was selling as “total fucking garbage” with “rampant” and “random” fraud, according to Business Insider. The email and call transcripts were released as part of a […]

Ivanka Trump’s former business partner is being sued by the DOJ

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 06:30 AM PDT

Moshe Lax, a real estate entrepreneur and one of Ivanka Trump’s former business partners in the diamond industry, is facing a lawsuit from the Justice Department accusing him of defrauding the government out of millions of dollars. The suit seeks more than $60 million and alleges that Lax and his family engaged in 10 schemes to hide their assets from the IRS, according to Politico. One of those schemes is Lax’s supposed transfer of about […]

MetLife enters $2B co-lending agreement with State Street amid real estate push

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 06:00 AM PDT

MetLife and State Street Corporation are entering into a co-lending agreement. MetLife Investment Management, MetLife’s institutional asset management platform, will spearhead the partnership, according to Seeking Alpha, providing the Boston-based financial services firm with up to $2 billion to be used for commercial real estate loans. The life insurer will originate and service the mortgages, but the companies will act as co-lenders. Robert Merck, senior managing director at MetLife Investment Management, said the deal was […]

National Cheat Sheet: RXR Realty launches $500M fund, McDonald’s plans $6B in upgrades … & more

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 05:30 AM PDT

RXR Realty launching a new $500M fund that will target “opportunity zones” Last year, the tax code passed by Republicans in Congress set up an “opportunity zone” program that lets investors either defer or avoid capital gains taxes if they invest in low-income neighborhoods, and it appears the new initiative presented RXR Realty with an opportunity of its own. The real estate developer plans to launch a $500 million fund that would invest in the […]

WATCH: Why venture capital is (finally) infiltrating real estate

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 05:00 AM PDT

 The Real Deal’s senior content director Jill Noonan and senior reporter Konrad Putzier sit down to discuss this month’s cover story on real estate’s venture capital gold rush.

At the desk of: Brad Lander

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 04:30 AM PDT

City Council member Brad Lander’s Brooklyn office is squeezed between a sleek fitness studio and a pharmacy stocked with everything from remote-controlled helicopters to baby clothes. But the home base of District 39’s elected representative can be spotted by a large faded poster bearing his name, which hangs over a set of nondescript double doors. The Democratic Council member and co-founder of the Council’s Progressive Caucus set up shop in his third-floor office on Fifth […]

The waiting game: Why some developers are launching resi sales later

Posted: 17 Aug 2018 04:00 AM PDT

While developers have more marketing options today — like immersing buyers into virtual, three-dimensional versions of their future homes — some are sticking with more traditional tactics. Just a few months before completing construction at 150 Wooster Street, KUB Capital launched sales at the Soho condo building. The developer wanted potential buyers to actually view the units, rather than rely on renderings or floor plans to inform their decisions. “Our feeling was that the location and […]