The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

In the end, Forever 21 had no choice. The retailer agreed to an offer of $81 million from a group of buyers including Simon Property nGroup and Brookfield Property Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. It scrapped an auction after receiving no other qualified bids. A judge will consider approval of the sale in a Delaware court Tuesday. Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy in September. Last week, a court filing indicated that the retailer

The sudden reversal of New York’s tenant-pays-broker-fee system last week prompted fierce reaction from agents. In the hours and days after the Department of State issued its latest interpretation of the rent law, brokers and brokerages struggled to understand how to apply the new rule to their current and future deals. Until now, owners were able to retain rental agents free of cost because the tenant would cover the fee. The new rule now says

The Real Deal broke down the sales data on the largest condominium projects of the current cycle by how many units are sold, in contract or unsold to show how they are weighing on the market. (The “Unsold” figure includes both listed and unlisted units, but not in-contract units that are yet to close.) One Manhattan Square Extell Development Year submitted : 2015 Total condo units: 815 Sold: 223 In contract: 39 Unsold: 553 Gary

Former Goldman Sachs executive Dino Fusco is joining Silverstein Properties as its chief operating officer, the real estate firm announced on Monday. Fusco previously worked as Goldman Sachs’ global head of corporate services, real estate and spend management, where he was responsible for managing the investment bank’s real estate portfolio and executing its real estate strategy. He had been at the company since 1994. Fusco will work with Silverstein CEO Marty Burger and Silverstein President

Rental commissions are back! A New York judge granted a temporary restraining order Monday afternoon, halting a Department of State guidance barring tenant-paid rental commissions from going into effect. The guidance, circulated Feb. 4, would have blocked tenants from paying rental commissions in cases where the landlord hired an agent to market the listing. But amid heavy backlash from rental brokers who said their livelihoods were at stake, the industry filed an Article 78 petition

Mayor Bill de Blasio urged state lawmakers Monday to pass “universal renter protections” — but stopped short of explicitly throwing his support behind “good cause” eviction legislation. Testifying on the proposed state budget in Albany, the mayor urged state legislators to approve protections for renters in unregulated apartments. He had called for “universal renter protections” during his State of the City address last week, saying tenants of the city’s 900,000 market-rate apartments need to be

A townhouse in Park Slope was the priciest residential deal to go into contract in Brooklyn last week. The five-bedroom unit at 106 Prospect Place went for about $7 million. It spans 5,000 square feet and went into contract at its asking price after 77 days on the market. Overall, Brooklyn saw 14 contracts signed for $2 million or more last week, split between eight houses and six condos, according to the latest report from

Eliot Spitzer and Related Companies have landed $276 million in building and project loans for their 526-unit housing development in Hudson Yards. About a quarter of the units will be for senior housing. The loans are from M&T Bank, and are split between a roughly $203 million mortgage and a $73.1 million mortgage for 451 10th Avenue, according to property records. Representatives for Related and Spitzer Enterprises did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Early Monday morning, attorneys for the real estate industry boarded a train to Albany to file a fiery petition seeking to overturn state guidance that they say has wreaked “havoc and confusion” on agents and renters. The Article 78 proceeding — filed by the Real Estate Board of New York, New York Association of Realtors and 12 brokerage firms — called the Department of State’s guidance an “unlawful, erroneous, and arbitrary” interpretation of New York’s

Robert De Niro’s new film production studio now has its development site in hand. Wildflower Studios closed on its purchase of a 5.25-acre waterfront parcel in Queens for about $71.6 million from piano-maker Steinway. It plans to start building foundations for a massive film production facility this summer, and the first movies are expected to be shot at the studio about two years later, said developer Adam Gordon, president of Wildflower LTD. “Building a design-driven

Within 36 hours of finding out about state regulators’ interpretation of the rent law, Lisa Management made the decision: It would no longer hire outside brokers. That meant offering one of the two brokers exclusively responsible for leasing up 200 of the units Lisa manages a choice: hang up their brokers’ badge and join its in-house leasing team, or find a new place to work. Lisa is the property management affiliate of affordable housing developer

The $11.75 million sale of a two-story bank in Midwood led New York’s mid-market investment sales last week. Other deals included a six-story multifamily building and a four-story office. Here are the details: Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Properties purchased a two-story bank from HSBC at 1600 Kings Highway in Midwood for $11.75 million. The financial giant has four Brooklyn branches — in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Boerum Hill and Williamsburg, according to its website. Prilep Properties

Mortgage rates have hit their lowest level in more than three years, which could provide a boost to the country’s housing market heading into spring. The 30-year fixed-rate average fell to 3.45 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data released Thursday by Freddie Mac. That’s down from 3.51 percent the week before and 4.41 percent at this time last year. The average rate for a 15-year mortgage also dropped to a three-year low

Marcelo Claure said WeWork’s new plan for profitability makes the firm a good investment for SoftBank, but investors still have questions. During an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC, the WeWork executive chairman spoke about the beleaguered office-leasing firm’s future after a series of leadership changes at WeWork and its main investor SoftBank. Claure, executive chairman of the co-working giant, said that in 100 days WeWork had put together a five-year plan to achieve

Rockrose is planning a new residential project in Long Island City. The company, run by father and son Henry and Justin Elghanayan, has bought a cab service and dispatch station at 27-34 Jackson Avenue, where it plans to build a second smaller phase to its Eagle Lofts project, according to Crain’s. The new property is next to a 55-story, 790-unit apartment tower that Rockrose finished building two years ago. The adjacent smaller building will have

New York’s life-sciences sector got a major boost last month. A roughly 418,000-square-foot building from NYC Health + Hospitals in Manhattan’s Alexandria Center for Life Science was the largest project filed in January — by a wide margin. The second largest, Gary Barnett’s 22-story mixed-use development by 97th Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side, was almost 200,000 square feet smaller. The 10 largest filed last month included projects in Queens, two in Manhattan,

Simon Property Group, the country’s largest mall owner, is buying Taubman Centers, the smaller rival that it’s had its eye on for nearly two decades. The two companies announced Monday they had reached an agreement for Simon to buy an 80 percent stake in Taubman at $52.50 per share. That’s a 51 percent premium over Taubman’s closing price on Feb. 7. The Taubman family will retain 20 percent ownership. The deal puts an end to

Politicians’ fight against Amazon is not over. The e-commerce giant’s bid to build a Queens campus died a year ago, but warehouse projects have proliferated as e-commerce companies seek infrastructure to speed deliveries. And one Brooklyn official has had enough. City Council member Justin Brannan is calling for a special permit requirement for large warehouse projects. That would give the Council power to stop the developments, which Brannan says are hurting the quality of life,

It was set to be the tallest condo tower in Lower Manhattan, capped with a ring of golden bands that arched toward the sky. But as the new year arrived, with the high-end condo market in freefall, developers Madison Equities and Gemdale Properties pulled the plug last month on their 1,115-foot supertall at 45 Broad Street, citing “market conditions.” In the previous quarter, sales in the Financial District sank almost 45 percent. Now, the project

For years, New York’s community banks have been go-to lenders for rent-regulated housing. Now they’re straining to convince investors that they have minimal exposure to the city’s multifamily market — though balance sheets and industry insiders say otherwise. New York Community Bank, Signature Bank and Dime Community Bank all paint a rosy picture of their multifamily loan portfolios, citing healthy loan-to-value ratios, portfolio diversification and few non-performing loans. However, critics say those figures are largely

Spec megamansion pioneer Mohamed Hadid is dealing with a new drama at another one of his developments. The city has hit Hadid with a stop-work order at a site the developer owns in Beverly Crest, where he is looking to build a four-story home with two pools. Hadid must “address corrections issued to the property before any construction can proceed,” DOB spokesperson Kim Arther told Curbed. The agency will pull at least 12 permits issued