Downtown will remain hot real estate in 2008

The city’s commercial real estate market was fairly resilient in 2007, considering rising rents, dwindling vacancy rates and an uncertain economy. Real estate experts expect that same durability to continue into the New Year, though at a slightly tempered pace.

“In the last few years, we’ve seen pricing spike dramatically, but the ratcheting up of rental rates is definitely going to flatten out as demand slackens somewhat,” says Robert Freedman, president and chief executive of GVA Williams. “We are going from an era of irrational exuberance to a rational but still fundamentally strong market.”

European buyers make December a busy month for Manhattan real estate

NEW YORK: The sidewalks of Manhattan are crammed this month with European tourists on shopping sprees, picking up gifts that cost far less in the United States than they do at home because of the weak dollar. But they are not just crowding into boutiques and department stores. Some of them are also shopping for condos.

"There's bargains to be had," said Kerry Miller, who with her husband, Marty, was working through her Christmas gift list by buying sweaters at Abercrombie & Fitch and makeup at MAC, as well as touring 29 apartments.

Manhattan Retail Real Estate Prices Jump 26%

The shopping corridor on Broadway between 42nd and 47th streets had the single largest percentage increase, surging 107% to $797 a square foot of ground floor space. The Times Square shopping area also experienced more than a doubling of its rental fees. The vice president of real estate advisory firm Lansco, Robin Abrams, said that one of the main causes of the rise in prices is the eagerness of European retailers — particularly high-end jewelry and clothing stores — to increase the exposure of their brands by relocating to New York city's high-profile shopping districts.

SL Green to buy Citigroup NY complex

Office property owner SL Green Realty Corp has reached an agreement to buy Citigroup Inc's downtown office complex for $1.575 billion, a source familiar with the deal said on Monday, underscoring the health of the Manhattan property market, despite turmoil in the lending markets.

Canadian real estate investment firm SITQ also will take a 47.5 percent stake in the complex at 388-390 Greenwich St. when it closes later this month, said SL Green, which will retain a 52.5 percent stake.

The two buildings total 2.6 million square foot, translating the deal's price to $598 per square foot, SL Green said.

They'll Take Manhattan -- For Less

Fewer apartments are being sold -- 858 went into contract in September, a 9.9% drop from a year ago and the lowest total in two years, according to brokerage Corcoran Group -- and the inventory of unsold apartments is increasing. Prices are also leveling off. The median price of a Manhattan apartment fell 3.4% in the third quarter from the previous one, according to the research firm Radar Logic. The firm says properties are sitting on the market longer, too, an average of 123 days, up from 94 days at the peak of the market in 2005.