Warehouse 11 races against clock

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News It may be a race against the clock at Warehouse 11, the Karl Fischer-designed condominium at 214 North 11th Street in Williamsburg, where nearly 60 contracts have been signed in the last two weeks, at less than $600 per square foot, according to Apartmentsandlofts.com, which is handling sales for the building. A spokesperson for Apartmentsandlofts.com said the price slashing is due to market conditions, but a source with knowledge of the situation said the fire sale marks an effort to ratchet up cash before a lender-imposed March 31 cut off date. Developer McCaren Park Mews LLC initially faced a Dec. 21, 2009 deadline to buy back the debt, according to bankruptcy filings. But, the developer had been “able to renegotiate terms with the bank," the spokesperson said, and extend the closing deadline to March. The offering plan attorney, Abe Lowy, confirmed that there was a deadline extension on a bank-developer agreement but would not elaborate on the terms of the agreement.

Another city landlord hit with rent deregulation suit

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News The latest in a string of tenant-led lawsuits charging landlords with illegal rent-deregulation has hit 444 East 82nd Street. Half of the 415 units in Clermont York Associates' building are market rate, despite the fact that the owners raised rents on those units while receiving tax breaks from the city for renovations, said law firm Himmelstein McConnell Gribben Donoghue & Joseph, which filed the suit today. The suit is among a growing number of battles over rent deregulation that have been sprouting up in the wake of an October ruling handed down to owners of the massive Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex by the New York State Court of Appeals. The court's decision said that landlord Tishman Speyer should not have destabilized rents in thousands of apartments while receiving the city's J-51 tax benefits for building upgrades. Tishman Speyer, which has since handed the debt-laden property over to its creditors, was estimated to owe $200 million in back rent to tenants following the case. Last week, tenants at Lenox Terrace in Harlem filed a similar suit against their landlord, who could owe between $400,000 and $6 million, their lawyers said. [Crain's]

Stuy Town rent agreement set to expire Sunday … and more

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News 1. A “Catcher in the Rye”-themed walking tour, unveiled [NYT]
2. Environmental groups claim Battery Park City doesn’t follow through on its green claims [Downtown Express]
3. Once-troubled Downtown Brooklyn retail nabe sees rebirth [Post]
4. Potential Whole Foods site in Gowanus showing little activity [Brownstoner]
5. Brooklyn Cyclones and KeySpan end naming arrangement [Crain’s]
6. Brand Z For Less discount store shuttering in Sheepshead Bay [Sheepshead Bites]
7. Trial-mod applicants may be required to submit more paperwork under new guidelines proposed [CNNMoney]
8. Stuy Town rent agreement between rent-stabilized tenants and landlords set to expire Sunday [Crain's]
9. Harry Macklowe close to selling Rivertower rental building to Sam Zell [Post]
10. Art show chronicles experience of squatting at East 3rd Street building and a building history [NYT]

Toren approved for FHA financing

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News Downtown Brooklyn's long-awaited Toren condominium at 150 Myrtle Avenue has won its bids for both Federal Housing Administration and Fannie Mae financing, Brownstoner reported, making the building's 50 percent unsold units much more accessible to new homebuyers with less-than-stellar credit scores and limited supplies of cash. The FHA program allows such buyers to finance up to $729,750 for their homes with down payments of only 3.5 percent. In other news at BFC Partners' 38-story building, Toren's indoor pool has been completed, just in time for buyers who've already closed to start moving in. [Brownstoner]

Goldman offering mortgages as perks to bonus-less bankers

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News With cash bonuses still in -- relatively -- short supply in the aftermath of the recession, Goldman Sachs seems to be doing its part to limit the cutbacks' impact on luxury real estate. Gawker took a look at New York City property records this week and found that Goldman started lending to individual residential property owners in mid-2008, just as the financial system was beginning to collapse. There were 17 instances in total where Goldman is listed as the secured party on residential property transactions in the city; half of those involved employees of the firm. In late October 2008, managing director Oliver Frankel took out one such "hassle-free" mortgage from his employer for a co-op in Tribeca's 34 Leonard Street, where units were selling between $2 million and $8 million earlier that year. Goldman has also granted loans to managing director T. Clark Munnell for his $6.6 million Park Avenue apartment, to banking technology manager Lancelot Braunstein, who bought a $2.1 million co-op in September, and to vice president Justin Lee for his $1.9 million Chelsea apartment, among others. Terms of the mortgages are not public, but the company recently told the Wall Street Journal that it has allowed "a small number of employees" to take out mortgages, that they carry normal interest rates and that they must be paid back. Gawker did uncover the terms of one particularly high-profile mortgage, though. Rodney Martin, the chief operating office of AIG's life insurance unit was lent $4 million in April 2008 for a $4 million apartment at 15 Central Park West, courtesy of new neighbor and Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein's company. The 30-year mortgage had a 4.8 percent interest rate and was interest-only for the first 10 years. [Gawker]

At the desk of: Leonard Boxer

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News From the January issue: Attorney Len Boxer is a thinking man’s lawyer. And these days he’s finding ways to wring money for development in a capital-starved market. So it’s fitting that a likeness of Auguste Rodin’s “Thinker” adorns his 39th-floor Lower Manhattan aerie. Boxer is chairman of the 50-person real estate practice at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. His Maiden Lane office looks out on Brooklyn, where he grew up. In the 1970s, he formed a law firm with Robert Olnick, right before Olnick got involved with developing Starrett City. Since then, his deals have only grown, like Larry Silverstein’s $3.2 billion lease in summer 2001 of the World Trade Center.

Merger appears likely for financially-strapped Cobble Hill hospital

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News Cobble Hill's debt-laden Long Island College Hospital is merging with SUNY Downstate Medical Center of Crown Heights, pending approval by the state. The hospital's current operator, Continuum Health Partners, has already approved the plan, which will fend off the facility's closure after a year of uncertainty. LICH is $170 million in debt and in 2008, it sold several buildings, laid off hundreds of employees and had proposed shuttering its maternity, pediatrics and dentistry departments. There is no timeline for the merger as of yet, hospital officials said. Continuum, which also operates St. Luke's and Roosevelt hospitals in Manhattan, recently submitted a proposal to take over St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village. Continuum's plan would convert St. Vincent's it into a community health center and significantly scaling back emergency services. [Brooklyn Paper]

Treasury relaxes paperwork requirements for loan mods

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News Borrowers participating in the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program will soon have a simpler route to mortgage loan modifications. Under new guidelines, borrowers seeking to lower their mortgage payments will be required to provide just three items to servicers: a form requesting the modification, authorization for the servicer to access tax information from the Internal Revenue Service and evidence of income, the Treasury announced yesterday. The HAMP program, launched one year ago, has been widely criticized for its low success rates in turning three-month trial modifications into permanent ones, and borrowers and servicers alike had pointed to complex documentation requirements as one of the major stumbling blocks. Roughly 900,000 borrowers had been given trial modifications by the close of 2009, but only 66,465 of those had been converted to permanent ones. Beginning June 1, servicers will also have to gather the documents prior to granting trial modifications in order to avoid beginning the process with borrowers who ultimately won’t be able to come up with the paperwork. [WSJ]

Landlord sues state over electric billing

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News
Major multi-family owner Urban American is suing the state Public Service Commission over electric billing in thousands of units of mostly rent-stabilized apartments in Manhattan. The New Jersey-based company filed a lawsuit Jan. 15 in State Supreme Court in Albany to overturn a ruling by the commission that blocked the company from individually billing tenants in four Manhattan apartment complexes for electric usage, known as submetering. Currently the electrical charges are folded into the rent bill based generally on the apartment size, not on actual usage. The case is being closely followed by elected officials including Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who urged the state to block the submetering until certain conditions were fulfilled.

Large apartment owner sues state over electric billing

January 29th, 2010    Posted in Apartments Brooklyn, Apartments New York, Manhattan Apartments News, New York Apartments, New York Real Estate News, News
Major multi-family owner Urban American is suing the state Public Service Commission over electric billing in thousands of units of mostly rent-stabilized apartments in Manhattan. The New Jersey-based company filed a lawsuit Jan. 15 in State Supreme Court in Albany to overturn a ruling by the commission that blocked the company from individually billing tenants in four Manhattan apartment complexes for electric usage, known as submetering. Currently the electrical charges are folded into the rent bill based generally on the apartment size, not on actual usage. The case is being closely followed by elected officials including Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who urged the state to block the submetering until certain conditions were fulfilled.