The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Leland Swanson, former president of Swanson Health Products, seems to have outgrown his first Billionaire’s Row apartment. The North Dakota-based businessman has picked up a second unit at Extell’s 157 West 57 Street for $39.3 million, according to public records. Swanson previously paid $7.64 million for a 2,009-square-foot apartment in 2014. The businessman was listed as the owner of Unit 49B in the luxury tower known as One57. Now, he’s movin’ on up, taking over

Ready to run a luxury boutique hotel? There’s one on the market on Fire Island — a seven-building spread, in fact. According to Newsday, the Palms Hotel in the Ocean Beach on Fire Island has been listed for $14 million. The listing includes the lease of a restaurant operated by the hotel owners. The hotel is unusual in that it is an assemblage of various properties, according to Newsday. All but three of the guest

In the 1988 film “Coming to America,” Prince Akeem — heir to the throne of the fairytale nation Zamunda — tires of his native country and resolves to search the globe for a place that would find him his princess. Where better to find a match suitable for a future king than a place called Queens? Between the classic comedic scenes involving Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall as outsiders adjusting to life in New York

Warehouse developers in the U.S. are starting to push the heights of logistics buildings past the ground floor. But compared to counterparts overseas who build warehouses as tall as some office buildings, they’re still thinking relatively small. Now, an Australian company that owns what’s billed as the largest logistics center in the world is coming to Long Island City, where it could develop the city’s tallest warehouse. Goodman Group, which trades on the Australian stock

Prospective homebuyers were in for some of the worst market conditions imaginable last week, according to a report from Redfin. The number of homes on the market hit a historic low during the week ending Nov. 28, Redfin reported: fewer than 539,000 active listings, a 26 percent year-over-year decline. The previous low point this year was in February, when about 577,000 homes were for sale. For the four-week period ending Nov. 28, active listings declined

Microsoft’s new landlord in Manhattan’s Flatiron District has landed a $170 million mortgage. Bromley Companies will use the loan proceeds to replace the existing financing for 122 Fifth Avenue, and fund the historic building’s ongoing makeover and tenant improvements, according to Walker & Dunlop. The firm’s team was led by Aaron Appel and Jonathan Schwartz in arranging the loan from real estate finance and investment management firm PCCP. Built in 1900, the 10-story building between

UPDATED Dec. 1, 2021, 6:40 p.m.: Facebook parent Meta said Wednesday it signed more than 1 million square feet of new leases in the Bay Area to reduce worker commute times. The company has leased new space in Burlingame and Sunnyvale, spokesperson Chloe Meyere said in a statement. “These offices will help support our employees’ evolving workforce needs and help make progress on our company’s net-zero carbon emission goal by reducing commute times and supporting

Donald Trump’s exit from his Washington, D.C., hotel could net him a nine-figure payday. The former president could score a profit of more than $100 million from the sale of Trump International in the nation’s capital, according to the Washington Post. CGI Merchant Group was reported last month to be in contract to buy the hotel lease for $375 million. Experts told the outlet the Old Post Office building’s historical significance, the hotel’s unique position

Related Companies is the latest private landlord to sign up for fixing New York City Housing Authority buildings — and for the disdain of activists who object to what they call privatization. The New York-based company, in a joint venture with Essence Development, will carry out $366 million worth of repairs at over 2,000 NYCHA units in Chelsea. The entry into the public housing arena is a departure for Related, which is known for posh

A nonprofit playing a major role in affordable housing across the country recently closed two funds that combined for a $365 million commitment. Enterprise Community Partners closed two funds in its Enterprise Housing Partners Funds series, which has had three dozen iterations. Both funds utilize the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, Real Estate Weekly reported. The $365 million was contributed by 17 investors. The funds will be used to create or preserve more than 3,500 affordable

Manhattan’s office market recovery continued last month, even as Covid levels rose in many parts of the state. Office tenants in Manhattan signed more than 3 million square feet of leases in November, the first month to exceed that mark since January 2020’s 3.6 million, according to Colliers’ monthly market snapshot. To put that into perspective, Manhattan’s monthly office leasing volume in 2019 was about 3.5 million square feet on average, while the 2020 monthly

Construction on a Lalezarian Properties tower in Hudson Yards is full steam ahead after the developer landed a $170 million construction loan. Wells Fargo provided the developer with construction financing for its project at 606 West 30th Street, PincusCo reported. The loan, which closed in early November, is split between $132 million in new construction debt from the bank and a refinancing of an earlier $38 million acquisition loan. In March 2019, Lalezarian unveiled plans

UPDATED, Dec. 2, 12 p.m.: Art Basel Miami Beach, the art fair of art fairs that has grown into a weeklong affair with ancillary shows and events, is back for the first time since 2019. And the real estate industry expects to take advantage of the influx of high net worth individuals in town to buy pricey art. Developers and brokers are hosting pop-up art exhibits at their sales centers, launching sales for new projects,

Metrovest Equities and Lloyd Goldman’s BLDG Management refinanced their luxury resort hotel in the Hamptons to the tune of $217.5 million. Deutsche Bank provided the loan on Gurney’s Montauk Resort, Commercial Observer reported. Goldman’s BLDG Management and Metrovest — owned by George Filopoulos — spent about $30 million over the last three years to upgrade the 158-room hotel, which sits on a 2,000-foot-long private beach off Old Montauk Highway. Improvements include the addition of a

An age-old adage posits that anyone who represents themselves in court has a fool for a client. A Bronx landlord couple is learning that lesson the hard way. Had Alejandro and Rosa Quito retained an attorney before filing for bankruptcy in May, they may have been advised to pursue Chapter 11 instead of Chapter 7. Now, an upcoming auction could see the couple lose their property at 540 Concord Avenue in the Bronx’s Mott Haven

The metaverse is getting its first luxury brokers, the clearest sign yet that the value of virtual property may actually be real. Oren and Tal Alexander, Douglas Elliman’s top performers for the last two years, formed a partnership with Republic Realm, the metaverse developer that paid a record $4.3 million this week for a virtual estate. They plan to develop and sell property in an “architecturally significant master-planned community” in the virtual world, Republic Realm

Richard Lampen was ready for a new assignment. It was the spring of 2020, and Lampen had just pulled off the sale of two of Vector Group’s portfolio companies for more than $1.5 billion. But what would follow was trickier: how to get top dollar for Douglas Elliman, a traditional real estate brokerage, at the height of a pandemic that had frozen the industry. By late 2020, however, the housing market had roared back to

Contract signings continued to outpace new listings in Manhattan and Brooklyn in November, but slowed in the suburbs, according to the latest Douglas Elliman report compiled by Miller Samuel. The report examines one- to three-family homes, as well as condominiums and co-ops in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island, Westchester County and Fairfield County. Most property types in Manhattan and Brooklyn saw contract activity rise compared to last year, when the market began to rebound from pandemic-related