A rezoning proposal for the Hudson Yards Western Rail Yard has cleared its final public approval hearing, according to an announcement made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Meanwhile, real estate auction Web site Bid on the City will host its first-ever $1-minimum-bid auction Feb. 1, 2010. And, the Real Estate Board of New York has approved the membership of a new real estate firm, Exit Realty Landmark. Click here for more. [more]

Senator Charles Schumer and Bronx tenants are urging Fannie Mae not to go forward with an online auction of 19 distressed Bronx buildings and instead to try to find a buyer who will maintain the properties. Fannie Mae purchased the mortgages on the buildings, which house 520 families in the Crotona neighborhood of the Bronx, for $29 million in 2007 and had planned to auction them through DebtX, an online auction site for distressed property. The city has spent close to $1 million on emergency repairs at the buildings, according to Alexa Sewell, chief of staff at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Fannie Mae has already agreed that the department should monitor the online bidding on the properties, but Schumer and housing advocates say there should be a more formal preservation arrangement. [more]

Apartment 2220 at Philippe Starck-designed 15 Broad Street was up for auction through real estate auction Web site Bid on the City yesterday. But as Lower Manhattan real estate blog Downtowny reported, the property saw no bids and failed to sell. The 2,256-square-foot, three-bedroom unit is listed on Streeteasy.com for $1.75 million and was last sold in July 2006 for about $1.9 million. A number of other units in 15 Broad Street are listed on Streeteasy.com for over $1.75 million. [more]

Thirty-six bidders virtually raised their hands this weekend at an online auction for two Hamptons properties, with very different results. One property saw a “spirited” bidding war, with a final sale price more than $100,000 over the opening bid, said Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Enzo Morabito, who ran the auction. The other property’s bidders failed to meet the auction’s reserve price. Auctions have become increasingly popular in New York real estate over the last several months. Auction providers claim that auctions get things moving in a stalled market. But others argue that auctions merely hurt local property values. Morabito is of the former school of thought. “This kind of stuff usually starts something,” he said. “Anything that spotlights anything is better than silence. Hope is not a good marketing plan.” [more]

Jersey City’s Beacon condominium, one of the largest historical restoration projects ever begun in the state, will be the first luxury condo in the Hudson River area to auction off some of its units. Twenty-five units in the two-tower complex will be sold at auction June 27, with suggested starting bids of $150,000 to $250,000. The units were originally on the market for between $380,000 and $700,000. Twelve of them will be sold no matter how little bidders are willing to pay for them. Developer George Filopoulos of Metrovest Equities may sell the other 13 units for whatever highest bid comes in or set a minimum price, depending on how the first dozen sales go. Comments

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Marc Dreier’s (center) two East Quogue homes

Two of disgraced attorney Marc Dreier’s three Hamptons homes will hit the auction block June 17. David R. Maltz & Co. will auction the homes at 109 and 111 Dune Road in East Hampton, which Dreier purchased in 2004 and 2005 for a total of $11.6 million. The 7,000-square-foot home at 111 Dune Road has eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms on 2.4 acres, according to the auction company’s Web site. The 109 Dune Road home is 3,000 square feet, with four bedrooms, five bathrooms and an easement that provides direct access to the beach, according to the Web site. Dreier was arrested for securities fraud in December. TRD [more]

From the June issue: While the auction gavel has made its way onto the real estate scene in
the New York area in recent weeks, not everyone is sold on the idea of
putting properties up for bid. Those who run auctions have, of course, very publicly touted them
as a way to get property moving in a market where transactions seem to
be stuck in quicksand. But the question remains: Do auctions really work for high-end
properties, or other properties that are not in distress? Or do they
simply set an artificial floor for prices and depress surrounding
property values? [more]

While residential property auctions have long been associated with distressed properties, some real estate professionals are now testing them on regular apartments that are simply not selling that fast. On this week’s Webcast, The Real Deal’s Sara Polsky checks out one of the first Manhattan property auctions to provide an alternative to the normal brokerage process. Bid on the City, which operates out of a Fifth Avenue storefront, put five properties — with starting bids ranging from $299,000 to $1.13 million — on the auction block last weekend. The Real Deal spoke to all the major players at the auction and got the results. To watch the full Webcast, click on the video above.