The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Naftali buys two vacated Vornado properties for $71M

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 03:37 PM PST

After vacating a pair of Upper East Side buildings of tenants over the summer, Vornado Realty Trust has sold them to Naftali Group for about 18% more than it paid four years ago. The Miki Naftali–led development and investment firm paid $71 million for the two adjacent properties — one retail and one apartment building — at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 86th Street, city property records show. Steve Roth’s Vornado had acquired

Why New Yorkers, Californians and others pay so much rent

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 02:10 PM PST

Residential rents in the U.S. increased in 2019 as did the number of tenants, pushing America’s total rent bill to $512 billion, according to a new research report from Zillow. That’s about 10% above the decade’s average. With most U.S. renters making their final payments of the decade at the start of this month, Zillow used census data and its own to look back at rent payments for the period. “A bump in the overall

Robert Futterman sells West Village penthouse

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 01:32 PM PST

Disgraced broker Robert Futterman, who’s reportedly been holed up in the Hamptons since he was fired from his eponymous firm earlier this year, sold the West Village penthouse he shared with his ex-girlfriend. Futterman and his ex, swimwear designer Hollie Watman, sold their four-bedroom duplex penthouse condo at 345 West 13th Street for $8.5 million, property records filed with the city Friday show. The buyer’s identity is shielded behind an entity called Bear Pancake Partners,

The $100M club: LA’s priciest mansions are having a moment

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 01:00 PM PST

This spring, luxury brokers tasked with selling the priciest homes in Los Angeles had cause for concern. A soft overall market looked to be imperiling sales of the most extravagant properties — the coterie of estates with nine-figure listing prices, where 75-foot pools, private jogging trails, and chauffeur’s quarters come standard. In late June, Peter Morton’s Malibu estate sold for at least $100 million, setting a record but marking the first nine-figure deal in three

Blackstone picks up Canarsie shopping plaza for $130M

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 11:30 AM PST

The Blackstone Group bought a shopping center anchored by BJ’s Wholesale Club in southeast Brooklyn for around $130 million. The private equity giant closed Wednesday on the 274,000-square-foot Canarsie Plaza, sources told The Real Deal. The seller was Los Angeles–based CIM Group. A representative for Blackstone declined to comment, and a spokesperson for CIM did not respond to a request for comment. A JLL team led by Andrew Scandalios, Rob Rizzi and Jose Cruz brokered

Compass SoCal boss Nick Segal steps down

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 10:30 AM PST

Nick Segal is stepping down as co-president of Compass’s Southern California division after 16 months on the job, The Real Deal has learned. Segal, who led Compass in the region since it acquired Pacific Union International in August 2018, confirmed his resignation in a phone interview Thursday, noting he will stay at Compass as an agent. Mark McLaughlin, who also joined Compass from Pacific Union, will now split time as president in Compass’s Northern California

How Amazon became the leasing king of e-commerce

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 09:45 AM PST

In a four-story, concrete warehouse on Staten Island, 2,000 workers and hundreds of highly specialized robots work simultaneously to deliver brown and blue boxes to the nation’s largest metropolitan area. Packages run along nearly 13 miles of conveyor belt throughout the warehouse until they are loaded onto trucks and delivered to customers who clicked on the product less than 24 hours earlier. The “JFK8” warehouse in New York is one of nearly 470 facilities Amazon

Coming soon: The Real Deal’s Best of 2019

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 09:05 AM PST

With a brand new year rapidly approaching, The Real Deal is taking a closer look at the notable commercial, development and residential deals of 2019. Dropping on the web and in the January issue, we’re revealing the most expensive home sales of the year, the juiciest lawsuits, the most valuable office leases, the top projects filed, the most active developers and much, much more! You’re going to want to be a subscriber to keep up

Mayor agrees to require units for homeless in city-backed projects

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 08:31 AM PST

The City Council has persuaded Mayor Bill de Blasio to require that some apartments in large city-financed projects be set aside for homeless people. The de Blasio administration had long opposed a 2018 bill introduced by Council member Rafael Salamanca to require developers to devote 15 percent of apartments for people coming out of homeless shelters for projects of 15 or more units receiving a city subsidy. But Politico reported that the mayor reached a

Cushman’s management contract at Oculus extended despite woes

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 07:00 AM PST

Despite a bevy of problems at the Oculus, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is sticking with its management company. The agency unanimously voted to extend Cushman & Wakefield’s contract to manage the 16-acre World Trade Center site by one year, the Wall Street Journal reported. It’s the first of three one-year renewal options. The firm will collect $850,000 in annual management fees for the job, with a $50 million budget for

Landlords of the world, unite?

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 06:30 AM PST

A new statewide alliance of landlords called Under One Roof NY is hoping to open some doors in Albany. The group represents some 1,500 upstate and New York City landlords, according to its spokesperson, Rochester-based real estate attorney Jaime Michelle Cain. It includes property management firms and landlord groups from the capital region and southern New York, as well as national and New York City-based landlord lobby groups. The coalition aims to fill a gap

NYCHA residents are suing for 10 years of rent overcharges

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 06:11 AM PST

A new lawsuit alleges the New York City Housing Authority overcharged tenants for more than a decade. The embattled housing agency is said to have neglected adjusting rents when residents’ income fell — federal law doesn’t allow for public housing tenants to be charged more than 30 percent of what they earn. The suit also alleges that NYCHA raised rents based on incorrect income calculations and wrongfully moved to evict tenants for nonpayment of rent,

What apocalypse? Expo showed few signs of retail’s struggles

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 05:30 AM PST

And it’s a wrap on one of the largest retail real estate conventions in the country. Attendance at the New York Deal Making conference, put on every December by the International Council of Shopping Centers, was on pace to surpass the usual 10,000 people, an ICSC representative said. Final figures were not immediately available. As of noon Thursday the three-day West Side event had 9,178 registrants, a figure that does not take into account on-site

The suburban S.A.L.T. shakeout

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST

UPDATED: 12:29 p.m. November 25. For Vicki Gaily — co-owner and marketing director of the Special Properties Division of the northern New Jersey-based brokerage Brook Hollow Group — this year is shaping up to be far better than 2018. Gaily’s firm, which is affiliated with Christie’s International Real Estate, has closed 45 residential deals at an average price of nearly $2 million so far this year, she said. That’s up from 37 deals for all

Midtown has LinkedIn to thank for its latest office leasing bump

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 04:30 AM PST

Office leasing in Manhattan • Midtown saw an all-year high of 2.02 million square feet in office leases inked in October — up 87 percent from the month before and up 44 percent year-over-year. The availability rate stayed flat at 11.5 percent, while the average asking rent fell from a record high to $88.93. The largest deal in Midtown and citywide went to LinkedIn, which renewed and expanded in a 501,409-square-foot deal at the Empire

Knighting a new retail ruler: TRD ranks the top brokerages in Manhattan and Brooklyn

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 04:00 AM PST

It was hard to miss the near mass hysteria that overtook social media in October when the beloved upstate supermarket chain Wegmans opened its first New York City location at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. And the enthusiasm surrounding the grand opening was a much-needed reprieve for the city’s retail sector. It came sandwiched between the bankruptcy filing of fast-fashion pioneer Forever 21 and the announcement that retail institution Barneys is closing its doors. But Wegmans