Andrew Cuomo and 633 Third Avenue
Time Equities has put Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office space on the market for twice what it paid five years ago, the New York World reported, which lends further speculation to the Empire State Development Corp’s decision to sell the space back in November 2006. [more]
Office condominium sales are on the rise in Manhattan, with particular appeal to foreign business owners, Crain’s reported.
Indeed, 80 percent of sales at Manhattan’s 88 office condos are to
foreign buyers. Office condo sales, which peaked at $235 million in
2008, and dropped to around $150 million in both 2009 and 2010, are on
the rise as investors, particularly in Europe, look to stash their cash.
The average asking price at a Manhattan office condo has rebounded to
$531 per square foot, though before the recession, the average asking
price was $879 per square foot.
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In early 2008, Francis Greenburger’s Time Equities began demolishing three buildings at 50 West Street to make room for a $600 million, 62-story hotel and residential development. A few months later, the development was put on hold as a result of the financial crisis.
“Market conditions were too unstable to proceed at the time,” Greenburger said. “We just secured the site and decided to wait until conditions improved.”
Time’s prospective development was just one of many stalled construction sites on a 650-building list compiled by the city’s Department of Buildings in 2009, Crain’s reported. Now, two years later, construction is recommencing at some of those sites — about 550 sites have restarted in the two years the list has existed, including 111 Kent Avenue and 175 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg — but not as quickly as some might hope. Experts say it may take longer than it did after the last downturn in the early 1990s for all of these projects to get going again. [more]
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Developer Francis Greenburger’s Time Equities is putting the kibosh on speculation that a revival of its planned, Helmut Jahn-designed 50 West Street tower is imminent. Yesterday, the developer was reported to have paid $1.5 million to obtain new permits for its $600 million, 65-story hotel and condominium project, which has been shelved since 2008, causing several publications to infer that this signaled the rebirth of one of Lower Manhattan’s largest stalled developments. But contrary to those reports, Time Equities said today that such conclusions are “premature.” Time Equities did obtain new permits at the site, but only because it changed the contractor of record to Skanska after its previous contractor, HRH, decided to pursue a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in April, the company said.
– Sarabeth Sanders [more]
Helmut Jahn’s $600 million hotel and condominium tower at 50 West Street is coming back to life after a three-year hiatus during the downturn. According to the Post, developer Francis Greenburger of Time Equities paid $1.5 million last week to obtain new construction permits for the 714-foot-tall, 65-story project, which is slated to go up south of the World Trade Center site and which had previously been shelved since 2008. Curbed reported yesterday that the Department of Buildings has just issued a new permit at the time to Gruzen Samton Architects, the local architect of record (Jahn is still the design architect). Plans call for a 139-room hotel on floors four through 13 of the building, while floors 14 through 63 will contain 301 condos. [more]
Eric Anton and 110 Amity StreetA Long Island College Hospital building at 110 Amity Street in Cobble Hill will be converted into a condominium building as part of a controversial development plan, the Brooklyn Paper reported. The landmarked Lamm Institute building and three adjacent lots at Amity and Henry streets sold to a group of investors for $6 million, according to broker Eric Anton of Eastern Consolidated, and the new owners intend to transform it into three luxury units, Cobble Hill blog reported. In 2007, the hospital sold the land for $6.1 to Manhattan-based Time Equities, which planned to convert the mansion into eight apartments and construct six, single family townhouses. [more]
Time Equities has purchased a pair of adjacent Murray Hill townhouses for $3.65 million, the company announced yesterday. The four-story buildings, at 153 and 155 East 37th Street, were converted to rental apartments in the late 1950s and now contain 17 one-bedroom units. Francis Greenburger, chairman of Time Equities, said the acquisition represents a push to add to the company’s residential portfolio as the economy improves. TRD [more]
The Lamm Institute at 110 Amity Street went into contract last week for $3.6 together with its three neighboring lots on Henry Street, which went for $2.4 million, sources told Brownstoner. The Cobble Hill properties, marketed together as a package, were at one point supposed to be developed by Time Equities, which purchased them from LICH, and they were then on and off the market. As of November, they were asking $6.4 million. Itwa not immediately clear who the buyer is. Eastern Consolidated, the properties’ listing agent, said this morning that they could not comment on whether or not a deal has been signed. [Brownstoner]
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Feng shui — the Chinese system of beliefs that governs building design, the calendar and numbers, and which is followed by people in other cultures, especially in East Asia — is playing more of a role in real estate deals, as Asian buyers are populating the market, said Michael Rudder, a broker at Time Equities. Feng shui has been used in the past as well, The Real Deal reported in a webcast, with brokers using unconventional methods, including a cleansing ritual used by a feng shui consultant to help sell apartments. Rudder — who first encountered feng shui in 2007 — said that since the number of Asian buyers and lessees in New York has surged this year, he and other brokers are learning just how influential it can be, the New York Times reported. Buyers often come equipped with elaborate feng shui kits to measure a property, said Rudder. With the commercial market in New York still soft, Rudder said almost all of his recent sales of office condominiums have been to foreign buyers, especially those based in Asia, where the economy is booming. “They have this huge appetite for office condos,” he said, and since they don’t want to pay rent, he has redirected his marketing plan to accommodate them. [NYT]
The floorplan for Shulsky’s unit in 812 Fifth Avenue (click image for larger version)Rena Shulsky, the real estate magnate and environmental activist, has put her 812 Fifth Avenue penthouse duplex back on the market, with a new broker and a freshly chopped price.
Time Equities’ Javier Lattanzio now has the listing, and has priced it at $9.9 million. The three-bedroom duplex co-op unit was previously on the market with Ariel Tirosh and Peter Schwartz from Prudential Douglas Elliman, who listed it at $11.75 million last year, then dropped the price to $10.75 million this January before taking it off the market in early April.
Shulsky is the CEO of longtime New York City commercial developer Shire Realty and co-founder of the non-profit organization Green Seal. She originally purchased the three-bedroom apartment in 2007 for $9.23 million, according to city documents. The eight-room spread, with both city and park views, occupies the top two floors of the building and features a wraparound terrace.
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