Helen Hwang, an executive vice president at Cushman & Wakefield, Aaron Jungreis, president at Rosewood Realty Group, James Nelson, a partner at Massey Knakal Realty Services, David Schechtman, senior director at Eastern Consolidated

Compiled by Adam Pincus
Brokers broadly expect next year to be an improvement over 2011 in New York City’s investment sales market, although concerns about the global economy and financial services layoffs create uncertainty, and that puts a drag on activity. This year, total investment sales are expected to end up at about $25 billion, far ahead of the $14.5 billion in 2010. The Real Deal talked to a series of brokers about what they expect for the new year. [more]

From left: Rubin Schron of Cammeby’s International Group, Rosewood Realty Group President Aaron Jungreis, 410 St. Nicholas Avenue and 2450 Frederick Douglass Boulevard (building credits: PropertyShark)

Real estate investor Israel Weinberger purchased the nearly 40-year-old Lionel Hampton Houses in Harlem for $32.5 million from Rubin Schron’s Cammeby’s International Group.

The former Mitchell-Lama apartment buildings, with a total of 355 units, are located at 2450 Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 131st and 132nd streets and 410 St. Nicholas Avenue, between 130th and 131st streets.

The sale went into contract in May and closed Oct. 5, city property records published Oct. 31 show. Cammeby’s and Weinberger did not respond to requests for comment.

The sale was brokered by Aaron Jungreis, president of Rosewood Realty Group, for a price of about $91,550 per unit. [more]

Family-owned Rieder Holdings has purchased a North Williamsburg residential development site for $12.3 million, Crain’s reported.

The 17,500-square-foot plot at 248 North 8th Street between Havemeyer and Roebling streets can support a 120,000-square-foot development, meaning the family paid about $102 per square-foot. The seller, Van Benson Management, has owned the property since 1997, and took out a $31 million loan in 2008 to develop a residential structure at the site. But PropertyShark.com shows that in 2009, lender Banco Popular filed a $31 million lis pendens against Van Benson. [more]

The president of the investment sales brokerage talks about breaking up portfolios, broker commissions and the most important influence on the sales market

Aaron Jungreis

Aaron Jungreis is president of investment sales brokerage Rosewood Realty Group, which in 2009 ranked 13th in the city with $62 million in sales, CoStar Group figures show. More recently, Jungreis, 40, brokered a $10 million sale of an apartment building in Gramercy Park that was one of the top five commercial sales as reported this week by The Real Deal. In 2010, according to Jungreis, his seven-broker firm, which represents buyers and sellers, has closed more than $200 million in deals, with a focus on multi-family in the $5 million to $25 million range. He spoke with The Real Deal this week about breaking up portfolios, broker com [more]

Aaron Jungreis, president of the Rosewood Realty Group, and Stuyvesant Town

Yesterday’s court ruling handing down a victory to tenants at the mostly rent-regulated apartment complex Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village has an immediate effect on the sale of a number of properties in New York City, industry insiders said. In one instance, an apartment sale could now be canceled; in a second a seller may have to cut a Brooklyn property’s valuation; and in a third, an owner sought to rush a sale to unload his Midtown apartment building. In all of the cases, the dealmakers said, the sellers or buyers were reacting to the court ruling yesterday by the state’s highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, that upheld a lower court decision against Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty, owners of the 110-building complex on Manhattan’s East Side. The court said the landlords improperly raised rents and deregulated thousands of apartment units while benefiting from special tax incentives in the so-called J-51 program. [more]