The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Rubenstein reels in Stamford’s RBS building in $163M deal

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 03:15 PM PDT

Rubenstein Partners’ $163 million acquisition this week of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s office building in downtown Stamford secured substantial funding from ACORE Capital, The Real Deal has learned. The New York-based financier provided $120 million to Rubenstein, which acquired the 450,000-square-foot property at 600 Washington Boulevard on June 5. The transaction, which works out to roughly $362 per square foot, was announced two days after the Philadelphia-based investor and developer secured the 10-year loan for […]

Feds put Manafort’s Soho condo up for sale with $3.6M asking price

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 03:03 PM PDT

Federal authorities have put Paul Manafort’s Soho loft up for sale with an asking price of more than $3 million. The fourth-floor loft at 29 Howard street is part of a $22 million real estate portfolio that the federal government seized as part of a deal that President Trump’s former campaign chairman cut when he pleaded guilty to a pair of conspiracy charges last year. The U.S. Marshal service put the Soho condominium up for […]

Bravo reality star fights to keep Wainscott home from foreclosure, NYC developer brings a bookstore back to Sag Harbor & more Hamptons real estate news

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 03:00 PM PDT

Reality TV star battles Deutsche Bank over Wainscott home Barbara Kavovit, CEO of New York-based Evergreen Construction and a cast member of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York,” is trying to stop Deutsche Bank from foreclosing on her Wainscott home, The Blast first reported. Last year, the German banking giant claimed that Kavovit owed nearly $2.5 million on a $2.4 million loan (with accrued interest) it gave her in 2006 to buy the home […]

Mortgage rates plummet to lowest levels in nearly 2 years

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 02:30 PM PDT

Mortgage rates fell for the sixth straight week, hitting their lowest point since September 2017. The 30-year fixed-rate average slid to 3.82 percent and the 15-year rate hit 3.28 percent this week, according to new data from Freddie Mac reported in the Washington Post. Rates have been on a steady decline since November, when they topped out near 5 percent and pushed mortgage applications to a four-year low. But lower rates prompted a surge in […]

Robert De Niro, his broker son Raphael part of dev team planning $425M Queens studio

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 02:15 PM PDT

Actor Robert De Niro, alongside his Douglas Elliman broker son Raphael De Niro, development firm Wildflower, and film producer Jane Rosenthal, are in-contract to buy a large development site in Astoria, Queens, for $73 million. The development team plans to build a 500,000-square-foot film studio, 5.25-acre site located at 87 19th Avenue, according to Commercial Observer. Piano manufacturer Steinway is selling the site. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2019. Newmark […]

Jack Welch gets $17M for One Beacon Court pad

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 01:45 PM PDT

Former GE boss Jack Welch has closed on the sale of his One Beacon Court apartment for $17 million. Records show the buyer is an entity dubbed Byron Real Estate LLC, which is linked to Cedric Varasteh, founder and of the French broadband company Euro Techno Com S.A.S. Welch, who paid $14.6 million for the apartment, listed it for $25.9 million last year. The 46th floor pad, with 5,782 square feet, is the combination of […]

ICER Properties buys 9 Hamilton Heights buildings for $31M

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 01:30 PM PDT

Investment and property management company ICER Properties has purchased a portfolio of Hamilton Heights multifamily properties for $30.5 million. Joseph Jemal’s company bought the properties from an LLC linked to Marlena Demenus of Sky Lake Partners. A RM Friedland team led by senior vice president Marco Lala brokered the deal, the brokerage announced on Thursday. The multifamily properties span 91,395 square feet and contain 107 units overall. The properties are addressed at 606, 610, 614 […]

Fashion designer looks to sell Hamptons oceanfront parcels for $65M

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 01:00 PM PDT

A little more than a month after reports emerged that Austrian-born fashion designer Helmut Lang planned to list his East Hampton oceanfront compound for $100 million, the longtime Hamptons resident has put two of his parcels on the market for $65 million, Behind the Hedges reported. Lang, who has listed 10 Tyson Lane for $50 million and 6 Tyson Lane at $15 million, plans to hold on to his final parcel at 8 Tyson Lane […]

Douglaston brings in new partner on West Side resi tower, lands construction loan

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 12:33 PM PDT

UPDATE: June 6, 2019, 4:50 p.m.: Douglaston Development has landed $415 million in construction financing for its new residential tower near Hudson Yards — and a new partner to help get the job done. Douglaston, the development firm led by Jeffrey Levine, created a joint venture with the publicly traded Ares Management Corporation to develop a 931-unit luxury residential project at 601 West 29th Street at the corner of 11th Avenue, Douglaston and Ares announced […]

The fight is fluid: Tenants, landlords continue to push rent regulation agendas as time runs out

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 12:00 PM PDT

With less than two weeks until the state’s rent regulation laws expire, landlords and tenants took dramatically different approaches to pressure legislators to take action. Tenant groups swarmed the Capitol on Tuesday, blockading the Assembly and Senate chambers and the governor’s office to demand that officials approve a nine-bill package to reform rent regulation laws. Meanwhile, landlords and their representatives quietly vied for facetime with lawmakers alongside other lobbyists. The fight over rent regulation this […]

Resi scorecard: Brooklyn and Queens condo inventory through March 2019

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 11:30 AM PDT

NEW DEVELOPMENT CONDO REPORT BROOKLYN • Inventory expanded as developers filed more units than were purchased • Developers filed 10 plans with 263 units • The state approved 14 plans with 107 units valued at $124 million • Buyers purchased 194 units valued at $211 million SUPPLY BROOKLYN NEW DEVELOPMENT CONDO SUPPLY MOST EXPENSIVE CONDO PROJECTS APPROVED IN BROOKLYN Source: TRData analysis of plans approved to sell by NYS Attorney General in April LARGEST PROJECTS […]

Joe Moinian seeks buyer for Far West Side rental building

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 10:00 AM PDT

Joe Moinian is seeking a buyer for a mid-rise apartment building on the Far West Side with an asking price of $200 million. The Moinian Group is looking to sell its 164-unit Oskar rental building at the corner of 11th Avenue and West 43rd Street, sources told The Real Deal. The asking price for the 13-story building at 555 West 43rd Street works out to about $1,600 per square foot. A spokesperson for the Moinian […]

Judge puts a stop to Two Bridges developments — for now

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 09:15 AM PDT

The controversial Two Bridges developments have been hit with another delay. New York County Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron on Wednesday continued a temporary halt against the projects planned by JDS Development Group, L+M Development Partners, CIM Group and Starrett Development, to construct the four residential towers in the Lower East Side, Gothamist reported. The City Council and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, as well as various community groups, filed three lawsuits in the past […]

Fitch to include natural disasters risks to RMBS ratings

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 08:45 AM PDT

Fitch Ratings will include natural disaster risks into its ratings of residential mortgage-backed securities, a sign that the industry is beginning to acknowledge the financial risks of climate change. Fitch is the first of the three major U.S. credit ratings agencies to consider environmental risk for RMBS, which are securities backed by the interest paid on residential mortgages. The change adds a new penalty to existing risk metrics that look at more conventional finance risks. […]

Evictions didn’t go down from 2017-2018 quite as much as the DOI thought

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 08:08 AM PDT

The Department of Investigation will likely increase its official residential eviction totals from last year. The city agency found that two city marshals made mistakes in their annual eviction figures, as they only counted evictions from three months instead of 12, according to PincusCo. When Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration cited these eviction figures in a February press release, it said there was a 14 percent drop in evictions from 2017 to 2018, but the […]

Home flipping is at highest rate in nearly a decade: report

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 07:15 AM PDT

Last year, the home flipping rate across the country was down to its lowest levels in three years amid a slowing housing market. Today, the housing market is still stuck in neutral but the home flipping has definitely picked up. With mortgage rates falling again, home flipping is now at its highest level since 2010, according to a report published Thursday from ATTOM Data Solutions. The new findings suggest that home flippers may be looking […]

Why NYC may remove 5 stories from a nearly-finished UES condo

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 06:30 AM PDT

Well-organized NIMBY’s and local politicians have stopped a development in its tracks, arguing the developer didn’t conform to local zoning rules. If you’ve been paying attention over the last few years, that isn’t novel. What’s unusual in this case is the building, at 1059 Third Avenue, is nearly complete, and local officials may take the drastic step of removing floors. The 30-story, 467-foot-tall condominium, developed by Orlando, Florida-based Real Estate Iverlad Development and Third Palm […]

Vornado’s Hotel Pennsylvania could transform into Facebook-anchored supertall

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 06:00 AM PDT

Vornado Realty Trust has released new renderings for what could be one of the biggest office buildings in New York City, with an eye toward attracting technology tenants. A certain technology tenant, to be specific. Facebook. In its 2018 fourth quarter earnings call, Vornado CEO Steve Roth indicated the real estate firm may be courting technology tenants for its Farley Post Office redevelopment project. And after announcing that its Penn Plaza redevelopment project at Penn […]

WATCH: Co-working 2.0: What will the next phase of flex space look like?

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 05:30 AM PDT

If an expected economic slowdown comes, the flexible-space industry will be well-poised to capitalize, top players in the space and brokerage executives said at The Real Deal’s 12th annual showcase. Bruce Mosler, Chairman of Global Brokerage at Cushman & Wakefield, said that the demand for flexible space “is going to grow because it’s what corporates have wanted for a long time”. Brad Hargeaves, CEO of co-living firm Common, noted that his field may still be […]

Why $2K? LI’s apartment M&A madness

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 05:00 AM PDT

When Westbury’s Westwood Village Apartments and six other multifamily properties hit the Long Island market last year, 15 bidders submitted offers. The portfolio’s “durable and reliable cash flow” was a big draw, said CBRE vice chair Jeffrey Dunne, who along with a team of colleagues represented the seller, a unit of Dallas-based Lone Star Funds. Dunne, whose capital markets group focuses on the Tri-State area, said the ability to improve amenities and interiors offered investors […]

Carlton Group — post Howard Michaels

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 04:30 AM PDT

When financier Howard Michaels was diagnosed with gastric cancer four years ago, he didn’t want anybody outside the firm to know about it. Michaels, founder of the Carlton Group, continued working, sending emails up until the day before his death on Sept. 21, 2018. “He hid that from everybody,” said Kevin Swill, former COO of Carlton. “He felt that our clients might go somewhere else if he wasn’t at the helm.” […]

The top 10 biggest real estate projects coming to NYC

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 04:00 AM PDT

For the second month in a row, every borough made an appearance on the list of the city’s 10 largest projects. The top project was an office tower at 141 Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Even though developer Savanna has dramatically scaled down its original plans for the site, it still took the No. 1 spot by a margin of about 100,000 square feet. Second place went to a luxury condo tower from Naftali Group […]