The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

A former executive of a startup created by a group of SHoP Architects employees claims she was fired after complaining about repeated sexual harassment from one of the company’s founders and a pay disparity between herself and a male colleague. Heidi Werner recently filed a lawsuit against SHoP, Envelope City — a company launched by SHoP employees that provides 3D maps of development and zoning scenarios — as well as Envelope’s co-founder Todd Sigaty and […]

A real estate data provider appears to have bought two luxury condominium buildings that once belonged to convicted fraudster Michael D’Alessio. In February, Preferred Bank acquired the buildings — 184 East 64th Street and 227 East 67th Street — at bankruptcy auction for $17.5 million and $15 million, respectively. The lender initiated foreclosure proceedings on the properties last year. The bank turned around and sold the Upper East Side properties for a total of just […]

A construction laborer claims that after a co-worker choked her on a Manhattan job site, her supervisor told her she’d have to “squash the beef” with her attacker. Jaleesa McCrimmon says she was taken off multiple Trade Off-controlled job sites after complaining about physical assault and repeated sexual harassment over the course of more than a year, according to a lawsuit she filed against the Long Island-based construction company, its owner Ronald Lattanzio and an affiliate […]

Next week brings a couple of new real estate events! On April 16, Bisnow is holding its Multifamily Annual Conference for the Tri-State area at the Manhattan Center, 311 West 34th Street from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. This event will offer network opportunities and will feature discussions what’s currently shaping the outlook of the tri-state area’s multifamily space. Speakers include Miki Naftali of Naftali Group and Ralph Herzka of Meridian Capital Group. On April […]

CIM Group has picked up a luxury rental tower on the Upper East Side. Well, most of it at least. The Los Angeles-based investment firm paid $200 million for the residential portion of the property at 165 East 66th Street at the corner of Third Avenue, according to city property records filed Friday. The company shelled out another $10 million for the garage portion of the building, while the seller, Miami-based developer Crescent Heights, retains […]

Have we arrived at one of those rare Goldilocks moments in real estate, where the market works well for sellers and buyers, strongly favoring neither? Maybe. Based on the latest national consumer-sentiment survey by mortgage investor Fannie Mae, American consumers appear to think so. They’re more positive about the overall direction of the housing market than they’ve been in nearly a year. Growing numbers think it’s a good time to sell and a good time […]

UPDATED, 4:28 p.m. April 12: The New Museum of Contemporary Art wants to add a new seven-story building to its campus. The museum filed plans on Friday with the Department of Buildings to construct the building directly adjacent to its current property at 235 Bowery on the Lower East Side, adding about 40,000 square feet of space to the institution. The total cost of the project would be about $37.9 million. The museum was founded […]

A Lake Forest developer is facing federal charges of bribing Alderman Ed Burke (14th) as the investigation into City Hall corruption widens. Prosecutors said Charles Cui steered work to Burke’s private property tax appeal law firm in exchange for the alderman’s help with a city sign permit and a tax increment financing deal, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Cui’s firm was developing the Six Corners retail complex in the 4900 block of West Irving Park […]

New York City is no longer the most expensive place in the world to build, according to a new report. San Francisco has usurped the New York market with an average building cost of $417 per square foot, according Turner & Townsend’s latest International Construction Market Survey. Those costs are expected to increase 6 percent in the next year. In New York, the average building cost was $368 per square foot, up slightly from last […]

A former luxury real estate developer in Los Angeles was arrested on federal charges, accused of deceiving thousands of investors in a Ponzi scheme worth $1.3 billion. The charges against Robert Shapiro, who ran Woodbridge Group of Companies, came Thursday, despite his November settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over similar charges in which he agreed to pay the government $120 million. Shapiro and two former directors of investment at his company— Dane Roseman […]

From negotiating with buyers to tidying up their client’s listings, there are a few sentiments real estate agents share across the board. The Corcoran Group’s Sarah Fearon brought together her two specialities, real estate and comedy, to encapsulate a day in the life of a real estate agent in parody form. Aside from selling properties for her clients in Manhattan, Fearon is an actress, comedian and playwright. Her one-woman show, “2B” — which is debuting […]

Another ground-up office building is coming to Chelsea. Michael Kirchmann and Alan Rudikoff’s GDS Development plans to construct a 12-story, 164-foot-tall project at 322 Seventh Avenue, at the corner of 28th Street and across the street from the Fashion Institute of Technology, YIMBY reported. Architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill is designing GDSNY’s project, which will span 105,000 square feet, according to YIMBY. The firm last summer bought a pair of structures at the site, […]

South Florida’s condo king is so enamored with the Opportunity Zone program that he is looking to use it to build market-rate apartments in West Palm Beach. Related Group’s Chairman and CEO Jorge Perez said he plans to use the Opportunity Zones tax break for a waterfront parcel in the city, according to Bloomberg. Perez said market-rate apartments makes more sense now that it is in an Opportunity Zone. The Related project was not specifically […]

As Washington debates the controversial Green New Deal, New York City is forging ahead with its own measures in a bid to curb climate change. The city council will announce Thursday a batch of proposed legislation, dubbed the Climate Mobilization Act, that aim to curb carbon emissions in the country’s largest metropolis and would force landlords to cut emissions by 40 percent by 2030, according to HuffPost. The most drastic measure would require landlords with […]

It’s not just drivers from the suburbs that will be smarting from the new congestion pricing plan for Manhattan. Parking garage owners in the prime office districts will also be hit hard. While the number of parking garages has increased across Manhattan, the number in Midtown and Downtown have dropped 25 percent in the past decade to 330 lots, according to The Wall Street Journal. Congestion fees are expected to be introduced in 2021, which […]

SoftBank Group has again waved its magic wand and led a $300 million funding round for a home insurance startup. Lemonade, a New York-based firm has now raised $480 million, in rounds backed by SoftBank, according to Tech Crunch. The Series D funding round was also backed by Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital, GV, Allianz and General Catalyst. Forbes reported that the valuation of the fintech firm is now over $2 billion. Launched in 2015 by […]

Report finds house flips returning to pre-financial crisis levels House flipping is still almost as prevalent as it was before the 2008 financial crisis, but it’s not the harbinger of doom it was then, the Wall Street Journal reported. Housing analytics firm CoreLogic found that 10.6 percent of U.S. home sales during the fourth quarter of 2018 were flips, a percentage not far from an 11.3 percent house flip rate in 2006. But house flippers […]

Abraham Fruchthandler bought a pair of multifamily buildings in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx for $88 million. The two buildings, which are completely free-market and sit on one tax lot, represent the largest single-asset sale in the Bronx in more than six years. Fruchthandler’s FBE Limited bought the 10-story, 1970s-era buildings at 2001-2045 Story Avenue from the Related Fund Management, the asset-management arm of the Related Companies, sources told The Real Deal. The […]

Hudson Yards office rents rise as development debuts As the Related Companies’ sparkling new towers rise along Manhattan’s West Side, prices are escalating just as quickly. Despite its varied state of completion, the 8.9 million-square-foot office portion of the $25 billion Hudson Yards megaproject is roughly 82 percent leased, Related said. That evolution has helped office rents in the area climb 40 percent, according to research from CBRE Group. Jay Cross, president of Related Hudson […]

After billionaire Robert Smith’s $59 million deal at the Getty set a record for Downtown Manhattan sales last year, the project’s developers upped prices. “We’re getting good interest,” said Tamir Shemesh, the Douglas Elliman broker marketing the boutique condo project. “But we’re not selling yet because the prices are catered toward a very, very exclusive buyer.” The Victor Group and Michael Shvo project — a seven-unit luxury building in West Chelsea — saw two more […]