The Daily Dirt: Extell offers rent-to-buy program. Yep, you read that right.

If you build it, offer big incentives and even temporarily rent out units … maybe they will come? 

Earlier this year, Gary Barnett’s Extell Development surprised many by waiving common charges at One Manhattan Square for up to 10 years. While other developers had made concessions to lure buyers in an increasingly slow market, Extell’s offer took such tactics to an entirely new level. 

Now, Extell is putting another incentive on the table: a rent-to-buy program. Residents of the 80-story tower can apply one year’s rent to the price of buying, E.B. Solomont reports. The developer believes many renters will turn into buyers. Public records indicate that 194 units have closed at the building for a total of $332.4 million, though it’s not clear how many apartments are in contract. 

It’s difficult not to view Extell’s offer as another sign that developers are feeling the pain of a sluggish market. And with talk of a looming recession and more product hitting the market, developers are likely going to get more desperate.  

“The model of ‘If you build it, they will come’ is over,” said Bold New York’s Jordan Sachs. “People aren’t believers now.”

Surprise! Former and current executives at WeWork think Adam Neumann is a jerk. But they blame those around the ex-CEO for letting him be one. 

Neumann decided to give up his baby on Tuesday in an effort to save the We Company’s initial public offering. His erratic behavior has widely been cited as part of the reason for his ouster.

According to eight current and former executives, top staff around Neumann, along with the company’s board, enabled his behavior, David Jeans reports. Though Neumann is technically a full-grown man of 40, the so-called “adults in the room” apparently didn’t step in to correct his poor corporate practices. In some cases, they even served as his biggest enablers, according to sources. 

“They created the monster,” one executive said. 

A spokesperson for Neumann and his wife, Rebekah Neumann, said the couple “want nothing more for the company than to succeed. They are going to let management do its job, they are not going to be in the way.” WeWork declined to comment.

One of the former executives even got in on the We wordplay fun. 

“I don’t know why anyone was paying him for the word ‘we,’” one said of Neumann. “The only word he knew was ‘I.’”

What we’re thinking about next: What do you think of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s housing plan? Send a note or rant to kathryn@therealdeal.com.

CLOSING TIME 

Residential: The priciest residential closing recorded on Wednesday was for a condo unit 220 Central Park South in Midtown, at $18.5 million.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was for a hotel at 652 11th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, at $82.7 million. Brookfield Property Partners is the buyer, and PGIM Real Estate is the seller.  

BREAKING GROUND
The largest new building filing of the day was for a 5,999-square-foot apartment building at 1183 New York Avenue in East Flatbush. Cityscape Builders filed the permit application. 

NEW TO THE MARKET
The priciest residential listing to hit the market was for a co-op unit at 888 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side, at $9.5 million. Warburg Realty’s Susan Landau Abrams has the listing.
— Research by Mary Diduch