The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

First hotel in decades could come to Babylon, waterfront Centre Island property gets $3M price cut & more Long Island real estate news

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 03:30 PM PDT

Babylon, once a storied resort town, eyed for new hotel project A limited liability company called Babylon Village Hotel Partners has submitted a preliminary application to the village for a development called Babylon Courtyard that would include 30 apartments, retail space, a large courtyard and a 70-room hotel, Newsday reported. The developers hope to erect the three-building complex on a little more than one-acre parcel in Babylon at 16 George Street that currently holds a […]

Mortgage bond abandoned after the financial crisis reemerges

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 03:18 PM PDT

A mortgage bond that fell out of favor after the financial crisis has been issued by a New York private equity firm; one of a series of unconventional structures to emerge in the past year. A unit of Cerberus Capital Management LP issued bonds last week that were backed completely by home-equity lines of credit, The Wall Street Journal reported. Financial products that culled together arcane pieces of the mortgage market have become less common […]

Savanna rebounds following Amazon loss

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 03:15 PM PDT

Savanna now has one less thing to worry about as it seeks to fill the Amazon-shaped hole at One Court Square. Telecom and cable firm Altice USA, which has been subleasing three floors from Citigroup at the building since 2017, has now entered into a lease agreement with Savanna for 103,000 square feet, the landlord announced on Friday. Except for the existence of expansion options, terms of the deal were not disclosed. A JLL team […]

“The first 3 months of the year sucked”: Industry pros on LA’s luxury market slowdown

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 02:30 PM PDT

George Penner, CEO of Deasy Penner Podley, didn’t mince words in his description of Los Angeles’ high-end residential market. “The first three months of the year sucked,” he said. “It was terrible.” That slowdown and a wave of discounted re-listings dominated the discussion among Penner and other industry players at The Real Deal’s Los Angeles Residential Showcase and Forum on Friday. Agents, brokers and executives selling some of the priciest homes in the country assembled […]

Lenny Dykstra is helping move this iconic diner to Long Island

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 01:45 PM PDT

Despite reportedly losing an $80,000 set of dentures at a Jersey Mike’s in Linden, New Jersey, former Major League Baseball player Lenny Dykstra still has a soft spot for restaurants. So much so that the former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies center fielder nicknamed “Nails” has teamed up with Michael Perlman, founder of the Rego-Forest Preservation Council, and Manhattan-based real estate lawyer Ronald Hariri to try and move the Shalimar Diner from its former […]

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

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 01:05 PM PDT

Here are the details on New York’s investment deals that traded within the $20 million to $30 million range, according to property records filed last week with the city’s Department of Finance. 1.) The Radha Soami Society Beas-America parted with 11-40 45th Road in Long Island City — a two-story commercial building — for just over $26 million. The site, which has an alternate address of 11-36 46th Avenue, is a study center for the […]

HAP Investments lands $55M loan for East Harlem building with rent-stabilized units

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 12:15 PM PDT

UPDATE Monday, June 24, 2019, 7:25 p.m.: Eran Polack’s HAP Investments closed on a $55 million refinancing of a rental building in East Harlem less than a week after sweeping rent regulation reform was passed by the state legislature. Asia Capital Real Estate, a private investment firm that claims on its website to manage “discretionary capital” for family offices and institutional investors, issued the two-year loan at a variable rate of LIBOR plus 3.25 percent, […]

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

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 11:30 AM PDT

Queens sales dominated this week’s mid-market investment sales, according to property records filed with the city’s Department of Finance. 1.) In the Oakland Gardens neighborhood of Queens, an office building traded for about $14.7 million. Seller Jacaroga LLC, managed by Benhad Manager, Inc., has held the two-story property at 61-56 Springfield Blvd., which sits at the corner of 64th Avenue, for decades. The buyer in the most recent transaction was Jackson 13-Lee 74 LLC, controlled […]

Allianz hires new acquisitions head

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 10:45 AM PDT

Allianz Real Estate hired a new director to head up its acquisitions group in the United States. The real estate arm of the German financial giant Allianz Group hired Karen Horstmann, who previously held the job of portfolio manager at Norges Bank Investment Management, as the head of its equity acquisitions in the Americas, the company announced Monday. “Karen’s strategic experience with fiduciary based European investors places her in an ideal position to lead and […]

Brooklyn luxury market saw 15 contracts signed last week

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 10:00 AM PDT

There were 15 contracts signed in Brooklyn’s luxury market last week for a total of about $44 million. The properties included eight townhouses and seven condominiums, and they went for an average price of about $2.9 million, according to the latest report from Stribling & Associates. The firm classifies luxury properties as all homes priced at $2 million or higher. The market was down from the previous week, when it saw 22 contracts signed for […]

The sensational story behind the demise of the Palm House

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 09:30 AM PDT

When Chinese, Iranian and Turkish investors received marketing brochures for the town of Palm Beach’s first EB-5 project in 2012, it seemed like a sure thing. Pamphlets in Chinese and Farsi showed photos of the Clintons and Donald Trump as part of the Palm House condominium and hotel advisory board of “political and business leaders with worldwide experience.” In addition, the marketing materials named Celine Dion, Tony Bennett and billionaire Bill Koch as celebrity members […]

Real estate industry “working around the clock” to close big deals before new taxes hit

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 08:45 AM PDT

Daniel August Cordeiro spent the summer solstice preparing for a weekend to remember — from picking out flowers to pitchers of lemonade — with the expectation that a handful of all-cash buyers would each decide to drop more than $20 million on the spot. “We’re pulling out all the stops,” said Cordeiro, the senior managing director of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, the new development brokerage that represents a portfolio of 30 projects across the city. […]

Seller’s remorse: Bed-Stuy family claims they were duped into selling home at far below its value

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 07:16 AM PDT

A Bedford-Stuyvesant family is fighting back against a deal that could cost them their home of 30 years. Homeowner Dairus Griffiths says he was tricked into selling his house on Halsey Street by real estate speculators, and he has been fighting to hold onto it for almost five years, according to the Daily News. Griffiths fell behind on his mortgage payments and told the News that Eli Mashieh of August West Development approached him on […]

Manhattan’s luxury market just had its best week of the year

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 06:30 AM PDT

Manhattan’s luxury market had its best week of the year last week with 29 contracts signed for a total of about $291 million. The contracts signed at $4 million or above were split between 22 condominiums, five co-ops and two townhouses. Sales and dollar volume were both up from the week before, when the market saw 22 contracts signed for about $195 million. This was the ninth week in a row with 20 or more […]

Residential dev site in a LIC Opportunity Zone hits the market

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 06:00 AM PDT

A massive development site in Long Island City has hit the market — and it’s in an Opportunity Zone. The site at 2-33 50th Avenue consists of a two-story warehouse and an adjacent parking lot, according to Crain’s. The site can accommodate a project spanning 440,000 square feet, and its zoning allows for 420,000 square feet of residential space. A JLL team led by Bob Knakal is handling the listing for the site, which is […]

These are some of the most notable resi sales in NYC this week

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 05:30 AM PDT

Over the past week, New York City’s residential world saw developer Steven Witkoff part with his penthouse for $33 million and another full-floor penthouse at 50 United Nations Plaza sell for $16 million to a retail executive. Here are the details on some other eye-catching deals. Source: A TRD analysis of public property records filed with the New York City Department of Finance from June 17 to June 21. 1.) A penthouse at Alchemy Properties’ […]

Michael Shvo believes in Beverly Hills

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 05:00 AM PDT

Michael Shvo doesn’t believe in Los Angeles — he believes in Beverly Hills. Why wouldn’t he? At the end of last spring, he and his partners dished out $130 million for 9200 Wilshire Boulevard. The plan is to develop a 300,000-square-foot complex with 54 luxury residential units and 6,000 square feet of retail space. Shvo said at The Real Deal‘s 12th annual showcase that construction is starting within months. Besides that, Shvo has a couple […]

The Closing: Jay Sugarman

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 04:30 AM PDT

Jay Sugarman, chairman and CEO of the real estate investment trust iStar, hates being called a developer. The Princeton graduate much prefers “creator” or “innovator,” though “financier” or “ground-lease evangelist” might be more accurate. Sugarman’s firm, which he founded as a part of Starwood Capital Group in 1993 before taking it public five years later, has closed more than $40 billion in debt and net leasing deals. And in 2017, iStar launched Safehold — the first […]

As Fed mulls rate cuts, real estate enjoys the good times but fears bad times ahead

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 04:00 AM PDT

The real estate industry loves low interest rates — but not too low. Despite sustained pressure from President Donald Trump, the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged Wednesday. While it’s an initial positive for the real estate industry, the central bank’s consideration to cut rates raises concerns about an economic slowdown. In the immediate, the stock market was bolstered by the Fed’s Wednesday announcement, said Spencer Levy, Americas head of research at CBRE, who added […]