The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

The Bronx is getting a new affordable housing complex

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 03:04 PM PDT

Mastermind Ltd is moving ahead with plans to bring an 11-story multifamily development to the Tremont section of the Bronx. The company is planning an 127,911-square-foot building at 656 East 176th Street, according to a pre-filed application with the Department of Buildings. According to the plan, the project would have 153 units. It would also include parking spaces. A previous report from last year noted that the City Planning Commission held a public hearing about […]

Fed Reserve holds rates steady amid weakening housing market

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 02:30 PM PDT

The Federal Reserve said it will hold rates steady and signaled it would likely not raise rates for the rest of the year amid worries over economic growth. In a statement, the Fed stressed again that it will remain patient in making future rate changes. The decision marked a change from the past few years. The Fed increased rates four times in 2018 and and nine times overall since December 2015. It said in its […]

Architect Karl Fischer dead at 70

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 01:25 PM PDT

Prolific architect Karl Fischer, known for his ubiquitous though sometimes critically panned designs in Brooklyn, died last week. He was 70. Fischer opened his first architecture firm in 1984 in Montreal, eventually expanding to New York City in 1999. The firm most recently split and rebranded into two businesses, Fischer + Makooi Architects and Fischer Rasmussen Whitefield Architects. In New York, his best known work includes a 350-unit rental project at 101 Bedford Avenue, the […]

Andrea Greenberg’s ex-boyfriend dies in apparent suicide

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 12:51 PM PDT

Alejandro Aparicio, the ex-boyfriend of the real estate marketing executive Andrea Greenberg who was charged with stealing from her estate, died on Sunday in an apparent suicide. Aparicio rammed his motorcycle head-on into an 18-wheel truck in the Everglades, sources told The Real Deal. Late Sunday afternoon, Aparicio, 59, posted a note on Facebook apparently addressed to the late Greenberg, the Miami Herald reported. “I can’t bear any longer the never-ending yearning to feel the […]

Kushner Companies relists Puck Penthouse with 36% price chop

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 12:48 PM PDT

It’s one of the biggest price cuts to hit the ultra-luxury market so far this year. Kushner Companies has relisted Penthouse 1 at 293 Lafayette Street for $42.5 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s a 36 percent drop from the original listing price of $66M in 2015. It’s the last unit still available in the Puck building, which was bought by Charles Kushner and other investors in 1986, and later developed into six […]

Follow The Real Deal’s Deal Sheet on Instagram!

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 12:05 PM PDT

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 […]

AEW Capital puts 360 Lex up for sale

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 11:30 AM PDT

AEW Capital Management is looking to sell its boutique office building at 360 Lexington Avenue asking just shy of $200 million. The Boston-based investment firm, headed by CEO Jeff Furber, put the 26-story building at the corner of Lexington and East 40th Street on the market with an asking price around $190 million, sources told The Real Deal. The pricing works out to a bit more than $700 per square foot. A representative for AEW […]

Saks Fifth Avenue failed at a Manhattan mall. A flexible office space provider will replace it.

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 11:00 AM PDT

The retail space that once housed Saks Fifth Avenue’s mannequins and racks of clothes at Brookfield Place will gave way to massive conference rooms and meeting spaces. Convene, the flexible office space firm, has signed a partnership agreement to anchor Brookfield Property’s eponymous plaza at in Lower Manhattan. The startup, which builds and manages meeting and events spaces, said Wednesday it will establish a flagship location at Brookfield Place and take 73,000 square feet at […]

Hamptons Cheat Sheet: Southampton home gets $1.5M as summer rental, Sagaponack street named East End’s priciest… & more

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 10:30 AM PDT

Southampton new build snags $1.5M as summer rental A tenant plans to lay down $17,500 a day to rent out a contemporary oceanfront home in Southampton for the summer, the New York Post reported. “In past years, we’ve hit the $1 million-plus rental mark, but this far surpasses it,” star broker Dolly Lenz, who publicly called the deal a record, told the newspaper. Finished just last year, the home on “Billionaire’s Row” at 1400 Meadow […]

Mind behind the exclusive Avenues School nears deal for huge Brooklyn academy

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 09:47 AM PDT

Whittle, meet the Wheeler. Chris Whittle – one of the brains behind the private, for-profit Avenues School – is nearing a deal with Tishman Speyer to make its Wheeler development in Downtown Brooklyn the site of his newest enterprise. The education entrepreneur’s Whittle School & Studios is in late-stage talks to lease all 622,000 square feet of office space at Tishman’s $500 million redevelopment of the Macy’s store on Fulton Street, sources told The Real […]

ISG founding partners finalize breakup: Craig Studnicky takes over brokerage

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 09:15 AM PDT

The ugly legal battle between the two founders of International Sales Group that sullied their partnership and threatened the Miami luxury brokerage’s existence has ended. Former business partners Craig Studnicky and Philip Spiegelman settled dueling lawsuits last month, after Spiegelman allegedly crashed ISG’s holiday party and accosted one of the firm’s brokers, according to court documents reviewed by The Real Deal. Spiegelman had sought court intervention in an attempt to dissolve ISG, while Studnicky counter-sued his […]

US home sales drop as inventory grows in February: report

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 08:45 AM PDT

Is it a buyer’s market yet? Home sales declined in February as inventory grew in the U.S., according to a new report from Re/Max. The 4.2 percent drop last month marked the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year declines. Inventory, meanwhile, grew 5.8 percent in February, the fifth consecutive month. Re/Max’s monthly survey covers 54 metro areas across the country. “Trends of five months or more often indicate significant shifts, Re/Max CEO Adam Contos said in […]

CW Realty files plans for 13-story building in Bushwick

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 08:00 AM PDT

A Brooklyn developer has filed plans for a 13-story building in Bushwick, one of the tallest in the neighborhood. CW Realty, a Williamsburg-based developer, is planning a 70,000-square-foot mixed use building at 333-335 Irving Avenue, according to a source. The building would contain 71 units spanning 60,000 square feet, and a 10,000-square-foot retail portion. It is not clear if the project will be rentals or condominiums. A representative for CW Realty declined to comment. Last […]

Opendoor’s valuation hits $3.8B with latest funding round

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 07:30 AM PDT

The iBuyer startup Opendoor has raised $300 million, bringing its valuation up to $3.8 billion. The latest funding round was led by General Atlantic, a previous investor, and companies including Hawk Equity, SoftBank, Fifth Wall Ventures and GGV Capital took part as well, according to TechCrunch. The firm has now raised $1.3 billion in equity and has about $3 billion in debt financing to buy in properties. Outside agents did land a victory against Opendoor […]

Miami-Dade’s top residential brokers

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 07:00 AM PDT

UPDATED, March 19, 3:00 P.M. It was the merger that rocked the South Florida residential brokerage scene. When it was announced that The Jills of Coldwell Banker and the Zeder Team, previously of EWM Realty International, would be joining forces, the industry was abuzz with theories as to why. Was it a public relations move? Is it just about boosting each team in top markets such as Miami Beach and Coral Gables? “You can’t be […]

How a New York mortgage broker scammed large banks and Fannie and Freddie

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 06:30 AM PDT

Mortgage broker Patrick Ogiony has pleaded guilty to being part of a multifamily real estate scandal involving inflated mortgages, fake incomes and fake residents. Ogiony, of Buffalo, pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to HousingWire. He was accused of defrauding financial institutions including M&T Bank, UBS Securities and SteepRock Capital—along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—by giving them false information about apartment communities owned by Morgan Management in several states, […]

JPMorgan Chase will spend more than $100M for Bank of China’s US headquarters

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 06:00 AM PDT

JPMorgan Chase is reportedly buying the U.S. headquarters for Bank of China at 410 Madison Avenue for more than $100 million. The bank has already moved into the building, which stands seven stories tall and spans just over 58,000 square feet in Midtown East, according to Commercial Observer. Bank of China has already moved out, although the sale has yet to officially close. The site includes 107,500 buildable square feet thanks to the Midtown East […]

Common and Tishman Speyer want to make co-living a thing for families

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 05:38 AM PDT

Co-living might not just be for twentysomethings anymore. Common is teaming up with Tishman Speyer to launch Kin, a new service geared toward families that will include playrooms, larger units and on-demand child care, according to the Wall Street Journal. They will test out the service at Long Island City’s Jackson Park and plan to announce additional locations moving forward. The service is a way for Common to try holding onto its customers as they […]

Zillow ups iBuyer competition with pilot program for self-guided home tours

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 05:00 AM PDT

Zillow is testing the waters of self-guided home tours with its new program, Tour it Now. The company is piloting the “iBuyer” program through its app for a “handful of homes in the Phoenix metro,” Zillow told Inman. The app allows potential homebuyers to access homes for sale without an appointment or agent. The app, which is only available for properties Zillow owns, gives users directions to the home and unlocks the door when they […]

Has the RLS ship sailed?

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 04:30 AM PDT

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 — […]

Keeping up with the Joneses: In wake of JLL-HFF deal, expect a poaching frenzy

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 04:00 AM PDT

JLL’s $2 billion acquisition of HFF, a move that further consolidates the commercial-brokerage industry and creates the country’s largest debt platform, is barely a day old. But competing firms have already begun efforts to scoop up brokers who may be displaced by the merger. “With this merger, there’s definitely going to be opportunities for leading brokers to explore other options,” said Eric Anton, who moved over from HFF to Marcus & Millichap in 2017. “And […]