The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Douglas Elliman buys Strickland, marking Florida west coast expansion

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 03:35 PM PST

Douglas Elliman is making a move on Florida’s west coast. New York City’s largest residential brokerage acquired the St. Petersburg-based Strickland Property Group. Led by Bonnie Strickland, the brokerage has 16 agents and did more than $146 million in total sales last year. That made it one of the top firms in Pinellas County, according to Elliman’s release on the purchase. Following the acquisition, Bonnie Strickland will become executive director of luxury sales at the […]

And so it begins: Moody’s launches CRE portal to challenge CoStar’s dominance

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 03:14 PM PST

Moody’s Analytics has launched its long-planned commercial real estate data portal, highlighting the company’s push into a space largely dominated by the CoStar Group. The financial services giant, which is valued at $31 billion, has over the past year acquired, invested and partnered with data companies to provide a centralized portal of commercial real estate transaction tools. The Real Deal last month reported the company’s plans to build the portal, which would provide access to […]

Hamptons Cheat Sheet: Southampton properties merged into $73M mega listing, Peconic Bay fund earns $99M in real estate taxes … & more

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 03:00 PM PST

For sale Southampton properties merged into $73M mega listing Two Southampton properties — 359 Meadow Lane and 660 Halsey Neck Lane — are now being listed together as a 12.2-acre compound with a $72.5 million ask. The two properties have individually been on and off the market since 2017, but have now been merged by Bespoke Real Estate, which has the combined listing. The Meadow Lane portion had previously listed for $37.5 million, while the one […]

Selling real estate is elementary? Lucy Liu’s condos just went into contract

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 02:15 PM PST

Perhaps the new owners of Lucy Liu’s two condominiums in a converted Flatiron loft building can figure out why she didn’t combine the units. The star of CBS’s “Elementary,” a contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes, went into contract to sell the homes at 29 West 19th Street, according to Variety. They were listed for a combined $5.9 million. One apartment is directly above the other, and they are two of only five units in the […]

Asset manager New Mountain Capital inks 100K sf lease in Midtown

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 02:00 PM PST

Alternative-asset manager New Mountain Capital is relocating its offices north of Times Square, but it’s not going far. The company, which has more than $20 billion in assets under management, inked a deal to relocate its current headquarters at the AXA Equitable Center just across the street to 1633 Broadway. New Mountain Capital signed a lease for about 108,000 square feet at the Paramount Group building, sources told The Real Deal. A spokesperson for New […]

Met Opera exec sells Sherry Netherland co-op

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 01:00 PM PST

An opera executive whose late husband controlled a fortune estimated at $3.3 billion just parted with a Sherry Netherland co-op for more than a song. Frayda Lindemanns’ two-bedroom pad sold to an anonymous LLC, “GAAL NYC LLC,” for $11 million, according to records filed with the city today. The unit at 781 Fifth Avenue has a master bedroom with views over Central Park, and the new buyer will have access to all the amenities of […]

Exorcism of 15,000 “ghost agents” begins at Keller Williams

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 12:30 PM PST

Keller Williams brags about being the biggest resi real estate franchiser nationwide by agent count. But it may not be as large as it claims. It appears that some of Keller Williams’ 160,000 plus agents in the United States are actually “ghosts,” meaning they are inactive, unlicensed, and even deceased, according to Inman. Josh Team, Keller Williams’ president, said the company became aware of “inconsistencies” in agent count last month. “This is contrary to our […]

Will Silverman in talks to join Eastdil: sources

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 12:00 PM PST

UPDATED, Feb. 5, 5:38 p.m.: Eastdil Secured, still reeling from the loss of a number of top dealmakers, is looking to bring in an investment-sales veteran as the brokerage prepares for a potential sale. Will Silverman, who leads the New York investment-sales practice at Hodges Ward Elliot, is in talks to join the Roy March-led Eastdil, sources told The Real Deal. It’s unclear if Silverman has received a concrete offer. He declined to comment on Eastdil, but […]

Donald Trump’s childhood home is back on the market — at a big premium

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 11:30 AM PST

President Donald Trump’s childhood home in Queens, which last traded hands in 2017, is again up for sale. This time, it’s asking $2.9 million. The home at 85-15 Wareham Place in Jamaica Estates will be sold through a sealed bidding process, the Wall Street Journal reported. Interested buyers can submit their best and final offers by email, and the owner won’t accept offers contingent on financing. The sealed process is an effort to the keep […]

HAP lines up $53M construction loan for Washington Heights project

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 11:00 AM PST

Eran Polack’s HAP Investments secured a $52.5 million construction loan for a mixed-use development site at 4452 Broadway in Washington Heights. Madison Realty Capital provided the financing package, which will replace existing debt and cover construction costs, the firm said. Property records show that Gamma Real Estate provided HAP with $11.5 million in financing in 2017. The developer bought the land in 2013 for $7.3 million, and the firm plans to build a seven-story mixed-use […]

Wealthy buyers increasingly ditch their high-tax states for Florida

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 10:30 AM PST

As top earners flee their high-tax states for low-tax states like Florida, public officials like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are sounding the alarm. Cuomo said the new federal tax law, which caps the deduction for state and local taxes to $10,000, is the reason for a $2.3 billion state shortfall, as New Yorkers increasingly head to Florida. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in December 2017, also limits the amount of mortgage interest […]

Sabet Group expands Downtown portfolio with East Village multifamily buy

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 10:00 AM PST

Renaissance Properties is selling off another one of its downtown Manhattan buildings. Alfred Sabet’s Sabet Group is purchasing 236 East 5th Street from the company for $23.25 million, according to sources familiar with the deal. The East Village residential building stands six stories tall and includes 30 units, and Renaissance had owned it since at least 1969, according to property records. Aaron Jungries of Rosewood Realty Group brokered the deal. Renaissance Properties also recently sold […]

Commercial property sales hit near record-breaking total of $562B last year

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 09:30 AM PST

Commercial real estate sales hit near-record levels in 2018, and low interest rates could make for another strong year. The total value of U.S. commercial properties selling for $2.5 million or more reached $562.1 billion last year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from Real Capital Analytics. This was a 15 percent increase compared to 2017 and about $8 billion less than the 2015 record of $569.9 billion. Property prices increased by 6.2 percent […]

Forget San Francisco… New York is now the world’s best tech city: Savills

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 09:00 AM PST

For the first time, New York City has surpassed San Francisco to grab the No. 1 spot in the Savills Tech Cities index. The city pulled ahead on the triennial ranking because of the availability of venture capital and its deep talent pool, Bloomberg reported. “New York can keep generating its own talent and, I think more importantly, recruiting it from around the world,” Paul Tovstein, the report’s author, told the publication. The Savills study […]

MoMA closing this summer for final stage of $400M overhaul

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 08:30 AM PST

More like LessMA. As it enters the home stretch of its $400 million expansion, New York’s Museum of Modern Art will be closing its doors for fours months this summer and fall, from June 15 to Oct. 21, for a full reconfiguration of its galleries, according to the New York Times. The new configuration, which will juxtapose artwork from different mediums instead of separating them in a discipline-based system, aims to give new prominence to […]

Churchill Real Estate’s distressed debt fund eyes “crack” in NY market

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 08:00 AM PST

When the U.S. real estate market collapsed in 2009, banks and lenders were left scrambling to find buyers for their loans that borrowers had defaulted on. Debt funds and vulture funds were able to scoop up some of those bad loans for pennies on the dollar. Now, Churchill Real Estate Holdings says a version of that story could begin to play out in New York. In response, the New York-based firm has been trying to […]

Follow The Real Deal’s Deal Sheet on Instagram!

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 07:15 AM PST

Shaya Sonnenschein and Shaya Ackerman of Meridian Capital Group represented the owner, Marx Development Group. The loan was issued by Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies. #commercialrealestate #nycrealestate #trdny #trddealsheet #nyc #nycloans #trdloans A post shared by The Real Deal’s Deal Sheet (@trddeals) on Jun 20, 2018 at 10:17am PDT The Real Deal’s Deal Sheet is on Instagram! Our latest social media channel features snaps of retail and office leases, financing acquisitions and commercial and residential […]

Amazon’s LIC plan bumps cable company from One Court Square

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 06:31 AM PST

Amazon’s potential move to Long Island City would bring big changes to the neighborhood in coming years, and it’s already caused some disruption in the local office market. The tech giant’s plan to lease 1 million square feet at Savanna’s One Court Square is sending telecom and cable company Altice USA out the door, the New York Post reported. Altice had moved its headquarters from Long Island to the building about two years ago, subleasing […]

Apple in advanced talks for 55 Hudson Yards office space

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 06:05 AM PST

Tech giant Apple is considering taking up about 60,000 square feet at Related Companies and Mitsui Fudosan’s 55 Hudson Yards, with talks already in advanced stages, according to a new report. The tower, at 11th Avenue and West 34th Street, is expected to open in the spring. Committed tenants for the building include Steve Cohen’s personal fund Point72, hedge fund Third Point and private equity firm Silver Lake. The New York Post’s report also floats […]

SL Green lands nonprofit tenant for News Building in Midtown

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 05:30 AM PST

Despite recently considering a sale of the property, SL Green Realty has continued to bring in new tenants to the Art Deco “News Building” in Midtown, with the latest deal bringing the tower to 96 percent full. The latest tenant at 220 East 42nd Street is the nonprofit Young Adult Institute (YAI), which will be taking over 75,000 square feet on the entire eighth floor and part of the seventh floor, the New York Post […]

What the $10M-$20M NYC investment sales market looked like last week

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 05:00 AM PST

In the world of New York City mid-market investment sales last week, a Gramercy Park walk-up building and a Red Hook development site traded hands. Here are the details. 1.) An entity tied to investor Elliot Sohayegh sold a six-story walk-up at 311 Second Avenue, which sits on the corner of East 18th Street in Gramercy Park, for $18 million. The buyer was recorded as 11817 Victory Boulevard LLC, with Michael Ainbinder as trustee. Sohayegh […]

Locking and loading listings: These resi firms racked up the highest dollar volume in 2018

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 04:30 AM PST

“I had so many difficult conversations with sellers in 2018 that I literally had to go to a voice doctor,” said Compass broker Brian Lewis, adding: “It was a tough year of real estate.” The voice doctor suggested Lewis use a humidifier and drink less caffeine to keep his vocal cords from drying out as he worked on getting sellers to the right price. Drawing on his years as an actor, Lewis now does vocal warm-ups […]

Richard Meier & Partners, after the departure of Richard Meier

Posted: 05 Feb 2019 04:00 AM PST

Richard Meier’s influence is still apparent when walking into the office of his eponymous architecture firm. There’s no trace of decoration on the white walls — the Pritzker Prize-winner’s trademark color — and large windows flood the space with light. After the New York Times reported last March that five women accused Meier of sexual misconduct, the designer took a leave of absence. Despite saying in September that he had no plans to retire, Meier […]