We won’t be bringing you a crowd that’s going to boo a soldier, cheer executions or applaud the death of an uninsured man, like we’ve seen at this year’s Republican presidential debates. But this month at Lincoln Center, The Real Deal‘s first debate — in which real estate bigwigs will square off against one another — promises to be a heated discussion of some of the key issues facing the industry today.
As far as we know, it will be the first real estate debate of its kind in New York City. The format is a departure from our usual annual panel discussion.
We have a bunch of prominent debaters lined up, and the issues that will be on the table on Nov. 16 are central to the livelihoods of those who work in real estate here in the city. Here’s a rundown of what we have planned:
• Curbed founder Lockhart Steele will debate Warburg Realty president Frederick Peters on the role of media in covering real estate. Have blogs and other publications (including this magazine) been fair in their coverage, and what sorts of comments should be allowed on real estate sites?
• Developer Billy Macklowe will face off against a high-profile developer (to be announced) on what the government should do, on both the local and federal levels, to boost real estate activity (an especially critical question in these tumultuous and politically divisive times), and debate where the overall real estate market is headed.
• Attorneys Adam Leitman Bailey and Stuart Saft, who often find themselves on opposite sides of the courtroom, will argue whether condo buyers should be allowed to back out of contracts as we have seen during the downturn, and address the perennial question of the correct balance between the rights of building owners versus the rights of renters and buyers in New York City.
Of course, it’s been a busy season for debates in general — with no fewer than eight televised GOP debates so far. And November is always a crowded field for real estate events in New York City. But we hope to be the front-runner on your schedule that night — go to www.TheRealDeal.com for more event details.
Meanwhile, there is no debating that there are a bunch of good stories to sink your teeth into in this issue. Our cover story, on foreign buyers, couldn’t be timelier in light of the European debt crisis. Foreign buyers are as important as ever in keeping the Manhattan residential market afloat, and while there was some progress made by governments abroad last month in solving the debt problem, the economic uncertainty still has most European buyers in wait-and-see mode.
In general in New York, the fall selling season has been steadily weakening over the years in comparison to the stronger spring season (see “Autumn market: No longer what it used to be”), though the smaller number of buyers who are looking right now tend to be more serious compared to the past (see “Volatile, shmolatile”).
New York has, of course, always been a melting pot. But one block on 29th Street (between Broadway and Fifth Avenue) is a poster child for ethnic and cultural juxtaposition. The block is home to the new Ace Hotel, a mecca for hipsters; a mosque and halal restaurants; the historic church where Donald Trump got married; and a building owned by a Bollywood star. We take an in-depth look at the block’s real estate in “Halal and hipsters.”
Also worth a read is reporter Adam Pincus’s story on the many new commercial brokerages trying to make inroads into New York, and how they are ruffling feathers at some of the larger and more established firms because of the high payouts they are reportedly offering to lure agents away (see “Excessive pay to get brokers in the door?”).
Finally, check out our story on some of the biggest real estate comebacks of the past several years (“Climbing back to the top”), and take a voyeuristic peek inside the homes of some of Manhattan’s top residential agents (“Where do top brokers live?”).
Enjoy the issue!
Stuart Elliott