The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Microsoft is mulling a Soho flagship

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 02:59 PM PDT

Microsoft has been eyeing a Soho office-and-retail building for a flagship store. As other tech giants increasing expand their brick-and-mortar operations, Microsoft is looking to do the same. The company has reportedly looked at leasing at 300 Lafayette Street, taking retail and possibly some office space, according to Crain’s. The outlet reported that no deal has been confirmed and that negotiations are in early stages. The 80,000-square-foot property is being developed by Related Companies. Related […]

This retail mogul is joining a wealthy set of owners at 520 Park

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 02:30 PM PDT

A unit at 520 Park Avenue just sold for $20 million. The buyers are Jay and Jennifer Kurani, according to New York City Department of Finance records. Jay “Jeff” Kurani is the founder of Tekno Products, which sells products through infomercials. The apartment was a sponsor unit. Closings began at the Zeckendorf Development building earlier this month. The first was unit 18, which closed for $16.9 million. The buyer is Ronn Torossian, founder of 5WPR, […]

Former head of Ping An’s real estate arm joins Winter Properties

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 02:00 PM PDT

Winter Properties has tapped the former CEO of a Chinese insurance company’s real estate arm as its new president. Rick Singer left Ping An’s U.S. real estate venture — PARE U.S. — earlier this summer as the company pulled back on its investment activity in the U.S. In his new role with Winter Properties, Singer plans to help the development company grow in various cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle, […]

Brandon Weber steps back from VTS

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 01:30 PM PDT

Almost two years after Brandon Weber merged his property software startup Hightower with rival VTS, he is taking a step back from the combined company. Weber, who currently serves as VTS’ chief product officer and is billed as a co-founder, will give up his day job, he told The Real Deal on Monday. He will continue to sit on the company’s board and work as a senior adviser to CEO Nick Romito on a part-time […]

Compass deploys sneak-peak marketing; cue the raised eyebrows

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 01:00 PM PDT

In a world where movie trailers can still lure film goers into theaters, residential brokerage Compass wants to deploy that kind of sneak-peak marketing to sell homes. The New York brokerage has launched a feature that allows its agents to post their listings to Compass’ website days before sharing them with local multiple-listing systems and portals like Zillow, StreetEasy and Realtor.com. “Compass Coming Soon,” as it is called, launched last week nationwide except in New […]

Fisher Brothers secures huge advisory firm lease at Park Avenue Plaza

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 12:30 PM PDT

Advisory firm Duff & Phelps signed a lease for more than 90,000 square feet at Fisher Brothers’ Park Avenue Plaza. The company inked a 16-year deal for 91,000 square feet on the 45-story tower’s 15th, 16th and 17th floors, Crain’s reported. Duff & Phelps occupies 62,413 square feet of space on a sublease with the insurance firm AON. “It is always a source of pride when blue-chip firms like Duff & Phelps and Evercore transition […]

AI tech takes aim at resi industry investors

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 12:00 PM PDT

The next big arms race in institutional residential investing may just involve artificial intelligence. A handful of companies are developing ­big data technologies to help institutional investors find the homes they want and buy them in bulk, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s allowed their customers, like hedge funds and private equity investors, to scoop up more homes faster than ever before. Firms including Entera Technology, Progress Residential and Amherst Residential each feed thousands […]

Fire tears through parking garage at Macerich’s Kings Plaza Shopping Center

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 11:30 AM PDT

A seven-alarm fire engulfed a parking garage at Macerich‘s Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn on Monday morning, leaving almost two dozen people hurt. A call on the fire in the garage at Avenue U and Flatbush Avenue came in just before 9 a.m. on Monday, and the fire had become a seven-alarm inferno by 11:15 a.m., according to NBC. By noon, firefighters had the blaze under control. A total of 21 people — including […]

A new mixed-use condo development may be coming to Gramercy

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 11:00 AM PDT

Glacier Global Partners is looking to construct a 19-story mixed-use building in Gramercy. The developer filed plans for a 68,200-square-foot property with 52 apartments. There will be 2,700 square feet set aside as commercial space, and If approved as proposed, the building would stand at 210 feet tall. The property, at 200 East 20th Street, is located at the corner of Third Avenue, just half a block away from Gramercy Park. The plans indicate condos: […]

Long Island Cheat Sheet: Local home prices inch up, $51M warehouse proposed in Bethpage … & more

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 10:30 AM PDT

Long Island home prices up amid rising interest rates and low inventory It’s a particularly rough time to be in search of a home to buy on the island. Nassau county homes sold for a median of $550,000 in August, a 7.4 percent increase from the same time a year before, Newsday reported. Suffolk home prices rose nine percent to a median price of $405,000 over the same period, according to data compiled by the […]

Here are the week’s top luxury sales

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 10:00 AM PDT

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

Och-Ziff looks to raise $2B private equity fund targeting real estate

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 09:30 AM PDT

Billionaire Dan Och’s hedge fund is looking to raise a $2 billion real estate fund, its largest investment vehicle targeting real estate yet. Och-Ziff Capital Management Group is seeking a $2 billion raise for its fourth fund targeting opportunistic investments as soon as the end of this year, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Real estate has been a relative bright spot for Och-Ziff, which is trying to regain confidence from investors after the […]

Ryan Serhant (maybe) won 9 DeKalb assignment with lots of books

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 09:05 AM PDT

Either Ryan Serhant wore Michael Stern down with an unsolicited library and won the gig to market 9 Dekalb Avenue — or he just made it sound like he did in his new book. In “Sell It Like Serhant,” the broker recalls wooing the developer of “Brooklyn’s first super-tall skyscraper” — a superlative repeatedly used to describe JDS Development’s 9 DeKalb — by persistently sending reminders of his existence. This initially took the form of […]

Peerless Pierhouse: condo once again takes top spot for priciest contract signed in BK

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 08:30 AM PDT

The Brooklyn luxury market saw 11 contracts signed last week for the third week in a row, split between seven houses, three condos and one co-op. The properties sold for about $35.7 million overall and went for an average price of about $3.2 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. Dollar volume was lower the week […]

Wells Fargo expects CRE lending to decrease while bank copes with fallout from scandals

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 08:00 AM PDT

Wells Fargo expects its book of commercial real estate loans to shrink as the bank struggles with governance issues. CFO John Shrewsberry said during a conference Friday that he expects commercial real estate and industrial loans to fall from second-quarter levels, the Wall Street Journal reported. Shrewsberry pointed to the bank’s deliberate lending discipline and a competitive lending environment with an influx of alternative funding sources as reasons for the decline. But Wells Fargo is […]

Manhattan’s luxe resi market notched just 13 contracts last week: Olshan

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 07:30 AM PDT

Manhattan’s luxury residential market recorded just 13 contracts last week, most likely the result of slow activity during the Jewish New Year, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly market report. An Upper West Side brownstone claimed the week’s priciest deal. The gut-renovated home at 18 West 75th Street had an asking price of $15 million, a reduction of 23 percent off the $19.5 million the home was originally asking when it hit the market in October […]

RXR Realty lands huge refinancing for Starrett-Lehigh Building

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 07:00 AM PDT

RXR Realty refinanced the Starrett-Lehigh Building with a $900 million loan from Morgan Stanley and New York Community Bank. The financing, which comes with a five-year term, closed on Thursday, Commercial Observer reported. RXR will use the new debt to help reposition the 2.3 million-square-foot West Chelsea building, and pay down $525 million previous debt, also from Morgan Stanley and NYCB. Scott Rechler’s RXR is redeveloping and leasing retail space on the building’s first floor […]

Equity Residential looks to sell two Manhattan properties in soft rental market

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 06:30 AM PDT

Equity Residential is looking to sell two Manhattan multifamily buildings amid the city’s softening rental market. The real estate investment trust has put 800 Sixth Avenue in Chelsea and 505 West 54th Street in Hell’s Kitchen on the market, Bloomberg News reported. No pricing was given for the properties. A spokesperson for Equity Residential declined to comment, but outgoing CEO David Neithercut said on a July earnings call that the company is trying to reign […]

Hudson Companies to redevelop Greenpoint Hospital into affordable housing

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 06:05 AM PDT

Hudson Companies will team up with two community groups to redevelop the former Greenpoint Hospital in Brooklyn into a mixed-use development with 512 units of affordable housing and a new building for an existing homeless shelter. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development selected Hudson Companies’ proposal for the 146,000-square-foot development site at 288 Jackson Street with the local community development corporation St. Nicks Alliance and Project Renewal, a nonprofit organization that […]

How Bob Knakal’s move to JLL will impact the i-sales market

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 05:00 AM PDT

Can Bob Knakal help JLL get its groove back? The company has been hurting on the investment-sales front since its team of top brokers left in late 2016. But now that the brokerage has landed one of the top brokers in the city, it’s looking to get back to form. “I think he’s got a pretty big following,” said Peter Riguardi, chairman and president for JLL’s New York tri-state region, who signed the highly coveted […]

The Closing: Benjamin Brafman

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 04:30 AM PDT

Benjamin Brafman is the founder of the Manhattan law firm Brafman & Associates. Having spent decades representing celebrities, property moguls and other big names in criminal cases, Brafman has become famous himself. The New York native is arguably the most prominent criminal defense attorney in the country, having taken on thousands of cases. He defended the rapper Sean Combs, also known as Puff Daddy, against weapons charges in 2000, represented Dominique Strauss-Kahn in his 2011 […]

The rental market is soft. So why are multifamily deals piling up?

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 04:00 AM PDT

New York City rents have been falling for two years, but the Blackstone Group just bet $500 million on the sector. The firm — which already owns Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village and Kips Bay Plaza — has agreed to buy Parker Towers, a 1,300-unit complex in Queens from the Jack Parker Corporation. Though the deal allows Blackstone to capitalize on a relatively-affordable option for renters fleeing Manhattan, other multifamily investors, too, are looking beyond the […]