The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

At Bezos condo, pol demands Amazon chief pay pied-à-terre tax

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 02:21 PM PST

State Sen. Brad Hoylman and a group of about 20 community organizers gathered outside 212 Fifth Avenue, calling on Amazon chief Jeff Bezos to pay more tax on his Flatiron pied-à-terre. The group had a giant fake check — ostensibly from Bezos for $2.57 million — made out to the people of New York and a cake with lettering in icing that read “Alexa, how do we end homelessness?” View this post on Instagram

Alex Sapir moves to dismiss Rotem Rosen’s $100M lawsuit

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 02:03 PM PST

For a period of several weeks this fall, it seemed the ugly battle between Alex Sapir and Rotem Rosen might be moving toward a resolution. The former brothers-in-law and business partners have been locking horns in court for almost a year over a claim Rosen made that he’s owed more than $50 million from the estate of Alex’s late father, the real estate mogul Tamir Sapir. To force payment, Rosen alleged last summer that Alex

An eyesore for ages, Gravesend project site gets $71M refi

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:12 PM PST

The developer behind a 23-story Gravesend project, which sits on a development site that has remained blighted for over a decade, secured a new financing deal. An entity tied to Thomas Wang’s W&L Group landed $71 million for 2300 Cropsey Avenue, property records filed Friday show. The development site, which previously held a nursing home, sits near the Brooklyn waterfront. G4 Capital Partners, which has offices in New York and Roslyn, N.Y., refinanced the developer’s

Same old, same old: Property-tax reformers pan commission’s report

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 12:04 PM PST

The industry coalition suing to force changes in New York’s City property tax system is not impressed by a city commission’s long-awaited recommendations for fixing it. Tax Equity Now policy director Martha Stark said the overdue, 72-page report is devoid of any new proposals to push the reform process forward. “After the period of time that the commission took, I did expect to see more of a detailed report with real recommendations,” Stark told The

Former West Village chocolate factory leads NYC’s mid-market investment sales

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 11:15 AM PST

Three mid-market investment deals were made public in New York City this week. Deals included a real estate firm buying a former chocolate factory in the West Village and a European government agency buying office space near the United Nations. Here are the details: Penn South Capital purchased 39 Clarkson Street in the West Village from an LLC linked to Rano Properties for $27.25 million. The office building previously housed the factory for Koppers Chocolate,

TRDLA’s Winter Issue is LIVE to subscribers!

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 10:00 AM PST

Hello and welcome to the Winter 2020 edition of The Real Deal LA! Below, Special Issues Editor Heidi Patalano gives you a look at what’s inside the issue: The saga of Mohamed Hadid and his Strada Vecchia spec home has been playing out for years. But over the past few months, the drama hit a crescendo: The developer was ordered to demolish the enormous half-built home, which has been hit with stop-work orders from the

Ahead of Super Bowl LIV, here’s where pro football stars call home in South Florida

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 08:15 AM PST

Football players and coaches are flocking to the Magic City ahead of Super Bowl LIV, but a number of the NFL elite already have owned homes here. Even longtime rivals of the Miami Dolphins – like former New England Patriots tight end Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski – have chosen to take up residence in Miami. A number of players have also sold their homes, including three-time Super Bowl champ Tajuan “Ty” Law, ex-Dolphin Ndamukong Suh, two-time

NYC’s convoluted property tax system could get a big reboot

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 07:30 AM PST

The city has released an initial version of its long-awaited property tax report, but politicians are taking a wait-and-see approach. The recommendations call for eliminating the current limit on how much the assessed value of a property can increase each year, although the report stopped short of specifying new rates, the New York Times reported. The commission also proposed requiring owners to pay property taxes based on true market value rather than assessed value. The

Hotel claims city audit mothballed 18 rooms for a year

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:55 AM PST

The five-story building at 765 8th Avenue has been a hotel since the 1920s. But now its operator, City Rooms, says the city’s Department of Buildings forced the Hell’s Kitchen property to slog through red tape to prove it can, in fact, be used as a hotel. The year-long probe sliced into its profits. City Rooms, in a lawsuit filed this week, is demanding that the agency — which eventually dropped its fight — cough

Bankrupt Forever 21 seeks auction with hopes of keeping business alive

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:02 AM PST

Bankrupt fashion retailer Forever 21 asked a court to approve an auction, an option it hopes would keep it from liquidation. Forever 21 has been engaging in “substantial, round-the-clock negotiations” with an unnamed stalking-horse bidder and asked the court to approve the sale of “substantially all” of its assets, according to Bloomberg. The retailer’s lawyers requested a sale hearing on Feb. 4, with the ultimate goal of reaching a deal that would keep Forever 21

Bill: Make landlords give tenants first shot to buy buildings

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 05:35 AM PST

UPDATED, 5:41 p.m., Jan. 31, 2020: Landlords who want out of the multifamily market after last year’s rent-law shakeup should have to offer their buildings to tenants first, a Democratic state senator says. Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who represents Central Brooklyn, is drafting new legislation that would give tenants first dibs on buying their landlord’s property should it come up for sale. The measure would let tenants convert a property into a limited-equity cooperative — a

Mohamed Hadid on his doomed masterpiece

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 05:00 AM PST

In November, a judge ordered Mohamed Hadid to destroy a 30,000-square-foot Bel Air mansion that the developer has kind of built. The extraordinary order from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan echoed and amplified arguments by the neighbors who filed a lawsuit against Hadid over the mansion. Joe and Beatriz Horacek and Judith and John Bedrosian alleged that the hyperbolic modernist kingdom at 901 Strada Vecchia Road violated city building codes and was

Mayoral race goes from bad to worse for real estate

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 04:30 AM PST

The mayoral race is looking bleaker than ever for the city’s real estate industry. In the past two weeks, one candidate acceptable to the industry dropped out and two other Democratic contenders railed against gentrification. Two of the three leading candidates are rejecting real estate campaign contributions. Perhaps the biggest blow came Sunday when Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. — one of two major Democratic candidates accepting donations from real estate companies and professionals

Knotel’s CEO cheered WeWork’s fall. But he’s got challenges too

Posted: 31 Jan 2020 04:00 AM PST

As WeWork crumbled last year, one onlooker watched with glee. Amol Sarva, who as CEO of office-space firm Knotel had needled his high-flying rival for years, finally had his moment. “We’ve been waiting for the music to be over,” Sarva told the Financial Times. “And now the music is over, and it’s time to dance.” He strutted as WeWork lost $40 billion in value, ousted its CEO, slashed head count by thousands and slowed leasing