From left: Donald Trump, president of the Trump Organization, Dottie Herman, president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Elizabeth Stribling, president of Stribling & Associates, Stuart Saft, chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department, and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership, and Lois Weiss, real estate columnist for the New York Post

Compiled by Lauren Elkies

In the wake of Sandy Weill’s reported $88 million sale of his 15 Central Park West penthouse, The Real Deal wanted to touch base and see if real estate executives had any last minute predictions for the New Year since speaking with the magazine for the December residential market report.

Dottie Herman, president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership, said to expect 2012 to be a bit of a repeat of 2011, while developer Donald Trump said “really good real estate will have excess value.” Elizabeth Stribling, president of Stribling & Associates, predicts a “continuing strong demand for new condominium offerings all over town,” while Stuart Saft, chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department, said “the euro will continue to be in trouble causing a flight to safety to the U.S. and particularly New York City, so New York City properties will trade at even lower cap rates.” Meanwhile, Citi Habitats President Gary Malin and Halstead Property Development Marketing President Stephen Kliegerman recently told amNY that 2012 would bring more development and fewer amenities to New York City’s real estate market. [more]

At The Real Deal‘s seventh annual forum last week’s at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, real estate pros gathered to watch debates between real estate attorneys Adam Leitman Bailey of the eponymous firm and Stuart Saft, chair of law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department; developer Billy Macklowe of William Macklowe Company and John Catsimatidis, CEO of the Red Apple Group; and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty, and Lockhart Steele, founder of Curbed. In attendance were Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s retail leasing and sales division, Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel and Andrew Barrocas, CEO of brokerage MNS, all of whom stepped outside to talk to The Real Deal about the state of the market (see video above). — Katherine Clarke

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Is it any wonder that two litigators stole the show at The Real Deal’s seventh annual forum, which was structured as a debate between three sets of real estate professionals? (See a few photos from the forum above and look for the December issue for more.) Attorney Adam Leitman Bailey of the eponymous firm and Stuart Saft, chair of the real estate department at Dewey & LeBoeuf, faced off on whether litigation is harming New York City real estate — an animated discussion that had Bailey angling to settle a dispute with Saft from the podium (for a client with cancer) and Saft accusing Bailey of hurting the city with his tactics.

“When you litigate without thinking of the consequences and the macro [effects], it hurts the city of New York,” Saft said. [more]

The Real Deal’s seventh annual forum, “The Debate,” at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. Starting at 6:30 p.m., developer Billy Macklowe will debate Gristedes magnate John Catsimatidis. Then Curbed founder Lockhart Steele will face off against Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership. Finally, attorneys Stuart Saft of Dewey & LeBouef and Adam Leitman Bailey of his eponymous firm will go head-to-head. CNBC anchor Bill Griffeth will be moderating the event. It’s the big event of the year. If you move fast, you can still make it! Please tweet about the event and send questions using hashtag #trddebate. Comments

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Stuart Elliott,
editor-in-chief of The
Real Deal

From the November issue: We won’t be bringing you a crowd that’s going to boo a soldier, cheer executions or applaud the death of an uninsured man, like we’ve seen at this year’s Republican presidential debates. But this month at Lincoln Center, The Real Deal‘s first debate — in which real estate bigwigs will square off against one another — promises to be a heated discussion of some of the key issues facing the industry today.
As far as we know, it will be the first real estate debate of its kind in New York City. The format is a departure from our usual annual panel discussion.
We have a bunch of prominent debaters lined up, and the issues that will be on the table on Nov. 16 are central to the livelihoods of those who work in real estate here in the city. [more]

Frederick Peters, president and CEO of Warburg Realty, appeared on CUNY TV’s “Building New York” with host, and former columnist for The Real Deal, Michael Stoler (see video above), to discuss his career and his family’s history in New York, which dates back to the first half of the 19th century. Peters had wanted to be a pianist up until the time he bought his first apartment, a co-op on Central Park West, in 1977. In fact, in a 2008 interview with The Real Deal, Peters said he would be running an orchestra if it weren’t for real estate.

“I was bitten by the real estate bug,” he said. “It was when everyone thought New York was dying and real estate was cheap.” Peters went on to be a broker at LPK for five years before taking a managing position at Albert Ashforth’s brokerage. When the company decided to vacate the New York market, it sold the division to Peters, who renamed it Ashforth-Warburg, eventually dropping Ashforth altogether. Peters took the reins in 1990 during the depths of a recession, but “miraculously, we made money,” he said, and quickly expanded the firm from 25 agents to 150. Though president of the firm, Peters says he continues to sell apartments for two reasons: because he wants to keep his finger on the pulse of the market and because he enjoys it. [more]

Craig Huff, co-CEO of hedge fund Reservoir Capital Group, and his wife have purchased the entire sixth floor at 993 Fifth Avenue, a limestone building opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art between 80th and 81st streets, according to the New York Observer.

Frederick Peters and Judith Lederer of Warburg Realty and the Corcoran Group’s Carrie Chiang shared the listing. The exact price was not immediately available.

“In this day in which masters of the universe tend to act like masters of the universe, it was an incredible pleasure to work with a buyer with so much grace and humility,” Warburg broker Frederick Peters told the Observer.

The seller of one of the apartments on the floor was the estate of Grace J. Ross, the wife of corporate lawyer David G. Ross, whose clients included the Boston Celtics. [more]

They say once you’ve lived at the San Remo, the twin-towered Central Park West behemoth and one of the city’s most coveted addresses, it’s difficult to imagine living anywhere else. Shareholders are known to move around within the illustrious building, picking up the leftovers from their neighbors’ divorces, moves and deaths.

That convention holds, too, for San Remo resident James “Jimmy Jr.” Nederlander, presumed heir to Broadway’s the Nederlander Organization, who just dropped $13.5 million on his late neighbor’s three-bedroom apartment upstairs, public records show.

The theater producer, whose credits include “Hairspray,” “Wicked” and the revival of “La Cage Aux Folles,” is a longtime shareholder in the Emery Roth-designed co-op. And with a list of neighbors that’s included the likes of Bono, Steven Spielberg and Rita Hayworth over the years, it’s no wonder he wasn’t anxious to move out. [more]

From left: REBNY President Steven Spinola, Rep. Anthony Weiner, Warburg President Frederick Peters, Elaine Mayers of Citi Habitats and Stacey Max of Bellmarc Realty

Tuesday’s approval of an amendment to a proposed Federal Housing Finance Agency ruling dealing with flip taxes could keep lenders from abandoning the New York City residential market in the future, according to industry experts.

The amendment pared down an earlier FHFA provision, announced in fall 2010, which would have barred government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from lending in all multi-family buildings in which a flip tax is written into the contract. In its original form, the proposal could have adversely affected roughly 50 percent of the New York City residential stock, according to Real Estate Board of New York President Steven Spinola.

The amendment was passed as part of a larger proposal that is still winding its way through the approval process. [more]

From left: Michael Shvo, 20 Pine Street and 25 Broad StreetStalled condominium developments that suffered during the recession are now being revived in the Financial District. However, as the neighborhood emerges from the downturn, the new developments are falling short of previous expectations, in terms of pricing and design, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new owners of William Beaver House, for instance, are slashing condo prices, while the creditors of the Setai Wall Street are selling their defaulted loan, to help closings resume. The lenders to 25 Broad Street are foreclosing on the property, paving the way for converting it to rentals. “People in the Financial District got a little over-ambitious, both in terms of prices and concepts,” said Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty. [more]