The new owners of 93 Worth Street in Tribeca plan to convert the
commercial building into luxury condominiums, Crain’s reported. A
subsidiary of Izaki Group Investments USA bought the building for
$49.8 million, in a deal which closed yesterday. Under the plans, the 13-story property will become 90
apartments, six penthouses and 10,000 square feet of
commercial space. Eldad Blaustein, CEO of Izaki, said he already had
construction financing lined up for the conversion, which is expected
to cost $320 per square foot. [more]

From left: Catherine Harding, Susan James, Patricia Vance, Lauren Muss and Vickey Barron

Sources: Streeteasy.com and The Real Deal

Footnotes: Data is for closed deals filed with the city this week through Friday. The chart only includes sellers’ brokers, because buyers’ brokers’ names are not available in city data or listings. The data does not include deals in contract. To obtain broker information, listing information was compared with sales records filed with the city. Only deals where an individual broker and address can be identified are included. As a result, private sales, listings where an address has not been provided and new development sales by a sales center are not included.

[more]

Residential sales and rental brokerage Core launched an online listing and client management platform in collaboration with listings website Streeteasy.com today, dubbed Core Control, the brokerage announced (see video above for commentary about Core Control from the two companies’ heads).

For an undisclosed monthly fee to Streeteasy.com, the system is available free and exclusively to Core’s agents and clients to help them more easily navigate citywide listings from all firms.

Core described the platform as a comprehensive database of citywide listings from all brokerages represented on Streeteasy.com, with a few additional features added on, including the ability for Core agents to add private and public notes to a listing, link press coverage to properties and view broker-only information on listings, such as commissions and listing expiration dates.  [more]

From left: Trump Organization Chairman and President Donald Trump, Naftali Group CEO Miki Naftali and Jones Lang LaSalle President of New York operations Peter Riguardi

September marks The Real Deal’s 100th magazine issue (to be posted online tomorrow). In it, we will be bringing you some of the stories that made the biggest impact on us and on the market. In the meantime, here is what some industry execs have to say about The Real Deal’s magazine milestone as well as about what The Real Deal has meant to them in the publication’s eight-year existence. For example, Donald Trump, chairman and president of the Trump Organization, said: “The Real Deal has become more comprehensive in its coverage of the real estate industry in New York City and it has also become a valuable source of information. The Real Deal has done a terrific job.” Compiled by Lauren Elkies

[more]

From left: Core CEO Shaun Osher, Centaur Properties CEO Harlan Berger and 305 West 16th Street

The cond-op at 305 West 16th Street in Chelsea, known for the 5,385-pound daisy sculpture atop its seven stories, is more than 50 percent in contract and closed its first unit today, Centaur Properties CEO
Harlan Berger said.

Since sales launched June 1, 29 units in the 53-unit building at Eighth Avenue have entered
into contract, including two yesterday, Berger said, and eight units should close this week. He expects to close 51
percent of the units by the end of September to secure Fannie Mae financing, which
he called “critical” to the sales effort for the second half of the building’s units. [more]

Lawrence Rich has left his post as a vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman to become a senior vice president at Core, effective today, Core announced.

After 25 years running a clothing manufacturing business, Rich joined Elliman in 2004. He told The Real Deal that he enjoyed his seven years with the firm, and even foresaw himself remaining with it through retirement, but recently decided he “needed to take a next step.”

Following a lengthy decision process, Rich settled on Core after being impressed by CEO Shaun Osher and what Rich calls the youthful, modern culture he’s given the smaller firm.

“Elliman tries to have as many brokers as they can,” Rich said. “Core has a different culture, it’s more selective and I see myself fitting in well with their team.” – Adam Fusfeld [more]

Behold the second-floor loft at 120 West 29th Street, the
steampunk-inspired co-op that hit the market last week for $1.75
million (see photos above by Derek Zahedi). The steampunk movement — whose followers dress the part –
pays homage to an aesthetic that’s part Victorian, part science
fiction. Or, as the listing by Core broker Parul Brahmbhatt puts it,
“retro-futuristic fantasy…with a Jules Verne meets Tim Burton
sensibility.”

Last night, steampunkers, HGTV camera crews and other curious
observers gathered at an open house at the space, which is decked out
with a variety of unusual creations: a living room-sized, neon-lit
model of the Hindenburg blimp, a Murphy bed controlled by a
skateboard-anchored pulley system, a submarine-style front door. The
steampunkers were invited by an artist who goes by “Doctor Grymm.” He
was there promoting his latest book, “1000 Steampunk Creations,” and
brought along a six-foot-tall, steam-producing navigation system that
gives directions in a voice that purports to be that of Amelia
Earhart. [more]

From left: Jennifer Aniston and 50 Gramercy Park North

The Real Deal got word that Jennifer Aniston’s Manhattan house hunt continues, and her latest stop was 50 Gramercy Park North. We also ran into TV crews from “Selling New York” while checking out an open house at 83 Franklin Street in Tribeca, where the building’s loft-style, 2,000-square-foot units are commanding near five-figures per month.
And we sat down for lunch with the Brooklyn Historical Society, where some of the borough’s big-name developers updated their latest projects. Click here for more from The Real Deal on the town. – Katherine Clarke, Adam Fusfeld and Sarabeth Sanders
[more]

From the August issue: When temperatures rise in New York City, apartment buyers skip town — or so goes the conventional wisdom. That leads many sellers to believe that they are better off waiting for the fall to list new properties. But this summer, it’s not so clear-cut. Today’s market is more unpredictable than ever. As a result, more brokers are choosing to list properties in August rather than face the unknown in the fall. This month, The Real Deal asked industry experts to weigh in on the pros and cons of listing a new property during the dog days of summer. Here’s what they had to say: [more]

Manhattan condominium closings remained constant and new development closings increased slightly in June, marking a solid end to the second quarter, according to a real-time report covering market-wide June deals released today by residential brokerage Core.

Pricing also remained strong and was up in all bedroom categories from studios through six-bedroom units, except for three- and four-bedroom units, with an increase of 28 percent in contract signed prices for five- and six-bedroom units.

The overall average closing price for a one-bedroom apartment was $740,677, up from $695,841 in May. For a two-bedroom, the average closing price increased to approximately $1.592 million from roughly $1.527 million. – Katherine Clarke [more]