The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

WeWork says it must correct financial statements

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 04:48 PM PST

WeWork’s life as a public company is off to a rough start. The coworking firm said Wednesday it has to revise its financial statements for three quarters after finding that it misclassified some of its public shares. WeWork disclosed that it previously counted certain shares as permanent equity, but those shares should have been called temporary equity. WeWork also said the company’s management concluded there “was a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting

WATCH: Jeffrey Soffer and Dave Grutman talk hospitality post-Covid and branching into Vegas

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 03:45 PM PST

Miami’s tourism market is booming after a brief lockdown, but restaurants, clubs, and hotels have struggled to navigate staffing shortages. “When the government gave out big checks, people stayed home,” Jeffrey Soffer, chairman and CEO of Fontainebleau Development said. But he doesn’t anticipate that problem lingering. “The money is wearing off. The free ride is over.” Developers Soffer and David Grutman of GROOT Hospitality aren’t satisfied to just ride the hospitality recovery wave. Grutman’s group

Manhattan logs busiest month for new development sales since April

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 02:45 PM PST

The pace of new development sales didn’t slow down for Thanksgiving this year — except in Brooklyn. Buyers signed contracts for 413 new development condos across the city in November, a slight drop from October’s 449 deals, according to a monthly analysis by Marketproof. November’s contracts nearly doubled the amount signed in November 2020 and were up almost 80 percent from November 2019. The month-over-month decline was primarily due to a 27 percent drop in

East Village landlord collected rent from deceased CEO’s account, lawsuit says

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 02:00 PM PST

A new lawsuit filed by the parents of late Skylight Studios CEO Jennifer Blumin accuses her East Village landlord of collecting rent from her account after her shocking death. Deborah and Stuart Blumin filed the suit on Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court. The couple alleges landlord Steven Gold (not the Corcoran agent of the same name) and Keyland NY LLC continued collecting rent at 203 East 13th Street after Jennifer, her boyfriend and two young

Hamptons mansion featured on “Succession” trades for $45M

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 01:15 PM PST

A modernist Wainscott mansion that appeared in a recent episode of HBO’s “Succession” has sold for $45 million. The 11,000-square-foot home, sold by aerospace and military weaponry businessman David Susser and his wife, Marla, was listed last year for $52 million. The Sussers bought the 2.6-acre parcel for $16.5 million in 2015, completing the Barnes Coy Architects-designed mansion — which features a distinctive, inverted roof that allows its height to comply with local zoning requirements

Tech entrepreneur behind record-breaking $22.5M Chelsea townhouse sale

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 12:45 PM PST

[UPDATED Dec. 1, 6:45pm] You read that right. A trust managed by Luis von Ahn, the reCAPTCHA inventor and Duolingo co-founder, is the buyer behind the record-breaking, $22.5 million townhouse sale in Chelsea. The five-level, 7,000-square-foot mansion was sold by Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz’s Sterling Equities in November. Von Ahn developed reCAPTCHA while teaching computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. The omnipresent program generates the squiggly words websites use to confirm users are human.

Ben Soleimani leases 12,000 square feet on Madison Avenue

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 11:15 AM PST

Luxury furniture and rug retailer Ben Soleimani has signed a lease for the brand’s first Manhattan showroom at 601 Madison Avenue. The two-year deal includes 4,226 square feet of ground-floor space, 4,270 square feet of second-floor space and 3,858 square feet on the lower level. The space was formerly occupied by Tourneau, a luxury watch retailer. Financial terms were not disclosed. “When [Soleimani] approached us to help him find space for his first Manhattan outpost,

Morgan Properties trades NJ multifamily portfolio for $57.5M

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 11:00 AM PST

Pennsylvania-based Morgan Properties completed a three-property portfolio sale for $57.5 million, according to the Commercial Observer. The deal includes three garden-style communities, one each in Mahwah, Short Hills and Westwood. THG Properties picked up the portfolio with help from Arbor Commercial Mortgage, which the Observer reported supplied a $44.4 million mortgage loan to help fund the acquisition. The loan is backed by Fannie Mae. Brad Domenico of Progress Capital helped broker the financing, while Nat

Eichner to buy cash-strapped Midtown church for $70M, eyeing condo project

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 10:12 AM PST

Sure, Jesus performed miracles. But even he may have been impressed by this real estate deal. The cash-strapped Community Church of New York is in contract to sell its Murray Hill home to Bruce Eichner for $70 million, The Real Deal has learned. The developer plans to build a roughly 185,000-square-foot condo building on the East 35th Street site, which the church has occupied since 1949. The sale is a salvation for the nearly 200-year-old

Madison moves to take over contaminated Greenpoint site

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 09:15 AM PST

A Greenpoint development site is a bit of a mess — not just because it’s home to toxic waste. The former Harte & Company plastics factory that has been the subject of multiple lawsuits and ownership disputes is now at the center of bankruptcy proceedings aimed at selling the site. The property — which includes 10 lots bordered by Clay, DuPont and Franklin streets — was used for manufacturing and commercial purposes starting in 1887.

645 Madison ground lease trades to Titan Golden for $27M

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 08:00 AM PST

East West Bank’s brief time as the leaseholder for 645 Madison Avenue has come to an end after the firm found a golden opportunity to move on. Titan Golden Capital paid $26.6 million to East West Bank for the ground lease of the office building, PincusCo first reported. The deal was made through Titan Golden Property Investor LLC and works out to about $161 per square foot for the 164,000-square-foot building. Titus Golden Capital has

Blackstone buys logistics portfolio for $2.8B

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 07:15 AM PST

The Blackstone Group reportedly picked up a portfolio of 124 properties from Cabot Properties across the United States and Europe for $2.8 billion. The properties were sold in two deals, according to Bloomberg. One deal handed the firm 102 U.S. properties and the other 22 properties in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. All told, the properties encompass 17.4 million square feet. The Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust was responsible for the purchase of

Virtual real estate speculators notch another record deal

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 06:30 AM PST

The number of virtual real estate deals is rising as quickly as their real-world value. Republic Realm, an investor and developer of virtual land, paid $4.3 million on Tuesday for property in The Sandbox, a popular metaverse oriented toward gaming that launched this week after four years of development, according to the website NonFungible.com. That easily tops the $2.4 million that Tokens.com, which facilitates investment in digital assets, paid for an estate last week in

Vanilla Ice is back with a new home makeover show

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 05:45 AM PST

Vanilla Ice is back with a brand new show. The South Florida-based rapper, actor and professional home flipper is partnering with BrandStar Studios to launch “The Vanilla Ice Home Show,” The Real Deal has learned. The show, based in South Florida, is expected to be picked up by a network by the second quarter of next year. Vanilla Ice, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, said each season will be 13 episodes and the

Activist threatens proxy battle at New York City REIT

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 05:00 AM PST

New York City REIT, which was one of the Big Apple’s fastest-growing landlords before an accounting scandal seven years ago brought it crashing down, is once again in the crosshairs. This time, an activist shareholder says the company’s leadership is still a tangled mess of conflicts. Comrit Investments 1 LP, a Tel Aviv-based investment fund, is threatening to launch a proxy battle to exert some control over NYC REIT. The company sent a letter to

Watchdog org: Put home-sale commissions in buyers’ hands

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 04:00 AM PST

It’s enough to make any consumer watchdog suspicious. Agents’ commissions across more than 10,000 Northeast home sales examined by the Consumer Federation of America were highly uniform, the group revealed Tuesday. “Uniform rates are strong evidence of industry price setting,” said Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow at the organization. “And if prices are being set, it’s important to understand why, so that effective measures can be taken to increase price competition.” Not only do agent

Here’s every new Amazon site in 2021

Posted: 23 Nov 2021 02:30 PM PST

From a real estate point of view, Amazon has certainly lived up to its name this year. Since the start of the pandemic, the e-commerce behemoth has expanded its portfolio of warehouse, distribution, data center and last-mile properties across North America to more than 410 million square feet. But where exactly are these facilities located? The Real Deal created an interactive map that pinpoints all the facilities that Amazon planned to open this year, using