The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

ESRT braces for more pain at Empire State Building

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 03:26 PM PDT

Empire State Realty Trust is bracing for its second largest tenant to exit its most iconic office property. While the real estate investment trust reported a second quarter uptick in leases across its portfolio, CEO Tony Malkin shared the news on Thursday that GBG, which leases 353,000 square feet at the Empire State Building, had just filed Chapter 11 proceedings. But Malkin told analysts at the earnings call that “we’ve been on top of this

Slowdown in pending homes sales signals “turning point” for housing market

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 03:00 PM PDT

After surging in May, the pace of homes under contract fell 1.9 percent in June — both year-over-year and month-over-month — according to the National Association of Realtors’ monthly index. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, described recent ups and downs in the pending sales index as indicative of a “turning point for the market.” “Buyers are still interested and want to own a home, but record-high home prices are causing some to retreat,” he said

Hudson Yards Vessel closed again after fourth death

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 02:02 PM PDT

UPDATED Thursday July 29, 2021 at 7:22 p.m.: The Vessel is closed again after a 14-year-old boy jumped to his death from the eighth level of the 16-story structure Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for the New York Police Department said. Witnesses saw the boy jump from the Hudson Yards’ landmark and authorities said his injuries were consistent with a fall. Related Companies, which owns and operates the Vessel, has closed the structure and is conducting

Jared Kushner to launch Miami investment firm

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:58 PM PDT

South Florida appears to be having an inspirational effect on Jared Kushner. The ex-White House adviser and son-in-law of former President Donald Trump is launching a Miami-based investment firm called Affinity Partners. Kushner has spent the past six months with his wife Ivanka Trump in Surfside, where he’s been working on a book about his White House experiences as a top adviser to Trump. The power couple is renting a luxury condo in developer Alex

Invitation Homes eyes expansion with PulteGroup partnership

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 11:30 AM PDT

The nation’s largest single-family rental player is expanding. Invitation Homes will buy 7,500 new homes over the next five years from PulteGroup, the third-largest homebuilder in the U.S., in a bid to capture explosive demand from renters seeking more space. The partnership will not yield a significant change in the firm’s overall strategy, it said, but will grow Invitation Homes’ portfolio by nearly 10 percent — the company owns just over 80,000 homes across the

Biden to Congress: extend the eviction ban

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 10:36 AM PDT

In another eleventh-hour intervention, President Biden is urging Congress to extend the federal ban on evictions past its scheduled expiration on July 31. In a statement Thursday morning, the White House cited the spread of the Delta variant, particularly among Americans “both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations” as grounds for continuing the ban past the end of the month. Covid cases have surged 146 percent nationwide over the past two weeks, according

Flush with cash, CBRE is ready to spend

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 09:50 AM PDT

Expect more blockbuster deals from CBRE on the heels of its $1.3 billion investment in global project manager Turner & Townsend. “​​We still have a very strong M&A pipeline. I think we’re going to look to do more deals like Turner & Townsend,” said newly promoted chief financial officer Emma Giamartino on CBRE’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday. The world’s largest real estate services firm is sitting on a pile of money it’s looking to put

GLP raises $2.3B for logistics property fund

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 09:30 AM PDT

GLP Capital Partners has raised $2.3 billion for its logistics property fund, exceeding its goal in a sector that gained strength throughout the pandemic and remains hot. The company announced the final close of GLP Capital Partners IV on Wednesday, saying its target raise had been $2 billion. The North American fund has already committed more than $1 billion to 25 million square feet worth of properties, including those in Southern California and South Florida,

Here’s what tenants pay (and pull in) at the Domain in Austin

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 09:00 AM PDT

The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets that will be available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. Eight miles north of Austin’s central business district, the Domain shopping center complex sits near one of the city’s main technology corridors, where companies such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook and IBM are driving demand. The 1.2 million-square-foot open-air lifestyle

Realogy CEO: remote work is here to stay, but home price growth is real

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 08:42 AM PDT

Realogy’s continuing to ride the housing market’s strong wave and welcomes a work-from-home future. The brokerage giant reported nearly $2.3 billion in revenue in the second quarter, an 81 percent jump over the same period last year, when activity in many housing markets was frozen due to lockdown restrictions. The company logged its fourth consecutive quarterly gain in transaction volume, up 85 percent from the second quarter last year and up 41 percent from the

Twitter, Google latest big companies to delay office returns

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 08:30 AM PDT

Two more major tech companies are dialing back plans for a return to the office, in the latest reaction to the spread of the Delta variant. Google will not be requiring its employees to return to the office until October, with no employees required to report in-person until Oct. 18, the New York Post reported. There is a chance the return date will be pushed back again, though employees will receive 30 days’ notice. The

Wegmans to replace Astor Place Kmart

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 08:25 AM PDT

The recently closed Astor Place Kmart will be replaced by Wegmans, a regional grocery chain that originated in Rochester, New York. Wegmans Food Markets aims to open the store at Vornado Realty Trust’s 770 Broadway in the second half of 2023, Wegmans and Vornado announced. It will be the second Wegmans in New York City, following the opening of its first store in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in October 2019. “We are so excited to

Durst to fire unvaccinated corporate employees Sept. 6

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 07:25 AM PDT

UPDATED July 29, 2021, 7:15 p.m.: Nonunion employees of the Durst Organization have a decision to make: get vaccinated or get a new job. The development firm gave its corporate employees until Sept. 6 — the day after Labor Day — to be vaccinated against Covid. If they are not, those employees will be fired, Crain’s reported. The only exemptions from the policy are for religious or medical reasons. A Durst spokesperson told The Real

Conversions from offices to life science labs booming

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 06:46 AM PDT

While the office market grapples with the Delta variant, life science labs are enjoying a boom. In fact, many new labs are actually conversions from offices. The life science industry saw record investments in North America last year, bringing in $70 billion of capital investments. In six large industry markets, 20 percent of laboratory spaces being constructed are office conversions, the New York Times reported. Investors have put more than $10 billion into life science

KPG signs long-term ground lease for 57K sf at 132 West 14th Street

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 06:00 AM PDT

A Salvation Army building in Greenwich Village will be redeveloped into contemporary offices by KPG Funds. The Soho-based firm, whose business model is to purchase aging but architecturally significant buildings and convert their Class B and C office space into Class A, signed a 99-year ground lease Wednesday for 132 West 14th Street with the Salvation Army. With 75 feet of frontage, the lobby of the aptly named “Le Gallerie” will also serve as an

Paramount Group posts $16M quarterly loss

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 05:30 AM PDT

Albert Behler, CEO of Paramount Group and patient father to its Midtown offices, still expects his underperforming kids to turn things around. “Every child has a different character. So every building has a different character and every lease is different,” Behler said Wednesday, sidestepping an analyst’s question about what price 500,000 vacant square feet at 1301 Sixth Avenue could command. If children are products of their environments, the office REIT could hardly have picked worse

Bad news for agents: Buyers warming to algorithms

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 05:00 AM PDT

An iBuyer revolution is still percolating in the residential real estate market, but homeowners are certainly becoming more trustworthy of the sector. A new survey from 1000watt of 600 homeowners across the United States found 82 percent of them prepared to respond positively to an iBuyer pitch, Inman reported. That bodes well for firms such as Zillow, Opendoor and Offerpad. An iBuyer is typically willing to pay fair value for a home in cash, closing

Frank Sciame buys massive Gold Coast mansion. Now what?

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 04:00 AM PDT

Frank Sciame is celebrating the Roaring 2020s with a Long Island estate worthy of Jay Gatsby. The New York builder announced Tuesday that he is buying the Cashelmara Estate, a 32,000-square-foot mansion in Glen Cove, Long Island, whose owner died last year. Sciame, the founder and CEO of Sciame Construction, didn’t say how much he agreed to pay for the property, which fronts the Long Island Sound and Glen Cove Golf Course. But the most