Real Estate News

State forced to pay legal fees in farm housing jurisdiction dispute

Former Wall Street executive Salim Lewis has won yet another legal battle against a New York state parks agency, which contended that Lewis failed to obtain the proper permits to build houses for his workers on his 1,200-acre upstate organic farm before he started construction, according to the New York Times. The agency contended that they had jurisdiction over the houses built on Lewis’ Essex farm, which is considered one of the most revolutionary farming facilities in the state for its organic initiatives. A state appellate court, however disagreed, with a unanimous July 2009 ruling in Lewis’ favor. To add insult to injury, the most recent ruling handed down by a state judge today will require the state to pay Lewis’ legal bills, which total as much as $200,000.

The closing: Mary Ann Tighe

Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of the New York Tri-State Region of CB Richard Ellis

From the February issue: Mary Ann Tighe is the CEO of the New York Tri-State Region of CB Richard Ellis. She has been involved in over 74.5 million square feet of commercial transactions, including Condé Nast's move to 4 Times Square and the relocation of the New York Times to its new building on Eighth Avenue. She's the first woman to chair the Real Estate Board of New York. After her mother and sister died of lung cancer, she and her family founded a nonprofit called Joan's Legacy: Uniting Against Lung Cancer, which has raised $6.5 million since 2001. [more]

Top NYC landlords cut rents to draw tenants

Asking rents plunged for some of Midtown's top landlords last year as they competed for the few tenants searching for space in a weak leasing market, but their reductions helped keep their vacancy rates below the market average, experts said. The family-owned Durst Organization dropped its asking rents to $60.82 per square foot in November 2009 from $113.15 per square foot in August 2008, near the pricing peak of the leasing market, according to the most recent data available on Midtown's top 10 landlords, from commercial services firm CB Richard Ellis. The Real Deal compared data from August 2008 and November 2009 for the top 10 landlords in Midtown ranked by square feet owned. The 46 percent decline was the steepest among Midtown's top 10 landlords, who control 93 million square feet, or about 41 percent of the market. Landlord and tenant leasing broker Cynthia Wasserberger, a managing director at commercial firm Jones Lang LaSalle said the landlords cut prices to attract tenants and keep their buildings filled. "I think all the landlords got aggressive. They were pretty swift in their decision to respond to the market," Wasserberger said.

New task force assembled to handle St. Vincent’s fate, JPMorgan Midtown office space hits market for first time ... and more

1. LeFrak right for Stuy Town, according to billionaire private equity firm head, Wilbur Ross [WSJ]
2. City Islanders fighting to stop closure of their only ladder company [NYDN]
3. Deadline to appeal property value assessment fast approaching [SI Advance]
4. Astoria’s Sohmer Piano Factory condo conversion temporarily halts sales [Curbed]
5. Lower Manhattan museum features 9/11 artifacts [DNAinfo]
6. Bronx River green initiative gets boost from Army Corps of Engineers [NYDN]
7. Former JPMorgan Chase Midtown space hits market for the first time [GlobeSt]
8. New task force assembled to handle St. Vincent’s fate [Crain’s]
9. Rent Guidelines Board Web site tells affordable housing seekers to look outside of Manhattan [NYC the Blog]
10. Anderson Cooper firehouse to stay protected, architect pledges [DNAinfo]
11. Food delivery service FreshDirect mulls possible apartment vending machines [Brick Underground]
12. In NYC office districts, tension between old and new buildings [NYO]
13. Kingsbridge tall task for new Land Use Committee Chair Leroy Comrie [City Hall News]
14. Small victory for Ray’s Candy supporters, with scraping together of January rent [Neither More nor Less]
15. 2010 awaits glut of highly-anticipated pizzeria openings [Village Voice]
16. Community advocates rail against Forever 21 [39th and Broadway]
17. Williamsburg pastry shop Penny Licks appears shuttered [Eater]
18. 290 Mulberry Street now home to makeshift light show [Bowery Boogie]
19. East Village Visitors Center relocated to 614 East 4th Street [EV Grieve]
20. River Café faces heavy opposition from Community Board 2 in cabaret license application [Post]

New public school to open on UES

The Upper East Side is set to get a new elementary school, Public School 267, according to an announcement made today by the Department of Education. The new school, set to open this fall with 60 to 75 kindergarden students, will start out in the current Public School 158 location at 1458 York Avenue near the corner of East 77th Street, before moving to its permanent location at 213 East 63rd Street between Second and Third avenues. Although the DOE didn’t release a specific move-in date for the 63rd Street location, it said that the new school will add a new grade on each year once it settles into its permanent space. The move to open a new school comes on the heels of massive community outcry over alleged overcrowding in the neighborhood’s public educational facilities. City Council member Jessica Lappin said that the residents were in dire need of a new public school. “We have massive overcrowding on the Upper East Side,” Lappin said. “If you live in the neighborhood and you apply, you have a right to send your child to your neighborhood school.”