The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

REBNY to charge consumer sites for RLS feed

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 03:20 PM PDT

The Real Estate Board of New York will now charge consumer-facing portals $3,000 a year, or $250 a month, for its syndicated listing feed. The change comes after the trade organization began offering syndication — sending listings out to brokerages and consumer websites — at no cost in 2017. So why now? REBNY needed to offset the building and maintenance costs to run the Residential Listing Service and address the thousands of inquiries that the

Distressed investors tap throwback strategy, target CMBS

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 01:00 PM PDT

Distressed real estate investors, short on troubled properties, have turned to a crisis-era favorite to suss out potential deals: commercial real estate bonds. Hedge fund Axonic Capital and startup Metamorphosis Hotel Capital Partners are scrounging through commercial mortgage-backed securities for opportunities to seize, fix and flip troubled properties for profit, Bloomberg reported, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. Firms adapted a similar strategy during the global financial crisis. Now, investors are seeking mortgages that

What Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan holds for real estate

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 12:00 PM PDT

President Joe Biden offered a series of concessions to Senate Republicans this week, the White House said, as he negotiates passage of his $1 trillion infrastructure deal — a plan that would have huge implications for the real estate industry. In an Oval Office meeting, Biden proposed that a new corporate version of the alternative minimum tax would be imposed, set at 15 percent, rather than raising corporate tax rates to 28 percent from 21

Two Trees says it will sell Williamsburg site if rezoning isn’t approved

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 11:52 AM PDT

Be careful what you wish for. That’s the message Two Trees Management has for opponents who want to block the developer’s plans for a pair of apartment towers on the Williamsburg waterfront. The Brooklyn-based developer is contending with pushback on its plan to rezone a large property along the East River to make way for its “River Ring” mixed-use project, which would include 1,250 rental apartments, office space, a pool and beach. But if opponents

Economic recovery quickens from crawling to merely slow

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 11:16 AM PDT

The economic recovery can’t get here fast enough. Employers added back 559,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in May, more than double the number in the previous month. While that is confirmation that the economy is recovering from the pandemic, it’s coming back at a slower pace than economists had predicted. The gains were “lower than anticipated,” according to Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association. The figures are part of a monthly

Blackstone lands $285M CMBS refi for Flushing’s Skyview mall

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 10:52 AM PDT

Blackstone Group has secured a big new loan for its 510,000-square-foot Flushing retail complex, as the sector looks to bounce back from the impact of the pandemic. Morgan Stanley originated a $285 million loan for the Shops at Skyview, which will be securitized into a single-asset commercial-mortgage backed securities transaction, according to a provisional rating report from DBRS Morningstar. The refinancing replaces $306 million in existing debt provided by Morgan Stanley in 2016, according to

Sonder takes lease for 76-key Gowanus Inn

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 10:15 AM PDT

Short-term rental startup Sonder has inked another hotel lease, this one at its first Brooklyn location. The company signed a long-term lease for the entire 76-key Gowanus Inn & Yard at 645-651 Union Street, The Real Deal has learned. Red Pine Capital Partners, which independently owns and operates the hotel, confirmed the news. San Francisco-based Sonder has in recent years expanded its portfolio into hotel rooms, after having specialized in offering furnished apartments as short-term

WATCH: Inside “The Royal Tenenbaums” mansion

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 09:30 AM PDT

Its time in the spotlight came 20 years ago, but the Victorian-era Harlem townhouse that was the backdrop for Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums” still has loyal subjects. The 6,000-square-foot home at 339 Convent Avenue is also now on the market, asking $20,000 a month. TRD’s Hannah Kramer led a recent tour through the five-level home on West 144th Street. It was designed by architect Adolph Hoak in 1899, and for a time was owned

Homeless residents of UWS hotel lose court battle to stay

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 07:30 AM PDT

After a near-year’s battle waged by neighborhood organizations, a group of homeless men will no longer be able to stay at the Lucerne Hotel on the Upper West Side. The city placed the men there temporarily during the pandemic, but an appellate court ruled Thursday that the men would have to leave, the New York Times reported. The decision, at this point, is nearly moot. As New York reopens, the city has hatched plans to

Developer picks up André Balazs’ Soho condo

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 06:45 AM PDT

Hotelier André Balazs unloaded his Soho apartment this week, 14 years after first listing the pad. The Mercer Hotel owner first listed the 4,200-square-foot unit at 158 Mercer Street, the New Museum Building, for $10 million back in 2007, with no luck. He tried again in 2017, and then in 2020, bumping the asking price to $12 million. Third time’s the charm: Balazs sold the 10th floor unit for $10.35 million, well above the $5.75

What Katerra’s shutdown means for clients, subsidiaries

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 06:00 AM PDT

Last week, “rumblings” from Katerra workers on a project site in Jersey City reached developer Paul Silverman. He then learned the ominous chatter was true: Katerra was shutting down. Many developers are now in a similar position as Silverman, figuring out how to move forward on projects that suddenly no longer have a construction manager. Silverman, whose eponymous firm hired Fields Construction, one of many companies acquired by Katerra over the last few years, said

Fundrise scores Goldman backing to expand single-family rental market

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 05:30 AM PDT

Private equity’s push into single-family housing this year strained a market already strapped for supply as mom-and-pop bidders found themselves up against institutions intent on buying to flip or rent. Investment firm Fundrise found opportunity in that bottleneck. Last week, the startup secured a $300 million credit facility from Goldman Sachs to finance almost half-a-billion dollars in new home construction to bulk up supply in the Sun Belt. But the firm’s new developments will be

Watch: Marc Ganzi on Colony Capital’s digital transformation

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 05:00 AM PDT

A fridge that knows you’re low on oat milk before you do may sound like the stuff of science fiction. For Colony Capital, it’s only the beginning of a hard pivot from traditional real estate to a focus on digital infrastructure. On this episode of the REInterview, TRD’s Hiten Samtani spoke with Colony CEO Marc Ganzi about the “tectonic shift” towards digitalization in commercial real estate. Geology metaphors aside, Colony’s own digitalization journey has been

Pulling rabbits out of a hat: How NYC theaters survived Covid — or didn’t

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 04:00 AM PDT

For 33 years and more than 13,500 shows, Catherine Russell played a psychiatrist and suspected cold-blooded killer in an off-Broadway show, taking just four sick days and setting a Guinness World Record for most theater performances as a character. And if the boiler in her theater needed fixing or the ticket-taker didn’t show up, she could do that too. Only a global pandemic could have stopped her. Covid shut down the Theater Center, the venue