Commercial Breaks
Bank Branches Are So 2007! What's Next?
The empty storefront is the new bank branch.
With Citigroup’s acquisition of Wachovia and JPMorgan Chase’s Washington Mutual takeover, more storefront bank branches citywide will come into play, according to retail brokers. (Washington Mutual alone has 148 branches in the five boroughs.) Much like the bank consolidations of 1991 and 1996, when Chemical Banking Corp. merged with Manufacturers Hanover Corp, and then Chase purchased the resulting conglomerate, some of those bank branches will close.
Pity the landlord who just signed a new bank branch for his ground-floor retail space.
“What happens with those leases that were just signed?” said a frustrated Faith Hope Consolo, chairwoman of the retail leasing and sales division at Prudential Douglas Elliman, who said she has been deluged with calls from landlords frantic for information.
The Lab
No Rest for the Expecting Marrieds
Laurie Silverman, a Halstead Property executive, has noticed a peculiar shift in the demographics of her apartment-buying clientele: More and more young married couples, some pregnant or with young children, searching for larger, family-friendly living space.
There’s a shared sense of urgency amongst all her clients. “What we are seeing walking through the door these days,” Ms. Silverman said, “are people who really have to move.”
The rush of space-hungry families comes at an uncertain time. The chaotic economy has tossed the local real estate market into an unfamiliar limbo, as buyers and sellers stand on either side of the proverbial junior-high dance, hoping the gulf between them narrows.
The Sit-Down
The Wal-Mart Approach to Affordable Housing
Location: Since you bought Harlem’s Delano Village, now called Savoy Park, in 2006, how many of its 1,800 apartments have been deregulated?
Mr. Rubler: None. Or, under 10. I mean, occasionally, an apartment will achieve a legal rent that’s over $2,000, which, at least under today’s regulations, means that it’s technically deregulated, but it’s never a part of our business plan to deregulate apartments. Specifically, it’s part of our plan to keep 100 percent of our apartments within rent stabilization.
The New York Times reported that last year when you refinanced Savoy Park, it was underwritten for an ultimate cash flow of $19.Tales of Retail
Third Time's a Charmer
“So this is what all the fuss is about,” said alluring restaurateur Danae Cappelletto, standing in the plywood doorway at 19 Kenmare Street in Little Italy on Monday morning.
“You’ll have to use your imagination,” she added, as the two-level, roughly 2,800-square-foot space has sat empty for more than a year—and yet, so full of controversy.
Ms. Cappelletto, 27, is the third brave soul to attempt to do something with the site—which formerly housed longtime neighborhood institution Little Charlie’s Clam House—but only the first of them to so far survive the regulatory gauntlet that opening a downtown restaurant, or any business that serves booze, has lately become.
Manhattan Transfers
AIG Exec Bales $3.45 M. Cash for Central Park South Pad
Last week, eight days after the Federal Reserve agreed to an $85 billion bailout for the American International Group, and one day after the F.B.I. was first reported to be investigating its collapse, recently retired AIG executive vice president Robert M. Sandler bought a $3.45 million apartment at the Hampshire House on Central Park South.
He and his wife, Annette, paid in cash.
According to a Corcoran listing, their new three-bedroom, 2,045-square-foot apartment has a “top-of-the-line windowed kitchen with custom cabinetry”; a master bedroom suite with two walk-in closets; a steam shower and Jacuzzi; new herringbone floors; and a $4,333 monthly maintenance fee.
Real Estate
Support for Re-Imagining the 'American Jordan'
Michael Immerso, author of Coney Island: The People's Playground, wrote in the Wall Street Journal this weekend a conditional endorsement of the Bloomberg administration's Coney Island plans:
New York's goal of making Coney a year-round tourist destination is worthy of support -- but not in a way that leaves insufficient space for seasonal attractions and amusements that have become synonymous with Coney Island. The city hasn't yet struck a proper balance. Under the current plan, too little land is allotted for the outdoor amusements, arcades and game stands that have long been Coney Island summer staples. The redevelopment zone comprises some 47 acres, and with the right zoning there can be ample space for year-round attractions without confining classic Coney Island amusements to a fraction of that area.
Then there's this beautiful historical context: read more »
The Ghost Condos of McCarren Park
Behind the sagging wire fence, all that's left of 55 Eckford Street in Greenpoint is a skeleton, its steel ribs turned rusty from months of rain. A tangle of weeds has shot up amongst the bottles and soggy cardboard covering the ground, and blue construction tarp flaps in the autumn wind. The place smells faintly of urine.
Is this the future of McCarren Park's shiny new condo expansion?
Not yet. But if New York's real estate boom died on Oct. 1, as The New York Times declared, then these deserted developments are its ghosts, projects left over from a more hopeful time. And the neighborhood could soon see further haunting.
In North Brooklyn (Williamsburg, Greenpoint and the Navy Yards), condominiums accounted for three-quarters of residential sales in the spring of 2008, according to market reports by appraisal firm Miller Samuel. Between then and the spring of last year, condo sales in the area fell by almost 30 percent, from 174 to 122 sales. Brooklyn's overall home sales dropped 43.6 percent in the same period.
Few Brooklyn areas have seen more development than the five-block radius fanning out from McCarren Park, which encompasses four new condo projects on Bayard Street alone, and three at its northeastern corner at Manhattan and Driggs avenues. Some are finished selling, or closed deals are at least trickling in. But 55 Eckford is another story. read more »
The (Big) Round-Up: Monday
After buying a bundle of low-income housing complexes in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the South Bronx, private equity firms struggle to turn a profit and avoid foreclosure. [NY Times]
New Jersey offers a glimpse of what a New York recession might look like. [NY Times]
While “family friendly” housing is super popular these days, many families only have a hazy sense of what they’re buying in to. [NY Times]
Looking for modern living in historic Princeton. [NY Times]
Middle Village: a pocket of quaint, ageless suburbia just off the JMZ. [NY Times]
Credit crisis or no, Long Island’s luxury market remains robust. [NY Times]
…As does New Jersey’s bustling rental market. [NY Times]
A rash of foreclosures sweeps through Westchester County. [NY Times]
Giant brick wall separating two Beekman Place townhouses sparks legal battle. [NY Times]
The city’s wealthiest real estate players undeterred by Wall Street’s collapse. [NY Times]
After seeing 1.2 million New Yorkers marry since 1930, the Manhattan Marriage Bureau moves to cushier quarters. [NY Times]
The George Washington Bridge Bus Station—New York’s other bus terminal—now in line for a $152 million renovation. [NY Times]
Williamsburg’s famed Kellogg’s Diner reopens after a big renovation, and (predictably) not everyone is happy about it. [NY Times]
More private busses clog Hell’s Kitchen’s already congested arteries. [NY Times]
Battery Park City residents feel more isolated than ever now that a local mobile postal service van has stopped making its rounds. [NY Times]
A new contractor hired to fix housing complex elevators uses the same building—and the same foreman—as a Bronx firm banned from the same work two years earlier. [NYDN]
Original Carvel ice cream shop in Hartsdale closes, ending 72 years of business. [NYDN]
Willets Point business owners accuse Queens Borough President Claire Shulman of lobbying on behalf of Bloomberg’s redevelopment plan without a license. [NYDN]
Trial postponed again for those accused of starting the Bronx’s “Black Sunday” apartment fire three years ago. [NYDN]
While park enforcement is paid for by private companies running Battery Park City and Hudson River Park, Brooklyn’s vast parklands have to rely on skimpy tax dollars—that means significantly fewer Parks Enforcement Patrol officers. [NYDN]
Cuomo’s investigation into LIRR pension scam now focused on a former head of the US Railroad Retirement Board’s Westbury office. [NY Post]
Con Ed bills jumped 58 percent for New Yorkers this past air-conditioning season. [NY Post]
Connecticut firm hired to monitor the psychological health of WTC construction workers has a few skeletons in its closet. [NY Post]
Elevator operator at Deutsche Bank building files lawsuit claiming he was fired for alerting the city of rampant safety violations at the site. [NY Post]
With home-decorating clients increasingly cautious, industry professionals turn to cheaper, more Ikea-friendly options. [WSJ]
As the Feds push for a resolution to the disputed buyout deal, Citigroup and Wells Fargo may split ownership of Wachovia’s operations along geographic lines—with Citigroup getting Northeast and mid-Atlantic branches and Wells Fargo taking over operations in the Southeast and West Coast. [WSJ]
The Afternoon Wrap: Friday
House passes bailout package; Bush signs the $700 billion bill into law. [NY Times]
New Jersey awards Garden State Offshore Energy with contract to build massive wind farm; experts say a similar project off Long Island’s south shore could be next. [City Room]
The pink Chupster faces a calamity of epic proportions. [Curbed]
Brooklyn “hipster landlords” evict rent-stabilized tenants to make way for bicycle/stroller storage and kiddy playroom. [TRD]
NYC banks demanding more money down and more thorough income investigations before approving mortgages. [TRD]
Meet Bed-Stuy’s one-woman take-out taxi: Call Donna Walrond and she’ll deliver food from any restaurant directly to your door. [Brownstoner]
Public rancor grows over a Greenpoint soup kitchen even as more locals seek out its services. [newyorkshitty]
Bike path extended eight blocks north along Ninth Avenue. [StreetsBlog via City Room]
A retail tunnel under Chinatown. [Vanishing New York]
Stop-work order issued again at 196 Bowery—the future site of an eight-story condo. [Bowery Boogie]
Oh My! Newer Luxury Condo Prices Drop Across Manhattan
This is the final of three articles today on the Manhattan housing market since last autumn. Read about the apartment rental market and the condo sales market.
Median prices for new-development luxury condos in three of Manhattan’s glitziest neighborhoods dropped substantially during the third quarter, according to a new report from research outfit StreetEasy (PDF here). From trendy downtown Manhattan all the way through the glamorous Upper West Side (and even midtown in between), median prices for top-tier newer condos declined quarterly by 29.1 percent, 31 percent, and 32.4 percent, respectively.
The Upper East Side was the only neighborhood with a median sales price increase among new luxury developments (nearly all condos), with a jump of 145 percent. (StreetEasy defines the luxury market as the top 10 percent of the condo and co-op sales marke; for this quarter, it included all apartments sold at $3.1 million and above.) read more »
Bob Knakal, King of the Mid-Market Trade, Closes 1,000th Deal
Bob Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal and master of the under-$100 million commercial property transaction (which, believe it or not, is considered small potatos in New York), just closed his 1,000th deal.
Said deal was the sale of an Upper East Side parking garage at 301 East 69th Street for $5.4 million. read more »
The Weekly Walk-Through
We learned that:
- The Prospect Park Y's chief sees possibilities in the financial crisis.
- A new hedge fund signs a pricey lease in 1095 Avenue of the Americas.
- Luxury condos will replace two West 23rd Street buildings.
- Brooklyn's artists are bracing for the after-effects of the financial crisis.
- Geoffrey Raymond's the artist behind the "Annotated" Wall Street paintings.
- Queens led a citywide August jump in new foreclosures.
- The World Trade Center site will have about $1.7 billion in cost overruns.
- Mark Walsh was the executive behind Lehman's risky real estate investing.
- Manhattan apartment rents dropped more in September.
- The No. 1 train could be closed below Chambers for months.
- The mansion at 7 Sutton Square sold for $32.5 million, well above asking.
- NBC sent around an internal memo about its massive office space search.
- Officials said the market will dictate Larry Silverstein's trade center schedule.
- Two small Hell's Kitchen buildings traded for $36.6 million.
- Manhattan condo sales tumbled year-over-year in the summer.
- Construction union boss Ed Malloy wants a third Bloomberg term.
- The new World Trade Center schedule shows slow going.
- Queens led the city in the number of first-time summer foreclosures.
- New York's real estate heavies are lining up behind a third Bloomberg term.
- Girls school Sacred Heart bought an East 91st building for $23 million.
- Upper East Side and West Side apartment rents have been flat for 12 months.
- A Williamsburg condo has sales pitched to Sarah Palin.
Michael Bloomberg Hugo Chavez
"Hugo Chavez loves his job too. The Mayor is making a mockery of our system. He should be ashamed of himself and so should any sycophants kissing up to him to grab the crumbs off his table." ["Speyer, Zuckerman Back Bloomberg Bid"]
A Sarah Palin Sales Pitch in Brooklyn? You Betcha!
From Douglaston Development, developer of the Edge condo in Williamsburg:
Aware that Sarah Palin loves being able to see Russia from her home in Alaska, the developer of The Edge, the largest new condominium development rising in Brooklyn, is wondering whether the Republican Vice Presidential nominee might like to check out some dramatic views closer to the mainland.
Just hours before the start of the Biden/Palin debate on October 2, 2008, The Edge hoisted a giant 100-foot by 28-foot banner at its construction site in Williamsburg.
read more »
UWS, UES Apts. 4 Rent @ CHEAPER Prices!!!
This is the second in a three-part series today covering the Manhattan housing market since autumn 2007. The first was on the condo sales tumble.
Apartment rents in Manhattan's two biggest neighborhoods by area, the Upper East and West Sides, either dropped or stayed relatively flat from September 2007 to September 2008, harbingering a further cooling off in the rental market (just like the ice cubes tossed this summer on the for-sale market), according to the latest report from The Real Estate Group New York (PDF here).
The apartment market and the local economy have a nearly real-time relationship, and the flat rents the last 12 months in these two neighborhoods could become the norm through the winter as the financial crisis worsens. Certainly, Manhattan's beyond the recent era of sharp rent jumps. read more »
Speyer, Zuckerman Back Bloomberg Bid
The Round-Up: Friday
The Afternoon Wrap: Thursday
Special Advertising Section
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