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New York NY Hell’s Kitchen (Clinton)
Web ID#: 24878
Property Type: Hi-rise
Beds: 1
Baths: 1
Price: $675,000
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Apartment Features AC: Central; Kitchen: Open; Dishwasher; High Ceiling; Sunken Living Room; Wood Floors; Floor To Ceiling Windows Exposure / View Building Description Building Amenities Building Policies Broker Summary Access |
| Chas Sestoso direct: 212.252.8722 cell: 917.806.9654 chass@nestseekers.com |
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New York NY Upper East Side (59-96)
Web ID#: 24877
Property Type: Hi-rise
Beds: 1
Baths: 1
Price: $475,000
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Apartment Features Dining Alcove; Window: New Windows; Roof Exposure / View Building Description Building Amenities Building Policies Broker Summary Access |
| Chas Sestoso direct: 212.252.8722 cell: 917.806.9654 chass@nestseekers.com |
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New York NY Harlem (Above 96 St)
Web ID#: 24876
Property Type: Mid-rise
Beds: 1
Baths: 1
Price: $460,000
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Apartment Features AC: Through The Wall Exposure / View Building Description Building Amenities Building Policies Broker Summary Access |
| Chas Sestoso direct: 212.252.8722 cell: 917.806.9654 chass@nestseekers.com |
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New York NY Upper West Side (59-96)
Web ID#: 24875
Property Type: Hi-rise
Beds: 1
Baths: 1
Price: $459,000
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Apartment Features Kitchen: Dishwasher Exposure / View Building Description Building Amenities Building Policies Broker Summary Access |
| Chas Sestoso direct: 212.252.8722 cell: 917.806.9654 chass@nestseekers.com |
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A judge ruled today that Adam Hochfelder, founder and chairman of commercial landlord Max Capital Management Corp., will go to trial on fraud charges in a case alleging he misrepresented the value of his real estate holdings to extract loans from business partners, banks and even family members. The decision today will allow prosecutors to move forward on charges against Hochfelder, a noted New York City office building owner. Max Capital Management holdings have included 237 Park Avenue and the Helmsley Building at 230 Park Avenue. Hochfelder once claimed to own $2.7 billion in properties and used that false information to garner millions from unsuspecting lenders, the New York Times reported. The next hearing on the case is set to begin Jan. 15. Hochfelder was first arrested in August 2008 and now faces 58 counts of criminal activity, such as fraud and grand larceny.
Reed Construction Data has amplified the claims in its lawsuit against McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge, which Reed alleges used several fake companies to access its database, according to the Associated Press. The original suit, filed Oct. 8, claimed that since 2002, Construction Dodge, another construction database company, posed as Reed customers in order to review the latter company’s information. The revised complaint, however, now claims that thousands of Reed project documents were obtained through the fraud and that Construction Dodge made erroneous claims, which stated that its product was better than Reed’s. The complaint now includes allegations of fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets, misappropriation of confidential information and unfair competition.
Reed Construction Data has amplified the claims in its lawsuit against McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge, which Reed alleges used several fake companies to access its database, according to the Associated Press. The original suit, filed Oct. 8, claimed that since 2002, Construction Dodge, another construction database company, posed as Reed customers in order to review the latter company’s information. The revised complaint, however, now claims that thousands of Reed project documents were obtained through the fraud and that Construction Dodge made erroneous claims, which stated that its product was better than Reed’s. The complaint now includes allegations of fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets, misappropriation of confidential information and unfair competition.
A potential Hell’s Kitchen development by Gotham West has community activists and parents riled. The project, which would occupy most of a square block between 44th and 45th streets and 10th and 11th avenues, would add 1,200 apartments to the neighborhood, but would also displace the 100-year-old P.S. 51. Parents of students enrolled at the school say they’re worried the project could force kids into crowded facilities, while significantly reducing the amount of play space in the neighborhood. State Senator Tom Duane is particularly concerned about the reduction of playground space, commenting that “it will be half the size of the current playground for twice the amount of students.” The City Planning Commission has until Jan. 29 to vote on the proposed development.
1. Penthouse owner comes home early from vacation to find doorman taking nap in guest room [Curbed]
2. Sales launch at Gowanus condo building at at 232 Seventh Street [Brownstoner]
3. Famed event planner and socialite David Tutera places Manhattan home on market [Realestalker]
4. City may reinstitute plan to make NYC homeless pay rent to stay in shelters [Indypendent]
5. Council member-elect targets DOB inspections [NYDN]
6. Potential buyer could save 60-year UES mainstay Gino [NYT]
7. Skate park under Brooklyn Bridge to be closed for four years due to overpass painting [Gothamist]
8. Controversial District 20 school rezoning plan in Brooklyn approved [Post]
9. East Hampton’s Sea Spray Cottages to go up for auction in February [Curbed, 2nd item]
10. New tax legislation could be gamechanger for mortgage investors [Housing Wire]
11. $5B cut from Port Authority capital budget [NYO]
From the December issue: If the last 12 months have served as a humbling recalibration of the entire U.S. economy, then there is perhaps no urban office district more representative of America’s fall from opulence than the commercial stretch along Park Avenue in Midtown. For decades, it was the province of the financial titans, including JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers and UBS, whose paychecks and egos were matched, in part, by Park Avenue’s astronomical asking rents in its premier buildings. But now, much like its former white-gloved denizens, Park Avenue is an empty shell of its former self. The Park Avenue submarket — which runs from Grand Central to 59th Street — has fallen harder and faster than any other Manhattan submarket over the past 12 months. According to Cushman & Wakefield, from October 2008 to October 2009, average asking rents dropped 34.7 percent, from $108.57 per square foot to $70.85 per square foot. By comparison, overall asking rents in Manhattan fell 22 percent during the same period.
The U.S. Treasury may need to increase its lifeline to Fannie Mae beyond the total of up to $200 billion already made available if the economy deteriorates further next year, analysts at Barclays Capital said in a report Friday.
The U.S. government took control of Fannie and its rival Freddie Mac, the main providers of funding for home mortgages, in September 2008 through a legal process known as conservatorship amid huge losses from defaults. The two companies own or guarantee around half of the U.S. residential mortgages outstanding.
By year end, Fannie and Freddie will have received a total of $112 billion of capital from the government. To keep the companies afloat, the U.S. Treasury agreed in 2008 to purchase up to $100 billion of preferred stock in each company. In February 2009, the Treasury doubled that support to as much as $200 billion in each company. The Congressional Budget Office in March said the total cost of conservatorship to taxpayers could reach $389 billion.
The Treasurys authority to expand those purchases without congressional approval expires at year end. The companies would have to be placed into receivership if they ran out of money and Congress didnt authorize increased capital injections. Barclays analysts on Friday recommended that Treasury increase Fannies lifeline to $300 billion.
Barclays estimates that Fannie and Freddie will require around $130 billion and $100 billion in Treasury money, respectively, under a base-case scenario. But under a more stressful scenario, such as a double-dip recession, Fannies losses could rise to $180 billion, a level that would make the current backstop too close for comfort. A separate report earlier this year by analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said that Fannie could require $279 billion in Treasury backing under a worst-case scenario.
The Obama administration has said it will release early next year its recommendations on how to remake Americas $11 trillion mortgage market, and interest groups and Wall Street analysts have published their own proposals in recent weeks. The Barclays report said the debate over the future of Fannie and Freddie could take a decade or more to resolve.
While no clear consensus over the future of the companies has emerged, a consensus over what not to do may be taking shape. Options for the future of the companies fall broadly into three categories: nationalization, privatization, and some type of hybrid public-private model.
Rising losses at the Federal Housing Administration, for example, could make nationalization less attractive, said Andrew Davidson, a mortgage-industry consultant. At the same time, the dearth of private investment in mortgages in the aftermath of last falls financial panic suggests that at least under the most stressed conditions, some form of government backstop may be necessary to ensure continued securitization of mortgages, said Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke in a speech Thursday.
But Ms. Duke also warned that restarting the government-run finance companies in their old forms would do nothing but ask for a repeat of recent history. Public-private options for the companies including creating a public-utility model or a cooperative owned by lending institutions.
So far, the Obama administration has been in no hurry to remake the companies as it works instead to stabilize the housing market. It has used the companies to help modify loans of troubled borrowers, and the Federal Reserve has helped drive mortgage rates to near-record lows this year by committing to buy up to $1.25 trillion in debt and mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie and Freddie through next March.
Follow Nick for more housing and mortgage industry news on Twitter: twitter.com/NickTimiraos
A Bronx property owner pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to charges that he fraudulently sold a commercial building for $5.9 million earlier this year, authorities said.
According to prosecutors, Mark Benun, 35, partnered with another company to buy the building at 67-79 East 161st Street in 2006 for $9.5 million. Benun, who brokered the deal, was given a 25 percent interest in the property, while the other investor, identified in city property records as Lido Realty of Brooklyn, held a 75 percent interest, according to the US Attorney in Manhattan. Despite his minority interest, Benun sold the property in February 2009 for $5.96 million using forged deed and mortgage documents, prosecutors said.
Following the bogus sale, Benun wired at least $450,000 to other bank accounts, and in addition withdrew about $1.4 million which he used to buy gold bars in Manhattan. TRD
Fitch downgraded a group of securitized loans from Wachovia Bank that includes a Flatiron office tower owned by Joseph Moinian and a Midtown office tower owned by Sitt Asset Management.
The ratings agency downgraded eight loans by Wachovia Bank Commercial Mortgage Trust series 2005-C19, citing concerns about declining cash flows and commercial real estate values.
One Moinian loan is backed by the developer’s 13-story office tower at 50 West 23rd Street in the Flatiron District. The building was 97 percent occupied as of October and has a debt service coverage ratio of 1.52 percent as of June, according to Fitch. A building with a ratio of less than 1 is considered to have negative cash flow.
In June, the building’s broker, Newmark Knight Frank, renewed the 64,000-square-foot lease for a magnet school, called the Manhattan Village Academy for lower rent, following more than a year of negotiations.
While the rest of the country looks forward to a bit of a respite in the hard, grinding slide of property prices, New Yorkers will enjoy less relief in 2010. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, said prices are still inflated compared to rents, eroding the possibility of price improvements in the near future. The New York City metro area ranked 84th-worst out of the 100 markets in his forecast, with the 2009 median home price of $416,730 expected to fall another 15.63 percent, ahead of his national forecast range of 5 percent to 10 percent. Rounding out the regional duds, Nassau County in Long Island ranked 76th, with the $368,260 expected to drop 13.14 percent and Newark, N.J. was No. 71, with the $367,380 median slated to drop 11.29 percent. [Fortune via CNN Money]
The New York City Economic Development Corporation received 29 preliminary proposals from developers for the potential 62-acre Willets Point District redevelopment project in Queens, according to an announcement released today. Seth Pinsky, president of the EDC, said that the panel is enthusiastic about the proposals received for the project, which will include 5,500 residential units and will create 18,000 construction jobs. “The quantity and quality of these responses are strong indicators that the development community has confidence in the successful redevelopment of Willets Point despite current economic conditions,” Pinsky said in a written statement. The development, situated between Queen’s Flushing and Corona neighborhoods, will be the first “green neighborhood” in the city, according to Pinsky. TRD
In the Financial District, the Soda Shop has shuttered in the Cosmopolitan Hotel at 125 Chambers Street. In Chinatown, pastry chef Victoria Howe has launched an underground bakery called the Chinatown Cake Club in her three-bedroom Chinatown apartment. In Tribeca, popular Indian restaurant Tamarind has opened a location at 99 Hudson Street. A specialty cocktail bar is coming to 114 Franklin Street in the former Grace space. On the Lower East Side, Red Velvet Lounge, which will serve cocktails and cupcakes with cocktail flavors, will open today at 174 Rivington Street. A restaurant specializing in different meatball varieties may open at 84 Stanton Street. Bakery Pain d’Avignon’s will open in the old Roni-Sue space in the Essex Street Market. In the East Village, a Subway sandwich shop will open in the former Downtown Music space at 342 Bowery.
A French restaurant will open in the former Ama space at 48 Macdougal Street. Cuban eatery Cienfuegos will be coming to the corner of Sixth Street and Avenue A. Michael Huynh might open a taco joint in the former Australian space on St. Marks Place and Avenue A.
Once shunned in the down market, pricey condos could be making a comeback. Dolly Lenz, vice chairperson at Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Chloe Malle, a reporter with the New York Observer, debated the issue on CNBC. Lenz argued that buyers are looking at real estate as a long-term investment, but aren’t necessarily climbing over one another to make deals. “We’re seeing a few bidding wars, but that’s not really the norm,” Lenz said. “People are looking at ‘where do I want to live?’ [and] ‘where do I want to be five years from now?’” Malle, on the other hand, said that big financial salaries are ratcheting up condo sales again, even if the kinds of homes being sold differ from the boom years. “This year bonuses are projected to be tantamount to bonuses in 2007,” Malle said. Even so, she added, buyers are “looking for more sound investments.” Reports have surfaced that condo sales are picking up, despite seasonal trends that are typically unfavorable to the winter months.
Bank of America sells a historic Manhattan townhouse for $29.4 million, property records show. The five-story neo-Georgian building near Fifth Avenue is part of a row of mansions built around 1900 that housed members of the Rockefeller family in the last century. The architects of the Bank of America townhouse, McKim, Mead and White, also designed the arch in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park and Washington’s National Museum of American History. The townhouse formerly belonged to U.S. Trust, a private bank that used it for events for top clients, including intimate dinners with politicians, private concerts and cocktail parties. Bank of America acquired U.S. Trust for $3.3 billion in 2007. (WSJ)
The Paris apartment of the late designer Yves Saint Laurent hits the market for 23.5 million ($34.6 million). Located in a 19th-century building in the city’s 7th Arrondissement, the 5,600-square-foot duplex comes with a garden and courtyard. The designer began renting the apartment in 1970, bought it eight years later and lived there until his death last year, according to listing broker Anne de Cambiaire of Emile Garcin Paris. (WSJ)
Fashion designer Tory Burch lists a house in Southampton, N.Y., for $17.9 million after agreeing to buy another home nearby. The 1980 oceanfront contemporary home on the market sits on 4.5 acres and measures 6,000 square feet. It has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a pool and 200 feet of ocean frontage. Ms. Burch bought the property from her ex-husband, venture capitalist Chris Burch, for $22.5 million in July 2008, records show. Southampton officials then approved Ms. Burch’s plans to tear down the home and replace it with a 7,100-square-foot, seven bedroom beach house. The property is being offered with the approved plans for a new house. In October, Ms. Burch went into contract to buy a 25-room Georgian house in Southampton’s estate section that had belonged to the late attorney Howard Gittis. (WSJ)
Fashion designer Randolph Duke sells his 4,800-square-foot home in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, Calif., for $5.3 million. The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom home won the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles chapter award for residential design in 2007. Located on a promontory, it has 6,500 square feet of outdoor terraces, decks and gardens. The property hit the market a year ago with a price tag of $8.25 million. (Los Angeles Times)
Fashion photographer David LaChapelle sells his 1,912-square-foot home in the Sunset Strip area of Los Angeles for $1.6 million. The Spanish-style home was built in the 1920s and has three bedrooms, one-and-a-half bathrooms, a remodeled kitchen, hardwood floors, a pool and a spa. The property last sold in 1999 for $800,000 according to public records. (Los Angeles Times)
South Beach Diet founder Dr. Arthur Agatston pays $7 million for a 6,400-square-foot home in the East Hamptons, records show. The home has seven bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms. (Curbed Hamptons)
Only 31,382 troubled homeowners have received permanent mortgage modifications through Obama’s federal program, while nearly 30,650 people in trial modifications have been denied as of Nov. 30, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Treasury Department. Since the program launched in the spring, a total of 759,058 trial modifications were started, but only 4 percent of them became permanent ones. “Our focus now is on working with servicers, borrowers and organizations to get as many of those eligible homeowners as possible into permanent modifications,” said Phyllis Caldwell, chief of the Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office. The lack of permanent modifications has created concerns that the $75 billion plan will fall far short of the federal mortgage modification plan introduced this spring to help up to four million delinquent homeowners.
New York City condos are seeing unseasonably high buyer interest, with buildings like RAL Companie’s One Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Rushmore reportedly seeing more interested buyers in part because buyers feel the market has stabilized. After a new sales team, the Developers Group, took over at One Brooklyn Bridge Park Oct. 1, 20 new contracts were signed, with more than 100 visitors coming to look at the waterfront development each week, according to the Daily News. At the Rushmore, which has reportedly been experiencing buyer backouts, Extell Development said that 12 apartments have gone into contract over the past two months and that 11 more are in negotiation. Gary Barnett, Extell’s president, told the Daily News that buyer sentiment has improved, which is helping to move units. “The overall market has picked up, people have a better feeling that New York real estate is starting to steady,” Barnett said. “There is no new inventory, and buyers who have been looking know a good opportunity.”
The Real Deal is looking for your feedback on market-related issues. Please comment below. This question was sent by Sofia Kim, head of research at Streeteasy. If you have questions you’d like posted, please e-mail news@therealdeal.com.
From the December issue: A Boston developer has hit a few snags in its plan to build a giant residential tower. Goldman Properties wants to construct a 25-story, 232-unit apartment building and parking garage in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood that, if built, would be the tallest structure in the neighborhood. Goldman will have to make concessions in order to gain construction approval for the 315,000-square-foot development from the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the Boston Globe reported. The developer’s options include building 30 affordable housing units or donating another property for local artists displaced by the project. To sweeten the deal, Goldman has offered to pony up $900,000 to help build more parks in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, two of Nicolas Cage’s foreclosed homes, both in New Orleans, were brought to auction by Regions Bank, which had originally seized the properties. The first, a 13,000-square-foot French colonial home priced at $3.4 million this spring, sold for $2.2 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The other, the supposedly haunted LaLaurie Mansion in the city’s French Quarter, originally priced at $3.55 million, went for $2.3 million. Cage reportedly owes the city $151,729 in unpaid taxes, which the city extracted from the deal. The actor has already shed properties in New York City and beyond, and reportedly owes the IRS around $6.3 million in unpaid taxes. Compiled by Amy Tennery
In response to a building boom that left Brooklyn with hundreds of stalled construction sites, the borough’s Community Board 6 has unanimously approved a new development policy aimed at increasing safety at construction sites by weeding out contractors with a tendency to overlook violations. Now, new construction, renovation or addition projects of 10,000 square feet or more will be subject to a special board review process, in which applicants will be asked to commit to following a series of responsible development standards, including maintaining a safe work site and having a history of good behavior. While the board, which represents Gowanus, Red Hook, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, the Columbia Street Waterfront District and Carroll Gardens, cannot force a contractor or developer out of a project, it hopes the new policy will encourage higher standards. “Too often, our community has seen developers, contractors and subcontractors who violate the health, safety, buildings, noise, and workplace laws and standards of New York City, jeopardize the health and lives of their workers, and permit dangerous and severe nuisances for adjacent property owners,” the board said in its decision. [Post]
Father and son hotel developers William and Michael Achenbaum envisioned the Gansevoort South becoming one of the trendiest of South Beachs trendy locales when they reopened the renovated, 334-room hotel in 2007.
It has indeed become a chic venue for celebrities and party people alike. No so much for lenders.
A Credit Suisse AG unit that supplied the Achenbaums an $89 million mezzanine loan on the hotel has declared a default and scheduled a foreclosure auction of its ownership stake for Jan. 28. The Achenbaums in turn are attempting to negotiate with the Credit Suisse unit to buy back the mezzanine loan and retain ownership of the hotel on South Beachs Collins Avenue.
A statement released this week by the Achenbaums notes that the Gansevoort Souths hotel is profitable and capable of covering its respective debt. However, sales of the projects condominiums have been weak, leaving the hotel alone to support the entire projects debt, which it cant, the statement reads. The owners intend for the hotel to remain open as the ownership situation is sorted out.
All told, the Gansevoort South has 334 hotel rooms, 259 condos, a rooftop pool and 63,000 square feet of shops, salons and restaurants. It has a $314 million mortgage that has first claim to the property ahead of the mezzanine debt. Brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle is handling the Jan. 28 auction. The story was reported earlier by the Miami Herald.
The Gansevoort South is one of four such hotels operated by the Achenbaums Gansevoort Hotel Group. The company owns two other Gansevoorts in Manhattan and manages one in the Turks and Caicos islands.
Real Estate News compiles a daily wrap-up from each mornings Wall Street Journal and other news sources.
Foreclosure Rescue Disappoints (WSJ): Fewer than 5% of borrowers participating in the U.S.’s foreclosure-prevention program, about 31,000 in all, have received permanent loan modifications.
PCCP to Acquire Lehman Real-Estate Funds (WSJ): Lehman Brothers is expected to announce the sale of two real estate private-equity funds. PCCP will acquire the two funds, which have roughly $2 billion in assets under management.
Mortgage Rates Rise for First Time in Five Weeks (WSJ): The 30-year fixed-rate home loan remains below 5%, averaging 4.81% for the week ended Dec. 10.
U.S. Households’ Net Worth Rises (WSJ): The net worth of U.S. households rose 5% in the third quarter as stock markets continued rebounding, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.