The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

A new, 219-unit mixed-use development looks to be on its way to Far Rockaway, as the far-flung Queens neighborhood continues to see a development boom. Affordable housing developer Brisa Builders Corporation plans to build the nine-story project at 13-38 Central Avenue in Far Rockaway, according to an application pre-filed with the city’s building department. The development would span just under 195,000 square feet, with about 132,000 square feet of that reserved for residential space. The […]

For the average Joe, $59,000 could be equivalent to one year’s salary. For others, it may be a ticket into one of the city’s most exclusive condominium buildings. A new rental listing first spotted by the New York Post is offering a precious sneak peek inside 220 Central Park South, which is expected to pull in $1 billion for Vornado Realty Trust. The 40th floor unit is asking a whopping $59,000 a month — though […]

It will cost $2.40 for a paint job, $24 to replace flooring, and $40 to remove a wall or add a swimming pool. Digital photo manipulation has become so widespread and cheap that home sellers are increasingly using the technology to spruce up their listings, the Wall Street Journal reported. This has the potential to create new headaches for end users, investors, appraisers and brokers. “This is a really new technology,” Denee Evans, chief executive […]

Hong Kong-based Euro Properties was supposed to be the first Chinese developer to build — not just finance — a condominium tower in Manhattan, when it acquired 118 East 59th Street in 2013. But construction on the 38-story tower never got going, and pre-development sales of its 29 units never made it to the closing phase. The developer also never obtained a construction loan, city records show. On Monday, Euro Properties announced it had sold […]

A former business partner of Michael Besen and Amit Doshi has added another wrinkle to the ugly legal conflict between the two real estate veterans. In a lawsuit filed on Feb. 21, Ram Gupta said he had equal ownership with Besen and Doshi at two unprofitable Bronx properties. The three of them had been trying to figure out how to dissolve their partnership and divide up the properties, at 624 East 220th Street and 655 […]

It’s not just borrowers who are benefiting from the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold off on interest rate hikes so far this year. Real estate investment trusts have seen their shares soar thanks to the Fed’s shift in tone. Real estate stocks on the S&P 500 have jumped 12 percent since the start of the year, after falling 5.6 percent in 2018, according to the Wall Street Journal. Last year’s rising rates cut into home […]

A former labor organizer with the New York City District Council of Carpenters claims he was fired as payback for identifying safety issues at a construction site run by the brother of the union’s then-president. Michael Donnelly filed a lawsuit against the district council, former President Steve McInnis, his brother Charles McInnis and James Kennelly over his termination from the district council on May 9, 2017. Donnelly — who was tasked with visiting construction sites […]

The holding company that controls discount supermarket Western Beef is planning to build a 159-unit mixed-use building in the Bronx. Peter Castellana’s Cactus Holdings filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings for a project at 4720 Third Avenue that will span nearly 191,000 square feet. The company and Michael Ashkenazy bought that site, along with 4734 Third Avenue and 448 East 189th Street, in 2018 for $18 million from Mayo Associates. The parcels are […]

Lone Star Funds sells 7-property portfolio for nearly $500M Dallas-based private equity firm Lone Star Funds sold a seven-property portfolio with 1,496 units on Long Island to Melville-based Fairfield Properties and Chevy Chase, Maryland-based real estate investor FCP for $472.5 million, The Real Deal reported. The deal came a little more than a week after Lone Star sold a $1.1 billion portfolio of garden apartments in Maryland and Virginia to the Kushner Companies, a firm […]

Controversial actor Mel Gibson has cut the asking price on his Malibu estate by another 9 percent to $15 million and hired new agents to sell it. The 6,600-square-foot home sits on five acres in a canyon off Carbon Mesa Road and has exposed wood beams, large fireplaces, and hardwood floors, according to the Los Angeles Times. Gibson first listed the secluded home in 2017 for $17.5 million. He cut the price to $16.5 million […]

Americans are now able to sue about 200 Cuban companies that control real estate previously confiscated by the Cuban government. The White House plans to announce the decision Monday, as part of a partial implementation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act of 1996. Congress has suspended Title III six months at a time since it was passed. The move will allow Americans to file lawsuits in U.S. courts against those companies, the Miami Herald […]

An art collector’s penthouse traded for $9.9 million and a venture capitalist bought in Carnegie Hill. Here are some noteworthy residential deals from the past week. 1. The estate of Elizabeth Stafford, a prominent collector of 18th-century French art and furniture, sold her Lenox Hill penthouse at 900 Fifth Avenue for about $9.9 million. The deal included an additional unit for staff on the second floor. The buyers were listed as Harry and Catherine Jean […]

 Trying to keep up with the latest projects underway in New York City? Check out The Real Deal’s new interactive map, where you can track more than 16,000 buildings in various stages of development across the five boroughs. This critical resource is for subscribers only, so if you haven’t joined us yet, sign up now. The map is updated daily by TRD’s data team and shows projects in every phase of development, from the moment plans […]

When Jonathan Manierre and Ryan Doran decided they needed new digs for their growing ad and marketing agency, Turkois, the design duo contacted realtors and did a traditional office search. In the end, they settled on 2,500 square feet of storage space over a restaurant in White Plains, New York, and prepared to rent out parts of the space under the name KOI Creative Space. The idea of a co-working space spoke to their mutual […]

It may not have the ring of say, 90210, but Miami’s Fisher Island 33109 is America’s richest ZIP code. The exclusive community — which covers Miami and Miami Beach — held on to the No. 1 spot on Bloomberg’s annual ranking of the 100 wealthiest ZIPs in the U.S. Residents of the 216-acre island — accessible by ferry only — reported an average income of $2.2 million. More than 700 families from over 45 countries […]

The Carlyle Group has expanded its lease at the under-construction One Vanderbilt, taking 128,000 square feet at the building. The firm signed a 15-year lease with landlord SL Green at the 1,400-foot tall office tower next to Grand Central Station. The landlord said the tenant will take floors 35 through 38, and said the building is now 54 percent leased. The building, which is expected to open next year, has topped out at 73 floors, […]

Manhattan’s luxury market saw 22 contracts signed last week for a total of about $215 million, the third week in a row that the market has topped 20 sales, according to the latest report from Olshan Realty. The contracts signed at $4 million or above were split between 10 condos, seven co-ops and five townhouses. The number of contracts decreased by six from the week before, while the dollar volume increased by about $2 million. […]

There were 13 contracts signed in Brooklyn’s luxury market last week for a total of about $36.8 million. The properties were split between six condos, five townhouses and two co-ops, and they went for an average price of about $2.6 million, 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. Both numbers were down from the week before, when […]

Even though modular construction at the Pacific Park megaproject didn’t succeed, the city government will use the construction method to speed up work on an affordable project in East New York. The 167-unit project at 581 Grant Avenue in East New York will be one of the first to use this method of stacking factory-produced units, according to the Wall Street Journal. They chose the proposal from a development team led by Thorobird Companies and […]

Lalezarian Properties is planning to build a 45-story, 260-unit mixed-use tower at 606 West 30th Street, according to plans pre-filed with the Department of Buildings. The mixed-use property would span more than 200,000 square feet, split between about 193,000 square feet of residential space and 14,000 square feet of commercial space. It would stand 545 feet tall. All units will be rentals and split between 75 percent market rate and 25 percent affordable units, according […]

A wealthy banker owns half of the buildings on Flushing’s 40th Road that are allegedly housing brothels. Business owners identified eight addresses on the block as houses of prostitution, four of which are owned by father and son Jentai and Eugene Morimoto Tsai’s Asia Plaza Corp, according to the New York Post. Representatives for the family said they did not know what the building’s tenants were doing. The buildings include 135-20, 135-32, 135-28 and 135-24 […]

A group of architects from the prestigious firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have been busted for cheating on a key professional exam. The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards has named eight people that it says shared or received content from the Architect Registration Examination, a six-part test required to become a licensed architect, according to the New York Post. The New York architects named were Charles Harris, Irene Wangpataravanich, Marti Gottsch, Rami Abou-Khalil, Isaiah […]

Gyms (and athletic wear retailers) once again dominated the retail leasing scene last month in New York City, securing four of the top 10 biggest deals. The rest of the list mostly comprised of restaurants. Taken together, February’s top 10 retail leasing deals totaled less than January’s in terms of square footage. The 10 biggest retail lease deals signed last month totaled 188,100 square feet, down 41,600 square feet from January’s total of 229,700 square […]

When the Real Estate Board of New York flipped the switch on syndication — the technical term for blasting listings out to brokerages and consumer-facing websites — back in 2017, it promised to “drive listing visibility” and streamline the way agents share data. Despite the fanfare around that move, nearly 20 months later the digital listing universe in the city is more volatile than ever. Now, amid the brokerage industry’s latest showdown with StreetEasy — […]

UPDATED, March 4, 1:15 p.m.: The owners of Industry City have filed their long-awaited application to rezone the 30-acre complex in Sunset Park, kicking off the city’s months-long land-use review process. Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball filed the company’s 135-page application with the Department of City Planning late last month, seeking in part to allow for 1.45 million square feet of new construction at the site. “The proposed actions are needed because the project area’s current […]