The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

A grand jury indicted 11 people and two Queens-based companies on Wednesday on allegations they tricked homeowners into signing away their properties. Police arrested nine people and are looking to bring two others into custody, Gothamist reported. Authorities said the accused stole houses from at least 10 people in a series of deed thefts, according to the website. Yisroel Services Corp., along with Kings Development Group were charged. Michael Herskowitz, Yariv Katz, Yisroel Steinberg and … [more]

Midtown East may have a darker future if the district is rezoned. The rezoning proposal, which is currently making its way through the land-use review process, relaxes rules that require buildings to gradually reduce in size as they rise, Crain’s reported. Under the rezoning, developers won’t have to adhere to the Waldram diagram, a design formula used to calculate how a building must taper. The formula is only required for buildings in Midtown, though developers … [more]

From the March issue: Alec Baldwin — aka the “Saturday Night Live” alter-ego of President Donald Trump — recently backed out of a deal to buy a $16 million apartment at 212 Fifth Avenue, a source told The Real Deal. Last month, TRD broke the news that Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, had ponied up just over $40 million for the priciest condo at Greenwich Lane, the Rudin family and Global Holdings’ condo conversion in … [more]

Brooklyn landlord Haim Nortman is planning to construct a 94,540-square-foot residential building on West 125th Street in Harlem, according to a permit application filed with the city’s Department of Buildings on Thursday. The 12-story, mixed-used building at 362 West 125th Street would feature 71 apartments across just over 73,000 square feet. There are also plans for 21,500 square feet of commercial space across the first two floors. Issac & Stern is the architect of record. … [more]

Today, consumers of data have never had such a rich assortment from which to pick, nor a harder time distinguishing fact from fabrication. The 12th-anniversary edition of The Real Deal‘s Data Book is our effort to bring readers the salient facts of the New York City real estate market at a time when the industry is at a critical juncture. Click here to purchase the 2017 Data Book The new edition, our biggest yet, explores both … [more]

The number of ultra-high net worth individuals — those with assets of $30 million or more who’ve got the funds to purchase the world’s most desirable properties — jumped 42 percent over the past decade to 193,000 worldwide, according to a new Wealth Report from Knight Frank. New York City is home to more than 6,500 of these individuals, more than any other city in the world, the report shows, and the city is poised … [more]

Park Tower Group locked down $160 million to refinance its office building on Madison Avenue in Midtown’s Plaza District. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance provided the loan, according to records filed with the city Thursday. The financing consolidates a new $30 million mortgage and the $130 million unpaid balance on a $95 million loan issued by the lender in 2007. The 36-story office building at 535 Madison Avenue spans about 444,300 square feet. China Merchants Bank’s New … [more]

After more than three years of controversy-fueled delays, developer Peter Fine still can’t finalize his $13 million purchase of a Lower East Side synagogue. Fine filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court on Thursday imploring the court to approve the deal, which has been held up by objections from the synagogue’s members, court orders and a related federal investigation. Virtually every facet of this sale is a point of contention, especially how proceeds of the … [more]

Arnold Penner bought Ukrainian-born billionaire Alexander Rovt’s Versailles-inspired townhouse on the Upper East Side for $18.5 million. Penner, a director at United Capital Corporation and Philips International who also owns a stake in Terra Holdings, paid about $1,540 per square foot for the six-story townhouse at 232 East 63rd Street, property records show. Rovt, who made his fortune in the fertilizer business in the former Soviet Union before pouring his money into real estate, bought … [more]

From Luxury Listings NYC: Big-deal record producer Clive Davis is bidding farewell to his swanky Park Avenue co-op and he’s asking $7.8 million for it. The three bedroom spread at 465 Park Avenue stared life as two units, which Davis bought in 2015 for a combined total of $3.4 million. [more] … [more]

One of the few Democrats to challenge Mayor Bill de Blasio’s re-election campaign had decided to end his bid and join Paul Massey’s camp. Josh Thompson, a 31-year-old disciple of New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker, is joining Massey’s campaign as director of policy and outreach, focusing on education and homelessness, the Wall Street Journal reported. “This election has nothing to do with party politics,” Thompson said in a phone interview with the newspaper. Massey, … [more]

Carmelo Milio’s Trion Real Estate Management is looking to sell a five-building Upper Manhattan multifamily portfolio, sources told The Real Deal. The 126,000-square-foot package holds 111 rental units and 17 retail spaces. Sources familiar with the buildings estimated they would fetch as much as $80 million, on par with a low-4 cap rate. Trion has not owned them for long. The Yonkers-based investment firm bought the buildings in two separate deals in 2015 and 2016, … [more]

Does a phone call constitute a binding sales agreement? Music mogul Len Blavatnik thinks so, but a New York judge begs to differ and tossed his lawsuit over an Upper East Side townhouse deal. Blavatnik sued art heir David Wildenstein, claiming he reneged on a verbal promise to sell him his family’s Upper East Side 20,500-square-foot townhouse at 19 East 64th Street for $79 million.  The property sold to another bidder for $81 million. “Your … [more]

The Senate voted Thursday morning to confirm Dr. Ben Carson as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, more than a month-and-a-half after his January confirmation hearing. The final roll call was 58 for and 41 against. The vote followed a motion to invoke cloture on Carson’s nomination that passed on Wednesday, a move which New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with most other Democrats, voted against. Not every Democrat who originally voted to … [more]

Terence Winter, creator of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” and writer of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and his wife listed their West 70th Street condominium unit for $1.3 million, or roughly $1,850 per square foot. The eighth-floor apartment at 104 West 70th Street spans 700 square feet, the New York Post reported. It features a windowed chef’s kitchen, crown moldings, hardwood floors and solid oak doors. The Winters paid $1.1 million for the apartment in 2014, … [more]

London home prices are falling in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and a new tax on property sales. The share of sellers who slashed asking priced rose in 31 of the city’s 33 boroughs between July and January, according to data by listings site Zoopla. In the luxury enclave of Kensington and Chelsea, the average price cut in January was 8.2 percent. “Over the past two years some agents have … [more]

A neighborhood community group is suing the developer behind a planned 11-story residential building on West 16th street, claiming its plans may violate city codes and could have been improperly approved. Einhorn Development Group is planning to build an 14-unit condominium building at 124 West 16th Street, DNAinfo reported. The building is next door the French Evangelical Church, which sold its air rights to the developer in 2014. But a community group called “Save 16th … [more]

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn agreed to sell the shuttered Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City to an investor group led by Hard Rock for an undisclosed price. Hard Rock said the group plans to spend $300 million on the acquisition and renovation of the property. “After considerable analysis and deliberation we determined that we only wanted to own one operating casino property in Atlantic City,” Icahn told the Wall Street Journal. He is … [more]

Extell Development sold the first 100 condo units at its Lower East Side tower One Manhattan Square for a combined $190 million, according to filings with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Sales at the tower — which has a projected sellout of $1.9 billion — officially launched in November, but Extell had reportedly been marketing the tower to Asian buyers for months prior. Gary Barnett’s firm is targeting mid-market buyers, with one-bedroom apartments priced around $1.2 … [more]

Douglas Elliman sold $24.6 billion worth of real estate nationwide in 2016 — a 9.8 percent year-over-year jump, as the pricey contracts signed during the market’s peak turned into closings. In New York City, the residential firm turned out higher revenue after closing fewer — but pricier — deals, parent company Vector Group reported Wednesday. Elliman closed 6,812 sales worth $14 billion in New York in 2016, compared to 7,119 deals worth $12.7 billion in … [more]

From the March issue: It was the spring of 2015, and New York City developers were madly rushing to get their residential projects approved before the popular 421a tax abatement program expired. But in the midst of the frenzy, the city’s development world hit an unexpected snag: A government employee went on vacation. [more] … [more]

Larry Friedman and Frank Sanchez left embattled New York City brokerage Bellmarc Realty over two years ago, but they haven’t exactly left distressed real estate. The partners — who joined Neil Binder’s company in 2012 as principals — are buying, renovating and selling rundown homes in the Hudson Valley. After leaving Bellmarc in 2014, Friedman and Sanchez did a couple of flips on their own before raising “several million” dollars from private investors, Friedman told … [more]

Current reader favorites: 1. Zillow made 71% of revenue through controversial premier agent feature 2. The Long View: The Starwoodification of real estate 3. Charlie Kushner’s redemption 4. Related makes $80M stock buy in Trump Organization’s second-largest lender 5. Lack of 421a leads to bonafide changes at Essex Crossing … [more]