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The biggest real estate VC will reportedly invest $40 billion into a new tech megafund. The Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank’s latest plans for investing come after securing backing from an unusual configuration of investors that includes Apple, Goldman Sachs, and the government of Kazakhstan. [TRD]
Lightstone gave its neighbors $7 million to build a hotel. Then the neighbors secretly went to war. That’s the picture painted in a new lawsuit filed by the developer in New York County Supreme Court this week. Lightstone is seeking more than $8.7 million in damages and asking for a judge to force the defendants to stop their “campaign to sabotage the hotel,” according to the complaint. [TRD]
SL Green CEO Marc Holliday (Credit: SL Green)
SL Green Realty has renewed two huge leases with tenants in Manhattan. The company’s second-quarter earnings report showed it had renewed a retail lease for its large movie theater at 312 West 34th Street in Chelsea. The landlord also renewed a lease with Tribune Media Company for local TV station WPIX in an office space at 220 East 42nd Street. [CO 1, 2]
David and Gerald “Jerry” Wolkoff
The 5Pointz developer had a private meeting with a community board at an Italian restaurant. David Wolkoff met with two members two weeks before the board was due to offer its recommendation over the developer’s plans to build luxury apartment buildings at the 5Pointz site. [The City]
Horror movie producer picks up $10 million Brooklyn townhouse. The property at 16 Sidney Place was sold by the widow of hedge-fund manager Sanjay Valvani, Harjot Sandhu. According to The New York Post, the buyer was Jason Blum, whose production company, Blumhouse Productions, is known for a string of high-profile horror films, including ”Paranormal Activity” and “Us.” [NYP]
The City Council wants to build a database of retail vacancies. The “Storefront Tracker” bill empowers the Department of Finance to gather a range of data on storefronts across the city. The information will be used to build a database to help understand retail troubles, and will include information such as whether a space is currently leased, and what its rental costs are. [Curbed]
Townhouses sales saw an 18 percent year-over-year jump to 278. A report from CORE, which covers one to three-family home sales in Manhattan and northwest Brooklyn, also showed inventory was down. There were 370 townhomes on the market, down 27 percent on the previous year. The average listing price grew 14 percent to $9.4 million. [CORE]
Robert K. Futterman (Credit: Southampton Town Police)
Futterman’s latest DUI wouldn’t factor into termination case: legal expert. Former star real-estate broker Robert Futternan was arrested on Tuesday after he allegedly caused a serious car crash in Bridgehampton. A lawyer at the Cullen and Dykman law firm told The Real Deal the crash is unlikely to affect the legal case Futterman is expected to wage against his previous employer, Newmark Knight Frank, because the crash took place after he was terminated. [TRD]
Robert Mueller and President Donald Trump (Credit: Getty Images)
Robert Mueller acknowledges Trump Tower Moscow discussions could have “exposed” president. Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday, Mueller said that a conversation between Russian officials and a Trump Organization associate about a $1 billion Trump-branded condo tower in Moscow could’ve compromised Donald Trump had it been recorded because, at that time, Trump repeatedly stated that he had no business ties with Russia. [TRD]
Plans for a New York headquarters were dashed but Amazon’s interest in New York is very much alive. The ecommerce giant is looking to rent as much as 1 million square feet of industrial space in Brooklyn for a new logistics facility. [TRD]
This landlord is suing to undo New York’s new rent law. But its tenants just won a key victory. The Mycak family, one of the landlords involved in a lawsuit challenging New York’s new rent law, will face a separate class-action lawsuit. New York Supreme Court on Wednesday granted the status to tenants of one of Mycak’s Queens properties, who claim they should have been given a rent-stabilized lease when they moved into the building at 28-30 34th Street. [TRD]
Georgina Bloomberg and 101 Central Park West (Credit: Getty Images/StreetEasy/Wikipedia)
Georgina Bloomberg picked up another co-op at 101 Central Park West. The professional show jumper and daughter of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has purchased the 12th-floor unit through a trust, records show, for about $10.1 million. [TRD]
Compiled by Sylvia Varnham O’Regan