The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

“Selling a dream”: A wave of land listings marks shift in LA luxury resi market

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 03:00 PM PDT

Eri Kroh, a commercial real estate developer, didn’t know what he was about to get into when an agent took him “just to look at” a 30-acre plot of land in Bel Air 15 years ago. Initially eyed as a business opportunity, Kroh began envisioning the dirt, for which he paid $6 million, as the setting for his family’s dream home. Blueprints were even drawn up, with the names of his children written in their […]

Steiner sells majority stake in DoBro rental tower to JPMorgan fund

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 02:45 PM PDT

Steiner NYC has sold a majority stake in the Hub, its 55-story Downtown Brooklyn rental tower. The sale of the stake coincided with a $330 million refinancing of the property at 333 Schermerhorn Street, one of the borough’s tallest residential buildings, according to the developer. “Simultaneous to our closing, we took some money off the table and brought in the bluest of blue-chip institutions as a partner, which is a great outcome for everyone,” chairman […]

These are some of the most notable resi sales of the week

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 01:41 PM PDT

In New York City’s residential real estate world this week, the British consulate dropped nearly $16 million on a Manhattan penthouse, and a townhouse formerly owned by Malcolm Forbes is reportedly in contract for $20 million. Here are some other noteworthy deals that hit public records. Source: A TRD review of public records filed with the New York City Department of Finance from March 18 to March 22. 1. A townhouse at 135 West 11th […]

Savanna’s white knight? This Health care firm could take Amazon’s place at One Court Square

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 01:00 PM PDT

A health care company based in St. Louis is about to be Savanna’s savior. Centene Corporation is negotiating a deal to lease up to 500,000 square feet at Savanna’s One Court Square in Long Island City, according to Crain’s. Amazon had previously committed to leasing about 1 million square feet of space in the tower but cancelled the deal when it abruptly pulled out of its plans to bring its second headquarters to New York […]

Chicago’s top residential brokerages churned out $23B in deals last year

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 12:30 PM PDT

Chicago’s housing market cooldown in the second half of 2018 required some difficult conversations between brokers and their home-selling clients. That left agent Jennifer Ames sounding like a doctor delivering bad news. “I don’t say, ‘Take two aspirin and call me in the morning,’” said Ames, one of the city’s top producing agents. “You have to be the professional in the room and tell them the truth, not what they want to hear.” After a […]

Mark your calendars: These are NYC’s top real estate events next week

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 12:00 PM PDT

There will be a few new real estate events next week! From March 27th to March 28th, iGlobal Forum is hosting its 20th Annual Real Estate Private Equity Summit East at the Harmonie Club, 4 East 60th Street. Come to this event to network, hear from over 200 real estate professionals on real estate investing and take part in interactive workshops. Speakers at this event include Mark Romanczuk, vice president of the real estate financing […]

Lower East Side residents sue city to stop controversial Two Bridges development

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 11:30 AM PDT

A group of residents and local organizations are pushing back on a new set of residential development in Two Bridges, a controversial project that would bring four skyscrapers and thousands of apartments to the Lower East Side neighborhood. Four organizations and five residents filed a petition Friday against the city, the City Planning Commission, the Department of Buildings and the Department of City Planning, alleging the approval of the towers was illegal. AM New York […]

New York’s multifamily market got off to a slow start this year

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 10:45 AM PDT

New York’s multifamily market kicked off 2019 slowly, seeing year-over-year declines in dollar volume, transaction volume and building volume. Overall, y, according to a report from Ariel Property Advisors. These were respective declines of 18 percent, 38 percent and 51 percent compared to January of last year. Ariel partially attributed the slowdown to uncertainty over possible rent regulation reforms taking place at the state level. The firm predicted an uptick in the market when more […]

As Brexit looms, British consulate pays $16M for Manhattan penthouse

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 10:00 AM PDT

Investors in the U.K. might be holding back until Brexit is settled, but the British embassy in New York is doubling down. The British Consulate-General in New York purchased a sponsor unit penthouse on the 38th floor of 50 United Nations Plaza for $15.9 million. It is unclear who will live in the apartment, but a power of attorney document was signed by Michael Tatham, the deputy British ambassador to the United States. The unit […]

Class action suit could change real estate commissions

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 09:15 AM PDT

In what could be the most far-reaching antitrust lawsuit for the real estate market in decades, the National Association of Realtors and four of the largest realty companies have been accused of a conspiracy to systematically overcharge home sellers by forcing them to pay commissions to the agents who represent the buyers of their homes. The class-action suit, https://therealdeal.com/2019/03/11/a-new-class-action-lawsuit-could-upend-the-real-estate-business-as-we-know-it/ filed in federal district court in Chicago, focuses on a rule it says has been imposed […]

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Posted: 22 Mar 2019 08:30 AM PDT

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De Blasio and HUD’s Lynne Patton are feuding over NYCHA deal

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 08:00 AM PDT

As NYCHA’s litany of issues continue to play out, Mayor Bill de Blasio is butting heads with Housing and Urban Development top local official, Lynne Patton. The mayor said he’s in talks to name a new chair for the New York City Housing Authority, but that Patton’s take on the situation is simply not true, the New York Daily News reported. “Everything she is saying is false, let’s make it simple. False, false false,” de […]

Developer dodges SEC suit over EB-5 projects, but legal troubles persist

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 07:30 AM PDT

Chicago developer Taher Kameli scored a victory in court when a judge threw out a federal lawsuit over alleged fraud in an EB-5 project, but his legal troubles aren’t over. The Securities and Exchange Commission in 2017 sued Kameli, claiming he defrauded more than 200 foreign investors who put up $89 million to build eight assisted-living projects in the Chicago suburbs and Florida, according to Crain’s. The suit alleged Kameli charged undisclosed fees, commingled funds […]

Hudson Yards hype created a flurry of interest in the neighborhood’s condos

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 07:07 AM PDT

The buzz leading up to Hudson Yards’ opening last week drew tons of curious eyes to the new neighborhood’s growing housing stock. The number of residential real estate searches in Hudson Yards between March 12 and March 15 spiked, Crain’s reported, citing StreetEasy data. Searches soared 257 percent compared with the previous week. And StreetEasy searches peaked on the day of the opening, March 15 — with a jump of 630 percent over the previous […]

Icon Realty Management has a bagel-loving buyer for historic Forbes townhouse

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 06:38 AM PDT

Seven years after buying the townhouse owned by publishing mogul Malcolm Forbes, Icon Realty Management has found a buyer. And the buyer is an entrepreneur with a big-ass taste for luxury real estate… and bagels. The home at 11 West 12th Street is in contract for about $20 million (about $2,200 a square foot), the Wall Street Journal reported. It hit the market last April asking $28.5 million. The buyer is J. Carey Smith, the […]

Con artist who tried to scam Fyre Festival founder owes lawyers $250K for botched real estate deals

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 06:00 AM PDT

A socialite grifter who posed as a German heiress was able to scam banks, other con artists and white-shoe law firms out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Anna Sorokin, who goes by Anna Delvey, has more than $250,000 in unpaid legal fees she allegedly owes Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLC, Perkins Coie LLC and Lowenstein Sandler LLC on various real estate deals. According to court documents, she accrued $160,000 in fees at Perkins Coie […]

Buyers can reap savings as mortgage rates slide — but it’s not all good news

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 05:30 AM PDT

After the Federal Reserve’s most recent announcement, mortgages rates tumbled — and they may keep falling. The Fed said that it would get back into bond buying, causing rates to fall, CNBC reported. The average rate on the 30-year fixed dropped to 4.34 percent from 4.40 percent — the lowest point in more than a year. In November, the rate soared over 5 percent, which led home sales to fall in the following months. The […]

National Cheat Sheet: US home sales drop again, JLL acquires HFF for $2B… & more

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 05:00 AM PDT

Report: ‘Shift’ as US home sales decline, inventory grows U.S. home sales continued to fall in February, dropping 4.2 percent, even as inventory grew by 5.8 percent, according to a new report from Re/Max. The decrease in home sales marked the seventh consecutive month of declines year-over-year, although the increase in inventory was the fifth month in a row of growth, the report said. Trends that last five months or more “often indicate significant shifts,” said […]

Day in the life of: James Wacht

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 04:30 AM PDT

Thirty years ago, James Wacht was a young real estate attorney whose clients included a rough-around-the-edges property management firm named Sierra Realty Corp. “They were your typical old-school real estate guys. Yellers and screamers, table pounders,” he said. “But I got along with them.” Newly married and looking to start a family, Wacht decided to leave the legal business, and he joined Sierra in 1989. Today, the 63-year-old is president of the commercial brokerage Lee […]

“We refuse to buy into it”: Has StreetEasy finally gone too far with its latest fee?

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 04:00 AM PDT

Every new StreetEasy fee spurs a familiar cycle among brokers: outrage, pay up, rinse, repeat. But its latest program, designed to appease some of those worries, may break the cycle. In the two years since Zillow Group launched its Premier Agent program on StreetEasy, it’s been a persistent source of frustration for the city’s brokers. To assuage their concerns — and bring in additional revenue — the company launched another initiative this year, dubbed Agent […]