Arsonist Nabbed in Deadly Brooklyn Apartment Building Fire
February 2, 2010 by Neil · 2 Comments
Daniel Ignacio told police investigators that while he was drunk, he used paint thinner to ignite a roll of toilet paper on fire with a cigarette lighter inside a baby carriage in the stairwell of his apartment building. Ignacio then went to sleep, and woke up to find his Bensonhurst building at 2033 86th Street [...]
Who Will Control Stuyvesant Town?
February 1, 2010 by Neil · 1 Comment
Tishman Speyer has ruled out the nuclear option of bankruptcy to forestall the struggle for control of Stuyvesant Town / Peter Cooper Village. Now a real estate food fight will ensue over control of the 110-building complex, each one containing about 100 units. (WSJ incorrectly states that it is a 56-building complex.)
WSJ states that the [...]
Is Anyone Really Calling the Bottom in New York City Multifamily?
February 1, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
Multifamily values have not bottomed out because: (1) vacancies will continue climbing; (2) rents will continue declining; (3) interest rates have not yet crept up; (4) many loans have not depleted their interest reserves (Hat tip: Reuters). Add to this mix the growing numbers of unemployed and underemployed. More people remain unemployed long-term than at any [...]
NY to Atlantic Yards Developer: Finish By…2035?!
February 1, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
What will happen by 2035?
Muslims will outnumber Christians in Britain.
China will surpass the U.S. economically.
Jerusalem will lose its Jewish majority, if those predictions are accurate.
In addition, 2035 is also the deadline the City and State of New York have given to Forest City Ratner to complete the Atlantic Yards project.
In the event that developer Bruce [...]
The Unintended Consequences of Security Cameras on New York City Apartment Buildings
January 29, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
New Year’s Day, 2010: A time for celebration, resolutions, and…a huge fight along Albany Avenue, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Police arrived to disperse the crowd, and break up the fight. Davial Rowe and Nagi Benson were charged with assaulting a police officer. Surveillance footage from a camera mounted on a nearby apartment building [...]
Which New York City Apartment Building Owner Faces an Attorney General Investigation For Tenant Harassment?
January 28, 2010 by Neil · 2 Comments
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will start a lawsuit against Neil Rubler’s Vantage Properties for systemic harassment of its tenants. Since 2006, Vantage has acquired more than 125 buildings with more than 9,500 units—the majority of which are rent-regulated—in Harlem, northern Manhattan and parts of Queens.
Nicholas Haros, dubbed one of the city’s 10 worst landlords [...]
Which New York City Multifamily Developer Heads To Prison For 4 Years? (Hint: It’s Still Not Sam Chang)
January 28, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
Manhattan developer Michael Hershkowitz was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to forfeit $27.2 million for his role in a Ponzi scheme involving fraudulent loans secured by nonexistent mortgages.
Prosecutors had alleged Hershkowitz and others induced about 70 individuals to lend more than $27 million to Kingsland Group Inc., purportedly to fund the renovation [...]
Apartment Vacancy Rates & Apartment Rent Rates: New York City & Long Island
January 28, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
As vacancy rates increase, rents should drop. Right? Not exactly, according to the latest data from REIS.
If the relationship was inverse, as expected from the data, then the lines would more definitively approach a V- or an X-shape.
In 4Q 2009, NYC rents dropped another 0.7%, while the vacancy stayed firm from the previous quarter, at [...]
Quiet Deal of the Week: Upper West Side Apartment Building For Sale
January 25, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
Upper West Side apartment building for sale, New York, New York
This is a walkup brick apartment building for sale on quiet, leafy street, between two major avenues.
Mixture of one- and two-bedroom units in this prewar Upper West Side apartment building for sale.
Many of units in this Upper West Side Apartment Building for sale are [...]
New York City Cash To Help Apartment Building Investors?
January 23, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, or HPD, will lend $750 million over the next five years to qualified investors of 267 buildings containing 3,564 apartments that are deep in a state of disrepair and in or close to foreclosure. According to HPD, 100,000 apartments citywide are in buildings that are upside [...]
How Has Stuyvesant Town Affected Harlem Apartment Buildings?
January 21, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
A group of tenants at Lenox Terrace, an apartment complex in Harlem, filed a lawsuit against the apartment complex’s ownership, a partnership lead by the Olnick Organization. The tenants claim that the owner illegally raised rents at the six-building Harlem complex, which houses, among others, Gov. David Paterson and Congressman Charlie Rangel.
Since Rangel’s apartments are [...]
Who May Be Providing 60% of All Financing for New York City Commercial Real Estate?
January 20, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
Foreign banks now provide more than 60 per cent of all debt financing for commercial real estate. The predominant player among these lenders: Bank of China. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with life insurers, provide the overwhelming majority of the other 40 percent.
Bank of China and other foreign lenders are taking advantage of underwriting [...]
