The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Come for the deals, stay for the dirt

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 04:04 PM PDT

They don’t call it “muckraking” for nothing. Sign up today for the Daily Dirt, TRD’s members-only digital digest has the quick and dirty on New York City real estate. Our award-winning reporter Kathryn Brenzel keeps an ear to the ground for more than just deals. Every night, we’ve got dirt (or “news analysis,” if you prefer) on stories like: Gov. Cuomo’s resignation, the rise of his successor, Kathy Hochul, and what it means for the

Hochul convenes lawmakers, but eviction moratorium will expire

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 03:32 PM PDT

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday night called the state Legislature back into session tomorrow to extend the state’s eviction moratorium through Jan. 15. The announcement came six hours before New York’s stripped-down eviction ban will expire. “We are not going to exacerbate what is already a crisis in terms of the homelessness problem,” the governor said at a press conference. Hochul faulted the state for failing to disperse more of the money allocated for rent

Real estate stocks dodge obstacles, charge forward in August

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 03:14 PM PDT

As the U.S. economy emerges from the pandemic, real estate’s spirit animal might be the iconic bull of Wall Street, leaping over every obstacle in its way. Real estate stocks climbed ever higher in August despite the end of a national eviction moratorium and uncertainty over how the Delta variant would affect everything from retail spending to a return to offices. All real estate indexes and exchange-traded funds followed by The Real Deal gained value

City denied Kanye’s plan to relocate childhood home to Soldier Field

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 03:10 PM PDT

Kanye West’s “listening party” promoting his latest album release at Soldier Field last week featured a full-sized replica of his South Shore childhood home on the 50-yard line. His original plan was even more ambitious. City officials denied the rapper’s request to move the actual building he lived in as a child, located at 7815 S. South Shore Drive, and install it in the stadium, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “Moving a home in Chicago is

Lendlease files plans for 14-story mixed-use building in Greenpoint

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 02:05 PM PDT

A waterfront property in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood is set to be developed with a 14-story building with almost 500 apartments and 12,000 square feet of retail space, according to the plans filed by Lendlease, the Sydney-based global construction, property and infrastructure company. The 2.9-acre site at 1 Java Street has been owned by Lendlease and Australian pension fund Aware Super since October, when they bought it for $110.8 million in an all-cash deal. The seller

No deal! Monmouth shareholders reject Equity Commonwealth

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 01:15 PM PDT

Monmouth Real Estate shareholders defied its board in a special meeting vote on Tuesday, rejecting an acquisition bid by Sam Zell’s Equity Commonwealth. The $2.8 billion acquisition, which included debt, did not receive enough support according to preliminary figures, Monmouth announced. The real estate company remains open to generating long-term value by whatever means necessary, according to Bloomberg. Whether or not that includes Equity remains to be seen, but it appears Zell’s company has had

Gaia gets back in the game with $50M East Village acquisition

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 12:45 PM PDT

Gaia Real Estate curtailed investment throughout the pandemic, preferring to watch New York City asset prices sink low enough to warrant a wager that they had hit bottom. As of last week, Danny Fishman is done waiting. The Gaia CEO picked up three neighboring multifamily buildings at 50-58 East 3rd Street in the East Village for $49.5 million. That’s 14 percent less than when the portfolio last changed hands in 2016 for $58 million. The

Growth rate of U.S. home prices reaches 30-year high

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 12:00 PM PDT

U.S. home prices jumped by the most in three decades in June, surging 18.6 percent on an annual basis thanks to pandemic transplants and a housing shortage. It was the third straight month of record-breaking price increases, surpassing May’s 16.6 jump, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index. Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle led the way in June, as they did the prior month, although prices rose by 25 percent in each market, compared with

LB Asset Management, AIG target Southeastern industrial properties

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 11:41 AM PDT

Industrial properties are all the rage in real estate, and AIG and LB Asset Management are teaming up to pursue it. AIG Global Real Estate and LB Asset Management are forming a joint venture to co-invest in an 8.6 million-square-foot industrial portfolio focused in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, according to the Commercial Observer. AIG GRE will be in charge of managing the assets on behalf of several Korean institutional investors. The portfolio covers

Stranger than fiction: The great digital real estate land grab

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 11:00 AM PDT

It’s virtually a done deal. A public company whose founder has created real-world property firms is poised to sign the biggest-ever deal for land that doesn’t exist in the material world. The transaction, in a virtual reality platform called Decentraland, is expected to far surpass the $850,000 that a buyer paid in July for a parcel in The Sandbox, according to a person familiar with the deal. The company is even mulling plans to spin

Asking rents for single-family homes have spiked 13% since January

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 08:35 AM PDT

Prospective homebuyers priced out of the booming housing market are flocking to rentals as a flexible and more immediately affordable alternative. Unfortunately, prices are soaring there as well. Asking rents for single-family homes jumped nearly 13 percent year-to-date through the end of July, the highest such increase in five years, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from research firm Yardi Matrix. Multiple factors are contributing to the spike. Joining those unable to buy homes

Aston Martin–designed Hudson Valley home asks $8.25M

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 07:51 AM PDT

James Bond drives an Aston Martin. A deep-pocketed buyer in Dutchess County has the opportunity to actually live in one. The British luxury car company is designing its first private home, at 155 Woody Row Road in Milan, New York. The spec house is being listed for $8.25 million, according to the Times Union. The property, named Sylvan Rock, is being built on a 55-acre property, with S3 Architecture working with Aston Martin Design on

Goldman: 750K households face eviction this year if rent relief isn’t sped up

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 06:47 AM PDT

With the federal ban on evictions nullified, economists are painting a grim picture for millions of Americans behind on rent. A new report from Goldman Sachs estimates that 750,000 rental households could face eviction this year if the slow rollout of rent relief persists in the absence of another moratorium. Analysts at the banking giant estimate that 2.5 to 3.5 million American households are behind on their rent, Politico reported, owing landlords a combined $12

Evictions reckoning: Landlord-tenant tension at breaking point

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 06:16 AM PDT

New York lawmakers will determine the fate of the state’s eviction ban this week, and industry insiders say a new moratorium is a near certainty. Insiders expect Gov. Kathy Hochul, gunning for the tenant vote in next year’s election, will push for a ban that could last through January. An extension to Oct. 31, which would be easier to get through the Assembly, is also on the table. As tenants and landlords await the decision,

California Senate bill to end single-family zoning could increase affordable housing

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 05:30 AM PDT

California lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill that would allow for two-unit buildings to be built on lots that had previously been limited to single-family home construction. A large part of the affordable housing shortage in the state is because the population is growing, but the number of housing units is not growing at the same rate, Business Insider reports. The housing issue is indicative of the generational battle between the older NIMBY (not

How (not) to save a beloved building

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 05:00 AM PDT

The Grand Prospect Hall is a Brooklyn landmark by any yardstick. Its interior is decorated like a Trumpian fever dream, the Gilded Era frozen in time. It was enough of a cultural touchpoint that SNL spoofed its kitschy wedding commercial. Ordinary Brooklynites gathered like royalty in its cavernous hall for weddings, bar mitzvahs and more. It’s been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1999. But its new owner, Angelo Rigas, doesn’t think it’s

Storage trumps housing in mid-market sales

Posted: 31 Aug 2021 04:00 AM PDT

It was only one week of mid-level investment sales, but perhaps indicative of the way things have gone in the New York City real estate market in recent years: The two priciest deals under $30 million were for stuff, not humans. Astoria residents will likely get a self-storage facility at 34-38 38th Street, where Storage Deluxe paid $20 million for a sports complex that failed to secure permission to expand. The other deal, for $17.5