From left: Jay-Z and 511 West 21st Street (credit: PropertyShark)

A parcel of land ripe for development, and previously owned and lost by rapper Jay-Z will likely be bought by the Albanese Organization for around $60 million, the New York Observer reported.

The site, at 511 West 21st Street, between 10th and 11th avenues, has 140,000 buildable square feet and is zoned for retail, hotel or office space.

The hip-hop star and real estate investor purchased the site at the height of the market for more than $50 million, and spent millions more on air rights, the Observer said. [more]

From left: Ilan Bracha, chairman of Keller Williams NYC, and partner Haim Binstock, 18 West 57th Street and a rendering of the condominium tower 

One of the most active building firms in the city, Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, is one step closer to taking control of a half-vacant, five-story commercial building co-owned by residential real estate agent Ilan Bracha, chairman of Keller Williams NYC. The squat 50-foot wide building, 16-18 West 57th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, is one block east of Extell’s 1,000-foot tall hotel and condominium tower under construction at 157 West 57th Street, called One57. City and state public records reveal that a foreign lending company affiliated with Barnett now controls the $66 million loan lent in 2007 to Bracha and partner Haim Binstock. Bracha and Binstock, and their B&B Investment Group, sought to develop a 28-story mixed-use tower with options for hotel and retail after buying the site in 2007 for $60 million, city records show. [more]

Clockwise from top left: Cushman & Wakefield CEO Glenn Rufrano, John Grotto of the Durst Organization, a rendering of 4 Times Square retail and Ariel Schuster of Robert K. Futterman & Associates

Major New York City developers and their brokers gathered in Las Vegas this week for
the retail trade show RECon and revealed additional details about significant Manhattan
retail locations.

On Monday, the Durst Organization unveiled renderings for the shopping portion of
4 Times Square, known as the Conde Nast Building. Later, a source said the signage
rights on the upper portion of the tower were being offered for $1 million per side of the
building.

That was just one of the many New York City retail locations highlighted in Las Vegas,
home of the International Council of Shopping Centers show held at the Las Vegas
Convention Center. [more]

From left: 401 West 56th Street, Ofer Yardeni and Alan Miller (building photo credit: CityRealty)An affiliate of Flushing-based apartment rental firm Orin Management purchased the Clinton apartment building located at 401 West 56th Street from Ofer Yardeni’s Stonehenge Partners for $37.96 million.

56 Scarlett Associates, an affiliate of Orin Management which is controlled by members of the Sohn family, signed a contract in November and closed on the purchase Dec. 16, city property records published yesterday show.

The 95-unit building at the corner of Ninth Avenue was one of the first properties acquired by Yardeni’s firm, which he founded in the early 1990s with Joel Seiden. Stonehenge bought it in April 1995 for $5.8 million, the company said in a press release. [more]

From the October issue: Keeping heads in beds has not been easy for New York City’s hotel
industry in this economy. Not only are tourists cutting back on
expenses, but companies — including those that not too long ago
readily put up their employees at five-star hotels — are also
massively scaling back.
In this month’s Q & A, hotel experts and operators talked to The Real Deal about why the hospitality industry has fallen further here than it has nationally.
They said revenue per room, or RevPAR, is down between 20 and 30
percent and that the luxury hotel market (not surprisingly) is getting
crushed hardest.

From the July issue: Commercial lenders are facing reality — but not all at once. In
addition to reluctance to admit they have bad loans on commercial
properties, lenders have been trying to avoid taking large losses in a
single quarter, industry experts said. In many cases, they are holding onto underwater real estate loans
not only because they don’t want to accept low-ball offers, but also
because they cannot afford the appearance of a large single-quarter
loss, said real estate insiders. Alan Miller, senior director of commercial real estate brokerage
Eastern Consolidated, offered a wry phrase to describe lenders
extending a loan past its maturity date to keep it from being
considered non-performing: “extend and pretend.” [more]

I still remember a day that seems so long ago (it was only 18 months
ago) when every piece of developable land for a residential condominium
or rental, hotel or office building was selling for prices as high as
$500 per square foot. Parking lots, industrial warehouses, former gas
stations and odds and ends throughout the five boroughs were priceless
possessions, only available to the most successful or financeable
developers. Then was then and this is now: there is limited
availability, and little or no financing available for land or
developments. In addition, there is uncertainty about how much money is actually out there. [more]