The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

NY Fashion Week gets go-ahead with (very) strict limits

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 03:15 PM PDT

Don’t even try getting into a runway show at this year’s New York Fashion Week. The annual event will go ahead, but with limited capacity, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday. Cuomo said the glamorous gathering will take place from Sept. 13 to 17 in strict compliance with state health and safety guidelines. That will include outdoor events capped at 50 people, and indoor events at 50 percent capacity, with no spectators. The live event will

President Trump seeks to move federal agencies into Opportunity Zones

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 02:45 PM PDT

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to push federal agencies to move into Opportunity Zones as he continues to promote the program as a key part of his re-election campaign. The president’s order will direct some federal agencies such as the Department of Labor and Department of Housing and Urban Development to look outside of city centers and relocate their offices to designated census tracts under the Opportunity Zones program. The federal program,

Survival of the slimmest: TRD looks at the future of the residential brokerage

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 01:05 PM PDT

In early April a dejected-looking Kurt Wisner posted a video in front of an empty van. “I’ve got a van parked down here by the L.A. River and it’s Tuesday,” said Wisner, a Compass agent who runs the Courtney & Kurt team. “Tuesday is typically a day where we do our broker caravan.” “We tell stories, we tell jokes, and it’s just a great time to be human,” Wisner said to the camera. “But today,

Redeemer Presbyterian’s UES multifamily building buy leads mid-market deals

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:06 PM PDT

New York’s $10 million to $30 million investment sales market saw three deals last week, two involving multifamily buildings. The third transaction — parking lots in the Kingsbridge Heights section of the Bronx — will allow for the construction of an affordable housing development. Here are the details of those transactions for the week ending Aug. 21. 1. GPG Properties sold a 21,342-square-foot multifamily building on the Upper East Side to Redeemer Presbyterian Church for

Bondholders approve Sapir Corp debt restructuring

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 11:00 AM PDT

Sapir Corp’s Israeli bondholders have decided that it’s a good idea to give the development firm a few more years to pay off its debt, given current economic uncertainty caused by coronavirus. In a Monday vote, investors in Sapir Corp.’s $44 million bond series overwhelmingly approved of the company’s proposal to push back the maturity date from 2022 to 2025. In exchange, the Alex Sapir-led company agreed to an immediate prepayment of about $8 million

Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin pays $37M for Star Island property

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 09:15 AM PDT

A company tied to billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin paid $37 million for a double-lot on Miami Beach’s Star Island, where a number of multimillion-dollar sales have closed in recent months. Stuart Miller, executive chairman of Lennar Corp., sold the property at 11 and 12 Star Island Drive to 11 Star Island LLC, a Delaware company that lists Citadel’s Chicago address, property records show. Griffin is founder, CEO and co-chief investment officer of Citadel,

Real-time building permit data now available to subscribers

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 08:40 AM PDT

Good news for those of you who get a tingly feeling from fresh information on building permits filed in New York City: Marketproof‘s building permit data is now available at The Real Deal. When we began speaking with the Marketproof team, our goal was to find reliable data sources that industry professionals would find helpful for their business. Marketproof’s software is connected to several data sets and then leverages machine learning to provide the essential

Concessions stand: Wary of another shutdown, retail landlords sweeten pot for tenants

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 08:30 AM PDT

Some retail landlords are offering additional concessions to tenants in case the government mandates another Covid-related shutdown. Landlords are including language in new leases that allows retail tenants to defer part of their rent if the government requires store closures, according to the Wall Street Journal. Many insurance policies did not cover pandemic-related losses, leading landlords to find new ways to keep struggling tenants in place. In one case, EastBanc, which owns and operates 25

A few big-box stores now account for 29% of US sales

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 07:45 AM PDT

Despite fears of decreased spending amid the pandemic, big-box stores — plus Amazon — raked in the cash last quarter. Walmart, Amazon, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Costco accounted for 29.1 percent of all U.S. retail sales in the second quarter, up from 25.6 percent a year ago, the Wall Street Journal reported. That’s a 14 percent increase in market share. Meanwhile, sales at smaller retailers fell 7 percent between March and mid-August. That’s partly

Bankruptcy for Balducci’s, Kings Food parent company

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 06:40 AM PDT

The parent company of Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, becoming the latest grocer to face financial challenges. KB US Holdings requested bankruptcy protection Sunday in federal court in White Plains, N.Y. The company has a $75 million buyout offer from New York investment firm TLI Bedrock, according to the Wall Street Journal. KB US Holdings bought Balducci’s in 2009. It operates 35 supermarkets — 25 Kings and 10 Balducci’s

NY business leaders form group to oppose more taxes

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 06:16 AM PDT

UPDATED Aug. 25, 2020, 10:50 am: A new business group in New York has formed to beat back potential tax increases and says it will spend millions to help the state’s economy. The “Campaign for New York’s Future” includes representatives from the construction, real-estate, hospitality and technology industries, according to the Wall Street Journal. Former New York Gov. David Paterson is chairing the organization. At the top of its agenda is growing the state’s tax

Here are the landlords benefiting from Amazon’s tech workforce expansion

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 05:45 AM PDT

Amazon recently announced plans to expand its tech workforce at the 660,000-square-foot Lord & Taylor building it recently bought in New York, and in five other cities across the country. Amazon has inked leases totaling about 270,000 square feet in those office buildings in Dallas, Denver, Detroit, San Diego, and Tempe, Arizona. Here is a rundown on Amazon’s landlords at those six locations: Amazon — New York The biggest expansion announced last week was at

Hefty prices, robust sales: Hamptons market thrives in Q2

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 05:00 AM PDT

The Hamptons is one of the hottest real estate markets in the country as the exodus from Manhattan has been a boon for local agents. During the height of the pandemic, major estates traded for eye-popping prices. An estate at 32 Windmill Lane in East Hampton, for example, sold for $37 million. The lot was one of two included in a $45 million deal between the estate of late railroad tycoon James Evans and an

Brooklyn’s most and least expensive neighborhoods

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 04:30 AM PDT

“Rare find,” real estate ads often say. But here’s something that truly is: data on home sale prices per square foot for an entire borough. The Real Deal delved into property records to find out which Brooklyn neighborhoods were the most and least expensive by the most fundamental measure — space. TRD’s analysis is more revealing than the more common metric of median price, which can be distorted by changes in the types of homes

Five ways Biden could change the game for real estate

Posted: 25 Aug 2020 04:00 AM PDT

For the last four years, real estate companies have had one of their own in the White House — a fact that has proven lucrative for some of the industry’s biggest players. Now, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has laid out changes he would make to programs and policies beloved by the industry. In some cases he has been fairly specific and in others vague: During his nomination acceptance speech Thursday night, he took aim