From left: Earlier rendering for One Flatbush, Slate’s David Schwartz and Carlyle’s William Conway

Slate Property Group and Meadow Partners have closed on the $59 million purchase of a development site at 1 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, paying nearly $500 per square foot — a record deal for a Downtown Brooklyn development site.

The sellers, Capstone Equities and the Carlyle Group, purchased the two-story building as part of a $35 million deal a year ago, according to the New York Post. They have since relocated the tenants, providing vacant possession at the 120,000-square-foot site.

The deal was done at $491 per square foot, with retail — rents could creep up to $300 per square foot, sources said — being a big driver.

In October, Slate filed plans for a 19-story, 160,000-square-foot apartment building at the site, which will have retail at the base.

A Savills Studley team led by Woody Heller, Will Silverman and Eric Negrin represented Capstone and Carlyle. [NYP] – Rey Mashayekhi

The W New York hotel in Union Square (credit: Daytonian in Manhattan)

An heir to the late real estate investor William Gottlieb’s fortune allegedly blew millions of dollars meant to go to charity on a spending spree that included luxury cars and hotels.

The United Jewish Appeal has claimed in a Manhattan Surrogate’s Court filing that it was supposed to receive the remainder of a trust set up by Gottlieb, who died in 1999. But it was Gottlieb’s late sister’s husband, Irving Bender, who eventually became the beneficiary of the trust, according to the New York Post.

Bender allegedly squandered $3.5 million meant for the charity on a spending spree that included luxury cars, rooms at the W Hotel in Union Square and a five-month stay at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Florida.

Gottlieb owned an estimated $1 billion in properties in Greenwich Village, Chelsea and Lower Manhattan upon his death.

William Gottlieb Real Estate are Aurora Capital Associates are currently helming the redevelopment of former home of Pastis in the Meatpacking District. A construction worker was killed on the site Monday, as previously reported. [NYP] – Rey Mashayekhi

Lou Switzer (Photo: Max Dworkin)

From the April issue: Unless you’re a building owner or a company with a large New York City office-space footprint, you’ve probably never heard of Lou Switzer. But his eponymous interior design firm has reimagined spaces for the likes of Citigroup and entertainment giants like EMI (which broke up in 2012). The 51-person firm, founded in 1975 — the largest minority-owned firm of its kind — did roughly $11 million worth of business in 2014. [more]

Wendy Silverstein

Wendy Silverstein, who as co-head of acquisitions and capital markets was the top female executive at Vornado Realty Trust, has left the multibillion-dollar real estate investment trust, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

In early March, after more than 15 years with Vornado, Silverstein signed a separation agreement with the firm that went into effect April 1.

A company spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, but a Vornado employee who answered the phone yesterday confirmed that Silverstein was no longer at the firm. Silverstein’s corporate biography has been removed from the Vornado website. A Google snapshot of the page shows it was active as recently as April 3.

Silverstein, 54, could not be reached for comment. In a letter included in the SEC filings, Vornado Chairman and CEO Steven Roth wrote to Silverstein to “confirm our conversations concerning your decision to step down.”

“I want to thank you on Vornado’s behalf for all that you have done for the company and its shareholders for the past seventeen years,” Roth wrote.

Per the terms of the separation agreement, Silverstein would be paid her salary and a prorated bonus through the effective resignation date.  She would also be allowed to keep a company car the firm provided for her. Her total compensation for the 2013 fiscal year was $5.36 million, according to Reuters.

The letter also said it was expected Silverstein would serve on the board of directors of a Vornado affiliate.

Silverstein, a graduate of the Wharton School, met Roth while she was working with the real estate group at Citibank in the 1990s. She joined Vornado in 1998, and as co-head of acquisitions specialized in arranging the debt and equity for deals.

In one marquee deal she spearheaded in 2010, Vornado and four partners recapitalized LNR Property, the giant but struggling commercial loan servicer. Vornado invested about $116 million for a 26 percent stake in the company in, and realized a “substantial profit” when LNR was sold in 2013 as part of a $1.05 billion deal.

Silverstein’s exit is the most high-profile departure from Vornado since former CEO Michael Fascitelli left the REIT in April 2013  Fascitelli, as The Real Deal reported, is now back in business with his real estate investment firm Imperial Companies.

The Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle (inset: REBNY president Steven Spinola and Corey Johnson)

The Real Estate Board of New York and other industry organizations are fighting City Council legislation that would make it trickier to convert existing hotels to residential or other use.

The bill, introduced by Council member Corey Johnson in December, would require owners of hotels with more than 150 rooms to receive a special waiver if they want to convert more than 20 percent of their hotel space to anything else.

At a Council hearing last week, REBNY submitted testimony opposing the bill and claimed that it is unneeded in the face of a “thriving” hotel and tourism industry.

The trade group said the annual number of visitors to New York City leaped to 54.3 million in 2013 from  37.8 million in 2003. It said that 30,000 hotel rooms have been added in the past decade, and another 23,000 are projected by 2017. Any conversion of hotel space, REBNY argued, would be offset by new construction.

REBNY also took issue with a hardship provision of the bill, under which hotel owners could get the restriction waived if they could prove it was not economically feasible to continue operating the space as a hotel.

“No property owner wants an as-of-right use of their property to be subject to a discretionary government review,” REBNY’s testimony states. “The vague standard of a ‘reasonable financial return’ only highlights another of the bill’s flaws and reinforces a view that this proposal lacks a reasonable justification and is of questionable merit.”

The Partnership for New York City, an influential pro-business group, and the Hotel Association of New York City also showed up to fight the measure.

“This bill will have the exact opposite result from what it is trying to achieve — it would only hurt the growth of the hotel industry in NYC by reducing the construction of new hotel rooms and preventing the creation of jobs,” the hotel association said in a statement.

Government proponents, however, said that over the past 11 years, a full 3,600 rooms in 14 hotels have been converted to luxury residential use.

“The loss of such a high number of hotel rooms throughout the city is concerning,” said James Patchett, chief of staff to Deputy Mayor for Housing & Economic Development Alicia Glen. “The strength of New York City’s tourism industry relies greatly on diversity in the hotel marketplace.”

According to Patchett, few full-service luxury hotels have been built in the city since the opening of the Mandarin Oriental at Columbus Circle in 2003.

Jobs are another area of concern for proponents of the bill. Hotels provide one job for every occupied room, while high-end residential developments provide one job for every 10 rooms, according to Patchett. Furthermore, hotel jobs are seen as a stable path to the middle class. A former floor supervisor at Flatotel Hotel in Midtown testified about how she and 100 coworkers lost their jobs as a result of a residential conversion.

The bill has 34 sponsors in the City Council. Johnson was not immediately available to comment.

Bedford-Stuyvesant was New York City’s most active neighborhood for new residential building applications last quarter, an analysis by The Real Deal found.

Developers filed applications for at least 33 projects in the neighborhood, nearly three times the number filed in Bushwick, the next most active neighborhood in the city with 11 new project applications. By comparison, at the end of the first quarter of 2014, Bed-Stuy accounted for only 13 new applications, compared with Bushwick’s 22.

Overall, there were at least 103 applications in Brooklyn for 3,311 units, at least 36 applications in Queens with 2,381 units, and at least 18 applications and 2,089 units in Manhattan. The data came from permit applications filed with the Department of Buildings in the first three months of the year.

Just a month ago, GFI Realty Services’ president Michael Weiser told the New York Daily News, “It seems like the Bed-Stuy market has topped out,” echoing other investors’ thoughts that stagnating rents and sky-high home sales spell “over” for short-term investment in the rapidly-changing neighborhood.

But on the development front, the 33 planned residential buildings put the brownstone-heavy area ahead of the pack.

“I think we’re just getting started,” said Erik Serras, a broker at Brooklyn-based brokerage Ideal Properties Group, responding to doubters of Bed-Stuy’s strength. Serras’ company is currently marketing high-end rental and condo buildings in the area, such as Joseph Emergi’s 120 Hart Street, which finished construction just last year.

“We’re still setting records on price per square foot,” said Serras, adding that the slew of new developments in the pipeline “is going to push prices even higher.”

Although Long Island City developments outranked Bed-Stuy by units proposed this past quarter, those units are mostly confined to a few high-rises, such as the planned 930-unit skyscraper at 29-37 41st Avenue, which at 915 feet in height will be the loftiest building in New York outside of Manhattan.

The Bed-Stuy applications, however, have the potential to change the face and feel of more than two dozen neighborhood blocks, as construction sites are spread out across the entire neighborhood—one of Brooklyn’s largest by area.

If approved, a couple of the developments will be quite large themselves, such as the Velocity Framers USA project at 21 Kane Place, a 188-unit rental at Bed-Stuy’s southern border near Atlantic Avenue, away from the brownstone blocks of Stuyvesant Heights.

However, many of the applications submitted in the first quarter are infill projects, or buildings erected in tight lots between existing buildings and homes. Such homes can now sell for as high as $3 million.

That’s a prospect that alarms neighborhood groups like the Stuyvesant East Preservation Action League (SEPAL). SEPAL, which seeks to establish a new historic preservation district east of Malcolm X Boulevard, operates the “Bed-Stuy Construction and Destruction Monitor”, and worries that the neighborhood “is being eroded by uncaring profiteers at an alarming rate,” according to a statement on the group’s website.

“We simply want the buildings to fit in with the late 19th-century streetscapes that are so important to everyone who lives here,” said Reno Dakota, a member of SEPAL who is still awaiting the city’s decision regarding the creation of the Stuyvesant East historic district.

While Dakota keeps watch on his particular corner of the neighborhood, architect Karl Fischer, best known for large, glassy condos in Williamsburg, is set to design a 10-story rental building at 924 Myrtle Avenue. The developer is Shifra Hager’s Cornell Realty.

From left: Joseph Sitt, 220 West 57th Street and Sandeep Mathrani

Joseph Safdieh’s Safka Holdings is suing Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities and General Growth Properties, claiming he was bilked out of purchasing a prime piece of real estate on West 57th Street. Safka is asking the court to terminate Thor’s contract and is looking to get back into the deal.

Safdieh claims in the suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court Tuesday, that he planned to buy the landmarked, four-story property at 220 West 57th Street from owners David Steinberg and Jill Isaacs in 2013 for $65 million. The 22,000-square-foot building houses Lee’s Art Shop and comes with 126,000 feet of development rights.

While he was in contract to acquire the property, Safdieh approached GGP, headed by Sandeep Mathrani, to see if the company wanted to be a partner, an investor or lender on the deal. The real estate investment trust, however, declined, and told Safdieh that the price for the building was much too high, according to the suit.

GGP’s chief operating officer Shobi Khan allegedly told Safdieh that the property is “not worth more than $50 million, let alone $65 million,” according to the complaint. Both Kahn and Thor Equities’ Sitt are defendants in the lawsuit.

After entering contract, Safdieh asked the sellers for an extension to pay the $5 million deposit on the property, because he found some problems with it. The owners wouldn’t give it to him, the complaint states.

Safdieh then sued Steinberg and Issacs for $10 million, but the suit was later dismissed and the contract was terminated.

After Safka’s agreement with the building’s sellers was toast, Thor entered contract to buy the building for about $85 million — $20 million more than Safka’s purchase price — and then teamed up with GGP on the deal, according to the complaint. That deal is yet to close, according to sources familiar with the transaction.

Safdieh’s lawsuit claims that Thor served as “the proverbial straw man” for GGP. He is accusing GGP and Thor as well as the sellers of a “conspiratorial agreement.”

A representative from GGP could not immediately be reached on Wednesday afternoon. A representative for Thor declined to comment.

In 2008, Safka — together with GVA Williams and M1 Real Estate — reportedly acquired a 99-year leashold from the Hearst Corporation for the building right next door at 224 West 57th Street.

Alan Lebensfeld, Safdieh’s attorney, told The Real Deal Wednesday that Safdieh had tried to resolve the matter “amicably” first. “My client is willing to talk,” he said, adding that a draft of the complaint was sent to GGP and Thor before it was filed.

“We held out an olive branch,” Lebensfeld said, but it was met with “deafening silence.”

Rendering of 404-414 West 155th Street in Sugar Hill (credit: David Adjaye) (inset: Eric Schneiderman and Mark Peters)

Five builders were hit with criminal charges yesterday accusing them of failing to pay workers $1 million in wages on city-subsidized projects.

The builders were working on a Queens NYCHA development called the Pomonok Houses, Harlem’s taxpayer-subsidized Sugar Hill housing development, and two public schools, according to the New York Daily News.

“We are seeking to make workers whole. We are taking money out of the pockets of cheating contractors,” said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The charges come following a joint investigation of wage-cheating by Schneiderman and Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters.

Among the builders charged is Lalo Drywall, owned by Sergio Raymundo. The company was a subcontractor on the Sugar Hill development and is accused of underpaying workers by $800,000 and falsifying documents. [NYDN] — Tess Hofmann

Rendering of the Paramount Theater in Fort Greene (credit: Communications LIU)

1. A peek at the restoration of Fort Greene’s Paramount Theater [Curbed]
2. Private Bronx school plans $52 million bond sale for pool and gym [Bloomberg News]
3. Famous Ziegfield Theater facing possible closure [Broadway World]
4. Katz’s Delicatessen is last business standing on its row [EV Grieve]
5. These miniature condos have huge price tags [WSJ]
6. Woodside’s Shelley’s Irish Pub closes its doors [DNAinfo]
7. Jarmulowsky hotel on Canal Street reaches 4 stories [Bowery Boogie]
8. This drag queen taught Robert Durst how to get dolled up [NYP]

— Tess Hofmann

Miami’s Momi Ramen is expanding to East Hampton and chef Jeffrey Z. Chen

From the April issue: The results of off-season reshuffling in Hamptons’ commercial real estate are starting to take shape. A number of new restaurants, hotels and other venues have already opened, while others will debut by the time weekenders start flooding in. [more]

Richard and Lois Nicotra

Staten Island’s biggest landowner, the Nicotra Group, owns 1 million square feet of commercial space in the borough and is angling to pick up two more city-owned sites on the 100-acre Teleport campus.

Richard and Lois Nicotra started started their empire in the late 80s by building a 40,000-square-foot Class A office building to house the headquarters of their yogurt chain Everything Yogurt. They now have 500 employees and own seven commercial buildings, all in their Corporate Park of Staten Island.

The parcels they are looking to pick up next are located on the city’s Teleport campus, which was developed 30 years ago by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to host satellite communications, Crain’s reported.

The Nicotras submitted a bid in 2013 when the Economic Development Corporation solicited proposals for redevelopment of all or part of the site, and are now planning to bid on an 18-acre parcel that once housed satellite dishes for Merrill Lynch’s telecom branch. The EDC is expected to solicit proposals soon, and agency officials have said they would like to see the site used for manufacturing. [Crain’s] — Tess Hofmann

From left: Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, 50 UN Plaza and William and Arthur Zeckendorf

UPDATED 2:15 p.m., April 9: The Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar bought four apartments at Zeckendorf Development and Global Holdings’ 50 United Nations Plaza for approximately $45 million, according to property records filed with the city today.

Qatar bought a three-bedroom unit on the 33rd floor for $9.4 million — down from its original asking price of $10.2 million — and a five bedroom, 6.5-bathroom penthouse on the 35th floor for $19.4 million. The original asking price for that unit, which spans more than 5,800 square feet, was $22.2 million.

When the 43-story tower located right by the United Nations headquarters at East 43rd Street and First Avenue, opened in 2013, it broke records for the neighborhood with listings that included a $70 million duplex penthouse among its 88 units.

William and Arthur Zeckendorf broke ground on the project in November 2012 and the building topped out in July of the following year. The project had been stalled for roughly four years, due to the recession.

The Zeckendorfs bought the site for $160 million in 2007. They are also developing 520 Park Avenue, which will have a $130 million penthouse.

1. Bed-Stuy is NYC’s busiest nabe for new resi development
2. Mystery penthouse at 220 CPS to ask $100M
3. UES townhouse asks $103,000 a month

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: Frank Percesepe and Sarah Burke

Brooklyn’s median sales price shattered a new record during the first quarter, hitting $610,894.

According to Douglas Elliman’s latest quarterly Brooklyn sales report, that’s a 17.5 percent year-over-year increase from $520,000, and marks 10 consecutive quarters of median price increases.

Still, compared to Manhattan, where the median sales price was $970,000 during the first quarter, Brooklyn remains a bargain. Buyers are flocking to the borough for better deals, according to Elliman, which reckons that 40 percent of its Brooklyn buyers are Manhattanites looking across the river.

But who knows for how long. The Elliman report notes that Brooklyn condos saw a record median sales price of $729,750, which represents a nearly 17 percent jump year-over-year. And during the first quarter, condos spent about 69 days on the market, compared with last year’s first quarter, when they spent 116 days on the market.

“Condo prices, due to low inventory, are setting new records,” said Sarah Burke, Douglas Elliman’s senior regional executive manager of sale in Brooklyn.

As for the luxury market, the median sales price rose 14.2 percent to more than $1.8 million. Brooklyn’s priciest-ever condo was relisted for $32 million, far higher than the current record of $7 million paid for a condo in Dumbo’s Clock Tower in 2008. The borough’s most expensive listing is a $40 million, 17,500-square-foot townhouse.

In a separate report, also published Thursday, Corcoran Group said that while Brooklyn sales volume was down during the first quarter – by roughly 8 percent to 1,108 sales – the number of contracts signed was up 19 percent year-over-year.

There were 743 contracts signed, compared with 622 during the same period last year, the report said. Meanwhile, inventory was also up 19 percent, with 1,946 units available during the first quarter, compared to 1,638 units a year ago.

“Brooklyn is hotter than ever; [the first quarter] was acting like we were in spring,” said Frank Percesepe, Corcoran’s regional senior vice president, Brooklyn, referring to the typically busy spring market.

He said bidding wars, which were not as prevalent during the fall, “all of a sudden roared back into the spotlight.”

According to Corcoran, the submarket that includes Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn saw a 38 percent jump in the number of sales, to 184, driven by sales at the Stahl Organization’s 388 Bridge. The median price in that submarket rose 12 percent to $825,000.

Notably, the submarket that includes Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Lefferts Gardens and Bushwick saw a 27 percent drop in the number of sales, to 49 last quarter, compared with 67 a year ago. Co-op sales were down 57 percent and condo sales were down 15 percent, Corcoran said. Percesepe chalked up the low sales to lack of inventory.

But, he said, “There’s enough for us to begin doing deals and there’s just a pent-up pool of buyers waiting to come in.”

Collegiate School’s proposed Riverside South development (credit: Collegiate School)

Upper West Side residents will have an opportunity to comment on where the city should build a $50 million affordable housing development in the neighborhood.

Residents will help generate a list of “creative ideas” about where the city should build the development, which is being funded by $50 million contribution from Collegiate School.

The private, K-8 boys’ school originally agreed to construct 55 affordable housing units within the Riverside South development in exchange for permission to build a new school at the site, according to DNAinfo. But Collegiate School admitted in early March that a deal couldn’t be reached, and it would instead make a multimillion-dollar contribution to the city to construct the units.

Upper West Side residents were consequently “infuriated” by the changing nature of the school’s commitment, according to DNAinfo, and frustrated by the city’s suggestion to build the units at a different location on West 105th Street. [DNAinfo] – Rey Mashayekhi

1777 Grand Concourse in the Bronx

Asden Properties acquired a 170-unit apartment building in the Bronx for $25.6 million, according to property records filed with the city today.

The 12-story property is located at 1777 Grand Concourse in the Mount Hope neighborhood. The seller, Morgan Real Estate, purchased it in 2013 for $16.9 million, and before that it traded for $15 million in 2012.

Constructed in 1948, the building also contains two retail units, and spans a total of about 172,000 square feet, records show.

Asden also owns a 114-unit residential building at 3224 Grand Concourse, and seven other residential buildings across the Bronx. In December, it purchased two buildings on Dekalb Avenue for a total of $18.8 million. 

Eli Bleeman runs Asden, a Jackson, N.J.-based development firm, and was not immediately available to comment.

Kyna Doles contributed reporting.

Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran and her husband William Higgins have purchased an 11-room penthouse duplex co-op on the Upper East Side for $10 million.

The Corcoran Group founder, who sold the company that bears her name in 2001, and Higgins, a former FBI agent, bought the penthouse at 1158 Fifth Avenue from interior and landscape designer Pamela Scurry and her husband Richard.

The co-op hit the market in late 2013 at an asking price of $14.5 million before undergoing several price chops, according to the New York Post.

The duplex features a landscaped terrace, solarium and conservatory. The listings brokers were Sotheby International Realty’s Nikki Field and Patricia Wheatley.

Corcoran’s previous purchases include a $4 million condo on the Upper East Side and a $1.46 million Bedford-Stuyvesant townhouse. In 2011, the “Shark Tank” star gave The Real Deal a tour of the three-bedroom Upper East Side apartment that she bought for $3.5 million in 2000. [NYP] – Rey Mashayekhi

(Click to view full flyer)

The lineup for The Real Deal’s new development showcase and forum is taking shape, with nine new speakers announced for three panels that will cover topics like foreign investment, residential development and financing projects in New York City.

Once again, TRD is bringing real estate’s top names together for thought-provoking discussion on some of the industry’s biggest issues. The event, which will be hosted at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea on Tuesday, May 12th, will feature the likes of HFZ Capital’s Ziel Feldman, the Moinian Group’s Joseph Moinian, Marty Burger of Silverstein Properties, Fundrise co-founder and president Dan Miller, and Nikki Field of Sotheby’s International Realty.

Along with these panels, The Real Deal will offer a sneak peek of some of the city’s most anticipated projects to a crowd of more than 3,500 investors, buyers, brokers, lenders, developers and high- end consumers–so don’t miss out.

Click here to purchase purchase tickets for the event. For sponsorship opportunities, call 212-595-6271 or email forum@therealdeal.com.

520 East 21st Street in Flatbush and Aaron Jungreis

Black Spruce Management, a Midtown-based investment firm led by Josh Gotlib, sold a seven-story Flatbush rental building at 520 East 21st Street for $26.5 million, The Real Deal has learned.

Parkway Realty Group bought the building, which includes more than 100 residential units across roughly 103,000 square feet of residential space. Parkway also owns the neighboring property.

Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis represented both sides in the off-market transaction. Jungreis declined to comment.

Black Spruce bought the building in 2013 for $15 million, property records show.

The price comes down to $250,000 per apartment, which is the third highest per-unit sales price in the area in the past year, according to Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel Real Estate. In the entire borough, Miller added, there were 23 properties in 2014 that traded for more than $250,000 per unit.

“Clearly,” Miller said, “this is pushing the envelope in Flatbush.”

Last week, Black Spruce bought seven Bronx properties that are part of a 42-building portfolio owned by Westbrook Partners and Normandy Real Estate for a combined $58 million.