From left: Jeffrey Levine, chairman of Douglaston Development, and his condo the Edge, developer Louis Greco, and his be@Schermerhorn

[Updated June 6, 2011 at 1:45 p.m. with detailed sales figures] Sales at the the Edge in Williamsburg have picked up rapidly, and in the past four months alone, the condominium has sold more units than any New York City residential building did in all of 2010. According to MNS, the brokerage formerly known as TDG/TREGNY which is exclusively marketing the development, the Edge garnered 144 signed contracts between Jan. 1, 2011 and June 1, 2011, including an average of more than 32 per month between February and May (see chart after the jump for a breakdown of sales by month). Granted the Edge is more than twice as big, but those sales numbers already shatter the figures posted by last year’s fastest selling building, according to PropertyShark.com, be@Schermerhorn, which sold 121 units out of 246 in the calendar year.

Now, 234 of the Edge’s 565 units have closed, and 61 are in contract, according to MNS. The firm told The Real Deal that the building’s location and amenities package, which includes an array of sports and spa facilities, have appealed to buyers.

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The Manhattan rental market showed little movement this past month, according to the Real Estate Group NY’s mid-month February 2010 report, with rents climbing just .19 percent since last month (see the full report here). While the vacancy rate continued to decrease, particularly among doorman units, which saw inventory drop 9.65 percent month-over-month, the report described the market as sluggish. “Downward seasonal pressure combined with positive market trends to hold rents flat this month,” the report said. “Yet… landlords are finding that the bottom of the market is not the reprieve they were hoping for… the rebound is likely to be a much slower process than landlords anticipated.” The most expensive units on the market were non-doorman two-bedroom Tribeca apartments, which had average rents of $7,297 per month, while the lease expensive units were Harlem non-doorman studios, with an average rental rate of $1,394. These figures, are based on data cross-sectioned from over 10,000 currently available listings located below 155th Street, the report indicates. TRD
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From the February issue: During the real estate boom, it was common and even encouraged for brokers to buy units in the new development buildings they were marketing. After all, what endorsement could be better than a six-figure down payment? But now that buyers are scarce, a number of problems with brokers purchasing units have surfaced, from unethical dilemmas with flipping to price inflation to whether brokers can be considered “bona fide” purchasers. These issues often went unnoticed when prices were roaring upward, but can threaten a condo development’s very existence in today’s litigious environment. “In the past, there was absolutely no issue because these buildings were sold out, and who cares what the broker did?” said Anne Salisbury, an attorney in the real estate litigation group at Guzov Ofsink. “Now that you’ve got empty units, it can become an issue.” For years, marketing firms urged their brokers to buy units in the new development buildings they were tasked with selling. “It’s a sort of stamp of approval for the building,” said Jennifer Lee, the director of new business development at aptsandlofts?.com, who noted that the brokerage encourages its agents to purchase property. [more]

Juny Francois, an attorney and developer, bought a Bed-Stuy brownstone in 2003 for $350,000; today it’s worth more than twice that.

From the February issue: Imagine you host a party and no one comes. That was broker David Behin when he unveiled the 29-unit condo project 111 Monroe last year in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He put the building, with its slick glass-and-stone façade, large, clean apartments and huge windows, on the market last January and didn’t get a single bite. “It was a project where anyone who walked into the building said, ‘Wow.’ But it was tough as nails to try to get anyone to buy,” said Behin, executive vice president of the Real Estate Group New York, a residential brokerage. “And we probably went out with prices that, even though we reduced them, were still too high.” The developers lowered the price of the units, twice. Two-bedrooms, for instance, fell from $495,000 to $450,000. The developers also offered to pay buyers’ closing costs and got the building approved for FHA loans, meaning qualified buyers could purchase units with as little as 3.5 percent down. And they could pluck down just $2,000 to sign the contract and make the rest of the down payment over time. The result? The units started moving. By December, he had contracts on half of them, he said.  [more]

As New York City residential renters reach the end of their leases, many are are getting their rents slashed. Rents dropped in the fourth quarter of 2009 over the same quarter in 2008. “A lot of tenants have been successfully renegotiating rents,” said Daniel Baum, CEO of TDG/TREGNY. Prudential Douglas Elliman’s rental market report, released today, says the average monthly rent of a Manhattan apartment in fourth-quarter 2009 was $3,789, 4.3 percent less than $3,958 in the same quarter of 2008. The best way to get the landlord to drop the rent is to hit him up at the end of the lease, Baum said. “Traditionally, an owner is not going to renegotiate a lease mid-term,” he noted. Another strategy to receive lower rents is to check out comparable prices in the building. Jordanna Dworkin, who rents a studio on the Upper East Side, found that an identical unit in her building was being rented for $400 less than she was paying. She immediately called her landlord and he agreed to lower her rent — saving her $4,800 a year.

Source: TDG/TREGNY

The 2010 rental market is expected to start off slow, though there is potential to see a return to stability, according to the 2009 year-end report from TDG/TREGNY, released today (see full report after the jump).

The Manhattan Rental Market report, which conflates the group’s monthly Manhattan rental market reports, shows that seasonal rental trends were less noticeable in 2009 than in other years, with the summer showing only a slight uptick in activity compared to the rest of the year. Crucial to the rental market’s future improvement, the report says, is how other segments of the Manhattan economy perform in the coming months.

“The most important factor for a market improvement is employment,” the report says. “As it steadily improves, we can expect the rental market to do the same.”

Overall, the 2009 rental prices show downward momentum from 2008. Rents on doorman studios declined the most year-over-year, with average rents last year clocking in at 8.12 percent lower than 2008. Doorman units saw significant declines in rent due to renters’ interest in finding bargain homes, according to the report. TRD  More

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Christakis Shiamili, principal broker with Ardor Realty

After having his defamation claim against TDG/TREGNY denied in the New York State Appellate Court, Christakis Shiamili, a principal broker with ArdorNY, told The Real Deal that he intends to appeal the decision. In a suit filed March 2008, Shiamili claimed that TDG/TREGNY — which, at the time, went by the name the Real Estate Group New York, or TREGNY — had financially-backed a now-defunct Web site ShittyHabitats.com. The site, Shiamili said, published defamatory comments about many of TDG/TREGNY’s competitors, including Manhattan Apartments, Citi Habitats (from which the site got its name, Shiamili said) and  Ardor, Shiamili’s firm, which was previously known as Ardor Realty. The lawsuit also names Ryan McCann, who currently works in TDG/TREGNY’s marketing group, and Daniel Baum, CEO of TDG/TREGNY, whose credit card number was allegedly used to register the domain name. McCann had operated the Web site, according to Robert Shapiro, Shiamili’s attorney. McCann was not available for comment by press time. “[The Web site] was created solely, we allege, to harm their competitors,” Shapiro said. Baum told The Real Deal that his firm did not financially-back the Web site. But, when asked whether his personal credit card had been used to register the site, Baum declined to comment. [more]

A New York City agent’s defamation case has been dismissed in the New York State Appellate Court, after a lower court had originally allowed the complaint to proceed. Christakis Shiamili, a principal broker with Ardor Realty, had sued the Real Estate Group New York, whose name recently changed to TDG/TREGNY, alleging that it had allowed “numerous false and defamatory statements” to be published on its site’s message board. Although the group had not published the statements itself, Shiamili claimed that it had encouraged the defamation by allowing the comments to remain online. The court, however, has halted the case on the grounds that the Federal Communications Decency Act blocks Shiamili’s complaint. The act states that providers of online content cannot “be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Shiamili did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Real Deal. TDG/TREGNY officials were out of the office and also could not be reached for comment by The Real Deal.

Source: TDG/TREGNY

Manhattan rents remained relatively flat month-over-month, according to
TDG/The Real Estate Group of NY’s December Manhattan residential rental
market report released today (see full report after the jump). Doorman units saw a 1.19 percent drop in price in December, according to the report, which covers Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, while non-doorman units actually saw a price increase of .87 percent.

Meanwhile, year-over-year, doorman apartments were hit the hardest, price-wise, the report says, while non-doorman units saw more moderate price declines. Apartment rental prices for doorman buildings dropped 5.79 percent compared to 2008 and non-doorman units declined just 1.74 percent.

The flat month-over-month activity bucks the downward seasonal trend typically seen in the winter rental market, the report says.

Even so, non-doorman units saw a 6.08 percent rise in vacancies from last month, something that could precipitate a price decline in that type of unit, said Andrew Barrocas, COO of TDG/TREGNY.  More

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Source: TDG/TREGNY

Month-over-month residential rental prices remained relatively flat in mid-December, according to the TDG/The Real Estate Group of NY monthly Manhattan rental market report released today (see full report after jump), while year-over-year figures continued to lag. Doorman units saw a 1.19 percent drop in price in December, according to the report, which covers Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, while non-doorman units actually saw a price increase of .87 percent. Meanwhile, year-over-year, doorman apartments were hit the hardest, price-wise, the report says, while non-doorman units saw more moderate price declines. Apartment rental prices for doorman buildings dropped 5.79 percent compared to 2008 and non-doorman units declined just 1.74 percent. The flat month-over-month activity bucks the downward seasonal trend typically seen in the winter rental market, the report says. [more]