The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Buyer’s remorse?: How Anbang’s $5.8B hotel deal went sideways

Posted: 22 May 2020 02:00 PM PDT

The saga of Anbang Insurance Group’s sale of its $5.8 billion U.S. hotel portfolio has yet another wrinkle. The would-be buyer, South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments, is now countersuing the entity in control of the Chinese insurer’s assets for the return of its $582 million deposit, accusing it of breach of contract and committing fraud. It comes after Anbang slapped Mirae with a suit last month intended to get the court to enforce the

Will Gowanus be the next botched rezoning?

Posted: 22 May 2020 11:00 AM PDT

Determined to avoid the divisive controversies that plague neighborhood rezonings, Brad Lander has spent years trying to build consensus for what Gowanus should become. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who preceded Lander as the area’s City Council member, was on board, directing city planners to add housing to the low-slung former industrial hotbed. But now, with real estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars hanging in the balance, the two men are running out of time:

Mets’ Noah Syndergaard sued for abandoning Tribeca penthouse rental

Posted: 22 May 2020 10:20 AM PDT

Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard can add a lawsuit from his landlord to his list of offseason issues. The starter’s landlord is suing him for abandoning the $27,000-per-month luxury penthouse he agreed to rent at 116 Hudson Street in Tribeca, according to court documents. Syndergaard’s lease ran from March 20 to November 30 — an agreement the landlord says the pitcher “treated like an option.” Syndergaard in February reached an agreement to lease the 2,700-square-foot, three-bedroom

Here’s what the office industry is up to as lockdowns lift

Posted: 22 May 2020 10:00 AM PDT

As lockdowns lift and the work-from-home debate ranges on, office landlords are eager to get back to leasing and building out their spaces. “We have various construction projects we want to get back to,” said Grant Greenspan, senior vice president of leasing at the Kaufman Organization. In New York, all nonessential construction work and in-person real estate showings are on hold until Gov. Andrew Cuomo gives the green light for those activities to resume. When

Internal feud at SoftBank casts doubt on Vision Fund

Posted: 22 May 2020 09:15 AM PDT

As SoftBank reports a loss of nearly $18 billion — the largest in its history — and prepares to sell off $42 billion in assets, a long-simmery internal feud is complicating matters further. The tensions arose in 2018 between Marcelo Claure, now SoftBank’s Chief Operating Officer, and the chief of Softbank’s Vision Fund, Rajeev Misra, when Claure was under consideration for the fund’s board and investment committee, Bloomberg reported. In doing due diligence for the

TRD Insights: Commercial deal volume plummeted 71% in April

Posted: 22 May 2020 08:36 AM PDT

The volume of commercial real estate deals fell to the lowest level in a decade, according to a new report. Deal volume totaled $11 billion in April, a 71 percent year-over-year drop, according to commercial real estate data provider Real Capital Analytics. The number of deals, meanwhile, has fallen an average of 36 percent since January, but saw a drop of 61 percent between March and April. Although some property types fared better than others,

Bed Bath & Beyond to reopen 600 US stores

Posted: 22 May 2020 08:07 AM PDT

Bed Bath & Beyond is planning to reopen 600 stores across the country, the latest chain retailer to unlock its doors as states wind down shelter-in-place orders. The home-goods company estimates about half its stores will be open by June 13 — subject to local regulations — and it will roll out curbside delivery at an additional 600 stores. Curbside pickup will be available at 90 percent of its 1,500 stores across the U.S. and

Revenge of the hoodies: Big Tech may be breaking up with Big Office for good

Posted: 22 May 2020 07:15 AM PDT

On Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg took direct aim at real estate’s holiest of holies: The L word. “Over time, location will hopefully be less of a factor in how many people work,” he said in a note on Facebook, the $659 billion social media giant he built and leads. “And we’ll have the technology to feel truly present no matter where we are.” Zuckerberg was announcing the beginning of Facebook’s permanent shift to a distributed workforce,

Empty office buildings may give rise to other health risks

Posted: 22 May 2020 06:30 AM PDT

Workers abandoned their office buildings in mid-March to heed stay-at-home orders. But their absence may allow for the accumulation of other health risks. A new study, conducted by Purdue University researchers Dr. Caitlin Proctor and Dr. Andrew Whelton, argues that standing water — and bacteria — may proliferate in unused office buildings, the New York Times reported. That could open the door to other diseases, the biggest concern being an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, caused

Reuben brothers pick up big loan on Chetrit, Bistricer’s Gramercy Square condo project

Posted: 22 May 2020 06:00 AM PDT

The U.K.’s billionaire Reuben brothers have snapped up another Manhattan real estate bargain. The investors bought a $100 million piece of a construction loan SL Green Realty made to the developers of a Gramercy Square condominium development, sources told The Real Deal. The purchase price was a discount of somewhere between 96 and 97 cents on the dollar, according to a source. A spokesperson for SL Green declined to comment, and a representative the Reuben brothers could

You can’t sit with us: How Side’s elite-agent model could upend the resi brokerage game

Posted: 22 May 2020 05:30 AM PDT

Guy Gal believes real estate has a quality control problem. In his view, most agents are simply “hucksters and charlatans.” “Nine out of every 10 agents shouldn’t be licensed, let alone actually doing transactions,” he said. That thinking prompted Gal to start Side in 2017, a San Francisco-based venture-backed brokerage that thinks of itself as the industry’s red velvet rope. The company’s motto? “Not all agents, just the best agents.” At first blush, Gal may

TRD Insights: Simon reopened malls but foot traffic dragged

Posted: 22 May 2020 05:00 AM PDT

Despite Simon Property Group’s promise to enforce social distancing guidelines and screen potentially sick employees at the dozens of malls it planned to reopen, foot traffic dragged at those locations early on. From May 3 through 10, overall foot traffic at those 46 reopened malls was about one quarter of its total on Jan. 1. The information was gathered using anonymized cell phone location data from geospatial analytics company Orbital Insight. Nationwide, the lowest-performing Simon

The Closing: Barry Sternlicht

Posted: 22 May 2020 04:30 AM PDT

Barry Sternlicht, who has amassed an estimated net worth of $3 billion over the years, is co-founder, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group. The investment firm manages more than $60 billion in assets, and Sternlicht is launching a public company focused on special acquisitions that will hold a $600 million IPO in May. Sternlicht is now on the hunt for discounted properties, including distressed hotels. The Brown University and Harvard Business School graduate got

City measure to bar landlords from targeting retailers’ assets could face legal challenge

Posted: 22 May 2020 04:00 AM PDT

City legislation that temporarily bars landlords from going after restaurant and retailers’ personal assets may face another legal hurdle. Last week, the City Council passed a bill that suspends the enforcement of personal liability provisions in commercial leases or rental agreements for a default that occurs between March 7 and Sept. 30. The measure is aimed at shielding owners of restaurants, bars and nonessential retailers and businesses from financial ruin due to Covid-19. Under the

Real estate asks city for property tax mercy

Posted: 22 May 2020 03:30 AM PDT

Developers and landlords are asking the city to freeze property taxes, slash late fees and allow monthly payment plans. The groups calling for the immediate action include the Real Estate Board of New York, the Community Housing Improvement Program and the New York State Conference of the NAACP. The Rent Stabilization Association, while not listed in the sign-ons, has also repeatedly called for a break on property taxes. Among the requests for relief, the groups

No Covid break for big properties with unpaid taxes

Posted: 21 May 2020 06:39 PM PDT

A lot has changed since 1991, when the city set the interest penalty at 18 percent for unpaid taxes on large properties. Inflation and interest rates are at historic lows and a pandemic is pounding the economy, but that steep rate for late payers remains — to the dismay of the real estate industry. “No one is saying the penalty should be waived,” said Paimaan Lodhi, a senior vice president at the Real Estate Board