The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Ten-X Commercial lays off nearly half its workforce

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 02:25 PM PST

Ten-X Commercial, an online real estate transaction platform, laid off half its workforce after efforts to sell the company fell through. Close to 100 employees in offices in Texas, New York and California were given notice on Monday morning during a call with executives, according to people on the call and those familiar with the matter. Thomas H. Lee Partners, the private equity firm that owns Ten-X Commercial, has been trying to sell the company

Cohen Brothers Realty sues storied landlord to stay in Park Ave South building

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 01:17 PM PST

Cohen Brothers Realty is firing back as its landlord tries to cut short its ground lease at a Murray Hill office tower — and not for the first time. Cohen is suing Sol Goldman Investments to stay at 475 Park Avenue South, the 34-story building where Cohen has held the ground lease since 1967. The land owner is part of the real estate empire Solil Management, built by the late Sol Goldman. Cohen’s complaint, filed

At the desk of: Tracey Appelbaum

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 12:00 PM PST

When Tracey Appelbaum was growing up in Georgia, she often accompanied her grandfather, a developer, to construction sites. He built a number of Frito-Lay warehouses throughout the Southeast, she said, and “would have me holding the flashlight for him while he fixed HVAC units, or he would have me pace off the size of a room.” Years later, when she was at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, she took a real estal

Real Capital Analytics’ founder buys UWS building, leading last week’s I-sales

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 11:15 AM PST

From a pair of next-door buildings in Park Slope to an apartment complex in Jamaica, these are the deals in New York’s mid-market investment sales world that hit public records last week. Blake Partners sold two Brooklyn mixed-use buildings at 157–159 5th Avenue in Park Slope for $23.25 million to two entities with Gregory Fournier as authorized signatory. Situated at the corner of Lincoln Place, the buildings each stand four stories tall. Blake had bought

Acclaimed artist KAWS pays $17M to expand Williamsburg studio

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 10:42 AM PST

Art world sensation KAWS is having a moment, as the auction house Christies declared last month. The Williamsburg-based artist, whose real name is Brian Donnelly, has been compared with the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring for transforming his undeniably New York aesthetic into commercial success. Last year, his work pulled in nearly $34 million at auction, according to Christies. Now he’s putting some of that into real estate. KAWS paid $17 million to

Claremont Companies buys Soho Marriott for $59M

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 09:50 AM PST

Claremont Companies has purchased a Marriott in Soho for $59.35 million, according to property records. The Massachusetts-based firm bought the hotel from an LLC that lists Hok Kit Lou as its managing member. The building, at 181 Varick Street, is 19 stories tall and about 52,000 square feet. READ MORE Small-hotel development in NYC may be a thing of the past Manhattan’s hotel market emerges from three-year slump Claremont Companies and Marriott did not respond

Major WeWork layoffs to begin today

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 09:02 AM PST

More than a third of WeWork’s 12,000 employees will likely receive notice this week that they no longer have a job. The layoffs are part of an effort by the struggling office-space company to cut costs, close ancillary businesses and narrow its offering to subletting office space. In a company email sent by chairman Marcelo Claure, employees were told that layoffs will begin this week in the U.S., and that a planned all-hands meeting will

LI agents routinely discriminate against minority buyers, undercover probe finds

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 06:30 AM PST

A three-year undercover investigation by Newsday found that 40 percent of the time Long Island brokers discriminate against minority buyers. Black testers experienced unfair treatment 49 percent of the time, Latinos 39 percent and Asians 19 percent. Black buyers were on average shown the fewest of an agent’s listings in majority-white neighborhoods. Newsday’s bombshell probe also found that minorities had to meet more stringent financial qualifications than white buyers. In seven cases, minority buyers without

WeWork layoffs loom, de Blasio is skeptical of commercial rent control

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 06:05 AM PST

Every weekday The Real Deal rounds up New York’s biggest real estate happenings. We update this page throughout the day, starting at 9 a.m. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com. This page was last updated at 9 a.m. The WeWork layoffs could happen as soon as this week. The co-working company could let go at least 4,000 employees, although this number may end up being as high as 5,000 or 6,000. Its core office

Piecing together SoftBank’s disruptive real estate bets

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST

Masayoshi Son was widely regarded as an eccentric-but-gifted entrepreneur when, in 2014, he dazzled investors during an earnings presentation by showing them a picture of a large, brown-feathered bird. “SoftBank wants to become the goose that lays the golden eggs,” Son told them, two years before launching a $100 billion Vision Fund that went on to anoint a crop of promising startups. But over a turbulent six weeks starting in September, one of its biggest

Jeff Sutton pays record price in Williamsburg: brokers

Posted: 18 Nov 2019 04:00 AM PST

A Williamsburg commercial building that housed a metal fabrication company has sold for what appears to be a record-high price per square foot in the neighborhood. Avi Kendi sold a one-story building at 166 Berry Street for $20 million to Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Properties, according to property records filed with the city last week. With the property spanning 6,200 square feet, the deal translates to $3,226 per square foot — a record for the neighborhood,