From left to right: Justin Elghanayan, Jed Walentas, Andrew Sciame, Samantha Rudin, Raphael De Niro and Benjamin LevineSigns of improvement appeared at the end of the year, but 2009 will be remembered for its epic real estate downturn. In response to the maelstrom of hard times, many longtime industry veterans took the opportunity to scale back their activities rather than tackling what promise to be several more difficult years. For example, Brown Harris Stevens announced plans to take over the 28-year-old Upper East Side boutique firm started by Edward Lee Cave, a fixture of the high-end brokerage scene. And Douglas Durst stepped down as co-president of the Durst Organization, after describing his day-to-day duties as “exhausting.” (He’ll remain chairman). [more]
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From left: CBRE top broker Mary Ann Tighe; Stephen Siegel, CBRE’s global chairman; Darcy Stacom, vice chairman; Mitchell Rudin, CBRE’s tri-state president and CEO; Robert Alexander, co-chairman of CBRE’s New York tri-state region; and John Powers, also a co-chairman of the tri-state regionAs the city’s dominant commercial services firm, CB Richard Ellis has a star-studded roster of brokers and brings in business from around the globe. Top producers in Manhattan include veterans such as Darcy Stacom, who brokered the largest real estate deal in history with the 2006 sale of Stuyvesant Town for $5.4 billion, and Mary Ann Tighe, who led the company with 5.6 million square feet leased in 2008. There’s also Stephen Siegel, the reigning godfather of Manhattan brokerage. That’s not to mention the firm’s corps of junior brokers, and an analysis and research department that is, perhaps, the most sophisticated in the city. But despite all of its cachet, there is evidence that the global real estate giant is in a bit of a slump in Manhattan — even as it’s holding up internationally. [more]
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Veronica Mainetti heads the Sorgente Group’s U.S. office.For more than a year, foreign investors have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a sign that the capital markets were beginning to thaw and the time was right to invest in New York real estate. One of the first big tests for them may be coming from an unlikely source: the Sorgente Group, a Rome-based investment firm that has already acquired some of the city’s most iconic properties and is currently negotiating to buy another — the famed Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan. In addition to those Gotham properties, the group, headed by investor Valter Mainetti, is reportedly in talks to acquire some of the most sought-after buildings in the United States, including San Francisco’s TransAmerica Pyramid. [more]
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From working-class enclaves in the outer boroughs to glistening new condo towers in Manhattan, the legions of New Yorkers at risk of losing their homes has been growing. While the number of foreclosure filings in the state dropped during the first three quarters of last year compared to the same time in 2008, the filings jumped 14 percent in New York City, according to RealtyTrac. And no borough — including Manhattan — was spared. This month, The Real Deal examined foreclosure data provided by PropertyShark, RealtyTrac and NYU’s Furman Center and found that across the board — from houses on cul-de-sac streets in Staten Island to tony co-op apartments on the Upper West Side — foreclosures in the five boroughs have quietly started creeping into more well-to-do neighborhoods. [more] -
David LevinsonDavid Levinson is the chairman and CEO of L&L Holding Company, which he co-founded with Robert Lapidus in 2000. The company owns some 5 million square feet of commercial office space valued at around $3 billion, including 142 West 57th Street, 150 Fifth Avenue, 195 Broadway, 2 Park Avenue and the former International Toy Center at 200 Fifth Avenue. Before forming L&L, Levinson was the vice chairman of CB Richard Ellis. [more]
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Yikes! What a year. Clearly we are not out of the woods yet, but while many are rehashing the gloom-and-doom events of 2009 when it comes to the economy and real estate, it might be worth taking a minute to look at how bad it could have been. If you remember the first months of 2009, if you haven’t blocked them out, the term “Depression” was being bandied about quite a bit. How many companies would go under, people asked themselves, and would my company fold? [more] -
Hope springs eternal in the New York City residential market, especially now that 2009 — the worst year in recent memory — is over. “If you survived 2009, you can survive anything,” said Yael Dunayer, an executive vice president at Barak Realty. Like many other brokers, he pointed to strong activity in the second half of last year as an indicator of a possible 2010 recovery. “The last six months of 2009 have been very active and brokers should look forward to riding this trend well into 2010,” Dunayer said. One reason for this optimism is that December — usually one of the slowest months of the year — saw more activity than usual, brokers said.
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Related CEO Stephen RossWhile the pipeline for condos has slowed to a near-stop, there are a few daring developers out there picking up land and buildings in this tough market. But those who are making purchases and starting up projects now are doing so with revised cost projections — faced with the reality that expenses must be contained in a weak sales market. The Related Companies, for example, restarted construction in the fall on a long-delayed skyscraper at 440 West 42nd Street, which includes a Frank Gehry-designed theater, a hotel and 800 apartments, including market-rate rentals, affordable units and condos. [more]
Danny Meyer debuted Maialino at the Gramercy Hotel in November.Hotel developers are planning to boost business at their Manhattan restaurants this year with one special ingredient: the glamour of brand-name chefs. Celebrity chef and hotel pairings have been popular in New York since the late ’90s, but in the weak economy, the trend is accelerating. This month, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurant Mark Jean-Georges is set to open in the Mark Hotel. That follows Danny Meyer’s November debut of Maialino at the Gramercy Hotel, and a report last month confirming rumors that Todd English will run the food court at the Plaza. [more]
80 DeKalb in Downtown BrooklynThey’re giving it away. Hundreds of buildings these days tout one, two and sometimes three months of free rent on new leases. But most of the time, the “base rent” stays the same, even as rental agents talk about “net effective” rents — the apartment’s cost once the free rent is amortized over the life of the lease. It’s sort of like a no-money-down offer. Brokers say that despite their popularity, net effective rents are something of a gamble for landlords: Lower the initial sticker prices, fill apartments and pray that the market rebounds and tenants stay after their lease expires. [more]
Whether encouraged by declining asking rents or spurred by pent-up demand, brokers said office tenants finished out the extremely difficult year of 2009 with a flurry of activity. Yet few believed the market had found a solid footing, as landlords continued to cut asking rents to compete amid a landscape of high unemployment and an uncertain recovery.
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NV in WilliamsburgSales update
Downtown Brooklyn
Oro Tower
306 Gold Street
Rose Associates started a rent-to-own program for the 40-story luxury condo that allows 50 percent or more of the monthly rental costs to go toward a down payment for up to 13 months. Those who sign rent-to-own contracts are not required to buy the home at the end of the term. The Greenfield Partners development, which slashed prices by as much as 25 percent in October, has nearly 50 percent of its 303 units sold and move-ins have started. Studios start at $295,000; one- and two-bedrooms start in the $500,000 to $700,000 range; and three-bedrooms are priced at just over $1 million. Contact: www.orocondos.com. [more]
The Blackstone Group, headed by CEO Stephen Schwarzman, is well-positioned to take advantage of distressed properties as it looks for opportunities across the U.S. and abroad.After sitting on the sidelines for the last two years, the Blackstone Group, the world’s largest private equity firm, is finally starting to go property shopping. And, as it begins to deploy its $12 billion distressed asset fund, many in the industry are watching to see exactly what kind of real estate it’s buying and what else it’s in the market for. In November, the Manhattan-based firm agreed to pay about $191 million for a 60 percent stake in two malls owned by the Ohio-based Glimcher Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust with properties in 13 states. That followed a deal in September giving Blackstone 50 percent of the Broadgate office development in London, the largest office complex in the city’s financial district, for about $127 million. [more]
Richard Bouchner, who co-founded real estate and mortgage brokerage Commodore Property Group in 2003, thought last month that business was returning after a tough year for mortgage brokers. He’d gotten a referral for a borrower he described as a well-qualified, financially savvy New Yorker buying her first apartment. He’d arranged a 30-year fixed mortgage of around $480,000, at 5.125 percent with no points. [more]
Mo VaughnCity reaches 100,000 affordable housing unitsThe effort to increase affordable housing in the city has remained in high gear despite budget cuts elsewhere. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, led by Commissioner Rafael Cestero, was on track to complete its 100,000th unit of either rehabilitated or new public housing at the end of last year, Crain’s reported. The agency’s goal is 165,000 affordable apartments by 2014. The city is also helping to refinance overleveraged affordable properties. The sale early last month of 14 South Bronx buildings to Omni New York, headed by former Mets first baseman Mo Vaughn, is cited as a successful example of this. [more]
The CEO of DDG Partners, Joe McMillan, at 41 Bond Street, which is under construction.A development team on Bond Street is placing a $34 million bet on the market. The savvy new investment partnership is making the risky gamble that by the time they are ready to sell, the condo units they are building at 41 Bond Street will fetch at least around what comparable apartments did at the top of the market in 2007. [more]
Toby Klein of Muss Development in front of a model of Sky View Parc, a massive mixed-use development in Flushing.In the incredibly dense neighborhood of Flushing in northeast Queens, a new crop of luxury condos has quietly sprouted. Unlike other parts of the city, where developments conceived during the boom have been converted to rentals, these new condos remain sales developments. And they seem to be holding up better than other parts of the borough, thanks, in part, to demand from a vibrant local Asian community and recession-friendly prices. [more]
Along with her two brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric, Ivanka Trump has been charged with the Trump Organization’s global expansion, particularly the Trump Hotel Collection.There may be no corner of the business world more family-dominated than New York City real estate. Here, names like Rudin, Resnick, LeFrak and Durst carry an almost mythical connotation. And for good reason: The real estate bust has made mincemeat of the army of rookie developers who entered the industry during the mid-aughts. Not so for the young scions of New York’s great real estate families. Working for capital-rich and rarely overleveraged family firms, many of these up-and-coming moguls are well-poised to take advantage of the opportunities generated by the current decline in the marketplace. [more]
Jessica Cohen of Prudential Douglas EllimanWhen Core’s Kirk Rundhaug started marketing 32 Clinton Street, a four-unit boutique condo in a far-flung corner of the Lower East Side, he was somewhat surprised at who showed up at his open houses. In addition to the young hipsters generally associated with the edgy neighborhood, Rundhaug fielded inquiries from empty nesters from the suburbs of New Jersey and Connecticut. “They were Lower East Side people when they lived in New York,” he said of one 60-something Westchester couple who are eyeing a two-bedroom unit. “They want to come back.” Manhattan’s population of people aged 65 and older is expected to surge nearly 60 percent by 2030 as the baby boom generation ages. [more]
Jeffrey Davis, the general manager of Columbus Square, in front of the saltwater pool at 808 ColumbusWhen history books describe the real estate boom of the mid-2000s, they are likely to mention over-the-top amenities. In the mid-aughts, New Yorkers went mad for buildings with movie screening rooms, roof decks and pet spas. Buyers forked over six-figure down payments, and renters signed pricey yearlong leases, often assuming amenities were included. No more. [more]
For some buyers’ brokers, it’s their greatest fear come to pass. More and more apartment hunters, armed with listing information gleaned from the Web, are representing themselves rather than using a real estate agent. “I have buyers coming at me [at open houses], unrepresented, clutching fistfuls of paper,” said Halstead Property senior vice president Charles Homet, who primarily works with sellers. “They pride themselves on their Internet acumen and they feel they have enough information.” [more]
Millennium Broadway Hotel1985: Macklowe demolishes Times Square SROs in illegal nighttime action
1960: LeFrak buys Queens land for world’s largest private rental project
1891: Tracking New York City properties gets easier [more]
From left: 444 Madison Avenue, 666 Fifth Avenue, and 1301 Sixth AvenueNew York City’s top commercial brokerages have jockeyed for market share over the past few years, but in a surprise upset, Eastdil Secured has emerged on top. According to an analysis by The Real Deal — which was based on data provided by Real Capital Analytics for Manhattan commercial transactions of $5 million and above — the firm had more than $15 billion in sales from the first quarter of 2007 through the third quarter of 2009. [more]
William Jordan of CBRE in front of 12-01 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, where the Natural Frontier Market is opening soon.New retail is trickling into Long Island City to catch up with the luxury condo and rental building boom of the last four years. Tony restaurants and stores — from spas to gourmet food shops –are filling in among the waterfront properties and along Jackson Avenue and Vernon Boulevard. Despite the struggles Long Island City has seen on the residential side of the market because of large amounts of new inventory, retail in the area has seen a growth spurt, even as it has been slowed somewhat by the recession. The area still has one of the largest concentrations of industrial businesses in New York City, but now old lumberyards, electrical shops and food processors commingle with trendy cafés and boutiques. Comments
They are not easily recognizable, but they are out there all around us, on the streets of Midtown and Lower Manhattan.
They are a growing breed of office towers, not quite alive but not entirely dead either. They are New York’s City’s zombie buildings. And within the commercial real estate world, once a building is tagged as a problem site, it has a difficult time shaking off the negative label, attracting tenants and finding rental income to nurse itself back to health. “It is a super-slow-motion thing that is occurring,” said Glenn Markman, a commercial broker for Cushman & Wakefield, explaining the vicious cycle that many Manhattan buildings have gotten stuck in since the start of the downturn. [more]
The eastern façade of the new Goldman Sachs building at 200 West StreetWhat follows is, in part, a tale of two skyscrapers. We must hope that a firm as sober as Goldman Sachs doesn’t do things without a very good reason. And yet it is not clear exactly why the firm needed a new corporate headquarters at 200 West Street, near Battery Park, given that it had a perfectly decent skyscraper directly across the Hudson in Jersey City. Perhaps there was a purely aesthetic, or even emotional, reason. The New York Times reported in 2004 that plans to transfer traders to the 42-story, $1.3 billion tower in Jersey City “had to be scuttled after the proposal touched off an insurrection inside the bank.” Even among financial types, there is just something about Manhattan. [more]
100 West 81st StreetAmongst a handful of onlookers huddled around an auctioneer in the rotunda of the New York State Supreme Courthouse last month, a real estate investor placed the winning bid on an alcove studio for what seemed like the deal of the century. The price: $28,000. Yes, that’s right, $28,000 for an apartment in a pristine Upper West Side co-op building across from the Museum of Natural History. By comparison, a similar studio in the 100 West 81st Street building sold for $460,000 in 2005, the most recent comparable sale. The shockingly low sale price –more on par with a car than a Manhattan home — was just $600 more than the amount owed on the apartment. [more]
737 Drew StreetMinority and working-class Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy, Canarsie and East New York have been suffering from high concentrations of foreclosures since before 2007. But recent statistics indicate that distress is creeping into gentrified neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Fort Greene and Brooklyn Heights now, too. The Williamsburg-Greenpoint area saw a 141 percent quarterly increase in foreclosure filings during the first three quarters of 2009 compared to 2008, while Fort Greene and Brooklyn Heights saw a 71 percent jump. Brooklyn-based appraiser Sam Heskel counted 99 distressed real estate listings in Williamsburg, including 44 condominiums that are in “pre-foreclosure.” Comments
126-32 144th StreetQueens has been called the “Ground Zero” of the New York foreclosure crisis, with the most filings citywide for the past three years. But while areas like Jamaica and Queens Village have garnered the most attention because of the devastation they’ve endured due to the sheer number of foreclosures there, the community districts that have seen the greatest increase in foreclosure filings are some of the
borough’s more well-off areas. The two solidly middle-class community districts that include Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Sunnyside and Woodside saw the greatest spike in the average number of foreclosure filings per quarter, at 64 percent during the first three quarters of last year. In contrast, Jamaica and Queens Village saw increases of 17 percent and 32 percent, respectively. [more]
With its solid middle class and abundance of single-family homes, Staten Island is the borough that most closely mirrors the rest of the nation. Accordingly, average sale prices fell the furthest of any borough in the city, 28 percent from peak to trough, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel. As prices began to slide at the end of 2007, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that Staten Island had the city’s highest percentage of subprime and “Alt-A” loans, which require less documentation and are available to those with lower credit scores. Today, those loans have translated into a flood of deeply discounted short sales, foreclosures and bank-owned properties, including many in the borough’s higher-end areas. [more]
Bruce Mosler, outgoing Cushman & Wakefield CEOBy any measure, 2009 was a tough year for commercial services firm Cushman & Wakefield. It suffered through the economic crisis with even greater losses for the first nine months of the year than two of its larger international rivals, CB Richard Ellis and Jones Lang LaSalle. While CBRE is struggling more in New York (see “CB Richard Ellis’ New York woes”), internationally, Cushman saw revenues down 25 percent, while operating expenses fell by just 22 percent, hurting the bottom line. Compounding matters, just two weeks after the third quarter ended, company president and CEO Bruce Mosler announced he would step down from the top spot and this month start “transitioning” into a position as a board co-chairman alongside John Cushman III.
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Click image for larger versionIt’s no secret that many top-notch New York City sales brokers took on pricey rentals last year because high-end apartments were slow to sell. But with the economy struggling, did the high-end rental market fare any better than the sales market? Were celebrities still willing to pay top dollar for temporary Manhattan pads? And did struggling corporations change their tactics in renting out apartments for top executives? [more]
Often at the beginning of the New Year, business leaders seek out the Amazing Kreskin, who for some six decades has served as a bona fide mentalist on his predictions for the coming year. Instead of seeking the advice of Kreskin, or my cloudy crystal ball, I’ve asked a who’s who of the New York commercial real estate industry for their insights on 2010. Last year, the difference between asking and net effective rents was down by close to 50 percent and few office leases were struck at prices over $100 per square foot. [more]
From left to right: Michael Guerra, director of sales for Brooklyn with Prudential Douglas Elliman; Ken Freeman, senior vice president of sales with Massey Knakal; Lee Soloman, a director with Brown Harris Stevens; and Nalami Clark, a principal with Brooklyn PropertiesIf ever there were a Brooklyn neighborhood to lead the way for a rebound, it would be Park Slope. With its well-kept brownstones and its proximity to Prospect Park, Park Slope is routinely cited as one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the borough. But while it has seen a recent uptick in activity, even Park Slope has felt the market slide. Brokers interviewed for this month’s Q & A told The Real Deal that they saw more transactions in the final months of last year compared to the abysmal lack of trades before that. But they said that even properties that were “marginally overpriced” were still not getting the time of day from buyers. Part of the improvement can be traced back to the fact that inventory is down. That’s because Park Slope sellers who can avoid putting their properties on the market for the low prices are holding back. As one source put it, that low inventory is “an advantage for those that are currently listed.” [more]
The owner of 420 Fifth Avenue has been waiting the market out before filling retail space there.Some landlords are waiting out the current down market in an unusual way. Instead of doing everything in their power to find tenants and taking lower rents, they’ve decided to sit on unused space. George Constantin, president and CEO of Heritage Realty Services, which owns office and retail properties around New York, said the company used that strategy for one of the largest retail spaces in Manhattan, at 420 Fifth Avenue. “What we did is essentially wait to make sure we got the best tenant at the best rent, because once we commit to a 10-year transaction, we don’t want to commit to a very low rent,” he said. “And [in 2008], the rents were quite low.” [more]
The Sao Paulo skylineSam Zell, chairman of Equity International Properties, has looked to
South America for his latest real estate venture. The billionaire real estate mogul and owner of the Tribune Company announced that he will purchase an 8.5 percent stake in Brazilian Finance & Real Estate Participacoes SA, a Sao Paulo-based holding company. This involvement in Participacoes reflects Zell’s increasing interest in tapping the Brazilian real estate market, Bloomberg News reported. Zell’s company has already invested in one of the country’s largest real estate developers, Gafisa SA, and BR Malls Participacoes SA, the largest Brazilian shopping mall owner. [more]
Some Phoenix-area real estate experts believe the residential market has bottomed out.Developers have rethought their original plan for Seaport Square, a proposed South Boston mixed-use complex. The development team, including Gale International, Morgan Stanley and W/S Associates, has decided to keep the total planned square footage of the development the same at 6.5 million square feet, while upping the number of buildings in the complex from 19 to 23, the Boston Globe reported. The plan to increase the number of structures comes as developers decided to reduce the overall height of the proposed buildings. The height of the structures in the complex, which includes residential, office and retail space, will match the height of surrounding buildings, according to the Globe. [more]A development site at 57-67 Orchard Street is for sale with an asking price of $25 million. The site includes two block-through lots from Orchard to Allen streets and a corner lot at Orchard and Grand streets. The 57 Orchard Street lot contains a two-story commercial building, while 59-67 Orchard Street has two five-story commercial buildings. The three lots have a combined footprint of 12,172 square feet, and the site’s C6-2G zoning allows for a maximum of 73,281 buildable square feet. Michael DeCheser and Philip Huang of Massey Knakal are handling the sale. Comments
20 Bayard, rightAfter months of trying to keep his Williamsburg condominium project afloat on rental income, developer Isaac Hager threw 20 Bayard into bankruptcy after he was unable to refinance the building loan or support the building’s monthly debt with outside funds, according to court documents obtained by The Real Deal. According to an affidavit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court by Martin Ehrenfeld — director of sales and marketing at North Development and restructuring officer of 20 Bayard Views LLC, the entity that controls the condo — Hager was unable to refinance a $17 million mortgage loan from Manhattan-based lender W Financial Fund. [more]
585 West 214th StreetInwood
$540,000
585 West 214th Street
3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 1,600 sf co-op in a prewar elevator building; unit has master suite with views of Inwood Hill Park, large sunken living room with high ceilings and separate dining room; building has live-in super; maintenance $0 for first six months (paid by seller), then $1,531 per month; asking price $495,000; five weeks on the market. (Broker: Aida Kassa, A.C. Lawrence) [more]In a fiercely competitive (and lackluster) new development market, two real estate veterans are teaming up to gain an upper hand. Kevin Kurland, CEO of Kurland Realty, and Jan Sasson, head of E Property Group, have formed Kurland/Sasson Development Marketing Services group, which aims to shape developments from start to finish. The merger was announced early last month. Kurland and Sasson said their differing expertise — Kurland has a brokerage background, while Sasson has worked more in development — led them to join forces. The team plans to assist developers in planning everything from mapping out floor plans to choosing kitchen cabinets. Kurland argued that their business will save developers money: Rather than having to hire separate designers and marketers, developers could use the firm as a one-stop shop. “Value’s the name of the game,” Kurland added. “We offer very competitive commission structures for developers.” [more]
George Pierson, new CEO of Parsons BrinckerhoffParsons Brinckerhoff — the 125-year-old, New York City-based planning, engineering and construction management firm — has appointed a new CEO, George Pierson. The selection was made official Jan. 1 of this year. Company CEO Keith Hawksworth will become chairperson. Pierson was the company’s American division chief operating officer and, before that, was the general counsel for Parsons Brinckerhoff, a role he took on in February 2006. Hawksworth described the succession of roles as “a logical progression” and praised Pierson’s past service to the firm. “George has performed brilliantly in progressively responsible leadership positions.” [more]Martin Burger joined Silverstein Properties last month as a new executive vice president, part of the company’s effort to extend its influence abroad. Burger has served as executive vice president at the Related Companies, been vice president at the Blackstone Group and worked in a Goldman Sachs real estate fund. He joins Silverstein after serving as founder and CEO of Artisan Real Estate Ventures, a three-year-old real estate group based in New York City and Las Vegas that focuses on acquisitions, development, property management and financial services. Burger told The Real Deal that he will be based at 7 World Trade Center, Silverstein’s headquarters, where his job will be to “figure out how to expand in this environment.” [more]
Residential
AC Lawrence & Company
Canan Aktas and Nikki Goldberg joined the company as sales associates.Barak Realty
Gordon D. Voight II joined the firm as a vice president. He was previously with DJK Residential. James Miller joined as an associate broker. Heidi Nauleau joined as a sales associate. [more]
Kenneth Buettner, president of York Scaffold Equipment Corp., says this year is going to be a tough one for the scaffolding industry.Developers aren’t the only ones hurting as hundreds of construction sites citywide sit dormant. The scaffolding companies that provide the
pipe frames around those stalled projects are facing tough times too, and are expecting things to worsen in the New Year. “There is less work out there than there was a year ago, and there is less than two years ago,” said Kenneth Buettner, president of the Long Island City-based York Scaffold Equipment Corp. “2009 was a year about which to be concerned, but 2010 is a year of which to be afraid.” [more]
These days, firms don’t downsize, they “rightsize.” Companies no longer make budget cuts, they “reduce to competitive levels.” The current downturn has ushered in a new wave of vocabulary for real estate firms that are trying to spin bad news. Lenders may be asking for 25 percent or more of the purchase price on a new apartment up front, but rather than referring to it as a down payment, many have recently started calling it an “investment.” [more]
State Sen. Daniel Squadron has criticized the FDIC’s decision to leave its home at 20 Exchange Place for the Empire State Building.Resilient. That’s the word for Lower Manhattan’s commercial real estate market for the past 12 months. In the aftermath of the greatest financial meltdown in recent history, Lower Manhattan boasts the lowest vacancy rate of any market in the city at 7.3 percent, according to CB Richard Ellis data for November. Midtown and Midtown South had rates of 10.2 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively, in the same month. [more]
1861 Bronxdale AvenueLast month’s big foreclosure legislation was signed in Morris Park, a middle-class enclave of leafy streets and tidy brick homes in the Bronx where the bill’s co-sponsor, Senator Jeffrey Klein, grew up. [more]
The 20-unit 257 Water Street is likely to be converted into a condominium.The narrow blocks surrounding the South Street Seaport are dominated by cobblestone streets and 19th-century brick buildings constructed when the area was a hub of maritime trade. [more]
Winick’s Diana Boutross and Darrell Rubens in front of 30 Broad Street.Darrell Rubens brokered the deals for high-end fashion stores Thomas Pink and Canali in early 2007 during the luxury rush Downtown. Last fall, however, he inked leases for Korean chicken chain BonChon Chicken at 104 John Street and nail salon Spring Sun Nail at 119 Fulton Street. “Obviously, it’s slowed,” said Rubens, senior managing director at Winick Realty Group. [more](Click chart below to view larger PDF)
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Larry Kruysman of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group at 75 Wall StreetLike a stampede of bulls, developers thundered into the Financial District during the boom to snap up dusty offices and fashion them into luxury apartments. And the city cheered them on, doling out generous tax breaks to encourage conversions that directly resulted in a dozen high-profile new condos, and more than 3,000 units, in the last five years. [more]
Ground ZeroDevelopment in Lower Manhattan, perhaps more than anywhere else in the
city, is characterized by big ideas. The biggest and most obvious developments are related to Ground Zero, a site that at present is more notable for its building delays than its progress. Still, prominent World Trade Center-related projects, including the September 11th Memorial, are expected to be finished within the next few years. Beyond the World Trade Center, big Lower Manhattan projects underway include the construction of the tallest residential tower in the city and work on the East River Waterfront. Other developments, such as towers near the Battery Tunnel and the redevelopment of the South Street Seaport, have fallen victim to the down market. Here are some of the plans floating around that, if brought to fruition, would fundamentally alter Lower Manhattan. [more]
