From left: 19 West 21st Street and Doug Perlson, CEO of RealDirect
Realdirect.com, the online residential brokerage and listings consultant started in 2010, has doubled its space in the tech-laden Chelsea area and has hired additional agents, which it calls “neighborhood guides,” the company told The Real Deal. [more]
From left: Sara Judge McCalpin, president of China Institute in America, and 40 Rector St.
The China Institute in America paid $18.3 million for a two-level space at 40 Rector Street, according to property records filed with the city Monday, making the non-profit organization the fourth purchaser at Philips International’s commercial condominium. The purchase covers a 13,000-square-foot portion of the ground floor, plus the entire 35,000-square-foot second floor, Michael Pilevsky, co-president of Philips, told The Real Deal. [more]
A Spectra Energy natural gas line
Construction of a controversial $1.2 billion natural gas line running under the Hudson was unanimously approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the New York Times reported. The line, proposed by Houston developer Spectra Energy, will run from New Jersey into the West Village, moving 800 million cubic feet of gas a day into Consolidated Edison’s distribution system. Spectra claims that will lower energy costs for residents and businesses in the neighborhood. [more]
A list of the Hamptons’ 10 biggest sales so far this year. Distant cousins want $31M back from heiress Huguette Clark‘s Philippine nurse. Thor Equities exec wins bidding war for mixed-use Bay Ridge building. Morgan Stanley housing chief leaves to start his own buy-to-rent housing fund. DOB “disapproves” Two Trees’ residential conversion of 30 Washington Street in Dumbo. Finally, Lankler Siffert & Wohl law firm to renew and expand lease at 500 Fifth Avenue. Read these stories and more after the jump.
Danny Meyer
From the May issue: Danny Meyer is the founder and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, which operates the New York City restaurants Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke, Maialino and North End Grill, as well as the Whitney Museum eatery Untitled and the three restaurants in the Museum of Modern Art. The company also runs 14 outposts of the burger joint Shake Shack in Manhattan, Florida, Washington, D.C., Dubai and Kuwait City, with six more slated to open this year. Meyer also heads Union Square Events catering and Hospitality Quotient consulting. He has co-authored three books, including his business tome, “Setting the Table.” [more]
From left: Tory Burch and 350 Hudson Street (credit: PropertyShark)
Luxury fashion designer Tory Burch has inked a 10-year lease for 80,000 square feet at 350 Hudson Street in Hudson Square, GlobeSt.com reported. The space encompasses the building’s entire fifth and sixth floors. [more]
Private equity real estate groups, including Apollo Global Management and JPMorgan Chase, have struggled to raise funds since the downturn as institutional investors increasingly decide to strike out on their own property investments. According to the Wall Street Journal, the costly fees and underwhelming performance of many pooled funds have compelled large investors to build their own real estate investment divisions and acquire property directly. [more]
15 Leonard Street
The Landmarks Preservation Commission shot down developer Steven Schnall’s plans to build a nine-story condominium building at 15 Leonard Street in Tribeca, according to Curbed. Schnall had planned to replace two single-story parking garages with a building composed of a two-story glass base topped with five stories of steel residences and a two-story roof addition.
The developer intended to move his family into the two-story base and the cellar, to form a three-floor, 6,000-square-foot maisonette. Below that would be a commercial parking garage. The four lower levels of the five-story middle section would include full-floor, 2,600-square-foot apartments, while the top floor of the middle section and the rooftop addition would form a triplex penthouse. [more]
Illustration of Seward Park proposal looking south from Delancey Street
The Lower East Side’s Community Board 3 gave its expected seal of approval to development plans for the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area last night, Crain’s reported, but with one condition. The board demanded the affordable housing slated for the site, composed of five city-owned lots southeast of the corner of Delancey and Essex streets, be permanent. [more]
Sales of new single-family homes rose 3.3 percent month-over-month in April 2012 and 9.9 percent year-over-year, according to a release issued by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. April saw new home sales at a seasonally adjusted rate of 343,000 units.
“Today’s report is representative of the kind of modest but consistent gains that we expect to see in new-home sales through the remainder of 2012,” said David Crowe, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, in a separate release. [more]
