Steven Spinola
The union that represents doormen and service workers is teaming up with the Real Estate Board of New York to screen mayoral candidates beginning this week, Capital New York reported.
The groups — which have often been at odds over the years — will ask the Democratic mayoral candidates questions at the Sheraton beginning tomorrow. Next month, the group will screen the Republican mayoral candidates.
Steven Spinola, president of REBNY, and Mary Ann Tighe, REBNY chairperson
Average asking rents are continuing to climb in some major Manhattan retail corridors due to high demand and a limited availability of space, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s fall Manhattan retail market report, which was released today. Overall in Manhattan, however, asking rents were down 4 percent from the spring and 2 percent year-over-year due to prime spaces already being occupied by tenants.
One of the areas that stands out is lower Fifth Avenue, between 42nd and 49th streets. In fall 2012, average asking rents ticked in at $1,021, up 13 percent from the spring 2012 figure of $900 and a cool 51 percent increase from the same period last year when the average came in at $675. [more]
Rob Speyer
Tishman Speyer President and co-CEO Rob Speyer has been appointed the next chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York. He will succeed CBRE Group Tri-State CEO Mary Ann Tighe beginning in January 2013, the organization announced today.
Speyer is the third consecutive generation of his family to hold REBNY’s top post. His father, Jerry Speyer, was chairman from 1986 to 1988 and his grandfather, Robert Tishman, possessed the title the role from 1972 to 1975. It marks the first time in the organization’s 117-year history that a third succeeding generation served as chair and, at 43 years old, Rob will be the youngest REBNY chairman ever. [more]
Manhattan Beep Scott Stringer
Now that support for the Upper West Side retail rezoning has moved beyond local advocates and to the borough president’s office, other communities are beginning to consider similar legislation.
Crain’s reported that community boards in Tribeca, the East Village and Upper East Side are weighing restricting storefronts in order to preserve mom-and-pop shops and encourage a particular set of retail tenants. The Tribeca and East Village-Lower East Side advocates are focusing on the loss of local businesses and the saturation of night life in the areas. [more]
Last month, a Manhattan appellate court reversed an earlier decision and linked building mold with serious illnesses, sending waves of fear through property owners as lawsuits could increase, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The reversal comes four years after an earlier ruling, in a case involving an East 52nd Street co-op, that the scientific evidence of a mold-illness relationship was weak. Meanwhile, since 2007 there has been a 19 percent increase in the number of mold-related housing violations in the city, climaxing at 15,942 such violations last year, and a 67 percent increase in the number of violations categorized as “immediately hazardous.” [more]
In an unusual twist, home prices in the outer boroughs held up better than those in Manhattan in an overall dreadful fourth quarter, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Board of New York cited by the Wall Street Journal.
While the median price in Manhattan tumbled 8.5 from the prior year quarter to $750,000, prices actually inched up by 2.9 percent in the Bronx to $350,00 and 1.4 percent in Brooklyn to $473,000. [more]
The American division of the famed Swiss watch company Rolex claims that data technology firm RealPlus is infringing on its trademark by using the name R.O.L.E.X. for its residential property listing system, a new lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan says.
The R.O.L.E.X. technology, an abbreviation of RealPlus Online Listings Exchange, is used by the Real Estate Board of New York as the backbone of its multiple listing service known as NY1Residential.
Midtown-based Rolex Watch U.S.A. claims RealPlus and its managing director Eric Gordon are infringing on the timepiece maker’s trademark, the suit, filed Tuesday, says.
“[RealPlus] use of this confusing and identical mark is likely to bring to mind [Rolex's] famous Rolex trademark… and dilute the distinctiveness of the Rolex trademark,” the complaint says. … [more]
The Real Estate Board of New York has increased the annual membership dues by as much as 17 percent in what will be the first fee increase for the influential group since 2008.
The city’s leading real estate trade organization will be sending out renewal notices in the coming weeks to its more than 12,000 members. The payments are due Jan. 1, the group says.
The percentage hikes are somewhat higher than the last time there was an increase, four years ago.
For commercial associate brokers the fee rises 11 percent to $550 from $495, and for commercial salespersons, it increases 17 percent to $375 from $320. … [more]
At least 60 new retailers have opened on Madison Avenue’s northern strip since January 2010, including high-end stores like Bottega Veneta with its $30,000 purses, the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District told the Wall Street Journal. An additional 10 new stores are under construction. Fifth Avenue also makes positive strides, as demand increases.
It’s a notable comeback for the avenue, which lost multiple high-profile tenants in the recession, including Christian Dior and Yves St. Laurent, driving the vacancy rate up to 15 percent at the worst of the market. Rents, which had soared to $1,500 a foot during the boom, also collapsed. … [more]
Supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement have now begun targeting the Real Estate Board of New York on social media and then in turn by phone, following news reports that REBNY seeks to submit a proposal to the city limiting the public access hours of privately owned public parks. In response to an opinion article in today’s New York Times by Jerold Kayden, a professor of urban planning at Harvard University, on the legal gray area of such privately owned public spaces, and the news reports of REBNY’s plans, a Twitter user called @OccupyMyCat this morning posted, “Announcement! It’s time to Occupy REBNY, the Real Estate Board of New York!”
… [more]
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