Hotel magnate Andr Balazs tweaks Downtown aesthetic, price range with new project Cultivating a supercondo in Soho” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
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Stalled land value growth, cooling sales prices among reasons Developers plan for soft landing in apt. market” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
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Despite a lag at the top end of the market, smaller apartments are still moving as fast as an express subway train, with prices heading up and studio and one-bedrooms making up an increasing share of the overall sales market. Developers overlooking small units” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
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Few city owners are likely to toss in the towel, but foreclosure rate could be barometer for housing Will NYC mimic national foreclosure jump?” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
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But persistence pays in area where typical profits can run more than 30 percent Foreclosures tough nut for investors to crack” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
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Rising retail rental rates could see unwelcome decline if mergers shut storefront bank branches [more]
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Mayor knocks plans for more office space, but boosters say evolving neighborhood can absorb it [more]
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Sublease space in Manhattan reaches lowest availability since 2001; Class A vacancy rate declines sh [more]
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High pedestrian traffic and low rents make area a draw for store owners [more]
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While it may not have the cachet of Madison Avenue or even the rest of Manhattan, Washington Heights is fashion forward in its own way.
Owners of businesses in high-traffic retail areas like St. Nicholas Avenue in the 170s and 180s say their customers run the gamut from Dominican residents to baseball players who fly in from Miami and preppy shopoholics who buy more than $600 worth of merchandise a week.
At stores like Privada, D’ Locura, Conceptcion II, and Gigio’s, prices range from $10 for a costume jewelry bracelet to $1,500 for a man’s suit.
Elsa Disla, co-owner of Privada at Broadway and 178th Street, worked in wholesale clothing for some 10 years before she began selling fashion door-to-door, mostly to Hispanic women while they were having their hair done in local salons. Five years ago she opened her store to sell brand-name clothing like BCBG, Black Halo, and Miss Sixty.
“Washington Heights is a good place to come and shop we have better prices than Downtown,” said Disla.
A customer in her early 30s, with perfectly arched brows tries on a knee-length $209 jacket that sets off her latte skin. Later on she eyes a matching pair of brown, knee-high, stiletto-heeled boots. The whole outfit cost her about $500, and women here can afford it, said Disla.
The 2000 U.S. Census numbers show median income levels ranging from the low $20,000s to about $75,000 throughout Washington Heights, and much of the highest income population is located in Inwood and the Ft. Tryon Park area. But many storeowners know that their business is largely a cash business, and people are plunking the cash down.
Eddie Cabrera, manager at Chocolate, sells more than 2,000 brands of fragrances and name-brand sunglasses at discount prices on St. Nicholas Avenue between 180th and 181st streets, a busy retail location.
The store’s clientele includes Yankee players Ruben Sierra and Mariano Rivera, in part because the owner of the store is also from the Dominican Republic, Cabrera said.
Good prices also bring clients from all over the region, including the five boroughs, Connecticut, and New Jersey, drawn to deals on popular perfumes like D & G Light Blue, normally $80, which is $55 here. But the store makes most of its profits from luxury-brand sunglasses, like Chanel, Gucci, and Cartier that range from $250 to $750.
Celebrity or the whiff of it seems to play heavily in the success of other stores in the area. Besides Chocolate’s Yankee connection, former NBA players Dennis Rodman, Alan Houston, and ex-Knick Charlie Ward are known to shop at the Top Gun store that sells mostly butter-soft leather jackets at sizzling prices two storefronts north of Chocolate. This location is the number-two performer of the 11-store chain, said manager Blanca Gonzalez.
Ivan Ferreira, who owns clothing shop Probus on 181st Street just west of Broadway, said that, in general, “people here have more money, they’re a little more wealthy than in Harlem.”
Gigio-Raful on the corner of 173rd Street and Broadway is perhaps the single most opulent store in the neighborhood, and where baseball players from the Yankees and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays shop for $1,500 Moschino Uomo suits.
Dominican co-owner Gigio, who goes by one name only, said doctors, professionals, and restaurant owners are also his customers, and points to a colorful selection of striped silk ties rivaled by the likes of Saks and Bergdorf Goodman Men’s Store. Ask Gigio if his business is successful, and he answers that he’s been here for five years, and has no plans to leave.
Even retailers with plans to open in Soho have wound up in Washington Heights. Juan Carlos Gonzalez worked for 14 years in the garment and retail business before he opened his store D’Locura on 173rd Street and Broadway last year. Four years at Barney’s introduced him to brand-name fashion that you might find on Madison Avenue or in Downtown.
“I was going to open in Soho, but I didn’t have the capital,” said Gonzalez. For a 600-square-foot store in Soho that cost $13,000 a month he would have needed $80,000 a standard sum to cover the first five months of rent for an unproven retailer.
Instead, he bought out the lease of the previous leaseholder in his current space and is now paying less than half what he would have in Soho, with several hundred square feet more space, he said.
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The housing market may snag the headlines, but New York’s commercial real estate market isn’t doing [more]
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Law to notify homebuyers about poor credit reports that lead to higher mortgage rates faces industry Comments
Hiring may be down, but broker numbers stay strong even as sales prices level off [more]
Searching “spiders” may fill multiple-listing gap for consumers and brokers [more]
But brokers giddily await a year-end upswing fueled by Wall Street bonuses [more]
Market tightens and brokers cite $300 monthly hike in Manhattan, Brooklyn rates [more]
New York owners should have a natural hedge against tumbling property values City may offer some inflation insulation” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
Manhattan residential brokerages with the highest Web site rankings Tops in Web traffic” class=”read-more-link”>[more]
New handheld devices, map technology aids brokers [more]
New York market will insulate ground troops during four-way split of nation’s largest real estate company [more]
So far, few New York real estate industry professionals seem to be concerned about recommendations from the president’s tax advisory council early last month that would greatly reduce the mortgage interest tax benefit that shapes finances of many homeowners. [more]
Boerum Hill
14 Townhouses
267-287 State Street
HS Development Partners, a joint venture of Time Equities and Hamlin Ventures LLC, are building a group of four- and five-story single-family townhouses that will span almost half a city block. The 4,000-square-foot stand-alone homes will have four to six bedrooms. Prices start at $2.55 million. Rogers Marvel Architects designed the project, which is the first phase of a five-phase development that will include more townhouses, market-rate rentals, and condo lofts. The Corcoran Group is marketing the project. Contact: www.14townhouses.comChelsea
447-455 West 18th Street
Madison Equities, in partnership with Rockwood Capital, will soon begin construction on the 12-story, 47-unit condominium. One- to four-bedroom units will range in size from 800 to 1,500 square feet, with floor-through penthouses reaching 1,850 square feet. Audrey Matlock Architects’ design features an all-glass façde. The Corcoran Group is the exclusive sales agent for the building, which is expected to be ready for occupancy in early 2007.Gramercy Park
Abbey Condominium
205 East 16th Street
Sales have begun for the 31 units in the former parish house for St. George’s Church, the New York Post reported. The building, originally constructed in 1888, had been converted into a rental before going condo. The lobby features a stained-glass panel of St. George slaying the dragon, as well as an 1850 Scottish pulpit for the building’s 24-hour doorman. Prices range from $690,000 for a 660-square-foot studio to $4.15 million for a 3,066-square-foot four-bedroom. The Corcoran Group is the exclusive marketing and sales agent.Harlem
The Sutton
102 Bradhurst Avenue
Ground was broken in October for the 12-story, 135-unit mixed-income co-op project. The property is being developed by Duvernay & Brooks in association with Penrose Properties. Prices are estimated to be as low as $55,000 and up to $429,750. The $40 million project was the first property to be developed through the New York City Housing Development Corp.’s Affordable Cooperative Housing Program. Contact: 212-234-8840, www.thesuttoncoop.comHarlem
Hamilton Parc
504 West 136th Street
Gold Development and Great American Construction Corp. topped out the 29-unit condominium, which is slated for completion in June 2006. Amenities include 9-foot ceilings, bamboo floors, a fitness center, a landscaped rear yard, and a roof deck. Halstead plans to start selling units in January 2006. Contact: www.hamiltonparc.com.Harlem
The Park Central
220 West 111th Street
The 24-unit condominium is a renovation and conversion by Tahl Propp Equities. Prices will range from $467,500 to $920,000, with the units available for occupancy in March 2006. Some of the units have private outdoor space. Warburg Marketing Group is the exclusive marketing and sales agent.Harlem
Malcolm Shabazz Court
15 West 116th Street
Loewen Development’s nine-story, 38-unit moderate-income rental is scheduled to open in late 2006. Meltzer/Mandl Architects designed the building, which was developed with support from the New York Housing Development Corporation.Jersey City
The Beacon
A sales center has opened for the first two towers of Metrovest Equities’ $350 million, 10-building development on the site of the former Jersey City Medical Center. The 22-story Rialto and the 21-story Capitol will contain a total of 315 studio, one- and two-bedroom units ranging in size from 600 to 3,200 square feet. They should be ready for occupancy in late 2006. Contact: www.thebeaconjc.com.Jersey City
“A” Jersey City
The Athena Group and GoldenTree InSite Partners began construction in November on the $110 million, 33-story condominium one block west of the Hudson River. All 250 units will have balconies, and the project will contain 10,500 square feet of retail and a 238-space parking garage. The building will have a brick-and-glass façde designed by The Hillier Group in association with Schuman, Lichtenstein, Claman and Efron Architects.Lower East Side
115-119 Norfolk Street
Grzywinski Pons Architects is designing a new building just blocks from its last project, the Hotel at Rivington, the Post reported. The six-story, 24-unit glass building will have a lap pool on the roof. Market conditions will determine whether the apartments will be sold as condos or rented out. Units will range from 700-square-foot one-bedrooms to 2,000-square-foot three-bedrooms. Occupancy is scheduled for late 2006.Lower Manhattan
Cipriani Club Residences
55 Wall Street
The Witkoff Group’s 106-unit condominium is set to open this winter. Prices for the studios to three-bedrooms are expected to range from about $700,000 to $3 million, according to the New York Sun. The Sunshine Group is the exclusive marketing and sales agent. Contact: www.ciprianiresidences.com.Lower Manhattan
Block Hall
21-23 South William Street
Sales have started at the eight-story building, originally built in 1927 and converted into 31 luxury condominium units. James Kennelly and Charles McInnis of Kennelly Development, along with Keith and Kevin DeMatteis, restored the external façde into its original Tudor style under guidance from the New York City Landmarks Commission. Modern amenities include a fitness center and roof garden. The Hall Marketing Group is the exclusive marketing and sales agent. Contact: 212-588-1800, www.blockhall.com.Midtown East
ThreeTen
310 East 53rd Street
The 31-story, 88-unit condominium tower developed by Macklowe Properties will offer a mix of residences, including oversized “mansions,” duplex studios, tower residences and a penthouse. SLCE Architects and Moed deArmas & Shannon Architects designed the project, which is nearly 50 percent sold. Prices of available units range from approximately $2.2 million to $10 million. The Sunshine Group is the exclusive marketing and sales agent. Contact: 212-765-5300, www.threetencondo.com.Park Slope
172 Sterling
172 Sterling Place
Montagu Square Development will convert the limestone-fronted townhouse, originally built in the early 1900s, into eight three-bedroom condominiums, the Post reported. The exterior will remain untouched. Prices for the 1,300-square-foot units will range from $900,000 to $1.3 million. The building should be ready next summer, with the Corcoran Group starting sales in February. Contact: www.montagusd.com.Tribeca
Tribeca Summit
415 Greenwich Street
The former Summit Warehouse, originally built in 1913, is being converted into 66 condominiums. The building will feature units ranging from two-bedroom lofts to penthouse duplexes and four-bedroom “bay” homes — with ceiling heights from 12.5 to 15.5 feet. The 2,500- to 4,200-square-foot bay homes are being converted from the building’s loading docks. Prices run from about $2.15 million to more than $6 million. Architect H. Thomas O’Hara designed the project in collaboration with conceptual designer Anthony Morali. Occupancy is expected in summer 2006. The Sunshine Group is the exclusive marketing and sales agent. Contact: 212-965-0030.Williamsburg
510 Manhattan Avenue
The 32-unit luxury building by Tahoe Development contains 28 two-bedroom rentals going for $2,500 a month, and four duplex penthouse condos asking $1.2 million each. Occupancy is scheduled for fall 2006, the Post reported.Williamsburg
The Lotus Condominiums
Union Avenue and Bayard Street
The five-story, 19-unit condominium will offer residents access to eight parking spaces. Prices range from $569,000 to around $800,000. The exclusive marketing and sales agent is aptsandlofts.com.Williamsburg
Manhattan Park
297 Driggs Avenue
The eight-story condominium will offer 14 one- and two-bedroom apartments, which average 640 to 880 square feet. Prices start at $570,000 and go up to $1 million for the top-floor two-bedroom. The exclusive marketing and sales agent is aptsandlofts.com.Construction Update
Battery Park City
One River Terrace
A partnership that includes the Sheldrake Organization, Plaza Construction Corporation, and RW Consultants was set to begin construction last month on the 300-unit riverfront condominium, according to the New York Sun. The Polshek Partnership, along with Ismael Leyva Architects and the Rockwell Group, is responsible for the design and layout. When completed in the fall of 2007, the building will also house a 400-unit garage. Prices will reportedly start around $1,100 a square foot. Pre-sales are expected to begin in the spring.Soho
The Urban Glass House
330 Spring Street
Construction is under way at the 12-story, 40-unit condominium designed by Alan Ritchie and the late Philip Johnson. One- to four-bedroom units will range from 1,400 to 4,300 square feet, with prices from $1.6 to $10 million. The Sunshine Group is the exclusive marketing and sales agent. Contact: 212-620-0330, www.theurbanglasshouse.com.Tribeca
88 Leonard Street
Developer Leviev Boymelgreen and construction manager Tishman Construction Corporation in October topped out the 21-story, 352-unit rental tower. The property will be leased and managed by Rose Associates.Sales Update
Brighton Beach
Oceana Condominium
125 and 135 Oceana Drive East
More than 80 percent of the two- to four-bedroom condominiums have been sold in Muss Development’s waterfront towers. The residences will be the 13th and 14th buildings completed in the 15-acre development, which features a 16,000-square-foot community facility with outdoor pools and a health club and spa. Sandy & Babcock International is the architect. Contact: 718-332-0002.Chelsea
Chelsea House
130 West 19th Street
The 14-story, 64-unit condominium has opened for sales, the Post reported. Prices start at $1.4 million for 1,100-square-foot one-bedrooms; $2 million for 1,300-square-foot two-bedrooms; and $2.8 million for 1,700-square-foot three-bedrooms. There are also five townhouses with private gardens, as well as four penthouses. Occupancy is scheduled for October 2006. Contact: www.chelseahousecondo.com.Dumbo
J Condo
100 Jay Street
Brooklyn’s tallest condo tower saw one-fourth of its 267 units sold in the first week of sales. Studios to three-bedrooms range from 530 to more than 2,000 square feet, with prices from $430,000 to more than $3 million. The Corcoran Group is the exclusive sales agent. Contact: 718-625-5600, www.jcondo.com.Flatiron
4 West 21st Street
Sales officially began at the 18-story, 56-unit condominium developed by Alexander Brodsky and Dean Amro of The Brodsky Organization. The one- to three-bedroom units will range from 1,073 to 1,674 square feet, with prices from $1.3 million to just shy of $3 million. Architect Hugh Hardy designed the building; Antony Todd is the design consultant. Occupancy is scheduled for June 2006. The Sunshine Group is the exclusive marketing and sales agent. Contact: 212-645-4212, www.4w21.com.Flatiron
655 Sixth Avenue
With construction of its rooftop residences about to begin, developer Elad Properties has released for sale the five homes at the top of the landmark Hugh O’Neill Building. More than two-thirds of the 49 units on the building’s lower floors have already been sold, according to Cantor Pecorella Inc., the exclusive sales agent for the property. Prices for the remaining units start at $1.7 million. Contact: 212-807-6565, www.theoneillbuilding.com.Jersey City
The Hudson Club
at Port Imperial
The 344-unit condominium project in West New York sold 50 apartments in its first week on the market last month. The Lennar Corporation is the developer; the Corcoran Group is marketing the project. Contact: 201-319-1212, www.hudsonclubnj.com.Long Island City
The Gantry
5-15 49th Avenue
More than 900 would-be buyers had signed the pre-sales list as of last month at the 47-unit condo development. The Milestone Group and Devcon Partners are developing the building, which is expected to be completed in June 2006. Architect Randy Gerner designed the project. Contact: 888-440-4821, www.thegantry.com.Lower Manhattan
120 Greenwich Street
Sales have begun at the 102-unit condominium. The studio, one- and two-bedroom units are scheduled for occupancy in January 2006. Prudential Douglas Elliman is handling marketing and sales. Contact: 212-366-4877, www.greenwichplace.com.Times Square
1600 Broadway on the Square
Sales are now under way at the 137-unit condo, which should be ready for occupancy in spring 2006. Prices range from $725,000 to $2.8 million. The Marketing Directors is the sales agent. Contact: www.1600broadway.com.Upper West Side
Fifteen Central Park West
Of the 201 condominiums initially offered, 75 residences sold in seven weeks, according to a release from the development’s sales office. Contact: 212-246-2222, www.15cpw.com.Williamsburg
McCarren Building
49-61 Engert Avenue
The complex, being built by Tahoe Development, contains two-bedroom units from $649,000; two-bedroom garden duplexes from $725,000; and three-bedroom penthouse units starting at $955,000. Slated for occupancy in December, the building has already sold 19 of its 24 units, the Post reported.Development in Brief
Manhattan (from north to south)
129th Street and Lenox Avenue
Former New York state housing commissioner Joseph Holland of Uptown Partners is developing the 77-unit condo tower.120th Street and Fifth Avenue
Uptown Partners is also developing Fifth on the Park, a 155-unit condo tower that recently broke ground.334-336 East 92nd Street
The Arker Companies is developing a $16 million affordable housing project on the site. The 23 one-bedroom rentals are slated for completion in 2007.37th Street and Park Avenue
The Sheraton Russell on the site is slated to be demolished for a 21-story condo, but local activists are trying to get the building landmarked, the New York Observer reported. New Jersey-based SJP Properties is the developer.650 Sixth Avenue (at 20th Street)
The Westport Group will add a penthouse and convert the six-story loft building into condos. The project is expected to be completed by late 2006.335 Bowery (at 3rd Street)
The New York City Department of Buildings approved plans for a 16-story hotel/condo building, the Post reported.15 William Street
SDS Investments is planning to build a 48-story residential condominium tower with about 300 units, the New York Sun reported.Brooklyn
Myrtle and Nostrand Avenues
(Bedford-Stuyvesant)
The six-story mixed-use building will have 72 units, more than 16,500 square feet of commercial space and medical offices, plus a 42-car garage, Crain’s reported.230 Livingston Street
and 225 Schermerhorn Street (Boerum Hill)
A 235,000-square-foot development with 226 housing units and approximately 18,000 square feet of ground floor retail space is planned for the site.Five locations (Park Slope/Park Slope South)
Aguayo & Huebener is marketing condos at 267-275 First Street (nine units); 38 7th Avenue (four units); 485-487 18th Street (nine units); and 352 21st Street (10 units). All four are scheduled for completion in 2006. The firm is also working on the Liberty, a nine-unit condo at 207 22nd Street.285 Driggs Avenue (Williamsburg)
About 20 full-floor one- and two-bedroom lofts are rising at the site, the Post reported.20 Bayard Street (Williamsburg)
Isaac Hager is developing the 64-unit project, which will have one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments going on sale in spring 2006. Hager is already developing two other projects on the street.
Lower sales prices and Manhattan views dot the Hudson River with new condo projects [more]
Gentrification is changing the once infamous East Village enclave, but it may wind up looking much t [more]
Moinian, McFarlane, Silverstein projects all under way; demand for buying high in rental-dominated a [more]
Martha Stewart followed Donald Trump onto TV with her own version of “The Apprentice” (You haven’t seen it, you say? You’re not alone: NBC will pull the plug on the woefully unpopular show this month.) Now, she’s following The Donald into housing development, but well outside of Manhattan.
Teaming up with national homebuilder KB Home, Stewart announced in October that she will collaborate on the designs of about 650 new houses in a fresh development in Cary, N.C., a fast-growing suburb of Raleigh, the state capital. The new development, cumbersomely dubbed KB Home Twin Lakes: Homes Created with Martha Stewart, will include single-family homes, ranging from 1,500 to 4,100 square feet and priced from the low $200,000s to the mid-$400,000s. They’re inspired, according to KB Home, by Stewart’s own spreads on the East End of Long Island and in rural Maine.
Just not nearly as big nor as nice.
Still, the Cary houses promise trademark Stewart touches on things like floor plans, exterior design, interior floor plans, and furnishings. Buyers will be able to choose Martha Stewart favorites among the flooring, faucets, light fixtures, cabinetry and countertops available at a KB Home studio in Raleigh.
Details remain sketchy, however, on what sorts of touches and what sorts of favorites homebuyers will ultimately get. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and KB Home responded with a press release to requests from The Real Deal for details. That release had a quotation from Stewart that will warm some hearts with expectation and fill others with dread.
“Each room in the home will be carefully constructed and handsomely appointed,” she said, adding: “We look forward to presenting them to communities across the country.”
Washington area capital of a condo boom
The Washington metro area is about to be flooded with freshly built condos, creating new neighborhoods and bolstering already bustling suburbs. More than 47,000 new condos in 322 different development projects are expected to come onto the Washington area market in the next three years, according to real estate information firm Delta Associates. There were 18,872 new condo units for sale in the area at the end of September, up from 3,083 in September 2003. New high- and mid-rise condos are being built, according to the Washington Post, in suburbs Tysons Corner, Reston, Alexandria, Shirlington, Arlington, Rockville, and Bethesda. Condos will also carve new residential neighborhoods, the Post reported, out of areas like the 14th Street corridor, Columbia Heights, the Chinatown area, and the streets around the New York Avenue Metro station in northeastern Washington.
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AtlantaCommercial
The Atlanta office market improved slightly in the third quarter of 2005. The market had a positive market absorption of 473,433 square feet and an average asking rent of $20.46, Commercial Property News reported, up from $20.11 at the end of 2004. Much of the third quarter leasing activity reportedly sprung from smaller and mid-size businesses signing new and expanded space contracts.Residential
Unlike in several major U.S. cities, Atlanta’s housing market had a strong start in the final months of 2005. Home sales in the metro area increased 6.3 percent and the average sales price rose 7.1 percent during the third quarter, according to the Georgia Multiple Listing Service. The average sales price was $210,860 for the third quarter.Boston
Residential
Houses in the Boston area are sitting on the market longer and prices have dropped toward the year’s end, the Boston Globe reported. Houses priced from $300,000 to $699,000 both saw big increases in inventory and in the time it took to sell them, compared to the autumn of 2004, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. As of late October, around 27,000 single-family homes were listed on the market across the state, about 40 percent more than were listed during the same time last year.Residential
At the same time house sales slow, the condo market in Boston has also cooled. For the first nine months of 2005, according to the Boston Globe, condo sales fell 12.3 percent over the same period in 2004 from 3,573 to 3,132 condos. The median downtown condo price increased 10 percent over the same period to $462,000. One reason for the ebbing in sales was a downtown building boom that has pushed increasingly expensive new condos onto the market.Charlotte
Residential
Unprecedented condo development is happening in downtown Charlotte. At least eight high-rises are planned or under construction in the mostly suburban city, including 210 Trade considered by some the bellwether for whether this sort of development will succeed in the city, according to the Charlotte Observer. The 53-story 210 Trade will have 419 luxury units, plus an in-house cigar bar and spa. The first units should be ready by 2007.Chicago
Commercial
The downtown Chicago office market emerged from the third quarter of 2005 with a high vacancy rate and negative absorption. Downtown’s vacancy rate for the quarter was 15.7 percent, up from 15.5 percent the previous quarter, according to a report from CB Richard Ellis. When sublease space was included, the vacancy rate jumped to nearly 20 percent. Absorption rates for the downtown Chicago office market remained negative at the end of the quarter, with 254,000 additional square feet becoming vacant. That’s still lower than the same period last year, when it was negative 390,720 feet.Residential
Chicago’s Southwest Side is seeing some of the city’s briskest residential development as 2005 closes. New projects include the 36-home McKinley Park Manor and the 69-townhouse McKinley Park, the Chicago Tribune reported. Other projects announced this year include a development of 140 townhouses and 96 condos at 36th Street and Western Avenue in Brighton Park and a 250-unit development at 51st Street and Lawndale Avenue in West Eldon.Las Vegas
Commercial/Residential
Developers broke ground in late October on the $1.8 billion Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino, a mammoth two-tower condo-hotel-casino hybrid on the Strip between the Bellagio and the planned MGM Mirage CityCenter. The Cosmopolitan will include a 75,000-square-foot casino, 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, and a 5-acre pool, the Las Vegas Sun reported. A tower of 1,300 luxury condos sold out in 120 days, according to the Sun, and the Cosmopolitan is not expected to open until 2008.Los Angeles
Residential/Commercial
One of the tallest condo projects ever in downtown Los Angeles highlights that city’s ongoing attempt at urban infill. KB Home and the Lennar Corporation announced plans in late October for two high-rises one 40 stories, the other 27 with 700 condos and 25,000 square feet of retail space, just across South Figueroa Street from the Staples Center, the L.A. Times reported. Condos have been going up in downtown L.A. at a brisk pace since 1999, the Times reported, with nearly 8,000 units in 84 buildings either planned or built.Miami
Commercial/Residential
The aftershocks of Hurricane Wilma may reverberate for a long time across South Florida real estate. In downtown Fort Lauderdale, 35 percent of office space was initially left “not functional for use,” according to the Broward County Economic Development agency, and, in downtown Miami, several offices had to be cordoned off with police tape following the October hurricane. On the residential side, new developments were slowed because of Wilma, the Miami Herald reported, and some speculate that buyers may be dissuaded from South Florida because of future hurricanes.Philadelphia
Residential/Commercial
Philadelphia’s downtown condo market is so hot it’s taking a big chunk out of the hotel industry there just as the city’s Convention Center is set to double in size and increase demand for hotel rooms by 25 percent. The hotel room count in downtown is down 10 percent since its recent peak in 2002, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Much of this decrease is due to hotel owners cashing in on converting parts or all of their hotels. The condo conversions, however, have helped spur high occupancy rates at downtown hotels. Through the first nine months of 2005, the Inquirer reported, downtown hotels filled 74 percent of their rooms at an average daily rate of $139.Commercial
Steep vacancy rates in some of downtown Philadelphia’s top office towers are causing landlords to cut asking rents, sometimes drastically, in a commercial market where the overall vacancy rate was more than 17 percent during the summer. One Liberty, for instance, had asking rents between $36 and $38 a square foot at the start of 2005, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. By the fourth quarter, those asking rents had generally declined by $10 a foot.San Francisco
Commercial
Tishman Speyer bought in late October what turned out to be the most expensive office space in San Francisco history. The New York developer bought the 283,000-square-foot 550 Terry Francois Boulevard for $600 a square foot, the San Francisco Business Journal reported. The six-story office building, the only one in the Mission Bay neighborhood, is leased entirely by the Gap Inc. through October 2017.Commercial
The San Francisco office market should exit 2005 strongly. Commercial asking rents increased during the third quarter and the vacancy rate for prime space declined for the eighth straight quarter, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Asking rents in San Francisco’s central business district climbed to $28.86 a square foot in the third quarter, and the vacancy rate was 13.1 percent. If the city’s job market keeps growing and the pace of conversions of older commercial properties to residential uses continues, then San Francisco’s vacancy rate could drop to 11 percent by the end of 2006, the Chronicle reported.Seattle
Residential/Commercial
Seattle’s apartments are selling as briskly as the city’s houses. Some $2.1 billion worth of apartments have changed hands in the Seattle metro area in 2005 as of early November, the Seattle Times reported. That’s triple the level of two years ago. Seattle apartments are selling for an average of $140,000 per unit almost 60 percent higher than two years ago. That makes a market good for landlords, the Times reported, but probably bad for tenants as rents are expected to spike sharply.
New development could transform sleepy Mitchell-Lama housing haven [more]
Runners and bargain hunters pulled to Brooklyn enclave of single-family houses with parkside proximi [more]
Needle Park, R.I.P.: Area’s residential renaissance includes prized views of spiffed-up square and spate of new projects [more]
At city Department of Buildings, visitors may soon find digital way out of bureaucratic labyrinth [more]
Real estate players discuss despised regulations that slow down business
[more]Brokerage move to Bronx enclave could attract others [more]
A bi-coastal commercial investment feud ended last month when Manhattan-based Eastdil Realty announced it will acquire longtime competitor Secured Capital Corporation, headquartered in Los Angeles. The new company, to be formed when the transaction is completed early next year, will be called Eastdil Secured.
Eastdil parent Wells Fargo & Company announced the acquisition in early November with obvious glee, as the subsumed rival only expands Eastdil’s already nationwide reach: “Their combined expertise will cover every capital investment transaction business line and every product type in the institutional commercial real estate industry,” said David Hoyt, senior executive vice president of Wells Fargo’s Wholesale Banking Group.
The privately held Secured Capital has completed more than 500 transactions totaling more than $67 billion since 1998, including investment property sales, institutional property financings, mortgage loan sales, and investment banking services. Eastdil completed more than 500 transactions totaling $95 billion during the same time period.
Together, Secured and Eastdil will close transactions of about $60 billion this year, signifying the type of volume the two real estate investment houses may move as a combined company.
In the new Eastdil Secured, the executive committee will include current Eastdil CEO Ben Lambert as chairman, and current Secured Capital CEO Michael Von Konynenburg as president. A Wells Fargo spokesperson told The Real Deal that the company would not comment on specifics of the deal, including how long the two competitors were in negotiations.
Cushman & Wakefield last month elevated one of its top producers to vice chairman, the highest position a broker at the firm can attain.
Tara Stacom was promoted from executive vice president, and has spent all of her more than 20 years in real estate with Cushman & Wakefield. She ranked as the firm’s top-producing broker globally in 2004, the first woman at Cushman & Wakefield to ever do so. Stacom has been on the firm’s board of directors since 2003. (She did not return phone calls and emails for comment.)
Her clients include the Bank of New York, Colgate- Palmolive Company, J & W Seligman and Company, and the McGraw-Hill Companies. Many of these clients, according to a company release, have been with Stacom for a decade-plus. Stacom, whose sister Darcy Stacom is an executive vice president at competing firm CB Richard Ellis, also represents several landlords in the city as a leasing agent for more than 10 million square feet of Class A office space.
David Schlamm made the right call literally.
The year was 1990, and he was at his first office after having founded City Connections Realty. A woman called the office looking for a rental that his firm was advertising in the Bakery Building on East 65th Street. Schlamm chatted with her and assigned one of his agents to assist her. He had a special request for the agent.
“I said, ‘When you’re working with her, ask her if she’s single and available,’” Schlamm told The Real Deal. “She said she wasn’t single, but she was available.”
Without having met Schlamm and with him having seen a lot of her financial history the woman agreed to a date. They went out on the Upper West Side, and Schlamm called to make sure she had gotten home OK afterward. It was that call, Schlamm said, that cinched the relationship: He and his wife Jill have been married for 13 years and have two daughters. She did, by the way, get the rental she was looking for that day she called City Connections and paid the regular broker’s fee for it. “But,” Schlamm added, “she was the first person I ever took a personal check from for the brokerage fee.”
Schlamm is part of that small coterie of New York real estate professional whose work has pleasantly collided with romance. Others, too, have met their spouses on the job. Some end up working alongside them.
Mark David Fromm and Claudia Saez-Fromm know that path. It started innocuously enough: Saez was in 2001 looking for an apartment. She ended up working with a broker at the firm where Fromm was the managing director. She got that rental, on the Upper West Side and she got encouragement from the broker to give real estate a try herself. She interviewed with Fromm, and, in late 2001, landed a broker position at that firm.
By February 16, 2002 Saez-Fromm remembers the exact date they were dating. By March 2003, they were together at a new brokerage Mark David & Company. “Claudia and I worked together in the same office,” Fromm said, “about eight or nine feet from each other. It was an interesting and challenging situation to deal with each other on a day-today basis.”
They evidently dealt with it well: They were married in June 2005, and are expecting their first child this spring.
In August, Saez-Fromm transferred from the original Mark David & Company office on Madison Avenue to the brokerage’s Soho branch. The couple that once worked less than 10 feet from each other found themselves communicating mostly by phone during the typical business day, often simply too busy, regardless of geography, to meet face-to-face. Still, it works for the couple in a business that now runs almost around the clock.
“[Working together] would either kill our relationship or make it stronger,” Fromm said, looking back. “Very fortunate for us, it made our relationship a lot stronger.”
Always be closing. So goes the famous refrain in “Glengarry Glenn Ross.” But to what end will some go to close? At Herald Towers, apparently, they’ll go to sex. Right to sex. On the front page of the 692-unit development’s Web site.
Herald Towers at 50 West 34th Street is one of the biggest new projects in Manhattan residential development by number of units in at least the last five years, according to the state Attorney General’s office. So, sales agent Citi Habitats Marketing Group can be forgiven for pulling out all the stops in a pioneering move to sell a lot of units in an area not typically associated with fresh condos.
One of those stops tossed aside was the ad that first drew notice through the blog Curbed. com. The ad has a smiling young woman atop a half-naked, smiling young man, in bed, beside a lone paragraph that starts, “Go ahead… be as loud as you want. But only if you live in Herald Towers, where the walls are thick, the ceilings are high, and the views can be incredible…”
Right.
