The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Warren Estis, veteran real estate litigator, dead at 73

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 04:10 PM PDT

Warren Estis, the veteran litigator who co-founded the legal practice that bills itself as New York City’s largest real estate-only law firm, died Wednesday. He was 73. As a founding partner of Rosenberg & Estis, the attorney served as the lead litigator in cases for New York City’s developers and property owners. “Warren was a distinguished member of New York City’s legal community and he will be remembered for his wit, intellect and tireless advocacy

JPMorgan Chase reveals HQ plans after nod to remote work

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 01:00 PM PDT

JPMorgan Chase revealed the long-awaited plans for its new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue — and it’s electric. The financial giant unveiled the design of a 60-story, 1,388-foot-tall tower in Midtown East on Thursday. The building is being designed by Foster + Partners and will span 2.5 million square feet. Tishman Speyer is serving as a development partner for the construction, which has already started and is expected to wrap up by the end of

Catch Bob Knakal, Meredith Marshall and Kevin Danehy at TRD’s NYC Showcase

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 12:30 PM PDT

It’s nearly showtime. We hope you’ve marked your calendars, because The Real Deal’s NYC Real Estate Showcase + Forum is back and better than ever. As promised, New York City’s premier real estate event is locked and loaded with an array of speakers who are ready to dish on the red hot residential market, the future of development, the latest innovations in proptech and much more. We’ve held up our end of the deal. Now

Abby Modell buys West Village, Midwood apartments for $68M

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 12:00 PM PDT

Modell’s Sporting Goods may have all but faded from New York City, but its namesake family isn’t going anywhere. A pair of limited liability companies tied to Abby Modell, sister-in-law of Mitchell Modell, the defunct retail chain’s former CEO, purchased a 64-unit apartment building at 1704 Ocean Avenue in Midwood, Brooklyn, for $37.1 million and a 33-unit apartment building at 35 Bedford Street in the West Village for $31 million. Yerachmael Jacobson and Marc Jacobowitz

LA-based Carl Gambino expands in New York with Compass

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 11:00 AM PDT

Carl Gambino, a Los Angeles-based broker with a track record of celebrity deals, is moving his New York office from Modlin Group to Compass. Gambino’s departure from the boutique brokerage marks a shift in focus to Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Hamptons for the broker, whose sales volume totaled $325 million across Los Angeles, Miami and New York, according to Compass. Gambino, founder of an eponymous Compass team, joined the brokerage in 2020 from Westside Estate

Rent board staff proposes increase of up to 4.5%

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 10:56 AM PDT

After landlords’ operating costs jumped 4.2 percent last year, the Rent Guidelines Board staff released reports Thursday recommending rent increases of 2.7 to 4.5 percent on one-year leases for rent-stabilized units and 4.3 to 9 percent on two-year leases. The ranges are considered starting points, and the board has often ignored the suggestions. In fact, the board froze rents in 2020 and approved a partial freeze on one-year leases last year, despite initial recommendations for

Joe Sitt loses West Side retail space to foreclosure

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 10:00 AM PDT

In the latest sign of how far retail values have fallen, Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities lost a commercial condo at the base of Midtown’s Row NYC Hotel, which was valued at a big writedown. Thor lost the roughly 27,000-square-foot property at 700 Eighth Avenue through foreclosure to a debt fund controlled by Albert Behler’s Paramount Group, which had lent $80 million against the property, a source familiar with the transaction told The Real Deal. The

Doormen authorize strike ahead of agreement expiration

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 09:00 AM PDT

Workers and doormen in New York City’s luxury buildings have moved one step closer to striking. The employees, through their 32BJ-SEIU union, authorized a strike on Wednesday, the City reported. The union’s collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on April 20, paving the way for a strike if an agreement with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations isn’t reached by then. The contract applies to workers including superintendents, handymen and concierges properties owned

Home sales climb to 15-year highs in Brooklyn and Queens

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 08:15 AM PDT

Brooklyn’s housing market began 2022 the same way it ended 2021: breaking records. And with plenty of inventory still available, there’s no sign the party will end anytime soon. More homes were sold in Brooklyn in the first three months of this year than in any quarter since 2006, according to the latest report from appraisal firm Miller Samuel. The borough’s 3,666 sales represented a 30 percent jump over the same period last year —

City voucher discrimination unit left unstaffed

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 06:45 AM PDT

A shrinking city unit focused on voucher discrimination can’t do much good for would-be renters, as it has reportedly been sapped of all staff members. The last employee of the New York City Human Rights Commission’s (CCHR) Source of Income Unit resigned at the beginning of the month, City Limits reported. The departed attorney hasn’t been replaced, leaving the unit without a single staffer. The anti-discrimination unit has slowly been bleeding out. Three years ago,

Convene’s deal with Saks owner not as rosy as it sounds

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 05:45 AM PDT

Department store powerhouse Hudson’s Bay Company is combining its co-working business with startup Convene to become a major provider of flex meeting, event and office space. Hudson’s Bay, along with private equity firm Ares Management and Convene’s existing investors, will put in hundreds of millions of dollars to grow Convene’s business. The move expands Hudson’s Bay’s presence in flex space after it partnered with WeWork last year to convert former department stores into co-working space.

Inventory has “essentially collapsed” in NYC’s northern suburbs

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 05:00 AM PDT

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Listings in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties hit record lows last quarter. Westchester listings sank by 25 percent year-over-year to an all-time low in the first quarter, continuing an extended period of scarce inventory in the region, according to a quarterly report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. The lack of listings is constraining sales and powering the third-fastest market pace in the past 40 years.

Renovate or bust: NYC offices face risk of obsolescence

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 04:30 AM PDT

New York City’s office market increasingly resembles the demographics of the nation: a land of haves and have-nots, with a shrinking middle class. Two years after the pandemic sent white-collar workers home, office buildings across the metro area were only 37 percent occupied, according to March 16 card swipe data from Kastle Systems, a popular index for office use. That includes “trophy” spaces occupied by the big banks that have pushed workers hardest to return.

Manhattan, Brooklyn rents jump to new heights as Queens leasing continues surge

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 04:00 AM PDT

As pandemic-era discounts expire across New York City, rental markets in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Northwest Queens are feeling the squeeze of high demand and low inventory. Manhattan’s net effective median rent and face rent were at their highest level on record, while the vacancy rate remained below two percent for the fourth consecutive month, according to a report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. The borough’s median rental price in March hit $3,700,