The Real Deal New York

Office sellers keep prices up, but buyers expect discounts Crisis ripples lap at outer boroughs’ office market” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Real estate bigs describe their paths to success
How they did it
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Senior brokers say Manhattan is holding its own Q & A: Sounding off on the health of the market
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The fate of New York City’s most valuable office building — and the man who owns it — has real estate insiders on the edge of their seats. The General Motors Building is just one of the many gleaming skyscrapers real estate mogul Harry Macklowe put up as collateral when he borrowed billions to finance his purchase of seven Class A properties from the Blackstone Group last February. Macklowe’s mess
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How condo renderings differ from what gets built For renderings, the sky is fake, so what’s real?” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Shifts in the New York real estate market aren’t as drastic as in the rest of the country, but credit questions are getting tougher to answer. The Real Deal looked at the moving target of credit offerings and its effect on the residential market as part of an in-depth series of stories this month examining the shifting climate. Ground shifts for borrowers
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When Douglas Durst decided he wanted a signature restaurant for the Bank of America tower at One Bryant Park, he homed in on a short list of six renowned Manhattan chefs. Iron chefs forge favorable terms” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Partner and chairman of the real estate department at law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He negotiated the record $5.4 billion purchase of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town in 2006, among other noteworthy deals. The law firm brought in $470.5 million in gross revenue in 2006.

What is your full name?

Jonathan Lawrence Mechanic.

What is your birth date?

October 1, 1952.

Where did you grow up?

In Paterson, N.J.

Where do you live?

In the East Village.

Do you have any other homes?

In East Hampton.

What is the first job you ever had?

Working in my mother’s auto parts store in Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J. She was a woman who was way ahead of her time. I started working there in the summers when I was 15 or 16 until 17 or 18. I did whatever needed to be done.

When did you realize you wanted to be an attorney?

Early on. My household was a very outspoken one. Everyone had an opinion, and everyone loved sharing them. You needed to be on top of your game to be sitting at the dining room table. I thought I’d use those advocacy skills to make a living. I think when I was in college, I thought that law school offered a lot of career opportunities.

Why did you want to be in real estate?

My father, in addition to being a dentist, was a real estate developer in New Jersey on a small scale. He used to buy and renovate buildings in the area where we lived. I have a clear recollection of when I was 12 or 13; he had bought a ShopRite, which had gone out of business, and he decided to turn it into an office building, which he leased to IBM. I remember walking the site with him as they were tearing out the guts of the building and reconfiguring it as a swanky new building. I liked that.

What’s your best childhood memory?

Probably playing tennis with my father as a kid — when he set aside time for us to do things together.

How many deals do you work on in a given year?

About 100.

What’s it like to be behind the scenes rather than in the limelight?

Well, I guess I don’t see myself as being behind the scenes. The press has always been kind to me. I think my clients believe I contribute a lot to the transactions that close. I don’t think I’m in the foreground or in the background. I’m just part of the team that gets it done.

What word would you use to describe yourself?

Optimistic.

What word would others use to describe you?

I think some would say charismatic.

How do you deal with high-pressure situations?

Humor is always a big help.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Someone taught me about the art of negotiation: They said the key to negotiation is to care, but not too much. You need to negotiate hard, but you need to always be able to walk away.

What’s the greatest mistake you have ever made?

Maybe not getting a business degree at the same time
I got my law degree.

What activity do you do most regularly in your free time?

I play tennis a couple of times a week at Tennisport in Long Island City.

Do you work out too?

Three times a week at Harry Hanson [Fitness One-on-One] on Lower Broadway.

What’s the last book you read?

To connect with my kids [two boys, ages 12 and 17], I read the final version of “Harry Potter” a couple of weeks ago. It was a way to see what they were talking about.

What is your greatest professional achievement?

The building of the real estate department at Fried Frank.

What was the biggest obstacle on your path to success?

I’m never satisfied that things are as good as they can be. There are some people that can sit back and rest on their accomplishments. I am always looking for ways to expand and grow the practice. It is a good thing in terms of being ambitious, but it is always like trying to hit a moving target — that every time you approach it, it moves a little farther away. I imagine there are people in the world that say, “I met my goal, I am done.” Not me.

How do you deal with confrontation in your personal life?

Head-on.

What quality do you think you could improve in yourself?

Patience.

How many days do you eat dinner with your family?

Not as often as I’d like — maybe once or twice a week at best.

What if you lost it all tomorrow? How would you start over again?

The good news is I have a pretty significant skill set and relationships, so it’s not where I can’t transport that or do that all over again.

Have you ever had to hire a lawyer for yourself?

Yes.

Do you care to share the circumstances?

No.

Interview by Lauren Elkies

The credit crunch has yet to rear its ugly head in Manhattan’s commercial market, at least according to some real estate market watchdogs and data from CB Richard Ellis. “We’re not seeing it on the street,” said Gerry Miovski, a senior vice president in the Downtown office at CBRE. So far, crisis just a ‘temporary blip’ for office market” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

John Lam, chairman and CEO, the Lam Group

As told to Melissa Dehncke-McGill

I was born in China and moved to Hong Kong at the age of 9. My family was poor and scraped by to make ends meet. My parents always told me to work hard and to take care of the family. My father had a small handbag business, producing them at home and selling them on the streets. At age 11, I helped out in the family business and went to night school through junior high. At 14, I started to make change purses.

My first real job in the U.S. was working in a kitchen for three weeks washing dishes and helping with food preparation. I did not see a future as a cook.

I wanted to work in government but did not have the education. I went into manufacturing, where it was not as demanding. I realized that New York was one of the largest manufacturers of garments. Everybody needed clothes.

Once I embarked on that path, I worked at it for a while. My company kept growing and more orders kept coming in, so I hired my siblings to watch over certain divisions. My wife was very understanding and supportive of me. We worked long, hard hours. I eventually had more than 2,500 people working for me. My family, team and great workforce gave me more freedom to work on future projects as they handled the operations. And with a growing business, I needed more space, so I started to buy real estate.

I used my garment business to support that investment. In the 1980s, we were doing $80 million in business. Domestic goods were being imported from overseas, but we wanted to concentrate on the U.S. and started to slowly shift to a different kind of business in 1990. I tried fast-food chains, banking, and in 1996 I bought a hotel in foreclosure. When we gained experience in hotel operations, we started constructing hotels in the New York City market.

It is harder to succeed as an immigrant. Business practices are completely different than in the country you are from, not to mention the language barrier. In the beginning it is extremely difficult, but once people start working with us, they see our dedication and willingness to go above and beyond the norm. We built many good relationships this way. Real estate, for immigrants, is the same as every other profession. It takes hard work, dedication and passion to succeed.

My proudest accomplishment is that I have gained the trust and respect of the community to see my vision and support me along the way. The garment industry has lost many jobs overseas, but with my transition into the hospitality industry, we have created jobs in that sector.

Timing is everything. You need to do market research, see what people desire in the market and provide a product that people need and want five-plus years from now. I developed everything from condos to retail, hotel and office space. After Sept. 11, many people were selling in Manhattan. Hotel owners and developers switched to condos. Land owners were selling. Our group recognized New York City as a major tourist haven, and we continued to focus the majority of our resources on hotel developments to replace the hotel rooms that were being lost to conversions. We saw that the return for hotels in the future was greater than the money upfront for selling condos. I think I was the first to open a hotel shortly after Sept. 11, when many were telling me to postpone the opening. That opening turned out to be a major success. We saw opportunity in New York City when many had a bleak outlook.

In 2008, our group will have more than 1,500 rooms coming to New York City, which will create over 500 jobs. In the next three years, we will have approximately 1,000 rooms coming up each year.

Everyone holds onto a dream. If you do not have a dream, you have nothing to aspire to. Your dream is your drive.

Kim Mogull, president and CEO, Mogull Realty

As told to Melissa Dehncke-McGill

I’ve been drawn to real estate since the age of 6, when my mom, Martha Mogull, became a single working parent. She raised me and two older brothers while working as a commercial real estate broker. She was a pioneer for women entering the business and an inspiring role model for us.

Mom chauffeured me and my brothers around New Jersey in the family station wagon while we craned our necks out the back window scouting potential sites. While other girls dreamed of marrying a prince, I wanted to own the castle — so I could flip it, of course!

My mom was a workaholic, and I seem to have inherited the gene. I also acquired her passion for real estate. She was successful, well-liked and well-respected, and I’ve always tried to emulate her, both in character and achievements.

My brother Marc Mogull founded Benson Elliot Capital Management, a leading private equity real estate firm based in Europe. Needless to say, real estate was always, and continues to be, a hot topic during our holiday gatherings.

My first job, and every job since, has been in sales. In elementary school, I sold costume jewelry to the teachers. In high school, it was clocks out of the trunk of my car. I went to Northwestern University [in Chicago]. In college, I became the No. 1 Encyclopedia Britannica salesperson in the Midwest.

I joined CB Commercial in New York City straight out of college. During my first year in sales, I was recognized as the regional Rookie of the Year. Eight years later, I joined a boutique firm in New York as its president. I worked hard, learned my market and gained a following.

About eight years ago, I received a fortune cookie that read, “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” It was credited to Donald Trump. It immediately became my mantra and remains taped to my computer monitor today. It would later prove to be auspicious.

Four years ago, Donald read about a deal I did, and he actually called me up to arrange a meeting. By the time I left his office, I had a signed exclusive to lease a small restaurant at Trump Plaza. I immediately advised him it was the wrong corner for a restaurant and to demolish the space. I was firm that we needed to target dry goods users. I also told him to have an architect re-measure the space because it appeared larger to me than previously marketed. We succeeded on every point. Today, we have a dry goods store, a creditworthy tenant in a larger store paying significantly higher rent than originally projected.

I earned Donald’s business one store, one building and one success at a time. Donald is a good judge of talent and very results-driven. He didn’t need me to be on the payroll of a big brokerage firm to become comfortable working together. And while I may not have been around forever, 17 years of working 15-hour days sure seems like forever.

I’d been encouraged by clients and was already leaning toward setting up my firm, so when Donald told me it was time to start my own firm, I didn’t waste a second. The next day I formed Mogull Realty.

I’m proud to have built a company from the ground up — no partners, no shortcuts and no debt. Over the past 12 months, Mogull Realty has closed 235,000 square feet in retail transactions representing some of the most prestigious landlords and tenants in the country. I look at the Meatpacking District and see the work we did for the Hotel Gansevoort, Scoop Apparel, Catherine Malandrino. I’ve had a big part to play in making that area the remarkable place it is today.

The one thing I would have done differently is I would have spent more time reading leases at the beach instead of at my desk.

You can be a good thinker, but without implementation, you’re just a dreamer. Ultimately, I’m paid for results, not just ideas. Of course, implementation goes a lot smoother when you’re a good people person. Make sure you love what you’re doing because emotions are contagious, and your clients and colleagues will know right away when you are driving or simply along for the ride.

Peter Kalikow, president, H.J. Kalikow & Company

As told to Melissa Dehncke-McGill

I grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, which was rural at the time. We were well off, although to my family’s credit, I didn’t know that at the time. As a kid, I remember walking around without any money in my pocket.

I went to school at Hofstra University [on Long Island]. By my junior year, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. That year I did really well in my business courses, so by the end of the year I told Dad I wanted to come into the business with him. He was very excited about that.

I was once told, “You don’t know what you know.” I didn’t know that I was learning from my father just by being around him as I was growing up. You don’t really know what you know until you are in your 40s. That’s the advantage of growing up in the business.

I had a leg up, two legs up, and I didn’t have to compete with all the people in my generation who were off experimenting with drugs and protesting. Starting from nothing is very different. My grandfather started from nothing. I admire that.

My grandfather founded the business in 1927 and built the best buildings with the best amenities. My father and his brothers built buildings that made a lot of money.

I was 24 when I built my first building in Great Neck, a mid-rise that had a lot of amenities. On the job, guys were saying that the plans wouldn’t work; they were driving up the cost and creating more problems. After that I just said, “What does the plan say?” And even if they said it wouldn’t work, they followed the plan anyway.

Then I realized that for the same time and effort, I could make a lot more money in Manhattan. But I had to learn first. After that, I never had another job that wasn’t on budget — excluding interest rates, which I have probably guessed wrong more times than I want to think about.

In buildings, there is a pecking order; the top is the office building. Like the big builders at the time — Helmsley, Durst, Tishman — I wanted to be there. There were hundreds of pitfalls, but sometimes you get there in an odd way.

Being in the real estate business gives you a clear understanding of the importance of transportation. I took the subway all the time to high school and hockey games. I took the Triboro bus to junior high school. Today, everybody takes the subway, but in the ’70s and early ’80s, it wasn’t like that. Dad built one of his buildings in a two-fare zone and always had trouble keeping it full. My life with the MTA [Kalikow stepped down as chairman in May after six years] was informed early on by how important it was.

Visionaries are what make the society. Those are the people that change our lives. I am one of the practical ones. I’m OK at getting things done. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, but Theodore Vale made the company into something people couldn’t live without.

I always wanted to do something else besides real estate. I was in the car business for a while some years ago. They were manufactured in Italy, but they were sold for $13,000 and cost $20,000 to make. So I bought the New York Post [in 1988 and sold it in 1993 to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation] stupidly, on a whim, with no clear understanding of what the problems were going to be. All my best people tried to make it work. If I could have done things differently, I would not have bought the Post. It was a difficult thing to do.

I decided that I was not going to devote all of my time to making money. I am interested in philanthropy and public service. That’s what I do with New York Hospital, the Holocaust Museum and Hofstra.

My advice is to show up on time and return your phone calls. Returning phone calls seems to be a lost courtesy. Real estate is a good business, but it’s going to be different in the future world economy. In the old days it used to be insular, local. The foreign buyers were not the factor that they are today.

Leadership is important; I learned that at the Post. Whether it is a family-owned real estate business, the Post or the MTA, you have to make people do what you want, but you have to lead them, you can’t make them. I try to convince the board, and if I can’t, then maybe they are right. That is something I had to learn.

1177 Sixth Avenue for sale
The Paramount Group is selling 1177 Sixth Avenue and expects it to fetch at least $1 billion, the New York Observer reported. In 2002, Paramount bought the 47-story, 1-million-square-foot building for $409 million. It sold 32 Old Slip for $750 million two months ago, and purchased 60 Wall Street for $1.18 billion last May in a sale lease-back deal. Eastdil Secured will market 1177 Sixth, where tenants include law firms Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.

Midtown South building could fetch $200M
SL Green has put a Class B office building at 440 Ninth Avenue on the market with an asking price of $200 million, the New York Post reported. The 18-story, 370,000-square-foot prewar building is occupied by the offices of Duane Reade and B & H Photo, as well as Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse. Rent rollovers begin in 2012, and the property could be converted to hotel rooms or condos. Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan of Cushman & Wakefield are handling the sale.

UES mixed-use building asking $130M
The Easton, a 21-story, 158-unit mixed-use building at 360 East 65th Street, is on the market and is expected to fetch around $130 million, GlobeSt.com reported. About 60 percent of the building’s units are free-market, with an average rent of $47 per square foot; the other 40 percent are rent-stabilized, with an average rent of $17 per square foot. The property includes 9,700 square feet of retail space, which is 100 percent occupied with leases expiring between 2011 and 2014. Brian Ezratty of Eastern Consolidated is handling the sale.

Leasehold interest in UES retail space for sale
Bids were due last month for the 40-year leasehold interest in 40,000 square feet of retail space at 201-203 East 86th Street, which is expected to fetch a price in the $50 million range. The property, which comprises the base of the 35-story residential tower known as the Colorado, comprises 16,744 square feet on the first and second floors of 201 East 86th Street and 23,251 square feet on the three lower-level floors of 203 East 86th Street. Brian Ezratty of Eastern Consolidated is handling the assignment.

Tribeca parking lot on the market
A parking lot at 48-52 Franklin Place is on the market for sale with an asking price of $30 million, the New York Sun reported. The site, which will be delivered vacant, can support 75,000 square feet as of right. This can be increased to 94,000 square feet with certain bonuses. Besen & Associates is handling the sale. The site traded last winter for $25 million.

Soho garage on the block
A one-story garage at 523-525 Greenwich Street is on the market with an asking price in the $20 million to $25 million range, the Sun reported. Situated between Spring and Vandam streets, the site can support a 50,000-square-foot building. The buyer can purchase neighboring air rights to increase the size of the development.

Chelsea loft building asking $17M
A seven-story, 27,970-square-foot loft building at 154 West 27th Street is on the market for sale with an asking price of $17 million. The property has approximately 15,809 square feet of additional air rights. All except two residential units are free-market, and there are two ground-floor retail units with leases that average $24 per square foot. Brock Emmetsberger, Brendan Gotch, James Nelson and William Simons of Massey Knakal are handling the assignment.

Lower Manhattan mixed-use building for sale
A six-story, 26,800-square-foot mixed-use building at 157-159 Suffolk Street is on the market for sale with an asking price of $15 million, or $560 per square foot, GlobeSt.com reported. The residential component consists of 33 apartments, which comprise 11 one-bedrooms, 17 two-bedrooms and five three-bedrooms. The retail component features four spaces totaling 2,000 square feet. Deanne Draeger of Marcus & Millichap is marketing the property.

Flatiron loft building for sale
A five-story, 8,125-square-foot mixed-use loft building at 9 West 19th Street is on the market for sale with an asking price of $8.4 million, the Post reported. The prewar townhouse, which features a terra-cotta facade with wood-framed glazing and pressed-tin ceilings, can be used as commercial space or converted to residential use as of right. Peter Comitini of Corcoran is handling the assignment.

Jamaica mixed-use building on the market
A 10-story, 60,000-square-foot mixed-use building at 160-16 Jamaica Avenue in Queens is on the market for sale. The prewar property, which will be delivered vacant, offers 6,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space with 25-foot ceilings. Floors two through 10 may be used as office space or as residential lofts, and two passenger elevators serve floors one through 10. Ronda Rogovin of Eastern Consolidated is handling the sale.

Unable to compete with major newcomers, small stores are checking out Clash of the shopping carts” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

The fallout over the credit crunch has made mortgages harder to get for some New York City homebuyers. And office leasing may be affected if Wall Street firms see their bottom lines drop. But what about the impact on New York City retail? Manhattan store rents have been climbing upward for almost a decade. Bank branches and drugstores jockey for position on what seems like every street corner. And the bar is continually reset for luxury retail, as evidenced by the current wave of jewelry stores invading Madison Avenue.

So is New York retail due for a fall? The Real Deal spoke to Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing and sales at Prudential Douglas Elliman, about what’s next for Manhattan’s shopping scene as part of a recent Webcast interview.

One of the top retail brokers in the city — she brought the likes of Cartier, Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik, Versace and others here — Consolo shared her thoughts on a retail “correction,” how we’ve become a city of foodies, and what to expect going forward in a shaky real estate market.

THE REAL DEAL: Though the overall economy seems mostly insulated from the subprime mortgage mess so far, there has been talk about a possible recession, and Wall Street bonuses will most likely be down this year. What implications does this have for consumer spending and its impact on the Manhattan retail scene?

FAITH HOPE CONSOLO: I really think the Manhattan retail scene is quite insulated, and I’m going to tell you why. Even if the Wall Street bonuses are down, they’re so exorbitant. We’ve seen that in the numbers for the last three years; there still will be a lot of money around for spending.

TRD: The brokerage Marcus & Millichap said in June — perhaps they agree with you — that New York continues to perform well because it’s favored by retailers who want all the heavy traffic by their doorstep, and they predict an increase in rents by 4.5 percent in 2007. In light of possible recent decreases in commercial office prices, would you say retail is not far behind?

FHC: Well, I think we might enjoy a little correction for retail. We’ve had eight years of retail rents going up. This year we’re at an all-time high across almost every neighborhood across the city, and I would like to see a little leveling off.

TRD: Can you give me a number? Some kind of estimate?

FHC: I’ll just tell you some of the rents; they’re kind of interesting. Fifth Avenue today, between Saks and Bergdorf, is at $1,700 a foot. The Financial District today, where there is the new luxe influx of retail, was $100 to $200 a foot last year; $500 a foot now.

TRD: So what are some of the trends you see in the retail market as of now?

FHC: Well, I think we’ve realized that food has become fashion. We’ve seen in the last three years more star chefs coming to Manhattan, more exciting restaurant venues, and we’ve seen the influx for Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. So we’ve
really become a city of foodies.

TRD: Name some significant retail deals recently. And why are they significant?

FHC: I think that some of the very large jewelry deals on Madison are significant, and I’ll tell you why. This is the first time in a very long time that an area is completely defined by one use group. There are always a few stores, but in the last year we’ve seen 12 new jewelry stores, kind of like the Place Vend me in Paris, all grouped together.

TRD: Which neighborhoods would you say are most exposed if retail markets start to decline?

FHC: I think the neighborhoods that are still emerging and aren’t established: the Lower East Side, Alphabet City — any neighborhood on the fringe — lower West Side, maybe parts around Tribeca. They don’t have a real retail stronghold, and they’ll fall off the radar screen the quickest.

The credit crunch has started hitting New York’s seemingly unstoppable hotel industry, and heavier blows will follow if the economy remains sluggish next year. Hotel boom meets the credit crunch” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

 Third-quarter numbers show Manhattan residential market still healthy [more]

Pickles, bialys and $1 million condos: There’s demand for luxury living, but inventory is low [more]

Go to chart: Why the New York City housing market will stay strong and the national market will fare better than expected

Lenders deny financing to foreign buyers [more]

Residential brokers share their tips for staying afloat in today’s climate [more]

Wanting a small-town feel, this Pittsburgh native chose Carnegie Hill [more]

Kathryn Korte, president and CEO, Sotheby’s International Realty

As told to Melissa Dehncke-McGill

I was born in Chicago, and we lived there 10 years before moving to Boston. My father was president of the textbook publishing company D.C. Heath when it was owned by Raytheon. We were upper middle class and a close, supportive family.

My parents instilled in me a code of ethics, values and the ability to listen and to be fair, honest and consistent. I visit them quite often; we are all foodies and like good wine, so we have fun making gourmet dinners.

I went to Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., and majored in political science. I never thought my financial skills would be where they are today — that I would have to sharpen my pencil and learn a P-and-L statement.

I interviewed at Sotheby’s because I liked the idea of the brand and the auction house. I’ve worked there since I got out of college in 1984 and started in the Manhattan brokerage as an administrative assistant when there were 14 agents. Now there are 140 agents. I was paid by the company to assist agents with deals, so I was never a selling agent. I had no idea how hard brokers worked.

Then I moved into the corporate office overseeing administration of the brokerage service’s human resources, and in 1992 I was appointed as head of the Manhattan brokerage operation. It was a good business in the right place at the right time, and I moved up in management. Did I envision being a CEO of the company I started out in? Not necessarily.

I have several colleagues that I have worked very closely with since the early ’80s. We are very proud that we were able to make a smooth and pretty seamless transition in ownership when Sotheby’s was purchased by Cendant and now that we are owned by Realogy.

How much harder is it to succeed as a woman? I don’t find it different to succeed as a woman, so I don’t see it that way.

I think brokers today have much better business skills than when I first started. Now a lot of them come from banking backgrounds and Wall Street. They enjoy moving on from one deal to the next. I also think a skill that a lot of good brokers have is the ability to envision what the client wants even if the client cannot necessarily put it into words.

My philosophy is that you have to remain in the field in order to be a visionary in the boardroom. I’m fortunate to have the best of both worlds.

Michele Peters, CEO and owner, Weichert Realtors — Peters Associates

As told to Melissa Dehncke-McGill

I was born in Portland, Ore., to a middle-class family from Ohio. My ancestors were the original settlers of Ohio, so I come from a long line of farmers. My folks moved to New Jersey to a small town, North Haledon, which was essentially blue-collar, hard-working folk, and where the aspirations of the kids I went to school with were little more than graduating high school, getting married and having children. I didn’t find that particularly inspiring. I always dreamed of living in Manhattan.

I went to Syracuse University and graduated with dual degrees in music and education. My graduate work there was in theater. I had aspirations to be a great actress. I think real estate sales is pretty close to theater. Years later, when I was 42 and had been in real estate for 11 years, I received a juris doctorate from New York Law School.

After college and moving to New York City, I temped as a secretary for a company with the politically incorrect name Laurie Girls. It was a good way to make money while I went out on auditions. I learned quickly that as a 90-word-per-minute typist, if I dressed well and smiled a lot, I could get the highest-paid jobs that had the least amount of work. My first real job was as assistant casting director for Cunningham & Walsh Advertising. My boss, the casting director, was Maxine Marx, daughter of Chico Marx of the famed Marx Brothers.

I taught music and film classes and volunteered as a photography teacher. A girlfriend suggested I try real estate. I began working as a rental agent at Feathered Nest and then became the first on-site agent at the Savoy condominium on East 61st Street. I got hooked on real estate.

So where did real estate eventually lead but to law school? I went to law school and went on to Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, working in the corporate restructuring department. And there I sat making a lot of money in a beautiful office and hating my life.

An important part of life is learning what we don’t want, and I have learned that over the years, it often will eventually lead you to what you do want.

I’ve always had this vision of being in the arts. While I was working as an agent, I was also managing the Grammy-nominated RCA recording artists the Hampton String Quartet, and produced their last album on EMI. I sing with St. Cecilia Chorus, which performs at Carnegie Hall.

One of my proudest accomplishments, and biggest disappointments, was as director of project development for a luxury condominium in Harlem. Hours were spent in discussions, and then I was called in for what I thought was a marketing discussion and was handed my walking papers. I was told, “You did a great job, but we just don’t think you have the name presence in Manhattan to complete the project.” That was pretty deflating.

Having lost the income from that project made me dedicated to finding another to make up for it. I did find it, and it’s a project of which I’m even more proud. And as a postscript, that project I lost still hasn’t sold, and that’s reward in itself.

It’s important to give to others. Right now, that means being the exclusive site selector for the State of New York’s Dormitory Authority, finding homes for the developmentally disabled in New York City.

I’ve done it all as a single woman, and it’s not easy — I don’t recommend it. My close friends truly keep me going. This town is great and needs great people, especially women and minorities, to work in real estate.

Andrew Heiberger, president and CEO, Buttonwood Real Estate

As told to Melissa Dehncke-McGill

I grew up in an upper-middle-class family in Dix Hills, Long Island. My mother is a top real estate broker, and my father is a homebuilder who had an affinity for landscaping. My parents instilled in me generosity, focus and an unrelenting work ethic. They also taught me how to evaluate and analyze properties.

My dream job was to be a professional football player, but more realistically, I wanted to be an attorney when I grew up. The first job I ever had was selling pencils to kids at my elementary school. I made a few bucks at it and figured out that I was into entrepreneurial stuff. During my teen years, I decided I wanted to get into real estate. I was always fairly confident that I could succeed at anything I put my mind to, so I truly believed I would be on top of the game somewhere. But I never fully understood the magnitude of what it means to be on top of the game in Manhattan compared to in the suburbs.

After law school, I started working for a real estate broker in Manhattan who was also a developer. Soon
after, however, I realized that brokerage was something I could be doing on my own, and I set out to start my own company, Citi Habitats.

We quickly began growing the company, and about 10 years later, I had more than 1,000 licensed professionals and staff working in 20 offices throughout Manhattan. I surrounded myself with really good people.

When I had my first few offices, I did not focus on growing the company so quickly because I was not thinking big in the macro sense. In fact, I was a micromanager. It was not until roughly three or four years into it, when we had about five offices, that I realized I was sitting on top of a monster that could grow citywide with offices in every neighborhood. We were fortunate that the company’s growth was enhanced by the strength of the real estate market.

In the last few years prior to selling the company, it started to become very stressful. There were a lot of bumps along the way, such as when the bubble burst in the dot-com era, and of course the aftermath of Sept. 11. I felt it was very important not to carry my anxiety into the workplace.

There was one instance when a key employee was stealing from the corporate accounts, which left me in a financial bind. Even after being robbed by someone in a position of trust, I tried very hard not to become overly cynical, because I do not believe that one rotten apple should spoil the bunch.

My wife Robyn has been a very significant factor in my success. Aside from being a great wife, spectacular mother and best friend, she has been a sounding board for me as well as a counselor and an escape from the working world.

In 2004 I sold the company, and in 2005 I started Buttonwood Real Estate, which specializes in residential development in Manhattan. One of the benefits of running a large brokerage is that I was able to become close friends with dozens of large developers who helped me learn a lot about the Manhattan real estate market, which helped smooth my transition from brokerage to development.

Aside from the sale of Citi Habitats, my proudest professional accomplishment would be the acquisition and development of 88 Greenwich Street, now known as Greenwich Club Residences, because it marked the beginning of my new career and so far has turned out to be a successful endeavor.

Successful developers in Manhattan have to be creative and think out of the box. Developers who have pushed the envelope in the last 10 years have been rewarded for it, while developers who have been complacent and overly conservative sometimes have ended up with tire marks on their backs. New York is a city for forward-thinking people who are willing to take risks, to think big and to put their money and their time where their mouth is.

The main piece of advice I would give someone just starting out would be to learn the market. Without market knowledge, you are useless as a real estate professional. To truly understand a specific market, you need to learn every corner of every neighborhood, from every residential building to store to school to park. Additionally, you need to be able to understand market value andécorrelative pricing.

The easiest thing has been to remain inspired and focused, because I am passionate about what I do. Every day I wake up with the desire to surpass my achievements. I have never let myself get overly impressed with what I achieved at Citi Habitats. I feel that if I am successful as a developer at Buttonwood, I will establish myself as a well-rounded industry expert.

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Earlier this century, urban planner Robert Moses did what he thought necessary for New York City’s growth, including building highways that displaced homes and ripped apart neighborhoods. Now, as a space-starved city looks for places to put more housing, a construction concept called “platform building” may be gluing the city back together.
[more]

Local son takes part in neighborhood’s transformation [more]

Andrew Gerringer, managing director of the development marketing group at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

As told to Lauren Elkies

Since I have worked on more than 225 projects since 1994, you get a feel for what’s the right way to approach different situations. So it’s very hard for me as a marketing agent when a developer doesn’t want to take advice that comes from experience. We have to convince them that really, we are on their side.

We had a situation where a developer was trying to market his own project in Chelsea. In an extremely hot market, he wasn’t successful in selling his units because his product was all wrong. He said to us, “Look, I need help.”

We had meeting after meeting after meeting and showed him comparables, and convinced him that the right approach was to do a complete redesign of the building. We even did a new launch with a different name. He fought us for a while because no one really wants to have to shut down the product after it’s been open.

We also encountered difficulties when marketing a building on Park Avenue South. The building was crying out for large units, but we knew in that market, which was not a family area, that it wasn’t a market at the time that you should be building too many large units for.

The developer was second-guessing us about what size units should be done there. We spent countless hours trying to convince the developer that smaller units were better. That required many calls during days, nights, weekends — you name it.

He agreed to make smaller units, and it went very well.

These are examples of where we really had to carry them along. We had some heated discussions about what the best approach should be, but you can’t yell and scream at them. We don’t want to fight with our clients, but we will very strongly impress upon them our opinions.

We have had to resign from three projects out of the 225, due to unprofessional conduct on behalf of the developer or an inability to get on the same page as far as pricing and product.

Because developers are the owners, they want to have the final say, which obviously at the end of the day they do. While we do understand it’s their project, we’re really all on the same side. We do not get paid until the closings occur. That’s why I really believe that our interests are particularly aligned.

As a marketing agent, it’s our job to justify why a project is right or why it is not right. Our goal is to make apartments saleable. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about.

Clifford Finn, managing director of new development marketing at Citi Habitats.

As told to Lauren Elkies

Though it’s infrequent, some developers are difficult because of ego, and others are difficult because they have a strong conviction about their vision, which does not match the specific target audience we are looking for. Sometimes, it’s both.

Owners feel very strongly about what they like, so we fight for what we really believe is important, and we compromise on other things and hope that compromise is still going to work.

We’re the voice of the buyer, but we’re also imposing our own taste level as well. Because there are so many people on a project that have opinions, it can be like having too many chefs in the kitchen.

One difficult situation presented itself when we wanted to do three model apartments for a project, and the developer had a decorator friend whom he wanted to use. The decorator knew how to do personal apartments, not model apartments, which are two very different things. The developer’s friend did the job, and it didn’t work. We had to bring in the decorator we wanted from the start. The minute we went in and redid the models, all of a sudden the absorption started picking up and the units starting moving.

With some developers, budgeting issues present a problem, like when we try to put together a brochure and marketing package and the developers don’t want to spend a lot of money on them. They don’t allot the appropriate amount of money, or they start cutting the budget as we’re putting the materials together. Those developers aren’t realizing that in the end, they will have to spend the money because presentation is everything.

We have to quantify the effect the additional spending will have on revenue. Sometimes, you can quantify it in terms of additional revenues in a very black-and-white way. Other times, it’s more difficult because it affects things like retention, absorption or simply attracting a more qualified buyer or renter.

Developer scrutiny does not pose a problem. Actually, it’s the opposite — when developers see a concept in the beginning and say it is good, then don’t get involved in the planning, and then show up late in the game and say it’s not going to work. I’d rather have them there at every meeting.

We’ve been actively involved with 30 projects, and agreed there has been only one where we had to walk away from it. The developer was converting a building from a rental to a condo and continuously kept changing the rules with us and changing the scope of the project. We couldn’t work on it anymore, and we walked away. It just became more difficult than it was worth.

Clinton Hill
The DeWitt Condominiums
483 Washington Avenue
Developer Urban Builders Collaborative is partnering with the Pratt Area Community Council, a nonprofit affordable housing organization, to construct the seven-story, 16-unit condominium. Half of the one- and two-bedroom units will be sold at market rates, with prices ranging from $525,000 to more than $800,000 for the penthouse. The profits from these will go towards subsidizing the remaining eight, to be sold through a lottery system. The apartments will range in size from 700 to 1,100 square feet. All residents will have access to the community rooftop space, and seven parking spaces will be available for purchase. Curtis & Ginsberg Architects designed the project. Seven of the 16 units are currently in contract, with closings expected in mid-October.

East New York
MeadowWood at Gateway
Taconic Investment Partners and Apollo Real Estate Advisors have teamed up to convert the rental development into a 983-unit condominium complex. The studio to three-bedroom homes are located in both high-rises and townhouses. Prices range from $100,000 to $340,000. The developers have put $40 million into improvements to the properties, including the replacement of all 8,400 windows and 1,150 balcony doors, and the addition of new elevators, digital intercom systems, redesigned parking lots, remodeled lobbies and an energy-efficient heating system. The work is expected to be completed in November. Fillmore Real Estate is the sales agent.

Gramercy
Twenty9th Park Madison
39 East 29th Street
Espais Promocions Immobiliaries is developing the 34-story, 142-unit condominium designed by H. Thomas O’Hara. Prices for available units run from $625,000 for a 536-square-foot studio to $2.21 million for a 1,309-square-foot two-bedroom. Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy is the exclusive marketing and sales agent. Contact: www.twenty9th.com.

Jackson Heights
River
131 Roosevelt Avenue
Lev Group and Mountain View Capital are co-developing the five-tower, mixed-use development. The project’s three residential towers will contain more than 1,000 apartment units. The complex, designed by Ismael Leyva, will also contain two commercial towers with office, retail and hotel components. Lev is also building a 33-unit condominium — Sage at 112-02 Northern Boulevard — that will include retail space and a parking garage.

Kew Gardens
Talbot Gardens
83-09 Talbot Street
The prewar rental complex is being converted to a five-story, 83-unit luxury condominium. Residences will range in size from 950-square-foot one-bedrooms to 1,675-square-foot four-bedrooms. Prices start at $500,000. The residences will have drive-in access, and the complex will have a full-time security gatehouse. Completion is expected this fall. Prudential Douglas Elliman is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact: www.talbotgardens.com.

Lower Manhattan
136 Church Street
Long Island-based developer Millennium purchased the seven-story, 37,400-square-foot building from Heller Properties for $30.5 million. An SLCE Architects-designed condominium conversion for the building has already been approved, according to Cityfeet.com. Plans call for two- and three-bedroom units on the existing floors and a three-story addition for penthouses. Paint seller Janovic’s lease on the building’s ground-floor retail space expires in 2012.

Midtown West
505 West 47th Street
Sales are expected to begin soon on the Lev Group’s 109-unit luxury condominium project. Prices will range from $400,000 for a studio to $1.4 million for a penthouse with a private roof terrace. Halstead Property and Nest Seekers International are co-marketing the development. Contact: www.the505hk.com.

Midtown West
517 West 46th Street
Sales are under way at Kaish & Taub Development Group’s seven-story, 45-unit condominium, and the project was more than 70 percent sold as of late August. The building’s one- and two-bedroom apartments range in size from 610 to 1,700 square feet, and most have private terraces. Units are priced from $605,000 to $1.49 million. Residents will have the opportunity to purchase one of 10 rooftop cabanas — priced from $40,000 to $75,000 — that range in size from 200 to 450 square feet. Amenities include a landscaped garden, fitness center, storage units and 24-hour doorman. Residents will benefit from a 421-a tax abatement for the next 10 years, and the developer will cover a large portion of the closing costs. Occupancy is slated to begin in October. Prudential Douglas Elliman is the exclusive sales and marketing agent.

Murray Hill
Morgan Court
211 Madison Avenue
Developer Mark Perlbinder, who built the 32-story, 40-unit luxury residential tower in 1987, has decided to convert the 23 units he had kept as rentals into condominiums. The one-bedroom units and two-bedroom loft duplexes will be priced from around $1.55 to $3.2 million. Homes will range in size from around 1,100 to 2,300 square feet. Robyn Karp Interiors refurbished all of the units, the hallways and the lobby. RP Miller & Associates is the marketing agent. Contact: www.morgancourtcondo.com.

Williamsburg
76 North 4th Street
Fifth Square Partners, founded by Greg Belew and David Berger, recently bought the historic Lewis Steel Products warehouse for conversion to high-end residential units. The 130,000-square-foot building was purchased from the Tryad Group for $26 million. Completion of the conversion is expected by summer 2009.

Construction update

Chelsea
456 West 19th Street
Construction is under way on developer Cary Tamarkin’s 22-unit condominium, according to the New York Sun. The homes, duplexes ranging in size from 1,100 to 2,800 square feet, will sell for between $1,500 and $2,800 per square foot. Tamarkin is developing the property along with 397 West 12th Street following a four-year lawsuit over the two properties.

Harlem
The Kalahari
40 West 116th Street
The 12-story, 249-unit green condominium was topped off in early September. The two-tower complex, connected by a garden, is slated for completion in 2008. Many of the two- and three-bedroom units will have balconies. Amenities will include a rooftop garden, concierge and a parking garage. Zipcar will retain three environmentally friendly Toyota Priuses in the parking garage for use by residents. Films relating to the African and Latin diaspora will play in an adjacent movie theater. Contact: www.kalahari-harlem.com.

Times Square
The Platinum
247 West 46th Street
SJP Residential Properties has announced the topping off of its 43-story, 220-unit luxury condominium designed by architect Costas Kondylis. The building’s studio to three-bedroom residences range in size from 600 to 3,500 square feet, with prices running from the $800,000s to $7.5 million. The condos were more than 50 percent sold as of early September, after four months of sales. The building contains an entire floor of amenities, including an entertainment lounge, a spa, a golf simulator room, a fitness center and a landscaped terrace. The Marketing Directors Inc. is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact: www.platinumnyc.com.

Financing

Soho
Trump Soho Hotel Condominium
246 Spring Street
Carlton Advisory Services has arranged $350 million of senior and mezzanine financing on behalf of the Bayrock Group and the Sapir Organization for the construction of the 46-story, 500-unit tower. Sales at the hotel-condo began in September. Units, which can only be occupied up to 120 days a year, are priced from $2,600 to $2,700 per square foot, according to the New York Post. Studio apartments begin at 470 square feet; one-bedrooms range from 600 to 800 square feet; and upper level suites range from 6,000 to 7,000 square feet. Amenities include a restaurant, day spa, outdoor sundeck and pool (see Trumping the Soho skyline). Core Group Marketing is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact: www.trumpsoho.com.

Sales update

Harlem
The Langston
68 Bradhurst Avenue
The 10-story, 180-unit condominium, developed by the Gotham Organization and the Richman Group Development Corp., was 87 percent sold as of early September. The project has leased 20,000 square feet of retail space to New York Sports Club, 4,500 square feet to Bank of America, and 1,500 square feet to Starbucks.

Harlem
Rhapsody on Fifth
2056 Fifth Avenue
The seven-story, 22-unit condominium project was more than 50 percent sold as of early September. Prices for the building’s one- and two-bedroom homes start in the mid-$600,000s. Amenities include a private courtyard, refrigerated storage and a doorman. Occupancy is expected to begin in December. The Marketing Directors Inc. is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact: www.rhapsodyonfifth.com.

Lower Manhattan
Riverhouse
One Rockefeller Park
The 32-story, 264-unit condominium was more than 55 percent sold as of early September. The building’s one- to five-bedroom homes range in size from 840 to more than 4,000 square feet. Prices begin at $800,000. The building is applying for LEED certification and will house a branch of the New York Public Library, the volunteer organization Mercy Corps and an organic cafeacute;. Amenities include a playroom, fitness center, spa, swimming pool and landscaped roof garden designed by Judith Heinz. The project is scheduled for completion in late 2007. The Sunshine Group is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact: www.the-riverhouse.com.

Upper West Side
10 West End Avenue
By the end of August, 20 units remained unsold at the 33-story, 173-unit condominium being developed by Apollo Real Estate Advisors and Cambridge Development and Construction. SLCE Architects designed the building, and Nick Design designed the project’s interiors and the on-site model residence. The Sunshine Group is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact: www.10wea.com.

Upper West Side
The Element
555 West 59th Street
The 35-story, 198-unit condominium was more than 85 percent sold as of early August, the New York Post reported. The project’s one- to three-bedroom units are priced from $900,000 to $2 million. The building has partnered with Whole Foods Market, John Masters Organics and Green Apple Dry Cleaners to provide specialized menus and delivery service for residents. Continental Ventures Realty, Brack Capital Real Estate and Coalco International are developing the project. Occupancy is slated for November. Corcoran Group Marketing is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact: www.elementcondominium.com.

New Developments from Previous Month

Commercial and residential real estate news briefs from the most active U.S. markets [more]

Hundreds lose jobs in South Florida mortgage industry

Nearly 800 workers in South Florida’s mortgage industry have lost their jobs in recent months, in addition to more than 2,800 job cuts statewide in the financial services industry, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

First NLC Financial, a lender based in Boca Raton, said the company laid off 154 employees in August and September. First Magnus Financial cut 142 jobs in Palm Beach Gardens and Fort Lauderdale in August.

Atlanta-based HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. announced it was pulling out of the mortgage business in August and laid off 80 workers in Palm Beach and Broward counties, subsequently filing for bankruptcy protection.

Some analysts predict a depressed home sales market in South Florida into 2008, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Horse racetrack owner to sell off properties

In an effort to pay off its debts, one of the largest owners and operators of horse racetracks and wagering operations in the country is exploring the sale of its interest in a massive mixed-use development in Hallandale Beach, the Miami Herald reported.

Magna Entertainment Corp. reported losses of $23.4 million in the second quarter. As a result, the company may sell its interest in the Village at Gulfstream Park, a 60-acre project slated for 1,500 condos, 750,000 square feet of retail space and 140,000 square feet of office space over 15 years.

MEC’s ambitious plan to eliminate $600 to $700 million of debt by the end of next year includes the sale of racing interests in Florida — including land by racetracks in Hallandale Beach and Aventura and more than 400 acres in Ocala — and in Ohio, Oregon and Michigan. The company also announced plans to sell its real estate in New York, California, Maryland and Australia.

Massive Coral Gables project shifts focus to adapt to changing market

The developers of one of the biggest mixed-use projects in Coral Gables received the green light from city commissioners to cut the number of residential units by almost half, from 456 to 243, to make room for a considerably larger commercial component, the Miami Herald reported.

The 900,000-square-foot Old Spanish Village, which sits on nearly 7 acres just off Ponce Circle Park, will see a boost in its commercial space from 6 percent to 28 percent of the total project. When the city originally approved the plan in July 2006, it called for 28,000 square feet for offices and 19,000 square feet for retail; the new designs will enable developers to expand to 192,000 square feet of office space and 35,000 square feet of retail.

Led by Ralph Sanchez of Ponce Circle Developers, the team will keep the 197 multifamily units at the nine-story 3001 Ponce de Leon Boulevard and 46 nearby townhouses. But the 16-story high-rise at 2801 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, originally touted as the soon-to-be “signature residential address in historic Coral Gables,” will be converted to an office tower.

According to Sanchez, the 99 percent commercial occupancy rate in the city means it makes sense to build more office space.

Developer of failed condo conversion sees largest foreclosure lawsuit

The failed Villa Mare condo conversion in Boca Raton is facing the largest foreclosure lawsuit in Palm Beach County, valued at $50 million.

Ocean Bank, which loaned NRW Development $59.6 million in April 2006 to acquire the former Oceanview and Lakeview apartment buildings for conversion, posted a loss of $33.7 million in the second quarter. About $50 million of the loan remains unpaid, which prompted Ocean Bank to file the foreclosure lawsuit back in June against the developer.

NRW had envisioned converting the aging apartments to a luxury condo beach club with units selling for up to $1.2 million each, but the project never turned out as planned. According to two investors at J.D. Huffer & Associates in Boynton Beach and HABS Capital, NRW was scrambling to get out of the deal just months after getting into it.

The developer was initially seeking $67 million for Villa Mare late last year, but by April 2007, the asking price had fallen to $40 million, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Still, CB Richard Ellis vice president Richard Langhorne is trying to sell the property — which could have greater value marketed as a possible hotel or condo-hotel conversion — for upwards of $50 million.

Major developer goes bankrupt, sells off possessions

A South Florida developer who amassed a fortune during the residential real estate boom owes $100 million to his companies’ creditors and must sell his prized possessions to pay off the debt. The bankruptcy is the biggest yet to come out of the region’s slumping housing market.

Juan Puig started buying rental apartments and converting them into condominiums in 1994 but expanded aggressively in 2004, growing his enterprise from eight people to more than 600 by 2006, the Miami Herald reported. Puig’s companies soon became overextended with 26 or so conversion projects and, in May, sought court protection from creditors, which include local lenders like Ocean Bank and foreign establishments like Big Idea Investments, based in Hong Kong.

In addition to completing his projects so he can raise money to pay debts, Puig and his wife must relinquish belongings valued over $2,500. Under the settlement with creditors, Puig will lose a Gables Estates waterfront mansion, a condo near Aspen, 10 luxury cars, a 59-foot Ferretti yacht, more than 70 pieces of art and a Cartier watch.

Record number of foreclosure notices hit former boom region [more]

Developers try to lure Manhattanites to a quiet Queens neighborhood [more]

Owners upgrade with more boutique and branded properties in New York City’s biggest hotel market [more]

Multifamily conversions now face restrictions as density issues increase [more]

Let’s start with the old saw “time equals money.” The lesson of 2007 has been that time equals more and more money.

That’s due to the rising cost of construction. According to the Turner Building Cost Index, costs in the second quarter of 2007 jumped 7.6 percent over the second quarter of 2006.

For this reason, and because of the increasing complexity of building designs, expediters are highly in favor with architects and developers to help get their project necessary permits from the city. Construction experts say that expediters — often former Department of Buildings employees who combine technical knowledge, extensive experience with the building code and a high tolerance for standing in line — are still capable of making a project jump to the top of the pile.

Rick Bell, executive director of the American Institute of Architects’ New York chapter, cites the interior stairway in the new New York Times headquarters on Eighth Avenue as a design that required the help of an expert in building codes. The stairway climbs through several stories using horizontal fire safety doors, a design that allowed the architect to realize a novel, open contiguous space. But it also raised tricky technical issues of knowing which parts of the code could be utilized to get the plan approved.

New construction and alterations can involve tens or even hundreds of permissions, starting with the plan approval and ranging through the razing of a building to its replacement’s final design and construction. Sometimes, planning approvals have to be met through the city’s Department of Planning even before the technical aspects of construction are considered.

“We probably have 15 projects under construction — some residential, some commercial, and some cultural and educational — and each building filing is a whole set of files itself,” said Heidi Blau, associate principal at FXFowle Architects, who has used various expediters for their specific expertise, such as Design 2147 for school and cultural projects, and Jerome Gilman and JAM Consultants Inc. for other large projects.

“In any one project, we have to have expediters for the architectural, mechanical, fire protection, plumbing, boiler, fire protection system, demo permit and excavation permit,” Blau said. Those permitting processes and approvals require someone with a broad range of skills and coverage with city agencies.

“We do read the code, but there are a lot of interpretations of the code,” she said. With complex architectural designs, “there are ways to achieve the intent of the law without following its prescriptive path.”

Birth of an expediter

For this reason, many expediters tend to hire from within the buildings department itself. Steven Salvesen, architect and president of R.I.P. Construction Consultants Inc., said he has hired people who previously worked in the Department of Buildings.

Like many other expediters, Salvesen started working in the business while practicing as an architect, when he had to go down to the buildings department over and over again to submit filings.

One strength an expediter offers is years of accumulated knowledge. The building approval process is rife with procedural history, and many layers of changes were passed down with new decisions that were subsequently codified. Those decisions have not been rewritten yet into simpler code, and their many intricate layers of precedent are retained in the brain trusts of experienced expediters, said Michael Zenreich, principal of MZ Architects, an expediter who has been navigating the approval system for 27 years.

“[An expediter] might recall that something wasn’t approved, and might try to explain why a new use of that design feature would work to the plan approver,” said Bell.

No manual exists to learn how to navigate the department, the forms or the procedures for certain approvals, said Salvesen. “Most of it is interpretation of institutional history,” said Zenreich.

To be effective, an expediter has to deal with the city’s DOB, ECB, HPD and DOT (Department of Buildings, Environmental Control Board, Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Department of Transportation), said Sam Pruyn, who runs expediter firm Building Brothers Inc. with his partner, Matthew Calvo. Even the number of three-letter names is enough to drive the uninitiated crazy. Expediters interviewed said despite any previous working relationships with people inside the department, they are not allowed to socialize with any of them.

Knowledge combined with economies of scale is also extremely important: Even if they could hire a staff member to keep up with all the changes, the big architectural and construction firms admit it wouldn’t be worth it. “Somebody fairly senior would have to be tracking it down, which would take their time away from the project,” said Blau, who added that the costs for expediters’ services are reasonable.

“My projects tend to range four to five years,” said Bob Kilar, a project executive for Turner Construction. “So that would mean I would go down to the buildings department every five years.” An expediter’s team, in contrast, “goes down there every day, and they know exactly what they need.”

DOB reforms

The Department of Buildings itself has gone through many changes. Commissioner Patricia Lancaster, appointed in 2002, began ridding the department of corrupt practices after a scandal tarred more than half the department’s plumbing inspectors. Now, most say Lancaster, who had worked with the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, has been largely successful in eradicating corruption and favoritism.

The process should become even easier in July 2008, when a new building code is expected to be finally effective, said Kate Lindquist, buildings department press secretary. “In the long run, the building code will be more accessible to the professional, and there will be the opportunity to take back some of the control,” Lindquist said.

“It is no secret that since 1968, there have been incredible changes in the building code that have resulted in a complex, and often contradictory, document,” she said. It has been this complexity, she noted, that provided part of the impetus for developing a new building code for the city.

In the meantime, part of Lancaster’s efforts to reduce favoritism and “working the system” have included changing filing procedures, reducing the number of jobs an expediter can file at one time, and assigning plan approvals and inspectors randomly. Salvesen, whose expertise includes the approval of nightclubs such as Crobar and Marquis, credits Lancaster with leveling the playing field. “When there is no corruption, everyone is treated equally,” he said.

Next year’s code

The new codes that go into effect in July 2008 are expected to be vastly simpler. And in conjunction with streamlined processes for filing, electronic scheduling of appointments and other improvements, they should ease the approval process, said Lindquist.

Bell said that in theory, the city wants a young architect who is working on his or her first project, perhaps affordable housing, to be able to navigate the approvals process easily.

While architects agreed the new code might help make it easier to get approvals, they also said they will probably continue to use expediters when the new processes are in place.

“An individual who is willing to spend the time to learn the process, and to learn the procedures, could do this,” said Pruyn. “But most people aren’t interested in investing that type of time.”

Zenreich, who was chairman of the committee to develop the new code, thinks his four-year investment in that process will pay off down the road with additional business. “We expect to get much more business, because no one is going to understand the new code,” he said.

Architects and construction specialists couldn’t agree more. “I am concentrating on managing my project, so even if it were easier, I would not go down to the buildings department; it’s a waste of my time,” said Kilar. His expertise, he said, is “building the best building I can, not filing papers.”

Pros weigh effect on commercial, residential values if controversial plan goes forward [more]

NYC foreclosures up 30 percent
New York City’s foreclosures were up 30 percent in August, according to research firm RealtyTrac. Brooklyn took the biggest hit with 1,032 foreclosures, up from 822 in August 2006. Manhattan had 79 foreclosures this August, compared to 62 a year ago.

City Council approves Jamaica rezoning
The City Council last month approved, by a 45-3 count, the Bloomberg administration’s big plans to rezone and transform Jamaica in Queens. The administration’s Jamaica plan called for rezoning 368 blocks for new office, retail and housing developments. The council’s approval comes after two years of extensive negotiations and public hearings and decades of planning. The rezoning is part of the administration’s land-use strategy, outlined in its 2001 “Group of 35″ report, which calls for creating thriving around-the-clock, mixed-use centers in all five boroughs through land-use changes (see Jamaica debates downzoning downside).

Crackdown vowed for illegal hotels
The Imperial Court, at 307 West 79th Street, is among several Upper West Side apartment buildings under scrutiny by officials and tenant advocates for allegedly operating as illegal hotels, violating a city law that single-occupancy rooms in residential buildings must lease for a minimum of 30 days. The Illegal Hotels Task Force, a group of city and state officials investigating these violations, received complaints from tenants at more than 100 buildings citywide, the New York Times reported.

HUD late on payments to landlords of 4,000 units
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has delayed payments on Section 8 housing subsidies because of a temporary deficit, the New York Daily News reported. The agency will be late on payments to the landlords of nearly 4,000 city apartments in 43 buildings, Senator Chuck Schumer announced last month. One source estimates that HUD is $1 billion to $3 billion short of its budget.

Trump fears more downzoning
Donald Trump, reacting to neighborhood opposition to Trump Soho and citywide outcries against tall buildings, especially in the outer boroughs, said he fears more downzoning, the New York Observer reported. He said, “Eventually, they’re going to downzone the whole city, and you’re not going to be able to build in New York City anymore, so you’ll have to go to China. You literally aren’t going to be able to build in New York. They’re going to downzone everything, because nobody wants to have a building that’s above 15 feet high. And the city’s got to be very careful of that.”

Pols oppose Fordham campus tripling in size
Rep. Jerrold Nadler and other politicians have written a letter to Fordham University stating their opposition to its expansion plans. Fordham wants to triple the size of its Lincoln Center campus but plans to stay within its current footprint, between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues and 60th and 62nd streets. It plans to build more than 2 million square feet over the next 25 years, the New York Sun reported.

NJ, NY have highest property taxes
A Tax Foundation report shows that New York and New Jersey had the highest property taxes in the U.S. in 2006. Residents paid up to $6,500 more than the national median in property taxes. The county with the highest property tax was Hunterdon County, N.J. Every county in the top 10 was in New York or New Jersey, the Post reported.

Housing agency slammed over affordable rentals
The state inspector general said in a report that the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal’s “deep and systemic failure” has led to crumbling buildings, higher rents and wasted government spending on subsidized housing. At the Bronx’s Co-op City, 40 of 47 contracts violated the rules of the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program between 2002 and 2006. The agency was also criticized for allowing renters to exceed income limits and allowing its employees to live in affordable buildings it monitors, the Times reported.

Filings actually dropped in 34 states during the last quarter [more]

Most consumers think lending market worse off than it really is [more]

Lawmaker wants to end deductions for large homes [more]

A story in the September issue, “Major players gobble up sites in Hudson Yards,” incorrectly stated that Brookfield Properties’ CEO said that the company’s plans on Ninth Avenue were contingent upon the movement on the No. 7 subway extension. There is no such relationship between the two projects.

A story in the National Report in the September issue, “Chicago apartment building sales headed for record year,” misattributed the broker for the sale of the building the Streeter. The firm that brokered the sale was Holliday Fenoglio Fowler.

Japan fears shrinking residential market
A declining population has been stirring fears of a shrinking residential construction market in Japan.

Japan’s population is expected to drop from 127.8 million in 2005 to 95.2 million by 2050 because couples are marrying at an older age and having fewer children, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Housing starts in Japan dropped 23 percent to 947,088 in July from a year earlier, according to the most recent statistics available.

The country’s second-largest homebuilder by market value is seeking to cut local costs and expand overseas. Daiwa House Industry intends to build more than 1,000 condo units in Shanghai, China, and hundreds of rental units in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, land prices in Japan soared 8.6 percent in 2006 — the fastest year-over-year gain since the Japanese National Tax Agency began tracking records — compared to 0.9 percent a year earlier, the International Herald Tribune reported.

2008 London house prices to grow at slower rates
With house price growth in London slowing to 2.1 percent in August from the previous month — its most sluggish pace since October 2006 — some analysts are forecasting that 2008 will see half the rate of the strong growth seen in 2007, the Daily Telegraph reported.

According to real estate firm Knight Frank, average annual growth in central London house prices this year will be in the 30 percent range, while average growth in the U.K. in the same period is expected to stand at about 8 percent. In 2008, growth in central London may slow to 12 percent, and U.K. rates may slow to 4 to 5 percent overall.

The average price in August for a London home was about $686,000, while Chelsea homes were valued at approximately $1.61 million, according to the U.K. Land Registry. The number of homes sold in the U.K. between February and May stood at 92,192, down 9 percent from the same period in 2006.

Qatar rents skyrocketing
Soaring rents in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar may be keeping would-be residents from viewing the booming region as a desirable destination. Figures from the Qatar National Bank show rent increases of 25 percent in 2006, and 26 percent by mid-2007, the International Herald Tribune reported.

Two-bedroom apartments in 2006 averaged $1,787 per month. Two-bedrooms this year are asking $2,367, according to a Colliers International agency based in Qatar. A four-bedroom villa in a compound this year rents for about $5,500; in 2006, the same type of residence would have gone for approximately $4,950.

Meanwhile, salaries have not been keeping up with the rent increases in the emirate. GulfTalent.com reports that at the beginning of 2007, Qatari residents were spending about 33 percent of their income on rent, while neighboring Saudis were spending 19 percent.

Spanish housing boom ends, brokerages close
Spain’s housing boom appears to have come to an end, signaled by the hundreds of real estate brokerage offices shutting down this year along the southern coast alone. Some experts said the Spanish real estate market is overvalued by as much as 30 percent.

The country is a popular place for Europeans to buy homes. Price declines would leave the more than 250,000 British homeowners along the coast with major losses.

Spanish home prices rose more than 200 percent during the housing boom of the past decade, which helped transform the nation into one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. In 2006, more than 800,000 homes were built in Spain — exceeding the number built in Britain, France and Germany combined. But the home price growth in the second quarter of this year dipped below the rate of inflation for the first time in 10 years, the International Herald Tribune reported.

Alicante’s College of Real Estate Agents said 300 real estate offices went out of business on the Costa Blanca, where 7,000 brokerages operated at the height of the construction boom in 2005.

High-end island developments find eager buyers among retirees, executives [more]

Recent mainstream media coverage of the real estate market has made bleak predictions that may have done more to discourage investors than to provide any useful insight. Like a modern-day Cassandra, some claim that the end is near. But there is still plenty of lending and building in all of New York City’s markets.

So what about the bubble, you ask?

Yes, New York is in a bubble. It’s an impenetrable one that has sheltered it against busts in the past and, likely, now. So why all this Chicken Little talk? At the crux of it are editors and publishers looking to fill pages with what sells the most: PANIC.

It’s no surprise that one of New York magazine’s most popular issues of the year is their annual “real estate scare” issue. Another example, to pick from many, is a recent New York Post headline that read “Home Wreck,” about real estate prices skidding.

As part of the media, we are conscious of our responsibility to be cautious of the hype and to bring you just the facts, as diligently as possible. We try to guard against any sort of spin — whether it’s spin from prognosticators saying the market can do no wrong, or spin saying the market can do no right.

In this issue, for example, you’ll find a Q & A with senior-level brokers who say the market is holding up well despite the credit crunch (see Q & A: Sounding off on the health of the market), and another article about how mortgage lending hasn’t changed dramatically for solid borrowers (Not necessarily a tough time to finance a home). You’ll also find stories about lending practices altering dramatically for less than stellar borrowers (Ground shifts for borrowers) and about the large numbers of mortgage lenders and brokers going out of business (Mortgage brokers hit hard by downturn). There is a balance there.

While those in the industry know the market is complex and has underlying strength, consumers are extremely sensitive to what they read in the mainstream press and see on television. What’s most misleading about many of the real estate stories is their lack of context. Often their sources and data apply to markets outside of New York, which are suffering more than the city and its suburbs.

New York is unique; it doesn’t march to the same beat as the rest of the country. One of the reasons the city has avoided the meltdown that is hurting other parts of the country is its alternate sources of funding. We have foreign capital flowing to the city and foreign buyers who want to make this their home — or second or third home. And as the dollar continues to weaken, the euros will pour in even faster (see More lending oversight for overseas shoppers).

Also in this issue, we profile real estate titan Harry Macklowe. Macklowe is a New York figure who has taken his lumps from the local press. His “wage it all” attitude about buying buildings makes him seem like a gambler with a history of lucky streaks. Some feel that his luck may have come to an end with his latest gamble on a portfolio he bought from the Blackstone Group for more than $7 billion. Still, many others believe that Harry will somehow always come out on top, and must have some cards up his sleeve. (His new residence is certainly on top. It’s the $60 million dollar penthouse at the Plaza Hotel.) Check out Macklowe’s mess.

Mort Zuckerman of Boston Properties once said, “Law is the opposite of sex: Even when it’s good, it’s lousy.” Old Mort might have a hard time convincing attorney Jonathan Mechanic of that. A regular at closings for some of the biggest deals in the city, Mechanic is the subject of our Closing piece.

Finally, our previous supplement on the national market drummed up such an enthusiastic response that we decided to do another special report on markets outside of the city. This time we chose not to stray too far, and we focus on the suburbs in the New York metropolitan area and how they are reacting to the recent changes in the market.

Enjoy the issue,

Amir Korangy

Halstead Property last month bought Harbor View Realty, a small family brokerage in Brooklyn that has been selling homes for 27 years. The company’s president, Bess Dulany, made out well in the deal. She was simultaneously hired on as the director of sales for Halstead’s Brooklyn division.

Bess Dulany’s charge will include two new Halstead offices — one at 150 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights and another at 162 Court Street in Cobble Hill — as well as her former Harbor View Realty office at 179 Atlantic Avenue, also in Brooklyn Heights.

The entire Harbor View staff remains the same, and Bess’ mother, Barry Dulany, Harbor View’s owner, has been hired as Halstead’s broker of record for Brooklyn. So far, the biggest difference has been the change of name to Halstead Brooklyn LLC. “We have a lot of autonomy,” Bess said. “It’s kind of up to me how to run the office.”

With the sale, Dulany’s team has expanded from 12 people working on an average of 10 properties at a time to 43 people, dealing with anywhere from 20 to 50 homes at once. In the future, Halstead hopes to add more brokers to the three Brooklyn offices, as well as more locations. “We’d like to establish a presence in Fort Greene, Williamsburg and Park Slope,” Dulany said.

Harbor View’s three decades in the business gave it deep roots in the community. But throughout Dulany’s five years at the firm — she came from a career in the music business, managing artists such as U2 and Suzanne Vega, as well as working in advertising — she had seen big Manhattan-based firms such as Halstead, Prudential Douglas Elliman and the Corcoran Group muscling their way into the booming Brooklyn residential market and buying up smaller firms.

Dulany conceded she had an if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em attitude about the corporate competition, saying that the advertising budget and marketing team that became available by joining Halstead are instrumental in attracting both buyers and sellers.

“They have a 22- or 23-person marketing team. They have this color brochure that goes out twice a year that goes into the New York Times — things that would be very cost-prohibitive in a smaller company,” she said.

Last month, former Corcoran Group senior vice president Shlomi Reuveni joined Brown Harris Stevens as senior managing director and executive vice president for the new development and marketing division. The move came only six months after four other Corcoran senior vice presidents — Wendy Maitland, Erin Boisson Aries, Wilbur Gonzalez and Reid Price — left for Brown Harris.

The spring exodus of the four executives included teams of 14 brokers, and Reuveni also brought his team of four top new residential agents. Most competitors agree that these two moves could have a significant impact on Brown Harris’ image and performance in marketing new developments.

“Brown Harris Stevens has always been pigeonholed as this sort of stodgy, old-boy, Upper East Side firm,” said an employee at one competitor. “Shlomi’s the first real big guy they got … sort of to get up with the times.”

The latest poaching dealt another blow to Corcoran’s new development division. In the past year, the firm was let go from three assignments: 55 Wall Street, Windsor Park at 100 West 58th Street and Tribeca Summit at 415 Greenwich Street, all later picked up by Prudential Douglas Elliman. Then in June, developer Andr Balazs fired Corcoran from the William Beaver House at 15 William Street and hired Core Group Marketing.

One competitor says lingering confusion after the June 2005 merger between the Corcoran Group and the Sunshine Group has been partly to blame.

“There’s Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, Corcoran Group Marketing, the Sunshine Group … there’s no clear leadership,” the competitor said. A spokesperson for Corcoran did not return phone calls by press time.

Louise Phillips Forbes, executive vice president at Halstead Property, pointed to the marketing of William Beaver House, whose sex-infused campaign featured a cartoon beaver, as particularly misguided.

“I think the campaign of the Beaver House was a little over the top,” Forbes said. “It was certainly a conversation piece that for most of their target audience was a little distasteful.”

CB Richard Ellis, the city’s largest commercial real estate brokerage firm, was recently named by Fortune magazine as the 33rd fastest-growing U.S. company.

CBRE’s revenue exceeded $4 billion over the past four quarters and beat Wall Street estimates with its second-quarter earnings of 66 cents a share, up from 34 cents in the year-ago period and ahead of the consensus forecast of 41 cents a share. It earned a net income of nearly $294 million in the quarter that ended May 31, 2007. Those numbers helped make it the highest-ranking commercial real estate services provider on Fortune’s list and the 10th fastest-growing firm among the Fortune 1000.

About 30 percent of the company’s revenue comes from property sales, and another third is from leasing.

Company CEO and president Brett White remains optimistic despite the credit crunch roiling the markets.

“We are seeing the cost of capital rise, and we’re seeing that flow through in some instances to re-pricing of debt on commercial property acquisitions,” White said. “[But] at the moment, buyers and sellers of properties have been able to work through those issues quite well.”

Real estate services provider Jones Lang LaSalle placed 74th in Fortune’s ranking of fastest-growing companies, which was based on three-year revenue growth, growth in earnings per share and total return to shareholders, with reported revenues of more than $2.1 billion.

Corcoran to write weekly column
Barbara Corcoran, who sold her behemoth brokerage the Corcoran Group in 2001 and became a TV real estate pundit, is now a columnist as well. Corcoran has agreed to write a weekly “Ask Barbara” column for the New York Daily News home section. Corcoran, 58, founded the Corcoran Group with a $1,000 loan, and sold it for about $70 million to national conglomerate Cendant.

Radar Logic launches derivatives trading
Radar Logic started up derivatives trading last month that will allow investors to take positions on the future performance of the residential market. Prices are based on transactions in 25 metropolitan residential real estate markets and one 25-city composite. Wall Street broker-dealers licensed to trade in the residential property market include Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns.

Hotel developers team with management firm
Two hotel development companies controlled by John and Jeffrey Lam, the Lam Group and Lam Generation, have signed agreements with a hotel management firm to accelerate their projects in Manhattan. Marshall Management will provide consulting services for the developers’ back-end operations, including accounting and strategic marketing planning, and will also assist in hiring and training. In Soho, the Lam Group is developing a 150-room Four Points by Sheraton, while Lam Generation is opening a 160-room Hampton Inn.

CIT Group exits mortgage biz with big sale
Manhattan-based CIT Group will exit the mortgage business on a positive note, Crain’s reported. Just weeks after closing its mortgage unit, it said it would sell up to $4.2 billion in mortgage-backed securities to financier Freddie Mac. The deal was expected to close by the end of last month.

Real estate Web site launches blog
Reclaimed Home (www.reclaimedhome.com) has launched a new blog that will focus on do-it-yourself renovations and period restorations, with an emphasis on sustainable building. Areas covered in the blog will include New York City as well as its suburbs, exurbs and second-home locations. The Web site will also feature a forum, a store and a listings page.

Schonbraun McCann forms new strategy consulting group
The Schonbraun McCann Group, a national real estate and finance consulting firm, has created the Strategy Group, a service that will provide specialized strategy to corporate and real estate industry clients with large real estate holdings. The new venture will be headed by Barry Barovick and Liz Kulik, who joined SMG from HelixGlobal, a business and real estate advisory firm they co-founded.

Residential

Barak Realty
April Blanding, Rebecca Mingus and Robert Kellner joined the firm.

Brown Harris Stevens
Shlomi Reuveni joined as senior managing director and executive vice president for the new development and marketing division (see Reuveni latest in Corcoran-BHS jumps). He was previously with the Corcoran Group.

Stribling & Associates
Michael O’Hara joined the firm as director of information technology. He was previously information technology manager at Permal Group.

Commercial

Cushman & Wakefield
Paul Milunec joined the firm. He was previously at GVA Williams.

Fortuna Realty Group
Ben Haghani was appointed director of acquisitions. He was previously vice president at Paramount Corp.

Georgia Malone & Company
Ellen Israel joined the firm as executive vice president. She was previously senior vice president at the Witkoff Group.

The Kaufman Organization
Elliot Warren was appointed director of the firm’s commercial sales and leasing team. He previously served as founder of commercial brokerage firm Elite Property Group.

Massey Knakal
Paul Trupia joined as an associate. Broker Joseph Sitt transferred to the Manhattan office from the Staten Island office. Jessica Paindiris joined as director of marketing.

The Related Companies
Mark Boekenheide joined as senior vice president of hotel development. He was previously vice president of design and construction at Rosewood Hotels and Resorts.

Robert K. Futterman & Associates
Todd Wenzel joined as vice president. John Harding, Christopher Richards, Marx Turkewitz and Josh Kleinberg joined as directors. Jason Amirian joined as an associate.

Sholom & Zuckerbrot
Marc Durst was appointed managing director. He will merge his 20-year-old brokerage and management business into the firm’s service platform.

Studley
Marc Shapses was promoted to executive managing director from senior advisor. Erik Schmall was promoted to senior managing director from senior advisor. Dan Posy was promoted to managing director from associate. Jason Schwartzenberg was promoted to managing director from assistant director. Jon Rosenblatt was promoted to associate director from assistant director.

Sales begin at historic condo lofts

A condominium building in New Rochelle converted from a 19th-century industrial landmark hopes to lure homebuyers despite the slowdown in the housing market. With a slot on the National Register of Historic Places, Knickerbocker Lofts at 52 Webster Avenue will include 45 units ranging from 1,000 to 1,200 square feet, with prices from $370,000 to $705,000. Twenty units are being leased.

Foreclosures increase in Westchester

The number of foreclosures occurring in Westchester County is up sharply, the Journal News reported last month. For the year ending in August, the number of foreclosure filings initiated by creditors in Westchester rose 39 percent to 1,414 compared to the prior year. Actual judgments of foreclosure, whereby the court authorizes lenders to take back the property that served as collateral for the mortgage, were up 61 percent to 424.

Westchester responds to bank openings

Communities throughout Westchester County are taking action against the wave of new banks that have been opening recently, claiming they already have enough and lamenting the inability of smaller businesses to compete with rising rents. Other municipalities are following the lead of Bronxville, which set a restriction in 2004 on new banks, financial institutions and real estate offices opening in ground-floor spaces downtown, the New York Times reported. Eight of the nine banks in downtown Rye are located within two short blocks of one another, and Larchmont has eight banks in its one square mile, including two Chase banks across the street from each other. Chase doubled its locations in Westchester last year to 106 branches after acquiring Bank of New York.

County to hire at slow pace

A national survey reported that Westchester’s employment outlook could be one of the weakest in the U.S., as employers plan to hire at a slow pace in the fourth quarter, which could negatively impact the area’s office market. The Manpower Inc. employment survey showed that 17 percent of Westchester companies anticipate hiring more workers, 17 percent plan to reduce their workforce, 56 percent expect to maintain their current pace, and 10 percent were unsure. The national outlook shows that 27 percent of companies surveyed expect to hire more employees and 9 percent plan to reduce staff, the Journal News reported.

Sellers in Clintons’ adopted hometown price closer to buyers’ expectations [more]

Ginsburg Development stays busy as market softens [more]

A modest number of foreclosures so far, but grim warnings emerge about the next 12 months [more]

Aside from Jersey City, northern region seen as ‘flat as a pancake’ [more]

Number of housing permits falls across the state

Connecticut isn’t building at the same pace it used to. The number of housing permits issued statewide during the first seven months of the year fell 14 percent from last year, according to the Stamford Advocate.

By the end of July, the latest figures available, 4,155 permits were issued statewide, down from 4,825 in the first seven months of 2006. However, in July 711 permits were issued, up 6 percent from June and up 7 percent from July 2006, according to the Department of Economic and Community Development. The city of Stamford bested the rest of the state in July, issuing 96 permits.

Antares on Stamford buying spree

Antares Investment Partners increased its holdings in Stamford’s South End last month by acquiring, for $53 million, an office building at 2187 Atlantic Street.

The purchase follows Antares’ $128 million acquisition of a 395,000-square-foot office building at 333 Ludlow Street, also in the South End, in May.

Antares also has significant development plans for Stamford. Executives indicate the firm intends to build two buildings downtown containing about 700,000 square feet of office space. Several blocks south, on the waterfront, Antares is at work on a mixed-used project featuring 4,000 residential units, 300,000 square feet of commercial space, 400,000 square feet of retail space and two hotels. These projects will be online sometime in late 2009.

Stamford Old Town Hall finds tenant

Following years of debate, the city of Stamford has secured a tenant for its old town hall. The building’s new tenant, National Realty and Development Corp, owner of a broad array of real estate and retail companies, including Lord & Taylor and Linen & Things, has announced plans to spend $16 million to transform the building into gallery and office space for 80 employees.

NRDC will pay the city about $400,000 in annual rent, which works out to about $20 per square foot.

Connecticut foreclosures rise slightly

Foreclosures in Connecticut edged up around 2.5 percent in August from the month before, according to data released last month from RealtyTrac Inc. The research firm reported 2,170 foreclosures in the state in August, up from 2,118 in July.

In July, the latest month for which detailed data was available, New Haven County had the highest number of foreclosures, at 706, while Hartford County had 450 and Fairfield County had 403, the Connecticut Post reported.

Connecticut’s foreclosure rate in July was one for every 672 households, slightly fewer than July’s national rate of one filing for every 693 households. In the same month, the state ranked 11th overall in foreclosure rates.

Lower Wall Street bonuses could hurt high-end home sales, brokers say [more]

Locations in proximity to train station allow landlords to charge premium [more]

Nassau Coliseum redevelopment gets new committee to weigh in

A partnership between billionaire Charles Wang and RexCorp Realty has assembled a panel of 20 Long Island community leaders to share their thoughts on the $2 billion redevelopment of Nassau Coliseum and the 77 acres surrounding it in Hempstead.

The Lighthouse Development Group’s Lighthouse Steering Committee will weigh in on the project’s most recent designs, which call for reduced heights on some buildings and a new sports arena for the New York Islanders. The new stadium will be flanked by residential neighborhoods, retail and entertainment outlets, a hotel and conference facilities, and a baseball stadium.

The new development project is expected to generate thousands of construction jobs and $60 million in revenue from real estate taxes, Long Island Business News reported.

Newmark Knight Frank to consult for Suffolk County projects

Looking to bring “efficiency and economy” to its real estate projects, Suffolk County has chosen Newmark Knight Frank to help the county market unneeded property, develop strategic real estate plans, perform financial analysis and help consolidate offices, according to Newsday. Newmark will have a hand in shaping policy over a number of large projects, including Gabreski Airport in the Hamptons.

Some of the bigger real estate projects the county is examining include proposals to create up to 2,000 units of housing in Yaphank. Initial plans call for much of this to be affordable housing. Newmark would also provide strategic input as Suffolk County decides the fate of 58 acres of industrial property around Gabreski Airport. Like CB Richard Ellis, the commercial brokerage that is assisting Nassau County with its real estate dealings, Newmark will be paid exclusively through brokerage fees on deals it completes.

Biggest-ever recreation project looms

The eastern Long Island town of Riverhead is starting negotiations with the firm Riverhead Resorts, which wants to purchase a 755-acre vacant parcel in Calverton and build an indoor ski mountain, spa, wilderness resort and campground. The company won the bid for the property with a $155 million offer. The sale is expected to close by year’s end, with construction slated to begin no sooner than 2010. The entire project will take 10 years to complete, Newsday reported.

Houseboat village to be rezoned

Residents of Manhasset Bay, Long Island’s largest remaining houseboat community, are protesting new zoning that would allow residential development on the shore. The new development would threaten the boat slips of the 55 homes, the New York Times reported.

Hofstra opens new real estate studies center

Hofstra University’s Wilbur F. Breslin Center for Real Estate Studies opened last month with hopes of fostering a better understanding of issues such as zoning law, market forces, taxes and other real estate-related areas.

Initial academic offerings are slated to include a land-use training program, a panel on green building and a conference on Long Island redevelopment.

Breslin, an 80-year-old developer who is credited with some of Long Island’s biggest commercial projects, is a former board member at the university. He donated $2.25 million to help fund the center and has raised more than $30 million while serving as chairman of Hofstra’s capital campaign.

While higher-end homes feel effect of credit crunch, lower-end homes fare better [more]

Several thousand jobs lost as subprime crisis continues Comments

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Growing foreclosures, inventory in markets ringing NYC All’s not well in suburbia” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Corzine: affordable housing too costly

Running for governor, Jon Corzine promised to develop 100,000 affordable houses and apartments in New Jersey over a decade. Now critics say the governor is moving too slow. Corzine says the cost of the plan, about $300 million over 10 years, is a significant obstacle, and he’s not sure the state “can afford it,” the Star-Ledger reported.

Affordable housing advocates are disappointed. They point to a study undertaken in 1987 that determined New Jersey would need at least 120,000 new affordable homes by 2014. As of last year, only about 38,000 had been built. At the same time, a new census report released last month said New Jersey’s median monthly housing costs are second only to California.

Struggling Hovnanian’s fire sale

Not so long ago, demand for its homes was so strong that Hovnanian Enterprises held lotteries to select buyers. But with prices sagging and the real estate slump worsening in parts of the country, the New Jersey-based home-building firm last month offered a three-day “Deal of the Century” nationwide discount promotion. The event included hundreds of new houses located in 19 states, and brought in 2,100 sales. In New Jersey, 17 Hovnanian development sites offered discounts, and buyers were able to save up to $149,600 on homes. Some units were discounted by as much as 20 percent. Market watchers worry Hovnanian’s promotion could further depress the value of other homes.

Parsippany vacancies fall, more speculative projects

Class A vacancies in Parsippany, New Jersey’s third-biggest office market, have fallen to 12.7 percent and are predicted to fall to 10 percent within a year to 18 months, the Daily Record reported. About a dozen companies are reportedly considering expanding or relocating there. The market appears to be strong enough to allow developers to move ahead with speculative projects with no tenants lined up.

The Gale Real Estate Services Company broke ground last month on a new 100,000-square-foot office building in Parsippany, the final piece in a four-tower complex, even though tenants have not signed any leases yet.

Atlantic City slated for tallest building

Revel Entertainment is moving forward with a huge hotel and casino project in Atlantic City, submitting a site plan to the city’s planning division last month. The plan calls for two 1,900-unit hotel towers, 150,000 square feet of casino space and 500,000 square feet of retail. The city council has raised the site’s height limit from 485 to 800 feet, allowing the towers to become the tallest buildings in the state, supplanting the Goldman Sachs tower in Jersey City.

400 apartments open in Jersey City

Panepinto Properties and Applied Development Company have opened a 36-story, 400-unit luxury rental building in downtown Jersey City, the companies reported last month. The building, called 50 Columbus, offers studio to three-bedroom apartments starting at $1,625 per month. The Costas Kondylis-designed project is near the Grove Street PATH Station and features a fitness center, tennis courts, cabanas and a rooftop deck with a pool. Panepinto Properties was also recently approved to build two 48-story mixed-use towers nearby, called 70-90 Columbus.

More New York hotels make room for Fido, other furry friends [more]

Rob Clark travels the world in style, meeting all the right people in all the right places and, not incidentally, selling luxury condominiums at one of the trendiest addresses in Los Angeles.

He’s not a real estate broker, though. The international mover and shaker is a fictitious character created by the New York City-based Athena Group, whose projects include 111 Central Park North, a condo that set price records for Harlem, as well as a number of projects in Jersey City. The character was created to help market 105 units in the Rob Clark, an upscale condominium complex just north of Beverly Hills and only a short walk to some of the city’s hottest shops and restaurants.

You can tour his apartment at www.therobclark.com. Plane tickets lie strewn on his desk, next to a French newspaper. His phone rings repeatedly. He’s the kind of guy young professionals in L.A. aspire to be, said Harry Dubin, the Athena Group’s marketing and sales director and Rob Clark’s creator.

“He goes to all the Academy Award events,” Dubin said. “He knows everyone. He’s a very social guy.”

The concept works, even though most people know by now that Clark isn’t real, he said. The building’s studio, one- and two-bedroom condos went on the market last March starting in the mid-$300,000s, and nearly all have sold, without the help of newspaper ads. The first residents began moving in this summer.

But the company won’t bring Rob Clark to New York City to market any of its properties here, Dubin said. The concept wouldn’t work. Young professionals aspiring to be someone can’t afford to buy an apartment in Manhattan, where the average apartment price is more than $1.3 million. It’s even hard to find a bargain in the outer boroughs these days, Dubin said.

Most parents can’t afford to make that kind of investment for their children, either, Dubin said. About 30 percent of the condos at the Rob Clark were sold to parents.

“L.A. is much different than New York,” Dubin said. “It’s much easier to live out there. It’s much less expensive than it is to live in Manhattan.”

Condo units in the Rob Clark range from 500 to 1,200 square feet and boast granite fireplaces, stone countertops and hardwood floors. There’s a pool, landscaped garden, great views and it’s in one of the city’s most desirable locations. Just don’t ask for any special bells and whistles. Everything at the Rob Clark is standard — no exceptions.

“We took the approach of finding unique materials that were not expensive, but actually looked expensive,” Dubin said.

It’s more likely that Rob Clark will move to Jersey City for a while, Dubin said. Young professionals are gobbling up much more affordable condos there, he said. Athena recently began selling condos at the A, a 35-story luxury building in Jersey City with units starting at around $600,000. Dubin said he sold 180 units in one day, out of a total 250 units. The group has purchased other rental properties in Jersey City that Rob Clark could easily help market. The Athena Group is also the developer behind the Rem Koolhaas building slated for Jersey City.

“I could see Rob Clark coming to Jersey City,” Dubin said. “But not to Manhattan.”

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