The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Hilton Times Square owner: “Take my hotel, please”

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 03:00 PM PST

The owner of the Hilton Hotel in Times Square has given the keys to the hotel back to its mortgage holder. The hotel’s owner, California-based REIT Sunstone Hotel Investors, surrendered the 44-story property to Torchlight Investors, the special servicer. The lender and the borrower signed a lease in lieu of foreclosure, which allows the hotel owner to hand the keys back to its lender, according to property records filed in December. Torchlight and Sunstone did

Caroline Wozniacki and David Lee list Fisher Island condo for $18M

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 02:30 PM PST

Game, set, match. Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki and her husband, former NBA player David Lee, are looking to sell their Fisher Island condo. The couple listed their unit at Palazzo Del Sol for $17.5 million after buying it for $13.5 million in 2018. Wozniacki and Lee bought the unit from the developer. The waterfront condo totals 8,430 square feet and has five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms. The condo is asking about $2,396 per square

Cushman to consolidate its Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn offices

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 01:26 PM PST

Cushman & Wakefield plans to consolidate its Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn offices into one location. Toby Dodd, the firm’s tri-state president, announced the upcoming change at a recent town hall meeting with employees, according to Commercial Observer. The commercial real estate giant currently occupies about 10,000 square feet at One World Trade Center, and about 15,000 square feet at Brookfield’s One Pierrepont Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn, and plans to sublease those locations, according to the

Fifth Wall to launch proptech SPAC

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 09:30 AM PST

Fifth Wall, a prolific proptech investor that has backed VTS, States Title and Industrious, is joining the SPAC craze. The Los Angeles-based firm, which is already the best-funded proptech VC outfit, is raising money for a blank-check company that could take some of its portfolio companies public. Fifth Wall hired underwriters for the special purpose acquisition company, which could go public this quarter, reported Bloomberg. The size of the SPAC was not disclosed. Fifth Wall

LIC Opportunity Zone dev site asks $60M

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 09:00 AM PST

A Queens developer is looking to sell his development site in a Long Island City Opportunity Zone for more than $60 million. East West Development is pitching its 334,000-square-foot assemblage near the Queensboro Bridge as an opportunity to build a last-mile logistics warehouse, a life-science center, a movie/TV studio or office, among other uses. The developer is also considering proposals for joint-ventures, built-to-suit projects and ground leases. “In Long Island City there is limited supply

Naftali Group files plans for 400-unit towers in Williamsburg

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 08:30 AM PST

Miki Naftali is moving forward with one of the largest residential construction projects of the pandemic era. The developer plans to build a pair of apartment buildings on the Williamsburg waterfront with more than 400 units, according to records filed with the city’s Department of Buildings. Plans call for two buildings reaching as tall as 22 stories at 480 and 490 Kent Avenue, with more than 485,000 square feet of space and 431 units between

Meadow Partners picks up 860 Washington ground lease for $230M

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 08:05 AM PST

Meadow Partners purchased a 99-year lease on an office building in the Meatpacking District for about $230 million. The investment firm closed on its purchase of 860 Washington Street at the end of 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal. According to the terms of the deal, Meadow will control the building but pay ground rent to Romanoff Equities, one of the building’s co-developers. The building “is very well-leased for the long-term,” Jeffrey Sussman, chief

Staycationers sue luxury rental service for “abysmal” Malibu getaway

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 07:35 AM PST

Two very peeved vacationers are suing a luxury rental property service alleging that shabby Malibu accommodations ruined their glitzy Covid staycation. Los Angeles residents Barry and Rena Plost expected a pampered “getaway” in Malibu, paying Luxury Vacation Homes more than $160,000 to deliver a beautiful home, a butler, daily maid service, and a champagne welcome for their two-week stay. But according to a federal lawsuit filed in New York’s Eastern District Court, LVH instead defrauded

Belveron Partners closes $280M fund for affordable housing

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 07:00 AM PST

Belveron Partners closed a $280 million fund to invest in affordable housing across the country as the sector gains interest from larger investors. The San Francisco-based firm exceeded its initial $225 million target for the fund. It is the sixth fund the company has closed since its inception. The fund will acquire and manage over 5,000 units of affordable and workforce housing in the next three years targeting urban and suburban areas in the Northeast,

Goodbye, LA: Barrack’s Colony packs bags for Florida

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 06:30 AM PST

Tom Barrack has relocated Colony Capital’s corporate headquarters to Florida from Los Angeles. The real estate investment trust moved to Boca Raton Jan. 1, according to Bloomberg. The decision brings the main office to the home turf of its CEO, Marc Ganzi. Still, the company plans to keep its L.A. location to “support its investment and corporate operations,” according to a statement to the news site. Colony’s digital infrastructure operation has been based in Boca

Amazon to put $2B into affordable housing

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 06:02 AM PST

When Amazon planned to build a corporate headquarters in New York City, opponents claimed the influx of high-paying jobs would drive up housing prices, just as it had in the company’s base, Seattle. The argument helped defeat the project. Two years later, Amazon is pledging to plow more than $2 billion into affordable housing where its employment hubs are, the Wall Street Journal reported. Amazon will make the investments and donations over the next five

Mortgage applications fall during holidays even as rates sink

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 05:41 AM PST

Low mortgage rates weren’t the presents some might have been hoping for this holiday season. Despite attractive borrowing costs, an index tracking mortgage applications to buy homes fell 0.8 percent over the past two weeks, seasonally adjusted, from the week of Dec. 14, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA metric, known as the purchase index, is usually a weekly figure, but the survey released Wednesday encompasses the final fortnight of 2020. It was

Related makes big bet on South Florida office market

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 05:30 AM PST

The Related Companies is expected to close on the Phillips Point office towers in West Palm Beach for $282 million. AEW Capital Management is selling the 448,914-square-foot office complex. The deal, which will mark the largest office sale in South Florida in more than a year, is set to close in a couple of weeks. Real Estate Alert and Bloomberg reported the deal. A source confirmed details of the sale to The Real Deal. Related

Lander seeks to keep for-profit developers from acquiring city-owned land

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 05:08 AM PST

Most city-owned land slated for affordable housing development is transferred to for-profit companies — a trend that a new City Council bill seeks to end. The measure, from Council member Brad Lander, would mandate that city-owned property intended for affordable housing be awarded to nonprofit developers. The only exceptions would be if no qualified nonprofits applied or if the property were sold under a state law. The city’s agreements on such deals do require affordability

Evolving outdoor dining regulations leave restaurants in the cold

Posted: 06 Jan 2021 04:30 AM PST

When the de Blasio administration announced the Open Restaurants program over the summer, Roni Mazumdar, the owner of Indian eatery Rahi, thought he was out of luck. A fire hydrant in front of his West Village restaurant blocked him from setting up chairs and tables as required by the program at the time. Luckily, there was a vacant space next door and with the owner’s permission, Mazumdar was able to open for business in front