The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Billionaire developer and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered to pay the team’s former head coach, Brian Flores, to lose games and pressured him to violate league rules, Flores claimed. In a discrimination lawsuit filed Tuesday against the NFL and its 32 member teams, Flores claimed that Ross, the chairman and founder of New York-based Related Companies, offered him $100,000 for each of the Dolphins’ losses in 2019, Flores’ first year as head coach. Flores

A Montauk mansion on the market since 2009 could finally find a buyer, but not in the way its owner has long sought. The pagoda-style house at 42 Old Montauk Highway belongs to Eli Wilner, a framemaker whose work has ornamented art in the White House and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The estate includes 37 acres of oceanfront land, much of it undevelopable preserve, and a 485-foot private beach. Over the years, Wilner has

We have all become digital nomads. What that means for real estate (and real estate values) is still murky, but some trends are coming into clearer focus. Last month, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced that he would be living off his platform, hopping to a different town or city every couple of weeks. He said he wanted to live the experience that so many Airbnb users, untethered from the office, were having. (At The Real

Rising boat sales during the pandemic have resulted in a wave of profits for marina operators, and now one player is shoring up a dominant position in the commercial real estate subsector. Private equity firm Centerbridge Partners, owner of Suntex Marinas, the second-largest marina operator in the U.S., is paying approximately $400 million to acquire the third-largest, Westrec Marinas, the Wall Street Journal reported. Valued at $2.5 billion, the combined companies will boast more than

Former PropertyShark executive Bill Staniford is used to swimming in choppy waters. Now, he’s jumping into the riptide of electoral politics. The Republican announced his campaign to represent a Long Island district with a fundraising email claiming he created PropertyShark. “I founded and ran a company called PropertyShark.com which effectively revolutionized the real estate industry of NYC,” he boasted. But the firm’s website says real estate investor Matthew Haines founded PropertyShark in 2003. Staniford joined

What you see from a Manhattan high-rise depends on when you look. By day, silhouettes of familiar buildings pierce and punctuate the sky. At night, thousands of invisible windows turn into tiny boxes of light, each housing its own universe of human experience. But look beyond the architectural wonder and you’ll see a battleground for money and power. Through blood, sweat and billions of dollars, the opportunistic uber-rich transformed the world’s most famous skyline. The

The future of the Grand Prospect Hall site in Park Slope has been revealed: A multifamily building is on the way. PincusCo reported that George Rigas filed plans to build a 147-unit, 140,000-square-foot mixed-use building at 263 Prospect Avenue, where the famous banquet hall is being torn down. Its replacement will be five stories and 50 feet tall. Features beyond the apartments include an exercise room, recreational spaces (including one on the roof) and below-ground

Delivery startup Jokr no longer appears to be positioned to get the last laugh in New York. Jokr has launched talks to sell its New York operations, a major component of its business in the United States, according to The Information. The company has reportedly reached out to several rivals, including Gopuff, Getir and FastAF. A spokesperson for the company didn’t specifically comment to The Information on discussions surrounding New York operations. The spokesperson told

Prologis is making a play for a huge industrial site in the South Bronx. The warehouse REIT is in late-stage talks to buy the former News Corp. printing plant in Port Morris, sources familiar with the negotiations told The Real Deal. The roughly 400,000-square-foot facility sits on 16 acres, about the size of the World Trade Center site. The purchase price wasn’t immediately clear, but a person familiar with the talks said Prologis plans to

Buyers seeking opulent first and secondary homes fueled recovery among luxury sales after the pandemic hit in 2020, but demand in some of the top U.S. markets didn’t die down in 2021. A new report by luxury brokerage Bespoke showed sales in the Hamptons, Manhattan and South Florida weren’t limited to a small recovery surge, but a widespread swell of deals. Bespoke co-founder Cody Vichinsky called 2020 “a monster year, a banner year.” “And 2021,

Raphael Toledano, a notorious East Village landlord, has been banned from New York real estate after violating an agreement with the state attorney general’s office to end illegal business practices and tenant harassment. Attorney General Letitia James won an order from the New York Supreme Court that prevents Toledano from participating in the industry for the next five years, after which Toledano can petition the court for readmittance. A press release from James indicates that

For proptech companies considering going public, it may be prudent to wait. Most of the proptechs that did so over the last 18 months the fashionable way — via mergers with special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs — have been duds, their stock prices today in the gutter. The caution that now surrounds SPACs has dampened a market that a year ago was blazing, fueled by pandemic-era spending on technology and investor enthusiasm for the

Jonathan Litt has found his next target: industrial real estate. The activist investor’s Land & Buildings Investment Management sent a letter to LXP Industrial Trust prior to the weekend, expressing the interest in acquiring the REIT. The letter puts a price on the potential acquisition at $16 per share. Bisnow reported the cost would value the transaction at about $4.5 billion. The industrial specialist, formerly known as Lexington Realty Trust, owns about 56 million square

The middle of the investment sales market was a potpourri of deals last week, with 13 transactions fetching $245 million. Manhattan had seven, Brooklyn three, Queens two and the Bronx just one. The biggest deal of the week was for a condo building in Soho, while Columbia University expanded its territory in Manhattanville, and warehouse sales continued apace; a Swedish artist even got in on the action. Here are more details of the transactions between

Real estate attorney Steven Wagner is parting ways with the firm he founded to join the ranks of Adam Leitman Bailey. A longtime litigator specializing in co-op and condominium law, Wagner will start today as a partner at Bailey’s firm, bringing along three members of his team at Wagner, Berkow & Brandt. Among them is Bonnie Reid Berkow, another of the firm’s founding attorneys. She will also join as a partner. The move is a

The future is non-fungible, that much is certain. “Cash, credit or crypto” has long since entered common parlance. The barrier between “IRL” and “URL” is wearing thinner by the moment. As the blockchain grows, so does real estate’s imagination for what can be made of this strange new economy. From Nicaragua to the Hamptons to the depths of the metaverse, expansion is the agenda. Quixotic ambition drives real estate’s greatest success stories, as well as

He calls himself the Wolf of Airbnb. Konrad Bicher, 30, is making a fortune allegedly running an illegal Airbnb operation in Manhattan while skipping out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent, according to several landlords who say they’ve been menaced by the self-styled hustler. The short-term stay tycoon has in several instances claimed Covid rent hardships and tried to strongarm buyouts from landlords, knowing the eviction bans and court backlogs gave him the

It’s a simple recipe: Pre-heat market in pricey neighborhood, combine two duplexes into mega-apartment, mix in harbor views and set listing for $8 million. The formula worked for a Brooklyn Heights condo, which was the priciest property in the borough to go into contract last week, according to Compass’ weekly report. Unit 218/219 at 360 Furman Street, better known as One Brooklyn Bridge Park, spans 5,040 square feet and has four bedrooms and four bathrooms.

The investor group that bought The Collective’s development site in Williamsburg landed a $137 million loan to finance the project. The Loketch Group, the Joyland Group and Meral Property Group secured the capital from Slate Property Group’s lending arm, SCALE Lending, to finance the acquisition and construction of 555 Broadway. The deal had to come together quickly as The Collective, a U.K.-based co-living developer, was under pressure to sell the site before a foreclosure auction

UPDATED, Feb. 1, 2022, 9 a.m.: Manhattan’s luxury market started 2022 with a bang. January had 102 contracts signed at $4 million or above in the borough, according to Olshan Realty. That’s the most since the firm began tracking in 2006. The record month ended with 29 contracts signed between Jan. 24 and 30, the highest among the few weeks since the new year. The priciest unit to go into contract was PH51/52W at 151

Abe Haruvi’s New York City real estate empire might not be his for much longer following a domestic violence arrest at his South Florida estate. The New York Post reported police were called to the 66-year-old’s Palm Beach home Dec. 9. They reportedly found Haruvi’s wife, Giovana Stephenson, with a red mark on her chest and she claimed Haruvi “scratched and hit” her during an argument. Haruvi was charged with misdemeanor battery and Stephenson obtained

Harbor Group International is one step closer to losing its Fifth Avenue retail property. A New York Supreme Court judge denied Harbor Group’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit from Torchlight Investors, giving Torchlight the green light to proceed with a foreclosure on the retail space at 445 Fifth Avenue. Harbor Group has been battling the foreclosure for over a year. Canadian bank CIBC initially filed a lawsuit in September 2020, alleging Harbor Group defaulted on

There goes the neighborhood (garden). Two separate plans were filed for developments in the Upper East Side last week, according to the Patch. The two proposed developments would bring more than 200 apartment units to the neighborhood. One proposed building is at the southwest corner of First Avenue and East 78th Street. California-based Carmel Partners is proposing a 24-story, 209-foot building where neighbors were campaigning for a community garden. According to the Patch, plans have

Mayor Eric Adams has created a new position to oversee the city’s housing agencies and initiatives. Jessica Katz was introduced Sunday as chief housing officer and will assume some of the responsibilities previously held by the deputy mayor of housing and economic development. The word “housing” was removed from the latter post, now held by Maria Torres-Springer. The Real Deal was the first to report that Adams was poised to name Katz to a top

How do you sell relief? With occupancy back down to 42.5 percent, the city’s hotel owners launched a web and TV campaign Monday to tug at the hearts and minds of elected officials. Specifically, they want financial aid and a break on late tax payments. “We need real property tax relief. We had a liquidity crisis and now have a solvency crisis,” said Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York

Developers made up for lost time last year as the city’s real estate market rebounded from the pandemic, in some cases racing to get projects rolling in order to qualify for a soon-to-expire property tax break. Residential projects dominated the year’s top new building filings, with many explicitly aiming to qualify for the 421a tax exemption before it expires in June. To do so, developers must have their projects’ foundations completed before June 15. Architects

The recovery of the hotel industry in the United States is still a work in progress, but one segment appears poised to recover faster than the rest of the sector. Extended-stay hotels have earned favor since the onset of the pandemic with a variety of consumers, keeping the segment strong, The Wall Street Journal reported. At the beginning of the pandemic, the properties were utilized by first responders, nurses and construction workers. More recently, vacationing

A new edition of a noteworthy Midtown hotel could be on the way after new owners last week won control of the luxury lodging. A lenders group led by Natixis will take over the Times Square Edition Hotel at 20 Times Square from Mark Siffrin’s Maefield Development, the New York Post reported. No bids at a Jan. 26 public foreclosure auction topped the group’s offer, which hasn’t been revealed. The title is expected to be

If building homes on the Sag Harbor waterfront is like printing money, the village just stopped the presses. The village board voted this month to approve rules for a waterfront overlay district, according to Dan’s Papers. The rules would limit most new buildings on the waterfront to two stories. A third story would be permitted for buildings with a public benefit and coastal access. It was designed to create “standards that guide the relationship between

Melissa True is making moves. This time, to Platinum Properties. True will join Platinum as its new sales director. In the role, she will focus on agent development and experience, as well as driving growth. “Their core values and my belief on what our industry needs to focus on aligned before we even met. So it was a little bit of destiny,” True said. “It was like Cinderella finding her shoe. It just felt like

The 10 largest outer-borough real estate loans in December totaled $1.37 billion, eclipsing November’s sum, as well as December totals from 2020 and 2019. The largest loan went to a project boosted by the pandemic, a gargantuan last-mile delivery center in Sunset Park, while others went to residential rental buildings in Bushwick, Dumbo, Rego Park and Downtown Brooklyn. Here are the details. 1. Last-mile lending | $342 million Dov Hertz’s DH Property Holdings and Bridge

The land on which a controversial, taxpayer-subsidised retail and residential development will rise in Dallas was the forgotten home of the city’s first all-Black high school that, for the most part, was erased from history. According to the Dallas Morning News, The B.F. Darrell School, which closed in 1969 and was demolished in 1971 (the same year the city was ordered by a federal judge to desegregate its schools), had been a combination elementary and

A dozen criminals netted more than $21 million in fraudulent mortgage loans in an Atlanta real estate scheme. Now two real estate agents at the center of the years long criminal enterprise have pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy charges, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Eric Hill, 52, of Tyrone, Georgia, was sentenced to 2½ years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. Co-defendant Robert Kelske, 54, of Smyrna, Georgia, also

It’s pretty vacant. Construction of office space in Hong Kong — the world’s most expensive — is on the rise despite the fact that there is more open space available than ever before. Bloomberg News is reporting there is 158 football fields worth of space — or about 9.1 million square feet — already on the market, yet construction continues as some of Hong Kong’s property tycoons press forward with new office blocks that will

The gaudy castle in rural northeastern Connecticut didn’t sell for $35 million. So the owners bumped up the price by almost half – to $60 million. Yes, it has a moat. It sports inlaid wood floors, doors and woodwork from more than 25 species of hardwoods imported from around the world, according to the Norwich Bulletin. It also has period architectural doors and stained glass. Built in 2010, the 18,777 square-foot castle at 450 Brickyard

Financially distressed billionaire Ron Perelman has continued his fire sale, unloading his Lily Pond Lane estate in East Hampton for the discounted price of $84 million. According to Dirt, the home, which Perelman has not occupied for some time, was sold shortly after January 1 to an undisclosed buyer. It had been listed at $115 million last September. The 11,435-square-foot estate on more than 9 acres of beachfront property dates to the early 1970s and features

It was America’s oldest privately owned zoo, drawing 500,000 visitors a year to pet or even feed lions, rhinos, elephants, giraffes and kangaroos. Then it morphed into a boutique inn and glampground. Finally, a $2,010 per night rental on Airbnb. Now the 193-acre wooded property in Catskill, New York, once home to the Catskill Game Farm, is for sale, according to the Times Union. The ask: $3.6 million. “It’s an ideal residential development site,” Jason