The party’s over at the A Building, an East Village condominium at 421 East 13th Street built by mini-mogul Ben Shaoul and his partner, Rob Kaliner. Beneath the two-year-old building’s reputation for hosting raucous rooftop pool parties lies a reality worse than the most killer hangover — flooding, crumbling balconies, alleged mismanagement of the condo board’s funds and two unresponsive developers who have left owners banging their heads against mold-ridden walls, claim several residents who forwarded dozens of documents detailing these issues to The Real Deal.
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From the February issue: This much we know: There’s billions of dollars on the sidelines waiting to buy distressed real estate. But don’t be fooled: There’s also plenty of double-counting going on. Adelaide Polsinelli, for example, has been fielding countless calls from distressed real estate fund managers and vulture investors lately, all looking for New York commercial real estate at rock-bottom prices. But with sellers still unwilling to part with their properties at deep discounts, investors are getting restless. Polsinelli, a broker and associate vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap Investment Services, said: “Investors are jumping from fund to fund in the hopes that someone is actually doing deals.” She said they’re frequently committing the same money to each of those distressed funds. In turn, those funds are going out into the marketplace touting that cash. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were double-counting going on,” said Lawrence Lenzner, a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, who represents funds and property owners.  [more]

(Clockwise from left) Brokers Richard Steinberg, Steve Kliegerman, Stacey Max, and Victoria Shtainer talk about real estate priorities post-election.

New construction helped define the legacy of Michael Bloomberg’s first two terms as mayor, whether it was parks, schools, apartments, or more controversial mega-projects. That came in lockstep with a wholesale reordering of what should go where in New York, as Bloomberg rezoned 20 percent of the city, which was the most in four decades. But in Bloomberg’s third term, which he won yesterday in a close election against city Comptroller William Thompson, the city’s real estate community seems focused on different issues — some more far-reaching than others.
Some brokers hope lessons have been learned, like with the Second Avenue Subway, whose famously disruptive construction has hurt sales at the Upper East Side’s Georgica condo, said Richard Steinberg, an executive managing director with Warburg Realty Partnership. [more]

Rolan Shnayder of Home Owners Mortgage, which has been lending in a number of new condo buildings that are less than half sold

From the October issue: New condos — the black sheep of the real estate industry for much of 2009 — are finally beginning to move again as construction progresses and developers find ways to circumvent stiff presale requirements for mortgages. For example, the Tempo condominium in Gramercy, which sat virtually buyerless for months after it went on sale in September 2008, sold 10 units this summer. In Lower Manhattan, District on Fulton Street sold 10 units in August alone. The Fairchild at 55 Vestry Street in Tribeca, which had sold only one unit in April and none in February or March, put five units in contract in August and even saw a bidding war, the developer said. “Deals are getting done at new developments,” said Stephen McArdle, the principal of brokerage Urban Marketing, which is handling sales at District. “We’re seeing activity. Six months ago you weren’t seeing anything. The fact that the bottleneck is open is very encouraging.”