Mary Ann Tighe and Mayor Michael BloombergFrom the February issue: Hollywood is gearing up for the Academy Awards this month, but the New York City real estate industry has its own glamorous red-carpet event. Some 2,200 industry stars attended the Real Estate Board of New York’s 116th Annual Banquet at the New York Hilton last month. The crowd included real estate royalty like REBNY Chairman Mary Ann Tighe and developer Douglas Durst, along with politicos Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. [more]

From left: Steven Spinola, president of REBNY and 16 Court Street

The Real Estate Board of New York has pumped up its efforts to block the landmark designation of a swath of 21 commercial building in Downtown Brooklyn, Crain’s reported.

Last September the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the landmarking, known as the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District; it includes 16 Court Street, 191 Joralemon Street and 75 Livingston Street.  [more]

From left: Governor Andrew Cuomo, Real Estate Board of New York President Steve Spinola and Tishman Speyer President Rob SpeyerDuring the quiet month of December in an off-election year, a political lobbying group led by REBNY President Steve Spinola and Tishman Speyer President Rob Speyer has spent $2.8 million praising Governor Andrew Cuomo in television ads, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The ads, approved by the three-person executive team of the Committee to Save New York (the third member is Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City), claim that despite challenges Cuomo is “getting things done,” including creating a solid jobs plan and lowering taxes. [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 City Council will hold a hearing on the proposal to institute a new landmark district for Downtown Brooklyn tomorrow and could vote to modify or disapprove the designation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The upcoming hearing has prompted New York City’s real-estate industry to intensify its efforts to stop the landmark designation, which, it claims, will result in nearly $5 million in additional costs for property owners over the next few years.

As The Real Deal previously reported, the creation of the district would mean a spate of newly-landmarked buildings, including the Franklin Building at 186 Remsen Street, which was completed in 1887, the 13-story Temple Bar Building at 44 Court Street and a 22-story limestone, granite and brick Colonial Revival style building at 32 Court Street. [more]

From left: Diane Ramirez president of Halstead Property, Eileen Spinola, a senior vice president of REBNY, and Duncan MacKenzie, the CEO of the New York State Association of Realtors

The first major overhaul of state real estate advertising regulations in 34 years is nearly complete but is being held up because the Real Estate Board of New York and the New York State Association of Realtors can’t agree on a few final points.

The 11-member quasi-governmental New York State Board of Real Estate, which advises the state Department of State and helps craft real estate brokerage regulations, held its first meeting in more than two years this month and briefly discussed the new rules. The board is supposed to meet three times per year, but as The Real Deal reported in July, it has not gathered since June 2009. Members include Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property, and Eileen Spinola, a senior vice president of REBNY.

REBNY and NYSAR agree on most issues in the 11 pages of proposed regulations that aim to update scattered rules (see first PDF below) as well as the two-paragraph advertising regulation, that was passed in 1977, as part of the broader Real Property Law (see second PDF below), but can’t see eye-to-eye on the size of brokerage names and logos relative to the brokers and agents placing the ads.

The major players in the negotiations are the state Department of State, which regulates real estate licensing, REBNY and NYSAR, insiders said.

The state sought to update the rules in part because of questions from brokers and agents who did not have a clear idea of advertising rules in the Internet age.

The new proposed rules lay out the relative size of the names of teams, brokers and salespersons compared to the company name in multiple forms of advertising including on the Web. The other major change is for the first time regulating teams, which first became popular around 2000, and became more prominent as the market started to cool in 2006. For instance, a team name has to include names of team members, or if it does not, it must include the name of the firm.

The two sides provided a hint about the split over name size and placement in the Nov. 16 hearing held by video conference in both Albany and Manhattan.

NYSAR wants to allow broker and agents to have their names larger than the brokerage company name, although the company name would have to be “clear and conspicuous” to a consumer. On the other hand, REBNY wants the firm’s name to be “equal to or greater” than the name of the broker or salesperson. The current draft has the REBNY language.

The seemingly hyper-technical issue is important for brokers and agents that want to highlight their names more prominently than their firms to create brand awareness.

At the Nov. 16 meeting, the board members briefly discussed the new rules, then heard comments from the public, including from Neil Garfinkel, counsel to the 12,000-member REBNY, New York City’s most influential industry voice, and Duncan MacKenzie, the CEO of NYSAR, the state’s largest real estate trade group.

“We ended up in a pretty good place,” Garfinkel said at the meeting, about the overall draft rules, but he highlighted the strong difference with NYSAR on the one topic. “I am concerned that the ‘clear and conspicuous’ standard will create more problems… [And] is going around the clear intent of the law.”

Duncan, whose group represents about 51,000 brokers and agents in the state including about 11,000 in New York City, in an interview with The Real Deal today, said changing to the REBNY-backed standard would cost professionals a great deal of money. For example, they would have to alter sales material and signage in which many associate brokers and salespersons have their names larger than the firm’s name.

He wondered why the standard should change, when he was not aware of instances where the public has been harmed.

“If there has been no harm, why create a standard that will change a bunch [of companies'] business models?,” he asked.

The new rules, which were first proposed in 2008, will next be formally discussed during a board meeting that has not yet been scheduled, but will likely be next spring. Once the board approves a draft, the rules are sent to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office, then a public comment period follows, and then it goes before board again for a vote. If approved, the regulations would become official.

Proposed Advertising Guidelines
Current Real Property Law [more]

From left: Council member Gail Brewer, a Duane Reade and Bank of America on the Upper West Side and REBNY President Steven SpinolaTired of chain drugstores and banks replacing mom-and-pop shops on the Upper West Side, City Council member Gail Brewer has been trying to implement zoning laws that would restrict larger stores from moving into the area, the New York Post reported. She said the trend is compromising retail variety for residents of the area.

Brewer has been meeting with the Department of City Planning to devise legislation that works towards that goal, including laws that set a minimum number of stores per block and maximum amount of ground-floor frontage along key Upper West Side corridors. [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]

From left: City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, Deputy Mayor Robert Steel and Paul Selver, co-chair of the land use department at law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & FrankelThe Bloomberg administration on Dec. 12 will unveil a set of 20 new “green” zoning guidelines aimed at removing obstacles to sustainable building practices, city officials said.

“This is the most comprehensive effort to sweep away impediments to green buildings in our zoning,” City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden told The Real Deal on break at “Zoning the City,” a day-long conference sponsored by the agency, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute of Baruch College, convened to address the future of zoning in the city.

She and Robert Steel, New York’s deputy mayor for economic development, who first announced the planned guidelines, declined to give specifics to the crowd of real estate pros, academics and city planning experts. [more]

From left: Jeffrey Roseman, executive vice president at Newmark Knight Frank, Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, and Madison Avenue

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]