The latest batch of reports from around the industry found that Brooklyn’s retail corridors are expanding and sales volume for Manhattan office condos reached record levels in the second half of 2014.

Residential

February 2015 Manhattan condo sales: StreetEasy

Manhattan’s condo inventory hit a record low in February. Inventory declined for the fourth consecutive month, falling 2.4 percent from January to 3,175 units, according to a report from StreetEasy. Since peak levels in 2009, condo inventory has fallen 56.1 percent. View the full report here.

February 2015 New York State home sales: NYSAR

Home sales in New York State rose in February even while temperatures were reaching record lows. Sales volume totaled 5,925 in February, up from 5,781 during the same period last year, according to a report from the New York State Association of REALTORS. View the full report here.

Manhattan luxury contracts March 16-22, 2015: Olshan Realty

Thirty-nine contracts were signed for Manhattan apartments priced $4 million and above during the third week of March, according to a luxury market report from Olshan Realty. The average asking price for an apartment in the luxury market was $8.1 million, and the asking price for all sales in this sector during the week totaled $316 million. View the full report here.

Commercial

Mid-1Q 2015 Brooklyn: ABS Partners Real Estate

New residential developments and a low office vacancy rate are spurring Brooklyn’s retail expansion. Downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Mall and retail along Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg are now commanding prices over $300 per square foot, according to a report from ABS Partners Real Estate. View the full report here.

Office

March 2015 Manhattan office leasing: JLL

Office leasing in Midtown Manhattan accelerated in February following the addition of over 100,000 square feet of space in January, according to a report from JLL.  Class A vacancy rates fell in January but overall vacancy remained unchanged. View the full report here.

2014 Manhattan office condominium sales: Rudder Property Group

Sales of Manhattan office condominiums reached record levels in the second half of 2014, according to a year-end report from Rudder Property Group. Office condo sales totaled $200 million during this period, 40 percent higher than the five-year average. View the full report here.

They’ve brokered billions of dollars in deals, broken records, and launched companies. And they’ve all done it all in a cutthroat and unforgiving industry that’s not known for being kind to novices. This month, The Real Deal polled dozens of sources to shake out the names of the newest crop of real estate’s 35-and-under rising stars, for the cover story of our April issue, now live online. 

While developers have been attempting to hit new and higher markers for as long as they’ve been building, the latest crop of penthouses is moving New York City luxury real estate into another stratosphere. We look at the rise of this “new housing category” that seems to function independently of the vagaries of the market.

Shooting for the moon, however, doesn’t necessarily guarantee success in sales. In a related story, we examine the disconnect between Manhattan’s priciest listings and priciest closed sales.

In “When will the boom break?” we talk to economists about how long this trend of skyrocketing prices and hyperactive construction can last.

And in “Corcoran vs. Corcoran Sunshine,” we examine the tensions between one of the city’s most storied brokerages and its thriving new development arm. Corcoran Sunshine represents more new development product than any other firm, and its success has some of Corcoran’s brokers feeling a tad left behind.

Finally, in our Closing interview, Cantor Fitzgerald’s Howard Lutnick talks about being the face of 9/11, coping with loss, and his first job as a tennis pro.

To read the issue, click here or on the Magazine tab at the top of the website. Enjoy! – TRD

From left: The Standard Hotel and Madison Square Garden

The New York City Tax Commission, an independent body in charge of property assessment reductions, granted almost $5.9 billion in breaks last year, according to a new report.

In 2014, the commission reviewed 52,221 protests and hearing 24,254 cases on 193,305 tax lots, the New York Post reported.

Offers were made and accepted on more than 7,800 cases that affected 33,987 lots worth a total of $4.9 billion in assessment reductions, the newspaper reported. Offers on previously unresolved offers from the year before were also made and accepted.

The resolved cases also include Hurricane Sandy victims, commission president Glenn Newman told the newspaper.

The biggest winner was Verizon, which received $199.2 million — $93.8 million of which on one location — in assessed value reductions, the newspaper reported. The Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District came in second, with a $41.9 million reduction, followed by Madison Square Garden‘s $36.9 million break. [NYP, 2nd] — Claire Moses

101 Riverside Boulevard in Lincoln Square (inset: Gary Barnett)

Carlyle Group and Gary Barnett’s Extell Development are planning to build a 36-story residential tower at 10 Lincoln Square, according to permits filed with the city today.

The building will hold 288 apartments, spanning 413,000 square feet of residential space, and have 1,400 square feet of commercial space located in the basement.

The developers purchased the vacant lot, at the corner of West 59th Street and 12th Avenue,  in 2005 for $50.3 million.

Jason Hart, a principal of the Carlyle Group, declined to comment, and representatives from Extell were not immediately available to comment.

Amenities in the tower will  include an indoor soccer pitch, a squash court and a golf simulator on the sub-cellar level. A game, film, party and study room will be on the second floor, as well as a private dining area.

Twelve apartments will be on each of the third through 13th floors, and the 14th floor will hold more amenity space.

Between six and nine apartments will be on each of the 15th through 34th floors. Another two apartments will be on the 35th floor, and a single residence will take up the entire 36th floor.

Goldstein Hill & West is the architect of record.

Renderings of 10 Montieth Street in Bushwick (credit: ODA)

The city’s Department of Buildings has disapproved the first iteration of plans by Simon Dushinsky’s Rabsky Group to construct a large, full-block apartment building on the Rheingold Brewery site in Bushwick, according to filings.

Rabsky filed plans in January to construct a seven-story, nearly 400,000-square-foot building at 10 Montieth Street that would house 392 apartments. Last month, Eran Chen’s ODA New York revealed its design for the property, complete with a zigzagging landscaped rooftop and running/hiking source, as The Real Deal reported.

Then, late last week, city rejected the permit application.

“We will address the minor objections and move forward as planned,” Chen told TRD.

The 80/20 inclusionary-housing project will be broken down into 123 studios, 228 one-bedrooms and 41 two-bedrooms, half of which will have private outdoor spaces, filings showed. Dushinsky has an undisclosed stake in Reed Development Group’s 10-building redevelopment of the former Rheingold site.

Rendering of 606 West 57th Street in Midtown West (credit: Arquitectonica)

TF Cornerstone’s hulking residential project at 606 West 57th Street just got a new rendering.

The 1,028-unit building will be Manhattan’s second largest residential development, according to New York YIMBY, behind Joseph Moinian’s 605 West 42nd Street. In terms of height, it will still be relatively diminutive — standing only 42 stories. It will be located across the street from the Durst Organization’s Bjarke Ingels-designed pyramid at 625 West 57th Street.

The Real Deal previously reviewed renderings of the project in 2013.

It will contain a total of 1.2 million square feet, including 953,000 square feet of residential area and 40,000 square feet of retail space. A previously planned hotel component appears to have been cut.

TF Cornerstone got a $384 million loan for the project last fall.

Arquitectonica is designing the building. The Department of Buildings partially approved permits this week, and completion is expected in 2017. [NY YIMBY] — Tess Hofmann

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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]

Paolo Zampolli

Douglas Elliman is suing Paolo Zampolli, a former broker at the firm, for allegedly hiding roughly $4 million in commission from the brokerage, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Zampolli — who also served as the co-chair of his own company, Paramount Realty Group of America Corporation — and Elliman agreed in 2011 that the broker would hold a dual license. Elliman further expected that Zampolli would continue to bring it business, while also doing deals for his own firm.

Under the dual license arrangement, Zampolli would hand over a 30 percent cut of his commissions to Elliman for those deals he did under their name. But just three years later, Elliman terminated Zampolli, according to court documents.

“Zampolli accounted for no real estate brokerage commissions whatsoever,” the suit filed in New York Supreme Court states, “this notwithstanding that during this period defendant Zampolli was known as one of the more successful high-end real estate agents in the Manhattan residential market.”

Zampolli, who in 2011 was named ambassador to the Permanent Mission of the Commonwealth of Dominica To the United Nations and is also the founder of ID Models Management, told The Real Deal on Wednesday afternoon that he considered the lawsuit to be “frivolous,” adding that it felt like “an April fool’s joke.”

“Any deal that I did, everything has been public,” he said. “This is just a ridiculous joke. I guess those guys are getting too old.”

Douglas Elliman, as well as its lawyer, declined to comment on this article.

Zampolli, who helped broker the Qatari prime minister’s purchase of a $35 million townhouse at Beekman Place, added that the brokerage benefited from his visibility and reputation as a high flier.

“They’re milking my connections and my name,” he said.

Elliman’s suit begs to differ, claiming that Zampolli directed the brokerage’s customers and prospects to communicate with him through his personal email address.

Zampolli, in turn, said that that he isn’t really a listing broker, but that people contact him directly through word of mouth. When contacted directly by a potential client, he said, he’d work with them under the Paramount moniker.

“That’s why it’s called a dual license,” he said.

Elliman is demanding that Zampolli hand over $1.2 million, roughly 30 percent of the $4 million in commissions he made during his stint at the firm.

This isn’t Zampolli’s first brush with the courts. In March 2010, he sued Massey Knakal Realty Services (now part of Cushman & Wakefield), claiming he was cheated out of $200,000 in commissions after introducing a buyer to 31 Bond Street in Noho but not being listed as the unit’s broker. The claims were dismissed in September of the same year.

1 Mitchell Place on the East Side and Larry Silverstein

Larry Silverstein is taking Chaim Miller to court over a botched deal to sell him the Beekman Tower for $137.5 million.

Silverstein Properties and partners Fisher Brothers and Capstone Equities purchased the building in 2013 for $82 million and planned to turn it into apartments geared toward executives visiting the United Nations. In order to sell to Miller, it emptied the building of tenants and fired the leasing staff.

Miller allegedly signed a contract to buy the 170-unit building at 1 Mitchell Place and close the deal by February, but failed to get the cash together in time, according to the New York Daily News.

Silverstein and his partners are seeking to have the contract declared null and void, and are also seeking to keep Miller’s $8 million deposit.

Miller was also sued in February by his investment partner on 45 John Street, who claimed that Miller embezzled a down payment of $14 million. Miller recently sold a $45 million Brooklyn warehouse. [NYDN] — Tess Hofmann

Stuart Elliott

From the April issue: LOS ANGELES – Happy April Fool’s Day! The trial of Robert Durst just ended in an L.A. County courthouse. The New York real estate scion walked free, yet again. Durst, a suspect in a string of suspicious deaths over the years and the subject of the HBO’s documentary “The Jinx,” is likely popping a bottle of bubbly as we recap his future (and, yes, fictitious) acquittal in the murder of his close friend, Susan Berman. [more]

35-11 and 35-31 9th Street in Long Island City (inset: Evan Daniel)

UPDATED, 1:37 p.m., April 2: A Long Island City warehouse converted from a 19th-century DeNobili cigar factory is now on the market and has received offers for up to $30 million. Hudson Realty Capital, a Flatiron District-based real estate fund manager, has owned the four-story, 102,670-square-foot building at 35-11 and 35-31 9th Street since earlier this year, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Modern Spaces’ Evan Daniel and Edward DiTomasso are marketing the site as a residential conversion, given the R5 zoning.

The property, which was built in 1896 and renovated in 2012, has 57 commercial units and two cell towers. There are ceilings as high as 20 feet, and exposed beams and arched windows. The listing includes a vacant lot next to the building of more than 6,000 square feet.

A representative for Hudson Realty Capital could not be reached for comment.

Development sites marketed as residential conversions are all the rage in Long Island City. Citigroup is looking to sell a development site just north of One Court Square with almost 780,000 buildable square feet, as The Real Deal reported.

Claire Moses contributed reporting. 

Correction: A previously version of this story incorrectly identified the owner of the property. It is Hudson Realty Capital.

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315 West 35th Street in Midtown

UPDATED, 12:35 p.m., April 2: A Midtown office property at 315 West 35th Street that is primed for a condo conversion will be auctioned off after the owner, Aaron Chitrik, defaulted on a nearly $25 million mortgage.

Isaac Chetrit (Note: Correction appended) is the owner of the mortgage and will likely be a bidder on the property, according to the New York Daily News. Chitrik picked up the property in 2006 for $16 million and started on a condo conversion before the market went south. Approvals for the conversion are in place.

The property is estimated to be worth about $60 million, the newspaper reported.

Chetrit purchased the mortgage in 2010, and a dispute later erupted when Chitrik tried to  pose as the owner of the debt under an LLC called “Mazal,” while Chetrit had purchased the mortgage under the name “Mazel,” the correct spelling of the Hebrew word meaning congratulations.

The property was listed for $36 million in 2013. [NYDN] — Tess Hofmann

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the owner of the mortgage, due to an error in the source story. It is Isaac Chetrit.

The aftermath of the East Village explosion and fire

A lawyer for Maria Hrynenko, the owner of the East Village building where a gas leak caused an explosion that killed two last week, is trying to deflect blame away from her and toward Con Edison.

Hrynenko, who owned two buildings that were destroyed, 119 and 121 Second Avenue, “would not harm anybody intentionally,” her lawyer, Thomas Curtis, told the New York Times.

When Hrynenko received a complaint of a gas odor on the day of the explosion, she sent her son and a contractor to investigate — an error in hindsight, her lawyer conceded. Both men were injured in the explosion.

While Hrynenko was remiss not to call 911 or call the gas company immediately, Curtis questioned Con Edison’s actions, pointing out that two inspectors from the company were at the property shortly before the blast and found that the gas line was inadequate, but did not anticipate the disaster.

Investigators looking into the cause of the explosion have focused on a history of unauthorized tapping of the gas line at 121 Second Avenue, where the leak occurred. There is a possibility of criminal charges.

Two victims of the explosion were identified earlier this week — Nicholas Figueroa, 23, and Moises Locon, 27. [NYT] — Tess Hofmann

301 East 50th Street in Midtown (credit: CookFox Architects)

“NoMid,” or North Midtown, is seeing new development activity galore, as land prices in the area haven’t climbed quite as quickly as those in other prime Manhattan neighborhoods.

The neighborhood runs from 50th to 63rd Streets and Second to Fifth Avenues. “It’s been under-utilized for residential development,” Jonathan Miller of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel told the New York Post, who also noted the area’s unique location between Midtown and the Upper East Side. “In some ways, it’s been discovered because it straddles both worlds and all of their amenities.”

Projects in the area include the 57-unit 301 East 50th Street, developed by CBSK Ironstate, Macklowe Properties’ supertall 432 Park Avenue, Euro Properties’ 118 East 59th Street, and Aby Rosen’s 100 East 53rd Street, a Norman Foster-designed 94-unit project.

“People are starting to notice it — it’s priced right,” SK Development’s Scott Shnay said. “Most of what’s coming online is new development that’s a bit more affordable and a bit more realistic.” [NYP] — Tess Hofmann

From the April issue: They’ve brokered billions of dollars in deals, broken records, and launched companies. And they’ve all done it all in a cutthroat and unforgiving industry that’s not known for being kind to novices. [more]

A crowd in Times Square

New census estimates reveal that the population of New York City reached 8,491,079 in 2014, a problematic figure given that it is only about 60,000 short of previous estimates for the 2020 population.

The estimates show that the population increased 52,700 between 2013 and 2014, with the new figure just under 60,000 short of a previous 2020 projection of 8,550,971 people, according to New York YIMBY.

If the population surge keeps up at its current pace, it will reach the 2020 estimate by early 2016. But permits for new housing indicate that an influx of more than 52,700 people this year would not be surprising.

The news is discouraging when it comes to a permanent affordable housing solution, as the city continues to struggle with unfavorable market factors and considers a wide variety of solutions including mandatory inclusionary zoning. [NY YIMBY] — Tess Hofmann

360 Neptune Avenue in Brighton Beach and Vidal Sanchez-Roman (credit: Sanchez-Roman family via NBC)

A 50-year-old construction worker fell several stories to his death at a Brighton Beach development site yesterday.

Vidal Sanchez-Roman was working at 360 Neptune Avenue when he fell, in what has initially been determined to be an accident. Medical examiners declared him dead at the scene. An investigation is still ongoing.

Sanchez-Roman, a Brooklyn resident, fell four stories, according to News 12 Brooklyn, though other reports have said six stories. The accident happened just after 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

The accident is the latest in a string of construction-related tragedies this year, including the death of a passerby at Rudin Management’s Greenwich Lane in March and the death of a construction worker at Greenland Forest City Parters’ Barclays Center in February.

Brighton Beach-based Neptune Group LLC’s project at 360 Neptune Avenue is a six-story building including a community facility and commercial space. [News 12 Brooklyn] – Tess Hofmann

43 Great Jones Street in Noho (inset: Zachary Quinto)

The space-traveling Zachary Quinto has landed safely at home in Noho, where he just purchased a $3.2 million apartment.

Quinto, who plays Spock in the current “Star Trek” film franchise, and who has recently appeared on “Girls” and “The Slap,” picked up the two-bedroom pad at 43 Great Jones Street with his longtime boyfriend, Miles McMillan, Curbed reported.

43 Great Jones Street in Noho

43 Great Jones Street in Noho

The place last sold in 2007 for $2.5 million, and was listed in March 2014 for $3.7 million. It was recently renovated and includes a private elevator landing. [Curbed] — Tess Hofmann

Jon Hamm as Don Draper in front of the Time-Life Building

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— Tess Hofmann