The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Rolex gliding into the Meatpacking District

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 06:00 PM PST

The Meatpacking District’s Hermès store is about to get a luxury neighbor. Sources told The Real Deal that famed watchmaker Rolex has signed a lease in the trendy neighborhood, which has become known more for its athleisure shops and casual fashion brands than for luxury boutiques. Rolex inked a lease for a little more than 4,000 square feet at Midtown Equities’ 29 Ninth Avenue, the sources said. The rent works out to $2.1 million per

US Supreme Court denies Clipper’s rent regulation petition

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 02:56 PM PST

Clipper Equity wasn’t one of the lucky 150. The U.S. Supreme Court, which hears roughly 150 out of the 7,000 cases it is asked to review a year, has declined to hear Clipper Equity’s challenge to New York’s rent regulation rules. The landlord filed a petition in October, asking the court to weigh in on whether a New York Court of Appeals decision represented “an uncompensated taking of [Clipper’s] property.” The court had ruled in

CORE becomes latest NY resi brokerage to expand into South Florida

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 02:25 PM PST

Boutique residential brokerage CORE is heading to the beaches of South Florida, where competition continues to grow fiercer. The brokerage, which is 50 percent owned by Related Companies, is expanding into new markets including Florida, CORE’s founder and CEO Shaun Osher confirmed. He said that the expansion has been in the works for about five years and was prompted after the firm won several new development projects outside New York City. Hints of CORE’s new

Venture-backed Lightbox acquires broker software startup ClientLook

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 02:15 PM PST

A Silver Lake Partners-backed real estate data company that is sizing itself up against Moody’s Analytics has purchased a commercial broker software platform. The firm, Lightbox, is attempting to build out a real estate data and information service akin to the Bloomberg Terminal. And it has been on an acquisitions tear over the last year – in 2019, Lightbox acquired four firms, including EDR and ExactBid, at a cost of $200 million. The latest acquisition,

Salvation Army rings bell on Clinton Hill warehouse sale for $29M

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 02:01 PM PST

The Salvation Army sold its Clinton Hill warehouse to a pair of developers who plan to turn the property into a residential complex. The developers, Loketch Group and Meral Property Group, paid $28.5 million for the Quincy Street building. They also landed $50 million in financing from S3 Capital Partners for the purchase and redevelopment of the site. Loketch and S3 did not reply to messages seeking comment, and a representative for Meral could not

Who’s taking real estate cash in New York’s key races — and not

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 01:15 PM PST

In 2018, progressives made a point of targeting politicians who accepted real estate donations. Since then, pledging to shun the industry’s money has become de rigueur for candidates fending off challenges or trying to capture votes from the left. But others continue to take it, not only to fund their campaigns but perhaps to signal that they are business-friendly. The Real Deal looked at who is and isn’t accepting checks from developers, landlords and industry

New EB-5 rules targeting abuse may be eased

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 12:00 PM PST

EB-5, the federal visa program that helped fund development projects like the massive Hudson Yards in New York, has been fading recently and on the ropes, a result of fraud and its own popularity. But it still has supporters, and they are now looking to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Chuck Schumer and other powerful elected officials to help ease newly-passed rules, according to the Wall Street Journal. The rules took effect in November, and were

Sapir claims employee stole trade secrets

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 11:10 AM PST

The Sapir Organization has a leak problem – and not the kind you find in shoddy condo buildings. A legal assistant employed by one of Sapir’s subsidiaries has allegedly been hoarding trade secrets that competitors could use to undercut Alex Sapir’s real estate empire, a new lawsuit claims. Patricia Lemanski, who’s worked for Sapir’s SFM Realty Corp. since 2011, allegedly sent “countless files, agreements and other trade secret and confidential information” to her personal Gmail

Data Alert! Brooklyn and Queens condo inventory through November 2019

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 10:00 AM PST

New development condo report Brooklyn • Inventory contracted as developers filed fewer units than were purchased • Developers filed 8 plans with 78 units • The state approved 1 plan with 4 units valued at $3.7 million • Buyers purchased 166 units valued at $151 million Queens • Inventory expanded as developers filed more units than were purchased • Developers filed 2 plans with 108 units • The state approved 1 plan with 6 units

NYCHA head: Agency now needs $40B in repairs

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 09:20 AM PST

Two years ago, the New York City Housing Authority said it needed $32 billion to repair its housing stock. That estimate has soared to $40 billion. NYCHA CEO Gregory Russ said on Tuesday that the 2018 estimate didn’t fully capture the costs of lead abatement, elevator replacement and other compliance costs. He noted that sometime this year the agency will release another proposal to raise additional capital, though he didn’t provide any details beyond the

NYC is the 8th most affordable big city in America*

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 08:15 AM PST

UPDATE, Jan. 14, 2020, 2:33 pm: It may sound hard to believe, but New York is the eighth most affordable city of the 20 biggest cities in the U.S. That’s in part because low transport costs balance out high housing costs, according to a new study from the Citizens Budget Commission, a business-backed, fiscally conservative watchdog group, which used data from the 2016 Census to measure “location affordability” based on housing costs, transportation costs and

Here’s why open-air strip centers are outperforming enclosed malls

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 07:45 AM PST

While mall landlords have struggled to stay ahead of a challenging retail environment, owners of a less glamorous type of American shopping center have maintained modest growth. And now, even foreign investors are interested. Real estate investment trusts that own open-air strip centers have seen their share prices rise by 7.7 percent over the past year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from FactSet. While that trails overall stock market growth by a significant

LCOR lands rental deal with Booking.com for empty condos

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 07:02 AM PST

Amid a sluggish Financial District condo market, development firm LCOR has fo a novel way to put unsold units to use — and just maybe to attract potential buyers as well. In a short-term deal announced in late December, international travel website Booking.com has refurbished 20 units at the Broad Exchange Building into New Year’s resolution-themed suites and is offering two-night stays this weekend for just $20.20. Bookings for the suites opened at noon Monday.

AOC joins in fight against Cuomo’s $2B LaGuardia AirTrain project

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 06:30 AM PST

Queens residents near Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed LaGuardia AirTrain route now have an important ally in their fight to stop the project: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The freshman Democrat with the huge social-media profile is demanding the Federal Aviation Administration explain why alternative ways to get travelers between LaGuardia Airport and Manhattan are not preferable to the $2 billion AirTrain project, according to the New York Times. Ocasio-Cortez asked the FAA in a letter last week

Queens landlord dies after tenant knocks him down stairs: police

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 05:55 AM PST

The 71-year-old owner of a single-family property in Corona, Queens, has died, a day after he was pushed down the building’s front stairs by a rent-owing tenant, police said. Landlord Edgar Moncayo was pronounced dead at 12:30 p.m. Monday at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst after being on life support with head trauma, the New York Post reported, citing the landlord’s family. Around 3 p.m. the day before, Moncayo had been attempting to collect rent from

Aaron Kirman’s “Listing Impossible” is a beach house “sex dungeon”

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 05:00 AM PST

Los Angeles luxury agent Aaron Kirman has chosen to accept this mission: He must sell a $13.9 million “sandwich box” beach house that has been on the market for 1,000 days with zero offers. Its owner got the house as part of her divorce settlement and she is motivated to sell, but has cycled through three listings brokers before settling on Kirman. If he succeeds, the commission is a cool $347,500. That’s the setup for

Loan wolves: Bankers are stalking developers as debts come due

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 04:30 AM PST

It was one of many signs last year that a growing number of New York City condo developers are on borrowed time. Bank OZK had committed $108 million to finance a 92-unit condo building at 615 10th Avenue back in 2015. But last April, with the project stalled, the construction lender dialed that back by $20 million, forcing the developer to grab a lifeline from mezzanine lender Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies. The troubles brewing

Déjà vu: Catsimatidis thinking about running for mayor again

Posted: 14 Jan 2020 04:00 AM PST

John Catsimatidis might throw his hat into another New York City mayoral race. “A lot of people are urging me to do it because of the fact that we need a lot of common sense in our city,” the billionaire grocer and developer said in a phone call Monday with The Real Deal. Catsimatidis ran for mayor as a Republican in 2013 but lost the Republican primary to Joe Lhota, a former deputy mayor, who