The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Long Island Cheat Sheet: Hauppauge office complex sells for $16M, Douglas Elliman sees strong housing market finish to 2018 … & more

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 03:30 PM PST

Hauppauge office complex sells for $16M Valley East Management bought an office complex in Hauppauge made up of two four-story buildings for $16 million, according to Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, which marketed the property. The sellers were KABR and Capstone Realty groups, two real estate investment firms. (Long Island Business News put the sale price at closer to $15 million.) The two buildings, The Towers West at 330 Motor Parkway and The Towers East at 350 […]

Johns Hopkins University to pay $373M for Washington DC’s Newseum

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 03:00 PM PST

The owners of the Newseum in Washington D.C. have agreed to sell the Pennsylvania Avenue building for $372.5 million. The nonprofit group Freedom Forum announced Friday that Johns Hopkins University will buy the building, according to the New York Post. The school will consolidate its Washington-based programs there. The decision to sell the museum — focused on journalism, the history of communication and First Amendment issues — was made after more than a year-long review […]

The Wing to lease entire Second Avenue building

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 02:35 PM PST

Women-focused co-working firm the Wing is moving its corporate headquarters to 137 Second Avenue in the East Village, sources told The Real Deal. The Wing will lease the entire 22,000-square-foot building from a partnership between WeWork investor Joel Schreiber and Jenny Jangana Haim of Continental Equities. Milsmith Real Estate represented the owners in the deal. Matthew Mummert of Milsmith confirmed the lease and said the rent paid was in the high $60s per square foot. […]

Is Chicago’s biggest brokerage scaling up, or selling out?

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 02:30 PM PST

Thad Wong and Michael Golden, the urbane and media-savvy founders of @properties, had plenty to celebrate as the clock ran out on 2018. The firm opened seven new offices last year, extending its dominion from the Fox Valley to southwest Michigan. It nabbed star broker Debora McKay from Coldwell Banker, setting it up to potentially overtake the national giant in 2019 as the Chicago region’s largest brokerage by deal volume. And it managed to prevent […]

Brookfield is building this $2B office tower without a committed tenant

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 02:00 PM PST

Brookfield Properties is moving forward on its $2 billion Hudson Yards office tower without a firm commitment from an office tenant. The developer and its partner the Qatari Investment Authority are betting that tenants will lease up most or all of the spire before 2022, when it is scheduled for completion, according to Crain’s. Brookfield has already had success filling up most of the sister tower 1 Manhattan West that is almost finished, but the […]

Adam America locks in refi of Crown Heights luxury building

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 01:30 PM PST

Adam America Real Estate Group has scored another loan from Deutsche Bank, this time for a 186-unit luxury project in Crown Heights. The developer landed $105 million to refinance its 11-story mixed-use development at 409 Eastern Parkway, on the corner of Bedford Avenue. The new financing, which was brokered by JLL’s Aaron Appel and Keith Kurland, includes a nearly $41 million gap mortgage and replaces debt from Santander Bank, according to public records from the city’s […]

Corey Johnson weighs mayoral run, refuses contributions from developers

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 01:15 PM PST

He’s running. New York City Council speaker Corey Johnson announced Monday morning that he is “thinking about” running for mayor in the 2021 election. The campaign, which Johnson describes as “people-powered,” would reject contributions from real estate developers, lobbyists and corporate political action committees, as well as anyone employed by a developer or lobbyist. Additionally, the campaign will not accept contributions of greater than $250 from any individual. Political contributions from the real estate industry […]

Moving on: Anthony Scaramucci taps new partner for $3B Opportunity Zone fund

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 12:55 PM PST

Well that was fast. Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital has found a new partner for its $3 billion Opportunity Zone fund, less than two weeks after ending its venture with EJF Capital. The Mooch’s hedge fund is bringing on Westport Capital Partners, an investment management company with offices in Connecticut, California, Montana and the United Kingdom, SkyBridge announced Monday. SkyBridge previously partnered with Manny Friedman’s EJF Capital on the project, but the firms split up earlier […]

Tishman Speyer will use some nonunion labor at its Hudson Yards project

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 12:15 PM PST

Like its developer rival the Related Companies, Tishman Speyer won’t be going entirely union for its ambitious Hudson Yards development. With bidding for the Spiral office tower about 75 percent complete, union labor accounts for 95 percent of awarded contracts by value, Politico reported. One of the nonunion contracts is with Top Shelf Electric. The news comes as Related scraps with the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York over its plans to use […]

Here are the week’s top luxury sales

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 11:30 AM PST

Each week, The Real Deal and CityRealty look back at Manhattan’s priciest apartment sales.

Woman rescued after being trapped in billionaire’s UES elevator all weekend

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 10:45 AM PST

A woman who was stuck in an elevator on the Upper East Side since Friday was finally rescued Monday morning. NY1 reports that she sustained non life-threatening injuries. Marites Fortaliza, 53, was cleaning a private townhouse at 48 East 65th Street when she became trapped in the building’s elevator between the second and third floors, WABC reported. The homeowners returned Monday morning and realized the elevator wasn’t working and called the fire department. The FDNY […]

Queens developer lands $75M loan for latest Flushing project

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 10:10 AM PST

Shanghai Commercial has offered up more construction financing for a new development, this time for a mixed-use project in Flushing. The Hong Kong-based lender provided $75 million to an entity managed by developer Philip Chong of HCRE for the development at 144-51 Northern Boulevard, according to mortgage documents recorded Monday with the city’s Department of Finance. The bank did not immediately return a request for comment. Chong could not be reached. The borrowing entity, CW […]

Caterer Great Performances doubling footprint, relocating to South Bronx’s Bruckner Building

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 09:45 AM PST

Catering company Great Performances is moving from Hudson Square to the South Bronx, where it will almost double in size. The company will move to the Bruckner Building at 2417 Third Avenue in Mott Haven over the summer, where it will lease about 41,000 square feet, according to the New York Post. It had just 24,500 square feet in its 304 Hudson Street location. Great Performances is moving in the wake of Disney’s purchase of […]

Brooklyn’s luxury market saw only 5 contracts signed last week

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 09:00 AM PST

There were just five contracts signed in Brooklyn’s luxury market last week for a total of about $14.3 million. The properties were all townhouses, and they went for an average price of roughly $2.9 million, according to the latest report from Stribling & Associates. The firm defines the borough’s luxury market as all homes priced at $2 million or higher. Both numbers were down from the week before, when the market saw 10 contracts signed […]

Amid the Jersey City boom, development site sells for $48M

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 08:15 AM PST

A mixed-use development site in Jersey City just traded for $48 million. The site — the Avenir, located at 1072 and 1075 West Side Avenue — spans 3.35 aces and has 659,000 buildable square feet, according to Meridian Investment Sales. Lantree Developments bought the site from Amerestate Holdings. Meridian’s David Schechtman, Lipa Lieberman, Abie Kassin and Paul Patafio represented the seller and brought the buyer. Meridian’s Morris Betesh and David Hayum also arranged a $26 […]

Manhattan luxury market on track for worst January since 2012: Olshan

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 07:30 AM PST

Manhattan’s luxury market saw 11 contracts signed last week for a total of about $60.6 million, according to the latest report from Olshan Realty. This indicates that the market will likely finish the month with its lowest totals since 2012. The contracts signed at $4 million or above were split between 10 condos and one co-op. The number of contracts dropped by one from the week before, and the dollar volume decreased by about $36.4 […]

NYCHA taps new senior vice president of real estate

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 06:45 AM PST

The New York City Housing Authority has a new senior vice president of real estate, who will head up the agency’s efforts to turn over housing to private property managers. Jonathan Gouveia, who most recently served as a senior vice president at the Economic Development Corp., starts on Monday. Gouveia worked at the EDC for more than a decade, spending the last two years focused on the proposed Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX). He also helped found […]

Here’s why shares of Fannie and Freddie are up 170%

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 06:00 AM PST

The government’s indication that it may privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has sparked a surge in shares and profits for investors in the two mortgage giants. Lawmakers have been trying and failing to overhaul the government-sponsored entities for more than 10 years since the financial crisis. But Trump administration officials have made recent statements indicating they plan to take the companies out of conservatorship soon, sending common shares of the companies up by more […]

Union says Trade Off owes it $100M in double-breasting scheme

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 05:30 AM PST

The Mason Tenders District Council is accusing Long Island-based construction company Trade Off of cheating it out of more than $100 million in payments to its benefit funds. In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the district council alleges that Trade Off and Trade Off Plus are merely alter egos of Exterior Wall Building Consultants, a company that hires the laborer’s union Local 79, the district council’s largest union. This violates EWBC’s agreement with the […]

These are some of the most notable NYC resi sales of the week

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 05:00 AM PST

Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin’s record-shattering buy of a penthouse at 220 Central Park South stole the show this week for residential sales not just in New York City, but across the country. But there were some other memorable deals that popped up in records over the past seven days. Here’s our list. Source: A TRD review of public records filed with the New York City Department of Finance from Jan. 18 to Jan. 24. 1.) […]

Beyond Hudson Yards: A look at the megaprojects shaping cities across the globe

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 04:30 AM PST

As the largest private real estate development in the United States, Hudson Yards is a project every New York development company would dream of having its name on. At 18 million square feet, the Related Companies’ $20 billion development on Manhattan’s Far West Side will be larger than all of downtown San Diego. But it’s not the only megaproject out there. This month, The Real Deal looked at some other major developments across the globe, […]

See it to believe it: Aby Rosen’s 100 East 53rd is banking on fresh momentum

Posted: 28 Jan 2019 04:00 AM PST

For more than three years, Aby Rosen has been trying to sell his new vision of Midtown. Price tags as steep as $5,000 a square foot will grant you access to his modernist condominium building on a block he’s been working to rebrand. But even with hefty discounts and Rosen’s famed art collection, 100 East 53rd Street has been a hard sell. “There was a time when things were slow,” said Compass’ Leonard Steinberg, who’s […]