The interior of Scarano & Associates Architects’ office in Dumbo buzzes with activity and it’s not just because the D train is crossing the Manhattan Bridge. Comments
-
Investment sales in Manhattan set a record last year as $14.5 billion worth of property traded hands, but the market may break its own record in 2005. [more]
A Fifth Avenue address has never been cheap, but when it comes attached to a Manhattan mansion, the price tag may strain the bounds of belief. [more]
Examining top agents and top firms, The Real Deal set out this past month to take a comprehensive look at the current Web site listings of the 10 biggest residential real estate companies in Manhattan. [more]
They aren’t making any more land in Brooklyn, which is why it’s increasing in value as developers follow savvy urban homebuyers to the borough. [more]
When FAO Schwarz shuttered the doors on its flagship store in January 2004, it marked the end of a storied company, and caused a collective gasp as New York parents looked around and realized retail options for their kids weren’t in good shape on the island of broken toy stores. [more]
Reports of Downtown’s death as a commercial center may be greatly exaggerated. [more]
The prospect of a deflated real estate market is constantly looming, but some private and institutional investors may be taking moves to protect themselves from a down market. [more]
Commercial properties recently placed on the market [more]
Foreign buyers step up condo purchases [more]
For new projects, everything from ‘vignettes’ to custom-design furniture can help sell units [more]
Residential foreclosure rates are expected to increase this year, causing heartache and trouble for some homeowners and investors, and opportunity for others. [more]
Chelsea
Chelsea House
130 West 19th Street
The Clarett Group is building a 14- story, 64-unit condo tower. The 100,000-square-foot apartment building is being designed by Randy Gerner of GKV Architects. Construction is expected to begin in late spring and be completed by June 2006.Chelsea
655 Sixth Avenue
Sales are underway at the Hugh O’Neill Building, which Elad Properties will reopen later this year as a condo building. The landmarked structure is offering one, two and three-bedroom homes on its five existing floors and has received permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to build an additional two floors of penthouse residences. Elad is also planning to construct three townhouselike duplex residences on the building’s 20th Street rooftop. The property will contain a total of 49 units, ranging in size from nearly 1,000 square feet to over 5,000 square feet for the largest penthouse units, which will also come with a 2,500-square-foot outdoor terrace. Prices range from approximately $1 million to $7 million. Occupancy is slated for September 2006. Cantor Pecorella is the sales agent for the project. Contact: sales office at 212-807- 6565 or theoneillbuilding.com.Downtown Brooklyn
The Court House
125 Court Street
Leasing is under way at the 320- unit rental building developed by Two Trees Management, with around 50 units still available. The building features apartments on 11 floors and two duplexes. Units range in size from 465 square feet to 1,250 square feet and in price from $1,660 to $4,500 per month. All units in the fullservice building have doubleglazed oversized windows, ninefoot soundproof ceilings, red oak floors, and many units have private terraces and balconies. Each resident will be given a free membership to the on-site YMCA. . Contact: leasing office, 718-222- 4747.East Williamsburg
1610 DeKalb Avenue
Two-story brick warehouse, with three additional stories added on, that will house 23 loft-style apartments. Some units will have 16-foot ceilings, and there will be three duplexes. The project is scheduled to be completed at the end of the summer. American Development Group is the developer and Adam Kushner is the architect.Flatiron District
4 West 21st Street
17-story, 62-unit loft building designed by architects Hugh Hardy and Ariel Fausto. The site is currently being cleared for the 93,000-square-foot building, which will include 105 parking spaces. Completion is scheduled for 2006.Greenwich Village
25 Fifth Avenue
Developer Aby Rosen’s RFR Holdings plans to convert the 87-unit, 107,000-square-foot apartment tower to condos, according to reports. RFR recently purchased the building for $46.3 million.Harlem
The Walden
69 East 130th Street
A new eight-story condominium nearing completion will offer 25 one, two, and three-bedroom units, including six penthouses and three maisonettes ranging in price from $350,000 to $750,000. The building will have a 24-hour doorman. Contact: Katherine Gauthier, Douglas Elliman, 212- 769-6544.Long Island City
45-56 Pearson Street
Rosma Development is planning a 20-story “Manhattan-style building” with 120 units ranging from one-bedrooms to penthouses. Groundbreaking is expected in July, with the project expected to be completed in early 2007. Prices are expected to range from $600 to $700 a square foot, the Daily News reported. Unlike other major projects in the area, the building is not on the waterfront and is the first major development inside a 37-block industrial area that was rezoned in 2001.Lower East Side
154 Attorney Street
32-unit doorman condo building with sales expected to start at the beginning of this month. Designed by Kutnicki/Bernstein Architects, it includes two fourbedroom penthouses, and many units have private terraces. The building will also have six rooftop cabanas that will be available for sale to residents of lower floors, according to curbed.com. Contact: Rob Gross, Douglas Elliman, 212- 727-6130.Lower East Side
Switch Building
109 Norfolk Street
The seven-story, nine-unit building, designed by nArchitects, is currently under construction. The building is named “switch” because of its facade of metal panels set at alternating angles, a reinterpretation of the traditional bay window, according to the Web site triplemint.com. Contact: 109norfolk.comMadison Square Park
One Madison Avenue
The building’s landmark tower, which is 50 stories tall and contains 270,000 square feet, will be converted to condos. The 10-story southern portion of the building will remain the offices of Credit Suisse First Boston. Real estate investment trust SL Green bought the office building last month and is expected to partner with a residential developer for the conversion project.Madison Square Park
400 Park Avenue South
A 40-story tower comprised of 432 rental apartments ranging from studios to three-bedrooms is planned on the site of a parking lot. The project at 28th Street is being designed by Handel Architects and Atelier Christian de Portzamparc, and was approved by the Department of City Planning and local Community Board, though work has not yet begun. A subway entrance and retail space will occupy the ground floor, while a fitness club and kids’ center will be located on the second floor.Midtown East
Sutton Hotel
330 East 56th Street
The 84-room hotel is scheduled to close in June for conversion to condos by developer Alchemy Properties. No information on the size and scope of the conversion was available as of press time.Midtown East
305 East 46th Street
A 17-story brick office building will be converted to condos by Intell Management, which has offices in the building and bought it last year, the Daily News reported.Jersey City
Port Libert
The master-planned waterfront community with views of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, and New York Harbor is already 70 percent sold. There are 96 residences, including one and two-bedroom units ranging from 766 to 1,510 square feet, located in four-story buildings with indoor parking. Community facilities include 24-hour gatehouse security, a clubhouse with outdoor pool, health club and fitness center, tennis courts and a fullcourt basketball court. Work is also progressing on an adjacent 18-hole golf course. Contact: sales office at 201-536-0300 or portlibertedirect.com.Upper West Side
Broadway bet. West 61st and 62nd Streets
An empty lot next to the Mayflower Hotel owned by the Zeckendorfs, Goldman Sachs and an Eyal Ofer-led company will house a two-towered building with 250 to 280 apartments – probably condos – and 88,000 square feet of stores on four levels, the Post reported. Occupancy is expected in late 2007. The project is being designed by Cesar Pelli and Associates.Washington Heights
4650 Broadway
Acadia Realty Trust plans to develop a mixed-use project with 300,000 square feet of residential, retail and commercial space. The White Plains-based REIT recently bought the site – which houses a city building and a commercial parking garage – and is considering selling the rights to develop the 150,000-square-foot residential portion.Williamsburg
55 Berry Street
A 35-unit loft condo conversion has river views starting on the third floor. The lofts range from 1,092 to 1,361 square feet, with prices ranging from $755,000 to $1.4 million. Interiors have been designed by Andres Escobar. Each unit has two baths, 12-foot ceilings, maple flooring, and an open kitchen with “floating” center island. There is a common garden on the second floor. Contact: Helene Luchnick, Douglas Elliman, 212-965-6008.Sales Update
Downtown Brooklyn
Boulevard East
53 Boerum Place
11-story, 99-unit condo building had four apartments remaining for sale as of mid-April. The one and two-bedroom units available range from $586,000 to $700,000. Contact: Cheryl Nielsen-Saaf, Corcoran, 718-522- 4919 or boulevardeast.com.Midtown
The Plaza Hotel
Elad Properties and hotel union workers reached an agreement last month to reduce the number of planned condominium conversions at the hotel from 200 to around 150 units. The agreement also calls for maintaining roughly 350 hotel rooms, up from the 150 originally planned to be saved. The Plaza’s Grand Ballroom, Palm Court and Oak Bar will be preserved and remain open to the public, and the plan will allow more than double the original estimate of hotel workers to keep their jobs. Contact: condo sales, Rosita Sarnoff, Stribling, 212- 585-4542.Financing
Hoboken
Maxwell Place
1025 – 1125 Maxwell Lane
The developers of a condo project on the former Maxwell House Coffee plant site on the Hudson River last month secured financing for the first phase of the project. Hypo Real Estate Capital Corporation closed a $338 million construction loan to developer PT Maxwell for the project, which will eventually include four buildings with 832 residential units and 206,000 square feet of commercial space.Midtown
Sheffield
322 West 57th Street
The 50-story, 845-unit rental building may be converted to condos. Swig Burris Equities and two joint venture partners, YL Real Estate Developers and S& Equities, closed on the purchase of the building last month for $418 million. However, the deal is capitalized at $545 million, including renovation costs – and said to be the largest sale of a residential building ever in the United States, the Daily News reported. Part of the financing includes a $108 million mezzanine loan by Vornado Realty Trust.Quiet enclave now counts 255 Hudson Street among luxury projects [more]
Combined rental and condo projects break new ground for developer [more]
Atlanta
Commercial
Midtown’s tallest tower is nearing completion at Peachtree and 14th streets, with occupancy expected next year. The 41-story, 670,000-square-foot building being developed by Hines is already 65 percent pre-leased, and won honors from the U.S. Green Building Council for its environmentally sensitive design. The tallest office building in Atlanta is the 55-story, 1.3-million- square-foot Bank of America Plaza in Downtown, owned by Cousins Properties.Residential/Commercial
With a new moniker, the area between Downtown and Midtown is in the midst of a transition to make it more appealing to residents and businesses. Real estate professionals are now calling the neighborhood SoNo, for south of North Avenue. Projects in the works there include a 130-unit condo complex on Peachtree Street by Urban Realty Partners, where one-bedroom and two-bedrooms will range from $190,000 to the mid-$400,000s, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.Boston
Residential
Boston is more at risk for a home-price decline than any other major metropolitan area, according to a recent survey by PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. Within two years, there is 53.3 percent probability of weaker home prices in the Greater Boston area. The survey said nationally, there’s a 16.1 percent chance of a decline.Commercial
The overall vacancy rate for the Boston central business district ticked up to 14.6 percent for the first quarter, up a tenth of a percentage point from the previous quarter, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield. Despite the increase, brokers say they are starting to see signs of life at the top end of the market, including deals such as Investors Bank and Trust’s 10-year, 350,000- square-foot renewal at John Hancock Tower last month, Globest.com reported.Chicago
Residential
There were 6,298 condo units sold in Chicago in 2004 – nearly double the number sold in 2003 and speculators are playing a significant part in the market, according to Chicago-based Appraisal Research Counselors. Speculators have found ways to get around developers who generally say they won’t sell multiple units to one purchaser, instead buying units in the same building under different names. The rental market has been weakened because so many investor- owned properties are for rent, according to Realtor.org.Las Vegas
Residential/Commercial
Plans are underway to expand Lake Las Vegas, where barren desert has been transformed over the last two decades into one of the area’s leading resorts. Located 20 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, the master planned community is slated to add more than 8,000 homes over the next decade, up from 1,000 currently, as well as three more hotels, according to the Las Vegas Sun.Residential/Commercial
Steve Wynn, the casino entrepreneur credited with leading transformations of Las Vegas with his opening of the Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio, was scheduled last month to open Wynn Las Vegas, a new 2,700-room resort. Wynn, who hasn’t been a presence on the Strip since he closed the Desert Inn in 2000, said that his wife inspired many of the features of the $2.7 billion project and that the April 28 opening date was a tribute to her birthday, according to the Sun.Los Angeles
Residential
The median price of a Southern California home was a record $425,000 in February, marking the 13th consecutive month of year-over-year gains of 20 percent or more, the Los Angeles Times reported. In Los Angeles County, the median price of new and existing houses and condominiums sold increased to $424,000 from $352,000 a year ago, according to Data- Quick Information Systems.Residential
Lower-priced neighborhoods in Los Angeles County are appreciating in value faster than higher-end communities, according to DataQuick Information Systems. Between July and December, the median price slipped more than 11 percent in Beverly Hills and Pacific Palisades and by seven percent in Pasadena, but shot up 39.6 percent in Lincoln Heights, 30.6 percent in El Monte and 26.7 percent in Compton. Part of the reason more affluent neighborhoods are posting lower appreciation rates than in the past is because many sellers are setting lofty asking prices, the Los Angeles Times reported.Miami
Residential/Commercial
In a continuation of a Miami trend, New York-based Morgan’s Hotel Group, owned by Ian Schrager, plans to convert the 325- unit Shore Club, which it has operated since 2002, into a hotel condo. Among the units, a three-level penthouse with a terrace that includes a private rooftop pool is expected to be priced at $20 million, according to Globest.com.Philadelphia
Residential/Commercial
There is demand for condominiums in the Philadelphia suburbs, but newly built inventory in surrounding counties is tiny in relation to downtown, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. About 1,500 rental units have been built annually in Philadelphia and its suburbs over the last five years, according to Marcus & Millichap, and supply has been constrained in the suburbs because of lack of zoning and anti-growth policies, even though new units sell out fast.San Francisco
Residential/Commercial
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said last month the city is set to approve a massive trio of mixed-use developments that aim to revitalize the Rincon Hill, Transbay Terminal, and Mid-Market areas. The plans call for 11,000 new residences.Commercial
First quarter reports said that office vacancy rates in San Francisco are decreasing, rental rates are increasing and, for the seventh consecutive quarter, positive net absorption is continuing. Class A vacancy in the Central Business District posted the most significant drop during the first quarter of 2005, decreasing from 18 percent to 16.7 percent according to Cushman & Wakefield.Seattle
Residential
King County home prices rose dramatically in March due to a supply-and-demand imbalance, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, the Seattle Times reported. The inventory of properties up for sale in the county that includes Seattle sank by about 33 percent from March 2004, as the median price surged 16 percent over the same time span.Residential/Commercial
Plans were recently announced for downtown Seattle’s tallest residential tower, a 36- story condominium project near Pike Place Market on Second Avenue. The project by Minnesota-based Opus Northwest would be the first to take advantage of Seattle’s proposed new development guidelines allowing increased height and encouraging greater density in the downtown core, according to published reports.Washington, D.C.
Commercial
Downtown Washington office buildings cost more last year than properties in Manhattan or Los Angeles on a per square foot basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. And foreign money preferred the 202 area code for its real estate investments over any other U.S. metropolitan center in 2003 and 2004. Hoping to get a payoff for their efforts, several local major real estate holders, such as Douglas Development and Westfield Realty, are reportedly considering selling their entire portfolios. The JBG Cos., a prominent Chevy Chase, Md. developer, has put 33 of its properties on the market to recapitalize four of its investment funds, according to the Washington Business Journal.Residential
House prices throughout the Washington, D.C. area continued their relentless climb last year, with costs rising in every jurisdiction and the median sales price topping $300,000, according to a new analysis by the Washington Post. Alexandria remains the most expensive municipality, and also saw some of the sharpest price increases. The median home price rose 23.3 percent, to $499,500. In contrast, the five jurisdictions with median prices under $300,000 were all in Maryland. The District of Columbia showed the smallest increase, with the median price rising just 1.9 percent, to $316,000, partly because the study numbers didn’t include condos.Three high-end buildings upgrade neighborhood; is there enough demand? [more]
Upper Midtown region becomes luxury hub, capped by oppulent condos in Bloomberg Tower [more]
This story is a second 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]
Study finds subprime borrowers spend less by going to brokers rather than loan officers [more]
Study finds greater number of borrowers pay mortages on time in high-cost areas [more]
Work isn’t everything to Jacky Teplitzky, but her job as a senior vice president for Prudential Douglas Elliman certainly requires energy and time that may impinge on her other passions faith, family and helping children in need. [more]
