WeWork drives $5B SoftBank writedown, Barneys’ auction is canceled: Daily digest

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Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son (Credit: Getty Images)

WeWork’s biggest backer is taking a $5 billion writedown. The losses in SoftBank’s Vision Fund are being driven by WeWork and Uber, which has performed dismally since going public. SoftBank, which had already sunk $10 billion into the co-working giant, bailed WeWork out this week. The deal brought WeWork’s valuation under $8 billion, a far cry from $47 billion earlier this year.
[Bloomberg]

An auction for Barneys was canceled this week. Entrepreneur Sam Ben-Avraham failed to place a qualifying bid. Despite Ben-Avraham’s public campaign and #SaveBarneys hashtag, the only qualifying bidder was Authentic Brands Group LLC, which offered $271 million for the bankrupt retailer. [Bloomberg]

REBNY president Jim Whelan (Credit: REBNY via Facebook, iStock)

REBNY has standardized buyer’s broker contracts at new developments. The new document is now mandatory for any developer who wants to list its sponsor units on REBNY’s Residential Listing Service, according to a memo from the organization’s president James Whelan. The agreement stipulates the net purchase price for calculating the broker’s commission, limits indemnification and lets buyers change brokers at will. [TRD]

A rendering of American Dream

Today, the long-delayed, $5 billion American Dream is finally opening. The owners of the Minneapolis Mall of America broke ground on the project 15 years ago. The New Jersey mall, which will eventually have 3 million square feet of retail, will be rolled out in stages. The development was originally named Xanadu. [NYT]

Funds for major projects at New York’s three airports were greenlighted Thursday. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved $4.6 billion in construction projects for the region’s three airports. Projects at LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport will each receive $2.1 billion, while $445 million was approved for John F. Kennedy International Airport’s overhaul. [WSJ]

Home improvers can put down their hammers. A Harvard University forecasting model is predicting a decline in spending on home renovation and maintenance after years of 5 percent to 7 percent growth following the downturn. The metric is a key indicator for the health of the housing market, which has seen home prices on the rise. [WSJ]

Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty got $228 million in financing from Nuveen. The financing is for the company’s stake in 530 Fifth Avenue, which it bought in2014 with with Thor Equities and General Growth Properties (now Brookfield). RXR owns a majority of the 26-story, 560,000-square-foot office and commercial building. [CO]

A Chelsea townhouse that Lady Gaga once considered just got a $20 million price chop. The previous owner, designer Karim Rashid, sold it for $9.35 million in 2014. Then in 2016 the 25-foot-wide home was relisted for $38.6 million, and it has seen discounts ever since. This month it was listed for $19.9 million. [NYP]