Have you ever splurged when you’re pissed off, or when someone’s pissed off at you? That’s kind of what Bloomberg LP just did.
The global media company has leased 68,000 additional square feet of pristine space at Global Holdings‘ 120 Park Avenue on the heels of a client data breach that has reportedly infuriated its high-profile owner: Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Read More
Malkin Holdings LLC is less than half of one percentage point away from gaining the number of votes it needs to launch the controversial real estate investment trust that would include the Empire State Building as an asset, according to a regulatory filing from Anthony and Peter Malkin.
The new filing states that 79.6 percent Read More
“Save our library!”
That’s what one boisterous group of local Brooklyn girl scouts shouts in a “The Brooklyn Public Library has some pretty shocking plans,” says the unidentified, hard-nosed reporter in the video.
Plans call for the 110-year-old building – as well as that which houses the Brooklyn Heights branch on Cadman Plaza – at Read More
A seven-foot dolphin appeared at the head of the Gowanus Canal earlier this year, ailing and struggling to work its way out of the abysmally polluted waters, as crowds of onlookers rallied for the survival of the dying (spoiler alert) marine mammal.
And so it’s without wonderment that some local residents are worried that the excavation Read More
Kent Swig’s alleged misuse of a home loan led his estranged wife Elizabeth to nearly lose their apartment to foreclosure, leaving her running to her famous daddy, real estate giant Harry Macklowe, for cash, The New York Daily News reported yesterday based on papers filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court.
Ms. Swig is seeking unspecified punitive damages in their divorce case, claiming that Mr. Swig’s misuse of the $12.5 million loan led to the near foreclosure of their $26 million apartment at 740 Park Avenue. Read More
Supreme Court Justice O. Peter Sherwood will approve the $55 million settlement between Anthony and Peter Malkin and a group of investors opposed to the imminent launch of the Empire State Building IPO, The Commercial Observer has learned.
Justice Sherwood reached the decision at the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan this morning after reviewing an agreement reached by attorneys representing both sides of the lawsuit.
“It is the court’s intention to approve the settlement,” he said, noting the diligence of the plaintiffs’ attorneys in conducting a thorough examination of the law, hiring third party forensic accountants and real estate appraisers. Read More
After taking a night to sleep on it, Supreme Court Justice O. Peter Sherwood paved the way yesterday for Peter and Anthony Malkin to launch a $1 billion IPO that would include the Empire State Building as an asset, ruling that the Malkins’ share buyout plan is legal.
The plaintiffs in Meyers v. Empire State Realty Trust Inc. had asked Justice Sherwood on Monday at the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan to block the Malkins’ plan to buy them out for $100 a share if they voted against the IPO.
The ruling is a breakthrough for the Malkins, as it could turn those votes in favor of the IPO. As of April 3, the Malkins had received 94 percent of the total votes needed to proceed with the IPO. Read More
New York State’s Department of State issued a letter to the Real Estate Board of New York Friday declaring the seemingly obvious – that brokers cannot use titles they haven’t earned.
The letter states that brokers cannot use titles such as vice president or executive vice president if they aren’t actually appointed or elected to those titles at their companies, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Agents [are] prohibited from falsely advertising that they hold such a position within the brokerage,” Whitney Clark, an attorney with the DOS, stated in the letter. Read More
LeFrak Organization is being sued for allegedly discriminating against potential residents on the basis of disability and source of income at Lefrak City in Queens.
The housing complex engages in “systemic discrimination based on source of income and disability,” according to Housing Works, which announced the lawsuit on behalf of the Fair Housing Justice Center and client Lorelei Chacon last week.
The lawsuit stems from a complaint from Ms. Chacon, a 37-year-old woman living with AIDS, who claims that when trying to secure a spot in the 40-acre complex she was referred to a separate office that handles renters who pay with government subsidies and was subjected to a series of checks and balances that are not required of employed renters.
The Malkins’ quest to launch a $1 billion IPO that would include the Empire State Building continued today at the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan but concluded without a decision.
The plaintiffs in Meyers v. Empire State Realty Trust Inc. are asking Supreme Court Justice O. Peter Sherwood to block a plan by Peter and Anthony Malkin to buy them out for $100 a share if they do not vote in favor of the proposed IPO.
As of April 3, the Malkins had received 94 percent of the total votes needed to proceed with the IPO, but Justice Sherwood has said that he will throw those votes out if he rules that the buyout is illegal. Read More
The Malkins are getting tantalizingly close to winning their bid to make the Empire State Building part of a Real Estate Investment Trust.
A letter sent today by Peter Malkin and Anthony Malkin to investors states that the controlling owners (the Malkins) have received 94 percent of the votes needed to proceed with the IPO that would launch the contentious REIT.
“I think it’s going to happen,” said one Malkin colleague, an executive at a leading real estate firm in New York City, upon hearing the news. “It seems like they continue to garner more and more positive votes.” Read More
The Department of Buildings ordered Joseph Chetrit to stop work at the Chelsea Hotel on Friday night, one day after City Council Speaker Christine Quinn sent a scathing letter asking the developer to do so, The Real Deal reports.
The order, the latest of a series of setbacks at the property, followed complaints from tenants that heat and gas service had been shut off at the site, leading DOB inspectors, a range of other city organizations and ConEdison to visit the site on Friday.
“HPD will be issuing violations for no heat and hot water and no gas as these conditions have not yet been addressed by ownership,” one city official told The Real Deal.
Once a mecca for bohemians, artists, writers and musicians, from Bob Dylan to Charles Bukowski to Iggy Pop, the famed “hotel” undergoes its own transformation, to the chagrin of some.
Ms. Quinn, in her letter, recalled the outstanding violation against Mr. Chetrit that was issued after construction workers broke through a tenant’s ceiling.
“You must stop this blatant harassment of your tenants,” Quinn wrote. Read More
Several real estate companies have reportedly sued two major oil companies, claiming they were scammed into buying oil contaminated with used car engine oil to heat their buildings.
In one of the back-to-back lawsuits filed in Manhattan court within the last few days, Madison Management and Carnegie LP, which is controlled by Related Companies, sued Hess Corp, Crain’s reported. Read More
Did you ever uncover that your grandmother had numerous “favorite” grandchildren, or that your brother or sister was earning a bigger allowance?
If so, you might have felt like the city’s mayoral candidates as they come to realize that they might not be so special in the eyes of some real estate executives.
An article published in the New York Daily News shows that some real estate executives are throwing cash at more than one mayoral candidate in what critics believe is an attempt to butter up the next mayor – whoever it may be – to better suit their interests.
“Critics say it’s proof that some donors are not supporting a vision for the city — they just want a sympathetic ear from whoever wins,” the report stated. Read More
As if the image of a potentially shirtless Justin Bieber stumbling into Chelsea wasn’t enough for Joe Chetrit to handle, the real estate mogul has now filed a lawsuit claiming he was duped out of millions by the Chelsea Hotel’s former owners.
Mr. Chetrit filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court alleging that the former ownership group “deliberately lied” about the status of tenants and deceived him into believing that valuable artwork – and a “closet” – on the premises was included as part of his purchase of the property in 2011, Curbed reported.
“Had plaintiff known of defendants’ fraud regarding the artwork and apartment units, plaintiff never would have paid $78.5 million for the purchase of the Chelsea Hotel,” the lawsuit states, calling the actions “outrageous, fraudulent, shocking to the consequence and deliberate.” Read More
