Aig

• October 2024 New York New Developments
• 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 …
  
  
• April 2024 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings for Sale: The Duell family is seeking about $300 million for their nine-building portfolio of largely retail properties: 5 East 57th Street, a 22-story, 49,000-square-foot property, containing 19 commercial units, 90% occupied and 673 Madison Avenue, the 9,000-square-foot building. The rest of the Duell portfolio for sale is in Greenwich Village including a mix of retail and residential space. Investors are working together to try and sell the 1,331-key property for around $350 million for Manhattan’s Row hotel. An investment group led by David Werner, which owns the ground underneath the hotel at 700 Eighth Avenue, is jointly marketing …
  
  
• March 2024 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Office: Office values are down 25% year-over-year through December. With the rise of remote working and other economic conditions, there’s no guarantee those values will ever reach previous levels again. Office owners are showing more willingness to sell properties at a discount. As declining occupancy rates and higher interest rates have driven down values on buildings, some of which were bought at previous market cycle peaks. High interest rates have discouraged dealmakers, while office values have fallen by billions (maybe trillions) of dollars thanks to remote work. Peel back a few layers and things might not be quite so dire, …
  
  
• February 2024 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings for Sale: The defaulted loan on Blackstone's 1740 Broadway is for sale after a $430 million drop in value. The $308 million CMBS loan on 1740 Broadway is on the market for roughly $150 million. Albert Kalimian’s firm put the property at 200 West 67th Street up for sale. Kalimian had defaulted on the $194 million mortgage which matured in November. The 310-unit luxury property rental income covered 87% of borrowing costs. Rialto Capital is suing Metropole on behalf of the lenders for failing to make $215 million CMBS loan payments on 681 Fifth Avenue, a 12-story building since …
  
  
• November 2023 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Office: Office leasing in activity jumped 26% from the second quarter to the third. But much of that was upheld by two large leases and availability remained at record highs. Finding office tenants has been a slog for Manhattan landlords. Midtown and Midtown South have improved as “flight to quality” companies upgrading to better Class A space. Midtown South’s availability hit a new all-time high with an 18.6% jump. One of New York City’s prominent real estate law firms is going out of business, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Their demise is a blow to New York’s real estate industry. …
  
  
• May 2023 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Manhattan Retail Market: Burberry rented a short term lease at 693 Fifth Avenue. This means the cash flow from the property is short of revenue to cover its $250 million loan. Burberry took 14,000 square feet of retail space, 15% of the property at 693 Fifth, paying just $372 annually per square foot, a third of the $1,144 that Valentino agreed to pay when it inked a 15-year lease in 2013. David’s Bridal layoffs target 14 New York stores including three locations in New York City: including 45 West 25th Street in Manhattan, Plaza 48 at 3460 48th Street in …
  
  
• March 2023 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings for Sale: Related Companies’ fund management arm and BentallGreenOak are ready to walk away from the Point LIC, a small campus of converted warehouses in Long Island City, that sit mostly vacant after six years. BrightSpire Capital is looking to sell the non-performing loans, and the borrowers have agreed to hand the keys to the Point over to whoever buys the debt through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The mortgages on the two buildings total around $150 million. The two properties: a 130,000-square-foot former oil storage warehouse at 2100 49th Avenue, dubbed the Paragon Building, and a 220,000-square-foot building across …
  
  
• November 2022 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Office: Tenants leased 9.2 million square feet in the quarter, up 26% from the previous quarter and 28% from the same period last year. Financial services, insurance and real estate tenants were the top-leasing industries during the quarter, accounting for 47% of square footage leased. Year-to-date leasing volume stands at 24.2 million square feet, an approximately 50% climb from last year. Leasing volume this year is on track to outpace last year’s total by 29%. Manhattan’s availability rate dropped to 16.4%, its lowest level since March 2021. The market’s 4.7% decline in availability from 17.2% in the second quarter was …
  
  
• October 2022 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Office: September office occupancy numbers may represent a new normal. As more companies are settling into a wide range of work policies, from full-time, never or somewhere in between. The pandemic-induced drop in office use is projected to have a devastating effect on the market. The city’s office buildings will fall in value by 28%, or $49 billion. 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. The city’s office vacancy rate is at 19%, it is 29% on the 17-block corridor, nearly …
  
  
• October 2022 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings for Sale: Aman Group is looking to sell the hotel portion at the f Crown Building. One person familiar with the matter said the hotel could fetch $600 million. The deal would be structured with a manage-back clause, retaining Aman as operator of the property. UBS seeks $125M for UES apartment tower 408 East 92nd Street for somewhere between $120 million and $125 million, Developed in 2004, the building has an affordability agreement, set to expire in 2026, that subjects 20 percent of its 196 units to rent stabilization in exchange for the 421a property tax abatement. Madison Realty …
  
  
• September 2022 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Retail: Bed Bath & Beyond is closing hundreds of stores and laying off a large percentage of its workforce. About 150 of its lower-performing stores would be closed in the near future, marking a footprint reduction of about 16% of its 955 stores. Free People, an Urban Outfitters subsidiary, is responsible for more than $13 million in back and future rent at 58-60 Ninth Avenue. Mayor Eric Adams announced a crackdown on abandoned dining sheds. The mayor believes that sheds are dangerous or a haven for rats, and he wants to root out those who use the sheds for illegal …
  
  
• August 2022 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Office: Business leaders have started to accept that remote work is here to stay. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna recently said that only 60% of workers for the company would ever return to the office. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, once a staunch advocate of in-person work, also altered company policies this year, while recognizing remote work’s staying power. Meta, Amazon pulling back on New York Office plans and are cutting back on expanding their office footprints in New York. Meta decided not to take an additional 300,000 square feet of space at 770 Broadway. Meta is also pausing a plan …
  
  
• September 2021 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Retail: In January 2020, Fendi and Berluti inked leases at 595 Madison Avenue after Coach left. Hermes, Giorgio Armani and Brunello Cucinelli are also planting a flag in or increasing their footprints in the area. Toys ‘R’ Us is planning a large-scale comeback with the help of retailer Macy’s. Toys ‘R’ Us is set to bring more than 400 shops within Macy’s department stores, across the country, starting next year. Madison Avenue retail from 57th Street to 72nd Street is only seeing 71% of its 2019-foot traffic. Upper Fifth Avenue is at 92% of its 2019 levels. Soho foot traffic …
  
  
• July 2021 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: Life sciences leasing in New York leased 257,000 square feet, far above the 156,000 square feet rented in all of 2020. The city will throw at least another $500 million into life sciences development, bringing total investment up to $1 billion and signaling more expansion to come. A group of banks led by Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs provided $3 billion in refinancing for SL Green’s One Vanderbilt. SL Green Realty Corp, the National Pension Service of Korea and Hines Interests own the 67-story skyscraper. The refinancing will pay off $1.75 billion in construction debt on the property. …
  
  
• June 2021 New York New Developments
• New Developments The Gateway tunnel is back on track. Federal officials completed their environmental review of the $11.6 billion rail tunnel, giving the project the green light. The move comes after years of delays from the Trump administration. The plan calls for building a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River, which would connect New Jersey’s Bergen Palisades to New York’s Penn Station. The approval could potentially advance real estate acquisitions and other pre-construction activities. State lawmakers are seeking to give New York City more control over Cuomo’s Penn Station expansion and new development in the surrounding area. A recently …
  
  
• February 2021 New York New Developments
• New York New Developments Real estate leaders in New York have admitted that there’s a long road ahead before things return to normal or a new normal. WeWork recently exited four locations in Midtown, Soho and the Meatpacking District. Knotel declared bankruptcy. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing a plan to get employees back in office buildings and office landlords are on board. Cuomo announced that rapid testing would be used in state-designated orange zones to open office buildings, along with restaurants and theaters. He said that major commercial operators with space totaling more than 100 million square feet have already …
  
  
• August 2020 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Manhattan Office: Manhattan office leasing in the second quarter of 2020 totalled just 3.18 million square feet. That is 50% of the prior quarter and down 72% year-over-year. This is the slowest quarter for Manhattan office leasing since 2009. Office workers have been working from home during Covid. How many will remain at home after Covid has yet to be determined. Midtown saw 1.88 million square feet in leasing activity in the quarter, down 52% year-over-year. Midtown South leasing activity declined 87% year-over-year to just 640,000 square feet. Leasing activity downtown fell 73% year-over-year to 660,000 square feet. Manhattan’s Office …
  
  
• January 2020 New York New Developments
• 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 …
  
  
• September 2019 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings Sold: A seven-story, 87-unit mixed-use building at 2785 Broadway traded for $22.6 million. The buyer was TriArch Real Estate Group. The sellers were five companies: Adama Holdings LLC, Crane Key Co. LLC, Noam Associates LLC, FLI Properties LLC and Israel Family Noam LLC. The Hospital for Special Surgery bought a six-story parking garage at 524 East 73rd Street for about $19.7 million. The seller was River Company LLC. The property is two blocks from the hospital’s main campus. JAM Real Estate Partners picked up a six-story, mixed-use walkup at 1685-1687 First Avenue for $13 million. The seller of the …
  
  
• July 2019 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Manhattan Office Market saw an average asking rent increase of 0.7% despite 20.8 million square feet of space in the pipeline. Midtown office leasing continues to rise, totalling 1.85 million square feet, a 38% increase from the month before. The availability rate stayed flat at 10.7%, while the average asking rent hit an all-time high of $88.20, breaking a record set in 2008. The largest deal in Midtown was AIG, which leased around 320,237 square feet at 1271 Sixth Avenue. Leasing activity in Midtown South rebounded, to 680,000 square feet in leases, more than the previous two months combined. The …
  
  
• March 2019 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Manhattan Office: 2018 was record-setting year for Manhattan’s office market. Leasing including new deals and expansions hit 32.2 million square feet. 17 million RSF of new office space will be hitting the market over the next few years, so new developments are in heated competition to land elite tenants. Midtown office leasing rose 81% in December compared to November, totaling 3.15 million square feet and making 2018’s fourth quarter the submarket’s strongest quarter since 2001. The availability rate dropped by 0.4% points to 10.3%, while the average asking rent rose to $78.43 per square foot. Leasing activity in Midtown South …
  
  
• October 2018 New York Buildings For Sale
• NYC Buildings Sold: Icon Realty Management bought a four-story residential property in the East Village for $10.4 million. The property, at 21-23 Avenue, contains apartments and four commercial units. The seller is 21-23 Ave. B, LLC, which is controlled by Andrew Chang. Fong’s Great Empire Realty bought the Down Town Association building at 60 Pine Street in Manhattan for $28.3 million The company will lease the landmarked property back to the club. East Harlem Tutorial Program bought a church site in East Harlem for $15.2 million. The package includes St. Lucy’s Church and a School at 342-344 104th Street and …
  
  
• June 2018 New York New Developments
• New York Major Developments: The top 10 office leases totaled 1.9 million square feet, much larger than the previous month’s top 10 leases, which totaled 996,000 square feet. Pfizer signed a lease for 800,000 square feet of office space at 66 Hudson Boulevard. Latham & Watkins signed a lease for the 25th through the 34th floors, totaling for 407,000 square feet at 1271 Sixth Avenue. Jet.com inked a lease for 200,000 square feet of warehouse space at 1055 Bronx River Avenue. The asking rent was $22.00 per square foot. McDermott Will & Emery signed a 20-year lease for around 106,000 …
  
  
• June 2018 New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings for sale: An entity managed by hedge funder Mark Sonnino is selling 555 West 25th Streets office property for $52 million, four years after paying $27 million in an all-cash deal. The six-story loft building has just over 51,000 rentable square feet. The Church of Saint Monica, at 413 East 79th Street, plans to sell 102,170 square feet of development rights at 406 East 80th Street to 79 East Owner LLC, an entity tied to Extell Development for around $35.8 million. The deal comes with an option for Extell to purchase an additional 6,748 square feet of …
  
  
• May 2018 New York New Developments
• New York Major Developments: 666 Fifth Avenue announced that the tower lost $25 million in 2017, largely due to the debt service on the property outweighing its net income. Chinese developer Zhonghong Holdings has defaulted on more than $174 million debt, just one year after the company tried to buy a senior living facility chain. Brookdale Senior Living for $4 billion. Co-working companies have stepped up their game in New York City, increasingly competing with traditional commercial landlords for the same tenants. Sixteen co-working companies have leased 664,000 square feet in the city so far in 2018. Brookfield Property Partners …
  
  
• September 2017 New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings For Sale: Thor Equities has put the two-story, 50,000-square-foot retail condominium at 88 Greenwich Street, that is home to the 9/11 Tribute Center up for sale for $52 million. New York REIT is marketing 1440 Broadway, a 749,000-square-foot building. The real estate investment trust, which is in the process of selling its 4.4 million-square-foot portfolio as part of the comp. The Broadway property is expected to get $775 per square foot or $580 million. NYRT purchased the building in 2013 from Rockpoint Group and Monday Properties, paying $530 million. The majority owner of the Plaza Hotel is …
  
  
• October 2016 New York New Developments
• Major Developments:The Related Companies is planning a 63-unit mixed-use building at 501 West 18th Street in Chelsea. The 10-story building will contain 97,800 square feet of residential space, along with 10,300 square feet of commercial space that will be divided across two retail units on the ground floor. Related bought the pair of parking lots which are adjacent to the IAC building in 2014 from investors Barry Haskell and Matthew Resnicoff. The $205 million price or $700 per square foot set a record for the neighborhood. The developer secured $125 million in financing for the purchase. Tishman Speyer filed plans …
  
  
• July 2015: New York New Developments
• New York University's campus expansion plans to expand the school by about 2 million square feet in Greenwich Village hasve been approved by Tthe New York State Court of Appeals.s gave an approval to New York University's campus expansion plans to expand the school by about 2 million square feet in Greenwich Village. Neighborhood activists sued to prevent the expansion, claiming it used land that was permanently designated for public park use. The plan will create new high rises on two blocks between West Third and Houston Streets and La Guardia Place and Mercer Street. FAO Schwarz is close to …
  
  
• August 2014 New York Buildings Purchased & For Sale
• New York Buildings sold A Hong Kong-based Investment firm, bought SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Midtown for $82 million. Hidrock Realty sold the 173-room, Gene Kaufman-designed property at 25 West 37th Street for $82 million. The hotel opened last year.Madison Realty Capital has teamed with RWN Real Estate Partners to purchase a pair of buildings along Frederick Douglas Boulevard in Harlem for about $30 million.Real estate investment firm KUB Capital is in contract to acquire a one-story Soho baby stroller store and adjacent parking lot for a sum of $50 million.A White Plains, N.Y.-based real estate investment trust is in …
  
  
• May 2013 New York Buildings For Sale
• NYC Buildings For Sale Vornado Realty Trust plans on selling Harlem Park, a plot of land that was previously designated for the development of an office building. The site, located at 1800 Park Avenue at 125th Street, will most likely get $62 million in proceeds and a $22 million net gain.Officials at the Italian American Museum in Little Italy are planning to sell their three-story building to a real estate developer. The property is not landmarked and the zoning lot allows for an 85-foot, or more, six-story building. A new owner would allow the 1,000-square-foot museum to occupy a bigger …
  
  
• March 2013 New York Buildings For Sale
• NYC Buildings For Sale The nearly 41,600-square-foot Colonial Revival U.S. Post Office location at 217 West 18th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues is for sale.The SUNY board of trustees voted to close the Cobble Hill-based Long Island College Hospital. The sale of the 200,000-square-foot building, which could be converted into a residential development, may bring up to $500 million.Lehman Brothers is looking to sell its 90 percent stake in 425 Park Avenue. The 31-story, 567,340-square-foot building, located in Midtown East, is to be demolished and replaced with a 650,000-square-foot Norman Foster-designed office tower being developed by L&L Holdings, which …
  
  
• September 2012 New York New Developments
• New Developments The Related Companies has won wage-cutting agreements with some four dozen construction unions in its efforts to save money at the $15 billion development of Hudson Yards. The developer, one of the most outspoken for the need to cut construction costs during contract negotiations with unions last year, got the groups to agree to cut wages and benefit packages by 10 percent to ensure they would be commissioned to work the massive construction project expected to carry on for the next decade. The deal is not yet final.With public support, the Kingsbridge Armory ice rink plan may appear …
  
  
• May 2012 New York New Developments
• New Developments Morgan Stanley just signed a lease for almost 1.2 million square feet of space at Brookfield Office Properties Inc.'s 1 New York Plaza in lower Manhattan. The bank, which currently occupies about 816,000 square feet at the building, will expand by an additional 337,000 square feet. The agreement is the largest office lease for a single building in New York since 2008. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s push to modernize Midtown East office buildings has become a legacy issue as the mayor’s reign whines to a close. Bloomberg wants to re-zone the area bounded by Third and Fifth avenues and …
  
  
• February 2012 New York Buildings For Sale
• NYC Buildings For Sale The Sapir Organization, the developer of Manhattan's Trump Soho, is planning to put the hotel and its unsold condominium units on the auction block. The auction will likely take place later in the spring.Aby Rosen's RFR Holding is in contract to buy back the debt for far less than the $144.2 million face value at the Midtown development site at 610 Lexington Avenue.Although the vacant property, where Rosen sought to build the Shangri-La Hotel, New York, is in contract to RFR Holding. Several more properties in the William Gottlieb estate have hit the sales market, encouraging …
  
  
• January 2012: Manhattan City New Developments
• Manhattan New Developments Cornell University, in partnership with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology will build a 2 million-square-foot applied science and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island. Atlantic Philanthropies a charitable organization founded by billionaire Charles Feeney made the $350 million gift to go towards the creation of Cornell University's 2 million-square-foot applied science and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island. Feeney, who made billions of dollars through co-founding the Duty Free Shoppers Group, graduated from Cornell's School of Hotel Management in 1956, and has been consistently making donations to his alma mater.Brooklyn politicians were still hoping on another phrase the mayor uttered …
  
  
• December 2011 New York New Developments
• New Developments Local 32BJ, the union representing more than 22,000 commercial building workers in New York City, voted to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary. The union has been in contract talks with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, since November 15th. The union opposes the landlords' proposal to establish a different wage and benefit structure for new hires, which they claim will create a two-tier system designed to push out workers with seniority. If negotiations fail by 12:01 am on Jan. 1, 2012, the union could strikeThe Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which …
  
  
• August 2011 New York Buildings For Sale
• NYC Buildings For Sale 397-401 East 8th Street a development site is on the market for $5.2 million, EV Grieve. Chang's McSam Hotel Group purchased the 4,324-square-foot vacant lot, at 397-401 East 8th Street, for $4.9 million site. Chang appears to be in the midst of a selling spree -- he recently unloaded stalled hotel project sites in the Financial District and in Union Square, as well as his new Holiday Inn Express at 126 Water Street. A month after merging with EBSCO Publishing, library reference publisher H.W. Wilson has decided to market its former headquarters and nearby land holdings …
  
  
• July 2011 New York New Developments
• New Developments Governor Andrew Cuomo, signed a statewide property tax cap legislation, caps property tax increases at 2 percent, or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. Only a 60 percent vote in local communities override Cuomo's legislation. "We are beginning a new era in which New York will no longer be the tax capital of the nation," Cuomo said Community activists opposing the Rudin family's proposed takeover of the St. Vincent's Hospital campus in Greenwich Village dropped their court appeal without ever appearing before a judge.New York led a second consecutive month of U.S. housing price gains. Nationwide home …
  
  
• July 2011 New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings sold Newly landmarked 70 Pine sells for $205M to Nathan Berman's Metro Loft Management, or $186 per square foot,. Metro signed on to buy the 1.1 million-square-foot tower, the fifth tallest in the city at 66 stories, from Kumho Investment Bank of South Korea. Kumho previously purchased the building, along with 72/74 Wall Street, from AIG for $150 million.. The Henry T. Sloane mansion at 18 East 68th Street, between Madison and Fifth avenues, sold at auction yesterday to its only bidder -- Alexander Rovt, a Ukrainian-born billionaire fertilizer magnate -- for $40 million, the amount in …
  
  
• June 2011 New York New Developments
• New Developments Companies such as Boston Properties and Vornado Realty Trust are in negotiations with potential tenants and may even proceed with construction without securing leases. Boston Properties may be the first to break ground by the end of 2011. The company is finalizing negotiations to anchor a 1 million-square-foot tower at Eighth Avenue and 55th StreetRelated Companies CEO Stephen Ross said he was confident about attracting tenants for the first phase of the development, which will include four million square feet of office space. "I think we're going to surprise people," he said. "We're talking to nine tenants at …
  
  
• June 2011 New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings sold Private real estate management firm ING Clarion Partners bought the 42-unit rental building at 44 Berry Street in Williamsburg for $27 million. The 54,000-square-foot, six-story former quinine factory building was developed by Cayuga Capital Management. The fully-leased building includes six retail spaces on the ground floor. The sale of GLC Group's 16-story condominium building in Clinton Hill has closed, a real estate investment group from New York City and Northern California paid $21 million for the Karl Fischer-designed tower, , when 35 to 40 percent of the 49 units at 163 Washington Avenue were in contract …
  
  
• May 2011 New York New Developments
• Major Developments Mall of America developer Triple Five has reached a deal with lenders and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration to reboot and expand the stalled Xanadu complex in the Meadowlands,. The checkered, 2.4 million-square-foot complex, originally envisioned as a retail and entertainment destination that would rejuvenate East Rutherford, has sat incomplete along the New Jersey Turnpike for years, sapping up $1.9 billion in the process and developing a reputation as the poster child for failed boom-time real estate projects.Real estate investment firms Savanna and Monday Properties are launching a $30 million capital improvement for a 20-story, 260,000-square-foot commercial …
  
  
• May 2011 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• The Manhattan office vacancy rate increased in the first quarter of 2011 even as employment in the professional sector rose at the fastest rate since 2000. There were 11,500 new office workers in the first three months of this year. The first-quarter vacancy rate rose even as employment moved up because, large blocks of space being added to the market from tenants who signed relocation deals last year, and because many firms have excess space for their new hires.New York City office rentals got more expensive in the first quarter of 2011, even as vacancy and absorption rates remained mostly …
  
  
• April 2011 New York New Developments
• Major Trends Bruce Ratner wants to construct the world's tallest prefabricated structure at the Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn, according to the New York Times. The 34-story proposed tower would include 400 affordable apartment units, fulfilling a promise Ratner made when he took over the site. The annual rate of building permits issued for new privately-owned U.S. housing units fell by another 8.2 percent in February to a record-low 517,000, according to the latest data from the Commerce Department, backing up analysts' predictions that a sustained recovery in the housing market is still elusive. The permitting rate, which is indicative …
  
  
• April 2011 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Manhattan's office leasing market is on pace for its best year ever after February brought some 3 million square feet worth of deals,. That's far above the nine-year monthly average of 1.9 million square feet of office leases. The banner month also comes on the heels of a busy January, when 2.6 million square feet were snapped up in Manhattan office lease transactionsManhattan townhouses see 2010 sales uptickBoth the single-family and multi-family Manhattan townhouse markets showed signs of improvement last year, according to the Corcoran Group, which released its first annual Townhouse Report today. In the single-family market, the number …
  
  
• February 2011 New York New Developments
• New Developments Three years after the Related Cos. began developing its 26-acre Hudson Yards project, the company is now trying to find a tenant willing to commit to occupying at least 600,000 square feet of office space. To land its key tenant, Related is offering either to construct a building and sell it to that company or to provide a big break on the rent. The 12 million-square-foot space, bordered by the High Line and the Hudson River, will run from 10th to 12th avenues and from West 30th to 33rd streets. The $15 billion project is expected to take …
  
  
• January 2011 New York New Developments
• New Developments Columbia University may be moving forward with plans for a $6.3 billion expansion after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by local businesses whose properties may be subject to eminent domain. The justices refused to question findings by a state development agency and said that the area is blighted and that the expansion has a legitimate public purpose. Several years back, retail giant Walmart tried to open stores in Queens and Staten Island, but backed off after fierce community opposition. Now the discount chain store is trying again to break into the New York City market, since …
  
  
• January 2011 New York Buildings For Sale
• New York City Buildings sold Google paid $1.77 billion in cash for its new office at 111 Eighth Avenue. Google will occupy 550,000 square feet in the 2.9 million-square-foot Chelsea building, located between 15th and 16th streets. Google's ability to pay cash helped it succeed in the purchase. MCR Development has acquired a portfolio of 10 Marriott and Hilton hotels for $164 million, marking one of the largest hotel deals in the country so far this year. The collection of mostly extended-stay hotels, include 1,100 rooms across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The seller, developer Briad Group, held …
  
  
• August 2010 New York New Developments
• New Developments Community Board 7 voted to disapprove Extell's plans for an eight-acre Riverside Center project, unless the developer agrees to build according to some modifications. The plan for the new development that would span 59th to 61st street and West End Avenue to the edge of the West Side Highway includes five skyscrapers, at least 2,500 apartments, 210,000 square feet of retail, a hotel, a movie theater, an underground automobile service center, a new K-8 school and three acres of open space. The Alex is facing an $81.7 million foreclosure suit after Anglo Irish Bank sold the note on …
  
  
• July 2010 New York New Developments
• New York Developments The closure of St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village dominated the news, neighborhood institution succumbing to financial troubles. Despite the credit crunch, New York-area hospitals are finding ways to fund major expansion projects. Through the support of philanthropists, often from the real estate sector, there's funding to build state-of-the-art health care institutions, keeping New York a world leader in health care. The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey yesterday approved an agreement with the city, under which the city will reimburse the agency up to $44 million for building underground foundations and infrastructure for a …
  
  
• February 2010 New York New Developments
• New Developments The year-end review of Manhattan commercial real estate casts doubt on 2010's outlook. Commercial property sales volume was weak through the end of 2009, with projections suggesting that the total volume for the year was just $5.7 billion, a decline from $23.6 billion in 2008 and $62.8 billion in 2007.Manhattan commercial property sales volume remained slow through the end of 2009. Total commercial property sales for the year were just $5.5 billion, down from the peak level of $62.8 billion in 2007, and less than a third of the total sales made in 2008. There is pent-up energy …
  
  
• October 2009 New York New Developments
• Major Developments Stalled construction projects are not having much of a psychological impact on the city. Despite an increasing number of delayed projects, including 250 West 55th Street, 99 Church Street and Solow's First Avenue project, any psychological effects are likely to be short-lived, because the projects will be completed eventually. Large banks are only about halfway done with their commercial real estate losses. The U.S. commercial real estate losses could reach 10 or 15 percent of loans in this cycle. Banks with retail and office loans face the highest risk.The Plaza hotel is on tough times. The building's lower …
  
  
• July 2009 New York Buildings For Sale
• Manhattan Buildings sold The AIG buildings -- 70 Pine Street, which might become a landmark, and 72 Wall Street -- sold for less than $140 million, under $100 a foot. Youngwoo & Associates and Kumho Investment Bank agreed to buy the buildings, AIG's former headquarters, which total 1.4 million square feet. The buyers are expected to create a mixed-use development that could include residential and retail space, and will have to put down at least a $10 million deposit at the contract signing. Because of anti-terror legislation, the Department of State will have to approve the overseas buyer.The president of …
  
  
• June 2009 New York Buildings For Sale
• Manhattan Buildings sold A second-floor duplex at the Plaza Hotel Residences sold for $2,751 per square foot, about half the price that similarly sized units were closing for last year. The three-bedroom unit with 4,283 square feet was sold by the developer, Elad Properties, to a company called Paradeplatz Ltd. for $11.786 million. The condo faces Central Park in the rehabilitated hotel at 768 Fifth Avenue. The Windermere has been sold to Windermere Property LLC, a company that made an agreement with the city to repair the landmarked building. The former owner and Tokyo-based developer Toa Construction had reached a …
  
  
• June 2009 New York New Developments
• New Developments Developers of a Jean Nouvel-designed skyscraper adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art have applied to build a tower seven stories taller than the original proposal unveiled two years ago was 75 stories tall. The building has been controversial, with Community Board 5 criticizing its height and bulk in a resolution in March 2008. The mixed-use project from Houston-based international developer Hines Interests will have 100 hotel rooms and 120 condominium units on the upper floors, and also include a 60,000-square-foot expansion of MoMa's galleries on the second to the fifth floors. The amount of space for the …
  
  
• April 2009 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• In the last month, all aspects of office leasing in Manhattan continued to head in a negative direction. Leasing activity, vacancy rate and average asking rent all pointed to a weaker market. One bright spot was in absorption, the measure of the change in the amount of space occupied in the market, which improved. For all of Manhattan, leasing activity fell to 910,000 square feet, from 920,000 square feet the month before. The vacancy rate rose .4 points last month to 8.3 percent, and the average asking rent fell by $4.55 to $59.10 per foot. Retail asking rents in New …
  
  
• October 2008 New York New Developments
• New DevelopmentsThe Bush administration proposed granting the Treasury Department the ability to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage-related assets from private firms. The proposal would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. The government also put together a plan that makes investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley holding companies, giving them access to Federal Reserve Bank of New York funds and putting them under stricter regulations. Boutique firms, like Lazard and Evercore Partners, are seizing clients and staff from fallen rivals. Nationwide, financial companies have announced 103,000 layoffs this year. Democrats proposed taxpayers could receive an …
  
  
• October 2008 New York Buildings For Sale
• NYC Buildings For SaleThe sale of Harry Macklowe's Drake Hotel site on Park Avenue could bring in a record price between $900 and $1,000 per buildable foot for the project between 56th and 57th streets. It was reported that Macklowe's lender Deutsche Bank AG brought a suit against the developer for defaulting on $482 million lent for the purchase of the site to build a hotel, retail and condominium. Three of American International Group's buildings in the city could be put up for sale to raise money and repay the company's $85 billion federal loan. AIG's headquarters at 70 Pine …
  
  
• August 2008 New York New Developments
• New DevelopmentsOffice availability rises along with asking rents. Manhattan commercial rents increased in the year's first half even as the available for leasing increased. Average asking rents increased to $71.35 per square foot in June up from $63.46 per square foot in June, 2007. Despite an increase in leasing activity in the second quarter, the total for the first half of the year was 10.47 million square feet, a decline of about 1.5 million square feet from the same period in 2007. Some commercial landlords are raising the rents higher than ever before. L&L; Holding Company is asking for a …
  
  
• July 2008 New York New Developments
• New DevelopmentsThe city has reached a deal with a developer that will bring schools to a mixed-use development planned for Midtown East. With financing from New York City Educational Construction Fund, the World Wide Group will build a new elementary school and a new high school that would replace the High School for Art and Design. In exchange, the city will lease the developer a 1.5-acre site at East 57th Street and Second Avenue. World Wide plans to build 200,000 square feet of retail and 488,000 square feet of residential space. Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a plan to rejuvenate the …
  
  
• March 2008 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• The Manhattan office market showed signs of a slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2007, as a streak of four straight quarters of positive absorption ended with 734,662 square feet of going back on the market.