From left: French President Francois Hollande, Amy Williamson, vice president of sales at the Trump Soho, and the Trump Soho

Move over Russians — there’s a new nationality set to make its mark on the city’s residential real estate market. According to the New York Times, the French are increasingly looking to invest in New York City real estate following the election of Socialist Francois Hollande as president earlier this month. During his campaign, Hollande promised to tax income over £1 million at a 75 percent clip and raise the tax rate on capital gains in an effort to lessen the country’s £1.3 trillion debt. [more]

Sapir Org. CEO Alex Sapir and Trump Soho

The Sapir Organization, the developer of Manhattan’s Trump Soho, is planning to put the hotel and its unsold condominium units on the auction block, Bloomberg News reported. The company, which developed the property with Bayrock Group at Varick and Spring streets, has hired brokerages Eastdil Secured and Jones Lang LaSalle to market the properties.

Prospective buyers will receive necessary information about the auction today, said Alex Sapir, president of the Sapir Organization; the auction will likely take place later in the spring. [more]

From left: Adam Leitman Bailey, Julius Schwarz, executive vice president of the Bayrock Group, Sapir Organization CEO Alex Sapir and the Trump Soho

Ten Trump Soho buyers are getting a 90 percent refund on their deposits
after filing a suit against the Bayrock Group and the Sapir Organization
alleging they misrepresented sales figures (note: corrections appended). The New York Post reported that a federal lawsuit filed by the buyers against the building’s sponsors was settled yesterday, and they will get 90 percent of the $3.16 million in deposits they combined to have put down on $16.914 million worth of apartments. The buyers claim to have been told as many as 60 percent of the units were sold, when at the time just 16 percent of the hotel-condo units in the building, at 246 Spring Street, were actually sold. Adam Leitman Bailey represented the buyers. [more]

Park Tower Group, one of the first New York developers to see potential in the Brooklyn waterfront, is brushing off plans for 10 luxury apartment buildings with 4,000 units on a 20-acre plot of land at the old Greenpoint Lumber Exchange, which it purchased almost a decade ago, the New York Observer reported. At least one of the towers should break ground at the site, which is currently used for construction storage and movie lots, by 2012.

Park Tower, which is headed up by developer George Klein, had delayed the project during the recession and recently shifted its focus at the site to rentals from condominiums to more easily find financing. It hopes to secure construction loans in the coming months. [more]

From left: Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund and Raphael De Niro, Prodigy Network’s Rodrigo Nino and Trump Soho

After months of speculation, Prudential Douglas Elliman officially got in on the marketing act at Trump Soho, according to Real Estate Weekly. The Real Deal previously reported the hotel-condominium’s developers and lenders were considering replacing the current Prodigy Network-led team with Elliman brokers. According to Real Estate Weekly, Elliman’s Raphael De Niro and Fredrik Eklund will “spearhead” the domestic sales effort for the unaccounted for apartments in the 346-unit tower, while keeping Prodigy in tow. According to Prodigy President Rodrigo Nino, 21 units have entered contract and 19 units have closed since the team unveiled lower prices in the Sapir Organization and Bayrock Group-developed building in late February. [more]

The Real Deal was on the party circuit this week, soaking in the New York City views from Dumbo to Harlem. We feted the launch of the East River Ferry, got our spa on with the folks from Trump Soho at nearby rental building 55 Thompson Street, followed Robert A.M. Stern to 1280 Fifth Avenue and, for a moment, envisioned ourselves in Sarah Jessica Parker’s high-heeled shoes, as we checked out the Greenwich Village townhouse she once sought to buy. Check out our adventures in the photo gallery above and after the jump. – Sarabeth Sanders and Katherine Clarke [more]

From left: 101 Warren Street, Asher Alcobi of Peter Ashe Real Estate and Michael Chen of Bond New York (top), Wei Min Tan of Castle Avenue Partners (bottom), Trump Soho, and 250 East 53rd Street

Now added to the long list of exports from China are buyers of New York City real
estate.

Chinese residents flush with cash from the Asian nation’s booming economy, and in
some cases limited in what they can buy at home, are starting to look at Manhattan
apartments.

Between March 2010 and March 2011, 9 percent of foreign buyers in the U.S. were from
China, according to the National Association of Realtors, up from 5 percent in 2007.
Canada sends the U.S. the most foreign buyers, with 23 percent, but China is number
two, the data shows. In contrast, England, Mexico and India, next on the list, each
represent 7 percent.

And many of those Chinese buyers are trickling into New York, say brokers, who are
creating customized services to greet them. [more]

About 100 real estate professionals filed in to the Trump Soho’s lone duplex penthouse last week, to preview the building’s 11 new-to-the-market, two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom penthouses, which range from $2.5 million to $8.7 million (see photo gallery above). Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres were provided by the Quattro Gastronomia Italiana, a restaurant located inside Trump Soho. The 46-story building at 246 Spring Street, which was developed by the Sapir Organization and Bayrock Group, has 391 hotel-condo units. TRD [more]

From left: David Rockwell, Julius Schwarz, Alex Sapir and Trump Soho at 246 Spring Street

The developers of Trump Soho have entered a legal imbroglio against the
Rockwell Group, alleging in a new lawsuit that the interior design firm failed
to meet building codes and cost the property more than $1.5 million in
damages for delays and replacement costs to complete their work.

The complaint, filed this past Friday in New York state Supreme Court,
came just two days after Rockwell sued the Bayrock Group and Sapir
Organization, alleging the Trump Soho developers failed to pay for $1.5
million in interior design work at the building.

Bayrock/Sapir, which developed the 391-unit hotel-condominium at 246
Spring Street, contends the design firm placed furnishings too close to
light fixtures and provided interior construction documents that were out of
compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. [more]

New York could soon witness an invasion by real estate investment CIM Group, according to a recent profile of the company by the New York Observer. Started in 1994, CIM Group already has thousands of properties in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Dallas, but has bided its time before swooping into the New York market.

Now is the time, it seems. As The Real Deal previously reported, CIM bought Harry Macklowe’s distressed Drake Hotel site for $305 million in January and it has bought Tamir Sapir’s William Beaver House, a stake in 11 Madison Avenue and partnered with Trump Soho. [more]