Major Developments:
New York City’s hotel inventory includes 113 new developments to open in the next few years, with just over half located outside Manhattan. New York’s hotel inventory will reach 144,000 rooms by the end of 2021 up 65% from the 87,000 rooms the city had in 2010.Chang has filed plans for his biggest hotel yet. The 34-story, 974-room development at 150 West 48th Street.
Michael Bloomberg is moving his presidential campaign headquarters from the Upper East Side to Times Square. The new headquarters are located at 229 West 43rd Street, 8th floor.
New York City will end the year with fewer national chain stores than it started with. Last year Manhattan was the only borough to see a decrease in chain store locations in 2018, the malaise has now spread to all five boroughs.
Coffee and tea shops were the best-performing types of retail chain for 2019, growing their footprints by 4 and 9%, respectively. Pet supplies and shoe stores took massive hits from the Petland and Payless closures, shrinking by a respective 69 and 41%.
Hopson Development Holdings paid $115 million on a stalled development site at 131-141 East 47th. The developer plans to build a 34-story tower containing 183,310 square feet. The total project will cost $225,000,000, including the purchase price. The previous owner was New Empire Real Estate Development who paid $81 million for the site.
WeWork is in talks to unload one of its business units at a major discount as the co-working company struggles to get back on track. Talks are underway to sell Managed by Q, an office-management platform, for less than $55 million only eight months after paying $220 million for the company.
Sam Chang has landed a $250 million loan for his upcoming project at 150 West 48th Street from S3 Capital Partners.
For the first time in five years, a fashion brand signed the most valuable retail lease in Manhattan. Hermès of Paris is paying $16 million in annual rent for its new Madison Avenue flagship store. The deal was a boon for the retail corridor, which has seen declining rents for years since the recession.
Jeweler Mikimoto is moving within 730 Fifth Avenue and will rent a 700 square feet on the ground and about 2,000 square feet on the second floor, paying $4.75 million per year.
Real estate stocks as a whole had returns of more than 20% through the first 11 months of 2019. Real estate investment trusts had one of their best years of the decade, with 25% total returns year-to-date.
Best Buy signed a 10-year lease for 40,839 square feet at 535 Fifth Avenue. The landlord is the Moinian Group. The lease will span the first, second, mezzanine and basement levels and comes with two five-year extension options.
WeWork may have to renegotiate some leases with landlords if some of the new WeWork locations do not attract enough members.
Restaurants in Grand Central are struggling to remain open citing high rents, low sales, bad retail conditions and a worsening homeless problem as factors.
WS New York a private club recently opened in 35 Hudson Yards and was created . About 400 people have joined the club so far, and membership is limited to roughly 750 people.
Amazon signed a 335,000-square-foot-lease at 410 Tenth Avenue with landlord SL Green Realty. Amazon said the new office will be home to employees from its consumer and advertising groups.
