The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Carmel Partners bought a development site on the Upper East Side for more than $70 million — the neighborhood’s second big land deal in recent weeks. The San Francisco-based investment firm headed by Ron Zeff paid $73.5 million to buy a development site at the southwest corner of 1st Avenue and East 78th Street, sources familiar with the sale told The Real Deal. The property at 1487 1st Avenue, has a little more than 153,000

Longtime city official Vicki Been has had an eventful few weeks. In addition to recently departing her role as deputy mayor for the arrival of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, Been has reportedly sold her West Village townhouse. The former Deputy Mayor of Housing and Economic Development sold her home at 230 West 11th Street for $18.8 million in an off-market deal, the New York Post reported. It’s not clear who bought the home Been shared

Wall Street is snapping up homes at historic rates, and it appears iBuyers are a key part of investors’ acquisition plans. A Bloomberg analysis of more than 100,000 property records showed the sale of thousands of homes last year to institutional investors through three of the largest iBuyers: Opendoor, Offerpad and Zillow. Investors were behind two of every 10 homes flipped by iBuyers, according to the report. Transactions related to Zillow’s iBuying demise illustrate the

Mortgage rates are as high as they’ve been in almost two years, a rise that could hamper buyers and temper the housing market’s hot streak. The Wall Street Journal reported the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate loan this week was 3.22 percent, one week after Freddie Mac reported the average rate to be 3.11 percent. It’s a significant rise from 2.65 percent recorded in early 2021 and the highest rate since May 2020. Interest

Stefan Soloviev was quoted three years ago saying he would remember “anyone who screwed me over.” Now he can add some of his former nannies to that list. Insider reported a nanny who worked for the real estate heir fractured her foot after going down a laundry chute in his East Hampton home, afraid to ask Soloviev to unlock a door. She ultimately left the job after Soloviev didn’t give her time off to recuperate.

Nothing is standing in the way of Accurate Builders and Developers’ proposed 11-building complex at a former stadium site in Newark. The Newark Planning Board last month approved the complex for the Passaic waterfront site where the defunct Newark Bears baseball team played, ROI reported. The 10.5-acre project, dubbed CitiSquare Newark, will be constructed in nine phases. The first phase of the project received unanimous approval from the planning board. According to YIMBY, it will

UPDATED Jan. 7, 2021, 11:30 a.m.: The end of the year is a time for family. And for some families, that meant doing business. A bevy of independent, family-owned companies accounted for last week’s investment sales in the $10 million to $40 million range, with Manhattan properties being most popular among middle-market buyers. The central borough captured most of the 17 deals last week — a strong showing as the tax calendar turned over —

Two years after Apple, Google, and Meta vowed to spend $4.5 billion to create more than 40,000 new homes in their home state of California, they’ve accomplished a fraction of that goal. Meta, which aims for 20,000 new homes by 2029, has so far granted loans from a fund it seeded for just 750 planned affordable units. Google, whose parent company is Alphabet Inc., envisions as many as 15,000 homes on company-owned land — and

Mayor Eric Adams is expected to appoint Dan Garodnick as chairman of the City Planning Commission. Garodnick, who was a Manhattan City Council member for 12 years, will also take over as director of the Department of City Planning, overseeing day-to-day operations and department staff. The commission and agency positions are always held by the same person. He will succeed Anita Laremont, who stepped up from her position as executive director of the planning department

Mayor Eric Adams’ real estate brain trust is starting to take shape. Adams is expected to appoint Jessica Katz to a senior housing post, Carlo Scissura to run economic development and Dan Garodnick as planning czar, according to numerous sources. Katz is the executive director of the housing nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council. She first worked for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in 2003 as a production manager for the Division of

In an active end to the year, Chetrit Group has sold 41,000-square-foot, mixed-use building at 1231 Third Avenue to Premier Equities for $43.25 million and refinanced the assemblage next to it. Joe Chetrit’s firm paid $144 million in 2018 for the parcel and adjacent properties, which are all on the block bounded by East 71st and East 72nd streets and Second and Third avenues. The assemblage refi comes in the form of a $116.5 million

In the quest to explain why home sale commissions are consistently high, it turns out conspiracy theorists could be on to something. A judge denied a motion from Realogy Holdings to dismiss a lawsuit by a group of home sellers that argues brokerages conspire to inflate commissions. A group of Massachusetts home sellers filed the suit, Bauman v. MLS, in December 2020. It alleges that brokerages including Realogy, Keller Williams, HomeServices of America and RE/MAX,

For tenants at risk of eviction, a judge’s order will offer protection days before the state moratorium is set to expire. Judge Lynn R. Kotler ruled Thursday that the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which headed the emergency rent relief program, must reopen the portal to tenant applications within three business days. Kotler noted that applying insulates tenants from eviction while their paperwork is being processed. Just nine days remain on the statewide

Move over, Citizen Kane. Dutch hotel chain CitizenM is moving into Texas with a $67 million hotel tower it’s developing in downtown Austin, the state’s capital city, news outlet Culturemap Austin reported. The Amsterdam-based company recently broke ground on the 17-story building at 617 Colorado Street, currently a parking lot. New York-based Turnbridge Equities is developing the hotel with CitizenM. A 2020 filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Registration put the cost of

Though New York City failed to deliver on some politicians’ and activists’ hopes to convert hotels to affordable housing, at least one shuttered hotel is set to serve as transitional housing for the homeless. The Hotel at New York City, a 117-room property in Murray Hill was sold last month by Apple Core Holdings to Prem Jyotish, Crain’s reported. The building at 161 Lexington Avenue is going to be converted into transitional housing for the

In the wake of Zillow’s iBuying demise, its former rival Offerpad appears to be headed in the opposite direction with more than half a billion in credit to expand its home buying business. The company landed $500 million in a revolving credit facility, according to a Dec. 20 SEC filing reported by HousingWire. The lender was not disclosed by the company and reportedly absent from the filing. Offerpad has committed to borrowing at least $300

Two New York-based developers are embarking on a student housing project near Florida International University with a $147 million construction loan. Adam America Real Estate and JW Capital Management plan to build the 22-story, U-shaped building at 10726 Southwest Seventh Street in Sweetwater, according to the developers’ news release. Their equity partner is ARBS Real Estate USA Holdings. The project will have 1,201 beds among 932 units, as well as 647 parking spaces and 15,442

Most developers would salivate at the prospect of an empty corner lot in Williamsburg. Yoel Hershkowitch is ready to build on his. The low-profile Brooklyn developer scored a $72.5 million construction loan from BridgeCity Capital to put up an eight-story, 123-unit luxury rental building with a 4,020-square-foot retail space on the ground floor. The building, at 416 Metropolitan Avenue, will wrap around the corner of Marcy and Metropolitan avenues with rounded glass windows lining the

The Totem Group is ready to carry the torch for a long-awaited redevelopment at Brooklyn’s Broadway Junction. The Brooklyn-based developer reportedly submitted preliminary plans to the Department of City Planning in October, marking the typical first step in the rezoning process. According to City Limits, the submission details a project that would add approximately 664 housing units to the area. The developer is proposing a trio of mixed-use towers that could reach up to 455

Just over a year ago, Miki Naftali spent about an hour standing on the sidewalk outside his upcoming project at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 80th Street. He was watching for people to notice the giant billboard he’d hung from the building’s facade, featuring an op-ed by Jerry Seinfeld on why New York wasn’t dead.  “Hopefully, it will create a little bit [of a] good vibe,” he said at the time. “Not everything

JLL has added another tool to its expanding suite of smart building offerings. The company acquired Hank, a cloud-based “virtual engineering” and building management platform that boosts energy efficiency in commercial buildings, according to a statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sacramento-based Hank was co-founded in 2016 by CEO Zachary Denning and chief revenue officer Jerremy Spillman. The platform uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to autonomously manage lighting, heating, HVAC and building

UPDATED, Jan. 6, 7 p.m. ET — More information about Empire State Realty Trust’s big pivot to apartment buildings is beginning to come to light. Fetner Properties recapitalized two rental buildings with ESRT at a value of $307 million. An SEC filing previously revealed the 625-unit deal by the office landlord, but the landlord and the addresses of the buildings were not disclosed. Fetner will retain a 10 percent stake in each of the two

Rockrose Development is doubling down on the city’s office market with the takeover of a NoMad building that it plans to combine with a neighboring property. The developer purchased the remaining stake in 11 East 26th Street in a deal valued at $145 million, Rockrose’s Ted Traum told The Real Deal. The firm held a nearly 50 percent stake in the office building after acquiring a 14 percent interest in April and another 5 percent

UPDATED, Jan. 6, 2:18 p.m. — A portfolio of two Class A office buildings has traded hands for $212 million in one of Long Island’s biggest office deals of the past decade. The Birch Group scooped up 1 and 2 Jericho Plaza from DRA Advisors and Onyx Equities. The 665,592-square-foot portfolio adds to the $1.1 billion of commercial office assets the firm has acquired since 2020. The buildings are 95 percent leased to tenants including

A pair of big-time affordable housing investors have scooped up an affordable housing portfolio in East Harlem. LIHC Investment Group and Camber Property Group bought the 229-unit, nine-building portfolio, located mostly on East 118th and East 119th streets, from Vitus Group for $68 million. The developers plan to keep the complex, known as Lexington Court, affordable for at least the next 40 years thanks to a new Section 8 contract and an agreement with the

For a property that once generated headlines around the world, the sale — when it finally came — landed with a whimper.  On an afternoon in early December, from an airy county courthouse in Santa Monica, a bankruptcy judge signed a court order approving an offer from a Ventura County construction firm to buy 901 Strada Vecchia partially built Bel Air spec mansion.  The mansion — a project by the brazen developer Mohamed Hadid that

The owners of one of Williamsburg’s newest apartment buildings aim to sell the tower in what could be one of the first big multifamily deals in Brooklyn this year. Tavros Capital Partners and Charney Companies are looking to get about $165 million for the rental portion of the Dime apartment tower, sources with knowledge of the offering told The Real Deal. A representative for Tavros and Charney declined to comment. The Dime, which sits near