The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

SL Green’s lament: Office comeback “always right around the corner”

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 03:25 PM PDT

As New York City progressed through the different reopening phases over the summer, office landlords pointed to Labor Day as a likely turning point to herald the return of its workers. So far, that hasn’t panned out. On SL Green’s third quarter earnings call Thursday, company executives acknowledged that their predictions had proven overly optimistic. At the properties of New York’s largest commercial landlord, occupancy is still only in the 15 to 20 percent range,

Howard Hughes to launch review process for $1.4B Seaport tower

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:20 PM PDT

The Howard Hughes Corporation, which has long faced pushback over its development plans in the South Street Seaport, is moving forward with plans for a $1.4 billion mixed-use project for the neighborhood. The publicly traded development firm on Thursday said it will begin the public review process to build a residential building on the site it owns at 250 Water Street with 260 condominiums and 100 affordable rentals. The firm would need to secure approval

Billionaire Paul Singer’s hedge fund dumps NYC for West Palm Beach

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:15 PM PDT

Paul Singer is taking his talents to West Palm Beach. The billionaire is moving the headquarters of his hedge fund, Elliott Management, from Midtown Manhattan to West Palm, adding to a trend of financial firms setting up shop in South Florida, according to Bloomberg. While Florida has no state income tax, a major motivator of the relocation appears to be that Singer’s co-chief investment officer and expected successor, Jon Pollock, relocated to his West Palm

De Blasio restores $466M to housing capital budget

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:51 PM PDT

The de Blasio administration has backtracked on its plans to cut $1 billion from the city’s affordable housing budget. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that $466 million would be restored to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s fiscal 2021 capital budget to “address urgent affordable housing needs.” In April, the mayor proposed cutting $583 million from fiscal 2020 and $457 million in 2021, as part of a broader attempt to address the city’s

Taking it on the chin: Floyd Mayweather Jr. sells Miami Beach home at a loss

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:00 PM PDT

Professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. sold his waterfront Miami Beach home for $6.3 million, taking a loss of over $1 million. Records show Mayweather, as trustee of The West Coast Legacy Trust, sold the property at 5501 Pine Tree Drive to Julian and Natalia Saban. The boxing champ bought the four-bedroom, five-bathroom house in 2016 for $7.7 million, according to records. That means Mayweather, who is known as “Money Mayweather,” took a $1.4 million loss

NY falls behind Dallas, LA in CRE investment as deals surge nationwide

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:30 PM PDT

After the pandemic dramatically slowed commercial real estate deals across the U.S., the summer saw an uncharacteristically high uptick — but shifting dynamics cost New York City its top spot. Most years, investment increases about 9 percent from the second quarter to the third. This year it soared 37 percent, Bloomberg reported, citing data from Real Capital Analytics. The normally robust Manhattan real estate market has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and dropped

This man wants to make your home a commodity

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:00 PM PDT

In Opendoor’s early days, employees knew what they were up against. And if they didn’t, Spencer Rascoff spelled it out for them. iBuying was one of the “stupidest” ideas he had ever heard of, Rascoff, then CEO of Zillow, wrote in an email that went around Opendoor’s San Francisco office and became part of company lore. Eric Wu had the job of keeping his troops on track, even after Zillow’s hard pivot in 2018, when

What tenants are paying at RXR and Walton Street Capital’s 237 Park Avenue

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:00 AM PDT

In early 2017, on the heels of a four-year, $65 million renovation of the trophy office building at 237 Park Avenue, private equity firm Walton Street Capital put its 49 percent stake in the property on the market. Walton Street had teamed up with Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty to acquire the 21-story Midtown tower for $810 million in 2013, and managed to bring in major creditworthy tenants like NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the Consulate General of

Rent collections in market-rate apartments stagnate in October

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:07 AM PDT

Rental payments for market-rate apartments are holding steady from September, but down slightly from last year. The National Multifamily Housing Council’s monthly payment tracker, which collects data on collections in 11.4 million market-rate units, found that 90.6 percent of those households paid some rent by Oct. 20. In 2019, about 200,000 more of those households paid rent. In September, only 76.4 percent of those households made a rent payment in the first week of the

Four New York Plaza office tower hits the market

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:45 AM PDT

Four New York Plaza, a 22-story, 1.1-million-square-foot office building at the tip of Lower Manhattan in the Financial District, is up for sale. CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan are marketing the property, which is owned by Edge Fund Advisors and HSBC Alternative Investments, Bisnow reported. The current owners purchased the property in 2012 for $270 million, and it could sell for as much as $300 million, according to Real Estate Alert, which first reported

“The Great One” lists Thousand Oaks mansion

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:00 AM PDT

Former NHL superstar and Los Angeles King Wayne Gretzky is selling the Thousand Oaks estate he and his wife Janet built 20 years years ago. The couple listed the 13,000-square-foot Colonial Revival-style mansion for $22.9 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The home sits on 6.5 acres above Sherwood Country Club and is part of a gated community connected to the club. The Gretzkys flipped another property at the country club in 2017. The

Existing homes sales remain high, but inventory is “historically low”

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 08:30 AM PDT

Sales for previously owned homes surged for a fourth consecutive month, but the number of properties for sale sunk to a new low. In September, 6.5 million homes sold, seasonally adjusted, according to the National Association of Realtors’ monthly report — a jump of 9.4 percent compared to August. Sales were also up 21 percent year-over-year. While demand is high, supply is low: Existing housing inventory sank to a record low of 1.47 million, which

Jennifer Lawrence buys at Ed Minskoff’s West Village condo

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 07:15 AM PDT

UPDATED October 22, 2020, 1:41 p.m.: Actress Jennifer Lawrence has been revealed as the first buyer at Edward J. Minskoff Equities’ boutique condominium in the West Village. The New York Post linked Lawrence and her husband, art gallerist Cooke Maroney, to the limited liability company that closed on the duplex unit for $21.9 million in late July. The condominium at 17 Jane Street was built on the site of a former parking garage by London-based

New York City lifts lockdown for some Covid hot spots

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 06:30 AM PDT

Lockdown is easing for some Covid-plagued areas of New York City today. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that outbreaks in several parts in the city have eased enough to allow Brooklyn’s orange zone and all zones in Queens to be downgraded to yellow, Politico reports. The yellow designation means that businesses can reopen as soon as today and school can resume Monday. Brooklyn’s red zone remains unchanged, however. The state’s color-coordinated strategy to “crush the

Benchmark’s Bill Gurley: We’ll now back startups without offices

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 06:09 AM PDT

No office, no problem, according to one of Silicon Valley’s major tech investors. In a concerning turn for commercial landlords hoping that tech companies will fill office buildings, Bill Gurley of Benchmark said an office is no longer a criteria for the startups that his venture capital firm funds. “We are now backing startups without offices, which isn’t something we had done before,” said the longtime tech investor in an interview with Bloomberg last week.

Older Americans increasingly saddled with housing debt

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:00 AM PDT

The share of older Americans with housing debt has doubled over the last 20 years, rising from 15.3 percent in 1995 to 32.7 percent in 2016. Blame refinancings. A recent analysis published by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies found that equity extraction, refinancing and extended loan terms largely account for the increase in seniors’ housing debt over the last two decades. Among older Americans, the amount of debt jumped from $27,090 in 1995

Can iBuying go the distance?

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 04:30 AM PDT

When George Schneider decided to sell his home this spring, Opendoor made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Schneider had paid $76,750 for his three-bedroom stucco house in the Phoenix suburbs a decade earlier. Opendoor, the iBuying startup backed by SoftBank and Lennar, was willing to pay him $225,000, all-cash. The deal closed in August. After a paint job and minor repairs, Opendoor turned around and sold the property for $265,000, making $40,000 before expenses.

Four years vacant: Landlord offers dire outlook for Soho building

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Four years ago this month, a shoe shop left the prime retail space of 518 Broadway. It’s been vacant ever since. Some of the lofts on the four upper floors have sat empty as well. The longtime owners of the Soho building, Jack and Rina Cywiak of Lakewood, New Jersey, say they have had offers for the unoccupied space, but at rents so low that they would still be losing money. Instead, they collect nothing.