The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Gary Barnett is ready to rock. A month before its 446-key Hard Rock-branded hotel is slated to open in Times Square, Barnett’s Extell Development has secured a $325 million package from Guggenheim Investments to refinance the property, records show. The funding includes a new gap loan of $100 million and replaces a $225 million construction loan originated by Bank of America in 2020. The 37-floor hotel, completed last year, will open for business next month

Greg Kraut’s KPG Funds secured $63.6 million in new debt for its efforts to turn around a formerly vacant Soho office building. Senior lender Ladder Capital teamed up with Heitman to provide the debt package to refinance 446 Broadway, also known as L’Atelier, Commercial Observer first reported. Since acquiring the five-story office and retail property in 2018 for $45 million, KPG has spent more than $10 million on renovations, including updates to the building’s lobby,

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears the two-week mark, shockwaves from the war are reaching major commercial players with projects in Vladimir Putin’s country. Hines is among them, counting assets valued at $2.9 billion in Russia prior to the invasion, the Wall Street Journal reported. While many real estate companies are cutting ties and ceasing operations in Russia for the time being, the Houston-based Hines has condemned the invasion and only gone so far as

This buyer passed the test. Gregory Abbott, one of the wealthy parents swept up in the college admissions scandal nicknamed “Operation Varsity Blues,” has sold his full-floor apartment on the Upper East Side for $13.5 million. The sale price is more than 100 times the amount he pleaded guilty to paying for his daughter’s college entrance exams to be corrected. The buyers are Aaron and Alyssa Kapito. Aaron is a co-founder at Politan Capital Management,

A popular Brooklyn pizza joint is headed to Montauk, where it’s ready to fire up the ovens year-round. Bushwick-based Roberta’s is opening an outpost in Montauk, Behind the Hedges reported. Co-owners Brandon Hoy and Carlo Mirachi recently purchased the property at 240 Fort Pond Road for $3 million in an off-market deal arranged by Hal Zwick and Jeffrey Sztorc of Compass Commercial. The property used to house Arbor, a restaurant owned by Apollo Global Management

Months after its CEO was forced to apologize for unceremoniously axing 900 employees on a Zoom call, digital mortgage lender Better.com is undergoing a deeper round of cuts. The New York-based company confirmed Tuesday that it is laying off over 3,000 additional workers in the U.S. and India — reducing its overall headcount by more than 34 percent. The layoffs were prompted by challenging market conditions and were not performance-related, Kevin Ryan, the firm’s CFO

It’s Bo time in New Jersey, where Bojangles is setting up shop in the tri-state area for the first time. The Southern fried chicken chain is set to open 10 locations in the Garden State, NJ.com reported. The expansion is part of a franchise development agreement that will see the North Carolina-based chain increase its presence in the Northeast. There will be locations in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex and Union counties, according to NJ.com, but

Buyers aren’t simply opening their wallets to buy homes this year — they’re emptying out their pockets and car cup holders too. Almost 6,000 homes have been sold for at least $100,000 above the asking price through Feb. 15, according to Redfin. The figure is well more than double those sold in the same period in 2021, which reached just over 2,200. The pricey sales account for 1.8 percent of the share of home sales

After a busted sale during the pandemic, SL Green is sticking around at the Daily News building, and so is a sizable United Nations tenant. UN Women renewed more than 85,000 square feet at 220 East 42nd Street, the office landlord announced. The organization, which works on policies and programs dedicated to women’s human rights, occupies floors 17-20 at the building. Jodi Pulice and Greg Smith of JRT Realty represented UN Women, along with Chris

UPDATED, March 8, 2022, 3 p.m.: One of New York City’s largest hotels traded hands — at a nearly $400 million loss from its last sale. Hotel owner-operator MCR agreed to acquire the Sheraton New York Times Square from Host Hotels & Resorts for $356 million, according to research platform Green Street. The 1,780-key hotel last sold in 2006 for $738 million, more than double what it is today, according to property records. Once closed,

A group of investors couldn’t make the dream condo conversion fit at the late Gloria Vanderbilt’s former Upper East Side mansion, instead selling it for $32.2 million. The investors sold the property at 39 East 72nd Street to a buyer hidden behind an LLC, the New York Post reported. Ilan Bracha and Haim Binstock’s B+B Capital teamed up with Daniel Minkowitz’s Mink Development to buy the home for $19 million in 2014. They had a

On the seventh floor of Vornado Realty Trust’s office building Penn One is a 12,000-square-foot showroom dedicated to CEO Steven Roth’s dream: to create a grand office campus surrounding Penn Station. Over the decades, Roth has given it pet names including “Vornadoland,” “the promised land” and “the big kahuna.” He has called it Vornado’s “moonshot,” its “bullseye.”  “All this will take time but will be enormously rewarding to the patient investor,” Roth wrote to shareholders

Self-storage properties in New York City’s outer boroughs are having a moment. The same week that Adam Gordon’s Wildflower sold a self-storage facility it built in the South Bronx for $65 million, entities connected to Brookfield Asset Management plunked down a combined $90 million for three properties in Brooklyn, each of which generated a significant return for their respective sellers. Elsewhere, lender Arena Investors bought a 46-unit condo building out of bankruptcy in Harlem and

As HFZ Capital Group’s luxury real estate portfolio disintegrated in a series of foreclosures, liens and investor disputes over the last two years, chairman Ziel Feldman consistently pinned the firm’s misfortunes on Nir Meir, its former managing principal. In various lawsuits, Feldman has accused Meir of forging his signature on loan documents, stealing millions from HFZ and making deals without his knowledge. A complaint filed by the embattled developer last August referred to Meir as

Brooklyn’s luxury market notched a banner week with 30 Front Street again at the front of the pack. Unit 25A went under contract last week after asking over $8.2 million, according to Compass’ weekly report on deals in the borough closing for $2 million or more. The condo is a four-bedroom, 3,363-square-foot unit with a 429-square-foot terrace. The 33-story building has topped the luxury market at least four times since February. Unit 24A was Brooklyn’s

Rubenstein Partners can pat itself on the back after landing a $178 million refinancing package at 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance provided the loan for the mixed-use building, the Commercial Observer reported. The eight-story, 500,000-square-foot building was billed the borough’s first major Class A office construction property in about 50 years when it opened. A Newmark team led by Dustin Stolly and Jordan Roeschlaub arranged the financing, according to

With home values surging, American homeowners are tapping their equity at a rate not seen since before the Great Recession. Homeowners tapped a combined $80 billion in equity through cash-out refinancing in the fourth quarter of last year, according to mortgage data provider Black Knight — the highest amount in any quarter since 2007 and the fifth consecutive quarter in which more than 1 million cash-out refinances were originated. For the full year, homeowners withdrew

Two homes for the price of one — that was Gabe Sierra’s pitch to the family real estate business.  South Florida-based Sierra Development would build a luxury home in Miami and a one-to-one replica in a virtual world, then auction them off as a package. The idea was that the buyer would maintain complementary lives in both — a regular life in his brick-and-mortar home and a jet-setting digital version in the other, hosting virtual

UPDATED, March 8, 10:45 a.m.: Commercial real estate firms have joined the mass of companies suspending operations in Russia following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Knight Frank and Savills have suspended operations in the country, Bisnow reported. The firms could be only the first of the commercial real estate industry’s retreat from the country, as all five of the companies contacted by the outlet were at least planning to close offices or cut business relations. “With

An Upper East Side home with four terraces led Manhattan’s luxury contracts into March. The priciest home to enter into contract last week was PHC at 200 East 83rd Street, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report on homes asking $4 million and above. The unit was last asking $32.5 million, up from the $30 million it asked when the building started marketing last May, The duplex condo has 6,592 square feet across six bedrooms and

Todd English is cooking up his latest New York City project, a 20,000-square-foot eatery in the Financial District. An eatery under the brand signed a lease for the two-story space at 15 Park Row, the New York Post reported. It’s not immediately clear who will operate the space, but are reportedly believed to be a group of investors backing English. A Meridian Retail Leasing team including James Famularo and Ben Biberaj appeared to be marketing

Josh Zegen walks into a glass-walled conference room on the 35th floor of 520 Madison Avenue, blue Polar seltzer in hand. He takes a seat, back to the skyline, his salt-and-pepper beard framing a toothy smile. Behind him, a crane idles above 660 (formerly 666) Fifth Avenue, a fitting reminder of the endless construction that has made Zegen’s firm, Madison Realty Capital, one of the fastest-growing lenders in the commercial real estate market, with $20

Can you smell what Largo Investments has going on at a Williamsburg office building? Fragrance brand Le Labo leased more than 15,000 square feet at 71 North 7th Street, the Commercial Observer reported. It’s not clear how long the lease is for or how much Le Labo is paying for the space, which takes up a majority of the new three-story, 21,000-square-foot property. Once Le Labo moves in during the summer, the building will be

Compass has been keeping busy in Hawaii. As the ultra-luxury market reaches new heights, the company has tapped Bill Cunningham as managing director of sales in the Aloha state. Cunningham, who stepped down as president of sales at Corcoran in 2019, has in recent years pursued work with private investment groups and fix-and-flips in his spare time. “I realized this investment thing was not enough,” Cunningham said. “I’m used to the 24/7 real estate industry,

The residential real estate markets in the Hamptons and North Fork are cooling after record activity during the height of the pandemic. New signed contracts for single-family homes in the Hamptons in February were down 45.5 percent year-over-year, while new listings held steady, declining by just 1 percent, according to a Douglas Elliman report by Miller Samuel. “We’re coming out of a heady 2020 and 2021 back to a more normal level,” report author Jonathan

New York City’s commercial spaces traded sports coats for lab coats as leasing in the life sciences shattered records in 2021. Tenants in the sector leased 433,000 square feet in 2021, according to CBRE data reported by the New York Business Journal. The record amount marked nearly triple leasing in the sector from 2020 levels and exceeded all of the leases in the sector combined in the previous seven years. As the life sciences sector