The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Inside Opendoor’s IPO filing: Nearly $1B in losses and new ownership structure

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 03:20 PM PDT

Opendoor took another step toward a public offering Monday with an IPO filing that details the company’s nearly $1 billion in losses to date. The iBuyer’s S-4, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, gives an unvarnished look at the seven-year-old company’s financials, its growth plan and the ownership structure that will be in place after it merges with Chamath Palihapitiya’s blank-check company. Opendoor’s prior backers include SoftBank and billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries.

BRP Companies plans 614-unit project in Queens

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 02:19 PM PDT

BRP Companies is moving forward on its plans to develop a major mixed-use project in Jamaica, Queens. The development firm, led by co-founders Meredith Marshall and Geoff Flournoy, filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings for a 12-story mixed-use building at 90-02 168th Street. The building will stand 124 feet tall and will have 614 units of mixed-income housing. It’ll also have 127 parking spots, bike storage, an outdoor space, an exercise room and

Brookfield weighs bid for SL Green’s Hudson Yards building

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 02:15 PM PDT

Brookfield is considering a play for SL Green Realty’s Amazon-anchored office building near Hudson Yards. Brookfield Asset Management is weighing a bid for the 20-story building at 410 Tenth Avenue, Bloomberg News reported. SL Green earlier this year put the building up for sale, eyeing a sales tag of $1.1 billion. SL Green acquired a majority interest in the office building in 2018, in a deal that valued the property at roughly $440 million. It

Vegas, New Orleans lead US in missed September rent payments

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:00 PM PDT

The loss of tourism due to Covid-19 travel restrictions is hurting cities across the U.S. — and now, the economic impact is trickling down to renters. Cities that are heavily reliant on the tourism and hospitality industries are seeing higher numbers of tenants who have missed rent payments, according to data from RealPage. The data covered tenants who reside in professionally managed buildings and excludes single-family rentals. New Orleans had the largest share of tenants

Cast away: Central Park’s Loeb Boathouse announces permanent layoffs

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:45 AM PDT

An iconic Central Park restaurant closed since March has permanently laid off its 163 employees. The Loeb Boathouse, situated on the southeast side of the lake, disclosed the move in a notice filed with the state Department of Labor, The City reported. Those workers had been furloughed since the start of the pandemic. A spokesperson for the city Parks Department said the property could reopen under the city and state’s restaurant guidelines. It’s unclear if

Cuomo to redraw city’s shutdown map

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:40 AM PDT

UPDATED Oct. 5, 2020, 3:51 pm: Gov. Andrew Cuomo is redrawing the city’s shutdown zones to better target Covid hotspots. He shared his plan Monday after Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed to dial back reopening in 20 ZIP codes where 3 percent to 8 percent of coronavirus tests have come back positive over the past week. Cuomo instead called the breakdown by ZIP code “imperfect,” showing a map of one in Brooklyn where positive tests

IWG looking to close 20% of flex-office NYC portfolio

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:33 AM PDT

Short-term office provider IWG is looking to close at least a fifth of its work centers in New York City as the parent company prepares to throw its Regus subsidiary into bankruptcy in the U.K. Regus recently closed what it called its flagship business center in Midtown East at the 39-story office tower 747 Third Avenue, sources familiar with the property told The Real Deal. The company also closed a center in Midtown South at

Compass expands into title and escrow with Modus deal

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:05 AM PDT

Compass is getting into the title and escrow business — two ancillary service lines that could boost its earnings as it works toward profitability. On Monday, the residential firm said it signed a definitive agreement to buy Modus, a title and escrow startup that’s raised $12.5 million. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In a statement, Compass said Modus’ software would be added to the collection of tech tools that make up its “end-to-end”

Think you know celebrity real estate?

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 10:30 AM PDT

Nearly $30M in Brooklyn luxury contracts signed last week

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 10:00 AM PDT

The number of luxury contracts signed in Brooklyn last week rose to 11, a slight increase from eight the week before. The total sales volume for the deals inked in the borough at $2 million or more was $28.6 million, according to Compass’ weekly report. The median asking price for the properties was $2.49 million with an average listing discount of 2 percent. The eight properties spent an average of 128 days on the market.

Manhattan’s 11 luxury contracts are half previous week’s total

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 09:45 AM PDT

Buyers signed contracts for 11 luxury properties in Manhattan last week — almost 50 percent less than the previous week, a stretch that saw the highest number of deals since March. The week-to-week drop underscores the market’s uneven path to revival, as high-end buyers slowly return to Manhattan but economic instability remains a concern. “Every week is different and there is no trend line other than the fact that we are living in a virus-dependent

Lights out: Regal Cinemas to suspend operations

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 09:00 AM PDT

Cineworld, the owner of the Regal Cinemas movie theater chain, will suspend operations at its locations across the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported. The announcement to temporarily close 500 theaters came after a wave of postponements of big-budget Hollywood movies, including the new James Bond film “No Time to Die.” “We are like a grocery shop that doesn’t have vegetables, fruit, meat,” Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger told the Journal. “We cannot operate for

Cuomo postpones tax lien sale yet again

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:08 AM PDT

Gov. Andrew Cuomo just extended the ban on the city’s tax lien sale for another month, granting delinquent property owners a fourth reprieve since the start of the pandemic. The governor signed an executive order Monday delaying lien sales statewide through Nov. 3. Without the order, the city’s lien sale on overdue property taxes, water and sewer bills could have resumed this week. This marks the fourth time the city’s lien sale has been delayed

Rudin Management plans overhaul of Financial District tower

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 07:45 AM PDT

Rudin Management is planning a major makeover of its 1.2 million-square-foot office tower at 80 Pine Street in the Financial District. The 60-year-old building expects nearly 800,000 square feet of vacancy in the near future, the New York Post reported. That’s in part a result of American International Group’s move to 1271 Sixth Avenue; it will vacate several thousand square feet when it leaves the lower Manhattan tower. The renovation project includes a new ground

Adam Hochfelder accused of Ponzi scheme, embezzlement by former firm

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 07:00 AM PDT

Editor’s note: After publication of this story, a court filing Monday reported that the litigation it describes was discontinued. Merchants Hospitality has filed an explosive lawsuit against former partner Adam Hochfelder, accusing him of running a Ponzi scheme, embezzling investor money and retaliating against his former associates after he was fired in June. In a complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court last week, Merchants claims it went out on a limb to help

$2.2T House stimulus package would ban evictions for 12 months

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 06:51 AM PDT

Many renters in the U.S. are protected from evictions through the end of the year, and a stimulus package that passed in the house could extend those protections further. The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package last week that includes a full-year ban on eviction foreclosure filings over nonpayment, according to Bloomberg News. The bill would also enact automatic forbearance for delinquent borrowers, and would include $50 billion in emergency

NYC moves to close restaurants, schools in Covid hot spots

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 06:02 AM PDT

As Covid-19 cases spike in certain New York City neighborhoods, fears of a second wave are growing — and the city is responding with restrictions on restaurants, schools and other nonessential businesses. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday that the city will move to close some schools, as well as nonessential businesses, in 20 hot spots in Brooklyn and Queens due to rising infection rates, the New York Times reported. The changes are subject

Future City: Democratizing vacation homes, Bungalow’s breakdown

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 05:15 AM PDT

Spencer’s second act: Vacation homes for all! Zillow co-founder Spencer Rascoff is back in the real estate game. The former CEO went public this week with his latest venture: Pacaso, a startup that helps ordinary people purchase second homes. “We’re trying to create a new category of home ownership, which is second-home ownership,” Rascoff said during an interview on CNBC. To “democratize” ownership, Pacaso’s marketplace helps aspiring owners purchase from one-eighth to one-half of a

Rockefeller Foundation signs sublease in MLB’s old Park Avenue office

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 04:30 AM PDT

The Rockefeller Foundation will temporarily relocate to Park Avenue from its longtime headquarters on Fifth Avenue, which will be renovated. The nonprofit, founded more than a century ago by the philanthropic family, will take out a short-term lease at 245 Park Avenue while its headquarters at 420 Fifth Avenue is revamped. While they have five floors at 420 Fifth Avenue, they will have two at the larger 245 Park Avenue. The foundation has subleased the

Lawsuits against Cushman & Wakefield target appraisers’ pay

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Dimitri Dixon has done appraisals for Cushman & Wakefield since 2007, but unlike most workers, she ended up in debt to her employer. Under the firm’s pay structure, the appraiser receives a loan, known as a recoverable draw. When she finishes, the company deducts from the loan balance any fees she incurred. If the fees exceed the advance, the employee is paid the difference. But sometimes the fees are less than the draw and the