It isn’t a flood just yet. But observers say the flow of funds from the money spigot for New York real estate deals has intensified in recent months. And this new stream of lending — which is enabling mostly refinancings, but some developments and acquisitions, too — is coming from many directions, according to bankers, brokers and developers. [more]
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On an island with 450 million square feet of office space, an early 20th-century Midtown building of less than 100,000 square feet is a drop in the bucket. But in January, the 13-story 681 Fifth Avenue was one of the flash points in a frantic contest between commercial brokerage rivals Cushman & Wakefield and Jones Lang LaSalle. At issue was control of roughly 20 properties, in play because JLL poached five top leasing brokers from Cushman. [more] -
It has long been a cardinal rule in residential real estate in New York that those who are running the show and managing the office don’t actually sell apartments. While they must be licensed to do so, the thinking goes that managers are there to help train their agents, help their agents navigate deals, and divvy up any leads that come in. “Managers do not sell,” but instead make their money from salaries and bonuses, said Michael Adorno, a spokesperson for the Corcoran Group, about the policy at his firm, which resembles those of other large New York City brokerages. [more]
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Quirkily named Internet startups were dominant in last month’s Super Bowl advertising. Initial public offerings for these companies have recently been splashed throughout the business pages, and Wall Street analysts are valuing some of them in the range of tens of billions of dollars. Then, of course, there’s the gorilla in the room, Google’s recent $1.9 billion purchase of 111 Eighth Avenue. These days it seems you can’t escape that eerily familiar sense that we are back in the throes of another tech bubble. [more] -
Investors have long viewed prime Manhattan residential real estate as the equivalent of a blue-chip stock: expensive, but virtually guaranteed to appreciate over time. That is, until the 2008 Lehman Brothers crash sent prices plummeting, turning the conventional wisdom on its head. After Lehman, foreclosures appeared in investor-owned apartments all over Manhattan as the chasm between monthly costs and rental income widened. Buying an investment property in Manhattan suddenly seemed like a terrible idea, and all but a few daring small investors had since avoided Manhattan real estate. Instead, the city’s residential sales have been dominated by buyers looking for a home. [more] -
From left: Square Mile co-founders Craig Solomon and Jeff CitrinIn 2007, a little-known real estate fund called Square Mile Capital Management made $38 million in loans to Kent Swig, then a red-hot New York City real estate player, for him to complete his high-profile condo conversions at both the Sheffield and 25 Broad Street. Square Mile forced Swig to pledge equity in his condos as collateral for the funds, but by 2008, Swig’s empire was beginning to crumble, and Square Mile moved swiftly to collect. [more]
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156 West 88th StreetOn the gutted second floor of 34 East 68th Street, residential real estate broker George van der Ploeg is giving a mini-lecture on 19th-century architecture. A rectangular staircase pillar isn’t original to the 1879 brownstone, says van der Ploeg, who is marketing the $11.975 million listing with fellow Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Nancy Aryeh. However, another round post a few feet away, topped with an elaborate handrail, “is original, and would have been mahogany, though it’s covered with about 10 layers of paint,” he says. Townhouse specialists like van der Ploeg are a vanishing breed. [more]
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Bruce EichnerBruce Eichner is chairman of the Continuum Company, a privately held firm focused on the acquisition and development of residential, office, hospitality and retail space in New York, Miami and Las Vegas. His projects have included the Manhattan Club, which opened in 1997 as the city’s first time-share resort; the Continuum, a 2 million-square-foot condo community in South Beach that had openings in 2002 and 2008; and the 3,000-room Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, which opened last year. [more]
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Stuart ElliottWith more resilience than one might have anticipated, New York City developers are still thinking outside the glass box. Pundits said the recession was supposed to mean the death of good architecture in Manhattan, as developers sought to do more “value engineering” on their projects.
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In real estate these days, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. As January’s snowdrifts finally melted, would-be buyers and renters flocked to open houses last month, tempted by low interest rates and visions of discounted dream homes. “Buyers are out in full force and bonus checks have hit the bank,” said Prudential Douglas Elliman’s John Gomes. But brokers complain that the sheer amount of market data available these days can hinder deals, especially in a still-uncertain economic environment. “Real estate buyers are savvier than I’ve experienced in the past,” said Stacey Chametznik, a senior vice president at City Connections Realty. [more]
The New York State Department of State quietly fined the Corcoran Group $70,000 this past June as a result of a 2006 complaint filed by an unhappy co-op buyer who discovered that dozens of the firm’s agents were working without licenses, The Real Deal has learned. A state investigation prompted by the complaint found that 79 brokers and agents — including several top producers at the firm — had licensing irregularities. [more]
The brokerage Citi Habitats, which has long emphasized rentals over condos, may have been kicking itself at the peak of the boom, when everyone in New York seemed to be buying. But in the depths of the recession, as prices cratered and more New Yorkers began flocking to rentals, that strategy suddenly seemed smart. [more]
(Source: CB Richard Ellis)Last month brought some high-profile lease signings in Manhattan — including by the Weinstein Company, headed by movie mogul brothers Harvey and Bob, OppenheimerFunds and Bloomberg LP. But landlords in many buildings are still solidifying their competitive market edge. [more]
Fred WilponDeveloper and New York Mets co-owner Fred Wilpon has been building his real estate empire since the early 1970s. But, as has been widely reported, the fall of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff has been wreaking havoc for him. Last month, Madoff said that Wilpon, who was invested in his funds, “knew nothing” about his scam. But Madoff’s victims are going after Wilpon and his partners for millions, and now he’s shopping for new Mets investors. Here’s a look at the trajectory of his career. [more]
Stuyvesant TownTishman Speyer Properties may have suffered one of the biggest debacles of the downturn with Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village, but the firm appears to be getting its footing back. Over the past year, the 33-year-old Manhattan-based company has gone on a spree of buying, selling, developing and leasing buildings, as well as restructuring some of its debt. Last year, the firm bought around $1.06 billion of property around the world, up from $99 million in 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal. It wasn’t just a purchaser, though: The firm sold about $1.9 billion worth of property in 2010, up from $500 million a year earlier. [more]
Two years ago, the Magic 8-Ball for Williamsburg condo developers would have read, “Try Again Later.” With condo inventory peaking at almost 700 units in February 2009 (according to StreetEasy), developers and brokers in the throes of the recession were grappling with a stock of residential units roughly three times the size of early 2007′s. It wasn’t a good time to open a building. [more]
The Landmark at Strong PlaceThe old church at 58 Strong Place in Brooklyn hasn’t hosted a mass in years — but lately, Sunday crowds are back. Those flocking to the 160-year-old building aren’t worshippers, not in the usual sense. They’re there for open houses at the Landmark at Strong Place, the church’s new name as of December, when it opened for sales as Cobble Hill’s latest big condo building. In a neighborhood where new construction is rare, sales have been strong, the project’s representatives at Brooklyn Bridge Realty say. Of its 23 units, Saul Retig, an associate broker at the firm, said 10 were in contract as of mid-February. [more]Fixed 30-year mortgage rates in the 5 percent range? Minimum down payments below 5 percent? Jumbo-size home loans for high-cost markets at regular interest rates? Kiss them good-bye — possibly sooner than you might guess. Take a snapshot of today’s mortgage market conditions and frame it. It’s highly likely you’ll never see anything like these favorable combinations of rates and terms again. That’s the inescapable conclusion emerging from the Obama administration’s “white paper” on optional remedies for the two ailing giants of housing finance — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — along with events already under way in the national economy. [more]
Mortgage fraud fight goes digital
The city launched a new tracking system designed to flag transactions in its public property records database that show signs of mortgage fraud, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and several of the city’s district attorneys announced last month. The system — which will single out things like multiple, rapid changes in ownership, property transfers at below-market prices, and property sales at prices just barely below the minimum threshold for tax filings — will be monitored by the mayor’s Financial Crime Task Force. [more]
The AldynThe 40-story Aldyn is the latest in a wall of luxury towers, and the fourth by Extell Development, to sprout up on Riverside Boulevard in the West 60s. This largely glass building, however, is a condo-rental hybrid — an option that, as The Real Deal has reported, has become increasing popular for developers since the economy soured because it helps them hedge against the uncertain sales market. The Related Companies has a hybrid project at 440 West 42nd Street, and J.D. Carlisle Development Corp. has the Beatrice/Eventi combination on 29th Street. [more]Inflation fears are spurring Manhattan property purchases, real estate brokers say. The rise of currencies in Asia, Europe and Australia, coupled with unrest in the Middle East and a second round of federal government intervention domestically, is prompting both American and international buyers to dive into the Manhattan real estate market. [more]
In the mid-2000s, Manhattan real estate prices roared upward, luring a plethora of small investors aiming to double or triple their money in a few short years. When prices fell after the financial crisis, however, those buyers largely vanished from the market. [more]These days, few areas of Manhattan can be considered undervalued, despite fallout from the recent recession. “At this point, Manhattan is pretty mature,” said developer Matthew Blesso, president of Blesso Properties. “We’re going through this incredible recession, and it’s not like some of the neighborhoods are going to the pits, the way they did in previous recessions.” Still, there are pockets of the city that haven’t yet reached their full potential, where small investors (or homebuyers) looking for the greatest financial upside can snap up deals. [more]
1987: Garment Center preservation district created
1961: State fair housing bill approved
1902: Construction begins on Hotel Astor in Times Square [more]
Tourism is back, and lenders are eyeing hotels more favorably as a result. In 2010, a record 48.7 million visitors traveled to New York City. These visitors spent approximately $31 billion during their visits to the Big Apple, according to estimates by NYC & Company, the city’s official marketing and tourism organization. [more]
In the past generation, few areas of the five boroughs have developed faster or more fundamentally than the three-quarter-mile stretch of 42nd Street that extends from Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River. Some of the high-rises that have sprung up along that stretch are fairly good, at least by the rather low expectations that one brings to New York real estate: among these are the Silver Towers, the Atelier and the Orion. [more]
From left: Danny Davis, Naomi Muramatsu, Sofia Song, Sean Turner and Karen GastiaburoIf there’s one thing driving the Tribeca residential market right now, it may very well be the lack of a market. Indeed, brokers and market analysts say the neighborhood’s inventory, which is roughly 30 percent lower than it was at the peak, is influencing how almost all properties are being perceived and how quickly transactions are taking place. While even slightly overpriced apartments are still sitting on the market, when a property is priced right, particularly if it’s a two-bedroom or larger, it’s getting snapped up fast. [more]
Frank Gehry’s Louis Vuitton Foundation for CreationGehry building under fire in France
A French court ruling has halted construction of a new building in Paris designed by starchitect Frank Gehry. But the city of Paris is appealing the ruling, the Independent reported. [more]Atlanta
The Atlanta residential market took a major tumble toward the end of 2010, according to Atlanta Public Broadcasting. Home values in the metro area dropped 15 percent in the final three months of the year. According to data from Zillow.com, that drop in values led to more than half of single-family homeowners being underwater. Indeed, 51 percent of homes sold in December closed for less than the previous owner’s closing price, Zillow found. [more]
246-252 Mott StreetTribeca warehouse hits the market
A development property in Tribeca at 71 Laight Street is on the market for $65 million. The property consists of a five-story, 58,500-square-foot warehouse at 401 Washington Street and a one-story garage at 422 Greenwich Street, for a total of 108,500 square feet. [more]Sales Update
Chelsea
456 West 19th Street
There are just three units left at Cary Tamarkin’s 11-story condo, which has 22 duplex homes. The remaining units include one 1,700-square-foot two-bedroom unit with city views to the north and south, as well as two three-bedroom penthouses facing the High Line, each of which has nearly 3,000 square feet of interior space. Prices on the remaining units begin at $2.975 million. Stribling Marketing Associates is the agent. Contact: www.456W19.com. [more]Midtown West
$955,000
425 West 53rd StreetMorningside Heights
$440,000
200 West 108th StreetUpper East Side
$1.35 million
515 East 72nd Street [more]The Real Estate Board of New York is planning to launch a new website this fall, after ramping up its online efforts with a new dedicated social media specialist, Amanda Wood. The revamped site, which will allow users to interact online, aims to enhance members’ ability to share input and comments. [more]
Jeffrey Lichtenberg, a noted commercial broker whose clients have included the Trump Organization and Nathan’s Famous, has ended his 10-year run as an independent agent to join Grubb & Ellis as a vice chairman. [more]
Residential
Barak Realty
Stephanie Cohen was hired as the new public relations and marketing coordinator. [more]
Elliman’s Mark Menendez at the firm’s “concept” office at 4 Leonard StreetA latte to go with your apartment listings? That’s what some New York brokerages are starting to offer in compact new lounge-style storefront offices. The spaces offer what some firms see as a model for accommodating virtual agents who normally work from home. They give brokers a place to drop in and do business without occupying an actual desk. Some have the trappings of a regular office — fax, copier and receptionist — while others rely on agents to bring their own mobile devices and computers. [more]
When business is slow, some real estate agents hear bells. Wedding bells, that is. Faced with a market where down payments of at least 20 percent are the norm, Canadian agents Patricia Kiteke and Christina Carrick decided to help potential homebuyers by launching a down payment registry. [more]
In 2001, given the choice between money and fame, Barbara Corcoran chose money. The self-made Queen of New York Real Estate cashed out — selling the Corcoran Group to NRT for $66 million — but quickly regretted losing her personal brand. In “Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business,” out last month, Corcoran writes of her post-business period as “secretly miserable” and without purpose. She missed, she writes, her legions of “adoring brokers.” [more]
