Real Estate Weekly back issues from May 1997:
Coliseum field is narrowed. (bidders for New York's Coliseum development)
May 07, 1997; ... Five happy development groups are now hunkering down for the final round of the Coliseum development competition. The teams of the Trump Organization and Colony Capital; Forest City Ratner, Daniel Brodsky and Peter Lehrer; Related Companies and Himmel and Company; Tishman - Speyer, Mirage, ...
Cost increases low, RGB says. (apartment costs; Rent Guidelines Board)
May 07, 1997; ... Costs for operating stabilized apartments are expected not to increase very much, and that in turn could lead to low rent increases. The projections and preliminary suggestions for rent increases were presented to the Rent Guidelines Board last week by staff members. On May 7th, the RGB ...
Census finds higher renter income. (NY Census Bureau's Housing and Vacancy Survey)
May 07, 1997; ... The new Census Bureau's Housing and Vacancy Survey has determined that renter incomes are 17 percent higher than previously believed, said Doug Hillstrom, executive director of the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB).The triennial study has just been released and for the first time, the ...
A way to eliminate landlord welfare.
May 07, 1997; ... As I write these words, the Troika of Albany politics are being joined by Comrades Giuliani and Vallone to decide the future of rent regulation in New York. Governor Pataki holds the fate of these changes in his hands. I only hope he does not cave in and decide to trade his integrity for ...
Proven winner returns to Insignia/ESG team. (Insignia/Edward S. Gordon Co., Inc. executive director Joseph A. Cabrera)
May 07, 1997 ... Being part of a winning team is nothing new to Joseph A. Cabrera, who recently rejoined the powerhouse brokerage firm, Insignia/Edward S. Gordon Co., Inc. (Insignia/ESG) as Executive Director of the National Accounts Group.In fact, since his early high school days at Greenwich ...
Bridgewater Commons expansion agreement reached.
May 07, 1997 ... TrizecHahn Corporation and the Prudential Realty Group, owners of Bridgewater Commons in Bridgewater, NJ, have reached an agreement with the Bridgewater Township Council regarding a multi-staged expansion program which will create the Bridgewater Commons Regional Center. The details of the ...
BOMA adds issues to legislative agenda. (Building Owners and Manager Association International)
May 07, 1997 ... The Building Owners and Manager Association (BOMA) International, a leading advocacy group for the commercial real estate industry, announced that four issues of major concern to building owners and property managers have been added to its already full 1997 agenda: re-authorization of the ...
RGB proposes 2% to 4% hikes. (Rent Guidelines Board; rent increases)
May 14, 1997; ... The Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) has proposed rent increases of 2 percent for one-year leases and 4 percent for two-year leases beginning in October. The RGB must still hold public hearings on the proposals, which can still be modified up or down.The vacancy allowance proposal is 5 ...
Eastern reports sales surge. (Eastern Consolidated Properties Inc.)
May 14, 1997 ... Eastern Consolidated Properties has announced a sharp increase in Manhattan sales deals in its early 1997 results, mirroring the unprecedented pace of sales activity in the market in general.According to Daun Paris, president, over the past three months alone Eastern reported ...
Regal scoops up UN Plaza. (Regal Hotels International Holdings Ltd.; UN Plaza Hotel)
May 14, 1997; ... The city made out like a bandit on the sale of the UN Plaza Hotel, which is fetching $102 million from Regal Hotels International in a deal announced by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani last week.The $238.31 price per key for each of the 428 rooms is much more than the city hoped for when it ...
Koll sells Atrium portfolio, again! (Koll Co.)
May 14, 1997 ... KOLL repeated its 660,000 square-foot sale of the Atrium portfolio in Franklin Township, NJ, for the second time in seven months, re-selling the three-building complex to WHATR Real Estate Limited Partnership at a price estimated to be in excess of $50 million. KOLL has been retained to ...
Prime hotel development opportunity available in the City of Long Beach.
May 14, 1997 ... The City of Long Beach is inviting proposals from interested parties for the development of a hotel, catering hall, and other amenities on an oceanfront site which covers approximately six acres of land.The site offers roughly 700 feet of frontage on Beach Park beach, from which it ...
ULI predicts continued growth through mid-1998. (Urban Land Institute; real estate industry growth)
May 14, 1997 ... The fundamentals of supply and demand are functioning in classic fashion during a period of unusual equilibrium in the domestic real estate industry, reports a new forecast released by the Urban Land Institute (ULI), with the result that all 56 major metropolitan areas in the United States ...
NJ office market enjoys a robust first quarter. (New Jersey)
May 14, 1997 ... Following a dramatic turnaround in 1996, the commercial real estate market in Northern and Central New Jersey got off to a strong start in 1997, as reported in the latest edition of the Studley Report & Spacedata.Last year's hectic pace of deal-making continued during the first ...
Renovations in full swing at One Woodbridge Center. (One Woodbridge Center Drive; office building)
May 14, 1997 ... One Woodbridge Center Drive in Middlesex County, N J, recently acquired by Continental Properties, is undergoing substantial renovations including a refurbished facade and common areas, a new roof, a spectacular new lobby and corridors, enhanced parking and updated HVAC system. The 150,000 ...
Tenants to be largest benefactors of electricity deregulation legislation.
May 14, 1997; ... First it was NAFTA. Then there was health care. Now there is light.With the advent of the 105th Congress, law-makers on Capital Hill are feverishly pursuing wide sweeping legislation to restructure the nation's entire electric utility industry. Meanwhile, dozens of states have ...
Study shows higher incomes get lower rents. (1996 Housing and Vacancy Survey)
May 14, 1997; ... Under current deregulation schemes, those households with incomes of $250,000 or more for two years can have their apartments deregulated, but the apartments don't qualify if the rents are under $2,000.This anachronism has been an ironic twist to the rent regulation battle that is ...
BOMA publication focuses on safeguarding the workplace. (Building Owners and Managers Association)
May 14, 1997 ... As the nation turns its attention to the Oklahoma City bombing trial and the memory of the tragic bombing that destroyed not only the Arthur P, Murrah Federal Building, but the lives of countless families, security issues in the workplace still of utmost concern.The recent incident ...
City's largest laundromat opens in Brooklyn. (Clean Rite)
May 14, 1997 ... The largest coin operated laundromat in the New York City metropolitan area opened recently at the comer of Farmers and Merrick Boulevards in Brooklyn. At 8,000 square feet and almost 200 machines, this facility is the seventh store opened by Clean Rite centers. Three more stores are in the ...
Indoor mall planned for Bronx's Bay Plaza. (Mall at Bay Plaza)
May 14, 1997 ... Plans were announced recently for a new 900,000 square-foot, four-level, enclosed, state-of-the-art shopping mall to be built in The Bronx. The Mall at Bay Plaza will feature three department stores, complementary superstores, themed-restaurants, entertainment venues and 100 smaller shops, ...
Reckson expands Fairfield portfolio. (Reckson Associates Realty Corp.; Fairfield County)
May 14, 1997 ... Reckson Associates Realty Corp. has acquired 710 Bridgeport Avenue, a 452,000 square-foot office and research & development complex located in Shelton, CT, within the eastern sub-market of Fairfield County, for $26.9 million. The Company anticipates an initial return on investment of 10.5 ...
New home for low-income seniors opens. (Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Council Towers II)
May 14, 1997 ... The Metropolitan New York Coordinating Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) recently celebrated the opening of the Harry and Jeanette Council Towers II residence for low income seniors.Funding for this project was provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban ...
Retirees moving into city in record numbers. (New York, New York)
May 14, 1997 ... Retirees have been making their move back into the city for years, but recently it's been in numbers never seen before, according to Corcoran broker Cathy Blau, who reports that 25 percent of her buyers this year have been retirees.Those people age 50 and over already make up 30 ...
Stock brokers lease former Grumman site. (Gaines Berland Inc.; Briarcliffe College building)
May 14, 1997 ... The stock brokerage firm Gaines Berland Inc. has leased 92,000 square feet of space at the Briarcliffe College building, formally a Northrup Grumman property at 1055 Stewart Avenue in Bethpage, Long Island.The 10-year lease agreement, which was negotiated by Alan Rosenberg, ...
Greenwich Office Park sold.
May 14, 1997 ... Fawn Associates Limited Liability Company and Ghent Limited Liability Company announced last week that it has sold the Greenwich Office Park, a 24-acre, 435,000 square-foot Class A office park located in Greenwich, CT, to a state public pension fund client represented by Jones Lang Wootton ...
Newmark gets exclusive on 200 Greenwich Avenue. (Newmark and Company Real Estate)
May 14, 1997 ... The office portion of 200 Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich, CT will now be exclusively leased and eventually sold through Newmark & Company Real Estate, Inc. Garrick-Aug has been appointed leasing agent for the building's base retail. The announcement was made by John D. Goodkind, executive ...
Upper East Side townhouse to be auctioned by Sheldon Good. (Sheldon Good and Co.)
May 14, 1997 ... A magnificent, Upper East Side, turn-of-the-century brick townhouse will be sold at an open outcry auction on Tuesday, May 20th by Sheldon Good and Company Auctions Northeast. Bidding starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Hotel Inter-Continental, 111 East 48th Street. Registration begins at 6 p.m. ...
Owners win rent control suit in appeal vs. DHCR. (Division of Housing and Community Renewal)
May 21, 1997; ... An Appellate Division has unanimously agreed with an owner's group that the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) has wrongly calculated rent increases for rent controlled tenants.The Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) has been trying to get courts to recognize ...
Garden dispute stalls development. (New York City residential development)
May 21, 1997; ... Housing advocates have always maintained that the quirky rent stabilization laws stand in the way of the construction of more city dwellings. It's almost impossible to get rent stabilized tenants to move, they say, even with recent changes to policies, and as for rent controlled tenants, ...
Brooklyn's Renaissance Plaza typifies new construction trend. (New York)
May 21, 1997 ... Why are more and more real estate developers trying to incorporate hotel facilities into their residential and commercial office projects?"Because it makes tremendous sense in the current marketplace," explains Joshua L. Muss, president of Muss Development Company, which is ...
Developer to unveil Downtown conversion. (Crescent Heights; Manhattan, New York)
May 21, 1997 ... This month, Crescent Heights, a national real estate developer, will unveil the future of residential real estate in Manhattan - "The Exchange" at 25 Broad Street.This magnificent turn-of-the-century building, the first major residential project to be unveiled in the Wall Street ...
Realty Advisory Board's labor negotiators are a veteran team. (James F. Berg; Paul Salvatore)
May 21, 1997 ... James F. Berg and Paul Salvatore, the two professional labor negotiators who recently crafted a new contract with the residential division of Local 32B-32J that has been applauded by the industry, are a tested team that represents many years of experience.Berg, 52, has been ...
Private consortium to build, operate new airport facility. (JFK International Air Terminal LLC)
May 21, 1997 ... The Port Authority recently signed a deal installing private sector management at one of Kennedy Airport's busiest and best-known terminals - The International Arrivals Building. The move clears the way for construction of a brand-new, $1.2 billion terminal that will be one of the region's ...
Voguish debt and vintage equity?: not quite.(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997; ... We all know what the leading industry publications proclaim, and we all have read their most recently released studies and dissertations showing that the current upswing in the real estate cycle is about to cause some property markets' demand to outpace its supply.And still, ...
Opportunity funds shift tactics, goals to maintain returns.(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997; ... OPPORTUNITY: "An appropriate or favorable times" says one venerable dictionary. And nothing could better fit that description for astute real estate investors than the year 1991. As the Resolution Trust Corporation prepared billions of dollars of assets for bulk sale in the ensuing few ...
Buying it right: the due diligence review process. (real estate)(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997; ... The process of conducting a due diligence review of a typical commercial real estate project and related mortgage as part of a pool offering must consider the strategic as well as the tactical issues relating to the investment's life cycle. One way to approach this is to break the process of ...
The growth of the mortgage banker in commercial lending. (real estate)(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997; ... The past couple of years have seen a major renaissance in the commercial real estate arena. There are many factors that have interplayed to create this environment, not the least of which has been the renewed availability of financing. However, the array of lenders currently investing in ...
With buyer anxiety eased, NYC co-ops are selling again. (New York City; cooperative residences)(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997; ... With buyer anxieties over appreciation, default and disrepair greatly cased during the past year, cooperative residences throughout New York City are making a comeback in a big way.Out of public favor for nearly a decade - many in financial difficulty and physical disrepair - ...
Mountain Funding closes joint venture funding with G&L Development Company.(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997 ... Mountain Funding Inc., a real estate investment company, has closed a joint venture agreement with G&L Development Company to develop a 40-lot custom home subdivision development in Sparta, Sussex County, NJ, announced Peter Fioretti, CEO of Mountain Funding.The real estate ...
Determining lease financeability factors.(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997; ... It is rare in lease negotiations not to hear the attorneys claim that a proposed change may affect the "financeability" of the lease. The financeability of a lease is obviously determined primarily by the economics of the transaction, such as the tenant's credit-worthiness; the length and ...
The securitization advantage of indoor air quality assessment.(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997; ... Securitization, by definition, is an effort to minimize financial risk. When preparing a pool of mortgages for securitization, the rating agency evaluates the investor's risk for CMBS or REIT transactions. The outcome of this analysis determines the rating of the securities and, ultimately, ...
Turbulent times on Wall Street as interests turn to interest rates.(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997; ... These are turbulent times on Wall Street. The stock market started the year off strongly with a string of new closing records for the Dew, and has again put up some spectacular numbers this year. In mid-February, however, word spread that corporate earnings would actually be below ...
CB Commercial predicts ivestment growth this year. (CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc.)(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997 ... Jeffrey Dunne, senior vice president, of CB Commercial Real Estate Group, Inc., who completed in excess of $130 million worth of office sale transactions across the New York Metropolitan area in 1996, predicts that the demand for quality suburban office buildings will continue to grow among ...
Cambridge offers a strategic alliance program for banks, healthcare lenders. (Cambridge Realty Capital)(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997 ... Cambridge Realty Capital, a Chicago-based merchant banking finn, has announced a new program that will allow banks and other healthcare lenders to utilize Cambridge's resources to access both HUD financing and Wall Street capital for their clients.Cambridge Chairman Jeffrey A ....
More companies turn to sale-leasebacks to access capital.(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997; ... As business becomes more competitive and the ability to access capital increasingly difficult, more and more companies are turning to the sale/leaseback as a unique but powerful method of achieving financial flexibility.In a conventional sale/leaseback, a company sells the ...
How bankers, brokers and appraisal companies can work together.(Focus On: Banking & Financing)
May 21, 1997 ... When an appraisal is done right, everyone gets what they need to make a sale go smoothly. Brokers get verification of the sale price; bankers learn the sale supports the mortgage; buyers learn they are paying a fair market value and sellers get to sell.Integrated Loan Services ...
Sales of $100M+ adding up.(real estate industry)
May 28, 1997; ... With a rash of sales hitting and topping $100 million and approaching $300 a foot, real estate executives are scrutinizing the market to ensure this momentum can be sustained. These mega-sales have included office buildings and hotels, and the brokers agree such pricing would ...
Rent control end is near, but not all is lost.
May 28, 1997; ... While the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 and its runs recent extender bill may sunset on June 15th, it doesn't mean the end of rent control, or of rules and regulations governing the maintenance of a residential property. Aside from that, Marolyn Davenport, vice ...
Manhattan leasing continues torrid pace.
May 28, 1997 ... The Penn Garment and Sixth/Rock Center segments generated more than half of Midtown's total leasing activity of 1.2 million square feet in April. Fueled by this exceptional leasing activity, the market's availability rate dropped for the 11th consecutive month, falling to 12 percent, ...
Developers outline plans at recent NACORE luncheon.
May 28, 1997 ... Larry Silverstein, president, Silverstein Properties, Inc., outlined the 13-year saga of his latest project to members and guests at a recent NACORE luncheon. The West 42nd Street site he purchased in 1984 has been the subject of rezoning and litigation and is finally being developed to ...
Bergen County investment firm embarks on expansion.(Whiteweld and Company)
May 28, 1997 ... The year 1997 is a milestone for the real estate investment firm of Whiteweld & Company. In one of the largest transactions in Bergen County, the firm sold Whiteweld Corporate Center in Woodcliff Lake, NJ to The Cali Organization and successfully sold out the 140-townhome community called ...
Employers beware: compensation packages are also on the rise.(Column)
May 28, 1997; ... Employers beware! Many of you are experiencing some heady times these days. The value of your properties has increased immeasurably over the last few years; you are getting more per square foot than before; lenders are outdoing one another to participate in your purchases; REITs are ...
Certiorari attorney Gene Schwartz mourned.(Obituary)
May 28, 1997; ... Long-time tax certiorari attorney Eugene J. Schwartz, a founding partner of Schwartz Weiss Steckler & Hoffman, passed away on May 23rd at the age of 85 after a long illness. Schwartz was one of major litigators in this specialized practice, representing clients that are protesting their ...
Local firm to help construct Bahamas complex.(Crow/Jones Construction Company of New York)
May 28, 1997 ... Sun International Hotels Ltd., owners and operators of resorts and entertainment/gaming complexes in The Bahamas, the United States, Europe and the Indian Ocean, has named Crow/Jones Construction Company of New York and Bufete Industrial SA as the construction team that will build the ...