Stuart Elliott
From the May issue: Business in New York makes strange bedfellows. There are many paths to riches in the Big Apple, as you can see by looking at our cover this month.
Indeed, not only does New York City have one of the most diverse populations on the planet (just ride the No. 7 subway if you haven’t already figured that out), but there’s also serious variety in the kinds of wealthy people who live here, including real estate players. [more]
Stuart Elliott
From the April issue: The natural order of things is being turned on its head wherever you go these days. While the first day of spring was last month, we don’t need Al Gore to tell us that springlike weather has been upon us for months. Meanwhile, a record pollen count that is wreaking havoc on New Yorkers’ allergies and ant infestations are part of the strange fallout we have to deal with as a result of the weird winter. Biblical swarms of locusts are probably next. [more]
From the September issue: When you have a baby, you are afraid they are going to get into your medicine cabinet or accidentally roll off the bed. You have to keep a close watch. Even when that baby grows up, as a parent you are still afraid they’re going to get hurt.
That’s the way I feel about my one-year-old daughter, Sophie, and it’s also the way I feel about The Real Deal.
Even though it’s reaching a milestone moment this month with its 100th issue, I still worry about the stray typo or flat headline that is going to jeopardize the magazine’s survival
and consign it to the dustbin for readers.
Those heightened fears stem from the very early days of the magazine, back in 2003, when it was headquartered out of founder (and publisher) Amir Korangy’s apartment. As The Real Deal‘s only other full-time employee (alongside part-time ad man Yoav Barilan, now our director of marketing operations), I knew we had only a few chances to get it right before we would lose readers’ attention, run out of money, or both.
So for me, this issue is a great celebration of the magazine’s resilience. [more]
From the August issue: Reporters are suckers for statistics. They help ground our stories and present more evidence than mere anecdotal reports. They also make us sound official. You can see the importance of good data in many of the cover stories in this issue, of course. We researched which brokerages are marketing the most new residential development units, in order to judge who’s leading the pack following the downturn; we looked at the dollar value of hotel purchases to show how that sector has grown red hot for investors again; and so on.
That said, some stats are easier to get than others.
Taking a page from “Freakonomics” — the book by “rogue” economists Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner on subjects usually not covered by traditional economists — as well as from author Malcolm Gladwell, I’ve put together a list of stats that haven’t been compiled by anyone, but that would really capture what’s going on in the market. Hey, in a tenuous market like this, anything that can explain what’s happening helps. [more]
Developer Donald Trump, who spent weeks courting the fringes of American politics in a possible presidential bid, stuck to real estate last night in brief remarks at the premier of a documentary produced by The Real Deal about the prolific and aging New York architect Costas Kondylis. (See more photos after the jump.)
Trump, who traveled the United States questioning President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, praised Kondylis — born in Africa to Greek parents — as a “great design architect.”
Kondylis was the architect on many of Trump’s buildings such as the Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza and an imposing row of residential towers that were critically panned called Riverside South, which face the Hudson River. [more]
Manhattan’s most prolific architect will get the big-screen treatment in the premier of a new documentary by The Real Deal tonight.
The film, “Building Stories,” about the career of architect Costas Kondylis, who has added more than 86 towers to the New York skyline yet has remained relatively unknown to the general public, is airing as part of an invite-only event at the Morgan Library in Midtown.
Developer Donald Trump, who has hired Kondylis for many of his buildings, is slated to introduce the film. Renowned New York journalist and novelist Peter Hamill will also give a talk. The event is expected to draw more than 750 people. TRD [more]
NoLita was one thing, but between SoHa, ProCro and BoCoCa, it’s all gotten to be too much for Brooklyn Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. For that reason, Jeffries plans to introduce a bill next week that would require new neighborhood names to go through a serious vetting process, garnering approvals from the local community board, the City Council and the mayor. Real estate brokers who market their properties with fake micro-neighborhood monikers would be fined or potentially suspended from the profession. “It’s the Wild West in New York City right now,” Jeffries told the New York Times. “Brokers are allowed to essentially pull names out of thin air in order to rebrand a neighborhood and have the effect of raising rents or home prices.” [more]
Declining New York City rental prices may be tough on commercial landlords, but the trend has been good for emerging businesses, according to The Real Deal’s Editor, Stuart Elliott. The recession has precipitated new enterprises, with companies given the chance to snatch up leases at a bargain rate, Elliott told Fox Business News.
“Since the fallout on Wall Street last year there’s been a big decline in rents so that’s really given a lot of new retailers opportunities to open up in the city and come in for the first time,” Elliott said. Chain restaurant Five Guys burgers is one of many businesses taking advantage of the reduced rates in the city. With sales up 25 to 30 percent year-over-year and an aggressive expansion plan in place, the chain intend to open a Third Avenue spot in the coming weeks.
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