The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

City grants property owners another month to avoid tax lien sale

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 03:35 PM PDT

After facing repeated criticism that elected officials haven’t provided adequate relief to property owners during the pandemic, the de Blasio administration is postponing its annual tax lien sale for another month. Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced that the city’s lien sale on overdue property taxes, as well as water and sewer bills, will be held in September. The sale was originally slated for May 15 and was rescheduled for August as the coronavirus

Elliman gives in to StreetEasy’s manual listings

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 02:05 PM PDT

The Douglas Elliman-StreetEasy drama has taken a new turn. After emailing agents June 19 that the two sides had settled their bruising contract dispute, sparing agents from manually entering listings on StreetEasy, Elliman’s leaders have told them manual entry must continue. In a memo obtained by The Real Deal, the brokerage tried to spin the news as positive — despite months of criticizing StreetEasy’s decision to stop taking automatic listings feeds from residential firms. “We

Manhattan luxury contracts slow as city reopens

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 01:35 PM PDT

Eight luxury properties went into contract in Manhattan last week, as brokers resumed in-person showings and the city adjusted to phase two of reopening. The number of contracts was just one more than the week before, and one less than the same period last year, according to the latest market report from Olshan Realty. Donna Olshan, who authors the report, said many of the deals had been in the works for weeks, meaning the impact

Racist comment posted using name of real estate executive

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 01:00 PM PDT

A webinar last month was marred when someone used the name of a real estate executive to post a racist comment about one of the event’s speakers. CBRE broker Charlie Stephens was conducting his weekly “Leaders Live Show” with guest David Moreno Jr., a Black attorney and co-founder of branding agency Mediabundance, when 18 minutes into the chat a listener wrote: “Yo moreno want chicken wings for dinner ??” In that moment, the two were

As weather heats up, Brooklyn luxury market doesn’t

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 11:35 AM PDT

Christmas in July is not a good thing when it comes to home sales. Once again, activity in Brooklyn’s luxury market was frigid last week, with just five deals signed for a combined value of $11.8 million, according to Compass’ weekly report tracking contract activity for homes asking $2 million or more. The week prior, when in-person property showings restarted, saw four high-end homes go into contract for a total of $9.5 million. The previous

Council members talk broker fee caps and real estate donations

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 10:45 AM PDT

It wasn’t so long ago that broker fees were among the biggest points of contention in city government. Democratic City Council member Keith Powers remembers, recalling a heated hearing last summer, when thousands of residential real estate agents converged on City Hall to protest his bill, which would cap broker fees. “Untangling” New York City’s complex rent system has proven difficult, he said. “I’ve spoken to lots and lots of brokers, who are working really

De Blasio to sign Airbnb, property tax legislation

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 09:38 AM PDT

Mayor Bill de Blasio will sign three bills today on reporting of short-term rental data and interest rates for overdue property taxes. The first bill will define which short-term rental transactions have to be reported to the Office of Special Enforcement. It is the latest development in a dispute between New York City and Airbnb that began in 2018, when the platform sued the city for asking it to fork over data on rentals. That

REBNY’s political contributions plummet

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 08:30 AM PDT

With Democrats in control of the state Senate, and with a growing number of progressive candidates refusing to take cash from real estate, the industry’s main lobbying group in New York has scaled back political contributions dramatically. The Real Estate Board of New York’s political action committee made less than $80,000 in campaign donations this year, compared to $450,000 spent during the primaries in 2018, according to an analysis by the Gotham Gazette. “I hope

Judge: Hotel foreclosure sale is off the “Mark”

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 08:03 AM PDT

With lenders like this, who needs enemies? That sums up the case brought by the owner of the ritzy Mark Hotel against Ohana Real Estate Investors, which scheduled a foreclosure sale of the Upper East Side establishment after two payments were missed on its $35 million mezzanine loan. So far, the courts have sided with the hotel owner, Alexico Group, a Manhattan-based luxury condominium and hotel developer, over California-based Ohana, according to reports by Bisnow.

Non-disclosure agreements, disclosed

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 06:26 AM PDT

Last May, the chairman of New York REIT, a company that became notorious for having its dirty laundry aired in public, stressed the clandestine nature of a potential entity-level selloff of its $3 billion portfolio. The process “generated over 80 executed nondisclosure agreements,” company chair Randolph Read told investors on a conference call at the time. Those agreements, at least in theory, were designed to ensure the REIT would not have dozens of tongues wagging

Shvo to buy Transamerica Building at 10% discount after Covid delay

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 05:40 AM PDT

Michael Shvo is getting a 10-percent discount on the $700 million acquisition of San Francisco’s Transamerica Building — thanks to coronavirus. The developer and his partners, which include private equity firm Deutsche Finance America and German pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), were granted an extension to close on the deal in May and signed a purchase agreement on Wednesday, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The seller, Transamerica Corp, will be assisting with the financing

Outer boroughs dominate mid-market deals last week

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 04:45 AM PDT

Mid-market investment sales picked up in the city last week with four transactions, all in the outer boroughs. That compared to just two deals in the same $10 million to $30 million range the week before. Three were for multifamily buildings with a diversity of sellers that included private equity and the city Housing Authority. The fourth involved a colorful hotel building and an Ohio-based educational nonprofit. 1. BlackRock Realty Advisors sold a multifamily building

Bill to nix evictions for a year after Covid-19 ends

Posted: 07 Jul 2020 04:00 AM PDT

A Brooklyn senator introduced legislation that would place the most severe restrictions yet on evictions and foreclosures. New York state Sen. Zellnor Myrie’s bill would prevent all eviction and foreclosure filings for commercial and residential tenants until a year after any part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s statewide disaster emergency is still in place. That coverage period is longer than any other proposal on the table. In a dramatic departure from existing measures, the bill, called