Manhattan’s record-high rents, which are isolated from the still uneven economy, are driving several significant changes in the market, according to the New York Times. Brokers say more young people are sharing apartments, and even sacrificing a living room in the process, in order to ease the burden of rising rents. Other renters, who in the past would only consider Manhattan, are being drawn to the outer boroughs. [more]

Jamie LeFrak and a rendering of Pier 6

The LeFrak Organization is all set to break ground on the latest new construction for its 25-years-in-the-making, $10 billion Newport development in Jersey City. According to the New York Times, all it needs is an office tenant. LeFrak has already erected 14 apartment buildings, seven office buildings and a shopping mall to Newport, but has recently slowed its development pace. The last office building went up in 2003. [more]

Michael Bass of Controlled Access Systems

From the December issue: Michael Bass became an independent New York City real estate broker in 2008, after a 22-year career in residential leasing with the LeFrak Organization. But it didn’t take long for the routine of showing rental apartments to wear on him. The inefficiencies, he said, were maddening, especially tracking down apartment keys from building staffers.

“‘Keys? What keys?” Bass recalled hearing. He added: “The worst thing is for a broker to try to show an apartment with a client, and you can’t get access to the building.”

Those experiences, along with conversations with brokers outside New York, led him to a new line of work: lockboxes. In September, Bass launched Controlled Access Systems, which aims to provide lockbox technology to New York City real estate firms. [more]

Richard LeFrak

The LeFrak Organization will redevelop a 13-story office tower in Rego Park into 108 luxury rental apartments, according to the Wall Street Journal. The project marks a return for the developer to the city, where it said it would no longer build because of the rising costs of construction. In fact, it’s the company’s first project in the city in 28 years.

The office building was constructed 50 years ago by LeFrak Organization CEO Richard LeFrak’s father, Samuel LeFrak, during a time when the developer was building housing geared towards the middle-income residents of the borough, most notably nearby LeFrak City. [more]

Citigroup has inked a deal for 46,000 square feet of office space near the Jersey City waterfront and is mulling additional space nearby after the New Jersey Economic Development Authority approved $12.3 million in subsidies intended to entice the bank to relocate jobs to the state. The seven-year lease at the LeFrak Organization’s 480 Washington Boulevard begins July 1 and is part of the bank’s expansion plans, a spokesperson told Crain’s. [more]

The leasing office at Monaco — Jersey City’s latest new residential tower and the tallest rental building in New Jersey — is slated to open in February, development team Roseland Property, Garden State Development and Hartz Mountain Industries has announced. The 523-unit, 50-story project consists of two towers designed by SLCE Architects, which are scheduled for completion in early spring, when they’ll eclipse the LeFrak Organization’s nearby Towers of America complex as the tallest rentals in the state. TRD [more]

Vornado Realty Trust is “nervously bullish” on the city’s commercial real estate market, Steven Roth, the REIT’s chairman, told CNBC’s Squawk Box today. Roth said that while he believes the market bottom has already passed, and transaction volume is “ticking up a great deal,” he is still keeping some office space in his portfolio off the market until rents recover. Meanwhile, Richard LeFrak of the LeFrak Organization noted that the commercial leasing landscape has morphed over the past decade to accommodate the growth of large hedge funds.

[more]

Richard LeFrak, president of the LeFrak Organization, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box recently with Tom Flexner, global head of Citigroup Real Estate, to discuss opportunities in the commercial real estate market. LeFrak, who cited the billions of investment dollars on the market sidelines, asked Flexner how private capital can invest in real estate at a time when no one seems willing to take a loss on their distressed assets. “It’s really a function of distressed sellers rather than distressed assets,” Flexner said. “The number one way that private capital can get into the real estate sector is to lower their return requirements.”

Richard Lefrak’s organization is a possible contender for Stuy Town

Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty were pilloried for aggressively pushing out tenants and running afoul of the city’s J-51 tax abatement rules. But some of the firms that are being mentioned as possible replacements as owners or managers at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village — such as developers LeFrak Organization and Rose Associates, and real estate firm Stonehenge Partners — come with their own skeletons in the closet. The New York City real estate world is bracing for a struggle among titans for management or ownership of the 11,200-unit housing complex on Manhattan’s East Side following the announcement  last month that the owners would cede control. Potential parties must negotiate with special servicer CWCapital Asset Management, the majority of which is owned by Canadian institutional fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. The special servicer represents the interests of the bondholders of the securitized loans on Stuyvesant Town. Other firms being bandied about as possible investors or investors are WL Ross & Co., Centerbridge Partners, Related Companies, WinnCompanies and Prudential Douglas Elliman, according to media reports. The thorny city tax abatement program known as J-51 that contributed to the forfeiture of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village has dogged one of the leading contenders for the site, LeFrak. [more]