The Brooklyn market continued to show strength in 2010, with 778 commercial sales totaling over $1 billion, according to commercial brokerage TerraCRG’s year-end report. “This volume represents no significant change from 2009′s trading levels in the borough,” said Ofer Cohen, founder and president of TerraCRG. “After two years of volume decline, that’s good news and shows that the market is finally stabilizing.” Sales of multi-family buildings represented almost half of the dollar volume in 2010, the report shows. The highest number of transactions took place in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint areas and the Bed-Stuy/Bushwick/Crown Heights sections. TRD [more]

In their first official response to the bankruptcy filing of 20 Bayard, lawyers for W Financial Fund last week urged a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to reject a motion by developer Isaac Hager to continue operating the Williamsburg condominium with monthly rent and parking fees. Hager, president of North Development Group, threw the 64-unit condo into bankruptcy last month, when he was unable to make a $170,000 interest payment to W Financial, or refinance a $17.4 million bridge loan. In a Dec. 9 filing, Martin Ehrenfeld, restructuring officer for the developer, asked permission to use the rent and parking fees to cover monthly maintenance charges for at least 120 days until a reorganization plan is worked out with creditors. After selling 24 apartments before the real estate market collapsed in 2008, Hager rented out nearly all of the remaining units until the condo market recovered. According to the court documents, 20 Bayard has $1.28 million in net operating income per year. [more]