The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

When we last checked in on actor Leonardo DeCaprio real estate holdings, we learned of his $14-million off-market deal for a Malibu beach house — one of three properties the star of “The Beach” had on, well, the beach — including his Carbon Beach home and the vacant land he owns on Paradise Cove. The wheeling and dealing “Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood” star’s insatiable appetite for Southern California property has led him

Tornados devastated parts of several states across the Midwest and South last night, killing dozens of people — with at least 70 dead in Kentucky and more feared dead and trapped in an Amazon warehouse in Illinois. Some of the worst damage seems to have been done in Mayfield, Kentucky, a small city in the southwest of the state, where about 110 people sheltered in a local candle-making factory as a tornado touched down, leaving

Well, it was the good life while it lasted. Three squatters were removed by police from an Upper East Side building owned by designer-to-the-stars Richard Stark, the co-founder of Chrome Hearts, known for its black clothes and silver jewelry worn by the likes of Jay Z and Bella Hadid. The New York Post reports that as of Friday, chargers were not filed against the two men and a woman who were found in the more

There taking the taxes out of Texas. A Houston Chronicle investigation revealed some religious leaders in the Lone Star State are living lavish lifestyles in mansions doubling as parsonage houses — homes for the clergy — that, like the church buildings themselves, are exempt from being billed for property taxes. Reporters at the publication delved deep into public documents to find that 30 residences owned by churches across the state were allowed to skip paying

Billionaire investor John Paulson, who flirted for years with the idea of moving to Puerto Rico, is seeking two San Juan hotels he bought for $260 million in 2014 — and may be able to get double what he spent. Paulson hired JLL to market San Juan’s Condado Vanderbilt Hotel and La Concha Renaissance San Juan Resort, according to the Wall Street Journal. Hotel owners and brokers say the two properties could together fetch upwards

The company behind Corona and Modelo’s U.S. beers has agreed to build a brewery in southeastern Mexico. Constellation Brands’ project is valued at around $1.3 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Mexican government two years ago ordered the company to shutter a nearly complete plant in the northern border city of Mexicali because locals voted against the brewery in a referendum. Construction was well underway and the project was valued at $1.4 billion,

A 175-acre compound in southwest Colorado big enough to host 240-person family reunions is on the market for $33.5 million. The property, powered by its own solar farm, includes a 12,000-square-foot four-bedroom home with a gym, greenhouse, five fireplaces and a 22-foot ceiling in the great room, according to the Wall Street Journal. It also has a campground and two barns, a corral and stables for horses, as well as riding trails. Retired Seagate Technology

Jeff Sutton is switching things up. The retail real estate mogul has partnered with institutional Korean investment firm KTB Securities to buy a Weehawken, New Jersey, office complex for $219 million. Yes, office. Sutton and KTB bought 1000 Harbor Boulevard from Hartz Mountain Industries, financed by a $131.4 million loan from Korean lender KB Kookmin Bank. PincusCo first reported the sale, which closed about a week ago. The 617,187-square foot complex, also known as Lincoln

Americans’ housing costs rose in November at the fastest rate since right before the Great Recession, helping push inflation to a record high. The shelter component of the Consumer Price Index rose 3.8 percent in November from a year earlier, according to figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s the largest 12-month jump since June 2007. Overall, the CPI climbed 6.8 percent in November year-over-year, the largest increase in 39 years. The

With more than 25 years of real estate experience, Compass agent Elaine Comerford knows a thing or two about the slippery slope of missing rent. But in renting out an entire West Village apartment building, the veteran broker racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in arrears, the owner claims in a lawsuit. Village Realty, an LLC tied to landlord Kenneth Rosenblum, sued Comerford on Wednesday for breach of contract, seeking over $800,000 plus interest

The movement to ban single-family zoning has come to New York. State Sen. Brad Hoylman introduced a bill this week that would allow multifamily construction on almost all residential lots, eliminate parking requirements in cities and villages, and stop larger localities from requiring large lot sizes for homes. The legislation would prohibit cities and villages from setting minimum lot sizes larger than 1,200 square feet. It would also bar them from requiring off-street parking. In

It’s déjà vu all over again at Eastchester Heights in the Bronx, which is the subject of another nine-figure loan. Taconic Investment Partners and Clarion Partners received a $130 million loan for the five-block housing complex, the Commercial Observer reported. The loan came from Wells Fargo, while Eastdil Secured negotiated the financing. If this sounds familiar, it’s because the two firms landed a $115 million mortgage from Capital One in 2018. That deal replaced a

Don’t fear the metaverse. That’s the view of Michael Phillips, president of Jamestown, the real estate firm behind real-life developments such as Manhattan’s Chelsea Market, Brooklyn’s Industry City and Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. The virtual world is a natural extension of the internet and “smartphone culture” that will probably complement traditional real estate in the same way as mobile technology, he said. “I don’t know how many steps forward and how many steps back

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation that will raise the value of state rental vouchers for homeless New Yorkers, expanding their purchasing power in a market where pricing long ago outpaced the subsidy. The law lifts the dollar values of state vouchers to 100 percent of the federal fair market level from 85 percent. The move earned her the praise of real estate and housing groups. State vouchers are worth far less than the median rent

Brookfield Asset Management is reportedly looking to lighten its load at one of New York City’s most prominent office developments. The firm is soliciting interest for a potential sale of a stake in One Manhattan West in Hudson Yards, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. The sale of the share the firm is looking to part ways with would reportedly value the building at nearly $2.8 billion. Cushman & Wakefield is advising Brookfield,

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development is investigating claims that Chicago aldermen’s veto power may be contributing to discrimination against low-income minorities. Housing activists filed a complaint over so-called aldermanic prerogative, a longtime Chicago tradition that gives them power to stop local developments, the Chicago Tribune reported. They said the practice lets residents pressure aldermen to block affordable housing projects by saying they would lead to overcrowded schools and falling property values, keeping

Guests in Bruce Stachenfeld’s Midtown office are greeted by stuffed hedgehogs, half-empty bottles of Scotch and a snorting plastic pig. In conversation, he gives off the air of a classics professor rather than a New York real estate bruiser. But when the industry’s largest players need to orchestrate a joint venture or structure preferred equity, they often turn to him. The attorney has represented Angelo Gordon & Company for 25 years, which helped kick-start his

Sorry, Hugh Hefner. While the mansion may be considered the height of luxury living, nothing feels like being on top of the world quite like a Manhattan penthouse. The upper floors of various Tribeca buildings have been all the rage lately. The triplex atop 1 North Moore Street may have set a record for priciest rental in New York City history (on a per-square-foot basis) in October, while Formula One champ Lewis Hamilton, ever the

After a week of controversy, Better.com appears to have decided it’s better off without its embattled CEO — at least, temporarily. The digital mortgage company’s board of directors said in an email Friday morning that Vishal Garg was “taking time off effective immediately,” according to a copy obtained by Vice. During his leave, CFO Kevin Ryan is assuming day-to-day operations. In the email, the board called recent events “very regrettable” and said an independent third

Suffolk County is making a modest effort to assess the extent of housing discrimination in the area — modest being the operative word. The county legislature approved a $141,000 contract with nonprofit Long Island Housing Services to test whether real estate agents and mortgage lenders in the county of nearly 1.5 million people are complying with fair housing laws, which bar discrimination based on race and source of income, among other factors, Newsday reported. The

Josh Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management decided copper is well worth its coin, laying down approximately $850 million for the American Copper Buildings. The pair of Murray Hill luxury apartment towers at 626 First Avenue is being sold by Michael Stern’s JDS Development Group and the Baupost Group, people familiar with the transaction told Bloomberg. The outlet reported the sale is expected to close in the first half of 2022. When the contract closes, it will

Tech firms are racing to upgrade New York offices on the cheap to accommodate growth, taking advantage of high-quality sublets from bigger companies that were forced by the pandemic to rethink their office needs. They’re taking advantage of sublets that averaged $58.94 per square foot in the third quarter, compared with $79.85 for direct leases, according to Savills. The spread between the two is hovering at about 23.6 percent, slightly below the four-year average of

Zillow has good and bad news. Let’s start with the good. In a study comparing population growth with new home permits issued across the nation’s 35 biggest metropolitan areas, Zillow found that homebuilders are putting up more houses than they have at any time since the Great Recession. Nationwide, 1.69 million new homes got the go-ahead between August 2020 and August 2021. Amid robust demand, builder confidence in the market is nearing an all-time high.

For his first media interview as CEO of the global commercial real estate firm DTZ in 2011, John Forrester’s chosen venue was the Gherkin — the famed bullet-shaped skyscraper in London’s financial district that was his badge of pride. His seven years spent working on “every aspect of the development, design, leasing” of the building, including its £630 million sale in 2007, “was never anything less than a joyful experience,” Forrester told the British real

The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets that will be available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. One block east of Madison Square Park sits a 326,000-square-foot petri dish, where Deerfield Management, an equity investor in health care startups, is running a real estate experiment. The hypothesis: whether a taxpayer-supported life sciences industry will fill 345

Adam Mermelstein’s Treetop Development snagged 13 apartment buildings in Brooklyn for $76 million, signaling the firm’s return to the New York City market. Treetop bought the portfolio, consisting of 389 rent-stabilized units, from the Knoll family, multifamily investors who amassed the properties over 40 years and appear to be the latest in a growing line of old-school city landlords unloading their buildings in the wake of the state’s 2019 rent-regulation overhaul. Primarily in and around

Kushner Companies, PMG, Crescent Height and Witkoff are all nationwide developers, yet as panelists at The Real Deal’s latest event in Miami, they all noted an affinity for South Florida. “We have a big call” on the region, Steve Witkoff of Witkoff told the crowd last month at TRD’s Real Estate Showcase + Forum. Nicole Kushner-Meyer of Kushner Companies, Kevin Maloney of Property Markets Group, and Russell Galbut of Crescent Heights spoke to TRD’s Erin

An agreement has been reached to get the Soho and Noho rezoning across the finish line, reducing the density proposed by the de Blasio administration. Despite the last-minute changes, the plan as a whole will dramatically increase the amount of development allowed in the high-income, relatively low-scale neighborhoods. It is a victory for the administration and advocates for affordable housing, not to mention the real estate industry. The City Council zoning subcommittee and the Committee

Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz is trapped in Greece after being briefly detained at an airport in Athens two weeks ago. The sometime real estate investor was detained on an international arrest warrant on Nov. 24, Bloomberg reported. He was released within 24 hours under the condition that he remain in Greece. Greek and Romanian authorities coordinated the arrest, which stemmed from a bribery conviction in Romania. Romania’s Supreme Court handed down a five-year sentence last

The country’s housing market is expected to cool in 2022, as mortgage rates tick up and inventory grows, a panel of experts said at the National Association of Real Estate Editors conference on Thursday. Home sales and prices are still expected to rise, but that growth will likely be much less than in 2021, CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft, National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, and John Worth, executive vice president for research

In over half a century atop the business world, Charlie Munger has never dealt with an outcry quite like this. Not as a real estate lawyer who founded Downtown Los Angeles-based Munger, Tolles & Olson nearly six decades ago. Or as Warren Buffett’s right-hand for the past four decades at Berkshire Hathaway. Or as the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Daily Journal for about as long. Instead, it took a controversial design for

UPDATED Dec. 9, 2021, 5:43 p.m.: It may be lights out for homes listed on Airbnb and other rental sites. A new law passed by the City Council will require more than 37,000 New York City homes advertised on Airbnb to be registered with the city. The legislation covers any short-term rental host and any platform that facilitates payments, including Booking.com, HomeAway, FlipKey and VRBO. In order to register, applicants must certify that they are

After the city’s biggest privately funded affordable project languished without progress for more than two years, Tishman Speyer put money where its mouth is to get the ball rolling on the massive project. The office giant paid $90.4 million to acquire 10 of the 11 building sites that will make up Edgemere Commons, according to public records. The transaction closed in mid-November. Ground was expected to be broken on the 2.2 million-square-foot project in Far

Newly released letters from the Conflicts of Interest Board detail Mayor Bill de Blasio’s contact with two prominent developers and a real estate lobbyist — and that he defied the board’s warning to stop. The letters show the mayor asked Toll Brothers and Douglaston Development executives and lobbyist James Capalino for donations to his Campaign for One New York nonprofit in 2015, a year after the board told him such calls were unethical, the New

Let’s say you want to live in one of the country’s most exclusive zip codes. Laguna Beach sounds pretty nice, right? The OC enclave’s dramatic seaside cliffs and postcard-perfect sunsets have attracted everyone from Warren Buffet to a disgraced Chinese insurance company executive. And the top end of the Laguna Beach market couldn’t be hotter: Last month, a hedge fund manager set an Orange County record by paying $70 million for an 18,000 square-foot mansion

New York City’s commercial property market is coming back to life, thanks in large part to proptech’s contributions to health and safety protocols, according to RXR Realty’s Scott Rechler. But it’ll take time for landlords to fully realize technology’s transformative potential. Commercial property owners piled investment into proptech during the pandemic to bolster health infrastructure, enhance sustainability and accommodate flexible leases and hybrid work models, but the industry is only in the “second or third

The City Council came to a head with landlord groups this week over a bill that would severely undercut landlords’ ability to run criminal background checks on potential tenants. Under the bill, on track to pass this month, landlords would be blocked from running criminal record checks on potential tenants before leasing their units. The legislation would apply to criminal cases that are pending, as well as past cases and convictions. The bill would apply

A moment six months in the making finally came to pass as Evergrande was labeled in “restricted default” following two missed coupon payments on Monday. Fitch Ratings cut the Chinese developer’s rating on Thursday, Bloomberg reported. The company didn’t confirm the missed payments with the credit rating firm, but bondholders reported they didn’t receive the money earlier this week. Evergrande could face cross defaults on its $19.2 billion debt following the rating cut, according to

The Suffolk County Legislature on Tuesday approved an agreement to work with Islip Town on a $2.3 billion Ronkonkoma redevelopment that has been in the works for more than three years, Newsday reported. The vote on the MacArthur Airport–centered project was unanimous, with one abstention. Several steps remain before the 3.1 million-square-foot undertaking can get started. Sign-off is needed from local, county and state agencies, as well as the FAA because of an airport component.

You’ve heard the adage, “If it bleeds, it leads.” That is, journalists cover plane crashes, not landings. True to form, just about every media outlet has done a breathless piece about pandemic-era house hunting, what with scarce listings, bidding wars and investors making life miserable for ordinary folks who just need a place to live. We at The Real Deal certainly have. So I was shocked when a friend began sending me condo listings he

The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets that will be available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. Harbor Group International’s $760 million purchase of Black Rock, the Midtown office tower known for its dark granite exterior and as the former longtime headquarters of CBS, is a bet on the recovery of the area’s office market. After

For landlords, a new office lease once promised a decade of predictable cash flows. It made everything neat. Office buildings were easy to understand and value, boring in a way that made them easy to invest in. But this ain’t General Motors — what’s good for the owner of a space isn’t necessarily what’s good for the occupier.  “The average life cycle of a business today in the U.S., birth to death, is under seven