The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Long Island Cheat Sheet: $1.2B Belmont Park project faces further review, small property near Wyandanch Rising seeks surprising sum… & more

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 03:00 PM PDT

Nassau seeks further review of Belmont Park project impact Nassau County officials want New York State’s Empire State Development Corporation (ESD) to further investigate the potential impacts of the $1.18 billion Belmont Park arena project, Long Island Business News reported. County officials made the request in a 13-page letter to ESD’s president and CEO Howard Zemsky that also pointed out deficiencies and omissions in the project’s draft environmental impact statement. ESD is overseeing the 43-acre […]

Cuomo heads back to Long Island to push for a property tax cap

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 02:30 PM PDT

Gov. Andrew Cuomo headed to Long Island to once more make his case for a permanent cap on property taxes. The governor spoke to state lawmakers in New Hyde Park, accompanied by state and local lawmakers including Nassau and Suffolk executives Laura Curran and Steve Bellone, State Sen. Anna Kaplan and Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen. It’s the third time in two weeks the governor has visited Long Island for the cause, Newsday reported. “This […]

Kazakh bank says Sater considered laundering money into Trump Tower Moscow

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 02:08 PM PDT

A new lawsuit filed by Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank alleges Trump Soho developer Felix Sater planned to invest stolen money into a Trump Organization development in Moscow, the same planned tower said to have been examined by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his Russian election interference investigation. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, comes as Sater is scheduled to testify before Congress on Wednesday on matters related to the Trump Organization and its business activities […]

Here’s what the $20M-$30M NYC investment sales market looked like last week

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 01:30 PM PDT

In New York City’s investment sales market, the City University of New York recently bought a student dormitory for roughly $21 million and Tishman Speyer quietly added on to one of its development sites in Midtown. Here were the trades in the $20 million to $30 million range that hit public records last week. 1.) The City University of New York bought seven commercial units at 334 East 79th Street that currently house student dormitories […]

Clocking in: Justworks eyeing large relocation Downtown

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 01:00 PM PDT

HR tech firm Justworks is moving downtown. The startup, which provides administrative- and benefits-services to employers, is in talks to take about 275,000 square feet at 55 Water Street, Crain’s reported. The firm will be relocating from RXR Realty and the Blackstone Group’s Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, where it subleases 60,000 square feet from Tommy Hilfiger. The move is set to give Justworks more than four times as much office space as it currently occupies. […]

HK Org, Brickman look to sell Clinton Hill apartment building near the Navy Yard

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 12:30 PM PDT

The brand new Dock72 building at the Brooklyn Navy Yard is set to open this summer, bringing with it a slice of the 10,000 jobs the former ship yard is expected to add by next year. Now, the owners of a former Tootsie Roll factory turned loft-apartment building nearby are looking to cash in on what they think will be a wave of demand from Navy Yard workers. The HK Organization and Brickman Real Estate […]

Robert Durst faces another lawsuit over the disappearance of his first wife

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 12:00 PM PDT

Robert Durst killed his first wife and used his family to cover it up, a new Manhattan lawsuit alleges. The wrongful death complaint says that Durst’s wife Kathie sought to expose illegal business the family’s real estate company had been involved with. That led Seymour Durst, his wealthy father, to warn that his son’s wife “was a threat to the family’s business and directed Durst to take care of this problem,” the New York Post […]

Sweet green: Medmen scores $250M investment for cannabis retail buildout

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 11:30 AM PDT

More green is pouring into the coffers of rapidly-growing cannabis operator MedMen Enterprises. The Culver City-based company just got a $250 million investment from Gotham Green Partners, which MedMen intends to use to help fund its national retail expansion. The news was announced in a release, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. The big investment involves an initial $100 million loan secured by MedMen’s stock, which listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange in mid-2018. […]

Analysis: New York is one of the worst states for getting info on broker violations

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 11:00 AM PDT

New York State has a remarkably unwieldy system for recording disciplinary actions against real estate brokers, with low usability and confusing organization. But how much better are other states doing? The answer, it turns out, is a lot. In an analysis of equivalent public disclosure systems in six U.S. states with major real estate markets – California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois – the New York Department of State’s “Decision and Consent […]

Send the date: Share your real estate events with The Real Deal

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 10:15 AM PDT

Each week, The Real Deal provides a roundup of the top real estate events in New York you need to know for the week ahead. Send conferences, panel events, networking opportunities and more to events@TheRealDeal.com. To search for future industry events or browse past ones, click here.

FHA tightens belt on risky loans to first-time homebuyers

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 09:30 AM PDT

The Federal Housing Administration is worried it is making too many risky loans to first-time homeowners. As a result, the agency is now planning to tighten underwriting standards for these loans, and flagging more of those as “high-risk”, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move marks a sharp turn from previous years when the FHA sought to loosen its lending standards to increase the availability of mortgages to first-time home buyers. The initiative, however, […]

Manhattan luxury market takes hit with 19% decline in contracts in Q1: Olshan

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 09:00 AM PDT

The forecast for Manhattan’s luxury residential market continues to be bleak, as year-to-date sales declined for the third consecutive first quarter. There were 27 contracts above $4 million signed last week – valued at $199.5 million – according to the latest luxury market report from Olshan Realty. The new deals brought the total luxury sales for 2019 to 229. This figure is a 19 percent decline in comparison to the same period in 2018, when […]

Linda Macklowe can hold on to her $700M art collection — at least for now

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 08:30 AM PDT

The Macklowes’ bitter divorce proceedings aren’t over yet. New York’s Appellate Division has granted Linda Macklowe’s motion to stay the court ruling that required her to sell her art collection as part of her divorce with billionaire developer Harry Macklowe. The artwork is estimated to be worth $700 million, but Linda and Harry were unable to agree on the figure during their divorce trial. The court also denied her ex-husband Harry’s request to make any […]

Brooklyn’s luxury market saw 16 contracts signed last week: Stribling

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 07:30 AM PDT

There were 16 contracts signed in Brooklyn’s luxury market last week for a total of about $45.6 million. The properties were split between 11 condos and five townhouses, and they went for an average price of about $2.8 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. Contract volume squeaked up from the week before, increasing from 15 […]

Cracking the bro code: The Alexanders are basking in success–but is it entirely theirs?

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 07:05 AM PDT

Walk into Oren Alexander’s home in Miami Beach and it feels like you’re at one of his listings. A manager greets guests, buzzing them through to the porte-cochère, and ushers them into the lavish Mediterranean-style waterfront property on Flamingo Drive. Oren, sporting a beige jacket and pants, a white T-shirt and sneakers, walks in, grabbing an espresso prepared for him. He heads to a living area overlooking the pool, sitting down next to a wooden […]

NYPD renews Bronx warehouse lease for narcotics and auto-crime divisions

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 06:31 AM PDT

The New York City Police Department will hold onto a massive facility in the Bronx used by its narcotics and auto-crime divisions for evidence storage. The city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which handles deals for the police department, signed a 20-year lease renewal at 500 Abbot Street in Wakefield, according to Commercial Observer. The contract with landlord Sound Distributing Corp. is reportedly valued at $2.2 million, or about $18 a square foot, for the […]

BlackRock makes billion-dollar bet on real estate analytics

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 06:05 AM PDT

In an attempt to further diversify its products, BlackRock is pushing further into the tech sector with the $1.3 billion acquisition of a real estate analytics firm. The firm will wholly acquire French company eFront, which offers real estate investors and private equity firms analytics on their portfolio’s performance, and provides guidance on adhering to accounting and regulatory obligations, according to Bloomberg. As the world’s largest asset manager with $6 trillion under management, BlackRock is […]

Tishman Speyer’s park gift will give developer air rights for tower

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 05:38 AM PDT

Tishman Speyer quietly bought a run down auto-shop last week, and plans to build an elaborate park on the city’s Far West Side. In return, the city awarded the developer unspecified air rights for a planned office tower that is slated to be built on the same block, next to the Jacob Javits Center on 11th Avenue, according to the New York Post. Tishman Speyer, led by Rob Speyer, paid $20.14 million for the park […]

Why high-end home auctions in South Florida are the next big thing

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 05:00 AM PDT

Imagine a red carpet leading to a waterfront South Florida estate where refreshments are served as deep-pocketed investors mingle, ready to raise their paddles in a heated competition to spend millions of dollars for a mansion. That is an increasingly frequent scene playing out on local shores. Auctions of luxury homes are growing in popularity, as sellers opt for the certainty of a fixed sale date that comes with putting a home on the block. […]

MAP: These architecture firms are designing NYC’s skyline

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:30 AM PDT

Want to keep up with projects being completed in New York City? Check out The Real Deal’s interactive architecture map, which tracks projects that have received an initial temporary certificate of occupancy in 2018. These buildings, in other words, are ready to be lived in.

Behind the broker churn: Lead-gen firms march on, while mom-&-pops fight for survival

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:00 AM PDT

In early March, John Reinhardt was poring over agent retention data at his firm. Only three years ago, his brokerage Fillmore Real Estate was the second biggest in Brooklyn. But over the course of 2018, Fillmore had lost almost 100 agents and hired just 43, leaving the firm down an overall 23 percent. “The agents that are leaving are agents that are requesting 80 to 90 percent splits. For us, in a traditional model, we […]