Silverstein sells part of ABC campus, FiDi condo glut is dragging prices down: Daily digest

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Silverstein is selling part of the ABC Campus. Taconic Investment Partners is paying approximately $230 million for the properties at 125 West Side Avenue, 320 West 66th Street and Lot 61. Eastdil Secured brokered the sale, which is set to close next month. Silverstein purchased the campus in July 2018 for $1.15 billion. [CO]

It’s a buyer’s market in FiDi. Units are spending a long time on the market and frequently selling for less than their asking prices. The area is also suffering from an oversupply of apartments, which is giving buyers more negotiating power, and more towers are on the way at places including 130 William Street, 1 Wall Street and 25 Park Row. [Bloomberg]

A music rights company is taking a big office on the border of Soho and Hudson Square. Downtown Music Holdings is leaving its current digs at 485 Broadway and leasing 26,000 square feet at 155 Avenue of the Americas. [CO]

President Trump is feeling nostalgic for quantitative easing. In a tweet, he called for a 1 percent cut on interest rates and said the Federal Reserve should restart its crisis-era money-printing program. The Fed cut rates this month, which for real estate could mean lower borrowing rates. [CNBC]

Donald Trump (Credit: Getty Images)

Trump is blaming warning signs of a recession on a conspiracy. President Donald Trump claims it’s the result of a conspiracy of organizations hoping to see him lose reelection. These include Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, who he has accused of purposefully acting against him, other countries that he says are trying to harm America’s economic interests and the news media. So far, real estate has held its own in the stock market amid broader economic concerns.  [NYT]

Masayoshi Son

SoftBank, the biggest backer of real estate startups, will lend billions to its employees to invest in its second Vision Fund. The company plans to loan its workers as much as $20 billion to buy stakes in the venture-capital fund, according to the Wall Street Journal. CEO Masayoshi Son could account for up to $15 billion of it. The unusual move would double SoftBank’s exposure to a startup economy that has started to show signs of weakness, especially when it comes to initial public offerings. [WSJ]

Eric Gertler was named the new head of Empire State Development. Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans to announce his nomination of the lawyer and publishing executive on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal. Gertler is the executive chairman of U.S. News and World Report and previously worked as co-publisher of the New York Daily News and executive vice president of the New York City Economic Development Corp. He played a key role in the state’s bid to have Amazon select New York for part of its second headquarters. [WSJ]

Homes in Cobble Hill and the Lower East Side have nearly doubled. Median sales prices in Cobble Hill rose from $1.3 million to $2.5 million, and from $655,000 to $1.3 million on the Lower East Side, according to StreetEasy. The three most expensive neighborhoods are the same in 2019 as they were in 2015: Tribeca, Nolita and Soho, with respective median home sale prices of $4.1 million, $3 million and $2.7 million. [Crain’s]

Brooklyn residents are pushing back against two proposed homeless shelters. Residents are worried about the proposed $260 million cost of the project at 535 and 555 Fourth Avenue between Park Slope and Gowanus. Fourth Avenue Neighbors is the group spearheading the opposition, which is citing safety issues at the two buildings and the selection process’ lack of transparency. The shelters are scheduled to open in 2020, and the nonprofit Women In Need will operate them. [NYT]

There were 19 luxury contracts totaling roughly $162 million signed in Manhattan last week. The number of contracts and dollar volume were both up from the week before, when the market saw 10 contracts signed for about $78.6 million. The properties spent an average of 619 days on the market and had an average discount of 25 percent from the original to the final asking price. All of the top four sales last week were townhouses, a rare occurrence. [Olshan]

Brooklyn’s luxury market saw 13 contracts signed last week for a total of roughly $34.8 million. The market was down from the prior week, when 14 contracts were signed for about $43.8 million. The average contract price was about $2.7 million, and the properties spent an average of 158 days on the market. [Compass]

FROM THE CITY’S RECORDS:

Commercial sales:
Apple Core sold another hotel at 17 West 32nd Street in Midtown South for $56.52 million. [ACRIS]