The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Sandeep Mathrani is leaving Brookfield

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 03:41 PM PST

Sandeep Mathrani is stepping down from his role as CEO of Brookfield Properties’ retail group. Mathrani sent an email to colleagues this week saying the “time has come to embark on the train to the next stop,” the Commercial Observer reported. The email did not give any further details about why Mathrani is leaving. Mathrani and Brookfield did not immediately respond to CO’s requests for comment. Mathrani became head of Brookfield’s retail division after Brookfield

REBNY vs. StreetEasy: The fight for listings in Gotham

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 03:00 PM PST

In December, attorneys for the Real Estate Board of New York wrote an angry letter to New York State regulators accusing StreetEasy of using “brazen tactics” to steer consumers to agents who advertise on the site. A proposed state rule would ban the practice, but it has not yet taken effect… REBNY claimed that StreetEasy’s Premier Agent platform “falls woefully short” of pending standards that would require third-party websites to clearly credit listing agents. “Consumers

“Amazon killer” Gianaris wants to overhaul subsidy programs that could have net billions for HQ2

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST

State lawmakers are looking to drastically scale back a pair of outer borough subsidy programs that became huge points of contention during Amazon’s attempted move to Queens. New York’s Relocation and Employment Assistance Program – or REAP – and the state’s Industrial & Commercial Abatement Program – ICAP – are scheduled to sunset this summer and in early 2022, respectively. Both programs were relatively obscure until they became part of the package designed to lure

Lawsuit accuses Astoria landlord, super of turning away blacks

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 02:00 PM PST

A lawsuit alleges that superintendent Valentino Pellumbi did not tell African-American apartment hunters about available listings while encouraging prospective white tenants to rent at the same building. The federal lawsuit, filed Thursday by the Fair Housing Justice Center, accuses Pellumbi and landlords Svetozar and Klara Tatkovic of housing discrimination last summer at 34-08 30th Street, a 45-unit rental building in Astoria. “The behavior evidenced by the testing detailed above is reprehensible,” the lawsuit states. “It

Thornton Tomasetti takes 100K sf at 120 Broadway

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 01:45 PM PST

Thornton Tomasetti has engineered a Financial District headquarters of itself. The engineering company signed a roughly 102,000-square-foot lease for 15 years at Silverstein Properties’ 120 Broadway, the former Equitable Building, according to the Commercial Observer. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but the Observer reported that asking rents at the building ranged from $62 to $74 per square foot. Thornton Tomasetti’s 400-person team has been spread between two offices at 51 Madison Avenue

Airbnb hosts score 34K bookings for Super Bowl LIV — more than for Art Basel

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 01:30 PM PST

Airbnb is gearing up to host more visitors in South Florida during Super Bowl weekend than during Art Basel. Airbnb hosts have already picked up more than 34,000 bookings for the weekend of Super Bowl LIV, Jan. 30 to Feb. 2. That tops Art Basel weekend of Dec. 5-8, when the short-term rental company racked up 26,000 bookings, according to Airbnb spokesman Samuel Randall. When Atlanta hosted the Super Bowl last year, the city experienced

Katerra signs $650M contract with Saudi Arabia to build 8,000 homes

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 12:15 PM PST

A SoftBank-backed construction startup that has faced questions about its ability to deliver projects in the U.S., just secured a contract to build thousands of homes in Saudi Arabia. The company, Katerra, confirmed to The Real Deal that it has entered a $650 million contract with the Saudi Arabia government to build 8,000 homes in the country. Katerra declined to comment further. The Silicon Valley-based firm, said to be valued north of $4 billion, has

Developers are banking on co-living, but will it catch on?

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 12:00 PM PST

When Pebb Capital principal James Jago attended Tulane University in the early 2000s, he lived in “a dumpy house” with three roommates. But now, college students increasingly have the option to live off-campus in luxury student housing loaded with amenities like resort-style pools with cabanas, coffee bars, game rooms, movie theaters and fitness centers with yoga and indoor cycling studios. In Miami, near Florida International University and the University of Miami, developers are building high-end

Here’s who bought the five most expensive homes last month

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 11:15 AM PST

Steve Roth had a very merry holiday season. Closings at his Vornado Realty Trust development 220 Central Park South filled all five spots of The Real Deal’s monthly list of the most expensive residential sales. The combined dollar volume of those December deals was a robust $272.5 million, according to an analysis of property records. The eye-popping figure beat November’s total by about $30 million. The sales came during the busiest December in years for

Another pricey retail building in Soho is up for sale

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 09:35 AM PST

Retail rents in Soho are continuing their downward trajectory, but that hasn’t put a total freeze on the neighborhood’s property-sales market. The latest Soho property to come up for sale is the home of the Victoria’s Secret store, which is looking to fetch north of $90 million, sources told The Real Deal. The longtime owners of the connected buildings at 591-593 Broadway, the Hauser family, have owned the buildings just south of Houston Street since

WeWork lease-signing sinks to five-year low in New York

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 07:30 AM PST

WeWork appears to be pulling back in two major markets after a chaotic close to the year. The number of leases it signed in New York and London slumped in the final quarter of 2019, Bloomberg reports, citing data from CoStar Group. The 64,000 square feet of space WeWork leased in Manhattan represented the lowest in more than five years. In London, its 49,000 square feet leased were the fewest since the 2016 Brexit vote.

Vincent Viola’s Upper East Side townhouse gets $9M price cut

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 06:30 AM PST

After years courting buyers, Vincent Viola’s Upper East Side townhouse has been discounted by another $9 mill ion. The 40-foot-wide mansion, with an interior spanning 20,000 square feet, is now asking $79 million — down from the $88 million price tag advertised by Brown Harris Stevens broker Paula Del Nunzio late last year. In 2013 it was listed for a staggering $114 million. Viola, President Donald Trump’s first nominee for Secretary of the U.S. Army,

Landlord to Cuomo: “No intention of selling” Penn Station site

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Penn Station expansion plan already has a big hurdle — 17 stories tall, in fact. A landlord whose business is in the pathway of the project said he is angry about the proposal unveiled Monday and doesn’t want to move. “We are long-term property owners with no intention of selling,” Michael Orbach, whose company owns a 17-story office building at 259 West 30th Street, told Crain’s. Cuomo said he aims to buy

More bidding wars for Brooklyn and Queens homes last quarter

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 05:30 AM PST

Brooklyn’s still hip, Queens is smashing records and that’s where buyers want to be. Median sales prices in Kings County grew for the first time in the past seven quarters, reaching $800,000 for the final three months of 2019, according to a Douglas Elliman market report. The number of sales jumped nearly 3 percent to 2,545. What’s more, sales were more likely to end in bidding wars, as 20.7 percent of last quarter’s transactions closed

Luxury rents up across the city

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 05:00 AM PST

The luxury rental market continues to strengthen, while the number of leases signed fell in Manhattan, Brooklyn and parts of Queens, according to this month’s Douglas Elliman rental report. In Manhattan, luxury rents, defined as the top 10 percent of the market, had the highest median gain of the three boroughs, up 11.8 percent from the same period last year to $9,500. According to Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, which prepared the

Triplemint triples down on its predictive analytics

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 04:30 AM PST

In a recent episode of “Million Dollar Listing New York,” the show’s newest cast member, Tyler Whitman, beat out celebrity broker Ryan Serhant on a listing. “I’m just super-excited that Bubblemint gum finally has their first listing,” said Serhant, flubbing the name of Whitman’s brokerage, Triplemint, and shrugging off the loss. How staged the scene was is anyone’s guess, but Serhant’s confusion rings true. Outside of some small circles in the proptech and residential brokerage

Queens candidates to return some real estate cash

Posted: 09 Jan 2020 04:00 AM PST

Real estate donors in the Queens borough president race will see some of their checks returned, but this time it’s not because the candidates don’t want their money. The limit for donations is $750 for candidates seeking to receive the highest level of public matching funds. For City Council member Donovan Richards, the Queens Democratic organization’s endorsed candidate, that means he will have to return as much as $21,000 to real estate donors by January