Gary Barnett, 1780 Broadway, the site of the new tower, and a rendering of Building 2

Yesterday, Extell head Gary Barnett and partner the Carlyle Group sold the Building 2 site at the Riverside Center development for $70 million, as Extell begins raising capital for its new 57th Street tower — currently poised to become the tallest residential building in the U.S., the New York Post reported. The buyers of the complicated $420 million development were Dermot and AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust. The project calls for 616 residential rentals, retail space and a school and has a $275 million state Housing Finance Agency bond mortgage with credit enhancements through Bank of America and Capital One.  When the 640,000-square-foot Building 2, which is located at the southwest corner of West 61st Street, it will be known as 21 West End Ave…. [more]

From left: Ben Ashkenazy, 4168 Broadway

Investor Ben Ashkenazy of Ashkenazy Associates has paid $19 million for a pair of retail properties in Harlem, Crain’s reported.

The deal includes a vacant theater on West 146st Street—the former RKO Hamilton Theater—and an adjacent three-story retail building occupied by an El Mundo department store. Also included is a vacant land parcel next door to the theater on West 147th, which can accommodate up to 20,000-square-feet of development, Crain’s said. [more]

John Lam

Developer John Lam has closed on 1227 Broadway for $16 million, Crain’s reported, acquiring the final bit of real estate needed before he embarks on a $300 million hotel project planned for the Fashion District.

Last year, Lam Group, Lam’s firm, purchased the neighboring buildings at 1205 and 1225 Broadway for $72 million. He now owns the entire block fronting on Broadway, between East 29th and East 30th streets, and plans to build both a Marriott Hotel and an Aloft, which is a boutique brand under the Starwood Hotels & Resorts flag, Crain’s said. [more]

Robert Knakal

The dollar volume of investment sales in New York has seen a “significant” increases this year, as property owners try to beat next year’s anticipated capital gains tax increase, according to Robert Knakal, Massey Knakal Realty Services chairman, Globe St. reported.

The brokerage’s total dollar volume was $7.3 billion in third quarter of 2012 and year-to-date it reported $22 billion in dollar volume. When annualized, MK’s dollar volume is expected to reach approximately $29 billion, a 6 percent increase from $27.5 billion the previous year. [more]

Robert Knakal (top), Woody Heller (bottom) and 820 Broadway

Families that have for decades owned a mixed-use building in the Village want a recent appraisal by two of the city’s most prominent investment sales brokers, Robert Knakal and Woody Heller, tossed out. The owners are alleging that Knakal was not an impartial party.

Owners of the 133-unit apartment building at 820 Broadway, including members of the Goldstein, Burton and other families, filed a petition yesterday asking a judge to block a price analysis of the 13-story building that valued it on June 25 at $15.6 million. They also hope to block Knakal and Heller from serving as arbitrators in subsequent valuations of the property. [more]

67 Avenue C (credit: PropertyShark)

In the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ latest move to prepare for an upstate relocation, the group has put another piece of property on the market, but not in Brooklyn. This time it’s seeking a buyer for an East Village property.

Crain’s reported Jehovah’s Witnesses is selling Kingdom Hall, a worship space located at 67 Avenue C at 5th Street. So far there’s no asking price for the 3,050-square-foot, two-story building, which sits on land zoned for 10,000 square feet of residential development. [more]

From left: the site at 117-119 West 21st Street, Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, and David Schechtman, principal at Eastern Consolidated

A prime Chelsea development site has hit the market with Eastern Consolidated’s David Schechtman, Alan Miller and Paul Nigido, but only after a listing skirmish that pitted two of the city’s most active investment sales brokerages against one another.

The parcel, currently home to a four-story gallery, is being sold out of bankruptcy with an asking price of $15.5 million. But the unsecured lenders for the site, at 117-119 West 21st Street, opposed Eastern Consolidated’s representation of the seller, the Arc Building LP, court documents show. [more]

New York City’s investment sales market remained in a holding pattern in the first quarter of 2012, with total transactions just slightly below the total for the last three months of 2011, figures from commercial firm Massey Knakal Realty Services released this morning, show. The firm reported there was $6.9 billion in sales in the city, down modestly from the $7 billion in sales in fourth-quarter 2012. However, the volume was a 76 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011, when there were $3.9 billion in sales, the company’s statistics show. [more]

David Schectman, a broker with Eastern Consolidated

The sale of distressed property notes, especially in the under the $10 million range in New York City, have seen an uptick recently, Crain’s reported. David Schechtman, a broker with Eastern Consolidated, said he has been selling about two notes a week since the beginning of the year, and thinks the increased interest is because investors are less skittish now. He also said he expects “more notes to pour onto the market,” according to Crain’s. [more]

From left: Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, Peter Hauspurg, chairman and CEO at Eastern Consolidated, Timour Shafran, managing partner at Citicore, Adelaide Polsinelli, associate vice presidenta at Marcus & Millichap, and Timothy King, principal at CPEX Real Estate

Commercial real estate brokers such as Robert Knakal, Peter Hauspurg and Adelaide Polsinelli, are keeping a watchful eye on the U.S. Supreme Court as it considers whether it will hear a case that could overturn rent regulation in New York City.

So The Real Deal asked commercial brokers what they expected would happen to multi-family properties and their values if the laws were overturned. They were asked under the assumption that there will be no catastrophic eviction of the million rent-regulated apartments, and that the city or state would create some replacement law that would provide housing for needy residents. Compiled by Adam Pincus… [more]