Every day, The Real Deal rounds up New York’s biggest real estate news. We update this page at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., and 4 p.m. ET. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com
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The Trump administration’s new EB-5 rules have the industry biting their nails. The Department of Homeland Security increased the minimum an investor has to put into the cash-for-visa program to $900,000 from $500,000. Many in the real estate industry believe the changes will tighten the spigot on a source of cheap capital that’s partly fueled the post-recession development boom. [TRD]
A new homebuying program between Amazon and Realogy is giving the brokerage a boost. Amid broader struggles, Realogy’s stock and market cap have seen record lows this year. But after the news of the partnership, the conglomerate’s stock — which closed at $5.18 Monday — reached $6.14 on Tuesday morning. Its market cap went up nearly 17 percent to $684 million from roughly $592 million yesterday. [TRD]
Rene Benko (Credit: Wikipedia)
Meet Aby Rosen’s Austrian partner on the Chrysler Building buy. Rene Benko, 42, dropped out of high school at 17 and went on to found what is now Austria’s largest privately held real-estate company, Signa Holding GmbH. It was his connect with former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz that helped him establish ties with the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, which owned a stake in the Chrysler Building. Signa has attracted controversy due to links with a diamond trader accused of corruption in West Africa and an 1MDB-linked Swiss bank, while he himself was convicted of tax fraud 2012 over an alleged bribery attempt in Italy. [WSJ]
Brooklyn Councilman Robert Cornegy
Home-seizure tax enforcement program under fire in City Council. A hearing at City Hall on Monday saw City Council members accuse the De Blasio administration of using the controversial program to dispossess minority landlords while letting owners in places like Staten Island off the hook. “They are the highest gentrifying areas at this particular moment in history, and that can’t be a coincidence,” Brooklyn Councilman Robert Cornegy said, adding that property is a key way for minority communities to build wealth. [Crain’s]
NYCHA’s federal monitor Bart Schwartz has issued his first quarterly report. He described NYCHA as “ fraught with serious problems in structure, culture and direction.” The report also found that because of poor record-keeping, NYCHA doesn’t know definitely how many children under 6 years old live in its development — though it did manage to identify 3,028 apartments frequently visited by such children, and found 2,567 to be lead-contaminated. [WSJ]
Mount Sinai Beth Israel is getting a $600 million redesign. According to an application submitted to the Department of Health, the hospital will be relocated two blocks away and contain 70 beds versus the current 683. The move is part of the Mount Sinai Health System’s $1 billion redevelopment of its facilities south of 34th Street, necessitated by the hospital’s financial condition. [Crain’s]
Compiled by Kevin Sun