After three years of negotiations, the Beijing Vantone Industrial Co., Ltd., a Chinese real estate investment company, has officially signed on as the first tenant at One World Trade Center, New York’s tallest and perhaps most important building currently under development.
The Port Authority of New York said Thursday that it signed Vantone to a 190,810-square-foot lease with a 20-year, nine-month term set to commence upon the building’s completion in 2013. The Chinese developer plans to build out the 64th through 69th floors of the 70-story building as a business/cultural space known as the China Center.
The Center will serve as a hub for Chinese companies establishing operations in the United States, as well as U.S. companies seeking to expand into China. Businesses that choose to locate in the China Center will receive assistance in relocation, real estate, finance and investor relations. Chris Ward, executive director for the Port Authority, called the lease a "clear signal that the World Trade Center site will once again be a global capital of commerce."
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Whining Rich Person of the Day, NYC Real Estate Edition
Every time I come across another one of these stories of rich peoples' innate sense of entitlement it riles me a little more. Dr Beitler is obviously smart enough to know what a deposit is -- but somehow he reckons that a nonrefundable deposit should, in fact, be refundable if and when he can't get a 10%-down, no-income-check mortgage any more. What's more, if he doesn't get his deposit back, he thinks it would be a jolly good idea were US taxpayers to club together to give him back his $173,000 (or more than three times median household income in the US). After all, he did suffer "an unfortunate confluence of events", the poor dear.
I do wonder whether Dr Beitler, who has bought and sold property before -- in what was surely a healthy up market -- might be willing, in return for $173,000 from taxpayers, to return to those selfsame taxpayers all of the profit he made on flipping property in the past. After all, the "confluence of events" which caused property prices to rise was no more his doing than the confluence of events which caused property prices to fall. But somehow I doubt he sees it that way.
I do wonder whether Dr Beitler, who has bought and sold property before -- in what was surely a healthy up market -- might be willing, in return for $173,000 from taxpayers, to return to those selfsame taxpayers all of the profit he made on flipping property in the past. After all, the "confluence of events" which caused property prices to rise was no more his doing than the confluence of events which caused property prices to fall. But somehow I doubt he sees it that way.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Lost Bonuses Mean Manhattan Home Prices to Drop Most Since ‘80
A 50 percent reduction in bonuses would push down prices by about 24 percent from their peak through mid-2010, said Sam Chandan, chief economist at property research firm Real Estate Economics LLC in New York. That would mark the biggest slide since 1980 when appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. started tracking Manhattan prices.
“This will probably be the worst price correction the city has seen,” said Marisa Di Natale, senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
When bonuses climbed 114 percent between 1998 and 2000, Manhattan co-op and condo prices followed, rising 51 percent during those years, data compiled by Miller Samuel show.
“This will probably be the worst price correction the city has seen,” said Marisa Di Natale, senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
When bonuses climbed 114 percent between 1998 and 2000, Manhattan co-op and condo prices followed, rising 51 percent during those years, data compiled by Miller Samuel show.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
AIG Evaluating Sale of New York Headquarters Building
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc. the insurer that received a $173 billion U.S. bailout, is considering a sale of its New York headquarters and another tower in lower Manhattan to help repay the government.
AIG is evaluating the sale of 70 Pine St. and 72 Wall St., spokesman Mark Herr said in an e-mail today. Two years ago the properties were likely worth about $315 million, said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics Inc., a New York-based firm that tracks commercial real estate sales.
“This is part of AIG’s divestiture strategy and effort to maximize operating efficiency,” Herr said in a statement. “Market interest received will help determine the best course of action.”
AIG is evaluating the sale of 70 Pine St. and 72 Wall St., spokesman Mark Herr said in an e-mail today. Two years ago the properties were likely worth about $315 million, said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics Inc., a New York-based firm that tracks commercial real estate sales.
“This is part of AIG’s divestiture strategy and effort to maximize operating efficiency,” Herr said in a statement. “Market interest received will help determine the best course of action.”
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Auctions on the rise as sales tool
The property, which had languished on the market for months, was sold six weeks later to the highest bidder at an auction held at the New York Marriott in downtown Manhattan.
Chalk up another victory for Gramercy Auctions Group, one of a handful of area real estate auctioneers that are seeing demand for their services soar.
Once written off by sellers as setups for lowballing, property auctions have earned growing respect in the current economic environment as a means of breaking the ice in frozen markets. Auctions offer sellers opportunities to turn illiquid assets into cash, and they offer bidders chances for possible bargains.
Just last week, more than 375 foreclosed homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania—going for a discount of as much as 50% off their original purchase prices—were put up for auction at the Javits Convention Center by USHomeAuction.com, a firm that put more than 30,000 properties on the block in 2008.
Chalk up another victory for Gramercy Auctions Group, one of a handful of area real estate auctioneers that are seeing demand for their services soar.
Once written off by sellers as setups for lowballing, property auctions have earned growing respect in the current economic environment as a means of breaking the ice in frozen markets. Auctions offer sellers opportunities to turn illiquid assets into cash, and they offer bidders chances for possible bargains.
Just last week, more than 375 foreclosed homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania—going for a discount of as much as 50% off their original purchase prices—were put up for auction at the Javits Convention Center by USHomeAuction.com, a firm that put more than 30,000 properties on the block in 2008.
Friday, March 13, 2009
New York City Real Estate: Battered, But Not Broken
While Manhattan apartments were selling at well above $1,000 per square foot as recently as a year ago, Del Percio says these deals are now taking place in the $700 per square foot range. “Some sellers are refusing to budge off asking prices, but as more folks get laid off and/or the economy gets worse, we could see some significant discounts across the market,” he says.
Fringe real estate neighborhoods such as East Harlem, Bushwick, and the South Bronx are most likely to get hit hard during the downturn, Del Percio says. However, he sees Manhattan as a perennially good investment.
“New York is the only truly 24-hour city in the country and continues, despite the downturn, to be the most international of American cities. There is a constant influx of both foreign capital and nationals, both of which are major players in the real estate landscape. New York’s density and mass-transit system are unique among U .S. cities. Wall Street is — was — probably the driving force behind real estate prices and development over the past ten years,” he says. “New York’s economy is predicted to recover more quickly than the rest of the country, and people will always want to live and do business here.”
Fringe real estate neighborhoods such as East Harlem, Bushwick, and the South Bronx are most likely to get hit hard during the downturn, Del Percio says. However, he sees Manhattan as a perennially good investment.
“New York is the only truly 24-hour city in the country and continues, despite the downturn, to be the most international of American cities. There is a constant influx of both foreign capital and nationals, both of which are major players in the real estate landscape. New York’s density and mass-transit system are unique among U .S. cities. Wall Street is — was — probably the driving force behind real estate prices and development over the past ten years,” he says. “New York’s economy is predicted to recover more quickly than the rest of the country, and people will always want to live and do business here.”
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
New York Times Sells Building Stake for $225 Million
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- The New York Times Co. agreed to sell the space it occupies in its Manhattan headquarters for $225 million to pay debt as print advertising revenue declines.
The newspaper publisher will lease the building for 15 years from new owner W.P. Carey & Co., a New York-based real estate investment bank, and retain the option to buy back its stake in 2019 for $250 million, according to a statement today.
The transaction covers 21 floors, or about 750,000 square feet, of the 52-story building on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st streets. The publisher, which has cut jobs and stopped paying dividends, is trying to sell assets to cope with an accelerating decline in revenue.
The newspaper publisher will lease the building for 15 years from new owner W.P. Carey & Co., a New York-based real estate investment bank, and retain the option to buy back its stake in 2019 for $250 million, according to a statement today.
The transaction covers 21 floors, or about 750,000 square feet, of the 52-story building on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st streets. The publisher, which has cut jobs and stopped paying dividends, is trying to sell assets to cope with an accelerating decline in revenue.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Manhattan Apartment Prices Get Cut Most in 5 Years
March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Manhattan apartment sellers cut prices by the most in five years last year and unsold inventory rose to the highest since 1999 as the economy retreated.
The average listing discount climbed to 4.1 percent, the highest since 2003, as buyers negotiated for reductions off the asking price. The number of condominiums and co-ops for sale jumped 41 percent last year to 9,081 even as the median price reached a record $995,000, appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said today.
New York City is bracing for a drop in property values after three of the five largest investment banks collapsed. In the Hamptons, on the eastern end of Long Island, prices are already falling. Banks and securities firms have cut more than 180,000 jobs in the past year, according to Bloomberg data, as the recession entered its second year and the global credit crisis forced writedowns and mortgage-related losses of $1.18 trillion.
The average listing discount climbed to 4.1 percent, the highest since 2003, as buyers negotiated for reductions off the asking price. The number of condominiums and co-ops for sale jumped 41 percent last year to 9,081 even as the median price reached a record $995,000, appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said today.
New York City is bracing for a drop in property values after three of the five largest investment banks collapsed. In the Hamptons, on the eastern end of Long Island, prices are already falling. Banks and securities firms have cut more than 180,000 jobs in the past year, according to Bloomberg data, as the recession entered its second year and the global credit crisis forced writedowns and mortgage-related losses of $1.18 trillion.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A 130-unit building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, declares bankruptcy
A Brooklyn real estate developer, whose lenders include former basketball great Magic Johnson, has filed for bankruptcy.
The company is the owner of 110 Green Street Development, a six-story luxury condo in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, called The Viridian. Sales of its 130 units began in June. In the filing the company noted that the Viridian’s construction coincided with an unprecedented decline in the real estate market generally, and in Williamsburg and Greenpoint specifically.
A call to a representative of 110 Green Street was not returned. The Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund said it expects to recoup its investment.
The company is the owner of 110 Green Street Development, a six-story luxury condo in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, called The Viridian. Sales of its 130 units began in June. In the filing the company noted that the Viridian’s construction coincided with an unprecedented decline in the real estate market generally, and in Williamsburg and Greenpoint specifically.
A call to a representative of 110 Green Street was not returned. The Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund said it expects to recoup its investment.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Manhattan Real Estate On Sale
The 14-room Park Avenue apartment of the late socialite Brooke Astor -- which Barron's highlighted in that earlier story after its price had been cut from $46 million to $34 million -- is now down to $29 million and probably has to be cut further.
But even with dramatic reductions like that, the inventory of unsold luxury housing is ballooning. Streeteasy.com, a Website that pulls together listings and insights from a variety of brokers and buyers, now shows 795 New York apartments offered for $5 million or more, up from 518 a year ago.
Detailed data on that top tier of sales are hard to come by, but the price trends are thought to be similar to those in the mainstream luxury market, defined as the top 10% of home sales. Using that yardstick, the median sales price of a Manhattan luxury apartment topped out at about $5 million in the first quarter of last year -- well after the national housing market came unglued -- and then fell nearly 20% by the end of the third quarter, according to Miller Samuel, a real-estate appraisal firm.
But even with dramatic reductions like that, the inventory of unsold luxury housing is ballooning. Streeteasy.com, a Website that pulls together listings and insights from a variety of brokers and buyers, now shows 795 New York apartments offered for $5 million or more, up from 518 a year ago.
Detailed data on that top tier of sales are hard to come by, but the price trends are thought to be similar to those in the mainstream luxury market, defined as the top 10% of home sales. Using that yardstick, the median sales price of a Manhattan luxury apartment topped out at about $5 million in the first quarter of last year -- well after the national housing market came unglued -- and then fell nearly 20% by the end of the third quarter, according to Miller Samuel, a real-estate appraisal firm.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
A Manhattan real estate developer has pleaded guilty in federal court to participating in a $27 million mail and wire fraud conspiracy.
Ivy Woolf-turk, 52, of Port Washington, working through a Manhattan real estate development company — The Kingsland Group, Inc., and related entities –fraudulently induced approximately 70 individuals to lend the Kingsland Group over $27 million, purportedly to fund the renovation of approximately 16 multi-family apartment buildings located in upper Manhattan.
Woolf-Turk and a co-conspirator, Michael Hershkowitz, falsely represented that the lenders would hold, as collateral for the loans, interests in bona fide first mortgages in the various properties in which they thought they were investing. In fact, the lenders did not hold recorded, first mortgages in the properties. Interest was paid on the loans for some years after they were first made, but ultimately the principal on the loans was not repaid when due and it was determined that the lenders did not have valid first mortgages on the properties in question.
Woolf-Turk and a co-conspirator, Michael Hershkowitz, falsely represented that the lenders would hold, as collateral for the loans, interests in bona fide first mortgages in the various properties in which they thought they were investing. In fact, the lenders did not hold recorded, first mortgages in the properties. Interest was paid on the loans for some years after they were first made, but ultimately the principal on the loans was not repaid when due and it was determined that the lenders did not have valid first mortgages on the properties in question.
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New York City 2010
