Financing for New York City real estate projects is back. Of the top 35 deals done in the last 12 months, 24 were refinancing and nine were new loans taken out of acquisitions, according to Crain’s. The largest deal was an $800 million refinancing of 245 Park Avenue, between 46th and 47th streets, for which Brookfield Asset Management and ING Clarion tapped the Bank of China in September 2010. It was followed closely by Boston Properties’ $700 million loan from MetLife for the Citigroup Center at 153 East 53rd Street, between Third and Lexington avenues, in March 2011, and a $650 million refinancing of One Bryant Park between 42nd and 43rd streets in June last year by Bank of America. [more]

Since its inauguration in the last couple of years as an epicenter for young families, developers in the Financial District have sought to mold it as a toddler-oriented mecca, a sort of southern Tribeca for clans that can afford it, the Observer reported. The $4.5 million Imagination Playground and good public schools continue to attract families, as do the European-feeling streets that are quiet as soon as the closing bell rings. But the “baby boomlet,” as the New York Times called it in 2009, seems to have crested in FiDi, with luxury rentals now more likely to be converted to hold roommates than playpens. According to resident Angela Tai, a creative recruiter originally from Taiwan, each FiDi high-rise has its own identity. Her own building, at 2 Gold Street, is in the mid-range — somewhere between 99 John Street, which is teeming with young children and families, and 200 Water Street, which is “like a “high-end dorm,” she says. Her own building is a good mix of people like her: “childless, but with some money — and dogs,” she says. In addition to the families and singles, amenities for older folks keep popping up in FiDi as well, such as Todd English’s Libertine at the Gild Hall hotel, and Bayard’s Blue Bar. [NYO]

[more]

Rockrose’s Henry Elghanayan and 200 Water Street

Rockrose’s 576-unit South Street Seaport rental building, 200 Water Street, is fully l [more]

Rockrose’s Henry Elghanayan and 200 Water Street

Rockrose’s 576-unit South Street Seaport rental building, 200 Water Street, is fully l [more]

Kevin Ellerton, the CEO of Blackstone Properties, which has snagged a significant market share but also drawn ire from competitors.

From the February issue: At the ripe old age of 24, Kevin Ellerton is managing to become one of
the most powerful players in the Lower Manhattan rental game. To hear
his competitors talk, he’s also one of the most loathed.
Ellerton is the CEO of Blackstone Properties, a company he started
less than two years ago with a high school friend, David Yomtobian.
(Ellerton’s company has no relation to the powerful private equity firm
the Blackstone Group.)
By Ellerton’s calculations, about half of all brokered rental deals
in the Financial District and Battery Park City are inked by Blackstone
agents. While executives at other Lower Manhattan firms say that number
might be closer to 40 percent, they grudgingly concede that Blackstone
has grabbed a formidable share of the rental market in a very short
period of time. [more]

A New York City Housing Court judge has ruled that a market-rate apartment at 37 Wall Street should be rent-stabilized because the owner has been receiving 421-g tax abatements from the city. The decision, reminiscent of last year’s Stuyvesant Town case, in which the state’s highest court ruled that landlord Tishman Speyer had illegally deregulated units while receiving J-51 tax abatements, could mean a return to rent-stabilization for thousands of Financial District apartments. Unlike the J-51 tax break, which was issued to developers throughout the city, the 421-g was given out exclusively to commercial landlords in Lower Manhattan for residential conversions. The landlord at 37 Wall Street, W Associates, had argued that because the rent was over $2,000, the building should be exempted from stabilization. “As the Court of Appeals concluded in Tishman Speyer, [the owner]
cannot take advantage of the luxury deregulation exclusion of the Rent
Stabilization Law while simultaneously receiving benefits under the
program,” Judge Bruce Scheckowitz wrote in his decision. According to the Downtown Express, there are at least 16 rental buildings below Murray Street currently receiving 421-g tax abatements, including 200 Water Street, 63 Wall Street ant 90 West Street. The decision sets a precedent for similar lawsuits from tenants in close to 5,000 units in those buildings. [Downtown Express] and [Crain's]