The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Landlord must fix, not raze, “deplorable” Chelsea buildings: court

Posted: 08 May 2020 02:45 PM PDT

A Chelsea landlord must repair three rent-stabilized buildings and pay tenants $126,000 for neglecting maintenance until they had to vacate, a housing court judge ordered this week. The owners of 219-223 West 24th Street — entities tied to Abraham Lokshin and Clara Sokol — must restore the buildings, according to a May 6 order. The judge, Jack Stoller, suspected the owners’ strategy was demolition. The city’s Department of Buildings cleared out the three single-room occupancy

Brookfield Property’s Q1 losses come as retail tenants miss payments

Posted: 08 May 2020 02:29 PM PDT

Brookfield Property Partners is now negotiating with 2,400 of its retail tenants across the country who have been unable to come up with the rent. That inability to pay has cut deeply into Brookfield’s bottom line. Its first quarter was dismal. The real estate wing of the Canadian giant Brookfield Asset Management had a net loss of $373 million from January through March, compared with $713 million in net income over the same period last

Whose sale is it anyway? Keller Williams targets former top agent for advertising past deals

Posted: 08 May 2020 12:45 PM PDT

Jesse Weinberg received an unusual email April 22 from a lawyer who represented Keller Williams, Weinberg’s brokerage until he left in February. “It is both improper and unethical for you to advertise any sales under Keller Williams Silicon Beach as sold by you,” attorney Steve Spile wrote in the letter. Weinberg had started Jesse Weinberg & Associates in February along with eight other agents previously at Keller Williams. But now he was being informed his

Douglas Elliman’s losses mount. And the worst is yet to come

Posted: 08 May 2020 12:30 PM PDT

Douglas Elliman is preparing for an unforgiving market ahead. During an earnings call for the brokerage’s parent company, Elliman chairman Howard Lorber said the firm cut staff by 25 percent, reduced all salaries by 15 percent and is seeking to consolidate offices and negotiate “rent reductions, deferrals or holidays” with landlords nationwide. And that’s despite not yet feeling the full effects of the “severe decline” in sales activity. At the end of last year, the

Seven agents splinter off from Eklund-Gomes team

Posted: 08 May 2020 11:59 AM PDT

After 17 months on the Eklund-Gomes team, Jessica Peters is striking out on her own. Peters, who has built her career on Brooklyn’s new development and townhouse markets, has co-founded a new team with Monica Breese. The Peters Breese team has six other agents on board and will focus on markets in Brooklyn and Long Island City. It remains at Douglas Elliman. “The experiences and lessons learned working within the Eklund Gomes team have truly

There’s better data on “the best kind of running sock to buy”: Fifth Wall’s Brendan Wallace on the iBuying imperative and why building sustainability is here to stay

Posted: 08 May 2020 11:20 AM PDT

There are red states, and there are blue states. But cities, according to the head of the largest real estate-focused venture capital fund, are going green no matter what. In the second part of an extended conversation with The Real Deal’s Hiten Samtani, Fifth Wall Ventures’ Brendan Wallace laid out his central premise for the Carbon Impact Fund, Fifth Wall’s new building sustainability fund — launched in January with a target raise of $200 million

JPMorgan showers single-family rental partnership with cash

Posted: 08 May 2020 11:05 AM PDT

JPMorgan Chase is pouring more money into its partnership with single-family rental business American Homes 4 Rent. The bank’s asset management arm, the Strategic Property Fund, is increasing its investment with the landlord to $625 million from $250 million, according to Bloomberg. They formed the $250 million partnership earlier this year. American Homes 4 Rent announced the deal in tandem with its first-quarter results. The firm’s total revenues increased 3.7 percent year-over-year to $289.3 million,

News Corp.’s digital real estate revenue slides

Posted: 08 May 2020 10:03 AM PDT

News Corporation’s digital real estate services took a hit last quarter, with earnings down and CEO Robert Thomson signaling that another round of cost cutting measures were in store. News Corp. reported a 4 percent decline in real estate revenue, to $261 million from $272 million in the same period last year. Company-wide, revenue dropped 8 percent to $2.27 billion, attributed in part to the economic fallout from the coronavirus. “Digital real estate was showing

What April’s record-high unemployment means for real estate

Posted: 08 May 2020 08:38 AM PDT

Following an unprecedented 20.5 million drop in payroll last month, the April unemployment rate reached a record 14.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That figure is the highest unemployment percentage on record, since seasonally adjusted data became available in 1948. The unemployment rate is estimated to have reached about 25 percent in the wake of the Great Depression in 1933, according to the New York Times. “The changes in these measures

Property tax strikers: “We can’t breathe”

Posted: 08 May 2020 08:12 AM PDT

The backers of a petition pledging to withhold property taxes say they plan to file a class-action lawsuit against New York City. A person who identified himself as Garold Wilder — although public records show his phone number corresponds to Aron Wolcowitz of Bridge Street Equities — is behind the petition. The group sent a press release Thursday headlined “We can’t breathe” — a slogan popularized by Black Lives Matter to protest police violence —

Keller Williams reports strong quarter but slowdown looms

Posted: 08 May 2020 07:00 AM PDT

Keller Williams reported a strong start to 2020 with a nearly 11 percent increase in sales volume — but a drop in new listings signals trouble ahead. In the U.S. and Canada, Keller Williams agents closed 224,759 deals in the first quarter, 4.8 percent more than a year ago. Its sales volume rose 10.6 percent to $70.2 billion, up from $63.5 billion. The company is the largest franchise brokerage in North America. The company’s 10,500

Payment Gap: Landlord sues retail giant for withholding rent at Midtown location

Posted: 08 May 2020 06:30 AM PDT

The landlord for the Gap’s Midtown Manhattan location is suing the retailer, which has refused to pay April and May rent citing the state’s stay-at-home order that has kept stores shuttered across the city. The apparel brand has withheld $530,334 in charges — including water and snow removal fees — at its 1212 Avenue of the Americas store, according to Bloomberg. The lawsuit was filed Monday in Manhattan federal court. In the face of widespread

Greenland plans 41-story resi tower at Pacific Park

Posted: 08 May 2020 06:05 AM PDT

Greenland USA has filed plans for a 41-story mixed-use building at its Pacific Park megaproject. The application with the Department of Buildings — one of only a few new filings to appear lately — says the 587,200 square-foot building at 700 Atlantic Avenue will be mainly residential, with the ground floor set aside for retail space. The site, which also has frontage along Sixth Avenue and Pacific Street, sits immediately to the east of the

Don’t miss LA’s top dealmakers on Monday’s TRD Talk

Posted: 08 May 2020 05:30 AM PDT

On another episode of TRD Talks Live, TRD Associate Publisher Hiten Samtani will catch up with three top agents and leaders in LA’s residential real estate community to find out how they’re closing deals and keeping business flowing during the coronavirus pandemic. Although the industry nearly ground to a halt due to the pandemic, L.A.’s residential market has come back to life in recent weeks. We’ve seen a few big celebrity buys, the return of showings (with

These were the top outer borough loans last month

Posted: 08 May 2020 05:00 AM PDT

The top outer borough loans were smaller than usual last month–not too surprising, given that April was the first full month of the year when the real estate community had to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. The top 10 loans were worth about $689 million overall, significantly smaller than March’s total of about $852 million, February’s total of about $840 million and January’s total of about $2.1 billion. The largest deal for April was $198

These were Manhattan’s largest real estate loans in April

Posted: 08 May 2020 04:30 AM PDT

The 10 largest Manhattan loans recorded in April totaled just $742 million, a 72-percent decline from March as the coronavirus crisis set in. The largest loan went to a hotel and four of the top 10 went to retail properties — asset classes that are facing particular headwinds in the current environment. 1) Midtown East, Middle East — $230 million Qatar’s Constellation Hotels Group secured a $230 million refinancing from the National Bank Of Kuwait

Behind Brookfield’s critical Covid moment

Posted: 08 May 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Brookfield Asset Management is taking a bold step in the thick of the Covid-19 crisis. The Canadian real estate giant is looking to invest $5 billion in retail companies hit hard by the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Brookfield is expected to focus on stores that had revenues of at least $250 million prior to March, and the company may look to raise additional capital to bolster the investments. Thuy Nguyen, Moody’s