The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

In its first move as a publicly traded company, Clipper Realty is buying an 11-story Brooklyn Heights rental building from the Jehovah’s Witnesses for $87.5 million, the firm told The Real Deal. The David Bistricer-led real estate investment trust entered into an agreement to buy 107 Columbia Heights for $569 per square foot. The Witnesses put the 154,000-square-foot building on the market in April. At the time, sources speculated it could fetch up to $1,000 … [more]

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved Edward J. Minskoff Equities’ plans Tuesday to build two townhouses and seven apartments in the West Village, after the architects presented a revised design. British architect David Chipperfield and Ward Dennis of Higgins Quasebarth & Partners are designing the 31,000-square-foot project at 11-19 Jane Street. Dennis said the new designs have a “much stronger residential feeling,” New York YIMBY reported. The proposal was previously rejected by the commission four times. … [more]

From Luxury Listings NYC: Reality TV star and creator of the Skinnygirl booze brand, Bethenny Frankel, is shedding yet another part of her much-gossiped-about real estate portfolio. Frankel is looking to let go of her two-bedroom Soho apartment, slapping it on the market for $5.2 million. [more] … [more]

Just before President Obama left office, the Department of Homeland Security proposed some serious rule changes to the EB-5 visa program, which awards green cards to foreign nationals investing in job-creating U.S. projects. The government currently gives out 10,000 of these visas a year, the overwhelming majority of them to Chinese investors investing in real estate development projects. In the wake of a number of scandals related to fraudulent investment activity, dirty money, and skepticism … [more]

From the February issue: For more than a year now, weakness in Manhattan’s ultra-luxury condo market has been making headlines. But just how real (and deep) is the softness? “The market fell short of its golden years of 2013, 2014 and 2015,” said Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty and publisher of an eponymous weekly report on Manhattan’s $4 million-plus residential sales. In the back half of last year, 511 Manhattan luxury homes went into … [more]

Savills Studley is beefing up its capital markets department, the latest in a string of poaches the industry has seen in recent months. The brokerage hired CBRE sales brokers Paul Leibowitz and David Krantz, as well as former Cushman & Wakefield executive Michael Rotchford, Crain’s reported. Rotchford will partner with longtime Savills Studley investment sales head Woody Heller to lead the new investment sales division. He’s also bringing along David Heller, who recently worked at … [more]

Jack Resnick & Sons refinanced its Midtown office building 485 Madison Avenue with a $50 million loan from Prudential Insurance. The new mortgage replaces a $45 million CMBS loan issued by Bear Stearns in 2007. The 24-story, 303,500-square-foot tower is home to Standard Security Life Insurance and Signature Bank, among other tenants. Prudential is one of the most active investors in New York’s real estate market. Last year the insurer’s subsidiary PGMI bought a 49-percent … [more]

In celebration of the official launch of TRData, The Real Deal‘s comprehensive real estate research site and data services division, we are hosting a Big Data + Real Estate Forum, bringing together the New York industry leaders at the forefront of new technology and information systems. The morning event begins with a networking breakfast followed by the first panel, “Big Data 2020: Exploring the next wave of real estate technology and information.” That is followed … [more]

From Luxury Listings NYC: Jürgen Friedrich, a former top executive at fashion brand Esprit, has just listed his condominium unit at the Plaza hotel for $39.5 million.[more] … [more]

Stanley Bard, former owner and manager of the Hotel Chelsea during its height as an artists’ colony, died on Tuesday. He was 82. Bard became the majority owner and manager of the hotel at 222 West 23rd Street in 1957, after the death of his father, who purchased the building in 1940, the Chelsea Hotel Blog reported. Over the years, guests at the legendary hotel included Bob Dylan, Stanley Kubrick, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen and … [more]

From Luxury Listings NYC: All of the renderings released by the developer of 432 Park Avenue show apartments that are impeccably furnished and impossibly sleek. Well one owner, it seems, has had enough of all that. After almost exactly a year of owning in the building, said owner, Valdom LLC, has decided to try something different and list his or her apartment themselves for nearly $20 million using images that look like they were taken with an iPhone. [more] … [more]

A tenant is accusing a property management subsidiary of Starrett Corporation of discrimination, saying the company would not take her rental subsidy because she has AIDS. In a lawsuit filed with the Brooklyn Federal Court, Idalia Cruz claims an employee at Grenadier Realty Corporation, owned by Starrett, told her the company does not accept rental subsidies for people living with AIDS, the New York Daily News reported. The 49-year-old woman could pay up to $1,200 … [more]

David Winter, a principal at Winter Properties, apparently has an affinity for the Upper East Side. The investor and real estate developer paid $30 million for the third floor apartment with Central Park views at 2 East 67th Street, according to sale records filed with the city. The unit was listed at that price point dating back to 2012, when Sotheby’s International broker Serena Boardman was shopping it. Before then the co-ops’s owner, Athanase Lavidas, … [more]

More interest-rate hikes may be on the way if inflation keeps rising and labor markets continue to tighten. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Tuesday delivered her first semiannual report on monetary policy since Donald Trump took the Oval Office. She said a rate increase may be on the horizon if employment and inflation continues to follow the central bank’s forecast, Bloomberg reported. “Waiting too long to remove accommodation would be unwise, potentially requiring the … [more]

Though commercial deals in London waned in Brexit’s wake, investors from China and Hong Kong purchased approximately $3.75 billion in the city’s real estate last year. The yuan appreciated by 12 percent against the British pound since June, when the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, the Wall Street Journal reported. That, along with expected restrictions on outbound capital from China, has investors flocking to London. The capitalization rate on offices in London’s West … [more]

Which firms made the list of top residential brokerages in Nassau and Suffolk counties? What new developments can we expect? What are Long Island’s priciest listings? The Real Deal is excited to head back to the Island and will soon release our second Long Island Market Report, a roundup of real estate news and information about Nassau and Suffolk counties’ residential and commercial markets. Our coverage of the market includes rankings of the top residential firms and … [more]

Lawmakers from the Garden State are accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio of working to intentionally slow down the construction of the proposed new Manhattan bus terminal. Speaking at a press conference in Trenton on Monday, New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney and several other Democrats said their New York peers are “playing games,” Politico reported. They are now urging commissioners from New Jersey to block the adoption of the … [more]

Airbnb’s got $3 billion burning a hole in its pocket. The home-sharing site is considering various acquisitions and partnerships to broaden its horizons to include flight booking, itinerary planning and vacation-home managing, Bloomberg reported. Since 2008, the company has raised $3.1 billion capital — most of which it still has — and now appears poised to start investing it in alternative revenue sources. “Airbnb has dominated in the urban-rental market but still has lots of … [more]

Residents at co-op complexes in the Bronx and in the Rockaways have accused the Briarwood Organization of shoddy construction — but they are finding that pursuing those claims is an uphill battle. The residents at the Solara Cooperative in the Bronx and Waters Edge at Arverne in the Rockaways claim that their homes suffered water damage due to improperly installed roofs, windows and doors, Crain’s reported. The Queens-based affordable developer, however, maintains that the projects … [more]

The Hospital for Special Surgery is planning to move into the Durst Organization’s newest rental building on the Far West Side. The hospital is taking 65,000 square feet at Frank 57 West, one of Durst’s three residential buildings on a block bounded by West 57th and 58th streets and 11th and 12th avenues, the New York Post reported. The 68-unit building, named for Helena Durst’s son, also has retail and community space. The hospital, which … [more]

January was the first complete month since new risk-retention laws for CMBS loans went into effect, and despite earlier concerns, CMBS activity remained steady. In January, there was a total of $61.8 billion on the New York CMBS market, down 1 percent from $62.4 billion in December, and the delinquency rate fell from .79 percent to .76 percent, according to data from Trepp. A total of $810 million in newly issued CMBS loans backed by … [more]

From the February issue:  Airbnb, the home-sharing site valued at $30 billion, has managed an impressive feat in New York: staying in business despite opposition from not only real estate and hotel groups, but also labor groups and both Republicans and Democrats. Over the past year, hardly a week went by without headlines on the company’s high-stakes battle against lawmakers and interest groups. In December, Airbnb seemed to finally be conceding defeat when it withdrew … [more]

During a heated press conference right before the inauguration, then President-elect Trump said he was stepping away from his sprawling business empire through a trust agreement with his two adult sons and a longtime company executive, Allen Weisselberg. But documents recently obtained by ProPublica showed that only Donald Jr. and Weisselberg were named trustees. Trump’s younger son, Eric was named chairman of the advisory board that’s supposed to work with the trust. And though both … [more]

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Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that he will beef up his affordable housing agenda by adding more than 15,000 units for seniors, veterans and low-income tenants. The mayor said the city would add 10,000 more apartment units for tenants who make up to $40,000 per year, 5,000 more apartments for senior citizens and another 500 for veterans. De Blasio announced the increase during his fourth State of the City address at the Apollo Theater … [more]