Scott Rechler, Jeffrey Levine, Hal Fetner and Kenneth Horn, the heads of
RXR Realty, Douglaston Development, Durst Fetner Residential and
Alchemy Properties, respectively, were just some of the top-flight real estate executives that attended Michael Stoler’s “Stoler State of the Market” conference yesterday, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (see photos above). Stoler asked direct, probing questions covering the availability of debt and equity, financing, expectations for 2012 and residential market from the private equity perspective. Those four topics were discussed by 32 panelists in front of an audience of more than 200 people.

Many panelists were optimistic looking forward. AKA Hotels & Korman Communities co-President Larry Korman said he expected a big year in 2012 as money comes off the sideline and returns to the investment game. – Marc Becker [more]

Clockwise from top left: Alchemy Properties’ Kenneth Horn, Bob Toll of Toll Brothers, Leonard Taub of Kaish & Taub, Jonathan Caplan of Jones Lang LaSalle, 376-380 Third Avenue and the State Supreme Court Building

From the August issue: For the owners of distressed properties, it’s a harrowing ride to stabilization. Note sale, foreclosure, bankruptcy or recapitalization, there is no easy path from financial trouble to stable footing. And while some savvy investors have seized control of valuable New York City properties, many owners and lenders have lost billions of dollars through distressed real estate sales and restructurings since the financial crisis began. This month The Real Deal examines five deals and how they unfolded.
In the last of the series, builder Kaish & Taub Development Group threw its struggling Gramercy Park condominium project into bankruptcy in a bid to hold on while its lender, Swiss bank UBS, moved to foreclose. The effort ultimately failed, and developer Toll Brothers bought the site at a court auction for $35.5 million. Click here to read the story. [more]

Kenneth Horn and Isis Condominium

The 32-unit Isis Condominium on the Upper East Side has achieved its 17th sale, according to developer Alchemy Properties, meaning prospective buyers are privy to new lending options. It took three price cuts, but sales appear to be picking up in the building on the corner of East 77th Street and Second Avenue, as Streeteasy.com shows eight sales in the building since January, at least three of which closed for within 7 percent of their asking prices. Sales started at the building in the spring of 2008, according to Streeteasy.com, but Alchemy, which also markets the property, took units off the market after lowering prices in 2009. It relaunched sales again in February 2010 with lower prices. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

From left: Griffin Court, Alchemy’s Kenneth Horn and Steve Kliegerman,
president of Terra Development Marketing

[Updated at 5.15 p.m.] With sales underway for more than a year, and the building just recently
hitting the 30 percent sold mark, Griffin Court and its developer, Alchemy
Properties have brought in Halstead Property Development Marketing to
help sell the remaining units at the Hell’s Kitchen condominium. The Halstead team, led by Stephen Kliegerman, who The Real Deal recently reported was tapped to be president of Terra Development Marketing, will work alongside Alchemy’s existing sales team, headed up by Wendy Triffon. Alchemy announced the decision yesterday, in its first ever sales and marketing collaboration. Alchemy has been having a tough go of it since launching sales in March 2010 at the 95-unit Griffin Court, offering multiple incentives. [more]

The Real Deal has had an action-packed schedule. We hit up the Charity: Water event at 123 East 10th Street, the largest and priciest home available in the East Village, hosted by Rubicon Property. We stopped by Core’s cocktail party on the 17th floor of 812 Fifth Avenue, which was recently redesigned by architect Joseph Dirand. We also dropped by the Griffin Court condominium in Hell’s Kitchen, where Gumley Haft Kleier was hosting a viewing party of this week’s HGTV’s realty reality show “Selling New York.” Meanwhile, back at the office we were letting our fingers do the walking and got some fun nuggets. Click here for more. [more]

Robert Knakal (left) and Kenneth Horn

After slumping in 2007, the market for new developments is beginning to bounce back, Crain’s reported. In Manhattan, the number of such sales nearly tripled to 16 in the first nine months of this year from the same period in 2009, according to Massey Knakal Realty Services. The average price more than doubled, to $38.75 million. Citywide, the number of sales grew 73 percent, while the average price also more than doubled, hitting $10.5 million.
“People are just more confident there is going to be an upswing in the economy,” said Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal. The growing number of building sales began to pick up late last year. Through the first nine months of 2010, the value of commercial property sales closed and under contract in Manhattan totaled $9.4 billion, up 168 percent from the $3.5 billion in deals completed all of last year, according to Cushman & Wakefield. According to residential developer Kenneth Horn, president of Alchemy Properties, “now is a really good time to buy.” Four months ago, he bought a development site at 35 West 15th Street for $16.6 million, according to city records, roughly 40 percent less than the owner wanted three years earlier. [Crain's]

[more]

Concessions for condo buyers are largely a thing of the past for
Alchemy Properties, founder and president Kenneth Horn told the New
York Times. At 462 West 58th Street, for example, the company is now
shaving just 1 to 2 percent off its condominium asking prices, down
from between 12 and 14 percent last October, he said. Transfer and
mansion taxes are still going on Alchemy’s tab, though. Horn, who is
also set to complete the eco-friendly Griffin Court condo in Midtown
West this month, went on to explain that building green is ideal but
not always practical for a smaller developer. “The problem is it’s
expensive to apply for LEED certification — I think it was like a
quarter of a million dollars,” he said. “In a larger building, the
economies of scale work, but in a smaller building, when you’re a small
developer, it hurts.” Griffin Court, which sits around a
9,000-square-foot courtyard, has about four or five contracts signed
and six or seven in negotiation, he said. [NYT]

[more]

From the May issue: Prospective buyers playing hard-to-get? How about sweetening the deal with an iPad? Some developers and brokers are turning to quirky giveaways, hoping the extra incentives will help fill buildings during this tough economy. The freebies, often tacked on to traditional incentives such as fee eliminations or coverage of certain taxes, are the latest trend in attention-getting promotions.

In one online ad, a broker with Platinum Properties offered to throw in two custom suits worth $2,000 each with the keys to a penthouse apartment. The broker could not be reached to say if the penthouse had been rented.

Last month, Alchemy Properties gave away iPads and 42-inch high-definition televisions to anyone who signed a contract to buy units at the Griffin Court Condominium in Midtown. More than 150 people stopped by the property during the promotion’s first two weeks, said the president of Alchemy, Kenneth Horn. [more]

From the October issue: They’re known as “dog” lines: the vertical row of apartments in a condo
building that are hardest to sell. They may lack a view, be oddly laid
out, or be smaller than their neighboring units down the hall. While dog lines tend to sell last in any market, they can be
especially difficult for developers to deal with in a downturn like
this one. David Sigman, a senior vice president and principal with the
development group LCOR Incorporated, which has several New York
projects, said that developers may be particularly vulnerable to dog
lines if they negotiated minimum sales prices with their lender and the
offers for apartments are coming in below that amount.

Developer Alchemy Properties has sold and closed 100 percent of its units at Oculus Condominium, at 50 West 15th
Street, according to a press release.
Kenneth Horn, Alchemy’s president, said the development, which started
closings in October, lost one contract before selling out. The project
was designed by FXFowle Architects and has 47 studios and one-, two-
and three-bedroom units ranging in price from $680,000 to $2.8 million.
Amenities include rooftop and yard recreation areas and a video
intercom system. TRD [more]