The Real Deal New York

A rendering of 56 Leonard Street and a rendering of 432 Park Avenue

High demand for super-luxury homes has tilted the scales, if you will, in favor of tall, skinny residential developments, the Wall Street Journal reported.

With buyers shelling out $3,000 per square foot for apartments perched in the sky, it makes financial sense for the developers to build needle-like towers. Previously, builders acquired wide sites, since constructing tall properties on small sites was expensive, the Journal said. [more]

Fort Tilden in Queens (Credit: Urban Ghosts Media)

Madison Square Garden get 15-year permit. Townhouse at 294 West 4th Street asks $10.8 million. Starwood Capital Group in talks to buy 7 malls from Westfield Group for $1 billion. The Muppets take Queens to star in museum exhibit. Cleanup workers try to restore Fort Tilden in Queens by the summer despite Sandy damage. Read these stories and more after the jump.

Michael Hoffenberg

From the May issue: A new Manhattan financial firm plans to originate between $100 and $150 million in loans in the coming year, founder Michael Hoffenberg told TRD. Newly launched Trevian Capital specializes in high-yield bridge loans — first mortgages or other senior secured loans with terms of six months to two years — in the $1 to $30 million range, he said.

Trevian will help provide nontraditional financing for small to mid-size players who need money faster than a large bank can provide it, said Hoffenberg. [more]

From left: Steve Rutter, Rebecca Mason, Kenneth Scheff, Charles Russell, Elizabeth Ann Stribling-Kivlan, Elizabeth Stribling, Catherine Witherwax, Kirk Henckels and Chris Wilson all of Stribling

Some 250 brokers and guests crowded into Stribling & Associate’s new Boerum Hill office last night, though the residential brokerage sent out only 150 invites to the opening of its first Brooklyn location. [more]

From left: Judge Shlomo Hagler and Broadway Triangle

A development watchdog group has raised concerns that a new judge overseeing a challenge to the Broadway Triangle apartment complex in Williamsburg will be biased in favor of the project, the New York Daily News reported. [more]

New York Developers party poolside at the Bellagio hotel

The International Council of Shopping Centers’ four-day RECon retail convention and party marathon wraps up today in Las Vegas. Though some brokers told The Real Deal that the show felt busier than last year — and attendance rose — many said the velocity of deals seemed slower. See photos after the jump…. [more]

Lawrence Yun of National Association of Realtors

Existing home sales rose 0.6% to a rate of 4.97 million units in April. This is the highest pace since November 2009. This was slightly below expectations for a 1.4% month-over-month (MoM) rise to a rate of 4.99 million units.

March’s numbers were revised higher to show a 0.2% fall to 4.94 million units. What’s more distressed sales only accounted for 18% of sales, down from 21% in March, and 28% a year ago. A regional breakdown shows that existing home sales rose the most in the South, up 2.0%. In the Midwest they fell 3.4%, in the Northeast they were up 1.6%, and in the West they were up 1.7%. [more]

Anthony Weiner

Anthony Weiner, the former “sexting”-embroiled Congressman who today announced he is running for mayor, would make some substantial changes to city housing policy if he wins the race, Brownstoner reported.

Weiner’s plan for affordable housing would grant upzoning and tax abatement benefits for properties that include 60 percent market-rate units, 20 percent middle-income units and 20 percent affordable units, according to a policy document the candidate released several weeks ago. [more]

From left: Vitaly Malkin and the Time Warner Center

An owner of a Time Warner Center condominium, who is leasing the unit to upstate philanthropist and businessman Sam Nappi, has filed a lawsuit against the wealthy Russian family that owns the apartment above, seeking to halt their allegedly noisy construction work, the New York Daily News reported. [more]

From left: Ben Shaoul and 254 Front Street

Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group has sold a high-end rental property in the Financial District to Queens-based construction and management firm Werber Management for $25 million, according to records filed with the city yesterday. [more]