The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

ZG, Rialto buying former Santander building for $105M

Posted: 18 Apr 2022 06:50 AM PDT

The former Santander Bank building has a pair of new owners, one of which is making its first New York City acquisition. Bobby Zar’s ZG Capital and Jeff Krasnoff’s Rialto Capital Management signed a contract to buy the 20-story building at 45 East 53rd Street for $105 million, the New York Post reported. The purchase is expected to close within 30 days. The 134,000-square-foot office building in Midtown East was built in 1991 and last

Morgan Stanley wades into Milonas condo feud

Posted: 18 Apr 2022 05:45 AM PDT

A house divided against itself cannot stand. How about a condo building? Morgan Stanley is suing to foreclose on Spiros and Antonia Milonas’ condo unit at The Briarcliff, an Upper East Side prewar rental that Spiros converted to luxury condos in 2007. For years, Spiros’ daughters from his first marriage, Claire and Sofia, have battled their stepmother in court, with each side accusing the other of taking advantage of the family’s aging patriarch. Spiros and

Shoe mogul’s ex-wife Wendy Madden sells Trump Palace condo for a loss

Posted: 18 Apr 2022 05:00 AM PDT

Wendy Madden sold the Trump Palace condo she walked away with after her divorce from shoe mogul Steve Madden — for about half what the couple paid for it a decade ago. The sprawling 4,000-square-foot condo at 200 East 69th Street sold for $8.8 million at the end of March, records show. The buyer appears to be Michael Farkas, CEO of Blink Charging Company, according to a mortgage document that appeared in city records Thursday.

He bought “The One.” What’s in it for him?

Posted: 18 Apr 2022 04:30 AM PDT

Less than an hour before the scheduled deadline for the most famous residential auction in recent memory, the high bid on The One — a property that had once been floated at a value of $500 million and had more than $250 million in claimed debts — was just $70 million, and Chad Roffers was remarkably calm. “Most people tend to wait ‘til the last 30 minutes, and sometimes the last 10,” Roffers, the president

Bronx development aims to turn trash into cash

Posted: 18 Apr 2022 04:00 AM PDT

The hot springs of Yellowstone National Park once dissolved a human being. But in 1966, microbiologist Thomas Brock discovered microscopic life forms thriving in the scalding water. Other researchers soon noticed the microbes in geothermal pockets across the globe, from New Zealand to Iceland to Italy to Kamchatka. Thermophilic microbes, it turns out, aren’t picky about their homes. And now they’re popping up somewhere less exotic: a housing project in the Bronx. At the Peninsula,

Easy A: Emma Stone lands 1.2-acre estate in Austin

Posted: 17 Apr 2022 10:00 AM PDT

Emma Stone bought a 5,000-square-foot mansion in Austin from a high-profile commercial real estate mogul. The Oscar-winner quietly bought the estate last May, according to Dirt. Records reveal the sellers were commercial real estate baron C. Patrick Oles, Jr. and his wife Julie, who originally acquired the estate back in 1997— a decade before the Superbad actress would grace the silver screen for the first time. Oles, a native Texan, has been President and CEO

Celebrity chef Madison Cowan accused of not paying rent on Brooklyn apartment

Posted: 17 Apr 2022 07:29 AM PDT

He’s cooking up a controversy. The New York Post is reporting celebrity chef Madison Cowan has taken his rent off the table since the outset of the Covid 19 pandemic, and his landlord claiming he’s racked up more than $70,000 in debt. Building owner Guy Sheha told the tabloid the “Chopped” and “Iron Chef” victor hasn’t paid rent on his one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment since January of 2020 — just three months after signing a since-expired

Pyongyang penthouses less popular in North Korea than low-level living

Posted: 16 Apr 2022 12:49 PM PDT

The penthouses of North Korea’s luxury towers are more like the cheap seats at a baseball game — you’d rather be in the front row. Reuters is reporting that the upper floors of skyscrapers being heralded by Kim Jong Un are some of the least desirable places to live in the communist country thanks to malfunctioning elevators, lack of electricity and the inability to get water to kitchen faucets and toilets located so high in

Warren Buffett’s former Omaha home hits the market

Posted: 16 Apr 2022 10:00 AM PDT

Buyers inspired by one of the richest people in the world can see if the magic of Warren Buffett’s former home can rub off on them. Buffett’s former three-bedroom home in the Dundee neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, is on the market for $799,000, the Wall Street Journal reported. Buffett hasn’t lived in the home at 5202 Underwood Avenue for a long time, but the sellers, James and Nancy Monen, are shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway. The

The kitschy Silver Sands Motel sells after years-long battle

Posted: 16 Apr 2022 09:47 AM PDT

A 1950s-era motel on Long Island’s North Fork that has been seemingly frozen in time has changed ownership after a 12-year battle over control of its beachfront property. Newsday reported that the Silver Sands Motel and Cottages in Greenport, whose inviting neon sign and kitschy drive-up rooms have miraculously retained their nuclear-age charm, was sold on Wednesday for an unspecified price that, according to a local real estate agent was the “No. 1 commercial transaction

Tax haven moves to freeze $7B in assets linked to Roman Abramovich

Posted: 16 Apr 2022 08:00 AM PDT

A popular tax haven in the English Channel is freezing assets worth more than $7 billion linked to Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch sanctioned last month by the UK government. The Island of Jersey, a self-governing Crown Dependency of the UK and a haven for foreign investors, ordered Abramovich’s assets frozen after local authorities raided addresses believed to be connected to him in one of the latest attempts to target the billionaire over his alleged

Russell Wilson, Ciara list Seattle-area mega mansion for $28M

Posted: 16 Apr 2022 06:00 AM PDT

NFL quarterback Russell Wilson and his popstar wife Ciara are selling their massive Lake Washington mansion as the couple leaves Seattle behind. The six-bedroom, seven-bathroom home hit the market this week asking $28 million, the Seattle Times reported. The 11,104-square-foot home, which includes a pro gym and recording studio, sits on a lot of about one acre overlooking Lake Washington. A separate listing shows a neighboring piece of land encompassing just under one acre is

Jesse Sutton nabs NJ apartment building for $36M

Posted: 15 Apr 2022 01:30 PM PDT

Jesse Sutton’s Manhattan-based firm has picked up a luxury apartment building in Bergen County for $36 million. Sutton Equity purchased The VUE Hackensack at 295 Polifly Road in Hackensack, according to Kislak, whose executives Andrew Scheinerman and Scott Davidovic arranged the off-market sale. Scheinerman noted Sutton was looking at “properties outside of New York City, given its tightening rent control.” Alexander Property Holdings was the seller of the rental building, Kislak told The Real Deal.

Karaoke and bees: Marcus & Millichap wins REBNY’s most “ingenious deal”

Posted: 15 Apr 2022 11:45 AM PDT

A group of ingenious real estate dealmakers returned to Midtown this week to find out who among them brokered the most ingenious deal last year. After two years as a virtual proceeding, the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual ceremony honoring the year’s most creative commercial property deals was back in person this week at Convene’s space at 117 West 46th Street. Woody Heller, REBNY’s vice chairman, emceed the 78th iteration of the group’s

As rents drop, Manhattan retail spaces are filling up

Posted: 15 Apr 2022 11:00 AM PDT

Following years of challenges, Manhattan’s retail corridors are enjoying a resurgence. The market had a 23 percent year-over-year increase in leasing in the first quarter of 2022, according to a report by CBRE. Direct ground floor availability across Manhattan’s 16 premier shopping corridors decreased for the third consecutive quarter, with availability dropping from 266 storefronts to 247, a 7 percent quarter-over-quarter decline. “Despite feeling some of the impact from the Covid omicron variant and other

Notorious attorney to lose Tribeca duplex

Posted: 15 Apr 2022 09:00 AM PDT

A notorious attorney with a penchant for questionable real estate deals is about to lose his Tribeca duplex. The sale, which has not been scheduled, would be the latest black mark in the troubled history of Lawrence Omansky, whose attempt to shield his home from creditors backfired — subjecting the home to bankruptcy proceedings. Omansky had declared the apartment exempt from creditors in his 2018 bankruptcy filing. But Instead of keeping the residence, which Omansky