From left: Hotelier Andre Balazs, Neil Gronowetter, chairman of Multifamily Investor and 5 Beekman Street

An independent Manhattan broker who says he brought famed hotelier Andre Balazs to buy the 10-story building 5 Beekman Street in Lower Manhattan, claims that the sellers Bonjour Capital and Chetrit Group are refusing to pay him a 1 percent commission, a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court yesterday shows.

The broker, Neil Gronowetter, chairman of his single-broker shop Multifamily Investor, says in July 2010 he introduced Balazs to representatives of Bonjour Capital, who promised him verbally that he would receive a 1 percent commission, the lawsuit says.

Balazs is reportedly in contract to buy the 128,000-square-foot property built in 1883, which Bonjour and the Chetrits planned to convert to a 200-room hotel after buying it for $61 million in 2008. [more]

From the August issue: A law aiming to prevent improper quid pro quos for title insurance agents just got a new set of sharp teeth — causing a furor in the already embattled industry.
In late May, the Office of the General Counsel of the state’s Insurance Department issued an opinion about whether it’s legal for a residential brokerage to place lawyers on “recommended” lists, which are distributed to homebuyers, in exchange for those lawyers referring clients to the brokerage’s title insurance affiliate.
The answer was a resounding no. The state agency ruled that this kind of quid pro quo is a violation of state law. As a result, brokerages are now prohibited from rewarding lawyers for using their firm’s affiliated title agency, or “punishing” those who don’t by removing them from recommended lists. (Until now, industry sources say that lawyers who failed to refer back business to the firms were often nixed from these lists.) Those who violate the law will now be slapped with a $1,000 fine or five times the amount of the financial inducement, whichever is larger. [more]

From the February issue: The Financial District Association, a neighborhood group that joins real estate experts with area retailers, has elected real estate attorney Luigi Rosabianca as the organization’s chairperson.

Among the newly formed group’s priorities for the coming year are luring more retail and residential tenants to the neighborhood.

“We need to continue to collectively show the rest of New York City, as well as prospective business tenants and residents, all that the area has to offer,” Rosabianca said. “However, our primary work will not just be about generating business, retail and new home sales, but will rather be about gaining momentum for FiDi as a growing neighborhood.” [more]

From the December issue: Everyone loves cash. Nothing new there. But in this market, cash deals are even sweeter. In some cases, a onetime payment could even be the only way to close a sale, according to brokers, attorneys and developers. And discounts often await all-cash buyers. There are other benefits: less paperwork and fewer delays in getting deals done. No long waits for banks to pore over buyers’ financial records, only to reject them on the eve of closing. “Cash used to be king, but now it’s the emperor,” said Luigi Rosabianca, a real estate attorney who says 50 percent of his clients have paid cash so far this year versus 20 percent in 2007 at the market’s peak. The exact number of cash deals is difficult to determine; property records on file with the city’s Department of Finance don’t specify how apartments are paid for. And the sheer number of cash deals doesn’t seem to be increasing, as the volume of all deals remains depressed.

From the November issue: With third-quarter market reports showing an increase in activity and brokers reporting more deals getting hammered out, the question is: Who has come off the sidelines? The answer may be “trade-up” buyers, or New York homeowners willing to sell for much less than what they would have gotten at the height of the market — so long as they can then buy better property at reduced prices. The thinking behind selling low and upgrading is simple: “It’s a logical step because if you take 20 percent off a $1 million home, and 20 percent off a $2 million home, if you can afford the upgrade, you’re getting a better value” with the more expensive property, said Leah Blesoff, a sales associate with Halstead Property.