The Real Deal: Recent Episodes
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Chicago real estate players may want to hold off on any further celebration of a judge’s ruling against Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transfer tax hike.
After a Cook County judge decided last week that votes shouldn’t count for the so-called Bring Chicago Home referendum on the March 19 election ballot — which would increase the city’s bite out of large real estate deals, if passed by voters — the city’s Board of Elections wants her ruling overturned.
The Chicago Board of Elections announced Tuesday that it will appeal against the win for the real estate industry in the lawsuit that invalidated the transfer tax referendum supported by Johnson.
The board’s decision to appeal follows City Hall making a similar announcement Monday that it seeks to reverse Judge Kathleen Burke’s ruling that the city couldn’t intervene in the complaint filed against the board by a group of real estate trade groups.
There’s now at least two potential paths proponents of the tax hike for property sales over $1 million could take to restore the measure in time for voters to decide next month.
The board’s plan to appeal adds a new layer to the court fight. Because even if the city won a ruling from the appellate court that it could in fact intervene in the case, that would likely only overturn part of Burke’s decision and kick the case back to the Cook County Circuit Court to be litigated again with the city’s input.
With the Board of Elections now appealing, the judge’s overall ruling in favor of real estate trade groups could be reversed, because the Illinois Appellate Court could potentially decide whether to dismiss the lawsuit entirely.
Before Burke handed down her ruling Friday afternoon, the Board of Elections had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it by the various real estate trade groups, which were spearheaded by the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago.
In filing suit against the board, the trade groups claimed that the city’s ballot question about implementing a new tiered structure for property transfer taxes to fund services to prevent homelessness — a campaign also known as Bring Chicago Home — violates the Illinois Constitution and Illinois Municipal Code.
They claimed that asking voters about both a tax decrease for sale prices under $1 million and an increase for real estate deals totaling $1 million or more constitutes a version of “legislative logrolling” that is prohibited in order to prevent voters from deciding on proposals that would turn both popular and unpopular policies into law with one action.
The Board of Elections asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that it should have been filed against the city, given that the board doesn’t deal with matters of the Illinois Constitution or the Illinois Municipal Code.
“The Board maintains that it is not a proper defendant in this case, and that the city of Chicago is a necessary party,” board’s spokesperson Max Bever said Tuesday. “The Board will request an expedited review by the Illinois Appellate Court.”
This adds a risk for the real estate industry groups that celebrated Friday’s win and means that the appeals process could move quickly.
City attorneys have claimed that, without their involvement, there hasn’t been anyone to adequately respond to arguments made by the trade groups’ attorneys, according to court documents filed by the city.
So far, it’s unclear when the appellate court decision could be reached. Because the transfer tax question still appears on ballots since they were printed before Burke invalidated the measure, it’s possible a successful appeal could lead to votes on the policy being counted, though Michael Forde, an election law attorney, has told The Real Deal he believes it’s unlikely.
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In the run-up to the March Democratic primary, ethics concerns have emerged in the race for Cook County Board of Review commissioner, with challenger Larecia Tucker leveling accusations against incumbent Larry Rogers Jr.
Tucker has raised concerns about Rogers’ past employment of his half-brother, Frederic Everly, and his subsequent facilitation of property tax breaks for Everly’s clients, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Rogers, a seasoned commissioner with two decades of service, previously employed Everly at the Board of Review before Everly transitioned into a career as a tax appeals lawyer. Documents obtained by WBEZ reveal instances in which Rogers’ aides assisted in securing property tax reductions for Everly’s clients, prompting Tucker to question the ethics and legality of such actions.
Tucker, a township official and real estate agent from Chicago Heights, has cited all of that as evidence that Rogers is unfit for another term on the Board of Review. With significant financial backing from Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, Tucker has positioned herself as a candidate committed to transparency and fair governance.
Kaegi’s involvement in the election has added another layer of controversy. Rogers alleges that Kaegi is seeking to influence the outcome to protect his own interests, undermining the independence of the Board of Review and potentially compromising the integrity of property tax assessments in Cook County.
“Anybody who looks at this race has to be appalled by Fritz Kaegi funding the person who would be in charge of reviewing his own work,” Rogers told the outlet. “It’s a conflict of interest that is impermissible and should offend every taxpayer in Cook County.”
In response to the allegations, Rogers maintained that he delegates all case decisions to qualified staff and denied any personal involvement in his brother’s cases. He emphasized that decisions favoring Everly’s clients, like any other case before the board, undergo review by all three commissioners.
Read moreChicagoCook County tax official’s campaign donations raise eyebrows ChicagoBoard of Review Scorned Over Bears AssessmentChicagoWill new Board of Review commissioners quell feud with KaegiFurthermore, Rogers addressed questions about campaign contributions from property tax appeals lawyers, contending that he adheres to ethics rules regarding such donations.
Despite criticism, Rogers is backed by several prominent elected officials, including Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. He positions himself as the experienced candidate best suited to represent a diverse district covering a third of the county, the outlet reported.
In contrast, Tucker portrays herself as an independent voice committed to serving property owners, particularly in underserved communities. She pledges not to bow to pressure from Kaegi, asserting her autonomy and readiness to advocate for constituents’ interests.
—Quinn Donoghue
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Another luxury ranch is up for grabs in Texas.
The 9,400-acre Crooked Tree Ranch in Shackelford County, about 125 miles west of Fort Worth, has hit the market with a price tag over $39 million, the Dallas Morning News reported. The asking price is about $4,164 per acre.
Layne Walker of Montana-based Hall and Hall is marketing the property.
Crooked Tree Ranch has been owned by the same family for more than 25 years. The “headquarters” on the property features a three-bedroom manager’s home, five-bedroom guest house, an equipment barn, a barn with horse stalls, cattle pens, dog kennels, a meat processing room and a small office building
The owner’s compound comprises a three-bedroom house with a private entrance, a storage building and a separate barn that currently houses a large travel trailer.
The ranch caters to hunting enthusiasts, as there’s an abundance of whitetail deer, quail and dove, along with a 200-acre high fence hunting area. More than 10 miles of roads make it easy to navigate the sprawling plot of land.
Income sources for the property include land leases for 54 wind turbines, a cattle lease and possibly a mineral lease.
“The wind energy lease is 15 years into a 35-year lease,” Walker told the outlet. “This is a significant income source.”
A slew of luxury ranches are up for grabs surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth, and just about all of them carry a price tag well above eight figures.
The 2,300-acre 5R Ranch, about 90 minutes north of Dallas in Cooke County, was listed for nearly $25 million last month. The 546-acre Possum Kingdom Ranch in Palo Pinto County hit the market at $10 million last summer.
In November, NFL legend Terry Bradshaw sold his 800-acre ranch near the Oklahoma border, which was last listed at $22.5 million.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasRed River ranch near Dallas listed for $25MTexasHorse ranch with lake views in Dallas suburbs listed at $22MDallasEpic Erath County ranch hits market for $16MThe post Shackelford County ranch lists for $39M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Compass posted a net loss of $320 million in 2023, including a loss of $83.8 million in the fourth quarter.
That’s about half of its net loss of $158 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, a year in which it lost more than $600 million.
Net loss figures include non-cash expenses such as stock compensation and depreciation. The company’s cash burn last quarter was $26 million, down from $76 million a year ago. Compass’ adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — was negative $39 million all of last year, down from negative $210 million in 2022.
Compass trumpeted its first two cash-flow-positive quarters last year in the second and third quarters, but reported a free cash flow loss of $41 million in the fourth.
Executives attribute the improvements to the cost-cutting measures it initiated in the second quarter of 2022. CEO Robert Reffkin said in a statement Tuesday that the brokerage is positioned “for what we believe will be significant upside when the market begins to recover” later this year.
“We believe that Compass will generate hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in EBITDA and free cash flow as the market recovers to a more normalized midcycle home sales level of 5.3 to 5.5 million annual home sales,” he added on the earnings call.
The brokerage industry had expected the market to begin recovering last year, but it did not happen. Mortgage rates ticked down in the fall but have since bounced back up, for-sale inventory remains low, and home affordability across the U.S. has worsened.
Still, other brokerages have fared better in that environment than Compass. The company’s cash position fell to $167 million, down from $362 million a year ago.
Part of the decrease stems from a $150 million repayment the company made toward its $300 million revolver loan. It needs to have a cash balance of at least $150 million to maintain access to the loan.
Quarterly revenue was $1.1 billion, a 1.1 percent decrease from the year prior, with transactions falling 4.9 percent over that timeframe. Compass reports transactions fell by 9.2 percent marketwide last quarter.
Compass cut annual expenses by $1.2 billion last year compared to 2022.
Compass’ average total agent count rose 1 percent year-over-year, aided by a gain of more than 1,000 agents through acquisitions. The brokerage said it managed out 50 underperforming principal agents and 400 total agents last quarter with average income commission under $10,000.
Reffkin said during the earnings call that the proliferation of buyers’ agreements “alleviates my concern on the financial risk related to the topic”, when asked about potential further action from the Department of Justice in the wake of a landmark antitrust lawsuit that found coupled agent commission in violation of antitrust laws.
In advance of the earnings report, Compass stock closed up 3 percent Tuesday — a positive day for the stock market in general — to $3.42 per share.
Presidential election years, as this is, are seen by some experts as depressing home sales because of uncertainty about future economic policies.
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The owners of New American Funding bought a 208,300-square-foot office tower in Santa Ana for $31 million — or $23 million less than what it traded for five years ago.
An unidentified LLC headed by New American’s co-founder, Rick Arvielo bought the nine-story building at 1 MacArthur Place, the Orange County Business Journal reported. The seller was TPG, based in San Francisco, which sought $33 million.
The deal works out to $149 per square foot.
In 2019, Angelo Gordon and Ocean West Capital Partners bought the Class A building for $54 million, or $259 per square foot. TPG took control of the building after its $2.8 billion acquisition of Angelo Gordon.
New American Funding, a mortgage lender based in Tustin, will move its headquarters into its seventh and eighth floors, Arvielo told the newspaper. The company is run by Arvielo and his wife, Patty.
The building, built in 2000 and renovated for $3.6 million four years ago, was 62 percent leased at the time of its sale. Tenants include the State of California, which signed a long-term lease for an undisclosed price and footprint.
Brokers Chris Bosley and Raymond Thagard of Cushman & Wakefield represented the buyer in the deal. Paul Jones, Michael Moore and Brandon White of Newmark represented the seller.
The building along the 55 Freeway sits next to a sister building at MacArthur Place, mostly occupied by state agencies. Boyd Watterson Asset Management, based in Cleveland, bought that nine-story tower in 2021 for $98 million, or $446 per square foot.
The stark difference in valuation for the two similar buildings has mostly to do with the tenant makeup of each tower, according to the Business Journal.
In 2022, the Arvielos, co-CEOs of New American, sold a 112,400-square-foot office and manufacturing building at 14191 Myford Road in Tustin to Houston-based Hines for $50 million, or $446 per square foot. It’s fully leased to pharmaceutical manufacturer Avid Bioservices.
The couple paid $22.5 million for the building in 2017.
Since 2013, New American has purchased at least eight buildings, including properties in Riverside, Temecula, Las Vegas and Texas, according to the Business Journal. The company, founded by the Arvielos in 2003, reported $935 million in revenue in 2022.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesHines finds a Penney among $250M in SoCal buysLos AngelesTireco spends $29M to buy Santa Ana office buildingLos AngelesOptima Tax Relief leases 40K sf at Santa Ana office buildingThe post New American Funding owners buy Santa Ana offices for $31M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Solar farm developer Clinton Brown has allegedly defaulted on a loan at a Calabasas site where he wants to build a 200-home subdivision, The Real Deal has learned.
The property, at 27250 Agoura Road, is currently on the market for $29 million, according to a listing on Zillow and other websites. The vacant lot covers 27.4 acres perched atop the Calabasas hills. Entitlements for the envisioned houses are pending the resolution of a federal lawsuit against L.A. County, according to the listing.
The entity that owns the site, Atlas LLC, was issued a default notice on Dec. 18, property records show. The lender, Steve Weera Tonasut Trust, claims that Atlas fell behind on $268,027 in debt.
Brown’s brokerage firm, Atlas Inc., plans to build a residential project on the site called Atlas Hills. According to the company’s website, the project, described as a “new, vibrant California neighborhood,” will feature homes fitted with “the latest in smart home technology.” Three-bed, two-bath homes in the planned complex are already up for sale at nearly $1.1 million, based on the company’s website.
“I just want to be able to develop this property for housing that we need today,” Brown told TRD.
The default notice came after Brown sued investor Emil Assentato, who owned a minority stake in the property. According to court documents, Brown initially planned to build a 20-megawatt solar field on the site. However, this was rejected by the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning.
Brown filed a lawsuit against the agency in 2022 over the rejection, arguing in the complaint that the designation of the entire property as a “significant ecological area,” which justifies the denial, violates the Constitution’s Takings Clause. The case remains open, court records show.
The alleged default adds to the roster of distressed residential development sites in the Los Angeles market.
L.A.-based developer Shangri-La Industries has allegedly defaulted on $41 million in debt tied to seven properties under Project Homekey, a state program that funds conversions of motels into housing for the homeless. According to TRD data, the firm has obtained at least $121 million in loans from the state between 2020 to 2022.
In December, WS Communities defaulted on a $5.3 million loan tied to a parcel in Santa Monica. The lot sits adjacent to a 16-story apartment tower that the firm is constructing under builder’s remedy.
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First Nordstrom abandoned San Francisco, and now Macy’s is preparing to ship its parade of clothes, perfumes and home furnishings out of town.
The New York-based retailer plans to shutter its 400,000-square-foot flagship department store at 170 O’Farrell Street in Union Square, bringing to an end a 71-year run in the heart of the city, the San Francisco Business Times and San Francisco Standard reported.
The Downtown Macy’s fell into the crosshairs of new CEO Tony Spring, who decided to close 150 underperforming department stores to boost sales and pivot toward selling luxury goods.
The closures include 30 percent of Macy’s stores and will take three years — including 50 by year’s end that don’t include the Union Square location.
San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who said the company directly informed him of its plans, said the store that opened in 1947 will remain open until Macy’s finds a buyer for the property.
The closure will affect about 400 jobs, according to a local Macy’s workers’ union.
“It’s hard to think of Macy’s not being part of our city anymore,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement. “Change is happening in San Francisco.”
Macy’s, which owns Bloomingdale’s at the nearby San Francisco Centre mall, has for years been paring back its local retail footprint.
In 2016, the department store synonymous with Union Square sold a 260,000-square-foot storefront at 120 Stockton Street, formerly home to the Macy’s Men’s store, to Blatteis & Schnur and Morgan Stanley Real Estate. In 2019, developer Sand Hill Properties acquired the historic 240,000-square-foot Macy’s I. Magnin building at 233 Geary Street for $250 million, according to the Business Times.
“There is no getting around the fact that this announcement hurts,” Marisa Rodriguez, executive director for the Union Square Alliance, the community benefit district representing Union Square, told the newspaper.
Last month, Macy’s announced it would shut a 67-year-old store at the Bayfair Center mall in San Leandro. It now has 19 stores around the Bay Area, according to its website.
“Our threshold to keep stores open has become more stringent,” Spring said Tuesday during an earnings call. “Having the right footprint and location is important. But we must also have the right product at a value that we know appeals to our customers.”
The stores earmarked for closure represent a quarter of Macy’s gross square footage last year, but less than 10 percent of overall sales, Spring said.
In recent years, the central shopping district Downtown San Francisco has struggled with viral robberies and closures of major stores during a shift in consumer habits accelerated by the pandemic, according to the Business Times.
In April, Whole Foods announced it would close its flagship store in Mid-Market, citing the safety concerns of its managers and clerks.
In May, Nordstrom announced it would close two stores in San Francisco, including its 312,000-square-foot department store in the San Francisco Centre at 865 Market Street. The value of the half-empty indoor mall, now in receivership after its landlords walked away from the property, fell $1 billion.
In October, Starbucks announced the closure of seven of its stores in Downtown, including Union Square.
State Sen. Scott Wiener said there is “a lot of work to do” after the Macy’s closure to revitalize Downtown.
“There will be an automatic narrative that this closure has something to do with San Francisco or with crime,” Wiener told the Standard in an email. “But this is a mass closure. … We need to aggressively and creatively reimagine the future of downtown SF including union square.”
— Dana Bartholomew
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A growing suburban area of Houston is getting a major retail, apartment and office development.
Realty1 Partners, a Fulshear-based retail developer, filed plans to build Elyson Town Center in Elyson, a master-planned community between Cypress and Katy. The project will consist of ground-floor shops, with apartments and workplaces occupying the second floor. In all, it is expected to span roughly 240,000 square feet, according to the filings.
The five buildings have an estimated cost of $37.1 million, though the filings are preliminary.
The plans call for five buildings to rise at 7070 Elyson Exchange Way. It is an undeveloped plot at the intersection of Texas State Highway 99 and FM 529. There are several other development sites nearby, and just across the highway, there are some other retail shops, including a Target.
Elyson, developed by Brookfield Properties Development, has 2,500 homes already built and plans for another 6,000 on the way, according to marketing materials for the project. The undated materials advertise retail rents between $42 and $45 per square foot and office rates of $32 per square foot. They also mention a tenant allowance of $45 per square foot.
In addition to the five buildings listed in the filings, promotional renderings show another six smaller buildings on the edge of the property. These would range between 4,000 and 9,200 square feet.
Retail development is growing in Cypress, which sits on the northwest edge of Houston. This project lies just outside TX-99, which loops around Houston from Sugar Land to Baytown, passing just south of The Woodlands. Earlier this week, Howard Hughes broke ground on Village Green at Bridgeland Central. The retail center will have 28,000 square feet of shops and a 100,000-square-foot H-E-B. The grocery chain has been opening new locations in Texas’ fastest-growing towns for years, and often shows where sprawling cities like Houston will stretch to next.
Read moreHoustonDow leases 200K sf in Midway’s CityCentre SixDallasNRG offers 25K sf office sublease in PlanoAustinYIMBYTown comes to AustinThe post Realty1 moves forward with 200k sf retail center near Katy appeared first on The Real Deal.
Blackstone’s Jonathan Pollack is jumping ship to Starwood Capital Group, but his start date isn’t until next year.
Pollack, who is currently the global head of New York-based Blackstone’s real estate credit business, was tapped to take over as president of Miami Beach-based Starwood starting in 2025, according to a press release. He will take over from Jeffrey Dishner, who will become Starwood’s vice chairman and head of strategy and business development, the release shows.
Blackstone will not be refilling Pollack’s role, the firm confirmed in a statement: “We are delighted for Jonathan Pollack and wish him much success in his new role at Starwood Capital. We are not replacing Jonathan’s role. Tim Johnson has been Global Head of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies since 2021 and will continue in this role.”
Starwood declined to comment.
Pollack has overseen Blackstone’s $84 billion real estate credit business since 2015. He previously headed commercial real estate at Deutsche Bank, where he worked for 16 years. He also sits on Blackstone’s real estate executive, investment and operating committees, the release shows.
In his upcoming role, Pollack will lead Starwood’s executive, investment, disposition and operating committees, chairman and CEO Barry Sternlicht stated in the release. He also indicated ambitions for growth in Starwood’s “next chapter.”
In the earnings call for Starwood Property Trust’s fourth quarter results earlier this month, Sternlicht announced plans to launch a middle-market lending arm. He also touched on the hits the firm has taken thanks to distress in the office market.
“We are in the ship. We are in the boat. We are navigating these waters. We’re going to take some losses. We’re going to be okay,” he said during the meeting.
Starwood’s credit loss reserves reached $307 million in the fourth quarter. While the market has its challenges, Sternlicht also sees opportunity. As of August, the firm had plans to launch a distress investment fund.
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EQT Exeter paid $14.5 million for a warehouse and office building in Doral.
An affiliate of the Radnor, Pennsylvania-based real estate investment trust acquired the 45,970-square-foot mixed-use building at 3605 Northwest 115th Avenue, records show. Sitting on a 2.1-acre site, the building was completed in 2004.
The seller, an entity managed by Harry Aizenberg in Laredo, Texas, paid $690,000 for the property in 1997, records show.
The building is leased to Wrk Lab, an office furniture dealer, according to an online listing.
Led by CEO Ward Fitzgerald, EQT Exeter acquires, develops, leases, and manages industrial, residential and office properties in North and South America, Europe and Asia, according to the firm’s website. In 2022, EQT Exeter paid $85.5 million for a 380-unit apartment complex in Chicago. In 2021, the firm acquired a six-building office and research campus in San Jose, California, for $192 million.
South Florida’s industrial market started the year strong with five deals in January. Bahrain-based Investcorp paid $72.3 million for Powerline Business Park, an industrial complex in Deerfield Beach. The firm partially financed the acquisition with a $76.6 million loan from MetLife Investment Management.
In an off-market deal, Boston-based Longpoint Partners scooped up six warehouses near Medley and Doral for $30 million. Also in Doral, ComReal sold a warehouse for $17.5 million to Sebastian Guejman, an Aventura-based real estate investor. Guejman took out an $11 million mortgage with Banesco USA to partially finance the purchase.
An affiliate of Doral-based Parker Davis HVAC International bought a Medley warehouse that was completed last year. Parker Davis paid $42.3 million for the 143,571-square-foot industrial building.
In another Medley deal, Miami-based Cofe Properties sold a mixed-use complex for $38.5 million. Baltimore, Maryland-based ABR Capital, and Darien, Connecticut-based East Capital Partners acquired two four-story office buildings and six industrial warehouses. The joint venture partially financed the purchase with a $25.6 million mortgage from Boise, Idaho-based A10 Capital.
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Michael Stern tapped Official to lead sales of his Dolce & Gabbana-branded supertall condo tower planned for Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. Stern’s JDS Development Group partnered with the Italian fashion house that is expanding into real estate with other projects planned in Spain and the Maldives. The Miami tower, at 888 Brickell Avenue, was previously planned […]
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It’s hard to find an empty store in Orange County. The county’s retail vacancy rate fell to 4 percent this summer, the lowest since 2007, the Orange County Business Journal reported, citing figures from CoStar Group. The low storefront vacancies point to a retail squeeze caused by millions of square feet of demolished stores and […]
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The show is over for Mary Tyler Moore’s family ownership of a luxury estate in Greenwich, Connecticut. The widower of the late actress, retired cardiologist Robert Levine, listed the home at 50 Dingletown Road for $21.9 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The property is 14,000 square feet, breaking down the listing price to approximately […]
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The first two phases of a 95-acre development in Cedar Park, near Austin, will start with logistics. A joint venture between Cordova Real Estate Ventures, Riverside Resources and Live Oak recently started the project, “New Hope.” It is expected to cost $250 million at full buildout, including 430,000 square feet of spec industrial space and […]
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Here’s the story of a pay television channel whose world-famous Studio City home as seen in “The Brady Bunch” sold for $3.2 million — 42 percent less than its asking price. HGTV, a unit of Burbank-based Warner Bros., sold the 5,100-square-foot ranch house made famous by the TV show about a blended family in the […]
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Sunbelt Rentals has paid $5 million for land in East San Jose once slated to contain some of the 800 homes proposed by a local developer accused of real estate fraud. The South Carolina-based tool rental company bought 2.4 acres between 2101 and 2149 Alum Rock Avenue, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The seller, […]
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A joint venture on a 10-property light industrial portfolio on Long Island. Starwood and Onyx Acquisition IV acquired the portfolio in Inwood, New York for $146 million, Crain’s reported. The properties, located a short drive from John F. Kennedy International Airport, span more than 18 acres and 501,000 square feet. The deal breaks down to […]
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Declining income. Increasing vacancy. Dropping values. These are just a few of the existential threats to L.A.’s commercial market. As interest rates keep going up, more owners teeter on the edge of falling into default. Add that together with hefty taxes, and deal volume for investment sales has dipped. So what’s a dealmaker to do? […]
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Lionel Messi was looking for privacy, luxury and space in his hunt for a home in South Florida. The soccer superstar found it in Bay Colony, a waterfront community in Fort Lauderdale, where he and his wife paid nearly $11 million for a mansion at 91 Compass Lane. The neighborhood is one of the few […]
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Michael Graves is heading back to Douglas Elliman. The classical musician-turned-broker is leaving Compass after more than four years to rejoin his former firm, where he started in 2013. Graves attributed his return to Elliman’s national pipeline of new development projects and its international network through its ties to London-based consultancy Knight Frank. Joining the […]
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Longtime Savills broker David Carlos is jumping to JLL, and taking his two-person team with him. The Chicago-based brokerage announced on Wednesday Carlos’ new role as vice chairman and Head of Nonprofit, Education and Government Practice. He’ll be joined by Andrew Dzenis and Rekha Pednekar, who have been with Carlos at Savills for five years […]
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Google’s Downtown West, an 80-acre transit village proposed for Downtown San Jose, has revived from the apparent grave it fell into last spring, according to company executives and public officials. In her first appearance at the building site since the campus project had been shelved, Ruth Porat, chief investment officer of Google parent Alphabet, said […]
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Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York’s effort to ascend the ranks of the city’s brokerage world has proven challenging, but the firm just took its biggest step yet, nabbing one of Christie’s International Real Estate’s top-producing teams. Brian Meier and his Meier Estates & Ventures Team defected Tuesday. Meier’s contingent was the second most successful Christie’s […]
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Sterling Bay is making its next multifamily move in the thriving Fulton Market District. The developer is proposing a new 29-story apartment tower at 370 North Carpenter Street, according to a zoning application set to be presented to the Chicago City Council this week, Crain’s reported. The new project comes on the heels of Sterling […]
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Ilija Pavlovic motions toward Christie’s auction house from the window of the 24th-floor conference room in 1 Rockefeller Plaza. The showroom, which houses fine art, jewelry and other wares up for auction or private sale, is just a five-minute walk from the new flagship office of Christie’s International Real Estate Group. It was also a […]
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Days after reports surfaced that an L.A. home once owned by Marilyn Monroe was facing demolition, the L.A. City Council has rushed through a motion that temporarily protects the Brentwood house. The City Council voted on Friday to adopt a motion to consider historical cultural monument status for the house, which effectively freezes all building […]
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JPMorgan’s investment arm is willing to test the waters with a Streeterville apartment tower sale, and risk taking a bath. The venture of JPMorgan Asset Management that owns the 19-story, 198-unit apartment building at 850 North Lake Shore Drive is marketing the property for sale, even as rising interest rates have contributed to substantial losses […]
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For the third time in the past year, Divvy Homes is decreasing its workforce. The rent-to-own protech startup is laying off 95 employees across the country, Inman reported. The company last week filed WARN Act notices saying the cuts will affect employees in 21 states. The WARN Act notice filed in California disclosed that the […]
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Hines and Oaktree Capital Management have sold a 405,100-square-foot office campus leased by Raytheon in Fullerton for $76.5 million. The Houston-based developer and the Downtown Los Angeles-based investment firm sold the two, three-story buildings at 1801 Hughes Drive, the Commercial Observer reported. The buyer was Prime Enterprises, a family office based in Pasadena run by […]
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The Bay Area’s largest city hasn’t got its housing plan in order. State regulators have refused to sign off on San Jose’s required “Housing Element” plan to add 62,200 homes in the next eight years, leaving the city open to builder’s remedy proposals, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. Late last month, the state Housing […]
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Manhattan’s luxury market had a modestly above-average Labor Day week. Eighteen contracts were signed for homes asking $4 million or more, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report, two more than the 10-year average for the short week. That matched the number from the previous week, which is typically slow because wealthy buyers are on vacation. […]
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Eyal Ofer is looking for a quick flip at the swanky Mondrian Park Avenue hotel in Nomad and to bag more than $150 million. The billionaire investor’s Global Holdings Group has put the 190-room hotel up for sale after taking over the property about two months ago from David Moinan’s Moin Development through a deed-in-lieu […]
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Soccer superstar Lionel Messi scooped up a waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale, The Real Deal has learned. Messi and his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, acquired a 10,500-square-foot, eight-bedroom estate in Fort Lauderdale’s Bay Colony through a company led by Messi’s wealth manager, Alfonso Nebot, records show and a source confirmed to TRD. Messi, who joined Inter […]
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Law students at St. Francis College won’t have to look too far for source material this semester. The college and Rockrose Development filed motions to have a lawsuit that was brought by Alexico Group dismissed, Crain’s reported. The motions were filed in Manhattan state Supreme Court two months after Alexico, embittered by a scuttled purchase […]
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Greenberg Traurig | downtown Miami Greenberg Traurig is staying put in downtown Miami. The law firm renewed its lease for 128,500 square feet on five floors at the Wells Fargo Center, marking the biggest office deal in Miami in more than five years, according to a news release from the landlord’s broker. The deal adds […]
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Raging Waters San Jose will rage no more. Palace Entertainment, the Pittsburgh-based owner of the 23-acre amusement park, has announced its closure after 38 years of splashy rides at 2333 South White Road, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Raging Waters opened in 1985 on city property at Lake Cunningham Regional Park in East San […]
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When Centennial plunked down $199 million for the Westfield Valencia Town Center mall in Santa Clarita, it had one aim: to add value by building homes, offices and more businesses. The Dallas-based investor bought the 1 million-square-foot indoor mall at 24201 West Valencia Boulevard in Santa Clarita with a plan to redevelop the property, the […]
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Citadel’s flirtations with SL Green and Vornado Realty Trust in Midtown Manhattan may end up leaving the office landlords heartbroken. The hedge fund led by CEO Ken Griffin paused some plans for its office footprint in Manhattan, the New York Post reported. The firm was reportedly in talks to lease 400,000 square feet at 280 […]
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With Labor Day in the rear view mirror, South Florida real estate firms are back to business. First up, JLL added two senior managing directors in West Palm Beach, according to a press release. Kevin Probel and Kevin McCarthy join the commercial real estate firm from their previous roles as first vice presidents with CBRE, […]
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Several developments are bringing $1 million-plus new homes to Dallas-Fort Worth. Lingenfelter Custom Homes, Pentavia Custom Homes and Denton Creek Builders are at work on eight homes priced around $3 million in Bartonville, a small town in Denton County. Lewisville-based Cana Capital developed the lots, all of which are at least 2 acres, the Dallas […]
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RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, is one of the four bidders looking to redevelop the city of Miami Beach-owned site that is home to Nikki Beach Club. The high-end home furnishings retailer revealed details of its proposal for the waterfront site at 1 Ocean Drive ahead of a public meeting this coming Monday. RH […]
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Hamilton police have made two arrests in connection with the 2020 murder of a 42-year-old real estate agent from Stoney Creek, Canada. Jamal Chemin, 41, and Sorossa Moude, 27, both Toronto residents with links to organized crime, face first-degree murder charges in the killing of Giorgio Barresi, CBC reported. The murder was financially motivated, and […]
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Palazzo Riggi, the lavish stone mansion in Saratoga Springs, has found new owners in an evening auction last week. The winning bid came from Joe Gross — the owner of Gross Electric, an electrical contracting company based in Queensbury — marking the end of a year-long journey on the real estate market, the Times-Union reported, […]
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The conservative nonprofit Project Veritas is known for its gotcha videos, allegedly exposing liberals of bias and hypocrisy. But the group’s founder, James O’Keefe, has found himself in the crosshairs of an internal audit for allegedly using Project Veritas money to, among other things, fund trips to California under the pretext of meeting with low-level […]
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A New Jersey real estate investor pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a $1 million mortgage scheme. Cabral Simpson, a 46-year-old resident of Orange, New Jersey, admitted to collaborating with co-conspirators in fabricating bank statements and fake employee verification records for prospective property buyers, the U.S. Department of Justice said […]
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A who’s who of Connecticut business leaders are forging ahead with a $841 million plan to redevelop Founders Plaza in East Hartford. The developers — operating as Port Eastside LLC — purchased a low-rise office building at 99 Founders Plaza for $4 million, the Hartford Business Journal reported. The venture plans to demolish the building, […]
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A former JLL executive has ventured into independent property ownership and management in the Philadelphia area under the name Love Communities. Mark Thomson, a real estate professional with a 15-year background in brokerage firms has a portfolio comprising 1,400 multifamily units across 12 properties located in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. […]
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An Atlanta apartment investor, specializing in buy-and-flip properties, had one of its complexes fall into foreclosure, while another potential auction was postponed due to missed payments. A subsidiary of MSC Investment & Management LLC defaulted on a loan for the Virginia Highlands Apartment Homes located at 609 Virginia Avenue, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. The […]
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A coalition of prominent figures from Norman’s civic, business, and education sectors has revealed ambitious plans for a groundbreaking $1 billion entertainment district.
The proposed development, spearheaded by “Team Norman,” seeks to transform the city with a slew of amenities, including a new arena for University of Oklahoma athletics, hotels, offices, shops, restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, and housing for thousands, the Oklahoman reported.
The coalition has emphasized that the project will not burden city or county general funds nor necessitate a tax increase. Instead, it plans to fund 80 percent of the venture through private investment, with the remaining 20 percent coming from public sources.
Norman Mayor Larry Heikkila suggested that tax increment financing and potentially revenue bonds would be employed to secure the public portion of the funding.
TIF districts are instrumental in harnessing tax revenues generated by new developments to fund public improvements in the area. In some instances, bonds are issued and repaid with increasing ad valorem taxes, while others function as rebates.
University of Oklahoma President Joe Harroz Jr. expressed support for the project, particularly the replacement of the Lloyd Noble Center.
While the university won’t shoulder development costs, it will contribute by paying rent for the arena and other facilities. These revenues are earmarked to support the use of revenue bonds, which are financed through increased development-generated income.
Lawrence McKinney, president of the Norman Economic Development Coalition, highlighted the city’s housing shortage and the need to attract new residents and businesses to avoid stagnation. The coalition envisions a district that aligns with residents’ desires for walkable, safe, green neighborhoods that are inclusive of an economically diverse population.
Situated near the University North Park district, the development will front Interstate 35, specifically at Rock Creek Road and 24th Avenue NW. The proposed development would include a venue designed to host various events, from concerts and shows to OU basketball games and women’s gymnastics competitions. An outdoor plaza will be adjacent to the performance venue.
This announcement comes five years after a previous effort, which sought tax increment financing but was withdrawn by the OU Foundation due to opposition at City Hall.
— Ted Glanzer
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Gisele Bündchen — the Brazilian supermodel, cookbook author and ex-wife of retired quarterback and Super Bowl ring accumulator Tom Brady — has purchased a new home in Southwest Ranches, Florida.
Flamboyant Tree LLC, which is tied to Bündchen, paid the unidentified sellers just over $9 million for the 7.5-acre property, which was listed most recently for $10.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The sellers bought the property in 2003 with $1.65 million.
Laura Valente of Global Luxury Realty LLC represented Bündchen, while the listing agents were Chad Bishop and Saddy Abaunze Delgado of ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.
The property has a 5,200-square-foot home and, in keeping with a sporty family — Bündchen has two children with Brady — two equestrian rings, a full soccer pitch, an infinity pool, outdoor kitchen and man-made pond with fish, the outlet says.
The town and surrounding area are known for being a big horse-riding community, Bishop told the outlet.
But the property will serve as more than a mini-sportsplex. Bündchen plans on having chickens and other farm animals, in addition to horses, on the property.
“They will make it a real animal-friendly property,” Bishop told the WSJ.
Bundchen is no stranger to owning property in South Florida.
She paid $11.5 million for the waterfront home at 1400 Biscaya Drive in Surfside in October 2022 via a trust, records show. The 6,600-square-foot house, built in 1981, is likely a teardown. It sits on a 0.4-acre lot across the water from the Indian Creek mansion that Brady is building.
The Surfside property has 92 feet of waterfront. The seller, Bay Drive BJ Partners LLC, lost money on the deal. It paid $11.8 million for the property months earlier, in April of last year.
Joel Lusky with The Brokerage South Florida Real Estate represented the seller in the sale to Bündchen, according to Realtor.com. Vanessa Frank with One Sotheby’s International Realty represented Bündchen.
Records show that Bündchen, via an LLC, also paid $1.3 million for the small, non-waterfront home at 8850 Emerson Avenue in Surfside in February 2022, months before she and Brady announced their divorce. The deal may have introduced her to Frank of One Sotheby’s, who was the listing agent for 8850 Emerson Avenue. The 1,540-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom house, built in 1940, was renovated and sits on a 0.1-acre lot.
Brady and Bündchen paid $17 million for the lot at 26 Indian Creek Island Road in late 2020, via an LLC managed by Fontainebleau Development executives.
The couple knocked down the home on the nearly 2-acre property and began building a new mansion, which Brady continued after the couple’s divorce, according to records.
— Ted Glanzer
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Martin Selig, a prominent office developer in Seattle, is facing a growing list of unpaid bills that is raising concerns in the city.
In the spring, it was revealed that Selig — whose financial troubles have been exacerbated by the pandemic — had become delinquent on $2.2 million in property taxes for five of his downtown buildings in King County, the Seattle Times reported.
The buildings, like many others, have struggled with high vacancy rates during the pandemic, putting financial strain on the developer.
In early August, the city of Seattle sued Martin Selig Real Estate over $172,200 in unpaid fees related to street use permits for construction projects.
However, the biggest concern for Selig and his company is the looming $2.7 million bill of fees, penalties, and interest owed to the Metropolitan Improvement District, a city-backed initiative aimed at revitalizing downtown Seattle in the wake of the pandemic.
The district relies on fees assessed on over 1,000 downtown property owners to fund various improvement projects, including trash and graffiti removal, security, and public programming.
Selig’s delinquency accounts for a significant portion of the district’s outstanding debts, and its resolution is critical for the district’s recovery efforts. The district’s budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year anticipates revenue of $18.5 million from its ratepayers, most of whom have been diligent in paying their fees.
While Martin Selig Real Estate has expressed its intention to address these outstanding balances, the city’s response has been less clear. The Office of Finance referred the unpaid district assessments for Selig’s properties to the City Attorney’s Office, but a resolution remains uncertain. The city’s limited tools for corrective action in such cases, compared to property tax collections, have complicated the situation.
Despite these challenges, the Downtown Seattle Association, which manages the district, maintains that Selig’s delinquencies and those of other district members do not threaten its operations. They attribute this resilience to higher-than-expected assessment revenue collection during the pandemic, which has allowed them to cover additional expenses from reserves.
However, critics like Steve Horvath argue that the failure to collect assessments from large companies like Selig’s unfairly burdens smaller property owners who diligently fulfill their financial obligations. Horvath sees this as a glaring example of privilege favoring larger entities and calls for equitable enforcement of district assessments.
Selig, 86, who is known for his resilience in previous downturns, is facing unprecedented challenges in the city’s current office market slump caused by the pandemic, the Seattle Times reported.
Despite his reputation as a deal-maker, Selig’s office portfolio has an uncomfortable 19 percent vacancy rate, significantly higher than the single-digit rates seen in 2019.
Some of his newer properties, such as the Federal Reserve building and 400 Westlake tower, are struggling to find tenants.
— Ted Glanzer
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With the product on the field a work in progress, Chicago Bears fans have perhaps a little more cause for optimism with things off the field.
Bears President Kevin Warren said in a letter to season-ticket holders that the team has reopened discussions with the city about building a new indoor stadium downtown, Front Office Sports reported.
That plan was thought to be dead, the outlet reported.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and Warren had been exploring potential stadium sites in Chicago, as the Bears look to move on from Soldier Field, where they’ve played for almost a century, Crain’s reported.
The team appeared locked in to building a $5 billion stadium district in Arlington Heights when it finalized a deal to pay $197 million for the former Arlington International Racecourse in February and began its demolition shortly thereafter. However, the Bears were forced to look elsewhere after being hit with a $197 million property tax reassessment and have since explored sites in other suburbs, including Naperville.
Warren said in the letter that suburban sites were still in play, but the main focus was to keep the team within city limits, Front Office Sports said.
Johnson, for his part, has made a significant effort to keep the Bears in Chicago. One major challenge, however, is finding enough acreage for a potential entertainment district along with a stadium, like the team was planning in Arlington Heights.
Developer Bob Dunn of Landmark Development proposed revamping Soldier Field as part of his One Central megadevelopment proposal just west of the existing stadium. But the Bears haven’t expressed interest in staying at its long-time home, and Dunn’s overall plan requires $6.5 billion in state subsidies to fund work on the commuter railway station and tracks that would be incorporated into the project.
Warren’s letter to fans was sent just before the Bears kickoff their 2023-24 season on Sunday against their archrival, the Green Bay Packers. Last year the Bears had the league’s worst record and the most losses in franchise history (3-14) as the offense struggled with a young quarterback in Justin Fields. This year, experts predict the Bears will be more competitive, but will likely still have a losing record.
— Ted Glanzer
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The legal fight between Camden and developer Carl Dranoff is at an end, but the animosity won’t likely to fade anytime soon.
The city announced the settlement between the two sides last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, ending a five-year dispute over tax payments on luxury apartments. Mayor Victor Carstarphen hailed the settlement, saying it would add $7.8 million in monetary and property assets to its coffers.
Terms of the settlement weren’t publicly disclosed, but both sides said Dranoff will pay Camden $3 million, as well as additional tax payments of $150,000 for each of the next two years on the waterfront Victor Lofts apartment building, which Dranoff redeveloped from a former record factory in the early 2000s.
Dranoff is also ceding the development rights to the dilapidated, city-owned Radio Lofts site, as well as a neighboring parking lot.
Carstarphen managed to incite the developer in his statement, claiming Dranoff was a bully and “do-gooder pretending to be a part of our revitalization efforts when, in fact, he was lining his own pockets.” Dranoff labeled those comments as “false, misleading and defamatory.”
Dranoff’s issues with the city may stem from a dispute with Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III, who released a statement of his own blasting Dranoff after the settlement was announced.
State and federal officials have been scrutinizing Norcross’ involvement in several real estate deals in Camden, along the Delaware River. Dranoff claimed in a deposition to have had a falling out with Norcross involving a proposed deal in 2016 and that officials loyal to Norcross have been hindering Dranoff ever since.
In 2018, Dranoff resorted to suing Camden after the city refused to transfer a tax agreement linked to the Victor from the developer to Aimco, thwarting the latter’s $71 million purchase of the property. Norcross’ brother is a lawyer who has advised the Camden Redevelopment Agency.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNationalNew Jersey AG probes power broker’s real estate dealsTri-StateCamden County ponders eminent domain for redevelopmentTri-StateCampbell Soup boils down its Connecticut officeThe post Carl Dranoff settles heated site dispute with Camden appeared first on The Real Deal.
August slipped away into a moment in time, according to Taylor Swift, but not before she gave the U.S. hotel industry a huge boost this summer with her “Eras” tour.
The average revenue per room in cities where her tour landed increased more than 4 percent over the national average, and increased more than 7 percent when compared with year-over-year revenue, CNBC reported, citing Bernstein data.
The additional money came from not only higher-priced rooms when Swift was in town, but also to increased bookings on the nights she was performing. Occupancy rose 30 percent and room prices spiked 50 percent in Nashville on the weekend T-Swizzle performed, the outlet said.
It isn’t just analysts who are noting the swift impact on local economies. The Federal Reserve has also taken notice.
“Despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic,” Fed officials wrote in July, according to CNBC, “in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.”
A Bernstein analyst said occupancy increased 11 percent in the City of Brotherly Love and revenue per room was up nearly 60 percent on the nights Swift performed.
The economic impact of the “Eras” could be felt globally as well, the outlet reported.
Bernstein even has a name for the singer’s impact: “Swiftonomics.”
The country-pop supernova also has amassed significant real estate holdings.
Indeed, the 33-year-old, 12-time Grammy winner has a U.S. residential real estate portfolio worth more than $150 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Her (known) holdings span as far north as Rhode Island, as far west as Beverly Hills and as south as Nashville, Tennessee, where she originally found fame at the age of 14.
— Ted Glanzer
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Nearly six months after Signature Bank’s collapse, regulators are ready to sell the defunct lender’s $33 billion commercial real estate loan book.But, there’s a catch: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will maintain partial control of the portfolio’s loans to rent-stabilized buildings, which make up nearly half the loan book.
The agency is dividing the portfolio into two segments. The first, comprising around $18 billion in loans tied to market-rate buildings in New York City, should be attractive for buyers.
The rent-stabilized segment, not so much.
The latter has been a major point of discussion over the past six months. Following Signature’s downfall, New York Community Bank acquired its failed competitor’s loan book, excluding commercial and multifamily loans. The snub sent a warning signal about potential toxicity in that portfolio.
“It may speak to broader problems within the multifamily industry,” Jay Martin, executive director of landlord group the Community Housing Improvement Program, said at the time.
Multifamily distress has indeed increased nationwide. But rent-stabilized buildings have a particular problem that helps explain the FDIC’s decision to put those loans in their own pile: a 2019 law severely limiting rent hikes in those apartments. Valuations have since plummeted by 20 to 45 percent.
The FDIC will maintain a majority stake in the rent-regulated loan book, which it explained by citing its mission to preserve affordable housing. There seems to be a fear that a private buyer could foreclose on the rent-stabilized buildings and make things worse for tenants.
At the same time, separating out the market-rate buildings’ loans may fetch a more attractive price for them.
Aside from the FDIC’s announcement, the process has taken place behind closed doors. Even the borrowers have been kept in the dark. The eventual sale could provide a shocking insight into just how far valuations have fallen in the rent-stabilized sector.
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What we’re thinking about: Labor Day was supposed to bring a new wave of workers back to the office as employers throughout the city demanded they return to their cubicles. As we wrap up the shortened week, I’m curious: Did you see any change in your company’s/colleagues’ remote working habits? Send a note to david.westenhaver@therealdeal.com.
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Closing TimeResidential: The priciest residential closing Friday was $11.5 million for a condo at 70 Greene Street in Soho.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $24 million for a two-story building at 80 North Sixth Street in Williamsburg.
New to the Market
The priciest residence to hit the market Friday was a condo at 200 11th Avenue in West Chelsea asking $27 million. Compass has the listing.
A thing we’ve learned: We’ve long known that the phrase “money doesn’t buy happiness” is not entirely true. Now, there’s a number to quantify exactly how much it costs in each major city across the country. In New York, it’s $145,028 per year, the third highest in the country.
Elsewhere in New York— Almost 1 million NYC children returned to the classroom yesterday. A looming threat of a strike by a bus driver union could leave 80,000 students without proper transportation to and from school. But that’s not the only issue public schools will face this year. The City compiled a list of the biggest issues for educators.
— Donald Trump has sold his stake in a Bronx golf course that has carried his name since 2015, the Post reported. Casino chain Bally’s purchased the contract to operate the Trump Golf Links Ferry Point for an amount reportedly in the tens of millions. The course became a battleground for Trump and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2021 following the January 6 Capitol riot. Bally’s purchase is considered part of its effort to get a license to operate a casino within the city.
— Climate protesters caused a 49-minute delay at the US Open last night, as American Coco Gauff faced off against — and eventually defeated — Karolina Muchova. The protest came a day after US Open officials decided to partially close the main court’s roof in an attempt to reduce sweltering conditions at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.
The post The Daily Dirt: Are Signature Bank’s loans really toxic? appeared first on The Real Deal.
Being on the other side of Labor Day means fall is near, even if the weather doesn’t cooperate fully. The end of the year isn’t here, yet, but it’s taking shape, and not a favorable one for some real estate sectors.
The past several months have been difficult for office and multifamily investors, who, for the most part, have gotten hammered.
One major concern is the doom loop, where losses on loans lead banks to cut back on lending, furthering a drop in property prices and more lender losses.
Banks’ exposure to the tumult in commercial real estate is worse than often reported, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal. The implications could be seismic, for banks, real estate and the economy.
From 2015 to 2022, direct lending by banks doubled to roughly $2.2 trillion, pushing property prices up on the backs of small and mid-size banks. The WSJ analysis put total bank exposure to commercial real estate at $3.6 trillion, which it estimates is 20 percent of their deposits.
WeWork, which has been reeling for years now, told its landlords on a conference call last week that it will try to renegotiate “nearly all” of its leases. The company faces staggering losses that have led to speculation that it will file for bankruptcy.
During the five-minute call, the company said that its leasing costs remain too high and it will look to exit underperforming locations.
A company spokesperson said WeWork intends to remain in its buildings, but needs more flexibility with leases to clean up its dire financial situation.
Things looked equally bleak on the multifamily front.
In Los Angeles, developers are curbing their enthusiasm for building due to market conditions.
Many firms are no longer interested in building there, and the multifamily pipeline is quickly drying up.
“It just doesn’t make sense to build,” said Artem Tepler, one of Schon Tepler’s two founding partners.
After spending their entire 14-year career developing dozens of apartment projects in L.A., Tepler and his partner, Paul Schon, are — at least for now — no longer looking for new projects in L.A. at all.
“We love this city, and we want to do bigger projects here,” Tepler said, “but at this point it’s just becoming harder and harder to do business here. It’s easier to get on a plane and do a build in Texas than it is to do it in our own backyard.”
In Chicago, an investor picked up a 237-unit multifamily portfolio on the South Side for almost $12.3 million in foreclosure sales that closed late last month. The portfolio consists of 10 buildings across the Grand Crossing, South Shore, Woodlawn and Washington Park neighborhoods, and was previously owned by Adam Walls, the CEO of the real estate firm 5812 Group.
The sale price came in below the total amount of the mortgages that 5812 ventures owed on the properties, which was almost $17.6 million, and even less than the $26.4 million total allegedly owed on the debts with fees and interest, according to the foreclosure suit. The debts were originated by Wells Fargo before getting packaged up with other loans and sold off to investors in commercial mortgage-backed securities markets.
In Texas, MF1 Capital foreclosed on a Houston property, after the owner, apartment syndicator Rockstar Capital, defaulted on a $51 million loan.
Rockstar is in default on a loan tied to 8900 Lakes at 610 Drive in Houston, a complex called Aspire at 610, according to a notice of trustee’s sale.
In New York, loan servicers filed foreclosure suits Friday against four buildings owned by City Skyline Realty, which defaulted on $26 million in debt.
The Upper Manhattan properties — 174 West 137th Street, 507 West 139th, 510 West 148th Street and 505 West 161 Street — are all rent-stabilized.
The defaults could signal a greater wave of distress for owners of rent-stabilized buildings struggling against the financial straits of New York’s 2019 rent law.
The legislation capped revenues and the recoupable cost of renovations. That was followed by a Covid exodus and eviction moratorium; soaring operating expenses, including insurance, utilities and maintenance; and a jump in mortgage rates.
In four years under the state’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, the value of rent-stabilized buildings has plummeted anywhere from 20 to 45 percent, said Shimon Shkury, founder of brokerage Ariel Property Advisors, which specializes in rent-stabilized deals.
While the hope is the markets will heat up as the weather eventually cools, 2023 is a year many investors are eager to put behind them.
The post CRE’s outlook remains bleak for the rest of the year appeared first on The Real Deal.
Windfall Group is clearing years of hurdles that have tripped up redevelopment plans for a landmark building on the Chicago River in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood.
The long-awaited transformation of the vacant W.M. Hoyt Building at 465 West Cermak Road into a mixed-use asset may commence next year after the Commission on Chicago Landmarks approved a special property tax incentive for the Prairie-style structure first built in 1909, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The commission’s move paves the way for the five-story, 300,000-square-foot structure’s transformation into Pacifica of Chicago, a four-star hotel, along with offices, a grocery, restaurants, a medical center, a spa, ground-level retail and a public riverwalk. Windfall, the developer behind the project, expects the renovation to cost between $40 million and $50 million, with the special incentive, called Class L, reducing property tax assessments for 12 years.
The Hoyt Building, vacant for decades, is poised to become a gateway to both Chinatown and Pilsen, according to Aurora-based Windfall’s CEO Eddie Ni. The Prairie-style building was designed by Nimmons & Fellows and completed in 1909.
Previous attempts to redevelop the building — including a 2015 effort to turn it into offices by Chicago-based historic preservation redevelopment specialist R2 — ran into walls, the newspaper reported.
A venture of Windfall first acquired an interest in the property in 2007, when it took control of a loan note for a debt tied to the property. In 2017, it acquired an ownership stake in the property for $7.4 million, when Windfall bought out an LLC that had ownership and had been a tenant in the building. A Windfall venture last year completed its takeover of the property, the developer’s Judy Ni said, according to the publication.
Windfall’s plan is to make the property into a community hub. The project proposes repurposing loading docks into open arcades along the riverfront. The developer is currently in negotiations with a major hospitality brand to operate the hotel.
While Windfall Group aims to break ground by 2024, final approvals from the Chicago Plan Commission and City Council are still required. Additionally, the developer needs further approvals from the landmarks commission for its plans regarding the exterior’s historic limestone and terra cotta details.
Read moreLos AngelesInfamous Chinatown landlord gets $97M for senior resi complexChicagoRelated Midwest gets back in gear on The 78ChicagoOwnership of Chicago Chinatown mall in question after years of unpaid taxesThe post Windfall Group bags tax incentive for riverfront Chinatown hotel plan appeared first on The Real Deal.
In the home-flipping tradition of buying low and selling high, Miami developer Robert Rivani is wagering to perform the feat in one of Southern California’s most expensive enclaves — Billionaire’s Beach in Malibu.
The colorful developer who runs Black Lion Investment Group and wears his hair in a mohawk listed a $42.5 million mansion along Malibu’s Carbon Beach, nicknamed Billionaire’s Beach, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The neighbors include business titans such as Larry Ellison and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Rivani stripped the 1920s home down to its studs. He said he is going to wrap up an Aman Resort-inspired redo of 22102 Pacific Coast Highway by the first quarter of 2024, according to the Journal. The project is under construction.
Like every astute house flipper, he intends to make a nice profit. He purchased the 4,900-square-foot, beach front home for about $20 million in May 2022. Rivani bought the gold-plated fixer-upper from television executive Michael Lambert.
Chris Cortazzo of Compass serves as the listing agent.
Rivani may make a bonus from flipping the house. An unidentified friend bet Rivani a seven-figure sum that he couldn’t flip the home with the exclusive address. If Rivani fails, he’ll be liable for a gambling debt to the friend. This project will be Rivani’s first luxe residential flip, according to the Journal.
When Rivani’s renovation is wrapped up, 22102 Pacific Coast Highway will offer a green-wall facade, a Zen garden, a sunlit infrared sauna, and a cantilevered hot tub.
– Andrew Asch
Read moreLos AngelesHollywood vet Michael Lambert’s Carbon Beach villa under contractSouth FloridaRobert Rivani’s Black Lion puts Gekkõ, Amara restaurant sites on the marketLos AngelesMalibu home construction on the rise, but won’t help inventoryThe post Miami’s Robert Rivani tries house-flipping on Billionaire’s Beach appeared first on The Real Deal.
Trying to capitalize on the high-flying status of New York City’s life sciences market, Silverstein Properties is selling its majority stake in its Far West Side property.
Larry Silverstein’s firm tapped Eastdil Secured’s Gary Phillips and Will Silverman to market its interest in the Hudson Research Center at 619 West 54th Street, the Commercial Observer reported. A buyer could either recapitalize and join up with minority owner Taconic Partners’ life sciences subsidiary or purchase the property outright in a fee simple sale.
The 318,000-square-foot property counts Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and C16 Biosciences, a Bill Gates–backed startup, among its tenants. The owners continue to invest in a life sciences future for the former office property, recently converting three floors from offices to wet labs.
Taconic purchased the 10-story office building — formerly known as The Movie Lab Building because of Warner Bros. Pictures’ occupancy — for $112 million in 2012. Five years later, Silverstein bought a majority stake, valuing the property at more than $180 million; Taconic retained a 10 percent interest.
The life sciences push began in earnest after Silverstein jumped in. The partners invested $20 million to revamp the building, aiming to bring in research and pharmaceutical tenants. The property marked Silverstein’s first life sciences project.
Read moreNew YorkSilverstein buys majority stake in Taconic’s 619 West 54thNew YorkRPI signs at Taconic and Silverstein’s life sciences hubNew YorkNYC life sciences notched second record year in 2022In 2020, Silverstein and Taconic refinanced the property with $205 million from Affinius Capital, then known as Square Mile Capital. Ownership has invested roughly $57 million from the five-year, floating-rate bridge loan to upgrade infrastructure, construct laboratory tenant fit-outs and make other upgrades.
New York City’s life sciences sector enjoyed a record 2022, when tenants leased 455,000 square feet, according to CBRE. It was the second consecutive year of leasing activity topping 400,000 square feet, up 5 percent from the previous year. The average rent record for the sector also fell, coming in at $108.47 per square foot.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Silverstein selling stake in life sciences hub appeared first on The Real Deal.
Some like it hot. But for the mystery buyers of the only home owned by Marilyn Monroe who want to bulldoze the Brentwood landmark into oblivion, the heat’s been scalding.
In July, Glory of the Snow Trust paid $8.35 million for the 2,900-square-foot hacienda-style home where the Hollywood icon was found dead at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive – and then filed for demolition permits, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The story, first reported by the New York Post, drew global fire.
“How dare you?” a misdirected fan asked an alleged owner on Instagram, who wasn’t the owner. “Please don’t demolish Marilyn’s home,” said another.
“Demolishing a piece of history … You can not be a marilyn fan then tear her house down for new aesthetics — just MOVE,” reads another.
Even the Times had initially misidentified the owner-cum-destroyer of Monroe’s first and last home. It first said the home was owned by Emerald Lake hedge fund manager Dan Lukas and his wife, Anne Jarmain.
An update said that early this year, the owners of the Brentwood residence were listed as Glory of the Snow LLC, managed by Lukas, which sold the property to Glory of the Snow Trust for $8.35 million. In 2017, Glory of Snow LLC had paid $7.25 million, or $325,000 over its asking price.
The Glory of the Snow Trust is not listed alongside any person’s name.
It’s unclear why the owner of the property wants to tear it down. The Spanish Colonial house is a hot spot for tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of the place where the star of the 1959 film “Some Like It Hot” took her final breath.
Monroe bought the property in February 1962 after the end of her third marriage to playwright Arthur Miller for $75,000. Six months later, she was found dead by an overdose of sleeping pills.
Built in 1929 at the end of a cul-de-sac, the single-story hacienda has four bedrooms and three bathrooms, with terra cotta tile floors, casement windows and vaulted wood-beamed ceilings. It has a formal living room with a Mexican-tile-lined fireplace, a family room and an office.
Outside, lawns wrap around a brick patio and a kidney-shaped pool, with mature trees, a guest house and a small citrus grove filling out the half-acre estate.
Set in tiles across the front porch reads the Latin phrase “Cursum Perficio,” or “My journey ends here.” For Monroe, the journey ended at age 36. For her 94-year-old former house, the end may be near.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesMarilyn Monroe’s former Brentwood home sells for $7MNew YorkHamptons Cheat Sheet: Gurney's Resorts owners buy Montauk Yacht Club, plotting a $13M upgrade … & moreNew YorkItching for an icon: Vornado channels Marilyn Monroe with 2 Penn Plaza designThe post Marilyn Monroe’s only home in LA faces demolition appeared first on The Real Deal.
Legislation that would end an only-in-San Francisco appeals process for projects that have already been entitled passed the state senate unanimously this week.
Assembly Member and former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney sponsored Assembly Bill 1114, which was supported by YIMBY groups such as Housing Action Coalition and The Bay Area Council, as well as State Senator and fellow former Supervisor Scott Wiener.
Haney did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: “Our bill to stop post entitlement housing appeals that have contributed to making San Francisco the slowest and most expensive city in California to build housing is on its way to the governor’s desk.”
In a Chronicle story from earlier this year, Haney likened the ability to appeal an already approved project to the bizarre custom of giving guests at a wedding the chance to object to it.
“Your crazy uncle doesn’t get to actually stop the wedding, but in this case they do,” Haney said. “Or at least you’re going to have to have a separate hearing where your uncle gets to present his case, and all the money you’ve spent on this fancy wedding goes to waste, and you have to invite everybody back six months later.”
The San Francisco Board of Appeals said it could not comment on what the impact of the legislation would be and whether or not it would speed up the development process as it “does not provide public comment or opinions on pending legislation.”
Post-entitlement appeals, which are only allowed in San Francisco and would have required a local vote to change the city’s charter if Haney had not taken it to the state level, can be filed against any type of permit. They are used on low-profile as well as controversial cases, such as Tenderloin Neighborhood Development’s plan to build 90 low-income units in the Sunset.
Even though the project is entitled, a neighborhood group appealed the demolition permit of the existing building on the site, which was ultimately denied. The group brought forth another appeal, this time of the construction permit. It was also denied but the added time and expense of the appeals, as well as a defeated lawsuit to stop the project, likely added $1 million to the cost of the approximately $100 million affordable housing project, according to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
“This obstructionism is unacceptable,” Mayor London Breed said of the appeals on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “This project must move forward and we need to reform our laws so we can build the homes we badly need.”
Read moreSan FranciscoState scrutinizes SF’s slow housing approvalsSan FranciscoSan Francisco has world’s highest construction costs: CBRESan FranciscoTenderloin Neighborhood Development wins final appeal for SF homesThe post Legislature passes Haney bill to curb permit appeals in SF appeared first on The Real Deal.
Artimus Construction has spurred a large, ground-up residential project in Manhattanville that involved the New York City Housing Authority selling land to private developer Grid Group.
Excavation at 1440 Amsterdam Avenue is underway after Artimus bought a 50 percent stake in the project on Aug. 31 for $17 million, records show. Grid’s plans for a new 470,000-square-foot building there were approved by the Department of Buildings two days earlier.
Grid and Artimus will construct 490 apartments at the site, about 100 more units than initially planned, according to DOB filings. Artimus bought its stake from Lefkas Realty, which had a vision for a 7-story condo on the site that didn’t pan out.
Now, a 28-story building will rise on a parking lot once used by residents of NYCHA’s Manhattan Houses, a series of six buildings between 129th Street and 133rd Street with 1,300 apartments.
The infill project has crept along since 2021, when neighbors said they were caught off guard by NYCHA’s proposal to sell the land without transparent affordability requirements.
Grid Group bought the land and air rights for the project in 2022 for $28 million, receiving a $32 million loan from Valley National Bank at the time of the purchase. The site will be among the last to receive the now-expired 421a tax abatement in exchange for reserving 30 percent of units at or below 130 percent of area median income, according to marketing materials for the property. Gluck+ is the architect of record.
NYCHA had committed to using revenue from the sale to upgrade the Manhattan Houses, alongside $222 million for renovations generated by the PACT program, which will transfer management of the public housing to Apex Building Group and Gilbane Development Company, City Limits reported.
Approval for the new ground-up project arrived after residential construction fell off a cliff in Manhattan, where zero new buildings and zero new units were approved in July. “This should be considered a crisis,” borough president Mark Levine tweeted at the time. “We have to fix this.”
The site at 1440 Amsterdam, which no longer belongs to the city, was not among those Levine pointed to in a report that identified sites in Manhattan where 73,000 new homes could be built. The report does finger a nearby MTA bus depot, at 1381 Amsterdam Avenue, that stores an antique fleet of buses as a possible location for a residential building with 430 new apartments.
Read moreNew YorkNew Airbnb regs could make Big Apple hotel rooms pricierNew YorkSilverstein’s 120 Broadway lands another six-figure tenantNew YorkFDIC makes surprising decision in sale of “toxic” Signature loansThe post Artimus buys half of large Manhattanville multifamily project appeared first on The Real Deal.
Justin Ishbia just wants to help out in Winnetka.
The billionaire currently constructing a $77.6 million lakefront mansion pledged Thursday to give $3 million to the community for upgrades to a neighboring beach, Crain’s reported.
“There are no strings attached,” Ishbia told the publication, even as he’s negotiating a contentious land swap with the Winnetka park district and village officials tighten their development regulations to potentially prevent approval for projects similar to the businessman’s.
The donation would assist Winnetka in funding beach improvements it desires but officials say the town currently can’t afford after spending $10 million on the first phase of updates for Elder Lane and Centennial parks. Phase two of these enhancements includes an ADA-accessible pathway to the beach, a dedicated dog beach area and a stone breakwater extension. The $3 million gift would expedite these upgrades.
Ishbia, whose net worth is estimated at $2.8 billion, is well-equipped to provide this generous donation. He previously donated $10 million to Vanderbilt University’s law school and has made other philanthropic contributions. Which are small sums compared to the purchase he and his brother made when acquiring the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury for $4 billion in late 2022.
It remains unknown if Winnetka will accept Ishbia’s donation, as it comes amid a complex saga that started in 2020 when the billionaire acquired two lakefront mansions near Centennial Park for a combined $17.7 million. As part of a land swap agreement with the park district, Ishbia would have acquired a slice off the south of Centennial Park, while the district received a parcel south of Elder Lane Park. This plan, which would have allowed the park district to combine Elder and Centennial parks and given Ishbia three contiguous parcels for home construction, was met with obstacles, including a lawsuit filed early this year by Winnetka residents challenging the legality of the land exchange.
Despite the land swap, which Ishbia described to the publication as “dormant” and said that he’s not sure it will ever happen, the billionaire proceeded to demolish homes on his uncontested parcels south of Centennial and announced plans for a 68,000-square-foot mansion. It will be the expensive estate on the North Shore, with only Ken Griffin’s $58 million purchase of four unfinished floors in the condo building No. 9 Walton coming close to the cost of Ishbia’s project.
The disputed property between the two parks, 261 Sheridan Road, remains in Ishbia’s possession.
Read moreChicagoIshbia’s $44M megamansion prompts Winnetka to revise lakefront property rulesChicagoIllinois AG stands by Winnetka officials as Ishbia project, security stir potSouth FloridaMIAThe post With Winnetka land swap “dormant,” Justin Ishbia offers $3M for park upgrades appeared first on The Real Deal.
Gerry Cardinale, one of the biggest dealmakers in sports, bought his Palm Beach next-door neighbor’s teardown for $20 million.
A source confirmed Cardinale is the owner of PB North Ocean Trust, which bought the house at 960 North Ocean Boulevard from Kathleen Belznak, property records show. Belznak is the widow of New Jersey real estate developer Alan Belznak, who died in March, according to his obituary.
Superbroker Lawrence Moens had the listing, and Lilly Leas of Brown Harris Stevens represented the buyer.
The Belznaks bought the North Ocean Boulevard home for $1.2 million in 1993, records show. Built in 1970 and designed by William Ames Bennett, the 4,500-square-foot, five-bedroom house was advertised as a “development opportunity,” according to the listing.
Also this week, Kathleen Belznak closed on a unit in One Watermark Place, a condominium in West Palm Beach, for $8.2 million, according to records. She bought the 5,200-square-foot condo from Sharon and Raymond Milchovich, a retired metals executive.
Records show Cardinale owns the house at 208 Sandpiper Drive, a 0.3-acre property adjacent to the 0.6-acre North Ocean Boulevard teardown. He bought the Sandpiper Drive home for $3.9 million in 2014, according to property records.
Cardinale is the founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital, a New York City-based private investment firm that he launched in 2014 after a 20-year run at Goldman Sachs. Through RedBird, Cardinale has invested in Fenway Sports Group, the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson’s XFL, and LeBron James’ Springhill Company. Via RedBird’s investments, Cardinale holds stakes in iconic teams like the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and the Liverpool Football Club, to name a few. RedBird has also invested in Skydance Media, the production company founded by billionaire Larry Ellison’s son David Ellison.
A December profile of Cardinale in Insider described the Rhodes Scholar’s “passion for intellectual property,” as a key driver of his firm’s $7.5 billion portfolio.
Cardinale’s sports and media investments have paid off, and so have his Palm Beach real estate plays. In 2020, a trust linked to Cardinale bought the oceanfront estate at 1285 North Ocean Boulevard for $6.7 million. He flipped the house for $23.5 million in March of last year, records show.
Another Cardinale-linked trust bought the mansion at 7 La Costa Way for $31.8 million that same month, records show. Leas has the listing for the house, which hit the market for $39.9 million in June, Realtor.com shows.
He’s not the only sports mogul involved in island real estate. National Football League team owners are major players in the Palm Beach real estate scene. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft bought a condo on the island for a record $23.8 million in December. Hedge fund billionaire and Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper bought an oceanfront estate for $68.4 million in 2021. Related Companies chairman and Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross also owns the Reef, a historic North County Road mansion he bought for $31.9 million in 2007.
The post Sports investor Gerry Cardinale buys $20M Palm Beach teardown appeared first on The Real Deal.
The sticky note attached to the iconic New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan has a new owner.
Isaac Hera’s Yellowstone Real Estate Investments purchased M&T Bank’s $106 million loan backed by the hotel, the Commercial Observer reported. The purchase price isn’t clear, but the note is said to have traded “close to par.”
Newmark started marketing the loan on behalf of the bank in July, soliciting bids from interested parties into August. The senior mortgage’s loan-to-value ratio is 43 percent; M&T decided to sell it in part due to the regulatory capital treatment involved with hotel loans.
Newmark’s Adam Spies and Steven Schultz were part of the team that led the negotiations.
The Unification Church owns the property at 481 Eighth Avenue, purchasing it for $5 million in 1976. A decade ago, the church launched a $30 million renovation of the property and shortly thereafter, rebranded the hotel under the Wyndham brand.
The 1.1 million-square-foot property has 1,000 hotel rooms, 140,000 square feet for student housing, 110,000 square feet for office space and 16,000 square feet of retail space.
Read moreNew YorkA man stayed at the New Yorker Hotel for one night. Now, because of rent-stabilization, he says he owns itNew YorkManhattan hotel trades in biggest distressed lodging deal of pandemicNew YorkBrits hand over Candler Tower to Isaac Hera's YellowstoneHera’s private equity firm is focused on value-add and opportunistic real estate deals in the United States. Last spring, United Kingdom-based EPIC handed Yellowstone the deed for a troubled Times Square office property; the deed in lieu of foreclosure came with a $161.1 million valuation of the property at 220 West 42nd Street.
The debt that led to EPIC’s trouble was a $150 million loan provided in 2017 by M&T Bank to refinance the historic building. Yellowstone purchased the note months before receiving the deed from EPIC.
Two years ago, Yellowstone shook up the distressed hotel market in Manhattan, buying the 600-key Watson Hotel on West 57th Street in one of the first significant hospitality deals since the onset of the pandemic. Yellowstone bought both the leasehold and the mortgage held by HSBC.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Yellowstone buys $106M note backed by New Yorker Hotel appeared first on The Real Deal.
Prominent River North developer Albert Friedman has won big with Bally’s.
The longtime Chicago real estate player with strong political connections struck a $20 million deal with the casino operator for the use of the historic Medinah Temple building as a temporary gambling hall while Bally’s builds its permanent, $1.7 billion entertainment complex at the Chicago Tribune printing plant in River West, the Sun-Times reported.
Bally’s will pay $16.5 million in total rent over a four-year term and $330,000 in management fees, plus the property tax, which has exceeded $1.1 million a year.
The Medinah Temple is about a mile north of City Hall and owned by Friedman, who has leased properties to influential figures in Chicago politics, including three mayors — Brandon Johnson, Lori Lightfoot, and Rahm Emanuel.
If Bally’s chooses to extend the lease for an additional two years, Friedman stands to gain an extra $9.6 million in rent and management fees, with Bally’s continuing to cover the property taxes.
The decision to use the Medinah Temple as the temporary casino location came as a surprise to some, as Bally’s had initially expressed a preference to build one on the Tribune property, adjacent to the site of the permanent complex. However, city officials cited complications related to the replacement of the Chicago Avenue bridge as a reason for Bally’s to go with Medinah.
The temple is a 111-year-old building previously used by the Shriners fraternal organization, and has been fitted with approximately 750 slot machines and 50 table games. Bally’s is expected to operate there for three years while the River West property is built.
Bally’s has undergone testing sessions at the Medinah Temple to obtain a temporary operating permit, with expectations of generating monthly profits ranging from $3.5 million to $5 million through the end of the year and potentially up to $60 million with a full year of gambling in 2024.
City officials are hopeful that the temporary casino will bring in up to $55 million in annual tax revenue, with the permanent casino projected to generate nearly $200 million a year upon its expected opening in 2026.
Friedman, known as the “mayor of River North,” has been involved in numerous redevelopment projects in Chicago and has financially supported various political campaigns in the city. Like many owners of big commercial properties, he hired the law firm of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan — who’s currently under indictment in an unrelated federal political corruption investigation — to appeal the Cook County Assessor’s Office valuation of the building to try and lower the assessment to score a cheaper tax bill.
Read moreChicagoCity consultant for casino choice had financial ties to Bally’sChicagoBally’s wins final Chicago City Council zoning for casinoChicagoAlden’s printing plant could cause a headache for Bally'sMadigan’s appeal publicized Friedman’s lease with Bally’s, and resulted in the assessor agreeing to cut the Medinah Temple’s taxable value from $27.2 million to $23.4 million; the Cook County Board of Review turned down Madigan’s attempt to further argue the property should be taxed at an $18 million valuation, the outlet reported.
Bloomingdales had previously leased Medinah Temple after Friedman converted it into a furniture store for the company, but the retailer moved out in October 2020 and it’s been vacant since, which is why Friedman contended its value shouldn’t have increased nearly 20 percent as the assessor initially suggested.
The post Albert Friedman gets $20M from temporary Bally’s casino appeared first on The Real Deal.
Palm Beach County condo sales rebounded in August, with closings and dollar volume higher than in July.
Brokers closed 746 condo sales totaling $340 million in Palm Beach County in August, compared to 616 condo sales totaling $289 million in July, MLS data from Redfin show.
August sale prices ranged from $45,000 to $16 million, with a median price of $265,000. The price per square foot ranged from $50 to $3,363 with a median of $237 — slightly lower than July’s $243.
In July, prices ranged from $60,000 to $6 million, with a median of $265,000. The price per square foot ranged from $39 to $2,593.
August’s priciest sale was a condo at the Bristol. Unit 804 at 1100 South Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach sold for $16 million, or $3,363 per square foot. Christian Angle with Christian Angle Real Estate had the listing. It sold after 31 days on the market.
It’s a huge jump from July’s priciest sale. Alina Boca Raton unit 417 at 200 Southeast Mizner Boulevard closed for $6 million.
A sale at Lake Clarke Gardens bottomed out the charts for August. Unit 204 at 2811 South Garden Drive in Lake Worth sold for $45,000 — or $50 per square foot. Brenda Starr with Starr Realty, The Palm Beaches, worked both sides of the deal. The condo spent 40 days on the market.
It’s cheaper than July’s lowest priced sale. Stratford at Hunters Run unit B sold for $60,000.
Leaflet map created by Adam Farence | Data by © OpenStreetMap, under ODbl.Here’s a breakdown of August’s notable condo sales:
Most Expensive
Bristol, 1100 South Flagler Drive, unit 804 in West Palm Beach | Price $16,000,000 | $3,363 psf | Year built: 2019 | Listing agent: Christian Angle with Christian Angle Real Estate
Least Expensive
Lake Clarke Gardens 25, 2811 South Garden Drive, unit 204 in Lake Worth | Price $45,000 | $50 psf | Year built: 1971 | Listing agent: Brenda Starr with Starr Realty, The Palm Beaches | Buyer’s agent: Brenda Starr with Starr Realty, The Palm Beaches
Highest Price Per Square Foot
Bristol, 1100 South Flagler Drive, unit 804 in West Palm Beach | Price $16,000,000 | $3,363 psf | Year built: 2019 | Listing agent: Christian Angle with Christian Angle Real Estate
Lowest Price Per Square Foot
Lake Clarke Gardens 25, 2811 South Garden Drive, unit 204 in Lake Worth | Price $45,000 | $50 psf | Year built: 1971 | Listing agent: Brenda Starr with Starr Realty | Buyer’s agent: Brenda Starr with Starr Realty, The Palm Beaches
Newest
La Clara, 200 Arkona Court, unit 2201 in West Palm Beach | Price $5,500,000 | $1,742 psf | Year built: 2023 | Buyer’s agents: Christopher Leavitt and Mary Newton, with Douglas Elliman (Palm Beach) | Listing agent: Carol Sollak with Engel & Völkers Wellington
Oldest
Palm Beach Hotel, 235 Sunrise Avenue, unit 3224 in Palm Beach | Price $500,000 | $1,285 psf | Year built: 1925 | Listing agents: Maria Termotto and Joshua Horwitz with Keller Williams Realty/Palm Beach
Read moreSouth FloridaCool-off continues: Palm Beach County condo sales drop in July to $289MSouth FloridaPalm Beach County condo sales volume drops in June to $397MSouth FloridaPalm Beach County condo dollar volume stays flat in May at $433MThe post Palm Beach County condo sales jump in August to $340M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kittle Property furthers its investment in Greater Houston with plans to develop a $53 million apartment complex in the Montgomery County town of New Caney.
The Indianapolis-based firm’s project at 22261 McCleskey Road is dubbed Estival Apartments, according to a filing with the state of Texas. It will rise on a vacant tract, near the Grand Parkway toll road and Eastex Freeway.
The location will span 467,000 square feet and will include 312 units across 17 buildings, and has an estimated cost of nearly $170,000 per unit. Construction is expected to begin in October with completion in 2026. Attempts to reach Kittle Property were unsuccessful.
The New Caney development will join a recent boom in multifamily development headed toward Montgomery County following the completion of a segment of the Grand Parkway, which directly feeds into the area.
Woodlands-based developer Signorelli Company plans to break ground on a 3,000-acre master-planned community in east Montgomery County that is expected to bring 7,000 homes to the area. The firm is also planning three multifamily developments in New Caney, near its 1.5 million-square-foot Valley Ranch Town center, according to a Berkadia report. The apartments will are named Valley Ranch Medical District, Valley Ranch Marketplace II and the Pointe at Valley Ranch II.
Other master-planned communities have been planned for the area, including Oxand Group’s 1,860-acre, Texas-inspired community Two Step Farm. XAG Group’s Audubon community, which is still under construction, is expanding, with dual retail centers for its 3,000 acres.
Estival Apartments will be the Indiana firm’s third foray into Greater Houston. Kittle previously developed the income-restricted Vireo Apartments in Greenwood Park. Earlier this year, the developer filed plans to develop a 228-unit Texas City complex, Juniper Landing, as well as a 272-unit complex at the junction of West Gulf Bank and West Montgomery Road in northwest Houston, dubbed Summerdale. The projects will break ground this fall, with estimated completion next year.
Read moreTexasSignorelli plans 7,000-home community for Texas’ east Montgomery CountyHoustonMexican paper manufacturer plans $400M plant near HoustonHoustonCountry dancing inspires massive Oxland Group projectThe post Kittle invests $53M in New Caney apartments appeared first on The Real Deal.
Housing Trust Group wants to build a pair of apartment complexes with 196 units combined in Miami-Dade County’s Goulds neighborhood. The Coconut Grove-based firm plans the 104-unit Palm Grove project at 21500 South Dixie Highway and the 92-unit Villa Mallorca at 11912 Southwest 217th Street in south Miami-Dade, according to documents Housing Trust Group submitted […]
The post HTG proposes pair of multifamily complexes with 196 units in Goulds appeared first on The Real Deal.
RH wants a slice of Miami Beach’s lucrative restaurant and entertainment scene, proposing to invest $150 million to $170 million to redevelop Nikki Beach Club, a city-owned restaurant and entertainment venue.
Corte Madera, California-based RH, formerly called Restoration Hardware, a high-end home furnishings retailer that has expanded to hospitality development, is among four teams bidding to take over management of the Nikki Beach Club site at 1 Ocean Drive in Miami Beach. The winner will get a new 30-year lease to operate the city-owned restaurant and entertainment venue after the agreement with the current operators, Jack and Lucia Penrod, expires in 2026.
The four proposals are exempt from Florida’s public records law for a period of 30 days, Miami Beach spokeswoman Melissa Berthier told The Real Deal. But on Wednesday, publicly-traded RH unveiled its plan via a press release.
The other bidders are Boucher Brothers, a company that has a city contract to provide beach concessions; Akerman and The Group US Management LLC; and Tao Group Hospitality and One Ocean Hospitality LLC, according to an online agenda for a Miami Beach committee meeting to evaluate the proposals.
City officials blocked the Penrods from submitting a proposal to retain control of 1 Ocean Drive by claiming the couple’s entity, Penrod Brothers, missed the deadline to file its bid by 15 minutes. On Tuesday, Penrod Brothers filed a petition in Miami-Dade Circuit Court seeking a court order to reverse the city’s decision.
RH, led by CEO Gary Friedman, is offering the city a starting base rent of $7 million that would increase by a minimum of 3 percent annually, or $333 million over the life of the lease, the release states. The project would be called RH Beach House at One Ocean Drive.
The company is proposing a pair of low-rise buildings that would cover 16 percent of the 180,000-square-foot site, two landscaped beach promenades, a 94,000-square-foot public park on top of an underground parking structure and a 17,000-square-foot public sculpture garden on an elevated podium, the release states. To appease nearby condominium residents who have concerns about late-night noise and traffic, RH is proposing limited hours of operation.
RH’s capital investment would include $50 million in public benefits. The firm’s proposal also offers the city a $5 million upfront payment to cover lost rent and taxes during a two-year construction period, as well as a $1 million “cultural contribution,” the release states. The new project would also generate about $100 million in property, hotel and food and beverage taxes during the life of the lease, RH claims.
The proposed building at RH House would include a beach club, a bathhouse and spa, three food and beverage venues, a design studio, a library and art galleries, the release states.
After decades of operating 1 Ocean Drive, the Penrods began to lose their grip on the city-owned property in late April. At the time, Miami Beach commissioners authorized City Manager Alina Hudak to enter into negotiations for a no-bid, non-binding term sheet with Boucher Brothers to manage the site when Nikki Beach Club’s lease expires in 2026.
A month later, following a public outcry that city officials appeared to be favoring Boucher Brothers, Miami Beach commissioners rescinded their decision, and put a new lease up for competitive bidding.
The post RH proposes $150M-plus redevelopment of Nikki Beach Club site appeared first on The Real Deal.
Even with the Chicago area now leading all large U.S. cities in home price growth, its sellers still have a better chance of losing money on their deals than almost anywhere else.
Redfin data covering the three months ending July 31 revealed that 6.5 percent of home sales in the Chicago metro area resulted in losses for sellers, while the national average was lower at 3 percent, Crain’s reported.
Chicago ranked third among 50 major metropolitan areas in Redfin’s study for the highest proportion of money-losing home sales. The cities with more sellers losing money were San Francisco at 12.3 percent and Detroit at 6.9 percent. Notably, among the 10 largest U.S. metro areas, Chicago was the only one where more than 5 percent of sellers experienced losses.
The condo market in Chicago appears to be the hardest hit, influenced by factors such as the slow return-to-work movement, reduced downtown attractions like theaters and concerns about crime in downtown neighborhoods.
Examples of recent condo sales losses in Chicago include a Waldorf Astoria condo that sold for $2.5 million, $600,000 below the 2010 purchase price, and a condo at 600 North Lake Shore Drive that sold for nearly $1.25 million, resulting in an $88,500 loss for the sellers who bought it in 2012.
“It’s a hard conversation to have with people about how much less their condo is worth, but it’s reality,” Baird & Warner agent Mino Conenna, who recently brokered a deal for a Garland Court condo at a discount from its last sale, told the outlet.
Despite these losses, it’s important to note that the majority of sellers still profit when selling their properties. However, the trend of losses in the downtown condo market has persisted since 2020.
The broader challenges facing the Chicago housing market include high property taxes and a stagnant or declining population, which reduces demand for homes. The U.S. Census reported a population decline of approximately 176,000 people in the Chicago metro area between 2020 and 2022.
Read moreChicagoChicagoland leads nation in home price growth for second straight month ChicagoBig builders absorb growing share of Chicagoland’s new housing inventoryChicagoChicago home appreciation outpaces nation for first time since 2016Comparing Chicago to San Francisco, another city with a high proportion of sellers losing money, the Bay underwent a significant increase in the share of sellers with losses in the past year, while the Windy City notched a decrease.
While the 6.5 percent share of money-losing sales in Chicago is a concern, it represents an improvement from a decade ago when nearly half of sellers in the Chicago area faced losses during a housing market struggling to recover from the Great Recession.
The post Chicagoland homeowners most likely to lose money on sales appeared first on The Real Deal.
Milo Kleinberg, the famed interior designer known as the “King of the Garment District,” has died. He was 97.
MKDA, the 75-person architecture and interior design firm Kleinberg founded, announced his death. He passed on June 19, but MKDA didn’t disclose his death until this week. While he died at his home in Riverside, the cause was not revealed.
Kleinberg was born in Vienna, Austria, migrating with his family to the United States after the Nazis began occupying the country in 1939. The family ultimately settled in Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood and after selling handkerchiefs, Kleinberg became an associate with an architect in the city.
In 1959, Kleinberg started Milo Kleinberg Design Associates, a solo operation at the time. Kleinberg found a niche working with commercial real estate players to design spaces that could market the buildings and their amenities.
Nowhere did Kleinberg prove more effective than in Manhattan’s Garment District. Fashion brands flocked to him to design their showrooms, recruited by the likes of Gloria Vanderbilt and Ellen Tracy. A key innovation of his was the use of glass partitions to divide spaces.
Kleinberg’s firm also designed retail and office spaces for a number of clients, including Citibank, Lufthansa, Merrill Lynch and Apple Bank. Additionally, the interior designer offered pro bono consulting services to causes close to his heart, including the Riverdale Jewish Center.
MKDA has four offices across the country, including locations outside of New York City such as Stamford and Miami. Today, it is run by Milo’s sons Michael and Jeffrey Kleinberg, who remembered their father as a philanthropist and “true visionary in the world of interior design.”
Kleinberg is predeceased by his wife of 60 years, Bertha, as well as his sister. In addition to his two sons, he is survived by several grandchildren and great grandchildren, several of whom are roaming the halls as MKDA employees.
Read moreNew York'Prebuild' offices jump off shelvesSouth FloridaQ&A: Design firm MKDA's sister-brother team Amanda and Brett HertzlerNationalRenowned architect Thierry Despont diesThe post “King of the Garment District” Milo Kleinberg dies at 97 appeared first on The Real Deal.
A judge dismissed a legal challenge to Measure ULA in federal court on Sept. 5, making L.A. Superior Court the only current legal venue to decide the fate of the controversial transfer tax.
Judge John Kronstadt ruled that federal court was not the right place for the case Newcastle Courtyards LLC v City of Los Angeles. Federal court is not the correct forum to argue a Los Angeles tax, which the court believed the Newcastle case was arguing. “Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction,” Kronstadt wrote. “Accordingly, when a federal court finds that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction, it must dismiss the complaint in its entirety.”
Newcastle Courtyards attorney Keith Fromm said his firm plans to appeal the decision. Fromm said that federal court is the right forum for his case because ULA violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause. Fromm contends that ULA does not benefit the general public because he believes it has damaged the city’s real estate business.
“It has frozen the very sales from which the ULA expected to obtain its revenue. … It has made it virtually impossible to attract capital and loan financing to build new multi-family housing in L.A., which will ultimately lead to far less affordable housing, not more,” Fromm wrote in an email to TRD.
Kronstadt also rejected Newcastle Courtyards’ argument that Measure ULA had overstepped its boundaries because it could not be defined as a tax. The plaintiff argued that ULA is a charge on a specific group of people. The judge agreed with the City of Los Angeles’ argument that Measure ULA is a citizen-sponsored initiative which was approved by the city’s voters. The court argued that when “the electorate exercises its initiative power, it is acting in a legislative capacity.”
Newcastle Courtyards also is participating in a challenge to Measure ULA in L.A. Superior Court. In April, its case was combined with Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles. The next scheduled date in the case is an Oct. 24 case management conference.
Read moreLos AngelesJudge combines two lawsuits challenging Measure ULA Los AngelesThird judge named to hear court challenge to Measure ULA taxLos AngelesIn first three months, Measure ULA collects only $38MThe post Measure ULA lawsuit rejected by federal judge appeared first on The Real Deal.
A San Francisco politician has hatched one more plan to revitalize the city’s troubled Downtown: Bring in more college students.
Supervisor Ahsha Safaí wants the city to slash red tape and jettison fees to draw universities and their studentsto struggling Downtown neighborhoods, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“All world-class cities have universities located in their downtown(s),” Safaí told the newspaper. “Students not only like to study … they like to live and thrive and spend money.”
The proposal comes two months after Mayor London Breed asked local schools and colleges to fill the growing number of empty offices in Downtown. The city’s office vacancy rose this summer to a record high of 31.8 percent, according to CBRE.
A wave of college students could help fill up the city’s empty streets, storefronts and offices, backers say, with hotels turned into dorms, offices into classrooms and new urban village campuses that could breathe life into the Financial District and South of Market.
Safaí has proposed a “special use district” that would allow office landlords to change their primary use to higher education.
It’s meant to encourage universities to develop “institutional and student housing uses” and to create “clustered campuses” similar to New York University or Boston’s colleges.
The new district would stretch from Fifth Street to Beale Street in the Financial District, and from Market to Brannan streets in SoMa.
Under the proposal, schools would be allowed to use vacant offices for housing and classrooms, which would be exempt from streetscape, pedestrian upgrades and off-street parking requirements.
Safaí also proposes to waive development impact fees.
A state university would have the advantage of streamlined bureaucratic rules, as state agencies can conduct and approve their own environmental reviews, bypassing the city’s permitting morass and approval from its Board of Supervisors.
But if public and private universities were interested in developing Downtown campuses, it could take years for thousands of students to fill up the empty offices, experts told the Chronicle.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoSF mayor wants schools to fill the city’s empty officesSan FranciscoSan Francisco takes first step toward fixing downtown: Admitting the problemSan FranciscoSan Francisco office vacancies up across boardThe post Supervisor wants college students to fill offices in Downtown SF appeared first on The Real Deal.
Football is back, baby. And Palm Beach mansions are front and center to the game.
The National Football League starts its 2023 season Thursday night when the Detroit Lions face reigning Super Bowl champs, the Kansas City Chiefs. Fans everywhere have been holding their breath awaiting the return of Football Sundays (and Mondays and Thursdays), and all the drama that comes with them.
Like the players and coaches, owners of the league’s 32 teams have had a busy off-season. Magnates and moguls who run the league, most of them billionaires, ousted longtime Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder in July, and forced his sale of the team to an investor group led by Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris.
Harris was identified as a potential buyer at the annual NFL team owners meeting in Palm Beach in March, according to published reports. While Palm Beach is a picturesque site for a billionaire roundtable, it is also convenient. Many of the team owners have homes on the island among their sprawling real estate portfolios.
Before his firm’s purchase of the Commanders, an entity linked to Harris flipped an oceanfront estate in Palm Beach for $66 million in December, up 86 percent from its last sale 18 months earlier.
Other NFL sellers on the island include former Commanders owner Dwight Schar, who sold his South Ocean Boulevard estate for $45 million in January.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers co-owners Joel and Darcie Kassewitz also sold their waterfront mansion to spec developer Todd Glaser and his partners for $53 million in February of last year.
Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross, CEO of Related Companies, is among the most notable Palm Beachers in the league. He bought the mansion at 702 North County Road, also known as “the Reef,” for $31.9 million in 2007, according to published reports. The billionaire is also West Palm Beach’s biggest office building owner and is on a path to remake the West Palm Beach skyline.
Here’s a quick roundup of other NFL owners and their Palm Beach real estate scores:
Robert Kraft | New England PatriotsRobert Kraft, billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, broke a Palm Beach real estate record in December, when he bought a penthouse at 110 Sunset Avenue for $23.8 million. The sale set a price record for condos on the island. He and his wife Dana Kraft’s unit spans 5,000 square feet, with four bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms.
David Tepper | Carolina PanthersAppaloosa Management founder David Tepper, the league’s wealthiest owner with a net worth of $18.5 billion according to Forbes, bought an oceanfront mansion for $68.4 million in 2021. The 1.1-acre estate at 905 North Ocean Boulevard includes a 12,000-square-foot mansion built in 2020. It has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, two half-bathrooms and a pool, records show.
Jeffrey Lurie | Philadelphia EaglesPhilly owner Jeffrey Lurie dropped $28.5 million on a 13,200-square-foot waterfront mansion in 2013. The nearly 2-acre estate at 1275 South Ocean Boulevard has a six-bedroom, seven-bathroom house built in 2008, as well as a pool and dock, records show.
Other NFL team owners with Palm Beach ties include the Rooney family, longtime owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Rooneys are a sprawling football dynasty. Last month, scion Sean Rooney won approval to redevelop his longtime island home. He bought the house at 302 Seabreeze Avenue for $1.4 million in 2005.
The post NFL season kickoff: Team owners and their Palm Beach mansions appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bronzeville Lakefront developer Scott Goodman and partner A.G. Hollis are nearing a deal with Chicago officials to help mitigate the city’s migrant housing crisis by repurposing a loft office building near the trendy Fulton Market District into a temporary shelter.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is in discussions to turn the five-story, 50,000-square-foot building at 344 North Ogden Avenue into a facility to accommodate the growing number of asylum seekers who have arrived in the city over the past year, Crain’s reported. Office tenants in the building, which is about 67 percent leased, have been asked to vacate the property in the coming weeks.
The move comes as Chicago grapples with a significant influx of migrants, a situation exacerbated by Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to send thousands of asylum seekers to the city without local coordination. The city has been actively seeking housing solutions, including repurposing properties like the former Standard Club building in the South Loop and multiple city-run shelters.
Some real estate industry insiders are also raising the question of whether the planned Ogden shelter is a first step toward rezoning the property, which is currently designated as a Planned Manufacturing District and doesn’t allow residential development.
Should the temporary housing create a path toward putting permanent housing on the site, it would provide a redevelopment opportunity to Hollis and Goodman, who is leading the $4 billion-plus revamp of the former Michael Reese Hospital site in the Bronzeville neighborhood.
During a recent community meeting, city officials revealed that 6,828 migrants have been placed in temporary shelters in Chicago over the past year, while another 1,940 are awaiting placement in police stations or at O’Hare and Midway International Airports.
The potential transformation of the Ogden building into a shelter is being considered as office landlords face reduced demand amid the remote work trend. Yet commercial property owners in and near Fulton Market, such as 344 North Ogden, have managed to evade much of the financial pain striking their competitors in the Loop and elsewhere in the city, as West Loop office leasing momentum defied the pandemic by drawing new tenants into the neighborhood.
Details of the shelter deal, including the number of migrants it could accommodate, remain unclear, and the mayor’s office did not provide the publication with comment. It is likely that the building’s owners would need to make renovations in order for the property to be occupied as a shelter.
Alderman Walter Burnett, whose 27th Ward includes the Ogden building, is seeking community input on the proposal, although his support may not be required for the city to proceed with its plan. Johnson is scheduled to provide an update on the city’s migrant response during a virtual briefing with the city council, and is also seeking increased federal funding and expedited work permits to assist new arrivals.
The post Goodman, Hollis near deal with city to house migrants at West Loop loft office appeared first on The Real Deal.
Miami-Dade County condo sales rose in August, with closings and dollar volume higher than in July.
August condo sales totaled $700 million, up from $592 million in July and on par with $700 million in June. Brokers closed 934sales last month, compared to 841 in July, MLS data from Redfin show. August sale prices ranged from $42,000 to $19.3 million, with a median sale price of $410,000. Price per square foot ranged from $103 to $4,229, with a median of $430 per square foot.
Grove at Grand Bay unit LPHS at 2675 South Bayshore Drive in Miami’s Coconut Grove took August’s top spot with a $19.3 million closing. The sale equated to $2,024 per square foot after 333 days on the market. Angel Nicolas with Compass represented both sides of the deal.
It was a lower price than July’s top sale. Fisher Island unit 7463 at 7463 Fisher Island Drive in the 7400 Oceanside building topped the charts in July at $24.2 million.
Last month’s cheapest trade was a condo at Star Lakes Estates. Unit 919 at 18707 Northeast Second Avenue in Miami closed at $42,000 — or $103 per square foot — after 54 days on the market. Camila Willis with The Keyes Company had the listing. Ellier Gonzalez with EM Squared Real Estate represented the buyer.
It’s cheaper than July’s lowest sale, which clocked in at $67,000.
Leaflet map created by Adam Farence | Data by © OpenStreetMap, under ODbl.Here’s a breakdown of August’s notable condo sales:
Most ExpensiveGrove At Grand Bay, 2675 South Bayshore Drive, Unit LPHS in Miami | Price: $19,250,000 | $2,024 psf | Year built: 2016 | Listing agent: Angel Nicolas with Compass Florida | Buyer’s agent: Angel Nicolas with Compass Florida
Least ExpensiveStar Lakes Estates, 18707 Northeast Second Avenue, unit 919 in Miami | Price: $42,000 | $103 psf | Year built: 1969 | Listing agent: Camila Willis with The Keyes Company | Buyer’s agent: Ellier Gonzalez with EM Squared Real Estate
Highest Price Per Square FootSurf Club, 9001 Collins Avenue, unit S-207 in Surfside | Price: $18,500,000 | $4,229 psf | Year built: 2017 | Listing agents: Ximena Penuela and Kimberlyn Montilva with Fort Realty | Buyer’s agent: Dustin Nero with Douglas Elliman
Lowest Price Per Square FootStar Lakes Estates, 18707 Northeast 2nd Avenue, unit 919 in Miami | Price: $42,000 | $103 psf | Year built: 1969 | Listing agent: Camila Willis with The Keyes Company | Buyer’s agent: Ellier Gonzalez with EM Squared Real Estate
Newest57 Ocean, 5775 Collins Avenue, unit 504 in Miami Beach | Price: $2,300,000 | $1,783 psf | Year built: 2021 | Listing agent: Mayan Van Der Miller with Compass Florida | Buyer’s agents: Stephanie Dubugras and Rejane Gomes de Paula with Fortune Christie’s International Real Estate
OldestCasa Grande, 834 Ocean Drive, unit 501 in Miami Beach | Price: $850,000 | $639 psf | Year built: 1923 | Listing agent: Aldo Massaglia with AG Real Estate Advisors | Buyer’s agent: Aldo Massaglia with AG Real Estate Advisors
Read moreSouth FloridaGrove at Grand Bay closing tops weekly condo sales in Miami-DadeSouth FloridaResidences by Armani/Casa closing tops weekly condo sales in Miami-DadeSouth FloridaSt. Regis Bal Harbour closing tops weekly condo sales in Miami-DadeThe post Miami-Dade condo sales rebound in August to $700M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Owners of a property on Austell Place in Long Island City recently converted it from a warehouse to an office. In its next iteration, it will be a migrant shelter.
New York City is opening a large-scale migrant shelter for asylum seekers at 4711 Austell Place in the Queens neighborhood, according to Crain’s. The city announced its occupancy of the vacant office building on Wednesday, but didn’t specify if the shelter would take up the entire 171,000-square-foot, five-story property.
Once a warehouse, ownership converted the property to an office building in 2020, a market mistiming as the pandemic swung favor away from office to industrial landlords. Since its conversion, the building has sat empty.
The property is owned by an LLC based in New Jersey.
In its announcement, the city said the humanitarian relief center would initially welcome 330 single men. At full capacity, the city expects the property to host nearly 1,000 migrants.
Since last spring, more than 110,000 migrants have poured into New York City, a majority of whom remain in the city’s care, according to Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom. The property will become the 16th large-scale migrant shelter, but there are more than 200 smaller emergency shelters as well.
Read moreNew YorkNormandy, Drake Street refi LIC warehouse-to-office conversion with $75M Deutsche loanNew YorkI-sales recall: Hotel-turned-migrant shelter sells at 38% discountNew YorkCity rents Roosevelt Hotel from Pakistan for $220MThe city did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Real Deal regarding its occupancy of 4711 Austell Place.
As the migrant crisis escalates, the city is seeking space of all kinds across boroughs to house the asylum seekers. Several hotels decimated by the pandemic have transformed into migrant centers, while underutilized spaces such as Randall’s Island and the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens have done the same.
Migrant shelters could be to the benefit of owners with little left to do with their properties. In the summer, the city leased the Roosevelt Hotel from the nation of Pakistan in a deal that will pay $220 million over three years.
The long-term effect on owners remains to be seen. Last month, Reza Merchant’s The Collective sold a hotel in Long Island City for $35.7 million — 38 percent below the purchase price from four years earlier — as the property is converted into a migrant shelter.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Columbia Property Trust owned the building.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post City plans migrant shelter at converted LIC office building appeared first on The Real Deal.
A recently listed River Oaks estate could become Houston’s most-expensive home sale to date.
Located at 3630 Willowick, on the River Oaks Country Club golf course, the 15,000-square-foot French chateau-style home hit the market with a listing price of $29 million. That’s just under $2,000 per square foot. Rachel Solar of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
3630 Willowick (Getty, Willowick Press)Built in 1994 and renovated in 2014, the home is owned by Houston socialite and philanthropist Lori Krohn Sarofim, according to the Harris County Appraisal District. She was previously married to Phillip Sarofim, the son of the late Fayez Sarofim, an Egypt-born billionaire investor and minority owner of the Houston Texans. The home has belonged to the Krohn family since at least 2005 when Lori Krohn Sarofim’s parents, billionaire oilman Tracy Krohn and Susan Krohn, acquired the property.
It is appraised for tax purposes at $11.8 million, according to HCAD.
The three-story mansion boasts extravagant features, including chevron-patterned parquetry, trompe l’oeil and Baccarat chandeliers that can cost upwards of $570,000. The primary suite features a two-level closet.
3630 Willowick (Getty, Willowick Press)It also has a sunken 500-bottle wine room, an off-the-grid home automation system and two safe rooms. Parisian gardens feature stone walkways, and there are vine-draped pergolas, a koi pond and a temperature-controlled pool.
This adds to the growing number of high-profile listings in swanky River Oaks. Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman just listed his Giorgetti Building penthouse for $3.3 million. Tony Buzbee, Houston city council candidate and trial lawyer currently defending impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton, listed his $20 million Tudor-style River Oaks mansion at 1722 River Oaks Boulevard last year.
A mansion in Memorial became the most-expensive home to sell in Houston last year. It was listed at $21 million.
Read moreHoustonAstros third-baseman Alex Bregman lists River Oaks penthouse for $3M New YorkHouston mansion on market for $27.5 million could set Texas-sized recordHoustonPrice of epic Houston estate jumps to $65MThe post Billionaire heiress lists estate for $29M appeared first on The Real Deal.
In today’s high-priced, low-supply single-family housing market, it’s new construction that benefits, and the companies building Chicagoland homes are increasingly concentrated among the nation’s biggest firms.
More than 75 percent of new-home sales in recent years were generated by large companies including DR Horton, Pulte Homes, Lennar, M/I Homes and Ryan Homes, Erik Doersching, CEO of Schaumburg-based housing market consultant Tracy Cross & Associates, told Chicago Agent.
This is a departure from the market’s landscape in the early 2000s, when small and midsize home builders had a larger presence before many of them were wiped out by the Great Recession. Smaller builders in the Chicago area are now focusing on infill developments, addressing areas overlooked by larger competitors, while the bigger companies stake out sprawling acreages where they’re building or plan to build hundreds of homes within a year or two.
Despite challenges including the Chicago area’s inclement weather, some burdensome municipal regulation of development and rising costs, the industry is seeing some promising signs. During the second quarter of 2023, nearly 20 new housing developments opened in Chicagoland, the most since 2008.
Nationwide, housing starts were up nearly 6 percent year-over-year in July, according to the U.S Census Bureau, and the influx of new housing has been apparent in some parts of the Chicago area, and fresh batches of inventory could continue to permeate the metro over the next six to 12 months.
Even with high interest rates, limited inventory for sale and inflation, the local housing market remains buoyant due to resilient demand continuing to push up home values even as other large metropolitan areas experience pricing drops or slower growth than Chicagoland.
“On a positive note, material costs have stabilized,” @properties agent Danny Glick told the outlet, “and it’s easier to predict construction costs compared to a year or two ago. That said, interest rates right now are high, so the cost of capital is a much bigger factor when evaluating any development deal, and banks are requiring more equity.”
In March 2022, interest rates hovered between 4 and 4.5 percent, he added. Now, they range from 9 to 9.5 percent, a huge added cost that must be considered when determining the viability of a project.
The northwestern, western and southern suburbs are leading the way in new construction. Plus, emerging markets outside mature residential areas, such as Aurora, Hampshire, Huntley, Joliet, Lemont, and Plainfield, offer ample growth opportunities. Lake County, however, is dealing with supply constraints due to a drawn-out approval process.
Within Chicago city limits, neighborhoods including Albany Park, Avondale, Humboldt Park, Irving Park, Lincoln Square, Logan Square and the West Loop are experiencing more new construction, Glick told the outlet.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoLincoln Square $30M affordable housing project moving forwardChicagoSales prices soar in Chicago suburbs amid low inventoryChicagoStarted from the bottom: Chicago leads nation in home-price growthThe post Big builders absorb growing share of Chicagoland’s new housing inventory appeared first on The Real Deal.
The annual deployment of Spirit Halloween stores has commenced, many of which will be haunted by the ghosts of retail locations’ past lives.
The seasonal retailer is set to open a record 1,500 stores across North America ahead of spooky season, Newsday reported. Last year, the Spencer’s Gifts subsidiary opened 1,457 pop-up stores.
While Spirit keeps much of its business practices close to its vampire vest, the retailer has little issue reincarnating properties buried by departures and closures.
The dynamics of the retail market increasingly adhere to the positives of a pop-up store, something Spirit has mastered. Landlords previously opposed to all the hoops that come with a temporary tenant have started to recognize these tenants are better than no tenants at all, willing to offer favorable leases to keep pop-ups coming back for more.
Some of these landlords benefit from the consistency offered by Spirit, which seems to only grow in size each year, despite falling off the map for multiple months. A spokesperson for the company told the publication that its “great relationships with landlords” is a key ingredient to the spell it casts over the retail landscape every year.
Among the retailer’s record load of stores planned for this year are 13 locations on Long Island, where retail vacancy rates at shopping centers have risen in recent years up to 5.9 percent in Nassau County and 10.2 percent in Suffolk County in 2023. The nationwide vacancy rate in the second quarter was 10.2 percent, according to Moody’s Analytics.
Read moreNationalBig-box retail growth spells options for Bed Bath & Beyond landlordsNew YorkModell's Sporting Goods will close all 141 storesNew YorkSpirit Halloween reawakens to cannibalize storesBed Bath & Beyond’s trip to the graveyard is one development that aids Spirit’s zombie-like revival of shuttered stores.
In Bohemia, a 42,000-square-foot store has opened in Sayville Plaza where the home goods retailer once stood, prior to leaving ahead of the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. In Massapequa, a 6,300-square-foot pop-up is replacing Harmon Face Values, a chain that was owned by Bed Bath & Beyond.
Other defunct brands provide the vacancies needed for Spirit to petrify shopping centers. Two of this year’s Spirit stores on Long Island will be in spaces formerly occupied by Modell’s Sporting Goods, each location coming in at 17,000 square feet. Relocations also provide a less ghoulish supplementing of space, such as moves by the Steinway Piano Gallery and Old Navy.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Spirit Halloween gobbles up Long Island retail vacancies appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kushner Companies paid $40 million for a distressed development site in Surfside, sources told The Real Deal.
New York-based Kushner worked with the seller, Shaya Boymelgreen, and the lender, Fuse Group, to assume the debt and buy the property at 9300 Collins Avenue. The deal closed on Tuesday afternoon, the sources said.
Kushner, led by Charles Kushner, his daughter Nicole Kushner Meyer and Laurent Morali, plans a luxury rental development. The vacant property is zoned for about 100 units with a maximum building height of about three stories. Kushner could not immediately be reached for comment.
Boymelgreen’s Eden Surfside LLC sold the 2.9-acre site, which is on the west side of Collins Avenue. The non-waterfront property faces the Fendi Château Residences condominium.
New York broker Moshe Majeski brought the deal to Kushner, according to a source. It will mark the first new development for the firm in Surfside. Other planned new developments in the oceanfront town include Damac Properties’ proposed luxury condo building on the Champlain Towers South collapse property, and Multiplan Real Estate Asset Management’s luxury condo building near the Kushner site, at 9309 and 9317 Collins Avenue.
Boymelgreen assembled the Surfside site between 2013 and 2015 for $26.5 million. Originally, he planned a luxury townhouse development, but plans changed to a three-story, 200-key hotel, which was never built. Last year, Boymelgreen closed on a $30 million loan for the then-planned hotel from Eyal Peretz’ Fuse Group.
Peretz denied the deal was distressed, but acknowledged that the borrower “needed to take care of certain things, and the loan was close to maturity.” The loan matured about a month and a half ago, he said. Michael Gallinar of Adams Gallinar represented Fuse Group.
Peretz said he was “very happy” to have worked out a deal with Kushner.
Kushner has a handful of large-scale projects with partners scattered across South Florida. In May, Kushner and the Miculitzki family’s Block Capital Group secured a $91 million refinancing of their recently completed Wynwood apartment, office and retail buildings.
Kushner, Immocorp and Faith Group are also working on other projects in Wynwood and Miami Gardens. And in Edgewater, Kushner and PTM Partners plan a 1,300-unit, two-tower apartment development.
Boymelgreen made his name in New York City real estate, and partnered with diamond billionaire Lev Leviev in the early 2000s. But he ran into legal trouble amid the Great Recession, and in 2016, the New York Attorney General imposed a two-year ban on Boymelgreen in the offer and sale of securities, including condos.
In South Florida, Boymelgreen and his family also plan an eight-story, 50-unit luxury condo development called 42 Pine. They closed on a $35.5 million construction loan from BridgeCity Capital for the project in June of last year.
Read moreSouth FloridaComing of age: Distress player Fuse enters the development arenaNationalJared Kushner’s investment firm not making many investmentsSouth FloridaKushner, Aimco sell piece of Fort Lauderdale assemblageThe post Kushner picks up distressed Surfside site from Boymelgreen, lender appeared first on The Real Deal.
A generation of American house hunters never pulled away from the mortgage market the way they did last week.
Overall mortgage applications decreased 2.9 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis compared to the previous week for the period ending on Sept. 1, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest survey. Applications hit the lowest levels since December 1996.
To find a level of purchase applications as low as last week, you’d need to look back another year. The MBA’s Purchase Index fell 2 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from the previous week and 28 percent year-over-year. The index hit its lowest point in 28 years.
Refinances are also down, though not to a historical degree. The Refinance Index dropped 5 percent from the previous week and 30 percent year-over-year, bottoming out at a level last seen at the beginning of the year.
Low housing inventory is a factor, according to MBA deputy chief economist Joel Kan, but mortgage rates arguably loom largest for homebuyers. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) actually dropped from 7.31 percent to 7.21 percent week-to-week, but the latter is still a full percentage point higher than a year ago; points decreased from 0.73 to 0.69.
Read moreNationalMortgage rates match 22-year highNew YorkAgents: Life is good under 7%NationalAssumable mortgages shine bright in residential marketThe average contract rate for a 30-year mortgage with jumbo loan balances also fell to 7.21 percent last week, down from 7.28 percent the previous week. Points increased from 0.66 to 0.76, but the effective rate still decreased.
Buyers and sellers are feeling the pinch of mortgage rates, well over the all-important (perception-wise) 7 percent threshold. After frenzied activity at the start of the pandemic and ultra-low rates got the market moving, buyers have been saddled with high mortgage rates and high home prices. On the other end, sellers are reluctant to part ways with a mortgage rate that is often lower than what they would garner should they need a new mortgage for a new home.
The post Mortgage applications hit 27-year low appeared first on The Real Deal.
WeWork told its landlords on a conference call Wednesday morning that it will try to renegotiate “nearly all” of its leases. The company faces staggering losses that have led to speculation that it will file for bankruptcy.
During the five-minute call, the company said that its leasing costs remain too high and it will look to exit underperforming locations.
“We are taking immediate action to permanently fix our inflexible and high-cost lease portfolio to achieve the sustainable operating model that we need to serve our members for many years to come,” WeWork stated in a letter explaining its decision.
A company spokesperson added that WeWork intends to remain in its buildings, but needs more flexibility with leases to clean up its dire financial situation.
One WeWork landlord told The Real Deal that the company has cried wolf in the past, but this time it seems serious and he’s waiting to hear what the company has to offer.
“We’ll have to see what they come back and ask for,” said the landlord, who asked to remain anonymous. “They’ve been floating this on earnings calls, but now they’re showing some real urgency here.”
Another landlord told TRD that WeWork said it intends to complete negotiations within 45 days. The owner added that the company just paid rent on its leases.
“I was actually quite surprised, but pleasantly surprised,” said the landlord, who asked to remain anonymous. “Because they wouldn’t have paid the rent if they’re going to reject the leases.”
If WeWork declares bankruptcy, it will have the option of exiting any lease. But most companies sign leases under a subsidiary LLC, including WeWork. This could allow the company to be surgical in exiting leases without the parent firm going into bankruptcy, although this summer a judge cast doubt on that in a ruling on a 261 Madison Avenue lease.
The announcement to landlords continues a tumultuous few months for WeWork. Sandeep Mathrani, who had been tapped to turn around the struggling company, resigned as CEO in May. Later that month, chief financial officer Andre Fernandez resigned after just a year in his post.
In August, WeWork said there was “substantial doubt” that it could remain in business. WeWork renegotiated about $3 billion worth of debt in March.
Since 2019, WeWork has renegotiated or exited 590 leases, saving the company $12.7 billion in leasing costs. More than 250 of those 590 were exits.
WeWork’s woes have been building for years. After receiving a $4.4 billion investment from the private equity giant SoftBank in 2017, the company, under founder Adam Neumann, went on a buying spree that resulted in signing leases above market rates. The deals were concentrated in urban centers such as New York City and San Francisco.
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 ushered in an era of work-from-home, which punctured office markets across the country, especially in New York and San Francisco. That left WeWork with a dwindling number of members and leases that were higher in cost than market rates.
Since the pandemic began, WeWork has lost $11.4 billion. Its stock price fell as low as 11 cents, but at midday Wednesday was $3.50, owing to its 1-for-40 reverse stock split Monday. It is down 20 percent from its Friday market close.
Read moreNationalThese real estate firms lost the most on WeWorkNationalWhat happens to real estate if WeWork goes bankrupt?NationalAfter WeWork: Stacking up the coworking competitionThe post WeWork tells landlords it intends to renegotiate “nearly all” its leases appeared first on The Real Deal.
A proposed home for two Hollywood executives is at the focus of a legal battle that accuses Los Angeles land use officials of repeatedly flouting environmental and other rules.
Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition, a community group represented by a veteran land use lawyer, is suing the L.A. City Council’s Planning Land Use & Management Committee and Ian Cooper and Rachel Foullon, executives for Monkeypaw Productions, which produced the 2017 film “Get Out.” The complaint alleges that the PLUM Committee wrongfully signed off on Foullon and Cooper’s proposal to build a 3,600-square-foot home at 464 Crane Boulevard, and that the approval is part of a long-standing pattern of approving homes that are too big for the area.
The approval disregards PLUM’s own policies. In June, the committee gave a green light to the Wildlife Ordinance, which intends to stop construction of mansions on environmentally sensitive hillsides between the 405 Freeway to the 101 Freeway.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jamie Hall of Beverly Hills-based Channel Law Group, also serves as president of environmental group Laurel Canyon Association, which helped write the proposed Wildlife Ordinance.
Political theaterThe lawsuit alleges the committee did not use the same considerations when evaluating how a proposed mansion could affect a biologically and geologically sensitive hillside in the Mount Washington neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles, which is a few miles away from the eastern edge of the area that the proposed Wildlife Ordinance aspires to protect.
The suit also contends that PLUM has a pattern of ignoring neighborhood objections to projects. PLUM makes its decisions away from public scrutiny and prior to hearings on important projects despite being required by law to consider objections, Hall wrote in the suit filed in August.
“In sum, the city’s heretofore, undisclosed pre-PLUM process is an elaborate dress rehearsal, and the public PLUM meeting is a cynical ballet performed by elected and appointed city public officials pursuant to a script written by the city’s bureaucrats. This is not normal,” the lawsuit states.
PLUM gave the 464 Crane project a green light in May, despite the plaintiffs alleging that the project had not complied with the area’s planning rules. The lawsuit requests that the PLUM Committee start a new application process for the project and conduct new hearings.
LA City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez and the lot & steep hillside where the proposed home will be constructed (Eunisses.com, Andrew Asch)A representative for Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes Mount Washington, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Developers named in the suit, Ian Cooper and Rachel Foullon, said that the focus on their project’s application was vexing.
“We are frustrated at being stuck in the middle of a lawsuit against the city’s processes, but are hopeful it can be resolved quickly and amicably, so that we can build the home we’ve worked long and hard for, and join the inspiring and creative community that is Mount Washington,” Foullon and Cooper said in an email. The Crane Boulevard home is the only house the couple has developed, Foullon said.
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs claim the hillsides of Northeast Los Angeles enclaves Mount Washington and Glassell Park are too steep, and the streets are too narrow to support big homes. The Mount Washington and Glassell Park Specific Plan, which was enacted in 1993, demands restrictions on building big homes in the area.
The suit alleges that from 2011 to 2017, developers applying to build homes in the neighborhood respected planning rules on maximum home size. But because of developers’ lobbying, the city’s planning department and politicians often gave approvals to projects that were too big for the neighborhood. Planners stopped enforcing rules on floor plan ratios and examinations of how a proposed home would comply with the neighborhood’s specific plan’s baseline hillside ordinance.
When objections are raised, council members and their deputies ignore grievances.
Back-room meetingsThe lawsuit alleges that city council deputies confer and make decisions on deals before PLUM meetings, which is in violation of California’s Open Meeting Law. Councilmembers typically defer to the desired position of a councilmember in whose district a real estate project has been proposed.
Through the application process for 464 Crane, the project’s advocates did not follow city rules for building on steep hillsides, according to the lawsuit. The complaint also alleges that the project’s developer misstated the size of the home in order to avoid an environmental safety study. The objections of the plaintiff were ignored throughout the hearing process, the suit alleges.
Before the May 2 PLUM hearing, Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition made an appeal to stop the project at 464 Crane. However, the plaintiff alleges that a deputy to Hernandez communicated with a deputy of PLUM committee Chair Marqueece Harris Dawson. Hernandez’s office requested that the appeal to the green light be denied. Hernandez’s office’s wishes were respected. In a May 10 meeting, the City Council approved the project. The lawsuit claims 150 home projects are pending in Mount Washington.
Read moreLos AngelesLA’s Lincoln Heights Jail up for redevelopment againLos AngelesDeveloper wins appeals to 100-unit apartment complex in Highland Park The post Lawsuit over hillside home alleges back-room deals at LA City Hall appeared first on The Real Deal.
Westcore has bought three industrial buildings in Livermore, including two leased by Tesla, for $326.8 million.
The San Diego-based investor, acting through an affiliate, bought the trio of manufacturing and warehouse buildings at 201 Discovery Drive, 800 Atlantis Street and 801 Challenger Street, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The sellers were Toronto- and New York-based BentallGreenOak and Maryland-based NewTower Trust. The price paid for each building in Oaks Logistics Center was not disclosed.
The price for the combined properties of nearly 1.3 million square feet works out to $252 per square foot.
The Austin-based electric vehicle maker leases the 635,500-square-foot building at 201 Discovery and the 367,700-square-foot building at 800 Atlantis.
Draexlmaier Automotive of America, based in South Carolina, has occupied the 294,900-square-foot building at 801 Challenger Street since 2017.
As of late June, the buildings had a combined assessed value of $154.3 million, according to the Mercury News, citing county tax records.
Westcore, founded by Marc Brutten in 2000, has spent more than $10 billion to buy more than 1,000 commercial buildings across the U.S., containing more than 100 million square feet, according to its website.
“Westcore is bullish about the fundamentals for industrial real estate,” Don Ankeny, CEO of Westcore, said in a statement. “This strategic investment underscores our commitment to expanding our footprint in growth markets across the United States.”
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreDallasIndustrial condos for gearheads in CarrolltonSan FranciscoTech firm takes former Anheuser-Busch warehouse in OaklandSan FranciscoClorox to sublease four floors at Oakland headquartersThe post Westcore grabs trio of industrial properties in Livermore for $327M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Having clawed its way to the top of the Hamptons market, Bespoke Real Estate has set its sights on an even bigger prize: Manhattan.
The firm, which ranked sixth in The Real Deal’s recent ranking of Hamptons brokerages with nearly $880 million across 53 deals, is betting its approach to commissions will yield translate its results Out East to the high end of the metropolitan market.
One year after opening its first office in the city, Bespoke has a handful of listings: a $38 million mansion in Carnegie Hill, a $15 million triplex penthouse on Central Park North and a $14 million pad at 60 Collister Street in Tribeca. And co-founder Cody Vichinsky said the firm, which centers its business on homes asking $10 million or more, is gearing up for more.
“We’re early on. We’re just out of the gates,” Vichinsky said. “People should definitely be paying attention to us.”
But not everyone is sold on the firm’s approach
“New York City is its own beast,” Leslie J. Garfield’s Ravi Kantha said.
Sellers on the high end of Manhattan’s luxury market are on the hunt for connections, expertise and top-notch service — and they’re willing to pay for it, he said.
“The only question is can you offer discounted fees and still offer all of that,” he said. “In my experience, the answer is no.”
But Vichinsky begs to differ. He said any brokers who are “up in arms” about their commission rate often claim Bespoke is skimping on service.
Bespoke rolled out its 1 percent commission policy last year after beta testing it for more than a year, according to a 2022 Forbes report on its debut. The rate applies specifically to the sell-side of a transaction, so buyer’s agents, including Bespoke, would still likely earn the usual 2 to 3 percent.
“People want to equate [our model] to discount,” Vichinsky said. “It’s anything but.”
To those asking how Bespoke is able to offer “Hermes but at Burlington Coat Factory prices,” Vichinsky said the industry is too saturated with “overpaid” brokers who “don’t justify their value.”
In Manhattan, other brokerages’ attempts to embrace the low commission model have fallen flat.
Investors shelled out hefty sums to discount brokerages in the mid-2010’s. In 2018, German media conglomerate Axel Springer provided $117 million to Purplebricks, a U.K.-based startup that charges a flat fee whether a property is sold or not.
The firm launched in New York shortly after the infusion. At the time, the company charged $3,200 to list a property but later bumped it up to $3,600.
When the four-year-old company made its debut in New York, it had a market cap of around $1 billion, but just a year later, the once-lofty prospects for the startup collapsed.
Purplebricks shuttered its U.S. operations in 2019, reporting a nearly $43 million operating loss in the 12 months leading up to its closure. The firm’s valuation had dropped 75 percent from when it opened stateside in September 2017. In March, the company announced its intentions to sell.
The startup’s demise came more than a decade after a fellow U.K. company, Foxtons, failed to gain a stronghold in the city with discounted broker fees. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 2007 following a market downturn.
Boutique brokerage LG Fairmont cut its commissions to 4.5 percent in 2017, but the reduction didn’t stave off financial distress. Compass absorbed the 60-person company last year, and though the firm called it a merger, sources told TRD at the time that the deal allowed LG Fairmont to “save face while keeping the lights on.”
But the trail of failed discount brokerages was largely centered on the lower end of the market, below where Bespoke says it will pick up business.
Despite its unconventional commission policy, the brokerage doesn’t seem to be drawing much attention from the city’s largest players. Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman said she wasn’t aware the firm had officially opened for business in Manhattan.
“I haven’t heard much about them here in New York at all,” Freedman said. “I think I heard of one listing or something they were sharing.”
When asked about Bespoke and its low commission structure’s entry into Manhattan, Compass’ Leonard Steinberg similarly shrugged off the firm.
“I have zero concerns about Bespoke,” he said.
But Bespoke’s 1 percent commission rollout wasn’t met with the same indifference in the Hamptons, where a longtime client advised the firm not to advertise the lower commission.
“I told [Cody] I don’t mind paying if I get really great service,” the customer told Forbes last year. “Whether it’s 1 percent or 4 percent is not going to change who I go with.”
Commission structures are also shifting across the board, at least in New York City.
While 6 percent has been considered a historical standard, commissions are fluid and often up for negotiation, especially at higher price points, Kantha said.
In the downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn markets where Kantha works, he said the norm has shifted more toward 5 percent but are always subject to negotiation based on the property, price point and market at the time.
“The reality is, fees are always going to adjust,” Kantha said.
Read moreNew YorkEx-Bespoke exec alleges racial discrimination, harassmentSouth FloridaBespoke Florida’s ex-prez seeks $1M-plus in allegedly unpaid commissions for Waldorf Astoria dealsNationalZach and Cody Vichinsky's excellent adventureThe post Bespoke brings 1% commissions to Manhattan appeared first on The Real Deal.
SRD Building, the spec development firm led by brothers Steve and Scott Dingle, sold another Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club mansion for $16.2 million.
Records show SRD Building partner William Scaggs sold the house at 329 Royal Palm Way in Boca Raton to a trust named for the address and managed by attorney Eric J. Grabois. The true buyer is unknown.
David Roberts of Royal Palm Properties represented both the buyer and the seller in the deal.
The Dingle brothers are the most prolific spec developers in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, where their mansions have repeatedly broken Boca Raton price records. In February, they sold a waterfront spec mansion to a Michigan-based developer for a record $28 million. In June, the brothers’ firm sold another spec mansion to a freight executive for $22.6 million.
Scaggs, a partner with SRD Building, was previously a partner with Four Seasons Emerald Bay in the Bahamas, according to his LinkedIn.
Records show SRD Building bought the 0.3-acre Royal Palm Way property for $4.2 million in 2021. The builders tore down the existing home and built an 8,300-square-foot mansion with five bedrooms and six bathrooms, according to property records. The property spans 104 feet along the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club golf course, and includes a pool and a three-car garage, the listing shows.
SRD Building first listed the mansion for $18 million in June of last year, Realtor.com shows. The brothers bumped the asking price up to $18.8 million in February, later reducing it to $17 million in May.
Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club is a gated community in Boca Raton favored by luxury buyers. Roberts said demand for both new construction and resale properties has remained strong in the golf-oriented neighborhood. In July, Cumberland Farms heir Byron Haseotes Jr. and his wife, Tiffany Haseotes, sold their waterfront Royal Palm mansion for $15 million. That same month, pharmaceutical CFO Marc Schneebaum and his wife bought a house in the gated community for $14.8 million.
The post Dingle brothers sell Royal Palm spec mansion for $16M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mount Sinai Medical Center bought a development site in Westchester for $32 million.
The Miami Beach-based health care provider purchased 5.6 acres at 8250 and 8200 Southwest Eighth Street in unincorporated west Miami-Dade County from an entity led by Jorge Cruz, according to records and real estate database Vizzda.
The purchase comes two months after an attorney submitted a letter to the county on behalf of an unidentified entity, seeking clarification whether a “small hospital” with fewer than 100 beds is allowed on the property by right, Vizzda-provided records show.
Mount Sinai didn’t provide details of its project, only saying in a statement from its CEO, Gino Santorio, that it’s part of an ongoing growth plan. “The recent land purchase in Westchester is part of a larger strategy intended to expand access to our brand,” he said in part.
The property consists of two commercial buildings, completed in 1959 and 1974, used by CarLux Miami auto dealership, according to records.
Mount Sinai has 12 outposts across Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, including in Aventura, Coral Gables and Key West, its website shows. This year, the hospital opened the 12,000-square-foot Mount Sinai Eldercare center at its Hialeah hospital at 6050 West 20th Avenue and a pair of physicians offices in Monroe County.
The Irma and Norman Braman Comprehensive Cancer Center is expected to open in 2025 at the main campus at 4300 Alton Road in Miami Beach.
South Florida hospitals have been active real estate buyers in recent years. In April, Memorial Healthcare System paid $49 million for an 8.2-acre development site on the southeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard and State Road 7 in Hollywood. The hospital’s preliminary plan is to develop a health and wellness center.
Last year, Baptist Health South Florida sold a data center at 2100 Northwest 84th Avenue in Doral for $34 million to American Tower, a global communications infrastructure real estate investment trust.
The post Mount Sinai drops $32M for “small hospital” dev site in Westchester appeared first on The Real Deal.
Fortis Property Group and Valley Bank have agreed, in theory, to play nice.
In separate letters to Judge Barry Ostrager, the companies expressed a willingness to try mediation again on the stalled 161 Maiden Lane skyscraper. But they also took jabs at each other and laid out different terms for any talks.
Judge Barry Ostrager last week had urged the parties to attempt mediation again after they abandoned negotiations last year to resolve litigation surrounding Fortis’ 60-story Financial District tower, which has been in limbo since it was discovered to be tilting.
The bank is seeking to foreclose on a $120 million loan on the troubled Seaport Residences, accusing the developer of missing critical deadlines. Fortis is suing the lender right back, alleging it wrongfully stopped funding the project and prevented the tower’s timely completion.
In its letter, Fortis indicated it would be willing to re-enter mediation. It states that Fortis has repeatedly tried to rekindle such negotiations, to no avail, as the lender “repeatedly declined.”
The company also said it was open to another request by the judge to establish a fund to pay several contractors left in the lurch as project progress stalled and various lawsuits dragged on. But it said “the vast majority of such funding” should come from Valley Bank. Fortis claimed it has paid more than $40 million since September 2018 to cover project costs.
“The senior lenders have not funded a dime on this project since early 2019. In fact, the whole point of Fortis funding $20 million in March 2020 was in exchange for lenders’ agreement to release additional loan proceeds to pay vendors,” the letter states.
In Valley Bank’s letter, the lender’s attorney fired back at Fortis’ version of events.
“The Fortis Parties’ attempt to blame [lenders] for unfruitful previous mediation efforts reveals an astonishingly warped, but patently self-serving, recounting of what actually transpired,” the letter states.
Valley asserted that the parties agreed to keep discussions with the mediator confidential, but Fortis failed to do so.
Read moreNew YorkThe Fortis of solitudeNew YorkJudge tells Fortis, bank to end leaning-tower disputeNew YorkSUNY: Fortis failed to close on $240M Brooklyn purchaseThe bank also indicated that it opposes the creation of a fund for unpaid contractors, something the judge said should be a condition of mediation. Its letter states that the stiffed contractors should be paid with money from the eventual foreclosure sale. It notes that Valley Bank has contributed the most funds to the project to date.
Successful mediation could bring to a close more than three years of litigation between the lender and developer, and determine the fate of the unfinished condominium. The project has faced years of delays, plagued by various legal fights between the developers and its contractors.
The cause of the tower’s leaning three inches to the north and the parties responsible for it have yet to be determined. One suspect is the method used to lay the building’s foundation.
In its letter, Valley Bank asked that it be given until Sept. 29 to enter filings related to mediation. Given the tenor of these letters, the parties appear to have their work cut out for them.
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A landmark office tower that recently went into receivership is up for sale, nearly two months after a lender filed a $65 million foreclosure suit against Canadian landlord the Dorchester Corp.
Newmark brokers have been hired to market the 40-story Jewelers Building at 35 East Wacker Drive on behalf of John Hancock Life Insurance, the lender that sued Toronto-based Dorchester after it failed to fully pay $2.3 million due in property taxes and other charges by July 1, CoStar reported.
Earlier this year, Toronto-based Dorchester tried selling the building to pay off its $51 million mortgage before the summer maturity date, playing it up as an office-to-multifamily conversion opportunity — an increasingly common tactic among Chicago landlords as lingering remote-work trends and high interest rates continue to crush the city’s office sector.
It’s unclear how much the Jewelers Buildings could fetch in a sale, but a person familiar with the property expects offers to range between $50 million and $55 million. That’s less than the $65 million loan that John Hancock provided in 2013, highlighting the greatly diminished values of office properties in the Windy City since the pandemic hit. Dorchester, led by CEO Morris Shohet, has owned the historic building for more than 40 years.
Newmark is again emphasizing the possibility of a residential conversion, as well as continued office use in its marketing materials, the outlet reported. Plus, Newmark is bringing attention to the $118 million of renovations the tower has undergone over the past two decades. The 556,200-square-foot building is 71 percent leased, below the city average of roughly 77 percent.
“This is one of those downtown historic gems that’s had a lot of upgrades and renovations,” Newmark’s Jim Postweiler told the outlet. “This has a good chance of trading.”
Built in the 1920s, the Jewelers Building possesses a rich history. Infamous gangster Al Capone was rumored to have run a speakeasy at the site during the prohibition era, though historians have debated the veracity of such stories. The building’s name spawned from its unusual indoor parking and elevator system designed to protect jewelers from robbery while transporting highly valuable goods.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoJohn Hancock hits Jewelers Building owner with foreclosure suitChicagoDorchester selling Jewelers Building as office-to-resi playChicagoLender slams Gluck with $83M Schaumburg office foreclosure suitThe post Newmark seeks buyer for Jewelers Building amid foreclosure appeared first on The Real Deal.
Manhattan’s luxury market was on the up-and-up last week, with an uptick in signed contracts and a deal for a 432 Park Avenue condo at a peak price.
Eighteen contracts were signed last week, up by seven from the previous week, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report of homes in the borough asking $4 million or more. The top contract last week was signed for the 79th floor at 432 Park Avenue, which asked $92 million.
Had the unit gone into contract near its asking price, it would have become the most expensive sale of the year, beating out an $80 million deal at 220 Central Park South. But The Wall Street Journal reported the home went into contract for roughly $70 million, about half the $135 million it originally asked for when it listed in September 2021.
The full-floor condo unit spans 8,000 square feet and has five bedrooms and five bathrooms. The seller, hedge funder and Asian art collector Mitch Julis, had the unit designed by Japanese architect Hiroshi Sugimoto to include 60-year-old Bonsai trees and a tea house. Julis bought the unit for $59 million in 2021.
The second most expensive home to enter contract last week was PH7N at 169 Hudson Street. The unit asked $18.3 million, down from $19.8 million in March.
The duplex condo has four bedrooms and four bathrooms across nearly 5,300 square feet. It also has 2,500 square feet of outdoor space, including a terrace off the primary bedroom and a rooftop deck with an infinity pool. The seller bought the unit last year for $16 million.
Of the 18 contracts signed last week, 11 were signed for condos, five were for co-ops and two were for townhouses.
The homes’ combined asking price was $219.3 million, which works out to an average of $12.2 million and media of $7.2 million. The typical home was discounted 24 percent and spent 777 days on the market.
Read moreNew YorkManhattan luxury market sputters before Labor DayTri-StateConnecticut castle lists for $26MTri-StateMansion on the Hudson River slashes asking price by $20MThe post Manhattan luxury market shows signs of life pre-Labor Day appeared first on The Real Deal.
SKS Real Estate Partners has bought a 22-story glass-and-stone office tower in San Francisco’s Financial District for $61 million — 76 percent less than its asking price in 2020.
The San Francisco-based firm teamed up with The Swig Company, based in Los Angeles, to purchase the 297,600-square-foot building at 350 California Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources.
The seller was Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, based in Tokyo. The sale price works out to $205 per square foot.
The pending deal, announced in May, initially disclosed that the building would sell for between $200 and $225 per square foot, or up to $67.5 million. A South Korean equity partner, first involved in the contract negotiations, was replaced by Swig.
The purchase “reflects the certainty that The Swig Company and SKS Partners have in San Francisco’s continued role as a center of business and innovation,” Paul Stein, co-founder of SKS, told the Business Times. “We are confident in our city’s future.”
The $61 million sale was 75.6 percent less than the $250 million Mitsubishi sought when the building hit the market in 2020.
Brokers Kyle Kovac, Mike Taquino and Giancarlo Sangiacomo of CBRE represented the seller.
The tower, built in 1976, is now 75 percent vacant because the primary tenant, Union Bank, has mostly moved out. Union Bank, previously owned by Mitsubishi UFJ, once occupied the entire building. Mitsubishi UFJ sold Union Bank to U.S. Bancorp in December.
Union Bank has agreed to a “minimal short-term leaseback” of some of the offices at 350 California, unidentified sources told the Business Times.
Before the pandemic, California Street was home to some of the world’s most valuable commercial real estate. Now, in the era of remote work, the city’s office vacancy has jumped to a record 32.7 percent, compared to 4 percent before the contagion.
The plunge in office workers has slammed the Financial District, leading restaurants, stores and other small businesses to lay off employees or close up shop.
The sale of 350 California and an 11-story office tower at 60 Spear Street early last month may establish a new office benchmark in San Francisco. Presidio Bay Ventures bought the 157,000-square-foot property for $41 million, or $260 per square foot — a third of its 2014 price.
The sales highlight purchases by local investors, rather than the institutional players that bought into the market before the pandemic.
“This is an example of local, established ownership groups with proven track records taking advantage of unprecedented opportunity provided in today’s office market,” Derek Daniels, research director for Colliers International in San Francisco, told the Business Times.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoSKS buys 350 California Street in San Francisco, paying $60M to $68MSan FranciscoMitsubishi UFJ to sell SF office building at expected 80% discountAuto DraftThe post SKS and Swig buy office tower at 350 California Street for $61M appeared first on The Real Deal.
The owner of a three-story hotel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, slathered with graffiti and home to squatters, has put it up for sale for $21 million.
The landlord has listed the shuttered 80-room Civic Center Inn at 790 Ellis Street, in the heart of a city hub for drugs and homelessness, the San Francisco Standard reported.
The Standard did not identify the landlord, but the owner of the hotel is Vijay Patel of San Francisco-based Vijay Investments, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s landlord locator, which cites government data from 2021.
The listing describes the hotel’s location as a “prime San Francisco corner lot” with plenty of off-street parking. The 22,000-square-foot hotel, built in 1956, is listed at $262,500 per room, according to Loopnet.
Days after it was listed, Jeff Appenrodt, a broker with Laurel Realty and Investments, said he has fielded calls from brokers interested in buying it.
Appenrodt said he knows of “a handful” of people living inside the dilapidated hotel. What he doesn’t know is if they’re paying rent, or have a rental agreement longer than 30 days, which would give them eviction protections, or if they would have to be evicted for nonpayment of rent.
“The buyer will have to figure out what to do with them,” Appenrodt told the Standard.
While the hotel has been closed for five months, the half-acre parcel is zoned to allow developers to build up to 130 feet, meaning a buyer could tear down the hotel and turn it into a large housing project, he said.
“If you’re looking at future development,” Appenrodt said, “it’s already so rough down there that it’s bound to get better as time goes on.”
Appenrodt told the newspaper he would like to see the city buy the building and turn it into a 100-percent affordable housing project. “It’d be a perfect place to house at least 82 people,” he said.
San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness & Supportive Housing said the hotel’s owners asked the city to buy the hotel, but the city chose not to do so because of the high costs of revamping the hotel and converting it into permanent housing.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoSF’s $725M hotel default could spur property salesSan FranciscoMortgage deadlines loom for dozens of SF hotelsSan FranciscoSF’s biggest hotels to stop mortgage payments The post Owner of dilapidated 80-room hotel in SF’s Tenderloin seeks $21M appeared first on The Real Deal.
At 92 years old, Larry Silverstein isn’t shy to admit he’s no spring chicken.
“I’m an old fogey, as is my wife,” Silverstein told The Real Deal’s “Deconstruct” podcast.
But in his golden years, the founder of Silverstein Properties continues to break new ground.
Silverstein, along with Metro Loft’s Nathan Berman, are behind one of the largest office-to-residential conversions in New York’s history at 55 Broad Street. This summer, he crashed the city’s casino race, tossing in an eleventh hour bid for a West Side project.
Both new ventures come on the heels of a major move for the developer. In 2018, Silverstein and his wife Klara ditched their Park Avenue home of 33 years for a penthouse at Silverstein Properties’ 30 Park Place in Lower Manhattan.
Read moreNew YorkSilverstein and Metro Loft close on 55 Broad, start office-to-resi conversionNew YorkSilverstein crashes NYC casino raceThe shake up, Silverstein says, was revolutionary.
“It’s given us a a new lease on life, if you will, being with all these young people, having their perspective, their focus,” Silverstein said. “I recommend that to all old folks.”
Catch the full conversation, including the opportunities Silverstein sees in a shaky market, on the Season 3 premiere of Deconstruct, streaming on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Pandora and TheRealDeal.com.
The post Larry Silverstein talks conversions, casinos and his new lease on life appeared first on The Real Deal.
At first glance, it appears Manhattan office landlords had something to celebrate in August. But not all is what it seems.
Companies leased 2.5 million square feet in the borough last month, Crain’s reported. The data comes courtesy of Colliers, which noted that August represented the fourth consecutive month of increased activity in the market.
That leasing volume doesn’t solely count new leases. More than a quarter of the activity stems from law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell’s extension at RXR Realty’s 450 Lexington Avenue. That renewal added up to more than 700,000 square feet, but only 30,000 of that space is new.
Leasing activity fell a whopping 25.6 percent year-over-year. The borough is on track to experience a 10.5 percent drop in leasing activity from 2022 to 2023. The vacancy rate remained tethered to the previous month’s 17.8 percent and 96 million square feet remain available in Manhattan.
Among the three neighborhoods Colliers tracked, Midtown experienced the strongest month of leasing with 1.3 million square feet taken, with more than half came from the deal at Scott Rechler’s property. Midtown South saw 771,000 square feet leased in August, while Downtown trailed behind at 445,000 square feet.
If there’s a positive takeaway from last month’s activity for office owners, it’s the steadying of asking rents. The average asking rent ticked upwards — albeit modestly — for the fifth consecutive month, hitting $75.70 per square foot. That’s the highest average since October 2020; Asking rent in Midtown South reached $82.78 per square foot, a record for the neighborhood.
That’s still not what landlords were asking for before the pandemic changed everything. In March 2020, the average asking rent was $79.47 per square foot, demonstrating the gulf that has grown in the last three years as supply and demand drastically veered off course.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkRXR inks law firm to 700K sf lease at 450 LexingtonNew YorkThat empty feeling: Available office space in Manhattan reaches all-time highNationalOffice renewals have a shrinking problemThe post Strong August office leasing volume comes with a catch appeared first on The Real Deal.
Roberta’s | Miami Beach
New York-based restaurant Roberta’s will open at the 72 Park condo project in Miami Beach.
The pizzeria leased 3,000 square feet on the ground floor at the condo tower that’s under construction at 580 72nd Street in the North Beach neighborhood, according to a Roberta’s and Lefferts’ news release. It will mark the restaurant’s first permanent Florida outpost.
The restaurant is a Michelin Bib Gourmand, a designation for the quality of its food and service. Co-founders Brandon Hoy and chef Carlo Mirarchi opened the first Robera’s in 2008 in a warehouse in Brooklyn, expanding it globally since then.
Lefferts, with offices in Miami Beach and New York, is developing the 22-story, 206 condominium with one- to three-bedroom units and a total of 10,000 square feet of commercial space. Unit owners can rent out condos on a short-term basis. Russell Galbut is a project investor.
Completion is expected next summer, though Roberta’s will open early next year.
Mindspace | Miami
Flexible office provider Mindspace will open two outposts in Miami.
The firm leased 30,000 square feet at The Gateway at Wynwood building at 2916 North Miami Avenue, and 31,200 square feet at 100 Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami, a Mindspace news release says. The tenant will open the Wynwood outpost on Sept. 12, and the downtown outpost later this year, according to a Mindspace spokesperson and the firm’s website.
R&B, led by Shelby Rosenberg, completed the Gateway in 2021. The building has 195,000 square feet of offices and almost 26,000 square feet of street-level retail.
Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding bought the 30-story 100 Biscayne office tower last year for $81.1 million, records show.
Serafina, Sixty Vines, more | Miami Worldcenter
Miami Worldcenter, a 27-acre mixed-use project in downtown, scored three restaurant tenants.
Serafina Italian Restaurant leased 8,200 square feet at 652 Northeast First Avenue, and Sixty Vines, which offers wine on tap and a vineyard-inspired menu, leased 8,700 square feet at 150 Northeast Eighth Street, according to a Miami Worldcenter news release. Also, a dual concept of BurgerFi and Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza & Wings will open in a joint 3,800-square-foot space at 851 Northeast First Avenue.
The restaurants are expected to open next year.
Art Falcone and Nitin Motwani, in partnership with CIM Group, are the master developers of the $6 billion mixed-use project. They have sold off portions to other developers in past years.
Completed portions include the Paramount condo tower, the Caoba and Bezel apartment towers, a 351-key citizenM hotel and a 80,000-square-foot Jewel Box retail building. Portions under construction include a 52-story, 550-apartment Miami World Tower, a 50-story Legacy Hotel & Residences, a second Caoba tower and a 450-unit The Crosby condo tower.
Tenants at Miami Worldcenter include Rihanna’s lingerie brand Savage X Fenty, which is expected to open this year, and Chef Michael Beltran’s Brasserie Laurel restaurant, which is open.
CIM and The Comras Company represent Miami Worldcenter in retail leases.
Roughly 84 percent of the retail space is leased, according to the release.
GoodVets | Miami, Coral Gables
Veterinary clinic GoodVets opened outposts in Miami and Coral Gables.
GoodVets opened clinics at 315 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, and at 60 Northwest 29th Street in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, according to a news release from the animal hospital. Veterinarian Emily Abraham is owner and medical director of GoodVets Miami.
Records show the Miracle Mile building is owned by three entities, including two tied to Russell Galbut and his GFO Investments family office. The GoodVets outpost in Wynwood is in the Artem apartment building, which was developed by Lennar’s Quarterra Multifamily subsidiary.
Staud | Palm Beach
Clothing and accessories brand Staud is coming to The Royal Poinciana Plaza in Palm Beach.
Staud will open this year at the plaza at 340 Royal Poinciana Way in Palm Beach, according to a news release from the landlord.
Boston-based WS Development owns the leasehold of the 180,000-square-foot shopping center. The property is owned by a trust led by Sidney Spiegel, records show.
The deal comes on the heels of restaurant Tutto Mare leasing space at The Royal Poinciana Playhouse, which is adjacent to the plaza.
Read moreSouth FloridaLease roundup: Terranova, Codina, Blackstone’s Link Logistics score tenantsSouth FloridaLease roundup: Steve Ross’ Related, Swire, Tricera, Lndmrk score tenantsSouth FloridaLease roundup: Robert Rivani’s Black Lion scores Mexican restaurant at SLS BrickellThe post Lease roundup: Roberta’s coming to North Beach, Serafina to Miami Worldcenter appeared first on The Real Deal.
A real estate agent who says he was instrumental in one of Manhattan’s biggest land deals in years is suing one of the city’s biggest developers for an eight-figure sum.
Compass agent Austin Schuster is demanding $21 million from Extell Development for allegedly cutting him out of an 11th Avenue deal that, according to Schuster, could generate billions of dollars for the developer.
In the lawsuit, Schuster claims Extell contracted him to act as a finder and introduce the firm to the then-owner of the properties, and that he then “spent years fostering a relationship.”
“I’m extremely disappointed by what Extell is doing,” Schuster told The Real Deal. “I am confident in my heart the courts will see this and make it right.”
Extell responded that it “values the brokerage community and is careful to pay commissions it owes.”
The Manhattan parcel, between West 45th and West 46th streets, could allow for 500,000 square feet of residential development. It was central in a bitter foreclosure that earlier this year resulted in Extell taking possession of the land from Robert Gans.
Schuster claims Extell has made “nefarious attempts” to avoid paying him a finder’s fee for having introduced the two sides in 2015, and a $5 million commission Schuster claims he is owed because Gans’ portfolio went to Extell inside a 10-year window provided by the contract.
The rub is that Extell acquired the land in a foreclosure rather than a traditional sale.
That doesn’t matter, according to Schuster.
“[Extell’s] acquisition of this portfolio and the extraordinary financial windfall that resulted from it only happened based on Mr. Schuster’s introductions and his eight years of effort,” said his attorney, Matthew S. Blum. “There is a clear commission agreement underlying Mr. Schuster’s business relationship with Extell Development.”
Compass is not involved in the lawsuit. It has assigned the ability to pursue the commission to Schuster, meaning it will not take any payment or be liable for any expenses that Schuster incurs along the way.
Schuster’s $21 million demand is based on Extell’s ability to rezone a portion of the 11th Avenue parcel for residential use, which would make the site more valuable. However, rezonings must be approved by the City Council, which usually demands concessions and sometimes doesn’t rezone at all.
Read moreNew YorkCarlyle ditches plans, sells LIC site for $49MNew YorkThese developers build the most homes in NYCNew YorkJudge tells Fortis, bank to end leaning-tower disputeGans, whose West Side portfolio included the Scores nightclub, had sued Extell and Eli Tabak’s Bluestone Group last year, accusing them of conspiring to get his property on the cheap by buying its debt and foreclosing.
Extell recently sold the former nightclub to Hamptons developer Silvera Properties.
Any talks between Extell and Gans about a straightforward sale did not come to fruition. When the pandemic sapped Gans’ businesses of cash, he became vulnerable to the owner of the sizable debt that his properties secured.
The post Compass agent sues Extell for cut of windfall deal appeared first on The Real Deal.
Fort Worth’s recent growth is no secret.
The city added more people than any other major American metro last year, and it has a $2.3 billion development pipeline to boot. Amid all that growth, a toll road has become a nexus of new development, connecting downtown Fort Worth to the southern suburbs and filling in the space with housing on the way.
The Chisholm Trail Parkway runs 28 miles south from Fort Worth to Cleburne. While the idea for an alternate route out to the suburbs has been kicked around Fort Worth’s infrastructure circles for decades, work on the toll road began in 2008. It opened all at once in 2014.
Commuters in Dallas and Austin often gripe about traffic on Interstate 35, and as Fort Worth has grown, it has fallen victim to that congestion, too. The toll road was built to ease traffic on the highway, and largely runs parallel to I-35. The project cost $1.4 billion.
In return, the city has not just received a road. More than 3,200 multifamily units are in the pipeline along the upper part of Chisholm Trail Parkway, according to The Real Deal’s analysis of Berkadia data.
The largest project in the pipeline is Jefferson Primrose Station, a 401-unit development with apartments and single-family rental homes. Developed by JPI Multifamily, the project, at 7800 to 8000 Chisholm Trail Parkway, is already under construction and slated to wrap in July 2025.
Irving-based JPI has built more than 40,000 units in Dallas-Fort Worth. The firm is led by Payton Mayes, a Merrill Lynch and D.R. Horton alum. Elsewhere in Fort Worth, it is building Jefferson Ridgelea Village, another 400-unit residential project.
Other major projects include The Dylan II at 7424 Granbury Road, the next phase of ArchCo Residential’s urban-style residential project just off the toll road. The second phase will bring 375 garden apartments across 350,000 square feet. The project’s first phase is a Spanish Mission-style development with ground-floor retail below 227 apartments. It opened in 2020.
Five of the projects are already under construction, with another six in planning. They average 293 units. There is plenty of room for more. Multiple large tracts of land and development sites are up for sale in the area. While lending has ground to a halt on new multifamily projects in many Texas metros, these parcels figure to hold value as Fort Worth grows.
The projects reflect the road they’re being built along, incorporating elements of contemporary urban design, like storefronts and walkability, previewing a dense future for a solidly suburban neighborhood.
Read moreTexasWhen will Texas’ multifamily roller-coaster ride end?Texas“It’s just the start:” Fort Worth’s mayor promotes smart growthHoustonMultifamily distress: MF1 to foreclose on Rockstar Capital complex The post Chisholm Trail Parkway emerging as Fort Worth development nexus appeared first on The Real Deal.
Musician Jimmy Buffett’s easy-going music that exalted the Key West lifestyle led to him amassing a $1 billion net worth, according to Forbes.
And while his ascendency to wealth was atypical, his real estate holdings were a bit more conventional.
Buffett — who died Sept. 1 at 76 due to complications from a rare form of skin cancer — owned homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and another in Sag Harbor, New York. He also had an estate in St. Barts, according to Barrons.
Palm Beach, Florida
Buffett recorded some of the most iconic songs extolling the virtues of Key West, including “Margaritaville,” but Palm Beach was a part-time home for a long while.
The singer and business mogul, along with his wife, Janem sold their home at 309 Garden Road for $6.9 million to Warren B. and Allison Kanders, property records show.
The “Cheeseburger in Paradise” singer-songwriter put his house on the market in October for $7.6 million with Denise Hanley of Denise A. Hanley, Inc.
Buffett paid nearly $5 million for the three-bedroom, 4,783-square-foot home in 2011. The non-waterfront Palm Beach home, with a pool, was built in 2003.
It’s not the only home Buffett owned in Palm Beach. Buffett also lived at 540 South Ocean Boulevard, which, along with two other properties, was sold in 2014 by billionaire philanthropist Jon Stryker to companies tied to an English luxury home-building firm for $43 million.
Stryker purchased 540 South Ocean from Buffett and his wife Jane in 2010.
Sag Harbor, New York
Buffett owned a five-bedroom, six-bathroom, 5,300-square-foot home in Suffolk County, according to Trulia. It’s where he spent his final days, according to multiple sources.
Latitude Margaritaville Retirement Villages
These 55+ communities are inspired by Buffett’s music and lifestyle — namely food and escapism — in Florida. The cottages and homes start in the $300,000+ range, according to the website.
Margaritaville Hospitality
Buffett built much of his wealth on his business holdings, one of which was his Margaritaville hospitality company called Margaritaville Holdings LLC, which has locations in the U.S., Canada and Caribbean, including in South Florida. The hotel chain has dozens of locations nationwide.
In July it was announced that a Margaritaville-branded hotel could anchor a proposed waterfront mixed-use project in Riviera Beach’s Marina Village.
The project’s master developer, Atlanta-based APD Solutions, is partnering with singer-turned-hotelier Jimmy Buffett to add a five-story building with 150 rooms and an 875-space parking garage to anchor the proposed mixed-use site, which also entails 225,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
Vaughn Irons, APD’s CEO, unveiled his development team’s plan last month during a meeting of the Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns the sprawling 90-acre redevelopment site known as Marina Village. The partnership also includes Sonnenblick Development, based in Pacific Palisades, California.
The post Jimmy Buffett’s real estate legacy: luxury homes Margaritaville hospitality appeared first on The Real Deal.
The short-term rental landscape will change drastically in New York City tomorrow.
Beginning Tuesday, short-term rental hosts in New York City will be required to register their units, which will likely have a significant impact on platforms like Airbnb and potentially steer travelers toward hotels or New Jersey, the Washington Post reported.
The new regulation, known as Local Law 18, includes several rules that may prove inconvenient for travelers and hosts:
- Limit on Guests: Short-term rentals can accommodate no more than two paying guests at a time, regardless of the property’s size or the number of bedrooms.
- Host Presence: Hosts are required to be physically present while their properties are being rented.
- Unlocked Doors: Hosts and visitors must leave the interior doors within the rental unlocked, allowing occupants access to the entire unit.
The measure aims to curb illegal short-term rentals, enhance guest safety, and alleviate housing market pressures. However, it could drive travelers away from short-term rental platforms altogether, the restrictions effectively eliminate the appeal of staying in apartments, as it forces them to share space with strangers or opt for hotel rooms.
“Unless it is a really big unit, I think a lot of travelers will find it uncomfortable to stay in an apartment that fully complies with and abides by the city’s new regulations,” Sean Hennessey, a professor at New York University’s Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, told the outlet.
As of Aug. 28, the Office of Special Enforcement in New York City had received over 3,250 applications for short-term rental listings. They reviewed 808 submissions, granted 257 certificates, rejected 72, and returned 479 for further information or corrections, according to the Post.
The OSE also maintains a Prohibited Buildings List of units that can’t be rented short-term due to lease terms or rent regulations.
Penalties for hosts for violations of these regulations can range from $100 to $1,000 for the first offense, while guests will not face penalties for staying in an illegal property.
Airbnb sued to have the law gutted, claiming it was effectively a ban on short-term rentals; a judge dismissed the lawsuit in August.
The company has stated that listings without a registration number will be unable to accept new reservations once the law is activated. To minimize disruptions to existing bookings, Airbnb will honor reservations made before Tuesday for stays through Dec. 1, refunding the service fee. After Dec. 1, Airbnb will cancel and refund reservations at uncertified properties. The platform, along with hosts, are attempting to work with local officials to pass a less-restrictive version of the measure.
New York City’s tourism market is already experiencing high demand, with more than 63 million travelers expected in 2023, the outlet reported.
Airbnb alternatives are emerging to try and fill the short-term rental gap. Some of these alternatives, however, may face similar predicaments to the short-term rental giant.
San Francisco-based Sonder could provide one alternative. The company has units in the Financial District and elsewhere that aren’t covered by the short-term rental law. The company’s business model, however, is reliant on receiving business from other platforms, including Airbnb.
Additionally, Sonder has had some issues of its own. In the spring, the startup was warned that it had until mid-October to improve its share price or face delisting from Nasdaq. The company, which manages and leases rentals itself (unlike Airbnb), has experienced multiple rounds of layoffs in recent months.
Aapartment-style units at 70 Pine Street that are considered legal in New York City. Unfortunately for visitors, that’s the company’s only location in the city.
Kindred is a startup that charges residents to join a cohort of travelers and homesharers to host or swap homes without money changing hands directly. There are more than 1,000 residents registered in the New York metro area, co-founder Justine Palefsky told Crain’s.
Traditional hotels, of course, also stand to benefit from Airbnb’s tumult in the city. But even some luxury brands are willing to at least partially embrace a short-term rental model. The Ritz-Carlton in NoMad has 16 short-term rental units up for grabs for $9,000 a night.
— Ted Glanzer, Holden Walter-Warner
The post Airbnbust? NYC’s Short-term rental restrictions set to take effect appeared first on The Real Deal.
If you’ve ever wanted to live like a king or queen in a castle, now’s your chance.
The luxurious Chris Mark Castle, nestled at 580 Brickyard Road in Woodstock, Connecticut, has hit the market with a price tag of $26 million, a significant drop from its earlier listing price of $60 million in February 2022, CTInsider reported.
While $26 million isn’t exactly chump change, it’s the lowest price ever listed for the castle, the outlet reported citing data from Zillow.
Christopher Mark, the castle’s owner, had a dream of giving his daughters a taste of royal living.
He began constructing the castle in 2003, and it was completed in 2010. Mark’s vision was to create a fairy tale-like setting for his family.
The 18,800-square-foot castle has 20 rooms, including nine bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, and three half bathrooms. Its interior is adorned with imported European furniture, collected over three decades.
The castle overlooks 30-acre Potter Pond and is surrounded by a moat, evoking a medieval feel. The castle’s towers reach a regal height of 126 feet.
Although the current listing comprises 75 acres, down from the original 400, there is still an option to acquire additional land, which would affect the final price, according to Compass listing agent John Pizzi.
One of the castle’s quirks is its social media presence, with Christopher Mark and his daughters frequently dressing up as royalty on the castle’s TikTok account.
Christina Mark, the eldest daughter, revealed in a 2022 interview that her family’s Irish heritage played a role in the decision to build the castle, in addition to her wanting to live like royalty.
“My sister and I, when we were younger, we would dress up like princesses, and he just wanted our dream to come true,” Christina Mark told the outlet.
Castles do hit the market from time to time.
Last year, a tech and real estate finance entrepreneur paid $9.5 million for a Moorish-style castle on St. Croix that was built by a Bulgarian-born countess.
Yuri Farber, the husband of the late Countess Nadia de Navarro-Farber, sold the ivory domed castle and its 110-acre estate to John Alexander, who said he planned to turn it into a short-term rental or an events space.
In June, hotel mogul Robert Rivani sold his “castle” inspired by “Games of Thrones” and “Harry Potter” for $20 million.
The owner of Black Lion Investment Group, based in Pico-Robertson, has sold the 15,200-square-foot mansion at 9 Beverly Ridge Terrace in Los Angeles.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Connecticut castle lists for $26M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Labor Day is a holiday to celebrate workers and how their — our — efforts have contributed to making the U.S. the most prosperous country in the world.
Which makes it a perfect time to highlight the not-so-great contributions some workers, namely real estate agents, have made in sullying their, and the industry’s, reputations, not to mention exposing themselves to potential civil and criminal liability.
Here are instances where agents’ behaviors cost them their livelihoods.
Milk doesn’t do an agent goodOK, so this incident took place in Canada, so a superfluous “u” must be added to make it Labour Day, which apparently is also celebrated by our neighbours (you’re welcome) up north today.
In July 2022, Canadian real estate agent Mike Rose was thirsty before a home showing. So he grabbed a milk container out of the refrigerator, took a swig and put the container back.
A Ring camera caught the unsanitary act and Rose was ultimately fined the equivalent of about $15,000 USD — for actions “unbecoming” under the British Columbia Real Estate Services Act. He was also fined nearly $2,000 in enforcement expenses.
The incident made international news, and in the words of “Anchorman” Ron Burgundy: “Milk was a bad choice.”
Hiding instead of showingReal estate agents are masters of highlighting the best parts of homes during showings.
But Jill LeVere, an Ohio agent, had her license permanently revoked after admitting to lying to a commission about building a wall to hide part of her basement to avoid a higher tax bill, the Newark Advocate reported in 2014.
LeVere told the commission that her basement was not being rented out and did not have a kitchenette. An inspection did not turn up any evidence of a rental unit, which would have been in violation of her town’s ordinances, but further inspection revealed that she had a wall constructed to hide the rental unit.
Despite the outcome, LeVere appears to be back in business as an agent in Ohio, which allows people to reapply for their licenses after they’ve been revoked.
Coffee talkThe New Jersey Real Estate Commission in January revoked the license of the wife of the mayor of Morristown in the wake of a political scandal.
Mary Dougherty was banned from practicing real estate for one year for violating state law. While the charges brought against her in 2019 didn’t involve her real estate career, the commission decided to punish her to maintain public trust in licensees.
Prosecutors alleged Dougherty accepted $10,000 in cash in a coffee cup from attorney Matthew O’Donnell in September 2018, when she was running for Morris County freeholder. When she discovered the cash, she allegedly told the lawyer that she couldn’t take it, but could accept checks, which O’Donnell then allegedly provided under different names and entities.
Dougherty ultimately pleaded guilty to filing a false report to hide illegal campaign contributions and she was given one year of probation and forced to surrender the contribution.
She can reapply for her license after the ban, though she will be subject to a two-year probationary period, and her employer would have to notify the state commission of any potential violations.
At the time of the exchange with O’Donnell, Dougherty was an agent with Re/Max Select. Two years ago she joined Compass Real Estate.
Racist rantSelf awareness is a virtue, most of the time. But no credit goes to Scottsdale, Arizona, agent Paul Ng for admitting on a video taken by two Black men that he’s a racist and that his residence is a “no [n-word] zone.”
“I’m a racist,” Ng says on the video outside his condominium, according to the New York Post. “I’m a racist. So what’s the issue?”
Ng was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and fired from his job at Russ Lyon Sotheby’s Real Estate Agency. The agency also contacted the Arizona Department of Real Estate and recommended that Ng’s license be revoked.
Sex and the HamptonsIn 2021, agents Christopher Burnside and Aubri Peele decided to use a three-bedroom condo in the Hamptons for activities unrelated to its listing.
The owners filed a lawsuit alleging that rather than soliciting offers for the home, the agents used the guise of an open house to engage in a “sex-capade” in its primary bedroom.
When confronted, the lawsuit claims, Burnside confessed to using the bedroom for a sexual encounter and offered to continue the listing with zero commission and fulfill his fiduciary duties under the exclusive contract. He also allegedly offered to rent the condo personally to offset the defendants’ financial damages.
The lawsuit, which alleged that Burnside and Peele breached their contractual and fiduciary responsibilities in addition to inflicting emotional trauma on their clients, sought $100,000 in damages.
The lawsuit was ultimately settled with a confidentiality agreement.
The post Busted: When real estate agents broke bad appeared first on The Real Deal.
Name of a municipality of the future or the title of a Red Hot Chili Peppers track that wound up on the cutting room floor?
The ambitious plan to transform 55,000 acres of agricultural land on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay area into a modern utopian city has been officially named “California Forever,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Backed by Silicon Valley billionaires and spearheaded by the parent company, Flannery Associates, the first renderings of the Solano County development were unveiled through a website.
“This has, understandably, created interest, concern, and speculation. Now that we’re no longer limited by confidentiality, we are eager to begin a conversation about the future of Solano County,” the website says.
The initial designs depict a cityscape with Mediterranean-inspired architecture, characterized by white stucco buildings and red rooftops and hillside neighborhoods cascading down to what appears to be the banks of the Sacramento River.
The scenes include kayakers navigating through lily pads and anglers casting their lines along the riverbanks at sunrise, while other visuals showcase a city rising on a hill behind fertile farmland and urban scenes featuring pedestrians strolling along narrow streets with cafes and farm stands, solar panel installations, and commuters waiting for streetcars.
The website says the goal is to start a conversation about the eastern part of Solano County, promising the creation of a new community, job opportunities with competitive wages, solar farms, and open spaces.
Solano County, nestled between Sacramento, the Delta, San Francisco, and Napa Valley, is described as a region that encapsulates the diversity of California’s landscapes and its people. It is recognized for its agricultural and green energy industries, middle-class communities, and the presence of a major Air Force base.
The pitch for California Forever, whose five-year, stealth campaign was unveiled during a recent poll of residents 60 miles northeast of San Francisco, was swallowed by some of Silicon Valley’s richest residents including venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, Gabriel Metcalf (former CEO of SPUR), Marc Andreessen, Patrick and John Collison, Chris Dixon, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Reid Hoffman, Michael Moritz, and Laurene Powell Jobs.
They said on the website that they conducted surveys and interviews with 2,000 Solano County residents. The feedback, the group said, highlighted the need for more opportunities to purchase homes in safe, walkable communities, improved schools, public safety, and efforts to reduce homelessness.
While California Forever has a seemingly bottomless amount of financial resources, it faces strong opposition from a number of groups, who say, among other things, that the modern utopia would disrupt the county’s economy, primarily composed of farmland, which makes up 62 percent of Solano County.
Additionally, the project appears to conflict with Solano County’s Orderly Growth Measure, which mandates that urban development occur within city boundaries rather than in unincorporated areas. California Forever asserts its support for the Orderly Growth Measure but intends to seek voter approval for its development plans, asserting that it aligns with safeguarding Solano County from sprawl and disorderly growth in the long term.
— Ted Glanzer
The post California Forever: billionaire-backed utopian plans unveiled appeared first on The Real Deal.
A San Francisco couple trying to sell their $36 million home say they’re in a real pickle.
Holly Peterson and her venture capitalist husband, Karl Peterson, own a property near the Presidio Wall public pickleball courts, which, according to them, cause so much noise they prevent the couple from selling their home, The San Francisco Standard reported.
In response, Holly Peterson initiated a petition — which now has close to its goal of 100 signatures — aimed at subjecting the pickleball courts to an environmental assessment to evaluate their noise impact. The petition, which calls for an immediate halt to pickleball games at the courts and the implementation of an Environmental Impact Report, cites concerns about the noise affecting the local ecosystem and community prestige.
“The endless racket [from the pickleball games] threatens the fragile ecosystem and our community’s prestige,” the petition said, according to the outlet. “This isn’t just about us — it’s about preserving nature for future generations.”
Compass real estate agent Steve Mavromihalis, who has the listing, says the couple isn’t being sour over pickleball; they love the game.
But, Mavromihalis said, the continuous play at the 12 courts at Presidio Wall has made the situation untenable. They claim that local residents were never informed about the courts or the potential noise disturbances.
Co-petitioner Mary Tesluk is collaborating with city officials and Holly Peterson to find a reasonable solution that addresses the well-being of both residents and the Presidio’s wildlife.
A spokesperson from San Francisco Recreation and Parks mentioned that the city is actively working with Presidio Heights residents and pickleball players to resolve the issue, noting that neighborhood conflicts related to public recreation are not new.
Pickleball enthusiasts, however, argue for the importance of maintaining accessible outdoor activities for all residents, particularly those who don’t have a lot of money.
Jack Vincent, a regular player at the Presidio Wall courts, empathizes with the neighbors but points out that people who buy property near parks should reasonably expect to have noise emanating from them when they’re open.
Oh, and proximity pickleball courts, he says, likely increase property values.
Mary Hickey, an ambassador for USA Pickleball and a frequent visitor to the Presidio Wall courts, continued the back and forth, saying she hopes to facilitate a compromise with concerned residents. She suggested the installation of sound-reducing acoustic fences as a potential solution and aims to engage in discussions with neighbors and city officials about this idea.
A cross between tennis and ping pong, pickleball is played in quick games of 11 points. It is played on a smaller court with a shorter net, and people love it.
Between August 2021 and August 2022, 14 percent of Americans played pickleball at least once, amounting to 36.5 million picklers playing last year, according to the 2023 APP Pickleball Participation Report. The report found that 8.5 million of those players got pickling more than eight times in that time span. That’s up from an estimated 3.5 million players in 2019, before the sport shot to popularity during the pandemic.
It’s popping up everywhere. In the spring, Pickleball America signed a lease for more than 80,000 square feet at the Stamford Town Center, Houlihan Lawrence announced. The courts replaced a former two-story Saks Off 5th retail space, trading discount clothing for paddles and nets.
The downtown space at 140 Atlantic Street hosts one of the largest indoor pickleball venues in the world. There will be 28 courts. On the first floor, 43,000 square feet of space was converted almost immediately, and 37,000 square feet on the second floor opened several months later.
— Ted Glanzer
The post San Francisco mansion owners say pickleball noise is hindering sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
A sleek mansion on the Hudson River and its surrounding 10 acres that hit the market in 2021 is now offering a deep discount.
The 14,800-square-foot home at 46 Ledgerock Lane originally asked $45 million, but can now be had for $25 million, according to a press release.
Hyde Park mansion (Douglas Elliman, Getty)Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes, co-founders of Eklund|Gomes at Douglas Elliman are teaming up with John Oliveira and Stacey Pinkas, co-founders of the Oliveira Pinkas team at Douglas Elliman as the listing agents.
The home lives up to its street address name, sitting on a rocky outcropping in Hyde Park that extends into the river. Homes built today must be at least 100 feet from shore.
The rock ledge was home to three connected buildings when Monica and Jacob Frydman bought the property. They demolished those structures and built the house on the existing footprint.
The Army Corps of Engineers built a seawall and the house sits on bedrock and cement footers in the Hudson.
Hyde Park mansion (Douglas Elliman, Getty)The home was designed by architect Lee Ledbetter and sits at the end of a quarter-mile driveway. It includes large glass walls to maximize views of the river. Inside, amenities include a pool, theater, spa, two-story library and a gym.
Fossilized French limestone and African woods “warm up the house,” Karadus said.
There is also a saltwater pool out back, a sculpture garden and 5,000 square feet of decks. The grounds include a 2,500-square-foot guest house, a staff apartment and an 18-car garage.
Even with a significant discount, the sale would still easily outpace the Dutchess County record of $18.4 million, set in 2011 by a Millbrook estate.
— Ted Glanzer, Dennis Lynch
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The Swedish construction giant Skanska broke ground on Cincinnati’s first cross laminated timber project.
The planned 35,000-square-foot building will become the home of Cincinnati Public Radio when it is completed, Construction Dive reported. The $32 million project will be the first two-story mass timber in the entire Midwest, and the first of its kind in Cincy.
It will include office space, two interview studios, two on-air studios and a performance studio, according to the outlet.
Skanska will use cross laminated timber to build the column and beam structure, second floor, roof and some interior walls. Cross laminated timber, or mass timber, refers to a variety of engineered wood construction products that are widely considered much more environmentally friendly than traditional building materials.
Mass timber projects reduce embodied carbon in buildings because they don’t rely on carbon-intensive products like steel and concrete, and the wood itself acts as a carbon sink, sequestering emissions that could otherwise be released into the atmosphere.
While markets in Europe and Canada have been quick to embrace mass timber, the U.S. has been slow to catch onto this green building tech. Building codes that limit the size and scope of timber-based projects are a significant hurdle, according to experts. Mass timber projects are growing in popularity in markets across the country, as the industry grapples with climate regulation.
Last month, California became the first state to codify limits on embodied carbon, adding restrictions to commercial developments over 100,000 square feet and school projects over 50,000 square feet.
— Kate Hinsche
Read moreNationalHigh hopes for timber: Wood towers gain favor in USNew YorkCity approves mass timber, basement apartment rulesLos AngelesOffices built with cross-laminated timber coming to ChinatownThe post Skanska kicks off construction of Cincinnati’s first CLT building appeared first on The Real Deal.
Luxury real estate markets have seen a number of home sales above $100 million, but Aspen, Colorado, — surprisingly — has yet to join the nine-figure club.
But that may change with an estate at 41 Popcorn Lake, 100 and 102 Difficult Lane that listed for $105 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The 8.4-acre property is located about 4 miles from downtown Aspen and is being sold by a limited liability company linked to Florida car-dealership owner Terry Taylor, who acquired it for $32 million in 2020.
Mandy Welgos and Craig Morris of Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing.
The property includes an 18,400-square-foot main house and multiple structures connected by a footbridge spanning the Roaring Fork River, the outlet said.
The main house, built around 2014, boasts mountain and river views and has undergone recent remodeling to create a brighter, more contemporary interior.
The property can also be purchased as separate parcels: $72 million for the parcel with the main home and $33 million for the parcel with the guesthouse and caretaker’s house.
Despite a recent slowdown in luxury real estate across the country, Aspen’s trophy homes remain in high demand due to an inventory shortage. In the past month alone, 15 Aspen properties priced over $10 million have gone under contract, according to the WSJ.
Welgos told the Journal the Aspen market is on the cusp of a $100-million sale. While the property, if sold, would set a record, earlier attempts to surpass the $100-million threshold in Aspen have fallen short, the outlet said.
Detroit manufacturing entrepreneur Joel Tauber and his family sold an Aspen home earlier this year to an unknown buyer for $65 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
That’s a hefty price, but well below the $100 million for which the 10-bedroom, 11-bathroom mansion listed. And while it didn’t set an Aspen record (that belongs to former pro hockey player Patrick Dovigi’s purchase of a home for $72.5 million in 2021), the sale did set a record for downtown Aspen, according to the Journal.
Nine-figure deals have gotten done elsewhere recently. Adrienne Arsht sold her waterfront Coconut Grove estate for $106.9 million in the fall of 2022, marking a record in Miami-Dade County.
And earlier this summer, Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich was purchased by an anonymous buyer for $138.8 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The seller — a limited liability company connected to hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio — spent $120 million to buy the waterfront estate in 2014, a record for the state at the time.
— Ted Glanzer
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A woman who spent a quarter of a century as an employee of a real estate firm in California stands accused of embezzling more than $1 million from the company.
Last week, 53-year-old Julie Blease was arrested on suspicion of the seven-figure defrauding of the owner of a Del Mar apartment complex, NBC San Diego reported. A 56-year-old, Colin Miller, was also arrested in the case; the two are siblings, according to Sgt. Marcello Orsini.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department launched an investigation after the company reported the alleged theft in late 2021. The victim of the alleged crime was the Beach Colony Apartments on Camino Del Mar, according to The Coast News. It’s run by the Douglas Allred Company.
Blease, a property manager, allegedly began funneling money from Beach Colony as early as 2007. She allegedly funneled the money to both herself and Miller, accused of covering up the misdeed by manipulating company accounting records. The money allegedly stemmed from residents’ rent checks; monthly rents at the 86-unit complex range from $2,621 to $4,463, according to Apartments.com.
Read moreNationalCT real estate investor faces lengthy prison sentence for fraudNationalWoman sentenced after defrauding realty employerDallasDallas real estate fraudster’s father responds to accusationsThe sheriff department’s fraud unit spent two years investigating the case prior to making the arrests. The department suspects the total volume of the alleged embezzlement to greatly exceed the $1 million already confirmed to have been redirected.
Both suspects were arrested and held on $500,000 bail.
Blease is facing five felony charges, including embezzlement, identity theft, forgery and money laundering. Miller is also facing five felony charges, including grand theft, identity theft, forgery and money laundering. Both suspects also had a white-collar crime enhancement tacked on to their charges, which increases penalties in a felony fraud case in the state of California.
Blease and Miller each face up to 22 years in prison if convicted, plus another five years due to the enhancement.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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Two housing authority officials from a Pennsylvania town are facing federal charges of bribery and fraud for allegedly taking more than $75,000 in bribes from a contractor, and bilking the housing authority of more than half a million dollars in a separate scheme.
Norman D. Wise, 57, from Mullica Hill, N.J.; Douglas E. Daniel, 65, from Philadelphia, and Leonard F. Coleman, 53, from Paulsboro, N.J., were charged in the matter relating to the Chester Housing Authority, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release.
The first scheme involved an arrangement where Coleman allegedly paid off Wise and Daniel in exchange for securing contracting work from the CHA. Coleman’s company.
Wise, who was the director of public housing for CHA, and Daniel, who was the housing program manager and Wise’s chief assistant, inflated invoices submitted by Coleman’s company to extract more money from the CHA. The excess payment was then channeled back to Wise and Daniel in the form of bribes.
Over the course of the scheme, Coleman allegedly paid around $76,400 in bribes to Wise and Daniel, while his company received approximately $2.5 million in revenue from the CHA.
The second scheme, distinct from the first, involved Wise and Daniel’s creation of a contracting company named Trinity Management Group. The two reportedly used TMG to submit fraudulent invoices to the CHA for services that were either carried out by CHA employees during regular working hours, other contractors already paid by CHA, or not conducted at all.
The fraudulent invoices covered a range of services including landscaping, painting, window replacements, and construction work at CHA facilities. These fabricated billings led to a purported loss of roughly $545,000 for the CHA.
“The agency is of course gravely disappointed to have been victimized by trusted personnel,” Steven A. Fischer, the authority’s executive director, said in an emailed statement to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “This will not cause the CHA to waiver from its mission of providing affordable housing. The recovery from this misfortune is well underway as we await the legal outcome of the individuals involved.”
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Flying high above Shelter Island, Nest Seekers’ James Giugliano scoped out a 1.1 acre lot on Nostrand Parkway from the window of a Caravan Amphibian seaplane.
On the parcel below stands a three-bedroom colonial house, priced at just below $6 million, with views overlooking the Shelter Island Sound.
With him on the eight-seater aircraft were Hamptons developers Peter Callos and Jeff Allen; the three were on a bird’s eye scouting mission for potential redevelopment sites on the island.
“For a while, we’ve talked about developing on the water in Shelter because we think it’s undervalued,” Giugliano said. He added that while he often takes clients on boats to view waterfront properties, “this was the first time I’ve shown properties from the air.”
The broker and builders — joined by Allen’s daughter, Callos’ wife and Giugliano’s dad — took off from the shallows of the sound, while back on shore, Nest Seekers hosted its end-of-summer Sunset Soiree.
Over 300 guests gathered on the lawn of The Pridwin Hotel & Cottages on Friday to celebrate what Nest Seekers’ Bianca D’Alessio claims has been a “banner year” so far for the brokerage, including the launch of its Nest Yacht and Nest Jets divisions.
“The best place to celebrate Labor Day is in the Hamptons,” D’Alessio said.
While a DJ spun upbeat house tunes, partygoers sipped on the evening’s signature cocktail — a deep-pink blend of tequila, mezcal, fresh watermelon juice, hibiscus and lime — dubbed “double trouble.”
Among the guests was Nest Seekers’ CEO Eddie Shapiro and his wife, Lauren. As the sun sank toward the horizon, the firm’s top brokers in the U.S. and Europe mingled with developers, clients and brokers from other firms.
Bianca D’Alessio with the seaplane in the background“No one throws a party like Nest Seekers,” D’Alessio said.
Agents traveled from across the globe to attend the event: The broker-sister duo Brittany and Megan Alexander came up from Saratoga Springs, and Nuno Franco, the manager of the company’s Portugal office, made the trek across the pond.
Though the party had all the usual trappings of a Hamptons evening — it came with one notable exception: the option to go airborne.
Nest Seekers’ Sunseeker yacht and Intrepid boats shepherded guests, including the firm’s developer clients, to a seaplane for a tour of properties on Shelter Island and in Sag Harbor.
“There’s no better place to check out Hamptons real estate than from the window of a seaplane,” D’Alessio said and added, “especially at sunset.”
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Last year, CoStar’s online auction arm Ten-X launched its first “Battle of the Bids,” a fantasy-football-style contest where players make educated guesses on what commercial properties will sell for at a Ten-X auction. They can win $1 million — plus $100,000 for the charity of their choice — if they guess the closest to the real sales prices over eight rounds.
There was just one problem, according to Ten-X President Steven Jacobs. A lot of the agents and owners thought the contest was too good to be true.
The winners on most game shows only walk away with a few-thousand dollars, he said. That the auction platform was giving away $100,000 to the winner of each round of play plus the $1 million grand prize was hard for many agents to believe.
But that all changed when people started winning.
“We saw an incredible growth of players from round to round,” he said. “This guy just won $100,000. This woman just won $100,000. They saw that it was real.”
The second “season” of Battle of the Bids will kick off on Sept. 8 and this year registrations are “through the roof,” Jacobs said. As of the end of August, there were 5,800 people registered for round one, a 170 percent increase over round one last year.
The game this year will be very similar to last year: players will still pick 10 properties to place their bets on before each round of auctions begins. Points are awarded depending how close they get to the sales price — down to the dollar — when the building sells a few days later. If they bet on a property that doesn’t trade, they get no points for that pick. They can also reprice two bets in each round as the bidding is coming to a close.
One player who will definitely be back is last year’s grand prize winner Mike King, a Seattle-based VP at Kidder-Mathews who specializes in net lease investments.
He admitted that he also had his doubts when he first started playing last year, putting only a few minutes into preparing for the first round. But when he finished in the top 10 in that round, he realized he had to get serious, spending a “substantial amount of time” researching the properties in each round of bidding.
He bet mostly on what he knows best, retail and shopping centers, and ended up getting into the top 10 in rounds one, three and seven. He won first place in the eighth round, which gave him enough points to win the overall game.
“It was kind of a little surreal,” he said. “They said, ‘Congratulations, you won round eight!’ I kind of knew that and I was pretty sure I had won the whole thing. And they go, ‘We’ll let you know in the next two weeks if you won the whole thing.’ … [T]hey called back an hour later and said congrats on the whole thing.”
King said he and his wife had a little bit of fun with their winnings — taking their extended family to Disneyland—and invested the bulk of the proceeds in an industrial property in Alaska. He chose Big Brothers, Big Sisters, where he has been a Big Brother for 15 years, as his charity.
He plans to choose the nonprofit again if he wins this year, he said. He said he’s going into the contest with a “target on my back for sure.”
“I’ve had people call for advice and I’m like, I’m playing too. I can’t give away all the secrets,” he said.
Learning from Last Year Jacobs said they took feedback from last year’s players and from within CoStar when planning this year’s event and made a few tweaks.
There was a consensus that the event went on too long, so it will shrink from eight rounds to six. There will also be a runner-up mystery prize that will be worth $100,000 because Jacobs said he felt bad that the second-place winner came away with nothing last year, especially when the contest was “neck and neck.”
The runner up prizes in all the rounds have also been increased.
To build excitement, a professional film crew will do a livestream of the event from the Ten-X offices that Jacobs said he hoped would feel like the announcers at a horse race giving live updates and commentary to the betters. Senior VP Todd Gladis, who once voiced the Atlanta version of Moviefone and hosted sports radio shows in his college days, will be the emcee.
Another big shift is that this time the event will be open even to CRE brokers who are not already in “the Co-star ecosystem,” Jacobs said, as long as they have transacted on a commercial real estate deal in the last three years.
“Mid-season one I said, ‘I think we made a little bit of a mistake here. Every deal we do has a broker and brokers are our partners. We should open this up to all commercial brokers,’” he said. “We want to build our business—that’s part of the branding, we want them to get in to understand the platform—and there’s no better way to get the brokers in.”
Even if the new players don’t turn into new subscribers, Jacobs said the event will be worth it if it can help remove some of the stigma around the types of properties that sell at auction.
“The whole thing about auctions being for distressed properties is just not true,” he said. “Another thing that’s great about this game is that they get to come in and see that 90% of our business is not distressed.”
The publicity is clearly worth millions to CoStar. Jacobs would not say the total amount spent on the event, but said there’s $3 million in total prizes and “several million” spent on marketing and operations costs, including a mini-movie ad that plays into this year’s “Top Gun”-ish theme. It’s costing the company less overall than it would spend on a traditional marketing campaign to greater results, he said.
“We hope that it becomes our annual branding campaign,” he said.
Read moreNew YorkCoStar buying Ten-X for $190MNationalCoStar comes knocking at Zillow’s doorNew YorkEXCLUSIVE: CoStar’s Andy Florance on buying Ten-X, the future of office buildings and why brokers don’t need discountsThe post CoStar’s “Battle of the Bids” giving away $3 million in CRE version of fantasy football appeared first on The Real Deal.
London has a Stairway to Nowhere and, possibly, a skyscraper with nobody in it.
HSBC Tower in London’s Canary Wharf is losing its eponymous tenant — and its 8,000 employees — downsizing its space to roughly half its current size, Bloomberg reported.
The move signals a broader trend affecting commercial real estate as companies reassess their office needs in the wake of the pandemic.
The 45-story HSBC Tower could soon become a towering conundrum, embodying the challenges faced by cities worldwide as corporations adopt hybrid work models.
The outlook for buildings like the HSBC Tower has grown so bleak that some investors are acquiring these vacant behemoths with the intention of demolishing them, with the land’s value surpassing the structures. The empty plots could then be repurposed for much-needed high-rise housing, a transformative solution in urban centers grappling with housing shortages.
While demolition is a tempting route, success stories of repurposing offer alternatives. Examples include the Parker Tower, a Covent Garden office block converted into homes after extensive renovation, and Leon House in Croydon, transformed from a Brutalist office building into residential units.
However, not every office-to-residential conversion is feasible. Key factors include the building’s layout and design.
“It would be incredibly challenging to convert,” Ben Clifford, an associate professor at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, told the outlet. “The scale makes it more difficult: not necessarily the height. There are some very tall residential buildings. … [W]hat will you do with the middle?”
Façades also present hurdles, as all-glass exteriors can lead to overheating. Solutions involve adding solid mass and reimagining ventilation systems.
Location plays a pivotal role in the conversion process. Successful conversions are more likely in city centers with mixed-use spaces, which isn’t the case for the HSBC Tower, primarily situated among offices in a borough with declining housing prices.
Alternative options are being considered. Transforming the tower into laboratory space aligns with Canary Wharf’s vision of a life-sciences hub. A mixed-use layout incorporating residential, lab, hotel, and office space is another possibility, albeit on a smaller scale.
Architects and developers are exploring creative ways to repurpose the HSBC Tower. Large, loft-like apartments with unique design elements could be achieved by adapting the tower’s high ceilings and expansive windows. Lightwells and atriums might address the challenge of deep floor plates, although they could prove costly.
In a post-pandemic era, commercial real estate faces unprecedented shifts, forcing stakeholders to reimagine the future of towering landmarks like the HSBC Tower.
— Ted Glanzer
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Tourism has been a mixed bag since the height of the pandemic, but Oklahoma City has seen record numbers of visitors, with an expected increase with two new attractions.
The Chickasaw Nation, a partner in the First Americans Museum and the development of the forthcoming $400 million OKANA resort, is embarking on a campaign to promote the newly designated Horizons District in Oklahoma City, the Oklahoman reported.
Covering 180 acres along the Oklahoma River between Eastern Avenue and Interstate 35, the district is set to highlight the two tourism landmarks, according to the outlet.
“We believe it is important to focus attention on what these two new tourism destinations bring to Oklahoma City,” Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby told the outlet. “We expect this marketing collaboration to augment the already significant economic impact of the various hospitality and entertainment venues along the Oklahoma River.”
The First Americans Museum, a 175,000-square-foot space showcasing the history of Oklahoma’s 39 tribal nations, opened in 2021.
OKANA, scheduled to open in early 2025, will include a riverfront hotel, spa, outdoor adventure lagoon, amphitheater, indoor waterpark, restaurants, retail spaces, a Family Entertainment Center, and a conference center.
The Horizons District, with FAM and OKANA as anchor attractions, seeks to foster additional business, cultural development, and entertainment options in the area. Anoatubby envisions the district as a hub for cultural tourism and First American art, attracting visitors and tourists to central Oklahoma.
Construction is underway for the OKANA resort, with the 11-story, 400-room hotel on schedule, conference center and indoor waterpark construction progressing, and excavation work for the adventure lagoon in progress, the outlet said.
A pedestrian bridge and boat landing are set to connect trails through the Horizons District, enhancing connectivity and accessibility.
Design firm PGAV Destinations is looking into building an aquarium in the district.
James Pepper Henry, FAM Executive Director, anticipates the museum’s growth into a premier visitor destination with the addition of OKANA. Since its opening, FAM has already welcomed around 200,000 visitors from across the globe.
The Horizons District’s development aligns with a recent report by Visit OKC President Zac Craig, indicating a strong recovery in tourism post-COVID-19, with an increase in visitors to Oklahoma City.
— Ted Glanzer
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An Atlanta developer is revising its ambitious plans for a multiblock redevelopment project along Ponce de Leon Avenue, a popular area near the Beltline.
Portman Holdings’ project, known as Ponce & Ponce, was set to replace a row of well-loved bars and nightlife establishments with a mix of new office, retail, and apartment buildings, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
But due to financial challenges, Portman is scaling back the project’s scope. The company has decided against purchasing three properties on the project’s perimeter, allowing existing businesses to continue operating for a longer duration than initially anticipated. The decision was prompted by tight investment and lending conditions due to high interest rates and construction costs, according to the outlet.
Overview of the three parcels that are being subtracted from Portman’s redevelopment plans along Ponce (Portman Holdings, Google Maps)Mike Greene, Portman’s vice president of development, noted the constraints of the investment and lending market, noting the adverse effects of prolonged high interest rates and construction expenses on projects in the planning stages.
“The general feeling — I’m sorry to say — is that we’re kind of at the beginning,” Greene told the outlet. “The financing market is crunched right now.”
The development, originally intended to transform dive bars and nightclubs into upscale buildings with apartments, retail space, and offices, is being reshaped.
Proposed office projects are facing significant financing challenges in the current high-interest-rate environment. A substantial amount of available office space in the Atlanta metro area, driven by low occupancy and remote work trends, further complicates the situation.
Portman’s altered plans exclude several properties on Ponce de Leon Avenue, sparing venues like the Local bar and VESTA Fitboxing gym. Additionally, the revised timeline for the project allows existing businesses more time, as the developer doesn’t anticipate breaking ground for at least two years.
Greene said Portman will redesign Ponce & Ponce as a two-building project with a focus on residential spaces, possibly reducing or eliminating office spaces.
Development has been a big topic in Atlanta recently.
German real estate behemoth Newport RE has announced a deal to sell its South Downtown portfolio, with over 50 buildings and several acres of parking lots across approximately 10 blocks of downtown Atlanta.
The buyer, Braden Fellman Group, is a well-known Atlanta developer with a reputation for revitalizing industrial properties, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
The sale is a significant development for one of the city’s largest adaptive reuse projects, which Newport had undertaken before the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the commercial real estate market.
— Ted Glanzer
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Evidently, Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik became so accustomed to the icy conditions in his home arena that he decided to translate it into a home purchase.
Vinik and his wife, Penny, purchased a home in Aspen, Colorado for $63.8 million in an off-market deal this month, the Wall Street Journal reported. The sellers were Texas oil heiress Christy Thompson and her husband, Stephen Hill, who purchased the home for $51 million last year.
Accounting solely for the 15,000-square-foot main home, the purchase breaks down to $4,250 per square foot. It’s a lofty price to pay for a property the Viniks plan to use as a vacation home, keeping their primary residence in Tampa.
The property spans nearly six acres, which a vacant lot takes up more than half. Features of the home include glass elevators where riders can see the mountain views, a Golden Age-style movie theater and a system that pumps oxygen into the main bedroom to mitigate the state’s pronounced altitude.
Aspen Luxury Sales’ Lance Hughes and Nancy Patton held the listing.
Vinik was a successful hedge fund manager prior to taking ownership of the Lightning. He has also played a significant role in the redevelopment of downtown Tampa. Vinik, who is also a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox, purchased the hockey team in 2010 for $170 million.
Read moreNationalAspen home sells for $65M, well below $100M askSouth FloridaTampa hockey team owner emerges as leading developerNew YorkMansion hopping in Aspen, ColoradoDuring his decade-plus tenure as the Lightning’s owner, Tampa Bay has won two Stanley Cup titles. In 2022, however, the team’s quest for three consecutive championships ended in the finals at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche, who will have a rival owner living in its midst going forward.
Thompson is the daughter of late Texas oil executive J. Cleo Thompson. She and her husband are real estate investors who sold another mansion in Aspen last year for $60 million.
In proximity to some of the country’s most famous skiing slopes, house hunters in Aspen are forced to contend with high demand and low inventory, sending prices skyrocketing up the ski lifts. In another off-market deal this month, a two-floor condo downtown sold for $48 million. Another home in Aspen sold for $65 million in the spring, somehow $35 million below what was being asked.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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An overlooked enclave in Philadelphia is experiencing a revival thanks to a new boom in housing planning and construction.
More than 1,600 housing units have either been proposed, under construction, or completed north of East Lehigh Avenue, adjacent to a historic railway embankment that has long stood as a physical and social divide between neighboring communities, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The once-neglected railbed was characterized by junkyards, tire shops, and homeless encampments.
However, the space between Emerald Street and Aramingo Avenue, Lehigh and Somerset Street, has undergone a striking transformation with the the emergence of at least seven residential projects at varying stages of development.
“These projects are taking what was formerly pretty heavily industrial areas, and in some cases land that had been vacant for many, many decades, and bringing it back into active use,” said Andrew Ortega, president of the East Kensington Neighbors Association.
Despite challenges like proximity to drug markets and a history of tire fires, the area boasts convenient access to amenities. It lies near the I-95 highway and SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line, while also being within walking or biking distance of trendy bars and restaurants.
Leading the development thrust around the rail lines is the Riverwards Group, with projects like Kensington Courts at 2037 E. Lehigh Ave, Somerset Station at 2200 E. Somerset Street, and the disputed 2750R Aramingo Ave. Together, these initiatives contribute to “naturally occurring affordable housing” due to their ability to offer large-scale projects at a lower price point compared to those around Center City. However, critics argue that the resulting units remain unaffordable for many existing residents in the low-income neighborhoods north and west of the rail hub.
The development boom in this area has been catalyzed by the availability of sizable tracts of land at affordable prices, making large-scale projects economically viable. Despite challenges posed by rising interest rates and material costs, developers like Mohamed “Mo” Rushdy, managing partner of the Riverwards Group, have reshaped this industrial wasteland into a burgeoning residential zone. Still, discussions continue around the need for more inclusive affordable housing solutions, particularly in communities with lower average incomes.
“What drew us to the area is that we are able to get land in a large quantity and density,” Rushdy told the outlet. “[That allows us] to target the middle person who is making $50,000 to $80,000 a year in terms of household income.”
Apart from its residential impact, this revival is expected to influence the Lehigh Avenue corridor by enhancing safety measures and potentially redirecting traffic to public transit options.
The surge in residential demand comes at a time when office vacancies in the city have spiked.
Office occupancy in Greater Philadelphia has contracted by nearly 10 million square feet since 2019, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, citing data from CBRE. Hybrid work models and remote work have cut significantly into the market.
“The downtown market is beat up right now pretty good,” Nick Gersbach, senior vice president in CBRE’s Philadelphia office, told the Inquirer. “I’ve been here 23 years in this market, and I haven’t seen it contract at this pace before … We’re a three- to five-year window from stabilizing and experiencing a slow recovery. … People are not going back into offices.”
— Ted Glanzer
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New York may have Pizza Rat and David Letterman’s constant barrage of jokes about the city’s infamous vermin, but The Big Apple has nothing, apparently, on Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C., among others.
Atlanta earned the dubious distinction of having the highest combined rat and cockroach sightings — 166 per 100,000 residents — over the course of 2021, according to a study by Doctor Sniffs, a New York-based pest inspection company.
First, some caveats about the study, which used 2021 census data and focused solely on rats and cockroaches: some cities have easier methods to report vermin than others (New York residents, for example, can call 311); there are other notable pests, such as bed bugs, which were not part of the study; and a city’s size and housing density could skew the results as well. For example, while New York had the highest number of rat sightings (1,226) and cockroach sightings (1,165), it barely cracked the top 10 per capita at 27.2 per 100,000 residents.
Miami (141/100,000), Washington, D.C. (84/100,000), Boston (73); Riverside, California (71); Houston (50), Dallas (46), Philadelphia (44) and San Francisco (28), in addition to Atlanta, ranked ahead of New York City.
Interestingly, New York was the only major city where cockroach and rat sightings were relatively even. Atlanta and Houston had far more cockroach sightings (712 and 957, respectively) than rats (115, 202, respectively), while Washington, D.C., and Boston skewed the other way, with more rats (348 and 418, respectively) than cockroaches (228 and 74, respectively) spotted.
Northern cities tended to have more rat sightings compared to southern cities, which typically had more cockroaches.
All of which isn’t to say that New York City is going to lose its title of Pest Capital of America any time soon.
Indeed, even the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, struggles with his share of pestilence. Adams was fined last year for a rat infestation at one of his rental properties, and he announced the creation of a new position — the director of rodent mitigation — to exterminate plenty of rats.
The post These US cities have the highest pest sightings per capita appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Sheraton Gunter Hotel in downtown San Antonio is poised for a major overhaul.
Los Angeles-based Evolution Hospitality, led by president William Loughran, plans a $30 million renovation of the historic hotel at 205 East Houston Street, removing the word “Sheraton” as part of the rebranding, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. The project is expected to start in early 2024 and be completed by November of next year.
With the renovation, Evolution hopes to join the Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio, a line of boutique hotels that includes the Austin Southpark Hotel and the Tremont House in Galveston. Being part of this exclusive brand would give the firm more flexibility with its design strategy, while connecting with the city on a deeper level, said Ryan McCarthy, Evolution’s vice president of operations.
The company plans to overhaul all of the guest rooms, the lobby, common areas and the exterior, using historic tax credits to help fund the project. The fitness center will be doubled in size, and a Top Golf simulator will be installed next to Bar 414. After the renovation, the room count will be reduced from 322 to 314.
“The areas that need (renovations) the most right now in the hotel are the guest rooms, but we certainly didn’t stop there on the overall scope of this work,” McCarthy, told the outlet. “We really want this to be a full transformation.”
The revamped hotel will include features that highlight the Gunter’s rich musical history, as legendary blues musicians Robert Johnson recorded at the hotel, built in 1909. John Mellencamp recorded part of an album there in 2010. The developer is considering installing a recording studio for musicians and podcasters.
Large-scale hotel projects have started to proliferate in downtown San Antonio this year, following a tough-stretch for the city’s lodging industry after the pandemic.
IHG Hotels & Resorts and Scarlett Hotel Group are planning a $158 million transformation of the shuttered Wyndham hotel at 111 East Pecan Street, a few blocks from the Gunter. And Blueprint Hospitality plans to spend $55 million to convert the old CPS Energy headquarters at 145 Navarro Street into a 243-room hotel called El Portal.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasScarlett, IHG plan $158M overhaul of San Antonio River Walk hotel TexasBlueprint plans $55M hotel on San Antonio River WalkTexasHarris Bay plans $19 million Riverwalk hotelThe post Evolution plans $30M renovation of historic Gunter Hotel appeared first on The Real Deal.
California Capital & Investment Group has closed its deal to buy a 15-story office tower in Downtown Concord for $40.5 million.
The Pleasant Hill-based investment firm led by Phil Tagami and Leonard Epstein bought the 369,000-square-foot One Concord Center at 2300 Clayton Road, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The seller was Utah-based Bridge Investment Group.
The July sale was previously reported by the San Francisco Business Times, but without a price. The newly revealed price tag comes out to $110 per square foot.
Bridge bought the office building in 2017 for $70.5 million, or $196 per square foot. It then sank $20 million into revamping its offices, according to a marketing brochure obtained by the Business Times. The sale represents a 42.6 percent loss on its investment.
The office building, among the tallest in Concord, is two blocks from the city’s BART station and has a deli, plus locker rooms and showers. It was “the focus” of Downtown Concord redevelopment when it broke ground in 1985, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Now it’s a casualty of a rough-and-tumble office market during the era of remote work. The office vacancy rate in the East Bay city in the first quarter was 17.4 percent, with little demand for office leases.
“Office building prices are at the bottom and they are going to stay that way for a couple of years,” Jeffrey Weil, an executive vice president with Colliers, told the Mercury News.
The $40.5 million paid by California Capital includes a core price of $38.2 million plus an assumption by the buyer of between $2 million and $3 million in liabilities and debts. The firm received a discount because it assumed certain liabilities, according to Epstein, its chief investment officer.
At the time of sale, the buyer landed a $35.5 million loan from Delphi CRE Funding, managed by Acore Capital, based in Larkspur. The building is 54 percent leased.
“We feel it’s an opportunistic time to buy office properties based on current market conditions,” Epstein told the Mercury News. “We will renovate it as needed and will lease it up.”
California Capital has spent three decades redeveloping properties in Downtown Oakland. It’s also managing multiple funds for investors who seek commercial real estate opportunities in Contra Costa County, according to Epstein.
A year ago, it spent more than $90 million on a pair of office properties in Contra Costa County.
They include The Terraces, a 134,000-square-foot building in Pleasant Hill, where the formerly Oakland-based firm moved its headquarters. The purchase also includes the Walnut Creek Executive Park, a 27-acre office campus in nearby Walnut Creek, which the city and California Capital view as ripe for redevelopment.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoCalifornia Capital picks up 369K sf office building in ConcordSan FranciscoJamestown exploring urban farm in empty Concord office buildingSan FranciscoAffordable housing conversion motivates Concord multifamily deals The post Bridge Investment sells Concord office building at 43% loss appeared first on The Real Deal.
Chicago’s Trump International Hotel & Tower has lost again.
The property in Chicago has been dealt another setback as an Illinois appellate court upheld a previous ruling, stating that the property’s insurers are not obligated to defend against a state lawsuit concerning alleged pollution in the Chicago River, Crain’s reported.
The legal battle began in 2018 when the state of Illinois filed a lawsuit against Trump International, claiming that the building’s water-intake system was emitting pollutants into the river without a permit.
In 2021, Continental Casualty, a subsidiary of CNA Financial, filed a lawsuit, alleging that Trump’s insurance policy did not cover the violations mentioned in the state’s complaint. ACE American Insurance, Illinois Union Insurance and QBE Insurance later sued the company for similar reasons. Pollution exclusions were part of these insurance policies, the outlet reported.
“All of the insurance policies provided coverage for ‘property damage’ which was caused by an ‘occurrence’ during the policy period,” the recent ruling says. “An ‘occurrence’ was defined under each policy as ‘an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions.’”
In September 2022, a trial court determined there was no “occurrence” as defined by the policies.
This ruling follows a series of lawsuits against the Trump International property. In July, the environmental groups Sierra Club and Friends of the Chicago River revealed their plans to sue the Trump Organization for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act. It would be the groups’ second lawsuit filed against the company in five years.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoTrump International Hotel & Tower Chicago sparks environmental lawsuit, again ChicagoTrump gets $1M tax refund on Chicago towerChicagoChicago’s Trump Tower included in NY AG lawsuitThe post Insurers win legal battle against Trump Tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
As the Houston Astros fight to secure a playoff spot, third baseman Alex Bregman is looking to sell his luxury penthouse.
Bregman’s 3,900-square-foot home in the Giorgetti Building, at 2710 Steel Street, has been listed for $3.3 million, Realtor.com reported. That’s roughly $853 per square foot.
Situated in Houston’s River Oaks neighborhood, the condo has three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and a study. A turf-covered balcony runs the length of the penthouse and includes a large grilling area. The main bedroom has a private balcony, and the kitchen features Italian quartz countertops.
Amenities in the seven-story building, constructed in 2018, include a fitness center, dog spa, conference room, lounge area and hot and cold pools. The offering also includes a three-car garage and storage space.
The condo was appraised for tax purposes at over $3.1 million this year. The tax bill for Bregman and wife, Reagan, was over $15,000, according to the Harris County Appraisal District.
A River Oaks condo was one of the most-expensive homes sold in Houston in June, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. In a 2018 building called the River Oaks, at 3433 Westheimer Road, the home — on the second floor of the 18-story building — was listed at nearly $4.2 million, although the sale price wasn’t disclosed. The price for that 4,200-square-foot home came out to about $989 per square foot.
Last year, a 9,500-square-foot penthouse sold in the 28-story Astoria Highrise on Post Oak Boulevard, marking one of Houston’s priciest deals of 2022. The official closing price was not publicly revealed, but the condo was last listed just shy of $7 million, or about $737 per square foot.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasHouston penthouse is city’s second-most expensive home sale this yearHoustonDC Partners’ $290 million condo-hotel combo nears completionAustinFour Seasons condo hits the market at $6.8MThe post Astros third-baseman Alex Bregman lists River Oaks penthouse for $3M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Fred Latsko has a new lender for his Gold Coast portfolio of high-end retail shops.
The CEO and founder of Latsko Interests secured the new $34 million loan from Chicago-based JDI Realty, according to Cook County records. Latsko previously had a $43.6 million loan on the several properties in the city’s luxury shopping district, from Loancore Capital Credit REIT.
The loan is secured by the real estate at 66 East Walton, 900 North Rush, 41 East Oak and 23 West Maple streets. All the properties are high-end retail spaces occupied by jewelers, fashion houses and other shopping-focused tenants.
It’s unclear why the loan is about $10 million less than the previous one, which was issued in 2018, according to records. But Loancore was exploring selling the debt as it reached its maturity this summer, which is sometimes a move made before a loan buyer attempts to foreclose upon a property, according to a person familiar with the properties.
It’s unknown why the loan was being shopped for sale in this case, and unclear if there was a foreclosure risk before Latsko’s firm scored the new financing and paid off the previous debt. Latsko and JDI did not respond to requests for comment.
The Oak Street spot is being targeted for a lease by Italian ultra-luxury retailer Bottega Veneta, following a deal Latsko had with French handbag maker Goyard falling apart and ending up in litigation. The property is three stories, according to a previous listing on LoopNet, and totals about 6,600 square feet.
An affiliate of Latsko’s company in May sued Goyard, alleging the would-be tenant dragged its feet on designing and tweaking its interior buildout for a lease of about 4,400 square feet of the building.
The dispute could break a 10-year lease with the retailer, which is notorious for avoiding advertising and media attention. It has fewer than a dozen locations globally, including eight in the US: New York, Chicago, Beverly Hills, Miami, Dallas and San Francisco.
Its Chicago space was within the Magnificent Mile’s Neiman Marcus location at 737 North Michigan Avenue, which was purchased last year for $94 million by Houston-based Silvestri Investments. Goyard had planned to leave the luxury retailer’s store for its own space on Oak Street. The lawsuit between Latsko and Goyard is ongoing.
In August, Bottega announced it would be cutting its Chicago footprint by roughly half in a move from 800 North Michigan Avenue to the space previously planned for Goyard in Latsko’s Oak Street building. Bottega has not yet announced a timeline for moving into the space, but is still at its Michigan Avenue location.
Read moreChicagoOak Street luxury retail lease locked up in Latsko, Goyard lawsuitChicagoBottega Veneta ditches Mag Mile for Latsko’s Oak Street storefrontThe post Fred Latsko gets $34M loan for Gold Coast retail portfolio appeared first on The Real Deal.
An investor in Century Plaza has come out of the woodwork, filing a lawsuit against DigitalBridge, a mezzanine lender on Michael Rosenfeld’s $2.5 billion project.
Urbanite Capital claims DigitalBridge did not disclose a restructuring agreement with the Reuben brothers, the development’s senior lender, according to a complaint filed last month in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Urbanite agreed to fund a capital commitment of $80.5 million for the project in 2018 — funding that was eventually folded into a $428 million mezzanine loan. DigitalBridge, then known as Colony Capital, was the general partner in the mezzanine loan partnership and ultimately made decisions on behalf of all investors, Urbanite said in its complaint.
But in 2020, DigitalBridge signed an agreement to allow the U.K.-based Reuben brothers to acquire “control” of the mezzanine loan — without Urbanite’s consent, the complaint alleges.
DigitalBridge “concealed these matters from [Urbanite], and decided not to seek [Urbanite’s] consent,” the complaint said, adding DigitalBridge knew Urbanite “would have contested these alterations.”
In separate court filings, DigitalBridge has said it willingly agreed to the 2020 deal, which handed out more cash to Michael Rosenfeld to finish construction of Century Plaza, located at 2025 Avenue of the Stars.
The Reubens agreed to hand out another $275 million mezzanine loan that would be more senior, meaning in the event of default, they would get paid before DigitalBridge. With the deal, they also agreed to take over as the administrative agent — essentially the entity that ensures the terms of the loan are met, according to sources familiar with the terms.
DigitalBridge agreed and ended up holding a $550 million mezzanine loan — classified as more junior than the Reubens’ debt.
“With essentially complete power over the Mezz Loan, Reubens acquired the senior loan to successfully effectuate a coup d’etat over the project’s mezzanine debt,” Urbanite writes in its complaint. Neither the Reubens, their investment vehicle nor Rosenfeld are named in the lawsuit.
DigitalBridge and the Reuben brothers had fought over the debt stack on Century Plaza for about a year, court filing show, as Rosenfeld defaulted on about $1 billion worth of loans tied to the project.
In April, the Reubens foreclosed on the project, paying $1 billion for the hotel and retail portion, plus some of the condo units. Rosenfeld still owns 197 condos and has come to a forbearance agreement with the Reubens over debt tied to those units.
In its complaint, Urbanite also points to the fact that DigitalBridge was looking to divest its real estate holdings, after CEO Marc Ganzi took over in 2019 and the firm was renamed.
“DigitalBridge’s transformational change of strategy … prioritized implementing the transition over maximizing the value of the investment in the project,” Urbanite’s complaint states.
Read moreLos AngelesThese savvy investors are set to lose big in the Century Plaza foreclosureLos AngelesThe Agency’s Harris and Parnes tapped to sell Century Plaza condosLos AngelesAres Management to relocate HQ in Century CityThe post Century Plaza investor sues DigitalBridge over debt restructuring appeared first on The Real Deal.
Damac Properties scored preliminary approval for its luxury condo project in Surfside, despite an outcry from victims’ families against plans for a garbage pickup area next to the collapse memorial.
The Town of Surfside Planning and Zoning Board voted 4-1 in favor of the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed development on Thursday night, with board member Lindsay Lecour casting the sole dissenting vote. The board recommended site plan approval to the town commission, which is expected to give a final say in September.
Led by Hussain Sajwani, Dubai-based Damac plans a 12-story condo building with up to 52 units on the 1.8-acre site at 8777 Collins Avenue. It’s where 98 people died in the collapse of Champlain Towers South in June 2021.
Surfside designated 88th Street, from Collins Avenue east to the beach, for a memorial. But Damac’s project design showed the sanitation and recycling loading dock entrance and exit would be on 88th Street, just west of the memorial.
“Placing the garbage facility adjacent to the memorial is [disrespectful] to all of us.… Garbage is garbage,” said Pablo Langesfeld, whose daughter, Nicole Langesfeld, and son-in-law, Luis Sadovnic, died in the collapse. “Eighty-eighth Street must be a memorial. Period. No garbage trucks and no garbage traffic. Let’s not forget that this new building will not erase the bloody night of June 24, 2021. In the name of those 98 people who died … remove that garbage facility from that site.”
After the meeting, Damac and town officials met to try to address the garbage collection issue,
Damac spokesperson Niall Mc Loughlin said in a statement. “The intent is to collect garbage just east of the intersection of Collins Avenue and 88th Street,” he said. “We’re working to remove the garbage area from the loading dock area and develop a system to deliver it from within our site to the designated location without running along 88th Street.”
The reason trash pickup was placed on 88th Street is that the Florida Department of Transportation bans large vehicles from exiting on Collins Avenue, a state road and the only other street fronting the project, James Galvin said during the meeting.
“The trucks would have to back out of Collins [Avenue] and block at least two lanes of traffic,” he said.
All other traffic, including residents’ access to the garage, deliveries such as FedEx trucks, and Ubers would use Collins Avenue, Galvin told the board. To protect the memorial from the sanitation trucks, which would make collections once or twice a week, the vehicles would pick up garbage and recycling in an enclosed area that won’t be visible from the street. Trash would be stored in an air-conditioned indoor area to prevent the spread of odor.
Yet, Lecour argued that if the project design is tweaked, the trucks would be able to use Collins Avenue. The issue is whether Damac is open to redesigning the condo building. While it’s no small feat, it can be done given the developer’s top team, and a new plan can be presented to FDOT, she said.
“We have a once in a lifetime chance here to do something that works for our town,” Lecour said. “I know it’s really hard.… I think this merits maybe just a little bit more study. I wonder if I could get your support to defer one month, at least one meeting, to ask the developer to see if they can get the loading off 88th Street.”
The proposal violates a commission resolution approved last year to designate all of 88th Street for a memorial, with the only exception for use by emergency vehicles such as fire rescue, she added.
Town administrators and Damac’s representatives disagreed.
Although 88th Street is a town road, state agencies also have a say, Town Manager Hector Gomez said. The town’s designation of 88th Street for a memorial is a resolution that can’t trump state laws, said Anthony Recio, an attorney for the town.
And, Galvin said, it’s not a matter of Damac presenting a new design to FDOT. The developer already met with the state agency before drafting a design plan, and the existing plan resulted from this consultation.
Shortly before the vote, David Rodan, who lost his brother and three cousins in the collapse, approached the dais to implore the board to push for the removal of the garbage loading dock from 88th Street.
“I am outraged to see that the proposed plan of the new building is taking so much of 88th Street, a street that was assigned for a memorial — which is not much, but is all that we will have to go to connect to our loved ones,” he said earlier during the meeting. “It’s going to be a stain on this town.”
Contention also spilled over to another issue. The night before the meeting, former Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett circulated an email showing photos of Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger, some commissioners and planning board members David Forbes, Carolyn Baumel and Ruben Bravo at an evening get-together at a Four Seasons hotel bar. Burkett insinuated that the officials may have been discussing town business outside of the public eye, despite a state law that requires government decisions to be made publicly.
Forbes called the email “lies” and Burkett a “bully” during the meeting. In fact, he said, planning board members often disagree on various town issues during their meetings.
“We discussed our jobs, kids … and most of all [Lionel] Messi,” he said. “At no time was city, county or state business talked about.”
Read moreSouth FloridaSurfside shoots down controversial proposal for Damac’s collapse siteSouth FloridaFrom Dubai to Surfside: Inside Damac's plans to redevelop the tragic siteSouth Florida"We took action and moved fast": Damac boss on Surfside plan, US expansionThe garbage loading dock isn’t the project’s only problem. The southwest portion of the development site is a flood zone, prohibiting the planned two-level underground garage, said James McGuinness, Surfside’s building official. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s pending amendment to the flood maps would remedy the issue, the new maps are yet to go into effect. Damac has filed a letter to FEMA asking it to update its map.
Damac bought the site at 8777 Collins Avenue last year for $120 million, as the sole bidder for the land in a court-ordered sale. The firm’s latest plan for 52 units marks a drop from its previous proposal for 57. Condos would average about 7,000 square feet, though many units could be much bigger.
The firm hasn’t shared pricing yet, but brokers predicted units could go for more than $3,000 per square foot. At that price, the average-sized unit could ask over $21 million.
The post “Garbage is garbage”: Damac’s condo plan for trash pickup next to memorial angers victims’ families appeared first on The Real Deal.
The administration of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — who has made addressing the city’s homelessness crisis her political centerpiece — had some good news to share on Thursday: A state grant program has awarded the city $99 million for four affordable housing projects.
In a statement, Bass thanked “state partners,” and said the city “will continue to work urgently, across all levels of government, to secure the resources to bring more Angelenos inside and deliver more affordable housing.”
The new funding comes from the Strategic Growth Council, a state government entity that coordinates with various public agencies to address economic, health, transportation and other issues.
The council doled out the money as part of the latest round of its Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, which has consistently delivered money to the L.A. Housing Department. This year the program is giving the city $157 million, with $99 million of that dedicated to four new affordable housing projects in Downtown L.A., Koreatown, Crenshaw and Historic South Central, according to a release.
Those projects will total 466 units. The additional money from the grant is slated for city infrastructure and transportation improvements, including new bicycle infrastructure and 31 new electric buses.
The money infusion comes soon after the L.A. City Council voted to approve a $150 million spending plan for funds raised from Measure ULA, the city’s controversial new real estate transfer tax, with much of that spending earmarked for short-term tenant assistance, legal aid and other non-construction programs.
To date the city has received nearly $500 million from the AHSC grants for housing projects, according to the city’s release.
Read moreLos AngelesLA Mayor Bass puts $150M from Measure ULA into proposed budget Los AngelesLA Mayor Bass taps real estate executive for major positionLos AngelesLA City Attorney sues luxe short-term rental firm Nightfall GroupThe post State gives $99M to City of LA for four affordable housing projects appeared first on The Real Deal.
A roadmap for growth housing in San Jose has hit a roadblock in Sacramento, with state regulators refusing to sign off on a plan to add 62,200 homes in the next eight years.
The state Housing and Community Development Department has straight-armed the city’s so-called “Housing Element,” which was supposed to have been approved in January, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
A failure of the Bay Area’s largest city to comply with its requirement to plan for tens of thousands of new homes puts it at risk of losing affordable housing and transportation funds.
It also leaves it open to lose control over approvals for new housing projects, as developers can trigger a state “builder’s remedy” to skirt local zoning rules. To date, 15 developers in San Jose have invoked the state housing loophole now being tested in courts.
San Jose is the last big Bay Area city without a final housing plan. While San Francisco and Oakland have approved plans, two-thirds of the Bay Area’s 109 cities and counties do not.
When the San Jose City Council voted in June to send the 239-page plan to Sacramento for approval, pro-housing and tenant activists were joined by construction labor supporters in saying it might not be up to snuff.
Under state law, the city must target where and how it can accommodate 62,200 more homes — more than half of them affordable — by 2031. The homes would add 20 percent to the city’s housing, and represent a 77 percent increase from its previous eight-year goal.
In a letter to the city this week, the California Housing & Community Development Department said it had received “several third-party comments expressing concerns” that city officials hadn’t allowed “adequate time or opportunity to provide public input and comment” on earlier drafts of the plan.
“During the housing element revision process, the city must continue to engage the community, including organizations that represent lower-income and special needs households, by making information regularly available while considering and incorporating comments where appropriate,” state officials said in their letter.
The housing department asked the city to do more work to prove planned sites for homes have a realistic chance of development. It also asked city officials to provide specifics on ways to streamline the permitting process and prevent housing discrimination and displacement.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said he didn’t expect the state would sign off on the council’s housing plan. “We expected to have additional technical revision requests come back from the state,” he told the Mercury News in a text.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos Angeles“Builder’s remedy 2.0”: Sacramento letter clarifies complianceLos AngelesCourt issues major builder’s remedy ruling on La Cañada Flintridge Los AngelesSan Bernardino settles with state over missing Housing ElementThe post San Jose’s Housing Element plan for 62K homes may fall short appeared first on The Real Deal.
Home sales across the Inland Empire have plummeted 22 percent since last year, despite falling prices.
Sales in Riverside and San Bernardino counties fell to 4,541 homes in July, down 18 percent for the month and 22 percent for the year, the Orange County Register reported, citing CoreLogic data.
The drop-off is primarily due to rising interest rates, which cut buying power by 14 percent. Limited availability also hindered sales.
Across the six-county Southern California region, sales fell 19 percent in a year to 13,998 homes last month. At the same time, the median SoCal sales price rose 2.5 percent to $743,000 – 1 percent off the $750,000 record set in April of last year.
In the Inland Empire, however, home prices generally fell along with sales, according to the Register.
Riverside had 2,641 closings in July, down 20 percent in a month and 22 percent in a year. San Bernardino had 1,900 sales — down 16 percent in a month and 23 percent lower in a year.
In Riverside, the $551,250 median price was down 1.6 percent in a month and 2 percent in a year. That’s 5 percent off the $581,500 record set in August of last year.
In San Bernardino, a $480,000 median was up 1.1 percent in a month and 4 percent lower in a year. That’s 4 percent off the $500,000 record set in May of last year.
The 30-year mortgage averaged 6.84 percent in July compared to 5.41 percent a year earlier, driving Riverside payments up an estimated 14 percent, and up 12 percent in San Bernardino.
Between sales of single-family homes, condos and new homes, the latter took the biggest drop, according to the Register
Riverside builders sold 341 new homes, down 31 percent in a month and 35 percent lower in a year. San Bernardino builders sold 155 new homes, down 35 percent in a month and 40 percent lower in a year.
Riverside’s $581,500 new-home median was up 1 percent in a month and 4 percent lower in a year. San Bernardino’s $575,500 median was up 1 percent in a month and 10 percent lower in a year.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesStudy: IE has the state’s wildest home-price swingsLos AngelesStarter home prices have doubled and tripled in SoCal and Bay AreaLos AngelesSupply shortage keeps LA home prices afloatThe post Home sales across the Inland Empire plunge 22% appeared first on The Real Deal.
Less than two years after buying and renovating a Miami Springs retail complex, Manny Varas’ MV Group USA is looking to cash out.
In February, Miami Springs Plaza at 1 South Poinciana Boulevard and 69 Hook Square hit the market with an asking price of $23.3 million. But a recently updated offering shows the Miami-based real estate development and investment firm dropped the price to $20.1 million.
In addition to the price cut, MV is offering $9 million in seller financing at a 4.5 percent interest rate for five years. Miami-based Dwntwn Realty Advisors is marketing the property.
After being on the market for seven months, MV adjusted Miami Springs Plaza’s estimated 4 percent cap rate to 4.5 percent, and thus lowered the price, company CEO Varas told The Real Deal. “Cap rates have increased across the entire commercial sector,” Varas said. “We increased the cap rate to be in line with existing market conditions.”
MV has declined offers below $20 million from interested buyers that see Miami Springs Plaza’s cap rate at 5 percent, Varas added.
“This is a stellar asset,” Varas said. “It’s also a big enticement when you have sellers in a liquidity position to be able to offer [financing] for trophy properties like this. It is very difficult to do when [bank] interest rates are at 7 percent. That is slowing down the sector.”
The decision to sell Miami Springs Plaza is based on a desire to recapitalize commercial properties MV owns outside of South Florida, Varas said. But if MV can’t sell the retail complex at $20.1 million or more, the firm will hold on to Miami Springs Plaza, Varas said.
Consisting of two strip malls spanning 26,947 square feet, Miami Springs Plaza is fully occupied with 15 tenants signed to new 10-year leases with annual rent increases of 3 percent, the offering states. The retail complex’s roster includes Burritoville, Ray’s Tae Kwon Do Center, Santo Dulce, Design Med Spa, Jimmy John’s and Prime Fitness.
The average rental rate at Miami Springs Plaza is $40 per square foot, Varas said.
In December 2021, an MV affiliate paid $6.1 million for the two single-story retail centers completed in 1945 and 1953. The firm invested another $6 million completely gutting and renovating the properties, Varas said. At the time of purchase, Miami Springs Plaza was 50 percent occupied, he added.
The two buildings are adjacent to the recently completed Miami Springs Town Center, a three-story mixed-use apartment and retail project.
Since its founding in 2007, MV focuses on developing luxury homes and commercial projects. The firm also provides construction services to build out office spaces and condominium common areas, according to the firm’s website.
The post Sign of the times: MV drops asking price for Miami Springs retail complex to $20M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Woodfield Development and Flagler Realty & Development want to build a 358-unit multifamily project in West Palm Beach.
The joint venture proposes the project on 5 vacant acres at 8111 South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, according to a city commission agenda. The land borders the C-51 canal to the south.
Woodfield and Flagler Realty, through an affiliate, have the publicly owned site under contract for a reported $10.5 million. Last year, Flagler won a city solicitation for developers to purchase and build out the site.
West Palm commissioners are expected to preliminarily vote at their Tuesday meeting on a tweak to the purchase and sale agreement to allow more units. A final vote is slated for Sept. 18.
Charleston, South Carolina-based Woodfield and West Palm-based Flagler Realty’s planned 358 apartments mark a boost from their previous proposal of 210 units. The developers also increased the number of workforce housing units to 90, up from 52. Of the below-market-rate apartments, 23 would target households earning 60 percent of the area median income, another 23 would target households earning 80 percent, and 44 would target households with incomes at 100 percent of the AMI.
Palm Beach County’s AMI is $98,300, meaning a one-person household would have to earn from roughly $40,920 annually to $98,300 to qualify for one of the workforce apartments.
Founded in 2005 by Mike Underwood and Greg Bonifield, Woodfield has developed 60 residential communities mostly in the South, according to its website.
The firm is increasingly focusing on South Florida’s multifamily market. In downtown Fort Lauderdale, Woodfield paid $18.3 million in December for the site at 520 West Broward Boulevard, with plans to build a 41-story tower with 365 apartments.
Flagler Realty was founded in 1996 by Patrick Koenig, Richard Johnson Jr. and Scott Johnson, according to the company website. It develops, leases and manages commercial real estate.
Separately from Flagler, Koenig and the Johnsons were part of a partnership that paid $7.5 million for the Jetty’s Waterfront Restaurant in Jupiter in February. Other partners in the purchase include Glenn Edward Straub, nephew of embattled developer Glenn Straub.
Developers are increasingly homing in on West Palm, in part seizing on the downtown’s emergence as an office mecca for financial firms. Stephen Ross’ Related Companies, which is the biggest office owner downtown, is developing the One Flagler tower at the foot of the Royal Park Bridge and also plans 515 Fern office project, as well as the East Tower and West Tower at The Square mixed-use complex.
Last month, Related jumped on West Palm’s condo market, dropping $194.6 million for a development site approved for a two-tower, 28-story project. Related plans to pursue development of the Robert A.M. Stern Architects-designed South Flagler House.
Also in West Palm, the Pérez family’s Related Group wants to build a 46-unit condo on the waterfront site at 4906 North Flagler Drive.
The post Woodfield, Flagler Realty plan 358-unit apartment project in West Palm appeared first on The Real Deal.
MF1 Capital has filed to foreclose on a Houston property, after the owner, apartment syndicator Rockstar Capital, defaulted on a $51 million loan.
Rockstar is in default on a loan tied to 8900 Lakes at 610 Drive in Houston, a complex called Aspire at 610, according to a notice of trustee’s sale. The foreclosure is scheduled for Sept. 5.
MF1 Capital provided the $51 million loan in March 2022, according to the notice and data from Morningstar, a commercial real estate analytics firm.
MF1 then packaged the loan into a collateralized loan obligation, allowing investors to buy an interest in the debt.
Rockstar is the latest multifamily owner to suffer the consequences of buying an apartment complex with a floating-rate loan and then having to pay it off at a high interest rate. Other syndicators, which pool together investor money to buy into deals, like Tides Equities and Rise48, are also feeling the pain of rising rates.
“The only way to not default would be to continue to write personal checks that would total millions a year or to call capital from investors into a deal that has a loan situation that is unworkable,” said Rockstar founder Robert Martinez, who calls himself “The Apartment Rockstar.”
To capitalize on the demand for apartment investments in 2021, MF1 greatly expanded its business. The debt fund, led by Scott Waynebern, originated at least $7.4 billion in debt between 2020 and 2021, giving high-leverage loans to multifamily syndicators looking to execute aggressive fix-and-flip plans.
The foreclosure seems to be a first for MF1 — with previous defaults, the lender has assisted in selling off associated debt.
Others have already pursued the foreclosure route in the event of distress. Arbor Realty Trust, for example, foreclosed on a $229 million Houston portfolio in April.
The loan servicer watchlisted Rockstar’s deal in January for having a low debt service coverage ratio — a metric used to determine whether a property is making enough income to meet its monthly debt payments — and an occupancy rate below 80 percent, according to Morningstar.
At the end of September last year, the debt service coverage ratio dropped to 0.96, meaning Rockstar was not making enough from the property to meet its debt payments. At the same time, the 282-unit property was 78 percent occupied.
Rockstar had purchased a rate cap, which limits how much an interest rate on a loan can rise, of 5.65 percent. However, given how much interest rates have risen over the last year, Rockstar has been paying 5.65 percent in interest since last September.
“We unfortunately were not able to come to an agreement with our lender,” Martinez said, stressing it was Rockstar’s “first ever lender issue.” Rockstar Capital currently owns about 4,800 units across Texas.
“We made multiple proposals to the lender, but they were not willing to make short-term accommodations to the interest payments for a deal to work,” he said.
Read moreHoustonDistressing report: Greenway Plaza value trimmed by $575MTexasDistress a long-term trend in Houston DallasForeclosure threatens DFW office buildingsThe post Multifamily distress: MF1 to foreclose on Rockstar Capital complex appeared first on The Real Deal.
The state did not act on office conversions, so the city will need to take the long road. That road involves a bit of legislative gymnastics. The Adams administration aims to expand the universe of buildings that can be converted from office to residential use, and wants to make such changes citywide.
The state legislature could have done that more easily by lifting the cap on residential floor-area-ratio and expanding existing conversion rules to pre-1990 office buildings. The current cutoff is 1977. Neither proposal came to a vote in Albany last session.
In most of the city, office buildings constructed after 1961 cannot be converted into residential space. The city can change that threshold, as it did for Lower Manhattan (to 1977), and hopes to do so by moving the date up to 1990.
What it cannot do is free office buildings constructed after 1977 from the FAR cap, which is baked into the state’s Multiple Dwelling Law. The city also cannot change building code requirements enumerated in that law, though I’m told zoning is the largest hurdle these conversion projects face. Creating a tax incentive program for such conversions also falls to the state.
The city’s planned changes would be part of a broader text amendment, which is expected to get underway next year.
What we’re thinking about: What will happen with Fortis Property Group’s tower at 161 Maiden Lane? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: I thought all I had to worry about was brain-eating amoeba, but apparently this is a thing too: A live three-inch parasitic worm was found in a woman’s brain by doctors in Australia, the New York Times reports.
Elsewhere in New York…— City health officials say a new Covid variant, BA.2.86, was found in NYC wastewater, Gothamist reports. It is not yet clear how effective updated booster shots will be against the variant.
— The NYPD will use drones to monitor large gatherings this weekend, the Associated Press reports. “If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party,” Kaz Daughtry, assistant NYPD commissioner, said at a press conference.
— Gov. Kathy Hochul called her meeting with the Biden administration a “critical first step” in securing more federal support to address the migrant crisis, the New York Daily News reports. The administration promised to “provide personnel, data and resources” to help find migrants who are eligible for work permits. “This is a critical first step, but make no mistake: It is not enough to fully address this crisis or provide the level of support that New Yorkers need and deserve,” the governor said.
Closing TimeResidential: The priciest residential closing Thursday was $26 million for a townhouse at 7 Sutton Square in Sutton Place.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $9 million for a mixed-use building at 346 Maujer Street in Williamsburg.
New to the Market: The priciest residence to hit the market Thursday was a townhouse at 34 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village asking $25 million. Sothebys has the listing.
The post The Daily Dirt: Breaking down NYC’s office conversion options appeared first on The Real Deal.
Fortis Property Group had grand ambitions for the former Long Island College Hospital site after winning the contentious bidding nearly a decade ago.
Fortis, led by the father-son team of Louis and Joel Kestenbaum, planned six residential buildings, eight townhouses and up to 500 units to the Cobble Hill parcels, along with a medical center. Their $1 billion complex, River Park, was expected to be one of Brooklyn’s priciest developments.
But Fortis has struggled to stay above water at River Park. Last year, it sold two of its condo tower sites to its lender, Madison Realty Capital, which was moving to foreclose on them.
Now, another part of the deal has hit a snag, jeopardizing a major piece of the project.
The State University of New York agreed in 2014 to sell the Cobble Hill site to Fortis for $240 million on the condition that the project include a medical facility, which NYU would build. Fortis was to pay in two phases — later amended to three — and gain title to various parcels as it did.
The third closing was scheduled twice but never consummated, SUNY now alleges in a lawsuit. At the first, on July 9, Fortis sent a lawyer but did not pay what it had agreed to, so the two sides rescheduled for Aug. 8 — and the same thing happened.
SUNY terminated the deal and is seeking $8 million that it claims Fortis owes for failing to close. It also intends to keep Fortis’ $7 million deposit.
But the deal is not dead — far from it. Rather, the two sides are arguing over money.
Fortis argues that NYU took nine years, rather than the expected two, to build the medical facility, during which time Fortis paid operating expenses for an existing medical facility that NYU vacated when the new one was finally finished.
Fortis said SUNY had promised to reimburse it for those expenses, which amount to tens of millions of dollars, but now refuses to. It is not clear why the two closings were scheduled without that issue having been resolved.
Both sides have some leverage. Fortis knows SUNY would rather resolve the dispute than find another developer to finish the project. SUNY has Fortis’ deposit in hand, plus a potential judgment for $8 million if it wins the lawsuit.
Fortis risks losing the title of two development parcels, which could be turned into residential buildings in one of Brooklyn’s priciest neighborhoods. The two parcels were valued at a combined $83 million in 2015 if the buildings are completed.
“The question for SUNY: Why does it want to waste more taxpayer dollars and delay the project even longer?“ said Fortis’s attorney, George Carpinello of Boies Schiller Flexner. “SUNY’s actions are not right and they are not fair, especially for the community. This is why we are where we are — in court instead of building much needed housing in Brooklyn.”
SUNY decided to close Long Island College Hospital after it bled money for years. Bill de Blasio was arrested during his 2013 mayoral campaign for protesting the hospital’s closure, which became a cause celebre for the Brownstone Brooklyn community.
But once elected mayor, de Blasio bowed to financial reality. Neither de Blasio nor the Cuomo administration wanted to keep subsidizing a money-losing hospital on what would be a lucrative residential development site.
A request for proposals was issued and Fortis was selected, beating out Don Peebles. Then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara reportedly investigated de Blasio’s role in the deal, but did not bring charges.
A rezoning battle then played out. Then-Council member Brad Lander demanded Fortis provide lots of affordable housing, a school, and other community benefits. But he asked for more than Fortis was willing to give, and the developer resolved to build smaller, market-rate condominium buildings, which it could do without Lander’s sign-off.
It seemed like the easiest route for Fortis, yet the project ran into problems anyway.
Last year, Madison Realty Capital initiated a Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure on two development sites, 1 and 2 River Park, where Fortis planned to develop 48-unit and 102-unit apartment buildings. Fortis avoided foreclosure by selling the properties to Madison.
Fortis still owns 5 River Park at 347 Henry Street. About three-quarters of the project’s 25 units have been sold, according to its website. Even that building had issues, as neighbors complained it produced a shrill noise akin to fingernails on a blackboard. Fortis traced the problem to wind hitting the luxury building’s balcony railings.
That was the least of the developer’s worries. Its planned 60-story condo tower at 161 Maiden Lane in the Financial District has sat unfinished for years because in 2018 it was found to be tilting north. The resulting dispute between Fortis, its lender and its contractor remains stuck in litigation.
The firm has had success with its 76-unit Olympia Dumbo, which could become the borough’s most expensive condominium on a per-square-foot basis. A number of apartments with eight-figure price tags have sold, including a pad asking $13 million to Nets player Ben Simmons.
Last year, Jonathan Landau stepped down as Fortis’ CEO to start his own firm in Miami. Fortis announced a corporate restructuring and Joel Kestenbaum stepped in to succeed Landau.
Read moreNew YorkJudge tells Fortis, bank to end leaning-tower disputeNew YorkThe Fortis of solitudeNew YorkFortis faces foreclosure on large Cobble Hill condo projectThe post SUNY: Fortis failed to close on $240M Brooklyn purchase appeared first on The Real Deal.
A Winnetka mansion just sold for an amount that rivals the priciest deal in the Chicago area this year.
The buyers, whose identities remain unknown, paid $12.25 million for the 10,000-square-foot house at 445 Sheridan Road in the northern suburb home to some of the area’s ritziest homes, the Chicago Tribune reported. Jena Radnay of @properties was the listing agent.
The sale marks the second most expensive transaction in Chicagoland this year, slightly trailing the $12.5 million sale of the 12,000-square-foot estate at 691 Sheridan Road, also listed by Radnay. For much of 2023, Ken Griffin’s Park Tower condo that traded for $11.2 million in January was the priciest deal of the year.
Akin to most other North Shore homes priced over $10 million, the 445 Sheridan Road mansion had to undergo a considerable price shop before landing a buyer. The owners, business executive Randy Abrahams and his wife, first listed the five-bedroom, three-story estate for $15.85 million in September 2022. In April, they slashed the asking price to just under $15 million. They bought the property for $8.1 million in 2006.
Despite recently rehabbing the mansion’s second floor, plenty of work still needs to be done, which contributed to the sale price being more than 22 percent below the initial ask. While Radnay believes the new owners will continue to revamp the home, it’s possible that they raze it and build something from scratch, similar to what billionaire Justin Ishbia has done in Winnetka, where he plans a sprawling megamansion set to cost over $40 million in construction.
Sitting on a 2.2-acre lot, the 445 Sheridan mansion has seven bathrooms, five fireplaces, an elevator and a speakeasy bar. Outside, there’s a beach with 165 feet of shoreline, a pool, raised terrace and a newly-built cabana house.
The home, built in 1912, once belonged to philanthropist and author W. Clement Stone and his wife, Jessie. Its property tax bill was $154,850 in 2021.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoWinnetka mansion snagged for $12.5M, priciest sale so far this yearChicagoWinnetka mansion up for grabs at $7MChicagoAndrew McKenna’s Winnetka mansion listed at $5.75MThe post Winnetka mansion snagged for $12.3M in second-priciest deal this year appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Real Deal’s reporting shines bright in the Sunshine State. Last week the South Florida Society of Professional Journalists announced its annual winners, including four awards to stories from TRD. In the magazine profiles category, reporter Francisco Alvarado won first place for his cover story on Grant Cardone. Cardone, a sales coach and marketing guru […]
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Borrowers modified $1 billion worth of collateralized loan obligations in the first quarter. In the second quarter, they quadrupled that sum. More than $4 billion of CLOs — often reserved for floating-rate loans on buildings being renovated or leased up after construction — were modified in the second quarter, Bloomberg reported. The data was released […]
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The City of San Jose seeks $22.6 million from Uncle Sam to build 99 affordable homes in its Downtown. The city wants federal funding for a six-story apartment complex approved for Berkeley-based Resource for Community Development at 797 South Almaden Avenue, in the Washington-Guadalupe neighborhood, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. It would replace two […]
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A judge has upheld La Habra’s decision to block a plan by Lennar to build nearly 450 homes overlooking the city — but the nation’s second largest developer holds an ace in the hole. Superior Court Judge Sheila Recio has denied a petition by the Miami-based builder to reverse the city’s 2020 decision to reject […]
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A coalition intent on killing good cause eviction spent $1.4 million lobbying lawmakers. Homeowners for an Affordable New York was the seventh highest spender on lobbying in the state last year, according to an annual report by the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. The industry group, which includes the Real Estate Board […]
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In February 2020, San Francisco had the highest rents in the nation, over $3,500 per month for a one-bedroom apartment, according to Zumper data. Fast-forward through the pandemic-related fallout and over three years later the city is struggling to stay above the $3,000-a-month benchmark. But that broad picture doesn’t tell the full story. Looking neighborhood […]
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The trust of the late Bunny Bastian sold her waterfront teardown estate in Coral Gables for $36 million. The mansion is an artifact of her family’s fortune, stemming from a former CIA airline, embedded in global affairs of the 20th century. The trust of Mary Jean Bastian, a.k.a. Bunny Bastian, sold the house at 140 […]
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The outlook on Trump’s 40 Wall Street is looking worse for wear after Fitch Ratings downgraded a portion of a security tied to the Financial District office building. Fitch downgraded the portion from investment-grade BBB- to BB, a junk credit rating, Crain’s reported. The ratings agency pointed to “performance concerns” when casting a more negative […]
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Lennar wants to build 150 single-family homes near Homestead, marking the homebuilder’s continued wager on south Miami-Dade County’s residential market. The Miami-based firm proposes the project on a 21-acre site it has under contract for an undisclosed amount on the northwest corner of Southwest 316th Street and Northwest 14th Avenue, according to a Lennar application […]
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Henry Patel wants to build a 21-acre residential complex near a hotel in Huntley that he owns. At a recent village board meeting, Patel proposed a development with 12 low-rise apartments, totalling 308 units, in the area surrounding the Hampton Inn at 13000 Route 47, the Northwest Herald reported. Patel already owns about 29 acres […]
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Prominent venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguz, who spent 14 years at Redpoint Ventures before leaving last fall to start his own $235-million fund, has sold his nearly 8-acre Woodside estate for $20.75 million, according to public records. Tunguz and wife Catherine bought 30 Trail Lane in May 2021 for $20 million. They listed it less than […]
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Laura Barr, former head of CBRE leasing in San Francisco, has gone national. The 35-year-old retail leader at CBRE’s San Francisco office has been appointed America Retail Leader for the Dallas-based firm’s Advisory & Transaction Services, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The appointment takes effect immediately. Barr, who will remain based in San Francisco, […]
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A Chicago real estate power couple is looking to sell their Gold Coast penthouse. Judd Malkin, who helped build the JMB Realty empire alongside billionaire Neil Bluhm, and Malkin’s wife Katherine, a longtime agent in Chicago’s luxury housing market, have listed their 4,800-square-foot unit in the cooperative building at 1301 North Astor Street, Crain’s reported. […]
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Universe Holdings has put its portfolio of more than 200 units in southwest L.A. County up for sale, after spending five years assembling the properties in anticipation of SoFi Stadium and a casino lifting the local rental market. The firm is selling 221 units at 11 apartment complexes in Inglewood and Hawthorne, according to a […]
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No retreat, no surrender — it’s not a motto investors are living by when it comes to today’s housing market. Investors bought 45 percent fewer homes in the second quarter compared to a year ago, according to a Redfin report. The annual decline is the second-largest recorded by the copmpany in the last 15 years; […]
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Apartment construction across Silicon Valley has died, with multifamily building in San Francisco, the Peninsula and the East Bay on life support. No apartment projects with market-rate units broke ground in Silicon Valley during the first half of the year, compared to 5,298 units in the final six months of last year, the San Jose […]
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Tracy Kasper is stepping in as president of the National Association of Realtors at a critical time for the trade group. Kasper ascended to the role of NAR president this week after Kenny Parcell resigned, moving the transfer of the leadership role a few months ahead of schedule. Inman reported that while many members applauded […]
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A joint venture between American and Canadian real estate firms bought a Bay Harbor Islands apartment complex. Solu Real Estate and 3T Equity’s BH1 Property Holding LP bought 34 units from Miami-based Category Five Ventures, with junior partner Mike Peisach signing, records show. The $12.5 million deal includes a 17-unit complex at 9800 East Bay […]
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Fifteen years after Washington Mutual’s failure, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is coming after Pulte Mortgage for its role in the largest banking collapse in U.S. history. The agency filed a lawsuit alleging that CTX Mortgage Company, which was consumed into the PulteGroup brand under the banner of Pulte Mortgage in 2009, sold “defective loans” […]
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Great Gulf’s La Clara condominium in West Palm Beach is complete, and financiers, real estate investors, designers and heirs are among the buyers at the tower. The 25-story, 83-unit development started recording deeds in June, and has since closed more than $209 million in unit sales, records show. Only 15 condo sales remain to be […]
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Hollywood has two sides — the movie industry and everything else. Baranof Holdings, a Dallas-based self-storage developer, plans to serve both markets with a self-storage facility that will hold film and media properties as well as household goods. This month the company filed plans to build a seven-story, 168,000-square-foot facility at North Seward Street and […]
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Four-time Super Bowl champion Joe Montana couldn’t defend against a winter storm that sent floodwaters blitzing through his Marina neighborhood in San Francisco. The 49ers legend has joined a lawsuit by residents along Marina Boulevard that accuses the city of flawed sewers and storm drains that allowed yuck water to invade their homes, the San […]
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The leader of Connecticut’s top small team is headed to Compass. Leslie Clarke, head of The Leslie Clarke Team, is leaving William Raveis after 12 and a half years with the family-owned brokerage. Clarke’s team crowned RealTrends’ 2022 ranking of small teams in Connecticut with over $124 million in sales volume. Clarke declined to share […]
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Blackstone unwound itself from a struggling multifamily portfolio and the threat of foreclosure last week, selling off a majority stake in 11 Manhattan buildings where rising rates had whacked revenues. Buyer Atlas Capital Group scored a 51 percent interest in the properties for $142.4 million, PincusCo first reported. A Blackstone spokesperson confirmed the purchase price […]
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A Jacksonville-based development firm proposes a 590-unit affordable housing project in south Miami-Dade County’s Leisure City. Vestcor wants to build the multifamily project on 7.8 acres on the northwest corner of South Dixie Highway and Southwest 280th Street, according to an application the developer filed to Miami-Dade County last week. The development site is at […]
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Actors and writers are still striking, while developers are striking deals to be the next providers of their production spaces. The Blackstone Group and Hudson Pacific Properties joined Vornado Realty Trust’s production studio project at Pier 94 in Manhattan, the Wall Street Journal reported. The three entities combined to invest $350 million in the joint […]
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Miami-Dade County condo sales slipped slightly last week. Total sales, dollar volume, average sale price and price per square foot all fell. Brokers closed 116 condo sales totaling $82 million last week, compared to 127 sales totaling $93 million the previous week. Units sold for an average price of $706,000, lower than the $732,000 from […]
The post Residences by Armani/Casa closing tops weekly condo sales in Miami-Dade appeared first on The Real Deal.
If you move to the Sun Belt in the next few years, there’s a chance you’ll be renting your home from Jordan Kavana. Kavana is the founder and CEO of ARK Homes for Rent, the American rental housing joint venture of Israeli private equity firm Electra Real Estate and Florida-based Transcendent Investment Management. ARK operates […]
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Townhouses ruled Brooklyn’s luxury market last week. The property type nabbed 10 of the 15 contracts inked for homes asking $2 million or more in the borough between Aug. 21 and Aug. 27, according to Compass’ weekly report. Condos claimed the remaining five. The priciest home to find a buyer was 137 Clifton Place in […]
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In the Great Resignation, millions of Americans ditched old jobs for new ones or none at all, leaving employers powerless to demand workers return to the office. But the Great Resignation is over, data show. Could that mean the annual prediction of employees streaming back to their desks after Labor Day actually pans out? Such […]
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Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund bought the Park Lane Hotel overlooking Central Park — once called the “world’s greatest site for development” — as the Middle Eastern nation continues its push into New York real estate. The Qatar Investment Authority paid nearly $623 million to acquire the 46-story hotel at 36 Central Park South from Steve […]
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Manhattan’s luxury market slowed last week to its lowest level in nearly a year. Just 11 units went into contract, the lowest number since the week after Labor Day 2022, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report of homes in the borough asking $4 million or more. The most expensive unit to enter contract last week […]
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Kimco Realty is expanding its shopping center empire, acquiring another owner and operator of American shopping centers. The company announced an agreement Monday to acquire RPT Realty in an all-stock deal valued at $2 billion. The deal is expected to raise Kimo’s pro forma equity market capitalization to $13 billion and its total enterprise value […]
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Onni Group has won a reprieve for a $384.3 million loan tied to a 1 million-square-foot Miracle Mile office campus. The Vancouver-based real estate investor has secured a two-year extension on the loan connected to the Wilshire Courtyard at 5700 and 5750 Wilshire Boulevard, the Commercial Observer reported. The commercial mortgage-backed securities loan from Natixis, […]
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Despite a market slowdown, South Florida real estate firms continue to make hiring and personnel moves. Codina Partners hired Eric Blanco as its vice president of accounting and finance, according to a press release. Blanco joins the Coral Gables-based developer from his previous role as a principal at the Carlyle Group, a global investment firm […]
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As a wave of distress rolls towards commercial real estate, lenders are pulling back accordingly. Debt origination volumes in the sector fell 52 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, according a capital markets report from Newmark reported by the Commercial Observer. The advisory firm also found there are 32 percent fewer lenders than a year […]
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Salt & Straw | Lincoln Road | Miami Beach Terranova Corporation scored a tenant at one of its properties on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. Ice cream shop Salt & Straw signed a seven-year lease for 1,500 square feet at 749 Lincoln Road, according to a Terranova news release. The tenant is expected to open […]
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One of Austin’s top-producing residential real estate agents moved to Douglas Elliman from Twelve Rivers Realty recently. Todd Burgener has closed $180 million in sales volume since the start of the pandemic, according to Elliman, and he’s been listed among the Dallas Business Journal’s top 30 real estate agents for the past three years, ranking […]
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Rechler Equity Partners shanked its last attempt at redeveloping a former golf course in Sayville, Long Island. Now it has teed up a revised version, hoping to land it on the fairway. The firm, run by Gregg and Mitchell Rechler, is pitching a 925-unit complex at 458 Lakeland Avenue, the former site of the Island […]
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The biggest people in New York housing production are, it turns out, the little guys. Almost half of the city’s new housing supply last year came from condominium developments of 10 or fewer units, according to Marketproof. And those numbers will only continue to grow. Analysis of planned developments suggests that in the near future, […]
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An Amazon-leased warehouse in Windsor traded hands in a deal that could prove to be one of the largest of the year in Connecticut. Massachusetts-based Winstanley Enterprises purchased the industrial facility at 200 Old Iron Ore Road for $122.3 million, the Hartford Business Journal reported. The seller was German investor Deka Immobilien, which itself purchased […]
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A developer has unveiled plans for a luxury waterfront condominium project on the southern edge of downtown Clearwater, which, if realized, would stand as the tallest structures in Clearwater and among the largest in the Tampa Bay area. Clearwater developer Moises Agami’s proposal features two 35-story towers of 470 feet, easily surpassing the current tallest […]
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As Annie Savoy from “Bull Durham” would say, “Oh my.” Actress Susan Sarandon — who played role of Annie in the iconic baseball film — has filed a lawsuit against a contractor, claiming poor work and questionable financial practices during renovations on her Vermont residence, the Berkshire Eagle reported. Sarandon’s limited liability company, The Right […]
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A Hartford man was found guilty last week in the gruesome 2020 murder of his landlord. Jerry Thompson, 45, decapitated his landlord, Victor King, with a samurai-style sword after King tried to evict Thompson from their shared residence on Asylum Avenue due to unpaid rent, CTInsider reported. King contacted Hartford police on July 15, 2020, […]
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During the pandemic, many wealthy citizens flocked from expensive coastal markets in New York and California to tax-friendly enclaves in Texas and Florida. Financial firms moved too, taking trillions of wealth with them. In the last three years, New York and California each lost firms that managed approximately $1 trillion worth of wealth to different […]
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Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall has made the case for new architecture in Los Angeles, but classic Los Angeles buildings continue to inspire and define the best of Los Angeles, said architects interviewed by The Real Deal. They consistently picked buildings constructed before 1970 as the megalopolis’s best edifices. Susan O’Connell, a managing principal […]
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China’s response to economic uncertainty is mirroring past crisis strategies, but with diminishing returns. In 2016, facing economic challenges, the central bank under then-governor Zhou Xiaochuan initiated a surge in lending, allowing lower down payments for property purchases and stimulating construction and infrastructure projects, the New York Times reported. That approach led to a pick-up […]
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California became the first state in the nation to codify limits on embodied carbon in buildings, a move experts say is crucial for mitigating climate change. Earlier this month, the California Building Standards Commission unanimously approved amendments to the green building code approved last year, Dezeen reported. The changes go into effect July 1 next […]
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A Tampa pool company owner has found himself in hot water. James Ivan Staten, Jr., the owner of Olympus Pools, is accused of defrauding Floridians of more than $1.5 million, while failing to complete promised pool projects, according to a Florida attorney general press release. The charges include aggravated white-collar crime, organized scheme to defraud, […]
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Three women employed at the National Association of Realtors headquarters in Chicago have accused Kenny Parcell, the organization’s president, of sexual harassment and fostering a culture of fear within the institution. The NAR, a nonprofit powerhouse with assets exceeding $1 billion that oversees access to a vast majority of American home listings, is facing claims […]
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Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke is facing a $2 million lawsuit over his intervention against the zoning approval for a city apartment building. Developer Ori Feibush filed the lawsuit, claiming Clarke’s interference delayed the project at 1201 W. Girard Ave. and caused financial harm, preventing him from pursuing other ventures, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. […]
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A Houston woman has been charged with the murder of her 78-year-old landlord two years after his decomposed body was found under an exterior staircase. Pamela Ann Merritt, 43, was arrested after a series of police visits to the residence, with Merritt initially suggesting her landlord had “faked” his own death and was living in […]
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The Zorro Ranch, a New Mexico desert property formerly owned by the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been sold for an undisclosed amount after being on the market for two years. The new owner, San Rafael Ranch LLC, registered with New Mexico’s secretary of state office in July, the Associated Press reported. The Santa Fe […]
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The intersection of real estate and public policy was in clear focus this week. In New York, building owners are awaiting on whether Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign two bills that could expose them to large rent-overcharge judgments. One bill expands the definition of fraud in rent overcharge cases, while the other allows tenants to […]
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The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is on the verge of buying 500 acres of Lake Colorado City State Park in Mitchell County. TPWD commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to authorize acquisition of the property, which is about 260 miles west of Dallas, the Dallas Morning News reported. The TPWD has been leasing the land from […]
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A newly listed 12,000-square-foot unit in a Gold Coast cooperative building has the second most expensive price tag in Chicago. Bill Farley, financier and former CEO of Fruit of the Loom, and his wife, Shelley, are asking nearly $16 million for their 14th floor apartment at 209 East Lake Shore Drive, the Chicago Tribune reported. […]
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Oxford Hotels & Resorts is about to turn on the lights at four shuttered hotels in San Francisco. The Chicago-based hotel owner is preparing to rebrand and reopen four hotels now under renovation at 112, 121 and 140 Seventh Street in South of Market and at 940 Sutter Street on Nob Hill, the San Francisco […]
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A pair of large-scale residential developments are headed for the Alamo City. On the North Side of San Antonio, Arizona-based Meritage Homes is planning 152 single-family lots as part of its 271-acre Estancia Ranch subdivision at the intersection of Blanco and Specht roads. On the South Side, Arlington-based D.R. Horton is plotting a 220-home community […]
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Former NBA player and current L.A. Clippers Assistant Coach Brian Shaw has listed his Oakland Hills home for $7.9 million. If the home sells near that price, it will be the most expensive single-family deal in the East Bay market since a $20 million sale on the Oakland-Berkeley border in 2016, according to listing agent […]
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Flannery Associates, the mystery company behind $800 million in farmland purchases around Travis Air Force Base, is backed by a who’s who of billionaires from Silicon Valley. The Folsom-based company with plans to construct a utopian city with “tens of thousands of new homes” in Solano County is spearheaded by Jan Sramek, 36, a former […]
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The Blackstone Group is selling again in Las Vegas, though this time it’s gambling on keeping a majority stake in its property. Realty Income purchased a 22 percent stake in the Bellagio casino and resort in Nevada, the Wall Street Journal reported. Blackstone, which owns the property through the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust fund, […]
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Denholtz Properties snagged a North Bergen apartment complex with 214 apartments for $89 million. The four-building complex, “Solo at North Bergen,” is at 4828 Tonnelle Avenue, which was the site of a defunct, five-acre trailer park when the township approved plans for the apartments in 2015. The complex is a three-minute walk from a Hudson-Bergen […]
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Emser International has filed plans to replace a 1960s office building in Woodland Hills with 276 apartments. The West Hollywood-based real estate investment firm led by Ehsan Ghodsian has proposed an eight-story complex at 6464 Canoga Avenue in Warner Center, Urbanize Los Angeles reported, citing a local neighborhood council agenda. It would demolish a 64,000-square-foot […]
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The Gramercy Park Hotel is being reborn without the involvement of Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding. MCR Hotels acquired the hotel lease at 2 Lexington Avenue for roughly $50 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The firm signed a 99-year lease at the property and aims to reopen the 200-key hotel in two years as a […]
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Waterfront homes proved popular with Miami-Dade County’s luxury real estate buyers this month. Sellers in this trio of deals included a German music producer, a spec developer and a local real estate agent, records show. The sales ranged from $9 million to $13.6 million, spanning from Key Biscayne to Miami. Records show health care boss […]
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Tech company CDW wants to move on from a massive chunk of suburban office space, a move unwelcome by landlords already contending with record high office vacancy in the Chicago area and growing competition from tenants offering up their own spaces on the secondhand market at a discount. The technology parts provider led by Christine […]
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With nothing less than WeWork’s existence hanging in the balance, some of its biggest creditors are discussing what bankruptcy can do for the co-working giant. Several fund managers that recently lent hundreds of millions to WeWork are exploring the possibility of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported. People familiar with the situation told […]
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Investors Arvind Reddy and Krishna Persaud sold a multifamily complex in Pompano Beach for $24.1 million, marking an 8 percent loss from what they paid a year ago. The deal comes as the South Florida multifamily market has taken a turn from the boom times of 2021 and early last year. Property values dropped this […]
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New York City has everything. Everything except enough housing. But some builders are doing something about that. Nearly 40,000 units of multifamily housing are under construction in the city’s three most populous boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens — and nearly 20 percent of them are being built by just five developers. The upper echelons […]
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In September, a new law will take effect in Texas that will radically alter existing safety regulations at thousands of construction sites across the state. HB 2127, signed in June by Gov. Greg Abbott, bans local governments from passing laws that are stricter than state regulations in finance, insurance, labor, natural resources or occupations codes. […]
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A waterfront Lake Geneva estate is up for grabs, and it could be one of the few mansions in the area to sell for eight figures. Stoney Hollow, a 12,000-square-foot mansion on Folly Lane, recently hit the market at $11 million, Crain’s reported. David Curry of Geneva Lakefront Realty is the listing agent, representing owners […]
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The upcoming return of student loan payments isn’t just unwelcome news for borrowers, but could also compound difficulties on the housing market. Household formations and homeownership rates would be hampered significantly in the next year and possibly beyond as student debt payment forbearance ends in October after nearly four years, according to a survey of […]
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A quartet of CA Ventures’ lenders who are waiting on past-due debts owed by the Chicago-based multifamily giant now want CEO Tom Scott to open up his own wallet. Scott and his development company last week were hit with the latest of several lawsuits that have been filed in Cook County court in recent months. […]
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Los Angeles Superior Court will get a third attempt to find a judge for the highly anticipated legal challenge to the city’s controversial Measure ULA transfer tax. The second jurist assigned to the case, Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner, recused himself after presiding over the case for about 10 days. During that span, an article […]
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In the rarefied air of high-end Manhattan real estate, the new kids on the block are losing out to the veterans. Vornado Realty Trust’s 220 Central Park South made headlines last week with the news of an $80 million resale — one of the most expensive deals of the year and a nearly 20 percent […]
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Broker Steffen Kammerer, who led Collier’s Bay Area operations, has jumped ship to work for rival CBRE in Silicon Valley. The former web developer has replaced Mark Schmidt, who led CBRE’s Silicon Valley office for 22 years, the San Francisco Business Times reported. As CBRE’s senior managing director for the region, Kammerer now oversees its […]
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Public officials are working to entice developers to alleviate a shortage of family-sized rental units in Chicago. Growing households have often struggled to find sufficient space in the city, making suburbs the only practical option when kids come into the picture. However, there’s been an increase of rental housing developments geared toward families, offering two-bedroom […]
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Real estate investors Guofeng Ma, Wenrui Ma and Wei Cheng bought a Coral Springs shopping plaza for $26.5 million, amid an uptick in South Florida retail deals. Williams Magnolia Properties sold Magnolia Shoppes at 9645 Westview Drive, according to the brokers. Moshe Biton of Capital Group Realty and Lena Zubkova of Apogee Realty represented both […]
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Mayor Eric Adams’ goal of turning Midtown South into a live-work-play neighborhood with the help of office conversions appears to have an ally in one commercial real estate executive. Walker & Dunlop CEO Willy Walker said the rezoning plan for the neighborhood would help prop up the city tax base, according to comments in an […]
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First Industrial Realty Trust is investing in Houston’s anemic northeast industrial submarket. The Chicago-based firm is planning a $25 million, 430,000-square-foot spec warehouse that includes a 5,000-square-foot office, at 8251 Liberty Road, off the North Loop, 2 miles south of Settegast. Local firm ADB Design Services, a company associated with ARCO Design Build, is the […]
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A massive Bronzeville apartment has hit the market for the second time in its 60 year history, and it could sell for a price that rivals the biggest multifamily deals in Chicago this year. A venture led by Scott Goodman’s Farpoint Development and Golub & Co, both Chicago-based firms, has hired JLL brokers Kevin Girard, […]
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A construction loan for a residential project in Jersey City is another bump to the already-busy development plans for the area’s downtown. Panepinto Properties received a $193 million non-recourse loan for the construction of Pathside, the Commercial Observer reported. The five-year, floating-rate loan will finance the 605-unit luxury development at 499-507 Summit Avenue. JLL Capital […]
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How about a rare affordable home with waterfront views in Marin County — next to San Quentin State Prison? The state has certified an environmental study for a 250-unit affordable apartment project at 101 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, clearing the way for development in unincorporated San Quentin, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Mill Valley-based Education […]
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Competing developers have each submitted mixed-use proposals including more than 80 apartments apiece with ground-floor retail to replace a former Aldi grocery store and its parking lot in West Garfield Park. Nonprofit Community Builders is behind a plan to build an $86.4 million, 101-unit apartment complex called Garfield Gather, which would also include a 9,500-square-foot […]
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Veritas Investments, a prominent multifamily landlord in San Francisco, has found itself in debt trouble again — this time in Southern California. San Francisco-based Veritas is struggling to muster enough income from 11 of its apartment complexes in Los Angeles County to meet its monthly debt payments, as rising rates have ballooned debt costs, according […]
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It’s a good time to be in the air conditioning business. A portable air conditioner company near Houston is growing so fast that it’s had to scramble to pick up more real estate. KwiKool Portable Cooling Systems purchased 7.5 acres adjacent to the space it leases at 10404 Mula Road in Stafford, the Houston Chronicle […]
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Like Thanos, it was probably inevitable. After two-plus years of seeing record numbers of their citizens, wealth and businesses relocate en masse to Miami and Florida, New York’s legacy media outlets took the gloves off this month and unloaded on the Magic City and the Sunshine State in breathtaking fashion. Citing some recent trends showing […]
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UPDATED: August 22, 11:45 a.m. PT An investor group has defaulted on a $16.3 million loan tied to a 58,000-square-foot research and development building in the Alviso District of North San Jose. Money360, an online marketplace for real estate loans, provided the financing for 110 Baytech Drive in 2019 to building owner Alviso Park LLC, the […]
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Office landlords will take lease renewals over tenant departures, but even those renewals aren’t what they once were. Lease signings are on the rise, but occupied office space across the country is declining precipitously, the Wall Street Journal reported. That’s due in part to tenants grabbing less space for less time, growing more flexible about […]
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Move-in day never goes smoothly for college students, but rarely does it end with staying at a hotel for weeks. That’s the case for would-be tenants of the Cloisters, a student apartment complex near the University of Miami, developed by Landmark Properties. Property management informed its student residents on Sunday, Aug. 13 that their apartments […]
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Foreclosure is looming over a San Antonio office building, marking the latest sign of distress in the Alamo City. San Francisco-based RBL Real Estate has no plans to pay off its $15.3 million debt balance on the Alamo Plaza, located at 9601 McAllister Freeway near the San Antonio airport, when it comes due in October, […]
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Aragon Properties has torn up its blueprints to add 123 more apartments to a complex proposed in Echo Park. The Vancouver-based developer has trashed approved plans for a 204-unit project and filed new plans for a 327-unit complex at 1185 West Sunset Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The move comes a decade after Aragon initially […]
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Mark Bellissimo and his partners are heading to the Wellington Village Council after securing two favorable recommendations and three against their controversial proposal for a mixed-use luxury housing development in Wellington. The non-binding votes from the Wellington Planning, Zoning and Adjustment Board came last week at the third meeting covering proposed ordinances that would pave […]
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Mayor Brandon Johnson has signed off on a compromise to elevate Chicago’s transfer tax rate on property sales of $1 million or more in the city, while cutting it for deals below that price threshold. The move sets in motion a progressive agenda espoused by Johnson on the campaign trail in a fashion that frightened […]
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Blackstone and subsidiary Link Logistics are on an industrial binge in South Florida. The joint venture broke ground on two warehouses in Medley after nabbing a $51 million construction loan from Boston-based AEW Capital Management, records and Vizzda show. Since May, Blackstone and Link have also dropped an additional combined $206.1 million for industrial properties […]
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Someone still believes in Pyramid Management Group’s flagship mall outside of Albany. An unidentified lender purchased the Crossgates Mall’s $243 million mortgage debt at auction, the Times Union reported. Trepp had flagged the sale in a newsletter. Details about the deal are sparse, though one thing is clear: The debt was sold at a significant […]
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California Pizza Kitchen co-founder Larry Flax and his wife Joan, a businesswoman, have sold their home of 27 years in the exclusive Beverly Park neighborhood for $34.4 million. The French Manor-style home at 55 Beverly Park Way was initially listed for $48.5 million in the gated community in the Beverly Hills Post Office neighborhood known […]
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Texas residential real estate is tops, particularly in Collin County, north of Dallas. Four suburbs of Dallas-Fort Worth were ranked in the top 10 for best real estate markets in the nation, along with Austin, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing a study from WalletHub. McKinney and Frisco earned the top two spots on the […]
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Developer Yair Levy was once a significant player in New York real estate. Then the state banned him from selling condos and co-ops. He kept his family-owned properties, though — along with the obligation to pay their loans. But apparently, his family is struggling to do that. Wells Fargo has begun foreclosure proceedings at the […]
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Strategic Properties of North America appears to be resurrecting its failed $190 million condo deconversion effort in River North. The New Jersey-based company, also known as SPNA, is preparing a proposal for another bulk purchase of homes in the 50-story, 467-unit tower at 10 East Ontario Street, according to an email sent by law firm […]
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The cost of starter homes for young families across Southern California and the Bay Area has doubled and tripled within the last decade. After a decade of bidding wars and rising home prices, stamping the first ticket to the American dream has become further out of reach, the Orange County Register reported, citing Redfin. The […]
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Cushman & Wakefield’s Dallas division is undergoing a change in leadership. Doug Jones, who had served as head of the Chicago-based brokerage’s Dallas office since 2021, is no longer with the company as of last week, the Dallas Business Journal reported. Reasons for his departure are unclear, but Cushman officials plan to visit the Dallas […]
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SB Properties is splashing down in Space City, with the Shy family’s first portfolio purchase outside of California. Prolific Los Angeles real estate investor Barry Shy, along with his sons Eric and Rommy, offloaded long-held multifamily properties in Los Angeles and acquired six apartment complexes in Houston. The properties comprise almost 1,900 units and are […]
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Stephen Ross’ Related Companies dropped $194.6 million for a condominium development site in West Palm Beach, marking continued growth of his real estate empire in the city. Frisbie Group and Hines sold the 3.4-acre property at 1355 South Flagler Drive, where they had planned to build the two-tower, 28-story South Flagler House project with 82 […]
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A cyberattack on MLS listing sites in Northern California and elsewhere drags on with no date to restore access from Rapattoni, according to emails from the Westlake Village software firm reviewed by The Real Deal. A message from Rapattoni to its customers said that it had hoped to restore service on Aug. 20. “Rapattoni had […]
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The long-awaited redevelopment of Hemisfair Park in San Antonio is set to kick off this fall. First, San Antonio-based Zachry Hospitality will embark on a hotel project, and a mixed-use building from Post Lake Capital Partners will ensue, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. The first two projects, on the site of the 1968 World’s […]
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Yankees phenom Anthony Volpe might not be moving to the Upper West Side after all. A Compass agent’s story of selling an Upper West Side co-op to the rookie shortstop in May for $2 million is being disputed by the Corcoran agent who represented the buyers. Ariel Mahgerefteh, who recently moved to Compass from rival […]
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Orange County cities may challenge the state’s highest court over a ruling that mandates Southern California must plan to build 1.34 million homes. Late last month, a state appeals court tossed out a lawsuit by the Orange County Council of Governments, which argued a state housing agency had “grossly overestimated” a required housing target for […]
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Landsea Homes, which ranks among the country’s most prolific single-family home developers, has planned a new community in San Bernardino County. The company recently purchased 191 sites for the project in Ontario, it announced Monday, and plans to build a new development called Dusa that will include 95 single-family homes and 96 townhomes. In a […]
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KBS Realty Advisors’ former chief auditor has pleaded guilty to embezzlement, admitting he stole about $2.7 million from the company, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday. From 2012 through 2022, Aggarwal signed off on KBS hiring six vendors — all companies controlled by his family and friends. Aggarwal then used these vendors to […]
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The Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco was overvalued by tax officials during its 2015 sale, according to a state appeals court ruling. The court ordered the city to refund a portion of the property taxes paid by the new owners, BRE Diamond Hotel (a Blackstone subsidiary), but did not specify how much, the […]
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The former cement processing plant site in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Cupertino could become a combination of housing and expansive open spaces. The site’s cement-making operations, once owned by Lehigh Southwest Cement Co., were halted over three years ago, and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently solidified the plant’s permanent closure through […]
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A former church with maritime aesthetics has been listed for sale in Marin County’s Belvedere, with a notable twist. It comes without a list price, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The property, located at 501 San Rafael Avenue, was designed by architect Charles Warren Callister in 1951 and has a distinctive nautical theme. Constructed using […]
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A woman in the St. Louis metro area is set to do three years in the slammer after embezzling her employer — a local real estate company — out of nearly half of a million dollars, using the funds on meals and wheels. Crystal Hendrix, 50, was sentenced to three years in prison after […]
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The Dallas-Fort Worth residential market was relatively even-Steven last month. Home prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area remained stable from June to July, and they haven’t changed significantly from a year ago, despite interest rate hikes, according to the Dallas Morning News The median single-family home price in the region remained at $415,000 in July, […]
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What’s going on with the luxury residential market? Brokers, buyers and sellers across South Florida are in a paradoxical situation. Despite the continued slowdown, sales are still setting records. Look no further than billionaire Jeff Bezos and acclaimed DJ David Guetta’s recent purchases in the wealthy enclave of Indian Creek. Bezos set an island record […]
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Former Naval Academy midshipman Fred W. Malek’s hospitality investment firm, District Hospitality Partners, made waves in the industry with its recent purchase of the Westin Annapolis hotel. Records show that the $51 million purchase was finalized on July 19, marking another significant business move for Malek, who graduated from the academy in 1988, the Baltimore […]
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A beleaguered Minneapolis landlord is facing more serious legal troubles, including five felony counts of tax evasion. The charges, filed recently, allege that Steven Meldahl, 73, failed to pay nearly $30,000 in sales tax by falsely claiming that his business was a nonprofit organization while making purchases at big-box stores like Menards, Home Depot, and […]
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The lawsuits continue to pile up for New Jersey real estate influencers and their LLCs, which have been accused of offering fraudulent investment deals. Bergen County couple Cesar and Jennifer Pina have had four new cases filed against them since the beginning of August, NorthJersey.com reported. The Pinas, along with their companies From Start 2 […]
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Farmington’s Pond View Corporate Center, composed of two office buildings with 225,500 square feet of space, has been acquired by a private family office for nearly $30 million. It’s the largest office deal in Connecticut this year, CTInsider reported, citing information from CBRE. CBRE brokered the deal between the unnamed buyer and seller Pond LLC, […]
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Another China real estate giant is facing choppy waters just weeks after troubled developer Evergrande disclosed $81 billion in losses over the course of two years. Country Garden is facing financial turmoil, having lost billions of dollars and accruing $200 billion in unpaid debts, the New York Times reported. “The Country Garden default could be […]
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Mall properties continue to struggle in the United States, creating opportunities for savvy investors to purchase the assets on the cheap. 4th Dimension recently purchased the Northtown Mall in Blaine, Minnesota, from Washington Prime Group for $31 million, the Star Tribune reported. The mall has approximately 645,000 square feet of leasable space, dragging the sales […]
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Portland’s downtown office space market is confronting a concerning reality: nearly a third of its office space lies vacant, presenting a bleak outlook for the city’s commercial property sector. The downtown skyline, once bustling with activity, is now dotted with skyscrapers facing the challenges of too few tenants and loans that are nearing maturity without […]
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Shorts in the winter, and a negative electricity bill –– it sounds like the land of milk and honey. In reality, it’s Boston. That’s at least for the owners of the city’s first certified passive houses. Since spec developer Dmitry Baskin completed the three spec homes, the buyers say they’ve hardly touched the thermostat, and […]
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A private-equity executive and a high-profile figure in Colorado’s business landscape has put up his Cherry Hills, Colorado, mansion for sale. Charlie Gallagher has listed his luxe 23,000-square-foot residence, located adjacent to the 10th green at Cherry Hills Country Club, for $18.5 million, the Denver Post reported. The mansion, nestled on Cherry Hills Drive in […]
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Investor David Werner is expanding his portfolio in Pennsylvania. David Werner Real Estate Investments has purchased a sprawling life sciences and office campus, spanning nearly 2 million square feet, for $180 million in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, CoStar reported. Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant which had owned the property since its acquisition of Wyeth in 2009, was the […]
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After a fight between developers and preservationists, the Miami Beach home of notorious gangster Al Capone was recently demolished. The Historic Preservation Association of Coral Gables called the move “[n]othing less than historical sacrilege,” in a Facebook post. “In January 2020, our organization hosted an event in Palm Island [part of our destination series] that […]
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A new wave of the British Invasion is coming to Washington, D.C. London-based Soho House is teaming up with “junk bond king” Michael Milken to launch a new club near the White House, according to the Financial Times. The location, on the top three floors of a former bank on Pennsylvania Avenue, will be a […]
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While office market woes have dominated conversations this year, this week exposed there has been no shortage of drama in other real estate sectors, as well. In Chicago, multifamily giant CA Ventures, which claims to have assets valued at $15 billion worldwide, faces an eviction from its headquarters and a United Center luxury box, a […]
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An exclusive golf entertainment center is planned within chipping distance of the PGA of America headquarters in Frisco. The Bays at Frisco will be a four-story resort from California-based TaylorMade Golf and a local golf company, the Bays, the Dallas Morning News reported. It will have 24 suites with private hitting bays, a 25,000-square-foot putting […]
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Shakti C’Ganti didn’t get into real estate to sweep water out of apartment buildings with busted pipes, but when the Texas power grid failed in 2021, pipes burst in 10 percent of the apartments in his 1,200-unit portfolio. He pulled out a broom and started sweeping. The past few years have been a rollercoaster for […]
The post Texas’ fastest-growing multifamily firm sees opportunity in Sun Belt’s madness appeared first on The Real Deal.
The East End has become a death trap for affordable housing projects, but another developer is giving it a go in Cutchogue. Hampton Bays-based Cruz Brothers Construction presented a preliminary proposal for 29475 Main Road to the Town Board, the Suffolk Times reported. The firm hasn’t done any ground-up affordable housing developments before, but does […]
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An application has been filed to turn a South Slope linen supply factory into hundreds of apartments. Arrow Linen Supply Company is seeking new zoning to develop a nine-story, 247,000-square-foot residential project at 441 and 467 Prospect Avenue. The proposal will test the appetite for new housing of rookie City Council member Shahana Hanif, who […]
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Landlord Douglas Emmett won a legal battle this week when a judge denied the Barrington Plaza Tenant Association’s request for a preliminary injunction which would halt evictions from Barrington Plaza, the largest multifamily complex in West Los Angeles. The decision clears the way so Douglas Emmett can start eviction cases on Sept. 5 at the […]
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Vella Group has asked for a public handout to build a 420-unit urban retail village in Downtown Los Angeles. The West Hollywood-based developer seeks a financial incentive from the city to build a residential, hotel, office and retail complex at 670 Mesquit Street in the Arts District, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The request was made […]
The post Vella Group seeks public subsidy on mixed-use ‘village’ in DTLA’s Arts District appeared first on The Real Deal.
San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston’s political future may hinge on the drug-filled Tenderloin and the pending challenge from a member of a property owners group there. The most progressive member of the Board of Supervisors tossed his hat in the ring this week to seek reelection to the seat representing his redrawn district, but he’s […]
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NewQuest Properties aims to build a $204 million mixed-use project in a fast-growing town just south of Austin. The Houston-based firm, co-founded by Steven Alvis and Jay K. Sears, is seeking up to $35 million through the creation of a tax increment reinvestment zone to help fund Vybe Park, a 101-acre “lifestyle center” in Kyle, […]
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San Francisco-based TMG Partners has secured $172 million in Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy financing for the Oakland tower it is selling to PG&E for close to $900 million in 2025. The funding for green improvements at 300 Lakeside Drive was financed by Bay Area-based GreenRock Capital and Cleveland-based KeyBanc Capital Markets. It is the […]
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Vista Property Group is poised to deliver a massive multifamily development to Fulton Market that would be one of the largest the West Loop neighborhood has seen in years. The Chicago Plan Commission approved a proposal that will allow Vista’s $448 million proposal to build 1,450 units spanning three towers at 370 North Morgan Street, […]
The post Plan Commission OKs Vista’s $448M trio of Fulton Market towers appeared first on The Real Deal.
NexPoint Residential Trust plans to part ways with multifamily holdings in Houston and Dallas, in a move to reshape its portfolio and pay off debt. The company is selling two apartment complexes: Old Farm Apartments, which has 734 units, at 2500 Old Farm Road; and the 642-unit Silverbrook at 2934 Alouette Drive in Grand Prairie, […]
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Office distress has unleashed on Big D, as a trio of Dallas-area properties are on the brink of foreclosure. Lenders have filed foreclosure notices for the 18-story office tower at 211 North Ervay in downtown Dallas, the eight-story One Hanover Park building in Addison, and the 6400 Legacy building in Plano’s Legacy business park, the […]
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A KBS Realty Advisors fund may call it quits for a 252,600 square foot office building in Downtown San Francisco. The KBS REIT III fund, tied to the Newport Beach-based investment firm, is poised to surrender the 18-story tower at 201 Spear Street in the Financial District to its lender, the San Francisco Business Times […]
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CMK Companies is gearing up for its multifamily project in the South Loop, where apartment buildings continue to sprout up. The Chicago-based firm, headed by Colin Kihnke, has received a permit to build a 13-story, 149-unit complex with ground floor retail and almost 100 parking spaces at 1723 South Michigan Avenue, Bisnow reported. The development […]
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Former Miami Heat star Udonis Haslem and Magellan Housing plan a 200-unit project with affordable apartments and workforce-priced townhouses for sale in North Miami, The Real Deal has learned. Miami-based Magellan and Haslem, who retired from professional basketball this year, want to develop Catherine Flon Estates, with one building of 174 apartments and several buildings […]
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Sales of single-family homes in California declined 9 percent in July compared to a year earlier, and dropped 3 percent compared to the previous month, according to a monthly report from the California Association of Realtors. The trade group noted that sales declines were showing signs of moderation; July was the first month in more […]
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In December 2019, Nate Paul was under siege. The FBI had raided his home and office that August, casting an air of suspicion over his real estate empire. But the Austin real estate investor wasn’t completely lost, because he had friends in high places — namely, one friend in one very high place. At that moment, […]
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Nightclub mogul Marc Roberts and his wife, Marci Roberts, dropped $16.8 million on a waterfront spec home in Miami Beach, sources told The Real Deal. The couple bought the newly completed house at 5777 Pine Tree Drive from JSFP II LLC, a Florida entity managed by Spectrum Business Ventures CEO Amit Raizada, records show. Spectrum […]
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Two big companies could be expanding into Fort Worth’s booming industrial market, with a combined investment of $585 million. Siemens AG, a German technology company, wants to open a $133 million manufacturing plant at 7200 Harris Legacy Drive at Carter Park East to produce low-voltage switchgear and switchboards, the Fort Worth Report reported. Meanwhile, California-based […]
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A pair of historic mansions on Prairie Avenue will be reverted to residences, after serving as an office for the U.S. Soccer Federation for three decades. Buyers last week finalized a deal to pay just under $4 million for the 19th-century houses at 1801 and 1811 South Prairie Avenue, Crain’s reported. Compass agent Mariam Moeinzadeh […]
The post Large historic Prairie Avenue mansions sell for $3.9M appeared first on The Real Deal.
SteelWave wants to build a 300,000-square-foot industrial and office campus east of Pleasanton on 20 acres it sold to Amazon.com. The San Mateo-based developer has filed plans to build the campus at El Charro Road and the Arroyo Mocho, east of Chocolate Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported. In 2021, SteelWave and Houston-based LionStone […]
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Cosmetics mogul Joni Rogers-Kante has sold a 13,000-square-foot mansion in Irvine for $25 million, a local record. She initially sought $50 million. The founder of SeneGence traded her Mediterranean-style manse at 76 Golden Eagle in Shady Canyon, a gated golf course community in the hills five miles from the coast, the Orange County Register and […]
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The plot thickens. House impeachment managers detailed new accusations of an improper relationship between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Austin real estate investor Nate Paul, the Texas Tribune reported. Paxton and Paul allegedly created an Uber account under a fake name so they could meet and so Paxton could visit the woman with whom […]
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Crime could be correlated to commercial real estate distress in San Francisco, according to a first-of-its-kind report from Trepp, previewed exclusively by TRD and available on the commercial real estate analysis and data company’s website on Thursday. By combining San Francisco Police Department data on both violent and property crimes with business registration data and […]
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Dream Town Real Estate wants to light up the night with its new marketing strategy, which is an overhaul of one of real estate’s most ubiquitous tools. The Chicago-based residential brokerage tapped into its creativity to reinvent a basic concept: the “For Sale” sign. Dream Town will now place for-sale signs that glow at nighttime […]
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Meyers Accesso, a joint venture between South Florida developers Meyers Group and Accesso Partners, secured $46.1 million in construction financing for a planned multifamily project in Lake Worth Beach. Iowa-based American Equity Investment Life Insurance provided a $38.2 million mortgage, and Greenwich, Connecticut-based StepRock Capital gave a $7.9 million loan for Avery Lake Worth, a […]
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For the second time in the last 22 years, mortgage rates have hit 7.16 percent. Last week, that was the average 30-year fixed rate for a mortgage, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. That rate was hit in October, too, but otherwise hasn’t been reached since 2001. The 30-year fixed rate for […]
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Texas Sen. John Whitmire has emerged as the frontrunner in Houston’s mayoral race, which could have huge implications for real estate. The long-time Democrat is Texas’ longest-serving state senator, and he’s garnered support from Republicans, putting him on track to win the Nov. 7 election. The top candidate with a chance to steal his thunder […]
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Grammy Award-winning musician The Weeknd made a splash in 2019 when he paid $21 million for a 8,000-square-foot penthouse on the 18th floor of Emaar Properties’ Beverly West at 1200 Club View Drive in Westwood, according to property records. A pandemic and market slowdown later, The Weeknd, born Abel Tesfaye, has sold the penthouse for […]
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As summer blazes in the Lone Star State, Houston’s single-family rental market is experiencing a red-hot surge of its own. July was not only the hottest month on record temperature wise, it was also the Bayou City’s hottest month on record for leasing. After significant gains in June, the market saw new highs in July […]
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StreetLights Residential is off and running with its next multifamily project. The Dallas-based firm, led by CEO Doug Chestnut, has started construction on the 20-story Galatyn, an apartment high-rise at McKinney and Monticello avenues, just east of Highland Park, the Dallas Morning News reported. The complex will contain 56 luxury units, spanning an average of […]
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Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is close to a deal to refinance a $925 million loan on its Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles, The Real Deal has learned. Morgan Stanley will fund the two-year, floating-rate loan, which will be pooled into a commercial mortgage-backed securities offering, according to a release from Fitch Ratings, a KBRA report and […]
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CIM Group is advancing in its battle with Harry Macklowe. The firm initiated a Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure against Macklowe’s interests in three condos at the swanky 432 Park Avenue. The two sides have been engaged in heated litigation as Macklowe alleges Los Angeles-based CIM swindled him out of $110 million in distributions he claims […]
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Wildhorn Capital wants to cash in on East Austin’s rapid growth, as it pursues a multifamily expansion near East Riverside Drive. The Austin-based firm is working with city officials to rezone 530 units, spanning two apartment complexes, at 2207 Wickersham Lane and 2239 Cromwell Circle, the Austin Business Journal reported. If the city approves Wildhorn’s […]
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Developer Robert Green has moved forward with controversial plans to raze a former church to build 74 apartments in Mar Vista. Green was approved by the Los Angeles Planning Commission to build the six-story complex at 12124 West Pacific Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The unnamed church, built in the 1920s, would be demolished. Plans […]
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Miami Beach officials’ cozy relationship with beach concessionaires Boucher Brothers and fancy restaurateur Major Food Group allotted them some perks. On several occasions, Mayor Dan Gelber, city commissioners and staff sought favors from executives of the two companies, according to the Miami Herald. For instance, in May, Gelber texted Major Food Group co-founder Jeff Zalaznick […]
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The Village of Rosemont finally acquired a large development site after years of pursuing a deal with James DeRose’s firm. The village reached an agreement to pay $12.75 million for the 19-acre tract at 6608 North Mannheim Road, between the Jane Addams Tollway and O’Hare International Airport, the Daily Herald reported. The seller is DeRose’s […]
The post Rosemont snags 19-acre development site from James DeRose for $12.8M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A development team has filed plans to build a six-story, 41-unit apartment building in south Glendale. The project would rise at 345 West Cerritos Avenue, near the Glendale Metrolink station, on a 0.3-acre property that’s currently occupied by a 1960s-built brick office building. The plan would replace that one-story building with the apartment complex and […]
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Metropole’s $215 million loan at 681 Fifth Avenue has fallen delinquent, according to Trepp, a fresh reminder that even prestigious commercial corridors are feeling the industry’s headwinds. But 681 Fifth’s troubles predated the pandemic. Metropole, headed by CEO Robert Siegel, lost Tommy Hilfiger’s flagship as a tenant in 2019 and has yet to fill the […]
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Four years after San Francisco voters approved a $600 million housing bond, the city wants them to kick in another $300 million. Faced with a state mandate to build 46,000 affordable homes by 2031, San Francisco officials proposed putting a $300 million bond on the March ballot to pay for affordable homes, the San Francisco […]
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Swiss bank UBS settled the last of the lingering cases brought by the Department of Justice against large financial institutions after the global financial crisis. UBS agreed to pay $1.4 billion in civil penalties pertaining to alleged fraud and misconduct in its residential mortgage-backed securities offering predating the 2008 crisis, CNBC reported. The Justice Department […]
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Lendlease has shut down the construction crane at its $1.15 billion condo tower in San Francisco, citing poor marketing conditions. The Australia-based developer stopped work for the second time this year at its 47-story tower at 30 North Van Ness Avenue, the only skyscraper to break ground since the pandemic, the San Francisco Business Times […]
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The remaining studios at the Hit Factory in Hell’s Kitchen — where Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Whitney Houston and many others recorded a generation of chart-topping songs — may have laid down their final tracks. American Strategic Investment, landlord of a 15,000-square-foot retail property that has been vacant at 421 West 54th Street since 2018, […]
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Prices of existing homes in Dallas-Fort Worth are higher than newly built homes, a rare occurrence that highlights how much the market has changed since last year. The median price of a new home in DFW dropped 6 percent from roughly $423,000 in June 2022 to $398,000 in June 2023. Simultaneously, existing home prices climbed […]
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The cyberattack on MLS provider Rapattoni Corp. that has crippled real estate listings in Northern California and elsewhere raises the question of security for other regional online services. Investigations continue for the attack on Westlake Village-based Rapattoni, which has rendered Northern California agents unable to access listings for about a week. One of the most […]
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A Chicago harp company wants to harmonize with a potential buyer, as it looks to offload its longtime five-story home on the western edge of Fulton Market. Lyon & Healy Harps has hired KWill RE brokers Marco Federow, Matt Knafel and Hugh Williams to sell its building at 168 North Ogden Avenue, CoStar reported. No […]
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The largest creditor in the Banyan Cay Resort & Golf Club’s bankruptcy case wants to seize control of the unfinished mixed-use development in West Palm Beach. Days after the $102.1 million sale for 200-acre Banyan Cay fell apart, an affiliate for Calmwater Capital is seeking to purchase the property at 200 Banyan Way through a […]
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Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood is adding to what’s already one of the largest business hubs in Texas. The Dallas-based firm has started construction on two industrial buildings at AllianceTexas, a 27,000-acre complex in North Fort Worth with more than 53 million square feet of office, retail and industrial space, the Dallas Morning News reported. The […]
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Three “gateway cities” in the South Bay have passed rent control ordinances after landlords started jacking up rents. The City of Maywood approved a rent control ordinance, following the lead of nearby Bell Gardens and Cudahy, the Los Angeles Times reported. Maywood’s rent control will limit rent increases to 4 percent, and begins next month […]
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Miami Gardens native Rick Ross, a.k.a. Ricky Rozay, dropped $35 million to acquire the waterfront Star Island estate he was in contract to purchase. The Grammy-nominated rapper and record executive closed on the 12,400-square-foot mansion at 37 Star Island Drive in Miami Beach, according to the listing agents. Ross posted about the purchase on social […]
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Just because WeWork is teetering on the edge of oblivion doesn’t mean the co-working industry is poised to go with it. In the wake of the pandemic, commercial broker Drew Sanden identified a gap in the market and he created TailoredSpace, a company specializing in flexible co-working and communal spaces in Southern California suburbs, the […]
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Dallas-based real estate development firm RREAF Holdings has announced a substantial investment in the RV property market, acquiring five RV parks across Alabama, Florida, and Texas. The company’s $157 million move signals a strategic pivot toward the thriving outdoor living sector, the Dallas Morning News reported. The newly established division aims to provide top-tier, well-situated, […]
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Mat Ishbia has a lot to celebrate these days, including an amusement park-like home under construction as well as the return of his company back into profitability. Pontiac-based United Wholesale Mortgage’s performance mirrors its Detroit competitor, Rocket Companies, the Detroit Free Press reported. UWM, the purported top mortgage lender in the nation by volume, announced […]
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A large-scale development in Phoenix that had been derailed by the Covid pandemic is back on track, but with a different focus. Developer Pivotal Group’s Central Park is being reimagined with a more residential emphasis after the initial commercial-dominated plan faced pandemic-related setbacks, AZCentral reported. Pivotal submitted a modified plan last week to the city, […]
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Now that’s … better. Digital lending company Better.com has received approval for its unconventional IPO plan, signaling a major step forward for the firm, HousingWire reported. Shareholders of special purpose acquisition company Aurora Acquisition Corp have voted in favor of the merger proposal, allowing Better.com to go public after a series of challenges. New York-based […]
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Multifamily occupancy and investment sales volume are down across South Florida. Landlords are also offering some concessions — including a month’s free rent or a discount on fees. Occupancy is down 2 percentage points from last year, averaging 95 percent in the second quarter, according to a report from Berkadia. Investment deal volume plummeted, falling […]
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One of Seattle’s oldest skyscrapers has hit the market. Unico and Goldman Sachs Management have put the historic Smith Tower on the market, but without a specified price, the Seattle Times, which discovered the news through a promotional flier, reported. The venture bought the 109-year-old property in 2019 for $138 million, the outlet reported. The […]
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Real estate agents in the Bay Area and various parts of the country are facing significant challenges as they grapple with the aftermath of a cyberattack on a Southern California data host for property listing information. The attack, which occurred several days ago, has left agents scrambling for workarounds to navigate the disruption to their […]
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Some developments are going the extra mile to give their residents an escape from the urban bustle of cab horns, construction and the not-so-occasional unfriendly pedestrian interaction in New York City. Luxurious condos in some of the city’s busiest and noisiest neighborhoods are increasingly employing advanced soundproofing technology to create tranquil living spaces, Curbed reported. […]
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A Pennsylvania real estate agent was arrested last week on charges of assaulting law enforcement with a deadly weapon during the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. Lowell Gates, a 63-year-old Mechanicsburg native who owns Linlo Properties, faces both felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from his actions during the riot that disrupted the […]
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LCOR is bringing geothermal to a Coney Island apartment project, the first multifamily building in New York City to do so. The 463-unit rental project at 1515 Surf Avenue will produce 60 percent fewer emissions as a result, Crain’s reported. The geothermal system will heat and cool the building, and power its hot water systems. […]
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The owners of Cher’s former home believe they can cash in on the superstar’s former digs. Canadian financier James Eaton and his wife, Cecily, have listed the Miami Beach mansion at 64 La Gorce Circle for $42.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The couple purchased the home only three years ago for $17 million. […]
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Luxury developers are looking to make a splash in the market by flooding their buildings with a second pool. Dual pools have become a popular selling point for developers of condo buildings in New York City, Bloomberg reported. While a single pool has become ubiquitous for most high-end builds, a second pool creates an opportunity […]
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Toll Brothers’ next apartment play is in Arizona. The homebuilder’s apartment division secured $65 million in construction financing from Banc of California for Henri, a 313-unit collaboration with EJF Capital in Phoenix, Multi-Housing News reported. The development was first unveiled in October 2022, and ground was broken on the site in July. Architects Orange is […]
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The problems keep mounting for Nightingale Properties. The troubled real estate company is under investigation by the federal Department of Justice and the SEC after it was revealed the company allegedly diverted to its CEO’s accounts tens of millions of dollars it had raised to acquire two buildings, Bisnow reported. “The Feds are absolutely engaged […]
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When developer Stephen Wendell of Mountain Shore Properties sizes up a location for his next project, he looks for a city on the rise — the next Austin or Nashville. “Our background allows us to see a city and maybe see it a little better than its locals can because they have a biased lens,” Wendell […]
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The wildfires that ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui this week will leave lasting consequences beyond the death toll. Laihana, a resort city on the western side of Maui, has been “burnt to the ground,” according to Reuters. Multiple neighborhoods have been completely destroyed as fires nearly cut it off from the rest of the […]
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The big news of the week was WeWork’s announcement that there is “substantial doubt” that it will remain in business. If — or when — that happens, the shockwaves will be felt across the office sector, such is the reach of the coworking giant. Interim CEO David Tolley blamed “excess supply in commercial real estate, […]
The post CRE’s existential crisis didn’t need more drama, but it got some appeared first on The Real Deal.
Chicago’s Department of Planning & Development will soon have a new leader. Maurice Cox, commissioner of the department, submitted his letter of resignation to Mayor Brandon Johnson on Friday, Crain’s reported. It remains unclear, however, exactly when he will officially step down, as he hasn’t announced his last day yet. Cox began his tenure as […]
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The ties between litigious Austin developer Nate Paul and suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is being examined under the microscope of a grand jury. Two sources familiar with the Paxton-Paul relationship, whose identities have not been revealed, were called to testify by federal prosecutors, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Criminal prosecutors continue to dig for […]
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Rents are up in Houston, but an influx of multifamily supply has helped keep prices relatively affordable. Monthly rents in the Houston area reached an average of $1,358 at the mid-year point, marking a 4 percent increase year-over-year, the Houston Chronicle reported, citing a study by real estate firm Berkadia. Nationwide, residential rents increased 3.6 […]
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The beleaguered Nightingale Properties has averted foreclosure at its SoHo office building. Elie Schwartz’s firm had fallen behind on its loan for the boutique office space at 300 Lafayette Street. Lender TPG Real Estate Finance argued in filings that it was owed about $129 million, putting Nightingale at risk of losing the 86,500-square-foot building. But […]
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Real estate’s once maligned asset class is strong in Houston. The metro’s retail market saw rent hikes and low vacancy in the second quarter, amid significant dips in deliveries and net absorption. The market maintained a 4.8 percent vacancy rate for a record five consecutive quarters, according to a JLL report. It’s the lowest rate […]
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Howard Hughes’ credit rating was downgraded by S&P Global Ratings, which cited weaker performance — including its unprofitable Seaport development — and rising debt at the Texas-based real estate firm. S&P said it expects Howard Hughes’s credit metrics to deteriorate in the next year, given weaker operating performance and higher debt levels to fund development. […]
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Related Group and BH Group paid $30 million for a condominium development site adjacent to the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, The Real Deal has learned. The joint venture closed on Friday on the site at 3210 – 3690 South Ocean Drive, sources familiar with the deal said. Related and BH did not respond to […]
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CA Ventures, a Chicago-based multifamily giant claiming to have assets valued at $15 billion worldwide, is in a crunch for cash and facing an eviction from its headquarters and a United Center luxury box, a series of lawsuits filed in the last two months show. A River North office venture of Jaime “Jay” Javors is […]
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Commercial real estate broker George Pino was charged with criminal misdemeanors following an investigation into a deadly boat crash last Labor Day Weekend in the Florida Keys. Parents of one of the victims are reeling at the light charges, the Miami Herald reported. Pino, who heads Doral-based commercial real estate brokerage State Street Realty, faces […]
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Overton Moore Properties and Invesco Real Estate have leased the last unoccupied building in a new industrial campus in Fremont to a Chinese auto parts firm. The Gardena- and Atlanta-based developers rented the 35,000-square-foot building to Suzhou HYC Electronic Technology at Pacific Commons South at 5210 Bunche Drive, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. Terms […]
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A mass eviction effort from Applesway Investment Group left apartment dwellers in southeast Houston scratching their heads. A subsidiary of the Dallas-based firm served about 120 eviction notices to tenants of the Cabo San Lucas apartment complex at 9220 Nathaniel Street, Houston Landing reported. The property is one of Applesway’s five apartments that have gone […]
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Amid all the terrible news about the office market, here’s an interesting stat: When the pandemic hit, 71 percent of office buildings were more than 90 percent leased. Today, 66 percent are that full. The comparison, from a CBRE report, is a glass-half-full way of looking at an office sector facing an unprecedented challenge: the […]
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Fidelis Realty Partners has listed the Meyerland Plaza shopping center near Houston. The nearly 1 million-square-foot complex is located in Meyerland, the center of the city’s vibrant Jewish community, situated just outside the West Loop off Beechnut Street. Originally built in the late 1950s, Meyerland Plaza was the Bayou City’s second enclosed regional shopping mall. […]
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When Dallas real estate investor Raheel Bhai pleaded guilty to wire fraud in March, his father was accused of helping his son steal millions of dollars of lender funds. Now the father, Ismail Essa Bhai, is speaking out to deny those allegations, Bisnow reported. Benefit Street Partners, a New York-based lender defrauded by Raheel Bhai, […]
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Loyola University Chicago just spent a pretty penny on an apartment complex near its North Side campus. The 58-unit Arcade Residences at 1135 West Sheridan Road came with a $35-million-dollar price tag and straddles the line between Rogers Park and Edgewater, Crain’s reported. The sale equates to roughly $603,000 per unit. Loyola acquired the property […]
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The former town attorney for Bay Harbor Islands pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud after allegedly orchestrating a multimillion-dollar real estate scheme. Craig Sherman, town attorney for more than 40 years, admitted that he defrauded friends and clients through the scheme, which ran from 2013 to 2020. Sherman secured investments for real estate […]
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C&S Enterprises aims to park a 12-unit apartment building behind a historic home in Hollywood Hills once occupied by “Wonder Woman” actress Lynda Carter. An affiliate of the Beverly Hills-based rental property firm has filed plans to build the apartments behind the 93-year-old Greek Revival home at 7922 West Hollywood Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. […]
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Fallout from L.A. developer Robert Shapiro’s fraud scheme continues to accumulate, with the latest wrinkle surfacing this month when a trust charged with recovering assets for the scheme’s victims reached a $25.5 million settlement with one of Shapiro’s former law firms. Three years ago, Shapiro was sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating one […]
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Two sizable waterfront properties have hit the market in the Hudson Valley, seeking eight figures apiece. One property, the Hudson Valley Wine Village, has 37 acres of fully authorized developable land with necessary permissions for large-scale, mixed-use development. Clearances include approval for 800 residential units, 450,000 square feet of industrial, over 155,000 square feet of […]
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Raymond James Financial is consolidating its Chicago operations into a newly renovated building in the West Loop with a Chicago River view. The Florida-based financial giant has leased about 74,000 square feet across two floors in the 1.4 million-square-foot campus at 120 South Riverside Plaza, the Chicago Business Journal reported. Cushman & Wakefield brokers Todd […]
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A Clinton Hill man pleaded guilty to a deed fraud scheme in which he bagged $775,000, the Brooklyn district attorney said Wednesday. Derrick Johnson, a.k.a. Jay Rendell, copped to grand larceny stemming from an indictment for a deed fraud scheme involving properties in Park Slope, Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant. “This defendant filed phony deeds and mortgage […]
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Suburban Chicago’s hotel distress is still churning, with an asset next to Illinois’ largest mall serving as one of the latest examples after its surrender by T2 Capital Management and First Equity Group. A joint venture of Wheaton-based T2 and Chicago-based First Equity gave up a big Hyatt in Schaumburg at 1800 East Golf Road, […]
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A prolific built-to-rent developer is making headway on its next project in the Dallas area, where rental homes are sprouting up rapidly. Phoenix-based NexMetro Communities will soon open Avilla Boat Club in Fort Worth, a luxury rental community with 107 homes, and it’s planning two more projects in Anna and Cleburne that will open for […]
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Engel & Völkers is expanding in Miami with a new franchisee, The Real Deal has learned. Daniel Nault, executive vice president of sales and leasing for the Quebec City and Miami-based real estate firm Heafey Group, acquired Engel & Völkers franchises, according to the brokerage. Pierre Heafey, president of his company, is an investor in […]
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A lending giant is siding with a small tenant association in a lawsuit against a South Side apartment owner, signaling a potential power shift between multifamily landlords, their lenders and residents in Chicago when it comes to regulating housing quality. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., better known as Freddie Mac, has sued Apex Chicago […]
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The City of San Francisco has moved forward with plans to build up to 450 affordable homes near a Mission BART station. The city seeks a developer to build the affordable apartments at 1979 Mission Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported. A request for qualifications, first reported by Mission Local, went out last week. […]
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Triple Five Group has scuttled a $150 million deal to buy 47 acres in Canoga Park once used to build rocket engines to send astronauts to the moon. The Canadian owner of the Mall of America backed out of a pending sale by Virginia-based Raytheon Technologies for the former Rocketdyne site at 6633 Canoga Avenue, […]
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Indeed is looking to sublease all five floors of Domain Gateway, putting 184,000 square feet of Class A space back on the market. The job search company, co-headquartered in Austin and Stamford, Connecticut, leased the building at 2900 Esperanza Crossing in 2019. The move means Austin now has more than 6 million square feet of […]
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Chris Jiashu Xu’s love affair with Queens is growing. The developer behind the borough’s tallest building has a 370,000-square-foot, 10-story mixed-use project in the works in Far Rockaway at 116 Beach 36 Street. It’s unclear if Xu’s latest development in Eastern Queens will be a rental building or condominium. The firm did not return a […]
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Dream Motor Group made a turbo-charged joyride into South Florida’s commercial real estate market with a combined $150 million acquisition of four properties in Miami-Dade County. Affiliates of Birmingham, Alabama-based Dream Motor bought the former police headquarters building in Coral Gables for $45 million, an auto body repair shop in Cutler Bay for $5 million […]
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WeWork on Tuesday acknowledged ”substantial doubt” about whether it can continue operating, citing a high level of membership cancellations and a shortage of cash. The co-working giant told investors that the next 12 months will make or break the company as it seeks to cut expenses, renegotiate lease terms, grow membership and raise new capital. […]
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Related Companies and Orda Management have scored a big sale at a marquee development. In what could be a sign of strength in the multifamily market, where investment sales have slowed dramatically, the partnership has sold a tower at its complex at 130 West 15th Street in Chelsea to Pacific Urban Investors for $185 million, […]
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Silver Star REIT’s transition to self-storage is getting real. The Houston-based REIT hired self-storage pro Steve Treadwell as CEO. The decision comes as part of the company’s efforts to transition its entire 6.8 million-square-foot portfolio into the self-storage sector. The firm owns 44 commercial properties across the Texas Triangle. Its plans to shift its portfolio […]
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Cascade Homes has its sights on one of the last remaining undeveloped sites in Lakeway, but it needs local approval first. Lakeway’s Zoning and Planning Commission voted unanimously to rezone the 34-acre tract, leaving it up to city council to give the final stamp of approval. If greenlighted, Cascade would build 130 homes and two […]
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A Streeterville apartment complex is up for grabs, and if its fate is similar to other nearby apartments, it could trade for far less than what the sellers invested in the property. Chicago-based Jupiter Realty and an affiliate of MetLife have hired JLL brokers Kevin Girard, Mark Stern, Zach Kaufman and Jason Zyck to market […]
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The clock may be running out for Proxy, a quarter-acre assortment of shops in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley earmarked for dozens of affordable homes. The city-owned “town square” for local residents on Octavia Boulevard between Hayes and Linden streets has been targeted by Supervisor Dean Preston for up to 75 affordable apartments, the San Francisco […]
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The Chicago Housing Authority notched a small win Tuesday in Cook County court against housing activists living in one of its properties without authorization, even as the case calls into question the organization’s practices surrounding vacant properties known as “scattered site” affordable units. Those living at the house on North Washtenaw Avenue in Humboldt Park […]
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Gary Barnett wants a do-over at The Briarcliffe. His firm, Extell Development, bought back a commercial condominium unit at the Midtown building from Forrell & Thomas last week for $11.35 million. Extell had sold the unit in 2006 to Forrell for $10.2 million. The Briarcliffe, at 171 West 57th Street, has 35 apartments spread over […]
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After reaching a low point this spring, home price declines across the Bay have begun to reverse course, according to recent Compass data. In San Francisco, for example, the three-month rolling average in May was down 20 percent, year over year. By July, the year-over-year decline was only 16 percent, for an average price of […]
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A hidden buyer with ties to Chicago picked up a waterfront Miami mansion next to billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin’s estate. The Coconut Grove property once belonged to the Queen of Pop, Madonna. Property records show wealth manager Paul Morelli, trustee of Brickell Holdings Trust, sold the 8,400-square-foot, nine-bedroom mansion at 3029 Brickell Avenue […]
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It’s a good time for the multifamily market, if you’re in Dallas-Fort Worth. More than 30,000 apartment units sold during the first half of 2023. DFW ranked first in the nation, and multifamily accounted for more than half of the region’s $8 billion in investment property purchases this year, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing […]
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A new leader is at the helm of Cawley Chicago, as its namesake founder steps down. Zack Pruitt, who’s been serving as a managing principal for the real estate brokerage and services firm, is succeeding Dan Cawley as president and CEO of the company, REjournals reported. A potential overhaul of the firm — which specializes […]
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Houston’s multifamily real estate sector showed tenacity amid a backdrop of high-profile foreclosures and economic fluctuations. Apartment sales topped $611 million year-to-date, with Greystar and embattled firm Applesway Investment Group among the top five buyers in the market, according to Berkadia. Meanwhile, local firms like the Finger Companies and Hines are among the region’s top […]
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Five Point Holdings has sold 84 acres at Great Park Neighborhoods in Irvine for $357.8 million. The Irvine-based master developer sold 798 homesites last quarter to various home builders, the Orange County Business Journal reported. The deal works out to nearly $4.3 million an acre, and $448,000 per home lot. The buyer of a major […]
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Jennifer Lind is Coldwell Banker Realty’s new president of the West Region. She will oversee operations in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. Before her promotion, Lind served as president for Northern California and oversaw the onboarding of $97 million gross commission income in 2022, a company record. As regional president, Lind was responsible for oversight […]
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South Florida’s multifamily party may be coming to an end. The market softened in the second quarter, and is expected to further slow by year-end, according to a recently released report. In the second quarter, occupancy dropped across all South Florida submarkets, with the region averaging 95 percent, down 2 percentage points from last year, […]
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Chris McColpin and Andrew Porteous joined Newmark as senior managing directors, specializing in debt, equity and structured finance services. McColpin is based in Austin and joins the firm from JLL. Porteous is based in Dallas and previously worked for Morgan Stanley. NAI Robert Lynn hired Nick Peterson as president of its industrial division in Houston. […]
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Compass says it brought in $51 million more than it spent in the second quarter, the first time the residential brokerage has been cash-flow positive since going public in 2021. The company still posted a net loss – which includes stock-based compensation and other expenses – of $48 million, according to its second-quarter earnings. That […]
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A Dallas-based firm inked a sweet property management deal near Houston. Rebees Management Company, has taken over the 32-acre Sugar Land Town Square, at the intersection of Interstate 69 and State Highway 6, the Houston Business Journal reported. Property owner Lionstone Investment originally appointed Rebees to manage the retail portion of the site. Now, the […]
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Commercial refinancings are happening — but you better have the country’s largest e-commerce company as a tenant. Preylock is close to scoring a $1.1 billion refinancing package for a portfolio of Amazon.com warehouses across the country, according to ratings agency KBRA and a source familiar with the matter. The commercial mortgage-backed securities deal is expected […]
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Though he didn’t make a living at his chosen profession of filmmaking, San Francisco-based entrepreneur Mitch Braff has created a company that sells windows that look like something out of “Total Recall.” Braff, 56 is disrupting the luxury real estate market with his innovative interior design company LiquidView, which creates large, life-like digital windows that […]
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The question over whether 90-year-old Dianne Feinstein should retire isn’t the only controversial issue swirling around the U.S. senator from California. The legal battle over the estate of Feinstein’s late billionaire financier Richard Blum sheds light on common disputes among blended families, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Two lawsuits filed by Feinstein’s daughter Katherine in […]
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A 53-year-old North Carolina man has been handed a three-year prison sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release and structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements. Ricky Lamont Congleton pleaded guilty to the charges on Nov. 9, according to a press release from the Department of Justice. In October 2014, Congleton was sentenced to […]
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A 53-year-old Florida man whose company claimed to provide mortgage auditing services recently pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Brian Roy Lozito, a resident of Orange Park, faces a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, and he will be required to pay restitution to the victims he […]
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Deals across South Florida are falling apart, put on hold or tangled in litigation. That’s partly due to the complicated nature of the deals. Typically one buyer is negotiating with up to hundreds of sellers, and the bulk purchase can take years to close. The environment has also gotten more challenging because it’s harder for […]
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The octogenarian real estate developer who for decades has served as Seattle’s talisman of office market success is now on the forefront of the city’s recent struggles. Martin Selig, 86, who is known for his resilience in previous downturns, is facing unprecedented challenges in the city’s current office market slump caused by the pandemic, the […]
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Kushner Real Estate Group and Goldman Sachs Asset Management sold a 440-unit garden apartment complex in Plainsboro, New Jersey, six years after acquiring it. The joint venture sold Addison at Princeton Meadows for $115 million, over 50 percent more than they originally bought for $73.3 million, to Colony Hills Capital, Real Estate New Jersey reported. […]
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Real estate developer Robert Matthews was sentenced in Connecticut federal court to over five years in prison for a series of multimillion frauds spanning Connecticut, Massachusetts and Florida. The 65-year-old Matthews, who lives in West Palm Beach, faced charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and tax evasion related to real estate swindles that caused losses of […]
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A Syracuse landlord has been severely sanctioned by a New York state court and ordered to pay more than $150,000 for failing to address significant code violations at its properties. The court found Green National and its owner, Troy Green, in civil and criminal contempt of court for disobeying a previous court order to comply […]
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“Million Dollar Listing: Los Angeles” star Josh Altman has been pitched by a lot of real-estate tech startups. Altman, along with brother Matt and wife Heather, has invested in Matterport cameras and second-home co-ownership company Pacaso, among others. But he never put his money into real estate games. That changed earlier this year when he […]
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In a surprising twist, German real estate behemoth Newport RE has announced a deal to sell its South Downtown portfolio,with over 50 buildings and several acres of parking lots across approximately 10 blocks of downtown Atlanta. The buyer is Braden Fellman Group, a well-known Atlanta developer with a reputation for revitalizing industrial properties, the Atlanta […]
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Women and nonbinary tradespeople who want to consult on their craft have a growing online platform to check out. Matriarchy Build is becoming a significant platform for these tradespeople and those who seek their input, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. As home ownership for single women increases, more are turning to people that look like themselves […]
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A Florida-based real estate company accused of scamming homeowners is facing more legal hot water in yet another state. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost obtained a preliminary injunction against MV Realty of Ohio — along with its founder, Amanda Zachman, and its principal broker, Diana Remar — ordering the company to cease its alleged deceptive practices, […]
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Instead of distancing himself from Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appears to be defending himself by saying their relationship — and alleged favors that sprung out of it — doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment. Paxton — who investigated allegations of misconduct by federal and state authorities […]
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A fat 2021 was followed by a lean 2022, at least in terms of C-suite compensation — or is it C-minus-suite? — at residential brokerages. According to filings reviewed by The Real Deal, total executive compensation at the big public brokerages dropped considerably in 2022, with salaries cut and other financial sweeteners gutted. In this […]
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Some positive news for negative carbon. Cody Finke and Hugo Leandri’s Brimstone landed an industry certification for its carbon-negative cement, with significant implications for real estate’s climate goals. Brimstone’s green Portland cement received third-party certification that it meets the ASTM C150 standard, one of the most commonly used materials standards in construction, the Washington Post […]
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In “Billy Madison,” Adam Sandler’s character tries to steal milk for him and his teacher, claiming it could be “our milk.” A real estate agent who essentially took a cue from the movie received a punishment harsher than any detention. Canadian real estate agent Mike Rose was fined 20,000 Canadian dollars — slightly more than […]
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It’s earnings call season, when C-suite executives do their best to put positive spin on circumstances that aren’t so good. This time around was no different during a period of office and multifamily tumult. At New York Community Bank, CEO Thomas Cangemi noted the company wasn’t seeing delinquencies on its multifamily loans. But the truth […]
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One of the nation’s most prolific home builders is ramping up its operations in Texas after moving its headquarters here. Landsea Homes recently acquired more than 100 properties in the Austin area, where it’s also developing 800 single-family homes as part of a master-planned community, the Dallas Morning News reported. Landsea announced in March that […]
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Coby White is putting down roots in Chicago a month after inking a new deal with the Bulls. The NBA point guard purchased a home on North Cleveland Avenue in a deal set to close Monday, according to a source familiar with the transaction. The 7,000-square-foot home has six bedrooms and seven bathrooms and was […]
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Once one of the most publicized homes in Manhattan, the Woolworth Building’s “Pinnacle” penthouse turned out to be anything but. After six years on the market — and multiple price cuts — the 12,000-square-foot apartment finally sold for $30 million, barely a quarter of the original $110 million asking price, the Wall Street Journal reported. […]
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John Kilroy of Kilroy Realty compared the troubled city of San Francisco to a dope fiend who must hit bottom before asking for help. The head of the Los Angeles-based real estate investment trust used rehab-speak to call upon San Francisco to meet its problems with crime, homelessness, empty offices and vacant storefronts head on, […]
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Pacific Gas & Electric has agreed to buy its new headquarters in Downtown Oakland for $900 million, or close to $1,000 per square foot. The price represents a huge premium in the Bay Area office market, where recent office sales range from about $120 to $643 per square foot. But the PG&E deal came with […]
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MileStone Community Builders could reap the benefits of a recently passed state law in its launch of a subdivision south of Austin. For the last six years, the Austin-based firm has been working with Buda officials to allow a residential development, dubbed Persimmon, on a 775-acre tract. Both sides are getting closer to reaching a […]
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Location Ventures allegedly used funds earmarked for a Coconut Grove co-living and co-working project to pay One Sotheby’s International Realty commissions for sales generated at another completed development, according to former CFO Greg Brooks. Brooks, serving as a witness for a group of minority partners in that Coconut Grove project, recounted the allegedly improper payments […]
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Adam Potter is taking another shot at developing affordable housing in Sag Harbor, but a lot less of it. Potter announced plans to develop a site bounded by Bridge and Rose streets behind Main Street, 27East reported. He has yet to file them with the village. Where Potter once planned 79 housing units, all affordable, […]
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Safeco Insurance, concerned about earthquake risk in San Francisco and the East Bay, will soon send shock waves across the region by canceling coverage for nearly 1,000 homeowners. The Seattle-based arm of Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance plans to drop more than 950 policies in the Bay Area when they come up for renewal in October, […]
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Fútbol superstar Lionel Messi may be purchasing a waterfront Fort Lauderdale mansion that traded hands earlier this year for $29.7 million, The Real Deal has learned. Messi, who joined InterMiami CF last month, has been house hunting across South Florida, primarily in Broward and Palm Beach counties, alongside his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, and their children. […]
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Opendoor is trying to close the door on its cash flow issues. The iBuyer did well enough on that front to post a modest $23 million profit last quarter, it announced Thursday, after having lost $101 million in the previous quarter and $54 million in the year-ago period. Still, its stock fell in after-hours trading […]
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Master-planned communities are all the rage in Houston, and the numbers prove it. Texas’ largest city dominated RCLCO’s list of the nation’s 50 top-selling master-planned communities for the second year in a row. Thirteen communities made the list, totaling 4,800 year-to-date transactions. Three of the top 10 most active communities are in Greater Houston, more […]
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It was a brutal second quarter for two giant Chicago-based brokerages. JLL’s net income last quarter was a fraction of what it was during the same period last year, dropping to $3.2 million from $335.5 million. Equity losses were a major factor, totaling $103.5 million last quarter compared with $53.6 million in earnings in the […]
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Not one. Not two. But three federal agencies are investigating embattled developer Rishi Kapoor and Location Ventures, the Coral Gables-based firm he led for seven years until stepping down last month under a scandalous cloud. Location Ventures’ former CFO Greg Brooks testified during a video deposition last month that the FBI, the Securities Exchange Commission […]
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The original Philz Coffee in San Francisco’s Mission District will soon drip its last cup of joe. The San Francisco-based chain will not renew its lease at its original green-colored storefront at 3101 24th Street, Mission Local reported. The Philz at 24th and Folsom streets, founded in 2003 and festooned with local art and a […]
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One day after Los Angeles tenants faced a deadline to pay pandemic-era back rent, the L.A. City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee on Wednesday advanced a proposal to use around $58 million in Measure ULA funds for a new tenant assistance program. “I am very worried about the deadline,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass told local […]
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One of downtown Chicago’s most prominent retail spaces has a new owner after its lender took over following some tough luck on leasing deals completed by a venture of John Rutledge’s Oxford Capital. Connecticut-based Starwood Property Trust took possession of The Shops at LondonHouse, the 30,000-square-foot retail property at the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue […]
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An eminent domain case involving a bar in downtown San Antonio has been resolved. Vince Cantu, owner of Moses Rose’s Hideout at 516 East Houston Street, has agreed to sell the bar to the Alamo Trust, a nonprofit that oversees the Alamo, the San Antonio Report reported. Cantu must vacate the property by Aug. 15 […]
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As banks slink away from traditional financing decisions in the wake of this spring’s banking debacle, private credit funds are rising to meet the moment. Private credit funds are becoming more ubiquitous in the world of consumer lending, Bloomberg reported. Known as a source of funding for corporate buyouts, private credit funds are tackling more […]
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With one in three offices in San Francisco dark, it’s no surprise that developers and investors have a dim view of its future officescape. A survey of industry stakeholders across California focused on San Francisco’s office market over the next several years found widespread pessimism, with diminishing occupancy and rental rates, the San Francisco Business […]
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Kilroy Realty pumped the brakes on an office tower development in North Austin last fall, and it’s spent millions of dollars more on the halted project than was previously known. The Los Angeles-based firm has invested more than $66 million on Stadium Tower at 10615 Burnet Road, according to Kilory’s second quarter earnings report, the […]
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Hudson Pacific Properties faces battles on two fronts: a weak market for office leasing and two major Hollywood strikes threatening film and television production at its studios. The Los Angeles-based REIT reported a $31 million loss in the second quarter, compared to a $20 million loss in the prior period, according to an earnings release […]
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An affiliate of the hotel chain Club Quarters is staking out a new position in the lodging network with a discounted purchase of the note to a $61 million mezzanine loan, tied to four struggling Blackstone-owned hotels in the downtowns of major cities. New York-based Masterworks Development, an affiliate of the Club Quarters operating hotel […]
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With traditional office buildings plagued by record high vacancies amid the remote-work era and market turbulence from multiple headwinds, co-working spaces are starting to proliferate beyond downtown and into Chicago’s neighborhood retail markets and suburbs. Co-working spaces shared by multiple companies and overseen by a communal manager that handles and collects each tenant’s rent are […]
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A project to expand an apartment complex near Cutler Bay is getting a $40 million federal grant through Miami-Dade County. Preservation of Affordable Housing, or POAH, owns Cutler Manor, a 218-unit apartment property at 10875 Southwest 216th Street. POAH, a non-profit developer, is proposing to use the grant to transform Cutler Manor into a 445-unit […]
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Hotel California has become Hotel Terminus, with a steep decline in new hospitality suites across the state. In the first six months of the year, 20 new hotels opened across the Golden State, down 31 percent in a year and 46 percent compared to the average pace of 2018-2021, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported, […]
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Carpenter & Co. is nearing the startline for a highly-anticipated hotel and condo development in Dallas’ Turtle Creek neighborhood. Design work has been completed for the $750 million Four Seasons Hotel and condo tower at Turtle Creek Boulevard and Cedar Springs Road, and Carpenter expects to start construction by January, the Dallas Morning News reported. […]
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Boston-based BXP, formerly known as Boston Properties, is pausing its 1-million-square-foot office project in San Jose, according to documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Platform 16 is one of the largest office projects in San Jose’s pipeline, located near Diridon Station. Plans call for a three-building campus occupying a full city block along […]
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The city said it has settled thousands of violations tied to four New York City landlords in a push to rid apartments of dangers like lead exposure. Landlords Ken Nasab, David Kleiner, Steven Finkelstein and Bashkim Celaj — who each own and manage between 800 and 2,500 apartments — paid a combined $500,000 in the […]
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New listings and signed contracts for single-family homes took a dive in Los Angeles County in July. There were 2,093 contracts signed in July, a 14 percent decline from June when 2,392 new contracts were signed. There was a 20 percent decline in a year-over-year comparison with July 2022 when L.A. real estate was in […]
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Two Wine Country hotels face an $80 million foreclosure, according to documents filed with Napa and Sonoma County. If the foreclosure is not resolved this week, the two properties will sell at auction to the highest bidder later this month. The two hotels are Cambria Napa Valley, which opened in August 2021 and is located […]
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On the last day to comment on adding tenant protections at multifamily properties with federally backed loans, a major industry group unleashed a fusillade of objections. Rent control and other regulations attached to multifamily loans from government-sponsored entities would discourage the industry from using the financing, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. The result would be […]
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A lawsuit filed against Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough brings new accusations of misconduct to the public official who’s been surrounded by a federal probe as of late. A Cook County employee sued Yarbrough and her husband, alleging actions that were “wanton, calculated, and with malice and willfulness,” the Chicago Tribune reported. The plaintiff, a […]
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Angry investors and a condo community are taking legal action against StoryBuilt, shedding light on the Austin developer’s financial struggles amid a recent leadership shakeup. Three lawsuits have been filed against StoryBuilt this year, seeking more than $1.5 million in monetary relief, plus non-monetary relief, the Austin Business Journal reported. The lawsuits suggest that StoryBuilt, […]
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In a nearly 400-page report investigating corruption in the City of Anaheim, Orange County real estate players will find two recognizable names: Greenlaw Partners and Shopoff Development. Greenlaw and Shopoff were found to be two “preferred developers” in the city and were “friendly” with former Mayor Harry Sidhu, who resigned last year amid an FBI […]
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Airbnb may want to shed more offices in San Francisco. The short-term rental platform is shopping for between 200,000 and 250,000 square feet of offices to potentially replace its 280,000-square-foot headquarters at 888 Brannan Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources. The potential move follows the consolidation of the company’s five-building campus […]
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Montclair’s Lackawanna Plaza redevelopment suddenly looks different. The town revised its plan for the project to include 75 fewer units than a previous proposal, NorthJersey.com reported. Originally planned to include 375 units across five buildings, the proposal has been scaled down to 300 units. The plan was presented on July 31, and revised following recommendations […]
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Terra Property Trust has defaulted on a loan tied to the leasehold interest in 1733 Ocean Avenue, a 100,000-square-foot office building in Santa Monica, The Real Deal has learned. The New York-based firm owed $28.3 million under a Centennial Bank-issued loan as of June 30, according to a notice of default filed with L.A. County. […]
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McCord Development is investing big in life sciences and biomanufacturing with its latest venture, BioHub Two. This 45-acre campus marks the first phase of a large-scale life science development at the 4,300-acre Generation Park master-planned community in Houston’s northeastern outskirts, adjacent to Summerwood and Lake Houston. BioHub Two is expected to offer 500,000 square feet […]
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Loosening pandemic restrictions were expected to prompt an influx of foreign buyers in the housing market, but other factors are keeping international purchasers away. Foreign buyers bought $53.3 billion of existing homes in the United States between April 2022 and March 2023, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. The volume represents […]
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Blackstone’s flagship fund is quietly making a major push in the data center sector, recognizing the growing need for the properties as artificial intelligence proliferates. The Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust turned into a seller in recent months to support its data center play, the Financial Times reported. BREIT has looked to increase liquidity to […]
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A Long Island man with a decades-long history of crimes has been indicted a second time for stealing two brownstones in Harlem. New York Attorney General Lettiia James indicted Joseph Makhani, 60, of Kings Point, Long Island, for the thefts of 107 West 118th Street and 135 West 131st Street. Makhani forged documents and used […]
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Auctions are supposed to provide efficient markets, yet two recently held for distressed Chicagoland offices have only shown the messes that can result from bidding contests amid a historic decline in commercial real estate demand and plummeting property values. The algebra involving these struggling offices isn’t convincing their lenders to let go at auction, under […]
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Fourplexes will more easily replace single-family homes on San Francisco’s underdeveloped west side after legislation loosening restrictions and cutting approval timelines was passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors. Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who represents many of the least dense neighborhoods in the southwestern portion of the city, sponsored the legislation because it will “give homeowners […]
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Sunnyvale’s City Council gave a unanimous greenlight to city staff’s plan for a large urban village redevelopment with the goal to transform an old office district. Moffett Park will be converted into six distinct neighborhoods. All of those neighborhoods will have some combination of commercial and residential space, and in some cases, community and public […]
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Home prices started falling across most of the nation after the post-Covid housing boom peaked last year, but prices may have bottomed out, and some Texas cities could see a surge in home values. Not only have U.S. home prices stopped declining, but they rose nearly 5 percent between February and June, Fortune reported, citing […]
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A large condominium project in an open area of San Bernardino County has spawned the biggest development fight in town. Last week, city officials in Fontana voted to approve a 255-unit gated condo complex from Newport Beach-based developer NH Southridge. In addition to the two-story condos, NH’s plans call for a pool, children’s play areas […]
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Two industrial projects are expected to increase Greater Houston’s booming logistics market by another 1 million square feet, as industrial construction dipped 40 percent in the second quarter. Phelan Development plans to build a 584,000-square-foot speculative industrial complex in Humble. The California-based firm expects to begin construction in December on PortNorth 59, with buildout expected […]
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Developer Ugo Colombo is teaming up with Nadim Ashi’s Fort Partners on a planned Four Seasons-branded tower in Miami’s Coconut Grove, The Real Deal has learned. The development would rise on the site of the former Offices in the Grove building at 2699 South Bayshore Drive, which is being demolished. Colombo’s CMC Group owns the […]
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Architecture firm KTGY has designed 14 apartment buildings that could house 4,690 people on L.A.’s Skid Row, the epicenter of the homeless crisis. The Essential would consist of high-rise buildings which would rise up to 12 stories. Each could house 335 residents with amenities such as libraries and vocational training centers in the building’s lower […]
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The “Nightmare on Sky Top Terrace” in Fairfield, Connecticut, is no horror movie. It’s playing out in real life. Long Island resident Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg discovered that the vacant parcel of land he owned in Fairfield next to his childhood home had been fraudulently sold and developed without his knowledge, CTInsider reported. The situation came […]
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Lake Norman’s high-end market continues to make waves in North Carolina. A mansion at 20927 Bethelwood Lane in Cornelius — about 20 miles from Charlotte — sold for $6.8 million, Charlotte Axios reported. Listed slightly higher at $7 million in May, the sale price was still a record by price per square foot off the […]
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High interest rates are putting pressure on office landlords nationwide. Atlanta-based Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc., a major office landlord in the Dallas area, is finding itself in a tough spot after announcing a $400 million debt deal that could find the REIT paying tens of millions more in annual interest, the Dallas Morning News […]
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A Surfside commission meeting went haywire last week. The current mayor had the former mayor escorted out by police. Members of the commission raised their voices (actually, yelled) at each other. The special meeting consisted of one agenda item: an ordinance tweaking setback requirements that could have allowed the planned memorial to extend onto the […]
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Sometimes real estate is a joke. That’s at least how a $50,000 listing for a wall in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood started, the Washington Post reported. The story of the wall at 30th Street Northwest is a laugh that stretches back decades, and is now going viral on social media –– but not everyone finds […]
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Robert V. Matthews’ luck may have finally run out, as the politically connected real estate speculator faces a potential lengthy prison sentence after evading federal investigators for three decades. Matthews is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court, where he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for bank and real estate […]
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Philadelphia is putting the squeeze on unlicensed online short-term rental operators. The city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections has instructed platforms like Airbnb and VRBO to remove properties without the required licensing in the city pursuant to a law that went into effect Jan. 1, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The crackdown is part of efforts […]
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Nest Seekers International agents are set to star in a new reality TV series hosted by the BBC. The show, called “Crazy Rich Agents: Selling Dream Homes,” will follow a group of new brokers as they navigate the real estate market in London and compete for a chance to work at the firm’s headquarters in […]
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From the iconic Reunion Tower, piercing the skyline with its futuristic geodesic dome, to the neoclassical grandeur of the Old Red Museum, Dallas is a tapestry of architectural influences as a city between worlds. Its architectural journey began in the late 19th century when Victorian and Gothic Revival structures adorned the streets, reflecting an era […]
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Costco, the world’s largest membership-only retailer, is trying to build its world’s largest store. The company has proposed constructing the massive 241,000-square-foot building in Fresno, which would surpass the current record held by Salt Lake City’s 235,000-square-foot location, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The proposed warehouse would be the equivalent to over four football fields, […]
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In what stands as the region’s largest — and California’s third-largest overall — hospitality deal this year, Chicago-based investment firm GEM Realty Capital bought The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, a luxurious resort in an affluent enclave near San Diego, for $100 million, CoStar reported. The seller was Steve Hermann Hotels of Montecito, California. According to […]
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A former real estate investor has been handed a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for orchestrating a $3 million investment and bankruptcy fraud scheme. Sean Tissue, known as Sean Ryan, pleaded guilty in February to one count of wire fraud and one count of withholding information in a bankruptcy proceeding, according to a release from the U.S. […]
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The founder of a travel-incentives company is determined to destroy the previous sale record for a home in the Atlanta area. This isn’t his first attempt at the city’s grand transaction, though. Media Marketing Services founder John MacDonald listed Chestnut Hall at 4665 Riverview Road in the Georgia enclave for $46.8 million, the Atlanta Business […]
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Buying the property at 1446 Park St. North in St. Petersburg, Florida, won’t guarantee immortality, but it will buy a piece of cinematic history. The estate — which has the iconic pool from the 1985 Academy Award-winning movie “Cocoon” as well as a 10,000-square-foot pink mansion, has listed for $11.5 million, the Tampa Bay Times […]
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This week was a prime example of how the real estate industry and state and local politics are often inextricably intertwined. In New York, shortly after a vote by the Public Authorities Control Board, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that development of 5 World Trade Center is a go. The skyscraper will add 1,200 apartments to […]
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The San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama may be on a rookie contract, but with a $12 million base salary, the French phenom still has plenty to spend on new digs. So where will the 7-foot-4-inch basketball prodigy live? Based on other neighborhoods where Spurs players and coaches have lived, Wembanyama could snag a home in […]
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CBRE Group’s outlook on the remainder of 2023 appears bleak. The global investment and services firm, based in Dallas, projects its earnings to drop 20 to 25 percent this year amid a delay in the expected capital markets recovery, the Dallas Morning News reported. While CBRE anticipates growth this year in its loan servicing, property […]
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Former Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte’s possession of a River North mansion has entered the redzone. The two-time Pro Bowl running back who played with Chicago’s NFL team from 2008 to 2015 listed his five-bedroom, 11,000-square-foot estate for $4.75 million, the Chicago Tribune reported. Jeff Lowe of Compass is the listing agent. Forte bought […]
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Tore Steen is out as the CEO of the crowdfunding platform CrowdStreet after tens of millions of dollars allegedly went missing from accounts connected to Nightingale Properties, according to a source familiar with the situation. Steen will be replaced by Jack Chandler, the former chair of BlackRock’s global real estate arm and a member of […]
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Acacia Real Estate Group has received a rare thumbs down for approval to build three large distribution warehouses in Fontana. The Newport Beach developer got a no-vote from a majority of the City Council, which killed its plans for the 541,000-square-foot project north of Santa Ana Avenue, between Citrus and Oleander avenues, the San Bernardino […]
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Longfellow Real Estate Partners and PGIM want to turn a low-slung office and research campus in Redwood City into a field of office highrises, a hotel and parks. The Boston-based developer and New Jersey-based investor have filed plans to redevelop the 90-acre Redwood LIFE campus at 800-3800 Bridge Parkway and 900-1300 Island Drive, the Silicon […]
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Remy Jacobson is about to lose his commercial building in Miami’s Design District at an upcoming foreclosure auction stemming from an unpaid eight-figure mortgage debt. On July 19, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Gina Beovides issued a final foreclosure judgment for $10.4 million, including $8.4 million in unpaid principal, in favor of Centennial Bank. The court […]
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It’s official: PG&E will pay $900 million for its office headquarters building in Downtown Oakland, a soaring price in a slumping office market. The investor-owned utility will pay $989 per square foot for its 910,000-square-foot hub at 300 Lakeside Drive, with the purchase to be completed in 2025, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The […]
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A deal slump is hitting brokerages hard, CBRE and Newmark revealed this week on earnings calls. Revenues went up last quarter at both commercial real estate brokerages, though earnings were down year-over-year, according to their earnings reports. Newmark’s total revenue was $585.8 million, down 22.4 percent year-over-year. CBRE posted $7.72 billion in revenue, up 0.7 […]
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A Chicago non-profit has sued a pair of Cook County landlords, alleging that they discriminate against Black renters. Legal Aid Chicago filed a lawsuit against Hunter Properties, claiming that the company automatically denies Black applicants if they have any prior eviction history, the Chicago Tribune reported. Hunter Properties’ “No-Evictions Policy” states that prior eviction filings […]
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Tishman Speyer has purchased a nearly 2.9-acre industrial site near San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood for $32.75 million, the company has confirmed. The acquisition of 2225 Jerrold Avenue is the second for the New York-based developer’s new industrial platform and the first through the $500-million Tishman Speyer-Mitsui Fudosan America Logistics Venture, which it announced in November, […]
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Chicago’s real estate community could be in for a fight this fall with not only some of the city’s aldermen, but its progressive voters, too. The industry’s lobbyists have work cut out for them to beat back a proposal they say would be costly for their clients by fattening a city tax derived mostly from […]
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VICI Properties has made a healthy investment in a Fort Worth wellness company’s expansion plans. VICI, a New York-based real estate investment trust specializing in entertainment projects, has dished out $150 million to Canyon Ranch, the Dallas Business Journal reported. Canyon Ranch, headed by CEO Jeff Kuster, creates luxury resorts and wellness clubs geared toward […]
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The Chicago Bears’ hunt for a new stadium site in the suburbs got off to a false start, and now Mayor Brandon Johnson is working to keep the NFL squad in the city limits. Johnson and team president Kevin Warren are gearing up to explore potential stadium sites in Chicago, as the Bears look to […]
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The City of San Jose handed $26.5 million to nonprofit developer First Community Housing to bail out two troubled projects, despite official concerns about its “long-term sustainability.” The City Council agreed to lend the developer $13 million in December to prevent it from defaulting on a loan tied to a 130-unit homeless housing complex at […]
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Dallas-based Xebec Holdings plans to convert 3,300 acres into as much as 50 million square feet of industrial space at the 31,000-acre former Alcoa aluminum plant in Milam County, the Austin Business Journal reported. An LLC tied to Xebec purchased the property for roughly $240 million about a year and a half ago. The site […]
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The owner of mortgage firm Tri-Emerald Financial Group has pleaded guilty to fleecing an investor of more than $5 million in a fraudulent IPO scheme. Jacques Poujade, 63, of Irvine, pleaded guilty to securities fraud for obtaining more than $5 million from an investor by falsely claiming that shares of his OC real estate finance […]
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Parrotheads rejoice. A Margaritaville-branded hotel could anchor a proposed waterfront mixed-use project in Riviera Beach’s Marina Village. The project’s master developer, Atlanta-based APD Solutions, is partnering with singer-turned-hotelier Jimmy Buffett to add a five-story building with 150 rooms and an 875-space parking garage to anchor the proposed mixed-use site, which also entails 225,000 square feet […]
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A listing at No. 9 Walton is back on the market this week asking $7 million after a half a million price cut. The 27th-floor property was previously listed at $7.5 million in March. It was removed this week before being re-listed at $7 million. The three-bedroom, four-bathroom unit runs 4,400 square feet. The half-floor […]
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The pending Banc of California merger with Pacific Western Bank has an East Coast riff: JPMorgan Chase will buy almost $2 billion in mortgages to grease the deal. The New York-based investment bank has entered into an agreement to buy $1.8 billion of single-family residential loans at a discount, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified source. […]
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Home prices in the Chicago area grew faster than all other major U.S. metropolitan areas in May, putting the Windy City in unfamiliar territory after trailing almost all its peer market for much of the pandemic. Single-family homes in the Chicago metro rose 4.6 percent year-over-year in May, illustrating the benefits of the city’s slow-but-steady […]
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The retail industry in the Bay Area has seen gains in every sector, with service and experience businesses showing particular strength, according to annual data collected by brokerage Colliers. Gyms in the region saw an average foot traffic of 280,000 visitors in 2022, up 47 percent year-over-year. Car washes also were popular with 107,000 average […]
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A large master-planned community is underway on Lake Travis, west of Austin. California-based Haas & Haynie and local firm Castle Hill Partners are leading the 1,000-acre development, called Travis Club, the Austin Business Journal reported. The site sits between the Thurman Bend Estates and Briarcliff communities, near Spicewood. Travis County commissioners recently approved the project’s […]
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Acadia Realty Trust’s vision to transform East Dallas’ Henderson Avenue corridor could begin taking shape next spring. The New York-based firm aims to start construction on retail and office buildings in March, more than a year after paying more than $85 million for a commercial and residential portfolio on the strip, the Dallas Morning News […]
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Apple has expanded its lease at an Irvine Company office campus in Irvine by adding 55,700 square feet to focus on cell phone chip manufacturing. The Cupertino-based tech giant has signed a lease for the bottom two floors at a four-story building in Spectrum Terrace at 17800 Laguna Canyon Road, the Orange County Business Journal […]
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Farmers Insurance’s decision to stop writing new policies and not renew existing ones in Florida is adding fuel to the property insurance fire in the state. Farmers said its decision was “necessary to effectively manage risk exposure.” Though the company isn’t a major player in the state’s insurance market, the move could be indicative of […]
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Activision Blizzard has hit back at Regus, claiming it is “actively attempting to deceive its tenants,” after the co-working firm sued the game developer’s publishing division alleging $2.1 million in owed fees for office space in Santa Monica. The game company filed a countersuit on Tuesday, alleging IWG subsidiary Regus is tricking tenants into accepting […]
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The hourglass is running out for Los Angeles apartment tenants to pay rent owed during the first 18 months of the pandemic. Under a tenant protection package passed early this year, tenants have until Aug. 1 to repay the debts incurred between March 1, 2020 and Sept. 1, 2021, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. […]
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Alliance HP handed an office complex near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport back to its lender rather than fighting a foreclosure over a $78 million loan, joining the list of landlords who’ve been forced to surrender their holdings amid historically low demand for office space. Varde Partners took over the Triangle Plaza, which includes two 14-story […]
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A historic Lake Forest estate that’s been on the market since fall of last year has found a buyer after a series of price cuts. The property, at 255 North Green Bay Road, went under contract this week after a $1 million chop earlier this month brought its ask down to $7.9 million. Should a […]
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Headwall Investments is expanding its Austin portfolio, acquiring a retail property in the fast-growing suburb of Georgetown. The San Antonio-based firm recently bought the 55,000-square-foot Market at Georgetown shopping center at 610 North Austin Avenue for an undisclosed amount, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. The property was recently valued at $8.2 million, according to […]
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A historic Loop office building that was recently handed back to its lender has hit the market, offering prospective buyers a chance to assume the debt or attain a new loan. JLL brokers Sam DiFrancesca, Patrick Shields, Jaime Fink and Bruce Miller have been hired to sell the 12-story, 143,000-square-foot building at 209 West Jackson […]
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Another lender is seeking to foreclose on a Nightingale office property. Oaktree Capital Management initiated a foreclosure on Nightingale Properties’ 24-story 111 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, the firm’s marquee asset, according to a report in Green Street. The property is backed by about $500 million in debt from a consortium of lenders, including […]
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A Canadian company has filed plans to demolish a Hollywood strip mall and build a 100-unit apartment complex. The project application was filed this month by Anthony Sharp, whose company, 2200 Larimer LLC, is registered to an address in Toronto. The project would rise at 1523-1529 and 1533-1537 North La Brea Avenue, in a busy […]
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The vision of Wolverine Interests and the University of Texas at Dallas to transform a 36-acre tract into a mixed-use complex is closer to becoming reality. Richardson officials gave preliminary approval to the Points at Waterview, a transit-oriented development slated for residences, offices, retail and two hotels, roughly 15 miles north of downtown, the Dallas […]
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CEOs kept busy in July, buying and selling waterfront homes up and down South Florida this month. A Michigan-based health tech CEO bought a 1.3-acre ocean-to-lake parcel for $16.5 million in Manalapan. Jorey Chernett, founder of both Clearpath and Authentic4D, bought the teardown at 3060 South Ocean Boulevard from the family of Dr. Gerald Kent […]
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Brandon Charnas, the Instagram-savvy broker behind Current Real Estate Advisors, is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible insider trading violations. Charnas purchased common stock and out-of-the-money call options for Office Depot in December 2020, according to an SEC application filed in Florida’s southern district. When Staples announced its bid to buy […]
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West Coast Home Builders is trying to block a Costco big-box store in the East Bay city of Brentwood. The Concord-based developer led by Albert Seeno III has appealed the 154,900-square-foot warehouse store approved south of Lone Tree Plaza Drive and east of Heidorn Ranch Road, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The Brentwood City […]
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A Lake Genevison mansion recently sold for more than any Chicago-area home this year. Buyers, whose identities have not been revealed, paid $14 million for the 8,700-square-foot house on Loramoor Drive in an off-market deal, Crain’s reported. David Curry of Geneva Lakefront Realty represented the buyer and seller. The sale price was more than any […]
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Despite an overall dip in California home prices after a rise in mortgage interest rates, prices in some Orange County neighborhoods have hit record highs. Of the top 10 zip codes where typical home values broke records in June, six were in the OC cities of Newport Beach, Irvine and Tustin, the San Francisco Chronicle […]
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Port Houston is jumping ship. The port is ditching its space at the Turning Basin Terminal, near 610 Loop East, and moving to Midway’s sprawling East River development in Fifth Ward, northeast of downtown Houston, the Houston Chronicle reported. Port Houston, which operates multiple terminals along the 52-mile Houston Ship Channel, will work with developer […]
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JVP Management is banking on housing density for its resuscitation of Frisco’s ill-fated Wade Park development, once touted as one of North Texas’ largest and most promising mixed-use projects. The $2 billion venture had been at a standstill since 2017 due to loan defaults by previous developers. JVP acquired the property in 2019 and is […]
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Locally-based RK Logistics pre-leased more than 200,000 square feet of warehouse space at the Fremont Elm Business Center. The move was the second largest lease in Silicon Valley in the second quarter. RK Logistics is taking 209,000 square feet of warehouse space at 47020 Kato Road in Fremont, according to data from a Colliers market […]
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In an unusual move, top agents from Westside Estate Agency and Carolwood Estates, two of Beverly Hills’ most successful luxury boutique agencies, have partnered to open a new business called Private Escrow, The Real Deal has learned. It opened in mid-July in Beverly Hills, helmed by Gail Hershowitz, a veteran escrow officer who has been […]
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Zurich North America is cutting its workspace in half at its headquarters in Schaumburg, adding to the mountain of available office space in the Chicago area. The insurance company, headed by Kristof Terryn, hired JLL leasing brokers Rick Benoy and Jeffrey Miller to market roughly 360,000 square feet for sublease in Zurich’s 783,800-square-foot facility at […]
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University of Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban purchased a waterfront estate on Jupiter Island for $17.5 million, The Real Deal has learned. Saban purchased the home at 619 South Beach Road that traded hands in May, sources revealed. Records show At High Tide LLC, a Delaware entity, purchased the 6,200-square-foot, six-bedroom home in Hobe Sound. […]
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Adventus Realty Trust is facing a $114 million foreclosure suit over an office complex it owns near O’Hare International Airport, one of several assets where the major suburban landlord is staring down lenders. The Canadian firm got a $128 million CMBS loan from JPMorgan Chase Bank to acquire the 870,000-square-foot Riverway office complex in 2016. […]
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A trip to Disneyland to see its Haunted Mansion could cost $100. A visit to an Airbnb overnight knockoff of the fabled Anaheim ride could set you back $750. The Ghostly Retreat Airbnb vacation rental next to the 57 Freeway in Fullerton that pays tribute to the Disneyland classic runs between $450 and $750 a […]
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California Capital & Investment Group has inked a deal to buy a 15-story office tower in Downtown Concord. The price was undisclosed. The Pleasant Hill-based investor bought the 369,000-square-foot One Concord Center at 2300 Clayton Road, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources. The seller was Utah-based Bridge Investment Group. Bridge bought the […]
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Retired Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge, Alan Fine, has a formidable task ahead of him. The Location Ventures new boss will need to lead an effort to find buyers willing to pay top dollar for the Coral Gables-based development firm’s real estate projects to avoid a fire sale through federal bankruptcy proceedings, Fine told The Real […]
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Desperation is the father of invention, but in the case of London’s hypercompetitive rental market, tenants are going old school. The result is truly bizarre bidding wars, replete with love letters, headshots, chocolates and flowers from tenants hoping to woo landlords, the Wall Street Journal reports. The weirdness emerging from London’s rental market mimics an […]
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While New York City office owners live in fear of an estimated 44 percent drop in value, landlords in Baltimore just witnessed a further, faster fall. An affiliate of Virginia-based American Real Estate Partners sold a downtown office building at One South Street for $24 million, the Baltimore Business Journal reported. New York-based BHN Associates […]
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When you’re a billionaire, why not bring the amusement park home? Michigan mortgage magnate and Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is building the state’s largest residential house in Bloomfield Township, just outside Detroit, that also has something akin to an amusement park, USAToday reported. To make way for the extravagant, 60,000-square-foot mansion on 14 acres, […]
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The embattled developer resigned from the company he founded this week. But Rishi Kapoor’s troubles are far from over. The FBI is conducting a public corruption probe into the business arrangement that a subsidiary of Kapoor’s Location Ventures had with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, which involved Suarez earning a $10,000-a-month consulting fee. That was while […]
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A renovated mansion from the Gilded Age has hit the market in New Jersey’s Somerset Hills. The historic 140-year-old “Stronghold,” has been listed by its owners, fashion designer Marc Ecko and his wife, Allison Rojas for $13.75 million, NorthJersey.com reported. The couple, who restored and modernized the home, bought the property in 2005. Jill Turpin […]
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Syracuse landlord Todd L. Hobbs and his companies — TLH Holdings and TLH Properties — are being sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged repeated violations of lead safety laws at more than a dozen properties. Dating back to 2016, Hobbs’ companies have violated lead safety laws 413 times at 19 different properties, […]
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Oaktree Capital Management and Trinity Investments have scored a $515 million loan to refinance their Westin Maui resort in Hawaii. The two firms closed a commercial mortgage-backed securities deal on the 771-key resort, which sits on Kaanapali Beach, according to a release this week and documents from DBRS Morningstar. The four-year, fixed-rate loan has an […]
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In a bid to repurpose deserted office spaces and address the growing demand for locally grown food, innovative farmers are transforming such moribund properties into urban farms across various cities in the U.S. and Canada, Smithsonian Magazine reported. Jackie Potter and Tyler Baras in Arlington, Virginia, co-founders of Area 2 Farms, determined there was a […]
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A Texas-based development team has embarked on an ambitious project to transform one of Atlanta’s oldest office buildings into modern homes for downtown residents. The W.D. Grant Building, a historic 10-story structure located off Broad Street, will undergo extensive renovation by Wolfe Investments and Bluelofts Inc. to become 165 apartments, making it one of downtown […]
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Labels can be important; but they can also be meaningless. Office tenants be warned: When it comes to the definition of “Class A” can mean whatever building owners want it to mean. In this edition of Paydirt, The Real Deal’s Hiten Samtani discusses the various ways the term “Class A” is used when it comes […]
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A prominent South Carolina developer has launched a high-stakes legal battle seeking to recoup what he says are massive losses inflicted upon his businesses due to an alleged conspiracy of misinformation surrounding several projects. The $120 million lawsuit — filed by Dick Stewart’s companies, Beaufort Inn, LLC, and 303 Associates, LLC — in a local […]
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Lionel Messi’s next goal is to find a new home for him and his family in South Florida. Arguably the world’s best footballer is targeting a place in either Delray Beach or Boca Raton, the Palm Beach Post reported. The European superstar, who won his World Cup championship with Argentina last year, announced his move […]
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If every person on Earth lost $10, it still wouldn’t match the losses Chinese real estate giant Evergrande suffered between 2021 and 2022. The beleaguered developer recently disclosed $81 billion in losses over the course of those two years, the Washington Post reported. The disclosure came courtesy of an earnings report from the company that […]
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The news isn’t getting any better for anyone invested in office assets. The BREIT Blackstone, amid rising rates and tight credit markets, reported a near 40 percent drop in distributable earnings — cash tapped to pay shareholders’ dividends — to $1.2 billion. Real estate net realizations, the returns investors receive after the sale of a […]
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A proposed zoning change at Austin Council ignited fiery responses from elected officials and local residents this week. The proposal, introduced by councilmember Leslie Pool and passed in a 9-2 vote, gives initial approval to a measure changing the minimum single-family lot size from 5,750 square to 2,500 square feet, the Austin-American Statesman reported. The […]
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Disgraced former alderman Danny Solis could take the stand against Edward M. Burke, another ex-alderman who’s been accused of using his political power to steer business to his private law firm in various deals, including some related to commercial real estate developments. Federal prosecutors have agreed to tell lawyers for Burke and his two co-defendants […]
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A developer involved in Los Angeles’ most explosive real estate corruption scandal in decades was sentenced on Friday to six years in federal prison on Friday. Bel Air resident David Lee paid $500,000 to Jose Huizar–a former L.A. councilmember who represented Downtown L.A. and sat atop the city’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee–to buy […]
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James and Marta Batmasian want to build an 11-story hotel on a development site at Mizner Plaza in Boca Raton. The married couple, who are considered the largest private real estate owners in the city, propose a 266-key hotel on 1.7 acres at 132 and 170 Northeast Second Street, according to the Batmasians’ application submitted […]
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Another company is dramatically slashing its office footprint, adding to suburban Chicago’s sky-high vacancy rate while tallying a small win for downtown. Tech company Alight Solutions, whose CEO is Stephan Scholl, is ditching its 200,000-square-foot space in Lincolnshire and moving into a 16,000-square-foot space in the BMO Tower at 320 South Canal Street, Crain’s reported. […]
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A pair of homes in Barrington have changed hands this week, one after years on the market, and both with major price cuts. Both properties are in the far northwestern suburb, which doesn’t have the same number of high end properties as North Shore suburbs but does have several ultra pricey listings. The first property […]
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One LA is hoping two price cuts will do the trick to move the luxe, record-setting condo. The unit was Los Angeles’ priciest condo in 2022 when it hit the market with an ask of $75 million, but now a buyer can scoop it up for half that. The 13,000-square-foot penthouse, located at Four Seasons […]
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The development team behind the redevelopment of a suburban Dallas mall is ready for more after taking on the massive project about eight years ago. The Shops at RedBird, led by Terrence Maiden of Russell Glen Company and Peter Brodsky, is seeking investment partners to continue the project, which has transformed the 100-acre shopping center […]
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Frequent development partners Related Group and BH Group are planning to convert a former AT&T office building in Plantation into a sprawling multifamily complex with retail. The joint venture is proposing Plantation City Center, a project consisting of nine buildings with a combined 481 apartments, a combined 17,000 square feet of retail and 993 spaces […]
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Chinese developer XIN Development Group has run into another issue on another one of its Brooklyn properties. David Aviram and Ted Martell’s Maverick Real Estate Partners, the lender that’s known for being trigger-happy on foreclosures, has filed to foreclose on XIN’s Flushing development. The action was first reported by PincusCo. The site at 135-35 Northern […]
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NewQuest Properties signed six tenants to its international retail hub West on West. The 90,000-square-foot development at 12220 Westheimer Road will add Tsujita Artisan Noodle, Paris Baguette, the Alley, SomiSomi, Lady M and Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera, with some shops set to open doors as soon as this fall. With these deals, the development is […]
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“My goal is to make everybody proud of me and to live my life in the proper fashion,” convicted real estate swindler Eliyahu Weinstein said after being freed from prison by then-President Donald Trump. Looks like he fell short. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday said Weinstein “picked up right where he left off” after that, defrauding […]
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Colliers boosted its East Bay team with the hiring of a four-person salesforce at the Oakland office. The new team of Charlie Allen (executive vice president), Anthony Shell (executive vice president), Amber Merrigan (senior vice president), and David Goldberg (associate vice president) will focus on landlord representation in the East Bay and tenant representation both […]
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Marc Holliday thinks SL Green’s occupancy has bottomed out. Occupancy in the REIT’s 33 million-square-foot portfolio slipped to 89.8 percent at the end of June, down from 90.2 percent three months before. “We expect that to be a low point,” Holliday said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday afternoon. “We expect to gain occupancy […]
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After years of steady expansion, the company behind KW Advisors, a prominent Santa Monica-headquartered brokerage, has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. R&LS Investments, helmed by Rick Cunningham, filed for voluntary protection from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Central District on July 18. In the filing, the company states it owes less than $7.5 million, but the […]
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A little more than a year after one carbon-neutral Malibu spec mansion sold for $23 million, the second home in the same developer’s eco-friendly series has hit the market at $29.5 million. The newly completed mansion, called Zero Two, is located on a 2-acre lot at 11809 Ellice Street, in western Malibu, and features a […]
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Coral Rock Development is planning Dolce Vida, a $75 million mixed-use project on the site of a library in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood. The Coral Gables-based firm reached an agreement with the city of Miami to purchase the 1.3-acre property at 1785 Northwest 35th Street, according to a press release. Coral Rock and its partner, Allapattah-based […]
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Commercial property sales have plummeted in Dallas-Fort Worth amid hiked interest rates and low demand for office space. The region saw $8 billion in commercial sales from January through June of this year. That’s down almost 70 percent compared to the midyear point in 2022, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing data from MSCI. While […]
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Blackstone president Jon Gray is looking at the markets with a glass half full. As the alternative asset manager surpassed $1 trillion under management for the first time, Gray told the Financial Times that the deal drought plaguing commercial real estate in the last year may finally be at an end. “Markets will normalise and […]
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A demolition permit has been issued to clear the way for a new multifamily development in Edgewater. The permit is tied to Jody Libman of Trianon Development and Moments Notice Services, Urbanize reported. Pending approval, the development at 5745 North Broadway Street is slated for a five-story building with 42 units and ground-floor retail. The […]
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A Texas developer is planning a massive apartment complex in Katy. Bohannon Development filed plans with the state to build a $77 million multifamily project at 7227 Elyson Exchange Way, off Freeman Road near the Grand Parkway. Called the Milestone at Elyson Apartments, it will span 420,000 square feet, according to the filing with the […]
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Sales for single-family homes in California declined in June by nearly 20 percent compared to the bonanza market of last year’s June, according to a report from the California Association of Realtors. June sales fell about 4 percent when compared to May, the report found. There were about 277,500 closed escrow sales in June. There […]
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No shortage of major real estate players have poured cash into Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign fund this year. Many gave the top dollar amount allowed from an individual — $18,000 — an analysis by The Real Deal found. The Democratic governor has staked out a position as a political moderate and made clear she will […]
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Two years after he left to focus on his eponymous venture capital fund, former Compass California President Mark McLaughlin has returned to the residential brokerage as its chief real estate strategist. That’s the same title McLaughlin held for most of 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile. McLaughlin’s position is new even though the title is […]
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A historic mansion in downtown San Antonio has hit the market. Owners Dona and Pat Liston are asking $6 million for the Lambermont, a four-story, 9,000-square-foot estate at 950 East Grayson Street, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. Tony Pitkin of Keller Williams Commercial is representing the sellers. Built in 1894, the Lambermont belonged to […]
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Rishi Kapoor is calling it quits. The embattled developer “amicably stepped down” as CEO of Location Ventures, the Coral Gables-based development firm he founded in 2016, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Real Deal. “This is part of negotiations to wind down the current partnership of Location Ventures,” the spokesperson said. Kapoor’s departure, first reported […]
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CS Ventures bought a pair of office and retail buildings in Palm Beach for $18.3 million, marking the firm’s continued investment in the area. The Palm Beach-based company, a partnership between Charles Rosenberg of a New York-based family investment office and Spencer Schlager, bought the adjacent two-story properties at 375 South County Road from an […]
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A shuttered theater complex in the San Fernando Valley could find a second life as a Tesla showroom. The Winnetka Pacific Theatres, a multiplex in the west San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Chatsworth, closed in March 2020, as the burgeoning pandemic was shutting theaters around the country, including some of L.A.’s most famous locations. Now […]
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Two environmental groups plan to file a lawsuit against the Trump Organization for the second time in five years. The Sierra Club and Friends of the Chicago River plan to sue former president Donald Trump’s company, claiming that the Trump International Hotel & Tower at 401 North Wabash Avenue is in violation of the federal […]
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Silicon Valley’s office market as a whole continues in distress as companies grapple with remote work trends and offload underutilized space. On the other hand, cities that host the giants of the tech industry are holding up better than the overall market. Office availability in Silicon Valley rose to 20.4 percent in the second quarter, […]
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The offices in Greater Oakland just grew emptier. Office vacancy in the core business district of Downtown Oakland, Uptown and Lake Merritt hit 35.7 percent in the second quarter, rising 1 percent from the previous quarter, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing figures from Cushman & Wakefield. The climb in empty cubicles marks the […]
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A Lake Bluff Mansion that’s endured a series of price cuts after years on and off the market is getting a massive price increase and is adding more land to sweeten the deal. The home at 700 Crab Tree Lane is now seeking just under $23 million. It had previously been listed as a 12-acre […]
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Austin officials are taking matters into their own hands to redevelop an old hospital downtown after its deal with Aspen Heights Partners expired. Austin City Council will discuss the future of the city-owned HealthSouth rehabilitation hospital site at 1215 Red River and 606 East 12th streets during a July 20 meeting, and council members could […]
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Is Lionel Messi living in Sea Ranch Lakes, a small village in Broward County, not far from Drive Pink Stadium in Fort Lauderdale? Prior to Messi’s official debut as an InterMiami CF player on Sunday, photographs of him shopping at a South Florida Publix were plastered all over social media. The photos served as a […]
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When a hardball lender took an ex-con landlord to court, it became known as the “battle of the baddies.” Now, Maverick Real Estate Partners can move ahead with foreclosure on a Kips Bay portfolio owned by Steve Croman, a judge has ruled. Croman’s attorney, Terrence Oved, said that he intends to appeal the decision. Attorneys […]
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A 3-acre compound in the Malibu Hills that once housed a luxury detox center that sobered up the likes of Britney Spears, Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan has listed for $19.5 million. The mostly Mediterranean-style campus where Promises Malibu pioneered its “Malibu Model” for treating alcohol and drug addiction is up for sale at 20725 […]
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A golf club in New Jersey’s Monmouth County could soon be welcoming seniors to the course — just not the senior golf tour. A developer proposed turning the 94-year-old golf course at 54 Monmouth Road in Eatontown into a senior housing community with commercial buildings, NJ.com reported. Mayor Anthony Talerico Jr. said at a meeting […]
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Former watch retailers Shlomi and Lior Ben-Shmuel sold a waterfront teardown mansion on Miami Beach’s Allison Island for $17.6 million. Records show the brothers sold the house at 6640 Allison Road to a trust named for the address, with Philadelphia-based estate attorney Lester E. Lipschutz signing on behalf of the buyer. The true buyer is […]
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Industrial giant Prologis posted record profits and revenue in the second quarter, and the company expects even better prospects in the future. The San Francisco-based REIT reported second-quarter revenue of $2.45 billion, or nearly double the $1.25 billion from the same quarter a year ago. Net earnings came to almost $1.22 billion ($1.31 per share), […]
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As Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton faces the most serious political threat of his career due to bombshell allegations about his relationship with real estate investor Nate Paul, some of the biggest names in the industry skipped his most recent round of fundraising. In the weeks after his May impeachment, Paxton raised $1.7 million, a […]
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NexPoint Advisors is ramping up redevelopment plans at the former Electronic Data Systems headquarters in Plano. The Dallas-based firm, led by James Dondero, wants to build up to 775 residential units and a hotel at 5400 Legacy Drive, adding to its ambitious plan to transform the 91-acre office campus into a $3 billion, 200-acre life […]
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Former buildings commissioner Eric Ulrich, who lost his Adams administration post in a scandal, may be facing some legal trouble. In November, the one-time City Council member from Queens resigned as head of the Department of Buildings when his ties to a gambling investigation emerged. Now, a grand jury appears ready to indict Ulrich on […]
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A federal judge has sent a disgraced San Francisco building inspector to a year behind bars after he pleaded guilty to corrupt dealings with a developer. District Judge Susan Illston sentenced Bernie Curran to federal prison for accepting illegal reward payments from people whose properties he had inspected and approved, the San Francisco Business Times […]
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Home building has begun along a championship golf course in Kildeer, signaling a development boom in the northwest Chicago suburb as new residents flock to the area. Construction will start next month on a two-lot home in The Preserves of Kildeer at Kemper Lakes, a 61-lot custom-home community within the Kemper Lakes Golf Club, the […]
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Billionaire Ken Griffin bought an office building on Worth Avenue for $83 million, marking the hedge funder’s latest move to home in on Palm Beach, after a near takeover of Miami’s Brickell. An entity tied to Griffin’s Citadel bought the nearly 50,000-square-foot office building at 125 Worth Avenue from an affiliate of Frisbie Group and […]
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A year after purchasing a trio of sites for $34 million, Kahen Properties has revealed what it expects to do with them. Alex Kahen’s luxury development firm filed plans for a 24-story, 81-unit property at 1026 Third Avenue in Lenox Hill, Crain’s reported. The 273-foot-tall building will span roughly 100,000 square feet. Kahen purchased the […]
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Long Beach wants to build housing — and fast. For that reason, the state has admitted the coastal city to its Prohousing Designation Program, giving it easier access to state funding to build more homes, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported California wants to create 2.5 million new homes by 2030, including plans by Long Beach […]
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Harlan Crow is under the microscope again. This time he is accused of taking massive tax deductions based on business losses from his megayacht, the Michaela Rose. But whether the boat is a profit-seeking business is in question. The investigation started with Crow’s opulent gifts, including trips on the Michaela Rose, to Supreme Court Justice […]
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Hyatt and Gencom can move forward with plans for a major redevelopment project on 4 acres of city-owned land along the Miami River. The Miami City Commission last week unanimously approved extending an existing ground lease with Hyatt from 45 years to 99 years. That would allow the Chicago-based hospitality conglomerate and its partner, Gencom, […]
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Brooklyn’s luxury market last week heated up slightly from a slow Fourth of July, but kept up the cooling streak that’s been dominating the summer months. Nineteen contracts were signed last week for luxury homes in Brooklyn, up from 14 in the previous period, according to Compass’ weekly report of homes in the borough asking […]
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As they say, when one door closes, another one opens. That is the case for anyone on the market for a private island in Florida this summer. Just a few weeks after the $218 million listing for Tarpon Island in Palm Beach was removed, another (much more affordable) private island is on the market asking […]
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The White Sox closer and his wife closed on a mansion in Paradise Valley. Liam Hendriks and wife Kristi bought an 8,600-square-foot mansion last week for $9 million, the Arizona Republic reported. The four-bedroom luxe home also has seven bathrooms, high ceilings, a theater, game room, steam shower, gym and a pool with a swim-up […]
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The multifamily market is uneven across the country, but there’s still some juice to squeeze. In Connecticut, Los Angeles-based investment and management company Afton Properties bought The Place at Catherine’s Way, a 303-unit Manchester apartment complex for $71 million, the Hartford Business Journal reported. It’s Afton’s first foray into The Nutmeg State’s market since the […]
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The “everybody does it defense” did not work in the case of house-flipper Gregory Guzman. The Philadelphia real estate investor was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for bribing a Sheriff’s Office official in exchange for an advantage in competitive auctions of seized and foreclosed properties, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Guzman, […]
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Josh Zegan’s Madison Realty Capital has run into some major problems while building a luxury condominium development on a vacant Fifth Avenue site in Greenwich Village. The project at 16 Fifth Avenue has stalled after the 14-unit building at 10 Fifth Avenue began cracking, forcing the tenants to relocate, the New York Post reported. Madison […]
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Stefan Soloviev’s next real estate investment might be a defunct minor league baseball stadium in Rhode Island. The billionaire real estate scion told The Providence Journal he’s willing to buy and fix up McCoy Stadium, the former home of the Pawtucket Red Sox, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, WPRI.com reported. There’s just […]
The post Soloviev’s bid to save beloved RI stadium may be too late appeared first on The Real Deal.
Brothers George and Manny Sarkis, Douglas Elliman’s Sarkis Team, look at their new office opening in Boston’s Financial District as a sort of dry run. The duo say they’ve always wanted to have their own standalone office — which just opened at 44 Batterymarch Street — and hope that they can branch out to other […]
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Austin’s first towers, now known as 515 Congress and the Chase Bank Tower, were as unremarkable as their names suggest. Though they were built in the 1970s, these straight-edged rectangles look like they’d slept through the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll of the ‘60s. Function trumped form and uniformity reigned. That all changed in […]
The post Austin architects dish on their favorite buildings appeared first on The Real Deal.
Justin Thomas shot above par by selling his home for more than he paid. The PGA star and winner of two PGA Championships sold his 5,500-square-foot mansion at 5745 Pennock Point Road in Jupiter for $3.1 million, or $500,000 less than what he listed it for — $3.6 million, or twice what he bought it for […]
The post PGA champion Justin Thomas sells Florida home for $3.1M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Amancio Ortega, the billionaire founder of the Zara clothing chain, continues to expand his empire in the United States, this time by acquiring a new logistics center in California. Ortega’s family office, Pontegadea, paid $109 million to purchase the center in Inland Empire, a strategic logistics hub about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, Bloomberg […]
The post Zara founder drops $110M on California logistics center appeared first on The Real Deal.
Many cities are pleading for office-to-resi conversions as remote work takes over and a housing shortage persists across the country. Most aren’t going as far as Boston is planning. Mayor Michelle Wu has proposed property tax breaks of up to 75 percent over 29 years for downtown office conversions, the Boston Business Journal reported. It’s […]
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Are marginal agents — defined as those who sell five or fewer homes per year — ruining the residential real estate sector for everyone, including consumers, as a study by the Consumer Federation of America concludes in a recent report? Or, is it just an argument to try and get higher-volume real estate agents an […]
The post Resi Rundown: The hypocrisy of “marginal agents” appeared first on The Real Deal.
Nurse anesthetist-turned-real estate investor Matt Onofrio could soon find himself in a new role: prisoner. The Wisconsin man pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud, the Post Bulletin reported. The guilty plea was part of an agreement that will also see Onofrio forfeit $35.7 million, which is how much prosecutors estimate Onofrio reaped from […]
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Some tech companies still believe in the office. Atlassian, an Australian software company, signed a 64-month lease for 15,000-square-feet of space in Skyline Tower in Bellevue, across the lake from downtown Seattle, according to a press release. “As a remote-first, Team Anywhere company, we believe you can work from home, at a cafe, at the […]
The post Atlassian signs five year lease in Seattle appeared first on The Real Deal.
This summer is shaping up to be one of the hottest on record, but there’s a cold front hammering multifamily real estate. Earlier this week, in response to The Real Deal, which pointed out in an article that Rise48 Equity was vulnerable to distress in the multifamily sector, its founder Zach Haptonstall recorded a 16-minute […]
The post Multifamily real estate continues to take a beating this summer appeared first on The Real Deal.
Dallas-based Elizabeth Property Group made its biggest play yet with a 1,444-unit acquisition across six affordable housing properties in Texas. The entirely woman-owned firm that focuses solely on affordable housing acquisitions acquired the apartments in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Beaumont, Huntsville, Bryan-College Station, and Wichita Falls, according to a media release. Elizabeth Property partnered with American […]
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Investors in Nightingale Properties’ projects finally have an answer about the fate of their funds. It’s not the answer they were hoping for. Nightingale had raised more than $54 million from over 650 investors to acquire the Atlanta Financial Center office complex through a crowdfunding platform called CrowdStreet. It also used the platform to raise […]
The post Fiduciary to investors: Funds in Nightingale projects “misappropriated” appeared first on The Real Deal.
Newmark has hired a veteran broker with a speciality in the tech sector to help lead its San Francisco office. The New York-based firm, whose local office is the fourth largest commercial brokerage in the Bay Area, has appointed Christina Clark as vice chair, the San Francisco Business Times reported. She took the reins last […]
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Related Group wants to build a 46-unit waterfront condo building in West Palm Beach, as the Miami-based developer continues to expand northward. Related, led by Jorge Pérez and his sons, Jon Paul and Nick, submitted a proposal for the project at 4906 North Flagler Drive to the city of West Palm Beach. The plans, including […]
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Sterling Bay wants to tear down a warehouse on Chicago’s North Side and replace it with two residential towers holding more than 600 apartments. The Chicago-based developer will file plans next week to build a 27-story tower and a 16-story highrise at 1840 North Marcey Street, near the Ranch Triangle area, CoStar News reported. They […]
The post Sterling Bay plans 609 apartments near Lincoln Yards appeared first on The Real Deal.
A pair of high rises is coming to Dallas. Local developer Woods Capital is finalizing plans for one resi and one office tower at 5115 McKinney Avenue, off Central Expressway near Highland Park, the Dallas Morning News reported. The firm acquired the land for development last year. Each high rise will cost an estimated $70 […]
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The village of West Dundee is poised to buy a majority of a nearly dead indoor mall in a bid to better control its redevelopment. West Dundee is in talks to buy most of Spring Hill Mall at 1072 Spring Hill Ring Road, in the suburb northwest of Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reported. The would-be […]
The post Kohan in talks to sell West Dundee nearly dead mall for redevelopment appeared first on The Real Deal.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price got his arraignment on multiple counts related to development corruption delayed to late August. At a court appearance this week the judge allowed Price to remain free ahead of a newly set August 18 court date but did grant a prosecutor’s request that the councilman be fingerprinted, the L.A. […]
The post Plea delayed in developer-linked corruption case in LA appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Brill Building is swinging once again — this time to a new owner. Bruce Flatt’s Brookfield Asset Management has transferred control of the former big band jazz haven in Midtown to its lender, the family owned and operated Mack Real Estate Group, in a transaction valued at $216.1 million. The transaction is an entity-level […]
The post Brookfield hands landmark Brill Building to lender appeared first on The Real Deal.
There’s more competition in the race for Orange County’s all-time priciest listing. A mansion in Newport Beach’s Harbor Island enclave was recently listed with the ask of $74 million, according to media reports which included The Orange County Register. If it sells for the listing price, 20 Harbor Island Road, will take the title of […]
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Texas Republicans agreed to put an end to more than six months of haggling and struck a deal on property tax reform. Each of the so-called “Big Three” had his own policy priorities, and in the end, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan went home with something to be happy […]
The post What Texas’ $18 billion property tax plan means for commercial owners appeared first on The Real Deal.
A block of 21 unsold units in the beleaguered Oosten condominium is up for grabs, with some strings attached. The ownership stake controlling the luxury apartments is set to be auctioned off July 25 in a UCC foreclosure after the Williamsburg project’s Chinese developer defaulted on a $45 million loan. But a beef with the […]
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A national multi-billion dollar real estate transaction will see several Dallas-area industrial properties switch hands. Prologis, the world’s largest industrial property company and a big player in North Texas, agreed in June to buy a portfolio of nearly 14 million square feet of industrial space from Blackstone for $3.1 billion. The cash purchase, announced last […]
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The estate of a late banking boss sold her oceanfront Gulf Stream compound for $16.7 million. Records show a trust in the name of Catherine German West sold the property at 1465 North Ocean Boulevard to the Aucoin Family Trust, linked to Jean Aucoin of Saint Laurent, Quebec. Pascal Liguori and Antonio Liguori of Premier […]
The post Estate of late Capital One boss sells Gulf Stream house for $17M appeared first on The Real Deal.
After the sudden announcement of Anchor Steam’s closure this week, a company representative confirms that the Potrero Hill property that held its brewery operations for over 40 years will be sold, along with a tasting room across the street. “It will be out on the market,” Anchor Steam spokesperson Sam Singer said via email, adding […]
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Increasing housing voucher access in New York City may seem uncontroversial, a rare policy that enjoys support among tenants and landlords. But it has blown up the relationship between the Mayor Eric Adams and City Council, who are now likely taking their battle to court. Thursday, the City Council overrode the mayor’s veto of four […]
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Add soaring business taxes to remote work as a hurdle facing San Francisco’s ailing office sector. That’s the conclusion of the San Francisco Controller’s Office in a report on the impact of declining commercial property values to the city’s tax base, The San Francisco Standard reported. A company with $30 billion in sales would pay […]
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Alameda County will soon auction off a nearly 200,000-square-foot office complex once slated to house county workers near Oakland’s Coliseum. The county Board of Supervisors voted to sell the Arena Center at 6775, 7001 and 7195 Oakport Street to the highest bidder at an October auction, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The county set […]
The post Alameda County to sell 200K sf office complex near Oakland’s Coliseum appeared first on The Real Deal.
In a ruling that’s likely to reverberate around California, a Los Angeles County judge ruled this week that La Cañada Flintridge — a wealthy L.A. County city that’s been embroiled for months in an escalating dispute over the development provision known as builder’s remedy — did in fact miss a critical deadline for reaching state […]
The post Court issues major builder’s remedy ruling on La Cañada Flintridge appeared first on The Real Deal.
Weeks after Joshua Zamir’s Capstone Equities initiated a foreclosure on the Nightingale Properties’ Whale Building in Sunset Park, Capstone sued Nightingale’s CEO Elie Schwartz. Capstone alleges Nightingale defaulted on its $88 million loan for the building and Schwartz breached four guarantees. Capstone is now seeking to enforce those guarantees. The lender also takes aim at […]
The post Capstone Equities suing Nightingale Properties’ Elie Schwartz over Whale Building appeared first on The Real Deal.
A team of real estate players aim to redevelop Tuesday Morning’s huge distribution complex just north of Dallas. Developers Pennybacker Capital Management and M2G Ventures are working with Lee and Associates and Rich Young Company to make “significant capital improvements” at the 1.2 million-square-foot office and industrial campus on Inwood Road, north of LBJ Freeway […]
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The air conditioning broke down at a waterfront condo building in Edgewater that’s at the center of a dispute over its buyout, as South Florida experiences record heat. Two Roads Development, which completed a bulk purchase of units at Biscayne 21 last year, is working to get a portable chiller installed to fix the HVAC […]
The post A/C breaks down at Two Roads’ Edgewater condo buyout appeared first on The Real Deal.
In recent months, more of Los Angeles’ residential real estate agents have found work. AgentStory, a platform that measures the activity of home sellers, found more people have been active in closing deals in Los Angeles County. In June, it said 7,553 agents were active closing deals, up from May when 7,421 agents were active […]
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Bespoke Living unloaded a commercial unit in a luxury condo redevelopment that’s been the subject of drama. In 2018, then-owner Hans Futterman accused its lender on what was then a development site on West 122nd Street property, Ari Shalam’s RWN Real Estate Partners, of holding a “sham” bankruptcy auction that suppressed potential buyers. Futterman defaulted […]
The post I-sales recap: Brookfield, Slate, Wavecrest, Benchmark, Hidrock close deals appeared first on The Real Deal.
Goodman Group has gulped down Farmer John’s former manufacturing plant that made L.A. Dodger dogs in Vernon for $209 million. Goodman North America, a unit of the Australia-based developer, has agreed to buy the 29-acre plant at 3049, 3095 and 3163 East Vernon Avenue, the Commercial Observer reported, citing unidentified sources. The seller was Smithfield […]
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Retail is the play in Texas. The four Texas Triangle metros — Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio — accounted for 20 percent of the nation’s net retail absorption over the past year. Average retail vacancies in Texas have dropped to 4.7 percent after 34 million square feet of net space was added during […]
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A joint venture between Great Point Studios and National Resources landed financing for one of its Yonkers film studio projects. On Wednesday, First Citizens Bank announced that one of its divisions lent the joint venture $42.2 million for the development at 1050 North Broadway. The entertainment production facility is expected to span 112,000 square feet, […]
The post National Resources, Great Point Media borrow $42M for Yonkers studios appeared first on The Real Deal.
Coconut Grove builder Doug Cox, who is at the center of multiple lawsuits from lenders, buyers and investors collectively seeking tens of millions of dollars, is also facing eviction of his home and office. Cox and his partner, Nicole Pearl, allegedly orchestrated a scheme that involved selling homes in Coconut Grove, some nearly completed, to […]
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Meta Platforms and Signature Development Group have moved forward with plans to turn a former tech campus into a 59-acre urban retail village in Menlo Park. The Facebook parent, based in the city, and the Oakland-based developer have won Planning Commission approval for four architectural plans at 1350-1390 Willow Road, 925-1098 Hamilton Avenue and 1005-1275 […]
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Dallas-Fort Worth saw a spike in new home sales in the past few months, while sales of existing homes showed relative weakness. Builders in the region sold 14,397 new homes from April through June, marking a 4.7 percent increase compared to the same period last year. However, 8,750 existing single-family homes were sold in June, […]
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A picturesque ranch with 3 miles of lakefront is up for grabs about 140 miles west of Dallas. A 546-acre ranch on Possum Kingdom Lake, in hilly and rural Palo Pinto County, has hit the market at $10 million, the Dallas Business Journal reported. That’s a little over $18,000 per acre. David Burgher and Harlan […]
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A Miami board voted to grant preliminary archeological designation to Related Group’s development site for its planned Baccarat Residences, with an unclear effect on the project’s future. The Miami Historic & Environmental Preservation Board, which unanimously approved the resolution at a meeting on Tuesday, is expected to vote on the final designation in November. The […]
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The Core Companies and Republic Urban Properties have secured $139 million in public financing to build 135 affordable apartments in Downtown San Jose. UrbanCo Tamien, a joint venture by the San Jose-based developers, received the funds to build the transit-oriented complex at 1197 Lick Avenue, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The 135 affordable apartments […]
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Blackstone wants to unload even more industrial space. The private equity giant, through its Link Logistics subsidiary, has listed a large industrial portfolio with JLL, The Real Deal has learned. The six properties in the package — five buildings and one infill parking lot — are in and around New York City, with two near […]
The post Blackstone lists six industrial properties in NYC, Long Island appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jerry Jones’ Blue Star Land has offloaded two corner properties in Celina and Prosper, north of Dallas. The Dallas Cowboys owner’s firm sold 15- and 25-acre parcels on the northeast and southeast corners of Preston Road and Frontier Parkway to Dallas-based Remington Partners, the Dallas Morning News reported. Remington, headed by Stan Graff, plans to […]
The post Blue Star sells two parcels in Collin County appeared first on The Real Deal.
David Martin’s Terra is offering to purchase units at the Amethyst condo building in Miami Beach, where Mast Capital has been working on a buyout for years, The Real Deal has learned. An affiliate of Terra sent offers to owners of the 11-story, 120-unit condominium at 5313 Collins Avenue in recent days, sources told TRD. […]
The post Plot twist: Terra steps into oceanfront Miami Beach condo building drama appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rejections for emergency rental aid are piling up in New York City, putting tenants and landlords in a bind. The Department of Social Services rejected two-thirds of the more than 51,000 applications for aid to the One-Shot Deal program in the first nine months of 2022, Gothamist reported. The program can provide loans for back […]
The post City doubles rate of rent arrear application denials in five years appeared first on The Real Deal.
Canadian transplant Jean Francois Roy’s development firm plans a 40-story apartment tower near the Brightline passenger train station in downtown Fort Lauderdale. OceanLand Investments wants to build the 392-unit building with a parking podium and a 10th-floor amenity deck at 105 Northwest Third Avenue, according to a company news release and an OceanLand spokesperson. Designed […]
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A Los Angeles real estate maven has bought a newly remodeled Malibu home on Broad Beach for $35 million. Miriam Schaeffer, who owns 11 multi-million-dollar homes from Hidden Hills to Beverly Hills, bought the 4,300-square-foot property at 31048 Broad Beach Road, Dirt.com reported. The off-market sellers were TV producer Oren Koules and his wife, Shereen […]
The post Mansion collector buys into Malibu’s Broad Beach for $35M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Chateau Group recently closed a $125 million deal to sell its unfinished Province San Gabriel mixed-use project, according to property records. The buyer is an LLC called UP Province Holding. The project has 50,000 square feet of retail space below 127 residential units, located around 400 West Valley Boulevard. The project is near to completion, […]
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A pair of Concord apartment complexes have traded with the goal to convert them into affordable housing units. Hayward-based nonprofit Eden Housing acquired the properties for $37 million, according to CBRE, which brokered the deal. Eden purchased the Sunset Pines from Oakland-based Rubenstein Capital for $22 million and Coral Court Apartments from Oakland investor Gerald […]
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A stalemate between developers and construction unions over worker wages is holding up negotiations to bring back a mini version of property tax break 421a — just as it did the last time the tax break expired. After failing to get the legislature on board with extending the construction deadline for the tax break, Gov. […]
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At last! Texas lawmakers have struck a deal on property taxes after months of squabbling. The Texas Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott agreed on an $18 billion tax-relief package to aid property owners in the state, the Dallas Morning News reported. Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan have been at odds with Lt. Gov. Dan […]
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Another massive sublease has hit the office market in Dallas-Fort Worth. Pharmaceutical firm AmerisourceBergen listed its entire 300,000 square foot property at 5025 Plano Parkway in Carrollton for sublease, according to a CoStar listing. AmerisourceBergen is the only tenant of the four-story building. It is the second-largest sublease being marketed in Dallas-Fort Worth behind Uber’s […]
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A city of Miami board will determine whether a portion of the Related Group’s riverfront Brickell property should be designated as an archaeological site, a decision that would affect the project’s design and its future. Artifacts and human remains dating back thousands of years have been discovered during the excavation of the property. On Tuesday, […]
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The expanding Chelsea Piers Fitness was looking for a home in the most booming section of Queens — Long Island City — and found one in a 55-story project by Tavros, Charney Companies and Andrew Chung’s Innovo Capital. David Tewksbury’s Chelsea Piers signed a lease for 72,000 square feet across six stories at the soon-to-rise […]
The post Tavros, Charney and Chung land Chelsea Piers Fitness for LIC tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Department of City Planning on Monday recommended renewing Madison Square Garden’s special permit for only 10 years. That falls well short of the arena’s request for permanent authority to operate in its current location on top of Penn Station. MSG’s first permit, for 50 years, was approved in 1963. Though the 22,000-seat arena also […]
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Congress Group wants to build a 27-story apartment tower next to the Shops at Civica in the Miami Health District, marking a switch from a previous plan for medical offices on the site. The Boston-based firm wants to build a 380-unit project on 0.85 acres at 1050 Northwest 14th Street, the triangular-shaped parking lot immediately […]
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A newly built six-bedroom, six-bath home is Mill Valley’s most expensive sale of 2023, and at $12.1 million it is one of only five sales over $12 million in Marin County so far this year, according to listing agent Victoria Love of Compass. The 6,350-square-foot mansion came to market at $12.5 million in mid-April, co-listed […]
The post Mill Valley’s top sale of 2023 tops out at more than $12M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Chicago’s office vacancies continued to rise last quarter, beating the previous record set at the beginning of the year. Despite the height of the pandemic being in the rearview, office landlords are still struggling to fill up their properties as distress permeates the city. The Windy City’s office vacancy rate reached a record high of […]
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What could a mall in California and John F. Kennedy’s grave possibly have in common? The architect. John Carl Warnecke, a close friend of the Kennedy family and a noted designer of Modernist and Bauhaus structures, designed the Del Monte Shopping Center in Monterey, California, which experts call a rare example of a mid-century style […]
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Even mayors want lower property taxes for themselves. To wit: Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and his wife are contesting the appraised value of their home, aiming to lower their property tax bill, the Dallas Morning News reported. The couple’s 5,000 square-foot residence in the White Rock Lake area of East Dallas was appraised at nearly […]
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Blandford Homes, a prominent residential developer, won the bid for a prized 115-acre plot of state-owned land in Mesa, Arizona. The company secured the land, located near Hawes and Warner roads, for nearly $38 million, as part of the expansive 1,200-acre Hawes Crossing community, AZCentral.com reported. Blandford Homes intends to build 450 to 525 houses […]
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It’s a fact pattern that’s bizarre and perhaps humorous, but the result was not a laughing matter. Tenant Michael Nien is accused of causing $14 million in damages at the 28-story tower of Van Ness Avenue by flooding the building when he opened a high-pressure fire hose valve while he was naked and allegedly having […]
The post SF man accused of causing $14M in damages to building while naked seeks to reduce charges appeared first on The Real Deal.
A Connecticut real estate agent has been charged in connection with, and pleaded guilty to a fraudulent scheme involving short sales of government and bank-owned properties. Sheldon Haag, 34, of Glastonbury — who agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud — allegedly defrauded his clients over several years by engaging […]
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The office market has its challenges, but there are some big deals still being made. Deloitte has signed a lease with MP Boston — an arm of Millenium Partners — for 138,000 square feet of office space at the 50-story Winthrop Center in Boston. It’s purportedly the largest office lease signed in the Greater Boston […]
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A former building superintendent in Brooklyn was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison for the 2017 murder of the man hired to replace him. Keith Floyd, 44, was convicted in February 2023 of fatally strangling Daniel Rivera, who had been hired to replace Floyd, and attempted to cover up the crime by burying […]
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Beijing-based China Oceanwide Holdings is continuing to shed its U.S. assets, this time striking a deal to sell one of its projects in Hawaii. Oceanwide has struck a deal to sell its 44-acre Ko Olina project on the island of Oahu for $134 million, according to a financial filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. […]
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Call it Jurassic Walk-in-the-Park. Artwork in the form of life-size dinosaurs have made an unexpected appearance on the rooftop of a high-rise apartment tower in Philadelphia, the Inquirer reported. Number of people, including former journalist Elizabeth Dobbins, and residents of Riverwalk apartments — located at 23rd and Arch Streets — asked about the sudden arrival […]
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A victory for the NIMBYs: A Colorado judge sided with the town of Vail in a longstanding legal battle against Vail Resorts, allowing the town to take possession of the site. Eagle County District Court Chief Judge Paul Dunkelman ruled that the town had the authority to condemn the 23-acre site, which Vail Resorts had […]
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The 93-year-old Hilton Head woman who is entangled in a legal battle against developers to keep her home now has some star power backing her. Billionaire screenwriter and film producer Tyler Perry, known for his character Madea; NBA star Kyrie Irving and rapper Meek Mill have expressed their support for Josephine Wright in ongoing fight, […]
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A tiny island generated a massive sale in Massachusetts. A waterfront compound located in Monomoy on Nantucket sold for $38.1 million, making it the highest price paid for a single residential property in Massachusetts, the Wall Street Journal reported. The sellers of the property are venture capitalist Evan Jones and his wife, Cindy Jones, a […]
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A national developer has revised a proposal for a large-scale housing and retail complex in Central New York, to include more reduced-priced rental units. If approved, the development would be the largest in the town of Manlius in the past decade, Syracuse.com reported. The project, called Twin Shores, aims to address the region’s housing shortage […]
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A federal jury has found Arthur Aslanian, a real estate developer from La Cañada Flintridge, guilty of plotting two murders for hire, as well as arson. The decision came on July 7 from the U.S. District Court for California’s Central District after a five-day trial, the Department of Justice said in a press release. According […]
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June was the hottest month ever recorded in human history, scorching parts of the U.S. and Mexico. The hot weather is an apt metaphor for investors that are also being torched, only by market conditions, not the effects of climate change. Tides Equities, which acquired a $7 billion multifamily portfolio by taking out floating-rate loans […]
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Julia Koch, widow of billionaire David Koch, is offloading some of the couple’s pricey Manhattan properties. The philanthropist and socialite sold their Upper East Side townhouse to an unknown buyer in a $41 million off-market deal, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last year, Koch listed their 18-room duplex at 740 Park Avenue for $48 million. […]
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The war of the words continues. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and its chairman Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, have been under heavy criticism for the past month since the park’s board unanimously voted on June 10 to pursue eminent domain to save Fairfield Lake State Park in East Texas. Todd Interests founder Shawn Todd […]
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Eyal Ofer’s Global Holdings has bought the Mondrian Park Avenue, a 190-key hotel in NoMad, paying Moin Development $157 million for the property. The sale comes two years after Ofer picked up the senior mortgage on the building, at 444 Park Avenue South. At the time, Moin president David Moin told The Real Deal that […]
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Park Hotels and Resorts has filed three lawsuits against the City of San Francisco for allegedly having to pay improper taxes on a 2019 real estate acquisition, according to documents filed in San Francisco Superior Court. In 2019, Park Hotels acquired the Chesapeake Lodging Trust, which included the Le Méridien in the Financial District, the […]
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A titan of Austin real estate has closed a $610 million private equity fund. Endeavor Real Estate Group will use the fund, called Endeavor Opportunity Partners III, to invest in value-add real estate ventures in five markets across the country: Austin, Dallas, Charlotte, Nashville and Salt Lake City, with particular interest in Central Texas, according […]
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Mayor Brandon Johnson is being urged by his transition team to stay true to his campaign promise to triple the one-time city transfer tax on property sales of $1 million and more, a proposal that triggered much of Chicago’s real estate community. Johnson’s transition team this week released a 223-page report, put together by its […]
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North Dallas Bank and Trust is making its mark on a massive development in Frisco. The bank purchased about 4 acres in the Fields, a $10 billion, 2,500-acre mixed-use project slated for multimillion dollar homes, multifamily towers, offices, retail and industrial facilities, the Dallas Morning News reported. The site is west of the Dallas North […]
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A high-end house on Printer’s Row sold 20 percent below its listing price this week after eight months on the market. The home at 747 South Dearborn Street was originally listed for nearly $6 million before selling for $4.8 million on Friday, marking a $1.1 million price cut to get the unique property sold. The […]
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Trump Group terminated its contract with Suffolk Construction over Estates at Acqualina, the two-tower luxury condo development in Sunny Isles Beach, The Real Deal has learned. Suffolk’s last day on the job site was Thursday, June 29, according to an email that developer Jules Trump sent to residents and future residents of the project. At […]
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It’s been a rough week for Mayor Eric Adams, but this one wasn’t his fault. Six people were indicted on 27 counts for allegedly using 29 straw donors to support his 2021 campaign, believing their fundraising would land them construction contracts for a huge public development. Also indicted was Ecosafety Consultants, a Queens-based site safety […]
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Home building has been down across DFW but Chicago-based William Ryan Homes senses opportunity. The single family developer is making a big play across DFW. After closing its Dallas branch in 2009, the company has been working on a comeback, acquiring 1,500 lots across the Metroplex in the last year, according to a news release. […]
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TF Cornerstone has dipped its toes into the once-scorching industrial sector with the purchase of a distribution center in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Tom and Fred Elghanayan’s firm bought the property just outside Washington, D.C., from Blue Vista Capital Management and CSG Partners for $79.5 million. The sellers developed the facility at 95 Distribution Center in 2021, […]
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Bargains in residential real estate continue feeding the California-to-Texas migration. The average home in Texas costs about 70 percent less than in the Golden State, equating to a $282,000 difference, a StorageCafe study found. People moving from San Jose to the Dallas area can save over $1 million on a home, as the median home […]
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Greater San Francisco nearly tops national lists by one key measure of the struggling commercial real estate market. As U.S. landlords of office, hotel and retail properties work to pay off mounting debt, with interest rates rising and values falling, those in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward market carry some of the highest loan balances and distress […]
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An Irvine developer has set its sights on building 69 homes on a site shunned by SummerHill in the Bay Area. City Ventures has filed plans to build 60 townhomes and nine accessory dwelling units on a two-acre site at 37447 Fremont Boulevard, in Fremont, the San Francisco Business Times reported. It wants to demolish […]
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A Lincoln Park townhouse built for a survivor of the Titanic has chopped its price tag by more than $3 million and drew a new listing agent after sitting on the market for more than a year. The property has been divided into two units that initially were separately listed at $7.65 million and $5.65 […]
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MG Developer plans to break ground on Village at Coral Gables this month after securing a $67.5 million construction loan. New York-based Churchill Real Estate provided the financing for the 48-unit project at 535 Santander Avenue, according to a press release. Village at Coral Gables will have a mix of townhomes, lofts, villas and condos, […]
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Kairoi Residential acquired a large apartment complex in San Antonio’s Medical Center recently, spotlighting a hot investor market with strong job and population growth. The local firm, headed by Michael Lynd, bought the 612-unit Signature Ridge apartments at 3711 Medical Drive, just west of Interstate 10 on the city’s Northwest Side, the San Antonio Business […]
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The pickleball craze is bearing fruit for the Feil Organization. The Manhattan-based landlord and developer inked a 15-year deal this spring with a Long Island investor for 30,000 square feet at Feil’s East End Commons in Riverhead. The bankrupt retail chain Kmart vacated the space in 2018. Peconic Pickleball will have nine indoor courts along […]
The post Pickleball parlor filling Feil’s cavity at Hamptons gateway appeared first on The Real Deal.
Chicago-based drinkware designer Leapfrog Brands is jumping to Goose Island. The company will occupy 16,000 square feet at 1400 North Kingsbury Street, doubling its footprint and leaving its current Fulton Market headquarters at 159 North Racine Avenue. Leapfrog is growing and requiring its workers to come into the office at least four days a week, […]
The post Leapfrog Brands jumps to Goose Island, ditching Fulton Market appeared first on The Real Deal.
The most expensive Texas home to hit the market in June was in University Park in Dallas. The 14,000-square-foot mansion at 6920 Vassar Avenue has a price tag of $20.5 million, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing the Houston Association of Realtors. That’s $1,464 per square foot. Erin Mathews of Allie Beth Allman & Associates […]
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Namdar Realty Group’s next regional mall turnaround attempt will come in Joliet. The New York-based distressed retail assets specialist bought the troubled Louis Joliet Mall in Chicago’s southwest suburbs for $31.4 million from a lender that took back the property from a venture of Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital, according to Will County records. The previous […]
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Class B multifamily is still trading hands in North Texas. Los Angeles-based private equity firm Cottonwood Group teamed-up with Dallas-based Texsun Holdings to acquire the 224-unit Taylor Commons apartments in Fort Worth last month, according to a news release. The seller was not disclosed, but property records reveal it is Good Life Housing Partners, a […]
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East Flatbush is reaching new heights. Jeff Levine’s Douglaston Development filed plans Wednesday for a new apartment building, rising potentially 10 stories at 680 Winthrop Street. It’s a small sign of what’s to come for the largely low-scale Brooklyn neighborhood. The proposed 109,817-square-foot project would create 107 units on a 7.2-acre plot between Clarkson, Albany […]
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British financier Antos Glogowski sold his longtime Palm Beach home to spec developer Todd Michael Glaser for $21.4 million Glogowksi’s Glogowski Family Holdings LLC sold the house at 305 Indian Road, at the northernmost tip of the island. Top broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates brokered the sale. Glaser purchased the property with […]
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Fisher Brothers Management can begin construction of an eight-story multifamily project in Wynwood after securing a $117.5 million loan. An affiliate of Los Angeles-based Canyon Partners provided the construction financing for Wynwhouse, a proposed development with 312 apartments, 27,500 square feet of restaurant and retail space and 120 parking spaces, records show. The 1.5-acre development […]
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Renters across the state are strapped. That’s the conclusion of a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, which found two out of three renters had “fair” or “poor” finances, the Orange County Register reported. The institute surveyed 1,576 adults in June, who said their extra cash had been eaten up by the worst […]
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Manufacturing in New York City has withered over the years, even more so than in the nation at large. The real estate industry has adapted, converting manufacturing areas into pricey residential enclaves, but city officials have resisted waving the white flag. Only 57,000 manufacturing jobs remain in the city, down from 172,000 in 2000 and […]
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After more than nine months on the market, the oceanfront Carmel home known as the “Butterfly House” has apparently found a buyer. Venture capitalist Kevin Comolli listed his property for $40 million last August with Shelly Lynch of Carmel Realty Company. The 3,700-square-foot home on over half an acre is called the “Butterfly House” for […]
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Brooklyn’s luxury market is sticking to the status quo. The borough saw 23 contracts inked last week for homes asking $2 million or more, down slightly from 26 signed in the previous period, according to Compass’ weekly report. The total has hovered around the low to mid twenties for the past three weeks with townhouses […]
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Sir David Adjaye, the renowned Ghanaian-British architect, has been embroiled in allegations of serious misconduct. Adjaye, who designed Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, D.C., faces allegations of exploitation, the Financial Times reported. Three women, who requested anonymity, accused Adjaye and his firm of various forms of misconduct, ranging from […]
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Power broker and former reality TV star Fredrik Eklund is moving from Los Angeles to Miami and renting out his Beverly Hills home for $50,000 a month. Eklund, who is one of the leads of Douglas Elliman’s Eklund-Gomes Team, made the announcement on a July 4 Instagram post. He cited expanding business in Miami, one […]
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Taconic Partners tallied its first tenant for a new life sciences hub in the Upper West Side. Graviton Bioscience signed a lease for 30,000 square feet at West End Labs, the New York Post reported. The asking rent for the space was $125 per square foot. Graviton develops therapeutics to treat autoimmune diseases. It plans […]
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San Francisco Mayor London Breed has proposed tax incentives to encourage companies to set up new offices in San Francisco, with certain zip codes targeted for help. When Breed originally proposed the plan, it would have cost the city about $37 million in lost tax revenue over the next two fiscal years. The most recent […]
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Beginning this month, certain open house signs are banned in the East Bay city of Livermore, part of a larger ban on all temporary signs on public streets or sidewalks. The original intent of the legislation was to remove some of the Alameda County city’s proliferating political signs, according to the San Jose Mercury News. […]
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More than 13 months after the Anaheim City Council voted to nix a $320 million deal to sell Angel Stadium because of a burgeoning corruption scandal involving the city’s former mayor, an investigative firm hired by the city has completed a report outlining potential misconduct and pay-to-play schemes. JL Group, the company handling the report, […]
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In a lawsuit filed by a real estate developer, St. Francis College is accused of being Judas. Alexico Group signed a contract in April 2022 to buy the school’s old campus at 180 Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights for $180 million. But Alexico alleges that St. Francis proverbially stabbed it in the back by instead […]
The post Alexico sues Rockrose, St. Francis over Brooklyn campus sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
The summer real estate season has delivered some big deals for celebrities active in the ultra-luxe market. First, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are buying up more properties in Montecito. The celebrity couple active in the high-end home game are the likely buyers for a $22.5 million estate named Pompeian Court, located at 19 […]
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A former hotelier, Tulia Soucy de Gonzalez Gorrondona, sold her waterfront Indian Creek estate for a record $68 million in an off-market deal. Records show Gorrondona’s Nevis-based MTM Star International Corporation sold the mansion at 11 Indian Creek Island Road to the Palm Trust, with Houston-based attorney Terri Lacy signing as trustee. The true buyer […]
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Bidding on the former Oakland Raiders headquarters and training facility kicks off on July 5, with roster of players interested in taking the field. Registration closed at the end of the day last Friday, and as of last Thursday afternoon 65 bidders had downloaded Alameda County’s bid packet, county and Oakland officials told the San […]
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UPDATED, July 3, 7:00 p.m. Cavache Properties scored final approval for its second Old Town Square multifamily project in Pompano Beach. Called Old Town Square II, the 319-apartment development will rise on the site of a closed Christ United Methodist Church building at 210 Northeast Third Street, as well as on part of the parcels […]
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Ever since Endeavor Real Estate Group began work on the Domain in North Austin, the city’s commercial center of gravity has been shifting from downtown. That move continued late last week with a pair of new office building filings for the Mueller neighborhood northeast of the central business district. The move comes amid a wave […]
The post Shorenstein plans $90 million office project in Mueller appeared first on The Real Deal.
Score another victory for Stamford, with three financial-services companies that were previously based in Greenwich announcing their relocation to one of the state’s largest office complexes in the City that Works. The companies— Altrinsic Global Advisors, Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn, and Valitana — have leased spaces of about 13,000 square feet, 6,000 square feet, and 8,000 […]
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Reality star agent Mauricio Umansky is taking The Agency to the Tar Heel State. Umansky’s brokerage opened its first North Carolina office in Charlotte, with local agent Erika Mendoza and Abigail Hines Miller joining as managing partners, according to a press release. The opening marks the firm’s 85th office. Mendoza and Hines Miller both joined […]
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A historic farmhouse in Palisades, New York, with ties to the Revolutionary War era, which also served as home to famous contemporary actors and artists, hit the market for $5 million. The farmhouse — at 35 Washington Spring Road which was built around 1750 by John Sneden and is situated on land stretching from Rockland […]
The post Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawe’s former farmhouse lists for $5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Amazon may be growing disinterested in industrial real estate … and offices … and retail. Data centers, however, remain the apple of the e-commerce giant’s eye. The tech company plans to spend $7.8 billion to expand Amazon Web Services — its cloud computing unit — in Ohio, Bisnow reported. That investment will take the form […]
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To get to know Britain’s most successful real estate agent, Gary Hersham, all you really need is to read the quotes by him and others. “As I’ve said to his face many times, he’s a lunatic, but he’s a phenomenal operator” Anthony Payne, founder of LonRed and who used to work with Hersham, told The […]
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South Jersey Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III is facing renewed scrutiny from state and federal authorities as they investigate his involvement in several real estate deals along the Delaware River waterfront in Camden. The probe, led by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office and the FBI, focuses on whether Norcross and his brother […]
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There’s a new sheriff in town in some Old West ghost towns: real estate brokers. And they’re looking to wrangle buyers. There are more than a few reasons somebody might want to own an entire town, even ones without people or infrastructure. Some buyers might be drawn to the romanticism of owning a piece of […]
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Compass has partnered with a top French firm for international referrals. The collaboration with Barnes International, which bills itself as the number one brokerage in France, gives Compass agents greater access to international markets and provides Barnes with more inroads to American clients. Barnes has 130 offices in 20 countries, including Miami and New York […]
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The last time Katherine Aydlett bought a home, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. But Aydlett, who bought her first home during World War II, is a homeowner again at the age of 100 after purchasing a house in Troutman North Carolina, WSOCTV reported. Aydlett’s new town, which was incorporated in 1905, is just 18 years […]
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Astra Foods has made a meaty acquisition. The upper Darby-based meat manufacturer scored the building “wit” Cleavers, a popular cheesesteak shop located at 108 South 18th Street, for $4.6 million, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported, citing property records. The three-story building, near Chestnut and 18th streets, is at a prime location within two blocks of […]
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Police conducted a widespread raid on Germany’s Adler Real Estate this week, coordinating activities across more than a dozen properties in multiple countries. Police raided 20 offices and apartments in its search on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Adler Real Estate, a major residential landlord based in Berlin, is a subsidiary of Adler Group, which said it […]
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It’s a rainy-day account of biblical proportions. A few years ago, a whistleblower exposed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ massive investment portfolio, estimated at $100 billion, which was referred to by church officials as a rainy-day account, the Wall Street Journal reported. It’s now being touted as the financial foundation that supports […]
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The Department of Justice has weighed in on Florida’s controversial new law — which prohibits nearly all Chinese citizens and businesses based in China from purchasing real estate in the state — saying that it violates the constitution and federal law. The DOJ said in a statement of interest filed in federal court in Florida […]
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The threat of hurricanes isn’t keeping people from buying property in Naples, Florida. Two exclusive communities, Port Royal and Aqualane Shores, have been ranked among the most valuable residential areas in the nation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Port Royal recorded typical home values of $16.5 million in April, almost doubling since January 2020. Aqualane […]
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The negative momentum triggered by spiking interest rates, a shift to remote and hybrid work and inflation is causing some real estate players to tumble over. And this week it was hard to ignore. Due to those sharp increases in interest rates, Tides Equities co-founders, Sean Kia and Ryan Andrade, told investors to expect capital […]
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Former Navillus CEO Donal O’Sullivan was given six months in prison for his role in a scheme that prosecutors say cheated construction unions out of more than $1 million. O’Sullivan was sentenced on Friday and ordered to report to prison term on Nov. 13. His sister, Helen O’Sullivan, the firm’s former treasurer, was also sentenced […]
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Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has his sights set south of Dallas. After making a bold land grab in Waxahachie two years ago, Jerry Jones’ investment and development firm Blue Star Land is starting construction on an industrial center at the 120-acre site. The 638,000 square foot warehouse will be built just off the intersection […]
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An eight year legal drama in Gowanus is wrapping up with a foreclosure. Marvin Azrak’s Maguire Capital Group, an active player in distressed New York City real estate, has stepped in to overtake the foreclosure at 255 Butler, the site of a drawn out battle between the Akkad family and Sam Boymelgreen, son of controversial […]
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Apartment life is good in Texas. Four of the 10 best rental cities in the country are in the Lone Star State, according to RentCafe. Plano earned the No. 2 spot on its ranking, behind Charleston, South Carolina. North Austin suburb Round Rock was named the sixth-best rental market, followed by Austin at No. 7. […]
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Before hiring Francis Suarez as his paid consultant, developer Rishi Kapoor helped Miami’s mayor draft legislation that would have benefited his Coconut Grove project. The proposed measure was never approved, but Suarez’s involvement reveals a deeper connection between the mayor and Kapoor, CEO of Coral Gables-based Location Ventures, according to the Miami Herald. State and […]
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New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing Brooklyn and Queens real estate investor Daryl Hagler for his alleged role in a nursing home fraud scheme that led to resident neglect, suffering and even death. James alleges that Hagler and his business partner Kenneth Rozenberg, who co-owned Centers Health Care, converted more than $83 million […]
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Dozens of tenants at a Pasadena apartment building gathered this week to protest and hold a press conference over their possible eviction by CalTech. “CalTech’s heartless equation: evicting seniors & families,” one tenant’s banner read. The tenants live in a 21-unit building at 400 South Mentor Avenue, a few blocks west of the university’s campus, […]
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Bridge Housing is offering the Bay Area an affordable housing lifeline, after acquiring Avalon Communities Daly City property for $66 million. The property, located at 500 King Drive, is under the “Eaves” brand. The 642-unit community is 140,000 square feet, and was sold for more than three times its market value of $21 million, according […]
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Harris County is fed up with a Houston title company that’s been accused of scamming homebuyers and sellers for years. The county sued Patriot Title, accusing it of fraud and preying on the elderly, KHOU reported. Patriot Title has been sued over 20 times in the last decade, according to Harris County attorney Christian Menefee. […]
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In an otherwise distressed Silicon Valley office market, Apple has acquired a Cupertino office building for $70 million. The iPhone maker bought a four-story office building at 10200 South De Anza Boulevard, a property that’s about two miles from the company’s Cupertino world headquarters at Apple Park, as first reported by The Mercury News. It […]
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Real estate leadership is weighing in on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission’s decision to retake Fairfield Lake State Park via eminent domain, and they aren’t happy. The Real Estate Council, the largest body of commercial real estate professionals in Texas, sent a June 27 letter to the commission requesting it immediately reverse its decision […]
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Top candidates to lead a Chicago agency that makes key decisions on development proposals under newly elected Mayor Brandon Johnson have been revealed as he continues to fill out his administration. The real estate community is pushing for Rich Klawiter, an influential real estate and finance attorney at DLA Piper who has steered some of […]
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Exeter Property Group’s Legacy at Fallbrook, a prime office building located in northwest Houston, is for sale, according to JLL Capital Markets. The highly amenitized office building, located at 10720 W Sam Houston Parkway North between highways 290 and 249, spans 207,000 square feet of rentable space. The Harris County Appraisal Districts classifies it as […]
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Palm Beach’s most expensive listing is taking a summer break. Spec developer Todd Glaser and his partners removed the mansion at 10 Tarpon Isle from the Multiple Listing Service, the Palm Beach Daily News reported. Glaser and his partners redeveloped the historic property and listed the private island in November for $218 million, making it […]
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After about a year of suffering through plummeting values, the office market in Downtown Los Angeles has received a bit of good news with the University of California, Los Angeles announcing its purchase of the historically designated The Trust Building. The school will use the building at 433 South Spring Street in Downtown’s Historic Core […]
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Ex-DocuSign CEO Dan Springer has purchased a newly built Atherton home for $22 million, according to public records. Springer bought the 1-acre property with Gillian James for about $2,000 per square foot. The new house is the work of developer Mehdi Jazayeri, according to public records, who bought the property for $5.15 million in 2019. […]
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Unlike the past couple years, when California politicians were blessed with record budget surpluses, ahead of the 2023-24 fiscal year budget state leaders have been forced to reckon with a $32 billion deficit. That shortfall led to weeks of difficult talks, which broke through late on Monday when Gov. Gavin Newsom and top Democratic legislators […]
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Unpermitted construction isn’t the only thing slowing down progress at Rishi Kapoor’s co-living project in Miami Beach. This month, six companies — including the project’s architect — filed liens in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against the Kapoor entity that owns the Urbin Miami Beach development site at 1234 and 1260 Washington Avenue. The half-dozen firms are […]
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Another rare resale at Zeckendorf Development’s 520 Park Avenue has hit the books. A full-floor unit at the Billionaires’ Row tower sold for $37.5 million in an off-market deal, public records show. An LLC, curiously named Ask 36, paid 20 percent more than the unit’s previous purchase price of $31.5 million in 2018, the Wall […]
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Clarion Partners appears ready to trade a San Francisco office tower it bought in 2014 for $107 million at about two-thirds off that price. Presidio Bay Ventures is the likely buyer of 60 Spear Street, the San Francisco Business Times reports. Cyrus Sanandaji, managing principal at the San Francisco-based development firm, told the publication that […]
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Pasadena’s new rent control board is set to take its first significant action. At its June 29 meeting, the Pasadena Rental Housing Board is expected to set a rent increase limit for the first time — a 2.75 percent cap for increases during the 12-month period running from Oct.1 through September 2024. Pasadena Star News […]
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At the start of a second special session of the Texas legislature , Sen. Phil King asked God to help solve the state’s property tax reform mess. If dueling meetings of the Texas House of Representatives and Senate Wednesday are any indication of how the session will go, divine intervention may be necessary. “Well, Father, […]
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Companies linked to Miami City Attorney Victoria Méndez purchased and flipped nearly three dozen homes once owned by the Guardianship Program of Dade County — more than previously reported. Many of those deals also involved Antonio Lorenzo, a Miami real estate agent and property appraiser who made tens of thousands of dollars on the sales, […]
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MDH Partners has acquired a massive industrial property in Houston’s south submarket. The Atlanta-based investment firm bought South Belt Central Building 4, which spans 603,000 square feet. The purchase marks MDH Partners’ entry into the Greater Houston market and increases its presence in the Lone Star State to more than 3.9 million square feet. The […]
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The early primary results are in, and many City Council candidates favored by construction and real estate interests are emerging victorious. One incumbent cool to the industry, Charles Barron, lost his re-election bid in East New York, according to unofficial results posted by the city’s Board of Elections. The apparent winner, community organizer Chris Banks, […]
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Stores selling tobacco, vape products, souvenirs, t-shirts, vitamins and pawned goods could become a thing of the past in a large swath of Miami Beach. Miami Beach officials are considering expanding a ban on retail shops that sell such products in the city’s North Beach neighborhood. They are also seeking to cap the number of […]
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Where many downtown office landlords and lenders see distress, Carlyle Group co-chair David Rubenstrein sees possibility. Rubenstein deemed commercial real estate debt in downtown office buildings as “the best single investment that I know of today,” according to comments at an event this week reported by Bisnow. An enormous amount of factors are dragging down […]
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A building in the heart of Union Square could hit the market as it deals with a debt issue. Property owner Thor Equities Group has attempted to refinance or sell the three-story building, but claims it can’t until it secures a new retail tenant at 152 Geary Street, as first reported by the San Francisco […]
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As commercial and multifamily building slows, Dallas developers continue to look toward Frisco. Mid-sized apartment development firm Magnolia Property Company plans to add a $19 million multifamily development with ground floor flex office at the Gate in Frisco, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing. The project, titled Magnolia at the Gate, […]
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Vacancy rates continue to rise to all-time highs in downtown San Francisco, but some neighborhoods fare better than others, according to second quarter data from Colliers. Total availability — a combination of landlord-direct and sublease space — downtown now stands at over 31 percent, compared to just under 30 percent last quarter and about 26 […]
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A lifeline for the 29 troubled buildings formerly operated by Skid Row House Trust got a vote of confidence June 26, when the Los Angeles City Council’s Budget, Finance & Innovation Committee voted unanimously to authorize a $10 million loan to support the buildings’ operations for the next four to six months. The vote comes […]
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A Southampton estate may have cut its listing price by almost 25 percent, but it isn’t quite clearance section material. The estate at 700 Meadow Lane is being marketed at $135 million, Behind the Hedges reported. The 23 percent price reduction comes two and a half years after former advertising executive Marcia Riklis listed the […]
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Developers are eager to start a 242-acre residential project in a lake town west of Austin two decades after a planned development district was approved by local officials. Las Vegas-based Turnback Development bought the Lago Vista site in 2008, with plans to build at least 400 homes, a clubhouse and amenity center, while preserving 120 […]
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The shock is wearing off from developer David Martin’s decision to pull the plug on a record $1.2 billion purchase of a waterfront assemblage in Miami. A reality check dusted with disappointment is setting in, brokers say. Smart City Miami, the Terra-led group that canceled its contract to acquire Genting Group’s 15.5-acre partially bayfront property […]
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UPDATED, June 27, 2023, 4:45 p.m.: Tides Equities is feeling the brute force of rising interest rates. The firm’s co-founders, Sean Kia and Ryan Andrade, have told investors to expect capital calls — injections of equity from limited partners — to help boost the portfolio, according to a copy of an investor letter from Tides […]
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Merlone Geier Partners wants to replace a defunct Sears at the Buena Park Downtown Mall with 1,300 homes. The San Diego-based developer has filed plans to redevelop the closed Sears and Sears Auto Center into 1,176 apartments and 126 townhomes at 8150 La Palma Avenue, the Orange County Register reported. The City Council will decide […]
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Chicago’s residential real estate market is proving that sustainability pays off. While home prices soared at a record pace in multiple U.S. cities throughout the pandemic, Chicago’s remained relatively flat. So when spiking interest rates brought prices crashing down in markets where they had previously been climbing, the Chicago area became the second-best in the […]
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One Sotheby’s International Realty is looking to build a new headquarters in Coral Gables. The brokerage submitted a proposal to the Coral Gables Development Review Committee for a 31,420-square-foot mixed-use building at 1501 and 1505 Sunset Drive. One Sunset LLC, a Florida entity managed by One Sotheby’s President Daniel de la Vega, proposes a six-story […]
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Even if the narrative around San Francisco’s “doom loop” is overblown, the bad press brings consequences to the real estate market as the city struggles to recover from the pandemic, city boosters and agents say. In interviews with the San Francisco Chronicle, civic leaders and real estate professionals admitted that the city has real problems […]
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An up-and-coming logistics firm headed by a former Amazon executive is taking a big chunk of new office space in Dallas. San Francisco-based Flexport, led by CEO Dave Clark, will occupy 50,000 square feet across four floors in the Galleria Towers on LBJ Freeway at Noel Road, the Dallas Morning News reported. The renovated offices […]
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A man was killed in a weather-related construction accident near the University of Texas at Austin in March, and now the victim’s family wants justice. Michael Delgado, 29, died when a large piece of debris hit him while he was riding his bike past a construction site near the intersection of 24th and Rio Grande […]
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Firms behind the long-awaited redevelopment of Hemisfair Park in San Antonio have drastically scaled back their plans amid pushback from local residents. Austin-based Post Lake Capital Partners and Trube Land Development presented their revised plans to the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission, the San Antonio Report reported. Plans show a three-story retail building next […]
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Berkshire Residential Investments is looking to offload a River North apartment tower even as high interest rates continue to hammer property values across Chicago. The Boston-based firm, led by CEO David Olney, has hired CBRE to sell the 292-unit Eight O Five building at 805 North LaSalle Street, about seven years after acquiring the asset, […]
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The record price for a home in Hermosa Beach was broken twice in the last month. The new record, set last week, involved the $19.5 million off-market trade of 2666 The Strand in the beachfront town. It’s a short walk from 2826 The Strand, a home acknowledged to break Hermosa Beach records when it sold […]
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Richard Ohebshalom has lost control of a 7-story building, including an apartment where he resides, after loans fell into default at 54 Thompson Street in Soho. Ownership of the property, which Ohebshalom pledged as collateral for $4 million in mezzanine loans, was transferred to lender SME Capital Ventures in a July auction, according to public […]
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A condo on the 59th floor of One Bennett Park sold for $6.3 million this week after several years of dancing between on and off the market. The 5,000-square-foot unit has four bedrooms and six bathrooms, according to public listings. It was originally listed for $6.55 million, putting the closing price 3 percent below the […]
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Blackstone sold a fully leased Hialeah Gardens cold storage facility for $43 million. A Blackstone affiliate sold the 115,741-square-foot industrial building at 13801 Northwest 112th Avenue, records and Vizzda show. The buyer is Boxer US, a Miami-based entity incorporated in May by attorney Lourdes Cambo, but with no managing member listed in corporate documents. The […]
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Redco Development aims to build 126 apartments in San Jose. The San Francisco-based developer has filed preliminary plans to build a seven-story complex at 940 Willow Street in Willow Glen, SFYimby reported. It would replace a 5,000-square-foot building containing a liquor store and fitness center. Plans call for 126 apartments above 1,800 square feet of […]
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Retired baseball player Alex Guerrero left the diamond and found real estate. The former Dodgers outfielder sold a waterfront spec home on Miami Beach’s Palm Island for $17.2 million, records show. Guerrero’s Florida entity, AG 07 Investments LLC, sold the house at 216 Palm Avenue to Fred Courtot, according to property records. Courtot is CEO […]
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Gov. Kathy Hochul is shelving plans to build a cluster of office towers around Penn Station after Vornado Realty Trust pumped the brakes on ground-up development. The state is “decoupling” the station’s redesign from a broader plan to fund it by constructing 18 million-square-feet of commercial towers in its immediate vicinity, the governor announced. She […]
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Cape Cod is often touted as one of the premier summer destinations in the Northeast. Rental landlords don’t want to hear that these days. Rental vacancies have surged at the popular Massachusetts tourist destination this season, the Boston Globe reported. There’s no clear cause of the downturn in the short-term rental market, but theories abound […]
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New Jersey developer Silverman Group is considering a significant expansion of The Ridge at Talcott Mountain in Simsbury, Connecticut. The current complex, built on the former site of The Hartford’s headquarters, is composed of more than 170 townhouses and apartments. The proposed expansion would add over 500 new apartments and houses to the development, the […]
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Crowdfunding doesn’t always work out, as one New York real estate firm is finding out. Nightingale Properties efforts to raise money for the acquisition of the Atlanta Financial Center in Buckhead hit a major roadblock, with investors demanding their money back, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. Nightingale had agreed to purchase the 1-million-square-foot office complex […]
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In television, characters and storylines are what make a show iconic. But having the right sets — particularly living spaces — is also key. Who can think of “Seinfeld” without remembering Kramer busting into Jerry’s modest walk-up or “Friends” without the lavish, if not unrealistic, apartment with a purple door and floor-to-ceiling windows. Indeed, there’s […]
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If there’s one thing Brown Harris Stevens brokers Julie Smith and Elise Witkin can count on in nearly 30 years of selling homes in New York City, it’s apartment #2/3 at 306 West 90th Street. The pair have sold the Upper West Side co-op four different times since the summer 1995, with the most recent […]
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The University of Iowa is asking $45 million for a dorm that houses more than 1,000 students. Selling the building is part of the university’s five-year plan to improve student housing, which includes renovating two existing dorms and building a new one on the east side of the Iowa City campus. The school listed its […]
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A small town on the Jersey Shore is harboring the new record holder for priciest purchase in local history. A buyer plunked down $12 million to buy the home at 8808 1st Avenue in Stone Harbor, one of two towns on Seven Mile Island near Cape May (Avalon is the other). The price narrowly set […]
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NASCAR champion Joey Logano’s $255 million mixed-use development in North Carolina has gained traction. The project, called Town 1 Mixed Use Center and pairs Logano with developer Treenail Development, has the support of the town of Huntersville, with the board of commissioners approving rezoning by a 6-1 vote, the Charlotte Observer reported. The plans include […]
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A unique Syracuse house is looking fresh, but it’s the project underneath that could have a larger impact. Workers recently made updates to the two-story home, situated on top of a former carriage and automobile factory, Syracuse.com reported. The home has been a source of fascination for years, sitting on top of the former H.A. […]
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In addition to the White House, Donald Trump has set his sights on Oman, which is raising more than a few eyebrows. The former president is involved in a multibillion-dollar real estate project in the Middle Eastern country, backed by the country’s oil-rich government, and raising massive ethical concerns, The New York Times has reported. […]
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Matt Garrison’s R2 Companies is looking to pull off another daunting rescue of a downtown Chicago office building. The Chicago-based development firm is under contract to pay approximately $70 million to buy the 41-story tower at 150 North Michigan Avenue, several people familiar with the negotiations said. The deal, if it closes, would mark a […]
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Nate Paul declined a day in court. The real estate investor, who’s been at the center of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment, pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements to lenders that gave him more than $170, the Associated Press reported. Though his arraignment was scheduled for Friday, Paul waived his right […]
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Fortress Investment Group and DJM Capital Partners have sold a 65,100-square-foot shopping center in Huntington Beach for $29 million. The New York- and San Jose-based real estate investors sold Adams Marketplace anchored by a Smart & Final supermarket at 9062 Adams Avenue, the Orange County Register reported, citing JLL Capital Markets. The price works out […]
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A penthouse on Lake Shore Drive, formerly owned by Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan, quietly sold for just shy of $7 million in May. A legal entity headed by Mike Jones paid $6.82 million for the three-unit assemblage, totalling 8,000 square feet, in the 40-story condominium tower at 1100 North Lake Shore Drive, marking the […]
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Prologis, which leased half of a nearly 300,000-square-foot warehouse in Hayward last spring to Tesla, has now rented the other half to an automotive parts distributor. National Auto Parts NorCal, currently based in Oakland, inked a lease for nearly 150,000 square feet at 22290 Hathaway Avenue, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources. […]
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The leaders of the Texas Senate and House of Representatives are bitterly divided over their dueling property tax plans, but they have something new in common: both are being sued by Horizon Bank over a real estate deal gone awry. As Class A buildings downtown face leasing woes, Horizon is accusing House Speaker Dade Phelan, […]
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Some of San Francisco’s top buildings face looming mortgage payment deadlines in the wake of Westfield’s mall departure. No worries, major landlords say. Despite record-high office vacancy rates and lower foot traffic, owners of some of the biggest properties are confident about paying off loans, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The city’s fourth-tallest building, an […]
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Several big name developers scored design approvals for major projects in Brickell, Overtown and Wynwood. On Wednesday, the Miami Urban Design Review Board handed out unanimous yes votes to a proposed office tower at Brickell City Centre by Swire Properties and New York-based The Related Companies; a three-building apartment complex planned by New York-based Witkoff […]
The post Witkoff, Swire, Related, Eden, Dermot and Jenny Bernell gain project approvals appeared first on The Real Deal.
For the second time in two weeks, an apartment high-rise in Dallas’ Victory Park neighborhood is hitting the market. The Ascent, with 23 floors and more than 300 units, is up for grabs, testing the city’s multifamily market, the Dallas Morning News reported. Institutional Property Advisors, a subsidy of Marcus & Millichap, is marketing the […]
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Suburban Chicago’s office distress is coming to a head as more big landlords get closer to having two of the priciest properties sold in the last 10 years stripped by their lenders. A venture of Dallas-based Lincoln Property Company was hit with a foreclosure lawsuit after failing to pay off its nearly $80 million loan […]
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A luxury apartment complex in West Loop has sold for a surprisingly low amount, despite a relatively strong multifamily sector in Chicago. Oregon-based Green Cities sold the 199-unit Emme apartments at 165 North Desplaines Street to a real estate investment trust overseen by Houston-based Hines, which paid just under $73 million for the building, Crain’s […]
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Three more former Katerra executives have been dragged into a string of lawsuits seeking damages for allegations of breach of contract and promissory note defaults. The latest lawsuits, which seek more than $3.5 million, mark another chapter in the troubled history of the once-promising startup, which filed for bankruptcy in 2021. The lawsuits shed additional […]
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Lewis Marks acquired a four-story West Houston office building in a 1031 exchange. Under his company LM & Associates, Marks bought the 104,800-square-foot Briar Forest Crossing at 1300 West Sam Houston Parkway from CapRidge Partners for an undisclosed amount, in an off-market deal, the Houston Business Journal reported. Marty Hogan of JLL represented CapRidge Partners […]
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Some mothers can be just as tough on their children as fathers. That may be the case for Michael Nathan Lerner, son of prominent Chicago-based multifamily developer Michael J. Lerner, the founder of MCZ Development, which has built apartment complexes throughout the Windy City along with Washington, D.C., Kansas City and elsewhere, according to the […]
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The residential slowdown continued in May across South Florida, with total dollar volume dropping $1 billion, or 14 percent, from the year prior. Transaction and dollar volume was down in the tri-county region, according to the Miami Association of Realtors, which tracks sales recorded on the Multiple Listing Service. Though price growth is slowing, the […]
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Have values for San Francisco office buildings finally hit bottom? One SoMa complex has fetched 27 percent less than its asking price. Three San Francisco office buildings re-listed at fire sale prices are now in escrow, including a 13-story office building at 180 Howard Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources. San […]
The post Ellis Partners and Baupest buy SF office building at 27% discount appeared first on The Real Deal.
Home prices keep sliding in Chicago, prolonging a trend that started last year after the post-pandemic housing boom peaked. May marked the seventh straight month in which home prices declined in the Windy City, the longest stretch of price drops since a 13-month period from 2010 to 2011, potentially hindering the city’s economy more broadly, […]
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A program that exempts developers from property taxes for including some affordable housing in multifamily developments survived its time under the microscope of the Texas Legislature, although some limitations were put in place. The measure to rein in tax exemptions for public facilities corporations received overwhelming support from state legislators. Gov. Greg Abbott chose not […]
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The real estate market’s collective jaw dropped when Gary Winnick’s Bel-Air estate Casa Encantada went on the market for $250 million, placing it in the running for the most expensive listing in America. But Los Angeles saw another listing debut which ranks among the market’s top five priciest homes. 25168 Case Court in Malibu made […]
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Companies across Silicon Valley are bolting their offices. Office vacancy rates in the tech hub were up to 17 percent in June from 11 percent in 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing figures from CoStar. In some towns, such as Menlo Park and Mountain View, the rate this spring climbed past 20 percent. While […]
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After tenant advocates stormed the stage during last month’s preliminary vote on rent increases for stabilized apartments, the Rent Guidelines Board implemented a ban on noisemakers and drums to prevent a similar derailment at the final vote Wednesday evening. Tenants appeared to take that prohibition as an invitation. Protesters in the crowd used their voices […]
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MNO Partners is pitching a plan to Helotes residents that would transform a vacant 20-acre tract in the town northwest of San Antonio. The New Braunfels-based developer wants to rezone the property on Bandera Road, to allow for a retail and residential complex called Trailhead at Helotes, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. It might […]
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Elected officials in Freestone County overwhelmingly endorsed Todd Interests’ billion-dollar plan to redevelop a state park, while opposing the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission’s proposed use of eminent domain. County commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to admonish the state’s decision to use eminent domain to keep Fairfield Lake State Park, which the Dallas-based developer bought from […]
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After defaulting on $1.1 billion worth of debt tied to three office buildings in Downtown Los Angeles, Brookfield now faces the risk of defaulting on another $400 million in loans tied to a separate office tower in the city’s central business district. Brookfield has a “heightened maturity default risk” on the commercial mortgage-backed securities debt […]
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The Chicago Blackhawks are making a power play with a proposal to add to the NHL team’s planned $65 million expansion of Fifth Third Arena where it now practices. A venture controlled by the Wirtz family, which owns the Blackhawks, is seeking city approval to build up to 1,200 residential units and 663 hotel rooms […]
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Think of Lincoln Park and what it means to developments in the lakefront communities on the North Side. Then think of Jackson Park, and its role on the South Side. JC Griffin, vice president of Transwestern Real Estate Services’ Midwest Capital Markets Group in Chicago, has given a lot of thought about what the similarities […]
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A South Florida brokerage is going after two of its former agents and Ryan Serhant’s firm, alleging the brokers stole trade secrets and violated their contracts. Sutter & Nugent sued Serhant Florida, Matthew Moser and Nicholas Gonzalez in late May and are seeking unspecified damages from the two ex-Sutter & Nugent agents and their new […]
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PayPal and Omnicom Group are the latest companies to add to the Chicago Loop’s growing pile of sublease space. The fintech company and the marketing communications firm recently put a combined 122,000 square feet of downtown office space up for sublease, according to a report from Transwestern. That’s in addition to the combined 240,000 square […]
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Developer David Martin’s record $1.2 billion purchase of Genting Group’s downtown Miami assemblage was called off, The Real Deal has learned. Martin and his firm, Terra, led Smart City Miami, an investment group that was in contract to acquire the 15.5-acre assemblage in downtown Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District. The property is north of the […]
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For decades, the financial district was the engine of Downtown Los Angeles. But its mighty rumble has sputtered, with one in four offices now empty. The soaring glass towers and the restaurants and businesses that once depended on crowds of workers may recover – but only if the area’s identity grows beyond a ring of […]
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Chalk up another bit of evidence for the flight-to-quality theory. Clayton Dubilier & Rice, a private investment advisory firm, signed a 144,000-square-foot lease at Olayan Group’s 550 Madison Avenue, where it plans to occupy six floors, more than doubling its footprint in a relocation from the Seagram Building. The 41-story, 800,000-square-foot Midtown building, between East […]
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A Great Gatsby-era social club-turned-residence in Brenham is up for grabs. Janet Dreyer of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty’s Country Properties Group listed an estate called the Citadel last week for $6 million. The Washington County Appraisal District assessed the 2023 value at $942,000. It is classified as a commercial property and is currently operated […]
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A developer is aiming for a lofty price with a Lincoln Park custom home project on one of the neighborhood’s hottest corridors. Chicago-based Savane Properties is asking $10 million for the yet-to-be-built custom home on a double-lot at 1867 North Burling Street, according to public listings. The listing notes that the home’s custom design could […]
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Accesso Partners has missed payments on a suburban Chicago office building loan, and its lenders are worried it could default on other debts tied to commercial property in the area as distress escalates in the market. The landlord is delinquent on a $33 million loan on the two-building, 320,000-square-foot Highland Oaks office complex on West […]
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Sky-high interest rates didn’t prevent Brookfield Properties and G&S Investors from landing a large financing deal for a supertall mixed-use tower near the Jersey City waterfront. In a moment of numerical synergy, the joint venture partners scored a $420 million construction loan for their gigantic project at 420 Marin Boulevard, the Commercial Observer reported. The […]
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A data center company in Texas is trading hands for a massive price. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan have agreed to acquire Addison-based Compass Datacenters from owners RedBird Capital Partners and the Azrieli Group in a deal expected to top $5 billion, the Dallas Morning News reported. In the Dallas area, […]
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InterVenn Biosciences has torn up its 10-year-lease for a 142,000-square-foot building in South San Francisco. The biotech startup based in the city has canceled its lease for the office and research building at 499 Forbes Boulevard, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The lease was signed a year ago with San Francisco-based Aralon Properties. Terms […]
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Even with thousands of Hollywood writers on strike, Hudson Pacific Properties is forging ahead with plans to add on to its studio development in Hollywood. The Los Angeles-based REIT has filed plans with the city of Los Angeles to build a 134,000-square-foot movie studio at 6650 West Romaine Street — located directly across the road […]
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The first batch of homes in a 3D-printed development just outside of Austin are for sale. Austin-based Icon, which has been at the forefront of the 3D-printed home dimension, teamed up with Lennar Homes on the project. It marks the first large-scale, 3D-printed residential development in the country, according to the developers, the Austin American-Statesman […]
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Leste Group and Brazilian real estate firm Opportunity Fundo de Investimento Imobiliário plan a 500-unit apartment tower in Brickell, marking the first project in their $1 billion South Florida development pipeline. Through the pair’s newly formed joint venture, LORE Development Group, the partners want to build a 70-story tower on a half-acre parking lot on […]
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After years of planning, ground is ready to be broken on the first phase of the Harvard Enterprise Research campus in Boston after Tishman Speyer secured $750 million in financing, the largest packaging construction financing package of 2023. The mixed-use development, spanning 900,000 square feet, is a collaborative project between Tishman Speyer and the Harvard […]
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A scion of the founder of L.L. Bean is facing a lawsuit over the alleged nonpayment of a commission of a building. Linda Bean, the 82-year-old granddaughter of the founder of L.L. Bean, is being sued by prominent Maine commercial real estate firm The Boulos Co. for allegedly not paying a $228,000 commission on the […]
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A lawsuit against a Connecticut town’s decision concerning affordable housing highlights the difficulties developers face for such projects in the state. Simsbury homeowner Dylan Gagne filed a suit alleging that a town commission illegally approved a 64-unit multi-family housing development by New York City-based company Vessel, CTInsider reported. Vessel is already entangled in legal disputes […]
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The Colorado Poverty Law Project has sued a prominent eviction firm in the Rocky Mountain State, along with three corporate landlords, alleging they illegally charged fees and court costs during evictions. The class-action lawsuit claims that eviction firm Tschetter Sulzer, and landlords Cornerstone Apartment Services, Redpeak Properties, and Echelon Property Group implemented a deceptive scheme […]
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Cash buyers and demand for short-term rental properties is propelling the second-home market in the mid-Atlantic region, bucking the national trend. Sales in the region are pacing ahead of pre-pandemic levels, according to data from Bright MLS, a regional MLS site. That stands in contrast to the national market, where mortgage rate locks for vacation […]
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It took a while, but Hartford may have it after all. After nearly a year, a New Jersey developer presented to the Capital Region Development Authority Board of Directors new designs for the redevelopment of a 2.8-acre parking lot near Hartford’s Bushnell Park.. The developer, Michaels, outlined plans for a scaled-back development that includes 233 […]
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Who says it’s a slow market? Miami-based developer Crescent Heights has made a significant investment in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood with the purchase of a nearly 400-unit apartment tower for $173 million from Invesco, CoStar reported. It’s the highest price paid for a residential building in the city in nearly two years, according to the outlet […]
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A Key West real estate investor has been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violation of the state’s concealed weapons law following a tragic incident outside a local bar in February. Lloyd Preston Brewer III, a 57-year-old patron who owns the building, but not the bar itself, confronted and shot […]
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This Crow likely won’t fly to Washington, D.C. Texas billionaire Harlan Crow, a conservative real estate magnate known for bestowing lavish gifts on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his family, has indicated he won’t cooperate with a Senate subpoena if one is issued, Bloomberg reported. While a subpoena has not yet been issued, the […]
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Motorola heir Christopher Galvin and his wife, Cindy Bardes Galvin, have chosen island life. One year after an entity linked to them bought a waterfront Palm Beach estate for $46 million, the couple is listing their Bristol condo in West Palm Beach for $29 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Brown Harris Stevens agents Pat […]
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The Department of Justice had a busy week in enforcement actions against real estate-related companies. First, the chief financial officer of a Mississippi-based construction company pleaded guilty to willfully failing to report and pay employment taxes, according to a DOJ press release. Julian Russ, the CFO of the Mississippi-based Community Construction Company, admitted to not […]
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The last time the U.S. Open, one of golf’s premier events was played in Los Angeles, Harry Truman was president. But this weekend, and in a world very different from Truman’s, about 45 of the world’s best golfers competed on the North Course of the Los Angeles Country Club. Tickets have been hard to score, […]
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Arizona may be limiting construction amid an ongoing groundwater shortage, but real estate figures don’t expect development to dry up. Real estate figures from across the state expressed a belief in the future of the state’s market, KJZZ reported. The resistance comes after panic set in regarding the state’s latest restrictions. After a state report […]
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Twitter may have to slap another fact-check on Elon Musk — or at least contextualize how one should watch what he does, not listen to what he says. After blasting Sacramento as “possibly the worst place to have a data center,” Musk must have decided the hot temperatures in California’s state capital weren’t so bad. […]
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Two Rhode Island officials may have taken New England saltiness a bit too far while on a trip to Philadelphia to research a possible development project, sparking outrage and investigations. Lindsey Scannapieco, managing partner at Scout Ltd., which oversees the redevelopment of Philadelphia’s Bok building, had offered a tour to the Rhode Island officials — […]
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It’s the end of an era for a neighborhood staple in Queens. Steinway Cafe-Billiards in Astoria abruptly closed its doors last Thursday, announcing the news with a handwritten note on the door, The City reported. The pool hall had been part of the community at 3525 Steinway Street since 1990. Like so many other businesses, […]
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All roads led to South Florida — or at least its courthouses — this week. While not every major story came out of legal wranglings in the Sunshine State, it sort of felt that way. The real estate developer who also happened to be president, Donald Trump, was arraigned in Miami on Tuesday on 37 felony […]
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Golub & Co. is the latest office landlord looking to offload a Loop property, even if it means a loss on its investment. A venture led by the Chicago-based firm has hired Cushman & Wakefield to sell a leasehold interest in the historic 22-story Burnham Center at 111 West Washington Street, nearly four years after […]
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A former San Jose golf course has hit the market for $125 million and could potentially transform into a large development, according to public records. The course is currently owned by the Duino Family, who have owned the property since the 1990s. The family’s San Jose roots go back to Eddie Duino, who was a […]
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Intracorp will soon bulldoze a 63-year-old bowling alley in Torrance to build more than 200 homes in what is believed to be the city’s first large apartment project in a half century. The Vancouver-based developer is expected to break ground this summer on the 218-unit apartment complex at 22501 South Hawthorne Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles […]
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Related Group and Alex Karakhanian closed on a development site in Miami’s Edgewater, across from the planned Villa Miami tower, The Real Deal has learned. The Pérez family’s Miami-based Related and Karakhanian’s Lndmrk Development acquired the 0.4-acre assemblage at 519, 525 and 535 Northeast 29th Street, the two firms said. It marks Related’s first new […]
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Safe Harbor Equity is seeking foreclosure on two hotels in Miami and Miami Beach that are owned by Henley Investments, tied to a $13 million loan. The properties include the 26-unit Pretty Swell hotel at 321 Collins Avenue and the 33-room Life House hotel at 528 Southwest Ninth Avenue in Miami’s Little Havana. The Miami […]
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When Sterling Bay was revealed to have made a pitch to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to help kickstart the developer’s planned $6 billion Lincoln Yards project, it struck Ald. Gilbert Villegas as an opportunity. Villegas, of the 36th Ward, will propose a resolution at next week’s City Council meeting, calling for a hearing on […]
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The groundwork is down for Meritage Homes to embark on a dense townhome community in West Houston. The Arizona-based firm, whose CEO is Phillippe Lord, is at the helm of McClendon Park Village, a 14-acre gated community with 122 detached townhomes, just northwest of the intersection of State Highway 6 and the Westpark Tollway, the […]
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BH Properties is buying a 200,000-square-foot shopping center and parking garage on Fisherman’s Wharf following its $65 million purchase of Holy Names University in Oakland. The Los Angeles-based real estate investor is in escrow to buy Anchorage Square at 500 Beach Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources. The seller is Anchorage […]
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The mansion at 1410 Tanager Way sold this week with a familiar name in upscale real estate attached to the deal — Hankey Capital. The company’s Chairman Don Hankey was the largest creditor of the ill-fated megamansion The One in Bel-Air, which sold for $141 million in an auction sale in 2022. Forbes gives Hankey […]
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Chicago office tenants that want to get into Fulton Market might not have to wait, as a few in the trendy former meatpacking district are cutting back on floorspace. With a tight inventory in area office buildings, companies on the hunt for large office space in Fulton Market figured they were sidelined until capital markets […]
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The war over Fairfield Lake State Park is just getting started, as far as Todd Interests is concerned. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commision resolved unanimously Tuesday night to pursue eminent domain, in a move to save the state park, which sits in East Texas, between Waco and Nacogdoches. Todd, which closed on its purchase […]
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Appraisers have slashed the value of a seven-building office portfolio owned by Pimco’s Columbia Property Trust by 30 percent, after the firm defaulted on $1.7 billion in loans connected to the buildings. Last year, the portfolio, which includes buildings in New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Jersey City, was valued at $2.34 billion, Trepp […]
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Investors Simon Lazar and Saman Mostadim plan to redevelop a telecommunications facility in Culver City into a 184-unit apartment complex. The property, located at 10501-10533 West Washington Boulevard across from Sony Studios, is the proposed site of an eight-story, 152,600-square-foot structure, according to documents filed with Los Angeles City Planning Department. The planned project would […]
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Timing couldn’t have been worse for Market Street Real Estate Partners’ investment in a West Loop office building right before the pandemic. It will end in a giveaway to the Miami-based landlord’s lender. Market Street, led by principal Danny Warman, this month surrendered the 12-story building at 209 West Jackson Boulevard through a deed-in-lieu of […]
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After nearly three years of off-and-on activity in the luxury residential market, 1301 Collingwood Place, a mansion in Los Angeles’ Bird Streets enclave, has sold for $38 million. Kipp Nelson, partner at private equity firm Long Arc Capital, is the seller of 1301 Collingwood Place. He built the mansion in 2018. He was represented in […]
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Flaws in the design and construction of Champlain Towers South’s pool deck exposed that portion of the building to “critically low margins against failure,” a newly released investigation found. Designs fell short of building codes, and slab columns and fixtures had “severe” strength deficiencies in several places at the pool deck, according to the National […]
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A gigantic ranch near San Antonio now has an equally large asking price to match. Mt. Solitude Ranch, a 3,600-acre property in the fast-growing area to the northwest of the Alamo City, is asking $79.9 million, according to a release by Icon Global. The 100-year-old ranch has been on the market since last year, but […]
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Davean Holdings and Jeff Kaplan’s Meadow Partners sold a pair of Greenwich Village apartment buildings to a wealthy European family for $50 million. The partners sold the two seven-story walkups at 103 and 105 MacDougal Street to German investors making their first deal in New York, The Real Deal has learned. Davean, run by Sean […]
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A Canadian landlord with significant office holdings in the suburbs of Chicago and Atlanta could be at risk of losing most of its 14-property portfolio. Adventus Realty Trust, which owns a collective 4.3 million square feet of offices in the two markets, missed the March and April interest-only payments on a $350 million loan tied […]
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Swift Real Estate Partners has defaulted on a $62.3 million loan tied to an 111-year-old office building in San Francisco’s South of Market. The San Francisco-based investor has fallen behind on its loan tied to the eight-story building at 55 New Montgomery Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The lender, Boston-based CrossHarbor Capital Partners, […]
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Anthony Precourt, owner of a Major League Soccer team and head of an eponymous private investment firm, and his wife Agatha, an early stage investor, have sold their Hillsborough estate for $17 million, according to public records. The sale of the couple’s 2.3-acre French Country-inspired estate this month is the most-expensive trade in the Peninsula […]
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Chicago’s commercial property market is in the deep freezer. Tough lending and economic conditions had many commercial property owners and investors hitting the pause button last quarter. Commercial property sales in Chicago during the first three months of this year were down by more than half from the same period in 2022, according to the […]
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Portland-based Umpqua Bank’s branch in Novato is accused of having its workers assist in a Ponzi scheme that resulted in a $4.2 million loss for investors, according to a new lawsuit. The first lawsuit was filed in 2020 by more than 1,000 investors claiming more $300 million in damages. The newest legal action, making similar […]
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Iconic Texas brands, assemble! Hines continues its Greater Houston domination as it spearheads the development of Texas A&M University’s mass-timber Aplin Center. A $50 million gift from Buc-ee’s owner and Texas A&M alum Arch “Beaver” Aplin III is financing the building. It was one of the university’s largest single-donor donations. The College Station campus’ latest […]
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The Moinian Group put the Bezel apartment tower at Miami Worldcenter on the market for roughly $300 million, The Real Deal has learned. If it sells at that price, it would mark the biggest South Florida multifamily deal so far this year, as expensive financing costs have led to a dry spell in investment sales. […]
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Patrick Carroll apparently has a hard time being nice to workers at fancy restaurants, and now is facing legal trouble because of it. A restaurant manager in Miami’s Wynwood who Carroll allegedly spat on — as first reported by The Real Deal — sued the Miami Beach-based real estate mogul for defamation last week. Carroll […]
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A Trump Tower penthouse didn’t score its original asking price but still generated a healthy profit for the seller. Unit PH50A sold last week for $23.5 million, according to property records, more than quadrupling the $6 million it last sold for in 1997, according to StreetEasy. The price breaks down to roughly $5,200 per square […]
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Payments from three development firms, including Thomas Safran & Associates, led to the explosive criminal charges filed this week against L.A. City Councilman Curren Price. On Tuesday, in what amounted to the opening bell of the latest corruption scandal to rock Los Angeles City Hall, the L.A. County District Attorney’s office announced it had charged […]
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Canada’s richest family is selling off its Wellington equestrian estates. Records show that representatives of the Thomson family, heirs of Thomson Reuters founder Roy Thomson, sold an adjoining pair of equestrian estates for $20.4 million. The buyer of the estates at 14225 50th Street South and 4775 Stables Way are a pair of Delaware LLCs […]
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Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. is ready for a new neighbor at its corporate headquarters in Rolling Meadows. Gallagher, whose CEO is J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., is planning to tear down the 10-story, 270,000-square-foot office tower at 2550 Golf Road, a year after purchasing the site for $13 million from Marc Realty, Crain’s reported. The […]
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As hybrid work habits stabilize and the life science sector continues to gain strength, demand for office and R&D space in the Bay Area has increased, according to a new report by brokerage CBRE. The number of tenants in the region looking for space increased 14 percent in May, with Oakland seeing the biggest uptick. […]
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Developers and retail landlords across the Chicago area are banking on the pickleball craze to revive roughed up retail properties. A new business venture wants to replace a former climbing gym in Lincoln Park’s Market Square shopping center with a pickleball club. And in suburban Algonquin, Hubbard Street Group and racquetball court operator College Park […]
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Home values have spiked across the nation even as buying activity has slowed amid high interest rates, with Texas metros seeing some of the smallest gains. Typical home values in the United States climbed 1.4 percent from April to May, marking the largest month-to-month increase since last June, according to a report from Zillow. All […]
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Deals are closing in Palm Beach County’s luxury residential market, with lawyers, C-suite executives and entrepreneurs snapping up houses, sometimes at record prices. In Boca Raton, luxury spec builder SRD Building Corporation, led by Steve and Scott Dingle, sold a spec mansion at 298 West Key Palm Road to attorney and freight company executive Phillipp […]
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A Burlington Coat Factory and Sprouts Farmers Market appear poised to occupy a combined 54,300 square feet of a retail building in northeast San Jose. The New Jersey-based Burlington has leased a 30,300-square-foot storefront at 375 North Capitol Avenue, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The Phoenix-based Sprouts is eyeing 24,000 square feet in the […]
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Landlord Douglas Emmett was hit with another lawsuit over its mass evictions for fire issues at the beleaguered Barrington Plaza, one of West Los Angeles’ largest multifamily complexes. The publicly traded real estate investment trust made headlines in May for evicting tenants of Barrington’s more than 700 affordable units. Douglas Emmett announced the evictions were […]
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The developer that purchased the Surfside condo collapse site faces a public relations test and a series of town approvals, as it moves forward with plans to build an oceanfront luxury condo on the property where 98 people died two years ago. Damac Properties, led by Hussain Sajwani, wants to build a 12-story, 57-unit boutique […]
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A former agent of Chicago’s largest residential brokerage @properties hit a dead end in court after suing the firm for firing her in the wake of her sharing photos of herself at the Jan. 6 rally in Washington that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Former @properties agent Libby Andrews, who posted pictures […]
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XAG Group is bringing a significant expansion to a master-planned community near Houston with a recent land acquisition. The firm bought 20 acres in Audubon, a development in Montgomery County, with plans for apartments and retail. Houston-based developer Sam Yager Inc. began plans for the 3,000-acre community, at the intersection of Highway 249 and FM […]
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The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Walter J. Company have unveiled details of a plan to build an urban village atop the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro Station. Metro and the Westlake-based developer have posted a plan to redevelop three corners of the block around the light rail subway station at 660 South Alvarado […]
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Cadence Capital Investments and Oakwood Real Estate Partners have sold a 61,500-square-foot shopping center in Santa Ana for $36.5 million. An affiliate of the Colorado-based real estate investors sold the 55-year-old Bristol Place at 3310-3398 South Bristol Street, the Orange County Register reported. The seller, a private investor in Newport Beach, was not disclosed. The […]
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Trammell Crow has unveiled new details about its plan to replace a dead casino and restaurant in West San Jose with more than 1,000 homes. A local affiliate of the Dallas-based developer filed preliminary plans last week to build 1,027 apartments in a complex at 360 and 400 Saratoga Avenue, the Silicon Valley Business Journal […]
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The runway is getting longer for 601W. The New York-based landlord of some of Chicago’s most prominent office buildings is poised to receive an extension for its massive debt on the Aon Center in the East Loop. The special servicer for the property’s $536 million senior loan approved a four-year extension of the loan’s July […]
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A pair of former Vanguard Properties executives are switching teams to Germany-based brokerage Engel & Völkers. Robert Brisbane will serve as regional president of the San Francisco Bay markets for the luxury agency, while Randy Romero will be manager of the San Francisco Castro office. At Vanguard, Brisbane served as vice president and broker of […]
The post Movers: Germany’s Engel & Völkers keeps collecting Bay Area talent appeared first on The Real Deal.
The suburbs of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex continue to attract construction loans. Provident Realty Advisors is set to start construction on a massive built-to-rent community near Rockwall. Provident scored a $24 million loan from Trez Capital to begin construction on the first 281 of 1,000 planned homes, according to a news release. That’s about $85,000 […]
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Pascal Nicolai’s Sabal Development sold a waterfront Miami Beach spec home for $21 million, marking the priciest sale on the Venetian Islands this year. Records show an affiliate of Sabal Development sold the house at 1370 South Venetian Way to Joshua Memling Golder. Dora Puig of Luxe Living Realty represented both the buyer and seller […]
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In December, Tom Ford paid $51 million for a one-acre estate in Palm Beach, a record for a non-waterfront property on the island. Then he decided to upsize, trading it for a 1.6-acre property in a swap likely valued above $100 million. In March, Rush Limbaugh’s former compound on the island sold for $155 million, […]
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A 20-acre tract in Denton County is poised for a massive mixed-use development. Irving-based Realty Capital Residential plans to start construction soon on Parkway District, on Interstate 35 at Corinth Parkway, southeast of Denton, the Dallas Morning News reported. Realty Capital, whose president is Alexander Brown, will start building the multifamily portion, Parkway Lofts, over […]
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Manhattan’s luxury market held steady in the first week of June, with two uptown properties leading the pack. The borough saw 31 units go into contract last week, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report of Manhattan homes asking $4 million or more. The total was down just one from the previous period, which was part […]
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Last month, tenant advocates stormed the stage at the Rent Guidelines Board meeting to protest potential rent hikes. Ahead of tonight’s meeting, landlord groups are staging their own protest, recommending owners sit out. The advice, they say, stems from growing safety concerns and a desire to be heard. After activists and City Council members derailed […]
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Lefty has been taking big swings in the San Diego real estate market. Professional golfer Phil Mickelson has amassed a large real estate portfolio in the Rancho Santa Fe neighborhood of San Diego over the past 20 years, the New York Post reported. The 52-year-old Mickelkson began making inroads in the market in 2001 when […]
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Here’s something to chew on. For the second time in less than a year, William Wrigley Jr. has sold property in Aspen, Colorado, the Wall Street Journal reported. This time Wrigley sold two properties for a combined $30.75 million million, a hefty sum, but significantly less than the $54 million than their listing price last […]
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Arizona may have issues with accessibility to water, but it’s still a hot spot for developers. To wit: Rockefeller Group paid $8.7 million for two sites totalling 16.5 acres in South Phoenix to develop 152 build-to-rent townhomes, AzBigMedia reported. Construction is expected to begin this summer, with occupancies starting in early 2025, the outlet reported. […]
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Airbnb is promoting its new venture that allows landlords to share the revenue with tenants who make their units available for short-term rentals. The program provides landlords, in exchange for their permission to list their units on Airbnb, with up to a quarter of the revenue from a tenant’s short-term rental in a multifamily property, […]
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Nick Karounos wants to make clear that he’s the frontman among his band of Chicago festival influencers-turned-real estate investors. The co-owner of some of the most popular nightclubs and live-event venues in the Windy City sued fellow entertainment scene kingpin Lucas King, one of Karounos’ partners in properties such as the club PRYSM near Goose […]
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To make a comparison to the NFL, if Massey Knakal were a head coach, it would have a coaching tree to rival Bill Belichick or Bill Walsh. Indeed, the former building sales firm that was purchased by Cushman & Wakefield in 2015, counts no fewer than a dozen spinoffs or investment sales/divisions that are run […]
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Another week, more investigations for South Florida developer Rishi Kapoor. The FBI and the SEC have initiated separate inquiries into Kapoor, the Miami Herald reported. The FBI’s criminal investigation centers on the $10,000 monthly payments to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez from a subsidiary of Kapoor’s company, Location Ventures. Agents are looking into whether the payments […]
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Over the objections of Todd Interests, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission on Saturday maneuvered to retake a 5,000-acre state park the developer recently purchased. The commission voted to condemn Fairfield Lake State Park, a precursor to the state to obtain the land through eminent domain, the Dallas Morning News reported. Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, […]
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Hoffman & Associates has had it up to here with not being involved in the Charlotte real estate market. The Washington, D.C.-based developer is making its first foray into the North Carolina city, the Charlotte Observer reported. Not satisfied with one project, Hoffman is debuting with two projects, both in the same neighborhood and even […]
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Poplar Homes is trying to make itself a popular property management choice across the nation, expanding its efforts into Arizona. The Cupertino-based technology-forward company acquired the contracts to oversee 152 rentals in Scottsdale, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it will be managing the properties on […]
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Lydia Kou is ready to take her anti-YIMBY stance all the way to the state legislature. The Palo Alto mayor is running for state Assembly in California, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Her campaign centers on an anti-housing push, a boisterous opposition to state laws that mandate more construction, sometimes over the wishes of local […]
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YIMBYs scored another win at the state level. In an effort to tackle Vermont’s housing crisis, Gov. Phil Scott last week signed into law a bill allowing for duplexes anywhere year-round residential development is permitted, VTDigger reported. Triplexes and fourplexes are also permitted in areas served by water and sewer services, the outlet reported. The […]
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South Boston continues its makeover, and its developer is hopeful it’s wicked smaht. Boston-based Core Investments submitted a proposed plan for a major 11-building development on 21 acres along Dorchester Avenue, Boston Business Journal reported. The plan will focus on residential, life sciences and office space. The project, known as “On The Dot,” was initially […]
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Last week was a sound reminder that real estate is as much, if not more, about people than it is about property. The industry was blindsided with tragic news when learning that prominent New York City and Long Island real estate agent Adina Azarian died in a plane crash. Azarian, 49, sold luxury homes on […]
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BH Properties has bought the 66-year-old campus of Holy Names University in Oakland. The Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm purchased the 56.8-acre former Catholic college at 3500 Mountain Boulevard, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources close to the deal. The sale price was not disclosed, but the university had listed the […]
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Chicagoans could soon have more real estate options to accommodate visits from their in-laws. A proposal by 44th Ward Ald. Bennett Lawson to allow granny flats to be built in backyards, basements and above garages throughout the entire city is picking up steam among other officials, and Mayor Brandon Johnson has come out in favor […]
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Landlords dodged good cause eviction, but lawmakers are considering another bill that would potentially “open the floodgates” for rent overcharge cases. The measure seeks to make it easier for tenants to show past rent overcharges amounted to fraud, which would lead to huge payouts for violations committed years ago — even by previous owners. “Especially […]
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Tim Barton has lost a lengthy legal battle involving a coveted property in Dallas’ Turtle Creek neighborhood. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr approved a settlement Thursday, granting ownership of the site at 2999 Turtle Creek Boulevard — once intended for the city’s first Mandarin Oriental hotel — to an affiliate of HN Capital Partners, for […]
The post HN Capital nabs Turtle Creek site in bankruptcy appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rental rates have declined in the city of Los Angeles, making it the ninth-slowest market for rent growth in the nation, according to a new report from the website Apartment List. The site’s index measures rent levels using new lease signings, or when a unit is reoccupied after a vacancy. It found Los Angeles rents […]
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240 years in prison. $180 million in penalties. Forfeiture of at least eight properties, including prime development sites in downtown Austin. These are the potential consequences facing developer Nate Paul following his indictment this week on eight counts of making false statements to lenders. Each count carries a maximum penalty of up to 30 years […]
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The party is over in Miami Beach. At least at Stephen Kraus’ house. Just one day after the city of Miami Beach filed a nuisance lawsuit against the owner, a luxury rental company and tenant for operating an alleged illegal short-term rental and “party house,” the case settled. The settlement means a halt to rental […]
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Former president Donald Trump will have his days in court. His legal woes are now dominating the news cycle as federal prosecutors hit the developer with a 37-count indictment connected to the mishandling of classified documents. The news surrounding the latest indictment is still unfolding. Special Counsel Jack Smith is expected to make a statement […]
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Texas-based data center developer Aligned has added another suburban office building to its growing assemblage in Elk Grove Village. The firm, led by CEO Andrew Schaap, bought the 177,000-square-foot office building at 150 Northwest Point Boulevard in the northwest suburb near O’Hare International Airport for about $14.2 million last month, according to Cook County records. […]
The post Bridge Industrial flips aging offices, acreage near O’Hare for $14M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Developer Gala Asher has sold a 15,900-square-foot spec home in the desert city of La Quinta for $31.8 million, a record price for the lower Coachella Valley. Chicago-based billionaire businessman Richard Chaifetz bought the six-bedroom, 11-bathroom mansion in the exclusive Madison Club enclave at 53804 Ross Avenue, Dirt.com reported. Chaifetz, head of employer assistance firm […]
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Nate Paul, the big-ticket Austin developer who is a primary character in the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is being detained in jail by the FBI as of Thursday, according to jail records reviewed by the Dallas Morning News. The founder and CEO of World Class Holdings, who at his zenith controlled a […]
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Even Howard Hughes can’t get a loan in this environment. Howard Hughes Corporation got no takers on a multifamily proposal in the Woodlands, the Houston suburb where the firm is headquartered, CEO David O’Reilly told Bloomberg. “Zero showed up and gave me a bid,” O’Reilly told the outlet. “I talked to 48 of them.” The […]
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CBRE poached Robert Given and four other investment sales brokers in South Florida from Cushman & Wakefield. Given, Zach Sackley, Troy Ballard, Calum Weaver and Brad Capas jumped to CBRE, where they will focus on multifamily and developable land sales, structured debt and equity finance, and private capital sales, according to a CBRE news release. […]
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Developer Todd Interests criticized the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in a blistering letter expressing “astonishment” at the state’s move to retake a state park that the firm recently bought. The state is moving to condemn the site and buy it through eminent domain, KSAT reported. “Is this how you fulfill Governor Abbott’s promise that […]
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A brokerage allegedly put liens on hundreds of New Jersey homes without their owners’ knowledge as part of a “homeowner benefit program,” according to the state’s attorney general. The Clark, New Jersey, office of MV Realty, a Florida-based brokerage firm, marketed the program as an easy way to get cash, New Jersey Attorney General Matt […]
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A $164.5-million purchase by DivcoWest of a 140,000-square-foot former office building in South San Francisco last year has paid off with a major life sciences lease. South San Francisco-based Ideaya Biosciences is moving its headquarters across town to take up 44,000 square feet at the redeveloped labs at 5000 Shoreline Court, the San Francisco Business […]
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Related California is calling for an option on a nearly 1,000-unit multifamily development in Santa Clara, while it’s already running up the score with another massive project nearby that could break ground this year. The first possible play for Stephen Ross’ firm calls for 950 units in a pair of 22-story towers at 2101 Tasman […]
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Silver Star Properties plans to sell a trio of Texas office buildings after outlining a broader strategy to reposition its 6.8 million-square-foot portfolio into the self-storage asset class. The Houston-based REIT, which currently owns 44 low-to-mid-tier commercial properties throughout the Texas Triangle, focusing on Greater Houston, cites difficulties amid financial woes and distress. Holdings include […]
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An compound with more than 6 acres located right on Highway One between Carmel and Big Sur sold for $24.5 million, Monterey County’s biggest deal so far this year. Trusts in the names of the two adult children of “impact investors” Karl and Lisa Kleissner were the sellers, according to public records. Karl Kleissner was […]
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“Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” star Josh Flagg is buying a non-waterfront pad on Miami Beach’s North Bay Road. The Los Angeles-based Douglas Elliman broker is contract to buy the house at 4727 North Bay Road, sources told The Real Deal. TMZ first reported it, without the address. Property records show the seller is Robert […]
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Frisco has the PGA of America and a Universal Studios theme park on the way, part of an ongoing growth streak that means it also needs distribution hubs. Enter Dalfen Industrial with plans for the Frisco Trade Center, three industrial warehouses spanning 575,000 square feet, on Rockhill Parkway, according to a news release from JLL. […]
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A mild recession lies ahead, but real estate observers and players can take heart in long-term factors like an “economic revival” in 2024. That’s according to CBRE’s chief global economist Richard Barkham, who said the sharp rise in interest rates would take the economy into a recession, but inflation is coming under control and rates […]
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A long drama at the former East Hampton mansion of private-school entrepreneur Christopher Whittle might have ended Tuesday, but something went wrong — as it often does at the embattled estate. The bad breaks continued when officials gathered for an auction to pay the Georgica property’s $85 million debt. They waited and waited for the […]
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Sterling Bay has turned to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to help pick up the pace of Lincoln Yards at a crucial time for the megadevelopment, a deal that, if it comes together, could hurt the project’s initial investors. The $6 billion mixed-use project has moved sluggishly since being approved in 2019. Now, the developer […]
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Build Inc. has picked up a Nordstrom parking lot in San Francisco that became a symbol for the city’s red tape on home construction. The San Francisco-based developer bought the 28,000-square-foot lot at 469 Stevenson Street in South of Market, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The seller was Nordstrom. The price for the former […]
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Henry Flagler is long gone, but Palm Beach is still an island of oil money. The heirs of the family that once helmed Plymouth Oil Company sold their late parents’ Palm Beach mansion to a pair of retail executives turned island real estate investors for $17.1 million. Richard C. Cowell Jr. and Christopher T. Cowell […]
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The spring has shaped up as one of the slowest selling seasons on record for Southern California homes. Over the last year, Los Angeles home prices have followed national trends of decline, but have shown resilience and rebounded incrementally in recent months. Experts tell TRD that the L.A. market has avoided major price drops due […]
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Home prices are up across the Bay Area as inventory plunges to its lowest level in decades and sales fall to 2008 levels, according to a new Compass report. Three-month rolling median house price averages were up across all 11 counties, though still below peak pricing from last spring, according to the report. In San […]
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Two residents allege they’re being “held hostage” in their Lower East Side co-op by a “price fixing” scheme. Eleanor Stromberg and Douglas Price, 22-year residents of 577 Grand Street, twice had sales of their unit fall through. Now they have filed a lawsuit against their co-op, co-op board and board vice president Shulie Wollman, alleging […]
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Bucktown residents may want to get their buns ready, because Vienna Beef is moving back. The iconic Chicago hot dog and sausage maker is revamping its former factory space at 2501 North Damen Avenue with a $20 million complex called Vienna Beef Plaza, Block Club reported. The site will feature a restaurant, factory store, offices, […]
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While most of Silicon Valley’s office market has gone stagnant since the start of the year, Sunnyvale landlords have signed leases from a number of tech companies looking to consolidate in one location. For example, Apple leased a 150,000-square-foot building owned by Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty. This comes six months after Apple added two other […]
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Call it the real estate walk of shame. Owners who have defaulted or have walked away from their money-losing hotels and office buildings in San Francisco now appear on an interactive map, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The new map includes an ominous 13 commercial properties in Downtown that have missed loan payments […]
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Greystar has launched a brand of apartment communities that target the “missing middle” housing market, and it’s testing the waters with a project in Houston. Communities under the brand Ltd. by Greystar will have annual rent increases on track with the national consumer price index, or 3 percent, whichever is greater, the Houston Chronicle reported. […]
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Is there something in the drinking water? Elected officials’ alleged shenanigans are stacking up across South Florida, with most involving real estate developers and a handful of mayors. For Miami, it’s nothing new, according to Peter Zalewski, a condo market consultant and former journalist. Zalewski said the magic in “Magic City” — Miami’s nickname — […]
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How do you sell the most-expensive house in Southlake? Cut the price and go viral, at least that’s how Tracy Tutor and Breah Brown of Douglass Elliman did it. They sold a fun-filled Mediterranean-style mansion at 1469 Sunshine Lane for an undisclosed price that they say is “record-breaking.” The house, which has indoor trampolines, a […]
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Artificial intelligence is coming for Suffolk County short-term rental owners avoiding the local hotel-motel tax. To collect more taxes from hosts on platforms such as Airbnb, the Long Island county will implement an AI software program beginning next week, Newsday reported. Government software provider Granicus is administering the program, mixing AI technology with human analysis […]
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A large West Loop apartment complex is hitting the market amid the neighborhood’s residential development boom. Florida-based developer ZOM Living hired CBRE’s John Jaeger and Justin Puppi to find buyers for Union West, a 15-story, 357-unit luxury high-rise at 939 West Washington Boulevard. Built in 2018 with a $92 million construction loan, the property is […]
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UPDATED: JUNE 6 at 2:15 P.M.: Eight months after one wave of builder’s remedy applications shocked Santa Monica and set off a slew of still-active projects, developer Leo Pustilnikov is preparing another wave of applications using the legal provision in Beverly Hills, Pustilnikov told The Real Deal. Pustilnikov has already filed applications for around a […]
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The long-awaited redevelopment of the Congress Theater in Logan Square faces another major setback, with the developer at risk of losing millions in crucial city funding. Developer Baum Revision has requested $27 million in tax-increment financing from the city to restore the historic theater at 2135 North Milwaukee Avenue, along with surrounding retail shops and […]
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UPDATED June 6, 5:00 p.m.: This year’s Fortune 500 list was released this week, noticeably missing a few top major residential real estate companies featured in the previous edition. Compass, Anywhere and Zillow all fell off of the list ranking the largest companies by revenue, Fortune first reported. The shifting ranks show how hard high […]
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After a few months as head of Coldwell Banker Realty, CEO Kamini Lane has promoted a number of new executives who will helm new streamlined regions in a national reorganization of the brokerage, TRD has learned.
The revamp involves “the unification of multiple Coldwell Banker Realty operating metros into regions” run by regional presidents who will focus on developing new business and the agent experience, according to the company.
Jennifer Lind, Coldwell’s Northern California president since 2020, was promoted to the company’s new role of Western regional president. Lind will run 124 offices in Northern and Southern California, along with Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest, according to a Coldwell announcement.
Robert Burns, president of Coldwell Banker Bain in Washington and Oregon, and Mike James, regional vice president of Coldwell Banker Realty in Hawaii, will report to Lind.
The position of president for Southern California will be eliminated, the announcement confirmed. Jamie Duran, who has been working at the job since 2019, will seek other roles at Coldwell Banker Realty, along with sibling companies at Anywhere, the parent of Coldwell.
In the announcement, Lane said the restructuring was crucial.
“Our success is going to hinge on our ability to move with greater speed, simplify our operations, and deliver more value to agents and consumers alike,” she wrote. “I am challenging our regional presidents to help us achieve these goals.”
For Coldwell’s East Region, Rob Norman, who leads Coldwell’s New Jersey, Rockland County, New York and Philadelphia markets will also helm Central Pennsylvania and Westchester County.
Frederick Warburg Peters, Coldwell Banker Warburg president, will continue to helm that company’s New York City office
For the Southeast region, Duff Rubin, president of Coldwell Banker Realty in Florida, will lead 129 offices in Atlanta, the Carolinas, Florida, and the mid-Atlantic states. Laura Rittenberg, president of Coldwell Banker Realty in Atlanta and the Carolinas, will continue to run those offices and report to Rubin.
Ayoub Rabah of Coldwell Banker Realty in Greater Chicago will lead 84 offices in Illinois, Michigan and Texas. Charles El-Moussa, president of Coldwell Banker Realty in Texas, will report to Rabah.
Read moreNationalColdwell Banker Realty taps new CEOChicagoColdwell Banker planning to shutter some offices around ChicagoNew YorkRyan Gorman out as Coldwell Banker CEOThe post Kamini Lane reconfigures Coldwell Banker with regional presidents appeared first on The Real Deal.
Facing foreclosure, the owners of a nearly finished hotel in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn have resorted to bankruptcy to satisfy the project’s mounting debts.
An entity controlled by Brooklyn developer Abraham Leifer filed for bankruptcy to pave the way for a sale of 291 Livingston Street, a 21-story hotel project known for the distinctive, zebra-like mural that covers much of its exterior.
The project is 95 percent complete, according to the bankruptcy filing, but needs another $6 million to get across the finish line.
It’s among a growing number of properties throughout the city that are turning to bankruptcy court to delay foreclosures or otherwise fend off distress. In this case, the debtor’s restructuring officer, David Goldwasser, says the developers simply ran out of cash.
“In order to maximize the value of the property and cut off the continuing accruals and costs associated with the ownership and management,” the filing reads, “the debtor will attempt to sell the property during its Chapter 11 case, in order to generate proceeds for payment to its creditors.”
Greg Corbin, a bankruptcy specialist, is marketing the auction.
The hotel’s odyssey dates back to 2016, when Leifer’s Aview Equities was quietly piecing together an assemblage in Downtown Brooklyn for an 220,000-square-foot office and retail project. That never came together, but fellow Brooklyn developer Eli Karp’s Hello Living bought the Livingston Street site for $11.1 million in 2017, and Leifer stayed on as an investor.
Karp filed plans to build a hotel there later that year, but in 2018 Leifer replaced him as the managing member of the hotel’s ownership group.
As work on the Gene Kaufman-designed building progressed, the project soon started running into issues with its lenders and subcontractors.
Late last year, lender Acres Capital sued to initiate a UCC foreclose, alleging the hotel’s ownership group had defaulted on a $29.7 million mortgage. Then, in March of this year, a mezzanine lender sued the owners, claiming they had failed to repay its loan despite a workout agreement that extended the maturity date.
Almost 20 mechanics’ liens have also been filed against the property totaling about $3 million, though they are disputed by the owners, according to the bankruptcy filing.
The owners value the property at about $29 million.
Leifer’s Aview Equities, based in Borough Park, is also facing trouble at a nine-story residential conversion at 19 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan, where lender Merchants Bank recently accused it of defaulting on a $36.7 million refinancing loan.
PincusCo first reported the Livingston Street bankruptcy.
Read moreNew YorkAbraham Leifer faces foreclosure on Downtown Brooklyn hotelNew YorkAbraham Leifer’s Midtown conversion facing foreclosureNew YorkHello Living files plans for 21-story DoBro hotelThe post Abraham Leifer puts Downtown BK hotel project in bankruptcy appeared first on The Real Deal.
ScanlanKemperBard has revamped a former American Steel complex in West Oakland for technology, biotech, advanced manufacturing and clean-energy firms.
The Portland, Oregon-based developer has drawn new tenants to the 440,000-square-foot industrial complex at 1960, 1980 and 2140 Mandela Parkway, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Other building sites include 2341 Peralta and 1625 24th streets.
“This project is creating new energy in West Oakland,” Kristi Childers of JLL, which is marketing the site, told the newspaper. “It’s creating jobs in the city. This center is helping emerging companies grow in Oakland.”
ScanlanKemperBard, also known as SKB, and an unidentified capital partner bought the century-old industrial complex in 2021 for $82.5 million.
It then redeveloped two main buildings at the former steel plant and artists’ colony and its satellite campus for an undisclosed cost.
The result, designed by JRDV Architects of Oakland, is a new hub for cutting-edge companies.
They include Pyka, a maker of a pilotless and electric cargo planes; Limelight Steel, a creator of technologies to produce iron and steel with low emissions; ReSource Chemical, inventor of sustainable systems to make plastics; Molten Industries, commercializing ways to produce clean and low-cost hydrogen; and Brix Factory Brewing, a maker of artisan beers, according to the Mercury News.
Other tenants include Fluxion Biosciences; Magrathea, a tech startup; Biosphere, a biotech firm; and Planted Solar, a clean energy firm.
Spaces in the former American Steel and Pacific Pipe buildings range from 3,000 square feet to to 30,000 square feet, according to a JLL brochure. A block away from the main complex is a site near the corner of Mandela Parkway and Peralta Street, with much smaller spaces.
“The goal is to adapt the industrial structure to the changing needs of makers, artists, technology and other creative work businesses in West Oakland,” JRDV Architecture states on its website. “The ‘flexible-futures’ strategy will allow the buildings to adapt to the changing economic dynamic of West Oakland.”
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoCity Ventures ups bet in West Oakland with plan to build 90 townhomesSan FranciscoPanoramic defaults on loan for 1,000-unit apartment tower in OaklandSan FranciscoGrant will fund study on how to tear up I-980 through West OaklandThe post SKB draws creative tenant mix to former steel plant in West Oakland appeared first on The Real Deal.
Shaun Donovan, a former Obama and Bloomberg administration senior official and New York City mayoral candidate, will be the next CEO and president of Enterprise Community Partners.
The nonprofit, one of the nation’s largest affordable housing organizations, announced the appointment Monday.
“Housing touches everything in a person’s life. A good education, a good job, a healthy, prosperous life — all of it revolves around having a safe, stable place to live,” Donovan said in a press release. “Unlike any other time in my life, housing affordability is on the national radar. It’s a moment I’ve been preparing for throughout my whole career.”
Donovan has extensive experience at the highest levels of the housing policy world. He was secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama and was New York City’s housing commissioner under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
During his HUD tenure, Donovan instituted the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program, better known as RAD. It was created in 2012 to allow properties to convert public housing units into Section 8 housing.
By switching the apartments to a more reliable funding stream, the program allowed local governments to make long-needed repairs. The New York City Housing Authority is using the program to upgrade tens of thousands of apartments in partnership with private developers, who then manage but do not own the properties.
Despite the policy’s success, it has received some backlash from critics who viewed it as privatizing public housing. Still, Donovan touts the program as one of his major successes, including when he ran for mayor as a Democrat in 2021. (Donovan raised several million dollars but finished well behind Eric Adams in the primary.)
RAD does not increase rents, as Section 8 limits rents to no more than 30 percent of a tenant’s income, the standard for public housing.
The former cabinet official and national housing leader will begin his new role Sept. 1, replacing interim co-CEOs Lori Chatman and Drew Warshaw, who have been in place since September.
Donovan’s new employer has invested $64 billion and created 1 million affordable homes nationwide over the past 40 years.
Read moreNew YorkShaun Donovan can do housing. Can he do politics?New YorkWATCH: What would a Shaun Donovan mayoralty mean for real estate?“If you want someone who understands the nation’s current state of housing and where we need to go — the history, the challenges we face at the local and state level, the public, private, and philanthropic levers that need to be pulled in order to build a better future — Shaun Donovan is the right leader at the right moment,” said former Rep. Rick Lazio, Enterprise’s board chair, in a press release.
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DMB Development is one step closer to bringing an epic master-planned community to a remote area that straddles Williamson and Bell counties.
The Arizona-based developer, which aims to build up to 14,000 homes on a 7,000-tract near Jarrell, roughly 40 miles north of downtown Austin, secured approval for a municipal utility district during this year’s Texas Legislature, the Austin Business Journal reported.
The Texas House of Representatives and Senate passed a proposal last month to create Solana Municipal Utility District No. 1. If Gov. Greg Abbott signs off on the taxing district, it could be used to finance infrastructure like sewer, stormwater and utilities.
Williamson County commissioners unanimously approved the project in April. There were rumors of a Walt Disney theme park tied to the development, and although Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell shot down those rumors, Disney and DMB have collaborated on projects in the past.
The development site is part of Solana Ranch, a 9,000-acre cattle and wildlife ranch that stretches 13 miles and has been owned by the Michaux family for about 50 years. DMB, whose CEO is Brent Herrington, is under contract to buy just over 7,000 acres, and terms of the deal are being finalized.
Herrington estimates that the Solana Ranch project could amount to a roughly $2 billion investment. The community is expected to have a wide range of housing types, sizes and price points. The development is also slated for shopping, dining, offices, entertainment, recreational facilities, schools, churches and a vast network of trails.
The firm aims to complete construction by late 2026, Herrington told the outlet. Eventually, the site could house between 40,000 and 50,000 people, which would mark a huge population spike in the area. In 2021, Jarrell had a population of just over 2,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Salado, a town that also overlaps with Solana Ranch, had a slightly higher population in 2021.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasDMB plans 12,000 homes in Hill CountryTexasMixed-use project starts up in FredericksburgSouth FloridaNo riffraff: South Florida luxury condo developers embrace private diningThe post DMB gets OK for 7,000-acre bud of a town appeared first on The Real Deal.
Pacific Oak Group will dip into the Israeli bond market again in search of capital, using undeveloped land in Richardson as part of its collateral.
The multi-faceted California investment firm with $4 billion in real estate assets is looking to raise $195 million in new bond issuances in Israel, according to the firm’s May market report filed with the SEC.
This is becoming an annual occurrence for the firm which has raised nearly $350 million with Israeli investors since 2020, including $95 million last year, according to previous SEC filings. The firm has been a public non-traded REIT since 2020. It issued its first bonds in the Israeli market in 2016 when it raised $250 million in 4.25 percent bonds.
The Israeli market has been popular with real estate developers as a way to obtain a cheaper source of capital. By issuing bonds in Israel, firms discovered they were able to raise debt for properties without a mortgage and obtain favorable and lower interest rates.
Though some firms, like Starwood Capital Group, bit off more than they could chew. In 2020, Starwood defaulted on at least $250 million worth of Israeli bonds and is now dealing with a class action lawsuit supported by the the Israel Securities Authority.
Pacific Oak also ran into trouble last year when the firm defaulted on a loan for 110 William Street, an office in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The firm is currently negotiating with the lender to restructure and refinance the loans, according to its market report.
For this year’s bonds, Pacific Oak is using undeveloped land assets in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, as well as in Las Vegas as collateral. The Richardson land is nearly 25 acres, adjacent to the two-building office park Palisades Central, owned by KBS. The land only covers part of the loan collateral and is valued at $20.1 million, according to Pacific Oak. The Las Vegas owned parcels cover the rest of the $195 million debt.
Pacific Oak has been shifting its market focus in recent years away from office and into multifamily. Since 2015, the firm has decreased its office holdings from 72 percent of its overall portfolio to 32 percent. Meanwhile, it has increased its multifamily holdings from 5 percent to nearly 30 percent. The firm has also increased its investment into land and corporate securities.
Read moreNew YorkAll Year raises over $500M in Israel to keep up with deadlinesLos AngelesPacific Oak raises $95M on Israeli bond marketNew YorkPacific Oak Capital, Savanna default on 110 William StreetThe post Pacific Oak taps Israeli bond market again appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Sobrato Organization, a major developer in Silicon Valley, wants to help solve the affordable housing problem.
The Mountain View-based firm has launched an initiative to combine its real estate, capital investments and charity arm to keep residents in their homes, the San Jose Mercury reported.
Last month, its Sobrato Family Foundation paid $26.1 million for the 68-unit Vista Pointe Apartments at 3455 Homestead Road in Santa Clara. The apartments were built in the 1960s.
The apartment building purchase has now become the basis for a pilot project to help solve the local housing dilemma, John Sobrato, chairman of the company, said. Sobrato aims to keep the rents low, preserving its units as affordable.
“We call it the Housing Security Initiative,” Sobrato told the Mercury News. “The key to economic mobility is stable affordable housing for people at low- and moderate-income levels. That is the key to building self-sufficiency and moving up the economic ladder.”
The issue is affordability, with increased costs leading to higher housing prices across Silicon Valley, with rents far outpacing the growth in median income, Sobrato said. As families spend more on rent, they have less money for food and transportation.
The company aims to address affordable housing by building more homes, preserving existing affordable housing and advocating for more to be developed. It can also help fund affordable housing projects.
“We need all types of housing in Silicon Valley, because if there’s not enough of that, including market-rate housing, then that shortage puts pressure on affordable housing,” Sobrato told the newspaper. “We can help with housing production, including building affordable homes.”
Its new complex in Santa Clara falls into its initiative for preservation.
Older apartments such as Vista Pointe, built in 1969, generally undergo major upgrades following a sale, primarily to justify a hefty hike in rents. But the Sobrato Organization will undertake only essential improvements in order to keep rents moderate.
“We will address maintenance issues,” Sobrato said. “People can rest assured that none of the low-income families at Vista Pointe are going to be displaced.”
The Sobrato Organization has developed nearly 21.5 million square feet of office, R&D and multifamily real estate. Its portfolio contains 7.5 million square feet of office and R&D buildings, plus 30 apartment complexes in the Bay Area, according to its website.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoWindy Hill and Sobrato snag two Santa Clara apartment complexes in separate dealsSan FranciscoSobrato Organization sells Cupertino strip mall for $93MSan FranciscoSobrato to buy 171K sf Athleta HQ in SF’s EmbarcaderoThe post Sobrato buys aging apartment complex in Santa Clara to keep rents low appeared first on The Real Deal.
Park Hotels and Resorts announced it will cease making payments toward a $725 million non-recourse CMBS loan which is scheduled to mature in November 2023.
The loan was secured by two of its San Francisco hotels — the 1,921-room Hilton San Francisco Union Square and the 1,024-room Parc 55 San Francisco.
“After much thought and consideration, we believe it is in the best interest for Park’s stockholders to materially reduce our current exposure to the San Francisco market,” CEO Thomas Baltimore Jr. said in a statement. “Now more than ever, we believe San Francisco’s path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges — both old and new: record high office vacancy; concerns over street conditions; lower return to office than peer cities; and a weaker than expected citywide convention calendar through 2027 that will negatively impact business and leisure demand and will likely significantly reduce compression in the city for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the continued burden on our operating results and balance sheet is too significant to warrant continuing to subsidize and own these assets.”
The interest-only loan was originated in 2016 by JPMorgan Chase and sold into the CMBS investor market. Wells Fargo is now the master and special servicer for the loan, which was placed on a Trepp watchlist in 2020 for mortgage-backed securities at risk of default.
The two hotels are the largest in the city and make up 9 percent of the city’s hotel rooms. When the loan goes into delinquency in July, 80 basis points will be added to SF’s hotel delinquency rate and push it above 5 percent, according to Trepp.
Park will now look to “reshape our portfolio by selling non-core assets, and recycling capital to reduce leverage, invest in strategic ROI projects, and opportunistically repurchase stock and/or acquire assets,” according to Baltimore.
Park could look to invest in more leisure markets, such as Hawaii, that are currently more viable, according to Alan Reay, president of consultancy Atlas Hospitality. The San Francisco hospitality market faces challenges as international tourism has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, particularly from the Asia Pacific region. However, San Francisco has remained more viable than other large markets across the country.
“People are looking at San Francisco and thinking it’s very difficult to build here and if we can hold onto our assets, we might be OK,” Reay said. “Borrowers were sort of quick to turn back keys in Chicago and New York.”
While almost every other market has rebounded to pre-pandemic occupancy rates, San Francisco and San Jose are still trailing 2019 levels. This is due to the Bay Area’s reliance on commercial business travel, according to Reay.
The most recent San Francisco hospitality sales were the two assets sold by Maryland-based Pebblebrook Hotel Trust: the Marker which sold for $370,000 per key and Hotel Spero for $300,000 per key.
Read moreSan FranciscoPark Hotels weighs options as SF properties face $725M debt deadlineSan FranciscoSan Francisco hospitality market saw mixed results in 2022San FranciscoOhana closes on historic Claremont Hotel in Berkeley for $163MThe post SF’s biggest hotels to stop mortgage payments appeared first on The Real Deal.
Activity in Manhattan’s luxury market ticked back up toward normal last week, but some of the borough’s property types fared far better than others.
The borough saw 32 homes asking $4 million or more enter contract, according to Olshan Realty. Of those, 21 were for condos, 11 for co-ops — their best week since the end of April 2022 — and none for townhouses.
The dearth of sales for townhouses marks a sharp dive from April, when eight contracts marked the property type’s strongest week in nearly two years, and red-hot activity recorded in May 2022.
The townhouse market was more resistant to headwinds last year because of the larger contingency of all-cash buyers. But sales volume last quarter fell 30 percent, according to townhouse brokerage Leslie Garfield, due to the expectation gap between buyers and sellers: Buyers expect steep discounts while sellers are holding out for top dollar.
The most expensive home to enter contract last week in Manhattan was unit PH35A at 500 West 18th Street, asking of $30 million.
The 5,800-square-foot penthouse was initially listed for $34 million in 2018 when the building started marketing. The unit has five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms, as well as a 1,300-square-foot great room that opens onto a 322-square-foot loggia.
Formerly known as the Xi, One High Line is a project with a condo building and hotel that landed in a $1 billion-plus foreclosure two years ago. Amenities include a fitness center, a 75-foot lap pool, a spa, a golf simulator, private dining and a games lounge. Services are offered from the adjacent Faena Hotel, part of the re-branded project.
The second most expensive home to enter contract last week was unit 10/11C at 740 Park Avenue, with an asking price of $23.8 million, down from $26 million when it was listed last August. The duplex co-op has 11.5-foot ceilings and a 720-square-foot living room with a fireplace that opens onto a library.
If the sale goes through, it’ll mark the end of retired semiconductor executive Hamburg Tang’s tenure in the building. Tang, who bought the co-op in 1995 for $7 million, had been involved in a lawsuit with his neighbor over noise from renovations to Marks’ unit, which is directly above Tang’s.
Tang accused billionaire Howard Marks of working beyond the hours allowed by the building and blamed the co-op board for not enforcing them, ultimately convincing a judge to limit the time per day Marks could renovate.
Amenities at the building, which doesn’t allow financing, include a doorman, gym and storage.
The asking prices of the 32 homes totaled $273 million, with an average of $8.5 million and a median price of $6.3 million. The typical home received a 9 percent discount and spent 630 days on the market.
Read moreNew YorkNew YorkManhattan luxury contracts hit mid-May slumpThe post Townhouses drop from Manhattan luxury contracts appeared first on The Real Deal.
BET co-founder Robert Johnson dropped $20 million on a newly renovated mansion in Palm Beach Garden’s Old Palm Golf Club.
Records show a Delaware LLC bought the house at 12236 Tillinghast Circle from Myron “Mosie” Miller and his wife, Michelle Miller. Listing agent Vince Marotta of Illustrated Properties confirmed the buyer is Johnson. Blair Kirwan with Brown Harris Stevens brought the buyer.
Mosie Miller is a local spec developer, and the son of Robert Miller, who owns the Jupiter Pointe Club & Marina.
Johnson co-founded BET with his then-wife Sheila Johnson in 1979. The couple sold the network to Viacom for $3 billion in 2001, minting their status as America’s first Black billionaires. They fell from billionaire status after their split in 2002. Sheila Johnson went on to establish Salamander Hotels and Resorts, while Robert Johnson remained as CEO of BET until 2006.
Robert Johnson also bought a majority stake in the Charlotte Bobcats in 2002, making him the first Black majority team owner in a major American sports league, the New York Times reported. He sold his stake in the Bobcats to basketball legend Michael Jordan for $275 million in 2010, according to ESPN.
Johnson and Jordan are still friends, Marotta said. Johnson wanted to be close to Jordan, who lives in Jupiter’s Bear’s Club, but not too close, leading him to Old Palm Golf Club, according to Marotta.
The Millers bought the 1-acre Tillinghast Circle home for $10 million in December 2021, records show. Built in 2011, the 13,600-square-foot mansion has five bedrooms, six bathrooms and one half-bathroom, according to property records.
Miller commissioned Roger Janssen of Dailley Janssen Architects in West Palm Beach, interior designer Tamara Magel, and Lavelle Construction to do a gut renovation of the home. He listed the mansion for $20 million early on in the renovation process, and Johnson agreed to buy it at that price before the demolition was finished, Marotta said.
This latest sale comes just shy of Old Palm Golf Club’s price record, which was set in July by the $22.5 million sale of a mansion on a double lot.
Miller also has a Palm Beach mansion on the market. He is asking $79 million for the oceanfront estate at 149 East Inlet Drive, with Lawrence Moens as the listing agent. He also bought a Palm Beach Gardens mansion for $11 million in August. Miller originally planned to relist that house for $13.9 million, but instead has been renting it out on a short-term basis.
“He gets like $30 grand for a weekend,” Marotta said.
Miller’s latest sale in Old Palm Golf Club is indicative of a northern Palm Beach County’s luxury boom, according to Marotta.
“Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens [are] becoming a really sexy address,” he said.
Residential brokerages are catching on to the growing luxury market and opening offices accordingly. Compass, the Agency, and Corcoran have all opened Palm Beach Gardens offices in the past year.
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In a move that signals trouble for the West and other regions grappling with water scarcity, Arizona has announced that it lacks sufficient groundwater to support the already approved housing construction in the Phoenix area.
State officials have decided to halt the building of new subdivisions, potentially bringing an end to the rapid development that has propelled Phoenix to become the fastest-growing metropolitan region in the United States, the New York Times reported.
The scramble to secure water rights is expected to disrupt Arizona’s real estate market, driving up home prices and jeopardizing the region’s historically affordable housing.
“Housing affordability will be a challenge moving forward,” Spencer Kamps, vice president of legislative affairs for the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, told the Times.
Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, assured the public that the state is not on the brink of running dry and emphasized that new construction will continue in major cities like Phoenix.
However, the analysis conducted by the state, which projected groundwater levels over the next century, prompted the decision to restrict future housing developments that rely on wells for water.
Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs, relies on groundwater for over half of its water supply, with the remainder sourced from rivers, aqueducts, and recycled wastewater. Groundwater, however, is a finite resource that takes thousands of years to replenish, according to the outlet.
The impact of the announcement will be most acutely felt in small towns and uninhabited desert areas on the outskirts of the Phoenix metro area, where lower-cost homes are typically built, the Times said.
Developers and cities now face the challenge of finding alternative water sources — such as purchasing water from farmers or Native American tribes, many of whom are already experiencing their own water shortages — to sustain future growth.
While the immediate growth plans of major cities like Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Mesa may not be severely affected, areas beyond their boundaries, particularly those lacking designated water supplies, will have major obstacles in obtaining approval for housing projects dependent on groundwater.
The groundwater shortage in Arizona is a manifestation of the broader impact of climate change on the American Southwest.
A prolonged 23-year drought and rising temperatures have contributed to the dwindling water levels of the Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people across seven states. Increased evaporation rates and higher water demands for crops under rising temperatures have further strained water resources.
The state’s response to the crisis includes a reliance on new water conservation measures and alternative water sources. However, some critics argue that Arizona continues to deplete groundwater excessively, with unregulated industrial projects exacerbating the situation.
“This is the hydrologic disconnect coming home to roost,” Cynthia Campbell, Phoenix’s water-resources management adviser, told the Times. “The reality is, it all came back to catch us.”
Although construction will persist for now, with permits granted for approximately 80,000 unbuilt housing lots, developers and communities likely must confront a future where water accessibility is stretched thin.
— Ted Glanzer
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Investors in a St. Louis-area shopping center are tired of waiting for their payments while Arciterra Companies owner Jonathan Larmore allegedly spends their money on private jets and a dog’s $100,000 birthday party.
Investors filed a federal lawsuit, accusing the property owner of misusing investor cash to fund his personal lifestyle, Bloomberg reported.
While the firm owns dozens of properties in the Midwest, the lawsuit is centered on an Illinois strip mall, Belleville Crossing in St. Clair County. Money from roughly 175 investors was used for that particular purchase, the suit stated.
More than 2,000 investors in Arciterra haven’t received payments since 2019, the lawsuit alleges. The investors accuse Arciterra of trying to “wait out” its funders to give up on getting their money, or to die.
Arciterra raised roughly $187 million in the past decade through more than 19 investment offerings, the lawsuit claims. That money has allegedly gone towards extracurriculars for Larmore, including purchases of a Cessna Citation and a Gulfstream G400. The lawsuit also alleges Larmore threw a $100,000 birthday party for his Boston Terrier.
Meanwhile, Belleville Crossing has fallen into disrepair, according to the suit. Issues include overgrown weeds, overflowing trash and leaky roofs. The investors also said lease renewals and bill payments haven’t happened in a timely manner.
Larmore didn’t comment on specific allegations, only saying via text that he’ll “let the truth come out.”
Read moreNationalSmall-time multifamily investors go belly-upTexasArbor forecloses on $229M portfolioNew YorkAn insider’s guide to real estate syndicationBesides the federal suit, Arciterra is also facing a handful of other lawsuits and recently defaulted on some properties, according to a separate lawsuit.
He is also in the midst of a divorce from his wife, who has stated the couple has $50 million in assets, including jewelry and luxury cars. His wife has also said in divorce filings that Larmore may be under SEC investigation, though the commission hasn’t confirmed.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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The Justice Department has settled another case involving alleged redlining by a real estate lender, this time in the Philadelphia area.
ESSA Bank & Trust agreed last week to pay more than $3 million to settle claims that it engaged in a pattern of lending discrimination between 2017 and 2021 against people living in majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the Philadelphia metropolitan area over a period of four years, according to a press release.
Under the proposed settlement, ESSA will invest nearly $3 million in a loan subsidy fund to increase access to credit for home mortgage, improvement and refinance loans, and home equity loans and lines of credit in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are people of color.
ESSA also agreed to pay $125,000 on community partnerships and $250,000 on outreach, education and counseling to expand services to those communities. The bank is also required to hire two new loan officers in its West Philadelphia branches and conduct a study to identify the needs for financial services in communities of color. The settlement still has to be approved by a court.
“For too long, residents of communities of color have been unlawfully denied equal access to credit and shut out of economic opportunities,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the statement. “When banks engage in redlining, they perpetuate existing patterns of segregation and widen the racial wealth gap in our country. This resolution makes clear our commitment to holding banks and financial institutions accountable for modern day redlining while ensuring access to fair lending in communities of color.”
The Justice Department has prioritized redlining cases since October 2021 under its Combatting Redlining Initiative.
In July 2022, a former mortgage lender with ties to Warren Buffett, Trident Mortgage Company, agreed to pay $20 million in the second-largest settlement of a redlining case in Department of Justice history. The company, which no longer provides lending services, will also be required to contract another lender to provide services to affected communities.
In September 2022, Lakeland Bank, which operates out of northern New Jersey and the Hudson Valley, agreed to create a $12 million homeownership fund. It will also open two new branches and increase mortgage lending in underserved communities of color in northern New Jersey.
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Related Group isn’t going down to South Park.
The Miami-based developer announced that it will not redevelop the Trianon Condominiums at 3504 Colony Road in SouthPark, Charlotte, because of the bleak picture of the real estate market, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
The announcement came just a couple of months after the City Council unanimously approved Related’s rezoning petition for the 9-acre site, which would allow for a mixed-use development with retail space, multifamily units, and townhomes.
City Council member Tariq Bokhari, who represents the SouthPark neighborhood, confirmed that Related had chosen not to move forward with the purchase because of high interest rates, construction costs, and challenges in securing loans.
Related filed the rezoning petition in May 2022 after Trianon residents decided to sell due to increasing costs at the aging condo complex. The approved plans aimed to replace the existing condos with 60,000 square feet of retail space, 730 multifamily units, and 18 to 24 townhomes.
Bokhari, who played a role in negotiating the rezoning, said he was surprised at Related’s decision, and that the developer will assess whether new terms can be agreed upon.
However, he acknowledged he wasn’t optimistic the project would proceed under revised conditions and the property will remain in the hands of Trianon residents for the time being.
“The odds on that look pretty daunting. Related plans to look at it with urgency, but they self-indicated that it’s a long-shot,” Bokhari told the outlet.
Despite this setback, Bokhari emphasized the significance of the site for the future development of SouthPark.
“I, personally, think this is one of the most important parcels in all of SouthPark because it’s a bridge between residents and neighborhoods to the activity center,” he told the outlet. “How that’s developed is going to be really important.”
— Ted Glanzer
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Sometimes rising stars come crashing down to earth.
Such is the case with Matt Onofrio, a former Wisconsin nurse anesthetist who quit his job in 2020 to focus on real estate and is now facing charges of bank fraud in connection with multiple deals he arranged in Minnesota, Insider reported.
Onofrio is accused of convincing buyers to purchase properties at inflated prices, while he had already bought them at lower prices. He would then help the buyers secure mortgages based on the higher prices and offer to cover the down payment himself, in exchange for monthly repayments with interest, allowing him to profit from the price difference and put the buyers at risk of financial strain.
One of his victims, mixed martial arts star Michael Chandler, purchased a property for $16 million, only to discover later that Onofrio had bought it for $12 million and charged him a $4 million markup.
“Michael didn’t expect Matt was setting up this deal out of the goodness of his heart,” Brendan Johnson, Chandler’s attorney, told the outlet. “But he certainly didn’t appreciate that there would be a $4 million swing.”
In November 2022, Onofrio was indicted by federal prosecutors for alleged bank fraud. Prosecutors say Onofrio created fake purchase agreements to deceive banks and lend clients money without disclosing it to the banks. The government has frozen Onofrio’s bank account, and a trial date is yet to be set.
While Chandler’s case isn’t a part of the criminal indictment, a former employee at Onofrio’s company Wild Moose Ventures told Insider that Onofrio had about $400 million in deals in the two years leading up to his arrest.
Onofrio’s unassuming nature — plus a pitch in which he showed his bank account holding millions of dollars — led at least some investors to let their guards down.
Matthew Hermann, who said he lost $200,000 so far on a $6.3 million warehouse purchase from Onofrio, said Onofrio was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” who told Hermann “I would always look out for you.”
“Matt checked all the right boxes,” Hermann told the outlet. “If you present yourself the right way, how are most people supposed to know?”
— Ted Glanzer
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South Florida’s reputation as a vain place might extend not just to the way residents look, but also its buildings’ appearances.
Take 1111 Lincoln in Miami Beach. It’s a garage, which generally would summon images of a boxy concrete edifice. Yet, the seven-story development next to South Beach’s Lincoln Road is hardly reminiscent of a parking structure.
Herzog & de Meuron Architects designed a building with exposed concrete slabs that jut out to different lengths toward Alton Road and taper, creating an illusion that they are paper thin on one end. It has triangular columns, instead of the typical rectangular ones, and floors of different heights.
The building, which opened in 2010, includes retail, restaurants, offices, residences and a rooftop event space often used for yoga classes or banquets.
“They turned something that could have been horrible and really ugly into an architectural sculpture,” said Stephanie Halfen of SDH_Studio Architecture + Design.
While 1111 Lincoln is a winner for Halfen when it comes to South Florida architecture, other buildings in the region miss the mark for her — by a lot.
1111 Lincoln (Google Maps, Getty)The Real Deal asked Halfen and three other architects to spill the tea on what they think are the design feats and fails in South Florida. Each have their favorite likes and dislikes.
“The way I measure it, my favorite buildings are kind of extroverts and engage the surrounding community,” said Jose Murguido of Zyscovich. “They have a catalytic effect that affects the broader community economically, socially and urbanistically.”
So what buildings are South Florida’s community catalysts? Which buildings truly tie in South Florida’s lush landscape or preserve historic elements? And which building did one architect deem a “bad boy brutalist”?
Bernardo Fort-Brescia, co-founder of Miami-based Arquitectonica
Architectural feats
- Thomas P. Murphy Design Studio Building at the University of Miami School of Architecture, Coral Gables
Designed by Arquitectonica, the 13,000-square-foot building at UM opened in 2018 as a studio for students and faculty.
“It does a lot with very little,” Fort-Brescia said. “It’s simple but sculptural at the same time.”
The elongated concrete-and-glass structure has 18-foot high ceilings. Outside, the oversized concrete roof dips on one end of the building much like a wave, creating a shaded outdoor gathering space.
Thomas P. Murphy Design Studio Building (Google Maps, Getty)2. Bacardi Buildings, Edgewater, Miami
The two-building complex at 2100 Biscayne Boulevard was built as the headquarters for Bacardi, a family owned spirits brand that started as a rum company in Cuba.
Former Bacardi President José “Pepin” Bosch had the eight-story office building on the east side of the lot built in 1963. Designed by Cuban architect Enrique Gutierrez, it has floor-to-ceiling windows and Azulejo murals (a type of Spanish and Portuguese art) by Brazilian artist Francisco Brennand.
In 1973, the “Jewel Box” cube-shaped annex was added on the west side of the lot. Designed by architect Ignacio Carrera-Justiz, it has Mesoamerican-themed murals on all sides by artist Johannes Dietz.
The Bacardi Buildings rise atop support structures that are narrower than the main buildings, giving the illusion that the complex is floating.
“It’s a simple rectangular [building], yet it comes alive with these spectacular murals,” Fort-Brescia said. “What I even like more is the composition of the vertical tower and the cube.”
The buildings are home to the YoungArts foundation, while Bacardi moved its headquarters to Coral Gables.
Bacardi Buildings (Google Maps, Getty)Architectural fails
- Women’s Detention Center, Miami
The four-story light-beige building opened in 1978 at 1401 Northwest Seventh Avenue, making it visible to Dolphin Expressway drivers.
By nature, prison buildings’ designs feel oppressive, but there’s something to be said about picking the right location, Fort-Brescia said.
“You wonder, ‘Why would they build there?’” Fort-Brescia said. “To put it in that location in that position, it is a little bit unfortunate.”
- U-Haul Moving & Storage of Greater Miami in downtown
The seven-story warehouse at 1000 Northeast First Avenue is also just out of place, Fort-Brescia said.
It’s surrounded by Miami Worldcenter and is a block west of the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum condominium.
The juxtaposition between the modern architectural feats and the older U-Haul structure is a result of downtown’s evolution. The area once was Miami’s forgotten child, so no one thought twice about building a self-storage facility there. Now, it’s a real estate development mecca.
“I am not picking on that one [the U-Haul facility]. I am saying it as an example of buildings that are obsolete for a neighborhood,” Fort-Brescis said.
Kobi Karp, founder of Miami-based Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design
Architectural feats
- Surf Club Four Seasons, Surfside
Designed by Karp, the project consists of a 72-key hotel and a pair of 12-story condo buildings at 9001 Collins Avenue. Developer Fort Partners completed the project in 2017.
The 9-acre site includes the original Russell Pancoast-designed Surf Club, which opened in 1930 and once was a private beachfront getaway for celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra.
But the redevelopment turned what used to be an exclusive club to a public space by adding a hotel and repurposing the original Surf Club as the hotel lobby with a lounge and restaurant.
The hotel’s glass cube, cantilever-like structure floats atop the Surf Club, allowing guests views of the Mediterranean Revival building.
The decision to add a hotel and open the Surf Club to the public came after input from a historic preservation board in 2012, Karp said.
“At the preservation board, the comment was, ‘Kobi, this has always been an exclusionary club. By you restoring it, no one will see it on a daily basis except for the people who live in the condominium,’” Karp recalled. “Which then made me pause and think.”
Surf Club Four Seasons (Google Maps, Getty)2. Moxy Miami South Beach
The seven-story, 202-key building opened at 915 Washington Avenue in 2021 as Florida’s first Moxy-branded hotel.
Developed by New York-based Lightstone, the Moxy is another of Karp’s designs.
The project preserved historic elements that now are part of the ground-floor retail.
“People walk through the historic elements,” Karp said. The design “brings people in from Washington Avenue to walk in and go to the rooftops.”
- Caribbean South Beach
Another Karp design, the condominium also unifies historic with modern.
The 103-unit building completed in 2008 rises 19 stories at 2727 Collins Avenue next to the original seven-story, 1940s-era Caribbean condo.
The black granite wall remains on the older building, leading residents into a lobby with a terrazzo floor. The original Caribbean has been restored and also includes condos.
“The historic building is a prelude to the new building,” Karp said.
- Fontainebleau Miami Beach
The late architect Morris Lapidus, famous for his penchant for the Miami Modern (MiMo) style, designed the oceanfront resort at 4441 Collins Avenue known for its curving façade.
The Fontainebleau consists of the original hotel buildings developed by the late hotelier Ben Novack in 1954 with 846 keys, combined, and a pair of condo buildings added in the 2000s with 658 units, combined.
“The architecture style with its curves and its circles and its geometry is the inspiration that myself and many other architects use on a daily basis,” Karp said.
- Miami-Dade County Courthouse
Designed by A. Ten Eyck Brown, the 28-story civil courthouse was completed at 73 West Flagler Street in downtown Miami in 1928.
But the historic landmark fell into disrepair in recent years. The legal community has complained about mold, leaks and insufficient space. In 2019, county commissioners approved a $267 million new courthouse project at West Flagler Street and Northwest First Street.
The original courthouse could be repurposed into a commercial use such as a boutique hotel, Karp said.
“It’s an institution of a building with a basement to it. It’s everything that 100 years ago, people would have designed in this location and would have said, ‘Wow, Miami has a huge future.’”
Moxy South Beach (Google Maps, Getty)Architectural fails
- The Federal Detention Center, downtown Miami
The 20-story prison on the northeast corner of Northeast Fourth Street and North Miami Avenue was built in the mid-1990s.
It’s another downtown building that remains out of place in an area where luxury high-rises are popping up.
Case in point: It made headlines this year when social media posts popped up of inmates hollering at sunbathers on the pool deck at the Downtown 5th apartment towers developed across the street by the Melo Group.
To Karp, the “big blocky” design with “little fenestration” just doesn’t work.
It’s “almost like a bad boy brutalist,” Karp said, referring to the architectural style. “It does not need to look like a jail just because it is a jail.”
Stephanie Halfen, founder and principal architect at North Miami Beach-based SDH_Studio Architecture + Design
Architectural feat
- Pérez Art Museum Miami
Like Halfen’s other favorite, 1111 Lincoln, the museum was designed by Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron.
The contemporary art museum opened at 1103 Biscayne Boulevard in Museum Park in 2013.
At the bayfront open-air area, gardens in the shape of columns hang from the awning. The landscaping at the museum is inspired by the lushness of Miami neighborhoods such as Coconut Grove neighborhood, Halfen said.
The building has its own concrete roof but then a wood roof that surpasses the actual dimensions of the building is suspended on top of the museum on stilt-like structures.
The museum’s roof design is “trying to capture that feeling of the stilts houses, and they do it in a very contemporary way,” Halfen said. Elements like this show the architects truly studied South Florida to incorporate references to the community in the design.
“They didn’t just pull it [the design] out of a hat,” she said.
Architectural fails
- A collection of buildings west of I-95 in North Miami Beach
Though she can’t point to just one building, Halfen said “there are a ton of buildings that are 12- to 15 stories high that [are] literally just blocks.”
“They are just bricks and mortar with openings for windows,” she said. “You can actually see them from the 826 [Palmetto Expressway].”
Jose Murguido, partner and corporate vice president at Miami-based Zyscovich
Architectural feats
- Brickell City Centre
Swire’s mixed-use development completed in 2016 in Miami’s financial district spans five city blocks. Designed by Arquitectonica, it consists of a pair of residential towers, a pair of office buildings and a five-story open-air mall.
Brickell City Centre works because it isn’t an enclosed development existing in isolation within the rest of the financial district, Murguido said. Instead, it’s seamlessly embedded in the neighborhood, meaning pedestrians could be walking through Brickell City Centre without realizing they are in the complex.
“When you are walking in New York … you never know if you left SoHo and are walking now into Little Italy because it’s so seamless,” he said. “That’s what makes cities great and the architecture within them great.”
- The Square, downtown West Palm Beach
Related Companies developed the 72-acre mixed-use project, previously called CityPlace and then Rosemary Square for a short while, in 2000.
Designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, it includes retail, restaurants, apartments, condos and offices. Steve Ross, who heads Related, unveiled plans this year to redevelop portions of The Square.
Like Brickell City Centre, The Square’s design has a catalytic effect that “extroverts [the development] and engages the surrounding community,” Murguido said. “So instead of it being an iconic building … it has an iconic impact.”
Architectural fails
- The Shops at Sunset Place, South Miami
The over 500,000-square-foot open-air mall at 5701 Sunset Drive was a top area destination in the years after it opened in 1999, but patronage has dwindled in recent years.
That’s a result of its design with “blank façades” enclosing the retail and dining in a way that the development “turns its back on everything else in the community,” Murguido said. “The retail inside the building is on the other end of a fortress wall and the building tends to suffer from that.”
Midtown Miami developer Alex Vadia bought The Shops at Sunset Place for $65.5 million in 2021, marking a 40 percent discount from the property’s price six years prior. Over the years, there have been several proposals to redevelop the site, though none have panned out.
Federal Detention Center at 33 Northeast Fourth Street (Google Maps, Getty)2. Miami-Dade Cultural Center
The complex, which consists of the Main Library branch and the HistoryMiami museum, opened in 1983 on the northeast corner of Flagler Street and Northwest Second Avenue in downtown.
Designed by the late Philip Johnson, arguably the most famous living architect at the time, the cultural center is in the neo-Mediterranean style and includes a Venetian plaza in the center. The complex is elevated and enclosed by a rampart.
Ramparts are “great when you have a hostile community around you,” Murguido said. “But not so great when you are making a public building. … A public building being surrounded by a rampart is contradictory to being a public building.”
Read moreNew YorkNew York architects rank best and worst of NYC’s buildingsThe post Architects weigh in on South Florida’s best, worst buildings appeared first on The Real Deal.
More than 70 people descended on Lobo, Texas, recently for the opportunity to own a ghost town for $100,000.
Alexander Bardoff, who bought Lobo with a group of friends for $20,000 in 2001, is seeking a buyer for the ghost town, provided the buyer appreciates its history, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“It’s difficult for me to let go,” Bardorff told the outlet. “To some of the potential buyers, I say, ‘It’s like Lobo is my baby or our baby and we want to find new good parents.’”
Prospective buyers presented a wide range of ideas for Lobo’s future, including a kangaroo farm, a nudist colony, and an escape-room-style attraction where people escape from the town, not just a room.
Bardoff and two other buyers will make the decision of who the winning bidder will be, but Bardoff is the one who met potential buyers in person.
“Do you respect what I call the soul of Lobo?” Bardorff told the WSJ. “You can have a campground anywhere.”
Lobo’s history dates back to the mid-19th century, when it served as a stopover on the mail route from San Antonio to San Diego. Over time, the town grew, but after its last resident departed in 1991, Lobo remained empty until Bardorff and his friends transformed it into an artistic hub, hosting art installations, film festivals, and musical performances.
The town is composed of 10 acres and has an empty swimming pool as well as a motel, grocery store and post office, all of which are defunct, as well as vacant houses.
For many potential buyers, Lobo represents a unique opportunity to create an artistic community or some other unconventional venture.
One musician envisions desert-inspired art and music as the town’s focus, while others contemplate building a super-powerful radio tower or establishing sustainable agriculture and rental properties. Lobo’s serene desert landscape has a transformative effect, prompting visitors to appreciate the slower pace of life and the opportunity to own a piece of history.
“Just being out here it kind of slows down time,” prospective buyer Andrea Alvarez told the outlet.
The deadline to bid on the town is June 24.
It’s not the only ghost town to have hit the market, but it is one of the least expensive.
There’s one in Arizona that comes complete with a refurbished general store that’s on sale for $1.1 million. A cannabis company recently received $2.5 million from an adult circus for its ghost town.
And, more recently, a secretive company with the nondescript moniker Ecology Mountain Holdings bought a California ghost town for $22.5 million, SFGate reported.
— Ted Glanzer
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What’s about a dozen acres of empty land worth to a billionaire? In the eyes of Bill Koch, it’s worth $16 million.
The Oxbow Carbon founder and son of Koch Industries founder listed 11 acres of vacant land in Cape Cod, the Wall Street Journal reported. While the five lots could be had for $16 million combined, buyers are also able to snap the parcels up individually for between $3 million and $3.5 million each.
Koch owns at least 40 acres in the area, including a compound in Osterville on the water with five houses. While Koch’s Oyster Harbors estate is on the waterfront, the five lots — ranging from 2 acres to 2.5 acres — are not.
Koch purchased his first home in Oyster Harbors in the 1980s. He also bought Osterville’s marina so he would have a place to store his various boats.
His estate has been growing in size over the last 10 years, though. In 2012, he bought a home for $7 million. One year later, he purchased more than 30 adjacent acres from the late philanthropist Bunny Mellon for $19.5 million. A year after that, he bought 10 acres from the du Pont family for an undisclosed price.
Koch, who sold his interest in Koch Industries in the 1980s before founding Oxbow, has the luxury of not needing the vacant land and is looking to capitalize on their appreciating value. The 83-year-old still harbors plans to build another house on his land so that each of his children can have one.
Zenas Crocker of LandVest, a Christie’s International Real Estate affiliate, holds the listing.
The average sale price of a non-waterfront home in Oyster Harbor ranges from $3 million to $6 million, Crocker told the publication. Even an individual who wants to buy part of Koch’s land will need to have the upper end of that range to build a home after purchasing the land.
Koch also owns a home in Palm Beach and a pair of homes in Colorado, including one in Aspen and one in Paonia.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkHousing boom comes to formerly middle-class Cape Cod townsNew YorkHistoric Cape Cod mansion lists for first time — at a record-breaking priceSouth FloridaEx-wife of billionaire Bill Koch sells West Palm homeThe post Billionaire Bill Koch lists vacant land in Cape Cod for $16M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Biotech giant Genentech’s parent company Roche is looking for a buyer for one of the world’s largest biotech manufacturing facilities.
The Basel, Switzerland-headquartered drugmaker will sell the 427,000-square-foot facility or shutter it by 2029, the North Bay Business Journal reported. Roche declined to comment on the listing price, the cost savings of the decision or whether the move is to off-set losses, according to the outlet.
Genentech’s 800-person facility at 1000 New Horizons Way cost $250 million to build, and came online in 2000. Roche acquired the South San Francisco-based Genentech in 2009. The New Horizons plant has produced some of Genentech’s revolutionary cancer-fighting drugs like Herceptrin and Avastin, and more recently the arthritis and Covid-19 drug Actemra.
Roche plans to retain the 800 employees who work at the New Horizons facility, and move the drug production operations there to a newer facility, the outlet reported. Genentech employs more than 13,000 people across its operations, and Roche has more than 100,000 workers globally.
The area around Genentech’s Vacaville facility has evolved into a biotech manufacturing hub since the plant first opened more than two decades ago. Cancer therapy firm Agenus bought a 120-acre site in Vacaville in 2021, according to the Vacaville Reporter. Polaris Pharmaceuticals and Mettler-Toledo Rainin both opened facilities there last year.
Bay Area office leasing has taken punch after punch since the work-from-home revolution began. In the fall, San Francisco mayor London Breed expressed hope that biotech firms could move in to fill the tech-shaped gap in the city’s office market.
A Chicago-based developer recently backed out of its plans to build a 14-story life sciences building in Emeryville, wary of the sector’s cooling demand.
–– Kate Hinsche
The post Genentech parent company Roche to sell 427K sf Vacaville facility appeared first on The Real Deal.
Springside Middletown, the upcoming 414-unit apartment complex in Middletown, Connecticut, is set to make history for reasons beyond its size.
The project, which is in construction, has drawn unprecedented involvement of various community groups, leading to a tax abatement where developer PB Development set aside $1 million for minority contractors to bid on project work, CTInsider reported.
In addition, the developers promised to buy $100,000 in gift cards from local stores to give to the complex’s future residents as a way for them to become acclimated and acquainted with the city.
The project could generate up to $1.5 billion for the city, which is home to Wesleyan University, project liaison Alan Marshall told the outlet.
Construction, which is taking place in two phases, on the 48-acre parcel will cost $100 million and take a little over two years, according to The Hartford Courant.
The complex will have one-, two-, and three-bedroom units along with three-story garden-style apartments, the Courant said. How much rents will be was not specified.
The complex’s amenities will include a common room and coffee bar, recreation building with a fitness center and climbing wall and golf simulator. The complex will also have a pool, outdoor kitchen, pickleball courts, dog park and playground, according to CTInsider.
Phase One of the project will have 240 units in three buildings, with the remaining 174 units being part of Phase 2. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Middletown is about $1,200 a month; $1,500 for a two-bedroom apartment; and $1,825 for a three-bedroom apartment, according to rentdata.org.
The project will bring some much-needed housing, albeit market–rate, to central Connecticut.
The state is currently attempting to find solutions to tackling the affordable housing issue has been a challenge, even though apartment construction in the past two years has been at its highest in the state in over 100 years, The Hartford Courant reported.
“People want to be in Connecticut, but you need a whole variety of different types of housing. If you want to make the state more affordable, it starts with housing,” Gov. Ned Lamont said at a press conference, according to the Hartford Courant.
Lamont’s proposed budget includes spending $600 million on housing, including building more housing, over the course of two years.
“We’ve put $600 million over the next two years into housing,” Lamont said, according to the Mirror. “And that’s not just affordable housing, and what I call workforce housing — those are our studios and one bedrooms — often in downtown areas, hopefully next to major transit areas.”
Connecticut Democratic lawmakers in February proposed a multifaceted approach to tackle the housing shortage in the state, including converting empty strip malls and big box stores into housing, CT Insider reported.
The state senators who back the proposal said creating new, affordable housing is critical for the 100,000 employees the state needs, the outlet reported.
“We have to have the employees first, and then the employers come in,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said.
— Ted Glanzer
The post More than 400 market-rate units planned for Middletown, Connecticut appeared first on The Real Deal.
Colorado is hundreds of thousands of homes short of what it needs to provide to residents. A 2,500-unit proposal for a golf course in Denver encapsulates the issues in the Midwest state.
The internal struggle of where and when to build housing unfolded in recent months at the Park Hill Golf Course in Denver, The Atlantic reported. Voters easily rejected the lifting of an easement that would’ve allowed a 2,500-unit development on the course, despite being the same voters who support pro-housing mayoral candidates and governors in recent elections.
Westside Investment Properties purchased the defunct golf course several years ago for $24 million. Instead of eating into the 70,000-home deficit in Denver, the firm will be forced to reinvigorate the golf course.
Voters in the state have proven repeatedly that they want to see affordable housing in their state. They just don’t necessarily want it next door, a hallmark of the NIMBY movement.
Colorado weighed taking land-use authority from local municipalities and bringing it to the state level, a way of allowing the big picture focus of housing needs to remain where local antagonism opposes. While the local government had the jurisdiction in the Park Hill dilemma, the people moving into the proposed development may not have actually been locals, restricting their say in the manner.
Gov. Jared Polis has been a big advocate for the creation of more housing in the state. His idea was to follow in the footsteps of California, Utah and others in having state officials compel local governments to change land-use politics to meet housing goals. The hope was to increase and preserve affordable housing, inspire development near mass transit and remove parking requirements.
The bill didn’t even get a final vote before the state legislative session ended last month. Polis vowed to continue the fight, noting that it took many defeats before a victory was scored in this realm in other states.
The great irony of the whole thing? In his former role as a representative, Polis argued for local government’s control of land-use policy.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreSouth FloridaColorado firm bids $102M for embattled Banyan Cay ResortNew YorkCity officials say yes to land use reform, but face uphill battleThe post Colorado struggles to chart housing crisis solution appeared first on The Real Deal.
The answer to the age-old question, “Would you rather be lucky or good?,” at least in Blackstone’s case, it’s both.
Once an office giant, Blackstone has shrunk its real estate portfolio to 2 percent of its holdings, from a high of 60 percent.
That shift didn’t happen overnight, though.
In 2007, Blackstone paid $39 billion for Sam Zell’s office portfolio, which was $3 billion more than it wanted to spend. But another office behemoth, Vornado, drove up the price with a competing bid. So, Blackstone offloaded some of the buildings to make up for the additional costs.
Whether that was a stroke of luck or genius is debatable.
In other commercial real estate news last week, the iconic Flatiron Building is being considered for residential conversion.
A group led by Jeff Gural’s GFP Real Estate won the building at auction with a $161 million bid. The owners are now figuring out what to do with it, though at least some will go residential.
“While we have not made a final determination yet, it is likely that we will convert at least half of the building to residential,” Gural said in a statement. “Our discussions are ongoing, but nothing is off the table.”
But, because it’s been vacant for the past four years, the Flatiron is in a perfect position for an overhaul. With floors spanning about 8,000 square feet, and a total of 180,000 rentable square feet, the building lends itself well to become luxury condominiums.
Change is in the air in Texas, too. Silver Star Properties in Texas announced significant shifts in its investment strategy, repositioning its 6.8 million square foot portfolio of office, retail and industrial holdings into self-storage.
The Houston-based REIT completed a $3 million acquisition of Southern Star Self-Storage Investment Company in early May to operate alongside its existing operations.
“The negative impact of the tightening of the credit markets may have a material adverse effect on us resulting from, but not limited to, an inability to finance the acquisition of real estate assets on favorable terms, if at all, increased financing costs or financing with increasingly restrictive covenants,” the company said in an SEC filing.
The post CRE’s landscape is rapidly shifting appeared first on The Real Deal.
Allstate told the state’s Department of Insurance on Friday that it stopped selling new home policies in California last year, as first reported by The Los Angeles Times. The announcement follows State Farm General Insurance’s news that it stopped issuing new applications for fire and casualty insurance in California.
For homebuyers, proof of fire insurance is a crucial part of obtaining a mortgage; without it, a deal can collapse because mortgage lenders won’t approve a loan.
With two major players out of the market for new homeowners’ insurance in California, the FAIR plan, a syndicated insurance vendor financially backed by the insurance industry as a provider of last resort, could be weakened. Enrollments have surged 70 percent since 2019 to 272,846 homes in 2022.
More than 100 insurers continue to write new policies for homeowners insurance in California, according to the state Department of Insurance website. Before its announcement, State Farm requested a 28 percent hike on homeowners insurance from the state. Allstate filed for a nearly 40 percent increase before it stepped back from the game.
California has lower insurance premiums compared to the rest of the nation. The average California homeowner’s annual insurance premium is $1,300. Other states with wildfire risk pay $2,000. In Florida, which often is battered by hurricanes, homeowners pay $4,000 for homeowners insurance, according to the industry trade group Insurance Information Institute.
For about 35 years, California’s insurance marketplace has been regulated by Proposition103, which demands insurers justify rate hikes in a process open to governmental and public scrutiny.
– Andrew Asch
Read moreLos AngelesAgents gauge State Farm’s exit from home insurance marketNationalState Farm ceases new applications for home insurance in CaliforniaLos AngelesOC housing projects stymied by rising fire insurance costsThe post Allstate announces halt to new homeowner policies in California appeared first on The Real Deal.
Tishman Speyer secured an extension on a $485 million loan for its office building at 300 Park Avenue months after the loan was sent to special servicing.
The firm secured an extension of its CMBS loan backed by the 26-story Midtown office tower — debt that was set to mature in August. The extension adds just one year to the maturity date, but Tishman has an option to extend it to August 2025.
The loan went into special servicing in March because of “imminent balloon/maturity default,” according to Trepp, which tracks securitized mortgages.
Tishman Speyer previously said it requested the transfer to special servicing so it could work out an extension prior to its August maturity. A special servicer is a third party that services the loan.
The 10-year loan was issued by German American Capital Corporation in 2013 at a fixed rate of 4.41 percent when the office property was valued at $1 billion, according to Trepp.
The building’s occupancy fell from 99 percent in 2018 to 75 percent in 2020 before recovering to 84 percent in 2022. The company said it is now 97 percent occupied.
Since 1980, 300 Park Avenue has been the global headquarters for Colgate-Palmolive, which once occupied about 65 percent of it — around 503,600 square feet. The building, a five-minute walk from Grand Central Terminal, was designed by Emery Roth & Sons and constructed in 1955.
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As WeWork’s lease-breaking rattles office landlords, the firm’s discrete exit from one Midtown office tower may have pushed the property to the brink of distress.
Last week, a $65 million loan backed by 25 West 45th Street landed in troubled territory after a decline in occupancy dragged down operating income, a Moody’s ratings action detailed.
The building, owned by office landlord APF Properties, reported 82 percent occupancy as of November and nine more leases nearing their end, according to Morningstar data.
As of March, the property carried a debt service coverage ratio of 0.93 percent, signaling cash flow fell just short of covering operating expenses on a loan that comes due in just six months.
APF grappled with broken leases and rent arrears throughout the pandemic, but WeWork’s departure may have served the biggest blow.
In early 2019, mere months before WeWork’s failed IPO, the coworking firm nabbed space at four APF buildings, including two floors at 25 West 45th Street.
WeWork did not begin paying rent at 25 West 45th until the second quarter of 2020 and found itself in a legal dispute with APF that December. The landlord alleged WeWork failed to submit the required documents for its requested reimbursement on improvement expenses.
Despite the litigation, WeWork appears to have opened up shop in the building by early 2021. The location first went live on WeWork’s site in February 2021, online archives show.
But by November 2021, the firm’s 25 West 45th listing had been wiped from the web.
It’s unclear whether WeWork terminated its lease with APF. The firm, which is led by Kenneth Aschendorf and Berndt Perl, did not respond to a request for comment.
But records point to an exit.
The building’s occupancy dipped to 73 percent from 86 percent the same year that the listing vanished. WeWork’s lease covered 12.5 percent of the property, according to Morningstar.
The floors WeWork occupied — the second and 15th — are each listed as available on the commercial leasing site SquareFoot.
The coworking firm with the 18-cent stock price has proved an equal irritant at another APF Property: 183 Madison.
After leasing space at the building in 2019, the firm failed to pay rent from September 2021 through March 2022 and has been frequently delinquent since. WeWork is current as of this spring. But APF extended a lease amendment that offered the firm a $4.3 million break on the last seven years of its lease.
Given those challenges, Aschendorf’s comment in 2019 after inking four leases with the startup carries a certain irony.
“WeWork is exactly the type of firm we would want to have across our portfolio,” Aschendorf said then.
Read moreNew YorkAPF has big plans for its new Hudson Square office buildingNew YorkSapir: WeWork hiding behind shell companies in lease disputeLos AngelesWeWork shutters 75K sf coworking office in IrvineThe post A Midtown office loan’s in trouble. Is WeWork to blame? appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Sobrato Organization has sold a 196,700-square-foot strip mall in Cupertino for $92.5 million.
The Mountain View-based real estate investment firm sold the Homestead Shopping Center at 20572-20688 Homestead Road, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The buyer was an affiliate of MetLife Investment Management, a unit of New York-based MetLife.
The deal for the retail center at Homestead Road and North De Anza Boulevard works out to $470 per square foot.
Sobrato purchased the 15-acre property in 2010 for an undisclosed sum. Its anchor tenant, a 38,000-square-foot Joey Franco’s PW Markets, had just closed.
The developer then redeveloped the shopping center, built in 1976, completing the project in 2014.
The revamped retail center now contains five buildings anchored by a Safeway supermarket. Tenants include Ross Dress for Less, Michael’s, Rite Aid, Ultra and a FedEx location.
The center is across the 280 Freeway from Apple’s Infinite Loop campus, the computer maker’s former headquarters.
Early this year, MetLife Investment Management, the institutional asset management arm of the New York-based insurer, sold 22 bank properties in California to JPMorgan Chase for $138 million.
The Sobrato Organization, a major South Bay developer, has built nearly 24.5 million square feet of office, R&D and multifamily real estate. Its portfolio contains 7.5 million square feet of office and R&D space, plus 30 apartment complexes in the Bay Area, according to its website.
Last month, its Sobrato Family Foundation paid $49.5 million for the 140-room Normandy Park Apartments at 48 and 50 Washington Street in Santa Clara.
In February, Sobrato was poised to buy the 171,000-square-foot headquarters for Athleta in San Francisco’s Embarcadero for $80 million.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesJ.P. Morgan Chase buys retail portfolio in CaliforniaSan FranciscoWindy Hill and Sobrato snag two Santa Clara apartment complexes in separate dealsSan FranciscoSobrato to buy 171K sf Athleta HQ in SF’s EmbarcaderoThe post Sobrato Organization sells Cupertino strip mall for $93M appeared first on The Real Deal.
The residential market on Long Island’s East End bounced back last month after a sluggish April.
New signed contracts grew in both the Hamptons and the North Fork, following similar gains in Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to Miller Samuel’s monthly report for Douglas Elliman.
“This is not unique to the Hamptons or Manhattan or New York City. We’re seeing this in Florida and Southern California, Colorado, all the regions where we perform this research,” report author Jonathan Miller said. “There was a bit of a slowdown in April, and then the market went back on track in May fairly strongly.”
More homes hit the market in the Hamptons last month than the month before, while new listings stayed about the same on the North Fork.
“That’s coming from near record lows,” Miller said. “New inventory is good for the market because there’s been such a dearth of supply.”
In the Hamptons, new signed contracts rose 23 percent from April, increasing for the fourth time this year. New listings grew for the third time in four months, rising 57 percent from the previous month.
On the North Fork, new signed contracts were up 58 percent in May, the third increase in four months, while new listings remained steady compared to April.
The residential market in the East End is starting to catch up to, and in some cases outpace, the housing boom experienced in the first half of 2022.
New signed contracts in the Hamptons declined by just 3 percent, down from 93 to 90 compared to last May. New listings dipped 19 percent from 177 to 144.
Contract signings on the North Fork rose more than 50 percent, up from 27 in May 2022 to 41 last month. New listings remained lower than that of last year, down by 37 percent from 70 to 44.
Read moreTri-StateHamptons home sales decline on interest rates, banking turmoilNew YorkManhattan, Brooklyn markets boom in MayNew YorkContracts keep coming in tri-state suburban markets The post Hamptons, North Fork markets heat up appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Bears have made a pump fake on their drive for a new stadium.
The NFL squad’s planned $5 billion development of a new football field and entertainment district at the former Arlington International Racecourse is suddenly up in the air, and Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli wants to snag an interception, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“We will continue the ongoing demolition activity and work toward a path forward in Arlington Heights, but it is no longer our singular focus,” the team said in a statement to the outlet. Demolition began on the former horse racing venue this week, but the team met Friday with Naperville’s mayor about planning a new stadium in their town.
The Bears closed a deal in February to purchase the Arlington Heights property for $197.2 million. Less than three months later, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi reset the land value to $197 million, up from its previous tax value of roughly $33.5 million. The team has filed an appeal, asserting that the assessment is far too high for a property that’s been vacated for more than a year. Plus, it’s unclear if the team will attain adequate public subsidies to help build infrastructure for the project.
With these challenges in mind, Wehrli sent a letter to Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren, the outlet reported. The newly-elected official acknowledged the team’s commitment to a new stadium, saying it’s “essential for on-field success and pursuing championships.”
“I would like to formally introduce our community to your organization as you consider or reassess your planned relocation,” Wehrli wrote.
The potential sites for a new stadium were not disclosed, but one possibility is the former BP campus property at Washington Street and Diehl Road.
Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes understands that the team is weighing all of its options, but still thinks his town’s property is the best option, he told the outlet. Hayes encouraged the Bears to continue negotiations with surrounding school districts that get property taxes stemming from the racecourse site. The three districts recently suggested a $95 million valuation, while the Bears are still pushing for a lower tax bill based on a $37 million assessment.
While Arlington Heights has been touted by some as a gameday location, Naperville has some appealing features. Its economy is the second-largest in Illinois. Still, much of the Bears’ threats to switch focus could be political posturing as the team fights to secure cheaper carrying costs for the Arlington Heights property while it’s redeveloped.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoBears finalize $197M deal to buy Arlington Heights siteChicagoBears fight back after $197M assessment of new stadium siteChicagoDemolition permit issued for Bears’ new stadium site in Arlington HeightsThe post Bears running option: Team eyes Naperville amid horse track’s tax fight appeared first on The Real Deal.
The trend of companies downsizing in moves to the Energy Corridor of West Houston continues.
Diamond Offshore Drilling has signed a headquarters lease for 63,000 square feet at the 12-story One Eldridge building at 777 North Eldridge Parkway, the Houston Business Journal reported.
The company will occupy the ninth, 11th and 12th floors of the 245,000-square-foot building. It’s in a three-building complex that Granite Properties bought in 2019. Lonna Jenks of JLL and Eric Anderson of Transwestern represented Diamond Offshore in the deal, while Jon Dutton and Andrew Elliott represented the landlord.
The lease marks a downsize of roughly 37 percent for Diamond Offshore, as it currently operates in a 98,000-square-foot space at 15415 Katy Freeway. The company has been at that location for 33 years, and it plans to move its 160 employees to One Eldrige near the end of the year.
Collaborative workspace, convenient location and local amenities were among the attractions that the firm hopes will help retain employees, said Amy Roddy, senior vice president of human resources for Diamond Offshore.
With the lease, the occupancy rate at One Eldridge will rise from just under 50 percent to 85 percent.
Granite, which owns the Eldridge Two building as well, performed a $10 million renovation of the campus shortly after purchasing it. Upgrades include refreshed lobbies, an outdoor lounge called the Yard, a coffee bar, fitness center with virtual classes, three conference rooms and a restaurant on the way. The buildings are also LEED Gold-certified — a badge of sustainability achievement.
The Energy Corridor has seen an influx of leasing activity despite challenging market conditions among the city’s office sector. In April, French company Technip Energies signed a 171,600-square-foot lease at West Memorial Place II, and Dutch geo-data company Fugro leased 75,000 square feet at 13501 Katy Freeway last month.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreHoustonFugro leases 75K sf for Houston HQTexasTechnip leases six floors in HQ downsizingHoustonBaker Hughes shrinks HQ with move to Houston’s Energy CorridorThe post Diamond Offshore leases 62K sf in Houston’s Energy Corridor appeared first on The Real Deal.
SummerHill Homes has moved forward on plans to build 292 apartments and 42 townhomes in North San Jose.
The San Ramon-based developer has had a draft environmental study published for 334 homes proposed at 210 Baypointe Parkway, SFYimby reported. They would replace a 68,000-square-foot office building.
The development between East Tasman Drive and Zanker Road is surrounded by tech parks, where San Jose officials hope to lure developers to build more homes, near the Cisco corporate campus and Baypointe light rail station.
Plans call for a seven-story apartment complex with 292 units next to a community of 42 three- and four-story condominiums, linked by a paseo.
The 78-foot-tall main building would include studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, wrapped around a courtyard and pool, including 17 affordable units for very low-income households. It would include a club room and fitness center.
The condos on the other side of the paseo would feature three- and four-bedroom units. The condos would average more than 1,900 square feet, while apartments would average more than 800 square feet.
The project, designed by KTGY of Los Angeles, includes brown, gray and white apartments sheathed in stucco, vertical board siding and stone veneer. The condos would come in beige and ochre, with inset balconies and charcoal accents.
Pending approvals, Summerhill could break ground as early as 2025 and complete the project in 2028, according to the environmental study.
SummerHill Homes, a unit of SummerHill Housing Group, is among eight companies founded by brokerage Marcus & Millichap.
Since 1976, it has completed more than 80 developments containing more than 6,000 single-family homes, condominiums, townhomes and apartments across the Bay Area, according to its website.
Read moreSan FranciscoNorth San Jose office building could be replaced by hundreds of homesSan FranciscoHere are 5 condo developments reshaping San Jose San FranciscoSummerHill sells stake in 347-unit Santa Clara projectThe post SummerHill moves ahead on 334 apartments and townhomes in San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
A pair of electric car companies are offloading more than 200,000 square feet of industrial space in San Jose and the East Bay, while other EV companies are expected to be the next wave of industrial tenants in San Francisco.
Lucid Motors has put its 161,000-square-foot facility at the Morton Commerce Center in Newark for sublease, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield. News of Lucid Motors’ decision to offload industrial space comes as the company prepares to lay off 18 percent of its workforce. The East Bay industrial campus was sold to Terreno Realty for $186 million in March.
Meanwhile, Shanghai-based NIO will not renew its full-property lease of an R&D industrial property at 3200 North First Street in San Jose, according to a report by Trepp. NIO was paying $22.92 per square foot on the 85,000-square-foot building and will vacate the premises when the lease expires in November. NIO will most likely not leave San Jose, however, due to its 200,000-square-foot lease of another industrial building on Zanker Road.
While these companies are offloading space in Silicon Valley and The East Bay, EV and autonomous car companies are driving industrial demand in San Francisco. A first-quarter industrial report from Yardi shows the Bay Area was up to an average rent of $12.24 per square foot in February 2023, more than 7 percent higher than the same time last year and slightly higher than the national industrial increase in the same time frame. The average signed rent in the last 12 months was even higher at nearly $13.50, compared with about $9 nationally.
“Driven by government incentives and a race among automakers to grab market share, the electric vehicle industry looks poised to fuel growth in the industrial sector for years to come,” the report reads.
Read moreSan FranciscoTerreno Realty to acquire East Bay industrial campus San FranciscoEVs, autonomous cars drive SF’s industrial market San FranciscoElectric car maker leases 160K sf in NewarkOverall, the Silicon Valley and East Bay industrial markets have slowed down from their red-hot 2022, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Sublease space now accounts for 24.6 percent in Silicon Valley, while just accounting for 29 percent in the East Bay; both were under 20 percent a year ago.
Leasing activity decreased in the first quarter, recording just 757,000 square feet in Silicon Valley. This is less than half the number leased in the fourth quarter. In the East Bay, leased totaled 2.4 million square feet, the lowest amount since the third quarter of 2020.
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LVMH has lost its plan to build its first hotel on Rodeo Drive, after Beverly Hills voters rejected a proposal to build the 109-key Cheval Blanc.
The future of the development at 468 Rodeo Drive was left in the hands of voters, after labor union Unite Here Local 11 gathered enough signatures to trigger a citywide ballot. The ballot asked voters whether the City Council’s approval of a development agreement for the project last year should be overturned.
LVMH, run by the world’s richest person Bernard Arnault, will now scrap the plans for the project and will not contest the election, a spokesperson for LVMH said in an email.
The decision came down to 80 votes, according to data from the Los Angeles County Clerk’s Office. The final tally was 50.6 percent in favor of rejecting both the agreement and the city’s approval.
About 32 percent of registered city voters showed up for the special election, according to the clerk’s office.
Since the Beverly Hills City Council approved the project in September, and passed a development deal two months later, LVMH has been at a standstill, waiting for the results of the special election.
The vote is a blow to both the French luxury retailer and city revenue — the hotel was expected to generate at least $725 million for Beverly Hills over the course of 30 years, according to the agreement. LVMH also agreed to pay at least $28 million in public benefit fees.
“It’s a staggering amount of money,” Beverly Hills Vice Mayor Julian Gold said at a council meeting in November. “There are cities where that is their general fund.”
At the same meeting, a representative for Unite Here Local 11 voiced opposition to the project, saying more needed to be set aside for affordable housing for workers.
Before the vote, Anish Melwani, who runs LVMH’s North American subsidiary, told the L.A. Times that the company has no plans to revisit the project before the council if voters rejected the approvals. Instead, the firm would revert the site into more retail.
“We have no interest in building a hotel in a community that doesn’t want us to be there,” he said.
LVMH already has 15 stores on Rodeo Drive and in the larger Golden Triangle area of Beverly Hills.
And the company could get a second shot at a hotel on Rodeo Drive. In 2021, the firm spent $200 million to buy a recently shuttered 86-key hotel at 449 North Rodeo Drive from Australian hotelier Efram Harkham and his family. No plans have yet been submitted for that property.
Read moreLos AngelesLVMH gets go ahead for hotel on Rodeo DriveLos AngelesProbity Associates scores $52M refi on Rodeo Drive storeLos AngelesHarkham v. Harkham lawsuit over $200M Rodeo Drive dealThe post LVMH to scrap Rodeo Drive hotel after Beverly Hills ballot rejection appeared first on The Real Deal.
San Francisco’s long-planned retail vacancy tax, which went into effect last year, has seen a low response rate from taxpayers, according to data released by the city.
Only 74 property owners and tenants have paid the tax, representing just 2.6 percent of the approximate 2,800 potentially taxable properties that were listed as vacant for more than 182 days in the year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The tax applies to around three dozen shopping districts near residential areas, excluding Downtown. The low response does not necessarily indicate a lack of empty storefronts along the city’s retail corridors.
Amanda Fried, chief of policy and communications at the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector, clarified that the figures represent taxpayers who reported vacancies voluntarily and not audited information on the actual number of vacant properties.
Some currently vacant storefronts are exempt from the tax, and the number of taxpayers is expected to increase as data is updated. While around 2,400 businesses filed tax returns despite being mostly exempt, there could be thousands more that have not yet filed for properties in the designated areas.
The retail vacancy tax is based on the property’s street frontage, starting at $250 per foot in the first year, increasing to $500 in the second year and reaching $1,000 in the third year.
In 2022, the tax generated $667,847 in revenue, falling within the city’s projected range of $300,000 to $5 million. The revenue collected will be allocated to a small business assistance fund.
Landlords are primarily subject to the tax, but tenants may be liable if the leased space remains empty. However, there is an exemption if the tenant operates for 182 days before shutting down. Vacant properties with ongoing building permit processing are also exempt. The exact number of exempt buildings is currently unavailable.
The city expects full compliance and awareness of the tax to be achieved within three years, as is common with new taxes.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, the measure’s sponsor, initially aimed to influence landlord behavior rather than generate revenue. Critics argue that the tax is an ineffective solution to the problem of retail vacancies, which have surged during the pandemic.
Kazuko Morgan, a retail broker at Cushman & Wakefield, emphasized that landlords are generally eager to lease their spaces, and the number of taxpayers may be low because retail areas near residential neighborhoods have fared relatively better during the pandemic.
The city plans to continue communicating with property owners and tenants about the tax while conducting further outreach efforts. Additionally, San Francisco voters approved a vacancy tax on residential properties last fall, although real estate groups have filed lawsuits to block its implementation.
Read moreSan FranciscoOmicron surge fails to deter SF push on vacancy taxesNew YorkSan Francisco passed a tax on vacant storefronts. What does that mean for NYC?San FranciscoLandlords sue to overturn San Francisco’s vacant unit tax— Dana Bartholomew
The post Few retailers respond to SF’s new vacancy tax as only 2.6% pay up appeared first on The Real Deal.
With State Farm’s announcement that it will stop writing new home, business and casualty insurance in California, some L.A. agents anticipate that it will change the process of home sales, while others take a wait-and-see approach.
The state’s largest insurance company cited “historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure and a challenging reinsurance market” as reasons to cease writing new policies in California. The state has had a series of devastating wildfires in recent summers.
For potential homebuyers, insurance is critical because lenders require it to protect their collateral before approving a loan.
Dedree Hoyt, who handles home sales in Los Angeles and Ventura counties for Keller Williams Exclusive Properties, said she anticipates insurance prices would drive up, which would nix deals for those prospective homebuyers who wouldn’t be able to absorb the extra costs.
She also forecast that agents will have to move faster and be more organized.
“A week before we closed escrow, we would make sure the buyer had enacted an insurance policy,” Hoyt said of the way business had been conducted until recently. “But the minute it goes into escrow, we’re going to have to get that insurance policy put in place.”
She also forecast that State Farm’s announcement is not a problem — yet. “If the other insurance companies follow State Farm, then we have a problem. Now it’s more of a glitch,” she said.
Mortgage broker Mark Cohen said that State Farm’s pullback might have a short-term effect because it will be harder to get homeowner insurance. Cohen is CEO of Cohen Financial Group in Beverly Hills.
“Over time, State Farm’s void will be absorbed by the market. There are other insurers,” he said. “Since there’s less competition, insurance probably will be more expensive.”
Zane Widdes of Zane Widdes Group at Keller Williams in Santa Monica sold homes in Northridge when the massive Northridge earthquake devastated the market in 1994. He remembers lending and insurance policies in Northridge and some parts of Los Angeles froze for about a month after the quake. Home sales were slow for a year following the disaster, but eventually business returned to normal.
“Insurers came back, and more people bought earthquake insurance,” Widdes said. He forecasts that California’s insurance market will recover soon. “When it makes business sense for State Farm to come back, they’ll come back.”
Read moreNationalState Farm ceases new applications for home insurance in CaliforniaLos AngelesOC housing projects stymied by rising fire insurance costsSouth FloridaCondo insurance crisis in South Florida could push owners to sellThe post Agents gauge State Farm’s exit from home insurance market appeared first on The Real Deal.
Top Miami Beach broker Oren Alexander and his brothers sold their waterfront Miami Beach home for $27.5 million.
Oren, Tal and Alon Alexander sold the 11,500-square-foot, nine-bedroom mansion at 3541 Flamingo Drive to an undisclosed buyer. Their father, developer Shlomy Alexander, completed the home in 2017.
Oren Alexander and his brother Tal launched Official last year, and represented themselves in the deal. Nancy Batchelor of Compass represented the buyer.
3541 Flamingo Drive in Miami Beach Oren Alexander and Batchelor declined to name the buyer. The sale has not yet hit records.
The property includes a main house, staff quarters, gazebo, gym, pool and outdoor kitchen. It hit the market in December for $31.5 million, and Alexander reduced the price to $29.5 million in April.
“We had it under contract before as well, and it speaks to the market today that there are still buyers buying good design, great-build properties,” he said, adding that he lowered the price to adjust to bids he was receiving.
3541 Flamingo Drive in Miami Beach Alexander, who recently married model Kamila Hansen, is building a lakefront home on Sunset Island IV that he expects will be completed in the fall. His twin brother Alon is president of Kent Security and Kent Services. Tal is based in New York and a co-founder of Official. Oren and Tal left Douglas Elliman last year after a decade to start their Side-backed brokerage.
The Alexanders’ sale of their Miami Beach home appears to be the most expensive on Flamingo Drive.
In April, Related Group executive Steve Patterson sold his waterfront house at 2901 Flamingo Drive for $14.8 million. At the beginning of the year, spec developer Todd Glaser sold his longtime home at 3681 Flamingo Drive for $11.8 million, after he and his family moved to Palm Beach.
Read moreSouth FloridaShvo taps Official to lead sales of Rosewood-branded Raleigh condosNationalSide dismisses 12 staffersThe post Alexander brothers sell waterfront Miami Beach mansion for $27.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jamison Services, a leading developer of Los Angeles office-to-home conversions, aims to turn a 17-story office building in Carthay into apartments.
The Koreatown-based developer has filed plans to convert the 144,000-square-foot office tower into 210 apartments at 6380 Wilshire Boulevard in Central L.A., Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
Plans call for converting the 60-year-old, Mid-century Modern tower into 210 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. An above-grade parking garage would serve 176 cars.
The adaptive reuse project, designed by Next Architecture of Long Beach, would retain the building’s current windows and glazing, while adding new windows to parts of the parking garage and a new rooftop penthouse.
The new apartments would contain 27,000 square feet of community uses, including a theater, coworking area, fitness center, club room, yoga studio, game room, golf simulator, sky lounge and a rooftop swimming pool deck.
The Jamison conversion would be two blocks east of Metro’s upcoming Wilshire/Fairfax subway station and near a handful of new and proposed residential projects, according to Urbanize.
Jamison Services, a unit of Jamison Properties, has led a growing number of developers in turning offices into condominiums or apartments as companies cut back on office leases in the era of remote work.
Think tank Rand identified 2,300 underused office and hotel properties in Los Angeles County that could be converted to housing. Most of them are older office buildings with big chunks of unrented space, according to a March 2022 study.
If all the underused buildings were turned into homes it would add up to 113,000 units, Rand said. That’s between 9 and 14 percent of the housing needed over the next eight years to meet demand.
As of last fall, Jamison has converted seven office buildings to residential use for a combined 1,200 units, nearly all of which are leased.
Last month, it filed plans to convert a 95,000-square-foot office building in Westlake into 141 apartments at 520 South La Fayette Park Place.
In August, the company filed plans to convert the Pierce National Life Building, an office fixture in Koreatown for half a century, into a 13-story, 176-unit apartment building at 3807-3815 Wilshire Boulevard.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesLA landlords eye office-to-housing conversionsLos AngelesJamison prepares office-to-homes conversion in WestlakeLos AngelesKoreatown office building poised for residential conversionThe post Jamison plans office-to-home conversions on LA’s Wilshire Boulevard appeared first on The Real Deal.
SrmErnst Development Partners aims to build a 201-unit apartment complex in Downtown Berkeley.
The Oakland-based developer has filed plans to build the eight-story highrise at 2100 Milvia Street, the San Jose Mercury News reported, citing city documents.
It would replace a three-story, 63,000-square-foot office building now occupied by a software company and an architectural firm two blocks west of the UC Berkeley campus.
An affiliate of srmErnst has owned the 0.6-acre property at Milvia and Addison streets since 1996, according to county records reviewed by the Mercury News. Its assessed value is $11.4 million.
Plans call for 201 apartments and an unspecified amount of commercial space for ground-floor shops and restaurants.
SrmErnst Development Partners, founded as SRM Associates in 1992, has entitled and/or developed $1.3 billion of commercial real estate since 2012 across office/R&D, manufacturing and creative industrial properties, according to its website.
Early last year, srmErnst and Hillwood Investment Properties completed a 220,710-square-foot building in Alameda for Exelixis, a biopharmaceutical firm.
Berkeley has been undergoing drastic change, with numerous apartment highrises in development around UC Berkeley.
As of March, six towers between 16 and 28 stories are proposed in Berkeley’s central core, enabled by state legislation that makes it easier to build residential buildings regardless of whether cities want them or not. Since 1971, only one highrise has been built above 13 stories in the city.
Read moreSan FranciscoMixed bag for East Bay office market so far this yearSan FranciscoNX Ventures moves forward on 207-unit apartment building in BerkeleyThe post SrmErnst eyes 201-unit apartment building in Berkeley appeared first on The Real Deal.
Puratos, a bakery supplier based in Belgium, has leased an 86,900-square-foot warehouse in Gardena from Rexford Industrial Realty.
The supplier to “bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors” leased the newly built warehouse at 15601 South Avalon Boulevard, the Commercial Observer reported. The landlord Rexford is a real estate investment trust based in Sawtelle.
Terms of the South Bay lease were not disclosed. Broker Edward Michino of NAI Capital represented the tenant.
The distribution warehouse, built this year, is 12 miles from Los Angeles International Airport and 20 miles from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It has electric vehicle charging.
“The competition for state-of-the-art warehouse space remains intense, with limited availability,” Michino told the Observer. “This exceptional facility, located in a prime South Bay transportation hub, provides Puratos Corporation with a strategic location for its expanding business operations.”
Industrial rents in Los Angeles rose 13.1 percent after the first quarter, the second-highest yearly increase in the nation, according to Commercial Edge.
After Orange County and the Bay Area, L.A. is the third-most-expensive market for tenants in the U.S., with an average asking rent of $11.80 per square foot. It also has one of the lowest vacancy rates.
Rexford manages 364 properties with 44 million rentable square feet.The landlord’s assets have an occupancy rate of nearly 98 percent, the Observer reported.
The industrial REIT reported $58 million in net income in the first quarter, up 32 percent from the same period last year, according to The Real Deal. Revenues were $186 million, compared to $141 million the prior year — also a 32 percent increase.
Last year, Rexford spent $2.4 billion buying industrial properties, compared to $971 million in 2019, when it reported a yearly net income of $50.5 million — what the firm now makes in one quarter.
In March, the industrial investor bought an 18-acre Hertz car lot near LAX in a sale-leaseback deal for $143 million. The site is zoned for industrial use.
In two recent acquisitions, Rexford paid $27.5 million for a 6.6-acre industrial property at 13925 Benson Avenue in Chino; and paid $14.6 million for a property at 19301 South Santa Fe Avenue in Rancho Dominguez, according to the Observer.
Read moreLos AngelesRexford reports quarterly profit, revenues jumps of 32% in Q1Los AngelesRexford reaches $2B in acquisitions for the yearLos AngelesRexford spends $336M on industrial in Q4 despite rate hikes— Dana Bartholomew
The post Rexford Industrial leases Gardena warehouse to bakery supplier appeared first on The Real Deal.
Retired All-Star baseball player David Ortiz, known as “Big Papi,” sold his mansion in Pinecrest shortly after his divorce was finalized.
Ortiz sold the five-bedroom, eight-bathroom home at 9505 Southwest 63rd Court for nearly $10.6 million, a record in Pinecrest, according to One Sotheby’s International Realty, which brokered both sides of the deal. The firm declined to identify the buyer, and the sale has not yet hit records.
The 10,178-square-foot estate, on an acre of non-waterfront land, was developed in 2019. Ortiz and his now ex-wife, Tiffany, paid $1.5 million for the property in 2016 when Ortiz retired as a player, and had the home custom built.
It makes sense, then, that the house has a sports bar with a panel of nine high-definition screens. Other amenities include a “galaxy-like” custom home theater, a primary suite with a TV that folds down from the ceiling, fire pits, outdoor fountains, and a pool deck with an outdoor kitchen and gazebo, according to listing information.
Michael Martinez of One Sotheby’s represented the former longtime Boston Red Sox hitter in the sale. Dennis Carvajal of the same firm represented the buyer.
Tiffany Ortiz filed for divorce from David in late 2020, according to Miami-Dade records. Their divorce was finalized in April, and a notice regarding the proceeds of their home sale was filed on Wednesday.
David Ortiz, who Keenan Thompson has parodied on “Saturday Night Live,” is a 10-time All-Star who won championships in 2007 and 2013.
His record sale of the Pinecrest home is slightly more than the $10.5 million that Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro paid for his home, also in Pinecrest, in December.
Read moreSouth FloridaCitadel migration continues: Exec buys Pinecrest home for 91% markupAnd that deal is about $200,000 more than the previous Pinecrest record — $10.3 million for the home at 6155 Southwest 106th Street — also set in December.
A number of former and current athletes have called Pinecrest and surrounding neighborhoods home, including Miami Heat’s star player, Jimmy Butler, who last year paid $7.4 million for a house near South Miami. Butler sold his former home in Pinecrest in 2021 for $7.1 million.
The post David “Big Papi” Ortiz sells Pinecrest mansion for record price appeared first on The Real Deal.
New data showing that San Jose had the biggest listings drop in the nation matches what Bay Area agents are saying anecdotally about the lack of inventory. And that the drop in supply will keep prices from dipping too much lower, with a possible turnaround on the horizon.
Active listings and new listings were both down by over a third in the San Jose metro market year-over-year, according to data from Realtor.com’s May report. Inventory in the San Francisco metro, which includes the East Bay, fell by closer to a quarter, according to the report.
Inventory growth peaked in both markets last winter, with San Francisco showing a 57 percent year-over-year increase in active listings in December 2022. Active listings were 80 percent higher in the South Bay. This puts the Bay Area a little bit ahead of the national trend, which showed inventory peaking in February and declining since but still up overall, according to Realtor.com’s Sabrina Speianu, who authored the report.
Nationally, potential sellers reported feeling “locked in” to their low interest rates as one reason behind the decline in listings, she said via email. Plus, in the Bay Area, there are additional factors keeping homeowners from making moves.
“In light of the recent large-scale layoffs and weaknesses in the tech sector, along with recent fluctuations in the stock market, homebuyers in the Bay Area are facing increased uncertainty and challenges in purchasing a home before selling their existing one,” Speianu said. “This situation could potentially contribute to a further decrease in the availability of homes for sale in the area.”
The May report also shows that Bay Area listing prices are up slightly and the percentage of homes with reduced prices dropped by 2 percent in San Jose and less than 1 percent in San Francisco, while other markets are still posting big increases in price reductions.
While the possible stabilization of the market is good news for sellers, the low inventory and high prices are pushing South Bay residents into other markets at higher rates, according to Realtor.com data. In the first quarter of 2021, 78.5 percent of San Jose metro residents were looking at homes outside of the area on Realtor.com. In the first quarter of 2022 this increased to 86.3 percent, and in the first quarter of 2023 it increased again to 90.8 percent, Speianu said.
The 10 markets with the greatest interest from South Bay buyers were mostly in California where homes are less expensive than San Jose’s $1.5 million median price. The biggest discount in the top 10 goes to those leaving the state entirely and heading to Las Vegas, where the median home is listed at less than one third that price and 14 percent of active listings have been reduced.
Nationally, price growth slowed to the lowest rate on record since 2016, according to the report. Austin had the biggest year-over-year asking price drop in the country at more than 7 percent. Nearly one in three listings in the pandemic-era hotspot has seen a price reduction, a 12 percentage point increase since last May, and its active listings have more than doubled.
Read moreSan FranciscoDeclines in Bay Area home prices slow, pointing to a reboundSan FranciscoSan Francisco homes fall farthest in the nationThe post South Bay reports biggest home inventory drop in the nation appeared first on The Real Deal.
The daughter of late hotelier Sol Kerzner is ready to make a real estate headline of her own, listing her Columbia County home for what could be a local record.
Beverley Kerzner listed Ingadi, her 130-acre estate at 461 Silvernails Road in Pine Plains, for $25 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It’s already the most expensive listing in the county and a sale at that price would be the most expensive in county history, according to Compass’ Leonard Steinberg, who shares the listing with Byron Anderson.
Kerzner purchased the massive abode in 2015 for $3.5 million and has since been adding to the property.
The property has a four-bedroom main house and five-bedroom cottage. After deciding against converting an existing structure into a single-family home, she tapped Niels Schoenfelder to build the modern, barn-inspired main house, which was completed in 2020.
The main residence spans 7,500 square feet and includes a wine cellar, gym, steam room and sauna, while the primary bedroom has a private roof deck. There’s also a terrace with a covered seating area, bar and built-in barbecue area, as well as radiant floor heating to melt snow.
Other properties on the estate include four barns — including one that dates back to the 18th century — horse paddocks, an outdoor riding area and a pool. Kerzner also installed an Airstream trailer and several glamping and lounging spots.
Kerzner told the outlet she decided to list the home so she could travel more.
As the Hudson Valley housing market boomed during the pandemic, prices swelled to new heights.
In September, Suzy Welch sold her home in Red Hook for $18.5 million. The trade for the 290-acre estate was a Dutchess County record, although well short of the $25 million Welch listed the property for a few months earlier.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreTri-StateSuzy Welch sells Hudson Valley estate for record priceNew YorkYear-high 60 Manhattan luxury contracts signed as travel ban liftsTri-StateHudson Valley housing market remains hot in Q3The post Heiress hunts for Hudson Valley record sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
Hundreds of thousands of Houston homes are at risk with hurricane season ahead, and climate change may present additional long-term challenges
More than a third of Harris County falls within a FEMA-designated flood plain, and that figure is expected to rise, the Houston Chronicle reported, citing a study from market analytics firm CoreLogic.
More than 5,000 homes in Harris County were in danger of damage from storm surges and more than 327,000 were at risk from hurricane-force winds, the study found. Greater Houston had the second-highest number of homes at risk in the nation, only behind the New York metropolitan area.
In Texas, hurricanes and storm surges typically happen in coastal cities like Galveston. But climate change and other factors may contribute to an increase of such occurrences further inland, said Tom Larsen, senior director for CoreLogic Insurance Solutions.
“Because the rising tides — one of the key aspects of climate change — align with some of the changes in the hurricanes themselves. We are going to see a lot more coastal flooding and surge effects,” Larsen told the outlet.
By 2050, there will be a 50 percent spike of homes at risk from storm surges in Harris County, CoreLogic estimates. It also projected a 40 percent increase of at-risk homes in the surrounding cities. Climate change is expected to lead to rising sea levels, more powerful storms and warmer atmospheric temperatures, the outlet said.
Read moreHoustonJudge grants $550K for homes damaged by Harvey floodwatersTexasHouston Mayor expands post-Harvey affordable housing initiativeSouth FloridaHurricane Ian most costly storm in Florida historyThe study, which factored in single-family homes and multifamily buildings, found that over 33 million residences in the U.S. were at risk of damage from hurricane winds exceeding 74 mph
For this year, weather experts predict it will be a relatively inactive hurricane season.
—Quinn Donoghue
The post Climate change barreling into Houston appeared first on The Real Deal.
Pilsen’s one-time largest landlord and property manager escalated his yearslong battle with his sister over the real estate portfolio their parents and grandparents assembled in the Chicago neighborhood, claiming he’s been shorted on a $4 million debt owed to him by a family trust.
A new lawsuit filed this month is the latest development in a bitter dispute between John Podmajersky III and Lisa Podmajersky over how much of the family’s holdings they are each entitled to control.
The family’s real estate portfolio consists of more than 100 buildings mainly situated in the East Pilsen arts corridor near Halsted and 18th streets; the siblings’ grandparents began buying area properties in the early 1900s. Their father, John Podmajersky Jr., increased the family’s holdings by acquiring and marketing lofts with the goal of creating an artists’ colony.
The new lawsuit filed by John III alleges that Lisa Podmajersky neglected her fiduciary duties as trustee of a special trust set up by their father, by not allocating a quarter of its assets to her brother. Attorneys for the siblings did not respond to requests for comment.
The family’s legal quarreling started in 2012 when their parents filed a lawsuit alleging that their son had been untruthful about the extent of his financial control over their properties through his eponymous property management company. The elder Podmajerskys sought to remove him as manager of their Pilsen buildings, according to local news reports.
Both parents died while the case was being litigated, in 2013 and 2014. Before their deaths, though, John Podmajersky Jr. had changed his will and made his daughter the properties’ owner.
In a counterclaim, John Podmajersky III alleged that his sister took advantage of their parents’ declining health to cut him out of their wills and seize control of the properties. The court ultimately sided with Lisa Podmajersky in early 2016, forcing the brother to turn over management of the properties to her new company.
Now, John Podmajersky III is citing the terms of a special trust their father established in December 2012, with Lisa as its current trustee.
Before the parents’ deaths, the special trust transferred some of John Podmajersky Jr.’s assets to his wife. The initial terms of that trust stated that those assets would be split evenly among his children, though he gave his wife authority to change that to allocate 75 percent of the trust’s assets to Lisa Podmajersky, and 25 percent to John Podmajersky III.
Those assets included 50,000 shares of JPodmajersky LLC, a company that John Podmajersky Jr. managed that his daughter became sole manager of after he died, as well as a bank account and an ownership interest in the loft apartments at 1801 South Peoria Street.
On the same day his father formed that trust, the now-deceased Podmajersky also borrowed $4 million from the son, with the debt set to mature in December 2021 and the son as the lender, the son said in his lawsuit. John Podmajersky Jr. never made the annual interest payment for the first year and died in October 2014, according to the suit.
An attorney for John Podmajersky III demanded payment last year. According to the lawsuit, an attorney for Lisa Podamjersky said the trusts did not have liquidity sufficient to make distributions to any beneficiary, a denial the lawsuit calls “wrongful, in bad faith or at a minimum grossly negligent.”
The lawsuit alleges that Lisa Podamjersky is taking a combined salary from the parents’ estate and trust of about $250,000 to manage the family’s properties and act as the estate’s executor, and that the properties generate “significant income.”
It was Lisa Podamjersky’s duty as heir to the estate and manager of the LLC to ensure that the trust’s debt to the son was paid, but she prioritized her own interest in retaining the money in the estate, his suit said.
“Lisa has a duty to eschew any conflict of interest in deciding whether to pursue collection of the promissory note from the estate,” the lawsuit states. “She failed to do so, and her divided loyalty has resulted in JPodamjersky failing to pursue a legitimate, slam dunk claim for breach of contract.”
The post “Divided loyalty:” Siblings’ decade-long feud over Pilsen holdings flares appeared first on The Real Deal.
Pacific Housing and Jemcor Development Partners have secured a $108 million loan to build 271 affordable apartments in South San Jose.
The Sacramento-based Pacific Housing and the San Mateo-based Jemcor obtained the financing to construct the seven-story complex at 1007 Blossom Hill Road, the San Jose Mercury News reported, citing public records.
The joint venture, through its View at Blossom Hill affiliate, obtained $90 million in construction financing from the California Municipal Finance Authority.
They landed another $18 million in funding from Deutsche Bank in New York.
The gray-and-white complex known as The View at Blossom Hill Apartments will be built on 1.9 acres about a block from the Westfield Oakridge shopping mall. It will replace a former Fish Market seafood restaurant.
Plans call for an all-affordable complex of 271 apartments.
The project, designed by BDE Architecture of San Francisco, will include a computer lab, a fitness center, a dining terrace, indoor and outdoor lounges and a play structure.
The complex also features a gathering area called The Social, which will include lounge seating and accommodations for a movie night, city documents show.
San Jose officials have approved the development, but some permits related to demolition and construction are pending.
Construction is expected to begin soon and be completed by the summer of 2025, according to Mark Wiese, president of Pacific Housing.
Read moreSan FranciscoMaracor and Pacific West eye retail to residential conversion in San JoseSan FranciscoTrumark secures $400M in financing for 32 townhomes in San JoseSan FranciscoPan-Cal eyes 210 homes in place of San Jose retail centerThe post Pacific Housing and Jemcor snag $108M loan for apartments in San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
A Gold Coast condo might become two, if buyers take interest in a newly split listing.
The third-floor property at 65 East Goethe Street has been listed since February for $16.8 million. This week it took a price cut — and is now offering the full-floor unit as two to buyers who might prefer something smaller than a 12,400-square-foot spread.
Antonio Gracias, head of Valor Equity Partners, and his wife, Sabrina, own the property. They purchased it in two separate real estate transactions over two years, paying a total of $13.6 million, according to previous reports.
Now, the couple looks willing to split the units up to make a sale. On Wednesday, the owners cut the price of the total listing — from $16.8 million to $15.5 million — and then also listed the apartment as two separate listings. The higher priced listing is set at $10.5 million, while the other listing is asking $5 million.
The 12,400-square-foot property includes a second kitchen, two offices, a rec room, home gym, home theater, and wine room as well as eight heated garage spaces.
Julie Harron, an agent with Jameson Sotheby’s Int’l Realty, is representing the seller and did not respond to a request for comment about the price cut or portioning the unit.
The property isn’t the first to try a divide-and-conquer strategy.
Several years ago, development firm ZSD bought a historic Gold Coast mansion for $2.35 million, which was less than a quarter of the home’s original 2013 list price of nearly $10 million. The firm then rehabilitated the building into four separate condominium units priced at $2 million.
The Goethe Street listing has been on the market for a relatively short amount of time compared to other listings near the top of the market. Price cuts of $1 million or more from initial asks have been frequently required to lure in a buyer after months of a listing sitting on the market for some of Chicago’s most elite residences.
Just hours before the Goethe Street property took a price cut, it had a short-lived run as the city’s second-priciest listing. Another Gold Coast mansion that’s been on the market since 2020 slashed $3 million off its asking price, dropping it to third, before the Goethe Street condo also dropped its price.
That home, at 3 West Burton Place, cut its ask this week from $18.75 million to $15.75 million. The $3 million cut is a 16 percent reduction for the 20,000-square-foot property.
Read moreChicagoHome with ties to Anne Dias finds buyer at discountChicagoChicago’s second-priciest listing slashes $3M off askThe post Chicago’s third-priciest listing slices ask, splits offering in two appeared first on The Real Deal.
Developer Brandon Shpirt wants to build a 773-unit apartment project on a south Miami-Dade County site that is partly outside the Urban Development Boundary.
Shpirt, who leads Miami-based BSB Global Enterprises, proposes the six-story complex on 13.8 acres at 14505 Southwest 260th Street near the Naranja neighborhood, according to an application filed to Miami-Dade on Wednesday. The project, called Infinity Gardens Apartments, would include between 7,500 square feet and 10,000 square feet of retail.
An affiliate of Shpirt bought the land for $9.4 million in October, property records show.
Rendering of plans for a 773-unit apartment project (Carmen T Diaz, Caymares Martin A&E Design)The 8.5-acre western portion of the development site is outside the Urban Development Boundary and zoned “agricultural,” filings show. Shpirt is asking Miami-Dade to rezone this section of the land to “Urban Development Boundary Planned Area Development” to bring it within the UDB.
Miami-Dade’s UDB is a greenbelt created to curtail suburban sprawl west toward Everglades National Park and east toward Biscayne National Park. While much of the land outside the UDB is farmland, some of it is wetlands or open space that could eventually be used for Everglades restoration projects.
As demand for housing in Miami-Dade has grown in recent years, developers have increasingly filed requests to expand the UDB to allow for construction on their land.
In his application, Shpirt cites a 2021 county report that determined that Miami-Dade’s supply of single-family homes will soon be depleted, necessitating the need for more rentals.
Generally, developers face an uphill battle to move the UDB. A supermajority of commissioners have to approve a boundary expansion, although requests to include small acreage within the UDB could be more easily approved.
Last year, county commissioners approved a controversial proposal by Aligned Real Estate Holdings and Coral Rock Development to build a 5.9 million-square-foot industrial project on 378 acres outside the UDB. The South Dade Logistics and Technology District is planned for the southeast corner of the Florida Turnpike and Southwest 122nd Avenue.
After the vote, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity threw a wrench in the plans when it opined that Miami-Dade approved the project after a deadline. In May, Aligned Real Estate and Coral Rock sued the state over the opinion, arguing the county met its deadline.
Developers Legacy Residential Group, CD Group and Fenix Contractors also want to build outside the UDB. In April, they proposed a 630-unit multifamily project on 20 acres at the southeast corner of Southwest 252nd Street and Southwest 145th Avenue in the Princeton neighborhood.
Shpirt is new to developing in South Florida. Previously, he was a real estate investor and still owns a portfolio of about 200 multifamily units mostly in south Miami-Dade, Shpirt told The Real Deal.
State corporate records show he incorporated his BSB in 2018. His other development plans include an 108-unit, three-story garden-style multifamily complex in south Miami-Dade’s Goulds area.
The post Brandon Shpirt proposes 773 rentals on Miami-Dade site partly outside UDB appeared first on The Real Deal.
Side made a round of cuts this week, The Real Deal has learned.
The San Francisco-headquartered white label brokerage let go of 12 employees, according to founder Guy Gal.
“We cut 12 people and plan to hire back into those roles in-market versus remote,” Gal said when reached Thursday. All affected employees were from the sales department.
This is not the first time Side has faced cuts. In October, the brokerage confirmed layoffs but did not specify how many jobs were being cut. Back in June 2022, Side laid off 10 percent of its workforce, according to media reports. In an email to employees, Side co-founder Guy Gal said: “We expanded the team faster than we could train, support and develop everyone to meet the demands of changing roles and processes.”
And it’s far from the only brokerage that has trimmed headcount. Behemoths including Compass and Anywhere Real Estate, as well as boutique firms like the Agency, have all trimmed staff over the past year.
In January, Side hired Stephen Capezza, a veteran of Zillow, to drive national growth as president. Last summer, the company wooed Tal and Oren Alexander, who launched their Side-affiliated Official Partners.
Side last raised a round of funding during the venture-capital boom in 2021, at which time it was valued at $2.5 billion.
This story was updated with a comment from Side.
Read moreSouth FloridaDouglas Elliman’s top brokers Oren and Tal Alexander leave to launch Official with SideNew YorkLayoffs hit Side as brokerage braces for market volatilityNew YorkOfficial business: Side lures the A-team, questions the establishmentThe post Side dismisses 12 staffers appeared first on The Real Deal.
Home prices in Dallas-Fort Worth dipped for the first time in a decade, after years of steady growth and an unprecedented post-pandemic surge.
The region saw a 1.2 percent drop in home prices year-over-year in March, marking the first year-over-year decline in DFW since February 2012, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing a study from the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller Index.
Home prices in March were down 7.5 percent from last June, when the housing market was at its peak. Prices went up slightly from February to March, though, which could signal that the steady drop in prices since last summer has come to an end, S&P managing director Craig Lazzara told the outlet.
The S&P study measures a three-month moving average that compares sales-price changes of properties over time. While it’s a couple of months behind current market conditions, the index is considered more accurate than home sales data from agents, which can be swayed by specific properties that sell each month, the outlet said.
The median price of a single-family home in DFW fell 5 percent year-over-year in April to $404,450, according to data from Realtor associations. Plus, the 7,429 transactions last month were down 8 percent from a year prior. High interest rates, low inventory and fears of a recession are a big reason for the drop in sales activity.
While prices are relatively low at the moment, low inventory could drive prices back up, as prospective buyers make offers beyond initial asking prices.
“As inventory remains a challenge in this market, so too will affordability be rocked by stubbornly high prices that aren’t looking to move drastically any time soon,” Nicole Bachaud, senior economist for Zillow, told the outlet.
The scope of the market could be clearer later this summer, when house hunting is typically at full swing. However, many would-be sellers and buyers might sit on the sidelines until interest rates drop and market conditions recover.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasDFW dives deeper into buyer’s market as home sales dipDallasApartment rents stabilizing in Dallas areaTexasCommercial sales plummet in DFW The post DFW home price drop a first since 2012 appeared first on The Real Deal.
During May, the scarcity of luxury home sales in Los Angeles continued for a second straight month with a slight improvement.
From May 1 to May 30, the City of Los Angeles recorded 10 sales with prices above $5 million. About 17 homes in that price range went under contract in Los Angeles in the month, according to research by Amalfi Estates agency in Pacific Palisades.
In April, following implementation of the city’s Measure ULA transfer tax on real estate deals, only two sales above $5 million took place. By comparison, for the past two years, on average, 50 deals over $5 million closed each month, said Anthony Marguleas, founder of Amalfi Estates.
“It’s not the 50 transactions we are used to seeing,” Marguleas said of the L.A. market. “But we are moving in the right direction, even with the Writers Guild strike, concern over the debt ceiling and recent bank closings.”
Eric Sussman, professor at the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, said Los Angeles’ luxury market has not been this slow in recent memory, but he did not entirely place blame on the ULA, which charges an extra 4 percent on transactions above $5 million and 5.5 percent on deals above $10 million.
“There is no question that it’s a substantial tax. There is impact from a lot of other headwinds, such as higher interest rates, political uncertainty and [the question] are we going to have a recession? I think it’s a combination of things,” he said.
Cities not dealing with the ULA tax also have felt constraints on the market. Rochelle Atlas Maize of Nourmand & Associates and Steve Bohbot recently represented the seller for the $14.4 million sale of 513 N. Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills. The buyer was represented by Josh Flagg.
“There’s a spillover effect,” Maize said. “You would think that it would place Beverly Hills at more of a premium because you don’t have the tax. But there’s an overall vibe of the market going down. Buyers aren’t making purchases because they think prices are going to go lower. (In the city of Los Angeles) sellers are sidelined because they don’t want to pay the tax.”
She noted there’s a decline of sales for homes priced over $10 million in the exclusive Beverly Hills Flats neighborhood. Between January and May 2022, about 15 homes priced more than $10 million sold in Beverly Hills Flats. In the same time period in 2023, only six sales were recorded, according to Maize’s research.
She estimated that her revenue has declined 30 percent since May 2022 because she’s doing more business through leasing homes rather than sales. “The only thing stabilizing the industry is a shortage of supply,” Maize said of the L.A. market.
Read moreLos AngelesLuxury home sales in LA plummet after ULA tax start dateLos AngelesJudge combines two lawsuits challenging Measure ULA Los AngelesMany luxe home sellers nixed discounts to beat ULA Tax deadlineThe post LA’s luxury home market shows slow recovery in May appeared first on The Real Deal.
A Barrington Hills mansion that appeared in the hit show “Empire” is going to the auction block after failing to sell the old fashioned way — for all 10 years it has been on the market.
The 17,6000-square-foot estate at 45 Lakeview Lane, owned by Sam and Geralyn Cecola, is scheduled to be auctioned off July 15, although if offers come in too low, the couple can back away from a sale, Crain’s reported.
The 8.3-acre property has been on a rollercoaster ride since first hitting the market in 2013. It was first listed at $15.3 million. In 2019, the mansion was returned to the market at a reduced price of $9.5 million, and the ask was eventually lowered again to $7.5 million. The house was under contract in September 2021 and April 2022, but both of those deals fell apart and never closed.
A conventional buyer can still snag the house for $9.5 million, but the Cecolas are ready for the saga to end, leading them to go the auction route, according to Michael La Fido of eXp Realty, who served as the listing agent.
In “Empire,” which aired from 2015 to 2020, the estate was used as the lavish home of Lucius Lyon, the patriarch of a high-profile music industry family, played by Terrence Howard. The boat dock on the property was built for the show and is still intact.
Sam Cecola is the longtime owner and operator of the Admiral Theatre strip club on Lawrence Avenue. The Cecolas bought the lot for $200,000 in 2001, but the construction costs are not public knowledge.
The six-bedroom, 10-bathroom house has multiple terraces and colonnades overlooking a swimming pool and fountains. It sits between two lakes, boasting large formal rooms, an elevator and a six-car garage.
Elsewhere in Chicagoland, a 12,300-square-foot mansion in Winnetka is also being put up for auction, with minimum bids starting at $2.5 million. But unlike 45 Lakeview, that property was seized by a lender, as it was on the brink of foreclosure.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicago`Empire’ mansion finally has a buyer after nine years on the marketChicago“Empire” home deal falls through — againChicagoWinnetka Tudor Revival mansion hits auction blockThe post ‘Empire’ mansion in Barrington Hills hits auction block after a decade appeared first on The Real Deal.
Construction has begun on two affordable housing apartment buildings with a combined 112 units in the Hunter’s Point Shipyard development.
The master developer of the southeastern San Francisco neighborhood, built on the site of a former Navy shipyard, is FivePoint, a spinoff of Lennar. But Jonathan Rose Companies is developing these two affordable buildings in conjunction with nonprofit Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services, which provides healthcare, social services and food to the area’s low-income elderly population. It also runs two senior centers in the Western Addition.
The all-electric project is expected to cost more than $130 million to build, with about half of that funding from the city’s Office of Community Infrastructure and Investment, the successor to its redevelopment agency.
In a statement, OCII Executive Director Thor Kaslofsky said the apartments would be a “crucial step” towards hitting San Francisco’s Housing Element goal to build more than 46,000 affordable housing units in the city by 2031.
The development also received nearly $6 million from the state’s newly streamlined Multifamily Finance Super Notice of Funding Availability grant approval process and 4 percent tax credits and tax-exempt bonds from the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee and the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee.
The developers applied for the tax credits and bonds three times in order to “secure the final funding allocations necessary to achieve financial feasibility,” according to Sarah White, director of development for California at Rose, which took over the project from the previous developer in 2021. It was first approved in 2017.
“Each month the project was delayed, it became more expensive to build,” she said via email, especially as construction costs and inflation rose.
Still, White said the New York-based affordable housing developer was “thrilled” to make these two as-yet-unnamed buildings its first foray into San Francisco and “help to improve the much-needed supply of affordable housing in the city.”
White said that Lennar did “an incredible amount of outreach” as part of the overall redevelopment of the Shipyard. As the joint venture development partner, Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services will provide community outreach during the pre-leasing and leasing phase, and will provide resident services onsite once the development is open, which should come in the spring of 2025.
While a previous BHPMSS low-income housing project in the Bayview had a mix of one- and two-bedroom units and was only open to seniors and people with disabilities, the new project will have between one and five bedrooms in each unit and any individuals and families that make between 30 and 50 percent of area median income can apply.
“As a native resident born on Navy Road, it is a privilege to have the opportunity for people from our community to rent a new space back in their own neighborhood,” Oscar James, board member of BHPMSS, said in a statement. “It has been a long time coming and we have been waiting for this day for over 50 years.”
Read moreSan FranciscoJudge kills $5.4M settlement over cleanup at SF’s Hunters PointNew YorkWATCH: How to plan the New York City of 2050San FranciscoHow San Francisco beat the housing element clockThe post Jonathan Rose begins Hunter’s Point Shipyard project appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Carlyle Group’s quest to become Brooklyn’s biggest landlord just took a major step forward.
The private equity giant paid Kevin Maloney’s Property Markets Group $100 million for a Gowanus development site with plans for two mixed-use towers that will combine for 517 residential units. PMG has already broken ground on the project, which will also include 52,000 square feet of commercial space.
Society Brooklyn, the larger of the two towers located at 267 Bond Street, will consist of 344 residential units and 32,000 square feet of commercial space. Sackett Place, the other tower at 498 Sackett Street, will have 173 residential units.
According to UAG, the project’s construction manager, 75 percent of the apartments will be market rate and 25 percent will be set aside as affordable housing as part of the Affordable Housing New York Program, a tax exemption also known as 421a.
The project is expected to be completed in 2025. Projects that qualified for the now-expired 421a tax break must be finished by 2026 in order to receive it.
PMG exercised a long-standing purchase option on the site in 2021, paying $9 million for both plots of land. Maloney spearheaded development of the project, and Jason Hart signed off on the purchase for Carlyle, city records filed Wednesday show.
The firm has secured a combined $170 million in financing from private equity firm Apollo Global Management’s lending arm, Apollo Insurance Solutions, for both the acquisition and construction, city records indicate.
Representatives for Carlyle and PMG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
An investigation by The Real Deal last summer found that the private equity has been quietly amassing a sizable portfolio of walkup apartment buildings in Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Park Slope and Cobble Hill, an unusual move for a firm that operates at the Carlyle’s scale.
Elsewhere in Brooklyn this week, Jeff Levine’s Douglaston Development paid $66 million for a 421a-qualified site in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where the developer plans a 465-unit rental building.
The post Carlyle pays $100M for two-tower 421a site in Gowanus appeared first on The Real Deal.
Trumark Homes has secured a $400 million loan to build 32 townhomes in northeast San Jose.
The San Ramon-based developer landed the line of credit from Wells Fargo Bank for the townhome segment of a larger development at 905 North Capitol Avenue, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The project at North Capitol and Penitencia Creek Road includes 345 apartments to be built by Houston-based Hanover Company, not included in the financing.
The apartment segment, not yet funded, hasn’t broken ground, Erik Schoennauer, a land-use expert providing consulting services to the project, told the Mercury News.
Trumark will be able to tap up to $400 million from a line of credit that the San Francisco-based Wells Fargo provided, according to the property records.
The three-story townhomes, designed by Chicago-based KTGY Architecture + Planning, would be clad in white, with gray and black accents. A construction timeline isn’t known.
A year ago, the developer won a long tug-of-war with the City of Dublin over a plan to build 573 houses in the east Dublin hills. In May 2022, the city approved the plan two months after it had quashed the development, after its legal experts cited a state law to push it through.
A month earlier, Trumark bought 30 acres approved for nearly 450 homes in East Livermore for $75 million.
Trumark Homes is a division of Trumark Companies, founded in 1988 by Gregg Nelson and Michael Maples. The firm has entitled more than 5,000 residential lots, with more than $1.5 billion in real estate investments, according to its website.
Read moreSan FranciscoDublin City Council poised to re-approve development of 573 homesSan FranciscoDublin City Council reverses approval of 573-home projectSan FranciscoTrumark Homes pays $75M for 30 acres entitled for homes in LivermoreThe post Trumark secures $400M in financing for 32 townhomes in San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
Joe Lacob, the billionaire owner of NBA team the Golden State Warriors, sold a pair of properties in the wealthy enclave of Atherton just months after buying a home in nearby Woodside.
The properties, which sit on adjacent lots at 234 and 238 Atherton Avenue, changed hands in two separate transactions, property records show. The purchase price for the package was $41 million, according to a calculation of transfer taxes paid in conjunction with the transactions. The deals closed May 26, according to San Mateo County Assessor records.
The more expensive property in the assemblage, at 234 Atherton, is a six-bedroom, 6.5-bath home. It changed hands in a $21 million deal. The buyer is Lip-Bu Tan, board member at Intel and executive chairman of computational software firm Cadence Design Systems, and his wife Ysa Loo.
Lacob bought the home in 2007 from developer Rafi Bombad. It was not the only time that Lacob and Bombad have been on opposite sides of a real estate transaction. Bombad was the seller of the newly built Woodside home that Lacob bought for $40 million in February.
The other property, at 238 Atherton, is a four-bedroom “ranch-style” home, according to a previous listing from Compass. The property was sold for $20 million. The buyer is A&E Venture Partners.
Lacob built his fortune as a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. In 2010, he and partner Peter Gruber bought the Warriors for $450 million. He was previously a minority owner of the Boston Celtics. The Warriors have won four titles under Lacob, the latest of which was in 2022. According to Forbes, the value of his 25 percent stake in the team has grown nearly tenfold, with the latest estimate at $1.4 billion.
The post Warriors owner Joe Lacob sells two Atherton homes for $41M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Page Turner regularly got her hands dirty renovating homes as host for television shows such as “Fix My Flip,” with the second season aired on HGTV earlier this month.
But she recently announced a venture far from the hammers and nails of reality TV shows. Turner will helm iKONIC Sports and Entertainment, a business launched by her and the executives of Coldwell Banker Exclusive, a downtown Los Angeles franchise of Coldwell Banker. Its mission is to advise on real estate investments and arrange deals for people in entertainment and professional sports, Turner said.
“I am at a place in my 20-year career where I wanted to garner all my experience from the real estate and entertainment business under one roof,” she wrote in a prepared statement.
➤Brokers Jackie Naidoo and Alec Traub recently affiliated with Rodeo Real Estate.
Traub represented the buyer in a June 2019 deal for a $72.5 million home on Robert Lane in Trousdale Estates enclave of Beverly Hills. It was that year’s priciest deal for a single-family home in Beverly Hills. Due to a non-disclosure agreement, Traub declined to talk more about the deal.
Traub and Naidoo started collaborating when they worked together at Redfin. Traub had been affiliated with Redfin since 2010 and said he was one of the publicly traded agency’s first Los Angeles market agents.
One reason why Traub and Naidoo affiliated with Rodeo was to work at a firm where they could get more personal attention. “We wanted to get back to something where you’re closer to everyone in the company,” Traub said.
Traub and Naidoo blended their first names to create a name for their partnership, Team Jackal. They’ll work from Rodeo’s Sunset Strip office. They’ll focus on a range of listings from condos to estates in markets such as Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Hollywood Hills and other parts of Los Angeles.
➤Three agents affiliated with independent firm Nourmand & Associates in May.
Melinda Moore is a serial entrepreneur and author of the 2016 book “How to Raise Money: The Ultimate Guide to Crowdfunding.” She also currently serves as an advisor for Aventura Ventures. She’ll focus on residential and investment properties in West Los Angeles.
Heather Thurman recently worked as an agent in Nashville. In Nourmand’s Hollywood office, she will focus on selling homes in neighborhoods such as Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Studio City and Silverlake.
Niki Valner is a partner in KIBO Group, a developer of custom residential and commercial projects. She will focus on selling single-family homes for Nourmand.
➤New agents affiliated with Douglas Elliman’s Los Angeles and Orange counties offices in May.
Christina Pegus started working with Elliman’s Brentwood office. She will sell in neighborhoods such as Ladera Heights, View Park, Baldwin Hills and Inglewood. She formerly was affiliated with the firm Agents of LA.
Formerly with Compass, Brandon “Mahk” Mahkovec affiliated with Josh Flagg Group at Douglas Elliman. He will focus on Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.
Another former Compass agent joined Elliman recently. Alexandre Perrein affiliated with Ernie Carswell and Associates at Douglas Elliman. He will focus on Hancock Park, Larchmont Village, Los Feliz and Silverlake.
Tyler Van Twist started working with Elliman’s Newport Beach office. He plans to concentrate on the beach cities of Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Corona Del Mar, Newport Coast and Costa Mesa. He was most recently affiliated with Nest Seekers International.
Caitlin Anderton affiliated with Kevin DaSilva Group at Douglas Elliman. She will be based out of Elliman’s Beverly Hills office. She will sell in the beach cities from Santa Monica to Seal Beach, while also working in the South Bay. She most recently worked with Re/Max Estate Properties.
Dania Bahrami affiliated with Elliman’s Malibu office. As a high-schooler, she worked as an assistant to an Elliman agent. Now age 18 and newly licensed, she started her first job as an agent with the firm. She will focus on neighborhoods such as Malibu, Westlake Village, Lake Sherwood, Encino, Tarzana, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Bel Air and Beverly Hills.
Read moreLos AngelesMovers: Duo behind Brad Pitt mansion sale jump to Carolwood EstatesLos AngelesMovers: Former Italian basketball star named partner, the Gitlins move to Coldwell BankerLos AngelesMovers & Shakers: OC agent sells yachts plus mansionsThe post “Fix My Flip” star Page Turner launches celebrity advisory firm appeared first on The Real Deal.
A full-service law firm is raising an objection to the downsizing trend plaguing Manhattan’s office market.
Greenspoon Marder LLP signed an eight-year agreement to sublease 41,000 square feet from CBS Broadcasting at the AllianceBernstein Building, a 50-story skyscraper at 1345 Sixth Avenue formerly known as the Burlington House.
The Fisher Brothers-owned building is fresh off a $120 million capital improvement project in 2021 that included exterior updates, an amenities floor and a public art installation.
With the move, Greenspoon is leaving behind a 25,000-square-foot sublease in the IBM Building at 590 Madison Avenue. The new sublease from CBS will provide almost twice as much space as it had before. It plans to move in by the end of the year.
Office expansions have become rare in the post-pandemic commercial real estate environment, as companies rush to downsize their office footprint in the wake of broadly adopted work-from-home policies.
Data provided by Colliers revealed that a record 94 million square feet of office space was available in Manhattan as of last month. Tenants leased just 1.5 million square feet in April, far below the month’s average from the previous three years.
Midtown was one of the few bright spots, accounting for more than half of the borough’s overall leasing output. But the IBM Building, owned by the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, has struggled to keep tenants of late.
Since 2017, Greenspoon had been subleasing its IBM Building space from another law firm, Crowell and Moring, on a lease that expires next year. Crowell signed a 71,000-square-foot lease at Two Manhattan West in Hudson Yards in December, meaning the IBM Building has lost both a key tenant and a subtenant in the last six months.
A Savills team including Jeffrey Peck and Daniel Horowitz brokered the deal on behalf of Greenspoon, while Cushman and Wakefield’s Bryan Boisi and Paul Ferrora represented CBS Broadcasting.
“Recognizing [Greenspoon Marder’s] unique needs, as it looks to grow and entice partners and staff back to the office, was key in our strategy and ultimately helped us to identify this turn-key space in one of the most highly amenitized buildings in Manhattan,” Peck said.
The post Law firm expands with 41K sf sublease at 1345 Sixth Ave appeared first on The Real Deal.
A lavish Houston estate that’s been the longtime home of the DeMontrond family, owner of more than a dozen regional auto dealerships from Cleveland to Texas City, is up for grabs.
The 7,000-square-foot house, located at 700 Pine Shadows Drive in the Tanglewood neighborhood, is being listed at $3.9 million, the Houston Chronicle reported. Nan and Co. Properties CEO Nancy Almodovar will serve as the listing agent.
The mansion sits on a roughly one-acre lot. It has five bedrooms, four full bathrooms and two half baths. Its 46,000-square foot lot size is the largest among active listings in Tanglewood, where the median home value is around $2 million, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.
Almodovar said the property is already drawing interest from local residents who have been craving a larger lot. She also mentioned its close proximity to a private park.
“They love Tanglewood, so we’ve had a lot of interest from a few of the current homeowners in the neighborhood,” she told the outlet.
Members of the DeMontrond family moved into the house in 1992. They bought a seven-bedroom, 10-bathroom estate in River Oaks for $16 million in March.
The 700 Pine Shadows property could be on the market for a while given the abundance of inventory in Houston. As of April, the number of available properties shot up nearly 63 percent year-over-year. Average listing prices are also nearing a record high in the Bayou City.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreHoustonJaw-dropping Houston mansion lists at $36MHoustonHouston mansion fetches $21MHoustonGlam party pad goes to auction in HoustonThe post DeMontrond mansion in Tanglewood listed just shy of $4M appeared first on The Real Deal.
JLL is turning to former Stanford quarterford Todd Husak to replicate the success he had on the field to his new position as senior managing director at the brokerage’s Silicon Valley office. The real estate veteran comes to JLL with a specialty in agency leasing and tenant representation.
In a statement, Husak said he was excited to join JLL “with the Silicon Valley and Peninsula areas starting to see renewed activity.”
Husak was the quarterback of Stanford’s football team from 1996 to 2000 and in the 1999 season led the Cardinal to the Pac 10 Conference title and the team’s first Rose Bowl since 1972. After college, Husak was drafted in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft and played professionally for five years.
After his professional football career ended, he spent a year and a half as an assistant coach for the Cardinals before joining CBRE’s Palo Alto office, where he worked more than 16 years, rising to managing director.
Husak’s responsibilities at JLL will include working with the current agency team to grow market share, maximize the value of their client’s assets in the region, and continue to expand JLL’s reach in the Bay Area.
➤Cushman & Wakefield have created a new role for Ron Chislom, who will serve as the company’s first North American senior vice president of client services for life sciences. Chisholm will be based in San Francisco and oversee a C&W Services portfolio of life sciences properties across North America, with a focus on providing strategic insight. He will work closely with Cushman & Wakefield’s life science advisory council to collaborate on global growth opportunities.
“Life sciences is clearly a very important growth area for the firm,” said the firm’s COO Swinburne, who called the reorganization “CWS’ first consolidated end-to-end vertical.”
Before joining Cushman & Wakefield, Chislom was at JLL for almost three years as an executive vice president where he served as a global life sciences account executive. Prior to his career in commercial real estate, he spent 14 years at Roche/Genentech.
➤Also joining Cushman & Wakefield is Mark Anderson as vice chairman at its San Francisco office. Anderson was previously at Cushman & Wakefield for nearly 20 years before a stint at Avison Young for two years.
Anderson will focus on landlord representation and multi market tenant representation. In his previous time at the brokerage he rose to vice chairman as well.
➤Sack Properties President Jeff Smith and Chief Investment Officer David Feinberg have been tapped to lead the company under a new banner called Sack Capital Partners.
“Smith and Feinberg each have over 25 years of multifamily experience and have invested more than $2.5 billion in multifamily transactions totaling more than 10,000 units,” Kirby Sack, owner of Sack since 2007, said.
Smith joined the firm, then known as Sack Properties, in 2001. He became chief
financial officer in 2007 and was named president in 2017. Feinberg joined the firm in 2017 and
became chief investment officer in 2020.
➤Alta Housing, a community-based affordable housing organization, has brought on Stephanie Shipe as vice president of property management. Shipe brings 25 years of affordable housing property management experience and most recently served as the director of portfolio management at the Housing Authority of the City of Alameda.
“She is committed to Alta’s resident retention policy of working with residents and resident services to make sure residents are able to stay in their home,” CEO Randy Tsuda said in a statement.
In her new position, Shipe will manage more than 1,000 units and a team of 35 professionals.
Read moreSan FranciscoMovers: CBRE boosts life science division with father-and-sons teamSan FranciscoMovers: Compass names new head of Northern CaliforniaSan FranciscoMovers: Promotions bolster CBRE’s industrial and life science offices in Bay AreaThe post Movers: JLL taps former Stanford QB to run Silicon Valley operations appeared first on The Real Deal.
Former Plantation Mayor Vera-Lynn Stoner faces charges that she illegally tried to help Invesca Development Group advance its project.
During her tenure as an elected official, Stoner issued a letter from the mayor’s office falsely claiming that Strata Group LLC had fixed code violations — an alleged attempt to help the company secure a loan, according to a complaint affidavit filed by the Broward County State Attorney’s office. In addition, Stoner is accused of pushing a Plantation building official to allow Strata Group to build a project called Pixl without proper permits.
Strata Group is tied to Plantation-based Invesca Development Group, led by Michael and Bernard Hsiao, according to state corporate records.
Invesca’s Pixl project is a planned 330-unit multifamily development on a 6.7-acre site at 4300 Northwest Ninth Court in Plantation. In September, the firm scored a $76.5 million construction loan for Pixl and filed a notice of commencement of construction soon afterwards.
Invesca’s website also lists a planned Strata community in Plantation, describing it as a 147-townhome development with 21 buildings on 13 acres.
Stoner, 69, issued the letter in 2020 from the mayor’s office stating the developer had cleared code violations after a building official refused to succumb to her alleged requests that he write the letter, according to a news release from the state attorney’s office. In 2020, Stoner had “attempted to coerce, trick, persuade, or otherwise influence” the official to “do her a favor” and write the letter, the release says.
Prosecutors do not specify which Invesca project the letter was allegedly geared to help.
Stoner turned herself in to authorities on Tuesday and was released on her own recognizance. She is charged with one count each of official misconduct and falsification of records, as well as two counts of influencing a building official.
She will plead not guilty at her arraignment, which is expected in two to three weeks, said her attorney, Larry Davis.
“Plantation is one of only two cities in Broward County that has a strong mayor form of government,” Davis said. “[Former] Mayor Stoner was exercising her administrative authority pursuant to the city charter.”
Unlike a weak-mayor form of local government, in which the mayor serves a largely ceremonial role, a strong-mayor system allows the official broad administrative powers.
Neither Invesca nor its executives are named or charged by the state attorney’s office.
The firm could not be reached for comment, as no one responded to calls to Invesca’s office.
Bernard Hsiao also did not answer calls and texts sent to a phone number listed for him.
Founded by the late Christopher Forest Longsworth in 2001, Invesca also offers property and construction management services, according to its website. Its projects include a planned 10-story Modulus condominium, as well as Strata and Pixl. The three developments are aimed to be a master-planned community.
Longsworth died in 2021 at age 36. Michael and Bernard Hsiao now lead the firm.
Read moreSouth FloridaMiami Mayor Francis Suarez earns $10K/month from developerSouth FloridaRishi Kapoor’s Urbin allegedly paid Miami Mayor Francis Suarez $170K The post Ex-mayor of Plantation faces charges tied to developer Invesca appeared first on The Real Deal.
Google, having laid off thousands of workers and facing more than $550 million in real estate exit costs, is offloading 1.4 million square feet of offices in Silicon Valley.
The Mountain View-based search giant has listed for sublease seven office buildings in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing a brochure of listings.
The subsidiary of Alphabet, which paused its transit village in San Jose known as Downtown West this spring, is cutting costs during the era of remote work.
In January, the tech titan announced it would lay off 12,000 workers, including more than 1,600 in the Bay Area, its biggest layoff ever. In the first quarter, Alphabet announced $564 million in lease exit costs.
Its real estate shrinkage will trim nearly 1.4 million square feet, or 4.5 percent, of its 31.1 million square feet of offices in the Bay Area, according to the Business Times.
Google has listed for sublease seven office buildings:
- A 190,000-square-foot building at 600 Clyde Avenue in Mountain View. The vacant offices, owned by Renault & Handley, are available through August 2031.
- A 151,000-square-foot building at 620 National Avenue in Mountain View. The vacant offices, owned by Preylock Holdings, are available through May 2029.
- A 227,600-square-foot Building A at 1000 Enterprise Way at the Moffett Park campus owned by Jay Paul Company in Sunnyvale.
- A 317,200-square-foot Building B at 1020 Enterprise Way in Sunnyvale.
- A 192,500-square-foot Building B at 1050 Enterprise Way in Sunnyvale.
- A 26,600-square-foot R&D building it once occupied at 1215 Bordeaux Drive in Sunnyvale.
- And a 222,000-square-foot building at 750 Moffett Boulevard in Mountain View. The vacant building was developed by Broadreach Capital Partners.
The company’s Bay Area footprint spans 27 million square feet of office and R&D space in Silicon Valley, 2.5 million square feet on the Peninsula and 1.6 million square feet in San Francisco, unidentified sources told the Business Times.
“As we work to ensure that our real estate investments match the needs of our hybrid workforce, we’re ending leases for a number of unoccupied spaces. We remain committed to our longstanding presence in the Bay Area and investing in the local community,” a Google spokesperson told the newspaper.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoGoogle halts development of Downtown West megaproject in San JoseStream RealtyThe post Google to shed 1.4M sf of office space in Silicon Valley appeared first on The Real Deal.
Pacific Retail Capital Partners is closer to turning around a beleaguered suburban Chicago mall, helping to drive a trend among owners in the indoor retail market.
Lombard trustees unanimously approved zoning changes for a $200 million residential project at the Yorktown Center mall that will replace an old Carson’s department store, which has sat vacant since 2018, the Daily Herald reported.
The Carson’s teardown would also make way for a new mall entrance and Main Street-style plaza as part of a larger redevelopment plan. Village officials are working on the final touches of an economic incentive agreement that would provide tax increment financing and sales tax dollars to the developers to help fund the project.
A handful of other Chicagoland mall landlords have started down the residential route to revive their holdings. With the pandemic further boosting online shopping tendencies that were already growing, even more pressure has fallen on traditional shopping centers, some of which have long been deserted or sitting at a fraction of their former occupancy rates in recent years.
French Developer URW is undertaking a $100 million renovation of Skokie’s Westfield Old Orchard shopping mall to add 350 apartments. And in another northern suburb, Brookfield Properties is in talks with local officials to build 2,000 homes, comprising a blend of apartments, condos and townhomes, at the Northbrook Court mall.
Los Angeles-based Pacific Retail, which owns the core of the Yorktown Center mall, is teaming up with Chicago-based Synergy Construction Group for the Lombard project in the western suburbs.
The new plan for Yorktown Center calls for a five-story multifamily complex, called Yorktown Reserve, on a mall parking lot east of Highland Avenue. At full build, the project will include two residential buildings, totaling 621 units.
Work on the first apartment could start by 2024 as part of the initial phase of development. Timing of the second phase’s kickoff “would be a function of the market condition later in the process,” Lombard community development director William Heniff said.
In addition, Pacific Retail wants to make the mall facade more outward-facing and accessible for future customers, including glass storefronts for tenants around the plaza.
Read moreChicagoPacific Retail Capital Partners investing $200M in Lombard apartmentsChicagoHoffmann ditching 28-acre Lombard site ChicagoChicagoland mall mania: Developers want to make vacant sites vitalVillage officials have discussed “performance-based” incentives for the project. This could amount to $12.1 million in tax increment financing for the phase one apartment building, $9.6 million for the building in the second phase, and a multimillion-dollar business improvement district incentive for the plaza and exterior upgrades.
— Quinn Donoghue
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Manhattan’s chilly office market is ready to warm up some, but sellers could be in for some frosty deals.
Owners of some of New York’s lesser quality office buildings are selling at a discounted rate, the Wall Street Journal reported. Developers in the city are assessing the amount of pain they’re willing to inflict upon themselves as prospective building values fluctuate regularly in the weak post-Covid office leasing environment.
Last week, Scott Rechler’s RXR defaulted on its office tower at 61 Broadway in the Financial District. RXR is turning over ownership to whoever buys the $240 million defaulted loan, which may sell for roughly half of the building’s $440 million valuation from 2016.
In March, Empire Capital Holdings agreed to buy 529 Fifth Avenue in Midtown from Silverstein Properties for $105 million. Silverstein refinanced the property fewer than three years ago for $171 million and also recently spent $20 million on renovations.
The same month, Brookfield Properties moved to buy back a piece of One Liberty Plaza from the Blackstone Group, its partner at the 2.3-million-square-foot property. While the sale six years ago came at a valuation of $1.5 billion, the most recent sale came with just a $1 billion valuation.
While the discounts may be disappointing to the sellers, it also provides an opportunity to get the office market moving again after it was stalled by a poor return-to-office movement and high interest rates.
“We’re starting to see a thaw and more product coming to the market,” Eastdil Secured’s Gary Phillips told the publication.
The properties going at discounted rates are of lesser quality than the top-tier buildings, beneficiaries of the clichéd “flight to quality.” Those buildings remain in demand for tenants motivated to bring employees to the best space they can afford. Landlords are more willing to move the lesser properties to try and focus on making the better properties profitable.
The next shoe to drop on Manhattan’s office market may be the $60 billion offloading of commercial assets owned by the failed Signature Bank, which is being marketed by Newmark. The firm’s co-head of capital markets, Doug Harmon, said the sale (or sales) could be a “catalyst” for the market.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkRXR defaults on FiDi office towerNew YorkEmpire Capital buying Silverstein’s 529 Fifth AvenueNew YorkBrookfield’s One Liberty value slashed by $500MThe post RXR, Silverstein, Blackstone among cut-rate sellers in thawing office market appeared first on The Real Deal.
It’s a far cry from the heady days of jacking up prices on life-saving drugs and spending ridiculous money to be the sole owner of a Wu Tang album.
“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, who is best known for jacking up the price of an antiparasitic pill from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill, now lives in his sister’s apartment in Queens and makes $2,500 per month at a law firm, Bloomberg reported.
Shkreli, who was released from prison in May 2022 after serving seven years for securities fraud, has gone from enfant terrible while heading up Turing Pharmaceuticals to 40-year-old ex-con, trying to make ends meet, the outlet reported, citing a probation report filed in Brooklyn.
A report by his probation officer said he hadn’t fulfilled his mandatory 20 hours of community service, stating that he was struggling with an unspecified mental health issue.
Apparently gone are the multimillionaire days of owning a Picasso painting, a machine used to decode Nazi communications during World War II, a letter by Charles Darwin and the only copy of Wu Tang’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.”
In addition to prison time, he was banned from the pharmaceutical industry and ordered to pay a fine of nearly $65 million. Many of his possessions were sold to pay fines and penalties, the outlet said.
The $2,500 per month he makes as a consultant at the Law Office of Christopher K. Johnston isn’t enough to cover a month’s rent of an average 700-square-foot apartment in Queens ($2,800 per month), according to Rentcafe.
— Ted Glanzer
The post “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli makes less than $3,000 a month appeared first on The Real Deal.
Frank Lloyd Wright may be a world famous architect whose homes frequently hit the market for well into the seven figures and, sometimes, even higher.
But he has nothing on Tadao Ando, the 81-year-old Japanese architect, whose homes are in demand by some of the wealthiest people in the world, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Beyonce and Jay-Z, for example, recently bought an Ando-designed home for a California record $200 million. The musical power couple purchased the property at 27712 Pacific Coast Highway, which has nearly 6 acres. The seller was Bill Bell Jr., an art collector and son of the creators of soap operas “Bold and Beautiful” and “The Young and the Restless” who commissioned Ando to build the concrete, 40,000-square-foot mansion that overlooks the Pacific.
Hova and Queen Bey aren’t the only celebrities to be drawn to Ando’s work. Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, bought an Ando-designed home in Malibu for just over $57 million in 2021.
And while Wright is known for the sheer volume of his work, there are less than 20 Ando-designed homes in the U.S.
People talk about Ando in reverential terms.
“It was like working with God,” Compass agent Leonard Steinberg told the outlet of his experience working on a sale at a New York condominium designed by Ando.. “There was definitely a sense that we were dealing with an iconic figure of our time.”
Kim Kardashian, who commissioned Ando to design a home in Palm Desert, California, also wrote glowingly of Andon.
“Met with the master himself, Tadao Ando to review and discuss a dream project we have been working on for the past two years,” she said on social media, according to the outlet.
With such glowing praise, Ando’s work is considered more art than just functional homes.
“It is about pushing design ideals to a level that is not normal,” Leo Marmol, an architect, told the outlet. “The client has to be willing to embrace that, and look at the relationship with Mr. Ando as working with a true master.”
— Ted Glanzer
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A Florida mortgage loan officer pleaded guilty last week to evading federal income taxes on more than three-quarters of a million dollars in income.
Jeffrey Donaldson, of Orlando, made more than $750,000 working as a loan originator for Movement Mortgage, LLC, and as a branch manager at CrossCountry Mortgage, LLC between 2015 and 2018, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Donaldson submitted to both employers false withholding certificates that said he was exempt from any federal income tax withholding. During that time, Donaldson did not file income tax returns, causing a tax loss to the IRS of more than $150,000 the release says.
Donaldson’s sentencing hasn’t been scheduled, though he faces a maximum of five years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and fines.
Sometimes real estate professionals are tempted to avoid paying Uncle Sam.
In October 2022, Michigan-based real estate developer Scott Chappelle, an attorney and former certified public accountant, was handed a 38-month prison sentence for tax evasion, the Lansing State Journal reported.
Chapelle spent money on plastic surgery, a house on the lake, an assortment of cars, a 62-foot McKinna Express yacht –– all while telling the IRS he was broke.
In addition to delivering the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering ordered Chappelle to pay $1.2 million in restitution and serve three years of supervised release. He was also fined $150,000, according to the outlet.
Meanwhile, married couple Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the USA reality show “Chrisley Knows Best,” have been sentenced to serve 12 and seven years, respectively, in federal prison for fraud and tax evasion, the Washington Post reported. An almost three-week-long trial in Atlanta looked at evidence that the couple defrauded community banks of more than $30 million in loans and evaded federal income taxes for years.
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A retired mixed martial arts fighter is getting into the slightly less rough-and-tumble field of Long Island real estate.
Al Iaquinta, 36, who rose to as high as the fourth-ranked lightweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, opened a real estate brokerage in Wantagh, Newsday reported.
Iaquinta, whose career record was 14-7-1 over a 13-year-career, opened his own shop after working the past seven years as an agent for HomeSmart Premier Living Realty in Williston Park, the outlet reported.
He knows it won’t be easy striking out on his own, but he’s confident in his abilities — he got into real estate after buying a home in 2014 and obtained his real estate license before retiring from MMA in 2021.
“It’s an uphill battle breaking in, but there’s nobody that’s going to outwork me,” Iaquinta told the outlet. “If I can get into an Octagon and fight somebody, Douglas Elliman ain’t got nothing on me. Douglas Elliman, Keller Williams — line them up. Bring it on.”
While he may not have the resources the other big brokerages have, Iaquinta does have name recognition and a healthy social media following that includes over 100,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram.
He’ll need all the advantages he can get in a volatile residential market.
“In fighting, I was one of the top guys in the world but to start something new in sales intrigued me,” he told Newsday. “I was definitely in over my head, but that’s kind of how I like to do things. Here, I’m opening the office, and a lot of people might think it’s crazy, but that’s what it’s all about … Setting goals and attacking them.”
Iaquinta isn’t the only former professional athlete to turn to real estate as a second career.
In January, two-time NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer launched his real estate career with his longtime broker and friend Katrina Campins of the Campins Company, according to an announcement. Boozer earned his real estate license last year. His role will focus on real estate services geared toward professional athletes, celebrities, and other wealthy buyers, the release says.
Boozer played in the NBA from 2002 to 2015 for four teams: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers. He represented the U.S. at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, earning medals both times. He completed his degree at Duke University in 2020 after he left college early to start his basketball career.
Meanwhile, basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill has developed $200 million in commercial real estate with his company Hill Ventures, and now has a seat on Empire State Realty Trust’s board of directors. Retired Formula One driver Eddie Irvine builds luxury spec homes in South Florida, and former Los Angeles Laker Devean George is now a residential developer in North Minneapolis, where he grew up.
— Ted Glanzer
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In New York this month, elected officials introduced legislation that would let landlords hike rents on stabilized apartments and instantly drew the wrath of city socialists.
Tenant advocates, who claimed the “poisonous bill” would kill affordability, drove a handful of sponsors to pull support. That attack sparked a stand-off with owners who claim the legislation is their best chance at funding repairs to keep units on the market.
Up the coast, a kindred fight is brewing between Maine tenants and landlords. Only the weapon of choice for Portland, Maine, Democratic Socialists is satire.
A ballot measure that will go to a vote next month in Portland would let owners bump rents to market rate once a tenant vacates.
To dispel support for the proposal, the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists has stocked the city with yard signs mocking the landlord-backed initiative.
A member of the chapter, known as Enough is Enough BQC, supplemented the signs with an Instagram post likening landlords’ push to the Ku Klux Klan’s influence on city government a century ago.
The ballot measure would override a 5 percent cap on rent hikes in vacant units, a referendum passed by a 5 percent margin in November. As in New York, Portland tenants argue the change would erode tenant protections they’ve characterized as some of the strongest on the East Coast, according to Patch.
But while New York landlords claim tenants misconstrued their legislation as a gutting of rent-stabilization, in Portland, it’s the tenants who’ve taken that stance.
Residents accused landlords of drastically misrepresenting or outright lying about the impact of the ordinance and blocking residents from reading the ballot measure, Portland Phoenix reported.
Tenants also took issue with the bill’s original title: “An Act to Improve Tenant Protections.” City council members, deciding that name was misleading, eventually changed it to “An Act to Amend Rent Control and Tenant Protections,” WABI reported.
For their part, Portland owners claim that without the ordinance they won’t have the cash on hand to improve vacant units.
“When you’ve got a building that the tenant’s been in for 10 years, it’s getting pretty tired,” owner Britt Vitalius told WABI. “If you can’t raise the rent are you going to fix it up? … No.”
That argument smacks of New York landlords’ stance: Absent a chance to raise rents, owners won’t be able to fund repairs and will keep increasingly more units off market.
Jay Martin, who heads landlord group Community Housing Improvement Program, summarized owners’ take in a tweet this week.
The post Portland landlords push for rent control rollback akin to NY ask appeared first on The Real Deal.
A tangle of Tennessee lawsuits that includes Chris Isaak as a plaintiff alleges a home builder engaged in a wicked game of fraud totalling millions of dollars against his business partners and lenders.
In one lawsuit, Brian Layton, who owns Britt Development, is accused of, among other things, forging Isaak’s signature to secure loans connected to Nashville properties Layton, Isaak (best known for his 1989 hit “Wicked Game”) and others owned together through a number of LLCs, the Nashville Post reported.
The parties had originally planned to develop the properties they acquired, according to the suit. Instead of using the funds for the development of the properties, Layton and his wife, Sarah, used $4 million in loans secured by the properties for their own personal use.
Layton, according to the lawsuit, then essentially stole the properties by quit claiming them to a separate LLC,
“Having stolen the millions, the land, and the homes, Sarah Layton then helped Brian Layton transfer the stolen funds through a network of shell companies to hide their ill-gotten gains,” according to the website brianlaytonnashville.com, which was set up by Nashville attorney Brian Manookian to document the litigation.
“It’s clear to me that Layton has been … transferring funds, loans and building materials belonging to new investors to earlier projects that have stalled out,” Manookian wrote in an email to the Nashville Post. “I don’t get the sense Layton set out to perpetuate a $30 million-plus scam. I think the guy got in over his head, panicked and started papering over losses by taking on new investors and [allegedly] forging loan documents. The dozen-plus pending lawsuits speak to that.”
Accusations of fraud aren’t new in real estate.
In Florida, Coconut Grove developer Doug Cox is accused by homebuyers of gross negligence and intentional misconduct, fraud and running a civil conspiracy totalling tens of millions of dollars in damages, according to the complaints. Cox allegedly failed to finish homes, failed to pay back debt and sold the same properties to multiple buyers, according to the lawsuits.
— Ted Glanzer
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Taylor Swift may never walk Cornelia Street again, but a wealthy buyer could if they have a pittance of the pop star’s wealth.
The home Swift famously rented at 23 Cornelia Street in Manhattan’s West Village is for sale with an initial asking price of $18 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Swift doesn’t own the home and the identity of the seller is unknown, other than that she is an Italian investor.
Built in 1970, the townhouse is 21 feet wide and spans 5,400 square feet. There are four bedrooms, five bathrooms, two powder rooms, an eat-in kitchen, an indoor pool, three gas fireplaces and hardwood floors.
To some, however, the most important detail is the connection to Swift. She rented the home for $38,000 a month in 2016 while work was being done on her pad in Tribeca. Swift would go on to release “Cornelia Street” on her 2019 album “Lover,” long viewed as a love song for her then-beau, Joe Alwyn.
In recent months, however, Swift and Alwyn have split. Meanwhile, from music releases to her vaunted Eras Tour, Swift has been in the news constantly, a likely boon to the Cornelia Street homeseller, who has said the song helped increase the value of the property.
The Swift connection may not be enough to motivate a seller, according to brokers who spoke to Curbed regarding the listing. It may even detract from those worrying about an onslaught of Swifties taking snaps of the home on any given day.
The home, recently used as a showroom for Italian furniture company Zanotta, was available to rent for $45,000 as recently as the fall. The seller is open to renting the property again; she purchased it in 2019 for $11.5 million, though it was owned by Soho House executive David Aldea when Swift was around.
Corcoran’s Laurence Carty holds the listing, along with colleagues Irene Lo and Jennifer Rahilly.
Swift is still riding high in the midst of her tour, which is set to continue rolling across the country through the end of the summer. On Friday, she released a deluxe edition of her most recent record, “Midnights,” featuring a remixed track with Ice Spice and a version of a song featuring more Lana Del Rey than the original.
Even if Swift never ever ever gets back together with the Cornelia Street townhouse, she still has a real estate portfolio made up of anyone’s wildest dreams. The residential portfolio, spanning more than $150 million in the United States, includes homes in Beverly Hills, Nashville and Rhode Island.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkTaylor Swift’s former Cornelia Street home to rent for $45KNationalWildest Dreams: Taylor Swift has amassed a $150M real estate portfolioNew YorkAre you ready for it, Tribeca? Taylor Swift may have bought townhouse for $18MThe post Taylor Swift’s “Cornelia Street” inspiration for sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
A Greenwich, Connecticut, manse with views of Long Island Sound has listed for $27.95 million.
The 11,500-square-foot home at 1 Indian Chase Drive in the wealthy Connecticut enclave has seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and sits on 1.8 acres, according to the listing by Leslie McElwreath of Sotheby’s International Realty — Greenwich Brokerage.
The home, built in 2013 and renovated by owner Stuart Schultz, — the founder of Beauty Rx by Dr. Schultz skincare line — and his wife, Mallory, also includes a massive 1,200-bottle wine cellar, kitchen, living and dining room, home theater, multisport simulation room, and a wellness center with a steam room and a sauna, CTInsider reported.
The grounds include nearly 300 feet of water frontage, a waterside entertaining deck, boathouse, floating dock, tennis court, swimming pool and two-bedroom cottage.
The Greenwich trophy home market hasn’t felt the residential pinch like other places.
In March, John Frank, a former executive of the Sidney Frank Importing Company, listed his Greenwich property at 97 Pecksland Road for $33.8 million, Bloomberg reported.
The mansion has seven bedrooms and a large pool house has three. Together they have 14 full bathrooms and five half-bathrooms. The home’s entrance opens to a double staircase. Inside is a dining room, library and entertainment room with a bar, among other rooms on the first floor.
Meanwhile, in November. The Indian Spring Lake Company, which counts more than 100 of William Rockefeller’s descendants as shareholders, listed a 54-acre parcel of forestland in Greenwich for $21.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The acreage at 181 Glenville Road is the last large holding from the former Rockefeller family estate.
Also last year, former President Donald Trump listed his mansion at 21 Vista Drive in Greenwich for $29.9 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The six-acre waterfront estate includes a 20,000-square-foot Georgian mansion with panoramic views of the Long Island Sound. The home includes an indoor lap pool and a movie theater. There are eight bedrooms, staff quarters and two apartments for guests.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Greenwich mansion with 1,200-bottle wine cellar lists for $28M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Billy Joel famously sang he didn’t start the fire, but a Duluth, Minnesota, landlord very well may have last week while using the Piano Man’s song as a soundtrack.
Travis Carlson, 37, is accused of setting his apartment on the 2400 block of Fourth Street aflame while playing “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” CBS News reported.
Police, according to the outlet, responded to a call around 4 a.m. on May 18 of an upstairs apartment on fire. When they arrived, the apartment wasn’t only in flames, but the song was also blaring, the outlet said, citing the criminal complaint.
A tenant who lived downstairs said they were awoken to Carlson “smashing and breaking things,” before being warned by Carlson that the house was on fire.
The police report also said a neighbor spotted Carlson underneath his truck with gas canisters. Investigators located a hole in the truck’s gas tank. Carlson was located with burns to his arms and legs.
He was charged with first-degree arson.
While it doesn’t happen often, landlords do break the law from time to time.
Last year, Levonn Bell, 36, was charged following an eviction that escalated to the point where she allegedly pulled a butcher’s knife after police responded to her call for help, WXIX reported.
Bell was charged with felonious assault, obstructing official business and disorderly conduct after she allegedly called police asking them to remove tenants from her building in Golf Manor.
Bell told officers that she had lawfully evicted the tenants earlier, but they had returned to their apartment by breaking in through a window.
In January, Brooklyn landlord Aron Stark was locked up at Rikers Island for not making court-ordered repairs.
Stark spent eight days in the notorious jail after failing to fix a variety of violations at 1422 Greene Avenue in Bushwick, Gothamist reported. The litany of problems at the three-story apartment building include roaches and lack of heat and hot water.
Inspectors have cited the property for heat outages and inadequate fire protection dating back to 2021. The jail stint may have had less to do with the violations than with his failure to respond to court notices; Stark was arrested for civil contempt on Dec. 8 and sent to Rikers by Judge Remy Smith.
“A landlord being a tenant of a jail cell isn’t just rare, it’s nearly unheard of,” Aaron Carr, founder of Housing Rights Initiative, told Gothamist.
— Ted Glanzer
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A Utah real estate training company has settled with the Federal Trade Commission after being accused of making “false promises” to sell its programs.
Response Marketing LLC was ordered to pay $16.7 million as a result of Monday’s settlement with the FTC and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection, KSL reported. Investigators said it was the largest consumer settlement in state history.
Celebrity endorsers also agreed to pay dearly for their role in alleged activity. Scott Yancey of A&E’s “Flipping Vegas” will pay $450,000, while motivational podcaster Dean Graziosi will pay $1.25 million.
The alleged activity started with a predecessor company in the early 2010s. It didn’t stop until December 2019, when a formal complaint was filed with the FTC and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection.
Response Marketing attracted consumers to free events across the country through the use of infomercials and social media advertisements, according to the Utah Division of Consumer Protection. Once there, consumers were allegedly pitched three-day, $1,000 workshops, boasting the programs would provide “special tools” to make consumers into successful real estate investors.
Response Marketing also pitched even more expensive training programs that cost into the tens of thousands, according to the complaint. At one point, it allegedly promoted a coaching program called “Inner Circle” that could cost another $30,000.
The promises made by Response Marketing were false, though, according to the complaint. Many failed to become successful real estate investors and many also failed to recoup the money they lost to the company.
The owners of Response Marketing and its president are banned from selling “wealth creation” products and services across the country, according to the FTC.
To this point, $1.7 million has been recouped from litigation, leaving $15 million left to be returned to consumers. If Response Marketing fails to make that payment, it will also owe the Utah Division of Consumer Protection $15 million.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNationalReal estate agent charged in husband’s murderSan FranciscoFTC files case to block $11.7B ICE-Black Knight mergerNew YorkFTC slaps Opendoor with $62M fine for "misleading" sellersThe post Feds hit real estate training company with $17M fine appeared first on The Real Deal.
The new era of the “Real Housewives of New York” will feature some real estate faces.
Douglas Elliman’s Kelly Killoren Bensimon will return to the TV screen for a spinoff of the Bravo reality series, “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy.”
Bensimon will headline season five of the series — alongside fellow Douglas Elliman agent and franchise veteran Ramona Singer and four others— premiering on NBCU’s Peacock streaming service.
The show will follow the former RHONY stars to Saline Beach in St. Barthélemy. It was originally planned as a standalone series to air on Bravo, but the network paused the series in January.
Though shooting hasn’t started yet, Bensimon, who’s licensed on the island through Douglas Elliman’s Knight Frank, said she hopes viewers will get a sneak peak into her work. And if not, she said she still plans to visit her clients and listings while she’s in the area.
“My bikini is my best uniform,” she said.
While she’s away filming, Bensimon said her 12-person team will continue to service her listings across the city and in the Hamptons, South Florida and California.
Since her debut on the show in 2009, Bensimon has pivoted from her career as a writer for Page Six and Assouline books, among others, and jumped fully into real estate. She started with Dolly Lenz Real Estate in 2017 and moved to Warburg the following year.
Bensimon joined Douglas Elliman in 2019 as a member of The Holly Parker Team before branching out with her own team in 2022, the same year the firm named her Rookie of the Year.
“It’s so serendipitous for me,” Bensimon said. “My life has changed so much since I was on the show 10 years ago.”
Douglas Elliman’s Erin Lichy is also headed to the RHONY universe as part of the all new cast of the season 14 reboot of the show. Bravo announced the revamped series, after low ratings plagued the 13th season and prompted the network to cancel the reunion.
Bravo released the trailer for the show earlier this week. It’s set to premiere on July 16th at 9 p.m. ET.
Lichy is a member of the Eklund-Gomes team, which topped The Real Deal’s ranking of resale brokers in the city and placed fourth among new development brokers. Lichy has worked on several projects in the city, including Fortis’ Olympia Dumbo.
Read moreNationalElliman loses $18M in first quarterNew YorkEklund-Gomes signs 5-year deal with EllimanNew YorkBravo boss Andy Cohen in contract for West Village penthouseThe post Elliman agents headline new era of “Real Housewives of New York” appeared first on The Real Deal.
Seagate Technology Holdings, an Ireland-based hard drive maker, sold its 31-acre Fremont research campus to New York-based Madison Capital for $260 million, a roughly 13 percent discount from its asking price.
Seagate, which listed the campus for $300 million in November, agreed with Madison to a lease to remain at least for the time being at the 575,000-square-foot property at 47488 Kato Road, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
Seagate said in a statement that “no changes to the work experience” would happen for its employees at the campus, the outlet said.
The move comes after Seagate announced its plans last fall to cut its global employee headcount by nearly 8 percent.
The Fremont campus, just off Interstate 880, was built in 2010 for $300 million and once served as a Solyndra factory for solar arrays. Seagate paid $90.3 million for it in 2013 after Solyndra declared bankruptcy in 2011.
Seagate had sought $40 million more for the two-story, 31-acre campus — 11 of which are undeveloped — than it sold it for.
In 2016, Seagate transformed the Fremont campus with a $200 million renovation, according to the marketing brochure. The property achieved LEED Gold status and features a “combination of high-quality clean rooms, laboratories, first-class office space, heavy power and robust MEP infrastructure.”
Seagate has been consolidating its Bay Area properties since before the pandemic, according to the Business Times. In 2017, it ended a decades-long presence in Scotts Valley and in 2019 it sold a 140,000-square-foot office building in Cupertino.
Madison Capital manages about $3.2 billion in assets, the Times said, citing Madison’s website.
It’s at least the second large office campus sale in California in recent months.
In April, Shubin Nadal Realty Investors and DRA Advisors sold an office campus in Northridge for $171 million — a roughly 30 percent discount from its listing price.
Pendulum Property Partners, an investment firm based in Orange County, bought the 761,000-square-foot The Mix at Harman campus at 8500 Balboa Boulevard for about $224 per square foot.
— Ted Glanzer
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Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there*.
(*Except for new homeowners in California.)
Citing rising construction costs and increasing wildfires in the state, State Farm General Insurance Company announced it is no longer accepting new applications for property insurance in California, The Orange County Register reported.
The move does not affect personal auto insurance or existing home policies, which remain in effect, the outlet reported.
“State Farm General Insurance Company made this decision due to historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market,” the company wrote in a press release. “We take seriously our responsibility to manage risk. … [I]t’s necessary to take these actions now to improve the company’s financial strength.”
State Farm — which is the biggest car and home insurer by premium volume in the country — has just over 8 percent of the property and casualty insurance policies in California, the Register said, citing 2021 data from the state.
It’s the latest move by insurers to pull back from a state that in some parts are rife with wildfires, which makes it more expensive for homeowners to protect their homes, according to the Wall Street Journal. Most of those withdrawals, however, have been limited to places prone to wildfires or to properties without fire-resiliency features, the outlet said.
A California Department of Insurance spokesperson told Fox Business that the reasons behind the company’s decision to pull back from issuing new policies in the state were “beyond our control.”
Early last year, California unveiled standards to keep older homes safe from wildfires, aiming to keep insurance costs affordable after fires last year consumed about 4.2 million acres, damaged or destroyed almost 10,500 structures and killed 30 people.
The rules include a fire-resistant roof, at least five feet of defensible space around the home and a clearly defined evacuation route. While the state already has standards for homes built before 2008, the new standards aim to encourage insurance companies to offer discounts and provide incentives to retrofit older homes.
Twelve insurers, representing 40 percent of the market, offer discounts to owners who take measures to protect homes, compared with 7 percent three years ago.
“Reducing the wildfire risk is critical to making insurance available, reliable and affordable for all Californians,” he said.
— Ted Glanzer
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A luxe Aspen, Colorado, home sold for $65 million, a hefty price to be sure, but well below the $100 million it was listed for.
Detroit manufacturing entrepreneur Joel Tauber and his family sold the 10-bedroom, 11-bathroom mansion, which sits on 1.4 acres, to an unknown buyer, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Steven Shane of Compass had the listing.
The home, built in 1979 and renovated in 2015, is more than 14,000 square feet and is near the Little Nell ski run, about 100 yards from the gondola’s base. The home is accessible via an elevator and a short bridge that connects to the main entrance on the second floor.
The two-story foyer resembles an upscale department store or hotel, with a large chandelier, wood-paneled walls and small balconies overlooking it from the floor above. The great room has a stained-glass ceiling and walls of windows and skylights that provide views of the surrounding mountain and downtown Aspen.
It has a slope-side ski room with lockers, 5,000 square feet of deck and patio space, a home gym, a media room and two kitchens.
Even though the home was sold for well below its asking price, it still fetched far more than the $9 million that Tauber bought the property for back in 1996. And while it didn’t set an Aspen record (that belongs to former pro hockey player Patrick Dovigi’s purchase of a home for $72.5 million in 2021), the sale did set a record for downtown Aspen, according to the Journal.
While there has been a residential downturn, that’s not the case for trophy homes in Aspen.
In addition to his record purchase, Dovigi also sold an Aspen home for $55 million, $10.5 million more than he paid for it, in December 2022.
Last September, William Wrigley Jr., the heir to the Wrigley Gum fortune, sold his Aspen estate for $30 million.
The 7,500-square-foot mansion was purchased by a trust tied to the Richter family. Wrigley is the great-grandson and namesake of William Wrigley Jr., who founded the chewing gum empire in 1891. The contemporary Wrigley Jr. is the former CEO of Wrigley Company, which Mars bought for $23 billion in 2008.
— Ted Glanzer
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The gender gap may be closing in luxury real estate home ownership.
More than half — 54 percent — of luxury homeowners under the age of 35 are women, reflecting a transforming luxury real estate market landscape, according to a survey by Luxury Portfolio International.
Men still represent the majority — 59 percent — of luxury homeowners between the ages of 35 and 64, but women are on the rise among the younger subset of wealthy buyers.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, 44 percent of luxury homebuyers were female. Data from the report showed the figure steadily ticked up by two percent each year after that, before reaching 49 percent in the second quarter of 2023.
The study compiled responses from just over 1,400 people from 24 countries on five continents who had a minimum income of $250,000 per year and an average home value of more than $3.3 million.
That there is a wealth gap between men and women isn’t exactly a new concept.
In 2020, a published study by Yale University revealed single women who buy real estate see 1.5 percent lower annual returns on their investment compared to their male counterparts, according to a recently published Yale study. The researchers analyzed U.S. transactions from 1991 to 2017.
Mickey Alam Khan, president of Luxury Portfolio International, said the gains by women in the sector is “refreshing” and said agents in the high-end market should “adjust their marketing strategy accordingly.”
The gender gap wasn’t the only noticeable change among the subset of buyers. In a sign of shifting attitudes toward technology and the digital world, the report found 46 percent of luxury home buyers under 35 said they found social media advertising to be the most effective platform.
The younger set of luxury buyers also place more importance on an agent’s brokerage affiliation, while buyers older than 35 prioritize local market knowledge.
Additional findings show shifting priorities among generations, with 52 percent of luxury homeowners under the age of 35 owning extended-family properties (apparently placing a higher priority on family and communal living), compared with less than 38 percent of luxury homeowners aged 35 to 64.
— Ted Glanzer
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How much would you pay for a ghost town?
There’s one in Arizona that comes complete with a refurbished general store. The owner is asking $1.1 million. A cannabis company tried selling the desert town of Nipton in California for $5 million, but ultimately only got $2.5 million from the adult circus that now owns it.
Putting those meager millions to shame, a secretive company with the nondescript moniker Ecology Mountain Holdings just bought a California ghost town for $22.5 million, SFGate reported.
The only publicly available information about the buying entity is its name; its Cerritos, California address; and that it bought the ghost town, Eagle Mountain, California.
The seller was Eagle Mountain Acquisition LLC, an apparent affiliate of Kaiser Steel, the long-gone steel company that established the town in 1948, according to the outlet. Kaiser Steel was one of many companies owned and led by Henry J. Kaiser, a 20th century industrialist who had shipbuilding, health care, automobile, aluminum, real estate and media enterprises. His most visible legacy remaining today is the health care giant Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser’s Eagle Mountain, a three-hour drive inland from Los Angeles and far out-shined by its neighbor, Joshua Tree National Park, became a thriving steel town for a few short decades, according to the outlet. The mine’s employee base swelled to just under 1,000, and they were served by an early model of the Kaiser prepaid health care plan.
The town opened a post office, a 350-seat rec center and a 100-student high school in its good years. But Kaiser Steel closed its doors in 1983, and so did the Eagle Mountain mine. The prosperity of blowing iron ore out of the hillside had withered.
After the mining business died, a private prison called the Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility briefly operated in town.
While some ghost towns like Nipton have been rebranded into tourist attractions, Ecology Mountain Holdings’ ambitions for this redevelopment remain, like most things with the company, unknown.
–– Kate Hinsche
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Real estate boils down to how much a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to accept.
Duh.
But last week showed the market is more than a little helter skelter, not only with sales prices, but also with the way in which players conduct themselves.
Nowhere was that more evident than in New York City, where the Flatiron Building saga appeared to come to a close when the building’s majority owners, led by Jeffrey Gural, beat out at least four other bidders to acquire the landmark at a second auction last week.
The first auction in March saw Gural outbid by unknown Jacob Garlick, who won with a $190 million bid. Two days later, however, Garlick failed to put down the deposit, triggering a do-over and a lawsuit by Gural’s group against Garlick and his investment firm Abraham Trust.
Fast forward to last week and closure wasn’t on everyone’s mind. Indeed, as Gural spoke to reporters — presumably ready to put the matter to bed — a man began to scream at Gural’s lawyer, Richard Dolan.
“Get ready for the fucking lawsuits,” the man shouted. “We’ll see you at either the Appellate Division or the fucking Supreme Court.”
Putting aside that the highest court in New York state is the milquetoast-named Court of Appeals, the threat of litigation didn’t seem to phase Gural.
“Lovely,” Dolan responded. “The court is open every day.”
“You better fucking believe it,” the man hollered back.
Another thing that had to be seen to be believed was the price Safe Harbor spent — an eye-watering $149 million — to buy the Montauk Yacht Club from Gurney’s, setting numerous records along the way. The sale was completed last year, but the price was only just recently revealed.
Even that number wasn’t close to the California record $200 million that music royalty couple Jay-Z and Beyonce paid for a Malibu estate designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
Not everything was so rosy on the commercial side, however, as Vornado sold its Rego Park development site at 93-30 93rd Street to Queens developer Chris Jiashu Zu for about $70 million, which was 16 percent shy of the $85 million the REIT initially sought two years ago.
It’s a tough time for commercial buyers and sellers, but that isn’t stopping Vornado from looking to raise cash by selling assets.
The bad news isn’t limited to New York, with Melohn Group is projected to default on a Chicago building’s $105 million debt package after losing some crucial tenants.
The investor is on track for an “imminent default due to cash flow issues” on the loan it obtained in 2017 against the 24-story, 575,000-square-foot building at 111 West Jackson Boulevard, according to credit ratings agency DBRS Morningstar.
The post A helter-skelter week in commercial, residential real estate appeared first on The Real Deal.
The City of Los Angeles may expand a policy that helped create 12,000 homes out of old office buildings in Downtown.
The city aims to expand a 1999 adaptive reuse ordinance credited with an explosive growth of homes Downtown by allowing the conversion of vacant office buildings into housing everywhere, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
As the city faces a state mandate to accommodate 255,000 more homes by 2030, the policy could be extended from Sylmar to San Pedro.
“Los Angeles needs more housing that Angelenos can afford,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “Adaptive reuse development can help bring much-needed housing online throughout the city.”
Los Angeles leaders see the expansion of the adaptive reuse ordinance as a key strategy in a citywide housing incentive program allowing the city to meet its Housing Element, the state-mandated plan for building more homes.
Only buildings completed before July 1, 1974 in a handful of Central Los Angeles neighborhoods are eligible for conversion through the program.
The draft ordinance now under consideration by Planning Department officials would expand eligibility to include all buildings citywide which are at least 15 years old; buildings between five and 15 years old with the approval of a conditional use permit by the Zoning Administrator; and any parking garage that is at least five years old.
While the adaptive reuse ordinance has enabled the construction of more than 12,000 homes in Downtown, past efforts to expand its reach to other parts of the city have come with the caveat of only allowing income-restricted housing.
But with the market for offices tanking in the era of remote work, calls for converting empty buildings into apartments and condominiums have picked up steam.
Regulations proposed under the new ordinance would continue to offer more flexibility for the conversion of historic buildings, including exemptions from parking requirements and limits on residential density.
Conversion projects would remain subject to the city’s linkage fee ordinance, which charges developers to generate funds for new affordable housing developments.
The Planning Department is now conducting a feasibility study to determine if affordability requirements are economically viable for adaptive reuse projects. Current regulations allow developers to pay an in-lieu fee rather than building affordable units on-site.
Planning staff will host three webinars from June 6 through June 8, offering information on the draft ordinance and opportunities for feedback.
Los Angeles County could add up to 113,000 residential units by converting underused hotels, offices and other commercial buildings, according to a RAND study released last year.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesLA landlords eye office-to-housing conversionsLos AngelesHotel, office conversions could be housing pipeline: StudyLos AngelesKoreatown office building poised for residential conversionThe post LA could expand office-to-home conversions across city appeared first on The Real Deal.
Here’s the story of a man named Brady, whose iconic Studio City home as seen in “The Brady Bunch” has hit the market for $5.5 million.
The 5,100-square-foot dwelling made famous by the TV show about a blended family in the 1970s has been listed at 11222 Dilling Street, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. The seller is HGTV, a unit of Warner Bros.
The five-bedroom, five-bathroom home, built in 1959 has been “meticulously rebuilt and designed to replicate the set of the home from the beloved 1970s sitcom,” according to the listing.
There’s no mistaking the floating staircase, burnt orange-and-avocado green kitchen and Jack-n-Jill bathroom between the kids’ bedrooms.
A swing set, teeter-totter and Tiger’s dog house dominate the backyard.
The home’s contents are included in the sale, according to the Daily News.
Danny Brown of Compass has the listing. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the home will go to “Turn Up! Fight Hunger,” a partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery and No Kid Hungry to end childhood hunger in the U.S.
It was in July 2018 when the celebrity house came up for sale for the first time in nearly a half-century and sparked a bidding war that involved singer Lance Bass of ‘Nsync fame, but which HGTV won. The network paid $3.5 million, 86 percent more than its $1.9 million asking price.
At that time, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who oversees HGTV, announced plans to “restore the Brady Bunch home to its 1970s glory.”
As part of the renovation, HGTV sank $1.9 million and added 2,000 square feet to the home, which fed Bradymania.
More than 28 million viewers tuned into “A Very Brady Renovation” to watch actors who played the six Brady kids reunite and turn the home into a replica of the original TV set. They returned to the renovated house for a holiday special.
“We did everything we dreamed of doing with the house and delighted a lot of Brady Bunch fans in the process, but it’s time for us to let it be loved and enjoyed by someone else,” a statement attributed to HGTV read.
Read moreLos AngelesMidwood Investment partly settles Erewhon suit at Sportsmen’s Lodge Los AngelesHackman plans $1B revamp of former ViacomCBS lot in Studio CityLos AngelesGelt pays $76M for 149-unit complex in Studio CityThe post HGTV lists restored “Brady Bunch” house in Studio City for $5.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
For decades, Arlington Park withstood pounding hooves. In mere days, it could fall to swiping claws.
The Chicago Bears are closer to building a new stadium after the village of Arlington Heights issued a demolition permit at the former Arlington International Racecourse horse track site, where the NFL team is planning a $5 billion gameday venue, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The permit is designated for the interior portion, marking the first phase of the teardown. The Bears expect to start the process Tuesday, without using explosives or implosion to execute the job, according to a team representative.
Village spokesperson Avis Meade said Arlington Heights and Cook County would review and approve demolition plans for the exterior buildings on the site. In total, the job is expected to cost around $3.8 million, with $1.48 million coming from the first phase of the tear-down. The team posted a plan for removing demolition debris on its website.
The Bears finalized a deal to pay $197 million for the racecourse property in February. In addition to the stadium, the project is slated to include residential, commercial and entertainment aspects.
The team has faced its fair share of challenges in pursuit of a new venue, as it plans to move on from the historic Soldier Field, where the team has played on Chicago’s Lake Michigan shoreline since the 1920s.
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi recently reset the land value of the former racecourse to $197 million, a staggering increase from its previous tax value of roughly $33.5 million. The Bears are in the process of appealing the assessment.
The team is also currently negotiating a property tax battle with a trio of school districts whose assessments could also increase as a result of the new stadium, the outlet said. The districts have suggested the team settle on a $95 million valuation of the land, which the team’s President Kevin Warren called a “nonstarter.”
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoBears fight back after $197M assessment of new stadium siteChicagoBears rushing the end zone on $197.2M Arlington Racecourse dealThe post Demolition permit issued for Bears’ new stadium site in Arlington Heights appeared first on The Real Deal.
About eight years after construction started, Ian Bruce Eichner’s odyssey to sell out Madison Square Park condo tower was almost complete.
He had settled disputes with his partners and after a sluggish start to sales had sold all but one unit in the 83-unit building.
But now, residents at the noteworthy Manhattan condo have alleged a laundry list of defects, including a life-threatening lack of a firestop, a multimillion-dollar building maintenance unit that never worked, drafty windows and badly installed hardwood floors.
In a lawsuit, the condo board also claims the developer has not secured a permanent certificate of occupancy, imperiling their mortgage agreements and creating a risk that the Department of Buildings will order them to vacate.
The board also alleges the developer and project partners Fortress Investment Group and Dune Real Estate pilfered its assets and walked away with millions of dollars in distributions.
The suit says Madison Realty Capital in 2018 lent the project $167.5 million, which was more than the equity the partners put in, and that the loan should have been classified as an equity investment because Madison seized proceeds from unit sales.
A Madison subsidiary provided the loan, secured by the unsold units, a spokesperson for the lender said. “The loan has been paid down, with one unit remaining from the initial collateral,” the spokesperson said. (That unit is a $20 million duplex.)
Eichner has not responded to the lawsuit and did not return a request for comment.
Lawsuits brought by boards of luxury condos are not uncommon in New York City. Residents at the supertall 432 Park Avenue brought a case alleging faulty elevators and flooding, which the developers called “vastly exaggerated.”
Eichner began the Madison Square Park project by buying air rights from a co-op in the middle of the block before asking the owner of the neighboring building to throw out a price for the assemblage’s first piece of land.
He ended up buying $100 million worth of air rights and seven properties to build the Madison Square Park tower. He snagged $85 million from Fortress and Dune and put in $61 million of his own money before securing $343 million in construction financing from Goldman Sachs.
The 65-story project in the Flatiron District was supposed to be his comeback project in New York after what he called his 15-year “exile to the desert.” Eichner, a New York developer, built the Cosmopolitan casino in Las Vegas before losing it to foreclosure.
Sales for Madison Square Park launched in 2015 to some success; about half of the development’s 83 units were in contract by that October. But when construction finished in the summer of 2017, about a third of Eichner’s units remained unsold and soon Eichner was in danger of losing the project.
He sued his partners, Fortress and Dune, claiming they stopped his efforts to refinance and pushed him to the verge of default. But he avoided that by landing the Madison Realty Capital loan in June 2018 and ended his litigation with Dune and Fortress. Around the same time, condo sales started to pick up.
Eichner appeared to be in the clear, ready to focus on an ambitious project in Miami, when the condo board sued.
The condo board’s attorney did not return a request for a comment. The architect Hill West, which was also named in the lawsuit, declined to comment.
Read moreNew YorkEichner's Madison Square Park saga enters final actNew YorkEichner in danger of defaulting on Flatiron condo project: lawsuitNew YorkEichner hunting for $180M condo inventory loan in FlatironThe post Condo board alleges defects at Eichner’s Madison Square Park tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
48 Cortland Avenue, a surviving 1906 earthquake refugee cottage, in San Francisco, California. The fate of two quake shacks in Noe Valley is at the heart of a dispute between neighbors and a developer. (Stephen Lam/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)It ain’t easy getting things built in San Francisco.
To wit, Noe Valley neighbors are battling a developer over the fate of two so-called quake shacks — built when the city was dealing with a huge homeless crisis following the 1906 earthquake, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Developer John Shrader has backed away from an initial plan that called for the shacks at 369 Valley Street to be torn down to make way for a large manse on the parcel. Instead, he is looking to incorporate the two structures into the design of a more modest 2,700-square-foot home, the outlet reported. Part of the plan calls for the shacks to be moved on the parcel.
“I do understand that quake shacks are by their nature historic, and we’ve changed our plans a half-dozen times, but there are people who keep opposing this project,” he told the Chronicle. “I don’t know what it is. If feels like — you know how San Francisco is just antidevelopment? Maybe that’s what’s going on here.”
Critics, meanwhile, say the quake shacks — thousands of which were hastily built to house the poor and working class who were left homeless due to the devastating earthquake — should be left alone.
“The history is what this is all about,” said John Blackburn, a quake shack historian, told the Chronicle. “They helped the working class have their first homes way back then, they represent the resilience of San Francisco, and today there are so very few of them left. …
“[T]hey’re really important. We have to preserve them.”
Shrader, who has tried to get a home built on the parcel for nine years, will have his plan reviewed at a hearing before the city’s Zoning Administrator sometime this month, the outlet said.
Regardless of who prevails, the outcome is almost sure to be appealed, with neighborhood and historic groups lining up to keep the shacks unscathed.
“Our view is that the shacks might not survive being moved, and even if they survive, they might not be recognizable as earthquake shacks,” Marc Norton, who lives across from the parcel, told the Chronicle. “That’s not acceptable.”
— Ted Glanzer
The post Battle over San Francisco’s Historic quake shacks appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)The City of Brotherly Love has no love for commercial real estate.
Office occupancy in Greater Philadelphia has contracted by nearly 10 million square feet since 2019, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, citing data from CBRE. Hybrid work models and remote work have cut significantly into the market.
“The downtown market is beat up right now pretty good,” Nick Gersbach, senior vice president in CBRE’s Philadelphia office, told the Inquirer. “I’ve been here 23 years in this market, and I haven’t seen it contract at this pace before … We’re a three- to five-year window from stabilizing and experiencing a slow recovery. … People are not going back into offices.”
The concern is that rather than a sluggish recovery, the current situation is really the new normal, leaving the office sector to grapple with how to deal with the losses.
Trophy buildings are feeling less of the pinch, with the vacancy rate in downtown Philadelphia at just above 10 percent at the end of the first quarter of this year.
“There is still a core set of buildings in Philadelphia suburbs and in core [city] locations, where we have started to see signs of recovery in that trophy set and in very specific sub markets,” Joe Gibson, associate director of research at CBRE, told the Inquirer. “But if deals are getting done, they tend to still go to those higher end buildings, looking to amenities and quality space to get people back in the office.”
Class B buildings are being hit even harder.
Philadelphia is hardly alone, with cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., among others, struggling with low office occupancy rates.
For example, about 2.2 million square feet of office leases in Los Angeles were signed in the first quarter of this year — down 37 percent compared to the last quarter of 2022 and about 40 percent year-over-year, according to a CBRE report.
Meanwhile, the office vacancy rate in San Francisco spiked to 29.5 percent in the first quarter, up nearly 2 percent since the end of last year and nearly 10 percent from a year ago, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing data from the brokerage CBRE.
While Philadelphia may not be appealing to go to work in an office, people still want to live there.
“There’s this weird phenomenon of residential construction continuing at a strong pace in Philadelphia, people wanting to live in the city, wanting to play in the city, wanting to dine in the city as restaurants and retail are reemerging,” Gersbach told the Inquirer. “But for whatever reason, not wanting to go into an office in the city.”
— Ted Glanzer
The post Philadelphia’s “beat up” office market struggles to recover appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty)A custom-built, rustic home set on 221-acres in Parish, New York, has listed for $1.3 million.
The 2,750-square-foot home, which was completed in 1997, has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and has the look and feel of a ski lodge, with tall windows, stonework and red oak floors, Syracuse.com reported.
“We tried to bring the elegance to the woods,” owner Matt Jarvis told the outlet.
Robin Gedney Lucas of Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
The Jarvis family has lived on the property for more than 50 years, when Matt Jarvis’ parents purchased 120 acres in 1970. Matt Jarvis then purchased another 100 acres in 1987 before building their dream home.
The master bedroom on the second floor has walk-in closets and an interior balcony. A 900-square-foot basement includes a living room, kitchenette and a bathroom, the outlet reported.
The owners’ bedroom has his-and-her walk-in closets, and its balcony offers the best “look in the house.”
A pine-paneled walk-out basement adds an additional 900 square feet to the house. It has a living room, small kitchenette, bedroom, and a full bathroom.
The large parcel, which Jarvis told Syracuse.com is “year-round sportsman’s paradise,”l is a major attraction.
The grounds include a covered carport, wine alcove, porch swings, flower gardens, a potting shed, outdoor shower, dog kennels and a “Queen Hut” that has a wood stove and brick pizza oven, according to the outlet.
The property can be used to hike, hunt and cross-country ski and it’s near prime fishing locations, Jarvis said.
“I ski out of my garage and go for miles and miles,” he told the outlet.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreThe post Upstate home on 221 acres lists for $1.3M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)Hoboken, New Jersey, is among the myriad municipalities in the state grappling with how to handle rent increases.
First, the city, which has some of the highest rents in the country, is considering filing a test case in state court to determine how much of a rent increase would be considered too high under state law, Patch.com reported.
A state law provides that rent increases on all units cannot be “unconscionable or unreasonable,” a vague standard that is open for interpretation, the outlet said.
The city is mulling whether to file for an injunction in state court — on behalf of tenants in a luxury building who are facing rent increases of 25 percent or higher — seeking clarification on the definition of “unconscionable and unreasonable.”
Precedent, according to the outlet, indicates that the number has been pegged at 25 percent, but advocates are still seeking clarity on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Hoboken City Council delayed a vote last week on a local ordinance — the other law that governs rent increases in the city — that would permit landlords who cut their rents during the pandemic to a one-time hike on rent-controlled units, Patch said.
The increase would be permitted either during a lease renewal or if a new tenant moves into a unit, NJ.com reported. If passed, landlords would not be able to ”bank increases” by raising rents for the multiple years they didn’t increase them during the pandemic, thus preventing sharp hikes.
Still, the proposed measure has drawn fire from landlord and tenant groups, with tenant advocates saying there is still no cap on how much rent can be increased.
“[Tenants are] locked in, even if they wanted to leave for whatever reason, and now the city council wants to pass an ordinance that’s going to pretty much ensure massive increases,” Tenant advocate Cheryl Fallick told NJ.com.
But landlords also were not thrilled with the proposal, saying a provision that, among other things, permits tenants to challenge a landlord’s rent calculation with city officials is too burdensome.
“All of these owners are in for an administrative nightmare,” Ron Simoncini of the landlord group Mile Square Taxpayer Association told NJ.com. “These are real people who own real property, who have to provision housing for real people, and they’re being treated as though this is all just some big ideological concept. It’s not.”
The median rent in Hoboken is nearly $3,800 a month, a $460 increase over the same time last year, according to Zillow.com.
Hoboken is far from the only city dealing with rising rents.
New York City’s rent board last week voted, over vocal objections, in favor of 2 to 5 percent rent increases on one-year leases on stabilized units and a 4 to 7 percent increase on two-year increases.
Separately, the body approved freezing rents on stabilized hotels.
While a far cry from the possible 8 percent increase on one-year leases and 16 percent hike on two-year terms initially discussed, the proposal was still criticized by landlords and tenant advocates.
“Any increase in rents right now will have crushing consequences for tenants already battling a historic affordability crisis, post-pandemic inflation, and a looming recession expected to hit later this year,”Adriene Holder, chief attorney of the civil practice at the Legal Aid Society, said in a statement.
Landlords, however, noted that the proposed increases aren’t high enough.
“With most buildings approaching 100 years old, the city’s rent-stabilized housing stock is on the brink of an insolvency crisis,” said Michael Tobman, director of membership and communications at the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group. “The RGB’s own data doesn’t lie: Costs increased dramatically and rent revenue declined.”
e court to determine how much of a rent increase would be considered too high under state law, Patch.com reported.
A state law provides that rent increases cannot be “unconscionable or unreasonable,” a vague standard that is open for interpretation, the outlet said.
The city is mulling whether to file for an injunction in state court — on behalf of tenants in a luxury building who are facing rent increases of 25 percent or higher — seeking clarification on the definition of “unconscionable and unreasonable.”
Precedent, according to the outlet, indicates that the number has been pegged at 25 percent, but advocates are still seeking clarity on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Hoboken City Council delayed a vote last week on a local ordinance — the other law governing rent increases in the city — that would permit landlords who cut their rents during the pandemic to a one-time hike on rent-controlled units, Patch said.
The increase would be permitted either during a lease renewal or if a new tenant moves into a unit, NJ.com reported. If passed, landlords would not be able to”bank increases” by raising rents for the multiple years they didn’t increase them during the pandemic.
Still, the proposed measure has drawn fire from both sides, with tenant advocates saying there is still no cap on how much rent can be increased.
“[Tenants are] locked in, even if they wanted to leave for whatever reason, and now the city council wants to pass an ordinance that’s going to pretty much ensure massive increases,” Tenant advocate Cheryl Fallick told NJ.com.
But landlords were also not thrilled with the proposal, saying a provision that, among other things, permits tenants to challenge a landlord’s rent calculation with city officials is too burdensome.
“All of these owners are in for an administrative nightmare,” Ron Simoncini of the landlord group Mile Square Taxpayer Association told NJ.com. “These are real people who own real property, who have to provision housing for real people, and they’re being treated as though this is all just some big ideological concept. It’s not.”
The median rent in Hoboken is nearly $3,800 a month, a $460 increase over the same time last year, according to Zillow.com.
Hoboken is far from the only city dealing with rising rents.
New York City’s rent board last week preliminarily voted, over vocal objections, in favor of 2 to 5 percent rent increases on one-year leases on stabilized units and a 4 to 7 percent increase on two-year increases.
Separately, the body approved freezing rents on stabilized hotels.
While a far cry from the possible 8 percent increase on one-year leases and 16 percent hike on two-year terms initially discussed, the proposal was still criticized by landlords and tenant advocates.
“Any increase in rents right now will have crushing consequences for tenants already battling a historic affordability crisis, post-pandemic inflation, and a looming recession expected to hit later this year,” Adriene Holder, chief attorney of the civil practice at the Legal Aid Society, said in a statement.
Landlords, however, noted that the increases aren’t high enough.
“With most buildings approaching 100 years old, the city’s rent-stabilized housing stock is on the brink of an insolvency crisis,” said Michael Tobman, director of membership and communications at the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group. “The RGB’s own data doesn’t lie: Costs increased dramatically and rent revenue declined.”
— Ted Glanzer
The post Hoboken grapples with potential rent increases appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)An Airbnb guest in Lynchburg, Virginia., apparently fell in love with a piece of art in his rental that he allegedly took it, the Washington Post reported.
Amy Corbett, the apartment’s owner, discovered that a painting of a map that hung above a couch had been replaced with a painting of an airplane propeller.
“It freaked me out,” Corbett, who doesn’t live in the apartment but rents it out and also uses it sometimes for work, told the outlet.
Security camera footage revealed a man taking a large item wrapped in a blanket outside of the apartment around checkout time. Shortly thereafter, the man, wearing different clothing, bringing a large item, also concealed, into the apartment. Corbett believes those items were pieces of art.
Corbett, who runs the short-term rental company All Belong Co, took to TikTok to share her experience, which earned the guest the nickname “the Airbnb bandit.”
Some said the new piece of art Corbett acquired was nicer than the map, while others theorized why the guest allegedly pulled the switch to begin with.
The guest, for his part, declined to answer Corbett’s inquiries. Corbett decided against going to the police — the map wasn’t expensive and it didn’t have much, if any, sentimental value.
So she turned to Airbnb, which ultimately paid her $100 for her loss, while the guest also kicked in $25 and was removed from the short-term rental site. Corbett didn’t get the original map back, so she had it replaced with a painting of the James River that she commissioned from a local artist.
In addition, Corbett raffled off the airplane-propeller painting, raising close to $1,500m which was donated to a housing instability nonprofit.
“It blew me away that out of this, we were able to do something good for humanity,” Corbett told the Post.
— Ted Glanzer
The post “Airbnb bandit” stole painting, replaced it with another appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A Massachusetts landlord will pay $450,000 in a settlement resolving allegations he serially sexually harassed and assaulted female tenants.
Salazar Dos Santos, a longtime landlord in Chicopee, Massachusetts, will pay $425,000 to victims and a $25,000 civil penalty to settle the lawsuit filed against him in 2019, according to an announcement by the Department of Justice. In the settlement, Dos Santos is also barred from managing any residential properties and must hire an independent property manager.
Dos Santos has managed eight properties with about 40 individual units in Chicopee, a city outside the Massachusetts capital Springfield, for decades, according to the suit. Various trusts tied to him own the properties, including the Trust of Salazar Dos Santos and the Trust of America Dos Santos, which are named as defendants in the Justice Department’s lawsuit.
The Justice Department’s suit alleged that for more than a decade, Dos Santos harassed and assaulted tenants, frequently offering to exchange sex for rent.
The Justice Department’s suit alleges that between 2008 and 2009, Salazar Dos Santos coerced female tenants to perform oral sex for him, exposed his penis to them, subjected them to unwanted sexual contact and advances, and threatened women who resisted and objected to his sexual harassment.
One former tenant told the Justice Department that Dos Santos required her to pay her rent in person, would lock his office door and demand she perform oral sex on him. When she did not have childcare, he forced her to do so in front of the tenant’s infant, the suit alleges.
Another female tenant told the Justice Department that Dos Santos entered her home in 2019, took out his penis, masturbated and demanded oral sex. She took his harassment to be, “an implied offer of sex for rent,” the lawsuit says.
“Coercing tenants to engage in sex acts and retaliating against those who resist are among the most egregious forms of sexual harassment that we see today,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark said in the press release.
The investigation was a part of the Justice Department’s Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative, which is led by the Civil Rights Division. The DOJ launched the initiative in October 2017, at the outset of the national #MeToo movement. Since then, the initiative has secured more than $10 million in settlements for victims of sexual harassment in housing, according to the Department of Justice.
Read moreTri-StateAmerican Dream owner Triple Five Group hit with sexual harassment suitLos AngelesFeds settle sexual harassment case with LA property manager, ownerNew YorkInside real estate's bro cultureThe post New England landlord accused of serial sexual harassment to pay $450K settlement appeared first on The Real Deal.
(realtor.com)PGA star Justin Thomas is taking a big swing in the Florida real estate market.
The winner of two PGA Championships has listed his 5,500-square-foot mansion at 5745 Pennock Point Road in Jupiter for $3.65 million, twice what he purchased it for in 2016, according to a press release.
Former professional golfer Johnny DelPrete of Douglas Elliman has the listing.
The home — which has four bedrooms, five bathrooms and two half-bathrooms — sits on 0.86 acres in the Pennock Point neighborhood.
The primary suite has two walk-in closets as well as two separate vanities in the bathroom, according to the release. Upgrades include a 1,100-square foot addition over the garage. A game room comes with a kitchen and bar area, as well as
The grounds include a pool, a living and dining area, a summer kitchen, covered patio, outdoor shower as well as water-ramp access to launch jet skis and kayaks, among other things.
Thomas, 29, has won 15 tournaments on the PGA tour as well as a FedEx Cup Championship. He is one of only six golfers in PGA history to have won 15 tournaments and two majors before his 30th birthday, according to the release.
A former No. 1-ranked golfer in the world, he’s currently ranked 15th.
Thomas has been active in the Jupiter real estate market. In November 2022, he bought the house at 19311 Riverside Drive for $13.5 million from local spec developers Gregory and Alejandra Delange.
South Florida is a popular locale for golfers. PGA tour great Greg Norman and his wife Kiki sold his Jupiter Island estate in 2021 for $55 million, and purchased a smaller mansion for $15 million in Palm Beach Gardens.
In March 2021, the former mansion of pro golfer Lee Westwood at 12235 Tillinghast Circle in Palm Beach Gardens sold for $12.2 million.
In December, Jack Nicklaus’ son, Steven Nicklaus sold his waterfront mansion after listing it in 2020 for $6.2 million, and in June pro golfer Charl Schwartzel sold his golf course adjacent mansion for $9 million to the managing director of private equity firm Stone Point Capital.
The post PGA star Justin Thomas lists Jupiter home for $3.6M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Tony Ray Peralta (Getty, Chaves County Jail)It wasn’t quite “The Tell-Tale Heart,” but a New Mexico man’s guilty conscience led to his arrest on suspicion of murder after admitting he killed his landlord in 2008.
Tony Ray Peralta, 37, of Roswell, apparently wracked with guilt, borrowed a cellphone while at a store and dialed 911 to tell police that he’d killed his landlord, William Blodgett, 15 years ago and where he’d buried the body, Fox News reported.
Police went to a former residence of Peralta’s and found bones, dentures and a boot beneath the floorboards of a detached room on the side of the house. The dentures were compared with Blodgett’s dental records and were a match, according to police.
Peralta told investigators he didn’t have a motive for killing Blodgett, who was 69 years old, the outlet reported citing court papers. He came forward because “his heart hurts” and that he was wracked with guilt over the killing, Fox reported.
“[H]e was a good man and that he didn’t deserve what I did,” Peralta told police, according to Fox. “I don’t have an excuse. A lot of people have an excuse, I don’t have one.”
Peralta is being represented by a public defender in the major crimes unit.
Blodgett’s family and girlfriend hadn’t heard from him since December 2008. Peralta, according to Fox, was initially a suspect in Blodgett’s disappearance following an alleged argument the two had. Blodgett also may have been trying to evict Peralta.
The investigation eventually went cold after police — finding no signs of foul play — interviewed people close with Blodgett as well as his neighbors. A cadaver dog was also deployed on the property, but did not find anything.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Man confesses to killing ex-landlord 15 years later appeared first on The Real Deal.
William Means Real Estate’s Bonnie Geer with 18 Broad Street (William Means Real Estate, Google Maps, Getty)Being the record spender in Charleston is not good enough for a telecommunications entrepreneur. She wants to be the record seller, too.
American Broadband co-founder Jane Eudy listed her penthouse at 18 Broad Street in the South Carolina city for $14.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. If Eudy fetches that price, it will be the most expensive home sale in city history, according to the listing agent.
Reigning atop the People’s Building in the French Quarter, the unit spans 8,400 square feet with three bedrooms. There are dozens of arched windows, two fireplaces, two kitchens and a billiards room. The primary bedroom suite also has its own dog-washing room, wet bar and study with a fireplace.
The unit also has a rooftop terrace with views of some of the city’s most prominent sites. The owner of the unit gets three parking spaces at the property, which includes offices on the lower levels.
Eudy rented in the building before purchasing the penthouse in 2020 for $12 million, which was a city record at the time. It has since been eclipsed by a $13.5 million single-family home sale in 2021.
William Means Real Estate’s Bonnie Geer has the listing.
Eudy is one of the co-founders of American Broadband, an internet and telecommunications service provider. She sold it in 2021, while she was living at the penthouse with two of her children and a dog. Eudy is downsizing, planning to live at one of her other homes in the area.
Since Eudy is shooting for a record, it’s no surprise the listing far exceeds the median home sale in the city. In downtown Charleston, condos and townhouses sold for a median of $865,000 in March, which was up 31.1 percent year-over-year, according to the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkCharleston’s housing market jolted by young families, transplantsNationalSerhant expands to six East Coast markets New YorkKiawah Island plantation sells for $20.5M, breaking Charleston-area recordThe post Charleston penthouse seller reaches for a record appeared first on The Real Deal.
King Charles III (Getty Images)King Charles III has a real estate portfolio that’s, well, fit for a king.
The king, whose coronation was Saturday, counts farms, warehouses and office space among his real estate holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported. None of which, incidentally, does he have to pay an inheritance tax on.
Pinning down the king’s overall wealth is difficult, as such information is protected closely. However, the overwhelming majority of the monarch’s wealth comes from two property portfolios, the Crown Estate and the Duchy of Lancaster. Yearly payments from those funds — — which grew during the recent boom —increased more than 50 percent from 2012 to 2022 to $135 million, the outlet reported.
The Crown Estate, which reportedly is worth £15.6 billion, owns nearly 200,000 acres in Britain, and is broken down into four separate units: London, Regional, Marine and Windsor and Rural, CoStar reports.
The marine portion, which is valued at £5 billion, includes the entire seabed around the United Kingdom, stretching out 12 miles. Its profitability stems from controlling the rights to such vital economic activities as oil and gas pipelines, fishing, offshore wind and telecommunications, among other things, CoStar said.
The London portion has 10 million square feet of property in London, including choice luxury retail space along Regent Street, worth about £7 billion.
The regional business, valued at £1.7 billion in 2022, includes office parks, warehouses and mixed-use developments across Britain.
The Rural and Windsor portion includes about 200,000 acres of rural estates — including the Windsor Estate — and Ascot horse-racing course, CoStar said.
The second portfolio, Duchy of Lancaster, meanwhile, is composed of farmland and other choice London property, the Journal says.
“Prime property has performed well over the past 10 years,” Dan Labbad, the Crown Estate’s chief executive, told the Journal.
Other real estate holdings — namely at least seven palaces, 10 castles, dozen homes, 56 cottages and 14 ancient ruins — are controlled by the Crown Estate, the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall. Those include Buckingham Palace and Kew Palace, Insider reports.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Here’s a look at King Charles III’s real estate holdings appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Property tax assessments have arrived in Dallas-Fort Worth, adding to the list of challenges nationwide in commercial real estate.
Commercial valuations in Dallas County are up nearly 30 percent from last year, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing a study by Houston-based tax consultant O’Connor & Associates.
Hotels were hit with the biggest spike in values, up an average of 53 percent, followed by a 35 percent increase for apartments. Office buildings nationwide are undergoing a repricing due to scarce debt availability and other economic factors, but office valuations also jumped 19 percent in Dallas County.
“My desk is stacked,” said Candace Rubin, a Dallas-based investment adviser and broker who provides tax assessment and protest services for her clients. Most of her clients’ commercial properties have seen appraisal increases of just over 20 percent, she said.
The rise in property appraisals could compound other problems that have hampered the office market in recent months. Hiked interest rates, banking fallouts, lingering remote-work trends and fears of a possible recession are causing record high vacancies, slowed sales activity and lowered property values in many cities throughout the U.S.
Office transactions plummeted in DFW last quarter, with $227 million worth of sales. That’s down 80 percent year-over-year from $1.1 billion.
The new assessments are out of touch with the broader scope of the market, Dallas broker Mike Turner said.
“The tremendous increases in taxable values are a result of the robust markets we have experienced in the past,” Turner told the outlet. “The assessed values are to be as of January 1st of the tax year, so the trends at the latter part of 2022 should be taken into account when looking at 2023.”
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasBig Appraiser is watching youNationalCommercial real estate continues to get pummeledDallasDallas commercial market still reigns supremeThe post Oof! Property assessments soar in DFW appeared first on The Real Deal.
Golub & Co.’s Michael Newman; Blackwood Group’s Jose Duarte; 30 North LaSalle Street and 105 West Adams Street (Getty, Linkedin, Golub & Co., City of Chicago)Chicago officials have chosen two more office-to-residential conversion projects as finalists for its “LaSalle Street Reimagined” initiative, expanding one of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s signature pandemic recovery programs as she prepares to leave office.
A $178 million proposal from Celadon Partners and Blackwood Group to build 247 apartments at 105 West Adams Street, and another $143 million pitch by Golub & Co. and American General Life Insurance for 349 apartments at 30 North LaSalle Street joined three other projects in advancing to the next stage of the city’s selection process, the city said Friday afternoon.
“As LaSalle Street continues to evolve as one of the most distinguished and storied corridors in the Midwest, these conversions reaffirm the city’s support for innovative projects and improvements that reinforce its economic vitality for all Chicagoans,” Lightfoot said in a statement.
In March, city officials selected three projects to move forward with Lightfoot’s initiative to turn outdated and mostly vacant office buildings in the city’s historic financial corridor into housing, including affordable units, after hearing presentations from six development teams earlier that month.
Added together, the five projects total $890 million in development costs and would add 1,655 apartment units to the Loop, with more than 600 marketed as affordable. The developers are asking for a combined $323 million in tax increment financing. The projects require approval from the Community Development Commission and the city council.
The Department of Planning and Development and the Department of Housing are reviewing their applications for tax increment financing.
Chicago’s decision to expand the number of finalists comes as the future of the initiative is unclear. Lightfoot has less than 10 days left in office, and while Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson has expressed support for using tax increment financing for affordable housing, he’s also said the city can’t give away tax dollars to places that don’t need them.
With new city council members getting sworn in this spring, as well, real estate players will be monitoring their thinking on the Loop conversions to gauge potential support for other tax increment finance spending in Chicago.
Read moreChicagoCity gives nods to Reschke, Primo, AmTrust projects for Loop conversionsChicagoChicago weighs LaSalle’s $1.2B office-to-resi pitchesThe post Golub, Blackwood get nods for Loop office-to-resi conversions appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bally’s chairman Soo Kim and the Freedom Center in Chicago (Bally’s, Wikipedia/Sea Cow)Bally’s is all-in on its Chicago casino bet, having offered up house money to Tribune Publishing to complete an early move-out from the Freedom Center printing plant being redeveloped as a $1.7 billion entertainment complex.
Rhode Island-based Bally’s will pay the Chicago Tribune’s parent company a “series of cash payments” in return for its commitment to exit the Freedom Center in 2024 rather than in another decade, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Bally’s bought the 30-acre site for $200 million in November from Nexstar Media, followed by a sale-leaseback on the land with Oak Street Real Estate Capital, raising up to $500 million to help fund the project.
With Tribune Publishing’s previous lease of the printing plant originally set to expire in June, the company exercised an option to extend its stay for another 10 years. Bally’s and the publishing company then went to binding arbitration over terms of the deal, leading to an agreement in which Bally’s had to help find a new printing press location in exchange for Tribune’s departure. They opted for an undisclosed cash settlement instead, according to Bally’s chairman Soo Kim.
“We have come to an agreement that instead of us presenting a site, picking it and then building it, they’ve agreed to just handle that themselves,” Kim said.
Tribune Publishing has not announced plans for a new printing plant. The company, however, did say it’s committed to continue print editions.
The Bally’s casino complex is slated for an exhibition hall, a 500-room hotel, 3,000-seat theater, 10 restaurants and 4,000 gaming positions. The Rhode Island-based company expects to break ground next year, aiming for completion in 2026.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s selection of the Freedom Center among several other bids from developers such as Related Midwest and Bob Dunn’s Landmark Development for Chicago’s first casino was controversial, but ultimately got a majority of city council on board.
Bally’s is planning to open a temporary casino at Medinah Temple in River North this summer, though it still needs approval by the Illinois Gaming Board.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoBally’s finalizes $200M Freedom Center buy for casinoChicagoBally’s wins final Chicago City Council zoning for casinoChicagoAlden’s printing plant could cause a headache for Bally'sThe post Bally’s paying Tribune to clear Freedom Center for casino appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Jacob Garlick and Jeffrey Gural along with the Flatiron Building (Getty, GFP Real Estate)Jacob Garlick is feeling the heat.
The millennial who came out of nowhere to win a bidding war for the iconic Flatiron Building, then thrust the property into limbo days later by failing to put down a deposit for it, is now being sued by the man he outbid.
The building’s majority owners, a group led by Jeffrey Gural that had hoped to come away with the property at the auction, sued Garlick on Friday, claiming his winning $190 million bid was “fraudulent.”
Garlick never had the money for the $19 million deposit, despite his claims to the contrary, the plaintiffs allege. Now they’re asking the court to award them that amount plus additional damages from Garlick and his investment firm, Abraham Trust.
“He has to pay for the charade that he pulled, and that is the point of the lawsuit,” said Richard Dolan, co-founder of the law firm Schlam Stone & Dolan, which represents the plaintiffs.
The suit alleges Garlick defaulted on a contract that required a 10 percent down payment within two days. It also provides more details on the strange sequence of events that followed the auction, when Garlick’s attorneys made repeated assurances that he had the money to close the deal.
“Garlick’s high bid for the Flatiron Building earned him and Abraham Trust their 15 minutes of fame,” the complaint states, pointing to two news articles, including one in The Real Deal.
Moments after winning the dramatic live auction in March, Garlick, his paddle still in hand, addressed a small group of people in front of the New York County Courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
According to the complaint, he told those around him that he’d spent several hours the day before with Nathan Silverstein — his “distant relative” and the building’s minority owner, whose disputes with Gural resulted in the property being put up for auction. (Silverstein, who holds a 25 percent stake in the Flatiron Building, is neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the lawsuit.)
During the next two days, Garlick’s attorneys from Cooley, the Palo Alto-based law firm known for its ties to tech and venture capital, assured the building’s owners that Garlick had the $19 million deposit and a wire transfer was on the way. The March 24 deadline passed. The money never appeared.
Not to worry, said Garlick’s attorneys. The transfer never made it because of unspecified problems with two different banks, Truist Bank and then PNC Bank. Abraham Trust sought a one-day extension, the complaint alleges, promising that the money would be wired to the referee on March 27. But the Gural group said Garlick first needed to prove he had the funds to begin with.
“Defendants’ representations, to the effect that they had the funds available to pay the required down payment, were false,” the complaint states.
Gural previously told TRD that Garlick asked him if he could put up the $19 million deposit in exchange for a 10 percent stake in the vacant building.
“It was such a ridiculous proposal,” Gural said. “It concerned me. It was a red flag that he didn’t have the money.”
On March 30, the Gural group was given the option to acquire the property at its final bid of $189.5 million, which it declined. Garlick saw a chance to get back in. The same day, according to the complaint, he sought a 30-day extension on his down payment.
In early April, Garlick’s attorneys provided a redacted bank statement from Byline Bank in Chicago, which showed a closing balance of around $12 million but failed to identify the account holder, according to the suit.
Read moreNew YorkJacob Garlick wants back in on Flatiron BuildingNew YorkThe Flatiron fiasco: How a key blunder left a New York icon in limboNew YorkGarlick fails to cough up deposit for Flatiron Building The attorneys then provided a redacted inventory of property in Aspen, Colorado, and Napa, California, valued at $50 million and $75 million, respectively. The attorneys claimed both could be used by Abraham Trust for the purchase, but the material similarly failed to identify the properties’ owners.
The court-appointed referee decided to reschedule the auction. It’s set for May 23, with the added stipulation that a winning bidder must put down a $100,000 deposit on the spot. Given that low barrier to entry, there’s been speculation that Garlick could show up again.
Garlick and Abraham Trust did not return a request for comment.
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DrinkPAK’s Nate Patena and Center at Needham Ranch, Needham Ranch Parkway and Sierra Highway (CNR, LinkedIn)DrinkPAK, a maker of canned beverages ranging from coffee to cocktails, has inked a lease for two industrial buildings in Santa Clarita.
The contract manufacturer, based in the city, has leased 193,000 square feet at the Center at Needham Ranch at Needham Ranch Parkway and Sierra Highway, in Newhall, the Commercial Observer reported.
The lease will expand the firm’s footprint to 965,000 square feet at the industrial park near Highway 14, a mile north of Interstate 5.
The 1.7 million-square-foot Center at Needham Ranch, a joint venture between Dallas-based Trammell Crow and Clarion Partners, based in New York, is now fully leased ahead of its completion this year. Its tenants include Amazon.com and LA North Studios.
The 250-acre industrial park, which broke ground in 2017, has 11 Class A industrial buildings and four parking and outdoor storage lots.
DrinkPAK first signed for 172,300 square feet in Building 2 at Needham Ranch in October 2020, then added 400,100 square feet in Buildings 3 and 4 in April 2021, followed by 198,451 square feet in Building 14.
It now has 1.2 million square feet of manufacturing plants and warehouses across 41 acres in Santa Clarita, northeast of Los Angeles, according to its website.
Nate Patena, CEO of DrinkPAK, said the company has more than 500 employees and produces more than 2 billion cans each year, making its Santa Clarita facilities the largest canned beverage contract manufacturing site in the western U.S.
Trammell Crow’s John Balestra said the local industrial market has had record-low vacancy rates since Trammell Crow broke ground, mostly because of high land costs, entitlement challenges and soaring construction costs for developers in the San Fernando Valley infill market.
Brokers Patrick DuRoss, John DeGrinis and Jeff Abraham of Newmark represented DrinkPAK. Craig Peters, Cameron Merrill and Doug Sonderegger of CBRE were the leasing agents for the Center at Needham Ranch.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesDrinkPAK gulps down 400K sf at Needham Ranch complexLos AngelesLA North Studios signs big lease in Santa ClaritaLos AngelesAmazon expands LA footprint with big warehouse leaseThe post DrinkPAKexpands in Santa Clarita with 193K sf industrial lease appeared first on The Real Deal.
Skyline Management Group CEO Michael Chukerman with the Ascent portfolio (Skyline Management, CBRE) Skyline Management Group is looking to offload nearly a third of its multifamily units in Texas, according to a listing with CBRE.
The Los Angeles-based multifamily firm has listed four apartment buildings near the Domain in North Austin. Altogether, the properties have 534 apartments, about 30 percent of Skyline’s 1,836 units in Texas, according to figures on the firm’s website. The asking price wasn’t listed.
The properties, built in the 1970s and ’80s, have a total of 343,500 rentable square feet. The apartments average 643 square feet, and around half have been renovated.
Ascent at North Burnet, a 160-unit development at 1735 Rutland Drive, is the least-modernized of the portfolio at 35 percent renovated. Ascent at Northgate, located at 1830 West Rundberg Lane, is 59 percent renovated, with updated units drawing a $173 premium.
Rents range between $1,000 and $1,200, or $1.70 to $1.90 per square foot.
The pace of rent growth in Austin has slowed significantly in the last year after several years of double-digit increases. That has made value-add plays, dependent on rent increases to cover debt service, a harder sell.
Central Texas is Skyline’s biggest market, accounting for some 56 percent of its portfolio. The firm owns 1,863 units across 9 communities in Austin and San Antonio.
The Domain has one of the biggest office markets outside of the Central Business District, with almost 3 million square feet of space. Hines will be adding another 500,000 square feet in the area, and it already inked a 320,000-square-foot lease with IBM. Amazon, Facebook and Indeed also have offices in the area, and slightly farther north, Apple is building a 3 million-square-foot campus for the firm’s Austin operations.
Read moreLos AngelesMultifamily player Tides Equities faces $6.5B dilemma in the Sun BeltAustinApple plans another expansion of Austin office campusDallasIn Las Colinas, one behemoth wantedThe post Skyline offloading 500+ apartments in Austin appeared first on The Real Deal.
165 Surfside Drive in Bridgehampton (Bespoke Real Estate/Will Minnear Architect)A home on Surfside Drive in Bridgehampton hasn’t even been built yet, but it’s already one of the priciest listings on the East End.
The spec home at 165 Surfside Drive is on the market for $80 million, Behind the Hedges reported. The property is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Farrell Companies is building the home and designing the interior, while Will Minnear Architect is designing the house’s structure. It sits on a 1.5-acre parcel with 125 feet of Atlantic Ocean frontage.
The home will span 8,600 square feet with eight bedrooms and eight-and-a-half bathrooms. Much of the living space will be open-concept and a floating staircase will take residents up to the second floor.
The roof will feature a 4,500-square-foot terrace with a putting green, bar, dining area and miniature spa. There are plans for an attached six-car garage, a heated gunite pool and spa oceanside and a private boardwalk leading to the beach.
Bespoke Real Estate has the listing.The firm did not respond to a request for comment.
While that’s a hefty price for a home that’s still under construction, it’s not uncommon for such properties to be marketed before they’re finished. One reason is to allow for changes or customization by buyers. It also enables developers to more quickly pay off project loans, which rack up interest as giant properties linger on the market. Some can take years to sell.
This particular property went into contract to an undisclosed buyer at a $25 million ask a mere nine months ago. There was a smaller home sitting there at the time; one theory is the buyer swooped in, demolished the home and set out to build something much bigger.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreTri-StateOceanfront Bridgehampton home sells for $25MNew YorkModlin heads to the Hamptons Tri-StateHamptons builder Joe Farrell sued for $36M in tree-chopping disputeThe post Bridgehampton spec home listed for $80M appeared first on The Real Deal.
11542 Turtle Beach Road (Google Maps, Getty)The family of late developers Mary and William Ryan sold their oceanfront estate in North Palm Beach’s Lost Tree Village for $25 million, a steep discount off its $37.5 million initial asking price in August.
Records show the late couple’s daughters, Mary Ryan Buddig and Therese Ryan Rooney, sold the mansion at 11542 Turtle Beach Road to the Meritage Irrevocable Trust, with lawyer John T. Carey signing as trustee. The true buyer is unknown.
Paul Kaneb of K2 Realty and Bill Ryan of Compass had the listing, and James Kenny of K2 Realty brought the buyer.
Mary and William Ryan co-founded Lombard, Illinois-based Town & Country Homes in 1958, and grew the company to become one of the largest homebuilders in the United States. The Ryans and their children led the company until they sold it to Red Bank, New Jersey-based Hovnanian Enterprises in 2005 for an undisclosed amount. Builder Magazine ranked Town & Country as the 52nd largest builder in the country in 2004, according to Blackstone. Hovnanian estimated Town & Country would generate $640 million in revenue the year of the acquisition, according to the press release.
At the time of the acquisition, Hovnanian partnered with Blackstone Real Estate Advisors in a joint venture to own and develop Town & Country’s existing residential communities, according to Blackstone’s website.
Mary and William Ryan were frequent philanthropists. They donated to their namesake William G. and Mary A. Ryan Center for Heart and Vascular Medicine at Loyola University Medical Center and the Mary A. Ryan Endowed Scholarship Fund at St. Mary’s College. William Ryan died in January of last year, and Mary Ryan died last May.
The couple bought their 1-acre oceanfront estate in 1994 for $2.7 million, records show. They completed the 12,700-square-foot mansion in 1997, according to property records. It has 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and four half-bathrooms, the listing shows. The property also includes a two-bedroom, two-bathroom guesthouse, a pool, 103 feet of oceanfront and private beach access, according to the listing.
The Ryan family first listed the property for $37.5 million in August, and dropped the price to $32 million in March, Redfin shows.
The estate is in North Palm Beach’s Lost Tree Village, a gated golf community that has attracted big-name buyers over the years, including Visa chairman and CEO Alfred Kelly, Jr.
Other recent sales in North Palm Beach’s luxury market include a financier’s November purchase of a waterfront mansion for $10.9 million. The estate of a late food industry titan sold his oceanfront mansion for $22 million in March of last year.
Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison listed a North Palm Beach estate for $145 million in August, just a few months after he dropped $173 million on a 16-acre Manalapan estate.
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City council member Zo Qadri and Pearlstone Partners’ Robert Lee (Zo for Austin, Pearlstone Partners, Getty)The Austin City Council could allow developers to take parking into their own hands.
Council members moved forward with a plan to remove parking mandates citywide for all new developments, 10 years after lifting such mandates within the central business district, KVUE reported. The measure is meant to make Austin less car-reliant, while also opening up more room for future development.
Existing parking spaces wouldn’t be eliminated, said Councilmember Zo Qadri, who initiated the proposal. Property owners could choose how much space they reserve for cars when undertaking new projects.
“Our decades-old policy of top-down parking prescriptions has helped make Austin an overparked, sprawling, car-dependent city,” Quadri told the outlet. “Taking them out of our code will help us achieve our goals of being a safer, more accessible, affordable and sustainable community.”
Fewer parking lots could mean more room for housing to accommodate the steady flow of new residents, Councilmember Ryan Alter said. The measure prioritizes public transit and the environment, he said.
Opponents said the city should prioritize other changes. Councilmember Alison Alter cited staffing shortages within the planning department, for example.
Lifting parking mandates is a good idea, but the city must have a plan in place for improved public transit, said Robert Lee, the founder and CEO of Austin-based Pearlstone Partners.
“To get to a point where we’re able to really see the vision that the city has in terms of wanting to see reduced parking … the absolute need is to have a transportation plan,” Lee told the outlet.
The city has until Dec. 31 to bring the measure to a council vote.
If approved, Austin would join a growing list of cities that have taken similar action. In December, San Jose became the largest U.S. city to scrap minimum parking requirements. Boston also removed its parking mandate in January 2022 in an effort to kickstart more affordable housing.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreSan FranciscoSan Jose becomes largest US city to ditch minimum parkingNew YorkBoston to eliminate parking requirements to spur below-market residential developmentTexasAustin falls behind affordable housing goalThe post Austin considers lifting parking mandate appeared first on The Real Deal.
Terra Group’s David Martin with the Grove at Grand Bay at 2675 South Bayshore Drive (Terra Group, Google Maps)Developer David Martin sold his penthouse at Grove at Grand Bay for $17.8 million, seven years after completing the towers.
Records show Martin, CEO of Coconut Grove-based Terra, sold the 9,541-square-foot, five-bedroom condo at 2675 South Bayshore Drive via his GBPH Investments LLC.
A trust managed by James Zubok and Leon Medzhibovsky bought penthouse 1 in the south tower, records show. Zubok is a private equity investor and Medzhibovsky is a partner at DLA Piper, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
Miltiadis Kastanis and James Hait with Douglas Elliman were the listing agents. Compass broker Liz Hogan represented the buyer, according to Realtor.com. They declined to comment.
The unit traded for about $1,900 per square foot.
Martin’s Terra developed the Bjarke Ingels-designed project, a pair of 20-story twisty towers overlooking Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove. The development was completed in 2016. Buyers have included billionaire Mike Fernandez, retired baseball player and real estate investor Alex Rodriguez, and Martin’s father, Pedro Martin.
David Martin’s penthouse had been listed on and off the market for years, at one point asking $28 million while the project was under construction. It returned to the market with Eloy Carmenate and Mick Duchon in 2018 for $25 million, and again in late 2019 with Carmenate, Duchon, John Gomes and Fredrik Eklund for $19.8 million. It was listed last summer for $26 million, according to the listing.
The unit, which is partially built out, features a rooftop pool, 12-foot ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the unit. It’s unclear how much Martin paid for the penthouse, but developers who purchase in their own buildings will typically get a notable discount on their units.
Martin is building a waterfront mansion in northern Coconut Grove, near the entrance to Brickell.
Since he completed Grove at Grand Bay, he’s built the three Park Grove towers in Coconut Grove with Jorge Pérez’s Related Group, and is building the Mr. C Residences condo towers nearby. His Grove Central, a mixed-use apartment project with retail next to a Metrorail station on the north side of U.S. 1 and 27th Avenue, is also under construction.
Terra also has a number of projects outside of Coconut Grove. A group led by the firm and Martin is in contract to buy Genting Group’s 15.5-acre site in downtown Miami for more than $1.2 billion. That deal, where Martin likely plans a massive mixed-use community, is expected to close later this year.
Read moreThe post Terra’s David Martin sells Grove at Grand Bay penthouse for $18M appeared first on The Real Deal.
3305 York Road in Oak Brook with Diana Ivas with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago and Irena Bohne, the sellers wife (LinkedIn, Google Maps)BJ Bohne has helped countless builders reach new heights.
Now, the president and CEO of Imperial Crane Services — a Bridgeview-based company that rents and sells construction cranes — is shooting for the moon himself, in the world of high-end residential real estate.
A trust overseen by Bohne has listed an Oak Brook mansion for $7.9 million, the priciest home on the market in the western suburb and just a tad below the record sale price of $7.95 million for a DuPage County home, property records show. That mark was set in 2003 when former White Sox slugger Frank Thomas sold a 25,000-square-foot mansion in Oak Brook.
Bohne’s home was built in 2007 at 3305 York Road and has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms.
The 13,000-square-foot spread has an elaborate stone facade and a circular heated driveway. Other amenities include a four-car garage, weight room, spa, golf simulator room, pool, outdoor putting green, a guest house with full kitchen, a basement bar, recreation room, wine cellar, and elevator.
The home is the third-priciest on the market in DuPage County, beaten only by two Naperville homes — one asking $12.75 million and another seeking $10.5 million.
In recent years, home sales in DuPage haven’t exceeded $7.7 million.
Diana Ivas with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago is representing the listing, and did not respond to a request for comment. Neither Bohne nor his wife Irena Bohne responded to messages seeking comment.
DuPage County’s priciest listing is the 15,400-square-foot Naperville mansion owned by Jane Brooks and her late husband Don Brooks. The property at 222 West Van Buren Avenue came back on the market in February with a price cut from the $15 million it initially sought when first listed in 2021.
The five-bedroom, nine-bathroom home was built in 2019 and is on just over an acre of land on Van Buren Avenue, on the western edge of downtown. The seller intended to host events and fundraisers as well as live there. Don Brooks was the owner of the McCrone Group, an analytical laboratory company based in Westmont.
Read moreChicagoSuburban luxe listing rivals Chicago mega mansionsChicagoRecord Naperville listing cuts 15% off asking priceThe post Imperial Crane head lists Oak Brook mansion for near-record $8M price appeared first on The Real Deal.
Dallas attorney Lauren Cadilac, Tarrant County agent Chandler Crouch and KE Andrews’ Tony Trahan (Cadilac Law, Chandler Crouch Realtors, KE Andrews, Getty)When Tarrant County tax consultant Chandler Crouch knocked $100,000 off his client’s $900,000 appraisal, it was a win. But that victory didn’t taste nearly as sweet as the one that came shortly after, when Crouch, also an agent, turned around and sold the home for a little under $2.5 million, to his client’s joy and the tax appraiser’s dismay.
In Texas, where commercial and residential property sale prices are not required to be disclosed, appraisers have to do their work with limited data. They scrub every source they can — multiple listing services, CoStar, LoopNet.
But crusaders like Crouch have built businesses around what he calls a “completely screwed up” system. In his first year protesting appraisals, Crouch filed 1,700 protests with the Tarrant County Central Appraisal District. Last year, he hit 28,000, which led the appraisal district to say Crouch was making a “mockery of the current tax system.” He intends to file as many as 40,000 protests this year.
In part, the very ambiguity that so bothers property owners when their bill comes in high is the same uncertainty that gives them room to protest appraisals down, even those that are more or less the same as their sale price. Using custom-built software to handle the massive amount of paperwork tens of thousands of protests requires, Crouch whittles down cases to find ones he says require real work.
“First, we send a lowball offer on all of our properties. If, if they’re willing to agree to the lowest value that our evidence will justify, then we’re done,” Crouch said.
But for the vast majority of cases, it’s much simpler.
“They don’t want us in there doing 30,000 hearings,” Crouch said, “and they know that we have the data to back it up, because one time they called my bluff, and I sent in 191,000 pages of evidence.”
The ambiguity in appraisals can lead to incorrectly high assessments, but more often than not, it creates room for lower values than a building’s actual sale price.
“In property tax, we’re not trying to come up with an accurate value,” Crouch said. “An accurate value is a range, and all we have to do is determine if there’s data to justify a value within that range below what the appraisal district is proposing.”
From nothing, a number
Appraisers try their best to be polite.
“The good basis of an appraisal is comps,” said Brent South, chief appraiser at the Hunt County Appraisal District. His district receives notice every time a property trades hands, and it sends letters to the buyer and seller requesting more details on the sale.
“As you can imagine, we don’t get a very high response on that,” South said.
With little to go on, appraisers have to get creative to generate their valuations. Often, that means drawing on well-known real estate data providers, even though many in the industry don’t know appraisers are lurking.
“For what I do, generally the MLS is sufficient,” said Steve Kahan, an appraiser based in Houston who works with mortgage lenders. “That’s where we get the majority of our data from.”
In 2019, the Austin Board of Realtors claimed that Travis County Appraisal District had inappropriately obtained home sale data from CoreLogic. The appraisal district later confirmed that it had bought the data from CoreLogic but argued there was nothing wrong with the move. CoreLogic soon terminated its contract with the appraisal district, but the damage had been done.
“Our options are don’t list the house for sale or list the house for sale and disclose the price,” Crouch said.
For many of Texas’ smaller, rural counties, however, hard data remains out of reach. “Especially for some of our smaller rural districts, the cost is just too great,” South said.
Commercial properties, which often have more complex financing arrangements and are not subject to the same listing rules, have more wiggle room. But amid the influx of national investor interest in Texas, appraisers may prey on those who don’t know the state’s system to get more data for comps.
“That’s where a lot of their data is going to come from: shooting really high with values,” said Tony Trahan, a tax consultant with KE Andrews. “Then, especially out-of-town agents or owners are like, ‘No, it’s not. It’s 80 percent of that, here’s my documentation.’”
Appraisal districts still face some measure of accountability. Every year, the state Comptroller studies how well appraisers across the state performed. Each county’s appraisal district — that’s right, all 254 counties get their own appraisal district — must be reviewed at least every other year, according to state law.
The report compares the sale prices that are disclosed, whether through news releases, PR-hungry brokers or some other means, to the estimated values of similar properties from each district. That ratio can give some insight into how closely estimated values hew to real ones.
Dominoes
This year’s property valuations have arrived, and it doesn’t look pretty for some property owners — particularly multifamily landlords.
In Dallas County, the latest valuations were particularly harsh for owners of older buildings, which in past years have seen their appraisals increase at lower rates than newer stock. But this year, the average multifamily building constructed in 1980 or earlier saw its valuation rise by 36 percent, according to data from tax consultancy KE Andrews. Those built in 2011 or later increased 27 percent — still a wicked hike, but not quite the burn felt by owners of older multifamily buildings.
Valuation increases were a bit less severe for office buildings. Appraised values increased by 18 percent for the “Class A+” office buildings, and around 17 percent for Class A and B workplaces. Class C buildings, the ones most likely to be struggling with low occupancy and costly renovations, jumped 9.5 percent.
In fast-growing Collin County, which includes McKinney and Allen and parts of Frisco and Plano, valuations for multifamily buildings of every vintage increased by more than 34 percent. The hardest-hit subset, those built between 2000 and 2010, saw values increase 41 percent, KE Andrews data shows.
Three things are certain — life, death and taxes — but in Texas, there’s a step after taxes: tax protests. Crouch is an extreme example, but there are tax consultants across the state specializing in bringing down appraisals.
“We are a country that is founded on a hatred for taxes,” said Lauren Cadilac, a Dallas attorney and frequent thorn in the side of appraisal districts. “That is a tradition in this country — we riot when we have to pay taxes.”
Still, the slow, bureaucratic process of filing an appraisal appeal is a far cry from tossing tea in Boston Harbor. But people who have been “vigilantes” about protesting their valuations are doing alright this year, Cadillac said — it’s those who have put off protests for whatever reason that are “really, really, really feeling it.”
Appeals tend to work like dominoes: When one building owner successfully argues down his appraised value, owners of similar properties can get theirs taken down, too. The state constitution guarantees that properties must be taxed on an “equal and uniform” basis, and while the exact meaning of that phrase has been litigated for decades, it has effectively allowed building owners to argue down their assessments based on values currently on the tax roll.
“That’s the saving grace of why you see Class A industrial buildings still valued at $70 a foot,” Trahan of KE Andrews said, “while you see a few sale prices that come out on industrial buildings that sold for $130, $120 a foot.”
“It’s very challenging,” South, from the Hunt appraisal district, said. “I think that a lot of property owners get frustrated because we just don’t have the data we need to be as accurate as we want to be”
Read moreAustinIBM inks massive lease in Hines projectTexasMonty Bennett's fire and brimstone journeyDallasTrademark plans apartments in Oak Lawn The post Big appraiser is watching you appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty; Illustration by The Real Deal)As the spring buying season crept up in the Lone Star State, April flowers failed to bloom in Houston. Inventory is overflowing in the Bayou City’s real estate market; meanwhile, prices remain relatively high, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.
While new listings were down more than 8 percent in April, year-over-year, the city’s available properties shot up nearly 63 percent. When homes come onto the market in Houston, they are increasingly staying there. Median days on market have increased 67 percent from 20 days to 33 year-over-year, according to Redfin.
Would-be homebuyers are pulling back, reports from HAR suggest. Sales volume in the Bayou City has been on a steady decline since last summer, prior to the winter seasonal decline.
Meanwhile, Houston’s penchant for affordability is becoming a thing of the past. While it has been largely inoculated from the price increases that hit other markets, the average list price is creeping toward record highs. April logged an average listing price of $432,000, inching closer to record-setting $441,000 average in May 2022.
“I think rising interest rates are going to be a continual concern for buyers moving in, even into the summer months, but I think we’re going to have a strong summer,” said Cathy Trevino, HAR chair. “It’s kind of hard to tell. I wish we had a crystal ball. We’ve heard from many economists that toward the end of the year interest rates may go down. So, we do have a lot of buyers that are on the fence, who are then turning more towards rental, which is definitely peaking as well.”
On May 3, the Federal Reserve increased its key interest rates to 5.25 percent, its 10th hike in 14 months and the highest rate logged in 16 years. About 78 percent of homebuyers finance their homes, namely 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, which will be the primary loan type affected by the interest rate hikes, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Interest rates have been of primary concern to homebuyers. A would-be homeowner in 2023 with a 5.25 percent interest rate on a $432,000 home could be expected to pay an average of $810 more per month than an interest rate of 3 percent less than two years ago.
Read moreHoustonRanking Houston's top-selling residential brokerages of 2022Houston$12M land sale in River Oaks one of Houston’s most expensiveThe post High prices, copious inventory mark Houston’s spring resi market appeared first on The Real Deal.
Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken and the Angel Stadium at 2000 E. Gene Autry Way in Anaheim (Getty, Ashleigh Aitken)The City of Anaheim has reneged on a pledge to provide the full results of an independent investigation into potential corruption surrounding its now defunct sale of Angel Stadium.
A newly elected City Council voted to hire an attorney to black out parts of the investigative report a judge said could violate employee privacy rights and lead to litigation, the Orange County Register reported.
Angry residents complained that the council had reneged on a promise of transparency and was trying to cover up the raw results of the investigation into allegations of pay-for-play at City Hall.
“Who are you protecting and what are you afraid of?” resident and activist Jeanine Robbins told the Register. “I think some people sitting up there, their seats were purchased and the main reason was to stop this investigation.”
“We’re going to be getting an abbreviated version – the Cliff Notes.”
The decision to release only an abridged version of the report was approved 5-1 by the council, with Natalie Rubalcava dissenting and Stephen Faessel abstaining.
The previous City Council ordered the investigation last summer after allegations arose in an FBI probe that former Mayor Harry Sidhu tried to slip confidential information to the Los Angeles Angels to expedite the sale of the city ballpark to owner Arte Moreno for a cut-rate $320 million.
Sidhu, who has not been criminally charged with any wrongdoing, allegedly hoped he would get $1 million to benefit his political campaign in return. The city later killed the stadium deal.
Moreno’s company SRB Management planned to develop more than 5,000 homes plus offices, shops, restaurants and hotels on the 152-acre parcel that hosts Angel Stadium and surrounding parking lots.
An FBI affidavit also alleged that a secret cabal of resort-oriented interests was driving business decisions at City Hall.
The city’s $1.5 million investigation, conducted by the JL Group under the watch of Superior Court Judge Clay Smith, is slated to be completed July 1. But it will take extra time for newly hired attorney Scott Tiedemann, managing partner of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, to redact the report.
Smith, who is advising investigators, said that releasing the raw report as promised would put the city in legal jeopardy.
Despite the outcry from residents, Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said she doesn’t want to release a watered down report or one that doesn’t tell the whole story.
“I feel this will strike that balance that tells the story without prejudice that will be fair to the employees,” Aitken told the Register.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesAnaheim and the Angels could meet for stadium negotiationsLos AngelesNew Anaheim mayor and council “hit the reset button” on Angels StadiumLos AngelesAnaheim scuttles $320-million sale of Angel StadiumThe post Anaheim to redact report on alleged corruption of Angel Stadium sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
Harlan Crow and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with Randolph-Macon Academy (George W. Bush Presidential Center, Getty, Google Maps)A new chapter had been added to the Harlan Crow-Clarence Thomas investigation
Crow, a billionaire real estate titan and former CEO of Dallas-based Crow Holdings, paid two years of private-school tuition for the Supreme Court justice’s grandnephew, whom Thomas was raising “as a son,” ProPublica reported.
Crow paid roughly $100,000 to the schools where the grandnephew, Mark Martin, attended, according to Mark Paoletta, a friend of Thomas and former lawyer for the justice’s wife, Ginni.
The schools were Hidden Lake Academy, located in the foothills of northern Georgia, and Randolph-Macon Academy, a military school 75 miles west of Washington, D.C. Crow is a Randolph-Macon alumnus.
Federal law requires justices to report most gifts, and many ethics experts say Thomas broke the law by not disclosing luxurious vacations and other gifts he accepted from Crow since the 1990s, which came to light in a ProPublica investigation published April 6.
Justices also must report gifts to their spouses and dependent children. However, since Thomas was Martin’s legal guardian, and not his parent, the term “dependent” is blurry. The justice could argue that these gifts to Martin were unrelated to him, but experts say that argument is far-fetched.
“The most reasonable interpretation of the statute is that this was a gift to Thomas and thus had to be reported. It’s common sense,” Kathleen Clark, an ethics law expert at Washington University, told the outlet. “It’s all to the financial benefit of Clarence Thomas.”
While Thomas never disclosed Crow’s tuition payments, he did report a $5,000 donation from a friend who paid for Martin’s tuition.
Thomas took legal custody when Martin was 6 years old, after his father went to prison on a drug conviction. Thomas was raised without a father, and his grandparents took him in “under very similar circumstances,” the outlet reported.
Martin, now 30, said he was unaware that Crow funded his education for those two years. He defended Thomas and Crow, saying they were good friends and that there was no ulterior motive to the billionaire’s gifts.
Crow, a Republican supporter who has donated millions to the party, affirmed that he had no intent to influence Thomas politically, in an interview with the Dallas Morning News.
In response to the Mark Martin case, Crow’s office issued the following statement to ProPublica:
“Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth. It’s disappointing that those with partisan political interests would try to turn helping at-risk youth with tuition assistance into something nefarious or political.”
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasHarlan Crow speaks following investigationDallasHarlan Crow lavished Justice Clarence Thomas with giftsTexasClarence Thomas sold property to billionaire CrowThe post Harlan Crow paid $100K in tuition for Clarence Thomas appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of One Sotheby’s International Realty’s Manny Chamizo and the property at 3251 Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables (Getty, Sotheby’s International Realty, Google Maps)A lawsuit over allegedly unpaid commissions on the sale of a downtown Coral Gables building that involved the city’s mayor became a criminal case when one of the brokers was charged with stalking the sellers.
Manny Chamizo, a commercial broker with One Sotheby’s International Realty, and Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, then a real estate agent with RESF, worked with the seller of the office building at 3251 Ponce de Leon Boulevard. They arranged a deal that fell apart in 2018, and was revived the following year when the seller renegotiated with the same buyer at a higher price. An entity 3251 Property LLC, led by Alex Alvarez, bought the property.
One Sotheby’s sued the seller, All in One Investment Properties, in 2020, seeking what it alleged it was owed for the $6 million sale. RESF joined the lawsuit in March of last year, and settled a couple of months ago. Any settlement amount was not disclosed. One Sotheby’s suit continues.
The lawsuit alleges that Chamizo and Lago were owed a 2 percent commission on the sale, and that All in One Investment Properties’ Eddy Fernandez secretly went behind the brokers’ backs to continue negotiating and ultimately close a deal without them. The commission comes out to about $120,000.
Transcripts of depositions allege Chamizo engaged in hostile behavior. The transcripts recently became public, but were completed in 2021.
The alleged stalking and harassment began in the late summer of 2020, three years after Chamizo was introduced to the sellers by way of Lago. Chamizo has been with One Sotheby’s since 2017.
Chamizo allegedly sent threatening text messages and letters to Fernandez and his wife, Adriana Fernandez, ordering them to pay up and that they “can’t hide” from Chamizo, according to county records. One such letter, sent in late August of 2020, allegedly included a matchbox with a single burnt match and a note reading “We can get to you.”
“Mr. Chamizo has threatened us, harassed us, with multiple texts, letters,” said Eddy Fernandez in a deposition. Fernandez, who was undergoing cancer treatment at the time, described text messages and emails in which Chamizo allegedly says that Fernandez’s daughter will miss him when he’s dead, and that Chamizo wants to “f*ck [Fernandez’s] wife.”
Chamizo allegedly sent messages in a group chat with Eddy Fernandez and Lago — in which Chamizo allegedly threatened to beat Eddy Fernandez up the next time he saw him. Lago asked to be removed from the group chat, according to court documents.
Chamizo was initially charged with misdemeanor stalking in September 2021, but the state elevated the stalking charge to a felony later that year.
Chamizo pleaded not guilty to the felony charge, and did not respond to a request for comment. One Sotheby’s said it was “unable to comment on pending litigation.” Greenberg Traurig attorneys representing One Sotheby’s declined to comment. Attorney Brian Bieber of Gray Robinson, representing the Fernandezes, declined to comment.
“We have entered a not guilty plea and look forward to defending Mr. Chamizo against these charges,” wrote Brian Tannebaum, Chamizo’s attorney in the criminal case, in an email.
Lago did not respond to questions regarding Chamizo. “To my satisfaction and those associated with this real estate transaction, we were able to settle the lawsuit in March of this year, therefore I consider this matter closed,” Lago wrote in a statement to The Real Deal.
Court filings show how Chamizo and Lago worked together. Lago has re-appointed Chamizo to the city’s Waterway Advisory Board over the years. Chamizo is in his third term, which ends May 31.
The lawsuit shows how Lago also helped the Fernandezes navigate the city’s departments by introducing them to the director of parking, so they could convert a parking space in front of the building into a handicap space, and by introducing the Fernandezes to an architect.
“He mentioned how the architect was liked by everybody in permitting there, so he would be a good choice to use,” Adriana Fernandez said in early 2021, about Lago. Fernandez said he introduced her and her husband to city employees and commissioners. “That’s the relationship we had with him.”
Trials for both the criminal case and civil lawsuit are set for later this year.
Read moreSouth FloridaBespoke Florida’s ex-prez seeks $1M-plus in allegedly unpaid commissions for Waldorf Astoria dealsSouth FloridaMiami Beach agent wins $1M judgment in lawsuit over owed commissions and stolen fundsSouth FloridaDouglas Elliman agent allegedly created scheme to pocket commission advances: lawsuitThe post Coral Gables sales commission lawsuit turns criminal with stalking charges appeared first on The Real Deal.
Clockwise from left: Jason Oppenheim of The Oppenheim Group, Sally Forster Jones of Compass and Mark Cohen Cohen Financial GroupWith the First Republic Bank’s seizure this week by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and its sale to JP Morgan Chase, mortgage brokers and luxury residential agents are looking at a new landscape for jumbo home loans in the L.A. market.
In general, top-end buyers liked the low interest payments and small-bank feel offered by the now defunct lending institution, which was based in San Francisco.
Mark Cohen of Beverly Hills-based Cohen Financial Group has told clients that going forward they are not going to see the rock-bottom rates First Republic offered. The bank offered between 0.75 to 1 percent lower than other lenders.
“There are other banks to pick up the gap,” Cohen said. “You have to accept that borrowers will be paying prevailing market rates, which are approximately 5.5 percent on jumbo mortgages.”
In 2021, Jason Oppenheim, president of The Oppenheim Group, took a loan from First Republic to finance the purchase of his Newport Beach home, which serves as one of the locations on Netflix’s “Selling the OC” television program.
“It was the only time I enjoyed an easy underwriting process,” Oppenheim said of the two weeks it took to get the loan from First Republic. “Now it’s back to the brutal bureaucracy fighting through the underwriting process.”
Like Cohen, Oppenheim did not forecast a big change to the luxury residential market.
Oppenheim said that he felt more frustration than any other emotion when First Republic failed. “Banks, along with all businesses, should live or die based on their core business model, not because of a run on liquidity,” he said.
Sally Forster Jones who works with Compass noted that she will take a wait-and-see approach.
“There will definitely be an effect,” she said of First Republic’s demise.”They have long been a key player in the market, particularly for so many of our residential buyers and developers. There’s going to be a niche that will be a challenge to fill.”
However, Forster Jones has not seen much suffering in the marketplace yet. “Right now, there is a lot of demand. There’s also not a lot of inventory, so prices remain strong. We’re still receiving multiple offers on many properties.
“Yet all obstacles aside, the current situation is nowhere as challenging as 2008,” she said of working through the Great Recession.
Read moreNationalFirst Republic’s failure leaves “gaping hole” in marketNationalUnder the hood of First Republic’s breakdownLos AngelesPacific Western Bank ponders possible saleThe post Luxe agents gauge First Republic’s absence from market appeared first on The Real Deal.
LA City Council president Paul Kreokrian (Getty)After years of tweaks and deliberations, the L.A. City Council has signed off on two comprehensive zoning plans that together account for 135,000 new housing units over the next 20 years.
The council unanimously approved community plan updates for both Downtown L.A. and Hollywood in a meeting on Wednesday.
As the region faces an entrenched housing affordability crisis — and increasing political pressure to address it — the approvals signal the city’s desire for continued multifamily development and increased density in two of the city’s largest and most populous regions.
“This plan represents the most ambitious community plan in the history of our city,” Councilmember Kevin de León, who represents Downtown, said after the vote.
The DTLA plan accounts for the bulk of the allocated development. It allows up to 100,000 new units, which the city projects could add 175,000 residents, and expands the portion of Downtown land area where housing is permitted from 33 percent to 60 percent.
The blueprint also focuses on affordability concerns, including a requirement that all new multifamily projects include affordable units and an 80 percent affordability requirement for projects in Skid Row. Under different City of L.A. zoning incentives, such as the popular Transit Oriented Communities program, many new multifamily projects throughout the city already include some affordable units.
But the council approval also came after last minute tweaks to DTLA 2040 that critics argue weaken the housing plans.
In the days ahead of the vote, the Garment Worker Center, a union-allied group that advocates for the rights of Downtown’s tens of thousands of typically low-wage, immigrant garment workers, successfully campaigned for new restrictions on residential development in the Fashion District, including manufacturing space requirements, in an effort to protect garment jobs.
Business groups, however, have argued that the last-minute tweaks will effectively cut 12,000 of the planned 100,000 units because the requirements are too onerous for developers.
“These restrictions are infeasible due to real estate market, design and logistical considerations,” Nella McOsker, president of the Central City Association, wrote in a letter before the vote. “These requirements do not protect garment worker jobs but they do impede housing development.”
The Hollywood plan, which hadn’t been successfully updated for more than 30 years, accounts for 35,000 new housing units, and generally represents a continued push toward density in a part of L.A. that’s already undergoing rapid change.
The plan provides size incentives for multifamily projects in more urban areas, such as Sunset and Hollywood boulevards, where a lot of new projects have already appeared, if developers include affordable units. At the same time, it also rezones more than 300 acres in the Hollywood Hills — home to some of the city’s most expensive real estate — from residential use to non-developable open space.
Read moreLos AngelesGarment workers and business leaders at odds over DTLA housing planLos Angeles“Destroying our city”: Huntington Beach rejects state housing planLos AngelesIllegal rent increases soar in Los AngelesThe post City of LA approves major DTLA, Hollywood zoning plans appeared first on The Real Deal.
TRD’s SVP of content Hiten Samtani with (from left) Sotheby’s International Realty’s Nikki Field and Douglas Elliman’s John Gomes (Photo by Alexis Manrodt)Life is good at the top of Manhattan residential real estate.
Luxury buyers are powering the market in Manhattan and beyond, with cash ruling supreme and international buyers at the helm, top brokers Nikki Field and John Gomes said during a panel discussion at The Real Deal’s New York City Showcase + Forum.
“Our clients are collecting homes like they collect art on their walls,” said Gomes.
Gomes, who co-founded the top-performing Douglas Elliman team of the same name with fellow broker Fredrik Eklund, and Field, who leads the Field Team at Sotheby’s International, said the flow of ultra-wealthy buyers has powered the expansion of their respective “megateams.”
While Gomes pointed to townhouses as one of the city’s hottest products, Field predicted the next wave of success will come from hotel-branded residences like those by Ritz-Carlton and Aman, which scored some of New York City’s priciest sales in 2022.
“Hotel-branded residences, in my opinion, for the luxury buyer, is their Ozempic. It’s their drug,” Field said, referring to the diabetes medication that has attracted attention as a celebrity favorite for weight loss. “It’s a fast means to their goal without any hard work.”
As for what’s not working in the market, Field pointed to co-ops, calling them a “dinosaur.”
“If you’re putting your money into townhouses, you’re going to get your money out,” Field said. “If you’re putting your money into co-ops, [it will] stay there for a couple of generations.”
The brokers’ optimism extended to brushing off concerns about losses across residential brokerages, including Elliman’s net loss of $18 million in the fourth quarter and Anywhere, the parent company of Corcoran, Coldwell Banker and Sotheby’s International Realty, reporting a $138 million loss in the first quarter.
Gomes called Elliman “a company that makes us a hell of a lot stronger,” but alluded to some of the thinking that makes the team being “its own entity” within the firm.
“We learned a long time ago we didn’t want to rely on doing our business the way that they run their business,” Gomes said. “We’re different, we’re unique, we’re special, and we leaned into who we are.
As firms look to cut costs, Field said brokers should look to shore up any gaps in backend resources by investing in their own teams.
“Double down on what you’re providing spending your own money. That’s how the big players do it,” Field said. “Invest in you, invest in the market, invest the people that are working with you.”
Field, who described herself as an “optimist” in the face of the changing market, said New York City itself should be enough to keep brokers going.
“All of us in this room are the most fortunate in our industry, that we work in this city, in this industry — regardless of all of the highs and lows,” Field said.
Read moreNew YorkNYC brokers eye long-awaited return of international buyersNew YorkRanking NYC’s top residential brokers of 2022New YorkEklund-Gomes signs 5-year deal with EllimanThe post Top resi brokers talk megateams, international buyers and NYC’s hot offerings appeared first on The Real Deal.
The apartment complex at 12010 NE 16th Ave in unincorporated Miami-Dade County with GID’s Gregory Bates and W. Gardner Wallace (GID, Google Maps)GID bought the Windsor Biscayne Shores multifamily complex near North Miami for $56 million.
Advenir sold the 240-unit garden-style apartment community that spans 9.6 acres at 12010 Northeast 16th Avenue in the Biscayne Shores neighborhood of unincorporated Miami-Dade County, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. GID assumed the seller’s $38.7 million loan on the property.
Windsor, which was originally built in 2013, consists of nine three-story buildings spanning over 272,000 square feet, according to records and Vizzda. It is near Whole Foods at 12150 Biscayne Boulevard.
The deal breaks down to $233,200 per unit.
Windsor offers one- to three-bedroom apartments with monthly rents ranging from $2,013 to $3,212, Apartments.com shows.
Advenir, based in Aventura, bought the complex in 2016 for $52.7 million from the property’s developer, Atlanta-based Wood Partners, records show.
Led by the Vecchitto family, Advenir is a multifamily and single-family home investor, developer and manager with a portfolio valued at $2.5 billion and $1 billion of equity under management, according to its website. Stephen Vecchitto is managing director, and David Vecchitto is CEO.
Boston-based GID is a residential and commercial real estate investor and manager, according to its website. Its portfolio is worth $29.7 billion and includes more than 52,000 units and 27 million square feet of commercial space. Gregory Bates is CEO, and W. Gardner Wallace is chairman.
Last year, GID dropped $149.8 million for the eight-story, 385-unit Céntrico by Windsor Apartments at 8425 Northwest 41st Street in the mixed-use Downtown Doral development.
Also in Doral, GID co-developed with ZOM Living the 249-unit Windsor at Doral at 4401 Northwest 87th Avenue in 2015. It also partnered with Ram Realty Advisors to build the 332-unit Mirador at Doral by Windsor at 2541 Northwest 84th Avenue in 2017.
The Biscayne Shores area, between North Miami and Miami Shores, is experiencing some apartment development. In August, Integra Investments, Andrew Korge of Korgeous Group and David Larson of DCL Capital scored a $101.4 million construction loan for a 16-story, 275-unit rental building and 105 townhouses at 11295 Biscayne Boulevard.
In 2021, AMAC and ROVR Development completed the eight-story, 402-apartment Biscayne 112 building at 11200 Biscayne Boulevard.
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Thornton Tomasetti’s Rachel Michelin and 600 West Fulton Street (Thornton Tomasetti, Google Maps)Engineering consultant Thornton Tomasetti has cut its Chicago office footprint by more than 40 percent with a move to the edge of the city’s hottest submarket.
The firm is headed to an almost 19,000-square-foot space on the seventh floor of Parkside Realty’s 600 West Fulton Street, leaving behind 32,000 square feet at 330 North Wabash Avenue in River North that it has occupied for more than a decade.
“With our staff fully back in the office, we require modern space that fosters collaboration and creativity, not only between our employees but our clients as well, and attracts top talent. 600 West Fulton checked all the boxes,” Thornton Tomasetti’s Rachel Michelin said in a statement.
While the office market in Chicago’s central business district struggles with a glut of vacant space and loads of sublease offerings, the Fulton Market District — just to the west of 600 West Fulton — has been on a roll in drawing new tenants to its trendy and amenity-filled spaces.
The Fulton Market and River West areas were one of two submarkets with positive lease absorption last quarter, at 104,000 square feet, while tenants have shed more space than they’ve leased throughout the overall market via moves similar to Thornton’s. Downtown Chicago’s net absorption as a whole tallied negative 782,000 square feet, according to the brokerage Transwestern.
JLL’s Molly Carroll and Andy Strand represented Thornton Tomasetti in the negotiations. Parkside Realty’s Barb Schenberg represented the landlord.
The nine-story, 214,000-square-foot 600 West Fulton Street is an adaptive reuse of the original Sears & Roebuck warehouse. It was converted to a loft-style office building in 1982 and was fully renovated in 2021.
Thornton Tomasetti’s move brings the building to 76 percent leased and is the latest in a string of recent deals for the property. Matthews Real Estate Investment Services opened an office for its debt and equity services division in November, and Pittsburgh-based Elite Transit Solutions recently opened its first Chicago office there as well. Kindle Communications also relocated to the building last year. Access Community Health Network and Epstein Global also lease space in the building.
Read moreChicagoChicago office vacancy rises to another new recordChicagoTelos Group picks up another Loop office repositioning play ChicagoMolson Coors in talks to lease 70K sf at Riverside’s BMO TowerThe post Thornton Tomasetti downsizes in jump to Fulton River District appeared first on The Real Deal.
WeWork’s Sandeep Mathrani (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)It might be proof that no good deed goes unpunished, but a ratings agency delivered a blistering critique of WeWork following its debt-relief agreement with its main investor.
S&P Global downgraded WeWork’s credit worthiness to default status Wednesday, prompted by the co-working giant’s deal with Softbank in March.
The agreement eliminates $1.4 billion of WeWork’s corporate debt and extends the maturity of the remaining $1.6 billion by two years, to 2027.
The financial restructuring is “tantamount to a default because we believe lenders will receive less than originally promised,” S&P Global explained.
“WeWork is pursuing this transaction because its capital structure is unsustainable and the company has limited options to reduce its debt burden and improve its cash flow organically,” the agency added.
WeWork declined to comment on the downgrade. SoftBank will convert $1 billion of debt into equity and another $610 million into a mix of debt and equity.
The ratings agency acknowledged that the debt deal would free up cash by reducing WeWork’s interest cost and reduce its leverage, “which provides the company with financial flexibility, increasing the possibility of eventually reaching free cash flow generation.”
The ratings action comes a day after WeWork disclosed it would pursue a reverse stock split in order to bolster its share price and avoid being delisted by the New York Stock Exchange.
In March, WeWork trumpeted its debt deal with SoftBank and independent bondholders as delivering “a much stronger balance sheet that will enable it to effectuate its business plan” by raising $1 billion including $504 million in new funding, $175 million in capital commitments and $300 million in outstanding secured notes from Softbank.
The flex office provider also reported that it cut its net losses in half last year to $2.3 billion from the year before.
The company views uncertainty in the office market as an opportunity to snap up clients who might otherwise sign a traditional office lease. International clients accounted for 55 percent of WeWork’s 2021 revenue, according to S&P Global.
WeWork reported that its fourth-quarter leasing in New York accounted for 23 percent of total office leasing in the city and its space represented 1 percent of total office stock. In London, the company reported that fourth-quarter leasing accounted for 44 percent of such activity.
Startups, freelancers, nonprofits and other small businesses made up 52 percent of its members at the end of 2021 while large companies made up the rest, according to S&P Global.
Read moreNationalFirst Republic’s failure leaves “gaping hole” in marketLos AngelesCommercial lender PacWest suffers from bank contagionNew YorkFisher Partners senior partner Steven Fisher dies at 63The post Can WeWork’s credit rating get any worse? It just did appeared first on The Real Deal.
Koontz Corporation’s Bart Koontz with rendering of Frontera Logistics Supersite (Koontz Corporation, Beaty Palmer Architects, Getty)Bart Koontz couldn’t resist the urge to snag a swath of San Antonio land for industrial use after driving past it frequently.
His company, Koontz Corporation, acquired 11 parcels over a year for the Frontera Logistics Supersite, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. The 188-acre site within Loop 410 will be able to accommodate up to 2.8 million square feet of manufacturing and industrial uses
The ambitious project will be built on farmland at Interstate 35 and Somerset Road.
Koontz had the land rezoned from its original agricultural use. It’s unclear how much the firm paid for the land, but Bexar County records show the company borrowed almost $6.2 million from Jefferson Bank as part of the deal.
“I kept looking at that land,” Koontz told the outlet. “There’s not a lot of trees. It’s flat. It’s inside Loop 410, which was the big thing for me. I was thinking proximity to labor.”
He had to convince 26 owners within the same family to sell their parcels, and luckily they were already in the mindset to sell. The site is located outside the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, meaning there are fewer restrictions on development.
Koontz is in no rush to break ground on the project, as there are a slew of nearby industrial developments in the works. He wants to make sure a plan is full-fledged before proceeding, he told the outlet.
Beaty Palmer Architects is the designer of the Frontera Logistics Supersite, and Vickrey & Associates is the engineer. Partners Real Estate will manage sales and leasing.
“This is the largest developable infill site left in San Antonio that is receptive to industrial and manufacturing, and it’s truly rare to find so many exciting features in one site near the San Antonio central business district,” Partners’ John Colglazier told the outlet.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasNewFound buys massive San Antonio parcelTexasStream, McCombs move ahead with San Antonio Gateway developmentTexasIndustrial vacancy hits record low in San AntonioThe post Koontz eyes “logistics supersite” in S.A. appeared first on The Real Deal.
GLP Capital Partners CEO Alan Yang, Kearny Real Estate founder Jeff Dritley and an aerial photo of 1501 Sherborn Street (GLP Capital, Kearny, Colliers)Kearny Real Estate has sold one of its largest spec projects in the Inland Empire for $325 million.
The Los Angeles-based developer sold the 730,000-square-foot, five-building industrial campus at 1501 Sherborn Street in the Riverside County city of Corona in a ground-lease deal, according to Colliers, which brokered the sale and announced it Monday. The deal came out to around $445 per square foot.
Colliers declined to name the buyer, but reports said GLP Capital Partners, a logistics-focused fund based in Singapore, bought the complex.
Colliers’ Richard Schwartz has worked on the development for more than seven years. He first met with the owners of the land in 2016, who had pitched creating a ground lease on the property, to allow for industrial development.
The land is owned by entities linked to Bruce and Andrew Hohn, according to property and California Secretary of State records.
In 2019, Kearny Real Estate was chosen as a developer to build five speculative buildings on the site, according to Schwartz. Kearny then obtained entitlements from the city and started construction last year, using a $59.1 million construction loan from Wells Fargo, records show.
“It has been a whirlwind,” Schwartz said, adding rising interest rates slowed down buying interest and construction was delayed by rain in Southern California.
Given the deal involved a ground lease, many institutional buyers backed away from it, Schwartz said. Prologis, its subsidiary Duke Realty and Brookfield already own industrial properties within a few-mile radius of the development, records show.
“It was a small group,” Schwartz said of the bidding pool.
It’s not the first Inland Empire acquisition for GLP Capital Partners, which has an office in Santa Monica. In October, the firm bought a 406,000-square-foot distribution warehouse in Fullerton for $156 million, or about $384 per square foot.
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Pacific Western Bancorp CEO Paul Taylor with Pacific Western Bank headquarters at 9701 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills (Google Maps, Pacific Western Bancorp)Pacific Western Bank may be up for sale.
Pacific Western Bancorp, a struggling Beverly Hills-based bank and commercial real estate lender, has looked at a range of strategic options that include a sale, Bloomberg reported, citing unidentified sources.
The regional bank has worked with a financial adviser and has considered a breakup or a capital raise, said the sources, who asked to remain anonymous because the matter isn’t public.
While it’s open to a sale, the company hasn’t started a formal auction process, the sources told Bloomberg.
An outright sale has run into a ditch because there aren’t many potential buyers who want the entire bank, which includes a community lender known as Pacific Western Bank and some commercial and consumer lending businesses, the sources said.
A buyer would also have to potentially book a big loss marking down some of the bank’s loans, they added.
A representative for PacWest declined to comment.
PacWest shares plunged 44 percent at 4:52 p.m. in late New York trading. Its shares had slid 28 percent on Tuesday as investors fled regional bank stocks after JPMorgan Chase’s purchase Monday of the failed First Republic Bank.
PacWest is smaller than First Republic Bank with about $41 billion in assets, according to an analysis by The Real Deal. However, almost 80 percent of its loan book is dedicated to commercial real estate-backed loans and residential mortgages.
Last quarter, PacWest had $3.8 billion in commercial loans, $5.5 billion in multifamily loans and $15.4 billion in residential mortgages, it disclosed in a first-quarter earnings report.
It also held about $4.6 billion in construction loans for both commercial and residential properties.
After PacWest released its earnings, an analyst at Raymond James said the bank had survived “the worst of the recent banking crisis,” a reference to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March.
But the analyst noted that PacWest’s share price “will remain volatile until we gain more clarity on the bank’s future.”
During the quarter, PacWest lost about 10 percent of its deposits — a metric that was better than originally expected, and substantially better than First Republic Bank, which lost nearly half of its deposits in the same period.
PacWest plans to sell off some of its assets to boost liquidity. The firm has already marketed its $2.7 billion lender finance division for sale, CEO Paul Taylor said.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesCommercial lender PacWest suffers from bank contagionNationalFDIC sells seized First Republic to JPMorgan ChaseNationalFirst Republic’s failure leaves “gaping hole” in marketThe post Pacific Western Bank ponders possible sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
Catalfumo Companies’ Dan Catalfumo, Madison Realty Capital’s Josh Zegen; rendering of project (Linkedin, Getty, Catalfumo Companies)The developer of the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Palm Beach Gardens, scored $340 million in construction financing for the project, marking the largest such loan to close this year statewide.
Dan Catalfumo’s Catalfumo Companies secured the financing from New York-based Madison Realty Capital, according to a press release. Construction on the condominium development could begin this summer, though it was slated to start last year.
The waterfront project will include three seven-story buildings with 106 condos. It’s planned for an 11-acre site south of PGA Boulevard. Douglas Elliman is leading sales and marketing, with three-bedroom to five-bedroom units asking between $4 million to more than $8 million, according to the release. The development is expected to be completed in 2025.
Catalfumo has presold about $75 million worth of units so far, according to the release.
He bought the majority of the site for $33 million in 2021 from EB-5 developer Nick Mastroianni. It has about 850 feet of frontage along the Intracoastal Waterway.
Josh Zegen, managing principal of Madison Realty Capital, said in a statement that the loan closed in 60 days.
Some developers have been able to close monster-sized loans this year — with Bank OZK providing the largest ones in South Florida. In January, Bank OZK provided a $215 million construction loan to a group led by L&L Holding Company and Oak Row Equities for Wynwood Plaza. The 1-million-square-foot office, apartment and retail project is planned for 95 Northwest 29th Street in Miami.
Developer Vlad Doronin and investor Len Blavatnik secured a $242.4 million construction loan for the planned oceanfront Aman Miami Beach luxury condo development. Developer John Catsimatidis closed on a $252 million construction loan for The Residences at 400 Central, which is expected to mark the tallest tower on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Bank OZK provided both loans, also in January.
Last month, Tavistock Development Company scored a $175 million construction loan for its waterfront Pier Sixty-Six mixed-use project in Fort Lauderdale. A group of banks led by HSBC Bank provided the construction loan.
Still, it’s become more challenging to secure financing since interest rates began rising last year. That became even tougher following the string of recent bank collapses that started in March with Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank.
Madison Realty’s recent loans in South Florida include $55.1 million it lent in March for the planned Savanna condo tower in West Palm beach, as well as $85 million for Related Group, BH Group, Teddy Sagi and Wanxiang Group’s ultra luxury Fisher Island project.
Read moreSouth FloridaInside South Florida’s branded condo tower boomSouth FloridaHere’s what bank failures mean for South Florida real estate San FranciscoThe post Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach Gardens developer scores $340M construction loan appeared first on The Real Deal.
Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli and Ryan Companies’ Brian Murray with 150 Warrenville Road (Scott Wehrli via Facebook, Ryan Companies, Google Maps, Getty)Two developers are tempted to jump on Chicago’s booming industrial train by redeveloping large, outdated office properties in Naperville.
Franklin Partners has considered razing the vacant former Alcatel-Lucent office building at 1960 Lucent Lane, which it paid $4.8 million for last month, and Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies is under contract to buy the 178-acre former BP campus at 150 Warrenville Road, with similar plans in mind, Crain’s reported. Both developers would build warehouse projects at these sites, if approved.
Going the industrial route seems like the wise decision given how well this sector has performed compared to Chicagoland’s slumping office sector. Warehouse vacancies fell to a record low earlier this year, while office vacancies soared to another record high in the last quarter.
Yet, some Naperville officials are reluctant to hop on the bandwagon. Newly elected Mayor Mayor Scott Wehrli recently voiced concerns about a rule passed by the Naperville City Council last year, which required the approval of industrial projects in areas zoned for office, research or light industrial use.
Wehrli cited concerns from suburban residents who are worried about “negative impacts” of office-to-industrial developments, such as pollution, noise and traffic congestion. Christine Jeffries of the Naperville Development Partnership said office properties along the highway, like the ones on Lucent and Warrenville, must be preserved, the outlet reported.
“There’s no question that the pandemic has impacted almost all facets of our lives. Things like working remote or online ordering of products hit hyperspeed during the pandemic shutdowns,” Jeffries said during a city council meeting. “But what lies ahead in the post-COVID economy has yet to be determined. We do know that if we react to today’s conditions — a snapshot in time — we risk losing future opportunities.”
If Franklin Partners and Ryan are able to proceed with their redevelopment plans, they would join the growing list of such conversions in Chicago’s suburbs.
Bridge Industrial has proposed tearing down a 10-building office campus in Deerfield to build a logistics park spanning 101 acres. Dermody Properties has an even grander plan, as it acquired the 232-acre former Allstate campus in Glenview last fall to construct five warehouses totalling 1.2 million square feet.
Franklin Partners is led by managing partners Donald Shoemaker, Raymond Warner and Gary Tamminga. Brian Murray is the CEO of Ryan.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoDeerfield residents fight Bridge’s 101-acre industrial project ChicagoWarehouse vacancy falls to yet another record low in ChicagoChicagoVenture One, DRA team up on $369M industrial playThe post Franklin, Ryan target more old suburban offices for industrial conversion appeared first on The Real Deal.
Slate Property Group’s David Schwartz, 144-02 135th Avenue, RiseBoro Community Partnership’s Scott Short (Hilton, Getty, Slate Property Group, RiseBoro Community Partnership)New York is about to see something rarer than a UFO sighting: the conversion of a hotel to affordable housing.
Slate Property Group and RiseBoro Community Partnership are embarking on the redevelopment of the Hilton near the John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, the New York Times reported. The development is expected to yield more than 300 units.
Hotelier Sam Chang is selling the property to the joint venture for an unspecified amount, but below $70 million. The hotel’s planned closure in June was reported in March as the property suffered from a decline in tourism.
The project is the first to use a 2021 state program created to make such conversions cheaper and easier. Until now, despite $200 million in available state funding, no developers had taken the bait because the program had strings attached and hotels had better options, such as temporarily housing asylum-seeking migrants or attracting tourists as the pandemic eased.
The program, part of the Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act, will provide $48 million to the $150 million Slate-RiseBoro project. The city’s Housing Development Corporation and Department of Housing Preservation and Development will also provide subsidies.
Approximately 60 percent of the units will be earmarked for the homeless, above the threshold required to get the state funding. The other units will be for low-income households and have rents of $1,250 for one-bedroom units and $1,500 for two-bedrooms.
RiseBoro will provide additional services to residents, such as mental health care. The developers hope to start renting units within two years.
David Schwartz, a principal at Slate, told the Times that the venture partners have explored hundreds of sites in pursuit of such a project since the onset of the pandemic three years ago. They found the Hilton appealing for its large rooms and lobby, as well as its residential zoning.
It’s far from certain that many (or any) others will follow suit, for the same reasons none had undertaken conversions until now. Half of the units must be for low-income tenants while the other half must be for homeless or recently homeless people. Subsidies beyond what the state program offers are needed for projects to pencil out.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkIsaac Chetrit to convert Stewart Hotel to residentialNew YorkSlate, RiseBoro land $122M to build Brownsville affordable projectThe post First hotel-to-housing conversion planned under state program appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Hines CEOs Jeffrey Hines and Laura Hines-Pierce, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, and 11901 North MoPac Expressway (Hines, IBM, Google Maps)Hines landed Big Blue as the anchor of its office development in the Domain district of North Austin.
Tech giant IBM leased about 320,000 square feet, including one full building, in the 500,000-square-foot project at 11901 North MoPac Expressway, which is expected to be move-in ready by 2027, the Austin Business Journal reported.
The project comprises two 14-story adjoined office buildings, called Hines Domain Northside, which will replace La Quinta Inn and Suites. Hines’ original plans called for 320 residences and offices in a single 15-story development.
The Houston-based developer ditched the mixed-use component in favor of pure office. The buildings will have separate cores and lobbies, but they would share an eight-story podium parking garage, Hines senior managing director Philip Croker told the outlet.
IBM leased an entire building, plus the top six floors in the adjacent one. Hines, led by Jeffrey Hines and Laura Hines-Pierce, has incorporated sustainability elements into a number of its projects, which ultimately played a role in IBM’s decision to commit to the project.
“They just have some really great, creative ideas as to how they could bring our vision of our office experience to life,” IBM’s Joanne Wright told the outlet.
The move is a considerable downsize for IBM, which operates at an 800,000-square-foot site on Burnet Road, about a mile from its new digs. The relocation plans came to light a day after IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg News the company will pause hiring for roles that could be replaced with AI, potentially eliminating about 7,800 jobs.
Even though it’s shedding a large chunk of space, IBM’s long-term commitment bodes well for Austin’s struggling office sector, as vacancy rates reached a record high of 19 percent in the first quarter of 2023.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreAustinHines plans mixed-use highrise in AustinAustinTwo resi towers wanted in Austin’s DomainAustinHines plans community next to Austin's Tesla GigafactoryThe post IBM inks massive lease in Hines project appeared first on The Real Deal.
Credit Karma President Joe Kauffman and 205 Winding Way in Woodside (Zippia, Google Maps)Credit Karma President Joe Kauffman has purchased the Woodside estate of Paul “Red” Fay Jr., former Navy undersecretary and close friend of President John F. Kennedy for $16 million, according to public records.
The nearly 4-acre property has not traded in more than 65 years and includes a “vintage ranch home” from the 1920s, a “caretaker cottage,” pool, tennis court and sports court, according to listing notes from Compass agent Scott Dancer, who represented both the buyer and seller. Dancer declined to comment on the deal.
Fay bought 205 Winding Way with his wife Anita in the 1950s and lived there until his death at 91 in 2009, according to obituaries. He served in the South Pacific during World War II with JFK and became his lifelong friend, even serving as an usher in the future president’s 1953 wedding. He was the undersecretary of the Navy during Kennedy’s presidency and held the post until January 1965. He wrote a bestseller about their friendship called “The Pleasure of His Company” in 1967. Anita Fay died in January 2022 at 97, also in their long-time home, according to her obituary.
Their three children inherited the family estate, according to property records, and listed it for $22 million the August after their mother’s death. It went into contract about 10 months later on April 17 and sold three days later for $6 million off that ask. The quick close is a strong indication of an all-cash deal.
Kauffman bought the home with his wife Angelica and already owned a similarly sized Woodside estate about a mile from their new property, according to deed records.
He lived in China for over a decade before he came to the Bay Area to be Credit Karma’s first CFO in 2015. Kauffman became president of the banking site, known for its free credit checks, in 2021, shortly after it was purchased by Intuit for $7.1 billion.
Woodside has seen several ultra-high-end sales this year, including the sale of former JetBlue Chairman Joel Peterson’s 11-acre estate for $44.5 million in February. That same month, Warriors owner Joe Lacob bought a new-build home on more than 3 acres across the street from Larry Ellison’s long-time estate for $40 million. That property was at one point one of the most expensive homes on the market in the Bay Area, with an asking price of $110 million.
Read moreNationalFormer JetBlue exec lists Silicon Valley compound for $49MSan FranciscoWarriors owner Joe Lacob buys Woodside estate for $40MSan FranciscoHere’s a sneak peek at a $110M Woodside estate across the street from Larry EllisonThe post Credit Karma president Joe Kauffman buys $16M Woodside estate appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)The city rent board voted in favor of moderate rent hikes on stabilized apartments at a chaotic meeting Tuesday night that was briefly derailed when tenant advocates and City Council members took over the stage to demand that rents be rolled back.
In a preliminary vote, the Rent Guidelines Board approved a 2 to 5 percent rent increase for one-year leases on stabilized apartments and a 4 to 7 percent hike for two-year leases. Separately, the body approved freezing rents on stabilized hotels.
That’s a far cry from the up to 8 percent increase on one-year leases and 16 percent hike on two-year terms that a board report last month said were needed to keep landlords’ operating income consistent.
The preliminary vote, as its name suggests, is not final. Traditionally, however, the final rent hike tends to land within the range laid out by the preliminary vote.
Last year, for instance, the board signed off on hikes between 2 and 4 percent for one-year leases and 4 to 6 percent for two-year leases. The next month, in its final vote, it approved increases of 3.25 percent on one-year leases and 5 percent on two-year leases.
The board’s landlord representatives pitched their rent increase proposals first on Tuesday night, from a stage at Cooper Union. Tenant advocates and others circled the board as the two landlord members spoke, chanting “rent rollback” and “shame on you.”
The owners’ representatives proposed a hike of 7 to 10 percent on one-year leases and 11 to 14 percent on two-year leases. That proposal failed in a 2 to 7 vote.
The demonstrators fell still and quiet when the tenant representatives followed with their proposal, which ranged from a rent rollback of 1 percent to a 1 percent increase for one-year leases, and a zero to 2 percent increase for two-year leases. That idea was similarly defeated. The middle-ground proposal, put forward by the board chair Nestor Davidson, won with a vote of 5-4.
Landlord advocates argued that the suggested increases do not go far enough.
“With most buildings approaching 100 years old, the city’s rent-stabilized housing stock is on the brink of an insolvency crisis,” said Michael Tobman, director of membership and communications at the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group. “The RGB’s own data doesn’t lie: Costs increased dramatically and rent revenue declined.”
Landlords saw their net operating income dive 9.1 percent in 2021 from the previous year, according to one of the board’s latest reports. That’s the largest annual decline since the board started tracking landlords’ income in 1990.
Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program, another landlord group, said the ranges approved do “not come close to covering the rising costs in rent-stabilized buildings.”
In a statement after the vote, Mayor Eric Adams singled out the higher end of the range approved for two-year leases, a 7 percent increase, as “clearly beyond what renters can afford and what I feel is appropriate this year.”
“I recognize that property owners face growing challenges maintaining their buildings and accessing financing to make repairs; at the same time, we simply cannot put tenants in a position where they can’t afford to make rent,” he said.
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and City Council Housing and Buildings Committee Chair Pierina Sanchez issued a joint statement urging the board against “proposed increases that are counterproductive to New Yorkers persevering beyond our housing challenges.”
The two pointed to a recent report that found that half of the households in the city cannot afford the true cost of living there. Adriene Holder, chief attorney of the civil practice at the Legal Aid Society, condemned the outcome of the preliminary vote.
“Any increase in rents right now will have crushing consequences for tenants already battling a historic affordability crisis, post-pandemic inflation, and a looming recession expected to hit later this year,” she said in a statement.
The board’s final vote is slated for June 21.
The post City rent board eyes up to 5% rent hike in preliminary vote appeared first on The Real Deal.
701 University Drive East and 800 Marion Pugh Drive in College Station with Tailwind Group president Lane Gravley and Drury president and CEO Chuck Drury (Tailwind Group, Google Maps, cafnr.missouri.edu)A new hotel and a student housing complex are planned in the hometown of Texas A&M University.
Drury Southwest plans to build a Drury Plaza hotel at 701 University Drive East in College Station. The location currently houses a local restaurant, the Republic Steakhouse. The hotel is expected to span 102,000 square feet, but details are sparse. Plans are being finalized, and information will be released in July, a spokesperson from Drury Southwest said. The project is estimated to cost nearly $20 million, although plans filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation are subject to change. Construction is expected to start in June, with full buildout expected in the third quarter of 2024.
Also in Aggieland, Tailwind Group is behind plans for a four-building student housing complex. The $30 million construction project at 800 Marion Pugh Drive will span 162,000 square feet and be the latest addition to a 28-acre, 30-building multifamily development, according to public records. Tailwind bought the property from Philadelphia-based student housing company Campus Apartments in November. Brandon Bruell from Houston-based firm Berkadia brokered that deal.
The student housing project, named Campus Crossing College Station, will be the second of Tailwind’s College Station properties after the Minnesota-based firm acquired the Landing, a 444-unit resort-style student housing complex, in 2022 and immediately began renovations. Representatives for Tailwind did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Commercial real estate has been on the move in the growing college town. As the home of the state’s second-largest university, multifamily projects have been on the rise, but not just for the youth. Carbon Companies is planning a gated senior-living facility as the college town has become a desired destination for retirees. In 2022, Forbes named College Station one of the best places to retire, citing comparatively low median home prices, which sat at $306,000 in 2022, 19 percent below the national median.
Revitalization and redevelopment have been at the core of recent developments as city officials seek to attract the presence of businesses and revenue. In December, the College Station City Council approved the $9 million sale of a nearly 30-acre tract in the Midtown Business Park to Levcor Acquisition. Levcor also purchased dual shopping centers in the city last year, totalling 186,000 square feet.
Read moreHoustonFirst-time developer plans $24M boutique hotel in the HeightsTexasLevcor enters College Station with two new acquisitions near A&MHoustonFujifilm expands biotech in College StationThe post Hotel, multifamily planned in College Station appeared first on The Real Deal.
Restaurateur Brendan Sodikoff with 1954, 1960 and 1962 North Fremont Street (Hogsalt, Google Maps, Getty)Local restaurateur Brendan Sodikoff is loading up on Lincoln Park land.
The head of hospitality firm Hogsalt that runs well-known restaurants including the acclaimed Au Cheval bought three adjacent lots in Lincoln Park for $6.7 million total, though his plans for the site remain a mystery, Crain’s reported.
The properties at 1954 through 1962 North Fremont Street, all of which hold homes and span a combined 12,000 square feet of land, were purchased by a legal entity managed by Sodikoff between December 2021 and August.
If the restaurateur demolished the structures to build a new estate, current zoning would allow for a maximum house size of roughly 24,000 square feet, which would likely cost somewhere between $17 million and $24 million, depending on construction materials.
Sodikoff wouldn’t be the only one to replace an assemblage of Lincoln Park structures with an even bigger one if he goes that route.
Developer BDG&C pulled off another ultra-pricey land sale last year when a buyer paid $9 million for a quadruple lot in Lincoln Park, likely setting a neighborhood record for the most expensive sale of land alone.
And in Winnetka, Billionaire Justin Ishbia has been turning heads in Winnetka, as he’s in the process of razing three mansions on Lake Michigan’s shoreline in preparation for an epic $44 million home construction project. Its projected cost of $77.7 million, including the purchases of the homes he bought to tear down, would set a new record in the Chicago area for the most anyone has paid for a single residence.
Such projects have also become more common in Lincoln Park since the early 2000s. With Chicago’s standard lot size of 25 feet by 125 feet, some buyers acquire several to build their dream mansion. Others buy a home nearby their existing residence to tear down so they can enlarge their yard space.
The biggest of Sodikoff’s properties is the one at 1954 North Fremont, totaling 6,000 square feet, while the other two are 3,000 square feet. He has not yet filed plans to build a new home or demolish the existing structures on the property.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoHuge new Ishbia estate to cost $44M ChicagoLincoln Park mansion listed for $12.5M scores buyer fastChicagoHere are Chicago’s top 5 residential sales of MayThe post Brendan Sodikoff was buyer of three Lincoln Park lots for $6.7M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of District Attorney Alvin Bragg (Getty)Drywall wasn’t the only cover that one construction firm was putting up, Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday.
On Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced 60 charges against eight people and six companies under the umbrella of Lawrence Wecker’s JM3 Construction Enterprises.
The counts allege a multimillion-dollar tax fraud scheme in which Wecker and his colleagues paid certified minority and women-owned businesses to bid on and win large, government-subsidized affordable housing contracts. Those firms then acted as a cover while JM3 paid undocumented and unreported workers off the books to do the projects.
The alleged pass-through companies included LNR Construction and Eco Geek Living LLC, according to the indictment. Wecker was previously indicted on mob-related charges and convicted of tax fraud, authorities said.
Such allegations have been a longstanding problem in the effort to boost minority contractors. On some government-funded projects, developers are tasked with using MWBE-certified firms to carry out 30 percent of the work.
“When the field is rigged, law-abiding companies and legitimate MWBEs are cheated out of much-needed contracts,” Bragg said in a press release.
Prosecutors said JM3’s scheme involved properties across three boroughs and southern Westchester from 2014 to 2021. In Manhattan, they included the National Urban League at 126 West 126th Street and L+M Development Partners’ 12-story apartment building at 79 Avenue D.
In Brooklyn, JM3 stands accused of construction and insurance fraud at a 160-unit affordable housing project in Brownsville and a 15-story mixed-use building at 888 Fountain Avenue in East New York. L+M paid $25 million for the latter site in 2021.
North of the Harlem River, JM3’s alleged fraud involved a seven-story residential building at 1812 Vyse Avenue, a 435-unit apartment complex at 1520 Story Avenue and a 457,000-square-foot, mixed-use project at 14 LeCount Place in New Rochelle.
In some cases, according to prosecutors, JM3 also stiffed firms.
“Wecker and JM3 allegedly stole money meant for subcontractors by never making good on a promised payment,” Bragg said. “One newly formed company’s young executives were forced to shutter their business when JM3’s payments never came through.”
The impact of the corruption stretched from the subcontractors to their workers, as the illicit hiring tactics prevented injured employees from access to worker’s compensation via the New York State Insurance Fund.
“If somebody gets hurt, if it’s minor, take him to urgent care, say it happened at home and we’ll pay him,” Wecker, 82, allegedly said in a 2021 telephone conversation, according to the indictment.
In another instance, an employee who received 45 stitches following a workplace injury was told by JM3 to lie to health care workers about where the injury came from, Bragg said in a press conference Tuesday.
Other activity uncovered during the investigation included a scheme by MSG Construction Corp. that defrauded the insurance fund of more than $1.7 million. Workers were sent back to construction sites even after their insurance was canceled, prosecutors said.
JACG Construction LLC was charged with defrauding the fund of more than $360,000.
This is not Wecker’s first rodeo with the Manhattan D.A. In 2000, he was one of 38 people, including union leaders and mobsters, indicted in a pervasive bid-rigging and racketeering conspiracy targeting the concrete industry.
The industry was a popular target for organized crime because concrete firms have to be within about 45 minutes of construction sites, putting them within easy reach of thugs.
In 1986, Wecker was an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving organized crime and the concrete industry. In it, one mob boss described Wecker as a “walking ATM machine” for his money laundering abilities, according to the New York Times.
In 1997, Wecker was convicted of federal tax evasion.
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Mill Creek Residential’s Jeb Cox and Meridian Plaza (Getty, Mill Creek Residential, Endeavor Real Estate Group)As aging office properties face an uncertain future, one such Austin building is set to become apartments.
Mill Creek Residential filed plans to build an eight-story apartment project at 1601 Rio Grande Street. While exact figures are subject to change, the filing says the building will have 215 units across 250,000 square feet.
The project’s estimated cost is $70 million. That’s almost $326,000 per unit. Work is slated to begin in February and last for two years.
The property’s ownership entity, 1601 Rio Grande Owner LP, traces to Endeavor Real Estate Group, the Austin-based developer behind projects like the Austin American-Statesman redevelopment and the Domain. Deed records show that Endeavor has owned the property since 2016, and Endeavor lists the building on its website. Neither firm responded to requests for clarification.
The filing also lists architecture firm GFF.
The building on the site is Meridian Plaza, a five-story office built in 1984. Some 8,100 square feet of the building’s 57,000 rentable square feet is available. Its location just south of West Campus and within walking distance of the State Capitol and Central Business District places it near some of the city’s biggest residential markets.
Read moreDallasCore starts 400 for-rent homes near DallasAustinM2G buys aging industrial in North AustinSince its founding, Mill Creek has built or bought almost 41,000 rental homes, according to the firm’s website.
The post Mill Creek plans Austin apartment high-rise appeared first on The Real Deal.
Telos Group’s Jeff Dowdell and 101 North Wacker Drive (Getty, Telos Group, Google Maps)Chicago-based Telos Group has added another office repositioning play to the brokerage’s repertoire of leasing assignments.
Telos, which bills itself as the city’s only office brokerage dedicated exclusively to landlords, has Jeff Dowdell leading leasing efforts at 101 North Wacker Drive, a 24-story property in the West Loop.
The building is owned by JLL’s investment arm, LaSalle Investment Management, which initially handed off leasing in-house to a JLL team when it bought the building from Hines Interests L.P. for $210 million in 2014. Now, the property has a new tenant lobby and spec suite in the works.
Telos has been tapped to manage leasing for several other Loop office towers that have undergone repositioning amid pandemic-related challenges for the commercial real estate market, including the Blackstone-owned Willis Tower and the Brookfield Properties-owned former Marshall Field building at 24 East Washington Street.
LaSalle’s North Wacker building is 70 percent leased, putting it below the downtown average occupancy rate of 77 percent. Plus, some of its occupancy exists on paper only, as the building’s largest tenants have put up space for sublease since Covid hit. Digital media company Conversant put its 107,000-square-foot space in the building up for sublease in October 2020, and rail car provider TTX listed 103,000 square feet two months later. JLL declined to comment.
But property owners’ renovations have paid off before — logistics firm Spot inked a deal for 31,000 square feet at the Marshall Field building in February, bumping the property up to about 50 percent leased. Brookfield redeveloped the building’s top six floors, which sit above the flagship Macy’s store, into modern office spaces just before the pandemic hit.
It’s a tough market for central business district landlords, and with a record 22.4 percent vacancy rate in Q1 of 2023, tenants have the leverage to seek out the highest quality spaces. The market for spec suites – offices designed, built and furnished by landlords to be move-in ready for tenants – has exploded during the pandemic, marking a shift in the expectations office tenants have for landlords.
Read moreChicagoQ&A: Telos Group’s Nikki Kern on retaining office tenants and moreChicagoTrouble ahead: Chicago office market is awash in subleasesChicagoOff the rails: Freight train provider lists West Loop HQ for subleaseThe post Telos Group picks up another Loop office repositioning play appeared first on The Real Deal.
Former Austin City Council member Ora Houston, Former state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos and Armbrust & Brown attorney Richard Suttle with the former Austin American-Statesman site (Google Maps, LinkedIn, OraATX, ABAustin)A lawsuit against the Austin City Council could impact Endeavor Real Estate Group’s plan to redevelop the former Austin American-Statesman.
Save Our Springs Alliance, Taxpayers Against Giveaways, former Texas state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos and former Austin City Council Member Ora Houston claim that council members acted unlawfully by creating the South Central Waterfront Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, the Austin Business Journal reported.
The TIRZ, approved in December, spans 118 acres and 54 parcels. It captures tax from increases in property values to fund infrastructure improvements, and it would make at least $154 million in subsidies available. One of the parcels is the former Statesman site at 305 South Congress Avenue, where Endeavor is planning to build a massive mixed-use development with six high-rises.
The lawsuit, which claims that as much as $354 million in property tax would go to the district over 20 years, has the potential to alter a number of planned developments within the TIRZ, said Armbrust & Brown attorney Richard Suttle, who represents Endeavor.
“We have not done a legal analysis of the lawsuit,” Suttle told the outlet. “We trust that the city has done the analysis and is comfortable in their position. In the event the plaintiffs prevail, it will cause a cascading effect on things like affordable housing and parks.”
The city hopes to make 20 percent of new housing affordable in the South Central Waterfront area, and tax increment financing is a way to achieve this goal. The plaintiffs, however, claim the TIRZ violates a state law which restricts the creation of such a zone to “unproductive, underdeveloped, or blighted” areas, the outlet said.
“The old Statesman property is prime land in the heart of our city,” former council member Ora Houston said in a Twitter post. “The $354M is just more profit for Endeavor, taken from taxpayers’ wallets.”
A city spokesperson pushed back against that claim, attesting that the TIRZ complies with state law requirements and that it was created with careful consideration and community feedback.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreAustinEndeavor plans East Austin mixed-useAustinEndeavor plans $61M office buildingAustinAustin investor Nate Paul resolves suit with law firm over unpaid feesThe post Austin lawsuit could cramp Endeavor’s plans appeared first on The Real Deal.
Valley Bank’s Ira Robbins (Getty, Valley Bank)Shares of Valley Bank, a lender that emerged as a lifeline for New York City real estate during a turbulent March, tumbled this week as First Republic went under and an analyst downgraded its stock.
The share price fell 20 percent Monday and another 3 percent Tuesday, hitting a 52-week low of $6.96 before recovering in the afternoon to $7.30. It’s down 35 percent this year.
Valley’s fundamentals do not suggest a risk of collapse. But its first-quarter numbers revealed its interest paid out grew faster than its interest earned — a mismatch that erodes profits and, in First Republic’s case, led to disaster.
Regulators on Monday seized First Republic, a major lender to New York multifamily landlords and homeowners, then sold most of the bank’s loans and all of its deposits to JPMorgan Chase.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the deal should quell fears of another collapse, telling CNN Monday the threat is “getting near the end.”
But while Dimon touted stability, markets saw risk. The KBW Bank Index, which tracks regional lenders, has slipped more than 6 percent since the market closed Friday. New Jersey-based Valley’s shares plunged 22 percent in the same two trading days.
Part of that dip stemmed from investor worries rooted more in emotion than fundamentals that the latest turmoil could spread to other regional lenders.
But an analyst’s downgrade of Valley Bank early Monday, citing revenue challenges, contributed as well.
Raymond James analyst Steve Moss cited falling net interest income at the bank — the difference between what banks pay out on deposits and the interest it earns from loans.
In the first quarter, Valley’s net interest income dropped by 6 percent to $437.5 million from $467.3 million in the fourth. The bank paid more than twice as much in interest expenses in the period — $284.2 million versus $103.5 million in the previous quarter — while its interest income grew by only $73.7 million.
Moss said Valley’s interest-bearing deposit costs had jumped to among the highest of its peer group and the bank expected those expenses to further pressure its profitability.
A discrepancy between interest earned and interest paid played a role in First Republic’s demise.
The bank’s interest income on the low-rate loans it specialized in couldn’t match rising deposit costs, sparking market fears around profitability and contributing to a run on deposits.
Valley saw net interest margin slip to 3.16 percent in the first quarter from 3.57 percent in the fourth, a drop of 41 basis points. By comparison, First Republic’s margin fell 66 basis points to 1.77 percent in the first quarter.
Valley’s margin is still relatively healthy. The average community bank net interest margin was 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter, above the pre-pandemic average of 3.6 percent, the FDIC reported.
Still, Raymond James’ Moss said Valley shouldn’t bank on expanded margin in the near-term. The analyst said as borrowers refinance loans, the bank would likely struggle to hike interest high enough to alleviate margin pressures without driving some borrowers into delinquency or default.
At the end of March, the bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio was 102 percent, meaning its outstanding loans exceeded its deposits. The higher the ratio, the higher the risk, as a bank will have less cash on hand to cover losses on loans, according to Trepp.
As it stands, borrowers are current on the overwhelming majority of Valley’s commercial real estate debt. The bank reported about $68 million in non-accrual commercial real estate loans in the first quarter, a 0.5 percent drop from the fourth quarter and 14 percent decline from the same period last year.
The bank also reduced its allowance for credit losses in the first quarter to $461 million, or 0.95 percent of all loans, from $483 million, or 1.03 percent of all loans, in the fourth quarter.
In an interview with The Real Deal last month, Valley CEO Ira Robbins touted the fundamentals of the commercial real estate that backs the majority of its debt.
“Even if the valuation comes down 15, 20, 25 percent, the properties still [have] cash flows,” he said.
Despite a high loan-to-value ratio, the bank does not intend to cut its lending. After reporting over $48 billion in loans in the first quarter, a 3.7 percent increase from the fourth, the bank said it expects as much as 9 percent loan growth through the rest of 2023.
Read moreNationalFirst Republic’s failure leaves “gaping hole” in marketThe post Valley Bank faces “challenges” but plans to increase lending appeared first on The Real Deal.
75 Isabella Avenue in Atherton with DeLeon Realty’s Michael Repka (DeLeon Realty)An empty 2.5-acre lot in Atherton on the market for over a year has found a buyer for more than $20 million, according to listing agent Michael Repka of DeLeon Realty.
Located near Menlo School, a prestigious private middle and high school, and country club Menlo Circus Club, 75 Isabella Avenue had been listed at $26.6 million since last April. It went into contract April 15, the second “prime buildable lot” that Repka has sold for more than $20 million this year, he said. He also repped 43 Santiago Avenue, a 2.5-acre property with an existing home that was purchased by luxury home builder Pacific Peninsula Group in January for $25 million and is currently the biggest sale in Atherton this year.
In addition to the $20-million-plus price tag, Repka said via email that the two properties were both on the market for “a significant amount of time without any bites last year.” The fact that they sold this year indicates that the high-end market has been “pleasantly resilient” of late, he added.
A 1-acre property with a 1960s-era home just down the street at 150 Isabella — which listing agent Kristin Gray of Compass describes in her marketing notes as “arguably the most coveted street in Atherton” — sold for just under $11.2 million at the end of April. That sale is another sign that $10 million an acre might just be the going rate for the country’s most expensive zip code.
“Land is still expensive,” said John Young of Golden Gate Sotheby’s, who is both an agent and a developer in Atherton. “We are not seeing bargains in land acquisition that would make obviously profitable finished development projects in the mid-peninsula.”
Young sold the Atherton spec house on two-thirds of an acre that he built with his wife and business partner Gloria for $14.5 million at the end of January, after an extended stay on the market last year. They are currently looking for “good developer-friendly lots” anywhere between Atherton and Los Altos for their next project, he said via email. But because “many sellers do not have to sell, or are reluctant to, given the steady appreciation over the past few decades,” he said many developers are “sitting on the sidelines until something changes.”
It is rare to find a lot with more than 2 acres, like 75 Isabella, and the question of whether it makes more sense to subdivide and build two homes or keep it one large estate is a “hot topic,” Young said. The state has been pushing more density even as “many developers have run into significant community opposition, because it potentially alters the character of a neighborhood.”
In the end, he said, a pair of finished 1-acre houses would probably fetch more than a single larger development. He suggested that the buyer for 75 Isabella was more likely to be an owner-user as the finished product would have to sell for around $60 million to make sense for an investment property, a “pretty rarified air for any developer.”
Repka said he could not comment on the buyer or their intention for the property since the deal is still in escrow. The seller does appear to be a developer, according to property records. Mighty Winner Development bought the property for $15 million in 2012.
Atherton is among the tony California towns currently fighting over its state-mandated housing requirements, but Young said it’s actually one of the easier municipalities to work with on the Peninsula for single-family developers.
“The typically large lots mean that what you do on your parcel does not affect your neighbors as much, so the town can have a lighter hand in approving designs,” he said.
For some Atherton buyers, the “blend of privacy, lot size, design flexibility and prestige that Atherton offers,” are a large part of the appeal, he said. Others care more about the bragging rights of being in “the #1 zip code for real estate in the USA.”
Read moreSan FranciscoLuxe developer Pacific Peninsula buys $25M Atherton houseSan FranciscoSlew of pre-spring sales recorded in nation’s priciest zip code San FranciscoDevelopment fight heats up in country’s richest cityThe post Empty lot on “most coveted street in Atherton” to sell above $20M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Dean Factor with 23816 Malibu Road in Malibu (Getty, Google Maps)Dean Factor, the great-grandson of late cosmetics mogul Max Factor, has sold his Malibu home for $37.5 million.
The property, located at 23816 Malibu Road, changed hands in an off-market transaction, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. The buyer is The Boathouse Trust, an entity managed by Enza Cohn, an accountant at business management firm Gelfand Rennert & Feldman in Century City. The trust is funding the purchase with a $27 million mortgage from City National Bank.
The estate, which sits on a 0.4-acre lot, contains a three-bedroom, 3.5-bath main residence and a three-bedroom guesthouse. Factor listed the property in January with an asking price of $40 million. It was previously on the market as a rental for more than a year. It was most recently offered for lease at $100,000 per month.
Factor and his wife Shannon have owned the property for more than a decade. They bought the home for $15.3 million in 2010.
Factor, along with his brother Davis, founded makeup brand Smashbox Cosmetics in 1996. The company is a sort of continuation of family lineage. Their great-grandfather Max Factor “is considered by many as the father of the modern cosmetics industry,” according to a 2000 profile from The New York Times. The eponymous make-up brand that bears his name is now owned by French company Coty.
The brothers also founded Los Angeles photography studio Smashbox Studios, which has hosted runway shows for Los Angeles Fashion Week.
In 2019, Factor sold a mansion in the Rustic Canyon area of the Pacific Palisades for nearly $13.9 million. The entity that bought the home, which was tied to a local parking management company, later rented the property to actress Jennifer Garner, according to media reports.
Chris Cortazzo at Compass had the listing for 23816 Malibu Road. He declined to comment.
The post Dean Factor sells Malibu home for $37.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Core Spaces’ Dan Goldberg with rendering of Oxenfree (Likedin, Core Spaces, Getty)Core Spaces is taking a deep dive into the build-to-rent world, after mostly focusing on student housing developments throughout its 13-year history.
The Chicago-based firm started construction on Oxenfree, a 400-plus home community about 45 miles northeast of Dallas, in Princeton, with the first batch of homes slated for delivery in April 2024, according to a news release.
Oxenfree marks the debut development of Core Spaces’ BTR brand, which it launched in 2020. The company plans to build more BTR communities in North Texas down the road, along with cities like Austin, San Antonio, Nashville, Chicago and Denver.
Oxenfree’s 408 homes will comprise a blend of single-family homes and townhomes, featuring three architectural styles: modern farmhouse, warm industrial and contemporary.
A planned amenity center, dubbed the Fieldhouse, will include a coworking area, health club, market, social lounge, kids’ playroom and a pool. The community will also have plenty of green space and is near Lake Lavon.
Wisconsin-based Treehouse Builders is at the helm of construction, while Northworks Architects and Digibilt lead design duties.
Build-to-rent developments have exploded in popularity in recent years, as people seek single-family homes in the suburbs with yards and better public resources, without the burden of owning a home.
“As more generations make the conscious shift from city to suburban living, the single-family
home sector is poised for greater disruption and growth than has ever been possible,” Core Spaces president Dan Goldberg said.
Core Spaces also plans to build a 140-home BTR community in Glenview, just outside Chicago, where it is seeking local zoning approval.
Read moreTexasGood + West barrels into Texas build-to-rent marketDallasBuild-to-rent and 1M sq ft industrial for Grand PrairieChicagoCore Spaces planning built-to-rent Glenview communityThe post Core starts 400 for-rent homes near Dallas appeared first on The Real Deal.
Feldco CEO Doug Cook and 6300 N. River Road with Farpoint’s Regina Stilp (LinkedIn, Loopnet)Farpoint Development landed a big one, as a company specializing in windows, siding, doors and roofing plans to relocate and upsize its operations.
Feldco has leased about 36,000 square feet in the seven-story building 6300 North River Road in Rosemont as its new headquarters location, Crain’s reported. That’s about double the size of its current footprint at 125 East Oakton Street in nearby Des Plaines.
The deal bodes well for a city that’s seen loads of recent company downsizings, such as Meta and Salesforce shedding a combined 240,000 square feet of office space. Such moves contributed to record-high vacancies this past quarter.
Many Feldco employees work on-site at projects, CEO Doug Cook told the outlet.
“It’s somewhat of an outlying story in this environment,” Cook said. “Our offices serve a different role — we use them to build teams, and we wanted to enhance what we had, enhance collaboration. We felt we were broken up too much and wanted one unified footprint.”
Farpoint Development, in partnership with Greco/DeRosa Investment Group, bought the North River property from the village of Rosemont for about $5 million in 2017. The venture added another $6 million in renovations and had just a few tenants lined up before the pandemic hit.
The investment was worth it, however, as North Carolina-based Farpoint refinanced the property in 2021 with a $13.6 million mortgage, following commitments from various tenants. The building is 80 percent leased with the addition of Felco, which now occupies the majority of the building. Farpoint said it’s nearing a deal with another tenant, which would bring the building’s occupancy to 95 percent.
The bulk of companies are favoring newer or freshly renovated office buildings in a post-pandemic world, as indicated by the success of Farpoint’s Rosemont property.
“It’s a boutique office building, and you don’t get that in the suburbs,” Farpoint principal Regina Stilp told the outlet. “People just want nice spaces.”
—Quinn Donoghue
The spelling of the firm Farpoint Development in the headline on this story was corrected.
Read moreChicagoCF Industries relocates suburban HQ to Northbrook with downsizeChicagoRiverside, Convexity score Antares lease at BMO TowerChicagoWabtec downsize compounds Spear Street leasing woesThe post Farpoint lands big Rosemont office lease appeared first on The Real Deal.
DeVry University at 1200 E. Diehl Road in Chicago, Former Robert Morris University at 401 South State Street in Chicago and Wheaton College at 501 College Avenue in Wheaton (Google Maps)Institutions of higher learning are selling properties no longer needed to developers aiming to repurpose them, making a Chicagoland real estate trend.
Educational organizations such as DeVry University, Wheaton College, Robert Morris and Northern Seminary have sold or listed well located sites in recent years amid declining enrollments, strained budgets and the amplification of online learning by the pandemic, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Many of these properties are undergoing transformations into apartments or mixed-use developments, while others could be razed completely.
“In recent years, financial pressures, changing demographics and adaptation to new learning models are motivating institutions to rethink their physical assets,” Bill Fahrner, a consultant for colleges and universities, told the outlet.
Wheaton College, located on a 15-acre site on the border of Wheaton and Glen Ellyn since 1997, recently purchased two buildings adjacent to its campus in October for $1.1 million and is preparing to vacate its long-held Scripture Press building that sits on a 16-acre site formerly owned by the Christian publishing firm.
With plans to be out of that large site by July, Wheaton College is working with a Glen Ellen developer who has proposed demolishing the structure to construct either 90 town homes or 278 apartments on the property.
Religious institution Northern Seminary sold its 27-acre campus on Butterfield Road in Lombard to Hoffman Alpha Omega Development Group in 2021 for an undisclosed amount. Hoffman razed the site to build a mixed-use project with apartments, retail space, a car wash, gas station and a combined Moretti’s restaurant and golf driving range complex called GolfSocial.
After the Lombard Village Board approved up to $27.5 million in incentives for the development, Hoffman ditched its plans, leaving JLL a mountain of debris to sell.
As for DeVry University, former owner Adtalem Global Education hired CBRE to market the 109,000-square-foot office building at 1200 East Diehl Road in January. Sources familiar with the offering expect the property to sell for about $8.5 million, a little more than the $8.1 million DeVry paid for the site in 2004.
And when Robert Morris University merged with Roosevelt University in 2020, then owner Rampante Realty faced a major uphill battle, and lost control of the Loop office property at 401 South State Street in March.
Rampante bought the building for $68 million in 2016, but when the pandemic struck, Robert Morris vacated the building and stopped making payments. That led to CWCapital Asset Management paying $20 million for the site as part of a court-ordered sale, several years after Deutsche Bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against the property.
The firm has so far not revealed its plans for the property, which is a historic landmark.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoOffices occupied by higher ed tenants for sale in western suburbsChicagoLutheran School of Theology sells off Hyde Park campus for $19MChicagoW.P. Carey shopping empty Goose Island officeThe post School for sale: Developers eye prime properties shopped by higher ed appeared first on The Real Deal.
Stack Infrastructure’s Brian Cox with 2400 Ringwood Avenue and 1849 Fortune Drive (LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)Denver-based developer Stack Infrastructure has proposed to build 500,000 square feet of data center space in San Jose, according to public records, adding to the large Silicon Valley pipeline for such developments.
Data centers house technological infrastructure for building, running and delivering online applications and services.
The project calls for two buildings located at 2400 Ringwood Avenue and 1849 Fortune Drive. The two data centers will total 522,194 square feet, along with a 36,573-square-foot manufacturing building and a 150,000-square-foot parking structure. Both centers would have a maximum height of 80 feet and feature loading docks, storage, office space and commercial space.
Two commercial buildings totaling 135,000 square feet would be demolished to make room for the project.
The facility will be powered by a 100 megavolt electrical substation on the eastern section of the property. The buildings will also be powered by 36 three-megawatt and three one-megawatt diesel-fired backup generators. In the industry, space is measured in megawatts as an indication of how much power is required to operate the facility.
Silicon Valley has seen the demand for data center space swell in the past year, which has led to a number of projects added to the pipeline. According to a CBRE report, Silicon Valley ranks third in North America in terms of net absorption of data centers with 62.4 megawatts, just slightly trailing 64.4 MW in Hillsboro, Oregon. Northern Virginia leads the pack by a wide margin with 436.9 MW of net absorption in 2022.
While Silicon Valley was third in net absorption, it had the largest data center construction pipeline at the end of 2022. More than 141 MW was under construction, 66 percent of which was pre-leased. There were 66 MW of new deliveries in 2022, up significantly from 21.5 MW in 2021. The market’s inventory now totals 379.6 MW.
“Limited land and power supply has led some providers to move from Santa Clara to neighboring parts of Silicon Valley, where there are redevelopment opportunities,” Jerry Inguagiato from CBRE said. “Despite the uncertainty of the macroeconomic environment and rising construction costs, providers are eager to find ways to meet demand as it continues to outpace supply.”
Read moreSan FranciscoConstruction pipeline swells for Silicon Valley data centersSan FranciscoMicrosoft plans massive data center campus in San JoseSan FranciscoVantage Data Centers gets $350M loan for Santa Clara siteThe post Stack Infrastructure to deliver large data center in San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Team Carte Blanche’s Aaron Seawood, Andrew Pritchard and Priscilla Diaz (The Agency)A three-person team is heading back to Compass after nearly three years.
Team Carte Blanche is returning from a stint with Triplemint and The Agency. Team leader Aaron Seawood said the move was in the interest of expanding into new markets and the company’s back-end platform, which was still under construction when the team left.
Seawood and his team worked at Compass for five years before leaving in January 2020 to join Triplemint, which The Agency acquired one year ago. At the time of their departure, the team was tapped to lead Triplemint’s expansion into Brooklyn.
Seawood is a former entertainment executive who was a founding member of Compass’ sports and entertainment division. The broker said he brings $55 million in listings to Compass, including the loft former NBA player Carmelo Anthony paid $11 million for in 2015 at 508 West 24th Street.
Seawood isn’t the only broker leaving The Agency for another turn at Compass. Genna Skolnik, a Dallas-area broker, recently brought her team back to Compass after just two months at The Agency, as did the Henry Horn Group in Beverly Hills.
Compass last month ended a year-long pause on expansions when it added a 300-broker firm in Scottsdale, Arizona, in a deferred, all-equity deal, and picked up a team in upstate New York.
Compass was ranked the largest brokerage by volume in 2022 — the second year in a row, according to Real Trends. But the firm saw its headcount sputter at the end of last year.
The number of principal agents — defined as a team leader or agent operating independently — was up by 112 in the fourth quarter of last year, while its total number of agents rose by just 58, according to its annual report.
The brokerage, which lost $600 million last year and predicted it will be cash-flow positive in the second quarter, is slated to announce its first quarter results next week.
Read moreLos AngelesNationalLayoffs hit The AgencyThe post Team Carte Blanche returns to Compass from The Agency appeared first on The Real Deal.
MG2’s Jessica Miller Essl and Susan Grupp with 4806 Commercial Park Drive (MG2 Ventures, Google Maps)A firm whose speciality is revitalizing old industrial properties aims to work its magic again on a North Austin holding.
Fort Worth-based MG2 Ventures, led by co-founders Jessica Miller Essl and Susan Gruppi, recently acquired a 54,000-square-foot light industrial property at 4806 Commercial Park Drive, in partnership with Chicago-based Blue Vista Capital Management, the Austin Business Journal reported.
The venture bought the site from East Monroe Block for an undisclosed amount, although it was recently valued at $5 million, according to Travis Central Appraisal District records. Aquila Commercial’s Leigh Ellis, Will Sikora and Chris Perry brokered the sale and will also lease the property.
MG2 plans to renovate the 40-year-old property through improved landscaping, move-in ready interior offices, storefront upgrades, new signage, repainting the building and an expanded food court — a move that’s on par with the company’s business model since its formation in 2014.
It was last renovated about 10 years ago, MG2’s Brett Zimmerman said in a news release.
The firm chose the North Austin property because of the area’s steady growth and its easy access to U.S. Highway 183, U.S. 290 and State Highway 130. The newly-acquired building is less than 7 miles north of the 71-acre industrial site at 827 Ed Bluestein Boulevard, where Kairoi Residential is planning a massive mixed-use redevelopment with 2,000-plus homes.
MG2 has delivered other light industrial projects, such as the 50,000-square-foot Woodall in Dallas, as well as the Bogart office building, an adaptive reuse of a former YWCA campus.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasKairoi eyes industrial site for mixed-use Austin$32.6M warehouses planned for northeast AustinAustinSamsung plots $107M tech warehouses The post MG2 buys aging industrial in North Austin appeared first on The Real Deal.
Ross Stores’ Barbara Rentler and 901 Market Street (Getty, Ross Stores, Google Maps)Ross Dress for Less plans to open a second, 40,000-square-foot store on San Francisco’s Market Street.
The Dublin-based discount clothier will set up shop at 901 Market Street in South of Market, which Saks Off Fifth has listed for sublease since before the pandemic, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The bargain retailer is at work on tenant improvements on the 10,300-square-foot ground-floor, storefront and 30,000-square-foot lower level.
An employee at Saks Off Fifth said the company was unaware of a closing timeline for the store.
Ross has a Union Square store a block away at 799 Market Street. It’s not clear whether the new store is a convenient move or a doubling-down on retail space.
The opening suggests a bold commitment to the Market Street corridor after years of big box desertions.
The building is owned by Hudson Pacific Properties. Broker Julie Taylor Colliers represented the Los Angeles-based company in the SoMa deal.
Ross is so busy that for years the company has shown interest in a second San Francisco store to shorten the lines in Union Square, a broker unaffiliated with the deal told the Business Times.
Customers often line up to enter, and the 55,000-square-foot store was described as one of the chain’s “top five” performing locations when Jamestown Properties acquired the building in 2012.
Ross Stores does little e-commerce, yet meets customer demand through its treasure-hunt style bargains. The publicly traded firm has 1,700 stores and aims to add 100 more each year.
In January, the company closed its Richmond District store at 5200 Geary Boulevard, bringing its San Francisco locations to three, including 2300 16th Street and 1545 Sloat Boulevard. The new SoMa store in SoMa will bring its presence back up to four locations.
Early this year, Ross put 74,000 square feet of its headquarters at 5130 Hacienda Drive up for lease. By shedding offices, Ross joins Chevron and Oracle in shrinking its Tri-Valley real estate footprint.
Read moreSan FranciscoRoss Stores shrinks headquarters office in DublinSan FranciscoAralon bets on SF’s Union Square with $9M redevelopment planSan FranciscoThe RealReal to close flagship store in Union SquareIn 2020, Hudson Pacific sued both major retail tenants at 901 Market Street, Saks Off Fifth and Nordstrom Rack, after both refused to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars of rent during the pandemic.
The landlord dismissed its case against Saks Off Fifth early last year just ahead of a scheduled jury trial, indicating a likely settlement. Similarly, Hudson Pacific dismissed its lawsuit against Nordstrom within four months of the complaint in 2020.
— Dana Bartholomew
The post Ross Dress for Less to open second shop on SF’s Market Street appeared first on The Real Deal.
Hal Fetner, The Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein and 26-32 Jackson Avenue (Getty)The Carlyle Group joined Hal Fetner and his partners to develop a pair of high-rise rental towers in Long Island City.
The private equity giant purchased a stake as a limited partner in the project at 26-32 Jackson Avenue from Fetner Properties and the Lions Group. The size of the stake wasn’t clear, but property records show Carlyle bought the site for $42 million.
Carlyle’s investment was contingent on his firm completing the foundation in order to secure a 421a tax abatement, Fetner told The Real Deal. Brookfield provided a $35.8 million loan as part of a larger financing package.
Plans for the site call for a pair of apartment buildings with 363 units, 30 percent of which (109 apartments) will be set aside as income-restricted rentals.
Fetner said he was proud of the mixed-income portion of the project, “especially at this time when the creation of new housing is so critically important.”
Construction is scheduled for completion around September 2025.
It could be among the last major rental developments for a while with no clear replacement for the expired 421a incentive on the horizon.
Gov. Kathy Hochul had proposed an extension for projects vested under the expired program to finish completion in her preliminary budget in February, but offered no replacement.
It was part of her ambitious plan to create 800,000 new homes statewide over the next decade, but that housing agenda has seemingly fallen out of the budget, which is now about a month later.
Carlyle, meanwhile, has been active on the multifamily front. The company recently joined Ofer Yardeni’s Stonehenge NYC on its purchase of the 196-unit RiverEast rental tower at 408 East 92nd Street for $114 million.
Read moreNew YorkPlan B for 421aNew YorkCarlyle joins Stonehenge on $114M deal for UES apartmentsNew YorkFetner to finally break ground on 23-story UWS apartment buildingThe post Carlyle buys a piece of Fetner’s LIC rental project appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kroger’s Rodney McMullen and the new Kroger planned at Highway 121 and Coit Road in Plano (Kroger Company, LinkedIn)The grocery race is heating up in the DFW ’burbs, as Kroger starts the first of its three new stores in Plano.
Construction on the new Kroger Marketplace on Coit Road at Highway 121 will start in late July and cost $10.5 million to build, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing. Kroger’s new Plano store will be located across from its store at 9700 Coit Road. The existing store will close when the new 120,000 square foot grocery opens in 2024. No other details are ready to be announced, a Kroger spokesperson said.
Kroger also plans to open new stores in Melissa and Fort Worth. The grocer operates more than 100 stores in North and East Texas and more than 200 stores total throughout the state.
A $25 billion merger between Kroger and Albertsons has yet to be finalized by the companies’ respective shareholders while they await approval from the Federal Trade Commision. If approved, the merger would make Kroger the second-largest retail chain in the country behind Walmart.
Other retail grocery companies, like H-E-B, Tom Thumb and Target, have been expanding across DFW as the region’s population continues to swell. Despite a slowdown in the final months of 2022, North Texas once again topped all the other major U.S. metros for commercial property deals, for the third year in a row. Still, the 2022 North Texas commercial real estate volume was down 15 percent from 2021′s record total of deals, according to MSCI.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area saw retail occupancy above 94 percent in 2022, the highest figure recorded since 1990, according to a report by Weitzman Group. Vacancies caused by the onset of the pandemic have been erased, and the market absorbed 1.7 million square feet in 2022, Weitzman reported.
Read moreDallasH-E-B breaks into one of the most expensive DFW submarketsTexasBrixmor brings Target to Southern DallasChicagoChicago retail owners undisturbed by grocers merger despite overlapThe post Kroger begins DFW expansion with Plano appeared first on The Real Deal.
Stephan Curry, Marc Andreessen, Atherton mayor Bill Widmer (Getty, Bill Widmer 4 Atherton Council)For months Atherton — a San Francisco suburb that has long ranked as the country’s richest community — has been roiled by a fight over local housing planning. It’s a debate that grew even louder when NBA star Steph Curry joined the local NIMBY team.
But now, Atherton’s housing debate has escalated further, with irate residents pleading for their elected officials to sue the state of California and one councilmember publicly arguing that the wealthy city deserves unique treatment. The dispute could garner national attention, given the city’s profile and who’s who list of wealthy residents.
“We need to convince them of the specialness of Atherton,” councilmember Elizabeth Lewis said during a recent council meeting, referring to state authorities, “and hopefully reduce their expectations of us.”
The expectation from Sacramento authorities is that every city — even wealthy ones — does its fair share to combat the state’s housing shortage.
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Atherton has a population of around 7,000 and an average household income of over $530,000. The city has long attracted highly affluent residents — along with Curry, other notable Athertonians have included the tech giants Paul Allen and Marc Andreessen. Part of its allure is due to its restrictive zoning and one acre minimum lot sizes; in 2021, the median home sale price was $7.5 million.
The city’s current development fight centers on California Housing Element Law and state planning mandates, the same laws at the root of major development fights in SoCal cities such as Huntington Beach and Beverly Hills.
Atherton’s latest Housing Element update was due on January 31, the same deadline faced by other Bay Area jurisdictions. But for this update, which details housing planning through 2031, the state had determined Atherton needed to accommodate 348 new units, far more than the 93 the state allocated eight years ago.
Residents were not happy.
Last spring, as the city was working on its update, one public meeting grew feisty, the local paper the Almanac reported, with one resident suggesting Atherton try to skirt the requirement by paying a $100,000 monthly fine. The mayor insisted the city would not fight the allocation number, and invoked the experience of nearby Woodside, another wealthy town that became something of a national joke when it tried to evade the new California duplex law SB 9 by claiming the entire town qualified as a protected mountain lion habitat.
“Woodside’s experience, where they tried to fight SB 9 with the mountain lion law, it received a severe reaction,” he said. “That kind of showed us the last thing you want is to be completely out of line with this issue and we’re not going to be.”
The town held a series of meetings, and came up with a draft plan that included townhouses. But residents consistently balked, particularly at the multifamily option, claiming the city’s new zoning would “destroy the character of the community” and represent a “grave mistake that Atherton would regret forever.”
NIMBY tantrumLast summer Andreessen, who had previously presented himself as a housing advocate, submitted a scathing public comment to the city with his wife “to communicate our IMMENSE objection to the creation of multifamily overlay zones … They will MASSIVELY decrease our home values, the quality of life of ourselves and our neighbors and IMMENSELY increase the noise pollution and traffic.”
Months later Curry chimed in, more politely, against one specific proposal near his house, arguing “there are major concerns in terms of both privacy and safety with three-story townhomes looming directly behind us.”
The city ended up nixing the multifamily zoning plan. Instead, last July, officials submitted a draft plan to the state that relied mostly on hypothetical development from new ADU construction, lot splits from SB 9 and building on school sites to meet the quota.
The state rejected that draft as unrealistic in October 2022. Town officials considered other options, including adding more units at a local college, but resisted adding multifamily plans, even as the January approval deadline loomed and some officials sensed another rejection was coming.
“We’re just kicking this can down the road,” one councilmember told his colleagues last fall.
He was right. At a contentious meeting on January 31, the state’s deadline for compliance, city council — now fearful of potential builder’s remedy projects — ended up adopting a Housing Element that still relied predominantly on ADUs but did include one multifamily zoning overlay at 23 Oakwood Boulevard, the site Curry was worried about.
“This is over my fence and yes, I’m NIMBY, whatever everybody wants me to call me,” one neighbor said at the meeting. “I will have people staring into my yard, into my bedroom window.”
Last month, the state again rejected the plan anyway, and advised Atherton to, among other fixes, better demonstrate that its ADU and lot-split sites are realistic and “analyze and demonstrate realistic opportunities for multifamily.”
Two weeks later, at another council meeting, the councilmembers were left debating the technicalities of new criteria the town could use to identify potential multifamily sites, even as they also tried to reduce the number of actual sites that would make the list. Their constituents were still outraged, with some calling for the officials to abandon the compliance attempt altogether and pursue litigation.
“We don’t trust you anymore,” one resident said. “You betrayed our trust by presenting this.”
The reaction was quite different outside of town limits.
“What’s that on the horizon?” a San Jose resident asked on Twitter. “Looks like the Builder’s Remedy is coming to town.”
Read moreSan FranciscoJapanese home shopping CEO pays $20M for Atherton homeSan FranciscoSlew of pre-spring sales recorded in nation’s priciest zip code The post Development fight heats up in country’s richest city appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bill Pulte (Bill Pulte, Getty)Bill Pulte acknowledges the ridiculousness of the lawsuits he’s involved in.
“You’ve got these Fortune 500 executives screwing around,” said Pulte, who is the grandson of PulteGroup’s founder, William J. Pulte.
A boardroom disagreement between the scion, who was on the company board from 2016 to 2020, and Brandon Jones, a former PulteGroup vice president who was slated to become chief operating officer, devolved into a flurry of lawsuits with accusations of online harassing, stalking and defamation.
While Pulte was on the board he was able to block Jones’ promotion to COO. However, Jones was eventually tapped for the role, which he was set to begin in January.
But according to a lawsuit filed by Pulte in December, Jones began harassing him on Twitter through pseudonymous accounts. Jones’ alleged burner accounts posted a series of fiery tweets about Pulte, who has more than 3-million followers on the platform. The claims included that Pulte committed securities fraud, he was widely disliked by PulteGroup employees and was responsible for some of them losing their jobs and that his father Mark Pulte committed arson. (There is no evidence of Pulte or his family engaging in criminal activity, nor have any charges ever been brought against Pulte or his family concerning securities fraud or other of the claimed criminal activity.)
This led the PulteGroup to conduct an investigation that led to Jones being fired, concluding that he had violated the company’s code of ethics.
Jones and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment. But he has filed a defamation lawsuit of his own — against Pulte — in Georgia federal court.
In the 76-page suit, Jones claims he has been the target of a smear campaign, because Pulte wants to make his way back onto the PulteGroup’s board, oust current leadership and take control of the company. Jones says his life has been threatened as a result of Pulte’s tweets, as well as him talking to the press about the case. He is seeking more than $75,000 in damages.
Pulte denies the claims in Jones’ suit and told The Real Deal that his alleged desire to return to the board is “absurd.”
Meanwhile, Stephen Richardson, a California resident, has also sued Jones, claiming he used Richardson’s name, image and likeness, which included a photo of him from college, for one of the burner accounts meant to allegedly defame Pulte.
Jones’ insurance company, Crestwood, has sued its own client along with Pulte, and is seeking to avoid paying for Jones’ defense and a potential settlement or verdict.
So far, PulteGroup, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, has avoided getting mixed up in the legal brawl. And Pulte admitted that he’s concerned about how the legal drama between him and Jones could impact the legacy of his family’s business.
A PulteGroup spokesperson declined to comment through email, saying it’s a private matter between Pulte and Jones.
The post PulteGroup tied to bizarre series of lawsuits over executive firing appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Realtor.com)A private island with 78 acres of oyster beds just off the coast of Connecticut on the Long Island Sound has sold for $3.5 million.
Green Island, which is just off Haycock Point in Branford, is three-quarters of an acre and has a 2,300-square-foot vacation home with four-bedrooms and two bathrooms, CT Insider and the New Haven Register reported.
The buyer and seller, who originally asked $4 million, were not disclosed. Kiara Rusconi of William Raveis Real Estate had the listing and represented both parties, CT Insider said.
The Duo Dickenson-designed home, which has a two-story window wall, has utility connections to the mainland, but no landline internet. The primary bedroom has a full bath and a walk-in closet.
The island is near Connecticut’s famed Thimble Islands, and travel to Green Island can be arranged through the Thimble Island Water Ferry Taxi for rounds out of Stony Creek. A Branford launch also has service, the outlet reported.
Islands can be attractive trophy properties.
A 44-acre private island in Alaska that adds 12 acres at low tide hit the market last year with an asking price of $20 million.
A private island in Alaska that adds 12 acres at low tide will hit the market with an asking price of $20 million.
The island, once used as a fox farm, doesn’t have buildings, although the owner once considered building two homes. Spruce trees, some of which are believed to be over 350 years old, cover the property.
In November 2022, the 5-acre Tippity Wichity Island, which is a 90-minute drive outside Washington, D.C., just off the Chesapeake Bay – hit the market for $2.1 million.
The island includes a three-bedroom cottage with an open-plan living and dining room, as well as a wood-burning stove. There’s also a dock, beach, launch area for kayaks and canoes and a heated outdoor swimming pool.
It also has a mysterious past, including the possibility that, just after the Civil War, the island served as a bordello possibly operated by a soldier named Capt. Henry Howgate, who had his own murky narrative that could include convictions for fraud and embezzlement.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Connecticut private island sells for $3.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Alyssa Webb (Facebook, Getty)A Montana real estate agent got the scare of a lifetime while showing a vacant house in Billings last week.
Alyssa Webb, who has been an agent for five years, opened the door to a room, only to find someone was already there, Fox News reported.
Webb, who was taking video of the showing, let out a yelp and then turned and ran.
“It was really terrifying to know someone was there the entire time and they didn’t try to leave or announce their presence and he was just hiding,” Webb told the outlet. “I didn’t know what he is capable of, if they had a weapon, he might attack me.”
Billings police advised people who are entering empty houses to be on the lookout for things that are out of place, like a broken window or a door that’s off its hinges.
Webb said she knows what to do if she finds herself in a similar situation.
“I should have gone with my instincts and really thought OK, those are actually feet, and I should have ran,” she said.
There are some perils that come with being a real estate agent, and safety is paramount.
Two agents in Massachusetts received calls from a man posing as a Bristol County sheriff. The man told the agents they owed $2,000 in fines. The calls came in on both women’s phones as “Sheriff’s Office.”
In Florida, a real estate agent was fatally shot outside a Coral Springs residence she’s believed to have been showing.
Raymond Wesley Reese was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Sara Trost.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Montana real estate agent confronts intruder during showing appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)Never one to be a shrinking violet, Charlie Munger has thoughts on the commercial real estate market, and none of them are particularly good.
“A lot of real estate isn’t so good any more,” Munger, the 99-year-old vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, told the Financial Times in an interview. “We have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centers, a lot of troubled other properties. There’s a lot of agony out there.”
Banks are saddled with bad loans, as interest rates increase and property values fall, he told the outlet. Munger’s comments come at a time when Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank both collapsed last month, and the FDIC is seeking a buyer for San Francisco-based First Republic Bank, leading some to believe of a pending commercial real estate collapse.
“It’s not nearly as bad as it was in 2008,” he told the Times. “But trouble happens to banking just like trouble happens everywhere else. In the good times you get into bad habits. … When bad times come they lose too much.”
He noted that banks have tightened their commercial real estate lending, particularly over the past six months. The Times noted that Berkshire Hathaway hasn’t stepped into the current banking fray like it had during other shaky times.
“Berkshire has made some bank investments that worked out very well for us,” Munger said to the Times. “We’ve had some disappointment in banks, too. It’s not that damned easy to run a bank intelligently, there are a lot of temptations to do the wrong thing.”
Munger, who is worth more than $2 billion, isn’t one to hold back his opinions on much, if anything. During the interview with the times, Munger said, “I do not think that we can take it as a given that American democracy will prosper and flourish forever.”
An amateur architect, the Omaha native touched off some controversy last year over his design for a $200 million “megadorm” that he financially backed at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Munger’s design for the 11-story dorm complex omits windows from nearly all dorm rooms. Munger argues this was necessary to allow for individual bedrooms and better common spaces.
In December, a panel of UCSB faculty and community members released a report critical of the dorm.
“It’s all horseshit,” Munger told The Real Deal at the time. “It’s ridiculous.”
— Ted Glanzer
The post Munger: “A lot of agony” in CRE loans appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A major landlord in upstate New York has a lot of people questioning his business practices — thousands of them in fact.
Madison County’s M. Burton Marshall owes $92.7 million to his creditors, Syracuse.com reported. The revelation came in bankruptcy filings, which also detailed that $90.5 million of that is unsecured debt owed to nearly 1,000 people who loaned Marshall money in exchange for an 8-percent annual return.
Investors told the publication that Marshall claimed he would use the money he borrowed to invest in the community, including his rental property purchases. In exchange, Marshall gave promissory notes, claiming investors could get principals’ back with 30 days’ notice. The lenders received no security in any of the properties.
In addition to being a landlord, Marshall is also a tax preparer and insurance salesman. The 71-year-old filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week.
Marshall’s assets total $21.9 million. Most of that value is derived from real estate; Marshall owns rental properties in the Hamilton area, close to Colgate University.
With a lot of creditors comes a large range of alleged debt. Some are owed just a few hundred dollars, according to the filings. One, however, is owed more than $2 million. Some of the creditors live on the other side of the country.
Last month, New York State Attorney General Lettia James launched a probe into Marshall’s activities and some alleged irregularities in his dealings. The investigation was launched after multiple complaints, starting with an inquiry to the local police department in early March.
Read moreTri-StateDestructive tenants driving upstate landlords to despairNationalBrooklyn-based landlord accused of neglecting tenants nationwideTri-StateUpstate NY and Connecticut landlord accused of income discriminationA message on Marshall’s tax business website noted “ongoing health issues” in February that was set to sideline him for the busy tax season. Prior to that, at least one lender said Marshall was up to date on his payments to them.
As the missed payments allegedly piled up, so did the lawsuits. Dozens have been filed against Marshall in recent weeks.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Upsate landlord owes $93M to creditors appeared first on The Real Deal.
UPDATED (Sunday, April 30, 3:25 p.m.) The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. set a deadline for noon today for banks to bid on San Francisco-based lender First Republic Bank, according to multiple reports.
The FDIC asked up to six banks, including JP Morgan Chase & Co., PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., and Bank of America to bid on the beleaguered lender after gauging interest late last week, Bloomberg first reported, citing sources close to the matter.
The FDIC reached out to banks Thursday to gauge interest, including a possible price and cost to the regulator’s deposit insurance fund, in an effort to stave off receivership, the outlet reported. A result on the auction is expected this evening, Bloomberg reported.
Shares of First Republic plummeted last week following the revelation Monday that customers had withdrawn $102 billion since last month, as it grappled with holding fixed-rate mortgages with low interest rates.
First Republic is mostly in the business of lending to homeowners, and for the most part, to individuals with very high credit scores. Almost 60 percent of its loans were single-family mortgages, according to the firm’s 2022 annual report.
In March, 11 banks, including JP Morgan, deposited $30 billion into First Republic to shore up its finances. Following the drop in stock price, the company’s market value has fallen to $650 million, Bloomberg said. The bank last week was reportedly looking to spin off real estate holdings, including its headquarters at 111 Pine Street in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Business Times.
If JP Morgan were to acquire First Republic, an exception would have to be made because it has more than 10 percent of the nation’s deposits, a barrier under federal law that would prohibit it from taking over another bank, Bloomberg said.
The regulator is seeking a sale of First Republic rather than a protracted auction like the ones following the collapses of SVB and Signature Bank in March.
Credit Suisse, the Swiss banking behemoth, was rescued by rival UBS last month.
A winner of the auction could be announced today or tomorrow, according to the BBC.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreThe post FDIC sets deadline for today for bids on First Republic appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Hedgelawn Farm at 191 Roxbury Road in Washington, Connecticut (Getty, Compass Real Estate)Three’s company at this 28-acre restored farm in Washington, Connecticut that just listed for $9.5 million.
Owner Kevin Comer has put the 250-year old Hedgelawn Farm up for sale after completing a long renovation of the three houses on the property, the Hartford Courant reported.
Comer led the redesign of all three homes on the farm –– his firm, City and Field Design, specializes in adaptive re-use for architecturally and historically significant properties, according to its website. Comer bought the farm at 191 Roxbury Road in 2007 for $2.8 million, according to Compass. He began renovating the barn house, guest house and cottage in 2013.
Ten years later, the renovations are complete, and Rick Distel and Susan Vanech of Compass have the listing.
“It overlooks that entire river valley for miles in either direction,” Comer told the publication. “It was one of the oldest farms in Litchfield County. Very few owners. It’s kind of a storied property.”
In total, there are nine structures on the property, but only three are residences. Comer renovated the 4,500-square-foot, three-bedroom barn house, 2,800-square-foot, two-bedroom guest house and one-bedroom cottage with all modern designs. The former tobacco farm also has a pool, six-car garage, three-stall horse barn and a three-seater outhouse.
Properties at this price point rarely come updated, modern interiors, Distel told the outlet. “What we’re seeing with our other buyers is they’re willing to pay up for certainty, and not having to deal with materials and contractors. So I think that’s like a big gold star for this property.”
— Kate Hinsche
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Tamir Poleg (LinkedIn, Getty)A third residential brokerage is growing its footprint in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The Real Brokerage announced it expanded into Delaware and expanded its presence in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore areas. The firm, which is one of the fastest-growing brokerages in the country, joins New York City-based Serhant and Douglas Elliman to target the redion in recent months.
Real tapped Ray Petkevis, formerly CEO of Keller Williams Realty Wilmington, to lead its Delaware operations. In the Baltimore and D.C. areas, it added two previously independent firms: Garner + Co. and the Kilner & Kirk Group.
The brokerage’s moves come weeks after Ryan Serhant’s firm announced an expansion into six East Coast markets, including Pennsylvania. The founder said he targeted New York City feeder markets and those with strong referral networks with the city, including the Carolinas.
Douglas Elliman ventured into the region in November, when it opened three offices in the nation’s capital.
“We’re opening in markets in a slightly different way than those that just go out and buy other companies,” Elliman chairman Howard Lorber said on his company’s third-quarter earnings call.
The Real Brokerage, founded in 2014, has grown to operate in 46 states and has seen its agent count grow from 1,000 in 2020 to more than 9,000 this year.
The firm posted a loss of more than $20 million last year, despite having low overhead thanks to a backend platform that automated most employee positions and allows brokers to run their businesses digitally, allowing the company to have zero offices.
In the wake of its losses, the company announced in March it was raising fees charged to agents as it works towards becoming profitable.
Real raised its onboarding fee to $249 from $149 and raised the annual fee it charges agents to $750 from $500. It also started charging agents who participate in its revenue sharing to the tune of a $175 annual fee plus 1.2 percent of revenue share payments.
Several other fees were also increased, which Poleg said was done to prevent the firm from raising its $12,000 cap on commissions or raising its 85/15 commission split ratio: Once a broker pays the firm $12,000 a year, they keep all of their commissions.
“We didn’t want to touch the commission split and we didn’t want to touch the cap,” Poleg previously told TRD. “We also never want to touch them in the future.”
Read moreNationalThese resi brokerages are expandingNew YorkSerhant, PA team members sued for $10M over expansionNew YorkSotheby’s Serena Boardman is queen of the co-opsThe post Real Brokerage joins Mid-Atlantic expansion wave appeared first on The Real Deal.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Mickey Mouse (Getty)Disney is out to prove to Ron DeSantis that this mouse has sharp teeth.
The media and entertainment giant filed a lawsuit in federal court against Florida’s governor and the board that oversees the development of Walt Disney World theme parks, claiming the company is being denied its First Amendment rights, the New York Times reported.
“In America, the government cannot punish you for speaking your mind,” Disney said in the complaint, the Times reported.
Further, the lawsuit says DeSantis has “weaponized” the government against Disney in “retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint.”
A spokeswoman for DeSantis said Disney’s suit doesn’t have merit.
“We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state,” she told the Times.
The Times noted that, until recently, you’d have a better chance of having Disney change its logo to Bugs Bunny before Florida and the company engage in such a fierce fight.
It’s the latest salvo in an ongoing feud between Gov. Ron DeSantis and Disney dating back to when Disney took a stand against the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that restricts the discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools.
That drew DeSantis’ ire, and he began publicly berating Disney. Recently he floated the idea of building a prison next to the Orlando theme park.
He wasn’t done. At his urging, the state legislature during a special session in February gave DeSantis the power to appoint members of the board that oversees the development of Walt Disney World theme parks.
Before that law was enacted, Disney quietly maneuvered to keep control of its Florida theme parks for at least another 30 years.
The current board, composed of DeSantis appointees, said last week that the agreements for Disney’s future multibillion-dollar expansion in Orlando are “void” and “unenforceable,” NBC News reported.
Disney is the state’s largest employer and also a cash cow for Florida, with the company raking in $1.2 billion in local and state taxes last year, according to public disclosures.
— Ted Glanzer
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Briarwood Apartments in Searcy, Arkansas (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, Google Maps)An Arkansas apartment manager faces a litany of charges after tenants claimed he abused them, threatened them and cut off utilities before demanding sexual favors to restore service.
Tom Kelso, 72, of Searcy, Arkansas, was arrested earlier this month and charged with rape and three counts of human trafficking in addition to drug and firearms offenses, all of which were allegedly committed at Briarwood Apartments, the complex he managed in the city, KARK reported.
His bond was set at $650,000.
Another woman, Lori Leavell, was arrested for helping Kelso carry out the crimes, police said.
The arrests came after Searcy police and officers from a state drug task force executed search warrants on Kelso’s residence, his office and a storage unit after receiving complaints of drug and human trafficking.
The searches turned up guns, methamphetamine, fentanyl and drug paraphernalia, all of which were seized, police said.
Tenants told KARK, a local NBC affiliate, that they were relieved Kelso was finally arrested and said they had long observed his abuse or suffered under it directly.
“I would like to see justice come to him cause this is not right,” resident Tesha Aguilar told the outlet. “We shouldn’t be afraid to come out of our apartments whether he’s on the premises or not.”
Kelso could face additional charges. After KARK first aired its story on his arrest, Searcy Police Chief Steve Hernandez told the outlet that 20 more alleged victims contacted the department.
— Ted Glanzer
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New Jersey businessman Sami Abunasra with 1051-1061 New Britain Avenue (LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)West Hartford’s new transit-oriented development district is about to get its first test, nearly a year after it was adopted by the Town Council.
New Jersey businessman Sami Abunasra applied to develop a five-story, mixed-use building at 1051-1061 New Britain Avenue in the town’s Elmwood section, the Hartford Business Journal reported. The 205,000-square-foot development would include 150 apartments and 17,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
Only a couple of football fields from CTfastrak rapid busway, the development qualifies under the zoning district adopted in June. Under the district’s rules, developers can include greater multifamily density near mass transit.
An advantage of the district is that proposals will be reviewed by an administrative staff instead of appointed boards, potentially allowing approval to happen in as few as 65 days. Preference will also be given to projects with affordable housing, green energy and underground parking.
The proposal on New Britain Avenue includes 128 underground parking spots and a dozen ground level spaces. There will also be a few dozen spaces for the two restaurants and three retail spaces expected to occupy part of the development.
A majority of the units will be one-bedrooms, though there will also be studios, two-bedrooms and three-bedrooms available.
Abunasra purchased the three-acre property in 2020 for $1.1 million. At first, the businessman converted it to an Ashley HomeStore furniture location, but shifted to a mixed-use development after discussions with town officials.
West Hartford is home to several significant development projects as of late. West Hartford 1, led by investor and developer Domenic Carpionato, is planning a 492-unit project on a 58-acre site that formerly housed a University of Connecticut campus. The mixed-use project includes boutique retailers, restaurants, a medical office, a spa and a neighborhood market.
Separately, Continental Properties paid $10.6 million for a four-acre site of the former Children’s Museum. The New York-based firm plans to build a 172-unit luxury complex there.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNationalDevelopers propose 670 apartments for Connecticut townTri-StateConnecticut at risk to lose more than 5K affordable unitsNationalLarge office complex up for auction in ConnecticutThe post New Jersey developer plans 150 units in West Hartford appeared first on The Real Deal.
Greystar founder Bob Faith and 92 Modern Living Solutions Way in Knox PA (ModsbyModern.com, Greystar)If modular construction proves to be a sustainable future of real estate, Greystar Real Estate Partners wants to be part of it.
The South Carolina-based firm announced the opening of a factory in western Pennsylvania last week to serve as the flagship of its modular construction business, Modern Living Solutions. The factory in Knox is the firm’s first modular production base.
Greystar announced the modular construction business in December 2020, when it acquired the 256,000-square-foot industrial property in Knox. At the time, the factory was expected to open in August 2021.
Bob Faith, Greystar founder, said in a statement that the facility would “deliver a rental product that is less expensive, more attainable, and sustainably produced to meet a need we are seeing in the market.”
Generally, modular construction is akin to assembling a car. Machines and people build a home on the line, reducing labor costs. The process is designed to save time, as the apartment is constructed in a factory, while another team can simultaneously deal with the site and foundations. The home is then transported to its site and put into place.
Since the puzzle-piecing process is faster and cheaper, it could make homes more affordable, a big need across the country during an affordability crisis. On the other hand, buyers won’t be able to customize their homes and builders are limited in size by transportation capabilities. Additionally, local codes make it difficult to create a one-size-fits-all system.
Greystar projects the factory will allow it to deliver modular apartments 50-percent faster, since it won’t be constrained by things like weather delays. Greystar also vows to build homes with lower carbon footprints, featuring roughly 80 percent lease than traditional builds.
The Knox factory will serve the Mid-Atlantic region, focused on communities located 30 to 45 minutes outside of major cities, such as Pittsburgh and Baltimore; Modern Living’s corporate home is in Maryland city.
Read moreNew YorkModular construction firm founded by SHoP principals unveils first apartmentNew YorkModular construction works for luxury homes, tooNew YorkWarren Buffett bets on modular constructionThe post Greystar goes big in modular appeared first on The Real Deal.
2100 Norman Drive in Waukegan with Fulcrum Asset Advisors’ Tom Cox, Scott Stahr and Peter Broccolo (Loopnet, Fulcrum Asset Advisors)Fulcrum Asset Advisors expanded its considerable share of midsize suburban office holdings with a sale-leaseback deal in Lake County.
The Chicago-based private real estate investment firm paid $10.3 million for the three-story, 130,000-square-foot Class B office building at 2100 Norman Drive in Waukegan. Built in 1989, the property serves as the headquarters for material handling equipment supplier UCC Environmental. The building’s seller is an LLC managed by Don and Douglas Basler, former heads of UCC.
Fulcrum’s Chicago-area office portfolio totals more than 6 million square feet and is mostly made up of Class B properties in the suburbs, according to the firm’s website. It also owns similar assets in the St. Louis and Milwaukee areas. The firm’s principals are former Ridge Realty Group partner Tom Cox, former Capital Automotive REIT COO Scott Stahr and former RREEF Property Trust executive Peter Broccolo.
Terms of the lease Fulcrum struck with UCC as part of the deal are unclear from public records. Fulcrum did not respond to requests for comment.
The buyer’s addition to its office portfolio comes at a tough time for Chicago’s suburban office market, including one of Fulcrum’s own assets, as investors shift into other sectors of commercial real estate. Tenants of Class B offices collectively shed over 584,000 square feet more than they leased in the Chicago suburbs in the first quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Suburban offices hit a record-high vacancy rate of 28 percent at the end of 2022, according to the latest report from JLL, though investors have had some luck with well-located properties that are close to fully leased. Another Lake County office building, the Class A Bannockburn Corporate Center, recorded only a slight dip in value since 2016 with its sale for $28.6 million this month, despite being nearly fully occupied.
Lake County is also home to one of Chicagoland’s largest office-to-industrial projects in the works, with Bridge Industrial vying to buy the 101-acre former Baxter International headquarters in Deerfield and tear down corporate buildings to reposition the land as a logistics campus. Brennan Investment Group is also exploring a similar project that could cost $100 million and result in a teardown of a Rolling Meadows office building that the development firm purchased out of foreclosure, it announced last week.
Such projects are a reflection of commercial real estate demand drying up for offices and expanding for industrial assets.
Plus, the 691,000-square-foot Central Park of Lisle in DuPage County — in which Fulcrum has owned a stake since 2010, according to the firm’s website — has faced loan woes in recent months. The property had its appraised value slashed to $68.3 million in March as its occupancy fell below 80 percent, according to a new evaluation. The property’s loan has been in special servicing since September and matured in January without being paid off, according to bond ratings agency DBRS Morningstar.
Read moreChicagoFred Lewis’ Sentinel buys Bannockburn offices for $29MChicagoSuburban office bleeding worsens again as vacancy rises to new recordChicagoBridge Industrial to redevelop former Baxter HQ in DeerfieldThe post No pivot forFulcrum: Tom Cox’s firm adds to suburban office holdings appeared first on The Real Deal.
2425 West Loop South in Houston with Bank of Kuwait CEO Isam Jasem A. Al-Sager and Jetall Capital’s Ali Choudri (Jetall Capital, NBK, Loopnet)Distress continues to percolate in Houston, this time hitting the office market.
The National Bank of Kuwait foreclosed on a $52 million loan for the Galleria-area building on March 28. The 283,000-square-foot office building sits off the West Loop, at 2425 West Loop South, less than a mile northeast of the Galleria mall. The 11-story building is expected to be auctioned Tuesday, May 2, according to public records.
Ownership of the property is linked to an LLC where controversial Houston-based real estate businessman, Ali Choudhri, is listed as the primary agent. Choudri is the CEO of family-owned real estate firm Jetall Companies, which operates over 2 million square feet of office buildings across the Texas Triangle.
The National Bank of Kuwait, through its New York office, loaned $52 million to Choudhri for 2425 West Loop South in May 2018. That came after a 2015 lease and renovation by now-defunct department store operator Stage Stores.
As evidenced by the “STAGE” insignia that still decorates its face, the Class B building housed the headquarters of the firm that operated Palais Royal, Bealls and Peebles. It leased 189,000 square feet, or about 67 percent of the building, from 2015 until its dissolution in 2020. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2020 and shuttered all 780 stores across the country before the end of the year.
Prior to its dissolution, Stage Stores filed a $1.4 million lawsuit against the building operator, alleging HVAC system issues that damaged its offices, and threats “to unlawfully lock tenant out of the premises.” The lawsuit said “four conference rooms and a restroom, on three separate floors” had to be closed because of disrepair. Stage Stores withdrew the lawsuit three months later.
Despite the legal dispute, Choudhri offered to buy the bankrupt company for $10 million, but the deal never closed, as Stage headed for liquidation, and the building’s top tenant was lost. The flight-to-quality trend soon took over the Houston office market, and the building struggled to find tenants to offset that departure.
Current tenants include an Allstate insurance agency, legal offices, a bank and a local nonprofit.
Choudhri has been involved in dozens of lawsuits related to his properties, businesses and professional relationships since 2016. The National Bank of Kuwait did not immediately return a request for comment. Choudhri did not immediately return a request for comment.
Read moreHoustonArbor forecloses on $229M portfolioTexasHouston hotel logs largest CMBS loan lossHoustonOffice buildings hit the market in HoustonThe post National Bank of Kuwait forecloses on embattled Houston office building appeared first on The Real Deal.
8560 South Cottage Grove Avenue (LoopNet, Getty)Musa Tadros has agreed to sell a South Side shopping center out of bankruptcy after the property was damaged by riots that occurred in the wake of protests of the George Floyd killing.
A Tadros-led venture, Crown Commercial Real Estate and Development, settled with its lender over a $23 million loan in default that was tied to Chatham Village Square, located at 8500-8700 South Cottage Grove Avenue, by paying $20.5 million in sale proceeds to a servicer representing investors that own the debt, Crain’s reported.
The venture faced a foreclosure suit near the end of 2021, prompting it to file for bankruptcy protection five months later. Cook County Judge Janet Baer is set to rule in the bankruptcy case on May 31.
Tadros’ venture “has endured and overcome the unique challenges presented by COVID-19 and the stay-home orders and the unrest following the George Floyd protests, which sparked instances of full-blown riots which included significant damage to property, looting and in some instances the burning of buildings,” the filing said.
Chatham Village Square opened about a year later, after repairs were made. Tadros and the lender, a Bank of America trust for investors that own commercial mortgage-backed securities, then argued over $3 million in insurance proceeds for the property, the outlet reported.
After the sale, Tadros and the servicer representing the trust would be able to pay back most of the $23.3 million owed to the investors who own the debt.
Elsewhere in the South Side retail market, a landlord tied to Brazilian businessman Michael Klein is experiencing distress on a property called The Yards Plaza. The 261,000-square-foot shopping center in the Back of the Yards neighborhood property was hit with a foreclosure suit filed in December 2021 after racking up $25 million in debt, and a second lawsuit filed by Wilmington Trust as a guarantor of the loan claims Klein and his companies didn’t disclose the fact the retail asset was built on a landfill in 1990 and is experiencing related structural issues, including the building physically sinking.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoSouth Side Chicago retail centers face foreclosureChicagoChicago landlord Tadros files for bankruptcy with $22M mortgage at stakeChicagoTroubled Loop office tower touted as apartment conversionThe post Musa Tadros settles debt with $20M bankruptcy sale of Chatham Village Square appeared first on The Real Deal.
Carolwood Estates’ Drew Fenton and Carolwood Equities’ Andrew Shanfeld and Adam Rubin (Carolwood Real Estate, Andrew Shanfeld via Twitter, L&R Group of Companies, Getty)Soon after luxury residential brokerage Carolwood Estates officially debuted, the firm was sued for trademark infringement by another Los Angeles-based group named Carolwood Equities LLC, which also deals in real estate.
The trademark infringement suit of Carolwood Equities LLC, its sibling company Carolwood Capital Partners LLC vs. Carolwood Partners Inc. is making its way through U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, where a 13-page complaint was filed in December. In mid-April, a joint rule report for the case was filed. The document outlines schedules for upcoming hearings and a possible jury trial in 2024.
Plaintiff Carolwood Equities LLC, helmed by Andrew Shanfeld and Adam Rubin, says in the complaint that its business started in 2014 and has consistently used the name Carolwood. The firm’s attorneys at Novian & Novian claim that their clients’ use of the name Carolwood was prominently displayed in past advertisements and had been mentioned in news media stories.
Late last year, star broker Drew Fenton left the Hilton & Hyland agency in Beverly Hills to start his own agency. In November, Fenton, veteran brokerage executive Nick Segal and HIlton & Hyland alum Ed Leyson announced the name of their startup: Carolwood.
After the new Beverly Hills-based Carolwood made social media posts announcing the company name, some viewers made posts asking if it was Shanfeld’s and Rubin’s company, according to the complaint.
“At this point, it was obvious that marketplace participants in the real estate investment markets, even very savvy ones, could not tell the genuine services offered by plaintiffs,” the complaint alleges.
In a statement summarized in the joint rule filing, the defendant’s lawyers at the law firm Buchalter said the plaintiffs got it wrong. Fenton’s Carolwood offers different services, and its clients are more sophisticated, so there is no likelihood of confusion between the two companies.
According to its website, Shanfeld’s and Rubin’s company deals in private equity and real estate investments.
Doug Lipstone, a trademark attorney with the Los Angeles office of Weinberg Gonser Frost, said trademark infringement suits involving real estate companies are not uncommon. Lipstone is not involved in the Carolwood case.
“Trademark users have to accept more risk than they used to,” Lipstone said. “The internet made the world a smaller place, and trademark holders are much more apt to encounter companies, even relatively small ones, using similar names on the internet.”
If a company is ordered by a court to stop using its name, changing a business name can turn into an expensive proposition. “Changing a name can cost a lot of money as many things have to be changed, including marketing materials, signage and internet domain names,” Lipstone said.
The court has set a May 26 scheduling conference for the Carolwood case. In the complaint, the plaintiffs demand that defendants stop using the Carolwood name. They also request compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney fees.
Read moreNew YorkVirtual brokerage eXp hit with trademark suit on heels of NY launchLos AngelesDrew Fenton officially debuts new brokerage CarolwoodLos AngelesCher relists longtime Malibu mansion at $75MThe post Startup luxury brokerage Carolwood sued for trademark infringement appeared first on The Real Deal.
2121 N California Blvd (Loopnet, Getty)The East Bay suburbs have benefitted from an increase in office tenants migrating from outside markets, according to a new report by brokerage CBRE. The trend stems from employees who desire to work closer to where they live.
The amount of space tenants are looking for increased to 2 million square feet in the first quarter, with 20 percent, or one fifth of active tenants coming from outside markets to the I-680 corridor, the report found.
The corridor runs along I-680 from Concord south through Walnut Creek and San Ramon and ends at Livermore. It’s just east of the I-580 corridor which contains larger, more urban cities such as Oakland and Hayward.
The report outlines that during the pandemic, which required employees to work remotely, many decided that they did not want a long commute anymore.
“Workers are used to working from home and having flexibility in their schedules, so the desire to spend more than an hour a day to commute to the office is a lot less than pre-pandemic,” Jeff Birnbaum from CBRE said.
Companies might prefer suburban markets as well, because office rents in suburban markets are generally lower than downtown urban markets.
“These tenants are also operating in a cost-conscious environment and office rents in Walnut Creek, for example, are lower than San Francisco,” Andy Schmitt from CBRE explained.
The average asking rent was a stark contrast in the two markets, with annual lease rates around $36 per square foot in the corridor and $74 per square foot in San Francisco, according to data collected by Colliers.
A majority of tenants coming to the I-680 corridor are from San Francisco; however, there are a number coming from markets outside the Bay Area because “they want to recruit talent here,” Birnbaum said.
The largest new lease in the first quarter was by Berkshire Hathaway taking up 28,000 square feet in Walnut Creek, followed by Chipman Corporation leasing 12,000 square feet in San Ramon.
The current market has kept investment sales and leasing activity quiet to start the year, and that is expected to remain so throughout 2023, according to the report. When companies want to bring workers back to the office, they often look for attractive amenities, which might be easier to find in suburban settings.
“The idea of creating one area where people live, work and shop has been around for a while, but became more pronounced during the pandemic,” Schmitt said. “The Bay Area’s suburban markets provide access to great retail shops and restaurants, and there is a positive vibrancy to downtown suburban markets now that more companies have embraced hybrid work models.”
Read moreSan FranciscoClass B office lease rates trend up in the East BaySan FranciscoHines office tower would be tallest building in East BaySan FranciscoPleasant Hill office building fetches $38.5M in quality-conscious marketThe post Office tenants shift search to East Bay suburban markets appeared first on The Real Deal.
David Burstyn and Brian Sidman and Lennar’s Rick Beckwitt and Jon Jaffe with Westview development site (Redwood Dev Co, Lennar, Getty)Redwood Dev Co paid $30 million for 75 nearly completed townhouses near Opa-locka, with plans to convert them to workforce rentals.
Redwood bought the townhomes on the northeast corner of Northwest 119th Street and West Golf Drive from the developer, Lennar, according to the buyer’s news release. Redwood took out a $23 million loan for the purchase from City National Bank.
The three-bedroom and four-bedroom townhomes will be completed in a month, and will range from 1,400 square feet to 1,800 square feet.
The townhouses are part of Lennar’s much larger residential project on the former Westview Country Club golf course at 2601 Northwest 119th Street.
The Miami-based homebuilder is building out the entire project, which is called Westview, on roughly 90 acres. The entire community will have single-family homes and townhouses, with completed homes selling for $451,990 to $647,990, according to Lennar’s website.
Redwood’s townhouses will be rented out to households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income, according to a company representative. Miami-Dade’s AMI is $68,300 annually.
Redwood has been making a hefty wager on the multifamily market for the middle class in north Miami-Dade. Its portfolio of workforce housing in the area is valued at $140 million.
The firm is fresh off scoring a $24 million construction loan for the five-story, 98-unit Mosaic Apartments at 13800 Northwest 22nd Avenue in Opa-locka. The project, which is under construction, doesn’t have deed restrictions mandating affordable or workforce housing rents, but Mosaic will accept rent subsidies from housing authorities. Other units will target South Florida teachers, post office workers, nurses, firefighters and the like.
In 2021, Redwood completed The Mirage at Sailboat Cove townhouse rental complex at 14301 Northwest 17 Path in Opa-locka. The firm built 112 units in 23 buildings, adding to 59 townhouses built by other developers. The firm also owns 26 previously developed homes, giving it a total of 138 townhouses at The Mirage.
The Mirage isn’t officially designated affordable or workforce housing, but accepts rent vouchers. This month, Redwood scored a $45.2 million refinancing from Regions Bank on The Mirage, according to a company news release.
Redwood Dev Co is a joint venture between Miami-based real estate private equity firm BAS Holdings Investments and Aventura-based lender and real estate investor Winston Capital Partners, according to the release. Redwood is led by Brian Sidman, founder of BAS, and by
David Burstyn, founder of Winston Capital.
South Florida is in a dire need of workforce and affordable housing, as the tri-county region already struggled with rising rents and incomes that couldn’t keep up even before the pandemic. The influx of out-of-state residents that started in late 2020 supercharged the issue by driving up demand and rents.
The skyrocketing rent growth slowed mid-last year, but rents aren’t expected to drop back to pre-pandemic times. Last year, Miami-Dade still ranked as the “most competitive” apartment market nationwide, according to RentCafe. An average of 32 hopefuls vied for the same unit, much more than the national average of 14 prospective tenants per apartment.
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Wolfe Investments’ Kenny Wolfe and Leo F. Corrigan and 211 North Ervay (Wolfe Investments, Flashback Dallas, Google Maps, Getty)A head-turning mid-century modern office tower in Downtown Dallas is being converted into apartments — the latest sign of the city’s office-to-resi craze.
Wolfe Investments, the new owner of the 187,000-square-foot tower at 211 North Ervay, aims to redevelop the bright-blue building into 238 residential units, while also adding amenities such as a fitness center and business lounge, the Dallas Morning News reported.
A previous Dallas mayor wanted to raze the 26-story building, but preservationists pushed back, saying the 1958-built structure represents an important period of the city’s architectural history.
“The building’s facade was covered with continuous glass windows along with alternating azure and aquamarine porcelain spandrels,” its Wikipedia entry says. “The colorful design was a popular way to add color to otherwise bland urban skylines of the mid-twentieth century.”
Originally designed by architects Hedrick & Stanley, it is also relevant to the who’s who of Dallas commercial real estate as it was the fourth downtown Dallas building by influential developer Leo F. Corrigan, who built the Adolphus Tower in 1954.
Dallas architect HKS is the designer of the conversion project, and Andres Construction is the general contractor. Wolfe Investments, whose president is Kenny Wolfe, said the redevelopment will take 14-16 months to complete.
Office-to-resi conversions are becoming increasingly common as demand for office space remains low due to remote work trends set in motion by the pandemic. Roughly 1,500 units are expected to be delivered in Dallas over the next two years as a result of such conversions.
Last year, Woods Capital revealed plans to repurpose the 50-story Santander Tower to create 228 luxury high-rise apartments. Woods is taking a similar approach with the Bryan and Comerica Bank towers, as well.
Besides that, Bluelofts aims to redevelop about 900,000 square feet across the firm’s various holdings, in Dallas, Fort Worth, Atlanta and Cleveland, and turn them into residences with high-end amenities and ground-floor retail and commercial spaces.
Wolfe’s Dallas-Fort Worth portfolio includes apartments nearby, at 400 North Ervay, which it purchased in 2021. It also purchased the historic Oil & Gas Building in downtown Fort Worth as part of a joint venture with Bluelofts at the end of last year.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasOffice-to-resi bringing 1,500 homes to DallasDallasOffice-to-resi conversions sweep through DFWDallasSantander Tower’s resi conversion moves forwardThe post Wolfe eyes office-to-resi for Dallas classic appeared first on The Real Deal.
Abode Communities’ Holly Benson and 25820 South Western Avenue (Getty, Abode Communities, Google Maps)Abode Communities has won a $37.9 million grant to build 81 affordable apartments for homeless residents in Harbor City.
The nonprofit developer based in Downtown Los Angeles secured the funding from the city to build the apartment complex at 25820 South Western Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It would replace a single-story commercial building.
Funding for the project known as the Western Landing includes $23.9 million in tax-exempt multifamily conduit revenue bonds and $14 million in taxable bonds. It will supplement $8.3 million in Measure HHH funds for supportive housing approved by voters in 2016.
In February, the state also kicked in $1.5 million to help pay for the project from $825 million to fund 58 affordable complexes of nearly 10,000 apartments across the state
Plans for the four-story supportive housing complex composed of prefabricated modular units south of Pacific Coast Highway include 81 studio apartments – of which 80 will be 300-square-foot studios for residents, plus a two-bedroom unit for the manager. Parking would serve eight cars.
Western Landing would include a courtyard and a laundry facility, a community room, a computer room and on-site offices for staff and service providers
The cost of the complex is $49.6 million, or just over $613,000 per unit, according to a Los Angeles City Housing Department report, with the high cost attributed to high interest rates and relocation costs for commercial tenants of the property.
Abode Communities has developed other affordable projects in the South Bay, including a revamp of the Dana Strand public housing complex in Wilmington and the modular Beacon Landing apartments in San Pedro, according to Urbanize.
Other Abode modular projects, funded through Measure HHH, are proposed for Reseda and Chatsworth.
In September, Abode broke ground on converting three century-old medical lab and clinic buildings in Glendale into 40 affordable homes for senior adults.
Read moreLos AngelesNewsom awards $200M for affordable housing in LA CountyLos AngelesHistoric medical offices in Glendale to become senior housingLos AngelesSupportive housing project in San Pedro scores $22M in financingIn May, Abode Communities teamed with AvalonBay Communities to pitch plans to build 1,200 apartments – a quarter of them affordable – at a former Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin. Also, it’s building a 90-unit supportive housing complex for homeless and disabled residents in San Pedro.
In 2021, Abode and AvalonBay were chosen to redevelop the 8-acre West Los Angeles Civic Center site, a sprawling mixed-use project that will include homes, offices, shops and restaurants.
— Dana Bartholomew
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381 Broadway, Churchill Real Estate’s Justin Ehrlich; 50 Riverside Boulevard, Extell’s Gary Barnett; 1098 & 1112 Gerard Avenue, Taconic Partners’ Charlie Bendit (Google Maps, Getty, Churchill Real Estate, Taconic Partners, Extell)The discounted sale of Taconic’s rent-regulated portfolio of multifamily buildings in the Bronx featured heavily in the tally of mid-market investment sales that hit city records last week.
A year after the company bought the buildings in 2018, the state legislature passed rent reform measures that landlords say cut into their profits, and debt on the buildings reportedly matured at a time when higher interest rates made refinancing more costly.
Other investment sales between $10 million and $40 million included an office building in Tribeca and an industrial site in Maspeth. Below are more details of mid-market commercial property sales for the week of April 17-21:
- Churchill Real Estate sold a five-story, 18,300-square-foot office and retail building at 381 Broadway in Tribeca to limited liability company Wall Bridge Properties for $16.75 million. Churchill obtained the property in 2021 after it bought the senior debt on the building and won a years-long foreclosure dispute it began against prior owner Gary Tse of CTW Realty in 2018.
- Lonnie and Perry Fine’s Triangle Services bought a 40,000-square-foot development site at 54-37 48th Street in Maspeth, Queens, for $13 million. The site is zoned for manufacturing. The seller was the Parisi family.
- Taconic Investment Partners sold two rent-stabilized apartment buildings with a combined 120 units at 1098 and 1112 Gerard Avenue in Concourse, the Bronx for $12.8 million. It was the largest piece of a portfolio of Bronx rental buildings that Taconic sold to Intervest Capital, an affiliate of Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund formerly called Wafra Capital, which picked up the properties at a substantial discount.
Also included in the deal was a 58-unit rent-stabilized building at 1197 Grand Concourse for $10.2 million; six buildings with 98 combined units on Decatur Avenue for $9.5 million; a 73-unit building at 1534 Selwyn Avenue for $9 million and a 54-unit building at 2608 Creston Avenue for $6.6 million.
Taconic had bought the Gerard and Decatur Avenue buildings from Related Partners in 2018. It bought the Grand Concourse and Selwyn Avenue buildings in partnership with Clarion Partners that same year. 4. Bluestone Group sold a 30,000-square-foot retail condo on the first floor of a six-story rental building at 90-02 Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, Queens, for $10.4 million, and a 35,000-square-foot retail condo in the cellar for $8 million. The buyer was an affiliate of KSR Capital. Bluestone acquired the property out of foreclosure in 2019. The apartment building was converted from St. John’s hospital. 5. Fifth was Taconic’s sale of the 58-unit building at 1197 Grand Concourse in the Bronx for $10.2 million, as mentioned above. 6. Gary Barnett’s Extell Development sold a 9,300-square-foot retail condominium at 50 Riverside Boulevard in Lincoln Square for $10 million to an affiliate of the Collegiate School, a private college prep school for boys where annual tuition exceeds $60,000.
Read moreThe post Taconic’s Bronx portfolio, Tribeca offices top mid-market i-sales appeared first on The Real Deal.
Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola and the Nikki Beach Club (City of Miami Beach, Nikki Beach Club)Miami Beach elected officials are laying the groundwork to find a new operator for the Nikki Beach property, the longtime restaurant and outdoor club on prime waterfront in the city’s South of Fifth neighborhood.
On Friday, commissioners voted 5-2 to authorize City Manager Alina Hudak to enter into a non-binding term sheet with Boucher Brothers to take over the two-story venue on city-owned land. The new lease would begin in three years when the current management contract expires.
Married couple Jack and Lucia Penrod have operated Nikki Beach, and a previous iteration called Penrod’s on the Beach, for 37 years, according to city documents. In addition to a 23,000-square-foot building at 1 Ocean Drive, the Penrods also have exclusive use of a public beach area for outdoor seating. They currently pay Miami Beach about $42 a square foot annually, according to city staff.
The change comes without the city putting a new lease out for bid, a move that drew criticism from some commissioners and residents on a Miami Beach Nextdoor forum.
Commissioner Ricky Arriola, who sponsored the measure to find a new operator, said he is proposing a change after having conversations with principals of Boucher Brothers, which currently has a long-running city contract to provide chairs, umbrellas and other concessions on public beaches. Boucher Brothers is managed by James, Michael, Perry and Steven Boucher, according to state corporate records.
“Boucher Brothers expressed an interest in taking over,” Arriola said. “I would be willing to engage them in a non-binding term sheet.”
He insisted that his intention was not to give Boucher Brothers a three-year headstart on a no-bid contract. If Boucher Brothers submits a “compelling proposal,” then the city could use it as a “stalking horse” offer as a baseline to attract other possible bidders.
Arriola also claimed that the city’s competitive bid process often takes too long, and results in either no bids or only one bidder submitting a proposal.
Commissioner Steven Meiner, who along with his colleague Alex Fernandez voted no, said he preferred the city put the Nikki Beach contract out for bid. “We should let the market not only dictate ideas, but also the value,” Meiner said. “I am not even comfortable with doing a term sheet.”
By only negotiating with Boucher Brothers, city commissioners are creating a public perception of favoritism, Meiner added.
In a letter posted on the social media platform Nextdoor, Lucia Penrod said she and her husband were blindsided by the city. “We were not notified, nor invited to participate,” she wrote. “We want to continue our partnership with the city and our neighbors.”
Read moreSouth FloridaWatch: Inside storied past of Jeffrey Soffer’s Story nightclub in Miami BeachSouth FloridaSunset Harbour mixed-use development, Catch restaurant win design approvalsSouth FloridaRobert Rivani fattens his South of Fifth restaurant portfolioSouth FloridaSouth Beach office project backed by Google ex-CEO Eric Schmidt launches leasingThe post End of the line for Nikki Beach? appeared first on The Real Deal.
Greystar’s Bob Faith and Attorney Jason Itkin with Elan City Lights Apartment (Greystar, Arnold & Itkin, Google Maps, Getty)A jury awarded $860 million to the family of a woman who was killed in her apartment when a construction crane collapsed during a severe storm in Dallas in June 2019.
The verdict against global real estate developer Greystar is $160 million more than the family requested, KDFW reported. Jason Itkin, an attorney for Arnold & Itkin law firm, represented the parents of Kiersten Smith, who was 29 when the crane crashed into her apartment and killed her. The accident injured several other people.
Greystar was deemed responsible for the crane that collapsed onto the former Elan City Lights Apartments near downtown. The jury had considered whether Greystar or the crane company, Bigge Crane and Rigging, should be more severely punished.
Itkin argued that Greystar was responsible for the operator, who had worked over 80 hours that week and failed to put the crane in weathervane mode despite a severe weather forecast. Taking that precaution could have allowed the crane to rotate naturally with the wind direction, removing pressure on the structure to prevent accidents.
The attorney for Bigge Crane and Rigging echoed Itkin’s argument, claiming the company was in a contract that made both the crane and crane operator the responsibility of Greystar, the outlet said.
Bigge was fined $26,000 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for the incident. Itkin also requested $12,006 from the company in punitive damages, serving as a remembrance for Smith, who’s apartment number was 12006.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasDeveloper facing lawsuit over $655M Fort Worth projectDallasFederal judge reopens ‘loan-to-own’ lawsuit over troubled $2B DFW developmentNew YorkAnother class-action lawsuit claims RealPage collusionThe post $860M verdict in Dallas crane collapse appeared first on The Real Deal.
Capital Healthcare Properties’ Jay Heald, Daniel Ahlering, Jack Sullivan with HSG Medical’s John McLinden, Kage Brown (Capital Healthcare Properties)Longtime Chicago developer John McLinden is jumping into medical office, backing a startup focused on the asset class that’s been replacing retail tenants as they disappear from brick and mortar storefronts.
McLinden and Kage Brown, partners behind locally based developer Hubbard Street Group, have formed a new venture called HSG Medical to invest in Capital Healthcare Properties as demand for doctors offices and clinics rises in Chicagoland, CoStar News reported.
Daniel Ahlering, Jack Sullivan and Jay Heald recently founded Capital Healthcare with plans to buy and develop properties for various medical uses in the Chicago area as well as in Arizona and Ohio. It will be based in Hubbard Street Group’s River North offices.
HSG will invest in Capital Healthcare deals, while providing guidance and assistance with administrative and accounting tasks.
The venture was launched even as rising interest rates, a tight lending environment and fears of a recession have slowed commercial real estate growth across the city.
“It’s certainly not the easiest time to be starting this,” Heald told the outlet. “There’s a lot of uncertainty, but that creates an opportunity to source valuable long-term opportunities, whether it’s land or value-add and conversions.”
While the retail and traditional office sectors struggle in Chicago, there has been an influx of new medical and research facilities. The metropolitan area’s medical office market expanded almost 18 percent in the last decade, adding more than 4.3 million square feet of space since 2012, outpacing the national rate of 12 percent.
Other medical office projects in the works include John Novak’s planned $70 million facility for Rush University in the West Side area, and MetLife Insurance is considering converting space in Water Tower Place for medical use.
The three Capital Healthcare founders were former colleagues with the firm MedProperties, where the trio took on in projects such as a 180,000-square-foot development for Northwestern Medicine within Oak Brook Commons, a 71,000-square-foot Northwest Community Hospital project in Buffalo Grove and a 60,000-square-foot project in Gilbert, Arizona, the outlet said.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreNew YorkMarcal Group sells Bensonhurst medical office for $82MChicagoHigh velocity: Chicago’s medical office market is boomingChicagoRush, Novak plan $70M West Side facilityChicagoMetLife mulls medical office conversion within Water Tower PlaceThe post McLinden, Brown back medical office development venture appeared first on The Real Deal.
Terrascape Ventures’ Mark Lazzarini and Tony Arreola with 7625 San Felipe Road (Rotary Club of San Jose, LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)Terrascape Ventures is poised to buy a nearly 3,700-acre ranch in southeast San Jose.
The San Jose-based real estate firm led by Tony Arreola and Mark Lazzarini have agreed to buy the Richmond Ranch at 7625 San Felipe Road, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The seller is the troubled Z&L Properties, a China-based developer with an office in Foster City. Z&L bought the ranch in 2017 for $25 million.
The 10-parcel, 3,654-acre ranch is a former cattle spread zoned for agricultural use.
The century-old ranch of oak-studded hills, secluded meadows and views of Mount Hamilton was listed for $29.7 million, according to Farm & Ranch. It includes three ranch houses, one dating to 1878; a barn; a stable; other outbuildings and natural springs and a creek.
For decades, the ranch was owned by members of the Richmond family. The Richmond Ranch parcels were bought in the 1920s and 1930s by Edmund Richmond, a major owner of San Jose-based Richmond-Chase, among the nation’s largest canning and dried-fruit companies.
Nearby is Silver Creek Country Club, with a championship golf course and a tennis club.
Z&L, whose owner Zhang Li is at the center of a city corruption case, has been shedding properties across the Bay Area.
This month, the embattled firm cut a deal to sell a 139-unit condo building at 555 Fulton Street in San Francisco for an undisclosed price.
Last month, it listed a 3.8-acre property at 3055 Patrick Henry Drive in Santa Clara approved for up to 430 apartments. While the price wasn’t disclosed, the site is valued at $31 million.
In San Jose, unbought condos in the firm’s new 640-unit luxury complex at 188 West St. James Street in Downtown have been put up for sale for a combined $300 million.
Z&L wants to sell a former Greyhound bus terminal at 70 South Almaden Avenue in Downtown San Jose, approved for twin 20-story housing towers with 708 units. The asking price was not disclosed.
The developer is accused of neglecting a historic church at 43 East St. James Street in Downtown San Jose, where it was slated to build two residential towers. This week, the Mercury News reported it has no plan to fix it.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoZ&L Properties to sell condo-retail building in SF’s Hayes ValleySan FranciscoSan Jose approves nearly 1,000 additional homes in three Downtown projectsSan FranciscoZ&L Properties looking to offload another Silicon Valley propertyThe post Terrascape Ventures buys historic 3,700-acre ranch in San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Trinsic Residential Group’s Brian Tusa and The NRP Group’s David Heller (Getty, Trinsic Residential Group, The NRP Group)A spate of new apartment projects are coming to East Austin.
In the past two weeks, a handful of major developments totaling nearly 900,000 square feet and hundreds of apartments appeared in state filings.
The most expensive of the projects, dubbed Seabrook Square, will make use of public funds. In February, it requested $11.5 million from Austin’s Rental Housing Development Assistance program. The $52 million development at 3515 Manor Road in the Mueller community is attributed to an LLC with the same address as the NHP Foundation, an affordable housing nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.
Seabrook Square will comprise three buildings: a garage and two residential structures. One will stand five stories, the other four stories. The filings do not specify the number of units.
Construction is set to begin in August and run through October 2025. The project’s designs come from Urban Foundry, an architecture firm in Austin.
Mueller has been a hotbed of development activity in recent years as Catellus Development Group has led a master-planned redevelopment of the former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, northeast of downtown.
Just east of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, developers filed plans to build Airport Crossing, a $41.5 million apartment complex made up of two buildings. Airport Crossing will comprise a total of 256 apartments across 292,500 square feet.
The ownership LLC shares an address with Cleveland-based NRP Group, one of the country’s top 10 multifamily developers, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council. The firm has started construction on more than 8,700 units in the last two years. This project is slated to finish construction by February 2026.
San Antonio-based Alta Architects handled design.
Rounding out the trio is Trinsic Cesar Chavez, a $40 million development at 2915 East Cesar Chavez Street. Estimated to be completed by April 2026, the project will have 310 apartments and three courtyards, including two swimming pools, across 283,200 square feet.
The firm went to Austin-based Davies Collaborative for architecture work on the project.
Trinsic, based in Dallas, has been active across the Sun Belt, with the 322-unit Aura High Pointe project at 6107 North FM 620 being its most notable Austin project to date.
Read moreAustinCIM plans multifamily highrise in East AustinTexas“On the fence like scared cats” An uncertain buying season in TexasAustinWood plans rare apartment project in BastropElsewhere in the area, Los Angeles-based CIM Group is seeking a zoning exception to build a 145-unit apartment complex up to 90 feet tall in the Plaza Saltillo district.
Rent growth has slowed significantly in Austin since its highs in 2020 and 2021. Still, robust population growth and relatively tight supply prior to the recent cooldown has made Austin a hot commodity for multifamily players. Last year, new apartment deliveries accounted for 5.4 percent of total inventory, the highest in the country, according to data from Yardi.
The post East Austin apartment projects keep a-comin’ appeared first on The Real Deal.
Onni Group’s Duncan Wlodarczak and a rendering of Halsted Pointe (Getty, Onni Group, LinkedIn/Duncan Wlodarczak)Onni Group will soon embark on its megadevelopment in Goose Island that could change the character of what has long been Chicago’s industrial mecca.
The Vancouver-based firm, whose chief of staff is Duncan Wlodarczak, will begin site work in May for the first phase of the five-tower, 2.7 million-square-foot project called Halsted Pointe, with expectations to break ground toward the end of the year, Urbanize reported.
The massive mixed-use complex is set to bring up to 2,650 housing units to Goose Island, and will replace the Greyhound Bus facility at 901 North Halsted Street on the southern tip of Goose Island, a structure scheduled for demolition beginning next month.
Onni Group’s ambitious plan received approval in 2021 when the Chicago City Council voted to rezone the property in preparation for Halsted Pointe. Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture is at the helm of design.
The first phase consists of a 46-story tower that will hold 460 residential units and 20,000 square feet of retail space. It will rise 504 feet, with a five-story podium at the base of the structure, comprising amenities, 200 parking spaces and retailers.
After phase one, construction for the remaining towers will ensue in a clockwise direction.
Phase two will feature two towers rising 30 and 45 stories, combining for 1,150 apartments, 500 parking spaces and square footage reserved for commercial use. Phase three will have a 65-story mixed-use tower with 1,015 units, 18,000 square feet of retail and 600 parking spaces. An outdoor green space spanning 100,000 square feet is also planned for phase three.
Read moreChicagoOnni Group details 2.6K-unit megaproject to reshape Goose IslandChicagoOnni buys Goose Island site close to city’s potential first casinoChicagoOnni Group proposes 29-story Fulton Market office towerPhase four, located at the southwest corner of the site, is set for a 28-story, 300-key hotel with 2,150 square feet of retail space.
Onni has been active with nearby acquisitions, as well. Last year, it acquired a nearby site at 700 West Chicago Avenue to possibly build a residential complex with as many as 1,000 units. In addition, the firm proposed a 29-story office tower in Fulton Market in December.
— Quinn Donoghue
The post Onni Group closing on Goose Island megadevelopment kickoff appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)San Francisco continues to lag behind the rest of the nation in its office foot traffic, but downtown attendance is slowly returning, according to data from Placer.ai.
The city’s average office visits were 58.4 percent below pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of this year, the worst recovery in the country. Second-lowest-return Chicago had a 49.5 percent drop in office visits, while most-recovered markets Miami and Washington, D.C. are down by about one-third.
The report, which uses cell phone data to track office foot traffic in 800 buildings across 11 urban markets, also points out that San Francisco’s office attendance has been slowly inching upwards since the pandemic dropped office attendance to an all-time low of about 90 percent below the end of 2019 figures. Every quarter since has improved, according to the report.
“Despite San Francisco’s lackluster foot traffic growth,” it reads, “the Golden Gate City’s visit gap has continued to gradually close over the past year.”
Other cities have had a more up-and-down trajectory, and many had big upticks that they couldn’t sustain, the report found. A high point for many markets was the third quarter of 2021 and second quarter of 2022, but neither of those office returns ended up sticking.
Alexander Quinn, director of research at JLL, said it remains to be seen if the downtown has reached its new normal, but he doesn’t think so. “Typical disruption events” like the pandemic usually change behavior by 10 to 20 percent, not 50 percent, he said via email, adding that if the recent tech layoffs continue it could finally give employers the upper hand in the ongoing return-to-office debate.
“While I don’t believe we will get back to 100 percent, I do believe as leadership takes a deeper dive into their IP creation and staff development and cohesion, that many positions will require more days in the office,” he said. “While outsourcing will continue and certain industries are more meaningfully amenable to remote work, there’s still a need for the serendipitous creation that occurs at the workplace, especially amongst IP heavy industries.”
After a long, rainy winter with storms violent enough to knock windows loose in downtown buildings, the recent warm spring weather could also lead to a further uptick in attendance, according to Derek Daniels, research director at Colliers. He joked that he saw “blue skies and rays of sunshine” in downtown’s future.
“In all seriousness, good weather will improve the return to office,” he said via email. “The trend in RTO in San Francisco was steadily but slowly improving over the past year and was on pace to surpass 50 percent sometime in the third quarter, but the heavy rains in the first quarter appear to have slowed that recovery.”
Read moreSan FranciscoSF officials deem skyscraper safe after storms pop Downtown windowsSan FranciscoOffice vacancies in San Francisco jump to a record 33%San FranciscoDespite tech layoffs, employees stay away from the officeThe post SF office foot traffic still worst in the nation, but slowly improving appeared first on The Real Deal.
Inspired Healthcare Capital’s Luke Lee with The Heritage at Delray (Inspired Healthcare Capital, Google Maps, Getty)Inspired Healthcare Capital purchased an assisted living facility near Delray Beach for $52.3 million.
The Scottsdale, Arizona-based firm bought The Heritage at Delray, which includes assisted living, independent senior living and memory care units, at 5858, 5859 and 5861 Heritage Park Way in unincorporated Palm Beach County, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The seller is an affiliate of ValStone Partners.
Inspired Healthcare took out $26.5 million in financing on the property. It assumed a $25.5 million existing mortgage and increased it with a $980,000 loan from Comerica Bank.
The Heritage consists of 259 units in three three-story buildings on 16.2 acres, Vizzda records show. Completed in 1988, the facility offers studios, as well as one- and two-bedroom units.
The deal breaks down to $202,000 per unit.
Assisted living facilities offer help that is tailored to each tenant’s needs, often including aid with everyday tasks, and often offer on-site health care. Memory care targets residents diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another memory loss illness, and independent senior living is for tenants who are seeking a community that would allow them an active and social lifestyle without the burden of homeownership.
The Heritage has 76-100 assisted living units, 31-50 memory care units and 76-100 independent senior living units, according to Vizzda.
ValStone paid $21.2 million for The Heritage in 2012, property records show.
ValStone, based in Birmingham, Michigan and Baltimore, Maryland, is a private equity investor that invests directly in real estate and in commercial property loans, according to its website. Founded in 1998, it has completed deals valued at more than $1.2 billion, and had $840 million of assets under management as of December. Gerald Timmis III, Larry Jennings Jr. and Eric Abel are co-founders and senior managing directors.
Inspired Healthcare invests in various types of senior care facilities, with the firm’s Florida portfolio including three properties in Pinellas County, as well as one each in Fort Myers and Melbourne, according to the company’s website. Luke Lee is CEO.
The assisted living market, as well as that of memory and independent care facilities, has been thriving in Florida, in light of the state’s reputation as a retirement mecca.
In November, Cedar Health Group bought a 293-unit assisted living facility at 2855 West Commercial Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale for $39 million. In December, PrivCap Companies sold a pair of assisted living facilities in Broward County, at 6810 Southwest Seventh Street in Margate and at 4681 Southwest 66th Avenue in Davie, for a combined $12.7 million. Affiliates of Zalman Skoblo and Zvi Jacobowitz of Brooklyn purchased the properties.
The post Inspired Healthcare pays $52M for assisted living facility near Delray Beach appeared first on The Real Deal.
Tutor Perini’s Ronald Tutor and The George Washington Bridge Bus Station (Getty, Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)Another victim has crawled out of the real estate pileup at an Uptown bus terminal project.
Los Angeles-based construction behemoth Tutor Perini will declare an $83 million loss after losing a protracted legal battle at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, a retail and transit hub in Washington Heights.
Tutor Perini was the lead contractor on the public-private project, which was completed in 2017 following years of acrimony over delays and cost overruns. The developer, an LLC that included SJM Partners and Douglas Slayton, went bankrupt, and this month the contractor’s attempt to collect hit a wall.
The publicly traded firm told investors this week that because a federal court ruled its claim on the bankrupt entity was unsecured, it will report a loss from construction operations and negative earnings per share in the first quarter.
The drama began in 2015, two years after the SJM-Slayton entity hired Tutor Perini. Each blamed the other for what became a two-year delay and $17 million budget overrun at the bus station, at 178th Street and Broadway.
The Port Authority had promised the busy terminal’s 103,000 square feet of new retail to the developer in a 99-year ground lease in exchange for its financial investment. The agency in those days was big on public-private partnerships, figuring they offloaded risk to the private sector.
But a 2016 completion deadline came and went, triggering $5,000-a-day penalties for the developer. When the station finally reopened in 2017, agency officials called the delay “an embarrassment.”
The developer filed for bankruptcy in 2019, citing delays and larger than expected costs including a four-year arbitration process with Tutor Perini. To liquidate the developer’s assets, the retail leasehold was sold for $23 million to JMB Capital. JMB later resold it for $46 million.
Tutor Perini did not fare as well, as the Second Circuit court ruled April 10 that its claim did not merit priority treatment in the bankruptcy process. For what it’s worth, the company told investors it “continues to believe that it is legally entitled to collect all or substantially all” of its costs from the renovation.
Tutor Perini and the Port Authority did not return requests for comment.
Read moreAuto DraftNew YorkA&E used playground as construction site, must refund rentThe post Tutor Perini suffers $83M loss on uptown retail project appeared first on The Real Deal.
Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson with Chicago Community Trust’s Sendy Soto, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless’s Julie Dworkin and Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council’s Jonathan Jones (LinkedIn, Getty, Facebook/Chicago Coalition for the Homeless)Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson signaled a proposal he supports that would triple real estate transfer taxes on sales of $1 million or more is alive and well with additional appointments to his transition team on Thursday.
They include affordable housing advocates, and one in particular who has advanced the transfer tax discussion, that show he is working to keep progressive campaign promises on housing policy.
For his housing subcommittee, Johnson selected Julie Dworkin, the director of policy at Chicago’s Coalition for the Homeless; Sendy Soto, the senior director of community impact at the Chicago Community Trust; as well as Jonathan Jones, director of diversity for the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council.
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is one of the main backers of a proposal to increase the real estate transfer tax on all real estate transactions over $1 million, to 2.65 percent of the sale price from the 0.75 percent in place now for all deals regardless of price. Called Bring Chicago Home, and often nicknamed the “mansion tax,” it’s been estimated by the coalition to generate an extra $163 million a year that would be earmarked for combatting homelessness.
Johnson has made it clear expanding affordable housing stock is a priority for the administration, according to a statement from Dworkin.
“As a candidate and since being elected, the mayor-elect made it clear that Bring Chicago Home and addressing homelessness was a top priority,” she said. “I am excited to work with the new administration to create the dedicated funding we need to address the crisis of homelessness in our city. I will also bring a lens to the housing transition committee discussion that focuses on getting housing resources to those most in need to support making housing a human right.”
The proposal has been floated for years, and in November was scheduled for discussion but wasn’t brought to a vote due to a lack of a quorum in a City Council meeting under current Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Johnson has yet to detail his legislative priorities for real estate and housing, though Dworkin’s appointment seemingly reaffirms his commitment to considering some version of Bring Chicago Home’s proposal.
The additional tax would be technically charged to buyers, though market players have said it would impact sellers and how they set prices. Plus the extra tax would come on top of transfer taxes already imposed by Cook County and the state.
The proposal has been controversial for real estate industry groups, many of whom supported Johnson’s opponent Paul Vallas in the election.
Illinois Realtors, Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance, and The Chicagoland Apartment Association all oppose the measure and say it would slow deals. Multifamily groups have emphasized that it could end up raising rents, as building owners pass the additional taxes on to residents. Considering the deals for more than $1 million in Chicago over a recent year long period, sales in the multifamily sector would have accounted for at least 20 percent of the new tax, The Real Deal previously reported.
It’s unclear whether Johnson has the votes for the proposal in City Council, but several other progressive candidates won their elections and will be sworn in with Johnson in May.
The impact of a similar proposal passed into law by voters in Los Angeles last year before taking effect this year has been felt in the marketplace and is currently facing legal challenges from real estate trade groups.
Read moreChicagoReal estate changes tune on Mayor-elect Brandon JohnsonChicago“Difficult to swallow:” Multifamily players gauge scale of Johnson's transfer taxChicagoReal estate reacts: With Johnson’s win, industry prepares to play defenseChicagoImpact of “mansion tax” magnified as Chicago hits pollsThe post Johnson elevates transfer tax hike with appointments appeared first on The Real Deal.
State Senator Maria Elena Durazo and CAA’s Thomas Bannon (Getty, CAA)Days after the California Apartment Association launched an opposition campaign to SB 567, a bill that aimed to strengthen California tenant protections and lower the state’s annual rent cap, a legislative committee has nixed the rent cap provision altogether.
The major adjustment came as a result of a state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held on Tuesday. While the committee voted 9-2 to advance the bill, the approval was contingent on the removal of its planned rent cap decrease, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The bill had sought to decrease the state’s maximum annual rent cap increase from 10 percent or 5 percent plus inflation (whichever is lower) to 5 percent or the simple inflation increase.
California state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, the Eastside L.A. politician who authored the bill, told the committee she would be willing to change course and shift the bill’s focus to bolstering other tenant protections. Durazo’s bill is meant as an upgrade to an existing law, the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019, and includes changes meant to strengthen that law’s just-cause eviction protections.
“When we fix these loopholes, it’s going to mean a lot to people to be able to stay in their homes,” Durazo, a former union official, told the newspaper.
The partial blow to Durazo’s bill came amid opposition from the industry. The California Apartment Association (CAA), the largest statewide landlord advocacy group, had recently called on its members to oppose the effort, and claimed SB 567 would hamstring landlords’ ability to evict problem tenants and renovate older units.
Other landlord groups, including the Southern California Rental Housing Association, also opposed the bill, while numerous housing nonprofits, as well as the cities of Santa Monica and West Hollywood, had lined up behind it.
At the Tuesday hearing, Debra Carlton, a CAA executive, argued that the new bill amounted to an underhanded attempt by lawmakers to change existing rules.
“To come here now and claim [the existing law] needs amendments — more extreme eviction protections — is not backed by data,” she said. “It breaches the legislative agreement that we reached in good faith on a historic law.”
After the Tuesday hearing the bill was sent back to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Read moreLos AngelesCalifornia landlord group launches opposition to rent cap billLos Angeles“Not a fair fight”? ULA tax could fund right to counsel for tenants Los AngelesLA Mayor Bass puts $150M from Measure ULA into proposed budget The post Legislative committee nixes California rent cap proposal appeared first on The Real Deal.
Zaha Hadid and 520 West 28th Street (Related)Related Companies has cashed in another unit at its Zaha Hadid-designed 520 West 28th Street.
Matias Einaudi, who appears to be a Credit Suisse managing director, scooped up a sponsor unit at the West Chelsea development for $9.4 million, according to public records. First Republic provided a $5 million mortgage.
Unit 10 topped the weekly contracts in Manhattan when it entered into contract last September with a $10 million asking price, down from $13.5 million in the building’s offering plan. The 4,200-square-foot condo was offered as a rental in 2018 for $39,500 a month.
The unit has five bedrooms and four bathrooms and includes about 250 square feet of outdoor space. It also features 10-foot-wide motorized windows, a primary bedroom with its own seating room and a 900-square-foot great room overlooking the High Line.
Corcoran’s Julie Pham had the listing.
Einaudi will join other prominent residents at the 11-story development, known for its sleek, futuristic design. Vice chair of eXP World Holdings Randall Miles and his wife, Karen, bought a $12 million condo in 2021, and Equinox CEO Harvey Spevak purchased a five-bedroom unit for $15.3 million in 2017, just after the peak of Manhattan’s luxury condo market.
The search for buyers has been sluggish at times for Related, which launched sales in June 2015. Stephen Ross’ firm had sold 30 of the building’s 39 units when the developer refinanced the project in 2017 with $162 million from KKR Real Estate Finance Trust.
It resorted to accepting discounts at some of the building’s priciest units, including its 6,900-square-foot top-floor unit. Wesley Edens, chairman of private equity firm Fortress Investment Group, purchased the condo for $20.2 million, a stunning 60 percent drop from its $50 million asking price in 2016.
As Related struggled to lock down sales at the building, the developer quietly offered several units for rent with prices ranging from $11,000 to $39,500 a month, according to Streeteasy.
The sale of Unit 10 represents a 30 percent discount from the offering-plan price and comes eight years after marketing of the building began.
Read moreNew YorkAfter years on the market, Zaha Hadid-designed Related penthouse takes another big price cutNew YorkZaha Hadid tames her aesthetic for first entry into NYC: ReviewNew YorkFortress Investment chairman buys steeply discounted Zaha Hadid penthouseThe post Credit Suisse exec buys at Related’s Zaha Hadid-designed Chelsea condo appeared first on The Real Deal.
Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, the author of Senate Bill 147 (Texas Senate, Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A proposal to restrict Texas land ownership among Chinese citizens received final approval from the Texas Senate this week.
The proposal, authored by Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, would prohibit purchases of agricultural land, timberland and oil and gas rights by entities associated with any country that “poses a risk to the national security of the United States,” the Texas Tribune reported. The measure now proceeds to the Texas House of Representatives for consideration.
The proposal is less extreme than a previous version, which would’ve completely banned all land sales to dual citizens and businesses associated with China, Iran, North Korea or Russia. The revised measure is a response to pushback from Asian American groups and advocates who said buying homes or starting businesses would be impossible for dual citizens and immigrants, the outlet reported.
“This ensures that we strengthen our food security, our energy security and our national security,” Kolkhorst said. “You can come and buy your company. You can have your restaurant.”
Senate Bill 147 would also permit the Texas Attorney General’s office to investigate potential violations and refer cases to courts if a “reasonable suspicion” is tied to a buyer associated with one of the designated countries.
The legislation is an extension of a law passed in 2021 that prevents Texas businesses and government officials from making infrastructure deals with affiliates of the four countries, Kolkhorst said. A Xinjiang-based real estate tycoon’s purchase of roughly 140,000-acre wind farm in Del Rio prompted the legislation.
Other states are taking a similar course of action. Florida lawmakers just advanced a house bill that would prohibit Chinese natives from purchasing real estate anywhere in the state.
Last year, the Communist Party in China banned key members and their families from acquiring real estate assets abroad in an effort to protect the country from sanctions, like the ones proposed by Texas and Florida.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreSouth FloridaFlorida bill restricting foreign real estate purchases a “slippery slope,” brokers sayTexasSome states mull bills to limit foreign ownership of real estateNew YorkChina bans government elites from holding overseas real estate assetsThe post Texas Senate OKs Chinese ownership ban appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Marin luxury agent Tracy McLaughlin (Getty, Tracy McLaughlin)Tracy McLaughlin is Marin County’s highest-volume individual agent, and has been for more than 15 years. A luxury specialist, she had the eighth-highest sales volume of any single agent in California, according to RealTrends 2022 rankings, and the 24th highest sales volume in the U.S. with more than $415 million in 2021 transactions.
The Engel & Volkers agent sat down with TRD to explain why, after decades in Marin, she recently expanded to a second office in the Colorado ski resort town of Aspen — as well as some of the culture shock that she has experienced since opening that location a few months ago. She also discussed the current market in Marin and why some homes are still selling at “almost peak COVID pricing” while the “B-grade inventory” continues to languish. The conversation has been edited and condensed.
What has the high-end market been like in Marin this spring compared to the latter half of last year?What happens when markets are changing is people freeze up. Buyers didn’t want to move forward with purchases because they didn’t know where rates were going and sellers kept saying, “We have a lot of liquidity in this home. We don’t need to sell in this kind of market.” So that created a lot of dormancy in terms of transactions last year.
Now people have settled into the successive interest rates and got through this little banking crisis and have said, “OK, I’ve been on the sidelines for about a year, but our third baby got here or my mother-in-law moved in with us and we really, really want to buy a home at this point and we can budget for the 5 percent interest rate.” People are pouncing on homes that they know are going to be hard to get again and paying really almost peak COVID pricing.
What types of homes won’t they be able to get again?New construction in the flats on a flat lot with indoor-outdoor living. I mean, that’s just a home run all day, every day here in Marin County because of our topography. We’ve got so much hillside living and families crave flat lots that are walkable. It is putting all sorts of pressure on pricing on that particular asset.
The other, what I call B-grade inventory, that’s a fixer-upper on a hillside with no yard or the yard way down below the main living space. They’re not selling. You have to really hyper discount those right now to get those sold. So there’s a big fissure here in the marketplace.
What else?We’ve got new construction, if it’s done very well. I’m talking about really tasteful finishes in the flats on flat lots selling right now at anywhere from $1,800 a foot to the house I sold at 9 Westshore at $4,500 a foot. Then we’ve got other stuff selling at between $700 and $900 a foot that are up in the hills that need work. That’s a huge differential.
What does better in the market — a new house up in the hills or a fixer in the flats? The fixer does better, ultimately, because of the scarcity of that kind of a land here in Marin. I think if you notice trends with younger people, a lot of them aren’t even getting driver’s licenses anymore. They’re Ubering. They want convenience. They want to go out to dinner and have a glass of wine and not worry about getting in a car and driving home. These flat lots where people can jump on bikes or take their strollers out of their garages and not into cars, they’re really desirable.
Are these buyers people from San Francisco wanting that city-type walkability and amenities?It used to be that the buying audience from San Francisco to Marin was relatively small. It was something like 90 percent of the transactions were buy-ups from within Marin and about 8 percent were San Francisco and 2 or 3 percent were out-of- state or out-of-country. With COVID, it felt like that completely flipped, like we had just this exodus out of San Francisco, and if you had 10 showings, then eight were with young buyers from San Francisco starting families. So, there’s really that kind of exodus mindset that went on during COVID.
With the market picking up again, why did you decide now was the time you wanted to branch out to Aspen? And why bypass Tahoe and go straight to Aspen?That’s funny that you bring up Tahoe because I was just saying I can get to Aspen a lot faster on the non-stop on United from San Francisco than I can drive to Tahoe. So that’s part of the impetus. But our family has been going there for years. I have flipped multiple homes out there and I’ve built a really beautiful home for our family there.
It’s really an expansion for my daughters. They are going to be running Aspen and I’m here in Marin County. All the kids went to school in Colorado, they really like that community and we know that there’s a great opportunity for really smart data-oriented real estate agents who work hard to do very well out there. The price points are exorbitant. So the girls, Whitney and Grace, are my partners out there.
There’s a lot of back-and-forth between the two markets. I know a lot of people from Marin and San Francisco who own homes in Aspen or want to move out there, and we have people out there that have lived here.
Have you sold in any mountain communities before, or is this brand new for you?It’s brand new, but I grew up going to Sun Valley and my former husband grew up skiing in Aspen. We started going out there when the children were really young
We don’t know a lot about ranching, but it’s been really fun to learn about riparian rights and rivers. In the core of Aspen, you’ve got pricing now at $5,000 a foot for new construction. So it’s one of the country’s market leaders in terms of appreciation and stability of prices.
But that market is also very different. They don’t stage like we stage. They don’t prep homes like we do. They don’t do pre-listing inspections. So we’re hoping to shift the market a little bit there and convince sellers that it’s much smarter to pre-inspect their homes before they go on the market, instead of nail biting and having their home fall out of contract or get canceled.
There’s no staging in Aspen?If you flip through the listings there, it’s usually the owner’s furniture. There are electric toothbrushes out on their stands and there are 1970s ski passes hanging in the hallway. This is a $20 million home; what are people doing?
Our stager, Vesta, that I work with almost exclusively here in Marin, is based out of L.A. and is opening there for us. We’re excited to just show people how to do something different than the way they’ve done it for a long time.
How has the new market treated you so far? We just launched two months ago, so it’s a brand new business and we’re investing a lot of money in outreach. We sent out 40,000 postcards six weeks ago, and we made a year-long commitment to Aspen Modern Luxury magazine to a two-page spread in the front of the magazine. I said to my daughters, “This is going be like graduate school. It will take a couple years.” We’re not expecting anyone to pay us the first couple of months.
[There is] one listing that we think we are getting, and it has been a lot of fun to show somebody what to do to their home to fix it up to sell it. I’ve got a great construction company that built my house and they’re excited to jump on any little pre-listing improvements. So we’ve got the same framework for my business set up out there that we do here.
I’ve done 600 flips now in Marin County. I did a number in San Francisco and it’s just a proven formula at this point for me. Even if you can’t do a complete renovation, you can make a house far more appealing with silly things, like taking wallpaper and putting it on a laundry room that’s a little bit dated and painting cabinets white so they’re not walking in there every day and going, “I hate this laundry room.”
What has it been like coming from a market where you’re well-known to one where you have to start from scratch?I understand we’re brand new to that market and I’m OK with that. Whitney and Grace are like, “Mom, we’ve got to get going here,” and I’m like, “We are getting going. It takes two years to establish a business.”
In Aspen, I think there are something like 2,000 licensed agents. Everybody there has four jobs and one of them is holding a license for real estate. Most of them are happy to do one transaction a year.
Most people here that go into real estate, it’s a full-time profession for them. So, that’s different too. Agents in Aspen have a much more “here today, gone to Maui” kind of approach. It’s sometimes hard to reach them. They don’t pick up their phones. They don’t return calls for a day and it’s much more of a lethargic pace in terms of responsiveness.
Read moreSan FranciscoBelvedere dock home sells for $14.2M with multiple offersSan FranciscoStar agent Tracy McLaughlin moves to Engel & VölkersWhat’s the reaction from professional agents who have been in the market for a long time? There could be a little bit of intimidation from some of the top producers whom I knew before. There might be a little bit of, “What are they doing here?” But, look, at the end of the day their businesses have been established for many, many years and I’m sure they’ll be just fine.
Are you hoping to specialize in luxury there like you do here? Or are you happy to get your foot in the door?
We’d obviously like to be in that part of the market, but in the beginning, I said to Whitney and Grace, “Take a condo. Take whatever and you just start transacting and learning.”
The post Marin luxury agent Tracy McLaughlin details her expansion to Aspen appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Chicagoland home sellers are finding ways to keep prices elevated while still aiding buyers, even as prices across the nation have fallen from pandemic-era peaks.
The average price of new homes sold in Chicago was a little more $439,500 in the first quarter, a figure that has stayed roughly the same since jumping 11 percent to $439,100 from $395,400 in the first quarter of 2021, Crain’s reported, citing data from consultant firm Tracy Cross & Associates.
Developers using interest rate buy-downs is a big reason the prices have stayed elevated, according to Tracy Cross CEO Erik Doersching. It spares buyers from the higher costs of financing a home purchase today with the costs of debt on the rise. The maneuver allows builders to pay a portion of a home’s cost upfront to lower the interest rate, essentially discounting the property without changing the official asking price.
“We’ve seen a lot of buy-downs,” Doersching told the outlet, adding that mortgage rates have topped 6 percent since September. Builders, though, have found that “if they can buy it down to 5.5 percent, that’s the sweet spot” that attracts buyers, he said.
Real estate research firm John Burns revealed in a December study that 75 percent of builders nationwide were offering buy-downs, even as prices have fallen in many major markets, showing their pricing corrections haven’t yet made up for the higher cost of debt due to interest rate hikes.
Minimal inventory is another reason why Chicago has avoided a price drop. As of late March, the city’s median asking price of $333,500 was the highest ever on record, largely because only 5,160 homes were on the market. That’s down 17 percent from 6,220 homes one year prior
In the first quarter this year, 1,169 new homes sold in the Chicago area, the outlet reported. That marks a 30 percent dip from the same time in 2022. Yet, the 2,272 single-family homes that sold in Cook County in March amounted to $944 million, compared to 1,399 deals worth $549 million in the month prior, illustrating the increased sales volume tied to the start of spring.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoChicago home prices slide again, suburbs flatlineChicagoAsking prices reach new heights, despite cooling marketChicagoCook County’s single-family home sales nearly double to $949M in MarchThe post Builder buy-downs prop up home prices in Chicago appeared first on The Real Deal.
Donald Trump and Trump Hotel & Tower (Getty, The Trump Organization)Former President Donald Trump and co-owners of his namesake Chicago hotel and tower are getting a $1 million tax refund after a lengthy appeal process.
The Illinois Appellate Court determined that the Trump Tower was overvalued a dozen years ago by the Cook County assessor’s office and the Cook County Board of Review, thus raising property taxes on a skewed scale, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
The state agency ultimately found that the assessor’s office placed too much value on the property’s retail spaces, which were vacant at the time. The Cook County treasurer’s office will begin preparing refunds totaling $1 million for the building’s hotel rooms and condo spaces after a three-member appellate court panel rejected the Cook County Board of Review’s appeal.
The refunds will stem from various government agencies, with the bulk of it — $540,000 — coming from the Chicago Public Schools system. The ruling will have no impact on the condos at the site.
Alderman Edward M. Burke, who represents the 14th Ward and is the longest-tenured City Council member, filed the initial appeal of the tax value for Trump when Burke’s law firm represented him. Burke had won more than $14 million in tax breaks for Trump over a 12-year stretch, but their relationship soured in 2018 when the Chicago Democrat cited “irreconcilable differences” with the then-president, whose policies angered Hispanic residents of Burke’s 14th Ward, the outlet reported.
Last year, it was reported that Trump earned less than $200,000 on leases for the retail portion of the property. The two tenants included a hair salon and a river cruise company that leased a small dock on the Chicago River.
The Board of Review has the power to lower the assessor’s valuations through its own appeal process, but was fighting to have a higher tax value reinstated on the Trump property after it obtained a cut through a separate appeal system, a state agency called the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board. In June 2021, the state body found the assessor overvalued the commercial portions of the skyscraper in 2011.
The Board of Review wanted a higher tax value to stay in place. Trump’s discount will be issued unless the Cook County body appeals its case to the Illinois Supreme Court.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoChicago’s Trump Tower included in NY AG lawsuitChicagoCook County hikes Trump Tower property taxesChicagoDonald Trump is owed $1M tax refund on Chicago skyscraperThe post Trump gets $1M tax refund on Chicago tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Wood Partners’ Joseph Keough, Pearl River Properties’ Spencer Harkness and a site plan for the apartment project in Bastrop (Getty, Wood Partners, Pearl River Properties)A big patch of grass is set to become apartment buildings in largely rural Bastrop, Texas.
Atlanta-based developer Wood Partners bought a 26-acre parcel from Pearl River Companies, a builder headquartered in Houston. Wood plans to construct a 650-unit apartment project on the site, at the intersection of Highway 71 and FM 969, and finish work in the next two years.
The apartments will be part of a larger, mixed-use development master-planned by Pearl River. That project, which will run west from Burleson Crossing shopping center, spans 75 acres and includes retail, entertainment, dining, medical and residential developments. Pearl River expects to complete the project in two or three years.
Pearl River specializes in master-planned communities and has been working on this one since at least 2021. That year, an entity owned by the company purchased a 74-acre plot from Erhard Legacy Partners. That acreage now forms the backbone of the project. While the price of that sale was not disclosed, the deed mentions a $14.3 million mortgage with Prosperity Bank and another $5.6 million note with Holmes/Bastrop Loan LP.
The firm bought another 25 acres near the site in March 2023 from Blakey Owner Apartments.
Read moreAustinDigging into Lennar and Elon Musk’s “Project Amazing”AustinCIM plans multifamily highrise in East AustinNew multifamily projects have slowed in recent months as the cost of construction and acquisition debt has risen, making the deal a slight outlier from prevailing market conditions. Avison Young, which arranged the sale, said in a statement that the firm “emphasized the lifestyle community” of the larger mixed-use development when selling.
The development will be one of Bastrop’s largest multifamily projects to date. A search of apartments on the market turned up 91 results this week, in a growing town of more than 10,000. It’s not far from the fast-rising cities along Interstate 35, sprawling from Austin into ever-farther reaches. Elon Musk, who has moved several of his companies to the city’s outskirts, has reportedly considered building a city in Bastrop.
The post Wood plans rare apartment project in Bastrop appeared first on The Real Deal.
Grant Cardone and 10X Living Las Olas at 106 South Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale (Getty; 10X Las Olas Walk) A Grant Cardone-owned apartment building in Fort Lauderdale is at the center of a tenant uproar over water damage caused by historic rainfall this month.
On April 12, when the city was hit with 26 inches of rain that flooded streets, single-family homes and shut down Fort Lauderdale International Airport, dozens of units in the south tower of 10X Living Las Olas were inundated with cascading water from the eight-story building’s rooftop pool and the terraces of two-story units on the seventh floor, according to videos provided to The Real Deal.
One short clip shows water rapidly flowing down a flight of stairs in one of the two-story apartments, while other footage shows water gushing out of the pool, as well as out of air conditioning vents inside a unit.
The rain caused the pool to overflow, while poor drainage in the terraces caused water to accumulate — with no place to go but down, four residents allege. One of the tenants, Jordan Blue, also provided TRD with screenshots of a Whatsapp chat of 50 tenants, and a Facebook group with 200 residents discussing the stormy chaos and its aftermath inside the building at 106 South Federal Highway.
Blue pays $2,600 a month for a one-bedroom unit on the sixth floor that now has significant water damage, he said. He was going to move out, but property management staff informed him that he would still be responsible for rent payments until a new tenant moves into his apartment, Blue said.
“My neighbor and I suffered pretty badly,” Blue said. “About 30 to 40 units were affected by the rain water pouring down from the pool.”
In a text message, Cardone said his team, including property manager RPM Living, responded in “10X fashion, proactively addressing the inconveniences our very appreciative and loyal residents” endured. One of the videos does show several fans and dehumidifiers drying out a unit.
Cardone leverages his massive social media presence into recruiting investors for his business endeavors, and is among the biggest multifamily investors in the nation.
After closing deals, Cardone allows investors to place a minimum of $5,000 in exchange for a minor stake in his real estate ownership entities. Through affiliates of his Aventura-based Cardone Capital, he owns $5 billion worth of apartments in five states, according to his firm’s website.
In 2021, Cardone purchased 10X Living Las Olas, then known as Las Olas Walk, as part of a $744 million acquisition of four multifamily projects in Broward County.
The individual sale price for the two-building 10X Living Las Olas complex with 456 apartments is not known. Cardone typically buys the ownership entity rather than purchase buildings via a property deed sale that has to be recorded.
Blue disputed Cardone’s claim about his team’s proactive measures. “There hasn’t been anything said if there will be compensation,” Blue said. “A lot of people have renters insurance, but a majority were denied. Insurers are claiming this was a flood event, and that is not covered.”
He added, “They care more about the viability of the building than the current residents.”
Dylan Palmer, who was renting a one-bedroom unit for $2,950 a month, said he used storage bins to collect and dump water into the bathtub throughout the storm. “Water was coming out of the vents,” Palmer said. “It was just an overall horrible situation.”
His clothes, towels, two pairs of shoes, a bedframe and two dog beds were completely ruined, Palmer said. “They told me that they are not responsible for anything,” he said, referring to RPM Living staff. “I had to go stay in a hotel on my own dime. It is absolutely mindblowing.”
Palmer moved out this week after quickly finding a new apartment. His lease at 10X Living Las Olas was up for renewal next month, he said. “They already have it listed for $3,100 a month,” he said. “I was in there yesterday, and it still has water damage.”
Britt Nemeth and Jim Welebir, tenants of a two-floor unit, told TRD that they were among the first people to rent at the complex when it was completed in 2021. Their rent is $4,600 a month. Since they moved in, the terrace has artificial turf that covers drains for rainwater to go through.
“The rain came under the floors and through the walls, down the stairs,” Welebir said. “They had to put in 13 fans and two dehumidifiers to dry out the apartment.”
During an inspection of their apartment, RPM Living General Manager Tania Gondesen tried to claim the water damage to the unit’s walls and doors was urine from their two dogs, Welebir said. He provided TRD with an email exchange he had with Godensen in which she apologized for asking if the wetness was dog urine.
Gondesen declined comment via email.
In his text exchange with TRD, Cardone did not respond to the specific allegations made by Blue, Palmer, Nemeth and Welebir.
“The team…worked around the clock to handle this freak storm,” Cardone said. “For the most part, our residents have been extremely understanding of this once in a lifetime natural disaster. And we will continue to support all those who have been negatively affected.”
The post Grant Cardone faces tenant uproar over rain damage at Las Olas apartment building appeared first on The Real Deal.
Vault Development Partners’ Robert Zecher with 760 Montauk Highway (Vault Development Partners, Google Maps, Getty)The Mill is officially under new ownership.
Vault Development Partners purchased the Water Mill shopping center on Route 27 East for $13.1 million, the Hamptons Commercial Real Estate Team at Compass announced. The property in the Southampton hamlet has visibility on Montauk Highway, giving it some added appeal. There’s also a condo development underway next door.
A limited liability company sold the six-building shopping center, which spans 29,500 square feet, to Vault. Hal Zwick and Jeff Sztorc of Compass held the listing.
The 3.6-acre shopping center has 154 parking spots, including Tesla charging stations in the rear parking lot. Tenants at the complex include Provisions Natural Food Market, Tight Medical Spa, Water Mill Wine & Spirits and Hamptons Float. SoulCycle has also occupied space in the complex.
All of the buildings are considered “turnkey” properties and there’s a mix of wet-use and dry retail tenants in place. Robert Zecher, chief executive officer of East Hampton-based Vault, said his team was “eager to enhance its offerings.”
The final asking price on the shopping center was $15.9 million, according to Behind the Hedges. In 2021, it sold for $8.7 million.
Vault also owns a mixed-use property at 105-107 Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village. It purchased the property in 2021 for $7.2 million and is already looking to sell it for nearly double.
The Hamptons retail market has been busy in recent weeks. LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault earlier this month paid $22 million for the property at 1 Main Street in East Hampton, the East End’s largest commercial transaction this year.
Plans for the building weren’t disclosed, but Arnault’s conglomeration has plenty of brands that can take space there. A sampling of LVMH’s holdings includes Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Sephora and Tiffany & Co.
Read moreNew YorkBernard Arnault buys East Hampton retail property for $22MTri-StateDeveloper lists slice of Water Mill estate for $60MTri-StateSerhant establishes Hamptons outpostThe post East Hampton firm buys Water Mill shopping center appeared first on The Real Deal.
Primestor CEO Arturo Sneider and co-founder Leandro Tyberg with 8401 Van Nuys Blvd in Panorama City (Primestor, Google Maps)Primestor Development, an L.A.-based developer, has closed the first half of a new fund that will focus on building multifamily and retail assets near public transit in California.
The firm has raised $165 million — $100 million from Belay Investment Group, $25 million from LGT Capital Partners and the rest from other investors, according to Primestor CEO Arturo Sneider and an announcement from the firm on Wednesday.
Much of the funding will finance projects in L.A., where the firm has several projects already entitled, Sneider said.
In Panorama City, the firm is planning to redevelop a 17-acre mall, which the firm bought from Macerich for $98 million in 2015, with residential and commercial space, plus a new hotel. In southeast L.A. County, Primestor already has approvals to build housing and retail on a 10-acre lawn at the Civic Center in Norwalk.
The company has not counted the city of L.A. out for development sites, but Sneider acknowledged buying would be more difficult, given the city’s new transfer taxes.
“Obviously you have to factor that into it, it’s affecting the kinds of properties that might end up transferring,” he said in an interview.
Primestor started raising equity for the new fund in November 2021. After interest rates rose last year, fundraising proved more challenging, as investors sat on the sidelines.
“It definitely added a little bit of diligence,” he said of the impacts rising rates have had.
The firm hopes to bring the fund up to $300 million in equity commitments and close by the end of this year.
The post Primestor closes first half of LA development fund with $165M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Saint Paul Place office tower at 750 North St. Paul Street in Dallas (St Paul Place, Getty)Jonas Woods has tucked another Dallas office tower into his pocket.
Woods’ firm Pacific Elms Properties just bought the 22-story St. Paul Place at 750 North St. Paul Street, marking one of the few office building transactions this year in the Dallas area, the Dallas Morning News reported. The purchase was financed with a $66.7 million loan from MetLife Commercial Mortgage.
St. Paul Place was built in 1983 and comprises 275,000 square feet. The building has been owned since 2016 by Quadrant Investment, which performed a multimillion dollar renovation at the site to include a new conference center, lounge area, outdoor terrace and a revamped lobby. Cushman & Wakefield began marketing the property last summer.
Woods has become one the city’s largest property owners, investing in high-rises like Bryan Tower, Santander Tower and 2100 Ross. Woods is at the helm of various adaptive reuse projects, turning old office towers into residential complexes or mixed-use developments. Pacific Elm Properties recently invested in downtown’s 60-story Comerica Bank Tower with plans to convert the landmark building into a mix of offices, apartments and hotel rooms.
Woods intends to keep St. Paul Place running as normal, though, with only a few plans for renovations.
“We think this is a very special boutique property on Ross, and we plan to materially upgrade the lobby, common areas and amenities to reflect a class AA quality,” Woods told the outlet. “We will definitely keep this as pure office.”
Office sales in Dallas-Fort Worth totaled $227 million in the first two months of this year, which was down 80 percent from $1.1 billion in the same period in 2022. DFW still ranks ninth in the nation for office sales to start the year.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasOffice-to-resi bringing 1,500 homes to DallasTexasDowntown Dallas’ Comerica Bank Tower changes handsTexasCrescent scores with $400M sale of Uptown Dallas towerThe post Jonas Woods buys St. Paul Place with $67M loan appeared first on The Real Deal.
NuStar CEO Brad Barron, Truist Financial Corp CEO William H. Rogers Jr. and 19003 West Interstate 10 (LinkedIn, Loopnet, Truist)An energy logistics company is selling its San Antonio headquarters but will remain at the site as part of a leaseback deal.
Truist Financial Corp is buying the 1 million-square-foot campus at 19003 West Interstate 10 from NuStar Energy for $103 million, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. NuStar will continue to operate within a 300,000-square-foot space at the site, paying roughly $8.2 million a year in rent for the initial 20-year term of the leaseback agreement.
NuStar, whose CEO is Brad Barron, has the option to extend its lease through two additional 10-year periods until March 2063. The 32-acre property was recently valued at about $49 million, according to the Bexar County Appraisal District.
The agreement restricts future developments on a 6-acre portion on the southern edge of the lot as long as NuStar or any NuStar affiliate operates there. NuStar also retained 13 acres of the property.
The deal was made to monetize a real estate asset that hasn’t been yielding lucrative returns, and NuStar will pay off some of its outstanding debt with the $103 million, a company spokesperson told the outlet.
Amid high interest rates, the deal was an efficient way to gain equity quickly, while remaining “good stewards” of its resources, the spokesperson said.
Other notable companies have exercised land sale or leaseback maneuvers recently. Austin-based Capital Commercial Investments bought 290 acres at ExxonMobil’s Irving headquarters late last year in a sale-leaseback deal in December. And Houston-based natural gas company Tellurian is selling land in Louisiana as part of a $1 billion lease back, the outlet reported.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreLos AngelesJ&L Realty buys Hollywood performing arts academy for $23MTexasHarris Bay pitches hotel, office-to-resi for Tobin HillTexasSabot selling Pearl District parcelThe post NuStar sells HQ for $103M in leaseback appeared first on The Real Deal.
Stone Real Estate’s Noah O’Neil and overhead shot of River North district (Wikipedia/OmidGul, Getty, Stone Real Estate)River North retailers are steadily recovering from the pandemic, unlike its Loop counterparts.
The area’s resurgence can be attributed to the area’s lively bar and restaurant scene, which makes up 39 percent of River North’s retail sector. Most landlords can count on a steady flow of customers on a daily basis given the variety in sources of foot traffic. The area features a high number of residents in the neighborhood, along with tourists and some office workers.
Vacancy rates for River North retail properties fell to 17 percent last year, down from more than 19 percent a year prior and 22 percent in 2020, Crain’s reported, citing data from Chicago retail brokerage Stone Real Estate.
“The theme here is that the diverse customer base has improved the vacancy in River North,” Stone’s Noah O’Neill told the outlet.
Meanwhile, retail assets along Chicago’s more traditional shopping destinations are still trying to rebound from pandemic-fueled vacancies. Many restaurants and bars in the Loop, with a similar population to River North, are more reliant on business crowds coming in for lunches from nearby office towers. The Loop’s retail vacancy rate rose again last year to 28.3 percent from 27.4 percent at the end of 2021, Stone found.
And the Magnificent Mile is a prime example of the Loop’s struggling retail sector. As of March, the Mag Mile’s vacancy rate was just below 30 percent. Big-name brands like Gap, Uniqlo and Banana Republic all left their spaces after the strip was pummeled by COVID-19.
River North’s retail market has also been aided by a vibrant art scene and the addition of cannabis dispensaries. Green Rose, a marijuana shop co-owned by Chicago restaurateur Phil Stefani, opened in November at 612 North Wells Street. Progressive Treatment Solutions got city approval for a weed store in the former Rainforest Cafe, a 22,000-square-foot building at 605 North Clark Street around the same time, the outlet said.
The growing gambling industry may serve as a boost for River North, as well. In February, the Illinois Gaming Board approved licenses for a temporary casino at 600 North Wabash Avenue, which will eventually be replaced by the Bally’s-planned development of a permanent $1.7 billion casino on the Chicago River, set to be built on the site of the Freedom Center printing plant.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoRiver North retail sector shows signs of improvementChicagoMichael Koss buys River North retail space for $16MChicagoRiver North Rock Bottom Brewery building hits marketThe post River North recovering appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of First Republic Bank CEO Mike Roffler (Getty, First Republic Bank)The troubled First Republic Bank is looking to sell up to $100 billion in assets.
The San Francisco-based bank, grappling with holding fixed-rate mortgages with low interest rates on its balance sheet, may try to rescue itself by divesting $50 billion to $100 billion of assets, Bloomberg reported, citing unidentified sources.
The sales, which include long-dated mortgages and securities, would reduce the mismatch between the bank’s assets and liabilities — a factor that left First Republic reeling after a run on deposits last month.
Potential buyers, including large U.S. banks, could receive warrants or preferred equity as an incentive to buy assets above their market value, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The challenges facing the bank dawned on investors after First Republic reported earnings that fell far short of analysts’ estimates.
For the first time since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, First Republic disclosed it had lost $102 billion in deposits over the course of the first quarter — about half of the deposits that sat on its books at the end of last year.
It ended the quarter with $104 billion in deposits — a number that included $30 billion in deposits put into First Republic by 11 banks last month.
The bank holds long-term mortgages to wealthy borrowers — Fitch Ratings recently called its assets “pristine” — but with the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes, it must pay higher interest to hold deposits than it makes on its loans. The result is a huge increase in interest expenses.
The lender is trying to shore up its balance sheet to avoid being seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and clear the way for a potential capital raise, the source told Bloomberg.
It may need the U.S. government to facilitate negotiations with some of the country’s largest banks to stabilize the lender as it executes its turnaround, the person added.
That would be a much cheaper alternative than a failure of the bank.
Read moreSan FranciscoFirst Republic loses $102B in deposits as interest costs soar 2,700% San FranciscoFirst Republic woes compounded by rich clients, interest-only loansSan FranciscoFirst Republic’s resi conundrum: 'pristine' loans, rock-bottom ratesIn addition to selling assets, First Republic also plans to focus on loans that can be sold on the secondary market, it said Monday. That’s a sharp break from its strategy of providing interest-only jumbo mortgages that drew rich borrowers.
First Republic had total assets of $233 billion as of March 31, including $173 billion of loans and $35 billion of investment securities, according to its first-quarter earnings report.
— Dana Bartholomew
The post First Republic looks to shed up to $100B in assets appeared first on The Real Deal.
Pyramid Management Group CEO Stephen Congel and the Crossgates Mall in Albany (Google Maps, Pyramid Management Group)A $245 million loan backed by a Pyramid Management Group mall is headed toward a refinancing dead end when the debt comes due next month.
The CMBS loan collateralized by the majority of Crossgates Mall, one of New York state’s largest, went to special servicing in February for imminent maturity default, according to Trepp.
Fitch downgraded the debt in March citing declining performance and concerns that Pyramid would not be able to refinance the loan.
The fall of the regional mall began decades before Covid hit, but for many struggling assets, the pandemic was a fatal blow.
The Crossgates loan first went to special servicing for delinquency in 2013, less than a year after its origination, according to Morningstar. Then, in April 2020, the loan went back to special servicing for imminent monetary default, meaning Pyramid was in danger of falling behind again.
The group saw four other mall loans head to special servicing that same spring.
Pyramid requested Covid relief in April 2020. And by June, special servicer Midland Loan Services okayed a four-month deferral of debt service payments and a 60-day extension option.
The group also managed to bump its maturity date back one year to May 2023, acknowledging at the time “there would be an inability to refinance the loan,” Chief Financial Officer Robert Utter recalled in court testimony.
Pyramid’s net operating income dropped to $16 million in 2020 from $30 million in 2018, according to tax documents submitted in a dispute between Pyramid and Crossgates hometown of Guilderland, the Times Union reported.
Operations didn’t improve through 2022. Amazon in March shuttered a store it had opened just a year before, even after Crossgates sweetened the deal with $850,000 in incentives, according to the Times Union.
As of July, the occupancy rate of non-specialty tenants listed as collateral on the loan, fell to 83.9 percent from 85.4 percent in December 2021 and 86.3 percent in 2020.
Now, with Pyramid less than a week away from its maturity date, interest rates stand 4 percent higher than they would have when the loan first came due.
Pyramid did not respond to a request for comment.
Read moreTri-StatePalisades Center mall faces foreclosure over $419M loanTri-StateAmazon store paying its rent, but landlord Pyramid sues anywayNew YorkAfter Palisades Center, 4 more Pyramid Group malls head to special servicingThe post Pyramid’s mall in trouble again as maturity looms on $245M loan appeared first on The Real Deal.
Proctor Group’s Jeff Proctor with the Palmolive Building (Proctor Group, Google Maps, Getty)Two condos, both full floor units, in the historic Palmolive building on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile were listed for sale this week, joining a multitude of other high-end offerings in the building as the growing crowd of sellers weighs on prices.
A 22nd floor unit is asking nearly $9 million. It has three bedrooms, five bathrooms and includes two outdoor terraces. The unit is owned by Kristina McGrath, whose husband, prominent car dealer Mike McGrath, died in December, according to news reports.
A 28th floor unit asking $6 million had a previous listing price of $8.75 million. The 5,500-square-foot condo includes three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
Jeff Proctor’s group with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate is managing both listings.
“So there’s some downward pressure [on pricing], and we made an adjustment on unit 28A to $6 million, which is competitive with the market,” Proctor said. “Then unit 22 is another full-floor residence but it does have outdoor terrace space. It originally sold for around $2 million more than any of the other units without outdoor terraces.”
Only five units in the Palmolive have outdoor spaces, he said.
“And this has two two terraces, one on the east and one on the west. They’re about 1,300 square feet each. So it really offers a pretty huge advantage for somebody looking for outdoor space,” Proctor said.
The 28th-floor unit was designed by Paula Berg and has panoramic views of Lake Michigan, Magnificent Mile and Navy Pier. Amenities include a private elevator, 600-bottle wine cellar, three valet parking spots and ultra-luxury finishes within the home, including Venetian plaster accents and Romanoff wall coverings made of rolled wood.
The 37-story building is a national historic landmark. Built in 1929, it was originally home to the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet corporation and later became the Playboy offices. The 1920s building redeveloped into condos in the early 2000s.
The building was redeveloped in 2002, with the first four floors reserved for high-end office and retail and the rest of the building sold as condominiums, with a residential address of 159 East Walton Place.
Proctor said the previous sale prices for the building are somewhat skewed, because after the redevelopment they were sold unfinished, meaning every buyer absorbed additional renovation costs. That can make setting a list price more challenging, beyond the additional units in the building for sale.
He added that the building is good for those seeking a smaller unit mix, meaning generally full-floor or half floor units.
Listings have been creeping back in the Palmolive this year, as the spring market heats up, despite rising interest rates and a sluggish condo market in and around the Loop. That includes the building’s penthouse that once belonged to Chicago-area native Vince Vaughn, which relisted in March.
That property, on the 36th and 37th floors, is now seeking $10 million, which is a haircut from its asking price when it was relisted last month for $10.5 million. Its previous list price was nearly $12 million, after it last sold for $8 million in 2016.
The condo is owned by an LLC named Tramp Rogers, whose manager is wealth manager Margaret Rowley, according to a 2021 Chicago Tribune report.
Another condo in the building remains unlisted but could be coming to market soon. The condo belongs to David Herro, the deputy chairman at Chicago-based money manager Harris Associates, who paid $6.7 million for the condo in 2014. The 5,500-square-foot condo on the 31st floor has three bedrooms. Herro originally listed the condo in 2020 for $10.9 million. That price likely factored in the renovations to the condo.
Herro has cut the property’s price twice since listing, first to $9.9 million in November of 2022. The property was cut to $8.9 million in June of this year before being removed from the market in September.
Read moreChicagoVince Vaughn’s former Palmolive penthouse takes price cutChicagoPalmolive unit to hit the market for $8.75MChicagoLouis Vuitton’s Mag Mile landlord to sell retail portion of the buildingThe post Palmolive pullout: More high-end condo listings face crowd of sellers appeared first on The Real Deal.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman (Getty, Nassau County)The tax map verification fee is an annoying $355 charge that must be paid to file deeds, mortgages, mortgage satisfactions and other transactions in Nassau County.
Turns out, it was also illegal. Not the fee itself, but the size of it.
Such fees are supposed to only cover the cost of the service, not generate a profit for counties. So in 2016 Jericho’s Jeffrey Falk filed a lawsuit challenging the fees, arguing they were “not reasonably necessary” to maintain the county’s property registry.
In March 2020, a judge ruled the fee was an “unlawful and unconstitutional tax.” A state appellate court affirmed that ruling last week, prompting Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and the legislature to reduce it to $270, Newsday reported.
The fee has been a political football in Nassau County for years.
The Republicans, who control county government, had resisted reducing the fee, because doing so blew a $15 million hole into this year’s budget. But 18 months ago, they voted to eliminate the fee — forcing the Democratic county executive at the time to veto the measure.
Democrats played a similar game, maintaining the fee while in power and blaming the GOP for it when they weren’t. They voted against the reduction.
The reduced fee could still be unlawfully high. The budget director came up with the revised fee by dividing the cost to run the assessment department and the Assessment Review Commission by the number of real estate transactions that require a tax verification letter. But that calculation seems to assume those agencies do no other work. (Insert joke about government workers here.)
The fee was set at $50 in 2012. The legislature kept hiking it, however, to cover operating losses, until it reached $355 in 2017. The county collected more than $95 million in 2021 and 2022 combined.
A similar $200 fee in Suffolk County is also facing legal challenges.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkReal estate fee hikes spell trouble for buyers, sellers in Long IslandTri-StateNassau County freezes assessments after home-price surgeTri-StateNew homes and builders in Nassau benefit from tax breakThe post This real estate fee kept going up — until a judge stepped in appeared first on The Real Deal.
CIM Group’s Bradley Aaronson and 1021 East Seventh Street (Aaronson via Centennial Yards, LoopNet)CIM Group wants to replace two small office buildings in East Austin with an eight-story apartment building.
But first it needs a zoning exception from the City of Austin.
The Los Angeles-based firm is asking to raise the maximum height for its planned 145-unit apartment complex from 60 to 90 feet, the Austin Business Journal reported. The development site is at 1007 and 1021 East Seventh Street, within the Plaza Saltillo Transit-Oriented Development district.
The 28,000-square-foot lot was appraised in 2022 at just over $6 million, according to the Travis Central Appraisal District. The site currently consists of a converted house where Morales Law Office operates and a single-story office building occupied by the cloud computing consultancy Wursta, the outlet said.
The Planning Commission approved the request on March 14 because it’s near public transportation and it will provide “much needed housing for the city and the planning area,” a staff report said.
CIM, led by managing director Bradley Aaronson, promised that 10 percent of the 145 units will be deemed affordable, or priced within 60 percent of the area’s median family income, which was $66,180 in Travis County as of 2022.
The proposal has gotten pushback from
Organizations like the Guadalupe Association for an Improved Neighborhood have pushed back on the proposal because of concerns about the stress it would cause neighbors who have faced rising costs of living in the rapidly growing East Austin.
The developer should provide more affordable units if the building increases in height, association president Michael Guajardo said.
“There is no doubt that more housing does not result in affordability,” Guajardo told the outlet. “Our crisis is a lack of affordable housing, not a lack of housing. We are experiencing pressures imposed by Austin’s incredible growth. Many of our residents have been displaced by rising rents and property taxes.”
The request could go before the City Council on May 18.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexas$450M development coming to East RiversideAustinEndeavor plans East Austin mixed-useAustinStream Realty gets green light for six-story office project in East AustinThe post CIM plans multifamily highrise in East Austin appeared first on The Real Deal.
Realty Income’s Sumit Roy with 18800 Oak Park Avenue, 3615 North Central Avenue, 1160 North Halsted Street and 25056 Will Center Road (Realty Income, LoopNet, Google Maps, Getty)A CIM Group fund sold a quartet of Chicago-area retail and industrial properties to San Diego-based Realty Income for more than $67 million.
The West Coast real estate investment trust specializes in free-standing, single-tenant commercial assets and picked up three such properties in Cook County in a deal executed March 22, according to public records. The deal was recorded April 5.
Realty Income paid about $28.3 million for a 94,000-square-foot CarMax store on a 29-acre lot at 18800 Oak Park Avenue in the southwest suburb of Tinley Park, $13.2 million for a 20,000-square-foot West Marine at 1160 North Halsted Street in Chicago and $7 million for a 12,000-square-foot CVS Pharmacy at 3615 North Central Avenue in Chicago, records show.
CIM affiliates paid around $28.9 million for the Tinley Park property in 2017, $12.6 million for the West Marine in 2015 and $7 million for the CVS in 2013, according to Cook County records and past news reports. This indicates those three properties were a near even trade for the firm.
The firm also bought a 105,000-square-foot industrial property at 25056 Will Center Road in University Park that is home to Kloeckner Metals Corporation for about $18.9 million, according to Will County records. A previous sale price of the property could not be found.
CIM did not respond to requests for comment, and Realty Income declined to comment.
The acquisitions add to Realty Income’s national portfolio of more than 12,200 commercial properties, including 528 in Illinois, under long-term, net-lease agreements. The firm’s portfolio is 99-percent occupied, according to its website.
The firm has also invested in the Chicago-area’s grocery store market, investing $52.4 million into a 65,500-square-foot Mariano’s store on the Near South Side in 2022 and paying $36.1 million for the chain’s Orland Park location in 2019. The REIT also paid $116 million for three Mariano’s stores in Harwood Heights, Lake Zurich and Frankfort in early 2017 and acquired the Des Plaines Mariano’s in 2017 for $34.6 million in a separate deal.
Read moreChicagoGrocery frenzy still alive in Chicago with $70M of salesChicagoRealty Income continues Mariano’s shopping spree with acquisition of Orland Park storeChicagoAlan Krause pays CIM Group $23M for Geneva retailThe post Realty Income drops $67M on retail, industrial properties appeared first on The Real Deal.
Former Richmond Mayor Tom Butt and 223 South 47th Street in Richmond (Google Maps, TomButt.com)A project envisioning nearly 200 apartments on more than 7 acres of city-owned land in Richmond has become mired in foreclosure proceedings.
Seven years after Hayward-based Miraflores Community Devco agreed to develop a vacant lot at 223 South 47th Street, the project has fizzled after the city declared the developer in default, the East Bay Times reported, citing a city update.
After the developer took out $10 million in loans against the property without permission from the city, lenders are pursuing foreclosure. The property’s taxes are delinquent and the land has fallen into disrepair.
“Hints of trouble began to surface years ago, accelerating in 2022, but staff did not want to let the community know that the project they had anticipated for so many years was headed for the toilet,” former Mayor Tom Butt, who termed out in January, wrote on his e-Blog this month.
“As late as a few weeks ago, the developer appeared at a community event at Miraflores Park and told the community to anticipate a groundbreaking this summer, knowing full well it was a lie,” he said.
Plans for Miraflores called for 22 four-story buildings of 190 units west of I-80 near two BART stations in Richmond’s Park Plaza.
Until 2006, the Miraflores property was home to flower nurseries run by Japanese immigrants since the turn of the last century. Later, the city’s redevelopment agency bought it.
The city’s redevelopment successor chose Miraflores Community Devco to develop the land in July 2014, then inked a development agreement in 2016. The property, purchased for $4.2 million, was transferred to Miraflores in 2018.
Despite not breaking ground, the developer last year requested the city modify the project from a for-sale development to a workforce rental project, changing the project’s financing.
Richmond officials say Miraflores has been uncooperative in providing full disclosure of the modified plan. They say it also failed to pay taxes, and defaulted on loans on the property in violation of the development agreement.
According to the DDA, the city does not have any liability in the event of default and may choose to repurchase the property.
The Richmond City Council has been negotiating the “price and terms of payment” of the property since at least July.
As the project remains stuck in limbo, state business and federal court records show that the developers involved are intertwined in a broader web of fraud, bankruptcy and immigration schemes, and appear to have been behind other now-defunct developments in the Bay Area, according to the East Bay Times.
The principal executives of Miraflores Community Devco were also behind Fremont Hills Development — a bankrupt real estate firm that launched the uncompleted mixed-use Mission Hills Square development in Fremont, according to state business records.
The project was spurred by Golden State Regional Center, whose owners were indicted in March 2019 for running a fraudulent “golden visa” program, which offered U.S. residency to foreigners who invested at least $500,000 in domestic businesses that created at least 10 jobs in low-employment Census tracts.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoRichmond shoots down proposed housing projectSan FranciscoRichmond rejects plan by Laconia to build 154 waterfront homesSan FranciscoDeveloper sues Richmond over blocking $45M sale of Point MolateThe post Miraflores Community Devco defaults on apartment project in Richmond appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by Steven Dilakian for The Real Deal with Getty)Slow home sales across Southern California led to the loss of 4,600 real estate jobs last month.
Real estate employment in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties was 763,100 in March, off 4,600 from the previous month, the Riverside Press-Telegram reported, citing state employment figures.
The loss of real estate jobs over a 12-month period was 10,100, a 1.3 percent drop.
The March loss in real estate jobs bucks a trend where the month typically adds real estate hires. Between 2015 and 2019, an average of 3,460 jobs were added each March.
Across Southern California, the real estate industry’s share of 7.2 million workers was 9.6 percent last month.
Construction, with 359,200 workers in various trades, was off 3,300 last month and off 9,100 over 12 months, representing a 2.5 percent drop.
Real estate services, with 137,700 people, declined 1,200 for the month but was up 1,000 over 12 months, a 0.7 percent gain.
Building services, with 109,500 jobs in commercial property operations, was up 400 for the month and up 2,600 over 12 months, or a 2.4 percent gain.
Lending, with 103,800 folks in various credit work, was off 1,000 for the month and off 4,100 over 12 months, or a 3.8 percent drop.
Building supplies, with 52,900 sellers of equipment and materials, gained 500 jobs for the month and lost 500 over 12 months, or a 0.9 percent drop.
Los Angeles County had 360,600 real estate jobs, off 2,400 for the month and off 5,600 over 12 months, a 1.5 percent one-year drop. Property jobs made up 7.8 percent of all L.A. workers last month, according to the Press-Telegram.
Orange County had 224,500 real estate jobs, off 200 for the month and off 1,500 over 12 months, or a 0.7 percent one-year drop. Property jobs made up 13.3 percent of all O.C. workers last month.
Read moreLos AngelesHome prices across California fall 18% in 10 monthsLos AngelesSoCal home sales drop by half, prices fall 1% in 2022Los AngelesHiring slows for real estate jobs across SoCal marketThe Inland Empire had 178,000 real estate jobs, off 2,000 for the month and off 3,000 over 12 months, a 1.7 percent one-year drop. Property jobs equal 10.7 percent of all I.E. workers last month.
Total home sales across Southern California dropped 47 percent last year across the six-county region, with the median price falling 1 percent.
— Dana Bartholomew
The post SoCal loses 4,600 real estate jobs last month during sluggish market appeared first on The Real Deal.
KCR Development’s Annie M.H. Chan with a rendering of 1050 St. Elizabeth Drive in San Jose (DNA Design and Architecture, Twitter/@unsc1325)KCR Development aims to build a 206-unit apartment complex south of Downtown San Jose over strong neighborhood opposition.
The Cupertino-based developer has filed plans to build the seven-story building at 1050 St. Elizabeth Drive in Willow Glen, the San Jose Mercury News reported. It would replace a 30,000-square-foot former assisted living facility.
The project got a green light from the city’s planning director, according to Bay City News. If approved, construction could begin early next year and take two years.
“This will provide high-density housing in an area that is centrally located in San Jose,” Erik Schoennauer, a land-use consultant for KCR, said.
The 2.2-acre property north of Los Gatos Creek is owned by KCR, operating as Evershine XVII, which bought the site in 2013 for $5.8 million, Schoennauer told reporters. In 2016, KCR leased the two-story building to Somerset Senior Living for a fixed term that ended last year, when the facility closed.
Plans call for a 92-foot-tall Cape Cod blue-and-white complex, with inset balconies and yellow, brown and green accents.
The apartment complex would have five stories of apartments atop two stories of parking for 311 cars, 52 motorcycles and 73 bicycles.
The project, designed by DNA Design and Architecture, would include a courtyard, a series of outdoor decks, plus a clubhouse, fitness center, lounge, workshop, pet wash, storage and media/game rooms.
Schoennauer said the proposal will add needed housing to the area and conforms with San Jose zoning. “This project is exactly what the city’s general plan wants for this site,” he said.
Some neighbors don’t agree. Some said the Fruitdale light rail stop a half mile away is too far to be used by tenants of the proposed complex. Others said the building’s height would clash with the quiet neighborhood, while its renters would add more traffic and disrupt their quality of life.
“Seven stories? Way out of character for Willow Glen,” Barbara Black said in a letter to the city. “Put that building downtown where we can at least walk everywhere or take transit.”
Diane Farone, who lives in nearby condominiums known as Arbor Glen 2, said the project would impact local housing values.
“This is very bad news,” Farone said in another letter. “I’m on the board at Arbor Glen 2 and we are very opposed to this. It will ruin the look of the neighborhood and lower our property values. The surrounding infrastructure does not have the capacity for this.”
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoCambrian Park Plaza development to bring more than 300 residential units to San JoseSan FranciscoSol San Jose assumes $26.4M loan for delinquent hotel projectSan FranciscoGoogle halts development of Downtown West megaproject in San JoseThe post KCR eyes seven-story apartment complex in San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
Harlan Crow and Justice Clarence Thomas (Wikipedia, GW Bush Center)A Supreme Court case from nearly 20 years ago overlaps with Justice Clarence Thomas’ gratifying friendship with real estate titan Harlan Crow.
In 2005, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from an architecture firm that wanted more than $25 million from Crow Holdings subsidiary Trammell Crow Residential, alleging it wrongfully reused the firm’s copyrighted designs, Bloomberg reported.
Thomas, who was appointed to the High Court in 1991, had been close friends with Crow for at least eight years when Womack+Hampton Architects’ petition reached the court in 2004.
Dallas billionaire Harlan Crow was CEO of Crow Holdings at the time — an entity separate from his father Trammell Crow’s namesake company. Crow Holdings manages the family’s capital and had less than a 50 percent stake in apartment developer Trammell Crow Residential during the court proceedings, and Crow Holdings says it had no controlling interest in the company at that point, the outlet reported.
“At the time of this case, Trammell Crow Residential operated completely independently of Crow Holdings with a separate management team and its own independent operations,” Crow’s office told the outlet. “Crow Holdings had a minority interest in the parties involved in this case and therefore no control of any of these entities.”
Some argue that Thomas should have abstained from the case, despite Harlan Crow’s disassociation from Trammell Crow Residential.
Justices are disqualified from certain cases in which a close friend or relative stand to financially gain from the outcome. But for the most part, judges must decide themselves if there’s a conflict of interest.
When Womack+Hampton petitioned the Supreme Court, the case showed up under the name “Metric Holdings Limited Partnership,” a company described in court filings as a “Trammell Crow Entity.” Thomas should have been “hypervigilant to the prospect of a Crow interest showing up on the Court’s docket,” according to Stephen Gillers, a judicial ethics expert at New York University School of Law.
Given Thomas and Crow’s close friendship and the many subsidiaries that could’ve served as an interest for Crow, Thomas should have rescued himself from the case without question, Gillers said.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasHarlan Crow speaks following investigationDallasHarlan Crow lavished Justice Clarence Thomas with giftsDallasWhat to know about Harlan CrowThe post Crow Holdings entity had SCOTUS case in 2005 appeared first on The Real Deal.
Newark Deputy Mayor Allison Ladd (City of Newark, Getty)Developers might get a chance to make New Jersey’s most populous city even more so.
Newark officials proposed several changes to the city’s zoning laws, JerseyDigs reported. The idea is to revitalize the city’s commercial corridors and ease the backlog of zoning board applications, which is slowing development.
The most prominent proposals are to allow taller buildings in commercial and mixed-use zones — up to eight stories in the latter — and to let storefronts be turned into housing. The goals are to accelerate development and fill empty retail space.
Major thoroughfares and outer neighborhoods would likely see the bulk of the changes.
“We feel like the upzoning will provide more housing, promote walkability and just help us in addressing blight and vacancy that exists on some of these primary and secondary corridors,” Pallavi Shinde, acting planning manager, told JerseyDigs.
Not everyone is on board, though. JV Valladolid, environmental justice organizer at the Ironbound Community Corporation, predicted development would push rents up and residents out.
“The city pointed to the need for development because we have a housing shortage,” Valladolid said. “But these high-rises drive up the cost of rent — it causes displacement and out-prices people from the community they live in.”
But research has shown otherwise. In 2019, Furman Center doctoral fellow Xiaodi Li found that in New York City, for every 10 percent increase in housing supply, rents for properties within 500 feet drop by 1 percent. And Kate Pennington of UC-Berkeley found rents fall by 2 percent within 100 meters of new developments in San Francisco, while renters’ risk of moving to a lower-income neighborhood falls by 17 percent.
The studies are part of a growing body of research that shows adding housing supply keeps rents down, not only regionally but locally. Still, Newark officials will have to overcome the impression that neighborhood improvements will be bad for current tenants.
For the city’s part, Ladd said Newark is boosting affordability by requiring income-restricted units in new housing, selling city land for affordable development, running Section 8 homeownership programs and offering assistance on down payments.
A Rutgers think tank found in 2021 that the city needs to build more than 16,000 affordable units.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreTri-StateNewark approves 367-unit projectTri-StateNorth Jersey is nation’s most competitive rental marketSan FranciscoBentallGreenOak buys Amazon-leased warehouse in Newark for $138MThe post Newark proposes allowing taller buildings, storefront apartments appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A pair of bills making their way through the Florida Legislature could fuel a deluge of property sales and demolitions of historic properties in coastal cities, including Miami Beach and Palm Beach.
If the bills become law, Florida Senate Bill 1356 and House Bill 1317 would strip local municipalities of their authority to determine if certain structures can be demolished, and what could be built in their place. Sen. Bryan Avila, a former Hialeah planning and zoning board member who represents part of Miami-Dade County, and Rep. Spencer Roach, who represents DeSoto County and parts of Charlotte and Lee counties, are sponsoring the sister bills.
The proposed legislation would be a boon for developers.
It would allow owners and developers to demolish “non-conforming” properties within a half mile of the coast and within specific flood zones — regardless of whether the buildings are in a historic district. Non-conforming buildings are any that do not meet new construction requirements under the National Flood Insurance Program.
Single-family homes are exempt. The only other structures that would be exempt under the Resiliency and Safe Structures Act are those individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It could affect coastal cities up and down the coast, from Fernandina Beach to Key West.
That means properties in historic districts would not be protected, even if those districts are part of the National Register.
Daniel Ciraldo, executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League, which opposes the legislation, said that only seven properties in Miami Beach are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Thousands are in historic districts.
“It would lead to a rash of speculative purchasing of historic buildings and demolitions,” Ciraldo said about the proposed bills. One example of that could be the historic Art Deco buildings on Ocean Drive, he said. No individual properties are on the register.
Ciraldo called the legislation “very troubling” and “an affront to historic preservation standards.”
Cities across South Florida have historic preservation boards that oversee land use and zoning rules over historic districts and properties. The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board, for example, has authority over approvals in the city’s historic districts, including along Collins Avenue. The board has overseen project approvals for developers Michael Shvo and Vlad Doronin, who each have oceanfront towers planned next to their historic buildings.
Over the past couple of years, a battle has ensued regarding which properties should be preserved and if buildings must be replicated if they are demolished due to life safety concerns. The issues followed the deadly condo collapse in Surfside in the summer of 2021.
Billionaire developer Steve Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins and chairman of New York-based Related Companies, sought approval of a larger development than is currently allowed on the site of the now demolished Deauville Beach Resort, but failed to garner enough support. Ross was in contract to buy the property from the Meruelo family, which many argue let the historic hotel fall into disrepair to the point that it could not be saved.
At the time, historic preservation board members warned the “demolition by neglect” would set a dangerous precedent for owners of historic properties: It could allow forced demolitions when otherwise owners would have to preserve architecturally significant structures.
Critics say the proposed legislation is too broad because it calls all buildings that were not built to current flood insurance standards “non-conforming.” If the bills become law as currently written, the measure could render many historic board decisions moot.
Said Ciraldo: “We don’t want to take a shotgun to kill a flea.”
Read moreSouth FloridaPalm Beach to fight Florida’s single-family demolition lawSouth FloridaFlorida Senate tweaks bill amending condo safety law. Here’s what that could meanSouth FloridaProposed laws could have “chilling effect” on challenges to development approvalsThe post “Very troubling:” Proposed state law could fuel demolitions in coastal cities appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Japanet CEO Akito Takata ahd 81 Atherton Avenue in Atherton (Getty, Scott Dancer, LinkedIn/Akito Takata)The CEO of a Japanese home shopping network has purchased an Atherton home at its $20 million asking price, according to public records. The deal represents the second-priciest sale in the country’s wealthiest zip code so far this year.
Akito Takata, CEO of Japanet Holdings, paid nearly $2,000 per square foot for the six-bedroom, seven-bath mansion with more than 10,000 square feet at 81 Atherton Avenue after the price dropped from $23.5 million on March 20.
The “striking modern home” with walls of glass and polished concrete floors was built in 2017 by Lencioni Construction with architecture by Swatt Miers, according to listing agent Scott Dancer of Compass. Four parties were interested but one “rushed in [with a] full-price offer and got the house,” he said via email.
Dancer did not name the buyer, but called him an “international CEO” planning to move to the U.S. The buyer was represented by Andy Tse and Yuriko Tse Shotter of Intero Real Estate, who declined to comment on the sale.
Japanet has recently made moves to diversify its core home shopping business, including buying a soccer team in Nagasaki and building a new stadium with a hotel that will overlook the pitch. It also partnered with Pegasus Tech Ventures, a global venture capital firm based in San Jose that runs the annual Startup World Cup competition, in 2021 to create a $50 million venture capital fund to invest in startups around the world.
The home’s sellers were Rajeev and Katy Amara, who bought the 1-acre property in 2013 for $5.3 million, according to public records. Rajeev Amara is the CEO of Arcline Investment Management, a private equity firm with $8.6 billion in capital commitments, according to his LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn shows Amara as based in Nashville, Tennessee, which could be one reason the home has been listed off and on since 2021.
Read moreSan FranciscoSlew of pre-spring sales recorded in nation’s priciest zip code San FranciscoLuxe developer Pacific Peninsula buys $25M Atherton houseSan FranciscoAtherton retains top spot for region’s wealthiest zip codeDancer declined to comment on his clients’ motivations for selling just a few years after building their custom estate, which in addition to the main home, has a detached three-car garage with EV charging, heated terraces, a sport court, playground, pool, spa and fire pit.
Atherton luxury sales have been on a roll this year, after a slower latter half of 2022. At $20 million, this the second-biggest deal in Atherton this year, after a developer picked up a 2.5-acre estate for $25 million in January. A 2.5-acre vacant lot in West Atherton near Menlo Park that came to market over a year ago for $26.5 million also went into contract this month.
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From left: CD Group’s Maurice Cayon and Legacy Residential Group’s Tom Cabrerizo in front of a rendering of Westend at Princeton (Getty, Bellón Architecture, CD Group, Legacy Residential Group)A group of developers wants to build a 630-unit multifamily complex outside Miami-Dade County’s Urban Development Boundary — an invisible greenbelt that’s meant to restrict suburban sprawl.
Legacy Residential Group, CD Group and Fenix Contractors propose 14 three-story and four-story buildings on 20 acres at the southeast corner of Southwest 252nd Street and Southwest 145th Avenue in south Miami-Dade’s Princeton neighborhood, according to the developers’ filing submitted this month to the county.
The filing is for a pre-application meeting, which is generally done before an official submittal is made.
Called Westend at Princeton, the Bellón Architecture-designed project would offer one- to three-bedroom apartments. Some or potentially all of the units would be workforce housing, designated for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income, said Maurice Cayon, managing member of CD Group. Miami-Dade’s AMI is $68,300 annually.
The Urban Development Boundary, or UDB, divides Miami-Dade’s developed areas from agricultural plots, wetlands and vacant tracts. It’s meant to stop encroachment of new construction toward Everglades and Biscayne national parks, as well as onto land that potentially could be used for Everglades restoration.
The Westend application does not indicate that the development site includes environmentally vital land, but says the property has an agricultural zoning.
Yet, Legacy, CD and Fenix still could face an uphill battle. Generally, a supermajority of county commissioners has to sign off on moving the UDB. Proposals tend to face pushback from preservationists and environmental groups.
It remains to be seen how difficult it will be to obtain approval, Cayon said. But, he argued, Westend’s workforce housing units would “provide a product that is needed in the area.”
Across South Florida, apartment rents skyrocketed over the past two and a half years, following an influx of out-of-state residents who drove up demand. Since mid-last year, rent hikes have calmed to more traditional levels, with Realtor.com showing the median asking rent went up 7.2 percent, in March, year-over-year. But rents aren’t expected to drop to pre-pandemic levels.
Legacy, CD Group and Fenix own a total of 66 acres on the southwest corner of Southwest 248th Street and Southwest 142nd Avenue, including the Westend development site, according to records. All the land is outside the UDB.
Miami-based Legacy, formerly called CFH Group, manages more than 6,500 apartments and has another 3,400 units under development, according to the firm’s website. It’s led by founder Tom Cabrerizo.
CD Group, based in Miami-Dade, is a residential and commercial development firm helmed by Cayon.
Fenix, based in Miami Lakes, is a contractor with a portfolio consisting of over 5,000 apartments, single-family homes and townhouses and 150,000 square feet of commercial space, according to its website. It’s led by Carlos Herrera.
Fenix is both a partner in the Westend project and would be its general contractor, according to Cayon.
This isn’t the first time the trio has partnered. They plan The Pointe at Princeton, a 518-unit apartment complex in Princeton near Westend’s development site, according to their submittal to the county.
In 2020, Legacy and CD scored a $15.3 million construction loan for 30 luxury townhouses at 6790 to 6880 Southwest 80th Street in Miami.
In the most controversial project proposal outside the UDB in recent history, a pair of developers sought approval for the 378-acre, 5.9 million-square-foot South Dade Logistics and Technology District. In November, county commissioners overrode Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s veto of the commission’s previous approval of the project slated for the southeast corner of the Florida Turnpike and Southwest 122nd Avenue.
But following a lawsuit against the county, a state agency said Miami-Dade messed up the South Dade Logistics approval process, which could mean a re-do of the vote. State lawmakers are considering a bill that would fix the alleged flaw in the project approval process, the Miami Herald reported.
The post Developers propose 630-unit rental complex outside Miami-Dade’s UDB appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: David Levinson, Rob Lapidus, and 142 West 57th Street (Getty, Google Maps, L&L Holding, Mitsubishi Corporation)Owners of the Metropolitan Tower in the Plaza District have stopped making payments on their mortgage in what is likely the largest case of distress in the city’s premiere office district since the Financial Crisis.
L&L Holding and its partner are in default on the $92.5 million loan backing the office portion of the 68-story, mixed-use tower at 142 West 57th Street, sources told The Real Deal.
The lender, Aareal Capital Corporation, is looking to sell the non-performing loan. A new buyer could renegotiate the debt or try to take control of the property through foreclosure.
Representatives for L&L and Aareal Capital declined to comment.
The loan offering is sure to be watched closely as a barometer for New York’s office market and the distress many are expecting with debt maturing, lending tight and interest rates having risen.
Rob Lapidus and David Levinson’s L&L bought the 18-story office portion of the glass-and-steel tower with BlackRock in 2006 for an undisclosed sum. The building, developed in 1987 by Harry Macklowe, has residential condominium units above.
L&L and BlackRock in 2016 sold the majority of the equity in the office portion to the Mitsubishi Corporation through a fund administered by GreenOak Real Estate, which merged with Bentall Kennedy in 2019.
BlackRock exited the property and L&L retained a 1.14 percent stake. It was at that time that the new owners took on a $100 million loan from Aareal. Aareal refinanced the debt in 2021 with a $92.5 million loan — the one now in default.
Read moreNew YorkMitsubishi buys Metropolitan Tower office portion for $163MNew YorkWeWork takes 78K sf at Metropolitan TowerNew YorkAmid competition and soft rental market, Weichert closes Manhattan rental officeThe three-year loan is interest-only with a rate of 300 basis points above LIBOR, according to marketing materials from Newmark, where a team led by Adam Spies and Dustin Stolly is marketing the note for sale. That interest rate jumps by 300 points once the loan is deemed to be in default.
It’s not immediately clear what led the owners to stop paying, but rising interest rates and the shift to hybrid work have put stress on office owners.
The increasingly troubled WeWork is a tenant in the building.
The post L&L, Mitsubishi default on Plaza District office tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty)Los Angeles has become a topsy-turvy home market in terms of pricing.
Redfin noted that L.A. County home prices declined 6.3 percent in March compared to the same month the previous year. It follows a national trend which found home prices have dropped 3 percent, which Redfin called the biggest price drop in a decade.
However, in a month-to-month comparison, Redfin found L.A. County home prices climbed 3.1 percent to a median price of $820,000 in March, compared to a median price of $795,000 in February.
Another measurement of home prices found the same pattern — namely, a price decline over the past year, but a sudden uptick with the spring buying season. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index also showed a year-to-year decline in prices in Los Angeles, down 1.27 percent in February 2023 compared to the same time in the previous year. However, there was an uptick of 0.64 percent comparing February to January.
While higher mortgage interest rates present a headwind to home prices, Zillow sees low inventory as a factor supporting prices.
“A reversal from negative monthly growth to positive monthly growth shows signs that the normality of the spring home shopping season is returning,” said Nicole Bachaud, a Zillow senior economist. “Inventory has remained low as sellers are locked into their low mortgage rates, even as many home buyers are turned away from this market due to affordability constraints amid volatile mortgage rates.”
Ernie Carswell (Ernie Carswell & Associates)Los Angeles’ most popular neighborhoods have been long known for low housing inventory and high buyer demand. As a result, many agents working on the ground in L.A. haven’t noticed a meaningful shift in the market.
Dana Potter (courtesy of Dana Potter)“Prices have held steady for the most part — it’s because of lower inventory and consistent demand in prime neighborhoods,” said Ernie Carswell, founder of Carswell & Associates at Douglas Elliman, who ranked on TRD’s top residential brokers of 2022.
Declines in housing prices have spelled trouble for the market in the past, said Dana Potter, chief executive officer of Pinnacle Estate Properties, which was ranked by TRD among the largest Los Angeles brokerages by headcount in 2022. In the slow markets of the mid-1990s and after the meltdown of the Great Recession, prices declined and many homeowners found themselves underwater, but that’s not the case in the current market.
“We’re not seeing foreclosures and short sales,” Potter said. “Today, people are equity rich. We still have a lot of buyers. But there’s not enough homes coming onto the market.”
Read moreNationalHome prices post steepest annual decline in 11 yearsSouth Florida“No dumb buyers:” South Florida homes selling at discountsChicagoChicago home prices slide again, suburbs flatlineThe post LA home prices turn corner in March appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)After seven months of declines, home prices notched a barely-there — but unexpected — increase.
Prices increased 0.2 percent month-over-month in February, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index. That moderate gain was consistent both before and after seasonal adjustments.
The bump comes after prices declined consistently for more than half a year, but still leaves the National Composite 4.9 percent below the peak notched in June.
Prices remain elevated year-over-year, but growth continues to slow. The National Composite was up 2 percent year-over-year, down 1.7 percentage points from the annual increase recorded in January. The 10-City and 20-City composites also recorded slowing price growth, each up merely 0.4 percent year-over-year.
“While annual price growth is still slowing, a reversal from negative monthly growth to positive monthly growth shows signs that the normality of the spring home shopping season is returning,” Zillow Senior Economist Nicole Bachaud said in a statement, noting that low inventory is leading to more competition, which could spike prices.
A sharp distinction is emerging between the regions. The Southeast region saw the strongest gains in prices, up 7.8 percent year-over-year in February, and included all of the markets with the biggest annual increases: Miami (10.8 percent), Tampa (7.7 percent) and Atlanta (6.6 percent).
The West remained the region with the steepest declines, down 4.2 percent year-over-year. San Francisco remained in annual decline territory from January, while Los Angeles and pandemic boomtowns Las Vegas and Phoenix were also in the negative in February.
The median home sale price declined 3.3 percent annually in March, Redfin reported, the largest drop recorded by the brokerage in 11 years. It will be a month before the Case-Shiller Indices report on March activity, the first month where the impact of the recent string of bank failures may be revealed.
Read moreNationalU.S. home prices slid for seventh straight month in January NationalHome prices post steepest annual decline in 11 yearsNationalThe housing correction is a tale of two marketsWhile the spring is traditionally time for a spree in the housing market, prices could be tempered by the Federal Reserve, which may keep interest rates elevated to clamp down on inflation.
“Mortgage financing and the prospect of economic weakness are therefore likely to remain a headwind for housing prices for at least the next several months,” said Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI.
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Markham CEO Arnold Kozys with SVN Brokers Drew Dillion and Scott Maesel and the former Sears building on Arthington Street in Chicago (Loopnet, LinkedIn)An moribund office campus in Chicago’s West Side could get a second shot at life.
SVN Chicago has been hired to sell four properties in the Homan Square neighborhood: the five-story former Sears Administration Building at 3333 West Arthington Street, 11-story former Allstate headquarters at 3245 West Arthington, a parking structure with over 1,150 spaces at 3240 W. Arthington and a 3.8-acre development site at 3201 West Arthington, CoStar reported.
The firm has tapped five brokers including Scott Maesel and Drew Dillion to represent the seller. Freight company Arka Express, which is a venture led by Markham CEO Arnold Kozys, bought the properties for $3.25 million in 2018. SVN declined to say how much the sellers expect to make with the sale, but they did say they’re open to selling the property in pieces.
The former Allstate and Sears buildings have a combined 500,000 square feet of vacant space and are ready for interior construction, according to the brokers. The firm expects the site to be redeveloped for residential use and could be a prime candidate for incentives like tax increment financing, historic tax credits, opportunity zone tax advantages and low-income housing tax credits.
“We’ve had really good interest from developers that need scale for a project to dive into, who can’t just do a three-flat in the neighborhood,” Schroedl told the outlet. “It’s going to take a certain type of developer that can take down a project this large while understanding the landmark and incentives aspects of the deal.”
The property is in an area that’s historically been undeveloped, suffering from minimal job growth and few big investments. But Homan Square is just four miles west of the buzzing Fulton Market District — one of the hottest neighborhoods in Chicago for real estate investors.
As Fulton Market continues to explode, growth and development could bleed into surrounding neighborhoods like Homan Square.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoFidelis snags former Sears store for $11M ChicagoRush, Novak plan $70M West Side facilityChicagoCity hit with lawsuit over selection of Humboldt Park redevelopmentThe post SVN tapped to sell Homan Park office campus appeared first on The Real Deal.
Marquette’s Darren Sloniger with the Catalyst building (LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)Darren Sloniger’s Marquette Cos. and a Deutsche Bank affiliate are shopping a West Loop apartment, testing a market in flux.
Naperville-based Marquette and DWS Group have hired CBRE to sell Catalyst, a 20-story, 223-unit property at 123 North Des Plaines Street that opened in 2014, just prior to the West Loop’s emergence as Chicago’s hottest development markets, Crain’s reported.
An asking price wasn’t included in marketing materials, and Sloniger declined to say how much he expected a buyer to pay for Catalyst. The building was valued at $114.6 million, or $514,000 per unit, in 2014, according to research firm MSCI Real Assets.
The outcome of the Catalyst offering will help investors gauge the direction of the market. The multifamily sector in Chicago has been strong and supported rising apartment values that have handed sellers some big profits during the pandemic.
But landlords are competing with an expanding supply, especially in the West Loop area where 9,065 units were planned or under construction as of last March. Plus, rising interest rates, a strict lending climate, crime and fears of a possible recession have pushed property values down and made investors wary.
For some, Chicago’s political landscape is another cause for concern. Newly elected mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed progressive policies that would more than triple the one-time transfer tax paid to the city for property sales of $1 million or more, as well as other taxes that have raised concern among real estate business groups.
Built nearly 10 years ago, the Catalyst could attract investors who seek out opportunities to fix up apartment buildings and then raise rents.
“I think everybody feels like it’s a great value-add opportunity because it was developed in 2013-2014,” Sloniger told the outlet.
In addition, the building is 94 percent leased. Monthly rents range from $2,280, or $3.84 per square foot, for a studio apartment to $5,136, or $3.27 per square foot, for a three-bedroom unit.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoWest Loop condo sets record with $7M saleChicagoNick Ryan’s Marquette scores $104M for West Loop apartmentsChicagoGolub, Marquette refinance $160M in loans on Chicago apartmentsThe post Marquette, DWS selling 20-story West Loop apartment tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
BG Capital co-founder Joseph Byrne and TGS Cedar Port industrial park at 7818 Fisher Road in Baytown (BG Capital, TGS Cedar Park, Getty)A $200 million warehouse project is coming to the nation’s largest master-planned industrial park, near Houston.
BG Capital and FreezPak Logistics started construction recently on two cold-storage warehouses, spanning a total of 282,000 square feet, at 7818 Fisher Road, adding to Houston’s surging industrial sector within the TGS Cedar Port Industrial Park in Baytown, the Houston Business Journal reported.
The joint venture, called BGFP International, bought the 31-acre site from TGS Cedar Port Partners for $9 million in June 2022. Houston-based firm Partners represented the seller, and Marc Isdaner of Colliers International represented BGFP.
The development will consist of two warehouses, with RKB Architects at the helm of design and Industrial Building Group as the general contractor. The smaller one, measuring about 20,000 square feet, has a projected cost of roughly $102 million. It will be fully leased by FreezPak and construction is slated for completion in mid-2024.
Development for the attached 262,000-square-foot warehouse will begin once the smaller one is stabilized, according to BG Capital co-founder Joseph Byrne. That building will cost about $95 million, the outlet reported.
The combined facilities will have a 67-foot clear height, 408,000 square feet of freezer space, and 110,000 square feet of temperature-controlled cooler dock. The site will also include 141 trailer parking stalls, 64 truck stalls, three rail bays and 131 parking spaces.
It’s extremely tall for a freezer building, Byrne told the outlet.
“We’re really making a statement that we want to be in the Houston market by doing that,” he said.
TGS Cedar Port, one of the largest industrial parks in the world, houses tenants such as Walmart, Home Depot, Target, Niagara Bottling, Webstaurant, Plastic Express, Ikea, Ravago and Vinmar. The site at 7818 Fisher is near Floor & Décor’s 1.5 million-square-foot distribution center.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreHoustonPorts accelerate Houston industrial growthTexasBaytown continues industrial domination with $77M complexHoustonLovett Industrial pushes on with 567K spec projectThe post BG Capital plans $200M cold storage appeared first on The Real Deal.
Wilson Capital president Taylor Wilson and rendering of Wilson Tower on East 5th Street (Wilson Capital)A planned skyscraper that could’ve been Austin’s first supertall will now be fairly tall after the developer cut its plans in half.
Wilson Capital expects to break ground on the Wilson Tower this year, but after the city’s Design Commission rejected its proposal for an 80-story apartment tower in January, which would’ve been the tallest building in Texas at 1,035 feet tall, the firm is moving along with a revised plan, the Austin Business Journal reported.
The Wilson Tower will now rise 45 stories to include 350 units, instead of 450. HKS will lead architectural duties for the project at 410 East 5th Street — currently the site of the five-story apartment building Avenue Lofts.
City officials hailed the building’s design in the January hearing but said it didn’t offer enough public benefit. Wilson Capital offered to pay the city just under $6 million in exchange for not including affordable housing.
“We are making some changes in response to both the Design Commission’s feedback and current market conditions,” Wilson Capital president Taylor Wilson told the outlet. “Construction costs and interest rates are both higher now than they were when we originally designed the project. We believe this new design is more appropriate to provide an activated ground floor while remaining feasible in today’s environment.”
About 54 percent of Austinites rent, according to RentCafe. Developers went into a frenzy to keep up with high demand as waves of new residents moved to the area, but the market has cooled since last summer, and net leasing is down.
Wilson says he is confident in the city’s multifamily sector, and he is betting that new apartment buildings, like Wilson Tower, will accommodate the long-term growth.
“While meaningful levels of supply are currently being delivered, we believe there will be a period from 2025-2027 when new deliveries will be significantly less than usual given the current challenges preventing many new multifamily developments from starting,” Wilson said. “Our goal is to fill that gap with the new projects we are developing as they will be delivering in that time frame.”
Wilson Capital was ranked fifth on the outlet’s list of most active local developers in the city in 2022. The firm now has 1,894 units under construction across the metro with plans to start 885 more by the end of the year, the outlet said.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreAustinPearlstone plans another Austin condo towerAustinRelated Cos. expands timber building plansAustinWilson Tower’s design rejected by City of Austin panelThe post Wilson’s Austin supertall plans cut in half appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mark Bellissimo, Joe Lewis, Ernie Els, Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods (Getty)Developer Mark Bellissimo unveiled his latest version of a massive planned luxury community in Wellington — and he’s proposing to build it with golf greats Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake, billionaire Joe Lewis’ Tavistock Group and founding eBay president Jeff Skol.
Now called The Wellington, the more than 600-acre development would be completed via a partnership called Wellington Lifestyle Partners, according to a press release. The mixed-use project could include single-family homes and condos; a 17-acre commercial complex with stores, restaurants, office space and hotels; an expansion of the Wellington International equestrian facility and showgrounds; as well as a public horse riding facility with trails, and a 16-acre park.
The developers would have to secure land use and zoning changes from the village of Wellington, according to the Palm Beach Post, which reported on Bellissimo’s plans on Friday. Wellington, considered the winter equestrian capital of the world, has been home to Bill Gates, Bruce Springsteen, billionaire Jim Clark, rapper and home renovator Vanilla Ice and others.
The project also calls for a racquet center; a stadium tennis court with additional courts for tennis, padel and pickleball; four pools; a 120,000-square-foot, two story sports courts complex with a market and smoothie bar, 40,000-square-foot fitness center and full spa; and children’s sports and gaming facilities, according to the release.
Bellissimo is teaming up with Nexus Luxury Collection, which was founded by Lewis and the other partners. Nexus runs The Albany Resort in the Bahamas, and a private club in Manhattan, according to its website.
Together, Bellissimo and Nexus plan to renovate the 18-hole Cypress golf course at the Palm Beach Polo Golf & Country Club, which Bellissimo recently bought from Glenn Straub. Straub and Bellissimo are among the largest landowners in Wellington. The golf course would include a new clubhouse and facility.
The homes could sit on lots ranging from a quarter of an acre to 5 acres, each. Buyers could also put their homes into Nexus’ rental program. The Palm Beach Post reported that the project could include more than 200 single-family homes and 270 condos. Most of the homes, labeled luxury villas, would be part of the one of three sections in the proposed development.
Earlier this month, Bellissimo paid Straub $35 million for the 126-acre golf course at 11934 South Shore Boulevard and partially financed the purchase with seller financing from Straub. Straub, meanwhile, faces a $6.8 million foreclosure judgment tied to his long running battle with the village of Wellington over allegedly unauthorized construction in the environmentally protected Big Blue Preserve.
The post Bellissimo taps Tiger Woods, Justin Timberlake for massive proposed Wellington development appeared first on The Real Deal.
Overton Moore’s Will McPhee and rendering of 1477 Huntington Avenue in San Francisco (Getty, Overton Moore)Southern California-based Overton Moore Properties has won entitlement approvals for a 262-unit residential building in South San Francisco, according to public records. The project was approved by the city’s Planning Commission.
Located at 1477 Huntington Avenue, the project will rise seven stories with 82,000 square feet. The developer plans for about 15 percent of all units to be affordable, with two-thirds of those reserved for low income households and one-third for very low income households. Apartment amenities feature co-working space, a club room, fitness center, courtyards and outdoor space on the top floor. There will also be two parking garages with 288 residential vehicle stalls and 144 bicycle stalls.
The development would require the demolition of a 9,000-square-foot office building, as well as a parking lot. The Centennial Way Trail would be located directly east of the property. The site is also located approximately half a mile north of the San Bruno BART station and approximately 1.2 miles north of the San Bruno Caltrain station.
“A major focus of this project was the connection of Centennial Trail to the mid-block of Huntington Avenue,” Will McPhee, vice president at Overton Moore, said at a Planning Commission meeting.
The site of the property was acquired in an 11-property portfolio deal from AT&T in 2019. The Huntington Avenue site was the “crown jewel” of the portfolio, according to McPhee.
The Planning Commission was supportive of the project, but expressed concerns about current market conditions.
“These are tough economic times, and what we’re confronted with is we can approve plans but we don’t know if they’re going to be implemented, so it’s challenging for us at times, and that’s why we have to ask the hard questions,” Commissioner Sam Shihadeh said. “I think a lot of developers are facing the same issues now.”
Overton Moore has made news elsewhere in the Bay Area in recent months. The company offloaded the Morton Commerce Center, an industrial complex in Newark, for $186 million in the largest industrial deal in the East Bay so far this year. The center had notable tenants including Meta and Lucid Motors.
Read moreSan FranciscoTerreno Realty to acquire East Bay industrial campus San FranciscoOverton Moore aims to plant 760K sf of industrial in Tri-ValleyLos AngelesGardena industrial complex sells to Overton Moore Properties for $35MThe post Overton Moore plans 262 apartments in South San Francisco appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rendering of the approved hotel at 7 Topgolf Drive in San Jose (Google Maps, Corbel Architects)Sol San Jose Owner has picked up a $26.4 million loan for a delinquent hotel project in North San Jose and is poised to take control of the approved development.
The South Korea-based investor acquired the loan to the real estate firm that proposed the 200-room hotel at 7 Topgolf Drive in the Alviso district, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The loan to South Korea-based hotel planner Mirae-San Jose is in default – and Pine Tree Specialized Private Investment Trust and KEB Hana Bank had begun to foreclose on the loan with a scheduled trustee’s sale to publicly auction off the property or seize the land.
Mirae-San Jose bought the 3.2-acre property in 2019, paying $22.5 million, according to SFRegistry. That year, it won approval for the hotel project, which stalled during the pandemic.
The project, to include a 15,400-square-foot retail building, was eyed for development by Shilla Stay, an affiliate of Samsung Group, who had proposed the four-story hotel.
The boomerang-shaped site, north of Highway 237 and the Guadalupe River, sits next to the Topgolf San Jose driving range.
Sol San Jose, based in Seoul, took ownership of the mortgage and is in a position to foreclose the loan and become owner of the hotel development site.
A similar takeover took place at the historic Huntington Hotel in San Francisco, when Highgate and Flynn Properties cut a deal with lender Deutsche Bank to obtain ownership of a delinquent $56.2 million loan to Woodridge Capital.
The new loan holders then foreclosed on the delinquent mortgage last month and took possession of the 12-story hotel on Nob Hill.
New owners of the San Jose hotel project would benefit from Topgolf, which opened in 2021.
Topgolf has been a steady draw as an entertainment, sports and dining center, according to the Mercury News.
The Dallas-based firm operates high-tech driving ranges that allow people to hit golf balls equipped with microchips that record distance and accuracy. The golf complexes typically offer watering holes and dining.
In 2015, Mirae Asset Global Investments bought the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco for $450 million, or about $760,000 per room.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoHighgate and Flynn Properties buy SF’s Huntington Hotel on Nob HillLos AngelesGreenlaw sells Amazon portfolio to South Korean bankNew YorkAllegations fly in trial over Anbang and Mirae’s $5.8B hotel dealThe post Sol San Jose assumes $26.4M loan for delinquent hotel project appeared first on The Real Deal.
Cook County Assessor’s Office at 118 N Clark St. in Chicago (Illustration by The Real Deal with Google Maps, Getty)Former Cook County Assessor’s Office staffers are among the three people charged with conspiracy to defraud in a property tax bribery scandal.
The scheme started in 2017, when Fence Masters owner Robert Mitziga and an unidentified person paid for several golf outings totalling about $3,500 for Basilio Clausen, who was previously an assessor’s office staffer, and some employees of the office, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Clausen then worked with Lumni Likovski, who was also employed by the assessor’s office, and in return Mitziga received lower property taxes through skewed valuations. All three have been charged with conspiracy to defraud.
Clausen, who also owns a business in Crown Point, Indiana, evaded taxes on property he owned, as well, law enforcement officers allege. Another former Cook County Assessor’s Office staffer, Lavdim Memisovski, was involved in the bribery scheme as well and got charged last year in a separate case.
Memisovski was charged for the same crime last year in a scandal in which he lowered tax bills for developer Alex Nitchoff in exchange for sports tickets, jewelry and other gifts.
After the first golf outing, Clausen left the unidentified person a voicemail saying the appealed assessments were “not going to be an issue at all,” prosecutors said. Clausen brought other officials in on the scheme and conspired to work around the assessor’s office’s random assignment system.
After the second outing, officials agreed to reduce Mitziga’s assessment by nearly $28,000 and the unidentified individual’s by about $53,000. Mitziga pushed for a bigger break, however, saying he paid $114 more than the other person for the two trips.
“Oh s—-, make sure [Memisovski] gives me a better deal than he gets [unnamed individual],” Mitziga allegedly said in a call with Clausen. “I’m paying for more of this stuff.”
Clausen was suspended in light of the allegations and eventually resigned in December.
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office said it has instituted a new two-step approval system for appealed assessments to prevent such scandals from reoccurring, though hasn’t offered details on how it works.
The three men facing charges each face five to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoThe Cook County bribery saga heats upChicagoFormer Cook County Land Bank employee pleads guilty to real estate schemeChicagoFormer Cook County assessor official charged with corruptionThe post Three charged in Cook County property tax bribery scheme appeared first on The Real Deal.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley (Orange County, Getty)It isn’t the specter of wildfires that is holding up construction of more than 10,000 homes in unincorporated Orange County. It’s getting fire insurance.
Identifying fire-prone zones and the difficulty of insuring sites in those areas could delay the construction of new housing, the Orange County Register reported.
Supervisor Katrina Foley warned about “a clear conflict between the state’s fire prevention maps” and a state mandate the county plan for the construction of 10,340 new homes in the 24 unincorporated areas across the county.
The undeveloped areas often butt up against OC foothills and wildlands. That can make it hard to get needed insurance – both for builders and homeowners.
“It has come to my attention that the building has stopped,” Foley told the Register. “Everyone is stopped until we can figure out this insurance issue.”
State law requires cities and counties to develop plans for homes at all income levels, including affordable housing. State housing officials must approve the eight-year zoning blueprints.
There are now 19 jurisdictions in Orange County, including the county, without an approved plan in place, according to the California Housing and Community Development. Failure to adopt a compliant “housing element” could result in lawsuits from the state, losing local control over projects and fines of up to $600,000 a month.
At the same time, where the state is responsible for fighting fires, California’s fire marshal must map properties into moderate-, high- or very high-fire hazard severity zones. The maps were just updated for the first time since 2007.
Hazard severity is based on the physical conditions likely to start a fire and its expected behavior, without considering safety measures such as building homes with increased heat-resistant materials.
Dan Dunmoyer, CEO of the California Building Industry Association, said access to home insurance has been difficult to find because of the state’s devastating fires.
“The insurance industry has had some substantial losses,” Dunmoyer told the Register. “The only way insurers can respond to that, other than losing money which they don’t want to do, is they just limit the scope of their coverages, non-renew their existing coverages if they think they’re too fire risky, or they just don’t sell any new insurance.”
Because of the insurance crisis, construction in less developed areas has been slowed because homebuilders can’t figure out how to insure them at a price that an entry-level customer can afford, Dunmoyer said. Condominium projects, in particular, are impacted.
If not fixed, the problem of skyrocketing insurance premiums could lock new buyers out of the home-owning market, he said.
Lori Smith, the OC Fire Authority’s fire marshal and assistant chief, said people are concerned that if their homes or developments fall into the higher fire-hazard zones of the map, their insurance rates will rise, or their insurance canceled.
“Since those fires we had up north in 2017, 2018, insurance companies have been canceling people’s homeowner’s insurance (or) they’re simply leaving the state,” Smith told the newspaper.
“People in Orange County, as well as all over the state, are really struggling with affording fire insurance if they can get it, or are having difficulty getting insurance.”
Michael Soller, California’s deputy insurance commissioner, insisted that updating CalFire maps was not expected to substantially contribute to the rising cost of insurance. “And that’s for one simple reason: Insurance companies are already using their own data to make insurance decisions,” he said.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesInsurers dropping high-end homes over risk of wildfiresLos AngelesLA's growing wildfire problem is spiking insurance rates, damaging the luxury marketSan FranciscoWildfire-worried? Fire-resilient homes may be a thingThe post OC housing projects stymied by rising fire insurance costs appeared first on The Real Deal.
First Republic CEO Mike Roffler (Marquette University, Getty; Illustration by The Real Deal)First Republic Bank, the San Francisco-based lender reeling from the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank and grappling with holding fixed-rate mortgages with low interest rates on its balance sheet, reported sobering news for investors in its first-quarter filing on Monday.
For the first time since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, First Republic disclosed it had lost about $102 billion in deposits over the course of the first quarter — about half of the deposits that sat on its books at the end of last year. It ended the quarter with $104 billion in deposits — a number that included $30 billion in deposits put into First Republic by 11 banks last month.
Any outflow of deposits poses problems for lending, given that banks need deposits to make loans for commercial and residential property, businesses and individuals.
First Republic increased its loan book to $173.3 billion in the first quarter, a roughly 4 percent increase from the prior period. This was primarily due to “increases in single family and multifamily” loans.
The bank’s interest expenses soared to $555 million in the first quarter — a whopping 2,675 percent increase from $20 million in the first quarter of last year, before the Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time.
That increase in expenses led to a decline in net interest income to $923 million — a 21 percent drop compared to the last three months of last year, according to the earnings release.
The “decrease in net interest income was primarily due to substantially higher funding costs,” First Republic said in the release.
CEO Mike Roffler said on an earnings call the firm was working to reduce its expenses by taking measures including condensing office space, reducing executive compensation and laying off up to 25 percent of its staff. The firm did not have a question-and-answer session with equity analysts to provide further details.
First Republic is mostly in the business of lending to homeowners, and for the most part, to individuals with very high credit scores. Almost 60 percent of its loans were single-family mortgages, according to the firm’s 2022 annual report.
About 97 percent of all mortgages — a total of $96 billion — on its books were issued after 2008, its annual report shows, when mortgage rates dipped below 5 percent for the first time ever. However, as interest rates have increased in the last year, the company must pay out more in interest on certificates of deposits and other savings accounts, while its income from long-term mortgages remains fixed..
About half an hour after markets closed on Monday, First Republic’s stock dropped 16 percent to $13.47 per share, down from $123 a share before Silicon Valley Bank collapsed last month.
Investment bank Raymond James expected First Republic would report a “material decline in core deposits,” according to an analyst note earlier this month, which will cause “severe profitability headwinds for the foreseeable future.”
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GL Homes Misha Ezratti and an aerial of the land in the Agricultural Reserve that GL Homes wants to develop (GL Homes, Google Maps)GL Homes is pursuing a controversial development proposal for a 1,000-home age-restricted community in Palm Beach County’s Agricultural Reserve.
Next week, the Palm Beach County Commission is expected to consider the Sunrise-based homebuilder’s plan that includes a land swap. Under GL Homes’ proposal, the firm would be allowed to build out 682 acres in the Ag Reserve, an area where development is limited. In exchange, GL Homes would create and pay for a $150 million water treatment area in The Acreage, in a different part of the county, that would help reduce algae blooms in regional water bodies, The Palm Beach Post reported.
GL Homes has pursued different versions of the land swap proposal since at least last year. The company wants the county to remove an easement that bans development at the Ag Reserve, which spans 22,000 acres west of Boca Raton.
Under its most recent proposal, GL Homes has offered several community benefits. They include a plan to build a 277-unit workforce housing complex and a 25-acre county park at the Ag Reserve. The homebuilder also has vowed to donate land to a Jewish association to develop a facility for seniors and the developmentally disabled.
Environmentalists and other critics oppose the proposal, in part arguing that GL Homes previously had decided to keep its 682 acres at the Ag Reserve vacant, in exchange for increasing the density at its nearby residential developments. Each home in the 55-plus residential community is expected to sell for more than $1 million, much more than the price homes would sell for in The Acreage, a short distance west of the Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and Orange Boulevard intersection.
If the deal goes through, GL Homes vowed it would reduce the nearly 4,000 homes it can build at The Acreage, according to The Post.
GL, led by President Misha Ezratti, is a prolific Florida homebuilder. In December, the firm paid $35.3 million for 337 home lots roughly at the northwest corner of Avenir Drive and Coconut Boulevard at Avenir, a master-planned community in Palm Beach Gardens.
Near Wellington, GL scooped up 209 homesites last year for $28.1 million at Arden, another master-planned community.
– Lidia Dinkova
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(Getty Images)San Francisco is tackling its downtown vacancy problem, in part, through monetary incentives for landlords and pop-up shops.
The “Vacant to Vibrant” program that started last week gives pop-up owners three months’ free rent and grants of up to $8,000, the San Francisco Standard reported.
Qualifying for the program requires more than just taking a pop-up tenant’s word for it, however.
The outlet reported pop-up owners must submit an application that includes their ideas as well as whether they have experience. A committee will evaluate the applications and pass the highest-scoring ones along to participating property owners, who must also apply to be a part of the program.
Properties under 5,000 square feet are receiving the highest priority, the outlet reported. The properties must also be street-level, with Wi-Fi and have at least one restroom and basic utilities hooked up.
The pop-up owners will get three months of free rent and grants of up to $8,000 for operating expenses, while landlords will receive a $5,000 grant from the city, according to the outlet.
The grants are part of a $710,000 fund from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and are part of the mayor’s effort to inject life into downtown.
San Francisco’s struggling commercial real estate market has been well documented.
Earlier this month, it was reported that office vacancy in San Francisco shot up to nearly 33 percent, a record, with the rate of empty offices in Silicon Valley 9 points behind.
The proportion of empty offices in San Francisco hit a “new all-time high” of 32.7 percent in the first quarter, up from 32.1 percent from late last year, the San Jose Mercury News reported, citing a report from Savills.
Silicon Valley’s office vacancy rate jumped to a “new historical high” of 23.1 percent during the same period, up from 22.7 percent.
The increased office vacancy rates in San Francisco and the South Bay follow an era of remote work and come amid a wobbly economy jolted by job cuts in the tech and biotech sectors.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreThe post San Francisco landlords: Take my space, please! appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)A warehouse and four dilapidated mobile homes on a property in San Antonio that had become a hotbed of criminal activity, so local officials found a Texas way of dealing with the problem.
They tore it down, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
The structures, which sat on a 7-acre parcel at 5000 West Military Drive, had been the site of more than two dozen criminal cases over the past two years, and child protective services had been called there as well, the outlet reported.
After the owner, Rose Garcia, and her son, Henry Garcia Jr., declined to do anything about the issue, the city’s Building and Standards board voted unanimously to demolish the structures.
The Garcias had given permission to have people live at the mobile homes even though that wasn’t a permitted use for the property under zoning laws.
The mobile homes had extension cords running out to the warehouse, and boarded up windows.
Henry Garcia Jr. said the issues began when his father, Henry Garcia Sr. died, making it difficult to maintain the property. He said he didn’t know people were living on the property and he wanted to evict them.
“I extend my apologies to law enforcement, code division and to the board for it getting to this point,” Henry Garcia Jr. said, according to the outlet.
But board members were unmoved, noting that an enforcement officer testified that the younger Garcia had been told in 2022 that people were living on the property and he did nothing about it.
“I’m sorry. I don’t trust what you’re saying,” board member Evelyn Brown said. “You’re saying one thing and another and that’s kind of hard to believe.”
— Ted Glanzer
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A photo illustration of the Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, estate (Getty, Sotheby’s Realty)A Bucks County estate has landed on the market for $14.5 million, which, if it fetches that price, would be a record sale in the area.
The Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, estate includes an 18,000-square-foot mansion with seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms that sits on just under 45 acres, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.
Cary Simons of Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
Owners Steven Grabowski and wife Cheryl Olsten have owned the home – which has a wine cellar, media room, game room and exercise room — since it was built in 2008, the outlet reported.
The landscaped grounds have indoor and outdoor pools.
The home was designed by architect Allan Greenberg, while the interior was designed by Mariette Himes Gomez.
Simons said one of the selling points of the home is that it sits between, and is easily accessible to, Philadelphia (55 miles) and New York City (75 miles).
It’s the second large estate in the Philadelphia area to land on the market in recent months.
In March, Rockefeller family descendants sold a 210-acre Philadelphia-area estate for $24 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The property, known as Kirkwood Farm, was originally listed by the scions of the oil magnate William Rockefeller for $30 million, Compass agent Lavinia Smerconish, who had the listing, told the outlet.
The estate, which has been used most recently as a hunting club, dates back to the late 18th century and has five farmhouses that are between 1,750 and 2,900 square feet. The residences, which are located in Willistown on Providence Road, had been rented out, the Journal reported.
Meanwhile, hedge fund manager and minority owner of the Arizona Coyotes Andrew Barroway sold his Gothic Revival-style home outside of Philadelphia for $9.26 million after spending around $35 million to build it, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A trust tied to the family of digital advertising company Catalyst Experiential’s CEO Thaddeus Bartkowski bought the home and the 32-acre property it sits on. Bartkowski had been renting the estate for a little over a year before buying it at the discounted price.
Multiple agents, including Harrison Todd of Keller Williams, Lavina Smerconish of Compass and Paramount Realty USA, were involved in the deal.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Luxe 45-acre Bucks County estate lists for record $14.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)Social media has become a powerful tool for real estate professionals to differentiate themselves.
That’s true in Connecticut, where brokers and agents have used sites like TikTok and Instagram to bolster their brands, CT Insider reported.
Broker Christian Perry, for example, has a social account called “I Love Greenwich,” which not only highlights the charms of the wealthy Fairfield County enclave, but also showcases some of Perry’s antics, like jumping fully clothed into a swimming pool or dancing in a local restaurant.
“A little bit of shock and awe has always been my model, and we breathe life to listings that don’t normally have it,” Perry told the outlet.
In a variation of the wildly popular Property Brothers, the Nutmeg state has CT Property Sisters — composed of Megan Foggitt and Mikell Germond, who have a recognizable, large “Sold” sign that clients hold after a closing.
“It now has become a joke for people when they start working with us, they are like, ‘We can’t wait to make it on the CT Property Sisters’ Instagram page. We look forward to holding that sign,'” Foggitt told CT Insider.
Connecticut is far from the only place where social media has taken root in the realm of real estate. Zillow Gone Wild, where wild and wooly listings on Zillow are posted, has nearly half a million followers on Twitter, as well as healthy followings on Facebook and Instagram.
Manhattan’s Madeline Sutton, meanwhile, has used her @thenycagent TikTok account to build out her brand to the point where she has doubled her commissions. In San Antonio, Agents and content creators in the Alamo City are posting YouTube videos highlighting — or low-lighting — the negative aspects of the city to offer a realistic view or what it’s like to live there, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
While no one in Connecticut has necessarily reached those heights, social media represents a significant opportunity, if done properly and consistently.
“Ultimately, it’s a very inexpensive or free way to promote your business and get recognized,” Foggit told the outlet. “Not that it’s easy, because it is a lot of work to maintain a business page, but it’s just a great way to reach a lot of people.”
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreThe post Meet these Connecticut real-estate social media influencers appeared first on The Real Deal.
Barbara Walters and 944 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan (Google Maps, Getty)Barbara Walters was known for asking tough questions. Now, here’s one for luxury home buyers: How much would you pay for the late journalist’s Fifth Avenue co-op?
The estate of the late television journalist, who lived at the 11-room home at 944 Fifth Avenue for 30 years, is hoping the answer is close to $20 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Alexa Lambert of Compass has the listing.
The home, which listed for $19.75 million, has two bedrooms, with the ability of converting space for up to two more, as well as a living room that has a view of Central Park, and a formal dining room, the outlet said.
There is also a dressing room, a small sitting room and a main bedroom with wood paneling.
Walters entertained at the home often, and had guests including Monica Lewinsky, who dined there a couple of times before agreeing to be interviewed about her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton, the WSJ said.
When the interview ran in 1999, Walters and several friends and producers watched it at the apartment as it was filled with smoke because the fireplace flue wasn’t open, Walters wrote in her memoir.
“It was an inflammatory evening in more ways than one,” she wrote, according to the Journal.
Walters was a pioneer in the television industry, having hosted numerous specials, as well as serving as producer, co-host and correspondent of the newsmagazine 20/20 on ABC and serving as co-host of the daytime talk show “The View.”
The asking price of the apartment isn’t out of step with at least one recent sale in the building. In December, art dealer Robert Mnuchin sold his co-op at 944 Fifth to RFR Realty principal Michael Fuch for $18 million.
The 10-room apartment includes four bedrooms, four bathrooms and two half bathrooms. It’s serviced by a private elevator, which opens to a central foyer and 42-foot combined living room and library, along with an 18-foot formal dining room. The primary bedroom suite offers views of Central Park.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Barbara Walters’ former Fifth Avenue home lists for $20M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)Columbia University owns a lot of real estate in New York City, more than previously understood or reported.
A 2022 analysis by The Real Deal reported the university’s commercial and residential real estate holdings as 216 buildings in New York City, with 13.9 million square feet in ownership. But that doesn’t include 383 additional addresses the university owns under 184 different monikers, the Columbia Spectator reported, citing data from the Accounting and Reporting at Columbia.
The Ivy League university, prior to the revelation, was already noted as the largest private landowner in the city. New York University has nearly 120 properties and Fordham has 25 properties, the outlet noted, citing the New York City Department of City Planning Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output.
There are just over 263 buildings that are listed under “The Trustees of the University of Columbia,” according to the outlet. But there are also other properties registered with different, seemingly unrelated names such as “The Morningside Heights Housing Corporation,” “265 River Owners Corp,” and “Hamilton Heights Cluster Associates L.P.”
Recently, the university has been increasing its holdings related to the expansion of its Manhattanville campus, a multibillion-dollar project that has spanned nearly two decades and is expected to continue for years.
The outlet notes the university and community leaders have entered into an agreement outlining Columbia’s obligations to the neighborhood as a result of the school’s expansion. Those obligations include providing millions of dollars in legal assistance and affordable housing, overseen by the West Harlem Development Corporation.
The agreement calls for Columbia to have nearly 7 million square feet of space built over the course of 25 years.
But outside of the Manhattanville campus, the university has an additional 16 properties, totalling just over 700,000 square feet, set forth in the project site, the outlet reported.
“[The CBA is] a commitment we have always handled with the utmost seriousness and respect,” a University spokesperson wrote in a previous statement to Spectator. “We have never violated any aspect of the agreement and we are exceedingly proud of all that it has accomplished through our partnership with the WHDC and the communities of Upper Manhattan.”
— Ted Glanzer
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(Toll Brothers)A new Toll Brothers development is coming to Naples, Florida.
The luxury home builder announced last week that it’s building Juniper Pointe, a development that will be composed of 47 two-story townhomes between 2,000 and 2,400 square feet, according to a press release.
Construction on the development, which will be just a few minutes away from the beach and the city’s downtown area, is set to begin sometime this fall. The development is just one of several in Naples for the Toll Brothers, including Abaco Pointe and Azure at Hacienda Lakes.
The home builder has been extremely active of late. Last week, for example, Toll Brothers rental subsidiary along with partner CrossHarbor Capital Partners announced that they broke ground on a 13-story, 501-unit multifamily apartment complex and mixed-use development in Washington, D.C.
The Toll Brothers Apartment Living’s development, called the Vermeer, is being financed by a Bank OZK construction loan and is expected to be completed sometime next year.
The Vermeer is the fifth Opportunity Zone project developed by Toll Brothers Apartment Living in the U.S., including Piper, which is a six-story, 393-unit multifamily complex in South Norwalk.
That project, which will have 356 market-rate and 37 affordable units, with a parking garage with nearly 600 spaces, is being financed with a $136 million construction loan from Wells Fargo and TD Bank.
Piper is the second large project in southeastern Connecticut. The first, Julius, is a 356-unit luxury complex at 777 Summer Street in downtown Stamford. The development has 334 market-rate apartments, plus 22 set aside as affordable.
In addition, the Pennsylvania-based company is planning to build 81 homes at Storyrock in Scottsdale, Arizona, following the $24.7 million purchase of 100 acres at the luxury master-planned community.
It’s the largest homebuilder sale in terms of price since last May, the Phoenix Business Journal reported, citing Storyrock Development Vice President Chase Emmerson.
— Ted Glanzer
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The sweeteners to recruit agents — bonus commissions — can also serve as golden handcuffs if those agents want to leave the firm. Take, for example, Compass, which requires that agents repay certain bonuses if they leave the firm within two years of receiving those incentives.
The Real Deal’s Hiten Samtani discusses the trials and tribulations some agents can face in such circumstances, including one who thought of leaving Compass only to face the prospect of having to pay back up to $400,000. Other brokerages, like Core, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran, have similar “returnable costs.”
Watch the episode above, and stay tuned for more breakdowns of the most important news and trends in residential brokerage.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreThe post Brokerages’ golden handcuffs and incentive splits — Resi Rundown appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rendering of proposed 286-unit apartment building in Syracuse (Getty, Passero Associates)A Camden, New Jersey, company is taking a second stab at trying to get the OK to build a 286-unit apartment building in Syracuse.
Northside Genesee Associates is seeking the approval from city officials to build the complex at 1301 East Genesee Street after having a similar proposal rejected by planners in 2019, Syracuse.com reported.
The five story building would have 150 parking spaces and take up most of the block on East Genesee Street between Walnut Avenue and Pine Street, the outlet reported.
To make way for the building, nine smaller structures on the block would have to be demolished.
The second plan is similar to the first, which called for 283 units in a six-story structure. The first plan was knocked back by the Syracuse Board of Zoning Appeals by a 4-0 vote. The developer needs variances for setbacks, lot coverage and building height, according to the outlet.
A public hearing on the project was held Thursday.
The company said in its application that the proposed building is across the street from a six-story student-housing building across the street at 505 Walnut that opened five years ago. That building was constructed by Michaels Development, which is the parent company of Northside Genesee Associates, Syracuse.com said.
“The variances requested for the proposed setbacks, coverage and height are not substantial since they will maintain consistency with new developments that have occurred with close proximity during the last few years,” the company wrote, according to the outlet.
Proposed rents were not included in the application.
The proposal comes on the heels of a January report by CNY Fair Housing that noted zoning restrictions in Onondaga County had blocked the development of housing options beyond single-family housing, and reinforced racial segregation.
Still, for landlords looking outside the box for returns, the market in upstate New York has become an attractive destination. A growing number of real estate firms traditionally focused on the five boroughs and New Jersey’s urban cores have looked to build in places like Syracuse in recent years.
— Ted Glanzer
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Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (Getty)While the development of affordable housing always gets a spotlight, the preservation of those units is essential, too, as Connecticut is discovering.
The state is at risk of losing more than 5,000 affordable housing units in the next decade and 300 alone this year, CT Mirror reported. The expiration of affordability requirements linked to low-income housing tax credits is responsible for the approaching removals, though some are also likely to become uninhabitable.
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit has been a boon for affordable housing development across the nation since it came online three decades ago. Under the program, at least 20 percent of units need to be affordable for at least 30 years to earn the tax break.
But that 30-year requirement is coming up in Connecticut and throughout much of the country. Nearly 159,000 units covered by the credits are set to expire nationwide in the next five years and the country is at risk of losing more than 327,000 affordable units during that period.
After the affordability requirement expires this year, there will be a small lull in 2024 of fewer than 100 units with expirations, according to data from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, giving the state some breathing room. The numbers rise steadily from there, hitting an apex of nearly 1,100 affordability expirations in 2028.
Many of the expiring units in the states are in big cities, such as New Haven, Stamford and Bridgeport.
“What happens to those low-income residents who are currently in those buildings?” Andrew Aurand, senior vice president of research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said to the publication. “There really are very few options, and they would have a very difficult time finding other housing.”
Landlords, meanwhile, would have an incentive to start bumping rents, considering how much rentals have exploded in the state in recent years, particularly during the pandemic.
The housing finance authority is able to work with owners to keep units affordable, adopting a preservation policy a couple of years ago. It can offer financial incentives for restoration in exchange for extended affordability requirements, as well as distribute points during application processes for developers promising 50-year affordability periods.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkAffordable housing developers look to feds for financing fixTri-StateConnecticut proposal would convert empty box stores into housingNew YorkFor richer or poorer: The hidden cost of low-income housingThe post Connecticut at risk to lose more than 5K affordable units appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Amaris DC, Getty)A condo sale in Washington, D.C., is one to love.
A 5,800-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bathroom, two-level condo at the building called Aramis (Latin for “you are loved”) sold for a city record $12.8 million, Forbes reported.
Matt McCormick of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, represented the unidentified buyer.
The unit — one of seven on 12th floor — has a gym, a 2,500-square-foot balcony with waterfront views, floor-to-ceiling windows, and three parking spaces, Michelle Giannini of Hoffman Realty, who represents the building’s developer, Hoffman & Associates and Madison Marquette, told the outlet.
Amenities for the building, which was designed by architect Rafael Vinoly, include a saltwater lap pool, conference room, car elevator with valet service and a fitness and wellness center.
The building is part of the $3.6 billion Wharf project, which includes hotels, parks, restaurants and retail outlets. According to its website, Aramis has sold about 70 percent of its units, with one-bedrooms being sold out. Two-bedroom, two-bedroom with dens, and three-bedroom units are still available for between $1.43 million and $8.4 million, the website says.
The previous record for a condo sale, according to Forbes, was $11 million in 2022.
Washington, D.C, has had an active luxury market of late, including the Georgetown property formed through the combination of three houses — one of which was home to former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy —that was recently listed for $26.5 million.
Jonathan Taylor, of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, has that listing for a trust of the late David W. Hudgens, who combined the three homes into a 16,300-square-foot, 13-bedroom mansion before his death in November 2022.
Still, the record D.C. condo sale pales in comparison to recent luxe condo sales in other parts of the country.
In March, for example, Robert and Carol Garvy sold their condo in Bristol in West Palm Beach to John J. Nelson. for $21 million.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Washington, DC, condo sold for a record $12.8M appeared first on The Real Deal.
3704 S. Birmingham Avenue in Tulsa (Google Maps)A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has landed on the market for nearly $8 million.
The 100-year-old, 10,500-square-foot Westhope — which has five bedrooms and five bathrooms and sits on 1.5 acres at 3704 S. Birmingham Avenue — has been listed by owner Stuart Price, chairman of Price Family Properties real estate company, Tulsa World reported.
Rob Allen of Sage Sotheby’s International has the listing.
The home, which was constructed with more than 5,000 panes of glass to take advantage of natural light, was built for Wright’s cousin, Richard Lloyd Jones, who published the Tulsa Tribune, the outlet said.
The home has a library, wood-burning fireplaces and a walk-in closet. The grounds include a pool, a koi pond and a two-bedroom guest apartment, Mansion Global reported.
Westhope changed hands several times through the years, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Price has owned the home since October 2021 and has taken strides to update and refurbish the home.
“We’re incredibly lucky to be stewards of this masterpiece,” Price told the Tulsa World in 2022.
It’s not unusual for a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed property to hit the market. But when one does, it’s still noteworthy.
In January, the George Smith Home, located at 404 Home Avenue in the Cook County village of Oak Park, Illinois, listed for $595,000.
In November, a Massachusetts mansion inspired by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright listed for $38 million.
The unnamed sellers, who own the home through a trust, had the home custom built on 12.6 acres next to the town’s reservoir. The $38 million asking price is more than double the highest amount paid for a single-family home in the area.
In October 2022, the famed architect’s Socrates Zaferiou House in Blauvelt, New York, listed for $1.52 million.
In September 2022, the Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, house at 1425 Valley View Drive was listed for $725,000, Crain’s reported. It was the first time the home was put on the market since it was built in 1954.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Tulsa lists for $8M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Aspire Commodities owner Adam Sinn (Getty, Aspire Commodities)A commodities trader will get to live like a Rockefeller after purchasing a former family estate on St. Barts for a record-shattering price.
Adam Sinn, owner of Aspire Commodities, purchased the 130-acre property for $136 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. It was the most expensive acquisition in the history of the Caribbean island; television commercial producers Steve and Linda Horn were the sellers after decades of ownership.
David Rockefeller, grandson of Standard Oil founder John Rockefeller, purchased the property with his wife in 1957 as a vacation home, according to a 2014 memoir by their daughter. Nelson Aldrich, a cousin to the Rockefellers, designed the stone structure in the secluded northwest area of the island; the home was completed in the 1960s.
Stone pathways separate the bedrooms from common areas such as the dining and living rooms in the 5,400-square-foot main residence. The home is perched on a peninsula with surrounding views of the island and the water. Both a road and stone path allow access to one of the more highly-regarded beaches on the island.
For a long time, the property was only accessible by boat and lacked phones and televisions. That changed a few years ago, when a roughed-in road allowed four-wheel drive vehicles to access the property.
The estate needs some TLC, though, after mostly being abandoned following a series of storms, including Hurricane Irma in 2007, which destroyed the 1,600-square-foot guesthouse. Sinn plans to restore the estate, which also included other outbuildings like a staff quarters; zoning is largely restricted on estate land.
Read moreNew YorkScottish businessman lists St. Barts home for $80MSouth FloridaDespite Irma damage, Caribbean estate sells near $67 million asking priceNew YorkSt. Barts court quashes proposed $170M hotelSinn is based in Puerto Rico, so island life is fairly familiar to him. He’s also fiercely loyal to his alma mater, donating $20 million to Texas A&M two years ago.
St. Barts has seen its fair share of expensive sales and listings in recent years as wealthy buyers seek a laid back lifestyle and favorable tax structures. In 2021, Scottish businessman Doug Barrowman listed his custom-built 17,000-square-foot home for $80 million. In 2009, Roman Abramovich bought a 70-acre estate for $90 million.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Commodities trader buys Caribbean island estate for record $136M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Ray Giacoletti (Getty, Corcoran Reverie)Ray Giacoletti is going from coaching on the hardwood to showing hardwood floors.
Giacoletti, who coached college basketball for 34 years, including 14 as a head coach, has been hired by Corcoran Reverie to be a luxury real estate agent in Florida, according to a press release.
Giacoletti recently acquired his real estate license after he moved to the Sunshine State three years ago. He was the head coach of North Dakota State, Eastern Washington, Utah and Drake, compiling a career record of 203-192. He also had stints as an assistant coach at Gonzaga, St. Louis and Drake. He was the Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year in 2004 and the MWC Coach of the Year in 2005.
His success as a college basketball coach was appealing to Corcoran Reverie.
“There was an instant connection between me and Ray — we both thrive in high-intensity environments and have a natural drive for excellence.” Corcoran Reverie owner Hilary Farnum-Fasth said in a statement. “For us, it was a very easily identifiable trait — we knew immediately he would be a great addition to Corcoran Reverie, and we look forward to watching his successes.”
It’s not unusual for former coaches and athletes to work in the real estate industry.
Earlier this year, two-time NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer launched a real estate career with his longtime broker and friend Katrina Campins of the Campins Company, according to an announcement. Boozer earned his real estate license last year. His role will focus on real estate services geared toward professional athletes, celebrities, and other wealthy buyers, the release says.
Boozer played in the NBA from 2002 to 2015 for four teams: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers. He represented the U.S. at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, earning medals both times. He completed his degree at Duke University in 2020 after he left college early to start his basketball career.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Former NCAA hoops coach Ray Giacoletti joins Corcoran Reverie appeared first on The Real Deal.
A proposed map of Seven Springs (Getty, Orange County Clerk)A Hasidic community is a step closer to being formed in southern Orange County after appeals from nearby municipalities — including another Hasidic village — were rejected.
The Seven Springs village proposal survived several appeals last week, the Times Union reported. The town of Monroe and village of Kiryas Joel have pushed against the incorporation of the new village, which would be at the northern end of the town.
The village petition is being led by developer Herman Wagschal. The 2-square-mile community, close to both Kiryas Joel and Bloomington Grove, is expected to be primarily for Hasidic Jews.
The town of Monroe appealed the village petition on the basis of a technicality, claiming the petitioner didn’t pay a $6,000 fee. A judge struck down that argument because a fee had been paid before the petition was submitted.
Kiryas Joel, meanwhile, battled with the petitioner over control of undeveloped land across Route 17. The village administrator tried to beat Wagschal to the punch by petitioning to annex some of the proposed Seven Springs land. Ultimately the judge decided the Seven Springs proposal came first and deserved precedent.
Both of those decisions have been upheld. Unless this is appealed up another level, the next step will see Monroe reconsider the village petition, which dates back to 2019. If the town gives the go-ahead, a public hearing for those living within the village boundaries would be held. Then, a referendum.
The effort to start Seven Springs began in 2018 when some Monroe residents felt excluded from a plan to expand Kiryas Joel, another Hasidic community and one that is in the midst of a boom.
The fight for Seven Springs reportedly became literal in 2019, when two people allegedly assaulted Wagschal outside at town hall while he was submitting a revised petition for the village incorporation.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreTri-StateDevelopers seizing on Hasidic suburb’s explosive growthTri-StateHudson moves to revamp its public housingNew YorkBeacon’s new buildings go electricThe post Proposed Hasidic community survives appeal challenge appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kathy Hochul, Jeffery Fairstead and Marc Holliday (Getty, Fairstead, SL Green)No one likes to sound like a broken record, but things aren’t getting any better for real estate, regardless of the sector.
SL Green can certainly attest to this, which has seen its occupancy in its 25 buildings in the borough drop to just over 90 percent in the first quarter, according to Crain’s. That’s a drop of 280 basis points year-over-year, or nearly twice the rate from the first quarter in 2021 to the first quarter in 2022.
Still, SLG representatives remain hopeful about the company’s prospects going forward, with a spokesperson saying the expected occupancy rate should be over 92 percent by the end of the year.
Elsewhere, New York-based Fairstead laid off 10 percent of its 700-employee workforce within the past few months, outsourcing much of that work to an India-based subsidiary.
It’s not just New York that is feeling the commercial pinch.
Office sales in the Dallas-Forth Worth area are down 80 percent — $227 million from $1.1 billion — from January to February year over year, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing data from Yardi Systems’ CommercialEdge.
The silver lining, if there is one, is that North Texas still ranks ninth in the country for office sales so far.
Forget any optimism for Oakland’s office market, where landlords have started to lower rents after holding steady throughout the pandemic. That could lead to defaults as current loans mature and refinancing deals with current interest rates jack up debt payments.
Oakland’s business district saw asking rents for Class A office space drop from $63.60 per square foot in the fourth quarter to $60.12 in the first quarter, according to a recent market report by CBRE.
And coworking giant WeWork received a non-compliance notice from the New York Stock Exchange, Reuters reported, after its stock closed below $1 on average over a 30-day trading period. The company has six months to regain compliance before being delisted from the exchange.
Resi writhingCommercial real estate isn’t the only market to feel the pain. Cracks are showing in the residential space, too.
Residential sales in the once-white hot South Florida market fell again in the first quarter, as inventory rose, yet was still below pre-pandemic levels.
The only area where sales increased was Manalapan, Hypoluxo Island and Ocean Ridge, according to Douglas Elliman’s first quarter reports. That’s likely because the market is very small, so a bump of just a few deals can make the difference. Single-family home sales rose 36 percent annually to 15 closings in the first quarter.
Aside from Manalapan, Hypoluxo Island and Ocean Ridge in Palm Beach County, sales fell year-over-year across the South Florida cities, according to a report by Elliman. Jonathan Miller, who authors the quarterly reports, said the number of deals has also fallen below pre-pandemic levels.
“It’s not just about mortgage rates being more than double what they were a year ago. Inventory is chronically low,” he said, adding that inventory is 30 percent to 60 percent below where it was in the same period of 2020 and before.
In Los Angeles, luxury agents are sweating the potential impact of a strike by members of the Writers Guild of America.
Real estate agent Mason Canter recalled its last strike in 2007-2008, which lasted 100 days, and was estimated to cost the Los Angeles economy more than $2 billion, according to media reports.
“A strong buying force went away,” Canter said of the strike that immediately preceded The Great Recession. “It caused a lot of people to evaluate whether they could spend.”
Dead before arrivalAnd, finally, it’s a rough go for policy makers, as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s housing agenda appears to be dead or, if you’re Miracle Max, mostly dead.
An extension for projects seeking the crucial property tax break 421a is not expected to be included in the state budget, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations between the governor and legislature. Neither are changes that would allow more conversions of offices into apartments, or to raise the residential floor area ratio cap in New York City.
Hochul had pushed to wrap all of those measures into the budget bill — a recognition that passing them later in the legislative session would be even harder. But now the budget is nearly three weeks late, and consensus among legislators on her plan to add 800,000 homes statewide over the next decade has been elusive.
It might take a miracle to pull a consensus together.
Hochul’s housing mandates already bit the dust. Now, the rest of her housing agenda appears to be on life support, if not dead.
An extension for projects seeking the crucial property tax break 421a is not expected to be included in the state budget, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations between the governor and legislature. Neither are changes that would allow more conversions of offices into apartments, or to raise the residential floor area ratio cap in New York City.
Hochul had pushed to wrap all of those measures into the budget bill — a recognition that passing them later in the legislative session would be even harder. But now the budget is nearly three weeks late, and consensus among legislators on her plan to add 800,000 homes statewide over the next decade has been elusive.
Unfortunately for Hochul, and everyone else in real estate, there’s no map to navigate the wildly uncertain road ahead.
The post The road is getting bumpier for CRE and resi appeared first on The Real Deal.
Assemblymember Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assemblymember Carl Heastie, Assemblymember Ed Flood, Housing Justice For All’s Cea Weaver and Governor Kathy Hochul (Getty, NY Assembly)The New York Housing Compact was a good idea while it lasted. Which was not long.
On Thursday, less than four months after Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed it, state legislators bullied the plan out of the budget. The chance that they pass it before taking their annual seven-month break from Albany is now close to zero.
As a result, New York will not add anywhere near the 800,000 homes that Hochul said her Housing Compact would produce over 10 years, and the values of existing homes will be higher because of tight supply. That will mean more homelessness, higher rent burdens and more population (and political power) shifting to other states.
Homeowners and landlords will benefit from the lack of competition, but the public and the real estate industry as a whole will lose.
There is plenty of blame to go around, so let’s get to assigning it.
Gov. Kathy Hochul
It seems unfair to pin the demise of a fine plan on its architect, but Hochul failed to lay the groundwork needed to pass it. It’s possible that she assumed its beneficiaries would readily fight for it. As a veteran of New York politics, she should have known better.
Confronted with a blueprint they had no role in crafting, interest groups immediately held it hostage to their own agendas. Tenant advocates wanted eviction protections and rental subsidies. Construction unions wanted job guarantees. Suburban governments wanted veto power and free money.
But Hochul spent last year raising campaign money, hoping that a landslide electoral victory would give her the mandate, or at least the momentum, to get her plan through. Instead, she eked out a win and her fellow Democrats lost ground to the GOP, leaving them petrified to do anything that could be used against them in 2024.
The suburbs
Even if they had no fear of losing their seats next year, suburban legislators might still have opposed a key element of Hochul’s proposal: that developers stymied by localities could get projects approved by a state panel instead.
Local control of zoning is precious to these towns, and many — especially on Long Island but also in the northern suburbs and the Hudson Valley — use it to preserve the status quo. That is, single-family homes with driveways, expansive lawns and white picket fences.
Assemblyman Ed Flood (R,C-Port Jefferson) at a press conference today, March 20, 2023 (NY Assembly)In these towns, housing growth is equated with traffic congestion, even though Hochul was telling them to put apartment buildings in walkable areas near LIRR and Metro-North stations. Some folks associate rental buildings with poverty, crime and people unlike them. And they know their home values will rise faster if no new homes are built.
Hochul’s message about the suburbs doing their part to end the housing crisis did not resonate. It made new housing seem like a burden, not a benefit. Self-interest always comes first.
Organized labor
Construction unions did not rally for Hochul’s plan. Some even opposed it because it made no special provisions for them. They wanted to ensure their members — and not lower-paid nonunion workers — would be building the 800,000 homes.
Hochul, though, is trying to make housing affordable in New York. Restricting construction to highly paid union workers would conflict with that goal. Perhaps she thought they would see the big picture, which is that more construction helps union and nonunion workers alike. But union leaders want specific provisions, such as prevailing wages, that they can tout to their members.
Progressives
The most self-defeating opposition came from the left, which demanded that good cause eviction, rental vouchers and robust affordability mandates be part of the housing plan. Why give developers tax breaks to build (or convert offices to) rentals, they figured, if at least 40 percent of the units would not be set aside as affordable?
Politically, it often makes sense to withhold support for a governor’s agenda until your priorities are included. In this case it did not, because it helped kill a plan that would have benefited their constituency: people of lesser means.
A tight housing market benefits wealthy people, who can pay more for a scarce resource. For housing-starved New Yorkers to reject an end to exclusionary zoning because it didn’t come with stronger eviction protections was like a shivering person rejecting a coat because it didn’t come with boots.
Legislative leaders
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, like all legislative caucus leaders, put their members’ survival first, because it ensures their own survival.
It matters little that their majorities are large enough to withstand the loss of a few seats in the next election. They don’t want to lose any seats. The idea of sacrificing members next year for a long-term alleviation of the “housing crisis” was anathema to Heastie and Stewart-Cousins.
Many of the examples above are of people cutting off their nose to spite their face. Shouldn’t suburbanites want their kids and elderly parents to be able to afford homes nearby? Shouldn’t construction workers want more construction, tenants want more apartments, and legislative leaders want legislation?
At the same time, though, for each of them, killing the Housing Compact was rational, in some twisted way. The suburbs want housing to stay expensive. Unions will say they snubbed Hochul because she snubbed them. Legislators will avoid a primary challenge, or campaign on having fought for their constituents. The majority leader and speaker will keep their posts.
It’s amazing how many benefits can be reaped by accomplishing nothing.
Read moreNew YorkAlbany: Where office conversions go to dieNew YorkHochul’s housing plan: Reality check for propagandistsNew YorkHandicapping Hochul’s housing agendaThe post Death of a housing plan: Who’s to blame? appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of the San Antonio skyline (Getty)It isn’t always sunny in San Antonio, at least for multifamily owners.
The Alamo City ranked sixth on a list of cities with high percentages of “at-risk” multifamily loans compiled by real estate data service Trepp. Of the city’s $1.7 billion in outstanding multifamily loan balances set to mature in the next five years, some 35 percent are at risk of refinancing troubles, according to Trepp’s analysis. That means landlords and their lenders face a wall of roughly $598 million in debt that is coming due with limited refinancing options.
In order to determine a loan’s risk factor, the analysis focused on two measures: a property’s debt service coverage ratio and its debt yield.
Debt service coverage ratio, a function of a property’s net operating income over its debt service amounts, assesses how easily a building owner can meet monthly payments. Anything less than a 1.25 ratio was considered a risk factor, suggesting significant refinancing risk, as it means incomes are just narrowly enough to keep up. About two thirds of maturing multifamily loans nationwide were in the clear.
Debt yield compares a building’s net operating income to its total loan amount — anything lower than 6 percent was considered a negative indicator of future refinancing ability. Nearly 29 percent of multifamily loans maturing across the country in the next two years fell below that threshold.
“The multifamily market, which not too long ago had a resilient outlook due to struggling single family homes resulting in upward growth in rents, is now facing tighter credit conditions, higher spreads, and, at least in some areas, rent growth rates that are underperforming market expectations,” the report’s authors wrote.
The San Francisco-Oakland metro area topped the list, with 53 percent of maturing multifamily loans at risk of refinancing troubles. New York, which had by far the largest volume of maturing multifamily loans on the list, faces $2.8 billion in at-risk maturing debt, or 30 percent of the total amount coming due.
Multifamily loans account for the largest volume of maturing, securitized debt in the next two and five years. All told, some $176 billion in multifamily debt is coming due in the next five years, with nearly half set to mature in 2023 and 2024 alone.
The report is a troubling sign for San Antonio, where investment activity has increased, particularly in hospitality and multifamily. Local developer Weston Urban plans to break ground this summer on a $150 million apartment project at 110 South Laredo Street.
Read moreTexasHarris Bay plans $19 million Riverwalk hotelTexasWeston Urban to start $150M multifamilyTexasFuturistic design approved for DeLorean HQ The post $598M wall of debt coming due in San Antonio appeared first on The Real Deal.
Tony Hu and 520 N. Michigan Avenue (Loopnet, Chicago Gourmet, Getty)There’s little good fortune at the North Bridge mall.
Tony Hu’s Lao Sze Chuan has filed for bankruptcy claim at its 520 North Michigan Avenue, where it’s been renting space since 2014, Crain’s reported.
The bankruptcy case also poses problems for building owner Alaska Permanent Fund, which acquired Macerich’s 50 percent stake last year. Alaska’s $21 million purchase was far less than the $515 the joint venture paid in 2008 — a sign that the owner is underwater on the $375 million mortgage.
Very few details have been revealed from the Lao Sze Chuan bankruptcy filing, but it lists a disputed claim of $1.37 million from the restaurant’s landlord. The Chinese restaurant had a net loss of nearly $353,000 in 2021, according to court documents.
Hu has been at the center of controversy for years now. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to tax fraud, claiming that he hid more than $1 million in sales taxes to state and local governments. He was sentenced to one year in prison for the crime.
A person named Yujia Hu signed the filing and identified as the owner of the Lao Sze Chuan. Yet, a company employee who answered the phone when the outlet requested comment said Hu was the owner.
Restaurants in Chicago’s commercial real estate scene have shown some signs of recovery since last year. Nearly 300 hundred restaurants had closed by the end of 2021 as the pandemic pummeled the service industry.
Restaurateur George Archos, who also owns the $1 billion cannabis company Verano, recently put his faith in the Mag Maile by taking over the 7,000-square-foot former Bandera restaurant and jazz venue at 535 North Michigan Avenue to open Evie Grill.
In addition, the upscale Signature Room at 875 North Michigan Avenue just hit the market, which will serve as a test for the neighborhood and the city’s restaurant market.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoGeorge Archos takes over Mag Mile restaurantChicagoMadison, PGIM list Signature RoomChicagoDurty Nellie’s venue owners plan housing redevelopmentThe post Tony Hu’s Mag Mile restaurant files for bankruptcy appeared first on The Real Deal.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A proposed bill in Florida that would dramatically restrict investment in real estate from Chinese buyers and those from other communist countries could have ripple effects on the rest of the foreign buyer market, experts say.
Florida lawmakers are advancing controversial House Bill 1355, which would ban Chinese nationals from purchasing real estate anywhere in the state. Chinese businesses and people who live in China and aren’t U.S. citizens or residents and who currently own real estate in Florida would not be able to buy additional property after July 1, if the bill becomes law as it is currently written.
They would also have to register their existing ownership of such properties with the state, which some critics have compared to Hitler’s 1938 decree requiring all Jews in Germany and Austria to register their properties.
The amount of Chinese investment in South Florida real estate has dwindled since before the pandemic. But Chinese investors still invest in commercial real estate, such as shopping centers and office buildings, and parents continue to buy condos for their children who attend colleges and universities in South Florida, brokers say.
“As it stands, the Florida bills could make it difficult for families to purchase homes for students studying in Florida,” said Ana Bozovic, founder of real estate data firm and brokerage Analytics Miami. “Is that something we really want to restrict?”
Rep. Katherine Waldron, a Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said it would likely be changed to carve out Chinese students, the Miami Herald reported. Waldron said, “We’re not trying to cause anybody harm who lives here.”
The bill would also ban foreign nationals from Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria from purchasing agricultural land in the state. And it would ban foreigners from those countries from buying land within 20 miles of a U.S. military installation or critical infrastructure facility.
“I understand restricting farmland for purposes of national security, but I think we are on a potentially slippery slope of defining anything and anyone Chinese as potentially insidious,” Bozovic said.
Lawmakers across the country have sounded the alarm on foreign influence over agricultural production and national security in the U.S., but a Forbes article published in March states that 18 other countries own more agricultural land nationwide than China.
In Florida, foreign nationals own about 6 percent of all private agricultural land, according to the state’s analysis of HB 1355. The analysis, published on Wednesday evening, said that the bill could have a major impact on property ownership because it would allow the state to “seize and sell illegally owned property.”
It’s important to note that the proposed law would likely not have an effect on foreign investors participating in the federal EB-5 real estate investment program, unlike what other publications have reported.
“The proposed bill should not have any effect on the EB-5 program, since the EB-5 investor invests in an entity that usually makes a loan to a business or project, which may or may not be real estate,” said attorney Ronnie Fieldstone, a partner at Saul Ewing in Miami.
Craig Studnicky, CEO of the brokerages ISG World and Related ISG, agrees with the restrictions on land purchases near military installations and infrastructure facilities, but said the ban on all real estate deals for Chinese investors is going “too far” and “highly discriminatory.”
Several years ago, brokers were known to send real estate agents to China to sell South Florida condo developments — Studnicky’s ISG included. The brokerage partnered with a Chinese group in 2015 to court Chinese buyers, even adding a Mandarin-speaking member to its staff.
But that effort from South Florida brokers died down, and even major development sites purchased by China City Construction in Brickell and Miami Beach have since been sold.
Only seven properties in Miami-Dade County are owned by people or entities with Chinese mailing addresses, according to The Real Deal’s analysis of property appraiser information. That’s just a small fraction of the properties entirely or partially owned by Chinese investors. Many foreign investors will typically create a company in the U.S. and use that company to buy real estate, with a U.S. mailing address.
Chinese buyers accounted for 6 percent of all foreign U.S. residential real estate purchases from April 2021 to March 2022, according to the National Association of Realtors. Buyers from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan spent $6.1 billion on those deals.
Jason Damm, an assistant professor at the University of Miami’s business school, doesn’t think the restrictions would affect the real estate market. Latin Americans make up the majority of foreign investors in Miami real estate.
“It would be difficult to imagine it’s going to make a huge dent in our market,” Damm said. “It’s more of a political statement than anything.”
Daniel Ettedgui, owner of Miami Beach-based lender and mortgage brokerage firm Financial Triangle, flew to Tallahassee on Wednesday to speak out against the proposed legislation, drawing parallels to Nazi Germany and calling the bill racist.
Ettedgui, who moved from France more than 30 years ago, expects the proposed law would send a message to people from other Asian countries to avoid investing in Florida real estate, and it could also discourage European investment.
“If you do that today with the Chinese, what’s next?” he said. “History is repeating itself.”
The post Florida bill restricting foreign real estate purchases a “slippery slope,” brokers say appeared first on The Real Deal.
Google’s Sundar Pichai; rendering of Downtown West (Getty, SITELAB urban studio)Google’s Downtown West, an 80-acre transit village proposed for Downtown San Jose, appears almost dead.
The development of thousands of homes, offices and shops and restaurants near Diridon Station, expected to break ground this year, has been put on pause by the Mountain View-based search giant, with no plan to restart construction, CNBC reported, citing unidentified sources.
While sources are optimistic it will be built – with Google representatives having expressed a commitment to it – they say the project may not reach the size outlined in its master plan.
Google’s interest in Downtown San Jose had become a centerpiece for the city’s plans.
The Downtown West development was to include 4,000 homes, 7.3 million square feet of offices, 500,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a community center and 15 acres of parks. Its economic impact was estimated at $19 billion.
Google, after laying off 1,600 workers across the Bay Area and announcing a $500 million cost to exit offices worldwide, said in February it was reassessing its timeline for Downtown West.
The project was expected to house up to 25,000 Google workers in the new neighborhood 15 miles east of the company headquarters.
Diridon Station, where Amtrak, BART, Caltrain, high-speed rail and other forms of transit are slated to meet, was set to become the West Coast’s Grand Central.
Now the proposed mega-campus is poised to become a demolition zone at risk of becoming a long-term eyesore and economic zero, according to CNBC. As part of Google’s downsizing early this year, the company gutted its development team for Downtown West.
Sources told CNBC that the company started signaling to contractors late last year that the project could face delays and changes.
In February, LendLease, the lead developer for the project, laid off 67 employees, including several community engagement managers, according to filings viewed by CNBC. Senior development managers, a head of business operations and other executives were among those axed.
Last month, Google also removed construction updates from its website for the project, according to internal correspondence viewed by CNBC.
LendLease, based in Australia, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alphabet-owned Google is embarking on its most severe cost cuts in its almost two decades on the public market.
The company said in January that it was eliminating 12,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its workforce, to respond to slowing sales growth after hiring workers before and during the pandemic.
“We’re working to ensure our real estate investments match the future needs of our hybrid workforce, our business and our communities,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC in an emailed statement. “While we’re assessing how to best move forward with Downtown West, we’re still committed to San Jose for the long term and believe in the importance of the development.”
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoGoogle reassesses timeline for Downtown West megaproject in San JoseSan FranciscoGoogle moves forward on Downtown West in San JoseLos AngelesGoogle gets go-ahead to build mega-campusThe post Google halts development of Downtown West megaproject in San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mayor Eric Adams (Credit: Jill Lotenberg)Without state action, New York City’s housing goals are sunk.
Hours after news surfaced that the governor’s housing plan had fallen apart, Mayor Eric Adams appealed to a crowd of some of the biggest names in city real estate to help revive it.
“Not getting a deal in Albany, you may think it does not impact you, but it impacts all of us,” he said, while speaking at the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual gala Thursday evening. “We need a housing deal in Albany this year. We need it. It impacts us all.”
“If we don’t get 421a, then we cannot build affordable housing,” he said. “If we don’t have affordable housing, then you won’t have employees who are able to stay in this city.”
If the state does not lift the city’s residential floor area ratio cap, he said, then the city can not move forward with its hopes to convert millions of square feet of office space into housing.
“This is all for nothing. We gotta get a deal. We must make sure that that housing agenda is back on the table,” said the mayor, who has faced criticism for asking the city’s housing agencies to cut their budgets by 4 percent.
He urged the real estate professionals to push their elected officials on these issues, noting that politics need to be “built into your business plan.”
“We need your voice,” he said.
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But state Attorney General Letitia James was there, as was Sen. Leroy Cromie and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, as well as several City Council members and borough presidents.
Politicos weren’t always a given: In the years immediately leading up to the pandemic, elected officials largely shied away from the event. But the last two years have seen a considerable shift, both in terms of attendance and tone.
The gala, held at the Glasshouse on the Far West Side, has evolved over the years from a black tie event to a more modern, schmooze-focused party. Bars in the VIP reception area featured signature cocktails and a commitment to elevating guests’ experiences: A request for water at one station was met with mild dismay, and negotiated up to a sparkling water with lime.
Last year’s event did away with the sit-down dinner, and was more of an extended cocktail hour, seemingly acknowledging the desire of attendees to network.
This year’s event revived the dinner portion of the night, which was sandwiched between a cocktail hour and afterparty.
Televisions throughout the room led to a fun jumbotron-like moment, when developer MaryAnne Gilmartin realized she and Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman were projected on the screens chatting.
The format may be different, but some things remain a constant of the gala: The biggest names in city real estate. To name a few: Douglas Durst, MaryAnn Tighe, Bill Rudin, Daniel Tishman, Jeffrey Levine, Bob Knakal, Pam Liebman and Leslie Himmel.
What also has not changed is that speakers and the evening’s honorees must compete for the attention of a chatty audience.
“I have been to enough REBNY banquets to know that the least interesting person at the gala is whomever is speaking at the front of the room,” said Durst, who noted that Thursday’s gala was his last as REBNY’s chair. “I will not be as brash as my father who recited the Gettysburg Address from this podium 35-odd years ago.”
(The late Seymour Durst apparently had his own way of acknowledging that people were not paying attention.)
The market downturn and the likely exclusion of any housing policies were popular topics throughout the night.
“State legislative leaders, through their actions and inactions, are making the city’s housing crisis worse,” said REBNY President Jim Whelan. “And the commercial market has challenges that we need to work through.”
But he and the mayor both struck a hopeful note about the city’s future. As did Durst.
“Will the office market collapse? Will work from home be the new normal? Will the MTA ever finish the Second Avenue Subway?”
Ever the optimist, Durst said the answers are, in order: No, no, and yes.
Read moreNew YorkRest of Hochul’s housing agenda all but dead: sourcesNew YorkAlbany to real estate: drop deadNew YorkHere’s what NY can learn from other states’ housing plansThe post Mayor calls on REBNY to fight for state housing plan appeared first on The Real Deal.
MG Developer’s Alirio Torrealba and project rendering of Metro Station at 2691 East 11th Avenue (MG Developer) Hialeah is getting another apartment project near a major public transit facility.
This month, the Hialeah city council approved on second reading the rezoning of a 0.2-acre industrial and retail parcel at 2691 East 11th Avenue for multifamily use. The property owner, Miami-based MG Developer, is planning to replace a gas station and convenience store with Metro Station, a proposed two-building complex rising 10 stories, with 559 rental units, city records show.
MG is partnering with Coral Gables-based development firm FC&E to build Metro Station.
The development site is adjacent to the Tri-Rail/Metrorail Transfer Station at Northwest 79th Street and Northwest 32nd Avenue in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. An MG affiliate paid $1.6 million for the property last year, records show.
Also this month, Oakland Park-based Rental Asset Management paid $27.5 million for Station Lofts, a recently completed apartment complex adjacent to the Hialeah Metrorail Station at 125 East 21st Street in Hialeah.
MG, led by Alirio Torrealba, is on a run of apartment projects in Hialeah. The firm and its partner, Barron Property Group, are currently developing Metro Parc, another 10-story, two-building complex with 559 rental units at 955 East 25th Street and 980 East 26th Street. Last year, the joint venture scored a $148 million construction loan for Metro Parc.
MG is also planning to build a third Hialeah project, the 620-unit Metro Parc North, according to a press release.
Multifamily development is booming in Hialeah. In January, Miami Lakes-based Prestige Companies landed a $20.5 million loan for a project consisting of 100 rental townhouses and a three-story building with 12 apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail. The 5-acre development site is a former Salvation Army store at 7450 West Fourth Avenue that Prestige bought for $3 million in 2021.
Last year, investor Juan Carlos Gonzalez obtained a $67.1 million construction loan for the first phase of the proposed Emerald Bay Apartments at 4030 West 88th Street in Hialeah. The project entails seven buildings with 314 units.
The post MG Developer scores approval for Hialeah apartment complex appeared first on The Real Deal.
Hortenstine agent Chance Turner and the Double T Ranch in West Texas (HRCRanch)A West Texas ranch just hit the market for $20 million.
Double T Ranch, the 22,000-acre property in Crockett County, between Fort Stockton and Junction, is asking about $909 per acre, the Dallas Morning News reported. Hortenstine Ranch Company and R.D. Kothmann Real Estate are marketing the property.
The ranch, owned by the same family since 1968, has five homes and an airstrip. The largest house comprises 3,500 square feet with five bedrooms and four bathrooms. The second-largest house spans about 3,000 square feet with four bedrooms and three bathrooms.
It is one of the premiere ranches within the Edwards Plateau region, according to the listing.
“Grasses and habitats are in excellent condition due to an established brush management program and extensive watering system that benefits livestock and wildlife,” the listing states. “Fencing, roads, pens, barns and houses are all in place, making the property ready to use on day one.”
The land is currently used for hunting, as well as grazing more than 2,000 sheep, goats and cattle. Double T Ranch is part of Texas Parks & Wildlife’s Managed Lands Deer program, the listing says.
The property is far from the biggest or most expensive Texas ranch on the market. The 424,000-acre Brewster Ranch, near Big Bend National Park, is priced at more than $400 million and has been up for grabs for several years now. Dallas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens’ almost 65,000-acre Mesa Vista Ranch in the Panhandle was sold last year after being listed for $170 million.
However, Double T trumps some other high-end ranches in price and acreage. A 2,500-acre ranch in Erath County, less than two hours from Dallas, hit the market at $16 million in March. An 8,500-acre ranch northwest of San Antonio had an asking price of $18.5 million when it became available in August.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasEpic Erath County ranch hits market for $16MTexasHorse ranch with lake views in Dallas suburbs listed at $22MTexasVast Texas ranch hits market for $18.5MThe post West Texas ranch lists at $20M appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer and San Francisco Giants’ CEO Larry Baer along with a rendering of 1001-1049 Third Street (Getty, Tishman Speyer)The San Francisco Giants and Tishman Speyer unveiled the look of their first apartment building expected to open this summer across from Oracle Park.
The Major League Baseball team and the New York-based developer released new renderings of the 23-story building at 1001-1049 Third Street, near the Lefty O’Doul Bridge in South of Market, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. It replaces a parking lot used during games.
The 283-unit complex, set to open in June, is the first of four buildings planned for Mission Rock, a 28-acre mixed-use project by Pier 48, directly across McCovey Cove from the Giants’ ballpark.
The burnt-umber highrise, known as The Canyon, was inspired by California’s rock formations, according to its architect, Netherlands-based MVRDV.
The 254-foot-tall building will include apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units, plus 58,000 square feet of offices and an unspecified number of ground-floor shops and restaurants.
More than a third of the apartments, or 102 units, will be set aside as affordable housing.
That includes 10 apartments for residents who earn up to 90 percent of area median income, 54 units for residents who earn up to 120 percent of typical income, and 38 for those making up to 150 percent. In San Francisco, the median income for a four-person household is $138,550.
Applicants are chosen through a lottery run by the city.
The new tower is taking shape next to a shoreline China Basin Park, across from the stadium.
The 2.7 million-square-foot Mission Rock development, in the works since 2008, will include 1,200 apartments, of which 40 percent will be affordable; offices; life science labs; and “superloos” for a “premium restroom experience.”
Read moreSan FranciscoGiants, Tishman nearly ready for opening day at Mission RockSan FranciscoGiants and TIshman Speyer pivot to market at Mission RockThe Mission Rock project will include 8 acres of parks and open space.
Over the next year, the Giants and Tishman Speyer expect to complete a 13-story office building to serve as Visa’s headquarters, a second 23-story apartment tower and a commercial building designed for life sciences research. Both are expected to open in 2024.
— Dana Bartholomew
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Apple’s Tim Cook and Renderings of plans for 19191 Vallco PKWY in Cupertino (Getty, Cupertino.org)Apple plans to redevelop parts of its Cupertino campus, according to documents filed with the city. The Silicon Valley municipality has given the tech giant the go ahead by approving its development permit.
Apple’s headquarters is located at 19191 Vallco Parkway. Plans call for adding about 140,000 square feet of office space. The redevelopment area consists of 8 acres, where Apple will demolish an existing 141,024-square-foot office building and replace it with a four-story, 282,320-square-foot building. The new building will feature 2,300 square feet of retail, which will most likely be a bike shop.
“That’s the use we think it’s going to be [bike shop] given its proximity to a trail; the zoning does allow for other uses. … But we really want to open a bike shop there,” Gary Chao from Apple, said at a public meeting.
Additional plans call for the development of two parking structures and a 9,000 square foot outdoor plaza.
Chao presented the plans to the Cupertino City Council. Some members of the council questioned if Apple had future plans to vacate the property and rent it out to other businesses. Chao confirmed that the new buildings are intended for Apple employees.
Apple expanded its Silicon Valley presence earlier this year with the lease of a 150,000-square-foot building in Sunnyvale owned by Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty. With this deal and the Cupertino expansion, Apple’s Silicon Valley office footprint has reached 724,000 square feet.
While Apple works to expand its Silicon Valley presence, it has offloaded assets as well. In a deal with Santa Clara County, the tech company gave the county 5 vacant acres it owns at 10333 North Wolfe Road. In return, the county would give Apple 1.5 vacant acres at 10591 North De Anza Boulevard, the site of a former Outback Steakhouse across the street from Apple’s corporate hub.
The county plans to build workforce housing for between 75 to 100 teachers and staff on a third of its new site, south of Interstate 280 and the Apple Park campus. The project, which has yet to secure funding, also could open the door for more affordable housing in Cupertino, where the housing shortage is acute and the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,140.
Read moreSan FranciscoLand swap with Apple could create homes for school staff in CupertinoSan FranciscoApple leases 150K sf office building in SunnyvaleSan FranciscoApple buys 384K sf office and research campus in CupertinoThe post Apple to build large office complex at Cupertino campus appeared first on The Real Deal.
MD Anderson Cancer Center (Illustration by The Real deal with Getty)The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is set to build a $668 million laboratory expansion, extending the city’s life science ecosystem.
The new research building, nominally called South Campus Research Building 5, will span 600,000 square feet in the heart of Texas Medical Center, at 1920 Old Spanish Trail. It will stand seven stories high with an additional two levels dedicated to a mechanical penthouse.
It will be the newest addition to MD Anderson’s south campus research environment. Besides state-of-the-art lab space, it will have conference areas, collaboration space and dining amenities, MD Anderson said in a statement.
The plaza will include core labs dedicated to specialized scientific services, while the remaining six floors will be subdivided between wet laboratories, support space and offices. The space will be designed to increase collaboration among researchers across MD Anderson facilities with its centralized location, the statement said.
Design and construction is expected to cost an estimated $389 million before buildout, or about $650 per square foot, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Construction is expected to begin in September, with completion estimated for the third quarter of 2027. Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects, specializing in academic projects, is designing the building.
The costly development aims to “relocate and co-locate” researchers who are now distributed across aging properties in MD Anderson’s main campus, which has more than a dozen buildings.
The project is funded by a combination of hospital revenue, Tuition Revenue Bond proceeds and Permanent University Fund proceeds. Hospital revenue accounts for $556 million or 83 percent of total costs, while the latter two funds make up the remaining $112 million or 17 percent. Funds from UT Health Science Center at Houston will also be used to finance the shared plaza and pedestrian bridge connecting it to the in-development, multi-use TMC Helix Park.
Upon completion, TMC Helix Park will feature a 521-room hotel, a 350-unit residential tower and almost 1 million square feet of research and collaboration space, providing a central hub for the entire TMC. Houston is currently home to more than 700 life science companies and was ranked as the 13th largest life science market in the United States in a 2022 CBRE industry study.
Read moreTexasHouston all in on life scienceHoustonBaylor med school plans high rise in TX Medical CenterHoustonHouston plans TMC BioPort to complete life-science hubThe post MD Anderson plans $668 million lab expansion appeared first on The Real Deal.
KindCare Assisted Living’s Mark De Pecol with 48 Monroe Turnpike (LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)A shovel-ready development site is up for grabs in Fairfield County, poised to become a senior living campus, if not something else.
An affiliate of Senior Living Development listed the property at 48 Monroe Turnpike in Trumbull, CT Insider reported. There’s no public asking price. The company is also open to remaining at the property and bringing in a partner to develop it.
Senior Living Development, controlled by the CEO of KindCare Assisted Living, purchased the property for $3.3 million in 2018. The most recent appraisal of the property came in at $3.9 million.
The 17.6-acre lot once served as a headquarters for Oxford Health Plans. That company was acquired by UnitedHealthcare, though, and administrative operations were moved to Shelton in 2015, making the 395,000-square-foot property all but obsolete.
There is already a plan in place to convert it into a senior living campus. Mark De Pecol, CEO of KindCare, told the Real Deal that approvals for the project are complete and unassailable.
As proposed, the Rivers Edge facility would have 193 units on 7.6 acres, according to materials on LoopNet, and include access to assisted living services. There would also be living quarters for residents with dementia and the possibility of converting a garage structure into a 10-acre, 146-unit community for active adults.
When Senior Living Development revealed its plans in 2018, the town estimated the conversion would cost $100 million.
Old Mine Associates, which owns the adjacent retail complex, filed a legal challenge against the project in state court. A judge ruled against the limited liability company and an appeal was unsuccessful.
Trumbull is in the midst of an apartment boom, which has included a handful of senior living communities. In January, the town renewed a moratorium on new apartments, although it has been unable to prevent people from getting older.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNationalLarge office complex up for auction in ConnecticutTri-StateCampbell Soup boils down its Connecticut officeNationalBrooklyn investor buys Connecticut apartment complex for $19MThe post Former health care HQ for sale in Trumbull appeared first on The Real Deal.
Dallas Builders Association’s Phil Crone, Compass’ Genna Skolnik, Lincoln Residential’s Camilla Harris, Partners Capital’s Jess Dickie and Apprise by Walker & Dunlop’s John Jordan (Dallas Builders Association, Compass, LinkedIn, Apprise by Walker & Dunlop, Getty)Partners Capital, the investment platform of Partners Real Estate, hired Jess Dickie as vice president of acquisitions in its Dallas office. Dickie will report to partner Adam Hawkins, with focus on Partners Capital Opportunity Fund for retail and industrial properties in North Texas. Dickie arrives from WRC Advisors, where he was director of acquisitions.
Phil Crone will end his tenure as executive officer of the Dallas Builders Association to take a national role, the Dallas Morning News reported. Crone has been named vice president of Leading Builders of America, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for home affordability, with some of the nation’s largest homebuilders among its members. It spent about $1 million on lobbying in 2022, according to Open Secrets.
A Dallas-based appraisal team led by John Jordan has left Colliers to join Apprise by Walker & Dunlop, the Dallas Business Journal reported. Apprise hired the seven-person team in preparation for a wall of maturities that is coming due in the commercial real estate sector in the next few years, the outlet reported. “We’re ensuring that we’re setting ourselves up for the transaction market as it’s going to be heavily reliant on financing from Fannie and Freddie, which is exactly what we’re seeing right now,” Meghan Czechowski, head of Apprise, told the outlet.
Lincoln Residential has hired Camilla Harris as its chief financial officer, the Dallas Business Journal reported. Harris previously served as chief accounting officer at Digital Realty. Lincoln Residential is based in Dallas. Toronto-based Cadillac Fairview took control of the company in March, ending its affiliation with Chicago-based Lincoln Property Company.
Residential real estate agent Genna Skolnik has left the Agency’s Damon Williamson Group to return to Compass. The luxury agent’s largest transactions include the May 2022 sale of a home in Far North Dallas that was listed at nearly $2.3 million.
Read moreDallasRanking Dallas’ top-selling residential brokerages of 2022TexasEric Moreland spins gold on Lake AustinTexasDFW, Austin crowned ultra luxury queensThe post Movers: Phil Crone to leave Dallas Builders Association for national gig appeared first on The Real Deal.
Barron G. Collier II with 315 South Lake Drive (Special Operation Warrior Foundation; Google Maps)A member of the billionaire Collier family purchased a penthouse in Palm Beach, adding to his holdings in the tony town.
Barron G. Collier II paid $8 million for penthouse C at 315 South Lake Drive, records show. Richard and Susan Robbins sold the 2,705-square-foot, three-bedroom unit at Southlake. The six-story Art Deco building, constructed in 1969, features a full-time doorman, manager and pool.
Collier, a developer in Palm Beach, paid about $3,000 per square foot for the penthouse. Collier’s grandfather was Barron Gift Collier, who developed large swaths of land on Florida’s west coast. Collier County is named after him. The Collier family’s net worth was pegged at $2.3 billion in 2015, according to Forbes’ ranking of America’s richest families.
Christine Gibbons with Sotheby’s International Realty represented Collier in the condo purchase, according to the listing. Tom Shaw, also with Sotheby’s, represented the sellers. The unit was on the market for $10.5 million, which means it sold for a nearly 25 percent price cut. Price reductions are increasingly common across South Florida, as sellers adjust to the current market.
The penthouse is the second unit that Collier has acquired in the building. Records show he paid about $1.7 million for an 1,800-square-foot unit on the third floor in 2016.
Though Palm Beach is known for its waterfront mansions, high-profile buyers have recently set their sights on condos.
This month, developer Todd Michael Glaser and his partners flipped a penthouse atop the Tiffany & Co. building on Worth Avenue to car dealership mogul Terry Taylor for $18 million. The sale came 10 months after they bought the raw unit for $15.5 million.
Also this month, members of the prominent Simkins family paid about $9 million, or about $2,900 per square foot, for an oceanfront condo at 2100 South Ocean Boulevard Palm Beach, nearly three times its last sale price six years ago.
In December, billionaire Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, paid a Palm Beach record of $23.8 million for the penthouse at 110 Sunset Avenue.
Still, year-over-year sales are on the decline. In the first quarter, condo sales fell 35 percent to 77 closings in Palm Beach, according to Douglas Elliman’s reports. The median price of condos rose 66 percent to $1.5 million, and inventory ballooned to 160 listings, up 146 percent.
The post Member of billionaire Collier family buys Palm Beach penthouse appeared first on The Real Deal.
500 Baybrook Mall (Google Maps)Sammy Virani put down cash this week to acquire a long-desired retail portfolio in Friendswood, near Houston.
Virani, chairman of League City-based Ashita Investments, bought a retail assemblage in the Baybrook Mall area for $40 million from Alpine Income Property Trust, the Houston Business Journal reported. The property comprises more than 175,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space on a 33-acre lot along Interstate 45.
Virani tried to acquire the portfolio in 2021, but Alpine scooped it up, he told the outlet. When it became available again, Virani paid a $1.2 million nonrefundable deposit in cash and closed the transaction within three weeks, he told the outlet.
Tenants include Olive Garden, Ethan Allen, Rooms To Go, Visionworks, Longhorn Steakhouse and Charles Schwab. He also has the right of first refusal to purchase the Lowe’s Home Improvement property at 19225 Gulf Freeway.
Virani plans to continue operating the site as usual, saying 300 jobs could be added. He also wants to ensure tenants stay by offering them long-term leases, and he proposed the idea of hiring a temporary management company if any of the retailers shut down.
“If the Olive Garden shut down after five years of the lease, we’ll just go ahead and find a management company who runs a restaurant,” Virani told the outlet. “They take it over (and) keep the same people over there and run it.”
The deal goes against the norm of retail REITs selling, which typically sell to institutional investors, such as banks, pension funds or insurance companies, according to Taki Dallis of Partners Real Estate. REITs seldomly sell to individuals because they want to ensure they can close deals without incident, and individual buyers are more likely to have limited capital.
For Virani’s Ashita Investments, equity doesn’t seem to be a problem. The firm owned 148 properties totaling 3.65 million rentable square feet in 34 states by the end of last year.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreHoustonWu Properties buys two shopping centers amid hot leasing marketHoustonOld Halliburton site to get office, retail near ChinatownHoustonWalton Street Capital unloads retail ‘power center’ in HoustonThe post Ashita acquires $40M retail portfolio appeared first on The Real Deal.
NYU president Andrew Hamilton and 400 Lafayette Street (Getty; ABS Partners)New York University purchased a Noho office building for just under $100 million in the school’s latest expansion around its Greenwich Village campus.
NYU paid $97.5 million for the 120,000-square-foot building at 400 Lafayette Street, property records filed Thursday show.
A spokesperson for the university said that for now, the building will be used as swing space for faculty and administrative offices. But long term, the space will be used “to shrink our footprint of leased spaces, reducing costs and providing long-term stability,” the spokesperson said.
The seller is Alvin Flaster’s Sand Associates, which has owned the property since at least 1980.
Three of the building’s four office floors were available for lease at the time of the sale, according to a listing. Previous tenants at 400 Lafayette have included tech startups like DraftKings, SeatGeek and marketing platforms Yotpo and PebblePost.
NYU’s purchase is one of the few investment sales to close in this slow market, and it’s notable that the property was picked up by an owner-operator.
Nonprofits and companies often take advantage of down markets to buy real estate when they don’t have to compete with professional buyers who view properties as investments.
Bary Diller’s media conglomerate IAC recently paid $80 million for the land beneath its West Chelsea corporate headquarters when it came up for sale. Earlier this year, Hyundai paid Vanbarton Group $275 million for a Tribeca office building, which the automaker plans to use for offices and a showroom.
NYU has eyed expansion over the years and picked up numerous properties around its campuses. The school paid $134 million in 2010 for the 733-bed Founders Hall dormitory at 120 East 12th Street. Last year, it paid $122 million to buy an office building at Downtown Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center.
An analysis by The Real Deal last October found that NYU boasts the largest real estate footprint of any college or university in the city, with over 14 million square feet across more than 100 buildings.
Read moreNew YorkDraftKings, SeatGeek take total of 50K sf at 400 LafayetteNew YorkYotpo inks 30K sf sublease at Stellar’s One Soho SquareNew YorkYou’ve got mail! Startup PebblePost inks 20K sf deal in NohoThe post NYU buys Noho office building for $98M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mayor London Breed and affordable housing in San Francisco (Getty)San Francisco should cut developers’ taxes and fees, project costs and the number of required affordable homes.
Those were among the nearly dozen recommendations of a city panel to encourage home construction across the city, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The Inclusionary Housing Technical Advisory Committee meets every three years to guide inclusionary zoning requirements — or how much affordable housing should be included in multifamily projects of more than 10 units.
The panel, which refrained from endorsing any particular strategy, will forward its 11 recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. Mayor London Breed has launched legislation to encourage faster home construction.
Its recommendations, according to the Business Times, include:
- Issuing city-sponsored subsidies, grants or tax-exempt bond financing, including subsidies that would be equivalent to a reduction or a temporary abatement in property taxes for a certain period of time;
- Lowering on-site inclusionary percentages and reviewing the level of affordability required;
- Altering inclusionary requirements to better align with state density bonus law;
- Phasing in inclusionary housing units over a set period of time based on pre-established performance benchmarks;
- Issuing bonds to fund the inclusion of affordable units within market-rate projects;
- Reducing city-imposed impact fees;
- Deferring or spreading out timing for payment of city-imposed fees;
- Reducing or eliminating city-imposed fees for state density bonus units;
- Reducing or eliminating city-imposed transfer tax;
- Revising city-specific building code requirements to reduce project costs; and
- Evaluating and promoting alternative production types, like modular units or mass timber, to achieve cost savings.
Interest rate hikes and three years of soaring construction costs have made the development of market-rate apartment and condominium buildings of nearly all sizes unfeasible for developers, the Controller’s Office told the inclusionary committee last month.
San Francisco must find room for 82,000 homes – including 46,000 affordable units – over the next eight years to reach its state-mandated housing goal.
Last month, the committee discussed lowering the city’s affordable housing requirements from current rates of between 15 percent and 23.5 percent to as low as 12 percent, according to the Business Times. The Controller’s Office put the current rate between between 21.5 percent and 23.5 percent.
But even that may not be enough to encourage growth, with apartment projects in the city too costly to pencil out for developers, according to the city’s chief economist.
Some committee members suggested the city should lower its inclusionary requirements even further. Others said the committee’s goal should be to find ways to bolster housing production without chipping away at affordable housing requirements, balancing feasibility with affordability.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoSan Francisco passes housing element to avoid builder’s remedySan FranciscoSF’s accountant suggests lowering affordable housing thresholdSan FranciscoAffordable housing in SF can cost up to $1.2M per unitThe post SF city panel suggests lowering affordable housing requirements appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Somewhere, Jerome Powell is smiling.
The median home sale price declined 3.3 percent annually in March, according to the latest housing report from Redfin. The decline was the largest recorded by the brokerage since it began tracking the data in 2012, and only the second year-over-year drop — the previous one coming in February.
The decline is rooted in decisions by the Powell-led Federal Reserve, which has been raising interest rates to tame the inflation that the Fed caused, in part, by super-charging the housing market in the first place.
The median sale price last month was $400,528, down more than 3 percent from March 2022. It was a 3.6 percent increase from February, but that figure is not seasonally adjusted. Comparing sale prices from different months can be deceiving because more expensive sales are more likely at certain times of the year.
Price movement ranged throughout the country. Sale prices largely declined last month in expensive coastal enclaves and so-called pandemic boomtowns, but more affordable housing markets became more expensive.
In general, the spring selling season isn’t providing the salvation that many in the industry were hoping for, if not expecting.
“This year’s spring homebuying season is lackluster,” Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather said in the report. “Normally we see homebuyers come out in throngs at this time of year, which isn’t happening.”
New listings fell by 23.3 percent and pending home sales by 26.6 percent, both reaching their lowest levels since the onset of the pandemic. Bidding wars for Redfin-listed homes have leveled off at more than two in five sales in recent months after falling for most of last year — a return to normalcy after the frenzied market of 2020 and 2021.
Rising mortgage rates, engineered in part by the Federal Reserve, have a lot to do with those declines, as buyers reduce their offers to account for higher interest costs, and would-be sellers keep their homes off the market rather than give up the low-interest mortgages they locked in during the Fed’s easy-money era.
The speed of home sales accelerated from the previous month. Homes that sold in March spent a median of 43 days on the market, down from 52 for February sales. Only 28.5 percent of sale prices last month were above the final listing price, down from 54.1 percent a year earlier.
Boise recorded the largest annual drop in both prices and pending home sales, down 15.4 percent and 78.8 percent, respectively, as the pandemic migration to Idaho has ended. Other markets with double-digit decreases in home prices included Austin, Sacramento and San Jose.
El Paso and Camden were among the markets to see at least 10 percent year-over-year rises in home prices, which had not run up in those markets during 2021.
Read moreNationalUS home prices drop annually for first time in 12 yearsNationalPending home sales rise for third straight monthNationalMortgage lender’s cost-cutting couldn’t outrun activity dropThe post Home prices post steepest annual decline in 11 years appeared first on The Real Deal.
Time Equities’ Francis Greenberger and rendering of Boynton Beach Town Square city hall (Getty, Boynton Beach, Time Equities)A new developer is taking over the buildout of the commercial portions of Boynton Beach Town Square.
Affiliates of New York-based Time Equities paid a combined $44 million for 8.8 acres at 117 Northeast First Avenue, 120 Southeast First Avenue, 125 Southeast Second Avenue and 130 East Boynton Beach Boulevard, according to records and Vizzda. The buyer obtained a $40 million mortgage from Deutsche Bank.
Time Equities immediately flipped 1.3 acres to the city of Boynton Beach for $2.7 million, records show.
Affiliates of Boca Raton-based JKM Developers sold the assemblage to Time Equities, records show. Time is proposing to build 933 apartments, 15,200 square feet of commercial space and 2,298 parking spaces, with 671 spaces set aside for Boynton Beach employees, according to a site plan submitted to the city in January.
In 2018, JKM and Boynton Beach entered into a public-private partnership to develop 15 acres of city-owned land. The previous developer built a new city hall, police and fire department buildings, an amphitheater, a park and a playground. But the commercial components of the Town Square project stalled as JKM and the city got entangled in a legal fight.
In 2020, Boynton Beach sued JKM in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, alleging the developer failed to meet its obligation to build two parking garages on time. The city and JKM agreed to settle the litigation in January with the developer paying Boynton Beach $4.5 million and agreeing to sell the mixed-use portion of the site to another builder, city records show.
Founded in 1966 by CEO Francis Greenberger, Time Equities is a real estate investment, development, asset and property management firm. The company’s portfolio spans 38.9 million square feet of residential, industrial, office and retail properties across 33 states and seven countries, according to Time’s LinkedIn profile.
Time developed 1000M, a 74-story condominium with 738 units in Chicago. In South Florida, the company owns five commercial properties, including CasaMara Luxury Apartments in West Palm Beach, which Time developed.
The post Time Equities pays $44M for Boynton Beach Town Square assemblage appeared first on The Real Deal.
Danco’s Chris Dart with rendering of Vendra Gardens (Danco Communities, Getty)Danco Communities, a Northern California-based affordable housing developer, has bought an 18-acre site in Ventura County for a 200-unit apartment project.
The seller was Essex Property Trust, a San Mateo-based REIT, and the deal was announced by Lee & Associates LA North/Ventura, one of two brokerages that represented Danco. The purchase price was undisclosed, but once the project is completed, the property will have an estimated value of $146 million, the release claims. That figure is based on an average per unit value of $730,000, according to a representative for Lee & Associates.
The property is located at 150 Casey Road outside downtown Moorkpark, in Ventura County, a few miles from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley and about 50 miles west of Downtown L.A.
Danco plans to build a community-style project called Vendra Gardens. The proposal calls for nine different buildings that will include a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments, as well as a 2,500-square-foot leasing building and 2,500-square-foot amenity building. Danco will also return 6 acres of the 18-acre site to the City of Moorpark.
About two thirds of the project’s units will be reserved for affordable housing (tenants who earn 30 to 60 percent of area median income), according to a release, and the project was funded with tax-exempt bonds through the state’s California Debt Limit Allocation Committee.
Danco, which is based in Arcata, in Humboldt County, has completed and pending multifamily and commercial projects in San Jose, Oakland and Sacramento.
Read moreLos AngelesOxnard poised to enact rent control with 4% capLos AngelesAmazon warehouse in Ventura County changes handsThe post Affordable developer Danco buys 18 acres in Ventura County appeared first on The Real Deal.
River City’s Rich Leisy and Austin Housing Authority’s Suzanne Schwertner (LinkedIn, Google Maps)A joint venture between developers and the Housing Authority of the City of Austin plans to build more than 1,000 apartments in Northeast Austin near Samsung’s Semiconductor factory.
River City Capital Partners and the Austin Affordable Housing Corporation are partnering with development firm LDG Multifamily and investment manager Battery Global Advisors to create Parmer Gateway, a series of multifamily complexes with an emphasis on affordable housing, the Austin Business Journal reported.
River City purchased 69 acres of vacant land adjacent to Samsung’s manufacturing campus, at the intersection of East Yager Lane and East Parmer Lane, in 2020. This corner of Austin has been a hot spot for developers in recent years due to the abundance of undeveloped lots and its surging growth.
“It’s a near-in Austin location that is in high demand,” River City’s Rich Leisy told the outlet. “The proximity to a number of large employers and logistics hubs is just another huge draw for this location.”
The developers also plan to sell two sites on the property for a convenience store and a hotel.
A strong relationship with the joint venture, which is also at the helm of a 518-unit complex on East Riverside, convinced the housing authority to join the Parmer Gateway project, said Suzanne Schwertner, the housing authority’s director of development.
The development is broken down into three phases, with the first two expected to start in May and take two years to complete, the outlet said.
The first will contain 273 apartments, with half of them being affordable to tenants earning less than 80 percent of the $88,250 median family income, while half will be market rate. Floorplans will feature a mix of 178 one-bedroom units between 700-980 square feet, 86 two-bedroom units between 1,070-1,300 square feet and nine three-bedroom units between 1,460-1,700 square feet.
The second phase could have as many as 300 units — 24 one-bedrooms, 168 two-bedrooms, 96 three-bedrooms and 12 four-bedrooms. Amenities will include a clubhouse, fitness center, playground, pool and green space.
Parmer Gateway will be part of the housing authority’s voucher program, allowing participants to find their own housing within the authority’s jurisdiction and pay 30 to 40 percent of their monthly income in rent, while the authority pays the rest, the outlet said.
The developers have obtained $58 million in financing through IBC Bank, and the project has an estimated cost of about $86 million.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreAustinSamsung plots $107M tech warehouses AustinSamsung starts $1.8B "confidential project" near AustinAustinTexas town annexes site of planned $17B Samsung plantThe post 1,000 apartments coming to Northeast Austin appeared first on The Real Deal.
Coldwell Banker’s Dawn McKenna with Aqua Tower (Dawn McKenna Group, Studio Gang)Satish Shah has proven to have patience.
Shah, who founded the company Aakash Chemicals that’s now called Vivify, is the seller of a condo on the top two floors of the Aqua Tower that’s back on the market for the fifth time in eight years, Crain’s reported.
Dawn McKenna of Coldwell Banker Realty is the listing agent for the 3,600-square-foot space across the 81st and 82nd floors, which carries an asking price of $4.5 million.
The condo’s previous asking prices have fluctuated. In 2015, it hit the market at $6 million. It was priced just below $4 million in 2017 and at $4.3 million in 2022.
Shah bought the units from developer Magellan for $2.8 million in 2010 when they were unfinished. He built out and renovated them at an unknown cost since acquiring the property.
Shah and a number of other high-end condo owners have struggled to sell their homes amid crime issues, slowed economic growth and a troubled office sector.
In February, Crain’s reported a long list of downtown condos sold for less than what buyers initially paid more than 10 years ago to acquire them, and another one closed this week at the Palmolive building on the Magnificent Mile, where a unit sold for $5.2 million after the sellers had paid $6.4 million for it in 2011.
Shah’s Aqua Tower condo has two 60-foot long balconies and a combined 625 feet of outdoor space, offering scenic views of the city.
A neighboring unit on the 81st floor sold for $2.35 million several months after Shah and his wife first put their unit on the market. The sale of the 2,100-square-foot space amounted to $1,138 per foot. If the Shahs sell their condo at the same rate, they would get roughly $4.1 million.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoAres Management fund buys majority stake in Aqua Tower apartmentsChicagoLow floor, highest price: Private equity vet asks $17M for Gold Coast condoChicagoOne Chicago condo listed for $14M fetches buyer fastThe post Playing the long game:Shah’sAqua penthouse seeks $4.5M after years on market appeared first on The Real Deal.
Allie Beth Allman and Associates’ Keith Conlon, Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty’s Russ Anderson, Ebby Halliday’s Carolyn Rosson and Compass’ Neda Navab (Allie Beth Allman & Associates, Sotheby’s International Realty, Ebby Halliday, Compass, Getty)The resi party that dominated Dallas the last few years finally showed signs of mortality in 2022.
Homes stayed on the market for more than 37 percent longer than in 2021, and inventory went up nearly 161 percent, according to data from Realtor.com. Average home prices in 2022 were a rollercoaster ride as well. In January, prices averaged around $360,000 then peaked in May at nearly $500,000, but fell all the way down to $340,000 by December, according to Redfin data.
Many of those fluctuations were a symptom of record interest rate increases forcing a come-down from the market boom of 2021. But continuing demand from the flood of transplants to Dallas and the relatively affordable median sales price kept the market steady.
“Demand is stronger than supply, and we’re incredibly fortunate that we are in North Texas versus some places around the country,” said Russ Anderson, president of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty. “It is a fragile economy right now, but our typical buyer is not nearly as interest-rate sensitive as a first-time homebuyer market. I think our typical client has more resources and more options than a lot of people, so they can navigate around interest rates changing.”
For some agents, the return to reality hit harder than others. In the fourth quarter, realtors began jumping ship or getting pushed overboard as Dallas’ active pool of agents shrank by more than 30 percent at the end of 2022, compared to the same period the previous year, according to a report by AgentStory.
“You have that fuel from ’21 left over, and the first six months of ’22 were incredible. But in Q4 it kind of came to a screeching halt,” said Keith Conlon, president of Allie Beth Allman and Associates. “We were kind of prepared for it, but at the same time, when agents have been so busy for so long, and then they slow down drastically like that, it’s a bit of a panic.”
Savvy agents who stuck around began employing tactics like mortgage rate-buy downs, cutting closing costs or offering free warranties to entice buyers. Though much of that has gone out the window after a hot start to 2023. Buyers have returned in droves, and seller optimism is high, Conlon said.
“This year is actually our second-best Q1 in the firm’s history aside from 2021. Transactions are down, but volume is up, and it’s amazing how many people are still moving to Dallas,” Conlon said.
The Dallas top ten
These rankings only account for the city of Dallas proper and do not account for the greater Metroplex. In terms of sales, Compass and Ebby Halliday were the top two firms in Dallas last year with each firm breaking the $2 billion mark, according to an analysis by The Real Deal of closed sell-side transactions for residential properties, excluding off-market deals.
Compass posted just over $2.4 billion in Dallas transactions last year with 15.2 percent of the market share to lead our list. The national firm did 2,575 deals leading to an average sales price of around $930,000, illustrating the firm’s focus on the high-end Dallas market. In its annual luxury report for all of DFW, compass cited 11 sales of over $10 million in the Metroplex.
Ebby Halliday, which comprises Ebby Halliday Realtors, Dave Perry Miller Real Estate and Williams Trew Real Estate posted just under $2.1 billion with 13.2 percent of the market share for second place in TRD’s rankings. Ebby routinely dominates sales numbers in the North Texas market as a whole and is the largest independently owned residential firm in Texas. The firm did nearly $10 billion in sales across all of North Texas, according to the Dallas Business Journal.
Next, Allie Beth Allman and Associates nearly hit $1.6 billion in sales with over 10 percent of the Dallas market share. The firm also flexed its luxury muscles and brokered 1,275 deals for an average price of $1.2 million.
“I feel like what we’ve done really well is truly get out our office exclusives to our agents first to let them know what’s coming,” Conlon said. “That way, we can let buyers know that our agents are in tune with the market. They know exactly what’s coming up, when it’s coming up, and it just gives them that instant credibility.”
In fourth, Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International hit $835 million in Dallas with over 5 percent market share. The firm had 776 deals with an average sale price of nearly $1.1 million.
“We did gain market share in some of the really competitive luxury markets,” Anderson said. “Competitors were facing some pretty significant headwinds at the end of last year, and we benefited from that. But it was an interesting year. The fourth quarter historically is a solid quarter for us, and it was tough last year.”
Rounding out the Dallas top 5 is eXp Realty with $409 million at a nearly 3 percent market share. The firm hit the mid-market hard and did nearly 950 deals last year with an average sales price of $432,000.
Coldwell Banker Realty, Rogers Healy and Associates, Keller Williams Realty DPR, Fathom Realty and Keller Williams Realty rounded out the top 10.
Read moreTexasLuxury listings trending up in DFWAustinAustin and Dallas are now buyer’s marketsTexasTexas homes taking longer to sellThe post Ranking Dallas’ top-selling residential brokerages of 2022 appeared first on The Real Deal.
700 Crab Tree Lane and James Zenni of Z Capital Management (Compass, LinkedIn)A 12-acre estate in Lake Bluff has chopped another $1 million off its price, one of a series of cuts the seller has made in hopes of closing a deal during its years of dancing between on and off the market.
The 10,000-square-foot home has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms and was built in 1994. The Italianate-style property is now asking $13 million and includes a tennis court, a pool and even its own vineyard. The estate also includes a rare 700 feet of private beach on Lake Michigan.
It was last listed in June of last year for $14 million.
James Zenni, president and CEO of Z Capital Management, and his wife, Lisa previously owned the home. The couple has been divorced for several years and Lisa Zenni is selling the home. She originally listed the mansion at $19.5 million in 2018, making it the third-priciest residential listing in the Chicago area at the time and the recent price cut a 33 percent decrease from the initial ask.
Andra O’Neill with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate is now representing the property and declined to comment. Houda Chedid, with Coldwell Banker Realty, previously represented the seller. O’Neill also had the listing when it hit the market in 2018.
Various price cuts since then have brought the ask down to $13.9 million in July 2021. The home was reportedly under contract in early April 2022, before it was relisted later that month — indicating that the home likely had a buyer that pulled out of the deal.
The home is the only property for sale over $4 million in the Lake Bluff suburb. Should it sell at its current listing price, it would be a recent record. Last year, only two homes in the area sold for over $7 million.
The home is one of several on Chicago’s North Shore to take a major price cut in recent weeks, as a slowing market and a dearth of comparable homes make pricing a challenge.
Last week, a home at 325 Shoreline Court in Glencoe cut its price by $1 million after sitting on the market since November. Originally seeking just under $8 million, the home is now asking $7 million, a 13 percent decrease.
Another Glencoe mansion on Lake Michigan is also back on the market after a 14 percent price chop took it down to $12 million, one of several homes in the North Shore suburb seeking eight figures.
The home at 595 Longwood Avenue was previously marketed on an agents-only network for $13.8 million in September. The property, which was recently renovated, came back on the market this month at just under $12 million.
Laura Rubin Dresner, a broker with Baird & Warner, is now representing the sellers, David Kalt and his wife, Susan, who paid $5.95 million for the house in 2005. They previously listed the home with Gloria Matlin of Compass.
Read moreChicagoListing for $14M Lake Bluff mansion comes back on marketChicagoLakefront Glencoe mansion takes $1M price cut Los AngelesAffordable developer Danco buys 18 acres in Ventura County The post Lake Bluff estate cuts another $1M off price tag appeared first on The Real Deal.
Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney and renderings of the Fields development (Fields Frisco)Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney’s day job is stirring controversy in the rapidly growing North Texas city.
Critics say Cheney, who runs a namesake real estate firm in addition to serving as mayor, is unfairly promoting a high-end new development called Fields for his own benefit, while putting other real estate players at a disadvantage, the Dallas Mornings News reported.
Fields, led by developers Fehmi Karahan and Hunt Realty, is a massive project that will feature a mix of multimillion dollar homes, plus retail, office and a new PGA of America golf course. Within this sprawling community is the Preserve, a roughly 270-acre neighborhood between the PGA’s golf courses and Legacy Drive, with homes costing up to $15 million, the outlet said.
Critics say Cheney, whose firm Cheney Group has sold $1 billion worth of homes and is an affiliate of Monument Realty, has used his intimate knowledge of the project to gain an upper hand, icing out other brokerages.
Cheney says his firm has committed about 30 clients to lots, but that he hasn’t broken Frisco’s code of conduct — elected officials are able to do business in the city as long as they abstain from decision making or voting on items in which they have a private interest and properly disclose conflicts.
“If Fields wanted to hire me to be their exclusive listing agent, that is a job I could have taken under our code of conduct; they did not,” Cheney told the outlet. “I’m just a realtor like everyone else, trying to hustle and represent a buyer.”
Since the project’s inception, Cheney has hosted about 15-20 presentations about the development, including exclusive gatherings with other real estate agents in attendance. He also posted a video to his YouTube page in October, talking about his unmatched knowledge of the venture, which raised speculation about a possible conflict of interest.
Real estate agent Laurie Deckert said she had no knowledge of the residential portion of the development until Cheney posted the video. Jane Taylor, a real estate agent in Plano with DHS Realty, said she’s lost two buyers to a Cheney Group agent since October.
Cheney defended himself by saying he has open dialogue with other agents, the community and anyone else who asks about the level of his involvement with Fields. He also restricts himself from development partnerships or consulting clients in zoning cases, he told the outlet.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasHall Group adds luxury hotel to $7B Frisco projectTexasFrisco approves zoning changes for massive developmentDallasUniversal theme park idea draws NIMBYs in FriscoThe post Mayor’s brokerage cashes in on Frisco appeared first on The Real Deal.
Nitin Motwani, Daniel Lebohnson, Dev Motwani and Greg Freedman with the aerial of the 11 acres on Miami’s Watson Island (Blue Water Drones, Getty)Merrimac Ventures and BH3 Management partnered to take over the lease of a long-stalled development site for a mixed-use project on Miami’s Watson Island.
After a series of delays and controversy, Flagstone Property Group, led by Mehmet Bayraktar, sold the lease for nearly 11 vacant acres to Merrimac and BH3. The two firms plan to finish what Flagstone started more than two decades ago. In 2001, Miami voters approved the city’s deal with Bayraktar for the city-owned land via a referendum.
Bayraktar struggled to finance the planned project, faced opposition from Miami Beach residents, and missed deadline after deadline with the city of Miami. His firm completed the mega yacht marina in 2016, and failed to build the rest of the planned development, including two luxury hotels, retail, a fish market, a public promenade and a parking garage.
A year after completing the marina, the city commission voted to end the lease with Flagstone, and Flagstone sued the city for $122 million. After Flagstone won in 2017, the city agreed to pay Flagstone $20 million.
Alex Zylberglait with Marcus & Millichap brokered the deal between Flagstone and the Merrimac-BH3 venture, which closed last week for an undisclosed amount, according to a press release. Zylberglait declined to comment. The deal does not include the marina.
The new venture will take over the 75-year lease, which includes paying $2 million in annual rent to the city, according to the Miami Herald, which first reported the lease transfer.
The 10.7-acre waterfront site overlooks Biscayne Bay and downtown Miami. The island, sandwiched between Miami and Miami Beach, is home to Miami Children’s Museum and Jungle Island.
Merrimac, led by brothers Nitin and Dev Motwani, and BH3, led by principals Dan Lebensohn and Greg Freedman, next plan to complete utility and infrastructure improvements. The joint venture will likely spend months on design, which could include adding office space. Any major changes would have to be approved by voters in the form of another referendum.
Merrimac, via Nitin Motwani, is a co-developer of the nearby Miami Worldcenter project, a $4 billion, 27-acre mixed-use development in downtown Miami. Motwani and Art Falcone have sold off portions of the master-planned community to other developers who have built or are building towers there.
Fort Lauderdale-based BH3 is known locally for Privé at Island Estates. BH3 co-developed the two luxury condo towers with Gary Cohen, and faced significant opposition from a group of nearby residents, against whom the developers ultimately prevailed.
BH3 recently launched a private equity growth strategy to provide capital to real estate, construction and other ventures, according to a press release.
Lebensohn and Freedman told the Miami Herald that BH3 had been in talks with Flagstone for a couple of years.
Read moreSouth FloridaFlagstone Island Gardens can develop on Watson Island, judge rulesSouth FloridaMiami commission votes to cut ties with Island Gardens developer Mehmet BayraktarThe post Merrimac, BH3 take over lease on Miami’s Watson Island to develop mixed-use project appeared first on The Real Deal.
Tides Equities Sean Kia and Ryan Andrade (Tides Equities, Getty)Tides Equities, a multifamily investment firm that has emerged as one of the most active buyers of apartments across the Sun Belt over the last two years, has offloaded a complex in San Bernardino County for a 40 percent profit.
The firm sold the 366-unit complex at 1699 East Washington Street in Colton for $103.2 million in December, according to property records filed with the county.
An entity linked to New York-based Drake Real Estate Partners bought the complex, records show. The firm, founded by David Cotterman, a former principal of Michael Dell’s MSD Partners, and Nicolas Ibañez, a member of one of Chile’s wealthiest families, did not respond to a request for comment.
Drake had been a partner in the deal, according to data from DBRS Morningstar, though the size of the firm’s stake was not disclosed.
Tides, run by Sean Kia and Ryan Andrade, bought the apartment complex for $72.2 million in 2019. In an email, Kia called the sale a “great win” for the firm.
The flip is run of the mill for Tides — buy an apartment complex, make quick renovations and offload it as quickly as possible. Over the last two years, Tides has raced to capitalize on low interest rates and double-digit rent growth across the Sun Belt.
This year, the firm was the 37th largest owner of multifamily properties in the U.S., with almost 32,000 units, a 65 percent increase from the prior year, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.
However, rising interest rates have presented challenges for the firm, given Tides often uses floating rate debt to acquire properties.
When Tides refinanced the Colton property with a $72 million loan from MF1 Capital in 2021, it reported $4.53 million in net cash flow, according to DBRS Morningstar, which rose to $5 million as of June 2022. Tides had projected $5.4 million in net cash flow once it completed its renovations and leased up the property, data from the ratings agency shows.
Read moreThe post Tides Equities flips Inland Empire apartment complex for 40% profit appeared first on The Real Deal.
Gary Dolch of Compass’ Austin Luxury Group and 12400 Cedar Street in Austin (Google Maps, Compass)As home sale prices in Austin fall back into orbit from their spring 2022 high, one lakefront mansion owner is still shooting for the moon.
Villa del Lago, a 15,400-square-foot estate on Lake Travis, is asking $35 million, or $2,274 per square foot. The house made headlines as the “most-expensive house in Texas,” listed one year ago asking $45 million. The new list price marks a nearly 30 percent decrease. Tucked into the limestone hillside about 20 miles northwest of downtown Austin, the estate’s red-tiled roof and white stucco walls lend it a Mykonos-in-Hill-Country feel.
There’s plenty to recommend the property: It was built on a 20-acre lot with hilltop views over the lake, where it has its own boat slip and private dock. With a five-car garage, six bedrooms, six half- and seven full bathrooms, there’s room for guests to spare.
Just outside the main house, an artificial waterfall pours into a grotto flanked by a pair of gryphon statues. Further out, an indoor-outdoor “pavilion” provides space to entertain.
Villa Del Lago | Lake Travis Waterfront Estate For Sale by Gary & Michelle Dolch / Austin Luxury Group from Gary Dolch on Vimeo.
Gary Dolch of Compass’ Austin Luxury Group has the listing. Lan-Feng and Benjamin Wu purchased the home in 2004, soon after it was built by Sendero Homes. The property has only changed hands once since then, when Houston LLC 12400 Cedar-Land LLC acquired it in 2018.
Home sale prices are not disclosed in Texas as they are in many other states, but Dolch’s group topped the Austin Business Journal’s list of sales teams by deal volume in 2022. The priciest deal in the self-reported data, though, was a $38.9 million sale by Kathryn Scarborough of Engel and Volkers.
Austin home prices have taken a beating in recent months, but that decline comes from a steep peak, and prices remain well above pre-pandemic levels. The median sale price in Austin has grown by 50 percent to $536,000, according to data from Redfin. In Villa Del Lago’s zip code, the median sale price is $1.2 million, down from an early-2022 high of $1.75 million and slightly above early 2020 norms.
Read moreTexasDFW, Austin crowned ultra luxury queensAustinTikTok subleasing six floors in AustinDallasScenic eyes Deep Ellum for 25-story resiThe post Lake Travis mansion, once “most-expensive home in Texas,” takes $10M price cut appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of David’s Bridal CEO James Marcum (Getty, David’s Bridal)The future of David’s Bridal dressing New York wedding parties is coming into focus.
The retailer’s plans to file for bankruptcy and launch a sales process mean layoffs at the company’s 14 stores in the state, according to a WARN notice filed with the state Department of Labor’s Office of Dislocated Workers. The cuts will hit 475 workers as part of the company’s plan to cut around 9,000 altogether.
The layoffs are set to happen in phases in New York. Corporate layoffs have already started, but distribution center layoffs aren’t happening until mid-June, while field and store worker layoffs won’t begin until then either.
The layoff notice for David’s Bridal that posted Wednesday listed three locations in New York City — including 45 West 25th Street in Manhattan and Plaza 48 at 3460 48th Street in Queens — and three on Long Island. The other city location is the 12th floor of an office building at 264 West 40th Street in Midtown.
The Pennsylvania-based company revealed Monday it had filed petitions for bankruptcy in the United States, and planned to do the same in Canada and the United Kingdom. The company has said stores and online sales will remain accessible for brides.
This is the second time in five years that David’s Bridal has faced substantial financial duress.
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018 with $400 million in debt, the New York Post reported. It emerged from bankruptcy a year later, but never recovered to its former levels, with the pandemic likely factoring into the picture.
Read moreNew YorkBed Bath & Beyond cutting 150 storesNew YorkUBS predicts 50k store closures over 5 years in tick toward optimismNew YorkCentury-old Little Italy cheese shop closing after falling behind on rent“We are determined to stay focused on our future, because we believe we have an important role in ensuring that every bride, no matter her budget, can have her perfect dress,” CEO James Marcum said in the release announcing the bankruptcy.
Other large retail chains to struggle recently include Bed Bath & Beyond and Party City, which operates 800 locations throughout the United States and filed for bankruptcy in January.
The post David’s Bridal layoffs target 14 New York stores appeared first on The Real Deal.
Norwood Builders’ Bruce Adreani and a rendering of Arlington 425 (Bruce Adreani, Getty)Bruce Adreani might have something in common with Green Bay Packers fans: They’re both not very fond of the Chicago Bears right now.
Developer Bruce Adreani, president of Norwood Builders, added the Bears’ new stadium plans to the list of reasons his downtown Arlington Heights development plans have stalled after getting village approval in 2019, the Daily Herald reported.
Renderings for the project, called Arlington 425, show a 10-story, 234-unit apartment building with streetside retail on Campbell Street; another five-story, 85-unit building of apartments or condominiums along Chestnut Avenue; and a four- or five-story parking garage on Highland Avenue. It would be one of the largest developments the northwest suburb has seen in decades, but a new Bears stadium would possibly overshadow Arlington 425.
“We have the uncertainty of the Bears and how it will affect downtown, (and) whether or not we will become the red-haired stepchild to the Bears site and what’s going to happen there,” Adreani said Monday night, according to the outlet. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen there.”
Adreani was already struggling to finance the project and claimed the Bears plans add a new layer of uncertainty. He and some village officials are concerned that the Bears relocating their gameday venue to a new stadium district the team wants to build on the shuttered Arlington International Racecourse property would disrupt the village’s quaint and charming downtown.
If the team ultimately chooses Arlington Heights, it would redevelop the 326-acre site that it bought for $197 million earlier this year.
Other officials are hopeful that the Bears and Arlington 425 would benefit each other, or at the very least, the stadium would be far away enough from downtown to avoid a potential clash.
“I do want to find a way that they complement each other,” Trustee John Scaletta told the outlet. “But at the same time, if they build a Bears stadium over there and there’s a whole atmosphere over there, I’m still going downtown. I’m going for the atmosphere of charming and quaint and having all these great restaurants.”
The village approved a 12 month extension for Adreani to break ground on Arlington 425, even as some officials expressed frustration that no progress had been made. If the developer doesn’t begin sitework within the next year, Norwood will have to submit a new application for the project and go through a new series of hearings before the plan commission and village board.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoArlington Heights condos deconverted for $10MChicagoBears finalize $197M deal to buy Arlington Heights siteChicagoBayshore drops $131M more on apartments in northwest ‘burbsThe post Adreani blames Bears for stalled Arlington Heights project appeared first on The Real Deal.
Beltone’s Daniel Fletcher and 656 West Randolph Street (Facebook, Google Maps)A hearing aid company is cutting nearly all of its office space in a jump from the suburbs to much smaller digs in the buzzing West Loop, trailing similar moves by commercial tenants during the pandemic that have pushed Chicagoland vacancy rates to record highs.
Beltone, whose CEO is Daniel Fletcher, has leased about 7,000 square feet at 656 West Randolph Street, a sharp drop of about 85 percent from its 49,000-square-foot space in a Glenview office building at 2601 Patriot Boulevard, Crain’s reported.
Diversified Healthcare Trust, which owns the Glenview site, is one of many suburban landlords that have faced departures during the pandemic that have proven difficult to refill. Companies such as McDonald’s distributor Havi Group, SG2, Zoro and UL Solutions, all relocated or will soon relocate to smaller spaces downtown.
Suburban vacancies reached new heights at the end of last year with a rate of 29.9 percent, breaking the previous record of 27.3 percent.
The West Loop property will serve as the new headquarters for Beltone, and parent company GN Group will retain a portion of space at the Glenview building, although the exact square footage is unclear.
The Randolph Street building is part of a string of structures built in the 1880s. With the Beltone move, the building, owned by the family behind longtime Scandinavian food distributor Noon Hour Food Products, is now 100 percent leased.
Company downsizes were a major factor in Chicago’s record-high vacancy rates this past quarter, and it appears more tenants are in the market to shed commercial real estate. Publicis Groupe, Tyson Foods, Meta and Salesforce are marketing a combined 823,000 square feet for subleases.
While some suburban and downtown areas have yet to rebound from the pandemic, the West Loop is firing on all cylinders. The Fulton Market District, in particular, recently landed a lease in a Trammell Crow-owned building with a medical research and lab initiative backed by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.
Plus, the larger West Loop area also secured the relocation of sports media company Barstool Sports into a building owned by developer Jeff Shapack and partner Alec Litowitz.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoLeases more than doubled for 2 companies in West Loop office buildingChicagoMotorola Solutions seeking to downsize West Loop headquarters by 30%ChicagoShapack, Litowitz bring Barstool to West LoopThe post Beltone ditches Glenview for smaller West Loop digs appeared first on The Real Deal.
Horseshoe Bay Resort’s Douglas Jaffe with 1012 Navarro Street (LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)The owner of Austin’s Horseshoe Bay Resort just scooped up a property in downtown San Antonio, possibly adding to the wave of hotels near the city’s River Walk
Douglas Jaffe acquired the vacant 6,500-square-foot office building at 1012 Navarro Street from Affinius Capital, formerly USAA Real Estate Company, the San Antonio Business Journal reported.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the property was recently valued at $1.1 million, according to the Bexar County Appraisal District. The two-story building is dwarfed by the 300 Convent and One Riverwalk Place office towers where Affinius currently operates.
Jaffe’s plans for the site are unclear, but it is near River Walk hotels such as Hotel Havana, the Thompson and el Tropicano. The property’s zoning allows uses such as multifamily, bars and offices, the outlet said.
Other developments in the works indicate that San Antonio’s hospitality industry will only continue to prosper. Harris Bay is planning a $19 million River Walk hotel called the Artista, a 121-key building spanning 71,000 square feet across eight stories.
Blueprint Hospitality is also joining the party, announcing in February that it will spend $55 million to convert the old CPS Energy headquarters at 145 Navarro Street into a 243-key, 230,000-square-foot hotel, dubbed El Portal, as part of Marriott’s exclusive Autograph banner collection.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasWeston Urban add to Downtown San Antonio portfolioTexasUSAA exiting downtown San Antonio office propertyTexasGrayStreet moves Lone Star Brewery plan aheadThe post Douglas Jaffe scoops downtown S.A. property appeared first on The Real Deal.
IWG’s Mark Dixon and Activision’s Bobby Kotick with Water Garden at 2450 Colorado Avenue (IWG, Getty, CBRE)Coworking firm Regus is calling Activision to fulfill its duty to pay for its office space in Santa Monica.
The IWG subsidiary sued the game house’s publishing division, claiming the firm owes $2.1 million in fees for Regus’ coworking space at the Santa Monica Water Garden office complex, according to a L.A. Superior Court complaint filed last week. IWG did not respond to a request to comment on the suit.
“Regus’ lawsuit is a shakedown, pure and simple,” a spokesperson for Activision said in an email. “We look forward to our day in court, where we will prove that Regus actually owes Activision hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Activision Publishing signed an agreement in October 2021 to use 78 office suites at Regus’ location at 2450 Colorado Avenue, agreeing to pay a monthly fee of $233,000, according to Regus’ complaint. The one-year deal lasted through November 2022, the lawsuit states.
In August 2022, Activision renewed the deal through February 2023, Regus said, agreeing to pay $254,000 a month in base fees, and was in discussions for an additional three-month extension.
An Activision spokesperson said the lease expired after Regus had offered an “exorbitant rent hike during lease extension negotiations.”
According to the lawsuit, Regus sent Activision two options: a six-month extension with a monthly base rate of $385,000 — a 51 percent increase from the previous contract — for a one-year extension with a monthly base rate of $406,000 — a 59 percent increase.
Regus claims it sent an email to Mark Fuller, Activision’s senior director of facilities and real estate, with the renewal offers and an option to decline any extensions. In December of last year, “Activision clicked the ‘I Accept this renewal’ button and selected Regus’ offer for the six-month extension period,” Regus said in its complaint.
Activision paid Regus $255,900 in January — a partial payment it claimed was a counteroffer for the two-month extension, according to the coworking firm, according to the suit.
Since then, the game publisher “affirmatively represented that it would not pay any amounts” towards the six-month extension.
“Activision breached the agreement by failing to pay the entire amount owed for the six-month license term and by repudiating the agreement,” Regus said in its complaint.
Activision’s new Regus offices came after the firm left its 214,800-square-foot headquarters at 2850 Ocean Park Boulevard, an office campus less than two miles away. In addition to the 78 Regus spaces, the firm also subleased about 90,000 square feet at LPC West’s Pen Factory complex at 2701 Olympic Boulevard in Santa Monica.
JPMorgan, the owner of the Santa Monica Water Garden, is currently trying to find a buyer for the property — seeking $1.4 billion for the 1.4 million-square-foot office campus.
The post IWG’s Regus to Activision: Pay for Santa Monica office space appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mayor Karen Bass (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)In her first State of the City address, Los AngelesMayor Karen Bass on Monday announced major expansions of homelessness housing programs — the mayor’s top priority — and called on landlords to work with the city by accepting housing vouchers.
“I am 127 days into my administration, and I cannot declare that the state of our city is where it needs to be,” Bass said at the beginning of her remarks.
But the mayor, who campaigned on a promise to tackle the city’s vexing homelessness crisis and declared a state of emergency over the issue on her first day in office, went on to cite her administration’s progress, including some 1,000 residents the administration has already helped find housing, while also unveiling sizeable new commitments.
Her city budget plan will include $1.3 billion for housing and homelessness programs, she announced, an amount that represents “a truly historic city budget commitment, because much of the state and federal pandemic-related money from the past couple years is no longer available.”
A large chunk of the funding — $250 million — will go toward growing the administration’s existing Inside Safe program, a “housing first” model that the administration launched in December and credits with already moving hundreds of residents out of tents and into shelters.
Bass also announced a new program in which the city will purchase, rather than rent, motels and hotels for additional homeless housing. She also championed a new directive that’s streamlining affordable housing construction and said her staff is already combing through thousands of city-owned properties for more potential housing sites.
She also addressed landlords.
“I call on apartment owners, please accept vouchers!” the mayor said. “Start with just one unit and let us earn your trust. You will see that this administration is doing things differently.”
It could be a tough ask. Bass’ administration faces the aftermath of years of enmity between the city and many apartment owners over L.A.’s strict pandemic-era eviction moratorium and tenant protections. After the speech, one leading landlord representative signaled his constituents were not in a conciliatory mood on housing vouchers or anything else.
“The city needs to improve its abhorrent administration of its voucher program before owners will participate,” said Dan Yukelson, executive director of the Greater L.A. Apartment Association. “They need to stop trying to sweep the [unhoused] problem under a rug by blaming housing providers. … This is another mayoral administration that is on the wrong track and going to pour money down the drain on ineffective programs.”
In the speech Bass also announced a plan to hire hundreds of police officers to address the city’s recent crime problems, another issue often cited by the real estate industry.
— Andrew Asch contributed reporting
Read moreLos AngelesCity of LA to take over Skid Row Housing Trust inventoryLos AngelesMayor Bass declares homelessness emergencyLos AngelesLA Mayor Bass taps real estate executive for major positionThe post LA mayor unveils homeless funding, asks landlords to take vouchers appeared first on The Real Deal.
Stuart Moldaw and 80 Coghlan Lane West (Getty, 80 Coghlan Lane West via Sotheby’s/Haejung Hofman)The Atherton estate of serial entrepreneur and investor Stuart Moldaw sold recently for $13.85 million, according to property records, or about $1,500 per square foot.
Moldaw, who created off-price clothing chains Pic-a-Dilly and Ross Stores and was a founding investor in children’s clothing chain Gymboree, died in 2008. His wife Phyllis followed in 2012, but their two daughters held onto the 1.6-acre estate until this year.
Michael Dreyfus of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty represented the sellers of 80 Coghlan Lane, but said he could not comment on the sale.
The buyer is Coghlan LLC, which lists San Francisco-based estate and wealth management attorney Kenneth Raymond Hillier as its agent, according to state filings. Lizi Tabet and Aimee Klarich of Compass represented the buyer and did not reply to a request for comment.
The nearly 9,000-square-foot home has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a pool and a tennis court. It came to market on March 13 asking $14.5 million, and by April 5 it had gone into contract. The cul-de-sac home built in 1980 sold one week later, strongly indicating an all-cash deal.
The home is the eleventh sale at the $10-million-plus mark in the country’s wealthiest zip code so far this year, which had several high-end sales in January and February after a slowdown along with the rest of the luxury market in the latter half of 2022.
Agents have suggested that the recent uptick in luxury activity across the Peninsula is due to several factors, including a continued lack of inventory, increased international interest and more realistic pricing expectations from sellers.
Read moreSan FranciscoAtherton retains top spot for region’s wealthiest zip codeSan FranciscoSlew of pre-spring sales recorded in nation’s priciest zip code San FranciscoUltra-luxury buyers return to Peninsula marketThe post Atherton estate of Ross Stores, Gymboree founder sells for $13.9M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A&C Ventures’ David Grieve; Lakeview 3200 (Getty, A&C Ventures, Lakeview 3200)West Coast investment firm A&C Ventures handed over $21 million to Standard Communities to take full ownership of the Lakeview 3200 apartment building on Chicago’s North Side, and is assuming the loan facility.
David Grieve’s Sonoma-based firm had been a limited partner in the property since Standard Communities bought it for $53 million in 2018, A&C’s Tyler Walker said. Located at 3200 North Clark Street, the eight-story luxury residential building also has 29,000 square feet of retail space occupied by Target on the ground floor.
The firm bought the property less than two years after it was constructed by Chicago developer BlitzLake Partners.
The deal was a 1031 exchange, which allows real estate investors to defer capital gains taxes on the sale of an investment property if the proceeds are soon used to make a similar transaction. A&C completed the exchange with several retail properties in various markets outside Chicago, Walker said.
The trade was executed March 21 and recorded March 30, according to Cook County public records. But Standard began a conversation with A&C about selling the property about a year ago, Walker said.
Standard, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles did not respond to requests for comment.
Its Target store generated about a third of the property’s rental revenue when it was sold in 2018, though Standard principal Robert Koerner told Crain’s at the time that the company could boost the building’s revenue by making improvements for residents and increasing rents, as well as by adding more units. The building had 90 units when Standard bought it.
A&C has a portfolio of more than 220 properties in 34 states totaling 4.3 million square feet valued at about $850 million. Lakeview 3200 is the firm’s only property in Chicago, according to its website.
Standard has been active in investing in Chicago over the last several months, putting $192 million into acquiring and renovating two Chicago-area affordable housing complexes and spending another $46 million on a landmark apartment complex in Edgewater. The company has a portfolio of more than 18,500 units in more than a dozen states.
Read moreChicagoStandard Cos. buys Lakeview apartment complex for $53MChicagoStandard strikes again in Chicago, putting $192M into senior housingChicagoJaeger and Alter pay $46M for landmark apartmentsThe post A&C Ventures buys out Standard Communities’ Lakeview 3200 appeared first on The Real Deal.
Todd Michael Glaser with 415 Hibiscus Avenue (Glaser by Mary Beth Koeth, Daniel Petroni, Getty)Developer Todd Michael Glaser and his partners flipped a penthouse in Palm Beach to car dealership mogul Terry Taylor for $18 million.
Glaser, his partner Jim Randall and other undisclosed partners sold the nearly 9,900-square-foot condo that sits on top of the Tiffany & Co. building on Worth Avenue to Taylor’s TW Apartment LLC, records show. Together with outdoor space, including a rooftop deck, the unit at 415 Hibiscus Avenue spans about 13,000 square feet.
Taylor is the largest private owner of auto dealerships in the country, according to Automotive News. He has also been assembling properties in Palm Beach and other luxury markets in South Florida.
The Palm Beach penthouse, built in 2021, is a shell that has plumbing, electrical and HVAC units. Taylor will likely spend millions on the buildout. The unit does include a main suite, housekeeper’s room, and could have five to six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and one half-bath, according to a press release.
The penthouse’s rooftop has an infinity edge pool, putting green, bar, dining area and fire pit, and as well as an air-conditioned lounge, billiard area, bathroom and gym, according to the release.
Jill Eber and Jill Hertzberg of Coldwell Banker’s The Jills Zeder Group represented the seller, along with Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman. Christian Angle Real Estate represented the buyer, according to the release.
Glaser’s 415 Hibiscus LLC paid $15.5 million for the penthouse in June. They bought it from Kean Development, led by John Kean, Fortress Investment Group and Hyde Retail Partners. The same trio sold the retail building underneath the penthouse to the Reuben Brothers in late 2020 for $26.4 million.
The penthouse hit the market in November for $24 million, and was most recently asking under $19 million. Glaser said that he and his partners lowered the price to generate more activity. He also said that due to the town’s moratorium on construction on Worth Avenue beginning just before Thanksgiving and ending May 1, no construction had been completed.
Glaser, who moved from Miami Beach to Palm Beach, referred to Palm Beach as the “strongest real estate market in the world.” He and his partners, including Randall of Los Angeles-based Randall Realty Group, listed a renovated and expanded Tarpon Island estate for $218 million late last year. A Glaser-led entity that also includes Randall paid $53 million for the waterfront Palm Beach mansion at 854 South County Road a year ago. It’s on the market for $69.5 million.
Taylor reportedly owns more than 120 dealerships, many of which are in the Southeast.
He has owned the oceanfront mansion at 780 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach since 2003, records show. He also paid $7.5 million nearly a year ago for a gut-renovated oceanfront condo at 2770 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach. Christian Angle represented him in that deal as well. In Miami-Dade County, Taylor paid $25 million for a penthouse at Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach about six years ago.
The post Auto dealership mogul Terry Taylor pays $18M for Palm Beach PH above Tiffany appeared first on The Real Deal.
Scenic Investments’ Michael Pullman and a rendering of the Epic in Deep Ellum (Getty, Scenic Investments, The Epic Dallas)Developers continue to target the Deep Ellum neighborhood, east of downtown Dallas, for dense residential projects.
New York-based Scenic Investments is seeking approval from the Dallas City Plan Commission for a 25-story building with 354 residential units and 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, adjacent to the Deep Ellum DART rail station at Good-Latimer Expressway and Swiss Avenue, the Dallas Morning News reported. Costs weren’t revealed.
The site currently contains a vacant commercial building and is within walking distance to the Epic office tower and downtown attractions. It’s also near Baylor Scott & White’s East Dallas Baylor University Medical Center.
Five percent of units in the multifamily building will be for “mixed income housing,” according to documents filed with the plan commission.
Scenic, led by Michael Pullman, has plans for at least 18 micro units, defined as efficiency, studio or one-bedroom apartments less than 400 square feet, the document says. The inclusion of micro units could kick start a trend in Dallas, where small floor plans are less common compared to other major cities that have seen a surge of studios and efficiencies in new developments, the outlet said.
Read moreDallasLarkspur to start $160M apartments in Dallas DallasWestdale redevelops historic Deep Ellum blockTexasDallas’ Deep Ellum district has city’s hottest subleasesDeep Ellum has emerged as a real estate hot spot in recent years. The neighborhood, once dominated by restaurants, nightclubs and loft-style apartments, is now home to an array of office towers and residential high-rises.
Larkspur Capital recently began site work for the Juniper, a seven-story, 240-unit multifamily complex with an estimated cost of $160 million. In January, Westdale Real Estate delivered Good E — a redevelopment of an Elm Street block with five commercial buildings comprising 30,000 square feet.
—Quinn Donoghue
The post Scenic eyes Deep Ellum for 25-story resi appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Nathan Berman, Suri Kasirer, Marty Burger, Nikki Field, John Gomes, Scott Rechler, Ken Fisher, Dan GarodnickAfter 20 years of publishing The Real Deal, it can sometimes feel like we’ve seen everything in New York real estate.
But 2023 is proving once again that this industry is endlessly unpredictable and fascinating. From office distress and development deadlines to New York politics and brokerage turmoil, there’s a lot to discuss about real estate’s present and future.
That’s why we’re excited to be back at the Metropolitan Pavilion on May 4, bringing some of the industry’s biggest names to the stage to make sense of it all at TRD’s annual NYC Real Estate Forum.
The doors open at 10 a.m. and programming kicks off at 11 with a discussion about this year’s most-feared topic: the office market. Silverstein Properties CEO Marty Burger and Metro Loft founding principal Nathan Berman will explain how the savviest office owners are surviving and even thriving in this relentless economic cycle.
Then we’ll bring in the brokerage experts. In a market with some hot spots and some pain points — mortgage rates, anyone? — we’ll take a look at a few residential brokerage strategies that are separating the wheat from the chaff. A major one: the mega-team. John Gomes from the famed Eklund-Gomes team and the inimitable luxury broker Nikki Field will appear at noon to share their secrets of resi dominance.
At 1 p.m. we’ll be joined by industry titan Scott Rechler, who made waves this year by writing off a few buildings of RXR’s massive portfolio as obsolete — “Kodak,” as he put it, in a digital world.
Later, we’ll hear from experts at the intersection of real estate and politics. In a city as complicated as New York, hearing from uber-lobbyist Suri Kasirer, City Planning Commission chair Dan Garodnick and land use attorney (and former City Council member) Ken Fisher could be the difference between getting a project through and watching it die. They’ll speak at 3 p.m.
There’s even more to be announced. Keep watching this space, but make sure to get your tickets today.
The post Find out who’s on stage at TRD’s annual New York Forum appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)
The Bay Area life science market has maintained its resilience as other real estate sectors have experienced distress, according to a new report by CBRE.
There were 1.3 million square feet of leases of life science space in 2022, which was second only to Boston at 3.1 million, and ahead of San Diego at 1.2 million, the report found. Going into this year, the Bay Area had the second-largest development pipeline of the top markets, with 9.3 million square feet under construction, more than one-third of which (3.9 million square feet) is expected for delivery in 2023.
CBRE’s James Bennett (CBRE)The new lab construction will likely increase the market’s vacancy rate, which was 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, slightly higher than the national lab vacancy of 5.7 percent.
“Despite market headwinds, life science companies continue to grow,” James Bennett from CBRE said. “The top leases in the Bay Area were new leases and expansions, signs pointing to resilience of the sector.”
One of the reasons the life science market has remained buoyant is the employment growth the sector has experienced in recent years. Among the top 13 U.S. life science markets from 2019 to second-quarter 2022, the Bay Area had the largest life sciences employment growth at 27 percent, outpacing Boston. Of the total life sciences jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area, 40 percent were in research and development.
“Industry fundamentals in the San Francisco Bay Area remain strong, supporting the employment growth in life sciences,” Gregg Domanico from CBRE said. “Record-high investment over the past several years has also pushed more science into the clinical stage, signaling the potential for even further rapid growth in the coming years.”
In contrast, the Bay Area’s office market remains stagnant and shows signs of distress. A recent crop of office reports point to just how severely the work-from-home trend has upended the office market nearly three years after the pandemic started, with vacancy levels at new highs and trade volume and rents at their lowest levels in a decade or more.
Direct office vacancy rose to 18.4 percent in the fourth quarter, according to Kidder Mathews data, a figure Gary Baragona from Kidder said has not been reached since the 1990s, when the direct vacancy rate was 19 percent. On top of that, sublease vacancy rose again in the fourth quarter and is now 5.3 percent. Transwestern fourth-quarter figures pinned the sublease number even higher, at 9.5 percent, or about 8.6 million square feet, for an overall vacancy rate of 23.7 percent.
“The prevailing expectation is that the SF market will continue to struggle during 2023 and that the market has not yet hit bottom as signs of recovery are not anticipated until early 2024,” said Baragona.
Read moreSan FranciscoSan Francisco office vacancy reaches new highsSan FranciscoBay Area life science “a top performer,” Colliers saysSan FranciscoMovers: JLL bolsters Bay Area life science teamThe post Bucking trends, Bay Area life science market shows resilience appeared first on The Real Deal.
Marquette Companies’ Darren Sloniger with Parq Fulton (LinkedIn, Marquette Companies, Getty)Two Chicago developers landed big refinancing packages to pay off their debts, highlighting lenders’ confidence in the city’s multifamily market despite a climate of tightening credit against commercial real estate.
In the bigger of the two deals, Naperville-based Marquette Cos. scored a $79 million loan to refinance Parq Fulton, a 278-unit apartment building at 1400 West Randolph Street in the West Loop that was completed last year, up from the original $65 million construction debt attached to the property, Crain’s reported. And Golub & Co. nabbed a $75.8 million loan for the 280-unit property at 8 West Chestnut Street, according to Cook County records.
The deals help show how commercial real estate players are adapting to rising borrowing costs, as the Golub debt package — which the firm obtained through a joint venture with CIM Group that acquired the property in 2017 — ends an effort to sell the building.
Marquette broke ground on the 278-unit Parq Fulton in 2020 right as the pandemic was getting underway. The firm predicted the market would bounce back, though, and in 2022 it did just that. Around the same time, the company also developed the nearby Evo Union Park, a nearby multifamily property that also recently scored a $104 million refinancing package.
With the $79 million Marquette acquired from MetLife against the Parq Fulton property, the landlord can pay off the $65 million construction loan from Bank OZK while pocketing much of the difference.
Meanwhile, Golub and CIM pulled off their refinancing deal for Chestnut Place through the lendering arm of multifamily giant Greystar, public records show. CIM and Golub also worked together to redevelop Tribune Tower as condos. They listed Chestnut Place for sale last year, but opted to refinance instead. When CIM bought its stake in the property, it was valued at upwards of $80 million.
While Golub didn’t return requests for comment, making its reasons for the move unclear, it’s possible there was an upcoming maturity date on the previous debt for nearly the same amount that was obtained when CIM entered the deal six years ago.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreNew YorkKent House owners refi Williamsburg rental after dodging foreclosureChicagoKuba and Opus add big properties to Chicago multifamily listingsChicagoQ&A: Marquette Cos. new CEO Darren Sloniger finds the right mixThe post Golub, Marquette refinance $160M in loans on Chicago apartments appeared first on The Real Deal.
Ungar & Company’s Scott Ungar with Avalon Apartments at 1703 North Interstate 35 Frontage Road (Ungar & Company, CBRE, Getty)An Austin-based firm is looking to flip a sizable Class-B multifamily holding in Texas’ fastest-growing region.
Veranda Holdings LTD, associated with commercial real estate firm Ungar & Company, has listed two adjacent Class-B apartment communities in San Marcos. CBRE is marketing the Avalon and Verandah apartments, according to a brochure.
Avalon is located at 1703 N IH 35 Frontage Road, and Verandah is at 1805 N IH 35 Frontage Road. The two communities span 13 acres off Interstate 35 in the Austin-San Antonio corridor, one of the busiest highways in Texas with a transit population of nearly 5 million.
The asking price was not disclosed, but the combined value is nearly $17 million, or about $58,000 per unit, according to the Hays County Appraisal District. Rent for a one bedroom at either of the communities is about $970 per month, according to listing websites.
The current owners invested over $1.3 million into the community and are marketing the units with a “high renovation potential,” the marketing brochure states.
Corporations like Amazon and Urban Mining Company have established large manufacturing facilities in San Marcos as the city’s population has boomed in the past decade.
The U.S. Census Bureau has named San Marcos the “fastest growing city in America,” among cities with more than 50,000 people, multiple times. At the 2010 census, the city of San Marcos had a population of 45,000 and is now home to well over 70,000 residents. The corridor between Austin and San Antonio is “America’s next great metropolis,” according to Forbes. As the 74-mile stretch between the two metros grows, the cities in between, like San Marcos and New Braunfels, are slowly connecting Austin and San Antonio into one giant metroplex.
San Antonio is a better city for investment than Austin as rising interest rates have led to market slowdowns, The Real Deal publisher Amir Korangy told the San Antonio Current recently. The city’s economic fundamentals make it less likely to face as severe a downturn as its sister city up Interstate 35, he said.
“It should be well-suited to work through a slowdown,” Korangy told the publication. “However, especially on multifamily, which has a robust pipeline and is poised to begin slow increases in rental rates, perhaps providing pause that will bring some equilibrium.”
Read moreTexasSan Antonio better investment than AustinTexasNewFound buys massive San Antonio parcelAustinTradewind, Calvera flip Class-B apartments in AustinThe post Ungar lists Class-B resi in San Marcos appeared first on The Real Deal.
WeWork’s Andre Fernandez with the National building (WeWork, LoopNet, Getty)Add another lawsuit to downtown Chicago’s beleaguered office sector.
Commerz Real AG, which owns the 25-story National building at 125 South Clark Street, is filing an eviction suit against WeWork, seeking more than $360,000 in rent and other damages, Crain’s reported. WeWork, one of the largest providers of coworking space, had been leasing roughly 112,000 square feet across four floors at the site since 2015 and is under contract through 2033.
With the lawsuit, Commerz aims to formally retake possession of the space. WeWork shut down operations at 125 South Clark and 39 other locations nationwide as part of a company effort to cut costs.
“WeWork is in a valid lease agreement with a term ending in 2033,” a Commerz spokesman said in a statement. “Several rental payments are outstanding — which WeWork says it will not pay, nor continue to comply with their contractual obligations going forward. As a trustee, we act in the interests of the funds’ investors — private individuals — by filing the eviction lawsuit.”
The legal battle highlights the risk landlords face when leasing to coworking space providers. Such companies who rent on a monthly basis attest that tenants who use its space, which is optimal for hybrid work or shared offices, are deemed responsible for upholding lease agreements rather than the coworking company itself.
WeWork and similar businesses are able to walk away from their contracts and are not accountable for millions of dollars, while landlords are left to fill a huge void.
Commerz now faces the challenge of replacing its largest tenant at the 600,000 square foot building — an especially tricky task given the divided, plug-and-play offices typically associated with coworking space. Plus, Chicago’s office market is already struggling, with vacancy rates rising to a record high this past quarter.
However, coworking space offers greater flexibility that might be more appealing to tenants in a post-pandemic world as companies lean into hybrid work. According to a survey by CBRE, 17 percent of respondents had a significant amount of flexible workspace in their office portfolio, but 51 percent of respondents expected to fit into that category over the next couple years.
WeWork CEO Andre Fernandez said the handful of closures has caused demand to surge at separate locations where it currently operates. In Chicago, WeWork also vacated 50,000 square feet at 332 South Michigan Avenue, boosting occupancy at other buildings simultaneously.
“We’re starting to see that . . . as our supply is getting minimal, people are not staying by the sidelines. They’re actually reacting to get space,” Fernandez said in a conference call, according to the outlet.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoRetailer hits Sterling Bay with lawsuit seeking $515K over lack of office actionChicagoSykes owners file lawsuit against city, Scott GoodmanChicagoLerner vs. Lerner: Father, son battle over $35M Fulton Market dealThe post Commerz files $360K eviction suit against WeWork appeared first on The Real Deal.
Port San Antonio’s Jim Perschbach with rendering of Tech Port campus (Port San Antonio, Pelli Clarke & Partners, Getty)The emerging tech, innovation and entertainment hub known as Port San Antonio gave the green light for development of a futuristic office building befitting its major tenant, DeLorean Motor Company.
The Port San Antonio Board of Directors recently approved Trammell Crow Company’s plans for a 12-story office building at the main entrance to the 1,900-acre technology campus, bounded by Billy Mitchell Boulevard and General Hudnell Drive near the Lackland Air Force Base, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
In January, Port San Antonio President and CEO Jim Perschbach was still in search of an architect for the project, wanting “an iconic building that becomes the gateway, the front door for the campus, the signature for what we’re doing.”
The port and Trammell Crow finally landed Pelli Clarke & Partners, which has designed unique skyscrapers across the globe, including the One Congress in Boston, Block 185 in Austin and Gioia 22 in Milan.
Early renderings for the building show a boot-shaped structure with a winding, rounded curve on the lower portion. Pelli Clarke & Partners already altered the city’s skyline once with the 23-story Frost Bank tower that opened in 2019, the outlet said.
The building will be home to DeLorean Motor Company — an electric car company looking to make a comeback after it made a splash in the 1980s. The city of San Antonio and Bexar County have promised $1 million in incentives if DeLorean creates 450 jobs at the site.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasPort San Antonio office highrise needs architectTexasDeLorean, Bill Miller BBQ win tax breaks for HQs in S.A.San FranciscoDevelopers to pay $40M for delay on 61-story resi tower in DTSFThe post Futuristic design approved for DeLorean HQ appeared first on The Real Deal.
First Republic Bank CEO Mike Roffler (First Republic, Getty)First Republic Bank’s financial challenges not only stem from years of low-interest rate lending, but the fact that a huge chunk of its mortgages were interest-only.
Though interest-only lending plummeted after 2008, First Republic pivoted to extending such mortgages to those with super prime credit scores and the ultra-wealthy, according to Bloomberg.
Now that poses a problem for the bank, given it can’t collect the principal payments on a large portion of its mortgages — a time when it needs to boost its capital reserves amid rising interest rates, a slowdown in home buying and large deposit outflows.
Over the last five years, interest-only mortgages made up a higher share of originations at the bank than any other regional bank, according to data obtained by Bloomberg under the Home Mortgages Disclosure Act.
At the beginning of this year, 60 percent of all single-family mortgages on First Republic’s balance sheet — about $58 billion — were still in interest-only periods.
After the collapse of both Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara and New York-based Signature Bank, First Republic was the victim of a larger contagion, with many customers pulling deposits. Analysts estimate the bank will post a $40 billion drop in deposits when it reports first quarter earnings next month.
First Republic has avoided collapse in large part because of $30 billion in uninsured deposits from a consortium of 11 fellow institutions led by JPMorgan Chase.
The bank has spent the last 15 years building a portfolio of mortgage loans to top-rated credit risks. Its customers are so solid — borrower credit scores average 780 — that Fitch Ratings recently called its assets “pristine.”
However, as rates have skyrocketed, it might have to start paying out more interest on its deposits than it’s reeling in from its mortgages. It also needs to maintain a deposit base sufficient to cover its lending.
Some of its mortgage borrowers include Goldman Sachs President John Waldron, who took out an $11.2 million mortgage in June 2020; R. Lawrence Roth, a board member at Oppenheimer; and record label mogul Todd Moscowitz. All held loans with 10-year, interest-only periods and rates starting below 3 percent.
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Extell Development’s Garry Barnett; former Wellington Hotel at 871 7th Avenue (Extell Development, Google Maps, Getty)Garry Barnett’s Extell Development is planning a hotel at the site of the Wellington, a century-old building near Billionaire’s Row that provided rooms to the homeless during the DeBlasio administration.
Plans made public on Monday by the Department of Buildings suggest the developer will renovate the hotel rather than construct another towering edifice near Central Park South, like the developer’s Central Park Tower or One57 — both condominium buildings.
The proposed hotel, with 214,000 square feet of floor area across 27 stories, closely matches the existing structure and comes as the city’s permitting guidelines for new hotels has throttled supply.
The hotel will include ground-floor retail and business amenities such as a banquet room, commercial kitchen and a lecture hall. Floors 8 to 27 will be used exclusively as a hotel.
Months after Extell agreed to buy the property’s leasehold for $94 million, fee owner Richard Born’s BD Hotels received approval from the city to renovate the building’s first 12 stories, including demolishing at least half of the building’s floor area.
BD Hotel’s Richard Born (Studio Scrivo)The city’s permit requirement would kick in for a renovation if its floor area is increased by 20 percent or more, or if the hotel had been out of use for two consecutive years. The Wellington closed about a year into the pandemic, following a stint as a homeless shelter in 2018.
The hotel, known by travelers for its moderate prices and 600 tiny guest rooms, provided lodging to travelers in Midtown. It is unclear how many rooms the new hotel will offer.
Barnett declined to comment and BD did not immediately return a request for comment.
In 2021, Extell received permits to build a 51-story hotel with 1,350 keys on Eighth Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets, but the project was grandfathered out of the new permitting scheme that requires hotel developments to win approval through the city’s lengthy rezoning process.
Read moreNew YorkTwo lenders put squeeze on Abraham Leifer’s Brooklyn hotelNew YorkTaconic, partners sell Lower East Side retail condos, topping midsize i-sales TexasThe post Extell plans new hotel at shuttered Wellington appeared first on The Real Deal.
Arbor Realty Trust’s Ivan Kaufman, Maurice Kaufman and 6904 South Creiger Avenue (Arbor Realty Trust, Ariel Property Advisors, Google Maps)Arbor Realty Trust is facing a lawsuit from scion Maurice Kaufman’s best friend, who alleges that he and his CEO father, Ivan Kaufman, violated an agreement entitling him to a $1-million finder’s fee for one of Chicago’s largest-ever multifamily deals.
The plaintiff, tech entrepreneur Adam Cooper, says he arranged for Moshe Wechsler’s Emerald Empire to borrow $417 million from Arbor for Emerald’ $600 million purchase of the former Pangea Properties multifamily portfolio on Chicago’s South and West sides that closed late last year, according to the suit filed in a New York court on March 30.
Arbor and Kaufman violated an agreement between the parties that emerged after Cooper introduced Wechsler to Kaufman and facilitated the investor borrowing nearly $1 billion from Arbor for several commercial real estate deals that began in November 2021, including the loan for the Pangea portfolio purchase, according to the filing.
Cooper and Kaufman have been friends for more than 20 years, according to the lawsuit.
“There’s a sense of trust here that was seriously abused by the Kaufman family. It’s unfortunate that they elected to put dollars ahead of relationships,” Cooper’s attorney, Larry Hutcher, told The Real Deal.
A spokesperson for Arbor declined to comment.
Cooper met Wechsler in 2020 and connected him with his friend, having Kaufman in mind as a prospective lender to Emerald. At that time, Kaufman was allegedly “ecstatic” about the possibility and agreed with Cooper that Arbor would pay him a finder’s fee if any deals were consummated, according to the lawsuit.
Cooper’s lawsuit says he worked regularly to resolve tensions between the two parties to make sure Arbor’s first loan to Emerald went through. The deal closed successfully and both parties went on to work on several subsequent deals, according to the suit.
In fall 2021, Cooper made a written agreement with Wechsler that Emerald would pay Cooper’s fee on bridge loans, with the caveat that Cooper would not be entitled to a fee on any deals procured using a mortgage broker so that Emerald would not have to pay both Cooper and the broker.
Cooper made a verbal agreement with Kaufman that Arbor would pay Cooper’s fees of 0.25 percent on any future agency loans. But Kaufman allegedly cautioned that financing terms differ and that they would figure out the appropriate percentage owed when Emerald procured its first agency loan from Arbor, according to the lawsuit.
When Wechsler was approached by broker Meridian Capital Group to buy the Pangea portfolio, Cooper’s lawsuit says he encouraged him to use Arbor for financing over Meridian’s lending arm, NewPoint Real Estate Capital, despite Meridian telling Wechsler they would be “offended” if he used Arbor. The resulting agency loan would have been the first deal that entitled Cooper to receive payment from Kaufman, according to his attorney.
When the deal was several months away from closing, Kaufman told Cooper that he did not have to pay a finder’s fee for the Chicago deal because a broker was involved in the deal, then later said the parties never came to an agreement on a finder’s fee, which “devastated” Cooper, according to the lawsuit.
The suit also states that an August 2022 email from Kaufman reveals that he was upset that Cooper’s fee would be more than his own compensation for the deal.
After the deal closed, Kaufman allegedly offered Cooper $100,000 if he waived all rights to future fees. Cooper refused, believing he was entitled to more than 10 times that amount and he knew future agency loans were already in the works between Emerald and Arbor, according to the suit.
Arbor is also facing other legal trouble in Houston, where the firm foreclosed on four low-income multifamily properties valued at $229 million, TRD reported earlier this month.
Read moreChicagoEmerald Empire buys Pangea’s Chicago portfolio in $600M dealHoustonArbor forecloses on $229M portfolioSouth FloridaAri Pearl completes luxury apartment tower in Hallandale Beach, scores $150M refiThe post Arbor hit with lawsuit over finder’s fee in Emerald Empire deal appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: One Sansome’s Michael Barker and Starwood Capital Group’s Barry S. Sternlicht (Getty, One Sansome)Starwood Capital has signed a 10-year lease for just under 11,000 square feet on the 32nd floor of One Sansome, The Real Deal has learned.
The real estate investment trust management firm will leave behind its former San Francisco offices at 100 Pine Street in late summer, according to Michael Barker, whose Barker Pacific Group owns One Sansome along with Prudential Real Estate Investors. Financial terms of the lease were not disclosed.
“We’re in final design,” said Barker. “We’re building out some very, very nice space for them. This is space that’s unoccupied that we’re totally remodeling for their specific needs.”
Barker said the global real estate investor was drawn to the building’s location on top of the Montgomery BART station, as well as its newly revamped amenities package, which includes a $20 million investment in its ground-floor space. That renovation involved turning a portion of the former lobby into flexible conference rooms that tenants in the buildings can rent out free of charge. Starwood loved having the option of using those spaces, as it meant the firm could have less square footage in its office but still have spots for larger meetings when necessary, Barker said.
The short-term leases that have become popular in San Francisco as office tenants remain uncertain about the future of remote work policies while vacancy rates trend higher and higher, have not been a big factor in the deals signed at One Sansome in the last year, Barker said.
“Some of these companies want to have a long-term home,” he said, pointing to other recent long-term leases. They include commercial real estate investor Ellis Partners; brokerage Newmark, which took the top two floors and also represents the building; and an expansion and extension from current tenant HIG Capital.
None of those recent deals include tech companies, he pointed out.
“Tech guys, I think that’s where you’re hearing a lot of this short-term stuff,” he said.
Read moreSan FranciscoSF’s Century-old One Sansome Street to get $20M revampSan FranciscoCan SF’s “trophy” offices lure staffers back to work?San FranciscoSF office commissions climb as vacancies expected to growOne Sansome is diversifying into the wedding industry, Barker said, hosting hundreds of wedding planners in one of its first events at its newly renovated and weatherized Conservatory space, a columned granite and glass atrium first built in 1910 to be the home of Anglo and London Paris National Bank. The 16,000-square-foot space can accommodate up to 2,000 people and — thanks to new windows, heating and cooling systems, as well as a deal worked out over several years with the city to enclose the privately-owned public open space and have it off limits to the public during certain days and hours — is now available for private events. Several weddings have already been booked, he added.
“We’re spending a lot of money on this,” Barker said of the new ground-floor amenities, including a high-end British-pub-style restaurant set to open this summer. “And we think it’ll pay off in the long run.”
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Estate Companies’ Jeffrey Ardizon and Robert Suris and a rendering of Soleste Palm StationEstate Companies scored approval for its first apartment project in downtown West Palm Beach.
The 321-unit development will consist of a pair of eight-story buildings at 520 North Rosemary Avenue, a half-mile walk from the Brightline station, according to an Estate news release.
Dubbed Soleste Palm Station, the 298,000-square-foot project will offer studios, as well as one- to three-bedroom apartments at market rate rents. Units will range from 330 square feet to 1,300 square feet.
The city’s Downtown Action Committee gave final approval of Soleste Palm Station last week. No additional city approvals are needed.
Estate is a multifamily developer that has built projects in several Miami-Dade and Broward submarkets. While the firm has built townhouses and single-family homes in West Palm, Soleste Palm Station will be Estate’s first multifamily project in the city.
Estate paid $15.8 million for the 2.5-acre development site in 2021.
The firm’s expansion to markets north of Miami-Dade includes three projects in Hollywood. They are the 12-story Soleste Hollywood Village North at 2001 Van Buren Street, and the eight-story Soleste Hollywood Village South at 2000 Van Buren Street, as well as the eight-story Soleste Hollywood Boulevard at 2001 Hollywood Boulevard.
Based in South Miami, the firm also built projects in the city of West Miami. Estate’s projects there include Soleste West Gables I, Soleste West Gables II, Soleste Club Prado and Soleste Alameda, all of which the firm sold shortly after completion.
It also recently completed the 240-unit Soleste Spring Gardens at 1033 Spring Garden Road near Miami’s Health District.
Estate is led by managing principal Robert Suris and principal Jeffrey Ardizon.
The firm’s wager on downtown West Palm comes as the area is experiencing a real estate boom, though much of that is focused on the office market and less on residential construction.
Developer Steve Ross, whose Related Companies is the biggest office landlord in downtown West Palm, plans to build the East Tower and West Tower on the northeast corner of South Rosemary Avenue and Hibiscus Street. The projects would be at The Square mixed-use complex that Related built in 2000. They would be Ross’ seventh and eighth office buildings in downtown West Palm, including acquisitions and new development.
Among multifamily buildings on tap in downtown West Palm is Arnaud Karsenti’s 13th Floor Investments and Wexford Real Estate Investors’ 25-story, 372-unit apartment tower. It is planned for between Fern and Gardenia streets, and between Quadrille Boulevard and South Dixie Highway.
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LA City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez (Getty)In a bid to bolster local affordable housing stock, the L.A. City Council has approved a motion designed to encourage more legal permitting of accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who presented the motion, championed the initiative as a way to cut red tape and “encourage residents to come forward and convert unpermitted units into legal ADUs,” she said in a statement.
“Los Angeles is experiencing a severe housing crisis,” Rodriguez added, “and we need to continue to do everything in our power to provide relief for our communities and utilize existing ADUs.”
The 15-member City Council unanimously approved Rodgriguez’s motion on Friday, City News Service and other outlets reported.
ADUs, which are small living quarters typically built in the backyards of single-family properties, are also called “granny flats.”
The motion aims to boost the city’s affordable housing stock by bringing more existing ADUs into legal compliance. Under current rules, the owners of unpermitted or illegal ADUs must first receive a Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) before they can apply to convert the units into legal housing.
Read moreLos AngelesCalifornia Legislature Passes 4 Housing BillsLos AngelesLos Angeles considers amnesty for owners of illegal ADUsLos AngelesYes, in my backyard: Brokers say new accessory dwelling unit law will reduce barriers to buildingBut to receive the CofO, the applicant must return the unit to its original state — for example a garage that’s been converted into housing must be returned to a garage — a process that can be onerous, expensive and time consuming. The motion seeks to temporarily waive that requirement if the units are dedicated as affordable housing, and directs the city attorney to report back to the council on the best way to implement the amnesty program.
Rodriguez first pitched the amnesty plan in December, and has described the rule change as a “win-win” for ADU owners and the city.
— Trevor Bach
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(Getty Images)No one wants to be on a blacklist.
But that’s where a number of properties are finding themselves, as lending firms Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have changed their criteria following the collapse of the Surfside, Florida, condominium in 2021, the Daily News reported.
Properties that haven’t kept up with maintenance or aren’t on firm financial footing have been put on a confidential list that only lenders and servicers have access to, according to the outlet.
That’s caught some would-be condo buyers and those looking to refinance their mortgages by surprise.
“It’s a crapshoot,” Orest Tomaselli, project review president for CondoTek, a company that provides documents and services to condo and co-op lenders, told the outlet. “The only way for you to find out if a (condo) project is on that list is if you apply for a mortgage and the lender runs that project to see if it’s unavailable. And only then, typically, is a buyer informed.”
The list, which stands at about 1,400 properties, is also growing, leaving some buyers or owners looking to refinance having to pay more in interest to get mortgages, if they can get them at all.
A spokesperson for the lenders defended the list, saying it only affects less than 1 percent of properties.
“These measures help protect borrowers from physically unsafe or financially unstable (condo or co-op) projects,” a spokesperson said in an email to the Daily News.
The Federal Housing Administration keeps a similar list of properties ineligible for FHA mortgages, but the list is public.
Real estate professionals say the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac list should also be public.
“We think it would be a real benefit to the industry — not just servicers and lenders but also real estate agents or the HOAs,” Ken Fears, NAR’s director of conventional finance and valuation policy, told the outlet. “If there’s erroneous information about the property on this registry, there’s no way for an HOA or agent to know about it or to contest it, and that’s very problematic.”
— Ted Glanzer
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(Illustration by The Real Deal)A racketeering lawsuit against a company that billed itself as a one-stop shop for teaching people how to flip houses has been granted class-action status by a federal judge in Cincinnati.
Ohio-based Build Realty and other companies (including Edgar Construction, First Title, Gary Bailey and George Triantafilou) advertised through seminars, social media, websites and other media that it would teach people how to flip homes with little or no money down and no credit checks, WCPO reported.
But a lawsuit filed in federal court alleges students from Ohio and Kentucky between 2013 and 2019 were scammed by the company through deceptive practices and a large-scale racketeering enterprise through mail fraud, the outlet said.
The alleged victims believed they were buying properties that they owned when they really became beneficiaries of a trust, according to the lawsuit.
“In many, many respects, it was a scam,” attorney Bill Markovits, who represents the plaintiffs, told the outlet. “They said, ‘We buy in bulk and pass the savings onto you.’ They didn’t. They bought from the market, they marked up the property, and then you paid at a marked-up price.”
The class is composed of people who paid at least $10,000 to the company, which is between 200 and 300 people, the outlet reported. The judge also approved a separate, smaller class of plaintiffs — up to about 40 people — who lost their properties to Build Realty.
Some people allegedly lost their life savings in the scheme, with alleged damages estimated to be in the millions, according to Finney Law Firm.
Olga Feree said she lost tens of thousands of dollars she paid Build Realty to renovate a two-family home.
“They would always feed me all of this nonsense and lead me on and say, ‘Oh, it’s a great investment,’” Ferree told the outlet. “They are sneaky, they create corporation on top of corporation and there’s nothing you can do.”
While Build Realty did not respond to inquiries for comment, in court papers it defended itself by saying it’s a legitimate business. Attorneys for the company have also filed an appeal with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the class status ruling.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreNationalMonumental NAR lawsuit snags class action statusNew YorkPapaya King settles with landlord at Extell dev siteNew YorkLandlord claims he was “sandbagged” by Maverick while in prisonThe post Class-action status granted in suit against house-flipping company appeared first on The Real Deal.
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Times Square (Getty Images)It’s a classic clash between a group looking to bring a new, but controversial, business to the area and several locals who want no part of it — only this time both sides have clout and money.
Caesars Entertainment and SL Green Corp. are looking to bring a casino, backed by rapper and business mogul Jay-Z, to Times Square. They’ve got the backing of numerous local supporters — including several unions, a couple of nearby hotel chains, restaurants and landlords — through the formation of “Coalition for a Better Times Square,” the New York Times reported.
On the other side, however, is No Times Square Casino Community Coalition, a well-funded group formed by the Broadway League trade association, which says the casino would harm the area’s local character and keep people, notably tourists, from the area.
Among the NTSCCC’s members is Max Klimivicius, owner of the iconic Saardi’s restaurant, who told the Times the casino would “jeopardize the character of the theater district and ultimately the fate of its restaurants. Casinos are designed to keep the gamblers inside. They have their own restaurants.”
The opposition group also has a couple of eateries owned by Joe Allen, a church, five residents associations, a bus association and a youth travel association
It also has the backing of Related Companies, the owner of the Manhattan Plaza, a 1,700-unit apartment building near the site of the proposed Times Square casino. Related is backing a proposal to build a casino on the West Side of Manhattan.
The Times notes the approval process — including a community advisory committee composed of local elected officials, a supermajority of whom are required for a proposal to move forward — favors opposition groups.
State Sen. Liz Krueger, who is on the committee and represents Times Square, seems to be against the proposal.
“I’m still waiting for one human being who lives in my district who doesn’t work for one of the casino companies bidding or the P.R. companies working for them to tell me that they really, really think that a casino is a great idea,” she told the Times. “I think it’s a terrible idea.”
The state is giving out three downstate casino licenses, which has brought out a veritable who’s who of Big Apple real estate players pursuing a piece of the action. SL Green, Related Companies, the Soloviev Group, Thor Equities and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen are among those in the running. Las Vegas Sands and Saks Fifth Avenue owner Hudson’s Bay Company have also joined the fray.
Two sites, Aqueduct Racetrack and Yonkers Raceway, appeared to have a leg up on the competition, as they already have gambling.
— Ted Glanzer
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Highland Ridge apartments in Waterbury (Google Maps)A Brooklyn-based investor purchased from New Wilston Associates a 147-unit apartment complex in Waterbury, Connecticut, for $19.3 million.
The investor, Gershon Eichorn, used three LLCs — Northeast Holdings, HH CT LLC and AEL Group — to transfer the three-building apartment complex, called Highland Ridge on Schraffts Drive and Gayridge Road, to Berry Equities LLC, the Hartford Business Journal reported.
Eichorn is listed as the principal of Berry Equities, the outlet said.
The complex has three 41,000-square-foot buildings that sit on nearly 6.5 acres. Each building has at least 47 units.
Chozick Realty Inc. had the listing.
It’s not the only apartment complex in Connecticut to have sold.
In March, Jones Street purchased from San Francisco-based Hamilton Zanze both Middletown Brooke and Middletown Ridge apartments, which have a total of 520 units, for a combined $94 million.
Yellowstone Property Group purchased the 164-unit Reserve41 complex at 41 Wolfpit Avenue in Norwalk in late December 2022 for $48.7 million from Norpointe LLC, a partnership led by Greenwich-based real estate investment firm Belpointe.
In November, Brookfield Asset Management sold two multifamily complexes — the Winchester Lofts in New Haven and 1111 Stratford in Stratford — as part of a three-property, $117 million deal with Illinois-based B3 Holdings LLC. The transaction also included the 195-unit Ashton Mills in Cumberland, Rhode Island.
In February 2022, office landlord Monday Properties paid $131 million for 75 Tresser Boulevard, a 344-unit apartment building in the city’s downtown, in Stamford. Less than a decade old, the four-story property sits a few blocks from the Stamford Metro-North and Amtrak station and 677 Washington Boulevard, an office complex that recently added Philip Morris International and World Wrestling Entertainment as tenants.
— Ted Glanzer
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Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park in Malibu (Google Maps)Tucked into an iconic cove in Malibu is America’s most expensive trailer park –– a spot coveted by the rich, the famous, and the surfers who have been there for generations.
Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park is home to just 256 mobile homes, the Wall Street Journal first reported. Residents have direct access to a secluded beach with an iconic surf break, and share a view of the Pacific with California’s most expensive real estate. Also on the Malibu bluff are the trophy estates of billionaire a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen, natural gas billionaire Michael Smith and media billionaire Byron Allen.
Andreessen’s 7-acre estate holds the California price record for a residential property –– he dropped a cool $177 million in that purchase.
While trailers in the cove don’t cost quite that much, they don’t come cheap these days, either.
Recent listings for mobile homes in the park post asking prices as high as $5.9 million, the outlet reported. The current price record in the park sits at $5.3 million, but agents told the publication they’ve heard of off-market deals close to $7 million.
All that money, and they still have to pay rent. That’s right –– the catch of a mobile home park is residents don’t own the land beneath them. The cove is owned by the Kissel family, who manages the park as the Paradise Cove Land Company.
Lifeguard captain Ryan Addison and emergency room nurse Darlene Addison bought their lease in 2009 for $315,000, paid an additional $150,000 for their three-bedroom, two-bathroom mobile home and currently pay $1,500 in monthly rent, according to the outlet.
“We got lucky,” Ryan Addison told the journal. “There’s no way we’d ever be able to move in now.”
While the prices of the cove’s trailers can rise at the whim of the market, the rent is regulated by local rent control laws. Monthly rates can range from the Addisons’ $1,500 to more than $4,000, the outlet reported.
With the ballooning value of the park, the Kissels have tried unsuccessfully to fight the rent control over the years.
“We’re in California, where property rights go to die,” Steve Dahlberg, a member of the Kissel family, told the outlet. “It’s frustrating to watch wealthy people move in and pay $5 million for a trailer and then pay such a low, artificially restricted rent.”
The cove has had its share of rich and famous residents –– Stevie Nicks, Matthew McConaughey, Minnie Driver, Pamela Anderson and Betsy Johnson, to name a few. Still the park hasn’t been completely taken over by Architectural Digest-worthy mobile homes like actor Sarah Paulson’s.
Plenty of less-than-luxury trailers remain, pointing to the park’s roots as a quiet, treasured surf break. For many years, it was near impossible to surf Paradise Cove without being a resident of the park thanks to limited parking and beach access. Surfers won a legal fight against the Kissel family for public access in 2014, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Some of the longtime residents have cashed out on their unexpectedly profitable trailer park investments. Ted Silverberg, a former Paradise Cove lifeguard, lived in the park for almost 40 years, the outlet reported. He sold his trailer to a member of the Johnson & Johnson family for $2.4 million in 2019 and moved to Hawaii. The cove was not what it once was, he told the publication.
“It was paradise before it sold out.”
–– Kate Hinsche
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(Getty Images)Even under the most brutal circumstances, this is not the way a succession is supposed to play out.
Anthony Zottola Sr., of Westchester, and Himen Ross, of the Bronx, were both sentenced in federal court to life in prison plus 112 years last week for their roles in the killing of Anthony’s father, 71-year-old Sylvester Zottola, in Anthony’s effort to take over the family’s residential real estate company, according to a Department of Justice press release.
Sylvester Zottola owned a residential real estate portfolio consisting of two-dozen multi-family rental and commercial properties — valued at tens of millions of dollars at the time of his death — which Anthony Zottola and his brother Salvatore Zottola managed together.
Anthony Zottola, however, wanted the multimillion-dollar business for himself, so he hired Bushawn Shelton of Brooklyn to recruit hitmen to kill both his father and his brother.
Shelton hired Ross and several accomplices to shoot and kill 71-year-old Sylvester Zottola at a Bronx McDonald’s in October 2018.
Sylvester’s killing took place after several failed attempts on his and Salvatore’s lives beginning in late 2017. The attempts included Sylvester being menaced at gunpoint by a masked person in November 2017; Sylvester being shot in the head, stabbed several times and having his throat slashed by three men who invaded his home in December 2017; and Salvatore being shot in the head, chest and hand in front of his home in July 2018. Both men survived those attacks.
The hitmen ultimately were able to track Sylvester to the Bronx McDonald’s by placing a tracking device on Sylvester’s car. Ross then shot Sylvester multiple times as Sylvester waited for a cup of coffee in the drive-thru lane.
Following the killing, Shelton and Anthony Zottola exchanged texts, including Shelton saying, “Can we party today or tomorrow?” Anthony replied that payment would be made later, saying “I have the cases of water in a day or so.”
Authorities later recovered a photo on Shelton’s phone showing a box of bottle water and more than $200,000 in cash.
After a six-week trial, Anthony Salvatore and Ross were convicted of murder in October 2022. Their sentencing Friday included an additional 112 years in prison, reflecting Salvatore’s age when he was shot, 41, and Sylvester’s age, 71, when he was killed.
“Over the course of more than a year, the elderly victim, Sylvester Zottola, was stalked, beaten, and stabbed, never knowing who orchestrated the attacks,” Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in the press release. “It was his own son, who was so determined to control the family’s lucrative real estate business that he hired a gang of hitmen to murder his father.”
Shelton pleaded guilty to murder last August and is awaiting sentencing. Co-conspirators Herman Blanco, Arthur Codner, Jason Cummings, and Branden Peterson each pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 240 months’ imprisonment, 228 months’ imprisonment, 204 months’ imprisonment, and 192 months’ imprisonment respectively.
“Zottola had not one, not two, but multiple chances to rethink his deadly intent to murder his own father. He and the others he recruited chose to continue with their savage plot and succeeded. Now, instead of living off his father’s millions, his only payday will be federal prison,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll said in a previous statement.
— Ted Glanzer
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(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Nantucket is a popular vacation destination, but a proposal would make it harder for visitors to find lodging — and for homeowners to make a few extra bucks.
Residents of the Massachusetts island will vote on Warrant Article 60 at the annual town meeting on May 6, Boston.com reported. The legislation would restrict short-term rentals in residential areas of the exclusive enclave.
Sponsored by a lifelong resident, the measure would change the zoning law to ban short-term rentals in residential areas, though there are a couple of exceptions. Homeowners would be able to rent their properties if they are used as a residence for longer than a rental.
Proponents of the measure say it will prevent the commercialization of the island as investors proliferate across the neighborhoods. The unregulated nature of many short-term rentals is also a concern for some residents.
On the other side of the debate, opponents fear the measure would harm the local economy and be difficult to enforce. Because of the nature of the island, there are also many who cannot live there year round as not all properties are winterized. That means those who can’t live at their properties for six months won’t be able to rent them out, either.
Among the opponents to the legislation is short-term rental operator Vrbo, which said in a statement that it would have a “devastating effect” on the local community and tourism economy.
Read moreNew YorkNew England town’s Airbnb hosts balk at new feeNationalDavid Malm has a $100M portfolio in Martha’s Vineyard, NantucketNew YorkRed Sox owner John Henry buys Nantucket estateTown leaders are opposing the resolution, at least for the time being. They have commissioned a working group to study the impact of short-term rentals in Nantucket and make a recommendation, but the working group isn’t set to deliver its results until the fall.
Nantucket is far from alone in attempting to curtail short-term rentals in its jurisdiction. Elsewhere in Massachusetts, Great Barrington started requiring short-term rental hosts to pay a $200 annual registration fee, leaving owners balking at another roadblock to rent out their homes.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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Applied Companies’ Joe Barry (Hoboken Sailing Club, Getty)Joseph Gallo’s “Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime” wasn’t written to be an interactive play, but Applied Companies co-founder Joe Barry had other ideas.
Barry interrupted an evening performance of the play at Hoboken’s Mile Square Theater last Wednesday, the Jersey Journal reported. The retired developer of Applied — now Ironstate Development — wasn’t pleased with the depiction of local landlords and developers in the 1980s.
The incident occurred around 8:30 p.m. during the first act of the play, which featured Barry as a character himself. One witness said Barry was cursing in a “somewhat loud voice,” while another said he yelled “this is all lies” before approaching the stage, incensed by the characterization of landlords pushing out tenants to redevelop properties in the midst of the famed fires of the 1980s.
When Barry reached the stage, he knocked over the music stand of Hoboken councilperson and moonlighting actress Jen Giattino. That led one of the witnesses, former Jersey Journal photographer Bill Bayer, to confront Barry on stage.
Police responded to the scene, though Barry wasn’t arrested. The actor portraying him, however, also had a chance to confront him and the retired developer made his identity clear to everyone in attendance while being escorted out. Then, the play resumed.
“How are you going to forget the play and that night?” Bayer said afterwards, describing the surreal evening.
Ironically, the play is named for a book Barry co-published, a series of letters new residents sent to Barry’s Hoboken Reporter newspaper in the 1980s. The playwright interviewed community members from the period before writing the play.
Barry and his father co-founded Applied Companies in 1970. It started with a focus on Section 8 housing, but ultimately developed luxury buildings in the city. In 2004, Barry started a sentence of more than a year in federal prison after a guilty plea to paying $115,000 in bribes to a county executive to support one of those luxury developments.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkBarry’s worldNew YorkIronstate: Ironclad on developmentTri-StateSign of the times: Hoboken townhouse sells $1M below askThe post “This is all lies”: Developer disrupts Hoboken play appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)There’s a downside to the factory boom in the U.S., namely when it comes to real estate.
While the country has plenty of land, it doesn’t have “megasites” that are conducive to building large, state-of-the-art factories, Reuters reported.
Volkswagen’s Scout Motors, for example, looked at nearly 75 parcels to build a multibillion-dollar plant, only to settle on a site in South Carolina that was 1,600 acres instead of its desired 2,000 acres.
Scout wasn’t alone. Multiple companies are searching for sites of at least 1,000 acres that are accessible, have transport, have skilled labor nearby, and also have access to cheap, green energy.
The boom is due in large part to government incentives, a concern over supply chains in places like China, and the conversion to new energy technology, the outlet reported.
The Biden administration so far has noted the problem, but also said it’s a nice one to have.
“Folks are finding places to build,” one White House official told Reuters. “I don’t think I’ve heard of one company abandoning plans to go forward because they’re not able to find a site.”
Indeed, while plans to build a factory may not have been scrapped, locations have changed.
For example, Rivian Automotive switched plans to build a $5 billion factory from outside Fort Worth, Texas, to Georgia because the transportation infrastructure was not in place.
Some have specific requirements — like Intel needing its $20 billion semiconductor plant in Ohio not be too close to a railroad because the vibration would be too disruptive.
Another issue is power — as in many of the large factories, like battery plants, need lots of it.
“Some of these projects require hundreds of megawatts,” Didi Caldwell, president of consultancy firm Global Location Strategies, told Reuters. “At the same time, we’re shutting a lot of coal plants.”
At least several states, including Michigan, South Carolina, Virginia and North Carolina, are doing what they can to create industrial sites in the near future. Not that it’s easy, what with environmental regulations as well as local pushback making it difficult to create them.
— Ted Glanzer
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CT Realty’s James Watson and Turf Paradise (Turf Paradise)A California developer is negotiating to buy a historic, but struggling racetrack in Arizona.
James Watson, managing partner of CT Realty, is under contract to buy Turf Paradise in Phoenix from owner Jerry Simms and several partners, Axios Arizona reported.
Watson said that if the deal goes through, horse racing will continue for at least the next couple of years, though he also plans to redevelop at least some of the property with industrial and multifamily uses, the outlet reported.
“We’re a national real estate development company, and we’re intrigued by the racing element,” Watson told the outlet.
The deal could close by mid-August, Bloodhorse.com reported.
“The horsemen are excited for a new owner. Unfortunately, the new owner probably doesn’t have racing in his long-term plans,” Leroy Gessman, executive director of the Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, told Bloodhorse.com. “But they have indicated, anyway, they plan to run for two or three more years, and in the meantime we’re looking at alternatives for other places.”
Simms has owned Turf Paradise, which opened in 1956, for the past 23 years after purchasing it for $53 million.
“I’d rather spend time with my grandkids,” he told Axios.
It’s the second horse racing track in the Phoenix area that is in negotiations to sell.
The Stronach Group, which owns six tracks across the nation, is under contract to purchase Arizona Downs, Bloodhorse.com said. The intent, if the sale goes through, is for Arizona Downs to continue racing horses, though it does not have any dates set for this year.
The sales have thrown the future of horse racing in Arizona into question. They’re also not the only recent high-profile track sales.
The Chicago Bears closed the deal to buy the former Arlington International Racecourse in the northwest suburb for $197 million.
The team sent out an open letter, announcing the closing of the purchase from longtime owner and horse racing company Churchill Downs.
“Last fall, we released an open letter confirming the team had reached an agreement for the purpose of acquiring 326 acres of property in Arlington Heights to secure the potential of beginning a new and exciting chapter for the Bears, our fans, the Chicagoland community, and the State of Illinois,” the letter reads. “This week, we took another step toward realizing that vision by closing on the Arlington Park property.”
— Ted Glanzer
The post CT Realty looks to buy historic Phoenix horse racing track appeared first on The Real Deal.
Toll Brothers’ Doug Yearly and a rendering of Vermeer (Getty, Twitter/Toll Brothers, Vemeer)The Toll Brothers rental subsidiary along with partner CrossHarbor Capital Partners have broken ground on a 13-story, 501-unit multifamily apartment complex and mixed-use development in Washington, D.C., according to a release.
The Toll Brothers Apartment Living’s development, called the Vermeer, is being financed by a Bank OZK construction loan and is expected to be completed sometime next year.
The development at 113 Potomac Avenue SW — in the Buzzard Point neighborhood — will have 12 stories of apartments, with the ground floor having retail (37,000 square feet of space) on the 1.5-acre site, according to the release. Amenities will include a 267-space parking garage with EV charging stations, a rooftop courtyard, a rooftop pool, fitness center with hydration bar, lounge area, an outdoor lounge and firepit, a pet spa, coworking spaces, conference rooms, bike and tenant storage.
Studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments will range from about 460 to 1,550 square feet.
The Vermeer will be next to Audi Field, which is home to Washington, D.C.’s professional men’s and women’s soccer teams, and will be accessible to the city’s Metro.
It’s the fourth development in D.C. for Toll Brothers Apartment Living, which has more than 3,000 rental units either completed or under construction, including Union Place, Banner Lane and Parc Riverside, a nearly 600-unit community also in the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District, according to Michael Skena, the company’s mid-Atlantic regional director of acquisitions and development.
The Vermeer is the fifth Opportunity Zone project developed by Toll Brothers Apartment Living in the U.S., including Piper, which is a six-story, 393-unit multifamily complex in South Norwalk.
Read moreNationalToll Brothers buys 100 acres in Arizona for $25MSan FranciscoToll Brothers project starts with $95M Sunnyvale land buySan FranciscoToll Brothers project starts with $95M Sunnyvale land buyThat project, which will have 356 market-rate and 37 affordable units, with a parking garage with nearly 600 spaces, is being financed with a $136 million construction loan from Wells Fargo and TD Bank.
Piper is the second large project in southeastern Connecticut. The first, Julius, is a 356-unit luxury complex at 777 Summer Street in downtown Stamford. The development has 334 market-rate apartments, plus 22 set aside as affordable.
— Ted Glanzer
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Randy Parker and 2499 E. Maya Palm Drive (LinkedIn; The Jills Zeder Group/1 Oak Studios)A luxe waterfront estate in Boca Raton has hit the market for $52 million, making it the priciest residential listing in the city.
The three-lot, 1.7-acre Parker Estate, which is in the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club neighborhood at 2499 E. Maya Palm Drive, is owned by Randy Parker, the founder of the online marketing firm Constant Contact, according to the listing.
The home is being sold through a family trust, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Jill Hertzberg and Jon Mann of The Jills Zeder Group have the listing.
The luxe, 10,000-square-foot main house has three bedrooms, custom ceilings and windows, as well as a principal suite on the top level with expansive views, large closets, his-and-hers bath suites, sitting areas and private access to a rooftop sun patio.
There is a separate guest house, designed to be reminiscent of the bungalows at the Little Palm Island resort in the Florida Keys, with a palm-frond ceiling, soaking tub for two and a private outdoor shower.
Randy Parker and 2499 E. Maya Palm Drive (LinkedIn; The Jills Zeder Group/1 Oak Studios)The grounds, which were designed and maintained by Craig Morell, include two swimming pools, one an infinity-edge pool that wraps around the main house, a covered patio for outdoor entertaining, an open kitchen with a 15-foot-long island and double stoves, ovens, sinks and dishwashers.
The estate has nearly 440 feet of water frontage overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway and a side canal, as well as a vacant 0.4-acre lot across the street.
If the property sells for its asking price, it will set a record for a residential sale in Boca Raton, the Journal said.
Parker’s father, Glen K. Parker, bought the properties with his wife, Sandy, in the mid-1990s and built the home to be their primary residence. Glenn K. Parker, who died last year, founded The Institute for Econometric Research, which was ultimately acquired by Time, Inc., in 1998.
Luxury homes in private communities have been in high demand in Boca Raton, especially since the pandemic ignited a South Florida real estate boom.
Investment chief Stanley Moss and his wife Lisa bought a waterfront spec home in Boca Raton from luxury developer Group P6 for $11.2 million.
Last month, luxury builders Steve and Scott Dingle set the Boca Raton price record, selling a waterfront spec mansion in the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club for $28 million.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreSouth FloridaFinancier buys waterfront Boca Raton spec home for $11MSouth FloridaTrinsic scores $92M refi for Aura Boca apartment buildingSouth FloridaWaterfront Boca Raton spec mansion sells for $19MThe post Luxe waterfront Boca Raton estate lists for $52M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Aaron Judge (Getty Images)All Rise is in a high rise.
Fresh off signing a massive nine-year, $360 million contract to remain with the New York Yankees, reigning American League MVP and newly minted team captain Aaron Judge and his wife Samantha Bracksieck have purchased a penthouse at the recently completed Cortland at 555 West 22nd Street in Chelsea, the New York Post reported.
The 25-story building has three floors of penthouses, none of which have hit the market. Judge’s penthouse, according to the outlet, is 7,000 square feet, with high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows and views of the Hudson River.
There was no price attached to the acquisition, though two units on the building’s 22nd floor fetched a combined $40 million, the Post reported, citing StreetEasy.
The building, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Olson Kundig, has a screening room that doubles as a performance space with a stage, an interactive virtual reality room, game room, maker space for children; a spa with a 75-foot pool, sauna, yoga and pilates studio and treatment room; and a golf simulator.
It wasn’t a certainty that Judge would be laying down roots in Manhattan when the Yankees’ season ended last year at the hands of the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series.
Judge bet on himself by declining the Yankees’ best offer in the spring of 2022. He responded with a career year, slugging an American League record 62 home runs and driving in 131 runs, to go along with a 1.111 OPS and 10.6 WAR, according to Baseball Reference. Several teams in the off season wooed Judge, including the San Diego Padres, who reportedly offered north of $400 million to secure the services of the 6-foot-7 slugger.
He’s off to a fast start this year, having hit five home runs with eight RBIs and a .294 batting average through 14 games for the 8-6 Yankees.
Judge isn’t the only New York baseball player to be active in the real estate market,
In March, Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo bought a five-bedroom home in Old Westbury for $5 million.
Meanwhile, Mets pitcher Max Scherzer bought a waterfront estate in Jupiter, Florida, near his current home.
— Ted Glanzer
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Amazon’s Andy Jassy (Getty)Amazon’s attempt to go after two former Amazon Web Services real estate managers isn’t gaining much traction through the legal system.
A federal judge dismissed all but one of the eight claims the company made against two of its former real estate managers, GeekWire reported. Amazon has accused the pair, Carl Nelson and Casey Kirschner, of defrauding the company out of millions through data center development deals.
Amazon alleges it suffered damages through inflated prices paid on real estate leases and purchases. The summary judgment, however, indicated that the company did not succeed in showing evidence of financial damage.
The three-year case boils down to the legality of payments made to Nelson and Kirschner. On one side, Amazon says real estate development firms paid the pair as part of “a massive fraud and kickback scheme.” On the other side, Nelson and Kirschner said payments were permissible business activities.
In court filings, Nelson said the arrangements with real estate firms were part of normal consulting relationships. Nelson added they were made after the termination of his employment at Amazon, for which no reason was given.
The only claim being allowed to proceed is one of civil conspiracy against Nelson, Kirschner, developer Brian Watson and others. There’s also a tortious interference claim continuing on against Watson.
Amazon learned of the alleged scheme when an anonymous email was sent to Jeff Bezos. The company said in a statement that it would proceed with the case, “confident in pursuing the case given the extensive amount of evidence.”
No criminal charges have been filed against the former AWS real estate managers. Two people pleaded guilty to related criminal charges, though, including Kirschner’s brother.
The latest ruling also revealed Amazon deceived Kirschner into giving his work laptop to its IT department by sending him a malware alert. Kirschner was unaware that Amazon was investigating the alleged kickback scheme.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkAmazon binge ends in hangover, halt on warehouse deals amid $4B lossTri-StateAmazon store paying its rent, but landlord Pyramid sues anywayNew YorkDurst prevails in $21M lawsuit over soured Amazon dealThe post Most Amazon claims against former real estate managers tossed appeared first on The Real Deal.
Justice Clarence Thomas, Harlan Crow and Patrick Carroll (Wikipedia, George W. Bush Presidential Center, Carroll)“Nobody knows anybody. Not that well.” — Tom Reagan, “Miller’s Crossing”
In the mid-1990s, a man by the name of John Spano tried to buy the New York Islanders even though he didn’t have nearly enough money to pull off the transaction.
There are at least shades of that story in Jacob Garlick — the mystery man who prevailed at auction for the iconic but dilapidated Flatiron Building with an eye watering $190 million bid, only to fail to come up with the 10 percent down payment — who claims he still wants to buy the property.
The problem is, even though his behavior doesn’t appear to rise to the level of criminality, he seems to be the only person who believes he can.
“Why would you take anything he is saying seriously?” GFP Real Estate’s Jeffrey Gural, who has held a stake in the office building and was the runner-up in last month’s auction, said.
Meanwhile, real estate mogul Patrick Carroll apparently let his emotions get the best of him when he allegedly spat on a manager of a trendy restaurant in Wynwood following a dustup over a woman.
A video shared with TRD shows the real estate executive, head of Atlanta-based multifamily developer Carroll Organization, walk up to the manager. Carroll then appears to spit in his face. The incident occurred after the manager, Miguel Angel Weill, prevented Carroll from hitting on a woman at a nearby table, Weill said in an interview.
While a police report wasn’t filed, Carroll is reportedly no longer welcome at the eatery.
Moving up the mogul ranks, Harlan Crow, the son of Dallas real estate giant Trammell Crow, bought a home in Savannah, Georgia, from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 2014.
The revelation troubled legal experts.
“Given the role Crow has played in subsidizing the lifestyle of Thomas and his wife, you have to wonder if this was an effort to put cash in their pockets,” Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer, told ProPublica.
The revelation came after ProPublica reported last week that Crow for years had provided Thomas with lavish gifts — including trips worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — which Thomas failed to disclose pursuant to federal law.
And, yes, sometimes the unthinkable spills over to actual real estate.
In San Francisco, Salesforce is having its workers leave the remaining 104,000 square feet of offices it has at Salesforce East, a 30-story office tower at 350 Mission Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The tech firm will sublease the space, about 10 years removed from having leased the entire 450,000-square-foot building. Overally, the company has shed more than 1 million square feet of office space in the city since the pandemic.
In Florida, trophy mansions are still fetching a pretty penny, but the pandemic price balloon may have popped, with a decline in overall sales that has led to price cuts.
“There’s no question that many sellers had expectations of the Covid boom in price increases,” said Mike Pappas, CEO of the brokerage Keyes Group of Companies. “That now is not there. Reality is making them make the adjustment to the current market pricing.”
Buyers are reportedly being encouraged to make offers below asking, which allows sellers to save face by not cutting their listing prices.
The post A week of wild behavior in real estate appeared first on The Real Deal.
Brian Feil and 10 South LaSalle (Getty, Feil Organization)Feil Organization scored a lease expansion with a specialty insurer — a rare move for downtown office tenants amid the pandemic — at the landlord’s LaSalle Street tower, providing some relief to the struggling Central Loop office market.
Charlotte-based Amwins added about 22,000 square feet and six years to its lease in the 37-story building at 10 South LaSalle Street, Crain’s reported. With the deal, Amwins now occupies over 78,000 square feet at the property and is under contract through 2033. CBRE represented the tenant, and Stream Realty Partners represented Feil.
Feil likely breathed a sigh of relief upon the lease signing. One of the site’s largest tenants, Northern Trust, ditched 10 South LaSalle in 2021, leaving behind 100,000 square feet of the building’s 781,000.
The building, which was 73 percent leased before the Amwin deal, hadn’t been generating enough income for Fiel to adequately pay back its $105 million loan on the property. As a result, the loan was recently transferred to a special servicer — a sign the property’s owner could default on the debt or need to restructure its terms.
Feil is far from the only downtown office owner in the same position. In recent weeks, debt servicers have noted the respective struggles of landlords 601W and a joint venture of investors David Werner and Joseph Mizrachi to refinance big debt packages tied to the Aon Center and a West Loop office tower.
Landlords along LaSalle are in similar situations. On the same block as Feil’s building, an $84.5 million loan tied to the 47-story office building at 1 North LaSalle was also transferred to special servicing recently.
“We worked diligently to accommodate our esteemed tenant, Amwins,” Feil’s Brian Feil said in a statement, adding that the deal is “a testament to the continued robust demand at 10 South LaSalle Street.”
Read moreChicagoRiverside, Convexity score Antares lease at BMO TowerChicagoCity gives nods to Reschke, Primo, AmTrust projects for Loop conversionsChicagoShapack, Litowitz bring Barstool to West LoopThe lease also provides some hope for owners of older office buildings, such as 10 South LaSalle, built in 1989. Many companies considering commercial real estate moves have relocated to newer office towers, as new amenities in trendy locations such as Fulton Market offer a greater chance to reel employees away from their remote-work desks and back into the office.
Meanwhile, landlords up and down LaSalle Street have been beleaguered, a narrative countered by the Amwins expansion. The city’s traditional financial corridor has been in ruins since the pandemic, with its commercial property vacancy rates soaring to unseen levels.
— Quinn Donoghue
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The commercial real estate world has been obsessed with a scary number: $1.5 trillion.
That’s the estimated size of the so-called “wall of maturities,” the amount of commercial debt coming due in the next three years. But what does that number actually mean for landlords, lenders, and the property market?
In the latest episode of Paydirt, The Real Deal’s Hiten Samtani breaks it down, explaining that with the triple whammy of higher interest rates, lower valuations and more conservative lending, landlords who need to refinance are in a tough spot.
“You are likely left with three options, all not so great,” he says in the video: put more equity in, find a partner to do it for you and lose some of your upside, or walk away altogether.
Samtani also stresses that despite whatever new argument landlords and their brokers come up with for the pre-eminence of the office, the reality is that its status as the economy’s focal point has been forever disrupted.
“Offices are not back,” he said. “They are still often half-empty. And when your product is not being used with the same ferocity as before, when it is no longer at the centerpiece of the American economy, something’s gotta give.”
Watch the above video to understand what the wall of maturities could mean for the commercial market. And check out more of Samtani’s Paydirt episodes here. https://therealdeal.com/tag/paydirt/
Watch moreNew YorkWatch: The curious case of the Flatiron BuildingNationalWatch: Inside the ultra-luxury market’s “parallel universe”NationalWatch: Inside the ultra-luxury market’s “parallel universe”The post Watch: Breaking down commercial real estate’s wall of doom appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, KDC CEO Steve Van Amburgh, and Las Colinas Urban Center (Getty, KDC, Wells Fargo)KDC is expected to start construction soon on Wells Fargo’s massive regional headquarters in Irving.
The firm will embark on the 800,000-square-foot development worth more than $455 million, near the intersection of Las Colinas Boulevard and Promenade Parkway, the Dallas Morning News reported. That’s almost $570 per square foot.
The regional campus will stand on a 22-acre site with two 10-story office buildings, expected to house over 3,000 employees. Dallas-based Corgan is the architect of the project, which is scheduled to open in 2025.
The city of Irving will provide $31 million in economic incentives to help finance the development, along with a $5 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund. Governor Greg Abbott, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf, executives from KDC and local officials are expected to attend a ceremonial groundbreaking next week, the outlet said.
“Wells Fargo’s decision in choosing Irving-Las Colinas for its corporate office marks one of the largest real estate deals in our community in the last two decades,” Beth A. Bowman, president and CEO of the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce, told the outlet in October.
Read moreDallasCBRE moving Dallas headquartersDallasGoldman Sachs’ new Dallas office will cost $500MDallasLandsea to move HQ from California to DallasThe campus will also have a sustainability element, marking the company’s first net-positive facility, producing more energy than it consumes. The site features nearby amenities such as walking and bicycle trails, stand-up paddle board rentals, a cycling studio and four golf courses.
The only upcoming North Texas development that’s larger is Goldman Sachs’ planned 980,000-square-foot complex in downtown Dallas. Construction for that $500 million project is slated for February 2026, with $18 million in tax incentives being provided.
—Quinn Donoghue
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South Korean billionaire Bang Si-Hyuk and Trevor Noah with 833 Stradella Drive in Bel Air (Wikipedia, Getty, Google Maps)The mystery buyer who acquired the Bel-Air mansion formerly owned by comedian Trevor Noah in March 2022 was unmasked.
Bang Si-Hyuk, a music impresario ranked as one of South Korea’s wealthiest businesspeople, was confirmed as buying the 11,400-square feet mansion, according to Dirt.com Forbes estimated Bang Si-Hyuk’s fortune at $2.9 billion.
Noah’s former manse on Stradella Road was acquired for about $26.4 million, according to a survey of listing sites. The initial ask was $29.8 million. Noah bought the home in 2020 for $29 million.
The home was designed by noted architect Mark Rios who runs self-named Los Angeles architectural firm Rios. He is well known for designing Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, as well as the redesign of downtown’s Music Center. Rios’ design of the mansion on Stradella Road was featured in a 2017 issue of Architectural Digest.
Amenities for Noah’s former house include an infinity pool, a Japanese-style spa and an open-air pavilion for dinner parties. Other interesting notes include the home’s separate wine room with a door leading to a hidden elevator.
Located less than a minute’s drive from notorious mega mansion project The One, Stradella Road is the address for a number of pricey spec developments. Last month, cannabis entrepreneur Ori Bytton put on the market a $38 million mansion located at 1055 Stradella Road. Neighboring homes on the market include a 10,400-square-foot mansion at 1211 Stradella Drive, which has an ask of $23.5 million. Another neighbor at 1035 Stradella Road is currently on the market for $28 million.
– Andrew Asch
Read moreLos AngelesTrevor Noah pays $28M for Bel Air mansion after selling anotherLos AngelesTo beat mansion tax deadline, brokers offer $1M bonus for a quick buyerLos AngelesReality TV stars converge on Bel Air mansionThe post Buyer revealed for Trevor Noah’s Bel-Air mansion appeared first on The Real Deal.
Carroll Organization CEO Patrick Carroll allegedly seen spitting in the face of the manager Developer Patrick Carroll allegedly spat in the face of a manager at a trendy restaurant in Miami’s Wynwood, The Real Deal has learned.
A video shared with TRD shows the real estate executive, head of Atlanta-based multifamily developer Carroll Organization, walk up to the manager of the Japanese eatery. Carroll then appears to spit in his face. The incident occurred after the manager, Miguel Angel Weill, prevented Carroll from hitting on a woman at a nearby table, Weill said in an interview.
“This individual embarrassed me in front of my employees and guests,” Weill said. “He was trying to exert power over me.”
A spokesperson for Carroll denied that any saliva flew out of his client’s mouth, but acknowledged Carroll got into a heated argument with Weill. He also accused the manager of attempting to extort Carroll. Carroll is reportedly looking to sell his firm, which owns a 100-property multifamily portfolio across the U.S. worth $7.4 billion, according to Bisnow.
“Patrick showed tremendous restraint,” said the spokesperson, Lewis Goldberg. “He is not happy with his own behavior. But the manager issued what are known as fighting words.”
What went downThe alleged assault on Wednesday evening was captured in a 41-second CCTV clip (without audio) provided to TRD by the restaurant’s owner, Alvaro Perez Miranda. He also shared a nearly minute-long video that shows Carroll earlier in the evening approaching and attempting to have a conversation with the woman, who was having dinner with a man. The alleged spit takes place at the 50 second mark of the combined video.
Miranda, who owns two other restaurants in Miami, requested that TRD not disclose the name of his establishment, and said Carroll is not welcome back. “I don’t tolerate violence or disrespect to any of my employees and guests,” Miranda said. “He is banned from any of my restaurants.”
Patrick Carroll (Getty Images)In the video from earlier in the evening, Carroll, dressed in a white t-shirt and dark jeans, gets up from a table where he is dining with friends and begins walking over to the other table, where the woman is seated. Weill, wearing a dark suit, comes out of the kitchen and stops Carroll, exchanging a few words with him.
Carroll touches Weill’s arm, and the manager walks away. Carroll then turns his attention back to the woman’s table, and they shake hands. He engages in a brief conversation with her, and then shakes the hand of her male companion. Weill pours water for the two guests and stays close by. Carroll then walks back to his dinner party.
In the second clip, Carroll walks over to Weill and appears to make an attempt to shake the manager’s hand. The video then shows Caroll pulling back, and lunging his head at Weill. The manager flinches, but doesn’t say anything to Carroll.
The woman and the man at the table are visibly shocked by Carroll’s behavior. Carroll then is seen saying something to the couple, and starts walking out of the restaurant. While typing on his cellphone, Weill follows Carroll out. The manager is not seen engaging in any physical contact.
Carroll’s versionCarroll Organization spokesperson Goldberg said his client merely “pantomimed” spitting at Weill, “but didn’t actually do it.” Goldberg alleged that Weill instigated the confrontation from the moment Carroll walked into the restaurant.
“The manager told him, ‘I know who you are. I want you to hit me so I can get paid,’” Goldberg claims. “Patrick acknowledged that and moved on to have dinner with his friends. He spent a tremendous amount of money at the restaurant.”
Later in the evening, Weill “laid hands” on Carroll, Goldberg alleges. When asked why Carroll didn’t leave the restaurant if Weill allegedly threatened to extort him, Goldberg said: “Patrick is the bigger man both literally and figuratively. He wanted to end the night there to enjoy it with his friends and his attorney.”
According to Weill, however, he intervened after Carroll persisted in his pursuit of the female diner.
“First, he went up to the table and started talking to the girl like the guy she was with wasn’t there,” Weill said. “After that, he got up to go to the bathroom when she went to the bathroom. He stopped her as she is coming out so I told him that I would appreciate it if he could respect other guests’ space.”
It got worse from there as Carroll allegedly loudly complained to his dinner party that Weill was “the guy who told me not to talk to her,” Weill said.
“He said, ‘I don’t need to respect anybody,’ and that ‘I don’t give a fuck if you keep serving me,’” Weill recalled. “So I canceled the desserts and gave him his check. He was super mad that I wasn’t bowing down for him.”
When Carroll got up to leave and hand back the signed receipt, the developer extended his hand as if to make peace, Weill said. “The moment I extend my hand, he pulls his hand away and spits in my face,” Weill said. “He starts cursing at me and insulting me. Then he looks at the girl and is also sizing up the guy she was with.”
Goldberg said he did not have an answer as to why Carroll attempted to talk to the woman in question. “I will talk to Patrick, but he is not going to respond to that,” Goldberg said. “It is a level of salaciousness that is not worthy of The Real Deal.”
Carroll regrets the incident, Goldberg added. “It is not unusual for him to get recognized,” Goldberg said. “It is unusual for him to get accosted and threatened. As a public figure, he knows better.”
This is not the first time Carroll has attracted controversy, however. In August, Page Six reported that he was ejected from a party in Capri following a brawl.
Flowers and a noteOn Thursday, Weill received flowers and a note on black paper with a message written in gold leaf ink.
“Dearest Miguel, Words cannot describe my condolences for my behavior,” the note reads. “It was out of line and out of my character. I hope you understand what I said, I did not mean. You didn’t deserve that treatment. Respectfully, Pat Carroll.”
Carroll’s noteThe note, shared with TRD, demonstrates that Carroll is a bigger man than Weil, Goldberg said.
Weill denied Goldberg’s accusations, and said he only responded to Carroll’s threats to beat him up: “I told him, ‘You can feel free to do what you want. At the end of the day, I’m going to come out winning because you have more to lose than I do,’” Weill recalled.
“I don’t care about his apology,” Weill added. “He knew what he was doing was completely wrong and unacceptable.”
The post Watch: Developer Patrick Carroll “spits” on restaurant manager appeared first on The Real Deal.
Crow Holdings’ Harlan Crow and 1107 Conveyor Lane (Google Maps, George W. Bush Presidential Center)Harlan Crow may be busy dealing with political ethics investigations, but it’s business as usual for his firm Crow Holdings. The investment and development firm is moving ahead on a $38 million logistics center in Dallas, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
The project, called Riverfront Logistics Park, will include three buildings totaling 523,000 square feet at 1107 Conveyor Lane. It’s on an 37-acre undeveloped site adjacent to the Dallas Design District and the Trinity River. Costing about $73 per square foot, according to the filing, it’s expected to start construction this fall, with a late-2024 completion. Azimuth Architecture is handling design.
Industrial projects have been a hot ticket item for Crow Holdings, which builds millions of square feet of warehouse and logistics real estate a year. The firm has taken to building industrial projects using tilt-wall, which speeds up construction and involves pouring concrete panels into frames on the job site and then lifting and tilting them into place.
The industrial building trend is prevalent across DFW as the Metroplex leads the nation in incoming projects with over 60 million square feet of construction planned, according to JLL. Average industrial rent prices in North Texas have nearly doubled in the last decade from under $4 per square foot to nearly $8 now and continue to steadily climb. Some submarkets, specifically in the northern suburbs, have reached double digits for average rent costs.
Harlan Crow, the son of iconic Dallas real estate mogul Trammell Crow, has been a trending figure in the nation’s news cycle recently after ProPublica reports detailed how the Crow Holdings chairman has been providings trips and gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for decades.
Harlan took over Crow Holdings in the late ’80s and used the Crow family’s substantial wealth to evolve the firm into an umbrella development and investment corporation that included Trammell Crow Residential, Crow Holdings Capital, Crow Holdings Industrial and Crow Holdings Office.
Read moreTexasClarence Thomas sold property to billionaire CrowDallasHarlan Crow lavished Justice Clarence Thomas with giftsDallasIndustrial construction, rents on upswingThe post Crow Holdings plans Dallas logistics center appeared first on The Real Deal.
Walmart’s Doug McMillon with closing Walmart store at 2551 West Cermak (Walmart, LoopNet, Getty)A handful of Walmart stores in Chicago have been forced to close their doors after losing tens of millions of dollars a year, adding to a brutal stretch since the pandemic for the city’s retail sector.
The Doug McMillon-led retail giant is shutting down locations at 4720 South Cottage Grove, 8431 South Stewart, 2844 North Broadway and 2551 West Cermak, all within city limits, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Walmart is the nation’s leading retailer by revenue, but it’s been much more profitable in suburban and rural areas compared to cities. The company implemented different tactics to improve business at urban locations, such as localizing merchandise and operating on a smaller scale. Walmart will now work with local leaders to find a new use for the closing sites.
“Collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago,” Walmart said in a statement. “These stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years.”
Four separate Walmarts in Chicago will remain open, and the company hopes more foot traffic will be driven towards these locations as a result of the closures. Outgoing mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was “incredibly disappointed” in the news, and that the departure of these stores “will create barriers to basic needs for thousands of residents.”
The company recently announced it will close several shops in Chicago’s suburbs as well, including a pick-up-only location in Lincolnwood, plus two conventional stores in Plainfield and Homewood.
Other big-name retailers have struggled to find success in the Windy City. In February, Bed Bath & Beyond confirmed that it will shut down operations at the Chicago Ridge Mall, where owner Starwood Retail Partners faces potential bankruptcy.
And Old Navy ditched its 32,000-square-foot space in Central Loop last year after being in business for 10 years at 150 North State Street, and the Mag Mile retail strip has lost tenants like Gap, Uniqlo, Macy’s and Banana Republic.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoWalmart shuttering three Chicagoland locationsChicagoStarwood faces Chicago mall challenge againChicagoCentral Loop takes another hit as Old Navy say it’s leavingThe post Walmart closing four Chicago stores appeared first on The Real Deal.
Nest Seekers’ Natanel Malkoukian, Eddie Shapiro and Michael Bethoney (Getty, Nest Seekers; Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)A Nest Seekers broker filed a lawsuit claiming he was taken off projects and cheated out of at least $1.5 million in commissions after complaining about discrimination and bullying by a fellow agent.
Natanel Malkoukian alleged in the suit against broker Michael Bethoney, Nest Seekers and CEO Eddie Shapiro that he faced retaliation after repeatedly complaining about Bethoney to Shapiro. Malkoukian accuses Bethoney of discrimination based on his religion, claiming the agent called him lazy and told other colleagues that he “barely works,” in reference to Malkoukian observing Sabbath and Jewish holidays.
The complaint further alleges that Bethoney “threatened and bullied plaintiff, yelling and screaming, spitting, and clenching his fist, to the extent that plaintiff felt threatened physically.”
The lawsuit describes similar conduct against another Orthodox Jewish broker, and alleges that Bethoney also has a “history of harassing women agents and employees… because they are women.”
“He has threatened, bullied, belittled, screamed at them, to the extent that they have feared for their physical safety, are uncomfortable in his presence, and do not want to be in the same room as, or at meetings with, him,” the lawsuit states. Messages reviewed by TRD from two of the women named in the lawsuit describe similar behavior. The women and other employees mentioned in the complaint are not parties to the lawsuit.
“Bethoney’s conduct and Shapiro’s refusal to do anything about it have created a hostile work environment at NS for women and Orthodox Jews,” the complaint says.
Malkoukian alleges that Shapiro assured him Bethoney would be fired, but the Nest Seekers CEO later changed his mind, informing Malkoukian that “Bethoney was very close to many of the developers that NS depended on for commissions.”
Following those exchanges, Bethoney took Malkoukian off group messages related to projects the broker was working on and told him that he would not receive commissions on contracts entered in after March 1, 2022, according to the complaint. Malkoukian claims he has missed out on $1.5 million in commissions as a result.
The Real Deal reported last year that Bethoney’s outbursts against other agents was the subject of an internal complaint. Shapiro tapped Bethoney to lead the firm’s new development division after Ryan Serhant left the firm in 2020, TRD reported at the time, but the agent’s role was somewhat ambiguous after the complaints.
Shapiro has since denied that Bethoney was ever in charge of new development, even though Bethoney’s website previously described him as “managing director of new development.” He is now listed as an associate broker.
Bethoney, who is also an attorney, did not respond to requests for comment.
Shapiro declined to comment when reached by email Friday, instead pointing to his previous remarks on the situation and saying “the legal process will run its course.”
When asked last year about the complaints, Shapiro told TRD that “everything is under control, and doing well. And Michael is working his projects.” He said the firm’s human resources department handles complaints as they arise.
“When you’re talking about millions of commissions at stake, people get emotional. People get personal about it,” Shapiro said at the time. “And so we work through the issues, and we guide everyone in the right way.”
Read moreNew YorkHe’s lost his biggest star, but Nest Seekers’ Eddie Shapiro is charging aheadNew YorkBroker sues R New York for stiffing him on commissionsNew YorkEx-Bespoke exec alleges racial discrimination, harassmentThe post Broker suit alleges discrimination, bullying at Nest Seekers appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rendering The Sunset Hotel on 45 West Sunset Boulevard; NELA Group’s Marissa Solis (Getty, NELA Group, The Hollywood Partnership)L.A.-based developer NELA Homes has notched a green light from the Los Angeles City Council for a mid-rise hotel in the heart of Hollywood.
The council signed off on the project at a meeting this week, Urbanize LA reported.
NELA, an investment and development firm based in the eastside neighborhood of Highland Park, first proposed the project in late 2020, and sought a zone change that had been approved by the City Planning Commission ahead of this week’s City Council vote.
The site is located at 6445 West Sunset Boulevard, near the busy intersection of Sunset and Cahuenga, in a part of central Hollywood that has seen an influx of new hotels and commercial development. Relevant Group has been a major player in the neighborhood, developing a series of four independently branded hotels over the past few years.
NELA’s project will replace an existing commercial building and rise 13 stories. Plans call for 11,400 square feet of commercial space, including a rooftop restaurant, and a 72-car garage. The project would have 175 hotel rooms
Renderings show a modern design with a dark gray pattern and full glass facade. Construction is expected to take nearly two years.
The proposed project is designed by Archeon Group and would rise about 173 feet.
The project had been opposed by a labor union-affiliated group called SAFER, an affiliate of Laborers International Union of North America Local 270. The group argued that the hotel’s construction could lead to formaldehyde exposure, Urbanize LA reported.
– Trevor Bach
Read moreLos AngelesEast Hollywood transit corridor draws developersLos AngelesFrank Gehry project with approvals for sale in HollywoodLos AngelesOnni Group to replace apartments with hotel suites in Long Beach and HollywoodThe post Developer NELA Homes gets OK for Hollywood hotel appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Blue on the Bay at 601 Northeast 36th Street in Miami (Getty, Google Maps)UPDATED, April 14, 6 p.m.:
More than 16 years after buying a five-story commercial space at the bayfront Miami condo Blue, the Atlanta-based owner is one step closer to gaining access to basic utilities that would make it operational — including central air conditioning, a must in South Florida.
An affiliate of Goddard Investment Group, Blue Grouper Ventures, won at jury trial more than $1 million in damages in its lawsuit against the Blue Condominium Association earlier this month.
The commercial condo owner alleged that the association refused to provide utilities that include an HVAC connection, plumbing, water, garbage, recycling and more for its units at 601 Northeast 36th Street, at the northern edge of Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood.
Goddard was created in 2000 by Robert C. Goddard III, and has acquired and managed more than 11 million square feet of commercial space since then, according to a website for one of its properties.
It’s unclear how the Blue condo association will pay the damages, whether through an insurance claim, an assessment levied on unit owners, or another method. The Goddard entity also expects to collect more than $500,000 in attorneys’ fees, according to its lawyer.
“They haven’t been able to use the property since 2006 because they haven’t had those basic utilities,” said Jose Ferrer, Blue Grouper Ventures’ attorney. Ferrer, a lawyer with Miami-based Mark Migdal & Hayden, said his client could sell the units or rent out the spaces.
The Goddard entity paid about $2.3 million for the two commercial units totaling 12,000 square feet in late 2006. Miami-based Hyperion Development completed the 35-story, roughly 330-unit tower a year earlier. The curved building, designed by Arquitectonica, sits at the entrance to I-195.
In its suit, Blue Grouper Ventures also accused Blue’s condo association of trespassing by using the commercial units’ parking spaces and storage units; neglecting maintenance that resulted in chronic leaking; and of refusing to allow the condo owner use of the common spaces, among other things. The complaint, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in 2021, alleged that the association was renting out Blue Grouper Ventures’ parking spaces and storage.
The association’s attorney, Cody German, said the verdict was “a tiny fraction” of the nearly $6 million in damages that Blue Grouper Ventures sought. He declined to comment regarding how the association will pay the damages. The nearly $6 million refers to about $4.8 million in lost rental profits and $1 million in remediation costs, according to a court filing.
German, a partner with Miami-based Cole, Scott & Kissane, said the verdict was “remarkably better than any prior options presented to Blue Condominium,” and that Blue Grouper won “on only one of its many claims.”
The jury found that the association breached the condo declaration, causing about $1 million in damages, and that the association trespassed on Blue Grouper’s property by using its parking spaces and storage without the owner’s consent. The jury also found that the association was not unjustly enriched by Blue Grouper paying its share of the common expenses.
In the 2021 complaint, Blue Grouper also alleged that the association refused to provide full access to the association’s files, including a structural engineer’s report that allegedly had information about a building defect regarding the building’s post-tension system. Causeway Towers, the Hyperion entity that developed the tower, was involved in a handful of lawsuits from 2004 to 2007, including one against Arquitectonica, but the complaints are not available online.
Read moreSouth FloridaHyperion partners with Winter Properties, plans first project in West Palm BeachSouth FloridaHyde Midtown condo association alleges construction defects galoreSouth FloridaFlorida Senate tweaks bill amending condo safety law. Here’s what that could meanFerrer said his client had been working with the association since 2014 to come to an agreement, but that every time the board members would change, Blue Grouper would have to start all over again.
“It’s important for all of the unit owners to be involved in condominium association board’s business. For years, my client was trying to work with the condo association … without litigation,” he said. “Get informed because at the end of the day you might end up with a big tab as a result of something you [unit owners] didn’t do.”
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DWS Group’s Stefan Hoops with approved but still unbuilt multifamily development site next to Deerbrook Shopping Center (DWS Group, Reva Development Partners, Getty)A Deutsche Bank affiliate and Reva Development Partners are parting ways with an approved but still unbuilt multifamily development site in north suburban Deerfield.
DWS Group, led by CEO Stefan Hoops, and Reva have hired CBRE to sell a 10.7 acre parcel next to the 450,000-square-foot Deerbrook Shopping Center at Waukegan and Lake Cook roads, four years after acquiring the site with plans to build a 246-unit apartment, Crain’s reported.
While the reasons for the sale aren’t clear, rising interest rates and fears of an economic downturn have made financing multifamily projects difficult for developers.
The Reva-DWS venture also owns the adjacent shopping center, located next to Interstate 94 and near the Metra station. The property is zoned for 186 apartments and 60 rental townhomes.
The Deerfield Village Board approved the development in 2019, which REVA principal Matt Nix referred to as a transit-oriented community designed for residents who want to walk and live near shops, restaurants and public transportation.
Owners of other big retail assets such as malls, including some in the Chicago area that were struggling to stay competitive with the rise of e-commerce, have embraced developing apartments on or near shopping properties. Such projects inject a new customer base right into the reach of the retail assets, while also diversifying the revenue streams of the property owners. Area malls where such multifamily additions are underway include Westfield Old Orchard in Skokie, Yorktown Center in Lombard and Golf Mill in Niles.
Deerfield has been home to multiple recent attempts to sell commercial properties with significant development potential. In February, Walgreens Boots Alliance put two-thirds of its 40-acre campus up for sale, and Bridge Industrial is exploring paying around $100 million for the 10-building, 646,000-square-foot Baxter International campus, which Bridge aims to to redevelop as a logistics park.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoBridge Industrial to redevelop former Baxter HQ in DeerfieldChicagoWalgreens to shed two-thirds of Deerfield HQ campusChicagoCaterpillar lists Deerfield office for subleaseThe post DWS, Reva ditching Deerfield development site appeared first on The Real Deal.
WeWork’s Sandeep Mathrani and Rhone Group’s Steven Langman with 600 California Street, San Francisco (Getty, Loopnet, Wikimedia)A joint venture between WeWork and Rhone Group has defaulted for not paying its mortgage on an office tower in San Francisco’s Financial District.
The venture launched by the coworking and private equity firms, both based in New York, defaulted on a $240 million loan for the 20-story building at 600 California Street, Bloomberg reported.
The property, owned by funds managed by a venture formed by WeWork and Rhone in 2019 to buy and oversee real estate, includes WeWork coworking offices as an anchor tenant
Spokespersons for Rhone and WeWork Capital Advisors declined to comment to Bloomberg.
Office property defaults are starting to pile up as landlords that include Pacific Investment Management’s Columbia Property Trust struggle from rising rates and seek negotiations with lenders.
San Francisco, where office vacancy has climbed to nearly 33 percent, has been strained as technology companies slash jobs and downsize or eliminate offices.
WeWork, the coworking company co-founded by Adam Neumann, reached a deal for a major restructuring last month to help reduce its debt and secure more capital commitments, according to Bloomberg.
Under its new CEO Sandeep Mathrani, the company has cut expenses as it continues to try to turn a profit.
The defaults on office properties are ratcheting up pain for lenders, with billionaire investor Warren Buffett warning this week about pending problems for banks involved in commercial real estate. The biggest U.S. banks start reporting first-quarter earnings this week.
In 2019, WeWork had 25,000 members across 26 Bay Area locations, plus a large office at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, according to the San Francisco Business Times.
Late last month, Vornado Realty Trust and The Trump Organization asked for an extension on their loan for a 52-story office tower at 555 California Street, after it was put on a service watchlist. Their mortgage debt is $1.2 billion.
At the same time, WeWork reported it cut its net losses in half last year to $2.3 billion from the year before.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreNationalWeWork halves annual loss to $2.3 billionSan FranciscoOffice vacancies in San Francisco jump to a record 33%San FranciscoTrump and Vornado seek loan extension at 555 California Street in SFThe post WeWork and Rhone default on office tower in SF’s Financial District appeared first on The Real Deal.
David Noguera of Dallas’s Housing and Neighborhood Services Department and Lancaster Urban Village Apartments (Dallas City Hall, Apartment Home Living)The Dallas City Council approved an affordable housing plan focused on mending racial disparity.
The plan targets disinvested areas with poor infrastructure, inadequate affordable housing and communities affected by segregation, KERA News reported. The policy will replace the city’s Comprehensive Housing Plan, adopted in 2018.
The policy calls for increased production of for-sale and for-rent housing designated for low- and middle-income residents. The city is also focused on preserving “naturally occurring” affordable options to prevent them from being demolished and replaced with upscale developments that push residents out, the outlet said.
“Rather than just waiting for developers and residents to come to us and sprinkling around investments citywide, we’re working with the community to identify what those target areas will be, and then investing in those areas in a comprehensive manner,” David Noguera, head of Dallas’ Housing and Neighborhood Services, told the outlet.
The city hasn’t yet cultivated a specific plan for attaining funds. Thus, neither a proposed budget nor production goals were detailed in the policy.
The plan also calls for broad production of affordable housing across the city, rather than concentrated areas. Many less expensive apartments are crammed into South Dallas, where there are higher Black and Latino populations and lower income households, while zoning restrictions in North Dallas have contributed to keeping affordable housing out, City Manager T.C. Broadnax said.
Some council members opposed the policy, such as Cara Mendelsohn, who said it over-emphasized building apartments for rent and should encourage more home ownership instead.
Aside from affordability, the city hopes to remedy housing inequities faced by Black and Latino communities.
The median home value in Dallas is $295,000 for white homeowners, $90,000 for Latino homeowners and $85,000 for black homeowners, the plan states. One in seven white owners report severe housing problems, such as poor plumbing or kitchen facilities, while one in four black households and one in three Latino households report similar problems, it said.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasMovers: Guerrero to Affordable Housing GroupDallasDallas County plans 8 affordable housing projectsDallasDallas developer gets funding for large downtown affordable housing projectThe post Dallas approves affordable housing plan appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Florida lawmakers made changes to a bill that aims to clarify aspects of the condo safety law passed last year, after it resulted in condo association boards scrambling to meet looming deadlines for financial and structural repairs.
State senators voted unanimously to approve Senate Bill 154 on Wednesday. It’s now in the Florida House, and if it passes as expected, would then go to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk for his signature to sign into law.
The bill provides some flexibility to the condo safety law. It gives local municipalities some authority in enforcement, and limits the “milestone” inspection requirements for residential condominium or cooperative buildings.
Darci Cohen“The change came very quickly, and the financial implications for a lot of unit owners, especially on fixed incomes, is massive,” said attorney Darci Cohen, a partner at Miami-based Mark Migdal & Hayden, referring to the law passed last year.
The condo safety law eliminated condo and homeowners’ associations’ ability to waive the funding of their reserves, giving them until the end of 2024 to raise their monthly dues or enact special assessments to fully fund reserves, if needed, by the start of 2025. It requires buildings to have an architect or engineer complete structural integrity reserve studies, which then determine how much a building has to have in its reserves.
It also requires buildings of three stories or taller to go through inspections once they are 30 years old, or 25 years old if within three miles of the coastline, and every 10 years after that.
The May 2022 law was a response to the deadly condo collapse in Surfside in June 202. Ninety-eight people died when the Champlain Towers South building came crashing down overnight. The oceanfront building, constructed in the early 1980s, was about 40 years old and in need of major repairs.
Rather than a blanket requirement, the new proposed legislation gives local agencies the power to determine if condo and co-op buildings within three miles of the coastline need to be inspected at 25 years. Otherwise, they will face a 30-year deadline.
All condo and co-op buildings that are 30 years or older will have until the end of 2024 to complete their inspections.
The local enforcement agency, likely the municipality where a property is located, would also have the authority to extend the inspection deadline for buildings. That is if the association shows good cause that it has engaged an architect or engineer to perform the milestone inspection, and that the inspection can’t reasonably be completed before the deadline.
Local agencies would also be able to accept inspections or reports completed before July 1 of last year if the inspections or reports substantially comply with the requirements.
“You’re going to see different levels of enforcement on this,” said Cohen, adding that it gives associations and owners “a little bit more breathing space.”
Condo/co-op associations will be required to notify owners of a required milestone inspection within two weeks of receiving a written notice from their municipality.
Another significant change SB 154 proposes is allowing condo boards to waive full or partial funding of financial reserve requirements, only if they secure a majority vote of the entire building’s voting interests, and only until the end of 2024. Prior, boards could vote to do so based on attendance at a condo association meeting, which is often very low. The condo law passed last year eliminated the board’s ability to waive anything but fully funding their financial reserves.
That could provide temporary financial relief for many communities that are strapped for cash, Cohen said. A number of properties statewide are playing catch up, trying to make repairs, fund their reserves and keep up with the rising cost of insurance. Inflation and high construction costs have contributed to their financial headaches.
For budgets that associations pass beginning in 2025, the boards could also vote to provide no reserves or partial reserves for certain items — like a roof — if the association has alternative funding in place for that item, such as a loan.
If condo owners are covered by the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance, they would not be required to get flood insurance.
The bill would also make it harder to prove that board members or officers breached their fiduciary duties. It would clarify that the board members had to have “willfully and knowingly” failed to complete a structural integrity reserve study for it to be a breach of their duties. Disputes over inspections, reserves or repairs would also be subject to mediation prior to filing lawsuits, effective July 1, 2027.
Read moreSouth FloridaFlorida board proposes changes to condo reform legislation South FloridaCondo insurance crisis in South Florida could push owners to sellSouth FloridaAid coming for condo owners slapped with high assessmentsThe post Florida Senate tweaks bill amending condo safety law. Here’s what that could mean appeared first on The Real Deal.
CAA’s Michael and Judy Ovitz and Real Estate’s Rick Julian and 100 Long Beach Boulevard (Getty, LinkedIn, Google Maps)Creative Artists Agency co-founder Michael Ovitz and his wife Judy have sold an apartment complex in Long Beach for about 10 percent less than they paid for it in 2017, The Real Deal had learned.
Irvine-based investment firm Advanced Real Estate bought the 156-unit Edison at 100 Long Beach Boulevard, according to an announcement this week. Cushman & Wakefield’s Marc Renard represented both the buyer and the seller in the deal.
Advanced declined to name the seller or the price, but county records show it was sold by a limited liability company linked to the Ovitz family for $58 million.
The Ovitz family bought the complex in 2017 for $65.4 million, records show, with Michael and Judy both signing mortgage documents from Bank of America for the property in 2019.
Though office buildings have been trading at lower valuations than prices five years ago, few apartment complexes across the L.A. region have traded at a loss, as rent growth has slowed but remains generally positive. However, if they hold floating rate debt, apartment owners need to keep up rental rates at the same pace as rising interest rates in order to service their loans.
Rents in Long Beach averaged $1,795 a month in April for a one-bedroom unit — a zero percent change from April of last year, according to Zumper.
Built in 1960, the building was formerly an office building that served as the headquarters for the Edison Company. In 2016, the property was converted into 156 residential units by then-owner Waterton Residential, a landlord based in Chicago.
Office-to-residential conversions are difficult for any owner to pursue, given the economic, design and logistical challenges. Some office owners have pushed for it, given persistently high vacancy rates across the office market, but deals are difficult to pencil out financially.
Ovitz was a Hollywood talent agent who co-founded Creative Artists Agency in 1975 and served as chairman until 1995.
The post CAA’s Michael Ovitz takes 10% hit on Long Beach apartment complex appeared first on The Real Deal.
Corcoran’s Pam Liebman, Douglas Elliman’s Scott Durkin, Compass’ Robert Reffkin and Leslie J. Garfield & Co.’s Leslie Garfield (Corcoran Group, Douglas Elliman, Compass, Leslie Garfield, Getty)New York is a vertical city. The forest of apartment buildings that define its skyline represents the real estate industry’s eternal quest to squeeze the maximum value out of the land by stacking luxury homes as high as air rights will allow.
But even its priciest neighborhoods are still dotted with the rarest of city residences: the high-end single-family home. The buyers of these high-brow low-rises are more rarefied still, and finding those willing to pay the price can be a challenge for any brokerage.
To measure firms’ success in this market segment, The Real Deal drilled down into the dataset of 58,000 deals from our recent ranking of the top brokerages across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens in 2022, but this time looked specifically at single-family residences — including both townhouses and stand-alone homes — that sold last year for $5 million or more.
Manhattan had the most with 145, but Brooklyn boasted 92 such sales — a factor that actually tipped the citywide ranking. Only one house sold in Queens for $5 million or more last year, in an off-market deal.
The Corcoran Group beat runner-up Douglas Elliman in citywide volume, though Elliman sold one more single-family home than Corcoran did. Corcoran closed $325 million across 26 deals for single-family homes that went for $5 million or above. Elliman closed 27 such deals, but they totaled just $297 million in volume.
When isolating Manhattan, however, Elliman was the clear winner. The brokerage sold 19 luxury single-family homes in the borough last year for a total volume of more than $232 million, beating out Corcoran’s 13 deals that totaled a little over $204 million in volume.
It was Corcoran’s domination of Brooklyn’s high-end single-family market that secured its top spot in the citywide ranking. Pam Liebman’s agents sold 13 homes in the borough last year for $5 million or more, versus Elliman’s eight. Corcoran also achieved nearly double the volume, nearly $121 million versus Elliman’s tally of about $64 million.
Compass came in third in the citywide ranking, closing 22 deals for a total volume of nearly $210 million, and it also placed third in Manhattan with 17 closings totalling over $176 million.
But in Brooklyn, Robert Reffkin’s firm was fourth behind luxury townhouse specialist Leslie J. Garfield, which closed seven deals totaling nearly $63 million in volume. Compass posted barely more than half that volume in Brooklyn, sealing five deals worth a total of $33 million.
Leslie J. Garfield’s performance in Brooklyn was enough to secure the fourth spot in the citywide ranking, with 22 deals worth nearly $200 million, besting fifth-ranked Brown Harris Stevens’ tally of 12 deals totalling nearly $154 million. BHS did, however, snag the No. 4 spot in Manhattan.
Corcoran closed the deal for the city’s most expensive single-family home last year: a 13,000-square-foot townhouse at 12 East 63rd Street in Lenox Hill that went for $56 million in February.
Ryan Serhant’s brokerage sold three single-family homes for $5 million or more in 2022, but one of them was the second most expensive deal of the year. The 22-foot-wide townhouse at 36 East 68th Street itself sold for nearly $53 million, but the buyer also purchased all the furniture inside, hiking the deal's total price tag to almost $57 million.
Elliman sold the third most expensive single-family home last year, a 20,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts property on Fifth Avenue once called Manhattan’s “last intact Gilded Age Mansion,” which went sold for $50 million in an all-cash deal.
The Modlin Group sold the fourth priciest single-family home, a townhouse at 8 East 62nd Street that Somerset Partners’ Keith Rubenstein had been trying to sell off and on since 2016. It finally found a buyer last year for $48 million.
Brown Harris Stevens helped Chipotle founder Steve Ells flip a West Village townhouse in the firth most expensive sale last year. Ells sold the property at 27 East 11th Street for $35 million last June — a nearly 19 percent premium over the $29.5 million he paid for it just eight months earlier.
This is one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal for all the data and market information you need.
Read moreNew YorkRanking NYC's best-selling residential brokerages of 2022New YorkCompass No. 1 as four firms dominate NYC co-op salesNew YorkCorcoran and Elliman dominate NYC new development salesThe post Corcoran tops Elliman, Compass for luxury single-family home sales in NYC appeared first on The Real Deal.
325 Shoreline Ct, Glencoe (Google Maps, Getty)Owners of a lakefront Glencoe mansion aren’t willing to play the waiting game defining the North Shore’s high-end housing market, and instead are showing some flexibility with a hefty price cut.
The home at 325 Shoreline Court cut its price by $1 million after sitting on the market since November. Originally seeking just under $8 million, the home is now asking $7 million, a 13 percent decrease.
The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom modernist home, which has 130 feet of frontage on Lake Michigan, last sold for $5.1 million in 2019.
The buyer’s identity is obscured in public records through a trust named as the owner of the property.
Despite the cut, the home is still one of the priciest public listings in Glencoe. Nine other homes for sale are asking more than $4 million in the affluent North Shore suburb. Jena Radnay, an agent with @properties, is representing the listing and did not respond to a request for comment.
The home is one of many to reduce its asking price in recent months in hopes of attracting a buyer. Chicago’s most expensive listing, a massive mansion in Lincoln Park, underwent a $15 million chop down to $30 million earlier this year.
Even the listings in Glencoe that are pricier than the Shoreline Court home have taken price cuts and have yet to identify a buyer. That includes the $12 million home built in 1936 for an executive of the Pabst Brewing Company, and an $11.9 million listing also on Lake Michigan’s shoreline that just chopped its ask this month from nearly $14 million.
The property once belonged to lawyer-turned-crime novelist Scott Turow. Turow and his then-wife, Annette, purchased the property in 2001 for $4.79 million. Turow, also a partner with the Dentons law firm, has written a number of books, most notably, “Presumed Innocent,” which was adapted into a movie starring Harrison Ford.
After Turow, the owner was Yothin Dumnernchanvanit, head of a Thailand-based company, according to published reports at the time of a previous sale. He sold it to its current owner.
The home was designed by Tony Grunsfeld and includes 21-foot floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the lake, an indoor basketball court, as well as just under an acre of land.
Read moreChicagoLakefront Glencoe Mansion’s Price Chopped 14% to $12MChicagoFormer Glencoe home of beer magnate relists for $12M after 33% price cutChicagoChicago’s most expensive listing chops $15M from priceThe post Lakefront Glencoe mansion takes $1M price cut appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jeffrey Hines and Laura Hines-Pierce (Hines, Getty)Hines and long-time partner Trez Capital plan to develop a 954-acre master-planned community in Iowa Colony, a Houston exurb in Brazoria County. Dubbed Sandy Point, the project will offer 2,100 single-family homes at full buildout.
Sandy Point will be the developers’ biggest community since First Colony, its 9,700-acre master-planned community in Sugar Land. That 90-neighborhood buildout was completed in 1997 after 20 years of development. First Colony now boasts a population of more than 60,000 residents.
Phase one of Sandy Point will have about 400 lots. Construction is expected to start this quarter, with the first phase to be delivered in late 2024. The development will include amenities such as hike-and-bike trails, parks and an onsite school, according to a news release. The project was financed by Flagstar Bank and Rocky Lai Associates. Derek Graber with Dosch Marshall represented Hines, and David Cook and Meredith Cullen with Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller. Representatives from Hines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Located along the recently renovated Highway 288, Sandy Point will also boast convenient access to the future Grand Parkway, just south of the site.
Also in Iowa Colony, Balcara Group is developing a build-for-rent community. Balcara began construction in February on 114 luxury homes.
Homes in Iowa Colony sell for a median price of $311,000, which is slightly below Brazoria County’s median of $316,000, according to Redfin.
Hines has over 65 years of development experience in Texas. Co-lead by father-daughter duo Jeffrey Hines and Laura Hines-Pierce, the Houston-based company has completed 60 projects in the Greater Houston area since its inception including notable locations such as the Galleria and Toyota Center, as well as the state’s largest building, the 75-story JP Morgan Chase Tower.
Sandy Point will be one of several projects Hines has partnered with Trez Capital on over the past years, including Laurel Glen, Somerset Green and Brookewater, a recently announced master-planned community in Rosenberg currently underway. Brookwater was the previous title holder of Hines’ second-largest master-planned community in Houston with an expected buildout of over 2,400 single-family homes across 850 acres.
Read moreHoustonLive Lone Star opens its first manufactured home developmentHoustonThree build-to-rent projects planned for Houston ’burbsTexasSugar Land’s namesake siloed for mixed-use redevelopmentThe post Hines plans massive community near Houston appeared first on The Real Deal.
Extell Development’s Gary Barnett and 179 East 86th Street (Google Maps, Extell Development, Getty)After some frank discussions, Papaya King and its former Upper East Side landlord have ended their fight at a Gary Barnett development site.
The famous hot dog stand and Imperial Sterling this month settled their long-running legal dispute over rent payments at the shop’s former location, 179 East 86th Street, court records show.
The settlement wraps up a court battle that commenced in 2020 when Imperial Sterling accused Papaya King’s management company Grab & Go Convenience of breaking in and reopening the shop without permission after its lease was terminated for unpaid rent of more than $122,000.
Barnett’s Extell Development bought the one-story, 5,000-square-foot property in 2021 and filed plans last year to demolish it. The developer took over the case and claimed that Sid Sohail’s Grab & Go refused to depart the building despite being offered money to vacate.
An attorney for Grab & Go claimed that Imperial Sterling didn’t have the right to sell the building because the landlord only had a 50 percent stake in the property.
Extell was entitled to take back the ground-floor space and evict Papaya King as soon as April 3, but the hot dog stand officially closed its doors on March 31, the New York Post reported.
Papaya King is expected to move across the street to 1535 Third Avenue, UpperEastSite.com reported, after closing its 90-year-old flagship. The opening date of the new stand, in space formerly occupied by Modell’s Sporting Goods, has not been determined.
Extell’s plans for the site remain unknown, but Barnett’s firm has been active on the Upper East Side. Its luxury condominium projects include the 83-unit Kent at 200 East 95th Street, the Lucida at 151 East 85th Street, the 11-unit 1010 Park Avenue, the 26-unit 995 Fifth Avenue, 330 East 72nd Street and the 68-unit Carlton House at 21 East 61st Street.
Read moreNew YorkGary Barnett gives Jerusalem a chance with land purchaseNew YorkExtell, Tabak poised for takeover of prized Hell’s Kitchen parcelNew YorkExtell lands $425M for UES medical towerThe post Papaya King settles with landlord at Extell dev site appeared first on The Real Deal.
Ann and Lee Fensterstock with 233 Miraflores Drive (Getty, Google Maps)Local developer Lee Fensterstock sold a renovated non-waterfront Palm Beach house for $13.2 million.
Records show a Florida LLC named for the address and managed by Fensterstock sold the house at 233 Miraflores Drive to PB 130 Limited Partnership, an Ontario-based entity managed by Keith L. Ray.
Dana Koch and Paulette Koch of the Corcoran Group had the listing. Spencer Schlager of Douglas Elliman brought the buyer.
Ray shares a name with a Toronto-based financier. His entity also owns a penthouse in the Sun & Surf condominium at 130 Sunrise Avenue in Palm Beach that he bought for $1.3 million in 2007, property records show.
Fensterstock is a longtime Palm Beacher and local developer who specializes in luxury spec homes and renovations. He bought the 0.3-acre Miraflores Drive house for $8.4 million in 2021, according to property records. Built in 1997, the 3,700-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom home includes a pool in the backyard and a two-car garage.
Dana Koch confirmed the developer completed an extensive renovation of the house days before it went into contract, including adding a covered loggia.
Fensterstock first listed the home in March of last year for $14 million, and bumped the asking price to $15 million last April. The sale equates to $4.8 million, or 56.5 percent, in price growth for the renovated house.
Fensterstock and his wife, the author Ann Fensterstock, also own the house at 259 Merrain Road in Palm Beach, which they bought for $4.7 million in 2013, records show. They have a homestead exemption on the home.
Palm Beach has had a number of high-profile sales in recent months. Earlier this month, Warhol muse Baby Jane Holzer’s son, Rusty Holzer, sold his oceanfront house for $25 million. Last month, beauty heir and mogul William Lauder bought the late Rush Limbaugh’s oceanfront estate for $155 million. In January, a real estate investor sold his ocean-facing house for $34.9 million in an off-market deal.
Koch said that while the market has seen “a swell of inventory,” not many Palm Beach listings are the turnkey homes buyers are seeking.
“There’s not a lot of renovated or brand new product in Palm Beach,” he said. The market is more stabilized after coming down from its pandemic frenzy, and buyers don’t have the same urgency, Koch added.
Still, “people still don’t have the bandwidth, nor the time to build projects from the ground up,” he said, and they’re willing to pay for “someone else’s sweat equity.”
The post Developer sells renovated Palm Beach house for $13M appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Agency’s Chase Duran (The Agency, Getty)Chase Duran, the 26-year old winner of Ebby Halliday’s “rising star” realtor award in DFW last year, has staked his future with the Agency.
The luxury resi brokerage run by Mauricio Umansky opened its first Dallas branch in March, operated by local agents Damon and Megan Williamson, formerly of Compass. Sources told The Real Deal the Williamsons have recruited around 20 agents so far and are looking to hire around 50. The brokerage will service the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area and will have a focus in the high-end market.
Duran sold $18 million and ranked third in sales at Ebby Halliday’s Frisco office last year, according to firm’s website. Ebby Halliday is often recognized as one of the top brokerages by sales volume across Dallas-Fort Worth. The firm did over $2 billion in sales in the Dallas-metro alone last year, according to The Real Deal’s 2022 brokerage rankings.
Duran decided to join the firm after the Williamsons reached out a few months ago but left Ebby amicably, he said.
“There was nothing wrong with Ebby. But The Agency’s vision, their core values, just aligned with what I was looking for,” Duran said. “I need a broker that’s going to help me scale my business to the next level. I felt that I wasn’t getting as much guidance to properly sell luxury homes, and I knew the Agency was going to help get me there.”
Duran said long-term he hopes to expand into the Miami, Los Angeles and New York markets.
In other news …
Dallas-based SRS Real Estate Partners hired Jeff Enck as senior vice president with a focus on the investment and sale of unanchored retail assets throughout the Southeast (he is based in Atlanta) and around the country. With retail occupancy figures above 90 percent across the country, the firm believes long-term investment in unanchored retail spaces, including restaurants, will show strong returns.
Jefferson Bank, a family owned bank in San Antonio, has expanded into the Austin Market. The company opened a 5,000 square foot branch in March at the Norwood Tower in the city’s Central Business District, according to a company news release. The firm is projecting its Austin team to grow commercial loans by $100 million this year and $500 million in the next five years, the release stated.
Read moreDallasThe Agency recruits Compass group for Dallas boutiqueTexasLuxury listings trending up in DFWTexasUnforgettable Texas real estate moments, RIPs of 2022The post Movers: Ebby’s Chase Duran joins the Agency appeared first on The Real Deal.
Agriplay’s Dan Houston with the Burnham Center (LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)Russell Steinberg wants to grow the ingredients of your next salad in a Loop skyscraper, an idea he believes could save office landlords from having to consider costly conversions of their buildings into apartments amid a drawback from commercial real estate.
And the owner of the 22-story Burnham Center, Chicago’s Golub & Co., could be on board, as it’s negotiating a lease with Steinberg’s nonprofit Farm Zero, CoStar reported. Farm Zero is partnering with Canadian company Agriplay Ventures to occupy at least 70,000 square feet in Golub’s 111 West Washington Street.
While many developers are pondering office-to-apartments conversions to put a dent in stubborn commercial vacancy rates, Farm Zero and Agriplay want to grow efficient vertical farms producing basil, tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. While vertical farming has become somewhat common within shorter buildings such as warehouses, agriculture within downtown office towers with desk workers typing away a floor below would be novel.
“This is the first in a series of projects that are going to transform Chicago,” Steinberg told the outlet. “What we’re doing is utilizing all the vacant real estate to feed Chicago.”
With the advancement of modern technology, indoor farming has become increasingly popular, but these practices are typically done in warehouse spaces or low- to mid-rise buildings. However, Farm Zero has ambitions to turn 3 million square feet of downtown office space into vertical farming ventures, which Realty Income CEO Sumit Roy predicts will be a $50 billion industry within the next few years, the outlet reported.
Chicago’s office vacancy rate hit a record high 22.4 percent in the first quarter of this year. At the Burnham Center, roughly 30 percent of the building is unoccupied. Agriplay hopes its endeavors in the Windy City will serve as a model for other struggling office markets across the county that have yet to rebound from the pandemic.
“Everyone is going to end up following, but Chicago will wind up winning because they’re taking it and running with it,” Agriplay President Dan Houston told the outlet. “This is how everybody’s going to grow their food. Chicago is going to become a world leader.”
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoInland buys Algonquin senior living facility for $63MChicagoChicago leads nation in CRE investmentNationalCommercial real estate continues to get pummeledThe post Golub’s green thumb: Landlord leasing to urban farming nonprofit appeared first on The Real Deal.
Chord Energy’s Daniel Brown with 1001 Fannin Street and Black Stone Minerals’ Thomas Carter with First City Tower (Chord Energy, JLL, Black Stone Minerals, Dewliter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)Two Houston energy companies renewed leases for their headquarters, marking some of the largest lease signings so far this year.
Oil and gas company Chord Energy renewed its lease occupying 103,000 square feet at 1001 Fannin Street, while Black Stone Minerals renewed for 55,000 square feet in the 47-story First City Tower, the Houston Business Journal reported.
Brad Beasley and Chip Colvill of Cushman & Wakefield represented landlord FC Tower Property Partners, and Chad Beck of Cushman & Wakefield represented Chord Energy. Trey Strake, David Guion and Chris Oliver of Cushman & Wakefield represented Black Stone Minerals.
The lease renewals are a bright spot in the city’s struggling office sector. The vacancy rate in the Houston metro was at 26 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, and it was at 32 percent in the central business district, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
The 1.3 million-square-foot First City Tower received a $20 million renovation in 2020, including an 8,000-square-foot fitness center, tunnel-level tenant lounge and upgraded exterior plazas to improve outside workspace.
More recently, a conference center was added, and lobbies were revamped to include new escalators, artistic lighting and a coffee bar, the outlet said.
Other large leases in Houston recently include Callon Petroleum taking 107,000 square feet at 9753 Katy Freeway, in December, and EOG Resources’ 375,000-square-foot lease in the 52-story 1111 Bagby Street, signed in September.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreHoustonBrookfield lands 2-floor lease and renewal at Houston CenterHoustonFormer Enron subsidiary inks huge office lease renewalTexasWood Group renews major lease in Houston Energy CorridorThe post Energy tenants renew for 160k sf appeared first on The Real Deal.
JLL’s Mark Nicholas and Port of Houston (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, JLL)Houston’s industrial real estate market had a strong start in 2023, according to a report by JLL.
The market continued to grow as 6.6 million square feet of new supply was added in the first quarter, with 56 percent preleased. That resulted in 5.5 million square feet of net absorption in the first quarter. Meanwhile, construction activity reached almost 31 million square feet with eight large-scale projects over 1 million square feet currently underway. About 28 percent of the current under-construction inventory was preleased due to demand for new buildings.
About 7.7 million square feet started construction in the first quarter led by activity in the Northwest and Southeast submarkets, which account for nearly 50 percent of new industrial activity. Speculative builds accounted for about 75 percent of new deliveries, and they gained strong traction in lease-up before delivery, with almost all of the largest move-ins taking place in new construction spaces.
Northwest has typically been the strongest submarket because of its access to the San Antonio and Austin markets, said Mark Nicholas of JLL.
“But now with the port demand and what’s going on in the shipping industry, largely in logistics, demand has picked up there tremendously,” he said. “Many of the new companies that moved to Houston want that close proximity to the port.”
Port Houston, in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, announced last summer a $1 billion expansion of the Houston Ship Channel to add a third terminal. Baytown reported a 25 percent increase in port activity last year, according to the Baytown West Chambers County Economic Development Foundation. The terminal is designed to meet the increasing demand of Port Houston and is expected to reach completion by 2025.
Leasing activity was also robust last quarter, with 8 million square feet of deals signed. Construction, retail and the logistics and distribution industries dominated the leasing volume. Notable projects include the 1.3 million-square-foot logistics campus in Baytown, dubbed Port 99 Logistics, that Provident Realty Advisors is developing. Construction could start this quarter and be completed in the fall.
Nicholas said he expects Houston to continue to capture demand from companies across industries as they take advantage of the region’s capacity and labor pool. A recent census analysis published by the Greater Houston Partnership shows the metro area added 125,000 people in 2022 alone, ranking it second to Dallas among the nation’s fastest-growing metros.
“I think this year will be another great year, just like Dallas. Manufacturing is certainly coming back. The auto service industry is coming back pretty strong. We can’t wait anymore for China,” Nicholas said. “The trend line for growth in our cities is trending with the industrial development market pretty well.”
Read moreTexasBaytown continues industrial domination with $77M complexTexasTGS building another 1M-sq-ft warehouse at Cedar PortHoustonHouston industrial park draws spec investors on 47-acre dealThe post Ports accelerate Houston industrial growth appeared first on The Real Deal.
The properties at 2825 NW 2 AVE, 172 NW 29 ST, 166 NW 29 ST, 169 NW 28 ST, 179 NW 28 ST in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood with seller Gamma Real Estate’s Jonathan Kalikow (LinkedIn, Google Maps)Lender Gamma Real Estate sold a Wynwood development site for $26 million, marking a new chapter for the 1-acre assemblage that went through a foreclosure last year.
New York-based Gamma, led by the Kalikow family, sold the properties at 2825 Northwest Second Avenue, 169 and 179 Northwest 28th Street, and 166 and 172 Northwest 29th Street, according to records.
The buyer is unknown. The purchasing entity ties to Investment Property Exchange Services, or IPX1031, a company with locations nationwide that handles 1031 exchanges on behalf of clients.
Gamma’s Jonathan Kalikow declined to disclose the buyer’s identity, only saying it’s a “big institutional” real estate player.
The site consists mainly of vacant lots, except for a one-story, 10,500-square-foot retail building at 2825 Northwest Second Avenue built in 1936; and a one-story, 2,000-square-foot commercial building at 166 Northwest 29th Street built in 1953, property records show.
Four years ago, British co-living company The Collective planned a 12-story building on the assemblage, with 180 co-living residential units, 70 lodging rooms and 9,500 square feet of ground-floor retail. In May 2021, The Collective scored project approval from the Miami Urban Development Review Board for the project.
Plans went awry, however, with Gamma filing a UCC foreclosure against The Collective last year. The filing came as The Collective was facing financial woes. It had filed for administration in the United Kingdom, or the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as occupancy at its projects dropped and its project pipeline hit delays amid the pandemic.
In April of last year, Gamma acquired the Wynwood property through a credit bid, or essentially a process that allows lenders to use their existing mortgage amount to purchase properties in foreclosure. Gamma had issued a $23 million loan on the property.
Wynwood, once a gritty warehouse district, came to prominence about a decade ago as an art gallery hub. In subsequent years, the district has experienced an overhaul, with an onslaught of residential and commercial projects.
The Pérez family’s Related Group, Alex Karakhanian’s Lndmrk Development and Ben Mandell’s Tricera Capital recently completed the Dorsey mixed-use project. The 12-story building consists of 306 apartments, retail and offices.
Nearby, Jackie Soffer’s Turnberry Associates plans a mixed-use project, likely with a hotel, retail and offices at 127 and 135 Northwest 24th Street and 128 and 138 Northwest 25th Street. Turnberry dropped $13.1 million for the 0.7-acre assemblage in December.
The post Lender sells Wynwood dev site for $26M a year after foreclosure appeared first on The Real Deal.
198 Scholes Street, 11 Gunther Place, 506 Dekalb Avenue and 65 Kent Avenue (Google Maps)Avi Philipson finally closed his deal to buy All Year Holding’s bankrupt Brooklyn portfolio, ending a long-running saga over a sprawling collection of properties valued at nearly half a billion dollars.
Philipson’s Paragraph Partners put in $43.5 million in equity to take control of the 133-building portfolio in a court-approved deal about a week and a half ago, The Real Deal has learned. The equity represents 10 percent of the portfolio’s overall value of $435 million. It is believed that the buyer will assume substantial unsecured claims on the properties.
The on-again, off-again closing was anything but a sure thing.
Philipson and an investor group including Stephen Gorodetsky’s Whalley Capital Group and Rubin Schron’s Cammeby’s International originally agreed to buy the portfolio for $60 million last year. But when interest rates started to rise, they sought to reduce the price.
As both sides negotiated back and forth, at times it looked like the deal may fall apart. But they were eventually able to get to closing. A Meridian Investment Sales team of David Schechtman, Tamir Kazaz and Amit Doshi brokered the sale.
All Year was founded by Yoel Goldman, but was taken over by restructuring officers and put into bankruptcy in late 2021 as it faced threats of lawsuits and foreclosures. The company also sought to sell assets to pay back creditors, including Israeli bondholders.
The portfolio consists mostly of walk-up rental buildings in northern Brooklyn.
Philipson’s group separately reached a deal last year to acquire All Year’s stake in the trendy William Vale hotel in Williamsburg, but that sale fell through over the summer. All Year and Philipson ultimately reached a settlement.
Philipson, Gorodetsky, and an attorney for All Year did not return a request to comment.
Read moreNew YorkAvi Philipson deal to acquire All Year portfolio is back onNew YorkAll Year reaches deal with Rubin Schron for massive Brooklyn portfolioNational"I suppose a lot of people have a full stomach from what he did:" Inside Yoel Goldman's very bad yearThe post Avi Philipson closes deal for All Year’s multifamily portfolio appeared first on The Real Deal.
Los Angeles Housing Department with LAHD’s Ann Sewill (LAHD, Google Maps, Getty)The Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) is requesting six new hires immediately to help with the implementation of Measure ULA, the City of Los Angeles’s signature new transfer tax, even as it treads cautiously because of looming legal questions.
The request came in a letter that the department’s general manager, along with the L.A. City Administrative Officer (CAO), sent to the Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council last month in response to an earlier motion filed by council members ahead of the tax’s implementation. The department settled on the six positions, which would cost around $500,000, after conducting an internal analysis that found staffing gaps related to program planning, research analytics, policy development and communications.
“These significant core capabilities are very limited at LAHD compared to housing departments in other major cities or other large city departments,” the report states. “Absent immediate approval and action to address these gaps, LAHD and the city will not be able to effectively launch and start implementation of Measure ULA.”
The hiring recommendation is also an attempt to avoid repeating past mistakes: The report cites the department’s failings related to Los Angeles’ other recent signature homelessness funding measure, Proposition HHH, a now widely derided ballot measure L.A. voters approved in 2016 that authorized the city to issue $1.2 billion in bonds.
“While Proposition HHH ultimately provided more units, ahead of schedule, and at a lower city subsidy per unit than initially projected, LAHD and the city have been unable to effectively counter public perception that Proposition HHH failed to meet its goals and objectives,” the report says. “That is a consequence, at least in part, of LAHD’s limited communications, external affairs, and research and data infrastructure.”
Mostly, though, the current LAHD hiring recommendation also reflects a cautious approach to implementing the tax.
Although Measure ULA, which kicked in this month, is expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually (the most recent estimate is for $672 million for the next fiscal year), the tax faces two legal challenges, including one from the lobbying group Apartment Associaiton of Greater Los Angeles and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
If the measure is ultimately overturned in court, the city would have to return the money it collected, LAHD and the CAO point out, a situation that effectively puts the mayor and City Council in legal limbo.
“Until there is a court order to stay implementation or a decision that invalidates the measure, the city is mandated to implement Measure ULA in accordance with its provisions,” the report says. “The mayor and City Council, however, would need to decide if they are willing to risk expending an amount of the tax collected on priority projects before the court cases are resolved.”
The housing department will expand on its hiring needs related to Measure ULA in the future, the report mentions, but the six positions it’s requesting now would remain in place even if the law is ultimately overturned.
More clarity could come within several weeks. A hearing over whether to combine the two legal challenges against Measure ULA is scheduled for later this month, with more legal action to follow. While real estate sales that closed beginning April 1 are currently subject to the new tax, the city won’t get any money until late May, when it receives a disbursement from the county, according to the LAHD letter.
The City Council has referred the LAHD and CAO recommendations to its budget and finance and housing and homelessness committees.
Read moreLos AngelesLA Times hits back with Measure ULA op-edLos AngelesWill LA's new transfer tax kill its famous spec home market?Los AngelesLandlord group files legal challenge to LA’s transfer taxThe post LA Housing Department wants six hires to implement Measure ULA appeared first on The Real Deal.
Melvin Vaughn and 10718 Mora Drive in Los Altos (Facebook)A $20 million Silicon Valley mansion that was up for sale with crypto has gone into bankruptcy for a second time, The Real Deal has learned.
The property, located at 10718 Mora Drive in Los Altos, sits on the edge of a 4,000-acre nature preserve called Rancho San Antonio. The entity that owns the property, Mora House One LLC, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Monday, according to public documents in California’s Northern District court.
This is the second bankruptcy petition filed for the property. In October 2022, the LLC that owns the mansion went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In December, a judge approved the reorganization plan for the entity.
The home, also known as the Mora House, currently holds the distinction of being the most expensive residential listing in Los Altos, a wealthy enclave in Santa Clara County. It was first listed in February 2022 with an asking price of $24.5 million. At the time, prospective buyers had the option of paying for the 9,700-square-foot home with cryptocurrency.
The owner of the property, investor Melvin Vaughn, is a former fire chief who dabbled in residential real estate development, according to a previous report from Mansion Global. He has owned the site since 2006. The property went into foreclosure in 2020. However, an entity tied to Vaughn bought the property back for $12.5 million in September 2021. Vaughn could not be reached for comment.
In the bankruptcy petition, Vaughn declares the value of the LLC’s assets at between $10 million and $50 million. Liabilities were in the same range.
The mansion, which was designed by San Francisco firm Swatt/Miers Architects, is a six-bed, 11-bath home that was built in 2016. It sits on a 1.3-acre lot and was marketed along with an adjacent parcel with 1.4 acres of buildable space.
The post Los Altos’ priciest home listing heads to bankruptcy again appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: RFR’s Aby Rosen, Tricap’s David Edelstein and the W South Beach at 2201 Collins Avenue (Getty, RFR, Google Maps)Aby Rosen’s RFR and David Edelstein’s Tricap reached a truce in their dogfight over the W South Beach, The Real Deal has learned.
The New York-based firms dismissed dueling lawsuits accusing each other of trying to sabotage negotiations over control of the condo-hotel at 2201 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, according to court filings in New York Supreme Court and Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
In an emailed statement, an RFR spokesperson confirmed the joint venture partners reached a “resolution of outstanding litigation and the extension of financing related to the W South Beach Hotel.” It appears Rosen and Edelstein made up amicably, as the statement noted the pair are “longtime friends and business partners.”
The RFR spokesperson declined further comment. A Tricap spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2009, RFR and Tricap (formerly Tristar Capital) co-developed the 355-room W hotel.
In January, the firms went to court after negotiations for a buyout broke down amid a looming deadline for a maturing $157.4 million Citibank mortgage. Tricap was attempting to buy RFR’s interest in the hotel for $200 million.
Tricap sued RFR in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in January, seeking a court order to enforce an agreement the partners had allegedly reached in October. Tricap also sought to force RFR to agree to extend the loan.
The same month, in New York Supreme Court, RFR sued Tricap, alleging its partner was attempting to “extract additional concessions,” and that its partner had backed out of its $200 million offer.
Whether RFR and Tricap have resumed negotiations for the buyout is unknown.
Rosen and Edelstein are among the most active New York developers in South Florida. In Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, Tricap partnered with RAL Development to acquire an assemblage for $13 million in 2021. The joint venture is proposing to build a $200 million mixed-use project on the development site.
Tricap also teamed up with the Related Group, Alex Karakhanian’s Lndmrk Development and Tricera Capital to develop a residential project in Wynwood. The partnership paid $26.5 million for a 1.3-acre development site in 2021.
In downtown Miami, RFR dropped a combined $107 million last year for the 241-room Yve Hotel Miami and 100 Biscayne, a 30-story office tower.
The post RFR and Tricap settle legal battle over W South Beach appeared first on The Real Deal.
Aon Center at 200 East Randolph Street and Aegon CEO Lard Friese (Google Maps, Aegon)Special servicers are sinking their teeth into the massive debt on the Aon Center, one of Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers, while its owner struggles to refinance and is in the thick of a workout with its lenders over a key lease.
A special servicer started overseeing a portion of the $678 million debt package on 601W’s 83-story office tower at 200 East Randolph Street in February, months ahead of the loan’s July maturity. It claimed 601W defaulted on the debt by inking a lease with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association without the lender’s approval. In the weeks since, the lender and landlord have been at odds over the tenant improvement allowance that 601W granted to Blue Cross.
Now, the lender has agreed to cover a $1.5 million tenant improvement reserve for the building. But in return, it demanded a personal guarantee from 601W’s principals, Michael Silberberg, Victor Gerstein and Mark Karasick, for the balance of a $4.6 million Blue Cross tenant improvement allowance, according to recent reports from special servicers Aegon USA Realty Advisors and LNR Partners provided to credit ratings agency DBRS Morningstar.
But that may not settle the dust at the 2.8-million-square-foot property. The special servicers’ latest memos provide some insight into how things have gone.
The loan’s debt service coverage ratio, a measure of the cash flow available to pay debt obligations, was reported as below the benchmark 1.1 at the end of 2022, meaning the loan now requires the borrower to deposit rent revenues into a lender-controlled account, according to Aegon. That’s down from a ratio of 1.5 as of December 2020.
In March, the landlord fell short of covering expenses and mezzanine debt service due to property tax payments, Aegon said. Additionally, the servicer said 601W is seeking to extend the loan’s July maturity date, “as it is not prepared at this time to repay the debt.” Aegon will evaluate the request once the lease dispute is handled.
601W could not be reached for comment. Aegon did not return a request for comment. KeyBank, master servicer for the loan, declined to comment.
Brokers at Telos Group, which represented 601W in lease negotiations with Blue Cross, were not familiar with the tenant improvements referenced in Aegon’s latest update, according to a spokesperson, though the brokerage previously said the Aon Center secured approval from its lenders to move forward with the deal.
There may be some good news for 601W at the building in the works: its namesake tenant, Aon, is in talks to stay, the Morningstar reports show. It’s still unclear, though, whether the company will reduce its footprint. LNR Partners, a special servicer overseeing a separate portion of the debt against the building from Aegon, said 601W has negotiated a letter of intent with Aon for the renewal and extension of its lease. LNR didn’t return a request for comment.
601W purchased the tower for $712 million in 2015.
If the firm is able to maintain its hold on the property, it won’t be the first maneuver in a tricky environment for commercial landlords it has pulled off in recent months. On the East Coast, 601W closed a $420 million purchase of three Jersey City office buildings at the end of the first quarter.
But 601W still faces a foreclosure suit over Chicago’s Civic Opera Building, and Silberberg was sued in his individual capacity over the loan on that property earlier this month.
Read moreChicagoAon Center loan heads to special servicing ChicagoMichael Silberberg sued over Civic Opera Building loanChicagoMark Karasick’s 601W faces $195M foreclosure on Civic Opera HouseThe post Inside 601W’s fight to keep Aon Center appeared first on The Real Deal.
Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller and the Richard Driehaus with 1401 North Dearborn Street (Getty, DePaul University, Google Maps)A Gold Coast mansion offered by the estate of the late billionaire financial guru Richard Driehaus, and seen in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” has found a taker.
A buyer whose identity is unknown paid $5.65 million for the five-bedroom, 8,650-square-foot home at 1401 North Dearborn Street — down from the $6 million asking price when it was listed in November, Crain’s reported. Joanne Nemerovski of Compass represented the buyer, while Tim Salm and Matt Leutheuser of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty served as the listing agents.
The sale marked the fourth-priciest in the Chicago metro so far this year, and the second-priciest within the city limits, behind only the $11.2 million sale of Ken Griffin’s Park Tower condo in January, which also took a price cut to sell.
Chops from listing prices have been commonly required for sales of high-end Gold Coast homes in recent years, as several sat on the market after initially making ambitious asks.
The mansion was built in 1877 and owned by Driehaus since the 1980s. It boasts a pair of gold cherubs flanking the living room fireplace, several grand chandeliers and a stained-glass skylight above the staircase.
The estate features several art deco-inspired elements, such as the burlwood and marble fireplace mantel and a second staircase with a “jazzy” railing. The top floor has a conservatory that leads to a rooftop deck, the outlet reported.
Three of Driehaus’ mansions have now been sold since the famed businessman passed away in 2021. In January 2022, his 40-acre Lake Geneva residence was purchased for $36 million, setting a record in the area by a large margin. Another Gold Coast estate that Driehaus bought for his wife sold for $4.55 million in October.
Driehaus’ 1401 North Dearborn property served as the exterior of French restaurant Chez Quis in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” where Ferris poses as Abe Froman — the Sausage King of Chicago.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoRichard Driehaus’ Lake Geneva mansion sold for record $36MChicagoFormer Driehaus mansion sells for $4.5M in Gold Coast lossChicagoGold Coast mansion tests luxury market with $10M asking priceThe post Late Richard Driehaus’ Gold Coast mansion sold for $5.6M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Meritage Homes’ Kyle Davison and an overhead view of FM 2100 and Foley Road in Houston (Google Maps, LinkedIn)A prolific developer is targeting a small Texas town, 30 miles northeast of downtown Houston, with a project that could double its 2020 population.
Meritage Homes bought 241 acres in Crosby, population 2,276 in the 2020 U.S. Census, with plans of building about 1,000 homes near FM 2100 and Foley Road for its Sundance Cove community, the Houston Chronicle reported. Prices are expected to start around $200,000.
The Arizona-based developer, which has been active in a number of areas throughout the Houston metro, will offer one- and two-story homes, ranging from 1,300 to 3,000 square feet. Meritage Homes anticipates the project will take several years to complete.
Crosby will likely embrace the addition of Sundance Cove, David Jarvis of John Burns Research and Consulting said. Whereas other suburbs surrounding Houston have become saturated with new developments, Crosby is a hidden gem.
“The existing communities are rapidly building out,” Jarvis told the outlet. “There hasn’t been enough new development coming on to replace them.”
Amenities at Sundance Cove will include trails, a swimming pool, splash pad and recreation center. Homes will be on three lot sizes, spanning from 40 to 50 feet, with a depth of 120 feet.
“The homes here will offer some of the most requested features, including granite countertops, upgraded cabinets and backsplashes, covered patios and pendant lighting,” Meritage Homes’ Kyle Davison said.
Declining interest rates and a strong single-family market bodes well for the developer. The average rate for a 30-year mortgage was recently at 6.3 percent, down from 7.1 percent in November, the outlet said.
Some builders have even offered to buy down points from mortgages to reduce monthly payments, contributing to a strong home-sales volume in Houston. Home sales in Harris County rose from 1,684 in February to 2,157 in March, according to a Rocket Homes report.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreHoustonKittle plans two complexes in Houston metroHoustonClosed AMC theater to be the site of Meritage’s latest gated communityHoustonThree build-to-rent projects planned for Houston ’burbsThe post Meritage plans 1,000 homes in Crosby appeared first on The Real Deal.
Whitebox Real Estate’s Tyler Tillery (Whitebox Real Estate, Getty)As office projects stagnate, and the resi market continues to yo-yo, the DFW industrial market is seeing record-breaking construction and increasing rents.
The Metroplex leads the nation in industrial construction, with over 60 million square feet in the pipeline, according to a JLL report. Some firms caution that too much industrial/warehouse space is being built, but so far, incoming inventory hasn’t affected rent increases. Average industrial rent prices in North Texas have nearly doubled in the last decade from under $4 per square foot to nearly $8 now and continue to steadily climb. Some submarkets, specifically in the northern suburbs, have reached double digits for average rent costs.
Rise in online shopping is driving demand for storage and logistics facilities. In 2023 the market will likely continue to stay consistent and keep growing, even as inventory climbs higher, the JLL reports said.
“For every 1 million people, we require about 100 million square feet of industrial space,” said Tyler Tillery of Whitebox Real Estate. “We are projected to be at 10 million people in the next 10 years. So we are going to have to catch up on space, because we are running out in a hurry.”
Whitebox recently hired Tillery to lead its industrial division, and the firm is looking to triple its broker count to 50 employees in the next two years.
The demand for market specific brokers is at an all time high, as brokerages invest more people and resources into industrial sales, he said.
“When you talk to brokers in some of these tertiary markets, guys will do 25 percent of their business industrial, 25 residential, 25 office, they have to be multifaceted in order to make a living,” he said. “Our brokers hyper focus on one vertical market.”
Industrial construction is being driven south and north of Dallas and Fort Worth and into the suburbs, just like the residential and office markets. Alliance Airport, developed by Ross Perot Jr. in northern Fort Worth, and the planned Mckinney airport expansion are driving business.
“In the next 10 years, Burleson is basically going to be a suburb of Fort Worth,” Tillery said. “We’re still trying to figure out what the impact of Universal Studios is going to have in Frisco. That’s going to drive more jobs and more need for industrial space.”
While many DFW companies are increasing their industrial footprint, rising rents have others looking to downsize or move into cheaper areas, Tillery said.
A new wrinkle is the rise in industrial property amenities, Tillery said. The days of four walls and a roof on a dirt lot are becoming more scarce, he said.
“Most of that is being driven by municipalities setting a higher bar and saying, ‘buildings need to be attractive and meet certain specs,’” he said. “Are groups out there putting in pickleball courts? We haven’t seen that … yet.”
While industrial tenants may not be pushing for hot tubs, Tillery said the cost of landscaping, higher quality building materials and bigger parking lots are pushing rents higher on new builds and forcing landlords to upgrade their properties.
“When it comes to amenities, whatever tenants ask for is going to cost money, and that is going to get amortized back into rates,” he said. “I think the simpler you can keep it, as an industrial user, the better off you’ll be.”
Read moreDallasDFW building too much industrial space, Savills warnsTexasPhiladelphia logistics company buys 19 industrial buildings throughout DFWDallasDallas commercial market still reigns supremeThe post Industrial construction, rents on upswing appeared first on The Real Deal.
Axel Stawski and 23-10 43rd Avenue in Long Island City (Google Maps, Getty)Billionaire investor Axel Stawski is letting go of a five-story office building in Long Island City, the last of a block-wide assemblage he held in the high-development Court Square section of the neighborhood.
Stawski sold the property at 23-10 43rd Avenue on April 5 for $50 million through the entity Long Island City Center LLC, records show. He had purchased the site from the Bank of Austria in 1994 for an unknown price.
The buyer was the city’s School Construction Authority, which plans to demolish the building and replace it with a 547-seat school building on the 21,000-square-foot site.
The deal serves as follow-through on a long awaited concession to the controversial Long Island City Ramps project. Announced in 2018, it promised to bring more development to the area surrounding the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge on-ramps, including a 50,000-square-foot public park and apartment towers along Jackson Avenue.
The current structure occupies roughly a third of a city block along the edge of an area of the neighborhood which was rezoned in 2001 to allow for skyscrapers.
Surrounded by towers, the proposed school site would sit adjacent to a large, vacant lot and a small building sandwiched between the two properties that were purchased by Ron Zeff’s Carmel Partners from Stawski in March 2022 for $200 million.
It was projected to be one of neighborhood’s last major deals before the 421a tax abatement expired last June.
Pilings are in the ground and construction underway for the development of Carmel’s 66-story residential tower, which will measure 838,000 square feet with more than 17,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
Despite an impressive portfolio spanning the city, including six buildings in Manhattan, Stawski has largely managed to fly under the radar in New York City real estate. His firm, Stawski Partners, made headlines in 2020 when it filed a lawsuit against one of its major retail tenants, Gap, at 1212 Sixth Avenue for $530,000 in unpaid bills for water and snow removal.
The post Axel Stawski sells LIC office building for $50M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Extell’s Gary Barnett with 1651 First Avenue (Google Maps, Getty)Holdout tenants literally shaped Gary Barnett’s plans for an L-shaped development on First Avenue in Yorkville. But the developer may soon have a bit more design flexibility.
A state appellate court has sided with his firm’s quest to evict a rent-regulated tenant at 1651 First Avenue. The tenant and other holdouts had caused Extell Development to design around their buildings. In November 2021, Extell filed plans for a 22-story building featuring 543 apartments and commercial space.
State officials repeatedly rejected Extell’s requests to deny its rent-regulated tenant a lease renewal so that it can demolish the building. But in a unanimous September ruling, appellate judges found that the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal’s decision “was an error of law and was arbitrary and capricious.”
The court reinforced the ruling on Tuesday, denying the agency’s motion to reargue its case or to advance to the state’s highest court.
Sherwin Belkin, a real estate attorney who is not involved in the case, called the decision a significant win for developers looking to demolish their rent-stabilized properties. Regulated tenants are entitled to lease renewals except when the landlord “intends in good faith to demolish the building” and receives approval from the city’s Department of Buildings.
The owners must then file an application with HCR to deny lease renewals to its tenants. The state’s housing regulator, however, has taken the position that owners must also demonstrate post-demolition plans for the site and financing to build.
“That is an expensive and very time-consuming process,” Belkin said, adding that he has at least five clients who will likely move forward with demolition plans, given Tuesday’s decision.
Though Housing and Community Renewal and the holdout tenant, Greg Marshall, can still ask the Court of Appeals to hear its case, but it is exceedingly rare for the high court to hear appeals of unanimous rulings.
In this case, Extell told state officials in 2019 that it had enough money to demolish a six-story building at 1651 First Avenue. The job would cost nearly $500,000, and the developer had a separate account with $1 million dedicated exclusively to the building’s demolition, according to court documents.
For a well-funded developer like Extell, such proof was a perfunctory step toward denying its rent-regulated tenant a lease renewal.
But the state wanted Extell to either show that the building posed a danger to its sole tenant, Marshall, or that it had approved plans for new construction on the site. The developer argued that the law only required proof that it had city approval for the demolition and could afford it.
Extell sued the state and Marshall in June 2021, seeking to annul HCR’s rejection of its demolition request. The complaint largely revolves around one word, “undertaking,” in state law.
The developer argued that the housing regulator misinterpreted the law when it deemed Extell had failed to provide proof that it could pay for its planned undertaking on the site. Extell claimed the demolition was the sole undertaking, while HCR said the replacement project should be included.
Extell first filed a demolition application in 2015 that revealed the site was part of an assemblage where it planned a 36-unit, mixed-use building costing about $95 million. In 2017, HCR denied the application, citing the lack of evidence that the developer could pay for the project.
Two years later, the developer filed another demolition application, but left out details about the proposed development, according to HCR. The agency said Extell would not answer simple questions about its plans.
The state Supreme Court agreed with HCR in its September 2021 decision but the Appellate Division reversed the ruling, finding that language referencing plans for post-demolition had intentionally been removed from state law in 2000.
An attorney for Marshall, Fred Seeman, rejected the idea that Tuesday’s decision would hamper his chances at the Court of Appeals. He pointed to the administrative and Supreme Court rulings in his client’s favor. Marshall, who has lived at 1651 First Avenue for more than two decades, is still there.
“There’s miles and miles to go before we sleep,” Seeman said.
Read moreNew YorkExtell lands $125M loan for UES resi projectNew YorkExtell to build UES building around 2 occupant holdoutsNew YorkRevealed: Site of Gary Barnett's next big developmentThe post Extell scores win in fight against state, holdout tenant appeared first on The Real Deal.
Aster at 3611 Congress Avenue and 1105 K Avenue (Toll Brothers, Getty)Apartments under construction in Dallas-Fort Worth soared to new heights in the first quarter of 2023, while average rent prices dropped slightly.
Over 74,000 new apartments were in the works by the end of March, which is up from the previous quarter’s 65,642 new units, the Dallas Morning News reported. Simultaneously, average rent declined by 0.4 percent to $1,536 per month.
Similar to Austin, new multifamily developments are alleviating supply-shortage issues, giving more options to prospective renters and forcing apartment complexes to lower prices in order to stay competitive.
RealPage’s Jay Parsons“After an uncharacteristically slow 2022, leasing momentum returned to the D-FW apartment market in the first quarter,” RealPage chief economist Jay Parsons told the outlet. “We’re seeing strong leasing traffic again as renters suddenly have far more options than they did a year ago — both in terms of newly built and also existing apartments.”
Parsons added that last quarter’s construction numbers were the largest he’d seen since he started tracking the data in 1992.
Net apartment leasing in the region also increased by 857 units — the best showing since a year prior. Parsons said DFW leads the nation in apartment development, with 34,345 units slated to complete in 2023. Yet, the vast quantity of new buildings resulted in a 6.5 percent vacancy rate for apartments, which was the highest since 2012, the outlet said.
The bulk of new apartments are being built in Allen and McKinney with 11,238 units, followed by 9,125 in Frisco and 4,039 in Dallas’ Uptown and downtown areas.
Steady job growth and population gains have helped bolster a strong overall rental market in North Texas, as the region saw an influx of 211,600 new jobs year-over-year since last February.
DFW appears to be thriving across all sectors of real estate. In January, it was reported that the region led the nation in commercial sales volume for the third year in a row. And as of November, it led the county in industrial projects under construction with nearly 67 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space in the pipeline.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasDallas commercial market still reigns supremeDallasDFW claims 9% of industrial projects in pipeline nationwideDallasOffice-to-resi bringing 1,500 homes to DallasThe post New apartments proliferate in DFW appeared first on The Real Deal.
IAC’s Barry Diller and 555 West 18th Street (IAC, Getty, ~~×α£đ~~es/CC BY-SA 3.0/via Wikimedia Commons)Barry Diller’s IAC company paid $80 million to buy the land under its iconic Frank Gehry-designed West Chelsea headquarters.
The media conglomerate, which already owns the 200,000-square-foot office building, consolidated its ownership of its headquarters at 555 West 18th Street with its purchase of the land it’s sitting on, IAC announced Tuesday afternoon.
“Our building was always more than an office. We didn’t want to build another skyscraper, we wanted to excite the imagination, stimulate ideas and collaboration, and do so in an area of the city at the cusp of transformation,” Diller, IAC’s chairman and senior executive, wrote in the announcement. “Seventeen years later, Chelsea bubbles with new life and energy and IAC is proud to have been there at the beginning.”
IAC paid cash to buy the property from the Resnicoff family, The Real Deal has learned.
A Marcus & Millichap team led by Eric Anton and Steven Siegel negotiated the sale.
Anton said the marketing process drew “tremendous interest” from private equity groups and high-net worth buyers.
“But IAC was committed to owning their home,” he said. “They moved incredibly fast with an all cash offer.”
The Resnicoff family, longtime West Chelsea land owners, ground-leased the property in 2004 to the Georgetown Company, which developed the site as the headquarters for Diller’s media conglomerate, which is the parent company of Dotdash Meredith and The Daily Beast.
The family put the property up for sale late last year, one of the few investment sales to hit the market after rising interest rates chilled demand.
Read moreNew YorkLand under Barry Diller’s IAC HQ up for saleNew YorkNYC investment sales plummeted in Q3New YorkDiller’s IAC building is dripping sealant from the windows: suitThe post Barry Diller’s IAC pays $80M for West Chelsea HQ appeared first on The Real Deal.
8955 Collins Avenue and David Abrams (Arte Surfside, Velocity Capital)A sports and media investor sold his Arte Surfside condo for $14.1 million in an off-market deal.
David Abrams, as manager of Party of 5 LLC, sold unit 501 at 8955 Collins Avenue in Surfside to a trust named for the address. The true buyer is unknown.
Abrams is a founding partner of Velocity Capital Management, a New York City-based investment firm specializing in sports, media and entertainment companies. Prior to establishing Velocity in 2021, Abrams was chief investment officer for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment for four years, LinkedIn shows. He also spent nearly a decade as a managing partner at Apollo Global Management.
Records show Abrams bought his 3,600-square-foot Arte condo for $10.2 million in 2021. The unit has four bedrooms and four bathrooms, and includes an ocean-facing terrace.
The latest sale equates to $3.9 million in price growth in two years.
Alex Sapir’s Sapir Corporation and Giovanni Fasciano developed the 12-story, 16-unit oceanfront condominium. Italian architect Antonio Citterio designed the building, and the developers completed construction in 2020. Amenities include tennis courts, indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness center, spa and sauna.
Since its completion, Arte has attracted high-profile residents, among them Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. The couple has been renting a two-story, 7,000-square-foot unit in the building since 2021.
They got a new landlord in January –– an unknown buyer bought the Arte unit for $17 million in an all cash deal.
The former first children are renting while they complete renovations on the waterfront Indian Creek mansion they bought for $24 million in 2021.
Other recent sales at Arte include a penthouse Deepak Thapliyal’s blockchain firm Chain sold for $18 million in December. The sale equated to a $4.5 million loss, after the company bought the penthouse for $22.5 million in 2021, using cryptocurrency.
Sapir Corporation sold two units in the building for a combined $23.4 million in February of last year.
The post Sports and media investor sells Arte Surfside condo for $14M appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Attorney General Rob Bonta and Mayor of Huntington Beach Tony Strickland (Getty)Days after the City of Huntington Beach voted against adopting a key housing document — a move that effectively perpetuated the city’s already pitched battle against Sacramento authorities — the California attorney general’s office has responded by filing a new legal action against the city.
“California is in the midst of a housing crisis,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement on Monday, “and time and time again, Huntington Beach has demonstrated they are part of the problem by defiantly refusing every opportunity to provide essential housing for its own residents.”
Bonta added that Huntington Beach’s move last week, in which the City Council narrowly voted to reject a critical housing planning document that had been prepared over a period of months by city staff, was “just the latest in a string of willfully illegal actions by the city.”
The attorney general’s office also explicitly pointed out that the city’s actions mean it is still subject to the builder’s remedy, the controversial, previously obscure legal provision that began sweeping California last fall. Under California law, all jurisdictions within the state must periodically update their Housing Element, a part of the general code that outlines housing planning, in line with state-determined goals. Cities that fail to do so are subject to certain penalties, including the builder’s remedy, which allows developers to bypass local zoning rules to obtain approval for housing construction.
Huntington Beach has now been out of state compliance on its Housing Element for around 16 months, a period that will stretch even longer because of the City Council’s vote last week. The vote came after a heated council meeting that revealed how thoroughly the city’s ongoing battle against the state over housing laws — a battle that was turned into a cause celebre by the city’s new conservative counsel bloc — has divided both local officials and residents.
“It is fundamental,” Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland, who is part of the conservative bloc, said at one point during last week’s meeting. “If we lose this fight, the city that people love here in Huntington Beach — the suburban community that they love — is gone.”
Following last week’s 4-3 council vote, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a strong housing proponent who was first elected in part on a promise to help the state build millions of homes, added his own criticism, declaring in a statement that “Huntington Beach continues to fail its residents” and suggesting the city was failing to do its fair share to alleviate the state’s housing crisis.
The new legal action is an amendment to an existing lawsuit the state has pending against the city. In March, the state filed one suit against Huntington Beach over the city’s recent ban on processing applications for ADUs and development related to SB 9, a major state housing bill that came into effect in 2022. Following the suit, Huntington Beach “reversed course,” in the words of the attorney general’s office, and resumed processing the applications.
The state’s amended complaint argues that Huntington Beach is violating the California Housing Element Law and seeks to suspend the city’s permitting authority, among other remedies.
In response to the new comments and amended complaint from Sacramento, Strickland vowed to stay the course.
Read moreLos Angeles“Destroying our city”: Huntington Beach rejects state housing planLos Angeles“Viciousness”: La Cañada Flintridge's NIMBY showdownSan FranciscoYIMBYs sue Bay Area cities to recognize builder’s remedy“These regular state press releases announcing legal actions against Huntington Beach may grab headlines,” he said in a statement, “but they do not intimidate or deter the city, and they have no effect in the court of law, where these conflicts will ultimately be decided.”
Strickland took technical issue with the state’s amended filing, arguing that legal procedure would require an entirely new lawsuit, instead of a motion to amend an existing one, and “Bonta should know that.”
Huntington Beach also has its own lawsuit pending against the state related to the state-determined mandates. For the ongoing Housing Element update, the state had determined that Huntington Beach, a coastal city with around 200,000 residents, must plan for an additional 13,400 homes by 2030. As part of its pitched, highly ideological battle against state authority, Huntington Beach officials repeatedly warn of disastrous consequences from such “urbanizing,” even though the planning figure also doesn’t guarantee that many new homes would actually be built.
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Avisaíl García and his Coral Gables home at 5255 Snapper Creek Road (Legendary Productions, Getty)Miami Marlins player Avisaíl García scored a new home in Coral Gables for $9 million.
The Major League Baseball right fielder, whose full name is Avisaíl Antonio García Yaguarin, and his wife Anakarina Jaspe Paramo, acquired the 7,600-square-foot, seven-bedroom estate at 5255 Snapper Creek Road, property records show. They financed their purchase with a $5.6 million mortgage from U.S. Bank.
Lucas Andreika, who shares the same name as an analyst at New York-based Anomaly Capital Management, sold the Snapper Creek Lakes home. It was completed in 2020 and sits on a 1.1-acre lot. The Coral Gables property was most recently asking about $10.5 million with the Corcoran Group’s Bradley Cooper. Cooper also represented the buyer.
5255 Snapper Creek Road (Legendary Productions)García signed a four-year, $53 million contract with the Marlins in late 2021. Before that, he played for the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers.
His new home is near Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, south of the waterfront gated communities Gables Estates and Cocoplum. It sold for a 14 percent discount off the asking price, but at a markup compared to the previous sale price. The seller paid $7.4 million for the home in 2021.
5255 Snapper Creek Road (Legendary Productions)The property, with seven bathrooms and two half-bathrooms, has a custom kitchen, and a private primary suite with a balcony and spa bath in its own wing of the house.
Last month, Leon Medical Centers boss Benjamin Leon III sold a 1-acre waterfront lot nearby for $10.4 million, in an off-market deal.
5255 Snapper Creek Road (Legendary Productions)Price reductions have become common across South Florida, including in Coral Gables.
Last month, top NBA agent Jeff Schwartz and his wife Natalie sold their estate in the same community as García’s for $12.4 million, about 10 percent below the $14 million asking price. Also in March, self-storage mogul Jay Massirman sold his Coral Gables home for a discounted $10 million.
5255 Snapper Creek Road (Legendary Productions)Nearby, trial attorney John Ruiz sold one of his waterfront Coral Gables mansions for $30 million in January, a significant discount from the $45 million he originally sought for the property.
The post Miami Marlins’ Avisaíl García scores Coral Gables home appeared first on The Real Deal.
1003 N. Rush Street (LoopNet, Getty)A Gold Coast Property that’s changed hands several times over the past 15 years now belongs to one of its previous landlords.
An affiliate of Stone Street Partners bought the 5,400-square-foot building at 1003 North Rush Street from Atlanta-based Invesco for $12 million, which marks a loss from the seller’s 2014 purchase price, Crain’s reported.
It’s fully leased by apparel retailer Vuori, which opened its store last year. The deal was brokered by Mid-America Real Estate, and equates to roughly $2,222 per square foot. Invesco bought it for $14.1 million in 2014, when it was occupied by Starbucks.
While other Chicago retail markets have struggled to rebound from the pandemic, like the famed Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue, the Gold Coast’s recovery is mostly complete. Oak Street and other popular strips in the neighborhood have relatively low vacancies, which Stone Street’s Brian Farley said was a motivating factor behind his firm’s investment.
“Everything on Oak Street is pretty much leased,” Farley told the outlet. “Oak Street rents have to go up from this point forward.”
Stone Street owned the 1003 North Rush property before selling it to Mark Hunt for $9 million in 2008. Hunt then sold the property to investor Don Wilson for $12.4 million in 2012, and it changed hands once more in 2014 when Invesco bought it.
Although the recent sale price is lower than nine years ago, it’s not necessarily an indicator that the property is troubled. Rising interest rates, fears of a recession and stricter loans have pushed down property values across the country.
Plus, it’s possible that the previous tenant, Starbucks, paid more than Vuori in rent, meaning the building’s income and value would subsequently decline when the apparel retailer moved in. The property generates roughly $702,000 in annual net income, while Vuori’s rent is at 25 percent to 30 percent below recent market rents in the area, according to a Mid-America brochure.
Vuori currently has a 10-year lease at the site with a 2.5 percent rent increase set to occur annually.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoGold Coast building’s decades-long vacancy bewilders neighborhoodChicagoLow floor, highest price: Private equity vet asks $17M for Gold Coast condoChicagoIs Gold Coast luxury real estate poised for a comeback?The post Stone Street hands Invesco loss with $12M Gold Coast deal appeared first on The Real Deal.
Brookfield Properties’ Travis Overall and Houston Center (Houston Center, Brookfield Properties, Getty)Brookfield Properties has completed upgrades to two buildings at the Houston Center.
The Highlight at Houston Center, a 196,000-square-foot retail complex at 1200 McKinney Street, and 3 Houston Center, a 51-story office building at 1301 McKinney Street, are expected to lure new tenants and customers, the Houston Chronicle reported. Upgrades to the buildings conclude a multimillion dollar plan dating back to 2019; the exact costs were not disclosed.
The recent renovations are part of Brookfield’s strategy to modernize the Houston Center, which opened in the early 1980s. Other buildings at the complex, such as 2 Houston Center, 4 Houston Center and LyondellBasell Tower, also received upgrades in recent years, including new facades, renovated lobbies and improved conference centers and tenant amenities, the outlet said.
“Houston Center’s premier, central location provides Brookfield Properties with the unique opportunity to create a vibrant hub in the heart of downtown Houston to be enjoyed by tenants, residents and tourists alike,” Brookfield’s Travis Overall said in a news release. “Through this significant investment to revitalize Houston Center, we have unlocked a new chapter for our central business district and set it up for a successful future for years to come.”
Collaborators for the project consisted of design firm Gensler, landscape architecture firm Clark Condon & Associates, and construction firm Harvey Builders. Upgrades at 3 Houston Center include a new lobby with white porcelain floors, modern furniture and contemporary artwork. For The Highlight, a new multi-story entrance facing Discovery Green was added to draw park visitors to the remodeled food court, the outlet said.
While Brookfield is revitalizing downtown Houston, it is facing distress in California. The firm defaulted on $784 million in loans connected to office buildings in downtown Los Angeles in February. And last week, it wrote down the value of a trophy office building in downtown L.A.
Houston’s office vacancy rate hovered around 30 percent in the first quarter of this year. Many landlords who own older buildings are revamping their properties to attract tenants and compete with newer buildings, similar to NewForm’s recent expansion of the Main & Co section of downtown.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreHoustonBrookfield ‘exploring options’ on Houston’s 1600 SmithHoustonNewForm expands Main & Co redevelopmentHoustonCommon Desk expands footprint in the IonThe post Brookfield completes Houston Center upgrades appeared first on The Real Deal.
11 Hoyt Street, 845 President Street in Brooklyn (11 Hoyt, Google Maps, Getty)A top-floor penthouse at Tishman Speyer’s 11 Hoyt Street claimed Brooklyn’s priciest contract last week.
Penthouse B at the 57-story Downtown Brooklyn tower, last asking $6.1 million, was the most expensive of 18 homes priced at $2 million or higher that went into contract in the borough between April 3 and April 9, according to Compass’ weekly report.
The 2,600-square-foot unit has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, along with high ceilings, large bay windows and chef’s kitchen with lava stone countertops. Amenities in the building include a full-time doorman, a gym, a media and recreation room and parking. Corcoran Sunshine heads sales at the building.
The second most expensive home to enter contract was a townhouse at 854 President Street in Park Slope asking $5.6 million. The 20-foot-wide brownstone, which dates back to 1888, spans 4,200 square feet and comes with six bedrooms and three bathrooms. It features a large eat-in kitchen, stained glass windows, original mahogany dressing rooms and a wood-burning brick fireplace. Compass’ Debra Bondy had the listing.
Weekly luxury contracts in Brooklyn have declined since the week ending March 19, when 28 homes asking $2 million or more found buyers, the market has remained far busier than it was at the start of the year, when weekly luxury contracts were in the single digits.
Of the 18 total contracts signed last week, twelve were for townhouses and six were for condos. The average asking price was $3.4 million and the average price per square foot was $1,310. Those 18 homes spent an average of 147 days on the market and had an average discount of 3 percent from the original listing price.
Read moreNew YorkCondo sales are booming in BrooklynNew YorkOlympia Dumbo condo tops Brooklyn’s luxury contractsNew YorkPark Slope townhouse, condo top luxury contracts in BrooklynThe post Penthouse at Tishman’s 11 Hoyt tops Brooklyn luxury contracts appeared first on The Real Deal.
Sixth and Guadalupe, Frost Bank Tower and 111 South Congress in Austin (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, Wikipedia/LoneStarMike, Wikipedia/WhisperToMe and Sixth and Guadalupe)For the last year, as office markets across the country have weathered rising rates and fears of an economic downturn, it has at times seemed that Austin’s growth might let it avoid the worst. Not anymore.
The Texas capital’s offices haven’t been so empty since the Great Recession, as sublease vacancy increased nearly 30 percent in the first quarter of 2023, according to a report from JLL. Twice as many large blocks of space exceeding 100,000 square feet were available for lease in the start of 2023 as there were in the same span just before the pandemic. Austin’s office landlords did not ink a single lease greater than 30,000 square feet, and overall absorption fell to negative 562,100 square feet.
“We’ve started to see the effects of the broader economy finally hit Austin,” said Bethan Perez, an agency leasing executive with JLL. “Everyone’s kind of just hitting the pause button — companies, developers, anyone who wanted to go sell their buildings.”
Total vacancy reached 19 percent, in part driven by office deliveries in previous quarters that were not pre-leased. State Farm and Home Depot Technology Center both left major leases totaling almost 425,000 square feet.
Direct asking rent fell to $54.29 per square foot, while sublease asking rent declined to $44.91. The Central Business District’s asking rent of $70.25 per square foot made it the priciest office market in the city.
No new office projects broke ground last quarter, and the Texas Bankers Association Building at 203 West 10th Street was the city’s lone office development to come online.
Not every type of building was hit equally. Class A buildings recorded a positive absorption of nearly 80,000 square feet, while Class B absorption fell to negative 39,300 square feet. Still, the vacancy rate for the city’s Class A buildings was 19.5 percent, slightly above the 17.7 percent level for Class B properties. Owners of older office buildings have had to renovate their properties to stay relevant, Perez said, with some adding new lobbies, pre-decorated floors or flex work spaces.
“Pre-2020, it was a landlord’s market, where we set the terms,” Perez said. “Now, the tables have turned. Tenants have every option at their fingertips.”
There has been concern among commercial landlords that the recent streak of layoffs among major technology companies might have ripple effects on Austin’s office market. Some of the city’s largest employers — Dell, Tesla, Apple, Google and Meta, to name a few — are tech or tech-adjacent firms with high-profile stakes in some of the city’s premier office buildings. Austin’s tech workforce grew 29 percent to roughly 89,000 employees between 2018 and 2022. (Non-farm employment grew 11 percent over the same period.)
While the city hasn’t felt the same direct impact of layoffs as San Francisco and New York, its tech pillars have generally halted expansion. Meta decided to sublease its 589,000-square-foot block of office space at Sixth and Guadalupe, Kairoi Residential and Lincoln Property Company’s downtown skyscraper that is still under construction.
For better or worse, the full effects of the tech breakdown are still unknown.
“I think some of it is still TBD,” Perez said.
Read moreTexasFlex office boom hits Texas suburbsNationalAnxiety is mounting in commercial real estateDallasHarlan Crow has lavished Justice Clarence Thomas with gifts since the ’90sThe post Austin’s office market hit record vacancy appeared first on The Real Deal.
Yahoo’s Jim Lanzone and 391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View (Getty, Loopnet)Yahoo has expanded its Silicon Valley presence by leasing office space in Mountain View, according to a recent report by CBRE, which ranked the lease as the second largest in Silicon Valley during the first quarter.
The web service leased 78,000 square feet at The Village at San Antonio Center located at 391 San Antonio Road. The Colliers report did not include financial terms of the deal.
Los Angeles-based Brookfield Properties acquired a large portion of The Village in April 2021 for $630 million. The parcels that were acquired included two big office buildings that have been leased to Meta, a building that includes the Showplace ICON Mountain View movie complex with 10 screens, and a parking structure. Meta opted out of its lease late last year after not needing the space to house contract employees anymore.
Just months after Brookfield acquired the properties at The Village, Boston based-TA Realty acquired a Safeway and three other retail buildings within The Village as well. Retailers housed in the buildings include T-Mobile, a Jared Jewelry Store, Mizu Sushi Bar & Grill and SAJJ Mediterranean.
Yahoo got its start in 1995 as a bookmarks list for Stanford students and became the first such service with a large following. Over the years it added additional tech services such as email and web searching; and became the most visited website in the United States in 2008. However, it has since fallen behind Google, Facebook, YouTube and Amazon. In 2016, Yahoo sold its core business to Verizon for nearly $5 billion.
Yahoo’s move to secure more office space goes against recent moves of tech companies offloading space in Silicon Valley, according to the CBRE report. Recent trends indicate that Silicon Valley is in a downward market. The vacancy rate increased to 15.6 percent in the first quarter from 14.2 percent the previous quarter.
“Recent economic events greatly impacted the Silicon Valley office market,” the report said. “Layoffs, uncertainty around return-to-office (RTO) policies, and the struggles of the banking sector resulted in companies reassessing their short and long-term real estate strategies.”
Read moreSan FranciscoWeWork’s 457K sf Mountain View office on market for leaseSan FranciscoTA Realty buys large Safeway store, three other retail buildings in Mountain View mixed-use complex for $77MSan FranciscoMarissa Mayer demolishes three townhomes for swimming pool in Palo AltoThe post Yahoo expands Silicon Valley presence with Mountain View lease appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty)Apartment vacancies in California have hit a two-year high, with rents falling across the Golden State.
The statewide vacancy rate rose to 5.2 percent in March, the highest level since April 2021 and up from the 3.6 percent pandemic low in September-November 2021, the Orange County Register reported, citing a survey by ApartmentList.
Meanwhile, apartment rents in the state’s dozen most populous counties fell 3.5 percent from their August peak. The vacancy rate in Los Angeles was 5.4 percent, with average rents down 2.1 percent since 2021.
A return to normal since the pandemic that has slowed housing markets has now forced landlords to compete for tenants, as renters select from more available units.
The increased vacancy rate has pushed typical rents down to $1,930 a month, $70 from the August peak. Despite the 3.5 percent drop, average rents statewide are still up 15 percent, or $253, in three years.
The reduced demand for apartments since the pandemic may result from a reduced fear of catching COVID-19 in crowded living arrangements, according to the Register.
A return of workers to the office and children to classrooms has also limited the need for additional home office or study space. The previously soaring rents may have some apartment hunters rethinking their search during a wobbly economy.
Developers saw the landlord-friendly conditions of rising rents and few vacancies in 2021 and rushed to build.
Statewide permits for multifamily housing totaled 106,000 in 2021-22 — a jump from the 71,000 average for two-year periods in the previous 30 years.
At the same time, the new supply of rentals are opening as the state population is shrinking. The in-state migration from large coastal cities toward inland regions that accelerated during the pandemic days has also cooled.
The result: California may be more renter-friendly for many months to come, according to the Register.
Rents are now off their peaks in all 12 markets. In Los Angeles County, a typical apartment in March rented for $1,920 a month — off 2.1 percent, or $41, from the August peak, but up 12 percent, or $206, in three years. The vacancy rate was 5.4 percent, compared to a 4.0 percent pandemic low.
In Orange County, the rent was $2,594 a month — off 2.7 percent, or $72, from a September peak, but up 27 percent, or $559, in three years. The vacancy rate was 5.1 percent, versus a 2.3 percent pandemic low.
In Riverside County, the rent was $2,038 a month — off 4.3 percent, or $92, from a June peak, but up 39 percent, or $567, in three years. The vacancy rate was 4.9 percent, versus a 1.3 percent pandemic low.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesCalifornia apartment rents slide for the fifth straight monthLos AngelesLos Angeles rents dip in January, Zumper report findsLos AngelesThe post Apartment vacancies in California rise, pushing down rents appeared first on The Real Deal.
Ken Griffin with 1201 Brickell Bay Drive in Miami and Sterling Bay CEO Andy Gloor (Getty, Google Maps, Sterling Bay)Billionaire Ken Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel cut ties with Chicago developer Sterling Bay to build its new headquarters in Miami.
Citadel, which moved to Miami from Chicago, where it still has a large presence, is no longer working with Chicago-based Sterling Bay to build its planned $1 billion tower on Miami’s Biscayne Bay, Crain’s Chicago reported. Instead, Griffin’s firm will handle some of the work in-house and partner with another developer on the Brickell project.
Sterling Bay was involved in identifying Citadel’s properties in Miami and Palm Beach. It has also worked on permitting and soil testing for the planned new headquarters site at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive in Miami, according to Crain’s.
Last year, Citadel paid $363 million for the lot, plus another $20 million for the non-waterfront site at 1250 and 1260 Brickell Bay Drive. In the meantime, Citadel, which leases office space at Southeast Financial Center in downtown Miami, also signed a lease for space at the 830 Brickell office tower that is under construction.
Citadel Securities also relocated.
Griffin told Bloomberg that its planned tower could rise more than 1,000 feet, on par with a number of other skyscrapers in the Miami pipeline. He also said it could be built in five or six years, though it will likely take longer.
Griffin, a Daytona Beach native, has paid more than $1 billion over the last decade for South Florida real estate.
That includes hundreds of millions of dollars worth of residential properties in Palm Beach, where Citadel will also have an office. Griffin also owns homes on Miami Beach’s Star Island, in Coral Gables and at the northern point of Coconut Grove, just south of the Brickell headquarters site. Griffin acquired the latter property from businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht last summer for nearly $107 million.
— Katherine Kallergis
Read moreSouth FloridaBillionaire Ken Griffin on politics, all things Florida and building a trading room in 5 daysNew YorkBillionaire Ken Griffin seeks to move historic Miami villaSouth FloridaKen Griffin's Citadel comes to Brickell — and supercharges the marketThe post Citadel, Sterling Bay part ways on planned waterfront Miami tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of the Upstate Curious Team (Upstate Curious Team, Getty)Curious about upstate New York? So is Compass, which just poached the Upstate Curious Team from Keller Williams as part of an expansion into the Catskills.
The 15-broker team, founded by Megan Brenn-White in 2019, says it has closed nearly $260 million in sales in the Catskills and Hudson Valley, where competition for talent has been heating up among New York City’s top brokerages.
Brenn-White said she reached out to Compass after CEO Robert Reffkin suggested in February that the brokerage may switch to a franchise model for geographic expansions as it tries to reduce its expenses.
“As late as this fall I was putting feelers out to see if there would be an opportunity to join and at the time there didn’t seem to be,” said Brenn-White.
A franchise deal never happened, but a slowdown in expansion at the brokerage, in place since last summer, now appears to be over. Compass ended a moratorium on mergers and acquisitions last week when it picked up a 300-agent independent brokerage in Arizona in a deferred, all-equity deal.
“They’re not ready to franchise yet, but they were open to going into a new market,” Brenn-White said of Compass’ Upstate Curious deal.
The team, which is active from Westchester County as far north as Albany, and from the state borders with Massachusetts and Connecticut in the east to Schoharie and Sullivan counties in the west, developed a community app that has roughly 6,500 users.
“We thought the app could fill in a gap for questions we can’t answer as real estate agents for very valid fair housing reasons,” said Brenn-White. “People would say, ‘Hey we’re a biracial queer couple, what town should we move to?’ … If they can throw it out to the community and get answers, that’s extremely helpful.”
Brenn-White said seasonality is returning to the Catskills market after a flood of city dwellers during the pandemic transformed the area into what analyst Jonathan Miller calls a co-primary market, meaning residents split their time somewhat evenly between the area and the city.
Like in the Hamptons, the post-lockdown bonanza decimated inventory in Hudson Valley and the Catskills and drove up prices. Home prices in Ulster County, which includes Kingston and Woodstock, jumped 20 percent in 2021.
“December, January were way slower than they have been the past two years … and then in the spring it has picked up so much,” Brenn-White said. “It feels like right now there are five houses across those 11 counties that every person is looking at. It’s very rough.”
Nabbing the Upstate Curious team isn’t Compass’ only recent move north of New York City: Last fall, the firm recruited the Hudson Valley-based Banx Team, an 11-agent group, from Berkshire Hathaway.
Read moreBrenn-White says she first caught the real estate bug after buying a Park Slope studio for $79,000 two decades ago and flipping it for twice that a few years later.
The Harvard graduate eventually got into real estate in earnest after burning out from her day job, first with Habitat Real Estate. She eventually founded Upstate Curious after moving to the area from New York City, an experience which helped her come up with the name.
“Everyone in the city is a little upstate curious,” she said.
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From left: Pendulum Property Partners’ Kevin Hayers, Shubin Nadal Realty Investors’ Bill Shubin and Lonnie Nadal in front of 8500 Balboa Boulevard in Northridge (Getty, Pendulum Property Partners, Shubin Nadal Realty Investors, Google Maps)Shubin Nadal Realty Investors and DRA Advisors have sold an office campus in Northridge for $171 million — a roughly 30 percent discount from its listing price, The Real Deal has learned.
Pendulum Property Partners, an investment firm based in Orange County, bought the 761,000-square-foot The Mix at Harman campus at 8500 Balboa Boulevard for about $224 per square foot, according to a source familiar with the matter. Newmark, which brokered the deal, declined to comment.
Neither Pendulum nor Shubin Nadal responded to a request for comment.
Shubin Nadal and New York-based DRA bought the complex for $130 million in 2014, records show, and spent a further $30 million renovating the property, meaning the property sold at a roughly breakeven price for the investors.
The firms originally listed the property last year with a price tag of $250 million, or about $328 per square foot. But that was before interest rates soared and the City of L.A. enacted its new transfer tax — both of which have crushed office values in the city.
The deal closed before the transfer taxes — which will add 5.5 percent on sales over $10 million — went into effect on April 1, meaning the sellers saved about $9.4 million.
Facebook, now known as Meta, leased about 80,000 square feet at the office campus in 2017. The office campus is named after Samsung’s Harman International, the parent company of speaker manufacturers JBL and Harman Kardon, which is also a tenant at the property. Online listings for neighboring properties also say Amazon.com is a tenant at The Mix at Harman.
As of May, the property was about 26 percent vacant, online listings show. In the second quarter of last year, about 21 percent of all office space was vacant across the central San Fernando Valley market, according to Savills.
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Related’s Jorge, Nick and Jon Paul Pérez (Related, Getty)Billionaire Jorge Pérez’s succession plan for Miami-based Related Group is moving ahead.
Pérez promoted his son, Nick Pérez, to president of the firm’s condo development division, according to a company news release. Nick is second in line to the throne, behind his brother, company president Jon Paul Pérez, who will eventually take over as CEO.
The condo development division’s portfolio is valued at more than $15 billion, according to Related. The firm, the most prolific condo developer in Miami, has more than half a dozen condo developments in the works in South Florida, including Six Fisher Island and Rivage in Bal Harbour.
Nick Pérez said the condo division’s pipeline, which includes some mixed-use and rental developments, has about 9,000 units under construction or set to break ground in the next two years. He said the new role is about “stepping back in the weeds of the day-to-day and the individual project management” to now “getting involved in every project in some capacity.”
Carlos Rosso previously led the condo division, until he left Related in 2020 to start his own company.
Nick joined Related in 2018 and was most recently a senior vice president. Like Jon Paul, Nick worked for New York-based Related Companies before he began working for Related Group. Related Companies, led by Steve Ross, and Related Group recently ended their partnership, The Real Deal reported in December. (Ross and Jorge Pérez had been partners since Related Group was founded in 1979, though Ross’ stake in the Miami firm had been dwindling in recent years.)
Nick Pérez spent five years at Related Companies, where he worked on rental and condo developments, including 15 Hudson Yards in New York and the Residences at W Fort Lauderdale, according to the release.
At Related Group, he has worked on the Solemar Residences in Pompano Beach, NoMad Residences in Wynwood, the St. Regis Residences, Miami, and a Ritz-Carlton-branded condo project in Tampa. He also led the development of Related’s new headquarters, which was completed in 2021.
Jon Paul Pérez, who joined Related in 2012, was promoted to president in 2020.
Nick Pérez said Related is still bullish on the market and has put four development sites under contract in the past couple of weeks. Three Miami projects are expected to break ground soon.
Nick, Jon Paul and their father all attended a contentious city of Miami board meeting last week in which the Miami Historic & Environmental Preservation Board withdrew its proposed historic/archeological designation of a portion of Related’s Baccarat Residences development site. Artifacts and human and animal remains dating back thousands of years have been discovered in a months-long excavation of the property.
At the same meeting, the board voted to move forward with the same designation of the adjacent property at 444 Brickell Avenue. Related will also work with city staff and other stakeholders to come up with plans to showcase the archeological findings. Jorge Pérez said the firm had already spent more than $20 million on the dig so far.
The Baccarat-branded condos, part of the portfolio Nick Pérez is now overseeing, is one of three planned towers on the Miami Riverfront property.
Read moreThe post Related promotes Nick Pérez to president of condo division appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Google Maps)A glimmer in the otherwise bleak commercial real estate market.
The real estate investment firm Hines bought a three-year-old, 11-story office tower in the hub of downtown Washington, D.C., from The Lenkin Co. for $60 million, the Washington Business Journal reported, citing information from the D.C. Recorder of Deeds.
In addition, the D.C. office of the powerhouse law firm Davis Polk signed a 17-year lease with the building at 1050 17th St. NW for 84,000 square feet of space in the tower, representing more than half of the building’s 154,000 square feet.
That agreement, which calls for Davis Polk to move into the top five floors of the building, takes the occupancy rate from 10 percent to a little more than 60 percent, the outlet reported. (Volvo signed a ground-floor lease last year for 2,900 square feet for a Polestar electric car showroom.)
Teams from CBRE brokered both sides of the sale, while a team from Newmark represented Davis Polk with the lease.
The sale represents the good and the bad of the D.C. office market, with premium properties likely to generate interest — although at a lower prices, as evidence in the sale’s $388 per square foot indicates — while other commercial properties may struggle, the Journal said.
Indeed, the vacancy rate in the central hub of D.C. is about 22 percent, with about 20 million square feet of empty space, the Journal said, citing data from CBRE. Interest in newer office buildings remains strong, while other older spaces are more distressed.
The office market has struggled enough for Mayor Muriel Bowser to call on the Biden administration to either end allowing federal employees to work from home or, alternatively, turn over vacant office space to the city to convert into affordable housing.
Bowser said converting office buildings into housing could help lure 100,000 new residents in the upcoming years as part of a “reimagined” downtown area.
Office-to-housing conversions have been slow, however, with just 218 projects completed nationwide between 2016 and 2021, and an additional 42 in 2022, ABC News reported, citing data from CBRE.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreThe post Hines buys DC office tower from Lenkin for $60M appeared first on The Real Deal.
While it’s not a bad thing to be a billionaire, it was a rough year for many of those in the ten-figure club.
Due to the fallout from the pandemic, higher interest rates and a shaky stock market, nearly half of all the world’s billionaires are less wealthy than they were just a year ago, according to Forbes, which released its list of the richest people on the planet.
U.S. real estate, as always, was well-represented, and many of the industry’s biggest names ended up adding to their fortunes this year. Donald Bren, chair of Southern California-based Irvine Company, is the wealthiest American real estate titan, just cracking the top 100 (#97) with a $17.4 billion fortune, an increase of $1.2 billion from last year.
Also making the cut is Related Companies founder Stephen Ross (#147), whose net worth shot up to $11.6 billion from $8.2 billion, and retail mogul Jeff Sutton (#1217), who Forbes pegged to be worth $2.5 billion, down from $3.1 billion.
And despite the WeWork debacle, the company’s audacious co-founder made out like a bandit. Adam Neumann maintained a spot on the list (#1368) with a net worth of $2.2 billion, up considerably from $1.4 billion last year.
Other industry household names on the list include Leonard Stern ($7.6 billion), Igor Olenicoff ($6.9 billion), Neil Bluhm ($6 billion), Sam Zell ($5.2 billion), Jay Paul ($4.3 billion), Donald Sterling ($4.1 billion), Charles Cohen ($3.7 billion), Jerry Speyer ($3.6 billion), Herb Simon ($3.4 billion), Donald R. Horton ($2.9 billion), Ben Ashkenazy ($2.6 billion), and David Walentas ($2.4 billion).
It wasn’t just the usual suspects on the list. Newcomers to the billionaire club include Annette Lerner ($6.4 billion), Greystar co-founder Bob Faith ($5.2 billion), L.A.-based apartment developer and landlord Geoffrey Palmer ($3.2 billion), New York real estate scion Stefan Soloviev ($2.3 billion), Carroll Companies founder Roy Carroll II ($2.9 billion), and Richard Kurtz ($1 billion).
And, of course, former president Donald Trump, (#1,217) who saw his fortune decrease to $2.5 billion from $3 billion.
Read moreThe post Check out some of the real estate tycoons on Forbes’ billionaires list appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of billionaire Tom Steyer (Getty)Billionaire Tom Steyer is galvanizing to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Actually, it’s Steyer’s firm, Galvanize Climate Solutions, which is buying and improving property to cut emissions in its portfolio to net zero, without offsets, within three years, Bloomberg reported.
The focus will be on in western states, including Colorado, Texas, Arizona and California, the outlet reported.
“This is a real estate strategy with a decarbonization goal,” Joseph Sumberg, the head of Galvanize Real Estate, told Bloomberg. “Capitalism will look at this successful strategy, and replicate it, creating ripples through the built environment.”
The plan is to buy properties that have surface parking to install solar arrays, as well as retrofit buildings to make them more energy efficient.
“We’re trying to show that doing this is a good investment from an absolute, straight up financial point of view,” Steyer told Bloomberg. “The impact and the returns are linked; it’s not a trade-off. We are trying to create a new model for climate investing.”
Galvanize is one of a number of firms that are part of reducing buildings’ carbon emissions.
In 2021, Zara Realty raised nearly $83 million for its newest apartment building in Queens, which was touted as one of the first projects in the area that will meet with the caps the city has set on greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade.
Zara had planned to finish the project this year. The nine-story, 218,000-square-foot building will rise a block from Jamaica’s 11.5-acre Rufus King Park, which the developers are touting as a major amenity for future tenants.
Read moreNew YorkRiseBoro's passive house retrofits save landlord a bundleSouth FloridaSan Francisco investment firm pays $10M for Plantation office buildingLos Angeles’Net zero’ goes luxe in Malibu on $23M saleAlso, BlocPower announced a retrofit plan for more than 5,000 buildings, according to Bloomberg,
Steyer, meanwhile, walks the walk when it comes to green energy. He listed a San Francisco home that had 30 solar panels on the roof, a photovoltaic glass awning across the façade and a wind turbine, for $11 million in 2020.
— Ted Glanzer
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A photo illustration of Ilesanmi “Ile” Adaramola (Getty, LinkedIn/Ilesanmi Adaramola)A North Carolina attorney facing felony charges for her alleged role in scamming poor homeowners failed to appear at a hearing related to her criminal case scheduled last week.
Ilesanmi “Ile” Adaramola is accused of finding properties facing foreclosure and forcing them into auction by falsifying documents, among other things, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Adaramola and notary Lisa Roberts-Allen, allegedly used a Jim Crow-era law that permitted one owner of a jointly held property to force a sale, with bidders purchasing the property at significantly less than market value. The buyer would then sell the property at a profit.
Adaramola was charged with six counts of notary fraud, while Roberts-Allen was charged with nine counts of notary fraud and 32 counts of felony forgery. One of Roberts-Allen’s alleged victims is her own uncle, the outlet reported.
James Mills, Adaramola’s former lawyer, told the court he did not represent Adaramola, nor did he know where she was. Mills said in court that Adaramola told him that another lawyer — Steve Lindsay — was representing her, though Lindsay later said that was not true.
Lindsay, when reached by the Asheville Citizen-Times, said he was looking forward to being hired by Adaramola as her lawyer, but it had not yet been finalized.
Failing to appear in court can be a crime, but the judge did not order Adaramola’s arrest. Her hearing was instead rescheduled, the Citizen-Times reported.
Attorneys can sometimes find themselves in hot water concerning real estate matters.
Last January, disbarred attorney Sanford Solny was indicted by the Brookly district attorney for the third time in six years for allegedly defrauding homeowners to the tune of $2.3 million. Solny was charged with possession of stolen property, grand larceny and scheme to defraud.
— Ted Glanzer
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Coldwell Banker Realty’s Josh Baris and 8 Stone Tower Drive (Getty, Google Maps, Coldwell Banker Realty)A 2-acre parcel in the Rio Vista section of Alpine, New Jersey, has fetched the highest-price in 13 years for a parcel of residential land of its size in Northern New Jersey, according to a press release.
The parcel at 8 Stone Tower Drive sold for $4.5 million, according to Joshua Baris of Coldwell Banker Realty, the real estate agent who represented the buyer and seller, both of whom were unidentified.
The property is zoned for single-family residential use, and the buyer plans to build a luxury home on the property, Baris said.
According to the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service, the sale is the highest for a 2-acre parcel since 8 Frick Drive, also in Alpine, sold for $4.5 million.
Alpine, which was once ranked by Forbes as America’s most expensive zip code, is known for selling lots of that size; 19 Rio Vista Drive sold in 2021 for $4.4 million and 23 Stone Tower Drive sold in 2016 for $4.175 million, according to the NJMLS.
The median sale price of a home in Alpine last month was $2.37 million, according to Redfin. The market has been slow in Alpine, however, with just three homes having been sold in the past five months.
While the sale may have been pricey for Northern New Jersey, it’s dwarfed by comparison to the vacant lot in Avalon, New Jersey, purchased last year by an unnamed businessman for $11.5 million. The purchaser also bought an adjacent property, which had a 4,700-square-foot-home on it, for $9.5 million.
The $21 million combined sale set a record for Seven Mile Island.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Vacant parcel in Alpine, New Jersey, sells for $4.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Call it one of the best mulligans ever.
After a case of mistaken identity resulted in him accidentally receiving an invitation to play in The Masters, 60-year-old real estate agent Scott Stallings received a real invitation to the golf tournament played at Augusta National, the final round of which is today, ABC News reported.
The trouble began on New Year’s Eve, when Scott Stallings, the real estate professional who lives in Chamblee, Georgia, received the invitation of PGA professional Scott Stallings — who is 37 and lives in Tennessee — to play in The Masters.
The PGA pro Stallings is one of the top 100 golfers in the world. The real estate professional Stallings is a casual golfer who knew the invitation wasn’t meant for him.
After exchanging messages on Instagram, the two men rectified the mixup and a grateful Scott Stallings the PGA pro received his invitation. In return, he made sure his namesake received tickets to the Masters, which the elder Stallings had been trying to score for years, the outlet reported.
General admission tickets to the event, which is the only one of the four majors to be played at the same golf course every year, are difficult to come by. They can either be obtained relatively inexpensively through a lottery system run by Augusta National or by paying up to thousands of dollars on the secondary ticket market.
When he finally made it to the pristine grounds of Augusta, where he naturally followed Stallings the professional golfer, Stallings the agent said he had reached nirvana, or at least something close to it.
“I feel like we have just entered the adult Walt Disney World,” Stallings, the real estate professional, told ABC News.
In addition Stallings the golfer — who made the cut but was low on the leaderboard as of Sunday morning — invited Stallings the real estate agent to dinner and presented him with a gift: an original invitation, framed, signed “from one Scott Stallings to another.”
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreThe post Real estate agent gets real Masters invite after mix-up appeared first on The Real Deal.
Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley and City Councilmember DaJuan Gay (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, Twitter/@DGayforOffice, www.md30dems.org)“Alderman Gay, you’re wasted.”
That’s the libation accusation Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley lobbed at City Councilmember DaJuan Gay during an affordable housing debate on Monday night, Patch reported. Gay, who does not appear to be inebriated in video recordings of the meeting, denied being drunk and immediately requested a point of order.
“You are. You know you are,” said the mayor.
The confrontation followed a tough line of questioning Buckley faced from a constituent, Tara Stout, according to the outlet.
The city council meeting was debating an affordable housing project, The Willows, which Stout works on as a real estate broker. Progress on the Willows has stalled since last spring, according to the publication.
Stout asked the mayor why a project proposed by his business partner, local Annapolis developer Jody Danek, appeared to be getting preferential treatment. Stout’s questions referred to the second phase of a development started by Danek and Buckley in 2008.
“The target market for that development is a higher socio-economic demographic than the market for The Willows,” she said. “The Willows application was submitted in April, had work sessions in August and September and anticipated a public hearing at Planning Commission immediately thereafter, but it has been in limbo at Planning and Zoning ever since.”
“There was nothing expedited or unusually quick about this process, especially given that it had previously gone through the process and been approved,” a spokesperson for the mayor said.
Initial plans for the second phase of the project were abandoned during the pandemic despite having approvals, and new designs were approved by the Annapolis Planning Commission in March, the Capital Gazette reported.
Stout had three minutes for her line of questioning, and when it ran out, Gay advocated for her to receive more time. That’s when the mayor accused him of being inebriated.
“I am not sure why, or what he was referencing,” Gay told Patch in an email.
“It was a contentious debate where unfortunately, as human beings, tempers flared,” the mayor’s spokesperson said.
— Kate Hinsche
The post Mayor accuses councilman of being drunk during housing debate appeared first on The Real Deal.
Brooklyn Point at 1 City Point and 450 Washington (Brooklyn Point, Related)Eagle-eyed readers of luxury contract reports and building marketing materials might have noticed a property type that some could be excused for thinking was a typo.
This hybrid model is called a “condop,” and it’s been around for decades, but its technicalities could frazzle buyers and agents alike.
“Nobody goes out and says, ‘I’m looking to buy a condop.’ Most people don’t even know that they exist,” Compass agent Kimberly Jay said.
The term originally described mixed-use properties with retail space operating as a condo and residential units as a co-op. But it has since morphed into a catch-all phrase to describe buildings operating financially as co-ops but with rules more akin to condos.
What exactly makes a property a condop or just a co-op without overbearing board interference varies significantly from building to building. Some are land leases with differing terms. Others advertise more relaxed rules than a traditional co-op but may not allow as much flexibility as most condos.
It’s a lot for agents and sales representatives to explain to potential buyers, especially those who may be immediately turned off by the idea of a co-op.
“You have to know the building. I can’t stress that enough,” Jay said and added that without a uniform definition for these properties, agents need to be careful in how they explain the terms of each condop to buyers.
Condops became popular in the 1980s when traditional co-ops attempted to skirt the 80/20 tax law requiring the vast majority of a co-op’s income to come from residential shareholders. To comply with the now-rescinded law, traditional co-op buildings converted their retail space to operate as a condo unit while the residential portion remained as a co-op.
The term is now used to describe buildings — whether they’re technically a condop or not — advertising themselves as “co-ops with condo rules.” This includes many new developments, such as Related Company’s 450 Washington and Extell Development’s 1 City Point, which lack the summer work restrictions, rental prohibitions and rigorous board approval processes for which most co-ops are notorious.
“The co-op situation is a vestige,” Coldwell Banker Warburg broker Rachel Ostow Lustbader said. “It was a very elitist environment when nobody wanted newcomers who were not like them.”
In most cases, developers only built these properties as co-ops because they don’t own the land underneath them and have to lease it from a third-party owner. Land leases typically run for 100 years, with a portion of the rent incorporated into tenants’ monthly maintenance fees.
Throughout the lease’s tenure, the landlord will periodically have the property reassessed, which could increase the rent prices charged to owners in the co-op.
Land leases are a harder sell, Lustbader said, and she often advises her clients to steer clear of such buildings.
“Nobody wants to buy in because once they sell, they’re that much closer to the expiration, and nobody wants to be there at the time of the expiration.”
Despite these caveats, sales at some of the new condop developments appear unimpeded. The Related Companies’ 450 Washington in Tribeca reported the highest number of new signed contracts among new developments in February, according to a spokesperson for the building.
In Downtown Brooklyn, contract signings at 1 City Point regularly top reports on the borough’s priciest deals, including in early February when a 59th-floor unit with a $3.5 million asking price notched the second most expensive contract signed that week. The development signed nine contracts in February, tying with a Flatbush condo project for the most deals inked that month.
Brooklyn Point operates as a traditional condop, with the lower floor retail space as one condo unit and the residential section as a co-op. Goldstein described the building as a “unicorn” because the city will only own the site for 25 more years, during which the developer is not required to make ground lease payments and residents qualify for a real estate tax abatement.
At the end of the 25-year term, Extell can purchase the land for $1 and dissolve the co-op.
“As soon as they understand, all the concerns people have about normal co-ops go away. They just don’t apply to our building,” Ari Goldstein, Extell’s Senior Vice President of Development at Extell Development said.
But some buyers with a strong aversion to co-ops may never sit down for the conversation about the building to learn the normal rules don’t apply, Aaron Goed, sales director at The Solaire, said. This could have a larger impact on international and investor buyers, who typically avoid co-ops due to restrictions on renting the property and intense board approvals.
Though this hasn’t impacted sales at The Solaire — which Goed said is not a condop, but a co-op with condo rules — which inked the largest number of contracts last year, according to a Marketproof report on new development.
Owners at the Battery Park City building can rent out their apartments whenever they want, with no board kickback or flip taxes required.
But ultimately, the building’s ownership structure has little bearing on sales or marketing, Goed said. Though The Solaire’s offering plan emphasized its relaxed condo rules, Goed said the majority of buyers come to the building because of its location, look and feel.
“Most people that are looking at this building are looking at it because it’s this building,” Goed said. “Ownership structure is not a part of the conversation. It’s not the first thing that they’re thinking about.”
Read moreNew YorkHistoric Brooklyn Heights condo leads Brooklyn luxury contractsNew YorkNew condos cool in Brooklyn, but hold steady in ManhattanNew YorkBrooklyn, Queens gain market share in up-and-down year for new condosThe post New developments market “co-ops with condo rules” appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bluebird Development’s Alex Meruelo and a proposed rendering of the project (Getty, Arizona Coyotes)The city of Phoenix is on thin ice with the developer behind a proposed entertainment district, which includes a new arena for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes.
Bluebird Development has filed a $2.3 billion notice of claim against the city, Axios reported.
The developer served the notice in response to a lawsuit Phoenix filed against Tempe, which alleges the proposed district would negatively impact nearby Sky Harbor airport.
A notice of claim is an antecedent to the filing of a full-blown lawsuit against a municipality and gives the parties six months to settle the dispute before further legal action is taken, the outlet said.
In its notice of claim, Bluebird says Phoenix reneged on its promises that it would not stand in the way of the new development.
Bluebird says it would settle the dispute for $2.3 billion, the outlet reported. Bluebird is also requesting intervenor status in the lawsuit between Phoenix and Tempe.
Meanwhile, Tempe voters are scheduled to head to the polls on May 16 for a special election to determine whether to OK a $2.1 billion agreement with the Coyotes for the entertainment district, which would include the new arena, restaurants, retail and about 2,000 apartments close to Tempe Town Lake, according to Axios.
An attorney representing Bluebird said in the notice that Phoenix officials acquiesced to the project through statements they made.
A Sky Harbor spokeswoman said Phoenix was forced to sue after Tempe rejected a settlement that would have permitted the district, but put limitations on future residential development in the area.
The city of Phoenix also responded with a statement.
“[W]e can understand and appreciate the developer’s frustration,” the city of Phoenix said in a statement. “But their frustration is misdirected. They should be frustrated with Tempe. After a meeting with the mayors of both Tempe and Phoenix and two negotiations between the city managers of Tempe and Phoenix, we understood that Tempe was open to a reasonable compromise that would protect the airport, the communities around the airport, and allow these developments to proceed.”
— Ted Glanzer
The post NHL Coyotes developer sues city of Phoenix for $2.3B appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty; Illustration by The Real Deal)The damage wrought by Hurricane Ian has been calculated at $109 billion, making it the costliest storm in Florida history, the Miami Herald reported, citing a report from the National Hurricane Center.
The storm damaged thousands of homes and buildings in the state. That’s on top of the infrastructure like roads and bridges that the storm also claimed.
“In Fort Myers Beach alone, an estimated 900 structures were totally destroyed, and 2,200 were damaged. In Lee County, at least 52,514 structures were impacted, of which 5,369 were destroyed and 14,245 received major damage,” according to NHC’s report.
The final death toll was 156, 66 of which were directly related to Ian, though there are still some people who are still unaccounted for. All told, the storm caused a total of $112.9 billion of damage in the U.S., with the figure likely to rise as more insurance claims and lawsuits are filed. (Many Florida residents are still rebuilding in the aftermath of the devastating storm, with more than 140,000 out of 708,000 insurance claims still remaining “open and pending,” according to the Florida Phoenix, citing estimates from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.)
The report also addressed how the hurricane center forecast the storm and whether that contributed to the damage by not giving enough time to prepare for it.
Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida as a Category 4 Hurricane on Sept. 28 at Cayo Costa, with 155 mile-per-hour winds, bringing with it up to 18 feet of storm surge. The storm had reached Category 5 status, with winds of 160 miles per hour or more, in the Gulf of Mexico before hitting Florida.
Ian, which was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached Florida’s west coast, is the third-most costly storm on record, behind Hurricane Katrina ($190 billion, adjusted) and Hurricane Harvey ($151.3 billion, adjusted), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreSouth FloridaInsured losses from Hurricane Ian could reach $40BSouth FloridaHurricane Ian makes landfall in southwest Florida: PhotosSouth FloridaAs Hurricane Ian approaches, builders secure Florida sitesThe post Hurricane Ian most costly storm in Florida history appeared first on The Real Deal.
Fred Trump and Donald Trump (Getty)The family business is real estate, but the Trump family has also made it a habit to find trouble with the law.
This week, Donald Trump was indicted for his alleged role in a hush money payment for porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 paid prior to election, becoming the first former U.S. president charged with a crime. He’s not the first Trump patriarch to be arrested, though, the Washington Post pointed out.
Donald’s father, Fred, was arrested twice during his lifetime. One of his arrests came as the result of a Ku Klux Klan rally, while the other was more real-estate-centric.
In 1927, Fred was arrested at a Queens KKK rally that turned violent. A newspaper at the time said the 21-year-old was arrested for “refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so.” He was one of seven arrested following the 1,000-person-strong rally.
While Fred’s role in the brouhaha was unclear, Donald’s opinion has been firm: fake news. He said after the arrest was uncovered in 2016 that his father “was never arrested, never convicted, never even charged.”
Forty-nine years later, Fred would find himself under arrest again. This time, he was arrested in Prince George’s County, Maryland, after failing to comply with citations for housing code violations filed months earlier.
Officials surprised the Trump scion with arrest warrants at his 504-unit complex after he flew down from New York, seemingly to discuss the issues. Violations discovered during a routine inspection included broken windows, defective rain gutters and the failure to install fire extinguishers.
The chief of inspection for the county said Trump was “a little upset, to put it mildly” — sounds like another member of the Trump family upon his own indictment. Fred was released on $1,000 bond and quickly made his way back to New York.
Outside of his father’s legal dealings, Donald Trump is in good company in terms of real estate figures who have faced criminal charges over the years.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNationalPleas and pardons: A look at some real estate players who faced criminal chargesNew YorkTrump indictment poses risk for real estate empireNationalTrump indicted in Stormy Daniels hush money probeThe post Like father, like son: Revisiting Fred Trump’s arrests appeared first on The Real Deal.
TRD’s Hiten SamtaniFirst a caveat. Just because a brokerage is among the top Real Trends rankings doesn’t mean the company did well financially.
Take, for example, Compass, which held the top spot again with $228 billion in sales volume through 200,000 transactions. While those are huge numbers, they didn’t mean Compass generated a profit. The brokerage lost $600 million last year.
Not that everyone on the list lost money. Coming in at No. 2, Anywhere Real Estate — parent to brands that include Sotheby’s, Corcoran and Coldwell Banker — had $218 billion in sales, and eked out a $32 million profit.
The Real Deal’s Hiten Samtani discusses the top five brokerages and teases out what their numbers mean.
Watch the episode above, and stay tuned for more breakdowns of the most important news and trends in residential brokerage.
Read moreThe post America’s top residential brokerages ranked – Resi Rundown appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jacksonville, Florida; AirBnb customer footage from TikTok (TikTok, Getty)An Airbnb scammer knew his victim meant business when she referenced his parents’ address in a scathing message.
TikTok user Olivia (@livvoogus) went viral recently after posting about her ordeal at a Jacksonville Airbnb, the Daily Dot reported. The alleged incident took place in the Florida city around New Year’s Eve.
On her personal account, Olivia explained that she booked the Airbnb several months earlier, planning to attend a musical festival in the area around the holiday. The owner of the Airbnb was a “superhost,” according to Olivia, meaning they should have been very trustworthy.
Prior to Olivia’s arrival, however, she said the host sent multiple door codes and then stopped responding to her messages. Neither of the codes worked, sending Olivia and her friends into a tizzy before a neighbor filled them in.
The neighbor said another customer tried (and failed) to get into the Airbnb the previous day. Olivia learned “the person who had lived there got evicted because, according to the lease, you’re not allowed to do Airbnbs out of the apartment, and he just never took the listing down.”
Olivia was not going to go down quietly, though. Using the name on the home’s WiFi connection, Olivia was able to quickly learn the name of the host, when he was born, and perhaps most critically, where his parents live.
“You don’t have an Airbnb, because you got evicted, and you’re either going to send us the $1000 back, or I’m going to have a sleepover with your parents,” she said in the viral video, leaving a message for the host, one “Mr. Tyler.”
Unsurprisingly, that quickly got Tyler’s attention. A twist came moments later, however, when Tyler’s girlfriend allegedly texted Olivia, accusing her of threatening Tyler.
“Babes ur bf got evicted and is scamming people out of airbnb’s leaving them with nowhere to stay,” Olivia responded. “u have bigger things to worry about.”
Olivia and her friends consigned themselves to sleeping on the floor of a friend’s Airbnb, but ultimately didn’t need to, she said, as Airbnb found the crew a hotel room and paid for a percentage of it.
It also provided her with a refund.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew York“Wolf of Airbnb” charged over short-term rental schemeNew YorkNew England town’s Airbnb hosts balk at new feeNew YorkBad times at Airbnbs: Quadruple stabbing, fraudulent listingThe post “I’m going to have a sleepover with your parents”: Airbnb host called out appeared first on The Real Deal.
Brandon Johnson, David and Simon Reuben and Harlan Crow (Getty, George W. Bush Presidential Center)The angst among commercial real estate players is palpable as they confront the possibility of a financial crisis.
Lenders foresee an increasing number of bad loans in their portfolios, which could limit their ability to provide financing in an already-strained borrowing environment. Institutional estimates of exactly how many bad loans are out there continue to grow quarter-over-quarter.
Blackstone Group’s commercial mortgage arm, for example, jacked up its estimate from about $125 million at the end of 2021 to $326 million last year. Bank OZK’s expected loan losses rose more than 25 percent during that time, from $289 million to $365 million.
There are other concerns in banking as well. Notably, what will happen to Signature Bank’s commercial real estate loans following New York Community Bank’s decision to pass on buying them following the bank’s collapse? NYCB was thought to be an ideal buyer for the loans, as it is the top lender in rent-stabilized space. Insiders have said they don’t believe another institutional investor will step up, leaving it to private entities to pick up the slack.
Take the L
Things just got a bit colder in the Windy City for the real estate community. Brandon Johnson’s narrow victory over Paul Vallas in Chicago’s mayoral runoff. It was a result many in real estate feared, as most backed Vallas with their support and big bucks.
Now they will have to confront Johnson’s proposal to increase Chicago’s real estate transfer tax to 1.9 percent on every property sale north of $1 million.
That said, it didn’t take long for the industry to change course, with several prominent figures — including Paul Tsakiris, Curt Bailey, David Goss and Michael Mini — extending olive branches to the mayor-elect.
(Fore)closure
It’s finally over. In Los Angeles, after a year of litigation, and multiple court delays, the Reuben brothers foreclosed on Michael Rosenfeld’s $2.5 billion Century Plaza development.
Now the U.K.-based David and Simon Reuben own their first L.A. property — a 400-key hotel with 63 units attached to two condo towers.
Busted
In the tri-state area, a tenant watchdog group filed a discrimination suit against 12 Long Island brokerages — including Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Laffey International Realty and Coldwell Banker American Homes, formerly known as Century 21 American Homes — accusing them of refusing to rent apartments to testers posing as would-be tenants with Section 8 housing vouchers.
“Supreme” ethics violation
In Texas, a bombshell report by ProPublica revealed billionaire Harlan Crow, son of real estate mogul Trammell Crow, has been showering lavish gifts on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for years, and the jurist has not been disclosing them as required by law.
Thomas and his wife, the rightwing activist Ginni Thomas, have traveled around the world annually on Crow’s megayacht and private jet to places like Indonesia, New Zealand, the Greek islands, California and an ultra exclusive enclave in the Adirondack Mountains, staying at private resorts and luxurious estates while receiving the most high-end accommodations.
The post Anxiety is mounting in commercial real estate appeared first on The Real Deal.
Dan “Big Cat” Katz with 400 North Noble Street (Getty, LoopNet)Call it the wild West Loop once Barstool Sports moves in.
Barstool, the sports media firm founded by the outspoken Dave Portnoy, signed a deal to occupy around 40,000 square feet at 400 North Noble Street, an industrial building that Jeff Shapack and Alec Litowitz bought to convert into creative office space, Crain’s reported.
The new location will include a full-size basketball court, a golf simulator, music studios and other space for media content creation. Barstool’s move will add some more sizzle just west of Fulton Market, where several large apartment and office projects are in the works.
Shapack Partners and Litowitz, founder of Magnetar Capital, founder Alec Litowitz purchased the 400 North Noble site for $6.5 million in 2019. Barstool’s occupancy will fill up the remainder of the site. NanoGraf, a manufacturer with a federal contract to make components of batteries used in electric vehicles, leased about 17,0000 square feet for its new corporate headquarters in the building, which also 11,000 square feet for labs and production space.
That facility is currently under construction and is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter or early second quarter 2023, NanoGraf said in December.
Penn Entertainment bought a 36 percent stake in Barstool for $163 million in 2020, and it acquired the rest of the company in February for about $388 million. The current CEO is Erika Ayers, who said the company will remain based in New York as its main headquarters location.
Dan “Big Cat” Katz, Chicago-native and co-host of the popular Barstool show Pardon My Take, spoke about the new Fulton Market site during a March 1 episode.
“The amount of content that we’re going to be able to create day to day is going to be insane just by the space that we have,” Katz said.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Jeff Skender, Scott Shelbourne and Ari Klein represented Barstool in leasing discussions, while Shapack Partners’ Paige O’Neil and Annie Aldrich handle leasing for 400 North Noble.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoCrescent Heights pays $35M for Fulton Market development siteChicagoZuckerberg, Chan lease Trammell Crow’s Fulton Market labChicagoAlex Najem, Shanna Khan complete $49M Fulton Market assemblageThe post Shapack, Litowitz bringBarstool to West Loop appeared first on The Real Deal.
REX Real Estate’s Matthew Kiran and the City of Celina (REX Real Estate, Celina-tx.gov)A 77-acre tract in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb Celina is being transformed into an extensive retail and multifamily development.
Frisco-based the Seitz Group, led by Eric Seitz, expects to construction this month on the Crossing at Moore Farm, which will include 750 residential units, plus retailers: a 110,000-square-foot luxury fitness center, Lowe’s, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle and Panda Express among them, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The retail portion is expected to be completed in October 2024, and multifamily construction will start around the same time.
Costs weren’t disclosed, but Regent Bank will provide vertical construction financing for the project.
The development is the latest sign of Celina’s imminent growth. Celina (pronounced with a long “i” like “saliva”) is expected to grow from a population of about 30,000 in 2020 to about 54,000 by 2026, according to its economic development corporation.
Costco signed a deal to bring a 160,000-square-foot store to the North Texas town recently. LA-based Cypress Equity Investments and New York-based Winter Properties just acquired 68 acres with plans of bringing multifamily communities and build-for-rent homes to Celina.
Collaborators for Seitz’s development include general contractor Mycon, civil engineer Kimley-Horn and a design team of CDA Architects and Archon Architects. Shop Companies’ Jack Weir is the leasing broker, and REX Real Estate’s Matthew Kiran brokered the land deal, the outlet said.
Apartments will feature amenities such as a fitness and cycling center, ghost kitchen, multimedia room, library, smoking room, bocce ball court, dog parks, hiking trail and ample green space.
The Crossing at Moore Farm pays homage to the family that occupied the property since the 1880s. The Moores were given the land by the government in exchange for them farming it, living on it and paying taxes.
“Sean Terry, the Celina mayor, and City Manager Jason Laumer, along with city staff including Dusty McAfee and Kim Brawner were instrumental in helping bring this project to Celina,” Seitz told the outlet.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasCypress in Celina: LA and NY real estate firms take on rural Texas in joint ventureTexasWhiplash among homebuilders opens door for development site shortageDallasCelina becomes favorite submarket for big-name Texas developersThe post Seitz to start massive Celina development appeared first on The Real Deal.
Geyser Group’s Michael Bernstein with aerial Hamilton Pool Ranch (LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)Saddle up, would-be ranchers — an untouched tract spanning 738 acres just west of Austin has hit the market.
The Geyser Group listed the Hamilton Pool Ranch in Spicewood asking just under $17 million. The property is entirely undeveloped and protected by a 2018 easement signed with the Nature Conservancy, but it has three carve outs that would allow for up to 40 acres of development.
As the outskirts of Austin transform from rural expanses to suburban sprawl, ranches like Hamilton Pool have seen “unprecedented demand” in the last three years, according to Lindsey Holubec, an agent with Republic Ranches who is handling the listing. Activity has cooled across the residential and land markets amid rising rates, but listings like Hamilton Pool suggest demand still exists.
“I would say in the last 9 months we’ve reached a slower place in the market,” Houlebec said, “but we’re still moving and grooving every day.”
The easement on the land makes it impossible to build the kind of master-planned community or high-rise development that many builders might envision for such an untouched tract within a 30-minute drive from downtown Austin. But the Texas Hill Country, with its rolling vistas and easy access to Austin proper, has become a popular destination for “glamping” vacation spots.
Geyser acquired the ranch in 2021 with the intention of building a boutique hotel, but soon decided that was out of its area of expertise, Houlebec said. The firm has more experience building multifamily residential projects in East Austin.
Hamilton Pool listed last year with Dave Murray of DMTX Realty Group asking just under $19 million, or divided up into two ranches asking $5 million and $15 million each, according to a digital brochure. If a new owner decides against the hospitality route, the property could also work as a livestock ranch, hunting ground or personal residence under the easement terms.
Just east of the property lies Preservation Ranch, a gated community of 20-plus-acre “ranchettes.”
The end of 2020 and the first three quarters of 2021 marked “perhaps the most remarkable period Texas’ land market has ever experienced,” according to a study analyzing a representative sample of land sales by the Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center. Prices increased 26 percent to $4,426 per square foot by the third quarter of 2022, a 50 percent increase in just two and a half years. By the end of last year, dealmaking had slowed so significantly that researchers recorded the lowest number of quarterly sales since 2014.
Read moreNationalSultans of sprawl: Texas’ volume buildersTexasWhiplash among homebuilders opens door for development site shortageTexasSummit Hotel Properties backs Austin glamping startupThe post Geyser lists Hill Country ranch for $17M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow (George W. Bush Presidential Center, Getty)“Who is Harlan Crow?” became the question of the moment after a blockbuster ProPublica investigation revealed that the developer has been bankrolling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s lavish vacations for decades.
In Dallas real estate circles, however, Crow is a household name, a mainstay of local and state politics and the scion of one of the city’s most important families. Here’s a rundown.
Blue bloodHarlan is the third son of legendary real estate developer Trammell Crow, who founded Trammell Crow Company in Dallas in 1948. Trammell died in 2009 at age 94 but left behind two of the most accomplished development firms in the country. Harlan’s sister is Lucy Billingsley, principal at Billingsley Company, while Harlan’s brothers Stuart and Trammell S. Crow were also involved in the family company, Crow Holdings.
Trammell Crow Company was formed to focus on commercial projects, and Crow Holdings was its residential counterpart. In 2006, CBRE bought the former for nearly $2 billion. Harlan took over Crow Holdings in the late ’80s and used the Crow family’s substantial wealth to evolve the firm into an umbrella development and investment corporation that included Trammell Crow Residential, Crow Holdings Capital, Crow Holdings Industrial and Crow Holdings Office.
Today, Crow Holdings manages around $30 billion in total assets and ranks among the country’s most prolific multifamily developers.
Not just a cushy jobHarlan’s story was not quite as simple as taking over his father’s company and calling it a day. He reportedly played a major role in the 1980s in saving the Trammell Crow Company from ruin. The ’80s housing market crash forced Harlan to reorganize much of his family’s companies and sell off millions in assets.
D Magazine, a publication Harlan once owned, reported that he “faced down creditors … and almost single-handedly saved the Crow family from financial disaster.”
Notably, Harlan refused to sell off the Dallas Market Center, his father’s prized property, a 5 million-square-foot wholesale trade center in Dallas. By the late ’80s, the center had bounced back, attracting 3,200 tenants and over 60,000 workers, spurring the revival of the Crow family’s fortunes.
In 1988, Harlan fully took over as CEO of Crow Holdings and built it into the juggernaut that operates out of the historic Old Parkland campus in Dallas’ Oak Lawn neighborhood. He self-funded the $25 million development of the 228-foot Old Parkland bell tower, called the Campanile, as a monument to the “spirit of America.”
In 2016, he appointed Michael Levy, a Wall Street financial advisor who cut his teeth at Morgan Stanley and Salomon Brothers, to succeed him as CEO
KingmakingHarlan has been a known financial supporter of conservative political causes and Republican candidates. Publicly, he has given about $10 million in donations to Republican campaigns. But he’s given untold “dark money” donations to political groups that keep their donors secret.
“I don’t disclose what I’m not required to disclose,” Crow told the New York Times in 2011.
He has served on boards for the Southwestern Medical Foundation, the George W. Bush Presidential Center and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which maintains that former President’s home, as well as conservative think tanks American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution. Politico reported in 2011 that Harlan anonymously donated $500,000 to fund Liberty Central, a nonprofit political advocacy group founded by Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas.
Harlan also owns one of the most expensive homes in Dallas, a sprawling 34,000-square-foot mansion on 7.7 acres at 4700 Preston Road in the Highland Park neighborhood. The estate is reportedly worth about $50 million and includes a collection of historical artifacts, including a backyard garden with fallen statues of Communist world leaders like Josef Stalin and an underground parking garage with room for 77 vehicles.
Read moreDallasHarlan Crow has lavished Justice Clarence Thomas with gifts since the ’90sDallasCrow Holdings envisions mixed-use for Dallas Market CenterTexasCrow Holdings starts timber office buildingThe post What to know about Harlan Crow appeared first on The Real Deal.
Ward Miller and Consumers Building at 208-12 S. State St. in Chicago (Wikipedia, Ward Miller Preservation Chicaago, Getty)A federal agency is tearing down a low-rise building between two landmark towers on State Street, heightening tensions between the agency and preservationists bent on saving the taller structures from a similar fate.
The U.S. General Services Administration announced in a recent press release that it will demolish the vacant three-story structure at 208-12 South State Street, citing safety concerns and its unoccupied status, Crain’s reported. Site clearing is scheduled to begin next week.
The soon-to-be demolished building is one of two low-rises between the 16-story Century Building and the 22-story Consumers Building. The GSA seized the entire row of properties after a bomb threat was aimed toward the nearby Dirksen Federal Building in 2004, an incident that compounded lingering concerns stemming from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks three years earlier. All of the buildings have been mostly empty since 2005.
“A recent conditions assessment found the non-historic building, which has been unoccupied for several years, is not structurally sound and presents risks, including potential facade collapse that would endanger pedestrians and street traffic,” said the GSA in the press release.
The GSA also aims to demolish the larger buildings on State Street and is partway through a public review process to do so. Preservation Chicago and Landmarks Illinois have been actively working with the federal government to find a new use for these historic buildings, built in 1913 and 1915.
“It’s really a shame that the GSA, the landlord of the federal government, has neglected these buildings on State Street for almost two decades,” Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, told the outlet.
A $141 million redevelopment plan, which would’ve filled the taller two buildings with apartments, was blocked by the agency in 2019 due to concerns that inhabitants would have an easy line of sight into the Dirksen, possibly enabling violence targeted at the courtroom. Congress last year approved spending $52 million for their demolition.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoAlex Najem forges ahead with demolition for big Fulton Market projectChicagoBillionaire Justin Ishbia begins demolition for epic Winnetka estateChicagoFront-porch murder finally prompts Chicago to demolish Roseland homeThe post Feds tearing down State Street property, irking preservationists appeared first on The Real Deal.
Related’s William Witte and EBALDC’s Lina Sheth with rendering of 430 Broadway (Related Companies, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, Getty)Related California has partnered with nonprofit developer East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation to build a three-building residential complex in the Jack London district in Oakland, according to documents filed with the city. Plans call for up to 300 units, all at affordable rates.
The project is at 430 Broadway. The buildings will total 214,300 square feet with 203,570 square feet for housing and 10,730 square feet for retail. One building will be six stories high and have 94 units, all of them at affordable rates. The project application hopes to use SB 35, the Affordable Housing Streamlined Approval Process legislation passed in 2017, to gain approvals.
The site of the planned development now has government buildings that would be demolished. Construction is expected to begin by 2024. The two developers announced plans for a project in the Jack London district a little over a year ago, and at the time plans called for 600 units.
“If you’ve been around downtown Oakland, you’ve seen the amazing high-rise development that’s happened in the last four years or so,” Ener Chui from EBALDC said at the time. “There was a period between 2018 and 2020 where the downtown area added close to 5,000 new apartments. During that three-year window, less than 4 percent of the total influx of new housing was below market rate.”
Related California is the “the largest mixed-income developer” in California according to their website. They have built nearly 20,000 housing units in the Golden State, and have over 11,000 units in pre-development throughout the state at the moment. Related has amassed a portfolio that exceeds $60 billion.
Related California has a number of large project both in and out of the Bay Area. Related Santa Clara is underway in Silicon Valley and is a 240-acre mixed-use development will bring more than nine million square feet of residential, commercial, and retail adjacent to Levi Stadium; home of the San Francisco 49ers. They are also planning a 42 acre redevelopment in Santa Ana to bring 4,000 homes, a hotel, and commercial space
The California division is under the umbrella of New York-based Related Companies, which is owned by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. They were the developer for the Hudson Yard project in New York, which at the time was the largest private real estate development in the nation. The project created 17 million square feet of commercial, residential and retail development over a total of 28 acres with 5,000 new residences and 100 new shops.
The Jack London District is located in downtown Oakland along Lake Merritt and is considered a retail hub and a popular tourist destination. The area had a long history of industrial and warehouse use, however shifted toward retail and residential development in the late 1990s.
Related and EBALDC aren’t the only developers looking to bring new multifamily buildings to the Jack London district. Locally-based developer Riaz Capital is proposing a six-story 205-unit apartment building at 220 Alice Street. They are also converting a hotel on 233 Broadway into a 102-unit residential building.
Elsewhere in the East Bay, Related is moving forward with a 380-unit residential project in San Ramon’s Bishop Ranch area. The project will cover an entire city block and have 15 percent of all units be affordable. EBALDC is also working on a 360-unit affordable housing project near Lake Merritt in Oakland.
Read moreSan FranciscoRiaz Capital plans six-story residential development near Oakland’s Jack London SquareSan FranciscoRiaz Capital to convert Z Hotel in Jack London Square into affordable housingSan FranciscoRelated California gets OK for 380 apartments in San RamonThe post Related California, nonprofit partner on Jack London project appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott with 1317 Delresto Drive (Getty, Google Maps)Reality TV star Kylie Jenner and rapper Travis Scott are trumpeting a 10-percent discount sale for their 9,700-square-foot mansion in Beverly Crest, now listing for $$20 million.
The cosmetics tycoon and her former boyfriend have whittled $2 million off the price of their six-bedroom, nine-bathroom home at 1317 Delresto Drive, Dirt.com reported.
The star of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and the “90210” rapper bought the 1.1-acre estate in 2018 for $13.5 million. In keeping with Scott’s song, the house lies in the 90210 zip code.
After five months on the market with no takers, the pair have launched the new listing with a lower price tag. Broker Tomer Fridman of Compass holds the listing.
The angular white stucco home, built in 1971, sits at the end of a cul-de-sac with a towering front gate. It includes an attached three-car garage.
Its interior, redesigned in the past decade by ANR Signature Collection, includes oak floors, imported stone and floor-to-ceiling glass doors.
The kitchen, with white marble countertops and ebony cabinets, connects to a breakfast room and walk-in pantry, with a formal dining room leading out to an outside terrace.
Upstairs, the 2,300-square-foot master suite has a sitting area and private balcony with views of Benedict Canyon and L.A.’s Century City.
There are dual master baths, one with a soaking tub and flatscreen TV, dual walk-in closets, a fireplace and a powder room where Jenner would get “glammed” by her team of professional makeup artists, according to Dirt.
There are five more bedrooms, each with ensuite baths, including one used as a nursery for Jenner and Scott’s daughter Stormi Webster. There’s also a movie theater, gym, massage and billiard rooms.
Outside, the home’s resort-style grounds include Italian cypresses and lavender around a swimming pool, spa and built-in barbeque.
Jenner, founder of Kylie Cosmetics, has built a hefty real estate portfolio with profitable home flips. Her main residence is the eight-bedroom, 13,200-square-foot mansion in Hidden Hills she bought for $12.4 million in 2016, when she was 19.
In February, she broke ground on a Hidden Hills mansion between properties owned by her mother, Kris Jenner and her older sister, Khloe Kardashian.
Her other properties include a $36 million contemporary mansion in Holmby Hills and a $15 million vacant lot in Hidden Hills. Also, she’s building a desert vacation mansion in La Quinta’s Madison Club.
As for Scott, he owns a 16,700-square-foot hilltop mansion in Brentwood he bought in 2020 for $23.5 million.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesKylie Jenner and Travis Scott list 90210 mansion for $22MLos AngelesKylie Jenner breaks ground on Hidden Hills mansionLos AngelesKylie Jenner buys La Quinta lot and development plans for $3.3MThe post Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott trim price of Beverly Crest mansion appeared first on The Real Deal.
Alfonso Dolce and JDS Development’s Michael Stern with a rendering of 888 Brickell (JDS, Getty)Dolce & Gabbana is partnering with developer Michael Stern to brand a condo tower in Miami.
The Italian designer is the latest fashion house to work with a developer on branded condos in South Florida, as it expands into real estate worldwide. Dolce & Gabbana announced this week it planned two residential developments, including one in Miami with Stern’s JDS Development Group, and one in Marbella, Spain with Sierra Blanca Estates. It also plans a hotel in the Maldives with DarGlobal, Dolce & Gabbana said in a statement posted on its LinkedIn.
The development in Miami is likely JDS’ 888 Brickell project, which was previously expected to be a Major Food Group tower. The supertall, at 1,049 feet tall, could become among the tallest in Miami, with other towers also planned at that height.
Rendering of the pool area at 888 Brickell Dolce & Gabbana and JDS did not respond to requests for comment.
New York-based JDS plans a 90-story, 259-unit condo tower on the half-acre Brickell Avenue lot. The firm has been under contract to acquire the seven-story office building currently on the site.
JDS said last year that it planned to launch sales of 888 Brickell in the fall and break ground sometime this year. Prices for Major condo units previously were expected to range from $1.6 million to $11 million, excluding penthouses.
Major Food Group and JDS went their separate ways months after announcing a partnership for the 888 Brickell project. Sources at the time said they didn’t have a signed agreement. The New York-based restaurant group is now working with Terra and One Thousand Group on a planned condo tower in Edgewater, The Real Deal previously reported.
JDS’ other planned developments in Miami include the nearby 1 Southside Park project at 1133 Southwest Second Avenue in Brickell. The 2.5 million-square-foot development calls for a 752-foot-tall tower with 1,000 apartments, 200 micro-units, a 200-room hotel, and 250,000 square feet of office space. JDS inked a deal with the city of Miami, in which the firm agreed to build an $8 million fire station for the city on the ground floor and invest about $5 million in public benefits.
The branded residences trend has boomed in South Florida. Just this week, Dezer Development and the Related Group announced they are partnering with Rosewood Hotels & Resorts to launch Rosewood Residences in Hillsboro Beach. Brands such as Porsche Design, Armani/Casa, Aston Martin, Missoni, Ritz-Carlton and others have towers in Miami-Dade County.
The post Dolce & Gabbana to brand Michael Stern’s condo tower in Miami appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty; Illustration by The Real Deal)Higher interest rates and widening bond spreads have dragged the market for commercial mortgage-backed securities to its slowest period in more than a decade.
Domestic, private CMBS issuance totaled just $5.98 billion in the first quarter, a 12 percent drop from the previous quarter and 79 percent decline from the $29.01 billion recorded in the same period a year ago, according to Trepp.
It was the lowest quarterly volume of new CMBS loans since the first quarter of 2012, when the economy was three years into its recovery from the global financial crisis.
Only 10 CMBS loans were issued last quarter. Among them, four conduit deals totaling $3.28 billion were recorded, a 67 percent decline from the nine transactions that totaled $9.91 billion in the first quarter of last year. Another six single-borrower CMBS loans were issued, totaling $2.7 billion, an 85 percent drop from the 26 deals totaling $18.61 billion a year ago.
CLOs, or commercial mortgages repackaged into bonds, totaled just $1.12 billion across two deals, compared to 13 transactions that combined for $15.27 billion in the same period last year.
Only 16 lenders contributed to CMBS loans in the quarter, down from 21 a year ago. Goldman Sachs was the largest player, logging seven deals for $1.31 billion. But those figures pale in comparison to the first quarter of last year, when top underwriter Citigroup issued $5.57 billion.
As the CMBS market dries up, more loans are heading to special servicing. Trepp found that the CMBS special servicing rate rose 37 basis points in March to 5.55 percent, the largest month-over-month jump since August 2020.
Notably, the uptick was driven by a higher volume of large loans being transferred, including nine with an outstanding balance of at least $100 million. That trend was consistent across loans tied to retail, office and multifamily properties.
Read moreNationalDistress is coming for Class A officesNationalShort sellers are betting against SL GreenNationalFed sounds concern on CRE distressThe post CMBS market plunges to 11-year low appeared first on The Real Deal.
Compass’ Tricia Luther, Sara Collette and Maria Gonzales (Compass, Getty)Compass is expanding with two new offices in South Florida, adding to the trend of brokerages expanding northward.
The brokerage is opening offices in Weston and Palm Beach Gardens to house more than 220 agents servicing Broward and Palm Beach counties, according to a press release. The move aims to solidify the firm’s footing in these markets, which have become magnets for brokerages in recent months.
As part of the expansion, Compass brought in Tricia Luther to lead the Weston office alongside Maria Gonzalez. Prior to joining Compass, Luther spent seven years with Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors, LinkedIn shows.
The Weston office at 2500 Weston Road Suite 404 will house 46 agents, focusing on the western Broward County markets, a spokesperson confirmed.
Compass’ Sara Collette, who also helped establish the brokerage’s Fort Lauderdale office five years ago, will lead the Palm Beach Gardens office in the newly opened Alton Town Center at 5370 Donald Ross Road. The office will serve more than 175 agents, and Collette confirmed the brokerage has plans to expand the team.
The brokerage is considering the Palm Beach Gardens site as a Jupiter office, because of the close proximity to the Jupiter market, Colette said. It will serve Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Tequesta and other northern Palm Beach County markets, she confirmed.
The first team of agents serving Jupiter for Compass began working out of a small satellite office five years ago, Collette said. Collette said the Palm Beach Gardens office has been in the works for more than two years.
“We slowly started expanding here, and [in] 2019 the growth just exploded,” Collette said. “We waited until we got the green light to open our own office.”
Compass’ Palm Beach Gardens office nabbed two teams from Illustrated Properties in advance of the opening. Christina Zecca and the Zecca Group spent five years at Illustrated before joining Compass in the new office, and John Forgatch and the Forgatch Group were with Illustrated for three years before jumping to Compass, LinkedIn shows.
Across the tri-county region, Compass has 14 offices. The expansions to Weston and Palm Beach Gardens follow in the footsteps of their competitors.
Douglas Elliman opened two offices in Weston in February. At the time, Douglas Elliman Florida CEO Jay Phillip Parker called the market, “a very important area for us.”
The Agency returned to Palm Beach County with the opening of its Palm Beach Gardens office in January. Corcoran opened an office in Palm Beach Gardens in August, aiming to have between 30 and 40 agents serving the market.
The pandemic fueled a boom in demand for South Florida luxury real estate, sending prices to unprecedented heights. The market has cooled in recent months, as sales volume has declined, but Collette sees prices holding.
Low inventory in the luxury market is causing a selling gridlock, she said, and agents may need to “shake the trees” to free up options.
The post Heading north: Compass opens offices in Broward, Palm Beach counties appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mag Mile Capital’s Rushi Shah and Reddington Partners’s Henrik Rough (Mag Mile Capital, LinkedIn, Getty)An upstart Chicago-based commercial real estate bank and debt brokerage is aiming for new growth after a reverse merger allowed it to become a publicly traded company.
Mag Mile Capital has merged with Myson Inc., forming a new entity known as Mag Mile Capital Inc., Commercial Observer reported.
Rushi Shah founded Mag Mile Capital in 2016 after consolidating with two other companies. Myson, which has been trading on the OTC Markets Pink over-the-counter securities exchange, had simply served as a shell company for Reddington Partners, managed by Henrik Rouf, for Mag Mile to become public. It will essentially function in the same manner for Mag Mile Capital Inc., enabling increased liquidity and more cash flow opportunities as a publicly traded company.
“Nothing changes for our business. It just allows us to grow. It allows us to consolidate, and bring talent into the business and also bring clients,” Shah told the outlet. “If someone wants to finance and we’re competing with JLL, then we can throw in stock options and warrants to our clients. We can incentivize people to use stock to do deals and that just means more deal flow for us.”
Shah will own roughly 88 percent of the new enterprise, while Rouf takes an ownership stake of about 10 percent. Mag Mile Capital raked in $1.6 million in gross profits last year, the outlet reported.
Another reason for the merger is that it expedites the process of becoming public. Typically, a company must undergo an initial public offering, which takes anywhere from six months to a year to complete.
“This essentially allows us to go public, so we don’t have to do an IPO ourselves,” Shah told the outlet. “[Myson] exists to buy companies like ours. Companies like ours go public to get currency, stock becomes the currency, and now we can go out and buy other companies, recruit people, find talent, bring people in and give them stock options and do things that public companies do to grow.”
Mag Mile Capital specializes in commercial mortgages and capital markets brokerage services, providing equity services, debt financing and other forms of financial assistance.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoGeorge Archos takes over Mag Mile restaurantChicagoBlatteis & Schnur step up to Mag Mile with Chicago retail holdings for $27MChicagoMadison, PGIM list Signature RoomThe post Mag Mile Capital goes public with reverse merger appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Right when Chicago’s office market began to turn the page from the pandemic’s frenzied attack, other economic challenges arose and caused the sector to regress yet again.
Company layoffs, a supply surplus, beleaguered properties and the lingering remote-working trend contributed to a 22.4 percent vacancy rate in the first quarter — another new record high, up from the previous quarter’s 21.4 percent and a 21.3 percent rate a year ago, Crain’s reported.
Net absorption, which measures the difference between space occupied and space shedded by tenants over a given period, fell below zero in the quarter for the first time since the fall of 2021. It measured negative 323,000 square feet, according to a study by CBRE.
CBRE’s Todd Lippman (CBRE)Lingering remote work policies compounded with massive layoffs and companies looking to downsize their leases are behind the surging vacancy rate.
Plus, landlords are facing competition from space that’s not included in the stat as more tenants offer up their offices for sublease, meaning the space technically remains rented even if unused. Tech giants Meta and Salesforce recently put up for sublease a combined 240,000 square feet between its two downtown offices — including the under-construction Salesforce Tower at Wolf’s Point — after each announced plans of mass layoffs.
In February, Publicis Groupe put 350,000 square feet up for sublease at the Opal Holdings-owned 35 West Wacker Drive, marking the secondary market’s largest listing in the city. That followed Tyson Foods’ 233,000-square-foot sublease at a West Loop office building.
There’s currently 7.5 million square feet available for lease downtown, which is an increase from 6 million a year ago and 3.3 million when the pandemic first started. “If they’re good quality (sublease) spaces in the right location, I think they’ll lease up,” CBRE’s Todd Lippman told the outlet.
The good news: newly built or freshly renovated buildings are showing some promising signs despite fears of an economic downturn. Over the past year, Class A properties in the downtown area had vacancy rates drop from 20.1 percent to 17.8 percent, while class B buildings rose to 26.6 percent from 22.1. Since April 2020, 78 percent of tenants that relocated from their downtown offices moved into an upgraded building.
Although a handful of companies are downsizing their operations, they’re at least recommitting to their buildings. Law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman and insurance company Chubb, for instance, recently signed lease extensions at Tishman Speyer’s 525 West Monroe Street, using slightly less square footage than previously.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoDowntown Chicago office vacancy creeps to new all-time highChicagoSizing up Chicago’s ailing office marketChicago“Definitely not robust:” Suburban Chicago’s office market driven by contractionThe post Chicago office vacancy rises to another new record appeared first on The Real Deal.
GreyStreet’s Kevin Covey and Old Lone Star Brewery (GreyStreet, Getty, Renelibrary/CC BY-SA 4.0/via Wikimedia Commons)The highly anticipated redevelopment of San Antonio’s old Lone Star Brewery is moving forward.
GrayStreet Acquisitions and partnering developer Midway have begun preliminary work at 200 West Jones Avenue, a 32-acre site just south of downtown, in preparation for a $600 million redevelopment of one of Texas’ oldest breweries, the San Antonio Business Journal reported.
The news comes nearly three years after GrayStreet acquired the land. The developer has since hit several roadblocks and even attempted to sell the property last year, “exploring what was out there.”
Although there are still several hurdles to clear, like getting clearance on the environmental side, the firm has made significant strides. GrayStreet recently gained approval from San Antonio’s Historic and Design Review Commission, and construction could begin by the end of the year.
“Now they’re focused on environmental remediation, some of the demolition of buildings that need to be removed for the project,” Ian Benavidez, of the city’s Neighborhood & Housing Services Department, told the outlet.
In 2021, the city granted $24 million in public incentives to help fund the project. When news came that GrayStreet was shopping the property, officials asserted that the $24 million incentive package wouldn’t apply if a new developer took over.
GrayStreet managing partner Kevin Covey warned that the project would require considerable time and effort shortly after it acquired the land in 2020.
“There are a lot of challenges to that site,” Covey told the outlet. “But there is nothing here that is insurmountable if we all collectively put our heads together.”
The Lone Star Brewery was constructed between 1895 and 1904 by Edmund Jungenfeld, who designed all of Anheuser-Busch’s facilities in St. Louis, along with other local architects. The property was acquired by the San Antonio Museum Association in the early 1970s and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasSantikos plans $50 million shopping center TexasSan Antonio’s Tower Life is getting an office-to-resi makeoverTexasThe Creamery in San Antonio lands tenantsThe post GrayStreet moves Lone Star Brewery plan ahead appeared first on The Real Deal.
CBRE’s Bob Sulentic (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, CBRE)A number of new listings in the past few weeks could raise eyebrows as to whether CBRE has lost confidence in Dallas’ office sector.
Parkway Plaza I and II, located next to each other at 14110 and 14114 North Dallas Parkway, are listed together at 136,000 total square feet for $10 million, according to a CBRE properties listing. Additionally, North Central Plaza I, at 12655 North Central Expressway, is being listed at 198,000 square feet for $14.5 million. Michael Dewey, CBRE vice president, is handling sales for all three properties. Both properties are listed for about $73 per square foot which is far lower than the $296 average price per square foot of Class-A office space in Dallas in 2021, according to Commercial Cafe sales data.
This comes on the heels of CBRE announcing its plans to sell the 20-story Tower at Park Lane building located off Central Expressway north of downtown Dallas. No price information was listed, but the taxable value of the 509,000-square-foot Class-A building was $115 million in 2022, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District.
While Dallas remains among the top regions for new office construction, notable projects have been shelved or delayed as the market fluctuates. CBRE itself is in development limbo on a planned $200 million Dallas headquarters at the corner of Maple and McKinney avenues. CEO Bob Sulentic said the firm plans to complete the build at a better time when market conditions improve. At the close of 2022, the DFW office vacancy rate was 25 percent or about 57 million square feet, according to CBRE. In 2019, before the pandemic, Dallas had an 18 percent vacancy rate. The national average vacancy rate sits around 20 percent, according to data from Cushman and Wakefield.
So far, 2023 hasn’t given rise to much optimism as Dallas office leasing activity fell 27 percent in this year’s first quarter compared to last. That could be attributed to a delay in large-scale leasing activity caused by current economic uncertainty, according to JLL.
JLL market reports cite Dallas’ record job growth, 5.9 percent last year, which was nearly double the national rate, as a reason for market optimism. The report also cites that vacant office space is expected to decrease by about 6 percent as a slew of office-to-resi conversions are underway across the city. But if vacancy rates don’t begin improving soon, more firms may look to follow CBRE’s example and offload costly inventory.
Read moreDallasCBRE puts Tower at Park Lane on the marketDallasCBRE’s Dallas headquarters at a standstillDallasFar North Dallas leads DFW office recoveryThe post CBRE looks to offload more office buildings appeared first on The Real Deal.
Simon Property Group’s David Simon, Stoneridge Mall, Pleasanton (Simon Property Group, Getty)Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group has received approval from the Pleasanton City Council to develop a six-story multifamily building at the Stoneridge Shopping mall. The project has taken nearly a decade to obtain approval.
The Stoneridge Mall is located at 1 Stoneridge Mall Road and the proposed building will contain 360 units. The complex, which would be located on the southeast corner of the shopping center, would be built across 6 acres located between the mall, the new 10x Genomics campus project to the south across Stoneridge Mall Road, and offices to the east across Stoneridge Mall Road.
The building will offer 58 below market rate apartments which will comply with the recently passed Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance in the city. The ordinance requires all new multi-family residential projects of 15 units or more to provide at least 15 percent of the project’s total units at prices that are affordable to very low- and/or low-income households
“I appreciate the 58 low-income units, maybe for some teachers in our community who are looking to stay and these are rental apartments,” Mayor Karla Brown said.
The mall has seen foot traffic decrease in recent years, and Pleasanton is looking to turn it into a mixed-use center with nearly 1,200 housing units.
“We’ve seen the Stoneridge Mall grow less active, less vital, less interesting and less populated,” Brown said at a public meeting in January. “This is a chance to, I think, make one of the most important decisions within 10 years easily — revitalizing this Stoneridge Mall.”
Simon Property Group is the largest mall owner in the nation and is developing housing at centers in other markets. The Indiana-based developer has filed plans to build a fitness center, 380 apartments and outdoor shops and restaurants at the mall at 1065 Brea Mall in Los Angeles.
There are multiple examples of retail malls planned for residential conversion throughout the Bay Area. New York-based Kimco Realty is redeveloping the former Burlington Coat Factory at the Westlake Mall in Daly City into 240 units of housing. Kimco also plans to build 208 residential units at the Gateway Plaza in Fremont, and 280 homes are planned to replace the Maplewood Plaza in San Jose.
Investors currently see retail centers as an opportunity to redevelop in-demand housing in urban and suburban markets.
“Currently investors are looking to secure retail centers that will unlock value and meet consumers’ rapidly changing demands,” Jay Roman from Nai Norcal, a broker specializing in retail, said. “These emerging retail opportunities are becoming the most valuable asset class in the post-pandemic landscape. By repositioning aging, vacant or under-utilized properties, investors can redevelop these centers into mixed-use properties addressing the housing crisis.”
Read moreSan FranciscoDaly City shopping center may add 214 apartmentsSan FranciscoKimco Realty aims to redevelop part of Fremont retail centerThe post Simon to build 300-plus housing units at Stoneridge Mall appeared first on The Real Deal.
Westside Investment Partners’ Andrew Klein with Banyan Cay Resort & Golf Club at 2020 Banyan Way (Westside Investment Partners, Google Map, Getty)Colorado-based Westside Investment Partners lodged a $102.1 million bid for embattled Banyan Cay Resort and Golf Club.
The parent company of the hotel-anchored mixed-use project in West Palm Beach filed for bankruptcy protection in February, after facing foreclosure. In March, the project’s development entity also filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, with a plan to sell the 200-acre property to pay off debtors.
Court documents show Westside, which operates large multifamily projects in Denver, was approved as the stalking horse bidder for the property, thereby setting the lowest possible price for the property.
The potential purchase comes with several bid protections for Westside. In the event that Westside loses the bid, the firm may be entitled to a “break-up fee” of $3 million and $300,000 in expense reimbursements, court records show. The break-up fee and reimbursements may be converted into liens on the property once a sale closes. Any additional bidder must offer at least $5 million more than Westside’s bid.
The deadline for bids for the property is June 8. New York firm Keen Summit Capital Partners will continue to market the site until the deadline.
The court also approved $375,000 in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing to keep the golf course running. In its petition, Banyan Cay said that it already owed $10,093 in unpaid wages. The resort has a total of 38 employees.
Domenic Gatto, Jr., the developer of the property, bought the site for $26 million in 2015. The complex, at 2020 Banyan Way, consists of an 18-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus and an under-construction Hyatt-branded hotel with 150 rooms. Gatto also owns lots adjacent to the resort. The parcels have entitlements for 179 condo units, 28 single-family homes and 22 villas.
Westside Investment Partners has several high-profile projects in Denver. On Wednesday, Denver voters rejected the company’s bid to convert the 155-acre Park Hill golf course into a residential and commercial complex. Nearly 60 percent of voters in the city rejected the plan, forcing Westside to continue operating the facility as a golf course.
The company has also received community pushback with its plan to convert a 72-acre Denver campus called Loretto Heights into a housing, retail and office development.
The post Colorado firm bids $102M for embattled Banyan Cay Resort appeared first on The Real Deal.
Michael Rosenfeld, David and Simon Reuben with 2025 Avenue of the Stars (Getty, LoopNet)The Reuben brothers have foreclosed on Michael Rosenfeld’s $2.5 billion Century Plaza development, after more than a year of litigation concerning the debt on the project, The Real Deal has learned.
David and Simon Reuben made a credit bid on the property at an auction held on Thursday morning, according to a source familiar with the matter. No other party showed up to the auction to make a bid on the development, the source added.
The credit bid, when a lender bids an amount based on the debt the borrower owes, came out to a portion of the senior debt held by the Reubens.
By the end of 2021, the Reubens held a $890 million senior loan on the property, plus a further $271 million mezzanine loan, meaning the property was bought at a fraction of the $2.5 billion development price tag.
Rosenfeld, the developer of the project and head of Woodridge Capital Partners, did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.K.-based investor brothers got the green light to go ahead with the foreclosure from a California court last week, but a New York court continued an injunction preventing the foreclosure from taking place, siding with a group of EB-5 investors that has sought to block the sale while the court sorted out the property’s debt stack.
Matthew Parrott, a Fried Frank attorney representing the Reuben brothers and their investment vehicle Motcomb Estates, appealed the continued injunction. The appellate division struck down the injunction this morning, allowing the foreclosure to proceed, according to court records.
Parrott, on behalf of the Reuben brothers, declined to comment.
The Reubens had hoped to close on the deal before the city of L.A.’s new transfer taxes went into effect, attorneys had argued in court proceedings. The duo now face a 5.5 percent tax on the sale, given that the city has not provided any tax exemption for foreclosures. Attorneys are still unclear whether the tax will apply to foreclosures.
With the foreclosure, the Reubens officially own their first piece of real estate in the city of Los Angeles — a 400-key hotel with 63 condos, attached to two condo towers.
The path to ownership was a difficult one.
In March of last year, an entity controlled by DigitalBridge filed a lawsuit against Motcomb Estates, alleging it “violated its responsibilities” in servicing a $821 million mezzanine loan on the development, court records show. DigitalBridge claimed Motcomb did nothing after Rosenfeld defaulted on almost $1.8 billion in loans.
Six months later, the Reubens were hit with a second suit — a group of EB-5 investors in the project claimed the brothers shuffled the debt stack to whittle away the claims of EB-5 investors. In the event of a default, the EB-5 investors claimed, they would never get repaid.
DigitalBridge has settled its suit with the Reubens, though the EB-5 suit is still ongoing.
The group contributed a $450 million junior mezzanine loan, while DigitalBridge — formerly Colony Capital — provided a $120 million senior mezzanine loan.
Even if the Reubens had placed a credit bid equal to its full senior loan, it would still not have been enough to pay back DigitalBridge and the EB-5 investors.
The post Reuben brothers finally foreclose on Century Plaza appeared first on The Real Deal.
Educational Housing Services’ Jeffrey Lynford with 413 West 34th Street (Educational Housing Services, Google Maps, Getty)Months before its 100th anniversary, one of New York City’s last-surviving all-women apartment houses sold for $52.5 million to a student housing company that’s been gradually raising its New York City profile.
Brooklyn-based nonprofit Educational Housing Services picked up The Webster Apartments, a 376-unit single-room occupancy building at 413 West 34th Street in Midtown, property records show and CEO Jeffrey Lynford confirmed. Included in the sale is an adjacent undeveloped lot that spans the remainder of the blockfront along Dyer Avenue at the corner of West 35th Street.
EHS, which provides dormitory-style rooms to college students and summer interns at a half-dozen properties in Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights, last expanded its footprint in 2019, when it paid Tessler Development $101 million for a 17-story building previously used by Pace University at 55 John Street in the Financial District.
The acquisition signals the end of an era for The Webster Apartments, which would have celebrated 100 years at the address in November. The nonprofit — which says on its website that it’s moving to a new location in Midtown East — traces its history to Charles Webster, a cousin of Macy’s founder Rowland H. Macy, who left the bulk of his estate to build the West 34th Street property when he died in 1916.
The building, which opened in 1923, offered working women an affordable place to live and connect with other transplants. As recently as 2019, tenants could pay as little as $1,430 a month for a room that came with light housekeeping, two daily meals and a host of social activities.
By comparison, a semester-long stay at EHS’ Midtown West location at 481 Eighth Avenue runs anywhere from $8,150 to $11,100, or about $2,000 to $2,800 per month.
Webster says it’s moving to 569 Lexington Avenue, a Midtown East building operated by national student and intern housing provider Found Study.
It’s unclear whether its payment model will be preserved with the move. Rents at Found Study’s Midtown East location run $3,600 per month for a standard single room, excluding a $200 membership fee.
The Webster Apartments did not immediately return a request for comment.
Read moreNew YorkNYC’s largest student housing firm makes a $101M gamble on owning its own real estateNew YorkLanguishing student housing firm on the hook for $50MNew YorkStudent housing complex near Columbia University trades for $84MThe post Student housing firm drops $53M on historic women-only apartment building appeared first on The Real Deal.
Brandon Johnson with (clockwise from top left) First Western Properties’ Paul Tsakiris, Related Midwest’s Curt Bailey, Latsko Interests’ Fred Latsko and Intera’s David Goss (LinkedIn, Related, Facebook, Intera, Getty)Five days ago, Paul Tsakiris, like many in Chicago’s real estate community, called Brandon Johnson’s management of his personal finances into question.
When it was revealed during his mayoral campaign that Johnson was on a payment plan with the city for more than $3,000 in unpaid water utilities, Tsakiris, the president of Chicago-based commercial real estate firm First Western Properties, took to social media expressing doubt he could run a city on a multi-billion dollar budget since, “despite a great salary,” he racked up late fees.
On Thursday morning, Tsakiris changed his tune, joining a chorus of real estate professionals now extending olive branches to the mayor-elect. The walk-backs and well-wishes seem to have a common goal in mind: getting a seat at the negotiating table with the self-declared progressive, who came from the back of the pack to place second in February’s primary and vanquish Paul Vallas, the candidate the industry backed with campaign cash and votes, as well as attacks on Johnson, in this week’s runoff election.
“Let’s all rally behind him and give our new mayor a chance to show us what we can do,” Tsakiris wrote of Johnson on LinkedIn, part of a post that affirmed his company’s commitment to the city, where he has three properties currently under contract. “Let us also keep in mind that what people say on the campaign trail often differs greatly to how they govern.”
He’s far from the only — or biggest — leader in local real estate to have come out and welcomed the chance to work with Johnson in the two days since his election.
As they start to engage the politician their industry by and large opposed, here’s what some more, including a few who formally endorsed Vallas and at least one who expected Johnson to win, had to say, either in statements to The Real Deal or on social media:
Curt Bailey, Related Midwest: “All of us at Related Midwest are deeply committed to investing in Chicago’s communities. We are looking forward to working closely with Mayor-Elect Johnson on issues such as affordable housing and workforce development throughout Chicago as we share his belief that equitable investment is key to a stronger, better future. Our love for Chicago unites us all, and we are excited for what the next four years will bring.”
David Goss, Interra Realty: “Even if the election did not turn out how I may have liked or many of you may have liked, we are here, and our lives and businesses are here. Be hopeful. Wish Mayor-elect Johnson nothing but success. Don’t panic, the world is not ending. Rest assured the Mayor-elect knows that if he does not bring crime under control, nothing else matters. All we know about Brandon Johnson’s plan to fight crime is what Paul Vallas told us. It’s clear what we were doing wasn’t working. This is America, the votes are in, let’s move forward. Maintain optimism for the future of Chicago. Anything less will depress you and make it really hard to live and do whatever you do for work.”
Michael Mini, Chicagoland Apartment Association: “The CAA congratulates Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson on his victory to serve as the next Mayor of the City of Chicago. We look forward to working in partnership with him and his administration to support policies that encourage development of much needed affordable and market-rate rental housing; issues which impact our neighborhoods and communities across Chicago. Our members employ thousands of Chicagoans including maintenance technicians, property managers, leasing consultants and support professionals who work hard every day to keep properties operating smoothly and turn apartments into homes. We look forward to continuing our efforts in partnership with the new Johnson Administration.”
Michael Glasser, Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance: “We will endeavor to work with the new Mayor to strengthen the city’s neighborhoods, and to protect our neighborhood housing and housing providers. Together we can build on what’s working in our housing system, and make sure that Chicago is a great place to live.”
Fred Latsko, Latsko Interests: “I anticipated a Johnson mayoralty and Chicago is a great, one of the most resilient cities that will continue to flourish once we have a change in the White House.”
Zeb McLaurin, McLaurin Development Partners: “It’s too early for anyone to comment on campaign rhetoric. His first official acts were well-received as well as very encouraging. I think he is a man of his word and will be a mayor of his word, and therefore brings the theme of collaboration that can only be positive. I can only go back to what he envisioned throughout the entire election season and that is hope and energy for the future. There is a direct correlation with what we in the CRE industry see in the future.”
Read moreChicagoReal estate reacts: With Johnson’s win, industry prepares to play defenseChicagoJohnson wins Chicago mayoral race in blow to real estateChicagoImpact of “mansion tax” magnified as Chicago hits pollsThe post Real estate changes tune on Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson appeared first on The Real Deal.
Alameda City Attorney Yibin Shen with Alameda Point, Alameda (City of Alameda, Getty)The City of Alameda contends a “landmark ruling” in a tenant dispute has set a precedent for whether counties can regulate incorporated cities during times of emergency.
City officials now claim the Alameda Superior Court ruling that the county’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium didn’t apply in a housing dispute between a tenant and the city has set a legal precedent, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
They say it resolved a “long-standing ambiguity” about the power counties have over the cities inside their boundaries.
If the interpretation untested in the courts is correct, cities in Alameda County could ignore ordinances set by the county, from mask mandates and curfews to eviction moratoriums.
“When there’s a set of local laws, whether it’s curfews or emergency response, there is one set of laws that applies to you, not two,” Alameda City Attorney Yibin Shen said in a statement. “The local government in Alameda is the City Council.”
Others question whether the court’s ruling signifies a shift in the balance of power between counties and cities across the state.
Marc Janowitz, who represented the tenant in the case, said the city’s statement was “a wish rather than a fact” and “exaggerating to the point of misleading.” He said as a matter of law, decisions made by lower courts such as Alameda Superior Court don’t hold precedential value.
Judge Victoria Kolakowski, in her decision, wrote that her judgment would “only apply to the parties in this case,” and that it would not affect the county ordinance more broadly.
By the judge’s own words then, the county’s statement is not a landmark case, Janowitz said.
The issue began last April, when the City of Alameda moved to evict tenants from two separate single-family homes on the island’s old military base. At the time, the county had — and still has — a moratorium against evictions when a tenant is unable to pay because of COVID-19 related rent debt.
The moratorium, which is sent to expire in May, states that it covers incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county.
As a matter of procedure, when evictions are filed, a judge examines the lawsuit and determines if the county’s eviction moratorium should apply. In this instance, the City of Alameda argued the moratorium was unconstitutional, because counties cannot legally regulate incorporated cities.
That approach forced the tenants to defend the constitutionality of a county ordinance, rather than the merits of their eviction cases.
Although the moratorium was ruled constitutional in a different federal lawsuit challenging the same ordinance, the judge in this case ruled in the city’s favor.
Even if the ruling doesn’t ultimately set a larger precedent, more cities may attempt to do so — especially those that have resisted pandemic-era restrictions enacted by county governments.
The notion of autonomy granted to a local government by the state constitution is a thorny one, Tom Hogen-Esch, a political science professor at California State University — Northridge, told the Mercury News
“Once you draw that boundary and you’re a city, you basically have home rule over a bunch of different things, for better or worse,” Hogen-Esch said. “This is a longstanding, probably 100-year debate over ‘How far does the extent of home rule go?’
“It will have to work its way up through the legal system in California, and ultimately the California Supreme Court draws lines about who has this authority.”
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoAlameda aims to build state-mandated housing on former naval baseSan FranciscoSenior housing planned at former naval base in AlamedaSan FranciscoCity to sell or lease commercial buildings at Alameda PointThe post City of Alameda contends it’s not legally bound by county mandates appeared first on The Real Deal.
Leon Capital’s Fernando De Leon, Hillwood Capital’s Ross Perot Jr. and Titan Development Company’s Christ Pacheco (Leon Capital, Hillwood Capital, Titan Development Company, Getty)Samsung is starting construction soon on the first technology warehouse related to its $200 billion investment in Texas. In case you missed it from our story on Samsung:
“Industrial facilities for technology have become one of the hottest asset classes in Central Texas. Just 1.3 percent of the 154.7 megawatts of data center inventory in the Austin and San Antonio market was vacant at the end of last year, according to a recent report from CBRE.”
Here’s a snapshot of what’s going on in Texas industrial real estate this week.
Leon Capital plans to build a 148,000-square-foot warehouse at the northeast corner of Gravel Drive and Jack Newell Boulevard in Fort Worth. The Dallas-based company plans to spend about $9.9 million, or about $67 per square foot, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Hillwood, the Dallas-based firm founded by Ross Perot Jr., filed plans recently to build a $16.1 million shell building at 2960 Ferguson Lane in Northeast Austin. The building will span about 269,000 square feet and cost about $60 per square foot.
Austin-based Titan Development plans to build a $25 million, 100,000-square-foot warehouse building at 1805 Titan Drive in Georgetown. Titan recently started construction on building five of its NorthPark35 Industrial Park in Georgetown.
The 89,000-square-foot Bickham Industrial Park at 10312 Bickham Road in Northwest Dallas is fully leased with 17 tenants. Bradford Commercial Real Estate leased the last 12,000-square-foot space to Lone Star Event Rentals.
Vault Partners started construction recently on a 185,000-square-foot warehouse, the Vault Distribution Center, at 13,606 Furman Road in Houston. Stream Realty Partners has been tapped to lease the space.
Read moreTexasBaytown continues industrial domination with $77M complexTexasEastGroup plans Round Rock warehouse amid local pushbackDallasTexas mega industrial deals of 2022The post #WarehouseWednesday: Tech hottest asset class appeared first on The Real Deal.
Reata’s J. Warren Huff and 6100 Legacy Drive (Reata, Google Maps, Getty)One of the largest sublease offerings in Plano is off the market.
Reata Pharmaceuticals will be moving into the 20-story, 327,000-square-foot office building at 6100 Legacy Drive in West Plano’s Legacy business complex as its new headquarters location, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The move comes four years after the company announced it would move into the building once finished, but the pandemic and several delayed drug approvals forced it to sublease the space instead, with CBRE marketing the property.
Reata, whose CEO is J. Warren Huff, has been operating in smaller offices around the city in the meantime. But with the recent approval of a new drug to treat a rare neuromuscular disease, in addition to making progress with treating kidney disorders, the company is back on track and ready to move into the glass-clad tower, built by Trammell Crow, the outlet said.
The 6100 Legacy Drive building is the first phase of a four-tower development, spanning 18 acres at the southwest corner of Legacy Drive and Communications Parkway. It’s located in a buzzing area, across the street from the $3 billion Legacy West development with dozens of shops, restaurants and a luxury hotel. Other nearby attractions include the $7 billion mixed-use project known as Hall Park and the new PGA of America campus.
Reata has agreed to a long-term lease at the site, and it hasn’t yet announced its official move-in date.
Reata’s move into the building will put a dent in Plano’s long list of properties available for sublease. Among markets in the Dallas-Fort Worth region with the most square footage for lease, West Plano ranked second with nearly 1.3 million square feet, the outlet said.
Topping that list was Las Colinas with more than 1.5 million square feet. Richardson, Downtown Dallas and the Lower North Tollway rounded out the list, combining for roughly 3 million square feet between the three.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreNew YorkOffice subleases abound in North Dallas suburbsDallasLandsea to move HQ from California to DallasDallasGoldman Sachs’ new Dallas office will cost $500MThe post Reata to occupy 20-story HQ in Plano appeared first on The Real Deal.
(L-R, Top)CBRE’s Jordan Domanico, Colliers’ John Salamida, Northmarq’s Anthony Pappageorge, CBRE’s Gregg Domanico, CBRE’s Sai Domanico, (L-R Bottom) Meridian’s Michael Conn, CBRE’s Michael Domanico, Northmarq’s Marcus de la Pena, Northmarq’s Zach LeBeouf and Trumark Companies’ Colin Severn (CBRE, Colliers, Meridian, Northmarq, Trumark Companies, Getty)CBRE has boosted its life science team by bringing on a father-and-sons team from Kidder Mathews.
Gregg Domanico, Michael Domanico, Sai Domanico and Jordan Domanico have more than 30 years combined experience in Northern California and Nevada and specialize in leasing and sale of life sciences properties.
“Gregg and team are coming home,” Matt Gardner, leader of CBRE’s life science advisory practice, said.
Gregg Domanico previously worked at CBRE from 1992 to 1997. He assisted clients across northern California and Nevada raise and deploy more than $15 billion to bring more than 30 million square feet of life science developments to the market. Before returning to CBRE, Gregg managed and led Kidder Mathews’s Life Sciences and Technology group for the West Coast.
In his new position, he will have the title of vice president. Gardner noted that Gregg Domanico “had a hand in establishing the original Life Sciences practice at CBRE in the 1990s.”
Michael Domanico and Sai Domanico join CBRE as senior vice presidents. Michael Domanico works with institutional life science clients and advises developers on capital deployment. Sai Domanico represents a range of life science companies in their laboratory requirements and advises life science developers on the scalability and performance of their facilities.
Jordan Domanico joins CBRE as first vice president specializing in tenant representation and corporate real estate services for emerging, high-growth biotech companies.
➤Northmarq has brought on a new investment team to lead its Walnut Creek office. Anthony Pappageorge, Zach LeBeouf and Marcus de la Peña have joined the firm as managing director, senior vice president and associate, respectively.
Pappageorge will lead Northmarq’s investment sales team covering the Greater Bay Area and Northern California markets, specializing in value-add and stabilized multifamily and self-storage assets with private client and syndication groups.
Trevor Koskovich, president of investment sales at Northmarq, called the group “industry-recognized team” that will bring “truly collaborative national coverage for our clients.”
Prior to joining Northmarq, Pappageorge was an executive managing director with Newmark. He has been responsible for more than $2 billion of transaction volume.
LeBeouf was a senior managing director with Newmark, where he represented both private and institutional clients in evaluating and transacting investment sales.
De la Peña spent the past two years as an associate with Newmark. During this time he assisted in the valuation and disposition of self -storage facilities for private clients throughout California.
➤Colliers has brought on John Salamida to bolster the brokerage’s East Bay team. Salamida will serve as executive vice president in investment sales and advisory services, and will be responsible for leasing activity as well.
Salamida will join Colliers’ Pleasanton/Tri-Valley office. Before joining Colliers, he spent 15 in investment sales and leasing, which includes a nearly 16-year stint at CBRE.
He said he plans to use Colliers’ resources “ to help grow business in the Tri Valley and 680 Corridor markets,” Salamida said.
➤San Ramon-based home developer Trumark Homes has hired Colin Severn to serve as its next chief financial officer. Severn spent two and a half years at Orange County-based Contour where he served as CFO. Before that he was at William Lyon Homes for almost 11 years and rose to CFO there as well.
➤Walnut Creek-based Meridian, a parent company of Marcus & Milichap, announced the promotion of Michael Coon from chief development officer to chief executive. Conn joined Meridian in 2012 and was elevated to CDO eight years later. Over a career of 25 years he has led the development or investment in more than 5 million square feet of projects valued at nearly $2 billion.
Meridian specializes in developing medical real estate. Coon said in a statement that he plans to “expand our core mission and values while aiming to provide greater access to care at a more affordable cost.”
Read moreSan FranciscoMovers: Compass names new head of Northern CaliforniaSan FranciscoMovers: Promotions bolster CBRE’s industrial and life science offices in Bay AreaSan FranciscoMovers: Kidder Mathews gets new head of Northern CaliforniaThe post Movers: CBRE boosts life science division with father-and-sons team appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Maverick Real Estate’s David Aviram and Ted Martell, Chetrit Group’s Joseph Chetrit and 255 West 34th Street (Getty, Maverick Real Estate)Joe Chetrit isn’t mincing words with Maverick Real Estate.
The press-shy developer claims David Aviram and Ted Martell’s debt firm “stole” more than $20 million by wresting control of his 34th Street hotel project.
In January, Maverick foreclosed on Chetrit’s stalled 33-story hotel development at 255 West 34th Street. Chetrit now claims that the lender ran off other potential bidders so it could take control of the property at a fraction of the fair market value.
“[Maverick] stole it for itself by paying only $100,000 in a commercially unreasonable sale that ensured no one else would show up and try to outbid it,” attorneys for Chetrit wrote in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan state court Tuesday.
Chetrit is suing for more than $20 million — the equity in the property he claims would have been left with after paying Maverick off.
Representatives for Maverick and Chetrit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case pits two of New York real estate’s most controversial figures against one another. Chetrit is known as a secretive investor who’s had his hand in major deals, including at the Sony Building and 9 DeKalb Avenue.
Aviram and Martell are a pair of scrappy, distressed-debt players who in recent years have ruffled the feathers of some of the industry’s most prolific dealmakers, as The Real Deal reported earlier this year.
Chetrit cited TRD’s January profile of Maverick in his lawsuit, complaining that instead of originating loans, Maverick buys distressed debt and then “uncompromisingly and extortionately extracts every penny that it can from a borrower.”
Chetrit started construction in 2019 on the planned 323-room hotel nearby Madison Square Garden with $110 million in financing from Arbor Commercial Mortgage. But the project ran into pandemic construction delays, supply-chain problems and price increases.
Construction is stalled at the 23rd floor and needs another $46 million to be completed, according to Chetrit’s lawsuit.
Maverick purchased Arbor’s debt last May and entered into a forbearance agreement under which Chetrit paid down a portion of the project’s $19 million junior mezzanine loan. Chetrit claims he tried to negotiate with Maverick during this period, including proposing a joint venture in which two would finish the hotel together.
But Maverick rejected those proposals, according to Chetrit, and in November moved to foreclose on the site. This is where Chetrit claims things got shady.
He said Maverick included a set of unreasonable conditions on the auction designed to scare off potential bidders. Those include requiring a bidder to close within seven days of the auction, even though Maverick had 90 days to close if it won.
Read moreNew YorkMaverick takes over Chetrit’s unfinished Penn Station hotelMaverick also required bidders to provide unnecessary, proprietary financial information without any confidentiality agreements, and gave itself the right to amend any terms of the deal right up until the time of the auction, according to Chetrit.
Chetrit claimed more than 60 people expressed interest in the property, but only Maverick showed up for the auction.
Maverick credit-bid $100,000 and took control of the site. Chetrit claims a recent appraisal valued the property at more than $140 million.
The post Maverick stole $20M from me: Joe Chetrit appeared first on The Real Deal.
3330 Cherry Ridge Street and CPS Energy’s Rudy D. Garza (CPS Energy, Google Maps)CPS Energy continues to shed vacant surplus properties as it plans a new headquarters location in San Antonio.
The utility is selling a 14-acre parcel at 3330 Cherry Ridge Street and 7720 Briaridge Drive, just north of the Loop 410 and Interstate 10 interchange, where the Malibu Grand Prix formerly stood, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. CPS has hired CBRE to market the property.
The utility bought the site for $6.8 million in 2018 with hopes of using it to consolidate dispatch operations for its work crews. The land was valued at about $7.7 million in 2022, according to the Bexar County Appraisal District.
CPS began shopping a slew of surplus properties in 2021, deeming them to be no longer operationally necessary, and as part of an initiative to build a new headquarters location at 500 McCullough Avenue.
“Our needs for our work centers have changed, and the site does not meet requirements,” a CPS spokesperson told the outlet, regarding 3330 Cherry Ridge.
The utility company sold a 5.9-acre lot at the corner of West Jones Avenue and Camden Street — formerly the Jones Avenue Service Center — to McCombs Family Partners for $29.5 million earlier this year.
CPS’ other surplus properties include its former headquarters at 145 Navarro Street and the surrounding parking area, the parking lot next to the Mexican Consulate at 127 Navarro Street, and a portion of the parking garage at 211 Villita Street, the outlet said.
CPS said it has no timetable for the sales of these properties, all of which are being marketed by CBRE.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexas“It's a little scary”: Texas battles over future of property taxesDallasDallas leads nation in most undeveloped landDallasPrime corner acreage in Prosper hits the marketThe post CPS energy to sell 14-acre surplus property appeared first on The Real Deal.
Cornerstone Corporate Center I at 1200 South Pine Island Road in Plantation with The Brookdale Group’s Robert Turner, as well as co-founders Charles Davidson III and Fred Henritze (Google Maps, The Brookdale Group)The Brookdale Group scooped up a Cornerstone Corporate Center office building in Plantation for $37.9 million.
AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust, advised by PNC Realty Investors, sold the eight-story property at 1200 South Pine Island Road, according to records and real estate database Vizzda.
Built in 1991 on 9 acres, the building is part of the multi-building Cornerstone office campus.
The 170,000-square-foot Cornerstone One is 80 percent leased. Tenants include Marriott International, Morgan Stanley and MetLife, according to a news release from the seller’s broker.
Hermen Rodriguez and Matthew McCormack were part of the JLL team that represented AFL-CIO.
The deal marks the second one this year at the Cornerstone campus. In February, air conditioning company Air Pros USA owner Douglas Anthony Perera paid $14.3 million for the five-story Cornerstone Five building at 1250 South Pine Island Road.
AFL-CIO is a commingled commercial real estate investment trust, with investors that include pension funds and retirement plans, according to the trust’s website. Founded in 1988, its trustee is PNC Bank.
Brookdale, based in Atlanta, is a private commercial real estate firm that has sponsored eight funds that have invested more than $2.5 billion to date, according to its website. Five of the funds have been liquidated. Charles Davidson III and Fred Henritze founded Brookdale in 1994.
Robert Turner is CEO.
The company has been a sporadic South Florida investor. In 2019, Brookdale dropped $80.3 million for four office buildings at Sawgrass International Corporate Park. Records show Brookdale still owns the properties at 1551, 1560 and 1550 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway, but it sold the building at 1601 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway in 2021 for $27 million.
The Cornerstone deal comes amid a significant slowdown of commercial real estate investment deals in South Florida. The Federal Reserve’s nine interest rate hikes over the past year have put the kibosh on the sale flurry that ran from late 2020 to late last year.
Despite this, the office market has experienced some recent activity. Last month, auto dealer Ali Ahmed paid $39 million for the Biscayne Centre at 11900 Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami.
Also last month, The Ward Law Group bought the Miami Lakes complex at 7900 Northwest 154th Street for $21 million, with plans to move the personal injury firm’s headquarters.
Read moreThe post Brookdale drops $38M for Plantation office building appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rendering of Parkway Residence at 1225 South Indiana Avenue (2RZ Architecture, Getty)Grief Properties has revealed an updated design for a classy South Loop apartment and will seek approval later this month from the Chicago Plan Commission.
The five-story, 100-unit development called Parkway Residences will occupy a vacant site at 1225 South Indiana Avenue, reported Urbanize. Grief expects to break ground on the project early next year, with a completion date of early 2025.
It’s one of several multifamily projects being pushed forward in the South Loop, as developers have started looking to the area and the South Side more broadly for better deals on land as compared to the West Loop, where a construction rush has driven up property values.
While Grief’s project will be a mid-rise, developers such as CMK Companies have recently completed high-rises in the area and are buying more land.
2RZ Architecture has signed on as the designer of Parkway Residences.
The building will have a mix of 60 one-bedroom units, 13 two-bedrooms, 12 three-bedrooms, 13 three-bedroom duplexes and two four-bedroom duplexes. The site will also include an underground parking garage with 87 spaces. Residents will have access to a roof deck, and select units will feature a balcony.
Parkway Residence will have two separate wings, built in an S-shaped design in order to give space for a 12,000-square-foot publicly owned park at the corner site, covering the underground parking garage.
Amenities include a residential lobby, fitness center, club room and bike room with 100 spaces, all located on the ground floor. The park is set to have ample lighting and seating, and it’ll be closed from the public at night by city ordinance.
Renderings indicate that 2RZ will work its artistry once again, with a white cast stone facade on the lower levels contrasted with darker masonry on the upper levels, giving it a clean and elegant appearance.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicago“Critical mass”: Why Chicago developers are looking south for dealsChicagoCMK buys another South Loop development site for $5.5MChicagoDraper & Kramer puts South Loop apartment towers up for saleThe post Greg Grief, 2RZ pitch 100-unit South Loop housing plan appeared first on The Real Deal.
Waymo’s Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana (Waymo, Getty)Waymo has signed a direct lease for 78,000 square feet at 555 Market Street, making a permanent commitment to San Francisco’s Financial District after signing a sublease for the space with former competitor Uber in 2021.
Waymo would not reveal the length or terms of the lease but said via email that, “we believe that we are well set up with the space that we need to run efficiently.”
The Google-owned self-driving car company said that earlier reports referring to a 48,000-square-foot sublease were incorrect and that the nearly 80,000 square feet it will occupy within the building was already available from the sublease.
Uber took about 60 percent of the downtown Paramount Group-owned 21-floor tower between First and Second streets in a 2015 lease, according to the San Francisco Business Times. That amounted to about 175,000 square feet. Uber put that lease and three others downtown up for sublease in 2019 — a total of 730,000 square feet — before moving into its new 480,000-square-foot Mission Bay headquarters in 2021.
The direct lease comes as autonomous taxi services from Waymo and GM-owned Cruise seek regulatory permission from the California Public Utilities Commission to expand their driverless rides to all hours of the day in San Francisco, not just the evening hours currently permitted.
“We are continuing to grow our Waymo One autonomous ride hail service in SF, where we have riders who are already integrating our fully autonomous ride hailing service into their daily lives, and are pleased to have the appropriate space to support our team,” Waymo said.
Waymo is also in the process of getting approval to charge for its driverless rides, not just provide them for free, as it has been allowed to do since 2021. Competitor Cruise was approved to begin charging for driverless rides in less congested areas of the city between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. last June.
The city has raised concerns about self-driving vehicles, sending a letter recommending “that further restraint and demonstrated improved performance” offered “the best path toward public confidence in driving automation and industry success.” The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently introduced a resolution supporting a state assembly bill that would ban autonomous cars over 10,000 pounds from operating on city streets without a human safety officer in the vehicle.
CBRE represents 555 Market and did not reply to requests for comment. But if the Waymo direct lease is a sign that some of the city’s numerous subleases may turn into a longer-term commitment, it would be a welcome trend for the beleaguered downtown, where one in three office spaces are now vacant. The city’s Financial District has been hit particularly hard, and saw another nearly 500,000 square feet of negative absorption in the first quarter of 2023, according to a recent Colliers report, with the bulk of that in Class A space.
San Francisco has “incubated and attracted” autonomous car companies like Waymo and Cruise, according to Colliers’ data head Derek Daniels, and the direct lease could be the tip of the iceberg for AI companies taking up some of the vast swaths of office space currently available in the city.
“There is going to be an explosion in AI and there are so many applications and specialties,” he said via email.
Read moreSan FranciscoWaymo inks sublease from Uber, expanding Bay Area footprintSan FranciscoOffice vacancy in San Francisco climbs to 30%San FranciscoWaymo grows Mountain View HQ on 170K sf subleaseThe post Waymo signs direct lease for 78K sf in downtown SF appeared first on The Real Deal.
Marisa Alcaraz, Imelda Padilla and Rose Grigoryan (Getty; Illustration by The Real Deal)Imelda Padilla, a 35-year-old community activist who recently won an endorsement from Greater L.A.’s most prominent landlord group, has emerged as the frontrunner in the special election to replace disgraced Los Angeles councilmember Nury Martinez.
Early vote counts indicate Padilla had won about 26 percent of the vote, the most of the seven-candidate field. She was trailed by Marisa Alcaraz, who had 19 percent, and Rose Grigoryan, who had 18 percent.
Because no candidate appears even close to a 50 percent threshold, a runoff between the top two candidates is all but guaranteed, which will be held in June.
Polls closed last night, but the results could still change because of incoming mail-in ballots, especially because turnout has been low. Another vote count update is expected Friday afternoon.
The race is officially nonpartisan but is essentially a race between progressives and moderate Democrats.
Padilla, who founded a nonprofit, has worked on issues that include girls’ education and professional development, environmental justice and raising the minimum wage. Early in her career she also worked under the now-disgraced Martinez at Pacoima Beautiful, a San Fernando Valley environmental group, and has drawn criticism as a “Nury clone,” Annenberg Media previously reported.
She’s also won a wide range of endorsements, including from multiple labor unions, Los Angeles Unified School Board members, the East Area Progressive Democrats, U.S. Rep. Tony Cardenas and L.A. City Council Member Monica Rodriguez.
The list also includes Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, the high-profile landlord group, which called her “the strongest candidate in the race supporting our members’ views.”
Padilla also won an endorsement from the Central City Association of Los Angeles, the Downtown L.A. economic development group.
Martinez resigned in October amid fallout from a recording of her in a conversation with racist remarks.
Los Angeles City Council District 6, which the election’s eventual winner will represent, covers the San Fernando Valley neighborhoods of Arleta, Sun Valley, North Hollywood, Lake Balboa, North Hills, Panorama City and Van Nuys.
Read moreLos AngelesElection 2022: What does it mean for LA real estate?Los AngelesRacist chat leads Martinez to resign as LA Council headLos AngelesLA Mayor Bass taps real estate executive for major positionThe post Candidate endorsed by landlord group leads in LA special election appeared first on The Real Deal.
Nicole Lee, Monique Scott, Timmy Knudsen, Illinois Realtors’ Jeff Baker, Gilbert Villegas and Peter Chico (VoteNicoleLee, AldermanScott, Knudsenfor43, Illinois Realtors, 36thward, Chicofor10, Getty)While Brandon Johnson’s election as Chicago’s next mayor Tuesday night left many in the real estate community reeling after they poured cash and support into the campaign of his opponent Paul Vallas, one industry group won a few consolation prizes.
Illinois Realtors, a nonprofit trade organization, supported seven candidates in aldermanic runoffs, and five won their races on Tuesday night.
The group poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into aldermanic campaigns between the initial round of voting on Feb. 28 and the runoffs this week. This time around, however, it appears the group got more bang for its buck.
Nicole Lee (11th Ward), Monique Scott (24th), Timmy Knudsen (43rd), Gilbert Villegas (36th) and Peter Chico (10th) all won their respective races while Joe Dunne (48th) and Kim Walz (46th) fell short.
In the final week of the race the Realtors group spent more than $63,000 on the seven candidates. Only a few days prior it spent another $10,000 on Villegas and $5,000 on Knudsen. Illinois Realtors did not return a request for comment.
Knudsen, appointed by outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot last year, is the former chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals and faced consultant Brian Comer in the runoff. Lee ran as an incumbent appointed to her seat by outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Villegas and Scott were also incumbents.
Dunne, Chico and Walz were all newcomers vying for seats of retiring aldermen. Chico, a police officer, beat out labor organizer Ana Guajardo.
Dunne, an affordable housing developer, lost to local business owner and political organizer Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth. And Walz, a Walgreens executive, lost to Angela Clay, a community organizer. Ahead of the February election, Illinois Realtors fund spent $65,000 on Walz to get her into the runoff, making her one of the three candidates that received the most money from the organization.
In the February election, the other two that received the most from the fund, and more than $100,000 combined, also lost, with residential broker Andre Peloquin falling in the 48th Ward and Ebony Lucas falling in the 4th Ward.
In all, the group supported 10 incumbent city council members who won decisively in February, most of whom received less than $6,000 from the group, while three — Silvana Tabares (23rd), Samantha Nugent (39th), and Debra Silverstein (50th) — each received between $10,000 and $16,500.
The fund tied to the group is considered an Independent Expenditure Committee by the state election board and controlled by Illinois Realtors CEO Jeff Baker. It spent more than $400,000 on Chicago elections this year, and receives money from the Illinois Realtors Association, the Chicago Realtors Association and the National Realtors Association.
Read moreChicagoJohnson wins Chicago mayoral race in blow to real estateChicagoIllinois Realtors pours another $63K into aldermanic racesChicagoImpact of “mansion tax” magnified as Chicago hits pollsThe post Illinois Realtors-backed candidates win majority of their aldermanic races appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson (Getty)Former Chicago Public Schools teacher and Chicago Teachers Union organizer Brandon Johnson will become Chicago’s next mayor, in a narrow win and a blow to a real estate industry that supported his opponent.
The race was historically close, with the Associated Press calling the race for Johnson with 51.45 percent of the vote in the April 4 runoff with 98.6 percent of precincts reporting. He defeated Paul Vallas, who garnered 48.55 percent, according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.
Johnson, 47, is a Cook County Commissioner who vowed to improve Chicago Public Schools and had the support of the teachers union.
The results will disappoint the city’s real estate industry, which fervently supported Vallas and raised concerns about many of Johnson’s policy proposals, including backing an increase that would more than triple Chicago’s real estate transfer tax on property sales for $1 million or more.
With Johnson’s win, that proposal and others that have worried real estate players are very much alive, as the new mayor’s ability to rally support within the Chicago City Council will determine their fate.
Johnson garnered support from a broad progressive coalition, and won an election that was often viewed as the police union that supported Vallas against the teachers union which supported Johnson.
Johnson, who resides in the Austin neighborhood, had his run bankrolled by labor groups tied to teachers, which contributed at least $5 million to his campaign. Johnson has been a paid CTU organizer since 2011.
Vallas’ campaign funding came mainly from investors as well as some trade unions that kicked cash into the race in its final weeks. Real estate players, such as Sam Zell, Riverside Investment & Development’s John O’Donnell and Chicago Blackhawks owner and investor Rocky Wirtz, contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Vallas campaign.
Johnson’s support for raising transfer taxes on property sales for more than $1 million especially drew criticism from the real estate industry. The proposal, backed by a group called Bring Chicago Home, would bring in an estimated $163 million in additional annual tax revenue that would then be allocated to combatting homelessness, according to the group. Nearly all real estate groups in the city oppose the measure, which has been floated multiple times over several years.
“Do we want that to be what we tell businesses looking at expanding here or coming here? The real estate transfer tax which affects every industry and homeowners, it affects commercial hotels, all businesses we want to come here and grow here and expand here,” Jack Lavin of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, which endorsed Vallas, previously told The Real Deal. “All these taxes are very concerning, especially when our small businesses are also facing all these other challenges.”
Johnson also supports investing in education, jobs, affordable housing and mental health services. He has said if elected he will promote 200 Chicago Police Department detectives to improve the rate of solved violent crime. In a 2020 interview Johnson said “defunding the police” was a political goal, but has since walked that back.
He’s also faced criticism that he would cater to the teachers’ union if elected.
“My responsibility is to the entire city of Chicago,” he told the New York Times last month. “And look, I’m getting new friends every single day. And I have a bunch of old friends that we will have to have hard conversations with.”
Read moreChicagoImpact of “mansion tax” magnified as Chicago hits pollsChicagoMayoral runoff renews real estate railing against mansion taxChicagoIllinois Realtors pours another $63K into aldermanic racesThe post Johnson wins Chicago mayoral race in blow to real estate appeared first on The Real Deal.
Hicks Ventures’ Patrick Hicks with rendering of Framework at Block 10 (Hicks Ventures, Getty)Hicks Ventures is the latest developer to take an environmentally focused approach to new projects.
Patrick Hicks’ Houston-based company expects to break ground later this year on Framework @ Block 10, a six-story, 200,000-square-foot office building at 10496 Old Katy Road in West Houston, which Hicks promises will be one of the most sustainable properties in the city, the Houston Business Journal reported. The firm anticipates the project will be completed in late 2024.
The building will be constructed with mass timber, meaning solid wood panels will serve as the foundation of the structure. Designed by San Francisco-based Gensler, Framework @ Block 10 started with the goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions and net-zero operational energy use.
“Our goal was to create something unlike anything Houston has seen before,” Hicks told the outlet. “We’ve seen how great mass timber can be when used properly, so we thought why not take the building all the way and make it truly sustainable.”
Canadian firm StructureCraft, which has been at the helm of over $5 billion worth of mass-timber developments, will serve as the architect.
Other sustainable elements include indoor air quality and ventilation sensors, underfloor air distribution, a rainwater harvesting cistern and solar panels covering the roof. There will also be an accessible dashboard allowing tenants to monitor the building’s energy consumption in real time, the outlet said.
Not only does Hicks aim to create an environmentally friendly building, but he also believes it will help reverse the work-from-home trend and bring employees back to the office, particularly younger workers who increasingly value green initiatives.
“No building owner can achieve net zero all on their own,” Hicks said. “But you can do it when tenants are on board with you.”
Hicks believes sustainable developments are the future of construction, and several Texas developers are investing in it.
Crow Holdings recently embarked on a seven-story, 242,000-square-foot office project in Frisco, also built with timber. Houston-based Hines recently launched a new unit to ensure environmental factors are considered, and it has a net-zero carbon emissions goal as well.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasCrow Holdings starts timber office buildingTexasHines launches ESG-centered unitAustinHines heads to Austin with heavy timberThe post Hicks Ventures plans timber office building appeared first on The Real Deal.
Michael Reschke’s Prime Group paid about $23 million to settle a dispute with the lender over the LaSalle Street office block the Chicago developer is converting to residential use.
Lender Midland National Life Insurance had sought to foreclose on the five-story block of offices above the JW Marriott Hotel at 208 South LaSalle Street, claiming Reschke still owed a balance of more than $49 million including fees on the $47.5 million mortgage on the property.
“Obviously we consented to it and wrote a check,” Reschke said of the settlement amount. “Am I happy? No, I’m not happy, but it was a mutually agreed settlement, yes.”
Midland did not respond to a request for comment.
The property was sold through a bidding process that drew multiple interested buyers. A court-appointed receiver, Millennium Properties’ Daniel Hyman, handled the sales process.
The sale ends a two-year negotiation period between Reschke and the lender and clears the path for the developer to proceed with converting the property to residential use.
The $130 million plan, which calls for turning the 222,000-square-foot office space into 280 apartments, with 84 units designated as affordable, was selected by the city as one of three redevelopment proposals to receive tax increment financing assistance, as was another project Prime Group is involved with at 11 West Monroe Street.
Read moreChicagoMike Reschke fends off another lender, keeps Loop officesChicagoMiracle on the Loop: Inside Reschke's dramatic Google playChicagoCity gives nods to Reschke, Primo, AmTrust projects for Loop conversionsReschke has been bullish on the Loop. In July he told The Real Deal that he believes downtown property values are at a record-low point in the city’s history.
The resolution is the latest example of Reschke’s penchant for navigating risk and has maintained his properties through challenging financial and legal situations. The veteran developer blew up his own $70 million purchase of the Thompson Center last year so Google could instead buy it and pay for him to redevelop it.
The post Mike Reschke paid $23M for Loop offices following suit appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty)Houston’s office market hit a snag in deal volumes during the first quarter of 2023, according to a report by real estate research firm Savills.
Leasing fell by nearly 29 percent compared to the previous quarter but was slightly up, 7.5 percent, over the first quarter of 2022. Despite the drop in deal volumes, the Houston office market experienced declining availability for the second consecutive quarter with availability falling 50 basis points year-over-year due to a decline in sublease options across the market. Sublease stock remained higher than historical averages at 7.6 million square feet, but it was noticeably lower than the 8.1 million square feet measured at the end of 2022.
However, there were some notable transactions during the period, including an expansion for Baylor College of Medicine as the city continues to make big moves in the life sciences sector. The medical school committed to 114,000 square feet of office and lab space at the Dynamic One building in TMC Helix Park. Other top deals in the first quarter include engineering contractor MODEC International and oil giant Maverick Natural Resources nabbing more than 200,000 square feet of combined office space.
Despite the decline in deal volumes and availability, Houston’s return-to-office trends fared better than other major markets. Weekly office occupancy regularly exceeded 60 percent in the first quarter, above the 49 percent average of other metros, according to data compiled by Kastle Systems. While still below pre-pandemic levels, Houston’s return-to-office rate is second only to Austin among the top metro areas.
Several Houston tenants recalibrated their newly acquired space in the fourth quarter, which may have contributed to the decline in leasing activity during the first quarter. However, the expansion of Baylor College of Medicine and other notable deals suggest that the Houston office market remains attractive to tenants. The decline in sublease options and steady Class A availability may also indicate a stabilizing market.
Office occupancy rates are expected to remain high as many companies decide to bring their workforce back to the office despite a trend of remote work and hybrid models. However, the looming threat of rising interest rates has caused distress among Houston office property owners, with the study suggesting loan defaults could become more prevalent as the year continues. A landmark Galleria office, San Felipe Plaza, sold for $136 million below its appraised value in March, and nearly half of its 2005 sale, due to the city’s complicated office market including rising interest rates and high vacancy.
Read moreHoustonUptown Houston office tower sells for $83MHoustonHouston office subleases at 25% to 75% discountHoustonEx-NFL star’s short-term rental goals tabledThe post Houston office market leasing down 29% appeared first on The Real Deal.
131, 129, and 125 Northwest South River Drive in Miami with KAR Properties’ Shahab Karmely (KAR Properties, Google Maps)Developer Shahab Karmely sold an assemblage along the Miami River to a Mexican investment group for $15.5 million in an all-cash sale.
Records show the Karmely led-Tasal LLC sold 131, 129, and 125 Northwest South River Drive to Rosa Negra Properties, a Florida company named after the Mexican restaurant group Grupo RosaNegra. The Florida entity is managed by Ricardo Vega Serrador, Jose Antonio De Anda Turati, Luis Alberto Martinez and Daniel Madariaga Barrilado.
De Anda Turati, of Grupo RosaNegra, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Grupo RosaNegra owns Taboo, Tantra, Caprice, RosaNegra and other restaurant concepts in Mexico.
The buyer is expected to open a restaurant at the property, which is on the south side of the river. Karmely and his then-partner Alex von Furstenberg paid $5.4 million for the assemblage in 2016. The nearly half-acre site, once owned by Mary Brickell, has 200 feet of river frontage and boat slips. It includes three buildings totaling more than 6,000 square feet.
Karmely said he bought out von Furstenberg a few months after buying the assemblage and spent years getting the property rezoned to allow for restaurant use. Von Furstenberg is the son of fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg.
The buyer approached Karmely through attorneys to purchase the assemblage in an off-market deal, the developer said. He called the sale “proof of the importance of the Miami River.”
Nearby, Karmely, of KAR Properties, plans the One River Point luxury condo project on the north bank of the river, at 24 Southwest Fourth Street, along with its partner, Fortune International Group. Fortune joined the development late last year, and the joint venture later secured a $38 million line of credit from Bank OZK for the nearly 400-unit project, designed by the late architect Rafael Viñoly. Viñoly died last month.
Development has been ramping up along the river, where a handful of restaurants have seen business boom, including Kiki on the River, and Seaspice.
Also on the river, the Related Group secured a $164 million construction loan for its planned 44-story, 506-unit rental building at 77 Southeast Fifth Street, on part of the site of its planned Baccarat Residences development. The future of that project is in question after archaeologists discovered thousands of tools, artifacts, and human and animal remains dating back 7,000 years.
In December, the Chetrit Group revived plans for its $1 billion megaproject along the river, and tapped hospitality mogul David Grutman to run the food and beverage operations.
The post Shahab Karmely sells Miami River property to Mexican group appeared first on The Real Deal.
Ballast Investments CEO Greg MacDonald and (clockwise from top left) 1985 Fulton Street, 275 Grattan Street, 750 14th Street, 104 Guerrero Street (Ballast Investments, Todd Quam for Digital Sky)One of San Francisco’s biggest apartment owner-operators has put a 10-building multifamily portfolio on the market for just over $75 million.
The buildings range in size and location but were all purchased by entities connected to Ballast Investments between 2017 and 2019 for a total of $72.5 million, according to public records.
The San Francisco-based investor specializes in repositioning properties and manages more than $2 billion in assets, with multifamily buildings across the Western U.S., according to its website. It upgraded amenities and finishes in all of the portfolio buildings before bringing them back to the market, according to listing notes for the properties, which are also available individually.
Listing agent Dustin Dolby of Colliers would not confirm the seller but said his client specifically included buildings in the portfolio with the turnkey units, high occupancy rates and popular neighborhoods that buyers are looking for in today’s market, where cash flow and consistency reign supreme.
“The seller has stabilized these assets and buyers are gravitating towards these more finished products,” he said.
Dolby said the multifamily market slowed as interest rates went up last year, but there has been more enthusiasm and liquidity as the Federal Reserve appears to slow rate hikes this year.
“Deals are getting done,” he said. “It’s just a little bit harder than it used to be.”
While he is “reassessing daily,” Dolby said he has been pleasantly surprised by the interest thus far in both the entire portfolio and the individual properties, which range from a 22-unit building just off Chestnut Street in the Marina asking $13.7 million to a 12-unit in Duboce Triangle asking $5.6 million.
Downtown properties are noticeably absent from the portfolio’s offerings, as that market has had the hardest time recovering from the pandemic push towards remote work. But in the popular neighborhoods where these buildings are located, which also include Cole Valley, Cow Hollow and NoPa, rents are back to 2019 numbers, Dolby said.
By far the highest price per unit is the $5.65 million ask on a six-unit building next to Lafayette Park in Pacific Heights. Five of the units have three bedrooms and the remaining unit has two. The hardwood floors have been refinished and some units have fireplaces in their living rooms. Built in 1950, it is also newer than the other buildings in the portfolio, which are mostly from the 1920s and 30s.
The ask of more than $930,000 per unit “is crazy and the income of the building supports it,” Dolby said. A recent listing for the renovated top-floor two-bedroom in the building was asking nearly $6,800 a month, compared to $4,000 for the average two-bedroom in the city.
Dolby said he has been approached by both mom-and-pop owners “looking to peel off” individual properties and “opportunistic syndicators” from outside the area who want to “plant their flag” in the city by buying the entire portfolio. He said his client is “flexible” about which path to go down, as long as it generates the highest price overall.
“We’re playing a little bit of a matchmaker right now depending on who has the highest offer,” he said. “We don’t like to back ourselves into a corner” by insisting on the purchase of the entire portfolio, he added.
Dolby doesn’t think his client would put more buildings on the market anytime soon. The portfolio sale represents a chance to cash in on investments during a window of time when the market appears exceptionally interested in what the portfolio offers, he said, namely renovated units filled with largely market-rate tenants.
“It’s kind of the perfect time for them,” he said. “Lenders want to lend on it, buyers want to buy it and renters want to rent it.”
Read moreSan FranciscoBallast and Carlyle pay $15.6M for Russian Hill multifamilySan FranciscoWinners, losers in San Francisco’s rental recoverySan FranciscoSF apartment market to see slow start in transitional 2023The post Ballast Investments lists $75M multifamily portfolio in SF appeared first on The Real Deal.
Hain Celestial’s Wendy Davidson; 1111 Marcus Avenue, Lake Success (Loopnet, Linkedin, Getty)Organic products company Hain Celestial is leaving its Nassau County headquarters, forsaking a lucrative tax break as it reassess its need for office space.
The company’s last day at 1111 Marcus Avenue in Lake Success was Friday, Newsday reported. Hain occupied 86,000 square feet at the Class B office building, located off the Northern State Parkway.
“With the shift to remote work over the past three years, our current space was too large and we decided to explore a HQ space that is right-sized for our needs,” the company told Newsday in a statement.
It’s a big loss for landlord Waterstone Properties Group, which owns the space that Hain has occupied for the past decade. Other tenants at the complex, a commercial condominium with different owners, include Northwell Health and LA Fitness.
One of the largest publicly traded companies based on Long Island, Hain has brands including Terra Chips and Celestial Seasonings herbal teas.
The company has received more than $2 million in tax breaks from the county since 2012 as part of a deal that required it to remain in the building until 2029.
It’s possible Hain will have to pay back the benefits, although Richard Kessel, chairman of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, suggested to Newsday that a deal could be worked out to keep the company in the county.
It’s not clear how many employees worked out of the Lake Success office, but the figure was likely dwindling. Hain had 302 staffers there at the end of 2019, according to the Authorities Budget Office, a state regulator. Two years later, that number had dropped to 239.
Hain’s share price has plummeted nearly 50 percent in the past year amid declining revenue and profit. The company spent a year trying to sublease the space before packing up and leaving, according to a leasing agent who represents Waterstone.
Office downsizings have become frequent in the wake of the pandemic, as workers do not feel inclined to come in every day and tenants are reluctant to pay for space that is underutilized.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreTri-StateFinding Nimmo a home: Mets star buys in Old WestburyNationalMarch Madness arrives early for real estate Tri-StateSellers relent: Long Island home price cuts at 3-year highThe post Organic products company ditches Nassau County HQ in downsizing appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Commercial properties in the Dallas-Fort Worth region on lender watch lists have shot up by 33 percent since the start of the year, mostly stemming from the multifamily sector.
A study by Steve Triolet of Partners Real Estate’s Dallas branch revealed that 113 of 450 commercial properties appeared on the commercial mortgage backed securities loan watchlist, meaning they have an upcoming maturity date, a major tenant moving out or another situation that calls for heightened attention, the Dallas Business Journal reported.
Retail came in second on the list with 98 flagged properties, followed by 69 for hospitality, 60 for industrial and 55 for office. As debt rates continue to climb and the banking industry is in flux, those figures are expected to climb.
“The uncertainty of the banks is making any refinancing of debt more problematic,” Triolet told the outlet. “So when you already have these properties that are subpar — particularly when I’m talking about Class C multifamily – it makes the owners and the banks nervous. The lender wants more money. They want the owners to put more cash into the property.”
While there are some causes for concern, the watchlist doesn’t necessarily mean these properties are on the brink of foreclosure or delinquency. It simply means they’re undergoing a change or a significant event is coming up.
Triolet added that 57 of the 113 multifamily properties are labeled as Class C — older buildings with higher vacancy rates, fewer amenities and less cash flow than its Class A and B counterparts.
Some local developers have a knack for turning these Class C buildings into flashy, sought-after real estate. Dallas-based Steve Wood has plans to redevelop the Havenhurst Apartments into an upscale residential complex with 296 units.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasWood sees upgrade key to ground-up multifamily project in Dallas ‘burbsDallasQuarterra brings multifamily to the Canyon in Oak CliffTexasMultifamily player Tides Equities faces $6.5B dilemma in the Sun BeltThe post DFW properties on CMBS watchlist spikes appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Citizens Bank’s Bruce Van Saun (Getty)Another major mortgage lender is cutting staff.
Citizens Bank laid off about 20 mortgage brokers in the firm’s home mortgage division in New York City last Thursday, a source told The Real Deal.
The bank confirmed that layoffs occurred, but didn’t specify how many employees were let go or if the cuts went beyond New York, although that seems likely, as Citizens has locations in 14 states and Washington, D.C.
“We continuously assess staffing levels across the company to ensure they match appropriately with customer demand,” a Citizens Bank spokesperson said in a statement to TRD. “As part of that process, we have made some necessary but difficult decisions related to our home mortgage organization.”
Citizens Bank is one of the largest real estate lenders in New York. The bank doled out $1.11 billion across 1,768 property loans between July 2021 and July 2022, the ninth-largest amount in the city during that period, according to a TRD analysis.
The bank focused on the residential space, where it handed out roughly $1.06 billion across 1,690 loans during that 12-month period.
Citizens Bank’s layoffs come in the wake of numerous residential brokerages, mortgage firms and proptech companies reducing headcount in response to declining demand for home loans.
As mortgage rates rose at the end of last year to almost double their levels of the previous winter, homebuyers retrenched and mortgage activity cratered.
Read moreNationalDigital mortgage firm Blend cuts 30% of staffNew YorkHome Partners of America cuts workforceNationalMortgage lender’s cost-cutting couldn’t outrun activity dropRocket Companies, the parent company of Rocket Mortgages, and United Wholesale Mortgage cut 9,500 roles combined last year. Rocket’s reduction of 7,500 employees accounted for 29 percent of its workforce, while United’s layoffs accounted for 25 percent.
New York Community Bank, a major lender to multifamily building owners, cut 10 percent of its staff in January and planned to close almost 70 percent of its home lending offices.
Citizens Bank’s stock, which closed Tuesday down 3.4 percent at $29.17 per share, is down more than 23 percent year-to-date and more than 30 percent over the past 12 months.
The post Layoffs deplete Citizens Bank’s home mortgage division appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Arion Crenshaw, Wade Giles, Jessica Philpot and Colton Reid (Douglas Elliman)Wade Giles and his brokerage team in Austin are joining one of the largest firms in the country.
Giles and his team of Arion Crenshaw, Jessica Philpot and Colton Reid will join national firm Douglas Elliman, the company told The Real Deal. The Giles Group has been ranked as a top-10 producing brokerage in the small team category for the past three years, according to the Austin Business Journal rankings.
The team did over $75 million in residential sales across 58 transactions in 2022, as a part of local brokerage Moreland Properties. Among notable past homes sold is a six bed, ten bath, 11,000 square foot mansion at 4404 Mirador Drive that was listed at $5 million when it was sold in 2019, according to Zillow. Giles has a career sales total of over $325 million, and more than 50 percent of his listings sold over asking price in the past two years, according to a media release. He was the top buyer’s agent in the 78704 zip code in 2021, the release stated. The average home cost in 78704 is nearly $900,000, Austin home data shows.
The move comes amid a national wave of mergers and acquisitions in residential real estate, as small firms and teams are being absorbed into larger ones.New York-based Douglas Elliman, which ranked second on The Real Deal’s 2022 and 2021 list of Manhattan’s top residential brokerages, expanded into Texas with the opening of a Houston office in 2019. Offices in Dallas and Austin followed in 2021, as did a Texas farm and ranch division. The company went public late last year, splitting from parent holding company Vector Group in December 2021.
Elliman posted slight losses last year with $1.15 billion in revenues in 2022 compared to $1.35 billion in 2021.The firm has been expanding its presence across Texas major metros with a focus on recruiting local talent. The firm lured Stephanie Nick-Hurd, one of Kuper Sotheby’s top Austin agents, to join Elliman last year. She has earned more than $600 million in residential sales across two decades in Austin, according to Douglas Elliman.
Home sales and new home construction in Texas tumbled last year as interest rates dampened activity across the state’s housing markets, according to data from the Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center. Texas home sales fell by more than 10 percent last year compared to 2021. Even though construction slowed from its pandemic high, overall housing supply returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Read moreDallasThe Agency recruits Compass group for Dallas boutiqueTexasTop Kuper-Sotheby’s agent jumps to Douglas EllimanNew YorkDouglas Elliman expands into tight Texas housing marketThe post Wade Giles joins Elliman in Austin appeared first on The Real Deal.
RxBar’s Jared Smith with 2219 North Dayton Street (DePaul University, Google Maps, Getty)Jared Smith, cofounder of the protein bar brand RxBar, and his wife Gabrielle have listed their Lincoln Park mansion for $6.5 million.
Coldwell Banker Realty agents Victoria Rezin and Dawn McKenna are marketing the six-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot property at 2219 North Dayton Street, the Chicago Tribune reported. The Smiths bought the house for $4.29 million in 2018 from its builder, PLD Homes, and have since added several upgrades.
Smith, a DePaul University graduate, cofounded the protein bar company in 2012 with Peter Rahal in the basement of Rahal’s parents’ house. They sold the company for $600 million in 2017 to Kellogg.
The house is situated on an extra-wide, 32-foot lot and features three fireplaces, an elevator, rich hardwood floors, designer lighting, a dining room with intricate ceiling detail and a chandelier, a walk-in pantry, and a kitchen decked out with stone counters, an island with a farm sink and a double range.
Other lavish finishes include a private office with a small bar, treetop balcony, recreation room, full-size bar and floor-to-ceiling glass doors that access a terrace. There’s also an expansive deck area built over a three-car garage.
It’s unclear if the Smiths’ property will sell at or near its listing price. Other high-end single-family homes in the Chicago-area market have required substantial shaving of their listing prices before trading. Chicago’s priciest listing, a $30 million mansion in Lincoln Park on Burling Street, shaved $15 million off its ask from $45 million earlier this year.
But it’s especially been megamansions spread across well more than 10,000 square feet that have sat on the market and taken price cuts to sell, especially in the suburbs. Buyers have shown some willingness to shell out more than $5 million for recently renovated Lincoln Park homes that are big but not so large that they’re a headache to maintain.
The property marks another high-end Lincoln Park listing for the Dawn McKenna Group, which consistently handles the priciest sales in the western suburbs of DuPage County and has a foothold in the city, as well.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoLincoln Park mansion listed for $12.5M scores buyer fastChicagoThree-lot Lincoln Park mansion seeks more than $12MChicagoTriple-lot Lincoln Park mansion hits market at $10.8M The post RxBar cofounder Jared Smith lists mansion for $6.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
469 Henry Street and 300 Prospect Place (Google Maps)A townhouse in Cobble Hill nabbed the priciest deal signed in Brooklyn last week. And it wasn’t close.
The home, at 469 Henry Street, was asking $11 million, easily the most expensive of the 20 in Brooklyn asking $2 million or more for which contracts were signed between March 27 and April 2, according to Compass.
The fully renovated townhouse, built in 1915, spans 5,100 square feet and has six bedrooms and four bathrooms. The 22-foot-wide, four-story home also includes 2,000 square feet of outdoor space and three wood-burning fireplaces.
Brown Harris Stevens’ Joan Goldberg had the listing.
Home prices in Cobble Hill soared during the pandemic with some townhouses scoring top-dollar deals, though contracts in the neighborhood rarely reach eight figures.
Earlier this month, an unknown buyer purchased a townhouse at 128 Pacific Street for $12 million in an off-market deal. The former owners — Athena Calderone, the founder of lifestyle brand EyeSwoon, and her husband, music producer and deejay Victor Calderone — fully renovated the historic home, built in 1900, and sold it for $8 million more than their purchase price.
The second most expensive Brooklyn home to go into contract last week was 300 Prospect Place in Prospect Heights, with an asking price of $5.3 million. The 4,000-square-foot townhouse, built in 1910, has four bedrooms and three bathrooms across four floors.
It also features a garden, outdoor terrace, balcony and chef’s kitchen. Brown Harris Stevens’ Jennifer Cooke had the listing.
Of the luxury contracts signed last week, 11 were for condos and 9 were for townhouses. The average asking price was $3.4 million and the average price per square foot was $1,671. The average time on the market was 153 days with no discount from the original listing.
Read moreNew YorkMystery buyer pays $12M for Cobble Hill townhouseNew YorkOlympia Dumbo condo tops Brooklyn’s luxury contractsNew YorkPark Slope townhouse, condo top luxury contracts in BrooklynThe post Cobble Hill townhouse asking $11M tops Brooklyn contracts appeared first on The Real Deal.
Costco CEO W. Craig Jelinek and the Northeast corner of West University Drive and FM 1385 where the new Costco will be developed (Google Maps, Costco)Costco set its sights on Prosper as one of the next Dallas suburbs to hit a growth spurt.
The retailer expected to begin construction in March on a 160,000-square-foot store, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing. The $17 million project could be complete in October and is located off the northeast corner of West University Drive and FM 1385.
The store will be part of DuWest Realty’s development, Westside, which is under construction. The Prosper Town Council approved the 64-acre mixed-use project in February. It includes 14,000 square feet of retail space, 250 multifamily units and a Marriott hotel, according to the developer’s website.
Costco also has a location coming to Celina, a town just north of Prosper. That 160,000-square-foot store will be at the corner of Ownsby Parkway and Preston Road. Costco currently has 13-total locations across the metroplex.
Prosper and Celina have more than tripled their populations in the past decade, and that trajectory is expected to continue as the metroplex growth climbs farther north.
Development firms like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ Blue Star Land are putting down roots in Prosper. The firm owns the Gates of Prosper retail center and is currently developing a high-end residential community along U.S. Highway 380 where the Dallas North Tollway is planning to expand past Frisco.
Texas grocer H-E-B also purchased land in Prosper last year and has already expanded into Plano, Frisco and McKinney.
DFW’s retail market outperformed the nation in 2022 and is expected to continue that trend in 2023 and ’24, according to a CBRE retail report. The region’s population growth outpaced development and led to an undersupply of retail spaces, the report stated. The demand for retail development will stay strong in DFW over the next two years, and the region’s retail construction rate will be significantly higher than the U.S. average, CBRE predicts.
Read moreLos AngelesThrive Living to put Costco topped by 800 apartments in Baldwin HillsDallasDallas commercial market still reigns supremeDallasDallas metro is top target for people moving to TexasThe post Costco expands into Prosper appeared first on The Real Deal.
Councilwoman Carroll Fife and a rendering of the Howard Terminal Ballpark in Oakland (Getty, MLB)It’s the bottom of the ninth inning for the Oakland A’s $12 billion Howard Terminal ballpark and redevelopment project.
The MLB team must land another home before its Coliseum lease ends in December, with no deal pending over the proposed 35,000-seat ballpark in West Oakland, the East Bay Times reported.
The team scored a legal victory last week when it beat back an appeal of an environmental review filed by a coalition of port workers, truckers and cargo terminal operators who say waterfront ballpark development would disrupt port operations.
Oakland, the A’s and the Port Commission insist the port and ballpark can exist side-by-side.
Despite the win, there’s still a long way to go before Howard Terminal could save the last major professional sports franchise in Oakland. The team blew a self-imposed deadline last November to reach a deal with the city.
And no one has set a timeline for the team and city to strike a potential deal, according to the East Bay Times.
The Oakland Athletics, owned by billionaire John Fisher, proposed the 56-acre stadium project at Howard Terminal just west of Jack London Square, across from Alameda.
In addition to a $1 billion stadium, an $11 billion development would include 3,000 homes, up to 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, up to 270,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a 3,500-seat performance center, 400 hotel rooms and up to 18 acres of public open space.
Mayor Sheng Thao, sworn into office in January, said with the legal victory the city was “one step closer to reaching our goals.”
She said the city and the A’s were back to the negotiating table despite ongoing talks with Las Vegas about a potential move to Sin City. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wants the team and Oakland to reach an agreement by the end of the year.
The largest sticking points are the cost of infrastructure, the amount of affordable housing and the team’s relocation agreement. While the city already has secured $321.5 million in funding for the infrastructure improvements, the cost may reach $600 million.
In January, Oakland struck out in obtaining a $182.9 million federal grant to help pay for off-site infrastructure. At the same time, the A’s lost an appeal to block Schnitzer Steel from dumping excess product into landfills next to the proposed stadium.
“It really highlighted the absurdity of trying to build housing and a ballpark on a working port,” Nola Agha, a professor at the University of San Francisco who researches financing for sports stadiums, told the newspaper.
Last month, the A’s hired lobbyists to lean on the Nevada legislature to secure public financing for a Las Vegas stadium. A’s President Dave Kaval even registered with the state as a lobbyist to help campaign himself, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.
“If the Nevada legislature somehow comes through with the money, every team owner has always shown that they’re going to go where they can get the most profit,” Agha said.
A’s fans often accuse the Oakland City Council of not doing enough to retain the team.
The city, without certainty of reaching a deal, has directed hundreds of millions of grant dollars toward infrastructure projects to allow people to reach the waterfront ballpark via public transit.
But despite a looming deadline for the $12 billion Howard Terminal project, the issue has hardly come up at recent council meetings.
Read moreSan FranciscoOakland A’s win appeal of EIR for Howard Terminal developmentSan FranciscoMLB points to Las Vegas as future home of Oakland A’sSan FranciscoOakland fails to win $183M grant for A’s ballpark projectCouncilwoman Carroll Fife, whose district would contain the new ballpark, said her focus remains on public safety, housing and the health of local businesses. She said she plans to meet with staff next week for an update on ballpark negotiations.
“I haven’t seen a proposal that was serious from the A’s organization, one that would lead to me spending a lot of time thinking about what they’re going to do” in Nevada, Fife told the East Bay Times.
“The ball is in their court,” she said. “When they’re ready to step up to the plate and provide a proposal in Oakland, then I’ll spend time on it.”
— Dana Bartholomew
The post Clock ticking on Oakland A’s $12B stadium project at Howard Terminal appeared first on The Real Deal.
Pierer Mobility’s Stefan Pierer and 38429 Innovation Court in Murrieta (Getty, Pierer Mobility, KTM North America)The Austrian maker of KTM performance motorcycles has opened a $53 million headquarters in Murrieta, in the Inland Empire.
Pierer Mobility AG opened the 20-acre campus for KTM North America and Pierer New Mobility NA at 38429 Innovation Court, south of French Valley Airport, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported.
“Building our new North American headquarters in Murrieta was the biggest single investment we’ve ever made yet,” Stefan Pierer, CEO of Pierer Mobility, said on opening day. “We set a new standard for the whole U.S. market.”
His company makes KTM, Husqvarna Motorcycles, GASGAS and MV Agusta brands in addition to bicycle brands Husqvarna E-Bicycles, GASGAS Bicycles and FELT Bicycles.
The campus, about six miles north of Temecula, includes three high-tech buildings with 130,000 square feet for technical development, administrative offices, media relations, dealer training, warehouse and racing departments. A dozen acres have been set aside for future development.
The campus has nearly 300 parking spaces, 18 EV chargers, a 902-kilowatt PV solar system and 20,000 square feet of race team semi-truck parking, according to contractor Dempsey Construction, based in Carlsbad.
The U.S. KTM hub sells 100,000 motorcycles and bikes a year with more than $1 billion in annual sales. The firm has 200 employees in Murrieta and 360 in the U.S., Canada and Mexico overall.
“The most important success factor for us is racing,” Pierer said. “That is the driving force that pushed us over the years, even in the U.S. market.”
Read moreLos AngelesWhistleblower suit based on AI accuses landlord of cheating SoCal citiesLos AngelesFlag is up on auction of Hollywood Hills mansionLos AngelesRanch once owned by John Wayne in the IE asks $12MCalling North America the company’s “most important market,” the company went all in for a new headquarters, announcing the project in August 2021. It broke ground that November and built the facility in 15 months during the pandemic.
A private motorsports facility called RD Field is a block south of the corporate campus and includes two supercross test tracks, a hard enduro test track and a trials competition section for product testing and athlete training.
— Dana Bartholomew
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Clockwise from left: Fifteen Group’s Mark and Ian Sanders, 215 West 6th Street and Laguna Point Properties’ Greg Campbell (Fifteen Group, Google Maps, Laguna Point)Laguna Point Properties has offloaded a portfolio of troubled apartment towers in Downtown L.A. that it bought less than a year ago from Barry Shy, The Real Deal has learned.
The firm sold four buildings to an entity linked to Fifteen Group, an investment and development firm based in Miami, according to March 31 tenant notices obtained by TRD and LLC filings with the California Secretary of State.
It’s unclear how much the buyer paid for the portfolio, located at 548, 600 and 650 South Spring Street and 215 West 6th Street.
Laguna Point Properties declined to comment, while Fifteen Group did not respond to a request for comment.
The deal closed on March 31, the notices show, a day before the city of L.A.’s new transfer tax went into effect, adding a 5.5 percent tax on all residential and commercial sales of more than $10 million.
Fifteen Group formed limited liability companies — 215 W 6 Owner, 650 S Spring Owner, 549 S Spring Owner and 600 S Spring Owner — on March 23, suggesting the deal came together quickly.
Laguna Point paid $405 million for the five-building portfolio last year — a purchase that has since become a legal and financial headache for the firm.
Last month, Laguna Point Properties became delinquent on the $329 million loan it used to purchase the portfolio.
In a lawsuit against the former owners, Laguna Point has disclosed it has faced a number of issues and defects at the portfolio’s units, which allegedly have caused additional expenses. Barry Shy, a prominent L.A. developer and multifamily landlord, signed the purchase and sale agreement to sell what the lawsuit calls the “Main Premises” to Laguna Point as a manager of one of the LLCs named as a defendant in the suit, Main SB.
While Laguna Point’s first complaint over the portfolio did not specifically name Shy, or any other individual, as a defendant, it later added him as a defendant.
The firm also has struggled to fill empty units — occupancy across the portfolio dropped to 87 percent in February from 97 percent when it scored the loan, according to DBRS Morningstar.
Laguna Point also faces threats of litigation from tenants, the firm said in its suit claiming the former owners breached their sale contract.
Read moreThe post Fifteen Group buys troubled DTLA apartment portfolio appeared first on The Real Deal.
Brandon Johnson with rendering of One Central (Getty, One Central)With the mayoral race between Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson in its final hours, the latter’s support of Bob Dunn’s One Central development is drawing more attention.
Johnson, who isn’t exactly the biggest ally of big developers, said Dunn’s transit-oriented plan, which calls for 9,000 residential units and 11 million square feet of office and retail space, is “a pretty promising idea,” Crain’s reported.
Dunn’s company Landmark Development has been seeking political support in order to receive a $6.5 billion state subsidy for the $20 billion project. One Central would be built on the Metra tracks across from Soldier Field, and Johnson agrees with Dunn that it would create many jobs in the Near South Side neighborhood while helping to “connect people to those jobs,” he told the outlet.
Vallas likewise has discussed the project with Dunn, saying he’s open to the idea and doesn’t want to dismiss it.
A Landmark spokesperson said Dunn and his company “look forward to working with the incoming administration to spur this new infrastructure and economic development for Chicago.”
Otherwise, the candidates have taken vastly different stances on real estate-related issues. Johnson has been an avid proponent of expanding affordable housing, and taxing the top of the residential market, and a big chunk of the commercial market, to do it.
He’s backed a proposal to more than triple real estate transfer taxes on all sales of more than $1 million. The proposed plan would increase the transfer rate from 0.75 percent to 2.65 percent on homes selling for $1 million or more, with the funds going directly towards affordable-housing initiatives.
Meanwhile, Vallas’ policies are more aligned with prominent developers and the business community. In recent weeks, the Vallas campaign has received checks from people tied to Chicago’s biggest commercial real estate players, including Sterling Bay, Riverside Investment & Development, Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz and the Prime Group.
Polls close in the mayoral runoff at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoReal estate reacts to Chicago’s mayoral runoffChicagoVallas rakes in real estate bucks ahead of runoffChicagoBrandon Johnson proposes ‘mansion tax’The post Johnson backs Dunn’s $20B One Central development appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Manhattan’s office market began the year by rebounding from a dreadful fourth quarter of 2022, but that was about where the good news ended.
Tenants took 7.4 million square feet of office space in the first quarter, a 49 percent increase from the fourth quarter, according to a Colliers report released Monday, but still about 270,000 square feet short of last year’s first quarter. Net absorption was negative 1.2 million square feet and average asking rents declined in all three submarkets tracked by the report.
What’s more, the uptick in leasing was largely driven by just five large deals that accounted for nearly a third of leasing volume. Those transactions primarily occurred in January, before deal volume slowed in February and March, and mostly involved tenants renewing or extending existing leases.
Midtown was the only market to see leasing volume increase year-over-year, but nearly half of that volume came from just a few deals recorded in January: Fox and News Corporation’s combined 1.1 million-square-foot renewal at 1211 Sixth Avenue, and two leases signed by Ken Griffin’s Citadel at 350 Park Avenue and 40 East 52nd Street.
Overall, Manhattan’s office leasing volume was more than 6 percent below the borough’s five-year rolling average of 7.9 million square feet and 11 percent below its ten-year rolling average of 8.3 million square feet.
The average asking rent declined by 1.3 percent to $74.42 a foot. Quarterly declines were consistent across Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown, as well as Class A, B and C buildings. Midtown’s average asking rent dropped to $78.35, its lowest since June 2015, although Midtown South, specifically, did see its average increase year-over-year, from $79.95 per square foot in the first quarter of 2022 to $80.33 now.
Manhattan’s availability rate increased for a second straight quarter, climbing 0.2 percentage points to 17.1 percent. Midtown South reached a record high of 17.2 percent.
Read moreNew YorkJeff Gural staves off foreclosure at DuMont BuildingNew YorkChetrit Org sells 850 Third Ave to former lenderNationalDistress is coming for Class A officesFIRE and TAMI tenants accounted for more than 70 percent of office leases signed in Manhattan last quarter. While that trend was consistent in Midtown and Midtown South, tenants in professional services and the public sector made up close to 60 percent of Downtown office leases.
Investors remained mostly on the sidelines too. Only five deals for office properties were recorded in the quarter, totaling $980 million — an 85 percent year-over-year decline. Among the deals that did occur were Brookfield buying out Blackstone’s minority stake in One Liberty Plaza at a $1 billion valuation and Pearlmark’s forced sale of Tower 56 at 126 East 56th Street for $110 million.
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RAMA co-founder Amir Taghdisi and a rendering of The Beverly (HAR, The Beverly Houston)A team of seasoned real estate developers are joining forces to create one of Houston’s most luxurious condominium buildings.
Houston-based G.T. Leach and RAMA Companies expect to start construction this summer on the Beverly — a seven-story, six-unit condo at 5010 Longmont Drive in the upscale Tanglewood neighborhood. Prices are expected to start at about $4 million, and the developers are targeting a December 2024 completion date, RAMA co-founder Amir Taghdisi said.
Each unit will take up a whole floor, rising above a ground-level parking garage and lobby. The homes will span about 4,400 square feet with four bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, a secured foyer and a spacious kitchen and living area. Plus, each unit will have a 370-square-foot covered terrace, with the second floor featuring an additional 2,000-square-foot terrace that wraps around the building.
Taghdisi, who founded the company with his brother Alan in 2003, believes the Beverly will carve a niche in Houston’s luxury market.
“There’s always very qualified audiences of people here who are looking to buy a home and are always dissatisfied with the inventory, product and availability that’s out there on the market,” Taghdisi said.
In high-end condos with 40 or 50 units, floorplans are often too small for the price, and there’s not enough privacy, he said.
“It was interesting to build a building where you don’t have middle-of-the-road floor plans, introductory floor plans, or somewhere in between because it kind of gets to a point where it’s like, you’ve got a 2,500-foot unit, which isn’t on the bigger end of things, but it’s also $2.5 million,” Taghdisi said. “And you’re kind of like, ‘Well who the hell’s buying that?’”
Taghdisi added that the one-unit-per-floor plan is one the developers have been seeking for years, but they couldn’t find a site to justify the approach. The property at 5010 Longmont fits the bill because of its location between Uptown and Tanglewood, with scenic views in all directions and close proximity to the Galleria shopping center and Memorial Park.
Each unit at The Beverly will also feature a gas fireplace, built-in outdoor gas grill, beverage station, backup generator, kitchen island, bathtub and a Juliet balcony for each room. For pet owners, the corner of the terrace will also have a pet-relief station that drains into the site’s sanitary system.
“I’ve heard dogs doing things in elevators just trying to get outside, and you can’t always take your pet outside,” Taghdisi said. “Doing this is huge, actually.”
The garage will have 17 parking spaces, a lobby and two elevators that lead directly to each unit’s secured foyer.
Partnering developer G.T. Leach has been one of Houston’s most prolific condominium builders since Gary T. Leach founded the company in 1998, serving as the general contractor for over 3,000 units and counting in the greater-Houston area alone. Locally-based Mirador Group is another collaborator for the project and will lead architectural duties.
The development is in the final stages of permitting, and a sales gallery for the Beverly just opened in the RAMA-owned Park Place Memorial shopping center at 5801 Memorial Drive.
Read moreHoustonPelican plans more luxury condos in HoustonTexasLondon-inspired luxury condos break ground in HoustonHoustonTiki Island luxury condos make headwayThe post G.T. Leach, RAMA to start luxury condos appeared first on The Real Deal.
Brian Sidman, Keith Poliakoff, J.C. De Ona and Jake Morrow (Getty)Developers are analyzing how to take advantage of Florida’s new legislation, which will set aside over $700 million in funding, create tax breaks, and provide zoning-related incentives for affordable and workforce housing developments.
The law could contribute to a new boom in housing development, from entirely affordable buildings to mixed-income towers on commercial sites that developers are now looking to purchase, experts say.
The Live Local Act, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last week, aims to help fill financing gaps, making more developments economically feasible. What is still crucial, attorneys and developers said, is combining that with incentives on the local level.
A rendering of Mosaic in Opa-locka (Levy PR)“These incentive programs, in conjunction with working cities and municipalities — that’s the way you’re going to fill a void and a gap and a huge need,” said Brian Sidman, of Miami Beach-based Redwood Dev Co. “The problem isn’t going to be solved by developers buying private land. That ship has sailed due to the cost of private land.”
Still, Sidman called the legislation “a great start,” and applauded DeSantis and the Florida Legislature.
“If we don’t fix our housing crisis, we’ll have other material programs that will trickle down,” he said.
A rendering of Ludlam Trail Towers (Levy PR)Redwood is analyzing the SAIL (State Apartment Incentive Loan) program to see which of its projects could secure low-interest loans for workforce housing. Redwood, which has more than 1,500 units in the pipeline in South Florida, aims to build more than 5,000 affordable and/or workforce units over the next five to seven years. It recently broke ground on Mosaic, a 98-unit development in Opa-locka.
The new legislation sets aside $259 million in SAIL funds. It also promises $252 million in SHIP (State Housing Initiatives Program) funding to incentivize local governments to partner with developers preserving or building new housing.
The law goes into effect July 1. Developers are expected to apply for incentives this summer, and receive funds next year.
Jake Morrow, who leads Miami-based Integra Investments’ affordable and workforce housing division, Interurban, pointed to the law’s ad valorem tax exemptions. The property tax breaks, which existed already for senior affordable housing, will provide a stimulus for affordable and workforce housing that meet specific criteria.
A rendering of Ludlam Trail Towers (Levy PR)“Due to this legislation, we’re very actively taking a second look at several new affordable housing developments we previously deemed infeasible, especially in South Florida,” Morrow said. Interurban recently completed 670 affordable and workforce housing units in the tri-county region.
If developers don’t have to pay property taxes (beginning in 2024), they can count on a project generating more net operating income, which means they can borrow more debt. Ultimately, that means they could develop more units, experts said.
J.C. De Ona, president of Centennial Bank’s Southeast Florida division, agreed that affordable housing developers will still need local funding or other incentives to make their deals pencil out. He referred to Ludlam Trail Towers, a senior affordable housing development under construction in Miami. Centennial provided a $7.5 million construction loan to the developer, an affiliate of MV Real Estate Holdings. Without funding from Miami-Dade County, the project wouldn’t have moved forward.
“We’re looking at another project in Sweetwater. Unless it has both state and county support, the deal doesn’t happen,” De Ona said.
The huge increase in construction costs — including the price of land, debt, labor and materials — and insurance have contributed to the lack of affordable housing.
The Live Local Act aims to remedy some of that. It will put $100 million in non-recurring funds into a competitive loan program that developers could tap to cover inflation-related cost increases for Florida Housing and Finance Corporation-approved multifamily developments that haven’t broken ground yet. Separately, it will provide up to a $5,000 sales tax refund for building materials used to construct affordable housing units that were funded by FHFC.
The law will preempt local governments’ zoning, density and height requirements for affordable housing in areas zoned for commercial or mixed-use development. That means counties will be banned from restricting density of a proposed development below the highest allowed density on any property in an unincorporated area where residential development is allowed. Local governments will also not be able to restrict height below what’s allowed within one mile of the proposed building.
Local governments also must allow multifamily or mixed-use residential developments that set aside 40 percent or more of their units for at least 30 years to affordable housing.
The zoning incentives are significant, but attorneys and developers noted that as buildings get taller, they become more expensive to construct. That typically happens at about the seventh or eighth floor of construction, they said. For some, it will pencil out to add some units or a couple of extra floors of development.
“If you’re going x amount of stories already, the construction costs don’t go up that substantially,” De Ona said. “If you’re still in at the same dollar per unit and same profitability per unit, it makes sense.”
Developers are already looking at sites to build mixed-income projects, with affordable or workforce housing on the lower floors, and market-rate and luxury above it, said attorney Keith Poliakoff of Fort Lauderdale-based Government Law Group.
Poliakoff believes that the height, density and even parking incentives will “dramatically” change communities and result in a housing boom. Reductions in parking requirements for projects proposed within a half-mile of a transit stop are also on the table.
“I meet with potential and existing clients almost daily who are under contract on commercial properties, who would not be under contract if not for this law,” he said, citing pending deals in Sunny Isles Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood that have popped up in the last week.
“It’s going to totally change the look of [coastal] cities,” he said.
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Former Seattle SuperSonics owner Barry Ackerley and Halftide Farms in Friday Harbor, Washington (Getty, Halftide Farms)To live like a former owner of an NBA franchise, all that’s needed is a mere $75 million.
That’s what the 90-acre Halftide Farms estate in Friday Harbor, Washington has been listed for, the Wall Street Journal reported. The listing price could help the sellers fetch one of the highest prices in state history.
The estate is owned by the Ackerley family. Barry Ackerley sold his titular company to Clear Channel Communications at the turn of the century for roughly $800 million. A one-time owner of the Seattle SuperSonics and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, Ackerley died in 2011, while his wife died seven years later.
Their three children inherited the estate, but are ready to move on.
The 19,000-square-foot beachfront estate is on the San Juan Islands, an archipelago known for its wildlife. It’s roughly 100 miles north of Seattle, sited between the state and Canada’s Vancouver Island. There are orcas and eagles and at one point, Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
The estate includes three main homes, each occupied by one of the adult children. There are also guest cottages, a bunkhouse, a game house, a greenhouse and a cabana. The total estate includes 11 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms, along with perks such as tennis and pickleball courts, a pair of pools, a putting green and four ponds.
Compass’ Tere Foster and Moya Skillman share the listing.
There is no more expensive home on the market in the region, according to Zillow. Here’s context for the priciness of the listing: the median listing price in the county is below $900,000.
Read moreNew YorkBruce McCaw’s Northwest estate hits the market at record-setting priceNew YorkRussell Wilson, Ciara list Seattle-area mega mansion for $28MNew YorkNFL star earns his real estate wingsThere was another home listed in Washington last year that promised to be even more record-shattering. Bruce and Jolene McCaw’s Hunts Point estate was listed for $85 million, the most expensive listing in the history of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
The status of that listing is mired in uncertainty, though. There haven’t been any news reports on the listing in recent months and the property doesn’t appear in either the “For Sale” or “Sold” section on the brokers’ listing page.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Former NBA owner’s 90-acre estate hits market for $75M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Read more465 Thunderbowl Lane (Aspen/Greenwood MLS)
Even in a cooling market nationwide, Aspen is still hot.
To wit: a luxe manse in the ski-resort town has been listed for $41 million, more than twice the $18 million owner Maggie Hardy purchased it for four years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The 9,700-square-foot home at 465 Thunderbowl Lane sits on three-quarters of an acre and has five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a spa and home theater, and a wine room (currently being used as a candy room), the outlet reported.
The grounds include a fire pit, outdoor kitchen and hot tub.
Kendall Taylor and Riley Warwick of Douglas Elliman have the listing.
Hardy, who owns building-supplies retailer 84 Lumber Co., is working on refurbishing a Pennsylvania resort founded by her father.
Aspen is a favorite spot for buyers looking for trophy homes.
In December, entrepreneur Patrick Dovigi sold an Aspen home for $55 million, $10.5 million more than he paid for it.
Dovigi, a retired Canadian professional hockey player who founded Green For Life Environmental, bought the six-bedroom home with a pool and spa and views of the slopes for $44.5 million in December 2021.
Last September, William Wrigley Jr., the heir to the Wrigley Gum fortune, sold his Aspen estate for $30 million.
The 7,500-square-foot mansion was purchased by a trust tied to the Richter family. Wrigley is the great-grandson and namesake of William Wrigley Jr., who founded the chewing gum empire in 1891. The contemporary Wrigley Jr. is the former CEO of Wrigley Company, which Mars bought for $23 billion in 2008.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Owner of building supply company lists Aspen mansion for $41M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of the Girard Court Apartments in Philadelphia (Getty, Google Maps)An eviction in Philadelphia turned violent last week when a landlord-tenant officer shot a woman in the head, raising concerns about how the city’s court system sometimes ejects renters by using a security detail that isn’t sworn law-enforcement personnel, the Inquirer reported.
The shooting took place at Girard Court Apartments when a 35-year-old woman engaged in a struggle with the landlord-tenant officer, who was serving an eviction notice on the woman and her husband.
The woman, who was allegedly holding a knife during the struggle before she was shot, was taken to an area hospital and listed in critical condition, the outlet reported.
The eviction arose after the landlord, who claimed the tenants owed more than $8,000, reached a settlement with the woman and her husband to move out by January in exchange for the unpaid rent being forgiven.
The tenants sought to postpone the eviction, but a judge ruled against them last month.
The shooting raises questions about how Philadelphia handles evictions, namely through the use of a landlord-tenant officer, a private attorney who is appointed by a judge.
The attorney then deputizes private security contractors who are paid to handle the on-site evictions. While it’s the first shooting involving a landlord-tenant officer in recent memory, questions have arisen over their oversight and how they are trained, the Inquirer reported.
Read moreLos AngelesLA landlords train for potential attacks from tenantsNational“He just came to get his money”: Landlord murdered mid-evictionNationalCouple banishes hellish roommate, a real estate agent“The majority of Philadelphians facing eviction are Black and Brown people, who are frequently viewed as threats in their own home, when private citizens operating as officers show up with little to no notice to evict them,” Community Legal Services said in a statement to the Inquirer.
The group called the use of a private attorney a “pay to play” system, the Inquirer said, incentivizing evictions of the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Police, who did not name the landlord-tenant officer or the victim, are investigating the shooting.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Philadelphia woman shot during eviction appeared first on The Real Deal.
Toll Brothers CEO Douglas Yearley and the apartment complex (Toll Brothers, Newswire)Toll Brothers are turning to SONO for its next big multifamily play in Connecticut.
The publicly traded homebuilder’s apartment division and Harris Realty Company have entered into a joint venture to develop a six-story, 393-unit multifamily complex in the Fairfield County city, according to a press release.
The project, named Piper, is being financed with a $136 million construction loan from Wells Fargo and TD Bank, according to the release. Located about one mile from the South Norwalk Metro Station, the project is in an Opportunity Zone.
The community will have 356 market-rate and 37 affordable units, with a parking garage with nearly 600 spaces.
Amenities at the complex — which will be at the corner of West Avenue and Orchard Street — will include a fitness center and pool, rooftop deck, coworking spaces, library and wine room, demo kitchen and dining room, a clubroom, and an indoor pet run and spa.
Piper will also have about 24,000 square feet of retail space that can house a single tenant or be divided up into boutiques, restaurants or cafes, the release says. The complex will also be near a park, tennis courts, playgrounds, two museums and an upscale mall called The SoNo Collection.
Piper is the second large project in southeastern Connecticut. The first, Julius, is a 356-unit luxury complex at 777 Summer Street in downtown Stamford. The development has 334 market-rate apartments, plus 22 set aside as affordable.
In addition to taking advantage of the growing rental market, Toll Brothers has been extremely active in homebuilding, having recently purchased 100 acres in Scottsdale, Arizona, for nearly $25 million to build 81 homes in the Storyrock community.
The company also recently announced that it’s building Riverbend by Toll Brothers in the James Island area of Charleston, South Carolina.
That community will feature just 21 single family homes of about 2,200 to 3,400 square feet, according to a press release.
In October, a Los Angeles-area finance firm paid $95 million for a pair of properties totaling about 12 acres in Sunnyvale, California, so Toll Brothers can build 329 homes — 140 townhomes and 189 condominiums.
Read moreNationalToll Brothers buys 100 acres in Arizona for $25MSan FranciscoToll Brothers project starts with $95M Sunnyvale land buyNew YorkToll Brothers co-founder Robert Toll diesThe post Toll Brothers building 393-unit apartment complex in South Norwalk appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)“If you can’t afford it, steal it,” isn’t the best credo to live by, but some allegedly do.
Timothy Bierly, for example, is accused by police of posing as a wealthy homebuyer — creating false bank statements, email addresses and wire transfers — to con his way into a suburban-Pittsburgh mansion worth $5.1 million, WPXI reported.
Bierly, 27, allegedly toured the North Hills home with a real estate agent last summer. He told the owners and the agent he could afford the luxe home because he had recently sold his business for more than $50 million, according to the outlet.
He then posed as Pittsburgh attorney Kathleen Schneider, setting up an email account in her name, and claimed — as Schneider — that he’d wire a $51,000 down payment.
Becoming suspicious when Bierly’s Schneider kept postponing the closing, the homeowner tracked down the real Schneider, who said she hadn’t had any dealings with Bierly, nor did she know anything about representing a client purchasing the North Hills home.
The homeowner went to the police, who found falsified wire documents and bank statements, the outlet reported. Authorities ultimately found Bierly in Rhode Island, where he was also facing criminal charges.
He’s now facing new charges in Pennsylvania, including forgery and criminal attempted theft by deception, according to WPXI.
Bierly isn’t alone in trying to scam his way into a luxury home.
Ian Mitchell in 2017 posed as a wealthy homebuyer in New York City in an attempt to purchase multiple luxury apartments, going to great lengths to convince brokers and attorneys that he was a millionaire relative of the owners of Sandals Resorts.
Mitchell was shown three downtown properties in the $20 million range — there weren’t many units that fit his criteria: He wanted a penthouse with outdoor space. Mitchell at one point went as far as meeting with an attorney and going through the due diligence process.
Eventually, a check Mitchell cut to a real estate attorney bounced, and he ultimately fell off his real estate agent’s radar.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreThe post Pennsylvania man accused of trying to con his way into a $5M home appeared first on The Real Deal.
Miami real estate agent Kay Jenkins (Kay Jenkins Real Estate, Getty)A Miami real estate agent has come forward as one of the victims of a prolific social media scammer.
Kay Jenkins told ProPublica her 100,000-follower strong Instagram account has been repeatedly deactivated by scammer OBN since 2021, telling the publication he makes “sure that your life is miserable and that he’ll try and get as much money out of you as he possibly can.”
In addition to being a real estate agent, Jenkins is also a model with an OnlyFans account. She earned $15,000 to $20,000 a month in subscriptions and sponsorships, but started to see her Instagram accounts suspended repeatedly after moving from Utah to Miami in March 2021.
The scheme involves a hacker shutting down social profiles on Instagram and Meta before demanding a ransom to get them back online. The hacker also charges people who request OBN to take down an account.
OBN has dubbed himself the “log-out king,” claiming to have gotten a number of celebrities and influencers banished from Instagram and Meta, saying he has made $300,000 in the process.
Jenkins incidentally learned her accounts were being shut down by OBN after being on a podcast with an influencer who later confessed to having OBN target Jenkins out of jealousy. Her main account went up and down based on the status of her friendship with Celina Powell, the influencer. The Instagram problems were so pervasive and destructive to Jenkins that she contemplated suicide.
Jenkins ultimately paid OBN more than $10,000 to get her account restored, which didn’t initially happen, though it appears to be active again with significantly fewer followers. She hired a lawyer and is demanding $25,000 from Meta, which has not responded to her letter.
ProPubilca tracked the anonymous OBN — or at least someone closely linked to the account — down to 20-year-old Edwin Reyes-Martinez, a Las Vegas resident. Reyes-Martinez denied knowledge of the account before claiming someone named Brandon used him to funnel money.
A Meta spokesperson said that despite OBN’s success, the company has removed dozens of accounts connected to the scammer. The spokesperson added OBN’s abuse of community standard systems is trumped by his ability to scam people into thinking he can ban and restore their accounts.
Meta sent Reyes-Martinez a cease-and-desist following ProPublica making contact with the social media company, later banning him from the site.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreSouth FloridaMiami real estate agent charged with $381K PPP fraudLos Angeles“Egregious”: Residential broker found guilty of fraudNationalReal estate scams on the rise in New OrleansThe post Miami real estate agent ruined by Instagram scam appeared first on The Real Deal.
Channel 3 Kids Camp (Google Maps, Getty)A nearly 140-acre former children’s camp in Coventry, Connecticut, has hit the market for $4.3 million.
The owner of the property, Almada Lodge-Times Farm Camp Corp., sought buyers to take over the camp last fall, but found no takers.
“While it had been the desire of Almada Lodge-Times Farm Camp Corporation to have the former site of Channel 3 Kids Camp in Coventry remain a camp to serve youth throughout Connecticut, we unfortunately have not found an appropriate partner willing to make the investment to take on this initiative,” Jillian Wood, chair of the corporation board of directors, said in a statement.
Jason and Krystal Harrison of Coldwell Banker Premier Realtors have the listing.
The property, located at 73 and 352 Times Farms Road, is zoned as farmland and may be subdivided, the listing says. The parcel currently has a number of camp buildings and recreational facilities, including a basketball court, pool, playground and clubhouse.
The parcel is connected to electrical, gas, telephone and cable utilities, but has a septic system.
About 114 of the parcel’s 139 acres is undeveloped woodland. In addition, about 1,700 feet of river, which is suitable for a trout stream, runs through the property.
The children’s camp, which was founded more than 100 years ago, closed permanently last summer after COVID shutdowns took their toll on attendance, according to the Hartford Courant. About 1,000 kids had signed up to attend the last season of the camp before it was canceled, according to the Journal Inquirer of Manchester.
Once the camp is sold, the board plans on using at least some of the proceeds to create an endowment to support children’s programming, Wood told the Courant.
Channel 3 Kids Camp wasn’t the only pandemic-afflicted camp that shut down.
In 2021, the Y.M.C.A. of Greater New York listed three summer camps in Huguenot, New York, totaling 1,000 acres. The group had hoped to sell the camps for a total of about $5 million.
Around 1,200 kids ages 7 to 16 attended each summer, and a third of them received financial aid from the Y.M.C.A., according to the New York Times, which first reported the story.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreTri-StateYMCA camps, a haven for kids, are now for saleTri-StateCatskills “hotel in the woods” glampsite gets $400K price chopNationalNew pastime for the rich and famous: “glamping”The post Connecticut’s Channel 3 Kids Camp lists for $4.3M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Mark Twain once said “buy land, they aren’t making it anymore.”
Investors took that message to heart in recent years as land prices have been booming across the country. Farmers National Company, a real estate services firm for landowners, reported record sales across several states last year and think competition will remain high in 2023.
Farmers National reported record sales of $766 million in 2022, which beat the previous record of $750 million in 2021. The company reported year-over-year competitive land auction sales were up 75 percent last year. Land sales, particularly in Corn Belt states, reported increased year-to-year values between 20 percent to 34 percent.
Paul Schadegg, Farmers National vice president of real estate, wrote in a recent report there is a true supply-and-demand scenario taking place across the country.
“There are simply more buyers willing to bid on the limited amount of land coming into the market. Commodity markets and strong cash rents provide buyers with the necessary returns to meet their investment criteria while giving them the opportunity to expand operations or add land to their investment portfolio,” Schadegg wrote.
National cropland values averaged $5,050 per acre in 2022, an increase of $630 per acre or 14.3 percent from the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In Texas, farmland values rose by 11 percent last year up to $2,650 per acre, but prices in the south were relatively inexpensive compared to the rest of the country, according to the report. Corn Belt states like Iowa and Indiana hit record averages around $9,000 per acre. Populous coastal states like California and Florida saw prices reach an average of $12,000 and $6,000 per acre, respectively.
Agriculture experts state economic drivers such as high prices for crops, low interest rates (until recently) and government subsidies all contributed to the farmland value boom. While commercial land investors have helped drive up competition on farmland values, 75% of successful buyers are still, well, farmers, the Farmers National report shows.
“We expect this trend to continue as many investors see the long-term value of farmland, the opportunity to diversify investments, and the value of land as a hedge against rising inflation,”Schadegg wrote.
Farmland supply is extremely limited, only about 1 percent of available land changes hands a year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis reports. Sales are so rare that only 10 percent of the total 93 million acres of owned farmland in the country transferred owners between 2015 and 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
While land value increases benefit the market and landowners, many farmers with smaller operations are being priced out. A survey by the National Young Farmers Coalition last year found that finding affordable land for purchase is the top challenge in the industry.
As interest rates increased this year, some financial experts do expect record land sales to stall. The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank reports droughts and increased farming expenses to contribute to a decline or steadying in values. Interest rates on farmland loans have reached the highest levels in over a decade and are putting increased financial pressure on landowners.
Whether the values continue to climb or slow, Schadegg believes competition will only increase in the farmland market.
“We are cautious as interest rates continue to rise and inflation becomes a large factor in cropping inputs. These factors have the impact to decrease net farm income, erode operator equity and subsequently pressure farmland value,” Schadegg wrote. “So, we sit at a somewhat precarious point in time where opportunity exists for both land sellers and buyers.”
Read moreHouston$12M land sale in River Oaks one of Houston’s most expensiveDallasNorth Texas’ biggest builders freeze land acquisitionsDallasDallas leads nation in most undeveloped landThe post Farmland prices soar while other real estate sectors struggle appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rihanna (Getty Images)Everyone has their price, even owners of luxury mansions.
To wit: Spyro Malaspinas wasn’t listing his $7.3 million, 6,400-square-foot Paradise Valley home on Airbnb, but he did rent it out to pop sensation Rihanna when, through an intermediary, she offered to pay $500,000 a week to stay there, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Rihanna was in Arizona to perform the halftime show of the Super Bowl and needed a place to stay. Malaspinas five-bedroom mansion fit the bill.
“The last thing I am is a real estate baron,” Malaspinas told the Journal. “[But] my pride’s not that big. I don’t mind moving out for $500,000 a week.”
Malaspinas’ unexpected, but welcome, windfall will pay for two years of mortgage payments, he told the outlet.
Rihanna is hardly the only celebrity or politician to pay big money to stay at luxury residences — which typically are larger and more secure than hotels, according to the Journal.
In 2013, the Obama family, when Barack Obama was president, rented a Martha’s Vineyard home, which fit a very specific set of criteria, even though it wasn’t listed, the outlet reported.
Mariah Carey rented a Bedford Corners, New York, house for an entire summer for $125,000 a month. The homeowner, Jay Dweck, found a Greenwich, Connecticut, home on Airbnb for $6,000 a month that he lived in while Carey stayed in his 10,500-square-foot mansion, according to the Journal.
The VIPs in question aren’t the ones who reach out to the homeowner.
“Typically you don’t get a straight call from those guys,” Neal Norman of Hawai’i Life told the Journal. “It’s an assistant or travel agent. They open with, ‘I have a VIP.”
While the money is great, the experience isn’t always the best. Homeowners can expect some added wear and tear on their property — Dweck said Carey left pockmarks on his floors because she didn’t take off her high heels while inside the house, the Journal said.
Also, homeowners may be held to confidentiality agreements to ensure privacy.
But there can be added perks to just the money, at least in Malaspinas’ case.
“My [13-year-old] daughter was absolutely thrilled,” he told the Journal.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Rihanna rented luxe Arizona home for $500K a week appeared first on The Real Deal.
Alvin Bragg and Donald Trump (Getty)It’s not every week (or ever before Thursday) a former president is criminally indicted. But it is 2023 and anything is possible. And the former president reacted as defiantly as anyone would have expected.
“I am not afraid of what’s to come,” Donald Trump, the longtime real estate developer, said in a fundraising email on Friday in response to his indictment.
The news of Trump’s indictment set off a storm of commentary from his allies who said the criminal proceedings were politically motivated.
But the Manhattan District Attorney’s office wasn’t having any of it.
“Like any other defendant, Mr. Trump is entitled to challenge these charges in court and avail himself of all processes and protections that New York State’s robust criminal procedure affords,” a statement from the DA says. “What neither Mr. Trump nor Congress may do is interfere with the ordinary course of proceedings in New York State.”
It may have been the biggest news, but it wasn’t the only unorthodox story of the week. Relative unknown Jacob Garlick became a household name in New York City real estate circles after outbidding local titan Jeffrey Gural for the Flatiron Building at auction. But it turns out Garlick wasn’t required to cough up a deposit or prove himself as a qualified buyer ahead the auction.
“It’s highly unorthodox to do an auction without requiring a deposit”, said Greg Corbin, a bankruptcy specialist at brokerage Rosewood Realty Group. “Over the past 15 years of conducting distressed asset auctions, only once have we allowed people to bid without providing funds up front.”
Garlick failed to pay a 10 percent deposit within 48 hours after submitting his winning bid, which leaves the future of the 120-year-old iconic building up in the air.
Elsewhere, San Francisco’s beleaguered office market has gone from bad to worse, with about 30 percent of office space becoming vacant, as many who left the office during the pandemic have stayed home.
“By now, it is safe to say the majority of office tenants have made this decision and we will continue to see more space hit the market as they downsize or completely go (work from home),” tenant broker Tony Zucker, executive vice president at Dunhill Partners West, said.
Meanwhile, the mews in Florida is sunnier. Anthony and Kristen DeGradi spent $29.5 million on a Fort Lauderdale waterfront spec mansion, further proof the market may still be hot.
“We’re going to level up. The demand is still there,” Dov Stark, of Prestige Construction, said. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think the market is going to stay like that for a little bit.”
Read moreNationalThey said what now? Real estate quotes of the weekNationalThey said what now? Real estate weighs in on the banking debacleNationalThey said what now? Real estate quotes of the weekThe post They said what now? Real estate quotes of the week appeared first on The Real Deal.
Claire Cossey and the homeThe art of selling has always been a bit of a song and dance.
Claire Cossey took this to heart in her work as a real estate agent in the United Kingdom, and started making music videos for her listings, Newsweek reported. She toiled in relative obscurity until her cover of Limahl’s “The NeverEnding Story” launched her into internet virality earlier this week.
First posted four months ago, the video was shared this week by Zillow Gone Wild and podcast host Rex Chapman on Twitter. Cossey’s usual four-figure views turned into more than half a million.
Nothing in the world can prepare you for how amazing this property listing tour is in Bedfordshire, UK pic.twitter.com/cfCKYPSKyO
— Zillow Gone Wild (@zillowgonewild) March 24, 2023
“This old house, there’s so much here to see,” she sings as the video starts, guiding the viewer through its rooms. “Living room, all covered with these beams.”
The listing for the home has since been removed, but it was on the market for £700,000, or $855,000, the outlet reported.
Cossey is the broker and owner of Just-Knock Estate Agency, a brokerage in Leighton Buzzard, a town in Bedfordshire, England. She started in real estate in 2015 to supplement her singing career, Just-Knock’s website shows. She made her first musical house tour in 2021, according to Just-Knock’s YouTube channel.
“That one went viral in the local area,” she told the outlet. “Then I started doing them for people that wanted them for fun.”
Cossey’s other musical tours include “Great Northern the Musical,” in which she spoofs “A Whole New World” from Disney’s Aladdin, and “The Old Barn the Musical,” which covers Tina Turner’s “The Best” with a real estate spin.
The quirky premise and amateur production of her videos provide the exact mix of charm and comedy that fascinates the internet.
“Girl hits us with the key change so we know she’s in it to win it,” @amymoneill tweeted in response.
“What in the fresh hell did I just watch?!?!?” @RTBinLV replied.
“I’m kicking myself I didn’t put a bit more time and effort into this one,” Cossey told the outlet. “I literally just did it for fun, it was not meant to be seen by hundreds and thousands of people.”
— Kate Hinsche
The post The NeverEnding Listing: How a singing real estate agent’s home tour went viral appeared first on The Real Deal.
A New Hampshire landlord got more than he bargained for last week when he was arrested after appearing at a local police station to file a complaint that he was being harassed by his tenants, the Foster’s Daily Democrat reported.
Anji Reddy, of Princeton, New Jersey, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear for a Feb. 27 arraignment to answer for alleged code violation charges that the town of Somersworth had brought against him.
“We condemn it — it is insane, unfair, and fiercely aggressive. Honestly, it is unnecessary,” Reddy’s legal team said in an email to the outlet.
Reddy has been on the town’s radar for some time for alleged code violations at an apartment building at 86 High Street that were so severe that one tenant hung a sign outside calling for the landlord to turn the heat and hot water back on.
Another tenant at a separate Reddy-owned apartment building also complained of a lack of heat and hot water, as well as electrical issues and a vermin infestation in an empty apartment below hers.
The town’s code compliance officer has filed numerous complaints against Reddy, who faces fines and fees of more than $550,000 if he’s found to have violated the code.
The tenants have also filed tenants rights petitions against Reddy, and are withholding rent until the violations are fixed. Reddy’s efforts to evict the tenants were unsuccessful, with one being dismissed as retaliatory for the tenant’s complaints of code violations.
Reddy, for his part, said he was unaware the town had filed charges against him because the notices had been sent to the wrong address.
“We were clueless,” an email from Reddy’s company said, according to the outlet. “Then, the hearing was rescheduled to March 20th — it was communicated. Our attorney team have attended the rescheduled hearing. Even in the above hearing, nothing mentioned about the bench warrant.”
Read moreNational“He just came to get his money”: Landlord murdered mid-evictionLos AngelesLA corruption trial of Raymond Chan remains on holdLos AngelesLA developer charged in murder-for-hire case accused in arson plotReddy went to the police station on March 28 to complain that a tenant was harassing employees of his company and contractors. Instead of receiving the complaint, police arrested Reddy. only to be arrested.
“Instead of taking a complaint, it is insane and unfair that they have executed the bench warrant,” the email said, according to the outlet.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Landlord filing complaint is arrested instead appeared first on The Real Deal.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass (Getty)Sellers of residential and commercial property, get ready to shell out cash: The city of Los Angeles’ new transfer taxes are officially in effect.
All residential and commercial sales that trade above $5 million will be subject to a 4 percent tax, while all sales above $10 million will face a 5.5 percent tax, in addition to a 0.56 percent city tax that is currently applied to all transfers.
Brokers, investors and homeowners rushed to close sales before the tax, dubbed Measure ULA, went into effect.
Joel Schreiber’s Waterbridge Capital closed a $110 million deal to buy the 40-story Union Bank Plaza, allowing seller KBS to avoid an extra $6 million in taxes. The transfer taxes put “increased pressure” on the Union Bank Plaza sale to close before April 1, Colliers, which arranged financing for the deal, said in a statement.
A Windsor Square home at 425 South Plymouth Boulevard sold in two days, a timeline one escrow officer called “record-breaking.”
The number of signed deals for homes for $5 million and above jumped from 30 in January to 57 last month — a 90 percent increase, according to real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel.
Industry players are already expecting the tax to have a freeze effect on the market, drying up an already slow stream of sales as a result of rising interest rates. Even the city has reduced its own estimates of how much the taxes will bring in during its initial year.
In mid-March, the city said it anticipated the taxes will bring in up to $672 million in revenue during the first year of implementation — a 25 percent cut compared to projections given to voters on a November ballot. All revenue from the taxes are expected to be placed in a new revenue fund, which will be used to build affordable housing and provide other resources to individuals at risk of homelessness.
Some real estate deals were unable to close before the tax came into effect, opening themselves up to a future tax burden.
The Reuben brothers scored court approval on Friday to foreclose on the $2.5 billion Century Plaza development in Century City, but had tried to push for a transfer before the tax went into effect.
Even though the court gave the investor brothers the all clear, foreclosure sales cannot go through on March 31, given it’s a California state holiday — César Chávez Day. This means the earliest that foreclosure can go through is April 3.
Attorneys are still unclear whether or not the tax will apply to foreclosures, though the city has not written in any tax exemption for foreclosures.
Neither the office of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass nor the City Administrative Office, which handles budgetary and financial issues, responded to requests for comment.
Any sale involving a nonprofit, community land trust or entity that has a history of affordable housing development will be exempt from the tax, according to the city’s finance office. Other exemptions include a U.S. agency or other public agency or other charitable organization, like a church.
The post Pay up: LA’s transfer taxes go into effect appeared first on The Real Deal.
Woodchopper Gold Claim in Circle, Alaska (Google Maps)Thar be gold underneath these hills!
That’s what the buyer of Woodchopper Gold Claim could say in Circle, Alaska. The massive property is hitting the market for $23.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The property is in the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. It’s being sold by geologist Lynn Vogler. His uncle purchased the land to mine gold in 1971 for an unknown price, then passed it to Lynn in the 1990s.
Woodchopper’s biggest pull is its claim to gold. The property is on Woodchopper Creek, which flows into the Yukon River. Vogler claims more than 117,000 troy ounces of gold have been extracted along the creek; one troy ounce of gold is currently worth nearly $2,000.
The property spans roughly 1,400 acres, though it is largely unoccupied, outside of an old gold dredge and former mining cabins. It includes 230 deeded acres with patented mining claims, meaning the land and the minerals found upon it belong to the owner. The government owns the rest of the property, but the owner still owns the minerals found on it.
Fay Ranches’ Troy Dana (Fay Ranches)That being said, the property hasn’t been used for mining since the 1980s, when part of it was leased out to gold digging miners. Perhaps some of the miners saw the wildlife that wander across the property, including moose, caribou, wolverines and grizzly bears.
The property is not zoned and a buyer could build an off-grid residential home on the property, which Vogler said is common in the area. There is also a 2,500-foot-long airstrip on the property, which is accessible by plane around the year, though the strip is in need of repair. Trail hikers can get there in the winter, while a boat can only get there during the summer.
Fay Ranches’ Troy Dana and Real Broker Alaska’s Yvan Corbin share the listing.
Read moreNew YorkPrivate Alaskan island that expands at low tide to ask $20MNew YorkAlaska’s biggest home heads for auctionNew YorkBruce McCaw’s Northwest estate hits the market at record-setting priceThe post Good as gold: Alaska property atop mine for sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (Getty)The House of Mouse has been anything but meek in its ongoing feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The state legislature during a special session in February gave DeSantis the power to appoint members of the board that oversees the development of Walt Disney World theme parks.
DeSantis sparred with the entertainment giant last year after the company announced it was suspending political donations following the passage of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that restricts the discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools.
But on Feb. 8, before the legislature acted, the board quietly agreed that Disney would keep control over its Florida theme parks and other properties for at least 30 years, CNN reported. (Other outlets pointed out the agreement is in effect for 21 years after the last descendent of King Charles III dies.) The agreement also gives Disney veto power over public projects in the district.
“This essentially makes Disney the government,” board member Ron Peri, a DeSantis appointee, said during a meeting last week, according to CNN. “This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintaining the roads and maintaining basic infrastructure.”
The current board has hired counsel to look into challenging the 30-year agreement.
“The Executive Office of the Governor is aware of Disney’s last-ditch efforts to execute contracts just before ratifying the new law that transfers rights and authorities from the former Reedy Creek Improvement District to Disney,” DeSantis spokeswoman Taryn Fenske said, according to CNN. “An initial review suggests these agreements may have significant legal infirmities that would render the contracts void as a matter of law.”
Disney, meanwhile, told CNN its agreement with the prior board was legal and properly noticed.
It’s the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle between Disney and DeSantis that first saw the state legislature eliminate Disney’s special tax district.
But that measure immediately ran into problems, most notably that it would have required Orange and Osceola counties to pay for services the district typically picked up, including road maintenance and police and fire protection. The district is also carrying a $1 billion debt load, which would have transferred to the counties as well.
So, following the special session in February, the special tax district and its privileges remained intact, but the governor — who many believe will make a run for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 — was given the power to appoint the five members of the district’s governing board.
Theoretically, the move — at least if the 30-year agreement is nullified — could allow the board to tax Disney to pay for road projects outside of Disney World’s borders. And other exemptions were eliminated that could significantly increase the cost of development at the complex.
DeSantis, after the passage of the measure, said “There’s a new sheriff in town.”
But Disney’s latest move had some of DeSantis’ political rivals crowing about the governor being played.
“President Trump wrote ‘Art of the Deal’ and brokered Middle East peace,” Taylor Budowich, spokesman for the Trump-aligned Make America Great Again PAC, said according to CNN. “Ron DeSantis just got out-negotiated by Mickey Mouse.”
— Ted Glanzer
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Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (Getty)No, April Fool’s is a day, not a week, as surprising as that seemed during over the past few days.
Former President Donald Trump, who before his stint as Commander in Chief was once a prolific real estate developer, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury. The indictment was filed under seal, but it’s reported that he will be charged with more than 30 counts related to business fraud.
While not confirmed, it’s widely speculated at least one charge stems from allegedly falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an affair she claims took place in 2006.
Trump’s indictment pretty much trumped everything else in the newscycle as the week drew to a close, particularly in the political realm. But earlier in the week, Florida Gov. (and would-be Trump challenger for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination) Ron DeSantis signed a $711 million affordable housing legislation to bolster housing programs and incentivize developers with major tax breaks.
The legislation, known as the Live Local Act, will supersede local zoning, density and height regulations for affordable housing in areas zoned for commercial and mixed-use development. It also prevents localities from implementing rent control measures, the passage of which were already severely restricted to housing emergencies.
The state legislature passed the measure, and DeSantis signed it into law, after South Florida became one of the least affordable housing markets in the country last year fueled in no small part by the migration of people from out of state.
DeSantis may have wished someone were pranking him upon hearing that Disney had, at least for now, outflanked him when the board that oversees the company’s tax district in Florida quietly agreed that Disney would keep control over its state theme parks and other properties for at least 30 years, CNN reported. (Other outlets noted the agreement is in effect for 21 years after the last descendent of King Charles III dies.) The agreement also gives Disney veto power over public projects in the district.
DeSantis has been famously feuding with the House of Mouse over cultural issues, most notably over the controversial so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that the governor backed in 2022.
When Disney balked at the law, DeSantis moved to have Disney’s special tax district eliminated, only to realize that move presented too many headaches to follow through on. So the state legislature, backed by DeSantis, passed a law giving DeSantis the ability to appoint all five members of the board of the special tax district, which oversees the development of Disney’s Florida theme parks, as well as maintenance of the theme park’s infrastructure, including roads.
Disney’s maneuver — which was done prior to the legislature’s special session — effectively neutralized DeSantis’ authority over the board, at least for now. The newly constituted board is reportedly exploring legal options to nullify the agreement between the outgoing board and Disney.
Back in the Big Apple, there was another story that could have been mistaken as a prank. The Flatiron Building, the iconic New York City structure that has recently fallen on hard times was at the center of a baffling series of events following its auction.
Unknown Jacob Garlick came out of nowhere to successfully outmuscle Jeffrey Gural for the building at auction with an eye watering $190 million bid. But Garlick didn’t have the bread and failed to cough up the $19 million (10 percent) down payment, leaving the property’s status in limbo and likely headed back to auction.
Garlick’s temporary, though extremely high-profile ascendance in the newscycle wouldn’t have been possible had bidders been required to put down a deposit before the auction, court filings say.
“It’s highly unorthodox to do an auction without requiring a deposit,” said Greg Corbin, a bankruptcy specialist at brokerage Rosewood Realty Group. “Over the past 15 years of conducting distressed asset auctions, only once have we allowed people to bid without providing funds up front.”
Perhaps after the last week, we can focus on other rites of spring, such as the Final Four (particularly if all your brackets aren’t busted) and the start of the Major League Baseball season.
Read moreNationalLitigation was the name of the game in real estateNationalMarch Madness arrives early for real estate NationalResidential real estate is still battling a hangoverThe post No, April Fool’s did not come early for real estate appeared first on The Real Deal.
Housing Justice For All’s Cea Weaver and Gov. Kathy Hochul (Getty)Days before Saturday’s state budget deadline, 104 landlords backed by tenant group Housing Justice For All sent a letter asking lawmakers to include good cause eviction in the bill.
The point was to show that not all landlords oppose good cause as a rent control measure that would curtail owners’ revenue and property rights.
In fact, the writers claimed, good cause would help small landlords by reining in institutional, flix-and-flip operators such as Greenbrook Partners who “undercut their competition.”
“We have heard that landlords and property owners stand united in opposition to this legislation,” the letter reads. “This could not be farther from the truth.”
But an analysis of the letter’s 100-some signees reveals many would be unaffected by the policy.
Some manage small, owner-occupied properties that would be exempt from the law. Others aren’t landlords at all.
Anthony Coker, for one, signed as a Brooklyn landlord. But Coker, who works with first-time homeowners at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, told The Real Deal he owns a single-family home in Clinton Hill that he lives in and does not rent.
The good cause legislation touted by the letter excludes owner-occupied housing with fewer than four units.
Housing Justice For All acknowledged that not all of the signees would be affected.
“The text of the letter itself indicates support for good cause, not that signers would be directly impacted,” said a spokesperson, who added that “single-family homeowners were not included” — a claim that Coker’s status appears to undermine.
Campaign-donation and property records indicate that at least one-third of signees would not be touched by good cause: They own single- or two-family homes or co-ops in the city, Kingston and Rochester.
Lauren Melodia, for example, owns a two-family home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, property records show. She tweeted Thursday that “for homeowners like myself, Good Cause Eviction is an important protection — not only for renters but also for small landlords who live in their properties — b/c it fosters community and makes NY safer.”
An account named NY Property Rights dismissed her take as “comical,” explaining, “Good cause wouldn’t apply to you as an owner-occupied homeowner.”
It is possible that some owners who signed the letter rent a second home that TRD could not identify. Such properties would be regulated by good cause.
That seems to be the case with letter-signer Stewart Weaver, father of Housing Justice For All campaign coordinator Cea Weaver and owner of a single-family home in Rochester, property records show.
A spokesperson for HJ4A said Weaver “manages an additional rental property with a family member.”
The list of signees also includes Chris Butters, a self-proclaimed socialist who has led the Brooklyn Club of the Communist Party USA. Property records show Butters owns a two-family home in Park Slope that would be exempt from good cause.
Housing Justice For All further bolstered its letter with heads of housing advocacy groups who signed on behalf of their organizations, not as individuals.
They included Joseph Di Fiore, who leads the City Roots Community Land Trust in Rochester, a nonprofit focused on affordable housing.
Rochester property records show no evidence that Di Fiore owns a home. Di Fiore could not be reached for comment.
“Some principals signed in their personal capacity as landlords who own properties and some signed on behalf of their organization,” an HJ4A spokesperson said.
Landlords who have been outspoken against good cause see the letter as an 11th-hour stunt that lacks credibility.
“This blatant fabrication is ripped straight from the George Santos playbook,” said Greg Drilling, a spokesperson for Homeowners for an Affordable New York.
He called it a “disingenuous and unethical ploy to sway legislators rightly concerned about the devastating effect good cause eviction would have on small property owners.”
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From left: Michael Shvo, Alex Adjmi, Ian Schrager, Donald Trump, Charles Kushner, James Batmasian (Getty)Donald Trump may be the first former U.S. president to be indicted in a criminal case, but he’s far from the first big real estate player to get caught up with law enforcement authorities.
Trump was indicted Thursday for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
A number of other prominent real estate developers have faced charges including bank fraud, tax evasion and witness tampering — and more than one received pardons from the former president who built his fame in their industry, while yet another received a pardon from Trump’s predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama.
Here’s a closer look at who they are, and what happened, in the cases involving well-known real estate players in the nation’s biggest cities.
Charles KushnerIn 2004, multifamily developer and landlord Charles Kushner pleaded guilty to 18 counts, including making illegal campaign contributions, falsifying tax returns and witness tampering. He was sentenced to two years in prison and served 14 months, getting released in 2006.
In 2020, Kushner, whose son Jared is Trump’s son-in-law, received a presidential pardon from Trump.
Ian SchragerBoutique hotel pioneer Ian Schrager was convicted of tax evasion in 1980. The property at issue was Studio 54, the famed Midtown nightclub he co-founded. He served 20 months in prison.
Schrager received a pardon from a different source — President Obama — in the final days of his term in 2017.
Alex AdjmiThough family ties put Kushner in Trump’s orbit, he’s not the only real estate player the former president pardoned.
In 1996, a federal sting operation convicted Manhattan retail titan Alex Adjmi of laundering $22.5 million for a Colombian drug cartel through a Connecticut brokerage that turned out to be an undercover operation by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The head of A&H Acquisitions served nearly four years in prison. Released in 2000, Adjmi received a pardon from Trump in 2021.
Michael ShvoWhile juggling several prominent development projects, New York real estate broker-turned-developer Michael Shvo was hit with charges in 2016 for allegedly scheming to evade payment of more than $1.4 million in taxes related to the purchase of fine art, furniture, jewelry and a Ferrari.
Shvo pleaded guilty to the criminal tax fraud charges and settled the case for $3.5 million, avoiding any time behind bars, after a 19-month saga that sidelined him from a number of notable projects.
Larry FreedChicago real estate developer Larry Freed went from serving as head of one of the largest privately owned shopping center development firms to serving more than two years in federal prison on fraud charges.
His firm, Joseph Freed and Associates, had obtained a $105 million line of credit for city and suburban developments based on collateral previously pledged to another bank, prosecutors said in 2016. Freed’s three-year sentence was reduced to probation in 2020.
James BatmasianOne of the largest private real estate owners in Boca Raton, Investments Limited founder James Batmasian pleaded guilty in 2008 to evading $250,000 in payroll taxes. He served an eight-month prison sentence.
Batmasian also received a presidential pardon from Trump in 2020.
José HuizarFormer L.A. city councilman José Huizar pleaded guilty in January to operating a pay-to-play scheme to give special treatment to developers who funded and facilitated bribes and other unlawful financial benefits.
The politician’s seat on the Planning and Land Use Management Committee gave him purview over major commercial and residential developments. His plea came after two developers, David Lee’s 940 Hill and Chinese real estate firm Shen Zhen New World I LLC, were found guilty of bribing Huizar for help.
Huizar faces a sentence of up to 26 years in prison, though federal prosecutors recommended he be sentenced to no more than 13.
Read moreNationalTrump indicted in Stormy Daniels hush money probeLos AngelesFormer LA city councilman José Huizar to plead guilty to bribery and tax evasionNew YorkCharlie Kushner gets presidential pardonThe post Pleas and pardons: A look at some real estate players who faced criminal charges appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A federal judge sided with commercial landlords Friday, ruling that a Covid-era protection for retail tenants is unconstitutional.
For owners whose tenants fell behind on rent during the pandemic, the decision offers a chance to recoup some of that lost money.
At issue was a city law passed two months into the pandemic that barred landlords from going after tenants’ personal assets to recover unpaid rent.
Elias Bochner, landlord to a Chelsea burger joint that went under during Covid, and other commercial property owners sued the city over the rule in 2020. He claimed it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Contract Clause, which bars governments from making laws that interfere with private contracts.
The city initially won a motion to dismiss that suit. Judge Ronnie Abrams ruled that case law gave “substantial deference” to policymakers working in the public interest, as was the case during the pandemic.
Landlords appealed and won a favorable ruling in October 2021. The court identified several “serious concerns” that the guaranty law was not a reasonable means to uphold public interest, as required by the Contract Clause, and sent the case back to Judge Abrams.
On the last day of March, Abrams ruled that the city did not produce enough evidence to show the guaranty law “is reasonably tailored to accomplish its legitimate policy goals.”
Different landlords filed a state lawsuit to challenge the city law, which was sponsored by City Council member Carlina Rivera of Manhattan, but lost on appeal.
For commercial landlords whose tenants fell behind on rent from March 2020 to June 2021 and whose leases held them personally liable for that debt, the ruling is a huge win. Those landlords may now be able to go after those tenants’ assets, said Sherwin Belkin of the law firm Belkin Burden Goldman.
The Real Estate Board of New York celebrated the decision as precedent-setting for commercial real estate.
“We applaud the Court’s thoughtful and meticulous review of the record and believe this litigation will have important precedential value,” said the group’s general counsel, Carl Hum.
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270 Park Avenue (Google Maps, Getty)One week after a construction worker fell to his death at JPMorgan Chase’s new headquarters, the skyscraper project remains largely shut down.
On March 24, a carpenter in his mid 50s lost his footing while working on the 12th floor of 270 Park Avenue, according to the Department of Buildings. He fell 20 feet and was pronounced dead at the scene, triggering an investigation and a stop-work order.
As of Friday, the agency had partially lifted the stop work order to allow the project’s general contractor, AECOM Tishman Construction, to perform safety-related measures and housekeeping work. Some foundation work is being performed by a separate contractor.
Officials are still investigating what led to the fatality.
The New York City District of Carpenters identified the worker as Wilbert Drummond, a 25-year member of the union who worked for Certified Interiors, a subcontractor that was doing core and shell work at the Park Avenue tower.
“To all who knew him, he was a quiet man, a talented carpenter, a hard worker and a dedicated member of our great union,” Joseph Geiger, executive-secretary treasurer of the District Council, said in a statement. “Day in and day out, Wilbert always looked out for the best interest of his crew, while producing some of the most iconic buildings in the city.”
Representatives for JPMorgan and AECOM Tishman said the companies are saddened by the death and are working city agencies to determine what went wrong.
Certified Interiors did not immediately return a request for comment.
When complete, the 60-story office tower is expected to rise 1,388 feet and span 2.5 million square feet.
The project was the first to take advantage of the 2017 rezoning of Midtown East, which was expected to spur modernizations of the neighborhood’s dated buildings and the development of millions of square feet of new office space.
City officials are now considering changing the zoning in the area again to produce more housing, given the prevalence of remote work.
JPMorgan Chase’s new headquarters can house up to 14,000 employees and is slated for completion in 2025.
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Parkway Property’s Jayson Lipsey with 5847 San Felipe Street (Parkway Property, Google Maps, Getty)A landmark Uptown-Houston office tower just sold for much less than its last appraised value of $219 million.
Sovereign Partners, led by brothers Darius and Cyrus Sakhai, bought the San Felipe Plaza, a 959,000-square-foot building at 5847 San Felipe Street, from Orlando-based Parkway Property Investments for nearly $83 million, the Houston Business Journal reported. That’s roughly $86 per square foot.
Transactions for the 1980s-built office tower have fluctuated each time it’s changed hands. Thomas Properties Group paid $165 million for the site in 2005, and then Jayson Lipsey’s Parkway acquired it through a stock-for-stock exchange worth $1.2 billion in 2013.
San Felipe Plaza’s sharp decline in value can be attributed to factors including high vacancy caused by the pandemic, rising interest rates and newer buildings being favored over older ones, the outlet said.
In the Uptown Galleria district, office vacancy rates hovered around 30 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to a report by Colliers. Citywide vacancy rates were at 23 percent.
Like many cities around the country, developers and commercial investors are relying on newer, flashier structures to lure tenants back into the office after the COVID-19 sparked the work-from-home trend.
“For the next three to five years, you might see more building owners throw in the towel and hand the keys over to the bank,” Houston real estate expert Jon Silberman told the outlet in January. “It’s not good for the owners, but for the market in general, it is sort of a cleansing process.”
San Felipe Plaza amenities include a landscaped plaza with seating areas, a conference center, fitness center, salon and car wash service.
—Quinn Donoghue
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Rendering of Catch restaurant with Black Lion’s Robert Rivani and a rendering of the Sunset Harbor mixed-use project with Boich Investment’s Wayne Boich (Kobi Karp, Gensler, Black Lion, Boich Investment)Developers of a South of Fifth seafood restaurant and a planned Sunset Harbour mixed-use project are aiming to reel in design approvals from the city of Miami Beach next week.
On Tuesday, the Miami Beach Design Review Board will consider approving a renovation plan by New York-based Catch Hospitality Group. It is proposing a South Beach outpost in a commercial building at 200 South Pointe Drive, adjacent to the Continuum on South Beach. The board will also take up variance requests from an investment group led by Wayne Boich for a proposed five-story building that will be a mix of offices and restaurants at 1920 Alton Road.
CatchCatch Hospitality, led by Eugene Remm, Mark Birnbaum and Tilman Fertitta, is proposing to renovate the ground-floor entrance and the rooftop terrace of the two-story building, according to a Feb. 6 letter of intent. The restaurant operators and their landlord, Miami-based Black Lion Investment Group, are seeking approval to add more planters, a water feature, a trellis and entry arches made out of aluminum to the front facade.
The plans show the entrance would be moved closer to South Pointe Drive to create a shorter travel distance between a car valet stand and the proposed restaurant, the letter of intent states. The renovation is being designed by Miami-based Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design.
On the rooftop, Catch Hospitality wants permission to replace an existing trellis with a new one that is retractable, as well as retractable awnings above the building’s east and west facades.
Catch Hospitality estimates the improvements will cost $1.3 million, the letter of intent states. An affiliate of Black Lion, led by Robert Rivani, paid $11.5 million for the 12,000-square-foot building last year. The retail and restaurant-focused firm signed Catch as a tenant shortly after closing on the property.
Catch has restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Aspen, Colorado.
1920 Alton RoadBoich, CEO of Miami Beach-based Boich Investment Group, teamed up with SL Green’s Andrew Mathias and Related Companies’ Bruce Beal Jr. to develop the Sunset Harbour project. The five-story building is planned to span more than 50,000 square feet.
Designed by San Francisco-based Gensler, the proposed building will have 25,223 square feet of office space, and roughly 8,284 square feet of restaurant space at the ground level, split between two tenants. It will also have three condo units totaling 13,271 square feet, according to an Oct. 10 letter of intent. The project will also have a garage.
The joint venture is seeking three variances that would grant Boich and his partners a height increase of three feet for the entire building, a ceiling height of 11 feet from the ground on the first floor, and two off-street loading parking spaces instead of three as required by city code, the letter of intent states.
The proposed site currently has a building that is leased to a Pura Vida restaurant and an Anatomy gym. The developers plan to demolish the building. A Boich affiliate paid $21.3 million for the property last year.
The post Catch restaurant, Sunset Harbour mixed-use project head for design approval appeared first on The Real Deal.
CBRE’s Russell Ingrum and 8750 North Central Expressway in Dallas (CBRE)Investors looking for a Class-A Dallas office building with staggering views of Central Expressway traffic is in luck. The rebranded Tower at Park Lane, the glass building just off the interstate with TopGolf displayed on it, is up for grabs.CBRE acquired the 20-story building in 2017 and is now looking to offload the high profile office tower, according to a marketing brochure. No price information was listed but the taxable value of the 509,000-square-foot building was $115 million in 2022, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District.
The tower is located at 8750 North Central Expressway next to the Shops at Park Lane and just across U.S. Highway 75 from NorthPark Center. The building is 7 miles north of downtown Dallas and a few blocks from high-end residential neighborhoods like Preston Hollow and University Park.
The building is 69 percent leased, and tenants include TopGolf, Match.com and Facebook. The building features amenities such as a cafe, fitness center and lounge. CBRE purchased the tower from MassMutual Financial Group for an undisclosed amount, but reports at the time suggested a $100-million-plus price tag. The firm is marketing the building now as an opportunity to “reimagine an office asset as a mixed use workplace experience.”
Renderings in the marketing brochure show potential spaces to build outdoor amenity areas including golf simulators and pickleball courts. The building has “future development potential” for multifamily, hotel and retail, CBRE states.
CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, moved its global headquarters to Dallas in 2020. A new headquarters for the company at 2401 McKinney Avenue in Uptown has been “indefinitely delayed.”
The commercial brokerage’s net income plummeted by 88 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2022, when the firm experienced a “slightly larger-than-expected decline in transactional revenue,” the earnings report stated. CBRE’s net income in 2022 fell by 23 percent.
DFW was named the top CRE market in the nation last year, and the city’s 10 largest office sales raked in over $1.58 billion. Post-pandemic, some office submarkets in North Texas have regressed, while areas like Far North Dallas, Irving and Uptown are on the rise.
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Oakland A’s owner John Fisher, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and rendering of proposed stadium development at Howard Terminal (MLB, Getty, City of Oakland)A $12 billion Oakland A’s ballpark and redevelopment project at Howard Terminal scored a major win after a court struck down an appeal about Oakland’s environmental review.
The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled the review sufficient as the A’s and Oakland resume negotiations over the protracted stadium deal, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The ruling upheld a decision by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman last fall that Oakland’s environmental review had reasonably found the A’s took adequate steps to limit air and water pollution and other potential hazards at the port site.
It also backed the review’s assertion that the $1 billion ballpark and $11 billion surrounding development were superior to a rebuilt stadium at the Coliseum, ringed by industrial development.
A coalition of port workers, truckers and cargo terminal operators had filed a lawsuit last April contending Oakland didn’t adequately study the adverse impacts of the project. It came after the City Council had certified the city’s 3,500-page environmental impact report.
The court, in its 3-0 ruling, also agreed with Seligman that the plan fell short by failing to explain how to limit the impact of offshore winds on the stadium.
The A’s report says wind should be reduced “to the maximum feasible extent without unduly restricting development potential” – a standard the court said was overly vague.
The court rejected all other claims by the East Oakland Stadium Alliance.
The alliance fought the Howard Terminal project on grounds that building a waterfront ballpark development would disrupt port operations. Oakland, the A’s and the port commission insist the port and ballpark can exist side-by-side.
The Oakland Athletics, owned by billionaire John Fisher, has proposed the 56-acre stadium project at Howard Terminal just west of Jack London Square, across from Alameda.
In addition to a 35,000-seat stadium, it would include 3,000 homes, up to 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, up to 270,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a 3,500-seat performance center, 400 hotel rooms and up to 18 acres of public open space.
Mayor Sheng Thao, sworn into office in January, said with the legal victory the city was “one step closer to reaching our goals.”
She said the city and the A’s are back to the negotiating table despite ongoing talks with Las Vegas about a potential move to Sin City. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wants the team and Oakland to reach an agreement by the end of the year.
The largest sticking points are the cost of infrastructure, the amount of affordable housing and the team’s relocation agreement.
While the city already has secured $321.5 million in funding for the infrastructure improvements, its most recent cost estimate suggests the total cost may be $600 million.
In January, Oakland struck out in obtaining a $182.9 million federal grant to help pay for off-site infrastructure.
— Dana Bartholomew
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Peninsula Land & Capital Roger Fields and 300 Lambert Ave, Palo Alto (City of Palo Alto, LinkedIn)Locally-based Peninsula Land & Capital has filed a builder’s remedy application in Palo Alto for a 65-foot tall residential building, according to city documents.
The project is at 300 Lambert Street and will total around 118,760 square feet, with 79,160 square feet for housing and 39,600 square feet for a two-level basement garage. Plans call for 45 condominium units, with nine of them being affordable, which will satisfy the affordability requirement for builder’s remedy projects.
Builder’s remedy, an untested provision of the three-decades old Housing Accountability Act, has emerged in recent months as a new strategy for developers. The provision allows developers automatic approval of their projects in cities that don’t have a housing plan, formally called a housing element, with the state. To qualify, a builder’s remedy project must designate 20 percent of its units for affordable housing or 100 percent for moderate income housing.
At 300 Lambert Street, plans call for the merger of two parcels at 280 and 300 Lambert that total 0.61 acres.
Palo Alto acknowledged that it is subject to builder’s remedy.
“Until the city has adopted a new Housing Element compliant with state law, it cannot deny certain qualifying housing projects regardless of their non-compliance with zoning standards or the comprehensive plan,” the city said in a statement.
The city also clarified that the project still has to “comply with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and go through the city’s review processes.”
Palo Alto’s admission of builder’s remedy goes against other Bay Area cities’ contention that these projects are not valid in their jurisdictions.
For example, Sonoma, a city in the Wine Country, deemed DeNova Homes’ application for 64 homes invalid and claims the city does not need state certification for its housing element.
“The City of Sonoma approved its 6th Cycle Housing Element as required by the State on Jan. 31 and is prepared to maintain that its housing element is substantially compliant, and that California Department of Housing and Community Development certification is not required for a housing element to be found substantially compliant with state law,” Sarah Tracy, the city’s public information officer, said.
Earlier this month, Los Altos Hills declined to process an application for two identical 44-unit buildings on the south side of the town. Los Altos also claimed to adopt its housing element without state approval.
Read moreSan FranciscoBay Area city and town say no to builder’s remedySan FranciscoSonoma deems DeNova Homes’ builder’s remedy line “invalid”The post Peninsula Land & Capital takes builder’s remedy route in Palo Alto appeared first on The Real Deal.
GFP’s Jeff Gural and 515 Madison Avenue (GFP, Getty)Jeff Gural’s GFP Real Estate isn’t being foreclosed upon at its home base — at least not today.
GFP landed a three-year extension on its mortgage at 515 Madison Avenue, the Commercial Observer reported. GFP took out the loan on the DuMont building in 2009, restructuring it four years later with Wells Fargo.
It’s not clear what the outstanding balance is, but Fitch had reported that GFP defaulted on a $103 million loan on the property.
In a statement, GFP noted the extension comes with a pledge to commit equity to the property for future leasing needs and tenant improvements. The office has leased 32,000 square feet this year.
Iron Hound Management’s Robert Verrone negotiated the lease extension on GFP’s behalf.
The largest occupant of the building is coworking firm Jay Suites, which leased 50,000 square feet, roughly 14 percent of the property, in 2018. The building was 84 percent occupied at the end of last year, according to Crain’s, but that’s expected to drop to 75 percent after Memorial Sloan Kettering’s lease expires.
Still, the firm predicts it will be fully leased by the end of the year.
GFP itself has occupied 13,000 square feet for the past two years. A foreclosure at the DuMont Building could have put the firm in an awkward position.
With the pressure alleviated at 515 Madison, Gural can focus on the drama at the Flatiron Building, where he was ushered aside — temporarily, at least — by the mysterious Jacob Garlick in an auction for the property. But Garlick failed to make a deposit on the property, likely sending it back to auction.
Gural has the right to exercise his second-place bid of $189.5 million, but has so far been noncommittal about whether he will do so.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkDumont Building defaults on $103M loanNew YorkThe Flatiron fiasco: How a key blunder left a New York icon in limboNew YorkJay Suites is opening its 9th outpost at GFP's 515 Madison AvenueThe post Jeff Gural staves off foreclosure at DuMont Building appeared first on The Real Deal.
Joel Schreiber and KBS Realty Advisors’ Charles Schreiber with 445 South Figueroa Street (Shir Stein, LinkedIn, Union Bank Plaza, Getty)Joel Schreiber’s Waterbridge Capital has closed a deal to purchase the 40-story Union Bank Plaza in Downtown L.A. from KBS, just more than a day before the city of L.A.’s new transfer taxes go into effect.
Waterbridge paid $111 million, or about $158 per square foot, for the property, after nine months of delays, according to Kevin Shannon, who brokered the deal on behalf of KBS.
Waterbridge bought the property using a $75 million acquisition loan from Steve Gozini’s BH Properties, a real estate investment firm based in West L.A., according to an announcement from Colliers. A Colliers team led by Sean Fulp and Mark Schuessler helped Schreiber land the financing. Neither a representative for Schreiber nor KBS responded to a request for comment.
KBS Real Estate Investment II has marketed the tower at 445 South Figueroa Street for sale since 2017, eyeing $250 million for the 701,000-square-foot property in 2021.
But that price didn’t hold. Schreiber’s Waterbridge Capital first went into contract to purchase the office tower in July for $155 million.
KBS had offered a $13 million credit to Waterbridge if the sale was completed by March 29, according to filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission, but it’s unclear whether that was granted, since the deal closed on March 30.
But the deal has been plagued by delays since then, though Schreiber continued to put down more in deposits. He scored 11 extensions on the deal, which allowed him to negotiate a lower price over the course of time.
By closing before the new transfer tax goes into effect on April 1, KBS saved $6.1 million.
With the sale, KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II will have no properties left on its books, allowing it to proceed with a plan to liquidate, according to SEC filings.
Schreiber, who is known for being the first investor in WeWork, tried his hand at another L.A. office property, the Broadway Trade Center, but lost it to Starwood in a foreclosure last year.
In lawsuits, Schreiber himself has admitted to facing general liquidity issues — in a 2018 deposition, he said he had less than $1 million in liquidity. He has also faced litigation from Goldman Sachs, which alleged he over pledged his WeWork stock in order to secure a loan from the investment bank.
Read moreLos AngelesKBS’ deal to sell Union Bank Plaza to Joel Schreiber delayed for 9th timeThe post Joel Schreiber closes on Union Bank Plaza sale to beat tax deadline appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Cook County’s population dropped by 68,314 last year with June 30 being the cutoff point, but downtown Chicago appears to be thriving.
The U.S. Census Bureau shows the number of residents fell from 5,177,606 to 5,109,292, which is less than the 84,000 drop year-over-year since June 2021, Crain’s reported. Other areas in the metro including Lake, Kane and Will counties all experienced a population decrease as well. McHenry County was the only collar county to boost its population and it wasn’t by much, swelling by just 150 people.
Population growth rates are considered a key metric by many real estate investors considering where to put their capital to work, and Chicago’s has been negative over several decades.
However, the Chicago Loop Alliance revealed last month that the city’s downtown core is one of the fastest growing in the nation, despite the population retreat from Cook County as a whole. Research firm Goodman Williams Group conducted a study and found that the Central Loop area saw an influx of over 4,000 new residents since the pandemic.
An average of $18,000 is spent in the Loop per household in the neighborhood annually, and the area’s residents contribute $481 million in annual economic impact in the area, the organization said.
Chicago Loop Alliance CEO Michael Edwards spoke about the ways in which city officials, businesses and residents must come together in order to take advantage of downtown’s steady growth.
“The Loop continues to be the city’s fastest growing neighborhood, and the fastest growing residential downtown in the country, yet the Loop remains in need of amenities to attract and retain residents,” Edwards said. “We hope the evidence and narrative of this study provides context for how we can all work together to make Chicago’s Loop more beneficial for workers, tourists, and residents.”
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoChicagoland new home sales slide to lowest level since 2010ChicagoChicago housing market feels the chill with 15% fewer salesChicagoChicago’s housing market fared better than others in 2022The post Cook County’s population dropped last year appeared first on The Real Deal.
NRP Group’s Ken Outcalt and an aerial view of the project site at 1402 Carrollton Parkway in Carrollton (Getty, NRP Group, Google Maps)One of the nation’s largest multifamily developers continues to expand its beefy Texas portfolio with a second 300+ unit complex in the northern Dallas suburbs.
NRP Group will construct a 331-unit, $69 million dollar multifamily complex at 1402 Carrollton Parkway in Carrollton, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing. The wrap-style apartment building will span 611,000 square feet with construction slated to begin this August and last around two years, according to the filing.
The estimated cost works out to about $208,000 per unit.
The project, called Diamond Flats, will be situated on 7 acres just off the Sam Rayburn Tollway. The site is 12 miles from DFW International Airport and 24 miles from Downtown Dallas.
NRP did not immediately respond to requests to comment on the project, and further details about the complex, which is near the Fields at Carrollton Parkway sports complex, have not yet been released.
NRP was founded in 1994 and has developed more than 50,000 apartment units nationwide, according to its website. The firm is based in Ohio but has offices across the country, including in Dallas. NRP constructed the Ellis apartments in 2016, another 330-unit development in Carrollton and manages multiple apartment buildings across DFW and Texas.
Read moreDallasNRP Group eyes affordable resi project in southern DallasDallasMovers: Guerrero to Affordable Housing GroupNew YorkShaquille O’Neal trades big Florida home for smaller Texas oneCarrollton, along with Plano, Frisco and McKinney, is one of the north Dallas suburb cities that has experienced extensive growth in the past decade. The city has added nearly 2,000 apartment units and has fiscally supported developments along the Dallas Area Rapid Transit commuter railway line that is set to open in 2025.
The DFW metroplex is still primed for development even as North Texas has experienced explosive growth in recent years. A recent Yardi Systems study found that Dallas leads the nation in most vacant land available for future projects with 90,739 acres across more than 30,000 parcels. Fort Worth ranked second on the list with 74,835 acres of untapped land.
The post NRP Group continues DFW multifamily spree appeared first on The Real Deal.
Clockwise from right: Donald Trump, Alvin Bragg, Stormy Daniels, and Michael Cohen (Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal) Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president charged with a crime when a Manhattan grand jury indicted him for his alleged role in a hush-money payment to a porn star weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
The news was reported Thursday afternoon by various outlets, including the New York Times, which cited five sources, and the Associated Press, which cited a lawyer for Trump.
The real estate developer was facing charges of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair in 2006.
Falsifying business records is typically a misdemeanor in New York, but if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office can prove that Trump falsified the records in an attempt to conceal a second crime — in this case, a violation of federal election law — it can be prosecuted as a felony.
The payments were allegedly made in October 2016 by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney. Trump has denied the affair and stated that he did not direct Cohen to make the payment, but acknowledged reimbursing him for it.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to eight charges related to the payment, including campaign-finance violations, and received a three-year prison sentence which he spent mostly in home confinement. Cohen has maintained that his former boss instructed him to make the payment.
Bragg’s office opened its criminal investigation into Trump’s alleged role in the payment shortly after Cohen’s guilty plea in 2018, the New York Times previously reported.
Federal prosecutors investigating Cohen at the time said in court papers that the Trump Organization “falsely accounted” for Cohen’s monthly reimbursements as legal expenses, citing a retainer agreement. But no such agreement existed, the prosecutors alleged, and the payments were not connected to any legal services Cohen performed for Trump.
This is the first time that prosecutors in New York have sought to combine a charge of falsifying business records with a violation of state election law involving a presidential campaign, according to legal experts who spoke to the Times. That legal hurdle could result in a judge throwing out the case or reducing the felony charge to a misdemeanor.
If convicted, Trump would face a maximum prison sentence of four years.
The former president’s business has been targeted by Bragg as well. The Trump Organization was fined $1.6 million in January over its conviction on tax fraud and related charges in December. A jury found two affiliates of the company guilty of 17 criminal counts, including tax fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records.
Read moreNationalTrump allies assembling “Patriots’ Row” in D.C.New YorkBally’s eyes casino bid at Trump’s Bronx golf courseNationalWhat are the real estate holdings of Biden and the living ex-presidents?The post Trump indicted in Stormy Daniels hush money probe appeared first on The Real Deal.
CA College of the Arts Stephen Beal with 5212 Broadway in Oakland (Google Maps, Twitter/@StephenBeal2)California College of the Arts’ former campus in Oakland could become a redevelopment project with nearly 450 units of housing, according to a Planning Commission meeting.
The proposed project is a partnership between CCA, which owns the property, and San Francisco-based real estate developers Emerald Fund and Equity Community Builders.
The campus is located at 5212 Broadway. Plans call for the development of two buildings that will contain 448 units and 6,600 square feet of commercial space. The project would require the demolition of 10 buildings. About 41,000 square feet of open space will remain, according to the plans.
The original plans for the redevelopment was unveiled in 2018, calling for 589 housing units, a 19-story residential tower and 35 artist homes in a refurbished dormitory on Clifford Street. Due to community feedback, the developers updated their plans which resulted in a midrise concept that eliminated the tower, added more open space and reduced the unit count to 448.
“The project has evolved, and been shaped by, over five years of community input and feedback from a variety of stakeholders with an interest in the former CCA campus, Rockridge and Oakland,” the project’s website states.
CCA first opened in Berkeley in 1907 and moved to Oakland in 1922. In the mid 90s the school opened a second campus in San Francisco, and announced that the Oakland location would close and merge with the San Francisco campus last year.
CCA isn’t the only historical college in Oakland to close its doors. Holy Names announced at the end of last year it will shut down, and the campus listed for sale this month for $70 million. Developers are eyeing either preserving the educational function of the location or redeveloping the 60-acre site into residential units.
“It could be a candidate for single-family housing or condominiums,” Tim Warren from Nai Norcal said. “Apartments would be unlikely given its proximity to downtown Oakland and public transportation.”
The post Oakland college campus ripe for conversion into 450 residential units appeared first on The Real Deal.
Ashkenazy Acquisitions’ Ben Ashkenazy and 625 North Michigan Avenue (Getty, Ashkenazy Acquisitions, LoopNet)Barings is moving against Ashkenazy Acquisition for its debt against a Magnificent Mile retail asset.
New York-based Ashkenazy acquired the 52,000-square-foot property at 625 North Michigan Avenue with a $61 million loan from Barings just before the pandemic hit, Crain’s reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Now Ashkenazy, whose CEO is Ben Ashkenazy, has its head fully under water, as the famed retail strip has suffered from soaring vacancy rates and plummeting values since the health crisis.
Barings has snagged control of the property and is near hiring CBRE to sell it. The space in which Ashkenazy occupied now has an estimated value of just $40 million, meaning the firm’s equity stake could be wiped out completely.
The bulk of retail space at 625 North Michigan, which spans the lower floors of a 27-story building, is empty after big-named tenants Timberland and Coach jumped ship. The last remaining tenant is Garrett Popcorn, occupying a measly 1,500 square feet at the site.
Other notable brands that have left the Mag Mile include Gap, Uniqlo and Banana Republic. Retail vacancy rates are hanging at 29 percent, which is double the pre-pandemic amount.
The loan had an initial maturity date of Jan. 1, 2023, according to Cook County records. But specific terms of the deal, like whether there was any flexibility to extend the maturity date, aren’t public, so it’s unclear as to how Ashkenazy defaulted on its loan.
Read moreChicagoBlatteis & Schnur step up to Mag Mile with Chicago retail holdings for $27MChicagoMag Mile to get largest retail lease since 2015ChicagoH&M downsizes in Mag Mile moveAlthough the Mag Mile is still struggling mightily, there have been some signs of life, as some tenants are downsizing their space but at least staying on the boulevard. Apparel retailer H&M recently agreed to a four-year lease at 679 North Michigan Avenue, occupying 30,000 square feet of the four-story building, making it one of the largest deals on the strip in years. H&M previously held 60,000 square feet at 840 North Michigan Avenue.
Los Angeles-based Blatteis & Schnur also recently took a chance on the Mag Mile by purchasing a fully leased 5,860-square-foot space at 909 North Michigan Avenue for $27.3 million.
— Quinn Donoghue
The post Ashkenazy risks losing Mag Mile asset appeared first on The Real Deal.
Domenic Gatto and the Banyan Cay Resort & Golf Club at 2020 Banyan Way (Google Maps, Getty, Facebook/Jack Nicklaus)Domenic Gatto Jr., the embattled developer of the Banyan Cay Resort in West Palm Beach, is waving the white flag.
On Wednesday, Gatto’s development entity for the hotel-anchored mixed-use project filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, with a plan to sell the 200-acre property to pay off debtors. Fort Myers-based forensic accountant Gerard A. McHale is the proposed chief restructuring officer, according to the development entity’s petition in West Palm Beach’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
McHale is seeking the bankruptcy court’s permission to hire Keen-Summit Capital Partners to market the property.
Miami-based attorney Joseph A. Pack, who represents the development entity Banyan Cay Resort & Golf LLC, did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
The petition states Banyan Cay Resort & Golf has assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million. The development entity has not yet filed its list of creditors.
Banyan Cay Resort & Golf consists of a Hyatt-branded hotel with 150 rooms that is under construction, and a 130-acre golf course designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus. The development entity also owns adjacent development sites that are approved for 179 condo units, 28 single-family homes and 22 villas.
In 2015, Gatto purchased the property formerly known as The President Country Club for $26 million.
The bankruptcy petition noted the golf course has about 200 members, and has been in operation since 2017. However, the luxury hotel’s completion has been delayed by contentious litigation against the developer from contractors alleging nonpayment, and lenders seeking repayment of delinquent loans, court records show.
In addition, Gatto’s pending federal indictment for conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connection with an unrelated, alleged $65 million scheme complicated the project’s construction timeline.
Banyan Cay Resort & Golf’s parent company also filed for bankruptcy protection last month. The bankruptcy petitions halted the potential sale of the property tied to foreclosure actions against the development entity.
The same day the parent company filed for bankruptcy, an affiliate of California-based Calmwater Capital won a $95.1 million judgment against Banyan Cay Resort & Golf and Gatto for defaulting on a $61 million construction loan. The foreclosure sale was set for April 13.
A mezzanine lender made up of EB-5 visa program foreign investors had also sought to sell the Banyan Cay Resort site through a UCC foreclosure auction after the developer allegedly defaulted on a $5 million mortgage debt.
Banyan Cay Resort & Golf could obtain a temporary certificate of occupancy within two months if the development entity is allowed to continue building the hotel, according to a declaration by McHale.
With “debtor-in-possession funding and the breathing room afforded to debtors under Chapter 11,” the development entity would be “in a prime position to engage in a robust sales process,” the declaration states.
The post Banyan Cay Resort files for second bankruptcy, could head to auction appeared first on The Real Deal.
Equinix CEO Charles Mayers and 1990 North Stemmons Freeway (Equinix, Google Maps)One of Dallas’ biggest buildings is about to have a $180 million addition.
Data center giant Equinix announced plans for a 211,000-square-foot expansion of the iconic Infomart building at 1990 North Stemmons Freeway, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The California-based company bought the building for a record-breaking $800 million in 2018. Equinix, whose CEO is Charles Meyers, completed a $140 million expansion of the Infomart in 2020, bringing its total investment at the site to more than $1.1 billion, the outlet said.
Additions to the property will include a four-story office and a four-story data center, planning documents show. Equinix owns at least eight other data centers in North Texas.
The Infomart was built in the 1980s, developed by the Trammell Crow Company, and originally comprised 1.6 million square feet before expansions.
The Dallas-Fort Worth region continues to serve as a hub for tech and data centers, attracting businesses from all over. DFW had 2.2 million square feet of such projects in the pipeline by the end of last year, the outlet reported. Buildings centered around data centers had a reported vacancy rate of less than 4 percent.
DFW isn’t the only part of Texas seeing massive tech projects. Microsoft recently announced plans for a $176 million, 153,000-square-foot data center at the Texas Research Park in San Antonio.
Near Austin, Facebook parent company Meta has a $800 million, 900,000-square-foot data center in the works, and Las Vegas-based Switch is building a 1.5 million-square-foot data center on the campus of Dell Technologies in Round Rock, a suburb north of Austin.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasMicrosoft plans $176M data center in S.A.DallasLarkspur to start $160M apartments in Dallas ChicagoSykes owners file lawsuit against city, Scott GoodmanThe post Equinix plans $180M expansion of the Infomart appeared first on The Real Deal.
Riboli Family Wines’ Steve Riboli (prnewswire.com, Grimshaw, Getty)The Riboli family, who are best known for running L.A.’s San Antonio Winery, have filed plans to build a sleek office building in Chinatown.
The plans lay out a 233,000-square-foot project that consists of two adjacent office buildings and landscaping with outdoor workspaces. The stacked box project design, from the architecture firm Grimshaw, is meant to emphasize sustainability, with “on-site solar photovoltaic arrays” and “carbon-sequestering mass timber.”
With the project, the Ribolis — whose original winery is less than a mile to the east, just across the Los Angeles River — aim to transform a piece of Downtown L.A. that’s primed for redevelopment. The 1.2-acre site is located at 130 West College Street, on the eastern edge of Chinatown, and is currently a surface parking lot.
The property has been in the family since at least the late 1990s, when one member of the family bought it for just under $1 million, according to property records. It’s currently owned by S & R Partners, a firm managed by Steve Riboli, who took over as president and CEO of the 100-year-old family wine business.
The office project is not the Ribolis’ first development venture: They’re also behind the recent redevelopment of Downtown L.A.’s Capitol Milling complex into a hip, 60,000-square-foot commercial property with offices, shops and restaurants.
That complex, next to the Chinatown metro station, dates back to the 19th century and includes eight buildings, some of which rank among L.A.’s oldest.
In recent years Chinatown has seen a surge of new development, including high-end apartment complexes, sparking a wave of gentrification concerns.
Read moreLos AngelesKevin Chen’s TRJLA lists major Chinatown projectLos AngelesApartment owner charged on “trapped” seniors in ChinatownLos AngelesRedcar buys Dynasty shopping center in ChinatownThe post LA’s winemaking Riboli family plans Chinatown office project appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rilea Group’s Diego Ojeda with rendering of the Mangrove at Dania Beach (Rilea Group, Getty)Rilea Group plans a 237-unit apartment building in Dania Beach, marking continued development appetite in the city.
The Miami-based firm wants to build the 12-story Mangrove at Dania Beach on 2 acres at 480 East Dania Beach Boulevard, according to a Rilea news release. The city has approved the project and construction is expected to begin in the fall. Completion is slated for late 2025.
Mangrove would overlook an 1,800-acre natural preserve that includes West Lake and Anne Kolb Nature Center.
The project comes amid a development flurry in Dania Beach.
Mangrove will be close to Dan Kodsi’s Elevate Apartments, an eight-story building with 293 units under construction at 600 East Dania Beach Boulevard. In December, Kodsi’s Royal Palm Companies scored a $76.5 million construction loan for the project.
Also nearby, the Pérez family’s Related Group scored approval in 2021 for a 14-story, 355-unit apartment building at 901 East Dania Beach Boulevard.
Completed projects include Cymbal DLT’s 301-unit Oasis Pointe apartment building at 150 South Bryan Road, which was finished last year.
Based in Miami, Rilea has developed some of Brickell’s marquee towers. They include the 1450 Brickell Avenue and Sabadell Financial Center office towers, as well as The Bond condominium.
Alan Ojeda founded the firm in 1981 and is CEO, and his son, Diego Ojeda, is president.
In recent years, Rilea has also wagered on Miami’s Wynwood. Its projects there include the 12-story, 260-unit Mohawk at Wynwood on a full city block at 31 and 37 Northeast 28th Street, as well as at 56 Northeast 29th Street.
South Florida’s multifamily developers rushed to seize on the hot market in the past two years. More recently, the construction frenzy has slowed because of expensive financing, skyrocketing insurance premiums, and costly labor and materials. In the meantime, many developers have focused on obtaining project approvals.
Read moreSouth FloridaDeveloper wins approval for multifamily project in Dania BeachThe post Rilea plans 237-unit apartment project near Dania Beach preserve appeared first on The Real Deal.
OC Ventures’ Shangxuan Tan and Berkadia’s Justin Wheeler with 410 S Morgan Street (LinkedIn, Berkadia Proprietary Holding, LoopNet, Getty)A West Loop student-housing complex is about to test the commercial market.
Berkadia has been hired by OC Ventures to sell the Letterman, a 482-bed property at 410 South Morgan Street near the University of Illinois Chicago, Crain’s reported. The building is 112 years old and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
OC Ventures bought the property for $51 million in 2019, but whether the firm gets a return on its investment remains to be seen, as the pandemic, rising interest rates and other economic factors have taken some bites out of commercial real estate values.
However, the growing student body at UIC provides a bright spot for potential investors, especially with remote learning fading. The school set a record this past year with a freshman class of 4,244 students, the outlet reported.
Plus, the Letterman is 97 percent leased, and rents are low, meaning a buyer could view the property as a lucrative long-term investment given the school’s steady growth.
Chicago-based real estate firms are getting in on the student housing craze in California, too.
Last year, a joint venture of Marc Lifshin’s development firm Core Spaces and investment firm Harrison Street paid $21.5 million in January for about a third of an acre across from University of California Berkeley, where the city has approved a 232-bed, 87-unit student housing project, meaning the partnership paid more than $247,000 per unit to take control of the site. That surpassed the previous record price for the area by 26 percent, according to CBRE.
The 410 South Morgan building isn’t OC Ventures’ first crack at a student-housing endeavor. In August 2022, the firm paid $33 million for X Chicago, a 99-unit, 167-bed property at 710 West 14th Street, one block away from UIC’s south campus.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoVista sues gallery for stalling West Loop office projectChicagoTishman extends West Loop tower leases, albeit in downsizesChicagoOC Ventures drops $33M on student housing propertyThe post OC Ventures courts buyers for West Loop student housing appeared first on The Real Deal.
Related Companies’ Jeff Blau and Nuveen’s Jose Minaya with 2160 East 7th Street (Related Companies, Nuveen, Google Maps, Getty)It’s “lights, camera, action” time for Nuveen, which just bought a production studio in the Arts District for $85 million, The Real Deal has learned.
The asset manager bought the 95,000-square-foot studio at 2160 East 7th Street from a joint venture between Related Fund Management and studio operator DGMT, according to a source familiar with the matter. Neither Nuveen nor the sellers immediately responded to a request for comment.
Doug Harmon, Kevin Donner and Ben Lushing brokered the deal while they were at Cushman & Wakefield, though the team has since moved to Newmark.
Related’s fund management arm and DGMT made a hefty return on the property. The duo purchased it for $35 million — $368 a square foot — in October 2020, county records show. The joint venture bought it from Davalan Sales, a produce wholesaler, and redeveloped the building into studios, according to a separate source familiar with the 2020 purchase.
There’s a long-term lease in place with a nationally known tenant, a source said, but declined to comment on the lease terms.
At roughly $900 a foot, the deal came out to slightly less than other studios have traded for over the last few years, as streaming services have rushed to produce content to meet consumer demand. A high point came in March of last year – before interest rates soared – when Hines bought a roughly 30,000-square-foot studio in Burbank for $1,500 a foot.
This push for content has led institutional players, like Blackstone, Related and now Nuveen, to get into the studio game.
By closing this week, the buyer and the sellers narrowly avoided the city’s new transfer taxes on sales over $4 million. If the deal had closed after April 1, Related and DGMT would have had to pay a 5.5 percent tax on the sale, coming out to an extra $4.7 million.
Read moreNationalL.A. studios look to weather the stormLos AngelesHackman Capital pays $140M for stake in Raleigh StudiosLos AngelesHackman plans $1B revamp of former ViacomCBS lot in Studio CityThe post Nuveen buys Arts District studio for $85M appeared first on The Real Deal.
WeWork’s Sandeep Mathrani (Getty)WeWork never made losses part of its narrative during its meteoric early years, but it does now.
The flex office giant gleefully reported Wednesday that it cut its net losses in half last year to $2.3 billion from the year before.
WeWork’s negative cash flow from operating activities dropped from $1.9 billion in 2021 to $700 million, and the company’s revenue last year was $3.25 billion, a 26 percent increase from 2021.
In a letter to shareholders, CEO Sandeep Mathrani celebrated WeWork’s year and claimed that the firm was built to benefit from the higher-interest-rate environment, which has made it harder to refinance office properties and stalled office leasing.
“This is WeWork’s moment,” Mathrani said.
WeWork’s revenue bump was driven by increased occupancy and memberships, according to Mathrani. The company ended the year with 682,000 memberships, the most in its history, and it had a 70 percent occupancy rate in more than two-thirds of its markets.
“In a time of uncertainty for space occupiers, WeWork can provide certainty,” Mathrani boasted. “We believe a seismic behavioral shift is transforming the traditional commercial office landscape — putting WeWork front and center as the flexible solution.”
However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for WeWork. The company’s red ink last year brought its accumulated losses to an astounding $16.2 billion. The firm lost $454 million in the fourth quarter and finished the year with just $287 million in its coffers — down from $924 million at the end of 2021.
WeWork has been cutting back, but its lease obligations were still $15.6 billion when this year began.
WeWork attributed its historical losses to investments into expanding WeWork’s footprint, the operation of non-core businesses and the pandemic. The firm said that its growth plans “placed a significant strain on the company’s resources.”
WeWork entered into a series of agreements this month that will reduce its net debt by $1.5 billion, extend the maturity of its senior loans to 2027 and produce new funding and rolled-over capital commitments of roughly $1 billion.
WeWork was close to a deal earlier this month to restructure more than $3 billion in debt and raise cash. The cash boost would be in the hundreds of millions, enough to keep the company afloat for another few years.
Real estate software provider Yardi was among those considering a new investment in WeWork.
SoftBank, the company’s largest investor and creditor, was part of the negotiations but not expected to put more money into a firm it has already dumped $10 billion into since 2017. SoftBank lent WeWork $250 million in January and increased the size of a debt facility and postponed a repayment deadline in February.
WeWork said at the start of the year that it would cut 300 jobs. Nearly 39 percent of the company’s publicly tradable shares were shorted as of March 15. Its stock price rose 7 percent Wednesday to 75 cents a share but is down 46 percent this year and 89 percent in the past 12 months.
Read moreNew YorkJoel Schreiber, WeWork's first investor, under fire on multiple frontsNew YorkInside Adam Neumann’s WeWork-ification of residential real estateNew YorkSapir: WeWork hiding behind shell companies in lease disputeThe post WeWork halves annual loss to $2.3 billion appeared first on The Real Deal.
Toll Brothers’ Douglas C. Yearley with Pond Moon Capital’s Patrick Chen and a rendering of The Mirra (Pond Moon, Toll Brothers)Sitework has begun for another luxury multifamily development in Frisco, signaling the area’s meteoric growth.
A Toll Brothers subsidiary, Toll Brothers Apartment Living, and partnering company Pondmoon Capital, recently started construction on the Mirra — a five-story, 285-unit apartment complex located at 8320 Church Street in the booming Frisco Square, Multi-Housing News reported.
A $49.5 million construction loan from Santander Bank, set to mature June 16, 2026, will help finance the 330,000-square-foot project. Construction is expected to be completed by fall 2024, according to its website.
The Mirra, built on a 296-acre lot, will have units ranging from studio to two-bedroom floor plans. It will also have 435 parking spaces and private balconies, terraces and yards for select plans. Amenities include a lounge and bar, social mailroom, resident clubroom, billiards lounge, fitness center and resort-style pool, the outlet said.
The Mirra is the latest example of developers’ “go big or go home” mentality as it pertains to Frisco. Other luxurious nearby projects include the Legacy Business Center, Granite Business Park, the new PGA of America Headquarters, Legacy West, Hall Park and The Star. Many of these communities feature a blend of boutique restaurants and retailers, single-family homes, apartment high-rises and lavish hotels.
Pondmoon CEO Patrick Chen said the recently announced Universal Studios theme park, being built just north of the Mirra, is an example of the area’s momentous growth, the outlet reported.
Pondmoon and Toll Brothers also completed the Ferro in November — a 379-unit rental community in Plano.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasHall Group adds luxury hotel to $7B Frisco projectDallasToll Brothers adding apartments to Frisco SquareTexasFrisco shopping center gets $25M construction loanThe post Toll Bros starts apartments at Frisco Square appeared first on The Real Deal.
Inna and Elan Katz (right) with 6 Pelican Drive in Fort Lauderdale (Getty, Google Maps)Manufacturing chief Arvinder Bajaj sold a newly completed waterfront spec mansion in Fort Lauderdale for $14.8 million.
Records show Bajaj sold the house at 6 Pelican Drive to Elan and Inna Katz.
Tim Elmes of Compass had the listing, and Jamie Boyle, also with Compass, brought the buyers. Boyle declined to comment on their identity.
Elan Katz is a health care entrepreneur. He founded Specialty Infusion, Cure Urgent Care, and QuickRx, all New York City-based health care service providers. He is the CEO of Aventine Healthcare Group, his LinkedIn shows.
Bajaj heads Plantation-based manufacturing company AB Diversified. He partnered with a local homebuilder for the project, Boyle said.
Records show he bought the 0.4-acre Pelican Drive property for $2.6 million in 2016. He completed construction of the 10,350-square-foot, six-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom mansion earlier this year, the listing shows. The property spans 120 feet of waterfront, and includes a 72-foot-long lap pool and an outdoor kitchen, according to the listing.
Bajaj first listed the property for $18 million in November, Redfin shows. The sale price was $3 million, or 16.7 percent, below the initial asking price.
Price growth boomed in Fort Lauderdale’s luxury real estate market during the pandemic, with back-to-back record sales in recent months. Newly constructed homes and buildable lots have been in particularly high demand.
“The market has definitely slowed down,” Boyle said.
In December, a pair of insurance executives, brothers Seth and Brad Cohen, bought a waterfront teardown in Fort Lauderdale for $19.5 million. That same month, hedge funder Donald Sussman sold a waterfront lot for $17 million.
In July, the Cohen brothers sold a waterfront spec estate in Fort Lauderdale for $28.5 million, marking a Broward County record. The glory was short-lived, though. A self-storage mogul bought a waterfront spec compound in Fort Lauderdale for $32.5 million in August, setting a new Broward County price record that has yet to be beaten.
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Rendering of 2850 Stevens Creek Boulevard (Henry Cord, Getty)The redevelopment site for a 170-key hotel in San Jose has fallen into default stemming from delinquency on the loan. The parcel is set to be sold at auction, according to public records.
The proposed hotel development is at 2850 Stevens Creek Boulevard and is managed by Adeel Mahmood, a principal executive with Villa Developers & Investment. The development firm defaulted on a $6.7 million loan that it obtained from First Credit Bank in 2019. The asset has an unpaid balance of $8 million and the property sale is scheduled for April 12, according to property records.
Mahmood’s group first fell into delinquency on the loan in 2021. It ended up squaring the payments and saved the property from going into foreclosure. It was then put up for sale along with the adjacent parcel at 2812 Stevens Creek in a package deal for $20 million.
Approved plans for the site call for an 11-story hotel with 170 rooms. There is currently a gas station at the location. Property records don’t indicate that the parcel at 2815 Stevens Creek is part of the default or the pending sale of the hotel site.
The pandemic rocked Silicon Valley’s hospitality industry with business travel suspensions and projects put on hold. That changed last year, with seven hotels opening in Santa Clara County as halted projects were completed.
“Santa Clara County openings were all business-related hotels that were planned and in construction prior to the downturn in business travel,” Alan Reay, president of consulting firm Atlas Hospitality, said. “These hotels were all planned during the ‘boom’ times for business in Santa Clara County, predominantly driven by tech.”
Recently the Bay Area has experienced the impact of a distressed market with a number of defaults on a variety of commercial properties. Two other San Jose hotels fell into default after failing to pay their mortgages at the end of last year. More recently, Veritas defaulted on its $450 million loan for 62 apartment buildings.
“All property sectors across commercial real estate with maturing loans are going to face some level of refinance stress because interest rates have shot up so quickly in such a short amount of time,” Melissa Che from Fitch Ratings said.
Read moreSan FranciscoSanta Clara County leads state in hotel openings last yearSan FranciscoTwo hotel sites in North San Jose default on mortgagesSan FranciscoVeritas’ $450M loan default: A sign of things to come?The post Development site for 170-room San Jose hotel falls into default appeared first on The Real Deal.
@properties’ Emily Sachs Wong with 2026 North Mohawk Street (@properties, Google Maps, Getty)Two months after a Lincoln Park property that was the residence of investor Anne Dias trimmed its listing price by $1.7 million, it appears to have found a buyer.
The home at 2026 North Mohawk Street now asking $7.8 million was marked as having accepted a contingent offer on public listing sites on Tuesday.
Dias is the founder and CEO of New York-based investment firm Aragon Global Management, a philanthropist as well as the ex-wife of billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin, who is also in the midst of a selloff of high-end Chicago real estate holdings after moving his company Citadel’s headquarters to Miami along with his family.
The Lincoln home is the fifth-priciest listed for sale in Lincoln Park. That includes the most expensive residential listing in Chicago, a $30 million, 25,000-square-foot estate that’s been on the market for years and had its price chopped down from $45 million earlier this year.
Emily Sachs Wong, an agent with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, is representing the Dias listing. She didn’t return a request for comment.
Should the Mohawk Street home sell for its asking price, it would be the most expensive sale so far this year in Lincoln Park and the second-priciest sale of the year within city limits. Only Dias’ ex-husband, Griffin, has bested that price by selling his 66th-floor condo at the Park Tower on Michigan Avenue for $11.2 million in January, a 25 percent loss from his 2012 purchase of the unit for $15 million.
The Dias home was listed for sale in October for $9.5 million, a drop from when it last sold for $10 million on July 12, which marked the neighborhood’s priciest deal in 2022, according to Cook County records. The 11,000-square-foot home has seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms.
The $10 million sale was an anomaly, though. It was respectively bought and sold by limited liability companies Mohawk Partners II and Mohawk Partners. It’s unclear whether that sale was a formality within the former couple’s real estate holdings or why it was sold and then relisted so quickly for $500,000 less.
Its new owners are not clear from public records since the property changed hands in July, and the home was previously purchased by an LLC for $8.35 million in February 2016. The couple divorced in 2015.
Griffin, Citadel’s CEO, announced in June 2022 he was relocating the firm’s headquarters to Miami, citing Chicago’s issues with crime. In July, he listed his two full-floor penthouse condominiums in Park Tower on Michigan Avenue. The 66th- and 67th-floor units are asking $13.25 million and $15.75 million, respectively. Since announcing Citadel’s move, Griffin also sold one of his luxury residential properties in Chicago, a Waldorf Astoria unit, for $10.2 million, an 11 percent discount from the asking price when it hit the market.
Griffin has since made waves in the Miami real estate market. In December, he asked Miami officials to move a historic waterfront home he recently purchased. In September, he bought the 4-acre estate from Miami businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht for $106 million. The estate has two homes, including the historic, 109-year-old Villa Serena, which was once home to William Jennings Bryan, former U.S. secretary of state.
Read moreChicagoLincoln Park home tied to Anne Dias cuts $1.7M off askChicagoMansion of Ken Griffin’s ex-wife hits market after $10M July saleChicagoKen Griffin endures 25% loss on $11M Park Tower condoThe post Lincoln Park mansion tied to Ken Griffin’s ex goes under contract appeared first on The Real Deal.
Shops at Sunset Lake at 18401-18499 Miramar Parkway in Miramar, Town Center Shops at Jensen at 4163 Northwest Federal Highway in Jensen Beach with Phillips Edison & Company’s Jeffrey Edison and PGIM Real Estate’s Eric Adler (Google Maps, PGIM, Phillips Edison & Company)Phillips Edison & Company bought a pair of Publix-anchored shopping centers for a combined $32 million.
The real estate investment trust scooped up the Shops at Sunset Lakes at 18401-18499 Miramar Parkway in Miramar, and the Town Center Shops at Jensen Beach at 4163 Northwest Federal Highway, according to a news release from the seller’s broker. PGIM Real Estate sold both properties.
Danny Finkle and Eric Williams of JLL represented the seller.
The 70,300-square-foot Shops at Sunset Lakes was completed in 1999 and spans 8.3 acres, property records show. Tenants at the nearly fully leased plaza include Goodwill, State Farm Insurance, Sedation Dental Spa of South Florida, Small World Montessori School and Sushi Saki, the release says.
Town Center Shops at Jensen spans 110,000 square feet on 14 acres, and was built in 2000, according to records and the release. The property is 83.5 percent leased with tenants including Orangetheory Fitness, Party City, Parents’ Choice Preschool and Coastal Animal Hospital. It also includes a Culver’s restaurant in an outparcel.
Phillips Edison, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a shopping center owner and manager with a portfolio spanning 291 properties nationwide as of December, according to the company’s filing this month to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, it expanded its portfolio with $282 million worth of retail purchases. The REIT is led by co-founder Jeffrey Edison.
In 2020, Phillips Edison sold a West Palm Beach shopping center at 4075 North Haverhill Road for $11.7 million, after paying $10.3 million for the property in 2016, according to records.
PGIM, based in Newark, New Jersey, is the asset management arm of Prudential Financial. Led by CEO Eric Adler, PGIM is a frequent South Florida real estate investor. In November, it paid $61.5 million for the Publix-anchored Monarch Town Center at 12503-12681 Miramar Parkway, in Miramar.
Over the past couple of years, the retail market has suffered a hit largely because of e-commerce growth. But in South Florida, investment appetite for grocery-anchored shopping plazas has remained strong.
Near North Miami, RK Centers paid $38 million in October for the Aldi-anchored plaza at 10790 Biscayne Boulevard and 1290 Northeast 108th Street.
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(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Is the temperamental housing market starting to stabilize? Maybe, according to one metric released this week.
Pending home sales climbed in February for the third consecutive month, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. The trade group’s Pending Home Sales Index — a forward-looking measure based on contract signings — ticked up 0.8 percent in February. The index hit 83.2 for the month; 100 is where contract activity was in 2001.
After the slight rise and a sharp gain in February, pending transactions are still down 21.1 percent year-over-year, when the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was almost half its level last month.
The three-month gain followed several months of consecutive declines in contract activity as rising mortgage rates roiled buyers. Those have shown some signs of stabilizing in recent months since an autumn peak above 7 percent. Now pending home sales seem to be doing the same.
“Mortgage rates have improved in recent weeks after the federal government guaranteed the status of most mortgages amidst uncertainty in the financial market,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement, noting residential mortgages are becoming more readily available.
The February increases did not hit U.S. markets equally. All four regions tracked by NAR recorded a year-over-year drop in pending home purchases. Only three of four regions saw a month-to-month gain, led by a 6.5 percent surge in the Northeast. This is where the West was lost, as it recorded a 2.4 percent month-to-month decrease in pending home sales.
It’s another bellwether of normalcy for a topsy-turvy housing market. In addition to the three-month climb in pending deals, existing home sales and pending contracts for new construction homes have been on the rise.
The housing market is usually sleepy in the winter, so it will be interesting to track if pending home sales and existing home sales continue to rise alongside temperatures.
Read moreNationalU.S. home prices slid for seventh straight month in January South FloridaZ Capital allegedly owes $2M legal bill: lawsuitNew YorkAgents: Life is good under 7%The post Pending home sales rise for third straight month appeared first on The Real Deal.
Developer Alex Nitchoff and Alderman Carrie M. Austin (Getty, City of Chicago, Facebook/Alex Nitchoff)The messy scandal involving Cook County employees and a local developer just got more interesting.
Alex Nitchoff, who along with his family, has been responsible for millions of dollars in Chicago construction projects, has been charged with bribing staff members by providing gits that included sports tickets, jewelry, meals and other items in exchange for lowered property taxes, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The scheme involves former 34th Ward Alderwoman Carrie Austin and several key workers under her. Last summer, an official in the Cook County assessor’s office, Lavdim “Deme” Memisovski, was charged with corruption for accepting the various bribes offered by Nitchoff. The charges against Memisovski have since caused a chain of events leading to the demise of Austin’s long-standing tenure.
Memisovski was responsible for appraising commercial properties and reviewing their tax appeals. Memisovski conspired with Nitchoff to ensure that his properties were under appraised, thereby evading a considerable portion of his actual tax bill.
Nitchoff was recorded asking Memisovski if he had any more housing projects that needed work, saying he was “gonna owe ya,” according to the indictment. Nitchoff was also charged on two counts of using a cellphone to facilitate acts of bribery.
Read moreChicagoFormer Cook County Land Bank employee pleads guilty to real estate schemeChicagoFormer Cook County land bank employee charged with fraudChicagoFormer Cook County assessor official charged with corruptionMemisovski has avoided a sentencing and was recommended for probation, as he has cooperated in the investigation since being charged in August. He admitted other Cook County employees were involved in the scheme; and although none of them have been named in the indictment, Nitchoff’s father, Boris Nitchoff, allegedly offered a sump pump and kitchen cabinets for Austin’s Roseland home in an effort to have one of his developments approved.
Austin, 73, officially resigned last month. She said she’s not medically fit to endure a trial and needs oxygen to walk, but prosecutors claim she’s exaggerated her condition.
—Quinn Donoghue
The post The Cook County bribery saga heats up appeared first on The Real Deal.
Novak Construction’s John Novak with Little Village Discount Mall (Novak Construction, Google Maps)John Novak has cut a deal with retail tenants at Little Village’s Discount Mall amid a legal battle between the two sides.
Roughly half of the building’s tenants were forced to vacate their booths no later than Tuesday, as Novak hadn’t yet reached an agreement with one the mall’s operators, PK Mall, Block Club Chicago reported. But local officials found a solution for vendors to stay while they fix up a former CVS at 2634 South Pulaski Road as a new location for the vendors.
Novak, whose Novak Construction bought the property in 2020, agreed to leasing terms with the mall’s other operator, Pilsen Plaza Corporation, allowing its side to continue running as normal. After a judge refused to grant an emergency hearing that would have prevented a lock-out, it appears the legal battle has concluded, allowing Novak to proceed with whatever development plans are up his sleeve — he hasn’t yet revealed plans for the property.
Novak’s response to 40 tenants moving out remains to be seen. The only plans he’s announced for the site include new facades, a parking lot with an underground stormwater detention system, upgraded lighting and landscaping.
The city will provide some funding for the revamped CVS building, which has sat vacant since last June. Some tenants have expressed concern that new space isn’t large enough to accommodate business needs, but it’s still just a temporary solution, as the city will sublease the property through the end of the year to give time for a more permanent solution, the outlet said.
Alderman Mike Rodriguez, whose 25th Ward contains the site of the old CVS, welcomed the new vendors.
“The site right now is deteriorating and not productive, and the opportunity for small, immigrant business owners to move in and bring in vitality … I would be ecstatic to bring these folks into my ward,” Rodriguez told the outlet.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoLittle Village mall tenants fight back against NovakTexasNovak adds medical facility in West Side Sears redevelopmentChicagoHP buys Lincoln Park apartment building from Novak for $20MThe post Novak, Little Village mall tenants agree to six-week extension appeared first on The Real Deal.
1956 North Orchard Street in Chicago (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, Google Maps)The Windy City’s housing market is showing resilience, as its home-price growth has topped the national average for the first time in years.
After having one of the lowest growth rates among major cities from 2018 to mid-2022, Chicago now boasts figures considerably higher than the national average, Crain’s reported, citing the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.
Values for single-family dwellings sold in the area were up nearly 5 percent in January from the previous year, compared to the nationwide average of 3.8 percent. The city’s overall price growth rate of 5.9 percent also squeaked past the national figure of 5.8 percent.
It’s possible Chicago’s statistics are skewed due to California’s residential market plummeting and pulling down the averages. Yet, the recent study is also a sign that the city successfully evaded a bubble crisis, whereas other major metros around the country, like Austin, neared a complete housing crash.
The last time Chicago home price growth outperformed the national average was before 2016. And last year’s gain comes on top of the city achieving a 12.5 percent spike in home value from January 2021 to 2022.
However, the steady climb peaked in June of last year, when interest rates and inflation shot up. Chicago’s housing market also mirrors the nationwide trend of reverting back to more of a pre-pandemic status.
Plus, the pandemic-fueled housing boom caused a much smaller spike in Chicago than in other metropolitan areas, with Windy City prices rising 24 percent from 2019 through 2022 whereas 16 out of the nation’s 20 largest metros had prices shoot up 30 percent or more over the same period, according to Attom.
As Chicago properties put up a stronger resistance to prices sliding back down after interest rates started rising last year, brokers have touted the city’s stability, noting prices here may not appreciate as quickly during booms but that the market offers more safety during downturns.
While prices in the area remain stable, especially relative to other cities, home sales are on the decline. A January report showed that transactions fell by 15 percent last year, and the number of new listings dropped 35 percent year-over-year in December.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoChicago home prices remain steady despite dropping averagesChicagoChicago homes still affordable as wage growth outpaces pricesChicagoChicago housing market feels the chill with 15% fewer salesThe post Chicago home appreciation outpaces nation for first time since 2016 appeared first on The Real Deal.
Location Ventures’ Rishi Kapoor and 1509 and 1515 Washington Avenue (Location Ventures, Google Maps, Getty)Rishi Kapoor is looking to develop a second Urbin-branded, co-living project on Washington Avenue in Miami Beach.
The Miami Beach City Commission on Monday granted preliminary approval to allow co-living units on Washington Avenue north of 12th Street, and to extend a deadline for Kapoor to obtain building permits until 2027.
Kapoor, CEO of Coconut Grove-based Location Ventures, is under contract to buy a retail building at 1509 Washington Avenue and a mixed-use apartment building at 1515 Washington Avenue, said Michael Larkin, a lawyer representing the developer.
Kapoor has submitted an application to redevelop the properties that will have to go before the Miami Beach planning and zoning and historic preservation boards, Larkin added.
In an email statement, Kapoor said the commission’s 6-1 first reading vote “is a step toward a future co-living project that we are exploring.” He declined to comment on the project’s details such as the number of co-living units, and if it will have other uses such as offices and retail.
Entities managed by Miami Beach real estate investor Jimmy Resnick own the two properties at 15th Street and Washington Avenue, records show. In 1991, he paid $550,000 for the retail building completed in 1972. And in 2015, Resnick bought the other building for $4.6 million. Kapoor’s contract purchase price is unknown.
The city has already approved Kapoor’s six-story co-living project at 1260 Washington Avenue, which he is developing under Location Ventures’ Urbin brand.
Under the proposed new legislation, the city would allow developers to build projects with co-living units north of 12th Street and Washington Avenue, but any proposed building cannot have hotel rooms or short-term rentals. In addition, only 50 percent of the project can be set aside for co-living units, and the apartments or condos must be a minimum of 275 square feet.
Kapoor would also get more time to complete both projects, with a 2027 deadline to obtain building permits. If the new rule is not approved on second reading, the developer would have until later this year to get his 1260 Washington Avenue project fully permitted.
Six commissioners rejected an attempt by commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez to only give Kapoor a one-year extension to see if he completes the first project. She cast the sole ‘no’ vote for extending the deadline and expanding co-living on Washington Avenue. Rosen Gonzalez also trashed the co-living concept and an Urbin model co-living unit that she toured.
“I don’t see how people could live there,” she said. “I guess if you want to be in your kitchen and your bedroom at the same time, it’s fine. I really don’t like this [concept] for our city.”
Commissioner Ricky Arriola, who sponsored the co-living legislation, countered that the city has to encourage the development of more inexpensive housing in Miami Beach.”You and I may not want to live in these accommodations, but I think this is necessary in our city,” Arriola said. “It is an answer to some of our housing needs.”
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Lennar’s Jon Jaffe (Lennar, City of San Marcos)Lennar continues to make its mark on the south suburbs of Austin.
The Caldwell County Commissioners Court approved the developer’s proposal to build a 491-acre neighborhood with 1,600 lots, across the road from the San Marcos Regional Airport at State Highway 21 and William Pettus Road, the Austin Business Journal reported. The project’s estimated cost wasn’t revealed.
The community in San Marcos, called Cotton Gateway, will be Lennar Homes’ second major development in Caldwell County, in addition to three others in the neighboring Hays County, the outlet said. In addition to San Marcos, the region encompasses towns like Lockhart, Kyle, Buda and Dripping Springs. San Marcos, situated between Austin and San Antonio, is seeing explosive population growth.
Pricing for Cotton Gateway homes hasn’t been revealed, but the nearby Summerside complex has listings of about $330,000. Lots at Cotton Gateway will range from 40 to 60 feet wide, with a minimum of a 30-foot building setback. At least eight acres will be reserved for amenities, green space or parks, and Kimley-Horn will serve as the engineer, the outlet said.
Developers are eyeing areas east and south of Austin for future projects, as these communities are experiencing surging economic growth, and its open farmlands allow for seamless construction efforts.
Lennar Homes CEO Jonathan Jaffe and Tesla owner Elon Musk recently announced they were partnering to build Project Amazing, east of the city in Bastrop County. The project will include 110 new homes on 75 acres, near Musk’s Boring Company headquarters.
Lennar Homes is one of the most prolific builders in the Austin metro. In 2021, the firm sold over $627 million of homes, which was second most of any developer, behind only D.R. Horton.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreAustinDigging into Lennar and Elon Musk’s “Project Amazing”AustinMajestic Realty Co. eyes 2 million-square-foot industrial park in San MarcosAustinD.R. Horton to build 2,200-home master-planned community in Central TexasThe post Lennar gets green light for 1,600 homes appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mount Street CEO Paul Lloyd and 789 Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk, Connecticut (Getty, Mount Street, LoopNet)The owners of a hotel in Norwalk, Connecticut, tried to sell it in 2019 for $19 million and got no takers. One pandemic later, they’re setting their sights a bit lower.
A lot lower, actually.
The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Norwalk is scheduled to go to auction during the first week of April, CT Insider reported. The minimum bid is $4 million.
The city last appraised the property at $12.5 million and estimated its replacement cost at $18 million.
The hotel, at 789 Connecticut Avenue, is half a century old and has 265 rooms across eight floors. It’s on a three-acre parcel near Interstate 95.
Rooms are available for $155 per night, according to Booking.com, which happens to be headquartered opposite the hotel in a building purchased prior to the pandemic by New York-based investor Kamran Hakim.
Ownership of the struggling hotel, which is obscured by a limited liability company, is being represented by Paramount Lodging Advisors. The LLC is managed by Mount Street, a special servicer of loans. A judge in 2018 approved a foreclosure of the hotel after debtholders sued ownership, which was more than $20 million in default.
Other DoubleTree locations in Connecticut include Windsor Locks and Bristol, and a traditional Hilton in Hartford is being converted into a DoubleTree with both hotel rooms and apartments.
The Hilton Garden Inn also has a Norwalk location, on Main Avenue.
Read moreTri-StateMassive rental complex planned for Westchester hotel site after $71M saleTri-StateKamran Hakim buys Bookings Holdings HQ in NorwalkNew YorkMidtown DoubleTree sells at staggering lossThe hotel industry has mostly recovered from the pandemic, although business travel has not come all the way back and perhaps never will. That has contributed to lower sale prices for hotels.
At the end of 2021, Beverly Hills-based Hawkins Way Capital purchased the site of a former Midtown DoubleTree in Manhattan for $146 million. That was less than half what RLJ Lodging Trust paid for it a decade earlier.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post 265-room Connecticut hotel up for auction appeared first on The Real Deal.
Reyes Holdings’ David “Duke” Reyes with 500 Pittsburg Avenue, Richmond (Great Place to Work, Colliers, Ares Management)Reyes Holdings has paid $100 million to buy a 481,500-square-foot distribution warehouse in North Richmond.
An affiliate of the Illinois-based food and beverage company bought the industrial building known as Richmond Distribution Center 3 at 500 Pittsburg Avenue, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The seller was Ares Management, based in Los Angeles.
The price for the Class-A building at Pittsburg and Richmond Parkway works out to $208 per square foot. It has parking for 520 cars and 55 truck trailers, according to a marketing brochure.
The warehouse property is a 25-minute drive to the Port of Oakland.
The deal was arranged by brokers Todd Severson and Greig Lagomarsino of Colliers, and JLL.
Reyes Holdings, the Chicago area’s second largest company and the largest beer distributor in the nation, generates $40 billion in revenue, according to its website. The privately held company employs 34,000 people and operates in 209 facilities.
The company’s subsidiaries include Reyes Beverage Group, the nation’s largest beer distributor; Martin Brower, McDonald’s largest global distributor; and Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, a bottler and distributor that operates in the Midwest and on the West Coast. Reyes Beverage Group operates in South San Jose.
Reyes Holdings also distributes goods for other high-profile brands such as Modelo beer, Coors Light beer, Chipotle, Monster Energy, Corona Extra, and Chick-fil-A.
Richmond has become a hotbed for real estate investors seeking large sites in prime locations, according to the Mercury News.
Other recent acquisitions in the East Bay city include Ford Point, which was bought last June by a coalition of New York investors for $103.7 million. The tech and office complex on the Richmond waterfront at 1414 Harbour Way South totals 517,000 square feet.
In February, San Rafael-based Pell Development bought 20.7 acres of land at 177 Parr Boulevard in Richmond for $115.2 million. The site was approved for two warehouse and logistics buildings that together total 325,000 square feet.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSouth FloridaBillionaire bows out: David “Duke” Reyes, wife, sell Palm Beach home for $21MChicagoBillionaire Reyes revealed as buyer of Driehaus mansion in Lake GenevaSouth FloridaBillionaire businessman sells North Palm Beach mansion for $19MThe post Reyes Holdings pays $100M for North Richmond warehouse appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Apartment dwellers in Austin could catch a break after facing a brutal rental market the past few years.
As job growth has slowed and apartments have sprouted up at a rapid pace, supply is beginning to exceed demand, swinging the advantage to renters and away from landlords, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Rates are still high relative to pre-pandemic numbers, but rent prices peaked around summer 2022, according to Charles Heimsath of Capitol Market Research.
Average rent across Central Texas was $1,683 in December, Heimsath’s latest report found. That’s up from $1,525 one year prior but down from $1,702 in June 2022, the outlet said.
Heimsath believes average rent will drop an additional 5 percent by the end of the year.
“For the first time in many years, landlords will be willing to work with their existing tenants as lease renewals come up.” he told the outlet.
It’s possible that rental rates will shoot back up as supply shortage issues ensue in the fast-growing city. But analysts believe the market is leveling out.
“The rental housing market is certainly looking at 2023 as a year of returning closer to ‘normal’ and stabilizing to closer to long-term trends,” Austin Apartment Association’s Emily Blair told the outlet. “Additionally, great news for renters is the number of new housing options coming into the market.”
Read moreTexasEndeavor plans two projects, 920 apartmentsAustinCSW plans $50M resi complex in Far WestAustinPalladius Capital gets apartments in fast-growing Austin suburbIn a race to keep up with the massive influx of new residents, developers in Austin have been building at a faster rate than any other metro over the past six years, and 2022 hit a record with over 1,600 added units, the outlet reported.
Overall leasing activity has likewise cooled. Last year, 11,700 units were leased on a net basis, which takes into account move-ins and move-outs. That’s a 43 percent drop from 20,492 net leases in 2021.
“Slower job growth is the main reason for the drop off in absorption in the second half of the year,” Heimsath said. “Job growth is continuing, but at a slower pace due primarily to layoffs in the tech sector.”
—Quinn Donoghue
The post Austin’s rental market leveling off appeared first on The Real Deal.
DAUM’s Brad Levin and Chuck Brill with 19191 South Vermont Avenue (DAUM, Google Maps, Getty)Daum Commercial Real Estate Services is expanding into larger digs in the South Bay.
The Downtown Los Angeles-based brokerage, after 40 years in cramped quarters in Torrance, has moved to larger offices at 19191 South Vermont Avenue, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Its new offices are at the 10-story Pacific Gateway, near the 405 and 110 freeways. The offices, built in 1981 and renovated in 2019, are owned by Silicon Valley-based Nome Ventures, which bought the property in October 2020 for $55.5 million.
Daum’s South Bay office is led by Brad Levin and Chuck Brill, who said the 30-percent larger quarters would help facilitate a South Bay expansion with the hiring of more agents. The size of the new office was not disclosed.
“Our (old) offices were tired and dated,” Levin said of the decision to move. “We’ve been having record years and have been in a money-spending mode and trying to hire and improve services and staff and marketing capabilities.”
He said the South Bay expansion was able to “take advantage of the market turn and get a much better space for our needs.”
Daum, in Los Angeles for more than a century, has seen double-digit growth since the dawn of the pandemic.
Its year-over-year gross revenue rose by 23.2 percent in 2020, 41.8 percent in 2021 and 21.3 percent last year.
Brill said the company, which operates in Southern California and Arizona, had no plans to enter new markets but was “always actively looking” at acquisitions of other companies and growth.
In the South Bay, the company is working on a lot of industrial real estate transactions, where Levin sees strong demand.
“The South Bay has been a very good hub for the industry, and we’ve been able to capitalize on that,” he said.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesBlackstone sells Torrance office complex for $56MLos AngelesManhattan West snares Fountain Valley industrial park for $16.5MLos AngelesGlobal juice maker inks lease for South Gate productionThe post Daum expands Torrance office after 40 years appeared first on The Real Deal.
Prime Manhattan Development’s Grant Shapolsky, 171 Bowery and Urban Standard Capital’s Seth Weissman (LinkedIn, USCNYC, Google Maps)A Downtown Manhattan development site targeted for an office project is heading to the auction block instead.
A state judge ruled last week that Urban Standard Capital could sell 171 Bowery on the Lower East Side after the lender filed a foreclosure action against investor Grant Shapolsky and his firm, Prime Manhattan Development, last year.
Urban Standard, Shapolsky and Prime Manhattan had agreed to a consent judgment of foreclosure and sale in December.
A referee will sell the property at a public auction within 90 days of the judge’s order and oversee the title transfer. The development site will be sold as one parcel.
Prime Manhattan bought the property, located between Broome and Delancey streets, in 2017 for $8.7 million and filed plans in 2019 for a 10-story, 21,000-square-foot office project. Demolition permits for the property’s four-story multifamily building were filed later that year.
Urban Standard is owed at least $9.6 million plus accrued interest, which piled up at a default rate of 24 percent. If funds from the property’s sale are not enough to cover the debt, Urban Standard can recover all or a portion of the remainder from Shapolsky and Prime Manhattan.
In the consent judgment, Shapolsky waived his rights to contest the appointment of a referee to determine what was due to Urban Standard.
Neither Urban Standard nor Shapolsky and Prime Manhattan responded to requests for comment.
The stalled Bowery development site faced foreclosure last year when Urban Standard accused the borrowers of defaulting on a $7 million loan. The lender also alleged that Prime Manhattan failed to discharge a $142,000 mechanic’s lien filed by Kutnicki Bernstein Architects in 2021, along with a $97,000 lien filed by general contractor OTL Enterprises.
Shapolsky told The Real Deal in September that the dispute would be solved “over the next few weeks.”
His firm took out the loan in 2019 with a maturity date of February 2020. After two extensions, Prime Manhattan entered into a forbearance agreement in August 2020, under which Urban Standard pushed off exercising its rights for another year.
The forbearance agreement was later extended to last May, but when the loan’s maturity date arrived, Prime Manhattan failed to come up with the money and Urban Standard put the loan into default.
The firm also had a $4 million subordinate mortgage on the property from Luxembourg-based Antares Bonds.
Read moreNew YorkToby Moskovits’ Bushwick Generator heads to foreclosure auctionNew YorkEx-Bespoke exec alleges racial discrimination, harassmentNew YorkAbraham Leifer’s Midtown conversion facing foreclosureThe post Stalled Bowery development site heads to foreclosure sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mayor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, SFBOS)San Francisco, with what has been dubbed the most empty downtown in America, has hatched a plan to turn vacant offices into homes and fill empty stores in Union Square.
Mayor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin have launched legislation to relax requirements for Downtown office-to-housing conversions to save developers both time and money, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The proposed ordinance would also loosen rules around Union Square to help the struggling shopping district become less reliant on large retail stores.
Breed and Peskin aim to slash red tape and help jumpstart projects that could bring new life to Downtown, which has seen an exodus of office workers and visitors during the pandemic era of remote work.
It’s an acknowledgment that economic shifts ushered in by the coronavirus are likely permanent. San Francisco officials must now diversify a city center limited to mostly offices, hotels, shops and restaurants.
City Hall has major financial incentives to fix Downtown, given the city faces a $728 million two-year deficit driven by lower expectations for business and commercial property tax revenue.
Downtown’s offices grow emptier by the day. The city’s office vacancy rate was 29.4 percent in the first quarter, according to preliminary figures from CBRE, a 1.8 percent jump from late last year.
Breed said any attempt to build new housing or fill empty stores “shouldn’t be something that requires granting exceptions through lengthy paperwork and exhaustive public hearings.
“We need to make the process easier for getting our buildings active and full,” the mayor said.
The Breed/Peskin ordinance would eliminate city requirements that Downtown office-to-housing conversions have some space reserved for rear yards, have a certain percentage of two- and three-bedroom units and have a hearing before the Planning Commission.
Those changes alone could speed up a conversion project by 18 months, Planning Director Rich Hillis told the Chronicle
While Downtown office towers could be turned into thousands of homes — a recent study estimated that 12 buildings could produce 2,700 units — few projects are in the pipeline.
The city’s first post-pandemic office-to-housing proposal is the historic Warfield Building at 988 Market Street, which would benefit from the proposed changes. A conversion of an old office building in Lower Nob Hill also could be in the works.
In Union Square, Breed and Peskin aim to build on a strategic plan by the Union Square Alliance, which found zoning restricts upper floors to retail businesses. Because retailers don’t want to use second or third floors, it’s hard for landlords to fill storefront vacancies.
Union Square’s retail vacancy rate last fall hit 35 percent, nearly three times the rate in 2019. The rate is now closer to 27 percent, said Marisa Rodriguez, CEO of the Union Square Alliance.
Breed and Peskin want to ease zoning rules to allow the upper stories to be filled by small offices, service sector businesses and more.
The legislation would also let ground floors around Union Square host entertainment businesses and co-working cafes in addition to the larger retailers already sanctioned there.
The legislation would allow more variety in temporary pop-up businesses inside vacant storefronts, while allowing city staff to review minor changes to historic buildings without a full-fledged public hearing.
Peskin said the legislation was only “half the battle.” The other half, he said, will require city departments to collaborate with developers to take advantage of the new rules, ensuring that projects are built in a timely manner.
“We can pass all the legislation we want, but if (the Department of Building Inspection) and various permitting agencies move at the speed of molasses, then we’re still in trouble,” Peskin said.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoSF offices fastest in the nation to empty outSan FranciscoGroup i wants to convert historic SF offices into apartmentsLos AngelesLA landlords eye office-to-housing conversionsThe post SF’s Breed and Peskin launch plan to ease office-housing conversions appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Chetrit Organization principal Michael Chetrit, HPS Investment Partners CEO Scott Kapnick, and 850 Third Avenue (Getty, LinkedIn/Michael Chetrit, Google Maps)Less than two years after fending off a foreclosure auction, the Chetrit Organization has thrown in the towel at a Midtown East office building.
Jacob Chetrit’s firm transferred the property at 850 Third Avenue to private investment firm HPS Investment Partners in a deal valued at $266 million, PincusCo reported. The acquisition closed two weeks ago and comes out to about $431 per square foot for the 617,000-square-foot property.
Jacob Chetrit in October 2021 refinanced the property — half-empty at the time — with a $320 million loan from the same firm that is now buying the building.
The financing package included a $220 million senior loan. It also featured a $30 million future-funding piece Chetrit could have tapped to renovate empty space and market it to a new tenant, though it’s unclear if the firm did so.
The property generated $30.9 million in revenue, or $54 per square foot, according to PincusCo’s analysis of the most recent income and expense figures. Tenants at the building include Chase Bank, which occupies ground-floor retail space.
Chetrit purchased the 21-story building in 2019 for $422 million, a drastic premium compared to what it is selling it for today. China’s HNA Group was the seller as it looked to get out from under a pile of debt.
Read moreNew YorkChetrit Org’s 850 Third Avenue heads to foreclosure auctionNew YorkJacob Chetrit refis 850 Third Ave to the tune of $320MNew YorkWhat tenants are paying at Chetrit’s 850 Third AveBy the time Chetrit closed on the building, its largest tenant, Discovery Inc., decided to relocate. Occupancy soon dropped from 91 percent all the way to 57 percent.
Chetrit fell behind on a $177 million securitized mortgage and missed the loan maturity date. The developer faced down a UCC foreclosure auction with the funding from HPS, allowing the organization to pay off the loan.
HPS and the Chetrit Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Chetrit Org sells 850 Third Ave to former lender appeared first on The Real Deal.
Vista Property’s Hymie Mishan and Saul Sutton and Primitive Gallery’s Glen Joffe with rendering of 601-609 West Randolph Street and 130 North Jefferson Street (Vista Property, LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)Hymie Mishan and Saul Sutton likely won’t be strolling over to buy any art from the longtime Chicago gallerists next door to their new West Loop office building.
Vista Property, the New York-based developer co-founded by Mishan and Sutton, is suing the owners of the Primitive gallery at 130 North Jefferson Street, accusing the collectors of granting, and then suddenly yanking, access to their roof while contractors were working on the 15-story office project at 601 West Randolph Street.
The dispute is holding up construction on the 88,000-square-foot project. This is Vista’s first ground-up development in Chicago and it’s funding it with a $31 million loan from Bank OZK that was issued in January 2021.
That deal was a rare show of confidence in the office market during the darker days of the pandemic, one of few new office buildings pursued on speculation, in a city mired in vacant commercial real estate. Vista doubled down late last year and unveiled plans to build another 15-story office building down the road at 640 West Randolph, this one 117,000 square feet.
Now, with the first property more than 70 percent pre-leased, Vista says Glen Joffe and partner Claudia Ashleigh-Morgan — the operators of the four-story gallery Primitive who were convicted in 2006 by federal wildlife authorities of illegally importing and possessing ivory and other items derived from protected species — have imperiled the developer’s financing on the tower by revoking its access to their roof. The developer said in its lawsuit its project had to reach “substantial completion” last month under its agreement with Bank OZK.
At this point, Vista needs the roof access again to finish construction and can’t complete its project without it, and asked a judge to issue an injunction allowing contractors to return to the roof of Primitive’s building.
Primitive is just after a payout to reinstate the access, Vista alleged, noting its contractors had accessed the roof without incident from October 2020 into the fall of 2021. The parties were negotiating the dispute outside of court prior to Vista filing the lawsuit, and the gallerists may be open to resuming talks, said their attorney Richard G. Douglass.
The gallerists refused to consider reasonable compromises and “exhibit a callous and knowing disregard for plaintiff and their business interests,” Vista said in its lawsuit.
Primitive, though, disagrees, and filed a counterclaim alleging Vista “severely damaged” the gallery’s roof during “unauthorized construction activities.” Joffe and Ashleigh-Morgan said they never agreed to let the developer access their gallery’s roof and only discovered it had been getting accessed in August 2021, when the gallery reopened for business from pandemic shutdowns.
The collectors, who have been in the space since 2003, are pursuing punitive damages against Vista, claiming it wants to “punish” the firm and “deter other developers from trying to steamroll over their neighbors who have been established in the neighborhood for decades.” Joffe and Ashleigh-Morgan also noted they’ve been doing business on the property “long before the West Loop’s recent explosive development.”
Reached by phone, Mishan had no immediate comment, and an attorney for Vista declined to comment.
The lawsuit is still moving through Cook County court before Associate Judge David B. Atkins.
Read moreChicagoVista Property plans trio of towers for Fulton MarketChicagoVista Property plans another West Loop office projectChicagoVista secures Fetch Rewards for West Loop lease expansionThe post Vista sues gallery for stalling West Loop office project appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)The top-tier asset class that was supposedly immune to hardship is now at risk, too.
Distress is coming for Class A offices, according to the Wall Street Journal. Much of the sector was already struggling with softening demand for space and depreciating property values. Rising interest rates, however, have looped in some who have remained above the fray.
In the fourth quarter, Class A space leased in central business districts across the country dropped for the only time last year, according to Moody’s Analytics. That same quarter, nearly 19 percent of high-end office space was available in Manhattan, according to Savills, higher than the availability rate for Class B and Class C buildings.
“Any property owner that says ‘Oh we’re fine’ is a little bit fooling themselves,” Moody’s Analytics Senior Economist Thomas LaSalvia, told the Journal.
As vacancies and interest rates creep up, so do defaults at the top of the office sector. Brookfield Asset Management recently defaulted on more than $750 million in debt backing two Los Angeles buildings, including the 52-story 777 South Figueroa Street property downtown. Columbia Property Trust also recently defaulted on $1.7 billion in office loans.
Read moreNationalPIMCO’s Columbia Property Trust defaults on $1.7B of office loansNew YorkMore office tenants are ditching aging buildings for newer spacesNew YorkManhattan office market still suffering from long CovidSince the start of the pandemic, office tenants have largely put a premium on high-end buildings, ones that feature all the bells and whistles an employee would expect from a modern space. In the first years of the pandemic, 76 percent of Manhattan office occupants who moved either switched Class A buildings or moved from Class B to Class A, according to an analysis by CompStak.
The ability of Class A office space to withstand the pressures facing the rest of office stock already appeared to be weakening, though. In Manhattan, the gap is narrowing on the demand generated between Class A and Class B space. In the last quarter of 2021, Class A office rents cost an average of 27.3 percent more than older offices — for the most recent fourth quarter, the difference was down to 24.7 percent.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Distress is coming for Class A offices appeared first on The Real Deal.
Hines’ Jeffrey Hines and Laura Hines-Pierce with Doug Holte (Hines, LinkedIn)Real estate investment firm Hines is thinking green, but not as it pertains to money.
The Houston-based firm has formed a new business unit geared toward ESG investing, which ensures environmental and social factors are taken into account when undertaking a project, the Houston Business Journal reported.
One of the ways Hines is implementing ESG strategies is by focusing on the reduction of carbon emissions when building new developments, targeting net-zero operational carbon by 2040.
The firm will begin investing heavily in sustainable initiatives throughout its portfolio, which spans 28 countries and more than 1,500 properties. To achieve this net-zero goal, the company plans to utilize renewable technologies, such as electrifying building systems that run on a circular system of fossil fuels, the outlet said.
The new unit, called EXP by Hines, is broken down into two sectors: Global ESG and Global Venture Lab. Doug Holte, who was with the company from 1897 to 2009, will serve as the CEO of EXP by Hines.
“EXP is looking beyond the boundaries of real estate to solve complex problems while creating long-term value,” Holte told the outlet.
Peter Epping will lead the Global ESG faction and is responsible for ensuring that Hines’ developments create long-term value while benefiting people in the surrounding communities.
Kathryn Scheckel will serve as the head of Global Venture Lab and is tasked with identifying and accelerating ventures, partnerships and investments that benefit communities where Hines operates, the outlet said.
The formation of the ESG-driven unit stems from Laura Hines-Pierce being promoted to serve as co-CEO along with her father, Jeffrey Hines, who commended his daughter for bringing a fresh perspective to the company.
“In the world we’re in now, where innovation, property tech, ESG, etc., are taking off, there are so many things that, frankly, Laura, from a generational perspective, brings more to the table than I do,” Hines told the outlet.
ESG Investing has been a source of division among politicians at the federal level. The U.S. House of Representatives recently failed to override President Biden’s veto of a republican-led bill that would have banned such practices.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreNew YorkReal estate is drunk on ESG. But what’s in the cocktail?NationalThe growing trend of ESG Investing in commercial real estateTexasHines signs Sino Biological to Levit Green in HoustonThe post Hines launches ESG-centered unit appeared first on The Real Deal.
334 South Parkway (Google Maps)
The wife of a financier dropped $8.2 million on a newly renovated waterfront Golden Beach house.
Records show Jill Aronsky Fischer bought the house at 334 South Parkway from an LLC named for the address, managed by Abraham Vaisberg.
Lydia Eskenazi and Jonathan Bigelman of One Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing. They declined to comment on the deal.
Fischer married Brett Fischer in June 1997, the New York Times reported. The couple is based in Scarsdale, New York. Brett Fischer is a managing partner with Tourmaline Partners, a trading services firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, LinkedIn shows.
Records show Vaisberg is the manager of Miami-based Dylia Corporation, along with Harry Gorlovesky.
Vaisberg bought the 0.2-acre Golden Beach property in 2019 for $3 million, property records show. Last year, he renovated the 5,300-square-foot, six-bedroom, six-bathroom house, built in 2011, the listing shows. The home includes one half-bathroom, a pool, and a private dock.
Prices and demand for Golden Beach luxury real estate surged over the past few years, amid South Florida’s real estate boom.
In January, luxury homebuilder Treo Construction sold a waterfront Golden Beach spec house for $15 million. Scott Collins, COO of Boston-based private equity firm Summit, bought a non-waterfront spec mansion in Golden Beach for $25 million in August, marking a price record for dry properties in all of Miami-Dade County.
In July, retired radio host Tom Joyner sold his oceanfront Golden Beach home for $19 million.
The post Financier’s wife buys renovated waterfront Golden Beach house appeared first on The Real Deal.
San Diego Assemblyman Chris Ward, San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener, Los Angeles Senator María Elena Durazo, San Jose Assemblyman Alex Lee (Getty, California State Assembly Democratic Caucus, California State Senate Democratic Caucus)State lawmakers are pushing legislation to boost production of affordable homes and strengthen tenant protections against evictions and runaway rents.
The proposed laws range from allowing religious organizations to quickly build affordable homes on their excess land to lowering the cap on how much landlords can raise rents each year, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Others would ask voters to add housing as a human right to the state Constitution and ease hurdles homeowners face when building duplexes in single-family neighborhoods.
They would would add to recent laws to streamline student housing on college campuses, spend hundreds of millions of dollars on affordable housing and clear red tape for more accessory dwelling units, or so-called “granny flats.”
Notable housing bills to watch this year include:
AB 68Assembly Bill 68, backed by California YIMBY and The Nature Conservancy, which aims to control sprawl in fire- and flood-prone areas and make it easier to build multifamily housing in urban hubs for transit and jobs.
The measure, authored by San Diego Assemblyman Chris Ward, would allow local governments to approve projects outside of existing communities if they can show there’s no more available space or that they have to expand outward in order to meet their state-required housing goals.
The goal is to encourage housing where climate risks are minimal and infrastructure already exists.
“We want to encourage housing in existing communities where people really want to live,” Melissa Breach, chief operating officer for California YIMBY, a pro-housing group, told the Times. “And we want to protect people from the incredibly high risk of fire and flood, and all the other climate risks associated with that.”
Its opponents include the California Building Industry Association, which called AB 68 the “ultimate housing killer.” And the California Chamber of Commerce, which added AB 68 to its annual “job killer” list.
SB 4 and SB 423Senate Bill 4 would allow nonprofit colleges and faith organizations such as churches, mosques and synagogues to quickly build affordable homes on their land.
Senate Bill 423 would make permanent a 2017 law that lets developers streamline their projects in cities that have failed to meet state-mandated housing goals.
Both bills, introduced by San Francisco Sen. Scott Wiener, will build on a rare deal Democrats struck with labor unions in August with legislation to convert underused commercial space into new units.
Both bills include a guarantee of union-level pay, known as prevailing wages, and some healthcare benefits for construction workers. Those labor standards were included in last year’s agreement and are supported by the California Conference of Carpenters.
The carpenters backing the bills have split from other labor groups, including the State Building and Construction Trades Council, which has advocated for the more rigorous requirement of a “skilled and trained workforce.”
That standard guarantees that a portion of workers have gone through an apprenticeship program and most are unionized.
SB 567Current law allows landlords to raise rents by 5 percent plus inflation each year, or a maximum of 10 percent The law also allows property owners to pursue certain evictions outside of standard violations of a lease.
Senate Bill 567, introduced by Los Angeles Sen. María Elena Durazo, would crack down on what she said are outrageous rent increases and unfair evictions that increase homelessness.
Durazo’s bill would cap the increase to inflation, not to exceed 5 percent annually, and expand protections to renters in single-family homes, condos and mobile homes.
It would also ensure landlords or family members move into the homes and stay there for a period of time, and prohibit permanent evictions after renovations.
AB 12, 919 and 309Assembly Bill 12 would limit security deposits to one month’s rent, which advocates supporting the bill say would prevent renters from falling into debt just to make that payment.
Assembly Bill 919 would give tenants, local public agencies and nonprofits the first opportunity to buy a rental property or match an offer when an owner puts it on the market.
They’re opposed by the California Apartment Association and groups representing landlords that fought against the 2019 law that created the current rent cap and eviction standards.
Assembly Bill 309, introduced by San Jose Assemblyman Alex Lee, would increase social housing options, which includes government-funded housing for people of all income levels.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoState bill would rein in sprawl in fire- and flood-prone regionsLos AngelesState bill aims to further cap rent hikes to prevent homelessnessSan FranciscoChurches and colleges could fast-track housing with state billThe post Raft of state bills would boost affordable homes and tenant protections appeared first on The Real Deal.
Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas and EBRHA’s Chris Moore (Nikki4Oakland, East Bay Rental Housing Association, Getty)An outcry by Oakland landlords about a pandemic-era policy barring them from booting non-paying tenants has caused the city to ramp down its eviction moratorium.
An ordinance to possibly end the tenant protections that prohibit most evictions will likely be considered by the City Council on April 11, the East Bay Times reported.
At the same time, council members will also consider buttressing “just cause” protections that make it tougher for landlords to evict tenants who pay rent for the first 12 months.
Most Bay Area cities and counties adopted moratoria on evictions in the early days of the pandemic, but Oakland has held onto its ban for much longer. It joins San Francisco, Berkeley and San Leandro in continuing to apply the protections.
Tenant rights advocates have urged cities to hang onto their moratoria, arguing that numerous workers in the region still face post-COVID economic stress.
But landlords, who say they’re strangled because they can’t boot non-paying tenants, created an uproar last week when City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas announced the council had no plans to discuss ending the pandemic protections, forcing Bas to halt the meeting and call for security.
Previously, landlords also shut down an Alameda County supervisors meeting in February, amid a widely publicized hunger strike by Jingyu Wu, a landlord who said he was going bankrupt from not receiving enough rent from his San Leandro property.
Then Bas appeared to reverse course, saying she had been consulting with experts about how the city could “phase out” those policies.
“This has been in the works for some time, and I’ve been actively meeting with people to let them know I would be scheduling it,” Bas said at the council’s rules committee, which sets future agenda items.
Under the new ordinance, landlords still must prove tenants breached the terms of their lease, and give three-days notice for unpaid rent before proceeding with an eviction, according to the newspaper.
In addition, tenants can still avoid being kicked out if they can demonstrate lost income or other financial hardship due to COVID-related setbacks, according to the proposal authored by Bas and Councilman Dan Kalb.
Chris Moore, a representative of the East Bay Rental Housing Association, said the city’s moratorium was bankrupting Oakland’s landlords.
The moratorium, he said in an email, is “largely putting small and local housing providers out of business and in turn, reducing the supply of housing in the community.”
In Alameda County, an estimated 32,900 households last month owed a combined $125 million in unpaid rent, according to researchers with the National Equity Atlas.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoLandlords rage over Oakland’s eviction moratoriumSan FranciscoAlameda County landlords push to end eviction moratoriumSan FranciscoEast Bay Landlords Sue Oakland, Alameda County over eviction bansThe post Oakland to consider phasing out controversial eviction moratorium appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Flatiron Building (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)The owners of the Flatiron Building were at an impasse, and it was costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars each month.
They could not agree on the landmarked tower’s future, and its present was bleak — it had been vacant since 2019, when its sole tenant, Macmillan Publishers, moved out.
The deadlock led to an auction, at which an outsider swooped in with a winning bid. The outcome remains uncertain, but the episode underscored the risk of the building’s outdated form of ownership.
Known as tenancy-in-common, it gives multiple owners of a building equal control over it, no matter the size of their stake. The arrangements vary, but the same factors turn many of these marriages into unhappy unions.
In the case of the iconically wedge-shaped Flatiron Building, one owner proposed partitioning it, which did not sit well with the others. “A vertical or lateral bisection of the property is completely impractical, and would destroy its marketability,” one of the owners, GFP Real Estate’s Jeffrey Gural, said in court documents.
The winner of the auction for the Beaux-Arts building, Jacob Garlick, did not follow up his $190 million bid with the required $19 million deposit Friday. That gives a group of owners led by Gural the option to purchase the property at their last bid of $189.5 million, although Gural told The Real Deal that he will not exercise it. Another auction is likely.
A tenancy-in-common is often a family affair: When a stakeholder dies, their share in the building goes to their designated heirs.
That means some owners can suddenly find themselves tethered to someone with whom they do not get along. In some cases, any owner can also go to court to force a sale of the entire building.
Gural and like-minded owners have a 75 percent stake in the iconic building. They sued to force the auction after clashing with the 25 percent owner Nathan Silverstein, he of the partition strategy.
“You don’t have to have a reason to want to partition,” said Janice Mac Avoy, a partner at Fried Frank’s real estate department. “That’s a pretty powerful tool.”
Like much else in the real estate industry, one person’s headache is another’s opportunity. For potential buyers, the TIC structure can allow them to take control of a property with difficult owners. Extell Development’s Gary Barnett famously took over 14 Midtown buildings known as the Ring portfolio in part by purchasing stakes in them and forcing partition sales.
TICs are far less common now. Investors prefer limited liability companies or limited partnerships, said Richard Dolan, who represented Extell on the Ring properties and the majority owners in the Flatiron case.
“In investment property, it is a very unwieldy thing,” he said. “You tend to only see it as a legacy of something that was seen long ago.”
Newer tenancy-in-common structures have been modernized to include provisions to waive owners’ ability to force a sale, Mac Avoy said.
Such provisions are necessary for owners of TIC properties to defer capital gains taxes on their sale by immediately investing proceeds from one asset sale into another. Most TICs are now structured with these 1031 exchanges in mind, said Louis Tuchman, partner and chair of Herrick’s tax department.
Generally, owners can sell their stake or borrow against it without permission from the other owners, though finding a lender to provide such financing can be challenging.
But even modern TICs come with risks. Because each owner is considered a direct owner, they can act independently, hurting the other owners. Different ownership structures do a better job shielding a property from the whims of a rogue owner, Tuchman said.
“By and large, there is an algorithm by which you make decisions about the property,” he said.
“Although somebody could get into financial trouble, they can’t encumber the property directly.”
Read moreNew YorkPartial-interest owner seeks forced sale of East Village apartment buildingNew York“Ringing in” a new eraNew YorkPortrait of a deal junkie: The Joseph Tabak storyThe post The trouble with tenancy-in-common appeared first on The Real Deal.
Clockwise from top-left: Anthony Marguleas, Gail Hershowitz, Stephen Shapiro, Sally Forster Jones (Heradshots courtesy of Anthony Marguleas, Gail Hershowitz, Stephen Shapiro, Sally Forster Jones, Getty)Los Angeles’ luxury home sellers are in the final stretch to beat the April 1 deadline before the Measure ULA transfer tax takes effect.
While numbers for March home sales won’t be released until early April, luxury agents and their colleagues say that there has been a handful of lightning fast sales for luxury listings in the past month.
Gail Hershowitz, senior escrow officer and manager at Escrow of the West, said that she has closed more than 16 luxury deals since the beginning of March. These deals were motivated by the transfer tax.
“Everyone is scrambling,” Hershowitz said. “But I don’t think it’s a big spike.”
She forecast that some of these deals won’t make it because of the market for loans.
“Banks are not readily available for fast closing jumbo loans these days. It’s the environment of the whole world right now,” she added.
Anthony Marguleas, founder of Amalfi Estates in Pacific Palisades, also noted an uptick of luxury sales in West Los Angeles, where the transfer tax will be felt the most.
According to MLS data, there were 15 homes priced $5 million or more that sold on the Westside during the week of March 20. It’s a slight uptick compared to the same week in 2022. “It’s a 50 percent increase, which is significant when you consider all home transactions sold below $5 million in March is down 25 percent (in a year-over-year comparison),” he said.” I expect an even larger increase this week.”
When the year began, Marguleas expressed doubts that the decision-making required to close a deal could move fast enough to beat the transfer tax deadline. However, the veteran agent said he had worked on two 14-day escrows in the past two weeks. It’s double the two-week escrows he had worked on in his entire 30-year career.
Working fast helped one of his client’s avoid paying the tax. A Palisades home was initially priced at $4.9 million, just under the $5 million transfer tax threshold. A bidding war pushed the closing price to $5.3 million. The client would have been liable to pay $212,000 under the transfer tax,if it were not for a lightning fast escrow process, Marguleas said.
Some sellers wanted to wrap up deals before the tax deadline badly enough that they offered gifts such as performance cars or trips to luxury resorts to potential buyers. Sally Forster Jones of Compass said that luxury buyers were not interested in gifts. but did respond to offers of reductions in price if a deal was closed before the tax deadline.
“Offering better deals has been significant,” Forster Jones said. “We have put a couple of properties in escrow in the last week where the contract states that it closes prior to ULA implementation. If we don’t make the deadline, the deal is absolutely off,” she said.
Stephen Shapiro, co-founder of Westside Estate Agency, forecast that business would get back to usual after the tax. “We took a listing on Friday for a $14 million house. The seller asked, ‘How are you going to deal with ULA?’” Shapiro explained. “I said that it was going to be a function of the negotiation between the buyer and the seller. If you are happy with the price, you are going to pay the ULA tax.”
Read moreLos AngelesIn a soft market, home sellers switch to rental strategyLos AngelesKilroy Realty-backed ballot initiative aims to shoot down Measure ULALos AngelesLA cuts revenue projections from new transfer tax by 25%The post Uptick for luxury home deals in race to beat ULA transfer tax appeared first on The Real Deal.
Hudson Pacific Properties’ Victor Coleman and 11660 Tuxford Street (Getty, Hudson Pacific Properties, Google Maps)An entity tied to Hudson Pacific Properties has bought a 7-acre industrial site in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Sun Valley for $40 million.
The Los Angeles-based REIT bought the property earlier this year through an entity tied to its Quixote Studios unit, a soundstage and production service firm that Hudson Pacific acquired for $360 million last year, records show.
The property was purchased by Epicenter, affiliated with Quixote Studios, according to documents filed with the City of Los Angeles.
The site, located at 11660 Tuxford Street, is currently used as an RV storage facility, according to online listings for the property.
It’s also located about two miles from where Hudson Pacific and its partner Blackstone are building their fourth studio project, Sunset Glenoaks.
The 241,000-square-foot studio will include seven soundstages and is expected to cost up to $190 million, Hudson Pacific disclosed in 2021 when it announced the project. Construction is slated to finish by the third quarter this year.
The firm holds a $100.6 million construction loan from RBC Capital Markets on the development, which has an interest rate at secured overnight financing rate plus 3.1 percent, according to its annual report.
Hudson Pacific Properties has plowed cash into the studio business, trying to take advantage of the rise of streaming services and demand for production space. In 2020, the firm sold a 49 percent stake in its own studio business to Blackstone for $1.7 billion.
The post Hudson Pacific buys Sun Valley industrial land for $40M appeared first on The Real Deal.
993 5th Avenue, 15 and 17 E 77th Street (Google Maps, Getty)First-quarter grades are in for Manhattan luxury real estate, and the market finished with an unremarkable average amount of activity.
The period counted 313 contracts signed for homes in the borough asking $4 million or more, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report, ranking it fifth for activity over the past 10 years. If the average pace seems slow, it’s because last year’s first quarter counted a record 416 contracts signed.
The priciest contract signed last week was for a property that includes two townhouses, sold by the same owner. The homes at 15 and 17 East 77th Street went into contract asking $32.5 million, down from $38 million when they were first listed a year ago.
Both homes, which need to be renovated, are five stories and just under 17 feet wide. They combine for nearly 9,800 square feet. The seller bought the houses between 2010 and 2012 for $22.5 million.
The second most expensive home to enter contract last week was unit PH at 993 Fifth Avenue, with an asking price just under $20 million, down from $39.5 million when it was listed at the end of June.
The duplex penthouse co-op, which has not been renovated, has four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms and a total of 12 rooms.
The downstairs has a 40-foot living room, gallery and formal dining room, which all open onto a 51-foot terrace overlooking Central Park. Three of the four bedrooms are on the second floor, surrounded by terraces.
Of the 32 homes to enter contract last week, 21 were condos, eight were co-ops and three were townhouses.
The homes combined for nearly $265 million in asking price volume. The average asking price was $8.3 million and the median was $6 million. The typical home received a 16 percent discount and spent 799 days on the market.
Read moreNew YorkLenox Hill townhouse tops Manhattan luxury marketNew YorkFAR out: Pols oppose tall buildings in ManhattanNew YorkEx-Bespoke exec alleges racial discrimination, harassmentThe post Manhattan luxury market’s first quarter back to average appeared first on The Real Deal.
Sabot Development’s Jim Young with Pearl Park (LinkedIn, San Antonio River Walk, Getty)Acreage adjacent to the famous Pearl District in San Antonio is up for grabs.
Sabot Development is selling the property at 1216 East Elmira Avenue — the site of a planned 10-story, mixed-use development called the Mira, the Austin Business Journal reported. Robert Arzola and Joe Dowdle of JLL are marketing the property.
Austin-based Sabot acquired the 1.55-acre tract in 2020 with the help of a $6.5 million loan from Guaranty Bank & Trust, according to Bexar County records. The previous building was demolished shortly after design for the project was approved, and construction was supposed to begin early 2022.
The Mira was slated to have 299 apartment units, almost 12,000 square feet of retail and 426 parking spaces, the outlet reported. Sabot Development received multiple inquiries from players wanting to form a partnership or acquire the land outright, the firm’s Jim Young said.
“Given just how awesome the project is and how great the location is, I think there’s a lot of other people that want to develop this project,” Dowdle told the outlet. “So we’re going to go try to get one of them.”
The firm is looking to land a buyer who aims to follow through with the Mira as planned. Young may remain involved with the development in a lesser role and is open to ideas on deal structure.
“The site presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a developer to make a positive impact on our city,” Arzola told the outlet.
The Elmira property is highly sought after given the popularity of the historic Pearl District. A mixed-use development near the San Antonio Riverwalk, it is centered on the 1888-built Pearl Brewery.
Sabot purchased another nearby property at 1316 Austin Street earlier this year, the outlet said. The firm took out an $852,000 loan from Hornet Capital to help finance that acquisition.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreTexasMission DG sells multifamily high-riseTexasHousing development near San Antonio’s Cattleman Square gets $38MTexasBrooks leads massive build-for-rent projectThe post Sabot selling Pearl District parcel appeared first on The Real Deal.
Terra’s David Martin, One Thousand Group’s Louis Birdman and Major Food Group’s Jeff Zalaznick, Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi with a rendering of The Villa project at 710 Northeast 29th Street in Edgewater (Terra, Getty, Major Food Group)David Martin’s Terra and Major Food Group joined the development team of the planned One Thousand Museum lookalike in Miami’s Edgewater, The Real Deal has learned.
The group plans The Villa, a waterfront condo tower with roughly 50 units, at 710 Northeast 29th Street. About two years ago, developers Louis Birdman, Kevin Venger, Michael Konig and Alex Posth, secured approval for the 649-foot-tall project, previously called 729 Edge. Birdman and Venger were part of the development team for One Thousand Museum, designed by the late Zaha Hadid. One Thousand Group, which includes Birdman, Venger and Konig, is co-developing the tower with Terra and Major Food Group.
Douglas Elliman was tapped to lead condo sales of the 58-story Edgewater tower, sources said. Full floor units could start at $8.5 million for a 6,200-square-foot condo.
New York-based Major Food Group, led by Mario Carbone, Jeff Zalaznick and Rich Torrisi, will brand and operate the restaurants, lounges, bars and amenity spaces, according to sources. That includes a waterfront restaurant on the ground floor. Carbone will also design the in-unit kitchens, and be involved in the project’s design.
The tower will mark the first residential building involving Major Food Group. The restaurant company was previously going to brand developer Michael Stern’s 90-story tower planned for 888 Brickell Avenue, but their deal fell apart, TRD previously reported.
Major Food Group has expanded across South Florida since opening Carbone in South Beach more than two years ago. It opened Contessa, its 10th restaurant in South Florida, in the fall.
Terra and Major Food Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Similar to One Thousand Museum, the Edgewater building will have a helipad on the roof.
The Miami Urban Development Review Board approved plans for the then-70-unit Edgewater tower about two years ago. Those plans called for 13,000 square feet of retail space, and 160 parking spaces on site. ODP Architecture & Design is the architect, and interior design firm Charles & Co., led by Vicky Charles, is designing the interiors.
The developers received a demolition permit in January to knock down the existing condo building, according to the city of Miami’s database. Last year, they secured additional land on Northeast 29th Street for the project’s parking garage. The garage will also include retail and an activity space on the top floor that could be used for tennis courts, a pool or another amenity, the architect said at a city of Miami board meeting in October.
A number of residential developments are planned in Edgewater, including a pair of Edition-branded condo towers from Two Roads Development. The Villa Miami project will be north of Missoni Baia and south of Biscayne Beach, both condo buildings.
Terra has been active across South Florida. The Coconut Grove-based firm recently made a $500 million offer to buy out owners of the aging Castle Beach Club waterfront condominium in Miami Beach, in hopes of demolishing the building to develop a new luxury condo project.
The company, in partnership with AB Asset Management, closed on a $43.2 million loan in March for a 148-unit luxury condo project planned for 2835 Tigertail Avenue in Coconut Grove. It is planned near its under-construction Mr. C Residences, which are a pair of condo towers connected by a garage.
Terra also has developments in Little Havana, Bay Harbor Islands and Miami Beach. In partnership with developer Russell Galbut, Terra is building the Five Park condo tower at the entrance to South Beach. Separately, in a partnership that includes Jackie Soffer, Martin plans to develop the Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel.
Read moreSouth FloridaMajor Food Group to open Contessa in Miami Design DistrictSouth FloridaMiami board approves three rental, condo projects in Overtown, Wynwood and EdgewaterSouth FloridaHere are the resi projects planned for Miami’s EdgewaterThe post Terra, Major Food lead planned waterfront Edgewater condo tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
NIMBYs and YIMBYs have joined forces to rein in urban sprawl in fire- and flood-prone regions across the state.
The coalition of environmentalists and housing advocates are backing a bill that seeks to slow growth in high-risk areas while supporting more apartments in cities, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The legislation, Assembly Bill 68, wouldn’t ban new housing in regions at risk of fires and floods — or prevent people in those areas from rebuilding their homes after disaster strikes.
Advocates say it would dial back the kind of large master-planned developments that have popped up in the Oakland hills, Tassajara Valley in Contra Costa County and Morgan Hill and Gilroy in the South Bay. Building industry officials are prepared to fight the bill.
San Diego Assemblyman Chris Ward, who wrote the bill, said the goal is “to try and limit, and as a last resort suspend, further sprawl into areas that are putting families in harm’s way.”
The legislation — co-sponsored by California YIMBY and the Nature Conservancy — would create defined “hazard areas” across the state. It would then require local officials seeking to approve more homes than their general plans allow in those locations to first show the same number of units couldn’t be built elsewhere in the city or county.
Since 2018, devastating wildfires in Lake Tahoe, Wine Country, the Sacramento Valley, the Santa Cruz Mountains and other parts of the state have burned thousands of homes and killed dozens of people. This year, severe flooding has hit the San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast, damaging hundreds of homes in the Monterey County farm town of Pajaro.
Across California, a quarter of all residents now live in areas at risk of catastrophic fire, according to state officials. One in five now live in areas vulnerable to floods, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Housing advocates blame policies restricting denser development in cities and suburbs for pushing new housing farther into wooded foothills and open floodplains where land is less expensive and space is plentiful.
That not only puts more people in danger, advocates and environmentalists say, but distresses local ecosystems and boosts climate-warming vehicle emissions.
“We have to deprioritize building homes in hazard zones and instead prioritize housing closer to jobs and services, so people can spend more time with their families — and less time in polluting traffic,” Melissa Breach, chief operating officer of California YIMBY, said in a statement.
While maps of the proposed hazard areas are still being determined, they could cover wide swaths of the Bay Area, from the East Bay hills to the Santa Clara Valley and much of the Peninsula.
The bill would require officials to streamline and approve larger “naturally affordable” multifamily homes within walking distance of jobs, schools, transit, parks and shopping centers.
The building industry, however, appears poised to push back hard on the bill.
Dan Dunmoyer, CEO of the California Building Industry Association, said the bill would drive up land values by limiting where new housing is allowed, making construction in rural and urban areas alike even more costly.
He said building homes anywhere in California comes with an inherent risk, pointing to the threat of earthquakes.
But just as newer housing is built to better withstand violent tremors, he said updated building codes have also made homes more fire resistant. When it comes to large subdivisions, he said developers can build roads, parks and golf courses around tract homes to shield them from wildfires.
“It’s disappointing to have a YIMBY group come out in favor of a bill that says YIMBY, but only in certain places,” Dunmoyer said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta last year released stricter guidelines for how and where developers should be allowed to build in fire-prone areas. His office has participated in several lawsuits to block large projects in areas with a history of wildfires.
In 2021, a state bill to ban development in high fire-risk areas stalled out amid heavy opposition from the building industry.
In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a measure that would have mandated more evacuation routes, vegetation management and strict building codes for new developments in fire-prone regions. He said the bill would have created “a loophole for regions to not comply with their housing requirements.”
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesInsurers dropping high-end homes over risk of wildfiresNew YorkPhase out of flood insurance subsidies could upend coastal real estate marketsLos AngelesLA's growing wildfire problem is spiking insurance rates, damaging the luxury marketThe post State bill would rein in sprawl in fire- and flood-prone regions appeared first on The Real Deal.
CBRE’s Michael Caprile and 601-605 Kingsland Drive in Batavia (CBRE, Loopnet)Venture One Real Estate has cashed out of a huge industrial portfolio concentrated in the Chicago area by bringing in DRA Advisors on a joint venture that’s acquiring the properties for $369 million.
The venture acquired 54 properties, amassing 2.8 million square feet, from a Venture One investment fund, which has now liquidated five of six investment funds along with partner company Kovitz Investment Group, Crain’s reported. A group of CBRE brokers led by Michael Caprile arranged the deal, which allowed Venture to close its fund and pay out investors while keeping a stake in the assets.
Of the 54 holdings, at least 40 of them are in the Chicago area, mostly in suburbs like Romeoville, Bensenville, Elk Grove Village and St. Charles. The properties vary greatly in size, including a 37,000-square-foot building at 1429 Shields Drive in Waukegan and a 489,000-square-foot building at 601-605 Kingsland Drive in Batavia, the outlet reported. The other holdings are located in Long Island, New Jersey and Philadelphia.
The deal is reflective of a strong industrial sector within an overall struggling commercial real estate market in Chicago. Vacancy rates for local warehouse space fell to a record low of 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. Developers have responded, breaking ground last year on a record number of new industrial projects by starting construction on 88 properties totaling 31.8 million square feet.
However, rising interest rates have caused industrial sales and developments to slow in recent months. Given the abundance of warehouse space in the area, it’s possible vacancy rates shoot up this year. Nationwide industrial sales volume fell to $142 billion in the last 12 months through February, down nearly a quarter from the previous year, the outlet reported citing MSCI Real Assets.
While the office market has yet to rebound from the pandemic, real estate players are looking to other promising sectors in the commercial realm. Chicago-based Glenstar, for instance, recently touted its turn into the industrial market, and away from its previous office and multifamily focus after handing back the Chicago Board of Trade Building to lender Apollo Global.
DRA, however, has continued to pour cash into Chicago-area multifamily as well as industrial properties. It spent more than $153 million last year to buy two suburban apartment complexes from Blackstone.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoScarcity drives Chicagoland’s hot industrial marketChicagoManufacturing incubator headed to $32M Ashland Avenue officeChicagoChicago industrial inventory collapses to record low, development sets record highThe post Venture One, DRA team up on $369M industrial play appeared first on The Real Deal.
270 Park Avenue (Google Maps, Getty)A construction worker was killed in a fall at the site of JPMorgan Chase’s in-progress headquarters in Midtown East.
The unidentified employee was working on the 12th floor at 270 Park Avenue, NBC New York reported. The Department of Buildings said the worker lost balance and plummeted through a hole 20 feet.
The worker — who was doing carpentry work and employed by Certified Interior — was pronounced dead at the scene, the DOB said in an emailed response to The Real Deal on Monday morning. Following the incident, construction was paused at the site and an investigation was launched.
The DOB did not have any further update on the investigation.
The financial giant revealed its plans for the site a year ago. Foster + Partners is designing a 60-story, 1,388-foot-tall tower set to span 2.5 million square feet. It is expected to house up to 14,000 bank employees and have plenty of outdoor space, including a public plaza on Madison Avenue.
Construction had already started by April and is slated to finish in 2025. The development was made possible by the 2017 Midtown East rezoning, which affected more than 70 blocks to allow for a higher floor area ratio; JPMorgan was the first to launch a project tied to the rezoning.
This is the second known construction fatality of both the month and the year. A 64-year-old doing demolition work at 126 Lafayette Street in Chinatown was killed earlier this month when a likely overloaded floor collapsed and caused a wall to fall, killing one and injuring three other workers.
This month also saw a rare conviction in the death of a construction worker. A contractor was convicted in the September 2018 death of a worker at a Sunset Park site, where Luis Sánchez Almonte was killed five years ago when 15,000 pounds of debris fell on him.
Gov. Kathy Hochul recently signed Carlos’ Law, named for a worker killed in 2015. Construction companies found criminally responsible for the death or injury of a laborer will face steepened fines, up to $500,000 for convictions.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkCollapse at Stellar’s Chinatown job site kills workerNew YorkContractor convicted in Sunset Park construction deathNew YorkHochul signs bill to raise fines for construction companiesThe post Construction worker killed in fall at JPMorgan Chase HQ site appeared first on The Real Deal.
One Madison Avenue; SL Green’s Marc Holliday (Getty, SL Green)A cybersecurity firm signed a lease at SL Green’s One Madison Avenue as the office project draws closer to the light at the end of the development tunnel.
Palo Alto Networks is leasing nearly 29,000 square feet at the property in Midtown South, the New York Post reported. The company will occupy the entire 26th floor; its deal brings the building to 59 percent leased.
Other details — including asking rent, lease duration and brokers — were not disclosed. SL Green and Palo Alto Networks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SL Green is making progress on both the leasing and construction fronts. Completion of the 1.4 million-square-foot property is slated for October, five weeks ahead of schedule.
Chef Daniel Boulud in December signed multiple leases to operate spaces in the office tower. Two of Boulud’s spaces will be on the ground floor, combining to span 16,000 square feet.
One will be a French-inspired marketplace with convenient dining options and a Parisian grand cafe, while the other will be a full-service steakhouse — Boulud’s first. The chef will also manage the food and beverage service in the tenant lounge and catering for rooftop deck events.
Chelsea Piers Fitness was the first tenant, signing a 20-year lease for portions of the first two floors. The gym will operate across 56,000 square feet.
Mutual fund giant Franklin Templeton has also signed on for 15 years and 347,000 square feet. The asking rent at the time of that deal was $145 per square foot.
The development occupies a full-block site between Park and Madison Avenues, as well as East 23rd and East 24th Streets. SL Green acquired the property in 2005 for $918 million, proceeding to embark on a $2.3 billion redevelopment.
SL Green scored one of the largest office financing packages of 2021 when it landed a $1.25 billion loan. The owners of the development in December secured $575 million in construction financing from Wells Fargo, which has originated $1 billion in loans for the project in the last three years.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkDaniel Boulud lands at SL Green’s One Madison AvenueNew YorkChelsea Piers is coming to SL Green's One MadisonNew YorkFranklin Templeton takes 347K sf at SL Green’s One Madison AvenueThe post Cybersecurity firm logs on at SL Green’s One Madison appeared first on The Real Deal.
Naim Associates’ Michael Naim with rendering of Belvedere at 3832-3836 North Figueroa Street (Naim & Associates, Getty)A Beverly Hills developer has beat back community appeals on plans to build 100 apartments in Highland Park.
Michael Naim, architect and developer of Naim Associates, got an OK from the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, which voted down two appeals challenging the seven-story complex at 3836 North Figueroa Street, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
The complex, dubbed Belvedere, would include one-, two-, three-, four-, and five-bedroom apartments above 14,700 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants. A semi-underground garage would serve 114 cars.
The controversial project, in the pipeline since 2018, secured a letter of determination from the Planning Department last September.
It uses Transit Oriented Communities incentives to permit a larger building than allowed by zoning rules in exchange for 10 affordable apartments for extremely low-income tenants.
Naim’s design for the Mediterranean-style complex includes a white stucco exterior and multiple roof terraces, inset balconies and light brown awnings.
The apartment complex would be joined by a 4,800-square-foot public plaza at North Figueroa and Pasadena streets, and include a podium-top courtyard and pool deck.
Construction is expected to take two years, with an undisclosed timeline.
The planning commission considered two appeals of project entitlements, submitted by Saul Ramirez, a neighboring resident, and Derek Ryder who is identified as a member of the Arroyo Seco Alliance. Both argued the project was inconsistent with zoning regulations and planning goals, and should be subject to further environmental review.
Their concerns were echoed by dozens of local residents, who urged that the project be scaled back in size or be required to offer more affordable units. Others said the project would accelerate gentrification, and alleged racism on the part of the project’s developer.
Naim, in comments before the Commission, spoke to the costs incurred in fees for the project, as well as his surprise at the chilly reception from residents of Highland Park, according to Urbanize.
He said he’s made numerous revisions to the development in the past five years to better match the “design narrative” of the neighborhood.
Helen Campbell, a former Planning Commissioner and current Planning Deputy for City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, thanked both Naim and the appellants for attempting to iron out their disagreements in a recent in-person meeting.
She said the city had limited discretion to force changes to the project because of its status as a TOC development, plus a state law that limits the maximum number of public meetings certain housing developments may be subjected to.
She did offer potential compromises for which Naim could volunteer, including the inclusion of affordable commercial units at street level, as well as a larger setback next to the home owned by Ramirez.
Naim, in response, agreed to offer two ground-floor commercial stalls at 50 percent of the prevailing rent for the other retail tenant spaces.
While he denied the setback request, he indicated the project would incorporate step backs on the upper floors to reduce the building’s scale. He also agreed to a right-of-return provision for existing tenants on the property, if they meet income eligibility requirements.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesTransit agency to bank land near future rail stations to stymie gentrificationLos AngelesHarkham family buys in Highland ParkNew YorkTRD Insights: Gentrification happening fastest in least affordable citiesThe post Developer wins appeals to 100-unit apartment complex in Highland Park appeared first on The Real Deal.
Six Peak Capital’s cofounders Chris Aiello, Bob Kennedy and Rich Littlehale with 2511 West Sunset Blvd (Six Peak Capital, Google Maps)New York investor Six Peak Capital is making another L.A. play with a plan to build a five-story apartment building in Silver Lake.
Six Peak filed plans for a five-story, 121-unit project in the trendy L.A. neighborhood of Silver Lake. The project is located at 2511-2517 West Sunset Boulevard, and will replace a liquor store.
It’s a part of L.A. that in recent years has transformed into one of the city’s most sought after neighborhoods, along with the neighboring district of Echo Park, which shed a reputation for gangs and crime to become a center of gentrification over the last two decades.
Significant new projects have been sprouting in both districts: A couple years ago Cypress Equity filed plans for a 176-unit complex, also on West Sunset, and last year Manhattan West filed for a five-story project on North Alvarado Street, among others.
Six Peak, which has around 50 multifamily projects around the country, has made L.A. a major focus. The firm has around 20 properties in the region, including co-living apartments in East Hollywood and Mar Vista. Last month the city’s planning commission upheld approvals for another Six Peak project, a 110-unit build on the edge of booming Koreatown, that had been contested by neighborhood groups.
In 2019, the firm made a major push on co-living, announcing it was seeking $1 billion in fundraising to develop projects across the country.
Read moreLos AngelesSix Peak’s Westlake apartment project weathers appeal Los AngelesCypress Equity plans 176-unit complex in Echo ParkThe post Six Peak Capital aims for 100+ units, five stories in Silver Lake appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Anatomy’s Chris Paciello, PGIM Real Estate’s Eric Adler, and Anatomy’s Marc Megna with 3450 Northwest 83rd Avenue (bottom) and 3535 Northwest 83rd Avenue (top) in Doral (Getty, PGIM Real Estate, Google Maps)Anatomy, Bünda I CityPlace Doral Fitness centers Anatomy and Bünda opened at CityPlace Doral this month.
Anatomy took 14,000 square feet at 3450 Northwest 83rd Avenue, and Bünda took nearly 2,800 square feet at 3535 Northwest 83rd Avenue, according to a CityPlace Doral news release. PGIM Real Estate, the asset management arm of Prudential Financial, owns the buildings.
Founded by former NFLer Marc Megna and nightlife impresario Chris Paciello, Anatomy opened its first gym in Miami Beach’s Sunset Harbour neighborhood in 2015. The Doral fitness center is Anatomy’s fifth in South Florida. Other clubs are in Coconut Grove, Midtown Miami and Miami Beach, including at 1 Hotel South Beach in South Florida. Anatomy also is at 1 Hotel Nashville and 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay in Hawaii.
Bünda, founded by husband-and-wife Kevin and Katie Lilly, is known for its 50-minute classes that combine StairMaster and resistance training.
PGIM, the Pérez family’s Related Group and other partners completed the master-planned CityPlace Doral in 2017. The mixed-use development includes apartments and 250,000 square feet of retail. Related is no longer a joint venture partner in CityPlace Doral, according to property representatives.
Premium Home Systems I FATVillage I Fort Lauderdale Residential tech company Premium Home Systems opened an office and products exhibit space in Fort Lauderdale’s FATVillage neighborhood.
Chicago-based Premium, which installs automation infrastructure for lights, cameras and other home systems, leased 2,000 square feet at 721 Northeast Second Avenue, according to the landlord’s broker. Todd Schneller is the company’s owner.
Read moreSouth FloridaLease roundup: Terra scores gym tenant, RK Centers nabs jewelry storeSouth FloridaLease roundup: Avra opening at Harvey Hernandez’s Brickell projectSouth FloridaLease roundup: Nuveen scores European bank, Rosen’s RFR nabs coworking firmJaime Sturgis represented the landlord, and Dino Flora represented the tenant. Both are with Native Realty.
An entity managed by Sturgis owns the one-story, 4,000-square-foot building, records show.
The post Lease roundup: Anatomy, Bünda open at PGIM’s CityPlace Doral appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Alvin Matsumoto probably did not want to die for his condo.
Unfortunately, the 64-year-old landlord was killed while trying to evict a tenant from his Honolulu property, Hawaii News Now reported.
Matsumoto owned a second floor unit in the condominium at 620 Sheridan Street and arrived there on March 19 to remove the tenant, the outlet reported. During the eviction, the tenant’s boyfriend, who police identified as 23-year-old Kendall Gray, allegedly assaulted Matsumoto on the sidewalk outside the building.
Shawn Giles, another condo owner, was in his unit that afternoon when he heard loud noises and shouting. He walked outside to check on the situation, and saw the suspect dragging a bloodied Matsumoto down the stairs, he told the outlet.
“He’s dragging him like a caveman. Just dragging the body,” Giles told the publication. After that, Gray told Giles that Matsumoto needed help, and to call 911.
Then, police say, he fled.
Matsumoto was bleeding profusely from his head and taken to Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where he died from his wounds, the outlet reported.
“He just came to get his money,” Giles said to the outlet.
Real estate investing and property management isn’t necessarily regarded as a dangerous line of work, but Matsumoto isn’t the first landlord to be killed on the job.
Brooklyn landlord Menachem Stark was murdered by a construction worker and two accomplices in 2014.
Edgar Moncayo, a landlord in Queens, died after a tenant pushed him down the stairs in 2020.
Sometimes it’s not the tenant who becomes violent during an eviction. Last November, a Cincinnati landlord was arrested following an eviction that escalated to the point where she allegedly pulled a butcher’s knife after police responded to her call for help.
That same month in New Orleans, a property manager was arrested for his alleged role in an October eviction that resulted in the shooting of both him and a deputy constable.
— Kate Hinsche
The post “He just came to get his money”: Landlord murdered mid-eviction appeared first on The Real Deal.
101 Ash Street (Google Maps)A San Diego real estate adviser who played either side of two large leases between a city and a landlord agreed last week to plead guilty to a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge and pay back the city $9.4 million for the troubled deals, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
The City Council agreed last week to the settlement with Jason Hughes, who worked on two city leases for the 101 Ash Street and Civic Center Plaza buildings, while a district attorney also announced the plea agreement with Hughes, effectively ending the civil and criminal cases against Hughes in a real estate deal that’s been described as a debacle.
With the guilty plea, Hughes, a longtime adviser and real estate expert in the area, admitted to working on either side of a $128 million lease-to-own agreement between the city and Cisterra Development for both properties, according to the outlet.
The city sued Cisterra Development back in 2020, after finding out during renovations that 101 Ash Street couldn’t be occupied because of significant issues, including asbestos. The city, according to the Times-Union, had signed an “as-is” lease and did not conduct its own property assessment of the building. At the time, then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer was told all that needed to be done to 101 sh Street was some power washing before workers could move in.
The city later added Hughes to the lawsuit when it was discovered — and he subsequently admitted — that he received payments from Cisterra for brokering the two leases. For years, Hughes held himself out as an unpaid real estate adviser to numerous San Diego mayors, including Faulconer, who recommended entering into the two leases for 101 Ash Street and the Civic Center Plaza.
Even though the guilty plea resulted in one year of probation and a $400 fine, Hughes was not barred from working with the city in the future, nor was his standing with the California Department of Real Estate affected, according to the outlet.
The 7-2 vote to approve the settlement with Hughes reflected a split among the council in terms of how significant a punishment should have been meted out.
“He stole taxpayer dollars,” Council member Vivian Moreno, who voted against the settlement, said, according to the Times-Union. “The only consequence Mr. Hughes faces is that the profit he made from this deal be given up. That is the bare minimum of what this city should demand.”
The city, meanwhile, has sunk about $200 million into the two properties — which have been assessed for a little more than half that — as part of an effort to revitalize San Diego’s downtown area and bring more affordable housing to the area.
The city last year settled its portion of the litigation with Cisterra and CGA Capital, where the city will buy out the two leases for $132 million — $86 million for 101 Ash Street and $46 million for the Civic Center Plaza. Cistera agreed to return $7.5 million to the city, but was allowed to keep millions that San Diego paid in rent before the lawsuits were filed, the outlet reported.
The lawsuit still remains open against several other defendants.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreThe post Guilty plea in San Diego real estate ‘debacle’ appeared first on The Real Deal.
108 Leigus Road in Wallingford CT, Rialto Capital Management’s Jeff Krasnoff (Getty, Google Maps, Rialto Capital Management)The upcoming auction of a Connecticut office complex demonstrates the depths of despair being felt by some landlords in the commercial real estate sector.
The Campus at Greenhill, located at 108 Leigus Road in Wallingford, is set to be auctioned at the beginning of April, the Hartford Business Journal reported. Bidding will commence April 3 on Ten-X, running through April 5.
There’s plenty to like about the modern office building, completed in 2012. The 289,000-square-foot property, owned by Rialto Capital Management, boasts a fitness center, cafeteria and walking paths in a suburban environment. The property could likely support another 31,000 square feet of built space and the property’s broker said Cushman & Wakefield has already fielded more than two dozen inquiries.
But the reality of the property is much harsher, in line with the general shift away from suburban office buildings in a post-pandemic world. Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield signed on for more than 200,000 square feet two years before construction was even completed; it’s down to a meager 48,000 square feet.
There are a few other tenants, but the building is 60 percent vacant. Before the pandemic even muddied the waters, the mortgage holder foreclosed on the property.
Those struggles may hint at why the property could be had for a fairly low price. The town assessor valued the building itself at $18.1 million and the surrounding land at $10.8 million. Yet the listing price is only $2 million.
Cushman’s Robert Motley believes the property will sell far above where the bidding will begin. How much a buyer is willing to bid, however, may depend on their belief in the office market when remote work has become a norm. The property is zoned for other uses, which may be worth exploring.
Office vacancies in the greater Hartford area hit 21.5 percent at the end of last year, according to CBRE. For the year, tenants in the area shed 1.2 million square feet.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreTri-StateWall Street firms double down on Connecticut officesTri-StateCampbell Soup boils down its Connecticut officeNationalLego letting go of Connecticut officeThe post Large office complex up for auction in Connecticut appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Dressed in sleek designer clothes, a luxury watch on his wrist, a model on his arm and an unflappable, laid back demeanor, Ian Matalon seemed more super spy than regular homebuyer when he crossed paths with Terrence Harding.
Matalon wined and dined the Compass broker and his associates, taking them from the The Peninsula rooftop, to Tao, to Il Mulino, all while brushing elbows with the rich and famous, according to Harding. And Matalon always picked up the tab.
“He moved like James Bond,” said Harding. “He was just so smooth.”
Matalon did have one trait in common with most spies: His identity was a sham. But that’s where the similarities ended. Matalon’s real name is Ian Mitchell, a scam artist who the New York Post reports had been arrested for grand larceny and released on $100,000 bond a few months before meeting Harding in late 2017.
That detail didn’t stop Mitchell — posing as Matalon — from submitting offers on multiple luxury apartments, going to great lengths to convince brokers and attorneys that he was a millionaire relative of the owners of Sandals Resorts, according to interviews and emails reviewed by The Real Deal.
“You couldn’t tell anybody this guy wasn’t who he said he was,” Harding said. “He was that good. He wasn’t asking for anything, he was just asking to see places. … I want to put in an offer, what do I need to put in an offer?”
Mitchell, who pleaded guilty to the grand larceny charges and eventually served a year in jail for continuing his scams, was back in the news last week when allegedly he broke a window and threatened to jump from the 20th story of the CitySpire building in Midtown Manhattan when the FBI tried to serve him with a search warrant, according to the Post, citing unnamed sources. The standoff lasted hours, until an officer crawled down a rope from the apartment above and climbed through the shattered window.
Attempts to obtain contact information for Mitchell for comment were unsuccessful. The Post reports he was taken into custody Wednesday and brought to a psychiatric unit.
Last week’s event brought Harding back to his encounters with Mitchell and re-awakened his amazement at the lengths the con man went to in order to perpetuate his false identity. Harding, who once upon a time went by MC Klepto and performed in the Notorious B.I.G’s rap group, is no stranger to the rich and famous, or to selling them real estate. He wasn’t an easy mark — but testimony from attorneys, other well-established brokers, Mitchell’s lavish lifestyle and Mitchell going so far as to submit offers on properties gave Harding no reason to doubt his story.
“Every time we asked for something, he provided it, paperwork-wise,” said Harding, adding Mitchell had proof-of-fund statements at the ready. “He did everything a purchaser would have to do in order to purchase it. … Everything just checked out.”
Dayanne Costa, another Compass broker who interacted with Mitchell, said “he tricked everyone into thinking he had money, even attorneys.”
Harding showed Mitchell three downtown properties in the $20 million range — there weren’t many units that fit his criteria: He wanted a penthouse with outdoor space. Mitchell at one point went as far as meeting with an attorney and going through the due diligence process.
Eventually, a check Mitchell cut to a real estate attorney bounced, around the time Mitchell dropped from Harding’s radar.
“He kind of disappeared, and then the next thing somebody showed me he was on the news,” Harding said.
Read moreNationalReal estate scams on the rise in New OrleansSouth FloridaBusted: Trio arrested in alleged Broward home theft scheme New YorkSour grapes: Former NYC developer sentenced for fraud in New ZealandThe post Tales of a broker whose client was a conman appeared first on The Real Deal.
MV Realty’s Amanda Zachman and Tony Mitchell (MV Realty, Getty)Add North Carolina to the growing list of states suing a Florida-based real estate company for allegedly scamming financially struggling homeowners.
MV Realty is accused of misleading homeowners by obtaining mortgages on their homes without their knowledge, WSVOC TV reported.
The company, according to North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, paid homeowners a few hundred dollars in exchange for the right to be the listing agent in the event a homeowner decided to sell their home.
MV Realty, under the 40-year contracts, would receive money if the company sold the property, the homeowner canceled the agreement or if the property was transferred in some other way, including foreclosure or a transfer when the owner dies.
The contracts also allegedly permitted MV Realty to obtain mortgages on the homes, unbeknownst to the homeowners.
Stein’s office said in a press release that the North Carolina Department of Justice has received more than 20 complaints about MV Realty.
“We allege that MV Realty is preying on vulnerable people to trick them into unfair, long-term agreements,” Stein told the outlet. “My office is taking them to court to put them out of business.”
North Carolina joins Florida, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, among others, that have sued MV Realty for alleged deceptive, unfair trade practices.
“I was shocked,” Philadelphia homeowner Timothy Calhoun, who entered into a contract with MV Realty, said at a hearing concerning MV Realty’s practices. “They never told me that I was signing a mortgage. If I had known that I was gonna put a mortgage on my house, I would have never had signed the agreement.”
The lawsuits in every state seek to stop MV Realty from entering into new contracts, void the existing contracts and have courts assign civil penalties to the company.
MV Realty, which operates in 33 states nationwide, previously denied it engaged in any false or deceptive practices.
“We are confident that after a full airing of the facts, the conclusion will be that MV Realty’s business transactions are legal and ethical and that our team has operated in full compliance with [Massachusetts] law,” the firm said in a statement to CBS Boston.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreChicagoLerner vs. Lerner: Father, son battle over $35M Fulton Market dealNew YorkEx-Bespoke exec alleges racial discrimination, harassmentNew YorkEmbattled landlord wins rent overcharge caseThe post Lawsuits against MV Realty pile up appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kirkwood Farm (Shawn May, Getty)Rockefeller family descendants have sold a 210-acre Philadelphia-area estate for $24 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The property, known as Kirkwood Farm, was originally listed by the scions of the oil magnate William Rockefeller for $30 million, Compass agent Lavinia Smerconish, who had the listing, told the outlet.
The estate, which has been used most recently as a hunting club, dates back to the late 18th century and has five farmhouses that are between 1,750 and 2,900 square feet. The residences, which are located in Willistown on Providence Road, had been rented out, the Journal reported.
Kim Whetzel and Ellen Haas of Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty represented the unidentified buyer, who does not plan to develop the property, they said.
In December, a group of William Rockefeller’s descendants listed a 54-acre parcel of forestland in Greenwich, Connecticut, for $21.5 million, according to the Journal. The acreage at 181 Glenville Road in the wealthy Connecticut enclave is the last large holding from the former Rockefeller family estate.
The offering is the latest piece to be made available from the Rockefeller real estate portfolio, which stretched approximately 500 acres at the turn of the previous century. As descendants have since moved away, the clan worked to sell much of the land, reaping more than $100 million in sales since the mid-1960s alone.
Other historic properties owned by famous tycoons have changed hands this year.
In January, for example, Law and Associates bought the sprawling, 89-acre Vanderbilt Berkshires Estate, formerly Elm Court, located in both Stockbridge and Lenox, Massachusetts, from Amstar/Travaasa Experiential Resorts in a direct deal for $8 million.
Company Principal Linda Law and her business partner, Dr. Rick Peiser, professor of real estate development at the Harvard University School of Design, didn’t announce at the time formal plans on what they’re planning to do with the estate, though the resort is one possibility.
The estate, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, originally listed for $12.5 million in 2020, before Amstar took it off the market at the end of 2021.
Built in 1886, the 55,000-square-foot, 106-room mansion — which lays claim to the largest shingled residence in the U.S. — has 46 bedrooms and 27 bathrooms, according to Boston.com. The grounds are approved for up to 112 guestrooms, a 15,000-square-foot spa and a 60-seat restaurant.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreNew YorkPast the pandemic: Rockefeller family pitches global luxury development projectsNew YorkWestchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: $33M Rockefeller estate sale named priciest of 2018, famous photog’s ex-New Canaan home seeks $2M … & moreNew YorkBuyer of Rockefeller mansion revealed to be controversial ex-Clinton adviserThe post Rockefeller scions sell Philadelphia-area estate for $24M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A rendering of Bader Field (Deem Enterprises, Getty)It’s not exactly “Start your engines,” but the key appears to be in the ignition.
The Atlantic City City Council last week gave the go-ahead to a $2.7 billion development that will convert the shuttered Bader Field airport into a Formula 1 racetrack, condominiums and retail businesses, NJ.com reported.
The council voted 8-0, with one abstention, to OK a memorandum of understanding with DEEM Enterprises for its Bader Field project, according to the outlet.
The development on the 140-acre defunct airport, which closed in 2006, will have a nearly 2.5-mile Formula 1 course that is overlooked by condominiums and retail businesses.
The project also calls for about 10.8 megawatts of solar panels on condo roofs and other available roof space throughout the design.
Construction will take up to nine years, according to Michael Binder, who represents the developers.
“[It] is going to not only change the landscape of Atlantic City but give our taxpayers much needed relief like never before,” Democratic Mayor Marty Small Sr. said, according to CBS Philadelphia.
Bader Field, which opened in the early 20th century, was among the first airports in the U.S. It’s owned by the city.
Race tracks have been en vogue of late.
In January, construction began on the 273-acre Motorsports Gateway Howell automotive district in Howell, Michigan.
Phase 1 of a $60 million district, by the father-and-son development team Mark and Jordan Dick, will include a 2.2-mile driving circuit (to be constructed following international safety standards), a clubhouse, rentable garages, private garage condos and a nature trail, according to the release and M-Live.
Racing is a big deal in the development team’s family. Jordan is a race car driver who, with his father, owns an indoor go-kart center in Michigan.
The 1,200-square-foot garage condos will provide members with front-row seats — either from the ground level or the second-floor balconies — to the action on the track. The condos will also include 16-foot-wide garage doors, a concrete floor, energy-efficient windows and HVAC systems and fire suppression systems.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreTri-StateAtlantic City home prices rising on demand from PhillyNationalCarl Icahn pulls plug on auction to demolish Trump casinoNationalBid on a chance to blow up Trump’s Atlantic City casinoThe post Developer plans Formula 1 track at defunct Atlantic City airport appeared first on The Real Deal.
Former Bespoke executive Jarret Willis, Jeffrey Gural, One Vanderbilt, Flatiron building and former president of president of Bespoke Florida Harlan Goldberg (Facebook, Getty, Wikipedia, GFPRE)People were talking about two events that sent a literal shockwave in one iconic New York building and a figurative one through another.
First, an elevator malfunction at SL Green’s One Vanderbilt in Midtown Manhattan shook office workers at the 93-story skyscraper Tuesday afternoon. It was jarring to some tenants … to say the least.
“I can say with confidence, you would not get me to go back to my desk at One Vanderbilt after that today!” Twitter user Anne McCarthy wrote. “No way!”
No injuries were reported and the building was not damaged, officials said.
Meanwhile, a $190 million bid from Jacob Garlick at auction for the iconic Flatiron Building turned more than a few heads.
“It was a lot of money. You still have to spend $100 million to renovate the building,” a baffled Jeffrey Gural, the property’s former owner who put in a bid, said. “When you are all done, you are going to own a building that is $1,500 per foot.”
The high price was but one of two mysteries surrounding the bid. The other is who exactly is Jeffrey Garlick?
Meanwhile, former Bespoke executive Jarret Willis filed a lawsuit against his former employer, alleging the brokerage engaged in discriminatory and overtly racist behavior, as well as withheld commissions from him.
Harlan Goldberg, a real estate agent who was previously president of Bespoke Florida, joined Willis in the suit, alleging he is owed more than $1 million for his share of commissions on sales in Miami and Parkland.
“I do not know why my clients have not been paid their commissions,” attorney Adam Leitman Bailey, who represents Willis and Goldberg, said. “It’s unjust, it’s wrong, and when a person does a really good job and does the job well, and the employer gets paid, then I believe the agent should be paid as well. We shouldn’t have to sue for it either.”
The firm denied the claims.
“Bespoke unequivocally denies these false and untrue allegations, which arose regarding an ongoing attempt to collect unjustified commissions from the company,” the brokerage said in a statement.
In Los Angeles, tenants sued their landlord, Arthur Aslanian, for alleged years of abuse and retaliation in an effort to get them to move out for a planned development.
“We’re traumatized by our previous landlord,” one of the tenants, Clare Letmon, said. But Letmon and her partner, JonPaul Rodriguez, also have no plans to leave. “We are staying in solidarity with our disabled and senior neighbors,” Letmon added.
Aslanian faces criminal charges stemming from an alleged plot to hire a hitman to kill two people to whom he owed money. Aslanian also faces arson charges for allegedly paying someone to set fire to one of his properties to get tenants to move out.
Keller Williams and the brokerage’s cofounder Gary Keller are facing a Texas lawsuit from Colleen Basinski, an Illinois realtor and franchise owner, alleging the company interfered with her business and cost her millions of dollars in income for being an ally of ousted CEO John Davis.
“KWRI and Keller were determined to ruin the Basinskis for Colleen’s refusal to initially or voluntarily embrace Keller’s directive to lower market center caps,” the lawsuit says. “In fact, Colleen was told by another individual that Keller wanted to make her destitute.
The post They said what now? Real estate quotes of the week appeared first on The Real Deal.
Illustration of 61 Ballantyne Road in Syracuse (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, Google Maps)Brooklyn-based landlord Abraham Wieder says when reporters write about his business, they typically write “about my good stuff.”
But there’s not a lot of good stuff to come out of some of the distressed apartment buildings Wieder has acquired recently in Syracuse and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Syracuse.com reported.
Indeed, Wieder, who says he has a portfolio of about 5,000 apartment units as well as commercial property throughout the country, has been sued by lenders for more than $40 million in unpaid mortgages.
After Wieder went on a spending spree over the past year, three properties — the 138-unit Ballantyne Garden property in Syracuse and two apartment complexes in Baton Rouge — spiraled amid inadequate upkeep and unpaid mortgages.
The lender of the Syracuse property, which was declared unfit to live in by the city after it removed 14,000 pounds of garbage and cited numerous violations in the process, is suing to gain control of the low-income complex. Wieder borrowed nearly $7 million against the property in March 2022. Wider, for his part, told the outlet he plans to fix the problems, even though the property is in foreclosure and a receiver has been appointed to run the building as the legal matter plays out.
Wieder borrowed $28 million in June 2022 to acquire a 383-unit complex in Baton Rouge, only to stop making mortgage payments within four months. A receiver has been appointed by a judge to run the complex while that property is being foreclosed on.
Also in June, Wieder borrowed $13.9 million for a different complex in Baton Rouge, only for foreclosure proceedings to have commenced recently after Wieder allegedly failed to stay current on payments.
Wieder’s alleged neglect isn’t limited there. Some tenants at the Sabine Park apartment complex in Orange, Texas, moved out after they lost water for months when pipes burst, affecting 59 apartments, on Christmas Eve.
A city official says the repairs haven’t been made and if the situation continues, a hearing will be held in April to determine if the affected buildings should be demolished or if more time should be given to fix the problem, Syracuse.com said.
Wieder told the outlet he had hired a plumber for hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair the damage.
“It took long to find the problem,’’ he told the outlet. “We kept on putting Band-Aid to Band-Aid to Band-Aid, and it was never fixed.”
Still, the property manager hired to manage the Ballantyne Garden and Sabine Park complexes, Asset Living, walked away from the sites, saying not enough money was set aside for maintenance and repairs.
Amid the proceedings, Wieder is building new apartments in New York City, including two buildings that were recently completed in the Bronx, Syracuse.com said.
He said he wanted to fix things in Syracuse and Louisiana.
“I know the tenants deserve the best,’’ he said to the outlet. Perhaps, but he also faced an eviction himself in Brooklyn when he was sued by a lender for not having paid back a $700,000 loan on a condo, the outlet said. He settled the suit and moved out of the unit, he said.
— Ted Glanzer
Read moreNationalBoston landlord latest to sue TwitterNew YorkCity sues East Village landlords over illegal smoke shopsNew YorkEmbattled landlord wins rent overcharge caseThe post Brooklyn-based landlord accused of neglecting tenants nationwide appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, former Signature Bank CEO Joe DePaolo, First Republic Bank CEO Michael Roffler, and FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg (Photo Illustration by Steven Dilakian for The Real Deal with Getty, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank)“How did you go bankrupt?”
“Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
— Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
In the beginning, God created Silicon Valley Bank. The heavens and earth flooded with venture-backed startups fueled by low interest rates and easy money. The bank had more cash than it could lend, and with rates near zero, it put that surplus in long-term, government-backed securities. God saw that it was good.
In 2001, God created Signature Bank. For two decades, the bank catered to cabbies and rent-stabilized landlords, with hardscrabble employees and a decidedly non-blue-blood atmosphere. Screw an Ivy League degree — if you were a grinder, they wanted to work with you.
“They opened me an account pretty quickly,” Anna Sorokin, the famed grifter who charmed her way into New York’s high society under the alter ego Anna Delvey, told Bloomberg.
On March 10, 2023, God saw all that he had made, and it was not good. It was, in fact, very, very bad. He sent down plagues: Bank runs, contagion, regulators, fear. Silicon Valley Bank lost $14 billion of deposits in a single day. Signature customers, including major landlords, pulled out $18 billion. In the span of a long weekend, both institutions collapsed.
It was commercial real estate in the crucible, nine days that tested the mettle of everyone from humble rent-stabilized landlords to swashbuckling condo developers. Nobody knows how the story of the collapse will end, but its impact on the real estate industry so far is stark: This was commercial real estate’s nine days in hell.
“They took their eyes off of that small entrepreneur.”
Al D’Amato, Signature Bank
“Total fear”Silicon Valley Bank provided banking services to roughly half of all venture-backed tech and life science companies in the U.S., according to the Financial Times. That model worked well when interest rates were near zero, which meant cheap money was pouring into the startups that parked their cash with SVB. In 2021 alone, deposits rose a staggering 85 percent to $189 billion from $102 billion..
Flush with funds, SVB invested in a $120 billion portfolio of government-backed securities. Some $91 billion of them were tied up in fixed-rate mortgage bonds with an average interest rate of less than 2 percent. While T-bills are considered some of the safest investments in the world, SVB’s money was invested in long-term maturities vulnerable to rising rates.
When the tech bubble burst and the Federal Reserve raised rates, it was a double whammy for SVB. Its depositors wanted their money, but all the cash the bank had invested was both unavailable and decreasing in value each time Fed chair Jerome Powell reared his silvered head.
“One of the biggest risks to our business model was catering to a very tightly knit group of investors who exhibit herd-like mentalities,” a bank executive told the FT. “I mean, doesn’t that sound like a bank run waiting to happen?”
Bank bosses expected deposits to fall when the bubble burst, but they declined even faster than expected in February and March. SVB moved to free up cash by selling those long-term deposits at a $1.8 billion loss, but that only added to depositors’ fears of a liquidity crunch.
On March 9, investors tried to pull $42 billion from SVB. By the time the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation declared the bank insolvent the next day, it had a negative cash balance of almost $1 billion.
“They went for an extra [0.4 percentage points] of yield and blew up the bank,” one investor who bet against SVB told the FT.
As SVB was imploding, an East Coast player was starting to sweat.
Former employees and competitors have likened Signature Bank to a slot receiver: scrappy, hungry and capable of turning niches into big plays.
Al D’Amato, a former senator from New York and a director at Signature Bank, said the firm’s customers were “hard-working people who had come up the hard way, with tough businesses.”
“They did business the old-fashioned way,” John Catsimatidis, the CEO of developer Red Apple Group, told Bloomberg. Signature’s CEO, Joseph DePaolo, studied accounting at Iona and often ate deli lunches at his desk, surrounded by undecorated walls.
The bank had ambition. Some of its bankers reportedly outearned DePaolo. Within real estate, Signature was a particularly prominent lender on rent-stabilized apartments, which became increasingly difficult to finance after changes to New York’s laws in 2019 restricted rent increases and many tenants fell behind on payments during the pandemic.
Before its collapse, Signature was New York City’s third-largest commercial real estate lender by dollar volume and the top source of middle-market financing, according to data compiled by Maverick Real Estate Partners, an investment firm active in the distressed-debt space.
In 2019, as Signature’s assets swelled to new heights, the firm launched Signet, a digital payments platform built on the blockchain. The platform allowed crypto firms to exchange fiat currency year-round with no delay. DePaolo considered digital currencies an existential threat to banks.
“We have to do this, otherwise we’re not going to exist,” he told Forbes in 2018.
Scott Shay, the bank’s chairman, framed his hand-drawn plan for the payments network and displayed it in his office.
Let he who never considered buying a Bitcoin cast the first stone, but even Signature would soon realize it had jumped a bit too enthusiastically into the crypto boom.
“Their downfall came when they got into this crypto business,” D’Amato told Bloomberg. “They took their eyes off of that small entrepreneur.”
By March of last year, Signet held about $29 billion, accounting for roughly a quarter of Signature’s total deposits. When the crypto bubble burst, Signet’s deposits evaporated — the bank’s digital currency assets fell by $2.4 billion in the second quarter alone. The real estate ramifications were huge.
On an earnings call last summer, Signature said it planned to cut lending by up to $6 billion to balance its loan-to-deposit ratio. That cutback would largely hit its commercial lending department, which accounted for $35.7 billion at the end of 2022, about half of Signature’s total loans.
Signature pivoted hard away from crypto after the exchange FTX collapsed in November, and executives worked to assure customers and investors that it was secure. But the pain worsened on March 8 when Silvergate Bank, a major force in the crypto world, announced it would voluntarily liquidate and return customers’ deposits. Investors’ fears mounted about crypto-friendly banks. Signature’s share price tumbled 12 percent that day.
When SVB fell on March 10, anxiety about regional banks spread across the country. Investors and regulators honed in on banks that replicated SVB’s sins — concentrating heavily in one or two sectors and carrying abnormally high amounts of uninsured debt.
Most analysis has blamed Signature’s collapse on its crypto adventures, but that was just a bruise. Its real estate depositors, the ones who invited its executives to their children’s christenings and bar mitzvahs, struck the haymaker.
On the same Friday that SVB collapsed, depositors began pulling money out of Signature en masse. Signature held assets worth $110 billion and deposits of $89 billion, much of it belonging to nervous landlords.
Ira Zlotowitz, founder of commercial brokerage Gparency, told the Wall Street Journal that a real estate group chat he’s in started buzzing off the hook as panic spread.
“The chat was total fear,” he told the Journal. “Some people were saying, ‘You’ve got to take your money and run.’” Zlotowitz clarified that he kept his money in the bank.
“The regional bank balance sheet option is literally off the table right now.”
Michael Shah, DelShah Capital
Signature tried to stem the bleeding. Around noon, it borrowed $2 billion from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York. By 1:30pm, it returned for another $2.5 billion, the Journal reported. By the time the second request was filed, Signature customers had pulled about a fifth of the bank’s total deposits.
The Signature brain trust spent the weekend looking for answers, considering or requesting in various strides a sale, a capital infusion and a $20 billion loan from the Federal Reserve.
Nothing materialized, and on Sunday evening, regulators dissolved the board and took over the bank. Three priorities for real estate customers emerged: accessing their money, drawing down on loans and replacing letters of credit, which were suddenly worthless.
Landlords and their fixers began telling commercial tenants their letters of credit from Signature needed to be replaced. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the Bay Area-based life sciences giant, told investors that its tenants had used just over $108 million in letters of credit backed by Silicon Valley Bank.
Regulators assured customers they would be made whole, even on deposits larger than the $250,000 per account guaranteed by the FDIC. That calmed nerves to an extent.
“There are plenty of other concerns in this business, but that is not one of them,” said Jerry Waxenberg, a New York landlord.
Still, many customers moved their money to larger banks anyway.
“Today, I’ve gotten no less than 30 text messages from other landlords that are pulling their money from regional banks out of fear that something bad’s gonna happen,” Michael Shah, CEO of Signature customer Delshah Capital, said on March 14.
With their deposits secure, real estate’s next fear set in: contagion.
A feelings fight“What we are afraid of,” Danny Fishman of Gaia Real Estate said, “is a snowball effect.”
“As soon as rumors start, there’s a run on the bank,” he added. “And no bank can survive a run.”
Over the weekend, the Daily Mail published photos of customers lined up outside of San Francisco-based First Republic Bank, and the following Monday, March 13, the firm’s shares slid 62 percent. An index tracking regional banks fell more than 10 percent.
By March 15, First Republic’s shares had entered junk territory and Bloomberg reported that larger rivals were looking at buying the bank. Even as First Republic assured customers that it secured additional funding and had over $70 billion in liquidity, fear persisted, particularly in real estate circles. The bank held roughly $24 billion in commercial real estate loans at the end of last year and $62 billion in residential mortgages in California.
“The regional bank balance sheet option is literally off the table right now,” Shah said. “Every regional bank in the country today is in danger as a result of the past three days.”
On March 16, six days after the meltdown began, a group of top banks deposited $30 billion in First Republic as a show of confidence. Since the collapse of SVB, though, the bank has weathered $70 billion in withdrawals, or about the gross domestic product of Croatia.
Despite attempts to stem the bleeding, panic leaked out of California and New York into other real estate markets. Miami, the ultimate WAGMI city, had already been burned by crypto when FTX collapsed, forcing Miami-Dade County to abandon a 19-year, $135 million naming rights deal for the Miami Heat’s arena. South Florida spent years aggressively courting California investors, particularly from the tech set.
“Well, you got them. But you also got Silicon Valley exposure,” said Peter Zalewski, a local real estate market analyst. “You live by the sword, you die by the sword.”
South Florida players said dealmaking was on pause as lenders examined their balance sheets for potential exposure to SVB. Craig Studnicky, CEO of brokerage ISG World, said developers should expect some “short-term heartburn” as construction lending slowed. Under new pressure to keep large reserves of liquid cash, banks were loath to get tied up in long-term development projects.
Bystander effectWhile there hasn’t been a resolution, some white knights have emerged. The Journal found that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is now leading efforts to further boost First Republic, even by investing in it directly. New York Community Bank, Signature’s top rival, agreed to acquire $12.9 billion worth of its $74 billion loan portfolio, though it will not touch Signature’s crypto-related deals or its commercial real estate debt.
Perhaps NYCB just didn’t want to wade too deeply into the muck of rent-stabilized lending, but it’s worth noting that the bank has $14 billion in loans of less than $100 million each to rent-stabilized properties on its books already, by far the largest in the city.
“Loans that were taken out through the end of 2018 were at peak valuations. Values are down 25 to 55 percent since then,” said Michael Weiser, president of GFI Realty Services, a brokerage that represents many landlords who borrowed from Signature.
“I’d venture to say there are a fair amount of problems there,” he added.
Now, the Treasury Department is studying ways to insure all bank deposits if the crisis continues to grow. While they don’t yet think it’s necessary, officials are looking into whether the government has the power to act unilaterally in guaranteeing all deposits, not just up to $250,000 as current policy allows, according to Bloomberg.
Born in the ashes of the last financial burnout, alternative lenders are now poised to profit off the regional bank panic.
“Now is a great opportunity for debt funds to take a bite at the apple,” said Nelson Stabile, a principal at Miami-based real estate investment firm Integra Investments. “Those debt funds now have plenty of opportunities for them to lend against.”
Free from traditional regulatory scrutiny banks face, alternative lenders can chase higher-risk, higher-reward deals. They can move faster than big banks, too. That sound you hear is them licking their chops.
Read moreNew YorkWATCH: Signature’s collapse: What we know so far NationalNY multifamily fears bank contagion Another winner: the big banks that nearly fell in the run-up to the Great Recession. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, any bank with $50 billion or more in assets was considered “systemically important” and subjected to stricter liquidity requirements, stress tests and more.
To avoid breaking that barrier, Signature and SVB hovered just below $50 billion in assets, but in 2018, Congress raised the threshold to $250 billion. Sure enough, in the four years that followed, Signature’s assets doubled. SVB’s quadrupled.
When those regional players began to falter, the enhanced scrutiny borne by the big banks promised security. Panicked real estate players fled to Jamie Dimon’s warm embrace.
“For in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.”
Psalm 27:5
Rich Bockmann, Suzannah Cavanaugh, Lidia Dinkova, Isabella Farr, Katherine Kallergis and Keith Larsen contributed reporting.
The post Nine days in hell: Inside the lending crisis that rocked multifamily appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jarret Willis, Arthur Aslanian and Sam Boymelgreen (Facebook, The Hartsook Tenant Assn., Getty)Aslanian, Michael J. Lerner, Michael N. Lerner
Baseball may be America’s favorite pastime, but litigation comes a close second.
To wit, in New York, Jarret Willis, a former Bespoke executive who is Black, sued the luxury brokerage for alleged racial discrimination and withholding commissions he claimed he is owed.
Willis also alleges in a complaint filed in New York Supreme Court that founders Cody and Zachary Vichinsky engaged in overtly racist behavior and allowed other employees to use slurs when addressing him, such as calling him “Jafar,” the villain from the Disney movie “Aladdin.”
Harlan Goldberg joined Willis in the suit claiming Bespoke owes him a larger share of commissions on deals in South Florida, including sales totaling $43 million at the high-profile Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences.
Bespoke, for its part, denies the allegations.
Meanwhile, Sam Boymelgreen’s 255 Butler Associates won a $36 million judgment, ending an eight-year legal fight between the developer and his landlords in Gowanus.
In another matter, Leslie J. Garfield broker Ravi Kantha and his wife, attorney Kathryn Kantha, have been sued by their next door neighbor for alleged property damage, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress.
In the complaint, the couple’s neighbor, Joan Goldberg, alleges renovations on the Kanthas’ home damaged her property, including causing cracks in her walls, damage to her facade and air quality contamination from dust, debris and “noxious fumes.”
The couple, however, vehemently deny the claims.
“At the onset, the allegations against the defendants are outrageous and untrue,” an attorney for the Kanthas argued in an affirmation of support filed in response to the suit.
In Chicago, a family feud is playing out between Michael J. Lerner and his son, Michael N. Lerner. Lerner the elder is suing his son over a $2.3 million loan dispute. The father says the son defaulted on the loan, while the son claims the loan was to be paid back upon the closing of a $35 million property. Regardless, the Shakespearean drama unfolding in Cook County courts illustrates the “antagonistic history” between the two, according to court filings.
In Los Angeles, tenants have sued a landlord who, if the allegations against him are true, no one would ever want to know, let alone rent from.
Developer Arthur Aslanian has been sued by tenants for more than a dozen claims, including assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress, for years of alleged abuse and retaliation.
The tenants claim Aslanian, who is being held on federal charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire and arson, refused to fix numerous problems with their rental units on the 11000 block of Hartsook Street. By allowing vermin to run rampant, plumbing to overflow with sewage, garbage disposals to remain clogged for weeks and black mold to grow on walls, Aslanian was attempting to drive out the tenants, according to the lawsuit. When tenants complained, Aslanian carried out a campaign of retaliation.
Ultimately, Aslanian allegedly paid someone $2,000 to set fire to one of his properties on Hartsook Street to get rid of those tenants, the LA Times reported.
Aslanian is also facing two charges of conspiracy to commit murder for trying to hire a hitman to kill two people to whom he owed a total of $3.2 million.
The developer, through his attorney, Melanie Killedjian, denied the allegations against him.
March Madness’ action on the court will be hard-pressed to match the drama in the courts this week.
The post Litigation was the name of the game in real estate appeared first on The Real Deal.
Illinois Housing Council’s Allison Clements and Governor J.B. Pritzker (LinkedIn, Getty)Illinois lawmakers are working to create a long-term solution for the state’s affordable housing crisis.
The proposed “Build Illinois Homes Tax Credit” would cost the state $35 million annually for 10 years, which advocates believe would help create 3,500 housing units per year, Capitol News reported.
The Illinois Housing Council has been pleading with state officials to take action. According to a report by the IHC, Illinois has lost 13 percent of its low-rent units since 2011. Studies also show that there are about 450,000 extremely low-income renters in the state, but only 150,000 affordable and available units, the outlet said.
“Our state is facing an affordable housing crisis, stemming from years of housing under-production,” IHC executive director Allison Clements said in a senate committee. “Our state’s housing deficit has grown 64 percent since 2012, meaning we have more people needing homes than are available.”
If the proposal is passed into law, developers constructing properties would be eligible for tax breaks themselves once the structures are finished and filled with tenants. Thus, the state’s budget wouldn’t be impacted until 2026.
Lately, Chicago developers have grown fond of another recently created state incentive to build affordable housing that has helped them offset the city’s recently increased requirement for the number of affordable housing units that must be built alongside market rate housing in multifamily projects.
Governor J.B. Pritzker also suggested an affordable housing program called “Home Illinois” during his Feb. 15 budget address. The plan calls for a $50 million increase in homelessness services, such as emergency shelter, short-term rental assistance and the development of permanent housing units, the outlet said.
Pritzker estimates over 120,000 people endure homelessness annually, and over 76,000 children live in overcrowded housing.
“The faces of Illinoisans with no home to go to are not homogenous,” Pritzker said in his budget address. “They include single parents with infants and toddlers, 6th graders trying to complete their homework using toilets as a desk in temporary shared housing, and LGBTQ+ high schoolers who were kicked out of their homes by their parents.”
— Quinn Donoghue
Read moreChicagoChicago incentive package spurs affordable housing downtownChicagoHabitat’s West Side affordable housing development scores permitChicagoBrandon Johnson proposes ‘mansion tax’The post Lawmakers make push for affordable housing appeared first on The Real Deal.
Gary Safady and Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky with a rendering of 9704-9712 West Oak Road (Getty, Bulgari Hotels)A Los Angeles City Council land use committee is at loggerheads over the controversial Bulgari Hotel planned for Benedict Canyon.
A motion requesting the director of planning reconsider land use designation for 9704-9712 West Oak Road in Beverly Crest received a 2-2 vote in the Planning and Land Use Committee, and will now move to a full council vote, City News Service reported in the Daily News.
“Colleagues before us today is a motion that I introduced last week to put an end to development that many in my district and I have been fighting against for years,” Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky said. “And, I have been fighting against it for years.”
Gary Safady, a real estate developer and movie producer, filed plans to build a 59-room hotel on a 33-acre hillside. It was initially proposed in 2018 with 99 rooms.
But the vision for the Bulgari Resort Los Angeles and eight luxury homes has drawn fire from movie executives and celebrities who have squared off over the future of one of L.A.’s richest neighborhoods.
In the center of the debate is the 33-acre former home of billionaire businessman Kirk Kerkorian. The property was sold in 2015 for $19 million.
That’s where Safady plans to build his luxury resort, which would include a 10,000-square-foot spa, gym, theater and an eight-seat sushi bar, along with a restaurant from Michelin-starred Italian chef Niko Romito.
The hotel portion would include 18 buildings with 59 guest rooms, a stand-alone parking structure, funicular railway and a main hotel building with outdoor features, shops and restaurants and underground parking.
The residential portion would contain eight single-family homes between 12,000 and 48,000 square feet with associated garage parking.
Yaroslavsky said her district is overwhelmingly opposed to the project, as is Mayor Karen Bass and environmental groups from the Sierra Club to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
“And from a land use perspective, allowing an intensive commercial use in a very low density, fire-prone residential area is a terrible idea,” Yaroslavsky said. “Nowhere in Los Angeles are we allowing new commercial uses in low-density hillside communities, specifically because of the wildfire and landslide risks.”
More than 30 speakers called in to express their opposition to the project and most reiterated the same concerns as Yaroslavsky.
A few Benedict Canyon residents and representatives from labor unions encouraged the PLUM committee to support the hotel project, saying it would create job opportunities and allow for more Angelenos and visitors to experience the beauty of the canyon.
Councilman John Lee voted against the motion, while asking for clarification on whether the city had ever rescinded an amendment to the general plan for a development project. Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez also voted no, in favor of the hotel.
Read moreLos AngelesPlanned Bulgari Resort in Benedict Canyon celebrity brouhahaLos AngelesBulgari Hotels JV eyes 33-acre Benedict Canyon siteLos AngelesStar DJ Zedd’s Benedict Canyon estate sells for $18MSafady called in during the meeting’s public comment period, urging the committee to allow for due process, and asked for accurate details about the project to be made public.
“This is why it’s critical for the process to continue to allow the public and responsible agencies to continue to review CEQA process and safety features,” he said.
If completed, The Bulgari would be one of eight hotels operated by a hospitality firm under LVMH, a French holding company created by the merger of fashion house Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy.
— Dana Bartholomew
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Abraham Trust’s Jacob Garlick; The Flatiron Building (Getty)He didn’t come through.
After making a surprise winning bid to acquire the Flatiron Building Wednesday, Jacob Garlick, who this week became the most talked-about man in New York real estate, failed to come up with the required deposit to close on the property.
Terms of the sale dictated that Garlick put down $19 million, or 10 percent of his $190 million bid, by close of business Friday. But according to multiple sources familiar with the deal, Garlick has not yet delivered the funds, throwing his future ownership of the storied property into question.
When reached by phone Friday evening, Garlick said he could not talk about the deposit or the deal, but could talk next week. It is possible that a court-appointed referee could offer him more time. But if an extension is not granted, the second-highest bidder in the auction, a group led by GFP Real Estate’s Jeffrey Gural, will have the option to purchase the property at their last bid of $189.5 million, according to a court filing.
Reached Friday, however, Gural told The Real Deal that he would not be exercising his option to buy the building at $189.5 million. This means the likely scenario is the property heads back to the auction block and the bidding restarts.
Garlick, a 30-something investor unknown in New York City’s real estate industry, seemed to come out of nowhere to outbid Gural in a live auction in front of the New York County Courthouse.
“We are honored to be a steward of this historic building,” Garlick said after his victory, “and it will be our life’s mission to preserve its integrity forever.”
“I was totally shocked that somebody would bid so much money for the building,” Gural told Commercial Observer after the auction. “It’s a beautiful building, but not really worth that much.”
Garlick’s firm, Abraham Trust, is headquartered in Northern Virginia and invests in private equity buyouts, mergers and acquisitions and venture capital. His journey to buying the Flatiron Building started because of a partnership spat between its former ownership group. Sorgente Group, Gural and ABS Real Estate Partners, who together controlled a 75-percent stake, could not see eye-to-eye with the remaining 25 percent owner, Nathan Silverstein, about the landmarked property’s future.
Read moreNew YorkMeet the mysterious buyer of the Flatiron BuildingNew YorkOutsider wins Flatiron Building after bidding war with Gural New YorkFlatiron Building owners pursue sale, citing discord over renovationThe post Garlick fails to cough up deposit for Flatiron Building appeared first on The Real Deal.
4401 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach with Caryl Englander (Google Maps, Getty)Affiliates of Igal Namdar’s Namdar Realty Group bought Caryl Englander’s side-by-side penthouses in the Fontainebleau II Trésor tower in Miami Beach for a combined $27 million.
Records show two Florida entities, Tresor South Realty LLC and Tresor North Realty LLC, bought PH-South and PH-North at 4401 Collins Avenue from Englander. Both LLCs are linked to the Great Neck, New York headquarters of Namdar.
The commercial real estate firm was established in 1999, and now owns and manages more than 56 million square feet across asset classes, its website shows. In August, Namdar partnered with Empire Capital to buy the 14-story 830 Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan for $72 million.
Englander is the estranged wife of New York-based billionaire hedge funder Izzy Englander. She chairs the board of the Manhattan-based International Center of Photography.
Last month, she filed, then promptly withdrew, a lawsuit alleging he bilked her out of billions of dollars in their postnuptial agreement, Bloomberg reported. In the suit, Caryl Englander and her girlfriend, Swiss art dealer Dominique Levy, alleged that Izzy Englander had them followed by private investigators, tried to smear Levy within the art world, and falsely reported Levy for abusing her children, according to the New York Post.
Caryl Englander’s sister, Linda Schecter, and Gary Feinberg of Compass had the listing for the penthouses, and Michele Redlich of Coldwell Banker Realty brought the buyer.
In July, Englander initially listed the south penthouse for $25 million and the north penthouse for $20 million, to be sold for a combined $45 million. The sale came $18 million shy of her asking price.
Records show the Englanders bought the units via a trust managed by New York-based attorney James Kaufman for a combined $21.5 million, in a pair of deals in 2008 and 2010. They were transferred to Caryl Englander in 2020, records show.
The condos are on the top floor of the 36-story, 460-unit Trésor, a tower within the Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort. Each penthouse spans 4,500 square feet, with five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and two half-bathrooms, the listing shows. Englander also recently renovated both units, according to the listing. Trésor residents have access to the resort’s amenities, including the gym and spa, pool, tennis courts and restaurants.
In October, Jeffrey Soffer’s Fontainebleau Development started construction on a new five-story event center that will attach to the Trésor Tower, in an aim to attract more business conferences to the resort.
The post Namdar Realty linked to $27M purchase of two Trésor penthouses in Miami Beach appeared first on The Real Deal.
1301 Amalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades with Francois Navarre (Google Maps, Getty)Francois and Brandy Navarre, the husband-and-wife team running paparazzi platform X17Online, have made headlines for candid photos and videos of A-listers, along with fighting lawsuits from the famous, the Navarres also run a real estate hustle that they keep hush hush.
The Navarres are listed as the sellers for a $22 million, off-market deal that took place March 23 for a 10,000-square-foot 7-bedroom, 9 bathroom home. It’s located in the exclusive Rivera section of Pacific Palisades.
Much of the information about the sale of the $2,200-per-square-foot house was kept under wraps. No buyer was revealed. No real estate agents were listed as representing sellers or buyers on listing sites. The Navarres did not reply to an email requesting comment on this deal.
Media reports and property records said that the Navarres bought 1301 Amalfi Drive for about $7 million in 2021. The next year the home was listed for rent for $85,000 per month, according to Realtor.com
A property description on listing sites said 1301 Amalfi Drive offered French doors, stone terraces, as well as a pool and a guesthouse.
Zillow gave comps for the Navarres’ former listing. It includes a roughly 13,000-square-foot home, located at 1172 Napoli Drive once owned by actor Ben Affleck. The mansion sold for $28.5 million in September 2022,
Another was an about 4,100-square-foot home located at 13705 Romany Drive. This home was sold for $10.3 million in February,
A 2021 story in Dirt.com said that the Navarres sold a separate Pacific Palisades home for $13.7 million.
Read moreLos AngelesPacific Palisades mansion sells for $1M below previous priceLos AngelesPacific Palisades house linked to TV producer Ben Silverman sells for nearly $30MLos AngelesSugar Ray Leonard starts another round with $45M listingThe post Paparazzi couple can’t hide sale of pricey home appeared first on The Real Deal.
Leslie J. Garfield’s Ravi Kantha (Leslie J. Garfield, Getty)A broker specializing in Manhattan and Brooklyn townhouse sales found himself in the middle of a fiery neighbor dispute sparked from renovations — to their Brooklyn Heights townhouse.
Leslie J. Garfield broker Ravi Kantha and his wife, attorney Kathryn Kantha, hit back against a lawsuit by their next door neighbor, who claimed property damage, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress, among other claims.
“At the onset, the allegations against the defendants are outrageous and untrue,” an attorney for the Kanthas argued in an affirmation of support filed in response to the suit.
In the complaint filed in January, the couple’s neighbor, Joan Goldberg, alleges renovations on the Kanthas’ home damaged her property, including causing cracks in her walls, damage to her facade and air quality contamination from dust, debris and “noxious fumes.”
According to the lawsuit, the damage resulted from the Kantha’s failure to install a monitoring program, which the city requires to ensure minimal construction damage to neighboring homes. The Kanthas renovated their home starting in October 2019 and continued until 2021.
Goldberg also claimed her attempts to negotiate with the Kanthas to repair the damage to her property were met with “repeated instances of verbal and physical abuse.” One instance described in the complaint includes Ravi ringing Goldberg’s doorbell multiple times and screaming, “your house is a standing pile of shit, fuck off.”
The complaint also alleges Kathryn followed Goldberg to her car and slammed her car door shut while yelling, “you sick c***, you have no idea who I am, where I come from and what I can do to you.”
The couple filed a motion on March 7 to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that neither of them were served with a summons notice, on top of a statute of limitations rendering some claims inadmissible and lack of detail describing the alleged property damage.
A spokesperson for the broker declined to comment on the ongoing dispute but provided copies of three work applications filed by the Kanthas and approved by the Department of Buildings.
Ravi is a founding member of the Lesser Kantha Team at Leslie J. Garfield, which specializes in townhouse sales. The brokerage finished in 13th among The Real Deal’s ranking of Manhattan’s top residential brokerages of 2022, reporting $164 million in closed sales volume across 24 deals.
Before his career in real estate, Kantha served as a prosecutor and private practice attorney, according to his bio on the company’s website.
Read moreNew YorkIt’s a hot townhouse summer for Brooklyn’s luxury marketNationaleXp named in explosive sexual assault lawsuitNationalCommission suits could spell “armageddon”: Jason OppenheimThe post Townhouse broker stuck in neighbor spat over property damage, assault appeared first on The Real Deal.
CSW Development’s Todd Wallace and Robert O’Farrell with 3525 Far West Boulevard (CSW Development, Google Maps, Getty)A residential complex with affordable units is coming to the Northwest Hills community in Austin.
Central Southwest Texas Development has plans for a $50 million, 257,000-square-foot project at 3525 Far West Boulevard, where a Frost Bank has long stood, the Austin Business Journal reported. That’s about $195 per square foot.
The site will feature four five-story apartment buildings totalling 359 multifamily units, a six-story garage and some space for retail and a restaurant on a 3.9-acre lot. CSW has tapped STG Design and TDI Engineering as collaborators for the project.
CSW bought the property from Frost Bank in December 2021, and it was last valued at $3.4 million last year, according to Travis Central Appraisal District records.
The Austin-based developer, led by Todd Wallace and Robert O’Farrell, aims to qualify for Austin’s vertical mixed-use density bonus program, which allows structures to exceed height restrictions in exchange for building affordable housing. CSW is planning to reserve 10 percent of units as “affordable,” priced within 80 percent of the $79,450 median family income, the outlet reported.
The ground-level restaurant will measure about 6,000 square feet with a small commercial space next to it.
CSW ranked as the 10th most-prolific firm in the greater-Austin area last year, not including projects outside the metro, according to research conducted by the outlet. It amassed 329,000 square feet of developments that were either delivered or under construction.
CSW’s other projects in the works include a multifamily complex on South Lamar, an amenity-filled office building on Fifth Street and a mixed-use development on South Congress.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreAustinSamsung plots $107M tech warehouses AustinGenerational, Aquila scoop office buildingAustinFoursquare Builders taps five architects to design six Austin mansionsThe post CSW plans $50M resi complex in Far West appeared first on The Real Deal.
Photo illustration of Gulf Liquors at 1681 Alton Road (Getty, Google Maps)Jorge Zubigaray is fighting to stop Miami Beach officials from being buzzkills during another deadly mayhem-filled spring break.
Zubigaray’s Gulf Liquors store at 1681 Alton Road on Wednesday filed a motion for an emergency injunction to block the city from forcing South Beach booze retailers to stop selling beer and spirits after 6 p.m., beginning today through Sunday.
“The spring break ordinance is the latest excuse for burdening the businesses that make up the city’s entertainment district…specifically singling out liquor stores,” the motion states. “All hotels and restaurants in the city will be permitted to sell alcohol.”
Zubigaray did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a televised interview on Wednesday with WSVN, Zubigaray said: “I don’t consider it fair shutting me down ’cause I sell liquor, when the issue is on Ocean Drive.”
Miami Beach has not been served with the lawsuit, said City Attorney Rafael Paz via email. “But if and when we are, we will defend the emergency order and the city’s right to impose measures intended to protect residents and visitors,” Paz said. “Last year, the circuit court upheld a much more restrictive emergency order under almost identical circumstances, and we are confident that the court will rule in our favor here, too.”
Package store liquor sales “fuel the unruly chaos in the streets,” so curbing public alcohol consumption will help calm things down, Paz said.
In recent years, the city has taken drastic measures to reign in an unruly party atmosphere that takes over South Beach during spring break, and at times has taken a violent turn. Last weekend, separate shootings ended in the homicide of two people, including a brazen execution on 11th Street and Ocean Drive on Sunday morning before daybreak.
On Monday, city commissioners opted not to institute a midnight curfew for this weekend, but forced liquor stores that are between West Avenue and Ocean Drive, from Dade Boulevard to South Pointe Park, to stop alcohol sales after 6 p.m. The area covers nearly 7 square miles.
In 2021, Miami Beach voters passed a referendum rolling back the last call for bars, clubs and restaurants from 5 a.m. to 2 a..m. So far, city commissioners have only enacted the measure for the South of Fifth neighborhood, with exception for venues that serve 100 people or less.
This month, hospitality guru David Grutman and Aventura-based developer Jeffrey Soffer sued the city, alleging the new law illegally singled out and targeted Story, a 17,000-square-foot nightclub the pair co-own. However, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Reemberto Diaz ruled in the city’s favor.
The post Liquor store owner sues Miami Beach over spring break restrictions appeared first on The Real Deal.
LA Mayor Karen Bass, USC Gould School of Law’s Deepika Sharma, LA CAN’s Steve Diaz and LA Family Housing Corporation’s Jacob Lipa (Getty, USC Gould School of Law, LA CAN, TheOrg)The Los Angeles City Council confirmed 15 people to sit on a Citizens Oversight Board to supervise how the estimated $673 million collected in the first year of the Measure ULA transfer tax will be spent.
Mayor Karen Bass appointed the board, which noticeably lacks representation from the multifamily building or development sectors. The members include a formerly homeless woman, nonprofit housing executives and a USC law professor who founded the USC Gould Housing Law and Policy Clinic.
A report on how to roll out ULA released last week by the City Administrative Officer and Los Angeles Housing Department recommended that people with specific backgrounds could serve on the board. None of the descriptions called for a developer or someone involved in the for-profit real estate business.
Rather, the report said the board should seek people with experience in fields such as nonprofit affordable housing development, people involved in identifying transit opportunities with the development of affordable housing, a person with a background in construction labor unions, a tenants rights attorney and someone who has experienced homelessness or living in lower income housing.
Janet Gagnon, government relations director for Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles critiqued this new board for not seating more people involved in the for-profit real estate business.
“There is not a single seat for a rental housing provider or their trade association AAGLA on the 15 member committee. Nor is there a single for-profit developer seat despite 70 percent of the funding that is supposed to go to affordable housing with between 45 percent to 50 percent for multifamily buildings with 40 or more units,” she wrote in an email.
Tom Swanson, president of Greater Los Angeles Realtors Association, said that his group shared the oversight board’s goal of solving homelessness and increasing the area’s housing supply, despite his group being opposed to Measure ULA. “It is our hope that Measure ULA is implemented properly, and that funds are spent efficiently, effectively and fairly given the measure’s expected adverse impact on the region’s housing market,” Swanson said.
A businessman who was named to the board is Jacob Lipa, principal partner of Lipa Consulting Group. It consults on acquisition, financing, planning, engineering, construction management for real estate clients, according to a LinkedIn profile. Lipa also serves on the board of directors for The Los Angeles Business Council Institute, a research and educational arm of the Los Angeles Business Council. A representative for Psomas, a company Lipa was formerly associated, said he retired from the company before the pandemic.
People on the oversight board include Alan Greenlee, executive director of Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing; Steve Diaz, deputy director of LA CAN, an activist group in downtown and South Los Angeles; and Deepika Sharma, who recently helped start Gould Housing Law and Policy Clinic. She also gave housing issues counsel to Bass and Nithya Raman, a progressive on the L.A. City Council.
Sharma made national headlines in 2018 for getting a real estate investment firm to pay $2.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit. The suit alleged the REIT pressured Latino and mentally disabled tenants to leave a rent-controlled building.
Others serving on the board include Antonio Sanchez, Quaneshia Jeffery, Charlie Cea, Michelle Coulter, Debbie Chen, Elda Mendez-Lemus, Leilani Reed, Alfonso Directo, Alma Morales, Emily Martinuk and Mark Wilson.
Measure ULA requires that at least 3 percent of the 8 percent of funds allocated for administration of Measure ULA be used for the citizen’s oversight committee. The oversight committee is expected to hire an inspector general who will serve as the committee’s lead staff person, according to the report from the City Administrative Officer and Los Angeles Housing Department.
The mayor’s office did not answer an email request for comment.
Read moreLos AngelesLA cuts revenue projections from new transfer tax by 25%Los AngelesKilroy Realty-backed ballot initiative aims to shoot down Measure ULALos AngelesTransfer tax dries up multifamily financing in LA The post Citizens oversight board named to manage ULA transfer tax appeared first on The Real Deal.
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, Citi Field (Getty)Potential redevelopment around Citi Field may skirt issues seen by previous efforts thanks to a bill introduced by a state lawmaker.
Assemblyperson Jeffrion Aubry unveiled a bill calling for the redevelopment of the Citi Field parking lot in Queens, The City reported. The bill references a gaming facility — more accurately a casino — and anything related.
The critical part of the bill, however, is the “alienation” of parkland, a designation held by the Flushing parking lot. The land needs to be discontinued as a parking lot to allow for construction.
Aubry’s bill mentioned the parkland can be alienated through leases with New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s lobbying firm, among others. As part of alienation, a private developer needs to either significantly improve existing green space or the city needs to identify 20 replacement acres of parkland.
The parkland component has derailed previous efforts to redevelop around Citi Field. In 2017, the Queens Development Group — a joint venture of Related Companies and Sterling Equities — lost an appeal to build a mall on the parking lot, in part because of the alienation process. It appears a lesson has been learned since then.
There is a disconnect in the air, though. Another representative of the neighborhood, State Sen. Jessica Ramos, said she was blindsided by Aubry’s bill, planning on introducing her own version prior. She mentioned that she would need to read the bill and “have some conversations.”
Cohen has been holding visioning sessions for the area around Citi Field. His goal is to eliminate vacant space and remove the barriers dividing neighborhoods from each other and the Flushing Bay waterfront. He also wants to bring year-round entertainment to the 50 acres available, central of which would likely be a casino.
Cohen has pitched city officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, on putting a casino in the Citi Field parking lot, which is mired in lease and bond agreements and has proven to be difficult to redevelop.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read moreNew YorkMets owner airs development plans for space around Citi FieldNew YorkMets owner pursuing NYC pols for Citi Field casinoNew YorkGoing for the jackpot: A look at the high rollers competing to build NYC casinosThe post State legislation could buoy redevelopment around Citi Field appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Bespoke Real Estate’s Cody and Zachary Vichinsky (Getty, Bespoke Real Estate)A former Bespoke executive alleged his time at the luxury brokerage was plagued by discriminatory and overtly racist behavior from co-workers and the firm’s founders.
Jarret Willis, who is Black, alleges in a complaint filed in New York Supreme Court founders Cody and Zachary Vichinsky engaged in overtly racist behavior and allowed other employees to use slurs when addressing him.
In the complaint, filed with former colleague Harlan Goldberg, Willis alleges the founders and other employees discriminated against him, disparaged him in racist terms and had a white employee contact his clients to demand they deal with him and not Willis.
“Bespoke unequivocally denies these false and untrue allegations, which arose regarding an ongoing attempt to collect unjustified commissions from the company,” the brokerage said in a statement.
Joseph De Sane, a managing director at Bespoke, called the allegations “the furthest thing from any truth I have ever known here.”
Willis was promoted to vice president of Bespoke Parallel in April 2021, a division of Bespoke that seeks to establish the brokerage in new markets. In that position, Willis interacted with the Vichinskys and an employee in the New York office secretary, who the complaint says used the N-word on a daily basis when addressing Willis in person and over text message.
“Happy birthday you n*!!!!” an office employee said to Willis on August 17, 2022, according to a text message viewed by The Real Deal.
The Vichinskys also participated in the verbal abuse, according to an employment complaint Willis filed with the New York Division of Human Rights, including when Cody employed the N-word and suggested he and Willis get watermelon and fried chicken for lunch.
The complaint said the Vichinskys also nicknamed Willis “Jafar” after the villainous cartoon character in Disney’s “Aladdin.”
Willis and Goldberg alleged the Vichinskys’ discrimination went beyond a toxic work environment to include demotions and withheld commissions.
After reporting a white broker for interfering with his clients, the complaint says Willis was demoted from his role as vice president and missed out on more than $1 million owed in commission from procuring a buyer at the Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami.
“I know that the real estate industry will come together to pounce out any form of discrimination and make sure that bad actors like this are unable to work in our industry,” attorney Adam Leitman Bailey said in a statement. “We hope this is the last civil rights case we ever have to bring as a law firm.”
Read moreNew YorkThe bickering bros: Jemals escalate battle over portfolioThe post Ex-Bespoke exec alleges racial discrimination, harassment appeared first on The Real Deal.
Cher with 25142 Pacific Coast Highway (Getty, Google Maps)Cher has chopped $10 million from the price of her longtime Italian Renaissance-style estate in Malibu, now asking $75 million.
The singer and actress has cut the price of the 13,100-square-foot mansion at 25142 Pacific Coast Highway, TMZ reported.
Cher listed the home in October, but it never sold and was taken off the market. It was re-listed at the lower price near the close of last week.
Brokers Drew Fenton and Robert Kass of Carolwood hold the listing.
The “Believe” singer paid $2.95 million for the 1.7-acre property in 1989 and built the Venice-inspired manse 10 years later. She previously listed the property for $45 million in 2009, according to Realtor.com.
The three-story, split-level house, which has arched windows and doors facing the ocean, took nearly five years to build and was inspired by Venice, Italy, Cher told the Wall Street Journal last fall. “From every room, there is an ocean view,” she said.
The gated property has a driveway lined with 40 palm trees and a courtyard with a Moorish-style fountain.
There are seven bedrooms, plus the gatehouse, which serves as a guesthouse. In the main house, the primary suite has a meditation room and two closets, including one that doubles as a panic room.
The primary bathroom is designed like a hammam with Turkish wood screens.
The lower level has an indoor-outdoor gym and theater. Cher also has a climate-controlled wig room with close to 100 hairpieces, according to the 2002 book “The Cher Scrapbook.”
Cher, a pop icon and Academy Award-winning performer, gained popularity in the 1960s as half of the husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher. She later released many of her own albums and there was a Broadway musical about her life.
Malibu has had increasingly high-priced sales and listings. Billionaire media mogul Byron Allen paid $100 million for an estate in Paradise Cove formerly owned by self-storage billionaire Tammy Hughes Gustavson.
Last April, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner listed his 25,000-square-foot Malibu estate for $225 million – which could set a California sales price record if it sells at the asking price.
Since October 2021, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and his wife, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, have bought three separate Malibu homes for a total of nearly $256 million.
Last fall, reality TV billionaire star Kim Kardashian paid $70.4 million for a Malibu property formerly owned by model Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, initially listed for $100 million.
In December, video game developer Jon Burton sold his beachfront Malibu estate for $91 million, down from an initial ask of $125 million.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreLos AngelesCher lists Italian-style Malibu estate for $85MLos AngelesFeng Shui-based home in Malibu comes to market for $69MLos AngelesDean Factor lists Malibu home for $40MThe post Cher relists longtime Malibu mansion at $75M appeared first on The Real Deal.
NX Venture’s Nathan George, Core Spaces’ Marc Lifshin and PGIM’s David Hunt with rendering of 1998 Shattuck Avenue, 2128 Oxford Street and 2190 Shattuck Avenue (LinkedIn, Core Spaces, PGIM, Trachtenberg Architects, DLR Group, Getty)Downtown Berkeley is growing taller faster than any Bay Area city hub.
Six buildings between 16 and 28 stories are proposed in Berkeley’s central core, enabled by state legislation that makes it easier for developers to build residential buildings regardless of whether cities want them or not, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
In the East Bay city, only one highrise has been built above 13 stories since 1971. Three of the proposed buildings would rival UC Berkeley’s Campanile.
“Ultimately, this is a big change,” Mayor Jesse Arreguin, president of the Association of Bay Area Governments, told the Chronicle. “Because communities for many years have refused to permit housing, the state has stepped in to remove those obstacles.
“It does affect our ability to shape the urban form.”
The half-dozen tall buildings on the drawing board wouldn’t stand out in Downtown Oakland or northeast San Francisco.
But Berkeley, though a city of 115,000 people that includes a university with 45,000 students, has only three downtown towers above 12 stories. The most recent, an 18-story hotel, opened last year.
The spate of new highrises comes more than a decade after a hard-fought battle to keep them out.
After a Downtown plan allowing a handful of taller buildings was approved in 2012, opponents failed to overturn it with a ballot initiative. The first proposed tower endured more than 30 public meetings and a lawsuit before all the hurdles were cleared — only for developers to pull the plug in 2020, saying the project no longer penciled out.
But the playing field is different now – and not just in Berkeley.
There’s a state-mandated density bonus of up to 50 percent for projects that include affordable housing, limiting a city’s discretion to seek design alterations or “community benefits,” financial concessions beyond what are spelled out by prior law.
This even applies to cities like Berkeley and San Francisco, where affordable housing requirements already on the books exceed what Sacramento now requires. In other words, developers seeking to build in those cities almost automatically qualify for the state bonus.
Cities and counties can now hold no more than five public hearings before voting on a project – which means growth-averse municipalities can’t stretch out the public process to wear developers down.
The latest Berkeley highrise projects now include:
- A 28-story apartment building proposed at 1998 Shattuck Avenue. NX Ventures is behind the 317-foot-tall building, the tallest in town, designed by Trachtenberg Architects.
- A 26-story mixed-use apartment building proposed at 2128 Oxford Street, across from the Berkeley campus. Core Spaces is behind the 288-foot tall building, designed by DLR Group.
- A 25-story apartment building proposed at 2190 Shattuck Avenue. PGIM is behind the 260-foot-tall building, designed by Trachtenberg.
- A 15-story apartment building proposed at 2113 Kittredge Street, at the former California Theatre. Gilbane is behind the 214-unit building, designed by Studio KDA.
- A 17-story apartment building proposed at 2274 Shattuck Avenue, at the former United Artists Theater. Panorama Interests is behind the 239-unit building, designed by Trachtenberg.
- A 16-story apartment building proposed at 2420 Shattuck Avenue. NX Ventures is behind the 171-foot tall building, designed by Trachtenberg.
The spate of new buildings threatens the funkiness and old rents along various sidewalks, according to the Chronicle. The new highrises would also hold mostly university students, erasing the traditional dividing line between town and gown.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoHistoric Berkeley show palace could rise as a 15-story apartment buildingSan FranciscoLast Downtown Berkeley movie theater eyed for redevelopmentSan FranciscoLandmark Properties pays $28M for building in BerkeleyThe post Six proposed highrises would tower over Downtown Berkeley appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of 301 Park Avenue (Getty, Google Maps)Another day, another setback for the long-lagging Waldorf Astoria condo conversion.
The already-delayed project is now expected to open in 2025 at the earliest, unnamed sources told the New York Post. A year ago, it was believed the project could be done at the end of this 2023, at the earliest.
A source told the outlet work on the hotel portion of the project has only just begun. Another source told the Post that a 2025 reopening of the famed property would be “lucky.”
Hilton isn’t throwing in the towel on a 2024 completion. A spokesperson for the hotel giant told the outlet renovations would be done next year and the property was “expected” to be reopened in the second half of next year.
The conflicting forecasts are just the latest after the project has veered years off schedule.
Dajia US replaced China’s Anbang Insurance Group as owner of the property in 2018. Anbang purchased the property in 2015 for $1.95 million and started the conversion process two years later, pumping in $1 billion and shutting down the hotel.
Costs have since soared past $2 billion and the original projected completion date of 2021 feels like a distant memory. Sales for the property’s residential condos finally launched in 2020, only days before the onset of the pandemic changed the word; the sales gallery was shut down on March 16.
Read moreNew YorkTop exec’s exit latest blow to Waldorf Astoria’s lagging condo conversionNew YorkCondo sales launch at Waldorf Astoria in crowded luxury marketLast year, Dajia US CEO Andrew Miller, the top U.S. executive overseeing the project, abruptly left the company after he was reportedly at odds with the parent company over cost overruns and left without a successor in place.
The pandemic and challenges with Chinese ownership have created a forgettable chapter in the history of the landmarked property, which is eventually expected to yield 375 hotel rooms and 375 condo residences.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Waldorf Astoria condo conversion could be “lucky” for 2025 opening appeared first on The Real Deal.
Renderings of the Village at Coral Gables with MG Developer’s Alirio Torrealba (MG Developer)Alirio Torrealba’s MG Developer is moving forward with plans for the Village at Coral Gables residential complex.
The Coral Gables City Commission will vote on Tuesday on the final plat approval for MG Developer’s project at 535 Santander Avenue. It’s one of a handful of developments Torrealba’s Coral Gables-based firm has in the city. It covers the block bounded by Malaga Avenue to the north, Hernando Street to the east, Santander Avenue to the south and Segovia Street to the west
Renderings of the Village at Coral Gables (MG Developer)The Village at Coral Gables, previously called Gables Village, would consist of 48 residential units, including four duplex units, 16 townhouses, four lofts and 24 condos on the entire 2.6-acre block. The units will range from 1,750 square feet to 3,100 square feet. One Sotheby’s International Realty is leading sales and marketing, according to a brochure.
The development will also include a nearly 4,000-square-foot wellness clubhouse with a plunge pool, fitness wing, library, lounge and conference center, according to a press release.
The buildings would be two to four stories tall, and the developer is taking advantage of a density bonus of an additional two units per acre by incorporating Mediterranean design. De La Guardia Victoria Architects & Urbanists is designing the project, which will include fountains and gardens.
The developer paid more than $6 million to assemble the block, according to deeds recorded in April 2022. KHRE SMA Funding, tied to Greenwich, Connecticut-based Knighthead Funding, provided an $11 million loan for the assemblage, records show.
If the commission approves the final plat, the developer would then seek Miami-Dade County’s final blessing. The county recommended approval in December, filings show. Construction is expected to begin this year and be completed in 2023, according to a release.
MG’s completed townhouse and condo projects in Coral Gables include Althea Row, Biltmore Row, Biltmore Parc and Beatrice Row.
In September, MG Developer and Baron Property Group secured a $148 million construction loan for a nearly 560-unit planned apartment complex in Hialeah. The planned 10-story, two-building project will mark the tallest residential development in Hialeah.
That same month, MG and Baron finished assembling land near Coconut Grove and Coral Gables for a two-tower, nearly 472-unit apartment project south of Bird Road, called Merrick Parc.
Late last year, developer Rishi Kapoor closed on a $35.6 million site in Coral Gables, after securing city approval to build a 16-story mixed-use condominium project on the southeast corner of Ponce De Leon Boulevard and Menores Avenue.
Read moreSouth FloridaMG buys redevelopment site near Coconut Grove for $20MSouth FloridaMG plans $204M luxury apartment project near Coconut GroveThe post MG Developer moves forward with Village at Coral Gables project appeared first on The Real Deal.
SoBro’s Lourdes Zapata and Maddd Equities’ Jorge Madruga with rendering of Union Crossing (SoBro, Union Crossing, Getty)A former warehouse-turned-office building in the South Bronx is changing hands for just $5 million more than it sold for seven years ago — and possibly changing its destiny again too.
Jorge Madruga’s Maddd Equities and the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation acquired the Union Crossing development and an adjacent parking lot at 804 and 825 East 141st Street in Port Morris for $44 million from an entity tied to the Altmark Group, according to property records filed Tuesday. PincusCo was first to report on the transaction.
The seven-story former warehouse was acquired by Altmark, Eli Tabak’s Bluestone Group, Josh Zegen’s Madison Realty Capital and Galil Management for $39 million in 2016 before undergoing a $45 million renovation that saw it converted to flex offices, retail and studio space.
The development was refinanced for $85 million in early 2020, but later that year, a $79 million sub-performing loan was put up for sale by lender Libremax Capital. Libremax did not respond when reached for comment.
At least one office tenant signed a lease in the building: nonprofit affordable housing developer Westhab, which inked a 10-year deal for 8,000 square feet in 2019. But the status of the project remains unclear. A Google Streetview image from October shows a banner advertising 300,000 available square feet.
The project’s leasing agent did not respond to a request for comment, but the buyers may provide a clue as to the property’s future. The South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, more commonly known as SoBro, develops and manages affordable and special needs housing in addition to commercial and industrial properties. The organization has developed more than 1,500 units of housing and built or rehabilitated almost 260,000 square feet of industrial, retail and office space.
Maddd Equities has been a prolific developer of mostly affordable housing projects in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx, and is currently building a two-tower, 611-unit affordable housing complex in Inwood. Among its other notable projects is a 17-story, 250-unit mixed-use development at 1164 River Avenue near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
The former warehouse at 825 East 141st Street was originally built as a baking facility for the A&P grocery chain in 1916. It was later used to store food-processing equipment until the partnership acquired it in 2016.
Neither the buyers nor the seller responded to requests for comment.
Bronx-based Altmark has been an active player in its home borough. The firm filed plans in 2019 to build a 23-story, 135-unit residential building at 2445 Third Avenue in Port Morris and is also developing an eight-story, 133-unit mixed-use building at 750 East 134th Street in the same neighborhood.
Read moreNew YorkCharter school nabs Jamaica dev site for $30M: Midsize i-sales reportNew YorkCayuga cashes out on 1 Nassau Avenue for $43MNew YorkMarcal Group buys out partner on large Pelham Bay site for $57MThe post Maddd Equities, SoBro buy empty Bronx office building for $44M appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Beverly Hills Estates’ Rayni Williams and Branden Williams; Aerial view of 809 N. Alpine Drive (Zach Goldsmith, The Beverly Hills Estates, Getty)Peter Steinlauf, chairman of auto guide Edmunds, has sold his house in the Beverly Hills Flats enclave for $23 million. It was listed for nearly $30 million in October.
Rayni Williams and Branden Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates listed the house at 809 North Alpine Drive. Zach Goldsmith of The Agency represented a European buyer whom he declined to identify.
While there has been a trend of price reduction across the market, which includes trophy homes, Goldsmith said the ultra-rich are often interested in pressing a deal. This played into the closing price being lower than its most recent ask, which was $25 million.
“They’re only going to buy properties with attractive deals,” he said of ultra wealthy buyers. “At this level, it’s not a need, it’s a want. It’s like a collector’s piece at some point.”
809 North Alpine Drive was built in 1987 and was remodeled in 2022, Goldsmith said. The grounds almost cover an acre. Amenities include a flat lawn, a spa with a waterfall and a tennis court with night-lights. A guest house stands by the tennis courts.
Goldsmith said most of the trophy homes in the exclusive Beverly Hills flats and Alpine Drive neighborhoods are located north of Sunset Boulevard. North of Sunset listings include recently sold homes such as 930 North Alpine Drive, an 11,900-square-foot listing which sold for $37 million in November. Another North of Sunset home was 1109 Calle Vista Drive, an 11,200-square-foot home which sold for $33.2 million in August.
Read moreLos AngelesKirk Douglas’ Beverly Hills Flats home, personal Walk of Fame lists for $7.5MLos AngelesForeclosed Beverly Flats home listed for $22MAuto DraftThe post Beverly Hills Flats trophy home trades for $23M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Chicago South Loop Hotel and hotel owner Louis Dodd (Google Maps, Allstate Insurance Company, Getty)Owners of the Chicago South Loop Hotel have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as their property faces foreclosure, much to the dismay of its loan servicer.
Rialto Capital Advisors initiated foreclosure proceedings in Illinois federal court in September, alleging nonpayment on a $6.8 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan initially issued in 2013 that is set to mature in 2028. Attorneys for the 231-room hotel’s owners, Louis Dodd and Vickie White, filed a bankruptcy petition on Feb. 27, court records show.
Attorneys for Rialto responded March 8 by asking the court to dismiss the bankruptcy petition, calling it improper and in bad faith. Rialto’s filing claims Dodd and White made the bankruptcy filing just hours after both parties in the foreclosure case had agreed upon a receiver for the property following almost three months of negotiations and thus prevented the order appointing the receiver from being entered in court, according to public records.
Additionally, the motion to dismiss claims that the bankruptcy filing was made without proper corporate authorization and that Dodd and White have no ability to confirm a reorganization plan for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Rialto did not respond to a request for comment. An attorney for the servicer declined to comment.
The hotel, located at 11 West 26th Street, pairs affordable prices with proximity to the Loop. Its troubles are emblematic of the struggles even well-located Chicago-area hotels have faced amid the pandemic, as floundering occupancy rates have left hotel owners falling short on even relatively small loans.
Dodd has been a part-owner in multiple Chicago hotels, including the Amber Inn on the South Side at Pershing Road and South Michigan Avenue. Attorneys for Dodd and White did not respond to a request for comment.
The South Loop hotel is far from the only one falling on tough times. The Hilton Chicago Magnificent Mile Suites’ Gold Coast location wasn’t enough to draw a bidder when LNR Partners tried to auction off the property in February, and an auction leading to the $29 million sale of the Hotel Felix in River North resulted in a shortfall on a 2013 loan against the property in October.
Read moreChicagoSouth Loop Hotel hit with foreclosure over $7M loanChicagoGold Coast hotel strikes out in foreclosure auctionChicagoWeinstock’s Monarch buys River North hotel out of distressThe post South Loop hotel owners file for bankruptcy appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Miami-Dade County’s rental market ranked as the nation’s second most competitive, according to a newly released report.
North Jersey was the most competitive rental market in the nation at the start of the year, according to the report from RentCafe. The North Jersey market includes Jersey City, Newark, Hoboken and Hackensack.
The report analyzed 134 markets, calculating a score based on the number of days apartments stay vacant, the occupancy rates, the volume of prospective renters, the percentage of renters who renew leases, and the share of newly completed apartments.
Miami-Dade County had the second highest overall score of 112, out of a maximum of 126. It came in a close second to North Jersey, with the highest score of 115. The national average was 60.
Broward County ranked eighth with a score of 99. Other markets in the top 10 included Southwest Florida, Orlando and suburban Chicago.
Miami-Dade surpassed all other markets in the number of prospective renters per apartment: 20, according to the report. Apartments were vacant for an average of 33 days, and 97.1 percent were occupied. The lease renewal rate was 70.9 percent.
Overall, competition across the nation appears to be easing slightly, even as apartment construction has ebbed and mortgage costs have sidelined would-be homebuyers.
The number of prospective tenants per unit nationwide dropped from 11 last year to eight this year, while the average length of vacancy increased by nearly a week. A smaller share of renters renewed leases in the last quarter, and the occupancy rate dropped slightly, according to the report.
Read moreSouth FloridaMiami-Dade ranks as ‘most competitive’ apartment market in 2022South FloridaA heavy crown: HUD secretary declares Miami “epicenter” of nation’s housing crisisSouth FloridaMiami leads nation with 58% rent spike during the pandemicThe post Miami ranks as nation’s second most competitive rental market appeared first on The Real Deal.
128 Pacific Street (Getty, Google Maps)Athena and Victor Calderone once celebrated their three-story Cobble Hill townhouse as a “forever home.”
Six years later, the couple — Athena the founder of lifestyle brand EyeSwoon and Victor a music producer and DJ — are walking away from the Greek revival at 128 Pacific Street with a tidy profit.
An unknown buyer purchased the 25-foot-wide townhouse in an off-market deal for $11.8 million, records show, nearly $8 million more than the $4 million the Calderones paid for it in 2015.
At the time, the three-story, 4,000-square-foot property, built in 1900, was divided into four separate units, but the couple combined them into a single-family home. This included a gut renovation and an attempt to restore some of the historic building’s original design features.
“It was a hell of a project,” Athena told Architectural Digest in 2018. “It nearly broke us — financially and emotionally.”
The living room features original mantles, a handmade chandelier and an open floor plan leading into the dining room. The kitchen boasts marble countertops, open shelving, a square island and bifold glass doors that open to a terrace. The primary suite occupies an entire floor upstairs, including a walk-through closet and a pink-veined marble bathtub.
Townhouses in Cobble Hill have commanded hefty sums as home prices skyrocketed in the neighborhood during the pandemic, but eight-figure sales are still rare.
A modern townhouse at 57 Wyckoff Street went into contract last June with a $10 million asking price, but ultimately sold for $9.4 million, records show. A 10,000-square-foot carriage house at 177 Pacific Street that went for $15.5 million in 2015 remains by far the priciest home ever sold in the neighborhood.
Read moreNew YorkTRD Pro: Brooklyn’s top neighborhoods by average sale priceNew YorkPark Slope townhouse, condo top luxury contracts in BrooklynNew YorkBoerum Hill homes top Brooklyn’s luxury contractsThe post Mystery buyer pays $12M for Cobble Hill townhouse appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Home sales fell again in February across South Florida, but home prices continued to rise in the tri-county region.
Residential sales declined about 34 percent last month, year-over-year, in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. Dollar volume totaled about $3.7 billion, down 35 percent from February 2022.
Mortgage rate hikes, coupled with other economic factors, have propelled the slowdown. Recent bank failures are expected to create more uncertainty, though industry proponents have pointed to an immediate drop in mortgage rates.
Though price growth is slowing, median prices are still rising in South Florida, unlike in the rest of the country.
Miami-Dade CountyResidential closings dropped 40 percent in Miami-Dade County last month, year-over-year, to nearly 1,700 sales. Condo sales fell 47 percent to 965 closings, and single-family home sales declined 28 percent to 727 closings, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.
Dollar volume totaled $1.4 billion, with single-family dollar volume declining 27 percent to $706 million, and condo dollar volume falling 50 percent to $662.5 million.
The median price of single-family homes rose 3.5 percent, year-over-year, to $555,000. For condos, it grew just 2.6 percent to $390,000.
Broward CountyIn Broward County, residential sales declined 32 percent, year-over-year, to 1,839 closings. Condo sales fell 32 percent to 1,006, and single-family home sales decreased nearly 31 percent to 833 closings.
The median price of single-family homes grew more in Broward than elsewhere in South Florida, year-over-year, up 8 percent to $560,000. Condo prices rose 13 percent to $272,000.
Total dollar volume was $954 million. Single-family home dollar volume declined 30 percent to $615 million, and condo dollar volume decreased 34 percent to $339 million.
Palm Beach CountyResidential sales in Palm Beach County decreased 30 percent to 1,794 sales. Condo sales fell 38 percent, year-over-year, to 1,321, while single-family home sales declined 21 percent to 975 closings.
The median price of single-family homes reached about $550,000, up 2.7 percent. The median price of condos grew 9.1 percent to $300,000.
Dollar volume in Palm Beach County totaled $1.3 billion last month. Single-family home dollar volume fell 29 percent to $888 million, and condo dollar volume declined 36 percent to $422 million.
The post February home sales fall 34% across South Florida, as prices rise appeared first on The Real Deal.
Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York and Silicon Valley Bank (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, NYIC)The former owner of Silicon Valley Bank has gained approval from a bankruptcy court judge to spend up to $100 million over the next month as it tries to sell the bank holding company’s assets.
Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York approved the spending by Santa Clara-based SVB Financial Group and suggested it might take years to settle a fight over tangled assets, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The 40-year-old bank, which had $10.9 billion in real estate loans, was put into receivership on March 10, becoming the second largest bank failure in the nation.
Glenn called for parties involved in the case to cooperate in the interest of maximizing the value of what is left of SVB Financial.
That includes creditors whose lawyers said at a Tuesday hearing that they are concerned that the FDIC will try to hold onto billions of dollars they say they are owed.
“You all have a shared interest in making sure that the debtor’s case proceeds smoothly and information is available,” Glenn said after hearing from lawyers for SVB Financial, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the bridge bank set up by the FDIC and creditors for both the holding company and the bank.
James Bromley, an attorney with Sullivan & Cromwell representing SVB Financial, said that the FDIC improperly froze access to nearly $2 billion in deposits the holding company had in its former bank.
He said the agency had also directed Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, as it’s now called, to claw back nearly $200 million in deposits SVB Financial had at other banks.
That prompted the judge to seek assurances from attorneys representing the FDIC and Silicon Valley Bridge Bank that they:
- Won’t continue to try to recover any funds pending further ruling by the court.
- Would agree to allow SVB Financial to spend the funds it has with the other banks.
- Would agree to continue to pay employees of the holding company who are technically still employees of the bank.
- And would agree to continue to pay the vendors of the holding company
The attorneys largely agreed to the judge’s requests, though a lawyer representing the FDIC, Kurt Gwynne of Reed Smith, said the agency’s position might change.
SVB Financial filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday while it seeks to sell the businesses that weren’t seized by the government. This includes Menlo Park-based venture unit SVB Capital and Boston-based investment bank SVB Securities, which the holding company said, however, are not part of the bankruptcy proceeding.
The FDIC is separately seeking buyers for the assets of the bank it seized, according to the Business Times.
Its first two attempts failed to land a single buyer for the bank so now it has agreed to take offers for part of it. Bids for Silicon Valley Bridge Bank are due by Friday. Bids for its wealth management subsidiary, Silicon Valley Private Bank, are due by Wednesday.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreSan FranciscoSizing up Silicon Valley Bank’s real estate exposureNationalEx-Silicon Valley Bank execs drove Signature Bank’s loan growthSan FranciscoFormer Silicon Valley Bank’s real estate footprint in limboThe post Judge approves owner of Silicon Valley Bank to spend $100M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Victor Makras and 700 Brewer Drive in Hillsborough (Getty, LoopNet, Google Maps)Victor Makras, a politically connected real estate broker and investor tied to a San Francisco corruption scandal, has paid close to triple the asking price for a Hillsborough home, according to public records.
The five-bedroom, 4.5-bath home at 700 Brewer Drive listed for just under $5.7 million at the end of February with Park North Real Estate agents Tim Hawko and Katie Tostanoski. It was in contract two weeks later and closed March 17 for $15 million. The quick close indicates an all-cash deal and works out to about $2,700 per square foot for the 5,500-square-foot home inspired by a French countryside farmhouse. It was built in 1919.
Hawko and Tostanoski declined to comment on the deal. Makras did not reply to a request for comment.
Despite a conviction for bank fraud last year for his part in a federal bank loan probe that brought down former Public Utilities Commissions head Harlan Kelly and former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, Makras still has his real estate license and was both the agent and a buyer on the deal. Nuru was sentenced to seven years, but Makras avoided serving jail time after 190 letters asking for leniency, including testimonies from former San Francisco mayors Willie Brown and Art Agnos, were filed with the court.
Read moreSan FranciscoPolitically connected SF real estate investor Makras indicted for bank fraudSan FranciscoUltra-luxury buyers return to Peninsula marketSan FranciscoSlew of pre-spring sales recorded in nation’s priciest zip code A trust in Makras’ name partnered with Papouman Trust to buy the home, according to public record. “Papou” means grandfather in Greek and Makras is of Greek descent. Makras also owns two other Peninsula properties, one in Millbrae and one in Belmont, with different partners, according to public records.
The estate on 0.75 acre has not sold since 1978, when it cost about $320,000. It was recently the subject of a litigated elder abuse case, according to court records. Thea Bacon inherited the property after her husband Frank died in the mid-1980s. Bacon had no heirs and before her death in January 2021 was placed under the conservatorship of Debra Dolch. Dolch claimed that Bacon’s long-time “designer and holistic healer” James Sykes had duped her into signing away the deed to the home and stolen millions of dollars, according to a press release from a law firm that represented the conservator. A March 2022 ruling awarded Dolch “approximately $8.5 million in compensatory damages, $16 million in double damages, title to a $6-million property in Hillsborough, CA, and attorneys’ fees and costs,” according to the release.
The post Real estate mogul tied to SF corruption scandal buys $15M home appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jamestown’s Michael Phillips with 260 East 161st Street (Jamestown, Google Maps, Getty)Jamestown is looking to sell a South Bronx office building for about $100 million — a discount of nearly 10 percent to the price it paid five years ago.
The Atlanta-based investor put the 10-story building at 260 East 161st Street, across from the Bronx county courthouse, up for sale, The Real Deal has learned.
The office and retail portions of the roughly 266,000-square-foot building are fully leased, primarily to tenants like the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and the city’s law department, as well as retailers like Starbucks, Walgreens and Chipotle.
Because of the proximity to the court complex, the building has been an example of “unflappable resilience within the outer borough office market,” according to marketing materials from Newmark, where a team led by Adam Spies and Adam Doneger is marketing the property.
Despite that resilience, Jamestown’s mid-point pricing expectation of about $106 million is still a discount to the $115 million the company paid when it bought the property in December 2017. Rising interest rates have made acquisition costs shoot up, putting downward pressure on property prices.
Office properties have struggled in particular to hold up their valuations as the move to hybrid work has depressed values for all but the most high-end buildings.
A representative for Jamestown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The property has a $64 million mortgage with PNC Bank that can be assumed by a new buyer. That should alleviate some of the pressure from higher interest rates, at least until the loan expires at the end of 2024. The loan is swapped to a fixed rate of 4.31 percent, according to the property’s offering memo, which is significantly below market rates.
Properties with low-cost mortgages that a seller can pass onto a buyer have become one of the few ways to break through the log jam that rising interest rates have created in the investment sales market.
Jamestown, which owns office buildings like the 15-story 63 Madison Avenue and the 26-story 200 Madison Avenue in Midtown, sold a 50 percent stake in the company to the mall giant Simon Property Group late last year.
Read moreNew YorkJamestown gets $64M loan for Bronx buySouth FloridaFormer low-income South Beach apartments hit market as possible hotel conversionThe post Jamestown eyes $100M for South Bronx office property appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jersey City and Newark (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Miami is hotter than New Jersey, but not when it comes to rentals.
North Jersey was the most competitive rental market in the nation at the start of the year, according to a report from RentCafe. The North Jersey market includes Jersey City, Newark, Hoboken and Hackensack.
The report analyzed 134 markets, calculating a score based on the number of days apartments stay vacant, the occupancy rates, the volume of prospective renters, the percentage of renters who renew leases, and the share of newly completed apartments.
North Jersey had the highest score at 115 out of a maximum of 126. The national average was 60.
North Jersey ranked in the top five in all but one of the metrics. Apartments were vacant for an average of only 34 days and 96.6 percent were occupied. There were 12 prospective tenants competing for each unit and the lease renewal rate was 73.7 percent.
Central Jersey had the highest lease renewal rate among the top 20 most competitive markets.
Florida’s Miami-Dade County was the second most competitive rental market at the start of the year. Other markets in the top 10 included Southwest Florida, Florida’s Broward County, Orlando and suburban Chicago.
Competition became more intense in the Northeast relative to other regions. Among the top 20 most competitive rental markets, 40 percent were in the region. Besides the aforementioned markets, its hotspots included Harrisburg, Central Jersey, Brooklyn, suburban Philadelphia, Bridgeport-New Haven, Pittsburgh and the greater Boston area.
Overall, competition across the nation appears to be easing slightly, even as apartment construction has ebbed and mortgage costs have sidelined would-be homebuyers. The number of prospective tenants per unit dropped from 11 last year to 8 this year, while the average length of vacancy increased by nearly a week.
There was also a smaller share of renters renewing leases in the last quarter, as well as a slightly lower occupancy rate.
Read moreSan FranciscoSF beats Boston to regain title for second-costliest rentsTri-StateTri-state rents are up and down — at the same timeTri-StateJersey City has metro area’s fastest rising rentThe post North Jersey is nation’s most competitive rental market appeared first on The Real Deal.
Trinsic Residential Group’s Brian Tusa and DART Silver Line project rendering (Getty, Trinsic Residential Group, Richardson Texas)One of North Texas’ most seasoned apartment builders is reaping the benefits of public transit for a project in Plano.
Trinsic Residential Group aims to develop a five-story, 325-unit apartment complex on 12th Street, replacing a lumber yard and commercial building on the site, the Dallas Morning News reported. The property is located just south of downtown Plano, on the north side of Bush Turnpike at J Place.
The site is linked with Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s under-construction Silver Line — a 26-mile route that will span from Plano to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, with 10 stops along the way, at the University of Texas at Dallas and in Addison, Carrollton and Cypress Waters.
Trinsic Residential Group’s project is a half-mile from the DART Silver Line 12th Street Station and a quarter mile from the CityLine/Bush stop.
Downtown Dallas is the only place better served by the rapid transit system, Trinsic Residential’s Adam Brown told the publication.
Several apartments and a hotel are adjacent to the site, and Dallas-based developer KDC is at the forefront of the $2 billion CityLine campus nearby, which features several office towers, apartments, a hotel, commercial space and retailers on a 200-acre lot.
Redevelopment of the area will “provide a welcoming, attractive gateway to downtown that supports the transformation of the larger area into the civic and cultural heart of the city,” planning documents from the City of Plano state.
The average rent in Plano is between about $1,400 and $2,100 a month, depending on size, according to Rent.com. Home prices continue upward in Plano’s Collin County, with a median list price of almost $520,000, according to Redfin.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read moreDallasNexPoint plans massive life-sciences campus in PlanoTexasLife sciences ready to boom in North TexasTexasPlano’s Legacy West expecting its latest high riseThe post Trinsic plans apartments near DART line appeared first on The Real Deal.
Home Depot’s Ted Decker and Overton Moore Properties’ Timur Tecimer with 1953 Concourse Drive, San Jose (Overton Moore Properties, Home Depot, LinkedIn, Getty)Home Depot has leased a 126,700-square-foot distribution warehouse in North San Jose.
The Atlanta-based home improvement retailer will occupy the industrial building at 1953 Concourse Drive, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The owner is Overton Moore Properties, based in Torrance.
In 2020, Overton Moore paid $13.5 million for the property, now known as Concourse Logistics Center.
The 7-acre site had a 110,000-square-foot office and research building, located in the city’s International Business Park. Overton then bulldozed the offices and replaced them with the warehouse.
The nation’s largest home improvement chain pre-leased the building last November.Terms of the lease were not disclosed.
Home Depot plans to use the warehouse as a delivery center, to open next year, a company spokesperson told The Real Deal. Employees will receive and inspect appliances before loading them for shipment, adding a link to the company’s supply chain network.
With its new lease, the firm can move into a modern industrial building with an excellent location, with direct access to the 680 and 880 Freeways as well as the new Milpitas BART station, according to Newmark, which marketed the building.
The site also is two miles south of a Home Depot store in neighboring Milpitas. The company has five stores in San Jose, although the closest one to the project is six miles away, according to its online store directory.
It’s three miles east of another 103,000-square-foot Home Depot distribution warehouse.
Unlike Amazon.com, which takes a “lease some, buy some” approach to real estate, Home Depot prefers to rent than own its industrial space: It leases 95 percent of its distribution centers, financial filings show.
In Los Angeles and Southern California’s Inland Empire, Home Depot signed for more than 4.5 million square feet of industrial leases last year, according to public records reviewed by The Real Deal.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read moreThe post Home Depot leases 127K warehouse in North San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Wikipedia)A subsidiary of New York Community Bank will assume all deposits of Signature Bank, as well as a portion of its loan portfolio and all 40 bank branches of the shuttered bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced Sunday.
The New York State Department of Financial Services closed Signature Bank, a major multifamily lender in New York, last week and appointed the FDIC as receiver.
The transaction with NYCB subsidiary Flagstar, announced by the FDIC Sunday, includes the purchase of $38.4 billion of Signature Bridge Bank’s assets, “including loans of $12.9 billion purchased at a discount of $2.7 billion.” About $60 billion in loans remain in receivership, the FDIC said.
“The FDIC estimates the cost of the failure of Signature Bank to its Deposit Insurance Fund to be approximately $2.5 billion,” it said. “The exact cost will be determined when the FDIC terminates the receivership.”
New York-based Signature had total assets of $110 billion and total deposits of $89 billion — much of it landlords’ money — as of Dec. 31. Its $35.7 billion worth of real estate loans accounted for just under half the bank’s total lending business, according to its most recent regulatory filings. But fallout from the cryptocurrency crash left the bank scrambling to reassure investors that its exposure to crypto was not a threat.
The bid by the NYCB subsidiary did not include the $4 billion in Signature’s deposits related to its division focused on the crypto industry.
The announcement after a tumultuous nine days that saw the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history — as well as UBS’s acquisition of European lending giant Credit Suisse for about $2 billion.
Read more New York Regulators shut Signature Bank, a key multifamily lender National Signature Bank’s real estate loans under scrutiny New York Signature’s crash puts its office landlords in a pickle The post New York Community Bank to absorb Signature’s assets appeared first on The Real Deal.
Arthur Raffy Aslanian (Hartsook Tenants Association)The charges related to real-estate developer Arthur Aslanian’s alleged outrageous, terrorizing conduct keep piling up.
Aslanian, who was charged last September with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, now stands accused of paying someone $2,000 to set fire to one of his properties in North Hollywood to get rid of his tenants, the LA Times reported.
The tenants at a rental property on Hartsook Street had accused Aslanian of harassing and threatening them to get them to leave, the outlet said, citing court documents. The tenants had complained that Aslanian had created a toxic environment — including mold, vermin and asbestos — in his rentals to illegally drive them out.
The accusations were nothing new to Aslanian, who has been called a “slumlord” by his tenants, according to the Times, and has a checkered history at his various properties that dates back decades.
Aslanian in early 2022 allegedly promised to pay a co-conspirator $2,000 to set fire to the building.
The co-conspirator tried to burn the building twice — once in February 2022, which ended with the building being merely scorched, and a second time in March 2022, which ended with two vacant units being burned.
Even after the fire, Aslanian continued to demand rent, the outlet said. The tenants ultimately filed a lawsuit against Aslanian in July; the case was settled in October, the Times said.
Aslanian’s attorney said Aslanian denies all of the allegations against him, including the murder-for-hire plot.
In that case, Aslanian is accused of having an associate, Sesar Rivera, solicit an alleged gang member to kill a man — identified in court papers as S.E. — to whom Aslanian owed nearly $3 million.
Aslanian also allegedly wanted a hit on an attorney whom Aslanian owed $220,000 in legal fees and expenses. The attorney’s firm was threatening litigation after a mediation had failed.
Rivera, who agreed to cooperate with police, ultimately presented Aslanian with a fake photo of a bloodied victim assuring him that S.E. had been killed. Aslanian was subsequently arrested and charged by federal authorities.
Aslanian, who lives in La Cañada Flintridge, owns three adjacent plots on Hartsook Street in North Hollywood through a company, Andalucia Project, according to property records. He also owns other properties throughout the San Fernando Valley, including a modern apartment building a few blocks away, records reviewed by the Times show.
He has been in custody since January and has not yet been arraigned on the new charges, the Times said. A trial date has not been reported.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more Los Angeles Judge demands details of attorney’s illness in Raymond Chan trial Los Angeles Former LA official on trial for alleged City Hall corruption Los Angeles Calabasas developer Mark Handel pleads guilty to faking tax returns The post LA developer charged in murder-for-hire case accused in arson plot appeared first on The Real Deal.
315 West 35th Street (StreetEasy)Eli and Isaac Chetrit and Jacob Aini have listed 315 West 35th Street for $50 million, eight years after they purchased the 14-story Midtown building out of bankruptcy.
Nathaniel Smith of Oxford Property Group has the listing.
The trio paid $43 million for the Hudson Yard building in 2015 and originally planned to convert it into high-end residential condominiums.
But in 2021, Workville — a flex office company founded by Chetrit, Aini and D.J. Dashti — occupied the 60,000-square-foot building. (The building is listed as having 240 rooms and 75,000-square-feet, selling for $666 per square foot if it fetches its asking price.)
The listing on StreetEasy says the building — with high ceilings and modern finishes — is suited for a number of uses, including “creative studios to tech startups and professional offices.”
Isaac Chetrit and Aini purchased the building after an LLC formerly associated with developer and diamond dealer Aaron Chitrik filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2015 after defaulting on a nearly $25 million mortgage on the property.
Isaac Chetrit, who acquired the debt on the property for $10.75 million in 2010, was among the building’s creditors. Isaac Chetrit and Aini outbid investor Frank Ng, who offered $42.25 million.
Chitrik bought the building for $16.2 million in 2006 and intended to convert it to condos. After the building’s lenders sought to foreclose on its debt, Isaac Chetrit stepped in to acquire the property’s mortgage amid various complications.
Isaac Chetrit, a cousin of the better known Joe Chetrit, has been an active New York City dealmaker over the past year. He is looking to convert the Stewart Hotel — which is across Madison Square Garden — into 625 apartments. He also was looking to construct a 69-story tower in the Garment District. Chetrit is also building a 28-story residential project in Washington Heights.
The post Isaac Chetrit lists Midtown office building for $50M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Billionaire Peter Brant and 245 Dunbar Road in Palm Beach (Getty, Brown Harris Stevens)One of the oldest homes in Palm Beach, owned by billionaire publishing magnate Peter Brant and his wife, former supermodel Stephanie Seymour, has listed for $28 million, Mansion Global reported.
The five-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion, known as Buttonwood, was built around 1904 and was home to the town’s first mayor, E.N. Dimick, according to Wayne C. Willcox, a local historian.
Liza Pulitzer, Alan Quartucci, and Whitney McGurk of Brown Harris Stevens New York City are the listing agents.
The 7,200-square-foot home — which has a library, sunroom, balcony and wood-burning fireplace — was moved twice, finally settling at 245 Dunbar Road.
“245 Dunbar is one of the oldest homes in Palm Beach with many of its original details kept intact. Very rarely does such a home like this come to the market,” McGurk said in an email.
The lush half-acre compound also has a smaller, four-bedroom guest house and a pool, according to the listing.
There wouldn’t be a home to sell but for Edward Stotesbury, who moved the house twice, first by logs from its original lakefront location near what’s now Emerald Lane to another site on its property, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. The home was moved again in 1925 to its current location to avoid demolition, the outlet said.
Brant and Seymour purchased the home in 1999 for $4.1 million, Mansion Global said.
Read more New York Ornate UES townhomes sell to paper mogul for $20M New York Billionaire Peter Brant pays $27M for Walter De Maria’s East Village home-studio South Florida Taubman family sells Palm Beach estate to paper mogul for $47M Brant is a Queens native known for his success building the newsprint company co-founded by his father into one of the country’s largest newsprint manufacturers. He reportedly owns more than 1,000 pieces of contemporary art, and became such an avid Andy Warhol collector that he bought the artist’s Interview Magazine after his death.
In February 2022, an LLC tied to Brandt paid $20 million for the George F. Baker house complex at 69 East 93rd Street.
In May 2020, Brant bought the 10-bedroom, 19,000-square-foot mansion at 1820 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach for $47 million.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Billionaire Peter Brant lists historic Palm Beach manse for $28M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Wesley Foster (Long & Foster Companies)Wesley Foster, co-founder of Long & Foster, one of the largest independent real estate companies in the nation, died on March 17, the Washington Post reported.
He was 89; no cause was given.
“Wes was an extraordinary leader, businessman and person, and my heart goes out to his family and all those he touched through his caring and generosity,” Patrick Bain, president and CEO of The Long & Foster Companies, said in a statement on the company’s website. “[W]hat stood out the most was his appreciation and attention for everyone he met. Wes always treated you as the most important person and knew it was the agents and employees who chose to work here, who were the heart and soul of the company.”
Foster teamed with Henry Long in 1969 in Fairfax, Virginia, to found Long & Foster, which grew to more than 200 offices, employing more than 8,500 sales agents and staff, and offering real estate, mortgage, settlement, and insurance services, according to the company’s website.
Both men had served in the military, were in their 30s and knew little about real estate when they formed the company, according to the outlet. A coin flip decided whose name appeared first for the brand.
In the early going, they opened a 600-square-foot office, employed one real estate agent and split their duties, with Foster focusing on residential, while Long handled commercial, the outlet reported.
The partners almost sold Long & Foster to Merrill Lynch in 1979, with Long more enthusiastic about the offer than Foster.
“I told him, ‘Gosh, I liked this crazy business,’” Foster told the Post in 1988.
Foster bought out Long instead and the company expanded further throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southern states by hiring top agents from other firms as well as keeping the brokers of the smaller brokerages the company acquired. The company, which was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway’s HomeServices of America in 2017, is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia.
Foster believed the best agents were driven and had empathy, characteristics he read about in Harvard Business Journal’s “Mystique of Super Salesmanship,” according to the company website.
He was born in Georgia and attended Virginia Military Institute on a partial football scholarship, earning a bachelor’s in English in 1956, according to the Journal. He served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany. Upon his return to the U.S., he went to work for Kaiser Aluminum as a salesman, then began selling homes. That’s when he met Long and, realizing their common interest in real estate, started their partnership.
The company sold $36 billion of real estate in 2021, according to its website.
Foster is survived by his wife, Betty Foster; son Paul Wesley Foster III, daughter Amanda Foster Spahr and a stepson.
— Ted Glanzer
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Silicon Valley Bank (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)It’s not surprising the most notable real estate soundbites last week were generated in response to a pair of the biggest bank failures since the Great Recession. Signature’s and Silicon Valley Bank’s collapses roiled the real estate industry, and left a lot of questions and very few answers.
“Today, I’ve gotten no less than 30 text messages from other landlords that are pulling their money from regional banks out of fear that something bad’s gonna happen,” said Michael Shah, whose firm Delshah Capital holds three large loans with Signature.
Gaia Real Estate’s Danny Fishman was candid in expressing his fears of the potential fallout.“What we are afraid of is a snowball effect,” he said. “As soon as rumors start, there’s a run on the bank. And no bank can survive a run.”
Other areas of the country were feeling the ripples, including South Florida, which courted California investors like SVB, real estate analyst Peter Zalewski.
“Well, you got them. But you also got Silicon Valley Bank exposure,” Zalewski said. “So you live by the sword, you die by the sword.”
More than one real estate professional said the banks’ failures took an already bad situation in real estate and made it worse.
“The biggest problem with a bank failure is the ripple effects it sends through the economy,” said Sebastian Vallejo, managing director for Brown Harris Stevens’ Miami Beach offices. “We were already in an uncertain scenario with everything going on worldwide, with inflation and with the measures the Fed had been taking. Many people today are asking, ‘Should I invest in real estate?’”
The ripple effects led to the trading of shares for another local bank, First Republic, was temporarily halted by the Securities & Exchange Commission after the price dropped by more than 70 percent.
“First Republic is one of the main arteries for the tech world, and for the rich,” said agent and City Real Estate founder David Cohen, whose San Francisco-based brokerage does its payroll through the bank. “You cut that artery and you’re going to have bleeding.”
Others, however, expressed confidence that more bank failures were unlikely.
“We do not feel the recent events are reflective of the overall health of the banking industry,” Carmen Branch, a spokesperson for Comerica, said. “Most regional banks — including Comerica — have a more diverse, stable and ‘sticky’ deposit base and remain well capitalized and highly liquid.”
Still, despite the precarious situation, Cohen said he hoped the bank talk would die down so we could worry about other pressing matters.
“Hopefully we’ll be back to talking about AI again by the end of the week.”
The post They said what now? Real estate weighs in on the banking debacle appeared first on The Real Deal.
UPDATE (2 p.m.): UBS has agreed to buy beleaguered Credit Suisse for more than $2 billion, the Financial Times reported.
As part of the deal, the Swiss National Bank will provide a $100 billion liquidity line to Credit Suisse, according to the FT.
With the Credit Suisse acquisition and the collapse of two banks last week, at least two major European banks are looking for signs of contagion and are seeking stronger indicators of support from the Federal Reserve and ECB, according to Reuters.
ORIGINAL VERSION: In an effort to stabilize the banking system, Swiss regulators have brokered a deal that would see UBS buy Credit Suisse for about $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.
UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, is one of the largest managers of real estate in the world, according to its website.
The deal would mark a discount of nearly 90 percent from the market capitalization for Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, at the close of the markets on Friday.
The terms and structure of the deal, which was first reported by the Financial Times, are still in flux.
Credit Suisse believes the price is too low and would be too damaging to stockholders, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. How bondholders would be affected hadn’t been determined — with losses being higher if Credit Suisse is wound down instead of taken over by UBS, Reuters reported.
A final decision on imposing losses on bondholders has not been taken, and the terms could still change, according to sources. Losses imposed on bondholders may need to be larger if Credit Suisse were wound down rather than if it were taken over by UBS, one of the sources said.
Another issue is what cost-saving measures, including job cuts, Swiss regulators would allow UBS to make, the Journal reported.
Still, regulators are hoping to finalize the deal before the opening of Asian markets, the Journal reported.
Swiss bylaws would typically give UBS shareholders a month and a half to consider such a large deal, but that country’s regulators are working to work around a shareholder vote, according to the Financial Times.
The potential deal comes after Credit Suisse’s stocks plummeted last week over liquidity concerns following the collapse of both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which roiled the global financial markets last week.
Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest bank and one of 30-worldwide deemed systematically important, borrowed $54 billion from the Swiss National Bank on Thursday in a failed attempt to restore investor confidence. The move didn’t work, as Credit’s Suisse’s shares continued to tumble by about 24 percent.
The bank, according to the Journal, saw as much as $10 billion in daily withdrawals, leading to regulators’ concerns over the its solvency and the impact declining confidence would have on other banks.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more National Signature Bank’s real estate loans under scrutiny National Ex-Silicon Valley Bank execs drove Signature Bank’s loan growth San Francisco Former Silicon Valley Bank’s real estate footprint in limbo The post UBS to buy Credit Suisse for more than $2B appeared first on The Real Deal.
Taylor Swift and the Sugar Loaf building in Tribeca (Getty, Google Maps; Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)Pop supernova Taylor Swift may have sung that her reputation has never been worse, but not so when it comes to her real estate holdings.
The 33-year-old, 12-time Grammy winner has amassed a U.S. residential real estate portfolio worth more than $150 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Her (known) holdings span as far north as Rhode Island, as far west as Beverly Hills and as south as Nashville, Tennessee, where she originally found fame at the age of 14 as a country artist.
Here’s a rundown of what she currently owns:
- California: After buying two four-bedroom houses in Beverly Hills (which she subsequently sold in 2018), Swift bought the Goldwyn estate in 2015 for $25 million, according to the Journal. The 11,000-square-foot house, built by legendary producer Samuel Goldwyn, sits on 2 acres, the outlet reported. Swift got an amazing deal, according to real-estate professionals, with real-estate agent Josh Flagg saying the estate could fetch up to $70 million if it were listed today.
- Rhode Island: Swift famously purchased an 11,700-square-foot mansion, which was known as the Holiday House, at 16 Bluff Avenue in Westerly for a record $17.75 million, according to the Journal. The luxe home has seven bedrooms and sits on about 5.25 acres, with 700 feet of shoreline and a pool. A local real estate agent estimated the property would sell for about $30 million if it were listed today.
- New York City: She famously sang about her digs on Cornelia Street, but Swift owns about properties worth $45 million elsewhere in Tribeca. In 2014, she bought from director Peter Jackson two penthouse units in the Sugar Loaf building for $19.95 million, and combined them into an 8,000-square-foot duplex, the outlet reported. She wasn’t done combining properties. In 2017 she bought a three-story, 27-foot wide townhouse for $18 million, and paid $9.75 million for a 3,500-square-foot apartment on the second floor of the Sugar Loaf building. She then connected the two properties, using the townhouse as a garage so she could go directly to her apartment, the Journal reported. “It’s probably the most expensive garage there is,” real estate agent Andrew Azoulay told the Journal.
- Tennessee: Swift was just 19 years old when she made her first big splash in the real estate market, paying $2 million through a trust for a luxe condominium near Music Row in Nashville in 2009. Shortly after, the trust bought a one-bedroom unit below it for $387,000. In 2011, she bought the Northumberland Estate for $2.5 million. The estate has a 7,700-square-foot home on about 6 acres, according to the Journal. Swift’s Nashville properties are worth roughly $8 million, according to a local real estate professional.
That Swift has amassed that portfolio at the age of 33 is unsurprising given that she’s a global phenomenon whose concert tickets for her upcoming “Eras Tour” are only slightly more difficult to purchase than one of her homes.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more New York Taylor Swift’s former Cornelia Street home to rent for $45K New York Rhode Island $17.7M resi sale nearly matches Taylor Swift’s record New York Taylor Swifts’s childhood home in Pennsylvania on market for $1M The post Wildest Dreams: Taylor Swift has amassed a $150M real estate portfolio appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of GAIA Real Estate’s Mor Regensburger and 200 Henry Street in Stamford, Connecticut (Getty, GAIA Real Estate, Twitter/Lofts_at_YT)The owner of a historic lock factory that was converted into luxury lofts in Stamford believes it should be paid back the money it sank into the sinking building, so it’s suing.
Manhattan-based Gaia Real Estate purchased the former Yale & Towne Factory, now the 225-unit Lofts at Yale & Towne, from the city’s largest developer, Building and Land Technology, for $395.5 million in 2016.
The six-story, 725-foot-long Lofts building on Henry Street, however, had begun to sink and the building frame was tilting, windows were cracking, and gaps were appearing around doors. Tenants were ordered to move out by the end of 2021 and the building, which has been empty for about a year and a half and has been labeled a “disaster,” likely has to be demolished.
In a 77-page amended complaint filed last week in Stamford Superior Court, Gaia sued BLT, its affiliates, the city of Stamford and several other entities, claiming the building was negligently renovated, inspected and maintained before it was sold to Gaia.
Specifically, Gaia claims an impermeable liner installed to protect against contaminated soil also prevented the replenishment of the groundwater beneath the building, causing the compression of the soil and leading the building to sink and shift. The groundwater has also been depleted due to the faulty installation and repair of a utility drain, the lawsuit claims.
“As the groundwater at the Site continually and irreversibly was and is depleted, the foundation at The Lofts building has been insufficient to support the weight of the building, causing damages,” the lawsuit says. “Further, the negligent installation of the 36-inch utility drain without seepage collars is causing, in whole or in part, the depletion of the groundwater at the Site.”
The lawsuit also alleges that BLT and its affiliates knew or should have known about the groundwater issue and failed to disclose it to Gaia.
The building has sunk 8 inches at the ground floor slab, and about 14 inches at the exterior building columns since the building opened in 2010, the lawsuit alleges. The majority of the settling has occurred over the past three or four years, the lawsuit claims.
Gaia claims an environmental use restriction prevents it from replacing the liner because that may release pollutants.
Read more New York Stamford luxury loft conversion a “disaster,” must be torn down New York Stamford’s biggest developer under fire after partial building failures South Florida Evacuated Port Royale Miami Beach residents can return The lawsuit also names the city, which Gaia alleges failed to inspect the foundations and corresponding work during the 2010 renovation, as well as failed to properly maintain and repair utilities near the Lofts, which further caused depletion of the groundwater beneath the building.
BLT has faced scrutiny for construction issues elsewhere in Stamford, including a city investigation into the collapse of a 15-by-20-foot concrete slab at a 22-story building on Pacific Street in February 2022. A preliminary investigation showed that the slab was missing concrete-reinforcing cables even though design drawings called for them. The city hired an engineering firm to review seven other BLT buildings in Harbor Point.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Owner of sinking Stamford luxury lofts sues developer, city appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Mark Meadows, Donald Trump and 126 3rd Street South East on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Getty, Google Maps, LoopNet)Two years ago, allies of Donald Trump descended upon the Capitol and attempted to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Now, they’re trying to disrupt the real estate market nearby, albeit through far less coercive means.
Since the start of last year, the Conservative Partnership Institute has purchased nine properties only a few blocks from the Capitol in Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reported. The total cost of the spending spree so far: $41 million.
The nonprofit, which is led by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, didn’t seem interested in drawing attention to the purchases. They were made by recently formed limited liability companies, obscuring the identity of the buyer to both public records and private sellers.
The properties are all in relative proximity to each other on or off a single block of Pennsylvania Avenue. They include four commercial properties, three row houses, a carriage house and a garage.
In an annual report, CPI expressed a desire to create a “Patriots’ Row” campus on the stretch. None of the executives at the nonprofit commented to the Post on the real estate binge.
There could be an old fashioned “West Side Story” brawl on Pennsylvania Avenue: The same block with the CPI’s holdings also has the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and progressive consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
Outside of the nine properties CPI recently bought in range of one another, it also spent $7.2 million on an Eastern Shore estate and $1.5 million on a row house next to its headquarters near the Capitol, courageously using its own name for the latter.
Read more National DC’s real estate market demands to be taken seriously National Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ former home up for sale New York Elliman plans expansion to DC area Former senator Jim DeMint launched CPI in 2017 after being ousted from his leadership role at Heritage. Meadows, who was with Trump during the Jan. 6 insurrection, joined the nonprofit in 2021.
For 2021, the nonprofit reported $45 million in revenue, largely due to contributions and grants. Its major donors in past years have included Republic donor Richard Uihlein and Trump’s Save America political action, both of which have contributed at least $1 million.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Trump allies assembling “Patriots’ Row” in D.C. appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty)Commercial real estate investor Raheel Bhai’s twisting legal saga finally came to an end in a federal courtroom in Texas recently when he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud for allegedly securing a $149 million loan from lender Benefit Street Partners by falsifying or forging dozens of documents, Bis Now reported.
At his hearing, Bhai admitted to inflating the length and amount of lease terms his company IBF had with 24 Walgreens across 10 states to secure the loan, which Bhai claimed was to be used to refinance the properties as well as create a new REIT.
As part of the loan agreement, Bhai created an account in which rent from all of the Walgreens leases would be deposited monthly.
Bhai prepaid $2.3 million, three months of rent, into the account, telling Benefit Street Partners that it was so he could iron out some difficulties he was having with Walgreens concerning rent payments, according to the outlet. But the prepayment was really to cover up how much actual rent Walgreens was paying, which was less than what he told the lender.
Instead of creating a REIT, Bhai funneled about $21 million to family members through a front company.
When Benefit Street Partners discovered the scheme, Bhai and several family members and business associates fled the country, Bis Now reported. It was later revealed that $5 million of the loan proceeds was allegedly converted to cryptocurrency to help Bhai flee, according to Bis Now, citing a lawsuit against Bhai’s alleged co-conspirator, Di Hao Zhang.
An IBF employee said she found at the office and at Bhai’s private residence bags of shredded documents related to the scheme.
Bhai ultimately returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges. He faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years and fine of up to $250,000, the outlet reported.
In addition to producing a couple of criminal indictments and multiple lawsuits, the case represents a cautionary tale for the commercial real estate industry, which had huge infusions of cash from lenders eager to dole out loans and possibly overlooking fraud in the process.
“The whole point of fraud is that there’s some sort of concealment,” attorney Bonnie Hochman Rothell, of Morris, Manning & Martin, told Bis Now. “With a clever fraudster, it might not be so obvious. Despite really diligent underwriting, a lot of lenders will miss something because they, too, have been defrauded.”
Benefit Street Partners, for its part, said it properly performed its underwriting, including its due diligence.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more Auto Draft New York Sour grapes: Former NYC developer sentenced for fraud in New Zealand New York Real estate brokerage owner pleads guilty in bribery scheme The post Real estate investor pleads guilty to fraud on $149M loan appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Diane Keaton, Ellen DeGeneres, Jeremy Renner and Sofia Richie (Getty)For some celebrities, the fame and fortune isn’t enough. So they flip houses, too.
Stars have been flipping homes as a side hustle for generations, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Between Ellen DeGeneres, Diane Keaton, Jeremy Renner and Sofia Richie, the pool of celebrity flippers is active and seemingly growing.
DeGeneres is a well-known flipper in Hollywood. The comic and television host has renovated and flipped more than 20 homes in the past two decades, Los Angeles Magazine reported. Keaton has also been flipping since the early 2000s, with a particular penchant for Spanish Colonial-style homes, according to Architectural Digest.
Marvel actor Jeremy Renner, who was recently hospitalized following a snow plowing accident in Lake Tahoe, has also been in the flipping game for many years, Bloomberg reported. The “Avengers” star has bought and renovated more than 20 homes, according to the publication.
Sofia Richie and her fiancé Elliot Grainge flipped a Beverly Hills mansion for $21.8 million in June, less than a year after they bought it for $17 million, the Dirt reported.
Celebrities benefit from the caché of their names, which can help with everything from attracting buyers to getting in with top interior designers and architects.
“Once the designer puts in ‘x’ amount of money, it exponentially increases the value of the homes,” Tomer Fridman of Compass told the Reporter. Fridman is the longtime real estate agent to the Kardashian family, also known for their home flipping projects. Kendall Jenner, the supermodel and second-youngest sister in the famous family, jumped into the house flipping game in the latest season of Hulu’s “The Kardashians.”
“As a model, I still don’t have much say in anything creative really. That has brought me to wanting to start this journey of house flipping,” Jenner said in the October episode, according to Yahoo.
As media has evolved away from the over-the-top tabloid coverage of the early aughts, publications have turned to focus on celebrities’ real estate dealings –– in effect, free advertising for star flippers.
“[Look at] Dirt.com, those guys are like TMZ,” Stuart Vetterick, an agent with Hilton & Hyland told the outlet.
The growing prevalence of real estate on social media and in mainstream publications is also boosting the profile of celebrity flipping endeavors, brokers told the outlet. Fridman noted an Architectural Digest feature frequently precedes a listing.
“The minute I see a celebrity on the cover of Architectural Digest [speaking] of what an extraordinary job they did with their home, it’s getting listed within the month,” he said. “It’s so funny. It’s literally the precursor to it getting listed.”
–– Kate Hinsche
The post Here are the celebrities who flip houses as a side hustle appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rapper Meek Mill (Getty)Meek Mill’s Atlanta-area mansion seems to be more nightmare than dream for the 35-year-old rapper.
Mill is looking to sell his eight-bedroom, nine-and-a-half-bathroom mansion in Sandy Springs, even though he says he never lived in it despite having owned it for a couple of years, WSB-TV reported.
Mill posted on Instagram that his realtor, whom he did not name, isn’t selling the property fast enough, so he took to social media to expedite the matter.
He didn’t list a price for the mansion, but he did identify in broad terms who might be interested in purchasing it.
“When somebody get traded to the hawks or falcons come grab this Jawn!” Mill wrote to his 23.3 million followers on Instagram. He also included a video tour of the property, which includes a swimming pool and a combination tennis/basketball court. The luxe home features a home theater, sauna and other modern amenities.
Sandy Springs currently has 44 homes listed for sale, according to Realtor.com, with a median listing price of $1.5 million.
Mill isn’t the first rapper to suffer from buyer’s remorse after purchasing a massive property. Most notably, 50 Cent in 2019 offloaded his enormous estate in Farmington, Connecticut, for $2.9 million. The rapper, whose birth name is Curtis James Jackson, bought the compound at 50 Poplar Hill Drive from Mike Tyson for $4.1 million in 2003. The price Jackson fetched for selling the property was significantly less than the $18.5 million he sought when he first listed it in 2007.
Not all real estate transactions involving rappers end poorly, however.
Lil Wayne in February sold his Allison Island home for a reported $22.6 million, well above the $17 million he paid for the estate in 2018. Still, the award-winning rapper, whose legal name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., fetched less than the $28 million for which he listed.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more South Florida Lil Wayne finds buyer for $28M Miami Beach mansion New York 50 Cent’s Connecticut compound, listed when Lehman Brothers was still in business, finally sells South Florida Rapper Future buys waterfront Miami Beach home for $16M The post Meek Mill looks to sell Atlanta-area mansion appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kyle Chrisley (Getty)Another member of the Chrisley family from reality TV’s “Chrisley Knows Best” is in legal trouble.
Kyle Chrisley, son of self-proclaimed real estate developer Todd Chrisley and stepson to Julie Chrisley, was charged with aggravated assault after allegedly getting into a physical altercation with his boss at a truck rental business in Smyrna, Tennessee, last week, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.
Officials say Kyle Chrisley brandished “a fixed blade” during the altercation. He turned himself in to police and was released on a $3,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
The arrest comes just two months after Todd and Julie Chrisley reported to federal prison for fraud and tax evasion after a federal jury found the couple defrauded community banks of more than $30 million in loans and evaded income taxes for years.
Julie Chrisley was also found guilty of wire fraud and obstruction of justice, Fox 5 reported.
Todd Chrisley is serving a 12-year prison sentence, while Julie Chrisley is serving seven years. Todd is serving his sentence at FPC Pensacola in Florida and Julie is serving her time at FMC Lexington in Kentucky.
Viewers of the USA program, which followed the couple and their five children, questioned the source of the otherwise ordinary family’s wealth. Before the show premiered, People magazine found that Todd filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after several lawsuits, “outrageous spending and spiraling debt” left him with more than $9 million in debt. At the time, his lawyer blamed the bankruptcy on a failed real estate development and repeatedly waved off concerns that the Chrisleys were still living such a lavish lifestyle.
During their most recent trial, prosecutors claimed that, in addition to evading taxes and taking out fraudulent loans, the Chrisleys also used fake bank statements, including making “a fabricated credit report that had been physically cut and taped or glued together” and using it to lease a home in California.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more New York Reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley report to prison Los Angeles Forget reality TV: Scripted shows with real estate agents at center stage New York Ryan Serhant fires back at Bess Freedman, calls legacy brokerages “scared” The post Kyle Chrisley, son of reality star Todd Chrisley, arrested appeared first on The Real Deal.
One Liberty Plaza (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, Brookfield Properties)A different kind of March Madness tipped off a few days earlier than the NCAA tournament, with the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank sending shockwaves through the banking and real estate sectors, with potential far-reaching implications.
While that was no doubt the biggest story of the week, it wasn’t the only story (and we’re not talking about Princeton’s bracket-busting win over Arizona Thursday night).
Unfortunately, some of the other big stories weren’t all that warm and fuzzy, either.
In New York, for example, Brookfield’s One Liberty Plaza office tower saw its value slashed $500 million, with the private equity investor buying back a portion of the office tower for $1 billion. When Brookfield sold a minority stake in the building to Blackstone in 2018, the building was valued at $1.5 billion. The deal is the latest sign of stress for older office buildings, and an acknowledgement from two of the biggest players in the space of just how far values have fallen in the past few years.
Elsewhere, Merchants Bank filed a lawsuit against developer Abraham Leifer, seeking foreclosure on a nine-story apartment conversion project following a string of forbearances at the stalled 19 West 55th Street project.
In South Florida, aging condominium stock and high costs following the deadly Surfside collapse have developers eying condominium terminations. The deals are “incredibly challenging,” according to one developer, but rising insurance premiums, expensive repairs and other costs have put many condo owners in a bind.
As if office buildings weren’t struggling enough, in San Francisco, a window cracked and popped out from the 43rd floor of 555 California Street, sending a torrent of glass shards to the sidewalk below. The incident closed surrounding streets for hours. No one was injured, though the damage could take days to repair.
Not all of the news was bad, of course.
Spring is fast approaching, which means baseball season is around the corner. New York Met Brandon Nimmo put some of his recently-signed $162 million contract toward a home in Westbury, New York. The Mets leadoff man paid $5 million for a five-bedroom ranch-style home near the Old Westbury Golf & Country Club in the Nassau County village.
And while Nimmo found a new home, former major league pitcher Jason Hammel sold the unfinished mansion he was building for $3.7 million, according to the Chicago Tribune. Hammels and his wife, Elissa, lost interest in building the six-bedroom, 6,000-square-foot estate, and sold the property for its asking price. Hammels bought the property two years ago for $1.1 million.
Read more The post March Madness arrives early for real estate appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Downtown Dallas’ residential real estate market is undergoing an office-to-resi glow up.
A series of adaptive-reuse projects are projected to produce about 1,500 residential units in Downtown Dallas over the next two years, the Dallas Morning News reported. Rather than adding to the development of new buildings, investment firms and developers are looking to reshape older ones to fill a void in the central business district’s residential scene.
The majority of structures that make up Dallas’ skyline were built in the 1980s, and at one point were strictly devoted to office use. Now, firms such as Woods Capital are gradually transforming office towers into residential high rises, even while live tenants occupy the building.
Office-to-resi plans will help accommodate the steady influx of new inhabitants the city is experiencing, Woods Capital CEO Jonas Woods said.
“The downtown population in the Main Street District will increase from nearly 6,000 to 8,000 residents, and the average household income will go from $81,000 to $100,000,” Woods told the outlet.
Woods, which is at the helm of various reuse projects, bought the Santander Tower in 2013. He initially wanted to use it for strictly commercial purposes, making a number of renovations that nearly doubled rents. Woods’ mentality completely shifted when the Guild hotel asked to lease the top two floors of the building.
Since then, he’s added 291 residences to the Santander Tower and recently acquired Bryan Tower and Comerica Bank Tower with similar strategies in mind, the outlet said.
Firms such as Dallas-based Todd Interests are embarking on a similar path by adapting the Renaissance Tower and Energy Plaza. These conversions could further ignite economic growth in downtown and necessitate the need for more K-12 schools in the district.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read more Dallas Alpine Start Development to add resi village in Grand Prairie Dallas DFW investors buy Fort Worth office for resi conversion Dallas CBRE’s Dallas headquarters at a standstill The post Office-to-resi bringing 1,500 homes to Dallas appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kittle Property’s Jeffrey Kittle (AHF Live, Getty)Kittle Property Group has set its sights on Houston with plans for two more apartment complexes.
The Indianapolis-based developer is planning apartment complexes called Juniper Landing, in Texas City, and Summerdale, in Northwest Houston.
Juniper Landing, located at 7720 Emmett F. Lowry Expressway, will be the first to break ground, with construction scheduled to start in August, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. It’s estimated to cost $35 million and will span 276,000 square feet. Consisting of six apartment buildings, it will house 228 units costing about $153,500 per unit. The development is estimated to be completed by September 2024, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, though estimates are subject to change.
The second complex, Summerdale, will be situated at the junction of West Gulf Bank and West Montgomery Road and will cost an estimated $37.5 million and span 353,000 square feet parallel to the affordable housing complex Garden City Apartments. The expansive development will include 272 units across eight buildings, costing nearly $138,000 per unit, complete with a clubhouse and nine garage buildings.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall, with a full buildout estimated for October 2024.
Leading the design element of both projects is Mark Hobson, Kittle Property’s in-house architect. Carlie Gast, Kittle Property’s Texas development director, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The prolific firm recently expanded its operations in Texas, where it has 12 apartment complexes. Its $31 million Northwind Apartments in Northeast Austin is two miles from Samsung’s semiconductor facility. Kittle Property has identified Houston as a key growth market with these projects being its second foray into the Bayou City. Kittle Property previously developed the income-restricted Vireo Apartments in Northeast Houston’s Greenwood Park suburb.
Kittle’s decision to build dual apartment complexes highlights the company’s confidence in the Greater Houston real estate market. Its Juniper Landing complex won’t be the only resi project landing in Texas City. Houston-based homebuilder Chesmar Homes announced in December the buildout of Beacon Point at Lago Mar, a 756-home mixed-use neighborhood in the deepwater port city. The community is expected to start construction this summer on the single-family community.
Read more Austin Huge apartment complex coming to Austin Samsung area Houston Wu Properties buys two shopping centers amid hot leasing market Houston Pelican plans more luxury condos in Houston The post Kittle plans two complexes in Houston metro appeared first on The Real Deal.
300 S. Riverside Plaza in Chicago with CBRE’s Bill Sheehy and Lisa Konieczka (Loopnet, CBRE)Evolent Health no longer wants to be one of the largest office tenants in a West Loop building.
The health care consulting firm tacked on 50,000 square feet to its sublease listing at 300 South Riverside Plaza, upping the total it has put on the secondary market to 122,000 as the company cut nearly 460 jobs, Crain’s reported. With the demand for office space decreasing, Evolent is looking to maintain just about 20,000 square feet at the 23-story structure.
The move comes a little over three years after the company, which provides services for health care providers, nearly doubled its occupancy in the building’s third, fourth and seventh floors.
CBRE brokers Bill Sheehy and Lisa Konieczka are marketing the sublease space. Leases for the fourth and seventh floors run through March 2031, and the third floor lease ends in June 2025.
Evolent has already had some success finding tenants for the building, landing a deal with public relations firm Cision for about 25,000 square feet. Yet a struggling commercial real estate market, plagued by increased remote workers, rising interest rates and other economic uncertainties, is making it difficult for Evolent and many others to fill vacancies.
As of last week, a total of 7.6 million square feet of downtown office space is available to sublease, a record high and 1.6 million more than the previous year. The city’s largest sublease listing came last month when Publicis Groupe put 350,000 square feet up for rent at 35 West Wacker Drive. Other big subleases have been offered in recent months by Tyson Foods, which is looking for a subtenant to take over 233,000 square feet in another West Loop building at 400 South Jefferson Street, as well as marketing software firm ActiveCampaign, which listed its entire office of 101,000 square feet at 1 North Dearborn Street in the Loop last year on the secondary market.
Only the most premium space is appealing to tenants, who have hopes that the amenities in high-end buildings will lure workers back to the office.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read more Chicago Downtown Chicago office vacancy creeps to new all-time high Chicago Downtown Chicago office vacancy sets record with new development finishes Chicago Twenty Lake to auction off empty Lincolnshire office building The post Evolent adds to West Loop sublease listing appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kyle Kramm and downtown Seguin (SeguinTexas.gov)A Central Texas town wants to capitalize on its small-town charm while reaping the benefits of its location in an emerging megaregion between Austin and San Antonio.
Seguin, about 45 minutes east of San Antonio and an hour south of Austin, is looking to take advantage of opportunities stemming from explosive growth in those metros, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. Seguin’s City Council aims to put a plan in place by June to revitalize its downtown.
Unoccupied and underutilized spaces on the upper floors of its downtown buildings are wasted. The city’s convention and visitors bureau has hired experts to cultivate a strategic plan, capitalizing on incoming growth without causing existing businesses to relocate.
Fort Worth-based engineering, planning and consulting firm Freese and Nichols, Austin-based economic analysis and public policy strategist TXP, and Dallas-based urban planner Ash+Lime, are tasked with rethinking Seguin’s downtown. It wasn’t reported how much they will be paid or how much the city wants to spend on the project ultimately.
Seguin, with a population of about 30,000, is amid the emerging megaregion of Austin and San Antonio. Economic development arms in those two cities, Greater:SATX and Opportunity Austin, recently teamed up to bring more development to the region, KENS reported. Seguin itself landed a $75 million investment from Japan-based Maruichi Stainless Tube Company, which started construction on a manufacturing plant in February, the SABJ reported.
Seguin also recently adopted the International Building Code, where new and existing buildings are handled with the same approach. The ultimate goal is to incorporate new structures while maximizing the use of older ones in order to maintain its historical, old-town feel.
Downtown Seguin’s vacant upper-floors could be used for commercial and residential purposes, Main Street and Convention & Visitors Bureau director Kyle Kramm told the outlet.
“It’s definitely in a critical time for us,” Kramm told the outlet. “We’re seeing dramatic growth, and we don’t want our downtown district to be lost by that growth. This plan will help us get ready for that.”
—Quinn Donoghue
Read more Texas Periscope Capital bets long on $32.7M Seguin project Texas High-end single-family rental community eyed on outskirts of San Antonio Texas Port San Antonio office highrise needs architect The post Central Texas town needs facelift appeared first on The Real Deal.
Z&L Properties’ Zhang Li with 3055 Patrick Henry Drive (Loopnet, Z&L Properties, Getty)Embattled Z&L Properties is looking to offload a chunk of Bay Area land as it faces legal disputes and criminal accusations.
The Foster City-based developer has listed a 3.8-acre site at 3055 Patrick Henry Drive in Santa Clara that could be redeveloped with 345-430 apartment units, according to a marketing brochure by CBRE. Currently on the site is a two-story, 70,500 square foot property. The listing price is not publicly available, however property records show the site is valued at $31 million.
The property is located within the Patrick Henry Drive Specific Plan, which is designed to provide areas for the construction of mixed-use projects and multifamily developments. The planning area encompasses approximately 74 acres of land bounded by Calabazas Creek, Mission Community College, the Great America Parkway and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, according to Santa Clara’s website.
The Santa Clara site is just the latest example of Z&L offloading assets in the BayArea. Its Silvery Towers development, a pair of luxury condo towers in San Jose, is on the market and seeking $300 million. That shakes out to roughly $537,000 per unit when excluding the 82 homes that have already been sold in the project’s West tower, the only one open.
The San Jose and Santa Clara listings come as Zhang Li, Z&L’s president, was arrested late last year on bribery charges connected to a high-profile corruption case involving former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammad Nuru.
Li is accused of participating in a kickback scheme between 2015 and 2020 in order to advance a 139-unit residential project in San Francisco.
The developer is also accused separately of failing to restore a historic church where two residential towers are planned to be built. Frustrated San Jose officials are looking into pursuing legal action against Z&L properties, which they reiterated at an Silicon Valley Business Journal event this week.
Read more San Francisco China-based Z&L to sell site for housing towers in San Jose San Francisco Z&L Properties’ neglect of church in San Jose fits company profile The post Z&L Properties looking to offload another Silicon Valley property appeared first on The Real Deal.
Sonoma Mayor Sandra Lowe and Los Altos Hills Mayor Linda Swan with Sonoma City Hall and Los Altos Hills City Hall (City of Sonoma, The Town of Los Altos Hills, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons, Google Maps)Besides being in the Bay Area, Sonoma and the town of Los Altos Hills have another thing in common: they both scoff at builder’s remedy.
The city and town, deemed out of compliance for their state-required homebuilding plans, have refused to accept developers’ applications under the builder’s remedy, a legal loophole that strips local zoning control from cities not compliant with California housing law, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
Sonoma, a Wine Country city 30 miles north of San Francisco, and Los Altos Hills, an affluent unincorporated town in Silicon Valley, insist they are following the law.
They both adopted their state-mandated housing elements — or plans for how much housing they intend to build over the next eight years — by Jan. 31, they say.
Although both did so without state approval, state law keeps them in compliance, they’re claiming.
The Department of Housing and Community development disagrees.
David Zisser, who leads the housing department accountability unit, says jurisdictions must have a housing element that has been approved by the state. “Until they have that, the jurisdiction is out of compliance,” he said.
Builder’s remedy, an untested provision of the three-decades old Housing Accountability Act, is being used by a growing number of developers across the state. The provision allows developers automatic approval if their projects designate 20 percent of their units for affordable housing or if the projects are 100-percent moderate income housing.
This month, 242 jurisdictions across the state were subject to the legal strategy because they hadn’t adopted a state-certified housing element spelling out where future housing can be built.
The city of Huntington Beach has been embroiled in a legal kerfuffle with the state over a decision to ban builder’s remedy and other projects.
So far, neither Sonoma and Los Altos Hills have accepted the builder’s remedy applications they have received since Feb. 1. Both could be open to legal challenges from the state.
As of this week, Los Altos Hills has declined to begin processing a pair of applications for two identical 44-unit apartment buildings on twin lots on the south side of town, according to Forrest Linebarger, who submitted both applications at the beginning of February.
Linebarger, calling the city’s Housing Element “a thrown-together mess,” says he doesn’t buy the town’s claim of compliance.
Sonoma, for its part, outright rejected a pre-application for a 64-unit project submitted under the builder’s remedy Feb. 6, according to the Business Times.
Sarah Tracy, a Sonoma spokeswoman, pointed to a portion of state housing element law that gives cities the right to adopt a housing element that has been rejected by state housing officials, as long as the city includes its rationale for believing it should have been approved.
“We believe we are compliant,” Tracy said, adding Sonoma expects to receive final feedback on its draft from the state in April. “We didn’t just push something through that didn’t have any hope of getting approval.”
Sonja Trauss, executive director of the San Francisco-based nonprofit Yes In My Backyard, which sued a dozen Bay Area cities to enforce housing element law, said the section of state law Sonoma is invoking is meant to protect cities from bad-faith behavior by the state, not justify circumventing state housing law.
Cities that self-certify are essentially sending a message to developers, she said: don’t submit builder’s remedy projects here.
As of this week, the state had deemed eight Bay Area cities in compliance with the law: Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, San Francisco, San Leandro, San Ramon, Sebastopol and the city of Alameda.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more San Francisco Builder’s remedy filings spread to Mountain View New York Builder’s justice: How a legal loophole could reshape California Los Angeles State sues Huntington Beach for ban on builder’s remedy and ADU housing The post Two Bay Area say no to builder’s remedy applications appeared first on The Real Deal.
Raj and Elizabeth Cardillo-Beri along with 114 Quayside Drive in Jupiter (Getty, Google Maps, Instagram)A former beauty queen and her beverage mogul husband sold their newly completed waterfront Admirals Cove mansion in Jupiter for $9.9 million, following civil fraud charges.
Records show Beri Investments 114 Quayside LLC, a Florida entity managed by Elizabeth Beri, sold the house at 114 Quayside Drive to Steven and Karen Rooney. Steven Rooney is the owner of Precision Pipeline, an Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based company that builds oil and gas pipelines.
Rob Thomson of Waterfront Properties and Club Communities represented both the buyers and the seller in the deal.
Beri, formerly Elizabeth Cardillo, was Miss Pennsylvania 2015. The beauty queen married Raj Beri in Las Vegas in 2019, Wedding Style Magazine reported.
Raj Beri is the founder of Sway Energy Corporation, formerly Elegance Brands. The Los Angeles-based company produces Sway, an energy drink, and VOCO, a canned vodka cocktail.
The Securities and Exchange Commission slapped Raj Beri with fraud charges in September. The agency alleged that he helped fraudulently promote securities offerings, including those of Venice, California-based cannabis company High Times Holdings, according to a press release.
In a settlement with the SEC, Beri agreed to a 10-year ban from serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company. He and his company and other conspirators identified by the SEC are paying a combined $2.5 million fine in the settlement, according to the SEC press release.
Records show the Beris bought the waterfront 0.5-acre Admirals Cove home property for $2.4 million in 2020. They completed construction of the 7,800-square-foot, five-bedroom, six-bathroom house last year, property records show. The home also includes three half-bathrooms, an elevator, a 2,000-bottle wine room, a pool and a private dock.
Northern Palm Beach County private club communities have thrived on the luxury market since the pandemic triggered a real estate boom in South Florida. Boating oriented Admirals Cove has particularly attracted big-name buyers and titans of industry.
Donald Trump, Jr. and his now-fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle bought a waterfront mansion in Admirals Cove for $9.7 million in 2021.
In December, retired aviation chief Sonny Berry sold his waterfront Admirals Cove home for $11 million. In October, a real estate services CEO bought a waterfront house for $8.5 million. Ronald Clarke, the billionaire CEO of FleetCor bought a second waterfront mansion in the community for $15.7 million in September.
The post Miss Pennsylvania and beverage mogul sell Admirals Cove home for $10M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Former Signature Bank CEO Joseph DePaolo (Getty, Signature Bank)Signature Bank’s real estate lending didn’t lead to its failure, but its book of loans may be a cause for concern as the FDIC looks to sell the shuttered institution.
Signature was one of the largest lenders to rent-stabilized buildings, which have seen their values drop since New York state lawmakers passed reforms in 2019 limiting rent increases. The legislation drastically reduced the amount of money that lenders could make from these loans — and increased the risk of delinquency.
“Loans that were taken out through the end of 2018 were at peak valuations. Values are down 25 to 55 percent since then,” said Michael Weiser, president of GFI Realty Services, a brokerage that represents many landlords who borrowed from Signature.
“I’d venture to say there are a fair amount of problems there,” he added.
After the rent law’s overhaul, Signature executives downplayed its effect on their portfolio. But in the coming months, the impacts could start to hit home.
A typical five-year loan made in 2018 will mature this year, meaning many of Signature’s customers who borrowed against properties at peak value will be forced to refinance this year at lower values and much higher interest rates.
Signature was the third largest commercial real estate lender in New York City. About 46 percent of its commercial real estate loans went to rent-stabilized multifamily, according to data analysis by Maverick Real Estate Partners.
Many of these apartment loans were spread across Manhattan and the outer boroughs. Some went to generational families like Abraham Fruchthandler’s FBE Limited and Douglas Eisenberg’s A&E Real Estate Holdings.
But the bank also didn’t shy away from lending to more controversial landlords, such as Steve Croman and Raphael Toledano, who faced allegations of attempting to harass tenants out of rent-stabilized apartments to convert the units to market-rate.
It was also an active lender to Moshe Piller, who consistently landed on the city’s worst landlord watchlist.
Signature also lent to under-the-radar landlords like Sugar Hill Capital Partners, an investment firm founded in 2009 by David Schwartz and Alex Friedman that became one of the largest owners of rent-stabilized properties in Northern Manhattan.
Sugar Hill was a repeat borrower with Signature, sources told The Real Deal. In November, the bank initiated a foreclosure on a $16 million mortgage on Sugar Hill’s 54-unit building at 4300 Broadway in Washington Heights, which the landlord secured in 2016.
Signature’s 2022 filings with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, however, hardly show any distress. Only 0.42 percent of its $19.5 billion in multifamily loans were marked as past due.
The bank was heavily concentrated in multifamily lending, but about 39 percent of its loans went to other commercial real estate, including office. The bank continued to lend to office owners even as other lenders pulled back because of the sector’s pandemic troubles.
Late last year, Signature provided a $155 million loan to Sage Realty and The Travelers Companies to refinance an office building at 777 Third Avenue. Vacancy rates have soared in the corridor.
In 2019, the bank also provided a series of loans totaling about $115 million to the 34-story McGraw Hill building at 330 West 42nd Street. At the time, McGraw Hill, the anchor tenant, had already said it would move out. Last April, Signature lent another $25 million on the property. The owners are now seeking to convert it to residential. Newmark put the loan up for sale this year, a possible sign of distress.
Read more New York Signature Bank: Collections down 50 percent in rent-stabilized apartments New York Watch: Bank run brings down top multifamily lender Signature Bank National NY multifamily fears bank contagion The FDIC earlier this week began the process for selling off Signature, making its data available for potential bidders to do due diligence.
The process may take its cues from Silicon Valley Bank, seized just before Signature. Regulators hired investment bank Piper Sandler to find a buyer for the California institution. Private equity firms Apollo Global Management, Ares Management, Blackstone, Carlyle Group and KKR have shown interest in buying SVB’s assets.
Christopher Whalen, chairman of Whalen Global Advisors and a consultant to banks and financial institutions, said the FDIC is going to look to sell Signature Bank whole, not piece by piece.
“Someone will buy it,” said Whalen. “Ultimately, the FDIC doesn’t want a loss. That is their main concern.”
The post Signature Bank’s real estate loans under scrutiny appeared first on The Real Deal.
Suzanne Gignilliat and 1956 N Orchard Street (Suzanne Gignilliat, Google Maps)Chicago based-brokerage @properties has led the way for another high-end sale, this time a $12.5 million Lincoln Park mansion that landed a buyer in a jif.
Listing agent Suzanne Gignilliat scored a contingent deal for the seven-bedroom, 11,000-square-foot house at 1956 N. Orchard St., which was on the market for just 22 days, reported Crain’s.
Although the exact details haven’t been confirmed, it would be just the third single-family home sale for $12 million or more over the past seven years, assuming the final price ends up at or within $500,000 of the listing price.
The property’s short life on the market indicates that wealthy buyers have their eyes peeled for high-end residential investments. Chicago had a record-high six properties sold at the $12.5 million threshold in 2022, a number that includes condominiums.
The home is owned by an Ohio-based legal entity whose beneficiary’s identity is unclear, but the tax bill is sent to a post office box in New Bremen, Ohio under the name Jennifer Prewitt.
The Orchard Street estate, built in 2001, has a decked out interior, featuring a curvy, sculptural staircase, carved-stone fireplaces, two kitchen islands and a spacious living room on the third floor that opens onto a terrace.
The exterior includes an expansive deck, pergolas, sports areas, a large outdoor fireplace, and an additional deck above the garage, the outlet said.
In Lincoln Park, @properties has racked up several upper high-end listings this year. Most recently, Emily Sachs Wong, who’s one of the top selling brokers in Chicago, listed a triple-lot, Lincoln Park estate for $10.75 million a little more than a week ago.
That home, on North Kenmore Avenue, was first built in 1885 and spans 13,500 square feet with 10 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. It has undergone major renovations by its current owners and the sellers, husband and wife Shea Soucie and Chris Henger.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read more Chicago Triple-lot Lincoln Park mansion hits market at $10.8M Chicago Three-lot Lincoln Park mansion seeks more than $12M Chicago Lincoln Park home hits the market at $4.9M, but there’s a catch The post Lincoln Park mansion listed for $12.5M scores buyer fast appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Babba Joshua Yesharim, David and Leila Centner and 3442 and 3490 Northwest Second Avenue in Wynwood (Google Maps)The controversial owners of Centner Academy in Miami are assembling land in Wynwood Norte, The Real Deal has learned.
Entities tied to David and Leila Centner acquired the adjacent parcels at 3442 and 3490 Northwest Second Avenue for $4.7 million in January, records show. The lots total 0.2 acres and include a 7,660-square-foot building the Centners have been using as storage for the school.
They also own the 0.8-acre property at 3465 Northwest Second Avenue. State records show attorney Jamie Mandel, who represents the Centners on their real estate deals, now manages the company that owns the 12,000-square-foot school building. A deed transfer has not been recorded. Mandel did not respond to a request for comment.
Real estate investor Babba Joshua Yesharim’s BHBH LLC sold the properties at 3442 and 3490 Northwest Second Avenue. Yesharim’s company paid just $275,000 for the lots in 2011, marking a 16-fold price increase in 12 years.
Yesharim said his parcels were on the market for $5.5 million, and that the Centners canceled their contract to buy the lots. After receiving offers from other buyers, he approached the Centners to see if they were still interested, and they negotiated the latest deal.
Virgilio FernandezVirgilio Fernandez of Colliers South Florida represented Yesharim. Re/Max agent Andrea Dalessio represented the Centners. Dalessio did not respond to requests for comment.
Fernandez said the city’s upzoning of the Wynwood Norte district in 2021 has spurred interest in the area. The zoning overhaul was meant to encourage affordable housing development, preserve the area’s character, and create economic opportunities for small businesses and residents. The 140-acre district extends from Northeast and Northwest 29th Street to 36th Street and between North Miami Avenue and Northwest Seventh Avenue.
Fernandez also represented Yesharim on his $3.5 million sale last year of 3501 Northwest Second Avenue and the adjacent lot at 187 Northwest 35th Street. Yesharim said the Centners were interested in buying those parcels, but the buyer, City Electric Supply Wynwood, exercised its option as a tenant to purchase the properties.
Fernandez said he’s seeing “tremendous appetite” from buyers in Wynwood Norte “despite some headwinds in the market,” referring to a number of factors affecting the market slowdown, including high mortgage rates, economic uncertainty and rising insurance and construction costs. Fernandez is involved in a nearly $5 million deal nearby that’s set to close later this month, he said.
The Centners will likely use their properties to expand their Centner Academy school, which has locations at 4136 North Miami Avenue, near the Miami Design District, and at 1911 Northeast Miami Court.
Yesharim said the Centners are also building an apartment project down the street from the Wynwood Norte assemblage, just south of Roberto Clemente Park. Property records show a company managed by Coral Gables-based ABH Developer Group paid about $7.5 million for the land at 3311 and 3327 Northwest Second Avenue and 182 Northwest 34th Street. ABH Developer Group did not respond to a request for comment.
The Centners made headlines in 2020 when the school threatened to fire teachers if they received the Covid-19 vaccine before the end of the school year. The school also asked students who received the vaccine to quarantine for 30 days, but then walked back on the decision, according to Local 10.
In October, the couple sold a nearly 1-acre development site on the southwest corner of Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 34th Street in Edgewater to Amit Kort and his investment partners for $16.5 million. In 2018, the Centners paid $11.5 million for the properties, which are in an Opportunity Zone.
The post Centner Academy owners assemble land in Wynwood appeared first on The Real Deal.
Renderings of 800 W Lake Street in Chicago (Intercontinental Real Estates Corporations)A revamped plan and new development team is in place for a long-awaited mixed-use project at 800 West Lake Street in Fulton Market — with apartments now being eyed instead of a hotel.
Development firms Ascend Real Estate and Intercontinental Real Estate Group are joining forces with GREC Architects for a taller plan than the original proposal for the site made in 2020, reported Chicago YIMBY.
It’s unclear what prompted the new development team to enter the revised plan after the firms behind the initial pitch, North Park Ventures and MF Development, pursued a 476-room hotel on the site.
Now, the property is slated to become at least 349 apartments and rise 33 stories, an increase of a dozen floors from the previous hotel plan.
It’s at least the second Fulton Market project to pivot in recent months from a hotel plan to a purely residential apartment tower, as uncertainty continues to plague hotel markets in large northern cities where the sector is more dependent on business travel than leisure. In September, New York-based developers Mill Hill Capital and Azur Cos. switched up the plans for 1234 West Randolph Street from a hotel to a residential project poised to rise 470 feet and 42 stories high.
Ascend’s and Intercontinental’s building will measure 390 feet tall, which is 125 feet taller than the original rendering. It will have a five-story podium as the base, set back enough from the sidewalk for a small plaza on Halsted Street.
The ground floor will consist of 3,500 square feet of retail space, a residential lobby, and access to the 106-vehicle parking garage. The seventh floor will feature various amenities and a spacious outdoor deck to cap off the podium where the thinner part of the structure will begin its rise.
The remaining 26 floors will contain the 349 residential units. Floorplans are expected to range from studio to 2-bedroom options.
The building at 800 W. Lake will be the newest addition to the many high rises that have sprouted in the rapidly-growing Fulton Market. Among them, Miami-based developer Crescent Heights is pursuing a 600-foot-tall apartment tower on a 1.7-acre site at 420 North May Street.
– Quinn Donoghue
Read more Chicago Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities eyeing $100M Fulton Market development site deal Chicago Crescent Heights pays $35M for Fulton Market development site Chicago Fulton Market lab development in flux The post Plans ramp up for 800 W Lake appeared first on The Real Deal.
Retired RadioShack CEO Len Roberts with 4400 Overton Crest Street (Getty, Google Maps)A Fort Worth business icon is parting ways with his opulent estate.
Retired RadioShack CEO Len Roberts is auctioning off his 16,000-square-foot mansion nearly 20 years after the construction of the home was completed, the Dallas Morning News reported. The auction is scheduled for April 21-23, and the starting bid will be $2.5 million.
Roberts, 74, originally listed the home for $8.9 million, but he said it didn’t reach the right market. Nonetheless, he’s at peace with not getting a return on his investment, as Roberts and his wife are ready to move onto a simplified life with a scaled-down property, the outlet reported.
The five-bedroom, 10-bathroom estate, located 4400 Overton Crest Street near Texas Christian University, was last valued at $3.5 million by the Tarrant Appraisal District. Insurance firm AIG quoted a replacement value of $21 million.
Roberts has invested $12 million in the property throughout the years. It took five years to finish building, from 1999 to 2004, with architect Don Wheaton at the helm of design and Sandra Sampson Interiors leading the interior work.
The builder was Rick Williams, whom Roberts gave an “unlimited budget” for the project. “And somehow, he found a way to exceed it,” Roberts told the outlet.
The house is decked out with crystal chandeliers, iron doors, an elevator that services all three floors and a pool with a clubhouse. It’s encircled by a 12-foot wrought-iron gate and 10-foot wrought-iron fence, and has open views of downtown Fort Worth and TCU’s football stadium, the outlet said.
Perhaps the most lavish feature is the 12-seat movie theater modeled after the storied Marbro Theatre in Chicago – Roberts’ home city.
“I will tell you this modestly, because as a CEO, of course, I’ve been into many, many homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area; like many big homes,” Roberts told the outlet. “I’ve not seen a home theater like ours.”
Roberts retired in 2005 and has since moved into the Mira Vista neighborhood.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read more Dallas Luxury mansion listed as most expensive home in Dallas New York Luxury townhouses planned for Fort Worth site of unsolved murders Dallas In Dallas-Fort Worth, house flipping is slipping The post Former RadioShack CEO auctions mansion appeared first on The Real Deal.
350 East 52nd Street (Google Maps, Getty)William Koeppel on Thursday scored a victory in a 12-year, class-action lawsuit brought by his tenants in Turtle Bay. It is still unclear whether he will ultimately be able to hold onto the rental property, but some real estate attorneys called the ruling significant for landlords.
The state’s highest court ruled that rent overcharges at 350 East 52nd Street should be calculated on an apartment-by-apartment basis, and be based on whatever the rent was on October 14, 2007 — as long as records exist of the rent at the time.
Lower courts had ruled that, because of fraud allegations against the landlord, the rent overcharges in the 2011 lawsuit should be calculated using a “default formula,” which relies on the lowest stabilized rent recorded for comparable apartments, rather than a four-year lookback.
The distinction might seem wonky, but the difference is dollars owed to tenants can be substantial.
Koeppel’s attorney, Jeffrey Turkel, said the decision affirms a previous court ruling that rent owed to tenants in overcharge cases predating the 2019 rent law must be calculated based on a four-year lookback unless the landlord schemed to illegally deregulate units.
The New York Court of Appeals has held that landlords are not allowed to deregulate units while receiving the J-51 property tax break, but that act by itself “generally” does not constitute willful fraud.
Turkel also said the decision showed that courts cannot consider conduct that takes place after the base rent date — in this case Oct. 14, 2007 — when determining if fraud occurred. This read on the decision is a significant win for landlords, who have been watching the case closely.
The Rent Stabilization Association and the Community Housing Improvement Program had filed an amicus brief in the case, calling for a reversal of the lower court’s decision and a clarification on how rent overcharges should be calculated in certain cases.
“This victory will help rectify the indemnity owed to me on the building including legal fees, lost rents, and the overall devaluation of the property,” Koeppel said in a statement. “The court’s groundbreaking ruling will reset the rental industry and allow landlords to collect a fair rent and invest those funds into building upgrades and services.”
Nativ Winiarsky, a partner at Kucker Marino Winiarsky & Bittens, called the ruling a “game changer” for potentially hundreds of cases in the city. An attorney for the tenants, conversely, said he does not believe the decision answers the questions about when and how fraud allegations come into play.
For Koeppel, his win is tempered by the fact that he is still facing foreclosure and is fighting to keep control of the property through a ground lease.
Koeppel filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2022, citing the foreclosure proceedings and the looming payout to tenants. He allegedly owes his lender $45 million, stemming from a $32.1 million mortgage.
Koeppel blames his mother, Roberta Koeppel, for the rent overcharges at the East 52nd Street property and has argued that she should be on the hook for any payments to tenants. He and his mother are in a long-standing feud; in its latest chapter, he is suing to remove her and his sister as trustees overseeing a portfolio of 13 buildings.
Representatives for Koeppel argue that Thursday’s decision should play in the landlord’s favor in the bankruptcy proceedings. But the property’s ground lessor, 939 First Avenue LLC, an entity tied to Solil Management, argues in bankruptcy filings that Koeppel is in violation of the ground lease terms on multiple fronts, including the overcharge case and allowing a “prostitution ring” to operate out of the building.
Ronald Languedoc, the tenants’ attorney, said he was heartened that the New York Court of Appeals decision was fairly narrow. Contrary to Turkel’s view, he said the high court did not definitively weigh in on whether conduct after the base-rent date could be considered when determining if a deregulation scheme occurred.
He also pointed to the court’s assertion that willful fraud is “generally” not applicable in J-51 overcharge cases. He sees wiggle room in the phrasing.
“They used the term generally,” he said, “and I think that is an important word.”
The case was remanded to state Supreme Court, but it may ultimately be up to the bankruptcy court to work out the overcharge amounts.
Read more New York Stuy Town tenants score major win to keep apartments stabilized New York Another J-51 lawsuit has been granted class action status New York Landlord fears his mother gifted him $50M tax liability The post Embattled landlord wins rent overcharge case appeared first on The Real Deal.
Donald Trump and Vornado’s Steven Roth with 555 California Street, San Francisco (Getty, Loopnet)It may take days to fix broken windows in a San Francisco skyscraper that sent glass showering across the Financial District.
City building inspectors said repairing the broken windows could take days as workers wait out the blustery winds that may have caused the glass to tumble Tuesday from the 43rd floor at 555 California Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The glass for the two damaged windows, one of which shattered entirely, will be replaced in the coming days when the wind dies down, building inspection officials said.
The building engineer did not respond to inquiries about what caused the windows to crack and shatter. But a representative from the city’s Fire Department, which helped secure the scene after the glass fell, suspected it was weather-related. No injuries were reported.
A shelter-in-place order was issued to the city’s fourth tallest building owned by Vornado Realty Trust and The Trump Organization. The order was lifted three hours later.
The 1.35 million-square-foot building, once known as Bank of America Center, was built in 1969. In a short video tweeted during the incident, a white pane somersaulted from the upper stories hundreds of feet to the streets below.
The building, home to tenants including Bank of America, McKinsey & Co. and Microsoft, is widely regarded as one of San Francisco’s best office buildings, according to the Business Times.
Vornado reported in regulatory filings last month that the building was 99 percent leased.
Even so, the property made headlines last month as it was placed on a loan servicer watchlist — an indication of potential challenges to a borrower’s ability to stay current on a loan. As of late February, Vornado and Trump, which owns 30 percent of the property, were current on 555 California’s $1.2 billion mortgage.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more San Francisco Shower of glass rains down from 52-story tower in San Francisco San Francisco Vornado, Trump Org on loan watchlist for SF office tower New York What tenants pay at Vornado and Trump’s 555 California Street The post Repair job for skyscraper window in SF could take days appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bilzin Sumberg’s Carter McDowell, Mast Capital’s Camilo Miguel Jr., Bilzin Sumberg’s Anthony De Yurre, Karsen & Co’s Arden Karson, Wheelock Street Capital’s Victor Ballestas (Linkedin, Bilzin Sumberg, Karsen & Co, Getty)Developer Victor Ballestas recounted his experience with condo/co-op terminations of aging properties. His firm, Integra Investments, has been successful on just one since its inception in the late 2000s.
“We’ve made offers on 20, taken 10 through the contract stage, and we haven’t been able to close on any,” he said Thursday at the fourth annual Bilzin Sumberg Development Conference in Miami. Ballestas spoke on a panel about the “aging condo conundrum” alongside Mast Capital developer Camilo Miguel Jr., broker and developer Arden Karson, attorney Anthony De Yurre of Bilzin and moderator and attorney Carter McDowell, also with Bilzin.
Condo terminations aren’t new, but the deadly condo collapse in Surfside in June 2021 put attention on older condo communities. And during the pandemic, when the real estate market was hot, it became more difficult for developers and condo owners to reach agreements on price.
“Everyone thought their $500,000 condo was worth $2 million,” Ballestas said. “It’s been really hard to get to a bid-ask price.”
Miguel, CEO of Coconut Grove-based Mast Capital, called the deals “incredibly challenging,” given that they can be held up if 5 percent of owners block the deals. Florida law requires 95 percent of owners plus 1 to terminate a condo or co-op association.
In many cases, especially since the collapse of Champlain Towers South, associations and unit owners are dealing with costly repairs, as well as rising insurance premiums and other inflationary cost increases. Many owners in the most vulnerable buildings are on fixed incomes and can’t afford such bills, creating a “perfect storm” McDowell said.
“There’s a multitude of things going to put pressure on these unit owners,” Miguel said. “The question always asked by unit owners is, ‘Where am I going to go?’”
McDowell pointed to expensive special assessments that owners face, as well as deadlines to comply with new state law requiring associations to complete financial reserve studies, fund their reserves, and make necessary repairs to complete the required building recertification.
“This ranges across the whole economic gamut,” he said, including the least expensive condos whose owners are unable to fund expensive repairs. “Some of these things are literally going to put people on the street. … I think there is going to be a real affordability crisis.”
Developers use a variety of approaches for buyouts. Ballestas compared Mast Capital’s strategy to something more akin to a “hostile takeover.”
“Once you start buying units and you start taking that risk, you really have a seat at the table,” Ballestas said.
Miguel countered. His acquisition of the property at 5333 Collins Avenue, an oceanfront building that is being redeveloped into a boutique luxury condo project called the Perigon, took about three years, he said.
“Contrary to what Victor [Ballestas] said, you have to play nice.” Otherwise, “you’re going to create a lot of enemies.”
In some cases, buyouts will pit developers targeting the same building against each other. McDowell, without naming the specific property, said his client ended up in a joint venture with another developer on a buyout in Bal Harbour. He was likely referring to Related Group and Two Roads Development’s roughly $130 million buyout of the former Carlton Terrace property. Related, Two Roads and Rockpoint Group are developing the luxury condominium Rivage Bal Harbour on the site.
In other situations, residential brokers will approach potential sellers one by one, Karson said. Or, commercial brokers will be hired by an association to solicit bids from developers.
No one size fits all, the panelists said. And nearly all cases will have owners “who really don’t want to sell,” McDowell said.
“It’s a great market to sell into. It’s a lousy market to buy back into,” he added. “How do we address those folks?”
The post South Florida’s aging condo stock, high costs and hungry developers create a “perfect storm” appeared first on The Real Deal.
Pelican Builders’ Derek Darnell with rendering of 2419 Mimosa Drive (LinkedIn, Pelican Builders, Getty)A luxury condo highrise is coming to the upscale River Oaks neighborhood in Houston.
Pelican Builders is at the helm of the Lexington, an eight-story building with 40 units ranging from 2,700 to 4,000 square feet priced at around $1.6 million. The penthouses are expected to go for $4 million, the Houston Business Journal reported. The Lexington, located at 2419 Mimosa Drive, is expected to open next year.
The Houston-based developer opened a sales office in the building, beginning the process of luring tenants. The design for the complex, comprising about 114,000 square feet, was led by Houston-based Kirksey.
“The area has very few condos available,” Pelican Builders CEO Derek Darnell told the outlet. “Most of what is there is either a midrise apartment building or a four-story townhome. We saw an opportunity to bring something new to the area while embracing River Oaks’ classic architecture.”
Keeping the number of units to a minimum fosters neighborly intimacy for residents, he said.
Condos will feature terraces, island kitchens, smart-home capability, curbless showers and optional outdoor gas grills. Amenities consist of 24-hour concierge services, valet parking, a lounge area, card tables, a serving bar, a private dining room and a fitness center.
Each unit will also have a backup generator in case of weather-related emergencies.
Meanwhile, Pelican has two other developments in the works that are expected to be completed later this year: the Hawthorne, another luxury condominium in Tanglewood with 67 units and a plethora of amenities, and the Westmore, with 33 units in Upper Kirby.
“You know, for the nation’s fourth-largest city, there are only about four or five condo buildings under construction,” Darnell told the outlet. “The average person might think that they were everywhere. But they’re really not. People have a hard time finding condos here.”
–—Quinn Donoghue
Read more Texas Pelican eyes 8-story condo building in River Oaks Texas London-inspired luxury condos break ground in Houston Texas Chicago firm buys 17th multifamily complex in Houston The post Pelican plans more luxury condos in Houston appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mandarin Oriental Residences Beverly Hills (Mandarin Oriental Residences, Wikipedia/SSHaving, Getty)Mandarin Oriental Residences Beverly Hills produced a top-scale marketing party during Oscars Awards weekend for its luxury condominiums.
The event featured Michelle Yeoh, winner of the best actress award. Out of the spotlight, the pricing for some units in the L.A. market’s newest hotel branded residence has shown up on listing websites, although developers for the building have not made an official price announcement.
Michelle Yeoh and Michael Shvo (Getty)Located at 9200 Wilshire Boulevard, Mandarin Oriental Residences’ prices start at $3.7 million for Residence 304E, a one-bedroom, two-bathroom unit with about 1,260 square feet. At the high end is the $11.2 million listing for Residence 502W, a three-bed, four-bath condo spanning more than 3,000 square feet.
In the middle of the price range is Residence 505W, a two-bed, three-bath condominium priced at $6.6 million. There’s also Residence 402E, a three-bedroom, four-bathroom unit with an asking price of $9.98 million.
Michael Shvo, Michelle Yeoh and Angela Bassett (Publicity Group)Agents representing the listed residences include Amir Ensani and Penelope Stipanovich of Shvo Brokerage and Paul Sunshine of PH Sunshine & Co.
Developed by Michael Shvo, the 54-unit Mandarin Oriental Residences Beverly Hills follows the model of a developer and hotel brand partnering on a condo project. Shvo worked with Mandarin Oriental hotel group. Similar projects include The Pendry West Hollywood, which worked with Montage Hotels & Resorts, and Four Seasons Private Residences in the Beverly Grove section of Los Angeles. These projects all made headlines with pricey listings and sales, and promises of luxury services managed by the hotel brands on the residences’ logos.
Mandarin Oriental Residences Beverly Hills offers two penthouses, which previous media reports said would be priced at $40 million. A building representative told TRD that penthouse prices will be updated, but pricing has not been released. The building’s penthouses offer individual entrances, as well as private garages and swimming pools.
At the Four Seasons Private Residences, the initial ask for the penthouse, nicknamed One L.A., was $75 million, but it was recently reduced to $50 million. In July 2022, The Pendry Residences West Hollywood made a record for priciest condo sale in 2022, when the 6,300-square-foot penthouse sold for $21.5 million.
Another ultra-luxe condo building at 8899 Beverly in West Hollywood offered two penthouses, which if bought together had an asking price of $100 million. A new section of the project The Rosewood Houses, freestanding homes, will be unveiled later in March.
The Los Angeles market for ultra luxury condos is maturing, said Taaseen Qureshi, an independent real estate agent who specializes in luxury condos.
“In New York and Miami, luxury condo buildings tend to sell out in pre-sales, but that’s not the case in L.A.,“ Qureshi said. “The L.A. market is more challenging because the direct competition for ultra luxury condos are single-family homes with a pool and view. But do buyers really want the maintenance that comes with a house?”
The typical client for ultra luxe condos are people seeking full service amenities such as valet, security, room service and housekeeping, she said. She noticed that most of her clients also own luxury condos in other major cities. Qureshi sold luxury condos at The Pendry Residences West Hollywood from October 2021 to October 2022.
Read more Los Angeles Is LA ready for ultra-luxe condo moment? Los Angeles Alagem’s Beverly Hills One adds Aman Los Angeles Six condo sales add up to $53M at 8899 Beverly The post Mandarin Oriental Residences Beverly Hills puts prices on condos appeared first on The Real Deal.
Analog Devices’ Vincenbt Roche and Intel’s Patrick Gelsinger with 790 Sycamore Drive and 101 Innovation Drive (Getty, LoopNet, Google Maps)Two major tech players are looking to sell large corporate campuses in Silicon Valley, according to public records.
Intel wants to offload its 505,000-square-foot office campus at 101-141 Innovation Drive. The space includes 57,000 square feet of lab space. The listing price was not publically available, but the value of the property is $193 million, according to public records. Intel is offering a leaseback on all four buildings for approximately 12 to 24 months.
Analog Devices also wants a buyer for its 320,000-square-foot campus in Milpitas. The property at the intersection of Sycamore Drive and McCarthy Boulevard also doesn’t have a publicly disclosed asking price. However, it is valued at $32 million according to public records. The five buildings on the property range from 42,000 square feet to 95,000 square feet and were all built in the 1980s.
The Silicon Valley office market has reeled after recent developments shook confidence in the market. Google announced last month that it is reassessing the timeline for the Downtown West project in San Jose. The timeline for the urban-retail village is expected to take years and could determine other plans for Downtown, where vitality has been sapped by business shutdowns from the pandemic and the trend to remote office work.
When finished, Downtown West will include up to 5,900 homes, 7.3 million square feet of offices, 500,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a community center and 15 acres of parks.
Investors are still assessing Silicon Valley Bank’s takeover by federal regulators, which left the bank’s $2.6 billion commercial loan portfolio in a brief limbo. About 21 percent of SVB’s commercial loans were office properties.
Silicon Valley entered the year on a downturn, according to a fourth quarter report by Cushman & Wakefield. The office vacancy rate increased from 18.6 percent to 19 percent quarter-over-quarter, and the market had 17.2 million square feet of vacant space available. The end of 2022 marks the 12th consecutive quarter where the overall vacancy rate has risen, increasing by 9 percent since the first quarter of 2020.
Read more San Francisco Google reassesses timeline for Downtown West megaproject in San Jose San Francisco Sizing up Silicon Valley Bank’s real estate exposure San Francisco Former Silicon Valley Bank’s real estate footprint in limbo The post Tech companies list corporate campuses in Silicon Valley appeared first on The Real Deal.
Katerra’s Matthew Marsh (Linkedin, Getty)Shuttered construction company Katerra sued its former CFO, Matthew Marsh, demanding the repayment of a $1 million signing bonus. The lawsuit, filed March 6 on behalf of Katerra, its creditors and its bankruptcy plan administrator, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, seeks to recover the bonus payment and other damages.
The suit states that Marsh was required to remain employed with the company for 12 months to receive his bonus, but he was terminated for cause three days before his 12-month obligation. Katerra also paid Marsh a $250,000 relocation fee to help cover the costs of moving his family from Texas to California, where the company was headquartered. The lawsuit seeks judgment on whether that “relocation bonus” should be repaid because it was a “fraudulent transfer,” made when the company was insolvent and couldn’t afford to pay its creditors.
Marsh, who now serves as the CFO of venture capital firm Celesta Capital, was an executive at General Electric and James Hardie before he joined Katerra in 2019. Katerra claims that, as the chief financial officer, Marsh knew about the company’s precarious financial situation and shouldn’t have accepted the payment. Marsh hasn’t responded to a message left at Celesta’s San Francisco office.
The lawsuit seeks to recover the full amount of the bonus payment, along with interest and other damages. It also accuses Marsh of breaching his employment agreement by failing to repay the bonus. This is the latest chapter in the story of the failed eco-conscious construction startup, which filed for bankruptcy in June 2021.
Katerra was a California-based residential and commercial construction company that opened in 2015 and rapidly expanded its footprint through the acquisition of 20 construction and manufacturing facilities, including UEB Builders and Michael Green Architecture. Katerra branded itself as a technology-centric, eco-conscious construction management firm that simplified the construction process by acting as the designer, construction manager, and in some instances, the developer for projects.
At its peak, it was valued at $4 billion. Its largest backer, SoftBank, invested $2 billion but declined to provide additional funds after bailing Katerra out in December 2020 with a $200 million investment. In a comedy of errors, Katerra’s largest lender, Greensill Capital, went bankrupt months before Katerra filed for bankruptcy, becoming one of the largest tech startups to do so and losing $3 billion in investor money.
The Marsh lawsuit comes amid ongoing scrutiny of Katerra’s financial practices and the circumstances that led to the company’s bankruptcy. Last April, Katerra and some of its creditors filed a lawsuit against ousted CEO Michael Marks and other leaders for “self-dealing and self-interested transactions” such as using company money to buy a private jet and box at Golden State Warriors games. Marks currently serves as the founding managing partner at Celesta Capital, where Marsh also holds a C-suite position.
Read more National Lawsuit claims Signature Bank employees kept jobs after fraud allegations New York Inside Katerra’s final days Austin Office buildings get $102M in bankruptcy sale The post Failed construction start-up Katerra sues former CFO for $1M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Patrick Park, an heir to the Park Corporation fortune and a longtime friend of Donald Trump, sold his Bear’s Club estate in Jupiter for $19.8 million.
Records show Park and his wife, Milly Park, sold the mansion at 136 Bears Club Drive to an LLC named for the address. The true buyer is hidden.
Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate represented both the buyer and the seller in the deal.
Park is the son of Raymond Park, who founded the Moon Township, Pennsylvania-based Park Corporation. The company remains privately owned, and is involved in steel, energy, commercial real estate and private equity, its website shows. Multiple outlets estimate it is a multibillion-dollar enterprise.
Patrick and Milly Park married at the St. Regis Hotel in New York in 2018, the Palm Beach Daily News reported, citing Park as a director of Park Corporation. Shortly before the wedding, Park, a longtime friend of Donald Trump and a Mar-a-Lago member, declined the then-president’s nomination to be U.S. Ambassador to Austria, according to the publication.
Records show Park gained ownership of the Bear’s Club mansion in 2007 through a corrective warranty deed. The previous owner was a Delaware LLC registered to Park Corporation in Ohio. The estate last sold for $4.4 million in 2003, Realtor.com shows.
The Parks completed an extensive renovation of the home last year, according to the listing.
The 1.1-acre estate includes a 10,600-square-foot mansion built in 2001, according to records. The house has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and three half-bathrooms, records show. The property also includes a pool and a putting green designed by legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus, the listing shows.
Nicklaus is the founder of the Bear’s Club, which he established in 1999 with his wife, Barbara Nicklaus, according to the golf community’s website. The Bear’s Club is privately owned and controlled by 35 founding members, and remains under Nicklaus’ leadership, the website shows.
Luxury buyers flocked to private golf communities across northern Palm Beach County during the recent pandemic-fueled real estate boom. The spike in demand has caused long waits for private club memberships, including at the Bear’s Club.
Even so, brokers say the Bear’s Club in Jupiter is a particular favorite of buyers, but owners rarely sell, and supply in the community has remained tight.
Mayo Shattuck, former chairman of Chicago utility giant Exelon, sold his Bear’s Club mansion for $15 million in August.
The post Longtime Trump friend Patrick Park sells Bear’s Club estate for $20M appeared first on The Real Deal.
First Republic Bank’s Jim Herbert with First Republic Bank HQ at 111 Pine Street in San Francisco (Google Maps, First Republic Bank)First Republic Bank, a major multifamily and commercial real estate lender on the West Coast, is exploring a sale as well as other options to shore up liquidity, after two ratings agencies downgraded its credit rating to junk on Wednesday.
Larger rival banks are expected to be interested in purchasing the San Francisco-based lender, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
First Republic did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which shut down Silicon Valley Bank last Friday, also did not respond to questions about whether the state regulator was investigating liquidity issues at the bank.
First Republic has had a tumultuous few days, as the collapse of both SVB and New York-based Signature Bank sparked investor fears that First Republic was also vulnerable. The bank rushed to quell anxieties, disclosing Sunday that it had secured additional funding commitments from the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan, for a total of over $70 billion in unused liquidity.
On Monday, however, the bank’s stock plunged more than 70 percent, prompting the Securities & Exchange Commission to halt trading at various points during the day. Executive Chairman Jim Herbert told CNBC Monday that the bank was not seeing a rush of customers cashing out of their deposits.
By Tuesday, First Republic’s stock price had rallied, but ratings agencies were still concerned with how many unsecured deposits sat on its balance sheet. Fitch called it a “rating weakness.” On Wednesday, both Fitch and S&P Global Ratings downgraded it to junk.
“We believe the risk of deposit outflows is elevated at First Republic – despite actions by federal regulators,” S&P wrote in its report.
First Republic held $62 billion worth of residential mortgages across San Francisco, Los Angeles and the rest of California as of the end of 2022, and about $24 billion worth of commercial real estate loans, according to its financial report.
On the East Coast, regulators on Sunday placed another major multifamily lender, Signature Bank, into receivership, after customers rushed to pull their money out. Meanwhile, in Europe, Credit Suisse’s stocks and bonds have plummeted over liquidity concerns.
The post First Republic exploring sale: report appeared first on The Real Deal.
32BJ SEIU’s Shirley Aldebol (left) and Bronx Realty Advisory Board’ President’s Billy Schur (Getty)Leave the picket-line placards in storage and set aside the rhetoric for another four years: Building service workers and owners in the Bronx have averted a strike.
Just as the sun rises in the east, landlords and 32BJ SEIU agreed on a new contract without the 2,000 workers leaving their lobbies unattended.
The deal, which the doormen and other staff are expected to ratify Thursday, was reached just before the last contract expired Tuesday at midnight. The union had voted to authorize a strike, which is standard operating procedure to give their representatives 11th-hour leverage in negotiations with the Bronx Realty Advisory Board.
The same sequence of events typically occurs with the union’s superintendents, porters, handypersons and doorpersons in the other boroughs, who have a separate contract. A strike hasn’t happened since the 1990s, a 32BJ spokesperson said, and the Bronx unit has never struck.
Things did get a bit dicey this time, as Bronx landlords were negotiating their first deal since the state put a tourniquet around rent-stabilized buildings’ revenue in June 2019, the worst pandemic since 1918 hit, inflation sprung to life after a 40-year slumber and interest rates soared.
Some tenants haven’t paid rent for 30 months, protected by eviction moratoriums and a backlogged court system.
The union had demanded a 4.11 percent compensation increase and claimed owners sought to carve out superintendents and reduce health benefits. The owners, represented by Billy Schur, said they could not afford that. Three-quarters of them own rent-stabilized properties.
They ultimately settled on 3.18 percent annual increases, on average, including 3 percent wage bumps, a spokesperson for the owners said. The 32BJ spokesperson said the union could not confirm any wage numbers until the contract is ratified.
Owners can opt out up to a year into the deal, a provision they requested in case their financial situation deteriorates more than anticipated.
The annual increases in the previous two contracts were 3.57 percent and 3.59 percent.
Since 2019, inflation has pushed prices up nearly 18 percent, straining owners’ budgets but also diluting workers’ purchasing power. A union executive, Shirley Aldebol, had said during negotiations that 32BJ had rejected the owners’ offer of a “six-month extension with zero wage increases and the potential for several years of wage freezes and benefits cuts.”
Read more New York Deal averts strike by doormen, resi building workers New York 32BJ SEIU, office owners avoid strike with tentative labor contract New York Affordable housing industry pitches $2B rent-aid fund The post Bronx landlords, building workers agree on contract appeared first on The Real Deal.
Amy Sands (JLL)JLL’s Chicago office has lost one of its top retail property sales brokers to New York-based investment firm RPT Realty.
Amy Sands, who held the title of co-head of JLL’s retail investment advisory for Chicago and the Midwest, is leaving the brokerage to become head of investments for RPT, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, starting May 8, RPT announced Wednesday.
“With $1.7 billion of remaining committed capital from the company’s two joint ventures, there are material opportunities to continue to reshape and improve the quality and value of the portfolio in the coming years,” Sands said in a statement.
Sands played a major role in building JLL’s Midwest retail platform from the ground up. She has completed more than $10 billion worth of retail transactions over the past decade and has more than 20 years of real estate experience, having previously worked for HFF, Equity Office Properties and GGP.
Sands’ recent notable deals include last year’s $94 million sale of the Neiman Marcus building on the Magnificent Mile by UBS Realty Investors, which Sands represented, to Silvestri Investments after six months on the market. And while still with JLL in late 2021, she also represented RPT in its sale of a 166,000-square-foot grocery-anchored suburban retail center in Glen Ellyn for $30 million to local investor North America Real Estate Group.
With Sands’ hire, RPT is consolidating its investment activities under one team that will source acquisitions for the firm’s wholly-owned portfolio as well as for its grocery-anchored platform and retail net lease venture platform.
“Amy will bring a dynamic investment prowess and a large institutional network that will be complementary to all three platforms and our investor bases,” Brian Harper, CEO of RPT, said in a statement.
RPT’s focus is open-air shopping centers, wholly owning 44 across major U.S. markets and partially owning 13 through its grocery-anchored joint venture and 48 through its net lease joint venture, totaling 15 million square feet of leasable space that was almost 94 percent leased at the end of 2022, according to the company.
Read more Chicago Home to Neiman Marcus’ flagship store on Mag Mile sells Chicago Suburban Chicago shopping center sold in potential sign of retail rebound Chicago Paragon Real Estate buys retail condo in historic Loop tower The post JLL’s co-head of Chicago, Midwest retail sales jumps to RPT appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mark Goodman & Associates’ Mark Goodman and 400 North Elizabeth Street (Getty, LoopNet, LinkedIn/Mark Goodman)Developer Mark Goodman’s ambitious plan for a 503,000-square-foot, $218 million life sciences lab building in Fulton Market is on hold.
Goodman has hired CBRE to either sell the property at 400 N. Elizabeth St. or help find an investor in the project, reported Crain’s. The developer believes the 1.5-acre site is worth over $30 million.
Goodman acquired the industrial building at the beginning of 2022, two months after the City Council approved the life sciences project. Demolition was slated to begin by the end of 2022, but the old brick building remains.
According to Goodman, rising interest rates and other economic challenges are making it tough to secure adequate financing for lab developments. Despite Fulton Market’s reputation of being a life science hub – Chan Zuckerberg Initiative recently committing to a $250 million research center –growth has tapered off.
Read more Chicago Alex Najem, Shanna Khan complete $49M Fulton Market assemblage Chicago Crescent Heights pays $35M for Fulton Market development site Chicago Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities eyeing $100M Fulton Market development site deal Another factor playing into the project’s stall is a $20 million loan Goodman took out last year from Convexity Properties. The loan was supposed to mature by the end of January, but was extended, Crain’s reported.
Goodman has been bullish on Fulton Market dating back to the early 2000s when he redeveloped the office building at 550 W. Jackson Blvd. In 2021, he completed a 13-story, 320,000-square-foot office building at 320 N. Sangamon St., which is already almost fully leased and includes big-name tenants such as Hazel Technologies.
–Quinn Donoghue
The post Fulton Market lab development in flux appeared first on The Real Deal.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan (Getty, Texas State Directory, Office of the Lieutenant Governor)Texas lawmakers are clashing over how to cut property taxes.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Texas Senate, and House Speaker Dade Phelan, both Republicans, favor reducing property taxes and increasing exemptions, but the Senate’s $16.5 billion proposal is a whopping half billion cheaper than the House’s, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The good news: both bodies agree on increasing the homestead tax exemption from $40,000 to $70,000. Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican from Houston, referred to the homestead exemption as “the most powerful tool you can use,” the outlet reported.
The proposed property tax cuts are in three bills — one cuts taxes on homeowners, another reduces taxes for businesses, and the last one lowers taxes on inventory and property.
“What we have is tremendously good news for Texas taxpayers today,” Bettencourt said at a news conference. “These are eye-popping, off-the-chart numbers of savings that they can realize through the Senate plan.”
In addition to the homestead exemption, the Senate proposed raising the exemption for seniors from $10,000 to $30,000. Homeowners 65 or older could see $516 slashed from their property tax bills, while those younger may see a $324 reduction, the outlet said.
The House’s proposal included lowering the cap on homestead appraisals from 10 percent to 5 percent. Patrick pushed back on that, saying it would flatten appraisal rates for certain homes and businesses that would steadily climb in value otherwise.
Read more Dallas Dallas proposes significant property tax cut Texas Complaints on Texas’ property tax near fever pitch Opponents of the House’s proposal believe these policies would create an inequitable tax system that favors the elderly and places a burden on first-time home buyers. Dale Craymer, president of Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, said caps “create substantial inequities across taxpayers depending on when title to the property was changed,” the outlet reported.
—Quinn Donoghue
The post Huge property tax cuts proposed appeared first on The Real Deal.
Fletcher Jones Jr. and Carson of Toyota at 1333 East 223rd Street in Carson (Getty, Google Maps)Fletcher Jones Automotive Group has paid $48.6 million to acquire Carson Toyota, the largest car dealership in the Auto Row district of Carson, TRD has learned.
The dealership has been renamed Fletcher Jones Toyota of Carson,
according to property records and an announcement by DCG Acquisitions, an automotive mergers and acquisitions group, which closed the transaction.
Fletcher Jones took out about a $39 million loan from Toyota Motor Credit to finance the purchase of the dealership on more than a half acre of land.The seller was an LLC whose officers served as co-owners for Carson Toyota. It is the largest car dealership in the Auto Row district of Carson.
The dealership has sold cars and trucks from the Japanese automaker for 49 years. Property records show that the former owners acquired the current site for the dealership for about $4.7 million in December 2004. According to a website maintained by the City of Carson’s redevelopment agency, a new building/showroom was constructed on the premises in 2008. The 15-year-old building stretches out to 160,000 square feet.
Neighboring Carson Auto Row dealerships include Carson Honda, Kia of Carson and Chevrolet of Carson.
The acquisition of the Carson Toyota will rank as the 16th dealership for Fletcher Jones Automotive Group, which owns car franchises in California, Nevada, Illinois and Hawaii.
Fletcher Jones California dealerships include Porsche Long Beach, Mercedes-Benz of Ontario, Audi Beverly Hills and Fletcher Jones Motorcars of Newport Beach, which also sells Mercedes-Benz cars.
Read more Los Angeles Faring moves ahead on 1,200-unit project in Carson Los Angeles Simon Property, Macerich to restart work on 400K sf outlet in Carson Los Angeles Carson complex sets mark for priciest multifamily deal in South Bay The post Fletcher Jones acquires Carson car dealership for $48.6M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Tyrone Jones, Michael Dupree and Yury Domatov (Broward County Sheriff’s Office and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Getty)Three men were arrested in Broward County, following a nine-month investigation into an alleged scheme to defraud homeowners and steal residential properties.
The alleged home theft scheme targeted 14 different homes, worth a combined $12.8 million, the Sun Sentinel reported. Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar anticipates more arrests tied to the fraud.
Investigators allege the three men arrested, Tyrone Jones, Michael Dupree and Yury Domatov, were the ringleaders of the scheme. They allegedly targeted homes owned by banks and elderly residents in Fort Lauderdale, Dania Beach, Coral Springs, Weston, Hollywood and West Park, according to the publication.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office said the men and their co-conspirators successfully stole three properties. In at least three instances, the men moved into properties they successfully took over, according to the property appraiser.
Jones was arrested in October in the allegedly stolen home at 1621 Seabreeze Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, the Sentinel and arrest records show.
Domatov was also arrested at a reportedly stolen home at 4926 Southwest 44th Terrace in Dania Beach on Tuesday, according to the outlet and arrest records.
Dupree was arrested in Hillsborough County last week, arrest records show.
The crime ring members used the court system to commit their alleged fraud, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. Officials say the fraudsters filed bogus civil lawsuits that would result in the court awarding them the homes.
Deed theft is not a new phenomenon.
New York Attorney General Letiticia James is investigating an eight-member deed theft ring in Queens. Three of the ring’s alleged members were arrested in December.
In the meantime, James is pushing to criminalize deed theft, which is notoriously difficult to prosecute.
The post Busted: Trio arrested in alleged Broward home theft scheme appeared first on The Real Deal.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Michael Weinstein and 318 West 9th Street, Los Angeles (Loopnet, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Getty)The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has paid $21.25 million for a historic office building in Downtown Los Angeles it wants to convert into 251 affordable apartments.
The Hollywood-based nonprofit, through its Healthy Housing Foundation subsidiary, bought the 12-story Insurance Exchange Building at 318 West 9th Street, KTLA5 reported. The seller was undisclosed.
The 124,400-square-foot building, to be called Angel Tower, would provide housing for homeless residents and extremely low-income tenants.
The 99-year-old Insurance Exchange at 9th and Olive streets would be the first office building redeveloped by AHF. It would add to 13 other SRO hotels and motels the agency has bought or renovated for housing since 2017, the organization said.
“The building’s ‘U’ shape lends itself well to adaptive reuse for housing as it makes it easier for our architects to ensure that all units created have ample windows for access to natural light and ventilation,” Michael Weinstein, president of AHF, said in a statement. “
The Healthy Housing Foundation has spent more than $183 million on the purchase and renovation of older properties in Los Angeles, including the King Edward Hotel, the Barclay Hotel and the Sinclair LA.
If Angel Tower is approved for an office conversion, AHF will have amassed 1,666 affordable rental housing units across the city.
The Insurance Exchange Building, built in 1924 by father and son architects Curlett & Beelman, had been mostly leased by tenants in the garment industry. The brick and stone building, with external fire escapes, has tall arched windows between the second and third floors.
The unidentified seller was represented by KW Commercial and Anvers Capital Partners, according to Loopnet.
This month, AHF was accused of improperly fostering ties with Los Angeles Councilman Kevin de León, just before he took office.
In October 2021, AHF bought the 155-room Barclay Hotel for undisclosed terms, which it aimed to turn into housing for homeless residents.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Did Kevin de León, AIDS Healthcare Foundation have improper relationship? Los Angeles AIDS Healthcare Foundation buys Barclay Hotel in DTLA The post AHF buys historic Insurance Exchange in DTLA for $21M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Treeline Multifamily Partners’ Tim Hartwig and the Henley Riverside apartment building in southeast Austin (Newmark, LinkedIn)Even as bank woes and rising rates throw markets into turmoil, multifamily moves are happening in Austin.
A mystery buyer purchased Henley Riverside, a 368-unit apartment building in southeast Austin, from Denver-based investor Treenline Partners. The deal marks the property’s third sale since 2017, a span in which Austin multifamily has become one of the hottest asset classes in the country. Even as rent growth and investment sales have stalled in recent months, the deal shows that the city’s multifamily mania is not over.
Henley Riverside opened in 2019 as Aura Riverside, a mid-rise, four-story building with one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The property was developed by Trinsic Residential Group, which sold it the following year to Treeline.
Under Treeline’s ownership, the property has become far more valuable, at least in the eyes of the tax assessor: While the sale price was not disclosed, the property’s appraised value jumped by $20 million to $102 million last year. Rents now range between $1,500 and $3,000 per month, according to Apartments.com. The building is 92 percent occupied.
Patton Jones and Andrew Dickson of Newmark handled the sale. The buyer, who was not identified, has a “rapidly growing Austin portfolio,” Jones said.
The property sits on the edge of the East Riverside neighborhood, which currently has 28 listings with an average rent of $1,643, according to a report from RentCafe. That puts the neighborhood average slightly below the typical Austin rent of $1,825 per month.
The city continues to see robust multifamily construction and demand. In the closing quarter of 2022, about 2,900 units were added to the market. All told, developers built nearly 15,000 new units across 2022. Multifamily building sales also prospered, with an average sale price of $254,276 per unit, up nearly 5 percent on the year.
Read more Texas Pair of Austin riverfront homes ask $7m+ Texas KKR expands operations in Dallas Texas Historic honky tonk scoots to new location The post Treeline sells Austin apartments after $20M appraisal jump appeared first on The Real Deal.
1620 West 21st Street in Miami and Andian Group’s Andres Isaias (Andres Isaias, Google Maps)A spec developer and his mother bought a waterfront home on Sunset Island IV in Miami Beach for $11 million.
Andres Isaias and Mariella Isaias bought the house at 1620 West 21st Street, he confirmed. Records show the seller is an LLC named for the address, managed by Lori “Lucky” Shiller, a local real estate investor.
The sale marks a $2.5 million loss for Shiller.
Danny Hertzberg of the Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker had the listing. Alejandro Diaz Bazan, also a member of the Jills Zeder Group and Isaias’ business partner, brought the buyer.
Isaias and Bazan lead Andian Group, a Miami Beach luxury spec developer specializing in waterfront homes. In June, Isaias sold a teardown in Miami Beach for $25.5 million. In January of last year, Andian Group bought a waterfront home once featured on Miami Vice for $13.9 million, with plans to renovate and flip it.
Most recently, Isaias’ mom, who also uses the surname Chiriboga, sold her oceanfront Altos Del Mar home for $20.5 million in October.
Records show Shiller bought the 0.2-acre property for $13.5 million in 2021. Built in 1990, the home spans 5,800 square feet, with six bedrooms, five bathrooms, and one half-bathroom. The property has 60 feet of waterfront and includes a private dock, according to Bazan and the listing. The home also includes a pool, wine room, and rooftop deck, the listing shows.
Isaias said he had been keeping an eye on the Sunset Islands home. It was first listed in January of last year for $16.9 million, and its asking price bumped up to $18 million last March, according to Realtor.com. When the price dropped to $12 million this January, Isaias said he saw an opportunity.
“I ended up circling back to get a number that was attractive to us,” he said. The developer opted for a 15-day closing.
Isaias plans to make some updates to the home, and hold onto it for family use.
The Sunset Islands have been one of the most sought-after neighborhoods for buyers since the pandemic triggered a wave of migration and a real estate boom in South Florida.
Developer couple Jackie Soffer and Craig Robins listed their waterfront Sunset Island II mansion for $45 million last month. Robins bought the house for $1.3 million in 1997.
Spec developer Francisco Perez bought a waterfront teardown on Sunset Islands III for $13 million in June.
Tampa Bay Rays co-owner Randy Frankel sold his Sunset Island IV estate for $31.5 million in May.
The post Developer Andres Isaias buys waterfront Sunset Islands home for $11M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Flaherty & Collins’ David Flaherty and Mayor Steve Lentz with Mundelein’s Plaza Circle (Flaherty & Collins, Village of Mundelein, Getty)Developers Flaherty & Collins have proposed a $68 million project that would add some sizzle to Mundelein’s Plaza Circle.
The Indianapolis-based firm presented their plan, consisting of a five-story apartment building, attached parking garage, two townhouse structures and a retail building, at a recent board-of-trustees meeting, the Daily Herald reported.
The village currently owns the property but said it would sell it for $1 million. An agreement was reached during the meeting, stating that the village must sell the property no later than 2024 and that construction must begin within 15 months after the sale. A representative of Flaherty & Collins expects construction to begin next year, the outlet said.
Officials offered some tweaks to the development, such as the addition of more retail space and solar panel generators.
Mayor Steve Lentz and other officials expressed overwhelming support of the project, noting that the Mundelein has been striving to invigorate Plaza Circle for years. The Chicago suburb has been plagued with vacant lots and overall lifelessness to the point where former mayoral candidate Thomas Ouimet referred to Plaza Circle development efforts as a “bust” in 2021.
Two years later, it appears the last vacant lot in the area is being scooped up by David Flaherty’s firm. The new project, bounded by Hawley Street and Seymour Avenue, will produce an estimated 221 units in the apartment complex and an additional 17 units in the two three-story townhouses. The three-story parking garage is set to have 277 spaces, and the retail structure could have about 5,000 square feet of space, according to the outlet.
The site is located in a special taxing district with added fees going towards public improvements, but the village said it would reimburse the firm’s extra tax costs.
-Quinn Donoghue
Read more Chicago Synergy Construction bringing apartments to Mundelein Chicago Here are Chicago’s most notable development projects of 2022 Chicago Chicago FC going forward with new training facility The post Plans revealed for $68M development at Mundelein’s Plaza Circle appeared first on The Real Deal.
Benton Williams II and 8523 Thackery Street in Edgemere (Getty, Google Maps, LinkedIn/Benton Williams II)A luxury senior living development in Dallas may finally climb out of the bankruptcy hole that’s frustrated its residents.
A court-ordered rescue plan is nearing a conclusion for the 1.55 million-square-foot Edgemere. Plans call for selling the property for $48.5 million to Bay 9 Holdings, which will turn it into rentals, the Dallas Morning News reported. A judge will make a final decision soon, about a year after Edgemere filed for bankruptcy, citing struggles from the COVID-19 pandemic and a February 2021 winter storm.
The owner would sell bonds to refund homeowners’ entrance fees totaling $145 million. Edgemere’s parent company, Lifespace, also mentioned the unrestricted $188 million it has in cash reserves, ensuring residents are refunded by 2025 at the latest.
Lifespace announced in December that it would give back the fees as long as certain conditions were met, such as units being re-leased. But residents pushed back, some saying their units had been unoccupied since 2019.
All 289 households entitled to refund claims voted to approve the proposal. Of the 109 voters entitled to bond claims, 106 were in favor.
Though the plan isn’t perfect, this was the best solution for families to receive the money they’re owed and move on with their lives, an attorney representing the families, Benton Williams, said during a hearing.
Read more Dallas New York investor buys Nate Paul’s Dallas tower out of bankruptcy Dallas Dallas construction outfit on Gold’s Gym expansion files for bankruptcy Dallas JMJ files for bankruptcy on three North Texas projects For Lifespace, the agreement is already affecting its business. Fitch Ratings recently gave a negative credit report on Lifespace, asserting that $82 million of the refunds will come from bonds, and the rest will be financed through 11 other senior living facilities it owns.
Ivan Gold, a lawyer for Intercity Investments, doesn’t believe these properties are generating a reliable stream of revenue, noting that Lifespace lost about $86 million in 2022 and $32 million in 2021.
—Quinn Donoghue
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Baird and Warner’s Laura Ellis (Getty, Baird and Warner)Laura Ellis keeps a close eye on the leading indicators that speak to her. And right now they are saying hang in there.
The Baird & Warner chief strategy officer and president is always thinking about what’s next for the housing market, especially during an unpredictable economic cycle. And as a real estate veteran, she is cautious about trying to predict where things are headed, even as the spring market heats up.
“We just have to have humility about it, and we’ve got to deal with what we’re looking at now,” she said. “People on my team, my senior vice president, regional managers, say showing inventory is up, and I’m like it doesn’t mean we’re spending any more money until that translates into closed sales.”
The Real Deal spoke with Ellis to get her thoughts on Chicago’s housing market, why it tends to be an outlier compared to other major markets and how she and her team are thinking about a possible recession.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
TRD: What are you doing to get buyers reengaged in this market?
LE: Now that we’re about a month or so into the spring market, we’re not really seeing a problem with getting buyers engaged in the market, which I know sounds a little bit counterintuitive because the rates have gone up significantly, and they’ve recently taken another little jump. What we’re finding though, is our problem is lack of inventory.
When a listing comes on the market and it’s priced right it’s selling very quickly with multiple offers. So it’s a very strange market, one that I have not experienced in my 30 plus years in this case. Just when I think I’ve seen it all. Here we are with interest rates that have really effectively more than doubled in the last year and buyers are still there. We’ve actually seen a big uptick in pre approvals coming through our mortgage company in the last several weeks — a dramatic uptick, but again, the problem is we don’t have enough properties to sell.
What’s contributing, I think to the lack of inventory is many people who would like to move are afraid to put their house on the market before they find something because they’re afraid their house is going to sell too quickly and they won’t be able to find anything.
TRD: I always try to put Chicago in the context of what’s happening nationally. We buck a lot of the trends here, because we’re not in New York, Miami or an emerging market. How do you view this Chicago versus some of the other mature markets across the country?
LE: All the predictions are that real estate is going to decline in value anywhere from 3 percent to 10 percent around the country. But our sales price is up year to date. We never know what’s going to happen, but I don’t believe we’re gonna see price softening here in Chicago and the metro area, and that’s because we didn’t go up dramatically. Some of those other markets, they’re so heavily cash, there were no appraisals being done to slow that down. You know, it’s competitive, people are paying hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars over list price to get properties. Well, that’s a little bit more moderated here.
I go to a lot of national conferences and with everything in the last couple years, I’m sitting around with people from Miami, Sarasota and Phoenix and I’m feeling like a loser. I’m like we’re up 4 percent and they’re like, we’re up 18 percent. But you know, when times get tough, I’ll take that stability all day long.
TRD: In seeing @properties’ news that it’s tacking on a 1% broker fee, and monitoring Q1 earnings reports from public brokerages, the broad story that we’re seeing is a sense that some are bracing for impact. Are you concerned we’re heading into a recession?
LE: I would describe our stance as cautiously optimistic. We have never seen a market shift so fast. If you go back to The Great Recession it took like two years from the time we started till we got to sort of the bottom of our numbers. This change in the market happened so rapidly to see that inside of a year is really extraordinary. We are watching all of our leading indicators. I’m not going to try to say it’s anything other than what it is. We’re in the same boat as everybody else. All of our costs went up. We’re trying to pay bigger bills with less money.
So far showing activity is up. It’s very reflective of last year, actually a little bit better than last year, where we’re struggling is the listing inventory.
We’re trying to look at everything through a historical lens. If we do in 2023 the business we did and 2022 it’s still a very healthy level of business.
Read more Chicago Movers: Steven Johnson jumps to Baird & Warner & more The post Baird & Warner “cautiously optimistic” for 2023 appeared first on The Real Deal.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (Getty)State lawmakers thumbed their nose Tuesday at the real estate industry and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The Senate and Assembly released budget resolutions that leave out a key extension for the property tax break 421a and water down the governor’s plan to set housing growth targets statewide.
The measures, released by the Democratic majorities of the Senate and Assembly, are the chambers’ response to the governor’s executive budget, and signal a starting point for negotiations. The state budget is due by April 1.
Much can change in the last two weeks of budget negotiations, but the exclusion of industry priorities indicate that lawmakers are not willing to accept them without a fight, or without gaining something in return.
“The state legislature continues to ignore the city’s rapidly growing rental housing supply crisis,” REBNY president Jim Whelan said in a blistering response. “The legislature’s big ideas are to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on ‘planning’ for housing outside New York City and a new program for limited-equity co-ops rather than support the governor’s proposals that would actually directly spur meaningful rental housing production.”
The governor had pitched extending the construction deadline for 421a by four years, which would give projects that became eligible for the break by pouring foundation footings before it expired last June until June 2030 to finish construction.
Developers have pushed for the extension, arguing that without it, they will not be able to move forward with their projects. The 2026 deadline was imposed because the previous time 421a expired, projects sat idle for years yet remained in line for the benefit.
Lawmakers at the time did not want that to happen again, but did not consider that the deadline would make financing some large projects impossible.
A survey by the Real Estate Board of New York found that at least 32,000 units of housing — many of them income-restricted — would not be built without the extension, as builders face rising construction costs and lenders don’t want to risk financing projects that might miss out on the tax break.
Its exclusion from the legislature’s one-house bills is not a surprise. Last year, lawmakers spurned a proposal put forward by the governor to replace the tax break. During a joint hearing this month, Senators and Assembly members spoke out against extending the 421a deadline, though Sen. Liz Krueger commented that a carveout for specific projects would be “reasonable.”
The Senate budget resolution indicates that the chamber will “address projects on an individual basis outside of the budget process” — a reference to large projects with substantial affordability, such as Halletts North.
But such a framework could create a new political obstacle for developers to surmount and could subject them to new demands for affordable units and other community benefits.
Both chambers are frosty to the idea of providing tax breaks for multifamily housing, but favor incentives over mandates to spur housing construction throughout the state.
The governor’s “New York Housing Compact” would set three-year housing growth targets: 3 percent for downstate localities and 1 percent for those upstate. Areas that ignore the targets would be subject to builder’s remedy, meaning that developers could get new housing approved regardless of local zoning.
The Senate and Assembly would instead offer $500 million in incentives for localities to meet housing goals. The Assembly proposed that localities receive an initial payment for submitting housing growth plans and then more cash if they meet the 1 and 3 percent targets.
The governor’s proposal faces considerable opposition from suburban lawmakers, who want local control of zoning to remain absolute. The one-house budget bills respond to that pressure. They exclude not only builder’s remedy but the governor’s Transit-Oriented Development Act, which would require localities to allow 15 to 50 housing units per acre within a half a mile of train stations.
The bills leave out language that would lift the city’s residential floor area ratio cap. Raising it would let the city increase residential density and make it easier to convert office buildings into housing.
Under current zoning, only office buildings constructed before 1961 can be converted to have residential space exceeding an FAR of 12. An exception is Lower Manhattan, where office buildings constructed between 1961 and 1977 and exceeding 12 FAR can be converted to housing.
The governor’s budget plan would extend the city’s most flexible zoning to buildings constructed before 1990. The Senate resolution appears to combine that change with affordability levels required under a proposed tax incentive for office-to-residential conversions. The Senate supports a tax break that includes labor requirements and extends beyond the city.
The Assembly plan neither includes the tax break nor expands the kinds of commercial buildings that can be converted. Without any state action, the city could still expand the exception enjoyed by Lower Manhattan office buildings to other commercial districts. But it lacks the state’s power to provide financial incentives.
The one-house resolutions also exclude the governor’s proposal to replace the tax break J-51 and another that would create a 421a-like program outside the city. They additionally leave out language that would authorize the city to legalize basement apartments.
For tenant advocates, the measures are a mixed bag. The Senate’s resolution notes that the chamber “supports advancing tenant protections that align with the core principles of good cause eviction,” but does not actually include the measure. The Assembly avoids the term, but similarly notes that it will “explore pathways to protect tenants from arbitrary and capricious rent increases and unreasonable evictions of paying tenants.”
Tenant organizer Cea Weaver of Housing Justice for All said she is thankful that Senate and Assembly leaders “opened the door to negotiations on good cause.”
The Senate and Assembly measures again seek to create a state-based housing voucher program, as well as $250 million to fund it. The Assembly measure adds $385 million for rental arrears statewide. The housing industry has said at least $2 billion is needed.
Read more New York Hochul plan for resi towers is tall order New York Here are the real estate policies to watch in Hochul’s budget These resolutions are non-binding, and Gov. Kathy Hochul has reportedly indicated that she is willing to negotiate past the budget deadline to achieve her priorities.
“I would like an on-time budget — I’m not planning on one that’s not,” she said Monday, according to the New York Post. “But I also know that I’m here to do the work of the people of New York state, and they expect me to not leave town until the job’s done.”
The post Albany to real estate: drop dead appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Alpine Village (Getty, Alpine Village, Twitter/Alpine Village)UPDATED MARCH 14 at 4:30 p.m.:
Bavarian-themed boutique retail center Alpine Village might transform from shopping center to shipping facility.
An LLC with links to WPT Capital Advisors bought the shuttered property near Torrance for $43 million earlier this month, according to property records. A deed document says that the transaction was funded by a $40 million loan from CIBC Bank.
The seller was Alpine Village Inc., a company led by the family which has run the German-themed center for decades.
The center’s swap meet and Alpine Market grocery closed in February. Some of the site’s boutiques are reportedly still looking to unload their inventory. The retailer Alpine Toys posted an undated message on its website that it was given a month to vacate the site after the sale.
WPT’s focus is developing sites for distribution and logistics markets. One of its other Southern California properties is a more than 5-acre business park in Montclair, which features a storage facility. WPT did not reply to email requests and a call for comment.
The idea to turn Alpine Village into a site with an industrial focus has been in the works for a while. A January 2020 report filed with Los Angeles County’s Department of Regional Planning noted an investor which developed warehouse and distribution facilities expressed interest in redeveloping Alpine Village’s 14-acre site, which is located in unincorporated Los Angeles County.
The five buildings which comprised the retail complex were located on the southern portion of Alpine Village. The northern two-thirds of the site was covered by parking lots. Alpine Village also had been zoned for manufacturing, according to property records.
Correction: Previous story said all the retailers at Alpine Village were closed, but several remain open.
Read more Los Angeles Prologis to build 8-acre studio production campus in DTLA Los Angeles Rexford spends $336M on industrial in Q4 despite rate hikes National StripMallGuy on the naked truths of retail investing Since 2019, nonprofit preservation group Los Angeles Conservancy has petitioned the county’s Department of Regional Planning to designate Alpine Village a historical landmark because of its unique, Bavarian-themed shopping court which was built in 1968. In September 2020, it was officially designated as an L.A. County historic site.
However, a historic site designation does not ultimately protect a site from demolition, according to a guidance from the Los Angeles Conservancy. “It merely buys time in order to create opportunities for preservation solutions to emerge,” according to the organization’s website.
The post Alpine Village near Torrance sells for $43M appeared first on The Real Deal.
CBRE’s Bob Sulentic and LACERA’s Santos Kreimann (CBRE, LACERA, Getty)A Los Angeles County employee pension fund has agreed to invest up to $600 million in a real estate fund managed by CBRE.
The board of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association approved the investment into CBRE U.S. Core Partners Fund, according to meeting documents filed last week.
The CBRE fund, which had raised $6.4 billion as of February according to SEC filings, is focused on logistics and residential investments in the U.S., LACERA said. The fund is managed by CBRE’s investment arm.
CBRE defines “core” as largely focused on “Class A properties that are in prime areas and are occupied by creditworthy tenants on long-term leases,” according to CBRE research.
According to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries, core real estate funds are on average 28 percent allocated to logistics and residential properties, 26 percent allocated to offices and 12 percent to retail. The rest is allocated to self-storage and other properties.
Private real estate made up about 6.2 percent of LACERA’s total fund at the end of 2022, worth about $4.3 billion, according to the pension fund’s annual report. LACERA reported a year-over-year return on core private real estate of 24 percent.
In February, LACERA’s board approved a commitment for up to $600 million in a Clarion Partners’ fund, about 65 percent allocated to industrial and multifamily. Office investments make up 18 percent of that fund.
The post LA County pension fund to put $600M in CBRE real estate fund appeared first on The Real Deal.
Horizon Group’s David Marom with 9900 West Condominium (Horizon Group, Craftcg.com, Getty)Horizon Group launched sales of its planned waterfront Bay Harbor Islands condominium, marking the New York-based developer’s first foray into South Florida.
Horizon, led by David Marom, joins the throngs of developers looking to cash in on a condo gold rush in Bay Harbor Islands, where more than $150 million of land purchases have closed since May 2021.
The planned seven-story, 23-unit 9900 West Condominium will be at 9900 West Bay Harbor Drive, according to a press release. Horizon is going through final project approvals and expects to break ground in the fourth quarter, Marom said.
Units in the building will range from 1,200 square feet to 3,600 square feet, with prices from $1.1 million to $5.5 million, he said. Floor plans include two-, three-, and four-bedroom options.
Amenities at 9900 West will include a rooftop pool, a lounge and deck overlooking the water, a kids room, spa, and gym, Marom said.
Target buyers for the project span multiple demographic groups, Maron said, citing South Americans, including Brazilians, Colombians, and Argentinians looking to plant roots in Bay Harbor Islands. Jewish families from New York, Chicago, Montreal and Toronto may also be drawn to nearby synagogues in and near Bal Harbour, Marom said.
“We didn’t go for the one-bedroom or the studio,” he said. “It is mostly families who will be interested in living in the area.” Local buyers who want to be close to the area’s schools could also be buyers, he added.
Douglas Elliman Development Marketing will be leading sales, with Pier Paolo Visconti as sales director and Claudia Llanes as sales manager, Marom said. Elliman’s development sales arm expanded to South Florida over the summer, riding the wave of New York City developers expanding businesses in the region.
“We’ve worked with Douglas Elliman in New York, and we’re very familiar with their process,” Marom said.
Among Horizon’s New York City projects is the redeveloped downtown branch of the New York Public Library, now a luxury condo building dubbed “the Library.” Horizon launched sales in 2021. That same year, a judge threw out Marom’s defamation case against activists fighting one of his projects that he wants to build on the Children’s Magical Garden in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Marom and Horizon remain in litigation with the garden’s advocates.
While Bay Harbor Islands is new territory for the developer, its planned 9900 West project won’t be its last. “We think that Bay Harbor is the place to live,” he said. “That’s why we’ll be planning another Bay Harbor Islands project.”
Marom isn’t the only developer banking on the rising popularity of Bay Harbor Islands. Ugo Colombo’s CMC Group; Igor Michin and Alex Troyanovsky’s Regency Development Group; and Ian Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Company are among those building in the town.
Also this week, Chilean developer VDA | Origin Miami launched sales of the planned condo Origins by Artefacto, a 27-unit project in Bay Harbor Islands, with prices starting at $1.4 million.
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Jim Messina and Keith Rabois with 2 Everson Street in Glen Park (Getty, Camron Paul Garcia & Joel Goodrich)Former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina has purchased “Paypal Mafia” member Keith Rabois’ Glen Park home for $8.7 million, according to property records and loan documents.
Rabois put the home on the market in late 2020, shortly after the billionaire announced he was moving to Florida. The price started off at $12 million but after several cuts had dropped to $10.25 million before the sale.
Even after losing a quarter of the initial ask, the home is still the priciest sale ever logged in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco. There have only been six sales above $5 million in the last five years in the hilly neighborhood south of Noe Valley and east of Bernal Heights, according to Redfin data.
Messina and wife Taya Cromley, a clinical psychologist, closed on the 5,700-square-foot home on Valentine’s Day, according to property records and loan documents from First Republic Bank that list them as two members of SashaHouse, the Montana-based LLC that bought the cul-de-sac home. The Obamas’ younger daughter is also named Sasha, but it’s unclear if she was the inspiration for the LLC’s name.
Messina lives in San Francisco and Montana with his wife and their two dogs, according to a bio on the website for his political consulting firm, The Messina Group. The site lists Uber, Airbnb, Google and Delta Air Lines among its clients, as well as more than a dozen world leaders, including former British Prime Ministers Theresa May and David Cameron, and former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
In the 2012 election cycle, Messina served as manager for Barack Obama’s presidential re-election campaign, which used technology for outreach and fundraising. He also served as a deputy chief of staff at the White House under Obama.
Rabois also had a short-lived career in politics as an advisor to former Vice President Dan Quayle in 1999. One year later, he joined Paypal, where he and other early executives and founders of the payment site like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel became known as the “Paypal Mafia” due to the interconnected web of giant tech companies — Tesla, Uber, Pinterest and Airbnb — they later founded or invested in.
Rabois bought the home for $3.5 million in June 2011 when he was the COO at Square and immediately filed permits to completely rebuild the early ‘70s hillside property as a “stunningly architectural compound” with panoramic city skyline views, according to listing notes from Joel Goodrich and Camron Paul Garcia of Coldwell Banker.
Garcia and Compass agent Steve Mavromihalis held the listing when it first came on the market and Maveomihalis said via email that “we were able to secure immediate offers well within the value range we had suggested to the seller, but could not consummate a sale at that time.” He subsequently “stepped away from that engagement” he said, though Garcia stayed on.
The home’s floor plan centers around an open-air atrium with a “mature birch tree, running brook and outdoor shower,” according to the listing site. The atrium has a one-car garage on either side of its top floor and there are four bedrooms, five full baths, two half baths, a media room, a library, a wine cellar with a sauna next door, and an outdoor view hot tub spread out over its four floors. The lowest level has a 700-square-foot gym with a half bath and a deck.
Rabois also plans to put a larger gym with a basketball court into another home he bought and is expanding across the street at 43 Everson. Despite the cross-country move in 2020 and the ire of some of his neighbors, who asked the city to deny his “out of scale” plans, Rabois still owns that home, purchased for $2.35 million in 2015, and appears to be moving ahead with his renovation. Electrical permits for AV systems, motorized shades and automated lighting were approved recently and rough-in plumbing inspections were signed off this week as well, according to city records.
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Read more San Francisco ‘PayPal Mafia’ vet trims $1M on Glen Park mansion ask San Francisco San Francisco’s most expensive listing closes for $34.5M San Francisco Warriors owner Joe Lacob buys Woodside estate for $40M The post Obama campaigner Jim Messina buys “Paypal Mafia” member’s home appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bronx Realty Advisory’s Billy Schur and 32BJ SEIU’s Shirley Aldebol (NYC Housing Partnership, 32BJ SEIU, Getty)If Bronx building workers make good on their threat to strike in the event contract negotiations fail, landlords say the 2019 rent law is to blame.
This month, 32BJ SEIU, the union representing Bronx superintendents, porters, handypersons and doorpersons, clashed with the Bronx Realty Advisory Board over proposed changes to a 2019 contract set to expire Tuesday at midnight.
The union demanded fair wage increases and claimed BRAB at multiple bargaining sessions had sought to cut workers, such as superintendents, from the contract, and reduce healthcare benefits, while offering no reduction in labor hours.
Last week, the group authorized a strike, if necessary, to add leverage to negotiations.
But BRAB President Billy Schur said owners, squeezed by rising inflation, mounting arrears and the revenue constraints of the rent law, can’t afford the pay bump 32BJ floated.
Schur said the union asked for an annual average increase in wages and benefits of 4.11 percent, far above the 3.57 percent increase agreed upon two contracts back or the 3.59 increase greenlit by the now expiring contract.
“I’m at a loss to understand why they think that would be a reasonable ask,” Schur said. “It’s not realistic based on the circumstances.”
Three quarters of BRAB members own rent-stabilized buildings, Schur said, meaning, since the rent law passed nearly four years ago, those landlords have been unable to raise rents beyond the limits set by the Rent Guidelines Board annually.
Since 2019, the rent board has raised rents 6.5 percent. By contrast, inflation has pushed prices nearly 18 percent higher during the same period.
Owners claim everything from maintenance to utilities to insurance has soared.
And since Covid hit, owners have been forced to shoulder tenants’ arrears after a $2.8 billion federal infusion failed to cover the total need of New York state. Months after the rent relief portal closed there are still more than 100,000 applications pending.
On Monday, a BRAB spokesperson said the landlord group tried to nail down a pay bump that might work for both parties, offering to extend the current contract for six months, then tie a ’ wage increase to what the rent board approves in June.
As with rent increases for stabilized units, the wage raise would take effect in October.
“32BJ didn’t counter it, didn’t reject it, they just said you’re disrespecting us and we’re not going to entertain that possibility,” the spokesperson said.
Union executive Shirley Aldebol characterized the offer as a “six-month extension with zero wage increases and the potential for several years of wage freezes and benefits cuts.”
Since Monday’s bargaining flop, Schur said city and state elected officials, including Councilmember Rafael Salamanca and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, have called him to urge the landlord group to reach an agreement with the union.
“I reiterated to each of them what I have said throughout our negotiations: we want to work with the union in securing decent wages and benefits for their members,” Schur said.
“Hopefully, we can reach an agreement before [the deadline], but the union is making it increasingly difficult.” the BRAB president said.
Read more New York Deal averts strike by doormen, resi building workers New York 32BJ SEIU, office owners avoid strike with tentative labor contract New York Affordable housing industry pitches $2B rent-aid fund The post Rent law drives wedge between Bronx landlords, workers appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Real Deal’s Hiten Samtani“A lot of this is going to pass like a kidney stone. Painful and bloody.”
That was one of the more colorful reactions to Sunday’s collapse of Signature Bank, a major lender to New York’s multifamily players. With any sudden shutdown of a key institution, panic and uncertainty abound, and The Real Deal’s reporters dove deep into the issue, speaking to developers, landlords, other lenders and attorneys about the possible fallout.
In the above video, TRD’s Hiten Samtani breaks down what we know so far about the Signature Bank situation: where the main pain points are, what’s not as bad as it looked upon first glance, and what lingering questions still need to be answered.
“One thing that I don’t think real estate players have thought about closely yet is that Signature was their bank; they had deep relationships with execs there, execs who were blue-collar guys with big pocketbooks, kind of like themselves,” Samtani said. “It might be trickier to have the head of multifamily lending at JPMorgan on speed dial – but that’s for another time.”
Watch the video above and share your biggest concerns about how the Signature situation is unfolding.
Read more National NY multifamily fears bank contagion New York Watch: Bank run brings down top multifamily lender Signature Bank National Uncertainty grips Signature Bank’s real estate customers The post WATCH: Signature’s collapse: What we know so far appeared first on The Real Deal.
Morningstar’s Joe Mansueto, Chicago mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, and rendering of new facility site (Getty, Linkedin, Chicago Fire FC)Chicago Fire Football Club has scored a win in its bid to build a controversial training facility.
The team announced on its website earlier today that, as part of a long-term lease, it will finance a new 53,000-square-foot facility, while also providing $8 million funding toward the Chicago Housing Authority in support of the agency’s affordable-housing initiative. The Fire will also create outdoor recreation spaces for the West Side community as part of the agreement. Construction for the new facility is set to begin later this spring.
The lease will generate more than $40 million in revenue for the Chicago area over the next 40 years, which can be used to fund housing projects.
Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot voiced her approval of the new facility and noted that the millions of dollars in rental income stemming from the project will aid in efforts to increase affordable housing in the community.
Although the project sounds like a win for everyone, the new facility has sparked concerns among locals.
Affordable housing advocates believe the 23-acre site, bounded by Roosevelt Road, Ashland Avenue, 14th Street and Loomis Street, should be used exclusively for mixed or low-income housing, reported WGN9. The Chicago Housing Initiative Coalition’s executive director, Don Washington, said this plan will displace 17,000 people.
The project is estimated to cost $85-$95 million, the outlet reported. The new facility will feature a two-story performance center, two-and-a-half hybrid grass pitches and three synthetic turf pitches. The turf pitches will have an insulated dome to protect it from harsh conditions from November to March each year.
-Quinn Donoghue
Read more Auto Draft Auto Draft Austin Endeavor plans $61M office building The post Chicago FC going forward with new training facility appeared first on The Real Deal.
Comerica Bank’s Curtis Farmer (Getty, LinkedIn)As the failure of Silicon Valley Bank spooks investors and depositors at regional banks across the country, Texas financiers are not immune.
Share prices of Dallas-based Comerica Bank fell to $42.61 on Monday, a decline of more than 25 percent on the day. Shares were trading for $58.81 at market close on Friday, but earlier that day, regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank, marking the largest bank failure since the Great Recession.
Comerica had $16.4 billion of commercial real estate loans on its books at the end of 2022, accounting for 31 percent of the bank’s total loans. The bank’s loans specifically for real estate developers increased $1.5 billion last year. On top of its commercial real estate financing, Comerica had $258 million in residential mortgage loans, according to SEC filings.
Late last week, Citigroup analysts called Comerica one of the “best regional bank plays.” JPMorgan Chase gave the stock similarly strong marks, though analysts for Piper Sandler downgraded it to “neutral” in February.
The bank is diversified enough to remain liquid, and that other banks’ troubles are a result of being over-concentrated in certain asset types and areas, said Carmen Branch, a spokesperson for Comerica.
“We do not feel the recent events are reflective of the overall health of the banking industry,” Branch said. “Most regional banks — including Comerica — have a more diverse, stable and ‘sticky’ deposit base and remain well capitalized and highly liquid.”
“Comerica remains open for business as usual,” she said.
Elsewhere in Texas, publicly traded banks fared poorly. Shares of Independent Bank, based in McKinney, fell 9.3 percent on the day. Independent’s book is heavily dependent on real estate lending, with $7.8 billion in commercial real estate loans at year end. Cullen/Frost shares fell 12.6 percent on Monday, while Texas Capital Bank shares declined 15.9 percent.
It is still too soon to assess the extent of any potential contagion from Silicon Valley Bank’s failure. On Sunday, New York regulators shut down Signature Bank, a top multifamily lender in the state with about $36 billion in real estate loans. The government has assured depositors that Signature and Silicon Valley Bank customers will get their deposits back.
Still, it wasn’t all doom for Texas lenders, as shares of Prosperity Bank, the Houston-based lender with $5 billion in commercial real estate loans, dipped just under 3 percent Monday.
Read more Los Angeles West Coast commercial lenders see steep declines and trading halts as fallout from SVB collapse San Francisco Sizing up Silicon Valley Bank’s real estate exposure The post Comerica shares slid 25% after SVB collapse appeared first on The Real Deal.
Grupo Eco’s Daniel Chaberman and 800 North Federal Highway in Hallandale Beach (Grupo Eco)Developer Grupo Eco launched sales of a 57-unit office condo project that is under construction in Hallandale Beach.
The 12-story building on a half-acre at 800 North Federal Highway is part of Grupo Eco’s mixed-use Atlantic Village project, according to the firm’s news release.
The building will consist of 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurants, and five stories of offices atop five-and-a-half levels of parking. Office suites will range from 1,100 square feet to 6,600 square feet, with asking prices starting at $650 per square foot. Prices could reach $700 a square foot or more for penthouses or for other premium suites, said Daniel Chaberman developer at Grupo Eco.
That pencils out to a price range of just over $700,000 to roughly $5 million.
“If there is a buyer and they are looking for a 12,000-square-foot space, we can make it happen,” Chaberman said, adding that Grupo Eco has received interest from both end-users and investors.
The office condo building is the fourth phase of the 6.5-acre Atlantic Village, and the only portion of the development that is on the east side of Federal Highway.
On the west side of Federal Highway, between Northeast Sixth Street and Atlantic Shores Boulevard, Grupo Eco has completed and fully leased 118,000 square feet of restaurants and service retail, and a six-story, 15,000-square-foot office building. Another six-story, 65,000-square-foot office building is expected to be completed in the next month and a half, Chaberman said. It’s more than 80 percent pre-leased.
Existing and future Atlantic Village tenants include Live! School of Music, Miami Swimming Academy, Crema Gourmet Espresso Bar, Korean restaurant Drunken Dragon, New York restaurant Temakase, and Jaffa, an Israeli and Mediterranean restaurant, according to the release.
The office condo, which is expected to be completed in October, is the last portion of Atlantic Village, though Grupo Eco is open to expanding the project in the future.
“We don’t own any other piece of land nearby, but we don’t know what will happen in the future,”
Chaberman said. “If we have something available that makes sense and would be interesting, then most likely we will pursue [it].”
Grupo Eco, founded 45 years ago in Mexico City, has developed residential and commercial projects in Mexico, Chaberman said. In 2013, the firm made its first South Florida wager, developing a 25,000-square-foot strip center along Hallandale Beach Boulevard. Two years later, Grupo Eco got the opportunity to purchase the Atlantic Village property and has since moved its headquarters to Hallandale Beach.
“The [firm’s] growth is definitely intended for South Florida,” Chaberman said. “It doesn’t mean that they are going to stop doing development in Mexico City.”
Grupo Eco’s Atlantic Village project aims to meet dining, retail and office demand from residents at nearby high-end developments.
In Hallandale Beach, Shahab Karmely’s New York-based KAR Properties completed the 38-story, 64-unit 2000 Ocean condo tower in late 2021.
Mexican firm Inmobiliaria Brom developed the three-building Optima office complex. The project is on the northeast corner of Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 214th Terrace, spanning both Aventura and Hallandale Beach.
Read more South Florida Brown Harris Stevens takes over sales at Ofizzina office condo South Florida Office condos planned at Russell Galbut and Harvey Hernandez’s Natiivo The post Grupo Eco launches sales of office condos in Hallandale Beach appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: USAA Real Estate’s Len O’Donnell; Montgomery Street Partners’ Max Lamont; Centennial Real Estate’s Steven Levin; and Montgomery Street Partners’ Murray McCabe; with 2800 North Main Street in Santa Ana (Getty, USAA Real Estate, Montgomery Street Partners, LoopNet)Centennial Real Estate and USAA Real Estate’s $140.5 million loan on the MainPlace mall in Santa Ana has headed to special servicing for the second time in less than a year, The Real Deal has learned.
The loan is “facing imminent maturity default,” according to Trepp, which cited comments from the special servicer on the debt.
UBS and Bank of America provided the CMBS loan in 2012, when the Santa Ana mall was owned by Australia-based shopping center firm Westfield Group. Westfield then sold the mall to a partnership between Centennial, USAA and Montgomery Street Partners.
But the loan on the 1.1 million-square-foot mall went into special servicing in June, after the partners requested an extension, which was granted through December.
In December, Centennial and USAA scored another six-month extension, loan documents show, giving the firm more time to pay it off.
The loan has a fixed rate of 4.25 percent, according to Fitch Ratings, which downgraded its ratings on the loan earlier this month. That interest rate is lower than the effective federal funds rate on March 10, which came out to 4.57 percent.
Centennial had planned to spend $500 million to redevelop the mall, adding a 309-unit apartment complex plus office space on the site.
Read more Los Angeles LA, OC see $30B in CMBS loans due this year Los Angeles LaSalle sells OC office building at 55% loss The renovation could “salvage performance” of the mall, where net cash flow has been “weak for several years,” DBRS Morningstar said in June. But the renovation has not yet finished.
The anchors at the mall include Macy’s and JCPenney. Nordstorm vacated a big-box store at the site in March 2017, a space that has remained vacant since then.
The post Centennial, USAA’s OC mall loan heads to special servicing again appeared first on The Real Deal.
URW’s Stephen Fluhr with rendering of Old Orchard Mall (LinkedIn, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Getty)Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is injecting as much as 200,000 square feet of healthcare space to its redevelopment plan for the north suburban Westfield Old Orchard mall.
The announcement adds another use to the French developer’s revisioning of the North Shore shopping center. URW is one of several developers seeking to revitalize suburban Chicago’s decades-old malls by adding residences with its $100 million plan to demolish and replace the Skokie mall’s empty 206,000-square-foot Bloomingdale’s with about 350 apartments and a town square for events including outdoor concerts and farmers markets.
JLL’s Greg Gerber, who is handling leasing for the healthcare space along with Chris Cummins, said adding medical space to Old Orchard represents a new healthcare delivery trend of bringing care to where the patients are and putting it in the same location as desirable amenities and services.
The addition of medical space will help make the 66-year-old Westfield Old Orchard a 24/7 destination, with shopping, dining, banking and wellness needs, URW’s Stephen Fluhr explained in a statement.
The medical space will be available for leasing in 2024, according to JLL. The mall currently has 1.7 million square feet of retail space. Its Bloomingdale’s anchor closed in August and in November opened a smaller space known as a Bloomie’s in another storefront. URW is also gutting Lord & Taylor, another previous anchor, and redeveloping it into three or four smaller outlet stores.
Read more Chicago URW aims for $100M repositioning of Skokie mall Chicago Skokie mall loses first major tenant in four years Chicago Chicagoland mall mania: Developers want to make vacant sites vital The post URW adding 200k SF of healthcare space to Skokie mall redevelopment appeared first on The Real Deal.
Beechwood Homes’ Steven Dubb with rendering of Country Pointe Estates at Kings Park (Beechwood Homes, Getty)Steven Dubb is seeking to ascend the throne in Long Island development and has a new project in Kings Park.
His Jericho-based Beechwood Homes is planning a 391-unit condo community in the Smithtown hamlet in Suffolk County, Newsday reported. The project on 71 acres of mostly wooded land would be north of Old Northport Road and east of Old Indian Head Road.
The firm is in contract to buy the land for an undisclosed sum from three owners of separate parcels. At least one of the owners appears to have ties to Raleigh’s Poultry Farm, which would be included in the development site. The developer indicated in an environmental assessment form that farm operations jobs would be eliminated if the project moves forward as planned.
Dubbed Country Pointe Estates at Kings Park’, the $189 million development would be one of the largest residential projects in Smithtown history, featuring two- and three-bedroom units and amenities such as a bocce, pickleball and a sports bar. There would also be 40 workforce housing units, more than double what the town has delivered from a program dating back six years.
Obstacles are already springing up for Beechwood, though, including a requirement to change the zoning from single-family to townhouse residential.
County planners recently recommended disapproving of the needed zoning change, but that may have been because the town clerk’s office sent through an application before the town’s planners could conduct an environmental review. Dubb told Newsday the recommendation was “premature.”
The project will also require variances and an environmental impact statement, in all likelihood. It also needs the construction of a sewage treatment plant and more than 1,300 parking spaces.
Beechwood is accustomed to the fits and starts that come with big Long Island development projects. Last year, the firm revealed plans for a 385-condo retirement community in Elwood, only to back off the 55-and-older age restriction after getting feedback on the proposal.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more Tri-State Developer nixes age restriction on 385 homes planned at elusive Elwood site The post Beechwood planning 391-unit condo community in Kings Park appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Michael Weinstein and Kevin de Leon (Getty)The nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a major landlord for homeless housing, has been accused of improperly fostering ties with L.A. CIty Hall insider Kevin de León.
Before his election to Los Angeles City Council, de León worked as a consultant for AHF and had been paid in the neighborhood of $100,000 six months before he took office, the Los Angeles Times reported. His consulting contract with AHF ended when he was sworn in as a city councilmember in October 2020, according to AHF.
As a councilmember-elect, de León took meetings with city officials. He allegedly advocated on behalf of the nonprofit, without disclosing that he had worked as a consultant for AHF, according to the newspaper’s story. During a meeting in August 2020, he was given access to high-ranking staffers in the mayor’s office, the Times alleges.
The lack of clarity over who de León was working for, AHF or the City of Los Angeles, violated conflict of interest rules, according to a Times interview with Ann Ravel, an attorney and former chair of the Federal Election Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission. AHF President Michael Weinstein has denied knowledge of the August meeting.
A representative for de León said that the councilmember had disclosed his financial relationships with AHF when he completed Form 700, the California state fair political practices form where elected officials give a statement of financial interests.
Pete Brown, a de León spokesman, said the meetings de León took before he was sworn in, ones that were highlighted by the Times article, were intended only as briefings. De León did not direct or expect city staff to take action from those meetings.
After serving as President of the California Senate, de León consulted with the AHF over matters of state law such as Costa-Hawkins rental housing act. He never worked with the nonprofit over city issues when he was a councilman-elect or a city councilman, Brown said.
Once a contender for the U.S. Senate, de León’s political career has been in jeopardy since October 2022, when a surreptitiously recorded conversation revealed racist comments made by de León and his former council colleagues Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo. Martinez resigned after the leak. Cedillo was termed out of office, while de León continues in office despite calls from President Joe Biden for his resignation. Brown said de León had attended council meetings since December.
Read more Los Angeles Racist chat leads Martinez to resign as LA Council head Los Angeles Peebles, MacFarlane: LA City Council’s racism has impeded Angels Landing project Los Angeles Real estate industry all over LA mayoral money game The post Did Kevin de León, AIDS Healthcare Foundation have improper relationship? appeared first on The Real Deal.
Highland Fairview’s Iddo Benzeevi and the World Logistics Center, south of the 60 Freeway between Redlands Boulevard and Gilman Springs Road in Moreno Valley (Getty, City of Moreno Valley)Highland Fairview will break ground this year on a 40.6 million-square-foot warehouse park in Moreno Valley, among the world’s largest.
The Moreno Valley-based developer led by Iddo Benzeevi is slated to launch construction of the World Logistics Center, south of the 60 Freeway between Redlands Boulevard and Gilman Springs Road, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported.
The 2,610-acre Inland Empire warehouse park, approved in 2015, will cover 10 percent of the city’s land, about the size of 700 football fields.
The center on the east side of town will have 27 buildings with the option of connecting via a skybridge, according to the World Logistics Center website.
The $25 billion project, designed by SanTec, will bring “future-ready” and sustainable practices to the center, according to the Rhode Island-based firm. It’ll also bring walkable streets, cafés, restaurants, spaces for arts and culture, breweries and public space.
Construction is set to begin in late 2023, with the project adding 6 million square feet per year until it’s completed in 2030. Buildings will be leased throughout the construction phases.
Skechers already has committed to expanding in Moreno Valley with its second and third warehouses in the city at the logistics center. Its first building — a 1.8 million square-foot center — would be connected with a skybridge to the World Logistics Center.
The warehouse project plans to be a carbon-neutral facility by adding solar power to its rooftops, reducing water usage by 70 percent and including 1,080 charging stations for freight and logistics vehicles, employees and visitors.
More than 33,000 construction and operations jobs will be created, according to SenTec.
In the years since city approval, Highland Fairview has dealt with lawsuits, which have now all been settled to pave the way for construction.
The project has been controversial among residents and environmental and conservation groups, which allege that the warehouse complex would bring traffic, air pollution and negatively affect local wildlife. Supporters said the center would bring much-needed jobs and stability to the city.
Environmental and conservation groups sued over the City Council’s approval in 2015. The challenges by the California Clean Energy Committee, Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society and the Coalition for Clean Air were settled in 2021 for $47 million.
Earthjustice attorney Adrian Martinez, who represented the coalition of environmental groups, said he hopes the settlement agreement is implemented.
The agreement requires the developer to reduce the logistics center’s impact on air quality, local wildlife and residents, invest up to $12.1 million in electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging and install rooftop solar panels.
“There is still a lot of work to do to implement the agreement,” Martinez said by phone. “I think we hope the settlement will provide some relief … to provide healthy air in the region.”
Read more Los Angeles IE warehouse boom generates call for building moratorium Los Angeles Inland Empire No. 3 in U.S. for large warehouse leases Los Angeles Study: Ontario is the hub for logistics warehouses in the IE The construction of the mammoth warehouse park in Moreno Valley comes after a pushback against a boom in logistics warehouses across the Inland Empire.
According to one report, 90 percent of Southern California’s warehouse growth in the past decade occurred in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which now has 1 billion square feet of warehouse space with another 170 million square feet approved or pending.
— Dana Bartholomew
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Signature Bank CEO Greg Carmichael (Getty; Photo-Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)Signature Bank’s real estate customers were left with more questions than answers Monday as they tried to figure out how to do business after regulators took over the troubled multifamily lender.
Withdrawing deposits, drawing down loans and replacing letters of credit are among the issues borrowers and depositors are facing after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took the bank into receivership Sunday.
“In the short term there’s going to be a lot of dislocation and fear of the unknown,” said Cozen O’Connor attorney Ken Fisher, who has a personal bank account with New York-based Signature and represents many of the bank’s real estate borrowers and depositors.
One of the largest uncertainties Signature clients are facing is exactly when deposits over $250,000 will be available. Federal regulators on Sunday said they would protect all deposits above the deposit insurance limit, but it’s unclear when funds above that threshold will be available to move to another bank or to pay bills.
Signature Bank put out a press release Monday morning saying the bank was opening its doors, but a spokesperson declined to comment further about how the business would be operated.
Fisher and others said that despite the government’s attempts to stop a bank run, clients are still attempting to move their money from smaller banks to bigger ones.
Gov. Kathy Hochul held a press conference Monday to tell customers not to worry. “The banks are open,” she said. “Everything is fine, calm. Now the FDIC is in charge of the bank, and they’ll be communicating any further details about the future.”
The Daily Mail had published photos of customers lining up at branches of First Republic Bank over the weekend to take out their money. Shares of the bank plunged when trading opened Monday and finished the day down 62 percent. Signature stock was trading at $70 — down from $110 Tuesday — when it was suspended Friday.
Signature’s dalliance with cryptocurrency investors, combined with the debacle at Silicon Valley Bank, may have led regulators to fear depositors would rush to withdraw funds Monday.
Another issue for Signature borrowers is servicing on their loans. Signature doesn’t make a lot of construction loans, but many multifamily loans provide funding for things like tenant improvement costs and leasing commissions. It’s not clear how requests for those are being handled.
One area already hit by disruption is letters of credit, which Signature Bank provides to commercial tenants. Landlords are now telling tenants that the letters are no longer good to use as security deposits.
“We’re going to them and saying if you’ve got a letter of credit with Signature, you need to replace that,” said Rosenberg & Estis attorney Eric Orenstein.
California-based life-sciences landlord Alexandria Real Estate Equities filed a disclosure Monday saying it has a little more than $108 million worth of letters of credit backed by Silicon Valley Bank and its affiliates, and that it is working with tenants to replace them.
More broadly, it’s unclear what impact Signature Bank’s takeover will have on New York’s lending market. Fisher, a land-use attorney, said many lenders are likely hitting pause today as they wait for the banking sector to settle down.
When things do get back to normal, there will be one big player missing for borrowers who still have to contend with higher interest rates.
“A lot of this is going to pass like a kidney stone: painful and bloody,” Fisher said.
Read more New York Watch: Bank run brings down top multifamily lender Signature Bank New York Regulators shut Signature Bank, a key multifamily lender San Francisco Sizing up Silicon Valley Bank’s real estate exposure The post Uncertainty grips Signature Bank’s real estate customers appeared first on The Real Deal.
Two Roads’ Reid Boren and Taylor Collins with rendering of 2121 North Bayshore Drive (Two Roads, Arquitectonica, Getty)A mega-project that would add another 705 condos to Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood is up for a key city vote tied to its design.
The Miami Urban Development Review Board on Wednesday will consider approving a three-tower development that includes an Edition-branded condominium at 2121 North Bayshore Drive.
Two Roads Development, a Miami-based and West Palm Beach-based firm led by Reid Boren and Taylor Collins, is proposing to build the project on a 3.5-acre waterfront site with roughly 800 feet of frontage on Biscayne Bay.
In September, Two Roads unveiled its plans to develop the Edition Residences, a 55-story luxury high-rise with 185 condos. The other two proposed condominiums, with a combined 520 units and rising 56 stories each, are as yet unnamed.
Last year, Two Roads acquired a majority of the units at Biscayne 21, an existing condominium completed in 1964 at 2121 North Bayshore Drive in Miami. Two Roads paid roughly $150 million. The developer intends to demolish the older building, and terminated the Biscayne 21 condo association in November, records show.
Two Roads hired Miami-based Arquitectonica to design the three new towers, as well as a 13-story parking garage. The development would also include 8,433 square feet of commercial space and 45,000 square feet of amenities, according to the site plan.
Two Roads is requesting that the review board grant six waivers, including the elimination of 347 parking spaces, a 10 percent reduction in the space between two of the towers, and allow two driveways spaced less than 60 feet apart at the northeast corner of the project.
In 2008, hotelier Ian Schrager and Marriott launched the Edition brand, and the properties include the Miami Beach Edition hotel. The property also has residential units on the top two floors of the hotel and an adjacent 18-story condominium. However, the planned Edition Residences in Edgewater would not have a hotel component.
Two Roads also developed two other condominiums in Edgewater: the 52-story Biscayne Beach and the 57-story Elysee Miami.
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Signature Bank CEO Joseph DePaolo (Facebook, Getty)Bank regulators on Sunday evening announced they have closed Signature Bank as they try to prevent a banking crisis spurred by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.
The state’s Department of Financial Services took possession of Signature, a major multifamily lender in New York, to protect depositors. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was appointed receiver of the bank.
A joint release by the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve board of governors and the FDIC shortly after 6 p.m. said the FDIC would protect all depositors at California-based Silicon Valley Bank.
“We are also announcing a similar systemic risk exception for Signature Bank … which was closed today by its state chartering authority,” the statement read.
New York-based Signature is FDIC-insured, with total assets of $110 billion and total deposits of $89 billion — much of it landlords’ money — as of Dec. 31.
“This is a very big deal for New York City housing,” tweeted Jay Martin, executive director of the landlord group Community Housing Improvement Program. “Many multifamily businesses bank with Signature and similar regional banks. Quick action here to make depositors whole was necessary and it’s good news to see the Fed assuring that.”
Signature had funded about $35.7 billion worth of real estate loans, about 48 percent of the bank’s total loans, according to its most recent regulatory filings. But fallout from the cryptocurrency crash left the bank scrambling to reassure investors that its exposure to crypto was not a threat.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement, “I hope that these actions will provide increased confidence in the stability of our banking system.”
Regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank late last week after a run on deposits left the bank weakened. The sentiment rippled through Wall Street as Signature and other banks saw their stock prices fall.
Signature’s share price fell 25 percent on Friday before trading was temporarily halted.
Read more San Francisco Sizing up Silicon Valley Bank’s real estate exposure New York As Signature severs crypto arm, CRE lending to suffer New York Signature Bank to rein in real estate lending as deposits falter The post Regulators shut Signature Bank, a key multifamily lender appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)Fannie Mae is looking into a program that would forgo title insurance and attorney opinion letters, according to Housing Wire.
The program would waive the title insurance requirements for some mortgage lenders on loans sold to Fannie Mae, the outlet said.
The government-run company, which backs trillions of dollars of U.S. residential mortgages, would roll out the program in the spring, according to Housing Wire.
Fannie Mae didn’t confirm the report, however.
“We know that closing costs continue to be a barrier for homebuyers — especially among underserved populations and first-time homebuyers,” a Fannie Mae spokesperson said, according to the outlet. “We continue to research options that would lead to cost reductions in a safe and sound manner and help borrowers save money as part of our Equitable Housing Finance Plan. As we’re still in the research phase, we don’t currently have any additional details to share at this time.”
Reports of the plan have drawn opposition from the American Land Title Association.
“We are extremely concerned about the reported Fannie Mae pilot program to waive title insurance requirements for certain transactions. It appears Fannie Mae is moving beyond its charter and mission directly into the title insurance business. It should raise significant alarm bells,” the trade group wrote in an email to Housing Wire. “If the 2008 financial crisis taught us anything, it is that shortcuts to well-established processes pose great risks to our sound, dependable, and trustworthy real estate system, homeowners, and taxpayers. FHFA should halt this activity.”
The report comes on the heels of Fannie Mae announcing last year that, in limited cases, it would accept attorney opinion letters instead of title insurance.
— Ted Glanzer
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(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A mother of five thought she was a shoo-in for Glendale’s affordable housing voucher waitlist in the summer of 2021. After more than 11,000 people from the country applied for just 350 spots, however, she received a devastating email: she didn’t get it.
The Glendale voucher lottery is emblematic of affordable housing struggles across the state and the country, the Arizona Republic reported. Many lotteries across the nation don’t factor residence into the system, meaning a local can be bumped out by someone from the other side of the country.
The Glendale Housing Authority opened applications for its housing choice voucher program in July 2021. In only three weeks, tens of thousands of applications flooded in, making it more difficult to get a waitlist opening than a Harvard acceptance letter. Applications came from 48 states, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C.
The voucher program, formerly known as Section 8, subsidizes a large portion of rent for low-income households. Tenants pay 30 percent of their income on rent, while the voucher takes care of the rest.
But the programs are frequently overwhelmed by applications, necessitating waiting lists and plenty of rejections. So-called waitlist shoppers have taken to applying for affordable housing programs across the country, desperate to find some place they can afford to live.
Glendale’s voucher program is a lottery, so those picked for a waitlist spot are random. More than a dozen households from Chicago made it on to the waitlist that Cecilia Arvizo missed out on.
“I’ve got five babies in the car with me, and you’re telling me I didn’t make it in the lottery,” Arvizo thought after the rejection, according to the publication. A year and a half later, her family remains without a permanent home.
Many experts didn’t find fault in the Glendale system so much as fault in the affordable housing system altogether. There are way fewer homes available for low-income families than families struggling to make rent.
Read more New York Red tape keeping affordable units empty for 15 months New York NYC overhauls housing lottery application system One solution pitched by the experts was to allow anyone who qualifies for a voucher able to receive one. In 2020, the Urban Institute determined such a program would help nearly 20 million additional people, though it would come at a hefty cost: $62 billion.
That program wouldn’t solve another issue with vouchers — many can’t use them because the units need to be below a certain price limit and some landlords discriminate against those looking to pay with vouchers.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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Gov. Kathy Hochul, @properties co-CEO Thad Wong and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties’ CEO Steven James (Getty, Matthew Gilson, Berkshire Hathaway)The quote of the week is just four words, but they say so much: “The Fed is killing us.”
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties’ CEO Steven James was referring to likely pending interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve that will take the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate to over 7 percent, further cooling the residential market.
Others were equally sour.
“We’re finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and the Fed is ruining all of that for us,” said Jessica Peters, a Douglas Elliman broker. “We’ve had it really tough for the last six months across the board. …Unless interest rates mean nothing to you, it’s really severely affected the market.”
Banks weren’t thrilled with the possibility of it becoming more expensive to borrow money.
“The issue here is what is the domino effect of problems outside the banking industry on the banks themselves?” Mike Mayo, a bank analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, according to NBC News. “Banks are still the heart of the economy, and if there’s issues, then banks are going to feel it.”
Brokerage firms continued to prepare for tougher times ahead, with @properties confirming it’s adding a 1 percent fee on agents’ gross commission income.
“I don’t know if we’ve seen the worst, or if the worst is coming — you have to be prepared,” firm co-CEO Thad Wong said. “If you’re not talking about your plans when things slow down, you’re making a mistake.”
Winter may be coming, Jon Snow, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul dismissed doubts on Penn Station’s redevelopment and expansion, by saying, “I’m committed to getting that done.” Hochul made the comment on WNYC’s “All Things Considered,” in response to a state senator who said the deal was dead.
What’s also still very much alive are strip malls. Yes, strip malls. The anonymous Twitter personality StripMallGuy, who has more than 160,000 followers on the platform, has a lot to say about the oft-overlooked sector of commercial real estate.
“A lot of our memories growing up involve a strip mall,” he said in an interview with The Real Deal. “My mom meets her friends at the nail salon, it’s someone’s birthday, we go get pizza. Everyone has their favorite local restaurant. You grow up spending time at the strip mall, whether or not you realize it. It’s part of our human experience.”
He explained what are the right mix of businesses for strip malls, and why a Chick-fil-A or a martial arts center aren’t necessarily ideal tenants.
Still, being the StripMallGuy does have its drawbacks, he said.
“I do get imposter syndrome. I worked hard to build a career and suddenly I’m known as this cartoon character, right? Our three-year-old son, yesterday he was like, ‘Am I strip mall boy?’”
Read more National They said what now? Real estate quotes of the week National They said what now? Real estate quotes of the week National They said what now? Real estate quotes of the week The post They said what now? Real estate quotes of the week appeared first on The Real Deal.
Connecticut Capitol (Getty Images)The Connecticut legislature won’t take up a measure this session that would cap rent increases at 4 percent plus the consumer price index, the CT Mirror reported.
Last week, the Housing Committee declined to advance the bill, instead passing a measure that will create task forces to study rent stabilization and its effect.
“We need to really take a deep dive into this to make sure we are doing something that’s fair and equitable on both sides,” Housing Committee co-chair Sen. Marilyn Moore (D-Bridgeport), said according to the Mirror.
The move comes after hearings that drew hundreds of Connecticut residents who said they can’t keep up with spiking rents that have, in some instances, increased 20 percent year over year.
Thirty-one states, including Connecticut and Massachusetts, prohibit municipalities from passing their own rent control laws, the outlet said. The Boston City Council last week advanced a rent stabilization plan that ties rent increases to inflation, with a cap at 10 percent. That plan has several exemptions, including small landlords and buildings that are less than 15 years old. Still, that measure must pass the Massachusetts State House for it to go into effect.
Proponents of the Connecticut bill expressed frustration that the plan stalled in committee.
“The decision not to advance HB 6588 out of the Housing Committee leaves our communities in a crisis that will only continue to deepen,” Cap the Rent, the group pushing for the bill, said in a statement, according to the Mirror. “It is difficult to find a corner of this state that is not impacted by inflated rents, no-cause evictions, and poor housing conditions.”
Opposition to the plan came from landlords who said the plan would shift on to them the burden of inflation and other increasing costs that are above the cap. They also argued the plan could create a disincentive for landlords to invest in their properties or expand the number of units they have, the outlet reported.
“Without the ability to increase rents to keep up with rising costs, landlords have little incentive to improve the property, and builders are discouraged from creating new housing stock,” John Souza, president of the Connecticut Coalition of Property Owners, wrote in public testimony, CT Mirror reported.
— Ted Glanzer
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Living New York’s Kobi Lahav, Coldwell Banker Warburg’s Anne Cion Gruenberger and Corcoran’s Jessica Kaufman (Facebook/Kobi Lahav-Real Estate Sales/Leasing NYC | New York NY, Coldwell Banker Warburg, Corcoran, Getty)Jessica Kaufman almost lost a deal because of a little yellow light.
The Corcoran broker was walking a buyer through the final showing of an Upper East Side apartment last December when the washer and dryer lit up during the run dry cycle, signaling that the machine was in need of service.
“Things like that can kill a deal,” Kaufman said.
The buyer requested that the seller shell out hundreds of dollars to have the machine serviced, but the seller refused, claiming the washer/dryer worked just fine and that they were prepared to walk if the buyer didn’t drop it.
Instead, Kaufman played the middle man for several weeks as the two sides argued over what to do about the machine. After multiple calls and reassurances — including recording videos of both the wash and dry cycles running several times — they finally agreed to the sale.
“It always happens on any deal. Someone’s always going to harp on something,” Kaufman said. “Sometimes it’s not a rational discussion, but it’s an intense thing when you’re buying and selling homes. ”
Small details are often the largest impediments to closing a deal.
In Kobi Lahav’s case, one of these overlooked factors did kill a deal. The sales director at Living New York was in the final stages of a sale of a multi-family investment property when the bank flagged his client’s loan application.
A collection was out on her credit for an unpaid $140 cable bill.
“Now this is someone who has a perfect score otherwise and is buying a property for over $2 million,” Lahav said. “I ended up selling her something else later on, but that deal was dead on arrival because she didn’t pay her cable bills.”
Seemingly minute details, like an overdue cable bill, can derail mortgage applications, William Raveis mortgage banker Melissa Cohn said. Other risky financial moves include leaving a job before a loan application closes or making a large purchase with a credit card.
Another common deal disruptor is gas lines. Sales can’t close without a working gas line, and sellers often either turn them off out of caution or don’t realize the gas line was disconnected until the last minute.
Coldwell Banker Warburg broker Anne Cion Gruenberger said a gas line sent her into a “mad scramble” in the final stages of closing on an apartment she listed as part of an estate.
Gruenberger said she was escorting the buyer through the final walkthrough of the apartment two days before closing when they realized that the stove and oven weren’t working. The owners had arranged for ConEd to turn off the gas to the kitchen appliances, and Gruenberger had to clamber to figure out a way to save the deal. The sale ultimately went through when the parties agreed to escrow some funds until the gas was restored.
In all of these scenarios, it’s imperative agents stay calm and find a way to move forward.
“Someone’s gotta give to move forward,” Kaufman said. “Ultimately, they blame the broker anyway.”
Read more New York Real estate agents toughen up to sell their own homes New York Coldwell Banker Warburg allies with Reuveni for new dev arm New York Living New York bumps Eklund-Gomes off Red Hook project The post Real estate agents say these small details derail deals appeared first on The Real Deal.
Clockwise from top left: 4 New York Plaza in New York, Tribune Tower in Chicago, a rendering of Resorts World Miami, The Orlando Sentinel at 610 North Orange Avenue in Miami, and the Times Mirror Square complex in Los Angeles (Hines, Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, Arquitectonica, JLL Properties, Minnaert, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)Long before the pandemic, the country was losing newsrooms at a rate of two per week, according to Local News Initiative, a report from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. This left behind a vast landscape of empty offices and a handful of iconic buildings. Since their closing, many of those spaces have been completely transformed, paving the way for jaw-dropping luxury condos, indoor ropes courses and everything in between.
New York Daily NewsThere was a time when the Daily News was the best selling newspaper in America, but in 2020 the paper had to jump ship from its Manhattan office at 4 New York Plaza due to the pandemic and ensuing city-wide shutdown. The paper, a subsidiary of Tribune Publishing, has since moved its staff to a near-permanent remote work status, negating a need for the FiDi location. Instead, the massive office space houses tenants including J.P. Morgan Chase, American Media and Radio One.
Miami HeraldIn 2013, the Miami Herald joined droves of newspapers across the country that drastically downsized their office space, and swapped its 750,000 square foot waterfront headquarters on Biscayne Bay in favor of a 160,000 square foot complex in suburban Doral — which it later left in 2020 in favor of remote work. The paper’s original One Herald Plaza location has been the subject of much speculation and zoning drama since it was purchased for $236 million and torn to the ground in 2014, with developers Resorts World Miami and Malaysian-based Genting Group looking to build three 60-story buildings atop a sprawling casino complex on the site, according to Florida YIMBY. The groups also promised to expand the city’s monorail system as a concession for the casino’s construction, linking Miami to Miami Beach via the BayLink monorail system. In the meantime, the empty lot is being repurposed annually as a makeshift convention center, hosting trade shows and events.
Orlando SentinelRental drama led to the departure of the Orlando Sentinel at its former headquarters at 610 North Orange Avenue. In 2016, developer Midtown Properties acquired the location, extending a leasing agreement with the paper’s parent company, Tribune Publishing, to 2023. Ultimately however, a lawsuit for more than half a million dollars in unpaid rent nixed all that. In the Sentinel’s place, Midtown has planned a $75 million mixed-use redevelopment project, featuring office, hotel, retail and parking at the downtown spot, according to the Orlando Business Journal.
Chicago TribuneIt was an offer for $240 million that led to the Chicago Tribune handing over the keys to its iconic Tribune Tower. The 34-story neo-Gothic highrise was spurred out of a design competition launched by the paper in 1922, a token of the promise and prosperity in the newspaper industry at time. Nearly a hundred years later, however, the site would fall out of their hands, transferring ownership to CIM Group in 2016. It has since been retrofitted for 162 luxury condominiums with price tags ranging from $700,000 to more than $7 million, according to The Architect’s Newspaper. The remodel, led by architectural firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz, maintains most of the historic landmark’s original design and infrastructure, including the paper’s grand lobby, the Hall of Inscriptions, as well as its iconic buttresses and watchful gargoyles.
Dallas Morning NewsThe Dallas Morning News shifted out of its longtime headquarters at 508 Young Street in 2017 in favor of another building by architect George Dahl — the city’s old public library. The 8-acre complex in the Downtown Historic District was purchased by Charter Holdings President Ray Washburne for $28 million in 2020, according to the outlet, who eyed big plans for the site, aiming to transform its 1940’s architecture into a retro entertainment district that would complement business from the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center around the corner. Plans for the location include a 130-room boutique hotel made out of the paper’s original newsroom, nicknamed the “Rock of Truth” building for the inscription on its facade, as well as transforming the location’s defunct printing presses into a multi-level performance venue.
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times evacuated its office in the Times Mirror Square complex in 2018 following a $100 million sale to the Canadian developer Omni Group. Since then, the campus has been completely reimagined, with development currently underway to introduce two residential towers to the site, the Los Angeles Times reported. The buildings, staggering at 37 and 53-stories high, will house 1,127 apartments between them as well as retail stores and restaurants. The proposal also plans to restore two adjacent buildings, including the historic former home of the newspaper, creating more than 300,000 square feet of rentable office space in downtown L.A.
New Haven RegisterAlthough Connecticut’s New Haven Register has switched locations a handful of times, the transformation of its spot at 40 Sargent Drive in the city’s Long Wharf neighborhood may arguably be the most unusual on the list. The 200,000 square foot office space, which the paper ditched in 2012, has since been redeveloped into a Jordan’s Furniture, according to property records. Propped beside a massive IKEA, the former newsroom and its dead printing press houses the New England-based furniture retailer. As part of the store’s master plan, it also includes the country’s largest indoor ropes course as well as an ice cream parlor and pizza kitchen.
The post Turning the page: Abandoned newspaper buildings find new purpose appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Governor of Nevada Joe Lombardo (Getty)A bill is on the table in Nevada to raise the real estate transfer tax to help fund affordable housing in the state. Whether or not the governor would sign off on that proposal remains to be seen.
The proposed measure would raise the real property transfer tax in the state by 20 centers for every $500 of sales value, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The tax would jump from 65 cents to 85 cents.
That doesn’t seem like a lot, but it could add up when considering more expensive homes. For instance, the median-priced home in Las Vegas is $425,000. Should the law pass, the taxes paid on that sale would increase by $170.
Money from the tax would go toward an account dedicated to housing assistance. The fund would provide assistance to both supportive housing and very low-income housing, 25 percent of which would be allocated to the region’s housing authority.
Affordable housing is a need in Nevada, just as it is elsewhere in the country. A census last year determined more than 5,600 people lived in either shelters or on the streets and 14,000 people in Southern Nevada were estimated to have experienced homelessness.
Mental health advocates are among those in support of the bill, noting in testimony how mental health disorders affect access to affordable housing. Opponents of the bill include the Nevada Realtors — likely wary of how the bill may affect transactions and, as a byproduct, commissions — along with lobbyists with the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Nevada Association of Counties.
Read more New York “Honey, I bought the town:” Buyer ends up with big chunk of subdivision New York Douglas Elliman bets on Vegas in westward expansion Even if the measure passes, its likelihood of being enacted doesn’t seem high. Gov. Joe Lombardo has pledged not to seek new taxes or raise existing ones, predisposing him to rejecting a bill that would do exactly that.
Municipalities are increasingly looking towards tax acts to increase funding for affordable housing. Next month, all property that trades in Los Angeles for more than $10 million will face an additional 5.5 percent tax from the city, which plans to use the revenue for affordable housing development and rent relief.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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Colin Rath Colin Rath doesn’t sell himself short when he’s talking about himself.
In his own words, the former New York City developer says he’s “a successful entrepreneur, Manhattan real estate developer, and author” on a website that promotes his self-published book, “It Is What it Is: A True Manhattan Real Estate Nightmare with a Silver Lining.”
He can add convicted New Zealand criminal to that resume now that he’s been slapped with a 43-month sentence for document forgery and tax fraud related to his winery in that country, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Rath sailed to New Zealand in a luxury yacht in 2016 and obtained an entrepreneur residency visa. In 2018, through his company Waipara Winds Limited, he bought a 70-acre Canterbury vineyard with a restaurant, and set up a separate company that he named “New York Grape Escape,” the outlet reported.
Rath filed tax returns for the two companies from 2017 to 2021, claiming roughly $900,000 in refunds — of which he received $780,000 — that he later told investigators he was going to use to reinvest in the vineyard through building a bed and breakfast, among other things.
In his 2021 tax return, Rath said he was spending about $900,000 on a spec house, subdivisions and a bed and breakfast. When officials visited the property, Rath showed them a house he said he built, as well as plans for the subdivision.
Investigators found the house was owned by someone else, unrelated to Rath’s companies, the outlet said.
All told, Rath, through his two companies, filed 39 false tax returns along with 85 forged supporting documents, the outlet reported. He also filed 13 forged Inland Revenue documents in support of his entrepreneur residency visa with New Zealand’s immigration department, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Rath was subsequently charged with and pleaded guilty to two counts of using forged documents and 39 counts of dishonesty using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage, 1New said.
Prior to his New Zealand excursion, Rath wrote of his time as a New York real estate developer in an incendiary memoir that The Real Deal described in 2015 as “less an educational tale than an airing of grievances.” Rath wrote of his and his wife Pamela Harvey-Rath’s trials and tribulations in purchasing and redeveloping 123 West 15th Street, which ultimately led to a family intervention, a foreclosure and multiple lawsuits.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more New York “It is what it is”: A noob developer takes on NYC National Real estate investor pleads guilty to stealing $3M National Maryland real estate agent faces arson charges The post Sour grapes: Former NYC developer sentenced for fraud in New Zealand appeared first on The Real Deal.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (Getty)A mayor-backed plan to rein in spiking rents in Boston cleared a major hurdle when the City Council passed a rent-control measure last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The plan, which has numerous exemptions, ties rent increases to inflation, with a cap at 10 percent, according to the outlet. The plan doesn’t cover small landlords and buildings that are less than 15 years old, which together comprise about 45 percent of Boston’s rental units, WBUR said, citing city data.
The plan, which the council passed 11-2, also includes a for-cause eviction measure, the Journal reported.
The whole plan, proposed by Mayor Michelle Wu, must receive approval from the Massachusetts State House, because the state’s residents banned rent control via a referendum in 1994, WBUR said.
Wu, who took office in 2021, made rent stabilization a priority; Boston has historically had high rents, which have gone up about 25 percent in the past two years, the Journal reported citing data from Zillow Group.
This is a monumental act for the city of Boston,” Councilor Ricardo Arroyo said, according to WBUR. “I commend the mayor for moving forward with rent stabilization to address what has been a long standing issue of price gouging and rent gouging and displacement.”
Opponents, like Councilor Fred Baker, said the measure targets a sector that has created “generational wealth,” in Boston, WBUR said. Others said the measure will create a chilling effect on developers wanting to build housing in the city, the Journal said.
Rent control advocates, however, decried the measure because the cap was still too high and because the exemptions covered too many properties, the Journal reported.
Not every rent control effort advanced in New England.
The Housing Committee in the Connecticut legislature last week declined to vote on a bill that would have capped rent increases in the state. The committee instead approved a bill to create task forces to study the impact of rent control
— Ted Glanzer
Read more New York Signs of distress hit rent-stabilized buildings New York How did 116,000 rent-stabilized units vanish? New York Survey says: More rent-stabilized decay The post Boston City Council passes rent control measure appeared first on The Real Deal.
William Lauder (Getty Images)Another week, another major Palm Beach real estate move for billionaire William Lauder, the executive chairman of Estee Lauder Companies.
On the heels of listing two adjacent, oceanfront vacant lots for $200 million, Lauder bought Rush Limbaugh’s compound for a record $155 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Early last week, Kathryn Adams Limbaugh, Rush’s widow, sold the homes at 1495 North Ocean Boulevard, 1501 North Ocean Boulevard, and 108 Mediterranean Road to a Delaware entity named for the address, 1495 N Ocean Blvd LLC. The buyer, however, was not immediately identified.
It was Lauder’s second big real estate move in as many weeks, first listing the two parcels — at 1063 and 1071 North Ocean Boulevard — that total a little more than 2.3 acres with 360 feet of beachfront. If Lauder fetches that price it will be the most expensive sale for vacant land in Palm Beach history.
The compound that Lauder bought last week for $155 million was first assembled by Rush Limbaugh and his then-wife Marta Fitgerald in the late 1990s through the purchase of three separate properties. He bought the two North Ocean Boulevard homes, and she bought the Mediterranean Road home.
The estate spans a total of 2.7 acres, and has three homes: a main 16,600-square-foot mansion, a 2,900-square-foot house, and a 2,200-square-foot house. The homes have a combined 13 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. The mansion at 1495 North Ocean Boulevard was built in 1992. The house at 1501 North Ocean Boulevard was built in 1951, and the 108 Mediterranean Road house was built in 1934.
Rush Limbaugh died in 2021. Kathryn Adams Limbaugh, Rush’s fourth wife, began shopping the compound last summer for between $150 million and $175 million.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more The post William Lauder buys Limbaugh Palm Beach estate for $155M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jackie Kennedy and 3017 North Street Northwest in Washington, D.C. (Getty, HomeVisit, Google Maps)A piece of Washington, D.C., history is hitting the market.
The Georgetown property formed through the combination of three houses — one of which was home to former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — will be listed for $26.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Jonathan Taylor, of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, has the listing for a trust of the late David W. Hudgens, who combined the three homes into a 16,300-square-foot, 13-bedroom mansion before his death in November 2022, the outlet said.
The home formerly owned by Onassis became a tourist attraction, leading the family to move out about nine months after Onassis bought it in December 1963, the Journal reported.
Hudgens bought the three homes individually: one for $1.2 million in 1997; another in 2006 for $1.6 million; and the former Onassis home for $5.25 million in 2017, according to the outlet.
It took about four years for the homes to be remodeled and connected, according to architect Dale Overmyer, who was commissioned for the project. The homes, though connected, still maintain their own individual characteristics, according to the WSJ.
Read more Los Angeles J.Lo and Ben Affleck scrap $35M house deal for $64M mansion nearby National Josh Flagg of “Million Dollar Listing” says “Selling Sunset” agents are actors Chicago Actors Tracy Letts, Carrie Coon sell Bucktown mansion for $3M Hudgens’ vision was to have a place where “presidents and dignitaries could visit and fundraising events could occur,” Overmyer told the Journal. “He also wanted all three houses to work independently or together.”
The former Onassis home, built in the late 18th century and also known as the Baker House, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Some elements of the home remained intact, including the fireplaces, entry hall and first floor living room, the Journal reported. It also includes a library, dining room, new kitchen and gym, as well as an entirely redone second floor.
One of the other homes has a roof terrace with views of the Washington Monument, the Journal said.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ former home up for sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Big Easy is becoming a big landing spot for fraudsters looking to steal and sell land.
There have been at least seven fraud attempts in New Orleans recently, 4WWL reported. Scammers are taking advantage of digital tools to try and fool parties of a real estate transaction into paying for land the scammers do not own.
Here’s the scam: thieves impersonate sellers and steal their identities, then forge documents to sell the vacant land owned by these so-called sellers. The scheme has proliferated due to the rise of online real estate transactions, which lessens the need for in-person interactions, and therefore, validation of a person’s identity.
In the Riverbend neighborhood, a neighbor alerted Daniel Tan that another neighbor wanted to make an offer on Tan’s land above the $140,000 listing price. Tan was confused and for good reason: He never listed the lot.
He got in contact with the Realtor marketing the property, who told him it was under contract. Tan said that it shouldn’t have been, considering he was the owner. Among the fake documents presented in the case were wiring instructions to a bank, notarized sale documents and a driver’s license with the correct number and address, but wrong picture of Tan’s face.
The title company recognized the fraud and confirmed with Tan that the lot was not for sale before any money changed hands.
Title companies are combating the growing scam by asking for more forms of identification and checking prior sales for matching signatures and photos. They are also encouraging buyers to get title insurance and for real estate agents to visually see the people that are supposedly selling their lots.
The New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors has put an alert about the scam on its website.
Tan is also looking to find legal actions to go after the scammers; he’s an attorney by trade.
“If I don’t know the locks on my front door don’t work when I go to bed, I don’t know that I need to take some extra precautions or even fix that front door,” Tan told the publication. “And right now, we don’t have anything to notify us that our front door is broken.”
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more New York NY AG pushes to criminalize deed theft New York In city ripe for deed theft, lawyer pitches protection service The post Real estate scams on the rise in New Orleans appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A New York City real estate brokerage owner pleaded guilty in federal court last week to paying kickbacks and bribes to Victor Rivera, the former head of one of the largest homeless shelter operators in the city, the New York Times reported.
Sheina Levin, the owner of Urban Residences, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud on Thursday, the outlet said.
Prosecutors said Levin paid nearly $690,000 to Rivera from May 2019 to January 2021, to have the Bronx Parent Housing Network, helmed by Rivera, lease space from a building Urban Residences owned in the Bronx.
The arrangement gave Urban Residences a toehold in receiving at least some of the hundreds of millions of dollars designated each year to assist people experiencing homelessness.
The Bronx Parent Housing Network paid millions in rent to Urban Residences.
“This unscrupulous real estate company owner resorted to bribes and kickbacks to become the landlord of choice for a taxpayer-funded nonprofit that provides vital homeless shelter services,” Jocelyn E. Strauber, the commissioner of New York City’s Department of Investigation, said in a statement.
Rivera last year was sentenced to two years and three months in prison for taking kickbacks and bribes from associates, including Levin, from 2013 to 2021, the Department of Investigation said. Levin, who is Rivera’s former business partner, allegedly paid the largest in a series of kickbacks to Rivera that netted him $1.2 million.
However, as the nonprofit grew — the Housing Network received $274 million from the city to run shelters since 2017 — Rivera began living large: He received a salary of more than $450,000, leased a luxury car through Housing Network and then began doling out contracts to close associates, including Levin, as well as commingling nonprofit work with for-profit companies.
Rivera’s legal troubles are a stunning fall from grace, who launched the Bronx Parent Housing Network in 2000 and overcame homelessness and addiction himself, according to the Times.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more New York Rinaldi exec accused of kickback scheme to fleece developers New York Contractor in alleged mob scandal worked on major NY projects Chicago Former executive of Chicago-based flooring company indicted in alleged kickback scheme The post Real estate brokerage owner pleads guilty in bribery scheme appeared first on The Real Deal.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and @properties’ Thad Wong (Getty, @properties)Commercial real estate isn’t the only sector struggling to get back on its feet. Residential is also suffering from a malaise after its pandemic-induced sugar high has been stifled by rising interest rates and limited inventory.
And now, the springtime thaw brokers were hoping for looks more like a deep freeze.
With the jobs report showing stronger than expected figures, the Fed is poised to increase interest rates again in its ongoing effort to combat inflation.
“It’s going to be rocky for a while,” said Greg Heym, chief economist at Brown Harris Stevens.
To prepare for frigid conditions, Chicago-based @properties Christie’s International Real Estate confirmed last week that it’s tacking on an agent services fee of 1 percent of gross commission income.
Co-CEO Thad Wong believes the move will help stabilize his firm during uncertain market conditions.
The troubles extend into the multifamily sector as well. In New York, Sugar Hill Capital Partners is in danger of losing rent-stabilized buildings in Harlem, as it stopped making mortgage payments on some of its properties, Gothamist reported.
The firm, which owns at least 50 rent-stabilized buildings in Upper Manhattan, is already facing foreclosure on some of those properties and more could come.
Owners of stabilized apartments are feeling the crunch due to the double whammy, with New York state law making it more difficult to increase rent on stabilized apartments coupled with spiking interest rates.
There are, however, some asset classes that have enough insulation to keep warm.
In Palm Beach, Kathryn Adams Limbaugh, the widow of late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, sold their longtime oceanfront compound for $155 million in an unlisted transaction.
The buyer of the homes — at 1495 North Ocean Boulevard, 1501 North Ocean Boulevard, and 108 Mediterranean Road — is unknown. Adams Limbaugh began shopping the compound on the down-low around July 2022 with a reported asking price between $150 million and $175 million.
Edwin Castro may not be well known, but his good fortune is.
Castro, winner of a $2 billion Powerball jackpot, bought a $25.5 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills, according to Dirt.com. The nearly $1 billion lump-sum payout Castro received allowed him to buy the 13,600-square-foot estate, which had been listed for nearly $30 million.
Another duplex at Gary Barnett’s Central Park Tower supertall in New York hit the market with a big ask. The 12,500-square-foot penthouse on the 107th and 108th floors at 217 West 57th Street listed for an eye watering $175 million, the New York Post first reported, citing StreetEasy.
Read more National Commercial real estate continues to get pummeled National CRE’s distress moment is here New York Murder, bribery and contempt charges: Just another week in real estate The post Residential real estate is still battling a hangover appeared first on The Real Deal.
Renderings for the Tribune Tower East at 421 N. Michigan Ave with Golub & Co’s Michael Newman (Golub & Co, Ward42Chicago)CIM Group and Golub & Co. are dipping their toes back into the water to test the market for the Tribune East Tower supertall project in Chicago’s River North.
While the project has been dormant for three years since city officials approved the development, which could become Chicago’s second-tallest tower at more than 1,400 feet, CIM recently posted a new bidding opportunity to its website for general contractors, Chicago YIMBY reported.
The solicitation confirms that development of the 1.3 million-square-foot, 120-story proposal for 421 North Michigan Avenue is still being pursued. The real estate firm’s website shows it wants construction to begin in February 2024, and the project completed by 2027.
While the development was originally projected to cost about $700 million at the time it was approved, it’s unknown how much it will cost now, considering the increase in construction costs since then and some changes to the project, such as enlarging its hotel portion and shrinking parking spaces.
With Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in charge of design, Tribune East Tower is expected to stand 1,442 feet tall, rising 102 floors. It will have a decorative glass curtain wall with gold-colored vertical fins, tapering as it peaks. The ritzy structure will comprise 564 residential units, 125 being condominiums and the 439 being rental units.
Alterations to the originally proposed plan from 2020 include increasing the number of hotel rooms in the tower to 250 from 200, and reducing the number of parking spaces from to 426 from 687.
The new tower, if built, would extend Golub and CIM’s streak of investing in the area. In 2016, the two firms partnered on a $240 million redevelopment of Tribune Tower, the former site of the Chicago Tribune’s offices, located next door at 435 North Michigan. Golub CEO Michael Newman sold a luxury condo in the building for $4.7 million last year. Other notable buyers in that building include like Walmart executive Judith McKenna, who purchased a condo on the 20th floor of the tower for $4.9 million last year, as well.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read more Chicago Golub finds next high-end Tribune Tower buyer Chicago City planners OK 2nd-tallest building in Chicago. Now the hard part begins Chicago Walmart executive buys Tribune Tower condo for $4.9M The post CIM probes Tribune East Tower again appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Ranee Bartolacci, Mathieu Massa, and Nir Meir with 1826 West 23rd Street (Google Maps, Getty, Massa Construction Group) Armed guards were posted in front of Nir Meir and Ranee Bartolacci’s waterfront Miami Beach estate, as the drama surrounding their court-ordered eviction unfolded in recent days.
Meir and Bartolacci had been successfully evicted from the home last week, but Meir wasn’t backing down. At one point, Meir allegedly returned to the house, and was inside speaking with a contractor, according to court records. Police were called three days in a row. By the third day, this past Wednesday, the landlord sought an emergency order to enforce the eviction.
But on Friday, the judge reversed his earlier decision, vacating the eviction. Meir and Bartolacci have the right to remain at their home.
The eviction saga is just one of Meir’s many made-for-TV court battles since he was forced out of HFZ Capital Group in late 2020. Meir led the New York-based development firm with its founder Ziel Feldman. It was once viewed as one of Manhattan’s most prominent condo developers. In Miami Beach, it also had a planned condo-hotel development at the Shore Club, a project that HFZ canceled in 2017.
But the company collapsed amid lawsuits and foreclosures. Meir and Feldman have been battling creditors and each other for over two years. Feldman blames Meir for the company’s downfall.
After selling his Hamptons estate to Robert Kraft in 2021, Meir and his family quickly departed to Miami Beach. They signed a lease with developer Mathieu Massa for the more than 7,500-square-foot Sunset Islands home at 1826 West 23rd Street, which was asking $150,000 a month.
Four months into their lease, in August 2021, Massa’s company sued Bartolacci for violating the lease by adding numerous additions and alterations to the house, including installing a new wood dock, air conditioning, trees and planters. Bartolacci allegedly replaced the natural grass with fake grass, changed the fountain to a fish pond, installed a jet ski floating deck and more, according to the complaint. Bartolacci countered, claiming the home was delivered to her in a “dilapidated state of disrepair, neglect, and uninhabitability.”
The eviction
As part of the lawsuit, Massa sought to evict Bartolacci. The legal drama dragged on until October of last year, when the two parties settled and dropped the lawsuit.
Yet, after settling, the landlord once again attempted to evict Bartolacci for nonpayment of rent.
In late February, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Pedro Echarte Jr. ruled that Bartolacci had breached the agreement by failing to pay February’s rent of $135,000. The judge approved a writ of possession, setting the stage for eviction.
Last Friday, Bartolacci and her family were evicted.
The property returned to the market, asking $155,000 a month with Corcoran Group’s Julian Johnston, a top broker who was named as a third-party defendant.
But that’s when the standoff began. The landlord claimed that the tenant hired armed security guards who followed them around the house, intimidating the landlord’s representative. The guards were issued a trespass warning.
“Tenant’s armed security guards are parking their vehicle … walking up and down the street and standing near the front of the landlord’s property,” the emergency motion filed Wednesday states.
At one point, after Meir was found inside with a contractor, Meir and his armed security guard moved to the front of the property and “yelled” at Massa’s representative. Meir was “very intimidating, making her shaken and very afraid,” the motion states. That is when the landlord sought an emergency motion to enforce the eviction.
Two days later, Judge Echarte did just the opposite. On a Zoom hearing Friday morning, Bartolacci’s attorney, Olga Vieira, persuaded the judge to vacate the eviction.
Vieira argued a clause in the settlement agreement states the landlord should use the security deposit if the tenant defaulted on payments. She said Massa’s lawyer “misinterpreted and misportrayed” that the landlord had not received rent, when it had the $125,000 security deposit at the time of the earlier ruling. Bartolacci also attempted to transfer an additional $10,000 to cover the outstanding rent.
Based on that argument, Bartolacci would then have 14 days to replenish the deposit.
“It is our position that this landlord has engaged in bad faith 10 to 14 days prior to the ex-parte emergency motion claiming nonpayment of rent,” Vieira said.
Bartolacci is wrapping up her second year renting the property. Meir’s name is not on the lease, but he has been living at the home with Bartolacci and their children, according to court records.
Massa, a developer and restaurateur in Miami who owns the popular Queen Miami Beach, El Tucán and Marion Miami, disagrees with the decision.
“This court previously stated that the tenant’s position was frivolous, and we stand by that position. We … will be pursuing all rights to correct the current circumstances,” said Massa, CEO of Massa Investment Group.
“I think it’s absurd the judge is letting them use the security deposit to pay rent,” listing agent Johnston said.
Meir is still in litigation with a former HFZ investor, YH Lex Estates, an entity affiliated with Israeli auto magnate Yoav Harlap, over an $18.5 million judgment issued against Meir in 2021.
The investor alleges that Meir has avoided paying on the judgment and moved to Miami Beach, where he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on fine wine, private jets and yacht charters. Meir’s lawyers denied the allegations by Harlap.
The post Eviction reversed: Judge rules on Nir Meir’s wife in Miami Beach appeared first on The Real Deal.
Live Lone Star Communities’ Sean Mickler with The Landing (LinkedIn, Getty, Live Lone Star)This Houston-based developer is all about prefab.
Live Lone Star Communities is set to open its first manufactured home community, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The Landing at Pearland will be a 55-acre gated community at 17730 County Road 127, near Pearland Regional Airport. Homes will range from two to five bedrooms, spanning 850 to 2,200 square feet. They are expected to sell from about $80,000 to $170,000, or about $94 per square foot, and residents will also pay $675 in monthly fees covering lot rental, amenity usage and common-area maintenance.
In total, the development is worth $34 million and at full build-out will include 420 mobile homes. It is expected to open in April.
Live Loan Star has seven communities in development with a total of 3,000 lots, including one underway in San Antonio and another to break ground soon in Hockley, 12 miles northwest of Cypress.
Twenty homes at the Landing at Pearland have been sold so far. Site renters can buy from builders such as Jessup Housing, Oak Creek Homes, Cavco and Champion Homes. Amenities at the Landing at Pearland will include a pool, clubhouse, game room, gym, covered area with barbecue pits, basketball court and dog park. The paved streets have LED lighting, and each house will have room for front parking.
The mobile home market has been on the rise across Texas as the unavailability of single-family homes has forced would-be homebuyers to find housing alternatives. The median home price in Houston was $320,000 in February, up more than 30 percent since the start of the pandemic, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.
Meanwhile, the Manufactured Housing Survey found the median price for a mobile-style home in the South Census region, which includes Texas, was $123,500 or about 38 percent of the price of an average single-family residence in the city. Shipments of new manufactured homes have been on a steady incline in Texas since 2019, reaching an apex last year. Manufactured homes rose by 25 percent to almost 20,000 in 2022, up from about 16,000 in 2019.
The Landing at Pearland isn’t the only manufactured home community delivering this spring. Phoenix-based developer Inspire Communities is holding the grand opening of its brand of upscale mobile homes, Rockrose Ranch, on March 25. That site is two miles from Lake Conroe on 11484 Calvary Road, a 170-acre tract in Willis.
—Brandon Sams
Read more Texas Johnson Development makes master plan in Katy Texas The future is suburban: Q&A with Ari Rastegar Houston Chesmar CEO to build huge resi community in Texas City The post Live Lone Star opens its first manufactured home development appeared first on The Real Deal.
Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland (Getty)Hours after the state sued Huntington Beach for refusing to approve a builder’s remedy granny flats projects, the Orange County city heaved its own legal challenge back to Sacramento.
Huntington Beach filed a lawsuit against the state in federal court late Thursday, saying it’s not required to obey a state housing requirement that it finds room to build nearly 13,400 homes by 2030, the Orange County Register reported.
The 59-page lawsuit alleges that state housing laws, including an eight-year housing plan known as the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, violate the city’s right to zone property.
Mayor Tony Strickland said the state’s goal is to “urbanize California” by mandating an amount of housing that would turn suburban communities like Huntington Beach into dense urban landscapes like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“Our citizens don’t want to live in an urban coastal community,” Strickland said in an afternoon press conference,
The new complaint cites violations of the U.S. and state constitutions, saying that if allowed to proceed, the state “will continue with an unbridled power play to control all aspects of the City Council’s land use decisions in order to eliminate the suburban character of the city and replace it with a high-density mecca.”
That so-called mecca would be achieved through “forced rezoning,” allowing developers to construct high-density projects and leave the council with “no discretion to deny or condition invasive high-density development,” according to the lawsuit.
It alleges the state-mandated housing element threatens the health, safety and welfare of the city and would overburden infrastructure, damage environmentally sensitive areas because the city is already nearly built out, and devalue private property.
Huntington Beach leaders have long argued that, as a charter city, it has greater autonomy and isn’t subject to state housing laws.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced its legal challenge days after the city council voted 4-3- to shun any applications filed under the builder’s remedy provision in a state law that allows developers to skirt zoning rules in cities without a state-approved housing plan. Its vote included not accepting any new applications for backyard housing units known as accessory dwelling units, or granny flats. That decision was apparently reversed on Thursday, allowing the city to once again approve ADUs, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The state is also filing a motion for preliminary injunction, which would bar the ban from taking effect while litigation is ongoing.
“California is facing an existential housing crisis, one we should all be acting in unison to solve,” Bonta said at a news conference. “Instead, the Huntington Beach City Council has chosen to stifle affordable housing projects, infringe on the rights of property owners and knowingly violate state housing law.”
Newsom made an example of Huntington Beach in 2019 when the state filed its first lawsuit against a city for not having a state-approved housing element.
Following a long fight with the state, Huntington Beach relented, settling the case out of court after losing millions of dollars in state funding — a consequence of not having a housing element.
Huntington Beach is among 242 California cities and counties subject to the builder’s remedy legal strategy because it has yet to adopt a state-certified housing element spelling out where future housing can be built.
City leaders across the state are concerned the builder’s remedy will bring unwanted housing to their neighborhoods, while stricter laws have made adoption of housing elements more difficult and time consuming.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles State sues Huntington Beach for ban on builder’s remedy and ADU housing Los Angeles Politicians take Huntington Beach to task over builder’s remedy defiance Los Angeles Builder’s remedy test case heats up in Beverly Hills The post Huntington Beach sues state over mandated housing development appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration including a rendering of Riviera Plaza at 337 20th Street in Miami Beach (Getty, Shulman & Associates)Ruger Holdings KG plans to convert an apartment building near the Miami Beach Convention Center into a hotel, The Real Deal has learned.
On Monday, the Miami Beach Preservation Board will consider Cologne, Germany-based Ruger’s proposal to renovate and partially demolish Riviera Plaza, a Mediterranean Revival building at 337 20th Street. Completed in 1926, the three-story structure has 56 one- and two-bedroom apartments, records show.
Ruger, led by CEO René Gerdom, wants to add two floors, as well as a rooftop pool and garden. The revamped property would have 76 hotel rooms, according to a letter of intent filed with the city of Miami Beach.
Riviera Plaza was originally a hotel that was converted into a multifamily building, Gerdom said via email. “We would like to bring Riviera Plaza back to its historic use,” he said. “Its location between the beach and the convention center makes it predestined for hotel use.”
In 2015, a Ruger affiliate paid $41.3 million for Riviera Plaza, records show. Construction on the proposed redevelopment would begin next year, and will cost $22 million, Gerdom said.
Ruger’s proposed hotel could potentially benefit from spillover business from a Grand Hyatt-branded convention center hotel with 800 rooms planned by a joint venture between Coconut Grove-based Terra and Aventura-based Turnberry Associates.
Last year, the historic preservation board approved Miami Beach developer Russell Galbut’s request to stack two more floors to one of the buildings that make up the Gale South Beach hotel at 1690 Collins Avenue. The property would get an additional 12 rooms at the existing 87-key hotel.
Ruger’s proposal requires approval by the preservation board because Riviera Plaza is a contributing building in the Miami Beach Museum Local Historic District. The neighborhood has a collection of low-rise buildings built between 1912 and World War II, featuring Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, Mediterranean Revival and Masonry Vernacular architecture styles.
Riviera Plaza is also near the Bass Museum of Art, and luxury condo-hotels the W South Beach and the Setai Miami Beach.
Ruger plans to retain at least 75 percent of Riviera Plaza’s facade, and at least 66 percent of the interior, the letter of intent states. Miami-based Shulman & Associates is Ruger’s architect.
The post Ruger proposes 76-room hotel near Miami Beach Convention Center appeared first on The Real Deal.
Generation Housing Development’s Travis Barber and the development site at 6405 N. Interstate 35 in Denton, TX (Google Maps, LinkedIn)The rental market is soaring in Denton, and developers are noticing.
Dallas-based Generation Housing Development plans to build the Westview Heights at Denton apartments on an undeveloped 6-acre lot at 6405 North Interstate 35, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The multifamily complex will include three buildings with 132 units and a $33 million price tag, which is about $250,000 per unit.
Listing records show the 6-acre plot the development will be built on was sold last year after it was listed for $500,000.
Construction is slated to start this summer and last until Fall 2024. The complex will span 166,000 square feet and include a clubhouse and a pool, according to the filing. Not many construction details have been released on the project, but City of Denton records show the developers submitted and received a Low Income Housing Tax Credit for the development, which will have around 90 affordable apartments, which is about 60 percent of the units. The affordable units will go for 30 percent, 50 percent or 60 percent of the market rate, depending on income qualifications.
Low Income Housing Tax Credits have been the largest driver of affordable housing for decades by offsetting a portion of private developers’ federal tax liability, which allows them to charge lower rents. The state makes the final determination on which projects receive the credit.
Generation Housing Development was founded in 2002 and focuses on Class-A multifamily assets across DFW and the southwest region. The firm has developed over 4,000 units with a $385 million value, according to its website. This looks to be its first foray into Denton.
Denton was the hottest submarket in Dallas over the past three months, according to a recent report by ApartmentData.com. The report showed Denton as the market with the best combination of rental rate growth and market absorption based on 37 DFW markets. The city has had a 2.3 percent annualized rental rate growth with 0.8 percent market absorption.
The city of Denton has adopted a number of strategic initiatives to prioritize affordable housing in light of the squeeze. The city forecasts a need for 4,300 moderately priced housing units by 2030. Because demand is so high currently in Denton, private developers are building higher-priced units for high returns, according to the city’s housing strategy guide.
“To create lower priced units, the market will require some degree of public and nonprofit support through the use of incentives, grants and technical assistance,” the city’s guide states.
Multifamily projects are still popular in-and-around the rest of DFW even as growth has slowed compared to pandemic numbers. Dallas-Fort Worth topped the most preferred markets for multifamily investment, according to CBRE’s 2023 U.S. Investor Intentions Survey. More than 65,000 multifamily units are in the construction pipeline across Dallas-Fort Worth, the highest such figure in the country.
Read more Texas Good + West barrels into Texas build-to-rent market Texas JPI leads North Texas in multifamily dev Texas Verdad Real Estate blazes into Fort Worth multifamily The post Generation Housing plans mixed-income resi appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Alec Baldwin and 335 Town Lane in Amagansett, Long Island (Getty, Hamptons Real Estate)No coffee for Alec Baldwin quite yet, as the actor still can’t close on his Hamptons house and has cut its asking price for a second time.
The actor shaved the listing price of the home at 335 Town Lane in Amagansett down to $22.5 million, the New York Post reported. It marks a reduction of $2.4 million from only two months ago. Baldwin first listed the estate in September for $29 million.
The Amityville native purchased the property in 1996 for $1.7 million and it has remained of use to him, serving as his primary residence during the pandemic. The 10,000-square-foot home has four bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The estate spans 10 acres and overlooks a preserve.
The two-story house has a movie theater — so the kids can watch “Boss Baby” on an infinite loop — a wood–paneled library and a wine tasting room. Outside, there’s a pavilion with a fireplace, a pool and a fenced vegetable garden. A buyer also has the ability and space to build a horse stable.
Saunders & Associates’ Scott Bradley and Michael Cinque share the listing.
Baldwin has been itching to sneak away from the bright lights of his native New York, quietly shopping his penthouse in Greenwich Village on East 10th Street. Last year, Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria, sold their lake house upstate for $530,000.
The simple life may be in the future for the couple, who bought a 55-acre farm in Arlington, Vermont, for $1.7 million. The rural setting could be a departure from the lifestyle expected from a famous 64-year-old actor who’s starred in numerous TV shows and films, including his iconic role as Blake, a real estate sales trainer in 1992’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
Read more Tri-State It’s complicated: Alec Baldwin chops price on Amagansett estate New York Alec Baldwin buys another pad at Devonshire House But Baldwin has been under scrutiny for the fatal 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust.” He settled a wrongful death lawsuit from Hutchins’ family but is still facing criminal charges, although last month the involuntary manslaughter charges were downgraded.
The film is still looking to resume production.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post The Undeparted: Alec Baldwin cuts Amagansett home price again appeared first on The Real Deal.
1110 South Federal Highway in Delray Beach and a rendering of 801 Brickell with Nuveen’s Mike Sales and TRX’s Randy Hetrick (Google Maps, Colliers, Nuveen, TRX Training)TRX | Delray Beach Fitness and strength training firm TRX will move its headquarters to Delray Beach from San Francisco.
TRX leased a 12,000-square-foot building that will include an office and a gym at 1110 South Federal Highway, according to its news release. A portion of the property will be a filming studio for TRX LIVE and on-demand classes.
The firm will renovate the building and expects to start classes in the fourth quarter, though an official opening date hasn’t been determined, a TRX representative said via email. It plans to hire roughly 40 trainers and other employees to work at the new headquarters.
Ingrid Kennemer of Coastal Commercial Group represented TRX. Drew Schaul and Paul Grossman of CBRE represented the landlord.
Founded in 2004, TRX’s exercises are largely based on Suspension Training straps that allow trainees to use their own body weight to exercise. Last year, TRX founder and Suspension Training inventor Randy Hetrick, along with partner Jack Daly, repurchased the company after having sold a controlling interest. Daly is the new CEO.
An entity affiliated with New York-based ABC Properties owns the property, according to records.
Novo, Banco Master | 801 Brickell | MiamiNuveen Real Estate scored two new tenants and two lease renewals at its 801 Brickell office tower in Miami.
Business banking firm Novo took 18,500 square feet, spanning the entire 22nd floor; and Brazilian financial firm Banco Master took more than 5,200 square feet on the fifth floor, according to a news release from the landlord’s broker. Also, longtime 801 Brickell tenants Royal Bank of Canada and Charles Schwab renewed their leases for a combined 23,300 square feet.
Stephen Rutchik and Tom Farmer of Colliers represented Nuveen. Ben Sarason and Tony Jones of Cushman & Wakefield represented Royal Bank of Canada. Kevin Columbo and Tyler de la Peña, also of Colliers, represented Charles Schwab.
Miami-based startup Novo, in partnership with Middlesex Federal Savings, is a tech firm that helps small businesses with their financial data, the release says. It offers payment transfers, budgeting, invoicing and e-commerce tracking.
Banco Master rebranded to focus on digital banking in 2021, and also changed its name from Banco Maxima, according to the release.
Royal Bank of Canada, which has roughly 17 million customers in 29 countries, has been an 801 Brickell tenant since 2009. Charles Schwab, based in Westlake, Texas, has been a tenant at the tower since 2018.
The leases come on the heels of Paris-based BNP Paribas bank’s subsidiary BNP Paribas Securities Corporation leasing 7,700 square feet at 801 Brickell for its first Miami office. BNP will open in the fourth quarter.
Other tenants include hospitality mogul David Grutman’s Groot Hospitality’s Komodo Miami restaurant, according to the release.
Nuveen, the investment arm of TIAA, has $156 billion of assets under management. The firm’s Southeast headquarters also is at the 28-story Brickell tower.
Puttshack | Dania Pointe | Dania Beach Miniature golf and entertainment venue Puttshack leased space at mixed-use Dania Pointe.
Puttshack took more than 25,000 square feet at 1825 Way Pointe Place in Dania Beach, according to its news release. The space will include four nine-hole mini-golf courses, two bars, Puttshack restaurants and a 100-plus guest event venue.
David Emihovich of Katz & Associates and Aaron Huggins of Puttshack represented the tenant.
Chicago-based Puttshack has five venues nationwide, including one at Brickell City Centre in Miami, and four in the United Kingdom, the release says. It plans to open 13 additional venues this year, including the one in Dania Pointe. Joe Vrankin is Puttshack’s CEO.
Kimco Realty is the master developer of the roughly 1 million-square-foot Dania Pointe that spans 102 acres on the northeast corner of I-95 and Southwest 60th Street. Roughly 750,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space has been completed, as well as 800 apartments. AC Hotel Fort Lauderdale Airport and Marriott Fort Lauderdale Airport are also open.
Kimco, based in Jericho, New York, owns the property that Puttshack leased, records show. Conor Flynn is Kimco’s CEO.
NeuroSpinal Institute of Broward | Sunrise Regenerative medicine provider NeuroSpinal Institute of Broward moved its clinic to Sunrise.
NeuroSpinal Institute, founded by Dr. Darran Hamm, now is in a 5,000-square-foot space at 55 Weston Road, according to a news release from the landlord’s broker. It used to be at 2853 Executive Park Drive in Weston.
The institute offers cellular therapy and functional rehabilitation, according to its website.
Christopher Dubberly of CBRE represented the landlord.
An affiliate of Pentaurus, a real estate investment and management firm based in Mountainside, New Jersey, owns the 49,000-square-foot Sunrise building, property records show. It paid $8.5 million for the property in 2019.
HLW | West Palm Beach Architecture, planning and design firm HLW opened its first Florida office in downtown West Palm Beach.
HLW is at 222 Lakeview Avenue, with the firm’s Robert Thomas leading the office, according to its news release.
Although this is HLW’s first Sunshine State office, the firm has worked on projects here for Univision, Piper Sandler and Subway, the release says.
HLW is based in New York and has offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and London, as well as in Stamford, Connecticut, and Madison, New Jersey.
The Henry, Miu’s Tea, more | Brickell City Centre | MiamiFour new food and beverage tenants are opening at Brickell City Centre.
Restaurant The Henry will open in June in a 6,600-square-foot space at 701 South Miami Avenue, according to a Brickell City Centre news release. In September, Starbucks will open in a 1,700-square-foot space, and Miu’s Tea in a roughly 600-square-foot space, both also at 701 South Miami Avenue.
Next year, Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer will open in 4,900 square feet at 701 South Miami Avenue.
The post Lease roundup: TRX moving headquarters to Delray Beach appeared first on The Real Deal.
Manhattan West Real Estate Group’s Lorenzo Esparza with 11190-11240 Talbert Avenue and 18071 Mt. Washington Street (Manhattan West Real Estate Group, Google Maps, LoopNet, Getty)Manhattan West Real Estate Group has bought a 59,750-square-foot industrial park in Fountain Valley for $16.5 million.
The Century City-based investor purchased the fully leased campus at 18071 Mt. Washington Street and 11190-11240 Talbert Avenue, the Orange County Register reported. The seller was DDK Investments, based in Fountain Valley.
The price came out to $276 per square foot.
The industrial complex has six tenants, including OC Art & Home, Harwood Galleria, The Drawer Shop and Radco.
Brokers Mike Barreiro and Devin Ray of Daum Commercial Real Estate Services.represented the seller. Charles Johnson and Joseph Harmon of Daum City of Industry represented the buyer.
Manhattan West, led by Lorenzo Esparza, was launched in 2016 by financial professionals who left JPMorgan Chase in New York, according to its website.
Last April, Manhattan West filed plans to build a 55-unit apartment complex at North Alvarado and West Kent streets in Echo Park.
In May, it teamed up with Newport Beach-based Ranch Harbor to buy a 91,000-square-foot warehouse on 5 acres in San Dimas for an undisclosed price.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Century City developer eyes 55 apartments in Echo Park Los Angeles “Too tall” apartment complex approved in Fountain Valley Los Angeles Troubled OC real estate investor accused of fraud The post Manhattan West snares Fountain Valley industrial park for $16.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Metro Loft’s Nathan Berman with 56 N. Moore (Loopnet, Metro Loft, Getty)A Tribeca office property for which Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft is in contract is being marketed again and could go to another buyer.
A spokesperson for Metro Loft said in January that the firm had yet to close on the Calicchio family’s 56 North Moore Street but expected to seal the deal in the next few months.
But this week, brokerage Avison Young listed the building for sale, touting its redevelopment potential as a corporate headquarters or boutique office. Metro Loft had been eyeing a conversion to residential use.
The listing might signal that Metro Loft has pulled out, a commercial broker unaffiliated with Avison Young told The Real Deal. But a spokesperson for Metro Loft said the firm is still in contract to buy the building and a residential project is still on the table.
The spokesperson said Avison Young told the firm that unless Metro Loft could show “materials for the sale,” the brokerage would need to explore other options.
An Avison Young spokesperson said the brokerage is marketing future office space at the site to prospective tenants, but would also entertain a sale to a tech firm, such as Google or Samsung. Meanwhile, Serhant is looking for a buyer that would convert the property into luxury residential, the spokesperson said.
“If someone wants to buy it, they can certainly buy it,” the spokesperson said, noting Metro Loft now expects the deal to close this summer.
Still, the unaffiliated broker, who requested anonymity, said a buyer still in contract would likely file a lis pendens on the property to secure the sale.
The document, filed in conjunction with a lawsuit concerning the property’s title, would make it difficult for the owner to sell the site to another party, according to the law firm Bergstein & Ullrich.
Legal records show no evidence of a suit involving the owners of 56 North Moore.
If the deal has fallen through, the higher cost of financing may be to blame.
In the past year, the Federal Reserve has hiked the federal funds rate 4.5 percentage points, driving the cost of debt higher and creating a bid-ask gap that has slowed investment sales.
In Manhattan, the volume of commercial real estate deals dropped about 25 percent in the second half of 2022 compared with the first, according to an Ariel Property Advisors report.
This week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled a more aggressive approach to fighting inflation, which could come in the form of a 50-basis-point rate hike later this month. Such an increase would be the highest since December.
That trajectory signals that rate hikes may continue into the second quarter, CNN reported, which could complicate Metro Loft’s plans to close on 56 North Moore this summer. Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a 19-year tax incentive for office-to-resi conversions, but its fate in the state legislature is uncertain.
This is not the first time Metro Loft has labored to close a deal in recent months.
Last fall, the firm, alongside Silverstein Properties, pushed the closing date on its office-to-resi conversion play at 55 Broad Street from October to the first quarter of 2023.
“Given the current interest rate environment and general economic forecasts, all debt and equity raises are much more challenging today than they would have been six to eight months ago,” Berman told The Real Deal at the time.
Read more New York Berman’s Metro Loft eyes alternatives for Tribeca office development National “The Fed is killing us”: Real estate reacts to news of higher, faster rate hikes New York Silverstein, Berman extend deadline to consummate $180M deal The post Avison Young markets Tribeca building already in contract to Metro Loft appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A former employee of the Cook County Land Bank will serve prison time after pleading guilty this week to a real estate scam that used his ties to the agency for personal financial benefit.
Mustafaa Saleh, 36, was indicted in November for wire fraud against the land bank, which is tasked with promoting the redevelopment of vacant parcels and employed Saleh as an asset manager from 2016 to 2019, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
Saleh faces a three-year prison sentence, set to be imposed at a sentencing hearing in June. He carried out a scheme that took advantage of the land bank, which buys properties and then sells them at below market value to aid redevelopment efforts.
However, land bank rules prohibits buyers from reselling or leasing properties until sufficient renovations and improvements have been made on them, and its employees are restricted from owning any stake or interest in the properties, with an exception for those used as a primary residence.
Suspicions of Saleh heighted in 2021 when a federal grand jury subpoenaed the agency, requesting records related to his sketchy dealings.
Prosecutors accused Saleh of using “straw buyers” to purchase six different properties on his behalf from 2016 to 2021. These properties were then again sold, built upon or used in some fashion for Saleh’s financial benefit.
In 2016, Saleh also secretly started a property maintenance business called Evergreen Property Services. Someone else posed as the owner, and then the agency hired Evergreen to maintain its properties. In total, Evergreen received over $1 million from the agency, violating the land bank’s policy which forbids employees from having a financial interest in hired contractors.
Another Cook County employee, Natasha Cornog, made headlines in 2020 after it was discovered that she evaded more than $16,000 in property taxes, and her mother avoided $23,000 in taxes by taking advantage of a senior citizen assessment freeze, despite not being qualified.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read more Texas TX builder helped scammers steal $12M from KKR Chicago East Coast investors try again to sell Streeterville retail asset South Florida Inside Miami real estate scam targeting Venezuela’s elite The post Former Cook County Land Bank employee pleads guilty to real estate scheme appeared first on The Real Deal.
New York Housing Conference’s Rachel Fee, New York State Association for Affordable Housing’s Jolie Milstein, New York Governor Kathy Hochul (Getty, Linkedin, Up For Growth)In a survey covering nearly 50,000 affordable housing units, a trade group found nearly one-third owe two months or more in rent, an average of $9,565 each. The most indebted 10 percent of renters are an average of $22,000 behind.
Those debts total $251 million for the 50,000-unit sample, the New York Housing Conference reported. Extrapolated across New York’s 384,000 affordable housing units, back rent estimates are nearly $2 billion.
Another trade group, the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, is lobbying the state to provide that amount in rent relief, saying it will stave off foreclosure for owners and eviction for tenants.
In releasing its survey, the Housing Conference echoed NYSAFAH’s call.
“Although we applaud the governor’s plan for long-term housing growth in our state, we also understand that relief is needed right now to ensure housing stability,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of the group, in a statement.
“Only government intervention can protect affordable housing and their tenants from financial distress,” the group’s report reads.
The state already has a rent relief program, but it is insolvent and unpopular with landlords whose nonpaying tenants abuse it to avoid eviction.
With 1400,00 applicants waiting on assistance, the program, which has paid out $2.8 billion, only has about $732 million left, according to the report.
A little more than half of those applicants live in public or subsidized housing and are slated to receive about $389 million, or about 2 percent of their estimated need.
One reason so few affordable tenants got payouts is because the state placed applications for government-subsidized renters, including those in NYCHA’s PACT programs, at the back of the line for rent relief.
Also, many public housing tenants stopped paying rent because they believed the rent relief program would foot the bill.
Others may have believed the state’s nearly three-year eviction moratorium insulated them from eviction and absolved them of the need to pay, Tim Kaiser, executive director of the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association, told the New York Times.
With NYCHA unable to keep up with repairs because soaring arrears blew a $500 million hole in its budget, the New York Housing Conference warned that nonprofit and for-profit providers of affordable housing face a similar fate.
Many buildings are operating with negative cash flow as inflation has pushed up operating costs and landlords in rent-stabilized buildings have been limited to small rent increases by the 2019 rent law, the report said. The arrears have exacerbated the situation.
The report offers a case study: a 139-unit affordable building in the Bronx where net cash flow — income minus debt service and expenses — was projected to be $119,000 nine years into its underlying mortgage.
Instead, income was lower and expenses higher than the expected amounts, leading to net cash flow of negative $450,000. Tenants are $412,000 behind on rent.
“The amount of money owed to affordable housing providers is putting their financial stability at risk,” the report reads.
NYSAFAH says the state’s main housing agency, Homes and Community Renewal, is sympathetic.
“We have a very eager audience in the form of the senior staff and the commissioner,” the association’s CEO Jolie Milstein told The Real Deal on her way back from Albany last week. “[They] understand the assets that they help manage are under threat from the missing rent since Covid.”
Milstein added that Assembly member Linda Rosenthal and state Senator Brian Kavanagh, who chair the housing committees in their chambers, have pledged to do as much as they can to get the $2 billion into the budget, which is due April 1.
“They’re worried about the number being a large lift,” Milstein said.
Read more New York Affordable housing industry pitches $2B rent-aid fund New York “Folks got misinformed”: Why NYCHA tenants stopped paying rent New York City Council to overhaul affordable housing mandate The post Affordable housing providers’ crisis: 1 in 3 tenants owe rent appeared first on The Real Deal.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (Miami-Dade County, Getty)Across Miami-Dade County, condominium owners are facing escalating assessments for building repairs. It is among the aftereffects of the deadly Surfside condo collapse that prompted associations to take a hard look at their buildings’ structural integrity.
Relief may be in sight for some condo owners. Miami-Dade County launched a program that will issue loans of up to $50,000 to residents who live in their condos full-time, according to the county. The loans will be specifically for assessments levied to pay for building repairs and rehabilitation.
The program targets condo owners who earn no more than 140 percent of the area median income. This means a maximum annual income of $95,610 for a one-person household, $109,200 for a two-person household, and $122,920 for a three-person household.
The loans will have 40-year terms, during which low-income families will be on hook for $50 monthly payments and the remaining balance at the loan’s maturity.
But how far the program will go to help cash-strapped households remains to be seen.
The county budgeted $9 million for the loans. That pencils out to 180 households, assuming each gets the full $50,000 loan amount.
At a town hall in Aventura last week, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said additional funds could be allocated in the future, the Miami Herald reported. The June 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, which killed 98 people, played only a partial role in the county’s decision to launch the loan program, she said.
After the tragedy, state lawmakers tightened building safety laws, requiring 30-year and 25-year recertifications, and mandated that association budget reserves be fully funded. Miami-Dade already had required 40-year recertifications.
Condo owners also have been battered by skyrocketing insurance rates, as some carriers have exited the market outright, leaving little competition for those that still provide coverage in South Florida. Escalating expenses have opened the door to investors that seek to buy out condos, likely for redevelopment.
Read more South Florida “Mind-boggling”: Condo owners in South Beach face millions of dollars in special assessments South Florida Bayfront Miami condo tower embroiled in legal battle over major assessment South Florida Surfside collapse a “come to Jesus moment” for South Florida’s condo market The post Aid coming for condo owners slapped with high assessments appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)It seemed like the normal course of business last year when asset manager Arena Investors provided an up and coming Orange County businessman with a $10 million loan to help grow his escrow and real estate brokerage.
But unbeknownst to Arena, the businessman, Max McDermott, was under federal investigation.
Four months after he took out the loan, McDermott and his company, Secured Income Group, were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with defrauding investors.
New York-based Arena is now suing McDermott, his wife, Tonya, two of his other companies and his adult children in New York state court to recoup the balance of the loan plus interest, which comes to $13.7 million. It is also looking to restrain McDermott from disposing of his assets.
The lawsuit is the latest action against McDermott, who consented to a judgment from the SEC last fall. It also sheds light on how McDermott sought to keep his embattled Secured Income Group afloat as investors sought to get their money back.
Arena provided the $10 million loan to McDermott last May for his companies Arbor One Escrow and Realty Masters & Associates. The loan was guaranteed by McDermott and his wife, and included additional covenants that required McDermott to provide financial information to Arena.
But Arena alleges McDermott defaulted on the loan later that year and failed to hand over financial information. When Arena’s representatives went to visit McDermott’s office, they were denied access, according to the complaint.
McDermott finally came clean to Arena in October, admitting to moving $10 million in funds advanced by the lender to his personal trust and then using the money to pay Secured Income Group. McDermott also acknowledged to Arena that he and Secured Income Group were under investigation by the SEC for alleged financial misconduct.
“We are in active discussions to resolve all matters with Arena,” said Tony Buchignani, an attorney representing Arbor One Escrow. “It is our hope those discussions will be successful, and that all Arena litigation will be dismissed.”
The SEC accused Secured Income Group and McDermott of telling investors that their money would be pooled together to make real estate loans secured by first lien positions and that their investments would be secured by real estate.
While Secured Income Group did originate the loans, it also sold off tens of millions of dollars in loans and security interests, which resulted in the principal value of its real estate loan collateral being worth much less than what was owed to its investors.
Without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, Secured Income Group and McDermott consented to the entry of judgments last year.
In addition to the money that went to Secured Income Group, McDermott also transferred funds from the $10 million loan to other companies tied to him, including about $65,000 to My Mountain Movers, a company allegedly owned by his daughters.
Read more Los Angeles SEC hits OC real estate fund with fraud charges Los Angeles Accountant sentenced to prison for ripping off Orange County developer New York Mack Real Estate sues for $566M over Fortis project loans Arena further alleges that after the McDermotts became aware that it intended to sue them, they sold their home at 6712 East Sycamore Glen Drive in Orange, California. Online listings indicate that the 4,800-square-foot home sold in January, with an asking price of $2.7 million.
Arena is suing the McDermotts and their affiliates for breach of contract, fraudulent inducement and fraudulent misrepresentations.
The McDermotts could not be reached for comment. Arena Investors declined to comment.
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From left: Brick & Timber Collective’s Glenn Gilmore, Blanca’s Tere Blanca, Blockchain’s Peter Smith, and Timber Collective’s Jesse Feldman with the Cube WYNWD (Cube WYNWD, LinkedIn, Blockchain, Blanca)A Cryptocurrency exchange backed out of a lease to establish its headquarters in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. Now, the commercial brokerage that landed Blockchain.com as one of the building’s signature tenants is mounting a legal battle to collect the second half of a $546,438 commission.
The dispute is the latest fallout ignited by the crypto market collapsing in recent months.
Blanca Commercial Real Estate last month sued Cube Wynwd owner Brick & Timber Collective, and a joint venture between Tricera Capital and Lndmrk Development that sold the property to Brick & Timber in December. Brick & Timber, a San Francisco-based real estate firm led by Jesse Feldman and Glenn Gilmore, paid $62 million for Cube Wynwd, records show.
The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, alleges Brick & Timber is refusing to pay Blanca Commercial $273,219 that’s been overdue for three months.
“We regret having to take this action,” Blanca Commercial CEO Tere Blanca said in an emailed statement. “Our firm has never been put in a position that required legal action to pursue payment of earned fees, but at this time I have to do the right thing for the firm.”
Gilmore, who also provided an emailed statement, said Blanca Commercial received the first half of its commission from the Tricera-led joint venture last year, even though Blockchain.com is not coming to Cube Wynwd.
Blockchain.com, a New York-based exchange that allows people to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies, signed a lease for two floors spanning 22,000 square feet at Cube Wynwd. The office space was supposed to be Blockchain.com’s new headquarters.
In July, when Cube Wynwd was under contract to sell, Blockchain.com informed Blanca Commercial, Brick & Timber and Tricera that the company “did not intend to move in or occupy the premises,” Gilmore said.
He added: “If and when Blockchain occupies the premises and begins paying rent, [Brick & Timber] will pay the second half [of the] commission happily.”
In addition to Cube Wynwd, Brick & Timber also owns two other Wynwood commercial properties. Last year, the firm paid a combined $58 million for the Wynwood Annex at 215 Northwest 24th Street and an office and retail building at 2724 and 2734 Northwest First Avenue.
Eight-story Cube Wynwd, with 100,000 square feet of office space, was completed in 2019 by a partnership between Redsky Capital and JZ Capital Partners. Tricera, led by CEO Ben Mandell, and Lndmrk, led by principal Alex Karakhanian, paid $28 million for Cube Wynwd in 2021.
The Blanca Commercial lawsuit names the ownership entity managed by Tricera’s Mandell as a defendant. Mandell, Tricera Capital, Karakhanian and Lndmrk, which was a passive investor in Cube Wynwd, are not named as defendants. Mandell and Karakhanian declined comment.
Prior to closing the deal with Brick & Timber, the Tricera Lndmrk affiliate reassured Blanca Commercial that the brokerage would get the second part of its commission, the lawsuit alleges.
When the closing took place, the seller transferred the $273,219 to the buyer “with the recognition and instructions that Brick & Timber transfer this money to Blanca,” the complaint states.
Blanca Commercial claims Blockchain.com’s backing out of the lease “is not relevant based on the clear terms of the lease and commission agreement,” per the lawsuit.
A copy of the agreement attached to the lawsuit states that if the lease is terminated, “the second half of the commission shall be deemed to be forfeited.” However, Brick & Timber and Blockchain.com, led by CEO Peter Smith, have not officially killed the lease.
Blockchain.com spokespeople did not respond to an email request for comment. The company, which garnered a $14 billion valuation last year, is attempting to sell off assets as Blockchain.com scrambles for capital, according to published reports.
Heralded as the “capital of crypto” by Mayor Francis Suarez, Miami is the epicenter of the digital currency meltdown. In January, a bankruptcy judge approved the termination of a naming rights agreement for the former FTX Arena in downtown Miami. The Miami Heat NBA franchise and Miami-Dade County sought to kill the $2 million-a-year deal in the wake of FTX cratering. The cryptocurrency exchange was insolvent due to the mishandling of customer funds.
Meanwhile, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is facing multiple counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and conspiring to violate U.S. campaign finance laws by making illegal political donations. His Miami-based corporation, West Realm Shires Services, owned FTX.
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Draper & Kramer’s Blas Pulon with 1130 South Michigan Avenue and 2111 South Wabash Avenue (Draper & Kramer)Draper & Kramer has put two high rise apartment towers on the market, one of them with an assumable mortgage loan which may strengthen its lure of potential buyers seeking to avoid the impact of rising interest rates.
The Chicago-based development firm is selling Eleven Thirty, a 656-unit building at 1130 South Michigan Avenue, and Aspire, a 275-unit building at 2111 South Wabash Avenue, Crain’s reported. Both apartments are in the city’s South Loop neighborhood.
Draper hired Berkadia to broker the 43-story Eleven Thirty, and CBRE to broker the 24-story Aspire.
“While we typically invest in properties long term, as was the case with Eleven Thirty and other assets, we will always evaluate transactional opportunities that are in the best interests of our investors and in consideration of current market conditions,” the firm’s CIO Blas Puzon told the outlet.
It’s tough to estimate what each building will sell for given downtown Chicago’s apartment market achieving near record-high rents, while at the same time investors are struggling to overcome the increased cost to borrow money to make large commercial real estate purchases.
Plus, within the last 12 months, five downtown apartment buildings have sold for a total of more than $75 million, a slowdown from previous periods of strong rent growth such as the past two years. Rent increases are expected to temper this year nationwide.
However, Eleven Thirty, which was built in 1967, comes with an assumable loan, a trait that may attract a swarm of investors. This will allow buyers to inherit the existing loan and interest rates on the building, instead of having to take out a new mortgage. Thus, an investor could save a in the long run.
The property’s loan has a $89.3 million balance, a fixed interest rate of 3.8 percent and doesn’t mature until 2047. A new loan for the building would likely range from 5.5 to 6.25 percent, according to the outlet.
Eleven Thirty is 95 percent occupied, with an average rent of $2,315 per month, or $3.04 per square foot. Aspire also has about a 95 percent occupancy rate with a monthly rent average of $2,707, or $2.93 per square foot.
D&K financed Aspire with a $69 million construction loan, and the complex opened in 2020.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read more Chicago CMK buys another South Loop development site for $5.5M Chicago “Critical mass”: Why Chicago developers are looking south for deals Chicago South Loop Hotel hit with foreclosure over $7M loan The post Draper & Kramer puts South Loop apartment towers up for sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
Petra Ecclestone and Sam Palmer and Rockingham Avenue in Brentwood (Google Maps, Getty)Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone and her husband, real estate agent Sam Palmer, have bought a new 13,500-square-foot mansion in Brentwood for $30.5 million.
The couple bought the not-quite-finished estate at an undisclosed address on Rockingham Avenue in an off-market deal, near their former home in Brentwood Park, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The seller was Santa Monica-based Kelly-White Living Trust, which bought the 0.6-acre property in 2020 for $15.6 million. The trust is controlled by Bryan Kelly and his wife, Emily White, a former Snapchat executive.
The gray, two-story mansion sits behind oak and olive trees. The newly built brick home has seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a movie theater, a music room and a 200-bottle wine cellar, with a large pool in the backyard.
Palmer said he and Ecclestone, daughter of British billionaire and Formula One racing boss Bernie Ecclestone, had been on the hunt for a new L.A. property for some time. He just got his real-estate license and is an agent with Hilton & Hyland. She’s passionate about interior design.
“We’ve been looking for something that’s a bit of a project,” Palmer told the Journal.
Though the property is newly built, he said, they want to put their own stamp on the interior and garden, which aren’t finished.
Ecclestone will design the inside of the home, while he’ll focus on the landscaping, he said, including a large lawn with a barbecue, a vegetable garden and room for soccer.
The couple has a record of buying and renovating homes, then selling them for a far higher price.
They paid $22.7 million in 2019 for their previous Brentwood home at 565 North Tigertail Road, which they sold in October to L.A. Lakers star Russell Westbrook for $33.5 million, plus another $2.5 million for the furniture. Westbrook now plays for the L.A. Clippers.
In 2019, Ecclestone sold The Manor, the 123-room Holmby Hills estate built by television producer Aaron Spelling, for $120 million to an unidentified Arab sheik, after buying it in 2011 for $85 million.
Spelling Manor is currently on the market for $165 million.
Palmer worked on the Brentwood deal with David Kramer and Barry Watts of Hilton & Hyland. Blair Chang of The Agency and David Solomon of Douglas Elliman represented the seller.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Russell Westbrook buys Petra Ecclestone’s Brentwood manse Los Angeles Record-breaking: Beverly Hills mansion sells for $120M Los Angeles Loss for LeBron? King James lists Brentwood mansion The post Petra Ecclestone buys 13K sf Brentwood mansion for $30.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rush and Kathryn Adams Limbaugh with 1495 North Ocean Boulevard (Google Maps, Getty)The widow of late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh sold their longtime oceanfront compound for $155 million, after shopping the property off-market for eight months.
Records show Kathryn Adams Limbaugh sold the homes at 1495 North Ocean Boulevard, 1501 North Ocean Boulevard, and 108 Mediterranean Road to a Delaware entity named for the address, 1495 N Ocean Blvd LLC. The true buyer is unknown.
The property was never listed on the Multiple Listing Service, and Adams Limbaugh’s broker is unknown. The widow began quietly shopping the estate in July, reportedly asking $150 million to $175 million.
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III died in Palm Beach in February 2021. He was a controversial political firebrand and commentator, and the author of seven books. His radio show, the Rush Limbaugh Show, first aired in 1984 and became one of the most-listened to radio show in the country, according to multiple outlets.
His Palm Beach neighbor, Donald Trump, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the 2020 State of the Union Address.
Adams Limbaugh was Rush Limbaugh’s fourth and final wife. The couple met in 2004, when he was married to his third wife, Marta Fitzgerald, according to published reports. They married in 2010.
Rush Limbaugh bought the three properties that made up his Palm Beach compound in the late 1990s, during his marriage to Fitzgerald, according to property records. He bought the two North Ocean Boulevard homes, and she bought the Mediterranean Road home, records show.
The compound spans a total of 2.7 acres, with a main 16,600-square-foot mansion, a 2,900-square-foot house, and a 2,200-square-foot house, records show. The homes have a combined 13 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. The mansion at 1495 North Ocean Boulevard was built in 1992. The house at 1501 North Ocean Boulevard was built in 1951, and the 108 Mediterranean Road house was built in 1934, records show.
The property has about 250 feet of oceanfront.
The sale launches the compound into the stratosphere of Palm Beach’s trophy properties, ultra-luxury estates sold for $50 million or more. The island is a hub of trophy real estate, and home to some of the most expensive mansions sold in the U.S.
The Limbaugh compound’s $155 million sale price comes close to — but does not break — Florida’s residential real estate price record.
Larry Ellison, billionaire co-founder of Oracle, bought a nearby oceanfront estate in Manalapan for $173 million in June of last year, setting the price record for home sales in Florida. That beat the record set by Tiger Global Management’s Scott Shleifer, who bought an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion for $122.7 million in 2021.
Read more South Florida Rush Limbaugh’s oceanfront Palm Beach estate marketed for sale, asking up to $175M New York Sizing up the booming market for trophy real estate Los Angeles LA’s trophy home market ranks No. 3 in world The post Rush Limbaugh’s widow sells Palm Beach compound for $155M appeared first on The Real Deal.
KPF founder Gene Kohn; One Vanderbilt (KPF, Getty)Gene Kohn, co-founder of architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox, whose work was behind some of the most famous real estate projects of the last 50 years, has died at 92.
Kohn died Thursday morning after battling cancer for a year, his firm announced.
Alongside William Pedersen and Sheldon Fox, Kohn co-founded KPF in 1976. The firm went on to design recognizable projects around the world, including the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., One Vanderbilt, the Museum of Modern Art and most of Hudson Yards in Manhattan, as well as the Ping An Financial Centre in Shenzen, China, and the Lotte World Tower in Seoul — the world’s fifth- and sixth-tallest buildings, respectively.
The New York-based firm now has over 700 employees and offices on three continents, according to its website.
In a statement, KPF president James von Klemperer said some of the firm’s most notable projects wouldn’t have reached their full potential without Kohn’s “easy charm and focused intensity.”
“Gene was universally respected in the community for his ability to achieve consensus,” von Klemperer said.
Kohn was born in 1930 and raised in Philadelphia, where he went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. He was an active duty member of the U.S. Navy for three years and spent another five in reserve duty, rising to lieutenant commander.
When the trio founded KPF, Kohn served as the firm’s first chairman and president. In 1990, 14 years after its formation, KPF became the youngest architecture firm to be recognized with the AIA Architecture Firm Award.
Kohn personally won numerous accolades during his career, including the National Building Museum Chairman’s Award, the Skyscraper Museum Award and the Soane Foundation Honors. Earlier this year, Kohn was awarded the Freedom of the City of London, where KPF contributed to the Unilever building and the master plan for renovating and preserving the city’s historic Covent Garden shopping district.
In 2019, Kohn published a memoir, “The World by Design: The Story of a Global Architecture Firm,” which was co-written by Clifford Pearson.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara, his sons, Steven and Brian, his daughter, Laurie, and several grandchildren.
Kohn is the second world-famous architect to die this month. Last week, Rafael Viñoly, the Uruguayan architect behind 432 Park Avenue and 125 Greenwich Street in Manhattan, died at 78.
Read more National Famed architect Rafael Viñoly dead at 78 New York Vanbarton quietly taps KPF as NoMad tower architect The post KPF founder and skyscraper visionary Gene Kohn dies appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and RealPage’s Dana Jones with 2201 Lakeside Boulevard in Richardson (Getty, RealPage, Elizabeth Warren, Google Maps)The federal government continues to set its sights on the rent-setting algorithms used by Richardson-based RealPage.
A contingent of Democrats in the Senate, including Elizabeth Warren, Tina Smith, Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey, sent a March 2 letter to Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter with concerns regarding the role such algorithmic softwares play in rental prices, the Dallas Morning News reported. The letter is the latest in a number of lawsuits and investigations into how RealPage’s software may be influencing landlords to set prices.
The DOJ’s Antitrust Division launched a probe into RealPage late last year, on the heels of a ProPublica article that shed light on the company’s rent-setting software.
Congressional leaders pushed for an investigation following the ProPublica report, which raised suspicions that the software could be pushing rents above competitive levels and enabling landlords to coordinate pricing, in violation of federal antitrust laws. The report also led to RealPage and seven property management firms being hit with a class-action lawsuit for allegedly forming what lawyers called a “cartel” to artificially inflate apartment prices above competitive levels.
One of those landlords is Dallas-based Lincoln Property Company, whose headquarters is a short drive south of RealPage. Toronto-based Cadillac Fairview recently purchased Lincoln’s residential division.
More investigations of RealPage may be in the works now that the United States Senate is taking notice.
“The rise of institutional investors and rent-setting algorithms have weakened competition in the already strained housing market, resulting in substandard services and unnecessarily high housing costs for American families,” the senators wrote. “It is therefore essential that the department use all of its tools to ensure that renters do not fall victim to corporate landlords and anti-competitive forces.”
The rent-setting software in question is YieldStar, which RealPage describes as useful for “comprehensive submarket-level and long-term forecast on occupancy, rent, supply and demand.”
Information provided by RealPage showed that landlords using YieldStar are most common in regions typically targeted by corporate buyers and with the highest rent increases, the letter stated.
Read more Dallas RealPage, Lincoln Property face class-action in wake of ProPublica exposé New York Another class-action lawsuit claims RealPage collusion New York Department of Justice probing RealPage “Even the widespread use of its anonymized and aggregated proprietary rental data by the country’s largest landlords could result in defacto price-setting by those companies, driving up prices and hurting renters,” the senators wrote. “Given these findings, the DOJ should act to protect American families and closely review rent-setting algorithms like YieldStar to determine if they are having anti-competitive effects on local housing markets that have seen increased institutional investor activity.”
RealPages rental software contributes to price decisions for more than 4 million units and factors in lease transactions for more than 13 million units, its website states. The company went public over a decade ago with a $135 million value and was acquired by investment firm Thoma Bravo for $10.2 billion in 2021.
—Erick Pirayesh
The post U.S. Senators push RealPage investigation appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jeff Head with rendering of 1325 South Washtenaw Avenue (The Habitat Co., Getty)The second phase of Habitat Co.’s $200 million mixed-use development, which is one of the largest ever in Chicago’s West End, has officially begun, although a small portion of it has been further delayed.
After rising interest rates and economic uncertainty threatened borrowers, the Ogden Commons project, construction for a four-story, 92-unit building worth $35 million is now underway at 1325 South Washtenaw Avenue, CoStar reported.
The development’s resumption can be attributed to the company’s recent acquisition of outside financing. However, Habitat’s Jeff Head said an 18-unit portion of the master plan that would have been built in another building during this phase is being pushed back, and ensuing phases will also happen gradually.
“Based on where we are now, it probably will continue in smaller phases,” Head told the outlet. “The agencies (financing the development) can only give so much to one project. As far as demand, we could build all 350 units and lease them up because there’s such a demand for affordable housing.”
Funds for the project are coming from the sale of tax credits to Bank of America and construction financing from the bank, as well as Chicago Housing Authority funds and a loan from Illinois Housing Development Authority, among other sources, Head said.
The initial phase for the 10-acre development was completed in 2021 — a 30,000-square-foot commercial building that has lured tenants such as Wintrust Bank, Momentum Coffee and a Mount Sinai Health System express care clinic.
Out of the second phase’s 92 total units, the sizes will range from studios to two bedrooms with 90 percent of them rented at rates considered affordable. Forty percent of units are designated for Chicago Housing Authority residents, Head told the outlet. The second phase should be completed by 2024, and 2026 is the target full completion of the project.
Habitat’s unhurried progression from one phase to the next follows a similar pattern to other developers in the area. In suburban Tinley Park, the developers behind an apartment project downtown are at odds over whether to proceed with the second phase of planned 165-unit project after completing the first half.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read more Chicago Developers’ dispute halts $37M Tinley Park mixed-use project Chicago Tinley Park retail property takes $1M hit Chicago Tinley Park greenlights plans for two new hotels The post Habitat splits up West End affordable housing project into smaller pieces appeared first on The Real Deal.
Prologis’ Hamid Moghadam, 203 E. College Street and LA Metro’s Ara Najarian (Prologis, Google Maps, City of Glendale)Prologis, the real estate investment trust often cited as the largest owner of warehouses in the world, is a defendant in a suit bought by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority over a contaminated property near downtown Los Angeles.
LA County’s MTA, known as Metro, filed the lawsuit in federal court March 7 and alleges that former owners of the site, 203 East College Street, were negligent in using hazardous materials at the site. Past owners allowed hazardous substances to be released into the environment, and neglected to tell Metro about the contamination.
The public transit agency spent more than $40,000 investigating the contamination and it anticipates that it will take more than $10 million to clean up the site. The suit requests a jury trial to recover costs and help clean up the site.
The suit says that Prologis is one of the former owners of the industrial property. It contains a 5,200-square-foot building based on a half-acre lot, on the cross streets of East Alameda Avenue and College Street, in between Chinatown and the Los Angeles River.
Metro has owned 203 East College since 2011. It acquired the property by a grant deed from Prologis as part of a multi-parcel transaction. Other past owners include Santa Fe Pacific Realty and California Drop Forge, which manufactured specialty metal parts for the aerospace and medical industries.
Drop Forge operated at the site under different master leases from 2003 to 2021. In January 2021, the lease was terminated and the manufacturer left the site. Drop Forge also operated a plant at an adjacent property where contamination had originated, and hazardous substances had been released onto 203 E. College St.
The complaint alleges that manufacturing at the site released hazardous chemicals such as petroleum hydrocarbons which contaminated the soil and the groundwater underneath the soil.
The complaint contends that the site was contaminated before Metro owned it. While the government agency conducted due diligence to investigate issues with the site, none of the previous owners revealed that it was contaminated. The complaint says that a 2017 lease for the site contained language that one of the suit’s defendants was responsible for cleaning up the site if there was environmental contamination and reimbursing Metro for costs incurred in a clean-up. The suit alleges that the defendants refused to clean up the site.
A Prologis representative and attorneys for Metro did not respond to requests for comment.
Read more New York NYC environment update left SL Green’s One Vanderbilt behind Los Angeles Sizing up LA’s construction pipeline The post LA Metro sues Prologis, tenants over contaminated site appeared first on The Real Deal.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (Getty)Developers already expect the City Council to negotiate for deeper affordability than mandated by the city’s hallmark affordable housing program. But that target may soon be required by law for many projects.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Wednesday pitched a revision to the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program. Her proposal “would require the deeply affordable option of MIH (Option 3).”
Although the wording says Option 3 would be required, a spokesperson for the speaker insisted that Options 1 and 2 would remain available. The proposal adds that Option 3 hinges on affordable housing credits from the state.
Under MIH, a de Blasio administration law, developers have to choose from among three (and sometimes four) affordability options to take advantage of greater project density allowed by rezonings.
But those affordability levels soon became a mere starting point for negotiations with the local Council member, who by tradition has the final say in spot rezonings proposed by developers and neighborhood rezonings proposed by the mayor.
The speaker’s proposal moves that floor even higher — posing a challenge for developers already coping with the loss of the 421a tax abatement for rental projects.
For a neighborhood rezoning, the speaker would apparently allow the city to mandate Option 3, which requires 20 percent of a project’s units be reserved for those making an average of 40 percent of the area median income. Adams also wants to increase that percentage of units to 25.
“The current levels of affordability simply don’t cut it for too many families,” Adams said during her State of the City speech Wednesday.
The speaker’s proposal was not unexpected, as she has made clear that she favors requiring deeper affordability levels than what MIH does. Recent major rezonings — including those passed for Innovation QNS and Halletts North — both did so.
Adams’ colleagues in the Council will likely support her proposal, but a greater hurdle remains. She acknowledges that increasing the share of affordable units to 25 percent under Option 3 would be “contingent on the state providing the necessary affordable housing credits to facilitate its development in New York City.”
By that, she meant something like the property tax break 421a, which expired last June. Progressives in the state legislature have blocked passage of a replacement.
“These ideas are innovative and good,” Mitch Korbey, chair of Herrick’s land use and zoning group, said of the speaker’s plan. “But by itself, it is not meaningful. We need to do this with 421a or its replacement.”
The industry argues that high property taxes on rental housing makes such development unprofitable, except for ultra-luxury projects.
The City Council has moved away from MIH’s Option 2, which calls for 30 percent of apartments to be set aside for households making an average of 80 percent or less of the area median income. The Council removed Option 2 from the Soho-Noho rezoning.
During her speech, Adams indicated that in coming weeks, the Council will introduce a “Fair Housing Framework” bill creating district-level goals for affordable housing. Such targets could help the city achieve the growth required under Gov. Kathy Hochul’s housing plan, should it get through the state legislature.
Adams also indicated that if the state lifts the cap on the city’s residential floor area ratio, the city would create a new affordability mandate. State lawmakers have expressed concern about lifting the cap without one.
Her State of the City report also pitches a density bump for projects that house New Yorkers making an average of $56,000 or less. It also revives a proposal to build public housing on vacant New York City Housing Authority land, as first reported by The City.
She also pledged to advance the mayor’s Zoning for Economic Opportunity text amendment to update manufacturing zoning to spur industrial development. Adams pointed to Bushwick, Sunset Park, Long Island City and Hunts Point as areas that would benefit from such changes.
She noted that in her district, a 15-acre dairy plant in Jamaica has sat vacant for seven years. She said the city and state should work to reactivate such sites for industrial use.
“We are sitting on industrial gold mines that have been neglected,” she said.
Read more The post City Council to overhaul affordable housing mandate appeared first on The Real Deal.
8365 Sunset View Drive in Los Angeles (Google Maps)What do you do when $1 billion in California Lotto proceeds flutters down the chimney? Buy a $25.5 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills.
Edwin Castro cashed in a $2 billion Powerball jackpot from a ticket bought at a gas station in Altadena, then bought a hilltop mansion at 8365 Sunset View Drive, Dirt.com reported.
His $997.6 million lump-sum payout last month allowed him to buy the 13,600-square-foot estate, which had been listed for nearly $30 million. His nearest neighbors include Ariana Grande, Dakota Johnson and Jimmy Kimmel.
The 30-something resident of Pasadena is now moving into a hilltop estate on more than half an acre, with views of glittery Los Angeles below.
Built into the side of a nearly sheer cliff, the blocky contemporary has five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and two powder rooms.
The three-level home, built last year by developer Roman James above the famed Chateau Marmont, was featured in Robb Report.
In terms of design, a cold gunmetal gray and charcoal on the outside becomes a warm beige stone on the inside.
The main floor has a vast living area anchored by a giant fireplace and kitchen with black granite countertops. Walls of glass retract onto backyard terraces with an outdoor kitchen and infinity pool.
Castro’s new manse has a recreation-themed bottom floor, with a gym, cold plunge pool, wine cellar, movie theater and sauna. On top, a master suite has a private balcony and a bathroom clad in slabs of black-and-white marble. Above that, there’s a rooftop deck.
For what may be a Powerball car collection, there are two separate garages that can house seven cars, plus a motor court for several more. With no landscaping to speak of, the jackpot winner can save on gardening and water bills.
Brokers Stefan Pommepuy and H. Blair Chang of The Agency held the listing. Max Lindenberger of Back Bay Realty Group represented the buyer.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Seagram heir revealed as buyer of $28M Hollywood Hills home Los Angeles Spec mansion by developer Dean McKillen sells for $28M Los Angeles Roman James house in Hollywood Hills lists for nearly $30M The post $2B Powerball winner buys estate in Hollywood Hills appeared first on The Real Deal.
Southampton town supervisor Jay Schneiderman and 20 Shinnecock Road in Hampton Bays (Getty, Google Maps)Some Southampton residents view the town’s proposal for a former motel site as a “pick your poison” scenario: Town officials want senior housing or a condo complex.
Residents want a park.
The drama is playing out at 20 Shinnecock Road in Hampton Bays, once the site of the Bel-Aire Cove Motel. Despite public opposition, the town has scheduled a public hearing on redeveloping the site, 27East reported.
One resident, Daria Roulett, last week started a petition calling for the land to be preserved. She has garnered more than 600 signatures and expects to top 1,000 signatures in the coming weeks.
Residents typically prefer parks, which require tax revenue, to development, which generates it. For those reasons, town administrators often take the opposite position.
It looks like an uphill battle for the resistance, though. Town Supervisor Jay Scheiderman has long been a proponent of redeveloping the property, which the town purchased in 2019 for about $1.1 million. On Sunday, Scheiderman said a public park is “off the table.”
Residents wanted the town to use Community Preservation Fund money to buy the property, which would ensure public use and potentially water access. The town pulled money from a different source, though.
The plan was for the town to buy the 1.5-acre property and sell it to a developer to get it back on the tax rolls. When Scheiderman announced that idea in 2018, luxury condos were envisioned.
A recently surfaced report from four years ago shows the Suffolk County Planning Commission disapproved of the town’s purchase, which had not yet happened.
At one point, three residents also sued the town to nullify the adoption of the Hampton Bays Waterfront Resort Revitalization Plan, which included the Bel-Aire Cove site, claiming further environmental review was needed. The suit was dismissed in 2020.
Two development plans are expected to be discussed during the public hearing on March 29. GMRC Modular proposes 16 senior housing units — each 600 square feet — across three buildings. Three units would be income-restricted. There would also be a pool, solar panels and a new bulkhead with room for up to 10 boat slips.
The other proposal comes from First Dunes, a custom home builder based in Great Neck. It wants to build a 12-unit condo complex with the caveat that residents could rent out the units. Amenities would include a pool with a gazebo, pickleball courts and a new bulkhead.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more New York Southampton pauses plan to buy Hampton Bays motel and convert it into condos Tri-State 2 Hampton Bays homes may be demolished for land preservation Tri-State Judge halts Hampton Bays downtown revitalization plan The post Southampton, residents feud over former motel site appeared first on The Real Deal.
Clockwise from top left: Greystar’s Bob Faith, Careismatic Brands’ Girisha Chandraraj, Aquila’s Bart Matheney, Stream Realty’s Lee Belland, Cold Creek Solutions’ Matt McWilliams and a Carhartt store (Getty, Ian Curcio, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, Owler, LinkedIn)The City of Fort Worth is considering up to $2 million in tax abatements for workwear manufacturer Carhartt. The 134-year-old company, whose utilitarian overalls and jackets became a fashion trend a decade ago and is now showing up in places like British GQ, is considering Cowtown for a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The family owned Michigan-based company would invest about $80 million in the proposed center, at 16101 Wolff Crossing.
Here’s what else is up in Texas Industrial Real Estate this week.
- Careismatic Brands, the world’s largest manufacturer of medical apparel, plans to consolidate seven of its warehouses in the United States to one location in Dallas, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The California-based company leased the entirety of the I-20 Logistics Park, which spans more than 1 million square feet, at 35550 LBJ Freeway in far southeast Dallas.
- Aquila Commercial plans to build six shell warehouses spanning about 224,000 square feet in Georgetown, north of Austin, for an estimated cost of $19 million, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The cost is about $85 per square foot. The Austin-based company expects to start construction as soon as April 15, according to the filing.
- Greystar is adding three buildings to its planned Pilot Knob warehouse project at 9201 FM 812, near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Spanning 135,000 to 226,000 square feet, the three will cost an estimated $8.7 million each to build, according to a TDLR filing. That’s about $63 per square foot. The Austin-based firm previously filed plans to start construction on five other warehouses at Pilot Knob, costing more than $43 million, in April.
- Stream Realty Partners has completed construction on the Raceway Northwest Distribution Center, 156,000-square-foot spec warehouse in northwest Houston, according to a news release. The facility has frontage along Fairbanks North Houston Road and immediate access to the Sam Houston Tollway, State Highway 249, and U.S. Highway 290, the release states.
- A mystery buyer recently scooped up a 300,000-square-foot cold-storage facility in San Antonio from Cold Creek Solutions, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. The Dallas-based firm developed the facility and recently finished construction.
- Hayes Company, a logistics and fulfillment company based in Kansas, recently leased more than 900,000 square feet of space in Forney, a suburb about 25 miles east of Dallas, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The lease is at Forney Logistics Crossing, 11333 County Road 212.
Read more Texas Prologis moves ahead with Cedar Park warehouses Dallas Trammell Crow plans massive industrial project near DFW Airport Texas EastGroup plans Round Rock warehouse amid local pushback The post #WarehouseWednesday: Carhartt eyes subsidy for Fort Worth distribution hub appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Airbnb is facing a wrongful death lawsuit in Palm Beach County, after a toddler died from exposure to fentanyl in a Wellington rental property.
Lydie and Boris Lavenir and their five children were visiting Wellington from France, when they checked into an Airbnb owned by Ronald Cortamilia and managed by Yulia Timpy on Aug. 6, 2021, according to the suit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
The day after their arrival, Lydie Lavenir went to check on the couple’s 19-month-old toddler, Enora, who was napping with her older sister. Lydie Lavenir found Enora unresponsive and foaming at the mouth, and screamed for her husband. The family rushed her to West Palms Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The medical examiner found lethal levels of fentanyl in her bloodstream, court documents say.
The swift nature of her death indicates the toddler came into contact with the deadly drug in her family’s Airbnb, the suit states.
The Lavenirs’ suit alleges Airbnb is aware of the heightened risk of drug exposure in its properties. The suit also alleges the company neglected to properly uphold cleaning and safety standards, and deliberately did not inform the couple of the potential threat.
In the days prior to the Lavenirs’ visit to Wellington, another guest stayed at the same rental: Aaron Kornhauser. The suit alleges that Kornhauser and his guests, who rented the home from July 30 to Aug. 1 2021, brought drugs, including marijuana and cocaine, into the home during their stay. The drugs were consumed in the bedrooms and the kitchen, according to the complaint.
The Lavenirs named Airbnb, Cortamilia, Timpy, and Kornhauser as defendants in their daughter’s wrongful death suit, which was filed in December.
The suit does not name the address of the rental home. Property records show Cortamilia owns two properties in Wellington, one he purchased for $360,000 in January 2021 at 1618 The Twelfth Fairway, and another he bought for $450,000 in May of that same year at 1040 Lake Breeze Drive.
The litigation comes as Airbnb grapples with how to handle parties thrown at its rental properties. In June of last year, the short-term rental company codified a party ban on its platform, following a temporary party ban put in place in August 2020. In its June announcement, the company stated that the temporary ban “has proved effective,” citing a 44 percent year-over-year drop in party reports.
Despite the policies, renters have continued to throw parties, and more than a few have turned deadly, including a party at an Airbnb in Sunnyvale, California that left an 18-year-old dead in August 2021.
Airbnb is fighting to operate in some areas of the country, but South Florida has largely embraced short-term rentals. In July, Related Group, BH Group and ROVR Development received a $76 million loan for an Airbnb-branded condo project in downtown Miami called District 225.
Read more New York Bad times at Airbnbs: Quadruple stabbing, fraudulent listing New York How illegal Airbnbs slip through the cracks Texas Hidden cameras in Texas ranch spark wave of lawsuits against Vrbo and AirBnb The post Family sues Airbnb after toddler dies of fentanyl exposure in Wellington rental appeared first on The Real Deal.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities’ Peter Moglia and San Franciscans for Sports and Recreation’s Seth Socolow with rendering of 88 Bluxome Street (Alexandria Real Estate Equities, LinkedIn, TMG Partners)Alexandria Real Estate Equities has cut a $7.5 million deal with a recreation group in San Francisco that sued the developer for trying to sell its unbuilt biotech project in SoMa after breaking a pledge to build a world-class tennis club.
The Pasadena-based life science developer will cut a check to the San Franciscans for Sports and Recreation, which settled its lawsuit over the sale of the unbuilt mixed-use project at 88 Bluxome Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
Alexandria agreed to a one-time $7.5 million payout to the nonprofit group, according to its attorney, Anthony Giles. In return, the group agreed to back away from the development.
“San Franciscans for Sports and Recreation no longer has any claim in regard to that property,” Giles told the newspaper.
The recreation advocates had sued to enforce a 2016 agreement that required the publicly traded real estate investment trust to get its permission before selling the project site. The lawsuit was triggered by news last spring that Alexandria was shopping its 88 Bluxome development.
The group led by Seth Socolow had already compelled the biotech developer to add a world-class tennis club that would replace the demolished Bay Club once used by the likes of Andre Agassi, Serena Williams and Arthur Ashe.
Then it successfully challenged Alexandria’s decision last year to drop the negotiated, 134,000-square-foot replacement tennis club from its 1.2 million-square-foot, mixed-use project.
The tennis club scrub was made after Alexandra’s lead tenant, Pinterest, canceled its 490,000-square-foot lease signed in 2019 before the pandemic and the era of remote work, in exchange for a $90 million penalty. Alexandria pointed to the loss of the project’s anchor tenant and economic uncertainty as the justification for bailing on the promised tennis courts.
When Alexandria listed the project for sale last year, San Franciscans for Sports and Recreation sued to block it from changing hands.
In its 2016 agreement, the group had agreed to a one-time termination fee of $7.5 million, to be used to expand public sports and recreation spaces throughout San Francisco, should market conditions change and the club no longer be feasible to build.
This sum matches the payout from Alexandria in the recent legal settlement.
Alexandria offered to pay the sum in 2021, but the nonprofit tennis club advocate rejected the payment and continued its fight for the construction of the promised tennis courts.
In light of the settlement, the developer is now free to sell the entitled development site or revise plans for its life science project.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more San Francisco Alexandria Real Estate sued over potential SoMa project sale San Francisco Battle over SF Tennis Club site heats up as developer axes replacement club San Francisco S.F. board sides with recreation advocates in battle over tennis club site The post Alexandria settles lawsuit over scrubbed tennis club in SF’s SoMa appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck with 1678 Alta Mura Road, Los Angeles (Google Maps, Getty)J.Lo and husband Ben Affleck have ditched a deal to buy a $34.5 million mansion in Pacific Palisades for a $64 million estate down the street.
The A-list newlyweds have canceled escrow on the new 15,100-square-foot home at 14330 West Sunset Boulevard and have signed a contract to buy the 16,000-square-foot estate at 1678 Alta Mura Road, Dirt.com and TMZ reported.
Married six months ago, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have gone on a dancefloor of dizzying real estate deals. The blended family has five children.
From their rented Beverly Hills mansion, the showbiz pair had appeared ready to buy the “Hamptons-esque” house on Sunset Boulevard, after a $55 million estate they tried to buy in Bel-Air fell through.
This was after Lopez listed her Bel-Air retreat last month for $42 million – it’s now in escrow for $39 million, according to TMZ – following the sale last year by Affleck of his bachelor estate in Pacific Palisades for $28.5 million.
Then in late February, Michael Milken’s son Gregory listed his 1.1-acre compound in the Palisades Riviera for $64 million.Soon afterward, a paparazzo shot the couple making the rounds after entering in Affleck’s electric S-Class Mercedes.
Though online listings show Milken’s property is still for sale, TMZ reported the couple are in escrow for the property.
Brokers Fred Bernstein and Ethan Peskowitz of Westside Estate Agency hold the listing for the Milken house. The gray-shingled three-story mansion with white trim, built in 2005, has 13,000 square feet and includes a 3,000-square-foot guest house.
The six-bedroom, 10-bathroom mansion includes two studies, a professional media room, a large game room and views of Los Angeles. The guest house has two more bedrooms, four more bathrooms and an 800-square-foot gym.
A private road leads into a large motor court in front. Out back, there’s a resort-style pool and 8,000 square feet of lawn.
But the real estate dance isn’t over.
Affleck owns a secluded riverfront compound in Georgia, where he and J.Lo were married, while her holdings include a Hamptons estate and a duplex penthouse in New York City that has been on and off the market several times since 2017.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles J.Lo and Ben Affleck in escrow on Pacific Palisades home that sought $35M Los Angeles Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in escrow on Bel-Air manse Los Angeles J.Lo lists French Country-style estate in Bel-Air for $42.5M The post J.Lo and Ben Affleck scrap $35M house deal for $64M mansion nearby appeared first on The Real Deal.
Sugar Hill Capital Partners is in danger of losing rent-stabilized buildings in Harlem only years after acquiring them.
The landlord stopped making mortgage payments on some of its Upper Manhattan properties, Gothamist reported. The firm is already facing foreclosure on some of those properties and more could come.
Sugar Hill owns at least 50 rent-stabilized buildings in Upper Manhattan. Local officials recently told residents that a nonprofit may take over some of the buildings in the future, news that surprised some renters.
In 2018, Sugar Hill acquired 53 Harlem apartment buildings owned from Irving Langer’s E&M Management for $250 million. At the time, the multifamily market was booming and Sugar Hill likely didn’t anticipate the forthcoming change to state rent laws, which limited the ability of landlords to raise rents on stabilized apartments.
The change to the rent law and high interest rates have since put owners of stabilized apartments in distress as billions of dollars in debt on multifamily properties comes due in the next couple of years.
Two of Sugar Hill’s foreclosures have already made waves in recent months.
U.S. Bank — as a trustee for CMBS bondholders — filed in January to foreclose on the six-story, 23-unit property at 121 West 116th Street. The trustee alleged Sugar Hill was in default on a $4.9 million loan after failing to make payments since June.
Months ealier, Sugar Hill was faced with a similar action on a 54-unit property at 4300 Broadway in Washington Heights. It allegedly fell behind on a mortgage to the tune of $16 million, failing to make payments since August.
Read more New York Irving Langer’s E&M Associates sells Harlem apartment portfolio to Sugar Hill Capital for more than $250M New York Uptown landlord Sugar Hill Capital faces another foreclosure New York Major landlord Sugar Hill Capital faces Washington Heights foreclosure When Sugar Hill acquired the portfolio, executive Jay Solomon told The Real Deal the firm felt “a responsibility to our neighbors and the local community to steward these buildings with great care for years to come.”
Five years later, the landlord has become absent in the eyes of its tenants, many of whom can’t get repairs for their properties, including one the resident leader told Gothamist has been without gas for nearly eight years.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Sugar Hill stops mortgage payments on rent-stabilized buildings appeared first on The Real Deal.
JDS Development’s Michael Stern with rendering of 9 DeKalb Avenue (JDS Development, The Brooklyn Tower, Getty)Brooklyn’s tallest building — part of it, at least — is up for sale in what will be a major test for the city’s investment sales market.
Michael Stern’s JDS Development has listed the rental and retail portion of the 93-story tower at 9 DeKalb Avenue and is eyeing between $600 million and $700 million, sources confirmed to The Real Deal.
The 398-unit rental part of the building will test buyers’ appetites for big-ticket assets at a time when high interest rates are complicating deals.
A representative for JDS Development did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Real Estate Alert first reported news of the listing, which is being handled by the Doug Harmon and Adam Spies team at Newmark.
Stern’s Brooklyn Tower is made up of the rental portion, plus a 130,000-square-foot retail section mostly occupied by the luxury gym chain Life Time Fitness and 143 residential condominiums. The condos are not part of the offering.
The 1,000-foot-tall building towers over Downtown Brooklyn and is the borough’s first supertall skyscraper.
Stern began developing the site at the former Dime Savings Bank in 2015, buying the property with partner Joseph Chetrit for $90 million. Stern bought out Chetrit’s stake in 2018, leading to a lawsuit last year after Chetrit claimed he was owed more money from the deal.
JDS launched sales of the condos in March of last year.
The rental portion benefits from a 35-year tax abatement and has 30 percent of its units set aside for income-restricted renters. The building is expected to get its temporary certificate of occupancy within the next 60 days.
In Manhattan, JDS and its partner Baupost Group last year sold the American Copper Buildings for $850 million to a joint venture between Josh Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management and Meyer Orbach’s Orbach Affordable Housing. It was one of the last major deals to close in the city before rising interest rates cooled the investment sales market.
Read more New York Life Time takes 100K sf in JDS’ Brooklyn Tower New York JDS launches sales at Brooklyn’s highest tower New York Chetrit and Stern go toe-to-toe on Downtown Brooklyn supertall The post Michael Stern puts rental portion of Brooklyn Tower on market, eyeing up to $700M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Ashton Gray Development started its first master-planned community in the Greater Houston area.
Dubbed Oakwood Estates, it is a 183-acre single-family home development with 563 lots, including 12 acres for commercial use, the Houston Business Journal reported. The master-planned community will be located at Knebel and Field Store roads north of Waller, with one- and two-story homes ranging from 1,800 to 3,000 square feet. The project is expected to offer homes starting at $250,000 up to the $400,000 range, or about $139 per square foot.
The community will feature a 28-acre lake with a mile-long trail and a 1.4-acre park that includes a recreation center, resort-style pool and children’s playground. Landscape architecture firm Bruno Land Design will helm the design of the community while Meta Planning + Design will lead the land planning operations.
The Sugar Land-based Ashton Gray purchased the land in May 2021 and signed national homebuilders to begin construction on the community early last year. David Weekley Homes, Ashton Woods Homes, Gehan Homes and K. Hovnanian Homes have already begun constructing model homes with lot developments also in progress. Initial home sales are expected to close in Oakwood Estates this summer.
The company chose Waller due to its location a few miles from highways 290 and 99 as well as the township’s manufacturing and industrial job market, Mark Janik of Ashton Gray told the Houston Business Journal.
Waller and the larger Northwest Houston submarket represent the metro’s largest industrial market, comprising 28 percent of total industrial space in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to real estate research firm Avison Young. Many industrial projects are underway in the submarket. Houston-based development company Parkside Capital has set its eyes on the small industrial town, bringing 2.5 million square feet of warehouse space to the area, while Avera Companies and Pagewood are bringing a combined 1.8 million square feet of additional industrial space.
Read more Houston Massive Waller County ranch hits market for $35M Houston Wu Properties buys two shopping centers amid hot leasing market Houston Wolff Companies buys up extra land for flood protection To meet the growing economic demand, Gamal Enterprises announced its own master-planned community in the sought-after county. At full buildout, the so-far-unnamed community will bring 2,500 single-family homes on a 245 tract on the northwest side of FM 352 and Morrison Road.
In addition to Oakwood Estates, Ashton Gray is also developing the 900-acre Ashland, a master-planned community in Angleton, in Brazoria County, which requires city approval. The company is also constructing Stonebrooke, a 61-acre residential community in Conroe, and the Landing, a 69-acre community in New Caney.
—Brandon Sams
The post Ashton Gray eyes 560-home master plan appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bradford Allen’s Jeffrey Bernstein and Laurence Elbaum with 900 North Branch Street (Bradford Allen, Google Maps, Getty)A Chicago-based real estate firm is pivoting away from suburban-focused investing to acquire a large vacant building in Goose Island, closer to downtown.
BA Investment Advisors is under contract to buy a the 179,000-square-foot building at 900 N. Branch St. for $18 million, Crain’s reported, citing sources familiar with the deal. Cushman & Wakefield is brokering the deal, and New York-based real estate investment trust W.P. Carey is the seller.
BA — which is the investment division of downtown office leasing brokerage Bradford Allen founded by Jeffrey Bernstein and Laurence Elbaum — tapped Chicago-based Guggenheim Partners as an equity investor. The deal is expected to be an all-cash purchase.
The property has 500 feet of riverfront access, a 2-acre parking lot across the street and a half-acre parcel in the adjacent lot, the outlet said.
It’s also a step closer downtown for BA. In the past, the firm has predominantly added suburban offices to its portfolio, in large part because downtown offices haven’t fared well compared to small business spaces throughout the pandemic. The firm has spent $120 million on suburban Chicago commercial real estate since 2020.
The decision to invest in Goose Island — an area undergoing a transition into a hub of offices and apartments from its strictly industrial roots — could stem from the 1-million-square-foot casino set to open just one block away, which is expected to ignite the area’s entertainment scene.
Other companies, including a division of Crate & Barrel, Lakeshore Beverage, Elite Staffing and Transportation One, have already moved their offices to the area, and Onni Group is planning on building an apartment complex with 2,700 units across the street from 900 North Branch.
BA’s plans for the new property are currently unknown. The lot was purchased by W.P. Carey for $28.7 million in 2008 and was the site of culinary arts school Kendall College until 2018.
-— Quinn Donoghue
Read more Chicago Garrison’s Goose Island land grab pays off Chicago Chicago firm’s Goose Island purchase is biggest in $90M spending spree The post BA Investment Advisors leaps on empty Goose Island office for $18M appeared first on The Real Deal.
CBRE’s Bob Sulentic and Park District at 2121 North Pearl Street in Dallas (Getty, CBRE, Park District Office Tower)CBRE is moving its executive operations to a new space in Uptown, but not the one previously expected. Construction is indefinitely delayed on the $200 million office tower that was meant to become the company’s headquarters.
The Dallas-based real estate giant expects to begin moving to offices at 2121 Pearl Street, in the Park District building, by late summer, the Dallas Morning News reported. CBRE will lease 67,000 square feet in the building that overlooks Klyde Warren Park.
CBRE moved its global headquarters from California to Dallas in 2020 with plans to construct a new headquarters at 2401 McKinney Avenue. Developer Trammell Crow, which is owned by CBRE, had been expected to build the tower by the end of 2024. But as construction was further delayed, that goal became more unlikely.
CBRE CEO Bob Sulentic confirmed the “indefinite delay” but said the firm plans to complete the build at a better time. A company statement pinned the delay on the Dallas office market conditions.
“We still believe it’s one of the best office sites in America,” Sulentic told the DMN. “And that site is going to get built. It’s a 700K SF office building and it doesn’t make sense right now. But we still need to have a global headquarters.”
A slowdown in investment sales brought on by rising interest rates has eaten into CBRE’s income, according to a recent earnings report.
The commercial brokerage’s net income plummeted by 88 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2022, when the firm experienced a “slightly larger-than-expected decline in transactional revenue,” the earnings report stated. CBRE’s net income in 2022 fell by 23 percent.
When CBRE moved to Dallas, it brought 460 jobs and invested $29 million into its offices at 2100 McKinney Avenue. It created 550 new jobs and invested $13 million into its Richardson operations center.
The Park District, where CBRE will be moving, includes an office tower, residential high-rise and retail stores. It was also developed by Trammell Crow and is owned by Metlife.
“That’s a building that we built and developed,” Sulentic said. “It’s in the part of Dallas we want to be in.”
Park District will give CBRE a high-profile location where Uptown meets downtown and is the epicenter of much of the city’s shifting office landscape.
Read more Dallas CBRE’s Dallas headquarters at a standstill Dallas Partners Real Estate makes bold investment in Dallas New York CBRE moving HQ from LA to Dallas “We’re not a big headquarters company,” he said. “We have 500 offices out there. But Dallas is our home officially now. It’s proving to be a good place for us.”
Uptown and downtown Class-A office space is still in demand, but many of Dallas’ submarkets are facing a steady decline in inventory as Class-B space becomes less relevant and many companies continue work-from-home schedules. Some of those Class-B spaces are being targeted for office-to-resi conversion projects.
The post CBRE moving Dallas headquarters appeared first on The Real Deal.
Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County’s Lori Gay and Abode Communities’ Holly Benson with rendering of 8727 South Broadway (FHLBank San Francisco, LinkedIn, John V. Mutlow Architects, Getty)Los Angeles will give up to $7 million to affordable housing developers whose 122-unit project in Broadway-Manchester was threatened by rising construction costs and interest rates.
The City Council voted to increase funding to Abode Communities, a nonprofit based in Downtown, and Neighborhood Housing Services of L.A. County, based in Koreatown, for their mixed-use project at 8727 South Broadway, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
Plans for the development known as Manchester Urban Homes east of the 110 Freeway call for a 76-unit affordable apartment building facing Broadway and 46 affordable townhomes behind the apartments.
The extra funds from the city would allow Abode and Neighborhood Housing Services to maintain full funding for the project and retain previously awarded bonds and low-income housing tax credits.
“The construction costs for Manchester Urban Homes increased by $9 million between the initial bid in 2021 and the closing bid in 2022 due to supply chain disruptions, shortage of skilled labor and increased material costs,” said the funding motion introduced by Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who represents the district.
“At the same time the construction loan interest rates increased such that the project costs increased by $5.4 million.”
The funding gap was reduced to $7 million – now covered by the city – thanks to value engineering and additional grant funds, it said.
The 2.7-acre project would include the permanent supportive apartment building with unspecified space for shops and restaurants and parking for 69 cars. It would replace a vacant lot on Broadway between 87th and 88th streets.
The four-story building would include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, from 633 to 1,176 square feet. The townhomes would be built in eight two-story buildings to the west. Both would serve households earning up to 60 percent of area median income.
The project, designed by Los Feliz-based John V. Mutlow Architects, appears to include an L-shaped apartment building in bright orange and white, with white townhomes at the rear.
In September, Abode Communities broke ground to convert three century-old medical lab and clinic buildings at 912 East Broadway in Glendale into 40 affordable homes for senior adults.
In May, Abode Communities teamed up with AvalonBay Communities to pitch plans to build 1,200 apartments – a quarter of them affordable – at a former Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin. Also, it’s building a 90-unit supportive housing complex for homeless and disabled residents in San Pedro.
In 2021, Abode and AvalonBay were chosen to redevelop the 8-acre West Los Angeles Civic Center site, a sprawling mixed-use project that will include residential, office and retail components.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Historic medical offices in Glendale to become senior housing Los Angeles Developers aim to build 1,200 apartments at former Marine base in OC Los Angeles Supportive housing project in San Pedro scores $22M in financing The post City gives developers $7M lifeline for Broadway-Manchester project appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Ryder System’s Robert Sanchez and Bridge Industrial’s Steve Poulos with 11690 Northwest 105th Street (Loopnet, Getty, Ryder System, Bridge Industrial) Logistics giant Ryder System sold its Miami-Dade headquarters for $42.1 million, as it plans to move to a smaller office elsewhere in the county.
In a sale-leaseback deal, Bridge Industrial bought the nearly 250,000-square-foot office building at 11690 Northwest 105th Street in an unincorporated area of northwest Miami-Dade County, and rented it out to the seller for a one-year term, according to a Ryder news release.
Hermen Rodriguez, Luis Castillo and Matthew McCormack of JLL represented the seller.
Ryder, which was founded in Miami 90 years ago, has been based at the property since 2005.
The building, completed in 2005, sits on 16.8 acres, according to records. Ryder bought it in 2014 for $42 million, so it sold for the same price nine years later.
Ryder plans to move into a smaller space that can better accommodate the hybrid-work model that many of its employees have embraced, allowing them to work from home part of the time and from the office for the rest, the release says. The logistics firm has been scoping out possible new offices in Coral Gables and nearby areas, according to the release.
Over the past two years, South Florida has experienced healthy office leasing amid an influx of out-of-state tenants. But Ryder’s impending move shows the regional market isn’t immune to increases in vacancies, as tenants downsize to accommodate the growing remote-work trend.
Ryder offers supply-chain, fleet-management, warehousing and distribution, last-mile fulfillment and other logistics services. It has more than 48,000 employees nationwide, including roughly 800 based in South Florida, according to the release. The late Jim Ryder founded the firm in 1933. Robert Sanchez is the current CEO.
Bridge is expected to redevelop the site, as late last year it filed a pre-application for a 330,000-square-foot warehouse project called Bridge Point Miami Station, according to media reports.
The Chicago-based firm, led by Steve Poulos, has been a prolific player in South Florida’s industrial market, where it has completed or is developing more than 10 million square feet of real estate.
Last year, it paid $26.3 million for a pair of warehouses at 16175 Northwest 49th Avenue and 16250 Northwest 48th Avenue at the Palmetto Lakes Industrial Park in Miami Gardens.
Also in Miami Gardens, Bridge is developing the second two-building phase of the Bridge Point Commerce Center at 4310 Northwest 215th Street.
Read more South Florida Lease roundup: Ryder Logistics leases 150K sf at Miramar Centre Business Park South Florida Bridge’s big bet in Doral: Industrial developer plans 2.6M sf spec project South Florida Goodbye Park ‘N Fly: Bridge Industrial pays $20M for site of planned logistics facility near Port Everglades The post Logistics giant Ryder sells Miami-Dade HQ for $42M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Silverstein Properties’ Jeremy Moss and 3 World Trade Center (Silverstein Properties, Jmex, CC BY-SA 4.0 – via Wikimedia Commons)StubHub is ditching Midtown and opening a much larger headquarters at Silverstein Properties’ 3 World Trade Center in a rare positive sign for Manhattan’s office market.
The ticket marketplace signed a 44,000-square-foot lease on the 59th floor of the 80-story office tower, Silverstein said. StubHub is moving from multiple locations in Midtown, including Isaac Chetrit’s 24-story office building at 1412 Broadway in the Garment District, where it signed a long-term lease in 2016.
Completed in 2018, 3 World Trade Center is now almost 90 percent leased with asking rents averaging $125 per square foot, according to a Silverstein spokesperson.
StubHub’s lease is the third major deal at the tower since last summer. In August, law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer signed a 15-year deal for 180,000 square feet. In September, software company Asana more than doubled its space, taking an additional 44,000 square feet.
A photo illustration of StubHub’s Eric Baker and 3 World Trade Center (StubHub, Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners)Other tenants in the tower include media agency WPP, Hudson River Trading, Uber, alcohol conglomerate Diageo, mattress seller Casper and the stock exchange IEX.
Office landlords are still struggling to bring workers back. Occupancy across the 10 largest U.S. cities stands at around 50 percent, according to data tracked by Kastle Systems, the highest it’s been since the start of the pandemic, and occupancy in New York City has generally lagged behind the national average.
Read more New York Law firm nabs 180K sf at Silverstein’s 3 World Trade New York Isaac Chetrit lands $210M refi for Garment District office building New York Flurry of activity at One World Trade, including new space for Templafy But despite broader struggles in the city’s office sector, new top-of-the-line towers such as One Vanderbilt and Silverstein’s World Trade Center buildings have outperformed the market. Last year, three tenants took 73,000 square feet at the 104-story One World Trade. The completed portion of the World Trade Center complex is now 95 percent leased, according to Silverstein’s Jeffrey Moss.
Moss represented the landlord in the StubHub deal, while CBRE’s Sacha Zarba and Brendan Herlihy represented StubHub.
The post StubHub inks 44K sf lease at 3 World Trade Center appeared first on The Real Deal.
San Francisco mayor London Breed and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan (Getty, Connie Chan for Supervisor)How to fix the ghost town called Downtown San Francisco has become the latest battleground over the city’s future.
Mayor London Breed’s plan to use tax breaks to draw companies to the city’s empty Downtown has met stiff resistance from Connie Chan, budget chair on the city’s Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Last month, Breed proposed a plan to grant new companies that move to San Francisco up to $1 million off their gross receipts taxes for up to three years to help fill the vacant offices that plague Downtown. Chan’s committee will consider her legislation.
Chan, a political progressive, has already begun to push back against a plan to subsidize Downtown businesses.
She said the tax breaks could have unintended consequences in light of the city’s projected $728 million two-year deficit driven by a loss of business and commercial property tax revenues.
In light of the looming deficit, Chan indicated to reporters that she’s worried that the proposed tax breaks could reduce revenue for critical city services such as public safety.
Chan’s remarks, which echo comments she made after Breed announced the tax break proposal, suggest the moderate mayor may face headwinds getting plans to revive Downtown approved by progressives who dominate the board.
Also, Breed will have to contend with Chan’s opposition when she submits her budget proposal this spring.
Chan unveiled several “guiding principles” she said will shape her approach to the upcoming city budget negotiations.
They include temporary permit waivers to help pop-up businesses quickly set up in vacant storefronts — supported by Breed — and tying funding for city departments to performance audits to reduce waste.
They include securing state and regional funding to help make Muni free, which her office said could boost the city’s economic recovery by improving ridership – an idea once vetoed by Breed.
And they include a more regional approach to reducing homelessness, plus expanded child care services for working families.
“We’re not going to sacrifice these things at the expense of, if I may be frank, Downtown interests,” Chan said. “We have to think of the city as a whole and not just one area. We have to take a step back and hold ourselves accountable.”
The city’s empty Downtown has consequences for the city budget, which partly relies on taxes collected from commercial properties and large businesses with employees based in San Francisco.
Even if the city’s year-end savings materialize as expected, the two-year deficit would still stand at $652 million, according to a recent estimate from the controller’s office.
Downtown San Francisco now sees nearly 150,000 fewer office workers each workday than it did before the pandemic, according to a recent report from the board’s Budget and Legislative Analyst that was prepared at Chan’s request.
Office attendance Downtown was just 43 percent of its pre-pandemic level as of last month. The office vacancy in San Francisco is nearly 28 percent, according to CBRE, which has put the city on a national watchlist for “the most empty downtown in America.”
Net absorption — the change in tenant occupancy relative to the supply available in the market — saw an even more dramatic shift, plunging by a staggering 1,150 percent since the end of 2021 and totaling -1.4 million square feet.
Breed spokesman Jeff Cretan said in an email to the Chronicle that the mayor’s plan for Downtown was intended to “reinvent and reimagine” the area “so it can be the economic driver for our city and region.”
Breed has proposed delaying tax increases companies are supposed to see due to a 2020 ballot measure that is phasing out payroll taxes in favor of gross receipts taxes. Chan said she’s on board with that idea.
But she is not embracing a separate Breed proposal: a potential 2024 ballot measure that would broadly reform the city’s business tax structure.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more San Francisco SF loses 150K daily office workers during pandemic San Francisco San Francisco office absorption fell off a cliff in 2022 Auto Draft The post Supervisor pushes back against mayor’s Downtown SF rescue plan appeared first on The Real Deal.
Irving Co’s Donald Bren and 300 N. LaSalle Street in Chicago (Loopnet, Donald Bren)Irvine Co. is putting one of Chicago’s most prolific office towers through a $30 million makeover, a bet that a new look will attract replacement tenants as it faces big exits of existing ones.
The California-based landlord has major renovation plans in store for 300 North LaSalle Street as the building’s two largest tenants, Kirkland & Ellis and Boston Consulting Group, prepare to vacate, CoStar reported. The two tenants alone accounted for roughly 60 percent of the building’s 1.3 million square feet.
Irvine’s commitment to renovate the 14-year-old tower will push its investment on the property to nearly $900 million, as it spent $850 million to buy it in 2014. Even as it has remained one of Chicago’s most desirable office properties, Irvine has faced stiff competition from newly built towers before and amid the pandemic, a factor that has motivated other landlords to pour cash into big office upgrades of amenities and retail spaces.
The renovation plan may work to solidify a 150,000-square-foot deal that Irvine was recently rumored to be negotiating with law firm Winston & Strawn to backfill much of the space Boston Consulting is leaving behind in the building on a new lease.
Owners of office buildings like Chicago’s Aon Center and Willis Tower have also invested heavily in upgrades in recent years to help maintain tenants and lure new ones. In 2021, New York-based AmTrust Realty announced it would invest $100 million upgrading much of its seven-building portfolio in Chicago. And Tishman Speyer recently revealed a $15 million renovation plan for its West Loop tower at 525 West Monroe Street.
Irvine’s renovations will include a 4,500-square-foot expansion of the Chicago Cut steakhouse on its ground floor, upgraded fitness center, new conference center and a new bar area with a lounge overlooking the Chicago River. The three-story lobby will also be upgraded to include more furniture and greater aesthetic appeal, such as oak and stone panels.
“This major reinvestment will further elevate and transform the building for the future of work,” Irvine’s Jonathan Brinsden said in a statement.
In addition to Chicago Cut, which extended its lease by 10 years, a sizable office tenant is staying put at 300 North LaSalle. Private equity firm GTCR has extended their lease by five years and will be adding about 11,000 square feet to their office space, boosting its total to 86,000.
— Quinn Donoghue
Read more Chicago Chicago incentives for LaSalle Street makeover yield $1B in proposals Chicago Chicago weighs LaSalle’s $1.2B office-to-resi pitches Chicago Mike Reschke fends off another lender, keeps Loop offices The post Irvine Co. plans $30M renovation of River North skyscraper appeared first on The Real Deal.
Henry Cisneros, interior & exterior views of The Vue at 11327 Expo Blvd (Getty, The Vue)A mystery buyer purchased a San Antonio apartment high-rise from the Henry Cisneros-affiliated Mission DG development firm.
Called the VUE, it’s a nine-story complex with 91 apartments at 11327 Expo Boulevard that was built in 2004, the San Antonio Business Journal reported.
The price wasn’t disclosed, but the Bexar County Appraisal District valued the property at almost $12 million in 2022. Mission DG bought the property for $9 million in 2018, the outlet reported.
Mission DG completely revamped the property, originally built as a senior living facility, which had sat vacant for about 17 years.
Mission DG added a pool and other amenities, but it also carved 48 condo-style floor plans into smaller apartment units.
Northmarq’s Moses Siller brokered the transaction.
“Even in a market with economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, investors are still targeting well-located real estate with strong underlying fundamentals,” Siller told the outlet.
Mission DG developed at least two multifamily projects in the San Antonio area recently, according to its website. Aspire at Tampico is a 200-unit apartment complex in downtown San Antonio that received nearly $330,000 in TIRZ subsidies. About two-thirds of those units will be reserved for those earning 80 percent or less of the area median income, the San Antonio Heron reported. The LIV at Boerne Hills is a 162-unit Class A senior-living community.
Cisneros, a partner at Mission DG, was the mayor of San Antonio from 1981 to 1989 and was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration.
Cisneros made headlines last year as he was one of the many investors who purchased the minor league San Antonio Missions baseball team. The group of investors comprises a number of notable figures, such as Spurs legends Manu Ginobili and David Robinson.
Read more Austin Austin’s housing shortage hitting breaking point says SXSW panel Texas Spurs legend Tony Parker yanks $19M listing in Anaqua Springs Texas San Antonio Spurs’ star Doug McDermott buys former home of LBJ’s grandson The post Mission DG sells multifamily high-rise appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Los Angeles ranks No. 3, just behind London and New York City, for sales of luxury trophy homes, according to The Wealth Report released by brokerages Douglas Elliman and Knight Frank.
The report found that 225 “super prime properties,” or those more expensive than $10 million, sold in Los Angeles in 2022, and 39 “ultra-prime properties,” or those more expensive than $25 million sold. Last year’s Wealth Report did not break out the numbers of super prime and ultra-prime transactions in 2021.
The report’s survey found ultra high-net-worth individuals across the world remain keen on real estate investment. About one-third of their wealth is tied up in residential properties in 2022. The mansions and estates of the Los Angeles area continue to drive interest from individuals in the economic 1 percent. The study surveyed both Los Angeles and Orange counties,
Study authors forecast that the L.A. trophy home market would continue to be lucrative, despite anxiety over the city’s mansion tax, which levies a 5.5 percent transfer tax on real estate transactions above $10 million.
Los Angeles’ trophy home market will remain strong, forecast Stephen Kotler, chief executive officer of brokerage for Douglas Elliman’s Western region. The area’s inventory of trophy homes is bigger than other areas, and the high-net-worth individuals who can afford them are insulated from economic declines. The city remains popular with overseas buyers and wealthy people from California’s technology sector, he said. However, the transfer tax has already had an effect on some trophy house pricing.
“It’s going to reset aspirational pricing. You have some sellers who have been aspirational in pricing over the last two years. With the tax, they’re going to have to get more realistic with pricing if they want to sell it before April 1 before the tax takes effect,” Kotler said.
Compass also recently released a report on ultra-luxury home sales, which came to similar conclusions as the Douglas Elliman and Knight Frank report. Compass surveyed residential transactions at $10 million and above in 53 U.S. markets. Los Angeles was ranked second as an ultra luxury city, following Manhattan. In 2022, about 242 transactions of $10 million or greater took place in Los Angeles, the report found. That figure was down about 18 percent compared to 2021, when 293 properties priced at $10 million or above were sold.
Read more Los Angeles LA County and OC host nearly a quarter of top U.S. housing markets Los Angeles LA’s ultra luxury homes came with big price tags in 2022 Los Angeles Sizing up LA’s new transfer tax The post LA’s trophy home market ranks No. 3 in world appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kit Realty’s Diane Macari and the Wawa at 7870 West Flagler Street in Miami-Dade County’s Fontainebleau neighborhood (Getty, Kit Realty, SRS, National Net Lease Group)Ferber Company sold a recently completed Wawa in Miami-Dade County’s Fontainebleau neighborhood.
Kit Realty, a New York-based family office managed by Diane Macari, paid $9.8 million for the gas station and convenience store at 7870 West Flagler Street, records and Vizzda show.
Patrick Nutt with SRS Real Estate Partners listed the property on behalf of Ferber, a Ponte Vedra Beach-based real estate development firm led by Chairman Paul Ferber.
Ferber assembled the site’s three vacant lots totaling one acre between 2020 and 2021, paying a combined $5.7 million, records show.
Last year, Ferber completed the single-story, 4,736-square-foot building and gas pumps. Wawa’s 20-year lease commenced in December, records show. The national fuel retailer is paying an annual base rent of $415,000, with an 8 percent increase every five years commencing in the 11th year, according to an offering memorandum.
The gas station and convenience store hit the market between the first and second quarters of last year, and with an asking price of $10.4 million, Nutt said. “We went under contract not long after that,” he said. [Kit Realty was] looking to reinvest capital into a net lease property.”
Kit has been on the hunt for new standalone retail properties in Florida, Nutt said. In December, the family office paid $7 million for a commercial building in Fort Lauderdale that was completed last year, records show. Kit scouted other gas stations in South Florida, but the Fontainebleau Wawa was “their favorite,” Nutt said.
“Not only are they getting an investment grade tenant, but also a best-in-class location,” he said. “It checks all the boxes for generational real estate.”
Kit’s Macari did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.
Nutt, who specializes in gas stations and other single-tenant retail properties, has brokered more than 80 Wawas in South Florida, he said. In 2021, he represented Ferber when the company sold a pair of Wawas in Fort Lauderdale and Hialeah Gardens for a combined $22 million.
Gas stations are considered safe retail real estate bets for small family offices and institutional investors alike. In December, Los Angeles-based First Financial Capital paid $28.8 million for a Mobil gas station and convenience store in Miramar.
The post “Generational real estate”: Family office buys Wawa in Miami-Dade’s Fontainebleau appeared first on The Real Deal.
Shomof Group’s Izek Shomof with 8141-8155 North Van Nuys Boulevard (Getty, Takacs Architecture, Shomof Group) Developer Izek Shomof has plans to pack 200 homes next to his 14-story, 194-unit Panorama Tower in Panorama City.
The head of the Downtown L.A.-based Shomof Group and Pacific Investments has shed new light on plans to build the 200 apartments next to the converted office tower at 8141-8155 North Van Nuys Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported, citing a city environmental assessment.
Plans call for a seven-story apartment complex with nearly 2,100 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants on the parking llot adjacent to Panorama Tower.
The 200 units would all be market-rate and include two studios, 159 1-bedroom and 39 2-bedroom apartments, according to the sustainable communities environmental assessment. It would include a 10,700-square-foot private warehouse, plus a three-story parking garage for 504 cars.
The rectangular building, designed by Downtown-based Takacs Architecture, would be light gray with slate-blue panels and orange accents, with inset balconies and vertical windows, according to renderings.
The Panorama Tower, built in 1962, was designed by midcentury architect Welton Becket, whose firm designed the Capitol Records building and the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.
After taking heavy damage in the 1994 Northquake earthquake, it became a blighted monolith that towered over the San Fernando neighborhood for a quarter century. In 2004, the city attorney filed a lawsuit against its then-owner, charging that the building was plagued by graffiti, broken windows and trespassers.
Shomof bought the abandoned office building in 2015 for $12.5 million, with plans to convert it into apartments. It reopened as a multifamily in February 2020 after $25 million in renovations, extensive seismic and systems upgrades. Two penthouses were added at the top.
Construction of the neighboring apartment complex is expected to take 27 months, according to the environmental study, but no timeline was disclosed.
The project has emerged during rapid change in Panorama City, which includes a new light rail line beginning work along the Van Nuys Corridor, and a 4.5 million-square-foot high-rise complex planned to the north at Panorama Mall.
The Panorama Tower site abuts a Los Angeles County-owned property at 14545 Lanark Street, where nonprofit developer Holos Communities is developing 180 low-income apartments, and across the street from a second affordable housing complex at 8140 Van Nuys Boulevard.
Last month, Thomas Safran & Associates received a $54.3 million grant from the City of Los Angeles to build a 102-unit affordable housing complex at 8130-8146 North Van Nuys Boulevard, across from Panorama Tower.
Shomof, a native of Israel, was among the first investors to have a hand in redeveloping Downtown L.A., restoring multiple buildings in the Historic Core starting in the 1990s, including the Premiere Towers at 621 South Spring Street.
Early last year, the head of Shomof Group and developer Leo Pustilnikov announced plans to turn a century-old former Sears building in Boyle Heights into a $400 million “life rebuilding center” for 5,900 homeless residents. The 26-acre campus would include a medical clinic, mental health support and job training.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Izek Shomof’s Panorama Tower could include an “open mall” The post Izek Shomof eyes 200 apartments next to his Panorama Tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
Dr. Wei-Tzuoh Chen with 41800 Pacific Coast Highway (Getty, Advent Health)One all-encompassing feature distinguishes a furnished beachfront home in Malibu now listedfor $68.8 million – feng shui design.
Dr. Wei-Tzuoh Chen and his wife, Carrie Chen, have put their feng-shui-based glass, steel and concrete home up for sale at 41800 Pacific Coast Highway, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The couple bought the property in 2003 for $2.25 million, then spent six years building the 8,200-square-foot vacation property. They listed it in 2015 for $53 million and in 2018 for $45 million.
Now the Visalia-based kidney specialist and his wife say it’s time to move on.
Their five-bedroom, seven-bathroom estate, designed by architect Ed Niles, resembles an oval cylinder next to a pyramid nestled against a tower of cubes.
Chen, who moved to California in the 1980s from Taiwan, said he is of Chinese descent and a strong believer in feng shui, or “wind-water” principles.
He chose the property in part because it sits on a hill and has 75 feet of oceanfront, important elements in feng shui, he said. Also, the home was built facing south in accord with feng shui guidelines.
The main house has 7,600 square feet, with four bedrooms and 47 skylights. There’s also a one-bedroom, one-bathroom guesthouse.
When it came to its design, Chen said he was inspired by the numbers eight and nine, which symbolize luck and good fortune. The home is made up of eight connecting structures and there are nine turns to get to the primary bedroom.
In Chinese tradition, it is important for a home to be unassuming on the outside, Chen told the Journal in 2015, so the house is barely visible from the road.
Red, which brings good fortune, is incorporated into the house: The “barbecue tower” — a triangular structure where the family can cook and dine protected from the wind — is outlined in crimson. The home’s four bedrooms are connected to the rest of the house by an interior glass bridge, because privacy is important in Chinese tradition, he said
The furniture in the home was strategically arranged along feng shui principles, Chen recently added. The property is for sale furnished.
The two-story gray house includes a grand entry hall that can hold 100 people, a music studio, a home theater and a stainless-steel Japanese soaking tub. It also has numerous red sculptures around the property. A bronze statue of a muscular dog stares across the sea.
Brokers Madison Hildebrand and Jennifer Chrisman of Compass and Wendy Wong and Katherine Quach of Treelane Realty Group hold the listing.
Since February 2022, there have been 66 home sales along Malibu’s coastline with a median sale price of $10 million, Hildebrand told the Journal.
In December, a 16,000-square-foot estate on 6 acres with nearly 340 feet of beachfront sold at 28060 Sea Lane Drive for $91 million.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more New York Feng shui plays bigger role in real estate Los Angeles Dean Factor lists Malibu home for $40M The post Feng Shui-based home in Malibu comes to market for $69M appeared first on The Real Deal.
AAGLA’s Cheryl Turner (AAGLA, Getty) A property owners association has filed a legal challenge to some of the renter protections the Los Angeles City Council approved at the beginning of the year, claiming key parts of the legislation conflict with state law and should be repealed.
Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles filed a complaint March 3 in Los Angeles Superior Court. It’s the group’s latest challenge against the city’s recent initiatives backed by the City Council’s progressive wing.
One of these new rules is the City Council’s ordinance on just cause for eviction. The new rule makes it more difficult for landlords to evict tenants. Property owners only can initiate an eviction, or an unlawful detainer, when the amount of money due exceeds one month of fair market rent in the Los Angeles area, according to the new law.
AAGLA’s complaint says that this rule conflicts with state law. Cheryl Turner, an attorney and president of AAGLA’s board, said the city threshold would be a major financial burden for landlords.
“Now owners may have to wait months or even years, at which point the past due rent will likely never be collectible and renters may now stay housed in violation of their lease agreement without recourse. The city’s ordinance has clearly created a scenario where renters, not the property owners, can effectively establish the amount of rent they wish to pay,” Turner said in a prepared statement.
AAGLA’s complaint also took issue with relocation assistance for renters they evict. The complaint argues that the fees for relocation assistance would prohibit landlords from raising rents.
These rules also break the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act, which puts limits on municipal rent control ordinances for residential housing categories, such as single-family homes, condominiums and newly constructed apartments, the complaint argues.
A representative for the L.A. City Attorney’s Office did not answer a request for comment.
Since the pandemic, AAGLA has mounted legal challenges to the efforts of the City Council’s and L.A. County to change rent laws. In March 2022, AAGLA filed a joint lawsuit with Apartment Owners Association of California against Los Angeles County seeking relief against enforcement of the county’s residential eviction moratorium. A preliminary injunction was granted.
In 2020, AAGLA filed a lawsuit against the city’s moratorium on evictions and rent increases. An AAGLA statement said that both matters are pending.
In December, AAGLA served as a plaintiff to file charges against L.A.’s transfer tax. It imposes a 4 percent tax on property sales between $5 million and $10 million, with the tax rising to 5.5 percent on sales above $10 million.
Read more Los Angeles Landlord group files legal challenge to LA’s transfer tax Los Angeles Court to hear challenge to Pasadena rent control measure Los Angeles Relocation money, just-cause evictions: LA’s new rent laws The post AAGLA lawsuit demands LA repeal some renter protections appeared first on The Real Deal.
Vanderbilt Estates Dix Hills (BLD Architecture)Dix Hills could soon be home to 180 new, luxury townhomes for the 55-and-older set — if opposition doesn’t spring up to sabotage the project.
A development firm led by Lou Giaquinto proposed the senior housing community in the Suffolk County hamlet, Newsday reported. The townhomes would be in a gated community dubbed Vanderbilt Estates Dix Hills.
Its 35 buildings would stretch across 24 acres and the homes would be priced between $800,000 and $1.2 million. There would be a clubhouse and pool, along with a subterranean sewage treatment plant.
The project would be on Deer Park Avenue between the Long Island Expressway and Vanderbilt Parkway. The two businesses that were using the site, a flower shop and landscaper, have both closed.
The rub, however, is that the project requires a rezoning by the Town of Huntington. The portion of the site that does not include the shuttered businesses and Park Shore Day Camp is zoned for single-family housing on 1-acre lots. The developer wants to rezone to a garden apartment special district.
Giaquinto pitched the project as a boon to the community, replacing the closed shops and the pollution, traffic, trucks and noise they brought with a quiet, residential enclave. He also said the community needs more senior housing options.
Not everyone is on board. A Facebook post in a community group for moms revealed plans to meet Tuesday night about possible concerns. Among them are how the development would affect the character of the hamlet.
Giaquinto submitted the proposal in January, but no timeline for its review has been set. A spokesperson for the town told Newsday that it was too early to vote on a resolution to have a public hearing, which is necessary for zoning changes.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more South Florida Cutler Bay approves $100M senior living mixed-use project Texas It’s 5 o’clock somewhere: Margaritaville is coming to Texas Tri-State Long Island landlord forks over $15K to settle voucher case The post 180-townhouse project proposed in Dix Hills appeared first on The Real Deal.
Oliver Wyman’s Pablo Haberer with 1236 Biscaya Drive (LinkedIn, One Sotheby’s International Realty, Getty)A consultant sold his waterfront home on Biscaya Island in Surfside for a record $15.3 million.
Records show DEBPA LLC, a Florida entity managed by Pablo Haberer, sold the house at 1236 Biscaya Drive to IB MIMI 2022 Family Trust, with Noah Burton signing as trustee. Burton appears to be a Lakewood, New Jersey-based attorney. The true buyer is unknown.
Haberer is a partner at Oliver Wyman, a top consulting firm headquartered in New York City and a subsidiary of the professional services giant Marsh McLennan. Haberer previously spent nearly 20 years with consulting giant McKinsey as a director, focusing on Latin American markets, his LinkedIn shows.
Lydia Eskenazi and Jonathan Bigelman of One Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing. Zalmy Shapiro and Joel Lusky of the Brokerage South Florida Real Estate brought the buyer.
1236 Biscaya Drive (One Sotheby’s International Realty, Getty)Haberer bought the Biscaya Island home for $5.9 million in 2015, records show. Built in 2009, the home spans nearly 7,700 square feet, with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, according to property records. The 0.3-acre property also includes a pool, dock, and staff quarters, the listing shows.
The latest sale marks a price record for Surfside, breaking the previous record set by Hudson News heir Robert Cohen. Cohen bought a Biscaya Island waterfront home for $12.9 million in February of last year.
Recent big name buyers have elevated the profile of Biscaya Island, normally overshadowed by its neighboring island, the billionaire-favorite Indian Creek Village. Gisele Bündchen bought a waterfront Biscaya Island home for $11.5 million in October, directly across the water from her ex-husband Tom Brady’s Indian Creek property, where the football legend is building a mansion.
1236 Biscaya Drive (One Sotheby’s International Realty, Getty)Brady and Bündchen bought the Indian Creek property together in 2020 for $17 million.
Retired Formula One driver Eddie Irvine, who is now a spec developer in South Florida, recently sold a waterfront Biscaya Island teardown for $7.9 million.
Eskenazi credits the Bündchen purchase and recent revitalization of shopping districts around Surfside, Bay Harbor Islands and Bal Harbour as drivers of recent luxury sales.
“Biscaya Island was always a sleeper,” Eskenazi said. “People didn’t know it was there.”
The post Consultant sells waterfront Biscaya Island home in Surfside for record $15M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Eagle Infinite Investments’ Jamie Nahon and Shain Realty’s Jonathan Shainberg with 5219 South Calumet Avenue and 5001 South Drexel Boulevard in Chicago (Google Maps, LinkedIn, Shain Realty)Jaime Nahon isn’t done investing in Chicago’s South Side. His real estate firm has doubled the size of its portfolio after closing a deal with a Los Angeles-based seller.
ShainRealty Capital, led by Jonathan and Elliot Shainberg, sold a 200-unit portfolio across eight buildings in the Bronzeville, Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods to Nohan’s Eagle Infinite Investments for $29 million, people familiar with the deal said.
It’s at least the second group of apartment buildings in the South Side neighborhoods that have sold for more than $25 million in recent months on deals brokered by Interra Realty’s Lucas Fryman and Ted Stratman.
The deal illustrates that sellers who can offer assumable debt on buildings with lower mortgage rates have a clear advantage in an otherwise strained investment market.
“There were some loan assumptions involved with the majority of the properties. which made them more attractive because the loans that were assumed have lower in place interest rates than what’s available in today’s market,” Fryman said.
The buildings involved in the deal include 4208, 4213 and 4220 South Michigan Avenue; 4611 and 5001 South Drexel Boulevard; 4716 South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive; 5219 South Calumet Avenue; and 4119 South Ellis Avenue.
For ShainRealty, the deal marks an exit from Chicago with what appears to be a profit over its costs to acquire the portfolio. It assembled the buildings between 2019 and 2021 for about $22.6 million.
“ShainRealty is targeting investments into more business friendly states,” said Jonathan Shainberg, who declined to elaborate further.
Eagle Infinite plans to collect more income from the assets by increasing rents. Some units within the portfolio have fallen below their market value.
“There is some good value add with coming lease turnover, following in the path of what the former owners have done,” Nahon said, noting his firm would pursue renovations of “individual units as needed just to bring them to current market standards.”
His company already had about 200 units under management across the three South Side neighborhoods, and is using funds raised to take advantage of opportunity zone tax incentives in the areas by building three-unit apartment structures, with each unit containing three bedrooms as well as parking and garages.
The firm has another 100 such units in similar buildings under construction now that will soon be a part of its rental pool, with the goal to add another 100 in its development pipeline by the end of the year, Nahon said.
“These buildings will add to our management in this space and give us a little more scale,” Nahon said of its assets purchased from ShainRealty.
The deal also follows the $26 million December sale of a 204-unit Kenwood apartments portfolio by investors Mendy Raskin and Jonathan Kranzler to New York-based Atlas Asset Management, another deal brokered by Interra’s Fryman and Stratman.
“There’s huge demand in that area,” Stratman said. “For this ShainRealty deal we had 10 offers and 15 tours within a few weeks. It’s hard to accomplish scale so soon. These guys and Raskin had spent a decent amount of time assembling these portfolios and somebody was able to capture them in one big sale. It can make the economics much better.”
Read more Chicago Raskin sells Kenwood apartment portfolio for sizable profit Los Angeles ShainRealty Capital moves into Dallas with $46M purchase Chicago Kenwood landlord allegedly falls short of court-ordered repair requirements The post Eagle Infinite drops $29M on South Side apartments appeared first on The Real Deal.
77 Prospect Place, 355 President Street (Google Maps, Getty)Townhouses snagged the top deals in Brooklyn last week.
Single-family homes notched the borough’s priciest contracts signed between Feb. 27 and March 5, according to Compass’ weekly report on residences asking $2 million or more.
The most expensive to go into contract was 77 Prospect Place in Park Slope, which was asking $6 million. The 5,300-square-foot townhouse has three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
It features 1,000 square feet of outdoor space, heart of pine flooring, 15-foot ceilings, a 30-foot-long skylight, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and an eat-in kitchen with an island.
Serhant’s Matthew Scott had the listing.
The second most expensive home to find a buyer was 355 President Street in Carroll Gardens, with an asking price of $5.3 million. The recently-renovated townhouse spans 3,800 square feet and has four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
It comes with a newly built carriage house, chef’s kitchen, 30-foot-deep front yard, private courtyard and marble fireplaces.
Corcoran’s Deborah Rieders had the listing.
Of the 18 contracts signed last week for luxury Brooklyn homes, 11 were for townhouses and seven were for condos. The average asking price was $3.4 million and the average price per square foot was $1,252. The homes spent an average of 155 days on the market and had an average discount of 7 percent from their original listing price.
Brooklyn’s luxury market rebounded in February after a slow start to the year. Throughout January, the weekly contract total never exceeded 15 and dipped to single digits twice. But numbers began picking up last month with some weekly contract totals cracking 20. The 18 luxury deals inked last week were three more than the week before.
Home-buying activity has been higher in the borough over the past four months than pre-pandemic. In February, the number of new signed contracts in Brooklyn increased month-over-month, though new listings continued to decline, according to a Miller Samuel Report for Douglas Elliman.
Read more New York Bond New York heads to Brooklyn New York Brooklyn Heights homes lead luxury market rebound New York Brownstone Brooklyn siphoning demand from Manhattan, Williamsburg The post Park Slope townhome asking $6M tops Brooklyn’s luxury market appeared first on The Real Deal.
USAA’s Wayne Peacock with 9800 Fredericksburg Rd (Indeed, Getty, Central Guide)One of San Antonio’s largest employers plans to use more of its headquarters space.
USAA is transitioning some employees to hybrid schedules after they strictly worked from home for a prolonged period, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. Details of how many employees will return to office weren’t reported.
The San Antonio-based financial services firm made a deal with the city and Bexar County in 2017, which gave the firm nearly half a million square feet of downtown office space in exchange for tax abatements. In May 2022, the firm terminated the agreement and paid back the $4 million loan it received as well as $56,000 in tax abatements, the outlet reported.
USAA has plenty of space at its headquarters for employees to return to the office and doesn’t need to lease more space, spokesperson Christian Bove said.
“All employees assigned to our downtown offices have transitioned to our home office,” Bove told the outlet. “Like many companies, the pandemic and a shift to hybrid and remote working have changed our real estate needs as we have ample space for current and future employees in our home office campus.”
The firm’s recent decision is the latest trend of companies shifting from remote work to in-person or hybrid flexibility. Amazon announced several weeks ago that their employees were required to return to the office three days a week starting in May. Google, Microsoft and Apple have initiated similar plans.
“Working in the office three or more days per week provides flexibility while also enabling teamwork, collaboration and a sense of belonging,” Bove told the outlet.
Bove added that some employees will work exclusively at home or in the office, depending on their role in the company.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read more New York NYC to weigh hybrid work for city employees New York ‘Flex with Purpose’: Why hybrid-work policy names matter Los Angeles Elon Musk’s back-to-office order sets SpaceX up as SoCal test case The post USAA calls employees back to the office appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jorge Mastropietro Architects Atelier’s Ahmed Emara with rendering of NY Vue (Jorge Mastropietro Architects Atelier, Getty)A developer is poised to build the tallest building in Bayonne after receiving approval for a 26-story project in the city’s Harbor Station South section.
Last week, a subsidiary of the Ramani Group got a green light from the planning board for its project, NY Vue, at the intersection of East 40th Street and Chosin Few Way, the site of the former Military Ocean Terminal, NJ.com and Jersey Digs reported.
Jorge Mastropietro Architects Atelier is designing the project, which will be largely residential. The project will include 281 housing units, six stories of parking and ground-level retail.
The parcel encompasses 155,000 square feet. The building is designed to have a six-story base, which will be wider than the 20 stories on top of it. At its highest point, the property will be 286 feet tall.
The apartment mix will be 48 studios, 135 one-bedrooms, 56 two-bedrooms and 42 three-bedrooms, according to JerseyDigs. A public plaza will serve as a buffer from the roadway.
Amenities will include a pool, basketball court, dog park, bocce court, public kitchen, public lawn and rooftop deck.
The Ramini Group aims to break ground this summer, JerseyDigs reported. The project is part of a six-tower complex at Harbor Station South, where a redevelopment plan was approved four years ago.
Builders are competing to see who can put up the biggest project Bayonne as the gates appear to be opening for development after years of struggles.
Last year, an 18-story project — part of AMS Equities’ larger SilkLoft development — came up for review. Since then, the city planning board has also approved a pair of 22-story buildings at 26 North Street. Construction has not started on either project.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more Tri-State Bungled in Bayonne: 15 years later, Peninsula dev lurches forward Tri-State Bayonne to weigh 2 redevelopment proposals Tri-State KABR scoops up luxury building in Bayonne for $50M The post Ramani Group wins approval for Bayonne’s biggest building appeared first on The Real Deal.
A rendering of the proposed towers at the Diplomat Landings site with Trinity CEO Sean Hehir, BH Group’s Isaac Toledano and Related CEO Jorge Pérez (CFE Architects, Wikipedia, LinkedIn)Related Group and BH Group’s latest project entails building a pair of luxury high-rises adjacent to the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood.
The joint venture on Friday submitted a site plan application with the city of Hollywood to build a 38-story condominium with 350 units, and a 43-story condo-hotel with 500 units. The two-tower project would rise on a pair of vacant parcels between two parking garages with ground-floor retail at 3210 – 3690 South Ocean Drive.
Neither of the proposed buildings is yet named. Miami-based CFE Architects is designing the two skyscrapers, which would have views of the Intracoastal Waterway.
Related and BH are partnering with Honolulu-based Trinity Investments and Credit Suisse Management, the new owners of the 8-acre site known as Diplomat Landings, according to a source close to one of the developers. Spokespeople for Related and BH declined comment.
Last month, Trinity and Credit Suisse paid $466 million for the 1,000-room Diplomat Beach Resort at 3555 South Ocean Drive, and paid $69 million for Diplomat Landings, records show. The real estate was part of the overall $850 million purchase of the luxury hotel and its operations.
The landmark oceanfront property and the adjacent parcels hit the market for $1 billion in 2019, two years after the previous owner, Brookfield Properties, completed a $100 million renovation of the Diplomat.
After reported deals with Aventura-based developer Jeffrey Soffer fell through, Trinity went under contract last year.
Aventura-based BH Group, led by Isaac Toledano, is teaming up with Related Group, the Miami development firm founded by CEO Jorge Pérez, on a slew of South Florida projects. The joint venture recently submitted a site plan for Icon Aventura, a planned mixed-use project anchored by 208 apartments in Aventura. City officials are seeking to set aside 51 units at below-market rates for police officers and teachers in Aventura. In exchange, BH and Related would get additional density for Icon Aventura.
Related and BH are also negotiating a letter of intent with the Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency to build an affordable housing multifamily project in Marina Village in Riviera Beach.
The post Related, BH submit plans for two-tower project near Diplomat resort appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Canada’s two-year ban on the purchase of residential property by foreigners was supposed to help Canadian buyers and the real estate business.
Instead, it’s created new headaches.
Flaws in the language of the legislation are causing real harm, according to a note from the economics arm of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The note was reported this week by the Financial Post.
Benjamin Tal, an economist for CIBC, noted several word choices of the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act, which went into effect at the start of the year. The two-year ban was designed to improve affordability during the country’s housing crisis.
First, “Residential Property” is proving to be problematic. While that applies to the obvious structures, it also applies to vacant or developed land zoned for residential use, according to Tal. That’s preventing non-Canadians from owning commercial properties within these zones, greatly expanding the scope of the ban. Tal notes most of Toronto would be covered by this law.
Then, there’s “non-Canadian.” Corporations with foreign ownership of 3 percent or greater are considered non-Canadian. Canadian stock exchange companies are excluded, but not Canadian REITs, which build apartments and affordable housing for many — not under the act, though.
How about “Purchase” — that feels straightforward, no? Well the ban appears to impact both direct and indirect purchases, such as leases, mortgages and shares. More indirect consequences of the law.
“The damage is real,” Tal said, adding that developers foreign-owned or relying on foreign equity are being sidelined from building affordable housing, prolonging the country’s issue. He added that the issues could seep into other sections of the economy.
Tal called on policymakers to amend the legislation to center “only on single units being purchased by foreigners while exempting development of new supply from the impact of the new legislation.”
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more New York Canadian law places ban on most foreigners buying homes New York Canadian PM Trudeau pledges two-year ban on foreign home buyers New York So much for that lull: bubble worries return for Canadian property The post Canada foreign buyer ban has unintended consequences appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)Living in the suburbs isn’t a guarantee of being housed.
The number of suburban families that have been evicted from their homes has been increasing for years, USA Today reports, citing a study by Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.
“These findings remind us that housing precarity and homelessness are not just urban issues,” Scott Allard, professor of public policy at the University of Washington in Seattle, told the outlet.
Indeed, evictions remained steady in 74 urban areas, but increased in 58 of those areas suburbs from 2000 to 2016, USA Today said. The number of evictions in the suburbs is nearly equal to downtown urban areas, the report says.
The main reason for evictions in the suburbs is tenants failing to pay rent, the outlet reported. Low wages, particularly among people of color, and inflation are major factors behind the problem.
One-third of workers in the U.S. make less than $15.10 an hour, with 50 percent of women of color making less than that, the outlet reported, citing data from Oxfam America
“You can’t afford to pay rent in this country anymore if you’re just a minimum wage worker,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge told USA TODAY.
Those who are evicted in the suburbs also may not have access to resources of their urban counterparts, USA Today said, citing the report. In addition, there is greater sprawl, fewer housing units and transit options available in suburban areas, making evictions even more isolating, the outlet said.
“There are many issues that confront us and there is just a lack of housing,” Fudge said.
Furthermore, since 2010, a majority of poor in America have lived in suburban areas, USA Today said, citing Brookings Institute data.
“The suburban poor are increasingly concentrated in certain neighborhoods, creating stark inequalities between pockets of poverty and affluence,” the report says, according to USA Today.
Suburbs have been getting poorer for a number of reasons, including high-paying manufacturing jobs being replaced with lower-wage service jobs; rising inflation and static wages have squeezed the middle-class, who live in suburban areas; and lower income families have moved to the suburbs to find more affordable housing, according to the report, USA Today said.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more New York Legislators propose half-year, recurring eviction ban New York Legislators propose half-year, recurring eviction ban National Couple banishes hellish roommate, a real estate agent The post Suburban tenants face evictions in increasing numbers appeared first on The Real Deal.
Houston-based entrepreneur Washington Ho, the real estate investor and broker from the HBO Max reality show “House of Ho,” has partnered with former mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee, to form a THC beverage company, the Houston Business Journal reported.
The pair, in partnership with Bayou Hemp Co. and 8th Wonder Brewery and Distillery, will launch a Delta-8-infused seltzer with the portmanteau HoBuzz in a few months, the outlet reported.
With the THC market exploding with gummies, cookies and vape pens, some see the cannabis beverage market as the next big thing, with sales expected to reach $2.8 billion by 2025, Houston Business Journal said, citing data from the market research firm Grand View Research.
Delta-8 THC is a cannabinoid derived from hemp and provides a milder effect than the Schedule I narcotic chemical, Delta-9 THC found in its sister plant. Ho, a recovering alcoholic (season 1 of “House of Ho” was about his sobriety”), told the outlet he drinks THC beverages to help with sleep and anxiety, as well as to keep from “missing out on the fun” at parties.
“Being sober is very extreme, and so we needed something that would let us have a little fun in life and not something surrounded by alcohol, [but] something healthy, something that would benefit our lifestyle, something that would benefit our work-life balance, and we found that through HoBuzz,” Ho told the Houston Business Journal.
The beverage will come in two flavors — hibiscus and black cherry — and will cost between $7 and $12 per 12-ounce can (with 5 milligrams of THC in each can), with a case going for about $80.
Ho says he will talk about his new venture during filming of the third season of “House of Ho” — a reality show that follows the Vietnamese-American Ho family who made their fortune in real estate and banking — in the Hamptons this summer, according to the outlet.
Not everyone, however, is a fan of HoBuzz and its ilk. Texas Sen. Charles Perry has introduced a bill before the state legislature that, if passed, would outlaw Delta-8 and, therefore, HoBuzz and other THC products.
Even if the bill passes, which some experts say is unlikely, Ho says he won’t be deterred from bringing HoBuzz elsewhere.
“There [are] other states where it’s legal,” he told the Houston Business Journal. “Tony and I, we’ve gotten to where we are because we take huge risks. And fortunately, I have a partner that’s a lawyer [who] understands legal language, and I really like that. And I can focus on what I do best, which is marketing and sales, and that’s what I’m focused on right now.”
Read more Houston Scion of Houston’s ‘House of Ho’ moving to eXp Texas Scion of Houston’s ‘House of Ho’ reality show inks deal with Realty.com Dallas New HGTV show challenges out-of-state home-flippers to make $1 million in Dallas Last, Ho, Houston real estate and banking scion, went national by joining eXp Realty.
“The attraction of eXp is that they’re national, and they have a great technology platform,” Ho said in October. “I also like that they work with celebrities and sports figures in L.A. and New York and I plan to use my presence as a public figure to help with that part of the business.”
— Ted Glanzer
The post “House of Ho” star to launch THC beverage company appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)The Colorado home where 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in 1996 has been listed for nearly $7 million, the Denver Post reported.
The 7,500-square-foot home at 749 15th Street in Boulder has been on and off the market for the past 15 years, with the most recent listing in 2014 for $2 million, the outlet reported.
LIV Sotheby’s International Realty has the $6.95 million listing.
The five-bedroom home, which has five bathrooms and sits on a quarter acre, is the site of an enduring and gruesome mystery surrounding the death of JonBenet Ramsey. She was found dead the day after Christmas in 1996 in the basement of the home several hours after her mother, Patsy, called authorities to report her daughter missing. Patsy Ramsey reported that a ransom note was left behind.
Numerous theories behind JonBenet’s death have cropped up through the years, though no charges have ever been filed and the case remains unsolved.
Patsy Ramsey and her husband, John Bennett Ramsey bought the Boulder home in 1991 for $500,000, the Denver post reported. In 1998, the Ramseys sold the home to a group of investors for $650,000, the outlet said.
Tim and Carol Milner purchased the home in 2004 for $1.05 million and have subsequently put it on the market in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2014. The MIlners changed the address — a common sales tactic where macabre events take place at a home — from 755 to 749 15th Street.
Homes where notorious crimes have taken place do make their way to the market from time to time.
In 2011, Charles Buck, who was acquitted of murdering his late wife Leslie, sold his Mystic, Connecticut, home for $415,000, roughly half of its value.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more The post Boulder home were JonBenet Ramsey was found dead lists for $7M appeared first on The Real Deal.
2305 Mount Werner Circle in Steamboat Springs CO (Fall Creek Group)Almost five dozen acres are up for auction at the base of a well-known ski resort in Colorado as the owner tries to end a decades-long deep freeze of development.
FallsCreek Group put the 59-acre plot of land up for an online public auction, the company announced this week. The land is at the base of the Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado, which counts more than 1 million visitors annually.
No date for the auction’s conclusion or minimum bid were disclosed.
The ski resort is served by a single base, the largest ski area in the world to have that distinction, according to the press release. The development of a second base would ease overcrowding and improve logistical issues at the resort.
The second base was approved with the property’s master plan back in 1970. Thomas Grant’s family purchased the Base II property for development around the same time, but the area has yet to be developed; Grant is the managing partner of FallsCreek Group.
The property connects the northern boundary of the ski area with downtown Steamboat Springs. The base will provide access to the north half of the ski area and would include a 12-passenger gondola to the Mount Werner Summit.
The development potential of the land is enormous. The wooded site is expected to ultimately include residences, hotels and luxury shops. The ski company is expected to develop the terrain for the ski area this year.
The base is expected to be operational in the next few years, the ski company has told the FallsCreek Group.
There may not be a minimum bid needed on the land — at least one that has been publicly stated — but the seller plans on landing plenty of hard, cold cash in the auction. A bid package request for the property singles out “high-net-worth individuals and or large investors and developers.”
Read more New York New gondola creates Tahoe megaresort New York Nod off in a pod after a hard day on the ski slopes New York Nod off in a pod after a hard day on the ski slopes The post Colorado ski resort puts 59-acres up for auction appeared first on The Real Deal.
Middletown Ridge (Contributed by Hamilton Zanze)A Massachusetts-based company bought two large apartment complexes in Connecticut for a combined $94 million last week.
Jones Street purchased from San Francisco-based Hamilton Zanze both Middletown Brooke and Middletown Ridge apartments, which have a combined 520 units, for $47 million apiece, the Hartford Business Journal reported.
Middletown Brooke has 280 one- and two-bedroom units that average about 800 square feet, while Middletown Ridge has 236 one-, two- and three-bedroom units that average about 1,000 square feet, the HBJ said.
Both complexes were built in the late 1980s. During its ownership, Hamilton Zanze made numerous improvements to the properties, including repaving, HVAC replacements and exterior upgrades, according to a statement.
Amenities at Middletown Brooke, at 100 Town Brooke, include a clubroom, fitness center, swimming pool, dog park and barbecue areas. Amenities at Middletown Ridge, at 100 Ridge Road, include clubroom with kitchen, fitness center, indoor racquetball court, swimming pool with sundeck, laundry facility, and barbeque grilling stations.
Both properties are near Hartford and New Haven.
The deal isn’t the only recent sale of a large apartment complex in Connecticut.
In late December, Yellowstone Property Group purchased the 164-unit Reserve41 complex at 41 Wolfpit Avenue in Norwalk for 48.7 million $from Norpointe LLC, a partnership led by Greenwich-based real estate investment firm Belpointe.
In November, Brookfield Asset Management sold two multifamily complexes — the Winchester Lofts in New Haven and 1111 Stratford in Stratford — as part of a three-property, $117 million deal with Illinois-based B3 Holdings LLC. The transaction also included the 195-unit Ashton Mills in Cumberland, Rhode Island.
In February 2022, office landlord Monday Properties paid $131 million for 75 Tresser Boulevard, a 344-unit apartment building in the city’s downtown, in Stamford. Less than a decade old, the four-story property sits a few blocks from the Stamford Metro-North and Amtrak station and 677 Washington Boulevard, an office complex that recently added Philip Morris International and World Wrestling Entertainment as tenants.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more New York Yellowstone buys Fairfield County apartment complex for $49M Tri-State Office landlord Monday Properties makes $131M multifamily play in CT Tri-State Brookfield sells pair of Connecticut multifamily properties for $117M The post Hamilton Zanze sells two Connecticut apartment complexes for $94M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rendering of West Hartford 1 LLC (Getty, Minno Wasko Architects and Planners)Developers plan to turn two high-profile parcels in West Hartford into mixed-use, multi-family complexes with nearly 700 units combined.
The first project is the 57-acre site of the former University of Connecticut campus, whose owner West Hartford 1, led by investor and developer Domenic Carpionato, plans to build a 492 apartment, mixed-use “neighborhood village,” We-Ha.com reports.
West Hartford 1’s plans, which are now before the town’s Design Review Advisory Committee, call for 392 of the 492 apartments to be in five, five-story buildings on the 24-acre east side of the property, the outlet reported. The other 100 units will be in eight, three-story, mixed-use buildings on the 33-acre west side of the property, along with boutique retailers, restaurants, a medical office, a spa, and a neighborhood market.
The apartments will be one and two bedrooms between 700 and 1,400 square feet, We-Ha.com says. The proposal will also include existing ballfields and walking trails for public use.
It’s an important project for the town as the former UConn campus is one of the last large open tracts of land in town. Previous efforts to redevelop the parcel include an attempt to turn the campus into a high-tech development called Fintech Village in 2018. Those efforts, by a group called Ideanomics, fell through, and the parcel has laid fallow for over a decade.
The plan must receive various town approvals and recommendations, as well as a likely zone change, as the parcel is currently zoned for single-family use.
Separately, a developer paid $10.6 million for the 4-acre site of the former Children’s Museum in West Hartford, with an aim to construct a 172-unit luxury apartment complex, the Hartford Courant reported.
New York-based Continental Properties paid $2.7 million per acre for the parcel at 950 Troutbrook Drive. Colliers International in Hartford represented the seller, Kingswood Oxford, in the deal.
Continental plans to build a six-story building with two- and three-bedroom apartments, with amenities including an outdoor pool, dog park, co-work space and rooftop lounge.
Last fall, the Town Council approved a zone change for the development.
The sale represents the end of an era at the property, which served as home for the Children’s Museum — and the iconic Conny the Whale sculpture — for decades. The museum has temporarily relocated to the Emanuel Synagogue in town and is searching for a permanent home.
Conny, meanwhile, moved across the street from the old museum location to the Trout Brook Greenway.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more National Connecticut shopping center lists for $30M less than a year after its sale Tri-State Historic Stamford farm for sale — including horses — for $4.5M Tri-State Connecticut proposal would convert empty box stores into housing The post Developers propose 670 apartments for Connecticut town appeared first on The Real Deal.
Josh Flagg, Brooklyn Council member Lincoln Restler and Cushman & Wakefield’s Neil Johnston (Getty, Lincoln Restler, Cushman & Wakefield)There’s never a dull week (or two) in real estate, and likewise there are even fewer dull players in an industry with egos large enough to fill a skyscraper. So as another week comes to a close, let’s look back on some of the hot takes that stood out.
Josh Flagg wasn’t afraid of taking to social media for self-promotion and throwing some shade at rival TV programs.
“If you’d like to watch a real estate show with licensed agents, make sure to watch last night’s episode of [“Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles”] on Peacock,’ he wrote in an Instagram caption, the Daily Mail reported. ‘If you want to watch actors pretend to be agents, tune into my newest YouTube video…where I review Selling Sunset.’”
Brooklyn Council member Lincoln Restler didn’t hold back when he gave his unvarnished stance on where he stands on a measure he supported that would give nonprofit groups dibs on city-owned land made available to develop affordable housing.
“It’s this simple: When public land is being redeveloped, it should be developed for the public good,” Restler said.
Likewise, analyst Thomas McJoynt of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods didn’t mince any words on how he feels about the market downturn costing Anywhere some of its commission splits and its buy rating from an investment bank.
“If there’s less deals to go around, it’s the best agents winning those deals. Frankly it’s a little tough to think to what extent the housing market would have to come down for you to see some moderation in that split line,”
A topic that transcends market conditions and continues to be a hot button issue that evokes honest, passionate words is diversity.
“Not having a long history of ownership in the U.S., it is very difficult for people of color to build at a large-scale,” D’Wayne Prieto, managing principal of Dobbs Ferry-based Ward Capital Management, said on a study showing fewer than 1 percent of private real estate development firms in the U.S. are Black- or Hispanic-owned.
Sometimes, a salient point can be made with very few words.
“Perfect storm,” is how Steven Schlesinger, partner at Jaspan Schlesinger Narendran and counsel for Paul Sohayegh and Roni Movahedian, described the default on a $41 million loan on 29 West 35th Street.
In Miami, where verbal sparring is a spectator sport in real estate, Jules Trump had some choice words for Suffolk Construction, which sued Trump Group (no relation to the former president) for allegedly trying to poach Suffolk employees to delay the construction of the Estates at Acqualina in Sunny Isles Beach.
“It’s a real conspiracy theory, and it’s a backwards theory,” Trump, who is no relation to Donald J., said. “And it would cost me a fortune. It costs me every month this project is delayed.”
Staying in Miami but shifting to economic conditions, developer Harvey Hernandez explained how rising interest rates caused the sale of Miami development sites to plunge.
“It put some buyers on the sidelines. It just got to the point where a lot of headwinds affected sales, and the price per acre dropped in the second half.”
And then there are earnings calls, which require a bit of parsing to cut through the PR polish and spin.
“We expect these cost savings to more than offset any inflation in our semi-variable and fixed cost base. However, they will not completely offset the temporary margin contraction from the anticipated brokerage revenue decline, as we believe it’s important to maintain a strong position to grow share in the recovery,” Cushman & Wakefield’s CFO Neil Johnston said on the firm hoping to save $90 million this year through temporary and permanent cuts.
The post They said what now? Real estate quotes of the week appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty Images)Oprah Winfrey has significantly expanded her real estate holdings in Hawaii.
The billionaire media mogul purchased a whopping 870 acres of land in several sales for a total of $6.6 million in the Kula area of the island of Maui, KITV4 reported.
Winfrey bought about 520 acres for $3.9 million and 330 acres for $2.5 million, from the seller, Hawaii-based Ulupalakua Ranch, Maui Now reported. She paid about $100,000 for the other 20 acres in separate transactions, the outlet said.
Winfrey, according to the outlet, already owned more than 1,000 acres of property in Kula and is one of the largest landowners on Maui, KITV4 and Maui Now said. She also bought 200 acres of land in Hana in the early and mid-2000s, Maui Now reported.
The land Winfrey recently purchased is zoned for agricultural use, KITV4 reported.
Winfrey, who has been a part-time resident of Maui for some 15 years, has filmed taking hikes with her friend, Gayle King, on the island, Maui Now said.
“Y’all should come here,” Winfrey wrote in a social media post, according to Maui Now. “Hashtag Hawaii, state of health. That’s the aloha spirit.”
Winfrey has been active with other real estate holdings, most recently selling a 4,300-square-foot Montecito home to Jennifer Aniston for $14.8 million in September.
Winfrey bought the “Tuscan farmhouse” in early 2021 for $10.5 million. The sellers were New York hedge fund manager Fred Shuman and his wife Stephanie, who had assembled the 2.1-acre spread.
Their complex included the Mediterranean-style villa, two small cottages and grounds.
Forbes has pegged Winfrey’s wealth at $2.5 billion. She owns numerous homes, including a $30+ million compound she bought in 2012 from Diandra Luker, the ex-wife of actor Michael Douglas, next door to Aniston’s new home.
But the main residence for the founder of the OWN network is the 66-acre “Promised Land” property in Montecito, anchored by a 23,000-square-foot neo-Georgian mansion.
Aniston’s main residence may be her mid-century modern home in Bel-Air, built in 1965 by architect A. Quincy Jones which she bought in 2012 for $21 million. It was featured in 2018 by Architectural Digest.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more Los Angeles Oprah has now spent $86M on her Montecito real estate empire Los Angeles Oprah flips Montecito estate to Jennifer Aniston for $15M New York Hawaiian ranch next to Oprah hits market for $75M The post Oprah Winfrey buys 870 acres of land in Maui for $6.6M appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Mark Martov, Ellen Sykes, and Sephrah Towbin (Getty, Corcoran)Corcoran agent Sephrah Towbin spent 15 years in her Greenwood Heights condo before she decided it was time to put it on the market.
It was a tough call for the Brooklyn native, who raised her daughter in the home. She and her husband bought the property back when no one wanted to live on that side of the Prospect Expressway.
“It certainly was emotional,” Towbin said. “But I tell you, the minute I decided we were selling, I just switched gears and did what I do with every client.”
For real estate agents, selling their own homes requires a thick skin. Emotions run high when there’s a personal connection to the property, and maintaining some objectivity is key for determining price points. But for those willing to take on the challenge, their intimate knowledge of the space can be an asset when pitching the home to buyers.
“When you’re selling somebody’s house, and there’s a balcony off the primary bedroom, you always say, ‘Oh, you could have a cup of coffee there,’” said Corcoran agent Mark Martov. “But it’s very different when you actually have that balcony, and you’ve had a cup of coffee there while the sun hits you in the morning.”
Martov sold his South Brooklyn home last summer soon after his first child was born. His Seagate duplex no longer cut it as he and his wife tried to make space for their growing family.
When Martov started showing the place, he found that his descriptions of life in the home immediately connected him with buyers. As he moved through each room, he shared memories of afternoons in the backyard and explained the flow of the kitchen as he cooked his favorite recipes.
“Ever since then, I constantly try to envision myself living in each home I sell,” Martov said.
Most of Martov’s business comes from North Brooklyn, so to determine the price of his home, he ran his own assessment by two other agents with more experience in the neighborhood. He originally proposed $1.4 million as the asking price, which was on the high-end of the $1.2 million to $1.5 million price range suggested by his colleagues.
Martov eventually dropped the price to $1.3 million after some back and forth on the decision.
“I needed to be a realistic seller, unlike the 90 percent of sellers I meet every single day,” Martov said. “I didn’t want to be that guy.”
Coldwell Banker broker Ellen Sykes — who has sold four of her own properties, primarily on the Upper East Side — said she consults one of her colleagues to help nail down a price. She typically invites him over to walk through the home and price it with her.
Sykes had previously hired other brokers to negotiate a sale for her, but she said she considers herself to be tougher at bargaining.
“She wasn’t interested in being as hard nosed as I was,” Sykes said of another broker. “I just got better at doing it myself.”
Sykes also stressed the importance of maintaining flexibility .
“Once you put it on the market, it no longer belongs to you,” Sykes said. “Put a realistic price on it, and move that sucker.”
As a broker, showing your home to strangers and opening it for criticism adds another layer of challenges.
When Towbin showed her Brooklyn apartment, she had one person come in without an appointment and tell her to move out of the way.
“That moment has stuck with me this whole time as being the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been in my own home,” Towbin said. “If I got frazzled from that, can you imagine someone selling their own home that doesn’t do this for a living?”
Despite the rogue prospective buyer, Towbin and her husband quickly found a “lovely” family to purchase their apartment with the sale closing last April. Though the offer wasn’t the highest the couple received, Towbin said the family wanted it more than anyone else.
As she and her family packed up the rest of their furniture, Towbin laid on the floor and shed a few tears for all of the memories made in her home.
Throughout the process, Towbin said she felt a lot of internal pressure to turn around the sale. But she needn’t have worried — the condo sold in seven days.
“I’d hire me again in a heartbeat.”
Read more New York Ranking NYC’s most expensive neighborhoods The post Real estate agents toughen up to sell their own homes appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Meghan Markle, Prince Harry and the Frogmore Cottage (Getty)Evictions rarely involve palace intrigue, but this one does … literally.
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have been asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage, their U.K. home on the grounds of Windsor Castle, The New York Times reported.
King Charles III, Harry’s father, is looking to move his brother, Prince Andrew, who was embroiled in a scandal involving disgraced child rapist Jeffrey Epstein, into the five-bedroom cottage, the outlet said.
The British tabloid The Sun first reported the eviction last week.
The move reflects the status of the strained, if not ruptured, relationship between the royals. Harry and Meghan — the Duke and Dutchess of Sussex — famously withdrew from their royal duties and moved to California in 2020.
The couple had been residents of, and used, Frogmore Cottage since 2018, when Queen Elizabeth offered it to them after their wedding. The estate, which is technically owned by the Crown Estate, was Harry and Meghan’s only residence in the U.K., Time reported.
While no official reason was given for the move, King Charles reportedly made the decision following the recent release of Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” which provides less-than-flattering accounts of the relationships between Harry, his brother, William; and their father, Charles, the Times said. Charles is set to be crowned in May.
“It’s sending a clear, clear message from the King to his younger son,” Giselle Bastin, a royal expert at Flinders University in Adelaide, told Time. “That would provide in many ways a disincentive for Prince Harry to bring his family over for the coronation, perhaps even himself, if he doesn’t have somewhere to stay that is covered by royal security.”
Read more New York UK’s Black families gain zero wealth through property ownership New York Mind your manor: Hollywood actor moves to England to renovate ancestral castle New York France unveils international design competition for Notre Dame spire The cottage, which was built in 1801 and is named for the large number of frogs on the property, has been a sore spot since Harry and Meghan withdrew from royal life, Time said.
The decision to move Andrew, who was friends with Epstein and had been settled a sexual abuse claim of his own, into Frogmore may be a way of cutting the royal family’s costs while also providing Andrew a place to stay. Andrew had been living in a larger residence, but likely could not afford the maintenance after he had his royal and military titles stripped from him in 2022.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Prince Harry, Meghan Markle asked to leave U.K. home appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal)A real estate investor has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $3 million in a wire and fraud bankruptcy scheme, according to federal prosecutors.
Sean Tissue, 37, of Social Circle Georgia, engaged in a real-estate fraud scheme from 2015 to 2021, during which he convinced potential investors from outside the U.S. to invest in real estate in Michigan, Texas, and other locations, prosecutors said in a statement.
During that time, Tissue provided to investors false information — including fake deeds, wiring instructions, bank statements, lease and inspection documents, as well as a fake name (“Sean Ryan”) — to get them to invest in the scheme, which Tissue operated primarily in Michigan.
In addition, from 2017 to 2019, Tissue also committed bankruptcy fraud by withholding from his Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee information pertaining to his assets and financial affairs.
Tissue, who owned numerous companies including The Centureon Companies LLC, Greystone Home Builders LLC, Sycamore Homes LLC, Lenovo Homes LLC, NROL Holdings LLC, Phillip Ryan LLC, Boardwalk Heights B2R LLC, NROL Property and Investment LLC, has been in federal custody since his arrest in 2021.
He faces penalties of up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and up to five years in prison for bankruptcy fraud, prosecutors said.
“Sean Tissue orchestrated an elaborate scheme to defraud individual investors. He tried to avoid repaying those investors by declaring bankruptcy, and his lies and deceits continued in the bankruptcy proceeding,” U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison said in a statement.
Tissue isn’t the only person to recently find themselves in hot water with the feds over real estate.
Miami real estate agent Daniela Rendon was charged last month with fraud and money laundering after being linked to $381,000 in Covid-19 relief funds that she allegedly used to pay for a Bentley, cosmetic procedures and a luxury apartment rental.
Rendon allegedly submitted fraudulent applications for Covid-19 federal relief funds to the Small Business Administration and Paycheck Protection Program by falsifying her revenue, payroll and IRS tax forms, according to a press release and the complaint from the United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of Florida.
Read more South Florida Miami real estate agent charged with $381K PPP fraud South Florida “Living under a terror situation”: Alleged Hammocks fraud tops $3M National Lawsuit alleges Signature Bank aided FTX fraud The post Real estate investor pleads guilty to stealing $3M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Paradise Valley in Arizona (Google Maps, ParadiseValleyAZ.gov)Residential real estate’s slowdown isn’t stopping developers from building what would easily be the most expensive home ever built in Arizona.
Cullum Homes and Wow Luxury Properties announced last week they’re building the $75 million Palo Cristi Estate, replete with luxury amenities, in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley, according to a release.
The 33,000-square-foot main mansion will have seven bedrooms, two spa locker rooms, four kitchens, four wet bars, a two-story office/library, casino room, two bowling lanes, a movie theater/metaverse room, home gym, recording studio, collector’s gallery, two story aquarium, an ice cream bar, and a spa with a sauna, snow room, two massage rooms and vitality pools, the release says.
Other structures on the estate include a four-bedroom conference building, a one-bedroom guardhouse and a casita that will also have one bedroom.
Outside amenities include two outdoor kitchens, two pools (including a cinema pool with a waterfall and theater screen), three fire pits, a lazy river, a stage, a bocce court, and putting and chipping green. There will also be garage space for up to 15 vehicles — five spaces for regular use, nine for collector’s vehicles and one space for the casita.
It will take four or five years to build the estate, according to The Wall Street Journal, which noted the most expensive recorded residential sale in Arizona was for $28.1 million in Scottsdale’s Silverleaf community in 2022. Another home in the same Silverleaf sold for $24.1 million in 2020.
Last June, Jerry Smith, the founder of Arizona credit card company Integrity Payments, and his wife, announced they are building a 17,200-square-foot home on a vacant 2-acre lot in Silverleaf with an asking price of $32 million.
Last April, a four-bedroom home in Paradise Valley sold for $21 million, a record sum for the Phoenix suburb, which boasts the state’s wealthiest ZIP code.
The 13,000-square-foot home, which sits on 4.3 acres at 6015 East Cameldale Way, was asking $22.5 million when it hit the market in spring 2021.
More recently, Michael Bidwell, the owner of the Arizona Cardinals sold his Paradise Valley home for $5.3 million in January.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more New York Unbuilt Scottsdale mansion asking $32M, priciest in Arizona New York Home in Arizona’s richest town sells for record $21M New York Arizona Cardinals owner sells Paradise Valley mansion at a loss The post Massive unbuilt Arizona estate asks record $75M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Amazon’s campus at Crystal City. (Getty Images)As further evidence of office and tech malaise: Amazon confirmed on Friday that it has pumped the brakes on building the second phase of its second headquarters in northern Virginia, the Associated Press reported.
The news that Amazon is pausing construction of PenPlace — three 22-story buildings as well as the 350-foot Helix center — follows the e-tail behemoth’s largest-ever round of layoffs, as well as refining its policy on employees working from home, the outlet reported.
Amazon has completed phase one of the project — Met Park — and is set to welcome some 8.000 employees to the campus in late spring.
“We’re always evaluating space plans to make sure they fit our business needs and to create a great experience for employees, and since Met Park will have space to accommodate more than 14,000 employees, we’ve decided to shift the groundbreaking of PenPlace out a bit,” Amazon’s real estate chief John Schoettler said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
In 2018, the tech giant announced, following a fierce competition among 238 municipalities, that it would split its second headquarters between Long Island City, Queens, and Arlington. But local opposition led to Amazon scrapping the New York location.
Amazon’s Arlington campus was to accommodate some 25,000 workers, but sluggish sales, fallout from the pandemic concerning remote work and concerns over a possible recession led the company to pause construction on phase two, according to the Associated Press.
The company has called for workers to return to the office at least three days a week, the outlet reported.
No timetable has been released concerning construction on phase two in Arlington, which had state incentives of about $550 million for those 25,000 jobs, the AP reported.
The state has not paid any incentives for the 8,000 workers expected to start work in Arlington in June.
“Amazon is still very much committed — as we understand it — to certainly fulfilling all of their plans and obligations within the window that was envisioned when they struck the deal to come here,” Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said, according to the AP. “They are really trying to take a pause and think about this consciously. And make decisions that not only make sense in light of current conditions but expected future conditions.”
— Ted Glanzer
Read more Tri-State Paramus Amazon Fresh nears opening National Amazon scraps plans for big-box store National Amazon slams brakes on warehouse leasing in pivot to ownership The post Amazon hits brakes on construction of second headquarters appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Four women have filed a civil lawsuit in California, accusing two eXp Realty real estate agents of drugging and assaulting or attempting to assault them between 2018 and 2020.
In addition to the male agents, the complaint names eXp Realty and its parent company, eXp World Holdings, the Seattle Times reported. The Washington-based brokerage was allegedly made aware of allegations against the agents, but did not take action against them.
The incidents allegedly occurred at networking and recruiting events in California and Nevada. The brokerage declined to comment due to pending litigation, while the two unnamed male agents did not answer the publication’s requests for comment.
One of them, however, was allegedly arrested and charged with two counts of sexual assault from similar allegations, a case that was later dismissed. The agent, who is no longer with eXp, and his male colleague have not been charged with a crime in connection to the latest allegations.
The plaintiffs allege the male agents enticed the women “with the promise of career advancement and coaching.” The brokerage’s model incentivizes the recruitment of other agents, creating a need for networking and recruiting events.
One of the agents who filed the complaint, who now works in Florida, alleged one of the male agents encouraged her to go to a networking event in Southern California in July 2018. When she arrived, the agent learned there was no room reserved or available for her, according to the complaint.
The accuser said she had a cocktail at night and remembered nothing until the following morning, when a male agent allegedly exposed himself and attempted to engage in sexual contact.
Another accuser claims she blacked out and was sexually assaulted at a networking event in Beverly Hills in April 2019. She didn’t report the incident because she feared she would not be believed, according to the complaint. The other allegations stem from alleged incidents in Las Vegas in August 2020.
Several women told eXp, including executives of the company, about the alleged incidents, according to the complaint. The brokerage didn’t appear to take any action, though and “elected to continue to ignore pleas from other eXp agents who’d been assaulted,” the complaint stated.
The women are seeking damages in a jury trial.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more National Dallas real estate CEO accused of sexual assault Tri-State American Dream owner Triple Five Group hit with sexual harassment suit Los Angeles Texas developer who appeared on “Marrying Millions” sued for sexual assault in OC home The post eXp named in explosive sexual assault lawsuit appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Shawn Hood Media)Cosmetics heir William Lauder has listed two adjacent, empty Palm Beach parcels for an eye watering $200 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.
If the oceanfront parcels — at 1063 and 1071 North Ocean Boulevard — fetch that price, it will be the most expensive sale for vacant land in Palm Beach history, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Jim McCann of Premier Estate Properties has the listing.
The parcels, which can be subdivided, total a little more than 2.3 acres and have about 360 feet of beachfront, the listing says.
In 2020, a Delaware LLC tied to Lauder bought 1063 North Ocean Boulevard, which had a 10,200-square-foot mansion on less than 1 acre, from the trust of the late business mogul Morton Mandel for $25.4 million.
A year later, another entity tied to Lauder purchased 1071 North Ocean Boulevard, which had a 35,000-square-foot mansion on 1.8 acres, for at least $110 million, according to The Daily Beast.
Both of the homes were subsequently demolished, but not without controversy in the case of 1071 North Ocean Boulevard.
That mansion, which had 16 bathrooms, a gym, barber shop and theater, was just six years old when it was torn down last October.
“I think it’s about the complete waste,” a resident told the Daily Beast at the time. “I mean normal people don’t do that. It’s kind of gross.”
The billionaire Lauder, who is the executive chairman of Estee Lauder Companies, told the Journal in an email Friday he had planned to keep the parcels, but changed his mind. He had town approval in early 2021 to build a home on 1063 North Ocean Boulevard, but never started construction on the project, the Palm Beach Post reported.
The Lauder family figures prominently in Palm Beach real estate.
Last November, the town’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to grant historic designation to the late Estee Lauder’s home at 144 Everglade Avenue. The house, built in 1919 by an unknown architect, sits on half an acre and spans 4,800 square feet, with five bedrooms and four bathrooms, according to records.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more South Florida Todd Glaser and partners list Palm Beach’s Tarpon Island for $218M South Florida Estée Lauder’s former Palm Beach estate gets designated historic South Florida Here are South Florida’s 10 priciest resi deals of 2022 The post William Lauder lists Palm Beach properties for record $200M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Daniel de la Vega (Getty, Daniel de la Vega)Daniel de la Vega just got back from Aspen, Philip Hordijk has been skiing in Davos, and Liz Hogan is off to Vail next week.
It’s ski season, and any real estate player with a fondness for powder and adrenaline is hitting the slopes.
When it’s time to shred, real estate’s dealmakers head to mountain ski resorts for leisure and laidback time with clients and colleagues. The industry and the sport are a natural match. Ski mountains and their loyal riders are a developer’s dream, driving demand for commercial and residential real estate in small, secluded towns.
There are 525 ski resorts around the country, but only a fraction of those are the elite, coveted mountains that have the luxury residential real estate to boot – places like Aspen in Colorado, Park City in Utah, and Jackson Hole in Wyoming to name a few. A report released by Savills in November found luxury ski homes around the top 46 resorts in the U.S. rose by 20 percent in just a year, and by 30 percent since 2020.
Real estate agents say a perk of the job and national brand networks is connecting with fellow brokers in these markets. De la Vega, the skier/snowboarder president of Miami-based One Sotheby’s International Realty, says he’s nurtured friendships with Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s International Realty agents in his trips to the mountain town.
“I’ve built such a great rapport with them,” he said. “They’ve become really good friends, our kids ski together.”
De la Vega has been visiting Aspen regularly since he was old enough to strap on ski boots, he says. It’s where his family skied when he was younger, and it’s where he married his wife, Veronica Bilbao, in 2014. He hosted the One Sotheby’s leadership retreat there in 2019, as well.
“Although it’s traditionally been a glitz and glamour town, it’s very, very laid back,” he said. “It’s also a great place to hang out with clients.”
While De la Vega emphasizes these trips are primarily for family time, he says being in a ski hub like Aspen makes it easy to get some runs and meals in with clients who are also visiting.
Liz Hogan, a snowboarder and top broker with Compass, agrees that hitting the slopes is good for business. The agent regularly snowboards in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where she connects with clients and colleagues alike.
“Obviously, I want to go out there for vacation, but there’s definitely networking that goes on for sure,” she said. “It’s a nice casual way to do it that’s not so forced.”
Hogan, who describes herself as a blues cruiser, rather than a black diamond bomber, is heading to Vail next week to try something a little easier than the notoriously challenging Jackson Hole slopes. She already has plans to hang out with Tye Stockton, a fellow Compass agent based in Vail.
Other real estate players shy away from mixing business and the pleasure of skiing. Philip Hordijk, founder of New York City-based Leven Real Estate, recently headed to Davos, where 75 members of his extended family rented out a hotel near the mountain famous for the World Economic Forum for a week of skiing. His family has done this trip every other year for the last 30 years.
Hordijk prefers skiing in Europe to get away from work.
“The benefit of going out east, you’re not bothered by emails till you’re done skiing,” he said. “Getting up and skiing before anyone can start bothering you is huge.”
The post Time to shred: Dealmakers hit the slopes this ski season appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by Priyanka Modi for The Real Deal with Getty)Commercial real estate continued to take it on the chin last week, and brokerages are preparing for even rougher times ahead.
CBRE, JLL, Colliers and Cushman Wakefield, among others, are moving forward with cost-cutting measures, including layoffs as property sales and leasing eat into their profits.
Symbolic of the tough times, the iconic — but vacant — Flatiron Building is heading to auction scheduled by a New York state judge for March 22.
Sorgente Group, Jeffrey Gural’s GFP Real Estate and ABS Real Estate Partners, which owns 75 percent of the building at 175 Fifth Avenue, sued in 2021 to seek a partition sale after the owners said they could not see eye to eye with the 25 percent owner, Nathan Silverstein. The judge issued an order in January allowing the sale to go forward.
It’s not the only high-rise potentially poised to hit auction. A subsidiary of M&T Bank asked a court to approve the foreclosure on 29 West 35th Street so it can sell the building at auction. The bank won two judgments against owners Paul Sohayegh and Roni Movahedia in December over their default on a $41 million loan.
The Brooklyn office market looks equally bleak. While the vacancy rate held at about 21 percent in 2022, net absorption in the fourth quarter crashed from around 279,500 square feet in 2021, down to 950 square feet at the close of 2022 (though that’s a significant improvement from the third quarter).
Meanwhile, in Queens, for the second time in three months, the Chetrit Group — squeezed by occupancy struggles and a floating rate loan made expensive by the Fed’s rate increases — fell behind on a $225 million loan covering 640 multifamily units in Jamaica. That mortgage comes due in July.
In further evidence of commercial distress in Los Angeles, Laguna Point Properties is delinquent on a $329 million loan it used to buy a portfolio of more than 1,000 L.A. apartments less than a year after securing the debt.
In addition, Grant King is seeing his share of hard times, as Relevant Group, which he co-founded, lost the Tommie and Thompson hotels to mezzanine lenders through foreclosures.
Elsewhere, LaSalle Investment Management sold the office building at 4 Hutton Centre Drive in Orange County for 55 percent less ($24.9 million) than what the firm bought it for in 2019 ($55.4 million).
In San Francisco, the Chronicle reported the city has lost nearly 150,000 daily office workers since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 during a shift to remote work and online shopping.
Not everyone is feeling the pinch equally. The Chicago area retained its No. 1 spot (for the 10th year running) as the nation’s leading city for commercial real estate investment. This despite losing Boeing, Citadel and Caterpillar headquarters to other municipalities.
Texas, meanwhile, saw commercial construction projects total $70 billion — or 20 percent of the commercial real estate spending in the nation — last year, the Dallas Morning News reported, based on an annual study by the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks.
Hitting homeThe commercial sector isn’t the only one taking blows. Large residential brokerages, including Anywhere, Refin and Compass, reported big losses. Last week, Compass announced it posted a $158 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2022, leading some analysts to doubt that the firm will break even by 2025.
South Florida — as a result of the deadly Surfside condo collapse — is seeing spiking insurance costs and fewer insurers writing policies, which could lead to condo owners selling their units at significant discounts.
If we’re looking for some positive news, the Manhattan and Brooklyn housing markets saw an uptick in activity that was beyond seasonal. Still, even there, the news was coated in 2023 reality.
“This is the year of disappointment,” said Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller. “Sellers aren’t going to get their price of 2021 and buyers aren’t going to see significant cost savings.”
Read more National CRE’s distress moment is here New York Murder, bribery and contempt charges: Just another week in real estate New York Residential market New Year’s outlook: Once-hot market is old acquaintance The post Commercial real estate continues to get pummeled appeared first on The Real Deal.
Daiwa’s Keiichi Yoshii, High Street Residential’s Bob Sultenic and rendering of multifamily project (Daiwa, High Street Residential, Getty, Ziegler Cooper/High Street Residential)Dallas-based High Street Residential, a subsidiary of Trammell Crow, is enlisting the Tokyo-based Daiwa House Group to bring a boutique apartment complex to Houston’s most exclusive neighborhood, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The project will be located at 2311 Westheimer Road with a 12-story luxury complex, dubbed River Oaks at Westheimer, in the upscale River Oaks area and will feature 209 spacious units and a 2,900-square-foot ground-floor cafe. The project’s core clientele is expected to be empty nesters and young professionals seeking a taste of luxury.
The units will range from 880-square-foot one-bedrooms to 2,200-square-foot penthouses. The Class A complex will average $4,600 for large two-bedroom units and about $3,000 for one-bedroom options. The first units are expected to go for rent in early 2025.
The site of River Oaks at Westheimer was the previous home to the midcentury strip center Antique Pavilion, which closed its doors last year after three decades in operation. High Street Residential has more than 3,500 multifamily units in the pipeline and nearly $2 billion worth of units already in operation. The joint venture has tapped the services of Houston-based architecture firm Ziegler Cooper, which worked on its previous Downtown Houston project, as well as interior design company Rottet Studio.
Preliminary plans from Ziegler Cooper show a residential lobby overlooking a private garden and an entry surrounded by landscaping. The project will also feature work-from-home nooks to meet the Houstonian’s growing demand for at-home office space, a pool deck and rooftop lounge as well as a spa-like fitness center on the ground floor.
High Street Residential has seen Houston’s Inner Loop as an area ripe for development. It opened its 43-story Class AA Downtown Houston tower, Parkside Residences, last summer, also with joint venture partner Daiwa House Group.
High Street Residential and Daiwa House are also currently developing the Residences at Kingwood, a garden-style multifamily complex with 300 units ranging from small apartments to spacious townhomes in the swanky northeast Houston suburb of Kingwood. It’s expected to open doors by the end of the year.
– Brandon Sams
Read more The post High Street, Daiwa bring resi to River Oaks appeared first on The Real Deal.
Pheasant Run Resort (Google Maps)For candidates running for five City Council offices in St. Charles, on the western outskirts of Chicago, redeveloping the burned down Pheasant Run Resort & Spa is top priority.
Each of the nine candidates vying for five ward seats say public dollars must help revamp the 8-acre resort at 4051 East Main Street, Shaw Local reported. The question is: how many and what type of financial instrument should be used?
The majority of the costs would have to be covered by the developer, officials said, though the city would be able to chip in to limit costs through the incentives.
Some candidates for City Hall, however, said it was important St. Charles isn’t stuck with the tab. They advocated for what’s known as a “pay-as-you-go” tax increment financing structure, meaning the local government would pay back the developer for certain costs, rather than issue bonds to assist with the redevelopment and use tax revenues to pay them back later.
Pheasant Run closed in March 2020 after a failed attempt to auction the property that contains a 473-room hotel, theater and spa. Early last year, a large swath of the shuttered resort was destroyed by fire. Four teens were charged in connection with the blaze.
Last month, two boys pleaded guilty to felony arson for starting the fire in the city 40 miles west of Chicago. Two other boys pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing.
The St. Charles City Council last month unanimously voted to create a tax increment financing district to spur the redevelopment of Pheasant Run. Such tax districts siphon property tax revenues away from money that can go to schools and other resources.
The new district will freeze the resort’s assessed property tax value. New or increased taxes generated by any improvements will then be used to finance upgrades or development incentives.
A redevelopment plan filed in August by Kane, McKenna and Associates estimated the scorched resort would cost more than $42.6 million to redevelop the property, which has been designated for light industrial, retail and commercial use.
The price tag includes $16.5 million for demolition, site preparation and environmental cleanup; $3 million for infrastructure improvements and $9 million for land acquisition.
McGrath Honda of St. Charles has redeveloped the former Pheasant Run Mega Center next to the property. Industrial buildings are planned along the former Pheasant Run Resort golf course.
Tom Galante, one of three candidates for the 1st Ward, which includes the resort, said the redevelopment of the former Pheasant Run property is a “critical project” for the district.
“I’m open to attractive, resilient businesses to fit the current zoning,” Galante told Shaw Local. “Mixed use and development that can use the existing tower would be interesting as well.”
Jessica Bridges, another candidate vying for the seat, said she was happy to see McGrath Honda redevelop the former Pheasant Run Mega Center. But she said more needs to be done.
“The former large hotel building, recently destroyed by a fire, is not only an eyesore but also dangerous,” Jessica Bridges said. “Since the TIF was approved, we need people on the City Council who will make sure the costs of the TIF are recovered from the redevelopment when the work is completed.”
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Chicago St. Charles officials ponder $42M redevelopment of fire-damaged resort Chicago St. Charles backs off Frontier-Reschke, Murphy proposals for ex-police station Chicago UrbanStreet Group in contract for St. Charles mall redevelopment play The post St. Charles revamp of torched resort takes center stage in local City Hall races appeared first on The Real Deal.
Fannie Mae chief Priscilla Almodovar and Laguna Woods Village (Laguna Woods Village, Fannie Mae)Nearly two years after South Florida’s Surfside condo collapse, the tragedy is reverberating in one of the West Coast’s largest senior communities.
In late January, Fannie Mae, the U.S. government-sponsored mortgage backer, halted warranty approvals for more than 6,000 condos at Laguna Woods Village, a 55+ community in the Orange County city of Laguna Woods, the OC Register reported.
The pullout by Fannie Mae applies to one part of the community, Third Laguna Hills Mutual, that represents about half the total units, according to the Register. The development, which calls itself “Southern California’s premier active lifestyle community for people 55 and older,” is over 50 years old and currently has around 19,000 total residents.
But Laguna Woods Village has a nearly $1 billion insurance deficiency, according to the community’s HOA management firm, which led Fannie Mae to deem 6,100 condos in the community ineligible for the mortgage giant’s financing or refinancing programs.
In 2021, in the wake of the Surfside collapse that killed 98 people — and exposed the condo association’s poor coverage — the federal mortgage giant implemented new standards, leading mortgage lenders across the country to reevaluate their own financing practices.
In Laguna Woods, the federal pullout means prospective buyers, or owners who are looking to refinance, will have few financing options. While buyers can still obtain VA-approved loans or more expensive non federally-backed mortgages, any non-conforming loans are generally more expensive.
Yet at least some agents trying to sell homes in the community had recently been unaware of the change, the Register reported, and others were cagey about disclosing the bad news.
“We’re not going to tell them,” one said.
— Trevor Bach
Read more South Florida Surfside collapse $1B settlement breakdown revealed The post Fannie Mae won’t finance sales at OC senior community appeared first on The Real Deal.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)In response to alleged massive fraud at the Hammocks, state lawmakers will take up a bill aimed at strengthening oversight of homeowners associations and creating criminal penalties for board members who go rogue.
The reforms would impose more stringent regulation on financial recordkeeping and provide easier access to those records, beef up oversight on HOA board elections, and criminalize board members’ acceptance of kickbacks.
“The [existing] law doesn’t have teeth,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said on Friday afternoon during a press conference announcing the proposal.
Across Florida, where roughly half the population lives in communities and condominiums governed by associations, allegations of board members committing fraud have popped up for years. But the Hammocks, where investigators claim the graft exceeded $3 million, was the tipping point. The case also put lax state oversight on HOAs front and center.
The new law would make it a crime to meddle in elections, destroy and hide financial records, and accept kickbacks, Fernandez Rundle said. HOAs would have to publicly appoint a documents custodian, so that “there is a named individual responsible for the records.”
“While the present law allows access to records, enforcement is weak at best and requires the filing of a civil lawsuit,” Fernandez Rundle said.
Residents suspecting fraud at their HOAs can bring a complaint to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Under the bill, these complaints will be forwarded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Florida lawmakers are expected to take up the bill this session, which starts on Tuesday.
The bill targets many of the issues that arose at the Hammocks over the years. In November, police arrested former board members Marglli Gallego, Myriam Rodgers, Yoleidis Lopez Garcia and Monica Isabel Ghilardi, as well as Gallego’s husband, Jose Antonio Gonzalez. Prosecutors have alleged a kickback scheme of sorts: Former board members signed invoices to bogus companies for supposed maintenance of the property, with much of the money really going back to Gallego and Gonzalez, according to a charging affidavit. All have pleaded not guilty.
Residents’ frustrations also boiled over last year when Hammocks board election polls closed early because of a supposed “threat,” though former board members never produced evidence of this to authorities.
Investigators had been looking into the Hammocks for years, but had been largely shut out from obtaining records. The HOA sued the state attorney’s office over some of the document requests.
Proposed reforms also would ban board members from using HOA funds for their own legal costs. Gallego, who was first arrested in 2021, has plucked $825,000 for her own defense, according to the receiver overseeing the Hammocks following the arrests.
The bill essentially imposes on HOAs many of the same regulations that exist on municipalities and their elected officials, as some of the communities that associations oversee are as big as cities.
The Hammocks, which has 6,500 single-family houses, apartments and condos, is home to roughly 18,000 residents. That’s bigger than municipalities such as Key Biscayne and Miami Springs, Fernandez Rundle said.
Residents living under a corrupt HOA board essentially become “victims of these bureaucratic dynasties that take over,” she said.
“Wherever there is a large pool of cash with virtually no oversight,” Fernandez Rundle said, “that’s where it’s going to happen.”
Read more South Florida After the arrests: What’s next for Hammocks HOA? The post “Law doesn’t have teeth”: Bill targets HOA fraud, lax oversight appeared first on The Real Deal.
Roblox’s David Baszucki with 2850 South Delaware Street (Loopnet, Getty)Roblox, the popular online gaming company, is dumping its 80,000-square-foot headquarters in San Mateo for a new headquarters in the same city with more than twice the space, according to documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Roblox has agreed to sublease a 180,000-square-foot building at Bay Meadows on 2850 South Delaware Street. The former occupant of the building was the software company Guidewire. Roblox has agreed to a term of seven years and will pay approximately $90 million through December 2029. Roblox’s decision to move to a larger building goes against current trends in the market.
“Tenants continue to ‘right-size’ into smaller space and look for shorter term leases as they weigh the impact of work from home,” a fourth quarter report by Kidder Mathews said.
Two of the buildings at Bay Meadows are still under construction and the larger 218,000-square-foot structure is now 100 percent pre-leased to Roblox.
In a separate SEC filing, Guidewire disclosed it will move its headquarters to Roblox’s former 80,000-square-foot office building at 970 Park Place. The term of this agreement is four years and Guidewire will pay approximately $22 million in rent through the duration of the lease.
In total there are five buildings at Bay Meadows totaling 733,000 square feet, with Building 1 and Building 5 still under construction. The office buildings are part of a larger 83-acre transit-oriented development that will feature residential and retail projects. Other tenants at Bay Meadows include Snowflake, Wilson Meany and Stickbridge.
The subleases by Roblox and Guidewire provide some needed activity in the Peninsula office market that stagnated in the fourth quarter of 2022. There were 207,000 square feet of space leased last quarter, down 72 percent year over year, according to the Kidder Mathews report. The state of office sales was even bleaker, down 94 percent from 1.5 million square feet in the final quarter of 2021 to 99,000 square feet last quarter.
Stonebridge Capital’s 14,400- square-foot lease was the largest lease transaction in the Peninsula of last quarter, followed by Alexandria Real Estate’s 13,600 square foot lease in South San Francisco.
Read more San Francisco Peninsula office sales drop 94% in Q4, per Kidder Mathews San Francisco Zynga moves HQ to smaller footprint in San Mateo The post Roblox subleases larger headquarters in San Mateo appeared first on The Real Deal.
Ald. Brendan Reilly and Lori Lightfoot with a rendering of 30 N. LaSalle Street, 208 S. LaSalle Street, a rendering of 135 S. LaSalle Street, 105 W. Adams Street, a rendering of 105 W. Adams Street in Chicago (Chicago.gov, Getty, Ward42Chicago)City officials eager to move ahead with outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s push to redevelop vacant commercial space on LaSalle Street to multifamily housing mostly ignored the political elephant in the room as they touted the program and heard developers’ pitches at a virtual meeting Thursday.
The city is weighing public assistance for plans from six development teams for the “LaSalle Street Reimagined” initiative, a program whose future is unclear now that voters have rejected Lightfoot’s bid for a second term, instead sending former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas or Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson to a runoff next month.
Lightfoot started the program last year hoping to revitalize the struggling LaSalle corridor, whose office buildings are faring even worse than the downtown average vacancy rate of more than 20 percent, a record high. So far, it’s unclear where Vallas and Johnson stand on continuing the initiative — some locals and real estate players believe the city can get more bang for the buck by investing in neighborhoods farther from the Loop, given a multitude of challenges and high costs associated with office-to-residential conversions.
“It would be incumbent on the next mayor to twist some arms on the city council to help build some support for it,” 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly, who represents much of the stretch of LaSalle the program is targeting, said in an interview. “If the incoming mayor isn’t interested in this, that really is the end of the conversation.”
He also conceded that Lightfoot’s goal of creating at least 1,000 new residential units downtown, with 30 percent being affordable, may be “too ambitious” for the program.
The city plans to narrow the proposals from the six collected by Lightfoot’s administration down to three by the end of this month. The proposals total more than $1 billion in development costs with about 2.3 million square feet of developable space. Selected projects would also require committee and city council approval.
Restraint on TIFChicago planning commissioner Maurice Cox, a Lightfoot appointee, said there are more than 5 million square feet of space in the historic commercial corridor that could be repurposed. He said the affordable housing additions would “make the heart of the Loop more resilient and dynamic on behalf of the entire city, and also more diverse.”
The city is requiring 30 percent of new units to be leased at affordable levels to be eligible to receive tax increment financing or other financial assistance from the city. Reilly, however, expects his colleagues on the city council — which, like the mayor’s office, has many seats in transition — to show some restraint on TIF spending.
That could be a problem for developers, some of whom have requested those funds for their projects. AmTrust Real Estate, for instance, requested the most of the six, at $115 million in TIF assistance for a 438-unit project costing a total of $258 million at 135 South LaSalle, while Mike Reschke and Quintin Primo’s proposal at 208 South LaSalle asked for the least in TIF at $33 million for a 280-unit project at a total cost of $130 million.
‘Rare thing’Aldermen may prefer to pair it with projects that make use of other tax incentives, as well, Reilly said. Those include Class L tax designations — which are awarded to projects on landmarked buildings that cost at least half of what the property is worth, and lowers buildings’ tax assessments to 10 percent for 10 years, and 15 percent in the 11th year and 20 percent in the 12th — as well as other potential affordable housing subsidies available from the state or Cook County.
“There will be a limit to the amount of subsidy provided,” he said. “The attitude on city council would probably be to prefer those be Class L tax incentives, and not too heavily reliant upon TIF.”
The LaSalle/Central TIF district that would supply funding for redevelopment had a total balance of more than $196 million at the end of 2021, the most recent report available on the city’s website. But both the Lightfoot and Rahm Emanuel mayoral administrations spread money from that TIF into others across the city to help spur economic development in Chicago’s neighborhoods, as development in the downtown area required little government assistance to pencil out in the years before the pandemic created fresh challenges for the office market.
“Giving out TIF awards in the 42nd Ward has been a very rare thing. I apply a very strict ‘but-for’ test, and I would argue the LaSalle Street Reimagined certainly passes the test, but to what degree?” Reilly questioned, noting he intends to support as many “viable projects” in the program as possible. He also said some developers are willing to invest in market rate housing projects in the Loop’s core, and may abandon or avoid seeking public financing.
The campaigns for Vallas and Johnson haven’t responded to The Real Deal’s interview requests.
Some developers believe that public assistance is essential to bringing housing to the corridor.
“Without this TIF program we don’t believe there’s going to be any residential units added to LaSalle Street in the near term,” AmTrust Realty Corp.’s Patrick Kearney said at Thursday’s meeting.
Projects at a glance* 30 N LaSalle from Golub & Co., a $173 million project that would convert 432,000 square feet of office space into 432 apartments with $75 million in TIF funding * The Monroe Residences & Hotel at 111 West Monroe Street from Michael Reschke and Quintin Primo’s Prime Capri Interests would turn the base of the former BMO headquarters into a 226-key luxury hotel and build 349 apartments on top. The city proposal doesn’t include the hotel component; the team estimates a $180 million in development costs for the residential project and is asking for $40 million in TIF funding. * Riverside Investment & Development and AmTrust Real Estate wants to build about 430 apartments at The Field Building at 135 South LaSalle Street and solicit a grocer for the ground floor or first two levels. Estimated development costs are $259 million, with $115 million in TIF funding. * The Clark Adams Renewal from Celadon Partners and Blackwood Group would bring 247 apartments to 106 West Adams Street at a cost of $188 million and with $60 million in TIF funding. * Maven Development Group is proposing to convert 333,000 square feet of office space into 423 apartments at 105 West Adams Street for $167 million with $65 million of that coming from TIF funding. * The LaSalle Residences project from Reschke’s Prime Group would build 280 apartments at 208 South LaSalle Street for $130 million and $33 million in TIF funding.
Read more Chicago Chicago narrows choices for LaSalle Street incentives Chicago City approves $5M grant program for LaSalle Street initiative Chicago Chicago incentives for LaSalle Street makeover yield $1B in proposals The post Chicago weighs LaSalle’s $1.2B office-to-resi pitches appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rafael Viñoly with 432 Park Avenue and 125 Greenwich in New York and One River Point in Miami (RVAPC)Rafael Viñoly, the Uruguayan architect who shaped skylines from New York to Seoul, died Friday at age 78.
Viñoly died in New York City, his friend, Argentine politician Elisa Carrió, confirmed to the El País Uruguay, which reported that the cause of death was an aneurysm.
Some of Viñoly’s best-known designs include 20 Fenchurch Street, a London office tower nicknamed the “Walkie-Talkie” building; the supertall Manhattan condo tower 432 Park Avenue and the Tokyo International Forum. His work brought both acclaim and criticism.
20 Fenchurch Street (Getty)Viñoly was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on June 1, 1944. He studied at the University of Buenos Aires, where he received a master’s degree in architecture in 1969. By then Viñoly had already established himself in Argentina, co-founding a studio with a half-dozen partners in 1964.
He moved to the U.S. in 1978 and started Rafael Viñoly Architects. His first big project in New York was at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
He would go on to design the Bronx County Hall of Justice, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. Later in life he began designing luxury condos, including 432 Park Avenue, a boxy 1,396-foot-tall tower developed by CIM Group and Harry Macklowe. Viñoly also designed 125 Greenwich, a luxury condo tower in Downtown Manhattan that recently restarted construction after years of delays caused by financing issues.
Viñoly won numerous awards for his work, including a Medal of Honor from the American Institute of Architects’ New York chapter in 1995. Outside of architecture, Viñoly enjoyed playing classical piano.
He is survived by his wife, Diana, and their three children, Roman, Lucas, and Nicolás.
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Britney Spears with 25222 Prado Del Grandioso (Google Maps, Getty)After owning a mansion at 25222 Prado Del Grandioso in Calabasas for less than a year, singer Britney Spears sold the 11,700-square-foot house for $10 million, or $951 per square feet.
The closing for Spears’ pad took in $1.7 million less than the approximate $12 million she paid for it in June 2022, according to Dirt.com, which broke the story. The buyer is Ezekiel Tyson Jr., a Texas-based attorney and real estate investor. Bryce Pennel of Compass served as the listing agent.
Located in Calabasas’ The Estates of The Oaks gated community, Spears’ former digs includes seven bedrooms, nine baths, hand-carved fireplaces, mosaic tile designs by artist Ann Sacks, as well as hardwood and stone floors.
Other amenities include a wine cellar, a 10-seat movie theater, a wet bar-equipped lounge, a gift wrapping room, and a detached one-bedroom guest house and a five-car garage.
The grounds of 25222 Prado Del Grandioso also feature a 55-foot pool, a spa, a waterslide and tiered waterfalls. Spears may be leaving The Estates of The Oaks enclave, but she is not saying a farewell to the area. She and her husband Sam Asghari continue to own a mansion in the nearby Hidden Hills neighborhood at the western edge of the San Fernando Valley.
The Zillow listing site compared Spears’ former house to a neighboring estate located at 25314 Prado De La Felicidad. The 14,000-square-foot estate sold on Nov. 30 for $20 million or $1,426-per-square-feet. The initial ask for this house was $30 million.
Read more Los Angeles Former LA Ram Clay Matthews sells Calabasas home for $20M Los Angeles Hidden Hills’ priciest custom home goes into escrow Los Angeles Paparazzi-proof former home of Britney Spears sold The post Britney Spears unloads her Calabasas mansion appeared first on The Real Deal.
Wilson Terra Firma’s James Wilson and 999 Hillsboro Mile (Getty, LinkedIn/James Wilson, Google Maps)An affiliate of a Canadian commercial real estate firm bought an under-construction oceanfront Hillsboro Beach mansion for $19.2 million.
Records show Wilson Terra Firma LP bought the house at 999 Hillsboro Mile from a Florida LLC named for the address, managed by Fort Lauderdale resident Andreas Schuermann.
Heather Lefka of Florida Luxurious Properties had the listing, and Marco Terminesi of Re/Max Properties brought the buyer.
The buying entity is an affiliate of Wilson Terra Firma Holdings, a Canadian commercial real estate firm based in Toronto. Wilson Terra Firma Holdings, along with Wilson’s Truck Lines Limited, Boulder City Disposal Nevada, Sierra Waste Arizona, DeerFields Health & Wellness Clinic and Non-Stop Logistics 4PL belong to the Wilson Asset Group of Companies, led by CEO James Wilson, LinkedIn shows.
Schuermann bought the 0.7-acre Hillsboro Beach property as a vacant lot for $6.3 million in 2018, records show. The listing shows the finished home will span nearly 13,000 square feet, with six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and two half-bathrooms. The property stretches from the oceanfront to the Intracoastal Waterway, and includes a deepwater dock. Construction is expected to be completed at the end of this year or beginning of next year, according to the listing.
Hillsboro Beach’s Hillsboro Mile luxury homes have long attracted big name buyers. The founder of New York-based telecom company Simple Networks bought an oceanfront compound for $23 million in March 2021. That same month, a film producer and financier bought a teardown on Hillsboro Mile for $10.8 million. And in February 2021, a tax consultant sold his newly built mansion for $20 million.
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Brown Harris Stevens’ Lisa Lippman (Brown Harris Stevens, Getty)Call her the Tom Brady of Brown Harris Stevens.
Lisa K. Lippman was named the firm’s top grossing broker for the seventh straight year, giving her as many in-house nods as Brady has Super Bowl rings — though Lippman’s titles have all come in a row.
Lippman, who was also named the firm’s top agent in Manhattan, could be in a good position to make it eight: she recently listed George Soros’ ex-wife’s Upper West Side apartment for $27.5 million.
The broker was just one of dozens named by Brown Harris Stevens in the brokerage’s awards for the top company-wide and regional deals, teams and brokers for 2022.
The firm’s top sale went to Vivian Dimond and Jeff Cohen, who represented Dubai developer Damac Properties in their $120 million purchase of the site of the deadly Surfside condo collapse, where 98 people died.
“We took action and moved fast,” Damac owner Hussain Sajwani told TRD of the deal.
John Burger, who finished 12th in TRD’s 2021 Manhattan broker rankings, came in second among the firm’s individual agents. Christopher Burnside, who was sued last year by a client who claimed he used their listed home to engage in a “sex-capade” with an associate, finished as BHS’ top Hamptons broker and third overall.
Nine of the firm’s 10 highest-grossing agents last year were in New York City, the Hamptons or Connecticut.
The top team in Manhattan was the Harkov Lewis Team and the top team in Brooklyn was the Cappi Colegrove Team. The top Brooklyn agent was Nancy Giddins.
The only broker operating outside of the tri-state area to crack the top 10 was Josie Wang, based in Miami, who finished 10th.
Wang in December represented the seller who Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro paid a record $10.5 million purchase of an eight-bedroom mansion in the South Florida city — narrowly beating a Pinecrest mansion that became the area’s priciest sale earlier that month.
The top Miami team was the Keith & Sonia Team. Husband-and-wife duo Keith Marks and Sonia Toth joined BHS from Douglas Elliman in 2017.
BHS counted a total of just under $3.6 billion in sell-side transactions in New York City last year, earning the firm fourth in The Real Deal’s ranking of Manhattan residential brokerages in 2022.
CEO Bess Freedman said the brokerage was “optimistic as buyers and sellers adjust to our new reality.”
“After a record-breaking 2021 and first half of 2022, the 2023 housing market is shaping up to be a bit of a transition year as an improving economy and lower rates take hold,” Freedman said.
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Burgher-Ray Ranch’s David Burgher and Harlan Ray with North Paluxy Ranch (Burgher-Ray Ranch Team, Google Maps, Getty)Live the cowboy life, but make it luxury and less than two hours from Dallas.
A 2,500-acre family ranch in Erath County has hit the market for $16 million, according to a media release. That’s about $6,400 per acre.
The property, which has two private lakes, is called the North Paluxy Ranch. It sits in the Cross Timbers and Prairies Ecological Region and features “incredible views in all directions.” David Burgher and Harlan Ray of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty listed the property.
Located 12 miles north of Stephenville in the northern part of the Texas Hill Country, the ranch has been owned by the same family for multiple generations, according to the release.
The three-bedroom, two-bath main home, situated at the ranch’s highest peak, spans about 2,200 square feet. The ranch has a 3,000 square foot barn/workshop with a two-bedroom apartment attached. There are also livestock pens and a pole barn.
It’s great for riding horses, running around rough-cut and gravel roads on ATVs and hunting and fishing, the release states.
“The diversity of the habitat throughout the property provides excellent cover for white-tailed deer, turkey and other native wildlife. Excellent fishing can be found on either of the main lakes,” it states.”
The scenic piece of land offers 1.75 miles of frontage on both sides of the North Paluxy River.
The Burgher-Ray Ranch Team listed another Erath County ranch in December. The 1,400-acre Rocking M Ranch a working horse-breeding ranch, was asking $16 million, or about $11,000 per acre.
Ranchland across the United States became a hot commodity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and everything’s bigger in Texas — the state had more than 14 percent of land sales in the United States in 2021. Land sales in Texas have cooled since then to numbers more similar to 2019, according to the Texas Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
—Quinn Donoghue
Read more Texas Need somewhere to board your 18 horses? Try this $12M historic Texas ranch Texas Former Brinkman estate sold at auction after four years on market Texas T. Boone Pickens’ panhandle ranch has sold for $170M The post Epic Erath County ranch hits market for $16M appeared first on The Real Deal.
East Hampton town supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc (Town of East Hampton, Getty)The Suffolk County Parks Commission flushed East Hampton’s proposed land swap down the proverbial toilet, scuttling a plan for a sewage treatment plant.
The commission unanimously rejected the proposal, which would have transferred county parkland in Montauk from the county to the town, the East Hampton Star reported. East Hampton’s disappointed town supervisor, Peter Van Scoyoc, vowed the town would continue looking for solutions to Montauk’s wastewater problem.
The proposal called for the town to get 14 acres in Hither Woods, next to a former town landfill, which the town and its contracted engineering firm identified as the only viable site for a new treatment plant.
In exchange, the county would get a 19-acre parcel off East Lake Drive, next to Montauk County Park.
Sewage is an ongoing issue on the East End. In East Hampton, many properties rely on septic systems. Wastewater in older ones can leach into the ground, potentially damaging water quality in the community.
The town has been trying to create a wastewater treatment plan for its downtown for seven years. All else being equal, property values are higher for homes connected to a municipal sewer system.
Despite the need for wastewater treatment in the area, the land swap faced fierce resistance.
Two state senators said they would not support the necessary “alienation” of the parkland — which only the state legislature can grant — until a full analysis of the proposal was completed. Nonprofit environmental group Coalition for Hither Woods opposed the plan.
“We don’t know if the parks trustees’ vote will end East Hampton Town’s almost obsessive two-year quest to build a centralized sewer system for Montauk, but we hope so,” president Richard Whalen said in a statement following the vote.
The cost of the deal beyond the loss of some parkland was also a mitigating factor. Town engineers estimated the buildout of a centralized Montauk sewer system would cost up to $75 million.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more Tri-State East Hampton proposing land swap for sewage Tri-State Southampton considering 40-acre buy in Riverside Tri-State Trailer cash: Montauk modular fetches record $3.8M The post Montauk land swap stinks: Parks panel appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan (Chan Zuckerhberg Initiative, Getty)Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, will sink $250 million into a new biotech hub in Chicago.
The couple’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced plans to launch its second life sciences research hub at a Chicago site that’s being kept under wraps for now, after the first in San Francisco started in 2021, CoStar reported.
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, as it will be known, is a collaboration between the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It aims to develop technologies for studying and measuring human biology.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is committing $25 million in state funding to the project.
“This institute will embark on science to embed miniaturized sensors into tissues that will allow us to understand how healthy and diseased tissues function in unprecedented detail,” Chan said in the statement.
The announcement comes as Chicago aims to join the ranks of major life science clusters in Boston, San Francisco and San Diego. Given its top universities, central location, large population and room to build on big development sites, Chicago leaders believe the region can become a leading biotech market.
The Chicago initiative will be led by Northwestern Professor Shana Kelley, who described the hub’s research goals as “wildly, but not impossibly, ambitious.”
Biohub Chicago will employ from 30 to 50 employees in a yet-to-be-determined location, a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative spokesperson told CoStar News in an email. It will be built “in an area of the city that is considered a hub for innovation in the life sciences,” she said.
The grant award was given to Chicago, which topped 58 proposals to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative that’s based in Redwood City, California and funded by the couple’s wealth from Facebook shares. The winner was narrowed down to eight contenders and eventually three finalists, the spokesperson said, declining to name the other cities that were in the running.
While several developers have focused on attracting life sciences labs and offices to Chicago, no central ecosystem has emerged in any part of town.
Developers Trammell Crow and Beacon Capital Partners have broken ground on Hyde Park Labs, a 302,400-square-foot life science building at 52nd and Harper avenues on the city’s South Side, a $255 million development close to the University of Chicago.
And last year, injectable drug maker Xeris Pharmaceuticals leased 87,000 square feet in Trammell Crow’s new lab and office building at 1375 West Fulton Street in an exit from the tenant’s Loop offices on LaSalle Street.
Plus, Farpoint Development will soon break ground on a now-$7 billion mixed-use development called Bronzeville Lakefront south of the Loop, with a focus on the life sciences.
The 7.8 million-square-foot project on the former Michael Reese Hospital site will include a 500,000-square-foot innovation center anchored by Chicago ARC, a life science accelerator to be developed by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center and Kaleidoscope Health Ventures.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Chicago Trammell Crow, Beacon Capital break ground on $225M Hyde Park Labs Chicago Chicago approves $4B Bronzeville Lakefront redevelopment Auto Draft The post Mark Zuckerberg and Wife Priscilla Chan shower Chicago with $250M biohub promise appeared first on The Real Deal.
Beth Azor and the Sawgrass Home Design Center at 13001-13191 West Sunrise Boulevard (Getty, BethAzor.com, LoopNet)Weston-based commercial real estate investor Beth Azor sold a Broward County retail plaza for $13.9 million.
Harvest International Investments, managed by Guofeng Ma, Wenrui Ma and Wei Cheng in Miami, bought Sawgrass Home Design Center at 13001-13191 West Sunrise Boulevard in Sunrise, according to records.
Azor’s firm Azor Advisory Services represented the seller, and Apogee Realty and Capital Group Realty represented Harvest, a press release states. The deal breaks down to $196 a square foot.
The 70,642-square-foot retail property was completed in 1994, records show. In 2011, an Azor affiliate paid $5.5 million for Sawgrass Home Design Center, which is adjacent to the Sawgrass Mills outlet mall.
Strong-performing retail centers are still commanding significant interest from commercial investors due to a lack of new projects, Azor said in a statement.
“There is virtually no new development and very little product available for sale,” Azor said. “So we decided to capitalize on the market.”
In 2021, her firm renovated Sawgrass Home Design Center, Azor said. The retail center is 83 percent leased, and the tenant roster includes DXL Casual Male, Bella Salon Suites, Lighting Outlet, Compass Research and Caremax.
Founded in 1993, Azor Advisory Services focuses on retail properties, and currently owns five shopping centers in Davie, Plantation and Sunrise, according to the firm’s website.
Last year, Azor sold Plantation Crossing, an Aldi-anchored shopping center in Plantation. Azora Exan, a joint venture between Madrid-based Azora and Miami-based Exan Capital, paid $22.2 million for the property.
While commercial trades have slowed across South Florida in the first two months of the year, retail sites are still garnering attention. Last month, Stiles Corporation sold a Publix-anchored shopping center in Miramar for $61.5 million. PGIM Real Estate, the real estate investment and financing arm of Prudential Financial, bought Monarch Town Center with a $33.5 million mortgage from Professional Bank.
Anatoly Petukhov, a Russian ex-police general who now invests in South Florida commercial real estate, picked up a Pembroke Pines strip mall for $23 million in January.
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Charter Holdings’ Ray Washburne with Founders Square, 900 Jackson Street (Ray Washburne, Google Maps, Getty)A piece of Downtown Dallas history now belongs to Ray Washburne’s Charter Holdings.
The local investor, who is betting big on a downtown resurgence, nabbed the The Founders Square building near the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
Washburne said he plans to renovate and upgrade the seven story building that sits at 900 Jackson Street, The Dallas Morning News reported. The historic brick building was constructed in 1915 primarily as a warehouse for the Higginbotham-Bailey-Logan Co., a dry goods company. It was converted into office space in 1984 and is an iconic staple in Downtown Dallas.
The purchase price was not revealed but the building’s estimated market value is $14 million, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District.
“I’ve been working on this deal for months. I’m buying it because I love the building,” Washburne told the DMN. “It’s about 75% leased primarily to a bunch of law firms.”
The property was purchased from Taiwanese investment firm Fidelity Commercial. The deal was brokered by Newmark Group’s Gary Carr, Chris Murphy, Robert Hill and Chase Tagen.
Washburne said the Founders Square building needs to be renovated but he feels confident that there is still a demand for certain types of Class-B office space downtown.
“I’m going to go in and doll it up,” he said. “The building is stuck in the 1980s and I’m going to bring it up to cooler standards. There is a demand in downtown Dallas for affordable, convenient office space where, as a tenant, you are not lost in a big building.”
Washburne also made a splash downtown in 2017 when he bought the eight-acre property that was the former headquarters of the Dallas Morning News for $28 million. Washburne said he plans to transform the newspaper’s former campus into a hotel, entertainment and apartment development but is waiting to see if plans get finalized for a new Dallas convention center. The city is moving forward with a $3.5 billion plan for a new convention center after the approval of a proposition in the November election to raise the city’s hotel tax by 2 percent.
“I’ve been waiting to see what the city was going to do with the convention center. That whole end of downtown is going to explode in growth,” Washburne said.
—Erick Pirayesh
Read more Dallas Trio of Texas Triangle cities among national leaders in return-to-office Texas Uptown and Downtown trading places in DFW office market Dallas Four upcoming projects set to change change Dallas’ skyline development The post Washburne’s Charter Holdings nabs historic Dallas building appeared first on The Real Deal.
La Quinta Inn at 900 Dolorosa Street in San Antonio with Weston Urban’s Randy Smith (Google Maps, Weston Urban)Weston Urban continues to make a mark on San Antonio’s city center.
The firm recently purchased a 2-acre lot with a La Quinta Inn at 900 Dolorosa St., which now gives the developer control of the entire 4-acre block, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
Deed records show that Next to Denny’s LP, in partnership with Weston Urban, bought the property from Cavalier Texas LP for an unknown amount. The property was valued at $8.2 million in 2022, though, according to the Bexar Appraisal District.
Weston Urban also owns the neighboring Washington Square office building, comprising an additional 1.95 acres at Dolorosa. CEO Randy Smith said the firm has no imminent plans for the newly purchased building, but its close proximity to University of Texas at San Antonio and their expanding campus was a motivating factor behind the deal.
“Our bullishness on that stretch of downtown has only been amplified by UTSA,” Smith told the outlet. “We just felt like, given our current investment there at Washington Square, that it made all the sense in the world from a long-term perspective.”
The firm has acquired over 22 acres of land in downtown San Antonio since starting operations in 2012. They own another 1.8 acre block down the street, including San Pedro Creek, which is currently being developed into a park with walking trails, landscaping and art.
Weston Urban is planning on building a 16-story tower with over 300 apartments, offices and retail space where the Continental Hotel, Arana building and Melchio de la Garza house formerly stood. The firm partnered with nonprofit Bexar County Public Facility Corp. as part of the multi-structure redevelopment – the nonprofit as the buyer and Weston as the leaser, making the new project tax exempt.
One of the firm’s biggest projects currently is finding a new site for the San Antonio Missions baseball team, as they were one of the investors to purchase the team last year along with Spurs legends Manu Ginobili and David Robinson, among others. A potential site is at the former Fox Tech High School baseball field, which Weston is set to acquire from the San Antonio Independent School District, the outlet reported.
In addition, the firm is building a 32-story tower with about 354 apartments and is expected to open next spring.
-Quinn Donoghue
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(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Housing sales have declined more than 35 percent in the last year in Los Angeles County, according to multiple brokerage reports.
According to a recent report from Douglas Elliman, home sales in February declined about 38 percent year-over-year in the county. However, there was an uptick in home sales in February. There were 2,013 closed sales for single-family homes in February, compared to 1,565 closed sales in January, the report found.
A statement from the Elliman Report said that the month-to-month increase in Los Angeles County home sales was the highest amount in three years.
But February’s uptick in home sales may reflect a temporary market, said Tim Gavin, founder of The Gavin Team at Keller Williams in Beverly Hills.
“Home buyers were coming out of the holidays. They realized that home prices weren’t going to drop the way many anticipated. Interest rates aren’t going to move the way many were hoping, and they had to buy a house. But the surge has come to a head, and we’re in a very stagnant, neutral market,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a bumpy ride this year.”
He said neither buyers nor sellers have an edge in the market, and agents have to deliver bad news on both sides of the transactions.
Agents often must persuade sellers that their aspirational pricing of a couple of years ago will drive away the current market’s buyers. On the other hand, with such low inventory, agents often find themselves telling buyers with so few houses on the market, the buyers may have to settle for ones that are available, Gavin explained.
A recent CoreLogic report also presented a glum picture of Southern California’s market. It said that home sales were the lowest in more than three decades.
In January, home sales were down 43.6 percent to 3,097 transactions in Los Angeles County in a year-over-year comparison. In Orange County, January home sales checked in at 1,291 transactions, down 41.1 percent in a year-over-year comparison, according to media reports on CoreLogic’s research. The markets have been battered by low housing inventory and high interest rates, according to the reports.
The February Elliman Report also noted that new listings declined about 16 percent in L.A. County. In February, there were 1,686 new listings, compared to February 2022, when there were 2,018 new L.A. County listings. Listings also declined in a month-to-month comparison. In January 2023, there were 1,826 new listings; in February, there were 1,686 new listings.
A National Association of Realtors reading of the market echoed the most recent Elliman Report. There were monthly gains in home sales juxtaposed against yearly declines. NAR’s Feb. 27 release said there were upticks in pending home sales comparing December to January numbers; however, in year-to-year comparisons, business has dropped.
Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, forecast that home sales will continue to decline.
“Home sales activity looks to be bottoming out in the first quarter of this year, before incremental improvements will occur,” Yun said in a prepared statement. “But an annual gain in home sales will not occur until 2024. Meanwhile, home prices will be steady in most parts of the country with a minor change in the national median home price.”
Read more Los Angeles New house listings plunge in L.A. County during December Los Angeles House listings drop 26% in LA County during November Los Angeles Rising interest rates put brakes on home sales The post Brokerage reports quantify drop in LA housing market appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Maverick Real Estate Partners’ Ted Martell and Chetrit Group’s Meyer Chetrit with 255 West 34th Street (Getty, Stonehill Taylor Architects)Two months after suing the Chetrit Group over its unfinished hotel near Penn Station, Maverick Real Estate Partners has seized control of the project.
Chetrit transferred the project at 255 West 34th Street to Maverick on Jan. 31, city records show. The transfer, which was valued at $104.5 million, wasn’t recorded until Thursday. PincusCo first reported the news.
Chetrit’s surrender seemed a foregone conclusion ever since Maverick filed its lawsuit against the developer and its president, Meyer Chetrit, who personally guaranteed the debt on the project. The lawsuit alleged that Chetrit neglected matured loans and failed to complete the 323-key, 33-story hotel by the end of 2021 as required by a loan agreement.
Chetrit purchased the site in 2014 and began construction on the 155,000-square-foot project in 2019, tapping IHG Hotels & Resorts to operate the hotel before the pandemic halted construction and devastated the city’s hotel market.
Maverick bought $110 million in debt on the project in May of last year, a month after the loans matured, according to the lawsuit, and called on Chetrit to pay what it owed. The lender sought $19 million to cover the principal of the loans, plus interest and demanded that Chetrit either finish the hotel or pay the $106.4 million required to complete the project.
It’s not clear what Maverick’s end game is for the Garment District property. It filed to foreclose in November and had planned to hold an auction on Jan. 18, approximately two weeks before it took control of the project. Maverick could not immediately be reached for comment.
Led by David Aviram and Ted Martell, Maverick is a prolific debt buyer. The firm has a reputation for going after distressed loans secured by major landlords and has drawn criticism from some who consider its tactics to be overly aggressive.
Chetrit, meanwhile, has faced numerous problems across its portfolio in recent months and even days.
This week, the firm fell behind for the second time on a $225 million loan covering 640 apartments in Jamaica, Queens. Chetrit also recently defaulted on an $85 million loan at a development site in Hudson Yards and faces default on a $481 million loan backing 43 multifamily properties, a quarter of which the company is looking to sell.
Read more New York Maverick sues Chetrit over unfinished Penn Station hotel New York Chetrit stumbles again on $225M multifamily loan — Holden Walter-Warner
The post Maverick takes over Chetrit’s unfinished Penn Station hotel appeared first on The Real Deal.
Terreno Realty’s Michael Coke with rendering of the Morton Commerce Center (LinkedIn, Cushman & Wakefield, Getty)San Francisco-based Terreno Realty is under contract to acquire The Morton Commerce Center in Newark, according to sources with knowledge of the deal.
One of the four industrial buildings at the center is leased to Meta, the parent of Facebook, where the company houses technical operations such as information technology, augmented and virtual reality products and storage for a variety of departments.
The Morton Commerce Center is valued at $87 million, according to public records. The price of the sale couldn’t be confirmed; however one source said they heard the deal traded above guidance and had a 4.5 percent cap rate. The industrial campus was developed by Overton Moore Properties in 2020 and the last building leased to electric car company Lucid Motors in 2022. Overton Moore bought the site of the project in 2017.
The property is located at 7395-7355 Morton Avenue and has four buildings ranging from 74,000 to 226,000 square feet. Along with Meta and Lucid Motors, the other tenants are RK Logistics and Pegasus Logistics.
While not as active as a year ago, the East Bay’s industrial market remains highly active with demand still outpacing supply, according to a report by JLL. Vacancy has tightened from 5.6 percent in 2019 to 3.5 percent, the report found. In 2022, tenants absorbed a number of large properties, which has left the East Bay with only five available sites greater than 250,000 square feet.
And there isn’t much space scheduled to enter the market. In 2019, the East Bay saw 1.6 million square feet delivered and another 1.8 million square feet the following year. In 2022, however, only 166,000 square feet of new product came online. Although there is 2 million square feet under development, 771,500 square feet is already pre-leased and new space faces delays caused by rising interest rates and construction costs.
“As investors hold off on buying land and postpone ground-breaking on fully-entitled proposed buildings, few speculative buildings are likely to break ground in 2023,” the report said.
Terreno Realty has been active in the East Bay market. Last year the company acquired a five-building property near the Oakland airport for $35 million, or $333 per square foot.
Read more San Francisco Electric car maker leases 160K sf in Newark San Francisco San Leandro purchase extends Ark Row’s East Bay buying spree The post Terreno Realty to acquire East Bay industrial campus appeared first on The Real Deal.
Clarion Partners’ David Gilbert, Brown Harris Stevens’ Bess Freedman; 100-104 Fifth Avenue (Google Maps, Getty, Clarion Partners, Brown Harris Stevens)Brown Harris Stevens is opening a new office near Union Square.
The residential brokerage signed a 20,000-square-foot office lease at Clarion Partners’ 100-104 Fifth Avenue, the landlord said. BHS will occupy the property’s recently renovated second floor.
A BHS spokesperson said some agents at the firm’s nearby 831 Broadway office in Greenwich Village will move to the new location at 100 Fifth Avenue. The brokerage will also keep its Flatiron District office a few blocks north at 130 Fifth Avenue.
It’s a popular stretch of real estate for the city’s top residential brokerages. Compass’ global headquarters, currently up for sublease, is at 90 Fifth Avenue, and many of its Downtown agents are based out of an office at 111 Fifth Avenue. Douglas Elliman’s Jonathan Stein team, which decamped from BHS last summer, is also based out of an office at 111 Fifth Avenue.
BHS has 12 locations across Manhattan, according to its website, plus six offices in Brooklyn, three in Queens and one in the Bronx.
The Kaufman Organization’s Michael Kaufman and Grant Greenspan represented Clarion in the lease at 100 Fifth Avenue. CBRE’s Paul Amrich and Alexander Golod represented BHS. The asking rent was not disclosed.
Other notable tenants at 100-104 Fifth Avenue include Adobe Systems, Timberland, Firstmark Capital and Red Ventures. Clarion purchased the two-building, 270,000-square-foot property in 2013 for $230 million from the Kaufman Organization and Invesco.
The lease comes about a month after Clarion sold two Williamsburg apartment buildings at 139 North 10th Street and 44 Berry Street to MetLife for $68 million.
Manhattan’s office market is still struggling to gain traction in the wake of the pandemic. Office leasing in the borough fell 43 percent year over year in the fourth quarter, with tenants taking just 4.9 million square feet in the final three months of 2022, the lowest quarterly total since early 2021, according to Colliers. The borough’s office availability rate increased for the first time in a year, rising 0.5 percent from the third quarter
Read more New York Ryan Serhant offered to coach Brown Harris agents. It didn’t go well. New York KKR takes over Meta’s large 30 Hudson Yards space New York Surviving the tech wreck: Manhattan office market could pivot The post Brown Harris Stevens signs 20K sf lease at Clarion’s 100 Fifth Avenue appeared first on The Real Deal.
Texas Medical Center’s William F. McKeon (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, TMC)Houston has long been known as a hub for the energy industry, but in recent years it’s also emerged as a leader in the life science sector.
The Bayou City is now home to over 700 life science companies and ranked 13th among the nation’s top life science markets, according to a 2022 CBRE industry study, which includes perennial powerhouse life science markets such as Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The ranking marks a promotion of sorts from prior years, when Houston was designated as an “emerging” life science hub rather than an established center of the sector.
Houston’s gains have come on everything from biotech startups to pharmaceutical companies sparking a flurry of mixed-use development across the city’s Inner Loop. Some of the more prominent projects include:
Ion Building | 4201 Main Street:The six-story, 270,000-square-foot Ion is the newest addition to the emerging Innovation District dubbed The Ion in the heart of Midtown. The building, which was previously Midtown’s premier Sears department store, cost an estimated $100 million to renovate. It includes North America’s largest climate technology and sustainable energy incubator, Greentown Labs Houston. The Ion will be home to startups, accelerators, and other organizations focused on innovation in the life sciences sector. The project is being developed by Rice University.
Levit Green | 3131 Holcombe Boulevard:Expected to be a multipurpose life science center, Levit Green is a 53-acre mixed-use life science district currently under construction between Old Spanish Trail and Hermann Park. This carefully curated masterplan will include office, retail and dining locations to accentuate its lab facilities. Eventually, it’s also expected to include residential units. Levit Green’s goal is to be an all-purpose district for Houston’s booming life science sector with space designed to house multiple tenants on a single floor to promote collaboration.
Its first building, appropriately dubbed Levit Green Building I, will be a five-story 290,000-square-foot center with 26,000 square feet on the ground floor specifically dedicated to lab incubators and manufacturing space. Directly tied to the inaugural building will be a one-acre man- made lake with a promenade dotted with outdoor rooms and a waterfront café for professionals to enjoy the lakeside ambiance. At full buildout, it will also include a standalone vivarium, restaurant, outdoor garden and fitness center for on-site workers.
Dynamic One |1891 Old Spanish Trail:Developer Beacon Capital Partners is designing the futuristic center as part of a 37-acre life science complex called TMC Helix Park. Dynamic One will be phase one of the campus development and it will span 368,000 square feet anchored by retailers and restaurants. Baylor University signed as the site’s first tenant. The research university closed on 114,000 square feet of the phase one development and plans to dedicate it to laboratories, research offices and startup space. Baylor is hoping to expand its presence in Houston’s life science sector, with research and corporate partnership.
At full buildout, TMC Helix Park will include a 521-room hotel, 350-unit residential tower, and nearly 1 million square feet of research and collaborative space among other developments and amenities. Dynamic One is expected to be delivered this summer.
Texas A&M Innovation Plaza | 1020 Holcombe Blvd:Two life science-centered towers are coming to TMC. Texas A&M partnered with Medistar Corporation on a $500 million mixed-use complex at Innovation Plaza between Holcombe Boulevard and Main Street. It will include student housing units, medical research offices and laboratory space.
Building one, dubbed the Horizon Tower, will stand 30 stories, the first 13 stories dedicated to parking, spanning 515,000 square feet devoted to the development’s medical research and laboratories. Life Tower, a 19-story mixed-use project, will include retail lots and restaurants on its ground floor and student housing for Prairie View A&M University’s College of Nursing. The Innovation Plaza is currently under construction and is expected to be completed in 2024.
Read more Houston Baylor med school plans high rise in TX Medical Center Texas Hines signs Sino Biological to Levit Green in Houston Houston Texas Medical Center to expand with $37M parking garage The post Houston all in on mixed-use life science developments appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mark Patricoski with 360 N Michigan Avenue (Patricoski Law Offices, Getty, GP Chicago)A Chicago brokerage and property management firm recently acquired by Transwestern is facing what could be a liability of several million dollars over alleged mishandling of evidence in a workers’ compensation lawsuit.
Martin Kraslen, the former chief building engineer for Chicago’s MB Real Estate, filed a new lawsuit last month against his former employer.
It claims the company captured, viewed and then fumbled a crucial video clip of Kraslen falling through a damaged manhole grate and into the sub-basement of the LondonHouse hotel at the northwest corner of North Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, before he or his attorney could see it.
The injury to Kraslen’s knee and shoulder has cost him between $500,000 to $1 million in medical bills and he still has surgery ahead, due to the impacts of the fall, which occurred while the building was being converted from an office into a hotel in 2016.
A judge in July slammed MBRE for losing the video, writing it likely knew it had a duty to preserve it ahead of a trial in a separate lawsuit that was settled by the developers on the project, Chicago-based Oxford Capital and Los Angeles-based Angelo Gordon, as well as contractor W.E. O’Neil and subcontractors. MBRE, however, was taken to trial in October by Kraslen, who is now pursuing the brokerage in a separate case.
He claims the $1.5 million he recovered in worker’s compensation is only a third of what he would have received had he been able to access the video. MBRE has also been accused of initially claiming that no such video existed during the litigation.
“Not only was the video footage in the possession of MBRE, not only did MBRE employees know of its existence, not only did they view it numerous times, not only did they know of its importance to any future litigation and the need to retain it, it was not preserved or retained,” Cook County Circuit Judge Kathy M. Flanagan wrote, according to court records. “With this knowledge, under oath, MBRE answered interrogatories which wilfully and falsely declared no such video surveillance existed.”
Transwestern, the new owner of MBRE, did not return requests for comment. Neither did attorneys who have represented MBRE in cases tied to Kraslen, including in a federal lawsuit filed last year by the firm’s workers’ compensation insurer seeking to get off the hook for paying to defend MBRE. The firm has also sued its general liability insurer, asking it to step in and cover costs of its defense in Kraslen’s case.
In court filings, MBRE had said it was never aware the manhole cover was in a hazardous condition, and there’s no evidence showing it was damaged, and that it “remains a mystery as to who, what, or when the access cover was damaged or compromised.” The firm also said it had no duty to preserve the video, never had possession or control of the complete video and rather only a link to the video. The link was subsequently corrupted and it lost access within a matter of days, through no fault of its own, the firm said.
Kraslen worked for MBRE for decades before the injury, his attorney said. He didn’t initially sue MBRE, and was rather going after the developers and contractors in the building, but those defendants brought MBRE into the case, alleging it should have given them more notice about potential problems with the manhole cover.
Another party in the litigation later discovered it did still have access to the video clip as the case moved forward, but only part of it. It showed Kraslen walking away from the manhole carrying an object, however, the clip recovered doesn’t show the actual fall, and instead cuts to when emergency personnel arrived to help.
The defendants argued Kraslen may have carried away the manhole cover. Because he wasn’t shown walking back into the video footage without the cover due to the missing portion of film, they were able to suggest he may have contributed to his own injury. The lack of the footage showing the actual fall dulled Kraslen’s attorneys’ ability to refute that claim, they said, even as the judge didn’t allow the defendants to play the partial video clip as evidence.
“Now, at the 11th hour, the partially recovered, arguably selectively preserved scant portions of the video by MBRE, is being relied upon by the defense to introduce as evidence and cast aspersions on (Kraslen’s) account of the accident,” Flanagan wrote. “There is no way that this partial video footage will ever be used as evidence in this case, especially by the party responsible for losing and/or failing to preserve it in the first instance.”
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Centurion American’s Mehrdad Moayedi and conceptual plan of mixed-use project (Centurion American, Getty)In Texas, why build up, when you can simply build out? Dallas-Fort Worth based Centurion American continues to do just that. The firm snagged 680 acres for a 1,500 master-planned community in Grayson County.
Centurion bought the land from Walton Global, a land asset management firm. Caleb Lavey and Rex Glendenning with REX Real Estate brokered the deal for the buyer, and Taylor Boyd with Adler Properties represented the seller, according to a media release. Financial terms of the deal were not announced.
The new community, called Cottonwood, is located 8 miles south of downtown Sherman in Grayson County and 55 miles north of downtown Dallas. Centurion is working to acquire more land to enable development on the project.
Cottonwood will include hundreds of multifamily units, multiple commercial development sites, retail shops, restaurants, schools and potentially thousands of single family homes. A river and a number of outdoor spaces will be included as well, according to the project’s conceptual plan. Development will happen in multiple phases, and a timeline has not been announced.
Centurion American is banking on Texas’ growth with giant mixed-use projects. The firm, owned by Mehrdad Moayedi, bought 1,100 acres off Interstate 20 in Terrell, about 30 miles outside of Dallas, in late 2021. It was the company’s third such land buy in Kaufman County that year. The firm then acquired a 30,000-home community in Celina, another outlying market of Dallas-Fort Worth. Moayedi also spent time in the courts last year, battling a class-action lawsuit and a citation for failure to pay school taxes.
Centurion American, founded in 1990, has developed over 100,000 single-family lots in dozens of communities across North Texas. The firm has acquired over 35,000 acres of land for a variety of mixed-use projects, according to its website. Walton Global continues to cash in on the large amounts of land it owns in North Texas as development firms look to build beyond Frisco and McKinney as growth spreads throughout the region. In the Dallas-area alone Walton Global has sold 4,000 acres and has nearly 15,000 available acres ready to sell.
Massive mixed-use projects have been all the rage across Dallas-Fort Worth and North Texas in recent years. Many North Texas developers and cities are looking to copy the success of huge mixed-use projects that have taken place in cities like Frisco, Plano and McKinney.
Read more Dallas Mehrdad Moayedi developing 1,100 acres in Terrell Dallas Mehrdad Moayedi follows rival Kyle Bass into ranch country Dallas The Mix $3B Frisco development starts next month The post Centurion American buys 680 acres appeared first on The Real Deal.
City of Pasadena Acting Director of Planning Jennifer Paige (Getty, City of Pasadena)The City of Pasadena moved on Monday to eliminate its planned development zoning designation, effectively nixing an avenue that was designed to expedite major project approvals in the affluent city.
The Pasadena City Council made the decision at a public hearing, the Southern California News Group reported, and directed staff to prepare an ordinance within 60 days that would remove the category from the city’s zoning code.
“There were concerns raised that the projects were essentially writing their own rules,” Jennifer Paige, the city’s acting planning director, told the news group, “and that they weren’t conforming with the rules we have in place now.”
Planned development zoning applies to sites that are 2 acres or larger and developed for mixed-use, the newspaper group reported. In theory, the option affords developers a faster approval process compared to piecemeal requirements, but for months Pasadena officials have argued the option benefited no one, because large projects were still subject to major opposition, which led to uncertainty, and the PD zoning was undercutting the city’s more specific zoning codes.
“The community has spent an inordinate amount of voluntary time working on specific plans,” Julianna Delgado, a Pasadena planning commissioner, told Pasadena Now last March, “and what the PD process has done is to essentially eliminate all that work and say that it doesn’t really matter.”
The city’s zoning reform comes amid a period that may rank as one of the most consequential — and contentious — in California history for development and zoning law, as a generally pro-housing growth state government has worked to pass dozens of new laws that are in many cases opposed by local governments.
Last year, after the rollout of SB 9, the state housing law that effectively eliminated single-family zoning by allowing property owners to split their lots and build duplexes, Pasadena fought the state for months over a local historical neighborhood exemption the city sought to enact. The battle ranked among the highest profile in the new SB 9 era, and ultimately ended when the city issued a minor language change, prompting both sides claiming victory.
Read more Los Angeles Pasadena rent control advocates declare victory Los Angeles Court to hear challenge to Pasadena rent control measure Los Angeles Pasadena mayor blasts state attorney general over SB9 “The attorney general simply got it wrong,” the city’s mayor said at the time.
This year, another statewide battle is escalating over builder’s remedy, the decades-old legal provision that allows developers to bypass local zoning in cities — such as Pasadena — that are failing to meet their state-mandated housing goals.
— Trevor Bach
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Transwestern’s Kyle Robbins with 1 Astellas Way (Transwestern, Google maps, Getty)Fertilizer manufacturer CF Industries is trimming its suburban Chicago office footprint with a move to Northbrook.
The company inked a long-term, 78,000-square-foot lease to occupy two floors at 1 Astellas Way, a 432,000-square-foot office complex in the northern Cook County suburb, according to a news release from leasing representative Transwestern. CF’s corporate headquarters has occupied 85,000 square feet of a 171,000-square-foot building at 4 Parkway Boulevard in Deerfied since 2006, according to published reports.
CF’s departure from the Deerfield building leaves a hole for its new owner, Workspace Property Trust, to fill after picking up the asset last year as part of a $1.3 billion purchase of multiple suburban offices across the nation totaling 1 million square feet. The 176,000-square-foot Deerfield property was valued at $35 million as part of that deal, Lake County records show.
Transwestern’s Kyle Robbins represented the Northbrook building owner — which is also its largest user, Japanese drug maker Astellas — and attributed the deal to the trend of office tenants moving into higher quality spaces while downsizing. “A tenant signing a long-term lease in such a notable building is a testament to the fact that businesses care about the office, especially high-quality environments that will attract employees back to in-person work and encourage collaboration,” Robbins said in a statement.
CF Industries’ new office is home to the U.S. headquarters of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma, which bought the site from developer GlenStar Properties before it was built.
Though CF will be taking up about 7,000 fewer square feet, the deal is still the challenged suburban office market’s largest in recent months. The top new leases of the fourth quarter of 2022 were made to Darul Qasim College signing on for 54,000-square-feet at 5555 Trillium Boulevard in Hoffman Estates and UL, formerly known as Underwriters Laboratories, taking 53,000 square feet at 1603 Orrington Boulevard in Evanston, according to a fourth-quarter report from Colliers.
The Northbrook complex will be renamed 2375 Waterview Drive in April, according to Transwestern. Built in 2010, the property consists of two buildings and has 140,000 square feet of remaining available space in the south building, Transwestern said.
JLL’s Daniel McCarthy and Sophia Spinell represented CF in the lease negotiations. The company is expected to occupy its new space by the end of the year. Andrew Davidson and David Burkards of Transwestern also represented Astellas with Robbins in the negotiations.
Read more Chicago Suburban office bleeding worsens again as vacancy rises to new record Chicago Walgreens to shed two-thirds of Deerfield HQ campus Chicago American Landmark snags logistics tenant in Schaumburg The post CF Industries relocates suburban HQ to Northbrook with slight downsize appeared first on The Real Deal.
LaSalle Investment Management CEO Mark Gabbay and 4 Hutton Centre Drive (LaSalle, 4 Hutton Centre)LaSalle Investment Management has sold an office building in Orange County for 55 percent less than what the firm bought it for in 2019.
The investment firm sold 4 Hutton Centre Drive, a 217,000-square-foot property in the South Coast Metro area of Santa Ana, for $24.9 million, or about $115 per square foot, records show. Newmark announced the deal last week, but did not disclose the seller or the price.
In 2019, LaSalle bought the building for $55.4 million, or $255 per square foot, records show. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.
The deal is an example of how office values have plummeted over the last four years, as a result of the remote work trend and stagnant vacancy rates.
The South Coast Metro property is currently 57 percent vacant, according to a listing on LoopNet, a potential signal as to why the value of the property has decreased over the last four years.
A limited liability company called Ares Asset Management — not the same as Ares Management, the large L.A.-based alternative investment firm — linked to Joe Wen bought the property, according to California Secretary of State and Orange County property records.
Wen, who runs Taiwan-based conglomerate Formosa, was once known for owning the largest home in Orange County. He sold that 14,000-square-foot estate in Newport Coast for $21 million in February 2022, according to the Orange County Register, which cited property records.
Wen and his family also donated $20 million in June to the University of California — Irvine’s outpatient clinic facility.
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Story nightclub in Miami Beach at 136 Collins Avenue with Groot Hospitality’s David Grutman, Jeffrey Soffer, and Mayor Dan Gelber (Google Maps, Groot Hospitality, City of Miami Beach, Getty)For the third time in as many years, Miami Beach faces a lawsuit over commissioners’ attempts to curb the city’s anything-goes party image.
Popular South Beach nightclub Story, owned by David Grutman’s Groot Hospitality and real estate mogul Jeffrey Soffer, sued the city over a commission vote to roll back alcohol sale hours in the South of Fifth neighborhood from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The ordinance makes exceptions for venues with a capacity of up to 100 customers. The owners allege the carve-out shows that Story is being illegally singled out and targeted, according to Story’s Miami-Dade Circuit Court lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
Story, a 17,000-square-foot club at 136 Collins Avenue, is likely the biggest neighborhood venue, offering 60 VIP tables and five bars.
“Carving out large exceptions [is] designed to permit any business other than plaintiff [Story] to continue to sell alcohol,” according to court filings by Story affiliate Amnesia International. Some “commissioners openly discussed selecting arbitrary criteria that would operate to put plaintiff out of business and spare other establishments from” enforcement.
The suit asks the court to stop the city from enforcing the booze ban, which is set to take effect at 2 a.m. on Monday.
In its lawsuit, Story claims it does most of its business starting at midnight. That means the rollback allows the club to really operate for two hours, allegedly impacting hundreds of employees’ livelihoods. The Story building has been a nightclub for decades, though in previous years it operated under the monikers Opium Garden and Amnesia.
The lawsuit is the latest skirmish pitting commissioners’ desire for the city to shed its party image against popular establishments that oppose such policies, arguing they will have severe impacts on their business.
In 2021, the Clevelander South Beach, a hotel and restaurant at 1020 Ocean Drive, won its suit against the city over a vote to stop alcohol sales at 2 a.m. rather than the usual 5 a.m. The city’s ban was temporary and was only for the entertainment district from Collins Avenue to Ocean Drive, between Fifth and 15th streets.
And last year, the Clevelander and Story joined forces to sue the city over another booze hours rollback during spring break. They also won a temporary injunction last year.
Story’s latest complaint cites commissioners’ statements during their vote last Wednesday that allegedly show they singled out Story, and even went against the advice of the city attorney.
“As your lawyers, our recommendation is the ordinance without exceptions, as that’s
more likely to prevail in court,” City Attorney Rafael Paz said at the meeting.
Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez pushed for the exemption for smaller bars: “That way, it covers certain and local watering holes, and you eliminate Story, which, the
nightclubs in the neighborhood .. seem to be the primary problem.”
Plus, she added, Story has other venues its employees could move to. Story is a sister club to the famous LIV nightclub at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel.
Miami Beach didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest lawsuit.
Sean Burstyn, an attorney for Story, said commissioners “openly picked winners and losers” with the ordinance.
“If the city can enforce an openly targeted and punitive ordinance against one of its constituents without any record basis for doing so,” he said via email, “ then no tenant or landowner is safe in Miami Beach.”
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Probity International’s Robert Zarnegin with 426-430 North Rodeo Drive (Getty, Google Maps)Though they’re staying away from high-end office buildings, lenders still have money for loans on luxury retail buildings.
Probity International, a Beverly Hills-based developer, scored a $52 million loan to refinance 426-430 North Rodeo Drive earlier this year, according to records filed with L.A. County. Deutsche Bank provided the loan, for which no terms were provided. Probity did not respond to a request for comment.
The deal values the debt on the 8,500-square-foot building at about $6,100 a foot.
The loan replaces a $28.2 million loan from Morgan Stanley, which the firm scored in 2013, records show.
Luxury wedding dress designer Vera Wang and Swiss luxury watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre occupy the property, which was built in 1953.
Probity, known for constructing the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and other luxury hotels in Southern California, has owned the property since 1994, records show.
The refinancing is higher than some of the deals provided to Rodeo Drive owners before the pandemic. In 2019, an affiliate of Apollo Global Management provided a $160 million loan on two storefronts at 338 North Rodeo Drive totaling 28,114 square feet — about $5,700 a foot.
Over the last two years, as the luxury goods market sharply rebounded after the effects of the pandemic, retailers have revealed plans to pour more money into their Rodeo Drive digs.
Dior, for example, filed plans in January of last year to replace its existing men’s store on Rodeo Drive with a three-story Dior store with a restaurant. LVMH, which owns a number of properties on the high-end street, owns a 50 percent stake in Dior.
Read more The post Probity Associates scores $52M refi on Rodeo Drive store appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: James Whelan, Liz Krueger, Edward Ra, and Kathy Hochul (Getty, New York State Assembly)By some estimates, tens of thousands of planned housing units will not be built unless the state extends a construction deadline for rental projects to get the 421a property tax break.
The good news for developers is that lawmakers are considering doing that, even after happily letting the program expire for new projects last year.
The bad news is that the deadline might be extended only for projects with much more than 421a’s standard level of affordability.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has pitched extending the construction deadline for all 421a developments by four years, meaning that qualified projects — those that had foundation footings in place by June 15, 2022 — would have until 2030 to wrap up.
On Wednesday, lawmakers pushed back against Hochul’s proposal, but floated the possibility of exempting certain projects from the June 15, 2026, deadline.
During a joint hearing on the governor’s housing proposals, Sen. Liz Krueger, who prefaced her comments by saying she is long-time opponent of 421a, declared that it would be “a tragic mistake” to extend the construction deadline by four years.
She noted, however, that there was a “reasonable” proposal to extend the deadline for projects where the city had negotiated deep affordability as a condition of approval.
A spokesperson for Krueger confirmed that Innovation QNS and Halletts North — projects where the city approved rezonings after the developers agreed to include significantly more affordable housing — would potentially be considered for exemption.
The developers of both projects have indicated that they need 421a to move forward; without it, lenders would consider the project too risky to finance.
Krueger’s spokesperson said the alternative proposal is the result of “internal discussions among legislators who strongly oppose the governor’s proposal” and would apply to individual projects “with strong affordability provisions and community support to be selectively allowed some time frame of extension.”
Jim Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said he hopes lawmakers focus on policies that will produce more rental housing “rather than embrace failed NIMBY arguments that have done nothing to address the crisis.”
“It’s unfortunate to hear these comments from Senator Krueger, whose district has lagged behind the rest of the city in recent housing production and includes some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the world,” he said in a statement. Krueger represents the Upper East Side and Midtown.
Linda Rosenthal, who chairs the Assembly’s housing committee, said it was “troubling” that there is no data on how many projects would be affected by the governor’s extension. But RuthAnne Visnauskas, commissioner of the state’s housing regulator, noted that trade organizations have provided estimates.
A REBNY survey estimated that some 33,000 planned apartments would not be built if developers were not given more time to finish 421a projects.
It is not clear how many projects were grandfathered under the now-expired program because developers do not officially apply for the tax break until construction is completed. (Developers have bemoaned the elimination of a preliminary certification process, provided by the city ahead of completing construction, that was part of an earlier iteration of the tax break.)
Much of the hearing focused on the governor’s New York Housing Compact, which would compel downstate localities to facilitate 1 percent annual housing growth, focused within half a mile of MTA rail stations.
Opponents have been blasting the plan as a “top down” decree that threatens towns with an explosion of new construction. But others say it gives localities too much freedom to choose the type of housing they allow.
Some Senate and Assembly Democrats on Wednesday said the governor’s goals were laudable, but expressed concerns about the lack of affordability requirements in the housing targets. Hochul would permit towns to allow less than 1 percent housing growth if some homes were income-restricted, and grants them flexibility in setting those limits.
Several lawmakers also criticized the governor’s budget for leaving out tenant protections, including good cause eviction, as well as other proposals, such as a state-based housing voucher program and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which gives tenants the first crack at buying their building when their building goes up for sale.
“There is nothing in the budget that addresses what happens today,” Rosenthal said.
Assembly members Jo Anne Simon and Harvey Epstein also voiced concern about lifting the cap on the city’s residential floor area ratio. Simon represents Boerum Hill, where some row house residents object to towers rising along Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn. Epstein represents the Lower East Side and East Village. Their districts could get denser buildings under the proposal.
Sen. Rachel May of Syracuse also cautioned that while ramping up housing construction, the state needs to be mindful of exacerbating concentrated poverty and sprawl.
Republican lawmakers from Nassau and Suffolk counties repeatedly questioned how their municipalities will be able to pay for the infrastructure upgrades and expansions they claimed would be needed to accommodate increased density mandated under Hochul’s Housing Compact.
They said the governor’s proposal to create a $250 million infrastructure support fund would not be nearly enough. Visnauskas said the funding would be a starting point.
But some say the additional housing is a non-starter, period.
“This density cannot and will not work in Nassau County,” said Assembly member Edward Ra, who represents Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay.
Ra claimed localities would not have much say in how to meet the governor’s housing goals. He said the requirement to build 50 units per acre around transit stations tells municipalities “this is how you get there.”
Read more New York Might as well be dead? J-51 reboot may not be enough New York Plan B for 421a Visnauskas countered that localities will be able to decide the mix of housing — townhouses or multifamily, for example.
Wednesday’s hearing came exactly one month before the state’s budget is due, and provided a snapshot of how lawmakers feel about the governor’s housing proposals. Many of the measures face an uphill battle, one that Hochul doesn’t have much time to win.
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Cawley Partners’ Bill Cawley (MAA, Cawley Partners) Adapt or die. Dallas-area commercial development firm Cawley Partners is choosing evolution.
The firm has long focused on office development across the metroplex, developing office buildings up and down the Dallas North Tollway and across Addison, Plano and Far North Dallas. Now it’s creating a division to focus solely on multifamily builds, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The division will begin with a two-building apartment community off Northwest Highway in the Preston Center district. The buildings will rise 16 and nine stories, and the project will total 225 units.
While panic is not as severe as other major metros across the country, the Dallas office market has taken a hit as more companies offer work-from-home positions. Meanwhile, the multifamily residential market has continued to boom across the metroplex.
“We are just trying to find opportunities,” said Bill Cawley, chairman of Cawley Partners. “That Preston Center site we think is irreplaceable real estate.”
Cawley Partners has been around since 1996 and has developed more than 15 million square feet of commercial real estate projects. The firm currently has office projects in the works, including one off the Dallas North Tollway in Plano.
Kris Kashata left developer Crescent Communities to head the new Cawley multifamily division. Kashata has developed projects in Houston and Dallas’ North Oak Cliff and Deep Ellum.
More than 65,000 multifamily units in the construction pipeline across Dallas-Fort Worth, the highest such figure in the country, and the demand for housing in the metroplex doesn’t seem to be slowing. Though developers are facing some push back from NIMBYS who are opposed to high density housing.
—Erick Pirayesh
Read more Dallas NIMBYs throw a wrench in Dallas-Fort Worth’s multifamily investment boom Dallas Far North Dallas leads DFW office recovery Dallas OHT Partners building another Texas multifamily project The post Cawley Partners adapting to multifamily appeared first on The Real Deal.
Silverback’s Josh Schuster with The Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas (Getty)Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
A five-figure gambling debt has followed condo developer Josh Schuster from the Mirage casino and hotel in Las Vegas to his home in New York, after he allegedly failed to repay losses in full.
The casino asked a Manhattan court on Tuesday to enforce a $25,000 judgment against Schuster, and add $4,600 in interest payments.
Schuster signed promissory notes worth $350,000 to gamble on credit at the Mirage during the ICSC conference, one of real estate’s largest annual back-slapping events, in 2019. The New York lawsuit says he paid back $325,000, but the casino was unable to collect the balance. A $25,000 judgment was entered against Schuster after he failed to appear at a Nevada court hearing in 2021.
According to Schuster, the debt is not actually his. He said the losses were racked up by a client his development firm hosted at the conference. Schuster admitted the debt was in his name, however, and said he expects to settle with the casino for less than the full amount owed.
“The only form of gambling I do is real estate development,” he said, alluding to the risks of the business — and the personalities it attracts to take them.
The Mirage’s effort to transfer the judgment against Schuster to New York may be an attempt to find and freeze assets in order to pay off his debt. An attorney for the Mirage declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Schuster also remarked that he has been sober for more than a year, following a report by The Real Deal that exposed mounting legal disputes over claims of financial mismanagement at his development projects.
Legal documents filed by the Mirage gave a home address for Schuster on East 82nd Street that was last listed for $20,000 per month in rent, according to StreetEasy.
Read more New York Is developer Josh Schuster’s fast rise spiraling out of control? New York New York’s biggest, baddest and juiciest real estate lawsuits of 2022 New York Reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley report to prison The post Las Vegas casino chases Josh Schuster to New York appeared first on The Real Deal.
ESG Kullen’s Eric Granowsky and Tom Delponti and 400 North Lake Shore Drive (Google Maps, ESG Kullen)Investment firm ESG Kullen has put a nearly century-old lakefront highrise on Chicago’s Gold Coast up for sale, seeking to cash out on a tough purchase it put together in 2019 for individually owned condo units.
The New York-based real estate investor has listed the 21-story, Roaring 20s-era building at 1400 North Lake Shore Drive, Crain’s reported.
While the asking price was not disclosed, the 21-story building fetched $107 million in 2019 from the condo owners, a record price for the type of transaction known as a condo deconversion. ESG has since put $10 million more into renovating it.
The historic highrise, dubbed The Deco for its Art Deco design, was built in 1927, according to its website. It now features 389 luxury apartments.
The deconversion sale nearly collapsed several times, as condo owners in the building argued over the deal, rejecting it in one vote. ESG then struggled to obtain financing, asking for a price cut in the end.
JLL, which has created a brochure, is marketing the property.
Condo deconversions became popular several years ago as a form of housing arbitrage, allowing investors to profit from a growing pricing gap between condos and apartments, which were jumping in value.
Such deconversion deals include a pending $190 million sale in River North to Strategic Properties of North America that would break ESG’s price record, however was delayed for at least the second time last month as the buyer requested more time to hash out the deal with its lender amid rising interest rates.
Some investors have already cashed out for a profit, including a New York investor that sold a deconverted 188-unit building in Edgewater Beach in 2021 for $43 million. ESG hired a broker last year to list a 250-unit building at 1140 N. LaSalle Street that it deconverted in 2018, which didn’t sell.
Now ESG is giving it a shot with The Deco, after taking out a $92.9 million loan to finance the purchase and upgrades.
The luxe Deco property has a wood-paneled period ‘20s lobby, renovated rooftop patio, laundry facilities and two new fitness centers. Rents range from $2,537 for a one-bedroom unit to $3,949 for a three bedroom apartment, according to its website.
ESG has been able to sign leases with new tenants at rents that are 25 percent higher than those for expiring leases, according to JLL, suggesting a buyer could boost the property’s income — and its value — with ongoing rent hikes.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Chicago Record $190M condo deconversion on shaky ground Los Angeles Canyon sells LB apartments to value-add specialist The post ESG Kullen Selling Art Deco highrise on Chicago’s Gold Coast appeared first on The Real Deal.
Michael Milken with 1678 Alta Mura (Getty, Google Maps)A 1.3-acre estate in Pacific Palisades’ Riviera enclave has listed for $64 million, with the seller a foundation linked to financier Michael Milken, one of L.A.’s wealthiest residents.
The estate, which features two homes with a combined 16,000 square feet, was listed Feb. 27 by Westside Estates Agency’s Ethan Peskowitz and Drew Bernstein, said The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story. The ask pencils to $4,000 per square foot. The last deal for the house took place in 2009 when it sold for $14.5 million, or $906 per square foot.
The property at 1678 Alta Mura Road offers two environmentally friendly LEED-certified structures: a 13,000-square-foot main house and a 3,000-square-foot guest house. These buildings are equipped with environmentally friendly geothermal heating systems. The guest house’s amenities include a Japanese-style soaking tub and an 800-square-foot gym.
Michael Milken was one of Wall Street’s most powerful financiers during the 1980s, and gained distinction for the development of high-yield bonds, sometimes called “junk bonds.” In 1989, he was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud. As part of a plea bargain, he served two years in prison.
In 2020, he was pardoned by President Donald Trump. In 2022, Forbes estimated his wealth to be $6 billion. In the past three decades, he has devoted himself to philanthropy with the Milken Family Foundation and The Milken Institute, both based in Santa Monica.
Zillow compared 1678 Alta Mura Road to another trophy home which was listed recently at 1525 San Vicente Boulevard. The Santa Monica estate, located about 3 miles from the Alta Mura Road, was put on the market for $69 million. Designed by the firm Molori, 1525 San Vicente the distinction of ranking among Los Angeles’ priciest homes when it was listed for $90 million in 2021.
– Andrew Asch
Read more Los Angeles Sugar Ray Leonard starts another round with $45M listing Los Angeles Adam Levine, Behati Prinsloo sell Pacific Palisades estate for $51M The post Estate linked to Michael Milken goes to market for $64M appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Meristem Communities’ Scott Snodgrass and Clayton Garrett with Agrihood (Getty, Meristem Communities)No car? No problem. Yes, in Texas.
Meristem Communities is set to start construction on its new car-free master-planned development, Indigo, this week, the Houston Chronicle reported. Located in Richmond, about 15 miles southwest of Houston, this “agrihood” community is expected to include 750 homes sitting on 235 acres in the seat of Fort Bend County.
The development will also feature a 42-acre farm, a kind of communal centerpiece, and a 25-acre lake. Meristem Communities is hoping to disrupt the typical master-planned community concept by clustering most of the homes together on smaller lots, enabling the developer to dedicate more than half the community to open space and green areas.
Indigo is the latest example among a trend of “agrihoods” springing up in the Greater Houston area. The Real Deal previously reported on the emerging trend back in 2015 as suburban developers sought a unique selling point to better market their developments. Last year, Johnson Development’s 1,300-acre Harvest Green, the city’s first agrihood, got a 420-lot expansion to its master-planned community just north of Richmond.
These farm-centric communities blend neighborhoods with agricultural elements. The farm at Indigo will be managed by Aaron Snodgrass and Jesse Garrett, who previously operated a farm on the same land, producing direct-to-consumer vegetable boxes for 350 families across Houston every week.
Every other block will have car-free zones. Meristem Communities is also developing a 70,000-square-foot commercial center, called the Indigo Commons, with an emphasis on walkability. It will offer retailers, dining spots, small shops and kiosks. Meristem Communities plans to sell some of the commercial space directly to small businesses to give them more autonomy over the direction of this central commerce hub.
Indigo will offer townhomes and single-family homes ranging from under $300,000 to the mid $500,000s. Weekley Homes, Highland Homes and Empire Communities will lead the homebuilding.
The first residents are expected to move into Indigo in February 2024, with additional phases opening over the next two years. Architectural companies CultivateLAND and DAHLIN are working with Meristem Communities to design green spaces, linear parks and the overall walkability of Indigo.
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Knight Frank’s Kate Everett-Allen (Getty, Linkedin)New York City’s luxury market took a hit in activity last year, but outpaced other prime markets in the United States and the world.
Prices for prime property rose 2.7 percent year-over-year in New York, according to Knight Frank’s annual wealth report. Approximately 355 square feet of prime property in New York City ran buyers $1 million, beating out London from the priciest spot.
The city closely rivaled the English capital for volume across the priciest deals, notching 244 sales in the super-prime category — defined in the report as $10 million or more — and 43 in the ultra-prime category of $25 million or more.
Los Angeles, Miami and Palm Beach and Broward County were the other U.S. markets that claimed the most deals in the categories. The Southern California city saw 225 super-prime deals and 39 sales in the ultra-prime category.
Overall, however, it was a down year for the luxury market compared to a blockbuster 2021.
In 2022, there were roughly 1,400 sales of $10 million or more across the 10 global markets the Knight Frank report covered. While that was 49 percent higher than in 2019, it was down 33 percent from the category’s record in 2021, when there were more than 2,000 sales that hit the $10 million threshold.
The research firm said 2023 likely holds a time for normalization as the market comes down to earth from its pandemic-era surge to confront economic headwinds.
“While a slowdown in high-end sales is likely this year, the reopening of China and ongoing appetite for lifestyle-led purchases will support activity,” said Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank.
As for the world’s priciest real estate by foot, New York was beat by only Monaco, where $1 million million only netted a buyer approximately 183 square feet, and Hong Kong, where $1 million could purchase 226 square feet of prime property.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more Los Angeles LA’s ultra luxury homes came with big price tags in 2022 New York Manhattan luxury market took terrible turn in 2022 New York Deep freeze: Luxury home sales suffer biggest hit on record The post New York’s luxury market remains a contender appeared first on The Real Deal.
Syufy Enterprises’ Ray Syufy; 5655 Gallup Drive & 741 South Winchester Boulevard, San Jose (Google Maps, Getty, Drew Altizer Photography)Syufy Enterprises aims to build more than 500 homes on two of its former domed movie theater sites in San Jose.
The San Rafael-based owner and operator of the space-age theaters and its affiliate, SyRES Properties, have filed preliminary plans to build 257 units at 741 South Winchester Boulevard and 52 units at 5655 Gallup Drive, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The firm launched its distinctive chain of Century domed theaters in the 1960s. Originally designed for Cinerama, using three synchronized projectors, they were refitted with flat screens.
Most of the theaters that Syufy ran were on Winchester Boulevard, near the sites of the Westfield Valley Fair and Santana Row mega malls.
In the past decade, preservationists have fought to prevent their “dome-icide.” The great majority of the domes have been bulldozed. But not all.
Syufy has proposed building 257 homes on 3 acres at 741 South Winchester Boulevard in West San Jose, where the Century 24 domed movie house opened in 1968 and was demolished in 2014.
In 2019, Syufy proposed a large health club on the property, but plans stalled during the pandemic.
Also, the company has filed early plans to build 252 on 3 acres at 5655 Gallup Drive in South San Jose, where a three-domed theater named the Century 5 Almaden Theaters operated. The former theater is now leased to Menlo Church.
Syufy has filed both plans under Senate Bill 330, a state law approved in 2019 to streamline housing approvals and block local governments from imposing housing and population caps, while curbing fees.
Last May, the owner of the domed Century 21 movie theater building at 3161 Olsen Drive in West San Jose filed a proposal to renovate the nearly 60-year-old landmark for adaptive reuse.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Pasadena moves to eliminate planned development zoning South Florida $20M Coconut Grove Playhouse renovation plan booed off stage South Florida Lawsuit is latest act in Grove playhouse contention The post Syufy wants to put 500 homes at former sites of domed theaters in San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
Developer Alan Candea along with a rendering of 4343-4357 North Richmond Street (Getty, Dreamtown) In the ashes of the Twisted Hippo Brewery and Ultimate Ninjas Gym in Chicago’s Albany Park might rise two dozen condominiums.
Developers Alan Candea and his wife, Colette, have filed plans to build four buildings with six condos each at 4343-4357 North Richmond Street, Block Club Chicago reported.
The 24 homes on the Northwest Side would replace a vacant lot caused by a conflagration in an adjacent apartment building that torched the two businesses last February.
Plans call for four 6,250-square-foot buildings, to contain four three-bedroom, two-bathroom units and two four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath plans, according to documents filed with the office of Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez of the 33rd Ward.
Each 3.5-story building would have a rooftop deck and a parking garage for six cars.
The condos would list between $525,000 and $700,000 each, according to the developers.
The buildings would not include any retail since they’re facing Richmond instead of the Montrose commercial strip, Alan Candea told Block Club. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez must approve a special-use permit for the residential-only buildings.
“I’m asking for a special-use because no one wants commercial on the first floor. It’s all residential there,” Candea said. “It’s a residential neighborhood. … To have commercial on the first floor there would be a disaster.”
Candea, a co-founder of Chicago-based Candea Development, said he’d still build the project if the special-use permit isn’t granted. It’s not clear if the development firm he owns with his brother, Armand, is involved in the Albany Park project.
“I’m hoping to be able to do something really nice there,” Candea said. “If you drive up and down Richmond on that pocket, it’s all six-flats there. So it would fit right into the neighborhood.”
Candea is also building an 18-unit mixed-use complex across the street at 2924 West Montrose Avenue. That four-story building will include an unspecified area for shops and restaurants, plus 31 parking spaces.
Read more Chicago Celadon Holdings launches $57M affordable housing effort Chicago Keith Brand jumps to Berkshire Hathaway from Redfin Chicago Chicagoland mall mania: Developers want to make vacant sites vital The alderwoman rejected Candea’s request for a zoning change for that project after neighbors complained about posts the developer’s brother made on social media during unrest in 2020.
After the fire, Twisted Hippo reopened at District Brew Yards in the West Loop. Owner Marilee Rutherford told Block Club she’s still looking for a new permanent Albany Park home.
— Dana Bartholomew
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From left: Compass’ Kalani Reelitz and Robert Reffkin (Getty, Compass)Compass posted a net loss of $158 million in the fourth quarter, slightly up from $154 million lost in the third quarter.
The net loss figure includes non-cash expenses like stock-based compensation and depreciation, which accounted for a combined $82 million last quarter. That puts Compass’ fourth-quarter cash burn at $76 million, the same as the previous period.
But a Compass executive had an optimistic outlook during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, saying the company still plans on being free cash flow positive by the second quarter of this year.
“We’re not losing money because the business model doesn’t work,” said the executive.
We all know the business model of brokerage works and we feel good about that. We are not losing money where linearly over the course of the next year or two we’re worried about the viability of the business.”
Compass posted a net loss of $602 million in 2022, up from $494 million in 2021. The brokerage said cash expenses accounted for $281 million, along with $49 million of that loss attributed to one-time restructuring costs and $11 million to litigation fees. About $321 million was incurred in non-cash stock-based compensation expenses and depreciation.
Quarterly revenue fell to $1.1 billion, a 31 percent decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, which Compass attributed to the slowdown in the market. Its quarterly adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — was a loss of $75 million, up from a loss of $51 million a year ago.
Annual transactions and revenue fell by 6 percent, with the company earning $6 billion over the course of the year. Its annual adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $210 million, compared to $2 million income the year prior.
Compass finished the quarter with a cash balance of $362 million, which includes a $150 million draw on its revolver loan.
The brokerage was able to cut $338 million from its budget last year, the result of an aggressive $320 million cost-cutting plan announced during its second quarter earnings report. That includes two rounds of layoffs that affected 800 tech employees, but does not include savings from the most recent round of layoffs executed in January.
“The impact of our op-ex reductions, it’ll really start manifesting itself in quarter two,” said the executive.
Compass will not be announcing new lines of business during today’s earnings call, the executive said, a possibility that was teased during the company’s second-quarter earnings.
Principal agent retention in the fourth quarter was 98 percent, the same from the previous quarter and period in 2021.
This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.
Read more National Brokerages feel the pain in earnings season – Resi Rundown National Anywhere loses $450M as execs foresee “volatile” 2023 National Opendoor loses $400M as home sales tank The post Compass takes $158M loss in fourth quarter appeared first on The Real Deal.
Cove’s Kevin Hoo with 413 Ninth Avenue (Cove Property Group, Google Maps, Getty)While some firms are delaying their office projects, Cove Property Group has decided to make its Hudson Yards tower bigger.
Cove filed plans for a 34-story, 535-foot building at 413 Ninth Avenue, estimating construction costs at $179 million.
The firm had filed plans in April for a 31-story, 178,000-square-foot office and retail building at the site. The new filing calls for 286,000 square feet — a 61 percent upsizing.
It’s not clear why Cove decided to enlarge the project, given the uncertainty in the office market and lenders’ reduced appetite for risk. But it likely reflects a belief in the “flight to quality.” Cove did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Piecing together the development has already been a Herculean task for Cove and its managing partner, Kevin Hoo. Deemed the “most complicated deal almost anyone has seen” by Manhattan landlord Anthony Kissling, who holds the ground lease, the effort has involved a lease, sublease, sub-sublease and air rights from a nearby condo.
The machinations led to Cove signing the sub-sublease with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Daren Hornig of Hornig Capital Partners in a transaction valued at $46 million. Cove would pay them, who in turn would pay ABS Partners, which would then pay Kissling.
The project is one block from 441 Ninth Avenue, a Hudson Yards office complex that Cove sold in December 2021 to Los Angeles-based CommonWealth Partners for slightly more than $1 billion. It was the city’s biggest investment sale in two and a half years.
Cove and the Baupost Group had purchased the 700,000-square-foot former warehouse for $330 million in 2016 and redeveloped it into offices for EmblemHealth while adding 17 floors for tenants such as Lyft and Peloton.
Despite low office attendance and companies’ rampant downsizing of office footprints, a number of developers are moving ahead with office projects in New York City.
Read more New York CommonWealth Partners closes on $1B Hudson Commons buy New York Behind Cove’s intricate deal for Hudson Yards high-rise National CRE’s distress moment is here The post Cove enlarges Hudson Yards office project 61% appeared first on The Real Deal.
Sarah Addington, Tides Equities’ Sean Kia, and 414 South Cliffwood Avenue (Getty, Google Maps, Tides Equities)After scooping up more than $6.5 billion worth of apartments in the Sun Belt, Sean Kia, the co-founder of Tides Equities, one of the most active buyers of multifamily properties across the Sun Belt, Tides Equities, ’ co-founder and principal, invested in a Los Angeles house.
A trust linked to Kia is behind the $14.5 million purchase of 414 South Cliffwood Avenue, a 9,700-square-foot mansion in Los Angeles’ Brentwood neighborhood. The deal for the more than 6-bedroom, 10-bathroom listing, based on more than a half-acre of land, took place earlier this month and penciled out to $1,496 per square foot.
Over the last two years, Kia’s Tides Equities has amassed more than $6.5 billion worth of apartments across Sun Belt cities like Phoenix, Dallas and Las Vegas. But rising interest rates have put the firm in a tough spot since then, as debt payments on their properties have soared.
The seller was Sarah Addington, ex-wife of Ari Emmanuel, co-chief executive officer of Endeavor talent and sports agency, and inspiration for the Ari Gold character in the HBO series “Entourage,” which ran from 2004 to 2011.
Emmanuel bought the home for $10 million in 2005 and deeded the property to Addington after their 2018 divorce. The house was initially listed for $26 million in August 2021, and has been on and off the market since then. It went through a few price reductions. The listing’s most recent ask was about $18.5 million in December 2022.
Siv Cotton and Landon Clements of Engel & Volkers served as listing agents. Laurent Mamann Slater of The Beverly Hills Estates represented the buyer. Kia did not respond to an email and a text requesting comment.
Constructed in 1987, the listing offers a main house that stretches to about 6,900 square feet, as well as a 2,800-square-foot guest house, according to an agent’s description. The listing was remodeled by Windsor Smith, a Los Angeles designer, however the date of the remodel is unclear.
Read more Los Angeles Multifamily player Tides Equities faces $6.5B dilemma in the Sun Belt Texas Tides Equities makes 45th acquisition in Dallas metro Los Angeles TV host James Corden lists Brentwood estate for $22M The guest house features amenities such as a cinema and a gym. Estate grounds offer a pool, a putting green and garden.
Comps offered for 414 South Cliffside include another Brentwood home, which is located at 441 North Bristol Avenue. The 9,400-square-foot home sold for $17.5 million in December 2022.
The post Tides principal linked to purchase of $15M Brentwood manse appeared first on The Real Deal.
Xcellence Realty’s Carol Goulart with 102 South Hibiscus (Google Maps, Getty, Compass) A Brazilian beverage heiress sold her waterfront Hibiscus Island home in Miami Beach for $9.3 million, after buying a Turnberry Ocean Club condo in Sunny Isles Beach.
Records show Manada House LLC, a Florida entity managed by Daniela Schincariol, sold the house at 102 South Hibiscus Drive to a trust named for the address. Local attorney Mark Fried signed on behalf of the buyer.
Carol Goulart of Xcellence Realty had the listing, and Talita Pinheiro of Compass is the co-listing agent. They declined to comment on the buyer and seller, but confirmed that the buyer did not use a broker. The buyer is local and a friend of the seller, according to Pinheiro.
Schincariol provided the buyer with $3.3 million in financing, records show.
Schincariol is a scion of the Schincariol beverage family. The family’s namesake company was founded in 1939 and became one of Brazil’s biggest purveyors of all kinds of drinks, alcoholic and not. The company brews Nova Schin, one of the biggest Brazilian beers on the market. Japan-based Kirin Holdings bought Schincariol for $2.6 billion in 2011, Reuters reported. Following that sale, Forbes listed Schincariol and her cousins among the wealthiest Brazilians in a 2012 ranking. Heineken later bought Schincariol from Kirin for €664 million ($557.8 million) in 2017, according to published reports.
Records show Schincariol paid $7.4 million for a 3,300-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bathroom condo at Turnberry Ocean Club in Sunny Isles Beach in December.
She bought the Hibiscus Island home in 2016 for $7 million, records show. The property spans less than 0.3-acres, with 60 feet of waterfront, according to records and Goulart. Built in 1948, the 4,500-square-foot house has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, and one half-bathroom, records show. Recent renovations include new flooring, windows and doors, and a new kitchen, the brokers said.
The final sale price fell $5.7 million below the initial $15 million listing price from September, Redfin shows.
“It’s not the same as it was in the summer,” Pinheiro said.
Miami Beach’s Hibiscus Island was a hot spot last summer, before the South Florida market began cooling from its pandemic frenzy.
Pascal Nicolai’s Sabal Development sold a waterfront Hibiscus Island spec home for $16 million in July. That same month, Laurent Groll and his partners flipped a vacant waterfront lot for $14 million, after paying $10.7 million for it a month earlier. A shipping mogul bought a waterfront Hibiscus Island teardown for $17.5 million in May.
The post Brazilian beverage heiress sells waterfront Hibiscus Island home appeared first on The Real Deal.
One of the smallest cities in the metroplex is getting one of the biggest new luxury developments. Highwater Development plans to build 11 new luxury homes in the town of Dalworthington Gardens just outside of Arlington.
The development will be located at 2611 Pleasant Ridge Road with custom home prices starting at $1.5 million, the Dallas Business Journal reported. Dalworthington Gardens, population just over 2,000, has had little residential development within its borders, despite a post-pandemic housing boom across the metroplex.
Construction on the new homes will begin in March and should be ready for move-in sometime in late summer, according to Highwater. Due to several acres of flood plain, the vacant development property sat on the market for several years before Highwater acquired the land.
“If you look at the map, and you look at the MLS, you’d think I was nuts when I told you what we’re selling lots for,” said Cannon Clark, president of Highwater Development. “But then you look at the neighboring properties and DWG as a whole. The submarket here is very unique, the buyer is unique and so we wanted to develop a very unique product.”
The average home value in Dalworthington Gardens is about $509,000, significantly higher than the $310,000 average in nearby Arlington, according to the Zillow Home Value Index. Still these numbers are far below the average home price in typical DFW luxury markets like Southlake or Highland Park.
The Highwater Development will nearly triple the average asking cost of a Dalworthington Garden home. Clark wanted to fill in the property with many more homes, but city officials convinced the firm to go for a luxury-style project, he told the DBJ.
“I’ve driven by that property since I was born, and I’m pretty sure it’s been for sale since I was born,” Clark said. “It was way overpriced, and it took us about six months to negotiate with the seller to a price we still thought was outrageous. It’s adequately positioned, and we dug further into the concept of going super high-end, with really expensive lots and really nice homes.”
The Dallas luxury home market held strong last year despite concerns of slow down. The DFW area saw the most big-ticket home sales in Texas with 4,689, representing $7.6 billion in sales. That’s a 23 percent increase over the previous year and represents almost 16 percent of the market.
The single-family market in North Texas did start to slow down this winter. In December, the area housing supply reached its highest level of the year with a three-month supply — a nearly 280 percent increase from year-end 2021, according to the latest Re/Max National Housing Report. Conversely, home sales dropped almost 32 percent compared to 2021.
—Erick Pirayesh
Read more Texas Report: Texas luxury resi market sees $22.6B in sales Dallas Dallas-Fort Worth resi market had chilly holiday season Dallas Dallas luxury home market cools The post Luxury resi planned in Dalworthington Gardens appeared first on The Real Deal.
Quay Tower at 50 Bridge Park Drive, 1 City Point (Getty, Google Maps)Quay Tower was back on top of Brooklyn’s luxury market in a quieter week for signed contracts.
The penthouse asking $10 million was the priciest of 15 contracts signed in the borough from Feb. 20 to Feb. 26, according to Compass’s weekly report on homes asking $2 million or more.
The 3,600-square-foot condo at 50 Bridge Park Drive has four bedrooms and three bathrooms.
The unit has private elevator access and floor-to-ceiling windows. The 30-story building has 125 units and its amenities include a fitness center, 24-hour concierge and rooftop lounge.
Serhant’s James Hayes had the listing.
The Brooklyn Heights building has been home to some of the borough’s top deals since it launched sales in 2018.
A penthouse in the tower marked a borough-high price for the year when it sold for more than $20.3 million in 2020. A 23rd-floor penthouse marked Brooklyn’s priciest deal of 2021 when it entered contract for $10.65 million. Property filings show the unit closed last year for $10 million.
After a year away from Compass’ reports on the borough’s contracts, the property returned to the top October, when it led the list three times in a month.
The second most expensive home to enter contract last week was Unit 63D at 1 City Point in Downtown Brooklyn with an asking price of $3.7 million. The 1,500-square-foot condop has three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
It features wide-plank wood floors and floor-to-ceiling windows with sweeping views of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Building amenities include a 24-hour attended lobby, dry cleaning valet and landscaped terrace.
Serhant and Extell Marketing Group head sales at the building.
Of the 15 signed contracts, 11 were for condos, three for townhouses and one a condop. The total was down from the 21 contracts signed the previous week, which was the largest number of deals since before the winter holidays.
The average asking price for the contracts was $3.1 million with an average price per square foot of $1,657. The homes spent an average of 127 days on the market and prices had an average discount of 1 percent.
Read more New York New condos cool in Brooklyn, but hold steady in Manhattan New York New listings in Manhattan, Brooklyn rise for first time in 4 months New York Brooklyn luxury market ends January with a whimper The post Quay Tower back on top of Brooklyn luxury contracts appeared first on The Real Deal.
Archer-Daniels-Midland chairman and CEO Juan Luciano, and One Bennett Park at 451 East Grand Avenue, Chicago (Wikipedia/TonyTheTiger, ADM)It wasn’t enough for Juan Luciano to drop nearly $6 million for a luxe condo in Chicago’s Streeterville. Now he’s sunk $1.85 million more for a second unit 15 floors below.
The chairman and CEO of Archer-Daniels-Midland and his wife, Carolina, bought a 46th-floor condo at One Bennett Park at 451 East Grand Avenue, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The purchase comes a year after they paid $5.72 million last March for a three-bedroom, 4,800-square-foot unit on the 61st floor.
The first half-floor condominium has sweeping views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline. The second perch below will offer a closer look of nearby Navy Pier.
One Bennett Park, a 70-story tower designed by New York-based Robert A.M. Stern, has 279 apartments topped by 69 condos. But properties at the 1.7-acre Art Deco-inspired highrise developed in 2019 by Related Midwest, the Chicago office of New York-based Related Companies, have been slow to sell.
The developer sold 13 units last year, including a three-bedroom, four-bathroom unit that traded in July for $4 million, down $700,000 from its initial asking price. In March 2020, a 4,800-square-foot condo on the 63rd floor fetched $6.25 million. The Lucianos’ purchase last year, however, was a resale of a unit the developer had already sold, according to the Tribune.
Juan Luciano, native of Argentina, was named CEO at ADM in 2015 and appointed chairman the following year. He previously had worked at Dow Chemical.
Luciano joined a record number of Chicago-area CEOs making $20 million or more in 2021, with compensation of $23.5 million, according to Crain’s.
He and his wife have been on a condominium buying spree across the Near North Side
The Lucianos paid $1.61 million in 2013 for a 19th-floor condo in a highrise near their latest purchase, then paid $810,000 the following year for another 19th-floor unit in that building. In 2018, they paid $1.51 million for a 27th-floor condo in the same tower.
They continue to own all three units, which brings their Streeterville holdings to five homes, one for each working day of the week.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Chicago Chicago is a Mies van der Rohe town. Robert A.M. Stern wants to mess with that equation Chicago Related’s One Bennett Park scores year’s priciest condo sale Chicago Related Midwest refinances One Bennett Park with $205M loan The post Archer-Daniels-Midland CEO Juan Luciano doubles down in Chicago’s One Bennett Park appeared first on The Real Deal.
Magic City Casino’s Isadore Havenick and 450 Northwest 37th Avenue (Getty, Google Maps)The Havenick family’s era at Magic City Casino is officially over.
PCI Gaming Authority, an affiliate of Alabama-based Poarch Band of Creek Indians, paid $96 million for the nearly 30-acre gambling site at 450 Northwest 37th Avenue, according to records and Vizzda. The deal is part of PCI’s acquisition of Magic City Casino’s operations, inventory, and state gambling license, pegged at $600 million, according to published reports.
West Flagler Associates, a Havenick entity, sold the casino following the family’s ownership of more than 71 years. This month, the Florida Gaming Control Commission signed off on the sale and transfer of the gambling license to the Native American tribe.
PCI owns and operates gambling sites in Florida and other states, including the Sands Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The tribe is considering developing a luxury resort, shopping centers and attractions on the Magic City Casino property, published reports state.
The casino was originally known as Flagler Dog Track, and ran greyhound races under its initial gambling permit issued in 1935. The Havenicks bought the parimutuel facility 16 years later.
In 2004, Florida granted approval to parimutuel sites, including Flagler, to use their permits for slot machines and card games. The Havenicks added more than 800 slot machines, renamed the property Magic City Casino, and in 2020, stopped hosting dog races. In recent years, Magic City Casino added jai alai matches.
Family entity West Flagler, led by Isadore Havenick, hasn’t completely abandoned the gambling industry. It still owns Casino Miami, a gambling facility near Miami International Airport that also has jai alai, slot machines and card games. The Havenicks also have a gambling permit to operate a summer jai alai fronton and poker room on a property at 3030 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood owned by Crescent Heights, the development firm led by Russell Galbut.
In 2021, the Havenicks and the city of Miami settled a federal lawsuit challenging a resolution banning gambling facilities in Edgewater. The city commission rescinded the legislation in exchange for the Havenicks agreeing that they would not place slot machines in the proposed parimutuel and poker site.
Meanwhile, other efforts to expand gambling in South Florida have fizzled. In 2021, Aventura-based developer Jeffrey Soffer and former President Donald Trump failed to convince state legislators to consider allowing casino games at a pair of signature properties in Miami-Dade County.
Soffer wanted to transfer the license from his Big Easy Casino in Hallandale Beach to his Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort. And the Trump organization sought a way to obtain a license for the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort. The cities of Doral and Miami Beach also passed prohibitions against gambling establishments.
The post Havenicks finalize $96M sale of Magic City Casino appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Judge Beatrice Butchko and Judge David Gersten along with an aerial view of the The Hammocks in Miami-Dade County (Getty, LinkedIn/David Gersten, Twitter/Beatrice Butchko, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida)Months after five people were charged with perpetuating a massive fraud at the Hammocks, investigators found the alleged graft likely ran deeper than originally thought.
The fraud topped $3 million “and counting,” David Gersten, receiver for the Hammocks homeowners association, said in court on Tuesday. Former board members used 55 bank accounts and credit cards, which is “exceedingly abnormal” for an association, he said.
“It’s a way to move things around and play a shell game,” Gersten said. “We keep going. It’s an unending process.”
Although Gersten didn’t provide details in court about the fraud he has uncovered, the amount is more than the roughly $2 million previously reported.
In November, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office charged former board members Marglli Gallego, Myriam Rodgers, Yoleidis Lopez Garcia and Monica Isabel Ghilardi, as well as Gallego’s husband, Jose Antonio Gonzalez, for their alleged role in siphoning HOA funds. The scheme was allegedly largely perpetuated by the HOA paying bogus vendors, including some led by Gonzalez, for supposed maintenance and other work at the community. The funds largely ended up in the pockets of Gallego and Gonzalez, according to the charging affidavit and the state attorney’s office. All five people charged have pleaded not guilty.
Gersten, whom Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko appointed as the receiver in a separate civil case on the issue, said he has filed a $3.4 million fraud claim to insurers. Still, he cautioned that the carriers have a $1 million limit, and his team of attorneys is searching for other ways to recoup losses for residents.
Some of those potentially involved in the fraud also may have insurance, Butchko pointed out during the court hearing. Plus, $1 million still is a good amount of money that may help pay fees for Gersten, attorneys and forensic accountants who essentially took over the board, overseeing the community’s business following the arrests.
Gersten also has hired FirstService Residential as property manager, Elite Guard as the security services firm, and a landscaping maintenance firm has started work. Bids from pool contractors also are being reviewed to ensure the Hammocks gets the best priced firm, he said.
Some residents have expressed concern with fees for Gersten and his team, questioning whether they will be levied an additional assessment to pay for the receivership. Several of the attorneys working on the case have lowered their fees, according to a presentation given in court.
In one of the biggest portions of legal work, attorneys are investigating if the HOA, under the former board’s leadership, filed fraudulent foreclosures against homeowners, and if ex-board members then purchased those homes.
Gersten’s investigation also revealed that the former board had attorneys on its payroll, who collected $3.2 million in fees since 2019 — not all of it for work for the HOA.
The criminal defense for Gallego, first arrested in 2021 and largely painted as the ringleader in charging documents, has plucked $825,000 from HOA coffers.
“How is that a legitimate board charge?” Butchko said.
“It is not,” Gersten responded.
The Hammocks, considered South Florida’s biggest HOA, has more than 18,000 residents across single-family homes and condominiums. The community sits on
3,800 acres in south Miami-Dade County, between Southwest 120th and 88th streets and between Southwest 147th and 162nd avenues.
Read more Still, the Hammocks won’t be under receivership for long, as an election for a new board is scheduled for March 30. Gersten and his team are shepherding the process, including vetting the 13 candidates and holding town halls. They have vowed to ensure election transparency by posting the ballots on the Hammock’s website: https://www.hammockscommunityassociation.info/. Early voting will be from March 25-29, and winners will be announced on March 31.
The receiver’s work is “expensive, but it’s very, very necessary,” Butchko said in court in response to residents’ concerns. “This has been a fraud that has been going on for many, many years. … A lot of these people have been living under a terror situation.”
The post “Living under a terror situation”: Alleged Hammocks fraud tops $3M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Aon Center at 200 East Randolph Street with Starwood’s Adam Behlman (Loopnet, LinkedIn)A special servicer started overseeing a portion of a massive loan on one of Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers this month. It claims an office lease the property’s New York-based owner 601W Companies inked with a health insurer’s nonprofit affiliate didn’t meet the lender’s standards.
The step by the Barry Sternlicht-owned special servicer LNR Partners to supervise a $43 million tranche of the $678 million debt package secured by the 83-story Aon Center comes months ahead of the loan’s July maturity. The loan is under the microscope of those who closely follow the commercial mortgage-backed securities market, as an indicator of how big office players may navigate loan maturities requiring balloon payments amid a rising interest rate environment.
LNR, one of the special servicers lenders use to work out problematic CMBS loans, claims that 601W didn’t get clearance from its lenders to issue a 95,000-square-foot lease to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the nonprofit functioning as the national association for 34 Blue Cross & Blue Shield insurance companies, according to a Feb. 10 report LNR provided to credit ratings agency DBRS Morningstar. The failure to get approval constitutes an event of default on the loan by 601W, the report said.
The borrower secured a $536 million senior loan against the 2.8 million-square-foot office property in 2018 from JPMorgan Chase Bank, which then securitized the debt by selling it off to investors in the CMBS market, making some details of the property’s performance public. The property also obtained a $141.5 million mezzanine loan subordinate to the larger loan that also matures in in July.
It’s unclear, however, what the lender’s issue is with the lease that was signed in June, as the terms were not made public, and the lender’s requirements for office leases haven’t been disclosed either.
The brokerage Telos Group represented 601W in the lease negotiations and disputes that it didn’t get a green light for the lease. Aon Center “successfully secured approval from each of its lenders to move forward with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield lease,” a Telos Group spokesperson said in an email Monday.
601W and LNR’s parent Starwood Property Trust did not respond to requests for comment. Likewise, Wells Fargo, which was assigned as a trustee over the loan by JPMorgan, did not respond to a request for comment. KeyBank, master servicer for the loan, declined to comment.
With the the total $678 million debt package on the tower coming due July 1, it’s unlikely 601W could borrow as much money against it today. The loan required payments of only the interest at a 4.63 percent rate, meaning a balloon payment for the principal amount of the loan is coming due all at once this summer.
If the landlord wants to hold onto the property, it may have to leverage more equity to make up the gap between what it could borrow against the asset at today’s higher rates versus five years ago, when the tower was appraised at $824 million. Its estimated value has since slid to $780 million, according to DBRS Morningstar.
601W purchased the 2.8 million-square-foot Class A office tower for $712 million in 2015. The firm is managed by Michael Silberberg, Victor Gerstein and Mark Karasick.
Read more Chicago Chicago’s Aon Center lands Blue Cross in another Loop downsizing Chicago Kraft Heinz renews big lease at 601W’s Aon Center Chicago 601W Companies scores $678M refinancing for Aon Center The post Aon Center loan heads to special servicing appeared first on The Real Deal.
Nate Paul (Getty, World Class Holdings, Google Maps)World Class Holdings CEO Nate Paul’s investment empire continues to be sold off in bankruptcy proceedings.
A bankruptcy court in Austin approved the sale of 13 single-story office buildings and a retail strip center in the Domain, one of Austin’s fastest-growing neighborhoods, to a mystery buyer. World Class defaulted on a series of loans and was forced to sell the properties after a lengthy court battle while looking to delay the forced sale.
Paul, a real estate investor and developer, quickly amassed a multibillion-dollar real estate empire before he turned 30. But he’s been hit with multiple foreclosures and bankruptcies, plus a raid by the FBI in 2019.
The Domain lies north of the central business district and includes offices for tech giants like Amazon and IBM, as well as Q2 Stadium. The buildings lie at the intersections of West Braker Lane, Kramer Lane and Metric Boulevard.
Keen-Summit Capital Partners brokered the sale, with bids starting at $75.5 million.
The high sales price represents the competitive auction environment, upside potential for increasing occupancy rates and the possibility to redevelop a portion of the property for multi-family use, said Harold Bordwin, principal of Keen-Summit.
The portfolio has been in the lurch since last May, when World Class put it into bankruptcy to avoid a foreclosure claim by lender Karlin Real Estate. A judge scheduled a UCC auction for the ownership entity’s shares in September, but the sale was delayed.
Paul’s business troubles first set off in 2019, when the FBI and Treasury Department raided his personal office and home. The same year, a debt fund alleged that Paul had defaulted on a $64 million loan. In 2020, creditors claimed they were owed roughly $135 million through 16 bankruptcies tied to 28 properties.
Over the past few years, World Class has filed at least two dozen bankruptcy cases, though a few have since been resolved. Real estate activity by Rising Tide shows how Paul is reinvesting the proceeds from offloading $588 million of his portfolio in the spring of 2022. World Class reportedly netted at least $95.5 million from the deal, though $82 million was held in reserve for unresolved claims, so it’s unclear how much Paul made.
After selling off the majority of his self-storage properties out of bankruptcy last year, Paul told The Real Deal he’s planning to rebuild his empire.
“Are there things that I wish could have been done differently or some regrets?” Paul said. “Yeah, there are, but I really focus now on how can we continue to go out there and make the best decisions.”
Read more Texas Billionaire David Bonderman swoops in to buy Nate Paul’s downtown Austin site Austin Court approves $95M sale of Nate Paul’s downtown Austin site Austin Nate Paul making good on comeback pledge The post Office buildings get $102M in bankruptcy sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
Chetrit Group’s Meyer Chetrit along with a rendering of 150-13 89th Avenue (left) and 152-09 88th Avenue (right) (Getty, Google Maps, Goldstein, Hill and West Architects)For the second time in three months, the Chetrit Group fell behind on a $225 million loan covering 640 multifamily units in Jamaica, Queens. That mortgage comes due in July.
The loan servicer previously marked the Parkhill City debt, backed by 150-11 89th and 152-09 88th avenues, 30 days delinquent in November, according to Trepp.
Chetrit paid off those arrears in December, but didn’t stay current for long. Chetrit is again more than 30 days past due, according to Morningstar data.
The firm’s missed payment was largely responsible for the multifamily sector’s national delinquency rate rising nearly half a percentage point to 2.3 percent in February, according to the rating agency KBRA. Fewer than 1 percent of KBRA-rated rental properties were delinquent in October.
Chetrit was squeezed by occupancy struggles and a floating-rate loan made expensive by the Federal Reserve’s rampant rate increases.
The firm secured the debt from Starwood Capital and BMO in June 2021 to refinance its redevelopment of the shuttered Mary Immaculate Hospital.
Commentary by the servicer noted that Chetrit attributed its payment problems to a difficult lease-up during Covid. The firm wrapped up construction on the larger 17-story building in 2020, the pandemic’s first year, according to Architect Magazine.
Occupancy reached 95 percent in the third quarter of 2022, according to Morningstar. But revenue fell 24 percent below underwriting as taxes and payroll expenses jumped 79 percent.
The developer told its servicer it was also waiting on a tax abatement from a nearby building that should be finished by the middle of this year, according to Morningstar.
When Chetrit picked up the $225 million mortgage, it also scored a $40 million construction loan to build another 107-unit rental building on the former hospital site. Last summer, New York Yimby reported the development at 88-20 153rd Street should be finished by the winter of 2024.
With the Parkhill City loan due this summer, though, Chetrit does not have time on its side.
Read more New York Chetrit defaults on $85M Hudson Yards loan New York Struggling with $481M loan, Chetrit looks to sell national portfolio New York Chetrit making progress on pesky $481M loan A spokesperson for the firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what the latest delinquency means for the portfolio.
Last week, Chetrit defaulted on an $85 million loan at a development site in Hudson Yards and late last year, the firm faced default on a $481 million loan backing 43 multifamily properties, nearly a quarter of which it moved to sell.
The post Chetrit stumbles again on $225M multifamily loan appeared first on The Real Deal.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan (Getty)Colliers hosted its Trends 2023 event where the brokerage looked at where the office market stands currently and at expectations for the for rest of the year. One of the keynote speakers was new San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
The event started off explaining that the market is in a downward trend compared to where it was two years ago. San Francisco stood out as tracking the largest fall with a vacancy rate of 20.5 percent in 2022 compared to 8.6 percent in 2020. Silicon Valley had the second-largest increase from 6.6 percent to 10.6 percent, and the East Bay was next, going from 9.3 percent to 15 percent. The Peninsula was an outlier with having a lower vacancy in 2022 (5.8 percent) compared to 2020 (6.4 percent).
In the office building sales, the market is looking for someone to make the first move to jumpstart activity.
“While many investors hold investor capital in their books, investor confidence has decreased,” Steffen Kremmerer from Colliers, said . “As the CEO of Walker Dunlap said this week on their fourth quarter earnings calls, ‘the moment the dam breaks and somebody goes and makes a major stake saying they think the market has turned, the floodgates will open’.”
The first half of the year is expected to continue with this downward trend, but there are expectations for a bounceback in the second half. Some of the reasons Colliers is confident to see a bounce is that venture capital companies continue to stockpile capital while there isn’t much activity and there has been a steady increase in occupancy.
While there was a downtrend at the beginning of 2022, it is because it was coming off of a historically strong year in 2021. There was still a lot of activity compared to many recent years.
“The majority of those deals were front-loaded,” Steig Seaward from Colliers said. “Typically, we see a lot of (sales) activity in the fourth quarter, but this year was different. We saw a decline of 62 percent in the fourth quarter.”
One positive trend was that sublease activity was up year-to-year in the fourth quarter, with companies returning to office and working out what their schedules will look like moving forward.
Mahan spoke about San Jose’s “historically strong” industrial market that has a vacancy rate of 3 percent, and expects to see demand remain for research and development as well as advanced manufacturing. He also wants to push back on the high cost to do business in the state, and doesn’t “want us to become a more expensive place to do business.” The comeback will be driven by tech companies, according to Mahan.
“The reason why companies are growing here is because the San Jose metro area has the highest contraction of tech workers as an overall percentage base,” he said.
Mahan also said he was committed to getting people back in the office, with a goal to get people to work at least four days a week. Foot traffic has increased, and downtown San Jose is at 70 percent of what it was pre pandemic.
Along with getting employees back in the office, the city is looking to prioritize residential density development to have housing for the workforce. There also will be an emphasis on safety moving forward through a coordinated effort between private and public entities.
“My priority is to get back to basics,” Mahan said. “I want us to refocus after a period of expansion. … I want us to get back to basics: public safety, reducing homelessness, speeding up permitting, and making sure the city runs well from the perspective of core services.”
Mahan also spoke that he wasn’t surprised to hear the news that Google hit pause on its Downtown West project.
“We just saw companies go through a period of expansion and now they are focusing a little more on efficiency,” he said. “I don’t think this is a big shocking development. I think it’s natural that companies and economies go through massive expansion, then right-size a bit.”
Read more San Francisco Matt Mahan elected mayor of San Jose, Lisa Gillmor in Santa Clara San Francisco Google moves forward on Downtown West in San Jose San Francisco Google moves forward on Downtown West in San Jose The post Office’s future takes centerstage at Colliers’ conference appeared first on The Real Deal.
Hackman Capital Partners’ Michael Hackman with rendering of Radford Studio Center (Hackman Capital Partners, Radford Studio Center, Getty)Hackman Capital Partners is planning a $1 billion redevelopment of a production lot in Studio City formerly owned by ViacomCBS.
The firm has put forward a proposal to build up to 25 soundstages across 2.2 million square feet at 4024 Radford Avenue, plus more than 1.4 million square feet of office space, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Hackman bought the studio, which currently has 18 soundstages and 210,000 square feet of office space, from ViacomCBS for $1.85 billion in 2021. CBS had owned the property since the 1960s, using it to produce a number of shows, including “The Talk” and “Entertainment Tonight.”
CBS will continue to operate part of the studio for two of its television stations, KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV, under a long-term leaseback deal with Hackman.
At the site, now called Radford Studio Center, Hackman plans to build 300,000 square feet of storage, wardrobes and other support space, 725,000 square feet of offices for production and another 700,000 square feet of office available for rent.
Hackman owns 18 studios across the U.S., U.K. and Ireland and has taken advantage of soaring demand for streaming content, spending billions to buy up and develop studios over the last five years.
In Los Angeles, Hackman has bought Sony’s animation studio in Burbank for $160 million, a stake in Netflix-leased Raleigh Studios for $140 million and is planning a $1.25 billion redevelopment of Television City on Beverly Boulevard in L.A. Fairfax neighborhood.
The post Hackman plans $1B revamp of former ViacomCBS lot in Studio City appeared first on The Real Deal.
Efrem Harkham with 360 North Rodeo Drive (Getty, Google Maps)Before Efrem Harkham sold the Luxe hotel on Rodeo Drive to French luxury conglomerate LVMH for $200 million in 2021, he had allegedly defaulted on the property.
Harkham and his son Aron owed $9.5 million in default payments and rushed to sell the property quickly in a fire sale, according to a recent court complaint filed by Efrem Harkham’s brother, Benjamin.
Efrem Harkham did not respond to a request for comment.
Benjamin Harkam, who said he bought into the property with a 12.5 percent stake, alleges he never saw a dime from the sale. He’s suing his brother and nephew for “devising a plan to steal his interest and wrongfully exclude him from the partnership.”
“Defendants used all the profits, including tens of millions of dollars owed to plaintiff, to buy replacement properties for themselves,” Benjamin Harkam said in his complaint, which was filed with L.A. Superior Court in December.
Efrem and Aron Harkham shuttered the 86-key hotel at 360 North Rodeo Drive in 2020, citing pandemic-related financial issues. The property got “caught up with the bad timing of the global travel market,” Aron Harkam told the Los Angeles Times in September 2020.
After that, the father-son team explored “all scenarios,” including a sale and refinancing, JLL said at the time of the sale.
The Harkham family, including Benjamin, bought the hotel for $12 million in 1995, according to court records and property documents filed with L.A. County. Efrem then spent $14 million to renovate the property, adding three ground-floor retail spaces.
In 2017, the Harkhams scored a $38 million loan from Jefferies LoanCore — now known as LoanCore — to refinance the property. The loan was personally guaranteed by Efrem Harkham, according to Benjamin’s complaint.
Under the agreement, the Harkhams were required to operate the property as a hotel and retail property. If they didn’t, it would trigger a default under the loan agreement, the complaint said.
In March 2020, Efrem and Aron Harkham stopped operating a hotel at the property, after the city ordered businesses to shut down at the outset of the pandemic. The lender declared default.
“To further default, full acceleration of the loan, and millions of dollars of personal exposure,” Efrem and Aron Harkham “raced to sell the property,” the complaint says.
The sale to LVMH came out to $2.3 million per key — one of the largest ever in terms of a per key price in California, Alan Reay at Atlas Hospitality Group said at the time.
But on a square-foot basis, the $4,700-a-foot deal was relatively low compared to other Rodeo Drive buildings that traded before the pandemic. LVMH, one of the most frequent shoppers of Rodeo Drive property, paid $11,000 a square foot to acquire a 22,300-square-foot retail building at 468 North Rodeo Drive, where it is now planning to build a Cheval Blanc hotel.
Since then, Efrem and Aron Harkham have failed to pay out a fair share to Benjamin, according to the suit, instead using the proceeds to buy other properties through 1031 exchanges, which offer property owners a tax break on capital gains.
Between February and April 2022, limited liability companies formed by the defendants purchased $151 million worth of real estate in Los Angeles and New York, according to the complaint.
Read more New York Harkham family buys historic Washington Heights apartments Los Angeles Harkhams sell shuttered Rodeo Drive hotel for $200M Los Angeles Beverly Hills voters may decide fate of Cheval Blanc hotel The post Harkham v. Harkham lawsuit over $200M Rodeo Drive deal appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)The Lone Star State’s blazing housing market cooled dramatically over the past year in the bitter wind of the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes, but some metros caught the chill worse than others.
Austin, long the hottest market in Texas, was especially hard hit. For-sale homes languished on the market nearly 59 percent longer in 2022 than in the year before, According to data from Realtor.com. As a result, inventory has piled up, rising almost 187 percent year-over-year. The median home price dropped by 3.39 percent.
In Dallas, homes stayed on the market for more than 37 percent longer than in 2021, and inventory went up nearly 161 percent. The median home price, however, did tick up by almost 9 percent.
Houston is weathering the storm better than the other major Texas markets. Time on the market went up by only about 11 percent year-over-year, and inventory increased by just under 50 percent.
The inventory increases came despite a sharp slowdown in single-family starts, which were down 34 percent in December 2022 from the end of 2021, according to the Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center.
Overall housing supply has now returned to pre-pandemic levels, the center reported, erasing the market tightness that drove up prices during the Covid-driven boom.
This is one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal for all the data and market information you need.
Read more Texas Fever breaks in Texas as home sales, prices decline Austin Elon Musk, Lennar plan workforce housing near Boring Co. Dallas Dallas agent count drops 30 percent as market dips The post Texas homes taking longer to sell appeared first on The Real Deal.
Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer and 200 and 300 Wilmot Road, Deerfield (Google Maps, LinkedIn)Walgreens Boots Alliance is putting two-thirds of its Deerfield headquarters up for sale to cut costs in the era of remote work.
The American-British-Swiss drugstore giant based north of Chicago has listed its offices at 200 and 300 Wilmot Road, and will relocate campus workers to offices at 100 Wilmot Road, Crain’s reported.
While the size of the listing in square footage was not disclosed, the move will allow the firm to shed two-thirds of its 40-plus acre campus along Interstate 294, where it has been based since 1975. The sales price of the property hasn’t been publicized either.
“We recognize the way we work has changed and with our hybrid model valued by our team members, we have underutilized space on our Deerfield Campus,” a Walgreens spokesman said in a statement. “To reimagine the space to fit our current needs and create efficiencies that allow us to invest in the business, we have made the decision to sell several buildings that are part of our support office.”
The downsizing adds Walgreens to a growing list of big companies retooling their office strategies after employees began to work from home during the pandemic.
Allstate was among the highest-profile local companies to embrace the shift in a big way, selling its entire Northbrook corporate campus to an industrial developer last year.
Across the tollway from Walgreens, medical equipment maker Baxter International recently struck a deal to sell its 101-acre campus to Chicago developer Bridge Industrial.
The move by Walgreens could allow its former offices to be redeveloped into something else — or add hundreds of thousands of square feet to a suburban office market slammed by a record number of office vacancies.
Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer said in a memo to employees last week the new real estate plan would allow the firm to “continue managing costs through the efficient ways of working we’ve adopted over the past few years.”
He said the office changes “are not a signal that we want people in the office less,” but are intended to still offer better spaces conducive to employee “connection, collaboration and innovation.”
The office transition will happen “in phases” and no changes are planned at the company’s downtown office at the Old Post Office, Brewer said.
It’s unclear how many employees have been based at the Deerfield campus since the start of the pandemic. The company said in 2018 that the campus would serve as a home base for about 3,200 Walgreens employees after roughly 1,300 employees were relocated downtown to the redeveloped Old Post Office.
The Wilmot Road buildings aren’t the only portion of the Walgreens headquarters campus up for sale, according to Crain’s.
An Arizona real estate firm last year hired a broker to sell a 37.5-acre site nearby along Lake Cook Road with a series of buildings that Walgreens leases through August 2023, but no longer occupies. Walgreens sold that property in a 2013 sale-leaseback deal for $85 million.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Chicago Piece of Walgreens’ Deerfield campus hits market Chicago Northbrook grants tax break to $40M Walgreens campus redevelopment Chicago Medical products company lists 101-acre suburban Chicago office campus The post Walgreens to shed two-thirds of Deerfield HQ campus appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal)
There is no contest: Texas commercial construction projects totaled an estimated $70 billion last year.
The Lone Star State contributed more than 20 percent of national commercial real estate spending in 2022, the Dallas Morning News reported, based on an annual study by the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks.
Commercial spending more than doubled in Texas compared to 2021, and over 1 million jobs were funded by commercial property business, more than double the previous year, according to the study. Texas leads the country in office, industrial and retail development spending, according to the study.
“Texas is the highest-ranking state in the U.S. for overall contributions of commercial real estate to state gross domestic product with $184 billion, $70.3 billion in direct spending, $69.2 billion in personal spending and 1.2 million jobs supported in 2022,” NAIOP vice president Kathryn Hamilton told the DMN.
Multifamily construction is also high across the state, with Dallas leading the country in planned apartment units with 65,000 in the pipeline.
Overall $362 billion was spent in commercial construction across the country last year, and no other state came close to Texas’ spending. Second-closest was Arizona with $41 billion spent, followed by Ohio with $27 billion.
Commercial growth could experience a cool down nationwide as construction loan costs increase and lenders tighten borrowing standards, the report stated.
“The data in the report are strong economic indicators of commercial real estate development investment, job growth and contributions to the U.S. economy,” Marc Selvitelli, president and CEO of the NAIOP, said. “Our success could be met with headwinds as inflation, workforce constraints and higher interest rates create uncertainty.”
A number of massive commercial projects are underway in Texas, including the tallest building ever constructed in Austin, Goldman Sachs’ $500 million office complex in Dallas and a $60 million office building in Houston.
—Erick Pirayesh
Read more Texas 8 highly anticipated commercial developments in Texas Dallas DFW claims 9% of industrial projects in pipeline nationwide Texas Creation Equity plans $140M business park in Burleson The post No one builds bigger than Texas appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Michael H. DeYoung and 1969 California Street (Getty, A. J. Kane (compiler), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, 1969California.com)A landmark Pacific Heights home built by one of San Francisco’s most esteemed architects for one of the most powerful men in the city’s history has taken a 17 percent price cut to $11.5 million.
The $2.3 million reduction on the Willis Polk-designed Gothic Tudor at 1969 California Street comes as a direct result of seeing a nearby, similarly priced listing sell for 17 percent below its ask recently, according to Joseph Lucier of Sotheby’s International Realty, who is co-listing the property with his partner Stacey Caen. He said via email that he expects a “strong market response to this price adjustment.”
The agents listed the 1915 property in September but took it off the market for the holidays, as he said they normally do for listings at this price point. It was relisted at the end of January with the same $13.85 million price tag it had last fall and Lucier said the January relaunch “brokers tour” was “exceptional.”
“We had over 30 brokers who had not visited the property during the fall market,” he said. “The current buyer pool is also brand new.”
Yet even with the fresh eyes, the historic home did not find a seller. Lucier said the feedback from buyers was positive overall but that “$10 million-plus buyers are very selective and thoughtful given the current market conditions.” He added that although the home has history, an architectural pedigree and a “gracious” south-facing garden off the public level of the home, its “strong architectural features that less informed buyers might not appreciate” could narrow the buyer pool.
Dubbed The Tobin House, the home’s major architectural quirk — a half-arch passageway in its facade — came about because Michael DeYoung, the founder of the San Francisco Chronicle and an avid art collector whose namesake DeYoung museum is in Golden Gate Park, may have overestimated his influence over his own family. The four-level, five-bedroom home is next door to what was once DeYoung’s own estate and was a gift for his daughter Constance Tobin. It was meant to connect to a mirror-image home DeYoung planned to have Polk build for another of his four daughters, Helen Cameron. But Cameron rejected her father’s gift and decided to remain on a Peninsula estate instead.
DeYoung died in 1925 and two years later Tobin moved her family down to the Peninsula as well. Cameron sold the still-empty lot in 1940, the same year the family decided to demolish the DeYoung estate on the other side of 1969 California, thereby assuring that Polk’s full vision would never come to fruition, according to the home’s marketing materials.
Tobin purchased some of her father’s land after his home was torn down and it is now the driveway and motor court, with a one-story addition that currently houses the family room and provides for a terrace off the primary suite one floor up. She sold the home three years later to an opera singer who ran the property as a residential hotel for those in the performing arts for the next 45 years. It has had six owners since he sold it in 1988 and was turned back into a 9,000-square-foot single-family home in 1998. The forever-unfinished archway is now a breezeway that leads to the large backyard. The home also has several large terraces on different levels.
The current owners are fine art dealer and president of the Art Dealers Association of America Anthony Meier and his wife, Celeste, according to public record. They run a gallery on the home’s ground floor and bought the historic house in 2004 for about $6.5 million, according to public record. The Meier’s two children are now grown, Anthony Meier told the Wall Street Journal when the home first came on the market last fall, and the couple plans to downsize to a new home in the Bay Area. They spent about $5 million in updates during their nine years in the property, they told the Journal.
Read more San Francisco San Francisco logs first home sale above $10M in 2023 San Francisco SF luxury buyers wait on sidelines as inventory climbs That means that at the new $11.5 million price, they will only just recoup their investment in the property. But Lucier said his clients are willing “to publicly recognize the value compression that is being discussed privately within the brokerage community.”
He added that luxury buyers in the spring market seemed “psychologically more favorably positioned to consider a purchase” than those in the fall, though it’s “too early to tell how the larger buyer pool in the San Francisco market will participate” this spring.
The post SF mansion’s DeYoung family legacy doesn’t spare it from $2.3M price cut appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Ares Management’s Antony Ressler and Michael Arougheti along with the Boca Logistics Center at 644-646 Park of Commerce Way in Boca Raton (Getty, Boca Logistics Center)Ares Management scooped up the newly built Boca Logistics Center for $27.8 million, marking the investment firm’s continued appetite for South Florida real estate.
Ares bought the two warehouses at 644-646 Park of Commerce Way in Boca Raton from the property’s developer, McCraney Property Company, according to records and real estate database Vizzda.
McCraney Property had paid $7.5 million for the 8.7-acre development site in 2019. It completed the two buildings that span a combined 119,000 square feet between late last year and early this year, records show. McCraney is an industrial and office-flex real estate developer and manager, its website says. Led by founder Steven McCraney, the firm has offices in West Palm Beach, Orlando and Charlotte.
The deal, which breaks down to $233 per square foot, marks Ares’ second industrial purchase in South Florida in as many months.
In January, the global investment manager’s Ares Industrial Real Estate Income Trust paid $111.1 million for 52 acres of developable land at Countyline Corporate Park in Hialeah. Ares plans a pair of industrial buildings, each spanning 214,000 square feet, and a third building spanning 193,000 square feet, on the northwest corner of Northwest 154th Street and West 40th Avenue, records show.
The Los Angeles-based investment firm’s bet on South Florida has extended to the David Beckham-backed Major League Soccer team Inter Miami CF. In 2021, Ares, through funds managed by Credit Group, made a $150 million preferred equity investment in the team.
Read more Los Angeles Ares Management to relocate HQ in Century City South Florida Here are South Florida’s biggest industrial leases of 2022 South Florida Here are South Florida’s biggest industrial sales of 2022 Led by Michael Arougheti, Ares was founded in 1997 and has $352 billion in assets under management, according to its website. Arougheti co-founded the publicly traded firm with Antony Ressler, David Kaplan and Bennett Rosenthal.
South Florida’s industrial market slowed in the fourth quarter, compared to a leasing frenzy of the past two years. Palm Beach County’s industrial vacancy rate increased to 5.1 percent, from 4.1 percent, year-over-year, according to Newmark. The county also recorded a negative absorption of nearly 102,000 square feet. And the average asking rent dropped to $12.66 a square foot, from $13.07 a foot in the third quarter.
The post Ares pays $28M for Boca Logistics Center appeared first on The Real Deal.
Renderings of plans for 4601 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago (ZED Architects)A 98-year-old limestone church that once packed the pews in Chicago’s Kenwood may now be filled with office workers and apartment dwellers.
Creative Designs Builders, based in Chicago, has received permits to convert the former St. James Methodist Episcopal Church into co-working offices and 29 apartments at 4601 South Ellis Avenue in North Kenwood, Urbanize reported.
The adaptive reuse project at Ellis and 46th Street will transform the historic church by turning its soaring sanctuary into co-working spaces and its run-down rectory into homes.
The Gothic-style church, designed by Tallmadge and Watson, was built in 1925 to replace an 1896 church destroyed by fire.
The six-story cathedral, described by the Illinois State Library as a “Gothic structure of massive beauty,” fell into disrepair over the decades.
Such church-to-residential conversions may be on the uptick, in Chicago and elsewhere, as congregations and churches seek changes. Others are killed by neighborhood opposition.
Last March, non-profit developer LUCHA received $2 million in federal funds to convert the 92-year-old Humboldt Park Methodist Church at 2122 North Mozart Street into 22 affordable apartments.
In 2021, ZSD Development took over a stalled conversion of a long-shuttered St. Boniface Catholic Church at 1358 West Chestnut Street in Noble Square. Plans called for redesigning the century-old church into 18 apartments, and building two buildings with 23 units next door.
And last May, local opposition forced a developer to shelve plans to demolish the 131-year-old church Epworth United Methodist Church at 5253 North Kenmore Avenue in Edgewater and replace it with condominiums.
As the Kenwood community changed, both ethnically and socioeconomically, the St. James congregation shrank and had a hard time paying for its mounting upkeep and repairs, according to the United Methodist Church. By the 1980s, water leaked through its roof into buckets.
The church closed in 2010, and its congregation merged with a nearby church. Its nearly century-old organ was also moved to St. John Cantius Catholic Church in Chicago, and restored to its former grandeur.
The U-shaped church building was sold in 2016 to Creative Designs Builders for an undisclosed price — property sales by nonprofit owners are often not subject to local transfer taxes and thus sales amounts aren’t documented in public records.
The church conversion, designed by ZED Architects of Chicago, will turn the former sanctuary into co-working offices beneath its six-story belltower, while using mostly existing walls to turn the former rectory into 29 one- and two-bedroom apartments, with newly landscaped grounds.
Creative Designs Builders, led by Ibrahim Shihadeh, filed plans for new zoning and city entitlements in 2020. With approvals in place, it’s not clear when the mixed-use project will break ground.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Chicago ZSD picks up stalled church condo conversion Chicago Logan Square church project receives $2M for affordable apartment conversions Chicago Church 1, Condo 0: 1891 building spared for now The post Creative Designs to convert historic church in Chicago’s Kenwood into offices and homes appeared first on The Real Deal.
Attorney General Platkin (State of New Jersey Department of Law & Public Safety, Getty)New Jersey’s attorney general told dozens of landlords to stop violating the rights of formerly incarcerated rental applicants, but — as he did last year — stopped short of naming or penalizing them.
The office of Matthew Platkin issued 59 notices of violation to housing providers, NorthJersey.com reported. The indiscretions range from asking discriminatory questions on rental applications to running advertisements that discourage people with criminal records from applying.
Those actions were banned at the beginning of last year when New Jersey passed the Fair Chance in Housing Law. The legislation bars landlords from asking about criminal history until a conditional offer is made.
Once that offer is made, landlords can then consider specific historical information about the applicant, including convictions that are recent, involve serious crimes or require lifetime sex offender registration.
Landlords are also required to consider information that benefits an applicant, such as letters of recommendation. Landlords who withdraw an offer must explain why, and applicants can appeal.
The law was designed to make it easier for people who were once incarcerated to find housing, which reduces recidivism. Since its passage, however, landlords have been violating the statute in significant numbers, some of them quite openly.
In August, 30 notices were issued for violations but penalties were not imposed, although the legislation allows for them.
Penalties can be significant, particularly for smaller landlords: up to $1,000 for the first offense, $5,000 for the second and $10,000 for each additional one.
The attorney general appears to be stepping up his efforts to reduce housing discrimination in New Jersey. Just last week, the AG’s office announced enforcement actions in eight cases allegedly involving source-of-income discrimination — that is, rejecting applicants because they were using rental vouchers.
But the punishment appeared to be light. Only two involved money and the amounts were not disclosed. Additionally, the landlords weren’t named, sparing them from public scrutiny and backlash.
The effects of “ban the box” policies, which are also applied to employers weighing job applicants, are still being studied. But some analysis has found that when an applicant’s criminal history cannot be considered, discrimination shifts from individuals to a larger group — specifically young men of color.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more Tri-State Landlords escape with wrist-slaps in NJ voucher cases New York Defeated by industry, criminal background check bill returns New York Mayor requests changes to criminal background check bill The post NJ warns landlords (again) about rejecting formerly incarcerated appeared first on The Real Deal.
JPI’s Payton Mayes with a rendering of Jefferson Railhead development being built in Frisco (JPI)JPI, the leading multifamily developer in Dallas-Fort Worth in recent years, shows no signs of slowing in 2023.
The firm led the North Texas area in apartment unit construction last year with over 3,100 units, the Dallas Morning News reported. JPI was responsible for more than 5 percent of all apartments built across DFW last year, and it has over 4,000 units in the pipeline this year.
The developer formed a $1 billion partnership with two investors — Lubbock-based Madera Residential and Dallas’ Waymaker Capital Partners — to help fund its ambitious resi construction pace.
JPI has found much of its success developing in the suburbs north of Dallas, which has been one of the fastest growing areas in the country since 2020. The firm has over 700 units planned for Mckinney and is spearheading development on the Jefferson Railhead, a $2.5 billion mixed-use project in Frisco.
Smaller cities just outside of the metroplex as well are drawing the firm’s interest as well. JPI is building a 185-unit senior apartment complex in Anna, which is north of McKinney. Also in Anna, the company has a $59 million multifamily complex set to finish by the end of 2024
While the housing market has cooled significantly in North Texas compared to last year’s boom, the multifamily development industry shows few signs of slowing. Dallas-Fort Worth leads the nation with over 65,000 apartment units approved and planned for construction.
—Erick Pirayesh
Read more Dallas JPI Cos. building $59M multifamily complex near Dallas Dallas JPI looks to build 3,300 multifamily units in Texas Dallas JPI furthers its commitment to northern Dallas ‘burbs The post JPI leads North Texas in multifamily dev appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Ofer Yardeni and 220 Central Park South (Getty, Jim.henderson, CC BY-SA 4.0 – via Wikimedia Commons)Real estate executive Ofer Yardeni turned a $12 million profit on his 220 Central Park South condo.
The CEO and chairman of Stonehenge NYC sold his 37th-floor unit to an unknown buyer for $33.8 million, according to property records. The price in the off-market deal is around $11 million more than the unit traded for in 2019.
The Modlin Group’s Adam Modlin listed the unit as a rental in February 2022 with an asking monthly price of $75,000. Modlin pulled the listing from the market in November.
The condo, which sold for $11,100 per square foot, has three bedrooms and three bathrooms with sweeping views of Manhattan and Central Park.
The Billionaire’s Row tower came to be known as the world’s most profitable condo after the 66-story building raked in $1 billion in profits by the end of 2020, saving developer Vornado Realty Trust from a year fraught with financial losses.
The supertall holds the record for the priciest residential deal in the United States: a 23,000-square-foot quadplex purchased by hedge fund titan Ken Griffin for $240 million.
It has attracted a slate of other notable buyers, including Sting and Trudy Styler who bought a $66 million penthouse in 2019. Billionaire investor Daniel Och sold his penthouse to Joe Tsai last January for $188 million, almost doubling what he paid for the unit.
Read more New York Penthouse in Vornado’s 220 CPS trades for $72M New York Unit in 220 CPS returns to the market for $22M New York At 220 CPS, three deeds in one day fetch $150M Designed by Robert Stern, the limestone tower includes 118 units and an 18-story villa fronting Central Park. The building features interiors by Thierry W. Despont, a resident-only restaurant by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, landscaped outdoor terraces and fitness center.
The post Yardeni scores $12M profit on 220 CPS sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: BH Group’s Isaac Toledano and Related’s Jorge Perez with 2999 N.E. 191st St (Related)Related Group and BH Group submitted a site plan for their joint venture’s proposed mixed-use project in Aventura.
The developers plan Icon Aventura as a 26-story tower with 308 apartments, 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and a garage on a 4-acre development site at 2999 Northeast 191st Street, according to an application submitted to the city of Aventura.
The assemblage includes an existing office building, Aventura View, that Related and BH plan to renovate.
The partnership paid $51 million for the site in July, records show.
In order to achieve 308 units, the developers are negotiating additional density for the project. In exchange, Related and BH would set aside 51 units at below market rates for Aventura police officers and teachers at two charter schools in the city, said Aventura Mayor Howard Weinberg.
Weinberg, who was elected last year, said getting developers to provide inexpensive apartments for first responders and teachers working in Aventura was part of his platform. He calls it “hero housing,” and said he discussed the concept with Miami-based Related CEO Jorge Pérez. “He recognized the hero concept for what it is, and he loved the idea,” Weinberg said.
A Related spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. BH Group, an Aventura-based real estate development firm led by Isaac Toledano, declined comment.
The city is also asking the developers to donate 10,000 square feet in Icon Aventura’s proposed garage for the Aventura Police Department, and to make a monetary contribution to the city’s Freebee car service, Weinberg said.
The proposed 51 units at below-market rates at Icon Aventura would be a job benefit for cops and educators in the city, Weinberg said. “It will make a person think twice if they got a job offer from another city,” he said. “The developers are getting something out of it because they want added density. The number of units is a lot more per acre than what they are entitled to.”
City staff is negotiating the terms with Related and BH, and then the agreement will come back to the seven-member Aventura City Commission for approval, Weinberg said.
Related and BH are also involved in other South Florida development projects together. The two firms are partnering with Honolulu-based Trinity Investments and Credit Suisse Asset Management to build a condominium and hotel on a development site adjacent to the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood. This month, Trinity and Credit Suisse paid $850 million for the 1,000-room oceanfront hotel and adjacent properties.
In Palm Beach County, Related and BH Group are finalizing a letter of intent with the Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency to build an affordable housing multifamily project in Marina Village. And on Fisher Island, the developers are partnering with billionaire Teddy Sagi and Chicago-based Wanxiang America RE Group to build a 50-unit luxury condominium.
Read more The post Related, BH unveil plans for Icon Aventura appeared first on The Real Deal.
Smash Interactive’s Scott Greenberg with 2500-48 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago and 400 South LaSalle Street, Chicago (ECDCo, Google Maps, Loopnet)Two esports arenas that were to have drawn thousands of video gamers to Downtown Chicago have gone down in virtual flames.
A $30 million gaming arena proposed by developer Scott Greenberg for 2500-48 South Wabash Avenue has been scrapped, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Prospects also look dim for Urban Resolve’s proposed video gaming center linked to student housing at 400 South LaSalle Street.
The 108,000-square-foot esports arena near McCormick Place that was approved in 2021 has been snuffed out by changing market conditions, its developers say.
Plans had called for a two-story arena with 1,040 seats that would have pioneered a new business niche in Chicago, with huge job prospects and community events.
Greenberg and Chris Lai, co-CEOs at Chicago-based Smash Interactive, had envisioned a large floor for wandering, goggle-wearing contestants and wall-sized LED screens for tournaments, billed as a one-of-a-kind experience for for-profit and community events
To cap the deal, The Illinois Institute of Technology had promised to teach skills in game design.
“This is something that can change the world,” Greenberg declared in 2021.
Then reality struck the virtual economy. The arena’s prime backers — game publishers, the top dogs in a business with complex economics — grew cold feet, Greenberg, who also leads ECD and SMASHotels, said.
“The conditions in the gaming industry are changing. Some of the clients I was courting are backing away,” Greenberg told the Sun-Times. “A lot out there has been hitting the publishers and game usage is down a bit.”
Last year was a “corrective year” for esports, also known as congregate gaming, whose global market fell 4 percent to $184.4 billion from 2021, according to Newzoo, which projected a return in growth.
Playing video games in congregate settings has been a tough business for a pastime normally done at home — for free.
Esports events generally don’t command a high ticket price and merchandise sales are said to be disappointing. Venture capitalists have also grown wary of funding revenue growth without profits and the crypto crash wiped out a source of capital, according to analysts.
Greenberg said there may be a market for congregate gaming someday, “but it’s probably not on the scale I was talking about.”
Across town in the LaSalle Street district, prospects appear to be fading for plans to redevelop the former trading floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange into a gaming center and student housing complex.
A nonprofit partnership led by Urban Resolve had sought city incentives — including a public takeover by eminent domain — to convert the 1.5 million-square-foot building into a ground-floor esports venue topped by student housing.
Plans called for universities to collaborate on a gaming center as a teaching tool, with student housing revenue to support the gaming.
City officials, however, say it wasn’t eligible for subsidies because it falls outside the tax increment financing district for La Salle improvements.
Urban Resolve Managing Director Erin Lavin Cabonargi said that, without a city subsidy, the project wasn’t viable. She also said she’d like to put it in play elsewhere. “This would be bringing people together not as a for-profit venture but more as a civic attribute,” she said.
Cboe Global Markets said it plans to sell the Chicago Board Options Exchange building, but hasn’t listed it yet, according to a spokeswoman.
The Cook County assessor puts its market value at $58.6 million, but insiders believe it will sell for much less, perhaps to somebody who would build a data center in the Central Loop.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Gamers at work: As esports goes corporate, LA offices are a training ground Chicago Hotel in Chicago’s Loop scores $80M loan just before maturity of previous watchlisted debt Chicago United Center partners with online gaming firm for sportsbook lounge at home of Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks The post Esports projects in Chicago either dead or fading appeared first on The Real Deal.
Julie Rivers Development’s Jessica Huang with rendering of planned condo project in the Jordan Ranch master-planned community (Julie Rivers Development, Getty)Julie Rivers Development has begun presales for its planned 18-acre office condo project in the Jordan Ranch master-planned community. The Katy-based firm’s development will feature 23 one-story professional or medical office buildings situated at the intersection of Jordan Ranch and Kingsland boulevards west of Katy, the Houston Business Journal reported.
The development will cost an estimated $8.8 million to build, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Offices will range from $390,000 to $400,000 for 1,200 square feet, according to a LoopNet listing. That’s about $325 per square foot. Buyers will also pay an annual $2,300 community association fee, according to the developer’s website. The offices, designed in quad-plexes and quint-plexes, can be configured for up to 6,000 square feet.
A 28,000-square-foot retail development is also planned, including parking and a detention pond, on the western side of the 18-acre tract. The retail space is also flexible, with configurations ranging from 3,600 to upwards of 25,000 square feet.
Construction is expected to start in May and finish in the first quarter of 2024, listing broker Jessica Huang, who’s also listed as a manager of Julie Rivers Development told the outlet.
Houston-based M. Comeaux Architects is lead architect for the development.
Last year, the 1,400-acre Jordan Ranch community released 550 lots to homebuilders. It debuted on the midyear list of the nation’s 50 top-selling master-planned communities, ranking at No. 50 with 205 home sales in the first half of 2022, according to RCLCO.
Katy is one of the fastest-growing areas in the Greater Houston metro. The city grew nearly 9 percent between 2020 and 2021, adding 2,000 new residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For the last few years, the Greater Katy area has been a hotspot for master-planned communities to accommodate its growing aging population. Houston-based homebuilder Long Lake bought a nearly 500-acre tract off-market near Bridgeland’s Prairieland Village at the corner of West and Katy Hockley to develop a master-planned community.
– Brandon Sams
Read more Houston BRT set to unload $69M complex in Texas Houston Johnson to build third master-planned community in Fulshear-Katy Houston Resia’s first Houston project targets middle incomes The post Julie Rivers Development plans office condos appeared first on The Real Deal.
Stiles’ Kenneth Stiles and the Shoppes at Village of Golf at 11300 South Military Trail in the Village of Golf (Getty, Google Maps, Stiles)Stiles Corporation sold a Publix-anchored shopping plaza near Boynton Beach for $41 million.
Real estate investor Yevgeniy Yermakov, through an affiliate, bought the nearly 80,000-square-foot Shoppes at Village of Golf at 11300 South Military Trail, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The property is in the small Village of Golf.
The seller had paid $6.9 million for the 17.4-acre development site in 2019, and completed the shopping plaza in 2021, property records show. The deal does not include a pair of adjacent lots that span 2.4 acres, combined, that Stiles has entitled for a nearly 17,000-square-foot commercial project, according to filings to Broward County.
Stiles, a family-founded and operated firm based in Fort Lauderdale, has been both a prolific investor and developer in South Florida commercial real estate. Its marquee projects include the 1.4 million-square-foot mixed-use The Main Las Olas in downtown Fort Lauderdale, which Stiles completed in 2021 in partnership with Shorenstein. Stiles is led by Ken Stiles.
Stiles went on a selling spree in 2021, when it sold a Palm Beach Gardens office complex at 3300 PGA Boulevard for $30.6 million, and the Sunrise Corporate Plaza office building at 1300 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway in Sunrise for $25 million.
Yermakov has had some past South Florida investments. In 2015, an entity tied to Yermakov paid $7.1 million for a commercial property at 900 Southeast 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale.
Read more South Florida Terry Stiles, who kickstarted Fort Lauderdale’s real estate boom, dies South Florida’s retail market continued on an upward trajectory in the fourth quarter. In Palm Beach County, the retail vacancy rate dropped to 3.5 percent, from 4.6 percent, year-over-year, according to Collierss. Retail net absorption in the fourth quarter was 82,400 square feet, ending the year with nearly 1 million square feet absorbed, or the highest amount since 2016.
The post Stiles sells Publix-anchored plaza near Boynton for $41M appeared first on The Real Deal.
LV Collective’s David Kanne along with the planned high-rise at 711 Church Street in Ann Harbor, Michigan (Getty, LV Collective LLC)Now for a cheer, a developer is here and hopes to be triumphant.
It’s unclear if Austin-based LV Collective LLC knows the words to the University of Michigan fight song, but it is looking to build a 19-story, 350-unit apartment building on Church Street aimed primarily at housing university students, MLive reported.
If approved, the 525,000-square-foot building — which would be the tallest in that area of the city — will be constructed on a site that was originally planned to have a 108-unit townhome complex, the outlet reported. Now the four buildings currently on the site will be demolished to make way for the high rise just outside the downtown zone.
The city’s Planning Commission hosted a preliminary hearing on the proposal last week
Due to the site’s proximity to the university, the apartments would most likely be rented by college students, though not exclusively.
In keeping with sustainability goals, the plans call for just 100 parking spaces, as well as 350 bicycle spaces, the outlet reported.
Other sustainability measures include the building being all-electric, except for backup systems; solar panels, green certification, EV charging stations and water-saving plumbing fixtures.
The proposal comes at a time when the University of Michigan and other developers are also pushing to build more student housing, the outlet said.
Colleges and universities throughout the country are tackling housing issues. Florida International recently received approval to build a 22-story, U-shaped building that would have 1,200 beds in 932 units.
Having enough beds addresses one issue, but other municipalities are trying to address another: affordability.
Read more New York Programs tackle housing crisis for New York college students South Florida New York developers score $147M construction loan for student housing near FIU Los Angeles “It’s all horseshit”: Charlie Munger reacts to critical UCSB report In New York City, two pilot programs primarily funded by the nonprofit housing group Trinity Church Wall Street — one in collaboration with the Borough of Manhattan Community College — are providing housing to up to 76 students for up to three years, the New York Times reported.
The program will house 36 college students in a seven-story rental building in Queens. Another 40 students will be provided dorm-like housing in Harlem, the outlet reported.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Texas developer plans apartment high-rise near University of Michigan appeared first on The Real Deal.
The Pebble Creek Golf Club at 10550 Regents Park Drive in Tampa (Facebook)Golf is a gentleman’s game. Litigation is not.
The owner of the now-shuttered Pebble Creek Golf Club in New Tampa is embroiled in a legal dispute with a local resident who is objecting to plans to have the 150-acre property sold to a developer to build about 250 single family homes, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Last year, golf course owner Bill Pace sued Pebble Green resident Leslie Green, claiming she defamed him and interfered with a business transaction by voicing her objections on social media, to media outlets, in letters to developers, and messages to fellow residents.
Pace claimed that, because of Green’s conduct, two developers — Pulte and KB Homes — pulled out of potential deals for the course, which shut down in July 2021. (GL Homes has since agreed to buy the course.)
Green responded this month that Pace’s lawsuit lacks merit and was filed to keep her quiet.
“The lawsuit has one goal: to silence Leslie Green and anyone else who might speak out against Mr. Place’s attempt to sell and rezone the golf course, so he can walk away rich, leaving hundreds of homeowners to suffer the loss of green space and diminished property values in his wake,” a news release by Save Pebble Creek, Green’s group, said, according to the outlet.
Both sides are claiming to be winning the PR battle with local residents. A hearing on Green’s filing is scheduled for March 8.
Meanwhile, the project is winding its way through the local approval process; an application to rezone the golf course is pending before the county commission, the outlet said.
Closed golf courses can be attractive to homebuilders. In January 2022, Lennar paid $19.2 million for a portion of a closed golf-course that had county approval for an age-restricted community with 251 townhouses and 164 single-family homes.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more South Florida Lennar pays $19M for golf course near Delray Beach approved for resi community Chicago St. Charles officials ponder $42M redevelopment of fire-damaged resort South Florida Developers of troubled West Palm resort project facing $61M foreclosure The post Florida resident says golf course owner’s lawsuit is out of bounds appeared first on The Real Deal.
Eliot Spitzer with 985 Fifth Avenue (Getty)Adverse possession cases — where one claims a property right that is owned by someone else — typically involve relatively small-stakes disputes over things like suburban property lines or driveways.
But one has arisen in a most unlikely of place (Fifth Avenue at 79th Street in Manhattan) involving two unlikely litigants (two luxe high-rises, one of which is owned by Eliot Spitzer, the former governor of New York) over an unlikely parcel (a small, unassuming ditch referred to in a lawsuit as “the Pit”), the New Yorker reported.
The 350-square-foot Pit is owned by Spitzer’s building, 985 Fifth Avenue, which is on the parcel’s north side. But the building on the Pit’s south side, 980 Fifth Avenue, claims it has used that land for more than three decades as a storage area for materials like tar, bricks and pavers, the outlet reported.
But Spitzer wants to reclaim the use of the Pit as part of his plans to replace his building with a larger, more luxurious development. The loss of the previously innocuous parcel could result in lengthy and costly delays for the project, the New Yorker said.
Representatives of the south-side high-rise are having a difficult time finding an alternative storage facility, as other options are too costly, too inconvenient, or both. All of which has led to the adverse possession lawsuit filed by the south-side building.
Anyone who has gone through one year of law school is familiar with the legal doctrine of adverse possession and its acronym OCEAN, which stands for open, continuous, exclusive, adverse, notorious.
Adam Leitman Bailey, the attorney for the south-side high-rise who says his client meets all of the requirements to claim possession of The Pit, noted the unusual circumstances of the case as well as the policy behind it.
“This is euphoria for a real-estate attorney,” he told the New Yorker. “The philosophy in America is to use your land or lose it.”
The parties don’t seem to be close to reaching a settlement to the lawsuit, which Spitzer called “an embarrassment,” the outlet reported.
“The law does not look kindly on cases that are brought for the purposes of harassment,” he told the New Yorker. “We let them store a few bricks in our backyard, and it leads to this? It’s the kind of thing you do for your neighbor.”
While Manhattan adverse possession cases are exceedingly rare, they do pop up from time to time, sometimes under equally bizarre circumstances.
An adverse possession case between Extell Development and the Elo Organization over an 18-inch strip of land that both parties claimed to own has dragged out more than three years, stalling Extell’s plans for a 534-key hotel.
— Ted Glanzer
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Kohan Retail Investment Group’s Mike Kohan and Brass Mill Commons in Waterbury, Connecticut (Getty, Forged Real Estate, Kohan Retail Investment Group)A little less than one year after acquiring Brass Mill Commons in Waterbury, the new owner has put it back on the market, listing the outdoor shopping center for $30 million, CT Insider reported.
Kohan Retail Investment Group purchased the Commons and the adjacent Brass Mill Center mall from Brookfield Properties for $45 million — $26 million for the Commons and $19 million for the mall — in the spring of 2022. Kohan specializes in purchasing distressed malls and turning them around by populating them with bungee jumping machines.
The 200,000-square-foot Commons, which sits on just over 19 acres, counts Barnes & Noble, TJ Maxx, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Buffalo Wild Wings and Michaels as its tenants.
Forged Real Estate has the listing for the Commons, which is the more successful of the two properties, Waterbury Mayor Neil M. O’Leary told the Republican-American a year ago.
O’Leary didn’t mince words concerning the mall’s difficulties over the past decade.
“The Brass Mill Commons is a thriving center and has done remarkably well,” O’Leary said. “That mall has struggled for years. Urban malls like it have struggled for many, many years, even before online shopping. The Commons, successful. Across the street, not so successful. … The Brass Mill mall is suffering from what most malls are suffering from, not only in Connecticut, but across America. People are shopping online. There are several different malls in Connecticut that have sold in recent years for dramatically less than what they were valued at because they are empty. Such is the case in this case.”
Read more New York “We kicked the crap out of ‘21”: Largest U.S. mall owner claims comeback Tri-State Kohan mall a goner; next owner plans transformation Chicago Seritage sells Joliet mall’s Sears site for a song The Commons isn’t the only property Kohan has put on the market. In the fall, Kohan sold the Great Northern Mall in Clay, New York, after being sued by Onondaga County for $5 million in unpaid taxes. The county moved to foreclose on the property before Kohan sold it.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Connecticut shopping center lists for $30M less than a year after its sale appeared first on The Real Deal.
Redburn Development’s Jeff Buell with 43 Columbia Street (Loopnet, Redburn Development, Getty) A prominent Capital Region real estate company settled a federal lawsuit filed three months ago by four former construction workers who alleged racism and the fostering of a toxic workplace.
Redburn Property Services, an arm of Troy-based Redburn Development, settled the civil rights suit on Wednesday, the Times Union reported. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
In November, four former construction workers filed a complaint in federal court, alleging a myriad of issues at the workplace. Allegations included the use of slurs and lesser pay for Black employees.
Supervisors allegedly created an all-Black detail at one site, referring to it as the “felony crew,” according to court documents. One manager allegedly told another supervisor to “get his monkeys in line.”
Beyond racism, other accusations involve the creation of a dangerous work environment. The workers, who had all departed the company by April, claimed they were denied safety equipment and threatened with termination if they disclosed a positive test for the coronavirus. Each plaintiff said they were fired in retaliation for complaining about the alleged treatment.
The Redburn subsidiary was named in the lawsuit, as were five supervisors.
Redburn principal Jeff Buell released a statement after the settlement was filed, saying, “We are not a racist organization. I also know we can be better.” The employees named in the suit are no longer with the firm, Buell added.
Redburn is behind the development of prominent projects in the Capital Region area, including The Kennedy Apartments in Albany, which was referenced as the site of a drug-fueled property in the lawsuit.
Redburn is also redeveloping Albany’s Central Warehouse, one of the biggest projects in the firm’s history. The 11-story, 500,000-square-foot building has sat vacant for years. Despite previous attempts to revamp the property, it remains one of the state capital’s ugliest eyesores.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more Tri-State Major Capital Region developers bid on decrepit Albany warehouse New York Brokering while Black: Agents share tales of discrimination Los Angeles LA’s racism scandal reverberates in real estate The post Capital Region developer settles lawsuit claiming racism appeared first on The Real Deal.
So far earnings season has revealed, unsurprisingly, that things in the residential market are tough all over.
Brokerages like Anywhere Real Estate (the parent company of Corcoran, Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and Sotheby’s International Realty) and Redfin posted big losses in the fourth quarter, with signals that the first quarter — though not necessarily the entire year — figures to be more of the same. (Compass is set to announce its earnings on Tuesday.)
Anywhere CEO Ryan Schneider said his company, which posted a loss of nearly half a billion dollars, will continue to focus on cutting costs, because money won’t be flowing in as freely in the first quarter.
The Real Deal’s Hiten Samtani discusses the brokerages’ fourth-quarter losses and what they could mean for how 2023 shakes out in the residential market.
Watch the episode above, and stay tuned for more breakdowns of the most important news and trends in residential brokerage.
Watch more New York Watch: What’s happening with noncompetes? National Watch: CoStar makes its biggest resi Move yet New York Watch: 3 resi brokerage shakeups worth knowing about The post Brokerages feel the pain in earnings season – Resi Rundown appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Harvey Weinstein, Bernie Madoff, and Jeffrey Epstein with 133 East 64th Street and Epstein’s former townhouse at East 71st Street (Getty)Just because Bernie Madoff, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein have terrible reputations doesn’t mean that carries over to the real estate they owned.
Some see an opportunity to acquire — at significant discounts — properties owned by people who have done terrible things, Air Mail reported.
In 2010, Al Kahn, the licensing executive behind Pokémon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was quick to snap up the penthouse at 133 East 64th Street previously owned by disgraced financier Bernie Madoff, who had just pleaded guilty to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Khan paid $8 million, 20 percent less than the asking price.
“I thought the place was undervalued,” Kahn told the outlet. “I checked out other apartments in the building and the area, and they were going for significantly more than this one was going for. I thought it was a good opportunity to make a profit.”
It was. Following a divorce, Kahn’s ex-wife Patsy sold the penthouse in 2014 for $14 to real estate investor Lawrence Benenson, who also bought the adjacent apartment for $4 million. Benenson recently tried to sell the property for $18.5 million, but pulled the listing in January after not receiving any offers.
More recent examples include a Bel Air mansion owned by Lori Loughlin — who was facing jail time due to the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal — selling in 2020 for $18.7 million, $10 million less than its asking price, and a New York City townhouse owned by Jeffrey Epstein selling for $51 million in 2021 after being listed for $86 million, the outlet said.
Buyers care less about the reputations of the previous owners and more about getting a bargain.
“They’re savvy people,” John Gomes, of Douglas Elliman, told Air Mail. “They know how long to wait. They know how low to bid, and they know when to pounce.”
Not all properties are treated equally. Some buyers distinguish between a previous owner who committed a crime away from a home versus one where the illegal acts took place.
Developer Todd Michael Glaser in March 2021 bought sex offender Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, where Epstein trafficked girls, for $19 million. Glaser demolished the mansion and, seven months later, sold the lot to venture capitalist David Skok for $26 million.
— Ted Glanzer
Read More:
https://therealdeal.com/miami/2021/03/12/jeffrey-epsteins-palm-beach-house-sells-for-19m/
https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/01/13/bernie-madoffs-ues-penthouse-is-pulled-off-market/
https://therealdeal.com/la/2020/07/13/facing-jail-time-lori-loughlin-sells-bel-air-manse-at-huge-discount/
The post Madoff, Epstein may be canceled but their real estate isn’t appeared first on The Real Deal.
Tamir Poleg (Inman, Getty)His company doesn’t have offices and it doesn’t operate in any big markets, but Tamir Poleg has quietly built one of the fastest growing residential brokerages in the country.
The Real Brokerage has grown from 1,000 brokers in 2020 to 9,000 in January and saw revenues increase 186 percent year-over-year through the third quarter to $285.6 million from $71.2 million — though it posted a net loss of $12.7 million.
Poleg attributes the growth to what he calls a tech-first approach to the industry: His firm has a back-end platform that automates transactions and allows brokers to run their business digitally, which allows him to keep overhead low. The company added about 100 employees over the past two years.
Poleg recently sat down with The Real Deal to discuss his brokerage and the state of the industry. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: Can you talk about your platform and your broker to employee ratio, and how those two things work together?
We are a technology company, this is how we see ourselves. We measure efficiency very closely, because at the end of the day, we are in a low margin business. So you have to remain very efficient, meaning that you have to keep the headcount very, very low. We have one employee for every 100 agents, roughly.
And the reason why we can do that is because we invested millions and millions of dollars in building software that will support our back office operations. So all of the tasks that are typically handled by humans in the office of a brokerage are automated at Real. We have a transaction team of nine people. They typically close between 10,000 to 15,000 transactions a quarter. Typically, you would need to have a team of dozens of people to manage that kind of volume. Leveraging technology allows us to be very lean and efficient.
Q: I was wondering if maybe you could get into what the typical agent might pay and whether or not the fact that you give out equity factors into where you guys decided to put that split?
The typical agent when it comes to commission splits would be an 85-15 split, so we keep 15 percent, we pay the agents 85 percent. But on top of that, there’s a cap. Once agents pay us $12,000 a year in commission splits, they get to keep 100 percent of their commissions, and they only pay a transaction fee of $285.
If they cap, meaning they paid us $12,000 a year, they get an RSU grant, or if they attracted a friend to the company and that friend closes their first deal, they get a small RSU grant as well. Aside from that, agents can use a percentage of their commission revenue to actually purchase company shares. And if they stay with us for 12 months after that closing, they get a bonus in the form of shares.
Q: Given the trajectory of Compass stock, why should brokers be excited to get equity in The Real Brokerage? Shouldn’t they be skeptical of this kind of a deal?
I think that the equity incentives that Real offers are different from ones that other companies have offered in the past. From my understanding the way Compass grew was by leveraging equity to actually acquire other brokerages or incentivize large teams to actually come to Compass and that was kind of the payout for them to actually come. We do not offer agents or teams or other brokerages any incentives in order to join us.
If you think about the ways agents earn equity in the company, they actually buy equity, and then they get a bonus on top of that. So that bonus is somewhat of a hedge against any decline in stock price. So I think that those are just very, two very different models.
Q: You automated a lot of jobs. Do you think that’s the future of the industry? If I’m an assistant, or if I’m someone who works in the back office at a major brokerage, should I be worried?
I don’t think you should be worried.So I think that there are a lot of tasks that are just mundane and boring. And just, you know, they can be handled by technology. Even more than that, humans are not enjoying doing them. So I’ll give you an example. We believe that we can actually train ChatGPT to answer probably 80 percent of the support tickets that we get just because those support tickets are repetitive, we know exactly what the answer would be. And that frees up our support team to deal with the things that are more meaningful, more interesting, maybe require more of a human interaction or a human component to it.
So I think that if you’re working at a brokerage, you should make sure that you’re actually bringing value and you’re just not doing things that are very simple to do. But I think that yes, the future of the industry is in technology. One hundred percent.
Read more The post Q&A: The Real Brokerage CEO on technology, automation and equity incentives appeared first on The Real Deal.
Listing agent Alexander Goldstein; 18975 Collins Ave, Sunny Isles Beach (Google Maps, Getty, Alexander Goldstein)One of the co-founders and former owners of the It’s A 10 hair care line has listed his Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, penthouse condo for $18 million.
Scott Scharg hired Miles Goldstein Real Estate to market the Armani Penthouse 00 in Residences by Armani Casa, according to listing agent Alexander Goldstein.
Located on the top levels of the 55-story tower at 18975 Collins Avenue, the more than 9,000-square-foot penthouse boasts 30-foot glass windows that offer views of the Atlantic Ocean and electric roll-down shades. There are multiple private outdoor decks, including one with artificial grass. The two-level residence has a green plant wall along a staircase that wraps around a private in-unit elevator.
Other features of the penthouse include a home gym with its own bathroom and steam room as well as a 20-foot onyx wet bar. The residence also has a private rooftop pool and summer kitchen.
In addition to the many amenities the penthouse itself has, the new owner will also have access to a private restaurant, gym, spa, lounge, cigar and wine room and movie theater on site.
Scharg, who co-founded It’s A 10 hair care along with the current president and CEO Carolyn Aronson, is no stranger to listing multimillion-dollar properties.
In 2020, he listed his Golden Beach home — which was formerly owned by longtime Chicago — for nearly $20 million.
Scharge paid $10.6 million for the oceanfront home in 2018.
The two-story house, with eight-and-a-half bathrooms, a chef’s kitchen, spiral staircase and oceanfront pool, was built in 1998. It sits on a 24,900-square-foot lot with 75 feet of beach frontage.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more South Florida Kimber gunmaker buys Estates at Acqualina condo for $21M South Florida Heir to Austrian billionaire’s fortune buys Sunny Isles penthouse Auto Draft The post Armani Penthouse in Sunny Isles Beach listed for $18M appeared first on The Real Deal.
The estate on Mustique in the Caribbean with Kate Hudson and Daniel Craig in “Glass Onion” (Knight Frank, Netflix)In December, Zillow posted a mock listing for the $450 million “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” Greek isle commune as an ad promoting the film.
The Caribbean estate on the private island of Mustique listed last week for $200 million is real, CNBC reported.
The 17-acre Terraces estate, which is on the private island of Mustique in the Caribbean, is one of the most expensive homes in the world, with a 16,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom main residence and an 80-foot swimming pool.
Edward de Mallet Morgan of Knight Frank has the listing.
The main residence has a tunnel that connects to a second, 12,000-square-foot structure called The Annex, which is for entertainment and includes an event hall and a game room for chess and ping pong, among other things, according to the outlet.
There are also several guest cottages, a chapel, laundry facilities, a tennis court and two more swimming pools, CNBC said. The estate is currently being run by 18 staff members — a property manager, two butlers, three chefs, six housekeepers and six gardeners — who are housed in two separate buildings.
The island on which the estate sits was purchased by Colin Tennant for £45,000 in 1958, CNBC said. Tennant gave the island to Princess Margaret, who built a luxe residence there, starting a rush of others to do the same.
Since then, the island has served as a getaway for celebrities and business people such as Tommy Hilfiger and Mick Jagger, among others, CNBC said.
“Paparazzi are banned on Mustique, and the easy, relaxed interaction of royal families, rock stars, celebrities, business moguls and entrepreneurs is really unique to Mustique,” de Mallet Morgan told CNBC. “It is a place where doors are not locked and no one bats an eye when you arrive at dinner barefoot.”
If the Caribbean is too far away, there’s always Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich, which has been listed for $150 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The seller —a limited liability company tied to hedge fund billionaire Ray Dialo — paid $120 million to buy the waterfront estate in 2014.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more Tri-State Record-setting Greenwich home back on market at $150M Tri-State King’s Point waterfront estate lists for $55M off initial asking South Florida Hedge funder sets Palm Island record with $32M purchase The post Massive Caribbean estate lists for $200M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Million Dollar Listing’s Josh Flagg and Selling Sunset’s Christine Quinn and Maya Vander (Josh Flagg, Getty)The real estate reality TV community is getting catty.
After Josh Flagg, star of “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles,” called Christine Quinn and Maya Vander, of “Selling Sunset” actors pretending to be agents, the women clapped back at him, DailyMail.com reported.
Last week Flagg posted a video to his Instagram that he captioned, “If you’d like to watch a real estate show with licensed agents, make sure to watch last night’s episode of MDLLA on Peacock. If you want to watch actors pretend to be agents, tune into my newest YouTube video … where I review ‘Selling Sunset’.”
In the comments, Vander, who left the Oppenheim Group and the series last year, responded to Flagg’s criticism, saying, “Haha, at least I do.. and I sell. Your comments are funny,” the outlet reported.
Below that, Quinn, who also left the cast at the end of the show’s fifth season, appeared to throw a veiled shot at her former team and the show. “The joke is on y’all if you think Selling Sunset was ever about real estate,” she wrote.
When another commenter asked Quinn if any of the “Selling Sunset” stars were actually licensed agents, she responded, “I can’t speak for the rest of the extras, but I can speak on my friends who I know do in fact have their licenses.” She went on to say that herself, Vander, Davina Potratz and Chelsea Lazkani were licensed agents.
Last year, Flagg’s co-stars, Josh and Matt Altman slammed “Selling Sunset” in an interview with The Kyle and Jackie O Show on the radio.
“It’s good entertainment,” Josh Altman said in the interview. “I mean, they’re not real realtors…”
When asked by hosts Jackie “O” Henderson and Kyle Sandilands if the stars were “more like actors,” he responded, “Well, I know they’re models. It’s entertainment.”
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more New York “Summer House” scandal: Too many bedrooms! National Former “Flip This House” star fails to have fraud claims dropped New York Reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley report to prison The post Josh Flagg of “Million Dollar Listing” says “Selling Sunset” agents are actors appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget (Getty)If you think metaverse real estate is dead, perhaps there’s a bridge in the Sandbox’s version of Brooklyn you can buy.
The real estate market is alive and well in the metaverse, the New York Times reported. Despite some high-profile problems in the cryptocurrency world, the market continues to grow, with Technavio projecting it will increase $5.37 billion in the next three years.
The metaverse market is governed by the same supply-and-demand principles that affect the housing market in the physical world. In the Sandbox, a popular virtual world, direct land purchases go for nearly $400 per parcel. But prices skyrocket on the resale market or in places where buyers can be close to prominent bands and celebrities, such as Snoop Dogg.
“Land is becoming the infrastructure of the metaverse,” Sebastien Borget, co-founder of the Sandbox, told the Times.
A year ago, real estate in the metaverse was the talk of the industry. It seemed to be the next frontier in the commercial sector. In November 2021, trading volume in the metaverse hit $229 million, according to WeMeta, buoyed by Facebook’s rebrand to Meta Platforms.
Months later, however, metaverse real estate was looking like a folly. Trading for land across six platforms dropped 97 percent from that November to last June, WeMeta reported. Sales volume trickled to a laughable $8 million in June, when the average price of land was $3,300. Volatility has continued to reign since then as a crypto winter took hold.
Oh, and cryptocurrency firm FTX had one of the most spectacular collapses in recent memory. Sam Bankman-Fried became a villain in the cryptocurrency universe and was ultimately arrested as his company declared bankruptcy following a run that resulted in an $8 billion shortfall for the exchange, prompting questions about the viability of cryptocurrency investing.
Read more New York Metaverse land prices down 80% in six months National Lawsuit alleges Signature Bank aided FTX fraud New York Mark Cuban: Metaverse real estate is the “dumbest sht ever” And yet, the metaverse real estate market keeps plugging along. Once called the “dumbest s** ever” by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the market is stubbornly hanging on and appears poised to explode in the coming years. Then again, that’s what people thought last year, too, so skepticism is healthy.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Metaverse real estate continues despite crypto issues appeared first on The Real Deal.
Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, 515 Park Avenue in Manhattan and 19 Duck Pond Lane in Southampton (Google Maps, Getty, Aleshru/CC BY-SA 3.0/via Wikimedia Commons)On the anniversary of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, federal prosecutors moved to seize six luxury properties in the Hamptons, New York City and Miami Beach owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
Vekselberg, a Vladimir Putin ally and head of metals and energy conglomerate Renova Group, is one of the Russian oligarchs the U.S. re-sanctioned after the Russian invasion. Federal authorities claim in an unsealed complaint filed the Southern District of New York that Vekselberg and associate Vladimir Voronchenko used the six properties to launder money and evade sanctions.
Federal agents and NYPD detectives in September searched Vekselberg’s properties at 19 Duck Pond Lane, Southampton, New York; 515 Park Avenue, Units 21 and 2I, New York, New York; 7183 Fisher Island Drive, Units 7182 and 7183, Miami Beach, Florida; and 7002 Fisher Island Drive, Unit 7002 PH2, Miami Beach.
The properties, which Vekselberg acquired between 2008 and 2017, are worth $75 million, according to federal authorities.
In 2018, the Treasury Department placed Vekselberg on its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, freezing his assets and prohibiting him from doing business with U.S. residents and companies. Vekselberg was redesignated a Specially Designated National in March 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Voronchenko tried to sell the Park Avenue apartments jointly in 2020 and the Southampton estate in 2022, listing both for $14.6 million, federal authorities claim.
Federal prosecutors also claim Voronchenko, through Vekselberg, funneled $4 million in wire transfers to maintain four of the properties, including paying for common charges, insurance premiums, electric bills, pool bills, landscaping and gardening bills, gas bills, common charges, and pest control bills.
Voronchenko fled to Russia in May 2022, nine days after federal agents served him with a grand jury subpoena. He failed to appear before the grand jury and has not returned to the U.S. Earlier this month, Voronchenko was indicted on money laundering, conspiracy to evade sanctions and contempt charges.
“Over the past year, the Ukrainian people have shown the world what courage looks like,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “For as long as it takes, the Department of Justice will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our Ukrainian and international partners in defense of justice and the rule of law.”
Read More New York Feds search Russian oligarch’s Southampton, 515 Park Avenue homes New York Russian oligarch’s NYC property manager arrested New York Here’s where wealthy Russians have owned trophy real estate in the US The post Feds move to seize Russian oligarch’s six properties worth $75M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Elon Musk, 2 Center Plaza in Boston (Getty, Center Plaza Boston)Another day, another fire for Elon Musk to put out at Twitter.
An LLC controlled by Synergy Investments sued the social media company this week in Massachusetts’ Suffolk Superior Court, the Boston Globe reported. Twitter is a tenant at the Center Plaza, a Boston office near City Hall.
The lawsuit states Musk’s company has failed to pay rent for the past three months, racking up more than $632,000 in arrears. Employees have continued to use the space, though, according to the suit.
Twitter leased 44,000 square feet in 2019 for $227,232 per month, a deal scheduled to run through January 2027. Twitter turned around and subleased a quarter of the space to another company for more than double the rate, according to the suit.
The landlord claimed it notified Twitter it was in default after rent wasn’t paid for December. After the same misses allegedly occurred in January and February, Synergy drew $454,000 from a letter of credit Twitter posted.
Synergy wants to continue with the lease, but is seeking payment for the bills that are past due and a replenishment of the letter of credit. It also wants damages, interest and legal fees.
Twitter did not comment on the lawsuit.
Synergy is in sync with other Boston-area companies going after Twitter in the legal system. Consulting firms Analysis Group and Charles River Associates filed separate lawsuits against the company, seeking upwards of $4 million for unpaid bills.
The landlord can also take solace in seeing the other landlords facing similar problems with Twitter, which has seemingly decided to stop paying the bills after Musk purchased the company at the end of October for $44 billion.
Last month, Twitter landlords in San Francisco also sued the company for failing to pay rent. Twitter allegedly failed to pay $6.8 million of rent in recent months for its South of Market headquarters.
Others to go after Twitter for alleged unpaid rent include Columbia Property Trust — which just defaulted on a massive loan that involved two Twitter-tied properties — and the Crown Estate, which manages property for King Charles III.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more San Francisco Twitter’s SF landlords sue for alleged non-payment of rent National PIMCO’s Columbia Property Trust defaults on $1.7B of office loans New York Twitter tells workers at Asia HQ to clear desks, work from home The post Boston landlord latest to sue Twitter appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Tower56 in New York, Brookfield’s Brian Kingston, 777 South Figueroa Street amd 555 West 5th Street in Los Angeles (Getty, Brookfield, Macklowe)Distress is stressing out real estate investors. And last week didn’t help.
Columbia Property Trust, a large office landlord controlled by PIMCO, has defaulted on $1.7 billion in loans tied to seven buildings across the country, marking one of largest office defaults since the start of the pandemic.
In Los Angeles, Brookfield walked away from $784 million in loans connected to two of the firm’s trophy office towers in Downtown Los Angeles: 777 South Figueroa Street and the Gas Company Tower at 555 West 5th Street. The Real Deal analyzed Brookfield’s financials at both properties and how rising interest rates impacted their profitability.
In New York, Cyrus and Darius Sakhai’s Sovereign Partners struck a deal with Pearlmark Real Estate to buy the Tower56 office building at 126 East 56th Street in the Plaza District for about $110 million.
Pearlmark couldn’t refinance its mortgage on the property, and the sale price is roughly what is owed on the debt,
It’s one of the first big forced sales to hit the New York office market — a trend many expect to grow this year as owners have trouble refinancing loans that come due.
Madison Realty Capital could lose its retail space at the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building in Downtown Brooklyn after a judge allowed lender Amherst Capital to proceed with its foreclosure on the retail condominium, owned by a joint venture of Madison and private equity firm Siguler Guff. The judge ruled the venture defaulted on a $22.2 million loan.
The joint venture blamed the pandemic for the property’s financial issues in court filings.
Trouble may be brewing in San Francisco, the loan for 555 California Street, owned by Vornado Realty Trust and The Trump Organization, was put on a loan server watchlist for potential trouble.
The owners are current on the $1.2. billion in mortgage debt secured by the 52-story building, the fourth-tallest building in the city. But there may be trouble, as watchlists indicate potential challenges threatening a borrower’s ability to stay current on a loan.
Frozen groundThings weren’t all that rosy on the development side, either. Chetrit defaulted on the $85 million loan at 545 West 37th Street, a shovel-ready development site at Hudson Yards, Commercial Observer reported. Mack Real Estate is now the sole owner of the debt and the loan is being marketed by veteran dealmakers Adam Spies and Doug Harmon,
In Miami, development site prices plunged in the third and fourth quarters of last year, largely due to rising interest rates, according to developer Harvey Hernandez, as well as some brokers TRD spoke with.
The market hasn’t frozen entirely. In Chicago, Thor Equities, led by Joe Sitt, is considering paying more than $100 million to Nealey Foods for the largest remaining development site in Fulton Market, CoStar News reported. If it goes through with a purchase for the 2.7-acre site, Thor could build multiple towers holding a total of 1.3 million square feet under current zoning.
Slinging mud
In Miami, Maria Lomas — the ex-wife of Shoma CEO Masoud Shojaee — and her daughters, Anelise and Lilibet Shojaee, sued Masoud Sojaee’s current wife Stephanie Shojaee, alleging defamation when Stephanie discussed her marriage and career on a podcast.
Much like the office market, things don’t look to improve on that front, either.
Read more New York Murder, bribery and contempt charges: Just another week in real estate New York Residential market New Year’s outlook: Once-hot market is old acquaintance The post Dark clouds are rolling over commercial real estate appeared first on The Real Deal.
A rendering of 1317 West Jefferson Boulevard (Getty, JPark Architects)Orion Capital has moved forward with plans to tear down a 128-year-old house in Adams-Normandie to build an 18-unit apartment complex.
The West Los Angeles-based developer was given a green light from the city’s Planning Commission to build the six-story building at 1317 West Jefferson Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. A single-story house, built in 1895, would be destroyed.
Plans call for 18 studio, two- and three-bedroom apartments above a parking garage for eight cars.
The developer would use density bonus incentives to permit a taller building than allowed by zoning rules in exchange for three affordable apartments set aside for very low-income households.
The project, designed by JPark Architects of Koreatown, would be sheathed in white, gray and black stucco, with a brick facade on the first and second floors out front. It will include a rooftop patio and a third-floor community room.
Read more Los Angeles Developer files plan for 168-key Marriott in Exposition Park Los Angeles Florence Apartment Corp. plans to add units to Rampart Village Los Angeles Wiseman Residential begins building 77 apartments in Venice The project would tower over the two-story commercial buildings on either side, though the neighborhood is growing upwards. Across the street, Prime Place is now building a five-story, 130-unit apartment complex.
Orion Capital, led by Charles Kim, has built housing projects near USC and currently is building a mixed-use 46-unit complex near Adams Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. It just finished a 15-unit mixed-use complex next to Metro’s Expo/Vermont Station.
— Dana Bartholomew
The post Orion Capital gets early OK for 18 units in Adams-Normandie appeared first on The Real Deal.
Sandra Lee Fewer (Getty, Board of Supervisors)A March 1 deadline looms for San Francisco landlords to file information on their units for the city’s rent board.
San Francisco is one of a wave of California cities which have passed aggressive rent control laws recently. But the city got a head start by demanding landlords tell all about the units they rent, as well as pay a fee to the city government website, which is called San Francisco Rent Board’s Housing Inventory and Fee Portal, located at the URL portal.sfrb.org.
The rental registry was introduced in 2021, according to media reports. Its chief architect, former San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, said that a registry will give the city’s rent control laws much needed strength.
“San Francisco adopted our rent ordinance back in 1979 to safeguard tenants from excessive rent increases,” Fewer told the community newspaper Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon. “Since then, the rent ordinance has allowed the city to regulate rents and has helped protect tenants from losing their homes because of real estate booms and gentrification. But one thing the city lacks is an accurate inventory of the city’s existing housing stock.”
A rent board registry will help the city government track housing stock and better administer the law, Fewer reasoned.
The registry is an example of government overreach, according to a blog posted by real estate firm The Bornstein Group. The blog noted that there are a number of existing laws on the books barring illegal rent increases. A registry crushes privacy, according to the blog.
“Taking centralized control, the rent board wants to pry into every aspect of the owner’s rental business in order to nip problems in the bud and preempt any excessive increases or displacement of the tenant, “ the unsigned blog post stated.
So far, San Francisco Rent Board’s Housing Inventory and Fee Portal has not been popular. A statement released Feb. 1 by Christina Varner, the executive director of the rent board, said that less than 5 percent of the city’s rental units, or about 12,000 units, have been licensed by the city’s registry before the upcoming deadline.
The scope of the rental board is increasing. In 2022, landlords owning buildings with 10 or more units had to report their inventory. For 2023, property owners with fewer than 10 rental units, including single-family homes and condos, are also required to report their inventory, according to a rent board statement.
If a landlord registers a rental unit that is occupied by a tenant, the landlord will receive a license so they will be able to legally raise rents within the city’s rent control rules. Those who do not register will not be fined, but they will not be issued a license that will give them the ability to legally raise rents.
According to a San Francisco city website, landlords must pay fees of $59 per apartment unit and $29.50 per residential hotel room. A landlord can collect 50 percent of the fees from tenants.
San Francisco is not the only city working with a rental registry. In December, Santa Ana, in Orange County, also unveiled plans to develop a city registry where property owners file information on their rental units.
Read more Los Angeles Santa Ana landlords must register rentals under new law San Francisco Apartment vacancy tax passes in San Francisco and Berkeley San Francisco Bay Area Rents tumble 5%, led by tech layoffs The post San Francisco demands landlords register units by March 1 appeared first on The Real Deal.
CREXi founder Michael DeGiorgio and CoStar CEO Andy Florance (CREXi, CoStar)In a high-stakes copyright dispute with far-reaching implications for commercial real estate, a CoStar competitor failed to prove that the data giant holds a monopoly and prevents brokers from sharing their data with rival firms.
Commercial data startup CREXi filed 14 counterclaims in August after CoStar sued the Los Angeles-based company in 2020, alleging copyright infringement.
CREXi — which is backed by Mitsubishi Estate Company, Industry Ventures and Prudence Holdings — is a platform for commercial real estate listings that competes with CoStar’s LoopNet.
Brokers upload photos of their listings to LoopNet, which then applies a watermark to the photos. CoStar found that these watermarked images were being displayed on CREXi and sued to recoup damages.
In the counterclaims, CREXi argued that many brokers use LoopNet as a de facto repository for their images, and accused CoStar of anti-competitive activity by preventing brokers from using those images elsewhere.
Judge Consuelo Marshall in California’s Central District court ruled Thursday that CREXi failed to prove any anticompetitive activity.
“Whether brokers have become dependent on LoopNet and thus choose not to maintain additional copies of listings apart from what is on LoopNet is not anticompetitive conduct by CoStar,” she wrote. “If CREXi wishes to do business with brokers, CREXi can advise brokers to use their own images, not the modified images listed on LoopNet or linked through LoopLink.”
CREXi also argued that CoStar holds a monopoly in many markets, based on the dollar volume of listings on the site relative to the total commercial real estate sales in those markets.
The judge said that CoStar’s business is providing listing services in a market — not selling property — and therefore CREXi’s analysis didn’t prove a monopoly. Judge Marshall granted CoStar’s motion to dismiss the claims with prejudice, which means they can’t be brought again.
CREXi does, however, have the right to appeal. A representative for CREXi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CoStar’s general counsel, Gene Boxer, wrote in an email that CREXi’s competition claims were “long on hyperbole, but utterly devoid of substance.”
“CREXi’s allegations were always simply a smokescreen, a vain attempt to divert attention from CREXi’s industrial-scale scheme of copyright infringement and misappropriation, which it wielded against CoStar using a web of offshore agents,” he wrote. “We have obtained injunctions against four of those agents, and in the process uncovered damning evidence of CREXi’s willful misconduct.”
The case is being closely watched by the industry, because CoStar has a reputation for aggressively litigating against competitors.
The company in 2016 filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Xceligent, which ended up in bankruptcy. CoStar was awarded a $500 million judgment in that case, based on more than 38,000 violations. Last summer, CoStar sought an injunction against a former employee who created an Instagram meme page poking fun at the company and its executives.
CoStar alleges that CREXi has stolen more than 50,000 images. The copyright infringement trial is scheduled to begin in March 2024.
Read more New York Back in court: CoStar sues rival over “massive” copyright infringement The post CoStar beats rival CREXi’s antitrust suit appeared first on The Real Deal.
Hilton College Dean Dennis Reynolds with the University of Houston (Getty, University of Houston, Kirksey Architecture)The University of Houston is expected to open its renovated on-campus hotel next week.
The school’s Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership will reopen the Hilton-branded hotel that it spent more than $30 million renovating and expanding, the Houston Business Journal reported.
The UH Hilton, located at 4450 University Drive, is the only on-campus, full-service hotel in the country and will offer on-campus, real-world experience for students of the school’s hotel management program. About 70 percent of the hotel’s staff consists of students.
The school, which was founded in 1969 by hotel icon Conrad N. Hilton, is one of the top-ranked hospitality programs in the world. The school rebranded last year with a name change from the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management to Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership.
The renovation included the lobby area, public spaces and 80 guest rooms, as well as the addition of a 64,000-square-foot, eight-story building with 70 more rooms. Six former hotel rooms were also converted into administrative office space.
“It’s a much better experience for our students, because before the renovation and expansion, the hotel was more of a boutique. With just 86 rooms, they get the full range of opportunities that come with running a larger hotel,” Hilton College Dean Dennis Reynolds told the outlet. “With 150 guest rooms, they will get that experience, and we will be able to serve the university community better, as well.”
Houston-based Kirksey designed the project, while California-based DPR Construction was the general contractor.
“The hotel sits right in the middle of campus, so we knew the expansion had to be spectacular,” Reynolds told the outlet. “It really is the first thing many people see when they visit the campus. We couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out. The views from the new tower are breathtaking.”
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Houston First-time developer plans $24M boutique hotel in the Heights Texas CDC Houston buys hotels, office buildings in City Place The post University of Houston to open renovated on-campus hotel next week appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kirkland & Ellis’ Andrew Kassof with Estates at Acqualina (Kirkland & Ellis, Google Maps, Getty)A top litigator at a multinational law firm bought a condo at Estates at Acqualina in Sunny Isles Beach for $8 million.
Records show Andrew and Susan Kassof bought unit 2701 at the north tower of the two-tower Estates at Acqualina condominium complex at 17901 Collins Avenue. An affiliate of the developer, Trump Group, sold the unit. The Kassofs financed the purchase with a $5.5 million mortgage from Associated Bank.
Andrew Kassof is a litigator and partner with the Chicago-based law firm Kirkland & Ellis, which has offices across the U.S., Asia, and Europe. Kirkland & Ellis became the first law firm to top $4 billion in revenue in 2019, Bloomberg reported. The firm’s alumni include Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.
Kirkland & Ellis recently signed a lease for 115,000 square feet on six floors at 830 Brickell, the 55-story office tower that is under construction in Miami. Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group and Jonathan Goldstein’s Cain International are developing the building. Kassof is currently based in the Chicago office, according to the firm’s website.
The Kassofs’ purchase appears to be the first closing in the north tower.
The north tower’s condo declaration was recorded last week. Property records have not yet been updated to reflect square footage or the numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms in the unit.
Trump Group’s Estates at Acqualina includes a 49-story, 154-unit south tower where closings began in June, and the 52-story, 94-unit north tower. It is the developer’s third project in Sunny Isles Beach. The Trump Group, led by Jules Trump and his brother Eddie Trump, has no affiliation with Donald Trump.
Estates at Acqualina includes a 45,000-square-foot amenities villa with an ice rink, bowling alley and movie theater. The buildings’ lobbies were designed by Karl Lagerfeld, and the New York City-based Greek restaurant Avra opened Avra Miami Estiatorio late last year.
The development has been plagued by back-and-forth legal battles between Trump Group and the project’s builder, Suffolk Construction. The issues center on allegations of unpaid work and missed construction deadlines, court documents show.
After the two firms settled their respective lawsuits in May, Trump Group and Suffolk reopened their complaints in the fall. Trump Group is seeking $50 million in damages, and Suffolk’s latest complaint asks for $20 million.
Despite the litigation, big name buyers have been closing on units in the development. Leslie Edelman, the head of luxury gun manufacturer Kimber, bought a unit for $21.3 million in December. Mexican pharmaceuticals heir Alberto Saba bought a condo for $10.1 million in November. Basketball star LeBron James bought a unit for $9 million in October.
Read more The post Top litigator buys Estates at Acqualina condo appeared first on The Real Deal.
Michael Rios, Mick Patridge, Chance King, Don Heller, Judy Feder, Victoria Risko, Jennifer Puz, Tim & Laurie Briggs, Aneela Zaman and Lori & Brock Harris (WEA, Judy Feder, The Briggs Group, Aneela Zaman, Michael Rios, Don Heller, Risko & Puz, Getty)Chance King — who was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 2017 and also happens to be the son of former CNN talk show host Larry King — recently made his debut in the residential real estate business.
He has joined Westside Estate Agency, where he will focus on neighborhoods in Beverly Hills and Bel Air.
King pitched for the White Sox’s minor league team in 2017. He shifted his career focus due to injury. He said the discipline and strategy of pitching informs the way he navigates potential deals.
“In baseball, you have to think one step ahead. As a pitcher, you have to be prepared and know the guys who you are facing. It’s similar to how you have to know all the facts about your property and the needs of your client,” he told TRD.
King also attends law school at USC. He anticipates graduating in 2025.
➤The Beverly Hills Estates has recruited several veteran agents to join ranks at the boutique firm. Victoria Risko and Jennifer Puz joined from Sotheby’s International Realty. One of their significant deals in 2022 was working on the $33 million sale of 1109 Calle Vista Drive in Beverly Hills.
Also, Judy Feder recently joined the firm. She formerly worked with Hilton & Hyland. In 2018, Feder served as the listing agent for a $38 million Malibu beach house sold by film producer Joel Silver.
The team of Jack Harris and Michael Fahimina also started working with The Beverly Hills Estates. And Mick Partridge joined The Beverly Hills Estates from Hilton & Hyland.
➤Don Heller Group has made the jump from Compass to Coldwell Banker Exclusive. In a blog, Don Heller wrote that his group will work in West L.A.; one reason he made the move was to participate in Coldwell’s international network.
Don Heller Group was ranked in Real Trends’ 2021 Small Teams by Volume list, where its sales totaled $49.4 million. In the past, Heller has maintained a specialty in the condominium and new development markets.
➤Brock and Lori Harris have joined Compass’ Voyage Real Estate Team, which is based in Beverly Hills. The Harrises will focus on the enclaves of Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Hollywood Hills. They were most recently affiliated with Keller Williams.
➤Tim and Laurie Briggs of Briggs Group recently affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty. They’ll work out of Coldwell’s Indian Wells/La Quinta office. They formerly were affiliated with Compass.
➤Douglas Elliman announced three new agents affiliating with the firm. Aneela Zaman will work in Elliman’s Beverly Hills office, where she will focus on Beverly Hills, as well as Mar Vista, Beverlywood and Westchester. Zaman most recently worked with Avenue 8. Sheila Simmons will work at Elliman’s Brentwood office; she most recently affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty. And Michael Rios joined Elliman’s Newport Beach office, where he will concentrate on . the Newport Beach market and enclaves around Newport Coast.
➤Roxy Gonzalez recently affiliated with Amalfi Estates. She will sell in the neighborhoods of Encino and Pacific Palisades. Gonzalez formerly worked with The Agency.
Read more The post Movers: Baseball player Chance King to pitch sales at WEA appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kairoi Residential’s Tyler Sibley (Kairoi Residential, Getty)A San Antonio-based apartment builder bought a development site along Central Expressway in Dallas recently.
Kairoi Residential bought land north of Knox Street for a planned 250-unit apartment complex, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The developer spent two years assembling the property, company president Tyler Sibley told the outlet. The address wasn’t reported.
The site is currently home to low-rise residential buildings that were built in the 1950s. Jake Milner of Davidson & Bogel Real Estate assisted with the purchase.
“We are very specific in terms of where we choose to develop,” Sibley previously told the outlet. “None of these projects for us are rinse and repeat.”
The Knox project is one of multiple developments Karoi has in Dallas. The 12-story high-rise Selene at 2620 Maple Avenue opened last year. It also has the 297-unit, five-story Amelia at Farmers Market in downtown and 350-unit Boheme in Oak Cliff.
A few miles south of the Knox Street project, developer HN Capital recently bought a chunk of land at the western end of Hi Line Drive near the Trinity Strand Trail for a redevelopment project. “I am still thinking through development ideas, but it would be in the spirit of making Hi Line Drive a truly elevated urban street and respond to the park being planned at the entrance of the Strand Trail that sits in front of this property,” HN Capital CEO Vipin Nambiar said.
In addition, developer Westdale is working on redeveloping a block in the historic Deep Ellum neighborhood.
Even farther south, North Carolina developer Quarterra Multifamily filed plans with the state to build 372 units at 3500 Colorado Boulevard, which is on the west side of the Oak Cliff neighborhood. The project is estimated to cost $70 million, or about $188,000 per unit, with construction starting in September and lasting about two years, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Dallas Quarterra brings multifamily to the Canyon in Oak Cliff Dallas HN Capital buys Design District block for major redevelopment Auto Draft The post Kairoi plans apartments on Knox Street appeared first on The Real Deal.
Huntington Beach mayor Tony Strickland, California governor Gavin Newsom (Getty, City of Huntington Beach)Even as the City of Huntington Beach pursues a polarizing fight against builder’s remedy, the City Council opened a second front against the state government with a vote this week to move ahead with a legal challenge to state housing laws SB 9 and 10 and to block local processing of Accessory Dwelling Units applications.
The directive, which passed with a 4-3 vote, amounted to an escalation of a bigger fight with Sacramento that began weeks ago and is quickly emerging as one of the highest-profile housing disputes California has seen in years.
“We all believe in property rights,” Casey McKeon, a councilman who supported the motion, said during the Tuesday council meeting. “The issue is a matter of local control — it should be incumbent on the residents who live here to decide how they zone their city and if they want to allow ADUs, etc., and not have state mandates that pierce our charter protections and our local control and our home law.”
“This is just poking the bear — the California bear, if you will,” countered Councilman Dan Kalmick, who opposed the motion. “This is just absolutely not needed.”
SB 9 fightThe council’s ordinance would block the city from processing new permits for ADUs, a move that — while undercutting what has been one of the state’s most successful recent housing initiatives — could also leave some local property owners in limbo, open up the city to litigation and throw a wrench into the city’s ongoing talks with Sacramento over an update to its Housing Element, the state planning document that details the city’s plans to expand housing over the next eight years.
It also amounts to a new, unexpected attack on SB 9, a law that has perhaps generated more attention than any state housing initiative in recent memory.
The law, which allows residential property owners to split their lots and build duplexes, and its companion law, SB 10, which allows cities to expedite upzoning near transit sites, were both signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 amid a flurry of pro-housing legislation and came into effect last year. Before it was enacted, SB 9, in particular, generated a tremendous backlash from some property owners, who argued it would destroy their neighborhoods, as well as dozens of cities around the state, whose leaders argued it was a violation of local authority and in some cases attempted ludicrous defenses against it.
Yet for all the hoopla to date, the broader impact of the single-family zoning overhaul has proven miniscule: One recent study found that, in the 13 California cities where experts predicted it could have the most impact, its use had been “limited or non-existent.” Last year San Diego, which typically permits several thousand new homes annually, received only seven SB 9 applications. Huntington Beach has reportedly received none.
It was unclear exactly on what basis the Orange County city plans to contest the law. This week’s motion only directed City Attorney Michael Gates to prepare a legal challenge, and Gates told the council that he would explore a legal strategy and fill members in during a closed session.
“I would not comment on anything tonight,” Gates said before the vote. “I would come back with more specifics.”
The city could attempt to invoke special rights because of its status as a charter city, although some California courts have previously ruled that status does not trump the state’s right to implement housing laws.
“State overreach”Nevertheless, both the ideology underpinning the city’s new legal challenges — “the biggest reason being state overreach,” Councilman Pat Burns, who brought the motion, said on Tuesday — and the high stakes of the escalating fight, which could potentially set a new precedent cementing or undermining state authority over housing laws, were abundantly clear.
The Tuesday vote came hours after both the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the state Attorney General’s Office sent strongly worded letters — again — to city officials, and Gov. Gavin Newsom also weighed in, writing in a press release that Huntington Beach “will simply not win.” Assuming Huntington Beach moves ahead with its ordinance, a high-profile legal clash, potentially including suits filed by the state against Huntington Beach, seems all but assured.
“Today’s letters reflect the latest in a string of troubling actions by the city,” the state Attorney General’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This is another blatant attempt to evade state housing law,” added Gustavo Velasquez, the director of HCD.
The SB 9 and 10 legal challenge comes on the heels of Huntington Beach’s resistance to builder’s remedy, a California provision that allows developers to bypass local zoning in cities that fail to file state-approved a Housing Element plan by the deadline. Currently, most cities in the state, including Huntington Beach, are out of compliance with its Housing Element. The city has not received any project applications citing builder’s remedy.
Partisan riftThe city’s latest motion, as well as the city’s ongoing builder’s remedy fight, have revealed a major rift within the council itself, which elected a new Republican majority in November and this week also moved to ban rainbow flags on city property. On Tuesday council members who opposed the measure openly tore into its language, which included descriptions like the “radical redevelopment” ostensibly caused by the state laws, and warned of the potential costs of a legal fight they view as futile.
“I’m assuming you read the attorney general’s letter and the HCD’s letter that we received earlier today?” Kalmick, who was endorsed by the Democratic Party of Orange County, told his Republican colleagues ahead of the SB 9 vote. “We’re racking up the fastest number of letters we can get from the state threatening to sue us.”
The city is on track to pass its local “builder’s remedy ban” around April 1 and could file a separate lawsuit challenging the building provision within weeks.
Read more Los Angeles Defying state warning, Huntington Beach advances builder’s remedy ban San Francisco YIMBYs sue Bay Area cities to recognize builder’s remedy Los Angeles Meet the developer giving California NIMBYs nightmares The post State laws at stake as one city escalates fight against Sacramento housing policy appeared first on The Real Deal.
McLaurin Development’s Zeb McLaurin with rendering of Bella Noir Wellness Hub (McLaurin Development, SEEK Design + Architecture, Getty)McLaurin Development is nearing the closing on a block-long, city-owned site for its proposed $47 million wellness center project in Bronzeville.
Chicago’s Community Development Commission approved the sale of the land at 601 East 47th Street in the South Side neighborhood for a mixed-use development dubbed Bella Noir Wellness Hub that will aim to “eliminate community inequities,” Urbanize reported. Seek Design + Architecture is designing the project.
Led by McLaurin and Bella Noir LLC, whose backer is Chicago-area native Maurita Holmes, the wellness hub will include community fitness space, after-school activities and programs, a farm-to-table program with on-site dining, 24 residential units for veteran housing and three more that will be marketed as affordable housing.
The veteran housing will be developed in partnership with the University of Chicago. In addition, The Lyric Foundation, which will run some of the programs in the hub, will relocate its headquarters to the site.
“Bella Noir’s programs invest in the revitalization of the community and address the needs of disadvantaged youth while providing a space for the community as a whole to meet their health and wellness needs,” the website said.
The ground-floor of the wellness hub will include a pharmacy and retail space as well as 15 parking spaces for residents and 22 for commercial patrons. The apartments will be located in the eastern portion of the project with the other end holding a full-size basketball court, fitness center, medical office space and co-working space.
The developers will pay $748,000 for the land, pending city council approval. The $42 million project, which is being built by general contractor Powers and Sons Construction, is expected to begin construction next January and be completed by the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026.
Elsewhere in Bronzeville, McLaurin is a part of the GRIT team, along with Farpoint Development among other partners, approved to build the $4 billion Bronzeville Lakefront project to redevelop the former Michael Reese Hospital site into a series of mixed use residential and commercial buildings across the 48-acre site. A groundbreaking ceremony is being held for that project next month as the development team kicks off work on a $60 million infrastructure package to prepare the site for further building.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Chicago West Garfield Park’s $50M wellness center project wins $10M grant Chicago Scott Goodman’s Farpoint wins deal to build new CTA facility, buy old one The post McLaurin wins initial approval of land sale for $47M Bronzeville project appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Los Angeles Metro’s Stephanie Wiggins and Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass (Getty)Southern California’s largest transit agency will give up surplus land to house as many as 10,000 homeless residents.
LA Metro will scour its properties for surplus, vacant and underused land that could be turned into housing for homeless residents, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted unanimously to amass an inventory of surplus property for future developers to build temporary or permanent shelters.
Such properties could include unused land near train stations or empty parking lots.
“Everyone knows that about 1,000 people take shelter on Metro (trains and buses) every day who are homeless,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Metro board member who spearheaded the motion, told the newspaper. “The idea of Metro property being used for affordable housing is part of that continuum.”
Metro aims to create 10,000 homes to shelter homeless residents on its excess land, the agency reported.
“People don’t look at us as a housing institution but in a way we are,” said L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, a Metro board member. “This is something close to your heart and mine.”
Developers usually snag the land next to new Metro train lines for luxury apartments.
From Pasadena to Downtown Los Angeles to Monrovia, apartments and townhomes have been built for working professionals who want a quick train trip to jobs. Metro now wants to pivot to affordable housing.
A 232-unit affordable housing complex was built on land once set aside for a county jail at 1060 North Vignes Street near L.A. Union Station, Solis said. She added that the adjacent land owned by Metro could be used for similar apartments.
Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval suggested an affordable housing development could be built on or near a parking lot next to the North Pomona L (Gold) Line Station, slated to open in January 2025.
“There is property there to be considered,” he said. “It is important to create opportunities for people who don’t historically have access to housing near transit.”
In an executive order this month, Bass ordered a list of all city-owned property that is vacant, surplus or underused to be given to the city’s housing czar, who will determine its suitability for homeless housing. The city report is expected in early March.
Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins was ordered to report back to the board’s executive management committee at the end of March with a list of Metro properties feasible for housing.
A full report on how to streamline the transfer of property, which usually involves a $1 per year lease, is expected to come to the full board at the end of April. The report updates Metro’s property holdings, last calculated about three years ago, Bass said.
Read more Los Angeles Transit agency to bank land near future rail stations to stymie gentrification Los Angeles South LA apartment project near Metro line gets green light Los Angeles Metro gives double toot for $2.3B Union Station makeover “When thinking about Metro-owned property for housing, it would be nice to refer someone to a location off the line, like a parking lot with a mixed use, with permanent supportive housing with drug treatment,” Bass said.
In July, Metro voted to buy up land next to proposed train stations, then sell parcels to affordable housing developers with rules that ensure low rents, prohibit speculation and stymie gentrification.
— Dana Bartholomew
The post LA Metro to shed surplus land to create 10K affordable homes appeared first on The Real Deal.
An aerial of Jetty’s Waterfront Restaurant in Jupiter at 1075 North Highway A1A with Patrick Koenig (Google Maps, Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches)A group of investors, including the nephew of embattled developer Glenn Straub, bought Jetty’s Waterfront Restaurant in Jupiter.
The nephew, Glenn Edward Straub, and his investment partners paid $7.5 million for the 10,000-square-foot building that sits on an acre of land at 1075 North Highway A1A, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The partners include Patrick Koenig, Richard Johnson Jr. and Scott Johnson, founders of West Palm Beach-based Flagler Realty & Development.
Deborah Taube, longtime owner of the seafood eatery, sold the property.
The buyers financed the purchase with a $7.3 million loan from Evermore Bank.
Records show that one entity, tied to Koenig and the Johnsons, bought an 80 percent interest in the real estate. The purchase is by Koenig and the Johnsons individually, as well as by the other investors, and is not tied to Flagler Realty, Koenig said. He declined to identify all the partners or say if a redevelopment is planned.
Another entity, led by Glenn Edward Straub, bought a 20 percent stake in the real estate, according to records and Vizzda.
Straub’s uncle owns the 2,000-plus-acre Palm Beach Polo and Country Club in Wellington and has been embroiled in a yearslong legal battle with the village over alleged code violations on the property.
This week, the Village of Wellington Council voted to push for Straub’s company to pay $6.6 million in liens levied on the property over an allegedly illegal dog park and alleged damages to an ecological preserve embedded within Palm Beach Polo, The Palm Beach Post reported.
Jupiter, in northern Palm Beach County, is better known for its golf courses and mansions than retail sales. Still, the city has seen some commercial investment in recent months.
In December, Walgreens sold its store building at 1800 West Indiantown Road in Jupiter for $11.2 million but will continue to lease the space.
Also last year, Bainbridge Companies and TPG Real Estate Partners dropped $161.1 million for the 304-unit Allure at Abacoa apartment complex at 1456 Cades Bay Avenue and 4515 Main Street.
The post Glenn Straub’s nephew, partners buy Jetty’s restaurant in Jupiter appeared first on The Real Deal.
Nothing to see here.
Brookfield Asset Management CEO Bruce Flatt brushed off the firm’s recent defaults and cast a vote of confidence in the fundamentals of the office market.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Flatt pointed to high demand and low inventory among Class A spaces despite rising interest rates as a “tale of two cities.”
“High-quality space is very sought after as companies want to bring people back and have engaging space,” Flatt said, noting outsized that Brookfield’s One Manhattan West is now 97 percent leased, and claiming that space in the tower is renting for 50 percent more than it was before the pandemic.
Flatt’s comments come after Brookfield defaulted on $784 million in loans tied to two trophy office towers in Downtown L.A. The firm walked away last week from a $465 million loan package tied to the Gas Company Tower at 555 West 5th Street and $319 million in loans tied to 777 South Figueroa Street, according to an SEC filing.
The defaults open up the opportunity for remedies by the lenders, including foreclosure.
“It’s just regular business. It’s small and not relevant to the overall business.” Flatt told Bloomberg of the defaults, adding that “the negative things get exaggerated.”
Many landlords are struggling to refinance their properties under high interest rates. More than $16 billion in loans secured by New York City commercial properties are set to mature this year, up 30 percent from the $12.7 billion that came due last year in the nation’s largest office market.
Before Brookfield’s troubles surfaced in Los Angeles, one of its New York properties scored ne of Manhattan’s most valuable office leases of 2022. Big Four consulting firm KPMG signed a lease for 450,000 square feet at Two Manhattan West, paying in the low $100s per square foot. Over the life of the lease, KPMG is projected to pay $1 billion.
Even that 20-year lease exposed the challenging headwinds roiling office landlords in a post-pandemic world. KPMG’s move to the tower in 2025 will mark a reduction of its office footprint by more than 40 percent, a result of the firm shifting to a hybrid work model.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more New York Murdoch’s 6th Ave deal tops Manhattan’s most valuable office leases of 2022 Los Angeles Brookfield defaults on $784M on loans connected to DTLA office towers Los Angeles Inside Brookfield’s LA office defaults The post Brookfield CEO: Office struggles “exaggerated” appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kiser Group’s Lee Kiser, Katie LeGrand and Jacob Price with Anderson Point at 5700 North Ashland Avenue (Kiser Group, Anderson Point, Getty)Chicago’s MCZ Development turned a former Andersonville hospital into a $53.5 million luxury apartment sale.
The firm sold the 155-unit Anderson Point at 5700 North Ashland Avenue in the North Side neighborhood to Chicago-based Lake Street Lofts LLC, which is managed by area architect Patrick FitzGerald, according to Illinois business records. Kiser Group’s Lee Kiser, Katie LeGrand and Jacob Price brokered the deal.
“Apartment properties in the neighborhood are almost entirely vintage 3-story walk-up buildings with few or no amenities,” Kiser said in a statement. “Anderson Point caters to an upscale tenant who previously would not have been able to find luxury apartments with full-scale amenities in Andersonville.”
Anderson Point is a redevelopment of the former Edgewater Medical Center and has studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments.
It’s not clear how much MCZ profited from the sale, which was a 1031 exchange transaction that allows capital gains taxes on real estate investments to be deferred when the cash from a sale is put directly into buying a separate, similar property. FitzGerald’s LLC likely placed the capital into the Andersonville asset from its $49 million sale last month of a Fulton Market lofts apartment building at 910 West Lake Street to Alex Najem and Shanna Khan.
Najem’s Fulton Street Cos. is incorporating that parcel into a larger redevelopment of adjacent property into a 530,000-square-foot office project set to be anchored by a lease with Harrison Street Real Estate Capital for about 150,000 square feet.
MCZ in 2019 received a $26.7 million construction loan from Heartland Bank & Trust for the adaptive reuse project on the Andersonville property, which it first proposed in 2015, The Real Deal previously reported. Neither the firm nor FitzGerald returned requests for comment.
The Andersonville project marked a large addition of rental units to the North Side amid a slowdown in multifamily construction completions in the Chicago area last year. Deliveries fell to below 6,000 units across 32 properties in 2022 from almost 11,000 units in 2019, according to a January report from Yardi Matrix.
Founded by Michael Lerner in 1985, MCZ’s portfolio also includes a redevelopment of a 1920s-era dairy plant site into a condo building in Ukrainian Village and a Fulton Market complex the firm co-developed with @properties co-founder Michael Golden.
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The John Buck Company’s John A. Buck II; 155 North Wacker Drive (Loopnet, The John Buck Company)John Buck has found a new tenant for the soon-to-be-vacant space in his eponymous development firm’s Wacker Drive office tower.
After losing two big tenants in the tower at 155 North Wacker Drive, the Chicago-based developer has secured one new tenant, and is close to inking a lease with another, Crain’s reported. John Buck developed the 1.2 million-square-foot tower in 2009.
Insurer Ryan Specialty Group has leased about 40,000 square feet across two floors in the tower and will relocate its Chicago office from the 57,000-square-foot space it leases in the Two Prudential Plaza tower at 180 North Stetson Avenue. In addition, the testing, inspection and certification services division of Underwriters Laboratories is in talks to lease about 40,000 square feet in the Wacker Drive tower.
The leases would help John Buck fill the spaces left vacant when healthcare management consulting firm Vizient moved to the redeveloped Old Post Office building in 2021 and when the second-largest tenant, law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom announced plans to leave the 170,000-square-foot space in the tower for a smaller space in BMO Tower next to Union Station. John Buck developed the tower, completing it in 2009.
Ryan’s new lease marks a downsizing for the specialty insurance company, following the trend of companies reducing their office footprints and moving to new or redeveloped spaces.
For UL, the firm joins a wave of suburban-based companies opening offices in downtown Chicago to have better access to the young, urban talent. The company’s nonprofit affiliates last year leased 53,000 square feet of offices in downtown Evanston last year, and the firm is keeping its campus at 333 Pfingsten Road in suburban Northbrook, which has been its headquarters since the late 1970s and has lab and product testing capabilities.
“We’ve been happy in Northbrook for many years, but we’re out of space,” UL Research CEO Terrence Brady said at a November Evanston City Council meeting, the outlet Evanston RoundTable reported. He wants employees to be able to more easily get to offices without having to drive, prompting the downtown lease.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Chicago Sizing up Chicago’s ailing office market Chicago Publicis adds to Chicago’s record sublease market with largest listing Auto Draft The post John Buck refilling vacancies in Wacker Drive tower appeared first on The Real Deal.
Discovery Land Company’s Mike Meldman with The Hills project (Discovery Land Company, Getty)After some time in the rough, Discovery Land Company put an approach shot on the fairway this week in its effort to build a golf resort in East Quogue.
A judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Scottsdale-based company’s approval to build a golf community in the Southampton hamlet, Newsday reported. The suit was brought by local residents and environmentalists challenging the proposed 130-unit, 18-hole course.
The petitioners filed the Article 78 litigation last month, claiming the development’s approval came despite zoning restrictions preventing a resort at the site, which is on Lewis Road. In 2019, the same environmental groups filed a different suit, which they also lost.
The judge in this case said the arguments were the same as last time and therefore, could not be relitigated. That means Discovery Land Company should be able to move forward, although the plaintiffs expect to appeal the ruling and seek an injunction to prevent work from starting.
While building the hundreds of housing units and golf course, the developer does plan to preserve 436 acres of open space. Other recreational facilities planned for the grounds include a fitness center, community pool and clubhouse, all reserved for residents.
27East previously reported the housing component features eight clubhouse units, 15 village cottages, 53 village lots, 16 village estates, 26 woodland estates and 12 workforce housing units.
The project, formerly known as “The Hills,” has faced several legal challenges over the years. The attorney for the petitioners told Newsday that a 2018 lawsuit is still pending against the Southampton Zoning Board of Appeals, which ruled the golf course was an accessory use to a residential subdivision.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more Tri-State East Quogue golf resort proposal seeks green light Tri-State East Quogue golf, resi development nears approval Tri-State Big golf, resi project in East Quogue approved The post East Quogue golf resort developer has green in view appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rendering of plans for 6865 South La Cienega Boulevard and 5201-5309 West Knowlton Street IRC and Associates wants to bulldoze a curving row of mid-century apartment buildings in Westchester and replace them with a 145-unit complex.
An affiliate of the Roseville-based developer has filed plans to build four- and five-story apartment buildings at 6865 South La Cienega Boulevard and 5201-5309 West Knowlton Street, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
A dozen one- and two-story apartment buildings would be demolished, according to city documents.
The new complex would rise behind a revamped strip mall with an Amazon Fresh and Chick-Fil-A at La Cienega Boulevard and Centinela Avenue.
Plans for what would be dubbed The Legacy call for two buildings with 145 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom dwellings and parking for 197 vehicles.
The developer aims to use density bonus incentives that allow a taller building than zoning rules allow in exchange for 50 affordable apartments set aside for very low-income households. The affordable units would offset the 50 rent-controlled units razed for the new complex.
The project, designed by Del Aire-based Vanos Architects, would feature a line of interconnected apartment blocks, split in the center. The putty and white complex would include common rooms, courtyards and roof decks.
“The building’s architectural style builds on a very long history of what would now be recognized as classical mid-century modernism,” according to a filing with city planners. “The proposed design utilizes simple scaled masses, articulated with clean geometry.”
The Legacy would add to a number of large apartment complexes planned for Westchester, mostly west of the 405 Freeway.
Among the largest is a 441-unit mixed-use complex by Cityview, which would replace a Pep Boys tire shop and a Del Taco near Sepulveda and Manchester boulevards.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Cityview eyes 441-unit complex in Westchester Los Angeles Nonprofit to build first supportive housing project in Westchester Los Angeles Around LAX, office-to-hotel conversions are catching on The post IRC proposes 145-unit apartment complex in Westchester appeared first on The Real Deal.
Larry Silverstein and a rendering of the planned development at 44-01 Northern Boulevard (Getty, Silverstein Properties, Akerman)Silverstein Properties secured $165 million to build a 13-story apartment building in Astoria, Queens.
Banco Inbursa provided $137.6 million in construction financing and a $27 million project loan for 44-01 Northern Boulevard, property records show. Silverstein is developing a 354-unit building, including nearly 90 affordable apartments.
The project, designed by Hill West Architects, will include 25,000 square feet of retail and 200 parking spots.
The land was rezoned from industrial to residential in 2019. Silvestein paid $39.7 million for the site in 2021, records show.
The project is near Innovation QNS, a 3,200-unit, mixed-use building that Silverstein, BedRock Real Estate Partners and Kaufman Astoria Studios won approval to develop. Unlike that massive project, the Northern Boulevard development qualified for the property tax break 421a before it expired in June 2022.
Foundation work is nearing completion, and the building is projected to open in spring 2024.
The fate of Innovation QNS, as well as that of other projects made possible by recent rezonings, is tied to the future of the tax break. State legislators have shown little appetite for reviving 421a, and some in the industry have predicted that a version of the tax break will not be restored for years, after rental development has come to a halt.
Read more New York Here are the real estate policies to watch in Hochul’s budget New York Expired 421a deadline jeopardizes 33K housing units As part of her executive budget this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul pitched extending the construction deadline for projects that qualified under the old program. The Real Estate Board of New York estimates that some 33,000 units of housing will not be built without the extension.
Representatives for the developer of Halletts North, a 1,440-unit project also planned for Astoria, have indicated that they will not be able to meet the 2026 deadline.
The post Silverstein scores $165M to build Astoria apartment building appeared first on The Real Deal.
Deputy Planning Commissioner Cindy Roubik with 30 N. LaSalle St (Chicago, Golub & Co. LLC/American General Life Insurance Co, UST Prime III Office Owner LLC, Riverside Investment & Development/AmTrust, LinkedIn)Chicago officials are inching closer to finalizing its list of projects that could qualify for subsidies from the city’s LaSalle Street renovation project.
The city’s Department of Planning and Development is now evaluating six projects as part of the “LaSalle Street Reimagined” program, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The proposals represent more than $1 billion in private investment and more than 2,000 residential units.
The program was designed to help encourage residential development in the central Loop to break up the office “monoculture.” With record office vacancies and a crowded sublease market, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city officials are hoping the new program will spur more office-to-residential conversions.
Projects built using the program’s incentives will have to make at least 30 percent of new housing affordable, but developers will get TIF funding and other city financing in exchange.
City officials have eliminated three of the nine proposals that came in before the late-December deadline. The plan is to select up to three of the projects by the end of March.
One of the proposals, by developer Urban Resolve, was disqualified due to the location being located outside of the LaSalle Central TIF district. Another was withdrawn by the developer and the other had an incomplete application.
While some developers have balked at the idea of including so much more affordable housing, the city says the number of proposals it received shows the program is working.
“This was an invitation to apply. No one is being forced to do this,” Deputy Planning Commissioner Cindy Roubik told the outlet. “We’re very pleased with the level of interest.”
New York-based AmTrust along with longtime Chicago developers John O’Donnell and Mike Reschke were parts of separate teams that pitched two Loop properties for office-to-residential conversions in response to the program.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Chicago LaSalle Street office building value plummets, leaving owner just above water Chicago City approves $5M grant program for LaSalle Street initiative The post Chicago narrows choices for LaSalle Street incentives appeared first on The Real Deal.
MG3 Group’s Marcelo Saiegh, Gustavo Bogomolni and Hernan Leonoff with an aerial of the dev site purchased at 21001 Biscayne Boulevard in Aventura (Google Maps, MG3 REIT)MG3 Group bought a development site in Aventura in a bet on the city’s growth as an office market.
MG3 paid $10 million for the assemblage at 21001 Biscayne Boulevard near Aventura Hospital, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The firm plans to include medical office space in its project.
The deal, which breaks down to $9.5 million per acre, comes as Miami experiences a cooling of development site prices.
Selling entity Jewish Outreach Center is tied to the Aventura Chabad based in the building immediately east of the purchased site. It had paid $781,800 for the land and other lots in 2019, records show.
The purchase marks continued investment for MG3 across asset classes. The firm owns the retail space at the nearby Aventura Parksquare mixed-use development. MG3 bought the 50,000 square feet of commercial space in 2021 for $48 million, marking one of South Florida’s biggest retail deals that year.
In November, the Aventura-based firm’s real estate investment trust dropped $78 million for the 98-acre Walgreens Distribution Center at 15998 Walgreens Drive west of Jupiter. In the sale-leaseback deal, Walgreens sold the industrial property but will continue to occupy the facility.
Marcelo Saiegh, Gustavo Bogomolni and Hernan Leonoff lead MG3. The firm also has had a strong focus on charter schools. It sold eight campuses throughout Florida in 2021 for a combined $242 million, including a school in Homestead and another in Hollywood.
MG3 joins other real estate players targeting Aventura, partly based on the demand expected from the recently opened Brightline station at 19796 West Dixie Highway in the Ojus neighborhood that is just outside Aventura.
13th Floor Investments, led by Arnaud Karsenti, wants to build an up to 350-unit apartment building at 19680-19770 West Dixie Highway, or one lot south of the Brightline stop.
Starting in late 2020, South Florida land prices soared amid an influx of population and businesses that supercharged the tri-county region’s market. But the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes put the kibosh on rising prices. In Miami’s urban core, the price per acre dropped to $19.3 million in the fourth quarter, a 65 percent decline from the second quarter.
The post MG3 scoops up office building dev site in Aventura appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Ed Scheetz, Simon Reuben, David Reuben, and Ian Schrager along with 8300 Sunset Boulevard (Getty, Google Maps)The Reuben brothers helped finance Ian Schrager and Ed Scheetz’s recent acquisition of the former Standard hotel in Hollywood.
David and Simon Reuben, the U.K.-based investor brothers, teamed up with iBorrow, a bridge loan borrower, to lend $86.7 million in financing for the acquisition, iBorrow announced on Thursday.
Schrager and Scheetz bought the property for $112.5 million earlier this month, records show, after a year of litigation-related delays over a billboard on the property. The two are planning to reopen the 139-key hotel under Schrager’s Public hotel brand.
The loan is due on Feb. 1, 2024, according to documents filed with L.A. County. The property will not open until after the loan matures, according to a statement from David Reuben.
In a statement, Schrager called the loan a “creative financing structure,” but did not provide further details.
The Reuben brothers have been particularly active in the U.S. over the last three years, spending about $4 billion through debt and equity investments. They’re also known for swooping into investments at mezzanine lenders, charging higher interest rates and then having the option to file a UCC foreclosure, which bypasses a regular court process.
In Century City, the brothers are involved in a lawsuit with a group of EB-5 lenders over Michael Rosenfeld’s Century Plaza redevelopment, a $2.5 billion project at 2050 Avenue of the Stars.
Read more Los Angeles Rent and Covid force Standard hotel in WeHo to close Los Angeles Billboard spat holds up purchase of Standard Hollywood site The lender group claims the Reubens reshuffled the debt stack over the course of four years to eventually hold about $1.2 billion in senior and mezzanine loans. By doing so, the brothers have whittled away the rights of more junior lenders to reclaim loan payments, the EB-5 lenders said in their complaint.
The Reubens recently settled a separate lawsuit with a DigitalBridge-controlled entity over the same project, according to a spokesperson. The foreclosure on Century Plaza is now set for March 1, records show.
The post Reuben Brothers finance Schrager’s purchase of former Standard hotel in Hollywood appeared first on The Real Deal.
Viking Partners’ Bret Caller, DRA Advisors’ David Luski, 5555 South Brainard Avenue in Countryside (Viking Partners, DRA Advisors, Google Maps)Viking Partners has made a safe bet by buying a fully-leased Cook County shopping center for $15.3 million.
The Cincinnati-based private equity real estate firm, helmed by Bret Caller, paid around $130 per square foot for the 117,000-square-foot Salem Square at 5555 South Brainard Avenue in Countryside, according to a source familiar with the deal. Viking Partners declined to comment.
Chicago-based Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Rick Drogosz and Joe Girardi represented seller IRC Retail Centers, an affiliate of DRA Advisors, in the negotiations.
The shopping center has service, dining and retail tenants including TJ Maxx/Homegoods, Marshalls, ATI Physical Therapy, Famous Footwear, Mangia Mangia, Great Clips, Card Frenzy and Magic Nails, according to Mid-America Real Estate. Oak Brook-based Pine Tree has been managing the site.
New York-based DRA Advisors merged with Oak Brook-based Inland Real Estate Corp, now IRC Retail Centers, in 2016. DRA Advisors’ Janine Roberts declined to comment on the deal.
Retail rents in suburban Chicago have been on the rise the past few years, with the average asking rent on triple-net retail leases reaching $17.75 per square foot in the first half of 2022, compared to about $16 in 2019, according to a September report from Cushman & Wakefield. The number of Chicago-area retail investment sales also increased in 2021 and 2022 after lagging during the pandemic, according to the report.
Other recent Inland deals include buying a medical office building at 3950 North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago for $16 million from GW Properties. The company also put a 92,000-square-foot shopping center in suburban Evergreen Park up for sale in 2018.
DRA Advisors, which is helmed by David Luski, paid $53 million to acquire a suburban apartment complex from Blackstone late last year. The firm also bought an apartment complex in Bensenville near O’Hare International Airport for $106 million in August.
Read more Chicago DRA shells out $53M for suburban Chicago apartment complex Chicago FPA sells Bensenville apartment complex for $106M Chicago GW Properties gets $16M in Six Corners medical office sale The post Viking Partners picks up Countryside shopping center for $15M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Omni America’s Eugene Schneur and Mo Vaughn with rendering of Omni 21 at 100 Northeast 21st Street (Omni America, Modis Architects, Getty)Former Major League Baseball star Mo Vaughn’s company is planning a $17 million mixed-use project on the border of Miami’s Edgewater and Wynwood.
An affiliate of Omni America, the New York-based development firm co-founded by Vaughn and his partner Eugene Schneur, recently submitted plans with the city of Miami’s building department for Omni 21. The 10-story building would have 97 apartments and roughly 6,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space on the ground floor.
The estimated construction cost is $17.2 million, the plans show. Miami-based Modis Architects designed Omni 21, and Pompano Beach-based Current Builders is the project’s general contractor.
Omni America also filed plans with the Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) for the construction of drainage walls and the removal of contaminated soil on a portion of the 0.6-acre site at 100 Northeast 21st Street.
In 2020, an Omni America affiliate paid $4.5 million for a warehouse on the site, which was completed in 1967, and an adjacent lot, records show. The 9,856-square-foot building was demolished in July, according to an engineering report filed with DERM.
Omni America also owns a nearly 0.7-acre development site at 116 Northeast 24th Street, which the firm acquired for $7.2 million in 2021, records show.
Founded in 2004 after Vaughn retired from Major League Baseball, Omni America’s sister company Omni New York has acquired more than 7,800 units of affordable housing in the Empire State, according to its website. Omni America also owns seven multifamily properties in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Wyoming. A three-time All-Star, Vaughn played for the Boston Red Sox, Anaheim Angels and the New York Mets.
In 2019, Omni America sold an affordable housing apartment building in Miami’s Little River for $6.8 million.
Omni 21 will rise near another development site owned by Brooklyn-based Heritage Equity Partners. Heritage, led by Toby Moskovits and Michael Lichtenstein, is proposing to redevelop a Midas Automotive Center into Edgewood 22, an 18-story rental project with 120 apartments.
Heritage paid $6.3 million for the half-acre site in the first quarter of last year, when the price per acre for developable land in Miami urban’s core — which includes Edgewater and Wynwood — hit $24.1 million, according to Real Capital Analytics data provided by Colliers.
The post Mo Vaughn’s Omni America proposes mixed-use project on Edgewater-Wynwood border appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of CBRE’s Bob Sulentic (Getty, CBRE)A slowdown in investment sales brought on by rising interest rates appears to be eating into CBRE’s income.
The commercial brokerage’s net income plummeted by 88 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, during which the firm experienced a “slightly larger-than-expected decline in transactional revenue,” the company disclosed in its earnings report Thursday.
CBRE’s net income in 2022 fell by 23 percent.
The drop in profit came despite only a 4 percent decline in the brokerage’s quarterly revenue, to $8.2 billion, from the fourth quarter a year ago, driven largely by capital markets and leasing revenue slowing down. The company’s advisory services arm, which houses both capital markets and leasing, saw revenue decrease by 21 percent.
Global sales revenue fell by nearly 47 percent across all major property types, while the Americas saw capital markets revenue drop by 53 percent in the fourth quarter, which the firm blamed on a “highly constrained capital environment.”
Global mortgage origination revenue declined by 42 percent as most debt capital sources were dormant.
Global leasing revenue decreased by 7 percent across most major property types, but particularly within the office market, which was 14 percent lower than in the previous year.
Transactions are expected to remain “subdued” during the first half of the year, but deals should pick back up after that, the brokerage predicted. However, property sales are forecast to remain slow this year.
“There’s a lot of capital that’s been on the sidelines wanting to acquire assets,” CBRE CEO Bob Sulentic said on the company’s earnings call. “There’s a lot of asset owners that have wanted to sell assets. We’re starting to see spreads come in a little bit now and the buyers get a little more aggressive.”
Multifamily and industrial assets are likely to lead the way, Sulentic said, while offices “will remain the most-challenged property type as we do not expect occupancy to come close to pre-pandemic levels in the short-term.”
Leasing revenue is also likely to remain tepid until the back half of this year, as Sulentic said the downturn in demand for office space “is going to sustain for the time being.” The share of CBRE’s leasing revenue from office deals has fallen by 20 percent since 2019.
Read more New York CBRE plans layoffs, $400M in cost reductions New York CBRE nears $330M deal for Amazon-leased warehouse in Red Hook “We haven’t seen much change over the last few months in the return to office,” Sulentic said. “We’ve built a plan for the next several years that assumes that that is going to be the case.”
Still, Sulentic expressed confidence that CBRE will emerge stronger.
“In all, 2023 will be a transition year and we feel good about where we’ll be when we get to the other side of the downturn,” Sulentic said.
The post CBRE profit plummets as i-sales revenue slumps appeared first on The Real Deal.
Thor Equities’ Joe Sitt with vacant lot at Peoria Street and Wayman Street (Thor Equities, Google Maps, Getty)Thor Equities is ready to start swinging hammers again in Chicago’s Fulton Market.
The New York-based firm led by chairman Joe Sitt is considering paying more than $100 million to Nealey Foods for the largest remaining development site in the Windy City’s hottest commercial real estate submarket, CoStar News reported, citing people familiar with the deal.
If Thor goes through with a purchase for the 2.7-acre site along Peoria and Wayman Streets just south of Metra train tracks, the developer could build multiple towers holding a total of 1.3 million square feet under current zoning. It could also ask the city for additional building capacity on the site, which is likely to be turned into a combination of both office space and residential buildings.
Thor’s emergence as a possible buyer of the site replaces Sterling Bay as its rumored suitor. The Chicago-based development giant was reported to be in talks to buy the property from Chicago-based Nealey last year, and have since fallen apart, the outlet reported.
Fulton Market snagged the top spot in terms of the the fastest-growing urban office markets during a recent five-year period, by doubling its supply of space annually on average, CoStar reported based on its recent analysis. Large hotels, such as Jeff Shapack’s Soho House at 113 North Green Street, brought an additional entertainment and lodging element to the popular Randolph Street restaurants in the area, and multifamily towers have since followed into Fulton Market, springing up in and around the neighborhood.
Related Midwest is set to open a 495-foot residential tower, The Row Fulton Market, this summer at 164 North Peoria, and even bigger projects are in the works, such as Related Midwest’s office tower at 725 West Randolph slated to stretch 700 feet. Miami-based Crescent Heights is getting in on the action, as well, with its proposal for a 600-foot-tall apartment tower at 420 North May Street in the area.
The vacant development site’s seller, Nealey, is one of a plethora of food wholesalers and meatpacking firms to have cashed in on Fulton Market’s rising property values amid its redevelopment into a commercial real estate hub. It previously sold two smaller sites in the 900 block of West Fulton in separate deals for more than $32 million combined in 2019
The site is just west of Thor’s 19-story, 470,000-square-foot office highrise at 800 West Fulton Street, where Deere & Co., the maker of John Deere tractors, leases 38,000 square feet, while its anchor tenant is Aspen Dental across about 200,000 square feet. Colliers International brokers Mike Senner and Vern Schultz are representing Nealey in its sale.
Read more New York Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities faces foreclosure on Meatpacking property New York Sternlicht’s LNR eyes foreclosure of Thor Midtown properties Chicago Sterling Bay negotiating to buy 2.7-acre site at Fulton Market The post Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities eyeing $100M Fulton Market development site deal appeared first on The Real Deal.
PIMCO ‘s Emmanuel Roman with 650 California Street (Getty, Google Maps)Columbia Property Trust, a large office landlord controlled by PIMCO, has defaulted on $1.7 billion in loans tied to seven buildings across the country, marking one of largest office defaults since the start of the pandemic.
The firm is now working with its lenders — a group that includes Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank — to restructure its portfolio, according to Bloomberg. The loans were all floating rate, meaning Columbia Property Trust started to feel pain after interest rates soared last year.
The loans are tied to three office buildings in New York, two in San Francisco, one in Boston and one in Jersey City — a portfolio that was most recently appraised at $2.27 billion in 2021.
The New York properties are 245 West 17th Street, 315 Park Avenue South and the office portion of 229 West 43rd Street.
Columbia bought the 481,000-square-foot office piece of 229 West 43rd Street — the former New York Times building — for $516 million in 2015, SEC filings show. The default marks the second time the building has wound up in financial trouble in less than three years. In 2020, Kushner Companies, which owns a 250,000-square-foot retail condo at its base, defaulted on a $70 million mezzanine loan connected to the property.
Two of the properties in the portfolio — 650 California Street in San Francisco and 245 West 17th Street in Manhattan — are linked to Twitter, which made headlines late last year when new owner Elon Musk stopped paying rent.
Columbia sued Twitter in January for allegedly owing about $136,000 in back rent. The REIT, which PIMCO affiliates acquired in 2021, bought 650 California Street for $309.1 million in 2014, records show.
“We, like most office owners, are addressing the unique and unprecedented challenges currently facing our asset class and customer base,” Justina Lombardo, a spokesperson for Columbia Property Trust, told Bloomberg.
The news comes a week after Brookfield defaulted on $784 million worth of loans connected to two of its trophy office towers in Downtown L.A.
“An event of default has occurred” on both loans, a Brookfield subsidiary disclosed, adding “lenders may exercise their remedies,” which include foreclosure.
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José Huizar and Raymond Chan (Getty)He’s accused of taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes while serving as the go-between who greased payoffs by Chinese developers to former Los Angeles councilman José Huizar.
Now former L.A. deputy mayor Raymond Chan is on trial for allegedly being a central player in a sprawling extortion racket that for years corrupted Downtown development projects, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In an opening statement at Chan’s criminal trial, Assistant U.S. Atty. Susan Har accused him of playing multiple roles in a shakedown scheme led by the former councilman, who implicated Chan when he pleaded guilty last month to taking more than $1.5 million in bribes.
“They needed one another for the pay-to-play scheme to work,” the prosecutor told the jury.
Huizar used Chan, a Chinese immigrant, to extort the developers, Har said, while Chan got the powerful councilman to shepherd their projects through the city’s byzantine approval process.
Chan’s attorney, Harland Braun, told jurors his client was innocent and urged them to keep an open mind until Chan takes the stand and testifies after prosecutors rest their case.
Defying an order by U.S. District Judge John Walter, Braun cast the prosecution as motivated by anti-Chinese bias, an allegation the government denies and Walter has ruled off limits.
“You’ll find out that the story the government just gave you is not true,” Braun said. “Chinese this, Chinese that,” he said, adding “Stop using race.”
Walter sustained Har’s objection to Braun’s line of attack. But Braun persisted. “It’s not a crime to speak a foreign language,” he told jurors, according to the Times.
Chan had been general manager of the city’s building department for three years when then-mayor Eric Garcetti promoted him to deputy mayor in 2016. He’s now charged with racketeering, bribery, wire fraud and making false statements to the FBI.
Chan left his city job in July 2017 and became a consultant to developers.
A challenge for Chan will be to refute the testimony of three witnesses who have pleaded guilty to felonies and admitted their roles in the bribery corruption scandal: Chan’s former business partner George Chiang, real estate consultant Morrie Goldman and Huizar’s former aide George Esparza.
Huizar, who pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax evasion, is not expected to testify.
Prosecutors plan to play recordings of wiretapped phone calls and other covertly taped conversations between Chan and witnesses who were working with the FBI.
Har told the jury the case against Chan boils down to a conspiracy “to get money, keep power and avoid the Feds.” She said the former deputy mayor took advantage of an influx in Chinese developers pursuing projects during a Downtown L.A. real estate boom.
As deputy mayor, Chan became a secret business partner with Chiang, who was hired by an arm of Chinese developer Shenzhen Hazens as a consultant on its proposed Luxe City Center Hotel project near what was then called Staples Center, according to Har.
Prosecutors say Chan solicited more than $100,000 in bribes on the project, which was never built, in return for city approvals. Har told the jury that Chan was careful not to accept the money from Chiang until after he left his job as deputy mayor.
Jia Yuan USA, the local subsidiary of Shenzhen Hazens, reached an agreement with prosecutors to pay the government a $1 million penalty to resolve the government’s investigation of the matter. The deal required the developer to fire Chiang as its consultant and improve its compliance program.
Braun tried to distinguish Chan from others ensnared in the case, noting that unlike Huizar and Esparza, Chan never accepted casino gambling chips, private jet flights, luxury hotel stays and other favors on more than a dozen lavish Las Vegas holidays funded by a Chinese developer.
Braun questioned the strength of prosecution evidence that Chan helped arrange that developer’s $600,000 loan to Huizar to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit that threatened his 2015 run for reelection. When the developer, Shen Zhen New World I, was convicted of bribery and wire fraud in November, the jury found the loan was an illegal payoff.
Braun singled out Chiang, an admitted bagman, as especially untrustworthy. Chiang says he passed along more than $100,000 in developer bribes to Chan.
“If he’d been a little more with it,” Braun said of his client, “he’d have seen that George Chiang was a crook.”
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Former LA city councilman José Huizar to plead guilty to bribery and tax evasion Los Angeles Developer found guilty in LA City Hall bribery scheme Los Angeles “Casino Loyale”: Developers, ex-LA deputy mayor indicted in Huizar corruption scandal The post Former LA official on trial for alleged City Hall corruption appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Dalfen’s Sean Dalfen, Titan Development’s Joe Iannaconne, and Capital Commercial Investments’ Paul D. Agarwal with Lockhart 130 Industrial Park (Lockhart 130 Industrial Park, Getty, Titan Development, Capital Commercial Investments, Dalfen)The Central Texas town of Lockhart is world famous for barbecue, but it’s also a smokeshow for logistics warehouse developers. Located off Texas Highway 130, amid the melding metropolises of Austin and San Antonio, the City of Lockhart gave Titan Development a warm welcome recently, the Austin Business Journal reported. The City and its Economic Development Corporation are eating up the attention and open to more industrial investment, even as other Central Texas towns are pushing back on the idea.
New Mexico-based Titan recently started construction on the Lockhart 130 Industrial Park, a 45-acre complex of four buildings totaling 650,000 square feet. Factory Builders Stores already leased the entire first building, which will span about 168,000 square feet.
Here’s what else is new this week:
- Capital Commercial Investments, doing business as CCI-Burleson IV LP, plans to start an $18 million complex in southeast Austin comprising just under 132,000 square feet, or almost $137 per square foot, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The four spec warehouse buildings at 7104 Burleson Road will each have an office.
- Dallas-based Dalfen Industrial recently completed construction of Tuscany Logistics Center in northeast Austin, where Kroger just leased a 70,000 square foot space for a distribution center. The complex includes three buildings, and other tenants include Target and Diligent Delivery.
- Rob Riner Companies recently filed plans for two new industrial buildings at Carter Park East in Fort Worth. Building 2 will comprise just over 501,000 square feet and cost an estimated $30 million. Building 3 will span a little over 586,000 square feet and cost an estimated $35 million. Both work out to $60 per square foot.
- California-based Westcore recently purchased two warehouses in Denton from an LLC with the same address as Boston-based TA Realty.The buildings were delivered in 2022 and comprise a total of just over 242,000 square feet, according to a release from CBRE, who represented the seller. One building is fully leased to DHL Supply Chain. Lowe’s Home Centers and Muenster Milling Company are tenants of the other. The price wasn’t revealed.
- Dallas-based Stream Realty Partners inked a contract to manage a 3.5 million-square-foot industrial portfolio in the San Antonio area, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. The holdings include New York-based BentallGreenOak’s 1.6 million-square-foot Enterprise Industrial Park and Los Angeles-based Ares Management Corporation’s 1.9 million square feet in Schertz and in the east San Antonio area along Interstate 35.
Read more Austin $32.6M warehouses planned for northeast Austin Texas Industrial: Stream, Hines plan massive warehouses in Central Texas Texas Baytown continues industrial domination with $77M complex The post WarehouseWednesday: Lockhart is not just for BBQ appeared first on The Real Deal.
Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob with 890 Mountain Home Road (Getty, Google Maps)Joe Lacob, majority owner and CEO of the Warriors NBA team, has purchased a newly built Woodside home for $40 million, according to a source familiar with the deal. The house sits on a 3.3-acre parcel across the street from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s estate.
Lacob is friendly with his new home’s developer, Rafi Bombad, the source added, and has lived in a home Bombad built in Atherton since 2007, property records confirm.
Listing agent Scott Dancer of Compass declined to comment on the sale and public record shows the new owner as Woodside Holding Trust and Alan L Olsen Trust. Olsen is a CPA and partner at GROCO, which specializes in advising the “ultra-affluent,” including “some of the most influential venture capitalists in the world,” according to the company’s website. Lacob, who was a partner at VC giant Kleiner Perkins for decades, appeared on Olsen’s “American Dreams” YouTube show 10 years ago.
After coming to market one year ago at $110 million, making it the most expensive Bay Area listing at the time, 890 Mountain Road in Woodside took a series of $10-million-plus price cuts and ended up at $48 million by September. It went off the market in mid-December and the deal appears to have taken place during that off-market period. The final sales price represents a 64 percent discount from the original ask.
Bombad and his wife Kathy Nabavi bought the property for just under $6.8 million in June 2018, according to public record. After they tore down the 1950s-era main residence and guest house, they spent years building nearly 20,000 square feet of interior space across the estate’s main home and other buildings, including a fitness center with a hair salon, a detached office, a two-bedroom guest house, and a “harvest room” for the fruit of the 150-year-old olive trees planted on the property.
The main house has five full bathrooms and bedrooms, three half-baths, and a full swing golf simulator in the basement. Presciently, listing photos show a Warriors game on the big screen TV in the home theater. There is also a 6,000-bottle wine cellar.
The Italian roof tiles on the main home are over a century old and Mediterranean-inspired stone walls and tile roofs are used throughout the property, which also has a heated pool and spa, trellised motor court and outdoor kitchen and dining pavilion. The property was meant to have an “Andalusian farmhouse style,” according to documents submitted to the city of Woodside during the permitting process.
This is the second large property purchase that Lacob and his wife Nicole Curran have made in recent years. In 2019, they bought a $29 million oceanfront Malibu mansion. Lacob had said he was interested in buying the Los Angeles Angels before team owner Arte Moreno announced the team was no longer for sale in mid-January.
Read more San Francisco Here’s a sneak peek at a $110M Woodside estate across the street from Larry Ellison San Francisco Spec home developer slashes asking price on Woodside estate by 42% The post Warriors owner Joe Lacob buys Woodside estate for $40M appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Side’s Guy Gal (Getty, Side)UPDATED, 7:56 p.m., Feb 22: Side is exploring changing its financial arrangements with its agent teams, The Real Deal has learned.
In an all-hands Zoom meeting on Feb. 21, the venture-backed white-label brokerage said it is exploring changing commission splits for some agents, as well as modifying its liability insurance fees, according to two sources.
A Side representative declined to comment on its financial arrangements with agents, though she said, “wow, a lot of the info you’ve been told is way off.”
Side doesn’t have a “one size fits all” commission split with the agents it works with, though co-founder Guy Gal said in 2020 that all agents were on a 90-10 split. According to an agent present at the Tuesday meeting, some agents may now be required to cough up more of their splits.
In the past, Side has reportedly required agents to pay splits until they reach a cap. There is talk that the cap may be lifted, though TRD could not get more details.
Side may also modify the fees it charges for errors and omissions, a form of liability insurance. By April, teams will be responsible for paying $100 per month for each of its agents. Previously, some teams paid a flat $1,000 in monthly E&O fees.
Since the real estate market slowdown of 2022, many brokerages have switched up their business models to drive profitability. Major players including Anywhere Real Estate and Compass have spoken of revising commission splits.
Also, brokerages have trimmed their payrolls, including Side, which laid off employees in October.
The all-hands meeting and new financial relationships come soon after Side’s annual convention, held in Long Beach, which featured a cameo by NBA legend Magic Johnson.
Read more Los Angeles At Side convention, optimism means laughter in down market New York Official business: Side lures the A-team, questions the establishment In January, Side announced that it hired its new president Stephen Capezza to drive national growth . Over the summer, the company picked up one of the nation’s top brokerage teams, run by Tal and Oren Alexander.
Side raised its last funding round during the venture-capital boom in 2021, at a valuation of $2.5 billion.
The post Side tells agents: Some financial relationships will change appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Compass’ Brian Pistorius (Getty, Compass)Another Berkshire Hathaway agent is jumping ship for Compass’ Chicago office.
Brian Pistorius, a fifth-generation Chicago residential broker, joined the brokerage, the company said.
Pistorius was at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago for more than six years. He brings two agents, Amy Ruch and Jenna Cody, with him to Compass. The team generated more than $50 million in sales volume over the past two years.
In an interview with The Real Deal Pistorius said he opted for Compass because of its technology.
“It allows me to focus on my clients and their needs without having to worry too much about all the backend stuff,” he said.
Pistorius will be working out of the company’s Lincoln Park office and mainly operate in the Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, Bucktown, Fulton Market neighborhoods.
Pistorius isn’t the first Berkshire Hathaway agent to find their way to Compass this year. In January, Meredith Pierson joined the firm to start a new team at the brokerage with the Glenview-based team headed by Missy Jerfita. The rebranded Jerfita Pierson Team has five licensed agents and two support staffers across two Compass offices — in Glenview and Lincoln Park.
Compass’ gain comes after a challenging 2022, with its financial challenges capturing the attention of those within the residential real estate sector. But the company has responded to setbacks by cutting about $320 million, or 20 percent of its operating expenses, by the end of last year.
Read more New York Two investment firms see light at end of Compass’ tunnel Originally billing itself as a technology company, Compass sought to reinvent the homebuying process, and raised record amounts of capital before struggling over the past year as residential real estate transactions slowed due to rising interest rates, strained inventories and economic uncertainty. In January, the company announced a third round of layoffs, with more than 1,200 workers ousted over the past year. However, Compass still has north of 3,000 employees and was the number one residential real estate brokerage in the nation based on 2021 sales volume.
The post Compass poaches Berkshire Hathaway broker for Lincoln Park office appeared first on The Real Deal.
Tracy Letts and Carrie Coon with 1755 N Wilmot Avenue (Getty, Google Maps)A married couple of accomplished Chicago stage actors, Tracy Letts and Carrie Coon, have headed to New York to focus on an HBO television series starring Coon and just sold their Bucktown mansion for 22 percent below their initial asking price.
The couple sold their 6,873-square-foot contemporary-style mansion at 1755 North Wilmot Avenue last week for $3.1 million, the Chicago Tribune reported. It’s a shade more than the $3 million Letts paid for the home and triangle-shaped property in 2009.
An alumnus of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Letts, whose talents span acting, playwriting and screenwriting, won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for his 2007 play, “August: Osage County,” which was adapted to film in a 2013 production starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. His wife, Coon, is also a local star in Chicago’s stage performance community, but has most recently made a name for herself starring in HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” which is filmed in New York.
It’s the first Bucktown sale this year for more than $3 million for a single-family home, according to Zillow data. The North Side neighborhood has been on the rise, with more modern residential developments getting built along the 606 Trail, which has become more popular and is steps away from Letts and Coon’s home built in 2003.
In October, a rare sale for more than $4 million took place in the area, flirting with the Bucktown record, when another home built in 2015 and connected to the TV industry for its appearances in Chicago-based shows, at 1743 North Wolcott Avenue, sold for $4.4 million.
Letts and Coon now primarily live in a Brooklyn brownstone, and they privately listed the Bucktown home for sale in March 2022, initially asking $3.99 million, and later put it on the public market for $3.6 million. After dropping the price two more times, ultimately to $3 million in January, the home sold for more than the asking price to a buyer using an opaque land trust.
The couple claims they’ll be back in the Windy City before too long. Coon told the Tribune in a text that “Tracy and I are committed Chicagoans who are temporarily relocating to New York for work.”
Their former five-bedroom home has three fireplaces, 100 feet of street frontage and an attached three-car garage with two vehicle entrances. The home also has a screening room, home gym and four outdoor living spaces, including a private garden and a rooftop deck. The primary bedroom suite has a walk-in closet and two private patios.
Stephanie Klein Trout and Kristie Edwards, of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, were the listing agents for the home.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more New York “Succession” townhouse from ‘Succession’ has price slashed Chicago Bucktown home filmed for Chicago TV shows resets neighborhood bar Chicago Bucktown mansion in Chicago sells for record $3.73M The post Actors Tracy Letts, Carrie Coon sell Bucktown mansion for $3M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Spring is typically a big homebuying season, but buyers don’t appear poised to leap into the market.
Mortgage purchase applications nosedived a seasonally adjusted 18 percent from the previous week for the period ending Feb. 17, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association survey. That sank MBA’s mortgage purchase index to its lowest level since 1995.
How long ago was that? Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio, who died last year at 59, was the No. 1 song.
The chief culprit for the decline in purchase applications was … drum roll … rising mortgage rates. The average on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped 23 basis points from the previous week, hitting an averaging of 6.62 percent, the highest rate since November.
“The increase in mortgage rates has put many homebuyers back on the sidelines once again, especially first-time homebuyers who are most sensitive to affordability challenges and the impact of higher rates,” Joel Kan, the MBA’s deputy chief economist, said in a statement.
The news puts a damper on expectations that home sales would bounce back in the new year.
Refinancing, meanwhile, was down 2 percent from the previous week but 72 percent year-over-year; Kan said refinancings are expected to remain down for some time. Purchase applications were down 41 percent year-over-year.
Total mortgage activity — essentially purchase-loan and refi applications together — declined 13.3 percent from one week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Earlier this month, the average contract interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with conforming loan balances — $726,200 or below — hovered around the 6.2 percent mark. Applications were already leveling off as rates seemed to stabilize before last week’s spike in rates sent purchase applications plunging.
That said, rates are still well below where they were in October, when the average 30-year fixed peaked at 7.16 percent. The 7 percent threshold appears to be an important one for homebuyers and agents alike.
The Veterans Administration’s share of total mortgage applications decreased to 12.1 percent from 12.6 percent, while the USDA’s share remained at 0.6 percent. The FHA’s share also decreased, to 12 percent from 12.6 percent.
The average contract interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate jumbo loan increased to 6.44 percent. For much of the pandemic, jumbo loans have had lower rates than conforming ones, as lenders considered those deals to have less risk. But now perhaps they see more potential for buyers of expensive homes to end up underwater.
The average contract interest rate for a 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage increased to 5.98 percent; rates increased across all loan types last week.
Read more National Was the mortgage spike real? Applications level off New York Agents: Life is good under 7% New York Mortgage applications surge 25% in the new year as interest rates drop The post Buyer aware: Mortgage applications sink to 28-year low appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rey Grabato with 200 Third (LinkedIn, Rey Grabato)Despite his legal woes, a developer won site plan approval for 200 Third, a planned 43-story apartment tower in the Flagler Village area just north of downtown Fort Lauderdale.
New Jersey developer Rey Grabato, who manages the company that won approval for the project, was indicted on federal fraud charges about four months ago.
The site of the 388-unit development is 200-210 Northeast Third Street in Flagler Village. The plan is for a multifamily project, according to broker Greg Greer of CRR of South Florida, who added that Grabato may sell the entire project rather than build it himself.
Designed by Dallas-based Humphries & Partners Architects LP, the tower will have a nine-story parking podium topped by 34 floors of apartments. The design of the upper level of the parking podium features a swimming pool, lounge, bar, and seating areas.
The ground floor, designed with a ceiling height of nearly 23 feet, would include 2,682 square feet of commercial space and 7,372 square feet of leasing area and lobby space.
The Fort LauderdaleCity Commission unanimously granted conditional approval of the 200 Third site plan Tuesday evening.
Prior to receiving a building permit, the developer must meet conditions that include payment of a park impact fee, and it must win Federal Aviation Administration approval of the development’s height, slightly more than 448 feet. In addition, installation of larger sewer pipes to handle wastewater from 200 Third must be completed prior to the issuance of a final certificate of occupancy.
New Jersey-based Grabato manages 3rd Street Capital 200-210 LLC, the Florida-registered company developing 200 Third, according to state records.
In late 2021, 3rd Street Capital paid $9.8 million to acquire the 0.7-acre development site in a multi-parcel purchase, according to property records. This month, the entity paid$9.3 millionmore to acquire multiple parcels at 203-215 Northeast Third Street, directly across the street from the 200 Third development site.
In October, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against Grabato and another man in an 18-count indictment, which accused them of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced the indictments of Grabato, a resident of Hoboken, New Jersey, and the Republic of the Philippines, and Thomas Nicholas Salzano of Secaucus, New Jersey, for their roles in an alleged scheme to defraud more than 2,000 investors in an alleged $650 million Ponzi scheme. The Justice Department also charged Grabato and Salzano with conspiring to evade $26 million in tax liabilities.
Grabato and Salzano allegedly defrauded people who invested in a real estate fund operated by National Realty Investment Advisors (NRIA), based in Secaucus, New Jersey. NRIA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June and listed $50 million to $100 million of assets, and $500 million to $1 billion of debt.
One the same day the Justice Department announced the 18-count indictment, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against NRIA and four former officers of the company, including Grabato, for allegedly running a Ponzi-style scheme.
Read more The post Embattled developer advances high-rise apartment project in Flagler Village appeared first on The Real Deal.
CBRE’s Dan Lyne with rendering of Hyde Park Labs (LinkedIn, Beacon Capital Partners,Getty)Beacon Capital Partners has jumped into the life sciences game with Trammell Crow, joining some of Chicago’s biggest developers that have featured lab space prominently with their new area projects as of late.
The project is called Hyde Park Labs, and it will be anchored by the University of Chicago, bring a total of 302,000 square feet of new lab space to the city and cost about $225 million to build, Crain’s reported. The project near the intersection of 52nd Street and Harper Avenue will help address the need for lab space as the life sciences sector is one of the few that hasn’t been overtaken by the remote-work trend.
The property will have nine floors of labs, a roof terrace and 40,000 square feet of amenities.
“Chicago continues to be a Top 10 life-science cluster in the U.S.,” Dan Lyne of CBRE, who is marketing and leasing Hyde Park Labs, told the outlet.
Trammell Crow has built two labs in Fulton Market over the past three years and has another one underway in Evanston. Boston-based Beacon Capital has projects underway in New York, Houston, San Francisco and its hometown.
The University of Chicago has pre-leased 55,000 square feet across one and half floors of the new 14-story Hyde Park Labs building. Researchers from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering will occupy a portion of the space and the rest will be used for incubator life sciences startups.
The building’s construction, which is set to be completed and open by late 2024, started amid a string of recent expansions of lab space leases for Chicago’s life sciences sector.
Among the latest is a deal for NanoGraf, which won a $10 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to supply lithium-ion components for equipment like radios and night-vision goggles, to lease a 17,000-square-foot facility at 400 North Noble Street, west of Fulton Market. And last year injectable drug maker Xeris Pharmaceuticals leased 87,000 square feet in Trammell Crow’s new lab and office building at 1375 West Fulton Street in an exit from the tenant’s Loop offices on LaSalle Street.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Chicago Shapack lands NanoGraf manufacturing in West Loop Chicago Mark Goodman & Associates buys Fulton Market site for 16-story life science building Chicago Trammell Crow nabs Xeris in Fulton Market with LaSalle exit The post Trammell Crow, Beacon Capital break ground on $225MHyde Park Labs appeared first on The Real Deal.
164 North Peoria Street and Curt Bailey with Related Midwest(Google Maps, Related Midwest)Some of Chicago’s biggest developers are lauding a new property tax incentive meant to encourage affordable housing, and one may use it to move forward construction on the site of one of the city’s most notorious failed real estate projects.
As Related Midwest is finishing up Chicago’s first residential tower development with on-site units backed by the Affordable Illinois incentive package signed into state law in 2021, the firm hinted the rule may come in handy for starting work at the former Chicago Spire site at 400 North Lake Shore Drive, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“We foresee the majority of our projects in the city of Chicago will have 20 percent affordable,” Related Midwest President Curt Bailey told the outlet.
The new law requires developers in high-income neighborhoods such as Fulton Market to keep 20 percent of residential units in new developments affordable for at least 30 years. The requirement stipulates that affordable housing must be built on-site, closing an option that allowed developers to pay fees that contribute to affordable housing construction elsewhere, often outside the vicinity of the neighborhoods targeted for market rate housing.
It has also eased the impact on developers of an update to the city’s affordable housing laws that upped the amount of affordable housing units that needed to be built in new projects to 20 percent of units in most cases, from 10 percent previously.
Related Midwest is wrapping up construction on the first major project to be built under the new incentive program. The Row Fulton Market, a 300-unit rental tower at 164 North Peoria Street, will have 60 affordable units. In 2014, the firm took over the Chicago Spire site, where a 2,000-foot tall, 150-story project had been planned in the mid-2000s before it was abandoned by previous developers. Then in 2020, Related Midwest revealed a two-tower proposal for the site with buildings stretching 875 and 765 feet tall, though work has yet to begin.
“We are in conversation with many developers contemplating taking the state tax abatement in exchange for placing all of their affordable units on-site,” Department of Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara told the outlet in an email. “In a city with profound racial and economic segregation, we are encouraged by this trend.”
Since Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the legislation, five new apartment towers backed by the program have begun construction and are set to bring 1,612 units to the city, according to Shapack Partners, which is working on a 28-story residential tower at 1353 West Fulton Street. In addition, Sterling Bay is working on a $155 million, 350-unit tower at 225 North Elizabeth Street.
“It’s great for Chicago, it’s going to build a significant amount of affordable housing for Chicago, and Affordable Illinois is the tool that allowed us to do this,” Jeff Shapack, CEO of his eponymous development firm, told the outlet.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Chicago Sterling Bay adds 14 floors in redesign of Fulton Market project Chicago Latsko offers first look at Fulton Market resi tower on Guinness taproom site Chicago Related Midwest veers Fulton Market plans to office tower The post Chicago incentive package spurs affordable housing downtown appeared first on The Real Deal.
New Jersey attorney general Matthew Platkin (New Jersey Attorney General, Getty)New Jersey’s attorney general is stepping up enforcement of source-of-income discrimination against tenants, though the penalties announced are far from crippling.
The AG’s office announced enforcement action in eight separate cases. Its Division on Civil Rights found probable cause in six instances and reached consent decrees in two other cases. But no big fines were announced, and the AG spared the landlords a public shaming by not revealing their names.
Still, Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a release that the enforcement actions put “all landlords on notice that housing discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated.”
All eight cases involved allegations that individuals were denied the opportunity to rent housing because they were receiving public assistance. Landlords in New Jersey are prohibited from refusing or discouraging renters because they get rental aid, which typically comes in the form of vouchers.
In four of the cases, landlords allegedly refused to rent to applicants after it became clear they planned on using Section 8 or other rental assistance to pay the bills. One complainant alleged a Craigslist ad spelled out the discrimination in uppercase letters: “NO SECTION 8.”
In one Union County case, a landlord allegedly denied a lease renewal after failing to provide documentation sought by the tenant to apply to the state’s rental assistance program.
The six probable cause cases indicate the civil rights unit finished a preliminary investigation and found likely violations of the law. They are not considered final rulings.
The two consent decrees signal that the parties settled the cases. They require the housing providers to come into compliance with the discrimination law, receive discrimination training and make payments to both the civil rights division and the individual who made the allegation.
The providers in those cases don’t have to admit to violating the law. The Real Deal has reached out to the AG’s office to learn more details about any penalties.
Voucher discrimination is one of the most common forms of discrimination against tenants, sometimes serving as a proxy for racial or disability discrimination; tenants who use vouchers are disproportionately people of color or with disabilities.
In New York City, a sweeping broker discrimination lawsuit, also involving Section 8 vouchers, was recently greenlighted by a federal judge.
Read more New York Judge OK’s sweeping broker discrimination lawsuit New York AG slaps Compass on wrist for voucher discrimination New York Mayor proposes restoring unstaffed voucher discrimination unit The post Landlords escape with wrist-slaps in NJ voucher cases appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration including renderings of 12821 Titanium Street in northeast Austin (Getty, McFarland Architecture)Wildflowers aren’t the only thing sprouting up around Austin — warehouses are growing like weeds.
A shell company called MIC Texas Corporation filed to build two shell warehouses in northeast Austin. The project is planned for a 31-acre site at 12821 Titanium Street, not far from the Samsung semiconductor facility.
The estimated project cost is $32.6 million, although filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation are subject to change. Work is expected to begin in April and run through next March. All told, the warehouses will create 408,000 square feet of industrial space just off East Howard Lane.
The plans were filed by Susan McFarland of McFarland Architecture. Renderings of the project on McFarland’s website show two low, sprawling buildings surrounded by parking on all sides. The buildings share a loading bay between them, with 33 unloading docks along one building’s side. They have a plain gray trim with dark gray accents and two-story windows on the corners and along the outer walls.
Efforts to identify MIC Texas Corporation were unsuccessful. The LLC is registered to an escrow corporation in Newport Beach, California. The contact listed on the filing, Bill Messenger of Messenger Investment Company, did not respond to a call.
The Harris Branch area has drawn interest from large-scale builders in recent months. In November, Hines announced a partnership with the Galesi Group to build an industrial and logistics park on 150 acres at the corner of Harris Branch Parkway and Parmer Lane. Galesi told the Austin Business Journal that it owns 800 acres in the area and plans to build multifamily properties near the commercial project.
Read more Texas Meet Forth Bagley, Kohn Pedersen Fox’s design mind in Texas On top of the Samsung facility, the site is also near the Austin Executive Airport. For logistics uses, the facility is not far from State Highway 130, which connects straight to Interstate 10 between San Antonio and Houston.
Industrial properties in Austin had a banner year in 2022, with 4.2 million square feet of net absorption, according to a report from CBRE. Asking rents rose nearly 5 percent on the year as 11.6 million square feet of new space hit the market.
The post $32.6M warehouses planned for northeast Austin appeared first on The Real Deal.
Shoma’s Stephanie Shojaee and Masoud Shojaee (Shoma Group, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Getty)The animosity between Shoma Group President Stephanie Shojaee and her husband’s daughters and ex-wife has boiled over to Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
In a lawsuit filed on Friday, the ex-wife, Maria Lamas, and daughters, Anelise Shojaee and Lilibet Shojaee, accuse Stephanie Shojaee of defaming them when she discussed her career and her romance with her now husband, Shoma CEO Masoud Shojaee, during a podcast interview in December.
“The false and spiteful statements portrayed Ms. Lamas as incompetent, careless, lazy, and hateful,” the complaint states. “And portrayed the daughters as ungrateful, spiteful and overall dreadful women who have abused the goodwill and kindness of Mr. Shojaee.”
The Shoma developer power couple did not respond to text messages seeking comment. Frank Silva, Shoma’s general counsel, and Jose Ferrer, an attorney who represents Masoud and Stephanie Shojaee, also did not respond to emails seeking comment.
“The goal of any family should be reunification,” said Luis Suarez, the lawyer for Lamas, Anelise Shojaee and Lilibet Shojaee. “Spreading falsity and defamatory statements detracts from that goal. We look forward to our day in court.”
This is the second time Stephanie Shojaee’s 36-minute interview on “Divorced Not Dead,” a podcast hosted by Bravo reality television star Caroline Stanbury, incites legal action. Last month, Stephanie and Masoud Shojaee filed their own defamation lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against Miami realtor Joanne Silva for an online allegedly nasty comment the agent made about the Shoma president.
Under a Jan. 5 post on The Real Deal’s Instagram account about Stephanie Shojaee’s podcast interview, Silva commented that Masoud Shojaee “stole money from his daughters’ trust fund to buy elaborate gifts for this gold digger” — referring to Stephanie Shojaee. The complaint also claims that Silva suggested Stephanie is a prostitute.
In addition to running the Coral Gables-based development firm Shoma alongside her husband, Stephanie Shojaee is a notable social media influencer with nearly half a million followers on Instagram. She regularly posts photos and videos of herself and her husband in luxury designer duds, jet setting to Europe and exotic locales on their private plane, and working at the office. Her posts are usually accompanied with inspirational quotes about female empowerment.
She married Masoud Shojaee in 2019, a year after he finalized his divorce from Lamas, who co-founded Shoma.
The defamation lawsuit filed by Lamas and her daughters contains transcribed excerpts of Stephanie Shojaee’s “Divorced Not Dead” interview, in which she claims she began dating Masoud when he was separated from Lamas, but that she was not the reason he got divorced.
According to the excerpts, Stephanie claimed Lamas rarely complimented Masoud on his looks and nagged him until he was miserable. She also answered affirmatively when Stanbury asked her if she thought Lamas “sort of poisoned them” about how Anelise and Lilibet feel about their father.
“[Mr. Shojaee and I are] an unstoppable force versus when he was with his ex-wife, who wasn’t a workaholic, didn’t go to work, didn’t really care so much,” one excerpt states. “She spent probably more money. She just didn’t have social media to flaunt it.”
In another excerpt, Stephanie Shojaee said Anelise and Lilibet did not appreciate what Masoud Shojaee had provided for them, and that “they would rather sacrifice the relationship with their father than have to put up with their father [being] with me.”
In a third excerpt, Stephanie Shojaee also claimed that Masoud’s daughters sold homes he bought for them, and changed addresses and phone numbers so he doesn’t know where they live. “It’s just so crazy,” she said. “I find it so upsetting. I just don’t understand how that happens.”
In their defamation complaint, Anelise and Lilibet Shojaee allege Stephanie Shojaee made false statements about them as retaliation because they have two pending lawsuits in Miami-Dade Circuit Court alleging Masoud Shojaee unlawfully withdrew $6.7 million from a bank account of a company owned by a trust benefiting the daughters.
The post Ex-Mrs. Shojaee sues current Mrs. Shojaee for defamation appeared first on The Real Deal.
166 Montague Street, 1 City Point (Google Maps, Getty)Brooklyn’s luxury market seems to be shaking off its January slump.
For the second week in a row, the borough saw 21 signed contracts last week for homes asking $2 million or more, according to Compass’ weekly report. The total, recorded between Feb. 6 and Feb. 12, marked the largest number of deals since before the winter holidays.
Of the total deals, 12 were townhouses, eight were condos and one was a co-op.
The most expensive home to enter contract was a Brooklyn Heights condo asking $4.9 million. Unit 7A at 166 Montague Street spans 3,200 square feet and has five bedrooms and four full bathrooms. It features 11-foot ceilings and a balcony with views of the New York harbor.
Built in 1892 for the Franklin Trust, the building’s exterior includes terracotta stone engravings and its hallmark mansard roof. Among its amenities are a rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the city, fitness center and virtual doorman.
Corcoran’s Tita Omeze had the listing.
The second most expensive property to enter contract was Unit 59D at 1 City Point in Downtown Brooklyn with an asking price of $3.5 million. The 1,500-square-foot condop has three bedrooms and three full bathrooms.
The unit features stained oak floors, floor-to-ceiling windows and an eat-in kitchen. The building’s amenities include a dry cleaning valet, lounge, bar, pool, steam room and sauna.
Extell Marketing Group and Serhant head sales at the building.
The average asking price for the 21 contracts was $2.8 million with an average price per square foot of $1,282. The homes spent an average of 170 days on the market and prices had an average discount of 1 percent.
Read more New York Brooklyn boasted $9B in investment sales last year New York NYC multifamily sales boomed, but party could be over New York Brooklyn luxury market ends January with a whimper The post Historic Brooklyn Heights condo leads Brooklyn luxury contracts appeared first on The Real Deal.
Coldwell Banker Realty’s Garrett Weston with 46 Deep Sea (Garrett Weston, Google Maps)UPDATED: FEB. 21 at 2:30 p.m.
The luxe mansion at 46 Deep Sea in Newport Coast trimmed about $3 million from its price and changed listing agents, but it’s still in the running to be among this year’s priciest homes in Orange County.
Listed in July 2022 with an initial ask of $62 million by The Aaron Kirman Group, currently affiliated with Christie’s International, 46 Deep Sea was relisted for about $59 million earlier this month. The price was cut to attract more buyers, according to an email from new listing agent Garrett Weston, affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty.
Price softening is part of a marketwide trend among ultra luxe listings this year. But with a $58 million ask, 46 Deep Sea would still rank near the top of Orange County’s priciest on-market listings.
The priciest listings in Orange County include 6 Midsummer, a Newport Coast trophy home which is listed for $70 million. Another Newport Coast home is 31 High Water, which is listed for $60 million.
Following Deep Sea is a $55 million listing at 7 Strand Beach Drive in Dana Point. Ranked next are two $40 million listings. One is located at 1 Shoreridge in Newport Coast. Another is at 11 Montage Way at Laguna Beach. Other trophy homes include a $36 million listing at 2168 East Oceanfront in Newport Beach.
John Stanaland, a veteran Laguna Beach agent affiliated with Douglas Elliman, forecasted that price reductions of one listing will not change the Orange County trophy home scene. He said demand remains high and inventory is low.
“I’ve seen buyers come on the market expecting deals, but sellers are holding firm,” he said.
Construction wrapped up on 46 Deep Sea in 2021. The 14,000-square-foot mansion is built on almost a half-acre located about a 10 minute drive away from Crystal Cove State Beach.
Amenities include an infinity pool and a 3,500-square-foot garage with four charging stations for electric vehicles.
Correction: Previous story incorrectly referred to 46 Deep Sea as the priciest listing in Orange County.
Read more Los Angeles Med-style mansion in OC’s Newport Beach sells for $31M Los Angeles The turf wars of Newport Beach Los Angeles Heather and Terry Dubrow sell Newport Beach “chateau” for $55M The post Even with price cut, 46 Deep Sea still ranks near top of OC’s priciest listings appeared first on The Real Deal.
Compass’ Kathy McKinney with Hot Wells Shooting range (Compass, Getty)The former Hot Wells Shooting Range in Cypress has hit the market asking $8.5 million.
Compass’ ranch and land division is handling the sale of the 48-acre property located along U.S. 290, between Barker Cypress and Fry roads, the Houston Business Journal reported. The property was historically home to the two-story Houston Hot Wells Hotel & Sanitarium.
Shortly after wildcatters and free-range oil well drillers discovered the artesian spring and three lakes on the property in 1904, the 500-bed hotel opened for people looking to experience the water’s health benefits. The spring water was so sought after, that the hotel stored it in concrete basins at two temperatures. The property was later converted into a shooting range.
“There are a multitude of potential uses for this property that is so rich in history,” listing agent Kathy McKinney told the outlet. “The land could be ideal for single or multifamily development, commercial development, or even recreational development as in the past. There are very few parcels of land available in this size and area; it could even be an outstanding single-family sanctuary without having to leave town.”
The pandemic sent the popularity of luxury properties through the roof, and ranch properties were no exception. Ranches are particularly desirable for the wealthiest Americans. The nation’s 100 largest landowners held 42.2 million acres as of last August, according to the Land Report, led by timber tycoon Archie Aldis “Red” Emmerson, the founder of Sierra Pacific Industries.
Ranch sales turned necks in Texas last year, such as the sale of the ranch from “Yellowstone” and the late T. Boone Pickens’ ranch in the Texas Panhandle going for a total of $170 million, sold in two pieces.
Texas cashed in on this boom, as did Montana, Colorado and other western states. While longtime local farm and ranch brokers held their own in Texas, national brokers such Douglas Elliman launched new ranch and land divisions.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Texas T. Boone Pickens’ panhandle ranch has sold for $170M Texas Vast Texas ranch hits market for $18.5M The post Hot Wells Shooting range hits the market appeared first on The Real Deal.
Roy T. Eddleman with 67 Beverly Park Court (Google Maps, UCI)A 31,600-square-foot Tuscan-style residence in Beverly Park that sought $120 million last spring – and $165 million five years ago – has traded for $52 million.
The family of the late biotech mogul Roy Eddleman sold the nearly 10-acre estate at 67 Beverly Park Court, the Wall Street Journal reported. The buyer was undisclosed. The price works out to $1,656 per square foot.
Eddleman bought the sprawling estate known as Villa Firenze for $51 million in 2021, then listed it for $120 million last May because it was “too much” for him, he told an agent. He died in June, at age 82, while reading “The Rise of Athens” by Anthony Everitt.
The property was last priced at $67.5 million, according to the listing by Sotheby’s International Realty. Broker Richard Klug of Sotheby’s represented the seller; broker Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Realty represented the buyer.
The North Beverly Park estate, designed by William Hablinski, took five years to build. It was completed in 1998 with his signature touches, such as vaulted ceilings and carved moldings.
The property was the longtime home of Hungarian-American aviation billionaire Steve Udvar-Hazy and his wife, Christine, who listed it in 2018 for $165 million, according to Dirt.com.
The two-story mansion, which covers 28,600 square feet, has a Mediterranean red-tile roof, orange stucco and white trim.
The grounds contain a 30-car motor court surrounded by Canary Island Palms, as well as a pool, several guesthouses, a tennis court and a jogging trail, according to the listing.
Set within the exclusive gated community in the hills close to Mulholland Drive, the Florence-inspired compound has 20-foot ceilings, antique stone fireplaces and a two-story rotunda library office with “secret passage” to its master suite, den and wet bar.
Eddleman founded what became Spectrum Labs, acquired by Repligen for $359 million in 2017, according to the Journal. He owned several trophy homes, including a condo at New York’s 432 Park Avenue and the Château de Balleroy in Normandy, France.
This month, “Boogie Nights” star Mark Wahlberg and his wife, Rhea Durham, sold a 30,500-square-foot mansion at 71 Beverly Park for $55 million, or $32.5 million less than they sought last spring.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Villa Firenze listed for $120M Los Angeles Vacant lot in Beverly Park trades for $28M Los Angeles Mansion once owned by Saudi billionaire listed for $28M The post Beverly Park estate that once asked $120M sells for $52M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Frances Moceri and 372 E Alexander Palm Road (Moceri, Google Maps, Getty)Brothers Steve and Scott Dingle, of SRD Building Corporation, sold a waterfront spec mansion in Boca Raton’s Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club for a record $28 million.
The sale marks their second Boca Raton price record in five months.
Records show a trust tied to SRD Building sold the house at 372 East Alexander Palm Road to Frances Moceri. Moceri is the matriarch of the family that owns Moceri Companies, a developer that has built more than 55,000 homes across Michigan, according to its website.
She and her late husband, Dominic Moceri, bought a house on the golf course at the Boca Raton Golf Club for $4.8 million in 2017, property records show.
SRD Building is a prominent spec developer in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, a gated waterfront community in Boca Raton that has attracted big name residents, including billionaire lumber heiress Maggie Hardy Knox.
David W. Roberts of Royal Palm Properties represented both the sellers and the buyer in the deal.
SRD Building bought the nearly 0.6-acre property for $7.5 million in 2021, records show. They demolished the house on the site and built a 10,700-square-foot, six-bedroom, seven-bathroom mansion with 124 feet of waterfront. The home also includes three half-bathrooms, a six-car garage, a pool and dock, records and the listing show.
The $28 million sale price beats Boca Raton’s price record set by another SRD Building waterfront spec mansion that sold for $25.6 million in October. That home, also in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, broke the Boca Raton price record set in 2021.
Waterfront properties have dominated Boca Raton’s luxury residential real estate market, especially in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club. While the market has cooled from its pandemic peak, price growth for luxury properties has held.
In November, a married pair of real estate investors sold a waterfront spec mansion in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club for $18.6 million. They had commissioned SRD Building to construct the house. In July, a carpet mogul bought a flipped spec mansion built by SRD Building for $17.2 million.
The post Michigan developer pays record $28M for Boca Raton spec mansion appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop with 4-12 Fairview Avenue (Marchetto Higgins Stieve, Jersey City)A project at least five years in the making may finally be able to break ground in Jersey City.
This month, the Jersey City planning board approved the latest version of the Monticello Triangle project, JerseyDigs reported. The development has been gestating since at least 2018.
Monticello Equity Properties proposed a 10-story, 119-foot-high complex across three triangle-shaped parcels (hence the name): 4-12 Fairview Avenue, 221-227 Fairmount Avenue and 220-238 Monticello Avenue. The parcels near McGinley Square are being designed by MHS Architects.
The project will include 304 units, about half of which will be one-bedroom apartments; the others will be studios or two-bedrooms. Only eight of the units will be set aside for affordable housing for those earning between 50 percent and 80 percent of the area median income.
The project will also feature 9,300 square feet of commercial retail space on the ground floor and a 2,800-square-foot public plaza and green space. There will be a 125-space parking garage and storage for 117 bicycles.
The planning board’s approval was essential, but some mystery remains as to when the long-vacant site will turn into housing. A groundbreaking date for the development has not been revealed.
Jersey City has been a hive of development activity in recent months. In December, the planning board approved the redevelopment of 80 Journal Square. BH3 Management and Hope Street Capital are planning 400 units at the site.
In October, the planning board approved a 1,189-unit project from Kushner Real Estate Group and Silverstein Properties in the Journal Square neighborhood. The dual-skyscraper development is expected to take a decade to construct.
The better-known group of Kushners, meanwhile, is working on another Journal Square project. In June, Kushner Companies broke ground on the $821 million One Journal Square project after resolving a tax abatement dispute with the city.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more Tri-State Jersey City approves 400-unit Journal Square tower Tri-State Jersey City approves Kushner, Silverstein’s 1,200-unit megaproject Tri-State “Charlie, we did it”: Kushner breaks ground on long-delayed towers The post Monticello Triangle project approved by Jersey City appeared first on The Real Deal.
HN Capital’s Vipin Nambiar with land at the western end of Hi Line Drive near the Trinity Strand Trail (Tile Capital, Google Maps, Getty)A site in Dallas’ Design District that is ripe for redevelopment has a new owner.
HN Capital Partners, the largest owner in the neighborhood, has bought a chunk of land at the western end of Hi Line Drive near the Trinity Strand Trail, the Dallas Morning News reported. The property is mostly vacant, used as a parking lot for the adjacent Virgin Hotel, in which HN is also a partner.
“I am still thinking through development ideas, but it would be in the spirit of making Hi Line Drive a truly elevated urban street and respond to the park being planned at the entrance of the Strand Trail that sits in front of this property,” HN Capital CEO Vipin Nambiar told the outlet.
HN Capital, with McCort Partners, owns about 800,000 square feet across 40 acres in the Design District. HN purchased the 98-year-old gem among Dallas luxury hotels, Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, in September.
Across the street from HN’s Hi Line parcel, New Jersey-based developer Urby is building its second residential high rise, between Hi Line and Stemmons Freeway. Urby’s two complexes will have almost 750 rental units combined.
Quadrant, the local investor and developer behind many of the projects in Dallas’ Design District is also redeveloping the nearby old Trinity Industrial District. Quadrant teamed up with Maryland-based investor FCP late last year to buy what will be one of the largest properties in the district. Built in 1949 as a warehouse for International Harvester, the 155,000-square-foot building was redeveloped in 2005 into a modern office and showroom for home furnishings and design firms.
Quadrant and FCP are nearing the start of construction for two office buildings fronted by a restaurant.
The first building, called Thirteen Thirty Three, will open next year and Quadrant has said it is already in talks with a full-building tenant.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Texas 8 highly anticipated commercial developments in Texas Austin New Jersey’s Urby adds twin high-rises in Dallas Dallas Dallas’ old Trinity Industrial District is getting a hip new look The post HN Capital buys Design District block for major redevelopment appeared first on The Real Deal.
158 Palm Avenue with Ron Ozer (Lux Hunters, LinkedIn)Spec home developer William Campbell sold a waterfront mansion in Miami Beach for $32 million, a record for Palm Island — and a nearly 20 percent discount off the latest asking price.
Campbell sold the 14,000-square-foot, six-bedroom home at 158 Palm Avenue to hedge funder Ron Ozer, according to sources. Ozer is chief investment officer of Statar Capital, a Miami-based investment management firm.
158 Palm Avenue (Lux Hunters)Ozer, who was previously a portfolio manager at Citadel, was sued in 2016 by his ex, model Elmira Naymark, who alleged that Ozer tried to pay her $75,000 to have an abortion, according to the New York Post.
The Miami Beach sale, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, beats the previous Palm Island record of about $30 million set in 2021.
158 Palm Avenue (Lux Hunters)Campbell paid $5.6 million for the 0.7-acre lot at 158 Palm Avenue in 2017, records show. The mansion, completed last year, was listed for sale with Lourdes Alatriste of Douglas Elliman, asking $39.9 million, and asking $250,000 a month for rent. It hit the market in August for $59 million. The price was reduced to about $35 million in October, and increased in December to its most recent asking price.
Price reductions are becoming more common during the residential market slowdown, brokers say and recent closings indicate. In January, prominent trial attorney John Ruiz sold one of his Gables Estates properties for a discounted $30 million, or $15 million off the original asking price.
158 Palm Avenue (Lux Hunters)Alatriste previously said she received offers as high as $200,000 to rent the Palm Island home during Art Basel, but that was for a shorter period of time than is legally allowed.
David Pullman of One Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyer, whom One Sotheby’s declined to name.
The property, with six and a half bathrooms, includes a chef’s kitchen, guest house, movie theater, pool and a dock with 100 feet of waterfront.
In 2021, spec home developer Pascal Nicolai’s Sabal Development sold the nearby mansion at 135 Palm Avenue to venture capital investor Ben Ling and his partner, front-end web developer Chris Coudron, for about $28 million, property records show. The purchase price was initially reported as $29.5 million, which likely included broker commissions.
In September, Major Food Group co-founder Mario Carbone paid $4.3 million for a non-waterfront home on the island. Gregory Rumpel, senior managing director of JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group, and his wife, Jacqueline, sold the property.
The post Hedge funder sets Palm Island record with $32M purchase appeared first on The Real Deal.
Doug Harmon and Adam Spies (Cushman and Wakefield)Doug Harmon and Adam Spies’ seven-year run at Cushman & Wakefield ended last week when the veteran dealmakers jumped to Newmark. Their previous move, to Cushman from Eastdil Secured in 2016, shifted the balance of power among commercial real estate’s top brokerages — a shift that Newmark CEO Barry Gosin would certainly like to replicate.
Harmon and Spies — whose tenures at Eastdil involved deals for the General Motors Building, Stuyvesant Town and Chicago’s Willis Tower — went on to broker several of the city’s biggest commercial transactions during their time at Cushman. Here’s a look back at some of the most important ones:
Property: Chelsea MarketPrice: $2.4 billionChelsea Market (Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0 – via Wikimedia Commons)Why it mattered: In 2018, Google bought the 1.2 million-square-foot office and retail building in the Meatpacking District that housed some of its offices from its landlord Jamestown in a move that showed the tech giant’s voracious appetite for real estate.
Google already owned the massive former Port Authority building nearby at 111 Eighth Avenue. After the Chelsea Market deal, it went on to buy the Milk Building at 450 West 15th Street for $600 million and its new offices at the St. John’s Terminal for $2.1 billion.
Property: One Manhattan WestPrice: $2.85 billion valuationOne Manhattan West (Courtesy of Manhattan West)Why it mattered: It was the city’s last investment deal for a trophy office building before the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes froze the market, and it could be some time before we see another deal like it.
Blackstone bought a 49 percent stake in the 67-story office tower last March from Brookfield and the Qatar Investment Authority. The deal indicated that even at a time when offices faced an existential crisis, investors were willing to pay big for top-quality assets.
Property: Starrett CityPrice: $905 millionWhy it mattered: The 5,881-unit Starrett City housing complex in Brooklyn, otherwise known as Spring Creek Towers, is the largest federally subsidized housing campus in the country.
A group of anonymous investors in 2021 sold a 71 percent stake in the property to Brooksville Companies and Rockpoint Group, which already owned a piece of the complex. The sale valued the complex at $1.8 billion.
The deal wasn’t without its share of controversy: Not only was former President Donald Trump a stakeholder, but other investors in the 153-acre site — relatives of Disque D. Deane, who spearheaded development of the complex in the 1970s — sued to block the sale, which they claimed was opaque and rife with conflicts of interest. A judge eventually approved the deal.
American Copper BuildingsPrice: $837 millionWhy it mattered: Late 2021 was a moment in time the city may never see again. The rental market was blazing as tenants returned from a pandemic exodus. Measured by cap rates, New York City’s rental buildings were relatively cheap compared to overheated markets in the Sun Belt, and investors were hungry for free-market properties after changes to the state’s rent law in 2019.
A partnership between Josh Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management and Meyer Orbach’s Orbach Affordable Housing Solutions bought the 760-unit American Copper Buildings from Michael Stern’s JDS Development Group and the Baupost Group. It was one of two multifamily deals — the other was Blackstone’s purchase of the Gehry Building at 8 Spruce Street for $930 million — that capped off a wild end to 2021.
Property: The MountainPrice: UnsoldWhy it matters: During their time at Cushman, Harmon and Spies made a decision to branch out to new kinds of deals. Nothing exemplifies that quite like the assignment to sell The Mountain in Beverly Hills — a 157-acre development site overlooking Los Angeles.
The property, which had previously been listed at $1 billion, had been linked to Jeff Bezos, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, but struggled to lock in a buyer and became embroiled in legal disputes. It remains unsold.
The post The 5 biggest deals of Doug Harmon and Adam Spies’ Cushman era appeared first on The Real Deal.
2910 and 2900 Spring Mountain Road (Google Maps, Getty)The mansion where an English lord and lady have slept, together with an award-winning vineyard in the Napa Valley, are on sale for $35 million.
Lord Perry Butler and his wife, Lady Carolyn Butler, both titled nobles from the United Kingdom, are selling Juslyn Vineyards and their hilltop estate at 2910 and 2900 Spring Mountain Road in St. Helena, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Juslyn Vineyards, atop Spring Mountain, is the latest high-end wine property listed on public real-estate databases — a rarity.
“A lot of the bigger ones don’t want people to know what they’re doing, and then they announce that they’re sold,” Butler told the Chronicle. The public listing, he added, “gives us maximum exposure around the world.”
The noble couple have tried to sell the property on and off since 2014, previously listing it for $14.5 million and $28.3 million. Eventually they realized that their property was too unwieldy for many prospective buyers.
Some wine businesses might be drawn to Juslyn’s vineyard, but wouldn’t want a mansion. Some wealthy people might want a mansion, but wouldn’t want a working vineyard.
So the Butlers split it in half. They got a lot-line adjustment and divided the lot into two parcels. They’re offering each at $17.5 million, but are still hoping that a single buyer might take both.
The home half contains the seven-bedroom, five-bathroom home, with its 5,000-bottle wine cellar, plus a small vineyard.
The vineyard half contains most of the grapes, in 6 densely planted acres, on a total of 29 acres.
The Butlers bought the property in 1997 after selling their computer business, Global Dynamics. They built the house, planted the vines and started a wine brand, Juslyn Vineyards. It’s name is a portmanteau of Justine (their daughter) and Carolyn.
Over the course of 22 vintages, Butler said, the Juslyn wines have perennially earned between 91 and 98 points from the publication the Wine Advocate, with the exception of the 2011 vintage.
The couple now want to retire and move into smaller — but still noble — digs.
The vineyard property doesn’t house a winemaking facility, but it does possess a license to build one — a precious commodity in Napa County — and to open a tasting room offsite, such as in Downtown St. Helena or Napa.
The Butlers have built a tasting room on the Spring Mountain property but have never opened it to the public.
Whoever buys the vineyard will also inherit Juslyn’s wine inventory, which Butler estimated to be worth $7 million. Plus, he added, “we have water, and this is a really big deal in Napa.” The vineyard has an 800-foot well that can supply 200 gallons of water per minute.
Butler’s realtor, Nick Muccitelli with Compass, recently helped sell the 45-acre Seven Stones Winery in St. Helena for $34 million. The buyer was reported to be a South Korean corporation whose business interests include solar energy.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more San Francisco Seven Stones winery in Napa Valley sells for $34M San Francisco $35M vineyard estate could be Napa’s biggest deal ever New York Napa Valley hot-air-balloon business lists for $12M The post British nobles list Napa Valley vineyard and mansion for $35M appeared first on The Real Deal.
The RealReal’s John E. Koryl with 253 Post Street (Google Maps, Getty, LinkedIn)A bedraggled Union Square in San Francisco has lost one more flagship tenant: The RealReal.
After laying off more than 200 workers, the San Francisco-based luxury resale firm is closing its first hometown brick-and-mortar store at 253 Post Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The company will shutter the 8,000-square-foot store as it lays off 230 employees, or 7 percent of its workforce, to cut operating costs, according to a regulatory filing. The closure and cuts will take place through March.
The RealReal said it was closing six stores or consignment offices, while reducing offices in San Francisco and New York.
Included in the closures are its 12,000-square-foot flagship in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile retail district, which opened in late 2020; two stores in Atlanta and Austin; and luxury consignment offices in Miami and Washington, D.C.
The RealReal will also reduce office space in San Francisco, according to the filing, reported by SFGate. The company’s corporate headquarters are in Telegraph Hill.
“The company will continue to evaluate its real estate presence as it deems appropriate to create efficiencies and to address trends in the marketplace and macroeconomic factors,” The RealReal said in the filing.
The used apparel firm expects to incur some charges related to exiting and subleasing or leaving some facilities, and between about $1.7 million and $2.2 million in costs related to employee terminations.
The RealReal opened its two-storyUnion Square store in March 2020, the first in its headquarters town of San Francisco, and the fourth to open in the U.S.
It still has two Bay Area stores in Palo Alto’s Stanford Shopping Center and Larkspur’s Marin Country Mart.
Declining foot traffic at Union Square has resulted in retailers pulling out from the city’s expensive downtown. Many tentpole stores in the area have closed in recent years, includingCrate & Barrel, CB2, Disney, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, Uniqlo, DSW, H&M, Marshall’s and Nordstrom Rack. In December, The Container Store signaled it will move out of its 30,000-square-foot location.
The consignment company launched in 2011, originally serving as an online-only platform to buy and sell luxury goods. By paying authenticators to inspect handbags, jewelry and designer clothing, the firm aimed to stand out as a reputable oasis in an internet economy of knockoffs and fast-fashion dupes, according to SFGate.
The RealReal raised more than $300 million in 10 rounds before its 2019 IPO, but the firm is still unprofitable. Authentication costs reportedly run high, critics have cast aspersions on its ability to verify authentic wares and executives refused to cut costs.
Departures of major retail chains from San Francisco’s luxury shopping district have drawn attention from City Hall.
The slump in business around Union Square led Mayor London Breed and local businesses to promote zoning reform to revitalize the upscale shopping district. The plan calls for lifting zoning restrictions to draw more tenants, while adding housing and offices on upper floors.
— Dana Bartholomew
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Read more San Francisco Crate & Barrel is latest retailer to close store in SF’s Union Square San Francisco The Container Store to vacate SF’s Union Square San Francisco Crate & Barrel’s CB2 store to close in SF’s Union Square The post The RealReal to close flagship store in Union Square appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rhea Durham and Mark Wahlberg with 71 Beverly Park (Google Maps, Getty)Hollywood A-lister Mark Wahlberg has sold his 30,500-square-foot mansion in Beverly Park for $55 million, which amounts to $32.5 million less than he sought last spring.
Wahlberg and his wife, Rhea Durham, sold the 12-bedroom, 20-bathroom chateau-style spread at 71 Beverly Park, the Wall Street Journal reported. The buyer was undisclosed.
The “Boogie Nights” star and the fashion model bought the 6.2-acre property for $8.25 million in 2009, and built the mega-compound in 2014.
The couple first listed the property for $87.5 million in April 2022, then dropped the price to $79.5 million in November.
Set within the exclusive gated community in the hills close to Mulholland Drive, theRichard Landry-designed estate consists of a main house, guesthouse, poolside cabana and viewing pavilion.
The Beverly Hills Post Office compound also includes a full-size tennis court, five-hole golf course and its own skate park. A motor court wraps around a grassy island and fountain.
The formal mansion has a two-story foyer, which features an elaborate double staircase. It has limestone floors, an elegant living room flanked by two fireplaces, and six sets of French doors. A separate formal dining room has a crystal chandelier, patterned wallpaper and another fireplace.
A wood-paneled library, which stands two stories tall, offers a marble fireplace of its own. There’s another fireplace, one of at least seven in the main house, in the family room, which adjoins the main kitchen and two marble-topped islands.
Highlights include a glass-walled gym, wine cellar with tasting room, movie theater for 15 guests and several wet bars.
Outside, a vast glade and grotto-style pool with waterfalls are surrounded by formal gardens and trees.
The Wahlberg estate was among the biggest in Beverly Park, which includes the residences of such celebrities as Sofia Vergara, Justin Bieber, Denzel Washington, Rod Stewart, Eddie Murphy, The Rock and Magic Johnson.
In March 2022, billionaire Alec Gores sold his 31,000-square-foot chateau in Beverly Park for $70 million. In January, Adele bought a Beverly Park estate from Sylvester Stallone for $58 million.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Mark Wahlberg, Rhea Durham go for record price in Beverly Park Los Angeles Billionaire Alec Gores sells 31K sf estate in Beverly Park New York Report: Superstar Adele buying Sylvester Stallone’s Bev Hills mansion The post Mark Wahlberg sells 31K sf mansion in Beverly Park for $55M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Getty)New York City welcomed in the new year by welcoming house hunters back to their streets, enticed by a favorable turn in mortgage rates.
Inquiries into for-sale listings on StreetEasy surged 21.7 percent from December to January, according to a report from the listings giant. The bump was lower than last year’s from the same period, but was still one of the best in a decade.
Only a few months ago, the average 30-year mortgage rate made a historic climb past 7 percent. Since then, however, rates have cooled to around 6.1 percent in January, giving buyers a chance to jump back into the fray after being sidelined for much of last year.
Slipping borrowing costs from November to January handing the average buyer around $83,000 more to play with in their budgets.
Increased buying power unlocks more options for would-be buyers. The inventory of options within those budget parameters increased by 10 percent across the city last month. In Manhattan, for instance, hunters for one- and two-bedroom apartments suddenly had 12.5 percent more homes available within their budgets.
It’s not all good news for buyers, though: inventory remains limited, which could make for an extremely competitive spring shopping season.
Reluctance to list homes remains as those who still don’t want to sacrifice low mortgage rates. In January, new listings fell 12.7 percent year-over-year. In December, they fell even more, 24.3 percent year-over-year. If mortgage rates continue to stabilize or decrease heading into the spring, competition and bidding wars could run rampant across the city.
That would be to the benefit of sellers, who may be able to make up some of that mortgage rate disparity by garnering higher sale prices on their homes. Sellers may also be able to move their properties faster due to increased competition.
Any decline in home prices this spring will be gradual, the report forecast. The company’s index dropped 0.5 percent from December to January, but remains 2.1 percent above last year’s level. The median sales price last month was $624,000 — in Manhattan, it was over $1 million.
Read more New York Mortgage applications surge 25% in the new year as interest rates drop New York Wall Street has $110B for homebuying spree Luxury sales volume slows down a bit The post Mortgage rate drop brings NYC buyers back appeared first on The Real Deal.
Simon Property Group’s David E. Simon with 555 The Shops Avenue (Google Maps, Getty)Simon Property Group is delinquent and seeks an extension on a $295 million loan backed by a nearly 160-store shopping mall in Mission Viejo.
The Indianapolis-based retail center owner is in special servicing after its loan came due for The Shops at Mission Viejo at 555 The Shops Avenue, the Commercial Observer reported, citing an alert from Trepp. The lender was undisclosed.
Special servicing is a step before potential foreclosure of the 1.2-million-square-foot indoor shopping center.
If Simon Property doesn’t pay its bills, short-term forbearance could come into play, according to the Observer, with the lender seizing control of the 67-acre property.
The loan was slated to mature on Feb. 1, according to a Feb. 6 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
That filing shows Simon as 51-percent owner of the mall. The minority owners include a joint venture between an affiliate of Miller Capital Advisory and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS.
When securitized, the shopping center near Crown Valley Parkway and Interstate 5 was valued at $543 million, according to Trepp. Refinancing was predicted to be a challenge last year.
There are “serious headwinds in the market to refinance this asset … [and] market is tough as you can imagine,” Trepp said, citing watchlist comments from late last year.
The two-story Shops at Mission Viejo, which opened in 1979 as the Mission Viejo Mall, is now anchored by Macy’s and Nordstrom. There are no looming lease expirations among top tenants.
Simon Property Group, a real estate investment trust based in Indianapolis, is the largest shopping mall operator in the country, and it manages shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use properties around the world.
Earlier this month, the company said its portfolio’s occupancy rate was at 95 percent by the end of the fourth quarter last year, up 1.5 percent compared to 2021. Its base minimum rent per square foot was $55.13, which is 2.3 percent higher than the year prior, according to the Observer.
Simon officials didn’t return requests for comment from the commercial real estate news site.
— Dana Bartholomew
The post Simon Property delinquent on $300M loan for Mission Viejo mall appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Asana Partners’ properties in Sunset Harbour in Miami Beach (Papphoto)CasaBufala, Sacro, more I Sunset Harbour I Miami BeachAsana Partners signed five new tenants at its Sunset Harbour properties in Miami Beach.
Neapolitan eatery Casa Bufala took 2,500 square feet at 1874 Bay Road; restaurant Sacro took 2,800 square feet at 1916 Bay Road; and The Outsider gym, which specializes in boxing and strength training, took 2,000 square feet at 1784 West Avenue, according to an Asana news release. At 1935 West Avenue, cookies and coffee shop Chip City took nearly 1,000 square feet and organic, plant-based restaurant Nautical Bowls took 950 square feet.
Several tenants also renewed their leases. They are clothing boutique Frankie Miami, in a 530-square-foot space at 1891 Purdy Avenue; swimwear and clothing brand SHAN, in 1,000 square feet at 1885 Purdy Avenue; Lucali pizzeria, in 3,500 square feet at 1930 Bay Road; Pozy flower shop, in 1,000 square feet at 1784 West Avenue; Mexican restaurant Tequiztlan, in 2,800 square feet at 1884 Bay Road; and sleepwear store Eberjey, in 700 square feet at 1905 Purdy Avenue.
Also, Sweat440 gym expanded to 3,200 square feet at 1919 Purdy Avenue, the release says.
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Asana has a 70,000-square-foot portfolio in Sunset Harbour. The firm bought seven buildings in the neighborhood for $68.8 million in 2018 from former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and developer Scott Robins.
Terry Brown, Sam Judd and Jason Tompkins are Asana’s managing partners.
Fuse Specialty Appliances, GameTables4Less.com, more I Hillsboro Technology Center I Deerfield BeachBristol Group and the Butters Group are fresh off a leasing spree at their Hillsboro Technology Center in Deerfield Beach.
Two tenants signed new leases and another four expanded their space at the business park at 50 Hillsboro Technology Drive.
In the new leases, GameTables4Less took 18,700 square feet, and aircraft supply store Planestocks took 16,000 square feet, according to a news release from the landlord’s broker.
Also, residential appliance dealer Fuse Specialty Appliances took 76,400 square feet, up from its previous 18,700 square feet; and Commercial Relocation Group, which provides furniture installation, storage and other services for commercial real estate, took 62,000 square feet, up from roughly 25,000 square feet.
Other expansions were by flooring contractor Empire Today, which took nearly 18,000 square feet; and stone, marble and granite supplier Stone Mall, which took nearly 31,000 square feet, according to the release.
Thomas Hotz and Brian Ahearn of Butters’ brokerage division represented the landlord. Sal Bonsignore and Rod Loschiavo of Colliers represented Commercial Relocation Group, and Evan Christiansen of JLL represented Empire Today.
The 74-acre Hillsboro Technology Center includes offices, industrial space and a hotel. Records show that San Francisco-based Bristol Group and Coconut Creek-based Butters completed the complex in 2016.
Wesloft, Lovesac, Night Owl Cookies I Promenade at Coconut CreekAEW Capital Management signed eight new tenants at its Promenade at Coconut Creek open-air retail property.
Home furniture store Wesloft opened a 4,200-square-foot showroom in January, and home décor and furnishings firm Lovesac will open a 1,000-square-foot showroom this month, according to a news release from the landlord’s broker.
In March, StretchLab will open a 1,600-square-foot studio and The Spot Barbershop will open in a 1,500-square-foot salon. Night Owl Cookies will open a 1,000-square-foot store in the summer. Opening later this year are vegan restaurant Stalk & Spade, in 1,800 square feet, and The Cheesecake Factory, with 8,000 square feet. Indoor golf provider ParFit also is slated to open this summer.
Hill Partners, led by Robert Spratt Jr., represented AEW.
AEW bought the Promenade in 2016 for $85.5 million. The company’s North America CEO is Jonathan Martin and its global chairman is Jeff Furber.
The 23-acre Promenade includes more than 50 retailers, restaurants and office tenants, according to the release. An 11-screen Silverspot Cinema anchors the development.
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Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni (Getty)He may not have won the Super Bowl, but New Jersey homeowners may be more thankful for Nick Sirianni than ever before.
The Philadelphia Eagles coach and his wife recently won a precedent-setting legal case, the Dallas Business Journal reported. It could impact the disclosure of certain rights by sellers in the state moving forward.
Two years ago, Sirianni was hired as head coach of the NFL franchise. Philadelphia is very close to parts of New Jersey and the Siriannis found their home in Moorestown, agreeing to buy it for $2.3 million.
The property, however, included a right of first refusal that the Siriannis said was not disclosed by the seller, according to court documents. The clause said future contracts needed to be offered to the former owner’s daughter, son and family trust under the same terms. That clause was set to remain after the Siriannis purchased the home.
After being asked, the seller waived the clause from the sale to the Siriannis. They didn’t waive it from the property, though, according to court documents.The Siriannis backed out and the home was sold to someone else for $1.95 million, leading the seller to sue the Eagles coach for breach of contract.
The case dragged on for nearly two years before the ruling came down. Judge Eric Fikry determined that sellers had a duty to disclose a right of first refusal; otherwise, a buyer can cancel a contract. It’s believed to be the first time that conclusion has been reached in either the state or the country.
The judge required the seller to give the Siriannis their $100,000 deposit back, plus reimbursements for the title search, survey and mortgage applications fees. The summary judgment prevented a trial from beginning around the same time as the Eagles’ playoff run.
As for Sirianni’s reaction to the victory, his counsel Lance Rogers told the Business Journal the oft-animated head coach was very enthusiastic. Anyone who has seen him on the sidelines — or tearing up during the national anthem — can probably imagine how that looked.
Read more National Phoenix-area short-term rental prices surge for Super Bowl weekend National Patrick Mahomes stacking up Super Bowl bids — and homes Chicago Bears finalize $197M deal to buy Arlington Heights site The post Nick Sirianni makes real estate waves in New Jersey appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rocket Companies’ Jay Farner (Getty)After 27 years at the company, Rocket Companies CEO Jay Farner is blasting off to retirement on June 1, the Detroit Free press reported.
William Emerson, who served as the mortgage lender’s CEO for 15 years prior to Farner, will take over on an interim basis until the board of directors hires a permanent successor. Emerson, 60, has been serving as vice chairman of Rock Holdings and vice chairman of real estate firm Bedrock.
The 49-year-old Farner, who stepped down from the board of directors on Feb. 6, was Rocket Mortgage’s CEO since 2017, and has been Rocket Companies CEO since it went public in 2020. Rocket Companies serves as the parent of several real estate, mortgage, and financial companies, including Rocket Mortgage, Rocket Homes, Rocket Loans and Rocket Money.
The Federal Reserve’s efforts to battle inflation are taking a bite out of Rocket Mortgage’s core business, and shares in Rocket Companies are down about 50 percent since the company went public and closed at $9.02 on Thursday after opening at more than $18 in 2020, Barron’s reported.
Rocket Mortgages is struggling to find its footing in a rising rate environment, which went from about 3.5 percent to pushing 7 percent.
The upturn in mortgage rates has cooled demand for mortgage products, including the bread and butter of what used to be America’s largest home lender, refinancings. (United Wholesale Mortgage passed Rocket as the largest mortgage company in the nation, based on volume, the Detroit Free Press reported.)
The company has tried combating the decline by shifting its efforts to functions like selling mortgages and encouraging customers to pull cash out of their properties.
Rocket Companies’ profits in the third quarter of last year plunged 93 percent year-over-year, the Detroit News reported. Origination volume also plummeted 71 percent, to $25.6 billion, according to the outlet.
The company has not announced its full-year financial results.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more New York Rocket Mortgage looks to pivot as rates rise, refinancing dries up New York Rocket Companies originates record home purchase mortgages despite industry headwinds New York Parent of Quicken Loans, Rocket Mortgage seeks $3.3B in IPO The post Rocket Companies CEO Jay Farner to retire appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Southeby’s International Realty)Anyone feeling Minnesota?
The most expensive single-family mansion — with what’s claimed to be the state’s tallest flagpole — in the Land of 1,000 Lakes has hit the market again, but with its price cut $500,000 to $14.75 million, Racket Minnesota reports.
Jim Schwarz of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
The 9,000-square-foot luxe home at 2400 Cedar Point Drive in Woodland sits on a 2.9-acre private peninsula with nearly 1,700 feet of frontage of Wayzata Bay, the outlet reported.
The home was custom-built and modeled after seaside East Coast estates, which, along with that landmark flagpole, has a replica Nova Scotia lighthouse.
“The flagpole was there when they bought it, and they felt like it was a really cool feature,” Schwarz told the outlet. “People that are boating know that spot because of the flag. They continued the tradition.”
The three-story residence, completed in 2006, features five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, an observation deck overlooking the water, a primary and a secondary catering kitchen, a family room, home theater with seating for nine, a golf simulator and a 2,500-square-foot recreation space that also serves as an eight-vehicle garage. The current, unidentified owners use 1,300-square-feet of that space as an art gallery, the outlet said.
Other key amenities include a coffee bar, wine gallery, nine refrigerators, a boat house, dock and fish-cleaning station.
It’s not the only trophy home in Minnesota to hit the market within the last year. A three-story, 9,400-square-foot home on an island on Bald Eagle Lake was listed last year for $6.6 million. That home didn’t have a lighthouse or obscenely tall flagpole, but it did come with its own hovercraft.
Not every home in the state is on a pristine, lakefront estate. A Minneapolis home sat on the market for quite some time, despite its fairly low $190,000 asking price, because it sits on a triangular lot flanked by Interstate 94 on one side and industrial buildings on the other.
— Ted Glanzer
Read more The post Minnesota’s most expensive home lists for $14.75M appeared first on The Real Deal.
4101 Humphrey Street in St. Louis (Google Maps, Getty)A Missouri home listing has the potential to answer the prayers of a would-be homebuyer.
The church at 4101 Humphrey Street in St. Louis is on the market for $2.5 million, according to the listing. The property has been on the market for nearly four months, but recently gained fame when posted by the popular social media page, “Zillow Gone Wild.”
The property dates back to 1929, but was recently completely renovated, according to the listing. Located in Tower Grove South, the historic property includes 11,000 square feet in the church setting and another 5,000 square feet in an attached rectory, allowing owners to get multiple uses out of the property.
There’s a three-car garage, nine parking spots beyond that and street parking on top of it all. Both the church building and the rectory have full kitchens.
One could hypothetically sleep in the pews, but when reached for comment, Ted Wight of Sotheby’s International Realty said the owners are living in the former rectory. According to the listings, there are three tenants in the rectory paying $2,700 in gross rent; property taxes on the full property are roughly $16,000 per year.
The church is being used as an office for an advertising agency. There are plenty other uses an owner could get out of the space, though, as the listing marvels at its potential as an event space, health and wellness spot or co-working space. Valets for big events are even able to park on a neighboring lot.
If that price point is too high, another church in St. Louis is also on the market (and also recently seen on “Zillow Gone Wild”). The church at 2501 Clifton Avenue has been on the market for about the same amount of time as the Humphrey Street property, available for $1.4 million.
Features of that church include six bedrooms, seven and a half bathrooms and 7,900 square feet across a quarter-acre lot. The restored gothic church even has a hot tub atop its bell tower. Keller Williams Realty’s Megan Gauthier has that listing, according to Realtor.com.
Read more New York Redeemer Presbyterian’s UES development plans vex co-op residents National Charred $1.5M mansion finds buyer after days on market New York Smurf-erriffic! Michigan home seems to be inspired by cartoon The post Worship at the altar of the “Zillow Gone Wild” multi-use church appeared first on The Real Deal.
Robert DeNiro with Wildflower Studios (Getty, Wildflower Ltd./Bjarke Ingels Group/SYNOSIS)The halcyon days of the movie industry may be over, thanks to the pandemic and the relentless rise of streaming services, but there’s still big bucks to be made in making movies.
That’s why movie studios are going up like wildflowers, from Wildflower Studios in New York to a proposed $70 million facility in Dallas. Some states, like Arizona, are offering generous tax incentives to lure developers.
With that said, here are some of the most exciting movie studio projects in the works around the country:
- Construction will soon start on Robert DeNiro’s $600 million Wildflower Studios project in Astoria, Queens, having gotten the green light from authorities, according to CNN. The 775,000-square-foot studio is being hailed as “the world’s first vertical commercial film, television and creative studio.” The building, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, will have seven stories and will house 11 sound stages when it’s completed later this year. De Niro’s son, Raphael, head of the De Niro Team at Douglas Elliman, is also involved with the project, CNN reports.
- In further evidence that Netflix has lost the plot post-password sharing, they’re forking money hand over fist to be in New Jersey. Yes, you read that right: New Jersey. The company announced late last year it’s building an $848 million studio in Fort Monmouth, according to Fierce Video. Developing the 292-acre parcel will create 1,500 permanent production jobs and 3,500 construction jobs, according to state officials.
- Not to be outdone, Lionsgate is building a $100 million studio of its own in Newark, New Jersey, according to The New York Times. The project will erase 15-acres of blighted housing in the city’s downtown area. The Times reports that demand for streaming content is behind the studio investments in New Jersey, in proximity to New York’s acting industry and union labor. Those two will add to the Garden State’s growing number of production studios.
- Chicago’s South Shore is also getting a $100 million film studio. The 222,000-square-foot studio, being built on a lot that’s been vacant for more than 20 years, will have five soundstages, a gym and a cafeteria. The privately funded studio is backed by Regal Miles Studios.
- Mansfield, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, is getting a $70 million studio, according to the Dallas Morning News. The project is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs. The facility will be home to five sound-stage clusters that can accommodate medium to large-scale productions. Each cluster will include a 50,000-square-foot studio building and a 15,000 to 20,000-square-foot millshop. Each studio building will have two 25,000-square-foot soundstages.
Read more Dallas Hollywood in Mansfield? Film production pitched south of Arlington South Florida Movie studio complex may rise on former incinerator site in Fort Lauderdale New York Bjarke Ingels-designed production studio coming to Red Hook The post Here are four states that are betting big on movie studios appeared first on The Real Deal.
President Joe Biden (Getty Images) Read more The news that former President Jimmy Carter has entered hospice care cast a pall over this Presidents Day.
Post presidency, Carter, 98, is best known for leading a life of charity, including building homes for Habitat for Humanity, promoting human rights, and combating disease worldwide. His real estate holdings reflect his modest personal lifestyle: following his presidency, he returned to his two-bedroom ranch in Georgia, which was assessed at $167,000 in 2018, the Washington Post reported.
“It just never had been my ambition to be rich,” Carter, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, told the Post.
President Joe Biden and the other living former presidents — Donald Trump, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — have taken a different approach concerning the accumulation of real estate assets.
Here are the reported real estate holdings of Biden, Trump, Bush and Clinton.
BidenPresident Joe Biden owns a 6,900-square-foot home in Wilmington, Delaware, where Joe and first lady Jill Biden spend weekends and summer vacations together, according to Homes and Gardens. The Bidens also own a cottage near the home that he rents out to the Secret Service for $2,200 a month, the outlet reported.
In 2017, President Biden bought a 4,800-square-foot home on Rehoboth beach, also in Delaware, for $2.7 million, the outlet reported. The three-story home has six bedrooms.
TrumpYou may have heard Donald Trump had a career in real estate before he became the 45th president of the U.S. Anyway, Trump skews this list practically beyond measure.
No, we’re not going to list all of his holdings, most, if not all, of which technically are owned by the Trump Organization.
Trump, according to Homes and Gardens, has six residences and the Trump Organization holds more than 500 businesses and properties, a smattering of which include Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump Tower in New York, Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey, three golf courses in Scotland, including Trump Turnberry; and a winery in Virginia. Some reports put his estimated worth over $3 billion.
ObamaBarack and Michelle Obama own a $20 million property portfolio composed of two homes, according to Hello Magazine.
The Obamas’ primary residence is an $8.1 million home in Washington, D.C., where they decided to stay after Barack Obama’s presidency so daughter Sasha could finish high school there. The nine-bedroom, 8,500-square-foot manse sits on a quarter-acre of land, the outlet reported.
The Obamas also have an $11.75 million vacation home that sits on a 29-acre estate in Martha’s Vineyard, the outlet reported. The estate comes with a private beach and a boathouse.
George W. BushGeorge W. and Laura Bush purchased a Dallas home in the Preston Hollow neighborhood after W.’s presidency ended in 2016, according to Realtor.com. The 43rd president also famously owns a 1,600-acre ranch near Crawford, Texas, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It is unclear what, if any, additional real estate investments the Bushes own.
ClintonNo, we’re also not going to go into the infamous Whitewater controversy.
The Clintons famously didn’t have a lot of money immediately after Bill Clinton left office in 2001. The couple eventually bought a home in Chappaqua, New York, for $1.7 million. The three-story home has five bedrooms and four bathrooms, while the 1.1-acre grounds include a swimming pool, according to Scene Therapy. The Clintons also purchased in 2016 a three-bedroom home next door, the outlet reported.
In 2000, the Clintons bought Whitehaven, a seven-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Washington, D.C., for $2.85 million, according to the outlet. The home is mostly used by Hillary Clinton, who reportedly wrote her memoir there.
The post What are the real estate holdings of Biden and the living ex-presidents? appeared first on The Real Deal.
Kylie Jenner and the Hidden Hills area in Los Angeles (Google Maps, Getty) Kylie Jenner has begun construction on a new mansion in Hidden Hills.
The 25-year-old cosmetic company owner and social media entrepreneur, who has the second-highest net worth of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, has begun construction on the main house for a 5-acre property located between properties owned by her mother, Kris Jenner and her older sister, Khloe Kardashian.
In photos obtained by DailyMail.com, crews can be seen installing the wooden structure for a large house toward the top of the sloping property. One end of the house also has a concrete subterranean entrance that will lead to her 12-car garage.
In May 2020, Jenner bought the property, which had belonged to the now-infamous Ponzi scheme-perpetrating firm Woodbridge Group of Companies, for a record $15 million.
The progress on the home comes months after Jenner and her ex, Travis Scott, listed their Beverly Hills mansion for $21.9 million.
The outlet reported multiple sections of the property being covered with black tarps and a separate structure being built near the road. There is also a new structure being built on the edge of the property, below the main mansion’s foundation that could connect to the below-ground garage.
One of the buildings will likely be housing for Jenner’s security team and the other is set to be a guest house. The main mansion is expected to be about 18,000 square feet and will likely include a home office for the young mogul to use for her many businesses. The compound will also include a swimming pool and sports court.
Jenner, who at 21 was named by Forbes as the Youngest Self-Made Billionaire Ever, is keeping with the family trend of the Kardashians and Jenners who have moved closer together over the years. Kim and Kourtney Kardashian also live nearby.
— Victoria Pruitt
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A photo illustration of Mead Farm at 107 June Road in Stamford, Connecticut (Getty, Corcoran)Anyone interested in purchasing Stamford, Connecticut’s Mead Farm for $4.5 million may want to hold their horses to consider whether they want to buy some as well.
The 95-year-old farm at 107 June Road was put on the market last week and the owner is selling everything, including his nine horses, as part of the deal, the New Haven Register reported.
“We’re talking about everything. The tools, the snow blower, the horses. All that [tack] associated with the horses is going,” owner George Mead told the outlet.
Jeff Jackson of Corcoran Centric Realty has the listing.
The nearly 5-acre farm includes a three-bedroom home that has two and a half bathrooms, an office overlooking five outdoor paddocks and a sunroom with views of the riding trails, as well as a two-car garage.
The 26-stall stable has two heated tack rooms, a feed room, grain silo, hay loft and a rider’s club room, the listing says. There are four riding rings to ride the horses and paddocks for the horses to roam.
The property has been used for nearly 100 years to give riding lessons and, more recently, has hosted events such as weddings and wine and cheese tastings, the outlet reported.
There is a network of trails woven across the property, some of which belong to the Greenwich Riding and Trail Association, the Register said. The association’s network travels through Greenwich, Stamford and Rye Brook.
Read more New York Napa Valley hot-air-balloon business lists for $12M National You can own this white castle, with White Castle’s help New York Century-old Little Italy cheese shop closing after falling behind on rent Mead bought the farm from his mother-in-law in 2007 for $3 million, according to the Register. He’s selling because he is looking to relocate South and his children aren’t interested in taking over the farm.
“I wouldn’t want to hold [my daughter] back by saying ‘Look there’s a family farm, you’re expected to take this over.’ That’s not me,” Mead told the outlet.
— Ted Glanzer
The post Historic Stamford farm for sale — including horses — for $4.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rising interest rates and fears over defaults have led to issuance of commercial mortgage bonds to grind to a near halt, Bloomberg reported.
Just $4.27 billion of CMBS have been sold this year, the outlet reported, representing an 85 percent nosedive compared to the same period last year, when $29.38 billion of CMBS were issued, the outlet reported, citing data it compiled.
The Fed’s rate hikes over the past year, as well as fears of a recession, have made it more challenging to refinance debt; the rate hikes have also led to a decline in property sales
In addition, investors are being more cautious following a number of defaults, foreclosures and give backs in office, hotel and multifamily portfolios over the past year.
In New York City, more than $16 billion in loans secured by commercial properties are set to mature this year, nearly 30 percent more than what came due in 2022, according to data from Trepp.
In Los Angeles and Orange County, where the office market is cratering, the situation is even more dire. About $30 billion of CMBS debt on 400 commercial properties is set to come due this year, according to data from DBRS Morningstar, compared to $10 billion last year.
“Default risk has increased and could be more problematic if rates increase and the economy slows,” Chris Sullivan, chief investment officer at United Nations Federal Credit Union, told Bloomberg. “So, I think a cautious and especially diligent approach is appropriate.”
The CMBS market tracks with the drop in commercial real estate loans. Last year saw a 10 percent decrease in CRE loans, from $891 million in 2021 to $804 million in 2022, the outlet reported, citing data from Mortgage Bankers Association. This year, MBA forecasts just $684 million in such loans, representing another 15 percent plunge that will cut into the CMBS market.
“Everything is frozen, so there’s no raw material to make CMBS transactions,” Paul Norris, of Conning & Co., told Bloomberg. “It’s very hard to bring new deals to market now, because there’s nothing happening in the real estate market.
— Ted Glanzer
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Newmark’s Barry Gosin, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky and Redfin’s Glenn Kelman (LinkedIn, Airbnb, Redfin, Getty)There’s never a dull week in real estate, and likewise there are very few dull players. As is the case most weeks, there was no shortage of quotes that caught our attention.
“Adam and Doug don’t come cheap,” Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Goldfarb said.
No, they — Adam as in Spies and Doug as in Harmon — don’t. The powerhouse duo — which has been involved in more than $250 billion worth of deals since 1997 — caused more than a tremor in the commercial real estate world by moving from Cushman & Wakefield to Newmark.
Not everyone, including Spies and Harmon’s new boss, Newmark CEO Barry Gosin, agreed.
“There’s a lot of mythology out there,” Gosin said. “The money up front is not why people move. It just isn’t.”
And ‘tis the season of company’s annual reports, with the spin that typically comes with them.
Zillow, despite losing $72 million last quarter, beat analysts expectations following last year’s volatile housing market, with the company’s mortgage segment’s revenues falling 65 percent year-over-year.
“The unprecedented housing macro volatility continued, this time to the downside — the scenario we feared could happen,” Zillow co-founder and CEO Rich Barton said.
Redfin had a rough year, closing 2022 with layoffs and reporting a $62 million loss last quarter. Following layoffs, the closure of Redfin Now and a loss of market share, the company shifted its business to partner agents instead of in-house agents to lower personnel costs like training.
“Going through this near-death experience of trading at $3 or $4 a share made us examine every cost associated with employing agents and comparing that to the gross profit margin we get from partner agents,” Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said.
Some companies did better than others.
Airbnb, for example, reported a record fourth quarter and had its first profitable year in company history.
“When we started, we started as an affordable alternative to hotels. I think affordability and value is one of the key reasons people use Airbnb,” CEO Brian Chesky said.
Elsewhere, development of the long-frozen supertall at 125 Greenwich Street in Manhattan is thawing, thanks to a $313 million injection from Northwind Group, an alternative lender known for condo inventory loans.
“It’s a complicated loan — you can’t get it done in one week,” Ran Eliasaf, CEO of Northwind, said of the deal.
In Texas, KKR & CO., lost $12.7 million in an email spoofing scam involving homebuilder Howard J. Nelms, the San Antonio Express reported. Nelms received $5 million in wire transfers from KKR, though he may have been an unwitting middleman.
“Most of them believe they are doing a legitimate job. They don’t know they are doing something illegal,” Dan Morales, acting special agent in charge of the Secret Service in San Antonio, told the outlet. “That’s how the crooks wash their money.
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From left: Adam Spies and Doug Harmon; Michael Franco; (front row) Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen (Getty)As a rule, we don’t do shameless self-promotion in this weekly column.
But rules are made to be broken, and, if you haven’t noticed already, our snazzy new website that we fully launched Tuesday is certainly worth a look. We believe this new iteration of The Real Deal website is more navigable, cleaner — and better highlights our regional coverage. We hope you agree.
That said, there were also other seismic shifts in real estate last week, starting with the shocker that super brokers Doug Harmon and Adam Spies have moved from Cushman & Wakefield to Newmark.
The duo will be co-heads of Newmark’s U.S. capital markets business, the Wall Street Journal first reported. They will be joining Kevin Shannon and Robert Griffin, who already hold the same title.
Their departure leaves a void at Cushman during a time when rising interest rates have slowed commercial sales. Newmark CEO Barry Gosin said the brokerage plans to go into buying mode this year, targeting companies with reduced valuations in a slow commercial real estate market. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, the commercial real estate market continues to show signs of cratering, with Vornado reporting that its joint venture with Crown Acquisitions and other investors defaulted on a $450 million non-recourse loan at 697-703 Fifth Avenue that matured in December.
Vornado’s President and CFO Michael Franco said the asset was “not refinanceable,” and that negotiations with the lender to restructure the loan were ongoing. If that’s unsuccessful, Vornado will hand over the keys to the property, an increasingly common move by commercial landlords. Still, Franco said he believes it is also in the lender’s best interest to work something out. Elsewhere, Erno Bodek, the owner of 541 West 21st Street, is putting his conversion project there into bankruptcy to stop foreclosure proceedings initiated by mezzanine lender SME Capital
New York isn’t the only place feeling the commercial sting.
In Los Angeles, Brookfield defaulted on $784 million of loans connected to two office towers in Downtown L.A.
The fallout doesn’t end there, according to analysts.
“We believe DTLA’s decision to default on these two assets increases the risk for the remaining loans in their portfolio,” Barclays research analysts Lea Overby and Anuj Jain said in a note cited by Bloomberg.
In San Francisco, Slack, now owned by Salesforce, is moving its South of Market headquarters into the 61-story Salesforce Tower. The space dump serves as another blow to San Francisco’s office market, which has a vacancy rate of 27.6 percent, according to CBRE, with many tech companies moving into smaller quarters.
In San Jose, Google — after laying off 1,600 workers across the Bay Area and announcing a $500 million cost to exit offices worldwide — is reassessing its timeline for its Downtown West megaproject. The search giant says it’s still committed to the project, which is the centerpiece of the city’s plans. But, like most metropolitan areas, shifting work patterns have led the company to examine its overall real estate strategy.
This isn’t to say the office pain is being felt everywhere.
After fits and starts, the unfinished supertall at 125 Greenwich Street in Manhattan has been resurrected. Earlier this month, the partners restructured and scored $313 million in financing from Northwind Group to finish construction. Fortress Investment Group, the powerful distressed investor who held the debt on the tower, is now an equity partner and sales are expected to relaunch this year.
In South Florida, air conditioning company owner Douglas Anthony Perera jumped into commercial real estate, after paying $14.3 million for a five-story office building in Broward County.
On the development side, in a move that should surprise absolutely no one, Alden Global Capital put a snag in Bally’s efforts to bring Chicago its first casino at the site of the Chicago Tribune’s former printing press. Alden, which owns the Tribune, inked a 10-year lease extension on that building, likely making Bally have to pay a lot more in the buyout to proceed with the project.
And we’ll close out with some celebrity news. Football season may have ended with a 58-and-a-half-minute Super Bowl classic (thanks, ref), but we still mapped out where newly (again) retired quarterback Tom Brady and his ex-wife supermodel Gisele Bunchen owned properties in the Miami area.
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George Santos and 90-02 Queens Boulevard (Photo Illustration by Steven Dilakian for The Real Deal with Getty, Google Maps)Tiffany Lee Devolder Santos, the sister of serial liar Republican Rep. George Santos, has entered into a settlement to pay $19,525, in monthly installments of $1,000, to settle claims of unpaid rent made by her former landlord, Newsday reported.
On Friday, a Queens County Civil Court judge approved the settlement, which requires Tiffany Santos to begin making payments to her former landlord, New Jersey limited liability company 90-02 QB Holdings, on March 31, the outlet reported.
The final payment of $525 is due on Oct. 31, 2024, Newsday said.
The landlord had sought more than $39,000 in unpaid rent on an Elmhurst, Queens, apartment where Tiffany Santos lived until she vacated the property on Jan. 18, Newsday said.
The settlement appears to have ended one of the Santoses myriad controversies, with this one arising when 90-02 QB Holdings filed an eviction suit against Tiffany Santos in August 2020 over $12,500 in arrears, or about six months’ worth of rent.
Tiffany Santos could have filed for emergency rent relief when the portal opened in June 2021. The program offered to repay up to 15 months’ rent. At that point, Santos’ landlord had already gone 16 months without a payment, pushing her arrears to $33,000.
But Santos didn’t apply for the program until March 2022, court documents show. An application to the program automatically shields a tenant from eviction while the state determines whether they are eligible for relief.
That decision came in July 2022, when Santos’ landlord received a $30,750 payout. But by then, Santos had missed 28 months’ rent, leaving her landlord $29,050 short. Santos had continued to withhold rent in the months since, leaving her landlord holding the bag for more than $39,000 by the end of 2022.
George Santos, who once claimed to own 13 rental properties in New York, decried the state’s eviction moratorium in 2021, saying it robbed him and his family of revenue. A New York Times investigation found no proof of his claims of real estate holdings, but rather that he had faced eviction multiple times.
In addition, while she hadn’t paid rent on her apartment, Tiffany Santos served as president of a political action committee that helped her brother win his race for New York’s Third Congressional District, Newsday reported. The PAC paid Tiffany Santos about $26,000 during the campaign, according to the outlet. She also contributed $5,000 to his campaign, the Daily Mail reported.
Meanwhile, George Santos has resisted bipartisan calls to resign following revelations that much of his background — including among other things, claims that he worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, attended Baruch College and played volleyball there, and had former employees die in the Pulse nightclub massacre — had been fabricated.
In addition, he’s been tied to a Ponzi scheme that ensnared numerous victims, including one member of the real estate industry.
The FBI is also investigating him on claims that he raised $3,000 through a charity for a disabled veteran’s sick dog, but kept the money instead.
— Ted Glanzer
https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2022/12/20/new-york-rep-elect-fabricated-real-estate-portfolio-claim/
https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/01/29/george-santos-alleged-ponzi-scheme-victimized-re-agent/
https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/01/06/in-george-santos-eviction-drama-a-glimpse-of-how-tenants-exploit-rent-relief/
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(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)That house you have might not be worth what you think it is — and a lot of people are in the same boat (and may need one), according to a new study.
Homes in certain areas that are vulnerable to floods are overvalued by $120 billion to $237 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing data from a report published by the Nature Climate Change journal.
The authors of the report got their numbers by determining how much homes are currently selling for and estimating the average yearly losses that homeowners would experience in the event of a flood over the course of 30 years, or the typical length of a mortgage.
Not surprisingly, the biggest differences in value were in coastal areas like Florida, where real estate transactions don’t require the disclosure of the risk of floods, Bloomberg said, citing the report.
“The consequence of this financial risk and how the housing market responds really depend on policy choice on who bears the cost of climate change,” Jesse Gourevitch, of the Environmental Defense Fund and lead author of the report, said, according to Bloomberg. “It is really critical that flood risk is better communicated to property owners.”
High-value properties accounted for the lion’s share of overstatement, with 11 percent of the properties accounting for 80 percent of the overvaluation, the outlet reported. But the lowest-priced properties stand to lose the greatest portion of their value — up to 10 percent, according to the report.
And a large portion of overvaluation is driven by properties that are not covered by severe flood zones specifically designated by the government, the researchers found.
Much of the problem lies with state and federal governments. States have different requirements as to disclosing flood risks during a sale, while the federal government’s maps that highlight areas prone to floods are outdated or aren’t easily accessible, the outlet said.
In addition, buyers may be prone to risky decision making by underestimating the risk of a flood, Bloomberg reported. The federal government has contributed to those decisions by offering subsidized flood insurance, the outlet said.
It’s not the first study to report billions of dollars of real estate is subject to the effects of climate change.
A report by the New Jersey nonprofit Climate Central said sea levels could fully or partially flood approximately $34 billion worth of real estate on the country’s coasts. That estimate fis projected over the life of a 30-year mortgage.
The nonprofit used tax assessment data from counties across the country, along with tidal level properties boundaries and elevation. It predicted the damage could be much worse by the end of the century, potentially tripling losses in counties adjoined to the sea.
Read more New York Climate change’s higher tides could threaten $34B of coastal real estate New York Can the world’s most famous skyline also be the most forward-thinking on climate? New York SEC’s climate proposals are “wake-up call” for real estate The post Is the housing market overvalued by billions due to flood risks? appeared first on The Real Deal.
Compass’ Heather Domi and Alexa Lemieux (Compass, Getty)Compass broker Heather Domi, who has made a name organizing New York City residential agents, is launching her own team at the brokerage.
Her former team, which she led with broker Henry Hershkowitz, finished 2021 with $66.8 million in sell-side volume, according to data collected by The Real Deal. Domi places the team’s overall volume that year at $129 million.
A 22-year industry veteran with $1.5 billion in lifetime sales, Domi’s recent transactions include kicking off the year with a deal for a $23.5 million townhouse at 137 West 13th Street in the West Village.
Domi co-founded in 2018 the New York Residential Agent Continuum, an agent advocacy group aimed at bringing awareness to industry-specific issues and promoting information-sharing among agents. She also served on REBNY’s Residential Brokerage Board of Directors until October, when she stepped down and accused the trade group of “taxation without representation.”
In a fiery resignation letter, Domi criticized the group for a lack of broker input in the organization’s decision-making process and the fact that brokers do not get a voting seat on the board of directors.
Read more National For Compass agents who invested, IPO is watershed moment New York Broker group asks StreetEasy to stop counting days on market New York REBNY plans sweeping rule changes for 2023 “We’re paying their bills but we don’t have a say,” Domi said in a call for equal representation between executives and rank-and-file brokers, which she said more closely resembles other realtor association leadership groups.
Joining Domi’s newly minted team is Alexa Lemieux as its first broker. Lemieux, not to be confused with a cast member from Netflix’s “Love is Blind” of the same name, previously worked with Beverly Hills Estates before joining Compass in December.
Lemieux and Domi share personal connections to the world of professional hockey: Lemieux is the daughter of Hall of Fame hockey player Mario “Le Magnifique” Lemieux, and Domi is married to former Toronto Maple Leafs player Tie Domi.
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A photo illustration of Matija Pecotic (Getty)Pickleball may be taking the real estate world by storm, but Matija Pecotic prefers its higher-energy cousin — tennis.
Indeed, Pecotic, who is the director of capital markets for Wexford Real Estate Investors in Palm Beach, Florida, lived his dream last week when he took part in the Delray Beach Open tennis tournament last week, Bloomberg News reported.
The 33-year-old, who is ranked 784th in the world, ultimately fell in straight sets to No. 55 Marcos Giron, but not before creating some lifelong memories.
He got into the tournament as an alternate and a slot opened up. Last week he won three qualifying matches, including one over Jack Sock, who had once been ranked in the top 10 in the world and won the Delray Beach Open in 2017.
“Hopefully this has shown that I can play at a high level,” Pecotic told Bloomberg News. “I’ve actually never gotten a wild card to any event in my life — all my results have been meritocratic, so if this leads to opportunities at other big events, I would consider putting Wexford on pause, I wouldn’t quit.”
It’s only fair, considering he had to put his tennis career on pause due to a health issue after becoming the first three-time Ivy League player of the year at Princeton, the outlet said. During that time he also served as a practice partner for fellow Croat No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who needed a lefty to serve as a stand in for Rafa Nadal in the 2013 U.S. Open final.
Also while in college, he was backed financially by investor Bill Ackman and ultimately worked in Ackman’s Table Management office.
But instead of pursuing professional tennis — he rose as high as No. 206 in the world — Pecotic got his MBA at Harvard Business School.
In 2019, he gave pro tennis another shot, but Covid-19 hit and he moved to Florida to work at Wexler.
His bosses, Wexford co-founders Chuck Davidson and Joe Jacobs, showed their support for Pecotic by attending the Giron match.
Read more New York Farm of dreams: Athletes buy Iowa property Los Angeles WNBA legend Lisa Leslie, Tomi Rose team up on athletes South Florida A look at Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen’s South Florida real estate portfolio After his loss, however, he was back in the office, where he said he had a four-hour meeting scheduled to go over more than 40 projects.
Still, he hasn’t ruled out a pro career, and he even got an Instagram message from Djokovic, who wrote in Croatian, “Matija, my brother! You don’t belong in the office just yet. See you on the court soon,” the outlet reported.
— Ted Glanzer
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Home Marketing Services’ Bob Lovell (HMS Inc., Getty)For the second time, Home Marketing Services’ CEO is being accused of sexual assault.
The Jane Doe filed the lawsuit against Bob Lovell, head of the Dallas-based HMS, the Dallas Morning News reported. Monday’s complaint alleges improper sexual conduct in the workplace.
The woman in the suit accuses Lovell of sexually assaulting her by fondling her breasts in March 2021 after she delivered clothes to him. The publication could not reach Lovell for comment, but his attorney denied the allegation.
In the lawsuit, Jane Doe #2 claims Lovell made comments about an unsatisfactory sexual relationship with his wife. The woman claims Lovell then offered her a job and fondled her breasts. When she asked him to stop and accused him of being someone who thought they could get away with such conduct, Lovell allegedly replied, “Yes, I know who I can touch and get away with it.”
More broadly, the complaint, which accuses Lovell of frequent sexual harassment and pressuring women, calls him “a dirty old man who preys on women and young female employees.”
The need for a Jane Doe #2 exists because there is already a Jane Doe #1. A year ago, another woman filed a lawsuit against Lovell, echoing similar misconduct. That woman accused Lovell of withholding customer leads from her unless she gave in to his demand for oral sex. She also claimed that after refusing his request, Lovell canceled her daughter’s health insurance coverage.
Both women are seeking more than $1 million in damages. The attorney representing the women expressed confidence that there are more victims out there, hoping they’ll come forward.
Lovell’s HMS helps people buy and sell homes. The company is best known for its ads, which feature the tagline: “Bless your heart.”
Lovell countersued Jane Doe #1, accusing her of a breach of contract. Her case is set to be heard in April.
Read more Tri-State American Dream owner Triple Five Group hit with sexual harassment suit New York Luis D. Ortiz denies alleged abuse, calls ex “evil” The post Dallas real estate CEO accused of sexual assault appeared first on The Real Deal.
Mayor Larry Klein and Aron Developers’ Navneet Aron (LarryforMayor.com, LinkedIn, Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Navneet Aron finally ate something — Indian food, to be exact.
The Silicon Valley developer who went on a week-long hunger strike in an effort to get city officials to let him resume construction on a development of townhouses in Sunnyvale is eating again, the Mercury News reported.
Navneet Aron, the founder and CEO of Aron Developers, spent eight days camping out at City Hall, refusing food “until death” unless the city let him continue building his project on North Fair Oaks Avenue, the outlet said. Aron said he was dealing with an “unnecessary bureaucratic delay” that would cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The city of Sunnyvale halted construction after discovering Aron’s company neglected to obtain approval from Santa Clara County’s Department of Environmental Health. Aron’s crew installed plastic sheet vapor barriers, but failed to get the DEH to sign off on it before they did so, resulting in the city shutting down construction on the 18-unit multifamily project, Aron’s company’s first. Aron filed the paperwork with the municipality, but was told the wait could be up to 45 days to clear up, time that Aron said he did not have.
“This is simply, I believe, a bureaucratic exercise between the two agencies,” Aron previously told the outlet. “And we are simply suffering and forcing our people who have families and kids and live paycheck to paycheck to not be able to work on-site. They don’t have any other income. So that’s why I’m here.”
It was unknown if, or how much, the hunger strike influenced government officials, but they are moving forward with the paperwork that will allow the project to continue. Still, officials haven’t promised that Aron will be able to resume construction, but he remained buoyant.
“I told my guys with confidence that there’s absolutely zero layoffs,” he told the outlet. “We will be working full speed ahead with 100 percent confidence.”
Aron’s struggle highlighted the difficulties smaller developers often face when dealing with the city’s permitting process, which is making the housing shortage even worse, the Mercury reported. Last year, construction on townhomes for unhoused families in East Oakland was held up for a year due to permitting issues and city fees, the outlet said.
Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein told the outlet in an email that the city is happy to listen to concerns from residents and developers, but he thinks Aron unnecessarily put his own life at risk.
“There is always room for improvement,” he said. “Developers also need to understand they need to follow through on their commitments when a project is approved. If there are ways we can make that clearer to them, we are always willing to receive feedback from anyone.”
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more New York Doormen authorize strike ahead of agreement expiration National They said what now? Real estate quotes of the week New York Silverstein, Council strike deal on Queens megaproject The post Silicon Valley developer ends week-long hunger strike appeared first on The Real Deal.
Walmart’s Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer Suresh Kumar (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Certain Austin tech employees can keep their jobs … if they move to Dallas.
Walmart employees left without jobs after the retail giant closed its Austin tech hub have the chance to keep their jobs if they relocate and come back to the office.
Walmart is closing three tech hubs — in Austin, Carlsbad, California and Portland, Oregon, the Dallas Morning News reported. Austin employees can transfer to a downtown Dallas innovation lab operated by Walmart’s sister company Sam’s Club.
All of the other employees who worked in the closing hubs can accept a severance package or move to Walmart’s hometown, Bentonville, Arkansas. That’s where the company is building a new corporate campus that will take up several city blocks. Walmart will pay its workers’ relocation costs.
The company hopes to relocate most of the workers, and some will be allowed to work remotely full time, a Walmart spokesperson said. MosT will also be required to report to their assigned office at least two days a week, as opposed to the Bentonville location’s required five days a week.
New tech hubs planned in Atlanta and Toronto, which were announced last year, could create thousands of jobs, Walmart’s global chief technology officer Suresh Kumar has said.
Before the most recent closures, Walmart had 11 tech hubs in the U.S. and six others across the globe.
The shutdowns follow news that Walmart is also closing three stores in the Chicago suburbs. The retailer is closing one pickup and delivery-only store in Lincolnwood and two others in Plainfield and Homewood.
The retailer said the decision to close the stores came after a “thorough review process” found the stores weren’t performing as well as others. The Walmart stores in Skokie, about a mile from the Lincolnwood store, and six other Walmart Supercenters in a 10-mile radius will remain open, and employees for the closing locations will be able to transfer to other stores.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Los Angeles Walmart leases warehouse, creative office in Playa Vista South Florida James Batmasian buys Walmart shopping center in Deerfield Beach Chicago Walmart shuttering three Chicagoland locations The post Walmart tech workers in Austin can choose layoffs or Dallas appeared first on The Real Deal.
6166 South Sheridan Road; Kiser Group’s Andy Friedman (Kiser Group, Google Maps, Getty)Condo owners in an Edgewater tower positioned their property as a target for Chicago’s next big condo deconversion.
The condo board of Granville Tower, the 28-story high-rise tower at 6166 North Sheridan Road, agreed to put the 154-unit property up for sale, Crain’s reported. Chicago brokerage Kiser Group was hired to procure a buyer for the property, which is expected to fetch about $40 million, Kiser’s Andy Friedman said.
Condo deconversions became popular a few years ago as apartment values started to rise, while the condo market softened. Deconversions occur when an investor buys all units in a condo building in a bulk sale and turns it into a rental property.
Condo owners who don’t want to sell can become a problem for developers wanting to transform the property into apartments. A bulk sale often nets condo owners more money for their units than they would get in a traditional single-unit sale, making some people more willing to part ways with their homes.
A Chicago city ordinance passed in 2019 requires owners of at least 85 percent of the condo building’s value to agree to a bulk sale before a deconversion can happen. The rule upped the bar from state law, which requires 75 percent.
About half of Granville Tower’s owners live in the condo units and the other half are investors who rent the units out. Investors often support deconversion plans even more than individual owners since they don’t have to move, don’t have as much of an emotional attachment to the units and are only looking at the financial gains and losses of the deal.
Granville Tower’s condo board won’t vote on a sale until Kiser brings it an offer.
Friedman said the tower is an ideal candidate for a condo deconversion because it has such high assessments to fund the property’s association for repairs and other services, which lower resale values of units. They range from $700 to $800 a month for a one-bedroom unit and $1,200 to $1,350 for a two-bedroom.
The assessments are “obnoxiously big,” he told the outlet. “It doesn’t leave much room for a mortgage payment.”
Read more Chicago Local investors close on $18.3M Lakeview condo deconversion Chicago Judge to rule on attempt to block record-breaking Chicago condo deconversion The post Edgewater condo owners seek $40M deconversion appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)The Los Angeles office market saw demand wither in 2022. After surging in 2021, net absorption in the fourth quarter plunged deep into negative territory, crashing by nearly 246 percent year over year to end 2022 at -1.3 million square feet.
That buildup of excess office stock occurred even as deliveries of new space also plummeted by more than 70 percent last year. Accordingly, the pipeline is shrinking as investment pulls back from the sector, with the total square feet under construction dropping by more than 32 percent.
Average asking rent held up better, rising by 3.52 percent year-over-year.
Uneven terrain
The industry mantra of “location, location, location” held especially true for the city’s office submarkets last year, with some neighborhoods fairing relatively well while others crashed and burned.
Park Mile posted the city’s highest vacancy rate for the end of 2022 at 36.5 percent, followed by Mid-Wilshire’s 30.2 percent. San Gabriel Valley had the lowest rate, at 10.6 percent, followed by Los Angeles North with 17 percent.
The Los Angeles North submarket experienced a catastrophic year-over-year plunge in fourth-quarter net absorption, which plummeted from 3,304 square feet in late 2021 to -413,053 square feet by the end of last year.
South Bay was riding high at the end of 2021 with a net absorption of 249,639 square feet, but that figure dropped to -12,707 square feet in the fourth quarter of last year.
Only two L.A. submarkets experienced a year-over-year gain in net absorption. In Mid-Wilshire, the figure swung from -50,874 square feet in late 2021 to 2,337 square feet at the end of last year. In San Gabriel Valley, the upswing was from -6,183 square feet to 53,506 square feet.
The city’s largest submarket, West Los Angeles — which topped the markets in 2021 with a net absorption of nearly 400,000 square feet — saw a decline last year, but its fourth-quarter 2022 net absorption of 253,784 square feet was the highest in the city.
West Los Angeles also boasts the highest Class A premium, with tenants paying on average 23.23 percent more for new space than for Class B offices. South Bay follows closely with a premium of 23.1 percent.
In Park Mile, however, the Class A rent differential is actually a discount. Prime office space there actually goes for 4.78 percent less than the Class B variety. But things do appear to be getting better for Class A in Park Mile — in 2021, the area's “Class A discount” was more than 12 percent.
This is one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal for all the data and market information you need.
Read more Los Angeles LA County office vacancy rises to 16.5%, study finds Los Angeles LA landlords eye office-to-housing conversions Los Angeles Center Capital breaks ground on 72K sf office building in West Adams The post Health of LA office sector depends on the submarket appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)It’s no surprise that luxe listings in L.A. carry multi-million-dollar asking prices, but how about a neighborhood where the median cost for a home totals $13 million?
A median home in the Beverly Hills Gateway neighborhood of Beverly Hills costs $13.2 million, according to a recent survey from PropertyShark. It ranked as L.A. County’s priciest enclave.
What’s more, the price ticked up significantly last year. In a year-over-year comparison, median prices shot up 22 percent between 2022 and 2021 in Beverly Hills Gateway, a neighborhood best known for the Greystone Mansion and Beverly Hills Hotel.
Most of the top 10 enclaves in L.A. County were located in Beverly Hills or Malibu.
Beverly Hills’ Trousdale Estates ranked second with a median home price of about $12 million. Coming in third was the Beverly Hills Flats enclave with a median of $9.5 million. Respectively ranking fourth and fifth were the Malibu neighborhoods of La Costa and Broad Beach. La Costa had a 2022 median price of $9 million and Broad Beach had a median of almost $8.1 million. Sixth place went to Point Dume in Malibu with a price point of $7 million.
Filling the last few slots of the top 10 were Santa Monica’s North of Montana enclave. It placed seventh with a median of about $4.3 million. Bel Air ranked eighth, with a median of $4.1 million. Malibu’s Big Rock Mesa was ninth with a median of $4 million and Pacific Palisades came in 10th with a median of $3.9 million.
New-to-market listing and signed contracts (Source: Marketproof)The PropertyShark survey found that sales declined across the board in L.A. County’s priciest neighborhoods. Beverly Hills Gateway transactions declined 25 percent comparing 2022 sales to 2021 sales.
Markets experiencing sales declines and interest rate hikes such as late 2022 often are headed toward price reductions, but L.A. County’s low inventory of housing has kept prices high through all price ranges.
While inventory for ultra luxe listings has increased in the county, don’t expect big price reductions, said Paul Salazar, an estates director with Hilton & Hyland. Interest remains high and the ultra luxe market most likely will experience some price dips in the near future.
“There’s still a lot of money in the market, and a lot of cash buyers,” Salazar said.
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Sag Harbor trustee Aidan Corish (Getty, Village of Sag Harbor)Sag Harbor’s affordable housing law has been in place for only eight months, but some are already pushing for it to be revamped or repealed.
This week, village trustee Aidan Corish recommended a review of Local Law 12, 27East reported. “There is a growing sense of unease that Local Law 12 will allow for unfettered development,” Corish said during a village board meeting.
It was not immediately clear how the law would do that.
The review will likely involve a two-part effort. First, village attorney Elizabeth Vail will clarify how the law is supposed to work in conjunction with the village code. Then the public will have an opportunity to comment on the nascent measure.
Some residents of the 2,800-member community are already champing at the bit to weigh in, saying the law was ill-conceived and should be wiped off the books. Other residents are advocating for specific changes, such as limiting the number of units and properties that can be combined in one development.
The discussion around affordable housing in the village centers on a 79-unit proposal made by Adam Potter shortly after Local Law 12’s enactment. Opponents quickly organized a group called Save Sag Harbor and sued, arguing that the village took shortcuts in conducting a required environmental review.
Potter’s proposal appears to be in trouble. In December, two partners in the development backed out, citing the economic climate. Neither mentioned the growing backlash against the project, which set message boards on NextDoor ablaze.
Even if the $70 million, 106,000-square-foot project came to fruition, the need for affordable housing in the village — and across the East End — would remain high. Towns across the Hamptons have been scrambling to find solutions as people who work in the area during the summer and year-round struggle to find housing within it.
Read more Tri-State Partners back out of Sag Harbor affordable housing project Tri-State “I almost want to cry:” Sag Harbor affordable housing plan under fire Tri-State Affordable housing project proposed for Sag Harbor Voters in the Hamptons and North Fork in November approved a property transfer tax to fund affordable housing, but it seems likely that voices opposed to building more will outnumber supporters of the idea as Sag Harbor reconsiders its own zoning law.
A timeline for the review has yet to be established.
— Holden Walter-Warner
The post Sag Harbor may kill affordable housing law in crib appeared first on The Real Deal.
Slate Property Group’s Martin Nussbaum and David Schwartz with 600 Columbus Avenue (Slate Property Group, Google Maps, Getty)Slate Property Group is in contract to buy 600 Columbus Avenue, a 166-unit rental building on the Upper West Side, for $120 million, The Real Deal has learned.
Multifamily transactions in New York have slowed precipitously as rising interest rates clash with sellers unwilling to cut prices. Investment in Manhattan apartment buildings slipped 23 percent by dollar volume from the first half of last year to the second half as the cost of debt spiked. And experts say deals could slow further this year.
Slate, led by David Schwartz and Martin Nussbaum, appears to have sidestepped that bottleneck. Its purchase price for 600 Columbus Avenue, coupled with the building’s age and market-rate makeup, mean the investor might have nabbed a steal.
A source familiar with the sale said the building’s 166 units are a mix of market rate and rent-stabilized apartments. But property tax records and the rent guidelines board’s list of stabilized buildings doesn’t count 600 Columbus among the city’s rent-regulated properties.
If the building is mostly free-market, the $120 million or $684 per square foot Slate agreed to pay is a discount on the average $810 per square foot investors paid for free-market buildings last year, according to an Ariel Property Advisors report.
JLL’s Bob Knakal, Jon Hageman and Hall Oster, who brokered the deal, declined to comment. A spokesperson for Slate did not immediately comment on what drew the developer to the property.
A concentration of unregulated units would give Slate the runway to renovate and reprice them. The building between West 89th and 90th streets went up in the mid-1980s and property records indicate it hasn’t changed hands since. It’s unclear whether its owner, a firm connected to the developer and former politician Jerome Kretchner, has made substantial renovations since.
As it stands, one-bedrooms in the doorman building fetch about $4,000 per month. In January, the median price of a Manhattan apartment was $4,097, over 13 percent higher than prices last January and just about $50 shy of the record posted in July.
And while rents nationally have begun to see year-over-year declines, experts say New York is an outlier in that they expect this level of annualized growth to hold for the next few months.
“This is just where we’re going to be,” said Hal Gavzie, leasing director at Douglas Elliman.
Despite the market slowdown in the second-half of 2022, Slate was one of the most active multifamily firms in the city. The developer ranked tenth on Ariel Property Advisors’ list of the year’s top buyers by dollars spent, with over $185 million.
Read more New York Inside Slate’s under-the-radar homeless shelter play New York NYC multifamily sales boomed, but party could be over The post Slate buying Upper West Side apartments for $120M appeared first on The Real Deal.
7717 Atlantic Way (Google Maps, Getty)An oceanfront home in the Altos Del Mar neighborhood of Miami Beach traded for $20 million, a 20 percent discount off the initial asking price.
Property records show 7717 Oceanside LLC, a Delaware entity, sold the five-bedroom, seven-and-a-half bathroom house at 7717 Atlantic Way. The buyer is Atlantic Way Investors, a Florida entity created last month, which is controlled by an attorney.
The three-story home, built on a 0.4-acre lot in 2017, spans more than 7,300 square feet, records show. It includes a home theater, summer kitchen with a pool, Jacuzzi and cabana, a basketball court, and four bedroom suites. The property last sold in 2016 for an undisclosed price.
Michelle Silva Lindquist with Casa Florida Group represented 7717 Oceanside LLC in the latest deal. Miltiadis Kastanis with Douglas Elliman brought the buyer.
The home has been on and off the market for two years. It was listed for $25 million in March, and the asking price was reduced to $24.5 million in July. Price cuts are becoming more common due to the market slowdown, brokers say. In December, a hedge funder sold his waterfront Miami house for $14.5 million, about 27 percent less than the initial asking price of nearly $20 million.
Altos Del Mar is the only neighborhood in Miami Beach where homes were built right on the beach. The gated community, south of the North Beach Oceanside Park, is between 77th and 79th streets.
In October, a relative of spec home developer Andres Isaias sold the oceanfront home at 7737 Atlantic Way to a hidden trust for $20.5 million.
Matthew Whitman Lazenby, owner of Bal Harbour Shops, sold his oceanfront Altos Del Mar mansion for $21 million in June to an LLC with ties to the billionaire Metropoulos family, which has turned around companies that include Pabst Blue Ribbon and Hostess Brands. Lazenby bought the home for $18 million the year prior.
Victor Ciardelli, CEO of Chicago-based Guaranteed Rate, also owns property in the neighborhood. He bought an oceanfront Altos Del Mar house and adjacent lot for $37.5 million in 2021.
The post Oceanfront Altos Del Mar home in Miami Beach sells for 20% price cut appeared first on The Real Deal.
Douglas Elliman’s Francisco Rizo; 3521 Sentinel Oak Road, Flower Mound (Getty, Douglas Elliman)A 13-acre luxury ranch in the Dallas/Fort Worth suburb of Flower Mound is one of the most-expensive listings in the Metroplex at just under $22 million.
Dubbed Woodbine Springs Ranch, the estate is located at 3521 Sentinel Oak Road on the north side of Grapevine Lake. The property is being used as an equestrian center and comes equipped with stables and riding enclosures.
With its contemporary main house and pink mission-style stables, the estate comprises 11 properties, including two residences, but the true value lies in the land itself, said Francisco Rizo of Douglass Elliman, who has the listing.
“It is really hard to find 13 acres all together that close to Dallas proper. It is a rare gem, and you have the lake right there” Rizo said.
The property has been on the market for just over 40 days, and while there has been notable interest, mainly from out-of-state and international buyers, landing a client for this property could be like finding a “needle in a haystack,” Rizo said.
Courtesy of Francisco Rizo“The unique challenge is showing why this property is so special. We need to find the right client that is looking at this for themselves or is looking to make a development that fits the land,” he said. “It could be anything the client wants. Right now the grass is so green it looks like you’re walking Augusta.”
Courtesy of Francisco RizoThe ranch is currently the most expensive single family property Rizo has listed, he said.
New York-headquartered Douglass Elliman has made a big push into Texas over the past four years, opening offices in Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. The company reported nearly $1 billion in sales volume in Texas alone in 2021.
Courtesy of Francisco RizoThe luxury market in Dallas led Texas last year. From November 2021 to October 2022, there were 4,689 home sales in Dallas of $1 million or more, representing $7.6 billion in sales. Homes in that price range averaged $368-per-square-foot in DFW, compared with $207 per foot for all residential sales in the region. Dallas luxury homes average 44 days on the market.
Read more The post Horse ranch with lake views in Dallas suburbs listed at $22M appeared first on The Real Deal.
8 & 10 Cobbetts Lane in Shelter Island (Saunders & Associates)An estate on Shelter Island has hit the market with a lofty asking price more commonly seen in the affluent Hampton enclaves to its south.
The owner of 8 and 10 Cobbetts Lane wants $13.3 million for the 4-acre property near Dering Harbor on the island’s north side, according to a listing with Saunders & Associates.
8 & 10 Cobbetts Lane in Shelter Island (Saunders & Associates)The listing includes two evenly divided parcels surrounded by hundreds of acres of protected land. The two-acre lot at 8 Cobbetts Lane, also available on its own for $9.8 million, comes with a 6,000-square-foot, four-bedroom farmhouse, a timber barn and an outdoor pool. The unbuilt lot next door at 10 Cobbetts Lane has permits for a guest house but could host an equestrian facility or something else, like tennis courts, according to the listing.
Known as the Shelter Island Farm, the property also has wildflower gardens, a lavender field and an apple orchard.
8 & 10 Cobbetts Lane in Shelter Island (Saunders & Associates)Shelter Island sits between the Hamptons and North Fork, but is only accessible by boat, limiting the pool of potential buyers. A home is worth what someone is willing to pay, but other recent listings on the island suggest that an eight-figure sale may take some time.
One family tried to privately sell a three-lot property on Charlie’s Lane for $22.5 million, but pulled two of the lots off the market. They relisted the most valuable one, 2 Charlie’s Lane, by itself this fall for $14 million. The 6,000-square-foot home with six bedrooms, a 74-foot pool, a large dock and more than three bayfront acres is still available, according to the listing.
In 2021, there was one eight-figure sale, the purchase of a 16,000-square-foot waterfront estate at 10 Lari Lane for $11.8 million. Another home on Cobbetts Lane — roughly half the size of this latest listing — sold in one of the island’s largest deals that year — $4 million, according to Behind the Hedges.
Read more New York Shelter Island’s revamped Pridwin Hotel set to reopen June 17 Tri-State On the dock-et: Shelter Island inn owner sues town The post Shelter Island listing shoots for the stars with $13M ask appeared first on The Real Deal.
IMC Equity Group’s Yoram Izhak and the Seascape Pointe Apartments at 1140 Southeast 24th Road in Homestead (Getty, IMC Equity Group, Google Maps)Real estate investor Yoram Izhak bought a townhome rental complex in southwest Miami-Dade County for $67 million.
An entity managed by Izhak, CEO of North Miami-based IMC Equity Group, and IMC investor Alan Lipton, acquired Seascape Pointe Apartments at 1140 Southeast 24th Road in Homestead, according to records and Vizzda. The buyer secured a $48.5 million Fannie Mae mortgage through Santander Bank.
The deal breaks down to roughly $218,000 per townhome.
Completed in 2008, Seascape is a collection of 50 townhome buildings with 306 units on 23.7 acres, records show. The seller, a joint venture between Miami-based Mast Capital and New York-based global investment firm Angelo Gordon & Co., paid $50 million for Seascape in December 2020. The partnership sold it for $17 million more after owning the property for a little over two years.
Seascape is near Venice at Crystal Lakes, a condo complex in which IMC owns 82 units, and a 160-unit apartment building, also owned by IMC, said Carlos Segrera, the firm’s chief investment officer.
“Today’s environment is challenging and the debt markets are complicated, so it is difficult to make deals that make sense,” Segrera said of the Seascape acquisition. “This one made sense. At $218,000 a unit, that’s not bad at all.”
Seascape is close to fully occupied, and the average asking rent is roughly $2,000 a month, Segrera said. Apartments.com shows 13 three- and four-bedroom townhomes are currently available at monthly rents between $2,250 and $2,650.
Following its founding in 2000, IMC focused more on retail and industrial properties, but roughly two years ago Izhak wanted to diversify the company’s holdings, Segrera said. “We have been focusing on multifamily,” he said. “We now have 1,300 units.”
In 2021, an IMC affiliate paid $37.5 million for the Venice at Crystal Lakes condos and apartment building, records show. The same year, other Izhak-controlled entities acquired portions of the shuttered Johnson & Wales University campus in North Miami for a combined $29.2 million. The purchase included a golf management center, a student apartment building, a parking lot and a vacant lot.
Last year, IMC sold 3 acres of the former college campus to the Related Group for $13.6 million. Related plans to build Manor Biscayne, an eight-story apartment project with 382 units.
The post Yoram Izhak buys Homestead townhome rental complex for $67M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)A homebuilder in Canyon Lake was involved in a multi-million-dollar scam of one of the world’s largest private equity firms, according to the U.S. Secret Service in San Antonio.
New York-based firm KKR & Co. lost $12.7 million through an email spoofing scam, the San Antonio Express-News reported, based on federal court documents. Howard J. Nelms, 54, received wire transfers from KKR totaling $5 million, according to the documents.
KKR hasn’t publicly shared how much money it lost, but the firm has recovered $9 million with the help of federal authorities and private banking institutions, court documents show.
Nelms hasn’t been charged, and it’s possible he didn’t know he was part of a scam. Federal authorities, which seized more than $1.5 million from Nelms’ accounts, described his role in the scheme as a “money mule,” a middleman recruited to move illegally obtained money on a con artist’s behalf.
“Most of them believe they are doing a legitimate job. They don’t know they are doing something illegal,” Dan Morales, acting special agent in charge of the Secret Service in San Antonio, told the outlet. “That’s how the crooks wash their money.”
Nelms transferred money to accounts, including $560,000 to accounts in the name of his late mother, the documents show. He also moved $142,150 to Shelton Vann, a lawyer in Florida, as well as $2.4 million to Lorium Law in Fort Lauderdale, according to the documents.
The lawyer told federal authorities that Nelms got mixed up in a cryptocurrency scam involving “discounted” Bitcoin, the newspaper reported. He was working with two people who said they were part of the cryptocurrency deal.
“These two individuals purported to be the owners of the funds, and represented that the funds were related to real estate transactions,” an affidavit said. “They directed Nelms to purchase Bitcoin on their behalf for ‘investment purposes.’”
KKR was attempting to send money to one of its clients, Great Wall Asset Management, when a spoofed email came in that closely resembled a real email from the client. The firm sent $5.8 million to a Chase Bank account in March 2022 and an additional $6.9 million two weeks later. After a third request for a wire transfer came in, the company launched an internal review and discovered the emails were faked.
Read more Los Angeles Home listing scam sends Torrance man to prison for nine years South Florida Inside Miami real estate scam targeting Venezuela’s elite Federal authorities have been unable to locate Nelms or Vann, the newspaper reported.
The Secret Service in San Antonio recovered $20 million in money-mule scams in 2022, Morales said. “This office is pretty close to leading the nation in seizures,” he told the outlet.
— Victoria Pruitt
The post TX builder helped scammers steal $12M from KKR appeared first on The Real Deal.
Origin Investments’ David Scherer (Getty, LinkedIn/David Scherer)As rising interest rates squeeze some commercial real estate investors, one in Chicago made millions off the surge in borrowing costs — without becoming a lender.
David Scherer led his firm, Origin Investments, to buy a type of derivatives contract most commonly used by hedge funds and large financial institutions to balance the risk of investments, the Wall Street Journal reported. Smaller, privately held property developers rarely play the market this way with rate swaps, which allow the parties in a contract to limit their exposure to future interest rate fluctuations in debt markets.
“Most developers are not thinking like that,” Steven Buchwald, senior managing director at Institutional Property Advisors, told the outlet. “You would need the capital and you would need the conviction that rates were going to rise, and rise significantly.”
Scherer’s firm bought $18.5 million-worth of interest rate swaps in January 2022, despite some members of his firm’s investment committee initially saying the idea was crazy.
Not long after that, the Federal Reserve started aggressively raising interest rates to counter inflation with the 10-year Treasury yield rising by more than 1 percent. That increased the value of Scherer’s bets as he was able to sell them in July for more than $46 million.
Scherer’s risk more than doubled his firm’s money, netting a $28 million profit.
Despite the potential of costing the firm, Scherer said he wanted a way to hedge against higher rates on loans he would soon need to take out for developments he was planning. “I want to try to hedge things I can’t control, so I can focus on the things I can,” Scherer told the outlet of his strategy.
Read more Chicago Here are Chicago’s priciest commercial deals of 2022 Chicago Chicago’s long road to commercial real estate recovery Chicago Emerald Empire buys Pangea’s Chicago portfolio in $600M deal The profit from the interest-rate bet will help Origin pay for today’s higher costs of construction loans than those in place a year ago. The firm has plans to break ground on a 720-unit apartment complex in Nashville for which Origin will have to borrow $150 million.
Scherer is trying to repeat his success. When rates dipped a little over the summer, he bought more swaps that he still owns.
— Victoria Pruitt
The post Chicago developer David Scherer’s rate swap play pays off big appeared first on The Real Deal.
Westside Property Group CEO Ty Cueva with 10697 Somma Way, Los Angeles (LinkedIn, Google Maps)He once asked $100 million for a 41,000-square-foot spec mansion in Bel-Air – which now lists for a fire-sale price of $59 million.
The developer, Westside Property Group CEO Ty Cueva, has renamed the house and changed listing agents for the eight-bedroom, 21-bathroom estate at 10697 Somma Way, Mansion Global reported.
Instead of UNICA, the hillside behemoth has been rebranded as the Somma Estate.
“Realistically in this market, this is what it’s worth, it’s priced to sell,” Shawn Elliott of Nest Seekers, who brought the home to the market last week alongside David Parnes of the Bond Collective at The Agency and Branden Williams of Williams & Williams, told the newspaper.
The price cut amounts to $41 million. With its new price of $59 million, which is “slightly below market value,” Elliott said, competing bidders may end up pushing the final sale price beyond that ask.
The megamansion, built in 2017 as the ultimate “billionaire entertainer’s paradise,” has since struggled to attract a billionaire buyer.
First listed at $75 million, its price climbed the rollercoaster the following year to $100 million, a 33-percent increase, before tumbling in 2020 to $78 million.
To make ends meet, the owner of the 1.3-acre estate – with eight wet bars, an indoor basketball court that can be turned into a dance floor, a 36-seat theater, a recording studio, a wellness center, an indoor pool, a steam room, a salon, a fitness studio and an auto gallery for up to 20 cars, with an option to add another 20 – has rented it for as much as $500,000 a month.
The white, three-story Spanish Villa-style mansion is trimmed in black inside and out. While early depictions show its tile roof in a Mediterranean red, it has been updated to arctic blue.
Outside, the grounds have multi-level terraces, an infinity edge, Olympic-size pool and spa, a kitchen and a giant outdoor TV.
Newly landscaped and redesigned after acquiring some of the property next door, “I think the ‘wow factor’ is there,” Elliott said.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Listed at $75M, LA’s biggest spec house was built to be the ultimate “billionaire entertainer’s paradise” Los Angeles Developers relist unfinished Bel Air spec manse at $100M New York NYC’s outdoor dining program will become permanent The post Former $100M Bel-Air megamansion now “priced to sell” at $59M appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Tuesday Morning/CC BY-SA 4.0/via Wikimedia Commons)Tuesday Morning has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will close more than half of its stores.
The off-price retailer, which operates 487 stores in 40 states, announced plans to close stores in low-traffic regions around the same time it filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, the Dallas Business Journal reported. Eleven stores in the greater North Texas area will close.
The retailer’s average footprint is 12,400 square feet.
Invictus Global Management will provide $51.5 million of debtor-in-possession financing to help the company continue running its open stores.
“After considering how best to address Tuesday Morning’s exceedingly burdensome debt, we have determined that the best path to reorganizing and transforming the Company begins with a Chapter 11 filing,” Chief executive Andrew Berger said in a prepared statement. “Fortunately, we have the support of a committed capital provider in Invictus and a clear vision for transforming into a focused retailer that serves its core, heritage markets in a profitable manner.”
Tuesday Morning stores closing in DFW:
- Burleson Shopping Center
- Firewheel Commons in Garland
- Granbury Lakeside Center
- Harwood Village North in Bedford
- Hulen Fashion Center
- Lewisville Towne Crossing
- Parker Central Plaza Shopping Center in Plano
- Pipeline Village in Hurst
- Presidio Towne Crossing
- Shops at Chisholm Trail Ranch
- Village at Camp Bowie
Other stores closing across Texas:
- Atascocita Market Square in Humble
- Brodie Oaks in Austin
- Northcross Shopping Center in Victoria
- Parkdale Place in Beaumont
- Post Oak Square Shopping Center in College Station
- Santa Fe Square in Odessa
- Tanglewood Village Shopping Center in Austin
- The B Spot on Burnet in Austin
- Weslayan Plaza West Shopping Center in Houston
- West Towne Marketplace in El Paso
- Westheimer Commons in Houston
- Westhill Village Shopping Center in Houston
- Wichita Falls Shopping Center
“We appreciate all the support of our employees, customers, creditors and other partners as we seek to sustain commercial operations with minimal disruptions,” Berger also said.
Read more Texas Brookfield plans two hotels for Woodlands Mall Texas Frisco shopping center gets $25M construction loan Chicago The post Tuesday Morning closing 24 Texas stores appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)More than 500,000 residents poured out of California during the pandemic, where the population drop was second only to New York, which lost 15,000 more people during the same period, according to Census data.
Between April 2020 and July 2022, the state’s population decline picked up speed, with the number of residents leaving surpassing those moving in by nearly 700,000, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing population experts.
The biggest reason for the exodus is the state’s high housing costs.
But other reasons include long commutes and crowds, crime and pollution in big cities. The increased ability to work remotely — and not having to live near a large urban center — was a factor.
As the pandemic eases, the exit turnstiles may be slowing – and it could be a few years before the Golden State sees robust population growth. One expert said there could be no net change this year, with positive growth beginning in 2024.
From July 2021 to July 2022, California lost 211,000 people, according to data from the state Department of Finance. More than half — 113,048 — were from Los Angeles County.
The number of people in California fell 0.54 percent to 39 million. The third year of losses is attributed to a sharp drop in migration to California and 100,000 total coronavirus pandemic deaths since 2020.
In the year leading up to July 2021, L.A. County lost 159,621 people, a loss of 1.6 percent, nearly all because of domestic migration. San Francisco lost 54,814 residents, a loss of 6.3 percent, the steepest county decline in the state.
The latest Census data point to those states that have seen population gains even as California’s has shrunk.
During the two-year pandemic span, net migration from the state surpassed that of the next highest state, New York, by 43,000 people. Nearby states such as Utah have sought to discourage Californians from moving there. A similar story is playing out in Nevada, where California migrants are seeking to re-create their lifestyle.
California gained 157,000 more people from natural change — the difference in number of births and deaths — than New York did, making New York’s total population loss greater.
Much of the net migration out of California was “people seeking safe refuge during the pandemic” with parents or friends, causing people to “get out of the central cities,” Dowell Myers, a professor of policy, planning and demography at USC, told the Times.
Even as the pandemic has receded, young people continue to leave California, he said.
The state “still attracts them, it just can’t hold them as well,” Myers said, noting that many young people come in as renters, then leave the state for lower housing prices elsewhere. “People who are leaving are much more likely to be homeowners after they leave.”
He suggested that increased immigration, more births and softening housing prices should help boost the state’s population.
“The clock is ticking on millennials,” Myers said of those who are waiting to have children, often because of housing and cost-of-living pressures. “People tend to have babies more when they’re optimistic.”
As California’s population has shrunk, some of the nation’s most populous states have added to their populations.
The states with the highest population increases between April 2020 and July 2022 were Texas, which gained 884,000 residents, and Florida, which gained 707,000 people.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles California’s growth proposition called into question again San Francisco Bay Area sees some of steepest population declines in California San Francisco State report: Bay Area population drops again The post California lost 500K residents in first two years of pandemic appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of Houston City Hall (Getty)The Houston City Council voted this week in support of affordable housing proposals seeking the city’s share of federal tax credits.
The council selected 16 proposals from the Housing and Community Development Department’s list of 33 potential developments at the Wednesday night meeting. Voting on two additional projects was delayed until next week due to community backlash, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Low Income Housing Tax Credits have been the largest driver of affordable housing for decades by offsetting a portion of private developers’ federal tax liability, which allows them to charge lower rents. The state makes the final determination on which projects receive the highly competitive 9 percent tax credit. However, the city plays a role by passing a resolution of support for projects it endorses, which is a critical component of any application.
Despite the city’s support, many residents have protested the proposed developments for their communities. Increased traffic and strained infrastructure, overcrowding nearby schools, the lack of parks and stores within walking distance and a desire to keep an area a predominantly single-family neighborhood are among the concerns raised. The two delayed proposals found considerable pushback from Spring Branch and Upper Kirby residents.
The Upper Kirby proposal was a 120-unit complex called Felicity Oaks that would be located at 4041 Richmond Avenue. The Spring branch development, the Upland, would be located at 1430 Upland Drive, with 120 units.
The delay was intended to give developers more time to address community concerns, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.
However, not all residents were opposed to affordable housing developments. Mary Koch, a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Church, expressed support for more affordable housing projects in the city. The governing body agreed with Koch, with most members continuing to show support for additional affordable housing projects in the Bayou City, amid pushback from community groups.
Read more Texas New Hope to start $28M senior housing in downtown Houston Houston mayor freezes affordable housing projects Houston Resia’s first Houston project targets middle incomes “Just because people are objecting doesn’t necessarily mean it’s valid,” Mayor Turner said during the Feb. 15 meeting. “Everybody’s entitled to housing.”
Councilmembers argued the new development proposals are to offer better housing options to residents who already live in those areas, from seniors to families seeking new construction and even energy-efficient options.
The post Houston City Council OKs 14 affordable projects amid NIMBY pushback appeared first on The Real Deal.
10 East Ontario Street, 21 East Chestnut, and 450 Sullivan Lake Boulevard (Google Maps, Getty)Owners of Chicago’s Ontario Place condos were told to leave their keys on their counters when they moved out Wednesday as a $190 million sale to Strategic Properties of North America was set to close in a few hours.
By the afternoon, they were told they wouldn’t be getting paid on time to sell their units to Strategic, a firm with Illinois and New Jersey offices led by Yitzy Klor and Saul Kuperwasser. But now the transaction for the 467-unit property at 10 East Ontario Street may not happen at all after the closing was scuttled for at least the second time since August, as negotiations between the company and lenders hit a wall.
“It’s pitiful. My heart sank when I heard the closing was canceled,” said unit owner Bill Martinez.
Strategic put up non-refundable money to extend the closing date once, and could lose out on as much as $1.2 million if the condo owners terminate the deal, according to Myron Robinson, who owns property in Ontario. And Strategic may be on the hook to pay out hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars more to investors who allege they were shortchanged by the company, depending on the outcome of one of the multiple lawsuits it’s facing in Illinois.
Strategic Properties is familiar with controversy. Its penchant for big condo deconversions in Chicago have ensured the company is battle-tested, as the deals often invite litigation due to their political nature. Illinois law requires unit owners holding a cumulative 75 percent of a condo building’s value to vote in favor of a bulk sale before a sale can close. The bar in Chicago is set even higher at 85 percent. Owners who are forced to sell unwillingly have tried to sue to stop such deals, but so far haven’t been successful in Illinois courts on purchases by Strategic or any other buyers, attorneys who specialize in condo law have said.
In fact, the sellers at Ontario Place were informed this week that a California federal judge dismissed complaints brought by some unit owners who were opposed to the sale. It was one of several jurisdictions where unit owners had tried to sue Strategic and the property’s condo association in attempts to unwind the deconversion sales, only to be met with rulings that allowed the deal to proceed in all cases.
Yet another lawsuit first filed by investors against Strategic, Klor and Kuperwasser in 2020 and stemming from a $64.5 million multifamily sale in Chicago’s northwest suburbs remains on Cook County’s court docket. And a judge last month declared the investors behind the complaint can inspect financial and business records the condo deconversion players fought to keep secret as they defend an allegation they took $500,000 based on a broken promise.
The suit lays out how a Chicago-area investor named Ari Haas in 2015 formed an entity called Monticello Investments to put $500,000 into a venture Strategic was leading to buy the 496-unit Meadows Apartments property in suburban Lakemoor, based on a promise that Monticello would get 20 percent of the net profits from rental revenue the property generated as well as any eventual sale.
Strategic bought the property for $53 million in 2015 and it was sold for $64.5 million in 2018. The entity Monticello entered was owed $4.5 million out of the 2018 sale’s proceeds, and Monticello would have gotten a 20 percent split of that figure, yet it claims it only received $238,000.
When Haas raised his concerns with Kuperwasser and Klor, they allegedly said he “had already made enough money and he should just move on and go away,” the suit claims. It goes on to assert that another entity controlled by Gail Blumenthal, the former spouse of a late former business partner of Strategic, had just a 4 percent interest in the Lakemoor deal but was paid more than $1 million out of the property sale’s proceeds.
A representative of Strategic Properties declined to comment, as did an attorney defending the firm in the suit. An attorney for Monticello didn’t return a request for comment. In court filings, Strategic has denied any wrongdoing and said the distributions from the sale were made accordingly.
More litigation accusing Strategic of not living up to its word was filed in Cook County court this month, albeit over less money than is at stake for Monticello and the condo owners at Ontario Place. The apartment rental brokerage AptAmigo is suing Strategic over about $8,000 in leasing commissions it says it hasn’t been paid for several deals it’s completed in the last year with renters at 21 East Chestnut Street, the 25-story, 163-unit Gold Coast complex Klor’s firm bought for $44 million 2019.
In the Monticello suit, after Haas’ lawyer alleged Strategic hadn’t complied with a subpoena for the formula used to calculate distributions in the Lakemoor deal and instead provided 42,000 unorganized pages in a document dump, a judge ruled last month that Strategic has to produce four years worth of bank records and that the Blumenthal entity is on the hook to produce records, as well. Both Strategic and Blumenthal had previously objected to that request, but a judge ruled against Strategic’s request to quash it.
A court hearing is set for next month on the matter.
Back in River North, unit owners at Ontario Place are at a standstill and unsure whether they want to proceed with the sale after another delay. A condo board meeting is planned for Friday afternoon, when more decisions could be made on the path forward by the sellers.
“The Buyer’s lender is finalizing underwriting for the Buyer’s loan and requires additional time to complete its review,” attorney Kelly Elmore of the firm KSN, which has been hired by the Ontario Place condo board and Strategic to assist with the sale, said in an email. “The [condo] association is discussing this matter with the buyer and we expect to have additional information tomorrow afternoon.”
Read more The post Failed closing on $190M deal isn’t SPNA’s only problem appeared first on The Real Deal.
Newmark’s Barry Gosin; 105 Madison Avenue (Newmark, Loopnet, Getty)A Newmark affiliate may have a hefty price to pay for allegedly abandoning office space in NoMad.
A&R Real Estate sued the commercial brokerage and its affiliate Digiatech for more than $2.3 million after the latter allegedly ditched a three-floor office lease at 105 Madison Avenue in October, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan.
Digiatech was assigned the lease in early 2021 after it acquired Amol Sarva’s proptech startup Knotel out of bankruptcy for $70 million, according to the lawsuit. The ill-fated flex workspace provider had inked a 40,000-square-foot lease at the 20-floor office building in 2018.
While the lease does not expire until April of next year, Digiatech vacated the 232,000-square-foot property in October, according to the complaint. The three floors have not been re-rented since the tenant’s departure.
A&R accused Digiatech of breaching the lease, saying the Newmark arm has refused to pay more than $1.16 million in rent, damages and other charges. The landlord also accused Newmark of breaching its guarantor agreement, saying the brokerage has failed to pay any portion of Digiatech’s balance.
A&R is seeking $1.16 million apiece from Digiatech and Newmark, plus unpaid fees that come due under the agreements until a ruling is made. The landlord is also seeking at least $20,000 to cover its attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred from the action.
Both Digiatech and Newmark had yet to respond when reached for comment. Attorneys representing A&R also did not respond by press time.
Read more New York Harmon and Spies jump to Newmark from Cushman New York Brokerage accuses ex-staff of stealing secrets New York Broker sues R New York for stiffing him on commissions The post Newmark sued for ditching Knotel lease in NoMad appeared first on The Real Deal.
GC3’s Michael Garcia Carrillo and Lennar’s Stuart Miller with 9177 Southwest 112 Street (LinkedIn, Lennar, Google Maps, Getty)Lennar Homes bought a development site in Miami-Dade County for $15 million, with plans to build single-family homes.
Records show the Miami-based homebuilder, an affiliate of Lennar Corp., bought the site at 9177 Southwest 112 Street from an entity tied to another Miami homebuilder, GC3 Group, managed by Michael Garcia Carrillo. Garcia Carrillo is CEO of GC3 Group, his LinkedIn shows.
Records show GC3 Group received Miami-Dade approval last year for a 15-home development on the site, to be dubbed Brown Oak Estates. Garcia Carrillo also established the vacant site as a special taxing district for lighting, water and sewage infrastructure, records show.
GC3 Group bought the 8.7-acre property for $5.3 million in 2021, records show. The firm specializes in small, luxury single-family home communities, and has built more than 1,000 homes in the Miami area since its founding, according to its website.
Lennar’s price equates to about $1 million per planned lot, with about half an acre per planned home.
Lennar already has several planned developments in the works across South Florida. In July, it won rezoning for the site of its Enclave at Plantation project, a 40-home development on property it’s buying from the Broward County School Board.
In May, Lennar proposed a 1,335-home development in Homestead with an accompanying golf course, on a 350-acre site in Key’s Gate.
The builder dropped $24.5 million on another firm’s development site in Pinecrest in March, buying 10 acres approved for 34 townhouses and 20 single-family homes.
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Brookfield’s Mark Brown and Bryan Smith, Angelo Gordon’s Adam Schwartz and Josh Baumgarten (Brookfield, Angelo Gordon, Getty)When a Brookfield entity declared it had defaulted on $784 million worth of loans connected to two office towers in Downtown L.A., the entity’s stock was already sinking.
The share price of Brookfield DTLA Fund Office Trust Investor — which owns 7.6 million square feet of office space across six towers in Downtown L.A. — has steadily declined over the last five years, as the entity has continued to rack up debt and struggle with high vacancy rates amid remote work.
The fund dipped to a new low of $2.20 a share on Feb. 16 — a 93 percent decrease from its high of $30 a share in November 2017. The stock debuted at $26.40 in October 2013.
The fund’s market cap is now about $23 million, though it held about $2.3 billion in debt at the end of September.
Even before the defaults occurred, investors in the fund had lost big.
The two largest shareholders in the fund are Kawa Capital Management, an alternative asset manager based in Miami, and Angelo Gordon, the L.A.-based real estate investment firm, according to filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Kawa Capital, which is run by Daniel Ades, owned about 9.53 percent of the fund’s stock, totaling about 927,000 shares, as of Dec. 31. The firm first reported a significant ownership stake in the fund in 2019, when it owned 5.05 percent, or 492,000 shares.
At the end of 2019, Kawa’s shares in the Brookfield entity would have been worth about $9.8 million, based on a share price of about $20.
Now, even with double the number of shares, Kawa’s stake is worth $2 million.
Angelo Gordon is the Brookfield fund’s second-largest shareholder, records show. The firm reported a 8.98 percent ownership stake in 2019 — or 874,000 shares.
Back then, Angelo Gordon’s share would have been worth $17.5 million. But since 2019, the firm has whittled its stake to about 6.7 percent, or about 652,000 shares, making it the biggest loser on the stock.
Shares in the Brookfield entity are traded through a few exchange-traded funds, including one of BlackRock’s iShares ETFs, which has owned a stake in the entity since October 2013.
At the end of September, Brookfield’s DTLA holdings made up less than 1 percent of the iShares fund, which held about 765,000 shares, according to the fund’s website and SEC filings. On Sept. 30, the entity’s stock price was $9.42 a share, making BlackRock’s holdings worth about $7.2 million.
iShares has sold off some of its shares since then — buying and selling, depending on the fluctuations of an index, is a normal course of action for an ETF. It held about 713,000 shares as of this month, worth about $1.7 million.
Brookfield’s troubles may not be over yet.
“We believe DTLA’s decision to default on these two assets increases the risk for the remaining loans in their portfolio,” Barclays research analysts Lea Overby and Anuj Jain said in a note cited by Bloomberg.
Brookfield’s DTLA unit has a further $763 million in loans coming due before the end of the year, according to an SEC filing. Those loans are all connected to two towers in the Wells Fargo Center at 707 Wilshire Boulevard.
Read more Los Angeles Brookfield defaults on $784M on loans connected to DTLA office towers Los Angeles Brookfield looks to sell DTLA’s Figueroa tower Los Angeles Coretrust loses DTLA tower to Oaktree in foreclosure The post Angelo Gordon, Kawa Capital among investors exposed to Brookfield’s DTLA defaults appeared first on The Real Deal.
Illinois Realtors CEO Jeff Baker (Illinois Realtors, Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)An Illinois real estate trade group has given more than $500,000 to the campaigns of multiple Chicago aldermanic candidates, bolstering their campaigns for this month’s upcoming elections.
Illinois Realtors donated to at least 11 campaigns via an independent expenditure affiliate, Crain’s reported. According to disclosures filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections, the group spent money in at least 11 wards across the city, including the 43rd Ward in Lincoln Park, the south lakefront 4th Ward, the 30th Ward on the West Side, the 46th and the 48th wards where the aldermanic seats are vacant, and the 11th, 12th, 23rd and 50th wards where incumbents are facing challengers.
Illinois Realtors CEO Jeff Baker said the group has contributed to elections in the past, though ramped it up significantly more for this election. The group’s spending increase was driven by political unrest in the city and the large number of seats being left by aldermen exiting their positions.
“We want to make sure every official knows who we are and that we need and want to be heard,” Baker told the outlet. He also said real estate is “the economic driver of the city,” and the future of Chicago as a whole depends on tax and economic development policies aldermen will set.
Ahead of the mayoral runoff, The Real Deal spoke with brokers and building owners who said they want to see relief and consistency when it comes to taxes, collaboration between the administration and the business community, and a city that feels safer.
In addition to the money from Illinois Realtors, the Get Stuff Done PAC, which was formed by allies of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has raised about $1.5 million and spent that money in some of the same wards.
In addition, labor and progressive groups like the Chicago Teachers Union and United Working Families have also spent heavily ahead of this election, while real estate titans such as Sam Zell and the founder of brokerage Marcus & Millichap George Marcus have thrown their financial support behind mayoral candidates.
Zell gave $100,000 to Paul Vallas’ mayoral campaign, while incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot received $25,000 from Marcus.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Chicago Here’s what real estate wants from Chicago’s next mayor New York Industry hopes Hochul’s win sparks changes to rent aid, 421a Chicago Lightfoot campaign bags Marcus & Millichap cash The post Illinois Realtors spends big in Chicago aldermen races appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bears president Kevin Warren with Arlington International Racecourse (Getty, Sea Cow CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)Arlington Heights and the Chicago Bears reached another first down marker, with a $5 billion stadium development plan still to gain.
The NFL team has closed the deal to buy the former Arlington International Racecourse in the northwest suburb for $197 million, the Chicago Tribune reported. Despite the sale, the team emphasized that its stated plan to develop a $5 billion new stadium and surrounding mixed-use entertainment district will only be pursued if the team is able to secure certain property tax limits.
“I look forward to leaning into the stadium development project,” the new Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren said during an introductory news conference at Halas Hall. “But I think the biggest thing we can do is to make sure we’re methodical and detailed and we take the time to plan it properly.”
The team sent out an open letter, announcing the closing of the purchase from longtime owner and horse racing company Churchill Downs. “Last fall, we released an open letter confirming the team had reached an agreement for the purpose of acquiring 326 acres of property in Arlington Heights to secure the potential of beginning a new and exciting chapter for the Bears, our fans, the Chicagoland community, and the State of Illinois,” the letter reads. “This week, we took another step toward realizing that vision by closing on the Arlington Park property.”
In November, the Arlington Heights village board unanimously approved a predevelopment agreement with the NFL squad for the project that covered future zoning changes and public financing that the team requested, without guaranteeing the provision of any money or tax breaks.
Last month, state lawmakers advanced a bill that created a fund of $400 million to attract large businesses to the state, and inserted specific language barring professional sports teams that move from within Illinois from receiving any benefits from it.
The team announced plans to buy the property in September 2021 with the intention of building a new stadium. Team officials were spurred to make the purchase to consider leaving the outdated and uncovered Soldier Field in Chicago in favor of building a new facility that would better accommodate events like a Super Bowl or NCAA basketball championships.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city is still looking forward to engaging the Bears on investing into a revamp of Soldier Field that could keep the team at its longtime lakefront stadium, and the city was previously prevented from direct negotiations due to legal provisions of the team’s option to purchase.
“Now that the deal has been completed, we look forward to negotiating and convincing the Bears that the team’s best future remains in our beloved city of Chicago,” Lightfoot said in a statement.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Chicago Home price growth near new Bears stadium site outruns region Chicago State advances ban on incentives for Bears move to Arlington Heights Chicago Opponents of Bears stadium subsidies running new hurry-up playbook The post Bears finalize $197M deal to buy Arlington Heights site appeared first on The Real Deal.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck with 14330 West Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles (Getty; Google Maps)After two years of house hunting, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez settled on a new 15,100-square-foot mansion in Pacific Palisades. But did they meet the $34.5 million ask?
The A-list newlyweds have entered escrow on the newly built home listed at 14330 West Sunset Boulevard, Dirt.com reported, citing TMZ.
Built on spec last year by a group of undisclosed developers, the seven-bedroom, 13-bathroom estate hit the market a month ago.
Described in the listing as “Hamptons-esque,” the two-story, bleach-white house with wide eaves and many gables sits on an acre behind tall walls and hedges, surrounded by native sycamores.
A pea gravel motor court, accessed via a brick porte-cochère, is accompanied by a six-car garage.
Inside the all-white mansion, hardwood floors prevail through living and dining rooms with a fireplace, lit with ample windows and glass doors. A home library opens onto a covered patio.
The estate has four kitchens, including a gourmet kitchen, service kitchen, outdoor kitchen and a fourth kitchen in a detached guesthouse, which has a living room, dining room and bedroom suite.
The main house has six bedrooms, including a master suite with a sitting room, dual bathrooms, dual closets and a balcony overlooking the backyard.
Also at the ready are a movie theater, gym, wine cellar and a “health spa,” according to the listing by broker Gary Glass of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California.
Outside, a dark-bottom pool is ringed by a big patio and glade.
The Hollywood couple is already prepped for their highly publicized move. Lopez, 53, has her resort-like Bel Air home listed for sale at $42.5 million. Affleck, 50, sold his Palisades bachelor pad for $28 million last year.
Their new digs, even at the nearly $35 million list price, are far cheaper than the $55 million estate they tried to buy in Bel-Air, but the deal fell through.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Sale pending on Ben Affleck’s Pacific Palisades mansion Los Angeles J.Lo lists French Country-style estate in Bel-Air for $42.5M Los Angeles Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in escrow on Bel-Air manse The post J.Lo and Ben Affleck in escrow on Pacific Palisades home that sought $35M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Coldwell Banker’s Tim Smith with 60 Golden Eagle (Coldwell Banker Realty, Google Maps, Getty)A 15,100-square-foot mansion in Irvine has sold for $17 million, tying its own record for the highest price for a single-family estate in the Orange County city.
The seven-bedroom, 11-bathroom home traded hands at 60 Golden Eagle in the gated Shady Canyon neighborhood, the Orange County Business Journal reported. The sellers and buyers were not disclosed.
The sellers sold the 1.4-acre estate for the same amount they paid for it in 2019, which then set a new price benchmark for Irvine.
“People are willing to pay more for larger homes in gated communities,” a trend that has only grown more prevalent in the wake of the pandemic, according to Tim Smith of Coldwell Banker Realty, who represented the sellers.
The international buyers will upgrade the home, which was first built in 2003, and use it as a vacation property, unidentified sources told the Business Journal.
KW Silicon City, a San Francisco-based affiliate of Keller Williams, represented the buyers.
Shady Canyon, with 300 homes on nearly 1,100 acres, is the only community in Irvine that offers many custom homes for sale, with above-average lots and more space between homes than other communities in OC.
That, coupled with its sense of privacy, has prompted athletes, executives and others to call Shady Canyon home, including best-selling author Dean Koontz and Alteryx Executive Chairman Dean Stoecker.
As Orange County’s inventory of luxury homes for sale continues to diminish, specifically along the coast, buyers move to inland markets such as Irvine and Laguna Niguel. These markets are seeing an added boost in interest from buyers coming from outside of OC, who are in the market for larger lots and privacy.
“Our market is sitting at under 2,400 total active listings,” Smith told the Business Journal. “That’s far below the 5,000 listings in a typical year.”
There are now three active listings, the priciest being a 13,000-square-foot estate on a 0.9-acre lot at 76 Golden Eagle.
The home’s sellers are Ben Kante and Joni Rogers-Kante, founder and CEO of SeneGence, a cosmetics firm based in Foothill Ranch. It was initially listed in 2021 for $50 million and is now on the market for $30 million.
Former Los Angeles Angel slugger Albert Pujols just sold his 9,200-square-foot Shady Canyon home for nearly $10 million.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more Los Angeles Milan Panic listing sheds light on Shady Canyon luxe Los Angeles Multilevel marketing CEO seeks $50M for Irvine mansion Los Angeles Albert Pujols lists Irvine mansion for $10M The post Irvine mansion in Shady Canyon fetches $17M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bonner Carrington’s Stuart Shaw; Galleria Mall at 13350 Dallas Pkwy (Google Maps, Getty, Bonner Carrington)Bonner Carrington put another project in its pipeline of mixed-income multifamily communities with a development near Galleria Dallas.
The complex, called Cypress Creek at Montfort Drive, will be located at 14119 Montfort Drive on a 3-acre plot of undeveloped land, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The project will include 168 mixed-income apartment units and will cost just under $29 million, almost or $173,000 per unit.
The development is being partially funded through a Department of Housing and Urban Development 9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credit, awarded by the City of Dallas, which requires minority- and woman-owned businesses to be hired for local construction projects. The funding may not exceed $4.1 million, program documents show.
Arrive Architecture Group is leading design on the complex, and an employee declined to reveal additional details.
Construction will begin this summer and last until late-2024, according to the filing. Other Bonner Carrington Class-A, mixed income properties typically include amenities such as pools, community kitchens, fitness studios and resident lounges.
The development will be situated just a mile away from Galleria Dallas. The massive indoor shopping mall is one of the last of its kind still in operation across North Texas. It was built in 1982 for $400 million or $1.16 billion if adjusted for today’s inflation.
Recently, UBS Realty Investors, a subsidiary of the similarly named Swiss investment bank, handed over ownership of theGalleria Dallas and its adjoining high-rise hotel. A unit of Metropolitan Life Insurance has taken over the deed to the mall, as well as Westin Galleria Hotel. MetLife reportedly held over $315 million in loans on the Galleria dating back to 2014.
Austin-based Bonner is a leading developer of Class A mixed income multifamily with a number of projects completed or in-development across Dallas, Austin and Houston. Bonner currently holds 26 apartment communities in Texas, totaling nearly 4,200 units, with an additional 900 units under development, according to the company’s website.
Read more Dallas MetLife takes control of Galleria Dallas from borrower Dallas Louisville developer building 180 unit mixed-income community in Dallas Dallas Dallas County plans 8 affordable housing projects The post Bonner Carrington plans mixed-income resi near Galleria Dallas appeared first on The Real Deal.
RCI Group’s Robert Christoph and Suntex’s Bryan Redmond with 3301 Rickenbacker Causeway (RCI Group, Suntex, Rickenbacker Marina)RCI Group and Suntex advanced in their push to lease and redevelop the Virginia Key marina in Miami.
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Alan Fine blasted Miami commissioners for showing “favoritism” and a “personal preference” to a competing incumbent bidder, Rickenbacker Marina, according to his order issued last week. A city selection committee had twice ranked Rickenbacker Marina’s application second to RCI and Suntex’s proposal for the site, but commissioners nevertheless pushed through a referendum with Rickenbacker Marina’s proposal.
The judge’s ruling marks the latest in the eight-year debacle over finding a lessee, operator and developer of the 27-acre city-owned marina at 3301 Rickenbacker Causeway.
In 2015, Miami issued the first request for proposals, with the city’s selection committee ranking RCI’s response ahead of Rickenbacker Marina’s. When commissioners issued the second RFP in 2017, RCI partnered with Suntex, and their joint venture again outranked Rickenbacker Marina’s application. Following bid disputes raised by Rickenbacker Marina, commissioners threw out all proposals submitted in both RFPs. Then, with encouragement from Rickenbacker Marina, commissioners tweaked city rules in a way that allowed them to bypass the competitive bidding process and put Rickenbacker Marina’s application to a referendum in 2021. Voters rejected the ballot measure.
Now, Fine ordered the city to hold a new referendum, this time asking voters if the RCI-Suntex joint venture should lease and redevelop the property.
“The commission turned a blind eye to its own selection process multiple times,” said Kendall Coffey, an attorney representing the joint venture in the lawsuit. “We are hopeful that the ruling puts the matter to rest,” and the city holds a referendum on the RCI-Suntex proposal in November.
The city, though, has other plans.
“We are disappointed with Judge Fine’s ruling as he relied on his own interpretation of the facts, rather than relying on the clear record,” City Attorney Victoria Mendez said, adding that an appeal is planned.
RCI and Suntex sued the city in 2021 over commissioners’ vote in 2020 to reject all proposals submitted in response to the second RFP and then hold the Rickenbacker Marina lease referendum.
Commissioner Joe Carollo in 2020 moved to strike responses to the RFP, citing three issues: environmental concerns stemming from a sewage spill in 2000 in Miami Beach tied to an RCI subcontractor; Shoreline Foundation, a potential RCI-Suntex subcontractor, having pleaded guilty in 2018 to defrauding the U.S. Coast Guard; and the alleged use of Aero Docks dry boat storage technology at a Fort Lauderdale marina.
But the sewage spill happened when a subcontractor of a subcontractor of an RCI affiliate struck a “hidden” pipe that wasn’t marked on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map or any other official government records, Fine ruled. Plus, Rickenbacker Marina’s project would entail dredging the bottom of Biscayne Bay, which could lead to environmental impacts.
As for the Shoreline guilty plea, it didn’t come to light until after RCI and Suntex submitted their bid, Fine said. The joint venture has since terminated the subcontractor and said it can do the work on its own.
The RFP criteria was that a bidder can be disqualified because of past misconduct by one of its principals, but not for misconduct by one of its subcontractors, Fine added.
Regarding the Aero Docks issue, it stemmed from an alleged misstatement RCI and Suntex representatives made in front of the Miami selection committee that ranked the bidders. Either way, the city’s own staff determined it was a “statement of innocent confusion of a technical matter” that wasn’t intended to mislead the committee, Fine said in his order.
Rickenbacker Marina, led by President Aabad Melwani, protested the selection committee’s ranking in both the 2015 and 2017 RFPs. In fact, its protest to the second RFP ranking led to the city deferring a decision on a bidder for 20 months, from February 2019 to November 2020. Miami City Manager Art Noriega testified in court this delay is “uncommon” for an RFP, according to the order.
Rickenbacker Marina has remained the marina lessee and operator throughout the litigation, although at one point it became a holdover tenant on a month-to-month basis. Miami officials also had imposed a $100,000 additional monthly rent to compensate the city for revenue it didn’t receive because Rickenbacker Marina’s litigation delayed selecting a bidder. The RCI-Suntex proposal was deemed more profitable for the city than Rickenbacker Marina’s, according to the judge’s order.
Rickenbacker Marina has disputed in court whether it’s on the hook for the $100,000, according to Fine’s order.
Melwani said various city commissions have all concluded that the RCI-Suntex affiliate is a “non-responsive bidder.”
“This court’s decision ignores the city’s ample record evidence and runs woefully afoul of well-established procurement law,” Melwani said via email. “A judge cannot become the sole arbiter in the city’s competitive bidding process.”
Carollo didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Ultimately, the commission’s decision to strike all applications in 2020, and the decision to put Rickenbacker Marina’s application to a referendum the following year amounted to “a de facto bid award to the lower bidder in an arbitrary and capricious manner,” Fine wrote.
READ MORE LINKS: https://therealdeal.com/miami/2019/06/24/virginia-key-marina-operator-seeks-to-stave-off-eviction-by-suing-city-of-miami/
Read more South Florida Virginia Key marina operator seeks to stave off eviction by suing city of Miami South Florida Miami commissioners reject proposals for marina redevelopment South Florida Mayor Regalado to push for a special commission vote on Virginia Key marina proposal The post “Favoritism”: Judge blasts Miami vote on marina project, orders referendum appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: The Keystone Team’s Cyrus Mohseni and CAR’s Jordan Levine (Getty, CAR, The Keystone Team)Home prices are forecast to decline 8.8 percent in Los Angeles and around the state this year, according to the California Association of Realtors, but that’s not a big reason to cheer for those looking to enter the home-buying market.
Median home prices remain unaffordable for about 80 percent of Californians, according to a recent statement from the residential broker trade group.
In a study released last week, CAR found that only 17 percent of Californians could afford a median priced home of $790,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022. The number of Californians able to afford a median priced home was 18 percent in the third quarter of 2022 and 25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021.
A median income of $201,200 was required to make monthly payments of $5,000 for principal, interest and taxes on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at a 6.8 percent interest rate, according to study authors.
The outlook for the condominium market was better. About 26 percent of California home buyers were able to purchase a $610,000 median priced condo. A minimum income of more than $155,000 was required to make a monthly payment of $3,880.
Jordan Levine, CAR’s chief economist, does not think California and Los Angeles’ housing market is going to change much for the rest of 2023. The biggest reason was rooted in a basic supply and demand issue.
“We can expect some modest price adjustment in L.A.,” Levine told TRD. “Even with business cycles that go up and down, we have an economy that is so underhoused, it means affordability is a persistent challenge.”
Inventory has long been tight for many areas of Los Angeles and surrounding markets. However, the bonanza market of 2021 and 2022 has kept expectations high for many sellers, said Cyrus Mohseni, founder of The Keystone Team, a brokerage based in Huntington Beach which has closed deals from North San Diego County to West Los Angeles.
Mohseni said residential agents are being pulled in two directions in this market.
“You have a bunch of sellers who want the value of the last two years. You have a bunch of buyers who can’t pay the value of the past two years because of interest rate hikes,” he explained.
But there is opportunity in a tight market. Mohseni said that many homes are priced incorrectly, and their listings expire. He recommends Keystone Team agents dig through MLS for expired listings. Contact sellers of the expired listings and pitch them on listing their homes at an ask more in tune with the market.
Mohseni forecast an increasing number of California agents will drop out of the market because it is not as easy to close a deal as it was in the recent bonanza market. But those agents who remain will be able to take market share from those who exit.
The post Prices dip, but LA homes to remain unaffordable for many appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of 333 W Friar Tuck Lane (left), 11917 Knippwood Lane (right/front), 346 Hunters Trail Street (right/back) (Getty, Google Maps, Compass)When it comes to Houston luxury, River Oaks has become synonymous, but Memorial takes the crown when it comes to priciest rental listings.
Overall new single-family home rental listings are up 25 percent to meet growing demand, and that includes the luxury market, according to HAR’s January Rental Market Update. Just west of the Inner Loop, Memorial and its surrounding areas compose three of the city’s top five luxury rentals. Particularly, in the Memorial Villages, which holds the top two spots on this list, which The Real Deal compiled using data from Realtor.com and Redfin.
346 Hunters Trail Street | Asking Price: $35,000This luxurious mansion in Hunters Creek Village spans 10,000 square feet. Situated in close proximity to Buffalo Bayou and a five-minute drive from the Houston Country Club, this Memorial Villages home features seven bedrooms and eight-and-a-half bathrooms and an elevator. The home has a resort-style backyard complete with a 2,500-square-foot deck and a pool. The two-story property also boasts a home theater, workout room, butler’s pantry, temperature-controlled wine room and a guest suite.
333 W Friar Tuck Lane | Asking Price: $30,000This palatial estate is a 4-acre colonial-style paradise in Memorial’s Sherwood Forest subdivision. Built in 1980, it harkens back to the yuppie era, with a seven-car garage, tennis court, quarters for staff and access to a private lake. It also includes five bedrooms and seven bathrooms in the main house. The guest house has two bathrooms, a suite-style bedroom and a full kitchen. Interior finish outs of this three-story abode include Gracie wallpaper, mahogany panels, walnut floors and marble tile.
11917 Knippwood Lane | Asking Price: $29,950This Bunk Hill estate is the third Memorial property on our list. It was completed last year by Houston-based Ashton Gray Development, which specializes in luxury homes in the metro area. It’s a rustic six-bedroom, eight-bath abode with contemporary interiors. It includes an expansive yard and patio with the residence accounting for 6,600 square feet of the property’s 20,000-square-foot lot.
2121 Kirby Drive, Unit 27N | Asking Price: $28,000Holding its weight as the only multifamily unit on the list, the Huntingdon High Rise gives renters opulence in the sky. Located on the 27th floor of the city’s third-tallest residential building, this two-story condo boasts three bedrooms, five baths and a spacious kitchen with oversized windows providing a sky view of the Bayou City. It also features Gracie hand-painted wallpapers and two private terraces.
Read more Houston Ranking Houston’s top resi brokers Houston Houston’s top 10 home sales in October Houston $12M land sale in River Oaks one of Houston’s most expensive 30 Tahoe Shores Court | Asking Price: $25,000Constructed in 2003, this lakefront home in Kings Lake Estates is just off Lake Houston’s western tributaries. The two-story, open-concept mansion spans nearly 7,000 square feet and includes five bedrooms and six baths. The bedrooms are divided between two primary suites on the ground floor and three bedrooms on the second level. It also boasts an in-home elevator and five full-size fountains amid decorative gardens.
The post Houston’s top 5 Priciest Rentals appeared first on The Real Deal.
BOND co-founders Noah Freedman and Bruno Ricciotti, and Walter Steffen, along with the Bond New York office at office on the corner of Lorimer Street and Richardson Street (Getty, Bond New York)Bond New York is headed to Brooklyn.
The brokerage is opening its first location in the borough on the border of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods, where co-founder Bruno Ricciotti said much of the company’s business unfolds.
“We do a tremendous number of sales transactions right here in North and West Brooklyn,” Ricciotti said. “We actually have even more buyer side Brooklyn business than we do in Manhattan.”
Bond plans to have 40 agents in the 1,000-square-foot office on the corner of Lorimer Street and Richardson Street. The lease term is for five years.
Walter Steffen, formerly with Corcoran, will head the brokerage’s first office in the borough. A Brooklyn native, Steffen currently oversees about 80 buildings in the area.
Bond has four other offices, located in Midtown, Upper East Side, Union Square and Upper Manhattan.
The brokerage previously had an office in Chelsea but shuttered the location in 2019, citing “management changes.” Just three months later, the firm acquired a 56-person team from Midtown-based brokerage Caliber Associates.
The announcement follows a streak of record sales years in Brooklyn.
The borough gained momentum toward the end of 2020 as buyers flocked to more spacious options in the wake of pandemic lockdown orders. In 2021, Brooklyn’s top 10 brokerages combined for $8.8 billion in sales — more than double the sales recorded in 2020, according to The Real Deal’s ranking of residential brokerages in the borough.
The borough kicked off last year with the same unparalleled sales streak as more homes selling in the first three months of 2022 than in any quarter since 2006. High mortgage rates and low inventory has since cooled the market.
Bond didn’t crack the top 20 residential brokerages in Brooklyn in 2021, but ranked 21st among the top-producing brokerages in Manhattan with $55 million in closed sales across 71 deals. Compass took first place in Brooklyn with $2.7 billion in sell-side transactions across 2,060 deals, followed by Corcoran, with $2.69 in closed sales across 1,940 deals.
The brokerage previously had an office in Chelsea but shuttered the location in 2019, citing “management changes.” Just three months later, the firm acquired a 56-person team from Midtown-based brokerage Caliber Associates.
The announcement follows a streak of record sales years in Brooklyn.
The borough gained momentum toward the end of 2020 as buyers flocked to more spacious options in the wake of pandemic lockdown orders. In 2021, Brooklyn’s top 10 brokerages combined for $8.8 billion in sales — more than double the sales recorded in 2020, according to The Real Deal’s ranking of residential brokerages in the borough.
Read more New York New condos cool in Brooklyn, but hold steady in Manhattan New York Developer plans 105 units in Downtown Brooklyn New York Manhattan and Brooklyn resi markets continue fall back to Earth Home page The borough kicked off last year with the same unparalleled sales streak as more homes selling in the first three months of 2022 than in any quarter since 2006. High mortgage rates and low inventory has since cooled the market.
Bond didn’t crack the top 20 residential brokerages in Brooklyn in 2021, but ranked 21st among the top-producing brokerages in Manhattan with $55 million in closed sales across 71 deals. Compass took first place in Brooklyn with $2.7 billion in sell-side transactions across 2,060 deals, followed by Corcoran, with $2.69 in closed sales across 1,940 deals.
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From left: Ryan Shear, Michael Simkins, and Marc Roberts with a rendering of the Airbnb condo tower (Getty, ArX Solutions)PMG, Lion Development Group and Marc Roberts Companies plan an Airbnb condo tower in downtown Miami, adding to the developers’ projects in the area.
West Eleventh Residences, a 44-story, 659-unit short-term rental friendly project, is planned for the site at 18 Northwest 11th Street. Sales of the units are expected to launch next week. They’ll range from the mid-$300,000s to $1.2 million, according to a spokesperson. PMG will handle sales in-house. The units, which will either be studios or one-bedroom condos, will be delivered furnished.
Buyers will be able to rent their units out daily without restrictions, through a centralized Airbnb management platform. Unlike most projects with short-term rental flexibility, the developers will allow for units to be rented out 365 days a year, according to a press release.
Short-term rental-friendly condo projects have proliferated in Miami, where the number of developments total nearly 6,600 units, with most clustered in Greater Downtown Miami. Last summer, Related Group, ROVR Development and BH Group received a $76 million loan from Madison Realty Capital to build the sold-out District 225 project. The 37-story, 343-unit condo building is under construction at 225 North Miami Avenue.
(ArX Solutions)New York and Miami-based PMG is working with Michael and Ron Simkins’ Lion Development Group, and the Marc Roberts Companies. Simkins and Roberts are also partners in the E11even nightclub, as well as in E11even Partners, which is working with PMG on E11even Hotel & Residences and E11even Residences Beyond, all in the same Park West neighborhood.
West Eleventh Residences is expected to include 30,000 square feet of amenities across three floors, with a resort-style pool, an onsite restaurant, and a ground floor with “experiential” entertainment and a food hall, according to the release.
Sieger Suarez Architects, which PMG works with often, is the architect. Cotofana Designs is designing the residential interiors. The units will have smart home technology.
(ArX Solutions)In addition to the two-tower E11even-branded development nearby, PMG opened The Elser Hotel & Residences, a short-term rental condo building at 398 Northeast Fifth Street, last year. The Elser was previously called Society Biscayne and planned as a co-living apartment tower.
PMG is also developing the Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences at 300 Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami, along with its partners Greybrook, Mohari Hospitality, S2 Development and Hilton. The 1,049-foot-supertall could be the tallest residential building south of New York City once it’s completed, as early as 2027.
Read more South Florida Inside South Florida’s branded condo tower boom The post PMG, partners plan 44-story Airbnb condo tower near E11even Miami appeared first on The Real Deal.
Sen. Ram Villivalam and Treasurer Maria Pappas (IllinoisSenateDemocrats.com, CookCountyIl.gov, Getty)The Cook County Treasurer’s Office is backing two bills geared to hold delinquent property tax investors more accountable for their real estate purchases and ease the burden on individual taxpayers who have fallen behind on their tax bills.
State Sen. Ram Villivalam, a North Side Democrat, introduced legislation that would reduce the amount of interest charged on late property tax payments on Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported. In addition, the measure would also close a loophole in the state tax code that costs governments millions of dollars each year.
The bills were drafted by Treasurer Maria Pappas’ office in response to two different studies published last year that found the county’s property tax system disproportionately hammers Black and Latino communities.
“This approach to building a more equitable property tax system will help our most disinvested areas and work to close the racial wealth gap across our state,” Villivalam told the outlet.
The treasurer’s office also found that private investors and hedge funds have been able to take advantage of a “sale in error” process that would allow them to take control of properties they haven’t been paid for and then claim an error occurred so they can undo the transaction and get their money back — with interest paid by local governments.
Pappas’ office said the loophole process was created as a way to reverse tax sales on properties that never should have occurred, but did due to a mistake on the government’s part, such as accidentally including taxes on stretches of highway for sale or errant descriptions of properties in public databases.
But some investors have taken advantage of the process, using the provision to void sales because of discrepancies in the county assessor’s property description, even over minor differences like stucco being used as a building material instead of brick.
Since the treasurer’s office has to repay investors any time a sale in error is made, the loophole drains the city of $40 million each year, most often in Black and Latino neighborhoods, where many properties facing delinquent taxes that could be backfilled by investors are located.
The proposed bill would still allow investors to argue actual sales in error, but a judge will have to determine whether the error is significant enough to issue refunds to the investors.
“This is a system that has been rooted in inequities for years,” Pappas told the outlet. “You do what you can this year; you get this passed … And next year, you work with community groups to see what else can be done.”
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Chicago A few large Chicago property owners fell behind on 2021 taxes Chicago Pilsen’s hard-hit property taxpayers protest nets meeting with Kaegi Chicago Cook County treasurer scrutinizes sweetheart deals for tax buyers The post Villivalam pitches bills to shift property tax burden appeared first on The Real Deal.
A photo illustration of the Palm Bay Yacht Club at 780 Northeast 69th Street (Getty, Google Maps, The Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County, Florida)A bayfront Miami condominium in need of repairs is in a legal fight pitting unit owners against the condo association.
The 27-story, 235-unit Palm Bay Yacht Club made headlines last week over a proposed $46 million special assessment to fund repairs required for the property’s 40-year recertification. A group of 10 unit owners filed a lawsuit in October against the Palm Bay Yacht Club Condo Association, affiliates of the property management firm AKAM and other companies, alleging fraud and negligence.
The tower at 780 Northeast 69th Street was constructed in 1982 on a waterfront lot that includes a pool, sports courts and a parking lot.
In the lawsuit, unit owners allege that AKAM and the association knowingly made false statements about the scope of the project by including additional repairs beyond those required by the 40-year recertification, said attorney Jane Muir, who represents the 10 unit owners. The lawsuit alleges each unit owner would owe more than $175,000 for the repairs. It claims that AKAM is double-dipping and inflating the cost of the project, which AKAM denies.
An amended complaint, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in December, alleges that engineers hired by the plaintiffs found errors that had a combined cost of more than $11 million. It claims that the defendants “mismanaged, misappropriated, or facilitated the misappropriation of association funds.”
“Absent court intervention, defendants will encumber the residents with insurmountable debt, risking foreclosure and bankruptcy for many individual residents and for the association,” the lawsuit states.
Unit owners are seeking an injunction against the association, with the goal of having a receiver appointed to take over the association, according to Muir. An evidentiary hearing that began on Monday was postponed to later this week, said representatives for both sides.
“No matter what these 10 unit owners think, the work has to be done. It’s only limited as to what can or cannot be done,” said attorney Jonathan Bloom of Bloom & Freeling, who represents AKAM. “Don’t people want to go to bed safe?”
The dispute is also playing out in the court of public opinion, with the unit owners appearing on local TV news fighting the size of the assessment and how money allegedly has been handled.
Increased scrutiny of the physical conditions of condo buildings in the 20 months since the deadly Surfside condo collapse has led many associations across South Florida to impose multimillion-dollar special assessments or increase homeowners association fees to pay for life and safety repairs.
Palm Bay Yacht Club’s association estimated that the recertification — which is required by law in Miami-Dade County — will cost about $33 million, and that the cost to replace the windows and doors with storm impact windows and doors is $15.7 million. The building has received unsafe structure violations from the city of Miami.
Amid the legal battle, the board voted on Saturday to approve a loan to fund the $33 million recertification project. The association approved replacing the railings, but did not approve the impact windows and doors, according to a spokesperson for AKAM. The spokesperson declined to disclose the loan amount.
According to a letter sent to unit owners, an engineering firm found that the balcony railing system “reached its end of useful life,” and the railings no longer comply with the city’s building code.
“My clients do agree that the recertification must be achieved, and they also believe that some repairs must be done,” Muir said. “The problem is the scope of the project.”
Greg Main-Baillie, who leads the new condo restoration division at Colliers, said he expects more associations will face similar lawsuits in the wake of the Surfside collapse, as many condo owners don’t understand what it takes to maintain older structures. Main-Baillie compared an aging building to a person in need of surgery.
“Until you actually get into the area of infection, you really don’t understand how bad it is,” said Main-Baillie, who is not involved in Palm Bay Yacht Club. “In the buildings that haven’t maintained themselves, the cancer is going to spread.”
The letter the association sent to owners suggests the same, imploring owners to “properly repair and protect our investment.”
“We feel bad that unit owners are going to incur expenses,” Michael Rogoff, president of AKAM, told The Real Deal. “[But] when you buy a condominium, you take the good, bad and the ugly.”
The post Bayfront Miami condo tower embroiled in legal battle over major assessment appeared first on The Real Deal.
From left: Los Angeles Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Nithya Raman (Photo by Andrew Asch for The Real Deal)After the Los Angeles City Council has approved a series of renter protection rules, members of the council’s progressive wing took to the steps of City Hall to rally for more renters rights on Tuesday, including a renters’ right to counsel bill, which Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez contended would cut evictions and homelessness.
“We made good on our promise. We passed renter protection,” Soto-Martinez said at the Feb. 14 rally. “But this is just the beginning.”
Councilman Bob Blumenfield told a group of less than 50 tenants rights activists at the Valentine’s Day rally that the council was going to support programs such as the right to counsel. It would be funded by the Measure ULA transfer tax, which won on the November ballot. About 10 percent of ULA revenue is earmarked to go to the right to counsel program. “ULA is a game changer,” Blumfield said.
The right to counsel law is modeled after a New York City law that was put on the books in 2017. It offers legal representation to people in danger of eviction. The measure’s advocates contend that it cuts the number of people made homeless and cuts costs at homeless shelters.
Later at the Feb. 14 City Council meeting, a hearing was held on transparency with utility bills for renters.
Councilwoman Nithya Raman introduced the measure for transparency on utility bills in February 2022, but it took a year to make it to the council floor for a hearing. The bill is modeled after a municipal law in Seattle, and will require landlords and third-party billing agencies to provide detailed written disclosures of methodology used to charge tenants. It also will develop a protocol for tenants and landlords to resolve utility charges disputes with the possibility of the L.A. Housing Department acting as mediator.
Daniel Yukelson, executive director of property owners trade group Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, said that Raman’s transparency law is unnecessary. A similar law is currently in the California Civil Code in Section 1940.9, he said.
Read more Los Angeles Relocation money, just-cause evictions: LA’s new rent laws “It’s more posturing, where they’re trying to protect the renters from the landlords who are trying to take advantage of them,” Yukelson said.
Josh Nuni, legislative director for Raman’s 4th district, said Raman’s bill will offer more robust protections for tenants. Unlike the civil code, it also will offer mediation in bill disputes.
Since the beginning of the ear, the council has passed several renter protection rules, including “just cause” evictions and relocation payments.
The post LA City Councilmembers push to add more renter protections appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Home prices are falling across the country, but the bleeding wasn’t quite so bad in Chicago last year.
Nationwide, prices fell by an average of more than 2 percent between June and November in 2022, Fortune Magazine reported.
The Pandemic Housing Bubble was caused by the high demand for new housing and historically low interest rates. This led to overheated housing markets vulnerable to sharp home price increases once the demand evens out and mortgage rates climb back up, the outlet reported.
But in Chicago, the stabilizing effect was less severe, with home prices falling by only 0.9 percent in the second half of last year, the lowest dip registered on the Case-Shiller Index. Meanwhile, prices fell by 2.2 percent in New York and a staggering 12.3 percent in San Francisco.
Markets like Seattle and San Francisco that have a high concentration of tech workers, lost big chunks of their population as remote work became necessary and more popular and allowed people to work wherever they had high-speed internet access. With the interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve spiking last year, the housing boom came to a crashing halt in several markets as well.
“The San Francisco Bay Area is an extreme case of a constrained housing market, with job growth outpacing new housing production and resulting in supply shortages and price spikes that date back at least 30 years,” researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco wrote in a paper published in March 2022.
Chicago’s home price growth stayed near the back of the pack among the 20 largest U.S. metropolitan areas during the recent three-year housing price surge. The Windy City ranked 19th on the list in terms of its home price increases amid the historic seller’s market, according to online property information service Attom. It found that between 2019 and 2022, the median price of homes sold in the Chicago area rose 24.3 percent to $281,000, with Baltimore as the only city below that rate.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more New York NYC multifamily sales boomed, but party could be over Chicago Chicago housing market feels the chill with 15% fewer sales Auto Draft The post Chicago home prices remain steady despite dropping averages appeared first on The Real Deal.
NYCHA’s CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt (Getty, NYC.gov)One prominent multifamily owner is struggling to fill its buildings, but not because of high rents, low demand or draconian rent-stabilization rules.
Hello, New York City Housing Authority.
Vacancies in the public housing system have soared in the past year, as have waiting times for approved tenants to move in, City Limits reported. The problems don’t look like they will get fixed any time soon.
At the start of last year, NYCHA’s 177,000 units had fewer than 500 vacancies. Last month, the number surged past 3,400. And that does not even count units that the housing authority excludes from its rent rolls, which would push the empty apartment tally to nearly 6,000.
Some excluded units have been promised to a tenant, but are uninhabitable. NYCHA’s official target to get vacated units reoccupied is 30 days. At the start of last year, it was taking an average of 182 days. At the start of this year, it took 399 — more than 13 months.
About 1,000 units are not on the rolls because they are undergoing major repairs, such as asbestos or lead abatement. Those repairs are funded in part by rent collection, which collapsed during the pandemic and eviction moratorium and is being further depressed by the surge in vacancies.
In the 12 months prior to December, NYCHA only collected 65 percent of the rent it charged for the previous year. That was the lowest percentage in its history and is driving a $500 million shortfall, as one-third of the authority’s operating budget comes from rent. It typically pulls in $1 billion each year and needs tens of billions of dollars for repairs.
“Without money, we can’t do anything else,” interim CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt told the New York Times last month. “We can’t fund the much-needed repairs. We can’t handle emergencies.”
One of the factors hindering rent collection is the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Protection, which may have given some tenants the false impression that they didn’t need to pay rent. The program only cuts checks for apartments with rent arrears.
But the program’s coffers have been essentially empty for months and even when they had money, the state pushed NYCHA tenants to the bottom of the priority list because their rent obligation is already capped at 30 percent of household income, and tenants enjoy other safeguards as well.
Manhattan Assembly member Linda Rosenthal has introduced a bill that would fine landlords for holding apartments vacant for more than three months. It’s not clear if her bill — which hasn’t gained much traction — would apply to NYCHA.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more New York “Folks got misinformed”: Why NYCHA tenants stopped paying rent New York 20,000 vacant units? Try triple that number New York NYCHA tenants’ rent arrears surge to $443M The post Cash-strapped landlord taking 13 months to fill vacated apartments appeared first on The Real Deal.
Rendering of 811 West Houston with Alamo Community Group Executive Director Jennifer Gonzalez (The Sage Group, Alamo Community Group)A local affordable housing nonprofit scored $38 million for a project in San Antonio.
The funds, coming from 4 percent state tax credits, will help Alamo Community Group build Cattleman Square Lofts at 811 West Houston Street, the San Antonio Business Journal reported.
Planned are 138 residential units, all of which will be marketed as affordable, including 21 apartments reserved for those earning 30 percent of the area median income.
The $38 million accounts for a majority of the cost of the development, which also received a $2 million from a City of San Antonio housing bond.
“We hope to close in May,” Alamo Community Group Executive Director Jennifer Gonzalez told the outlet. “That’s our anticipated closing. Then it takes us about 30 days or so to ramp up, get situated on the site and then start construction.”
Gonzalez said she hopes the Cattleman Square project will spur further development in an area that hasn’t seen as much construction as downtown and other nearby neighborhoods.
“I think it’s going to be the first of many projects that are going to start to come to that area,” she told the outlet. “And I think in the future, folks are going to recognize that the first one — the pioneers that came in, took the risk and leap of faith — was Alamo [Community Group].”
A few miles west, Sovereign Properties will build a 312-unit, six-building market-rate complex at the southern corner of Nationwide Drive and Texas State Highway 151 this coming July.
Construction on Cattleman Square is set to begin this summer with Concept Builders as the general contractor and the SAGE Group as the architect.
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Texas Harris Bay pitches hotel, office-to-resi for Tobin Hill Texas NY developer plans San Antonio multifamily Texas S.A. to raise $158M via reinvestment zone extension The post Housing development near San Antonio’s Cattleman Square gets $38M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Skid Row Housing Trust’s Joanne Cordero and AHP’s Jorge Newbery (Skid Row Housing Trust, LinkedIn, Getty)As its name suggests, Skid Row Housing Trust touts itself as a provider of living quarters on Skid Row, the Downtown L.A. neighborhood that has struggled with one of the largest populations of unhoused people in the country.
But in recent years, the nonprofit has branched out into other businesses, perhaps in an effort to bring in more capital as it struggles with consistent cash shortfalls.
Skid Row Housing Trust has teamed up with Chicago-based nonprofit American Homeowner Preservation to pool investments for distressed residential mortgages, according to filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission by Skid Row AHP LLC, an entity created by both nonprofits.
In July, that entity filed to raise $75 million from investors. The money would be used to buy nonperforming loans from banks and other lenders across the U.S. Skid Row AHP will then work with the homeowner to refinance the loan, pay it off or modify it. As a last resort, Skid Row AHP may foreclose on the property. Skid Row AHP LLC is advertising returns of 7 percent on its investments.
Under the agreement, Skid Row Housing Trust will receive a 1 percent consulting fee, based on how much the entity raises. If Skid Row AHP scores all $75 million, the trust will receive $750,000, though it’s unclear how much the entity has raised so far. Joanne Cordero, Skid Row Housing Trust’s chief of staff, also sits on the board of Skid Row AHP LLC, though is not entitled to receive compensation.
The decision to team up with AHP comes as Skid Row Housing Trust faces financial collapse.
In 2018, the nonprofit reported a net loss of about $17 million, according to its own financial reports. Its most recent disclosures show a net loss of $14 million in 2020.
The nonprofit did not respond to a request for comment.
The 1 percent consulting fee is for use of the “Skid Row” name, plus consulting services with one of Skid Row Housing Trust’s majority-owned subsidiaries, Restora.
AHP has raised money to buy distressed mortgages since 2013, according to an offering statement filed with the SEC in July. And though 2021 marked the first time Skid Row Housing Trust teamed up with the nonprofit, Restora has acquired distressed mortgages and other loans since at least 2017, according to Skid Row Housing Trust’s tax forms.
Last year, Restora won a bid to buy a portfolio of 61 non-performing loans from Fannie Mae. The loans totaled $13 million worth of unpaid balances and were mostly located in Miami.
“Restora will enhance the company’s access to bidding opportunities for distressed mortgage assets with governmental agencies [and] make the Skid Row Housing Trust’s resources available in resolving those assets,” Skid Row Housing AHP said in a statement offering in July.
While trying to raise money for its partnership, Skid Row Housing Trust is battling to raise its own money, divest 29 of its buildings and improve occupancy at its properties.
Its buildings are about 78 percent occupied and in need of maintenance. Hundreds are uninhabitable, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The California Housing and Community Development Department and the Los Angeles Housing Department — two of the nonprofit’s lenders — have both filed notices of default on some of Skid Row Housing Trust’s older properties.
“It’s unfortunate that it has gotten to this point with their finances where they’re not able to maintain the breadth of assets they have,” Miguel Santana, the head of philanthropic organization the Weingart Foundation, which donated $200,000 to Skid Row Housing Trust last year, told the L.A. Times.
Read more Los Angeles Skid Row Housing Trust struggles to divest 29 buildings Los Angeles Skid Row Housing Trust pursues first project in South LA New York JV looks to buy up to $175M in distressed resi loans, with focus on NY, Miami The post Skid Row Housing Trust diversifies into the distressed mortgage business appeared first on The Real Deal.
Herbert Wertheim and 219 Brazilian Avenue (Getty, Google Maps)Billionaire Herbert Wertheim dropped $18.9 million on a flipped, furnished townhouse in Palm Beach.
Records show Wertheim bought the townhouse at 219 Brazilian Avenue from an LLC named for the address. The seller is hidden.
Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate brought the buyer, and Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties represented the seller.
Wertheim is a billionaire inventor, the son of Jewish immigrants who fled Nazi Germany to Hollywood, Forbes reported in a 2019 profile. An optometrist by training, Wertheim founded Brain Power, the world’s largest manufacturer of optic tints that holds more than 100 patents and copyrights. Forbes estimates his net worth at $4.4 billion.
Wertheim and his wife, Nicole Wertheim, both have namesake colleges at Florida International University: the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences. Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville also carries his name.
Records show the sellers of the Brazilian Avenue townhouse bought it for $18.6 million in May. The four-bedroom, five-bathroom, one half-bathroom home spans 6,000 square feet, according to the listing and records. The home also includes an elevator, pool, spa, and summer kitchen, the listing shows.
The latest sale includes $1 million of furniture designed by Marc Michaels, a Winter Park-based interior designer, according to the listing.
Furnished homes perform well in South Florida’s luxury market. Buyers don’t want to wait for delays in the supply chain to make their homes livable.
The pandemic supercharged the South Florida market, particularly in Palm Beach. Sales volume is dropping as the market cools, but the price growth of the last three years appears to be sticking.
A number of townhouses have traded in recent weeks. A hedge funder with a $100 million portfolio of New England vacation properties bought a townhouse, also on Brazilian Avenue, for $12 million this month. The adjoining townhouse also sold, for $8.3 million, and was immediately relisted for $16 million.
In January, financier Steven Hudson flipped his townhouse at 466 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach for $26.7 million; and on the northern part of the island, real estate investor Irwin Ackerman and his wife, Mary Ackerman, sold their home for $34.9 million.
The post Billionaire Herbert Wertheim drops $19M on flipped Palm Beach townhouse appeared first on The Real Deal.
Triple Five Group’s Don Ghermezian with American Dream Mall (American Dream Mall, Getty) The American Dream mall’s financial woes continue to pile up.
Two lenders filed a lawsuit alleging a breach of contract by Triple Five Group, the owner of the beleaguered retail and entertainment center in New Jersey, NorthJersey.com reported. Bloomberg Law first reported the suit by an administrator representing Western Asset Management and South Korea-based Nonghyup Bank.
The lawsuit, filed last week in New York State Supreme Court, seeks $389 million on behalf of the firms. A spokesperson for the American Dream declined to comment to NorthJersey.com regarding the lawsuit.
At the heart of the lawsuit is an extension Triple Five recently received to pay off its debt on $1.7 billion in construction financing. Senior lenders in November gave the mall owner a four-year extension on the loan, taking the debt to October 2026. That extension effectively cut out the two junior lenders, according to The Bond Buyer trade newspaper.
The lenders’ attorneys did not respond to a request for comment from NorthJersey.com.
It’s the latest wrinkle at the East Rutherford retail complex that’s had its fair share of issues during its brief run.
Don Ghermezian’s firm this month missed an $8.8 million semiannual debt service payment for interest due on $290 million in municipal bonds. Triple Five claimed the state bore the responsibility of releasing the funds to make that payment, at least the second time it has made that argument.
In June, Triple Five missed a semiannual payment on an $800 municipal bond, which was ultimately paid later. The firm received $2.7 billion from banks and bondholders to complete the complex. In 2021, the mall reported $60 million in losses.
With the backdrop of the mall’s troubles, Asian supermarket chain H Mart is set to hold its grand opening at the complex this week. The debut comes four years after the store’s occupancy at the mall was announced.
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more Tri-State Same old story: American Dream mall misses another payment Tri-State American Dream lost $60M in 2021 The post Lenders sue American Dream mall for $389M appeared first on The Real Deal.
Google’s Sundar Pichai; rendering of Downtown West, Diridon Station, San Jose (Getty, SITELAB urban studio)Google — after laying off 1,600 workers across the Bay Area and announcing a $500 million cost to exit offices worldwide — is reassessing the timeline for its Downtown West village in San Jose.
The Mountain View-based search engine, which this month said it would forge ahead on its mega transit village near Diridon Station, now says it only remains committed to the project, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
“We’re assessing how to best move forward with Downtown West,” Sheela Jivan, Google’s Downtown West Development Director, told the newspaper in an email.
The timeline for the urban-retail village is expected to take years and could determine other plans for Downtown, where vitality has been sapped by business shutdowns from the pandemic and the trend to remote office work.
Alex Stettinski, CEO of the San Jose Downtown Association, said he hopes Google will resist a lengthy delay that leaves the west side of Downtown in its under-used state.
“We certainly don’t want to see acres of dormant construction sites for an extended time and hope the project will pick up shortly,” Stettinski said.
Google’s interest in Downtown San Jose has become a centerpiece for the city’s plans. Nevertheless, the Downtown West development must comport with the company’s overall real estate strategy, which is shifting as work patterns change, Jivan said.
“We’re working to ensure our real estate investments match the future needs of our hybrid workforce, our business and our communities,” Jivan said.
When finished, Downtown West will include up to 5,900 homes, 7.3 million square feet of offices, 500,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a community center and 15 acres of parks.
The search giant has said it expects to employ up to 25,000 people in the new neighborhood 15 miles east of the company’s Mountain View headquarters.
For now, the firm expects to pay $500 million to shed offices related to 12,000 layoffs, or 6 percent of its workforce. The company intends to cut 1,600 Bay Area jobs.
Google’s 80-acre Downtown West is being cleared for construction around Diridon Station — where Amtrak, BART, Caltrain, high-speed rail and other forms of transit are slated to meet — a project local leaders describe as the West Coast’s Grand Central.
The reductions in office space leases as well as decisions on how quickly to proceed with Downtown West are both components of Google’s overall assessment of its future real estate needs, according to the Mercury News.
“We’re still committed to San Jose for the long term and believe in the importance of the development,” Jivan said.
The company said it’s working with Lendlease, its development consultant for Downtown West, to review the scope of work for the project.
“Everyone was aware that the actual timing of the project was yet to be determined. Nothing concerns me about this,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “Downtown West is a long-term project that benefits both the city of San Jose and Google.”
Read more San Francisco Google to pay $500M to exit offices, but San Jose project moves on Auto Draft The post Google reassesses timeline for Downtown West megaproject in San Jose appeared first on The Real Deal.
A rendering of the Brodie Oaks redevelopment with Barshop & Oles’ Milo Burdette and City Council Member Ryan Alter (Barshop & Oles, AustinTexas.gov)Austin city officials postponed a decision on a planned revamp of the Brodie Oaks Shopping Center in order to finalize some key details.
Austin City Council voted to postpone action on Barshop & Oles’ request to redevelop the property located on the edge of Barton Hills and South Lamar, the Austin Business Journal reported. The delay isn’t expected to hinder the project, in fact the developer says it will allow them more time to formally draft a planned unit zoning agreement with the city.
“Everything that we have presented and been discussing with the City and other stakeholders over the last two-plus years needs to be reduced in writing into the actual zoning ordinance for the Brodie Oaks Redevelopment PUD,” Milo Burdette, partner and vice president of development at Barshop & Oles, told the outlet. “It will be a challenge to capture everything within a single zoning ordinance. We have received a draft from the City and felt like additional time was needed to review it thoroughly and provide any feedback we felt would make it a thorough and accurate reflection of our proposal.”
The mall redevelopment in South Austin would include 1.26 million square feet of office, 140,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant and more than 13 acres of open space, including about 10 acres of park outfitted with native plants. Multiple towers, the tallest of which will be 25 stories, will contain about 1,700 residential units and a 200-room hotel.
“In order to do everything that we want and everything that the city desires, the project needs to achieve enough density to be viable,” Milo Burdette, partner and vice president of development at Barshop & Oles said in November.
City Council Member Ryan Alter, who represents the district where the shopping center is located, said the developers are working with the city’s legal staff.
“We want to make sure — with something of this magnitude — we get the ordinance language right,” Alter said during the Council meeting. “We just need a little more time.”
— Victoria Pruitt
Read more Austin Brodie Oaks transformation heads to Austin City Council Austin Southpark Meadows shopping center’s new owner plans upgrades Austin Barshop & Oles plans transformation for Brodie Oaks shopping center The post Barshop & Oles’ Brodie Oaks mall agreement needs fine tuning appeared first on The Real Deal.
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)Apartment rents in major cities across California fell for five straight months, though they’re still higher than they were last year.
Average lease rates in 50 large cities were $2,088 in January, down 0.5 percent from December as the economy cooled and the demand for larger living spaces dipped, the Orange County Register reported, citing data from ApartmentList.
Since 2018, January rents had averaged a 0.1 percent gain from the previous month, according to an analysis by the newspaper.
Rents statewide were up 1.5 percent compared to January 2022, and 12 percent above what landlords charged in January 2020, before the pandemic.
But the rental market continues to tilt toward the tenant, according to the Register, with rents dropping in 72 percent of the 50 cities last month, down from 84 percent the previous month.
The decline is slowing, however. January’s 0.5 percent one-month rent dip is the smallest since September, when the decline in rents began.
Across the state, the biggest one-month rent drops were in Vista, off 2.5 percent to $2,196; followed by Irvine, off 2.3 percent to $2,996; and Santa Rosa, off 1.9 percent to $1,818.
The biggest 12-month rent drops were in Roseville, off 4.4 percent to $2,105; Ventura, off 3.8 percent to $2,048; and Costa Mesa, off 3.5 percent to $2,461.
The biggest three-year rent drops were in Oakland, off 15 percent to $1,613; San Francisco, off 13 percent to $2,174; and Berkeley, off 10 percent to $1,740.
The largest one-month rent hikes were in Glendale, up 1.3 percent to $2,100; followed by Pomona, up 1.1 percent to $1,894; and Fresno, up 0.8 percent to $1,311.
Among California’s 50 large cities, the highest rents were in Mission Viejo at $3,004, Irvine at $2,996 and Carlsbad at $2,969. The lowest rents were in Fresno at $1,311, Oakland at $1,613 and Sacramento at $1,615.
Among the top 10, rents in Los Angeles were $1,870, down 0.3 percent in a month, up 1.1 percent in a year, and up 6 percent in three years.
Average rents in San Jose were $2,370, down 0.4 percent in a month, up 4.9 percent in a year, and up 2 percent in three years.
Rents in San Francisco were $2,174, down 1.1 percent in a month, up 0.6 percent in a year, and down 13 percent in three years.
Rents in Long Beach were $1,662, down 0.7 percent in a month, up 2 percent in a year, and up 15 percent in three years.
Rents in Oakland were $1,613 monthly, down 0.9 percent in a month, down 3.3 percent in a year, and down 15 percent in three years.
In Orange County, rents in Anaheim were $2,243, up 0.3 percent in a month, up 4.1 percent in a year, and up 26 percent in three years.
Rents in Santa Ana were $2,115, up 0.3 percent in a month, down 0.6 percent in a year, and up 22 percent in three years.
Read more Los Angeles Los Angeles rents dip in January, Zumper report finds Los Angeles Study: California ranks third among worst states for renters Los Angeles OC’s largest cities among priciest rental markets in U.S. The post California apartment rents slide for the fifth straight month appeared first on The Real Deal.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom; collage of funded Los Angeles County projects (Getty, GGLO Design, Abode Communities, KFA Architecture)The state has showered Los Angeles County with nearly $200 million to build 27 affordable and permanent supportive housing complexes with 2,460 apartments.
Gov. Gavin Newsom awarded the money as part of $825 million to fund 58 affordable complexes with 9,550 units across the state, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
The award was the first made under a new streamlined application process aimed at speeding up the development of new projects, while saving time and money at the local level. The initial grants followed $3.4 billion in developer requests, according to the state.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass indicated $196.2 million would go towards 27 projects containing 2,460 units within the City and County of Los Angeles. The funding comes out to an average $79,756 per apartment.
The 27 projects include:
- $13.7 million for a 99-unit supportive complex for homeless residents by Abode Communities, Mercy Housing and L.A. Family Housing at 21300 Devonshire Street in Chatsworth
- $4.3 million for an 89-unit affordable complex by West Hollywood Community Housing at 910 Wetherly Drive by West Hollywood Community Housing in West Hollywood
- $21.8 million for a 75-unit affordable complex for homeless veterans by Core Affordable Housing at Macarthur Field B at the West L.A. VA Campus at 11301 Wilshire Boulevard
- $6.5 million for a 102-unit affordable complex by Community Corp. of Santa Monica now under construction at 8333 Airport Boulevard in Santa Monica
- $4.3 million for a 78-unit affordable complex by Venice Community Housing at 1634 20th Street in Venice
- $13.8 million for a 50-unit affordable complex by Flyaway Homes and Holos Communities at 828 Anaheim Street, plus $11.3 million for a 40-unit affordable complex at 728 Lagoon Avenue, in Wilmington
- $1.5 million for a 81-unit supportive complex for homeless residents by Abode Communities at 25820 South Western Avenue in Harbor City
- $2.8 million for a 51-unit affordable complex by the Cesar Chavez Foundation at 4109-4113 Downing Avenue in Baldwin Park
- $7.5 million for a 168-unit affordable complex by Innovative Housing Opportunities and EAH Housing at 87th Street and Western Avenue in South Los Angeles
- $3.8 million for a 110-unit affordable complex by Abode Communities at 2518-2536 East Cesar E. Chavez Avenue in Boyle Heights
- $2.3 million for an 80-unit supportive complex by A Community of Friends at 2201 East 1st Street in Boyle Heights
- Nearly $5 million for an 87-unit affordable complex by Thomas Safran & Associates next to Watts Station at 103rd Street and Graham Avenue in Watts
- $23.9 million for a 91-unit affordable motel conversion by L.A. Family Housing at 8209 North Sepulveda Boulevard in Panorama City
- $3.8 million for a 64-unit affordable complex by Abbey Road at 15314 West Rayen Street in the North Hills
- $6.5 million for a 100-unit public housing complex by The Michaels Organization at Jordan Downs, at 9800 Grape Street in Watts
- $6.7 million for a 140-unit affordable senior complex by National CORE and Prima Development at 4610 Santa Ana Street in Cudahy
- $6.9 million for a 50-unit affordable complex by Flexible PSH Solutions at 316 North Juanita Avenue in East Hollywood
- $4.5 million for a 75-unit affordable complex by National CORE at 501 East Mission Boulevard in Pomona
- $4.5 million for a 108-unit affordable complex by Related California on the east side of Glendale Boulevard in Echo Park
- $6.6 million for a 160-unit affordable complex by Meta Housing at 7220 Maie Avenue in Florence-Firestone
- $3.9 million for a 122-unit affordable complex by Abode Communities and Neighborhood Housing Services of L.A. County at 88th Street and Broadway in South Los Angeles
- $4.1 million for a 98-unit affordable complex by Downtown Women’s Center at 5th and San Pedro Streets in Downtown Los Angeles
- $2 million for a 52-unit affordable complex by The Weingart Center at 7024 South Broadway in South Los Angeles
- $3 million for a 128-unit affordable complex by Omni America at 1224 Menlo Avenue in Pico-Union
- $3.6 million for an 84-unit affordable senior complex by Domus Development at 11416 West Burbank Boulevard in Burbank, and
- $2.6 million for a 78-unit affordable complex for those with special needs by Brilliant Corners at an unknown address in Gardena.
Read more Los Angeles San Francisco After pause, Newsom releases $1B in homeless funds Los Angeles The post Newsom awards $200M for affordable housing in LA County appeared first on The Real Deal.
U.S. Development CEO John Farina and a rendering of 305 Briny Avenue in Pompano Beach (U.S. Development)U.S. Development is launching sales of Salato Pompano Beach, a planned condominium, after buying the site from a troubled former partner in another project.
The 10-story, 40-unit Salato building at 305 Briny Avenue will have six penthouses, and all condos will have three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and one-half bathroom. Prices start at just under $2 million, according to a press release.
The developer is betting on sustained demand for luxury condos in South Florida, in spite of the market cooling from pandemic highs. U.S. Development is the development arm of U.S. Construction, a Philadelphia-based real estate and construction firm led by CEO John Farina. The firm also has offices in Hoboken, New Jersey and Delray Beach.
Rendering of 305 Briny Avenue in Pompano Beach (U.S. Development)Records show U.S. Development bought the 1.3-acre property via an LLC named for the address for $9.7 million in May. The seller was National Realty Investment Advisors, the Secaucus, New Jersey-based developer currently embroiled in legal troubles, bankruptcy proceedings and allegations of a $650 million Ponzi scheme.
U.S. Development previously partnered with National Realty for its Ocean Delray condo project, completing the sellout last February for $126 million.
Delray Beach-based Randall Stofft Architects designed Salato, and Pompano Beach-based Interiors by Steven G. is leading the interior design for the project, the release shows.
Salato’s floor plans will range from 2,100 square feet to 3,350 square feet, with terraces that will range from 320 square feet to 746 square feet, the release shows.
The building will include a 20,000-square-foot amenities deck, with a pool, spa, poolside bar, fitness center, owner’s lounge and event space with a catering kitchen.
While Miami is the epicenter of South Florida’s condo development boom, developers also have targeted Pompano Beach. Related Group launched sales of the 21-story, 119-unit Casamar in March, with prices starting at $1.8 million. Fortune International Group and Oak Capital started sales for Ritz-Carlton Residences, Pompano Beach, a two-tower, 205-unit project in December 2021, with prices beginning at $1 million.
Read more The post U.S. Development launches condo sales for Salato Pompano Beach appeared first on The Real Deal.
Lucid Private Offices’ Flip Howard, JLL’s Trevor Franke and a rendering of of the newest building in International Business Park located at 6275 W. Plano Parkway (IBPTexas, LinkedIn, JLL)Class-A continues to carry the North Texas office market.
Lucid Private Offices, formerly known as WorkSuites, recently signed a 31,000-square-foot lease at a brand-new building in the International Business Park complex in Plano, according to an announcement from JLL. Trevor Franke and Gini Rounsaville of JLL represented Billingsley Company, who owns the complex, and CRESA’s John Pelletier and Austin Studebaker represented Lucid.
The five-story, 250,000-square-foot office building is located at 6275 West Plano Parkway. The 300-acre mixed-use complex is off the northwest corner of Dallas North Tollway and Bush Turnpike.
Financial details of the lease were not disclosed.
Lucid is the first “executive suite” tenant of the building, which recently completed construction that first began in 2021, said Lucy Burns, partner at Billingsley. The Class-A structure sits adjacent to a 10,000 square foot amenity building with a fitness center, lounge and conference area.
Ongoing expansion of the International Business Park complex will add another 280,000 square feet of commercial space to the market and is set to be finished in March. This new building is the largest in the complex and is 20 percent leased, according to JLL.
The complex includes 11 buildings with 1.4 million square feet of commercial space and is home to more than 100 businesses and over 4,000 employees. Plano acts as a popular North Texas destination for corporate headquarters and office tenants with premiere mixed-use business parks such as Legacy West, Legacy Central and Granite Park.
Lucid Private Offices offers Class-A office spaces to private or commercial tenants and is based in North Texas. The company has been expanding rapidly with more than 20 move-in ready spaces and has recently opened new offices in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.
New spaces set to open at Greenway/Upper Kirby will bring the company’s Houston office portfolio up to 123,000 square feet. The company expanded outside the Lone Star State for the first time last May, opening two locations in Atlanta. It’s also reportedly seeking leases in Katy, Clear Lake and Memorial City, next to the famed Energy Corridor.
The Dallas/Fort-Worth office market continues to outperform most other submarkets as the landscape of commercial property values continues to change. Class-A offices remain strong while many older or mid-level spaces are being looked at for office-to-resi conversions.
Read more Houston WorkSuites flexes in Houston Dallas See who signed Dallas’ biggest office leases in 2022 Dallas Far North Dallas leads DFW office recovery The post Billingsley signs Lucid Private Offices to brand-new Plano building appeared first on The Real Deal.
Bally’s is looking to enter New York’s casino sweepstakes with a pitch for a facility next to Donald Trump’s golf course. The gaming company is discussing the proposal of a casino on 17 acres of the Trump Organization’s golf course at Ferry Point in the Bronx, the New York Post reported. The potential proposal is the only one slated for the borough as several developers, in partnership with household entertainment names, have pitched projects for
After struggling to rebound from the pandemic, the Palisades Center megamall in West Nyack could be headed for a sale to satisfy its owner’s debts. Wilmington Trust, acting as a trustee for CMBS bondholders, filed to foreclose on the 2.2 million-square-foot shopping and entertainment complex, claiming Syracuse-based owner Pyramid Management Group defaulted on a $418.5 million loan tied to the Rockland County property. JPMorgan Chase and Barclays provided Pyramid with the loan in 2016 and
Kingston twice made New York history last year, becoming the first upstate locality to pass rent control, and the first in the state to approve a rent rollback — until a lawsuit brought by landlords temporarily blocked both measures. On Friday, a judge delivered some good and bad news to landlords in the Hudson Valley city: The 15 percent rent reduction won’t stand, but rent stabilization is here to stay. The Hudson Valley Property Owners
Manhattan’s luxury market is getting busier, but not much pricier. The borough cracked 20 contracts last week for the second straight period, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report of homes in the borough asking $4 million or more. But despite the rise in activity, the volume came in short in the second week in a row that only two properties asking $10 million or more went into contract. The most expensive home to enter contract
Tenant advocates are declaring victory in Los Angeles this month after lawmakers passed some of the city’s strongest permanent tenant protections in decades. As LA’s pandemic-era eviction moratorium was winding down, the City Council expanded its ”just cause” eviction ordinance to cover all multifamily housing and determined that landlords must shoulder the cost of moving fees for tenants they evict. Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., the White House rolled out its own recommendations for how to
News Corp responded to a drop in revenue last quarter by confirming ongoing talks about a sale of Move Inc. and plans to slash jobs. Rupert Murdoch’s company will cut 1,250 jobs, Inman reported. The company didn’t specify in its fourth-quarter earnings report where the cuts would have the deepest impact and if they involved Move, the parent company of listings giant Realtor.com. Real estate appears to be the driving force behind the layoffs. In
The most valuable skyscraper in Donald Trump’s portfolio has been placed on a lender watchlist. The mortgage on the Trump Organization’s 40 Wall Street in the Financial District was placed on the watchlist amid concerns of rising expenses and vacancies, Bloomberg reported. The mortgage, which is being serviced by Wells Fargo, has a balance of $126.5 million. The vacancy rate at the 72-story tower neared 18 percent in the third quarter, according to a monthly
Pre-war, but make it new. For $21 million, a full-floor penthouse at 200 Amsterdam Avenue has landed a buyer who also considered a pre-war co-op on Central Park West. Fetching the highest price yet at the Upper West Side condominium, the all-cash deal fits a pattern of discounts emerging at new luxury offerings, say industry observers, after sales slowed to a trickle following the pandemic. “The luxury market is strengthening,” said Stephen Kliegerman of Brown
Since persuading the state to overhaul New York’s rent law in 2019, critics of the real estate industry have not pushed any important legislation through in Albany. Then again, neither has real estate. The two sides have merely defeated each other’s initiatives, battling to a stalemate. Progressives stymied efforts to tweak the new rent law, blocked a measure allowing building owners to avoid fines by buying renewable energy credits, and ensured that 421a expired. Landlords,
Despite a slowdown in the second half of the year, Manhattan investment sales rose 40 percent in 2022, reaching nearly $21 billion in total volume. The biggest share of that increase went into large multifamily assets — those with 10 or more units — where sales volume more than doubled from 2021. Purchases of development sites also nearly doubled, and investments in commercial properties increased 63 percent year over year. Perhaps most remarkably, despite persistent
With tensions running high between the U.S. and China, at least 11 states are looking to limit or ban people and companies with direct ties to China from owning real estate within their borders, the New York Times reported. Texas is leading the way, with Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, sponsoring a bill — spurred by a Chinese company’s purchase of 130,000 acres near Laughlin Air Force Base in South Texas for a wind
Slack’s Stewart Butterfield and Away’s Jen Rubio with 3636 Clay Street, San Francisco (Google Maps, Getty) They’ve built up two businesses worth over $1 billion, now they’re building up their real estate portfolio. Silicon Valley power couple Stewart Butterfield, the co-founder of Slack, and Away co-founder Jen Rubio have amassed an impressive array of luxe homes, having spent at least $140 million since 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported. Butterfield and Rubio, who married in
The stakes are significantly lower than corruption and racketeering charges, but Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim has drawn scrutiny for violating local regulations by listing his home on online rental platforms, CT Insider reported. Ganim listed on Airbnb and Vrbo for $125 a night his single-family home at 37 Thorne Place in the upscale neighborhood of Black Rock, despite city zoning regulations that forbid short-term rentals, the outlet reported. After a media inquiry, Ganim agreed the
The latest round of culture war has seen the House of Mouse lose some of the autonomy it’s enjoyed in Florida the past six decades, but the company still held on to several key privileges. In a special session last week, the legislature gave Gov. Ron DeSantis the power to appoint the members of the board that oversees the development of Walt Disney World theme parks, The New York Times reported. DeSantis had fought with
Owning a home may be the hallmark of the American Dream, but not necessarily so for millionaires, according to The Real Deal’s Hiten Samntani in the latest edition of Resi Rundown. High mortgage rates, soaring home prices and the flexibility that comes with not laying down roots all play into wealthy millennials and members of generations X and Z renting their homes. In 2020, there were close to 2,500 millionaire rental households in New York
If nothing else, Silicon Valley home developer Navneet Aron knows how to get attention. Aron, the CEO of Aron Developers, has gone on a hunger strike in response to Sunnyvale, California’s decision to stop the construction of 18 townhouses Aron’s company is building on North Fair Oaks Avenue, the Mercury News reported. He says he will not eat until his crews are permitted to go back to work. The city halted construction after discovering Aron’s
Here’s a roundup of the prescient, colorful, sobering or simply interesting quotes from the past week across the real estate industry. “Generally none of us are dictators. No matter our title, we work in consensus.” Manhattan Assembly member Linda Rosenthal, who chairs the Assembly’s housing committee, on a Community Housing Improvement Program that seeks a rent reset for stabilized units when a tenant vacates. Rosenthal said a rent-reset bill would be “a non-starter,” but that
Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Now is the perfect time to get caught up on the events of the past week before you tuck into your big game spread and hunker down for (hopefully) a close contest, as well as too-clever-by-half commercials. We don’t offer predictions or analysis of sporting events, regardless of their importance, at The Real Deal. But we do deep dives into real estate trends, including looking into Curbed’s claim that fewer people
A Maryland real estate agent has been arrested and charged with arson after allegedly burning down his home on Thanksgiving Day in 2022. Fred “Trey” Rider III was charged with first- and second-degree arson, first-degree malicious burning and two counts of threatening arson after it took firefighters more than half an hour to put out the blaze, The Star Democrat reported. Firefighters had to use a tanker task force to battle the flames. The fire
The state of Arizona is hosting its fourth-ever Super Bowl this weekend, and thousands of football fans are descending upon Phoenix for the festivities. All those fans need a place to stay, and the Phoenix area’s short-term rental market is responding in kind — with eye-popping price surges, the Wall Street Journal reported. Fans of the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, most of whom already paid north of $9,000 just for a ticket to
Pandas are native to China, but one recently made a big splash in Miami real estate. Former Major Leaguer Pablo Sandoval, who, during his playing days, was affectionately nicknamed “Kung Fu Panda,” bought two Lofty Brickell luxury condominiums for $2 million, according to a release. Newgard Development Group is the developer of the waterfront high-rise at 1101 South Miami Avenue. Jeffrey Abreu and Dali Hernandez of Cervera Real Estate represented Newgard, while Karyna Texeira of
Alleva Dairy served up hunks of fresh mozzarella at the corner of Grand and Mulberry streets through the Great Depression, the city’s bleakest years of the late 1970s and the aftermath of 9/11. But it could not survive Covid. The shop at 188 Grand Street in Little Italy, which claims to be America’s oldest cheese purveyor, is closing for good at the beginning of March after falling behind on its $23,800-a-month rent, the New York
A new report puts zoning restrictions at the forefront of housing issues in Onondaga County, home to cities such as Syracuse. CNY Fair Housing published a report digging into the zoning laws across 34 municipalities in the county, Syracuse.com reported. The nonprofit’s report discovered a persistent problem of “exclusionary zoning” spread across the county, blocking development options beyond single-family housing and reinforcing racial segregation. Housing affordability is already a big issue in the country. Roughly
A year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, real estate investment giant Hines is readying its exit from Vladimir Putin’s country. In recent months, the Houston-based investment firm has sold assets in Russia and started dismantling its business there, Bisnow reported. Hines began considering pulling out of the country a year ago, but didn’t publicly indicate it was doing so. Various sanctions on Russia and its political and business leaders have made it harder for foreign
This is one turnover Dan Snyder is hoping for. Snyder, the owner of the Washington Commanders publicly listed the 15-acre River House property in Potomac, Maryland, for $49 million, the Washington Business Journal reported. The property includes a 30,000-square-foot French chateau-inspired main house that was built in 2004. Snyder, who along with his wife Tanya is considering offers to sell the NFL team amid several scandals, bought most of the property at 11900 River Road
Fast food aficionados and Beastie Boys fans rejoice. A diner in the design of a castle — which could have been modeled after an actual White Castle restaurant — can be yours for free, provided you’re willing to move the building from its current location in Douglass, Kansas, NBC Chicago reported. The kicker: White Castle may be willing to pitch in, under certain conditions. The pre-fab building was constructed by Wichita-based Ablah Hotel Supply in
An elderly couple finally ridded themselves of a terrifying roommate after a court agreement was reached. Eugene and Nina Sarver reclaimed their apartment at 241 West 97th Street from the grips of Lawrence Lee, the New York Post reported. Lee, a real estate agent, had allegedly been using legal loopholes to avoid paying rent at the Upper West Side pad for a month and a half. “I’m so happy he’s out! He is a criminal
Maybe one day this fight over a Hamptons home will appear as a Snapple fact. Robert Eide, CEO of Aegis Capital and a board member of Nathan’s Famous hot dogs, sued Peter Marsh, heir to the Snapple beverage throne and a real estate executive at Jemcap, Crain’s reported. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday. The dispute centers around a home sale in Sagaponack. Eide signed a contract in September to purchase the Parsonage Lane home from
Members at coworking firm Bond Collective’s Flatiron District location showed up to work Thursday to find themselves locked out by a city marshal. A notice posted by the marshal’s office stated that the landlord at 115 East 23rd Street had retaken possession of the space, and members scrambled to try and get their belongings. Court records show that a state judge ordered the lockout after the landlord, First Pioneer Realty, sued Bond Collective last February,
Ian Schrager and Ed Scheetz are throwing a lifeline to the Chetrit Group’s distressed Brooklyn Heights hotel. The hoteliers have stepped in to possibly partner with the real estate development firm to rescue its landmark Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street from foreclosure, Commercial Observer reported. The joint venture is looking to raise $26 million to reposition and rebrand the property as Schrager’s Public Hotel, according to unnamed sources and an offering memorandum reported by
Jennifer Lawrence is the latest celebrity to bid farewell to 443 Greenwich Street. The A-list actress sold her apartment in the star-studded, “paparazzi-proof” Tribeca building last month for $9.75 million, according to property records, which show that the unit was bought by three shell companies registered in Las Vegas. It’s more than the $9.03 million she paid for the 3,100-square-foot unit in 2017, but less than the $11 million she initially sought when she listed
A pair of scammers may be headed to the slammer after gambling on a property deed scheme in Atlantic City that bilked investors out of $580,000. Richard Toelk Jr., 54, and Keith Smith, 60, filed fake deeds for properties in Atlantic City at the Atlantic County Clerk’s Office from November 2018 to January 2019, according to the state attorney general’s office. Most of the properties were owned by the city government, while some were privately
A clothing retailer inked a deal for Hudson Square office space as it readies its return to the United States after 11 years. Esprit took 38,000 square feet at Hudson Square Properties’ 160 Varick Street. The deal was announced by the landlord, a joint venture between Hines, Trinity Church Wall Street and Norges Bank Investment Management. The 11th and 12th floors will serve as the fashion brand’s global creative headquarters, including design, branding, creative and
Rent growth isn’t in reverse yet, but a recent cool streak could mean it’s just a matter of time before prices begin declining across the country. The median asking rent in the country rose 2.4 percent year over year in January to $1,942, according to Redfin. The monthly report cited growing supply and declining demand as drivers behind the smallest annual increase in rent since May 2021. The figure is a fraction of the growth
There is an axiom in housing policy — or really, all public policy — that if there is a loophole, someone will exploit it. Consider California, where environmental concerns have been used, successfully or not, to block housing projects by citing noise made by college students or the potential displacement of mountain lions on land that was already largely developed with single-family mansions. The effectiveness of the state’s pro-development “builder’s remedy” law, which has been
Manhattan’s investment sales market was poised for a dramatic comeback last year until high interest rates and other economic headwinds ushered in a slowdown that began over the summer and will likely persist deep into 2023. Transactions for commercial properties last year totaled almost $21 billion across 419 deals, the highest number of investment sales in the borough since 2016, according to a report by Ariel Property Advisors. That $21 billion in dollar volume represented
As Mayor Eric Adams waxes poetic about a “City of Yes,” developers proposing 231 apartments in Brooklyn have heard nothing but “no.” Plaza Realty is proposing to replace a Staples and a parking lot in Homecrest with an eight-story, mixed-income residential complex including 60 affordable units, a first-floor commercial space and a landscaped rear garden. Housing advocates claim the 36,500-square-foot project at 1880-1888 Coney Island Avenue would make a much-needed dent in the city’s housing
Nine years ago, a mystery buyer in Connecticut set the record for most expensive home purchase in the United States. Less than a decade later, the owner is ready to part ways with the property. Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich has been listed for $150 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The unnamed seller paid $120 million to buy the waterfront estate in 2014. That sale had proved difficult for the owner, John Rudey. The
Want to see where the country’s biggest office projects are being delivered this year? Go to Manhattan. The New York City borough boasts the five largest office developments expected to be delivered this year, according to a report from CommercialCafe. The report is based on CommercialEdge data compiled towards the end of January. The largest project is Brookfield’s Two Manhattan West, which is expected to deliver 2 million square feet in the fourth quarter. The
It is no secret that the owners of Madison Square Garden want it to stay put. Now, the Adams administration appears to be on board. James Dolan’s MSG Entertainment filed an application Thursday to renew its special permit to operate the 22,000-seat arena. Though the request does not include a specific time frame, MSG has indicated that it will ask the city to make the approval permanent. The City Planning Commission is filing a text
LoanDepot has parted ways with its founder after the former executive’s clash with the board of the direct-to-consumer lender escalated into a proxy fight. Anthony Hsieh “stepped down” from his role as executive chairman Wednesday, the company announced, saying the decision came “pursuant to a mutual agreement unanimously approved” by loanDepot’s board of directors. However, Hsieh, who will continue to chair the board of directors, said he was ousted over a public spat with the
JPMorgan Chase added hundreds more to the pool of employees cut by mortgage firms as the industry contends with a collapse in demand. The bank cut hundreds of more jobs in its mortgage department this week, Bloomberg reported. The layoffs come after the bank’s mortgage-origination volume declined 60 percent last year. The bank’s headcount reduction didn’t name a specific number, but did include managers. This is at least the second notable cut to JPMorgan’s mortgage
A financier who lives in Puerto Rico must’ve not felt the need to hang on to a home on Bridgehampton’s storied Dune Road. Parplus Partners founder James Carney sold the oceanfront estate for $35 million, or $6,364 per square foot, the Wall Street Journal reported. The buyer of the property was not disclosed and the address could not immediately be determined for the off-market transaction. The one-acre parcel is tucked between the Atlantic Ocean and
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and CHIP Executive Director Jay Martin (LinkedIn, Getty) While New York landlords ask the Supreme Court to dismantle rent stabilization, they are asking Albany to tweak it. The Community Housing Improvement Program on Wednesday rebranded a proposal that’s been brewing for more than a year: a rent reset for stabilized units when a tenant vacates. Since the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 limited rent hikes, owners claim they can’t repair
Manhattan office buildings and luxury apartment properties set the pace when it came to New York City’s priciest investment sales in 2022. The six biggest deals for commercial properties in New York were for Manhattan office or multifamily buildings, according to an analysis of city records and The Real Deal’s reporting of single-property investment sales. Eight of the city’s 10 biggest investment sales were for office buildings or residential properties. The only two of the
National rent trackers see prices slipping further this year. But not in New York City. The median Manhattan rent rose 1.2 percent from December to January to $4,097, the third-highest on record and highest ever for the month, according to a report by the appraiser Jonathan Miller for Douglas Elliman. Typically, rents cool in winter as renters save apartment hunting for the spring. But weak supply and a premium-priced housing market has continued to fan
The timeshare apartments at 12 East 48th Street are sufficiently nice that Hilton Grand Vacations bought them twice. The Orlando-based timeshare company bought the remaining 111 hotel rooms at the Midtown building, dubbed the “Central at 5th,” for $136 million from Henry Silverman’s 54 Madison Partners, property records filed Wednesday show. The purchase pencils out to $1.2 million per unit, or about $2,800 per square foot. Hilton Grand, which spun off of parent company Hilton
Fashion executive Mickey Drexler sold his eccentric Tribeca townhouse for $23.5 million. The former CEO of J. Crew and Gap traded 464 Greenwich Street to an unknown LLC for $2,600 per square foot, property documents show. The 9,000-square-foot pad hit the market in 2021, asking $30 million. Drexler bought the five-bedroom, six-bathroom home for $5.5 million in 2008. He initially listed the townhouse for $30 million in May 2016, according to Streeteasy. After about eight
The mantra that millennials wanted to “work where they live” drew some of New York’s biggest developers across the East River in the late 2010s to build Instagrammable offices in hot Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods. Today many of those offices remain empty, and now some developers are conceding that the gold rush never materialized. Case in point: Related Companies’ fund management arm and its partner BentallGreenOak are ready to walk away from the Point LIC,
Hospitality companies are contending with a drop in new hotel construction by poaching independent and rival properties for their own brands. Conversions are some of the biggest growth drivers since the pandemic as financing for hospitality projects has dried up, the Wall Street Journal reported. The tactic is more common during times of economic uncertainty and slower development cycles. Hilton is leading the charge among the biggest names in hotels. Last month, the company launched
The Tristate housing market has cooled off in recent months in the harsh winds of interest rate hikes and an inventory crunch, but business remains brisk enough for brokerages to cash in — if they have enough boots on the ground. The Real Deal combed Department of State records to see which brokerages have the most agents selling in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties Douglas Elliman ruled Long Island in 2021, boasting the most agents
Columbia Property Trust is taking a haircut on one of its Manhattan office buildings. The REIT sold the 12-floor, 121,000-square-foot property at 147-149 Madison Avenue in Midtown South for $77 million to the consumer products company Enchanté Accessories, according to city records filed Wednesday. The sale price was nearly $11 million less than when Columbia paid $87.7 million for the land beneath the office building in 2017. The REIT took full control of the building
Cardboard magnate Dennis Mehiel and his wife Karen are out at the Carhart Mansion. The couple sold their duplex at 3 East 95th Street for $20 million, or $1,930 per square foot, according to ACRIS. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom condo drifted on and off the market without a buyer for about 15 years. The couple relisted their home last September for $24 million and went into contract less than a month later. The Mehiels purchased the
Long Island’s largest multifamily landlord continues to grow. Fairfield Properties bought a portfolio of five rental complexes in Suffolk County, paying $59.6 million for the 228-unit portfolio in Bay Shore, the Long Island Business News reported. The seller was the estate of Joan Wimmer, who died a year ago. The Wimmer family developed the properties in the 1960s. The rental buildings are 96 percent occupied. The largest is The Hedges at 405 East Main Street,
It’s been seven years since Victor Sigoura ditched Miki Naftali for a chance to make it on his own. After a rocky start, the former Naftali Group chief investment officer seems to have found his footing with Legion Investment Group’s first Manhattan project: a 19-story, Upper East Side condominium off Park Avenue with a projected sellout of $440 million. The boutique building at 109 East 79th Street is down to its last few units after
Alex Lau’s Ampiera Group is set to deliver dozens of units to Queens’ Sunnyside neighborhood. The developer filed plans for a 63-unit project at 45-07 45th Street, Crain’s reported. The filing comes a year after the developer purchased the site for $11 million. The 85,000-square-foot project will include 13 income-restricted units. The eight-story, 83-foot tall building will also have ground floor retail space and 25 parking spaces. My Architect is listed as the architect of
A property tax break could come back from the dead, but its revived form may scare off landlords. The J-51 program provided an abatement and exemption for multifamily buildings that had gut renovations and major repairs, or were nonresidential properties converted into housing. Applications for the tax break dwindled before it expired last year as efforts by lawmakers to amend and extend it failed. Gov. Kathy Hochul this month pitched a new version as part
Days after FTX’s spectacular collapse, Signature Bank was doing damage control, trying to play down its exposure to the crypto exchange’s alleged fraud. The bank, an important real estate lender in the New York metro area, assured investors just 0.1 percent of its deposits were linked to FTX. Turns out, there was more to the story. A lawsuit filed Monday alleges that the major multifamily lender not only knew about FTX’s fraudulent behavior but helped
What if the staggering rent growth in New York City over the past two years was not from tenants returning en masse? What if landlords stowed units off-market to artificially inflate rents? A Curbed story laid out that theory in late January, raising hackles across real estate Twitter. Author Lane Brown argued that evidence does not show more people moved back than had left early in the pandemic, and that landlords have cause to keep
Adam Neumann bills his comeback real estate venture, Flow, as a chance to turn traditional apartment living into a community with shared experiences. That could include allowing renters to share in the spoils — or at least feel as if they are. “We want to create an elevated experience for the resident, and we want to find a way to share with the resident a portion of the value that they create,” the WeWork founder
Unlicensed marijuana retailers have proliferated across the city for months as retail landlords and their tenants cashed in on lax enforcement. Now, it seems, the district attorney has decided it’s high time for a crackdown. The city filed lawsuits against four East Village smoke shops and their landlords Tuesday, asking a judge to shut down the businesses and levy fines on those who continue to flout the law after investigators observed them selling marijuana to
New York City’s new condos — the vanguard of build, style and price — are finding their footing. The number of new Manhattan condos sold in January ticked down to land around monthly average sales recorded between 2015 and 2020 according to Marketproof’s monthly report. Overall activity tanked in recent months from the highs in the pandemic years, but some of the city’s trophy projects made up ground with a bump in high-dollar deals. Sponsors in
L&L Holdings and BlackRock’s Murray Hill office tower just got a major vote of confidence from its top tenant. Kansas City-based law firm Polsinelli inked a 10-year lease renewal and expansion at L&L and BlackRock’s 600 Third Avenue, adding a fourth floor and roughly 13,100 square feet to its footprint. The renewal brings Polsinelli’s footprint at the 42-story tower to more than 52,500 square feet, making it the property’s largest tenant. The law firm has
Brooklyn’s luxury market left January on a low note. The borough saw just nine contracts signed last week between Jan. 30 and Feb. 3, according to Compass’s weekly report on homes asking $2 million or more. The total is slightly down from the 11 deals signed in the previous period, but in line with the rest of the reported figures from a sleepy January. Townhouse continued their reign atop the market, with two coming in
A major aid organizations isn’t doing any favors for believers of the Manhattan office market. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund listed its three-story office condo in the Financial District for sale, Crain’s reported. The 70,000-square-foot space is part of 125 Maiden Lane. UNICEF purchased the space in 2007 for $29.9 million from the Empire State Development Corporation. At the time, the organization was looking to expand, moving from a 55,000-square-foot space. Sixteen years
Rising mortgage rates forced so-called power buyers into weaker positions, stuck with excess inventory after customers backed out of home purchases. The companies acquire homes on behalf of buyers who can’t afford to make their purchases, then sell the homes to the desired buyers with a fee attached. The Wall Street Journal reported last year’s market slowdown left some of the biggest names in the sector with hundreds of homes they are unable to sell.
The new products shipping out from the former Nabisco site in Fair Lawn won’t smell quite like the old ones. Greek Development filed plans for a 644,000-square-foot warehouse at 500 Route 208 in Fair Lawn, where Nabisco used to crank out cookies, NorthJersey.com reported. The developer hopes to quickly gain approval from the borough and start construction on the Class-A distribution facility in the summer. It will include 10,000 square feet of office space and
Amazon is still growing its warehouse footprint. Unfortunately for industrial landlords, it’s mostly doing that by acquiring its own facilities. After rapidly doubling its North American real estate footprint as Covid fueled demand for warehouses, Amazon all but paused its expansion entirely last year — at least as a tenant. The e-commerce giant was renting around 392 million square feet of warehouses across North America by the end of last year, SEC filings show, up
Veteran shoppers of Bed Bath & Beyond know not to throw out its ubiquitous coupons, even if they expired years ago: The stores will always take them. Unless the stores themselves have expired, which many across the country are doing as the chain hurtles toward bankruptcy. In Manhattan, two previously undisclosed closures were reported by Crain’s. The company has four stores in the borough; halving that number will result in 83 layoffs. In Lincoln Square,
As a cold front froze New York City for two days last week, mid-market investment sales were in hibernation. Only two transactions involving commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week. The deals were recorded in Manhattan and Queens. Below is more information on each sale, ranked by dollar amount. 1. An entity connected to Uri Mermelstein bought a development site at 151-11 Sixth Road and 151-17 Powells Cove
Even from a half mile away, the property was arresting. It was a sunny November morning in Redondo Beach, and the sweeping downhill view of the Pacific coastline was crowded out by towering white smokestacks and an imposing wall of steel. The sight was jarring, as if a block-wide slice of industrial Detroit or Pittsburgh had been dropped onto the coast of Southern California. A few minutes later, a sleepy-looking guy in jeans and a
In the 1980s, two brothers converted some Bronx and Northern Manhattan rental buildings into co-ops and began selling the units. Then things went sideways. The owners stopped mid-stream, passing the portfolio to an heir who didn’t resume sales — or do much of anything else. That created the real estate equivalent of a ticking time bomb. Years turned into decades as the properties fell into disrepair. They had little cash in reserve, were operating at
Tamir Shemesh, one of Manhattan’s top-producing brokers, is joining Nest Seekers International. The move comes less than a week after Shemesh was terminated from Serhant for unclear reasons. Nest Seekers said in a statement Monday Shemesh “left Serhant to join Nest Seekers.” CEO Eddie Shapiro said Shemesh was coming to the firm for a “multi-market expansion.” The brokerage confirmed the broker would be joined by members of his Serhant team, but the size of his
Urban Commons has spent the past two years litigating failed projects from coast to coast, but it seems to be at war with everyone over the Wagner Hotel — and its past battles are coming back to haunt it. The hospitality firm is fighting a foreclosure attempt by its lender as well as allegations of unpaid bills by its landlord and a condo board at the Lower Manhattan property, which it bought for $151 million
It’s deja vu all over again at the American Dream mall. Don Ghermezian’s Triple Five Group missed its $8.8 million semiannual debt service payment at the East Rutherford shopping complex, CoStar reported. The payment is for interest due on $290 million in municipal bonds. Triple Five had been pulling from its reserves to pay off its debt, but that wasn’t possible this time around. There’s only $878.50 left in the reserve account, according to bond
Manhattan’s luxury market left its winter slump in January. The borough notched 29 deals last week, according to Olshan’s weekly report on properties asking $4 million or more. The week between Jan. 30 and Feb. 5 had the largest total since mid-October 2022 and marked the first report in 6 weeks to report a total greater than 20. The most expensive home to enter contract last week was unit 48S at Extell Development’s 50 West
Hawkins Way Capital’s purchase of a shuttered Marriott on Manhattan’s East Side came at a heavy discount from what the property last sold for, newly filed city records reveal. In a deal first reported last week, the Beverly Hills-based firm teamed with Värde Partners to acquire the former New York Marriott East Side hotel at 525 Lexington Avenue from German investment firm Deka Immobilien. City records filed Monday show that the firms paid $153.4 million
If landlords’ legal strategy was indeed to fail upwards, their plan is on track. A federal appeals court on Monday ruled against two lawsuits challenging New York’s rent stabilization law, affirming the New York’s Eastern District Court’s dismissal of the cases in September 2020. A panel of three Second Circuit judges agreed that building owners failed to demonstrate that the law amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their properties. The decision is a setback for
Will the third time be a charm for former NBA owner Leslie Alexander’s attempt to sell his Gramercy Park penthouse? Alexander listed his apartment at 18 Gramercy Park South for $43.8 million, Crain’s reported. The price is a $5 million knockdown from a few months ago, when the former Houston Rockets owner tried selling it for $48.8 million. Alexander has been trying to sell the penthouse on and off since 2015, initially asking $50 million.
Scott Rechler is in damage control mode. A Financial Times article Thursday headlined “New York property tycoon to give worn-out offices back to the bank” rippled through the real estate industry. If the mighty RXR is facing a reckoning with lenders, readers thought, what hope is there for everyone else? As The Real Deal and other outlets picked up the news, Rechler sprung into action, working the phones to clarify that the “worn-out offices” were
The other shoe is about to drop for New York’s nervous office owners. With the mortgage due on its Tower 56 building in the Plaza District, Pearlmark Real Estate is negotiating a deal to sell the property at a price that will just about cover its debt, sources told The Real Deal. The Blackstone Group holds the mortgage on the 1980s-era tower and has been working with Pearlmark to allow for an orderly sale. It’s
After several failed attempts to push for a deal in private, Public Storage is taking its case to acquire one of its top rivals straight to shareholders. Public Storage made an $11 billion unsolicited bid to acquire Life Storage, the Wall Street Journal reported. The all-stock proposal was cemented with a letter sent to Life Storage management on Sunday. The proposal is worth roughly $129 per share. That’s a premium over Life Storage’s stock price,
The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates last week for the eighth time in less than a year, pushing the benchmark rate to its highest level since 2007. That would seem to be bad news for a mortgage market that has seen demand slip amid higher financing costs. But as Nadia Evangelou, senior economist at the National Association of Realtors, explains, the most recent increase signals there could be a light at the end of the
Sixteen units of affordable housing wouldn’t even make the radar screen in New York City, but in East Hampton, it’s almost a big deal. The East Hampton Town Planning Board reviewed a proposed development of that size at 395 Pantigo Road last week, the East Hampton Star reported. While approval hasn’t been granted, the board took a positive view of the development. The 12-acre site still needs to be cleared. It previously had a single
Sotheby’s found a way to sell an “unsellable” home: auction it with a starting price so low that the land alone is worth a bid. The former Hamptons home of late Japanese sculptor Setsuo Ito sold at auction last week with a $3 million reserve bid — significantly lower than its listed price of $8 million. The name of the buyer and final price could not be ascertained. Dubbed the “Island in the Sky,” the
Gary Barnett’s Extell Development has other plans for an East Harlem site at 180 East 125th Street. Instead of moving ahead on an office project in a troubled commercial office environment, his firm is pivoting to a project that will add 543 apartments to the neighborhood instead. The 15-story building will span 415,000 square feet, pending the approval of a zoning bonus for locating a grocery store at the building as part of the city’s
Gainesville, Florida, was set to become the first city in the state to get rid of single-family only zoning citywide … until it wasn’t. Shortly after its members were sworn in, a city commission reversed an August vote that was designed to increase housing supply by allowing for duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes to be built on land zoned for single-family homes in the college town, Bloomberg reported. The reversal, which came after backlash from local
Known for his prodigious power on the field, former Major League Baseball player Albert Pujols is looking to flex his muscles on the real estate market. The future Hall of Famer has listed his Irvine mansion for nearly $10 million, the Los Angeles Times reported. Charisse Okamoto and Carrie Hale of Caliber Real Estate Group have the listing. The 9,200-square-foot mansion, which Pujols bought for just over $5.5 million in 2012, sits on a half
Florida, man. For the first time in at least four decades, Florida has more jobs (barely) than New York, Bloomberg reported. The Sunshine State, with 9,578,500 nonfarm jobs, edged New York’s 9,576,100 nonfarm jobs — just 2,400 jobs — in 2022, the outlet reported, citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There is no indication if there was a margin for error in the statistics. “Florida is no longer God’s waiting room,” Craig Studnicky,
Marijuana entrepreneurs are not high on the real estate industry. Even as cannabis becomes legal in more states, the growing market is facing a “green tax” from owners and landlords, MJBizDaily reported. The premiums are not discriminating by type, affecting retailers, cultivators and manufacturers alike. There are a number of factors forcing cannabis entrepreneurs to ante up in ways other industries often avoid. Prices are softening in more mature markets, like Colorado, but upstart markets
Amazon’s foray into physical retail has gone so poorly, the online shopping juggernaut scrapped plans to open its first big-box store, The Information reported. The store, which didn’t have a name but was developed under the code-name Reese, was in development as late as 2021 and was slated to open this past January, the outlet reported. It would have offered clothes, groceries and other items, as well as utilized the register-less checkout system that the
One of the most basic tenets in civil litigation is a party’s obligation to retain evidence that may be pertinent to a lawsuit or a potential lawsuit. A Massachusetts judge has ruled that developer Stephen Weiner and his son, Adam, violated that tenet by deleting emails and text messages in the face of a possible lawsuit from John Fish over a failed $800 million condominium tower project, the Boston Globe reported. At issue is who
Most of the downsides discussed about ChatGPT center around things like students taking advantage of the artificial intelligence bot to write their assignments or professional writers using it to cut corners. But Amir Korangy, founder and publisher of The Real Deal, says ChatGPT has the ability to wipe out entire job classes, which should be particularly unnerving not only for those employees, but also office space investors and owners, Benzinga reported. “They’re making decisions like
Here’s a roundup of the prescient, colorful, sobering or simply interesting quotes from the past week across the real estate industry. “This whole concept of working from anywhere went too far.” Christian Ulbrich, CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., on remote work. “I call it Project Kodak.” Scott Rechler, CEO of RXR, implying 10 percent of the company’s portfolio is outdated. “We are not immune to the economic environment that all companies, especially real estate
Just days after Scott Rechler confirmed that RXR will hand back two of his buildings to lenders, a $103 million loan on the DuMont Building is in default, Crain’s New York reported, citing a Fitch report. A special servicer is negotiating with building owner Newmark for an extension, which matured at the end of January, the outlet reported. Newmark may have to hand over the keys if a deal isn’t worked out. With the office
A red and white “PARK YOUR FLEET” sign at a defunct Harlem gas station airs the frustration of a developer who just missed a pivot in the long fight to build more housing in America. In January, Bruce Teitelbaum opened a truck depot on a West 145th Street site where he was hoping to build more than 900 apartments. Even after he promised half would be affordable, the project had been rejected by the local City
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, but love isn’t in the hearts of some real estate players. Instead of love letters or flowers, it was pink slips and legal documents making their rounds. Facing the impact of remote work and rising interest rates (of which there was another one Thursday), Scott Rechler’s RXR is preparing to part ways with some of his office buildings by handing them back to lenders. In doing so, Rechler compared 10 percent
Well-known real estate investor and hotelier Barry Sternlicht is launching a new hotel chain with a focus on the great outdoors. The Starwood Capital Group CEO said Field & Stream Lodge Co. will operate hotels around national parks, ski mountains, lakes, deserts and woods across the country, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new hotel chain will be aimed at families and outdoor enthusiasts. Starwood, which sold the Field & Stream outdoor retailer in 2014
Connecticut Democratic lawmakers last week proposed a multifaceted approach to tackle the housing shortage in the state, including converting empty strip malls and big box stores into housing, CT Insider reported. The state senators who back the proposal said creating new, affordable housing is critical for the 100,000 employees the state needs, the outlet reported. “We have to have the employees first, and then the employers come in,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said, according
Bay Area cities are trying a lot of nutty tactics to comply with the state’s housing element mandate, but Orinda may be top banana. The Contra Costa County city was caught listing improbable housing sites in its draft, the East Bay Times reported. The discovery led to roughly 40 sites being pulled out of the final draft at the last minute. Some of the sites removed wouldn’t have made for good housing sites, even in
Football may be in Patrick Mahomes’ blood, but real estate is in his name. The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has amassed an $8 million property portfolio, the New York Post reported. The 27-year-old’s holdings include four properties, three of which are in Missouri, where the superstar plies his trade. Mahomes made his first home purchase in December 2017, buying a condo in Kansas City for $350,000, below the $475,000 ask. The 1,800-square-foot home includes two
A former reality TV star facing fraud lawsuits for a series of real estate seminars lost his most recent bid to have the claims dismissed. Armando Montelongo Jr., who starred on the A&E series “Flip This House” for three seasons, was unable to get lawsuits brought by former students of his house-flipping seminars dropped, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The Texas Supreme Court declined to hear Montelongo’s appeal and didn’t give a reason why. More
The housing correction throughout the U.S. hasn’t affected markets equally, with some seeing home prices fall precipitously, and others that have hardly been affected, Forbes reported, citing data from John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Overall, prices dipped just 2.5 percent between June and November 2022, which, on its face, wouldn’t appear to be a major concern considering the 41 percent spike during the pandemic, the outlet reported. However, the correction varied significantly by region, with
Standard International is about to make another big splash Downtown. The trendy boutique hotel operator is in contract to buy the 97-key Sixty Soho hotel at 60 Thompson Street from the Pomeranc family’s Sixty Collective, multiple sources confirmed to The Real Deal. One source said the hotel sold for more than $1 million per key, which would put the sale price above $100 million and set a post-Covid record on a per-key basis, surpassing last
The Greenporter Hotel was snapped up by a Boston real estate firm — the first time in two decades the property has changed hands. Blue Flag Partners purchased the three-star hotel at 326 Front Street in Greenport, the Suffolk Times reported. The seller of the North Fork establishment said she received interest from dozens of hotel companies, but sold to Blue Flag because she felt it had a commitment to “the quality of life for
As high prices and high mortgage rates sideline some buyers from the housing market, more high-earning tenants in New York City are deciding homebuying is not worth the hassle. New York is the hottest rental spot for millionaires, according to a report from RentCafe. There were nearly 2,500 millionaire rental households in the Big Apple in 2020, trouncing other cities by leaps and bounds, including San Francisco in second place with less than 300). The
The Arctic weather couldn’t have come at a worse time for Sinha Development. Tomorrow, with temperatures forecast to drop into the single digits and wind chills well below zero, an open house is scheduled at Sinha’s 11-unit condominium in NoMad. And Sinha very much needs buyers for the four remaining apartments. Ran Eliasaf’s aptly named Northwind Group filed a pre-foreclosure action this week accusing Sinha of defaulting on a $23.8 million land loan secured by
Nobody goes to sleep fantasizing about aging apartment buildings. But Sean Kia and Ryan Andrade know how to bring out the sex appeal of a drab asset. Last summer, Kia and Andrade, founders of Tides Equities, pitched their latest Class B play: a 270-unit apartment complex in Fort Worth, Texas. The property, which they dubbed Tides on Oakland Hills, was ripe for a value-add play, the young duo told potential investors, promising a 20 percent
Another sizable residential property is coming to Downtown Brooklyn. Yitzchok Katz filed plans this week for a 186,000-square-foot property at 370 Livingston Street, Crain’s reported. The 105-unit building will be 22 stories tall and rise to 235 feet. An entity tied to Goose Property Management — a frequent partner of the Rabsky Group — bought the development site at 364 Livingston Street and 60 Flatbush Avenue for $25.5 million last year. The sellers were a
City Hall is slowly relenting on its resistance to hybrid work for municipal employees. Officials agreed to consider a hybrid work scenario for DC 37 workers as negotiations with the union continue, Gothamist reported. The union’s social services branch, SSEU Local 371, announced the update on negotiations in a letter to members, while City Hall declined to comment on active negotiations. Negotiations are ongoing. It’s unclear how many of the city’s 300,000 city employees would
Welcome to the February 2023 issue of The Real Deal, your source for the latest news and trends in the world of real estate. As we kick off a new year, it’s a great time to reflect on the exciting developments and challenges that lie ahead in the industry. OK, OK. That wasn’t me. That was ChatGPT. I’ve been busy putting out fires here at work and didn’t have time to come up with a
After rising rents shuttered the last of the famed music shops that spanned Times Square’s 48th Street, musicians seeking the once-bustling shopping scene frequented by legends like Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones were left with few options. Roberto’s Winds, a 30-year standby for woodwind instruments, repairs and rehearsal space that did business with Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic, was one of the holdouts. That is, until an eviction suit displaced the store
The warehouse space race isn’t over. With the industrial market still tight, Monello Landscape Industries is seeking to build a four-story warehouse in the Passaic County township of Wayne, NorthJersey.com reported. The 70,000-square-foot building at 125 Pompton Plains Crossroad would feature a dozen loading docks, 39 parking spaces and 3,300 square feet of offices. Putting an industrial property on the six-acre site requires a variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment, which will consider the
More than seven years after buying the land, Joy Construction and Madd Equities are finally ready to get going on their planned 611-unit apartment complex in Inwood. The developers secured $414 million in construction financing for the mixed-use project at 3875 Ninth Avenue, a site on the Harlem River that sat undeveloped for years as a legal fight played out over the Uptown neighborhood’s controversial rezoning. The funding is a combination of tax-exempt bonds issued
Everyone loves a dynasty. But few fields are as dominated by hereditary empires as real estate. If the business is built on relationships, as industry players like to say, why not tap into your folks’? For those on the inside, inheriting or working for family business is a source of pride, a step toward creating a legacy. Outsiders, though, have invented a new term. “Nepo babies” — a short and not-so-sweet nickname used to describe
Less than two years after leaving SL Green Realty for Carlyle Group, David Schonbraun is on the move again. The former SL Green chief investment officer is joining New Jersey-based private equity firm Senlac Ridge Partners, which says it’s rebranding as GreenBarn Investment Group. Schonbraun will be a managing partner in the rebranded company alongside co-founder David Welsh. The firm announced Schonbraun’s hire in a press release Thursday. Commercial Observer first reported the news. Prior
Apartments, like best friends and all-inclusive resorts, sometimes come as a package deal. Four units on the 17th floor of the Sherry-Netherland just hit the market for $30 million under a single listing. The apartments — one of which formerly belonged to Douglas Elliman chief Howard Lorber — include a total of six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. Lorber bought Unit 1701 for $5.1 million in 2011 and lived there for several years before he sold
While Gov. Kathy Hochul’s housing and 421a proposals captured real estate’s attention this week, two other aspects of her $227 billion budget have implications for the industry. One is her call for using revenue from the three planned downstate casinos to fund mass transit, the Wall Street Journal reported. That, along with an expanded payroll tax and other measures, would provide $1.3 billion annually to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is facing huge budget gaps
Two city politicians are introducing a bill aimed at curtailing discrimination by co-op boards. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and City Council member Pierina Sanchez will unveil their legislation today, the New York Daily News reported. It is part of a package of bills aimed at co-ops. The bill would require co-op boards to provide a written rationale for rejecting an applicant within five days of the decision. Rejections often trigger suspicion of discrimination among non-white
The first legal cannabis shops have yet to open in Queens, but Long Island City is getting stoned in another sense of the term. High-end tile and stone wholesaler Ann Sacks signed a 21,161-square-foot lease for the entire ground floor of 21-01 51st Avenue, a former toy factory converted to office and retail by the Kaufman Organization and True North Management. The Kohler subsidiary plans to open a studio and large showroom for its unique
The Agency is the latest residential brokerage resorting to layoffs. The California-based firm confirmed to The Real Deal it had let go of 15 people, or about 4 percent of its staff. “We are not immune to the economic environment that all companies, especially real estate companies are facing right now,” company co-founder and CEO Mauricio Umansky said in a statement to TRD. “The Agency continues to make efforts to be fiscally responsible and is
Bruce Teitelbaum is giving the City Council a second chance to approve affordable housing on his Harlem development site. In a letter to Council member Kristin Richardson Jordan, the developer indicates that he will restart the rezoning process at West 145th Street and Lenox Avenue, rebranded as “One45 Harlem For ALL.” This time, the prospect of a truck stop there instead will not be hypothetical: One is already up and running, and is expected to
Scott Rechler’s RXR is confronting the impact of remote work and rising interest rates by parting ways with a slice of its office portfolio. The developer is preparing to hand some of his office buildings back to lenders, the Financial Times reported. The chairman didn’t say which buildings or how many would be turned over, but likened about 10 percent of the firm’s office portfolio to Kodak film, implying they were outdated. The decision comes
The Federal Reserve voted to raise interest rates by 0.25 percent Wednesday, the eighth consecutive hike since last March in its ongoing fight against rampant inflation. The quarter-point increase brings rates to a target range of 4.5 to 4.75 percent, the highest they’ve been since 2007. The Fed said in a statement that it expects “ongoing increases” as needed, but hinted that future rate hikes are unlikely to be as steep as those seen last
Manhattan has a lot more room for housing, if the government would let someone build it. A report from Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine identifies development sites that could produce 73,000 apartments. It’s not an exhaustive list, but focuses on parcels that require public action to allow for residential projects. The 171 opportunities run the gamut, from an air rights transfer to allow 9,000 homes to small lots that would yield just six apartments as-of-right.
Three years after the start of the pandemic, office occupancy across the nation finally hit 50 percent. Last week, the average office attendance was 50.4 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported. The figure comes from Kastle Systems, which noted it was the first time occupancy has topped 50 percent since March 2020. Texas cities Austin and Houston continue to lead the charge, or rather the trickle, back into offices, with both sporting occupancy rates above
The new year brought some good news for Manhattan and Brooklyn homebuyers and agents: New listings went up in January for the first time since September in both boroughs, according to Miller Samuel’s monthly report for Douglas Elliman. Though the uptick is a positive sign for an inventory-starved market, new listings were still lower than they were a year ago or before the pandemic. In Manhattan, new co-op listings were down 27 percent from January
Last week, Mayor Eric Adams floated a way forward for office-to-residential conversions, saying the city could rezone Midtown so developers could convert underused office buildings into much-needed homes. The catch: Rezoning triggers an affordable housing requirement, adding costs to projects that already would require a property tax break to pencil out. Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed a solution: a tax exemption for office conversions that set aside a certain percentage of rental units as affordable.
The Hamptons and North Fork continue to be plagued by a lack of homes for sale, but there are signs of light at the end of the tunnel, according to a monthly report by Miller Samuel. While the Hamptons market remains tight, it may be beginning to rebound ahead of the spring market, said Jonathan Miller, who authored the report for Douglas Elliman. New inventory for single-family homes rose on a year-over-year basis for the
The Real Deal’s February issue is live for subscribers and soon to hit mailboxes across the country. Real estate, it is often said, is a business built on relationships. As it turns out, a lot of those relationships are familial ones. This month, we take a look at some of the many scions — or “nepo babies,” as they are sometimes not-so-lovingly described — taking up the family business. Meanwhile, reporter Kathryn Brenzel examines pro-development
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday unveiled a $227 billion state budget plan aimed at ramping up housing production through zoning changes and tax incentives. The budget proposal elaborates on Hochul’s previously announced “New York Compact” establishing three-year housing targets for every city, town and village in the state. It also pitches incentives for office-to-residential conversions and an extension for projects that vested under the now-expired 421a tax break. Hochul wants the state to add 800,000
A stalled supertall condo project at 125 Greenwich Street, one of the most hotly anticipated skyscrapers until it was mired in financing complications, is ready for its comeback. Bizzi & Partners and Fortress Investment Group secured a $313 million loan from Northwind Group, The Real Deal has learned, allowing it to resume construction at the project after threats of foreclosure and partnership disputes delayed the 88-story tower for years. Northwind’s loan replaces an existing one
Vornado Realty Trust’s challenges continue to show up on its balance sheet: The company has written down the value of its real estate portfolio by $600 million. Steve Roth’s real estate investment trust indicated the reduction late Tuesday, Crain’s reported. About 80 percent of the writedown — $480 million — stems from a handful of Midtown properties. The properties accounting for the other $120 million is unclear. The seven buildings involved in the writedown were
When mortgage purchase activity shot up 25 percent in early January, some industry leaders hailed it as a turning point for home sales. Maybe not. For the week ending Jan. 27, applications for mortgages to buy homes dropped a seasonally adjusted 10 percent from week before, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported. Homeowner requests to refinance fell 7 percent, the MBA’s weekly survey found. The drops came even as mortgage rates were flat. The average contract
Developer Jubao Xie has secured the next chapter for the world’s tallest Holiday Inn. A federal bankruptcy judge approved Xie’s plan to make the Financial District hotel at 99 Washington Street into housing for migrant families, Crain’s reported. The permission should allow Xie to move forward on a preliminary agreement with NYC Health + Hospitals, which leads the migrant shelter program. Under terms of the agreement, Xie could reap $190 per room per day for
While all eyes will be tuned to Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell’s press conference Wednesday for indications of whether the U.S. will slide into a recession, one of the nation’s largest office landlords says it’s already here for commercial real estate. “Notwithstanding the running debate on whether the U.S. economy will experience a hard or soft landing, commercial real estate markets are currently in a recession,” Boston Properties CEO Owen Thomas said on the company’s
Tamir Shemesh, a top-producing Manhattan broker, has been terminated from Serhant, the brokerage confirmed to The Real Deal. The reasons for Shemesh’s termination, which comes just over a year after he and his four-person team joined Serhant from Douglas Elliman, were unclear. The broker’s personal page on Serhant’s website was inaccessible as of Wednesday morning. Shemesh could not immediately be reached for comment. It’s the broker’s third abrupt exit in recent memory. Shemesh joined Serhant
Developers might get an extra four years to complete projects that were in danger of losing a property tax break that some call essential to getting financing. As part of her executive budget released Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed extending the construction deadline for New York City projects grandfathered under the now-expired 421a program. Developers raced to qualify for the tax exemption by completing foundation elements by June 15, 2022, but still need to finish
James Dolan’s MSG Entertainment plans to keep the iconic arena right where it is, despite calls to overhaul the transit hub underneath. The Garden told city officials he would seek a permanent special permit to keep the Garden operating at 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, the New York Times reported. The arena’s 10-year special permit is due to expire in July. Chief executive Dolan has been down this road before, as 2,500-seat arenas in the city require
Stefan Soloviev isn’t going it alone in the hunt for a casino in Manhattan. Mohegan is joining the Soloviev Group’s bid for a casino license in Midtown East, the New York Times reported. The casino and resort operator is joining other household names in entertainment like Wynn Resorts and Caesars, which have teamed up with some of the biggest names in New York City development angling for one of three licenses. Soloviev’s plans for a
Stressed stocks. Distressed assets. Rigid regulatory environments. Inflationary roller-coasters. The turbulent tech, financial, and political landscape has thrown real estate’s future into question. But it’s in troubling times that the next generation of all-star investors and development geniuses are born. Think you might be one of them? Join us at Future City 2023. The Real Deal’s staff will be back at Baha Mar in the Bahamas from March 5 to March 7, 2023. Future City
A Bjarke Ingels-designed production studio is coming to Red Hook as demand for soundstages heats up across the city. Brooklyn-based Samson Stages is seeking to convert a warehouse at 744 Clinton Street into a 330,000-square-foot studio and soundstage complex, The Real Deal has learned. The $400 million waterfront project will also include a public park. The design by Bjarke Ingels Group involves eight stacked stages with green terraces, which can be developed on the property
Rent is in the eye of the beholder. In the tri-state area, at least. Compared with a year ago, tenants’ monthly cost is higher in most tri-state markets, according to a Zumper analysis of active listings. But it’s cheaper than it was a month before. Take New York City. Last month, the median asking rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $3,690, easily the most among the markets studied. That was up 13.2 percent year-over-year, but
Lingering uncertainty in New York City’s office market and a virtual moratorium on new hotels allowed a self-storage deal to top the list of 2022’s largest real estate loans. The 10 largest financing deals amounted to $8 billion, on par with 2020’s total but behind the $10.9 billion lent in 2019 on the 10 biggest projects. The five largest loans of 2021 totaled $7.2 billion. The nation’s largest office-to-residential conversion made the list, as did
It was a blank canvas for new office space, until it got stretched a little too tight. A nearly finished boutique office building in Chelsea’s art district is headed for a takeover, most likely by one of its lenders, unless the owner can stave off a pending foreclosure sale. An auction for the eight-story warehouse-to-office conversion at 541 West 21st Street, dubbed “The Frame,” is set for Feb. 14, according to marketing materials seen by
Hawkins Way Capital has picked up another shuttered hotel on Manhattan’s East Side. The Beverly Hills–based company and the investment firm Värde Partners acquired the former New York Marriott East Side hotel at 525 Lexington Avenue in Midtown, according to a press release. The price was not disclosed. The seller was German fund operator Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH, a subsidiary of DekaBank, The Real Deal has learned. The press release was first reported by the
Like a phoenix, a building is set to rise from the scorched earth where a notorious Passaic fire erupted nearly four decades ago. Stonemont Financial Group is planning a warehouse and logistics center in the New Jersey city, NorthJersey.com reported. The Atlanta-based real estate company purchased the land from Mynt Properties for an undisclosed price in December. Stonemont’s industrial project will span 296,000 square feet, according to NJBIZ, and is being developed in a public-private
A large office campus in Bergen County could soon be home to hundreds of apartments. Developer S. Hekemian Group is proposing a 585-unit, market-rate project at 400 Parsons Pond Road in Franklin Lakes, the site of a former IBM and Express Scripts office complex, NorthJersey.com reported. The 89-acre property off of Interstate 287 is owned by Cigna Corp., but Hekemian is in contract to purchase it for an undisclosed price. It’s valued at $84 million,
Five hundred ninety down, 499,410 to go. In December, when Mayor Eric Adams announced a goal of 500,000 new homes citywide over a decade, developers filed to build just 590 apartments. The measly total, compiled by the Real Estate Board of New York, shows just how challenging reaching Adams’ target will be. The year finished on a down note for builders as the number of new apartments planned plunged 90 percent from 4,945 in December
UPDATED, Jan. 31, 2023, 4:15 p.m.: A full-floor unit at Zeckendorf Development’s 520 Park Avenue has sold in a rare resale. Unit 23 closed today for $21.5 million to an unknown buyer, according to Casa Blanca managing director Louis Buckworth. The deal for the 23rd-floor unit marks the third resale transaction in the building and the first to go for more than the sponsor sale. The unit sold for just over $20 million in 2018,
New York Community Bank slashed 10 percent of its staff last week as rising rates sapped residential mortgage activity. The bank is a major lender to New York multifamily building owners. But what drove the cuts was its December acquisition of Flagstar, one of the largest residential mortgage servicers in the country. Nationally, originations fell 46 percent last year and are expected to slip another 25 percent in 2023, CEO Thomas Cangemi said during a
Legal challenges on broker commissions models could spell chaos for the real estate industry, Jason Oppenheim. The founder of the eponymous brokerage based in Los Angeles and star of Netflix’s “Selling Sunset” described a dire forecast to Yahoo Finance of what changes could come for agents. “We’ve got federal regulators and a couple of lawsuits coming down the pipeline that at worst case could be an armageddon for real estate agents,” Oppenheim said on the
Rents and demand across industrial real estate were on the rise last year, but the sector’s sales boom appears to be nearing an end. Industrial sales fell 30 percent last year as the sector is expected neared normalization, according to CommercialEdge data reported by the Commercial Observer. “This year we expect that the sector will cool somewhat but continue to expand and remain one of the more attractive asset classes in commercial real estate,” the
Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Properties refinanced its Prada property on Fifth Avenue with an eye toward returning to the debt market relatively soon when rates may be lower. German lender Aareal Capital Corporation provided Wharton with a $260 million loan for the property at 724 Fifth Avenue. The new debt has a term of two years, which avoids locking Wharton into a long-term loan while rates are high. A representative for Wharton declined to comment and
Brooklyn’s luxury market appears to still be in hibernation. The borough saw 11 deals inked last week, according to Compass’s weekly report on homes asking $2 million or more. Buyers flocked to penthouses and high-rise views after a week ruled by contracts for townhouses, save for one luxury condo. A Williamsburg penthouse asking $4.3 million was the borough’s priciest deal. Unit PH1 at 256 North 9th Street spans 2,500 square feet and has four bedrooms
Ever wonder how the wealthy spend their money? In the case of developer Alex Sapir’s wife, Yanina, she doled out $400,000 to attend Burning Man, and spends $6,000 a month on clothing, $5,000 on monthly boating expenses, and more than $15,000 each month for the house manager, according to a financial affidavit obtained by The Real Deal. Yanina, who filed for divorce last year, estimates that her monthly expenses total nearly $175,000, which comes out
New York City’s multifamily market had a banner 2022, but higher interest rates figure to slow things down this year. The sector accumulated $16 billion in total dollar volume last year — numbers last seen in 2016, according to a report by Ariel Property Advisors. Deals for multifamily properties accounted for almost 42 percent of the city’s $38.4 billion in investment activity. Residential buildings with at least 10 units accounted for $13.2 billion in investment
Manhattan took the week off in New York City’s mid-market, but Rick Gropper’s Camber Property Group didn’t. All four sales of commercial properties between $10 million and $40 million to hit city records last week were in the outer boroughs. Two were in the Bronx, while Brooklyn and Queens each had one. Below is more information on each transaction, ranked by dollar amount. 1. Entities connected to Rick Gropper’s Camber Property Group and Settlement Housing
David Paz had dreams of turning a Lower East Side flophouse into a chic, budget-friendly hotel. Now he is just trying to keep the property out of its lenders’ hands. Paz’s company put the former Ace hotel at 225 Bowery into bankruptcy protection last week as the establishment stares down foreclosure and a $10 million judgment. The bankruptcy temporarily stops the foreclosure. Paz’s company, Omnia Group, has had problems with its lender, Bank Hapoalim, and
Irish eyes are smiling on one of the most famous commercial buildings in Manhattan. The Irish government leased 43,000 square feet at 200 Park Avenue, aka the MetLife Building, the Commercial Observer reported. The government office known as Ireland House will move into the 17th floor while relocating from 345 Park Avenue in 2024. Ireland House includes the Irish Consulate General, Ireland’s trade, tourism and investment agencies, the Irish Food Board, the Ireland Funds and
One of the country’s biggest landlords is ramping up evictions after a long period of pandemic-related forbearance. Blackstone filed eviction lawsuits against hundreds of tenants across the nation, the Financial Times reported. Court records focus on Georgia and Florida, but consultants from the company are said to be notifying politicians in California about a possible uptick in evictions. Since August, Blackstone has launched more eviction cases in a typical week than the company had for
Manhattan’s luxury market is still dealing with a holiday hangover. The borough saw 15 signed contracts, to make the fifth week in a row to record less than 20, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report of homes asking $4 million or more. The most expensive home to enter contract last week was PHA at 10 Riverside Boulevard, known as GID Development’s One Waterline Square, with an asking price of $27 million. The 6,500-square-foot condo has
The selling saga of an Upper West Side mansion is rolling along with another price cut for the landmarked townhouse. The asking price at 3 Riverside Drive was reduced to $13 million last week. It marked the second cut in listing price for the home since it came back on the market for $16 million in April, down $9 million from a year earlier. The mansion offers plenty to like, including river views, modern amenities
Bed Bath & Beyond isn’t gone yet, but news of its potential bankruptcy has landlords already looking beyond the retailer. The real estate rebound of big-box retailers like Burlington and Barnes & Noble are fueling the hopeful fire among landlords of spaces with the potential to be vacated by the home goods store in the near future, the Wall Street Journal reported. There was a net expansion of 2,400 stores by retailers last year, according
Twitter has stopped paying its rent, auctioned off furniture and let go half of its employees. None of that is helping Shorenstein and JPMorgan refinance a $400 million loan on the company’s San Francisco headquarters. “Just the amount of headlines that have been on that building cannot be helping them,” said Emily Landes, Bay Area reporter for The Real Deal, adding that lenders don’t want to go near the property. On the latest episode of
Buried in the bewildering data dump that is the city’s tentative property assessment are nuggets of interest to real estate. For one, the 1.8 million-square-foot GM Building just became the most valuable in the city with a market value of $1.9 billion — up 17 percent from a year ago. Its billable value increased by 6.4 percent to $796 million. For the lay reader wondering why the two values are so different and went up
CoStar Group’s potential deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation for Move Inc. could mean major changes for stakeholders and brokers alike. The commercial real estate behemoth has spent more than $2 billion on residential real estate deals over the last decade, beginning in 2014 with Apartments.com and later acquiring Homesnap in 2020 to launch Citysnap as a competitor to Zillow’s StreetEasy brand. But it’s still missing a crown jewel like Move’s Realtor.com. A regulatory filing
Gregg Singer’s languishing school building in the East Village is headed to the auction block after a judge gave his argument to save the property a failing grade. Singer has been trying to hang onto the site at 605 East 9th Street, formerly Public School 64, against a foreclosure attempt from lender Madison Realty Capital since 2018, and was initially successful in delaying the proceeding. But early last year, a state court judge ruled that
As New York grapples with a housing shortage, Albany is dealing with the nearly 1,000 vacant buildings, many of which have sat empty for years, the Albany Times Union reported. The 974 vacant buildings — more than 800 of which were once homes — represent about 3 percent of the property in the city, the outlet said. But most of them are located in neighborhoods with many low-income and Black residents, their concentrations the result
The average American renter is cost-burdened like never before. The typical renter is paying 30 percent of their median income for an average rent, according to a fourth-quarter housing affordability report from Moody’s Analytics. In more than 20 years of tracking, that’s the highest average rent-to-income ratio recorded. The 30 percent figure is significant. That’s the threshold for how the Department of Housing and Urban Development defines a family that’s rent-burdened, signifying challenges in affordable
Steph Curry, the Golden State Warriors’ all-world guard, is famous for draining 3-pointers on the basketball court. But now he and his wife, Ayesha, are going for a monster block by seeking to prevent dense housing from being built in the San Francisco suburb of Atherton, where he and his family live, the Almanac reported. Atherton, which has long been dubbed the nation’s “richest city,” is in the process of discussing revisions to its 2023-2031
The largest broker-owned commercial real estate firm in North America is expanding. Lee & Associates announced it was opening a new office in Kansas City that will specialize in representing office landlords, Connect CRE reported. The firm plans to grow its offerings by recruiting teams that represent office, retail and industrial clients. The Kansas City team, which will be led by Brent Roberts, will include Max Lapke as well as an operations and marketing team.
Here’s a roundup of the prescient, colorful, sobering or simply interesting quotes from the past week across the real estate industry. “If they want to try to suck our blood, make my day.” John Catsimatidis after Midtown Lumber claimed the Red Apple Group CEO conspired with the store’s former landlord to toss it out of 276 West 25th Street. “They are not saying ‘not in my backyard,’ they’re saying ‘build in my backyard.’ Hats off
Before George Santos was a duplicitous congressperson, he was allegedly one of the figures behind a Ponzi scheme that ensnared at least one member of the real estate industry. George Santos served as Harbor City Capital’s New York regional director for more than a year, the Washington Post reported. In April 2021, the SEC filed a suit against the company, claiming it defrauded investors of millions in a Ponzi scheme. The case was stayed because
Washington, D.C., is ready for its close-up. D.C. may be the nation’s capital, but its housing market has long trailed other East Coast and even West Coast markets. The District is a fixed, finite space that can’t grow vertically thanks to The Height of Buildings Act of 1910. As for demand, well, there’s no major reality series documenting attractive, wealthy people living here. Even the various scripted shows based in the nation’s capital — like
A man who ran a real estate scam out of Oregon and Costa Rica while he spent more than 20 years on the run in a separate case, pleaded guilty to several charges in California last week. Robin James McPherson pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego to failing to appear, willfully attempting to evade income taxes, and wire fraud, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon. McPherson, who
Much has been made over the past couple of months over ChatGPT, the bot developed by artificial intelligence firm OpenAI. We noodled around with it over the past couple of weeks — with some questions more serious than others — including asking the bot to tell us a real-estate-related joke. We got the following response. Sure, here’s a real estate related joke: Why did the real estate agent go to the beach? To catch some
There’s trouble in paradise. Many Native Hawaiians are leaving for Las Vegas and California as they find it increasingly difficult to stay in the Aloha state due to soaring housing costs, the Associated Press reported. The median single-family home costs $900,000, while the median price on the most populous island, Oahu, tops $1 million, according to the outlet. In addition, Hawaiians spend just over 42 percent of their income on rent — the highest percentage
Talk about a hot property. A Tennessee mansion ravaged by fire lasted only a few days on the market before finding a buyer. The Franklin, Tennessee, home located at 5603 Winslet Drive North, caught the attention of many online, including the Instagram account Zillow Gone Wild, mostly due to the listing’s first photo, which shows the mansion with flames and black smoke billowing out of the roof. Despite the tragic nature of the viral listing,
For electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, not everything is about shareholder lawsuits and controversies surrounding its mercurial owner, Elon Musk. The company announced last week that it’s investing more than $3.6 billion to expand its Nevada manufacturing facility, including a factory to mass produce its Semi electric truck, the Wall Street Journal reported. The expansion will include a new factory for its battery — to the tune of batteries for 2 million light-duty vehicles annually —
Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) introduced on Thursday an $800 million affordable-housing bill designed to tackle soaring rents by providing incentives to the private sector, the Orlando Sentinel reported. The sweeping, 93-page bill — called the Live Local Act of 2023 — would ease local regulatory laws by requiring municipalities and counties to approve multifamily and mixed-housing units in commercial areas, provided 40 percent of the housing is set aside for families whose incomes
There’s big money in small islands. David Malm knows this perhaps better than anyone, as the investor behind a nearly $100 million portfolio of properties across the iconic Massachusetts vacation communities of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, the Wall Street Journal reports. Malm, a managing partner of the Waltham-based Webster Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in the health-care industry. He started investing in the islands in 2000, when he bought a 7-acre property
Everything is awesome for Lego employees who want to live closer to Boston. For everyone else, the next few years may be as painful as stepping on one of the toys. Lego announced it will move its corporate offices from Enfield, Connecticut, to Boston by 2026. The relocation will happen in phases, beginning in mid-2025 and concluding by the end of the following year. Lego promised relocation assistance for the 740 employees who have worked
Oh brother, where art thou? While Jared Kushner grabs most of the headlines, it’s his younger brother Josh who’s been amassing a major personal fortune — to the tune of $3.7 billion, according to Bloomberg. That sum makes him far wealthier than Jared as well as Jared’s father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, the outlet reported. Josh got a big boost from a $175 million stake sale in his venture firm, Thrive Capital, from a who’s
For fashion designer Jill Stuart, Sagaponack is so last season. This month, Stuart sold her property at 113 Parsonage Lane for $9.4 million, the New York Post reported. She had listed the property in June 2021 for $14 million, but last asked for $11 million after changing brokers. Sitting on 1.6 acres, the 5,000-square-foot farmhouse — can a farmhouse be that large? — features a living room with a wood-burning fireplace, a media room and
CoStar Group is primarily known for its dominance in commercial real estate data. But since 2014, it’s been eyeing supremacy in the residential space, too. It has spent more than $2 billion acquiring residential portals, platforms and other tech since that time, and now might be on the cusp of its biggest play yet: It’s reportedly in talks to acquire Move Inc., the parent company of Realtor.com, from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. The deal would
One town at a time, short-term rental operators are becoming personae non gratae in the Hudson Valley. Coxsackie, a village in Greene County, passed a three-month moratorium on new short-term rentals, the Times Union reported. Enacted Wednesday night, the moratorium applies to Airbnbs, Vrbos and more. Anyone already operating a short-term rental will be able to continue it. Variances may also be permitted for those seeking to open a rental under specific circumstances, subject to
Veracity Development’s retail condo at 111 Mercer Street in Soho is facing foreclosure by an arm of Barry Sternlicht’s operation. LNR Partners, the special servicing arm of Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital, and U.S. Bank as the trustee of CMBS bondholders brought a foreclosure action in Manhattan this week against an entity connected to Veracity and managing partner Edmond Li. The filing says the entity defaulted on a $5.65 million loan for the property’s retail condo made
When the grand marble hall and chandeliers of the Metropolitan Club were built in 1891, Brown Harris Stevens was already in business. More than a century later, the marble tiles and velvet-lined staircases inside the storied social club lent a stately air to a landmark celebration for the 150th anniversary of the major New York City residential player. Much like the firm itself, the evening melded old-world charm with modern flair, the two eras mingling
In a fight against another New York-based real estate powerhouse, Thor Equities has put down its hammer. Weeks after filing a lawsuit in New York against three Lightstone Group executives, Joe Sitt’s firm discontinued it. Thor had demanded $80 million, accusing Lightstone chairman David Lichtenstein and executives Mitchell Hochberg and Joseph Teichman of helping two former Thor executives breach their fiduciary duties. Thor’s attorneys, Joseph Matalon and Stella Sainty of Wachtel Missry, did not include
StreetEasy will soon launch a trio of products designed for sellers in a play to pass those leads onto brokers and corner the most valuable part of the lead-generation market. The Zillow-owned company is set to release a real-time data platform, a concierge service to connect with agents and a dashboard to track estimated home value, nearby sales and calculate closing costs. The new features will roll out for sellers’ use from February through March.
A biotechnology incubator is headed for the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Mayor Eric Adams announced wide-ranging development plans in his second State of the City address this week, including a $20 million pledge for the development of a 50,000-square-foot incubator. The City first reported the plans. Expected to open in the next few years, the facility will include office, research lab and programming spaces for biotech companies and startups. Partners in the project include the city’s
Angry Upper East Side co-op residents are wondering if a neighboring church looking to build within a yard of its property is beyond redemption. Frustration boiled over at a meeting this week of the development committee of Manhattan Community Board 8 against the Presbyterian church Redeemer, Crain’s reported. The meeting was the latest chapter in a dispute over the proximity of the church planned for 150 East 91st Street. The church plans to build a
A dispute involving the iconic Sears building in Hackensack has been resolved, clearing the way for its redevelopment. The city reached a settlement with Transformco, the company that acquired Sears Holdings’ assets, NorthJersey.com reported. The deal comes a year after Transformco filed a lawsuit alleging the city curbed the redevelopment potential of the site, 436 Main Street. In December 2021, the City Council approved its own concept, calling for mixed-use residential and commercial use, but
John Catsimatidis is ready to go to war with a New York City lumber store. Midtown Lumber claimed the Red Apple Group CEO conspired with the store’s former landlord to toss it out of 276 West 25th Street, its West Chelsea home for six decades, according to a complaint reported by Bloomberg. Catsimatidis said everything he did was “legitimate.” “If they want to try to suck our blood, make my day,” the billionaire grocer, refinery
In November, Barry Sternlicht touted Starwood Property Trust’s stash of dry powder and the strength of its hotel business. Turns out there was trouble in paradise. Weeks earlier, the firm’s parent company Starwood Capital, had seen an $800 million loan backing 138 hotels go into special servicing. Starwood, listed as the portfolio’s institutional sponsor, had failed to make the balloon payment due when the mortgage matured in October, according to Fitch Ratings. Starwood has since
As interest rates rise and banks pull back on lending, real estate owners with loans coming due find themselves in a bind. Last year’s dramatic rate hikes — the steepest in a single year since 1980 — mean that some owners are being forced to put more money into their projects after a refinancing, rather than taking money out. Seth Weissman wants to capitalize on this misalignment. His lender and development firm, Urban Standard Capital,
Latch’s accounting inaccuracies appear to be worse than previously revealed. The struggling smart-lock startup said this week that “internal control deficiencies” and revenue-recognition errors rendered audited financial statements from 2019 and 2020 unreliable, Crain’s reported. The disclosure comes five months after a similar warning by the Tishman Speyer–backed, Chelsea-based firm about its 2021 and early 2022 results. An investigation by Latch’s board found errors regarding how the firm recognized revenue, including that management failed to
Art power couple Lloyd and Barbara Macklowe finally found a buyer for their East Hampton estate after several price cuts. Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Peter Morton purchased the property at 51 West End Road from the Macklowe Gallery founders for $35 million, the New York Post reported. Morton plans to unite the property with an adjacent home he already owns to create a five-acre expanse. The sale was an adventure in discounts for Harry Macklowe’s
Mayor Eric Adams wants to rezone Midtown to help meet his goal of adding half a million homes citywide. In his second State of the City address, the mayor laid out policy priorities in what he called the “Working People’s Agenda,” focused on jobs, safety, housing and care. He announced that in the coming weeks, community engagement will begin on the prospect of rezoning Midtown to allow residential construction in areas that only permit manufacturing
The value of Blackstone’s real estate portfolio dropped in the fourth quarter, hurting profits as rising rates dragged down the investment giant’s asset values. Meanwhile, the firm struggled to keep recession-spooked investors from yanking funds from its real estate income trust, BREIT. Executives said they were still sorting through a backlog of redemption requests but couldn’t put a finger on when the outflows would abate. The firm’s fourth-quarter performance stood in stark contrast to its
One way to navigate this tough borrowing environment is to buy without a loan. MetLife paid nearly $70 million in cash for a pair of Williamsburg apartment buildings, The Real Deal has learned. The insurance giant purchased the buildings at 139 North 10th Street, also known as the Print House Lofts, and 44 Berry Street from Clarion Partners for $68.1 million. It’s one of the first big multifamily acquisitions of the year as rising interest
Like superstar athletes, the very top of the luxury market is playing a different game from everyone else. Other segments of the market are subject to pesky things like interest rates, economic concerns and the like. But at the highest end of residential, in global hotspots such as Manhattan, Palm Beach and Dubai, there are no rules. “It exists elsewhere, floating, happily detached from reality, nearly immune to macroeconomic forces and the trials and tribulations
Manhattan office properties were front and center for big lenders last month. Wells Fargo financed a new, 1.4 million-square-foot office building in Flatiron, Michael Dell and Apollo got behind the nation’s largest office-to-resi conversion, and two lenders refinanced debt on office buildings in the CMBS market. A couple of residential projects also got financing: one multifamily development on the Upper East Side and a condominium near Billionaires Row. All told, lenders on the 10 largest
Blackstone’s real estate investment trust secured another $500 million commitment from University of California’s endowment as it tries to limit the damage caused by redemption requests. Blackstone announced the additional investment on Wednesday, weeks after UC Investments committed $4 billion in the form of common equity. The latest injection, which is set to close at the start of March, brings UC Investments’ commitment to $4.5 billion. The $500 million commitment will have the same structure
Jordan Slone’s Harbor Group International is fixing its focus on multifamily debt as interest rate hikes and economic uncertainty scare off lenders from the sector. The firm raised $1.6 billion for its first apartment debt fund, Bloomberg reported. The liquid allows Slone’s company to reap the benefits of higher interest rates, which could offer strong returns if investments succeed. The fund offers a variety of loans, including fixed and floating-rate senior, mezzanine and preferred equity
New York City’s residential market rolled into 2022 off the momentum of a historically hot 2021 before buyers and sellers hit the brakes in the face of interest rate hikes, economic uncertainty and inflation concerns. Prices and deal volume largely fell, but one corner of the market managed to welcome in top-dollar deals. From a near-record at 220 Central Park South to three $50 million sales in as many months at the Crown Building conversion,
There’s no room at the inn for East End buyers. Sparse listings continue to plague the Hamptons and the North Fork markets, and home sales, likewise crippled by high mortgage rates, dragged in the fourth quarter, according to a report for Douglas Elliman by appraisal firm Miller Samuel. On the bright side for buyers and agents, the number of listings rose annually in both markets, although inventories remain at less than half of pre-pandemic levels.
Compass and Anywhere are among the least efficient publicly traded residential brokerages, an analysis by Mike DelPrete has found. As residential brokerages look to cut costs, those two may have to make the deepest cuts, the influential real estate tech observer concluded. DelPrete, a scholar in residence at the University of Colorado Boulder and an investor in real estate startup Side, looked at how brokerages’ revenue compared with their operating expenses. He found eXp to
John Steinbeck’s former Hamptons home has a buyer lined up, but Southampton Town appears ready to contribute an eight-figure sum to the purchase. The town is weighing the use of $11.2 million from the Community Preservation Fund to help acquire the Sag Harbor Village property, Behind the Hedges reported. The contribution would represent an effort from the town to preserve the property at 2 Bluff Point Lane, where Steinbeck once penned his novels. The Sag
Big tech once appeared to be a savior in the office market. A year later, it’s more of a harbinger of doom. Leasing by tech companies fell drastically in the fourth quarter, down 57 percent across the country from the previous quarter, according to Savills data reported by Bisnow. The report noted that the 2.2 million square feet leased in the fourth quarter was barely a quarter of the 8.5 million taken a year earlier.
A designer known for his work with Tiffany & Co. and Coach shaved off $6 million — again — from the asking price of his Lenox Hill townhouse to close the sale. Reed Krakoff and his wife Delphine sold their six-story home at 54 East 64th Street for $36 million after more than a year on the market, according to property records. The buyer, whose identity is hidden behind an LLC, closed on the property
In an unusual occurrence, a Brooklyn landlord was locked up at Rikers Island for not making court-ordered repairs. Aron Stark spent eight days in the notorious jail after failing to fix a variety of violations at 1422 Greene Avenue in Bushwick, Gothamist reported. The litany of problems at the three-story apartment building include roaches and lack of heat and hot water. Inspectors have cited the property for heat outages and inadequate fire protection dating back
The saga of Ian Bruce Eichner’s Flatiron condo tower may finally be coming to a close. A nearly 6,000-square-foot duplex at 45 East 22nd Street hit the market last week at $20 million, or roughly $3,400 per square foot. The listing for the final unsold piece of the 83-unit Madison Square Park Tower comes after eight years of legal challenges, sluggish sales and lender drama at the development. Eichner previously lauded the project —which came
An Upper East Side apartment tower has a buyer, but no answers about its future affordability status. The real estate management arm of Swiss bank UBS sold the 32-story, 196-unit RiverEast rental tower at 408 East 92nd Street to Ofer Yardeni’s Stonehenge NYC for $115 million, the Commercial Observer reported. UBS was seeking $120 million to $125 million in a sale. The transaction works out to roughly $587,000 per unit. Stonehenge bought the 194,000-square-foot property
It’s no secret that owners of rent-stabilized properties have had a tough time funding repairs. Facing restrictions on rent increases in the 2019 rent law and rising operating costs, landlords claim they have had to warehouse tens of thousands of units because they can’t afford to fix them up. A new survey by the Community Housing Improvement Program of its 3,700 owner members revealed where they have cut corners. Three out of four reported cutting
It’s one of the more bizarre real estate bankruptcies in recent memory. The drama at a South Williamsburg condo project first came to light in 2021 when its lender, DW Partners, initiated a foreclosure, alleging that developer Ezra Unger defaulted on a $31 million loan. Proceedings on the 25-unit condo project at 427 Marcy Avenue were delayed by lawsuits by Unger and a partner, nearby bakery owner Aron Lebovits. But Lebovits failed to pay a
Only five of 800 basement apartment owners who expressed interest in a program to legalize those units ultimately participated, city officials said Tuesday. The main reasons were cost and zoning that made converting basement units infeasible. The pandemic further complicated such efforts, said Kim Darga, a deputy commissioner at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Addressing the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings, Darga said the city’s 2019 pilot program in East New
Is it time for Rupert Murdoch to Move on? Murdoch’s News Corporation is in talks to sell Move Inc, the parent company of listings giant Realtor.com, to CoStar Group, Reuters reported. The move would further entrench CoStar in the residential space, following major acquisitions such as Apartments.com and HomeSnap. The publication did not have any financial details on the potential deal. News Corp. shelled out nearly $1 billion in 2014 to acquire Move. “What the
An Italian cosmetics mogul accused of using stolen funds to buy his expensive Lincoln Square pad is once again trying to sell the apartment after 11 years and $9 million in price cuts. Piofrancesco Borghetti, who was convicted in 2014 of embezzling millions of euros from Milan-based perfume company Limoni, has relisted his condo at 15 Central Park West for $19 million, or about $6,900 per square foot. Borghetti first listed the 2,800-square-foot pied-à-terre for
Steve Roth is finally severing his ties to Bernie Madoff’s former Montauk home. The Vornado Realty Trust CEO and his wife are in contract to sell the house at 216 Old Montauk Highway, the New York Post reported. The buyer and sale price were not disclosed, but the home was asking $16.5 million. The Roths spent $9.4 million to buy the place in 2009 in a sale forced by the U.S. Marshals Service. Madoff had
UPDATED: January 24, 2023, 5:12 p.m. A Midtown rental building with a checkered past is on the brink of foreclosure. Late last week, Wells Fargo filed to foreclose on 15 West 55th Street, a 10-story building just south of the Plaza, claiming the mortgagees have defaulted on the loan several times and are behind on payments by at least $84 million. Solly Assa, as well as co-defendants Steven and Marilyn Finkelstein of FTRE Real Estate,
Developer Alex Sapir allegedly broke a cardinal rule in real estate related to the waterfront Miami Beach home he once shared with his wife. Sapir, developer of the luxury Surfside condo building Arte, brought in a real estate agent to show the house — without his wife Yanina Sapir’s consent, according to court filings. Yanina filed for divorce from Alex in April, citing a “loveless” marriage and seeking equitable distribution of their assets. Alex and
Regulation of short-term rentals has been beefed up in New York City and introduced in various upstate and Long Island towns, but New York’s capital remains the Wild West for Airbnbs. For the first time, though, Albany is exploring reining them in, the Times Union reported. Council member Sergio Adams is working on legislation in response to complaints about problematic short-term rentals. The legislation, which has yet to be introduced, would force homeowners to register
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court delivered a blow to the National Association of Realtors by allowing a “pocket listings” lawsuit to proceed. Now the Department of Justice is jumping into a similar case involving the trade group. The agency is preparing to file an amicus brief supporting Top Agent Network’s lawsuit against NAR, Inman reported. Top Agent Network is appealing a decision in the case that favored Realtor associations. The Department of Justice, which
Brooklyn had a banner year for investment sales in 2022, but the other shoe may be dropping in 2023. Investment sales in the borough surged past $9 billion last year, according to TerraCRG data reported by the Commercial Observer. The report noted last year’s deals neared the 2015 peak in the market. There were 1,506 transactions across the borough, the most since 2016. Average deal size jumped 16 percent from the previous year, coming out
Times Square hotels are headed to bankruptcy. Investors are clawing at distressed hotels in Chicago. High interest rates are making it harder for investors to transact. And in California, more supply is coming offline, as developers look to hotels for adaptive reuse projects. And what does this all mean for the future of the hotel market? “On the new development side, these hotels, when they get finished, it could be a little bit of a
A new lawsuit has joined the fray in Steven and Alan Jemal’s long-running feud. Steven filed a lawsuit Monday accusing his brother and his mother, Ruth, of blocking access to financial records for nine companies associated with Jem Realty Management, the Commercial Observer reported. The company controls part of the family’s real estate assets, which include the Alhambra Ballroom in Harlem among other commercial and retail holdings. Overall, the family owns 9 million square feet
Brooklyn’s luxury market has a case of the winter blues. Last week was another slow one for the borough, with just 10 contracts signed for homes asking $2 million or more, according to Compass’ weekly report on luxury deals. Only eight were inked the previous week. Townhouses dominated the dealmaking both in volume and price, accounting for all but one of the properties to go into contract last week. The most expensive home was 188
The multifamily market looked robust in Brooklyn and Queens last month, with lenders committing nearly $1 billion to waterfront apartment projects in Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Astoria. Overall, the 10 largest real estate loans in the outer boroughs last month fetched $1.43 billion, making it the strongest December for big loans since at least 2018. Brooklyn claimed seven of the 10, while Queens had three. Here are more details. Arboreal finance | Williamsburg | $364M Two
The sale price of a Long Island property is grim reminder of the sagging commercial real estate market, particularly for office campuses designed with one company in mind. A group of investors and developers purchased CA Technologies’ former office park at 1 Computer Associates Plaza in Islandia for $24.1 million, Newsday reported. The transaction took place in October 2021, but the price had not been previously reported. The price represents a staggering drop from when
A hotel near Times Square traded for $38 million last week, highlighting another slow stretch for mid-sized investment sales — it was one of just three deals for commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million to hit city records between Jan. 16 and Jan. 20. A fourth trade last week fell just outside the mid-market range of this report: Moinian Group’s $50 million sale of a shuttered Holiday Inn and adjacent development site
After a weak third quarter, New York City’s industrial market bounced back to end 2022 on a high note. Tenants leased 1.5 million square feet in the fourth quarter, the Commercial Observer reported. The data came from a CBRE report, which noted the quarter’s leasing activity more than doubled that of the third. It was the most space leased since the third quarter of 2020. CBRE researcher Brian Klimas thinks industrial leasing will remain strong
The developer behind a long-delayed Red Hook condo project is switching up sales at the building, tapping Living New York to replace Douglas Elliman’s Eklund-Gomes Team. The change comes with nine of the 70 units at 160 Imlay Street still unsold nine years after developer Est5te Four launched sales. The brokerage plans to lean heavily on social media for the rebranding, including dispatching real estate influencers on TikTok and Instagram, Living New York co-founder Devin
If Rudin Management wants to toast the progress being made at its Midtown Manhattan office building, its execs can raise a snifter with a pour from its newest tenant. French spirits conglomerate Remy Cointreau signed a lease for 30,000 square feet at Rudin’s 3 Times Square, Bloomberg reported. The company will occupy the entire 20th floor, including a private outdoor terrace. The lease duration is 10 years. Financial terms and broker information weren’t disclosed. Remy
Call it a stay-at-homecoming. Todd Bourgard is Douglas Elliman’s newest executive sales manager for Long Island, including the Hamptons and the North Fork. In his new role, Bourgard will oversee the region’s 36 offices and 2,000 agents including Nassau and Suffolk counties and Bayside, Queens. Bourgard replaces Ann Conroy, who will stay on in an advisory role. Operations executive Melody Newberry will move with Bourgard to become vice president of the region. Born on the North
The New York City Housing Authority is on the brink of “disaster,” according to its interim chief executive officer, because of a massive shortfall in rent collection. The authority collected only 65 percent of the rent it charged in the 12 months leading up to December, the New York Times reported. That’s the lowest percentage in its history and has led to a nearly $500 million shortfall. One-third of its operating budget comes from rent.
A condo in the world’s tallest residential building topped the Manhattan luxury market last week. The priciest contract recorded last week was for Unit 114 at Extell Development’s Central Park Tower with an asking price of $63.5 million, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report of homes asking $4 million or more. The 7,000-square-foot unit at 217 West 57th Street has five bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms. It also has a 1,550-square-foot living room
One of New York’s most anticipated office projects appears to be changing course. Vanbarton Group is considering developing its vacant site next to the Marble Collegiate Church at West 29th Street and Fifth Avenue as a life science project rather than an office tower, according to a person familiar with the matter. If completed, it would be one of the largest such projects in the city. The site’s latest turn comes more than seven years
A significant date is approaching in New York’s great casino race, yet the field continues to grow. Steve Roth’s Vornado Realty Trust is considering a bid for one of the three available casino licenses at the site of Hotel Pennsylvania near Penn Station, a person familiar with the situation told the New York Post. The hotel at 401 Seventh Avenue is being demolished. Walton Street Capital managing partner Neil Bluhm, a billionaire investor in several
Chick-fil-A’s quest for chicken sandwich dominance has reached Yonkers, where the fast food chain is set to open its first Westchester County location. The city’s planning board approved the eatery’s proposal for 2205 Central Park Avenue last week, the Daily Voice reported. Situated at the intersection of Route 100 and 10 Roxbury Drive, the restaurant is expected to include both a drive-thru and outdoor seating. A traffic impact analysis for the establishment last year detailed
Filippo Incorvaia doesn’t know much about poultry. He’s a real estate broker, not a farmer. To help a commercial client identify a possible warehouse distribution center, he would have to do hours of research on the poultry industry. But with the emergence of AI chatbot ChatGPT, the Miami-based Incorvaia says he can find what he needs to know within five minutes. “That’s how I optimize my service and then take my expertise, take the knowledge
Commercial mortgage maturities are piling up in New York City as higher interest rates and recession anxiety make refinancing a major challenge. More than $16 billion in loans secured by New York City commercial properties are set to mature this year, according to data from Trepp. That’s almost 30 percent more than the $12.7 billion that came due last year. This swell of maturities is in part because borrowers kicked the can down the road
High-end fashion brands, a popular Taiwanese restaurant chain and a cannabis museum were among the tenants who inked Manhattan’s 10 largest retail leases last year. French retailer Printemps topped the list with a splashy 54,000-square-foot lease at Harry Macklowe’s 1 Wall Street, followed by a pair of fashion brands who signed major deals in Lower Manhattan and Midtown. Manhattan’s retail market showed signs of recovery in the latter half of the year, although leasing activity
Saying Americans treat their dogs like children isn’t entirely true, at least when it comes to a new business in St. Petersburg, Florida, because children aren’t allowed in bars. Mutts and Martinis, a combination dog waterpark and full-service bar, is set to open at 2900 Central Avenue this March, St. Pete Rising reported. The 5,000-square-foot facility, of which people must be members and their dogs must be up-to-date on their vaccines, will include a 10-inch-deep
A still-under-construction, 21,000-square-foot oceanfront estate with 155 feet of waterfront in Vero Beach, Florida, has been listed for $60 million, a record for the city. Developer Nathan Saks bought the 2.5-acre parcel for about $3.5 million in 2018. On it, he and Victor Hernandez of Haute and Boss are co-developing an estate with four stand-alone buildings: a 14,700-square-foot, eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom main house; a guest house with its own private pool; a fully equipped spa, wellness
Possibly the biggest question related to the announcement that the first cannabis-friendly hotel is coming to Las Vegas is, “What took so long?” The aptly named Elevations Hotels and Resorts, based out of Arizona, announced last week it will convert the Artisan Hotel Boutique, which is just off the Strip, into The Lexi, a 64-room hotel with the entire fourth floor designated as cannabis friendly, KVVU-TV reported. The company purchased Artisan for $22 million last
Class-action lawsuits against RealPage and property owners continue to pile up. Most recently, plaintiffs in Florida have filed a claim that residential property owners in Florida’s largest cities, including Tampa, Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville, colluded in fixing rents by using RealPage’s revenue management software, the Miami New Times reported. Plaintiffs Zachary Corradino and Samantha Taylor Reyes allege defendants — including Avalon Bay, GreyStar, Camden Property Trust, and Lincoln Property Co., among others. — had either
Gary Barnett is a titan of development in New York City. His next challenge is a world away in one of the holiest cities known to man. The Extell Development honcho purchased the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Land in central Jerusalem from Nayot Komemiyut Investments, the developer announced. Barnett paid 750 million shekels for the land, equivalent to roughly $219 million in U.S. dollars. The purchase price was Nayot’s minimum acceptable for the land, according to
A massive, historic estate with direct ties to the Gilded Age in the Northeast has been sold and could be turned it into a luxury resort. Law and Associates bought the sprawling, 89-acre Vanderbilt Berkshires Estate, formerly Elm Court, located in both Stockbridge and Lenox, Massachusetts, from Amstar/Travaasa Experiential Resorts in a direct deal for $8 million, according to a press release. Company Principal Linda Law and her business partner, Dr. Rick Peiser, professor of
Pickleball is everywhere. A cross between tennis and ping pong, the racket sport is played in quick games of 11 points. It is played on a smaller court with a shorter net, and people love it. Between August 2021 and August 2022, 14 percent of Americans played pickleball at least once, amounting to 36.5 million picklers playing last year, according to the 2023 APP Pickleball Participation Report. The report found that 8.5 million of those
There’s no question that real estate intersects with just about everything, including politics, economics and even entertainment. Unfortunately, as events from last week have shown, there’s also a significant overlap between real estate and crime. Indeed, there was no shortage of stories of alleged nefarious activities taking place in the real estate world this week, none more high profile than in Massachusetts, where 47-year-old Brian Walshe was charged with murder for allegedly killing his wife,
What’s in a name? Would a hybrid work program called “Flex with Purpose” or “Work Your Way” make the decision to work from home or the office just as sweet (or sour as the case may be)? Anyway, companies have come up with different, sometimes creative monikers for their flex-work programs, pointing to perhaps a deeper meaning of how they are viewed by employers and employees, Bloomberg reports. 3M Co.’s “Work Your Way,” appears to
It turns out Chrisley might not know best after all. Married couple Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the USA reality show “Chrisley Knows Best,” have been sentenced to serve 12 and seven years, respectively, in federal prison for fraud and tax evasion, the Washington Post reported. An almost three-week-long trial in Atlanta looked at evidence that the couple defrauded community banks of more than $30 million in loans and evaded federal income taxes for
KISS fans’ tears will not be falling upon hearing they have the chance to stay in the former Connecticut home of the band’s original guitarist, Ace Frehley. The 6,400-square-foot Wilton, Connecticut, home where the rockstar recorded most of his contributions to the iconic group’s songs is now available for short-term rentals on Airbnb, CT Insider reported. Frehley lived in the home in the early ’80s and set up his “Ace in the Hole Studio” onsite.
In Cincinnati, Airbnb users can get a taste of a pair of classic sitcoms — no Newmans allowed. Brenda and Otto Baum designed the Sitcom Suites in their Pleasant Ridge neighborhood, CityBeat reported. The rentals are located in a four-family apartment and each draw on nostalgic visuals from a couple of the most iconic television shows of the 1990s. One is “The one with the F•r•i•e•n•d•s ,” calling to mind the show that featured six
A real estate agent in the Midwest is not ready to give up her battle against her own political party following an alleged instance of defamation while she was running for the state legislature. Janet Palmtag, a real estate agent, is appealing the dismissal of her defamation lawsuit she filed against the Nebraska Republican Party, News Channel Nebraska reported. A judge ruled in favor of the political party last month. The issue dates back to
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, formerly the world’s richest man, has re-listed his Upper East Side mansion at 1009 Fifth Avenue for $80 million, according to the New York Post. Jorge Lopez of Compass has the listing, which is the most expensive in the city, according to the outlet. Slim, who is Mexico’s richest man with a net worth of nearly $91 billion, originally listed the property, known as the Benjamin N. Duke House, for the
Mar-A-Lago’s longtime lead architect presented plans for a new guardhouse addition to the historic property earlier this week, and Palm Beach’s Landmarks Preservation Commission responded with, “try again.” At a meeting on Wednesday, the club’s lead architect Rick Gonzalez presented plans for a 232-square-foot guardhouse addition to the historic property, at the request of the Secret Service. The island town’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, the board that manages alterations to the area’s historic buildings, sent him
OK, ChatGPT, we’ve heard about how you can give advice on how to close real estate deals, craft writing assignments for high school and college students and even come up with jokes. Cool. Cool. But can you write a credible real estate listing of a fake luxe mansion in Malibu where a notorious murder took place? Turns out, it can. Kinda, sorta, mostly. What we asked for The Real Deal crafted the following request and
The silver screens at dozens of Regal Cinemas across the nation will go dark soon. The Tennessee-based movie chain, the second largest in the U.S., will close 39 theaters from Los Angeles to New York to Miami after its parent company in the U.K. declared bankruptcy, Variety reported, citing legal filings. Cineworld Group, based in London, will reject the Regal Cinemas leases beginning Feb. 15. Amid a plunge in the domestic box office during the
On its face, the proposal before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals was straightforward: The applicant — Prada CEO Gianfranco D’Attis and his wife, Surbhi — wanted to build a 2,900-square-foot home, a detached garage and swimming pool on a vacant .35-acre lot. The catch, however, is the board would have had to grant a staggering 11 variances to allow for the project at 16 Gould Street, the East Hampton Star reported. The
“The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.” Who said it, District Attorney Harvey Dent in “The Dark Knight,” or a residential brokerage CEO? It’s been mostly doom and gloom on the residential brokerage landscape over the past six months: layoffs, tanking stocks, spiking interest rates and a sluggish market. But a new year has come with some new hope. Shares of many major residential firms are
In a near tie, two sponsor units at Naftali Group and Rockefeller Group’s 200 East 83rd Street led New York City’s 10 most expensive residential sales recorded Thursday, Jan. 19. The two units, 12A and 11A, were handled by listing brokers Alexa Lambert, Alison Black and Shelton Smith of Compass and sold for $3.6 million and $3.57 million, respectively. It’s not clear whether the two purchases are related; both buyers used LLC’s. Compass had quite
Blackstone’s real estate investment trust is under pressure on multiple fronts. As it works through an investor scare triggered by withdrawal restrictions, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust is now getting unwanted publicity at a San Diego apartment complex it owns, Insider reported. Tenants traveled to Los Angeles for a Tuesday rally at which they complained about cockroaches, maintenance problems and eviction fears. The residents demanded that UC Investments — BREIT’s $4 billion savior — pull
New York State Attorney General Letitia James made Long Island’s largest apartment owner feel a bit smaller. James’ office recovered more than $422,000 from Fairfield Properties, which was illegally withholding partial or full security deposits from former tenants. Authorities said Fairfield is required to return those security deposits to tenants, as well as interest. The Melville-based company failed to provide tenants with itemized lists of deductions, which need to be given within 14 days, according
UPDATED Jan. 20, 2023, 5:30 p.m. Put another one on the whiteboard for Peter Fine. The developer plans to build a 15-story multifamily building with 333 units at 1959 Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, replacing a garage and auto body shop. The 285,000-square-foot building will have 29,000 square feet of commercial space and a 43,000-square-foot community facility, according to Department of Building filings. “The area is starved for retail amenities,” said Fine, who added that
When it comes to demolitions in New York City, Brooklyn’s pile of rubble leaves the other four boroughs in the dust. Data from the New York City Department of Buildings show that Brooklyn far outpaces the rest of the city in both the number of permits issued for demolitions and the number of building stories to be demolished in each of the last two years. An analysis by The Real Deal shows that more than
Single-family landlord Home Partners of America is laying off a chunk of its workforce only a week after its iBuying joint venture bit the dust. The round of layoffs impacted 10 percent of the company, a person familiar with the situation told Inman. The company didn’t confirm any figures or percentages in regards to the cut, but did acknowledge it reduced certain positions, while claiming it would “increase headcount in other areas.” The outlet reported
“Ego is what you’re talking about. And ego is blinding. Numbers aren’t blinding.” This was Thad Wong’s response when asked about how his peers in residential brokerage continued down a money-hemorrhaging path for years, a period in which the industry was supposed to be disrupted, but that disruption turned out to be a mirage. Now, with investors showing no more patience for cash-bleeding firms, things have changed, and Wong believes it’s his time to strike.
Developers who met initial requirements to qualify for a now-expired property tax break are calling it quits on at least 32,000 units of housing, saying they cannot hope to meet the next key deadline. That’s according to a survey by the Real Estate Board of New York. In December, the trade group asked 200 members if they have a project that qualified for 421a before it expired in June. Most who responded said they would
The husband of missing Tishman Speyer executive Ana Walshe isn’t talking, but one potential motive in her disappearance is emerging. Walshe’s husband, Brian, searched “how long for someone to be missing to inherit,” prosecutors revealed this week at his arraignment on a murder charge. As for what nearby assets could be worth inheriting, Ana had amassed a $2.8 million portfolio of properties, the New York Post reported. Since 2018, Ana has been connected to eight
New York will finally shutter its emergency rental assistance program Friday night, closing a loophole that allowed nonpaying tenants to delay eviction just by applying for a relief fund that’s been mostly dried up for more than a year. The state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which administers the program, said it had “clearly delivered for the people of New York,” a pat on the back that ignores the untold number of landlords whose
When the U.S. subsidiary of Chinese developer Greenland sold one of its trophy assets in Downtown Los Angeles for $504 million in November, the firm paid $554,400 in county transfer taxes. If the deal had gone through five months later, Greenland would have had to pay an extra $27.7 million. That’s because selling real estate in the city of Los Angeles is about to get much pricier. Come April, all property — residential or commercial
A Supreme Court judge has reversed a dismissal of a 421a rent overcharge case, prompting tenants to claim the high ground in their war with city landlords over a murky area of the law. Landlords scored three favorable rulings last year that established owners did not need to report rent concessions to the state and could base future increases on a nondiscounted figure. But tenants organized by the nonprofit Housing Rights Initiative claimed they still
Albert Behler’s Paramount Group wants to boot up a trio of tenants it accuses of refusing to vacate retail condos at the Row NYC Hotel despite racking up millions of dollars in arrears. A Paramount-linked entity is suing entities tied to Rockpoint Group and Highgate Holdings, owners of the hotel at 700 Eighth Avenue, along with the operators of its food court, cafe and gym, claiming it’s owed more than $3.5 million in back rent.
Local Law 97 is going to be costly to New York City landlords, according to a report on projected fines when the regulation comes into effect. More than 3,700 properties may run afoul of the law and penalties could soar above $200 million as soon as next year, according to the study conducted by Level Infrastructure and commissioned by the Real Estate Board of New York. Penalties are expected to worsen drastically by 2030, the
The city’s second-largest commercial landlord is starting the year with some bad news. Vornado Realty Trust cut its dividend by nearly 30 percent after the markets closed on Wednesday, Crain’s reported. The economic downturn and rising interest rates were to blame, according to the real estate investment trust, as well as an estimate on how much taxable income will fall this year. Separately, the firm was also booted from the S&P 500 this month. The
As rising rates bear down on commercial landlords with loans coming due, M&T Bank reported early signs of distress in the fourth quarter, particularly among its office building loans. About 20 percent of its $5 billion office lending portfolio is criticized, meaning those mortgages are in danger of default, chief financial officer Darren King said on an earnings call Thursday. Those office mortgages, which comprise about 10 percent of the bank’s commercial real estate lending,
KKR is pumping the brakes on withdrawals from its real estate investment trust, mirroring similar moves by Blackstone and Starwood Capital amid a rising number of redemption requests from shareholders. The private equity firm’s KKR Real Estate Select Trust disclosed in a regulatory filing Wednesday that investors holding more than 8 percent of the vehicle’s roughly $1.6 billion in net assets sought to withdraw their money during a first-quarter offering period, far exceeding a quarterly
New York City’s happiest sellers are in Brooklyn. The borough was home to the lion’s share of bidding wars last quarter, according to StreetEasy data. Out of the top 10 neighborhoods where transactions went above ask, eight were in King’s County and two in Queens. Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood was home to the most bidding wars, where half of all transactions traded above asking price. It also claimed the highest median asking price among the
A predicted wave of evictions didn’t happen last year as New York landlords remained on the short end of the policy stick, new figures show. Evictions in the 12 months after a statewide moratorium expired last January totaled just 4,400, Crain’s reported. That was down 78 percent from pre-pandemic levels. The city executed 21,900 evictions in 2018 and 18,700 the following year, according to the Department of Investigation. It’s not clear from the data how
The largest projects of 2022 were — as the mayor would be happy to know — all residential, although many have other components. Developers rushed to qualify for 421a, the property tax break for rental projects, before it expired in June. At the same time, faced with high vacancy rates and low leasing activity, developers were in no hurry to build office towers, though some remain bullish on the long-term demand for modern, high-end workspace.
A federal rule to compel suburbs to diversify their housing is back, although it’s a little different from the Obama administration’s version. In an election-year maneuver, Donald Trump scrapped the original Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, which required cities, counties and states that received federal housing funding to uproot racial segregation. President Joe Biden’s restoration of the rule is designed to streamline it and shift its framework, Bloomberg reported. Under the rule, governments and public
The Alexander brothers are coming to Los Angeles, and they’ve tapped a top local Compass broker to kick things off. Tyrone McKillen will be bringing his team to Official, the Side-backed residential brokerage Tal and Oren Alexander launched over the summer, The Real Deal has learned. He’s taking over $500 million in listings with him, in addition to Plus Real Estate Group, his team of eight. McKillen banked several big-ticket transactions for Compass. In 2021,
Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Restoration Plaza is slated for a big redevelopment — a bet that Brooklyn’s office market will be in demand as the city settles into a post-pandemic world. The Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation laid out its vision for the site, on Fulton Street between New York and Brooklyn avenues, in documents filed with the Department of City Planning, The City reported. The development calls for 840,000 square feet of commercial space for offices, educational and
Campbell Soup is boiling down its suburban offices. The company announced Wednesday it is closing its office in Norwalk, Connecticut. The Stamford Advocate reported that the 105,000-square-foot office, where 170 Pepperidge Farm employees work, is expected to put up for sale. The Norwalk offices have been in use for more than 75 years. Campbell is consolidating its office-based employees to its headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, starting in the middle of the year. The company
Seventeen years after R New York sought to shake up the city’s brokerage scene with a 100 percent commission model, one of its former agents says he got far less from some deals. Nothing, in fact. Broker Ali Raza is suing the brokerage and three of its employees, claiming they violated a deal between him and another agent at the firm to evenly split their commissions. In a complaint filed in state court Monday, Raza
Last year was one of reckoning for Manhattan’s office market. After an underwhelming post-Labor Day return to the office, workspace occupancy remained below where many of the city’s landlords would like it to be. Leasing activity ground to a halt at the end of the year, with fourth-quarter figures down 43 percent from a year earlier. Still, there were bright spots, particularly for owners of new construction projects. Brookfield’s Two Manhattan West, SL Green Realty’s
A disbarred lawyer who has spent the past decade playing cat and mouse with prosecutors investigating deed theft was indicted for the third time in six years with defrauding homeowners. Sanford Solny was charged Wednesday by Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez with possession of stolen property, grand larceny and scheme to defraud. The case involves the theft of four homes from which Solny allegedly reaped nearly $2.3 million. The scheme dates back to October 2012,
TF Cornerstone has landed a major financing package for its next rental project in Hunters Point. Wells Fargo and PNC Bank led a pair of construction loans totaling $725 million for the developer’s planned 1,386-unit apartment complex at the corner of Second Street and 54th Avenue near Newtown Creek, a representative for TF Cornerstone told The Real Deal. Wells Fargo took the lead on a $418 million loan for one portion of the project at
Days after a trustee approved the $96 million sale of Michael Lichtenstein and Toby Moskovits’ Williamsburg Hotel, the property’s former accountant is in hot water. A federal judge is holding Daniel Norensberg and his Long Island-based accounting firm in contempt for failing to comply with subpoenas to produce information about the bankrupt hotel’s affairs. Norensberg has been ordered to pay $500 per day until he complies. A court-appointed trustee is seeking the information as he
A former Rinaldi Group executive stole at least $5 million from seven developers in a construction kickback scheme that spanned nearly a decade, prosecutors alleged Wednesday. Robert Baselice, who was a vice president at the construction management firm, was indicted on bribery and other charges stemming from a scheme that allegedly steered more than $100 million in contracts to subcontractors. In exchange, Baselice and his associates received more than $7 million in bribes, according to
Residential real estate may have brighter days on the horizon, investors forecast. Optimism has sent stocks for some legacy firms and proptech companies alike soaring in the new year after a dramatic market downturn over the past six months that cost hundreds of jobs. Bumps have emerged across the board for some of the biggest names over the past 10 days: Anywhere is up 16 percent, Compass 65 percent, ReMax 11 percent, eXp 19 percent,
Macerich’s Wilton Mall in Saratoga Springs is wilting, but its plan to add luxury homes isn’t germinating with the town board. The real estate investment trust proposed adding 382 luxury apartments and townhouses to about one-10th of the mall, the Times Union reported. The residential development would cover 70,000 square feet of the retail property’s 680,000 square feet, replacing a Bon-Ton department store that closed nearly five years ago. A Macerich official said the planning
New Jersey’s hottest development drama is Breton Woods, where 31 acres of woods are caught between a church, a national homebuilder and angry residents. The Church of the Visitation and the Diocese of Trenton are in contract to sell the land for an undisclosed sum to D.R. Horton, NJ Advance Media reported. The land in Brick is situated between Drum Point and Mantoloking roads. Texas-based D.R. Horton in 2021 proposed 59 single-family properties for the
Glenn Kelman has at least one regret from a tumultuous 2022: keeping his company’s iBuyer going as long as he did. As the housing market cooled through 2022 from a frenzied 2021, RedfinNow shut down in November alongside a round of layoffs at the residential brokerage. The Redfin chief executive told the Associated Press that he should’ve closed down the company’s iBuying business sooner. “I probably should have closed the iBuying business earlier,” Kelman said.
A drop in U.S. mortgage rates last week appeared to open the door for those who had purchases and refinancing on their new year’s resolutions list. Purchases rose a whopping 25 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous period in the week ending Jan. 13, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The bump contributing to a rise in mortgage activity of 27.9 percent from the previous week. Refinancings jumped 34 percent
The Manhattan retail market continued its upward swing in the fourth quarter — barely. Across 16 of Manhattan’s shopping corridors, ground-floor retail availability dropped slightly from the previous quarter, according to a CBRE report. The decrease, from 229 available spaces to 222, though small, was the sixth straight quarterly improvement. Rents in the sector also improved modestly. In the fourth quarter, the average asking rent was $615 per square foot, up 1.2 percent from the
The city’s sluggish investment sales market all but paused last week, with just four deals for commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million. The largest among them — a $15.5 million deal for Washington Heights apartments — would have ranked sixth in this roundup had it hit city records a week earlier. Manhattan saw two of the four mid-market sales, while Brooklyn and Queens each had one. Below is more information on each
It was no surprise when project filings for multifamily buildings nosedived 59 percent in the five months after the 421a tax abatement expired June 15. The surprise, rather, was that developers were starting new projects at all, given the sudden absence of a program that wipes out $1.8 billion a year in property taxes. Firms still filed 165 for permits between mid June and November to create nearly 12,500 homes, or 29 percent of the
The Chera family, one of New York’s biggest retail landlords, is renewing plans to take a real estate startup public through a merger with a blank-check company — months after a first attempt fell flat. Crown Proptech Acquisitions, a special-purpose acquisition company formed two years ago by Richard Chera, disclosed Tuesday that it intends to “continue evaluating business combination opportunities” and that its board has appointed Gavin Cuneo and Michael Minnick of CIIG Capital Partners,
Authorities have charged the husband of missing Tishman Speyer executive Ana Walshe with murder, WCVB reported. Walsh, a 39-year-old general manager with the commercial real estate firm, has been missing since New Year’s Day from her suburban Boston home. Brian Walshe, 47, was arrested Jan. 8 for allegedly misleading investigators looking into his wife’s disappearance. Walshe has been held on bail since then. The Norfolk District Attorney upgraded the charges on Tuesday, citing additional details
Blue Man Group has built an entertainment empire on silence. But their landlord hopes to make some noise with this listing. The home of an expensive private school operated by founders of the silent performance troupe has hit the market in Lower Manhattan. The six-story, 32,000-square-foot commercial building at 241 Water Street in the South Street Seaport District is asking $28 million, according to a listing with Avison Young. The property sits on a 7,400-square-foot
Olympia Dumbo is back on top of Brooklyn’s luxury contracts. A penthouse unit at 30 Front Street last asking $17.5 million was the priciest listing to go into contract in the borough last week, according to Compass’ weekly report on homes asking $2 million or more. Fortis Property Group launched sales at the 76-unit condo in 2021, and it has since pulled in some of the most lucrative deals in Brooklyn. Between January and May
In the North Fork, resistance to one development is poised to power a full-blown moratorium against battery storage. Southold Town is considering a 12-month ban on battery energy storage systems, the Suffolk Times reported. The town board is set to discuss it this week. The town supervisor, Scott Russell, announced the proposal before a public forum in Cutchogue, where a proposal by Key Capture Energy to build such a system in the hamlet was on
When FTX collapsed in November, multifamily lender Signature Bank found itself scrambling to reassure investors that its cryptocurrency exposure was minimal. But the bank’s fourth-quarter results show the crypto crash will have lasting effects on Signature’s commercial real estate lending. After reporting a $7.4 billion drop in crypto-linked deposits in the fourth quarter — more than half of the bank’s $14 billion total deposit decline — Signature will kiss another $3 billion to $5 billion
Maguire Capital and Watermark Capital have acquired the site of a long-stalled megaproject in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park — and they hope to have better luck than its previous owners. Marvin Azrak’s Maguire and Wolfe Landau and David Tabak’s Watermark have taken over the vacant site at 6208 Eighth Avenue after an intricate series of transactions, including buying up the previous developers’ interests piecemeal and acquiring the property’s debt. The total cost, including equity and debt,
A Portland-based hospitality firm now has an ace up its sleeve after picking up the hotel group behind a trendy chain. Sortis Holdings is acquiring operator Ace Group Internationa for $85 million in an all-cash deal, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal covers the brand and the hotel management company. The Ace Hotels portfolio is nearly a dozen strong across the world, including properties in New York City, Los Angeles and Kyoto. Sortis, an
A Canadian wealth management firm is making a move in Midtown, consolidating two acquisitions with a sizable lease at HJ Kalikow’s 101 Park Avenue. CI US Holdings signed a lease for 50,000 square feet at the office tower, the New York Post reported. The duration of the lease is unclear, but the asking rent on the space was $105 per square foot. CI US Holdings started hunting for a Midtown office space after acquiring two
The credits are rolling on an entertainment executive’s ownership of a theater in the North Fork. Josh Sapan put the Village Cinema at 211 East Front Street up for sale at a $5.5 million asking price, Behind the Hedges reported. Sapan formerly served as the chief executive of AMC Networks before stepping down recently. The Greenport movie theater shuttered at the start of the pandemic and has been closed for nearly three years. Sapan recently
When KKR snapped up Hudson Yards space abandoned by Meta Platforms this month, it may have signaled a trend in Manhattan’s office market: financial firms and other tenants filling a void left by Big Tech. Technology firms had been on a leasing binge, heartening office landlords shellshocked by the pandemic. Then remote work’s persistence and pressure from investors forced even some cash-rich tech companies to reverse course. “The financial companies are fortunately growing and taking
David was hot on Goliath’s heels in 2022. Despite a downswing in the market, several boutique and startup New York City residential brokerages outpaced growth at the city’s larger firms last year, according to Corofy’s annual brokerage report. “A lot of these boutique brokerages have a set of clients, a regular clientele, so they felt a little bit less affected by the lower transaction volume that was impacting all the major players,” said Corofy CEO
Shopping centers haven’t been this well occupied since prior to the Great Recession, but the reason for that may be cause for concern. The vacancy rate in the fourth quarter for shopping centers — typically defined as a sizable area with a large amount of individual stores, as opposed to a mall where many stores are in the same building — was 5.7 percent, according to a Cushman & Wakefield data reported by the Commercial
The Los Angeles-based Ghassemieh family sold its boutique hotel in the South Street Seaport for an even $60 million in a needed jolt for New York’s hospitality market. South Korean luxury resort operator Sono Hospitality Group has made its biggest step yet into the U.S., buying the 66-key Mr. C Seaport hotel for a healthy per-room price of just over $900,000. The hotel at 33 Peck Slip — which closed temporarily this month, citing the
Times Square has it all — Broadway, glaring billboards, hotels and the Cheesecake Factory. But, SL Green wants more for the global tourist hub. “We started evaluating every site we had in order to determine where we felt the best location would be to site one of these gaming facilities,” said Brett Herschenfeld, an executive at SL Green, which is teaming up with Caesars Entertainment to plan a casino in Times Square. Herschenfeld talked about
Bobby Cayre is making another play in the Meatpacking District. The developer’s Aurora Capital Associates has joined landlord David Ellis Real Estate to renovate and upgrade 24 Ninth Avenue, a 50,000-square-foot office and retail building near the heart of the trendy neighborhood, sources told The Real Deal. Aurora came in to manage the complete overhaul of the property, which sits across 14th Street from the Apple store where Ninth Avenue and Hudson Street meet to
The Chetrit Group ran into trouble on a $481 million loan last year, but the developer says it has made progress on the debt and intends to pay off the balance in a few months. The loan, originated by JP Morgan Chase, financed the 2018 acquisition of a national multifamily portfolio that included 43 properties in New York, the Sun Belt and parts of the Midwest. Chetrit faced default last year when below-average occupancy rates
Manhattan’s luxury market was down on its dollars last week, with 18 homes going into contract at lower average asking prices than the previous period. The most expensive unit to enter contract between Jan. 9 and 13 was Unit 1 at 55 Leonard Street, with an asking price just under $12 million, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report of homes asking $4 million or more. The 5,100-square-foot condo, which has been on and off the
Another distressed Times Square hotel is headed to the auction block. Paramdeep Singh’s property at 59 West 46th Street will be auctioned off at the beginning of March, Crain’s reported. The shuttered Hotel at Times Square defaulted on a $4 million mortgage. Premier Hotels has owned the 213-key property for less than a year, after purchasing it from Apple Core Holdings in February for $59.5 million. At the time of sale, Apple Core had already
The ranks of the National Association of Realtors continued to grow last year, but membership may be poised to drop in 2023. There were slightly more than 1.58 million members of NAR at the end of last year, according to Inman. The figure was a 1.37 percent jump from the previous year, when there were just shy of 1.56 million Realtors in the trade group. It was the fourth straight year of record membership for
For four months, tenants at a luxury Greenpoint building quit paying the rent after going more than three months without gas service. They racked up over $500,000 in arrears. Now landlord Domain Companies wants at least some of that money. In a lawsuit filed last week, Domain asked a judge to force the 87 residents to pay the arrears, then determine how much free rent the tenants are entitled to. The firm, which says gas
Andres Asion’s discovery of ChatGPT gave him a jolt he hadn’t felt in a long time. The Miami Real Estate Group founder and broker said he immediately thought the chatbot would send a seismic shift through the industry, and compared it to another technological breakthrough. “When I first discovered Google Earth, I was like, ‘Holy shit! You can be Superman and fly everywhere in the world, see every street,’” he said. ChatGPT could hold even
Everyone hates politics, even the people who also love it. Politics just seems to kill good ideas more easily than it promotes them. Take Gov. Kathy Hochul’s housing agenda. If its fate rested on logic alone, it would pass as soon as she printed the bills. Getting the policy right is easy. It’s the politics that are hard. Moments after Hochul announced her plan on Jan. 10, Assembly member Edward Flood, a Long Island Republican,
Former Portland Trail Blazer CJ McCollum is officially moving on after being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans and has listed his West Linn, Oregon, home for $3.5 million. Terry Sprague of LUXE Forbes Global Properties has the listing of the 1.3-acre property at 869 South Stonehenge Terrace, Oregon Live reported. The 5,500-square-foot home includes a 26-foot-long great room, large kitchen, a glass-enclosed wine room, a gym, a series of covered patios, a four-car-garage and
Ever heard the one about the circus that bought a town? It’s a true story. The adult circus Spiegelworld, led by Australian founder Ross Mollison, bought the 80-acre town of Nipton, California, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mollison told the outlet he has no desire to build a resort, but instead envisions a “circus village.” Mollison’s Spiegelworld is best known for its “Absinthe” show that runs out of a tent at Caesars Palace in Las
A Massachusetts developer, proposing to build two warehouses and two manufacturing centers, purchased from Pratt & Whitney 300 acres of land in East Hartford for $78.5 million, the Hartford Business Journal reported. The plans call for warehouses of up to a combined 2.5 million square feet, and two research and development buildings. National Development is expected to build out its Rentschler Field plan throughout this year, East Hartford Mayor Michael Walsh told the outlet. The
The Las Vegas Raiders’ season may have ended with a disappointing 6-11 record, but the team recently expanded its real estate holdings for owner Mark Davis’ winning sports franchise, the WNBA’s champion Las Vegas Aces. The Raiders bought three industrial buildings — including a new, but unfinished, practice facility for the Aces — next to its headquarters in Henderson, Nevada, from Matter Real Estate Group for $56 million, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The 80,000-square-foot
If you buy it, corn will come. That’s the idea behind the purchase of a 104-acre farm in northern Iowa by more than two dozen professional athletes. Patricof Co. arranged the acquisition of the property, Front Office Sports reported. The special-purpose vehicle is purchasing the farm through a $5 million fund dedicated to agricultural investments; the actual purchase price of the farm is unclear. Athletes who contributed to the fund include Joe Burrow, Blake Griffin,
A Connecticut state senator has submitted a bill before the legislature that would cap yearly rent increases at 2.5 percent, and eliminate no-cause evictions, CT Insider reported. The bill, introduced by Sen. Gary Winfield (D-New Haven), would cap increases between landlords and tenants as well as agreements between tenants. Owner-occupied properties with one to four units would be excluded. State law only provides good-cause-eviction protections — preventing no-fault of retaliatory evictions following tenant complaints about
Despite a stock market surge, the home goods retailing chain Bed Bath & Beyond is mulling filing for bankruptcy amid sluggish sales and struggles to keep shelves stocked, The Guardian reported. The company — like GameStop and AMC — is a “meme stock,” whose share price was driven upward by online traders who sometimes coordinate efforts and strategies through internet forums such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets. Despite its stock price surging 45 percent this month to
Freedom isn’t free, but neither is the nettlesome business of policing short-term rentals. To defray the cost of monitoring short-term rental sites such as Airbnb, the governing board of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, approved a measure requiring hosts, over their objections, to pay a $200 annual registration fee, according to the Berkshire Eagle. The funds, officials say, will pay for town staff time as well as monitoring software, the cost of which is currently $18,000 per
The word “schmendrick” — a Yiddish word for fool — doesn’t get thrown around much in the news. But it’s 2023, and the world — due to the pandemic and unrelenting march of technological advances, among other things — looks and operates a lot differently than just a few short years ago. The new and the old collided last week when a salesperson for Ryan Serhant’s two-year-old brokerage Serhant Ventures offered to coach brokers at
Michael B. Jordan, star of “Creed” and “Black Panther,” is looking to sell his Los Angeles mansion for almost $13 million. Andrew Mortaza and Bryan Castaneda of The Agency are the listing agents for the 12,300-square-foot home at 4565 Encino Avenue in Encino, the Wall Street Journal reported. Located in the wealthy Royal Estates neighborhood, the eight-bedroom home is asking $12.995 million. Jordan, who is set to appear in “Creed III,” — which he also
Twitter’s efforts to trim expenses appear to have extended beyond cutting down on office space (and toilet paper) in San Francisco. The social media company, which was acquired by Elon Musk for $44 billion in October 2022, told employees at its Singapore office to pack up, leave the premises and work from home, Bloomberg reported. The Singapore-based staff have been reassigned as remote workers in Twitter’s internal system until further notice, the outlet reported, citing
A New Jersey real estate agent is facing multiple charges after allegedly striking and killing a woman with his car, then fleeing the scene, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. Victor Diaz-Castaneda, 26, of Paterson, was arrested and charged with knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death and endangering an injured victim. He was also issued multiple motor vehicle summonses. According to investigators, Diaz-Castaneda, while driving a 2010 Honda
Your dream home may be right in front of your face, but you just can’t see it. A 225-foot-long, 5,500-square-foot home — known as the “Invisible House” because of its reflective glass exterior — in Joshua Tree, California, has been listed for $18 million by owners Chris and Roberta Hanley, the Wall Street Journal reported. Aaron Kirman and Matt Adamo of AKG | Christie’s International Real Estate have the listing. The home, which sits on
Two incidents around the holiday season have plagued Airbnb. In Marshall, North Carolina, four people were stabbed at 183 Gid Flynn Road, WSPA reported. Six people were arrested in connection with the incident, including one charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. The others were charged with drug-related offenses. Deputies responded to the rental at 3:21am
Ninth floor: women’s dresses, lingerie, holiday decorations … blackjack? The owner of Saks Fifth Avenue department stores announced Friday it is bidding to turn the top three floors of its Midtown Manhattan flagship location at 611 5th Avenue into a casino, the New York Times reported. Hudson’s Bay Company, Saks’ owner, is the latest in a number of prospective casino operators — including New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, Las Vegas Sands, Related Companies, and
Despite a slowing housing market, brokers are still hitting the jackpot on Connecticut’s Gold Coast. A home at 11 Harbor Bluff Lane in the Harbor Bluff Association Complex in Rowayton sold for $7 million, 13 percent above the $6.2 million listing price. The sellers were Louise Brooks, an architectural designer and a founding partner of Brooks and Falotico, and her husband-builder, Ned Brooks. Louise and Ned Brooks designed and built the Harbor Bluff Association Complex
Housing discrimination against homeowners remains a pervasive issue in real estate, but brokers and agents struggle with discrimination too. Several Black real estate agents spoke to the New York Times about discrimination they’ve faced in the field and the lengths they’ve gone to in trying to counteract it. Discrimination is particularly prevalent during showings, agents said. “I’m always sure I have my license ready,” said North Carolina agent Tye Williams, wary of how neighbors look
Two investment firms believe Compass can achieve its goal of being cash-flow-positive by the end of June. Analysts at Needham & Company and Compass Point Research & Trading believe Compass has reduced costs enough to right its ship, even with the slowing sales market. But they also agree that risks remain, namely from competition and the housing market slowdown. Compass Point published a report following Compass’ most recent round of layoffs and Needham wrote one
After facing a barrage of lawsuits over the past few years, Brooklyn developers Toby Moskovits and Michael Lichtenstein have resolved at least one of their more contentious disputes. This week, Moskovits and Lichtenstein settled a lawsuit with real estate investor Shaul Kopelowitz, who sued the pair in late 2019 alleging he was owed $3.3 million left unpaid on a $6.3 million confession of judgment signed by Moskovits and Lichtenstein a year earlier. Kopelowitz alleged that
So much for “always be closing.” Alec Baldwin was probably hoping to have departed his Hamptons home by now, but it remains firmly in his possession. The actor dropped the listing price on the Amagansett home to $24.9 million, the New York Post reported. Baldwin listed the property in September for $29 million. It’s unclear why he decided to knock off $4 million from 335 Town Lane after only four months. Baldwin purchased the property
Plans to build a new home for the Bay Street Theater on the Sag Harbor waterfront are off after a group backing the move put the proposed development site up for sale this week. The nonprofit Friends of Bay Street listed the 15,000-square-foot building at 22 Long Island Avenue for $25 million, multiple outlets reported Thursday. Friends of Bay Street bought the property, formerly home to a 7-Eleven and other shops, in October 2020 for
Keller Williams Realty came a-cold calling. Now, they owe $40 million. That’s the amount the Austin-based real estate franchisor agreed to pay to settle a class action lawsuit alleging its agents made unwanted, pre-recorded phone calls to consumers, some of whom are on the National Do Not Call Registry. In the June 2022 complaint reported by Inman, plaintiff Beverly DeShay claimed the cold-calling violated the Telephone Consumers Protection Act (TCPA) — a 1991 law designed
While $18 million is a mere fraction of the funds caught up in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, it has proven too much to get his former home sold. The penthouse co-op once owned by the disgraced financier at 133 East 64th Street in Lenox Hill has been pulled from the market once again, the New York Post reported. Real estate investor Lawrence Benenson was asking $18.5 million for the Upper East Side home, which includes
UPDATED Jan. 13, 2023, 3:52 p.m. Choppy legal waters have again threatened to capsize Howard Hughes’ planned high-rise in the South Street Seaport district. But the developer believes it can right the project on appeal. A state Supreme Court judge on Thursday ordered construction paused on the 270-unit residential building at 250 Water Street for the second time in three months, citing an “impermissible quid pro quo” between the developer and the Landmarks Preservation Commission
The Trump Organization was fined $1.6 million for its conviction over tax fraud and related charges. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the penalty from State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, which amounted to the maximum allowable under the law. A jury last month found two entities of the firm guilty of 17 criminal counts, including tax fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records. It was the first conviction against one of Trump’s companies. The penalty
After tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village scored a major victory, some landlords are worried that it could inspire more lawsuits challenging deregulation. A state court judge ruled last week that the complex’s owner, the Blackstone Group, cannot deregulate some 6,200 units because of the 2019 state rent law. Blackstone had argued that a 2012 court settlement and a 2015 agreement with the city specified that the apartments could be taken out of
The Dursts are looking to unload a handful of small apartment buildings in Lower Manhattan’s South Street Seaport district — an uncommon move for a family that rarely sells its properties. The Durst Organization and its partner, Zuberry Associates, are looking to get $87 million for the seven buildings, according to marketing materials from Avison Young, which is handling the sale. The buildings, which include 95 apartments and 15 retail units spread across more than
Property-services startup Lessen agreed to acquire competitor SMS Assist for $950 million in the first major proptech deal of the year. Lessen raised $500 million in debt and equity to finance the deal, which included Monroe Capital and Invitation Homes as investors, Bloomberg reported. The Scottsdale-based company was valued at $1 billion in 2021, but the latest funds value the startup at more than $2 billion. Lessen is a real estate management platform that connects
When a developer backs out of an apartment project in Hackensack’s growing downtown, finding a new one isn’t too hard. Legacy Development Group will go before the local planning board in the spring with an amended proposal for 359 Main Street in the New Jersey community, NorthJersey.com reported. If its plans are approved, the buildings at 359 Main Street and 375 Main Street will be razed to make way for Legacy’s project. The development, at
A bogeyman of New York tenants is back, just in time for Friday the 13th. Nearly five years after a settlement stripped Steve Croman of the right to manage his properties, the notorious landlord can again run his 100-property portfolio. The transition, which comes a month ahead of schedule, stems from a fallout between Croman and his property manager, Michael Besen’s New York City Management. Croman lost management rights in late 2017 in settling a
One of Manhattan’s most prominent builders is poised to take over a West Side assemblage with lucrative development potential. Affiliates of Gary Barnett’s Extell Development and Joe Tabak’s Princeton Real Estate Partners are free to move forward with a credit bid for six adjacent lots along 11th Avenue owned by Robert Gans after he blew a Dec. 22 deadline to settle a $205 million bankruptcy claim, court filings show. Gans, who acknowledged the missed deadline
New York’s legal eagles billed plenty of hours to real estate clients last year on both sides of the courtroom, where landlords, tenants, scammers and profligates all had their day. A lawsuit over a ring of illegal Airbnb rentals drew the most attention from readers of The Real Deal, and City Hall’s crackdown on negligent landlords garnered a lot of clicks too. Several disputes over rent regulation were also represented among the lawsuits our readers
Kimchi lovers rejoice: H Mart is coming to the Upper East Side. The Korean-American specialty grocery chain bought a retail condo at 223 East 86th Street in Yorkville for $8.7 million with plans to open its next Manhattan location there, according to Vanguard Global Realty’s Enrique Constante and Jordan Mandel, who brokered the deal on behalf of the seller, Michael Appell. H Mart paid about $1,024 a foot for the roughly 8,500-square-foot retail condo, which
After three years of drama, the bankrupt Williamsburg Hotel could soon begin a new chapter. The trendy 147-key property developed by Toby Moskovits and Michael Lichtenstein at 96 Wythe Avenue is set to be sold to London-based hospitality firm Quadrum Global for $96 million, according to a court filing. The news comes six months after Moskovits and Lichtenstein were stripped of control of the hotel by a federal bankruptcy judge, who appointed an independent trustee
Frank Carone is no longer Eric Adams’ chief of staff, but controversy continues to dog him. SL Green Realty and Cushman & Wakefield are suing two companies co-founded by Carone, the New York Daily News reported. Carone has said he is no longer involved with either company. SL Green sued Financial Vision Group last spring over unpaid rent and utilities at a Sixth Avenue office. Carone co-founded the company, a health insurance investment business. Financial
Sensing opportunity, the Las Vegas Sands entered New York’s casino sweepstakes, setting its sights outside of the city. The Sands entered into an agreement to purchase the long-term lease of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum site in Uniondale on Long Island, News 12 Long Island reported. Financial terms of the agreement, which requires further approval for the county-owned land, were not disclosed. Sands is willing to spend up to $4 billion on the project, according
Welcome Homes, a proptech company that sells and builds homes on vacant land, raised $29 million in Series A funding. The startup’s customers buy a plot of land on which it builds a customizable home within six months of permitting for a guaranteed price. Buyers can see what the house looks like on the plot and take 3D tours before committing. Unlike iBuyers, Welcome Homes doesn’t buy the inventory. Instead, it options plots of land.
The Mets’ new star pitcher is joining the Big Leagues of Manhattan residential real estate. Justin Verlander and his wife, model Kate Upton, are in contract to buy a penthouse unit in Icon Realty Management’s Beckford Tower, the New York Post reported. News of the contract comes a month after the former Houston Astro signed a two-year, $86.6 million deal with the Mets. The final sale price wasn’t reported, but PH31 at 301 East 80th
After nearly 20 years on and off the market, the Renaissance-inspired townhouse at 163 East 64th Street has passed through almost every major brokerage in town. It’s endured price cut after price cut, to no avail. Now the four-story property is back on the market — and facing foreclosure. Just before the New Year, 163 East 64th Street LLC filed to foreclose on the $5 million second mortgage secured by the property’s owner, commercial real
“When someone calls with $4 billion of capital, you answer the phone.” That’s how much of a no-brainer Nadeem Meghji, Blackstone’s head of real estate Americas, said it was fielding the University of California’s endowment’s approach for a massive infusion into Blackstone’s real estate investment trust. The “home run” deal came together after a CNBC interview around the time the fund was beset by redemption requests and negative press, Meghji told PERE in an interview
Maverick Real Estate Partners filed a suit against a prominent developer for the second time in a matter of days, going after the Chetrit Group over an unfinished hotel near Penn Station. An entity tied to the prolific debt buyer filed a lawsuit this week against the developer and its president, Meyer Chetrit, the Commercial Observer reported. Meyer is named because he personally guaranteed the debt, according to the suit. Chetrit has been working on
Despite the supercharged rents and record-low vacancy rates of last year’s multifamily market, some developers couldn’t escape the squeeze of rising rates. The Chetrit Group is facing default on a $481 million loan covering 43 properties that the developer is now looking to sell, according to a year-end report by Trepp. The mortgage entered special servicing last year for maturity default, signaling that Chetrit had failed to pay its lender the principal balance when the
Stay in your lane, young’un! Ryan Serhant’s two-year-old brokerage ruffled some feathers over an offer to brokers at a storied New York City residential firm. A salesperson for Serhant Ventures, the brokerage’s educational arm, emailed Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman last week to offer a “tailor-made” program for agents derived from the company’s training products, including a sales playbook, performance coaching, a social media boot camp and mentorship from founder Ryan himself, according to
December marked the fourth straight month in which rents declined nationally, but landlords in Manhattan continued to hold the line. After peaking at $4,150 in July, the median rent in the borough has bounced between $4,000 and $4,100 ever since, according to reports by appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. Last month kept that groove, with the median rent slipping a little over 1 percent from November to $4,048. December did mark the fourth
The Supreme Court is giving the National Association of Realtors the silent treatment as it fights a lawsuit pertaining to pocket listings. The highest court in the land on Monday denied the real estate trade group’s petition for a “writ of certiorari,” which asked the court to review a ruling made by a lower court in the lawsuit filed by The PLS, Inman reported. SCOTUS’ decision came without comment. The decision kicks the case back
Short-term rental registries have popped up at the local level, but one New York lawmaker is looking to take the practice statewide. Airbnb has long requested legislation to legitimize its operations across the state, but this is probably not what the rental giant had in mind. State Sen. Michelle Hinchey introduced the Short-Term Rental Registry Act last week, the Times Union reported. The bill would aid municipalities in their efforts to track, regulate and tax
Noncompetes are one of the dirty realities of the brokerage business. The contract clauses have long been used to prevent key executives and talent from jumping ship to a rival, and have led to many bitter disputes. But what are they exactly, and how are they different from two other key contractual clauses, nonsolicits and clawbacks? In the latest episode of Resi Rundown, a new series on news and emerging trends in residential brokerage, The
Under Armour is lacing up its sneakers at one of Thor Equities’ Manhattan retail properties. The sports equipment and apparel brand inked a 6,750-square-foot lease at 139 Fifth Avenue, an office and retail building owned by developer Joe Sitt’s firm in the Flatiron District, The Real Deal has learned. Under Armour will occupy the ground floor and lower level of the 24,000-square-foot building, which sits between East 20th and 21st streets, directly across the street
Crossroads Developers Associates has drastically revised its plans for the sprawling Sheraton Hotel site on Route 17 in Mahwah. Its redevelopment plan for the site had included 800 housing units, but will now have a tiny fraction of that, NorthJersey.com reported. After demolishing the hotel, it will also build an industrial property. Its plan, approved by the township last month, calls for two industrial warehouses and 74 affordable housing units. Changes to the initial plan
Digital mortgage firm Blend Labs enacted another series of cuts, the company’s fourth round of layoffs in the last year. The mortgage tech and title insurance provider is laying off 28 percent of its remaining workforce, according to a regulatory filing reported by Inman. The cuts will affect approximately 340 employees at the firm, focused on Blend Title and corporate operations in research and development, sales and marketing and general and administrative operations. Co-founder and
Madison Realty Capital has nailed down financing for a controversial condo development in Greenwich Village more than a year and a half after the city gave the project its blessing. G4 Capital Partners provided $105 million in construction financing, including $76.7 million in new debt, for the 19-story, 14-unit offering at 14 Fifth Avenue, a mid-block parcel north of Washington Square Park between 9th and 10th Streets. A four-story, partially rent-stabilized 20-unit apartment building on
Wells Fargo, a once-dominant player in the U.S. mortgage market, has begun its significant retreat from the sector. The bank is shifting its focus from reaching as many homeowners as possible to working with existing bank and wealth management customers, CNBC reported. The company will also continue trying to reach borrowers in minority communities. As part of the retreat, the bank is closing its correspondent lending business that buys loans by third-party firms, which the
Grocery stores, gyms, a new home for a brewery. Brooklyn’s top retail leases last year offered a little bit of everything, but it was the same tenant that inked the two of the three largest deals. The borough’s 10 biggest retail leases combined for more than 210,000 square feet, with both the second and third spots going to the discount grocery chain Lidl, which marked its expansion into Brooklyn with deals in Crown Heights and
Two co-living companies are joining forces in a merger after neither firm managed to attain profitability on its own. New York-based Common and Habyt, which is based out of Berlin, are forming Habyt Group, the Wall Street Journal reported. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed. The new company’s initial portfolio should consist of thousands of units. Common manages 4,000 units stateside, while Habyt operates 7,000 units in Europe and Asia. While Habyt signs
Nicolas and Lourdes Padron never imagined having to leave the Hammocks, a suburban Miami enclave that was their home for three decades. Then the threatening letters began. The Hammocks Community Association claimed the couple owed thousands of dollars in arrears on assessments and that their house wasn’t up to its standards. The driveway was the wrong color, a tree needed pruning and the hurricane shutters weren’t up to code, one letter said. “It was $1,000
The unit that set off a rewarding sales streak in the early days of Vornado’s 220 Central Park South is back on the market. Unit 24B is asking $21.8 million, or $8,314 per square foot, just four years after selling to an anonymous buyer in 2018 for $14.6 million. The 24th-floor unit was the first to close in a series of early sales at the Billionaire’s Row tower that saved its developer from a year
The owners of an aging office building in Midtown are pitching it as a potential redevelopment play in the heart of Billionaires’ Row. APF Properties is looking to sell its plot at 24 West 57th Street for north of $80 million, marketing materials show. The block-through site between Fifth and Sixth avenues is currently home to a pair of office buildings facing West 57th and West 56th streets. But its real value is as a
Is Hugh Jackman really “The Greatest Showman?” That question may finally be answered if he is able to rent his Hamptons home at its listing price. The actor and his wife, actress Deborra-Lee Furness, are looking to command $167,000 per month for their East Hampton home, the New York Post reported. The couple purchased the property at 20 Hedges Banks Drive in 2015 for $3.5 million. In the intervening years, the couple has continually made
Life Time is moving into Greenland USA and the Brodsky Organization’s Pacific Park megaproject. The gym chain signed a lease for 36,000 square feet at 18 Sixth Avenue in Prospect Heights, the Commercial Observer reported. The gym will occupy the first three floors of the 51-story Brooklyn Crossing tower located on the corner of Atlantic Avenue. The developers completed the tower in November, which includes 858 units, 258 of which are income-limited. The asking rent
Sometimes a friend becomes a foe. In a statement to The Real Deal last month, retail magnate Joe Sitt said he’d “only had good experiences” with Maverick Real Estate Partners, a prolific debt buyer whose funds Sitt’s Thor Equities had invested in and who he praised as “honest and upstanding.” That may have changed this week. Maverick is seeking to foreclose on a retail building owned by Thor Equities at 446 West 14th Street in
Some of the top office developers aren’t exiting the beleaguered sector, but they are beginning to cast their sights on other property types. Empire State Realty Trust, Boston Properties and SL Green Realty are among the prominent proprietors of office space buying and building real estate in other sectors as occupancy remains low and the post-pandemic future of the property type is uncertain, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the third quarter, there was 153
UPDATED Jan. 10, 2023, 3:50 p.m.: Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday laid out a plan that allows New York localities to build more housing on their own terms — or face the possibility of state intervention. The “New York Housing Compact” sets separate three-year housing targets for upstate and downstate municipalities to meet the governor’s goal of building 800,000 new housing units in the next decade. Administration officials shared details of the proposal ahead of
A year after an electric space heater ignited a blaze that killed 17 people in a Bronx apartment building, the New York City Council is considering a bill mandating heat sensors in buildings whose residents complain of low temperatures. The proposal, intended to prevent fires like the one at the Twin Parks North West complex in Fordham Heights, would fine landlords up to $1,000 for each day a building’s temperature failed to hit the city-mandated
Mayor Eric Adams is making the push for more office-to-residential conversions in New York City, shedding light on plans for the commonly cited tactic for improving housing stock in the city. Adams announced a plan Monday to bring 20,000 new units online in the next decade through conversions, Gothamist reported. Leaning on recommendations from a city task force, the plan calls for the easing of zoning restrictions and tax breaks for property owners to get
Bank Hapoalim is folding on its plans to foreclose on a former Ace Hotel in the Lower East Side. The firm is selling its $77 million loan secured by 225 Bowery, a one-time Salvation Army flophouse turned niche hotel, to an unknown lender, according to court filings. Hapoalim has been seeking to foreclose on the troubled property since April, claiming the owner defaulted on its mortgage. Now a new lender can jump into the mess
Anywhere Real Estate has kicked off the new year with layoffs. The company did not say how many employees were laid off, but in an SEC filing Tuesday said its workforce has been reduced by roughly 11 percent since the end of June. The company also said it is ending its iBuying business, RealSure, following in the footsteps of Zillow and Redfin. Anywhere is the parent firm of Corcoran, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, and Sotheby’s
Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg will be sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to a 15-year tax fraud scheme. Weisselberg is expected to be sentenced to five months in jail in accordance with his August guilty plea, Reuters reported. The executive, who remains on paid leave from the Trump Organization despite turning into a star witness for the government in its trial, may be remanded to the Rikers Island jail complex. Weisselberg
UPDATED, Jan. 10, 2023, 11:15 a.m.: The calendar flipped to 2023 last week, but one thing remained consistent: Multifamily assets continued to drive the city’s investment sales market. Five transactions involving commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week, four of which involved apartment buildings. Two deals each were in Manhattan and the Bronx, but the largest one was in Brooklyn. Below is more information on each transaction, ranked
As proptech firms axed workers or hemorrhaged cash last fall, the startup Bilt Rewards was hitting unicorn status and dropping a new product to boot. Founder and CEO Ankur Jain had launched Bilt’s core offering — a credit card allowing tenants to apply points toward a down payment — a little over a year earlier. A $150 million fundraising round in late October bumped Bilt’s valuation to $1.5 billion. Jain seized on the boost to
The Jamaican government is packing up its current digs in Turtle Bay and moving a few blocks southeast. Offices for both the Consulate General of Jamaica and the country’s permanent mission to the United Nations are moving to Somerset Partners and Meadow Partners’ 300 East 42nd Street, where the Jamaican government has signed a 20-year deal for 42,500 square feet. The lease includes the entire third and fourth floors and a portion of the fifth
Brokerages may have fewer arrows in their legal quiver if the Federal Trade Commission makes good on its new goal of banning noncompete clauses in employment contracts nationwide. The contract provision restricts managers and executives from benefiting rival brokerages by switching jobs, usually within a defined geographic area or time period once a contract ends. Noncompete clauses do not typically affect agents, who are independent contractors. “The higher you go in the food chain, the
After a brief lull after Christmas, Brooklyn’s luxury market is back on track. The borough saw 14 homes enter contract last week, according to Compass’ weekly report on homes asking $2 million or more. That’s up from just four contracts in the last week of 2022 and two more than the 12 recorded in the first week of 2022. The most expensive home to enter contract this week was 138 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights,
UPDATED Jan. 9, 2023, 6:15 p.m.: Authorities probing last week’s disappearance of Tishman Speyer executive Ana Walshe have arrested her husband on charges of misleading their investigation. Walshe, a 39-year-old general manager at the commercial real estate firm, has been missing since the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, when she left her suburban Boston home for a flight to Washington, D.C., where she regularly commuted for work, according to police. The wife and
Fred Ohebshalom closed out 2022 facing foreclosure on a Midtown office building. Now the city is taking him to task over the management of his multifamily portfolio. Mayor Eric Adams lobbed a lawsuit Friday against the developer and his property management firm, Empire Management America, for allegedly failing to maintain eight Manhattan apartment buildings. The buildings, spread throughout the Upper Manhattan neighborhoods of Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights and Hudson Heights, have accrued 300 code violations
New details are emerging on hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s planned office skyscraper in Midtown. Griffin’s Citadel is eyeing a 51-story, Norman Foster-designed tower at 350 Park Avenue, where it will redevelop properties leased from Steve Roth’s Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin Management, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Citadel would occupy about 54 percent of the 1.7 million-square-foot building, which would rise to 1,350 feet. Plans for the tower, which would replace Vornado’s
Activity returned to Manhattan’s luxury market after a quiet holiday week. Eight of the 13 apartments that went off the market last week were offered by developers, including three units at Central Park Tower at 217 West 57th Street, where Extell is offering an aggressive 5 percent commission to buyers’ agents, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report of homes in the borough asking $4 million or more. The most expensive home to enter contract last
A nonprofit family activity center is tipping the work-play balance at a Financial District office building with a 40,000-square-foot lease. CompletePlayground signed the 15-year deal at Tribeca Associates’ 30 Broad Street, The New York Post reported. The indoor playground, which advertises gymnastics, dance and rock climbing among its youth programs, will replace New York Sports Club at the property. The new tenant will span a few levels. Asking rent was $250 per square foot for
New York City’s 10 largest office leases in December were an eclectic assortment. Led by law and architecture firms, each of which secured two placements on the list, other large leases last month include a jewelry company, the Department of Parks and Recreation and a sports live-streaming platform. 1) Crowell & Moring | 2 Manhattan West | Hudson Yards — 71,000 square feet The law firm signed a new lease to relocate its New York
New year, new Albany — sort of. Fresh off her first week as an elected governor, Kathy Hochul will deliver the 2023 State of the State Address on Tuesday, Jan. 10. Ahead of the action, The Real Deal’s Kathryn Brenzel has the lowdown on Hochul’s real estate priorities for the year, where they intersect with real estate’s needs, and where they don’t. Affordable housing, which Hochul has previously touted as a top issue of her
Developers admitted taking a “leap of faith” when they pitched a $2 billion transformation of five blocks of parking lots and industrial buildings in Astoria, Queens. The most publicized aspect of their risk paid off: The City Council approved the rezoning they needed to build more than 3,000 homes. But the future of the project is uncertain given the expiration of 421a, which freezes developments’ property taxes at pre-construction levels for 25 years and discounts
Another building acquired by David Schwartz’s Sugar Hill Capital Partners near the height of the multifamily market in the late 2010s is now in the crosshairs of its lender. U.S. Bank, as a trustee for CMBS bondholders, wants to foreclose on the six-story, 23-unit property at 121 West 116th Street in Harlem, alleging in a complaint that Sugar Hill is in default on a $4.9 million loan after failing to make payments since July. The
The largest kinetic outdoor sculpture in the world is now static. The $1.34 million “Wings Over Water” moving sculpture, which was unveiled outside of the George R. Brown Convention Center shortly before the Super Bowl LI in 2017, doesn’t move anymore, the Houston Chronicle reported. The city’s plan to fix it? Keep it still. Tucson artist Joe O’Connell designed the sculpture with wings that were meant to “beat continuously, creating a sense of progress and
It’s not quite as brutal a business move as you’d see on the hit HBO show, but the New York townhouse where the character Roman Roy (Kiernan Culkin) lives on “Succession” just had its listing price cut to $22.5 million, according to The Daily Mail. The 11,000-square-foot, five-bedroom property, which has 12 bathrooms, has been on the market for months, and was originally listed for $25 million, the outlet reported Lila Nejad of Douglas Elliman
The mysterious owners of the historic Pease Mansion in Austin got the OK to renovate the historical landmark home, but city officials are frustrated that the owners haven’t identified themselves. The Historic Landmark Commission, which reviews plans to renovate historic properties, approved extensive plans to expand and revitalize the pre-Civil War mansion, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The property owners have taken painstaking steps to keep their identity a secret from everyone — including the previous
Drivers, start your engines … soon. Construction on the 273-acre Motorsports Gateway Howell automotive district in Howell, Michigan, is set to begin Monday, according to a news release. Phase 1 of the $60 million district, by the father-and-son development team Mark and Jordan Dick, will include a 2.2-mile driving circuit (to be constructed following international safety standards), a clubhouse, rentable garages, private garage condos and a nature trail, according to the release and M-Live. Top
For at least some residents in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, the holiday tours of the iconic Berkeley Castle are less about a white Christmas than white nationalism. Built in the 19th century, the 9,300-square-foot castle serves as headquarters to the VDare Foundation, an anti-immigration group that provides a platform to white nationalists, anti-Semites and race pseudoscientists, the Washington Post reported. The group’s founder, Peter Brimlow, and his wife, Lydia, told the outlet they are not
Facebook Marketplace is becoming a less friendly hunting ground for real estate agents selling properties via social media. Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced late last month a policy change to the social media site’s virtual selling hub, that users can no longer share property listings on Facebook Marketplace with business profiles, upsetting some agents, Inman reported. Agents still have the ability to use Facebook Marketplace to share their listings — they just can’t do it
The origin story of HGTV’s “Property Brothers” — Canadian twins Drew and Jonathan Scott — sounds like a cliche: two struggling entertainers who caught their big break and ran with it until it became a global phenomenon. In the late aughts, Drew was an actor running high credit card debt, while Jonathan, a magician, had declared bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported. They turned to house flipping to make money and, still yearning to perform,
Why be a patron of a bar when you can own one … or two … or even the whole block? Yes, an entire 3-acre block — along with its two bars/restaurants and their liquor licenses — that’s historically been the heart of nightlife in the resort town of Avalon, New Jersey, has been listed for sale. There’s no asking price in CBRE’s listing — which spans from Dune Drive to Ocean Drive and 20th
Can California end the “rampant” illegal housing discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders? The Civil Rights Department is ready to try. The state’s civil rights department filed a lawsuit against two Sacramento landlords, alleging harassment against a voucher-holding tenant, the Los Angeles Times reported. It’s the first lawsuit brought by the agency since a 2020 state law made it illegal for landlords to refuse housing vouchers. The lawsuit alleges Carlos and Linda Torres sent their
Party City Holdco, Inc., was anything but festive this week, as the company appears to be preparing to file for bankruptcy and possibly turning over ownership to creditors, Bloomberg reported. The party supplies retailer, which says it operates more than 800 stores in North America, has hired AlixPartners as a restructuring adviser, according Reuters, citing a report from the Wall Street Journal. The retailer, known for party accessories and decorations including balloons, has struggled amid
A major metals service company is leaning into its name and expanding its capabilities in coated carbon and stainless steel, acquiring a Midwest manufacturing firm. Cleveland-based Olympic Steel announced a $131 million acquisition. of Wichita-based Metal-Fab. Metal-Fab will continue to operate under its same leadership, but will be referred to as an Olympic Steel company. The acquisition is expected to take immediate effect. The acquisition is the second-largest in the history of Olympic Steel, which
One of the fundamental laws of the universe — what goes up, must come down — is playing out in the residential real estate market. The heady times of 2021 gave way to the harsh reality in the latter half of 2022, when the market fell back to Earth, sending shockwaves through some of the industry’s biggest brokerages. Real estate’s own version of Manifest Destiny — seemingly boundless expansion of offices, headcount and market share
Two months ahead of hosting the 2023 Super Bowl, Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill sold his mansion in Paradise Valley at a loss for $5.3 million. Bidwill sold the property two months after listing it for $5.8 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The outlet reported the buyer is the Post Estes trust. Joan Levinson of Realty One Group had the listing, and Anthony Nicholas of Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty brought the buyer. Bidwill’s
A ransomware gang is threatening to publish a large volume of data it stole from the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles unless a ransom is paid, the Los Angeles Times reported. Last week, LockBit stole 15 terabytes of data from the housing authority, which provides housing and runs the federal voucher programs for 83,000 low-income families in the city, TechCrunch reported. The ransomware group threatened to release the information on Thursday if
Augusta National Golf will need to ask for a mulligan after a recent clerical error. On New Year’s Eve, Georgia real estate agent Scott Stallings received the invitation of a lifetime to compete in this year’s Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships in professional golf. Unfortunately, the formal invite, sent via UPS, wasn’t meant for that Scott Stallings, a 60-year-old casual golfer who lives on St. Simons Island with his wife, Jenny, the
Count Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser among those who are calling on the federal government to do something to help solve the vacant office problem in the nation’s capital. Bowser, who directed her message to President Joe Biden, is seeking to either end allowing federal employees to work from home or, alternatively, turn over vacant office space to the city to convert into affordable housing, ABC News reported. “We need decisive action by the White
The sky isn’t falling as we enter 2023 when it comes to real estate, but there aren’t a whole lot of rainbows up there, either. A number of stories last week point to the year shaping up to be a rough one. Compass, the No. 1 residential brokerage firm in the U.S. in terms of sales volume, announced it’s subletting its corporate headquarters — with its agent-facing offices to remain open — while also engaging
KKR’s massive footprint at Related Companies’ 30 Hudson Yards is about to get a lot bigger. The private equity firm is taking another 220,000 square feet set to be left behind by Facebook parent Meta Platforms, sources familiar with the deal confirmed to The Real Deal. The lease was first reported by Bloomberg. KKR already occupies more than 300,000 square feet on 30 Hudson Yards’ top 10 floors and in 2021 bought a majority stake
Amid a reckoning over his largely fabricated resume, New York Representative-elect George Santos has managed to stir up a fresh scandal with the seemingly innocuous act of moving into his sister’s apartment. Santos, who once claimed to own 13 rental properties in New York, decried the state’s eviction moratorium in 2021, saying it robbed him and his family of revenue. A New York Times investigation last month found no proof of the Republican’s real estate
Stuy Town tenants emerged victorious Friday, which could upend landlords’ plans to deregulate scores of other apartments in the city. A state court judge ruled in favor of residents of the complex, who argued that changes to New York’s rent law in 2019 barred the owner, the Blackstone Group, from deregulating some 6,200 apartments. Blackstone claimed that previous court settlements and agreements with the city allowed the apartments to be taken out of regulation once
Sharif El-Gamal’s Tribeca money pit has become a burial ground for its lender. Malayan Banking Berhad, which has been trying for nearly three years to foreclose on El-Gamal’s stalled 45 Park Place condo project, is ready to move on after a judge ruled against its efforts to take control of the property. The lender, which does business as Maybank, is looking to sell its $108 million non-performing loan on the property, according to marketing materials
Selling his New York City real estate has been no laughing matter for embattled comedian Louis C.K. Late last month, C.K. sold his Greenwich Village co-op at 101 West 12th Street for $1.8 million, the New York Post reported. The 17th floor apartment, part of the John Adams building, spans two units and 1,400 square feet. C.K. bought the co-op in 2016 for $2.45 million, $55,000 above the asking price. He knew he was destined
After dropping $19 million on the ground-floor retail space at the Miami Beach boutique condominium Marea at the end of 2021, Robert Rivani wasn’t finished. The Black Lion Investment Group founder immediately began eyeing another prime retail space down the street owned by the same sellers, A&D Group Realty’s Domenico Albano and Americo D’Agostini. For several months, D’Agostini recalled, Rivani would occasionally ask whether they were ready to make a deal for the ground-floor space
Developers had big plans at the end of 2019. From supertalls that would push Manhattan’s skyline even higher to waterfront developments bridging the Big Apple with the beach, the hottest proposals of the pre-pandemic period promised to break records and precedent. The three years that have followed ushered in a lifetime’s worth of change, and mixed results for the renderings we crowned the hottest of the time. Here’s the latest on where those projects stand:
Two fashion moguls appear to have found an ideal match for their West Village townhouse. Tom and Ruth Chapman, co-founders of retailer MatchesFashion, are in contract to sell their property at 252 West 12th Street in the Manhattan neighborhood, the New York Post reported. They listed their home for $25 million in July, which is what the asking price is today. The Chapmans purchased the home from oil heiress Aileen Getty for $19 million in
Savanna’s One Court Square appears to be the picture of good health almost four years after Amazon placed the property in the emergency room. Northwell Health signed a 10-year-plus deal for 42,000 square feet at the Long Island City office tower, the Commercial Observer reported. Most of that space will serve as offices occupying the entire third and fourth floors, but the health care giant will also operate a 3,400-square-foot urgent care center on the
If the sound of wrecking balls and demolition don’t bring you bliss, you’re probably siding with Southampton officials on the future of a Norman Jaffe-designed home. Orest Bliss, who has owned the home at 88 Meadow Lane for more than four decades, is looking to sell the largely obscured property, Newsday reported. As part of the plan to sell, Bliss is seeking the ability to tear down the home, which could pave the way for
Apparel brands powered New York City’s retail market in December, signing four of the month’s 10 largest leases, but it was fast-growing supermarket chain H Mart that grabbed the top spot, opening an outpost in Sunnyside, not far from its roots in Woodside, Queens. Other major deals on the list include a weed dispensary, a plasma donation center and a pair of restaurants. Among neighborhoods, Noho was the clear winner, taking down three of the
Blackstone and Starwood stepped into a charged environment last month when they slammed the brakes on shareholders pulling cash from their high-flying real estate vehicles. At the time, disgraced crypto guru Sam Bankman-Fried (who within days would be indicted on fraud charges) was all over the news and social media following the collapse of his FTX crypto exchange. Comparisons between FTX and the private equity giants’ non-traded REITs came easy. “What is happening now with
Some of the city’s busiest architects in 2022, surprisingly, were busy designing offices. It seems somewhat counterintuitive, given the uncertain future of the office market. Architects who work in the space acknowledge that office tenants are increasingly flocking to newer, amenity-rich towers, and existing space is being overhauled to accommodate both new ways of working and a workforce that is less frequently present. But while these shifts in office usage present new challenges for landlords,
Compass’ belt-tightening has come for its headquarters. The brokerage, which lost nearly $1 billion between the first quarter of 2021 and the third quarter of 2022, is shopping its headquarters near Union Square for sublease, The Real Deal has learned. Compass hopes to find a taker for all or a portion of the 89,000 square feet it occupies at RFR Realty’s 90 Fifth Avenue, with an asking price of roughly $60 per square foot. The
A massive affordable housing complex in Far Rockaway may be at least a decade away from completion, but the project’s first phrase has already landed a key tenant. Shop Fair Supermarkets inked a 25-year lease for 27,700 square feet at Arker Companies and Slate Property Group’s Edgemere Commons at 51-23 Beach Channel Drive in the Queens neighborhood. The grocery chain, which has 14 locations across the city, is expected to open in the spring of
The website for 56 North Moore Street, a former Tribeca parking lot slotted for new office space, shows renderings of a Class A, light-filled concept built on century-old bones and flanked by three-stories of terrace space. Navigate to the brokerage Avison Young’s site and the project’s nine floors are listed as immediately available to lease. But the project’s developer, Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft, may be rethinking plans for the space, a pivot that would come
Martin Ginsburg wanted to bring more than 500 units to the Ludlow section of Yonkers. Now, the developer may be forced to settle for fewer than half of those apartments. Ginsburg Development Companies submitted a revised plan to the city for its project at 150 Downing Street, the Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals reported. The project has been in the works for six years, but has run into turmoil. Ginsburg proposed a seven-story building
Madison Square Garden Entertainment honcho James Dolan is considering selling his controlling stake of the Tao nightclub and restaurant chain. MSGE retained Goldman Sachs to solicit bids in an auction for the Tao Group, the New York Post reported. The chain operates 32 restaurants and upscale clubs in New York City, along with venues across the globe. Sources told the outlet Dolan could be looking to close a $600 million gap in his construction project
Manhattan office landlords hoping for continued recovery in the market this holiday season were mostly met with a lump of coal. Office leasing in the borough plummeted 43 percent year over year in the fourth quarter, with tenants taking just 4.9 million square feet in the final three months of 2022, the lowest quarterly total since the second quarter of 2021, according to Colliers. It was also an abrupt decline from the third quarter —
Compass announced another round of layoffs Thursday, which the company said is the last wave of staff cutbacks it will need to undertake to reduce its expenses to a point where it can be cash-flow positive by mid-2023. “The company believes its actions allow for a path to achieve positive free cash flow in 2023 accounting for market scenarios that are worse than Fannie Mae’s negative 22.6% estimate for residential real estate transaction volume (price
Popcorn may soon be popping at the Southampton movie theater, which was sold to a mystery buyer in mid-November. Hill Street Cinema LLC purchased the shuttered cinema for $8 million, Behind the Hedges reported. The limited liability corporation agreed to buy the property in August, when the seller, Southold Properties, was asking for $8.9 million. The movie theater was forced to close its doors at the start of the pandemic and has been unable to
As landlords scramble to come into compliance with Local Law 97, one building owner notched a citywide first in its bid to cut emissions. Glenwood Management moved the city’s lone carbon-capture rig into the basement of the Grand Tier, a high-end apartment building on the Upper West Side. Bloomberg reported the rig was installed last year and takes up roughly six parking spaces. The rig at the 30-story residence consists of pipes and compressors. It
The share of sellers that dished out concessions to seal the deal for their homes surged late last year as the market tipped in buyers’ favor. Sellers provided concessions to buyers in 41.9 percent of home purchases in the fourth quarter, according to a report from Redfin. That’s the highest share ever recorded in a three-month period by the brokerage, though its data only goes back to July 2020. The previous high for concessions was
She may have succeeded in preventing nearly 1,000 new apartments from being added to her district, but Kristin Richardson Jordan isn’t giving up the fight. The Harlem City Council member and about 60 others rallied Tuesday evening at West 145th Street and Lenox Avenue to protest the opening of a truck stop owned by developer Bruce Teitelbaum, who blames Richardson Jordan for his inability to build anything else on the land. Addressing the crowd, Richardson
The residents of a Harlem co-op were in a bind. The building had been part of a city initiative that allowed low-income renters to become homeowners, but it was falling apart. Its loan was in default, and a lender was seeking to foreclose. The long-time residents feared they would lose their homes. Then the lender, a company controlled by Manhattan-based Maverick Real Estate Partners, bought an additional lien — a default judgment for the building’s
New York condo developers were riding high in the first half of last year as the city’s flourishing housing market, boosted by historically low mortgage rates, carried over from 2021. As the calendar flipped from June to July, everything changed. Booming sales through the first half of the year — when two-thirds of all deals for new development condos took place — succumbed to interest-rate hikes, and activity fell back below pre-pandemic levels. “The sugar
Covering real estate is never about the bricks and mortar — it’s about the personalities at the center of the wheeling and dealing. The beginning of the year is an opportune time to look back at what readers liked best in 2022. The stories that drew the most new subscribers were those that pulled back the curtain on the industry’s biggest players — whether uncovering the history of such “quiet giants” as Joseph Chetrit
The Murdochs are sticking to Midtown. Fox Corporation and News Corporation, the pillars of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, have opted to renew their deals to occupy their respective headquarters at Ivanhoe Cambridge’s 1211 Sixth Avenue. The 20-year deals represent a boon for the 45-story tower, where the two companies’ combined 1.1 million square feet account for more than half of the rentable space, the Wall Street Journal reported. They’re also a shot in the arm
Tight inventory and high mortgage rates squeezed residential sales in Manhattan last quarter, but the market is still outpacing pre-pandemic measures. The median sales price across the borough’s condos and co-ops fell 5.5 percent in its first pandemic-era decline, but remains more than 10 percent above pre-pandemic levels, according to a quarterly report by market analysis firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. The decline was fueled by a spate of smaller new development sales, and
MAG Partners has closed on a 99-year ground lease for a Chelsea development site. MaryAnne Gilmartin’s three-year-old firm inked a deal on the northwest corner of Eighth Avenue and West 26th Street with Mutual Redevelopment Houses. The parties declined to discuss the financial terms for the deal. Sources told The Real Deal the lease starts with an annual rent of around $2 million and has yearly rent increases that are expected to bring in over
Buyers who snapped up homes in the tri-state suburbs during the pandemic have shown little remorse, keeping their properties off the market and contributing to a continued downturn in listings and contracts. “The decline in new listings continued to overpower newly signed contracts,” real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel wrote in a report on contract signings last month on Long Island and in Fairfield and Westchester counties. Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller, who authored the
A tale of two office markets is unfolding in Manhattan as a growing number of tenants ditch older spaces for newer or recently renovated buildings. More than 76 percent of office occupants who have moved in Manhattan since the start of the pandemic have either gone from one Class A property to another or upgraded to a Class A building from a Class B one, according to an analysis by CompStak provided to The Real
Little Italy is in Lower Manhattan, but the European nation is bringing a little bit of Italy to the Upper East Side. The nation of Italy purchased the Carnegie Hill townhouse at 15 East 90th Street, a landmarked property known as the Emily Trevor Mansion, for $26 million. The sale price was about 10 percent below its initial $29.5 million asking price. The deal closed only days before the end of 2022, according to public
Tony Malkin started the fire — and his New Zealand neighbors are not happy. The Empire State Realty Trust chairman hosted a New Year’s Eve party at his New Zealand property between Queenstown and Arrowtown. Local outlet Stuff reported the party’s fireworks display sparked a rural fire that burned more than 53,000 square feetland and blackened part of the surrounding land. The display, estimated to cost tens of thousands of dollars, was a source of
New year, new strategy for New York City REIT. The office landlord is expanding its business beyond the city and changing its status from a real estate investment trust to a taxable C corporation. The trust, which is part of a web of companies founded by Nicholas Schorsch, boasts 1.2 million square feet of office space in its portfolio, according to Crain’s, but its vacancy rate is a troublesome 30 percent. The company was down
Meddling with what it means to be a homeowner is a recipe for attention — good and bad — and Pacaso has certainly grabbed more than its share of headlines. Investors, jazzed by the second-home market’s potential, put over $200 million into the startup over the past two years. But Pacaso also became a lightning rod for criticism from regulators and neighbors, who’ve criticized its model as damaging to communities. Austin Allison, co-founder and CEO
A week after Christmas, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman was updating his naughty list. The head of the discount brokerage defended the company on Twitter last week after a widely viewed tweet poked fun at its brokers. Chris Smith, a marketing specialist and author, published a thread of tweets making fun of various real estate companies entitled “if real estate companies kept it real with their homepage headlines.” Spoofing companies including Opendoor (“We make it really
Virtual brokerage eXp Realty is turning to a familiar friend to lead the company into the future. Glenn Sanford, who founded the online brokerage in 2009, is returning to the chief executive role, holding company eXp World Holdings announced on Tuesday. Sanford will maintain his other responsibilities as chairman and chief executive of eXp World Holdings. Jason Gesing, who has been chief executive since 2019, is moving into an executive role with the holding company.
The city saw no particular end-of-year flurry of investment sales as the calendar flipped from 2022 to 2023, but dealmakers did trade a handful of mid-market properties in the five boroughs last week. Six transactions involving commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week. Manhattan had three deals, Brooklyn two and Queens one. Below is more information on each transaction, ranked by dollar amount: 1. Entities tied to landlord
For years, Thaddeus Wong felt he was living inside “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” He and his partner, Mike Golden, had built Chicago-based @properties into the city’s largest independent residential brokerage, steered it through the Great Recession and consistently turned a profit while fighting off every upstart competitor that tried to buy, break or steal their business. But in the late 2010s, it seemed like none of that mattered. SoftBank and other venture capital firms kept
Isaac Hager recently lost his stakes in two high-profile properties to bankruptcy sales, but that could be the least of his concerns. The Brooklyn developer has been accused of fraudulently transferring $7.2 million from an entity affiliated with a bankrupt Williamsburg hotel project to shield the money from the property’s creditors, a trustee for the creditors alleges. In a complaint filed in federal court, the trustee, Nat Wasserstein of Lindenwood Associates, alleges the “transfers were
‘Twas the week after Christmas, and Brooklyn’s luxury market settled in for a winter’s nap. Just four homes asking $2 million or more — two condos and two townhouses — went into contract in the borough, according to Compass’ weekly report. The most expensive home that entered contract was 224 Withers Street in Williamsburg, with an asking price of $3.9 million. The townhouse, built in 2003, spans 4,750 square feet and has eight bedrooms and
Joseph Moinian’s Moinian Group offloaded a shuttered hotel and adjacent multifamily development site near LaGuardia Airport for $50 million. An entity connected to the developer sold the former Holiday Inn LaGuardia Airport hotel at 37-10 114th Street and the parking lot next door at 37-20 114th Street in Corona, Queens, to an entity tied to investment firm Bayrock Capital, The Real Deal has learned. The eight-floor, 217-key hotel spans roughly 107,000 square feet and was
Manhattan’s luxury residential market ended the year with a typical whimper. Just 13 properties asking $4 million or more went into contract last week for a combined volume of $86.1 million, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report on properties asking $4 million and above. That’s down from a combined volume of more than $224 million recorded the previous week. The previous week’s total of 16 signed contracts marked the second-busiest Christmas week in the last
Short sellers have piled onto WeWork as the coworking firm failed to deliver on promises of turning a profit in its first full year as a publicly traded company. Investors held short positions on more than 27 percent of WeWork’s publicly tradable shares as of Dec. 15, according to MarketWatch. Shorts totaling more than 10 percent of a company’s float are generally a sign that the market is pessimistic on its future; more than 20
It’s a new year, but some of the country’s biggest real estate companies are turning to an old friend from the pandemic: industrial real estate. Hines purchased a three-property industrial portfolio in Newark, New Jersey for $127.5 million. The deal was announced by the seller, Turnbridge Equities, which co-owned the Newark Distribution Center with Long Wharf Capital. The 738,000-square-foot last-mile facility, formerly known as the Ballantine Brewery Complex, spans 19 acres at 397-447 Ferry Street.
It’s bad enough that Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters ran out of toilet paper. Now its office workers have been squeezed from six floors to two. The social media platform now owned and operated by billionaire Elon Musk has downsized its headquarters by two-thirds at 1355 Market Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing The New York Times. Twitter jettisoned four floors after missed rent payments as part of a dramatic cost-cutting strategy, unidentified sources
After a trying month for Blackstone’s real estate investment trust, the University of California is stepping in to prop up the fund. UC Investments pledged $4 billion towards the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust in the form of common equity, the Wall Street Journal reported. While the investment is subject to similar fees and terms as other shareholders, the university system will effectively be committed to its shares for six years. UC Investments’ BREIT shares
Side, the six-year-old startup that provides white-label services for brokerage teams, has tapped a Zillow veteran to drive national growth as its first president, the company told The Real Deal. Stephen Capezza is joining the firm after nearly eight years at Zillow, where he held a variety of senior sales positions, including overseeing sales for the company’s cash cow agent-advertising program, Premier Agent, which was used by 150,000 agents and generates $1.2 billion revenue annually.
Office leases continue to be an unpredictable category for Manhattan’s commercial landlords, but the “flight to quality” in the sector last year powered a bump in high-dollar deals. There were 190 leases of at least $100 per square foot last year, according to JLL’s Year-End Recap reported by the New York Post. The figure was a record number of new leases at the price point, beating the 164 leases recorded in 2021. The $100-per-square-foot leases
Albert Reichmann, the patriarch behind the firm that was once New York City’s largest private commercial landlord, has died at 93. The Olympia & York patriarch died on Dec. 17 in his family’s hometown of Toronto, his grandson confirmed to the New York Times. The developer made his name with major bets across the world, including the World Financial Center in Manhattan and the Canary Wharf section of London. He built a family net worth
Since October, Lev Mavashev has been fielding more and more calls from owners looking to unload rent-stabilized buildings with distressed debt. Mavashev, the founder of investment sales brokerage Alpha Realty, said he’s sold “a bunch of stuff” for Sugar Hill Capital Partners, which faced foreclosure on a Washington Heights building’s $16 million mortgage in mid-November. In South Brooklyn, he said, “I’m selling 104 units right now for basically below 10 times the rent roll. A
Brookfield Asset Management and China Investment Corporation are no longer listing their 50-story One New York Plaza building for sale, The Real Deal has learned. Located at 1 Water Street in the Financial District, it had been one of the biggest office listings in New York City. The firms had put the building on the market earlier this year, but stopped marketing it early in the summer as rising interest rates made deals harder to
Welcome to January and another new issue of The Real Deal. This month, we kick off the new year by sitting down with Thad Wong, co-founder and CEO of @properties, Chicago’s largest independent residential real estate brokerage. After buying the Christie’s International Real Estate brand and partnering with top LA agent Aaron Kirman, the firm is now in expansion mode, and Wong has plenty to share about his life, his ambitions for the brokerage, and
Among the first things I learned as a New Jersey reporter was an odd word: ratables. It came up when towns considered development proposals. Ratables is a Jersey euphemism for property taxes. Local officials always wanted to know how much money a project would add to their coffers — and how much it would take out. Housing was viewed as a net loser. Electeds thought it would cost more to educate new residents’ children than
Some people spend their time in high school looking forward to getting out. Others have a different plan in mind. A trio of investors have taken an abandoned high school in Homestead, Pennsylvania, and converted it into an apartment building with 31 units, according to CNBC Make It. Real estate agent Jesse Wig bought the building in 2019 for $100,000 and, with friend Adam Colucci set about figuring out what to do with the structure.
A luxe, six-bedroom home in the Beaver Creek Resort in Colorado has listed for $22 million. The 10,500-square-foot, “ski-in, ski-out” residence, which sits on 4 acres with views of the Rocky Mountains in the Bachelor Gulch community, is owned by Todd Davidson, who purchased the property for $11 million in 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported. Davidson, according to the outlet, used the residence as vacation home for his family during the summers. Bret Burton,
A former, beloved children’s clothing store on the Upper East Side will become home to an indoor swimming pool that will be used to teach kids how to swim. The Goldfish Swim School is taking over the 10,000-square-foot building at 1534 Second Avenue, the former home of Lester’s, which closed last year, the New York Post reported. The school will install a 70-by-22-foot swimming pool that is less than 5 feet deep to teach children
Millions of dollars in funds from a federal program designed to help low-income homeowners after Superstorm Sandy were doled out to dozens of people with expensive homes in some of the most affluent towns in Connecticut, Politico reported. Unlike New Jersey, Connecticut put no income threshold on aid eligibility from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development following the devastating storm that caused billions of dollars of damage along the East Coast. That resulted
The new year also brings new laws that take effect in various parts of the country. A new Philadelphia law, which goes into effect today, will significantly impact Airbnb and similar online brokers by requiring short-term hosts who live in their rental units to obtain “a “limited lodging operator” license, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. While inexpensive, the license also means hosts have to adhere to other requirements to ensure their units are up to code.
The condominium loophole is the New York state law equivalent of Rasputin. Despite numerous calls through the past four decades to kill it off, the loophole — which gives tax breaks on large suburban homes by allowing them to be classified as condominiums — endures. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently vetoed a bill, passed by the state legislature in June, that would have closed the loophole, Syracuse.com reported. The loophole, the outlet reported, broadly
The company that made New York City’s ubiquitous scaffolding more palatable is touching down in Texas. Urban Umbrella landed its first major scaffolding project in the Lone Star state, to wrap a historic office building in Fort Worth’s glamorous Sundance Square, and it has more in the forecast for Dallas and Austin. The firm, which raised $9 million back in 2020 to pursue national projects, has installed public sidewalk scaffolding at 500 Main Street, the
Talk about the magic touch. Just one year after he bought the property, entrepreneur Patrick Dovigi has sold an Aspen, Colorado, home for $55 million, $10.5 million more than he bought it, the Wall Street Journal reported. Dexter Rutecki Properties was the buyer. Dovigi, a retired Canadian professional hockey player who founded Green For Life Environmental, bought the six-bedroom home with a pool and spa and views of the slopes for $44.5 million in December
Mo’ money, mo’ problems? Not if you’re a cash buyer in today’s housing market. The share of homes purchased entirely with cash rose to 31.9 percent in October, according to a recent report from Redfin. Up two percentage points from a year earlier, the share of all-cash purchases reached its highest level since 2014, the brokerage reported. All-cash home purchases cratered at the start of the pandemic, representing just 20.1 percent of purchases in April
Just like the movie in which it featured, not everything is what it seems with the $450 million Zillow listing of the Greek isle commune from “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” The 26-acre private island oasis — which features “panoramic views of the Aegean Sea and Peloponnese,” along with 17 bedrooms, 22 bathrooms, artwork by Banksy, powered by clean energy and crowned by the Glass Onion atrium — certainly is eye catching. “This private
CBRE procured real estate investment firm Yellowstone Property Group in the purchase of a large apartment complex in Norwalk, Connecticut, last week. The Ramsey, New Jersey-based firm purchased the 164-unit Reserve41 complex at 41 Wolfpit Avenue for 48.7 million $from Norpointe LLC, a partnership led by Greenwich-based real estate investment firm Belpointe, the CT Insider reported. CBRE — led by Jeff Dunne, Eric Apfel and Stuart MacKenzie — represented Norpointe and procured Yellowstone — which
A fear of flying is relatively common. Less common is a desire to live in a plane that can no longer fly, which is where an Oregon electrical engineer is shacking up. Bruce Campbell, 73, is living in the shell of a salvaged Boeing 727 jetliner, CNBC Make It reported. The plane sits on a 10-acre tract of land in Hillsboro, a suburb of Portland. Decades after Campbell purchased the land in the 1970s for
It’s not exactly as overt as a border wall, but a new law in Canada is designed to make it much more difficult for foreigners to purchase property there. The law, which went into effect tomorrow, places a two-year ban on the purchase of residential property by non-Canadians, the New York Times reported. Regulations recently released by the government say the prohibition applies only to certain cities and not to vacation homes in recreation areas.
Teravalis, the Howard Hughes Corporation project proposed for 37,000 acres in the desert west of Phoenix, has a water problem. Really, most developments in the Southwest do, as the New York Times reports. Climate change and a more than 20-year drought in the region that spans Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and California, have turned water supply into a great source of grief for real estate developers. In Arizona, temperatures are rising and water supplies
Mets ace Max Scherzer knows a thing or two about negotiating, having hammered out two of the priciest contracts in baseball history and the latest collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball players and owners. Those skills served him well when it came to buying a home on Long Island, property records show. The Hall of Fame-bound pitcher just closed on an Old Brookville mansion for a cool $5 million, which was $400,000 below the
After a false alarm and a return to the market earlier this year, art dealer Robert Mnuchin has sold his Fifth Avenue co-op to RFR Realty principal Michael Fuchs. Fuchs, whose fim’s holdings the Chrysler and Seagram buildings, paid $18 million for the full-floor unit at 944 Fifth Avenue, property records show. The unit appeared to have gone into contract in April with an asking price of $20 million, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report.
Mortgage rates notched their first weekly increase in six weeks just before the new year. The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate loan climbed to 6.42 percent from 6.27 percent, according to Freddie Mac data reported by Bloomberg. The figure closes out a year over which mortgage rates more than doubled, pricing out potential homebuyers and locking sellers in place. Hiigher mortgage rates “remain a significant barrier to successfully closing transactions,” George Ratiu, head of
There are few prestigious office corridors in Brooklyn and Queens. There is no Wall Street or Plaza District or Hudson Yards. There is no One Vanderbilt. But office buildings still exist in the outer boroughs, where landlords positioning their properties as alternatives to the high-priced space across the river are finding that some companies actually want to be there. In Brooklyn, year-to-date leasing volume in the third quarter rose to close to 1 million square
Two developers picked up a piece of an Upper Manhattan retail center. Aurora Capital Associates and Bridges Development Group became the leaseholders at the 103,000-square-foot GWB Market in a $46 million deal, New York Business Journal reported. The market is the retail portion of the revamped George Washington Bridge Bus Station. The property, at the entrance to the George Washington Bridge between West 178th and West 179th streets, is 82 percent leased. RIPCO’s Jason Pennington
Some Hamptons residents are stumping for an arboreal cause. One week after a Bridgehampton neighbor sued developer Joe Farrell, claiming he cut down her trees without permission, a neighboring village is proposing stricter rules for clearing mature trees. The mayor of North Haven, in Southampton, Chris Fiore, said most of his trustees support his idea to prevent unnecessary arborcide. “I’m not a tree hugger,” said Fiore. “I just think a tree that’s been there for
Get Netflix on speed dial. iPark, an entity of longtime tri-state area developer National Resources, purchased a 28-acre campus in Yonkers to build a production facility. The real estate firm bought the former Leake & Watts campus at 463 Hawthorne Avenue from nonprofit Rising Ground for $52.6 million, the New York Post reported. Great Point Studios, which partnered with iPark on the development of a Lionsgate production hub in the same Westchester County city, is
Cannabis sellers opened up shop. Mortgage rates climbed. The rental market went crazy. A unicorn went into survival mode. Some companies got real about their office footprints. Those are just a few real estate-related highlights of 2022. They are also among the top stories to watch in the year ahead. Since the onset of the pandemic, the future of the office market has been a big question mark. Early on, industry professionals insisted that the
Co-working companies have an opportunity as office leasing sags amid the rise of remote and hybrid working due to the pandemic, companies looking for a more flexible workspaces. Which co-working companies are most primed to meet the moment? Companies have more than 5,700 locations in the United States, but one is head and shoulders above the competition for most spaces. Here are the 10 largest co-working operators in the nation, according to CommercialEdge data reported
Two Trees Management secured $364 million in loans for a two-tower residential project that is rising as part of its Domino Sugar megadevelopment. JPMorgan Chase provided the financing for 346 Kent Avenue, also known as Site D, where 600 apartments will be built across two buildings that share a podium. The financing package includes $304 million building loans and $60 million in project loans, according to filings with the city’s Department of Finance. Construction of
The owners of the recently reopened Crowne Plaza Hotel in Times Square filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday in an effort to resuscitate the ailing and lawsuit-plagued business. Andrew Penson’s Argent Ventures wants to reorganize the finances of the hotel’s home, 1601 Broadway, having gained control of the 46-story tower in the heart of Times Square by vanquishing office giant SL Green in court and replacing Vornado Realty Trust. Penson had elbowed his way
The 10 biggest real estate loans in New York City’s outer boroughs last month fetched $535.5 million. They included financing for the biggest development site in Park Slope, an Astoria co-op with a checkered financial history and part of a 14-building portfolio recently sold by the LeFrak Organization. Half of the loans were made in Brooklyn, while Queens had four and the Bronx had one. Last year, November’s biggest loans totaled $749 million. Here are
TUMI is still unpacking its bags at its new headquarters at 16 East 34th Street, but the luggage company recently signed a deal for a showroom and retail space next door. PGIM Real Estate signed TUMI to a 5,200-square-foot lease at 25 East 34th Street in Midtown South, Newmark announced Wednesday. Terms of the long-term lease, which was first reported by Crain’s, were not disclosed. The space, which is the ground-floor retail component of 180
The U.S. luxury home market saw its biggest drop in sales on record in the three-month period ending in November. Luxury home sales dropped 38.1 percent year-over-year from September to November, according to Redfin. That’s the largest decline reported by the brokerage in its 10 years tracking the market. Non-luxury home sales also fell by a record amount, declining 31.4 percent during the same period. Both sectors have faced headwinds like high interest rates and
In the wee hours of Christmas morning, New York City Planning Commissioner Leah Goodridge was distributing not presents but bad tidings on Twitter. At 12 a.m. on Dec. 25, the attorney and public official clapped back at a user who had knocked her housing policy ideas. “Engaging in defamation might seem cute on Twitter,” Goodridge wrote. “It’s not cute in the courtroom though.” Engaging in defamation might seem cute on Twitter. It’s not cute in
If the No. 7 subway line were a rainbow, Flushing would be developers’ pot of gold. Land in the Queens neighborhood is trading like baseball cards, permit applications are pouring in and developments are popping up like mushrooms — interest rates and recession fears be damned. “It’s always been an active market and a place for development,” RIPCO Real Estate’s Stephen Preuss said. “It’s always gonna buck the overall economy as well, where even during
A celebrity-owned penthouse at 75 Central Park West has traded at long last, and for almost half of its initial asking price. Deirdre Imus, an artist, author and widow of controversial radio host Don Imus, sold the couple’s penthouse for $8.8 million, according to property records filed Wednesday, three years and one day after the media personality’s death. The couple had listed the Lincoln Square property for $16.9 million in 2016 before bouncing it on
Vornado Realty Trust’s sale of the 29-story office building at 40 Fulton Street hit property records Wednesday, concluding a case study on how interest rates can affect a commercial transaction. Investor David Werner purchased the Financial District building for $101 million, well below the $130 million to $140 million Vornado sought for the 251,000-square-foot building upon putting it on the market last spring. The financing for the acquisition is also notable. Two relative unknowns in
Pending home sales fell to a near record low in November, but the plunge powered by higher borrowing costs and economic uncertainty may not have much further to go. Pending home sales declined for the sixth consecutive month in November, according to an index by the National Association of Realtors. Contract signings to purchase previously owned homes dropped 4 percent from October, down slightly from the 4.6 percent monthly drop seen in October. NAR’s forward-looking
A Rockland County developer is alleging religious discrimination was the reason a Sullivan County town denied it permits for a large housing project. The entities behind the Lost Lake Resort project in the Catskills filed a federal lawsuit against the tiny town of Forestburgh, the Times Herald-Record reported. The land is owned by Mordechai Halberstam, who bought it and related assets for $13.3 million in 2020. The lawsuit seeks a fair review from the town
An industrial project in Nassau County got all the way to third base before being thrown out at home. Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have allowed for the development by removing a park easement from the Cleveland Avenue ballfields, a nine-acre property in the Hempstead village of Freeport, Newsday reported. The ballfields are a protected green space, but a bill from the area’s state legislators would have paved a path for the
UPDATED, Dec. 28, 2022, 2:30 p.m.: Jeff Klein’s JK Hotel Group has closed on its acquisition of the Jane Hotel. An entity connected to the hotelier bought the West Village hotel at 113 Jane Street for $62 million from an entity tied to Richard Born’s BD Hotels, according to city property records filed Tuesday. Commercial Observer first reported the sale. Klein, who had been in contract to acquire the property, said earlier this year he
Bastien Broda and Kevin Chisholm’s 60 Guilders is closing the year by opening a new chapter for the firm: outer-borough multifamily deals. The firm purchased a three-property multifamily portfolio in Williamsburg from the Rabsky Group for $143.3 million, according to a LinkedIn post reported by the Commercial Observer. The three buildings, located between Roebling Street and Driggs Avenue, feature a combined 211 multifamily units and ground-floor retail space. The firm is assuming $103 million of
The housing market sounded a now-familiar refrain, sinking in October under the weight of rising mortgage rates. Average home prices in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas are still well above where they were a year ago, but their growth is decelerating. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index fell 0.5 percent from September to a 9.2 percent annual gain in October. October was the fourth consecutive month with a decline after all
After Hudson Valley landlords challenged Kingston’s rent stabilization law in October, a state judge blocked the rent rollback imposed last month by the city’s rent control board. The order barred the state from processing appeals of rent hikes. But the state’s Division of Homes and Community Renewal has been reviewing overcharge claims anyway, according to the landlords who are suing. In an email to the court last week, Matthew Brett, the attorney representing the Hudson
New York City dealmakers kept busy ahead of the holidays. Six transactions involving mid-market commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week. Three deals were in Manhattan, two were in Brooklyn and one was in Queens. Below is more information on each sale, ranked by dollar figure amount. 1. An entity connected to the Chetrit Group sold a pair of retail properties at 1100 Kings Highway and 2067 Coney
Affordable housing giant Fairstead launched another lawsuit last week against its co-founder-turned-competitor Will Blodgett. Fairstead calls Blodgett’s new firm, Tredway, a “copycat company” built on stolen information. The firm accuses Blodgett and his associates of lifting Fairstead contacts, data, deal leads and models in 2020 and 2021 as they geared up to start their own shop. At the time of the filing, Fairstead and Blodgett were already suing each other over many of the same
Manhattan’s luxury market kept busy this Christmas, with two pre-war homes each asking $25 million claiming top billing. Buyers signed 26 contracts last week, marking the second-busiest Christmas week in the last decade behind last year’s boom of 42, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report on residences asking $4 million or more. The peak in activity came as the average discount from last asking price was 20 percent, which report author Donna Olshan said was
Loans for three buildings refinanced five years ago by well known multifamily landlord Isaac Kassirer were sold. The three loans sold for $45.8 million, PincusCo reported. While the buyer could not be confirmed, Moshe Greenzweig’s Cedarbridge Management is the only owner registered at the address of the limited liability company behind the purchases. The loans are secured by three properties in Harlem spanning 132 units: 350 Manhattan Avenue, 320 Manhattan Avenue and 312 West 114
Two years after embarking on a landmark retrofitting project, landlord and tenants alike are seeing savings at a series of Brooklyn properties. Nine buildings are seeing “transformational” savings, RiseBoro Community Partnership executive Ryan Cassidy told Fast Company. The century-old buildings were updated with white facades that provide a refreshed look and energy efficiency design. The buildings now meet “Passive House” standards. Tenants benefit from lower air conditioning costs in the summer, according to the nonprofit,
‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the market, only a few Brooklyn buyers were stirring for luxury homes to target. Just nine homes asking $2 million or more went into contract last week, according to Compass, down from 12 homes that went into contract the previous week and 19 homes the week before that. The priciest property was 282 Garfield Place in Park Slope, which was asking $8.5 million. The five-story home has
Domain Companies is contending with gas and heat issues at its luxury multifamily building in Greenpoint, where some residents are withholding rent after leaks. Eighty-seven residents of the 210-unit building at 1133 Manhattan Avenue have withheld rent in recent weeks, Gothamist reported. Dissatisfied tenants are exploring legal options for securing rent cuts and concessions from Domain after management told residents in October it was not ready to offer concessions until it understood the scope of
Another project is headed for Jersey City’s Journal Square after securing approval before the new year to join the hot spot for developers. Jersey City’s planning board unanimously approved a vertical expansion plan for 80 Journal Square, JerseyDigs reported. The move sets the stage for the one-story retail property to rise 28 stories high, adding residential and commercial space. BH3 Management and Hope Street Capital are helming the property’s redevelopment, which is being designed by
The zoning approval of a historic project leads this week’s roundup of suburban New York real estate news. Largest economic development in Westchester history In New York’s Westchester County, the Mount Pleasant Town Board unanimously approved zoning for a 3-million-square-foot science and technology center. Fareri Associates is developing the center, which is expected to cost $1.2 billion, making it the largest economic development project in county history. The campus is expected to include shops, a
Heath Freeman has been called a “hedge fund vampire,” but his interest now does not seem especially macabre: East End marinas. Freeman’s EHP Hospitality snapped up three more marinas out east on Long Island, Behind the Hedges reported. The prices weren’t disclosed, but the company plans on upgrading the properties. How exactly, the company hasn’t said. But it would continue a trend of investors buying dated or run-down North Fork and Hamptons properties and spiffing
A massive New Jersey vineyard has hit the market with the highest asking price in the northwestern part of the state. A 24,000-square-foot home that sits on 125 acres in Holland, near the Pennsylvania border, has been listed for $18 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Coldwell Banker Hearthside’s Jackie Hillgrube and Debbie Summer are the listing agents for the property. The seven-bedroom home was previously listed for $12 million in 2020 when a different
South Dakota cowboy Neal Wanless, who in 2009 cashed in a winning $232.1 million Powerball ticket, hit the jackpot again this week, selling the 48,000-acre Bismark Trail Ranch near Rapid City for $37 million, more than double what he originally paid for it, according to listing agent Robb Nelson of Hall and Hall. The buyer is J-Six South Dakota Land Holdings, according to Mansion Global. Nelson originally listed the property for $41.15 million in 2020
A new 2.4-mile, $65 million gondola has made Palisades Tahoe the largest ski resort in California, though not everyone is thrilled with the project, the Mercury News reported. The gondola, which has been in the works for decades, merges the Palisades Tahoe (formerly Olympic Valley) and Alpine Meadows ski areas into one 6,000-acre megaresort, enabling skiers to access both areas without having to make a 20-minute drive, according to the outlet. Instead, the gondola connects,
Developers of Fontainebleau Las Vegas have secured a $2.2 billion construction loan to complete the long-stalled project, according to a press release. The 67-story hotel-casino is expected to be completed sometime in late 2023. The financing was arranged by Fontainebleau Development and Koch Real Estate Investments. The resort is expected to be one of the biggest in Las Vegas, spanning 25 acres and 9 million square feet. The property will feature about 3,700 hotel rooms,
The dollar store brick-and-mortar renaissance continues, as chains like Dollar General and Dollar Tree are enjoying a strong surge in new openings across the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Both chains will have opened a combined 1,300 new locations by the end of the fiscal year, continuing the momentum from 2021, when nearly half of the 3,600 new stores that opened nationwide were no-frills discount shops. In addition, Five Below and TJX Co., the
The lack of affordable and available housing affects a frequently overlooked cohort: college students. But two pilot programs primarily funded by the nonprofit housing group Trinity Church Wall Street — one in collaboration with the Borough of Manhattan Community College — are providing housing to up to 76 students in New York City for up to three years, the New York Times reported. The program will house 36 college students in a seven-story rental building
When we asked in this month’s edition of the magazine, “What the hell is happening in residential real estate?” The evidence pointed to one irrefutable answer: not a whole lot of good. Indeed, November brought a tsunami of bad news from some of the residential industry’s biggest players in the U.S., from Redfin to Opendoor to Compass. Unsurprisingly, year-end figures and 2023 projections released recently — amid economic uncertainty, inflation and high interest rates that
A 150-year-old lighthouse-turned-inn in the San Francisco Bay is in need of innkeepers. The East Brother Light Station’s two current innkeepers, Bryan and Stephanie Wesolek are leaving their post in March when their two-year contract expires, Mercury News reported. The new contract will begin in April 2023. The bed-and-breakfast, located on a small rocky island near Point Molate in Richmond, California, hosts day visits, special events and visitors renting rooms. The new innkeepers will be
Billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn has more than doubled down on an uncertain luxury real estate market by listing five properties for nearly $300 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. In addition to listing his 50 Central South duplex for $90 million last week, Wynn has listed two Sun Valley, Idaho, homes for $27 million, as well as a Palm Beach property for $78.5 million. That’s in addition to a Beverly Hills, California, estate that
Activist investor Jonathan Litt’s firm Land & Buildings Investment Management, which has accumulated a 3 percent stake in Six Flags, has called on the amusement park operator to shed its real estate holdings to boost its flagging share price, the Wall Street Journal reported. Litt said in a presentation to investors that the real estate — which he values more than its $1.7 billion market cap — can be sold or spun off and leased
While China may have fewer entries on the list of the five tallest skyscrapers set to be completed next year than in years past, the country still has three such buildings, including the tallest and second tallest, according to The B1M. The tallest skyscraper to be finished next year is the 1,560-foot Wuhan Greenland Center, which originally was supposed to be the second-tallest human-made structure in the world — surpassing Tokyo Skyfree — when construction
Dreams for hundreds of housing units and other development projects in the Bay Area have given way to nightmares of dilapidated spaces filled with illegal dumping, homeless encampments and drug users. Vacant development sites have proliferated across the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco. Apartments, condos, hotels and office space have all fallen by the wayside, failing to deliver an expected 16 million square feet of housing and office space in Central SoMa alone,
The owner of the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns made his fortune in real estate. The franchise’s apparent next owner’s wealth comes from mortgages. United Wholesale Mortgage chief executive Mat Ishbia is planning to purchase the Suns in a deal that would value the team at $4 billion, Bloomberg reported. The deal has yet to be finalized, but it would shatter the previous record acquisition for an NBA franchise, set by Joe Tsai when he
If the mask reveals the man, as Oscar Wilde once said, then the holiday party reveals the brokerage. While some brokerages weren’t in a hurry to light up the holiday party scene, perhaps a fitting trend given the state of the market, those that did — namely Serhant and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York — chose venues and aesthetics that reveal their realities and the ambitions of their executives. Corcoran and Brown Harris Stevens all
Construction companies found criminally responsible for the death or injury of a worker will now face steeper fines, though not as high as previously planned. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday signed Carlos’ Law, a measure inspired by the death of 22-year-old construction worker Carlos Moncayo, who was crushed in a 2015 trench collapse near the High Line. The bill raises the fines for convictions related to construction deaths and injuries to as much as $500,000.
State legislators and environmentalists want to rock New York down to Electric Avenue. Democrats and climate advocates are pushing to pass two statewide building electrification bills next year, the Times Union reported. The first calls for the electrification of all new buildings constructed in the state, beginning as early as 2024. Existing buildings could continue to use fossil fuel for heat and hot water. New York City already has such a law; it kicks in
The New York attorney general penalized one of the nation’s biggest title insurance companies for anti-competitive labor practices. Stewart will pay $2.5 million in a settlement with Letitia James’ office, HousingWire reported. James accused the company — the smallest of the “Big Four” title insurers — of entering into no-poaching agreements with competitors, thwarting employees’ salary hikes and career advancement. The payment represents a tiny fraction of the publicly traded company’s revenue, which exceeded $716
Money may not grow on trees, but chopping them down could cost one developer millions. A Bridgehampton homeowner sued Joe Farrell this week, accusing the luxury home builder of trespassing on her property and cutting down 120 trees without her permission. Susan Burnside wants a Suffolk County court to award her up to $36 million, depending on the value of the arboreal assets removed from her home at 134 Maple Lane. Burnside claims that each
Wall Street has amassed a considerable war chest to take advantage of the shifting housing market. Institutional investors have earmarked up to $110 billion to purchase or build single-family rentals, Insider reported. The estimate comes from Zelman & Associates, which hailed the amount as the most ever accumulated by investors to acquire U.S. homes. Of the $110 billion, $30 billion has already been committed to properties being leased or developed, a Zelman investment banker added.
A new Southampton home on the market for $15 million has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, 10,000 square feet and two foreclosure actions against it. Cayman Islands company Blue Sky Ltd initiated a UCC sale for the equity interests in the home at 145 Wickapogue Road, legal filings show. Blue Sky alleges the property owner owes it at least $6.9 million, according to a notice of sale. The winning bidder stands to take possession of a
There’s a mystery afoot in New York City’s rental market, where the count of rent-stabilized units fell by 12 percent without explanation. There were 858,000 rent-regulated units registered with the state’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal as of November, down from 974,000 when the seminal Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act was passed in 2019, The City reported. The drop came despite the law being designed to prevent landlords from deregulating vacant apartments after
In West Texas, the typical home costs only three times as much as the typical income. But in some California markets, that ratio triples. These and other fascinating facts emerged when The Real Deal analyzed Zillow and Census data for 300-plus U.S. metropolitan areas to see how income and home prices compare. As one might expect, the higher the per capita income in an area, the higher the median home price. But relative to income,
A Miami-based short term rental company and its CEO are being sued for more than a million dollars after allegedly skipping out on rent at apartments across New York City. Landlords filed seven complaints Tuesday against LuxUrban Hotels, which until last month was known as CorpHousing Group, and its CEO Brian Ferdinand for about $1.5 million in unpaid rent and other expenses stemming from 20 units that the firm allegedly rented in Manhattan and northern
From the sand dunes of Saudi Arabia to the sunny shores of South Florida, from Bowery “flophouses” to Westchester courthouses, The Real Deal took readers around the world this year, exploring every niche of real estate. Our reporters and editors investigated complex legal battles and political loopholes, brought behind-the-scenes players into the spotlight and continued to shed light on one of the world’s most important but least understood industries whenever and wherever possible. With all
City Hall is calling on the real estate industry to help house the growing number of asylum seekers arriving in New York City. The Economic Development Corporation on Thursday released a request for proposals for space to temporarily house migrants. The RFP casts a wide net, calling on developers to pitch space that can “accommodate congregate-style housing,” such as industrial space, but does not rule out hotel, office and residential space. At a minimum, the
The three partners planning a 1,300-unit conversion of 25 Water Street closed the $536 million loan that’s been in the works for months. Michael Dell’s MSD Partners and Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance provided the loan for the acquisition and redevelopment of the Financial District property, Newmark announced Thursday. The Real Deal reported in October that 25 Water Street’s developers — Jeff Gural’s GFP Real Estate, Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft and Rockwood Capital — were
The evidence keeps pouring in: Fewer sales. More days on the market. Fewer bidding wars. Fewer offers above the asking price. Yes, the housing market is continuing its about-face. Home sales dropped 35.1 percent year-over-year in November, according to Redfin — the largest drop recorded by the brokerage since it began tracking sales in 2012. There were other signs of a cooling housing market in Redfin’s report. The median home sale price increased by only
A flexible office and event space company has laid off dozens of workers in New York City and closed its Chicago office. Convene let go of 54 New York employees and permanently closed its 50,000-square-foot office in Chicago’s Citadel Center, BisNow reported. The layoffs and office closure come as Convene reassesses its organization structure, the company’s co-founder and CEO Ryan Simonetti said in a LinkedIn post. “Unfortunately, this meant making the incredibly tough decision to
A Williamsburg apartment building could become the city’s first residential property to host a lithium ion storage battery on its rooftop — much to its tenants’ dismay. MicroGrid Networks has spent two years trying to put 2.5 megawatts on the roof of 315 Berry Street, the New York Post reported. It has the support of the seven-story, 49-unit building’s landlord, Richard Herbst, though financial terms of their arrangement are unclear. But the prospect of the
Chains are not taking over New York City, despite warnings from advocates that independent businesses would be doomed without special protections. Even the city’s most prolific retailer, Dunkin’ Donuts, grew by just 0.8 percent last year, an annual tally found. While the doughnut and coffee chain added five locations to bring its city-leading total to 620, the number of chain stores in the city grew only 0.3 percent, according to the Center for an Urban
A massive waterfront development that will bring 1,200 residential units to Edgewater secured its first phase of financing. Maxal Group, EnviroFinance Group, and Equity Resource Investments obtained a $50 million pre-development loan from Northwind Group for their contested New Jersey project at the site of a former Hess oil refinery. The developers will build three towers with residential commercial space and a 2.5-acre waterfront park at 615 River Road. Of the 1,200 one-, two- and
The first legal cannabis store will open in a week at Manocherian Brothers’ 750 Broadway in Noho. Housing Works, a nonprofit known for HIV/AIDS advocacy and a Soho bookstore, signed a 7,400-square-foot lease for the space, Katz & Associates announced. The Astor Place store will open Dec. 29, becoming the first legal seller of recreational marijuana in the city. Housing Works Cannabis Co. will operate 4,400 square feet on the ground level and 3,000 square
Manhattan’s luxury market had a Jekyll-and-Hyde year, and unfortunately for sellers and agents, it is still in the Mr. Hyde stage. During the first half of 2022, sellers rode momentum from last year, when low interest rates and pandemic effects sparked a home-buying boom: Buyers signed 836 contracts for Manhattan homes asking $4 million or more. In the second half, a very different story unfolded. Rising borrowing rates and a declining stock market limited luxury
Billionaire hedge funder John Paulson may have given away $100 million to put his name on New York University’s newest building, but that’s peanuts compared to what he could soon part with. Paulson and his wife, Jenica, are locked in a bitter divorce that will divvy up, among other things, a real estate portfolio worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Paulson, who made his fortune betting against subprime mortgage bonds before the Great Recession, is
Sale prices at the top of the Hamptons market dropped this year, but that doesn’t mean there were bargains to be had. The 10 most expensive homes sold for a combined $550 million, a 9 percent decrease from last year’s $607 million. The big difference in 2022: No home topped the $100 million mark, as 90 Jule Pond Drive did last year. Here were the top 10 home sales in the Hamptons this year through
Landlords were desperate for action on New York’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which exempts tenants from eviction despite running out of cash, and last week they got it. Under a settlement, on Jan. 15, ERAP will no longer accept applications, meaning no more instant eviction shield for tenants who apply. But troubling questions remain for landlords and the tens of thousands of applicants who have yet to hear if they qualify for aid. How long
During the pandemic, it seemed like every week there was another $50 million condo sale, but the market has cooled off in recent months, and an analysis of public data shows that some top tier projects still have large amounts of unsold inventory. Before we dig in, let’s set the table. Here’s a map of the 66 condo projects filed in New York since 2018 that are projected to sell out for $100 million or
Douglas Elliman’s Eklund-Gomes Team signed a five-year deal to re-commit to the brokerage. The 90-person team led by Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes has reeled in more than $4 billion in transactions across Elliman’s 13 markets, the brokerage said. The team previously claimed the top spot in The Real Deal’s 2021 ranking of top Manhattan brokers, with $492 million in sell-side deals. A person familiar with the deal said Eklund-Gomes’ previous contract expired at the
Local bias explains a phenomenon in investing in which people concentrate their portfolios in their own country. Only one nation’s stock market can perform the best, which means investors everywhere else are making a mistake. Apparently it exists in residential brokerage as well. A Compass survey of its agents found nearly 70 percent predicted home prices in their areas would increase next year, even as almost 80 percent said prices would stagnate or decline nationally.
Amazon Fresh is leaving a bad taste in the mouths of several communities stuck with “zombie” stores, waiting indefinitely for them to open. Grocery stores that appear ready to open but sit closed are accumulating for Amazon, The Information reported. Local officials and landlords spread across the country are in the dark about whether the stores will ever open. Amazon launched its brand of full-sized grocery stores without checkout lines in September 2020, proceeding to
Empire State Realty Trust is doubling down on diversification into Manhattan’s multifamily market. The office-centric REIT acquired a mixed-use property at 298 Mulberry Street in Noho for $114.9 million from Broad Street Development and a real estate fund connected to Texas-based Crow Holdings Capital. A JLL team consisting of Andrew Scandalios and Rob Hinckley brokered the transaction on behalf of the sellers, who acquired the building for $91.5 million in 2014, according to city property
Oheka Castle seems to be cursed — not by ghosts, but by failed development dreams. The property’s owner is taking another shot at building there, though. Gary Melius, the owner of the West Hill property, applied for an additional use permit that would enable construction of a four-story condominium on the castle’s grounds, Newsday reported. The condo project would include 95 units and have its own sewage treatment plant. Covenants and restrictions were placed on
Slate Property Group and nonprofit RiseBoro Community Partnership have nailed down a construction loan for a sizable affordable housing project in Brownsville. The developers secured $121.7 million — a combination of tax credits, subsidies and financing from Goldman Sachs Asset Management — to build a 185,000-square-foot structure with 215 apartments at 326 Rockaway Avenue in the eastern Brooklyn neighborhood. Some 129 units, or 60 percent, will be supportive housing for the homeless or those at
Residential brokerages fall back to Earth in 2022, and made some momentous moves along the way. After a decade of ruthless expansion that saw it become the largest brokerage by volume, Compass shifted its focus to profitability, as questions swirled about its financial health. There were several high-level shakeups across the industry, as brokerages said goodbye to C-Suite executives in an effort to streamline their operations. None were as big as Coldwell Banker CEO Ryan
Irish eyes are smiling on Fifth Avenue once again. The Gilded Age mansion at 991 Fifth Avenue that has housed the American Irish Historical Society for more than 80 years has been pulled off the market, the New York Times reported. The scuttled listing is part of a plan from the New York Attorney General’s office to preserve the nonprofit and save the townhouse. The AG’s Charities Bureau secured the resignation of the nonprofit’s former
Thor Equities filed a lawsuit against three Lightstone Group executives over their activities with former heads at Joe Sitt’s firm. The lawsuit, filed this week in New York County Supreme Court, names Lightstone chairman David Lichtenstein, president Mitchell Hochberg and executive vice president Joseph Teichman, the Commercial Observer reported. Thor alleges in the suit the executives helped two former executives of Thor “breach fiduciary duties.” Those executives, former Thor vice presidents Jonathan Scheinberg and William
The same waterfront condominium keeps setting sales records in Hoboken. A 10th floor penthouse at Harborside Lofts at the Hudson Tea Building just changed hands for a Hoboken condo record $4.65 million, or $1,788 per square foot, the New York Post reported. The buyer and seller of the duplex at 1500 Garden Street were not disclosed. The 2,600-square-foot apartment had been listed at $4.95 million by Brown Harris Stevens’ Peter Cossio, who also had the
Back in the fateful year of 2020, multifamily investor and developer Slate Property Group was looking to pivot. David Schwartz, the firm’s principal and co-founder, told The Real Deal that summer that Slate wanted to focus on affordable housing, including temporary apartments for homeless people, given New York City’s growing need. Nearly two and a half years later, property records show the firm has quietly executed that plan. Slate has spent roughly $320 million acquiring
Condo projects are still a big part of the development picture in the outer boroughs, but Queens and Brooklyn took a step back in the value of its top condo filings this year. The total projected sellout of the 10 largest projects registered with the state this year in Queens and Brooklyn was $1.06 billion, an 18 percent decline from $1.29 billion last year. It was still nearly triple the $384 million total of the
Gilbane Development Company is expanding its affordable housing portfolio in the Bronx. A joint venture of Gilbane, Systima Capital Management, ELH Management and TerreAlto acquired four Section 8 projects and a development site in the Bronx for $107.5 million from Joel Gluck’s Spencer Equity. Crain’s was first to report the sale. The four buildings consist of 477 units across more than 551,000 square feet at 280 East 161st Street in Morrisania, 2363 Southern Boulevard in
New York City’s housing market has slowed in recent months, but the tides appear to be turning as sellers lose their leverage. For-sale inventory rose year-over-year for the first time since July 2021, new data published by StreetEasy show. More New York City sellers lowered their asking prices and homes spent longer on the market longer compared to a year ago. New York City’s market is resembling 2019,”when rising inventory led to more price cuts
Williamsburg has chewed up and spit out more than its share of developers whose backs were against the wall when the market got tough. But the owners of the Kent House rental building, which a year ago looked like it was headed to foreclosure, have avoided that fate. Cheskie Weisz and Yaakov Klein refinanced their positions at the 96-unit building at 187 Kent Avenue with $115 million in new mortgages — a coda to the
George Santos made headlines when he flipped New York’s third district in his midterm election to the House of Representatives and secured a key win for Republicans. However, his winning campaign was built on a number of misrepresentations, according to a New York Times investigation. Santos, the son of Brazilian immigrants and the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican elected to Congress, claimed he was an investor who had worked on Wall Street and counted 13
Ezra Unger is once again facing foreclosure on his nearly finished luxury condo development in South Williamsburg. DW Partners restarted the foreclosure process on 427 Marcy Avenue, a 25-unit project intended to house Hasidic families. Unger’s company owes $31.5 million in unpaid debt, the lender claims. New York-based DW Partners first tried to foreclose on the property late last year, but was stalled by two last-minute lawsuits. One was filed by Unger, who argued the
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has big plans for 50 acres around the team’s ballpark in Queens. Cohen is seeking community input for the area around Citi Field in a visioning session aimed at furthering his priorities and prior discussions with community groups and leaders. His stated mission for the development includes eliminating vacant space and removing barriers dividing neighborhoods from each other and the Flushing Bay waterfront. Cohen’s vision for the space includes
René Pérez Joglar, better known as the rapper Residente, can now call Tribeca home thanks to his purchase of a 3,600-square-foot condo for just under $10 million. The musician, writer and producer, who until recently lived in Chelsea and won a 2018 Grammy Award for a self-titled solo album, scooped up the posh pad at 416 Washington Street for $1 million under its asking price. Residente rose to fame in Latin America as half of
An agent commissions suit that could have major ramifications for the residential real estate industry is headed to trial. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Bough dismissed motions for summary judgment by the National Association of Realtors, Anywhere Real Estate, Keller Williams, RE/MAX and HomeServices of America, Inman reported. If the judge had granted the motions, the lawsuit from homeseller plaintiffs Joshua Sitzer and Amy Winger would have ended in favor of the defendants. The plaintiffs
New York landlords who feel handcuffed by rent stabilization probably have no idea what landlords in Elizabeth, New Jersey, have been dealing with. Last week, the city council there voted to eliminate a policy capped annual rent increases at $20, NJ.com reported. Under the policy, landlords could only raise rents by either a crisp Andrew Jackson or 3 percent, whichever was less (almost always the Jackson). While the $20 rent control measure is becoming a
There’s a chilling scene in “Margin Call,” the tour de force about the financial crisis, where Jeremy Irons’ character, the head of a major Wall Street investment bank, approaches a key deputy, played by Demi Moore. “Sarah, I need a head to feed to the traders on the floor,” he says. He means a sacrificial lamb, someone he can blame for the gargantuan mess the bank is in. “You’re going to be well taken care
For decades a city of rentals and co-ops, New York now has condos across town. And that trend figures to accelerate. New York has condos in the sky and shaped like a sail. The future promises still more as lawmakers let a property tax break for rentals expire but kept the abatement for condominiums. However, after a rip-roaring start to 2022, sponsor unit sales cooled as the Fed hiked interest rates and mortgage rates followed
Brooklyn’s luxury market last week slowed from the previous period, and notched its highest average discount of the year in the process. Twelve homes asking $2 million or more went into contract last week, according to Compass’ weekly report. The contracts had an average 6 percent discount. The most expensive property to enter contract was 39 Willow Place in Brooklyn Heights, asking just under $6 million. The townhouse, built in 1930, has eight bedrooms and
One group of proptech investors is getting a refund before the holidays. After nearly two years, Scott Rechler’s RXR has pulled the plug on plans for a SPAC to merge with a proptech company and will return $345 million to would-be shareholders. RXR Acquisition Corp. will cancel its public shares on Dec. 20, ahead of the March 8 deadline to either merge with a target company, or return shareholders’ investment, the company disclosed in a
CompStak is putting its money where its data is, leaving behind its longtime Noho headquarters for a space more than twice the size in Chelsea. The commercial real estate data platform signed a five-year lease for 25,600 square feet at GFP Real Estate’s 675 Sixth Avenue, where it will relocate from an 11,000-square-foot space at Hartz Mountain’s 36 Cooper Square in Noho, its home since 2013. “I feel strongly that if CompStak is going to
A proposal from New York City Mayor Eric Adams could enhance the pricey retail corridor on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Adams announced a “major new visioning process” to make Fifth Avenue between Bryant Park and Central Park more pedestrian friendly, Gothamist reported. The mayor called the plan for the stretch from 42nd to 59th streets an “unmissable opportunity” to “help create vibrant central business districts.” The announcement came on the heels of an Open Street holiday
After a busy start to December, Manhattan’s luxury market slowed again last week. Buyers signed contracts for 16 homes asking $4 million or above, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report, down from 21 the week prior, the most since early November. Seven of the deals were for condominiums, six for townhouses and three for co-op units. Two penthouses, one Uptown and one Downtown, led the way. The most expensive home to go into contract was
It’s the end of the year as we know it, and investors feel uncertain. Rate hikes have slowed deals in the second half of 2022, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said there’s more pain to come. But how long can investors’ ample dry powder sit on the sidelines? The deal dam may break halfway through 2023, Moody’s senior economist Thomas LaSalvia said on the latest episode of TRD’s podcast “Deconstruct.” “The market is going
New York City dealmakers may have gotten an early start to their holiday vacations. Or maybe something is happening with interest rates. Whatever the case, only two transactions involving mid-market commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week. Manhattan and the Bronx each had one midsize sale last week. Below is more information on each deal, ranked by dollar figure amount. 1. An entity connected to Turnbridge Equities bought
Barnes & Noble is planning to add a net of 30 stores to its portfolio next year. The big-box bookseller is set to open more stores than it’s closing, the Wall Street Journal reported. The expansion plans put Barnes & Noble alongside Burlington, Ross Stores and TJX Companies, all of which are planning to increase their retail footprints. Retail leases for at least 20,000 square feet are on pace to hit 60 million square feet
A subsidiary of Dick’s Sporting Goods inked a deal with RAL Development to join its Union Square boutique office building. GameChanger, a youth sports platform for live streaming, signed a 25,000-square-foot lease at Zero Irving, the New York Post reported. The company will occupy the 17th and 18th floors of the technology-focused property at 124 East 14th Street. Asking rents for the space weren’t reported, but asking rents at the building start at $120 per
Two of the partners in Sag Harbor’s controversial 79-unit affordable housing proposal bailed on the project — another gut punch for the development. Conifer Realty and Smith & Henzy Advisory Group both backed out, 27East reported. Confider was leading the development and Smith & Henzy was charged with finding financing. Designer BHC Architects remains with the project. The departing companies cited the financial climate as the rationale for quitting, as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest
Photos by Jason Malihan About 400 guests were gathered to ring in the holidays, but Ryan Serhant’s focus was on Q1. Donning a black blazer with neon snowflakes, snowglobes and presents, Serhant predicted that next year, his eponymous brokerage would surpass the $2 billion in sales he said it brought in this year. “We are the best in challenged, volatile markets,” he said at the firm’s holiday party last week. “That’s where I built my
When four dozen left-wingers visited Vienna this fall to check out the Austrian city’s celebrated “social housing” program, the reactions from both sides of the political spectrum were predictable. First, the comically right-wing New York Post mocked the trip, giving socialism haters their dopamine fix. “It is unknown how much the expenses-paid trip actually cost,” the Post’s story said, quoting anonymous tweets that called the privately funded trip a pro-communism “junket.” Two days later, from
A major real-estate-industry group says the federal government is setting a bad example, and hurting the overall office market, by allowing remote work and reducing its office footprint. The Real Estate Roundtable — which is composed of ownership, development, lending and management firms along with trade associations — said in a letter that the Biden administration should make more efforts to lure federal workers back to their offices, CoStar reports. “We are concerned that certain
A Louisiana lawsuit against D.R. Horton, the nation’s largest homebuilder, could be expanded to a class-action after a series of rulings this month, The Advocate of Baton Rouge reported. A Youngsville, Louisiana, family sued the homebuilder in state court claiming a home built by the Texas-based company was defectively designed and constructed, leading to mold, humidity and HVAC issues. The family’s lawyers — claiming hundreds of homeowners in the state and nationwide have also been
The conservation movement in San Mateo County is having a big moment as the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District won approval to buy a 6,300-acre site on the coast. The government agency, also known as Midpen, is purchasing Cloverdale Ranch for $16 million, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The large swath of land is on Highway 1, south of Pescadero. The property is the biggest Midpen has purchased in its 50-year history; the deal is
Kieran M. Brew, formerly of Saunders & Associates, has joined Serhant’s Hamptons division. Brew has reeled in over $60 million in sales and rentals in each of the past several years, according to a release. “It’s a natural fit for me and I expect it’s going to be a lot of fun to help develop this innovative luxury brand even more in the Hamptons,” Brew said in a statement. Serhant expanded its presence in the
After staking its claim in Washington, D.C., Douglas Elliman Realty is targeting Boston for further expansion. The firm, which announced last month that it’s opening three locations in the Metro D.C. area, now has a second office in Boston after acquiring independent real estate company Bulfinch Boston Realty, Inman reported. In doing so, Elliman will bring on board Bulfinch President Zechariah Cook along with the company’s six-person team, which has had $200 million in sales
Sometimes the government is your enemy, sometimes it’s your friend. Such is the case with billionaire Ken Griffin, who earlier this week sued the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department, and is looking for Miami officials to move a historic waterfront home he recently purchased, the Miami Herald reported. Griffin, who owns the investment firm Citadel, in September bought the 4-acre estate from Miami businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht for $106 million. The estate
The new messiah of the New York office market is the new pariah of the Internal Revenue Service. Hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin, whose investment firm Citadel recently announced a deal to construct a new supertower in Midtown East, has sued the IRS and the Treasury Department in Florida federal court over the alleged unlawful disclosure of his tax records, Bloomberg reported. The lawsuit, which seeks monetary damages, claims the IRS violated its “legal obligations to
In the December issue of the magazine, we asked the question “Who’s crazy enough to build office?” It’s a fair question in light of numerous companies reducing their office footprints because of the rise of remote work, reduced headcount due to layoffs and increasing construction costs. Meta, for example, recently announced it is spending $3 billion to consolidate office space. Even more extreme, Twitter last week stopped paying rent on its downtown San Francisco headquarters.
A Philadelphia landlord that owns and operates 77 properties in the city is accused of engaging in modern-day redlining by refusing to rent properties in majority-white neighborhoods to people with federal Section 8 vouchers, Bloomberg reported. The landlord, ProManaged Inc., has been sued in federal and local courts by the nonprofit Housing Equality Center of Pennsylvania for allegedly steering voucher holders to company-owned units in majority-Black neighborhoods. The nonprofit claims it conducted an investigation from
Not all crypto founders are in jail or under federal investigation right now –– at least one of them is house-hopping in Lake Tahoe. Blockchains founder and CEO Jeffrey Berns and his wife, Mary Berns, listed a pair of adjacent properties they own on the Lake Tahoe waterfront for a combined $45 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The homes can also be bought separately, for $40 million and $7 million, respectively, the outlet reported.
A PulteGroup executive was fired Friday after he allegedly used Twitter accounts and bots to harass the grandson of the company’s founder, the Detroit Free Press reported. The Atlanta-based company, which is one of the largest homebuilders in the nation, announced Friday that it had fired Brandon Jones, a PulteGroup senior vice president who was set to start as chief operating officer in January, following an investigation that concluded he had violated the company’s code
A couple of heavy hitters made significant, though disparate, investments in Seattle-area real estate last week. First, Pontegadea, the realty group owned by the founder of the fast fashion chain Zara, Amancio Ortega, bought the Kiara skyscraper at 111 Terry Avenue North in Seattle for $323 million, Bloomberg reported. It’s the second foray in the luxury multifamily market for Ortega’s family office, which in June purchased 19 Dutch Street, a 64-story tower in New York,
A Florida-based real estate company has been sued by the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania attorneys general for allegedly scamming financially struggling homeowners, the Philadelphia Inquirer and CBS Boston reported. MV Realty is accused in both states of misleading homeowners by obtaining mortgages on their homes without their knowledge, the outlets said. The company, according to the lawsuits, paid homeowners a few hundred dollars in exchange for the right to be the listing agent in the event
Elon Musk’s decisions, particularly regarding Twitter, are drawing international attention and, sometimes, outrage. At a much more granular level, however, it’s Musk’s neighbors being driven nuts. Residents of Bastrop County in central Texas expressed displeasure about the commercial activities surrounding once-idyllic farmland, the Austin Business Journal reported. Musk has centered much of his business empire in the area around Austin and Bastrop, including the social media company, Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Co. and Neuralink. Musk’s
Challenging times call for creative solutions. To wit: a 30-story former Jehovah’s Witness hotel in Brooklyn has been converted to one of the nation’s largest supportive housing developments, according to the New York Times. The building at 90 Sands Street in Dumbo — which has 490 units, along with a gym, computer lab and bike room — will have 385 formerly homeless tenants who will pay no more than 30 percent of their income in
Moves by Steve Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group and Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital to limit investor withdrawals from their respective real estate investment trusts amid an uptick in requests has caught the attention of federal regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached out to both firms to understand the market impact and circumstances of the decisions, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. The SEC has reportedly inquired about how Blackstone and Starwood met redemptions and whether any
Warren Buffett did not attend Wednesday night’s Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices holiday party, but its setting — a former Vanderbilt mansion in Lenox Hill — lent plenty of gravitas to the event. Gathered at the Lotos Club on East 66th Street off Madison Avenue, agents described the gathering as almost like family, though many were newcomers to the firm. Executives Brad Loe and Steven James, who joined from Douglas Elliman last year, kept the mood light
A LaGuardia Airport hotel that hasn’t welcomed a guest in five years has found a buyer. The Connecticut-based Heyman family, longtime owners of the former Courtyard by Marriott LaGuardia Hotel at 90-10 Ditmars Boulevard, sold the 288-key property for $53 million, The Real Deal has learned. The buyer is an individual named Kenny Huang, according to people familiar with the deal, who were unable to provide additional information. Located directly across Grand Central Parkway from
New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing a Long Island nursing home and its owners, including Brooklyn real estate investor Avi Philipson and his father, Bent Philipson, for allegedly diverting government funds, resulting in severe understaffing and neglect of residents. The lawsuit comes as a group led by Avi Philipson is set to acquire All Year Holding’s North Brooklyn real estate portfolio for $43.5 million. Philipson’s group also recently sought to buy All Year’s
After axing its ties with embattled franchise Corcoran Global Living, the Corcoran Group announced a new agreement with an affiliate composed of executives from the former franchise. On Dec. 19, Corcoran Icon Properties will officially start business. Executives, sales associates and staff who worked with Corcoran Global Living in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area up to Humboldt and Calaveras County regions will be part of the affiliate. The new company will work with 24
The Real Estate Board of New York isn’t letting Compass off the hook without a fight. Days after Compass filed a motion to dismiss its own lawsuit against the advocacy group, in which it alleged REBNY, Corcoran Group and Douglas Elliman collaborated to harm Compass by modifying and selectively enforcing the group’s rules, the trade group is firing back. REBNY Friday afternoon filed its response to Compass’ request, asking to dismiss the case with prejudice
Manhattan’s retail market is stabilizing as shoppers return to the city and generous pandemic-era concessions fade, but asking rents in most key corridors have stalled far below their pre-Covid peaks. Just five of 16 Manhattan retail corridors tracked by the Real Estate Board of New York saw average asking rents increase from the spring to the fall, according to a report released this week. Two corridors saw asking rents flatline, while nine experienced declines. The
Not all community boards support more housing in their neighborhoods. Manhattan Community Board 4 is out to prove it isn’t like all community boards. The board on Thursday unveiled a plan calling for 23,000 more homes within its borders on the West Side, the New York Times reported. It includes 1,400 affordable homes in the district, stretching from West 14th Street to Columbus Circle. The board has no power or funding to implement such a
Multifamily buildings are reconsidering the future of e-bikes in their properties after rechargeable batteries were blamed for a fire that injured 38 last month at a Turtle Bay apartment complex. The board of the London Terrace Towers, a large co-op in West Chelsea, will vote next week on whether to ban e-bikes, The City reported. The co-op board was advised to ban e-bikes by an executive from Douglas Elliman, which manages the building. A ban
This season of “The White Lotus” may be over, but consumers seeking a hint of Italian luxury have a new spot to explore in Noho. Italian retailer LuisaViaRoma signed a 13,000-square-foot lease at 1 Bond Street, the New York Business Journal reported. It will be the online retailer’s first physical location in the U.S. The retailer will occupy 8,000 square feet on the ground level and 5,000 square feet on the lower level of the
UPDATED Dec. 17, 2022, 11:17 a.m. A Harlem City Council member trucked with the wrong developer. Seven months after Council member Kristin Richardson Jordan killed a 50-percent affordable apartment project planned for West 145th Street and Lenox Avenue, developer Bruce Teitelbaum will open a truck depot at the site Monday. Site preparations were underway Thursday, when Teitelbaum planned to put up a sign reading “Park your fleet” — an allowed use of the commercially zoned
For nearly four hours on Oct. 11, Santa Monica appeared headed for another forgettable Tuesday evening council meeting. From their perch around the hall’s imposing dark wooden dais, the six members present recited the Pledge of Allegiance. They watched a long presentation on Filipino American History Month, debated the merits of an outdoor holiday rink and approved a Fire Department technology contract. But shortly after 8 p.m., Jing Yeo, the city’s soft-spoken planning manager, approached
The following is one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal for all the data and market information you need. If remote work was supposed to be the death of the Manhattan office tower, some of the city’s top developers didn’t get the memo. For The Real Deal’s December issue, Kathryn Brenzel looked at some of the biggest offices in the pipeline from RXR Realty, Related
UPDATED, Dec. 15, 10:28 p.m.: Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust is getting kicked off the New York Stock Exchange, the latest blow to the struggling mall operator that went through bankruptcy two years ago. The exchange announced Thursday afternoon that it would immediately suspend trading of PREIT’s shares and begin the process of delisting the stock after the mall owner failed to maintain a market capitalization of at least $15 million. A spokesperson for the
It’s been rough going for WeWork. The co-working company’s bonds are at junk status, its losses are eye-popping and its cash reserves are alarmingly low. WeWork has tried to reassure investors by saying it continues to cut costs by shedding leases. But getting out of deals can be difficult. Witness the battle it has had to wage with an affiliate of the Sapir Organization, its former landlord in New York, for breaking a lease at
A mammoth development on the Greenpoint waterfront just got a shot in the arm. Lendlease, an Australian developer known for its megaprojects, secured a $360 million construction loan to build a 36-story, 834-unit rental complex at 1 Java Street. Bank of America led a consortium of lenders that also included Mizuho Bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC Bank) and TD Bank. “This financing is proof that experienced, creditworthy sponsors can secure debt financing even in uncertain
The jig may be up for Nimbys in rich neighborhoods. City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Thursday announced a sweeping housing and land use agenda, including specific affordable housing goals for each community district. Her “Fair Housing Framework” will require each community district to set specific targets for housing production and preservation, and consider other community investments and voucher use. It’s a response to wealthy areas’ paltry production of affordable housing — or in some
An investor took aim at CW Realty founder Cheskie Weisz in a lawsuit over the recent sale of a controversial development site near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Haim Kahan filed a lawsuit against the new owners of the Spice Factory development site this week, claiming the CW Realty boss cheated Kahan out of $4.5 million, Crain’s reported. Kahan wants his money back, as well as an ownership stake in whatever development takes root at 960
Steve Wynn is betting that someone will pony up $90 million for his penthouse condo, but the odds don’t look good. The casino magnate has put his 50 Central Park South duplex on the market for $90 million. The 10,875-square-foot apartment on the 30th and 31st floors of the Ritz-Carlton has three bedrooms, four bathrooms, two half-bathrooms, 15-foot ceilings, terraces and views of Central Park. Wynn paid $70 million in 2012 to buy the penthouse
The former president of a powerful construction union in the city pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges. James Cahill, who led the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council, was among 11 to plead guilty to charges associated with accepting cash and bribes, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York announced this week. Cahill was one of nine construction officials indicted in October 2020 on charges of racketeering, bribery and
Unit owners at Glenwood Management’s first condo project might wish the developer had stuck to rentals. Five years after the developer entered the condo market with a project at 60 East 86th Street, the board claims the 19-story offering on Upper East Side with 14 units is coming undone — and it wants Glenwood to pony up $21 million for damages. The condo board called construction of the building “decificient” and “hazardous” in a lawsuit
The following is one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal for all the data and market information you need. Snap quiz: Over the past 12 years in Manhattan, which has been more available, condos or co-ops? Sorry, trick question. The answer has changed repeatedly as developers tried — sometimes in vain — to match their products to market demand. Generally, buyers have gravitated away from
Newport Beach real estate pros may have scoffed when Beverly Hills agents, with their high-flying, reality-TV lifestyles, planted flags on the Orange County coast. But the outsiders are here, and they’ve made clear they plan to stay. They cite their TV-enabled reach and their connections to the global elite, who’ve taken a shine to the stretch of coast running from Newport Beach through Laguna Beach to Dana Point. The reward for these agents is clear:
The 10 largest real estate loans in Manhattan last month totaled $488 million, following a paltry October figure. However, the November sum was about 25 percent of what big borrowers collected in the same month last year. Offices got some love from lenders, as they refinanced Tishman Speyer’s 666 Third Avenue and the Rudin family’s 560 Lexington Avenue. Magna Hospitality Group and Thor Equities refinanced hotels in the Financial District and Soho, respectively. Here are
After struggling for years to land a tenant, a prominent Madison Avenue retail space just picked up two. The ground-floor space at 645 Madison Avenue, Titan Golden’s 22-story office building on the corner of East 60th Street, will soon host apparel brand Peter Millar and Swiss watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen, both of which signed 10-year deals for roughly 2,900 square feet, plus a shared, 3,000-square-foot space on the lower level. Brokers say asking rents have returned
Invesco Real Estate has struck a deal to sell its luxury apartments atop the Mercedes House in Hell’s Kitchen’s for more than $100 million. Josh Rahmani and Ebi Khalili’s Empire Capital Holdings — fresh off their $320 million purchase of 1330 Sixth Avenue — are in contract to buy the 162-unit multifamily asset, the Commercial Observer reported. Cushman & Wakefield’s Gideon Gil is representing Empire Capital as it seeks acquisition financing for the deal. Branded
The Real Estate Board of New York tried getting an antitrust lawsuit filed by Compass thrown out twice. The residential brokerage is the one now trying to put an end to the suit. Compass filed a letter to the Southern District of New York District Court last week expressing a hope to settle its dispute with the state board organization out of court, Real Trends reported. In the letter, Compass referred to “procompetitive changes within
The mayor and governor shared a stage — no, really — to unveil an action plan Wednesday for New York, outlining a series of steps to create housing and improve the office market’s bleak outlook. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams’ “‘New’ New York: Making New York Work for Everyone” action plan includes 40 proposals aimed at, among other things, increasing housing supply and making business districts more attractive. At an event held by
The Real Estate Board of New York is ringing in 2023 with what the group called “significant” changes to its universal co-brokerage agreement. The new rules, which are effective Jan. 1, are tightening the language used to advertise listings. Brokers won’t be able to use the term “no-fee,” which the group said misleads customers who don’t understand the term only applies to the listing broker. The label “off-market” will be prohibited from exclusive listings and
To the relief of landlords statewide, New York’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program will finally shutter Jan. 15. “Thank God!” said June Margolin, a Long Island landlord who surveyed property owners plagued by the program. The closure, which housing providers had begged for because ERAP provided eviction protection despite running out of rent aid, resulted from a lawsuit settlement reached Wednesday. Tenants represented by the Legal Aid Society had sued to reopen the penniless program last
A mortgage firm is laying off scores of Long Island employees in the wake of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Reverse Mortgage Funding is laying off 119 people from its Melville office, Newsday reported. The New Jersey-based lender informed the state Department of Labor about the layoffs the day before the Nov. 30 bankruptcy filing. A spokesperson for the company told the publication that terminated employees’ final paychecks included compensation for unused paid time off.
A jewelry brand is relocating its North American headquarters from Baltimore to New York City in a $6 million move aimed for Times Square. Pandora is taking 27,000 square feet at 1540 Broadway, the Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced Tuesday. The company will operate out of the 35th floor of the building, which is owned by Edge Fund Advisors and HSBC. Pandora owns and operates 26 stores in the state, along with six franchised branded
Mortgage purchase applications continued to climb last week, thanks to a steadying of rates. Purchases rose 4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous period in the week ending Dec. 9, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Purchase applications were still 38 percent below the mark from the previous year. Overall, mortgage activity rose 3.2 percent from the previous week. In addition to the gain in purchases, the refinance index also jumped 3
The construction pipeline is getting narrower. There were 351 new building filings in New York City in the third quarter, down 17 percent from the second quarter and 28 percent year-over-year, according to a report from the Real Estate Board of New York. The drop is in part because the 421a property tax break for multifamily development in the city expired June 15, which triggered a rush of filings. The 689 in the first quarter
UPDATED, Dec. 13, 3:40 p.m.: Steve Ross mentioned it almost in passing. After more than 40 years together, his Related Companies and Jorge Pérez’s Related Group had recently “just kind of split,” he said during an industry talk in Miami last week. Ross didn’t state his partner’s name, but he was referring to Related Group. The separation, which Ross and Pérez said was “very amicable,” prompts questions about how the firms will compete with each
There’s no sugar-coating it: This has been a bad year for publicly traded REITs. The U.S. MSCI index, which tracks real estate investment trusts, has plunged over 20 percent in the past 12 months, the steepest fall since REITs lost 38 percent of their value in 2008. But a report by Toronto-based Hazelview Investments views that slide as a fear-based reaction, not one grounded in the trusts’ underlying performance. “Fundamentals went out the door in
An enterprising scammer looking for an industry in which to make a mark — or find one — could do a lot worse than real estate. In the past year alone, authorities have revealed high-profile cases of money laundering in a never-ending game of Whack-a-Mole. Real estate moguls make their bones with chutzpah, confidence and persuasion. Perhaps that’s why a business that’s minted more than its fair share of legitimate millionaires tends to attract droves
The following is one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal for all the data and market information you need. In Manhattan, condo units have been getting progressively more expensive than co-ops since the mid 1990s. In the third quarter of 2022, the median price of a Manhattan condo apartment was $1.63 million. Co-op units, on the other hand, were around half the price at $851,000.
The Corcoran Group has pulled the plug on its largest franchise, after a legal dispute and various allegations of fraud and unpaid commissions at the Southern California-based franchisee. Corcoran, itself a subsidiary of Anywhere Real Estate, will end its relationship with Corcoran Global Living’s Southern California division by year-end, according to a memo sent by Corcoran Global Living CEO Michael Mahon to employees and agents that was obtained by Inman. “I share this information with
Steve Croman, a Manhattan landlord who rose to infamy trying to force bad buyout deals on his tenants, says this time he’s the one who got hosed. Croman claims that his crooked attorney, convicted felon Mitch Kossoff, steered him into signing a one-sided property management agreement with a real estate executive who had a secret financial arrangement with the cash-strapped lawyer. While Croman was serving a jail sentence in 2018 after pleading guilty to multiple
Fifty million here, fifty million there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money. Gary Barnett might be channeling the late Sen. Everett Dirksen after closing several sales for tens of millions of dollars at Central Park Tower this season. Barnett’s Extell Development just sold Unit 124 at the supertall condominium for a hair above $50 million, according to public records. The buyer couldn’t immediately be discerned. The sale at 217 West 57th Street closed quickly,
Ohana Real Estate can bring Downtown Brooklyn’s Tillary Hotel into its family after a messy bankruptcy battle. The hospitality firm acquired the 174-room hotel and 64-unit apartment building in an auction last month, almost two years after an entity tied to Brooklyn dealmaker Isaac Hager and his business partner Lipa Rubin put the property into bankruptcy. But it hasn’t been all peace and love since Ohana took over. Ohana, through the entity TH Holdco, alleges
New York City is among the toughest homebuying markets in the U.S., and it’s even more daunting for single people. About two-thirds of its residences are rentals, and the rest typically go to families with wealth or multiple incomes. Starter homes are virtually non-existent. The city’s homeownership rate since 2011 has hovered around 31 percent, roughly half the national average, and home prices are nine times the median family income, compared with four times nationally.
Extell Development reached two agreements to refinance portions of its One Manhattan Square condo development. The developer landed loans of $217 million from Bank of America and $49 million from Athene Annuity and Life Company for its Two Bridges residential tower, according to public records. The larger loan covers 242 unsold condo units and a garage unit. The smaller one is secured by 113 unsold condo units. Together, that’s 44 percent of the apartments in
Fifth Wall has raised $866 million for its latest proptech fund, the largest-ever dedicated venture fund of its kind and a shot in the arm for a sector that’s been hit hard by rising interest rates. As with its earlier funds, including a climate tech fund and two proptech funds, Fifth Wall raised the money from a host of industry giants, including CBRE, Equity Residential, Invitation Homes and Cushman & Wakefield. Overall, the firm has
Nathan Berman is seeking to end the year with a deal to do what he does best: redevelop an office property for residential use. Berman’s Metro Loft Management and Fortress Investment Group are nearing an agreement to buy a stake of 85 Broad Street in the Financial District from Ivanhoe Cambridge, Bloomberg reported. People familiar with the matter told the outlet talks are ongoing and no deal has been reached; financial terms of the potential
“If it bleeds, it leads” is a guiding principle in the tabloid business, but the perceived rise of crime in New York City has leapt off front pages to residential brokers’ business. A bruising election cycle and relentless media coverage has made crime a top concern among New York City residents and observers. The reality is more complicated than sound bites portray: Overall crime is down from recent decades, and while murders and shootings are
Pacaso is in the eye of two torrential storms. The housing market is one of the most turbulent in recent memory, with sales volume slowing faster than it did even after the global financial crisis. The proptech sector has also taken a battering, with valuations of public companies down up to 90 percent and mass layoffs. So, as a proptech startup focused on housing — specifically on co-ownership of second homes — Pacaso has its
Many commercial tenants went to court for a pandemic rent break. A Murray Hill law firm can now count itself among the few to have won one. New York’s Appellate Division ruled that affiliates of landlord ABS Partners Real Estate must credit Wolf Haldenstein, a firm specializing in stocks and antitrust law, over $2 million in rent and legal fees after the office owner failed to complete renovations on the firm’s two floors of leased
Two years ago, the Federal Reserve was purchasing billions in mortgage-backed securities, reducing the rate it charged banks for loans and relaxing regulations on banks. The policies led to an era of nearly free money for real estate players, and spurred a dealmaking bonanza. Now, some see the Fed as the problem. It increased rates to 4 percent from near zero in less than a year. Everything from construction loans to refinancings to derivatives used
Multifamily assets were the darlings of mid-market investment deals in New York City last week. Six of seven transactions for commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million that hit city records last week involved apartment buildings or development sites where plans for such projects are in the works. Four of the deals were in Brooklyn, two were in the Bronx and one was in Manhattan. Below is more information on each, ranked by
Brooklyn brokers may have been guilty of aspirational pricing for the 19 luxury homes that went into contract last week. The asking prices for the 19 homes were discounted by an average of 5 percent from their initial listings, well above normal for Brooklyn homes asking $2 million or more. When the contracts were finally signed, the median asking price was $2.6 million and the average was $3 million, in line with figures for the
When the wealthy flocked to the Hamptons during the early months of the pandemic, auction houses followed. Those days are over and two of the companies are going once, going twice, gone. Christie’s and Phillips are both departing spaces they leased in the past few years in Southampton Village, 27East reported. Their specific reasons for leaving haven’t been revealed. Christie’s moved into 1 Pond Lane a year ago, grabbing space in a 5,600-square-foot building owned
A six-decade partnership between ATCO Properties and Ruben Companies over 630 Third Avenue has come to an end. H. Dale Hemmerdinger’s real estate investment firm bought out Richard Ruben’s stake in the Midtown East office building for $97.8 million, according to property records filed Monday. The sale was between “related companies or partners,” the deed shows. ATCO’s Kate Hemmerdinger Goodman said in a statement that the transaction represents the firm’s “ongoing faith in this neighborhood
The following is one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal for all the data and market information you need. Manhattan’s rental vacancy rate has historically reflected the pulse of its residents, never more so than in the past couple of years. When Covid lockdowns went into effect across New York City in March of 2020, a rise in vacancy followed. The city saw a major
A law firm is headed for Brookfield Properties’ Two Manhattan West. Crowell & Moring leased 71,000 square feet at the Hudson Yards development, the New York Post reported. The firm is moving to the still-unopened property from 590 Madison Avenue, also known as the IBM Building. While IBM is the largest tenant at its eponymous building, the departing law firm accounted for the largest share of total base rent at the property, as of a
Manhattan’s luxury market notched a bump in activity among signed contracts last week, with asking prices a little closer to Earth. There were 21 signed contracts last week, seven more than the week prior, according to Olshan Realty’s report on properties asking $4 million or more. The most expensive home to enter contract last week was the townhouse at 276 West 11th Street, with an asking price just under $17 million. The 25-foot-wide, 5,200-square-foot townhouse
Commercial real estate deals have sputtered in the second half of 2022 as borrowers face higher costs and uncertainty lingers over the economy. In New York, investment sales slid 30 percent from the second quarter to the third. Office deals in South Florida slipped 66 percent year over year in September. Nationally, multifamily deals skidded to what one economist called a “virtual standstill” in October. Amid that stagnancy, Christopher Merrill, CEO of Chicago-based alternative investment
The city’s rezoning plans in the Bronx and Brooklyn is quickly coming into focus as the mayor announces the first steps to his “moonshot” goal. The city’s proposed rezoning of a 46-block stretch of the borough is already kicking into high gear, City Limits reported. The Department of City Planning is starting public hearings this week and the application is expected to begin the Universal Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) by the summer. The largest
Fried Frank, one of New York’s top real estate law firms, is making its own move in the office market. The firm signed a lease for 14,000 square feet at Park Tower Group’s 535 Madison Avenue in the Plaza District, the New York Post reported. The company is moving and expanding its conference center, which will take the building’s entire 10th floor. The move is set for 2024, when Fried Frank will give up its
Westhampton Beach could get 45 new condo units — seven of them affordable — but only if the village board sides with the developer over residents opposing the project. WH Equity Group proposed the homes for eight acres north of Montauk Highway between Depot Road and Old Riverhead Road, 27East reported. The local planning board granted preliminary approval, but the village trustees could reduce the number of units or otherwise amend the plan. The concerns
Fred Ohebshalom is under pressure in Midtown from a Minnesota-based debt buyer. Stillwater Asset Management is looking to foreclose on Ohebshalom’s nine-story office building at 226 East 54th Street after purchasing the building’s debt in March. The property, between Second and Third avenues in Midtown East, provided office space to Sky Management, the Ohebshalom family’s property management firm. Sky Management principals Jonathan and Ben Ohebshalom are defendants in the foreclosure action, which Stillwater brought before
In the months after the Federal Reserve started hiking interest rates, Manhattan’s largest office landlord went out and hedged more than $3 billion of debt to protect against what it sees as the biggest threat to its balance sheet: rising borrowing costs. “Needless to say, that’s far and away the most we’ve ever done in a year,” said Matthew DiLiberto, CFO at SL Green Realty. Commercial real estate’s most rate-sensitive borrowers are busy hedging billions
Rubie Schron’s Cammeby’s International Group and Rybak Development’s three-tower project in Coney Island is on its way to becoming one of Brooklyn’s largest residential developments. But a nearby co-op and its property manager could delay those ambitions. Neptune/Sixth, at 532 Neptune Avenue, would span 758,6000 square feet and bring 499 residential units to South Brooklyn. The project would bolster Cammeby’s push to become a ground-up developer. The firm has become a prominent New York City
Filled with leisure time and seven meals a day, author J.R.R. Tolkienthe portrays a pretty sweet life for Hobbits. Now, you can live your best Hobbit life in Hobbiton without visiting Middle Earth, but rather the original New Zealand filming location from the “Lord of the Rings” and the “The Hobbit” literary-adapted trilogies, by booking rooms, er holes, through Airbnb, according to Insider. Starting Tuesday, superfans through airbnb.com/hobbiton can attempt to book a two-night stay
Cryptocurrency may have seen better days, but many believe the technology that powers it still has a bright future. A Texas group has provided recommendations to help the state grow its burgeoning blockchain industry, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Texas Workgroup on Blockchain Matters — composed of members from state agencies, universities and the blockchain industry — provided about 20 measures to help strengthen the industry. The recommendations include how the state should use the blockchain
With the housing market in a downturn, Lennar Corp., one of the biggest homebuilders in the U.S., is offering to sell about 5,000 homes to rental landlords, Bloomberg reports. Most of the homes are in the Southwest and Southeast, with landlords having the opportunity in some cases to buy entire subdivisions, the outlet reports. A Lennar representative told the outlet that the effort was part of its standard marketing efforts. Big landlords have entered the
Movie producer Oren Aviv’s $6.5 million Long Island mansion burned to the ground on Friday morning, NBC New York reported. No one was in the 9,500-square foot home at 144 Edge of Woods Road in Southampton when the fire erupted, the outlet reported. It took firefighters four hours to get the fire under control; no injuries were reported. Officials said the home, which had nine bedrooms and eight-and-a-half bathrooms, was a total loss. The incident remains
Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper and his real estate company GRTE Holdings have settled a bitter dispute with York County, South Carolina, over the abandoned construction of a Rock Hill training facility for the NFL team, Bloomberg reports. The settlement calls for the county to receive $21.2 million that has been held in escrow since July. In exchange, the county will drop its claims against Tepper, GTRE and related holdings, according to a press release.
Social media is effective for real estate agents to market properties and their personal brand. But in San Antonio some agents have found another purpose for one of the most prolific platforms. Agents and content creators in the Alamo City are posting YouTube videos highlighting — or low-lighting — the negative aspects of the city to offer a realistic view or what it’s like to live there, the San Antonio Express-News reports. It turns out
A Utah company is appealing a state decision to quash an ambitious $6 billion plan — the largest in state history — to create human-made islands on Utah Lake, KSL.com reports. Claiming there are still environmental challenges that need to be addressed, Lake Restoration Solutions says it will appeal the decision of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands to stop the project. The plans called for about 60 dredgers to deepen the
The housing downturn is having a knock-on effect on the short-term rental market, with a supply glut resulting in fewer bookings per short-term rental, The Wall Street Journal reports. While the number of future nights booked in as of October was up nearly 16 percent year-over-year, the number of short-term rental listings in the U.S. rose 23 percent during that time, according to data from AirDNA, a short-term rental analytics firm. With more short-term rental
Goonies never say die and one movie fan’s dream of owning the house from “The Goonies” never died either. An undisclosed buyer agreed to buy the home at 368 38th Street in Astoria, Ore., only weeks after it hit the market, the New York Post reported. The seller, Sandi Preston, was asking for $1.65 million, but the deal isn’t expected to close until the end of next month. Jordan Miller of John L. Scott Real
The late John Prine sang the words, “make me an angel” –– now his widow is saying, “make me an offer.” Two years after her husband’s death, Fiona Whelan listed the 2-acre Nashville estate for $5 million, Mansion Global reported. Simon Kerr and Deirdre Kerr of Zeitlin Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing. Prine, a four-time Grammy winner, is widely considered one of the greats of American folk music and songwriting. Known for his songs,
Well-known house flippers Chip and Joanna Gaines are being sued by a New York literary agent over their book deal. New York literary agent David Vigliano claims the “Fixer Upper” couple unilaterally changed the terms of their five-book publishing contract, which provided the Gaineses with a $12.5 million advance, without his consent, the Wall Street Journal reported. The lawsuit claims that the changes to the contract reduced the number of books from five to four,
An email from Compass CEO Robert Reffkin suggests the bloodletting isn’t over at the firm that’s struggling to reach profitably in the face of a significant market downturn, Insider reports. The Dec. 4 email the outlet obtained calls on managers to identify employees who are poor performers, chronically absent without approved time off or leave, quiet-quitting, or turn in bad work, and “move them out.” “If you have an employee who isn’t doing the work
The New York office market has a new messiah: Ken Griffin. Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin Management have reached a deal with Griffin’s Citadel that allows the developers to construct a 1.7-million-square-foot Midtown East tower, Vornado announced Friday. The three parties were reported in the spring to be discussing the project, which would call for the buildings at 350 Park Avenue and 40 East 52nd Street, known as the BlackRock building, to be razed. Citadel
Academy Award-winning actress Sandra Bullock sold her avocado farm home for $5.6 million. The star of “Ocean’s 8” and “Miss Congeniality” sold her 91-acre property in Valley Center, Calif., less than a month after listing it, Mansion Global reported. The home was listed for $6 million. The unnamed buyer used a limited liability company to buy the home, located about 40 miles northeast of San Diego. The property, which was listed by Alan Long of
Getting your friends together for a housewarming will be rather difficult for residents of the MV Narrative — unless they meet the tenant at port, of course. Storylines is developing a luxury cruise ship that will cater to apartment seekers, rather than those looking to take a two-week jaunt around part of the globe. The cruise ship will have more than 500 private units and can welcome about 1,000 residents, CNBC reported. Remote employees will
Water is essential to both development and the people who will utilize developments once they’re completed. That’s making Arizona a more difficult place to build as a decades-long drought dries up the West. The Arizona Department of Water Resources is probing an underground basin linked to a massive Howard Hughes Corporation project in Buckeye, the Wall Street Journal reported. Officials are studying if the groundwater supply is enough to support the population for the next
Last month, Attorney General Letitia James called on New York lawmakers to consider deed theft a standalone crime to make it easier to bring offenders to justice. In the meantime, though, James is making do. The attorney general’s office said Friday it had indicted five members of a deed theft ring for allegedly stealing three Queens homes worth more than $1 million. Three of the ring members were arrested Thursday. Stacie Saunders, Anyekache Hercules and
With Mayor Eric Adams expressing support, a ban on criminal background checks of rental applicants seemed on a fast track to pass the City Council. But this week his administration pushed for carve-outs in the measure. During a press conference Thursday, Adams reiterated his support for the bill’s concept but voiced concerns about public safety. He said he supports allowing landlords to review criminal history for specific types of offenses committed during a limited range
The housing market has further to fall before mortgage rates deflate from historic highs in 2023, Redfin predicted. Next year will bring the slowest housing market in a dozen years, the brokerage forecast in its 2023 housing outlook. Existing-home sales will decline 16 percent year-over-year, rounding out at 4.3 million deals, driven by affordability issues from elevated prices and borrowing costs. The brokerage predicted both prices and mortgage rates will decline next year, at least
A catering venue sale leads this week’s roundup of suburban New York real estate news. Four weddings and a restaurant sale Christopher Leone sold the 40,000-square-foot Jericho Terrace in Mineola to Mickey King, whose family owns Antun’s in Queens Village. The property sold for north of $20 million and is believed to be the most expensive restaurant sale on Long Island, according to a press release. The facility is able to accommodate four functions taking
A trio of West Village condo units that developer Barnet Liberman gave his wife and children are in the crosshairs of creditors to his bankrupt estate. The trustee of Liberman’s bankruptcy filed a complaint Tuesday against Phyllis Liberman, the couple’s five adult children and a trio of entities connected to the family, attempting to recover three units at 421 Hudson Street. The lawsuit alleges Liberman fraudulently transferred the apartments, in a stately condo known as
UPDATED Dec. 9, 2022, 5:04 p.m. The strength of New York City’s rental market has not gone unnoticed by Ophir Sternberg’s Lionheart Capital. An entity connected to the Miami-based development and investment firm bought an apartment building at 24-28 West Ninth Street in Greenwich Village for $41.5 million, according to city property records filed Thursday. The seller was the estate of Asher Hiesiger, with Barrington George Adams signing as executor. The property was last sold
Property management firms are upping their amenities game, raising the standard for residents across the country with services that once seemed reserved for the ultra-wealthy. “Property management emerged as this industry where if you were mediocre and you didn’t steal from your clients you were terrific,” said Michael Rogoff, president of management firm AKAM Living Services. “It’s now ‘who can provide the most service?’” Often running residents a few extra bucks, more companies are providing
Jersey City tenants are feeling more whiplash than any others in the New York metro area, while landlords are reaping the benefits of the surging market. New Jersey’s second largest city had the area’s fastest growing rents year-over-year through last month, according to a Zumper report of active listings. In Jersey City, the median rent for a one-bedroom unit surged 48.7 percent year-over-year to $2,900 per month — tied with Hoboken for second behind New
In 2018, Donald Trump granted real estate a boon: The developer-turned-POTUS, as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, created “opportunity zones,” which gave tax forgiveness to real estate investors for projects in economically disadvantaged areas. CIM Group, a real estate investment firm led by co-founders Shaul Kuba, Richard Ressler and Avi Shemesh, was already making big bets in these areas — about $3 billion worth of assets, or 10 percent of its portfolio,
SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, who has been one of the biggest advocates for returning to the office, had some sobering words at the company’s investor day. “New York is a challenging office leasing market right now,” Holliday said Monday, citing high office vacancy and “tepid” leasing demand. Much of that has to do with the uncertain state of the economy, which Holliday said has caused many tenants to hit pause on their leasing plans.
Mayor Eric Adams’ “moonshot” for New York City includes transforming the Bronx with 6,000 new housing units near future Metro-North train stations. The mayor announced on Thursday a goal to build 500,000 housing units over a decade to meet growing demand. The City reported the push includes 6,000 homes along planned commuter rail stations. The Bronx Metro-North plan involves opening train stations by 2027 in Co-op City, Hunts Point, Morris Park, Parkchester and Van Nest.
The following is one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. Rents have risen in New York City. Also, the sky is blue and water is wet. But a historical comparison of Manhattan rents reveals just how drastic the increase has been over the past 24 months — and how modest it has been over 12
This is the second of two columns about real estate myths. Read the first one here. Yesterday, we discussed the idea that the real estate industry conspires to keep prices high; why capitalism can create plentiful and affordable everything except housing; why only price controls can solve the affordability problem; and how real estate causes gentrification by hatching rich people out of thin air. Today, we present four more misbegotten notions about real estate that
“I believe in America. America has made my fortune.” It’s the iconic opening line in “The Godfather,” uttered by the undertaker Bonasera, but it could just as well have come from Shimon Shkury. The founder and president of Ariel Property Advisors came to the U.S. in 1999 from Israel to attend the Wharton School and never left. He then started his brokerage career at Massey Knakal Realty Services, the scrappy, punch-above-its-weight investment sales firm that
Developers forecast that restrictions on hotel development would have a chilling effect. Conditions, so far, are pretty icy. In the 365 days since the city required special permits to build a hotel, not a single application for one has been filed. While building permits have been sought and issued for new hotels, they appear to be for projects exempt from the law or grandfathered under the old rules, according to an analysis of Department of
If the $260 million park floating above the Hudson River is “Diller Island,” then the Frank Gehry-designed IAC headquarters in West Chelsea is the Barry Diller mainland. And now a piece of Diller nation is up for grabs. The family that owns the land underneath the IAC office building at 555 West 18th Street has put the property up for sale, The Real Deal has learned. The Resnicoff family ground-leased the site in 2004 to
As developers and commercial landlords look to fast-track office-to-residential conversions, a senior City Hall official raised a caution flag Thursday. Maria Torres-Springer, deputy mayor of economic development, said the city must ensure conversions of languishing office space does not undermine the economic diversity of certain neighborhoods, Crain’s reported. “We have to make sure we are not overcorrecting in any of the districts that are hubs of activity but are really planning for the long term,”
UPDATED Dec. 8, 2022, 6:45 p.m.: Mayor Eric Adams has changed his mind about numerical housing targets. The mayor announced Thursday a “moonshot” goal of creating 500,000 homes over the next decade. Adams previously declined to set unit-based housing goals, which was a hallmark of the de Blasio and Bloomberg administrations. A key difference is that his predecessors highlighted the affordable unit count in their larger housing plans. Adams’ number is for homes of all
The partnership between megadevelopers Jorge Pérez and Steve Ross has come to an end. Ross, whose New York-based Related Companies has been expanding in South Florida, this week dropped the bombshell that it has split with Pérez’s Related Group. The Real Deal‘s Katherine Kallergis, who broke the news, spoke with Hiten Samtani about the factors that might have led to the separation. “You could tell they were competing, which had not happened before,” Kallergis said,
After pumping the brakes on redemptions from Blackstone’s real estate investment trust, the firm’s chairman is attempting to do the same for investor fears. Blackstone chairman Stephen Schwarzman spoke publicly on Wednesday for the first time since the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust restricted investor withdrawals last week. In comments at an industry conference reported by the Financial Times, Schwarzman said the fears were “a bit baffling,” calling REIT “some of our best work.” “The
Charged-up residents aim to unplug a battery storage facility proposed for the North Fork. More than 1,000 people signed a petition opposing a lithium battery storage facility at 10750 Oregon Road in Cutchogue, News12 reported. The area of the proposed facility is zoned for light industrial use. Albany-based Key Capture Energy proposed the 60-megawatt storage facility on a 27-acre parcel, East End Beacon reported last month. The facility would encompass 11 acres of the land,
Bad news for the Bens. After carrying two multifamily developments across the finish line in Williamsburg, investor Terra Capital Partners wants recompense from RedSky — plus a return on its equity. The private equity shop is suing RedSky founders Ben Bernstein and Ben Stokes for allegedly failing to pay investment returns or finish construction at 625 and 658 Driggs Avenue. Terra’s lawyers told a Manhattan court this week that Bernstein and Stokes owe it nearly
Related Companies detailed its big plans for the next phase of Hudson Yards development as part of its casino bid. The firm’s casino proposal for the western portion of its $25 billion project on the west side of Manhattan, centers around a 1,500-room resort, CEO Jeff Blau told Bloomberg TV. Related is partnering with Wynn Resorts on the casino bid. In addition to the casino and resort, the developer’s plans for the area include a
Congress is upping the ante in a probe of Jared Kushner’s diplomatic dealings around the time of his family firm’s sale of a prominent office building in Manhattan. Two committees sent letters to the State Department and Department of Defense this week, requesting material regarding a potential “financial conflict of interest” by Kushner during the sale of 666 Fifth Avenue, the Washington Post reported. The Senate Finance Committee and House Oversight Committee, prodded by new
After months of whiplash in residential markets, November brought some welcome stability to new development sales in New York. Developers reported 186 contract signings last month, an 11 percent increase from an abysmal October, according to a new report from Marketproof. That’s still down 21 percent from November 2019, but roughly on par with other months since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates. The contracts were for apartments asking a combined $548.5 million, up
It’s not too late to get a discount at Gary Barnett’s Central Park Tower. Unit 122 at 217 West 57th Street closed for $45 million, according to property records. The sale of the full-floor, 7,000-square-foot unit was the 10th most expensive this year in New York City, according to TRD Pro data. The sale closed for roughly $20 million below the unit’s asking price of $65.5 million. It’s the latest sale at the supertall to
Billionaire developer Steve Ross was ahead of the curve when he first invested in South Florida real estate in 1979 with his partner, Jorge Pérez. But more recently, Ross, chairman of New York-based Related Companies, and Pérez, chairman of Miami-based Related Group, have gone their separate ways. Without naming the firm, Ross said at a ULI event in Miami on Wednesday that he and his partner “just kind of split recently, very amicably.” A spokesperson
Forget what you learned about the birds and the bees. Some people are convinced that well-off New Yorkers are products of real estate, not biology: They simply materialize when a developer builds market-rate housing. This is like saying babies are delivered by a stork, but it’s what passes for real estate knowledge among many critics of the industry. It’s one of the pernicious myths popularized by folks who blame real estate for the high cost
In one of the great ironies of the pandemic, there is too much office space and not enough housing, yet no scalable way to turn workplaces into homes. So says Moody’s Analytics, at least. It found just 3 percent of New York offices fit the bill for conversion. The rest are too big, too pricey and too expensive to finance. And that’s without accounting for the headache of zoning. Manhattan’s office vacancy rate hovers around
Since summer, the median price on a Manhattan apartment has held steady as rents had risen as high as inflation-battered tenants could bear. Luxury apartments were the exception. In October, their median rent broke records for the second month straight, surpassing $16,000, as the city’s highest earners appeared immune to economic pressures. Not anymore. In November, the median rent on a luxury apartment slid more than 11 percent from October to settle at $11,500. The
Jonathan Landau has stepped down as CEO of the luxury property developer Fortis Property Group to start his own firm. The executive is launching Landau Properties, a real estate venture that will look to acquire and operate properties in New York, South Florida and Boston. Landau will be joined by daughter Yaeli and son-in-law DC Lowinger. “I’ve always wanted to work closely with my family and am excited about the opportunity to lead my own
Doma executed its third — and largest — wave of layoffs in seven months, this time shedding 515 employees. The digital title insurance provider cut 40 percent of its remaining workforce, according to SEC filings submitted Tuesday. CEO Max Simkoff said in an email to employees obtained by The Real Deal the layoffs mark a “substantial shift” in the company’s strategy. “We’ll be leaning into our core data science-led differentiator of instant title and seeking
For years, the New York City Council has demanded stricter penalties for landlords who allow building violations to fester. Now, members of the largely fresh-faced chamber are leveraging a tragic January fire to enact laws to that end. Landlords claim most of the Council’s proposals would saddle cash-strapped, regulation-weary owners with more fees and rules, making it harder for them to address violations. Pierina Ana Sanchez, chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings, rooted
Joseph Stern’s SB Development and Hazelton Capital Group are the latest developers to score a condo inventory loan to get their project over the finish line. The developers secured a $62 million completion to condo inventory loan from Northwind Group for Nova, an 86-unit Long Island City luxury development at 41-05 29th Street. The financing will be used to finish the nearly completed project and to sell out the remaining units. Northwind’s Ran Eliasaf said
Scott Rechler’s RXR and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund joined Meyer Orbach and Josh Gotlib on their $850 million purchase of three apartment buildings developed by the late Sheldon Solow. RXR, the Qatar Investment Authority and Macquarie Capital Principal Finance provided a $261 million preferred equity investment on the deal, the partners announced Wednesday. RXR’s Russell Young, vice president of the company’s investment management arm, said his team was able to pull the deal together on
Fast-growing CRE financing startup Lev cut around 30 jobs last week — which its chief executive said represented less than 30 percent of its workforce — as layoffs rip through the real estate and tech sectors. The company, which in May raised a $70 million Series B funding round, made the layoffs on the sales and operations teams, CEO Yaakov Zar confirmed to The Real Deal. “We did some rightsizing last week, following the path
Barry Sternlicht said limits on withdrawals from non-traded REITs like the ones run by his Starwood Capital Group and the Blackstone Group aren’t cause for a major freak-out. “We’re not a hedge fund. We can’t liquidate our properties overnight at attractive prices,” he explained. “We have to manage liquidity.” Sternlicht was speaking with Newmark president Jimmy Kuhn at New York University Schack Insitute’s capital markets conference at the Pierre Hotel Tuesday as the biggest non-traded
After 30 years in Times Square, renowned comedy club Carolines on Broadway is set to close its doors at the end of the year. The 10-year lease at FosterLane Management’s 750 Seventh Avenue is set to expire at the end of the month, the New York Post reported. Caroline Hirsch, owner of the club that moved to Times Square in 1992, told the outlet she declined to renew the lease because of a rent dispute.
For once, it’s not the rats who are absolutely going to hate this announcement — it’s the mayor. Eric Adams had his day in virtual court on Tuesday over a rat infestation at a Brooklyn rental property of his, the New York Times reported. The mayor is contesting a summons he received at 936 Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where a city health inspector levied a $300 fine. The health inspector issued the summons in May,
Mortgage applications continued their downward swing last week, but lower rates are sparking activity in the refinancing market. Applications declined 1.9 percent from a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association revealed on Wednesday. The decline for the week ending Dec. 2 came even as mortgage rates continued to slip, down 73 basis points from a month ago. The average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with conforming loan balances dropped from 6.49 percent
The governor and real estate industry are gearing up to revive 421a, but developers should not count on success next year. Or the year after that. In fact, Douglaston Development CEO Jed Resnick said, it will probably be 2026 before politicians realize that construction of mixed-income apartment buildings in New York City is grinding to a halt without the tax break, which expired in June. “They’re not going to notice for three years,” said Resnick
iBuying was feared to do to real estate agents what Expedia did to travel agents — render them extinct. So far, however, it’s the iBuyers that are facing extinction, one by one. First it was Zillow, which bowed out of the iBuying game after racking up $900 million in losses and getting bruised on the stock market. Then, Redfin, which said last month it could no longer remain competitive in the space due to rising
Budget managers at big commercial brokerages have traded in their kitchen scissors for industrial chainsaws. What was a delicate approach to cutting costs in the first half of the year became much more aggressive this fall as surging interest rates curbed property sales, slicing into brokerages’ revenues and throwing off their expectations for end-of-year marks. Nationwide commercial real estate investment plummeted 24 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, according
This fall, it seemed that justice had finally caught up with a Manhattan socialite who skipped town and the rent on her Upper East Side apartment during the pandemic. In October, a judge issued an eviction warrant against Libbie Mugrabi, ex-wife of billionaire art dealer David Mugrabi, and a judgment for $158,000 in arrears. For Mugrabi’s landlord, developer David Mitchell, the win was bittersweet: He said she owed nearly $1.5 million. Mugrabi’s side of the
A jury on Tuesday found affiliate companies of the Trump Organization guilty of nine counts of tax fraud and related crimes. The two companies were convicted on all counts after a six-week trial, Daily Beast reported. The case alleged the Trump Organization avoided taxes through various means, including providing benefits for executives in place of taxable salaries and paying employees as “independent contractors.” Among the perks the Trump Organization allegedly doled out were private school
In one of the residential world’s biggest leadership shake-ups, Ryan Gorman, the CEO of brokerage behemoth Coldwell Banker, is leaving the company, The Real Deal has learned. Coldwell Banker staff were told of Gorman’s departure at a town hall meeting Tuesday afternoon, according to sources present. The company is a subsidiary of Anywhere Real Estate, which like other residential brokerages, has struggled in the past few months in a high interest-rate environment which has seen
A federal judge dismissed three charges against former New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin stemming from allegations of campaign finance fraud. Benjamin’s request to dismiss three counts of bribery and honest services wire fraud in the federal corruption case was granted by a U.S. District judge on Monday, the Times Union reported. The judge found federal prosecutors failed to allege an explicit quid pro quo in their indictment. Benjamin is still facing two other charges
Under the dark of a Friday night meeting, the Greenport Village Board made a decision guaranteed to rankle North Fork developers. The board unanimously adopted an immediate moratorium on development in the waterfront commercial, retail commercial and general commercial districts, the Suffolk Times reported. The moratorium is for six months, though there will be an option to expand it to a full year. The moratorium is designed to allow time to update the Local Waterfront
Brookfield Asset Management bought an industrial and rail facility in Northern New Jersey from CSX for $67.3 million as the investment giant continues its spree of tri-state industrial acquisitions. Brookfield bought a 9.3-acre site at 1100 Newark Turnpike that includes a 58,500-square-foot industrial facility. The property sits just off the New Jersey Turnpike and has 54 dock doors, 12 rail doors and three rail tracks. The site was used solely by CSX, which has a
When Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group paid $870 million for a site on Manhattan’s High Line to build a luxury condo project, Jonah Sonnenborn was perplexed by the then-record price, which came out to more than $1,000 per square foot. “We bid roughly half of what HFZ acquired it for,” said Sonnenborn, the head of real estate at Access Industries. “We couldn’t make sense of that number.” Access followed the site’s fortunes closely. And when
Steve Croman has sent a Latin restaurant packing, and he wants to make sure the eatery doesn’t skip out on its tab. An entity connected to the New York City landlord filed a complaint last Thursday in Manhattan against El Carnaval and its guarantor Karla Deleon, accusing the evicted restaurant of owing more than $2.6 million plus interest in unpaid rent, fees and reserved rent for its former space at 40 Avenue B in Alphabet
The following is one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal for all the data and market information you need. Given inflation, rising interest rates, economic uncertainty and flatlining home prices, one would expect that housing construction would be at an all-time low. Not even close. Though new housing starts in the U.S. have dipped over the past six months, the number is within the historical
SL Green landed another tenant at One Madison Avenue, one who will serve tenants and pedestrians alike. Chef Daniel Boulud signed several leases to operate a variety of spaces at the Midtown South office tower, the landlord announced Monday. Terms of the leases were not disclosed. Boulud will operate two spaces on the ground floor, combining to span 16,000 square feet. One will be a French-inspired marketplace with convenient dining options and a Parisian grand
The two largest nontraded real estate investment trusts have raised their guards to combat surging withdrawals from commercial property funds. Investors have responded to rising interest rates by pulling money out of real estate funds en masse, the Wall Street Journal reported. Blackstone said last week it will tighten redemptions for its $69 billion fund, and Starwood Capital Group followed suit with its $14.6 billion fund. Blackstone’s issues started raising alarms in the spring and
The Kalimian family melodrama shows no signs of mellowing. Justin Amirian, principal of Eagle Point Properties, has sued his uncle, Albert Kalimian, over the management of three properties in the West Village and Soho. They include a building in which Amirian’s firm bought a majority stake spring. Justin, a co-plaintiff in the case alongside his mother, Edna Kalimian Amirian, alleges violations of the operating agreement, “unjust enrichment” and “breach of fiduciary duty” at buildings including
A Midtown East apartment building was the big fish in last week’s small pond of mid-market commercial property sales in New York City. Three transactions involving commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week. Two of the investment sales were in Manhattan and the other was in the Bronx. Below is more information on each deal, ranked by dollar figure. 1. An entity connected to Martin Nussbaum and David
There are few things that landlords, tenants and elected officials agree on, but they have unified against a common enemy: illegal rentals. The city’s Office of Special Enforcement has proposed a series of rules for implementing Local Law 18, a measure that requires hosts using Airbnb and other homesharing sites to register their short-term rentals. The Real Estate Board of New York has come out in favor of the proposed rules, pointing to cases where
Blackstone’s giant real estate fund started limiting withdrawals last week, but the events that led to the decision were set in motion nearly six months ago. Investors withdrew more than 2 percent of the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust’s net assets in July, the Financial Times reported. The crossing of that threshold gave Blackstone the power to limit investor withdrawals, but, wary of alarming investors, it took no action at the time. Instead, Blackstone’s top
Historic townhouses scored the top two contracts in Brooklyn last week. The most expensive Kings County home to find a buyer was a townhouse at 28 Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights asking $6.1 million, according to Compass’ weekly report. Built in 1858, the 3,500-square-foot, four bedroom, four-bathroom home was fully restored in 2009. The four-story row house has a finished basement, a wood-burning fireplace, built-in speakers and an elevator connecting each floor. A two-level backyard
A major accounting advisory firm has signed on at Rudin Management’s Midtown Manhattan office property. Anchin, Block & Anchin signed a 45,000-square-foot lease at 3 Times Square, the landlord announced Monday. The 10-year lease at 3 Times Square covers the entire 25th floor of the property, as well as part of the 24th floor. Anchin is expected to move to Times Square next fall. A representative for Rudin declined The Real Deal’s request to provide
You can’t knock the hustle of SL Green Realty and Caesars Entertainment. The companies behind the Times Square casino bid at 1515 Broadway brought in rapper and business mogul Jay-Z to add to their effort to win one of the few licenses soon to be available, the New York Post first reported. Roc Nation, the Brooklyn native’s company, announced Monday it will oversee entertainment options at the proposed casino. SL Green in October announced plans
Extell Development swept last week’s signed luxury contracts in Manhattan. Two properties by Gary Barnett’s firm claimed the top spots in Olshan Realty’s weekly report on properties asking $4 million and above. The most expensive unit to enter contract was a combination of two apartments at 50 West 66th Street on the Upper West Side. Units 47S and 47N asked a combined $45.5 million, and sold off of floor plans. The 7,000-square-foot condo has five
It feels like a Madoff-meets-millennial moment. The crypto party has come crashing down with the spectacular collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange. The fallout will be huge, with the company owing customers more than $8 billion. How exposed will real estate be? Not very, it seems — even condo developers touting they would accept crypto payments generally converted it to cold, hard dollars when a deal closed, as we write in
The New York Police Department raided a Midtown East building belonging to William Koeppel after an undercover investigation into a brothel in the property’s commercial space. Authorities raided the property at 346 East 52nd Street and shut down massage parlor, Beauty Plus, Crain’s reported. Police in July ran an undercover sting operation at the parlor, where they were offered sexual favors in exchange for money three separate times, according to complaint filed by the city.
The Torkian Group picked up a nine-figure construction loan for its project taking shape on the Upper East Side. Hersel Torkian’s firm landed a $145 million loan from Valley National Bank for its development at 250 East 83rd Street in Yorkville, according to documents reported by PincusCo. Signature Bank previously provided a $15.7 million loan for the project. Torkian last year filed plans to build a 23-story mixed-use property on a quarter-acre lot at the
Compass’ tumultuous story took a positive turn recently, but the residential brokerage still has a ways to go on the path to profitability. The Real Deal’s Harrison Connery and Orion Jones joined Hiten Samtani to break down Compass’ most recent quarterly earnings, which gave investors hope despite the biggest housing market slowdown in company history. Compass’ third quarter earnings report showed losses, but revealed it’s on track to get out of the red. The news
Life insurance companies may be feeling a bit sickly about real estate. They are enduring the worst returns in two decades on property mortgages, according to Trepp, a data provider that tracks securitized mortgages. Trepp’s index for life insurance returns is down 11.8 percent year-to-date. This will be the worst year for life insurers since Trepp started collecting the data in 2008. It’s not a crypto-like crash, but insurers count on such investments to deliver
Nearly a year ago, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed zoning changes and property tax incentives as part of her state budget. To the dismay of the real estate industry, most of that housing agenda flopped. But the industry has its sights on some of the same proposals and others heading into the 2023 legislative session, which starts early next month. A major priority is the replacement of the expired property tax break, 421a. Hochul has said
When 175 Park Avenue is complete, it will rise 1,575 feet, second only to One World Trade Center among New York City’s tallest towers. It is a statement in more ways than one: As companies shrink their office footprints and reduce headcount, developers RXR and TF Cornerstone remain confident that the quality of their project and its location beside Grand Central Terminal will fill its 2.1 million square feet of office space. “It checks every
Developers, place your bets. Next month, state officials will start accepting proposals for new casinos in and around New York City. Six bigwigs have already unveiled visions for casinos in the five boroughs, pledging to parlay their winnings into the city’s economic recovery. Firms proposing venues in Times Square and Hudson Yards — tourist attractions near transit hubs — have an edge, though opposition from local elected officials could cost them what is sure to
Housing affordability nationwide is the worst it has ever been on record due to spiking home prices and interest rates, Bloomberg reports. The crisis has reached areas of the country that once had the most affordable homes, the outlet reported citing data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In September 2022, a median-income household would have had to spend a little over 46 percent of its income to afford a median-priced home. That’s a
Retired NBA star Michael Redd may have recently sold his Ohio mansion for a record-setting price, but the deal may not have been a complete slam dunk. Redd sold his 10,200-square-foot mansion in New Albany, a suburb of Columbus, for $4.5 million, which tied a record for the area, but was still $1.5 million less than its original listing, Mansion Global reported. The name of the buyer, a resident of the area, was not disclosed.
A 40,000-square-foot uncompleted mansion in Cinnaminson, N.J., has hit the market with the highest-known asking price for a home in South Jersey. The 40,000-square-foot home has been under construction for five years and is 90 percent complete, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Real estate professionals say the $24.95 million asking price is believed to be the highest-ever for a residential property in the southern half of the Garden State. Carlton and Orsula Knowlton, formerly of Tabula
The return to office has been slow and uneven, but some New York developers of high-end buildings are hoping elite private clubs can lure workers back, Forbes reports. ”The future of workspace design is about creating a destination,” Tom Vecchione, principal at the architecture and interior design firm Vocon, said to Forbes. “We can see the line between traditional workplaces and classic residential development blurring. The design for work needs to include wellness and that
The mansion in New Jersey where a former Motown Records CEO threw parties hosting the likes of Stevie Wonder and Mariah Carey hit the market for $5 million. Kedar Massenburg’s former 2-acre estate at 11 East Denison Drive in Saddle River, N.J., is back on the market after selling for $4.6 million in the spring, NJ.com reports. Massenburg helmed Motown Records from 1997 to 2004, and built the house shortly after landing the job, the
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Say one thing: the commute is easier. A new generation of New Yorkers is embracing the once-common practice of living above the business they also own, the New York Times reported. “For centuries, in rural and urban settings it was the common thing around the world for people to live and work in the same place,” Howard Davis, a professor at the University of Oregon and the author of the book “Living Over the Store:
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Due to a quagmire of issues, half of the vouchers that people in Connecticut have received from the state’s 45 local housing authorities in the past two years went unused, CTInsider reported. The biggest issue is the housing market, which in many areas nationwide has low numbers of vacancies, high demand and ever increasing rents. But the problem is even worse in Connecticut, where the value of Section 8 has not kept pace with some
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The 480-acre ranch that is home to the fictional town of the 1992 Clint Eastwood western “Unforgiven” has been listed for $19.2 million. The property, called The Ranch at Fisher Creek in Alberta, Canada, also includes a main lodge, guest cabins, an indoor equestrian arena and a lake with a boathouse, Forbes reports. Chris Burns and Greg Carros of Engel & Völkers are the listing agents. The big attraction is the western town known as
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A massive Colorado estate with its own ice cream parlor, two shooting ranges and cowboy saloon sold for $40 million, in one of the most expensive home sales in the area. S. Robert Levine, the eccentric founder of New Hampshire-based Cabletron Systems, a 1980s and 1990s computer networking company, sold the almost 450-acre property near Vail to a real estate developer that plans to subdivide the property into eight to 10 home parcels, the Wall
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Three major casino companies are among those to have their licenses renewed in Macau, but the government expects them to push more of their chips into diversifying the local economy. The coastal Chinese region renewed the licenses of Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts and three Chinese companies, the Associated Press reported . The renewed licenses take effect at the start of next year, but final terms for the renewals haven’t been set. There
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The moon may be the next hot real-estate development opportunity. Austin-based 3D home printing company Icon won a $57.2 million contract with NASA to develop technology to help build lunar infrastructure like roads, landing pads, and habitats, according to a press release. The contract runs through 2028, and expands upon other Icon partnerships with the federal government to develop the company’s Olympus construction system. To avoid importing building supplies from Earth, Olympus is designed to
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The Gen Z office worker down the hallway isn’t talking to themself all day — they’re probably making a TikTok. More young office workers are taking to the social media platform to glamorize the daily routine of coming to the office, the New York Times reported. While these workers aren’t being paid for the promotion, they’re essentially doing the bidding of landlords desperate to bring employees back to the office after the pandemic’s disruption. These
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While NASCAR is huge in Lake Norman, N.C., the only paint that’s likely to be traded is for drivers’ newly built or renovated luxury homes. Over the past decade, many of the sport’s richest drivers have moved to the area about 20 miles from Charlotte, thanks in large part to the proximity of Charlotte Motor Speedway, a major track, the Wall Street Journal reports. NASCAR supernovas like Dale Ernhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin live in
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Renters are venturing where they’ve rarely been before: Home Depot. Tenants are making renovations to their properties in recognition of the fact they may not be able to afford buying a home for some time, the Wall Street Journal reported. Housing affordability has declined with rising prices and mortgage rates, making it harder for tenants to follow any homeownership dreams. As a result, tenants are doing some DIY renovations of their rental properties. That’s typically
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Hiring in industries that benefit real estate continued apace in November, as the economy appeared to stave off a recession — at least for now. Restaurants, bars and hotels led the leisure and hospitality sector to a seasonally adjusted gain of 88,000 jobs last month, while employment in construction grew by 20,000. Gains from construction and leisure and hospitality accounted for about 40 percent of all jobs added to the economy last month. The addition
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Rotem Rosen and his development partners just gave their condo project near Billionaires’ Row a shot of adrenaline. Rosen, Indian billionaire Anand Mahindra and Israeli developer Zahi Hagag landed a $170 million construction loan from Bank OZK for their development at 126 East 57th Street, The Real Deal has learned. Construction is underway on the 180,000-square-foot project designed by ODA New York. It is expected to be completed in 2025. Rosen and his partners paid
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The largest real estate development in East Orange history received a shot in the arm this week, courtesy of $317 million in financing. Triangle Equities announced the financing package for the first phase of its project at 533 Main Street in the New Jersey community. The firm is co-developing the project with Incline Capital. Basis Investment Group and Goldman Sachs are investment partners in the development. The Crossings at Brick Church Station is massive, spanning
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Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu stepped down as CEO of the iBuying giant on Thursday, after a year of staggering losses — $928 million in the third quarter alone — and existential doubts about the model, which captured the imagination of venture investors and rattled agents, but has yet to pan out financially. Opendoor’s stock is in the gutter — under $2 a share — and its market cap has fallen from about $18 billion at
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Life is tough for brokers on the East End. The North Fork and Hamptons markets in November showed no sign of emerging from the home inventory shortage that continues to constrain sales. New signed contracts in both markets fell over 50 percent last month from a year ago, according to a report authored by Samuel Miller for Douglas Elliman. Rising interest rates and a lack of listings following the pandemic buying spree were to blame.
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Two brokers can’t seem to agree on how to split commission from an office lease, and Avison Young has no interest in trying to settle the dispute any further. The commercial real estate brokerage filed an interpleader action in Manhattan on Wednesday, asking the New York Supreme Court to weigh in and resolve the matter between brokers Keith Caggiano and Roshan Shah. Caggiano and Shah are at odds over a roughly $900,000 commission from a
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Just two weeks ago, Avi Philipson told All Year Holdings it wanted out of its deal to buy All Year’s sprawling Brooklyn real estate portfolio. Now Philipson and his investor group are back in, but at a reduced price. Philipson’s Paragraph Partners and All Year have settled their dispute and Philipson is set to acquire the 100-plus assets — mostly walk-ups in northern Brooklyn — next year. Philipson’s group will pay $43.5 million in cash
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Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty is rolling out another retail location in the tri-state area. The lingerie brand signed a 3,300-square-foot lease at the Cross County Center open shopping center in Yonkers, the New York Business Journal reported. The 10-year lease covers a space previously occupied by New York & Company. Asking rent for the Westchester County retail space was $225 per square foot. Savage X Fenty was represented in-house for the lease at the 1.2
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UPDATED, Dec. 2, 2022, 3 p.m.: Co-living: an idea whose time has come — at least twice, so far. One year after the pandemic drove Quarters into bankruptcy, the co-living firm’s flagship property in Williamsburg has hit the market. Developer David D. Dweck is looking to sell the 160-bedroom, 62,600-square-foot campus on North 6th Street between Bedford and Driggs Avenues, for $65 million. A multifamily building and a townhouse include four- and five-bedroom apartments, which
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Manhattan and Brooklyn’s residential markets notched small wins last month amid rising interest rates and constrained inventory. Signed contracts rose month-over-month for the third time since August in Manhattan and increased in Brooklyn for the first time in the same period, according to a monthly report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. Both have been falling falling annually since April as levels struggle to come up against last year’s historically hot “rocketship,” report
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In New York City, a single apartment can cost $238 million. In Texas, a 64,000-acre ranch with a sprawling mansion can be had for $68 million less. And was. Mesa Vista Ranch, owned by the late oil tycoon and billionaire T. Boone Pickens, sold in two pieces this year for an estimated total of $170 million. A group led by Bill Kent, an oil investor who owns Kent Companies, recently purchased 36,000 acres on the
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All that glitters isn’t gold in Kent Swig’s adventures in cryptocurrency venture, which is facing more problems due to a lawsuit targeting top executive Stephen Braverman. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Braverman, accusing him of perpetrating a pump-and-dump scheme for a cryptocurrency predating his partnership with Swig, Insider reported. Swig is not accused of wrongdoing in the lawsuit, which was filed on Sep. 30 in the Southern District of Florida. Braverman
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An engineering and construction firm is cutting its footprint at SL Green’s 100 Park Avenue by more than half. AECOM renewed its lease at the Midtown South office tower, but dropped a significant amount of space, the Commercial Observer reported. The company has leased 108,000 square feet since 2010, but renewed for only 45,000 square feet for 10 years at the 36-story tower. The firm, which previously occupyed four floors, will only occupy the building’s
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Trinity Place Holdings is getting more time to finish its massive, struggling condominium development in the Financial District. The developer reached an amended loan agreement on Wednesday with its senior lender, Macquarie Group, to resolve its defaults at 77 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan, according to an SEC filing. The revised agreement extends the condo project’s completion date to September. The final residential units are expected to be finished in the coming weeks, according to
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The Real Deal‘s December 2022 issue is live for subscribers, and it’s a doozy. This month, we dive into Builder’s Remedy , a formerly obscure provision that California developers have now invoked to unleash a building bonanza. We also go deep on the office market in New York City, looking at the developers audacious enough to kick off new towers, even as existential questions are asked about the asset class, and examine the viability of
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The Real Estate Board of New York censured top broker Tal Alexander over a complaint he interfered with another broker’s sales at an Upper East Side condominium. REBNY’s Committee on Ethics and Professional Practices on October 25 found Alexander guilty of purposefully interfering with broker Barbara Fox’s broker-client relationship and interactions, six months after Fox Residential Group filed a complaint regarding a 2021 transaction at Icon Realty Management’s Beckford Tower. The group said Alexander, while
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Eric Wu, co-founder of Opendoor, is stepping down as CEO of the iBuyer, which is grappling with massive losses and a plummeting stock price and faces a slowing housing market. Wu is being replaced by Carrie Wheeler, who’s been Opendoor’s CFO since 2020 and previously worked at private equity firm TPG Global. Wu is not leaving the company. He will head up Opendoor’s marketplace product, which he said in a statement “will fundamentally change how
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Gov. Kathy Hochul says she is ready for a fight. Hochul promised to unveil a “bold and audacious” housing agenda next month. She did not provide details, saying she will unveil them at her State of the State speech. But Hochul made clear that she views the next legislative session as crucial to addressing the state’s housing crisis. Her speech, at the New York Housing Conference’s annual awards ceremony, also served as a call to
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Karma has come for Steve Croman. The bane of countless New York City tenants — and some lenders — sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday for four contiguous buildings in Kips Bay, blaming unscrupulous business people. The notorious landlord, who did jail time for defrauding commercial real estate banks, needs bankruptcy protection for 208-214 East 25th Street, his lawyers claim, because he fell “victim to predatory lending practices.” Maverick Real Estate Partners had moved to foreclose
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Versace and Dior are getting a new neighbor. Balenciaga, the controversial fashion brand that sparked outrage with recent ad campaigns, is relocating its Soho store to Greene Street. The move places the retailer among what many consider the neighborhood’s luxury row. The subsidiary of French fashion house Kering signed a lease for 7,000 square feet at SL Green Realty’s 110 Greene Street, sources familiar with the transaction told The Real Deal. Financial terms of the
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To Bill Rudin, the solution for Midtown’s vacant offices is clear: convert them to homes. In an interview with Bloomberg this week on the state of the New York real estate market, the Rudin Management CEO was mostly upbeat about the industry’s pandemic recovery. “You can walk around the streets, you feel the energy,” Rudin told Bloomberg’s David Westin. “Retail is back, people are out at the restaurants. It’s definitely a positive vibe.” Rudin was
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A hotel developer filed a lawsuit against some of New York City’s largest landlords over the year-long construction delay for a project in Times Square. Flintlock Construction Services filed a lawsuit against SL Green, Sam Chang’s McSam Hotel Group, Natixis and a family landlord for delaying access needed to start demolition at 711 Seventh Avenue, Crain’s reported. Flintlock wants a judge to force its neighbors to provide immediate access. The developer already obtained permits to
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Blackstone’s massive real estate fund is limiting withdrawals after a breach of its quarterly repurchase limit. Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust is tightening redemption requests for the remainder of the quarter, Bloomberg reported. The REIT is already warning that repurchase requests could be limited or suspended in the first quarter. Withdrawal demand recently exceeded 2 percent of the net asset value monthly limit and 5 percent of the quarterly threshold, according to the REIT. The
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The Brodsky family has a deal to sell its rental building at the City Point Center in Downtown Brooklyn for a little more than $100 million. The Brodsky Organization is in contract to sell the 250-unit tower at 7 DeKalb Avenue to California-based Avanath Capital Management, The Real Deal has learned. The purchase price is only slightly above the $100 million that Brodsky paid in 2017 for the 23-story tower from developers Acadia Realty Trust,
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Blackstone is folding its hand at a pair of Las Vegas hotels, selling to its stake partner at the properties. The investment firm is selling its 49.9 percent stake in the MGM Grand Las Vegas and Mandalay Bay to Vici Properties, which owns the remaining stake, the Wall Street Journal reported. Blackstone is set to receive almost $1.3 billion in cash and Vici will assume $3 Blackstone’s share in a $3 billion debt. The deal
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When mortgage rates rise, homebuyers tend to back off. This summer and fall have been a case study. Pending home sales dropped for the fifth consecutive month in October, Bloomberg reported. The National Association of Realtors index recorded a 4.6 percent drop in contract signings to purchase previously owned homes. In the past year, pending home sales are down 36.7 percent. Mortgage rates were drastically lower at the end of last year. After surging past
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Private landlords weren’t the only ones slammed by the pandemic and the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program. New York City Housing Authority tenants skipped rent too, racking up nearly half a billion dollars in arrears and limiting the authority’s ability to make critical repairs to its apartments. Unpaid rent at public housing has surged to $443 million, authority officials told The City. That’s more than four times greater than existed at the start of the
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A judge struck down Newburgh’s good cause eviction law Tuesday, ruling that the legislation conflicted with state property laws. The upstate city’s year-old law required landlords would need to show good cause, such as proof of missing payments, to evict tenants, even if their leases had expired. The legislation also demanded that landlords justify a rent hike above 5 percent in eviction proceedings. State Supreme Court Justice Sandra Sciortino found that Newburgh’s Local Law 6
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UPDATED, Dec. 1, 10:37 a.m.: Compass is facing a pivotal six-month stretch. As it aims for profitability, with an interim goal of being cash flow–positive by the end of June, the brokerage must thread a needle by cutting costs without losing agents and revenue. It has taken a hatchet to its product and engineering team, along with other cuts that Compass hopes will reduce its expenses by $320 million this year. That size of that
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One of real estate’s biggest and most bitter family feuds has come to an end. Five months after a court ruling in favor of Alex Sapir, son of the late real estate magnate Tamir Sapir, the scion and Rotem Rosen — the patriarch’s former son-in-law — settled their legal disputes. Rosen had alleged he was owed $103 million from Tamir Sapir’s estate for his work as CEO of the family’s real estate empire during the
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The Holiday Inn hotel in the Financial District filed for bankruptcy as its owner looks to avert foreclosure. Developer Jubao Xie put the 492-room hotel at 99 Washington Street into Chapter 11 Tuesday, explaining that the hotel is performing well after being hurt by Covid but needs to renegotiate with creditors. At issue is how much money Xie must pay to cure the hotel’s defaulted mortgage. The owner’s missed payments total about $10 million, according
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Meta’s expensive plan to shed office space includes declining lease renewals at two Hudson Yards properties. The parent company of Facebook plans to return space at 30 and 55 Hudson Yards to Related Companies, Bloomberg reported. The two spaces span roughly 250,000 square feet and the leases run through 2024. Meta isn’t distancing itself from its third Hudson Yards office yet. Most of the company’s space in the district is at 50 Hudson Yards. While
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A Belgian co-living firm is getting a massive financial boost for its U.S. and international expansion plans. Cohabs has lined up roughly $450 million in current and promised funding from a group of backers that includes Ivanhoé Cambridge and a trio of Belgian investors. The startup’s other backers include AG Real Estate, Belfius Insurance and the real estate arm of the Belgian Sovereign Wealth Fund. An initial tranche of $110 million euros, or about $114
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Demolition is almost done at the former Passaic County government administration building in Paterson, New Jersey. The challenge to a 171-unit development on the site is essentially done, too. A judge upheld approval of developer Abdul Hamden’s project in the city, the Paterson Press reported. The project was previously greenlit by the city’s zoning board, a move that drew criticism and a lawsuit from some residents and a councilperson in the spring. Councilperson Michael Jackson
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Brokerages have a reason to be thankful with mortgage rates falling again and Americans responding by applying for more loans to buy homes. Refinancings are still in the tank, but the Mortgage Bankers Association’s purchase index rose 4 percent from a week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. MBA deputy chief economist Joel Kan noted that mortgage rates have dropped 57 basis points in the last four weeks. Last week, the average contract interest rate
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A TikTok investor found JDS Development’s supertall on Billionaires’ Row so nice, he bought twice. Tim Gong paid $34 million for two units at 111 West 57th Street, the New York Post reported. The sales were for sponsor units at the tower, which Michael Stern’s firm developed with Property Markets Group. The more expensive of the homes was a full-floor unit, No. 52, which Gong bought for $25.6 million. The 4,200-square-foot unit includes three bedrooms,
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Airbnb is partnering with multifamily landlords to bring short-term rentals out of the shadows at designated properties. The company is launching a listing service for apartment rentals with several major property owners and managers across the country, the Wall Street Journal reported. The service will launch with more than 175 properties, including ones owned by Greystar and Equity Residential, along with 10 others. Only units with permitted short-term sublets will be listed on the service
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Yoel Goldman’s All Year Management is under investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James over its use of tenants’ security deposits. The probe is exploring whether All Year Management moved tenant deposits to other entities, according to filings in bankruptcy court. Under New York law, landlords are required to secure deposits in separate accounts so they are not commingled. “They don’t have the right to take the money and move it to some other
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The checkout line for grocery store-anchored shopping centers in South Florida and the U.S. is crowded. Landlords such as Pebb Enterprises’ Ian Weiner are in the midst of a bountiful seller’s market due to significant investor demand for retail plazas featuring an Aldi, Publix, Winn-Dixie or other grocer as the main tenant. Weiner’s Boca Raton-based development firm and its partner, Banyan Development, also based in Boca Raton, sold a Boynton Beach retail plaza with a
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High above East 88th Street, a penthouse apartment asking $33 million owes its hefty price tag to a practically worthless parcel below. The 50th-floor unit sits atop a condominium at 180 East 88th Street built by Joseph McMillan’s DDG, which used the “tiny lot loophole” to become, at 524 feet, the tallest building north of East 72nd Street. The story behind the project, a saga of zoning controversy and construction delays, began seven years ago,
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The federal government wants to help homebuyers live like millionaires, at least in pricey housing markets such as California and New York. In those areas, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will begin backing mortgages greater than $1 million, the Wall Street Journal reported, in response to home prices having risen dramatically since the start of the pandemic. In most of the country, loan limits will rise to $726,200 next year from the current maximum of
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Hyatt has agreed to acquire Sant Singh Chatwal’s Dream Hotel Group for up to $300 million. The deal, which the hotel operator announced Tuesday, includes the Dream Hotels, Chatwal Hotels and Unscripted Hotels brands. The acquisition includes 12 managed or franchised lifestyle hotels and another 24 in the pipeline with signed long-term agreements. The expansion will increase Hyatt’s portfolio by more than 1,700 rooms and by 30 percent in New York City alone. The deal
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Eight affordable housing units may not seem like much, but it’s drawing Saddle River and a developer into court next month. Oral arguments in a lawsuit over a 60-unit project proposed for East Allendale Road are set for Dec. 16, NorthJersey.com reported. The Saddle River Planning Board rejected the project application in late September. The development team, which includes Michael Kasparian, sued this month, contesting the application denial. The lawsuit alleged “behind-the-scenes obstructionism” and called
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A group of Rockefeller descendants are looking to part with the final piece of a former family estate. The Indian Spring Lake Company, which counts more than 100 of William’s descendants as shareholders, listed a 54-acre parcel of forestland in Greenwich for $21.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The acreage at 181 Glenville Road in the wealthy Connecticut enclave is the last large holding from the former Rockefeller family estate. The offering is the
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The following is an example of one of the hundreds of data sets that will be available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. There’s no debate: Mortgage rates have been on a wild ride this year, with borrowing costs climbing to heights not seen in two decades. But did you know that the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage pales in
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Not only did year-over-year U.S. home price growth cool in September, but home prices themselves fell from August as the market continues to slow. Prices remain about 10 percent higher than they were a year ago, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, but growth has slowed. The index recorded a 10.6 percent annual gain in September, down from 12.9 percent in the previous month. In fact, the national home
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A construction worker died Monday after falling from an Upper West Side building. The incident occurred late Monday morning at 263 West End Avenue, Gothamist reported. A preliminary investigation by the Department of Buildings found the 36-year-old worker, who has not been publicly identified, was installing netting around a supported scaffold on the 15th floor when he fell to a sidewalk shed below. The DOB issued a full stop work order at the site, which
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Macy’s is converting 1 million square feet into fulfillment space as it gears up for holiday orders. The retailer is planning semi-automated distribution centers across 35 of its stores, Bisnow reported. Chief financial officer Adrian Mitchell announced the plan in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call this month, referring to the mini-distribution centers as “low-cost complements to our existing fulfillment network.” The conversion plans are the latest move by the department store to reevaluate its inventory
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If only all of their online orders could be delivered by a white-bearded elf and flying reindeer. Truck-averse New Jerseyans are trying to stop Russo Development from building a giant warehouse complex in the Mullica Hill section of Harrison Township, NJ.com reported. The 2.1-million-square-foot development would unfold on farmland along Route 322 in Gloucester County. New-Jersey based Russo defended the project, saying in a statement that it “was designed to respond to the township’s vision
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Thanksgiving didn’t stop New York City dealmakers from completing mid-market investment sales. Four transactions involving commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week. All four were in the outer boroughs, with three in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx. Below is more information on each sale, ranked by dollar amount. 1. Madison Realty Capital acquired through bankruptcy the site of developer Isaac Hager’s Williamsburg Hotel project at 159 Broadway
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A new City Council bill would offer a window into the living arrangements of the chamber’s members, revealing which of them benefit from regulated rents. The legislation, proposed by Council member Robert Holden and referred to the Committee on Standards and Ethics last Tuesday, would require all members to disclose whether their primary residence is a rent-stabilized apartment. The disclosures would be filed with the Conflicts of Interest Board and be available to the public
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Meyer Orbach and Josh Gotlib closed on another $850 million of apartment buildings developed by the late Sheldon Solow. The investors’ joint venture GO Partners finalized its purchase of three rental towers — One Sutton Place North, Two Sutton Place North and One East River Place — with a total of 850 units, a spokesperson for the buyers told The Real Deal. It’s the latest deal between GO Partners and the Solow Building Company, which
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The buyers of the most expensive Brooklyn home to go into contract last week will have the option to build a second home — in their carport. The townhouse at 56 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights was asking $9.2 million, according to Compass’ weekly report on the borough’s luxury market. The 25-foot-wide, five-story townhouse is 4,400 square feet and has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. It has original large plank wood floors, double-height windows and
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The Wafra Group is taking one on the chin for an East Village mixed-use property it purchased seven years ago. The investment firm sold The Nathaniel at 138 East 12th Street to The Westover Companies for $56.8 million, roughly 42 percent less than the $98.3 million it paid for the luxury rental building in 2015. The deal works out to about $838 per square foot. Crain’s was first to report on the transaction. It’s not
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Fifteen households with a lot to be thankful for inked deals during the holiday week for Manhattan homes large enough to host next year’s family feast. That’s on par with the 10-year Thanksgiving week average of 16 signed contracts for Manhattan residences listed for $4 million or more, according to a weekly report by Olshan Realty. The priciest home to enter into contract was a townhouse at 15 East 90th Street asking $29.5 million. The
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Work has begun on the first multifamily development in Englewood Cliffs in more than 40 years. Garden Communities recently started demolition at 800 Sylvan Avenue in the Bergen County borough, ROI-NJ reported. The 20-acre site housed office and research and development operations for Unilever for decades. Last year, Garden Communities purchased the site with an eye on increasing minimal inventory in the area. Garden Communities principal Brett Tanzman said the project would be a modernized
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Black Friday proved to be a mixed shopping bag for retailers across the country. The traditional post-Thanksgiving consumer bonanza sparked more foot traffic than recent years as concerns about Covid declined, according to the Wall Street Journal. Despite the increase in store visits, however, sales didn’t jump in a statistically significant way. Several firms that track shopper activity recorded increases in Black Friday traffic from last year. RetailNext, which counts shoppers via cameras and sensors,
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UPDATED Nov. 28, 2022, 10:45 a.m. The Soloviev Group denied a report about a potential sale of its iconic Manhattan office building at 9 West 57th Street. Hayden Soloviev, spokesperson for the developer and son of company chairman Stefan Soloviev, told the New York Post that there are “no plans to sell the building.” Last month, The Real Deal reported that Soloviev was finalizing an agreement to sell the prestigious office tower. It was not
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The owner of land once occupied by a Stern’s department store and the East Hampton Riding Academy is willing to trade it to the town…for the right price. Greg McCord submitted a proposal to subdivide the land at 350 Pantigo Road into three residential lots, 27East reported. Under town building guidelines, the owner can build three homes of up to 6,500 square feet across the four-acre patch. The town of East Hampton has interest in
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When mortgage rates hit 6 percent in September, buyers were taken aback. Not since 2008 had rates been so high. But as rates soared past 7 percent, homebuyers’ perspectives changed. So in the past two weeks, as the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.67 percent — down from a peak of 7.16 percent one month ago — agents began to see a spate of activity from prospective buyers. “It’s not like
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The following is an example of one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. What does the future hold for New York City office buildings? That’s the $64 million question — or, in the case of the past year’s 10 largest office sales, the $2.9 billion question. Though some have pitched converting offices into housing, others
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Sometimes it’s dangerous to be a landlord. To wit: In Opa-Locka, Fla., a tenant is facing charges after he allegedly shot a spear gun at his landlord, Local 10 Florida reports. Joel Cruz, 42, was charged with aggravated battery, shooting or throwing a deadly missile, and criminal mischief after an exchange with his unnamed landlord. Cruz, according to Opa-Locka police, did not hit the landlord with the spear, but did injure him in an incident
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An unnamed businessman purchased two lots in Avalon, New Jersey, for a combined $21 million, setting a record for Seven Mile Island, PhillyVoice reported. The lots, at 163 and 165 68th Street, sold for $11.5 million and $9.5 million, respectively. The first lot is empty, while the second lot has a 4,700-square-foot home, which will be torn down in favor of a new 8,000-square foot “dream home,” the outlet reported. Joe Butler, of A. Lewis
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Documentary filmmakers claim that a Los Angeles real estate developer described as a “bundler” of campaign donations with connections to now-U.S. Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.) and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif), led a double life as a notorious and abusive director of hardcore porn. Mark Handel, a commercial and residential real estate developer, was also known under the pseudonym Khan Tusion, a pornographic director known for having his female performers beaten, spat on and choked
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For $12 million, you can buy more than just a lot of hot air. Bob Barbarick is selling his business, Balloons Above the Valley, as well as the three properties it operates from, for $12 million, according to the Napa Valley Register. At the heart of the sale is Balloons Above the Valley, which comes with eight hot air balloons, most of which have capacities for up to 20 passengers, as well as vehicles and
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Less than six months after purchasing a Manhattan condo for $22 million, former Disney President Michael Ovitz is looking to let it go for a $3 million profit. Ovitz, who co-founded Creative Artists Agency in 1975 before leaving to work under chairman Michael Eisner at Disney in the mid 1990s, is looking to sell for $25 million his 4,000-square-foot condo at 155 West 11th Street in The Greenwich Lane in the West Village, Global Mansion
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One of the biggest reasons affordable housing isn’t available in the most expensive cities in the U.S. is because those localities aren’t permitting enough homes to be built in them, the Atlantic reports. Some areas have allowed housing to keep up with population growth, such as the South, but others, including San Francisco, New York and Boston, have as a matter of policy, made it more difficult for the less affluent to live in. As
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An English developer is asking $1.4 million for a London home with roughly as much living space as a school bus, The Wall Street Journal reports. Robin Swailes bought the 290-square-foot detached home in Chelsea five years ago for $825,000, according to the Journal, and spent another $470,000 renovating the one bedroom, one bathroom property. The asking price works out to more than $4,800 a square foot. The listing broker is Edward McCulloch. “I could
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Pack your bags and head to Cornelia Street, Taylor Swift fans. Swifties who couldn’t score a ticket this week to one of her Eras shows can still connect with their favorite pop star by renting – for $45,000 a month – her former home on the New York City street made famous by her song “Cornelia Street,” People magazine reports. The West Village home is currently being used as a showroom by Zanotta, an Italian
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Nebraska doesn’t offer panoramic mountain views, so a group of lawmakers and developers are considering a different way of leveraging the state’s notoriously flat topography by digging a 4,000-acre lake to boost population retention, recreation and economic development, the Nebraska Examiner reports. The project, which is centered around the creation of a 7-mile sandpit lake, would cost about $1 billion, most of which would come from private investment, the outlet reported. There are still numerous
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A federal judge has dismissed billionaire developer Geoff Palmer’s lawsuit that challenged Los Angeles’ COVID-19 emergency eviction moratorium, the Los Angeles Times reported. The moratorium, which is still in effect, prohibits landlords from evicting tenants due to COVID-related nonpayment of rent, among other things. Landlords are also prohibited from charging interest or late fees on COVID-related missed rent. The moratorium further allows tenants who have missed rent payments one-year to pay back rent. Palmer’s company,
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Jacob the Jeweler and a partner are looking to set a (very tall) record. Watchmaker Jacob & Co. — of which Jacob Arabo is chairman and creative director — and Emeriati property development company Binghatti are collaborating to construct the world’s tallest residential building in Dubai, The Daily Mail reported. When completed, the 1,550-foot tall, 100-story Burj Binghatti Jacob & Co. Residences hypertower will usurp New York’s 98-story Central Park Tower as the tallest residential
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Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX is failing in spectacular fashion. This has surfaced a slew of revelations about the 30-year-old’s dealings and missteps that wiped away his company’s $32 billion valuation. Now, questions are being raised about the $300 million Bahamian real estate portfolio FTX bought with senior executives and Bankman-Fried’s parents, chiefly made up of luxury beachfront homes. Attorneys for FTX referred to the portfolio as Bankman-Fried’s “personal fiefdom,” Reuters reported. An investigation by
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Class-action lawsuits are not the only problem facing RealPage: The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the proptech company. The agency’s Antitrust Division launched a probe into the Texas-based firm, ProPublica reported. It is looking into whether the company’s rent-setting software is facilitating collusion among apartment landlords. Congressional leaders pushed for an investigation following a ProPublica report last month raised suspicions that the software is pushing rents above competitive levels and enabling landlords
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Miami developers and brokers went all-out to court buyers who made their fortunes in cryptocurrency. At the E11even Hotel & Residences Miami, for example, half of the buyers at the project’s second tower came from the crypto world. But in the wake of the spectacular collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, how will the real estate industry respond? TRD‘s Hiten Samtani talked to Katherine Kallergis about her reporting on how the sudden implosion of the second-largest
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A 1031 tax exchange leads this week’s roundup of suburban New York real estate news. Tax shelter triggers $22M deal Reynolds Asset Management sold a new five-story building in Bound Brook, New Jersey, for $22 million. The deal was made with an undisclosed buyer looking for a 1031 exchange. Mosaic on Main includes 63 residential units and a 1,600-square-foot retail space. The Somerset County property’s amenities include a fitness center. The Kislak Company brokered the
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The coffers of Fifth Avenue retail landlords are filling up again. Upper Fifth Avenue — stretching from 49th Street to 60th Street — reclaimed its No. 1 spot among the world’s most expensive retail districts, Bloomberg reported, citing a Cushman & Wakefield survey of 92 prime destinations. Annual rents for Upper Fifth Avenue stores averaged $2,000 per square foot, up 14 percent from pre-pandemic levels. The retail district bucked the trend of global prime retail
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For months, mortgage rates rose with no end in sight, and potential homebuyers backed off. Now the reverse is happening. The average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell for the second week in a row to 6.67 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. It is now down almost 50 basis points from a peak of 7.16 percent one month ago. In turn, mortgage loan application volume increased 2.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis
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The nightmare at 20 Times Square is far from over. A $900 million loan on the Maefield Development property was transferred to special servicing earlier this month, the Commercial Observer reported. The outstanding CMBS debt at the property, also known as 701 Seventh Avenue, is spread across four deals. The borrower defaulted after $26.8 million in liens were filed against the property in connection with hotel construction and foreclosure actions, according to special servicer commentary.
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Charles Kushner put it best: “At least now the [Veris Residential] board no longer has the financing excuse.” Fortress Investment Group agreed to help finance Kushner Companies’ unsolicited bid to take over Veris, the Wall Street Journal reported. Fortress wrote to Veris last week that its affiliates were ready to finance the debt and equity of Kushner’s $16-per-share offer, which would value the real estate investment trust at $4.3 billion. “We are fully aligned with
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Major real estate lending in Manhattan has literally been decimated in the past year. The 10 biggest real estate loan in Manhattan totaled $279 million in October — about 60 percent less than in September, and just one-10th of last October’s total. Hotel owners nabbed some of the biggest loans in Manhattan last month, while residential properties — both condos and rentals — filled out the list. Here are more details. Island getaway | $76.5
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One of New York City’s busiest multifamily players, Slate Property Group, invited industry professionals to an early round of holiday cheer last week at Casa Cipriani in Lower Manhattan. More than 400 attendees mingled about the waterfront setting to catch up over white wine, rum-and-cokes and canapés, while Slate’s David Schwartz held court among a rotating cast of courtiers delighted to pass a back-slapping moment with the slick- and silver-haired principal. Outfitted in a blue
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KKR is the latest firm to bail on office plans as the sector continues to be shaped by remote work. The private equity giant was looking at 300,000 square feet at Tishman Speyer’s 341 Ninth Avenue in West Chelsea Insider reported. The firm was considering the space near its Hudson Yards headquarters for possible consolidation of its other Manhattan office spaces, but has since scrapped its plans. “Fair to say we have paused our review
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Innovation QNS, the $2 billion megadevelopment in Astoria proposed by Silverstein Properties, BedRock Real Estate Partners and Kaufman Astoria Studios, was approved by the full City Council on Tuesday. Last week, Council member Julie Won and the developers ended months of negotiations with a deal to include affordability far beyond the city’s legal minimums for apartments on rezoned land. City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams was said to have played a major role. The 3,200-unit project
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Long Island home shoppers are finally seeing a ray of sunshine. The percentage of houses on the market that have dropped in price at least once is at its highest level in three years, Newsday reported. Among Nassau County homes for sale, 35 percent have dropped in price since being listed, up from 27 percent a year ago. In Suffolk County, sellers have cut prices on 32 percent of homes, up from 24 percent last
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Joseph Sitt is the latest developer to push all of his chips into the pot for a New York City casino. His Thor Equities is proposing a $3 billion casino in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, the New York Times first reported. The developer announced the bid Tuesday in partnership with Saratoga Casino Holdings and the Chickasaw Nation. “People want to see the good guy win, the underdog win,” Sitt told the Times from the Formula One
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UPDATED Nov. 22, 2022, 3:23 p.m.: Rent control advocates’ celebration in the Hudson Valley did not last long. A little over a week after the newly formed Kingston Rent Guidelines Board approved New York state’s first rent rollback, a judge on Friday temporarily blocked the reduction — and could nix rent stabilization in the upstate city altogether. A hearing on landlords’ challenge to the law was held Tuesday. The judge essentially continued the injunction, preventing
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Tom Brady’s TB12 training center is opening its first standalone location in Manhattan. The fitness company signed a lease in Soho to take 3,500 square feet on the second floor of the building at 550 Broadway, The Real Deal has learned. It will be the first dedicated location in the city for TB12, which has training centers inside Equinox gyms at Hudson Yards, Columbus Circle and the Upper East Side. The asking rent for the
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Investors took a hard pivot away from home purchases in the third quarter, as rising borrowing costs appeared to reverse the sector’s record activity in a matter of months. Investor home purchases dropped 30.2 percent year-over-year last quarter, according to Redfin data. Outside of the onset of the pandemic, it was the biggest decline in investor home purchases since the Great Recession. Investor purchases dropped 26.1 percent from the second quarter, outpacing overall home sales
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Suzy Welch has sold her Lenox Hill co-op for a $4 million discount after a year on the market. Welch sold the Fifth Avenue apartment to venture capitalist couple John and Barbara Vogelstein for $21 million, meaning she turned a $3 million profit on the property her late husband, General Electric boss Jack Welch, bought for $18.8 million in 2018. The three bedroom, four full-bathroom apartment spans 5,000 square feet and has 11-foot ceilings. A
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A synagogue is suing Sharif El-Gamal over lost sacred space at Times Square Margaritaville. The Garment Center Congregation filed a lawsuit against the Soho Properties owner, claiming El-Gamal had reneged on an obligation to provide the synagogue a space at the 560 Seventh Avenue hotel, Crain’s reported. The nearly century-old congregation claims it has been “rendered homeless” by the developer. The hotel was reportedly expected to include space for the synagogue — with a kosher
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Proptech company Ribbon last week laid off 85 percent of its staff, bringing its headcount down to fewer than 30 employees. About 170 people were cut after a week of suspense for employees, who had been warned by CEO Shaival Shah that a second and potentially large wave of layoffs was coming, according to Business Insider. Shah told employees in a Nov. 15 email that cuts would be “deeper” than initially expected. Ribbon had previously
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As the year nearly comes to a close, another New Jersey record has just been smashed. 55 Mercer Street sold for $4.4 million, the highest price for a single-family home in Jersey City. The previous record holder was 124 Sussex Street, which sold for $4.15 million. Located on a double lot, 55 Mercer Street comes with an attached garage and swimming pool. The 4,500-square-foot home has four bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms. Upstairs, there is a
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Days after FTX crashed, taking billions in customer investments down with it, New York’s Signature Bank tried to calm concerns about its exposure, claiming just 0.1 percent of deposits were linked to the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange. But a closer look at Signature’s deposit makeup shows the major multifamily lender’s vulnerability to crypto goes well beyond FTX. Should the exchange’s meltdown trigger a contagion across digital currencies, Signature could see deposits drop and be forced to
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The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. New York City’s hotel industry bounced back with gusto after 9/11 and the Financial Crisis seven years later, so it’s no surprise that some investors bet it would do the same after the pandemic crippled it from 2020 into 2021. Especially if
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Four transactions involving commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week, led by a warehouse deal in East New York between a real estate investment trust and Affinity Realty. Two other sales were in Queens, while Manhattan had one. Below is more information on each sale, ranked by dollar value. 1. An entity connected to Long Island-based GTJ REIT sold a warehouse at 625 Wortman Avenue in East New
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Deals slowed but prices remained strong last week in Brooklyn’s luxury market. Another 14 homes asking $2 million or more — seven townhouses, five condos and two co-ops — went into contract, according to Compass’ weekly report. That’s the same number as the previous week. The homes were priced at a combined $49.5 million, which works out to a robust price per square foot of $1,545. They spent an average of 124 days on the
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If Sam Zell didn’t know Jersey City has rent control, he does now. Zell’s Equity Residential was compelled to roll back drastic rent increases proposed at a waterfront multifamily building after tenants realized they qualified for rent control, the Wall Street Journal reported. Rent increases for part of Portside Towers are now capped at 4 percent. Some residents had been facing 40 percent increases, which the landlord blamed on an algorithm. As neighbors at the
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Stefan Soloviev is the latest to gamble on New York’s casino sweepstakes, proposing to develop on a site acquired by his father several decades ago. Soloviev, heir to Sheldon Solow’s real estate empire, intends to apply for a casino license for a site south of the United Nations on the east side of Manhattan, Bloomberg reported. The six-acre site spans multiple parcels — primarily between 38th and 41st streets east of First Avenue — formerly
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Financing commercial real estate projects at a time of steep interest rates is no simple feat. CMBS issuance tumbled nearly 35 percent annually in the third quarter, according to Trepp, as large banks pulled back on lending. Their absence could present an opening for alternative lenders like Madison Realty Capital, which has long specialized in special situations. “Because banks have pulled back dramatically, there’s an opportunity for us,” Madison co-founder Josh Zegen told TRD’s weekly
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Gary Barnett has another pricey sale lined up at Central Park Tower. Unit 124 at Extell Development’s 217 West 57th Street went into contract last week asking $66 million, leading Olshan Realty’s report on contracts signed for Manhattan homes priced at $4 million or more. The 7,000-square-foot apartment encompasses all of what Extell calls the “124th floor” (the building actually has 98 above-ground stories, but for marketing purposes some 30 floor numbers are skipped) and
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Alibaba president Michael Evans scored one of the biggest windfalls in the Hamptons this year, selling two properties in Southampton for a combined $66.2 million. Evans sold the properties for nearly $12 million off what he and his wife were asking, the Wall Street Journal reported. The couple were looking to sell the combined properties at 1080 and 1100 Meadow Lane for $78 million, though they were also being marketed separately. Ultimately, one property sold
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Japanese watch company Grand Seiko is moving up Madison Avenue. The company is headed for a new space across 6,200 square feet at DivcoWest’s 540 Madison Avenue on the southwest corner of East 55th Street. It expects to open in early 2023 in the two-level space, which has 3,200 square feet on the ground and another 3,000 square feet on the lower level. Its current shop is situated in a smaller space two blocks south,
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Another attempt to count vacant rent-stabilized apartments found earlier estimates exaggerated the problem by tens of thousands of units. The state agency that oversees rent stabilization reported that 38,621 of the city’s approximately 900,000 rent-regulated units were vacant in 2022. That is a far cry from the 61,000-plus reported empty last year and nearly matches the numbers before the 2019 rent law passed, City Limits reported. For landlords, the findings seem to undercut their argument
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Housing stocks have tumbled for much of the year, but recent signs inflation is easing spurred a small rebound. Softening inflation led investors to pile into housing stocks in recent weeks despite the downturn in the sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. Wall Street’s movement is hinged on hope for the Federal Reserve to slow ongoing rate hikes aimed at clamping down on inflation. Since Nov. 9, the S&P 500 rose 5.8 percent through Friday’s
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Several agents at Corcoran Global Living have accused CEO Michael Mahon of fraud, breach of contract and holding up hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions amid tumult at the franchise. The delays began in April, agents at Corcoran’s largest franchise told Inman, and join three lawsuits filed this year in detailing a fraught financial situation under Mahon’s tenure as chief executive. In September, Jesse Rodriguez and other brokers with franchise contracts with Mahon filed
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JLL’s appetite for single-family housing is growing, as the firm struck yet another pact with Amherst Group in the property sector. JLL Income Property Trust announced the joint venture this week, saying in an SEC filing the program aims to acquire up to $500 million in single-family rental homes in the next two years. JLL’s REIT will own a 95 percent stake in the venture, leaving the other 5 percent stake to Amherst. The venture
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The Haruvis are no strangers to family drama. Now, a new lawsuit pits a daughter against the rest of the real estate clan. Michelle Haruvi — the daughter of Arthur Haruvi, part-owner of a 500-apartment portfolio in Manhattan — wants a New York court to open up the books on a transaction in May that shook up her family’s property empire. She is suing a trio of Haruvi-owned companies for allegedly cutting her out of
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Developers notched a major victory Thursday when they reached a deal to allow their Innovation QNS project in Astoria. But amid the celebrations, there was an elephant in the room: A tax break that the industry has deemed essential to such projects has expired. The pachyderm peering over the negotiating table as officials carefully balanced the project’s affordable housing component against its financial feasibility was 421a. Developers have long argued that it is virtually impossible
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A Massachusetts mansion inspired by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright has hit the market for $38 million. Amy Mizner and William Montero of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty listed the 17,000-square-foot modernist home in Weston, Mass., for the highest price recorded in the town’s history, Mansion Global reported. The unnamed sellers, who own the home through a trust, had the home custom built on 12.6 acres next to the town’s reservoir. According to Mizner, the
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Despite a softening of the residential market, Douglas Elliman Realty continues to expand. The firm is opening three locations in the Metro D.C. area: Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Virginia.; and Bethesda, Maryland., to go along with new offices opened earlier this year in Nantucket, Massachusetts.; New Canaan, Connecticut; Las Vegas, Houston, Orange County, California.; and Basalt, Colorado. Elliman, which spun off last year from parent company Vector Group, tapped Ruth Boyer O’Dea and Evan Lacopo, both
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You don’t have to do the truffle shuffle to buy the home from a classic 80s film, but you do have to pay a pirate’s bounty. The Astoria, Ore., home where the 1985 adventure “The Goonies” was filmed is available for $1.65 million, KOIN 6 News and the Daily Astorian reported. The current owner is Sandi Preston, who has invested significant time and money into restoring the 1,900-square-foot, four-bedroom home, according to KOIN. Jordan Miller
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Breaking up is hard to do. But even the most tolerant real estate agents reach their limits and have to bid farewell to a client from time to time, as three brokers shared in interviews with The Wall Street Journal. Compass agent Cindy Schloz, for example, said she initially leaned into her client’s mysticism, which included breaking out crystals during tours. But the client took her spirituality a bit too far when she attempted to
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Most techies live in fear of spilling water on their devices. Data center owners, however, live in fear of not having enough water to cool down their commercial properties. Worsening drought conditions across the nation could have an outsized impact on data centers, CNBC reported. Water is frequently used to cool data centers, which generate an enormous amount of heat because of the power needed to generate servers. Researchers at Virginia Tech estimated the average
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There are no tumbleweeds blowing through the Bay Area yet, but San Francisco’s chief economist Ted Egan says the city stands to lose between $100 and $200 million in tax revenue by 2028 as a result of record office vacancies fueled by remote work and uncertainty in the tech industry, Bloomberg reported. With more people working from home, the office vacancy rate in the city climbed to 25% in September and could rise to a
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A Portland Oregon man’s real-life horror show ended this month when authorities cleared him in the fatal stabbing of his former landlord, who had snuck into a rental home while dressed as the silver-screen slasher Michael Myers, the Willamette Week reported. Prosecutors and police determined the unnamed former tenant acted in self-defense when he stabbed the landlord, 46-year-old Justin Valdivia, with a sword after Valdivia allegedly attacked him with a hammer and a pellet gun
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The Palm Springs “Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway” was no Heartbreak Hotel on the market, thank you very much. The 4,700-square-foot house at 1350 Ladera Circle where Elvis and Priscilla Presley spent their honeymoon sold for its full listing price of $5.7 million, Mansion Global reported. Investors Dan Bridge and Paul Armistead bought the property for $2.6 million in 2020 and spent two years renovating it, an effort that earned it a historic designation from Palm Springs
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The Cleveland Browns scandal-ridden quarterback Deshawn Watson, who was acquired from Houston Texans in a March trade, has laid down roots in Ohio. The 27-year-old bought a mansion in Hunting Valley, an eastern suburb of Greater Cleveland, for $5.4 million, Crain’s reports. The 17,000-square-foot home — which was built in 2006 and revamped in 2021 — has five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a fitness center, cigar and tasting room and a 12-seat theater. The nearly 6-acre
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Buying a home with cash isn’t just for the jet set these days. Spiking interest rates on home mortgages have led a growing number of recent homebuyers to find creative ways to pay for their new homes with cash, the Wall Street Journal reported. One homebuyer in Colorado, seeking to avoid mortgage rates that in September topped 6 percent for the first time in nearly 15 years, bought a three-bedroom home for $965,000 in cash.
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The owner of an iconic home from a classic 1980s holiday movie is triple-dog daring someone to take it off his hands. Brian Jones put the Cleveland, Ohio, property where scenes of the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story” were filmed up for sale on Monday, WKYC reported. Hoff & Leigh’s Chad Whitmer has the listing, which didn’t come with an asking price. Jones is clearly looking to capitalize on nostalgia, however, as viewers sit down
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Stephen Ross’ Related Companies and local developer Ilitch Holdings have proposed a $1.5 billion project that could reshape downtown Detroit, The Detroit News reported. The area, called District Detroit, is a commercial and entertainment hub that also hosts the area’s major sports franchises. Olympia Development, an Ilitch-owned property management firm, purchased the land in Detroit years ago, but wasn’t able to get a project off the ground. The developers are looking for funding from the
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Even real estate listings attached to Sam Bankman-Fried are suspect. The $39.5 million listing of the luxe Bahamian penthouse owned by the crypto entrepreneur at the epicenter of the multibillion-dollar FTX scandal turned out to be a sham, Fortune reported. The listing, which was first reported in a tweet from the Twitter account Autism Capital on Nov. 13, named Seaside Bahamas as the real estate agent. The tweet — which says, “Sam’s penthouse ‘The Orchid’
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UPDATED Nov. 18, 2022, 6:42 p.m.: Michael Stern’s massive apartment project in Two Bridges has hit a roadblock, leaving next steps for the proposed 80-story, 500,000-square-foot tower unclear. Stern’s JDS Development Group lost an appeal last week to move forward with merging zoning lots without the consent of an LLC that holds the long-term ground lease on the site at 247 Cherry Street, court records show. A ruling from the New York Supreme Court said
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Leaflet map created by Adam Farence | Data by © OpenStreetMap, under ODbl. Stephen Ross thrives in tumultuous times. The billionaire’s Related Companies has shown a propensity for pushing forward with investments and projects amid turbulent economic times, when others are inclined to pull back. After the 9/11 terrorist attack, when buyers nixed contracts, and construction and lending froze, Related kept building New York’s AOL Time Warner Center, which has since been rechristened Deutsche Bank
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Investors including Josh Rahmani and Ebi Khalili’s Empire Capital have closed on their $320 million purchase of the 40-story office tower at 1330 Sixth Avenue from RXR Realty and Blackstone — by far the largest acquisition to date for the pair of former commercial brokers. The buyer group, which sources say also includes Hakimian Capital, CH Capital Group, Creed Equities and Nassimi Realty, scored a $215 million loan from Deutsche Bank to acquire the property,
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Priyanka Singh, the top human-resources executive at Compass, is leaving the firm. Singh, who became the residential brokerage’s Chief People Officer about a year ago, has resigned, according to the firm’s most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Her last day will be Dec. 15. Singh’s departure is the latest in a string of C-Suite shakeups at the company over the past year. Cushman & Wakefield alum Kalani Reelitz started as CFO this
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The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. Queens is known for many things. High-priced real estate generally hasn’t been one of them. That appears to be changing. The median sale price in Queens has posted an annual increase for eight consecutive quarters, according to appraiser Miller Samuel, home sales
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Existing home sales fell again in October, marking the ninth straight month of decline — the longest slide on record. Overall, October sales fell 28 percent from a year earlier, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors. Sales of previously owned homes declined 6 percent in October from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.43 million, the weakest rate since May 2020. Existing-home sales have fallen approximately 32
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Inflation and a downturn in the housing market continue to hinder homebuilding across the country. Residential housing starts fell 4.2 percent in October from the revised estimated total of September, according to monthly figures reported Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Housing starts were also down 8.8 percent year over year. The seasonally adjusted rate for privately owned housing starts last month was approximately 1.42 million. Single-family housing starts clocked in at a rate of
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Vanguard and BlackRock have upped their stake in Compass in the third quarter, which was otherwise a lukewarm period for institutional investor activity in the brokerage. The two major money managers led a pack of 76 institutional investors — defined as firms managing $100 million or more — that have bought additional shares in Compass, according to an analysis by The Real Deal of Securities and Exchange Commission filings and Nasdaq data. Firms that increased
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David Zwirner Gallery has picked up another piece of Chelsea. The New York art fixture signed a 36,000-square-foot lease with Elijah Equities at 520 West 20th Street, the Commercial Observer reported. Zwirner’s new headquarters and gallery space will occupy part of the ground floor and the entire second and third floors. The asking rent for available space in the seven-story, 100,000-square-foot converted warehouse is $145 per square foot. The lease, which didn’t require brokers, is
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Power buyer Homeward enacted its second round of layoffs in three months, trimming staff by another 25 percent. Founder and chief executive officer Tim Heyl announced the layoffs in a Wednesday blog post. The move comes after the Austin-based company laid off 20 percent of its staff in August. The exact number of affected employees was not disclosed, but Inman noted the portion cut from the company’s total staff equals roughly 120 people — the
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Jim Amorin on Thursday announced his resignation after five years as CEO of the Appraisal Institute, a leading advocacy group for the appraisal industry. He will depart Feb. 14. One appraiser who won’t miss him is Jonathan Miller. The head of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, which has become known for the market reports it compiles for brokerage Douglas Elliman, Miller regularly called out policy decisions and behavior by Amorin, going so far as to call
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Given how interest rates have made financing a pack of gum a slog, it may seem like an odd time for a commercial real estate deal to shatter a record. But when Post Brothers marketed a huge Philadelphia multifamily complex, it had an ace up its sleeve: A low-cost mortgage that could be passed on to buyers. Post sold the property to KKR and Mack Real Estate Group in October for $357 million. Assumable mortgages
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With brokerages facing the slow season in an already-slowing housing market, Wall Street is driving the share prices of publicly traded residential firms back to pre-pandemic levels after last year’s boom. But there are two sides to every trade. While some investors have reduced their positions in Anywhere Real Estate — the nation’s largest residential franchisor, whose brands include Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Corcoran and Sotheby’s International Realty — others are buying the dip. International
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There’s no how-to book for developers negotiating for City Council approval of their projects. Or for the Council member on the other side of the table. “Ulurp for Dummies” hasn’t been published because its target audience is only a few dozen developers and 51 term-limited City Council members. In its place, The Real Deal brings you an abridged version, prompted by the big rezoning deal reached Thursday for the Innovation QNS project in Astoria. Our
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Holding the microphone only briefly, developer Richard Mack swung for the fences during a discussion of affordable housing in New York City. “We are in this situation [of unaffordability] because of rent regulation,” the Mack Real Estate Group CEO said at an event in Midtown. “It creates entitlement for those who have apartments and pushes up rents for those who don’t.” Mack, a second-generation developer whose family-run firm has developed thousands of apartment units across
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Miki Naftali and Len Blavatnik scored $385 million in construction financing for their expansive residential project on the Williamsburg waterfront. Naftali Group and Blavatnik’s Access Industries scored a $310 million senior loan from Arkansas-based Bank OZK along with $75 million in mezzanine financing from Barings, the investment arm of MassMutual, for the three-building, 561-unit project at 470 Kent Avenue. Two of the buildings will be rental apartments while a third will contain condos. A Walker
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Barry Sternlicht unleashed his contempt for the actions of the Federal Reserve during an interview Thursday. On CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the Starwood Capital Group CEO said the Fed’s actions were “clearly suicide” for the economy. The Fed has been raising interest rates quickly in an effort to clamp down on inflation, a decision proving to be critical throughout real estate. Sternlicht lamented the destruction of wealth, noting capital movement away from investments in new plants
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A buyer at the Lightstone Group’s Lower Manhattan property is seeking a refund, saying the developer failed to deliver. The unidentified buyer is suing the firm to recover a $1.9 million down payment on a $19 million unit at 130 William Street. The sale was supposed to close in 2021, but never did, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in New York County Supreme Court. The buyer — shielded behind the LLC “Rich Ning” —
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Silverstein Properties, BedRock Real Estate Partners and Kaufman Astoria Studios have come to terms with the City Council for approval of a controversial megadevelopment in Queens. The $2 billion Innovation QNS will bring about 3,200 apartments to Astoria, 45 percent of them affordable. The deal was struck just before a Council subcommittee vote on the project Thursday morning and comes after months of negotiations, which often spilled out into the public. The agreement calls for
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Retail real estate is racking up positive signs in the wake of the pandemic, sporting record low availability in the third quarter. Retail availability dropped nearly a full percentage point year-over-year across the country to 5 percent last quarter, Bisnow reported. It’s the lowest level of availability recorded by CBRE since it started tracking the metric 17 years ago. The lack of empty spaces space is linked to one of the biggest talking points in
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UPDATED, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.: Real estate developers gleefully took advantage of the crypto craze, as newly minted cryptomillionaires looked to real-life property as a way to diversify. They purchased pricey homes across the country, particularly in cities like Miami – home to the FTX Arena – New York, and Los Angeles. But that party came crashing down last week with the spectacular collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange. The fallout
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Brooklyn Brewery is tapping out in Williamsburg, but its next location is a mere pub crawl from its longtime home. The company signed a 41,000-square-foot lease at Shlomo Karpen’s eight-story development at 1 Wythe Avenue in Greenpoint, the Commercial Observer reported. The spot is only four blocks from 79 North 11th Street, which Brooklyn Brewery plans to shutter. The transition isn’t expected to take place until summer 2024. Brooklyn Brewery’s new space is an increase
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Manhattan landlord William Koeppel has unleashed another salvo in his years-long legal dispute with his mother and sister, seeking at least $10 million to shield him from overcharge claims brought by tenants of a Turtle Bay apartment building. In a complaint filed in bankruptcy court Tuesday, Koeppel alleges that his mother, Roberta Koeppel, and sister, Alexandra Koeppel, are the ones responsible for any rent overcharges on regulated apartments at 350 East 52nd Street. Tenants in
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Avi Philipson’s Paragraph Partners wants out of its deal to acquire bankrupt Brooklyn landlord All Year Holdings’ massive rental portfolio. Earlier this year, All Year agreed to sell over 100 properties — mostly walk-up apartment buildings Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and Williamsburg — to an investor group that included Philipson and Rubin Schron’s Cammeby’s International Group for $60 million. If approved, the deal would have allowed All Year to exit bankruptcy after years of financial distress. But
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Atherton, California, may reign as the nation’s most expensive zip code, but no enclave in America saw prices jump as dramatically this year as Amagansett. The median listing price in the East Hampton hamlet has climbed 39 percent year-over-year to $4.3 million, according to RealtyHop’s third annual report of the most expensive zip codes in the U.S., based on an analysis of 3.6 million residential listings from the start of the year through mid-October. While
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New York renters are fed up with roommates and are increasingly shelling out big bucks to live without them. Demand for studios and one-bedroom apartments outpaced demand for larger apartments, and their asking rents rose 18 percent year-over-year to $3,000 last month, according to a report from StreetEasy. The expense of going solo is not only about dollars but also choice of apartment. “The opportunity cost of privacy is very substantial,” said Kenny Lee, economist
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Transforming empty offices into housing, hotels or life-science space has been pitched as a cure-all for a sector still nursing pandemic wounds. But a CBRE analysis of conversions either planned or recently completed reveals those projects would remodel just 2 percent of the nation’s 4 billion square feet of office inventory. The national office vacancy rate was near a 30-year high in the third quarter, topping 17 percent, according to CBRE. The report attributes the
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Los Angeles hospitality firm Urban Commons has filed for bankruptcy on the hotel portion of the Wagner at the Battery, just weeks after a lender filed a petition to foreclose on the Lower Manhattan asset. A company-controlled entity sought Chapter 11 protection Tuesday, according to court documents filed in the Southern District of New York. In the filing, the company declared $22.9 million in claims against the property, the biggest of which is $13.7 million
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John Usdan wasn’t keen on having a combined unit at his Midwood Investment & Development’s condo building on the Upper East Side, but has pulled in 33 million good reasons to do so. The sale of the penthouse at 150 East 78th Street closed almost two years after sales launched at the building, which the firm developed with EJS Group. The apartment, which previously asked $32.75 million, is a combined unit of the top two
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An Academy Award-winning film processing company is shutting down for good and parting with the Midtown building it’s called home for 100 years. DuArt, a motion picture lab and post-production studio, is selling its 12-story, 70,000-square-foot commercial loft property at 245 West 55th Street, a few blocks south of Columbus Circle between 8th Avenue and Broadway, for $38 million or about $543 per square foot. JLL’s Bob Knakal and Jonathan Hageman have the listing. Founded
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A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas is adding to the chorus of those predicting a big downturn in home prices. Home prices in the country could fall 15 to 20 percent in a “pessimistic” scenario, according to the report published Tuesday. If that correction happens, it could remove 0.5 to 0.7 percentage points from consumer spending. “Such a negative wealth effect on aggregate demand would further restrain housing demand, deepening the price
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For years, the only thing worse than walking into a bank with a Bitcoin was walking into one with a bomb. This might be an exaggeration, but until recently, cryptocurrencies and funds derived from them were not viewed by lenders as safe assets. But with banks updating their guidelines over the past two years, what was once impossible is now merely difficult and expensive. “None of my clients have used crypto as a means of
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JPMorgan Chase is taking another look at single-family rentals, partnering with Haven Realty Capital on a joint venture. The partners plan to acquire and develop $1 billion worth of build-to-rent communities across the country. They are set to deploy $415 million in equity for the venture. JPMorgan is advising institutional investors on it. Targeting homebuilders in the Sun Belt, the partners will look at communities of 50 to 200 homes spanning 1,500 to 2,500 square
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Related Companies and Sterling Equities reached an agreement with city officials, kicking off development of a soccer stadium in Queens’ Willets Point neighborhood. The companies will develop the 25,000-seat soccer stadium for the New York City Football Club across the street from the right field foul pole of Citi Field, the New York Times reported. The stadium is expected to arrive by 2027 for the vagabond NYCFC squad — one year after the city is
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Undeterred by an ambiguous future and declining rents, Related Companies is intent on adding more office space to New York City’s central business district — more than a million square feet of it. Stephen Ross’ firm last month filed plans for a 1.3 million-square-foot office tower at 514 West 36th Street in Hudson Yards, directly across the street from 66 Hudson Boulevard, where Tishman Speyer is putting the finishing touches on its own massive office
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Southampton’s Linden Estate has sold at last. The nine-acre property at 160 Ox Pasture Road, which includes an 18,000-square-foot mansion, traded for $70 million in one of the area’s priciest deals this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The estate had been on and off the market for more than a decade and was most recently listed late last year for $69.95 million. The sellers were Jürgen Friedrich, the billionaire fashion mogul who founded the
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The exorbitant cost of townhouse renovation work is finally coming back down to Earth — for some homeowners, at least. Rising material costs and feverish competition for contracting work have made it difficult for townhouse owners to complete renovations since the onset of the pandemic, but architects and builders say a recent slowdown in sales activity has eased demand, lowering the cost burden on homeowners. The stakes were particularly high for sellers, as homes with
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A massive Jersey City project by a Hoboken-based developer is moving right along with a new chunk of construction financing. Madison Realty Capital announced Tuesday that it was upsizing its loan for Manhattan Building Company’s four-building development in the New Jersey city to $395 million. The developer is in the midst of a 1,089-unit project, which is coming together in phases. Madison Realty initially provided a $168 million loan in 2019 for the first phase
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UPDATED, Nov. 15, 2022, 3:15 p.m.: Argo Real Estate sold almost all of its units at a new Greenwich Village condo building in 10 days as Manhattan’s luxury market plows ahead to top out a busy year. Argo’s ongoing project at 64 University Place saw 24 of its 28 units sold in recent weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported. The condo sales came about by word of mouth, instead of a typical marketing blitz. The
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The former chief executive officer of Keller Williams is suing the brokerage and its co-founder for $300 million. In a lawsuit filed last month, former CEO John Davis claims that after he resigned from that role in 2019, Keller Williams co-founder Gary Keller and former president Josh Team used sexual misconduct allegations against him “to gain business advantages” and “disparage and harm Davis” while negotiating the sale of several regional franchises he owned. The complaint,
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Big tech firms were previously seen as the saving grace of office landlords. Now, they’re another group of tenants retreating from the market. Some of the sector’s biggest names have been shedding office space across the country, subletting unwanted floors and pausing construction on developments they spearheaded, the Wall Street Journal reported. The much-feared culprit of work-from-home policies has been replaced with another frightening omen: downsizing. Amazon is reportedly planning to lay off 10,000 employees
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The Trump Organization inked a licensing agreement with a Saudi Arabian developer, ending a hiatus from international deals as Donald Trump prepares his return to presidential politics. The Trump Organization agreed to license its brand to a housing and golf complex set to be built in Oman, the New York Times reported. Financial terms of the deal with Dar Al Arkan were not disclosed; Quara Holding is the developer’s parent company. The deal is the
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UPDATED Nov. 15, 2022, 12:45 p.m.: David Schwartz’s Sugar Hill Capital Partners, one of the biggest buyers of Northern Manhattan apartments during the multifamily boom years of the late 2010s, now faces foreclosure on one of its flagship properties. The investment firm fell behind on its $16 million mortgage on the 54-unit building at 4300 Broadway in Washington Heights, according to a pre-foreclosure lawsuit filed by lender Signature Bank on Thursday. Sugar Hill has failed
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The divorce battle between RFR Realty principal Michael Fuchs and his estranged wife appears to be coming to a close, and the result might leave neither one satisfied. A London judge awarded Alvina Collardeau-Fuchs £37.5 million ($44.1 million) in cash and assets, Bloomberg reported. Collardeau-Fuchs had requested $50 million, citing the lavish lifestyle she grew accustomed to during their eight-year marriage. Fuchs, who co-founded RFR with Aby Rosen, had called his wife’s demand “greed, not
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In a rare triumph for the outer boroughs, the top borrowers in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens last month got more love from real estate lenders than those in Manhattan. The ten largest real estate loans recorded in the three boroughs in October totaled $417 million, a decline from September’s $477 million but enough to push past Manhattan, where lenders dispersed just $359 million — about half of September’s total. Residential, industrial and hospitality properties
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UPDATED, Nov. 15, 2022, 8 a.m.: A crime saga leads this week’s edition of The Real Deal’s roundup of suburban New York real estate news. Beat the drum slowly A Long Island developer has left two projects after pleading guilty to federal charges in a fraudulent billing scheme. Robert DiNoto, 48, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after submitting invoices for a nonexistent sale of metal drum containers to a company his brother
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One developer is trying to soothe potential buyers’ concerns over borrowing costs with a perk at two of its New York City properties. Extell Development is offering a “Rate Rewind” program at One Manhattan Square on the Lower East Side and Brooklyn Point in Downtown Brooklyn. Under the program, the sponsor buys down mortgage interest rates by 2 percent each year for the first three of the mortgage. Broker Ryan Serhant, who is marketing Brooklyn
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Isaac Hager is having a roller coaster of a November. Last week the Brooklyn developer partnered with nursing home investor Daryl Hagler to acquire a site in the borough with plans for a major residential project. This week he’s set to lose one. Madison Realty Capital, the senior lender on a development site at 159 Broadway in Williamsburg, where Hager once planned a 26-story hotel and condominium, plans to close on its purchase of the
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Manhattan’s luxury homebuyers last week committed to spending big bucks. The asking prices for luxury homes — priced at $4 million or more — that went into contract last week totaled $219 million, double the previous week’s sum. The 24 deals signed were 10 more than the week prior, according to Olshan Realty. Seven of the properties were seeking $10 million, the largest number of trophy properties to go into contract since the week of
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In last week’s election, more people voted in Suffolk County than in Brooklyn, which has twice as many people. Buyers in Brooklyn’s luxury housing market were similarly sleepy, signing contracts for just 14 properties asking $2 million or more. Weekly contract activity, unlike voting, fluctuates rather randomly, but both produce winners. In the Brooklyn residential market, the most expensive unit to find a buyer last week was in a condominium familiar to readers: 30 Front
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Ivana Trump’s estate is ready to part with the late socialite’s longtime home months after her death. Ivana’s estate has listed her former five-story, 20-foot-wide townhouse in Manhattan’s Upper East Side for $26.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ivana purchased the home at 10 East 64th Street for $2.5 million in 1992, shortly after she divorced Donald Trump. The home with the limestone facade is where many of the Trump children spent their teenage
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Joel Schreiber’s plan to sell the Broadway Trade Center in Downtown L.A. to a group led by Capri Investment Group’s Quintin Primo is off, according to the building’s lender, Starwood Capital. “There is no viable sale with respect to this specific purchaser,” Starwood’s attorney said in a court filing. Primo’s investor group missed multiple deadlines to put down the full deposit necessary to fund the deal. Schreiber’s plan to sell the property for $325 million
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In a quiet week for New York City mid-market investment sales, the top-selling commercial property was an office building despite the slowdown in deals involving the asset class. Three transactions involving commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week. One deal each occurred in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Below is more information on each sale, ranked by dollar figure amount. An entity connected to Bridge Investment Group bought an
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Target is changing its tune on its stores’ square footage, announcing plans to focus on large-format stores. New locations in the coming years will be roughly 150,000 square feet each, more than 20,000 square feet greater than the Minneapolis-based company’s average store size today. It will continue opening stores of all sizes, but is planning a development push for larger locations in its pursuit of serving the same-day fulfillment needs of customers. The goal is
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UPDATED, Nov. 15, 2022, 8:15 a.m.: Less than a week ago, it seemed like the Jane Hotel was on the verge of extinction. However, that’s only true for part of the property. The ballroom and other public spaces at the property at 113 Jane Street in the West Village are being converted into a private club, the New York Post reported. The ballroom will be turned into a members-only restaurant under the SVB New York
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An economist is predicting home prices could decline much more than anticipated as the housing bubble begins to pop. A 15 percent drop in home prices for next year is “very conservative,” KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk told Fortune. Swonk’s forecast comes as the market’s correction from the pandemic-era frenzy has come into focus in recent months. “Once you start the process of prices falling nationally, there is a self-fulfilling momentum to it because no
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Kimco Realty is making a big expansion in its own backyard. The Jericho-based real estate investment trust picked up eight retail assets spread throughout Nassau County from Woodbury-based Kabro Associates for $375.8 million, Newsday reported. The properties — seven of which are shopping centers, while one is a free-standing grocery store — combine for 540,000 square feet, meaning Kimco paid just under $700 a square foot for the portfolio. “The ultra-infill markets of Long Island
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Taconic Partners has made a name for itself with neighborhood-altering projects throughout the city, but one of its principals is going with something a bit more classic on the Upper West Side. Charles Bendit, the commercial developer’s co-founder and co-CEO and with his wife, Karyn, bought a prewar co-op at 15 West 81st Street for $10.5 million — about 10 percent off its $11.6 million ask. The seller was journalist and author Clara Bingham, records
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Multifamily building owners may need to slash emissions even more than they thought. Proposed rules for the city’s Local Law 97 lay out emission caps for 60 different property types, modeled after the Energy Star Portfolio Manager, a federal program that owners already use for reporting energy use. The law’s original language had only 10 building types. The expansion to 60 is viewed favorably by the industry, which had complained about buildings being forced to
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Edina-based Capital Partners teamed up with Bahrain-based alternative investment firm Investcorp to buy 16 properties across the Twin Cities for $249 million, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported. The seller is Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Artis REIT, which made about $148 million off of the sale, the outlet reported. The properties, which span 2.5 million square feet and are about 95 percent occupied, bring Capital Partners’ real estate holdings to a total of 13.5 million square feet.
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A Beverly Hills mansion, which had been recently donated to charity by billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, sold last week for $37 million, Mansion Global reported. The 12,000-square-foot mansion, which sits on 2 acres, is one of two properties worth a total $55 million that Scott donated to the seller, Los Angeles nonprofit California Community Foundation, over the summer. Music producer Mike Caren, who has worked with notable artists such as Beyonce and Kanye West, is
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The man who gave himself the nom de guerre “The Wolf of Airbnb” shed some light on his origin story. Konrad Bicher spoke to Curbed about about his colorful past and how he wound his way from a Mennonite family in Pennsylvania to the rentals of Upper Manhattan. His comments came prior to Oct. 28, when he was indicted for allegedly defrauding landlords with illegal listings. Bicher, 31, claimed to the publication that his family
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A luxe Hunts Point, Washington, home hit the market for $43 million, making it the second-most expensive in the state behind a mansion formerly owned by the smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G, which is currently listed at $85 million, according to Mansion Global. Becky Gray of Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty represents an unnamed seller. Overlooking Lake Washington, the 7,800-square-foot home was built in 1989 and sits on just over an acre of property. It has
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Ramon Abbas isn’t a real estate developer, but he played one on Instagram. He flaunted a lavish lifestyle with private jets, luxury cars, gourmet meals and opulent international trips. But the Nigerian man popularly known as Ray Hushpuppi on social media was really a prolific money launderer who swindled millions of dollars from companies in the U.S. and abroad, according to CNN. Abbas was sentenced in federal court last week to 11 years in prison
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UPDATED, November 14, 2:05 ET: Shahab Karmely says only a builder like himself would have taken on the massive rehabilitation of the Gardiner Estate, a historic 5-acre East Hampton spread. “Even the billionaires and ‘money’s-no-object’ folks in the Hamptons would probably have been scared off by a project like this,” Karmely told the Financial Times. “I had a huge advantage because I’ve been building for decades.” The five-bedroom, eight-and-a-half bathroom Renaissance-style mansion, built in the
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More legal troubles have arisen within the Duggar family, whose wholesome reputation has taken a dark turn from their days as the stars of the TLC reality TV show “19 Kids and Counting”. While the family’s eldest son Josh Duggar was sentenced in May to more than 12 years in prison after being found guilty of receiving child pornography, his brother Jason’s company is coming under scrutiny for possibly building new homes illegally in Arkansas,
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Raising Cane’s is, well, raising Cain. The Louisiana-based chain that specializes in chicken fingers signed a 15-year lease with a total of $2 million in rental payments for plans to build a 3,000-square-foot restaurant with an outdoor patio and a double drive-thru at a former TGI Friday’s location in the Crossings of Hobart shopping center in Hobart, Ind., NWI.com reports. But eight months and $1 million later, the company’s feathers were ruffled when it learned
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David Porter is looking to shed his 27,000-square-foot, five-bedroom mansion in St. Louis, Mo., for $15 million. The founder of the pet-grooming company’s mansion has certainly piqued people’s collective interest, as it was the most popular listing on Realtor.com for the first week of November. The eight-year-old, French-inspired estate, located at 1705 North Woodlawn Avenue in the Huntleigh neighborhood of St. Louis, sits on 7.5 acres and includes a pool complex, private lake, guest housing
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Property developer James Zhong pleaded guilty to wire fraud last week after he was caught with stolen cryptocurrency from the infamous dark web marketplace Silk Road. Last November, federal investigators raided Zhong’s Georgia home and discovered more than 50,000 Bitcoin in an underground safe that he stole about a decade ago, Bloomberg reported. Prosecutors in Manhattan recently revealed the seizure of the cryptocurrency, which was worth nearly $3.4 billion at the time of the raid,
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Once harboring a near-mythic status in New York City, storied co-ops are being spurned by luxury buyers. Trophy co-ops are languishing on the market and selling for deep discounts, Curbed reported. Wealthy buyers are turning to condominiums instead, which feature fresher amenities and less archaic barriers to entry. Sales at 740 Park Avenue exemplify the trend. Julia Koch has been trying in vain to sell her apartment for $60 million. Steve Mnuchin, the former treasury
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Inflation, rent hikes and dwindling federal pandemic-era assistance led to a sharp rise in eviction filings in August and September, NBC News reported. And the problem is only expected to increase in the coming months, with the moratorium lifted and just $7 billion of emergency rent assistance still available. “From here on out, it’s going to be a very, very difficult time,” Tim Thomas, research director at the Urban Displacement Project at the University of
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After washing his hands of the Miami Marlins, New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter aims to do the same with his estate north of New York City. The former shortstop is putting Tiedemann Castle, a lakefront compound in Orange County’s Greenwood Lake, on the auction block, the Wall Street Journal reported. The auctioneer wouldn’t confirm the seller, but a limited liability company tied to Jeter bought the property in the 2000s for a reported $1.6
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This post has been updated to reflect new vote totals that were released Saturday evening U.S. Rep. Karen Bass increased her lead over developer Rick Caruso in the Los Angeles mayoral race after another 29,000 votes were tallied Saturday. Bass has a 9,463-vote lead, 50.78 percent to 49.22 percent, as of Saturday evening, the Los Angeles Times reported. That tally more than doubles razor-thin 4,300-vote lead the veteran politician took Friday evening, With about 270,000
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Corcoran Global Living is on the market. The Corcoran Group is shopping its inaugural — and biggest — franchise less than three years after its formation, according to an internal senior executive. The executive said Corcoran will execute a direct deal if it can’t find an outside buyer. News of the offering comes after more than two years of aggressive growth by Corcoran Global Living, which formed in February 2020 when Zephyr Real Estate, a
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Is the other shoe about to drop on commercial real estate? Just in case it is, prominent lenders for commercial properties, especially offices, are exploring sales of their loans in cities with low demand, including New York, Bloomberg reported. JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Barclays are among them. In a sign of how motivated lenders are to offload debt, some are offering discounts ranging from 3 percent to 25 percent. Many of the talks around
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The office building, once the pinnacle of commercial real estate, now feels more like a liability. Inflation, rising interest rates and remote work have left the asset class uniquely exposed to declines in valuation. Vultures are starting to circle for distress. But Michael Shvo still sees opportunities. The developer bought the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco and, according to sources, has emerged as a potential suitor for the Solow Building on 57th Street in Manhattan,
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The Fruchthandlers are descending upon Jamaica for one of their next development projects. FBE Limited acquired a development site along 165th Street and Merrick Boulevard in the Queens neighborhood for $51.5 million from 89th Jamaica Realty Company, according to property records filed Thursday. Yehoshua Leib Fruchthandler signed for FBE and Laurence Kramer signed for 89th Jamaica Realty Company. The 110,000-square-foot site includes an assemblage of properties at 89-01 165th Street, 89-25 165th Street, 89-29 165th
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The housing market has hit dramatic highs and lows in the year since homebuilding giant Lennar teamed up with Texas construction startup Icon on a 3D-printed development. But Lennar executive chairman Stuart Miller recently doubled down on the future of the Miami-based firm’s venture with Icon. In a Thursday appearance on CNBC, Miller noted the cyclical nature of the market as a backdrop to the companies’ “long-term program” targeting the nationwide housing crisis. “At some
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Compass shares climbed to a nearly three-month high Friday after an earnings report revealed mounting losses but gains in market share and progress in its cost-cutting efforts. The run-up began Thursday, before earnings were released at the market close. The share price gained 32 percent that day, then another 73 percent in the first hour of trading Friday before retreating a bit. The brokerage’s stock was hovering around $3.50 at midday, up nearly 50 percent
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Just an hour before Robert Reffkin had to update investors about Compass’ third-quarter results – a quarter in which the brokerage lost $154 million and its revenue fell 14 percent year-over-year – he appeared on stage with The Real Deal to discuss his company’s financial health and his approach to agents, rivals and investors. Reffkin addressed the fact that Compass’ market cap was several hundreds of millions of dollars under what the company had raised
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WeWork is still struggling to achieve profitability, but the co-working space isn’t all doom and gloom. Jay Suites just signed a 60,000-square-foot lease in Chelsea to open its 10th location. And the company’s co-founder said he got a bargain-bin price. Juda Srour said he signed the lease with the Weinmann family at 159 West 25th Street at $30 per square foot. That’s a steep discount to the average Midtown South asking rent of $82.50 in
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One pan, two pan, red pan, blue pan. Danny Meyer can finally take inventory at his original Maialino, now that he’s allowed back inside it. A judge has granted the restaurateur 30 days of access to his closed eatery on the ground floor of the Gramercy Park Hotel. Meyer still can’t remove anything, though. The ruling is the latest development in a legal battle between Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group and New York City real
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Robert Reffkin went on the offensive Thursday. In a one-on-one with The Real Deal founder Amir Korangy hours before the brokerage’s third-quarter earnings call, the founder and CEO shot down rumors of the company being considered for a takeover by a private equity firm. When Korangy raised the possibility that Compass would ever be sold, Reffkin, who has voting power and holds about 6 percent of the brokerage’s stock, seemed to offer a clarification. “I
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Developers whipped themselves into a predictable frenzy in the first half of the year, eager to secure a major tax break before its expiration. A surge of filed permits called for more than 58,000 housing units, a record, according to data from the Department of City Planning. The City reported that’s roughly the same number of permits filed for all of 2015, the last time the 421a tax break expired. Under the since-lapsed program, developers
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Once upon a time in New York City, developers could get a tax break for a ritzy rental project by funding affordable housing on the cheap side of town. They didn’t even have to build the low-rent units themselves. They could qualify for the 421a property tax abatement by buying certificates generated by someone else’s affordable project. This system steered high earners into expensive neighborhoods and low earners into poor parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn,
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Danish jewelry retailer Pandora is bringing its bling to Herald Square. The Copenhagen-based company signed a 10-year lease for 1,800 square feet at Empire State Realty Trust’s 112 West 34th Street. The Commercial Observer reported asking rent for the space was $600 per square foot. The retailer joins other well-known brands at the 729,000-square-foot building, including Foot Locker, Target and Sephora. Pandora is replacing a former Swatch at the property, bringing the retail portion up
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The newest resident of 19 Bond Street should have little trouble relocating. FlatRate Moving founder Sharone Ben-Harosh purchased a 1,300-square-foot unit at the NoHo condominium for $3.2 million, records show. The seller was Rachel Zabar, heiress to the famed Zabar’s gourmet grocery in New York City. Zabar listed the apartment at the beginning of June for $3.4 million, then cut the price to $3.2 million only two weeks later. A contract was signed for the
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The mayor of Jersey City is declaring victory in a development fight next to Berry Lane Park, and publicly ripping the opposition to boot. Steven Fulop announced Thursday the redevelopment of a former industrial site at 417 Communipaw Avenue could move forward after the Superior Court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the project. The “meritless” lawsuit, as the mayor’s statement called it, was brought by the Morris Canal Redevelopment Area Community Development Corporation. The project, by
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Compass’ losses continued to mount in the third quarter as the housing market cooled. Its net loss in the third quarter was $154 million, including noncash–related expenses such as $50 million in stock compensation, $29 million in restructuring expenses associated with recent layoffs and $21 million in depreciation and amortization. The loss is up from $101 million in the second quarter and $100 million a year ago. The tech-forward brokerage said Thursday its cash reserves
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Richard Ohebshalom’s Pink Stone Capital may be between a rock and a hard place in Downtown Brooklyn. The developer’s brick-clad, 103-unit apartment building at 180 Nassau Street is facing foreclosure after Pink Stone allegedly failed to service debt secured by the property. Chicago-based commercial real estate lender Prime Finance moved Wednesday to foreclose on the property, court records show, after buying a $52 million note on it from Investors Bank in September. Prime claims that
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The new Kingston Rent Guidelines Board made history Wednesday for the second time this year, approving New York state’s first rent rollback for stabilized tenants. The 15 percent reduction applies to renters of 1,200 apartments in 64 rent-stabilized buildings with leases between Aug. 1 of this year and Sept. 30 of next. On top of that cut, the board set a three-year lookback period for tenants to challenge their base rent if they believe it
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After another brutal quarter, WeWork no longer expects to become profitable this year. The once-high-flying coworking firm lost $629 million in the third quarter, or about $0.66 a share — a slight improvement from the $635 million it lost in the second quarter. WeWork reported revenues of $817 million for the third quarter — up $2 million from the prior quarter, but its performance came in below consensus estimates of $865 million in revenue and
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How does $900 million worth of technology stack up in the path to profitability for a residential brokerage? Compass is eager to find out after spending nearly half of the $2 billion it raised from investors, including its public stock offering, to deliver a platform for agents to use alongside integrated mortgage, escrow and title businesses. “The impact of these tools is starting to be felt,” Rory Golod, a top executive at the brokerage, said
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Proptech company RealPage won’t be able to turn the page on its software controversy anytime soon. A class-action lawsuit filed by a University of Washington student accused RealPage of colluding with student housing providers to inflate rent, Multifamily Dive reported. The lawsuit, filed last month, names a number of prominent multifamily landlords, including Greystar and Cushman & Wakefield. The plaintiff alleges collusion in popular college towns, such as Ann Arbor and Gainesville. The lawsuit claimed
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When Elon Musk agreed to purchase Twitter, he told staff members he would end the company’s remote work policy, except on a case-by-case basis. This week, he delivered. Musk announced a remote work ban this week in his first email to employees, Bloomberg reported. The revised rules dictate employees need to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week, unless Musk grants his blessing otherwise. The edict flies in the face of
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Herschel Supply Co., whose trendy backpacks are ubiquitous in fashionable neighborhoods like Soho, is opening a brick-and-mortar store in the neighborhood. The Vancouver-based company will open shop next fall at 543 Broadway, where the retailer signed a lease with landlord Aurora Capital Associates. Herschel took 4,200 square feet on the pedestrian-mobbed stretch of Broadway between Prince and Spring streets where the asking rent on the space was $400 per square foot, according to a spokesperson
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East End voters — with two exceptions — approved a real estate transfer tax to fund affordable housing. Three towns — East Hampton, Southampton and Southold — backed the 0.5% levy by fairly comfortable margins, according to unofficial election results. The exceptions were Shelter Island, where 113 absentee ballots must be counted to determine the result, and Riverhead, where town officials declined to put the measure on the ballot. The transfer tax will be imposed
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Some property owners had thrown their support behind Rep. Lee Zeldin, won over by his stance on crime and confident that he would fix the state’s rent aid program. But his defeat Tuesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul doesn’t necessarily mean they are screwed. Given that Hochul’s victory was by only 5 percentage points, the smallest margin in a New York governor’s race since George Pataki beat Mario Cuomo by 3 points in 1994, some expect
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Last week, apartment developer Patrick Carroll launched a venture to provide rescue capital to apartment owners across the Sun Belt. The platform plans to invest $250 million in equity to troubled borrowers. Carroll is not alone. As rising interest rates and a record amount of debt put more real estate owners at risk, a growing number of players are preparing to feast on distressed assets. Commercial lending giant Greystone said Monday that it had formed
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In a literal tale of two cities, New York rents last month showed the widening gap between the haves and have-nots under the stubborn weight of inflation. Among Manhattan’s wealthiest, rents notched a series of new highs. The median price for a luxury unit with concessions hit a record $16,119, according to a report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. The average and median rent for a top-dollar unit also rose to records
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Hours after announcing that Redfin would lay off hundreds of employees and abandon its iBuying business, CEO Glenn Kelman struck a combative tone. “We need to take share,” he told analysts on the brokerage’s third-quarter earnings call Wednesday. “We need to kick butt.” Redfin reported $90.2 million in losses for the quarter, more than the $78 million it lost in the quarter before, as rising mortgage rates continued to hammer the housing market. Kelman praised
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When a quarterly survey found New York City’s brokers even more pessimistic than before, there was no need to double-check the results. With interest rates rising and inflation remaining high, broker confidence dropped in the third quarter, according to a survey of residential and commercial brokers by the Real Estate Board of New York. After falling into negative territory last quarter for the first time since 2020, the Residential Current Confidence Index — the measure
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Five senses are more than enough to figure out what’s unfolding at the Old Stone Farm in Rhinebeck. Resort brand Six Senses purchased the Hudson Valley property from entrepreneurs Chid and Georgie Badiel Liberty for $13.7 million, the New York Post reported. The couple wasn’t looking to sell, but changed their mind after receiving the massive offer. The deal took place off-market. The sellers had purchased the 236-acre biodynamic farm for $8.5 million last year,
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Home is where the heart is. This month, it’s also where the heartbreak is. November has brought a wave of staggeringly bad news from some of the residential industry’s biggest players, all of whom are struggling to grapple with the sudden change in the U.S. housing market. From a historic 2021 defined by record-low mortgage rates, the unleashing of pent-up demand and a pandemic-induced dispersion of the luxury market, they’re now facing a completely different,
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Barry Sternlicht assured investors that Starwood Property Trust is being extra careful as it seeks opportunities amid economic turmoil. “It’s something of a financial hurricane,” he said during the REIT’s third quarter earnings call on Wednesday. “You really can’t cure this inflation, which has been driven by excess stimulus and lack of goods on the shelves.” Sternlicht, the billionaire chairman and CEO of the real estate investment trust, said the firm is exercising caution when
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Simon Property Group is out at a Connecticut mall. The real estate investment trust and its partners recently relinquished the Crystal Mall in Connecticut to its lenders, CT Insider reported. David Simon’s firm owed $81 million on a commercial mortgage for the Waterford property. Oversight of the commercial mortgage-backed security was transferred to special servicing firm Rialto Capital, co-owned by Stone Point Capital. The loan originated from UBS-Barclays Commercial Mortgage Trust, which pooled investments from
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Tishman Speyer and Mitsui Fudosan America are embarking on a significant joint venture in the industrial real estate sector. The developers announced the partnership on Tuesday, described as focused on the acquisition, development, redevelopment and operation of industrial properties. The venture is being seeded by a $500 million commitment from the two companies, to be used to pursue ground-up projects and reposition acquisitions. The venture will primarily target major cities on the coasts, including Los
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UPDATED, Nov. 9, 2022, 11 a.m.: Redfin is shutting down its iBuying operation and laying off employees as the discount brokerage contends with a slowing market. The layoffs are the company’s second wave of cuts in five months. The company said in an online post 862 employees were affected in the latest round, or 13 percent of the company’s total employees. “We’re closing our iBuying business, RedfinNow, because maintaining a profit with rising interest rates
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Top developers are punting on new office projects as workplaces face uncertain futures. High vacancy rates and dwindling leasing demand have pushed developers to delay significant office projects either in the planning stages or already underway, the Wall Street Journal reported. People familiar with the matter told the outlet firms including Vornado Realty Trust, Brookfield Asset Management, Hines and Kilroy Realty are backing off of the sector. Low demand and economic uncertainty occasionally leads developers
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UPDATED, Nov. 9, 2022, 1:30 p.m.: The Hudson Companies has its sights set on Westchester County for its next large-scale multifamily project. The real estate firm secured a $11.4 million loan for the acquisition and pre-development of a site at 27-45 North Main Street and 28 Adee Street in Port Chester, where the company plans to build a six-story, 226,000-square-foot mixed-use project. Hudson declined to comment on the development site’s sale price, but local property
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In the string of landlord-tenant lawsuits sparked by Housing Rights Initiative investigations, 421a overcharge cases have been a constant. Since its formation six years ago, the watchdog group has encouraged dozens of tenants to sue the owners of buildings that scored the lucrative property tax break, claiming their landlords registered inflated rents with the state housing authority to secure larger future increases than should be allowed. In the past year, landlords have scored victories in
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Six of the seven commercial property transactions of $10 million to $40 million that hit city records last week were in Brooklyn and Queens. The other was in Manhattan. Three deals were for development sites and two were for multifamily properties, The other two were for an office building and a pair of hotels. Below is more information on each deal, ranked by dollar figure. 1. Entities tied to Yehoshua Leib Fruchthandler’s FBE Limited bought
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Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed in June that she would go to bat for the real estate industry — now she’ll have a chance to prove it. Hochul fended off a challenge from Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, winning her first full term as governor, according to the Associated Press. She is the first woman to be elected to the position in New York. Industry players largely favored Hochul, who appeared poised for an easy victory until
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The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. Third-quarter numbers are in, and Compass and Corcoran rule Brooklyn — at least across the borough’s 10 hottest neighborhoods. Despite a slowdown in overall volume, Brooklyn’s top 10 neighborhoods for home sales still saw buyers spend $1.8 billion across 1,300 recorded transactions
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Place Projects and NDT Development’s 2-million-square-foot project in West Palm Beach’s burgeoning Nora District will include a prominent New York hotelier. Richard Born, known in New York as the man behind BD Hotels, is among the principal investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. Born will design the project’s 175-key hotel to mimic the aesthetics of a New York establishment, such as the Mercer or Bowery, rather than give it a South Florida vibe, according to
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Invesco is moving to evict a Hell’s Kitchen tenant who allegedly exploited loopholes in New York law to skip rent for nearly two years while reaping $1,000 a night by putting his rent-regulated apartment on Vrbo. Building managers filed a lawsuit against the Mercedes House tenant, Jude Onicha, accusing him of the short-term rental scheme, Crain’s reported. Onicha lives in an $8,000-a-month penthouse at 550 West 54th Street, but hasn’t paid rent since February 2020,
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One-third of Run TMC is returning to Midtown — but not to hit the court at Madison Square Garden. NBA Hall of Famer Chris Mullin and his wife Elizabeth Mullin bought a one-bedroom co-op at 315 East 56th Street for $525,000, according to property records. The apartment in the Sutton Place neighborhood spent 78 days on the market and comes with a dishwasher. A Streeteasy listing described the no-frills apartment as “perfect for investors” and
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Developer Jeff Greene is no stranger to the South Florida market or the TRD stage. But at this TRD Showcase + Forum, he’s got more to talk about than ever. The Palm Beach resident, well-known for his One West Palm mixed-use project, recently announced two residential towers on part of the roughly 26 acres of West Palm Beach he acquired in 2015. The billionaire has said he’ll develop waterfront condos on the site, but further
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Related Companies and the Wilpon family’s Sterling Equities filed plans for a pair of large affordable housing projects on land next to Citi Field. The filing by Queens Development Corp, a joint venture of the firms, calls for two 12-story mixed-use developments at 126-43 and 126-55 39th Avenue in Willets Point. With 881 affordable apartments between them, the buildings represent the bulk of the 1,100 such units promised when city officials announced in February 2018
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Months after its attempt to go public in a deal backed by the Chera family fell apart, Brivo is back on its feet with a $75 million loan. The proptech firm, which makes card-swipe and other keyless-entry technology, landed a long-term senior secured credit facility from California-based Runway Growth Capital, the companies announced Tuesday. Brivo claims to have 20 million users who employ its technology to gain access to 70,000 real estate locations in the
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Rising interest rates haven’t just roiled the residential market in recent months — they’ve also taken a sizable bite out of commercial property prices. Commercial prices are down 13 percent from their May peak, according to Bisnow. The Green Street Commercial Property Price Index, which tracks prices for transactions being negotiated or contracted, showed prices declined 7.3 percent in October alone. No commercial sector has been spared from the downturn. Shopping malls took the biggest
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Sears has emerged from bankruptcy after four years, but the company Americans relied on for decades is essentially dead. Its reorganization plan took effect at the end of last month, ending a process that dragged on for four years, Fox Business reported. Next up for the former retail behemoth is a liquidation of its remaining assets. There ain’t much. Sears, a pioneer of mail-order catalogs and department stores alike, entered bankruptcy with 687 stores. It’s
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The owner of a five-year-old Water Mill estate is looking to cash in to the tune of $43 million. The undisclosed seller, who bought the land at 34 Cobb Isle Road in the Southampton hamlet in 2014 and finished the 9,700-square-foot home three years later, has listed the property, Mansion Global reported. The estate spans two-and-a-half acres. In 2018, the owner bought an adjacent, 1989 house for $6.7 million and renovated it as guest quarters
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Watermark Capital is selling its interest in another Midtown hotel for less than it paid for it. The Chicago investment firm and its Watermark Lodging Trust sold the leasehold interest in the 224-key Courtyard by Marriott at 307 West 37th Street, PincusCo first reported. Barings, the investment arm of Massachusetts-based MassMutual, bought the interest, which is valued at $73.7 million, records show. The property’s fee owner is Stonebridge Companies. Two years ago, Rhode Island-based Magna
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A developer in New York City is paying up after violating the conditions of a tax break by shorting workers at two luxury apartment buildings in the outer boroughs. Under the terms of a settlement with New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office, rental developer Heatherwood Communities will pay $3 million, including penalties and more than $700,000 in wages and interest to two dozen underpaid workers at 421a buildings in Long Island City and Williamsburg.
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Eight years ago, on her birthday, Hillary Schafer watched from her neighbor’s apartment as the glass atrium being installed on her Carnegie Hill townhouse caught in a gust of wind and shattered into thousands of pieces. When the new atrium came two weeks later, one of the walls was two inches too short and had to be sent back. These were just two of the setbacks Schafer and her husband, Steven, faced in their three-and-a-half-year
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The city has drafted rules for buildings to cut carbon emissions as the first deadline to do so rapidly approaches. The Department of Buildings on Thursday proposed regulations for Local Law 97, including how to calculate a building’s energy use and emission limits and how property owners can offset emissions through renewable energy credits. Building owners have a lot riding on the rules. They have been bracing for the law and seeking ways to comply
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The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets that will be available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. The City Council is taking retail landlords to task, ramping up reporting requirements for vacant storefronts across the five boroughs. Some were already busy refilling their spaces in the final weeks of summer. Including renewals, the city’s 10 largest
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The 10 largest real estate loans in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx recorded in September came to $477 million, just one third of the top-10 total for September 2021 and for last month, when big loans in the outer boroughs rivaled those in Manhattan. Residential real estate captured all of last month’s top loans outside Manhattan. All but one was secured by multifamily properties; the exception was a hotel turned homeless shelter. Here are more
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No matter how high developers build, they can’t avoid gravity. New-development contract signings in September fell below pre-pandemic levels for the second time in three months, according to a report by Marketproof. The numbers are the strongest evidence yet that the market’s pandemic sugar high is coming to a close. “This is a healthier diet,” said Kael Goodman, founder of Marketproof. “We’re just back to normal.” Across the city, developers reported 215 contracts for units
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Brinkmann’s Hardware is on the brink of defeat in its eminent domain fight with the Town of Southold, but the family owner isn’t going down without a fight. A federal judge last week dismissed a lawsuit filed by the family that owns the chain, Newsday reported. The lawsuit was aimed at stopping the North Fork municipality’s attempt to seize the property at 12500 Main Road in Mattituck. Eminent domain involves the forced sale of private
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UPDATED Oct. 6, 2022, 2:33 p.m.: In a big win for Mayor Eric Adams and housing developers, after a year and a half of protests and negotiations, the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning will pass. Council member Marjorie Velázquez announced that she has struck a deal with Throggs Neck Associates, a group of developers seeking to upzone a portion of the low-density neighborhood. The rookie politician had been under intense pressure from local opponents of the project,
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A venture backed by billionaire Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein raised nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to pursue United States property bets. Investment firm Declaration Partners announced it has raised $240 million, the New York company’s first fund using outside cash, Bloomberg reported. The fund is targeting multifamily and industrial properties across the country. Roughly half of the capital has already been committed to investments across the country, including in Charlotte, Pittsburgh and
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UPDATED, Oct. 6, 2022, 12:15 a.m.: The owners of a Plaza District building could soon be persona non grata at the office and retail property. LoanCore Capital filed a lawsuit this week against a joint ownership venture at 111 East 59th Street, which includes Dune Real Estate Partners and Puma Construction Corporation. The lender alleged the owners defaulted on $193.4 million in loans and is calling for the forced sale of the retail and office
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A Hoboken townhouse rode last year’s hot residential market to its recent cooled-down destination, ultimately settling for $1 million below its initial asking and second place in an area record. The home at 614 Hudson Street first listed late last year before claiming its place among Hoboken’s highest sales — after a townhouse that sold for $6.5 million in 2016. Though 2022 has seen Hoboken’s residential reach new heights, the would-be record setter wasn’t immune
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UPDATED, Oct. 6, 4:25 p.m.: Lendlease chief operating officer Denis Hickey is leaving at the end of the month after 10 years with the Australian developer. The company announced the departure of its COO and CEO of the Americas on Wednesday. Chief executive Tony Lombardo will assume some of Hickey’s global responsibilities, including creating uniform processes and simplifying operations. Claire Johnston, managing director of Google Development Ventures, will ascend to the CEO of the Americas
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This love story starts with a great ass and an even better view. The butt belongs to Ryan Serhant, and the view, of Central Park in winter, is a privilege afforded only to residents of Gary Barnett’s pioneering Billionaires’ Row supertall, One57. Serhant didn’t own a pad in the building, but when he scored a resale listing there in 2017, his sales strategy included a photoshoot making use of that view for the aptly named
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In the tussle for influence in the country’s legislative chambers, Airbnb is putting its money to work, spending nearly half a million dollars this year to lobby on federal issues relating to tourism, housing and online sales. The San Francisco–based start-up spent $480,000 on federal lobbying efforts in the first half of the year, according to an analysis by The Real Deal of disclosures filed with the House of Representatives. If the pace holds, the
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Someday, when the single-family home is like a barrel of oil — standardized, tradeable online, priced in real time — you’ll have Brad Greiwe to thank (or curse) for it. In 2011, a 20-something Greiwe and seven others founded Invitation Homes, an investment firm focused on single-family rentals. The entrepreneurs persuaded Blackstone to back them to the tune of $1 billion and went on a home-buying spree for the ages, at one point buying up
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New York City’s rental market appears to finally be cooling after a summer of historically high prices that was particularly difficult on middle-class workers. Landlords were more likely to offer concessions and cut asking prices in September than July, according to data collected by StreetEasy. That comes as the citywide median rent has plateaued. In September, it was $3,500 a month, down from $3,575 in August. “For many people, including essential workers, the rents in
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In a testament to bad planning, a used-car lot sat for years next to the Long Island Rail Road station in Baldwin, Long Island. Even after a developer pitched apartments for the site, the project went unbuilt for more than a decade. But finally, Breslin Realty is poised to deliver 215 units to the Nassau County hamlet. The $100 million development is set for an environmental review beginning next month, Newsday reported. The project resurfaced
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UPDATED, Oct.6, 4:00 p.m: After a report Wednesday that Compass was being eyed for a takeover by a private equity firm, the brokerage denied having been approached about that possibility. “Compass has not been contacted by any private equity firms expressing interest in taking the company private,” a spokesperson for the firm told The Real Deal. “There have been no talks with private equity firms on this matter.” Robert Reffkin, Compass co-founder and CEO, would
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Leslie Alexander is on a selling spree in New York. Or a listing spree, at least. The former NBA team owner put his Gramercy Park penthouse on the market on the heels of doing the same with two North Fork properties. Five years after selling the Houston Rockets, Alexander listed his apartment at 18 Gramercy Park South for $48.8 million. The penthouse has been on and off the market since 2015, when Alexander asked $50
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Hopes that the Fed’s attempts to tamp down inflation won’t trigger a recession are looking like a pipe dream. Renters have noticed. Nationally, apartment demand plummeted in the third quarter, a period that’s historically strong for leasing, a report by analytics site Real Page found. The number of tenants moving out of units topped the number moving in by 82,095 leases, the first time in 30 years of data that demand in the quarter was
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Despite continued uncertainty about workers returning to their desks, Manhattan’s office market appears to be gaining momentum. Office leasing volume surged in the third quarter as the borough’s availability rate dropped to its lowest level in 18 months, according to a report from Colliers. Tenants leased 9.2 million square feet in the quarter, up 26 percent from the previous quarter and 28 percent from the same period last year. Financial services, insurance and real estate
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UPDATED Oct. 6, 2022, 11:28 a.m.: One of the most expensive office projects in New York City history picked up a bit more financial support. Wells Fargo provided a $348.8 million rehab construction loan to Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group for its development at 50 Hudson Yards, PincusCo reported. The transaction closed last month and stems from a financing deal reached in 2017, according to a Related spokesperson. The project’s all-in price tag is
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For developers and housing advocates lamenting the prospect of 10 years without an upzoning in Harlem, there is now hope. Assembly member Inez Dickens, who represented Harlem on the City Council from 2006 to 2016, is considering challenging incumbent Kristin Richardson Jordan in next year’s Democratic primary, the New York Post reported. The political development is of huge interest to developers, who cannot build beyond Harlem’s often limited zoning without Richardson Jordan’s approval because of
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Real estate billionaire Joel Wiener ran afoul of the law once again, resulting in a penalty paid to a Queens condo and the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The Pinnacle Group chief executive admitted to not properly acknowledging needed capital repairs at a Forest Hills condo conversion when selling units, The City reported. Wiener settled the case with the state Attorney General in June, but it had not been previously disclosed. Under the
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A bribery scheme hatched at a holiday party has landed one carpenter in prison and another with a $150,000 bill. John “Cigars” DeFalco was ordered on Tuesday to pay $148,213.79 in restitution for a scheme in which he and others took cash in exchange for accepting applications for membership to a local carpenters’ union chapter. He pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme in October 2020 in a cooperation agreement with prosecutors. As part
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For the second time this year, flat-fee start-up brokerage Homie is laying off a swath of employees. This time, its chief executive is also departing from the role. Homie co-founder Johnny Hanna announced his departure during a tech conference near Salt Lake City last week, Inman confirmed. The departure was first reported by Axios. The former chief executive cited the “turmoil” that’s upended the market in recent years, including sky-high interest rates that, along with
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A mansion in Dubai won’t be completed until next year, but it already holds the title of the emirate’s priciest home. A mystery buyer recently dropped 302.5 million dirhams — the equivalent of $82.4 million — for a villa on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, a tree-shaped artificial island jutting into the Persian Gulf. Though it stands as Dubai’s most expensive home sale to date, the deal pales in comparison to some other trophy properties sold around
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Billionaire John Catsimatidis, no stranger to buying bankrupt assets, just scooped up a massive Westchester estate out of foreclosure for less than a fifth of its original asking price. The supermarket mogul and developer bought the 87-acre property at 48 Haights Cross Road in Chappaqua for $5 million, he said. Built in 2004 by Stewart Dauman, the CEO of debt collection agency Vision Financial, the property was on the market for $27.5 million as recently
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Brookfield is looking to sell the last piece of its once-sprawling Putnam portfolio of multifamily buildings for more than $400 million. The asset manager’s Brookfield Property Partners and partner Urban American have put the nearly 2,000-unit complex at 3333 Broadway up for sale, sources told The Real Deal. The 1970s-era West Harlem development, which is made up of five connected towers, is near Columbia University’s expanded Morningside Heights campus. “Manhattanites, especially those looking for easy
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If you want to get in touch with DBOX, don’t reach out on LinkedIn. In July, The Real Deal messaged former employees of the real estate marketing company to discuss a tip about infighting at the firm — a tip that the reporting did not bear out. The following morning, DBOX co-founder Matthew Bannister wrote and tagged the reporter in a series of posts on the company’s Instagram account. “Breaking news! An admirably ambitious reporter
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It could be a frigid winter for brokerages, lenders and the rest of the residential real estate industry if the Federal Reserve keeps raising interest rates. Mortgage applications fell 14.2 percent from a week prior, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s survey for the week ending Sept. 30. That’s the slowest pace for mortgage applications since 1997. The No. 1 song that year was “Candle in the Wind,” which could describe
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Is the Hamptons housing market retrenching like the nation’s as a whole? The numbers seem to suggest so, but the brazen hack of Suffolk County’s computer system halted data gathering three weeks before the quarter ended. The number of sales dropped year-over-year in all Hamptons markets except one during the third quarter, according to a report from Town & Country Real Estate. Only Hampton Bays had more sales than it did a year ago —
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American Express has hired Cushman & Wakefield to weigh its office options as the financial giant ponders its footprint in Manhattan and beyond. A vast amount of prime space is at stake, much of it at Brookfield Property Partners’ 200 Vesey Street. Sources told The Real Deal that American Express is looking at about 1 million square feet needed primarily in New York although some could be located in cheaper cities where some of its
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Welcome to the fall. The world hasn’t fallen apart (yet). With summer over, and Wall Street traders back at their desks, any economic clouds they had been able to ignore while on holiday loom larger. That phenomenon helps explain why stock markets often tank in the autumn. Think back to the fall of 2008 (the collapse of Lehman Brothers), 1987 (Black Monday) and 1929 (the crash that signaled the beginning of the Great Depression).
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Stephen Ross’ Columbus Circle penthouse is in contract with a massive cut off its initial asking price. The Related Companies chairman and Miami Dolphins owner last asked $49.9 million for the condo, before it went into contract for $40 million, people familiar with the deal told the Wall Street Journal. The deal, which comes out to around $4,800 per square foot, is a near-50 percent chop down from $75 million, which Ross first asked when
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Suffolk County’s title search system is back online, but ramifications from last month’s cyberattack will affect the real estate industry for a bit longer. The county resumed title searches over the weekend, Newsday reported. It was the first time the industry was able to conduct searches on Suffolk County properties since a cyberattack shut down government servers Sept. 8. The county provided limited access to title examiners beginning Saturday and restored full access Monday. Those
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An Upper East Side condop is changing up its sales strategy, less than a year after its completion. Corcoran Sunshine is out at 1228 Madison Avenue, where it sold eight out of its 13 of the units. Sales and marketing are now falling to a Compass trio: the St. André Team, the Philip Scheinfeld Team and the brokerage’s Development Marketing Group. Jim St. André, head of the eponymous team, said he “fell in love” with
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The onset of the pandemic sent retail real estate through the ringer, first with lockdown-imposed closures before the rise of e-commerce inspired predictions of doom. But the market climbed to new heights earlier this year as asking rents are soaring and vacancies are declining across the country, according to a second quarter report from Cushman & Wakefield reported by the Wall Street Journal. Retail vacancy dropped to 6.1 percent in the second quarter. The rate
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UPDATED, Oct. 4, 2022, 12:30 p.m.: Another coworking company has arrived in New York City. Israel-based Mindspace is taking 37,000 square feet at Rubenstein Partners’ mixed-use 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Commercial Observer reported. Asking rent on the 10-year lease for the partial floor space was not disclosed. Both parties handled the deal in house. Mindspace aims to open the outpost in the spring, where it will be launching its fifth United States location. It’s
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San Francisco-based Friedkin Property Group is making a multifamily play on the opposite coast, snapping up a Westchester County apartment building for $113 million. The real estate investment group purchased Windsor at The Gramercy in White Plains, Real Estate Weekly reported. GID Development Group was the seller. The property last traded hands in 2006 for $78 million, according to Multi-Housing News. The multifamily building, at 2 Canfield Avenue, was built in 2003. It has 260
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The state and city are playing good cop, bad cop to get owners of big buildings to cut their carbon footprints. The efforts are not actually coordinated, but do reflect clashing approaches to climate change and real estate. While New York City is preparing to fine high-emissions properties millions of dollars, the Hochul administration is offering cash prizes to landlords who go green. Six more big real estate players joined good-cop Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Empire
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September homebuying activity in New York City and its suburbs would look relatively busy if not for last year’s frenzy. New signed contracts last month were down 20 to 30 percent across the board compared with a year ago in the city and the greater tri-state area, according to a monthly report authored by Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. “The way I think of the market is that activity is above normal levels but it’s
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New York City dealmakers closed out September with a strong week of mid-market investment sales, driven by the multifamily market. Three of the five commercial property transactions between $10 million and $40 million that hit city records last week included apartments. Two deals were in the Bronx abd Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens each had one. Below is more information on each deal, ranked by dollar amount. 1. An entity connected to Regal Ventures purchased the
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When Compass was raising record-shattering sums of venture capital, rattling the residential industry in the process, a rival brokerage leader described it as the “greatest fundraising machine in the history of America.” Unfortunately for the company, it has since earned another, more dubious distinction: becoming the most unprofitable publicly traded residential brokerage of its era. Its losses between January 2021 and June 2022 totaled nearly $800 million, filings show — including almost $500 million last
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Annie Leibovitz is snapping more than just photos in the West Village. The famed portrait photographer bought a condo at 495 West Street last week for $6.5 million, records show. Leibovitz paid about $500,000 below-ask for the 3,000-square-foot apartment, according to StreetEasy, which indicates the condo hit the market in 2019 asking $8.5 million and was relisted for $7 million in January of this year. The full-floor unit comes with Hudson River views, heated floors
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Facebook is ditching one of its earlier Manhattan office spaces in another sign that Big Tech’s appetite for real estate is not as all-consuming as it was a few years ago. The company, now known as Meta, terminated its lease at 225 Park Avenue South, where it occupied more than 200,000 square feet, a spokesperson confirmed to The Real Deal. After leasing more than 2 million square feet at Hudson Yards and the Farley Post
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Savanna’s Long Island City office tower just took a neighborhood rival to school. The landlord signed away the New York City School Construction Authority to a 350,000-square-foot lease at One Court Square, the Commercial Observer reported. The agency will leave the Feil Organization’s 30-30 Thomson Avenue for the north side of Sunnyside Yards in 2024. The 20-year lease spans 11 floors at the 50-story Long Island City building. The asking rent was not disclosed. No
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Jeff Sutton is facing possible foreclosure on another marquee Midtown property. Deutsche Bank filed a foreclosure action Friday on behalf of CMBS bond holders, alleging that an entity tied to Sutton’s Wharton Properties defaulted on a $180 million loan at 1551-1555 Broadway, the site of American Eagle’s 25,000-square-foot flagship store in Times Square. The bank claims that 1551 Broadway Owner LLC, which lists the same address as Wharton Properties, now owes nearly $182 million, including
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Brooklyn’s luxury market has closed out a September it would likely prefer to not remember. The market has struggled to rebound from an extended Labor Day lull, according to Compass’ weekly report of homes in the borough asking $2 million or more. Signed contracts last week over the week prior from eight to 12, still only five above 2022’s lowest week. The most expensive home to enter contract last week was a Cobble Hill townhouse
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Another round of funding is set to replenish New York’s depleted pool of rent relief. But once again, it won’t come close to covering the state’s estimated need. The U.S. Treasury Department will send $99.4 million more to help cover New York renters’ pandemic arrears. Landlords have been unable to evict tenants with pending applications yet unable to collect aid since the fund was exhausted months ago. As of Sept. 22, the state had dished
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UPDATED, Oct. 4, 2022, 8:50 a.m.: After a series of public blunders and thousands of cut jobs, Better.com CEO Vishal Garg has a message for his doubters: stick with him. Garg argues he’s the right person to lead the mortgage startup, despite a tumultuous year at the company. The embattled chief executive tried explaining some of his mistakes in an interview with Insider, but appeared to make several more unforced errors in the process. “To
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Rupert Murdoch is halfway out of the Related Companies’ Flatiron condo tower. The media mogul’s Unit 57A in One Madison asking $16 million was Manhattan’s priciest contract last week, according to Olshan Realty’s report on homes asking $4 million or more. The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom unit in the property, developed along with HFZ Capital Group and CIM Group, spans over 3,000 square feet. Murdoch bought the 57th-floor apartment at 23 East 22nd Street for almost $15
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UPDATED, Oct. 5, 2022, 8 a.m.: A year after a trailer in Montauk was listed for seven figures, another is on the market at a lower price … but with the same number of digits. The 600-square-foot, single-wide trailer at 100 Deforest Road has been listed for $1.1 million, the New York Post reported. The trailer is in the high-profile Montauk Shores community, where many view their trailer homes near the ocean as a status
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Rent-stabilized tenants can complain about improper rate hikes to the Office of Rent Administration. They shouldn’t expect a quick resolution, though. The agency is facing a massive backlog of such complaints, the New York Daily News reported. The agency tasked with investigating landlords is so far behind that some cases have lingered for four years. The rent in rent-stabilized apartments can rise no more than the limit set by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, barring
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Larry Silverstein’s epic quest to rebuild the World Trade Center complex remains incomplete — and in a market like this one, it may be in limbo for years. “The New York City skyline is a graveyard of broken projects, projects that never happened,” The Real Deal Associate Publisher Hiten Samtani told filmmakers on the B1M, YouTube’s largest construction-focused channel. The B1M took a deep dive into the challenges facing what is perhaps the country’s most-scrutinized
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Builders stuck with a stockpile of extra homes are turning to the boogeyman of residential real estate: investors. Homebuilders are offering discounted bulk sales of homes to investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. The move comes as rising mortgage rates are sidelining traditional buyers from the market, saddling builders with more inventory than they know what to do with. In August, homes under construction increased 14 percent year over year, which seemed desirable in a
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The owner of a Manhattan Four Seasons is not backing down in an alleged dispute with the hotel chain, keeping the iconic Midtown property shuttered. The hotel at 57 East 57th Street may be closed for years due to the feud between Ty Warner and the brand, people familiar told the New York Post. The hotel previously said it was targeting reopening in the spring of 2022, but its website says infrastructure and maintenance work
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A New Jersey planning board handed a developer a frosty response, denying a project application over inadequate snow removal plans. Coincidentally or not, some area residents have fiercely opposed the development. The Saddle River Planning Board rejected the 60-unit project application from Saddle River Investors on Wednesday, NorthJersey.com reported. The townhouse project on East Allendale Road would include affordable housing. The development team sought five waivers and one variance for the 10-acre site on the
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Residential projects continued to command the attention of lenders in August, as the city’s 10 largest outer-borough real estate loans totaled $1.5 billion. Manhattan’s biggest loans fetched about the same amount last month. The 10 Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx loans outpaced the total from last month as well as from last year with a healthy mix of projects from residential towers to warehouses. A spec office project even got some sugar. Here are the details.
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Buying a home in the Hamptons is an expensive proposition. Is building one any more affordable? Amanda Brezing decided to test the theory after she started looking for a summer home in 2017. The Manhattan finance worker ultimately decided to design and build her own home, beginning a five-year journey detailed in the New York Times. First, Brezing had to find a lot to build on. In August 2018, she purchased a half-acre lot in
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The Real Deal‘s October 2022 issue is live for subscribers and will soon hit mailboxes across the country. This month’s features include a look at Frank Gehry’s ambitious Los Angeles River project, rank New York’s top law firms and profile Quintin Primo, the dealmaker who helped maneuver Google’s move into the downtown Chicago. We also take a look at illegal Airbnbs and why they thrive in New York, what’s next for the city’s office market
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Dealmakers who opted into Compass’ much-heralded agent equity program last year are staring at sobering losses — at least on paper. The program incentivizes agents to defer commissions in exchange for stock, plus a sweetener: a 10 percent match from Compass. To compensate agents who deferred sales commissions in 2021, Compass logged a $100 million expense in connection with its agent equity program, according to public filings, suggesting that agents forgoed some $90 million in
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A New England real estate broker is headed to the big house after a three-year scheme of defrauding prospective homebuyers out of millions. Michael Flavin, 39, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, the Department of Justice announced this week. The Quincy broker will also serve three years of supervised release. According to the Justice Department, Flavin’s scheme started in 2017 and lasted through April 2020. Flavin marketed numerous properties that were not actually for
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Life’s a beach, but stay off mine. That’s the message three Indiana homeowners on Lake Michigan are trying to send all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The homeowners, with primary residences in Chicago, hired attorney Chris Kieser with the Pacific Legal Foundation law firm to request that the nation’s highest court repeal a 2018 ruling by Indiana’s Supreme Court that they claim took away their rights to a private beach, Crain’s reported. “My
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Charges have been dropped in the case of the missing Batmobile, but the investigation is just getting started. A garage full of Batmobiles in Logansport, Indiana, was the site of a raid in July. It wasn’t henchmen dispatched by the Joker or the Penguin who stormed the premises, it was deputy sheriffs from San Mateo County, California — reportedly acting on the behest of a Bay Area real estate broker and political donor. San Mateo
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The silver lining for Aspen’s Silver Lining Ranch is its $69 million sales price, making it one of the top deals the luxe resort town has ever seen. The sellers are Elizabeth and John Burgess, co-founder of BC Partners, a British private-equity firm, according to the Wall Street Journal. The buyers are Meriwether Companies and Revere Capital, two real estate companies that recently bought the nearby Aspen Club. The fitness club will be redeveloped as
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Fans of the Netflix series “Stranger Things” found a real-life portal into The Upside Down by paying double the asking price for an 1,850-square-foot piece of memorabilia. A Fayetteville, Georgia, house that featured prominently in the series’ first season as the home of the fictional Byers family hit the market recently, but it didn’t stay on the market long. It was placed under contract in about a week, according to Insider, for nearly twice its
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Calamity besets Versailles once more. The troubled 90,000-square-foot mansion at the heart of the 2012 documentary “Queen of Versailles” suffered $10 million in damages thanks to Hurricane Ian, Page Six reported. The estate’s sovereign, Jackie Siegel, told the outlet the storm flooded several floors of her home at 6121 Kirkstone Lane in Windermere, Florida. A particularly expensive element of the damage is the recently installed 24-karat crown molding now crumbling to the former model’s living
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Holy cow: A church-owned property across from a former dairy factory in East New York is slated to become a 14-story apartment building. The 362,000-square-foot project at 2797 Atlantic Avenue would include 353 apartments. The property owner is listed in city records as St. Malachy RC Church. Rocklyn Asset Corporation filed the plans. The group is connected to the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Catholic organization encompassing the borough’s estimated 177 parishes. (Coleen Ceriello, Rocklyn Asset’s
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WeWork was on the verge of the corporate comeback story of the century. Wild child CEO Adam Neumann was gone, losses were shrinking and experienced executives were taking the co-working firm public just two years after its disastrous IPO attempt. For WeWork, the successful public offering was a triumph. “Yes, we’re not the $47 billion behemoth we once claimed to be, but we’re still worth billions! The business model is good! It was just our
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A Tribeca townhouse is back on the market for the first time in nearly 20 years, asking $40 million. Real estate investor and founder of Ascot Properties NYC Lucky Bhalla and his wife Laura are the sellers behind 145 Reade Street, Mansion Global reported. If the Bhallas get the price that they’re asking for — or even less — they’ll be making a pretty penny, as the 10,500-square-foot home sold for $1.5 million in 2003.
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Josh Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management and Meyer Orbach paid nearly $390 million to buy a Murray Hill apartment building from the late billionaire Sheldon Slow’s firm. The partners purchased the 408-unit building at 685 First Avenue for $387.5 million, property records filed with the city Thursday show. JPMorgan provided $290.6 million in financing for the acquisition. Representatives for Black Spruce and the Solow Realty & Development Company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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A strong dollar doesn’t mean a weak U.S. real estate market for foreign investors, but it is affecting their decisions. The dollar’s recent strength against the Euro and British pound has disincentivized some foreigners from buying in New York City and has encouraged many others to sell for large profits, industry insiders say. Buyers haven’t completely disappeared from the market, either. “It’s a little bit tougher of a buy for Europeans but it all depends
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French luxury brand Cartier has been watching the appetite of European luxury brands grow across America during the pandemic. The company is ready to capitalize. The jewelry and watch-making company is planning to expand its presence in the United States, Bloomberg reported. The company is eyeing the addition of 10 stateside stores in the coming years. Cartier seems to be taking notice of the pandemic-era trend of wealthy US residents expanding their horizons from traditional
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Billionaire Ron Burkle is taking another stab at trading his penthouse at 704 Broadway. The Yucaipa Companies co-founder put his Noho home on the market on Thursday, Crain’s reported. The duplex penthouse is being marketed for $32.5 million, roughly $4,062 per interior square foot. Burkle purchased the unit in 2007 for $18 million. The home, located in a former hat factory and stretching across two floors, spans 8,000 square feet with five bedrooms and six
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Manhattan’s 10 biggest real estate loans in August totaled $1.5 billion as lenders looked with favor on large multifamily projects as well as hotel and office redevelopments. The Chetrit Group and A&E Real Estate each nabbed two of the largest loans. The Dermot Company, Toll Brothers and the Sapir Organization had one apiece. The central borough’s biggest borrowers pulled in $2.3 billion from lenders last month, down from $3.2 billion in August of last year.
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Tim Foley is going, Anywhere. The senior executive at Anywhere Real Estate emailed his colleagues Thursday informing them that today is his last day after just 16 months at the brokerage firm. He is responsible for its marketing, operations, and lead generation, and “implementing practices to leverage the company’s scale,” his bio says. Anywhere employs nearly 200,000 independent agents in the U.S. and more than 130,000 abroad. It reported being involved in approximately 1.5 million
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With suburbs under pressure to help ease the housing crisis, a Long Island town just did something extraordinary: It banned residential development. Hempstead’s six-month moratorium on new homes in North Lawrence and Inwood will prevent supply from being added to an extremely tight market. That will only make housing costlier and harder to get, but it will pacify — temporarily, at least — locals who were hysterical about a plan to add more than 1,000
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The City Council on Thursday passed a bill to ramp up reporting requirements for vacant retail space. The measure, sponsored by Manhattan Council member Gale Brewer, builds on a 2019 law that established a public database of commercial properties in New York City. As part of that law, commercial building owners must report vacant ground- and second-floor retail space once a year. The bill approved Thursday requires still more information. If a space is vacant
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David Avgi, CEO of Avenues Real Estate, has a problem. Rising mortgage rates have pushed potential homebuyers out of the market as sellers have refused to slash their prices. “We’re currently in a stalemate with buyers,” Avgi said. Across the market, homebuyers have seen homes within their reach become unaffordable as mortgage rates have doubled in the past year. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage Thursday was 6.7 percent, the highest since July
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Officials tackling the housing crisis agree that the city needs to shorten the environmental review process that snarls rezonings. But it is not clear how far reforms will go — or if there will even be any. At a Citizens Budget Commission panel Wednesday about fixing the city’s land use review process, city and state officials voiced support for a number of recommendations made by the think tank, such as revising the city and state’s
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In the United States, mortgage rates have blown well past 6 percent. In the United Kingdom, the mortgage market is retreating as fears of a potential 6 percent base rate took hold. More than 900 mortgage products were pulled from the UK market on Tuesday, CNBC reported. The total from financial information site Moneyfacts is more than double the previous record for a daily drop, which took place at the start of the pandemic. Mortgage
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The Justice Department has settled another case involving alleged redlining by real estate lenders, this time in New Jersey. Lakeland Bank came to terms with the Department of Justice on Wednesday, the New York Times reported. The New Jersey-based bank didn’t admit wrongdoing, as is often the case in settlements. The bank, which operates out of northern New Jersey and the Hudson Valley, agreed to create a $12 million homeownership fund. It will also open
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Mortgage rates hit their highest level in 15 years, continuing a surge that’s likely no longer a big surprise in the market, but not any less painful. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate reached 6.7 percent, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of lenders reported by the Wall Street Journal. The figure marks the sixth straight week the average increased and the highest average rate since July 2007. The unceasing rise in rates comes as
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A hack that shut down Suffolk County government servers over 20 days ago has crippled the local real estate industry. The cyberattack has disabled access to county websites, servers and databases since Sept. 8, making it impossible to verify property titles or file records with the county. That, in turn, has stopped most transactions from going through. Corcoran broker Sheri Winter Parker said confusion over the situation and when it might end means “my phone
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Lloyd and Barbara Macklowe have shaved $10 million off the asking for their Hamptons estate — again. The art power couple and brother of real estate developer Harry Macklowe are now asking $39.5 million for their East Hampton home at 51 West End Road. That ask comes after the property initially listed in November for $60 million before dropping to $49.5 million in June. Despite the sliding asking price, the Macklowes are likely to make
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After contemplating a move for the better part of a year, a mutual fund giant has committed to a large slice of One Madison Avenue. Franklin Templeton signed a 15-year lease for 347,000 square feet at the Midtown South office development with landlord SL Green. The investment management firm will occupy floors 11 through 22 of the tower, which is still more than a year from completion. An SL Green representative told The Real Deal
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The developers of a $2 billion megaproject in Queens are ceding more affordable housing to the community in another stab at pushing the project past the finish line. In a letter to the local council member, the developers behind Innovation QNS increased the Astoria project’s affordable housing commitment from 25 percent of the project’s 2,800 units to 40 percent, according to the Queens Daily Eagle. About 500 units would rent at 30 percent of the
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Toys R Us is attempting a nationwide comeback, but the site of its former headquarters in New Jersey is stuck in stalled talks about its future. Ongoing discussions about multifamily development for 1 Geoffrey Way in Wayne are stalled, NorthJersey.com reported. The township and property owner, Dobco, already agreed to some specifics regarding housing, but a final deal has yet to be reached. Under the agreement, the residential component of the site will include 1,360
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When it comes to Compass, the whales are buying the dip. Several dozen institutional investors have taken up positions in the residential brokerage as of the end of the second quarter, according to an analysis of SEC data by Nasdaq. Institutional investors collectively own $665 million of Compass’ Class A common stock, or about two-thirds of the outstanding shares, according to the analysis, which defined institutional investors as those managing north of $100 million. The
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A developer is proposing a mixed-use project in Peekskill that would deliver scores of apartments to the Westchester city. Cornerstone Structures plans a 125-unit mixed-use building at 201 North Division Street in Peekskill, the Rockland/Westchester Journal News reported. The building, which would stand five stories at one corner and six at another, would be on a one-acre site. The property would be a mix of market-rate and affordable units, although the exact split hasn’t been
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Two large properties with development rights have hit the market on Long Island’s North Fork, where homes are still in extremely short supply after a more than two-year run on the market. Former Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander is looking to unload his parcels at 1117 Main Road in Riverhead and 2045 Sound Avenue in Mattituck for a combined $6 million, The Real Deal has learned. Alexander’s 24-acre property at 1117 Main Road is listed
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A Fifth Avenue property once called Manhattan’s “last intact Gilded Age Mansion” has traded for $50 million. The 20,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts mansion has been on and off the market for years, the Wall Street Journal reported. The home secured its asking price in the all-cash deal. The sellers — the Permanent Mission of Serbia to the United Nations — are a group of five European countries that inherited the property after Yugoslavia’s demise in the 1990s.
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An award-winning Broadway director has earned another distinction, this time in real estate just over 50 miles north of where he first made his name. Two-time Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff and his wife Bryna McCann sold their Weston, Connecticut, house for $6.5 million. The deal marks the area’s highest price for a home sale since 2005. McAnuff bought the land in 2011 before the four-bedroom, three-bathroom home was built in 2013. The house is
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Another day, another real estate company making moves to cope with rising mortgage rates. Proptech startup Divvy Homes laid off 12 percent of its staff on Tuesday, the Information reported. The cuts impacted roughly 40 employees at the five-year-old company. Divvy executive Kyle Zink cited inflation and elevated mortgage rates as rationale for the layoffs. “Realistically, the macro environment is likely to remain volatile and challenging for the foreseeable future,” Zink told the outlet. “As
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For the second straight year, Labor Day was cast as a flashpoint for post-pandemic office life. And for the second straight year, the holiday left properties feeling empty. After a surge in occupancy post-Labor Day, attendance already appears to be leveling off, Bloomberg reported. Kastle Systems card-swipe data on the week of Sept. 21 show occupancy in New York City, the country’s largest office market, was down slightly from the previous week at 46.1 percent.
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A Brooklyn landlord was sentenced to jail three years after a fire at his building resulted in the death of an elderly tenant. A judge sentenced Flatbush landlord Evener Leon, 62, to six months in jail and five years of probation stemming from the 2019 fire, The City reported. Leon was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in May, though he was acquitted on manslaughter charges, according to Brooklyn Paper. The fire started during the early
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Apartment projects on Long Island have become so difficult that a developer who sought to build 44 units in Suffolk County might instead do a handful of single-family homes — if that. Bay Shore–based MR Property Builders is trying to chart a path forward after the Babylon Town Board voted against a rezoning proposal, Newsday reported. The unanimous decision was another setback in a project that has been steadily shrunk over a five-year period. The
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When residential dealmaking dries up, brokerages have to find unconventional ways to generate money. Douglas Elliman rolled out a payday loan service platform to its brokers, providing an alternate source of revenue as the industry braces for a down market. Tongo, a third-party platform backed by New Valley Ventures, Elliman’s investment arm, lets brokers borrow up to 75 percent of a pending commission for a 3 to 5 percent fee charged every 30 days. Tongo
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UPDATED Sept. 8, 2022, 12:45 p.m.: Whether it’s Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, Meta’s campus in the Bay Area or a 30-story office and data center in Downtown L.A., Kevin Shannon has sold it all. The Newmark broker’s 33-person team has brokered nearly $7.5 billion worth of real estate deals this year alone. And while dealmakers tend to specialize in one or two asset classes, Shannon doesn’t discriminate. He’ll close the $730 million sale of a
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What had been a quiet month for mid-market investment sales in New York City got busy last week, with multifamily properties again proving to be a highly sought-after asset class. Five of the seven transactions between $10 million and $40 million that hit city property records included apartment buildings or plans for them. Four were in Brooklyn, two were in Manhattan and one was in the Bronx. Below are details on each sale, ranked by
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Starwood Capital is at its wits end with Joel Schreiber. Barry Sternlicht’s firm is suing Schreiber, best known as WeWork’s first investor, for allegedly defaulting on its loan backing a Los Angeles office building and on a personal guarantee. Starwood says Schreiber now owes a cool $271.5 million. Starwood’s suit follows a bizarre series of events surrounding the vacant, 1.1 million square-foot building, one of Downtown L.A.’s most troubled properties. In May, Starwood filed a
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One of the most volatile commodity markets of the pandemic is sounding a similar note to yesteryear. Lumber prices are at their lowest level in more than two years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Futures ended Monday at $411 per thousand board feet, down more than 70 percent from the peak six months ago. Wood prices have been tumultuous since the onset of the pandemic. Prices collapsed as everything in the world slowed to a
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Vornado Realty Trust is moving forward with plans to expand the Otis Elevator Building as part of a new 340,000-square-foot office complex. The real estate investment trust recently filed an application seeking zoning changes that would allow for a glassy, two-story expansion on the roof of 260 11th Avenue. Vornado also plans to construct a nine-story building on a vacant portion of the site. The new building would have an atrium that connects to the
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Multifamily developers in the Town of Hempstead have hit a major roadblock. The Hempstead Town Board unanimously approved a six-month moratorium on the building of homes and apartments in the villages of North Lawrence and Inwood, Newsday reported. The vote reverses an overlay zoning district and transit-oriented development district in the Nassau County municipality that would’ve allowed for more than 1,000 apartments to be built. Members of the board proposed the moratorium after residents revolted
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Eli Karp’s Flatbush apartment project just said hello to a new owner. The property’s mezzanine lender, Jeff Simpson’s Arch Companies, won a UCC foreclosure auction for equity interests in Karp’s Hello Nostrand, according to a source familiar with the matter. By acquiring the interests, Arch Companies is on track to take control of the site. The development, at 1580 Nostrand Avenue, has been at the center of one of the most heated Brooklyn real estate
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Home prices slowed their roll this summer — at a historic rate. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index posted a 15.8 percent annual gain in July, down from June’s 18.1 percent increase. Not only was it the fourth straight month of deceleration, but the 2.3 percentage point difference was also the largest recorded in the index’s 27-year history. Before the spring, one had to go back to November for signs of deceleration in housing prices. The
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The Brodsky Organization appears to be tired of being held accountable for the sins of its tenants. The landlord filed an Article 78 case against the city and its enforcement of the short-term rental law, Crain’s reported. The suit classification calls on a state court to review a city law. Brodsky’s lawsuit stems from the actions of a tenant who was illegally using his Lincoln Square apartment as an Airbnb. The tenant at 75 West
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More deals for homes are getting left out to dry in the Sun Belt than anywhere else in the United States. Some of the pandemic’s hottest housing markets counted the highest rates of home purchase cancellations last month, according to Redfin. The southern region fell on the higher side above the nationwide rate of 15.2 percent in August, as buyers think twice about the same destinations that shot to popularity among remote workers seeking more
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In a three-story brick building in Queens, a couple was forced to move out of their one-bedroom rental in August because of an illegal Airbnb scheme. But they weren’t the ringleaders. They were the ones who reported it. Five months earlier the couple had nabbed the ground-floor unit in Flushing for just $1,700 a month. The husband, an undergrad student studying computer science, and his wife, a baker, signed a one-year lease and moved in
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As the city’s investment-sales market heads into its always-important fourth quarter, Clarion Partners is putting a pair of Williamsburg loft buildings on the market, aiming for a price of $70 million. Clarion is looking to sell the rental buildings at 44 Berry Street and 139 North 10th Street, marketing materials show. The buildings, which have a combined 78 apartments, were built in the early 20th century and converted in the early 2010s into spacious loft
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Another massive residential project is in the works for Flushing. An entity connected to Brian Pun’s FSA Capital filed permits Thursday to build a 173,000-square-foot, mixed-use development at 133-09 37th Avenue. The 17-story building would consist of 102 residential units across roughly 71,600 square feet, as well as about 101,400 square feet for commercial use, according to the plans. The Queens project would also have a 313-space parking garage. Hill West is listed as the
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Someone wake up the Brooklyn luxury market when September ends. Summer may have come and passed, but after a small rebound last week, only eight homes — three condos and five houses — asking at least $2 million went into contract last week, according to a Compass report. That’s just one more than the 2022 low reached three weeks ago. However, agents drenched in pain can take some solace in that the homes’ average asking
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UPDATED, Sept. 27, 2022, 12:45 p.m.: Two Manhattan West remains a busy spot in Manhattan’s uncertain office market. Brookfield Properties landed hedge fund D.E. Shaw as its latest tenant at the massive Hudson Yards office development, Bloomberg reported. The company is taking 283,000 square feet across eight floors, planning on moving in during 2024. It’s not clear how much D.E. Shaw is paying in the deal, which brings Brookfield’s tower to 76 percent leased. The
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Developers in Astoria have stars in their eyes. Queens-based Mega Contracting Group and Manhattan-based Ettinger Engineering Associates are collaborating on a project at the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens that will house the borough’s first planetarium. It is expected to serve up to 10,000 children annually. The state is providing $1 million for the project, at 21-12 30th Road. It will include 229 affordable apartments, some set aside for foster youth aging out
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New York’s office market is still trying to find its footing after the pandemic crushed it. While some newer buildings are attracting tenants anew, older buildings are being forgotten. The stretch along Third Avenue from 42nd Street to 59th Street is becoming a stark example of the downside to the city’s ongoing flight to quality, Bloomberg reported. While Savills pins the city’s office vacancy rate at 19 percent, it’s 29 percent on the 17-block corridor
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Luxury residential real estate has been roiled by economic uncertainty in recent months, but high-end contracts in Manhattan appear to be holding steady, staying on par with previous years. The borough saw 16 contracts signed last week, a tick down after the market closed out the summer with a few high notes. Historically, Manhattan’s luxury contracts have struggled and fallen flat early in the third quarter, but this September is falling in line with previous
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The latest shortage wreaking havoc on the country? Land. Developers are increasingly struggling to find suitable land for residential developments, the Wall Street Journal reported. Land-use restrictions such as zoning and infrastructure issues are among the challenges making it difficult to find sites near major metropolitan areas. With scarcity comes inflated prices. Morris Davis, a professor of finance at Rutgers Business School, pegs national residential land to cumulatively be worth more than $20 trillion. Davis
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UPDATED, Sept. 27, 2022, 8:15 a.m.: A frothy finder’s fee has a Long Island farmer going scorched earth on Jamestown Properties. Kerber’s Farm owner Nick Voulgaris is suing Jamestown and its president, Michael Phillips, claiming they failed to pay the farmer after he tipped them off on two buildings for sale in the West Village, the Commercial Observer reported. Voulgaris is seeking either the $1.6 million fee he feels he’s owed, or a 10 percent
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When celebrity broker Ryan Serhant left Nest Seekers in 2020 — striking out on his own months into a pandemic that had all but shut down New York City’s real estate market — the industry thought he was crazy. “They were like, ‘Are you sick? Is something wrong? Why would you ever do this when New York is on fire?’” Serhant recalled two years later, noting he did struggle. On the latest episode of The
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The Department of Buildings’ audits of project applications have plunged, but that’s in part because its new filing system closes a loophole that cheaters exploited, the agency says. In fiscal year 2022, which ended June 30, the agency only audited 1.6 percent of permit applications for construction code compliance, according to the latest Mayor’s Management Report. Three years ago the number was 13.4 percent, and it has dropped steadily since. Not to worry, the agency says.
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Hussain Sajwani had been trying to break into U.S. real estate for years. The Emirati billionaire’s Dubai-based development firm, Damac Properties, looked at New York properties prior to the pandemic, hoping to land a prime site near Central Park, but had no luck. So when the Surfside site became available less than two months after the condominium collapse, Damac didn’t hesitate, moving to become the all-cash stalking horse bidder for the oceanfront land. “We immediately
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With temperatures dropping into the 40s in New York, landlords are cranking on the heat. But given the rising cost of fuel, many already had the jitters. “There’s a lot of anxiety going into this heating season,” said Aaron Weber, an owner at Weber Realty Management, which oversees 400 apartments across Manhattan and Brooklyn. Last winter, landlords were slammed by natural gas bills as high as 60 percent above the previous year’s levels. Utility providers
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Barry Sternlicht’s latest affordable housing play in Florida stretches beyond Lake Worth. Starwood Capital Group spent $91.8 million for a 669-unit affordable housing portfolio in the state, Multi-Housing News reported. Comprising four different communities, the transaction breaks down to roughly $137,000 per unit. All four assets were completed between 1994 and 2007, developed under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. All four will remain affordable under Starwood. The 94-unit Villas at the Cove Crossing
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More than 150,000 people visit Martha’s Vineyard every year — some courtesy of Florida taxpayers — but very few can afford to stay. Shortages of service workers are nothing new to resort areas where housing costs have spiraled upwards, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is even having trouble recruiting doctors and nurses, and has been working at three-quarters for months, according to the Wall Street Journal. “How do you recruit when rents are doubling from $3,000 a
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Boston may soon be raising taxes on property sales. The city council this week advanced a bill that would impose a transfer charge of up to 2 percent on real estate sales over $2 million, and funnel the money to affordable housing programs, WBUR reported. The bill has garnered opposition from lawmakers who say that now is not the time to add taxes, and that the charge would be passed on to tenants. Boston mayor
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If you’re reading this, you may already be behind the eight-ball when it comes to buying a rare Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home. The Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin house at 1425 Valley View Drive was listed for $725,000, Crain’s reported. It was the first time the home was put on the market since it was built in 1954. The house belongs to a trust in the name of Karen Johnson Boyd, great-granddaughter of Samuel Curtis Johnson, who
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Developers of a Four Seasons property in the Big Easy are trumpeting the arrival of a massive loan from a New York-based real estate firm. Carpenter & Company and Woodward Interests scored $315.6 million to complete the renovation of the Four Seasons Hotels and Residences New Orleans at 2 Canal Street. Madison Realty Capital, which provided the loan, announced it this week. JLL Capital Markets’ Riaz Cassum and Henry Schaffer arranged the financing. The hotel
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For the Wild West-obsessed buyer, a rare opportunity to own a slice of history is on the market for $1.1 million in Pearce, Ariz. Patricia Burris is selling the 127-year-old ghost town general store known as the Arizona Ghost Town Museum after converting it to a one-bedroom home, Insider reported. Burris and her husband Michael, a historian, bought the general store at 905 South Ghost Town Trail in 1996. The 3,882-square-foot building, originally built in
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One of New York City’s biggest buyers of 421a-eligible properties has added another to its portfolio. HUBB NYC acquired a 13-story, 63-unit residential and retail building at 223-225 4th Avenue in Park Slope from Greystone Development for $40 million, according to property records filed Friday. A Cushman & Wakefield team consisting of Dan O’Brien and Adam Spies brokered the Brooklyn deal. Commercial Observer first reported the sale. Greystone put the 48,200-square-foot, mixed-use property on the
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A short-term rental company is zeroing in on New York City’s hotel market, signing two leases in the span of a week. Miami-based CorpHousing Group announced a 15-year master lease operation agreement for The Tuscany Hotel in Murray Hill. The property at 120 East 39th Street is currently a St. Giles Signature Hotel. CorpHousing plans to begin operating the property’s 124 units in the fourth quarter under its LuxUrban brand, geared towards vacationers and business
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An e-commerce marketing platform is moving its U.S. headquarters from 400 Lafayette Street in NoHo to Stellar Management’s One Soho Square. Yotpo will sublease 30,700 square feet from Flatiron Health at the 768,000-square-foot office and retail complex at 233 Spring Street in Hudson Square. The company will move into its new digs Oct. 1. The length of the agreement was not disclosed. A CBRE team consisting of Harly Stevens and Jared Freede brokered the transaction.
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Ben Simmons has yet to play a game for the Brooklyn Nets, but he’s clearly a believer in his future with the team. The troubled Australian superstar is in contract to buy a combined unit at Fortis Property Group’s Olympia Dumbo in the Brooklyn neighborhood, the New York Post reported. The purchase price won’t be known until Simmons closes, but Fortis was asking $13 million. The two units combine for 5,000 square feet and eight
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Landlord Steve Croman, typically on the receiving end of lawsuits, stepped into the plaintiff’s position this week, suing the operator of the historic White Horse Tavern for back rent. Bar owner Eytan Sugarman is on the hook for over $650,000 and counting after struggling to make payments through much of the pandemic, the lawsuit claims. A ledger of the tenant’s payment history shows Croman helped Sugarman by offering a monthly concession that covered half his
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UPDATED, Sept. 23, 2022, 3:30 p.m.: Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes’ team are no strangers to luxury open houses, but a gathering by the brokers this week played double duty to launch a new project. The founding members of Douglas Elliman’s top-selling Eklund-Gomes Team held a party Thursday night at 53 West 53rd Street to debut Estate, a digital luxury lifestyle magazine. Roughly 100 people gathered for a boozy party in a full-floor unit on
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UPDATED, Sept. 27, 2022, 8 a.m.: A closed Lord & Taylor in New Jersey could be tailor-made into a mixed-use development. Hudson’s Bay Company, which owns the department store, presented a plan on Tuesday to the local council for the former Westfield retail location, NJ.com reported. The project is being spearheaded by Streetworks Development, the real estate arm of HBC. Plans call for a 730,000-square-foot mixed-use development in the Union County community. Titled One Westfield
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No amount of crabs with salmon roe will save a pop-up dinner business owner from eviction, so long as those in charge at 8 Spruce Street gets its way. Beam Living, which manages the luxury apartment building in the Financial District, is suing to have Carlos Gasperi removed from his 75th-floor unit, Crain’s reported. The building manager alleged Gasperi, who owns a speakeasy dining concept that operates out of several spots in the city, has
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Alec Baldwin’s time as a New Yorker appears to be coming to a close as he shops his remaining homes in the state. The actor listed his Hamptons home in Amagansett for $29 million, the New York Post reported. Baldwin purchased the home at 335 Town Lane in 1996 for $1.7 million. Serving as the actor’s primary residence during the pandemic, the 10,000-square-foot structure includes four bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The estate itself spans 10
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A tenant at a Tishman Speyer development in Long Island City is suing the developer, claiming it violated rent stabilization regulations tied to the now-defunct 421a tax break. Housing Rights Initiative filed the lawsuit alongside the 28-10 Jackson Avenue tenant, the Commercial Observer reported. Only one tenant was involved at the time of filing, but a judge class certified the lawsuit this week, potentially clearing the way for more tenants to join the lawsuit. The
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Nir Meir has faced his fair share of wild accusations. Since the implosion of his former firm, HFZ Capital, he has denied claims of false wire transfers, fake term sheets, missing funds and other allegations by creditors, investors and his former business partner Ziel Feldman. Despite the seriousness of those accusations, all are civil in nature. But at an upcoming hearing, a judge will decide whether Meir should be held in criminal contempt. Mark Hatch-Miller,
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Former Million Dollar Listing New York star Steve Gold is striking out to the suburbs. The Corcoran broker, who rose to fame starring in Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing New York,” bought a 10.5-acre estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, according to property records. Gold paid $7.3 million for the property. The vine-covered Italian-style villa has eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms, according to the listing. The estate is surrounded by expansive lawns and has formal and secret gardens,
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The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets that will be available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. A post-Covid frenzy for Manhattan homes may have given way to a summer slowdown, but buyers still managed to close on several eight-figure properties in the borough last month. The 10 priciest residential closings recorded in Manhattan last month
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There are two kinds of places in this country: those with zoning and those without. Houston is the best known zoning-free city, but it’s not alone. Drive through upstate New York and you’ll see “NO ZONING” signs sparked by efforts to regulate land use. Americans take zoning for granted, but for most of the nation’s history, people could do whatever they wanted with their property. Eventually, we realized that without zoning, development can be very
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Another out-of-state investor is building up its share of North Jersey’s hot industrial market. Boston-based private equity firm Marcus Partners acquired a two-warehouse, 200,000-square-foot property in South Plainfield for $36.5 million. The 17-acre site is at 18-20 Harmich Road in the Middlesex County town, close to Interstate 287 and the New Jersey Turnpike and about 23 miles from Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, a major shipping port. The off-market deal was brokered by Lee & Associates’
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Ten bucks is a small amount, but it was big news in the rental market last month. The median rental price in the U.S. fell by $10 month-over-month in August, the first monthly decline since November, according to a Realtor.com report. It was also the first time since then that the median rent — which came in at $1,771 — didn’t hit a record high. In other bad news for landlords and good news for
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August brought a surge in new contracts to the Hamptons residential market, but a continued decline in activity on the North Fork. The disparity between the two areas is due to uneven inventory on the east end of Long Island, according to a report compiled by Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. Single-family home inventory in the Hamptons hovering roughly in line with 2021 levels, while inventory in the North Fork dipping from the previous year.
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Compass’ top-selling Brooklyn team is beefing up its new development chops, luring in a veteran broker from Nest Seekers. Raquel Lomonico, whose Nest Seekers team was involved in $280 million worth of deals last year, according to Compass, is joining the brokerage’s Barak/Blackburn team, led by Lior Barak and Christine Blackburn. Lomonico’s addition is part of the team’s strategy to cement itself in the new development and North Brooklyn markets at a time when demand
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New York developer Azur Cos. and Chicago’s Golub & Company have switched from a hotel to a purely residential project for their planned metal and glass tower in Chicago’s Fulton Market. Their development at 1234 West Randolph Street is poised to rise 470 feet and 42 stories, according to a city zoning application, Urbanize reported. It’s a shift away from the lodging market, which in Chicago recovered slower from the pandemic than in other large
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New Yorkers looking to update their status to homebuyers have less options and square feet to peruse. Three years ago, New York City counted 5,300 listings priced between $400,000 and $800,000, which StreetEasy defined in a report as the price range for a typical starter home in the city. By August 2022, that figure had dipped to nearly 4,500 listings for sale, leaving typical first-time homebuyers 15 percent fewer listings to choose from in the
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Several residential and commercial projects are moving closer to reality in Yonkers, thanks to preliminary and final approvals of various financial incentives. The Yonkers Industrial Development Agency approved incentives for projects representing a cumulative private investment of $182 million, the Yonkers Times reported. In addition to hundreds of construction jobs, the developments will create more than 300 housing units in the Westchester County city. One of the most significant developments is an affordable senior housing
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More polo shirts could soon be coming to a store near you. Ralph Lauren is accelerating a strategic growth plan, the fashion company revealed during its investor day on Monday. Retail Dive reported that as part of the company’s growth, it’s planning on opening 250 stories in the next three years. In an effort to better control the retail experience, Ralph Lauren is doubling down on its direct-to-consumer business, which represents 63 percent of its
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This summer’s luxury market couldn’t resist the shifting tides swaying homebuyers across the board, which landed the category in its biggest drop in recent memory. From June to August, luxury home sales declined 28.1 percent year-over-year, the largest fall on record, according to a report from Redfin. The previous largest drop was nearly five percentage points fewer at the start of the pandemic; Redfin’s data stretches back to 2012. The housing market is tumbling in
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Looking to buy a home in Manhattan or Brooklyn? That might be difficult. New signed contracts have tapered off dramatically and so have new listings, according to the latest report by Douglas Elliman compiled by Miller Samuel. In Manhattan, deals are down 20 percent year-over-year for co-ops, 31 percent for condos and 32 percent for one- to three-family homes. New listings dropped 9 percent, 20 percent and 36 percent, respectively. “At the same time we’re
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At this rate, the statues in Elizabeth Street Garden might talk sooner than the judge deciding its future. For three years, the would-be developers of Haven Green have been shackled by a lawsuit aiming to stop 123 affordable apartments for low-income and formerly homeless seniors from being built at the Little Italy site. Though the project received City Council approval, it has been hamstrung by the litigation, despite arguments having concluded nearly two years ago:
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After months of record-breaking growth, New York City rents have finally flatlined. In August, the median rent in Manhattan slipped 1.2 percent from July to $4,100 and the median rent with concessions dropped 1 percent in the same period to $4,059, according to a report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. The dips mark the first time since February that Manhattan rents have not broken records, said report author Jonathan Miller, a sign
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State officials have awarded a contract of up to $57.9 million to redesign Penn Station. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that a joint venture between FXCollaborative Architects and WSP USA will complete preliminary design and engineering work on the project, which would create a 250,000-square-foot, single-level facility at the labyrinthine station. British architect John McAslan + Partners, which redesigned London’s historic King’s Cross Station a decade ago, will collaborate on the project. Hochul had requested proposals
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A pair of notable New York City retail brokers are on the move. Richard Hodos, who has spent the last 14 years at CBRE and became only the second retail broker to achieve the rank of vice chairman at the brokerage, is jumping to rival JLL, where he’ll retain a similar title in the firm’s Manhattan office. Joining him in the move to JLL is Michael Remer, who has worked with Hodos at CBRE since
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The shuttered Maxwell hotel in Midtown is facing foreclosure, the second big hospitality property to suffer that fate in as many days. Real estate private equity firm Yellowstone Real Estate Investments filed Tuesday to foreclose on the 697-room hotel at 541 Lexington Avenue, court records show. Joshua Roshanzamir’s Capstone Equities and Highgate Hotels bought the hotel for nearly $183 million in 2018, according to property records. Yellowstone’s lawsuit, however, lists Dune Real Estate Partners as
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Months after a historic co-op sale, another unit at 4 East 66th Street has been listed for a massive ask. The unit at the Upper East Side property was listed for $55 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The home, situated at the edge of Central Park, belonged to late pharmaceutical executive Howard Solomon and his widow, Sarah Solomon. The square footage of the apartment wasn’t reported, but the five-bedroom pad includes multiple wood fireplaces,
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Mario Carbone purchased his own slice of Miami Beach real estate, The Real Deal has learned. The Major Food Group co-founder purchased a non-waterfront home on Palm Island, sources said. Property records show Gregory Rumpel, senior managing director of JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group, and his wife, Jacqueline, are the sellers of the five-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom house. Carbone and his longtime girlfriend, celebrity publicist Cait Bailey, will be living in the home together, according to a
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UPDATED, Sept. 21, 2022, 12:50 p.m.: The New York attorney general made a long-awaited move on Wednesday, filing a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and some of the former president’s children. In the 220-page lawsuit, Letitia James alleged large-scale fraud by Trump and his organization, claiming property values were inflated to land more favorable loans or lower taxes. The lawsuit said there were more than 200 instances of fraud in a 10-year
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Default is looming over the Cohen Brothers Realty’s International Plaza tower, where a CMBS loan on the building was transferred to special servicing. The balance of the loan on the Plaza District office at 750 Lexington Avenue is $126.8 million, according to Trepp data reported by the Commercial Observer. Citigroup issued the loan in 2015, which is facing default three years ahead of its maturity date. The loan is split between two conduit deals, part
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Volatility in the housing market has produced an oddity: mortgage rates and mortgage demand increasing side-by-side. The average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage last week was 6.25 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey. The rate jumped 24 basis points from the previous week’s 6.01 percent average to mark the highest in nearly 14 years. As rates reached new heights, the report showed a surprising confluence in the market as
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A project that would bring more than three dozen affordable housing units to the increasingly expensive North Fork is getting pushback from the local planning board. Paul Pawlowski’s four-building proposal in Greenport was hit with a classification that requires further review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, the Suffolk Times reported. The developer has asked for more time to come up with a plan to mitigate the project’s impact. The review figures to cost
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As tech stocks struggle, a prominent startup investor is buying the dip in another beleaguered sector: New York City’s office market. AlleyCorp, the venture capital firm led by entrepreneur Kevin Ryan, bought the office building at 174 Mott Street in Nolita for $41 million from affiliates of Jack Jangana’s Continental Equities and investor Juergen Ostertag, records show. The six-story building spans just over 32,000-square-feet, meaning AlleyCorp paid close to $1,300 per square foot. PincusCo first
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Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is taking over the majority of Midtown East’s Lipstick Building in one of the largest office deals of the year. The hospital is buying about 430,000 square feet, or roughly two thirds of the 34-story tower at 885 Third Avenue from SL Green Realty, property records show. Financial terms of the deal are unclear. A spokesperson for Memorial Sloan Kettering said the investment is part of the “long-term financial planning
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Steven Roth’s Vornado Realty Trust is selling a Financial District office building for about 20 percent less than what it was asking in the spring — a haircut that reflects how the rising cost of debt is hindering commercial property sales. The Steven Roth-led REIT is in contract to sell its 29-story office building at 40 Fulton Street to investor David Werner for between $105 million and $110 million, sources told The Real Deal. That’s
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Brooklyn’s luxury market took the week off ahead of Labor Day weekend. The week leading up to the holiday saw just 11 properties enter contract — six condos and five townhouses — the lowest single week total this year, according to Compass’ weekly report of homes in the borough asking $2 million or more. The properties’ combined asking hit $35.2 million, the lowest since the week of January 3. The average home spent 210 days
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A decade ago, developer Lela Goren helped lead the conversion of a handsome pre-war apartment building in Greenwich Village to 17 luxury condominiums. Now, the building’s board wants to kick her out. Goren, a former executive at WeWork and longtime associate of Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, has racked up $45,000 in unpaid common charges at 31 West 11th Street, where she owns a penthouse as well as multiple ground-floor units, according to three lawsuits filed
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It’s not the amount of money RXR sought earlier this year, but it still landed a major loan for the renovation of a signature Times Square property. Scott Rechler’s firm scored a $1.3 billion financing package from a group of backers, including Morgan Stanley, Apollo Global Management and AIG, Bloomberg reported. RXR and partners have invested another $300 million into the upgrade of 5 Times Square. The loan, which runs through May 2026, is not
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Juniper Square has laid off about 14 percent of its staff, joining the growing list of proptech firms cutting headcount. The San Francisco-based company creates software for general partners and limited partners in commercial real estate deals to connect and communicate with each other. Its clients include top real estate players such as Tishman Speyer, Greystar, and Bell Partners. “The reduction in force targeted our sales organization and other ancillary functions. This decision was a
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Getting illegal basement apartments up to code is going to run up more than the Big Apple a large chunk of change. City Hall estimated it would take $13.7 billion to get the roughly 50,000 units up to code, the New York Post reported. The price tag is part of a draft report making its way to the federal government for a $188 million aid package after Hurricane Ida killed at least 13 people and
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Manhattan’s luxury market welcome the unofficial end of summer on a high, beating a 10-year average for the week before Labor Day. The borough saw 20 contracts signed last week at $4 million and above, above the average of 17 signed contracts, according to a weekly report by Olshan Realty. The priciest home to enter into contract was the fifth floor at KUB Capital’s 150 Wooster Street, asking $18 million. The seller purchased the loft-style
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An iconic Manhattan retail corridor is touting a slew of new activity inked this summer. Madison Avenue’s retail recovery lagged behind other sections of the city in the wake of the pandemic, hindering a corridor known for some of the priciest retail rents in the city. Data from Orbital Insight showed the corridor stretching from 57th Street to 72nd Street last summer saw only 71 percent of its foot traffic from 2019. However, a report
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Proptech unicorn VTS scored $125 million in its latest funding round, marking CBRE’s largest bet yet on the technology provider at a critical time for office owners. The software and data firm received a $100 million from CBRE as part of the round led by the commercial giant, the Wall Street Journal reported. CBRE will get a board seat as a result of its investment, which raised the firm’s valuation to $1.7 billion. CBRE first
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One of Sagaponack’s oldest summer estates has hit the market — a rare occasion for the property, which has changed hands just twice in the last 120 years. The four-acre compound near the intersection of Sagaponack Main Street and Hedges Lane is asking $21.5 million, Mansion Global first reported. The property includes a 19th-Century shingled main house, a guest house, a carriage house and a 1.4-acre “wild conservation grove of specimen trees,” according to the
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In the heyday of ping pong and free lattes in the workplace, many of the city’s fastest-growing startups paid for their high-priced office space with help from the state in the name of economic development. One-time unicorns like Peloton, Snap and Casper agreed in recent boom years to create hundreds of jobs in exchange for tax credits offered under the state’s lucrative but controversial Excelsior Jobs Program, which aims to keep jobs from leaving the
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Just before Manhattan rents started soaring at the start of the year, Blackstone Group agreed to buy a Frank Gehry-designed apartment tower in the Financial District for $930 million. Across the East River, KKR has spent more than $1 billion in the past two years to become one of the biggest owners of newer tax-exempt apartment buildings in Brooklyn. And Carlyle Group has quietly amassed a portfolio of small, mom-and-pop-style buildings in the borough worth
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The massive Midway Crossing redevelopment is set to cross arenas off its list. Engineer John Cameron said JLL would be willing to strike the two arenas from its $2.8 billion megaproject in Ronkonkoma, Newsday reported. Elected officials and Suffolk County residents opposed the venues because of traffic concerns. Legislator Trish Bergin said lawmakers and JLL spent days in negotiations about scaling down Midway Crossing, ultimately compromising on an arena-free project. In a common refrain for
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U.S. home buyers are finding a bright spot as markets stagnate and inflation accelerates: Europe, where a weak euro is luring expats to places like London, Paris, Provence, Tuscany, Lake Como and Lisbon. As the dollar hovers near parity with the euro and climbs against other currencies, buyers are getting more bang for their buck overseas, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a report from Knight Frank. One buyer, Boca Raton interior designer Laetitia Laurent,
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William Wrigley Jr., the heir to the Wrigley Gum fortune, sold his Aspen estate for $30 million. The 7,500-square-foot mansion was purchased by a trust tied to the Richter family, the Wall Street Journal reported. Wrigley is the great-grandson and namesake of William Wrigley Jr., who founded the chewing gum empire in 1891. The contemporary Wrigley Jr. is the former CEO of Wrigley Company, which Mars bought for $23 billion in 2008. Brokers Riley Warwick
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Imagine all the people living in John Lennon’s former family home. The Liverpool property is up for grabs, headed to a virtual auction, the BBC reported. The three-bedroom house on Blomfield Road is being sold to the highest bidder by Omega Auctions. Lennon’s mother, Julia, was the main inhabitant of the home, living there from 1950 until her accidental death in 1958. Other residents at the so-called “House of Sin” — dubbed by Lennon’s aunt
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It may take a smarter-than-average bear to settle land and environmental disputes revolving around a glamping club and a Yogi Bear-themed campground in the Hudson Valley. Local residents are complaining that Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp in Gardiner, near Shawangunk Ridge, affectionately known as “the Gunks,” is too noisy and fails to comply with local permits, the Times-Union reported. Neighbors also say an exclusive glamping resort violates town codes and that it’s too close to
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The distressed state of shopping malls hasn’t dissuaded a developer from building Greece’s largest retail complex. Lamda Development is leading an $8 billion project that spans a range of property types in service of a 30,000-person mini city, the Wall Street Journal reported. One component is a 2 million-square-foot retail hub, the nation’s biggest. The project, south of Athens at the site of Ellinikon International Airport until it was closed in 2001, will include waterfront
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China’s property market is struggling. Country Garden Holdings, ranked for years as China’s top real estate developer by contracted sales, reported a 96 percent drop in first-half profits, the Wall Street Journal reported. And the company’s home sales are down by one third versus the previous year. Anemic demand, lowered expectations and declining property values, have contributed to the struggling market, the Guangdong-based company told the outlet. “All these exert mounting pressure on all participants
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Tenant advocates call it a loophole. Owners of rent-stabilized buildings call it their last hope. Landlords’ ability to set the initial rent when they combine rent-stabilized apartments was among the few pro-owner provisions spared by the state’s rent law reform of 2019. Now it stands to be eliminated under a new proposal by the state. The Division of Homes and Community Renewal, which oversees rent regulation, this week also floated other changes that landlord groups
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UPDATED Sept. 4, 2022, 8 a.m.: The used sneaker trade went bigtime a while ago. Now one of the retailers it spawned will try to make a similar leap. Legacy, a consignment shop with a 7,200-square-foot store in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, has signed a long-term lease for 8,000 square feet at 1 West 34th Street. The location, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and opposite the Empire State Building, will give it a high-profile venue
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Struggling retailer Kohl’s is targeting another chance to cash in on its real estate portfolio. Private equity firm Oak Street Real Estate Capital is offering between $1.5 billion and $2 billion for Kohl’s properties, Reuters reported. People familiar with the deal told the outlet Kohl’s would lease its stores back from Oak Street. The two sides have met in recent days to discuss a possible deal, according to the outlet. Kohl’s has 1,100 stores in
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As Labor Day ushers in another push for workers to return to the office, brokers say New Yorkers who decamped to Florida during the pandemic are reversing course. But back-to-work mandates aren’t the sole catalyst. Some just want out of the Sunshine State. “Florida was not exactly what we thought it was going to be,” one couple told Rex Gonsalves, an agent at Brown Harris Stevens helping a number of clients condo hunt in New
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New York’s on-again, off-again relationship with broker’s fees may be headed toward another breakup. New York Sen. Jabari Brisport broached the issue in a Thursday morning tweet: “Tenants should not pay brokers fees,” he wrote. “The landlord hires the broker. The landlord should pay the broker.” “[Assembly member Zohran Mamdani] and I have a bill for this,” Brisport concluded. The lawmakers are two of a handful in the state legislature who are affiliated with the
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Don’t bother plugging “biggest believers in New York City’s tech future” into your favorite search engine: Google already has the answer. The tech giant’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said he’s optimistic about the company’s prospects in the Big Apple, where it expects to continue growing its presence, Crain’s reported. “I’m personally long-term bullish on our growth in New York as a company,” Pichai told the publication. “And we would do that only if we’re optimistic
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Bank of America is attempting to close the disparity between Black and white home ownership with a pilot program aimed at helping first-time buyers in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. The bank’s Community Affordable Loan Solution trial program will offer mortgages to first-time homeowners in certain predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, the New York Times reported. The program is being tested in several cities, including Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami. Applicant eligibility will be determined by
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Companies still want a piece of Manhattan. Some 3.4 million square feet of office space was leased in August, the most since January 2020, when the first Covid cases began to pop up in New York City, according to a Colliers’ report. Notably, space in Midtown is steadily getting harder to find. More space was newly leased than became available in Manhattan’s central business district decreased for the sixth straight month, as was the case
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Masa Son’s SoftBank made what it hoped would be a transformative bet on residential brokerage through its investment in Compass. It’s a bet that has proven extraordinarily costly. The Japanese investment giant’s Vision Fund disclosed on Aug. 5 that its stake in Compass, for which it pumped in $1.08 billion over three funding rounds, was worth just $543 million as of Aug. 5., wiping out about half its investment. And the current value is likely
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The FBI and Homeland Security came calling at New York properties tied to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Federal agents and NYPD detectives searched Vekselberg’s properties at 515 Park Avenue in Manhattan and 19 Duck Pond Lane in Southampton, NBC New York reported. Agents were seen carrying boxes at the properties. Zeckendorf Development built the 57-unit condo building on Park Avenue in Lenox Hill. In March, two other Russian billionaires, Valery Kogan and his wife Olga,
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RXR Realty has sent a clear message to Hudson Meridian Construction Group: Clean up your mess at our luxury residential property in New Rochelle or fork over the millions necessary to fix it. Scott Rechler’s firm is suing Hudson Meridian for improper construction of RXR’s 360 Huguenot mixed-use development in the Westchester County town, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Manhattan. The construction manager’s “defective installation” of waterproof membranes in the building caused water
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No doorman? Well, big problem. The buyer of a luxury penthouse in Tribeca is accusing a Corcoran broker of marketing the property without disclosing the building did not have a full-time doorman. Kara Dille, who purchased a $19 million penthouse at 37 Warren Street, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Crain’s reported. After signing a contract for the unit in March, Dille figured out the apartment building has a part-time doorman
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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dreams of building two 100-mile-long skyscrapers in the desert, a pair of mirror-encased, parallel lines running through the sand. The project, appropriately dubbed “the Line,” is part of the Saudi government’s planned $500 billion megacity near the Gulf of Aqaba, east of Egypt. The vision is fanciful for a few reasons. If realized, the linear, carless utopia with high-speed underground trains would generate zero carbon emissions and house 9 million
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The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets that will be available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. After two years of stops and starts, Manhattan’s office market appears to be on a bit of a hot streak. Leasing activity in the borough has set a new post-pandemic high for three consecutive months, according to data from
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You don’t often hear the phrases “cult of personality” and “multifamily real estate” bandied about in the same sentence. But the staid world of rental housing is attracting two outsized personalities seeking huge profits — and trading on their considerable charm to do so. Our cover story this month profiles Grant Cardone, the energetic sales trainer, motivational speaker and emerging real estate mogul, who claims to have amassed a $5 billion apartment portfolio funded by
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As Revlon goes through a massive company makeover in the form of bankruptcy proceedings, the company secured its requested exit from 200 Park Avenue South. Thecosmetics company received approval from a judge to exit a pair of leases at ABS Partners’ Everett Building, Crain’s reported. The two leases encompass nearly 46,000 square feet. Revlon asked to leave the leases a couple of months ago as part of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Corporate restructuring officer Robert
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With his Downtown Brooklyn rental project nearing completion, Michael Shah sold the land beneath it to ground-lease specialist Safehold as part of a nearly $147 million recapitalization. Shah’s Delshah Capital sold the fee position at its 20-story, 180-unit building at 22 Chapel Street to Jay Sugarman’s Safehold for an undisclosed price, Shah said Thursday. Along with the sale, Delshah secured a new bridge loan from Arbor Realty Trust and injected $26 million into the project
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Employees at a small New York architecture firm executed a historic move amid signs of building interest for formal changes around the industry’s workplace standards. The workers at Bernheimer Architecture announced the formation of a union on Thursday, the New York Times reported, in what is believed to be the country’s first private-sector union at an architecture firm. The 22-member firm has voluntarily recognized the union, which places the architects with the International Association of
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Fortis Property Group’s big plans to redevelop a quiet part of Cobble Hill into a three-building luxury condo development have run into trouble. Lender Madison Realty Capital has initiated a UCC foreclosure sale for the equity interests on development sites at 350 Hicks Street and 91-95 Pacific Street, where Fortis plans two condo buildings totaling 150 units. The Hicks Street building, called 1 River Park, is to rise 20 stories and contain 48 apartments above
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The Gateway train tunnel is further away from arriving at Penn Station than previously thought. The commission that is managing construction of the planned passenger conduit revealed more delays and cost increases on Wednesday, the New York Times reported. The news pushes completion of the tunnel, to connect New Jersey and Midtown, back about three years. The tunnel is now expected in 2035 — bad news for Vornado Realty Trust and other office property owners
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“The average are doomed.” “Don’t be a little bitch!” It’s pump-up time at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida. Motivational messages flash across giant TV screens. A crowd of aspiring real estate moguls has braved piano renditions of pop hits for the last hour, and they’re ready for the star. Three thousand acolytes roar as the curtain is pulled back. Grant Cardone struts through a cloud of pyrotechnics. Sporting a dark gray suit and
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UPDATED Sept. 1, 2022, 3:15 p.m.: Brookfield Asset Management has money to burn and it’s targeting public companies undervalued by other investors. The Toronto-based firm is eyeing deal opportunities and boasts more than $110 billion to invest, Bloomberg reported. The company has invested $30 billion in the past 18 months and is focused on cash-generative businesses. Head of business development Anuj Ranjan told Bloomberg it’s a great time to be a value investor. “This environment
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The lack of affordable housing in one Hudson Valley village is so stark that one of its top officials may be forced to live elsewhere. New Paltz deputy mayor Alexandria Wojcik is in a desperate search for a new home as her landlord has put the property that includes her two-bedroom apartment up for sale, the Times Union reported. Wojcik is facing eviction by nonrenewal. The deputy mayor, while bemoaning the lack of protections for
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It’s been a year since Manhattan landlords first pinned their hopes on Labor Day as the end of the remote-work era, and the city’s office buildings haven’t gotten much busier. But Silverstein Properties CEO Marty Burger says he’s confident more workers will finally return to their desks in the coming months. “We’re experiencing people coming back,” Burger said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” Monday. “I think after Labor Day, you’re gonna see an increase
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“Don’t be a little bitch!” That was the message to the scores of attendees who shelled out as much as $20,000 for tickets to sales coach Grant Cardone’s 10X Growth Conference in South Florida this spring — and evidently, it resonated. Cardone never said the event’s purpose was to recruit additional investors for his $5 billion real estate portfolio, but he managed to raise $45 million from it for big multifamily deals in Texas and
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Westchester’s multifamily market remains an attractive option for investors, judging by a recent $200 million sale in New Rochelle. Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Capital and Pacific Urban Investors partnered on a $200 million purchase of the apartment building Halstead Station, JLL announced, paying roughly $490,000 per unit. The seller was the DSF Group. The 24-story, 408-unit luxury community was built in 2001. Apartments range from one to three bedrooms, and community amenities include a fitness center,
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Empire Capital and retail megalandlord Igal Namdar have teamed up again to acquire a Manhattan office building. Empire, led by Josh Rahmani and Ebi Khalili, and Namdar bought 830 Third Avenue, a 14-story Midtown building, for $72 million from AEW Capital Management, according to sources. The partners secured a $53 million loan from Truist Bank. The building was once the headquarters of the Girl Scouts of America. It sits at the corner of East 51st
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One of the most recognizable home brands is shrinking its footprint in a bid to keep the business afloat. Bed Bath & Beyond is closing hundreds of stores and laying off a sizable percentage of its workforce, it announced on Wednesday. The New Jersey-based retailer has been struggling with slowing sales and a dive on the stock market, as well as a tumultuous leadership change. About 150 of its lower-performing stores would be closed in
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The Wing’s wings have been permanently clipped. The coworking startup has permanently shut its six U.S. locations effective immediately, the company wrote in an email to members on Tuesday. Insider was first to report the shutdown. The startup told the publication that it has arranged for workspace and membership needs to be handled by coworking space operator IWG. The firm described the months since it reopened its coworking spaces during the pandemic as “extremely challenging.”
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Billionaire cosmetics heiress and fashion icon Aerin Lauder is movin’ on up. Lauder, the granddaughter of Estee Lauder, founder of the eponymous world-renowned fashion brand, sold her co-op unit at 660 Park Avenue for $19.5 million after buying one for $47 million at 960 Park Avenue. Although she bought the pricier unit in 2019, Lauder appears to have moved into it full-time only this month, according to an interview with Elle Decor magazine. She sold
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RXR Realty has secured a nine-figure loan for one of Midtown Manhattan’s most recognizable office and retail buildings. The firm landed a $260 million refinancing for 75 Rockefeller Plaza from Bank of America and the Carlyle Group. A Newmark team of Jordan Roeschlaub and Dustin Stolly brokered the deal. The loan was a refinancing of mature debt at the tower, according to a Newmark spokesperson. Bloomberg was first to report on the transaction. Built in
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Free People hit a snag in a dispute over rent in the Meatpacking District, according to a new ruling. The Urban Outfitters subsidiary is responsible for more than $13 million in back and future rent at 58-60 Ninth Avenue, Crain’s reported. A hearing next month will determine the exact amount the apparel brand owes to landlord Delshah Capital. Michael Shah’s company took the retailer to court in 2020, suing for at least $11 million as
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One of Manhattan’s largest office-to-residential conversions since the start of the pandemic is moving ahead thanks to a large construction loan. Vanbarton Group secured $272 million from Brookfield’s lending arm for its conversion of 160 Water Street, a 24-story, 533,000-square-foot office building in the Financial District that it plans to convert into 588 market-rate apartments. A representative for Vanbarton declined to comment and a spokesperson for Brookfield did not immediately respond to a request for
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After several failed attempts by the city and state to legalize basement apartments, Comptroller Brad Lander has a plan based on another complicated apartment-conversion law. On Tuesday, Lander proposed the “Basement Resident Protection Law,” a state measure that would establish a city board to assess the fire and flood risk of existing basement apartments. The program would follow the state’s Loft Law, which temporarily legalized some former commercial and manufacturing spaces in the 1980s so
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Economic uncertainty is the flavor of the day, but Cushman & Wakefield foresees a sour taste for U.S. property values. The brokerage forecast a 50 percent chance of a mild recession. There was also a decent chance of a soft landing for the economy (30 percent), but only a marginal shot at stagflation or an upside scenario. Under a mild recession, Cushman projects Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, oil prices remain elevated and lasting inflation.
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UPDATED Aug. 31, 2022, 7:44 p.m.: After other companies aborted attempts to bring employees back to the office, Goldman Sachs is leading the charge for an office return. The bank is dropping Covid measures, including vaccine, mask and testing requirements for employees outside of New York City, the New York Post reported. In a memo reported by the outlet, the bank said there was “significantly less risk of severe illness” from Covid, citing the latest
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Apartment marketplace Roomster could soon find itself evicted from the internet after being accused of cheating renters out of tens of millions of dollars. In a complaint filed Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission and New York attorney general Letitia James accused the startup of flooding the internet with unverified listings for rentals that in many cases did not exist. John Shriber and Roman Zaks, Roomster’s founders and co-owners, then convinced prospective tenants to sign up
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Rockefeller Group and Park Tower Group have secured a $200 million construction loan to build a 40-story residential tower at 16 Dupont Street as part of the Greenpoint Landing development. Japan-based Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank took over financing on the project with a $230 million agreement that retires $30 million originated by Signature Bank, records show. The tower will have 378 residential units, and 2,700-square-feet of retail space. A portion of units will be set
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Kings County reigned in July as lenders pumped billions into outer-borough real estate projects. The month’s 10 biggest loans totaled $1.8 billion, more than five times June’s total, and about twice as much as last July — closely mirroring a similar rebound in Manhattan. Brooklyn captured seven of the month’s 10 largest commercial loans, while Queens had the other three. A couple big projects in rezoned Gowanus received construction loans, while Carlyle leveraged its Brooklyn
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Privately-held real estate investment trusts could soon face more scrutiny over how much an individual invests and what a fund can do with money it raises from selling shares. The North American Securities Administrators Association is looking into new rules that would limit how much an investor can buy into a non-traded REIT and prohibit such funds from paying out distributions from capital earned from selling shares, The Wall Street Journal reported. Investors would be
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The Kushners are continuing their dominance of the Jersey City multifamily development market, albeit through different companies. The KRE Group, helmed by Murray and Jonathan Kushner, are planning a big two-tower project at 808 Pavonia Avenue, NJ.com reported. KRE is teaming with Silverstein Properties on the development. The skyscrapers would be situated behind Loew’s Jersey Theatre. The two towers would reach 55 and 49 stories, and be allowed to exceed the area’s 37-store height limit
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Nearly three years after a Newsday investigation pulled back the curtain on racial discrimination by Long Island residential brokers, three agencies named in the probe will fork over $115,000 as part of a settlement with New York State. The penalties, paid by two Keller Williams franchises — Keller Williams Greater Nassau and Keller Williams Realty Elite — and Long Island-based Laffey Real Estate, will fund fair housing trainings for agents and the enforcement of fair
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The multifamily market was once again the predominant asset class that traded hands in New York City’s mid-market last week. Five of the seven transactions involving commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million that hit city records last week consisted of apartment buildings. Four deals were in Manhattan, two were in the Bronx and one was in Brooklyn. Here’s the rundown on each transaction, ranked by dollar amount. 1. An entity connected to
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A short-term rental company landed a $125 million slice of investors’ rising interest in flexible apartment living. Landing closed on the Series C funding through both equity and debt financings. The round was led by Delta-v Capital and included investments from Greycroft and Foundry. The Birmingham, Alabama-based company is part of a growing group of companies that lease apartments to tenants who can rent them out on a short-term basis, as opposed to a yearly
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Increasing evidence shows the housing market is finally slowing down. That doesn’t mean prices are coming down, though. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index posted an 18 percent annual gain in June, down from the 19.9 percent increase in May. It was the third straight month of deceleration, meaning home price growth was less stark from the previous month. Prior to the spring, there hadn’t been any signs of deceleration since November. After three straight months
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Equity Residential’s Jersey City apartment building boasts waterfront views in a high-interest neighborhood, but tenants are claiming the luxury property is plagued by issues. Tenants of 70 Greene Street alleged a myriad of problems are part of regular life at the building owned by Sam Zell’s firm, the New York Post reported, including hot water outages, faulty elevators, damaging floods. “There was water pouring down in the elevator,” one resident told the Post about an
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Remaining a private company remains firmly on the table for Better.com, which is seeking the best way forward after a tumultuous period for the startup. The digital mortgage lender has held discussions to remain a private company by landing alternative financing arrangements, according to an SEC filing reported by Inman. If the company finds financing outside of the planned merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp., the SPAC formed to take the company public, its merger agreement
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An oceanfront home in Bridgehampton entered into contract just below its last ask as the local market experiences a cooldown. Situated on 1.3 oceanfront acres, 165 Surfside Drive’s last ask was $26.99 million but went into contract for $25 million, or about $6,250 per square foot. Bespoke represented the buyer and the seller in the deal. The house has five bedrooms and five bathrooms across 4,000 square feet. The lower level has an open-concept layout
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Compass, which has burned through nearly $800 million over the last 18 months, should have enough cash to last the brokerage at least another year, industry observers predict. But that runway could shrink if the residential market slump continues. After a dismal second quarter in which Compass lost $101 million and said it was slashing its revenue projections by more than $1.5 billion, investors reacted by pushing its stock to a record low of $3.17
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Ofer Yardeni’s Stonehenge Partners has bought a West Village apartment building for $80.4 million. The price works out to $914,000 per each of the building’s 88 units. Three investors affiliated with Heller Realty sold the six-story, 70,000-square-foot building at 780 Greenwich Street in an off-market transaction that closed on Aug. 17, property records show. Yardeni said in a statement that the building “represents a true trophy asset as it is one of the few rental
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An investment firm is suing Kent Swig for months of unpaid rent at his commercial brokerage’s Madison Avenue headquarters. Investment firm Lincoln International sued Swig and his firm, Helmsley Spear, for missed rent payments at 444 Madison Avenue, the Commercial Observer reported. Swig’s firm is Lincoln’s subtenant at a 15,000-square-foot space in the building owned by Westbrook Partners. Lincoln alleged in a complaint filed last week in New York Supreme Court it hasn’t received any
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The Garden State is one step closer to breaking ground on a major mall makeover. Mill Creek Residential has joined the redevelopment team of the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ.com reported. Mill Creek will be pitching in during the first phase of the New Jersey mall’s redevelopment. Plans for a unique redevelopment of the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield mall have been in the works since prior to the pandemic. The redevelopment called for adding office space, a
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Brooklyn’s luxury market showed signs of life in the last week of August, in a streak of discounts. Homes asking $2 million or more that went into contract last week sold for a bigger average discount than at any other point this year, according to Compass. The period marked the seventh consecutive week homes sold below the asking price. The report is a slight tick up from the market’s August slump. Last week’s 21 signed
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After sluggish weeks, the luxury market is bouncing back in Manhattan. Last week, 21 contracts were signed at $4 million and above. That’s 13 more than the eight signed the previous week, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report. Those eight contracts represent the lowest totals since the week of Aug. 3 2020. Last week’s rebound was led by 17 condo sales. There were also two co-ops and two townhouses in the mix. Aside from last
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Manhattan’s top commercial lenders rebounded in July, extending $2.3 billion across the 10 largest loans in funds so borrowers could refinance, buy and redevelop real estate. The amount surpassed a sluggish June, when the top 10 loans totaled just $630 million, as well as last July’s tally of $1.2 billion. A spate of refinancings for office and residential properties led the way. Below are more details on the top 10: Anchors aweigh | $370 million
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Weeks after a fire killed two sisters at a rental in the Hamptons, the homeowners are being issued dozens of violations. Peter and Pamela Miller received 29 violations each at the Noyack home, Newsday reported. The 58 total violations were issued for illegal renovations and alterations, as well as missing safety measures. The fire that occurred during the morning hours earlier this month killed Jillian Wiener, 21 and Lindsay Wiener, 19. When personnel arrived on
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A foreign wealth fund and a U.S. partner cast a billion-dollar wager on suburbs as the future of offices. Singapore’s GIC and Workspace Realty Trust bought majority stakes in 53 suburban office buildings, the Wall Street Journal reported. The properties are scattered across the country, but many are concentrated around Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of Montreal financed the transaction, which closed on Friday. The seller was Griffin Realty Trust, which
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A broker fee that far outstripped the norm has caught the eye of New York’s Department of State. The agency, responsible for licensing real estate agents, is looking into the nearly $20,000 fee City Wide Apartments broker Ari Wilford collected in the Upper West Side on a one-bedroom apartment, the New York Post reported. There’s no limit on fees, but it’s against protocol for agents to charge “exorbitant commissions that have no reasonable relationship to
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An iconic Tribeca property isn’t worth half as much as once expected. A townhouse with the city’s only private skybridge sold last week for $24 million. It was first listed for $50 million in 2016 before the asking price was reduced to $35 million in 2019. The final asking price before closing was down to $26 million. The three-story, 25-foot-wide townhouse at 9 Jay Street connects to a 2,300-square-foot condo unit at 67 Hudson Street.
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The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets that will be available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need. Not unlike previous years, portfolio deals in New York City during the second quarter were few and far between. The market, typically driven by multi-family deals, is forced to compete with rising rent rates throughout the city. In June,
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New development activity is back in New York, and the roar of construction has awakened a dreaded industry bogeyman: the holdout. From the Diamond District to Billionaires’ Row, neighbors and tenants have dug in their heels and hobbled major projects. Perhaps the starkest example is playing out at Miki Naftali’s Upper West Side condominium conversion at 215 West 84th Street. In February, the developer sued Ahmet Ozsu, the sole remaining tenant in the 16-story apartment
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When former financial analysts James McGrath and Leon Goldfeld launched brokerage Yoreevo in 2017, the standard 5 or 6 percent commission looked like a fat target. “It just seemed like an industry that was ripe for disruption,” McGrath said. “We thought that we can basically reinvent the process, build a better mousetrap and save clients a lot of money while providing a better service.” They created a model that rebates buyers up to 2 percent
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A California woman and her boyfriend got more than they bargained for when they bought a house to flip. Tiffany Ma bought the “worst home on the block” unseen in an auction last October, the New York Post reported. Instead of finding a simple flip, however, Ma, who has been documenting the process on her Youtube channel, ended up with an abandoned hoarder home. The couple found two safes on the property. One of them
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Gross misconduct by skeevy landlords is likely worse than most would think, according to one lawyer. Sheryl Ring, who specializes in working with low-income tenants and homeowners in Chicago, told Curbed that landlords put “sexual clauses” in leases more often than people realize. They take advantage of tenants who may not be aware such clauses violate the Fair Housing Act. “I see this on a regular basis,” Ring said. Ring recounted horror stories about landlords
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A waterfront home in Lake George could set a record for the area if it fetches an asking price 20 times what it sold for two decades ago. The mansion at 2974 Lake Shore Drive hit the market for $23.5 million, the Times Union reported. If the historic property is sold for that price, it would be the most expensive sale in the town, although another nearby home, in Cooper’s Point, was selling for $8.4
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The federal EB-5 program is back in business. Two major lawsuits brought by industry groups reached a settlement with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which will allow existing regional centers — a key piece of the EB-5 program — to permanently operate again. The rise from the ashes storyline is a familiar one for a program once referred to as the “crack-cocaine” of real estate financing. Last Summer, Congress failed to reach an
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A state ethics board found enough evidence to take “appropriate action” against the South Dakota governor who intervened in her daughter’s application to become a real estate appraiser. Three retired judges that comprise South Dakota’s Government Accountability Board found that Gov. Kristi Noem may have “engaged in misconduct” when her daughter, Kassidy Peters, was granted a third opportunity to secure her real estate appraiser license, CBS reported. The board also referred a separate complaint about
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A piece of history hit the market in East Hampton for $7 million. Brothers Cleon and Carter Dodge listed the 11-acre farm that’s been in their family for more than a century, the Wall Street Journal reported. The property at 803 and 807 Springs Fireplace Road in the hamlet of Springs, includes a six-bedroom, two-bathroom farmhouse, a barn and a studio. Jenny Landey and Zack Dayton of Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing. The Dodges
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Investors in Chinese developers are pricing in $130 billion of losses as they anticipate a grim future for the nation’s faltering housing market. Two-thirds of their dollar bonds are trading below 70 cents on the dollar, a signal of distressed debt, the Financial Times reported, citing Bloomberg data. Beijing needs to start a full-scale bailout instead of the narrow steps it’s taken so far after home sales dropped by 30 percent in the first half
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Eli Karp waged a scorched-earth campaign against Madison Realty Capital for attempting to foreclose on his prized Flatbush apartment complex. Now he could have a new enemy. Arch Companies purchased the senior and mezzanine loan from Madison Realty and is planning a UCC foreclosure sale on the equity interests in the property held by Karp’s Hello Living, according to marketing materials. The sale is being spearheaded by Greg Corbin, a bankruptcy and foreclosure specialist at
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Gowanus has it going on. Domain Companies has closed on a $142 million construction loan for its 270-unit development in Gowanus, the firm announced Friday. The project at 540 DeGraw Street already secured the coveted 421-a tax abatement. Now Domain has the capital to get building. The $230 million project is a collaboration between Domain and Vorea Group, the development firms headed by cousins Chris and Peter Papamichael. Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group, a $1
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UPDATED, Aug. 26, 2022, 3:30 p.m.: Smart-lock maker Latch said its financial statements for 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 are unreliable. The Chelsea-based company, backed by Tishman Speyer, warned the SEC of “material errors and possible irregularities” in its financial reporting, Crain’s reported. The startup is conducting an internal investigation into the issue. An SEC filing shows the company’s audit committee launched an investigation on Aug. 10. The issues and irregularities stemmed from
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The beer kegs were never tapped at Proper Hall in the World Trade Center Mall, allegedly leaving Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield high and dry. The shopping mall giant sued Retail Worx for skipping out on rent at the property, the Commercial Observer reported. Retail Worx was supposed to open Proper Hall, a beer garden, at a 4,800-square-foot outpost in the mall. Westfield alleged the tenant has missed $1.6 million in rent, missing payments since last February. Westfield also
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Letitia James is accusing Freeport Village of skipping a base as it looks to hit a home run with a land sale to an industrial developer. The New York attorney general filed a petition seeking to halt the sale of the nine-acre Cleveland Avenue ballfields, Newsday reported. The petition doesn’t contest the sale on the grounds of the development plans, but on the lack of an environmental review. The petition claimed the village board said
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Billy Macklowe’s first Brooklyn development is taking shape with a sizable retail footprint. The William Macklowe Company and Senlac Partners signed CVS Pharmacy to a long-term lease at 120 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. The retailer will occupy more than 10,000 square feet on the ground floor of one of the two mixed-use buildings under development. CVS joins Lidl at the burgeoning site. The Brooklyn Eagle reported earlier this month the discount grocer signed a
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Single-family landlord Home Partners of America is pulling back activity from nearly half of its markets in the coming months. The company will pause purchasing activity in 38 markets at the start of September, Bloomberg reported. Home Partners cited home price appreciation, market demand and regulations as reasons for the break. The company said it hopes “to resume purchasing homes in these markets in the future.” Blackstone, which acquired the single-family rental company last year,
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Anywhere Real Estate has joined the slew of firms making cuts to weather an uncertain market. The company formerly known Realogy didn’t disclose which departments were affected or how many people lost their jobs, Inman reported. Employees of the company’s franchisor group Anywhere Brands and brokerage group Anywhere Advisors were spared. “Part of our ongoing cost management includes evaluating business initiatives, finding simplification and efficiencies, and right-sizing the enterprise to be in line with demand,”
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Rising interest rates did not deter New Jersey commercial property owners from scoring refinancing deals in recent weeks. STRO and KRE Group landed a $60 million loan from City National Bank to refinance its 205,000-square-foot industrial property at 1150 McBride Avenue in Woodland Park. The property is still under development, but landed a long-term lease last quarter. The property will include two drive-ins and 20 docks. KRE’s Jamie Block represented the ownership venture in-house in
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A Turtle Bay apartment building has long been a battleground for landlord William Koeppel. Now it has forced him to file for bankruptcy. Koeppel, who is in the middle of an ugly legal fight with his family over a separate portfolio of multifamily properties, is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to fend off foreclosure at 350 East 52nd Street. The filing is for Eastgate Whitehouse, an entity tied to Koeppel that controls the 138-apartment building,
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When an agent approached Devin Someck, a co-founder and principal of Living New York, and asked if he could expense part of his membership to a social club to the company, Someck wasn’t sure. But after looking into the request, Someck found himself considering a membership. “[Clubs are] a great opportunity for agents to meet not just clients, but developers, owners and like-minded people to canvass and to grow their business, while also having a
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