From left: 440 Park Avenue and Harry Macklowe, head of Macklowe Properties
The New York City Department of Buildings has issued a permit for the construction of a new, 84-story residential building, slated to be the city’s tallest, at the 440 Park Avenue site where CIM Group and Macklowe Properties plan to build condominiums, the DOB confirmed today. The permit, for a 1,400-foot-tall residential tower at the site of the former Drake Hotel, was issued earlier this month. [more]
From left: Kent Swig, Elizabeth Swig and Harry Macklowe
Embattled real estate tycoon Kent Swig has replied to a suit from Harry Macklowe, for allegedly staging a “vendetta” to ruin him financially, the New York Post reported. The reply was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court. Macklowe filed suit in March to attempt to collect on a $200,000 loan he allegedly provided to his daughter’s husband, who has developed $3 billion worth of properties. [more]
Charles Garner, principal at CIM, and the proposed tower at 440 Park Avenue (center)
CIM Group and New York developer Harry Macklowe are making strides toward building the tallest residential building in New York City at the Drake Hotel site at 440 Park Avenue. They filed a plan examination request for the building, one of the first steps towards getting a development off the ground, with the Department of Buildings, according to a DOB filing dated March 26. [more]
Harry Macklowe is suing fellow developer Kent Swig
Developer Kent Swig’s estranged in-laws filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court, seeking repayment of $200,000 they claim to have loaned him in October 2009, the New York Daily News reported.
Swig was previously married to Elizabeth Macklowe, Harry’s daughter, but rumors began to swirl in March 2010 that the romance had gone south. According to an affidavit filed by Harry Macklowe’s lawyer, who was not named, he has been seeking repayment for the loan since March 2010. [more]
From left: CIM's Charles Garner, developer Harry Macklowe and the Jacob & Co. Jewelry building
[Updated at 4.45 p.m. with information from an opposition filing] Jacob & Co., a high-end, premier retailer of timepieces for men and women, has withdrawn a motion for an injunction against developer CIM and its consultant on the nearby Drake Hotel site, Harry Macklowe, for disruptive construction taking place at a townhouse property adjacent to the jeweler’s headquarters at 48 East 57th Street.
The withdrawal, filed Wednesday in New York Civil Court for unknown reasons, marks the end of the developers’ latest dispute with the jeweler, whose refusal to sell the East 57th Street property previously caused CIM some headaches. [more]
While State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has blasted the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for their $60-per-square foot deal with Apple for retail space in Grand Central Station, and plans an investigation, the MTA is keeping its cool, urging politicians and the public to “bring [the investigation] on,” the MTA said in a statement today.
Taken at face value, some observers say, the transaction looks like it gives the MTA — and by extension, the taxpayer — a raw deal. Apple’s rent in their 23,000-square-foot lease is far lower what other tenants pay at the transit and retail hub (Shake Shack will pay $200 per foot for Grand Central space, according to a report Tuesday in the New York Post). Also, the MTA failed to secure a percentage of sales revenue from Apple in their deal, something every other tenant at Grand Central pays. But the agency points to a number of constraints that explain that fact and why the deal generally made sense for the state agency. [more]
In an effort to increase control and decrease costs, big condominium developers are increasingly using their own sales teams for new projects rather than hiring outside brokerages to market the units, according to the Wall Street Journal.
For example, Extell Development, which relied on the Corcoran Group to market most of the condos it built throughout the last decade, has hired its own sales staff for its massive One57 development.
“To be frank, there is an awful lot of money in sales commissions and we want to get a piece of that ourselves,” Extell Development President Gary Barnett said. [more]
Developer CIM Group has paid British retailer Turnbull & Asser $32.4 million for a townhouse at a strategic site near the Drake Hotel, according to public records filed with the city yesterday.
The five-story, 8,580-square-foot building, located at 42 East 57th Street, contains four commercial condo units. Turnbull & Asser, a high-end clothing store, has owned and occupied the whole building since 2008, when it purchased it from antiques dealer Paul Schaffer for $31.5 million. Turnbull & Asser has dressed figures such as Prince Charles, Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and John Kerry.
The acquisition may prove to be important for CIM and Harry Macklowe, the developers of the Drake Hotel site at 440 Park Avenue, which may be the most valuable development site in New York City. [more]
From the November issue: Three autumns ago, the collapse of Lehman Brothers knocked the wind out of New York’s real estate industry. Home sales flattened. Prices plunged. And, as layoffs mounted, office buildings emptied out. While there have been some spurts of activity, the industry has not gotten back to the highs of the boom. In fact, as the unemployment rate still hovers at an uncomfortably high level, and Wall Street (a once-reliable real estate engine) reports losses, it seems that a complete recovery might be years away.
All the same, there are signs of comebacks — whether they are from developers who once defaulted on mega-loans and seemed like pariahs, or stock prices that have bounced back from the doldrums at some public real estate companies. There are also geographic stretches of the city that had been pocked with empty retail spaces and empty condo buildings, but are now filling up with stores and residents. There are even some bankers who had been caught up in the subprime mess who are now back on the lending scene in a big way. [more]
