From left: Joseph Sitt, CEO of Thor Equities, Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing at Prudential Douglas Elliman, Louis Greco, principal at SDS Procida, and Paula Del Nunzio, senior vice president at Brown Harris Stevens

Impending doom or exaggeration by media spin doctors? While economists remain divided over the long-term implications of the Standard & Poor’s treasury bond downgrade for U.S. residential and commercial real estate, New York City’s real estate pros are keeping upbeat. The Big Apple, they said, is the best place to weather the storm.
S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ Aug. 5, after much debate in Congress over raising the nation’s debt ceiling. The downgrading of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac soon followed.
The Real Deal talked to some of the city’s most well-known brokers and developers in the wake of these events to find out whether they were shocked by the downgrade and what effect they expect it to have on their livelihoods.
While they disagreed on the immediate impact the downgrade might have on market activity and whether or not we’re headed for full-scale economic Armageddon, they all agreed there wasn’t a better city than New York in which to watch the action unfold. Click here to see what they had to say. [more]

Thor’s Joe Sitt and the Scribner Building

[Updated at 3.40 p.m.] Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities has closed on the purchase of the Scribner Building at 597 Fifth Avenue from A & A Acquisitions for $99 million, according to a deed recorded with the city today. The 12-story building, between 48th and 49th streets, includes 12,000 square feet of retail and 58,000 square feet of office space.

As previously reported by the Post, Thor went into contract to buy the building in June in a deal that encompassed 50,000 square feet of air rights and the adjacent building at 3 East 48th Street.

The contract price was previously reported as $108.5 million. The slight change in price, a source close to the deal said, was simply due to fees. [more]

From left: Jeffrey Gural of Newmark Knight Frank, Jeffrey Levine of Douglaston Development, David Weprin, Joe Sitt of Thor Equities and Frank Sciame, Jr. of F.J. Sciame Construction

Today, state Assemblyman David Weprin will get the nod from the
Democratic Party to run for Anthony Weiner’s old seat in Congress, which
he is expected to win.

And even though that seat, New York’s 9th, probably won’t be around for
long — population changes will likely force the state to phase it out in 2012
– some real estate executives are happy to have somebody they have close
ties to representing them in Washington, even for the short-term.

“He’s a good guy, and I don’t think the real estate industry has anything to
worry about,” said Jeffrey Gural, chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, who
contributed $2,000 to Weprin in 2010 for his assembly race, according to
campaign finance records. [more]

Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities is in contract to purchase the Scribner Building for $108.5 million, according to the Post. The 12-story plus penthouse building at 597 Fifth Avenue, between 48th and 49th streets features over 12,000 square feet of retail and around 58,000 square feet of office space.

The deal also encompasses the adjacent building at 3 East 48th Street and 50,000 square feet of air rights.

Leading beauty retailer Sephora is the current anchor tenant in the landmarked interior. [more]

Already home to a shopping center featuring Best Buy, Toys R Us and Kohl’s, Brooklyn’s southeastern waterfront could get two more big-box retail centers if developers get their way, the Wall Street Journal reported. Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities is seeking approval for a $150 million project to build a 200,000-square-foot shopping center and 2.4-acre public waterfront on a pier near Gravesend Bay. Sitt has already secured a tentative 20-year lease with BJ’s Wholesale Club to anchor the site. Adjacent to that waterfront is a 4.5 acre plot of land owned by the Cropsey Family, which is soliciting developers to extend the site into the water and bring in big-box stores. There’s also a separate 15-acre plot near Four Sparrow March in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, where developers want to bring in a car dealership and retail center, that under environmental review but could run into delays because of a connection to the Carl Kruger corruption case. [more]

Fascinating Faber’s, the 50-year-old arcade that Thor Equities demolished last year, is rising from the dead — in another Thor Equities property. The Brooklyn Paper reported that Carlo Muraco, who has owned the arcade since the early 1990s, is subletting the first floor of space in a West 12th Street building owned by Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities. Joya Funding Group is leasing the space. Unlike the old location at Henderson’s Music Hall on Stillwell and Surf avenues, the new space will not display the famous “Faber’s Fascination” sign, but rather a vintage-styled “Faber’s Game World” sign. [more]

From left: Architect Costas Kondylis and Princess Katherine Karadjordjevic, developer Donald Trump, the Corcoran Group’s Pamela Liebman, Town’s Andrew Heiberger and wife Robyn, and marketing guru Louise Sunshine (credit: Clint Spaulding of patrickmcmullan.com). Click the image to see more photos.

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]

Daan Ismailoff, a former Coney Island real estate broker, filed suit alleging he was “defrauded” out of $1.1 million when he brokered the sale of four acres of beachfront property near Stillwell Avenue from then-owner Hy Singer to Thor Equities’ Joseph Sitt in 2006, the New York Post reported. Both Sitt and Singer are defendants in the lawsuit. Ismailoff alleged that he entered into an open listing agreement with Singer to show the property, set up a meeting with Singer and a Sitt representative and got them to agree that he’d receive a 6 percent commission on the sale regardless of when it was completed. [more]

From left: Joseph Moinian, 245 Fifth Avenue and Joseph Sitt

Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities and developer Joseph Moinian have completed the long-awaited deal to buy out Goldman Sachs at 245 Fifth Avenue for $162 million.
The property, near 28th Street, had been up for sale since January, when Moinian and his previous venture partner, Goldman Sachs Whitehall Funds, decided to put the building up for sale through Eastdil Secured.
The property was originally purchased for $190 million, or $620 a square foot, at the height of the market in 2007. [more]

Hollywood has come to the rescue for Coney Island’s oldest building. According to local blog Amusing the Zillion, the producers of “Men in Black III” have leased the dilapidated Grashorn Building, once in danger of demolition, from developer Thor Equities and plan rehabilitate its interior for use during filming next month. The structure, at 1104 Surf Avenue, is said to date back to the 1880s and served as a hardware store for local businesses for more than 60 years. But more recently, it has sat vacant, save for some squatters, and fallen into disrepair. [more]