The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Bizarre case of deed fraud complicated Anbang’s $5.8B hotel portfolio deal

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 03:30 PM PDT

It might have been one of the biggest heists of all time. Anbang has sold its U.S. hotel portfolio to the highest bidder at a price north of $5.8 billion, but a last-minute wrench was thrown into the deal when the Chinese insurance conglomerate discovered six of the properties’ deeds were fraudulently transferred to limited liability companies, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal with the buyer, South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments, was due […]

These are SoftBank’s levers to disrupt WeWork’s IPO

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 03:12 PM PDT

SoftBank has been WeWork’s biggest backer, pouring more than $10 billion into a ballooning startup that has attracted increasing skepticism. Now, the market’s frigid reception of WeWork’s IPO is putting the companies’ relationship to a test. Softbank is urging WeWork’s parent company to shelve its IPO plans as the Japanese conglomerate tries to raise $108 billion for a second Vision Fund. It could struggle to attract major investors if the firm’s initial $100 billion Vision […]

Thornton Tomasetti taps new co-CEOs in management shakeup

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 03:00 PM PDT

Thornton Tomasetti, one of the city’s largest engineering and design firms, has tapped two new CEOs as part of a broader reorganization of the company. Managing director Peter DiMaggio and managing principal Michael Squarzini will become the company’s co-CEOs, starting in January 2020, the firm announced on Tuesday. Tom Scarangello, who has been with the company since 1979, will step down as CEO and assume the role of executive chairman. “I’m always going to be […]

Meet the landlords trying to beat WeWork at its own game, Ponzi schemer Renwick Haddow reaches settlement: Daily digest

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 02:31 PM PDT

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up New York’s biggest real estate news, from breaking news and scoops to announcements and deals. We update this page in real time, starting at 9 a.m. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com. Video produced by Sabrina He Anbang has finally agreed to sell its luxury hotel portfolio… after dealing with some deed fraud. The Chinese insurer was close to a deal with South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global […]

Blackstone looks to sell Park Ave Tower for more than $800M

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 02:20 PM PDT

After signing a handful of finance tenants to pricey leases, the Blackstone Group is looking to sell its Park Avenue Tower for more than $800 million – one of the largest trophy office properties to come to market this year. Blackstone subsidiary EQ Office put the 622,000-square-foot office building at 65 East 55th Street on the market with a team of brokers at Eastdil Secured, sources told The Real Deal. A representative for Blackstone could […]

Ceruzzi Properties looks to sell ground under the Lipstick Building

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 02:00 PM PDT

One of the ripple effects of the economic crisis in Argentina — Latin America’s third-largest economy — is that investors are getting a crack at buying the land underneath Manhattan’s iconic Lipstick Building. The owner of the 34-story red granite tower, a partnership led by Argentina’s Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anónima, let its option to buy the ground underneath the building at 885 Third Avenue expire earlier this year. Now the owner of the land, […]

With latest cash infusion, Nextdoor closes $170M funding round

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:45 PM PDT

A social networking platform aimed at connecting neighborhood residents has closed a $170 million funding round with its latest cash infusion. San Francisco-based Nextdoor secured another $47 million technology investment firm Bond, the tech investment firm founded by former Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker. That closes out its $170 million growth round, the company announced Tuesday. Meeker, who raised $1.25 billion for Bond’s growth fund in April, was then named to the board of Nextdoor. […]

Freed by Dodd-Frank, NYCB is on the hunt for M&A deals

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:30 PM PDT

New York Community Bank is preparing for a growth spurt despite major headwinds. The lender, which focuses on rent-regulated and below-market rate apartments in New York City is expecting to restart its growth months after sweeping legislative changes and the looming spectre of a coming recession. “We want the company to be a successful acquirer of other banks,” said CEO and president Joseph Ficalora last week at Raymond James U.S. Bank Conference. NYCB was the […]

Vicki Been says good cause eviction measure shouldn’t just reflect “flavor of the day”

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 12:45 PM PDT

Deputy Mayor Vicki Been on Tuesday reiterated concern that changes to the rent law might’ve gone too far, and expressed doubt about the necessity of passing a good cause eviction bill down the road. Speaking at a Crain’s breakfast, Been said that while the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 helped “stem what were a lot of abuses” of the state’s rent regulation law, the city is watching to see if the consequences […]

Title insurance’s Big Three are not to be: Fidelity, Stewart call off $1.2B merger

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 12:15 PM PDT

The massive merger between Fidelity National Financial and Stewart Information Services that would have turned the country’s “Big Four” title insurers into the “Big Three” is no longer on the table. Stewart announced on Tuesday that the two companies had made the mutual decision to call off their merger after it did not receive the necessary approval from the Federal Trade Commission. Fidelity will pay Stewart a $50 million reverse termination fee. The FTC voted […]

WarnerMedia to anchor Vornado’s West Chelsea spec office

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 10:30 AM PDT

WarnerMedia signed a lease to anchor Vornado Realty Trust’s speculative office development on the High Line in West Chelsea. The media giant took roughly 20,000 square feet for its Innovation Lab at Vornado’s 11-story 512 West 22nd Street office building, a spokesperson for WarnerMedia confirmed to The Real Deal. Terms of the deal were not immediately clear. But on Vornado’s most recent earnings call in July, company president Michael Franco said the building had its […]

Miami among most at-risk cities for falling home prices during next recession: report

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 09:45 AM PDT

Home prices in Miami fell sharply after the financial crisis when buyers and investors took on loads of debt and could no longer meet payments. As another potential downturn approaches, Miami faces similar problems. Nationwide, Miami has the third-highest risk of seeing a downturn in housing prices during the next recession, according to a new report by Redfin. It tracked the 50 largest U.S. cities’ risk of a housing downturn in the next recession. The […]

Lightstone becomes third NYC developer in a week to plan new Tel Aviv bond issuance, targeting $73M

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT

Three examples makes for a trend, right? A week after Silverstein Properties first broke the ice, David Lichtenstein’s Lightstone Group is now the third New York City developer to disclose plans for a new bond offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Rating documents filed with TASE on Tuesday indicates that the firm’s Series B bond issuance may be worth up to 260 million Israeli shekels, or roughly $73 million. Ratings firm Midroog has given […]

Behind Robert Martin’s monster Westchester portfolio buy

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 06:45 AM PDT

When Mack-Cali announced in 2015 that it would start selling off its Westchester holdings, Robert Martin Company was elated. Robert Martin — an Elmsford-based real estate firm that has developed office parks across Westchester and Fairfield counties — had built most of a 56-property, 3.1 million-square-foot portfolio starting in the 1970s. But it sold it to Mack-Cali for $450 million in 1997 to pay down debt in the wake of the real estate crash earlier […]

Here’s what the $10M-$30M NYC investment sales market looked like last week

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 05:15 AM PDT

Acadia Realty Trust buys retail in Sheepshead Bay for almost $28 million and the Orbach Group takes a $10 million loss on a rental property in the Upper West Side. Here are New York City’s mid-market investment sales that were made public last week. 1.) Acadia Realty Trust sold 3860 Nostrand Avenue, a strip of two-story retail stores in Sheepshead Bay, for $27.65 million, according to property records. The buyer was ECA Buligo Nostrand Partners […]

Can Paul Massey repeat his past brokerage success with B6?

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:30 AM PDT

“Rain Man” and “Beaches” were playing on the big screen and the Berlin Wall was still standing. The year was 1988 — the same year that Paul Massey and Bob Knakal launched their eponymous New York City investment sales firm. And now, more than 30 years later, Massey’s career has come full circle. After the duo famously sold Massey Knakal Realty Services for $100 million to Cushman & Wakefield in 2014, Massey did a stint […]

How a small stretch of land on the Far West Side became an Opportunity Zone

Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:00 AM PDT

It’s hard for “census tract 135” not to stand out on a map of Opportunity Zones in the five boroughs. While most of the New York City areas tapped for the federal tax program are clustered together in working-class neighborhoods, like the South Bronx, Jamaica and Brownsville, the roughly 16-block tract stands completely on its own on Manhattan’s Far West Side. Sources previously told The Real Deal that the U.S. Treasury Department had identified the […]