The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

New York’s real estate industry braced for another night of uncertainty Tuesday after high-profile instances of looting cast doubt on the city’s recovery. Protesters started gathering again in the afternoon ahead of the city’s moved-up 8 p.m. curfew as shop owners boarded up storefronts. The previous night, looters struck Soho, Midtown and the Fordham Road section of the Bronx, among other areas. Late Tuesday afternoon, the city announced it was banning vehicular traffic to Manhattan

On the latest episode of TRD’s Coffee Talk, publisher Amir Korangy sat with top architect Gregg Pasquarelli of SHoP Architects and major developer Michael Stern of JDS. The pair met while working on the American Copper building at 626 First Avenue. “I had just seen [SHoP’s] work on the Barclays Center,” Stern said. “I said, I have to meet the guy with the balls to do that.” The group talked about the “responsibility of the

Don’t get Gary Gold started on the National Association of Realtors’ ban on pocket listings. “I think it’s pathetic what’s happening right now,” he said. “Having these global laws imposed on local real estate issues is crazy.” Gold, a top Hilton & Hyland agent, has spent years in the exclusive, celebrity-soaked world of Westside Los Angeles real estate. It’s a world in which the most expensive deal ever done — Jeff Bezos buying David Geffen’s

Compass is ramping back up two lending programs — with new limits to minimize risk. The residential brokerage said it will reinstate Concierge, which fronts money to homeowners for home repairs, in second-home markets on June 15. Compass plans to restart its bridge loan program, which advances six months of bridge loan payments to owners, on July 15. Over the past couple of years, both programs drove listings to Compass agents as the SoftBank-backed firm

Bill Rudin is the co-chairman and CEO of Rudin Management, one of New York City’s largest family-run real estate firms. Rudin is also chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York and a former chairman of the Association for a Better New York. With more than 15 million square feet of holdings in Manhattan, he’s got more skin in the game than nearly any New Yorker when it comes to real estate. We caught

A spike in mortgage forbearance requests could cause a liquidity crunch for mortgage companies, which is why the metric is regularly forecast. Yet the way forbearance rates are predicted might be all wrong, according to a report from the Urban Institute. The main measure that housing market analysts use to predict forbearance requests is unemployment. But the report questions the relationship between unemployment and forbearance, and suggests that an unanticipated spike in forbearance requests would

Several luxury stores were smashed and ransacked Sunday night after looting broke out in Soho. The next morning, the area was filled with workers boarding up stores while curious onlookers snapped photographs and peered into shattered glass windows. The action proved wise, as looting intensified across Manhattan later that night. (Check back for coverage.) At Coach, a high-end leather goods store on Prince Street, the front door had been broken in and mannequins were strewn

Back in March, business improvement district leaders across New York City urged owners not to board up their storefronts during the pandemic. No longer. “At the beginning of Covid, we told owners not to board up stores, that it would send the wrong message,” said Jessica Lappin, president of the Downtown Alliance. “Now we are telling them they should.” The change in guidance comes as looters strike some of the city’s most prominent business districts.

Guests staying at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach will now be greeted with a new reality: Plexiglas at check-in, a temperature check, 24/7 access to a doctor, and a kit with masks, hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes. The beachfront resort, Miami-Dade’s largest, is among hotels reopening on Monday, more than two months after government-ordered closures. Though hotels are allowed to operate again – and some remained open as essential lodgers – not all will reopen on

A Papaya King pretender has made off with the throne. The entity, Grab & Go Convenience, has taken over the iconic but struggling hot dog and tropical drink vendor’s Upper East Side flagship, where it has operated for nearly 90 years. But simply calling yourself a Papaya King doesn’t make you one. A lawsuit alleges Grab & Go, a former Papaya King management company, broke into the store at 179 East 86th Street after the

Michael Bohn’s architecture firm Studio One Eleven opened not in Silver Lake or another trendy part of Los Angeles County, but downtown Long Beach. Studio One Eleven was part of an emerging art and commerce hub, and his landlord, Tony Shooshani, boasted of “The creation of a new downtown.” On Sunday afternoon, the looting began at Studio One Eleven. “We could watch on our cameras as businesses around us were looted,” Bohn said. “Then looters

A carpenter says that her male boss forced her to have sex with him on a weekly basis in the unfinished apartments and bathrooms of 220 Central Park South, the New York Post reported. The abuse in the ritzy condo tower lasted for two years, according to a lawsuit filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court last week. The carpenter, Denise Mignott, says that she complied with foreman Elvis Philbert’s demand out of fear of losing

As large real estate deals across the country have fallen apart as a result of the coronavirus crisis, Greystar has closed on a 130,000 unit deal that solidifies its position as one of the biggest rental operators. The South Carolina-based firm acquired the business that manages those units from Alliance Residential, the fourth largest apartment manager in the U.S., in a nearly $200 million all-cash deal, the Wall Street Journal reported. Alliance will remain in

When you think of a New York City co-op board interview, your mind likely conjures up a well-heeled couple in their Sunday best, extremely anxious as they trot up to the boardroom to face a jury of their executioners. It is the city’s most grueling audition. But a pandemic-era interview has a very different vibe, according to Brick Underground’s Teri Rogers, who described a recent video audition her Upper West Side co-op board conducted with

Prominent New York City retail spaces were hit by widespread looting on Monday night, as authorities followed cities across the country in introducing a curfew in response to protests and violence. Looters gained entrance to the Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square, which had been boarded up, while others targeted stores like luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman, a Microsoft store and a Barnes and Noble along Fifth Avenue, the New York Times reported. Similar scenes had

Rent stabilization has been a dominant force in the city’s real estate for generations, and was cemented in place by the state legislature a year ago. But if the exodus of New Yorkers continues, it could bump the housing vacancy rate up and trigger the end of the controversial policy. However, it would first have to clear some serious political hurdles. Since 1974, rent stabilization has depended on a housing emergency, defined in part by

Vacasa, a wounded vacation rental unicorn, secured $108 million from a tech investor that helped bail out Airbnb in April. Private equity firm Silver Lake led Vacasa’s Series D, with participation from existing investors Riverwood Capital and Level Equity, the companies said Tuesday. The round brings Vacasa’s total funding to $634.5 million. Although Vacasa declined to disclose its valuation, Silver Lake also led the company’s $319 million Series C in October 2019 at a $1

Trepp and CompStak – two of the biggest names in commercial real estate data – are teaming up as the property-information sector turns its sights toward fallout from the economic slowdown. The two companies formed a partnership that allows users of Trepp’s database on commercial mortgage backed securities to access CompStak’s trove of data on leases and rents in properties like office buildings and industrial sites. “We talked to our CMBS clients and asked them,

As anger and frustration over racism and police brutality grip the nation, real estate executives and business leaders are promising change — and pleading for peaceful protest. George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, died May 25 after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. His death, ruled a homicide by two medical examiners, has prompted demonstrations, and in some instances destruction and violence, across the country. The events led the