The Real Estate
By | January 25, 2010 | 1:37 pm
The $700,000 or so in funds the Real Estate Board of New York raised to win elections with the Independence Party are now public, displaying the names behind the real estate industry's nascent push to bring a stronger business voice in state politics and counter the Working Families Party. The money last fall went to a set of individual Council campaigns, in which the party funded mailers and field operations to push voters to... READ MORE»
By | January 25, 2010 | 10:03 am
More than three years after it began, real estate giant Tishman Speyer's ambitious and high-priced quest to control a chunk of the East Side of Manhattan has come to a close. Early Monday morning, Tishman Speyer and partner BlackRock issued a statement saying they intend to transfer control of the 11,200-unit Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village to their creditors. (The decision was first reported late last night by the Wall Street Journal.) And so ends the bumpy... READ MORE»
By | January 20, 2010 | 2:54 pm
In one of the largest transactions of the past year, New York Life has signed a long-term renewal for its 415,000-square-foot offices at 63 Madison Avenue. It may just be a plain vanilla renewal, but in a tepid market, this was the second largest lease of 2009, on the heels of Paul Weiss’s 550,000-square-foot renewal at 1285 Sixth Avenue. The mutual life insurance company – the country’s largest – had been scouting the market... READ MORE»
By | December 14, 2009 | 3:25 pm
The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission is taking the first step toward creating a historic district on the Grand Concourse, a four-and-a-half mile thoroughfare in the Bronx. The district would include 73 buildings, from 153rd to 167th streets, according to Elisabeth de Bourbon, spokeswoman for the LPC. The step, known as calendaring, will be followed by public hearings. The street has been compared to Ocean Drive in Miami Beach and the Champs-Élysées in Paris because of its... READ MORE»
By | November 6, 2009 | 8:20 am
New York University is in the process of resolving a landmarks violation, issued after the school placed new signs on the landmarked Silver Towers, just south of Washington Square Park. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation first complained to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in June, after the school installed new signs in the spring, which tell visitors to curb their dogs. The I. M. Pei-designed Silver... READ MORE»
By | November 6, 2009 | 8:07 am
If one Googles the term "Soviet Style bureaucracies," Assemblyman Richard Brodsky owns the top four results, each with quotes of his that refer to New York's public authorities--his favorite term on the topic. The Westchester Democrat has long been pushing a bill to reform such public quasi-agencies--including the M.T.A., the Empire State Development Corporation and the New York Power Authority--and now it seems that reform could come within days. On Thursday afternoon, the governor... READ MORE»
By | November 5, 2009 | 5:32 pm
Bill Rudin, the civic-minded real estate billionaire, admired in New York for his family’s remarkable success, apparent functionality, and steadfast devotion to New York civic life, made a startling declaration on Wednesday morning at the Harvard Club. “I got a call the other day from an Albany politician,” said Mr. Rudin, the chairman of the Association for a Better New York, speaking in his capacity as the head of one of New York real... READ MORE»
By | November 3, 2009 | 9:45 pm
Almost indisputably, the mayoral race this year was a desert of big new ideas for New York City. Be it the lack of a competitive Democratic primary, the billions in budget gaps or the challenger's preference for blanket criticism over policy prescription, the incumbent and-at the time of this writing-presumptive winner, Michael Bloomberg, was never forced to offer much in the way of innovative policy. This was particularly true in the realm of the... READ MORE»
By | November 3, 2009 | 5:32 pm
On Oct. 25, 2007, in a typically optimistic New York Sun column entitled, “All Signs Pointing Up in Downtown Manhattan,” Michael Stoler used the Setai at 40 Broad Street as one of many examples of the florescence of Lower Manhattan. Josh Zamir, son of 40 Broad developer Asher Roshan Zamir, told Mr. Stoler that a condo buyer had agreed to the highest price ever for a Financial District condo, in this case the project's penthouse: $1,800... READ MORE»
By | November 3, 2009 | 4:16 pm
“My mind doesn’t stop thinking,” the 29-year-old model and real estate entrepreneur Jodie Fanelli said last month, driving in her Porsche SUV to Bensonhurst. “I could wake up in the middle of the night and I come up with crazy things that I’m, like, I have to write it down right away, and I want to try and pursue it.” “The first business we were ever in together,” her identical twin, Diane, said, “we... READ MORE»
By | November 3, 2009 | 11:42 am
...... READ MORE»
By | November 3, 2009 | 11:02 am
Halloween Saturday was gray and warm, and the Upper West Side, the typically no-fun familial zone, was a twitter with tiny trick-or-treaters and pre-marathon tourists. Instructed by friends who are actually in the housing market, I picked up a New York Times with hopes of perusing the real estate listings. After an extensive and frustrating search through the entire paper, I realized the listings are only printed on Sunday and so... READ MORE»
By | November 2, 2009 | 10:42 pm
With the ever-troubled Stuyvesant Town now bordering on default, particularly in the wake of last month's giant court decision, a set of elected officials has begun taking their concerns straight to the 11,200-unit complex's debt holders: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bypassing the current owners--a partnership led by Tishman Speyer--the officials who represent the property sent a letter last week effectively asking for kindness and cooperation during the inevitable restructuring process (within the... READ MORE»
By | November 2, 2009 | 11:33 am
Newmark Knight Frank Chairman Jeffrey Gural and his partners have sold a stake in the Flatiron Building for $51.8 million, according to city records dated Oct. 28. The buyer is listed as Michelangelo Flatiron Building Investment LLC, with an address at 805 Third Avenue. The LLC is 100 percent owned by the Michelangelo Fondo, which, in turn, is 100 percent owned by the Sorgente Group, headed in the United States by Veronica Mainetti. Sorgente already holds... READ MORE»
By | November 2, 2009 | 7:12 am
The naming rights for the GM Building, one of the rarest opportunities in New York real estate, are officially in play. During last week's third-quarter investors call, Boston Properties president Douglas Linde included in his prepared remarks the following: "We can report that we were able to retain General Motors in 114,000 square feet for 10 years at 767 Fifth Avenue, the GM Building. As part of the lease, we recaptured the right to name the building... READ MORE»
