The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

A forthcoming commercial development project from Vorea Group in Long Island City will be home to iFLY’s first indoor skydiving facility in New York City. The indoor skydiving company signed a 20-year lease for about 10,000 square feet across two floors at 10-04 Borden Avenue in Queens. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Igloo, the commercial leasing arm of Vorea, brokered the deal. iFLY will occupy about 6,800 square feet of retail

New York City REIT, which is in the midst of a heated proxy fight, is in danger of defaulting on loans at several of its New York properties. The AR Global Investments-managed REIT has been in breach of covenants on more than $200 million of debt at four of its New York properties in the past year, the company disclosed in its most recent quarterly report. In the disclosure, NYC REIT cited “ financial difficulties”

A consumer review site is trusting Two Trees Management will pilot it in the right direction. Denmark-based Trustpilot is taking 34,000 square feet at the 13-story 50 West 23rd Street, the Commercial Observer reported. The asking rent for the seven-year lease was not provided. The 10th-floor office was previously split between video platform Dailymotion and baby retailer Skip Hop, both of which skipped away after the recent expirations of their respective leases. Trustpilot, relocating from

A 19th-century former cigar factory in Astoria and an office and retail building steps from Union Square were among seven investment properties that traded hands in New York City for between $10 million and $40 million last week. Five of the deals hitting city records last week were in Manhattan, while one each were in Queens and the Bronx. An entity tied to real estate investor Bruce Brickman’s firm sold the 100,000-square-foot former DeNobili cigar

Tenant complaints in New York renting are as common as gum on the sidewalk, but few buildings have a StreetEasy page dedicated to griping. One Upper West Side property is special that way. For more than eight years, tenants have flocked to a forum to gripe about unaddressed repairs, revolving-door tenancies, and “filthy common areas” in BlackRock’s purportedly luxury rental at 98 Riverside Drive. One labeled it “a derelict building that is not maintained.” Now

Over 20 tumultuous years in New York real estate, blockbuster deals were brokered, supertall skyscrapers were built and billions of dollars were made and squandered. The dramas of this century’s first two decades gave journalist and author Adam Piore ample material for his new book, “The New Kings of New York.” The book, which is published by The Real Deal and edited by TRD’s Stuart Elliott and Hiten Samtani, covers what Piore calls the “sweep

In most real estate rooms, Tishman Speyer is the 800-pound-gorilla. But Rob Speyer wants it to be the most nimble gorilla, one that can constantly reposition its 90 million-square-foot portfolio in response to the trends driving the world today. Speyer insists that the company isn’t in the business of catering to tenants, so much so that he’s banned use of the T word at the firm, believing it connotes a “feudal” approach to real estate.

East Hampton’s luxury hotel market is thriving, despite broader hospitality worries. KSL Capital Partners bought the 96-key Marram in Montauk for $78.5 million, or $820,000 per key, from Bridgeton Holdings, according to a source familiar with the deal. Bridgeton listed the resort at 21 Oceanview Terrace, along with the 25-key Journey East Hampton at 490 Pantigo Road, late last year. The Journey East Hampton was later taken off the market, according to a source. Eastdil

Property and Building Corporation is close to landing a $385 million refinancing for its HSBC tower in Midtown after Innovo Property Group’s bid to purchase the building collapsed. JPMorgan plans to provide the loan at a rate of 3.9 percent, according to a source familiar with the deal and filings on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. It will replace an existing $380 million loan. PBC also plans to renovate and modernize the building at 452

A major health insurance tenant is setting up shop at Vornado Realty Trust’s One Penn Plaza, a major Midtown office and a key part of Steven Roth’s portfolio. Empire BlueCross BlueShield opened its headquarters, occupying 70,000 square feet, Crain’s reported. The asking rent was $90 per square foot. The insurance company moved from a temporary space at 14 Wall Street in the Financial District. Company president Alan Murray touted the “hybrid office environment” accommodated in

With a little luck, an East Village townhouse owned by Polish royalty — and formerly by Hollywood teen-drama royalty — could reset the market for such properties in the neighborhood. Alexi Lubomirski and his wife Giada on Wednesday listed their two-family home at 122 East 10th Street for $9.2 million. The recently renovated townhouse was home to actress Molly Ringwald, star of mid-1980s hits “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Pretty in Pink,” until 2016,

A new chapter is about to unfold in the saga of a multifamily project planned for 201 Munson Street in New Haven. A year ago, the New Haven Independent wrote of “cracked asphalt, overgrown weeds, mounds of dirt, and a lingering question: Will these apartments ever get built?” The answer now appears to be yes. The Ironburgh Organization — an affiliate of Hudson Meridian Construction Group — just secured $120.9 million in construction financing to

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Another townhouse has gone into contract for a potential record sum, this time in a tiny sub-neighborhood between Soho and Hudson Square known as the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District. The 180-year-old townhouse at 27 Vandam Street went into contract this week for a price very close to its $14.9 million ask, according to listing agents Rachel Glazer and Cassie Glover of Compass. The current record in the area was

Jeff Goldberg’s Fairstead — the multifamily investment firm he founded with his brother, CBRE’s Andrew Goldberg, in 2014 — is a family business. It’s just not the family business. “My entire family, all my cousins, everyone owns bagel bakeries. That’s the family thing you do,” said Goldberg, who, in deference to the bloodline, ran his own bakery in the Meatpacking District in the 1990s before heading to law school and then real estate. Today, Fairstead

Scott Rechler’s RXR went out in January looking for $1.5 billion to refinance its 5 Times Square office tower, one of the largest such deals in the era of hybrid work and rising interest rates. The firm is still negotiating the tricky financing, which requires a big equity injection to renovate a 1.1 million-square-foot property that will soon be 75 percent empty. “It’s a big loan in a market that’s still choppy,” Rechler said. “The

Hopson Development has secured a new lender for its condo project in Midtown. The Hong Kong developer has scored a $156 million construction loan from Fortress Investment Group for its 191-unit luxury project at 131-141 East 47th Street, The Real Deal has learned. It has also agreed to part ways with Josh Schuster’s Silverback Development, which joined the project in March 2020 but has run into problems of late. The new funding retires a $50

After partying the day away Sunday, retailers at ICSC Las Vegas swapped their swimsuits for business suits as they gathered for some old-fashioned, in-person networking. Monday’s annual industry conference, held in Sin City’s cavernous convention center, marked a stark departure from December’s thinned-out event for a still-struggling sector. This year, nearly 22,000 people registered, according to ICSC — short of the 30,000 or more that attended in previous years, but enough to call it a

In The Real Deal‘s “The New Kings of New York,” journalist Adam Piore details the cast of deep-pocketed characters behind the city’s biggest real estate deals over the last 20 years. In addition to filling the insider’s account of the “blood sport” that is New York City real estate, some of those characters joined friends of Piore and The Real Deal for a 100-strong gathering near Union Square Tuesday night to celebrate the book’s release

As many firms downsize but upgrade their office space to account for hybrid work, one Midtown tenant is expanding — leaving Park Avenue for larger digs on Fifth. Eldridge is moving its city offices to the entire 17th floor of 767 Fifth Avenue, a 50-story office tower owned primarily by Boston Properties and better known as the General Motors Building. It signed a nearly 11-year lease for 37,150 square feet, roughly 75 percent more than

The purchase of a key piece of Chaskiel Strulovitch’s portfolio finally closed, ending one of Brooklyn’s most combative real estate tussles in recent memory. Facing foreclosure from hardball lender Maverick Real Estate Partners, Strulovitch put 31 buildings into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019. He was able to save most of them with costly refinancing from Marvin Azark’s Maguire Capital, a New York-based lender. But nine properties slipped away, and after a contentious auction, Maguire eventually

The New York City Human Rights Commission’s Source of Income Unit lost its last employee. Mayor Eric Adams’ executive budget aims to bring some back. The administration is proposing a six-person enforcement team be shifted from the Human Resources Administration, City Limits reported. The HRA unit does similar work, but it’s not clear if the new team would be tasked with the same mission as the stripped-down Source of Income team. A spokesperson confirmed to

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka are in contract to sell their Harlem home at a — wait for it — legendary price for the neighborhood. Harris and Burtka inked a deal with a local New Yorker, who is in contract to buy the home at 2036 Fifth Avenue for north of $7.1 million, people familiar told the New York Post. While the roughly $888 per square foot sale may ultimately come in below the

Just how much are 60 acres of mostly undeveloped land on Connecticut’s Gold Coast worth? Darien taxpayers are about to find out. The Fairfield County town is in contract to purchase Great Island (technically a peninsula) on the Long Island Sound for somewhere north of $100 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Town officials began negotiations last month with descendants of William Ziegler, a 19th-century industrialist who bought the parcel 120 years ago as a

South Florida’s residential market for rappers is banging, yo. In the past four years, famous hip-hop stars have dropped serious loot buying luxury homes on Miami-Dade County’s waterfront and in the western fringes of Broward County. From Sean “P Diddy” Combs doubling down on mansions in Miami Beach’s Star Island to Rick Ross and Trippie Redd acquiring multimillion-dollar cribs in Southwest Ranches, rappers are vying against hedge fund managers, tech bros and other celebrities for

Helmut Lang can lounge on the beach with his neighbors even after selling them his East Hampton estate. The fashion designer and artist sold the remainder of his property — believed to be at 8 Tyson Lane — to his two neighbors for $70 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The sale comes two years after Lang sold a parcel to one neighbor, Hess CEO John Hess, for $9 million. Hess nabbed the smaller amount

Who needs sexy when profitable will do? Adam Neumann’s latest reinvention has the former WeWork whiz doing real estate the old-fashioned way. Neumann’s family office, 166 2nd Financial Services, and Invictus Real Estate Partners combined to sell a two-property multifamily portfolio in Connecticut for $293.5 million, the Commercial Observer reported. The partners purchased the Norwalk assets for $226 million fewer than two years ago. The properties are the Waypointe at 515 West Avenue and the

The William Vale hotel drama appears to be coming to an end. A venture led by health care executive Avi Philipson is set to buy the debt and an equity stake in the Williamsburg hotel from All Year Holdings’ Israeli bondholders. The bondholders approved his proposal earlier this month and the deal is set to close in July, according to a filing in bankruptcy court. Philipson emerged with a bid at the 11th hour after

We’re about to learn whether the two Adams regimes are serious about solving the city’s housing crisis. In a drama that is riveting developers and housing advocates, a massive Harlem project will either be approved or left to die by Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in the next two weeks. Much of the story sounds familiar: Developers have applied for zoning to build lots of apartments, along with some office and

In New York, real estate is a blood sport, rife with billion-dollar feuds. Behind every eye-popping apartment sale and new development are crazy stories about the uber-wealthy behaving badly. We’re thrilled to share those stories with the launch of our new book, “The New Kings of New York: Renegades, Moguls, Gamblers and the Remaking of the World’s Most Famous Skyline.” Written by award-winning journalist and longtime TRD contributor Adam Piore, the book sizzles with insider

Sales of multifamily assets have been hot in the past year, but rising interest rates are now putting investors into a bind. Negative leverage in the sector is as widespread as it was in the subprime crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. The crisis resulted in soaring defaults on apartment-building debt. Negative leverage occurs when the interest rate on a multifamily building’s or portfolio’s mortgage rises to the point where landlords make less money on

A loan at a Midtown office building is headed to special servicing as Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty seeks an extension on its maturity date. The $235 million CMBS loan for 285 Madison Avenue was transferred to special servicing this week, the Commercial Observer reported. The special servicer is KeyCorp Real Estate Capital Markets. The fixed-rate loan was securitized in a CMBS deal in 2017 and is set to mature in November. In November 2017, RFR

Developers are responding to the explosive growth in Hudson Valley suburb Kiryas Joel, setting the local Hasidic community up for a slew of new housing projects. The latest one in the Orange County municipality is Veyoel Moshe Gardens. The Times Herald-Record reported the 1,600-unit development recently opened and could ultimately house as many as 9,000 people across its 70 acres. About 500 homes have been built at the complex so far and at least 300

SL Green is entitled to a whole lot of green from an affiliate of HNA Group. The Chinese conglomerate owes SL Green about $185 million from a dispute over 245 Park Avenue, former judge L. Priscilla Hall said in a ruling reported by the Wall Street Journal. The monetary compensation largely derives from an investment SL Green made at the skyscraper, as well as fees. SL Green invested $148 million in the building in 2018

A Fort Greene passive house is about to break the neighborhood sales record just a few months after it was set. The renovated townhouse at 6 South Oxford Street, a stone’s throw from Fort Greene Park, went into contract last month for roughly $1 million over the $7 million asking price, according to Compass’ Christine Blackburn, who listed the property with her business partner Lior Barack. It was on the market for barely a week.

It was like they had never left. The first post-pandemic edition The Real Deal’s New York City Showcase + Forum packed the Metropolitan Pavilion with real estate pros for an afternoon of panels, networking and dealmaking. The annual gathering had been on hold for the pandemic, but attendees seemed to make up for lost time as they buzzed through the venue, catching up with old acquaintances and making new ones. Some 43 booths snaked around

Bushburg and the Moinian Group have secured a $105 million construction loan for their mixed-use residential project in East New York. The loan, provided by Valley Bank and Cross River Bank, will help the developers finish their 14-story, 320-unit renovation of a landmarked former dairy factory. The project, at 2840 Atlantic Avenue, will also bring a 52,000-square-foot community space and 14,000 square feet of retail to the neighborhood, one of New York’s least developed areas.

Ryan Serhant is pushing back on claims made by Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman at The Real Deal’s New York City Showcase + Forum last week that reality television shows are harmful to the public’s perception of the real estate industry. Sharing a panel with Douglas Elliman CEO Scott Durkin and Serhant, who has starred on “Million Dollar Listing New York” since it premiered in 2012, Freedman told TRD’s Hiten Samtani that “reality TV

UPDATED, May 23, 2022, 10:00 p.m.: Joel Schreiber struck gold when he met Adam Neumann and became the first investor in WeWork. It’s been more of a grind for Schreiber on his hopes of redeveloping a massive building in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles. Schreiber’s Waterbridge Capital set its sights on the 1.2 million-square foot, 10-story property at 801 South Broadway with partners for $123 million in 2014. The investors sought to revitalize

Storefront leasing is still recovering but the vibes at the world’s biggest retail conference reveal a Covid-blind optimism is in the air. The Wynn Resort poolside parties Sunday — the unofficial pregame to the ICSC conference in Las Vegas — were awash with brokers, investors, developers and some conference newbies eager to get down to business and debauchery after a three-year hiatus from the May event. Riffing off the devil-may-care attitude that ruled 2021’s “hot

Following a year of record-setting luxury home sales, homes entering into contract priced at $4 million and above dwindled last week. A total of 23 contracts were signed between May 16 and 22, according to a weekly report by Olshan Realty. That’s the lowest since the first week of January 2022, when 21 contracts were signed. The week marked a tip back down toward what the report calls the “golden years of new development” —

Damac Properties is poised to buy and redevelop the Surfside collapse site where 98 people died last summer, as no other developers met the deadline to bid on the property. The Dubai-based developer was the stalking-horse bidder, setting a $120 million minimum price last year for the property at 8777 Collins Avenue. Earlier this month, in a move that showed its commitment to buy the almost 2-acre site, Damac increased its deposit to $50 million.

Eight years ago, Alloy Development filed for permits to build a waterfront condominium at 1 John Street, a joint effort with Monadnock Development. Since then, units from the project have made many appearances atop the weekly report by Compass of luxury Brooklyn homes to go into contract. Last week it happened again as a purchase agreement was signed for Unit 9B, asking $5.5 million. It’s not quite the 3,600-square-foot penthouse that might have been the

Midtown Manhattan’s struggles in the wake of the pandemic have reached a new low, with banks and big tech companies partly to blame. These companies are eschewing Midtown offices in favor of spots in trendier neighborhoods, the Wall Street Journal reported. The widespread flight to quality over the last year has seen companies drawn to features like outdoor space and smaller carbon footprints in hopes of luring workers back to the office. The shift from

Adjacent Sagaponack parcels, one with a waterfront mansion, have been snapped up by an undisclosed buyer for almost all of the $48 million being asked. The sale took place in the “pre-marketing” phase of the listing, according to the Wall Street Journal, meaning it hadn’t even made it to market. The parcels are at 35 Potato Road and 543 Daniel’s Lane in the Hamptons town. Behind the Hedges reported the properties sold for more than

Tishman Speyer and Irvine Company are heating things up at 200 Park Avenue with a major restaurant lease. Capital Grille signed a 15,000-square-foot lease at the building, where it will replace Naples 45 along East 45th Street, the New York Post reported. The deal, which includes outdoor space, is reportedly one of the largest for a restaurant this year. Financial terms and lease length for the steakhouse were not available. The restaurant will be joined

Amazon is looking to put more on the market than its offerings as a one-stop shopping hub, reportedly backing off a chunk of industrial real estate. The e-commerce giant is looking to sublet at least 10 million square feet of warehouse space, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg. The company could also end some of its leases with landlords, another strategy to shed the space it amassed during the pandemic. Amazon could look to