The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

A San Francisco startup that’s digitizing mortgage, title and escrow said it raised $123 million — sinking another nail into the coffin of time-consuming and cumbersome real estate closings. The funding round brings States Title Inc. valuation to $623 million, according to Bloomberg. The round was led by Greenspring Associates, with participation from Foundation Capital and FifthWall Ventures. Greenspring’s Jim Lim said that stay-at-home orders meant to curb the coronavirus pandemic have “highlighted the fact

Convene’s top design executive is stepping down after more than 10 years with the firm, the company announced Thursday. Joyce Bromberg, Convene’s chief design officer, is resigning, just as the flex-space company braces for a gradual reopening of its 30-plus locations. The reason for her departure was not immediately clear, but according to a press release, she described her time at Convene as “the best part of my career and truly a privilege for me

Facebook and Mastercard are the latest major employers to rethink their office needs as remote work grows in appeal. Mark Zuckerberg informed Facebook’s 45,000 workers on Thursday that the tech giant would shift toward more working from home, the Wall Street Journal reported. Over the next decade, the Facebook chief expects that nearly half of the company’s employees will no longer be working in offices. Mastercard, too, is reassessing its physical footprint and mulling a

Mortgage brokerage Eastern Union Funding recently decided to cut brokers’ fees in order to gain more business. But that didn’t sit well with some, and the company is now dealing with the fallout. Eastern Union’s plan involved slashing its fees on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and CMBS refinancing deals from 1 percent to .25 percent. In response, a group of nine brokers at Eastern’s office in Howell, New Jersey, left last week and formed a

Last year’s rent reforms were a gut punch for multifamily market values in New York. But don’t expect that to be reflected in lower property tax bills just yet. That’s because property taxes due July 1 will reflect 2018 rental income, mostly collected before the power dynamic in Albany was upended and legislators ushered in some of the most aggressive rent reforms in decades, including the abolishment of the vacancy bonus, luxury decontrol and rent

Sharif El-Gamal built a 667-foot condo tower in Tribeca. Now he’s threatening to rip the top of it down, his lender says. The developer is playing hardball, according to the lender, warning that if a foreclosure proceeds, he will make the project much less valuable. The seeds of the strategy were sown in 2016 when El-Gamal, the head of Soho Properties, merged two zoning lots at the former so-called “Ground Zero mosque” site, where he

Staten Island Borough President James Oddo wants to make one thing very clear: pandemic or no pandemic, he is not a fan of the Department of City Planning. “They are an insular, arrogant group,” he said. “And I hope [the next mayor goes] in there, and they bring that agency back to the communities, and they reflect the values of the community. They don’t care about irrational development on Staten Island.” Oddo joined Manhattan Borough

Big money will be deployed into cash-deprived real estate funds that have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Goldman Sachs announced it closed a $2.75 billion fund, known as Vintage Real Estate Partners II, vastly exceeding the investment firm’s $1.25 billion target. The fund will target the real estate secondaries market, such as limited partnerships and other real estate funds that need capital in order to stay afloat or make new deals. The announcement comes

With property tax deadlines quickly approaching — or having already passed — many state and local governments are in a bind. Taxes from real estate bring in huge chunks of revenue to cover essential services for municipalities, which are at a high need during the pandemic. And without that money, some cities may have to float bonds or file for bankruptcy. A small share of the property taxes are designated to state services, which poses

All 50 states have now begun the long and complicated process of reopening their economies, but millions of new jobless claims are still pouring in. Another 2.4 million people filed for unemployment last week, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the Department of Labor. New York and Florida were among the states that had the largest increases in new claims. Since states began shutting down nonessential businesses in mid-March to slow the spread of the

The coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the residential construction industry was initially blurry, largely because the data reflected only two weeks of its onset. But now April’s residential new construction census figures are in. It’s not a pretty picture. Seasonally adjusted authorizations of single- and multifamily units last month fell to 1,074,000, a 21 percent drop from their March level. Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted housing starts dropped to 891,000 units, down 31 percent from March. Looking back

The country’s largest shopping mall has reportedly fallen behind on its $1.4 billion mortgage, posing a threat to the wider bond market. The Mall of America in Minnesota, which features more than 500 stores across 2 million square feet, missed mortgage payments in both April and May, according to the Financial Times. The mall has been shut since March because of the pandemic, and has reportedly notified its mortgage servicer, Wells Fargo, about hardship stemming

The last observation deck at the Chrysler Building closed in 1945. Now, it’s getting a new one. Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty and architecture firm Gensler received unanimous approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the plans, which were presented in a Zoom meeting Tuesday. The deck will be positioned on the terraces that frame the 61st floor of the 77-floor tower, according to the New York Post. They will feature eight-foot-tall protective glass walls, which

You’d expect demand for new homes to shrink dramatically during a pandemic. But with sellers also staying on the sidelines and homes being trickier to list in a public-health crisis, the market is now giving rise to an unlikely phenomenon: bidding wars. “Since the pandemic began, demand fell off a cliff,” Taylor Marr, an economist at Redfin, told Bloomberg. “What most people overlook is that sellers also pulled back.” About 40 percent of homebuyers across

Twitter’s declaration last week that employees would be allowed to work from home permanently raised eyebrows in the commercial real estate world. But not everyone is sold on a remote-work takeover. A recent research report from MetLife Investment Management calls for “a more nuanced approach” to the issue, noting that two outcomes of the pandemic — higher rates of remote work and demand for “pandemic compliant” office configurations — are likely to have offsetting impacts

The lobby inside the Milstein family’s office building next to Grand Central Terminal looks like something from a tech influencer’s Instagram account. Intimately arranged lounge seating and workstations, canopied by large plants, are flanked by trendy amenities, including a bar, a library-like study area and an amphitheater. The grand lobby of the 1.1 million-square-foot tower is the result of a $100 million renovation the Milsteins unveiled two years ago at 335 Madison — designed as

As the economy starts to re-open, real estate players are hungry for cash. On Tuesday, CoStar said it would sell $1.25 billion worth of stock, becoming the latest in a half-dozen companies seeking to shore up their balance sheets with new debt and equity. In the past week, commercial brokerage Cushman & Wakefield said it’s selling $400 million in senior notes. Colliers International, Zillow and Vector Group — the parent company of Douglas Elliman —

Stay Alfred, a hospitality startup that raised $62 million, is closing its doors for good. Ending weeks of speculation and rumor, CEO Jordan Allen said revenue dried up during the coronavirus pandemic, and in March, the firm failed to raise $30 million in funding that would have let it stay open. It was also unable to sell off assets. “At one point, we were a $100 million company. And now, it’s over,” Allen told the

Closed valet services, temperature checks upon entry, spaced-out pool chairs and capacity limits in elevators are all now part of a typical day at South Florida luxury residential towers amid coronavirus. Across the region, condo boards and property management companies have been stocking up on personal protective equipment since the pandemic began, as well as working on reopening plans and budgeting for staff and resources. Living in a luxury building is taking on a whole

Not every court decision begins with “this case has a tortured history.” But not every case involves the iconic Chelsea Hotel. A judge last week dismissed a lawsuit five tenants brought against the hotel owner, BD Hotels, and noted the 16-month-old case’s difficult journey. State Supreme Court Judge Lynn Kotler ruled that the plaintiffs had not exhausted their “administrative remedies” through the city’s Department of Buildings and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. BD

UPDATED, MAY 21, 2020, 11:42AM: A luxury condo that once belonged to Malaysian fugitive Jho Low has been sold by the U.S. government at a sharply discounted rate. The two-bedroom, second-floor unit at 102 Prince Street — also known as 118 Greene Street — was sold to an anonymous LLC for $7.6 million, property records show. That’s down from the $8.5 million when it went into contract last month, and the $9.9 million asking price

Sara Patterson, the top human-resources executive at Compass, is out after just three months at the residential brokerage. In an email to staff Wednesday seen by The Real Deal, CEO Robert Reffkin said the brokerage hired Brad Serwin, a Glassdoor executive, as general counsel. But he noted that the firm also “parted ways” with Patterson, a former Walmart and Gilt executive, who was hired as chief people officer in February. Serwin replaces David Carp, who

Norman Sturner’s MHP Real Estate Services is shedding brokers as office leasing activity winds down. The company, which owns and manages 2.5 million square feet of real estate, has notified 16 tenant-representative brokers in its office leasing arm that their contracts would be terminated as of June 15. MHP is keeping on the four agents who manage and oversee leasing at the firm’s five properties, as well as six brokers who focus on asset sales

UPDATED, May 22, 10:51 a.m.:For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, New York City litigants can file new cases in court, including evictions. As of the beginning of this week, litigants were already allowed to file new lawsuits in counties that have already met the state’s standards for reopening. But in a memo issued Wednesday afternoon by Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks, new non-essential cases can now be e-filed in New York

A spa owner whose workplace has been plagued by leaky pipes, the coronavirus and charges of employee prostitution is trying to save her lease, according to a lawsuit. Businesswoman Zhong Kai Li signed a lease with JDZ Holding for 83-02 Broadway in Elmhurst that was supposed to run from March 2019 through February 2027, the lawsuit claims. She invested more than $100,000 in renovations and opened a spa that offers “body skin care, including body

The shift among some colleges to online classes has been met with skepticism in academia but it could also spell trouble for student housing investors. Housing geared to students has historically been considered a safe investment, but the uncertainty around the coming school year has some questioning that thinking, according to the Wall Street Journal. Overall, pre-leasing rates for student housing properties in April was relatively unchanged from a year ago, at around 65 percent,

Children crashing a virtual deposition with cries of an overflowing toilet. A participant standing up during a business conference, not wearing trousers. Zoom meetings are the new norm for the real estate world, but not every session goes off without a hitch. Jason Domark, a commercial litigator and partner at Cozen O’Connor’s Miami office, has conducted roughly a dozen Zoom depositions for an ongoing construction arbitration proceeding. The father of three young children works out

Some industry pros have speculated that the coronavirus pandemic would push companies out of dense cities and into the suburbs. Now, some big companies are making the move. Citigroup, which in recent years relocated its headquarters to Tribeca, is exploring options for short-term leases for suburban offices outside New York City, according to Bloomberg. The banking giant is considering furnished spaces ready to be occupied in Long Island, Westchester County and New Jersey. The company’s

Nothing is sacred during a pandemic and that includes office rents. About a month into the coronavirus pandemic, landlords were still reporting strong rent collection from office tenants, even as residential collection waned and retail payments plummeted. But now mortgage lenders are beginning to see office tenants miss rent payments, the Wall Street Journal reported. The change comes as surveys show that companies foresee office footprints shrinking because of widespread working from home. One example

Hotel occupancy increased for the fifth week in a row, though the industry remains in a deep rut. U.S. hotels saw nearly 11 million room nights during the week ending May 16, bringing occupancy up a little more than two percentage points from 32.4 percent the week prior, according to the latest figures from hospitality data firm STR. Still, occupancy was down roughly 54 percent from the same time last year. STR senior vice president

The special servicer for an $850 million CMBS deal has accused Hudson’s Bay Company of engaging in a “clandestine corporate shell game” as it took the department store operator private, a move that undermined the creditworthiness of the loan, which now faces default. And as with many other real estate-related court cases lately, Covid-19 is a focus. The CMBS loan provided by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Column Financial is secured by 24 Lord

In the best of times, construction is a complicated business. Labor problems, demanding developers, financing issues, bad weather — any number of things can disrupt a project. Now add a global pandemic, government-ordered shutdowns and a collapsing economy. In New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., changes to construction rules whipsawed developers and contractors. Confusion about government orders and fear of Covid-19 also plagued projects in South Florida, Los Angeles and

Developer Peter Fine has secured a $70 million construction loan for a massive residential project in East Harlem, a sign of life for the commercial lending market. M&T Bank provided Fine’s Bolivar Development with the financing for the 178-unit project at 1998 Second Avenue, between 102nd and 103rd Streets. Thirty percent of the development’s units will be set aside as affordable, and the 12-story structure will have about 13,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and

Daniel Kretinsky’s shopping spree continues, this time at Foot Locker. Earlier this month, the Czech investor bought a 5-percent stake in Macy’s department store and now he’s added a 6-percent stake in Foot Locker, Bloomberg reported. Kretinsky’s bet on the shoe company is valued at about $169 million. The 44-year-old billionaire — known as the “Czech sphinx” because of his inscrutable demeanor — said he plans to work with Macy’s management to turnaround its business,

Marriott International has given notice that the Times Square Edition hotel will be shuttering this summer. It’s the latest in the ongoing saga at Mark Siffin’s 20 Times Square project. Marriott’s notice comes after the operator warned the hotel owner, Maefield Development, back in March that the owner could go into default on its contract as a result of the pandemic, Bloomberg reported. Now, the hotel operator is making good on the warning and yanking

Homebuilder confidence in May improved from horrible to merely bad. The National Association of Homebuilders/Wells Fargo preliminary Housing Market Index rebounded to 37 in May after plunging in April to 30 in its sharpest single-month drop ever. Homebuilder confidence is considered negative when the index falls below 50. The index was lower in the Northeast, which has the most coronavirus-related deaths in the country and where officials have taken more stringent measures to curb the

Seated in the New York State Capitol’s Red Room, Gov. Andrew Cuomo introduced the team that would restart the state’s economy. He knew them well. “In some ways it’s like putting the band back together,” Cuomo said in late March, introducing Bill Mulrow, a senior executive at the Blackstone Group, and Steve Cohen, executive vice president at Ron Perelman’s holding company MacAndrews & Forbes. “But it’s also the most competent group of professionals you could

Prospective homebuyers are continuing to come out of the woodwork to apply for purchase loans. For the fifth consecutive week, a seasonally adjusted index that tracks mortgage applications to buy single-family homes increased from the prior week. The purchase index, produced and tracked weekly by the Mortgage Bankers Association, reported a 6 percent gain after rising by 11 percent and 12 percent in the previous two weeks. MBA’s refinance index, on the other hand, reported