The Carlyle Group closed today on the purchase of an interest in the retail condo at 666 Fifth Avenue, the tower that Kushner Companies bought last year for a then-record $1.8 billion, according to a source familiar with the deal.
Looks like Jared is really happy about this.
The deal, which is being financed by Barclays and SL Green and was brokered by Carlton Group chairman Howard Michaels, comes at a good time. This transaction will allow the Kushner Companies to pay off $335 million in short term debt obligations.
Kushner will retain a 51 percent interest in the retail condo as well as continue to own fully the 1.45 million-square-foot office tower where it's located. (Jared Kushner, a principal at Kushner Companies, is The Observer's publisher.)
A spokesman for Kushner Companies had no comment.
Honestly, whenever I think of the Carlyle Group, I think of this genius and how his bravado got him canned.
I got this email from Feren Communications. (Thank you Sarah for contacting me and putting me on your list. Btw, my invitation to make you famous is still open)
When I read this press release, I was pretty shocked. When the real estate boom was in full swing, there were a ton of these real estate reality shows on tv. Nowadays I haven't seen alot of them. The only thing associated with real estate are foreclosures and bad times. The fact that BRAVO has decided to go march on with these shows just goes to show how much faith they have in these brands. Honestly, I am curious to see how they fare now and I would probably watch just for the possibility to see a train wreck.
BIG MONEY AND HIGH-DRAMA RETURNS WITH THE PREMIERE OF THE SECOND SEASON BRAVO'S "MILLION DOLLAR LISTING," Tuesday, August 5 at 11 PM ET/PT
Series Follows Hollywood’s Top Agents As They Navigate The Cutthroat World Of High-End Real Estate
NEW YORK, NY – June 24, 2008 – Bravo gives viewers an inside look at the top agents in Los Angeles's tough real estate market, who despite the softened market, stop at nothing to close seven figure deals on the second season of "Million Dollar Listing." The six-episode, one-hour docu-series, which looks at the high-stakes, cutthroat world of real estate, premieres on Bravo on Tuesday, August 5 at 11 p.m. ET/PT immediately following the finale of “Flipping Out.” The series moves to its regular time period on Tuesday, August 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
"Million Dollar Listing” follows the lives of Josh Flagg, Madison Hildebrand and Chad Rogers, three of Los Angeles' hottest, young and aggressive realtors in the making as they make a fortune selling multi-million dollar properties in the most exclusive neighborhoods – Hollywood, Malibu and Beverly Hills. Over the course of nine months as their paths cross and they compete and expose the intense what that it takes to move the multi-million dollar listings in the City of Angels.
Where are my manners? How could I forget Kelly Kreth?
She is a rep for NY Residential featured on the CW. Here is the trailer.
Last but not least, of course others may differ, the late Leona Helmsley has the last word.
Sure, the hotelier and real estate magnate Leona Helmsley left $12 million in her will to her dog, Trouble. But that, it turns out, is nothing much compared with what other dogs may receive from the charitable trust of Mrs. Helmsley, who died last August.
Her instructions, specified in a two-page “mission statement,” are that the entire trust, valued at $5 billion to $8 billion and amounting to virtually all her estate, be used for the care and welfare of dogs, according to two people who have seen the document and who described it on condition of anonymity
This morning I heard on Bloomberg Radio that the real estate market in Manhattan has now officially went into a sUimp according to the Great Jonathan Miller.
July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Manhattan apartment sales dropped the most for a second quarter since 1998 and unsold inventory approached an eight-year record, two signs prices may be poised to drop in the nation's most expensive urban housing market.
But if you put in Jonathan Miller, Bloomberg in Google News, take a look at what you get.
Manhattan Second-Quarter Apartment Sales Drop Most Since 1998 Bloomberg - 7 hours ago ``There is sort of the anticipation, the expectation that the other shoe is going to drop,'' Miller Samuel President Jonathan Miller said. ... Apartment Sales Remain Vigorous in Manhattan New York Times Manhattan real estate starts to soften CNN Manhattan housing market slows Crian's New York business.com Earthtimes (press release) - New York Sun all 65 news articles »
There is at least one party that says it is alright to drink the Kool Aid.
For the past several months I have been bonding over emails with a reader who I will call The Dark Knight. He has proven not only knowledgeable in certain matters of the real estate industry but has demonstrated a sharp and delightful wit. The Dark Knight also strongly empathizes with my issues regarding the hygiene of the cashiers at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. It is no surprise that I look forward to his emails.
Recently, The Dark Knight embarked on a mission to find a house in the suburbs of New Jersey. However the experience has left him, well as satisfied as watching a double feature of Joel Schumacher’s Batman films. Below is the email detailing his quest, which I have obviously edited to protect The Dark Knight’s identity.
P.G.:
It was a pleasant surprise to get your e-mail. So, my wife and I spent the better part of a year looking for houses in NJ (primarily in NAME WITHHELD.) and NAME WITHHELD (BUT TRUST ME. THE DARK KNIGHT IS LOOKING IN REALLY NICE AREAS). We were looking at properties listed at between $850,000 through $1.2 million. My target was to buy something in the $850,000 to $950,000 range. We must have looked at least 100 properties. After all of that, we decided to stay in the City one, maybe 2 more years.
Our reasons are many. However, one of our primary reasons is that, even though we were looking at properties listed in the million dollar range, most of them were shit. Complete and absolute shit. $900,000 houses that needed complete gut renovations (but, as the home owner of one such shit-house cheerily explained to me "it's on a cul-de-sac!"). The million dollar home with no closets in the master bed room. The absolutely gorgeous brand new six bedroom house--across the street from the Getty station. My wife, realizing that her expectations may be "unrealistic," kept muttering to herself "for a million dollars, it should be livable, no?" The feeling I got was that a number of the home owners still thought it was 2004. I had to explain to one home owner, who lamented to me he needed to sell his home for more than he owed on his mortgage, that neither I nor any rational buyer was not going to bail him out from his mistake. We put in one bid on a house in NAME WITHHELD, which sat empty for one year, only to be quickly out bid.
Our spirits crushed, our faith in humanity shaken (and my wife now in constant fear that we may have imported someone's bed bugs into our apartment) we decided to stay where we are. Or, maybe move to (NAME WITHHELD)--the kid will be going to (NAME WITHHELD)--in the Fall. Maybe next year sellers in NJ will get the message that the punch-bowl is empty.
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
You hear that folks? It appears that it is not only suburban New York getting the smackdown but New Jersey is also getting hit pretty badly.
As for the Dark Knight, I have no doubt that with his precise mental acumen and strong sense of humor, he will find a great deal in his beloved New Jersey. Because there will be a point where someone will just say f**k it and cash it for whatever they can because they just can’t afford to stay for the turnaround.
“My friend is like, why don’t you write something inappropriate on the form like, ‘I hate ch**ks’ … I just filled out the form and I wrote ‘I love ch**ks'— and who doesn’t?”
SINGAPORE/SEOUL (Reuters) - A wave of capital from the Middle East and Asia could be on its way into ailing U.S. and European property markets, as a weak dollar and falling asset prices lure sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors.
Since Japanese investors bought a string of U.S. offices in the 1980s only to be burnt by a market crash, global property investment flows have been mostly one way -- from the West to Asia .
But that looks likely to change.
"Instead of talking about emerging markets in Asia, now emerging markets could be in the U.S. ," said Yu Lai Boon, chief investment officer of Dubai World, a state-owned investment firm.
"As investors in the Middle East, we're seriously looking at the U.S. and European markets right now as the beginning of investment for the next golden era."
The New York Post reported on June 11 that the Abu Dhabi Investment Council was negotiating to buy a 75 percent stake in New York City's landmark Chrysler building for $800 million.
Last year, North American investors pumped about $8.4 billion directly into Asian property, while the reverse flow reached only $2.7 billion, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.
They handed over another $30 billion, treble the Asian contributions, to global property funds, which invested $25 billion in Asia and $29 billion in North America .
At a Reuters Global Real Estate Summit this week, several executives said capital flows could become more balanced, with Chinese, South Korean and Japanese investors looking abroad.
With the U.S. dollar falling about 3 percent against the yen so far this year, and around 13 percent over the last 12 months, their spending power has been magnified.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chinese interest in U.S. commercial property is back and this time Chinese investors may become significant players as the nation devises a vehicle to divert large amounts of funds for foreign investment, a Cushman & Wakefield executive told Reuters on Monday.
Flush with dollars from a huge trade imbalance, Chinese sovereign wealth funds are beginning to test the waters in New York real estate. They were recently among the throng of bidders for three properties once owned by Equity Office Realty Trust, said Scott Latham, executive vice president, Capital Markets group for real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield.
"They are coming. We've seen them in the bidding process over the past four months on a number of assets we've handled," Latham said at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit in New York . "I think that unlike the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, they have not yet figured out an efficient way to get the money out of their country."
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Soaring fuel prices may force some companies to move manufacturing and warehousing closer to the United States, a trend likely to benefit Mexico and U.S. urban centers, the head of AMB Property Corp Properties told Reuters on Tuesday.
Skyrocketing fuel costs are forcing manufacturers to rethink their locations. With oil topping more than $135 a gallon, manufacturers are weighing the costs of labor against the price of shipping, AMB Property Chairman and Chief Executive Hamid Moghadam told the Reuters Real Estate Summit.
"I think Mexico stands to benefit the most," he told Reuters.
Higher fuel costs may affect not only where goods are manufactured but how they are transported and warehoused. Although the upshot is not likely to be a complete overhaul, incremental changes are likely as the cost of fuel trumps labor and rent expenses, he said.
"It's not going to be any total change of the supply chain," he said at the Reuters Summit.
Still, while high U.S. labor costs and a lack of manufacturing infrastructure will likely hinder a U.S. rebound in manufacturing prowess, Mexico may benefit as manufacturers seek to cut shipping costs.
"They have the combination of cheap labor and close proximity to the U.S. market as opposed to China , which has the cheap labor but obviously is farther away," Moghadam told Reuters.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - ING Real Estate is raising a $750 million fund for China and plans to launch a fund for Japan later this year, expecting troubled landlords and developers in both countries to offload bargain properties.
Richard Price, the firm's Asia head, told Reuters some of the best investment opportunities in Asia would be in Japan , where rising borrowing rates and a cut in bank lending for property could persuade some landlords to sell.
ING Real Estate, a unit of Dutch financial group ING ING.AX, is looking to raise $300-500 million in the second half of this year to buy offices, industrial buildings and shopping centers in Japan , he told Reuters.
"Japan is the largest market in the region and there'll be very real opportunities over the coming year or 18 months," Richard Price, Asia chief executive for ING Real Estate, said at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit in Singapore.
"It's a very highly leveraged market and probably the most severely affected by the credit crunch in this region."
Most transactions in Tokyo in the next year will probably be for buildings that are not quite top-notch, Price said at the Reuters Summit.
Tokyo's office market is probably peaking, according to most analysts, having been popular with investors, who have typically borrowed heavily at Japan 's rock-bottom interest rates to take advantage of a price recovery in the last five years.
The global crunch has made Japanese banks more conservative in their lending for property deals, threatening to soften prices of small and second-grade buildings.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian property stocks are ultra cheap but investors could be losing out because they prefer private equity property funds to property securities funds, Hong Kong fund manager LIM Advisors told Reuters on Tuesday.
Japanese real estate investment trusts (REITs) are trading at more than 40 percent discount to net asset values, while shares of Thai and Philippines property developers are all bargains, according to Peter Churchouse, director for LIM Advisors.
"Private equity guys are having an easier time raising capital today than securities guys," Churchouse said at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit in Singapore .
"In a way you should be looking at it the other way around, because these private equity guys are going to pay full dollar, full price, to buy real estate and you can buy real estate stocks at half the price of the assets.
"Logically, you should be buying Japanese REITs, not Japanese property."
Mori Hills REIT 3234.T, for instance, is trading at 35 percent discount to NAV, Churchouse told Reuters.
Amid lingering concern about the global credit crunch and its impact on the real estate sector, many property stocks in Asia and other parts of the world have headed south. Japan 's property sector has fallen 10 percent so far this year, Singapore 's 14 percent and Hong Kong 's 25 percent.
This is just a fraction of the news that has been presented at the Conference, I would recommend going to the Reuters to read more of the articles.
You are all probably asking "What's with the racist Jello commercial?" Well you should thank the Angry Asian Man for that.
Also I think people should know that Sarah Silverman got her career off the ground not by being funny but saying an ethnic slur and passing it off as comedy.
There is a ton of money being funneled around different parts of the world for these real estate transactions. Wherever that money lands, you can damn well be sure that its origins are going to quite different from its destination. Don't think it will not go unnoticed. It didn't for the Japanese as the late Mr. Buckley pointed out in his own polite manner with this article.
Understand that certain factions of society are going to feel under siege by these factors. And there will be various individuals who will seek to exploit this tension to their advantage. So expect more media spots like that Jello commercial and expect Sarah Silverman's humor, for the lack of a better word, be more popular.
However, things are a little different these days. These "foreign investors" are not simple going lay down to be kicked and punched. They will stand their ground through legal and media channels. If they have the money to invest then they have the money to protect themselves.
America is not going to be only place where you will see an indigenous outcry against foreign investors. I recently watched a PBS called Wide Angle about the emerging Chinese legal system called The People's Court.
It shows how the Chinese government has been pushing the development of their legal system to all corners of their country and progress has been made. However when it comes to real estate legal issues, even Manhattan's most infamous slumlords have nothing on what some of the Chinese most corrupt real estate developers who have been getting away with murder. Literally. Already tensions are high in China between the haves and have nots. Throw some foreign investor money into the mix and the s**t will really hit the fan.
This is not a doomsday scenario, this is our new reality. Just be aware of that.
Nothing could be finer that to be in Carolina on the 4th of July. The fourth is one of my favorite days of the year and New Bern does it up right, with a spectacular fireworks display over the Neuse River. Last year, along with several of our friends, we watched from the middle of the Neuse River. It was a blast, and we were not alone as there must have been 300 other boats anchored along side us. Check out my web site http://www.newbern-nc.info/ after the 4th for some photos and you will see why nothing could be finer.
Nina from Reuters sent me this email regarding the REUTERS GLOBAL REAL ESTATE SUMMIT which began today.
REUTERS NEWS ADVISORY
For News Week of June 23, 2008
ATTENTION: Real Estate, Business and Finance Reporters
REUTERS GLOBAL REAL ESTATE SUMMIT BEGINS MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2008 IN NEW YORK , LONDON , DUBAI , SINGAPORE AND MOSCOW
Continuous Coverage Available on Reuters.com
New York – Top real estate executives from around the world will visit the Reuters New bureaus in New York , London , Dubai , Singapore and Moscow on June 23-25 to participate in the annual Reuters Global Real Estate Summit – the first to be run concurrently across these five regions. During closed on-the-record sessions, summit speakers will discuss and assess the outlook for the industry hit hard by a weakened economy. Exclusive stories from the summit will be posted online at www.reuters.com/summits.
If global real estate was at a turning point in mid-2007 after a golden era of sizzling returns and unprecedented cross-border investment, the big question at this year’s Global Real Estate Summit is how far will markets fall?
Will real estate – with its dependence on debt funding -- see out the credit crunch? Or will some property firms have to restructure, or even go under, unleashing a wave of forced selling?
To what extent will weaker consumer spending, jobs cuts, and slower economic growth make things worse by squeezing tenant demand for retail, office, and industrial properties and hitting rents? Will markets that have so far escaped the downturn be dragged down along with the UK , where property values are 17 percent below peak levels?
How much bigger can the discounts to NAV get on US, Asian, and European REITs, and when might property derivatives signal an end to the general malaise?
Most importantly, will debt markets recover, enabling property investors to refinance their assets or cut deals at a time when transaction volumes have slumped? To what extent in the interim will sovereign wealth funds and other cash-rich players, as well as distressed debt buyers and mezzanine finance providers, help to plug the gap?
Expect to see these and other topics in a package of stories, pictures and videos produced at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit during each summit which can be seen at: http://www.reuters.com/summit/GlobalRealEstate08
Reuters guests will include:
* CB Richard Ellis Europe, Middle East and Africa President Mike Strong;
* Prupim Asia Chief Executive Alex Hambly;
* AMP Capital Investors Head of Property and Chief Investment Officer Andrew Bird;
* DekaBank Member of the Board of Management Matthias Danne;
* Cushman & Wakefield Executive VP of Capital Markets Group Scott Latham;
* ETA Star Executive Director Abid Junaid;
* Palatium Capital Partners LLP Joint Chief Executive Neil Lawson-May;
* Marathon Asset Management Managing Director Scott Schwartz;
* Macquarie Global Property Advisors CEO of Asia Investments Simon Treacy;
* Lippo Group Chairman Stephen Riady;
* LaSalle Investment Management Regional Director David Edwards;
* Citigroup Head of Global Real Estate Investment Banking James Brent;
* AFI Development CEO Alexander Khaldey;
* Lim Advisors Director of Property Peter Churchouse;
* SL Green and Gramercy Capital CEO Marc Holliday;
* ING Real Estate Country Manager for Singapore and South East Asia Richard Price;
* Land Securities Managing Director of London Portfolio Mike Hussey;
* AMB Property CEO and Chairman Hamid Moghadam;
* Citigroup Property Investors Asia CEO David Schaefer;
* Union Properties CFO Zaid Ghoul;
* RREEF Alternative Investments Managing Director and Global Head Chuck Leitner;
* Nakheel CFO Kar Tung Quek;
* J.E. Robert Partners President and COO Michael Pralle;
* British Land CEO Stephen Hester;
* UOL and Hotel Plaza CEO Lian Kheng Gwee;
* SEGRO CEO Ian Coull;
* Union Properties CFO Zaid Ghoul; and
* ING Real Estate Investment Management UK CEO Robert Houston.
Reuters Summits bring together top executives from key industries in exclusive sessions with Reuters News global teams of specialist journalists. During the course of Reuters Summits, exclusive news stories and video interviews are posted on Reuters.com, providing valuable insight into specific companies, business sectors, and economies.
Back in December 7, 2006, it was reported that the Vornado Realty Trust was to make headway with their new development in Harlem.
Construction on the joint venture project headed by Vornado Realty Trust is scheduled to begin in April. It involves a mixed-use Class A office and retail center in East Harlem. The Vornado real estate portfolio in New York City comprises 18.3 million square feet of office space in 42 office buildings.
Here is the before.
Now the after
As you can see, other then the site being secured, there is no developmental activity. There isn't even a port a potty. And we are already in late June.
I have four theories of why no action as been taken.
1. They are experiencing delays which is normal is for construction.
2. There is no money. With the credit markets imploding and lending standards tightening, it is probably very difficult for even a company like Vornado to secure funding for a project.
3. From fuel to raw materials, the costs of this project have probably skyrocketed. so right now Vornado's operating expenses consists of paying the property taxes while they wait to see the market settle.
4. Vornado might considering selling off the site to another party so they are not bothering in initiating any type of construction.
5. Or the most obvious reason, they still haven't resolved the zoning issue.
Regardless of what it maybe, I would be surprised to see anything done this year.
