The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

South Florida real estate brokers begin to feel impact of coronavirus

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 03:30 PM PDT

The owner of a multimillion-dollar condo in Miami Beach had his real estate agent cancel a showing last week. The reason? The prospective buyer, who was flying in from New York, was feeling under the weather. “My client said he’s not permitted to enter the property,” said Douglas Elliman agent Bill Hernandez. “He said, ‘I’m very particular about who enters my property and where they’re coming from.’” Hernandez, part of the Bill & Bryan Team,

Safehold finances 685 Third ground with $135M from John Hancock

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 03:00 PM PDT

The owner of the ground under 685 Third Avenue closed on financing for the fee interest. Safehold, the iStar-managed ground lease REIT, secured a $134.8 million mortgage from John Hancock Life Insurance Company for its fee interest in the 31-story Midtown East office tower, property records show. The firm had acquired 685 Third from Japan’s Unizo Holdings in late December, holding onto the $180 million fee interest and selling the building leasehold to BentallGreenOak for

New York tenant group demands eviction moratorium in wake of health crisis

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 02:42 PM PDT

The group behind last year’s rent law reset is using a public health crisis to demand more tenant-friendly changes. Housing Justice for All (HJ4A) — a coalition of tenant groups including Make the Road, New York Communities for Change, Met Council on Housing and the Democratic Socialists of America — is calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janet DiFiore to issue a moratorium on evictions in light of the coronavirus,

RXR is looking for space…to park a $500M ocean liner

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 12:35 PM PDT

Scott Rechler’s dreams are afloat. RXR Realty is embarking on a $500 million renovation project that will turn a 1950s-era ocean liner into a hotel, Bloomberg reported. Rechler, the company founder and CEO, is now shopping plans around New York, San Francisco and about six other cities to find a place to moor the finished product. Plans for the overhaul include a museum, brewery, food hall, glass-walled events space and restaurants, along with guest rooms.

US hotels report plunging occupancy rate on coronavirus fears

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 12:00 PM PDT

It’s official: the coronavirus outbreak has hit the fundamentals of U.S. hotels. The occupancy rate nationwide plunged 7.3 percent from this time last year to 61.8 percent, according to data released Wednesday by hotel research firm STR. Figures reflect changes from March 3-9, 2019, compared to March 1-7, 2020. Revenue per available room also sank, 11.6 percent, to $77.82 as 23 of the top 25 markets STR tracks reported a decline. The hospitality industry uses

Charles Urstadt, architect of vacancy decontrol, dies at 91

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 11:00 AM PDT

Charles Urstadt, a former state official whose impact on New York’s real estate policy is still felt today, died on March 3 at his home in Bronxville, New York. He was 91. Hailing from a New York real estate family, Urstadt began his career in the industry. He worked for William Zeckendorf Sr. before being drafted into state government under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as the commissioner of the state’s housing regulator, at the time called

Coronavirus spurs refinancing spree as rates sink to 50-year lows

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 10:45 AM PDT

Homeowners are rushing to refinance amid historically low mortgage rates. The volume of refinance applications grew 79 percent in the first week of March — the highest since the post-recession period, Yahoo Finance reported, citing data from real estate finance trade group the Mortgage Bankers Association. The increase was the largest week-over-week since November 2008, and volume was six times higher than it was during the same week last year. The surge in refinancing comes

Meridian Capital employee tests positive for coronavirus

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 09:52 AM PDT

A New York-based employee at Meridian Capital Group, one of the most active commercial real estate brokerages in the country, has tested positive for coronavirus. “We were recently notified of a possible exposure to coronavirus (COVID-19) at Meridian’s One Battery Park Plaza office,” a spokesperson for the firm told Crain’s. “As a result, we have taken immediate steps to ensure the health and safety of all our employees, which has always been our highest priority.

Blackstone sells office tower at 44 Wall Street for $200M

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 09:45 AM PDT

Dallas-based Gaedeke Group has purchased 44 Wall Street from Blackstone for $200 million, the company announced on Wednesday. George Comfort & Sons will operate the building on Gaedeke’s behalf, and the firm also advised Gaedeke on the deal. “This transaction serves as great entrée into the local market by a respected company, Gaedeke Group, and we are looking forward to working closely with them,” George Comfort CEO Peter Duncan said in a statement. Blackstone declined

Coronavirus slams into Manhattan’s home-listing season

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 09:06 AM PDT

March is usually the busiest month of the year for Manhattan homeowners to list their properties in order to get ready for the busy spring buying season. But as the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the region, new listing inventory has slowed to a crawl. “Potential sellers [have been] holding back since the beginning of the month of March,” Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel told The Real Deal. “I believe the virus is the likely cause

Knotel hires Accordion Partners executive as CFO

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 08:05 AM PDT

Office-space company Knotel has installed a new chief financial officer, as the firm cuts back on growth to pursue profit. The firm said Wednesday it had hired John Jureller, a former managing director at private equity consulting firm Accordion Partners. He has also held similar roles at telecommunications company Frontier Communications and private equity firm General Atlantic. Jureller’s hire comes after Knotel’s head of corporate finance left the company in January. Later that month, the

Coronavirus could expose US hotel owners with high debt

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 07:15 AM PDT

Hotel owners who seized on low interest rates and took on big loans are facing greater exposure as coronavirus fears puts a dark cloud over the industry. At the end of the third quarter of 2019, the U.S. hotel industry had $300 billion of mortgage debt, the Wall Street Journal reported. That figure is a 7.8 percent jump from the same time in 2018, and 14.2 percent in 2017. Citing data from real estate-debt analytics

REBNY bolsters executive team

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 06:30 AM PDT

The Real Estate Board of New York has bolstered its executive ranks with three new appointments. The industry group said this week it has a new chief operating officer, chief communications and marketing officer and a senior vice president of brokerage services. Sandhya Espitia was promoted from her role at REBNY as deputy senior vice president of brokerage services to become COO, a newly created position. She previously was an executive at the International Council

Why Hamptons brokers are freaking out over the summer rental season

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 05:30 AM PDT

Hamptons landlords are scrambling to protect themselves from the possible effects of New York state’s rent law, which set New York City brokers into a tizzy ever since it passed in June 2019. Dubbed the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, the legislation prohibits landlords from collecting anything more than first month’s rent and a security deposit before a lease begins. It also limits security deposits to the value of one month’s rent.

These were Manhattan’s largest real estate loans in February

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT

The 10 largest Manhattan loans recorded in February totaled $1.7 billion, a third less than January’s total. During this relatively slow month, Gary Barnett’s Extell Development closed on two loans in the top five, including the largest loan for a Diamond District assemblage. 1. Dimon district – $340 million Extell refinanced a big Diamond District assemblage, including 13 properties along Fifth Avenue and around West 46th and West 47th streets, with a $340 million loan

Compass faces a reckoning

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 04:30 AM PDT

It was an audacious goal from the start. Five years after Compass hired its first 10 agents in New York City, CEO Robert Reffkin pledged the company would have 20 percent market share in 20 major U.S. cities by 2020. “That means we’re going to expand,” he told agents who gathered in New York for an all-team meeting in 2017. “We’re going to expand to Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and

Trapped in rent-regulation? Stuy Town case raises broader J-51 concerns

Posted: 11 Mar 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Blackstone Group are targeting a legal gray area that could permanently lock scores of New York City apartments into rent-regulation, if their claim holds up in court. J-51, an incentive program that provides the city’s landlords with a tax exemption for building-wide improvements, also places those units in rent-stabilization for the period the benefits are received. And what happens to some of those units after the benefits expire has