The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

$16M townhouse sale sets Brooklyn record

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 03:55 PM PST

Pharmaceutical investment mogul Behzad Aghazadeh set a record in Brooklyn with his purchase of a townhouse and carriage house for a combined $16 million. The Brooklyn Heights buys closed in May but weren’t recorded until Nov. 13, according to the New York Post, which first reported on the deasl. Both were off-market purchases. Aghazadeh wants to combine the two properties into one megamansion. He purchased the landmarked 81 Pierrepont Street brownstone for $12.5 million and

Pablo Escobar’s former Miami Beach property sells for $11M

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 02:55 PM PST

The waterfront Miami Beach lot once home to Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s now has a new owner. Chicken Kitchen founder Christian de Berdouare and his wife, former local news anchor Jennifer Valoppi, sold the 30,000-square-foot property at 5860 North Bay Road to developer Jarrett Posner, founder and chairman of New York City-based BMC Investments, for $10.95 million. Mirce Curkoski and Albert Justo of One Sotheby’s International Realty represented the sellers, while

Pharrell’s Billionaire Boys Club to open store in Wynwood

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 02:30 PM PST

Billionaire Boys Club plans to open a store in Miami’s trendy Wynwood neighborhood. The Pharrell Williams-owned clothing brand inked a lease for 5,700 square feet at 2545 Northwest Third Avenue in a building that formerly housed a wholesale shoe company, according to a release. The site is across from Zak the Baker, Walt Grace Vintage and the Wynwood Garage. Lease terms were not disclosed. The store is expected to open in late 2021, according to

Vornado halts sale of office towers co-owned with Trump

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 02:15 PM PST

Vornado Realty Trust has suspended its efforts to sell two trophy office towers that it co-owns with the Trump Organization. The real estate investment trust has been looking for a buyer for its 70 percent stake in the buildings, located at 1290 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan and 555 California Street in San Francisco’s Financial District. Vornado was hoping to sell the properties for around $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. If the buildings had

Something to believe in: Poison’s Bret Michaels returns to Calabasas

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 01:45 PM PST

Poison’s Bret Michaels has closed on a new home in Calabasas, a month after the singer sold his Westlake Village property. Michaels paid $4.8 million for his new half-acre property in the guard-gated community Oaks of Calabasas, according to the Los Angeles Times. The custom house totals 6,000 square feet and is contemporary in style with large windows, wide-plank floors, and mostly white furnishings. The back of the home opens to a covered patio and

Massive Gowanus development will be 100% affordable

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 01:05 PM PST

Gowanus Green, a massive residential complex planned for the industrial Brooklyn neighborhood, is going fully affordable. The de Blasio administration announced Thursday that the complex’s 950 residential units will all be below-market-rate, Crain’s reported. Previously, around 26 percent of its units were due to be reserved as market-rate. “Given the dwindling supply of city-owned land, especially in high-opportunity neighborhoods such as Gowanus, the city decided to maximize the amount of affordable housing we can create

Facebook, Google back modular housing startup

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 12:29 PM PST

Tech giants Facebook and Google are pulling out their checkbooks to back a modular housing startup. Factory_OS, which aims to build apartments more efficiently and for less money, announced the Series B Friday. The $55 million round was led by Lafayette Square Holdings, with participation from Autodesk, Citi and Morgan Stanley, along with Facebook and Google. Based in Vallejo, California, Factory_OS was founded in 2017 by general contractor Larry Pace and Rick Holliday, a San

Here’s what tenants are paying at Brookfield & Swig’s Grace Building

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 11:52 AM PST

Developed by San Francisco-based Swig Company in 1974, the Grace Building, which overlooks Bryant Park, is easily recognizable by its sloping facades. The 48-story office tower, located at 1114 Sixth Avenue, experienced significant turnover in its rent roll a few years ago when several of its largest tenants, including HBO and Silicon Valley law firm Cooley LLP, relocated to Hudson Yards. The vacant space was quickly filled by new tenants like Bank of America and

Ladder Capital moves to foreclose on Emerald Equity’s Harlem rentals

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 11:04 AM PST

Ladder Capital intends to foreclose on four Harlem rental properties owned by Isaac Kassirer’s Emerald Equity, after the firm defaulted on a $32 million loan. The lawsuit said the loan for 110 St. Nicholas Avenue, 110 West 116th Street, 120 West 116th Street and 1917 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard is 30 days past due. The suit was filed in New York Supreme Court on Thursday. In April, Isaac Kassirer extended the maturity date for the

These are the top 10 priciest zip codes in the US

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 10:40 AM PST

The pandemic has led to many changes in the residential real estate market: suburban migration, a dearth of inventory, the return of bidding wars, waning luxury markets and more. But have those trends in homebuying sparked big changes to sale prices around the country — particularly in the most expensive areas? The short answer: Maybe. According to PropertyShark’s analysis of the country’s most expensive ZIP codes, “2020 presented a reversal of 2019’s picture, with significantly

City drops bid to require special permits for Union Square hotels

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 10:20 AM PST

The de Blasio administration is abandoning its plan to require special permits for new hotel construction in Union Square — but it remains committed to studying whether such a mandate would work citywide. The city quietly withdrew an application to establish a 25-block area where any new hotel construction requires a special permit. The decision came at the urging of the City Council. “The Commission approved this application just before the full impact of Covid

NAR apologizes for housing discrimination

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 09:07 AM PST

The National Association of Realtors has issued an historic apology for its role in housing discrimination, but some say it falls short. Charlie Oppler, the president-elect of NAR, which represents 1.4 million real estate professionals, said realtors have contributed to inequality, which he described as an “outrage to our morals and our ideals,” Bloomberg News reported. The Black homeownership rate is just 46 percent as of Sept. 30, compared to 67 percent for all U.S.

Better.com CEO Vishal Garg accused of fraud, hostile workplace

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 08:31 AM PST

Mortgage originator Better.com is one of the most buzzed-about startups, and was recently valued at $4 billion. But CEO Vishal Garg is a volatile leader ensnared in a rash of lawsuits alleging financial mismanagement and worse, according to a new report. Garg, 42, is accused of improper management of funds at several prior startups, including as much as “tens of millions of dollars,” Forbes reported. Some of the allegedly mismanaged money went to starting Better.com.

Workers in prime earning years are struggling to pay rent: Survey

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 07:30 AM PST

The coronavirus has taken a devastating toll on older Americans, but it’s people in their prime earning years who are struggling most to pay the rent. That’s according to a recent survey from rental management platform Avail and Urban Institute — a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank. Only 51 percent of renters 30 to 49 years old paid full rent in September, according to the findings. The survey polled 2,452 tenants and landlords. Those above and

Retailers now owe $52B in back rent

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 07:05 AM PST

Brick-and-mortar stores were struggling before the pandemic. But now, the retail sector owes $52 billion in back rent. An analysis of data from CoStar found that retailers nationwide had missed two to four months’ rent, according to Bloomberg. Questions remain about how the pandemic and changing consumer preferences will affect the sector in the long run. Even when a Covid-19 vaccine becomes widely available, the amount of debt may be insurmountable, industry pros say. An

Regal Cinemas in talks for rescue deal

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 06:30 AM PST

The parent company of Regal Cinemas, the second-largest movie theater operator in the U.S., is hunting for a financial lifeline. U.K.-based Cineworld is in talks with investors for rescue financing or debt to fund a bankruptcy proceeding, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company reported that revenue in the first half of 2020 declined 67 percent to $712 million. It has $4 billion in lease obligations and $4 billion in debt overall. Last month, it

Trump Org puts DC hotel sale on “indefinite hold”

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 05:54 AM PST

Plans to sell the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. have been shelved after bids came in at less than half the asking price. JLL, which the Trump Organization hired last spring to market the property, told CNBC that plans to sell the property were on “indefinite hold.” The Trump Organization sought $500 million for the asset, which like other of the company’s hotels and resorts benefited from those seeking favors from President Donald Trump’s

Here are the markets where hotels are hurting the most

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 05:00 AM PST

Nearly $31 billion in outstanding CMBS hotel loans — more than a third of the total — is due to mature in 2021. That’s according to a new report from Trepp, which found that 3,100 hotel loans totaled $87 billion, about 16 percent of the total outstanding balance of all CMBS loans. Lodging properties have been one of the hardest hit property types alongside retail, and though recent news about vaccine development appears promising, the

Follow the renter: Multifamily investors pour capital into unexpected markets

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 04:30 AM PST

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, multifamily occupancy is up. Memphis, Tennessee, is seeing rising rents, and cap rates for apartment assets in Detroit have spiked. Months into a pandemic that eradicated many of the perks of big-city apartment living and made remote work a universal reality, renters have been moving to some unexpected places. And multifamily investors have been following them. While initial lockdowns sent more affluent homeowners fleeing dense cities for weekend properties in the

Curtains: What to do with movie theaters

Posted: 20 Nov 2020 04:00 AM PST

Even before the pandemic, Ari Benmosche realized that running his movie theater in a traditional sense wasn’t sustainable. The owner of the Lafayette Theater, a small venue in Suffern, New York, has shown the new “Star Wars” releases and movie marathons of holiday classics, always ending with “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But he could not get the theater back to profitability. “The exhibition industry is like a totem pole. We, as a single-screen movie theater,