The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Green Street Advisors, the real estate focused research and analytics firm, has signed an agreement to be acquired by a New York-based private equity firm. The deal brings an end to a months-long search for a buyer. New York-based private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, known as WCAS, said Monday that it had signed a definitive agreement with the firm. No sale price was disclosed. Craig Leupold, Green Street’s chief executive, said in […]

Once again, claims of fraud have surfaced in the world of EB-5 lending. This time, the development giant Extell Development and its founder Gary Barnett have been accused of fraud by its former regional center executive, who is seeking $65 million in damages. The EB-5 visa program, which gained significant traction after the 2008 financial crisis when developers were in need of cheap financing, offers green cards to international investors willing to invest $500,000 or […]

Brookfield eyes $400M mixed-use project in Manhasset Brookfield Properties plans to spend $400 million to redevelop 16 acres of a 28-acre site in Manhasset into a mixed-use project featuring housing, office space, retail and a hotel that it will call Manhasset Square, Long Island Business News reported. Currently, the property holds a 332,000-square-foot Macy’s department store and a large parking lot. Macy’s will continue to run its store and retain ownership of the the land […]

Hamptons retail — once a hive of ultra-luxe deals — has been one of the least active sectors of the Hamptons’ commercial market. Sag Harbor, Amagansett and Bridgehampton saw little turnover this season. And in Southampton, the deals are practically nonexistent, with the exception of a handful of restaurants. In mid-May, The Real Deal counted roughly 15 vacancies on Southampton’s Main Street and Jobs Lane alone. Preppy clothing retailer Vineyard Vines, for example, closed its 1,512-square-foot […]

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday said he supports tweaking two controversial rent regulation programs to ensure that tenants aren’t overpaying for renovations. Both the mayor and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have suggested reforming Major Capital Improvements and Individual Apartment Improvements, rather than eliminating the programs entirely, as proposed by the state Assembly and Senate. During a press conference on Monday at the Legislative Office Building in Albany, de Blasio echoed the governor’s support for limiting […]

Building with glass and steel can be a lot easier than dealing with flesh and blood. In our cover story this month, we look at how New York City’s biggest real estate companies are planning — or failing to plan — for succession and the next generation of leadership. Some of the most prominent development firms in the city are lorded over by septuagenarians and octogenarians — such as Steven Roth and Harry Macklowe — […]

Manhattan’s luxury market saw 23 contracts signed last week for a total of about $211 million, according to the latest report from Olshan Realty. The contracts signed at $4 million or above were split between 18 condominiums, four townhouses and one co-op. Sales volume was the same as the week before, but dollar volume was higher that week at about $221 million. The top sale last week was for a penthouse unit at Zeckendorf Development’s […]

Real Capital Analytics, the data firm that tracks global commercial real estate sales and trends, secured $115 million in growth equity to fund expansion into overseas markets and buy out a minority stake owned by Daily Mail Group Trust. The investment included Series B equity as well as debt, and is one of the largest bets on a real estate technology company. The New York-based firm, which launched in 2000 and is now valued at […]

Brookfield Properties will spend $400 million to redevelop 16 acres of a 28-acre site in Manhasset into a mixed-use project featuring housing, office space, retail and a hotel, Long Island Business News reported. The site of the project, christened Manhasset Square, currently holds a 332,000-square-foot Macy’s department store and a large parking lot. Macy’s will continue to run its store and retain ownership of the land immediately around it, but Brookfield plans to purchase the […]

Pier 40 in the West Village could be partially redeveloped soon. New legislation could let the pier develop as much as 700,000 square feet of commercial office space, according to Crain’s. The law that sparked the park’s creation in 1998 included a provision to let it sustain itself with funds from commercial sites, and a new amendment would allow its owner — the Hudson River Park Trust — to enter into a lease with a […]

David Bistricer’s Clipper Equity wants to convert a large portion of an Upper West Side rental building into condominiums — with a projected sellout of nearly $204 million. The Brooklyn-based real estate firm filed plans last month with the New York State Attorney General’s office to convert the majority of units in the Brewster, a 153-unit building at 21 West 86th Street, into 108 condos. The projected sellout works out to around $1.9 million per […]

The city’s four-year moratorium on converting hotel rooms to residential units quietly expired over the weekend, as the city declined to extend the law following an unfavorable court decision a few months ago. The sunsetting legislation is a major victory for hotel owners and advocates of property rights, though it’s unclear how enthusiastically developers will take advantage of it: The red-hot condo market that gave rise to the law is long gone. “We are pleased […]

The Real Deal’s June issue is now live, and digital subscribers are getting the first look at what’s inside. Subscribers now have access to stories including: – An unvarnished look at how NYC’s biggest real estate firms plans (or fail to plan) for the day when a new CEO needs to take the reins – A close-up on the Carlton Group in the wake of legendary founder Howard Michael’s death – A ranking of the […]

Amazon’s Alexa could soon come as a standard amenity when moving into a new home. The everything company’s Alexa Smart Properties team is trying to partner with property managers, homebuilders and hoteliers to put its virtual assistant into homes throughout the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. It hopes to up its market share by offering custom software, discounted hardware and new ways for property managers to collect and use data. The move would […]

David Lobel’s Sentinel Capital Partners has inked a 15-year lease for the entire 51st floor at SL Green Realty’s One Vanderbilt, the real estate investment trust announced on Monday. The private equity firm will occupy just over 28,000 square feet overall, and the deal means that the office tower is now 59 percent leased. Construction on the project has reached the 73rd floor, and it should top out in the summer of 2019. The entire […]

SoftBank is eager to raise another $100 billion Vision Fund focused on tech startups. Its investors? Not so much. Some of the largest money managers in the world that SoftBank approached are planning to make limited or no contributions to the Japanese company’s next venture, according to the Wall Street Journal. These include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which was the largest backer of SoftBank’s first Vision Fund with a […]

UPDATED: Monday, June 3 at 10:45 a.m. Blackstone Group is betting big on ecommerce with an $18.7 billion purchase of warehouse assets across the U.S., one of the largest industrial real estate deals in history. The properties span 179 million square feet overall, and Blackstone is buying them from the Singapore company GLP Pte, according to Bloomberg. Retailers have needed more space for warehouse property as the popularity of online shopping continues to grow. Blackstone has […]

Churchill Real Estate Holdings, a Soho-based lender and development firm, is nearing a $71 million deal for two rental buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The firm is in contract to purchase 809 Madison Avenue for $55 million and 57 Jay Street in Dumbo for $16 million, according to the firm’s co-founder and partner Justin Ehrlich. The deals are expected to close by the end of June. At 57 Jay Street, a 27,000-square-foot apartment building, Ehrlich […]

L+M Development Partners’ Ron Moelis and Slate Property Group’s David Schwartz discussed the ins and outs of the complicated affordable housing market at The Real Deal’s 12th annual New York Showcase in May. They expounded on how the math works, how fat the profits should be, how to navigate thorny politics and the prospect of private developers getting a piece of NYCHA’s stock. Check out the interview, moderated by TRD‘s Jill Noonan, in its entirety […]

“Start low and go slow.” That’s the warning label attached to most recreational marijuana products. It could also serve as counsel to real estate investors with high hopes for business opportunities stemming from Connecticut’s potential embrace of recreational cannabis. In early May, the Constitution State’s House of Representatives unanimously voted in favor of a bill for the production and sale of industrial hemp. That was only a few days after the legislature’s finance committee voted […]