The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Welcome to the golf clubs where NYC real estate execs are doing deals

Posted: 02 Sep 2019 01:00 PM PDT

Anyone who’s tried to do business with a serious golfer on a summer Friday — or Monday, for that matter — may be on a fool’s errand. With an abundance of storied golf clubs in the metropolitan area, the same is true of real estate’s biggest players. Built on hundreds of acres of rolling hills in Westchester, New Jersey and the Hamptons, golf in the tri-state area is unquestionably a real estate story — sharing […]

How the global diamond trade — from cartels to war zones — shaped New York’s skyline

Posted: 02 Sep 2019 11:00 AM PDT

There are figurative cutthroat businesses, and there are literal ones. Yitzchak Tessler knows the difference. Chain-smoking in his Midtown office, he recalled his days flying from South Africa into civil war-torn Angola to buy gemstones. In the 1980s, “blood diamond” hadn’t yet become a rallying cry for human-rights groups, and traders could work in war zones with impunity. The country’s capital, Luanda, was a woebegone place — sewage in the streets, no running water in […]

Fears about privacy and Big Brother-like tactics in real estate are taking hold

Posted: 02 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT

The Edge in Amsterdam is widely considered the smartest building in the world. Since the 15-story office property opened four years ago, its 28,000 sensors have collected roughly 55 terabytes of data on everything from the air’s CO2 levels to workers’ daily coffee orders. If that information were stored as music files, it would play continuously for more than 100 years. And the more info the glass-encased building collects, the smarter it gets. “We think […]

The Closing: Suri Kasirer

Posted: 02 Sep 2019 07:00 AM PDT

Suri Kasirer is one of New York’s most active lobbyists and often recognized as one of the most powerful women in the city. Her eponymous firm, which employs about 30 people, earned the most among the city’s lobbying groups last year with $12.9 million in total revenue, up from $11.5 million in 2017, according to the city clerk’s office. In the more than two decades since she launched her business, Kasirer has helped influence major […]

The money behind the New York tenant movement

Posted: 02 Sep 2019 05:00 AM PDT

With just 11 days left before the rent laws expired, a chain link of tenants formed along the stairs that led to the New York State Assembly chambers, refusing to let anyone — especially real estate lobbyists — in or out. Their chants filled the hallway outside the chamber doors, where lobbyists and others vied for a chance to influence lawmakers. Clad in red “housing justice for all” t-shirts, the protestors held signs calling on […]