The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

The city’s budget deal provides some homeowners relief, but falls short of advocates’ calls for heftier investment in affordable housing. On Friday, Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced they’d struck a deal for a $101 billion city budget for fiscal 2023. The agreement includes $90 million to fund a $150 tax rebate for property owners who earn less than $250,000. The city estimates 600,000 owners would be eligible for the program.

Vladislav Doronin’s OKO Group closed on a $754 million refinancing from JPMorgan for its luxury condo and hotel project at the Crown Building. The project, which occupies the top 20 floors of the 24-story building at 730 Fifth Avenue, is expected to be completed this summer. Closings on the condo portion have already begun. The Real Deal reported in April that OKO Group was close to locking in an $820 million refinancing on the project

Sonder, the short-term rental startup whose shares have plummeted more than 80 percent since it went public in a SPAC merger five months ago, has laid off a fifth of its staff in an effort to cut costs. The San Francisco-based firm is eliminating 21 percent of corporate roles and 7 percent of “front line” roles, according to a Thursday SEC filing first reported by Skift. Among those departing in what Sonder termed its “Cash

A long-delayed office project in the East Village can finally proceed after the developer landed a $70 million loan. Parkview Financial announced this week it provided the loan for the refinancing and construction of a nine-story, 61,000-square-foot building at 1 St. Marks Place. The developer on the project is Real Estate Equities Corp. The loan refinances an existing land loan, as well as previous construction financing. Development of the project is underway and slated for

Sales, refinancings and store openings across the tri-state area have been keeping brokers and investors busy this spring. Here is a sampling of recent ones in New Jersey, Long Island and the northern suburbs. Veris Residential sold the development sites for its Jersey City waterfront projects Urby II and Urby III for $70 million, according to an SEC filing. The transaction closed in April, but the buyer was not disclosed. Veris, previously known as Mack-Cali,

Luxury real estate kicked off a record-breaking surge around the start of the pandemic, but its run recently hit a snag. Sales in the luxury market dropped 17.8 percent in the three-month period ending April 30, according to a report from Redfin. In this case, luxury homes are defined as those in the top five percent based on market value. The sales decline was the third-largest to hit the luxury market in the past decade.

It’s not just Manhattan: rent is skyrocketing everywhere, surpassing a national benchmark in May for the first time. The national median asking rent was $2,002 last month, marking the first time it surpassed $2,000, according to a report from Redfin. It was a 2 percent gain from April, but a much more significant 15.2 percent rise year over year. Redfin deputy chief economist Taylor Marr noted that rising mortgage rates are keeping would-be homebuyers in

For years, consumers have taken buses from Manhattan to a massive outlet mall north of the city for a day of spending. Soon they might be able to spend the night there as well. Simon Property Group announced plans Wednesday for a major expansion of the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in Central Valley. The project was one of four revealed by the mall operator for properties across the country. Simon plans to add 160,000 square

Move over, Williamsburg. Here comes … Midtown? Residents and brokers who specialize in the area — known for aging office buildings and executives — say it has been transforming during the city’s recovery, getting younger, hipper and trendier. It can surely use the new blood. The skyscraper-laden district stretching from 34th Street to Central Park South was disemboweled by the pandemic and continues to bleed office tenants, even as other pockets of the city appear

Well-heeled Hamptonites balked in April when pay-per-seat helicopter service Blade revealed it would be jacking up the cost of a Manhattan-to-East Hampton flight to more than $1,000 this summer. After years of mounting noise complaints from East Hamptonites over the incessant din caused by weekenders flying in on an endless stream of choppers, East Hampton Airport is now set to close and reopen as a private facility, a move which — though its ultimate status

After a buying craze that characterized much of last year, sales of new development condos slowed across the city in May for the second straight month. Still, the market remains robust compared to pre-pandemic times — especially in Manhattan. Buyers signed contracts for 360 sponsor units in May, down 9 percent from April, according to a new report from Marketproof. Despite the monthly decline, activity was still 46 percent higher than in May 2019. And

The developers behind the Essex Crossing complex on the Lower East Side have secured $466 million in new debt — a major milestone for the 1.9 million-square-foot megaproject at the corner of Delancey and Essex streets. Deutsche Bank and Square Mile Capital provided the financing to Delancey Street Associates, a joint venture of Taconic Partners, L+M Development, BFC Partners, Prusik Group and Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Urban Investment Group. The new financing replaces $455 million

The days of Ivy League alumni meeting for dinner, networking and squash could be over at the Princeton Club of New York. The private-member club defaulted in October on a $39 million mortgage and the holder of the note sued Tuesday to foreclose on the Midtown building. The creditor, an LLC, has asked the court to hand over control of the 10-floor building at 15 West 43rd Street, which the shuttered Princeton Club has called

The state advanced the $7 billion redesign of Penn Station Thursday, though the fate of the redevelopment of the neighborhood itself is still uncertain. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the state will begin accepting bids from architecture and engineering firms for the redesign of the station. Proposals are due July 28 and a winner will be selected in the fall, she said. As part of the project, the station’s upper level will be removed to

It might not be the upstate version of Dumbo yet, but a section of Albany known for warehouses is becoming a spot for other businesses and housing. Two major projects are transforming the city’s Warehouse District and will deliver 350 apartments, the Times Union reported. While the projects will bring new life to the area, some of its businesses are expressing concern about its future. Last week, Rosenblum Development broke ground on its Industrie Apartments

Investors came expecting a fight, and all they got was the silent treatment. Prologis’ hostile bid for Duke Realty drew crowds at both companies’ presentations at REITWeek in Midtown Wednesday, but executives deflected questions. The deal remains in limbo some six months after San Francisco-based Prologis made its first play for the Midwest firm. Duke Realty CEO Jim Connor told investors to direct any inquiries to Prologis about the prospective deal, which would make the

According to prospective homebuyers, it’s never been a worse time to try and purchase a place. Only 17 percent claimed it was a good time to buy a home in May, according to Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index. The figure, down from 19 percent in April and 24 percent in March, marked the third straight month the index component reached a record low. The overall index is down 11.8 points year over year. The

In our two decades covering real estate and its many strong personalities, The Real Deal has been known to ruffle feathers from time to time. But if there’s one thing the industry can agree on, it’s that we know how to throw a party. But our signature annual showcases in New York and Miami — attracting thousands of dealmakers, developers and even civic leaders like Mayors Eric Adams and Francis Suarez — are just the

Those who haven’t ventured to the Hamptons for an overnight stay in three years are likely bound for a sticker shock. The average hotel price for the first five months of the year was $1,240.17, according to an analysis from Bloomberg. That price represents a 51 percent increase from the same period in 2019, when the average was $821.24. The figure comes from Google data scientists commissioned by Bloomberg to look at the costs of

A major financial services organization managed to ink a deal amid Manhattan’s sky-high sublease market. The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association is subletting 40,000 square feet to risk advisory firm K2 Integrity at 730 Third Avenue, the Commercial Observer reported. K2 will be relocating from three noncontiguous floors at 845 Third Avenue. The sublease for TIAA’s space, which the firm has never occupied, ends in 2035. Asking rents for the sublease were in the mid-$60s

After only three mid-market sales were recorded in the week before Memorial Day, dealmakers tripled that output last week. Nine investment sales between $10 million and $40 million hit city property records, covering every borough but Staten Island. Here they are, ranked by dollar value: 1. An entity represented by JLL Capital Markets’ Stephen Palmese sold a pair of waterfront warehouses in Carroll Gardens for $33 million to LLCs represented by Brendan Maddigan, also of

TikTok and New York City real estate have a courtship that dates back to 2020, when brokers expanded their digital reach to potential buyers and tenants stuck at home. Two years later, the platform’s pull has extended beyond individual agents. Some of the biggest names in brokerage are also looking for a slice of the video platform’s viral potential, including recent additions Brown Harris Stevens and RE/MAX. New York City brokerages bidding for space on

America’s first fully permitted 3D-printed home took twice as long to print and cost more than double what its backers expected. Yet it was far from a failure. The 350-square-foot house was set to be printed in a total of 24 hours over the course of several days at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference 2018 in Austin. Unfortunately, storms and record-setting rainfall swept the city that week  — causing it to take 48 hours.

Think of New York rents like the temperatures ushered in by climate change: They may be hot now but they’re only likely to get hotter. Manhattan prices have hit record highs for six straight months and May was no exception: the median rent reached $4,000 for the first time ever, according to a monthly report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. Record demand has propelled those gains as prospective New Yorkers continue to

John Legend may not have given all of himself to his Nolita penthouses, and now they’re all someone else’s. The Grammy Award-winning musician and his cookbook-writing supermodel wife, Chrissy Teigen, closed the sale of their two condos atop 374 Broome Street for a combined $16.75 million, records show, about a month after the units went into contract with an $18 million asking price. The celebrity couple, who purchased the penthouses for a combined $16.72 million

Cockroaches may be the sworn enemy of many an apartment renter, but insects and tenants made a rare show of solidarity in an Albany courtroom this week. Albany City Court was forced to close for an extermination on Tuesday after a protester released hundreds of cockroaches while tenant advocates, arrested at a good cause eviction rally in the state capital last month, were being arraigned, the Times Union reported. One of several activists on hand

One major developer is handing off its Downtown Brooklyn project to another. Gary Barnett’s Extell Development signed a long-term ground lease with the Feil Organization at 356 Fulton Street, Crain’s reported. The $85.9 million deal signifies that Barnett’s firm will now helm the project. Whether Barnett will change the project is not clear. Last year, Feil filed plans for a 43-story building, which would encompass 475,000 square feet, including about 100,000 for commercial use. The

Hugh Jackman might be playing a con-artist on Broadway, but there’s no scam here: It really is the Australian actor’s condo that hit the market in the West Village this week. Jackman, who returned to the stage this spring in a revival of “The Music Man,” has put his triplex condo at 176 Perry Street on the market for $38.9 million. The two-time Tony Award winner bought the home in 2008 for $21 million, records

In an apparent case of a creative pandemic lease gone awry, a Soho landlord is trying to evict a high-end tenant paying low-end rent. One Kings Lane Holdings seeks to oust Italian fashion brand Pinko from the retailer’s flagship U.S. shop on Spring Street, according to a complaint PINKO filed in state court Friday. The lawsuit alleges that One Kings Lane — a retailer itself — reneged on an agreement to extend PINKO’s sublease. The

Some brokers need a firm behind them. Others might just need a vendor. A number of fascinating approaches are emerging in high-end residential brokerage, a business whose demise is predicted every time there’s a market slowdown, an oligarch crackdown or a rush of venture capital that promises transformation. Brokerages haven’t gone anywhere yet — in fact, 2021 was a banner year for most of New York’s leading firms — but their strategies for catering to

In 2018, Irving Langer began to sell, sell, sell his Harlem holdings. By the end of the next year, his multifamily giant E&M Associates had shed 92 buildings in three sales, raking in $400 million. In 2020, he took a stab at unloading the rest of his stake in E&M’s assets but hit some financial issues on the road to closing. Now, one of the properties he got stuck with has been rocked by tragedy,

To find the last time mortgage demand was this low, you’d have to put on your Y2K glasses. For the week ending June 3, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s index measuring mortgage loan application volume dropped 6.5 percent from the week before, sinking to its lowest level in 22 years. Driving the decline are increases in mortgage rates and home prices and a paucity of homes for sale. Rates have been rising all year, predating the

Just when things seemingly couldn’t get worse for Better.com, they just did. Former executive vice president for sales and operations Sarah Pierce accused the company of misleading investors in financial filings and other statements, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Pierce claimed she was forced out of the digital mortgage lender earlier this year after raising concerns. The alleged misrepresentations came as Better.com was pursuing a SPAC merger in an effort

Keller Williams franchise owner Richard Amato is on a quest to expand. Amato has just purchased two Keller Williams offices, in Ozone Park and Bay Ridge, to go with the four he already owns: Keller Williams NYC in Manhattan, KW Legendary in Franklin Square, KW Greater Nassau in Garden City and KW Points North in Woodbury. Greater Nassau Garden City hosts 518 agents, New York City has 615, Points North Woodbury has 348, Legendary Franklin

Don’t call it a pullback. Private equity firm Taurus Investment Holdings bought a 13-property industrial portfolio spanning 1.4 million square feet across the Sun Belt for $174 million and change, it said Wednesday. The portfolio comprises four so-called class A buildings — state-of-the-art facilities of a recent vintage — and nine class B properties in Houston, Atlanta, Tampa and Orlando. Two of the properties are new builds in Houston, said Lathan Allen, managing director at

“Do you have to live in Atlanta to invest in Coca-Cola?” Doug Brien is making a point about how provincial single-family rental investing is, with people tending to buy within driving distance of where they live. That’s because the market, unlike those for stocks and bonds, is messy and opaque. Things we take for granted in debt and equities — reliable data, smooth portfolio management — are hard to come by in single-family rentals. Brien

Vornado Realty Trust says the land beneath its office building at 330 West 34th Street is worth $145 million. The land’s owner, Haymes Investment Company, claims its value is $225 million — entitling Haymes to more than $5 million in additional annual rent.  Assuming no further hikes, that would be nearly $170 million over the course of Vornado’s 30-year lease. Vornado and Haymes are suing each other to make their respective valuations stick. Ground leases,

Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin Management are in conversations with Ken Griffith about his investment firm Citadel becoming an anchor tenant and an investor in the developers’ supertall office tower planned for Park Avenue, sources said. The 1,450-foot-tall, 1.68-million-square-foot tower is getting closer to reality but is still years away from opening. Vornado owns the office building at 350 Park Avenue, which takes up the entire blockfront from East 51st to East 52nd streets and

The American Dream’s ownership overslept its alarm last week, missing an interest payment on a nine-figure debt. Don Ghermezian’s Triple Five Group failed to make its semiannual payment on a $800 million municipal bond, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bondholder trustee U.S. Bank NA informed bondholders two days after Wednesday’s missed payment. Bondholders instead received payment from an $11.35 million debt service reserve account, according to the publication. But if Triple Five does not fork

When it came time to sell his Upper East Side home, townhouse guru Jed H. Garfield knew exactly who to call. Garfield, whose brokerage, Leslie J. Garfield, specializes in townhouse sales, turned to one of his own brokers, Lydia Rosengarten, to sell his home at 510 East 89th Street. In return, Rosengarten earned her boss $6.4 million (minus commission), records show. “Lydia’s been covering that neighborhood for a long time and she knows who’s shopping,”

UPDATED, June 8, 2022, 4 p.m.: Lauren Balbuena’s tenure as Keller Williams NYC CEO and team leader is over, with Allyssa Compton-Disla stepping in as her replacement. Balbuena was tapped to replace former CEO Mark Chin in 2020. The chief executive was tasked with growth and profitability as part of her reign, under which Keller Williams did indeed experience a comeback. After losing more than a third of its agents in 2019, the brokerage increased

Two years after selling the retail portion of 609 Fifth Avenue, SL Green is doing the same with the property’s office condominium. The office landlord on Monday announced the sale of the vacant condo for $100.5 million. SL Green didn’t disclose the buyer, only referring to them as a “domestic investor.” The purchase hasn’t closed yet, but the landlord said it was expected to later this month. SL Green repositioned the building at the corner

New York City’s life sciences real estate has boomed in recent years, but the region needs to invest in infrastructure if its market is going to rival that of San Francisco and Boston. That’s the argument that Partnership Fund for New York City president Maria Gotsch made in comments to the New York Business Journal. “There is so much incentive as it currently stands to make a discovery here in New York City at either

UPDATED, June 7, 12:55 p.m.: Top Douglas Elliman agents Oren and Tal Alexander left the brokerage after a decade to launch a company called Official, backed by the white-label firm Side, The Real Deal has learned. The brothers, who led the Alexander Team in New York, South Florida, the Hamptons and Aspen, will hang their licenses with venture capital-backed Side, but are starting their own firm, the Alexanders and Side confirmed. The Alexanders’ page on

Be it the Hamptons, Hawaii, or the sun-soaked shores of Mykonos, if you use “summer” as a verb, chances are you’ll be on the beach at some point in the next few weeks. You could do it the way everybody else does: Grab a towel, something off the “Beach Reads” table at Barnes & Noble, stuff them into a worn-out bag and call it a day. But as the hot housing market begins to cool

Albany spent the end of its legislative session pushing through items that had become unexpected priorities — and rendered good cause eviction, which was once expected to be a hot-button issue into an afterthought. Left-wing activists were in no position to protest, given that legislators were busy passing an abortion-rights package in anticipation of the repeal of Roe v. Wade and gun restrictions in response to the Buffalo and Texas mass shootings. Despite a superheated

The next Cipriani bash will likely have a seat reserved for a “King.” Hedge fund King Street Capital is in advanced talks to refinance nearly $150 million of operating debt for the Italian hospitality company’s U.S. subsidiary, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. The capital would be enough to retire 2018 loans from Ares Capital. King Street would also provide additional funding to help Cipriani grow its brand nationwide. Cipriani has

In a blow to upstate landlords, a city in the Hudson Valley is poised to be the first north of the New York City suburbs to adopt rent stabilization. A recent study found the rental vacancy rate in Kingston to be 1.57 percent, the Times Union reported. The vacancy rate is low enough that the Ulster County city could declare a housing emergency, which under state law would allow it to implement rent stabilization for

The tri-state area’s industrial real estate market remained busy in the first quarter, but a slowdown in investment sales could be on the horizon as economic headwinds loom. Industrial real estate investment volume rose by 31 percent year-over-year to $1.8 billion, according to a report issued by CBRE. This followed a record-setting fourth quarter of 2021, during which investment volume doubled year-over-year to $5.2 billion and nearly a third of the year’s transactions were completed.

Though his close friends and family might quibble over the precise ingredients required for a good Joseph Chetrit story, they can all agree on one thing: There’s probably a negotiation involved.  Robert Verrone’s favorite took place during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, when the top debt broker and his father attempted to enter a soccer stadium with Chetrit, Chetrit’s wife Nancy and their four children. Verrone had secured prime fourth-row seats, and the group had

Three weeks after Ryan Serhant was publicly scolded by Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman, the celebrity broker has scored a bit of revenge. Madison Sutton, the social media star behind “TheNYCAgent” TikTok account, has bolted from Freedman’s brokerage to join the McPeak team at Serhant. Freedman, on stage with Serhant at The Real Deal’s Showcase event, had blasted “reality” shows — the kind that made Serhant famous — for giving the wrong impression of