The Real Deal New York

From left: Amrom and Joel Israel

Brooklyn slumlords Joel and Amrom Israel agreed to pay $350,000 to rent-stabilized tenants they harassed with pitbulls and forced to live without toilets or kitchen sinks.

By agreeing to the plea deal, which also carries five years of probation, the brothers avoid up to four years in prison – provided they pay up within six months. They confessed in Brooklyn Supreme Court to intimidating tenants at several Brooklyn rental properties, including 98 Linden Street in Bushwick, 300 Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint and 15 Humboldt Street in Williamsburg. [more]

VTS and Hightower announced a $300 million merger Tuesday, in what observers are already calling a landmark deal for the commercial real estate technology space. Watch TRD‘s managing web editor Hiten Samtani talking with reporter Konrad Putzier here.

Larry Gluck and 218-220 Fifth Avenue in NoMad

Larry Gluck’s Stellar Management and Imperium Capital are close to entering contract to acquire the leasehold interest for the 21-story mixed-use building at 218-220 Fifth Avenue in NoMad, sources told The Real Deal. [more]

From the November Issue: Office leasing in Downtown and Midtown South were off sharply in the past four months compared with the same period in 2015, an analysis of CoStar Group data by The Real Deal revealed. [more]

Clockwise: The GM Building, rendering of Xinyuan Real Estate’s Flushing development, John Liang, Zhang Xin and David LaRue

Chinese developers who’ve made large bets in U.S. real estate are reassessing their strategies as the market tops out in some sectors. [more]

As experts pondered the future of EB-5 during The Real Deal’s second annual U.S. Real Estate Showcase and Forum in Shanghai, the conversation naturally turned to President-elect Donald Trump. Will his tough stance on immigration affect the controversial visa program’s future?

Former New York Gov. George Pataki said the program would have a powerful friend in Trump.

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding on that,” Pataki told TRD managing web editor Hiten Samtani, who moderated the event’s “EB-5 and U.S. Immigration” panel. “Donald Trump won for a lot of reasons — one was his very strong stance against illegal immigration. and often, in the media and in the public, the distinction between legal and illegal immigration gets lost.”

To see more from TRD’s “EB-5 and U.S. Immigration panel, as well as clips from the event’s keynote speeches, click here.

85 East 10th Street and David Lichtenstein

David Lichtenstein’s Lightstone Group sold a 121-unit rental building to Mallory Management for $72.5 million, or more than $1,000 a foot, sources told The Real Deal.

The seven-story building at 85 East 10th Street, located between Third and Fourth avenues, spans 69,073 square feet and consists mostly of free-market apartments. [more]

Former planning directors Gail Goldberg (Getty) and Con Howe (CityView) and a model of DTLA (AIA LA)

From the Los Angeles website: In the first installation of TRD’s series on the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, we explain the underlying problems with L.A.’s planning process. We take a look at the issues that gave NII fertile ground to build a movement. Stay tuned this week as we explore the implications of the March ballot measure in depth.

It took 18 months, four public hearings, and at least $100,000 for developer CityView to get a 160-unit student housing complex entitled in University Park, just a mile northeast of the dorm-starved USC. [more]

Brandon Weber and Nick Romito

VTS and Hightower announced a $300 million merger Tuesday, in what observers are already calling a landmark deal for the commercial real estate technology space.

The all-stock transaction will see two of the industry’s top cloud-based leasing and portfolio management platforms fall under one company, which will operate under the VTS name and be led by VTS CEO Nick Romito. Click here to read more. 

They’re baaaack.

After 10 long years, U.S. home prices finally climbed back to the record peak set in mid-2006 before the recession decimated the market.

The average price for a home in September climbed 0.1 percent higher than the peak of July 2006, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Indices. [more]

David Geffen Hall (credit: Lincoln Center)

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is refinancing $100 million worth of loans ahead of its planned $500 million renovation of the David Geffen Hall, the home of the New York Philharmonic. [more]

Trevor Noah in his office backstage at “The Daily Show” (credit: STUDIO SCRIVO) 

From Luxury Listings NYC’s November/December issue: Trevor Noah wasn’t supposed to happen. He wasn’t supposed to be the face of “The Daily Show,” Comedy Central’s longest-running and most influential program. He wasn’t supposed to tour the world as a stand-up comedian, because he wasn’t supposed to have left the dirt roads and open sewers of Soweto, one of the many formerly segregated ghettos surrounding Johannesburg. In so many ways, he wasn’t supposed to have survived the absurdities of apartheid. In fact, as a man of mixed race, he wasn’t supposed to exist in the first place. [more]

Rafael Espinal and bedbugs

New legislation aimed at curtailing bedbug outbreaks across New York City will be introduced in the City Council on Tuesday. [more]

Renderings of 517-523 West 29th Street (credit: Six Sigma) and Jason Lee

Six Sigma NYC’s Jason Lee paid an eye-popping $800 per buildable foot for High Line-area air rights to add to his West Chelsea condo development site.

The developer paid $3.92 million for 4,900 square feet of air rights to add to his site at 517-523 West 29 Street, the New York Post reported. [more]

Rendering of 55 Hudson Yards (credit: Kohn Pederson Fox)

Midtown East is taking a big hit as companies continue to sign up for office space at the Hudson Yards district. [more]

From left: John Degnan, Andrew Cuomo and Port Authority Bus Terminal

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has a power vacuum, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to fill it.

Since the debacle at the George Washington Bridge — known as Bridgegate — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has stepped away from the bi-state agency and deferred to his appointee, chairman John Degnan. At the same time, Cuomo has taken aim at Degnan and plans to replace the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Politico reported. [more]

Rendering of 300 West 122nd Street

One of Harlem’s most buzzed-about development sites is scheduled to hit the auction block today. Meanwhile, the developer’s partners on another project in the neighborhood are trying to get back valuable parking rights they claim he shifted over to the distressed site in order to line his own pockets.

Hans Futterman, whose RGS Holdings has developed a handful of Harlem properties including the 89-unit condominium at 2280 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, is in default on a roughly $36 million loan Ari Shalam’s RWN Real Estate Partners lent against his development site across the street at 300 West 122nd Street, known as the Ladera. [more]

The White House and Jared Kushner

The president-elect apparently isn’t subject to conflict of interest laws, but his son-in-law could be. [more]

From left: Charles Cohen, 135 East 57th Street, Miguel McKelvey and Adam Neumann

WeWork is taking three more floors at Charles Cohen’s Plaza District office tower, adding 40,000 square feet to the company’s space. [more]

Fosun International’s Eric Horvat and 28 Liberty Street

The city department in charge of overseeing more than $17 billion in contracts is the latest public office to eye an upgrade.

The Mayor’s Office of Contract Services plans to lease 35,000 square feet at the Fosun International’s 28 Liberty, according to a notice posted by the Department of City Planning. [more]