From left: a rendering of 432 Park Avenue, 1214 Fifth Avenue rendering, 8 Spruce Street and One57 rendering
New York City has entered the age of a residential arms race, where developers continue to try top each other, literally, in the height of their developments, according to the New York Times. By 2016 the city could have six of the country’s 10 tallest towers and three of its highest residential buildings. [more]
Forest City Ratner's Bruce Ratner, Darcy Stacom of CBRE Group and 8 Spruce Street (building credit: Gehry Partners)
Forest City Ratner is looking to cash in on the city’s record-strong residential rental market by selling a stake in Manhattan’s tallest rental building. The Wall Street Journal reported that the developer has commissioned Darcy Stacom, vice chairman of the CBRE Group, to find an investor to take as much as a 49 percent stake in 8 Spruce Street.
The 76-story, 903-unit Frank Gehry-designed building launched last February under the auspices of Citi Habitats and is now 80 percent occupied. Asking rents for the remaining units start at $3,750 per month for one-bedroom apartments and $6,720 per month for two-bedrooms. [more]
New York by Gehry, currently the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere, is premiering three penthouses in the next six to eight weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported.
And those residents — who will be paying between $40,000 and $60,000 per month, as The Real Deal has previously reported — will have a celebrity neighbor: Frank Gehry himself, according to the Journal. [more]
From left: Rushmore, Aldyn and New York by Gehry (credit: Gehry Partners, LLP)
Wall Street professionals are accounting for less business in the residential sales and rental markets, as banks slash pay and jobs, and brokerages have begun shifting their focus towards home hunters in the technology, media and entertainment industries.
Citing data from Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, Crain’s reported that just 24 percent of the brokerage’s new luxury condominium buyers in 2011 worked in finance, compared to 35 percent in 2006 and 2007. [more]
Forest City Enterprises, developer of the Barclay’s
Center at Atlantic Yards, reported third-quarter losses of $41.9
million, or 25 cents per share, according to a report from
International Business Times. Leasing difficulties at a Florida mall and disposition of an office building in Cleveland were cited as main reasons for the third quarter net loss.
The company saw $4.3 million in losses from vacancies in two Brooklyn
office properties, $4 million
in write-offs from stalled development projects, and $3.3 million in losses
from slower-than-expected leasing at 8 Spruce Street, the Frank
Gehry-designed residential tower. The company said it has
leased 550 of 903 apartments in the building. [more]
Architect Frank Gehry appeared on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS this past Sunday (video unavailable) and spoke about his design process. When Zakaria suggested that a crumpled piece of paper provided the motivation for the folds typical of Gehry buildings, and especially his design of Disney Hall in L.A., Gehry said it was a myth perpetuated by a cameo in “The Simpsons.” “That was just a fun — fun thing, but it has — it has haunted me,” Gehry said. “People do — who’ve seen ‘The Simpsons’ — believe it.” (For our Spanish speaking readers, a dubbed clip of the episode in question can be seen here.) [more]
Sam Chang’s McSam Hotel Group has unloaded a distressed Financial District development site where it had been planning a 36-story, Gene Kaufman-designed hotel, marking the third New York City project the developer has sold off in the past three months, according to city records made public today.
The site, at 33 Beekman Street, sits across the street from Frank Gehry’s brand-new 8 Spruce Street rental tower and traded June 15 for roughly $15.7 million — around 29 percent less than the $22 million McSam paid to acquire it in early 2007, public records indicate. A lis pendens was filed against the $19.9 million mortgage McSam held there in September 2010.
Kaufman’s plans had called for a 36-story, 270-room hotel that would have been the first four-star hotel in Lower Manhattan had it opened in 2009, as originally proposed. The red-and-yellow building was supposed to feature exterior glass elevators, four floors of amenities and meeting rooms, and a public plaza. [more]
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From left: David LaRue of Forest City Enterprises, 8 Spruce Street and DKLB BKLN
Forest City Enterprises and National Real Estate Advisors announced agreements to restructure the financing at 8 Spruce Street, the Frank Gehry-designed 76-story rental tower in Lower Manhattan and at DKLB BKLN the luxury tower in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, saving the companies hundreds of millions of dollars in debt payments.
The development is key for Forest City, the parent firm of Forest City Ratner, as this $876 million rental tower, formerly known as the Beekman, was under pressure to bring in enough renters to become profitable in a market that is just getting its sea legs.
“By extending the bank credit facilities, it allows for additional time for economic conditions and rents to further improve before refinancing is necessary,” said David LaRue, CEO of Forest City Enterprises, in a statement. [more]
The plan that initially called for a new basketball arena, 16 residential and office buildings, affordable housing and parkland in Atlantic Yards, could be down to just a basketball arena. And that’s just one of the challenges facing Forest City Ratner, according to the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. The Post reported that the developer filed documents with the SEC that said due to rising construction costs and financing rates, and the arena’s inability to find a sponsor, non-arena aspects of the 22-acre project could experience further delays and may be abandoned altogether. Forest City Ratner reported being at risk of losing $525 million on the project. [more]
Famed architect Frank Gehry celebrated his 82nd birthday this past Saturday during a fete on the 76th floor of New York by Gehry, the starchitect’s latest project located at 8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan. Among the guests at the party (see photos above), held in a penthouse unit inside the newly opened rental tower, were numerous stars of the art, music and real estate worlds, including actress Candice Bergen, singer Bono and Forest City Ratner CEO Bruce Ratner, which developed the 903-unit building. TRD
