The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Pier 1 Imports is the latest retailer to shutter hundreds of stores nationwide amid plunging sales. The home goods retailer said it plans to close almost half of its stores in the U.S., according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday. Texas-based Pier 1 also will close some distribution centers, slash corporate expenses and lay off corporate employees. “Fiscal third-quarter sales and margins remained under pressure” as the retailer sought to clear out

With a new year comes a new push to sell some pricey apartments. On the heels of the busiest December in years, the first week of 2020 saw some hefty homes hit the market with the five priciest listings ranging from $9.6 million to $35 million. Combined, the top five listings in New York City totaled about $88 million. That said, the market is soft – especially for new development – but that’s not stopping

Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a plan Monday to acquire a full city block south of Penn Station to build another terminal and increase capacity at the rail hub. And while the plan has been in the works for years, the governor’s announcement was news to some property owners. Several owners on the block between Seventh and Eighth avenues between West 30th and West 31st streets told The Real Deal that they hadn’t heard from the

The Real Estate Board of New York’s glitzy annual banquet has always been more than just the highlight of the industry’s social calendar. It’s also an important networking opportunity where industry honchos can rub shoulders with elected officials. But attendees at the 124th “Liar’s Ball” may have to strain to put on a brave face as they press the flesh with the politicians who show up at the Jan. 16 confab, as it caps off

UPDATED, Jan. 6, 4:48 p.m.: Scott Rechler is a self-described “longtime Biden supporter.” But the RXR Realty CEO is one of dozens of real estate powerhouses who have raised big money for the former vice president’s 2020 presidential campaign. In a Friday news dump on Dec. 27, Biden’s team released a list of 259 “volunteer fundraisers” — individuals who had raised at least $25,000 for the campaign. In addition to the world of entertainment and

Savanna’s One Court Square appears to be back on stable ground — at least compared to a year ago. The investment manager finalized a $880 million recapitalization at its 1.5 million-square-foot tower in Long Island City on Friday, according to Commercial Observer. Savanna scored a $580 million senior loan from funds managed by Apollo Global Management and $100 million of subordinate debt SL Green Realty. To cap it off, Junius Real Estate Partners provided $200

There’s another sign of life in the city’s multifamily market. Madison International Realty and Urban American Management have recapitalized a portfolio of 1,400 residential units in a $275 million deal, according to a release. The apartments span 15 buildings in New York City and Westchester. While Madison did not disclose the addresses, at least $76.8 million in sales have appeared in city property records. The filings show that Urban America sold Madison 25-21 31st Avenue

The Guild, a real estate startup focused on corporate travel, has raised $25 million to expand its national footprint and further its tech offerings. The round, announced Monday, brings the company’s total haul to $32 million since 2016. Participants included venture firms Maveron, Convivialite Ventures and ATX Venture Partners as well as RXR Realty, Corigin and Nivol Investment Group. A cross between a corporate-stay hotel and Airbnb, The Guild partners with developers of Class A

Queens is getting a new tech-driven brokerage. Commercial real estate broker Michael Wang, who co-chairs the real estate committee at the Queens Chamber of Commerce, announced the launch of Project Queens last week. The brokerage will focus solely on commercial real estate in Queens. A representative for the brokerage said its technologies include the use of geofencing data to analyze market demographics and find development opportunities, digital displays on properties to increase engagement and “highly

Long Island City may have famously lost out on Amazon in 2019, but the neighborhood still dominated the Queens office market by a wide margin. Eight of the top 10 largest office leases in Queens last year — including the top six — were in the neighborhood. No. 1 was a nearly 500,000-square-foot lease from Centene at 1 Court Square, while second place went to Macy’s, which inked a 300,000-square-foot lease at 28-07 Jackson Avenue.

Evictions by New York City marshals fell by 18.3 percent after the state passed sweeping changes to the rent law last June. In the second half of the year, marshals carried out 8,951 evictions in the city, down from 10,958 during the same period in 2018, according to data posted Friday by the de Blasio administration. Tenant advocates believe the drop is a result of the state legislation that ended the 20 percent rent increase

As we embark on a new decade (and perhaps soon, another cycle? Finally?), TRD is looking back on the players who played the game to win in 2019, rounding up the priciest sales in all major commercial asset classes, as well as in residential real estate. For many in the industry, it was a year of polarities. As the glut of unsold luxury condos on the market got even bigger, record-breaking deals for Palm Beach

At $6.4 million, a Cobble Hill townhouse was the priciest residential deal to go into contract in Brooklyn last week. The 3,720-square-foot home at 94A Amity Street has four bedrooms and an elevator connecting all five of its floors. It went for 7 percent above its asking price. Overall, Brooklyn saw 18 contracts signed for $2 million or more last week: nine houses, eight condos and one co-op, according to the latest report from Compass.

Bed Bath & Beyond will sell about half of its real estate to a private equity firm and then lease back the space, a deal expected to earn the company more than $250 million. The retailer sold 2.1 million square feet of space to Oak Street Real Estate Capital, including its headquarters in Union Township, New Jersey, a distribution facility and some of its 1,500 stores, according to the Wall Street Journal. Bed Bath &

New York offered Amazon $800 million more than was previously known in incentives to get the e-commerce giant to build its second headquarters in the city. The state was also ready to pay portions of some employees’ salaries if Amazon came to the city, according to the Wall Street Journal, which obtained the information via a Freedom of Information Law request to Empire State Development. New York offered up to $2.5 billion in incentives in

CWC Contracting, the firm federal prosecutors allege is a front for the mob, didn’t just work on the luxury High Line condo project the XI. The company also worked on a project at the other end of the real estate spectrum: an affordable housing development in the Bronx. CWC helped complete Creston Apartments, an 11-story, 114-unit affordable housing project in Mount Hope, according to The City. Schur Management was the developer on the project, and

NYC’s office leasing scene slowed down quite a bit in December, considering October and November brought in 2.2 million square feet each with their top ten deals made public alone. That didn’t stop Amazon from signing a sizable new lease in Hudson Yards. The total square footage of December’ top 10 office leases made public comes to 945,500 square feet, a figure which is dwarfed by November’s top lease alone: Facebook taking 1.5 million square

UPDATE Monday, January 6, 2019, 11:22 a.m.: In less than three minutes, Ryan Serhant inadvertently acknowledged residential real estate’s elephant in the room: agent incentives. “I went to the bank and I took out a lot of money and I’m going to offer $50,000 in cash to the first broker who brings me a deal at 196 Orchard in 2020,” the celebrity broker announced in a video he posted on Instagram on New Year’s Day.

Publisher Amir Korangy started The Real Deal out of his Brooklyn apartment nearly two decades ago, shortly before he was joined by Editor-in-Chief Stuart Elliott and Yoav Barilan, who today helps oversee sales operations. The publication was initially a Variety-style tip sheet with columns of text packed onto the cover. But a lot has changed since then: TRD is now a multifaceted media company known for award-winning investigative stories and the most popular real estate