The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

With IPO ahead, Compass lures agents with stock options

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 05:30 PM PDT

After raising $400 million last month in its latest funding round, Compass appears heading toward an IPO within 24 months. And now, it’s offering agents stock options. For every dollar the agent invests, for example, Compass said it will add a 30-cent bonus. Through it’s so-called Agent Equity Program, the venture-backed firm — valued at $4.4 billion after its recent haul — allows agents to invest a portion of their commission into options. Details of […]

Here’s the latest UES penthouse hitting the market

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 03:00 PM PDT

Author and journalist Frank Lalli is putting his Upper East Side penthouse on the market. The unit at 137 East 66th Street is listed for $6.95 million. Donna Olshan of Olshan Realty has the listing. The duplex co-op features a 40-foot landscaped terrace — and also includes three working fireplaces and a library. Built in 1918, the nine-story building has 33 units. Frank and his wife Carole Lalli are moving to be closer to their […]

WATCH: David Rockwell on teaming up with celebrity chefs, growing up in Mexico and a love of “foul hip-hop”

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 02:30 PM PDT

David Rockwell may be best known for his work with celebrity restaurateurs like Nobu Matsuhisa, Danny Meyer and Drew Nieporent, but his Manhattan-based firm has designed 650 restaurants, hotels, condos, stage sets and even playgrounds worldwide. The Closing: David Rockwell He’s currently designing the Shed — a cultural center on the Hudson Yards site on Manhattan’s Far West Side — with Diller Scofidio + Renfro. And he’s designing the amenity spaces at the lux condo […]

It’s time! Buyers at 220 CPS will start closings this week

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 02:00 PM PDT

It’s finally closing time for buyers at 220 Central Park South. More than five years after Vornado Realty Trust put shovels in the ground — and 18 years after it acquired the site — the developer plans to start closings this week, sources told The Real Deal. Although the real estate investment trust has remained tight-lipped about the project, and declined to comment for this article, the Robert A.M. Stern-designed tower is poised to rival […]

Entertainment law firm takes 57K sf at 28 Liberty

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 01:30 PM PDT

Frankfurt Kurnit Klein and Selz, an entertainment and arts-focused law firm, is relocating to Fosun’s 28 Liberty Street in the Financial District, sources told The Real Deal. The firm will take 57,000 square feet on the tower’s 35th and 36th floors. Cushman and Wakefield brokers Mitchell Barnett and Barry Zeller represented Frankfurt Kurnit in the deal and Fosun was represented by an in-house leasing executive and a team from JLL. Asking rent for the space […]

Homebuilders across the US feeling more confident about future: report

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 12:30 PM PDT

American homebuilders are feeling more confident amid a rise in consumer demand and a drop in lumber prices. The recent boost follows months of declining sentiment among homebuilders nationwide, according to a report by the National Association of Homebuilders and Wells Fargo. It was first reported by Bloomberg. The more positive feeling is in line with a rising six-month home sales outlook along with a jump in prospective buyer traffic. Improving market momentum could be […]

Wall Street spin doctor Sard Verbinnen relocating on Third Avenue

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 12:05 PM PDT

One of Wall Street’s top crisis public relations shops is expanding to 65,000 square feet as it relocates its offices on Third Avenue. Financial communications firm Sard Verbinnen & Co. signed a lease covering the full 31st and 32nd floors at Vornado Realty Trust’s 909 Third Avenue, sources told The Real Deal. The 15-year lease comes with a starting rent in the low $70s per square foot, according to CompStak. Representatives for Sard Verbinnen and […]

Taconic, Clarion buy pair of Bronx apartment buildings for $28M

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 11:45 AM PDT

UPDATED, Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 4:47 p.m.: Quality Communities, an affordable housing joint venture between Taconic Investment Partners and Clarion Partners, is continuing its expansion in the Bronx, picking up a pair of apartment buildings in Concourse for $27.8 million. The properties, at 1534 Selwyn Avenue and 1197 Grand Concourse, are about five blocks apart and sit on opposite sides of Grand Concourse. The larger property is 1534 Selwyn, a six-story, 80,800-square-foot building with 73 apartments, […]

Senator says Opportunity Zones guidelines will be released soon

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 11:15 AM PDT

The federal Opportunity Zones program has drawn increasing interest — despite limited details on its rules — from real estate investors and developers who have launched funds to take advantage of the expected incentives. Since the program was created late last year, the government has been promising more guidance. The wait may soon be over. Greater details are expected to be released by month’s end, according to South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who helped push […]

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

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 10:40 AM PDT

In the world of mid-market New York City investment sales last week, plastic surgeon Sydney Coleman sold a Tribeca building and Carmine Limited bought two West Village properties. 1.) Carmine Limited bought two apartment buildings in the West Village for $18.9 million. The properties, at 240-242 West 10th Street, are two six-story properties with a total of 44 units, 28 of which are rent-regulated. The seller is Julian Whiting, who has owned the buildings since […]

Gentrification City: Investors are turning to other corners of NYC to chase returns

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 10:00 AM PDT

Once upon a time, developers who were looking to make smart investment plays would throw up a building in Williamsburg, Long Island City or Bushwick and watch the buyers and renters flood in. But those neighborhoods have now largely topped out, sending investors on the hunt for the next corner of New York City that is ripe for opportunity. This month, in an effort to suss out where real estate investors are making their next […]

These were the 10 largest Manhattan real estate loans in September

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 09:20 AM PDT

The top 10 Manhattan loans in September totaled just over $2 billion, up 25% from August, but no single deal broke the $300 million mark. The Manhattan real estate debt market rebounded somewhat in September, but there were few standout deals. The top 10 deals totaled just over $2 billion, up 25 percent from August, but no single deal broke the $300 million mark. The two largest loans both involved retail spaces – one in […]

De Blasio’s federal PAC gets money from real estate industry and a Trump donor

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 08:30 AM PDT

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s federal political action committee has taken in several donations from the real estate industry, as well as one of President Trump’s major donors. Since July 1, the mayor’s Fairness PAC has raised $234,500 and spent $203,349, according to Politico, citing data from the Federal Election Commission. One such donor is Ukrainian-American businessman Alexander Rovt, who gave the maximum $5,000 to the PAC and has also given money to Trump. “People aren’t […]

Co-living concept might be finally taking off

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 08:00 AM PDT

Co-living may have reached its maturity phase. The concept is less than 10 years old, but developers are now getting ready to build some of the continent’s biggest new co-living properties, indicating its growing popularity, according to the Wall Street Journal. Starcity, a co-living startup based in San Francisco, agreed to buy a development site in San Jose, California, last week where it is planning a co-living building with 750 units. It also intends to […]

Chicago is 2nd-most affordable big city to buy a home: report

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 07:30 AM PDT

Chicago is the second-most affordable place to buy a house right now in the United States, and it’s expected to remain buyer-friendly for the next few years. Of the 20 largest cities nationwide, only St. Louis is more affordable, according to data from consulting firm John Burns Real Estate. Crain’s reported the results. Home buying will become increasingly difficult in other major cities, most notably New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Seattle. But the firm sees […]

BounceX becomes latest digital company to move to World Trade Center

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 07:00 AM PDT

BounceX is ditching Midtown for the World Trade Center. The digital marketing company, officially known as Bounce Exchange, will leave its current headquarters at the New York Times building on Eighth Avenue for One World Trade, where it has signed an 11-year, 79,000-square-foot lease, according to the New York Post. The company will occupy the building’s 74th and 75th floors, and asking rent was $69 per square foot. The lease doubles BounceX’s space and means […]

Airbnb could soon face tough new restrictions in the nation’s capital

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 06:30 AM PDT

The district council in Washington D.C. could deliver a major blow to Airbnb on Tuesday. The council is expected to vote on legislation that would ban people from renting out secondary homes and limit their rentals of primary homes to 90 days per year if the owner is not there, according to Reuters. If the owner is there, there would be no time restrictions. The legislation unanimously passed in a preliminary vote, and if the […]

SL Green clears out 609 Fifth for WeWork

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 06:00 AM PDT

Another day, another new lease for WeWork. The co-working giant is leasing all 139,000 square feet of office space at 609 Fifth Avenue from SL Green Realty, according to the New York Post. Asking rent was $85 per square foot, and WeWork will begin occupying the building in November. SL Green had previously served as a lender to the building’s prior owner Jeff Sutton but bought him out a few years ago. The building is […]

BIDs come out against City Council’s proposed commercial rent bill

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 05:30 AM PDT

A group featuring some of the city’s most prominent business improvement districts is coming out against the City Council’s controversial commercial rent control bill. The bill is known as the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, and it would grant commercial retail tenants 10-year lease renewals if they meet the terms of their existing contracts. A version of the bill was first introduced more than three decades ago, and the council’s Committee on Small Business plans […]

Corcoran and Brown Harris Stevens are changing office spaces in Southampton

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 05:00 AM PDT

In an office space shuffle, the Corcoran Group and Brown Harris Stevens are shifting locations of their Southampton outposts. Corcoran will move to 24 Main Street — the office Brown Harris Stevens currently occupies — in the first quarter of 2020, the company said. Corcoran has been in its current office at 88 Main Street for more than 18 years. The new location, which spans nearly 2,600 square feet, is an “opportunity to bring increased […]

The Closing: David Rockwell

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 04:30 AM PDT

David Rockwell is perhaps best known for his collaborations with celebrity chefs and restaurateurs like Danny Meyer and Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, whose restaurants he’s designed around the globe. But the architect’s Manhattan-based firm, which also has offices in Shanghai and Madrid, has designed 650 restaurants, hotels, condos, stage sets and even playgrounds worldwide. About 150 of those projects are in New York. He has two dozen Broadway sets to his name, including those for blockbuster shows […]

The stupefying numbers behind a bill that targets NYC hotel developers

Posted: 16 Oct 2018 04:00 AM PDT

New York City hotel developers are about to lose nearly half of the land they can build on as-of-right. On Wednesday, New York’s City Planning Commission is expected to pass a zoning amendment to require special permits for the construction of hotels in most light manufacturing (M1) zoning districts. After CPC approval, City Council will vote to provide final approval within 50 days. Hotel developers are already treating the outcome of the vote as a […]