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]

Buyers’ attorney Lawrence Weiner and the 505

An Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act case brought against the 505, a new 108-unit Hell’s Kitchen condominium, has been dismissed in U.S. District Court, the developer announced today, marking a defeat 35 buyers.

Fifty-three buyers filed ILSA claims, starting in June 2009. Subsequently, 18 of those either settled with the builder Parkview Developers or closed on their units at 505 West 47th Street.

But while a statement from Parkview said the developer intends to seek legal fees from the claimants, the buyers’ attorney Lawrence Weiner said that his clients intend to appeal. [more]

Condominium buyers at a luxury Harlem project filed court papers yesterday to begin an appeal of a recent decision that was the first ruling on the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, or ILSA, in New York state in the last two decades. Buyers of two condo units at Uptown Partners’ 5th on the Park, the 160-unit condo development at 1485 Fifth Avenue at 120th Street, filed a notice of appeal in Manhattan federal court yesterday, the filing shows. They sought to overturn a decision issued Jan. 30 by federal judge Denise Cote who ruled that the developers of the project were exempt from the ILSA statute, thereby rejecting buyers’ efforts to break their contracts and get their deposits back. The federal ILSA law requires that developers who have divided land into 100 or more units, file a property report with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Buyers must also be given a report before signing their contract. The little-known law has been used in dozens of cases in New York City where buyers are trying to back out of their contracts. [more]

Mortgages remain elusive for house hunters in New York and as a result,
many buyers are working with more than one lender. Developers are also
lining up additional lenders to help buyers obtain financing. The developments come in response to the tough credit environment.
Banks have tightened the availability of home loans to buyers and at
the same time, many are reluctant to write mortgages for some new
buildings where only a small percentage of apartments have been sold. As attorneys for buyers are putting mortgage contingency clauses in
contracts, attorneys for sellers are directing buyers to apply for
financing at more than one bank or go to a mortgage broker, said Daniel
Berman, an executive vice president with Bellmarc Realty, who has seen
the scenario play out in a few recent deals.
[more]