The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

This time is different? South Florida condo market won’t bust, builders claim

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 04:00 PM PST

The South Florida condo market for years has been prone to extreme fluctuations, with a bust usually following a boom. But this time around might be different. The currently thriving market, fueled by high demand, will be more sustainable, said Jon Paul Pérez, president of Coconut Grove-based Related Group. “The major difference we are seeing for the future is that we have a much stronger domestic buyer. And that buyer is from companies, employers who

And then there were two: Opendoor, Offerpad sniff iBuying opportunities

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 04:00 PM PST

Instant home-buying isn’t dead just because one of three major iBuyers got the entire market dead wrong. At least that’s what Opendoor said Wednesday as it reported buying more than 15,000 homes in the third quarter — a record — and said losses narrowed as revenue rose. Opendoor’s loss narrowed to $57 million from $144 million in the previous quarter as revenue almost doubled to $2.3 billion. The iBuyer expects revenue to be between $3.1

Moishe Mana employee indicted in $7.8M tax avoidance scheme

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 03:30 PM PST

Eugene Lemay, a longtime Moishe Mana employee who led the billionaire developer’s multi-city arts hub, Mana Contemporary, has been indicted for tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the IRS. Joel Lingat, the gallery-cum-studio’s bookkeeper, has also been indicted. NJ.com first reported the news. Prosecutors allege that Lemay, 61, evaded nearly $8 million in payroll taxes between 2010 and 2016 by misclassifying Mana Contemporary workers as independent contractors. He is accused of setting up a series

Office landlords profess optimism despite dip in occupancy

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 02:45 PM PST

The onset of the pandemic last year left office landlords’ portfolios mostly empty, but their bottom lines largely unaffected. Initially saved by the long-term nature of their leases, landlords have since seen work-from-home policies elevate office vacancy rates. Office leasing tours — one indicator of prospective tenants’ interest — were few and far between until early this year. But leasing volumes have picked up in recent months. Despite widespread discussions over a hybrid working model

Compass reports $100M loss

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 01:50 PM PST

UPDATED Nov. 10, 2021, 5:48 p.m.: Compass’ loss ballooned to $100 million in the third quarter from $13.5 million a year ago as operating expenses jumped. The brokerage reported earning more than $1.7 billion in revenue for the third quarter, a 47 percent increase year over year, but operating expenses grew to more than $1.8 billion, up 53 percent from a year earlier. The brokerage’s net loss for the period was almost $100 million, compared

Foreign investors demand repayment after “false promises” at Pier A

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 01:45 PM PST

Foreign investors want their money back after plowing $16.5 million into a failed redevelopment project on a historic pier in the Battery. The funds — used to rehabilitate 22 Battery Place, a landmarked three-story building and clocktower on a century-old jetty facing the Statue of Liberty — helped create Pier A Harbor House, one of the city’s most successful dining and entertainment venues of the mid-2010’s, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan.

Bad blood: City Council approves project in rare break with custom

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 12:57 PM PST

It turns out blood runs thicker than member deference in the City Council. In a rare move, the chamber negotiated and passed through committee a rezoning over opposition from the member whose district it is in. Council leaders reached a deal Wednesday on the New York Blood Center proposal that reduces the height of the planned Upper East Side building to 218 feet, shaving off a little more than 100 feet. The project, at 310

Keller Williams punts on IPO rumors after breaking another sales record

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 12:00 PM PST

Following more than a year of broken sales records, rumors have swirled that the world’s largest brokerage franchise by agent count is speeding toward an IPO. After saying sales reached another high in the third quarter, Keller Williams has a response: Not yet. “We understand there’s a lot of speculation,” said spokesperson Darryl Frost. “Right now, we are focused on creating alignment, scale and efficiencies across the KW ecosystem.” In June, Carl Liebert, the CEO

Luxury Swiss watchmaker clocks SoHo lease for move downtown

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 11:30 AM PST

Hot off a record $4.5 million sale, luxury Swiss watchmaker F.P. Journe is set for another milestone move — this time, from its longtime Madison Avenue location to SoHo. The new 6,210-square-foot lease includes the ground, a selling lower level and second floor of a renovated townhouse at 53 Mercer Street. The cobblestone block sits between Broome and Grand streets. Michael Watson of Lee & Associates NYC represented F.P. Journe in the transaction while Ross

CommonWealth Partners buying Hudson Commons for more than $1B

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 10:49 AM PST

An investor backed by California’s massive state pension fund is in contract to buy an office building in the Hudson Yards neighborhood for more than $1 billion. The deal comes as Manhattan continues to struggle to get workers to return to the office and companies make plans to downsize their space. It also highlights a growing chasm between top-quality properties and those that will bear the brunt of the shift to work-from-home. Los Angeles’ CommonWealth

The hot housing market means hefty rent rises aren’t just hitting new apartments

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 10:30 AM PST

The rental market’s heat seems to know no bounds, as higher rents have hit older multifamily properties in recent months. Rental marketplace Zumper analyzed rent growth between Class A units — generally newer and high-end — and units in older, more affordable Class B buildings. According to data reported by Bloomberg, rent growth in Class B units outpaced that in Class A units from March to October. Two-bedroom Class B units saw a 12.8 percent

Smart-lock startup Level Home buys Dwelo, raises $100M

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 10:00 AM PST

Level Home, a startup that designs smart locks that look like “dumb” ones, acquired the device management platform Dwelo, with plans to expand in the multifamily arena. The newly combined company raised $100 million in a Series C round led by Cox Communications to advance what amounts to a vertical integration of the business: high-tech access hardware powered by comprehensive home management software. Walmart also participated in the round, which brings Level Home’s funding so

Illinois has highest foreclosure rate in the country

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 09:45 AM PST

The foreclosure rate in New Jersey last month was third highest in the country, after Illinois and Florida, as the rate climbed nationwide for a sixth month in the wake of the Supreme Court’s scrapping a pandemic-era ban. About 1 in every 1,923 Illinois homes faced foreclosure last month, while Florida’s rate was 1 in 3,180 and New Jersey’s 1 in 3,438, according to Attom Data. Across the nation, 1 in 6,675 homes was hit

Building time: Rolex files for 199K sf Midtown building

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 08:45 AM PST

Rolex has decided it’s time to get moving on a new office building in Midtown Manhattan. Robert Kaden of Rolex Realty Corporation filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings to construct an office building at 665 Fifth Avenue. The building is expected to be about 199,000 square feet, the filing says. According to the filing, it will stand 28 stories tall, reaching a height of 419 feet. About 156,000 square feet is

Gowanus rezoning agreement paves way for 8K new homes

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 08:05 AM PST

UPDATED Nov. 10, 2021, 11:48 a.m.: The city reached a deal late Tuesday night to fund repairs at two public housing complexes as part of a major rezoning of Gowanus, removing the last major obstacle for a proposal expected to generate about 8,500 new homes. Brooklyn Council members Brad Lander and Stephen Levin, who controlled the outcome because they represent the neighborhood, had said they would only support the rezoning if the de Blasio administration

Pretium Partners picks up 2,000 Zillow homes to kick off iBuying wind-down

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 07:15 AM PST

The great sell-off has started for Zillow as 2,000 of its homes are changing hands to an investment firm. New York City-based Pretium Partners has agreed to buy thousands of homes from Zillow, according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s not clear how much Pretium paid for the homes, but Zillow reportedly received market price on them. The homes are located in 20 different markets in the United States. The deal reportedly expands inventory for

Brooklyn investors pay $49M for Bed-Stuy rental complex

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 06:30 AM PST

A Bed-Stuy rental complex is changing hands for around $3 million less than its 2016 purchase price. Records show the 72-unit complex at 756 Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn was sold on Nov. 1 for $49 million by David Katz and Mordechai Spira. The pair purchased the property in 2016 from the Chetrit Group and the estate of late developer Henry Zilberman for $52.4 million, or about $490 per square foot. The buyer is listed as

Developers file applications for 3,000-plus apartments in NYC

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 05:45 AM PST

Multifamily projects once again dominated the 10 biggest new construction filings last month, continuing the trend in the pandemic recovery. Together, top 10 projects for October would add nearly 3,000 residential units, more than double the number proposed in September. This surge of applications may be attributed to the June 2022 expiration of the city’s controversial tax exemption program known as 421a. Facing uncertainties about the future of the program, developers may be rushing to

Attn brokers: Cease-and-desist could be coming to Brooklyn

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 05:00 AM PST

When a housing market gets hot and supply shrinks, a certain kind of broker comes a-knockin’. Just ask Brooklyn homeowners. For several years, residents from East New York to Marine Park have fielded aggressive tactics by real estate agents pushing all-cash offers to entice them to sell. When the median sale price in the borough broke records in 2018, East Flatbush homeowners reported an ambush of fliers, door knocks and phone calls from aggressive brokers,

Warehouses in the sky: Multi-level projects ramp up

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 04:30 AM PST

There was nowhere to go but up. In 2016, Dov Hertz, the No. 2 person at Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, made a late-career leap and started his own shop. He decided to focus on industrial, though as a New York City developer he had no experience with it: New Jersey’s sprawling industrial parks, comprising some 800 million square feet, had long served as the city’s warehouses. But there was talk about shortening delivery times, and

What 3 big mall bankruptcies say about the state of retail

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 04:00 AM PST

In “Mallrats” — the quintessential movie about ’90s mall culture — a character is driven mad trying to find a sailboat hidden in a Magic Eye poster. Assessing the state of American malls today can trigger the same frustration. Three of the country’s largest mall landlords — all coping with similar problems even before Covid shuttered their doors last year — went into bankruptcy during the pandemic. But the trio emerged from their restructurings with