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NYC rents soar as Covid deals die

Rents in New York soared so high in April that even discounted leases hit new heights. Net effective median rent on a unit with concessions in Manhattan hit a new high last month at $3,870, according to a monthly report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. The price point marks the highest annual surge rate on record — nearly 39 percent above April 2021 levels. That increase comes as so-called Covid deals that

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“A tremendous ordeal”: Lawyers in $97M Durst buyout slam case

Their decade-long court battle with Douglas Durst over a Long Island City development site is over. But lawyers representing the investors who bought out Durst last week for $96.9 million say it could have been avoided. “It was a tremendous ordeal and probably a waste of an immense amount of legal fees going through what we went through with Durst,” said Jay Neveloff, a partner at Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel. The Durst Organization held

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Investors in huge LIC project buy out Durst for $97M

The Durst Organization is out of a planned 112 million square-foot development along the Long Island City waterfront, clearing the way for the huge project to move ahead. A group of investors including Mayor Rudy Guiliani’s former confidante Bruce Teitelbaum and MaryAnne Gilmartin’s MAG Partners bought out Douglas Durst from the “Lake Vernon” site near the Anable Basin in Queens, The Real Deal has learned. Durst Organization spokesperson Jordan Barowitz confirmed the transaction, saying the

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SEC looking into EB-5 fraud allegations against Queens developer

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating a Queens developer following allegations that he used EB-5 program funds to purchase a trio of mansions on Long Island. The SEC alleges Fleet Financial Group’s Richard Xia used investor assets as collateral to secure $30 million of loans to buy the Long Island homes, Crain’s reported. The SEC obtained an asset freeze against Xia and his company, Fleet New York Metropolitan Regional Center, in September. The EB-5

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Here come the robots: life sciences firm nearly doubles LIC footprint

Long Island City’s up-and-coming life sciences sector has notched an expanded lease for a growing tenant. Opentrons, a firm that builds lab robots for biologists, nearly doubled its office space at 45-18 Court Square to just shy of 94,000 square feet, the Commercial Observer reported. The expansion comes less than a year after Opentrons first set up shop in the LIC building known as Innolabs. The company moved to the facility from Dumbo, Brooklyn last

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Flushing megasite sells to Skyline Tower developer for $103M

The developer behind Queens’ tallest building picked up a Flushing site with permits for a massive mixed-use project for $103 million, a slight discount from when it last changed hands five years ago. Chris Jiashu Xu, founder of United Construction and Development Group, bought the vacant property at 131-01 39th Avenue from Young Nian Group, according to the law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres, which represented Young Nian in the deal. Xu financed the purchase with

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Home sales climb to 15-year highs in Brooklyn and Queens

Brooklyn’s housing market began 2022 the same way it ended 2021: breaking records. And with plenty of inventory still available, there’s no sign the party will end anytime soon. More homes were sold in Brooklyn in the first three months of this year than in any quarter since 2006, according to the latest report from appraisal firm Miller Samuel. The borough’s 3,666 sales represented a 30 percent jump over the same period last year —

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Mets owner pursuing NYC pols for Citi Field casino

Disappointed New York Mets fans may soon be able to sulk in a new source of misery: a casino next to Citi Field. Team owner Steve Cohen has been pitching a casino next to the MLB ballpark, The City reported, going as far as to host Eric Adams and other City Hall officials in January. Cohen is eyeing use of the stadium’s parking lot for the casino. A spokesperson for Adams told the outlet the

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Should this dirty, waterlogged neighborhood be abandoned?

The Hole is still living down to its name, two decades after the city first moved to address problems in the low-lying, flood-prone neighborhood. The small neighborhood on the border of Queens and Brooklyn sits below the city municipal network, depriving most of the homes of the sewer system. The City reported stalled plans have left residents plagued by problems with flooding, dumping and garbage management. “Everything inside the house is pretty peaceful, but when

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Shame game: Queens landlord calls out tenant who stopped paying rent

A Queens landlord who is trying to evict tenants he says owes him more than $17,000 in back rent went has taken his fight public, hanging two signs on the home he shares with the renters announcing to the world — and everyone driving by on the nearby Belt Parkway — that they are not handing over their monthly bill. The New York Post is reporting that homeowners Calvin and Jean Thompson are using all

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