The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Investors accuse Prodigy Network of fraud at troubled Park Ave development

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 03:21 PM PDT

A 12-story Park Avenue co-working space that was marketed as a way to foster a “collective consciousness evolution” is now at the center of a lawsuit in which 50 investors are claiming fraud. The group is trying to claw back their $12.7 million investment from crowdfunding company Prodigy Network for the project at 331 Park Avenue South, known as “The Assemblage.” For Prodigy, the suit is the latest in a growing number of financial and

Contractor involved in deadly Miami bridge collapse alleges design firm botched review

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 03:00 PM PDT

The contractor behind the Florida International University bridge that collapsed in March 2018, killing six and injuring 10, filed a lawsuit seeking $15 million from the company responsible for reviewing the bridge’s design before its construction. The plaintiff and builder of the $14.2 million bridge at Southwest 109th Avenue and Southwest Eighth Street, Miami-based Magnum Construction Management — also known as MCM and formerly known as Munilla Construction Management — wants to use the money

Colony sells most of its hotel biz to Highgate in $2.8B deal

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 02:25 PM PDT

Tom Barrack’s Colony Capital is selling the majority of its beleaguered hotel business to private investor Highgate Hotels in a deal valuing the properties at $2.8 billion. It’s the largest shakeup the hospitality sector has seen since being decimated by the pandemic. The publicly traded Colony signed an agreement to sell six of its seven hotel portfolios to Highgate for $67.5 million, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt, the California-based company announced Thursday

Home Depot eyes former Bed Bath & Beyond space on First Ave

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 01:18 PM PDT

Big-box retailers are playing musical stores on the Upper East Side. Home Depot, which currently leases nearly 80,000 square feet at Vornado Realty Trust’s 731 Lexington Avenue, may be moving to a bigger spot in the neighborhood. The home improvement store is on its way to taking over the more than 90,000-square-foot space Bed Bath & Beyond currently occupies at 410 East 61st Street, sources told The Real Deal. The retail condo and garage is

$60M mezz loan on Ian Schrager’s Public Hotel is for sale

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:30 PM PDT

Korean lender Shinhan Investment wants to sell its $60 million mezzanine loan on the Public Hotel in the Lower East Side, the Commercial Observer reported. The hotel is owned by hotelier Ian Schrager and the Witkoff Group. Deutsche Bank is the senior lender of the property, having provided the owners with a $173 million refinancing in March 2019. Cushman & Wakefield’s Adam Spies, Jared Kelso and Dan O’Brien are marketing the mezz loan. The 367-room

SL Green, Chetrit settle lawsuit over Daily News building

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:00 PM PDT

SL Green Realty and Jacob Chetrit have resolved their dispute over the busted deal for the Daily News Building, one of the biggest property deals to disintegrate as the coronavirus pandemic froze the debt markets. The real estate investment trust, one of New York City’s largest commercial landlords, dropped the lawsuit it filed in May to recover a $35 million deposit from escrow after Chetrit objected to its release, court records show. A spokesperson for

Tenants get seat at table for legal challenges to rent law

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:15 AM PDT

UPDATE, Sept. 24 2020, 4:40 p.m.: To the dismay of landlords, tenants now have a seat at the table in the legal challenges to New York’s rent law. In two of the five cases that challenge last year’s law — one brought by the Building and Realty Institute of Westchester, and the other brought by G-Max management — U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas granted a motion to intervene from attorneys representing tenant groups Community Voices

J.C. Penney to keep Bay Shore outpost open for now

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 10:45 AM PDT

J.C. Penney announced Thursday that the department store chain will not shutter its store at the Westfield South Shore mall in Bay Shore, Long Island. That would have been part of a larger wave of closures for the distressed retailer: In May, J.C. Penney announced it would close 136 of its stores, and in June, it added 13 more stores to that list, including the Bay Shore location. But last month, a company spokesperson told

With eviction moratorium set to expire, landlord-backed group raised more funds to help renters

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 10:15 AM PDT

Philanthropic donors have added $3 million to a landlord-backed initiative begun in May to help some of the neediest New Yorkers facing eviction due to the pandemic. Donors including the JPB Foundation, the Robin Hood Foundation and the William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation contributed the grants to the program being run by Project Parachute. The group comprises real estate owners, nonprofits and city agencies who got together four months ago to help low-income

Corey Johnson drops out of mayoral race

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 09:57 AM PDT

UPDATED Sept. 24, 2020, 6:35 pm: City Council Speaker Corey Johnson announced Thursday that he no longer plans to run for mayor. “Just as I was open about the fact that I was considering a run for mayor, I now want to be open about the fact that I have made the difficult decision not to run,” he said in a statement. “This challenging time has led me to rethink how I can best be

Drawing agent ire, Zillow bets on brokerage to deliver profits

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 09:30 AM PDT

At the risk of alienating agents, Zillow is also banking on them to reach an elusive goal: profitability for iBuying. Starting in 2021, Zillow said it will use salaried agents to purchase homes through Zillow Offers instead of relying on local brokers to represent it in those deals. To start, the agents will work with homeowners in Atlanta, Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona who want to sell their homes to Zillow. “Many customers found the handoffs

NYC’s multifamily lenders see shares tumble in 2020

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 08:40 AM PDT

Despite assurances that rent collections have remained strong, share prices for community banks in New York have plummeted. Since the beginning of the year, New York Community Bank, Signature Bank and M&T Bank have seen their shares fall 30, 39 and 46 percent respectively, Bloomberg reported. The declines come as few of New York City’s workers return to the office, uncertainty over the reopening schools persists and restaurants struggle to stay open. The community banks

Restaurants’ survival chances, the city exodus, and distress vultures: NYC’s reopening

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 07:35 AM PDT

Months after shut downs slammed the industry, real estate pros are still struggling to get back on their feet. Now New York is facing a breaking point. Join TRD‘s Erik Engquist and Hiten Samtani on Thursday, September 24th 2020 at 1 pm EST on this subscribers-only call followed by your Q&A to learn: Can restaurants survive at 25% occupancy? Will homeowners and renters stay outside city limits for the long term? When will we see distress investors begin to

WeWork sells majority stake in China division

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 07:15 AM PDT

WeWork has sold a $200 million stake in its China business, a move to reduce its long-term exposure to the office market. The buyer was TrustBridge Partners, an investment firm that previously held a minority stake in WeWork China. With its new majority position, TrustBridge appointed its operating partner, Michael Jiang, as acting CEO of the flexible office provider’s Chinese wing. “WeWork China has built a business that has cemented WeWork’s position across the region

Report: Office market won’t return to glory until 2025

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 06:30 AM PDT

The office market won’t reach pre-Covid levels until 2025, a brokerage report has found. The analysis by Cushman and Wakefield predicts that office vacancies across the world will continue upward, reaching 15.6 percent in 2022, Bloomberg reported. About 95.8 million square feet of space will become vacant in the next two years. Before the coronavirus, the world’s average office vacancy rate was 10.9 percent, according to the report. After employees spent months working remotely, adjusting

Tax lien triggers foreclosure filing on sheikh’s 15 CPW unit

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 05:45 AM PDT

“You are in danger of losing your home.” That was the warning attached to a foreclosure action filed this week against Sheikh Sultan A. Al Qasimi, ruler of the Gulf emirate of Sharjah and owner of unit 2A at Zeckendorf Development’s 15 Central Park West. Al Qasimi and his daughter, Bodour Al Qasimi, bought the 2,915-square-foot pad in 2014 for $14.25 million — about $4,888 per square foot — according to property records. Lawyers representing

Rent prices fall in college ZIP codes as remote learning rises

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT

Numerous colleges nationwide began the fall semester by shifting to online classes only, which could precipitate a wave of distress for an asset class once considered to be recession proof: student housing. Rents in ZIP codes where college students make up at least 20 percent of the population dipped half a percent in August, compared to the same time last year, a Zillow study found. While that may seem unremarkable considering the U.S. just endured

A foreclosure crisis is looming — but here’s what’s different from 2008

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT

Though a foreclosure crisis is on the horizon, experts say recent fiscal policy will prevent a full collapse of the financial system. “It’s a slow-moving process,” Bill Emmons, an economist at the St. Louis Federal Reserve, said during a presentation on housing insecurity on Wednesday. “It definitely looks like there will be another major event, but hopefully not as bad as the foreclosure crisis associated with the Great Recession.” This time around, however, the financial

Korean wave pours into U.S. commercial real estate

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 04:00 AM PDT

In April, as New York faced the darkest days of the coronavirus outbreak to date, the city’s biggest office landlord decided it needed a $1 billion cash cushion. SL Green Realty’s planned sale of the Daily News Building for $815 million had fallen through weeks prior, and the real estate investment trust sought to recapitalize other assets to shore up its balance sheet for the uncertain times ahead. That’s when an old partner stepped in

As Manhattan struggles, Brooklyn’s sales market is “booming”

Posted: 24 Sep 2020 02:00 AM PDT

The residential market in Manhattan may be struggling because of the pandemic, but Brooklyn’s is hopping. In August, the borough nearly set a record in terms of pending home sales, while contract activity sunk in both Manhattan and Queens, according to a new StreetEasy report. In Brooklyn, the number of homes that went into contract rose 37 percent year-over-year, with 735 deals inked. That’s below the borough’s all-time high of 748 pending sales in March