The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Somerset Development buys 31-acre site in Somerville New Jersey Transit completed the transfer of ownership Monday of a 31-acre tract in the Borough of Somerville to Somerset Development, the Courier News reported. The Holmdel-based developer, which acquired the land for $11 million, said the site will be home to a new transit village that will include 371 apartments across 14 buildings, 156 townhomes, two parking garages, 4,000 square feet of retail space and a 4,000-square-foot community center. […]

During the last week in June, Tania Isacoff Friedland witnessed a mad rush to get deals inked. Buyers wanted to get deals across the finish line before new mansion and transfer taxes took effect on July 1. “Agents and attorneys and everybody — they were just booked back-to-back-to-back on closings,” said Isacoff Friedland, an agent with Warburg Realty. “Nobody wants to spend more than they have to.” The preliminary data appears to back that up. […]

Jon Corzine may have left the governor’s mansion in New Jersey a decade ago, but a penthouse he once rented in Hoboken following his 2003 divorce has sold for a record sum in the city. The $3.9 million sale of the condominium unit at 1500 Washington Street tops the $3.55 million that New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning got for selling his former Hoboken home in the same waterfront building for last year, the New York […]

A trust linked to billionaire Bill Gates paid $21 million for an equestrian estate in a gated Wellington community, near his Evergate Stables property. Property records show equestrian Caroline Moran sold the 7.7-acre horse farm at 13945 Quarter Horse Trail to the Wellington Trust, controlled by Kevin Mincio. Gates, whose daughter Jennifer Gates is an award-winning equestrian, used the same trust to purchase the adjacent 3060 Mallet Hill Court and the property at 13715 Quarter […]

In the lead up to We Company’s IPO, some institutional investors were willing to trade their stock in the company at deep discounts to the $47 billion valuation set by Masayoshi Son and announced earlier his year. Son’s Japanese conglomerate SoftBank announced a large investment in the We Company in January that included $1 billion to buy out current investors. But that money was intended to buy investors out at a valuation of $20 billion […]

No particular sector dominated the retail leasing scene in New York City last month with large deals being inked by grocery stores, gyms, marketplaces and schools. June’s 10 biggest retail leases signed totaled 164,600 square feet, up 61,100 square feet from May’s total of 103,500 square feet. The largest retail lease in June was inked in Central Harlem. The total is quite a bit less than the top 10 in June of last year, which […]

Meridian Properties bought a pair of rent-stabilized buildings in Brooklyn for $35.25 million, despite several worries about how active the rent-stabilized market will be in the wake of all the new rent laws passed by the state, according to sources familiar with the deal. The firm closed Friday on 441 Ocean Avenue and 1745 Caton Avenue, which are located about a block apart from each other in Prospect Park South. The Ocean Avenue building contains […]

The real estate industry has long been slow to embrace innovation. But judging by recent investment figures, that might not be the case for much longer. Venture investment in real estate tech startups hit $12.9 billion in the first half of 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from research firm CREtech. That’s already more than all of 2017, which saw a record $12.7 billion in proptech investment. “We feel like we’ve hit that […]

UPDATED 2:15 p.m., July 2: A senior lender at 125 Greenwich Street, the troubled residential condominium supertall in the Financial District, has moved to foreclose on the project. United Overseas Bank, a Singapore-based lender, filed a notice to foreclose on the developers at the Downtown site Monday, claiming that the lending consortium at the project is owed $195 million it advanced to the developers, plus outstanding interest payments. It is the latest setback for the […]

It’s been five years since G&M Realty whitewashed and then demolished the graffiti mecca at 5Pointz in Long Island City. Now, the developers are now hoping to bring artists back to their luxury apartment development — but artists are skeptical. David and Jerry Wolkoff’s firm is currently requesting modifications to a special permit it received in 2013, in order to increase the size of the development at 22-44 Jackson Avenue, The City reported. The new […]

Maddd Equities and Joy Construction have landed a roughly $64 million construction loan from Wells Fargo for their massive affordable housing project in the Bronx, according to Joy Construction’s Eli Weiss. The money will go towards the firms’ projects at 1159 and 1184 River Avenue.  The project at 1159 River Avenue will include 250 affordable housing units across 200,000 square feet with space for retail and parking, and the project at 1184 River Avenue will […]

After years of flocking to city centers, American homeowners are now returning to familiar grounds: the suburbs. With America’s major cities seeing population growth slow, 14 of the 15 fastest growing cities in the country are now actually suburbs, according to the Wall Street Journal. And the popularity of some suburbs has caused a development boom, with builders barely managing to keep up with demand. After the recession, young workers flocked to major American cities. […]

A troubled Midtown development project is officially back on track, with a new developer in charge. Rabina Properties has closed on its joint-venture agreement with Ceruzzi Properties and SMI USA to develop a 76-story mixed-use project at 520 Fifth Avenue, the New York Post reported. The Real Deal first reported on the agreement in May. Sources told the Post that the deal consists of a “partnership restructuring and recapitalization.” In May, Ceruzzi president Art Hooper […]

A veteran commercial broker says he’s joining “the 21st Century.” Jeff Rosenblatt, most recently at the Kaufman Organization, is joining office brokerage startup SquareFoot to help expand its traditional leasing business, Crain’s reported. The proptech firm aims to make office leasing more transparent by combining traditional brokerage work with an online platform. Rosenblatt joined the Kaufman Organization last fall amid a leadership shakeup at the former Coldwell Banker Commercial Advisors. Before that, he was at […]

A battle between the board of an Upper East Side condo building and its sponsor is flaring up yet again — this time because the board is moving to foreclose on Midtown Equities’ Steven Cayre. The condo board of the Blanca Lofts at 206 East 73rd Street filed a lawsuit against Cayre, whose family founded Midtown Equities (the building’s co-developer), alleging that he owes the board $147,000, plus 24 percent in interest, in legal fees. […]

The usual suspects made up last month’s biggest office leasing deals, including tech companies, financial firms and startups. Two buildings made multiple appearances on the list: One Soho Square and 1 World Trade Center. All in all, June’s top office leases made up less square footage than the month prior. The top 10 office lease deals totaled 1.2 million square feet, significantly fewer than May’s, which totaled 1.7 million square feet. June didn’t measure up […]

Before climbing into bed on June 11, Robert Nelson found himself bracing for a “horror show.” The leaders of the state Senate and Assembly had just announced that they’d reached an agreement to radically tilt rent regulations in favor of tenants, curbing how landlords in the city could increase rents on roughly 1 million stabilized apartments. “My heart dropped. I was in disbelief,” Nelson said. “That was a really poor night’s sleep. I don’t think […]

In June, as the deadline for the mansion tax neared, buyers rushed to close condo and co-op sales across Manhattan, triggering a sharp uptick following months of decline. Figures from the latest Douglas Elliman market reports show that year-over-year sales increased in June for the first time in six quarters, and the median sale price increased by a record 10.5 percent to $1.22 million. The spike was driven in part by the expanded mansion tax […]