The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Lynne Patton gets trapped in NYCHA elevator

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 03:30 PM PST

During her month-long stay in public housing, Lynne Patton planned to draw attention to the New York Housing Authority’s extraordinary number of problems, but even she likely didn’t see this coming. On Tuesday, the top regional official at Housing and Urban Development and a PIX 11 news crew became stuck in an elevator at the Frederick Douglass Houses when someone inadvertently pressed the emergency stop button, trapping the nine occupants in the elevator. The fire […]

LCRE Group lands $85M refi for FiDi hotel

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 03:16 PM PST

Richard Lou’s LCRE Group refinanced the construction loan on its new Marriott-branded hotel in the Financial District, nearly a year after the firm reportedly was on the hunt for new debt. The lender, Shanghai Commercial Bank, provided $85 million to refinance the 33-story AC Hotel New York Downtown at 151 Maiden Lane, according to a public record filed Tuesday with the city’s finance department. The debt includes $13 million gap mortgage. Representatives from Shanghai Commercial […]

A million StreetEasy accounts hacked

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 02:45 PM PST

Now you can shop for StreetEasy user accounts on the dark web. In an email to users Tuesday, StreetEasy said login information for accounts on the site had been hacked by an “unauthorized party” and are currently for sale on the dark web. The company said some financial information might also have been accessed in the hack. “The stolen data includes email addresses, usernames, and encrypted passwords,” StreetEasy’s communications director, Emily Heffter, said in a […]

Industrious sells spare-office-space platform to CRE brokerage

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 02:15 PM PST

Flexible office space firm Industrious has sold a commercial subletting platform it acquired two years ago as part of its early expansion plan. PivotDesk, an online service that allows companies to advertise free space in their offices to small firms or freelancers, was sold in recent months to SquareFoot, a Manhattan-based startup that provides commercial real estate listings and an online brokerage service, the buyer announced Tuesday. The intermediary space between office tenants and co-working […]

BHS names Pablo Marvel as CMO

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 01:30 PM PST

UPDATE, Feb. 19, 2019, 5:30 p.m.: Three months after being named CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, Bess Freedman is shaking up the 146-year-old firm’s marketing — again. The luxury brokerage has tapped Pablo Marvel, son of Marvel Architects’ Jonathan Marvel — as its chief marketing officer. The move, which comes on the heels of the firm’s rebranding last year, was a strategic decision to differentiate between BHS and its sister company, Halstead. Both are owned […]

Brooklyn’s luxury market is picking up steam: Stribling

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 01:00 PM PST

As was true in Manhattan, Brooklyn’s luxury residential market just had its best week of the year. Seventeen contracts were signed for a total of $54.58 million last week, 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. The market ticked up from the prior week, which saw 13 contracts for a total of $37.95 million in contract volume. […]

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

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 12:30 PM PST

In the world of NYC’s mid-market investment sales market last week, a Williamsburg walk-up traded for roughly $16 million and a developer picked up an East Harlem industrial property. Here are the details. 1. Icon Realty Management sold a 36-unit apartment building at 331 Keap Street in Williamsburg for $15.5 million, said Derek Bestreich of Bestreich Realty Group, the firm that brokered the sale. The deal, which closed Friday, prices out to $713 per square […]

Saudi investors uneasy with how Son is running his $100B Vision Fund

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 12:00 PM PST

SoftBank Group is again receiving pushback from major investors disgruntled with its brash investment decisions in tech firms that have been led by an increasingly powerful Masayoshi Son. The sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, the main investors in the firm’s $100 billion Vision Fund, have complained about SoftBank Group’s practice of buying stakes in companies and then passing them onto the Vision Fund at a premium, according to the Wall Street […]

KD Sagamore aims for $96M LES sellout

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 11:30 AM PST

KD Sagamore Capital and Ranger Properties are hoping to get $2,400 a square foot for their boutique condominium project in the Lower East Side. The developers are seeking a $95.97 million sellout for the project, according to a filing with the New York State Attorney General’s office. The project will have 14 residential units plus commercial space.The average condo is priced at $6.9 million ($2,400 per square foot), among the loftiest prices sought in the […]

Kicking the can: EB-5 extended again; still lacks permanent legislation

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 11:00 AM PST

The federal EB-5 program has been extended yet again, this time until Sept. 30. The visa program was again included in the larger federal spending package that President Trump signed Friday, averting another partial government shutdown. EB-5 gives foreign investors the opportunity to obtain a green card if they invest at least $500,000 in a development project and create at least 10 jobs. It has received a number of short-term extensions over the past three […]

The Real Deal’s inaugural tri-state issue is now available to all subscribers

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 10:30 AM PST

The Real Deal’s first-ever tri-state issue is live, and digital subscribers to TRD are getting the first look at what’s inside. Subscribers now have access to stories including: – Senior living: How developers are reaping the benefits of building retirement homes and managed care centers – OZs outside the big city: How brokers, developers and fund managers are trying to capitalize on Opportunity Zones in the suburbs – Co-working’s evolution in the outer markets, and […]

Ken Griffin, fresh off massive NYC condo buy, gives another $1M to Daley’s Chicago mayoral campaign

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 10:00 AM PST

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin is giving another $1 million to Bill Daley’s mayoral campaign, matching his earlier contribution this month, and coming just weeks after he made headlines around the world for a record-shattering $238 million Manhattan penthouse purchase. Griffin, CEO of Citadel, is among a number of business leaders putting their money behind Daley, according to Crain’s, which reported on the latest million-dollar donation. That list of contributors includes a number of people […]

Landsea plans 12-story luxury building in Flatiron District

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 09:30 AM PST

Landsea Homes is furthering its residential play in the city, this time with a 12-story mixed-use project in the Flatiron District. The project would span about 63,400 square feet and include about 6,200 square feet of retail space on the first floor, according to the application with the city’s building department. There also would be 50 residential units, and the 12th-floor residences would have private terraces. Morris Adjmi Architects is designing the project, which is […]

Hamptons Cheat Sheet: Southampton new build in contract at $35M, Spur co-working space faces eviction… & more

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 09:05 AM PST

Southampton new build in contract at nearly $35M A 23,000-square foot new construction home in Southampton has gone to contract at $34.95 million, according to Behind the Hedges. The mansion at 6 Olde Towne Lane, built in 2017, includes a full-length indoor basketball court, a rooftop putting green, a tennis court and a gunite pool. Tony Ingrao designed the home’s interior, which includes nine bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a glass staircase, a black stone fireplace and […]

Here are the week’s top luxury sales

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 08:30 AM PST

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

These are the most notable NYC resi sales of last week

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 08:00 AM PST

In New York City’s residential real estate world last week, brokers began to grapple with how Amazon’s reversal to build a headquarters in Long Island City will impact the market in that neighborhood. (TRD‘s story: Condo absorption likely will slow, but LIC’s upward trajectory will continue. ) But throughout the city, deals were still getting done. Here’s a wrapup of some of the more notable resi sales publicly recorded last week. Source: A TRD review […]

Suit against Isaac Kassirer raises questions over Fannie and Freddie’s increased lending on NYC multifamily

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 07:30 AM PST

More known for backing single-family loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have seen their involvement in rental mortgages grow dramatically since 2008. Though the agencies aim to promote affordable housing with cheap, government-backed loans, critics say these loans can have the opposite effect. While housing advocates mostly agree that Fannie and Freddie loans for affordable housing and in rural areas have benefited renters significantly, their financing of market-rate apartments in major cities can end up […]

Zillow’s Zestimates are really just estimates, federal appeals court rules

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 07:00 AM PST

A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Zillow Group’s “Zestimates” aren’t meant to be precise appraisals of a home’s value. Last year, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the online brokerage did not violate consumer fraud laws through its use of the much-maligned online valuations, and earlier this month, a federal appeals court upheld that ruling, according to the Cook County Record. The suit by a group of Chicago-area homeowners had […]

Spring awakening? Manhattan luxury market saw a big spike last week: Olshan

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 06:35 AM PST

Manhattan’s luxury market saw 26 contracts signed last week valued at roughly $245 million, according to the latest report from Olshan Realty. This was the first week in 2019 to see more than 20 deals, after a thoroughly lackluster start to the year. The contracts signed at $4 million or above were split between 14 condos, eight co-ops, one condop and three townhouses. The number of contracts increased by ten from the week before, while […]

Global Holdings lands second major tenant for rebranded 1250 Broadway

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 06:00 AM PST

StreetEasy has new neighbors. A few months after Zillow Group inked a 130,000-square foot lease at the rebranded NoMad Tower, Eyal Ofer’s Global Holdings Management Group has landed another major tenant for the rebranded property: language services and tech firm TransPerfect. Eyal Ofer’s Global Holdings bought the property at 1250 Broadway from Jamestown and Murray Hill Properties in 2016, for $565 million. The company rebranded the 39-story office tower as “NoMad Tower” and put a […]

Sellers are taking huge losses on Billionaires’ Row. These are some of the biggest

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 05:35 AM PST

Maybe billionaires really do have money to burn. Luxury residential resales have been some of the biggest loss-makers in recent years, according to a new StreetEasy analysis. Whereas just 7.7 percent of the 16,000 apartments resold in New York from 2014 to 2018 sold for an outright loss, that percentage rose to 39 percent – 26 out of 66 – for luxury apartment resales in Midtown. “One of the things that I struggle to wrap […]

What’s behind the projected slowdown in China’s property market

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 05:00 AM PST

In 2015, government authorities in China responded to a big drop in the Chinese stock market and other issues by reducing interest rates and lifting limits on home purchases, which boosted both property investment and the national economy. But now, Beijing is resisting an expansion of a public program that has provided cash subsidies to help rural residents buy apartments in dozens of Chinese cities. Government officials are now wary of stimulating housing investment because it would add unwanted […]

The Closing: Bess Freedman

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 04:30 AM PST

Bess Freedman is the CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, the 146-year-old brokerage known for its luxury niche. Freedman was named co-president of the firm alongside Hall Willkie in December 2017 and was appointed the company’s first CEO less than a year later. That promotion put her at the helm of one of the oldest and most prestigious firms in the city and charged her with overseeing about 1,000 agents — who collectively closed about $4 […]

Number games: How developers inflate the height of their penthouses

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 04:00 AM PST

Donald Trump’s penthouse takes up the 66th through 68th floors in a tower that only has 58. The math-defying logic of Trump Tower garnered attention just before he became president, and while he may have had a hand in popularizing the practice, he’s not alone in inflating the height of his building. Having two sets of floor numbers — the actual, known as the construction floor, and the fake, known as the marketing floor — […]