The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Brookfield and Namdar plan to hand over keys to struggling malls

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 03:30 PM PDT

Some mall owners have given up trying to revive their struggling malls and pay off their debt payments and are now seeking to hand over the keys to their servicers. Brookfield Properties and Namdar Realty are separately requesting they be allowed to give up their J.C. Penney-anchored malls to special servicers to avoid loan foreclosure, according to Trepp. The action is known as a “deed-in-lieu.” Brookfield is over 90 days past due on its $90

Eric Trump must sit for deposition in AG’s probe before election

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 02:07 PM PDT

Eric Trump must participate in an investigation into potential fraud at the Trump Organization prior to the November election, a judge ruled Wednesday. The president’s son, who is executive vice president in charge of running the family business, will have to answer questions under oath from the office of New York State Attorney General Letita James, the New York Times reported. James is conducting a civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization overstated the value

Supermodel Elsa Hosk comes to market with renovated Soho pad

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 01:35 PM PDT

Swedish model Elsa Hosk is listing her Soho co-op for $3.5 million, or $2,000 per foot, The Real Deal has learned. Hosk bought the two-bedroom apartment at 66 Crosby Street, or 514 Broadway, for just over $2 million six years ago, property records show. The model was looking for a fixer-upper and spent two years renovating the loft, according to an interview she did with Architectural Digest. View this post on Instagram Model @hoskelsa

To live and bribe in LA: The sweet past and sticky present of Carmel Partners

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 01:30 PM PDT

Is Carmel Partners a cartoonishly nefarious developer or merely an opportunistic one caught in the wrong place at the wrong time? The company made headlines in June for its possible role in the development-tied criminal enterprise that Los Angeles City Council member Jose Huizar allegedly ran. That audacious scheme has been called “the largest corruption scandal in recent L.A. history” by California Common Cause director Jonathan Mehta Stein. Federal prosecutors say Carmel’s role included giving

Operator of Martinique Hotel in Manhattan files for bankruptcy

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 12:50 PM PDT

UPDATED, Sept. 23, 4:45 p.m.: The operator of the Martinique hotel in Manhattan has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Herald Hotel Associates, which runs the boutique hotel at 49 West 32 Street in Koreatown, this week filed a petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The Martinique is part of Hilton Hotels’ Curio Collection portfolio. The company owes between $10 million and $50 million, and has estimated assets

Bed Bath & Beyond will permanently close UES store

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 12:05 PM PDT

Home-goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond will close its Upper East Side location at 410 East 61st Street in December, according to a notice filed with the New York State Department of Labor. The Manhattan store is one of 63 nationwide expected to close by the end of the year, with six of those located in New York. In July, the company announced it would close 200 stores over the next two years. The chain

Private school to expand in former Chelsea Art Museum building

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 11:47 AM PDT

Spring Education Group, a parent company of private school brands, has signed a 20-year lease for 34,500 square feet at the former Chelsea Art Museum building. The group’s BASIS Independent Schools will occupy the entire three-story building at 556 West 22nd Street to serve students in grades 6 through 12. The owner of the building, Albanese Development, bought the property for $19.35 million at Chelsea Art Museum’s bankruptcy auction in 2010. Albanese did not return

US home sales hit 14-year high

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 11:18 AM PDT

The pandemic may have slowed real estate deals at the start of the year, but six months in, home sales have surged. Sales for existing homes reached a 14-year high in August, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. Those sales — which include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — rose 10.5 percent from August 2019 to a seasonally adjusted rate of 6 million homes per year. Incentivized by record-low mortgage

City Council extends restaurant, retailer lease protections

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 10:00 AM PDT

UPDATED, Sept. 23, 2020, 4:01 p.m.: The City Council on Wednesday extended a measure that protects restaurants and retailers who violate their leases. The Council voted in favor of a bill that prohibits the enforcement of personal liability provisions in commercial leases or rental agreements in cases where a default occurred between March 7, 2020 and March 31, 2021. The initial measure, which was sponsored by Manhattan Democrat Carlina Rivera and approved in May, only

Applications for home mortgages surged last week

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 09:30 AM PDT

The final week of summer saw a surge in demand for mortgages from homebuyers and homeowners alike. An index tracking the weekly volume of purchase loan applications increased 3 percent, seasonally adjusted, from the prior week. The Mortgage Bankers Association metric, known as the purchase index, was up 25 percent year-over-year. It was the 18th consecutive week that the purchase index was higher than it was a year earlier. The average purchase loan size grew

United Wholesale Mortgage goes public with $16B valuation

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 09:00 AM PDT

United Wholesale Mortgage is merging with Gores Holdings IV, a special-purpose acquisition company, and preparing to go public in the biggest SPAC deal ever recorded. The deal will allow the lender to public at a valuation of more than $16 billion, setting a record for this type of blank-check deal, the Wall Street Journal reported. United Wholesale Mortgage will take a 94 percent stake in the new company. The deal will infuse the lender with

Newly uncovered trademarks show Trump’s Cuba real estate aspirations

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 08:30 AM PDT

Newly uncovered trademarks illustrate President Trump’s Cuba real estate ambitions, as well as those in other countries. The Trump name had legal protections for use in real estate investing, hotels, casinos and other commercial activities in Cuba from 2010 to 2018, when it expired, according to the Miami Herald. The president applied for the trademark in 2008, despite previously saying he didn’t intend to do business in the country until it was “free,” according to

Hotel industry is in trouble and more lenders want out

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 08:00 AM PDT

As hotels across the U.S. continue to suffer — average occupancy is just under 50 percent — an increasing number of lenders are scrambling to sell their mortgages. Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies has hired Cushman & Wakefield to sell mortgages totalling $500 million tied to the Times Square Hotel in Manhattan and two St. Regis hotels in Washington, D.C. and Miami, according to Business Insider. In July, Wells Fargo hired Newmark Knight Frank to

Blackstone assembles biggest real estate debt fund ever

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 07:15 AM PDT

PTA moms can look to Blackstone for fundraising inspiration. The giant firm gathered $8 billion for a property debt fund born last year and closed this month, making it the largest real estate credit fund ever raised. That’s thanks to low interest rates and the potential for high returns during the pandemic, according to the Wall Street Journal. “There’s an expectation that there will be a greater opportunity in real estate debt than there has

HFZ’s Chelsea condo now effective, with 16% of units sold

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 06:30 AM PDT

HFZ Capital Group has long been quiet about sales at the XI, its High Line-adjacent condominium. But a new amendment to the condo offering plan has offered rare insight into the number of contracts signed at the project’s twisting towers since sales launched in 2018. According to the amendment, which was filed with the attorney general’s office and made public this week, 38 units have gone into contract as of this April. That represents 16

Zillow launches brokerage to boost iBuying

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 05:58 AM PDT

For years, Zillow denied it had plans to become a brokerage. But the listings giant is doing just that, in a move it says will streamline its iBuying operation. Starting in January 2021, the company said salaried agents will work with sellers who want cash offers for their homes through Zillow Offers. In those transactions, Zillow Homes will be the broker of record, the company said. To start, Zillow agents will work with homeowners in

Real estate hits bottom as Industry City abandons plan

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 05:45 AM PDT

A year after Amazon’s stunning defeat in Queens, Industry City’s capitulation in Brooklyn marks a new low point for the real estate industry. The owners of the 35-acre Sunset Park campus withdrew their rezoning application Tuesday night as mounting political opposition doomed its chances in the City Council. The decision makes clear that Amazon’s abandonment 19 months ago of a multi-billion-dollar headquarters planned for Long Island City was not an outlier. For decades, the promise

Burlington Coat Factory inks big lease in Brooklyn

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 05:30 AM PDT

Burlington Coat Factory has leased a big space in Brooklyn and is already gearing up for year-end holiday sales. The 45,000-square-foot store will encompass a former Staples and 24-Hour Fitness at Flatbush Center, according to Marcelo Klajnbart of ACHS Management, a division of Alex Adjmi’s A&H Acquisitions, the property’s owner. Burlington already has a similarly large store in Kings Plaza mall that opened in 2018 and another on Atlantic Avenue. The new store, at 2163

What Albany’s cooking up for real estate

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT

When tenant activists charged State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office this month — demanding he back their cancel-rent bills — the leader of New York’s people’s house gave the gathered crowd an impromptu talking-to. “The bill you’re asking for is not something we can do alone,” Heastie said, of a measure sponsored by Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou and Sen. Julia Salazar to cancel rent. The bill, which has 11 Senate and 32 Assembly sponsors, has

Office subleases pile up throughout top metro markets

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 04:30 AM PDT

When R/GA moved its New York headquarters to Brookfield Property Partners’ 5 Manhattan West, some praised the global advertising agency for adopting state-of-the art technologies entirely controlled by apps. The new 173,000-square-foot office was designed to attract the best talent, competing with tech firms such as Twitter and Facebook, Bob Greenberg, the company’s founder, told Forbes in 2016. A few months after Covid-19 hit nearly every industry, however, the Interpublic Group subsidiary was forced to

Are New Yorkers coming back? These charts tell the story

Posted: 23 Sep 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Six months after New York was locked down — and 420,000 residents packed up and left — the city has largely reopened. Its Covid rate has been under 1 percent since midsummer. But are New Yorkers returning to town and their routines? The answers are in the data. The Real Deal drilled into the numbers to see if people are heeding calls by the real estate industry and elected officials to come back. We found