The Related Companies has built more units than any other developer in Manhattan in the past five years, followed by Donald Trump, whose efforts have mostly revolved around Trump Place on the Upper West Side.
The Real Deal set out this past month to track the biggest developers in Manhattan. The top 15 developers have completed or have in the immediate pipeline some 17,000 units since 2000.
Manhattan’s top residential developers” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
The conversion wave is washing substandard materials and budget renovations onto a sometimes unsuspe Some converted condos remain, well, unfinished” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
Land-lease arrangements work their way into edges of pulsating Manhattan market Landowners say lease me, but don’t release me” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
Bidding drives up prices; some prefer hush-hush deals [more]
Insiders speculate on next hot hotel brand as market rebounds vigorously [more]
Government aid package backs commercial leasing over residential conversions
The Real Deal recently launched New York’s first real estate podcast audio news programming you can download from our Web site and listen to at your convenience on your computer or MP3 player. The inaugural interview is with Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel. Miller’s quarterly market reports on the Manhattan residential market are among the most widely cited in the industry.
The complete interview, done in mid-July at Miller’s Midtown offices, can be heard here. Following are some excerpts about the prospect of a housing bubble:
THE REAL DEAL: Is there a housing bubble in New York?
MILLER: It’s interesting about the whole bubble psychology the boom and bust orientation in the real estate discussions that have been going on for the last three or four months. Especially because Manhattan is closely tied with the financial markets.
A lot of us remember what happened in ’87 with the stock market crash and subsequent real estate correction that we saw from about the end of ’89 to early ’95. So it is something that is fresh in everybody’s minds, and everybody is trying to relate that to the current experience that we are having now.
When I look at what happened then versus now, it’s apples and oranges, a very different experience. Back then we had a tax incentive-based supply-creation syndrome I made that up, but the idea is that housing came on in large quantities in the mid ’80s because of tax incentives. The 421a abatements gave the incentives to developers to throw foundations in the ground without even plans for what they were going to build just to get the tax credits.
Then all of a sudden in ’86 we had the change in the federal tax laws that eliminated the whole incentive for investors to buy individual units that created a lot of supply. And then we had the co-op conversion frenzy, in which seemingly every rental building that could have been converted was converted. I think the conversion pace today not including 2005, but up through the end of 2004 is something like 10 percent of what it was back then, but that’s largely inclusive of, say, lofts being gut renovated to condo as opposed to existing rental buildings.
As far as today, the situation is we have record low mortgage rates, which are really fueling a lot of the demand and we have an improving but very tepid economy. And we now have supply that is gaining momentum. Your magazine did a great study on the condo inventory that is coming online [in July 2005 issue].
TRD: Thank you.
MILLER: And it’s gaining speed. But it’s still about 3,000 units, give or take, and we have a condo universe of somewhere in the neighborhood of 65,000 to 85,000, depending on who you talk to. So it’s still relatively small. In prior years we were talking about 1,500 units coming online. So the pace is increasing but it’s another 1,500 units a year.
I think the two variables on whether we are going to go into a bubble real estate environment is going to be supply or mortgage rates. There are a lot of other things to look at, but those are two main things. Mortgage rates have been forecasted to increase since the end of 2003, and, generally speaking, they’ve been falling. So, in the equation of supply and demand, it has become a constant.
TRD: Brooklyn has become such a great place for developers to go to because there are so many available lots.
MILLER: For those new developments to come in and be viable they are getting $700 a foot. In Manhattan now, the threshold seems to be you have to be at least at 1,000, and more likely on the new developments you’re talking $1,500.
TRD: If you saw a new development at $1,000 per square foot, would you jump on that and say, “Hey, that’s a bargain?”
MILLER: I guess it’s personal preference. You have to decide whether you like the neighborhood. I’ve always felt the reason why [a neighborhood is] cheaper than a Soho and Tribeca is because it’s not proven as yet for that price structure. So you are going to see more price volatility if you have some sort of market downturn meaning that there is a lot of upside and there’s potential downside.
However, the thing about housing which is very different than stocks, is that, for example, the FDIC defines a housing boom as three years and 30 percent appreciation, and a bust is five years and 15 percent depreciation.
TRD: And how does that compare to our market now?
MILLER: On the upside, we’re about double what their boom figure is. But it’s sort of that idea that on a down cycle, prices tend to be sticky on the downside, that it’s still an asset that’s useable. Real estate is a cyclical thing.
We’ve just seen a lot of the upside over the last five to seven years.
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Battery Park City
The Albanese Organization beat out four other companies last month to construct a green residential building in Battery Park City, which would be their third there. The tower will go on Site 3 between First and Second Place and Battery Place and Little West Street. The 20,000-square-foot site can be constructed to 423,200 square feet and must include 40,000 square feet for the Battery Park Conservancy, according to reports. Albanese is completing the 253-unit Verdesian in Battery Park City and finished the Solaire in 2003.
Flatiron
Sky House
11 East 29th Street
The Clarett Group is developing a 54-story condo on the site of the parish house for the Church of the Transfiguration. The project is being designed by Fox & Fowle Architects and there will be three condos per floor starting on the sixth floor, the Times reported. Prices for the one- and two-bedroom apartments will range from about $870,000 to $2.2 million.
Harlem
106 West 123rd Street
The condominium had its offering plan approved in June. The brand new townhouse has four residential units broken into a simplex, two duplexes, and a triplex. Rosetree Development Company is the developer. The former carriage house next door at 104 West 123rd Street will also soon be available as condos. Klara Madlin Real Estate is marketing both properties.
Harlem
307 West 126th Street
An affiliate of Rafferty Holdings is planning to develop a condominium at the site. Warburg Realty Harlem has been appointed exclusive sales agent, and Leo Munoz will be responsible for marketing the property once the offering plan is approved.
Harlem
Senneca Terrace
324 East 112th Street
Units in the condo building will range from 611-square-foot one-bedrooms to 1,150-square-foot penthouses, as well as 1,148-square-foot townhomes. The developer is CGS Builders; the designer is Karl Fischer Architects. The Corcoran Group is marketing the property.
Jamaica
Site of the former Queens Family Courthouse
The New York City Economic Development Corporation selected The Dermot Company to acquire and develop the two-acre site. The proposed $130 million project consists of 380 residential units, 18,500 square feet of retail space and 25,000 square feet of space for community or cultural uses.
Long Island City
Queens Plaza
41-26 27th Street
The Developers Group will begin selling the 66 units in the new 10-story condominium this autumn. The units will range from 505 to 1,568 square feet. Residents are expected to start moving in during early 2006.
Lower Manhattan
200 Chambers Street
The 30-story, 257-unit condo, developed by Jack Resnick & Sons, is scheduled to open in autumn 2006. Units will range from 573-square-foot studios to 2,300-square-foot three-bedrooms, with prices from $500,000 to $3 million, according to the New York Sun. The development will include a seven-story sister building for a community center and an annex for a nearby public school. The total cost of the development is about $220 million.
Midtown West
The Mosaic
Tenth Avenue between 51st and 53rd Streets
The Dermot Company and its partner, Archstone Smith, closed a deal to build the two-tower, 700,000-square-foot project that will feature 627 rental units and six loft condominiums, plus street-level retail. The 24-story towers will be built by Bovis and designed by Fox & Fowle Architects. Construction is expected to be done by 2007.
Murray Hill
The Charleston
225 East 34th Street
LCOR and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System will develop a 21-story, 170,000-foot, 172-unit condominium. It will offer studio, one- and two-bedroom units and several three-bedroom penthouses. Construction is expected to begin in December 2005 and be completed in the spring of 2007. Marketing will be handled by Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Development Marketing Group.
Murray Hill
158 Madison Avenue
Buttonwood Real Estate, the new firm opened in May by Citi Habitats founder and former CEO Andrew Heiberger, announced its first major deal. In a joint venture with Thor Equities called Thorwood Real Estate, it will develop a 7,500-square-foot lot that already includes a five-story commercial building. The development plans include construction of 50 luxury condominiums as well as retail space.
Murray Hill
Park South Lofts
43-45 East 30th Street
Former factory being converted to 40 condo units by the American Development Group and Langsam Property Services. The units will include three duplexes and a five-floor penthouse, and will be ready for occupancy in September, the Times reported.
Upper East Side
985 Park Avenue
The Icon Group plans to build a 15-story condo building. The brownstone t the site will be razed to make way for a 16,000-square-foot liver building designed by Costas Kondylis. The building will have one triplex and six duplexes, all expected to sell for more than $2,000 a foot, the Post reported. The group is now interviewing sales agents.
Upper West Side
245 West 99th Street and 2628 Broadway
The Extell Development Corporation plans to erect two residential towers across the street from each other. One tower will be 31 stories tall and have 73 units; the other will be 37 stories tall and have 65 units. Most apartments are slated for two or three bedrooms. Cook + Fox Architects will design the building at 245 West 99th Street. Some local residents oppose the project because of its height, according to the New York Sun. The construction site was the scene of a building collapse last month that left five people injured.
Sales Update
The Bronx
Nelson Avenue
The Jackson Development Group is marketing 28 condo units in seven row houses in Highbridge near Yankee Stadium. Three-bedroom condos will go for $235,000 and two-bedrooms will sell for $195,000. The three-bedroom units are about 1,000 square feet. Construction is to be completed by fall, the Times reported.
Carroll Gardens
Court Street Lofts
505 Court Street
Metropolitan Housing Partners, in partnership with Apollo Real Estate, has launched sales at the 10-story condo. Prices for the 124 open-loft, one-, two- and three-bedroom units range from $475,000 to more than $1 million. Corcoran Group Marketing is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact:www.courtstreetlofts.com.
Edgewater
Vela Townhomes
The Marketing Directors has sold more than 65 percent of the 29 three-story residences in the New Jersey riverfront community. The 3,600- to 5,200-square-foot homes featuring private elevators and multiple balconies with Hudson River views start at $1.95 million. Rosen Global Partners is the developer; Arquitectonica is the architect. Occupancy is scheduled for fall 2006.
Gramercy Park
50 Gramercy Park North
According to New York magazine, 19 of the 23 apartments in the building renovated by hotelier Ian Schrager have been sold since sales began in May. Some apartments in the former Gramercy Park Hotel are fetching up to $3,000 a square foot or $6 million for a 2,000-square-foot space. Ownership in the building includes keys to a private park as well as access to a building staff that will walk dogs and shop for groceries. Minimalist architect John Pawson designed the building.
Midtown
325 Fifth Avenue
More than two-thirds of the 250 units in the new 50-story luxury condo are now in contract. One- to four-bedroom units with 650 to 3,000 square feet have starting prices from about $850,000 to more than $5 million. Architect Stephen B. Jacobs designed the project. Richard Cantor of Cantor Pecorella Inc. is the exclusive sales agent for the property. Information: 212-532-5325.
Prospect Heights
The Washington
35 Underhill Avenue
Marketing firm Aguayo & Huebener went into contract on 24 of the 39 units in the condo in the first three months of sales. Construction is scheduled for completion in fall 2005.
Times Square
1600 Broadway on the Square
1600 Broadway
The site of the former Studebaker Building will become a new 26-story residential and retail tower. Sherwood Equities plans to build 137 luxury condos on top of two floors of retail, with the condos reportedly going for around $1,000 a square foot. The Marketing Directors is expected to open a sales office for the building after Labor Day, the Post reported.
Upper East Side
Trump Park Avenue
502 Park Avenue
The building is now 90 percent sold, with only a few full-floor penthouses still available. Among the remaining spaces on the market is the duplex penthouse located on the 31st and 32nd floors, available for $31.5 million.
Construction Update
Greenpoint
Ella 82
82 Guernsey Street
Construction is nearly complete on the nine-unit condominium; residents will begin moving in next month.
The housing market keeps getting hotter and that may not be anything to worry about [more]
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Residential
The median price of a new home in the Atlanta metro region in 2004 was $189,000, according to a study by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The median resale price was $166,500. Prices varied widely over the multi-county metro region, with more expensive neighborhoods like Buckhead surpassing more rural areas in Fayetteville and Cherokee counties.
Residential
Southern Fulton County has become one of the fastest-growing residential areas in the Atlanta region. Housing permits issued in south Fulton in 2004 nearly doubled the number of permits issued in the more established, more expensive north Fulton area, according to the Journal-Constitution. About 30 subdivisions are under construction in Fulton County south of Atlanta, with land prices rising there from $9,135 an acre in 2001 to $20,448 an acre last year.
Boston
Residential/Commercial
Revere Beach, one of the nation’s oldest public beaches, is undergoing a revitalization as developers build in the sleepy waterfront suburb that’s seen very little growth the past two decades. Two condominium complexes with a total of 130 units and a 60-unit apartment building are expected to be finished this year in the community five miles north of Boston, according to GlobeSt.com. Two more condominium buildings with 311 units total are anticipated after 2005, and the city plans to develop an 11-acre site into a multi-use complex including a hotel, restaurants and more residential units.
Chicago
Residential
The Near South Side has become Chicago’s busiest residential market in 2005, says the Chicago Sun-Times. Applications for construction of 1,200 apartments are before the city and could add several dozen stories of residential space to the area. The largest proposed construction is for 454 units in two 20-story buildings on South State Street at the former site of the Wicklander Printing Company. Other big projects include 278 units, also on South State, and 273 units on South Calumet Avenue. The Near South Side saw 559 sales or reservations of new homes in the first quarter of 2005, the Sun-Times reported.
Commercial
Chicago continues to lose ground to other cities in drawing conventions, according to the Associated Press. Industries and trade groups are bypassing the Windy City, generally considered the birthplace of the modern industry convention, in favor of cities like Las Vegas and Orlando, which can now offer venues similar to the 2.2 million square feet of exhibit space at McCormick Place in Chicago. According to Tradeshow Week magazine, Chicago ranked second to Las Vegas in 2004 in the number of big conventions hosted.
Las Vegas
Commercial
Las Vegas continues to dominate other American cities in spending on tourism. The budget of the city’s Convention and Visitors Authority for fiscal 2004 was more than $145 million, according to the Las Vegas Sun. The next-closest city was Orlando at $41 million. Las Vegas also led the nation in 2004 for the 11th straight year in hosting top industry conventions, according to Tradeshow Week magazine. Sin City hosted 38 of the biggest 200 conventions ranked by space occupied.
Commercial
McCarran International Airport is expanding as Las Vegas continues to grow rapidly. Local officials are planning parking and terminal expansions at the nation’s sixth-busiest airport. Also, a $1.6 billion terminal the airport’s third is scheduled to open at McCarran in 2009.
Los Angeles
Residential
Los Angeles County has the lowest foreclosure rate among the nation’s top five metro areas. In May, for the second month in a row, the L.A. area had one property in some stage of the foreclosure process for every 4,242 households, according to the Los Angeles Daily News, less than half the national rate of one for every 1,853 households.
Residential
The northern L.A. suburb of Bakersfield continues to be one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation, according to the Los Angeles Times. It’s California’s fastest-growing large city, averaging 36 new residents and 12 new houses a day over the last year. And that housing is getting pricier: Bakersfield has the nation’s highest appreciation rate, with homes there selling for 34 percent more in the first quarter of 2005 than in the same period last year.
Miami
Residential/Commercial
A huge new commercial complex with residences near Miami’s Performing Arts Center won approval from the city in late June to move forward. The five-story, 1.8-million-square-foot Bayview Market Retail Center, developed by BDB Miami, will feature space large enough for four big-box retailers in addition to 24 residential units. It will also have enough space for smaller, ground-floor shops, according to the Miami Herald, and will include a 10-story parking garage.
Residential
The difference between home prices and income has reached a record level in Miami-Dade County, according to government data. The price of a home in Miami-Dade is now more than six times that of personal income levels, the Herald reported, and home prices continue to rise in what a Merrill Lynch study released in late June termed the nation’s most “bubbly” housing market. Home prices in Miami-Dade appreciated more than 40 percent from March of 2004 to March of 2005, according to the newspaper.
Philadelphia
Commercial
A 50-acre parcel of mostly junkyards between Essington Avenue and 67th Street in Philadelphia’s Eastwick neighborhood will be developed into the 500,000-squarefoot Shoppes at Essington Avenue, one of the biggest retail destinations in that area of the city. O’Neill Properties recently obtained the rezoning approval to build two big-box stores of 135,000 and 150,000 square feet as well as two smaller box stores of 30,000 and 40,000 square feet, according to GlobeSt.com.
Residential
Philadelphia will need at least 18,000 new residents to fill thousands of fresh developments going up in the city over the next three years, according to developers. The city may have as many as 9,185 new residential units in the near future, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. A city that has steadily lost residents will have to reverse that trend to fill them, say developers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 70,000 residents left Philadelphia in the 1990s, one of the sharpest losses of any major city in the nation.
Phoenix
Residential/Commercial
Phoenix and other Arizona cities may soon be paying higher taxes to supply the state’s growing rural areas with groundwater, according to the Arizona Republic. Rural Arizona’s population, which doubled to more than one million in the past quarter-century, is projected to grow by 500,000 in the next 25 years, straining already finite supplies of groundwater in the largely desert, drought-afflicted state. Water demand could soon severely reduce the flow of the Verde River, an important source of water for metropolitan Phoenix, one of the nation’s fastest-growing real estate markets.
Commercial
Not surprisingly for the nation’s fastest-growing city, Phoenix and its surrounding desert valley landscape will see several new projects in the next several months. Biggest among them is the $400 million convention facility that, among other things, will be the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. Also going up is the Phoenix Civic Plaza, which will include a 65,000-square-foot underground exhibition hall and a conference center. Two new hotels with more than 450 rooms total are also planned.
San Francisco
Residential
The price of a home in the Bay Area continues to climb as the number of home sales there keeps falling. The area’s median home price in May was a record $595,000, up 7.6 percent from May 2004, according to media reports. The median home price in San Francisco County was $765,000, more than 10 times its median household income. The median price in San Mateo County south of San Francisco was $740,000. Home sales and resales in the Bay Area were down 6 percent in May from the same month last year.
Commercial
The 417-room Sir Francis Drake Hotel, a 77-year-old San Francisco landmark, was purchased for an undisclosed sum in early July by the Oxford Lodging and Advisory Group and Longwing Real Estate Ventures. The new owners plan a $20 million renovation affecting guest rooms, meeting spaces and public areas, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The purchase comes as San Francisco hotels generally and finally have begun to emerge from a post-September 11 slump, the Chronicle reported.
Washington, D.C.
Residential/Commercial
Rockville, Md., will be the home of a $400 million mixed-use development on a 17-acre parcel of land next to the Twinbrook Metro station. JBG Cos. plans to build 1,595 housing units, 220,000 square feet of retail, and 325,000 square feet of office space, according to the Washington Business Journal. The city of Rockville annexed the land from Montgomery County in mid-June, which is expected to speed up the development.
Residential
Illegal residential construction is on the rise in the District of Columbia as home values increase, according to the Washington Post. District property owners seeking extra space on existing homes are building without the official OK because they can’t afford to buy bigger houses, the Post reported, and others are doing so because they want to drive up the value of their homes even more with an eye toward selling. The District, however, is cracking down: It issued more than 1,400 stop-work orders on illegal construction during a 17-month period, fining property owners almost $1 million.
Massive Herald Towers condo conversion adds units to area; more projects on way
[more]
Development frenzy gives a name to an unheralded corner of Manhattan [more]
Condos and co-ops sprouting in once-neglected neighborhood, and fetching decent prices
[more]
Renovations to Washington Square Park may curb nearby sales [more]
West Village waterfront rezoning moves forward
The Department of City Planning last month certified rezoning plans for the development of the West Village waterfront. The plans, endorsed by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, include reducing developable density for about half the lots in the area, the Sun reported.
City allows more stores at Plaza Hotel
The Landmarks Preservation Commission awarded landmark status last month to eight public rooms at the Plaza Hotel. That means that owner Elad Properties cannot make any changes to the rooms’ architecture without approval from the commission. The commission also approved Elad’s plans to build more stores inside the hotel, the Post reported.
Congress may bar Ratner from subsidies
Momentum is reportedly building in Congress for two bills that would bar Forest City Ratner from receiving federal subsidies for its proposed commercial development over the Atlantic rail yards in Prospect Heights, the Sun reported.
Feds give $478M for Downtown parking security
The Federal Transportation Administration announced a grant last month of $478 million for an underground vehicle screening center at the new World Trade Center site, which would monitor all incoming vehicles. The move came after the state Legislature approved a broad incentives package to lure commercial tenants to the World Trade Center site (see Commercial Market Report).
Red Hook IKEA clears legal hurdle
A Manhattan judge last month tossed out a legal challenge to the IKEA store planned for Red Hook. Residents opposed to the store, which would be IKEA’s largest in the United States, alleged that the Bloomberg administration approved it based on a faulty environmental review that ignored effects of increased traffic. The judge disagreed, saying that while the store would increase traffic, it would not have an overall adverse impact on neighborhood character. The store is expected to open in 2006, the Daily News reported.
Landmarks designates two Manhattan buildings
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated The Windermere at 400-406 West 57th Street. The building is the oldest known large apartment complex remaining in an area that was one of Manhattan’s first apartment-house districts. The commission also designated the Dickey House at 67 Greenwich Street, which is one of the very few surviving houses of the Federal period and style below Chambers Street.
City: Tenants can buy subsidized buildings
The City Council voted 47-3 to give tenants of subsidized housing the right of first refusal the option to purchase a building if its owner opts out of either the Section 8 or Mitchell-Lama housing programs.
Rent hikes approved
The Rent Guidelines Board voted 6-3 to approve increases of 2.75 percent for one-year leases and 5.5 percent for two-year leases in New York’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. The increases are the lowest since 2002, and take effect on October 1, the Daily News reported.
Bloomberg changes mind about PILOT funds
After months of aggressively defending the view that he did not need approval to earmark $300 million of city money for a football stadium on Manhattan’s far West Side, Mayor Bloomberg reversed his position. Three weeks after a state board rejected the stadium proposal, Bloomberg agreed to back a bill that requires City Council approval for mayors to use so-called PILOTs payments in lieu of taxes to finance development and construction projects throughout the city, the Sun reported.
A two-year study tackling the future of Harlem’s central artery will recommend a new look Rethinking 125th Street
” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
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Most successful earn more than $2M a year [more]
As if the average Manhattan broker didn’t have enough competition.
Paolo Zampolli, founder of ID Model Management and jet-setting director of international development for Donald Trump, is now recruiting fashion models and other aesthetically-endowed women to be real estate brokers at Paramount Realty Group.
Zampolli told The Real Deal he has already trained several women in the wiles of real estate on behalf of boutique firm Paramount, which recently appointed him to its board after approaching him with the model idea. Two have their licenses and are out brokering sales in the higher ends of the white-hot market, and another five as of late July were in training toward their licenses. Only one so far has been a model represented by ID Models, Zampolli said, which has an office in Soho. (Zampolli’s day job in Trump’s empire, which he landed last year, is not affiliated with his model efforts at Paramount.)
“We’re looking for smart ladies that have the potential to make real money in real estate,” said Zampolli, a native of Milan, Italy. “For a beautiful building, why not a beautiful broker?”
Zampolli said he hasn’t decided how many models he wants to turn into brokers, and the recruits from the modeling world seem to be trickling toward Paramount in ones and twos right now. Still, Zampolli said he sips his real estate inspiration from The Donald and from another friend, Howard Lorber, chairman and co-owner of Prudential Douglas Elliman.
That organization, Zampolli pointed out, has thousands of brokers in New York. And that may mean an army of model-brokers in the city’s future.
Changes are afoot among those patient souls who cover New York real estate.
Christine Haughney has left Crain’s to go to the Wall Street Journal. Her successor at Crain’s will be Julie Satow, who is coming from the same beat at the New York Sun. Barbara Nelson has left as editor of Real Estate Weekly to go to Real Estate New York, where she succeeds Stacey Corso, who is taking a job at a West Coast weekly newspaper. And Faye Penn, a top features editor at the New York Post who helped oversee its real estate coverage, has left the daily for a similar role at New York magazine.
Gary Friedland wanted to cut through the haze of advertising confronting would-be real estate clients. The Halstead Property broker and Greenwich Village resident thought long and creatively about a way to reach people without the typical tote bags, umbrellas, billboards, magazine ads, etc.
The idea was sniffing at his feet.
Friedland enlisted his two Jack Russell terriers a father and daughter duo named Daisy and Huckleberry “Huck” Finn to carry the Halstead logo on walks through the Village. Friedland first dressed the dogs this past winter, with jackets emblazoned “Canine Sales Force,” and also walks them in warmer weather with similarly adorned, lighter-weight jackets. The response from curious passers-by has been greater than with the dogs sans-jackets, and has provided Friedland, a one-time creative director for the advertising firm Benton and Bowles, with several conversation starters often ending in him passing along his business card.
“The dogs are pretty cute on their own, with or without their Halstead coats on,” Friedland said, “so a lot of people typically like these little characters. And when they see them with their little advertising jackets on, they kind of have a smile and will engage me in conversation more often than [during] the regular walk around the block. The whole thing has been an easier way for me to chat with people than normally a salesperson would.”
One online financial market wants investors to roll the dice on the nation’s bubbliest housing markets, including the seemingly unstoppable New York one.
HedgeStreet.com announced in late May that its users can now speculate on the direction of home values in real estate markets in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, San Diego and San Francisco. Pick the right direction of the markets in these metro areas and win.
Basically, it works like this: HedgeStreet lets users buy and sell yes/no and variable housing price futures called “hedgelets.” Users bet on whether median prices on existing single-family homes in the six housing markets will go up or down over three- and six-month periods.
Nearly 2,500 housing hedgelets were being traded as of mid-July, HedgeStreet told The Real Deal, with New York accounting for about 450. Miami, however, was the most traded housing market at about 880 hedgelets or more than one-third of the total. Los Angeles was second with 475.
