The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Look out luxury market, Engel & Völkers is coming through with a big wad of cash. British private equity firm Permira will acquire a majority stake in the international luxury brokerage, it announced Monday. The deal, which leaves Engel & Völkers CEO Sven Odia and chief financial officer Thilo von Trotha and the Völkers family with about 40 percent of shares, is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter of this year. Permira has

The investment sales market took a summer vacation last week. Just two deals in the $10 million to $30 million range were recorded: one in Manhattan and one in Staten Island, an infrequent i-sales destination. The winding history of Staten Island’s Paramount Theater took another turn last week as an owner who tried to rehabilitate the space a decade ago transferred ownership to another company that owns property on the island, at 45 Beach Street.

As optimism for iBuying grows, Rocket Homes is not sitting on the sidelines. The Rocket Companies subsidiary plans to launch its own iBuying program in the coming months. The company will hire on-staff real estate agents who will begin assisting sellers in the fourth quarter, according to Inman. Rocket Companies already has a significant footprint in mortgage lending with its heavily advertised Rocket Mortgage. Rocket Homes is growing as well, serving as a licensed real

Judgment day is coming for New York’s renters as landlords, owed more than $3 billion in back rent, may once again be able to file evictions. Brooklyn landlord Sharon Redhead says she’s due about $65,000 — but she won’t be calling on housing court to resolve that debt. Come Sept. 1, eviction proceedings for nonpayment of rent — stayed by a statewide moratorium since March 2020 — are fair game, and lawyers and advocates are

In a hearing Tuesday, the state agency entrusted with distributing $2.7 billion in rental assistance said a lot of that money would not reach landlords before the state’s eviction moratorium expires on Aug. 31. “There is no chance,” said Michael Hein, commissioner of the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which runs the program. Hein declined to say whether the moratorium should be extended given that only $100 million, or 3.7 percent, of the

First there was co-work, then live-work and now SaksWork. That’s the name of a new venture from Saks Fifth Avenue and WeWork, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hudson’s Bay Company, which owns the upscale retailer, is converting some of its Saks department store space into co-working locations to be operated by WeWork, according to the Wall Street Journal. Hudson’s Bay plans to open five co-working spaces in New York next month, and the venture may set

L.H. Charney Associates landed a $148 million refinancing loan package for its 387,000-square-foot office building at 1410 Broadway. The 33-story Garment District building is 78 percent leased, primarily to fashion and professional services companies, according to Pacific Coast Capital Partners, the real estate finance and investment management firm that provided the loan package. As the pandemic has driven Manhattan’s office availability to record-highs in recent months, office landlords — especially those with older buildings —

Turns out this Park Avenue penthouse was in need of a price chop after all. Valerie Mnuchin, New York City socialite and sister to former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, sold her Lenox Hill penthouse co-op at 898 Park Avenue for $7.7 million, property records show. Douglas Elliman’s Joan Swift had the listing. The property became the subject of drama last year when Mnuchin sued potential buyers for a near $1 million deposit, the New

A 48-year-old condo complex just south of Miami International Airport was declared unsafe and ordered evacuated, adding to a growing list of properties that have been flagged as vulnerable in the wake of the deadly Surfside condo collapse. The 138-unit condo building at 5050 Northwest Seventh Street in Miami had not completed its 40-year recertification, a required process in Miami-Dade and Broward counties that brings older buildings up to code. Built in 1973, it stands

The site of Manhattan’s retail lease of 2020 is now subject to a major refinancing. Gazit Horizons, a subsidiary of Israeli investment firm Gazit Globe, has refinanced its retail property at 410 East 61st Street for $134.4 million in permanent credit term lease bond financing, Commercial Observer reported. The bond was secured by both the retail property and the lease for the incoming Home Depot and is intended to generate a stronger profit on investment

The sun appears to be setting on the current iteration of Continuum’s proposed Crown Heights development. On Monday, Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President and likely the city’s next mayor, officially recommended against pursuing the project in its current form. His decision comes after months of outcry from residents and the neighboring Brooklyn Botanic Garden, who say the project’s 39-story towers would block sunlight from reaching the garden’s rare flowers. The borough president’s recommendation is neither

Robert Durst took the stand at his murder trial Monday and denied any involvement in his friend Susan Berman’s 2000 killing. Durst’s attorney Dick DeGuerin asked his client about Berman’s death at her Benedict Canyon home two decades ago, according to the Associated Press account of his testimony in Los Angeles County Superior Court. “Bob, did you kill Susan Berman?” DeGuerin asked. “No,” Durst said. “Do you know who did?” DeGuerin asked. “No, I do

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that he will step down in 14 days, a stunning development that came one week after a damning report found that he sexually harassed 11 women. With impeachment looming, it appeared he had no path to remain in office, but Cuomo portrayed his decision as made in the interests of New Yorkers. “Government really needs to function today. Government needs to perform. It is a matter of life and death,”

Apartment landlords and renters haggle over an estimated $45 billion in security deposits annually and one proptech startup is betting the disputes could be settled more fairly and cheaply. RentCheck, which launched in June 2019 with the aim of bringing transparency to security deposit disputes, said Monday that it raised a combined $3.6 million in pre-seed and seed funding. The solution: have renters perform their own inspections. The startup’s backers include Jim Coulter, founder of

Rent debt is endemic throughout the United States. Not all states are suffering equally, though. Approximately 15 percent of rental households in the U.S. are currently behind on their payments, according to a new study from the nonprofit Surgo Ventures, with arrears totaling an average of $3,700 per household. While every state’s average rent debt is above $2,000 per household, average arrears can vary by thousands of dollars in states where renters are struggling the

A federal judge who previously struck down the CDC’s eviction ban suggested the White House lacked the legal authority to issue its new targeted eviction moratorium in a hearing Monday. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich held the hearing after a group of realtors and property managers challenged the new eviction moratorium, which was adopted on August 3. Friedrich didn’t make a ruling on the challenge but hopes to do so soon, according to the Wall

Clipper Realty reported a slight revenue decline during the second quarter compared to a year ago. The Brooklyn-based REIT attributed the dip to reduced rent at the Tribeca House, its two-building, 505-unit mixed-use complex at 50 Murray Street and 53 Park Place. But company executives emphasized their optimism about the market recovery during an earnings call Monday, noting that across the portfolio, tenants who signed leases more recently are paying rents closer to pre-pandemic levels.

One company betting on a Manhattan office comeback is IWG, which is adding two more coworking locations to its New York City portfolio. The Swiss-based conglomerate and WeWork rival has reached agreements to take up coworking space at 401 Park Avenue South and 14 Penn Plaza, Crain’s reported. The former will be under the Spaces brand and take up 63,000 square feet, while the latter will be under IWG’s Regus brand and occupy 28,000 square

A Midtown hotel cleaned house last fall, but one of its former housekeepers calls it a dirty move. Darci Fernandez Penaloza, 65, is suing the Kimberly Hotel for age discrimination. She is seeking class-action status. Fernandez claims that the boutique hotel fired her and 30 or 40 other employees, all over 40 years old, and replaced them with younger employees, which she alleges violates federal age-discrimination law and New York state and city human-rights laws.

It should be the golden age for homebuilders. The pandemic propelled a mass migration of city dwellers to the suburbs, hungry to buy homes. And that surge in demand has driven new home prices up by 12 percent since March 2020. Great, right? Except construction costs have jumped as much as 30 percent in the same period. Homebuilding, which depends on careful management of everything from labor to land to lumber to ride out the

As Covid surges again across the nation, businesses and governments are increasingly mandating staff members get vaccinated. Big tech, financial and real estate firms have required employees to be inoculated as they prepare to return to the office after Labor Day. Landlords, however, despite being responsible for ensuring safety in their buildings, have yet to make vaccination a uniform policy for tenants and visitors. “It’s the decision of the employers what to tell their employees