last updated today at 04:00PM
Former Lafayette Street fire station on the market
Jan 08, 2009 04:00 PM
185_lafayette_st_frontbox 185 Lafayette Street A fire station-turned-townhouse belonging to an unidentified famous musician is on the market. The three-story townhouse at 185 Lafayette Street, between Broome and Grand streets, is listed for $2.99 million, with Ostrov Realty Group. The 2,800-square-foot building is currently a one-bedroom with full basement, roof deck and recording studio on the ground level, which could be turned into a garage. According to the listing, the studio is a "professional recording studio of a famous musician."

"Tsunami" of foreclosures still to come
Jan 08, 2009 03:20 PM
On CNBC this week, housing analyst Ivy Zelman, CEO of Zelman and Associates, said there is a "tsunami of foreclosures and short sales still to come" over the next several years because of Alt-A and option ARM loans. Zelman said that the housing market in 2009 will be worse than 2008 because of an oversupply of distressed inventory with home values dropping between 20 and 30 percent.

Auditing firm launches multi-state fraud investigation
Jan 08, 2009 03:00 PM
MFI-Miami, a Florida-based mortgage fraud investigation and auditing firm, is launching an investigation against securities firms and banks for performing illegal foreclosures in New York and five other states, the firm announced yesterday. The investigation will look at foreclosure actions filed between 2005 and 2008 in New York, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia. Many of the illegal foreclosures were on properties with sub-prime loans where the transfer of ownership was not recorded in local property records, making the foreclosure action illegal. These cases are particularly common in states with no judicial oversight of the foreclosure process, the firm said. TRD

Commercial mortgage delinquencies rise
Jan 08, 2009 02:15 PM
Delinquencies on commercial mortgages packed and sold as bonds doubled between the third and fourth quarters of 2008, according to Deutsche Bank. The delinquency rate, which includes mortgages that are 30 days or more past due and in foreclosure, reached 1.2 percent, and the rate is likely to hit 3 percent by the end of 2009. Delinquencies on commercial real estate loans held by banks and thrifts have also risen, hitting 2.2 percent in the third quarter of 2008, the latest period for which data is available, up from 1.5 percent at the end of 2007, according to research firm Foresight Analytics. The firm predicts the rate will rise to 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Homestead leaves home -- for good
Jan 08, 2009 01:30 PM
900_8th_ave_frontbox 900 Eighth Avenue Homestead New York, the four-year-old boutique sales and rental and brokerage firm, is closing shop. Danny Shamooil, co-owner and co-founder of Homestead, told The Real Deal that the company ceased operations before the New Year and is in the process of completing the paperwork required to dissolve the business. The Web site is no longer operational, he said. Shamooil and co-founder Eli Adahan decided to end their partnership after a series of disagreements this fall, Shamooil said, combined with pressure from the dour economic climate. more
By Candace Taylor

Title insurers, too, feel a pinch
Jan 08, 2009 12:55 PM
To the long list of professionals hurt by the cratering residential real estate market -- brokers, mortgage lenders and appraisers, among others -- add another victim: title insurers. These businesses, which sell insurance policies to buyers of apartments, to protect them from sellers who unload homes that were never technically theirs to begin with, are laying off employees in droves, instituting hiring freezes or outright closing, according to industry leaders. "Everybody is very, very slow," said Sharon Sabol, the executive vice president of the New York State Land Title Association, a Manhattan-based trade group made up of title insurance underwriters and their agents. more
By C. J. Hughes

Last Vermeil units see price cuts
Jan 08, 2009 12:00 PM
Vermeil_frontbox The Vermeil There are four units left for sale at the Vermeil, at 133 Sterling Place in Park Slope, and three of them saw recent price cuts. The Corcoran Group took over the project's sales and marketing from Brown Harris Stevens in July 2008. A 1,711-square-foot unit is now listed at $1.299 million, down from $1.375 million in November. Its original listing price with BHS was $1.65 million when sales started in January 2007, according to Streeteasy.com.  A 1,642-square-foot unit was cut to $1.175 million from $1.275 in November and $1.699 in January 2007. Another 1,642-square-foot unit is listed at $1.15 million, down from $1.25 million in November and $1.64 million in January 2007. The fourth unit, at 1,758 square feet, has been listed at $1.495 million since October 2008, down from its original listing of $2.3 million in January 2007.

Toning down luxe pitches
Jan 08, 2009 11:21 AM
From the January issue: When the Park Columbus first came on the market a year ago, the marketing team introduced the building with a campaign that emphasized the conversion's luxury, its high-end finishes and its amenities. "It was the amenities-driven campaign you saw all over Manhattan over the past four years," says Hunter Frick, project manager at Halstead Property Development Marketing, which handled the marketing of Park Columbus, located at 101 West 87th Street. "We stressed the children's playroom, the attended lobby, the limestone bathrooms, the Sub-Zeros." But what was the perfect pitch in early 2008's real estate market now seems inappropriate. Over the course of one year of tumultuous financial events (a mortgage crisis, bank bailouts and volatile exchange rates) buyers have gone from "more is more" to being wary of ostentation.
more By Katherine Dykstra

Major chains post December declines
Jan 08, 2009 10:45 AM
Deep discounts weren't enough to save holiday sales, according to retail numbers released today. Major chains are expected to post a 1.2 percent decline in December sales for stores open at least a year. Retailers nationwide are trying to lower their rent as the recession continues and revenue drops. December's decline marks the first drop in holiday sales in several decades. Analysts expect Macy's to post a 4 percent decline and for drops at rival chain stores to be even steeper. The Real Deal talked to retail brokers about the slowdown in the December issue.

New marriage bureau to open Monday
Jan 08, 2009 09:45 AM
141_worth_frontbox 141 Worth Street An old city Department of Motor Vehicles office up the street from City Hall has been transformed into a 24,000-square-foot wedding chapel for the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. The $12 million project, at 141 Worth Street at Centre Street, was designed by Jamie Drake, who also designed Madonna's Los Angeles home and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Upper East Side townhouse. Drake created two separate wedding chapels, turned the bathrooms in the old DMV office into dressing rooms, and put an over-sized photograph of City Hall in the bureau to be used as a backdrop for pictures. The new marriage bureau, which has been under renovation since 2006, will open on Monday.

Rental buildings pay broker's fees, offer free rent
Jan 08, 2009 09:15 AM
Frigan_frontbox Halstead's Fritz Frigan While market reports show rents have gone down in Manhattan, Fritz Frigan, the executive director of sales and leasing for Halstead Property, said an even better measure of the state of the rental market is how many buildings are covering broker's fees. Many landlords will offer to pay broker's fees instead of lowering rents because that means starting at a lower base when renewing leases. In January 2008, 90 of the rental properties represented by Halstead were covering broker fees, and by November, that number jumped to 1,300 properties. Daniel Hedaya, director of leasing at Platinum Properties, said in the Financial District, the majority of buildings are offering to pay broker's fees, as well as one month of free rent, because of the excess of inventory in the neighborhood. The Philippe Starck-designed Dwell95, at 95 Wall Street, is offering up to three months free rent, Hedaya said. Other concessions on offer include free health club memberships, free storage space, and reduced parking rates.

Current Issue
Cover

From The January Issue

A year to forget

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Most regard 2008's records, which The Real Deal details as part of a series, as footnotes, rather than the main stories of the year. That's because, as our year in review recounts, after Wall Street collapsed in September, the key question became: how low will the city's commercial and housing markets go? In our Q & A, residential and commercial players say they are bracing for a brutal year. On the commercial side, the consensus is the already elevated vacancy rate will increase further as the financial industry suffers and office space is dumped. More

Buyers getting bolder

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One of the most profound impacts of the Wall Street crisis on New York's real estate market is the sudden emergence of the new buyer's market, a shift in the balance of power between buyers and sellers we explore in a package of stories this month. More

What's a developer to do?

This month, The Real Deal goes behind the scenes at Downtown Brooklyn's BellTel Lofts, the Dover condominium in West Harlem and Tempo in Gramercy, to find out how developers who started their buildings in the pre-crash financial markets are tackling the downturn.
More

Extell plows ahead

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While the credit crisis halted the $6 billion Atlantic Yards project rival Forest City Ratner snatched from it three years ago, Extell Development Company has emerged as the most active developer in the rehab of Manhattan's West Side. If Extell's head Gary Barnett has made the right bet on the area, he may emerge as one of the last men standing in New York City real estate. More

Toning down luxe pitches

After a year of tumultuous financial events, buyers have gone from "more is more" to being wary of ostentation. More

Not too proud for rentals

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With residential sales slowing, more brokers who once worked exclusively in sales are now taking deals that they never would have touched in the past: rentals. Daniel Baum, COO of the Real Estate Group New York, said brokers who once looked down on the rental side are changing gears.
More

Prices plummet dramatically

December brought proof that real estate prices are plummeting dramatically as New York City anticipates months of recession and job losses ahead. More

Lowballing turns predatory

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Potential buyers are now putting very low offers -- often 20 to 40 percent less than the asking price -- on multiple properties at the same time, a strategy that was virtually unheard of only a few months ago. Sellers, increasingly desperate to unload their property, are countering offers they once would have considered insulting. More

More developers joining forces for mortgages

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Developers are increasingly relying on their preferred lenders and mortgage brokers to help their buyers navigate the complex world of mortgages and increase their chances of closing deals. More

More quick eats, less upscale fare

As 2009 starts, restaurant industry brokers expect inexpensive eateries to continue adding locations to capitalize on demand for lower-priced fare in the economic crisis. Any restaurant company looking for space will have many choices and greater negotiating power, after a wave of closures last year that is only expected to intensify in 2009. More

Manhattan office market: Thankful holidays are over

Commercial leasing activity was thin in the typically slow month of December, as landlords held off listings until the New Year and potential renters waited for better deals. The industry was further spooked last month by the alleged $50 billion fraud by fund manager Bernard Madoff and the arrest of Marc Dreier, law firm Dreier's founding partner, who was accused of swindling investors out of $380 million or more. More


Special Reports

Who got crunched -- and who didn't
A look at where players landed one year after the credit market debacle
Hailing other holiday spots
While Hamptons hurting, other locales draw interest
The biggest problems in New York City real estate
Experts weigh in on how to fix industry crises
Developers falling into a Catch-22
Residential developers in bind with slow sales
In Hamptons, it's no vacation
Building permits drop, spec homes sit and restaurateurs grow wary amid slowdown
Condos on the chopping block
Prices come down to help move new projects
Adding it all up
A tally of numbers that matter: construction costs, the high-end market, and foreign buyer migration
Manhattan's biggest firms
Our annual survey of the top Manhattan firms



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