For New York City real estate, 2010 in many ways marked a return to normalcy after the tumultuous aftermath of the financial crisis. As the ubiquitous real estate appraiser and Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller put it: “it was a year of a sense of relief.” City home prices stopped their freefall and sales activity improved considerably from the post-Lehman doldrums. Stalled condominium projects like the Sheffield and 1 Rector Park re-started sales. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim bought Tamir Sapir’s Fifth Avenue townhouse, the Duke Semans mansion, for $44 million. As the unspoken taboo on ostentatious spending faded, a number of high-end residential properties changed hands at the end of the year, including Brooke Astor’s 14-room duplex at 778 Park Avenue, which finally sold after two years on the market (albeit for a significant discount from its original asking price). Japanese retailer Uniqlo snagged 89,000 square feet at 666 Fifth Avenue’s former Brooks Brothers space for a record $300 million, demonstrating that retail is still thriving along the posh shopping corridor.
But the economic downturn continued to make its presence felt. The office market remained uneven and troubled lender iStar Financial fought to stave off bankruptcy amid lingering fears of a double-dip recession.
Here are The Real Deal staff’s picks for the stories that most altered the New York City real estate landscape in 2010, in alphabetical order. [more]

Kent Swig

From the Dember issue: Kent Swig says his critics have got his story all wrong. Since the downturn began, few New York developers have taken as big a media shellacking as Swig. A rising star during the boom years, the 48-year-old developer is now routinely described as “embattled” and near-bankrupt. But in an interview with The Real Deal last month, Swig tried to dispel the widespread belief that his empire has “crumbled,” as many news reports have noted, and insisted that his companies, including Swig Equities, are doing fine. [more]

Jacqueline Urgo of the Marketing Directors and the Sheffield

Developers at several New York condominiums such as the Sheffield are reviving higher commissions and other incentive plans to sell units, according to the Wall Street Journal. When the Sheffield, at 322 West 57th Street, was reopening earlier this year after a conversion, the owners had nearly 330 units to sell. They held a launch party for agents and offered to increase their commission by a half percentage point for any of the 180 attendees who closed a deal by Nov. 15. More than a dozen of those brokers signed up condo purchasers. [more]

Rendering of the building’s children’s playroom

The new owners of the Sheffield (formerly Sheffield 57) are tryi [more]

Adam Rose of Rose Associates and Sheffield57

Six months after the building was auctioned off in a fire sale, the New York State Attorney General’s office has approved an amended offering plan for the Sheffield57 condominium near Columbus Circle in a move that could lead to a resumption of sales for the first time since May 2009. Sales at the tower at 322 West 57th Street have languished for months, after former developer Kent Swig defaulted on millions of dollars in mortgage and mezzanine loans and failed to provide an updated plan with state regulators. The building’s current owner, Fortress Investment Group, has been working with Rose Associates, the building’s recently named management firm, to complete renovations at the building so sales could resume. “The Sheffield is moving steadily towards resolution and ultimately being a success,” Adam Rose, co-president of Rose Associates, told The Real Deal. Fortress acquired Sheffield57 for $20 million, plus the assumption of debt, in a so-called mezzanine auction in August 2009. [more]

From left: The Real Deal’s top stories include best and worst deals, the profile of one-time real estate big wig Michael Shvo, and news on the Setai

The most popular stories on The Real Deal Web site from 2009, based on the number of page views, run the gamut from a collection of the best and worst deals since the crunch, to a profile of the boom-time marketing wunderkind Michael Shvo, to the breaking news that the Setai joined the number of city projects releasing buyers from their contracts.

Here are the top 10 stories of the year:

1. Finding a bottom in Brooklyn
2. The best and worst deals
3. Where in the world did Shvo go?
4. Setai condo buyers granted right to cancel contracts, get deposits back
5. New York could see a double dip in residential market
6. ‘Vornado Tornado’ gets ready to land
7. Where are buyers backing out?
8. Fortress buys Sheffield57 at auction for $20M
9.The tallest green condo shoots
10. SL Green battles Levy, Chetrit in Chelsea [more]

Kent Swig and Sheffield57

An entity called OSS Real Estate Holdings paid $14.1 million for 11 upper-floor condominium units in the Sheffield57 condo conversion at 322 West 57th Street. The buyer went into contract for the units between the 33rd and 46th floors in April and closed July 21, city property records show. The apartments sold for $1,200 per square foot, an analysis of city records shows. The managing member of OSS Real Estate Holdings is Edward Campanella, president of the Midtown-based construction management firm MBI Group. Sheffield57 developer Kent Swig of Swig Equities has been battling both personal and corporate lawsuits. A spokesperson for Swig declined to comment and a representative for Campanella was not immediately available for comment. The largest unit is a 1,599-square-foot apartment, while the smallest were two units with 615 square feet each.

[more]

A New York State Appellate Court on Wednesday granted market-rate
tenants the right to appeal their landmark eviction case at the
embattled Sheffield57 condominium. In November 2008, a state appeals court overturned two prior rulings
that blocked the evictions of market-rate tenants at the building, at
322 West 57th Street, and Manhattan House, a rival condominium
conversion at 200 East 66th Street. Kevin McConnell, the attorney for the Sheffield57 tenants, expressed confidence that his appeal will succeed. [more]