The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Larry Ellison is one billionaire undeterred by Lake Tahoe fires

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 03:29 PM PDT

​​A month ago, Lake Tahoe was choking on smoke. The Caldor Fire had ignited east of Sacramento, only to explode in ferocity as it roared north through the Sierra Nevadas, crossing highways and engulfing country cottages. Thousands of Lake Tahoe residents and tourists evacuated, leaving streets eerily deserted, while some ski resorts even flipped on snow machines to use as improvised water cannons. None of it deterred Larry Ellison. Just as the famed vacation area

Greenwich home sales set to blow past 2020 record

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 03:00 PM PDT

The Greenwich housing market appears to know no bounds. After home sales in 2020 topped the highest volume on record, demand this year has pressed on full steam ahead. First-quarter contracts hit a 16-year high countywide, bidding wars peaked in mid-summer and figures from Compass’ third-quarter market report now show sales are on track to break 2020’s record. Year to date, 1,041 houses, condos and co-ops have sold in Greenwich. Sales volume is 44 percent

“Granny flats” in play as landlords debate potential new rules on basement units

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 02:50 PM PDT

Housing advocates and landlords support the idea of legalizing “granny flats” — they just don’t agree on how to go about it. The measure, showcased at a state Assembly hearing on Wednesday, is billed as a way to allow property owners to bring basement apartments and structures up to code, leading to tens of thousands of affordable housing units. While the Real Estate Board of New York said legalizing such apartments is a “common-sense solution,”

Former “worst landlord” sued for wage theft on his birthday

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 02:27 PM PDT

Ved Parkash has ticked most of the boxes on the bad-landlord bingo card. He took the top spot on the public advocate’s worst landlord list in 2015 by racking up 2,200 open housing violations. In 2016 he was sued by 38 tenants for allowing violations to run rampant at 750 Grand Concourse. The next year, several tenants in the rodent-infested building came down with rat-borne diseases, and one died. In 2017, there was Section 8

SL Green snaps up Ashkenazy’s 690 Madison through foreclosure

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 12:30 PM PDT

SL Green Realty has gained control of Ashkenazy Acquisition’s 690 Madison Avenue for what appears to be a discount. The major Manhattan landlord paid transfer taxes on about $74 million, just under 65 percent of what Ashkenazy paid for the property in 2015, according to property records. PincusCo first reported the transaction, but did not specify a price tag. SL Green in September held a UCC foreclosure auction of an Ashkenazy entity that owns the

Who is still buying NYC’s rent-stabilized buildings?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 12:00 PM PDT

After New York lawmakers passed the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act in 2019, greatly strengthening rent regulation in the state, investors were certain: Rent-stabilized buildings were no longer assets, but liabilities. All manner of violent metaphors surfaced to explain just how bad the changes were for landlords. The new law was “a horror show” that “gutted and neutered” routes to deregulation, insiders said at the time. Repairs would backlog, facades crumble. Hordes of mom-and-pop

City approves 360-unit affordable housing project on Staten Island

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 11:59 AM PDT

A 360-unit affordable housing complex is coming to Staten Island’s North Shore, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced Wednesday. Monadnock Development, the nonprofit Sisters of Charity Housing Development Corporation and The Master Group submitted the winning proposal for the city-owned site, a vacant lot south of Hannah Street on part of a 35-acre decommissioned U.S. Navy base in the borough’s Stapleton neighborhood. Bernheimer Architects and Starr Whitehouse will serve as the architects

New Jersey’s office market hits wall in third quarter

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 11:15 AM PDT

The Garden State’s office market has hit a snag. New Jersey’s office leasing volume from July to September was 1.3 million square feet, less than half of the second quarter’s volume of 3 million square feet, according to Avison Young’s quarterly market report. (The Real Deal had reported on July 6 that second-quarter leasing volume tracked by Avison Young was only 2.1 million square feet. The updated number is higher, probably because some leases signed

Zara lands $83M construction loan for energy-efficient Queens apartments

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 10:30 AM PDT

Zara Realty landed nearly $83 million in financing for its newest apartment building in Queens, which it’s touting as one of the first projects in the area that will meet with the ambitious caps the city has set on greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade. Queens-based Zara locked in the construction loan from Emigrant Bank and Arbor Realty Trust for its planned 223-unit multifamily development at 153-10 88th Avenue in Jamaica, the

Solar firm GoodLeap gets $12B valuation in push to make homes green

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 09:50 AM PDT

Solar firm GoodLeap has reached a massive valuation as it looks to make U.S. homes greener. In the past 10 months, GoodLeap has amassed more than $1 billion from major tech players including Michael Dell and Laurence Tosi. Following a September fundraising round, the firm has hit a valuation of $12 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company is led by Hayes Barnard, who was previously chief revenue officer at SolarCity. Barnard resigned

Union County shopping center sells to Adoni Group for $19.2M

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 09:00 AM PDT

A shopping center in Westfield, New Jersey, has traded hands for just over $1 million below its original $20.5 million ask. The Adoni Group purchased the shopping center at 260 North Avenue East from ACNY Development for slightly above $19.2 million, Manhattan-based investment-sales brokerage Highcap Group announced. ACNY reduced the asking price several times during the pandemic. The shopping center is located in the downtown area, situated on almost two acres of land. There are

Auction date set for 63% stake in Winick Realty Group

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 08:49 AM PDT

An auction date for a majority stake in Jeff Winick’s Winick Realty Group has been set for Nov. 9. A 63 percent interest in the commercial brokerage will be sold to the highest bidder by Maltz Auctions. The auction will be virtual and only bidders will be allowed to participate. A bankruptcy judge in New York’s Southern District Court approved the hiring of Maltz in June. Neither Winick nor Maltz Auctions immediately responded to requests

Fintech firm completes first-ever Home Equity Investment-backed securitization

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 07:15 AM PDT

Fintech startup Point and finance company Redwood Trust, Inc. have teamed up to deliver what they claim is a historic transaction backed only by residential Home Equity Investment (HEI) agreements. The two companies announced the deal as the first time a securitization is only being backed by HEI agreements. The transaction closed on Sept. 23, issuing close to $146 million in asset-backed securities. Point, which claims on its website to “pay you today for a

From Dubai to Surfside: Inside Damac’s plans to redevelop the tragic site

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 06:30 AM PDT

Hussain Sajwani has made a career out of going against the tide. While his compatriots scaled back after the 2008 market downturn, Sajwani, the founder of Dubai-based Damac Properties, announced his biggest project yet, the 42 million-square-foot Damac Hills. And years later, as many high-profile businesses severed ties with the Trump Organization over Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric on the campaign trail, Sajwani did not budge. He opened the Middle East’s first Trump-branded golf course at

Condo board looks to evict buyer of heavily discounted 1MDB penthouse

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 06:00 AM PDT

The penthouse at Walker Tower — seized by federal agents five years ago in connection with an international money laundering scandal — is once again the center of controversy. The condo board of the luxury building at 212 West 18th Street is asking a New York Supreme Court judge to eject owner Ron Vinder, a private wealth manager at Morgan Stanley, and award the board immediate possession of his unit after accusing the government of

Village, school district feud over potential land sale to Amazon

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 05:30 AM PDT

The Village of Freeport is in a legal battle over its attempt to sell a nine-acre patch of land to Amazon for use as a distribution center. The Long Island village is suing the Freeport Union Free School district for $45 million, according to Newsday. The lawsuit was filed in Nassau Supreme Court weeks after the school district revealed plans for a lawsuit of its own. At stake is the Cleveland Avenue fields, situated between

Multifamily assets sell for $41M in Fairfield County, $21M in Jersey City

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 05:00 AM PDT

The tristate area multifamily market got a spark from two recent sales. Portfolios in Fairfield County and Jersey City traded hands last month for a premium over what they sold for five years back, reflecting strong demand for the asset. New York’s Timberline Real Estate Ventures sold Hillcroft Village, a 192-unit apartment complex at 10 Clapboard Ridge Road in Danbury, Connecticut, just five miles from Westchester County, for $41.2 million, a person familiar with the

How NYC’s top real estate law firms got creative in an unusual year

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 04:30 AM PDT

When Michael Werner finally returned to his office at 1 New York Plaza last fall after months spent working from home, the stacks of paper piled atop the credenza caught his eye. “These were pending acquisitions of office properties or retail properties,” recalled Werner, a partner in Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson’s real estate practice, referring to the documents that now function mainly as relics of a time before the pandemic turned the city’s

Why carbon-neutral portfolios won’t save the planet

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 04:00 AM PDT

JBG Smith rang in a seemingly major accomplishment last month: carbon neutrality across a 60-plus building portfolio — and nearly a decade ahead of schedule. The real estate investment trust had pledged last year to meet that goal by 2030 in part by curbing energy usage, installing solar panels, tapping offsite renewables and swapping electric heat for natural gas. But the Washington, D.C-based REIT said it wanted to make a dent in the short term,