From the November issue: You’ve likely zipped past 250 West Street while driving up the West Side Highway. The former fruit-and-vegetable warehouse has arched windows, iron shutters and the words “West Street” stenciled on its Hudson River-facing façade.

The brick building — which takes up an entire square block between Washington Street and the highway — was for years an administrative space for Citibank. Then, in 2006, it was purchased by the Elad Group, the Israeli developer famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) for converting the Plaza Hotel into condos.

Elad started construction on converting 250 West into apartments in June 2011, and just one month later, with a good year left on that construction, the units were brought to the market. So far, so good, said Ariana Meyerson, managing director of Cantor Pecorella, which is marketing the property. As of last month, 250 West had sold 25 of its 106 units, with 11 in contract. [more]

Brothers Gilbert and Jean-Louis Costes, whose Parisian hospitality empire includes Hotel Costes and the celebrity eatery L’Avenue, are eyeing New York’s iconic Oak Room and Oak Bar in the Plaza Hotel for another Costes hotspot, the New York Post reported.

Before making an offer however, they want to make sure they have permission to make “modest” changes to the landmarked trophy interior, including adding additional bathroom space for patrons, the Post said.

The former owner of the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room, Eli Gindi, decided to close the restaurant amid a bitter dispute with the landlord earlier this year. According to the New York Times, Gindi gave the Plaza a 90-day notice of departure in April, after landlord Elad Group said the Oak Room would have to either cancel its lucrative “Day and Night” Saturday afternoon parties or pay more than twice its current rent. [Post] [more]

Private equity firm the Blackstone Group has raised about $3 billion for a new real-estate fund and expects a first closing for its seventh real-estate fund in the third quarter, according to the Wall Street Journal. Overall, the firm has indicated, it is targeting about $10 billion for the fund.
The firm said second-quarter profit more than tripled on gains in the value of its buyout and real estate investments, Bloomberg News reported, with profit increasing to $703 million, or 63 cents per share, from $205 million, or 18 cents per share, a year earlier.

“A material portion of the increase in revenues was due to the impact of the ‘catch-up’ provisions of the real estate funds’ profit allocations,” Blackstone said in the statement.  [more]

Developer the Elad Group has unveiled its first new condominium building in New York since 2006. The condo, at 250 West Street, will have 111 units in a renovated 11-story warehouse occupying an entire block from West Street to Washington Street in Tribeca, the New York Times reported, and is set to be completed by the fall of 2012.

Units will range from 1,250-square-foot studios to 5,000-square-foot four-bedrooms, said Tom Elliott, vice president of Elad, as well as a penthouse with its own garage and elevator. The apartments would most likely be listed for $2 million to $10 million, he said.

Elad, which is behind the embattled conversion of the Plaza Hotel, recently sold the last condo at the 181-unit Plaza.
[more]

Miki Naftali, the CEO and president of Israeli real estate and hotel development conglomerate Elad Group, announced last week that he would step down from the role he’s held for more than a decade in order to start his own company, and The Real Deal got him on the phone to find out more. Naftali, who will retain a 49 percent stake in New York subsidiary Elad Properties, chatted about his new real estate venture, the Naftali Group, and about what will become of Elad in his absence. Meanwhile, Naftali sought to quash rumors that recent retail struggles at the Plaza Hotel — the revival of which was the hallmark of his tenure, at least as far as New York City is concerned — had anything to do with his departure. Click here for the Q & A.
[more]

With the controversial Miki Naftali stepping down from the Plaza’s helm, the recent record $48 million sale of a 12th-floor spread, and the pre-Lehman-esque $37.5 million asking price on the penthouse unit, it appears the landmark building has steered clear of the financial storm. But according to the Observer, the Plaza is still stuck in choppy waters. The primary concern is the retail spaces on the coveted Fifth Avenue lot. The Oak Room is closing in July, the Palm Court, which opened last year, has already shuttered, the Edwardian Room has been looking for a new tenant for years and the Shops at the Plaza are mostly vacant, having already gone through two cycles of retailers. Prudential Douglas Elliman retail broker Faith Hope Consolo simply asked, “Why would you want to be in this maze when you could be on Fifth Avenue?” [more]

From left: Miki Naftali, the Plaza, 21 Astor Place and the Grand Madison

Miki Naftali has stepped down as CEO of Elad Properties, which owns the Plaza Hotel, the New York Post reported. Despite speculation that controversy in the Plaza Hotel led to his stepping down, Miki Naftali insisted that was not the case. Naftali, who forged the $675 million purchase of the Plaza in 2004, vacated his role to pursue a new venture that includes an investment in an undisclosed mixed-use space in the city. Naftali will hold on to a 49 percent stake in Elad Properties. According to the Post, insiders believed Naftali was under fire from his boss, Isaac Tshuva who owns Elad Properties’ parent company the Elad Group, because of an inability to land long-term tenants in the hotel’s restaurant and retail spaces. [more]

David Tepper and a view of the Sagaponack mansion he plans to demolishThis season’s hottest Hamptons real estate trend? Multi-million-dollar teardowns. According to the Post, some of New York’s most deep-pocketed buyers are planning demolitions of some of the East End’s priciest mansions. One such buyer is hedge fund manager David Tepper, who last May picked up a $43.5 million Sagaponack estate from Joanne Dougherty, the ex-wife of former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, in the Hamptons’ priciest sale of 2010. He’s rented out the home for the summer to billionaire Henry Silverman for $900,000, after which he plans to raze it. David Walentas is also giving his East End mansion one last hurrah before leveling the property. [more]

Libet Johnson, heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and the sister of Jets owner Woody Johnson, has been exposed as the buyer of this year’s priciest residential sale to date, the Vanderbilt Mansion at 16 East 69th Street, for which she has just handed over upwards of $48 million. That price is also the highest paid for a Manhattan townhouse since the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. According to the Post, Johnson is a close friend of seller and fellow heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and her husband, beauty.com founder Roger Barnett, which explains why the couple was able to sell the mansion without a broker. [more]

The owners of the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room have decided to close the legendary restaurant amid a bitter dispute with their landlord. According to the New York Times, Oak Room owner Eli Gindi gave the Plaza a 90-day notice of departure three weeks ago, after landlord Elad Group said the Oak Room would have to either cancel its lucrative “Day and Night” Saturday afternoon parties or pay more than twice its current rent. That brought lease negotiations to a halt, prompting Elad to sue Gindi for $33.3 million over “numerous violations of the lease, unacceptable activities and significant financial arrears.” [more]