The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Former Goldman Sachs exec buys waterfront Miami home for $11M

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 02:15 PM PST

UPDATED, Dec. 11, 5:45 p.m.: A former Goldman Sachs executive bought a waterfront home in Miami’s Bay Point for $11.3 million. Records show Stuart Rothenberg and his wife, Pamela, purchased the house at 4731 Lake Road in Miami from John and Cassandra Walbridge. John Walbridge owns Overseas Security and Strategic Information, a company that provides risk mitigation and support services to international governments, according to its website. Stuart Rothenberg was the head of the real

HFZ’s Ziel Feldman takes reins, partner Nir Meir is out: sources

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 02:06 PM PST

UPDATED, 6:30 p.m., Dec. 11: HFZ Capital Group’s chairman Ziel Feldman has taken over day-to-day management at the development firm, and his partner, Nir Meir, is out, The Real Deal has learned. An email sent to Meir’s address on Friday afternoon bounced back with the following message: “Thank you for your email. Nir Meir is no longer affiliated with HFZ Capital Group LLC, its subsidiaries or affiliates.” Reached Friday afternoon, Meir, who was managing principal

Suffolk County launches rental assistance and small business grant programs

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 02:00 PM PST

Suffolk County will distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars in emergency rental assistance and grants to residents and business owners facing hardships because of the pandemic. Residents can receive a one-time full-month assistance payment of up to $2,500, County Executive Steve Bellone said, according to Patch. Tenants must verify their income and their landlords must willingly to participate in the program to qualify. Payments would be made directly to landlords. Small businesses with up to

HomeLister property-selling platform raises $4.5M in seed funding

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 01:00 PM PST

HomeLister, the Santa Monica-based property-selling platform that says it replaces the agent, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Venture capital firms Metaprop and Homebrew led the round, which was announced this week, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. HomeLister says it will guide users through the process, from listing a property, to showing to closing a sale, according to its website. HomeLister charges users a flat fee between $599 and $2,699 depending on

Accusations, a secret rival and brewing legal fight embroils new listings portal

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 12:20 PM PST

When Michael Gabriel began building a consumer-facing listings portal early this year, he thought he had the real estate industry’s blessing. Instead, he’s found himself embroiled in what could become a lengthy legal battle. Just four days before the planned launch of homes.nyc, the Real Estate Board of New York hit the veteran software developer and his data partner RealPlus with cease-and-desist letters, claiming the two had improperly used its members’ residential listings data. Both

Hotel industry sees nearly 1 billion unsold room nights this year

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 12:00 PM PST

As fewer people have traveled — and thus, booked hotel rooms — because of the pandemic, the hotel industry is facing a staggering statistic: almost 1 billion empty hotel rooms for the year. As of last week, more than 962 million room nights have gone unsold, Bloomberg News reported, citing data from lodging information firm STR. That’s about 46 percent more than all of last year. The industry is projected to surpass 1 billion unsold

AMC needs $750M to avoid bankruptcy

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 11:45 AM PST

Movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings needs a cash infusion of at least $750 million, otherwise it might have to file for bankruptcy. AMC said in a filing on Friday that without additional financing, the company will run out of cash by next month, Bloomberg News reported. In order to raise funds, the company is planning to sell more shares and possibly get financing from European sources. It is also making deals with its debt

Logistics market is hot, but is a bubble forming?

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 11:00 AM PST

Investors can’t get enough of warehouses and logistics spaces these days, but there are some signs that a bubble could be forming. Asset management firms including Blackstone Group, Cerberus Capital Management and KKR have doubled down on logistics centers, and prices for warehouses have surged, Bloomberg News reported. According to real estate research firm Real Capital Analytics, values for industrial properties rose 8.5 percent in the past year, while retail real estate values fell 5.2

Falling ice capades: Extell sued over icicles at Central Park Tower

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 10:15 AM PST

First, a dying luxury market. Then a pandemic. And now, a dispute over falling icicles. Falling icicles? That’s according to a lawsuit filed by a bike rental company against Extell Development and its contractors, including Lendlease, over a 2019 incident at Central Park Tower, the developer’s supertall skyscraper at 217 West 57th Street. The company, Central Park Bike Tours, claims it lost six days of business and revenue due to the falling ice, and is

Goodbye LA: Hospitality mogul Sam Nazarian buys Miami area mansion

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 09:45 AM PST

SBE founder Sam Nazarian closed on a waterfront mansion in Coral Gables for $14 million, with plans to relocate from Los Angeles, The Real Deal has learned. Nazarian, who recently sold his remaining 50-percent stake in SBE Entertainment’s hotel brands, acquired the six-bedroom, eight-and-a-half-bathroom estate at 8815 Arvida Drive in Coral Gables, according to sources. Nazarian declined to comment. The 9,694-square-foot Palladian-style home, with a home theater, master suite, covered terraces and cabana, sits on

Indoor dining will shut down again in NYC

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 09:31 AM PST

After weeks of turmoil and rising Covid-19 cases, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that indoor dining will once again shut down across New York City starting Monday. Cuomo previously announced that he was contemplating the decision due to rising hospitalization rates. The number of people hospitalized for Covid-19 increased to 5,321 as of Dec. 10, a huge jump from 1,540 hospitalizations one month earlier. “We have said from day one that for us this is

REBNY pitches turning empty Manhattan offices into housing

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 07:22 AM PST

New York City office landlords, faced with empty workplaces, could soon have an easier path to rebooting their buildings. The Real Estate Board of New York, whose members are major developers and office landlords, is proposing that the city and state allow developers to more easily convert offices into apartments, the New York Times reported. In Manhattan, 140 million square feet of less-than-luxurious office space could be converted into apartments. Across the five boroughs, REBNY

Manhattan DA questions Deutsche Bank over Trump

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 06:37 AM PST

A New York investigation into President Donald Trump’s business has trained its sights on Deutsche Bank. When Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance launched the investigation into Trump’s finances, the focus was hush money paid out to women. Now the spotlight is on Deutsche Bank, the president’s longtime lender, and his insurance brokerage, Aon, the New York Times reported, citing sources with knowledge of the probe. Investigators questioned two Deutsche Bank employees on the bank’s underwriting

Lawmakers mull action on evictions as rent relief expansion stalls

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 06:01 AM PST

With just three weeks left before federal funds dry up and eviction moratoriums run out, details of New York’s expanded rent relief program have yet to materialize — and legislators are mulling taking action. Landlords welcomed the news last week that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would ease restrictions to qualify for the state’s existing program, but so far, nothing has happened. A spokesperson for the governor previously said that a new executive order was expected last

Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen revealed as buyers of Indian Creek property

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 05:30 AM PST

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bündchen, are revealed as the buyers of a waterfront property on exclusive Indian Creek Island. Brady and Bündchen paid $17 million for the lot at 26 Indian Creek Island Road, which includes a teardown. It is close to the Indian Creek lot that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are expected to buy to build a new mansion. Page Six first reported the celebrity buyers.

These 10 retailers plan the largest expansions

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 05:00 AM PST

To say 2020 has been a tough year for retailers would be an understatement. In June, it was projected that 25,000 would shutter this year. Some had been hit hard by the retail apocalypse, while others were decimated solely by the coronavirus. But amid the ashes, many retailers have announced expansions or are going full speed ahead with previous plans, according to a report by Stan Johnson Co. “You’re surprised to see people are expanding.

Council passes bill to speed up opening of new and renovated properties

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 04:30 AM PST

Just in time for the holidays, the City Council delivered a gift to developers and their contractors: fewer trips to the Department of Buildings. The Council on Thursday voted to approve a bill that creates an interim certificate of occupancy for parts of certain buildings where construction has already been completed. The interim measure would replace temporary certificates and would not have to be renewed every 90 days, as is currently required. Instead, it will

These were the largest Manhattan real estate loans in November

Posted: 11 Dec 2020 04:00 AM PST

The 10 largest Manhattan loans recorded in November totaled $2.12 billion, a 16 percent increase from October’s total. More than half of that sum came from a single massive loan: a $1.25 billion refinancing of the 49-story Grace Building north of Bryant Park, which came in the form of a single-asset/single-borrower commercial mortgage-backed security transaction. The market for such SASB CMBS deals has lately benefited from “pullback by competing insurers and banks that often lend