Israeli-based property investment firm Fishman Holdings closed on a development site at 5 Franklin Place in Tribeca last week, after successfully bidding for the property at a foreclosure auction in September, and has released some details, including a rendering, of its plans for the site exclusively to The Real Deal.

The firm is planning a 19-story, 58-unit condominium, Yehuda Mor, executive vice president of Fishman, told The Real Deal. Construction on the new development will begin in the first quarter of 2012. Mor declined to comment on the size or price of the units or on who would be marketing the building, saying it was premature.

“We think the time is right to enter the Tribeca housing market,” he said. [more]

Andrew Gerringer from the Marketing Directors said he thinks the Trump Soho condo-hotel “will end up going fully hotel at some point.” He spoke as part of a panel today on the changing state of new development at the New York City Real Estate Expo. The break-out panel was sponsored byThe Real Deal and was moderated by Managing Editor Jill Gardiner and Deputy Managing Editor Matthew Strozier. Wendy Maitland, senior vice president at Brown Harris Stevens, said that in today’s market, “if it’s a good deal, it has significant hair on it.” On a panel about the future of real estate investment, Richard Mack, North America CEO at Area Property Partners, said “we are not out of the woods in New York City yet.” At another panel discussion on investment sales, Adelaide Polsinelli, a senior vice president at Marcus & Millichap, said the goverment has made this a “landlord un-friendly environment.” Click here for photos, and to see what the panelists said in real time, go to The Real Deal’s Twitter page and search for the #expo hashtag. TRD [more]

Charles Russell, formerly a managing director at Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, has moved over to the competition: Prudential Douglas Elliman’s new development division.

Russell, who has worked at the Corcoran Group and Corcoran Sunshine for nearly 20 years, has been named a vice president at Elliman’s development marketing group and his first day was today, according to a spokesperson for Elliman, who added: “Prudential Douglas Elliman is very excited to have him.”

Reached on his cell phone, Russell confirmed that he’s moved to Elliman but didn’t provide further details. The Elliman spokesperson said Russell will be recruiting new business and consulting on new condominium projects. [more]

Andrew Gerringer, the erstwhile head of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Development Marketing Group, has announced that he will move to new development sales firm the Marketing Directors.

The move marks a homecoming for Gerringer, who got his start in real estate at the Marketing Directors when he worked there as regional director of sales in the 1980s. “We’re delighted to welcome Andrew back,” Marketing Directors founder and CEO Adrienne Albert said in a statement released to The Real Deal. “Following his tenure with us… Andrew went on to become one of the top producers and most accomplished professionals in the industry. His resume speaks for itself, and we’re thrilled to have him back on our team.” [more]

Andrew Gerringer, who founded Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Development Marketing Group and has been with the company since 1991, resigned yesterday.
Gerringer, a managing director at Elliman, told The Real Deal that he has accepted a position at another company, but said he could not yet release the name of the firm. Elliman’s Development Marketing Group is one of the top new development marketers in the city, selling high-profile projects such as the Apthorp. [more]

Jessica Cohen of Prudential Douglas Elliman

From the January issue: When Core’s Kirk Rundhaug started marketing 32 Clinton Street, a four-unit boutique condo in a far-flung corner of the Lower East Side, he was somewhat surprised at who showed up at his open houses. In addition to the young hipsters generally associated with the edgy neighborhood, Rundhaug fielded inquiries from empty nesters from the suburbs of New Jersey and Connecticut. “They were Lower East Side people when they lived in New York,” he said of one 60-something Westchester couple who are eyeing a two-bedroom unit. “They want to come back.” Manhattan’s population of people aged 65 and older is expected to surge nearly 60 percent by 2030 as the baby boom generation ages. And while boomers had largely disappeared from the city’s real estate market in the wake of the financial crisis, brokers say this all-important demographic is now becoming active again. With prices no longer in free fall, many of the city’s boomers are now putting their sprawling apartments and townhouses on the market as they look to downsize to one- and two-bedroom homes. Meanwhile, suburban empty nesters are also reentering the market with an eye toward eventually retiring in the city, exchanging large, labor-intensive houses for apartments rich in services. [more]

From left: David Arena, Elizabeth Stribling, David Schlamm and Barak Dunayer

In the wake of the financial crisis that ripped through the country, real estate pros did their best to keep their heads above water in 2009. As 2010 commences, The Real Deal asked a number of New Yorkers hailing from different parts of the real estate industry why they are glad 2009 is over. Click here to see what they said is their top reason. TRD

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From the December issue: Everyone loves cash. Nothing new there. But in this market, cash deals are even sweeter. In some cases, a onetime payment could even be the only way to close a sale, according to brokers, attorneys and developers. And discounts often await all-cash buyers. There are other benefits: less paperwork and fewer delays in getting deals done. No long waits for banks to pore over buyers’ financial records, only to reject them on the eve of closing. “Cash used to be king, but now it’s the emperor,” said Luigi Rosabianca, a real estate attorney who says 50 percent of his clients have paid cash so far this year versus 20 percent in 2007 at the market’s peak. The exact number of cash deals is difficult to determine; property records on file with the city’s Department of Finance don’t specify how apartments are paid for. And the sheer number of cash deals doesn’t seem to be increasing, as the volume of all deals remains depressed.

Rolan Shnayder of Home Owners Mortgage, which has been lending in a number of new condo buildings that are less than half sold

From the October issue: New condos — the black sheep of the real estate industry for much of 2009 — are finally beginning to move again as construction progresses and developers find ways to circumvent stiff presale requirements for mortgages. For example, the Tempo condominium in Gramercy, which sat virtually buyerless for months after it went on sale in September 2008, sold 10 units this summer. In Lower Manhattan, District on Fulton Street sold 10 units in August alone. The Fairchild at 55 Vestry Street in Tribeca, which had sold only one unit in April and none in February or March, put five units in contract in August and even saw a bidding war, the developer said. “Deals are getting done at new developments,” said Stephen McArdle, the principal of brokerage Urban Marketing, which is handling sales at District. “We’re seeing activity. Six months ago you weren’t seeing anything. The fact that the bottleneck is open is very encouraging.”

Aiming to make home loans easier to obtain in the midst of the credit
crunch, Prudential Douglas Elliman has formed its own mortgage company. In a joint venture with Wells Fargo, the brokerage firm has created a
company known as DE Capital Mortgage to originate and fund mortgages,
said Dottie Herman, president and CEO of Elliman. This is the only arrangement of its kind among large residential
brokerages in Manhattan, Herman said, adding that having an in-house
mortgage lender will help make it easier for Elliman customers to get
loans. “It just makes everything go a lot quicker and smoother,” she said. “There’s no middle-man.” Elliman has a 50 percent ownership stake in the new venture, as does
Wells Fargo, and DE Capital Mortgage is an affiliate of both companies.
Loans will be underwritten, processed and serviced by Wells Fargo Home
Mortgage, and customers will have access to the same terms and programs
that Wells Fargo offers in all of its locations. But they will
effectively be getting their mortgages through Elliman. “When you get
your mortgage, it’ll say DE Capital,” Herman said. [more]