Clint Olsen, sales director at Massey Knakal, and 991 Third Avenue

The Heskel Group closed last night on an $18.42 million purchase of a three-story glass retail building across the street from the Bloomingdale’s flagship, CEO Yeheskel Elias told The Real Deal. It marks the first Manhattan purchase for the Queens-based developer.

The entire building, at 991 Third Avenue on the northeast corner of 59th Street, is occupied by Capital One Bank under a long-term lease signed in 2006. The bank took over the triple-net, ground-lease when it bought North Fork Bank, which demolished the existing building and erected the current 4,560-square-foot structure. [more]

Stephen Crane Village and Newark Mayor Cory Booker

Newark Mayor Cory Booker will announce a $50 million contract between the Newark Housing Authority and Constellation Energy on Monday, to retrofit thousands of apartments with energy efficient heat, electrical and water systems.
The program, one of the largest energy deals involving public housing in the U.S., is expected to create more than $78 million in savings over a 15-year period, officials said. The program, one of the largest energy deals involving public housing in the U.S., is expected to create more than $78 million in savings over a 15-year period, officials said.
“We’ve been looking at what other housing authorities have done in the past,” said Newark Housing Authority spokesperson Lauren Hudock. “[Residents] will see reduced energy costs and a better quality of life in general.” [more]

Architect Karl Fischer and the Continental at 185 South 4th Street

Capital One bank filed an early foreclosure notice for $18.6 million against the Karl Fischer-designed Continental building at 185 South 4th Street in Williamsburg Aug. 29, Curbed reported. Developed by Brooklyn’s Isaac Hager, the project was originally planned as a condominium, but went to market as rentals in 2009. The 46-unit building has a gym, storage, laundry room, roof terrace and lounge, all of which were rare amenities in Williamsburg when the building launched. It even has a part-time doorman. There are currently two rental listings at the property, a one- and two-bedroom apartment for $2,750 and $3,750 respectively, according to data from Streeteasy.com. The Continental is not the only Fischer building to have found itself in financial trouble of late. The 12-story, 20-unit Fischer-designed building at 480 Humboldt Street, known as SkyHigh, found itself at a bankruptcy auction earlier this year. [Curbed] [more]

From left: 100 South 4th Street (credit: PropertyShark) and 120 South 4th Street

Two under-the-radar Brooklyn real estate developers are confronting more than
$51 million in personal guaranty and foreclosure lawsuits on five separate loans
doled out in Williamsburg and Greenpoint in 2006 and 2007.

In the largest and most recent legal action, special servicer CWCapital Asset
Management sued the developers, Menachem Stark and Israel Perlmutter, to
recover $29 million lent in 2007 and secured by the seven-story, 74-unit rental
building at 100 South 4th Street, between Berry Street and Bedford Avenue.

In the CWCapital suit filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn June 28, the special
servicer claims the pair personally owes the full $29 million because of a Chapter
11 filing the pair entered in an effort to block a foreclosure proceeding in 2009. [more]

[Updated at 4.30 p.m.] Developer Andrew Bradfield’s luck is continuing with 123 Third Avenue, a luxury condominium at the southeast corner of East 14th Street and Union Square. The 2,928-square-foot retail condominium at the base of the 19-story Orange Management building just sold for $11.05 million to Related Companies and Lloyd Goldman’s BLDG Management, according to public records.  RKF Investment Sales and Advisory Services brokered the deal.

The condo, which features 126 feet of wraparound frontage, is currently fully occupied by Capital One Bank.

RFK Executive Vice Presidents Jeff Fishman and Ariel Schuster and Director Brian Segall negotiated both sides of the deal. – Katherine Clarke [more]

484 Kent Avenue (source: PropertyShark)

It seems there’s even more housing on the way for Williamsburg’s booming Kent Avenue. According to Brownstoner, a permit was recently filed with the Department of Buildings for a new residential conversion at 484 Kent Avenue, between South 11th and South 10th streets. The three-story industrial building, part of the would-be site for developer Isaac Rosenberg’s 800-unit Rose Plaza on the River, is slated to get 30 units on the second and third floors, though the first floor will remain a warehouse. Property records show that Rosenberg, the formerly bankrupt developer of the nearby Warehouse 11 condominium, is still behind this project, though it’s unclear what the latest plans mean for Rose Plaza. It’s also unclear whether condos or rentals are planned for the conversion. Lender Capital One filed a lis pendens at the property on Rosenberg’s $3.76 million mortgage in 2009. . [Brownstoner] [more]

From the March issue: Tourism is back, and lenders are eyeing hotels more favorably as a result. In 2010, a record 48.7 million visitors traveled to New York City. These visitors spent approximately $31 billion during their visits to the Big Apple, according to estimates by NYC & Company, the city’s official marketing and tourism organization. To catch some of those tourist dollars, more than 36 hotels opened in New York last year. In addition, there are at least 26 new hotels in line for construction. Concurrently, financing for the hospitality asset class — which was in the doghouse with lenders just a few years ago, ranking as their least favored sector — has improved for both hotel owners and developers. [more]

It may be hard to believe, but lenders are now actually sending letters of intent to provide construction financing. Construction financing, perhaps the riskiest type of mortgage financing, is available in the tri-state region for rent-regulated and other multi-family buildings. It even exists for condominium projects (and yes, I did say “condominium”).

Gino Martocci, president of the New York City and Long Island region of M&T Bank, said: “We have and continue to provide construction financing for well-capitalized clients. We are in the process of providing construction financing for a brand new hotel in the Union Square neighborhood.” Another established developer who prefers to remain anonymous, who is in the process of building a rental building off Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side, told me that 10 financial institutions have expressed interest in the development. [more]

With the 10-year Treasury note trading at very attractive rates, cooperative apartment buildings and owners of multi-family buildings are taking advantage of low rates and refinancing.

Perhaps the best rates — as low as 5 percent on
five-year fixed loans — are offered by government-chartered companies,
which include Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Commercial and savings banks are providing attractive financing for terms of five to 10 years with rates as low as 4.85 percent to 6 percent. Daniel Harris, executive vice president and chief lending officer at the Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh, said: “It has become a very competitive market with existing and new players originating multi-family mortgages. It is a great time for a borrower to lock in a record-low mortgage rate.” [more]

One of the developers of Williamsburg’s Warehouse 11, the 120-unit luxury condominium at 214 North 11th Street, has exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The deal cut down the debt load of developer Isack Rosenberg and his partners at McCaren Park Mews to $35 million. The partners, who defaulted on their $50 million mortgage with Capital One Bank last summer, hope to pay off their remaining balance through sales of the remaining 36 units in the Karl Fisher-designed building. Sales had come to a halt during the bankruptcy process, but relaunched with verve in January as the developers slashed prices and raced against the clock to raise cash by a lender-imposed deadline. Aptsandlofts.com, which is marketing the building, expects the remaining units to go quickly now that the developers have worked through the bankruptcy. [Brooklyn Paper]