The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

One of the city’s biggest concrete contractors, Navillus, can exit bankruptcy

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 02:44 PM PDT

A federal bankruptcy court judge on Wednesday approved Navillus’ reorganization plan, meaning the construction company can begin exiting bankruptcy in the next few weeks. Judge Sean Lane signed off on the plan, which will include a $25.7 million award to five construction unions. Navillus announced the approval Wednesday evening. The approval, which signals the final stage of bankruptcy, comes nearly one year after Navillus filed for Chapter 11 protection in Manhattan federal court. The company […]

Westchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: Trumbull draws in new dev, theater-to-apartment conversion kicks off … & more

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 02:30 PM PDT

Fairfield commercial leasing activity shows ‘vote of confidence,’ Westchester activity ‘moderately’ improves Fairfield County’s leasing activity showed a “vote of confidence” for the area, according to a new report. Leasing in the county “reached its highest point since the end of 2016 — hitting 980,000 square feet of leasing activity,” according to CBRE’s third quarter Westchester/Fairfield County office market reports. Leasing isn’t doing poorly in Westchester County either, where activity “moderately improved from last quarter,” the […]

Oscar-winning composer’s UES mansion sells for nearly half of asking price

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 01:45 PM PDT

The former Upper East Side mansion of Oscar-winning composer Franz Waxman was sold for nearly half of the asking price. The 10,300-square-foot property, at 46 East 65th Street, changed hands in a $12 million deal. The asking price for the 102-year-old townhouse was $22.5 million when it was first listed in 2016. The seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom home contains six wood-burning fireplaces, three terraces and three balconies. There’s also an elevator that goes to all six floors […]

The Deutsche Bank decline: WIll the bank retreat from the NYC real estate market?

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 01:00 PM PDT

Deutsche Bank has had a rough run. Most recently, its been under the microscope for its relationship with President Donald Trump. But in 2018’s first half, its credit rating was downgraded, the Federal Reserve labeled its U.S. businesses “troubled,” its CEO was ousted and its stock price hit a record low. Here’s a look at the state of Deutsche Bank and its role in New York’s commercial real estate market. 2008 The year Deutsche sued Trump over his failure […]

King of the hill: New York is tops in global real estate investment

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 12:15 PM PDT

Total global real estate investment reached $1.8 trillion over the past year, a record amount. New York City once again led the way, with more money poured into real estate than any other city, according to a new Cushman & Wakefield global capital market report of the top 50 cities. But other metro areas are catching up. While New York saw $49.6 billion invested from June 2017 to June 2018, that was 3.4 percent below […]

Kushner Cos. selling lone Chicago property

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 11:30 AM PDT

Kushner Companies has a deal to sell its lone Chicago property, a Loop office tower, to an Angelo Gordon-led venture. The price of the deal between the two New York companies for the 30-story building at 225 West Randolph Street is unclear. Kushner wanted $315 million when it put the building on the market in 2014, according to Crain’s. Kushner paid $276 million for the 853,000-square-foot building in a 2007 sale-leaseback deal with AT&T, whose […]

With Lorber’s blessing, Eklund-Gomes team is expanding

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 11:00 AM PDT

The Eklund-Gomes team has declared manifest destiny. Douglas Elliman’s top broker team is expanding to Los Angeles, in a move aimed to take advantage of market crossover among its clients. The foray into a new market comes as Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes have opened a new 10,000-square-foot office at 936 Broadway in New York. While Elliman limits broker teams to 10 members, Eklund said he and Gomes met with brokerage chief Howard Lorber about […]

Sears explores bankruptcy filing even as CEO scrambles to avoid it

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 10:15 AM PDT

Sears Holdings is preparing for a possible bankruptcy even as CEO Edward Lampert continues his push to shrink the once-dominant retailer back to profitability. Sears has hired advisers to prepare a possible bankruptcy filing that could come as early as this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move comes as the struggling chain faces a Monday deadline to make a $134 million debt payment. Lampert’s efforts to keep Sears out of bankruptcy have […]

Two Trees-linked LLC buys Brooklyn petroleum facility

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 09:32 AM PDT

Texas-based company Zenith Energy has sold a Greenpoint petroleum facility for $62 million to an LLC linked with Two Trees Management in a sale-leaseback, according to property records. The signatory for the buyer of 25 Paidge Avenue is Amish Patel, who appears to be a business partner of Two Trees Management’s Jed Walentas. The buyer is listed in property records as 25 Paidge LLC, which has a mailing address of Two Trees’ 45 Main Street […]

Blackstone closes on $7.6B purchase of Gramercy Property Trust

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 08:45 AM PDT

The Blackstone Group closed on the $7.6 billion acquisition of industrial real estate investment trust Gramercy Property Trust, the companies announced Wednesday. Blackstone is paying $27.50 per share, which is 15-percent above Gramercy’s closing price the day before news of the deal broke. The Financial Times first reported the deal in May. Gramercy owns 81 million square feet of real estate, mostly single-tenant industrial buildings. It has holdings across the country, including in New York, […]

Office leasing in Midtown has hit a 12-year high: CBRE

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 08:00 AM PDT

Midtown office tenants and landlords are partying like it’s 2006. The market has seen its highest amount of office leasing through the third quarter of 2018 in the past 12 years, Bloomberg reported, citing data from CBRE. Agreements were signed for 13.9 million square feet, the most since 2006, when the total was 15.6 million square feet. The largest deal went to the financial firm Evercore, which more than doubled its lease at 55 East […]

Board of 417 Park Avenue makes another push for sale

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 07:20 AM PDT

The owners of 417 Park Avenue are making another push to sell the co-op apartment building after bringing on new brokers. Bordered by Park Avenue, 54th and 55th streets, the 13-story building has fielded interest from a number of buyers in recent years, including a $250 million offer from Kushner Companies in April. The co-op board recently hired Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan at CBRE to again make a push for a sale, according to […]

Calling all subscribers: Get the inside scoop on TRD’s October cover story

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 06:50 AM PDT

Join The Real Deal’s editors and reporters on Monday, Oct. 22 at 2:30 p.m. for our next subscribers-only conference call. TRD’s senior content director, Jill Noonan, and managing issue editor, Damian Ghigliotty, will talk to reporters Katie Brenzel and Will Parker about our October cover story, which dives deep into the interplay between Albany politics and the New York City real estate industry. Do you have questions about how Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (inevitable) third term […]

Report says Fosun plans to sell its flagship Manhattan tower – but company denies this

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 06:20 AM PDT

UPDATE, Oct. 10, 10:27 a.m.: The real estate arm of Fosun International is reportedly looking to sell its 60-story Financial District tower 28 Liberty for an eye-watering $1.6 billion. The Chinese industrial conglomerate bought the tower for $725 million in 2013, when it was called 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza and owned by JPMorgan Chase. Fosun quickly embarked on a repositioning of the 2.2 million-square-foot building, sinking millions into a renovation and attracting tenants like Booking.com, […]

Softbank in talks to take a majority stake in WeWork: report

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 05:50 AM PDT

SoftBank is in discussions to take a majority stake in Adam Neumann’s co-working firm WeWork, which could amount to an investment as high as $20 billion, a new report claims. If a deal were to materialize, the money would reportedly come from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, according to the Wall Street Journal. SoftBank, an almost $100 billion fund backed by Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds, has invested over $5 billion in WeWork so […]

Alexandria Real Estate Equities buys LIC building for $75M

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 05:25 AM PDT

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, which expanded its footprint in New York City earlier this year with the purchase of Pfizer’s headquarters in Manhattan, is bringing one of its life-science centers to Long Island City. The California-based real estate investment trust bought The Bindery building at 30-02 48th Avenue from a partnership led by Brickman Real Estate for $75 million, sources told The Real Deal. The purchase of the 175,000-square-foot property closed yesterday at a value […]

Behind NYC’s billion-dollar bankroller

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 04:30 AM PDT

On a Thursday morning in March 2013, Silverstein Properties’ Marty Burger was trying to keep his cool. His meeting with three major banks to negotiate the terms of a $670 million construction loan for 30 Park Place was nearing four hours, and the parties had reached only the fourth page of a 30-page term sheet. The meeting went unfinished, and Burger left fatigued and frustrated. Hours later, he received an unexpected proposal from an English […]

SOM taps former City Planning official to head NYC urban design practice

Posted: 10 Oct 2018 04:00 AM PDT

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has tapped a former City Planning official to head its City Design Practice in New York City and Washington, D.C. Keith O’Connor, who served as director of Lower Manhattan and chief planner of special projects in Manhattan during the Bloomberg administration, will oversee the firm’s urban design practice in the two cities. SOM has nine offices with urban design practices, including in Chicago and Los Angeles, which focus on city planning, […]