The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Chris Ward is leaving AECOM at the end of the month

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 03:43 PM PDT

After three years leading AECOM’s New York design and consulting operations, Chris Ward is leaving. It seems that Ward’s position as executive vice president and chief executive of the firm’s New York design and consulting services business group is being eliminated, since his responsibilities will be taken over by an AECOM executive in Boston. Crain’s first reported Ward’s departure on Tuesday. Ward told The Real Deal in an email that his leaving was part of […]

Turkish developer Sedesco adds to Billionaires’ Row assemblage with $80M buy

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 03:00 PM PDT

Turkish developer Sedesco is putting together a Billionaires’ Row assemblage with the purchase of a development site for $80 million. Sedesco closed last week on its purchase of the property at 41 West 57th Street from Florida-based seller Asuman Polat, property records filed with the city Tuesday show. The purchase gives Midtown-based Sedesco about 100,000 square feet of buildable area on the block between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The company in 2012 paid $71.5 million […]

Hamptons Cheat Sheet: Oceanfront Montauk home lists for $48M … & more

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 02:45 PM PDT

Oceanfront Montauk home lists for $48M A home sitting on 36 acres in Montauk hit the market for $48 million, Curbed reported. The owner, frame dealer Eli Wilner, bought the property with his wife in 1992 for $630,000. There were no building permits in place at the time, but they eventually got architect Frank Hollenbeck and the Men at Work Builders to erect the home. The land, which has 400 feet of ocean frontage, is […]

Nightingale Properties founder appears to be buyer of 1 West End PH

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 02:30 PM PDT

An LLC controlled by Nightingale Properties CEO Elie Schwartz has closed on a penthouse at 1 West End Avenue for $17.9 million, two years after first going into contract. The 5,900-square-foot home, the priciest apartment at the 246-unit property developed by Silverstein Properties and Elad Group, went into contract in October of 2016. It was first listed in June of that year with an asking price of $21 million. It features four bedrooms, a library, […]

Ron Perelman’s firm lands $110M refi for Lenox Hill rental

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 02:10 PM PDT

Billionaire Ronald Perelman’s MacAndrews and Forbes landed a $110 million loan for 27 East 62nd Street. Citibank is the lender, records filed with the city Tuesday show. The new debt replaces a $74 million mortgage from 2016 and includes $41 million in new financing. The property is a nine-story rental building with 30 units and 5,000 square feet of retail. The new financing appears to carry a high loan-to-value ratio, considering Perelman paid $120 million […]

The city has never sued a landlord for failure to inspect lead paint, 10 years after introducing law

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 02:01 PM PDT

Just weeks after city officials acknowledged more than 1,000 children have suffered high levels of lead exposure in public housing, a new report has found that the city has never sued landlords for failing to inspect lead paint in apartments. Despite the introduction of a law passed in 2004 that required landlords to conduct inspections on apartments, a report conducted by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest found that not a single landlord had […]

Panoramas for profits: Developers betting big on observation decks

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 12:58 PM PDT

Competition is heating up for the best views in the city. Developers are planning more observation decks as they seek to get in on the attraction’s profits, the Wall Street Journal reported. Related Companies is planning an observation deck at its 1,296-foot 30 Hudson Yards tower in 2020, the report said. And SL Green Realty is slated to open its own the following year at One Vanderbilt, near Grand Central Terminal. The attractions are cropping […]

Amazon is betting on prefab homes

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Amazon putting its money behind pre-fabricated homes. The tech giant’s Alexa Fund was among the investors in Plant Prefab’s Series A funding round. The company, which manufactures custom single- and multifamily homes, raised $6.7 million, according to a statement. The move comes as Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa has expanded. There are now more than 20,000 Alexa-compatible smart home devices from 3,500 different brands, Paul Bernard, director of the Alexa Fund, said in the statement. Plant […]

New York has lost more than 1M affordable apartments since 2005: comptroller’s report

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 11:30 AM PDT

More than 1 million affordable apartments have vanished from New York City since 2005, according to a new report from Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office. The study found that the city has lost more than 1 million units that rented for $900 or less since 2005, while the number of apartments that rent for $2,700 or more has quadrupled over that same time period. Apartments going for $900 or less made up 20 percent of all […]

TRD subscriber call: How a culture of secrecy boosts South Florida’s condo market

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 11:00 AM PDT

The Real Deal is hosting a conference call with digital subscribers this Friday, Sept. 28, to discuss our fall issue’s blockbuster cover story, “See no evil: How a culture of secrecy boosts South Florida’s condo market .” The article examines how some of the region’s luxury properties came to be ensnared in an alleged billion-dollar embezzlement and money-laundering scheme, and the system that may have helped to enable it. TRD’s editor-at-large Hiten Samtani will talk […]

Former Cushman executive assails “old boys network” in $30M discrimination lawsuit

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 10:30 AM PDT

A former executive at Cushman & Wakefield said the brokerage regularly paraded her around as an ambassador for diversity at the firm, but behind the scenes the company culture is one of sexism and racism. Nicole Urquart-Bradley, an African American woman, claims her career was held back at Cushman — and she was ultimately fired from the company — due to her race and gender, according to a discrimination lawsuit she filed Tuesday in Washington, […]

Slowing down: Home price appreciation dips to lowest rate in 4 years

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 09:30 AM PDT

Is now the time to buy or sell? Nationwide, home price appreciation slowed as high interest rates continue to take a toll on purchasing power. A new Redfin report found that the increase in home prices slowed in August to 4.7 percent, down from 7.6 over the same month in 2017, according to a report in Inman. That was the lowest rate in four years. Redfin also found that home sales dropped 2.4 percent year […]

This broker wants to build the Zillow for CRE debt

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 08:45 AM PDT

Think of a developer trying to raise financing for a project, and you might conjure up an image of an army of debt brokers pounding the phones, going through their extensive books of lenders to find the one with the lowest rate, and taking the deal back to the developer in exchange for a fat commission. Adi Chugh wants to change that picture. Best known for heading the boutique debt brokerage Maverick Commercial Properties, Chugh […]

Couple unknowingly buys MS-13 house that was scene of grisly murder

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 08:00 AM PDT

Buyer beware. A young couple was shocked to learn that the home they closed on Friday was the site of a grisly slaying by the infamous MS-13 gang. The unidentified homebuyers purchased the four-bedroom suburban ranch house at 6 Ray Court in Brentwood, Long Island for $320,000. But the couple claims their broker never told them that the wooded area abutting the house is where two teenage girls where found slaughtered by MS-13, the New […]

Why developers can’t find tenants for certain “affordable” apartments

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 07:15 AM PDT

In a city grappling with an affordability crisis, thousands of hopeful tenants apply for a limited number of subsidized apartments. But some developers are having trouble finding tenants to fill these spots, specifically those reserved for higher-income residents. A particularly hard slot to fill is reserved for people who earn 130 percent of the area median income (AMI) or higher — which in New York City is $86,840 for an individual. According to some, the problem […]

Zillow warns about swindlers targeting Premier Agent clients

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 06:45 AM PDT

Scammers posing as Zillow are targeting real estate brokers by attempting to receive money in exchange for fake leads, the listings giant said Friday. Zillow sent emails to brokers who use Premier Agent, reminding them that Zillow does not ask for PayPal or wire-transfer details, according to Inman. It identified multiple look-alike emails, websites and phone numbers that could dupe brokers into believing they are dealing with Zillow. In one example, agents received a text […]

This long-vacant Queens hospital may soon be converted into 351 rentals

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 06:00 AM PDT

The former Parkway Hospital in Queens, which closed a decade ago, may soon become a 351-apartment site. Developer Jasper Venture Group filed a rezoning application on Monday for the conversion of the property, according to Crain’s. In addition to a two-floor addition to the old hospital, which is located on the corner of 113th Street and a Grand Central Parkway service road in Forest Hills, the new development would also include a separate 14-story rental […]

To build or not to build: LA developers pay big bucks to bypass zoning codes

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 05:15 AM PDT

When Mark Levy, president of development firm City Market of Los Angeles, first proposed redeveloping a former produce market in the Fashion District into a sprawling new mega-complex six years ago, he knew it would be a tough bargain with the city. The Fashion District, a historically industrial neighborhood, has been slow to join the renaissance washing over other Downtown areas like the Arts District and South Park. The 1.7 million-square-foot project had the potential […]

See no evil: How a culture of secrecy boosts the luxury condo market

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 04:30 AM PDT

A lawyer with ties to Venezuela’s oil ministry, a member of the country’s “boliburguesía” elite and a money launderer sat around a Caracas office table while armed guards and a German shepherd with a shock collar stood watch. The boliburgués placed his handgun on the table. It was November 2015, and the three Venezuelans were pressuring an unnamed associate to persist with a scheme that U.S. authorities would later allege embezzled $1.2 billion from the Venezuelan […]

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

Posted: 25 Sep 2018 04:00 AM PDT

In the world of mid-market New York City investment sales last week, religious organization Jews for Jesus acquired a West Village residential building and Chinese crowdfunding platform iCross Fund bought a Long Island City industrial property. 1.) Jews for Jesus bought a five-story apartment building in the West Village for $16 million. The property, at 45-47 8th Street, is a 17,000-square-foot building with 12 apartments, city records show. The seller is landlord Soonbin Kim, who […]