$12B Archstone-Smith buyout likely

May 29, 7:01 am

Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehmen Brothers Holdings are closing in on a $12 billion deal to purchase apartment REIT giant Archstone-Smith Trust. The buyout would be one of the largest REIT privatizations ever. Archstone-Smith, which owns 86,000 apartments in major cities like New York and L.A., is the second-largest apartment REIT in the country. more [WSJ]

Storied Village bar shuttered

May 29, 6:59 am

The Cedar Tavern in the Village has been closed since last year as its owner prepared to add seven stories to the existing two-story building on University Place off 11th Street. The owner said the bar would re-open this January, but it remains shuttered and its interior is gutted. While some locals say the apparent closing of the bar--which was once the haunt of artists and writers like Jackson Pollock and Jack Kerouac--signals that the old Village is dead and gone, other area residents are more accepting of its fate. "It had pretty much run its course," said a man who used to live near the bar. "Anyway, none of the people who made it what is was were coming here anymore." more [AMNY]

When new condos go bad

May 29, 6:58 am

As condo construction has increased across the city, so have the number of complaints from buyers about the quality of workmanship on the new units. Real estate lawyers say they are hearing more and more complaints about developers cutting corners when it comes to basic underpinnings like electrical wiring, fireproofing and ventilation. Experts say part of the problem stems from the Department of Buildings' self-certification system, whereby developers attest that their buildings are up to code without official oversight. more [New York]

Man with a 2030 plan

May 29, 6:56 am

Rohit Aggarwala, the director of the city's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, spent the past year working tirelessly on PlanNYC, the Bloomberg administration's sustainability roadmap for the city. Aggarwala has handed out in excess of 3,000 business cards since beginning work on the plan; after starting work at 7:30 in the morning, he spent many of his evenings attending Town Hall meetings; and he's met with more than 100 advocacy organizations since the plan was announced. In fact, he worked so hard on the plan that it put him off food. "My most typical lunch has been nothing," he said. more [Sun]

Exhibit looks at Coney history

May 29, 6:55 am

The Coney Island History Project is setting up an exhibit in a booth underneath the Cyclone that will run all summer long. The show has various artifacts from Coney Island's past on display, and a space for visitors to record oral histories relating to the beachfront neighborhood and amusement zone. The project comes as many visitors to Coney Island fear the area will change completely given Thor Equities' plans to raze Astroland, construct a new amusement park and build hundreds of luxury condos. However, the exhibit is "not about nostalgia and longing for the past," according to its organizer. "It's about Coney Island's future, and what endures. It's reminding people of what Coney Island has meant to New York over the years." more [NYT]

Record number of homeowners...and more

May 29, 6:43 am

1. 33 percent of New Yorkers now own more [NYT]
2. Pre-foreclosures rise, but most city owners have options more [NYT]
3. Hazards of a building boom more [NYDN]
4. Rally against REBNY's Queens West plan more [Times Ledger]
5. Long Island and CT see inventory glut more [NYT]

Existing home sales tank

May 25, 12:40 pm

Sales of existing homes in the United States fell 2.6 percent in April, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. The number of purchases reached the lowest level in nearly four years, and the stock of homes for sale was the highest it's been since 1992. "The housing market correction won't be resolved quickly," said Kevin Logan, senior market economist at Dresdner Kleinwort. "We are in a situation where downward pressure on prices will persist and sales will be sluggish for some time." more [Bloomberg]

Cemeteries woo the living

May 25, 12:39 pm

Historic cemeteries across the country, like Brooklyn's landmark Green-wood and the Bronx's Woodlawn, are looking to draw tourists in "a subterranean version of the History Channel." The cemeteries are grappling with fund shortages and looking to gain revenue for their upkeep and operations via tourist dollars. more [NYT]

Prep work starts on Rego Park mall

May 25, 12:37 pm

Developer Vornado Realty Trust and city officials broke ground yesterday for a Queens residential and retail complex near Lefrak City called Rego Park Center. The retail portion of the site will include a Home Depot and a Century 21, and the residential portion is slated to have 400 apartments. more [Queens Crap]

Extell plans tower by Hudson Yards

May 25, 9:19 am

Extell Development Corp. purchased a 7,300-square-foot parcel on 10th Avenue between 30th and 31st streets for $17.1 million from the Port Authority. The firm intends to build a 600,000-square-foot mixed-use tower on the site, which is next to Hudson Yards. Extell is also bidding on the MTA-owned Hudson Yards site. more [Curbed]

Sweetheart deal for Bklyn mall?

May 25, 9:06 am

The city will allow the new long-term leaseholders of Downtown Brooklyn's Albee Square Mall to buy the property after 25 years for $20 million, according to a document obtained by Metro. Thor Equities sold the lease for the property to Acadia Realty Trust and P/A Associates for $100 million in February. The joint venture intends to construct housing and retail on the site after razing the mall. After the 25-year lease expires, therefore, the developers will be able to purchase what is now city-owned property at a deep discount. "It's a bad deal," said a critic of the development plans. "This is city property, and our officials should be using the land to benefit the community." more [Metro]

Randall's park will cost city $83M

May 25, 9:04 am

The costs to build ballfields at Randall's Island will be much higher than the Park Dept. estimated just a few months ago. The projected construction cost has gone from $70 million to $127 million, according to the department. New play areas on the city-owned island will be built as part of a "public-private" development pact between the city and a consortium of private schools. In exchange, the schools will have first dibs on the fields most schooldays, shutting out most public schools from using the facilities. The private schools will put around $44 million into the project, so the city will be responsible for more than $80 million of the work associated with the fields' creation. more [NYDN]

Mortgage rates rise

May 25, 9:03 am

The 30-year average fixed-rate mortgage rose markedly in the week ending yesterday, going from 6.21 percent to 6.37 percent, according to Freddie Mac. Freddie Mac said the 15-year rate also rose, up from 5.92 percent to 6.06 percent. Strong consumer confidence and comments from the Federal Reserve persuaded the market that a Fed rate cut was unlikely this year, according to Freddie Mac's chief economist. more [Post]

Markowitz's ship comes in

May 25, 9:01 am

Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz, who lobbied to get the Queen Mary 2 to dock in Red Hook, has just returned home from a six-day complimentary cruise on the ocean liner. The free trip, which would cost between 1,399 and $23,399 for paying passengers, was OK'd by the city's Conflict of Interest board. more [Post]

Duane Reade real estate subpoena

May 25, 9:00 am

Duane Reade received a subpoena from the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York over some of its recent real estate transactions. The drugstore giant also said it needed to restate its earnings from 2000 to 2004 because an internal investigation showed $14.4 million worth of improper accounting tied to real estate deals. more [Crain's]

In Hoboken, Toll parks on the Hudson

May 24, 3:38 pm

With parcels of land in Hoboken disappearing rapidly given the city's frenzied pace of residential construction, officials have started looking toward the waterfront for parkland. And the city is teaming with Toll Brothers--one of the very firms gobbling up open spaces--to develop some of the new parks. more By John Celock

AmEx introduces plastic mortgages

May 24, 12:57 pm

American Express is rolling out what is likely the first program in the country to let homeowners charge their monthly mortgage payments to a credit card, allowing borrowers to earn reward points on their loans. "[It's] just another progression for us in the real-estate area and in the luxury space," said an American Express executive. Mortgage giants American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. and IndyMac Bancorp are the first two lenders that have signed up for the program. more [WSJ]

Gowanus wrangling behind CB6 purge?

May 24, 12:52 pm

Although it was widely reported that the the non-renewal of a number of Community Board 6 members' terms was payback for those members' opposition to the Atlantic Yards project, the gathering storm of controversy over a proposed rezoning of Gowanus may have been the real issue at hand. Per Gowanus Lounge: "[Community Board 6's] role in the Gowanus rezoning is largely still to come. It will be a high stakes battle with hundreds of millions of dollars in profits hanging in the balance for developers such as the Toll Brothers, Boymelgreen Developers and others looking for a broad residential rezoning, the highest possible densities and lax environmental cleanup standards and big public subsidies for deeply toxic parcels of land." more [Gowanus Lounge]

Columbia lobbying increases

May 24, 8:55 am

Columbia University has ramped up its lobbying efforts as it seeks to gain official approval for its 17-acre expansion into Harlem. The school paid more than $440,000 to lobbying firms in the first four months of this year, a notable increase from the $190,000 it spent on lobbying between January and April 2006. The university's plans, which involve seizing some properties via eminent domain, have drawn a great deal of criticism from many Harlem residents. more [Sun]

Toll Brothers sees 79% net loss

May 24, 8:53 am

Luxury home builders Toll Brothers announced this morning that its second quarter net income was down 79 percent. The firm's earnings for the quarter were $36.7 million, down from $174.9 million at this time last year. Toll said earlier this month that the fallout from the collapse of the subprime mortgage industry is affecting the company's bottom line. more [WSJ]

Firm plans $208M Bklyn complex

May 24, 8:52 am

Manhattan-based United American Land, which is planning to build a $208 million luxury retail and housing complex in Downtown Brooklyn near the Fulton Street Mall and Metrotech, is in the process of evicting longtime businesses and residential tenants in order to make way for its development. United American's 594,000-square-foot property is slated to run along Willoughby Street, between Bridge and Duffield streets. more [Post]

Rally encircles Stuy Town

May 24, 8:50 am

Tenants from affordable housing complexes around the city gathered at Stuyvesant Town yesterday afternoon to form a human ring around the complex and call attention to what they say is a citywide hemorrhage of rent-stabilized and Mitchell-Lama units. Speakers at the event included Manhattan Borough President and UFT President Randi Weingarten. "If the current trend continues," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, "we will become a city for the very wealthy only. There will be no place for the poor, or for anything in between." Stuy Town was chosen as the site for the rally because organizers said it represented the loss of affordable housing in the city; the historically middle-class and mostly rent-stabilized complex was purchased by Tishman Speyer for $5.4 billion last year. more [AMNY]

Road warriors on two wheels

May 23, 4:19 pm

From the May issue: This spring, instead of shuttling to listings in limousines, a couple of brokers who sell some of the priciest properties in Manhattan are riding around town on bicycles. For agents Robby Browne and Sarah Bond, bike riding is cheap, convenient and a good way to get some exercise. Browne, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group who set a then-Manhattan price record in 2003 when he brokered a $42 million deal at the Time Warner Center, cycles to appointments, usually on days he's not seeing clients. "There are other brokers here who ride to work, and we share this secret smile like we know something that no one else knows," said Browne, who also said on the job has helped him secure clients. more By Vanessa Londono

WTC insurance settlement reached

May 23, 4:05 pm

The Spitzer administration announced today it had reached a deal with seven insurers covering the World Trade Center at the time of 9/11. The deal will bring in $4.55 billion for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, about half of what the office and retail planned for Ground Zero is expected to cost. more [NYT]

The trouble with the Deutsche Bank building

May 23, 3:02 pm

The demolition of the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street was put on hold last week after an accident, marking the latest in a series of setbacks for the planned deconstruction of the 40-story skyscraper. The building, which was badly damaged during 9/11, has been slated for destruction since early 2004, but the work has been delayed by insurance fights, environmental regulators and walkouts by contractors. "It will be more expensive to take it down than to put it up," says Charles Brickbauer, one of the original architects of the building. The tower cost $76 million to build in 1974, and current estimates peg the price tag for destroying it at more than $100 million. more [WSJ]

Co-op conversions a thing of the past?

May 23, 2:57 pm

The state has approved a mere 12 Manhattan buildings for co-op conversions since 2000, a precipitous drop from the co-op-conversion heyday of the late '80s and early '90s. Between 1987 and 1989, for example, 461 conversions were approved. The approvals have become rarer and rarer as the condo has assumed the position of Manhattan's residential property du jour, with developers and individual owners alike finding they're able to realize more of a return on condos than on co-ops. more [NYO]

Gotham Book Mart's last chapter

May 23, 2:54 pm

An auction at the Gotham Book Mart raised $400,000 for the store's owner, Andreas Brown, yesterday. The winning bidder was the store's landlord, who intends to sell the building at 16 East 46th Street. The money will come back to him: The shop is being closed following an eviction notice resulting from a claim that Brown owed the landlord more than $500,000. The store, which has only been at its present location for three years, was once one of New York's great intellectual and artistic hangouts, drawing figures like Dylan Thomas and Salvador Dali. more [NYT]

Hamptons sale to break nat'l record

May 23, 9:04 am

Financier Ron Baron is in contract to buy a $100 million, 40-acre East Hampton property next to his existing home, according to sources. If the sale closes at the rumored price, it will set a record as the most expensive residential real estate purchase ever in the United States. more [Post]

Atlantic Yards foes removed from CB6

May 23, 9:01 am

Nine people who served on Brooklyn's Community Board 6 were not reappointed to the board last night. Borough president Marty Markowitz reportedly decided not to reappoint the members because all voted against the Atlantic Yards project. The axed members are Jerry Armer, Angela Beni, Pauline Blake, Bill Blum, Al Cabbad, Barbara Longobardi, Madelaine Murphy, Marilyn Oliva and Theresa Ricks. "What we were doing was giving the community a voice and reflecting the community," said Armer, who served on the board for more than 20 years. more [Gowanus Lounge] and
more [NYO] and
more [NYT]

Plaza condo going for $56M

May 23, 9:00 am

A 9,200-square-foot condo at the Plaza Hotel is selling for $56 million, according to sources. The deal will set a record as the priciest residential sale in Manhattan history. The buyer is a London-based businessman. It is unclear whether the Plaza sale is the same as the $50 million one reported by the New York Observer last week. more [NYT]

Williamsburg gets new park

May 23, 8:59 am

The East River State Park will open this weekend in Williamsburg. The new 7.5-acre waterfront park, which stretches between North 7th and 9th streets, cost $1.7 million. Williamsburg has a dearth of green spaces, and the parks it does have suffer from heavy use. "We're in desperate need of open space," said the Open Space Alliance's Joe Vance. "If you go to McCarren Park on a nice day, it looks like Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s. You can't throw a basketball without hitting someone." more [Metro]

Borders out at One Hanson

May 23, 8:56 am

Borders, which had a tentative deal to lease 35,000 square feet at Brooklyn's One Hanson Place--also known as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower--has decided against opening a store in the landmark, according to sources. The space in the condo conversion is back on the market. The deal for space in the skyscraper was nixed by a Borders corporate restructuring. more [Post, 2nd item]

Q & A: Going for brokerage

May 22, 5:39 pm

From the May issue: If location, location, location is the core cliché of real estate success, the second is at least equally sound: Watch the bottom line. The Real Deal spoke to chief executives of Manhattan's top residential firms about running a brokerage in today's market. Agents constantly push for better commission splits, and technology, space and advertising overhead costs continue to mount. Keeping operating costs down and revenue up is a tough proposition for any business, but it's especially hard in the competitive Manhattan real estate market. "It has never been overly profitable; it's a razor-thin business," says Neil Binder, principal and co-founder of Bellmarc. more By Melissa Dehncke-McGill

Condo rises in new Jersey City neighborhood

May 22, 4:56 pm

The first residential building in what will eventually be an entirely new Jersey City neighborhood is set to be completed later this year. Gull's Cove, a 431-unit luxury condominium developed by Metro Homes, is now rising in the Liberty Harbor North redevelopment district. The waterfront area rests on a long-undeveloped 80-acre site to the west of Paulus Hook, the epicenter of Jersey City's recent new construction boom. more By John Celock

PropertyShark adds for-lease listings

May 22, 12:28 pm

Real estate data website PropertyShark.com launched a "For Lease" section to their site that allows brokers to post retail and office listings. According to PropertyShark CEO Ryan Slack, the new offering is not meant to compete with services that specialize in large commercial listings. "We have great respect for the businesses that CoStar and LoopNet have built, and we don't intend to try to compete in their space for major lease listings in skyscrapers, but we do see a huge opportunity to aggregate the small and mid-sized commercial leases available in the market," said Slack. The feature will only cover New York City for the next few months but will be expanded to include other cities in the near future. TRD

Co-op disclosure bill stalled

May 22, 9:01 am

A bill requiring co-op boards to provide a reason why they've rejected a buyer is stalled in the City Council. The bill faces significant opposition from Council members like Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilmember Gale Brewer. Brewer noted that many people feel the bill would make it more difficult to recruit people to serve on the board. In general, opponents of the bill believe that disclosing why a buyer has been rejected makes boards targets for discrimination lawsuits. more [Gotham Gazette]

Plaza retail faltering?

May 22, 8:58 am

After six months of talks, restaurateurs Frederick and Laurent Lesort have decided against leasing the Oak Room and Oak Bar at the Plaza Hotel, saying owner Elad Properties "was very difficult" to negotiate with. The Plaza is set to reopen in October, but most of the 160,000 square feet of retail space planned for the property is still not leased. In fact, just 16,000 square feet have been leased. Some brokers say the property is simply not attractive for businesses. It's "an anti-retail property," said Bradley Mendelson. "It doesn't have large windows, and the lower level has no windows." more [Post]

Yankee Metro-North station planned

May 22, 8:57 am

The MTA announced an agreement to build a $91 million Metro-North Railroad station by Yankee Stadium. Construction is expected to be completed by June 2009, a couple months after the new Yankee Stadium open. The station will connect Westchester County and Connecticut to the stadium. more [NYDN]

Underground Railroad houses hearing today

May 22, 8:55 am

There will be a public hearing today about the city's plans to seize via eminent doman several houses in Downtown Brooklyn that were associated with the Underground Railroad. The Economic Development Corporation wants to tear down the buildings in order to build a parking lot. more [Gowanus Lounge]

Rock Center hotel sells for $120M

May 21, 8:43 pm

Real estate investment company Rockwood Capital purchased Club Quarters' 28-floor Rockefeller Center Hotel at 25 West 51st Street several weeks ago for $120.3 million. The acquisition "closes the circle" on the firm's recent buys of several Club Quarters properties in Manhattan in a little under two years, according to a Rockwood associate who worked on the deal. "We already purchased another Club Quarters in Midtown and one in the Financial District, as well as one in Washington, D.C.," said Otto Rincon, a financial associate with Rockwood, which has offices in San Francisco and Connecticut. "We just really like their business model." more By Gabby Warshawer

Sales close on Boerum Hill's 14 Townhouses

May 21, 5:06 pm

Twelve down, two to go. Sales are about to close on the last two homes in Boerum Hill's 14 Townhouses development, according to Abby Hamlin, president of Hamlin Ventures. Hamlin co-developed the row of single-family residences with Time Equities. The closings mark the end of the first phase of the developers' $300 million Downtown Brooklyn project. Other stages will include the construction of an affordably priced rental building, additional townhouses and a mixed-use property. more By Lauren Elkies

Krueger unveils first-refusal bill

May 21, 4:56 pm

State Senator Liz Krueger introduced right-of-first-refusal legislation today that would give Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 tenants first dibs on buying their buildings if owners announce they want to take properties out of the affordable housing programs. The bill comes less than a month after a state Supreme Court judge struck down Local Law 79, which the City Council passed in 2005 to give tenants in certain Mitchell-Lama rentals a similar right of first refusal. more TRD

LIC towers drive Vernon Blvd. retail

May 21, 1:26 pm

With 4,000 residential units currently under construction near or on the Long Island City waterfront--and an additional 6,000 planned--retail space in Queens West is beginning to fetch a premium, particularly on Vernon Boulevard. According to real estate experts, rents on the avenue have doubled over the past five years, to approximately $50 a square foot, and vacancy rates have dropped to around 5 percent. more [Crain's]

New NYT layouts revealed

May 21, 1:24 pm

Details are emerging about layouts at the new New York Times building on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st streets, including the fact that Times editors will have "glass-enclosed, pod-like" offices in the middle of newsroom floors. There will also be a frosted-glass enclosed "Room of Silence" on every floor that some Times employees are referring to as the "Crying Room." The newspaper is in the process of moving its operations to the tower. more [Gawker]

Looking at real estate reporting

May 21, 1:23 pm

Ron Roel, a former Newsday editor and a co-founder of the real estate educational service Real Estate Next, has written a white paper called "Real Estate and the Media: Understanding news coverage and its impact on the housing market." The paper examines questions like whether the media unduly focuses on negative real estate stories and looks at how publications shape public opinion about real estate industry practices. more [Matrix]

Deutsche Bank safety measures eyed

May 21, 10:25 am

Following an incident last week in which debris fell onto a firehouse by Lower Manhattan's former Deutsche Bank building, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration says it is examining the "means and methods" of the entire demolition. The Empire State Development Corporation must complete demolition work on the building by the end of this year or face penalties, but some watchdogs say the ESDC's contractor has not put sufficient safety measures in place. "They've had warnings about this and [oversight is] not adequate," said Dave Newman, director of nonprofit New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health. Demolition work on the building, which was greatly damaged during 9/11, is currently on hold. more [NYDN]

Atlantic Yards gets wired for sound

May 21, 10:24 am

Developer Bruce Ratner sent a letter to around 700 residents in or around the proposed Atlantic Yards construction site in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, offering to give them air conditioners or install double-pane windows in their homes. The amenities are meant to minimize construction noise from the $4 billion project and are part of a noise-reduction requirement the state said the developer had to follow when the project was approved. Ratner says the giveaways will cost him $2 million. more [Post]

Latest Real Deal webcast online

May 21, 9:13 am

The latest edition of The Real Deal's weekly webcast, "Get Inside," is now online to your right. Join host Abby Overton as she recaps the week's biggest real estate stories. On this edition, Stuart Epstein of Devlin McNiff Real Estate in East Hampton discusses the outlook for the Hamptons rental and sales market this summer.

Spinning history to save a Bronx Mitchell-Lama

May 21, 6:31 am

Residents of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx are trying to stop their building's owner from pulling the property out of the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program by saying the location is the birthplace of hip-hop. DJ Kool Herc, widely credited as one of hip-hop's founding fathers, used to spin in one of the building's recreation rooms in the early '70s. Residents say the building should be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, a designation they hope would prevent the owner from taking the property out of Mitchell-Lama and charging market-rate rents, thereby fundamentally altering its status as a moderate-income enclave. more [NYT]

Examining corporate tax breaks

May 21, 6:30 am

JP Morgan Chase is negotiating with the city for tax breaks and subsidies to build a headquarters on the site of the Deutsche Bank building in Lower Manhattan, looking for a deal similar to the one the Bloomberg administration gave Goldman Sachs for its new headquarters, which involved $1.6 billion in federally funded Liberty Bonds and around $650 million in tax breaks and other incentives. Although Bloomberg has recently said he is tightening city purse strings when it comes to corporate incentives, the new Yankee and Mets stadiums, the Atlantic Yards project, Time Warner, Hearst, the New York Times, Bank of America, Pfizer, Aon and the Bank of New York are all recent beneficiaries of subsidies or tax credits totaling billions of dollars. And yet many experts say the incentives--which are meant to keep jobs in the city--aren't effective. A 2001 study from the Center for an Urban Future noted that "a large percentage of the firms that have benefited from city retention deals during the past decade have been acquired by other companies, put themselves up for sale, gone belly-up, moved major parts of their business out of the city or simply eliminated many jobs in New York shortly after taking advantage of city incentives." more [Gotham Gazette]

South Village historic push

May 21, 6:28 am

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is lobbying to have the city create a South Village historic district in the 35-block area south of West 4th Street between LaGuardia Place and Seventh Avenue. "The South Village was really the heart of the immigrant, especially Italian immigrant, section, while the rest of Greenwich Village was a little more genteel, a little more upscale," said Andrew Berman, executive director of the society. The Landmarks Preservation Commission is currently reviewing the request, which involves evaluating every building in the proposed district. more [AMNY]

Condos clamp down...and more

May 21, 6:26 am

1. Condo buyers subject to more scrutiny more [NYT]
2. AG investigates valuation fraud more [NYT]
3. Dance, dance revolution: Cabaret laws protested more [Post]
4. In Yankee Stadium's shadow, developments rise more [NYT]