The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Special Report: Inside the title insurance cartel

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 03:00 PM PDT

TRD Special Report: On December 10, 2013, regulators summoned the nation’s biggest title insurance firms to 1 State Street. Much of the hearing focused on the technicalities of title insurance fees and covenants. Representatives of firms in attendance, including Fidelity National, First American, Old Republic, and Stewart, spoke of enabling “the American dream of homeownership.” But then came a question about strip clubs. Joseph DeSalvo, First American’s senior legal counsel, was asked why his company […]

The places Toni Morrison called home

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 02:31 PM PDT

“I live in places that I love. And I’d hate to lose them,” Toni Morrison told a reporter for The Telegraph in 2012. At the time, she was doing press for her latest book, “Home,” and its title generated countless inquiries into what the word meant to Morrison personally. At the same time, interest about the places the Nobel laureate lived throughout her life dates back decades – helped along by the strong role that […]

Groundhog Day: Judge annuls DFS’ title insurance regs for second summer in a row

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 02:00 PM PDT

The title insurance industry can pop the bubbly once again. Roughly seven months after a New York Appellate Court reinstated most of the controversial new regulations the Department of Financial Services had imposed on the title insurance industry, New York Supreme Court Judge Eileen Rakower has once again overturned them in their entirety. DFS rolled out its new regulations at the beginning of 2018, banning title insurance companies from wining and dining their clients in […]

Barneys is bankrupt, WeWork closes in on IPO bankers: Daily digest

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 01:00 PM PDT

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up New York’s biggest real estate news, from breaking news and scoops to announcements and deals. We update this page at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 4 p.m. ET. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com This page was last updated at 4:00 p.m. Opendoor expands to three new markets. The instant-buying startup started announced Tuesday that it will be launching in Salt Lake City and […]

iStar-managed REIT signs $620M contract to buy ground lease at L&L’s 425 Park

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 12:52 PM PDT

L&L Holding Company will soon have a new landlord at its $1 billion 425 Park Avenue office development. Safehold Inc., a REIT managed by iStar and led by Jay Sugarman, has signed a contract to buy ground lease of the under-construction office development for $620 million, according to a notice released yesterday. The seller was Nuveen, formerly TIAA, which acquired the ground lease for $315 million in 2011, according to public records. The publicly-traded company […]

Trump imposed a Venezuela embargo; not long ago, he sold the regime luxury condos

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 11:30 AM PDT

Prior to President Donald Trump placing an economic embargo on Venezuela, Trump’s business was selling condos to supporters and associates of the country’s leader Nicolás Maduro. More than six Venezuelans tied to either Maduro or his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, purchased Trump condos in New York City and South Florida before Trump became president, according to Politico. Several of the Venezuelans faced serious allegations of financial fraud in Venezuela. The sales weren’t illegal, but the buyer’s […]

Real estate titans … and their toys

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 11:00 AM PDT

There were live camels, trapeze artists, a 12-minute fireworks display and an enormous birthday cake carved in the shape of a Chinese temple. Blackstone boss Stephen Schwarzman’s 70th-birthday party, hosted at his Palm Beach mansion in February, drew dozens of high-profile guests including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, art dealer Larry Gagosian and billionaire businessman David Koch. Many of them cheered as Gwen Stefani crooned “Happy Birthday” at the end of the night. The party, which […]

Tom Barrack’s Middle Eastern connections run deep. Here’s how they’ve boosted his real-estate business

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 10:30 AM PDT

Play “six degrees of separation” with Middle Eastern investors active in the U.S. real estate market, and chances are Tom Barrack’s name would pop up. The founder of Colony Capital is under scrutiny for his ties to the wealthy Middle Eastern nations of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Federal prosecutors are looking at whether Barrack, whose firm took in $1.5 billion from those two countries since his close friend Donald Trump won the […]

Tallying the trade war with China

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 10:00 AM PDT

The multibillion-dollar trade war between the United States and China hit a boiling point this summer, with the real estate industry caught in the crosshairs. In June — more than a year after firing his first salvo and levying tariffs on solar panels from China — President Donald Trump threatened the People’s Republic with another $350 billion in taxes on goods. Chinese President Xi Jinping quickly responded by jacking up tariffs on $60 billion of […]

The Daily Dirt: Compass opens door to ex-Uber staffers

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 08:00 AM PDT

Uber laid off hundreds of people last week — and Compass swooped in to remind those workers that it’s hiring like gangbusters. It’s not uncommon for tech companies to circulate job openings when one of their own slashes its workforce. But when Compass chimed in last week on social media to highlight its many openings in light of Uber’s cuts, it offered an interesting contrast between pre- and post-initial public offering strategies. Compass is still […]

ABS, AEW, East End Capital ink ground lease at Midtown East building with plans for overhaul

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 07:30 AM PDT

ABS, AEW and East End Capital have inked a 99-year ground lease for 136 East 57th Street. A partnership controlled by Richard Halpern of Silk & Halpern Realty Associates has owned and managed the 20-story building since the 1980s. It has about 110,000 square feet of rentable office and retail space, and is currently about 70 percent leased, with Bank United as the largest tenant on the ground, second and lower level floors. ABS, AEW […]

Brokers vs. the market: Six resi players on navigating NYC’s new battlefield

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 04:30 AM PDT

It’s been a difficult few years for the New York City residential brokerage world. Tech pressures have risen, venture capital-backed competitors have stormed the market, and profit margins have been paper-thin. But that already hard environment has grown even more difficult in the last few months. In June, Albany passed the most sweeping package of rent-regulation reforms in recent memory — a move that was billed as a way to ease the affordable housing crisis […]

The office landlord’s big gamble: WeWork is sole tenant in at least 5 NYC buildings

Posted: 06 Aug 2019 04:00 AM PDT

Office landlords in New York City — known to play it safe and fill their buildings with multiple tenants to mitigate risk — are breaking the rules for WeWork, the co-working space behemoth that has gobbled up 5 million square feet across the city. In the rare case that a landlord is smitten by that one tenant, they’re almost always looking for a company with a proven business model, such as a white-shoe law firm […]