The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Blackstone buying WPT Industrial in $3B deal

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 03:46 PM PDT

The Blackstone Group keeps feeding its seemingly insatiable appetite for industrial real estate. In its latest move, the firm’s private real estate investment trust is acquiring WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust in an all-cash deal valued at $3.1 billion, according to Bloomberg. Debt is included in that valuation, according to the report. The deal was done through Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust. Over the past year, BREIT has added west coast warehouses, Silicon Valley

Lightstone lands $77M construction loan for W’burg Moxy hotel

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 03:31 PM PDT

Lightstone has locked up fresh financing for its Williamsburg hotel, one of two Moxy brand projects the developer has in New York City. Lightstone secured the $77 million construction loan from G4 Capital Partners in a deal that closed Thursday, sources told The Real Deal. The 216-room hotel at 353-361 Bedford Avenue will be Lightstone’s fifth hotel with Moxy, a Marriott International brand, and its only one in Brooklyn. Moxy caters to a younger demographic

Actor Judd Hirsch lists solar farm-powered 77-acre Hudson Valley estate

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 02:30 PM PDT

Bronx-born actor Judd Hirsch is looking to sell his sprawling home in the Hudson Valley on a solar farm-powered complex. Hirsch listed the 77-acre Napanoch, New York, property for $4.5 million, according to the New York Post. His longtime spread includes a custom-built 5,600-square-foot home at 10 Eve Eden Road. Hirsch’s credits include sitcoms “Taxi” and “Dear John,” and films like “Running on Empty” and “Ordinary People.” He bought the initial 44-acre parcel for the estate

Compass revenue almost triples, but company lost $7M

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 02:05 PM PDT

UPDATED Monday August 9, 2021, 8:01 p.m.: Compass’ losses are narrowing as revenue surges, while top executives are focused on explaining how the company will become profitable and why they are in fact a technology company. The residential brokerage’s quarterly revenue jumped 186 percent year-over-year to $1.95 billion, the company reported Monday in its second-quarter earnings. Compass reported a net loss of $7 million for the quarter, an improvement from a loss of $84 million

Brookfield bets big on insurance as real estate investments ebb

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 01:46 PM PDT

For Brookfield Asset Management, insurance may be the new real estate. The firm is in the process of spending $6.5 billion to take Brookfield Property Partners private after the real estate wing, flush with mall and office holdings, took a beating during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Brookfield announced Monday it would invest billions to bulk up its newly-public insurance arm. Brookfield Reinsurance Partners, the recent spin-off of Brookfield Asset Management, agreed to buy insurance company American

Home sale feud may have prompted SoCal fatal shooting

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 01:30 PM PDT

What may have been a family dispute over an upcoming home sale turned deadly in Orange County, leaving one man fatally shot and three other people injured, including the gunman. The shooting happened Saturday morning on the 4500 block of Operetta Drive, east of the Huntington Beach community of Sunset Beach, the Orange County Register reported. Details remain scant but authorities believe the shooting was related to a family dispute over the property sale. Police

Chetrit Org’s 850 Third Avenue heads to foreclosure auction

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 01:04 PM PDT

The Chetrit Organization’s 850 Third Avenue is headed for the auction block. The UCC foreclosure auction, scheduled for Sept. 14, was initiated by an entity associated with Harbor Group International, an investment firm headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. The firm holds a $25 million junior mezzanine loan backed by a Chetrit entity that owns the 21-story, 617,000-square-foot office building between East 51st and East 52nd streets, according to a public notice reviewed by The Real Deal.

Brooklyn luxury contracts on the rise after July slowdown

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 12:30 PM PDT

After a slow July, Brooklyn luxury contract signings are on the rise again. Twenty-five contracts for homes asking $2 million or more were signed in the borough last week, a boost from the previous week’s 15 contracts, according to Compass’ weekly report. It’s the most luxury contracts signed since the last week of June, when 23 such deals were inked. The asking prices of those contracts totaled $82 million, a jump from the $49.5 million

Superyachts and Picassos: How real estate’s wealthiest spend their millions

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:50 AM PDT

Going into the final stretch of the 2020 Kentucky Derby, millions of dollars rested on the performance of a 3-year-old horse named Authentic. The stallion, owned by billionaire self-storage and rental-home magnate B. Wayne Hughes, led Vegas favorite Tiz the Law by half a head. In eerie silence, the drunken revelers at home due to the pandemic, Authentic pushed toward the finish. With just a quarter-mile left, his jockey’s lash urged him forward. Tiz had

Manhattan contract activity picks up as discounts grow

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:00 AM PDT

Contract signings shot up in Manhattan last week as discounts between initial and final asking prices grew. Thirty-six homes asking $4 million or more went into contract last week, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report on Manhattan’s luxury contract activity. The average discount was 12 percent, the largest margin recorded this summer. Donna Olshan, the report’s author, attributed the increase in transactions to the discounts. “That drives the deal home,” she said. But despite some

Chubb Group negotiating 10-floor lease at Olayan’s 550 Madison Avenue

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 10:30 AM PDT

There may finally be life at 550 Madison Avenue, with the Chubb Group negotiating to become the building’s first tenant. The insurance company is in advanced talks to lease 10 floors comprising 250,000 square feet from Olayan America’s 37-story building in Midtown East, according to the New York Post. A source told the newspaper that a deal for the space could be struck within the next three months. While the negotiations are at an advanced

Resi brokerages’ big quarter: Record revenue, new CEOs and major acquisitions

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 09:48 AM PDT

The second quarter was a strong one for a number of brokerages. Records were broken, acquisitions were finalized and new executives entered the C-suite. Redfin saw its revenue rise 121 percent year-over-year to $471 million during the quarter. It also saw its largest market share gain since its IPO in 2017, reaching 1.18 percent of U.S. existing-home sales by value. The brokerage started the quarter by finalizing its acquisition of RentPath and ended it by

Cuomo’s demise and what it means for real estate

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 09:07 AM PDT

Gov. Andrew Cuomo was once lauded for his ability to see several steps ahead. It’s hard to find those news clips now, buried under search results from his sexual harassment scandal. How, then, did he miscalculate so badly? The governor is finished. The latest nail in the coffin was victim Brittany Commisso’s interview on “CBS This Morning” Monday. Impeachment requires just 76 of 150 votes in the Assembly, but a tally today would likely be

Hines raises $625M for new CRE investment fund

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 08:15 AM PDT

Houston-based real estate investment firm Hines has raised $625 million for a new CRE investment fund, with no signs of slowing. Hines U.S. Property Partners fund is projected to hit $1 billion by the end of September, Bloomberg News reported, with a goal of adding a further $1 billion annually. Including a $100 million initial investment from Hines, the fund will focus primarily on snapping up multifamily and industrial properties, as well as life sciences,

Editor’s note: Landlords left in the lurch

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 07:30 AM PDT

They might not have the most beloved public image, and are often caricatured as greedy and heartless. But landlords feel pain, too. And they have bills to pay. As our cover story this month explores, mom-and-pop property owners — who far outnumber their bigger and deeper-pocketed counterparts — have been incredibly squeezed alongside their tenants as a result of the coronavirus. Many have been forced to drain their savings, max out their credit and put

WeWork, Cushman negotiating $150M partnership

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 07:10 AM PDT

At its greatest heights, WeWork once considered acquiring Cushman & Wakefield. Now, the co-working firm is considering a cash infusion from the commercial real estate giant ahead of a planned SPAC deal later this year. WeWork and Cushman are in talks about forming a $150 million partnership aimed at helping office tenants adapt to remote work and flexible spaces, the Wall Street Journal reported. Cushman would invest the $150 million in the coming merger between

REITs gain favor with investors amid hopes of economic recovery

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 06:30 AM PDT

Investors looking to take advantage of a global economic recovery in the second half of the year are increasingly turning to real-estate investment trusts, or REITs. The broadest index of REITs in the United States, the FTSE Nareit All REITs index, sported a total return of more than 26 percent over the first seven months of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported, significantly higher than the 18 percent return generated by the S&P 500

Social Construct falls as pandemic turns world anti-social

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 06:00 AM PDT

Construction-tech startup Social Construct calls it quits “Startups are fragile beasts,” according to Ben Huh, CEO of Social Construct, which just became the latest real estate casualty of the pandemic. The proptech startup, which launched in 2017 with the aim of streamlining building planning and assembly with software and automation, will officially wind down operations in the fourth quarter. The pandemic undercut the startup’s early successes and threw a ratchet in its plan for a

Community banks looking to lend but New York landlords aren’t in borrowing mode

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 05:30 AM PDT

Regional and community banks have a unique problem: Money to lend and not enough borrowers. It’s a far cry from March 2020, when banks were bracing for the possibility of a liquidity crisis and a wave of defaults. “Their (banks’) biggest problem by far is that they can’t lend money that is flowing in,” said Dick Bove of Odeon Capital Group, a longtime banking analyst. Lenders like New York Community Bank, Signature Bank, and M&T

TRD’s August issue is live for subscribers!

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 04:30 AM PDT

The Real Deal’s August issue is live for digital subscribers and soon to hit doorsteps across the country. Questions proliferated after the devastating Surfside condo collapse last month. Who did this? Who allowed it? How, in a world where real estate developers have the means to buy entire sports teams and finance their Ferrari habits, could this happen? We’ll let the moral philosophers handle the how. As for the who, one might look at architect

Court denies developer seeking elusive 6 inches

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 04:00 AM PDT

Developer Arthur Shapolsky’s lawsuit against the owner of a button shop is hanging by a thread. Ruling on one of the stranger real estate cases in recent years, a judge awarded Milicent Safro, the former owner of Tender Buttons on the Upper East Side, $500,000 plus interest. Shapolsky had agreed to pay $5.25 million for Safro’s four-story building at 143 East 62nd Street, but in 2019 sued to back out, claiming he had been duped

Racial impact study sees Gowanus rezoning reducing segregation

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 03:30 AM PDT

The Gowanus rezoning could “meaningfully reduce segregation,” according to a new report. A racial equity report concludes that the proposal represents an “unprecedented” infusion of low-income housing in “a high-cost, high-opportunity neighborhood.” It would change residential patterns “slightly towards more integration” and could counter “exclusionary development trends.” On the downside, it says more should be done to preserve auto repair and industrial jobs, which are expected to be adversely affected by the rezoning. In June,