The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

JLL fired the head of its New York City debt team Wednesday in what appears to be the largest casualty yet of the company’s acquisition of HFF. Aaron Appel, who in 2017 oversaw a team that brokered more than $1.7 billion worth of mortgages, was terminated Wednesday, sources told The Real Deal. Appel, who joined JLL in 2014, could not be immediately reached for comment. A representative for JLL did not immediately respond to a […]

It’s been a difficult 24 hours for real estate lobbyists in Albany. They’re walking the halls of the Capitol, catching legislators in the hallway outside the Senate chamber. They’re ducking into nearby coffee shops, fielding calls and texts from shell-shocked clients. You won’t find them at the nearby eatery the Hollow, where tenant advocates are celebrating with Bloody Mary’s. The lobbyists will fight the good fight, but they know changes to the state rent laws […]

AvalonBay breaks ground on 143-unit Harrison project A trio of mixed-use buildings will rise next to the Metro-North train station in Harrison as part of a $76.8 million project that hopes to revitalize the village’s downtown area, LoHud reported. AvalonBay Communities, a real estate investment trust and one of the nation’s largest apartment landlords, broke ground on the Halstead Avenue site on June 7. The project is a partnership between AvalonBay, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority […]

Being a New York City rental broker has always been a tough gig. But the job is getting even harder. It’s now been exactly one year since StreetEasy began charging a daily $3 fee to post a rental listing on its site — a move that hit brokers in the pocketbook at a time when margins were already thin. The fee — which does not seem to have dissuaded brokers from using the Zillow-owned site […]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration found a slew of errors in the design and construction of the Florida International University pedestrian bridge that collapsed in 2018, killing six people. Among them, Eighth Street should have been shut down, OSHA stated in the report. Figg Bridge Engineers’ “deficient” design led to structural failure of the bridge, and Figg’s attempt to close the cracks, which triggered the collapse, was a fatal action, according to the report, […]

Three of Compass’ top executives in marketing and product have resigned or been forced out of their roles in recent weeks, becoming the latest casualties of a turbulent C-suite. Eytan Seidman, head of product, resigned last month, according to people familiar with the situation. Khurrum Malik, chief marketing officer, and Max Henderson, Compass’ vice president of product, were let go. Sources said the latest departures stemmed from tension between CEO Robert Reffkin and COO Maelle […]

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

President Trump’s stake in two Vornado Realty Trust properties surged in value over the past year, pushing his net worth to $3 billion, Bloomberg reports. His 30 percent stake in a tower at 1290 Sixth Avenue, and an office building at 555 California Street in San Francisco increased by 33 percent on the previous year to $765 million. The lucrative deal now makes up a quarter of his fortune. Trump’s net worth, which increased by […]

A little more than a month after unveiling plans for a $400 million mixed-use project on Long Island, Macy’s has agreed to sell its store at the Galleria shopping mall in White Plains. The Cincinnati-based retailer sold the site it occupies in the mall for $27 million to property owner WP Galleria Realty LP, but it won’t close its anchor store, the Daily Voice Plus reported. Instead, Macy’s will remain a tenant and keep operating […]

Newmark Knight Frank’s Ross Kaplan and Jeffrey Roseman took home the Real Estate Board of New York’s top retail deal award for securing a lease to bring the popular Alamo Drafthouse dine-in movie theatre to the Financial District. Kaplan and Roseman won the Most Significant Retail Deal award for representing landlord Fosun in a deal to sign the cinema to 40,000 square feet at 28 Liberty Street. Alamo Drafthouse plans to open a 12-screen multiplex […]

Tishman Speyer has entered into a joint venture with a Canadian asset manager to invest $500 million into projects in gateway cities across the U.S. As one of the nation’s largest landlords, Tishman said Wednesday it is partnering with Investment Management Corporation of Ontario, a government affiliated body that manages $63 billion in assets. The companies said IMCO had committed to an initial $500 million investment, with options to increase by $250 million increments. Despite […]

Sometimes family disputes arise out of long-held grudges, or differences. But for landlords, the stakes can be higher. In the case of Steve Silverberg, an owner of multiple Manhattan properties, he claims that his sister Penny Silberberg (she spells it differently) has bilked him out of $7 million and then transferred the money to other family members and employees, according to the New York Post. The pair own properties housing NYU Langone Medical Center and […]

A decade after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were put under government control, a Trump administration-appointed regulator is stepping in to try again to hand the mortgage finance companies back to the private sector. “If I do nothing and don’t push, then I’m fairly certain Congress will do nothing,” Mark Calabria, the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “They have a lot of priorities, so how […]

KKR, the investment firm known for company takeovers, has doubled its stake in a company that targets house-flipping. The firm invested another $250 million in New Jersey-based Toorak Capital Partners, which has $1.5 billion in house-flipping loans on its books, according to the Wall Street Journal. Toorak buys loans from firms like LendingHome and PeerStreet, which issue 12-month, high-yield mortgages for home fix-and-flip projects that fetch interest rates between 8 to 12 percent. In May […]

Last week’s NYC mid-range investment sales market saw a wide array of deals: from a new development in Clinton Hill to a walk-up in the Lower East Side. These are the transactions made public last week, according to the city’s Department of Finance database. 1.) For $26 million, Classon Management LLC took on a new mixed-use development at 1007 Atlantic Avenue in Clinton Hill. The eight-story rental building, whose residential and commercial space were sold […]

Twenty-five miles north of Manhattan, the village of Sleepy Hollow is finally getting an awakening. Construction crews are toiling away at Edge-on-Hudson, the sprawling 70-acre, $1 billion project that’s being developed on the site where a giant General Motors plant churned out cars until shuttering in the 1990s. Once complete, the project will add 1,177 new residential units, a 140-room hotel and retail and commercial space to this small Westchester enclave — along with new roads, […]

From the moment in 1907 when New York millionaire Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt strode through the Plaza Hotel’s revolving doors to become its first guest, the 18-story white marble edifice at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street has radiated wealth and luxury. For some, the hotel evokes images of F. Scott Fitzgerald frolicking in the Pulitzer Fountain, or Eloise, the impish young guest who pours water down the mail chute. But in recent years, […]

The next new development to ride Manhattan’s senior housing wave could soon be coming to Hudson Yards. Eliot Spitzer and the Related Companies’ mixed-used project at 451 10th Avenue is now set to include 126 “long-term care facility dwelling units” across the fifth through 12th floors, according to plans pre-filed with the city’s Department of Buildings on Friday. The 44-story tower will also contain roughly 400 apartments on its upper floors, in line with the […]

Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie reached an agreement on sweeping changes to the state’s rent laws Tuesday evening. If the package passes both houses and is signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as expected, the real estate industry will be dealt its biggest legislative blow in decades. And it could have been much worse. The two houses have agreed to support the elimination of vacancy decontrol — which allows landlords […]