Major Developments:
Mayor Eric Adams pleaded not guilty to five criminal charges from an alleged bribery scheme for luxury travel and fraudulent campaign donations. Adams pleaded not guilty before being released without bail.The battle over a hotel licensing bill continues over a requirement for hotel operators to obtain licenses and, in many cases, change the way they operate. The bill has pitted union members against subcontractors as the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council pushes the bill and the hotel industry assails it as a back-door attempt at unionization.
RFR sues Cooper Union to stop Chrysler Building eviction. Cooper Union College, owns ground under tower, sent a termination notice after missed payment for its ground lease in June and July. The missed payments led the school to send a 10-day termination notice for the lease on Sept. 13. RFR alleges the first notice was defective because it did not comply with the ground lease agreement and falsely detailed the alleged missed payments. RFR claims the 10-day termination notice is defective, too. “The ground lease will terminate Sept. 27, 2024, and control of the Chrysler Building will transfer to Cooper Union.
Skanska set to build Midtown East hub with projected $42B impact The city’s Economic Development Corporation tapped Skanska to oversee the construction of the first phase of SPARC Kips Bay. The contract award is expected to approach $1 billion. The first phase is expected to start at the end of 2025. Completion isn’t anticipated until 2031.
The FARE Act, would require whoever hires a rental broker to pay the broker’s commission, may be headed for a vote. The Real Estate Board of New York opposes the bill and fought back previous attempts to spare tenants from paying broker fees.
The City Planning Commission approved the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, a broad zoning text amendment that aims to create “a little more housing in every neighborhood” — as many as 109,000 homes citywide. The proposal is going through a Review Procedure and now heads to the City Council, where it faces some opposition, especially from outer-borough members who represent the periphery of the city. The proposal would eliminate parking requirements for new housing, provide a zoning bump for affordable housing, allow the city to map districts to allow more residential density (with floor area ratios higher than 12), legalize accessory dwelling units, allow more office-to-residential conversions, permit shared housing and ease zoning around transit to allow three- to five-story apartment building
Nathan Berman and InterVest are converting 111 Wall from office to 1,300 units of residential within the 1.2 million-square-foot tower. Construction to start in the middle of 2025, with the rental units expected to coming online 2026
Bruce Eichner is canceling his Crown Heights project at 962 Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights despite city approval that reduces shadows on Botanic Garden. Eichner says the new design is not feasible
In 2021, Solil sued to evict RFR and claimed damages of nearly $80 million after the Gramercy Park hotel owner failed to pay nearly $1 million in rent during the pandemic. Solil then signed a new $50 million lease with MCR Hotels, which plans to re-open the hotel. RFR has yet to pay as a result of its default at the iconic hotel, and a final damages number is in the process of being determined by a special referee appointed by the court.
Clipper Equity is 30 days delinquent on a $100M loan backed by 141 Livingston Street with the majority of Tenants leases expiring next year.
A deal with Memorial Sloan Kettering is approved to build a 31-story cancer center at 1233 York Avenue by Memorial investing $10.39 million in upgrades to P.S. 183 and to pay for various construction-mitigation efforts, including air quality and dust control. The hospital also agreed to build the new facility with 100 percent union labor.
The Brodsky Organization is moving forward with zoning approvals to convert the Flatiron Building located at 175 Fifth Avenue from offices into high-end residential units. Brodsky wants the waiver of a rule that requires at least half of the building’s floor area to be nonresidential. The City Planning Commission is expected to vote on the text amendment, after which it’s up to the City Council. The conversion will yield 39 residential units. will be built on the second through 22nd floors.
CMBS bondholders have taken over a multifamily portfolio in an auction after foreclosing on Sugar Hill Capital Partners. The developer finished building rent-stabilized properties just before the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act came into effect.
About $2 trillion in commercial real estate loans are set to mature across the country over the next three years. But a majority of the $700 billion worth of loans set to mature in 2023 were extended.
