Exclusive Rental Property in Lower Manhattan

Royalton's building, the Stove Factory Lofts, is a prime NYC rental building located in the heart of the historic South Street Seaport district and offers a variety of apartments and lofts with one to four bedrooms. 1-bedroom apartments (convertible to 2-bedrooms) start at $2650. Shares are welcome - as are pets. Flexible move-in dates are also available.

"They have very adaptable layouts," said Royalton President and Founder Jordan Adoni. "The apartments work for families, shares or students. And we're flexible with putting up walls and adapting the space however necessary."

The building will feature a brand new elevator, state of the art video intercom system and a beautiful new roofdeck with panaromic views including the Brooklyn Bridge, The Woolworth Building and all of the Manhattan Skyline. Each newly renovated apartment includes a washer/dryer, renovated kitchen and bathroom and high ceilings. Some units also have exposed brick and a private outdoor space. Additional amenities include newly installed finishes; marble and granite tiles and countertops; individual heating and cooling systems; and high-speed Internet access.

NYC Commercial Meltdown

According to a recent New York Times article, as we have been expecting, New York City's office market has hit the skids, big time. In my mind, the message here with regard to residential real estate is very noteworthy. Eventually, in a poor demand environment, prices will fall, despite a previously tight supply environment and positive long-term outlook. The New York City commercial market is sending a strong signal not just about the New York residential condominium market, but even the multi-family rental market.

Way back in January of 2008, I penned "Commercial Real Estate - The Next Train Wreck?" In that piece I touched on the Three Cardinal Sins of Real Estate: 1) Overpaying, 2) Over-Leveraging 3) Over-Building. In my opinion at the time, it was obvious that many had broken the first two rules, but that in some markets, particularly New York, the third rule had not been totally violated.

In June I did a follow-up piece on the commercial market and focused on the NYC Office Market. I noted:

Suit: $5M funneled to New York Observer through real estate deal

A record-setting Manhattan real estate deal masked millions of dollars that helped prop up the money-losing New York Observer and covered improper personal expenses, according to a report.

A former top exec in the Kushner Cos., which paid $1.8 billion for 666 Fifth Ave. in 2007, charged in a lawsuit that the company diverted more than $5 million from the financing package to keep the paper going.

Kevin Swill, who was president of Kushner's financing arm, Westminster Capital, asserted that Charles Kushner also paid at least $300,000 from the deal to Mark O'Donnell, the live-in boyfriend of former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, according to The Star-Ledger of Newark.

Those payments, as well as others covering family loans and Kushner's personal mortgage, allegedly amounted to a "wrongful diversion" of the proceeds from a the office building deal.

Manhattan Awash in Open Office Space

Almost 16 million square feet is currently listed as available in large blocks in 68 office buildings in Manhattan, according to Colliers ABR, a commercial brokerage firm. That is nearly double the space available a year ago, both in terms of the number of large office blocks — which in New York usually means 100,000 square feet or more — and in terms of total square feet.

Those figures are widely expected to go much higher, said Robert L. Sammons, the managing director of research for Colliers ABR. He said it was difficult to get a handle on exactly how much space financial companies alone might put back onto the Manhattan office market over the next year or so.