The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Regus throws 6 NYC locations into bankruptcy

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 02:51 PM PDT

Short-term office company Regus put half a dozen of its New York City workcenters into bankruptcy as the company seeks Chapter 11 protection for upwards of 100 locations across the country. Regus, which went through a bankruptcy restructuring in 2003 after the dot-com bubble burst, has put roughly 90 locations into Chapter 11 over the past six weeks, filings show. The company has filed for six workcenters in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island City in

J-Lo and A-Rod part ways with Malibu “fixer-upper” for $6.8M

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 01:41 PM PDT

That was fast: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez found a buyer for their Malibu beach house just two months after putting the three-story home on the market. The home sold for $6.8 million, slightly more than what they paid when they purchased the property last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. It hit the market in late July asking $8 million. The couple bought the 4,400-square-foot home from actor Jeremy Piven and planned to

De Blasio: Raising property taxes “off the table”

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 01:06 PM PDT

Good news for real estate owners: Mayor Bill de Blasio said he won’t consider raising property taxes to close the city’s widening budget gap. The mayor told reporters that raising property taxes even 1 percent was “off the table, period,” the New York Post reported. De Blasio pays $4,000 in annual taxes on each of two Park Slope homes that he and First Lady Chirlane McCray bought in 2000 and 2004. In June, the City

Matt Lauer relists 6.2-acre estate on the Peconic River for $44M

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 12:20 PM PDT

Disgraced television host Matt Lauer has put his North Haven estate back on the market for $44 million, according to the New York Post. He listed the 6.2-acre estate for the same price last summer but couldn’t find a buyer. The estate, known as Strongheart Manor, is home to a 14,000-square-foot main house built in 1902. It has 12 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, half a dozen fireplaces, an art studio, gym and library. The grounds include

Council votes on restaurant surcharge, renter debt bills

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 10:45 AM PDT

UPDATED, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020, 3:08 p.m.: The City Council on Wednesday approved a spate of bills that could have wide-ranging consequences for the real estate industry, including a bill that would allow restaurants to add a Covid-19 surcharge to customers’ checks. Officials voted nearly unanimously in favor of the measure, which would temporarily allow restaurants to increase individual customer’s bills by up to 10 percent. The legislation lets establishments apply the “Covid-19 recovery charge”

Size does matter: Mortgage loan average swells to new record

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 10:30 AM PDT

As applications for home loans dropped last week, the average loan size continued to break records. The number hit $370,200 last week, an all-time high for the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey, which has been running since 1990. The previous record of $368,600 was set a week earlier. Also last week, an index tracking the weekly volume of mortgage applications to buy homes dropped 1 percent, seasonally adjusted. The Mortgage Bankers Association metric, known as

Tiger Woods’ ex-wife buys Palm Beach Gardens home

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 10:00 AM PDT

Swedish model Elin Nordegren, ex-wife of golfer Tiger Woods, found a new home in Palm Beach Gardens. Nordegren paid $9.9 million for the six-bedroom, 13,523-square-foot mansion at 12251 Tillinghast Circle, property records show. The purchase comes days after she sold her oceanfront estate in North Palm Beach to billionaire Rockstar Energy Drink founder Russell Weiner for $28.6 million. Nordegren’s new 2-acre property, which is in the Old Palm Golf Club community of Palm Beach Gardens,

“I believe in the future of Downtown Los Angeles”: Silverstein closes US Bank Tower buy

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 09:55 AM PDT

Silverstein Properties closed on its $430 million deal to buy US Bank Tower, an iconic Downtown Los Angeles property whose purchase price was far below initial expectations. New York-based Silverstein made the announcement on Wednesday. The company was first confirmed to be the buyer of the 73-story trophy office tower in July. In a statement, chairman Larry Silverstein said: “I believe in the future of Downtown Los Angeles.” He added that over the last few

Onyx Equities acquires massive New Jersey office portfolio for $160M

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 09:30 AM PDT

Mack-Cali Realty Corp. continues to shed its suburban office buildings as it focuses on properties closer to the New Jersey waterfront. The Jersey City-based real estate investment trust recently sold a 1.5 million-square-foot office portfolio in Morris County, New Jersey, to Onyx Equities, along with partners Taconic Capital Advisors, Axonic Capital and Machine Investment Group. According to the firm, Onyx and its partners paid $160 million for the 10-building parcel. The sale comes two years

Where real estate’s investment giants stand on Biden vs. Trump

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 09:00 AM PDT

Private equity and other major investment firms have donated more to Joe Biden than President Donald Trump so far this election cycle, campaign filings show, despite the potential for higher taxes. And while some companies with a heavy focus on real estate have been keeping hush on their candidate of choice, at least one firm is bucking that trend. The Blackstone Group, the world’s largest commercial landlord, is by far the largest single contributor to

State Senate hearing confronts racial bias by brokers

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 08:50 AM PDT

Ten months after a Newsday investigation reminded New Yorkers that minority home-shoppers still face bias from real estate brokers, the state Senate will convene a hearing tomorrow on what to do about it. One problem: The paired testing of 93 agents that exposed their differing treatment of Black, Latino and Asian shoppers is expensive, and state revenues have collapsed because of the pandemic. However, one thing that Levittown state Sen. Kevin Thomas wants from the

State says Barbara Corcoran is on board with broker-fee ban

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 08:38 AM PDT

The Cuomo administration says the real estate industry only has itself to blame for a pending ban on broker fees charged to tenants. The ban stems from a set of guidance, released by the state in February and currently in contest in court, that was solicited by the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors’ general counsel, according to an affidavit filed by a Department of State attorney David Mossberg, who provides legal advice related to state

Mortgage-backed securities boom breaks monthly record

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 07:30 AM PDT

Thanks to low mortgage rates and a surge in home-loan refinancing, the number of mortgage-backed securities has skyrocketed. The value of single-family mortgage-backed securities issued by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was almost $322 billion in August, a new monthly record, according to an analysis by industry-research firm Inside Mortgage Finance cited by the Wall Street Journal. However, yields for the securities have been relatively steady in recent months and even declined slightly.

Amazon to open 1,000 warehouses in the suburbs

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 06:45 AM PDT

Amazon is moving to the ’burbs. The e-commerce giant plans to open 1,000 warehouses in suburbs and cities across the U.S., according to Bloomberg. The expansion will allow the company to quicken deliveries as it competes with rivals such as Walmart. Although other efforts, such as hiring 175,000 new workers, have already sped up Amazon shipments, the company is now attempting to focus on proximity, adding warehouses and vans for faster delivery. The strategy is

De Blasio calls for return to the office, restores trash pickups

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 06:00 AM PDT

Under mounting pressure from real estate and other business leaders, Mayor Bill de Blasio finally encouraged workers to get back to their desks and restored trash pickups Tuesday. While offices can reopen at 50 percent capacity, the vast majority of workers have stayed away — hampering the recovery of the city’s office, retail and residential markets. The city plans to bring thousands of its own employees back to their workplaces through a phased initiative, Politico

What tenants are paying at Shvo’s “Big Red” building

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 05:30 AM PDT

Michael Shvo and Deutsche Finance America’s buy of the “Big Red” office tower last month marked the biggest Chicago real estate deal since the start of the pandemic. The $376 million acquisition — the latest in a string of big-ticket deals Shvo has closed with his German partners in recent years — was financed with a $240 million loan from a group led by AIG and Goldman Sachs. Pieces of that mortgage are set to

Quiet dorms and distress storms: Student housing sector takes hit

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT

A few days into classes in August, students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were in panic mode. Covid-19 cases were breaking out in dorm rooms and frat houses at the state’s flagship university, which rapidly began pulling the plug on on-campus instruction and pivoted to online classes. It’s a chain of events playing out at many public and private universities across the country, with Notre Dame and Michigan State also forced

EB-5 investor snags Hunters Point resi development: Mid-market sales report

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 04:15 AM PDT

The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens dominated the middle of the investment sales market after Labor Day, while Manhattan saw no such deals between $10 million and $30 million in the week ending Sept. 11. The seven properties trading hands ranged from a defunct bank in Williamsburg to an EB-5 residential project in Hunters Point, a massive self-storage building in Highbridge and a nursing home in the Spuyten Duvil. 1. Saratoga-based Prime Group Holdings purchased a

Wendy Silverstein, Ed Adler launch loan restructuring biz

Posted: 16 Sep 2020 03:30 AM PDT

Bombarded by inquiries from clients about mortgage workouts during the pandemic, Meridian Capital Group called Wendy Silverstein. The brokerage wanted the former Vornado Realty Trust executive, who most recently co-headed WeWork’s real estate investment arm, to come on board and put her years of experience in debt restructuring to work. “I thanked them, but said truthfully I’m done with working for other people,” Silverstein told The Real Deal on Tuesday, recounting the April call. Instead,