20 Gin Lane, Southampton

1. A look at the $30 million mansion being built behind Wooldon Manor in Southampton [Curbed]
2. The best neighborhoods for recent college grads [BrickUnderground]
3. Downtown Brooklyn storefronts to be razed for 17-story building [Brownstoner]
4. Facade of historic Upper West Side building revealed again [West Side Rag]
5. A new look for New York’s LGBT community center [Dwell]
6. The winter is the best time to look for real estate [NYDN]
7. Tenant moves back into Brooklyn apartment after being made to leave [NYT]
8. The top chainstores of New York are not the ones you expect [Crain's]

— Claire Moses

Renderings of One Vanderbilt in Midtown (Credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox)

Manhattan Community Boards 5 and 6 are proposing new designs for the planned 67-story office building next to Grand Central Terminal.

The boards want to move the lobby of SL Green’s One Vanderbilt, a 1.3 million-square-foot skyscraper, from Vanderbilt Avenue at East 43rd Street to Madison Avenue and 43rd, according to the New York Post.

The community boards also proposed that the tower receive a “platinum” LEED certificate rather than a “gold” one, according to the newspaper.

Both requests are far outside of the community boards’ purview, however. The panels can make recommendations for the project, but their votes are not binding. Indeed, last week the board members voted against the construction of the building altogether.

SL Green’s proposal entered the city’s seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure in November. Ultimately, the project’s fate will be up to the city council.

SL green has pledged to invest $210 million in Grand Central Terminal for transit and pedestrian upgrades. TD Bank has signed up to be the building’s anchor tenant. [NYP] — Claire Moses

220 Madison Avenue

From the December Issue: The Real Deal dives into some of last month’s residential deals. [more] 

1400 Fifth Avenue in Harlem (Inset: Daniel Levy)

In the latest move in its Harlem push, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation picked up a 31,000-square-foot retail space at the base of a Fifth Avenue residential condominium building, The Real Deal has learned.

Ashkenazy paid $12.5 million for the condo at 1400-1416 Fifth Avenue, between 115th and 116th streets. Tenants include New York Sports Clubs and dog daycare Doggedly Devoted.

Harlem-based developer Full Spectrum constructed the eight-story, nearly 200,000-square-foot property in 2004. The structure holds 129 apartments and about 400 feet of frontage.

Lev Kimyagarov of Massey Knakal Realty Services represented both sides in the deal.

One-fifth of the retail condo – about 6,000 square feet – is vacant. Ashkenazy has not yet hired a brokerage to market that space, said Daniel Levy, a partner at the firm.

Ashkenazy entered contract in July to buy a commercial building at 4250-4254 Broadway in Washington Heights, as TRD reported. The developer has also considered converting the former RKO Hamilton Theater at West 146th Street and Broadway into condominiums.

Full Spectrum faced a legal dispute last year. Managing members Walter Edwards and Carlton Brown agreed to pay $1.9 million in arbitration amid claims that they diverted a minority partner’s share of money to a third party, as previously reported.

Existing structures at 846 Sixth Avenue in NoMad

Alchemy Properties unveiled plans for a new FXFowle-designed 24-story tower in NoMad.

Permits filed with the city show that the building at 846-850 Sixth Avenue, between 29th and 30th Streets, will contain 52 residences totaling 105,973 square feet. This works out to units averaging nearly 2,000 square feet each, which could suggest generously-sized condos. The tower is slated to rise 316 feet and will also house 3,100 square feet of retail space, according to New York YIMBY.

The developer is behind the condo conversion of the Woolworth Building’s top 30 floors, including an opulent $110 million penthouse.

Alchemy has partnered with FXFowle before, developing 35 XV in Chelsea, a similarly scaled 26-story condo building with 55 units.

Demolition permits have not yet been filed for the current structures at the NoMad site, including single-story retail and parking. [NY YIMBY] — Tess Hofmann

711 West End Avenue on the Upper West Side and Gregory Kalikow

Kaled Management, an arm of the Westbury, N.Y-based firm Kalikow Group, filed plans today for a 10-story apartment building at 711 West End Avenue, also known as 306 West 95th Street, on the Upper West Side, according to city documents.

The 124,600-square-foot property would hold 65 apartments.

A six-story structure that was built in the 1950s and spans 192,000 square feet is currently located on the site. The site offers 352,000 buildable square feet, records show.

No demolition permits have been filed for that building. Additional permits were filed today for structural and mechanical work for the new property.

Plans show a recreation room on the first floor. Platt Byard Dovell White Architecture is serving as the architect of record.

A representative for Kaled could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Kalikow Group partnered with an investment fund formed by Massey Knakal Realty Services and RiverOak Investment to buy a Williamsburg rental building in September, as The Real Deal reported. — Mark Maurer

From left: 757 Third Avenue and Aby Rosen

Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty is selling 757 Third Avenue.

Rosen has said that his firm transformed the 500,000-square-foot office tower into a “compelling alternative for tenants seeking quality space near Grand Central,” according to GlobeSt.com. Rosen expects to get close to $800 per square foot for the building, which would work out to around $400 million. Eastdil Secured is marketing the property, according to the website.

RFR bought the tower, which is now 98 percent leased, in 1999 from Emmes & Co. for $102 million. Since 2012, Rosen has spent $21 million on improvements on the 27-story tower.

Among the building’s tenants are CVS Health, which recently signed up for more than 12,000 square feet, as well as Grant Thornton, which took almost 137,000 square feet earlier this year. [GlobeSt] — Claire Moses

1. As many as 10 waterfront towers coming to Williamsburg
2. Condo developers have big plans for Long Island City
3. New York City developers, home buyers driving up prices in Miami

Like The Real Deal on Facebook for breaking industry stories, links to quirkier pieces and lively conversation about important properties in New York and around the world. [TRD's Facebook Page]

From Left: Recent Nation cover, 33 Irving Place, Susan Kahaner and Jennifer Ogden

The Nation, a progressive voice in the country for nearly 150 years, is facing a steep rent increase and may have to move to Lower Manhattan when its lease expires in 2016.

The magazine’s office is located on the eighth floor of the 174,000-square-foot 33 Irving Place at the corner of 16th Street in the Gramercy portion of Midtown South. The asking rent for the space, $63 per foot, is about double what the Nation is currently paying, the publication’s president Teresa Stack told The Real Deal.

The Nation’s lease expires in September 2016, but the space was listed earlier this month on the website of the industry database CoStar Group with an available occupancy in August 2015.

Stack denied the firm would move in 2015, in part because it is the publisher’s 150th anniversary in July. But the following year could bring a relocation.

The Nation, which has been in its current location since 1998, is confronting the same strong rental market that retail tenants like the Union Square Cafe have seen in ground-floor rents. Asking rents in Midtown South were $58.08 per foot in the third quarter of this year, figures from commercial firm Cushman & Wakefield show. That is almost double the asking rent in 2003, which was slightly more than $30 per foot.

“A lot of publishers are moving Downtown, and that is where the affordable deals are,” Stack said. “We love the space, we love the neighborhood, and we have time. But it is highly likely we will get priced out.”

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Michael Dreizen represents the landlord, which city records show is an affiliate of the Virginia-based Belvedere Management. Dreizen did not respond to a request for comment.

The magazine hired Cassidy Turley’s Susan Kahaner and Jennifer Ogden to advise on the search. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

From left: Ron Krongold, Nitin Motwani, Don Peebles, Jacob Roffman and Tom Roth

From the South Florida site: We asked top developers in Miami what they see happening in their local real estate market in 2015. Here’s what they had to say. [more]

79 Horatio Street in West Village (Inset: Stephen Rosenberg)

Greystone Property Development sold a six-story West Village townhouse for $21 million, just two years after buying it for about half the price.

The 7,100-square-foot property at 79 Horatio Street — between Washington and Greenwich streets — features six bedrooms and a 1,000-square-foot garden, the Wall Street Journal reported. Greystone, which paid $10.45 million in partnership with the Vesta Group in 2012, converted the space into a single-family mansion. Previously, the home had been divided into 10 apartments.

The U.S.-based buyer of the 25-foot-wide, 19th-century townhouse was not identified. The home hit the market for $22.5 million. Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes of Douglas Elliman had the listing.

Late real estate investor William Gottlieb’s estate sold the home in 2011, as previously reported. [WSJ] — Mark Maurer

The Ritz Tower at 465 Park Avenue and the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse at 100 Centre Street

High-profile Manhattan properties — including the Ritz Tower, the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, and the headquarters of the Tribeca Film Festival — are burning illegal heating oil that emits dangerous pollutants.

According to city data, the owners of the buildings at 465 Park Avenue, 100 Centre Street, and 13-17 Laight Street have failed to switch over to cleaner fuel sources. Buildings in New York are required by law to make the conversion by the time their current permits expired, or by June 30, 2015 — whichever comes first, DNAinfo reported.

Greenwich Village building 1 Fifth Avenue, where Keith Richards purchased a $10.5 million penthouse in March, was also listed as a violator, alongside public and private schools.

The heating oil, known as No. 6, is a sludge-like substance that is left over when oil is distilled to make gasoline. The dirty oil can pollute the air and lead to health problems like asthma and heart disease, DNAinfo reported.

The Department of Environmental Protection is cranking up its efforts to get the 670 buildings still using No. 6 to make the switch. The agency is issuing only one notice-of-violation — instead of three — before sending a cease-and-desist order, Luke Surowiec, a consultant with the NYC Clean Heat program, told the website.

The St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx planned to start construction earlier this year on a $20 million project to convert from No. 6 oil. [DNAinfo] – Tess Hofmann

The Arker Companies’ Allan and Sol Arker, a snapshot of the South Bronx portfolio

After picking up an 18-building Bronx portfolio for $85.5 million in June, affordable housing developer The Arker Companies is planning a $70.5 million upgrade of the properties.

Improvements will include new bathrooms and kitchens, the Wall Street Journal reported. “There will be a real sprucing up of the properties,” Daniel Moritz, one of Arker’s principals, told the newspaper.

Arker acquired the South Bronx portfolio in the borough’s Morrisania neighborhood this summer from an investment group led by Two Trees Management, which had owned the buildings since the late 1970s. The Real Deal reported the sale, but had not confirmed the $85.5 million price.

Floral Parker, N.Y.-based Arker owns 5,500 housing units in the New York area, and will rely on a combination of city and state programs to finance the deal and upgrade the units. Equity will come largely from tax credits sold to Wells Fargo & Co. and debt financing from the sale of city Housing Development Corp. bonds. Freddie Mac will provide the mortgage insurance.

Rents for all apartments are subsidized by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s Section 8 program. As part of the deal, Arker will be raising rents, but the increase will not be transferred to the tenants, whose rents are capped at 30% of their incomes.

The project helps Mayor Bill De Blasio inch toward his stated goal of preserving or creating 200,0000 units of affordable housing in the next decade. [WSJ] – Tess Hofmann

From left: Sergey Rybak, Erik Yankelovich and 1821 Emmons Avenue in Brooklyn

Rybak Development & Construction plans to demolish the El Greco Diner in Sheepshead Bay to make way for a 90,000-square-foot residential condominium property.

The new building at 1821 Emmons Avenue would contain a ground-floor retail component, Crain’s reported. The El Greco Diner and its parking lot occupy a full block at 1821 Emmons Avenue, near East 19th Street.

Rybak, a Brooklyn-based developer, recently paid $13 million to buy the diner from the Venetoklis family, who operated it for more than four decades, according to the publication.

The building hit the market for $15.9 million last year, as The Real Deal reported.

Erik Yankelovich of GFI Realty was hired to secure  construction financing for the project. [Crain's] — Mark Maurer

636 Sixth Avenue in Chelsea

Financial services company TIAA-CREF picked up an 18,280-square-foot retail condo in Chelsea for $42 million.

The 636 Sixth Avenue space, at the northeast corner of West 19th Street, is comprised of 9,465 square feet of ground-floor retail and a basement area that also functions as retail space. CVS recently opened in the entire condo on a long-term lease, the Commercial Observer reported.

“This property fulfills our investment strategy to acquire high-quality retail assets in strong urban retail corridors,” said Kevin Waters, the director of northeast acquisitions for TIAA-CREF Real Estate, in a release.

William Macklowe Company, in partnership with Clarion Partners, bought the six-story building containing the unit in early 2011, but Clarion retained sole ownership of the retail condo before selling it to TIAA-CREF on Monday.

JLL’s Jon Caplan, Scott Latham, Anthony Ledesma and Stephen Shapiro represented Clarion in the transaction. [NYO] – Tess Hofmann

New York City is a visual playground for professional photographers and amateur shutterbugs alike. The city’s buildings and public spaces provide endless fodder for those trying to capture the perfect moment in time, whether it’s through the lens of an HD camera or a smartphone.

The Real Deal is in on a little bit of that fun on our Instagram channel: http://instagram.com/trdny. TRD ‘grams snippets from our magazine, party pics from around the world of NYC real estate, and the latest renderings from new projects across the city. Have something to share with us? Send us your photo to insta@therealdeal.com and you could be featured on our Instagram feed.

Happy sharing!

194 Quimby Lane in Bridgehampton, N.Y.

1. “Modern farmhouse” in the Hamptons to list for $25 million [WSJ]
2. Brookfield breaks ground on Manhattan West development [NY YIMBY]
3. Check out NYC’s worst interior design disasters this year [Curbed]
4. Mourn the Manhattanization of every borough [Gawker]
5. HFZ’s Fifty Third and Eighth condo project gets teaser site [Curbed]
6. Renderings revealed for renovated Bed-Stuy brownstone [NY YIMBY]

– Tess Hofmann 

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The construction boom rolled on in New York City in 2014, with developers filing plans for new glassy towers, new residential complexes and new office skyscrapers on a near daily basis. During the year, The Real Deal, with help from PropertyShark, compiled a monthly roundup of the largest plans filed with the city’s Department of Buildings. In this year-end review, we take a big-picture view of some of the biggest and most interesting projects, based on permit applications.

Rendering of 30 Hudson Yards

Multiple towers in Hudson Yards
The year’s biggest permit applications were those for towers in the massive Hudson Yards development. In July, the Related Companies applied for a 3.4 million-square-foot office building, located at 500 West 33rd Street/30 Hudson Yards, with a large retail component. The 68-story tower will include roughly 2.6 million square feet of office space. A month later, the Moinian Group applied to construct 400 11th Avenue/3 Hudson Boulevard. While the application with the Department of Buildings asks for 466,256 square feet of commercial space, the building’s website indicated the entire tower will be 1.8 million square feet. The permit filed with the DOB also states that the building will be 15 stories and will include 72 parking spaces. The building’s website indicates the tower will be 66 stories tall. According to plans filed on Sept. 17, 401 Ninth Avenue will stand 69 stories and 995 feet tall. 

The next 388 Bridge?
Brooklyn’s tallest residential tower — 388 Bridge Street — might get a run for its money. JEMB Realty applied to construct a 65-story mixed-use bulding at 420 Albee Square. The plans called for a 751,548-square-foot tower. SLCE Architects is the designer of record. The 679-foot-tall building will house 620 units across 480,345 square feet, according to the plans filed in September. The building will include a 271,203-square-foot commercial component.

A rendering of the Domino factory conversion

The new Domino Sugar Factory
David and Jed Walentas, who head up Two Trees Management, applied for permits to construct towers at their proposed Domino Sugar Factory redevelopment along the Brooklyn waterfront. In August, Two Trees applied to build a 30-story tower at 262 Kent Avenue. This was the third tower of the firm’s waterfront development in Williamsburg, according to the permit application filed with the Department of Buildings over the summer. The building will have 93 residential units. Ismael Leyva is the architect of record. In September, the developers applied to construct a 16-story residential building with 522 units at 325 Kent Avenue. The building will be roughly 383,000 square feet and will include some retail space as well as a community facility.

Rendering of 33 Eagle Street in Brooklyn

Greenpoint Landing
Developer Greenpoint Landing Associates, an affiliate of the Manhattan-based Park Tower Group, filed for building permits in March to construct two affordable residential apartment properties in Brooklyn. The two affordable housing buildings — at 21 Commercial Street and 33 Eagle Street — are part of a joint venture with L&M that will be part of the massive Greenpoint Landing waterfront development. Gary Handel of Handel Architects is the architect of record.

Rendering of the new Virgin Hotel at 1227 Broadway in NoMad

New Virgin hotel in NoMad
John Lam is looking to build a new Virgin Hotel at 1227 Broadway. His LAM Group applied for a permit to construct the 38-story structure at 30th Street and Broadway in NoMad. The application filed with the Department of Buildings in November calls for a roughly 300,000-square-foot building with 460 rooms. VOA Architecture is the architect of record.

The former 5Pointz building in Queens

5Pointz
Queens saw a number of  applications this year for large projects. One of the most talked about — and one of the biggest — was the plan to build a new mixed-use residential development at 22-44 Jackson Avenue, the former location of artists’ haven 5Pointz. David and Jerry Wolkoff are developing the site. The project totals more than a million square feet and will include 1,000 apartments, 210 of which will be below market rate.

JDS and Chetrit’s 340 Flatbush Avenue extension
JEMB Realty is not the only developer vying to build the tallest tower in Brooklyn. This summer, JDS Development Group and the Chetrit Group filed plans to build a 70-story, 775-foot-tall building at 340 Flatbush Avenue Extension, after they jointly acquired it for $43.5 million in June. SHoP is the architect on the project.

Tishman Speyer’s three-tower project on Jackson Avenue
Tishman Speyer was responsible for the biggest permit application in November, when the developer applied for approval to construct three adjacent towers in Long Island City. The properties — at 28-10 Jackson Avenue, 28-34 Jackson Avenue and 30-02 Queens Boulevard — are expected to bring 1,800 residential units to the area. The height of the towers ranges from 33 to 53 stories.

Potential rendering for the new mixed-use tower on Trinity Place

New Trinity Church tower
Trinity Church Development applied in August to construct a 44-story tower at 68 Trinity Place. The proposed tower will stand 499 feet tall, according to the plans. Trinity Church will take up 93,180 square feet across the first seven floors of the building. In total, the application called for 250,995 square feet of residential space, divided among 111 apartments.

86 Fleet Place in Brooklyn

Red Apple Group’s Myrtle Avenue Development
Former mayoral candidate and supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis applied for a permit to construct the largest building of his Red Apple Group’s Myrtle Avenue development in September. The plans for 68 Fleet Place called for 32 floors and 384,239 square feet of residential space. The new tower will be across the street from the company’s 160 Myrtle Avenue, where construction is already underway.