The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Westchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: Westport medical center sold for $19M, Putnam County private island hits market for $13M… & more

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 03:15 PM PST

Arizona-based REIT pays $18.75M for Westport Center for Health A 38,000-square-foot medical complex in Westport has been sold to Healthcare Trust of America, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based real estate investment trust, the Fairfield County Business Journal reported. The Westport Center for Health at 323-329 Riverside Avenue, home to Yale New Haven Health’s Northeast Medical Group, fetched $18.85 million in a sale arranged by Newmark Knight Frank’s Boston-based capital markets team. The complex, which had been owned […]

Ex-Compass agent claims her former team conspired to cut her out of deals

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 03:00 PM PST

Agent churn and broker poaching are commonplace in real estate. But one former Compass agent is suing the brokerage over more conspiratorial allegations. Jill Schwartz filed a lawsuit against Compass and three former team members, accusing them of breaking agreements and stealing her listings. Schwartz, team leader of the Jill Schwartz Group in the Washington D.C. area, also alleged that Compass failed to support her by keeping the team members and by not helping her […]

Hamptons builder Joe Farrell lands $65M to finance a Long Island rental project

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 02:40 PM PST

Prolific Hamptons builder Joe Farrell has snagged financing for a luxury rental project on Long Island, and a prominent Manhattan developer was one of the lenders. Farrell Communities, part of the Farrell Organization, closed on a $65 million loan for a project at 300 Carleton Avenue in Central Islip. The financing was provided by Webster Bank and developer RXR Realty, the company said. Farrell is planning a 268-unit rental building on a 30-acre site. If […]

Female hardhats breaking barriers

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 02:00 PM PST

Tierra Williams quickly discovered construction sites aren’t always welcoming places for women. Williams joined Trade Off, a Nassau County-based construction management firm, in 2015 after a year of unemployment. But last year she became pregnant, and her request for light duty, according to Williams, was denied. Trade Off, like many other construction firms, didn’t offer paid leave for pregnant trade workers. So Williams took a break from work and returned after a month — in […]

Cayre Equities nabs a Crown Heights warehouse it’s been eyeing since 2012

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 01:30 PM PST

In a city brimming with self-storage development, another warehouse conversion is underway in Brooklyn. Cayre Equities plans to convert a 92,000-square-foot building in Crown Heights into a Treasure Island Storage facility with 1,600 units, the firm said. (Cayre owns and operates the regional storage developer.) The private real estate firm paid $23.5 million for the property, said Treasure Island’s President James Coakley. Cayre paid in cash, and the construction budget is about $5 million. Marcus […]

Hirschfeld finds a buyer for Marquand investment penthouse

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 01:00 PM PST

Elie Hirschfeld’s firm is selling the “investment” penthouse it bought at the Marquand. While the last listing price of the six-bedroom triplex pad before going into contract was $36 million, Karl Griggs, executive vice president at Hirschfeld Properties, said the company didn’t sell everything they owned in the building and the price doesn’t represent a loss. “We had an offer and it made sense to sell,” Griggs said. “We didn’t sell the entire package.” Hischfeld […]

Google to invest $13B in real estate across the US

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 12:15 PM PST

OK, Google. Tell me about the multibillion-dollar real estate investment you’re making this year. The tech giant announced on Wednesday that it plans to spend more than $13 billion in data centers and offices across the U.S., including major expansions in 14 states. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post that the new data centers and offices will create more than 10,000 new construction jobs in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina […]

Blackstone buys LaGuardia warehouse for $56M with financing from Nuveen

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 11:00 AM PST

The Blackstone Group continues to up its industrial game at a time when logistics properties remain hot commodities. The private equity firm picked up a two-story industrial building at 83-15 24th Avenue near LaGuardia Airport in Queens for $55.5 million, according to public records filed Wednesday with the New York City Department of Finance. The seller was Steel Equities, which had bought the building in 2010 for $22.7 million. FedEx Ground is a tenant. Nuveen, […]

Mortgage servicing demand jumps across US amid housing slowdown

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 10:30 AM PST

Amid the recent nationwide housing market slowdown, there has been a jump in demand for servicing mortgage payments. Mortgage servicers — the first to deal with troubled mortgages — were very profitable after the last recession, but struggled as the housing market improved. Now, things are beginning to shift again. Sales of mortgage servicing rights tallied $600 billion in loans backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, according to the Wall Street Journal. […]

Darcy Stacom poaches one of Eastdil Secured’s up-and-coming brokers

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 10:00 AM PST

Eastdil Secured has lost another one of its dealmakers as the company’s executives are reportedly working on a management-backed buyout of the brokerage from parent company Wells Fargo. Doug Middleton is leaving the company for the competing investment-sales team led by Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan at CBRE, Bloomberg reported. Middleton, 34, will join the firm Tuesday. “This widens our ability to really go after anything from the $50 million to the $5 billion,” Stacom […]

Prospect of legalizing weed in Illinois has developers, landlords seeing green

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 09:30 AM PST

After Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana in 2014, Deena Zimmerman traveled to Colorado to learn how the marijuana industry was intersecting with the real estate market. The vice president at commercial brokerage SVN visited a town on the outskirts of the Denver metro area, a once-rundown place “where the tumbleweeds were rolling,” she said. “Now it’s thriving,” Zimmerman said. “There’s cool apartments, cool retail. But cannabis came first.” Gov. J.B. Pritzker already signaled his strong support […]

Lightstone Group makes yet another play in the Bronx

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 09:00 AM PST

The Lightstone Group is showing increased confidence in the Bronx residential market. The firm, led by David Lichtenstein, signed a 50-year lease to take control of 475 Exterior Street on the banks of the Harlem River, with the option to extend the lease for 49 years, according to the New York Post. The site also falls within an opportunity zone, but it is unclear if the developers could benefit from the tax deferment, as it […]

Save the date: The Real Deal’s annual NYC Showcase and Forum is on May 15

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 08:30 AM PST

Meet and mix with the real estate industry’s key power players—including financiers, developers and brokers—at The Real Deal’s 12th annual Showcase and Forum, being held at The Metropolitan Pavilion on May 15th. More than 4,500 attendees gather for this exclusive one-day event that give businesses a prime opportunity to connect with key decision makers, those who have a direct impact on their company’s growth. This year’s schedule of events includes how residential real estate can […]

Sears, sort of: Here’s what the retailer is planning post-bankruptcy

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 08:00 AM PST

In the age of Amazon and dying retailers, Sears has emerged from bankruptcy with a new survival plan: smaller stores, fewer clothes and aisles full of tools and appliances. Edward Lampert, whose firm ESL Investments successfully bid $5.2 billion for the retailer’s assets last month, said the new company will sell or sublease some of the 425 stores. Though Lampert, who was responsible for Sears declaring bankruptcy last year, told the Wall Street Journal he’d […]

Local pol claims white residents are being followed by city’s Airbnb enforcers

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 07:30 AM PST

White residents are being targeted walking home by the city’s Airbnb enforcers in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a state assembly member claimed this week. The city’s Office of Special Enforcement has in recent months ramped up its efforts to close illegal Airbnb rentals across the city, after intense lobbying by the hotel industry and affordable housing advocates. During a budget hearing in Albany on Monday, Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright alleged that members of the city agency had followed and […]

Women’s clothing company relocates to Chetrit and Moinian’s 500 Seventh Avenue

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 07:00 AM PST

A women’s and children’s apparel company has signed a 60,000-square-foot lease at 500 Seventh Avenue. Golden Touch Imports will take the sixth and seventh floors of the 17-story building, according to the New York Post. The firm will move from its current location at 1410 Broadway. The building has previously been fought over by its land owner Solil Management, and the building owner, Joseph Chetrit’s Chetrit Group, over non-payment to contractors and elevator violations issued […]

Kenny Liu plans resi tower at former Catholic Church site in Queens

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 06:30 AM PST

Another development is slated for Queens’ Rego Park neighborhood. Developer Kenny Liu filed plans this week for a 177,000-square-foot tower at 98-04 63rd Road in Rego Park, according to PincusCo. Liu’s company, Chuang Heng Rego Park LLC, closed on the property last week for $30 million. It was sold by the Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Angelus. CBRE’s Dan Kaplan and Tim Sheehan brokered the sale on behalf of the church. The site is […]

Michael Shvo-led partnership picks up South Beach hotel from Tommy Hilfiger group

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 06:00 AM PST

Tommy Hilfiger and Dogus Group sold the Raleigh Hotel in Miami Beach to a partnership led by New York developer Michael Shvo for $103 million. The deal breaks down to about $1.24 million a key, one of the most expensive hotel sales on a per-room basis in Miami-Dade County. Shvo, Bilgili Group and Deutsche Finance Group acquired the 83-room Art Deco hotel at 1775 Collins Avenue, according to a release. The Raleigh had been closed […]

Here’s what the $10M to $20M NYC i-sales market looked like last week

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 05:30 AM PST

In the world of New York City’s mid-market investment sales last week, an office building sold for $11 million and Jeff Sutton picked up a commercial site in the Bronx. Here is a closer look at some of the deals that were recorded with the New York City Department of Finance last week. 1.) In Murray Hill, a three-story office building that was the headquarters of Carlin America Inc. traded for $11 million. The music […]

These megaprojects are reshaping skylines and communities across the US

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 05:00 AM PST

What’s driving big — really big — development across the U.S.? While there remains no single reason, massive projects are transforming skylines and communities in dozens of cities. The Real Deal takes a look six of the biggest projects rising around the country, in places not named New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Miami. In Austin, Texas, which has been home to one of the hottest housing markets, Constructive Ventures, Aspen Heights Partners and CIM […]

Opportunity Zones overload: Why an excess of players are trying to get in on the action

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 04:30 AM PST

It was a telling moment for those fixated on Opportunity Zones. “Who the hell is EJF and their expertise as it relates to real estate?” Anthony Scaramucci asked on a December conference call to promote his $3 billion Opportunity Zone fund. The rhetorical question seemed to be an attempt to reassure potential investors that EJF Capital would be a qualified partner for Scaramucci’s firm, SkyBridge Capital. But the former White House communications director’s swagger wasn’t […]

City Council could take a hatchet to the rental broker fee

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 04:00 AM PST

A new City Council bill slated to be introduced Wednesday would cut residential broker fees nearly in half. The proposed legislation, whose prime sponsor is Manhattan Council member Keith Powers, seeks to cap fees at one month’s rent. Brokers often charge 15 percent of annual rent for their services. This bill would slash that to roughly 8.3 percent. “The bill addresses the outsized costs associated with finding an apartment in New York City, which particularly […]