November 2019 - The Real Deal

November 2019 Issue

SoftBank’s hard landing

With WeWork’s implosion, the Japanese conglomerate and the other startups it’s backed — including Compass and Katerra — are under intense scrutiny

Masayoshi Son was widely regarded as an eccentric-but-gifted entrepreneur when, in 2014, he dazzled investors during an earnings presentation by showing them a picture of a large, brown-feathered bird. “SoftBank wants to become the goose that lays the golden eggs,” Son told them, two years before launching a $100 billion Vision Fund that went on to anoint a crop of promising startups. But over a turbulent six weeks starting in… [more]

The Real Deal New York - November 2019

Crunch time for Katerra?

The SoftBank-backed construction tech company has seen C-suite turnover, layoffs and other problems, but some sources say it’s a ‘different animal’ than WeWork

Katerra CEO Michael Marks strolled onto the Las Vegas stage, his name and title projected onto a giant black … [more]

Control freaks: Institutional players take over landlords’ war on rent caps

As small landlords flounder, institutional owners are taking over efforts to beat back rent caps

When Steve Kessner began buying East Harlem rental buildings in the 1980s, like most landlords of rent-stabilized apartments, he played the long game. … [more]

‘Thank God’ for techies

While the luxury market is undoubtedly struggling, brokers report an uptick in tech buyers after a string of IPOs and as companies like Google and Facebook gobble up office space

The news about New York’s luxury residential market has been… [more]

Inside the shakeup at JLL

Departures and uncertainties abound months after the firm’s $2 billion merger with rival HFF

The mandate became clear soon after the $2 billion JLL and HFF merger was announced: Even though JLL was buying its competitor, HFF would be the one taking over the… [more]

Retail wreckage piles up

National brands are continuing to topple, leaving landlords to contend with store vacancies — throughout the country and in the NYC metro area

Discount retailers. Luxury department stores. Children’s stores. Home goods giants. The retailers that filed for … [more]

Trouble in the townhouse market?

While the sector recently saw a blockbuster $77 million deal, the overall mega-mansion market has taken a downward turn

As a percentage of the city’s housing stock, townhouses aren’t just small, they’re minuscule. But they’ve attracted…. [more]

The Closing:
William Shanahan

The CBRE investment sales powerbroker on his Bloomingdale’s days, his biggest NYC rival and selling $100B worth of real estate

William Shanahan is one of the most prolific commercial sales brokers in the country…. [more]

And NYC’s biggest real estate law firm is…

A tally of attorneys at the city’s top purely real estate practices — in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx — showed one with a big lead

The law firm face-off continues. On the heels of last month’s ranking and story “NYC’s barrister brain trust,” The Real Deal dived deeper into the numbers. … [more]

The sales sluggers

A borough-by-borough breakdown of the firms that handled the largest sale volumes

UPDATED: Nov. 15, 2019, 11:05 a.m.: Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson took the lead by investment sales dollar volume in Manhattan at $2.43 billion between July 2018 and June… [more]

The debt duelers

A borough-by-borough breakdown of the firms that handled the largest loan volumes

UPDATED: Nov. 7, 2019, 10:22 a.m.: Fried Frank also topped the list of law firms that oversaw the largest commercial loan volumes in Manhattan, with a whopping $6.97 billion among… [more]

Residential market report

From plummeting sales to rising foreclosures, a look at what’s happening in the world of resi

Manhattan sales in decline after mansion tax frenzy After sales soared last quarter, Manhattan’s residential market is tumbling back to reality — though low … [more]

Commercial market report

From WeWork’s Dock 72 debut to Thor Equities’ latest loss, a look at some of the recent news in the commercial sector

Sponsors remain confident in WeWork-anchored Brooklyn project WeWork’s recent troubles were largely out of sight and out of mind at the launch event for… [more]

Editor’s note: Thinking big – or not thinking enough?

He’s the guy that told Adam Neumann he should act more crazy. Masayoshi Son is the eccentric-but-gifted entrepreneur who launched SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund that went on to invest… [more]