The Real Deal New York

Office landlords find properties worth double as apartments [more]

Long Island City set to boom: a look at new projects [more]

 Carlos Aguila calls his new neighborhood the city’s “greatest place for a new retail store in 30 years.” [more]

Downtown Brooklyn seeks to compete-or at least place-against Midtown Class A office space [more]

Properties recently placed on the market [more]

Lull in market following earlier big deals, though average rent breaks $50 barrier [more]

Downward slope of market curve may be in sight; less pricey pads still hot [more]

Adjust strategies, size and brands as developers push to get to market [more]

3-D renderings of uncompleted units provide sales sizzle for marketers; traditionalists opt for hand [more]

Citi Habitats founder takes root with new development business Comments

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Elliman star splits, sets up own company [more]

New edition of “The New York Co-op Bible” catches up to changing market, calls for reform [more]

ForSaleByOwner.com expansion steps up quest for market share [more]

Battery Park City
Millennium Tower Residences
30 West Street
Developer Millennium Partners is planning a 35-story, 340,000-square-foot green design building for Lower Manhattan. The project will feature 236 condo units, from 875-square-foot one-bedrooms starting at $705,000 to 2,400-square-foot four-bedrooms starting at $1.8 million. Three-bedroom prices start at $1.37 million. The project, designed by Handel Architects, is expected to be completed in late 2006. Contact: 212-595-7777 or millennium-tower-residences.com.

Chelsea
Lion’s Head Condominium
121 West 19th Street
Nearly 80 percent of the apartments in the project developed by Alchemy Properties were sold after a month on the market in May. The 67-unit renovated building includes six duplex penthouses. Apartments are priced from $500,000 to $2.75 million and range from 766 to 3,948 square feet. The exterior of the building is clad in 1920s stone, and building amenities include a 24-hour attendant, live-in super, common outdoor roof space and wiring for high-speed Internet access. Contact: Wendy Triffon, director of sales, 212-732-0372.

Downtown Brooklyn
The Smith
Corner of Atlantic Avenue and Smith Street
The 13-floor building by Boymelgreen Developers will house 50 residential condos and a 93-room hotel. The residences, a mix of one-, two- and three-bedrooms, will range in size from 740 to 1,400 square feet. Prices are still being determined, but are expected to fall in the $700 per square-foot range, according to published reports. The building, which will have a red-brick facade with terraces for the top penthouse units, is expected to open in June 2006. Sales will begin this summer.

East Harlem
Rao’s City Views
East 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue
Located above the famous Italian eatery, the new residential project by Rao’s owner Ron Straci rises seven stories above the restaurant and features 22 luxury rental apartments. Prices include $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom to $5,400 for a two-bedroom penthouse with a terrace. Apartments have custom kitchens and bathrooms, wiring for high-speed Internet, and video security monitoring. Contact: Neal Sroka, Corcoran, 212-836-1030.

East Village
81 East Third Street
New York Law School is planning a 13-story half-dormitory, half-residential building. The project has been the subject of controversy because of its height and because opponents of the project said local zoning regulations were manipulated by contractors, curbed.com reported.

Financial District
Fultonhaus
119 Fulton Street
A new 19-unit construction/con-version hybrid marketed by Shvo Marketing was over 60 percent sold after six weeks on the market. Apartments start at $1.25 million and are over 1,400 square feet. The upper seven floors of the 14-story Daniell Properties’ project are a new steel and glass tower, set atop a historic eight-story building. Contact: 212-577-1119 or fultonhaus.com.

Kew Gardens
Dara Gardens
150-29 72nd Road
The Dermot Company has acquired 403 units worth of unsold shares in the 535-unit co-op building. The development company is renovating the apartments, which include studios, one-bedrooms, junior fours, and two-bedrooms, as they become available. The 600- to 950-square-foot apartments will range in price from $99,000 to $200,000. The building also has a garage for building residents and community space.

Lower Manhattan
Woolworth Building
233 Broadway
A condominium plan is expected to be filed imminently with the New York state Attorney General’s office that will separate the 60-story building into upper residential and lower commercial units. Steve Witkoff and Cammeby’s International recently closed on a $250-million refinancing of the Cass Gilbert building opposite City Hall Park, the New York Post reported.

Lower Manhattan
270 Greenwich Street
The 90,565-square-foot development built by Edward J. Minskoff Equities will include a 240- to 265-unit luxury condominium tower, a 162-unit rental building and a 170,000-square-foot retail complex that will include a Whole Foods grocery store. The project is the first to receive some of the $50 million the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. was allocated to finance affordable housing downtown, the New York Sun reported. Townhouses and a 400-car garage are also planned. Construction is expected to be completed in 2007.

Midtown
Bryant Park Tower
100 West 39th Street
Sales began in May for developer MG Hotel’s new residential tower. The project, designed by Nobutaka Ashihara & Associates, features 93 units on 10 residential floors in the 45-story building. Apartments range from studios to two-bedroom apartments with prices ranging from $425,000 to $1.5 million. The building, whose amenities include 24-hour doorman service, a full-time concierge, health club with flat screen TVs, and on-site parking access, is expected to be completed in November. Contact: 212-719-3939 or bryantparktower.com.

Midtown West
440 West 42nd Street
Developed by a joint venture between Twining Properties, The Related Companies and Macfarlane Partners, the 65-story, 800-unit apartment project will occupy an entire city block and will include two retail levels, theaters and a health club. Construction is expected to begin in early 2006.

Prospect Heights
17 Eastern Parkway
Architect Richard Meier is putting up a super deluxe 15-story glass tower. Prospect Heights brokers estimate a two-bedroom apartment in the 119-unit building will be priced close to $1 million. The building, which should be completed by 2007, will feature a 24-hour concierge, parking attendants, under-floor heating, remote control window shades and extra deep soaking tubs. Developer Mario Procida announced the purchase of the vacant 26,000-square-foot parcel where the project will rise last month.

Soho
40 Mercer Street
Hotelier Andre Balazs and Paris-based architect Jean Nouvel are collaborating on a 13-story structure containing 41 lofts, a spa, pool, and retail space at street level. Sales are slated to begin in June. Contact: 212-925-5050 or 40mercersoho.com.

Sutton Place
Sutton 57
220 East 57th Street
A new residential building featuring 38 luxury units, which will include a 24-hour concierge, rooftop terrace and fitness center. The developer is Broadway Management Co. Occupancy is expected in late 2005. The Marketing Directors are handling sales. Contact: 212-829-0057 or sutton57condos.com.

Upper West Side
1 West End Avenue and 33 West End Avenue
Donald Trump and his partners, Hudson Waterfront Associates, have donated land to create two new, affordable apartment towers at 1 West End and 33 West End avenues, the Post reported. The 25-story project at 1 West End Avenue will have half of its 211 units rented to people with lower incomes. The nearby 33 West End Avenue will become a 13-story project with 120 units geared to senior independent living for those 55 and up.

West Village
627 Greenwich Street
An investor group led by PMA Associates and KMG Partners will be converting the 107,000-square-foot site into 40 luxury condos.

Sales Update

Dumbo
Beacon Tower
85 Adams Street
The project had sold 30 of its 79 total units as of last month. Prices range from $630,000 for a one-bedroom to $2.4 million for a penthouse with a sprawling terrace, the Daily News reported. The project is located next to the Manhattan Bridge and the BQE, and will have valet parking, a 24-hour doorman and a landscaped roof garden. The 23-story tower is scheduled for completion next year.

Financing

Midtown
105-107 West 57th Street
Carlton Advisory Services arranged an initial six-month bridge loan for $28 million in connection with their client’s purchase of 105-107 West 57th Street and the property’s transferable air rights. The property is currently a one-story structure occupied by the Ritz Fur Shop, and will be demolished to make way for a 35-story tower that will contain 37 residential units, three lower floors of office space and ground floor and basement retail space. The project will total approximately 82,202 square feet.

New Residential Developments from Previous Months

LES gentrification continues with modernist condo project–cabanas and lawns included [more]

Atlanta

Residential
The metro Atlanta office market continued to head toward recovery during the first quarter, according a report from Cushman & Wakefield. Overall vacancy in the 131-million-square-foot market dropped 3.2 percent over the past year to 21.1 percent, while positive absorption for the first quarter totaled 703,829 square feet. While vacancy is nowhere near what it was two years ago, there is still oversupply, albeit with stable rental rates, the report said.

Boston

Residential
Prices of single-family houses and condos in Massachusetts grew at double-digit rates in March amid strong sales activity. In March, the median price for a single-family home in Massachusetts rose to $350,000, up 12.7 percent from $310,500 a year earlier, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported. The median price of condos in the state rose 10.9 percent, to $265,000 from $239,000. Despite the year-on-year gains, however, condo prices actually dipped in March from February, when the median price was $269,000. Part of the reason is that condo inventory is more plentiful, brokers said.

Residential/Commercial
Sales of multifamily homes in 2004 climbed 20.3 percent from 2003, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. In many parts of the state, two- and three-family houses are being sold to developers who are converting them to condos to meet the continued demand in that market segment. With the rental market soft in recent years, rental income is not enough to cover the annual costs of owning a multifamily house, brokers say. In many communities, buyers are making more money splitting two-family houses into condominiums and reselling rather than renting them out.

Chicago

Commercial
Celebrated architect Frank Gehry has made an unsolicited, top-dollar offer to acquire the landmark Inland Steel Building, an icon of skyscraper design. Gehry, who has dabbled in real estate, is part of a small group of investors that includes Chicago real estate executive Harvey Camins. The exact amount of their bid could not be determined, but sources said it was substantially more than $200 a square foot, or roughly $50 million. The negotiations are expected to reach a decisive point within weeks.

Commercial
Chicago saw its largest office leasing deal so far this year when law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP signed a 294,175 square foot lease at Bank One Corporate Center. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, asking rents in the building begin at $22 per square foot. The law firm begins its 15-year lease at the 1.5-million-sf office tower in January 2007.

Las Vegas

Residential/Commercial
In a study of 10 major U.S. metropolitan areas, Marcus & Millichap Research Services found Las Vegas has one of the highest condo conversion rates in the nation. About 7,500 apartment units are in the conversion pipeline in the city and another 10,000 changeovers have been proposed. In addition to low mortgage rates and skyrocketing single-family home prices, the conversion boom is being spurred by retirees who are buying because condos are more cost-effective than a house, according to Marcus & Millichap.

Residential
The rising cost of living in fast-growing Las Vegas has real estate experts concerned. In the fourth quarter of 2004, the cost of living in southern Nevada was – except for California markets – greater than that of the top 10 metro areas from which people most commonly migrated to Las Vegas. It marked the first time Las Vegas passed those areas, which include Utah, Arizona and Texas. Also adding intrigue to the fate of the real estate market is the soaring price of land. The price of vacant land currently sits at about $12 a square foot, a 149-percent increase from a year ago, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

Los Angeles

Commercial
Los Angeles County’s office market continued to tilt in favor of landlords last quarter, as businesses expanded and pushed the vacancy rate down 3 percentage points, to 14.1 percent, from the same period a year earlier, the Los Angeles Times reported. Nearly 1.2 million square feet of office space were taken off the market in the quarter that ended March 31, according to Cushman & Wakefield. About 4.3 million square feet have been absorbed in the last year, part of a huge absorption trend in the market, brokers said.

Commercial
In what could mirror the battle over the proposed Jets stadium in Manhattan, the city of Anaheim outlined plans last month for a new 70,500-seat stadium on the Angel Stadium parking lot to house a National Football League franchise in as soon as three years. But opponents of the project have asked why the city should consider donating part of the 35-acre site to the NFL when the parcel could fetch $150 million from developers. Anaheim is one of four sites in greater Los Angeles being considered for an NFL franchise. The others are the L.A. Coliseum, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and a proposed stadium in Carson.

Residential
Latinos account for 31 percent of Southern California households, according to research by the Center for Real Estate at UCLA. They also make up one-quarter of the region’s homeowners, and 50 percent of Latino homeowners have bought their residences during the past .ve years, Realtor.org reported.

Miami

Residential/Commercial
Developer Leon Cohen is set to submit plans to the city for what could be the world’s tallest condo building in downtown Miami. Two 110-story skyscrapers – a condo tower and apartment-hotel tower – would each rise 1,200 feet along Biscayne Boulevard. If built, they would eclipse what is currently the world’s tallest residential building, the 21st Century Tower in Dubai at 883 feet tall, the Miami Herald reported. Florida’s tallest high-rise is the 789-foot Four Seasons Hotel & Tower on Brickell Avenue in Miami.

Residential
In all of South Florida, the cheapest homes sold last year were in Miami-Dade County, where the average price was $250,000, according to Integra Realty Resources. But Miami-Dade also is where brand-new condominium units are the priciest, averaging more than $308,000. The numbers appear odd because inexpensive new construction in south Miami-Dade brought down the county’s overall average cost, while at the same time, the sale of new waterfront luxury units skewed the average price of a condo upward.

Philadelphia

Commercial
Donald Trump is reportedly shopping for a site for a casino operation in the Nicetown section of Philadelphia, after legislation was signed in July creating 14 parlor licenses across the state. Trump is reportedly looking at a potential slots-parlor location at the site of a former plant operated by the Budd Company. Gov. Ed Rendell has called on Trump to bring his business to Philadelphia, but told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he didn’t know if Trump’s interest was “real” and hadn’t spoken to the developer.

Commercial
Office vacancy in Philadelphia’s central business district currently hovers at 15.6 percent, and the first quarter saw approximately 160,000 square feet of absorption, its first positive boost since the third quarter of 2003, according to Grubb & Ellis. But a significant uptick in vacancy is expected with nearly two million square feet of space coming on line in the next few years, Globest.com reported.

San Francisco

Commercial
The University of California is seeking up to 410,000 square feet of space in Oakland, part of a search that could result in the city’s first new office building in three years. A request for proposals by the university is widely expected to draw bids from Shorenstein Co., Prentiss Properties, developer Bill Sumski and others with available downtown parcels. The university has asked for initial bids by June 20, with the selection process wrapping up by the end of the year.

Residential/Commercial
A plan is progressing to transform the scrufiest stretch of San Francisco’s main street – from Fifth to 10th streets along Market – into a thriving arts district. Ten years in the making, and even longer in the concept stage, the redevelopment plan will be evaluated by both the city’s Planning Commission and redevelopment agency in the next few months. Improvements suggested in the blueprints include 1,400 more dwelling units in the area, increasing the number of theaters, performing arts, film and other venues, and improving the pedestrian and bicycle flow in the area while better managing vehicle traffic.

Residential
Despite ever-climbing prices for San Francisco residences, new homebuyers are still rushing to snap them up, as evidenced by the fast-selling apartments in The Beacon – a new two-tower complex acquired by Centurion Real Estate Partners. Centurion converted the apartments to condos only weeks ago and has already sold more than 200 of the 304 units in the west tower. The units range from 550-square foot junior one-bedrooms to 1,653-square foot three-bedrooms, with prices from the low $400,000 range to $1.4 million.

Seattle

Residential
House prices in Bellingham shot up 20.4 percent last year, making the western Washington city the state’s hottest housing market. The strong pricing gains have continued this year. The average sales price in Bellingham for the first four months of the year was $274,333, compared with an average sales price of $223,117 in the same period in 2004. Bellingham’s unlikely emergence as Washington’s fastest rising residential real estate market partly reflects the city’s growing reputation for a good quality of life and affordability. It’s also a product of Bellingham’s status as a retirement destination, brokers say.

Residential
The median price of an apartment saw a 13- percent jump in King County, where Seattle is located, to $355,000 from $315,000 during the year-over-year period ended in April. Inventory plunged 11 percent in King County, partly because homeowners wish to stay put and because builders are finding it difficult to secure condominium insurance, according to brokers.

Washington, D.C.

Residential
The Washington metro area’s condo market is off to an impressive start in 2005, following a record-setting year in 2004, according to Delta Associates’ research. During the first quarter of 2005, there were 3,520 new condominium sales, compared to only 1,690 new sales during the first quarter of 2004, Globest.com reported. The metro Atlanta office market continued to head toward recovery during the first quarter, according a report from Cushman & Wakefield. Overall vacancy in the 131- million-square-foot market dropped 3.2 percent over the past year to 21.1 percent, while positive absorption for the first quarter totaled 703,829 square feet. While vacancy is nowhere near what it was two years ago, there is still oversupply, albeit with stable rental rates, the report said.

 Calling Long Island City the next hotbed of residential development puts the cart before the horse – though that’s an outdated metaphor for this Queens locale, which boasts excellent transportation. [more]

Battery Park City, often dismissed as a quiet backwater, is seeing an influx of new development. [more]

This story is the final installment of a three-part series looking at the gentrification of the Upper West Side, Park Slope and SoHo more than two decades ago. [more]

Realtor’s legislative pull spurs a national reform effort to level the brokerage playing field [more]

Sagging rental market sees less demand, shorter rental times for Hamptons properties Comments

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Capitalizing on the South Florida real estate market, Nest Seekers International has bypassed Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue like other Manhattan brokerage transplants and headed down to Miami, where the market is hotter than ever. [more]

CB Richard Ellis has become the first commercial real estate company to hit the small screen in a big way, launching a national advertising campaign with significant television time. [more]

 Location sells, but real estate plays. A new one-act musical comedy, “Co-op: A Comedy of Epic Pretensions,” brings the experience of broker, playwright and director John Cecil to the stage, telling the story of a boy raised in secret by a mystical superintendent at HouseProud Towers, an Upper West Side co-op. [more]

Joins crowded field of real estate moguls/team owners in bid for Nationals [more]

Dear Editor:
Every month I look forward to The Real Deal coming out. I find that I get wonderful and accurate information from your publication. This month however, your survey of the top ranking real estate firms was inaccurate, but unfortunately, you probably had no way of knowing.

You said that the information of the number of listings per firm and per agent was taken from the larger firms web sites.

Well there is a problem here. Douglas Elliman and Corcoran have automated systems (there may be others but I know these for a fact). When a listing is put into their in-house listing system as an exclusive, it goes up on the web site as such.

However, I know for a fact that there is at least one agent at Bellmarc that puts open listings on his web site as his exclusives. I’m sure that there are other agents at Bellmarc that also do it.

Also, since Bellmarc’s system is not automated or attached to their web site, (each agent maintains his or her own web page) many of the listings on their web site are sold and/or closed listings.

-Received from a top agent at a one of Manhattan’s largest brokerages

Editor’s Note:
When we published last month’s cover story, which sought to sum up the pecking order among Manhattan residential real estate firms, we were sure it would stir up some discussion among brokers, and comments from our readers make clear it did.

The overwhelming number of letters and calls we received about open listings focused on Bellmarc
.
A spokesperson for the firm said open listings constitute only a small fraction of total listings at the firm. “In our entire system we have about 5 percent open listings, and those aren’t all on our web site,” said Janice Silver, executive vice president of sales and marketing. She said such listings are never explicitly marked on the web site as “exclusive.”

Silver also said the firm has a policy against posting sold and closed listings on its web site as available listings. While she acknowledged the firm’s listing system is not automated, she said the company’s listing department monitors what is up on the web site. “If there is something that shouldn’t be there, the listing department takes it off,” she said.

Another final note on the survey. The number of agents listed as working at Warburg was incorrect. The number of agents is 133.