The other day I returned to my old neighborhood, the Upper East Side, and was pleasantly surprised to see a new store, only two weeks old, that belonged to the luxury cosmetics and soap company Sabon, its ninth store in Manhattan, at 1276 Lexington Avenue, a few feet south of the subway at 86th Street. he store has three other locations outside Manhattan, including in Garden City, N.Y., and in Chicago and Schaumburg, I.L. Although it looks in the main like most of the other Sabon outlets in the city, to me it is easily the loveliest of all. It is not the rustic feel of the two tones of woods, paler and rougher-hewn at the summit, dark and smooth along the rest of the street-front, that makes it so appealing, nor the sweet smell of lavender and patchouli rising amid the general foetor of this stretch of Lexington Avenue.
[more]

The new addition to John Jay College
on 11th AvenueFrom the October issue: Bigness is back. By “bigness,” I do not mean height — rather, I refer to a kind of hulking squatness, an unapologetic, as-of-right occupancy of a plot of land — without any namby-pamby purchase of “air rights,” or any rising up in a zigguratted setback to heights made possible by the construction of some cynically insufficient, “privately owned public space.”

Two recent and conspicuous examples of this new bigness are the Lucida and the Brompton, which occupy the southeast corners of 86th Street at Lexington and Third Avenues, respectively. These structures hark back to the days before the 1916 legislation that mandated how high a building could rise in New York relative to its footprint.

But an even more striking instance of this upstart subgenre is on the West Side — the addition to John Jay College of Criminal Justice (part of the City University of New York) that has just opened in time for the beginning of the new school year. [more]

For New York City real estate, 2010 in many ways marked a return to normalcy after the tumultuous aftermath of the financial crisis. As the ubiquitous real estate appraiser and Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller put it: “it was a year of a sense of relief.” City home prices stopped their freefall and sales activity improved considerably from the post-Lehman doldrums. Stalled condominium projects like the Sheffield and 1 Rector Park re-started sales. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim bought Tamir Sapir’s Fifth Avenue townhouse, the Duke Semans mansion, for $44 million. As the unspoken taboo on ostentatious spending faded, a number of high-end residential properties changed hands at the end of the year, including Brooke Astor’s 14-room duplex at 778 Park Avenue, which finally sold after two years on the market (albeit for a significant discount from its original asking price). Japanese retailer Uniqlo snagged 89,000 square feet at 666 Fifth Avenue’s former Brooks Brothers space for a record $300 million, demonstrating that retail is still thriving along the posh shopping corridor.
But the economic downturn continued to make its presence felt. The office market remained uneven and troubled lender iStar Financial fought to stave off bankruptcy amid lingering fears of a double-dip recession.
Here are The Real Deal staff’s picks for the stories that most altered the New York City real estate landscape in 2010, in alphabetical order. [more]

From left: Adam Leitman Bailey, the Edge and its developer, Jeffrey Levine of Douglaston Development

At least nine apartment buyers, represented by attorney Adam Leitman Bailey, are now trying to back out of their contracts at the Edge, a 575-unit condominium at 22 North 6th Street on the Williamsburg waterfront. Bailey, who just won a similar case at the Brompton on the Upper East Side, is using the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act to fight for his clients, Curbed first reported. “Our client purchasers at the Edge are entitled to a full refund of their deposit and to rescission of their purchase agreements,” Bailey said in a statement. TRD [more]

The Related Companies must return a $510,000 deposit, plus interest, to the Greek shipping executive who bought at the 22-story Brompton condominium on the Upper East Side, a federal judge ruled yesterday in a decision that could have broad implications for developers and condo buyers in New York and nationwide.

The Brompton buyers, Vasilis Bacolitsas and his wife, Sofia Nikolaidou, had signed a contract in May 2008 for a $3.4 million three-bedroom unit and later decided to back out, making use of a 1968 federal law called the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act. The obscure law, originally intended to be applied to the sales of large plots of undeveloped land, requires contracts in large developments to be in a form that can be filed with the city register.

At the Brompton and most other new condominiums, lenders stipulate that buyers are only allowed to register their contracts after they’ve closed on the purchase because a recorded agreement would result in a lien against the property. The decision, therefore, said the buyers’ attorney, Adam Leitman Bailey, entitles “every buyer in a newly constructed condominium which has sold more than 100 units within the last three years to obtain a refund of their down payment.”

Lawyers for the sponsors said the decision could be a death sentence for existing and future new development in the city and intend to appeal. [NYT]

[more]

Developers create layouts that can get bigger or smaller,
depending on what kind of buyer comes knocking

The Corner and developer David Picket

From the August issue: New York City developers are relieved that the market has picked up, but many have been caught off guard by the sudden change in buyers’ preferences.

To adapt, New York developers are speedily altering unit sizes and floor plans in upcoming projects and those already on the market — sometimes even before construction is finished.

Lower-end apartments are getting smaller to accommodate value-seeking buyers, and make it easier for them to get mortgages. At the other end of the spectrum, developers are combining more condo units to create larger apartments — sometimes at the request of specific buyers, other times in a preemptive attempt to target families or others looking for more space.

“Developers are doing everything they can to accommodate any potential buyer, so if it takes combining a unit, you combine a unit,” said Gerard Longo, the developer of new Tribeca condos Pearline Soap Factory and the Fairchild.

[more]

From left: 360 Smith Street, 73 Pineapple Street, 303 East 51st Street, Beekman Tower and 189 Schermerhorn Street

From the February issue:Hundreds of dormant construction sites still dot the city, but a
handful of these beleaguered projects are finally seeing new life –
even if it’s not what was once dreamed of for the location. Those that
have seen some type of resolution were able to do so by selling off
their debt at steep discounts, slimming their construction costs or
setting their sights way lower.
This month, The Real Deal tracked down 20 stalled projects
that have seen some type of resolution within the past several months
(see chart after the jump).  [more] [more]

The Brompton, the luxury Upper East Side condominium from Related
Companies, is facing litigation from the buyer of four penthouse
apartments, alleging that the developer misrepresented certain building
amenities and also failed to allow independent inspections of the
property. The lawsuit, filed June 4 in New York State Supreme Court, demands that
Related return more than $5 million in deposits for the four
apartments, which have a combined value of $25.7 million. The suit names two defendants, Related and 86th LLC, which controls the
Brompton, and the law firm of Michael, Levitt & Rubenstein, which
holds the deposits in escrow. Joanna Rose, a spokesperson for Related, said: “Two
judges have already denied a temporary restraining order for similar
claims and we have no reason to believe that this instance
will be any different.” [more]

1. Comparing the Brompton’s rendering with the actual building [Curbed]
2. “Lincoln” in Lincoln Center name is a mystery [NYT]
3. 37-year-old mosaic door at 88 Perry Street has to be approved by the Landmarks commission [Curbed]
4. Today is the fourth anniversary of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront rezoning [Brownstoner]
5. A Q&A with David Arena, president of Grubb & Ellis New York [NYO]
6. Auction of 11 East 74th Street townhouse canceled [NYO]

7. Cablevision Systems says it has no plans to sell Madison Square Garden [Bloomberg]

8. Proposed Jewsion restaurant owners to reappear before Community Board 3 [Eater]

9. A slideshow of modern architecture in the Hamptons [WSJ]
10. Oil executive cuts price of Metropolitan Tower apartment to $11 million from $15 million [Cityfile]
11. Fashion-related retailers hurting on the Lower East Side [AM NY]
12. AIG selling Japan headquarters for $1.2 billion [AP via Crain's]
13. Ten metro areas with the most underwater mortgages [Forbes]
14. FHA loans can help rehab homes [Bakersfield.com]
15. HSBC offers negative outlook for home loans [WSJ]
16. Lower-priced home sales surge [Real Estate Channel]
17. Working homeless families being charged rent in shelters [NYT]
18. Staten Island’s Engine 161 closing [SI Advance]
19. Homeowner workshop for Brooklyn residents being held at the United Progressive Democratic Club [Sheepshead Bites]
[more]