Market Overview:
Samuel Fisch of Blue Fin Equities filed plans to convert the 28-story 40 Fulton Street in the Financial District from office to residential use, adding two stories and 169 units. Fisch secured control of the building's fate in 2022 by signing an $88.9 million ground lease with Fulton & Pearl.Soloviev Group is eyeing an office tower for its 57th Street site. CEO Michael Hershman says his firm is seeking a company to anchor an office tower in its decades-in-the-making assemblage on 57th Street. More than 900,000 square feet of office space could rise on the site. The developer purchased 24 West 57th Street last year for $67 million, adding to the properties at 6-20 West 57th Street that the firm owns.
Broad Street Development and Invesco are planning to convert the 80 Broad Street office building into residential use. The 423,000-square-foot office space will be reduced to 336,000 square feet and will feature 326 residential units and amenities.
Rithm Capital and the von Finck family, the owners of 745 Fifth Avenue, abandoned plans to convert the building from residential to office use.
The Compass and Anywhere Real Estate’s mega-merger closed months ahead of schedule; the residential industry is now in a wait-and-see phase regarding the ripple effects of the seismic deal.
Blackstone is suing to foreclose on the 12-story, 44,400-square-foot Manhattan office building at 286 Fifth Avenue after brothers Eli and Isaac Chetrit allegedly defaulted on a $19 million loan, which Blackstone acquired from the collapsed Signature Bank.
The governor's proposal seeks to exempt most housing projects, including market-rate housing and some infrastructure projects, from environmental review. This is beyond the 2021 "Sustainable Affordable Housing and Sprawl Prevention Act," which exempted only affordable housing projects with fewer than 1,000 units from SEQRA, with "affordable" defined by the state's housing regulator.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Yume Kitasei as the new commissioner for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS).
A judge halted Gary Barnett's Extell Development's foreclosure auction for 825 Eighth Avenue's controlling entity, Worldwide Plaza, after SL Green and RXR called it a "sham." The auction is postponed until January 29, with the current ownership maintained.
The Rabsky Group filed plans for a 24-story, 106-unit project at 65 Franklin Street in Tribeca.
Vornado is free of special servicing at 650 Madison Avenue after fulfilling its obligations on the $800 million mortgage backing the property. The loan is considered current, and ownership prefunds shortfalls for the next 12 months.
Shareholders of a $400 million mortgage backing the Columbus Square shopping center filed a lawsuit seeking to foreclose on the property. The move comes months after the owner defaulted on the debt at the outdoor shopping center, which stretches from West 97th to West 100th Street on Columbus Avenue.
SL Green achieved an early victory in its planned $2.5 billion selloff by selling a minority stake in 100 Park Avenue to Rockpoint at a valuation of $425 million. Sl Green acquired Prudential's 49 percent stake weeks earlier at a lower valuation of $360 million. The 900,000-square-foot tower is 95 percent leased.
The City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) Technical Manual was updated last month to allow certain housing projects to use a shorter, 6-8-month Environmental Assessment Statement (EAS). This expands on the 2024 Green Fast Track, which exempted some projects under density thresholds (175 units in low-density, 250 in medium/high-density) from environmental review entirely. The new changes now permit projects that meet the density threshold but previously couldn't qualify due to site-specific issues (air quality, flooding, noise, hazardous materials) to use the shorter EAS.
The city's power to reduce review delays is limited; broader changes need state action. State lawmakers previously proposed exempting large affordable housing projects from review; the measure passed the Senate but failed in the Assembly.
Major state-level changes are expected, with Gov. Kathy Hochul set to propose exempting most housing projects from state environmental review and setting a 2-year limit on required reviews.
