The Real Deal New York

RFR co-founder Aby Rosen and 757 Third Avenue

It’s a triple play for RFR Realty, which now has three new tenants at its 757 Third Avenue office tower, the New York Observer reported. The first is consulting and case management firm Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions, which inked a 28,036-square-foot lease on the third and seventh floors.

In addition, Omni Development, a real estate developer, and Astoria Federal Savings and Loan Association inked respective 5,700 and 5,284-square-foot deals. [more]

From left: Doug Harmon, Joe Koicim, Matthew Bonney and Matthew Scheriff

A growing number of investors are opting for so-called 1031 exchanges, in the wake of tax code changes that have increased the hit on selling real estate. But with more sellers exchanging higher and higher priced properties, some experts say the investment sales market is getting artificially inflated. [more]

Chateau Amorois in East Hampton

An 8.3-acre estate known as Chateau Amorois in East Hampton has been sold for $21 million to an undisclosed buyer after multiple price chops, Curbed reported. [more]

1333 Broadway and Urban Outfitters’ Navajo theme

Continuing its expansion across the city, hipster clothing retailer Urban Outfitters has signed a deal for three floors at Malkin Properties-owned 1333 Broadway, the New York Post reported. [more]

Eric Schneiderman

A court-appointed monitor said CitiGroup, Bank of America and other big mortgage servicers in the U.S. have not improved how they treat customers approaching foreclosure, Bloomberg News reported.

The banks’ shortcomings pertain to how they handle requests for loan modifications and collect customer records, the monitor, Joseph Smith Jr., said in a report released today. He is empowered to take the banks back to court for additional sanctions if they continually fail in the same area after an improvement plan is implemented, Bloomberg News said. [more]

425 Park Avenue and a rendering of the new build

From the June issue: The significance of what will soon occur at 425 Park Avenue is twofold: what is going up, and what is coming down. So far, attention has focused exclusively upon the former, a 41-story, 650,000-square-foot office tower designed by Norman Foster and his London firm, Foster & Partners.

Foster’s design was selected with considerable fanfare in October. The building’s developers, Lehman Brothers Holdings and L&L Holding Co., invited 11 internationally acclaimed firms to submit designs. Four were chosen as finalists: Foster, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and Richard Rogers. [more]

A view of the Meatpacking District

A 12-story glass office building is slated to rise in the Meatpacking District, the New York Post reported.

The 172,000-square-foot tower will be built at 61 Ninth Avenue, on the southwest corner of West 15th Street. The space is currently occupied by Prince Lumber Co., which will relocate its business to West 47th Street and develop the new tower themselves. [more]

Stuart Saft

Veteran real estate lawyer Stuart Saft has been tapped to chair the New York real estate practice at Holland & Knight, only 13 months after joining the firm, Law360 reported.

While at Holland & Knight, Saft — who was formerly at Dewey & LeBoeuf and has been involved in many of the city’s largest deals over the past two decades – worked on Starwood Capital Group’s Baccarat Hotel deal as well as a 34-story hotel that Starwood is developing in conjunction with the Moinian Group. He has also been advising Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group on its Halcyon project in Turtle Bay. [more]

Sotheby’s New York headquarters at 1334 York Avenue

Sotheby’s, the renowned auction house, has put its Upper East Side headquarters up for sale, the New York Post reported. [more]

From left: Eyal Ofer of Global Holdings, Bill Rudin and Dan Kaplan of FXFowle

Developers the Rudin family and Eyal Ofer provided The Real Deal with new details (and renderings!) of their controversial overhaul of St. Vincent’s hospital in the West Village, and they were worth the wait. The 200 condominiums in 10 buildings designed by FXFowle will be called The Greenwich Lane, in homage to the quaint hood’s quaint past, representatives for the project said. [more]