New York real estate faced a whirlwind year in 2011, and numerous contenders surfaced when The Real Deal sat down to pick our favorite stories of the year.
There was the limping recovery of the residential sales market, coupled with several standout deals and the runaway revival of the rental market. Developers snapped up distressed properties, such as One Madison Park, while other stalled projects like the Azure cond-op tower came back to life. [more]
Occupy Wall Street protesters are arguing over the lack of space at Zuccotti Park in the Financial District, a two-thirds of an acre park surrounded by marble walls and police officers. The protesters, who began sleeping in tents a few months ago as the weather took a turn for the worse, are now seeking out structures that allow for a higher density of people, like military-style tents with bunk beds, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It’s “sort of like what New York did with the skyscraper,” said Ed Mortimer, a volunteer medic working in the park. “It will create better walkways and emergency exits.”
Hundreds of people are sleeping every night in the park in about 200 traditional tents in total, but the area originally zoned for sleeping by the protestors’ “Town Planning” committee, became inadequate as the number of protestors increased. … [more]
From left: Lever House and its courtyardOccupy Wall Street protesters are only about 3,500 days away from being able to claim Zuccotti Park as their own under “adverse possession.” According to the New York Times, for that reason, the popular Lever House office tower’s courtyard at 390 Park Avenue will be closed by owner RFR Realty this Sunday.
“Adverse possession” is an ancient concept that essentially allows someone who uses another person’s property for a long period of time to claim possession if the rightful owner never challenges it. The concept was more widely practiced with farm land. Today, the claim can only be made on property that goes unchallenged for at least 10 years…. [more]
Supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement have now begun targeting the Real Estate Board of New York on social media and then in turn by phone, following news reports that REBNY seeks to submit a proposal to the city limiting the public access hours of privately owned public parks. In response to an opinion article in today’s New York Times by Jerold Kayden, a professor of urban planning at Harvard University, on the legal gray area of such privately owned public spaces, and the news reports of REBNY’s plans, a Twitter user called @OccupyMyCat this morning posted, “Announcement! It’s time to Occupy REBNY, the Real Estate Board of New York!”
… [more]
Following the controversy surrounding the Occupy Wall Street movement’s ongoing presence in Zuccotti Park, which is owned by Brookfield Properties but is open to the public, new signs forbidding camping have gone up at similar parks in Midtown owned by Brookfield and Rudin Management, the New York Times reported.
The signs have gone up at Grace Plaza, next to the W. R. Grace Building at 43rd Street and Sixth Avenue, owned by Brookfield, and plazas attached to 40 East 52nd Street and 345 Park Avenue, owned by Rudin.
A woman who answered the phone at Rudin told the Times that there was a connection between the protests and the new signs.
“Sure it has a lot to do with it,” the woman, who was not named, said.
Brookfield declined to comment. … [more]
As thousands of demonstrators rallied at the Occupy Wall Street protests yesterday, they were joined by hundreds of affordable housing advocates, tenants organizations and even tenants’ lawyers, who hold the big commercial banks and wealthy investors directly responsible for an ongoing housing crisis.
“I have been very excited about the Occupy Wall Street movement and the fact that its growing and the fact that these kids have been able to spark something that we’ve been waiting for years,” said Michael McKee, treasurer of Tenants Political Action Committee, a statewide organization that works to elect pro-tenant politicians to higher office. … [more]
Brookfield Office Properties is in an awkward situation as the landlord of Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, which has been the headquarters of choice for anti-Wall Street protesters over the past week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Brookfield and the New York Police Department are negotiating over how to handle the 100 or so demonstrators who have been camping out in the park, which is named for Brookfield’s co-chairman, John Zuccotti. While Brookfeld would rather remove them, the NYPD would prefer they be allowed to stay…. [more]
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