An abandoned mansion in Europe (Credit: Christian Richter)

1. Colleges are expanding all over town [NYO]
2. A look at abandoned staircases in European mansions [Curbed]
3. This is what happens to retired subway cars [Business Insider]
4. What you could also buy with $100 million [BrickUnderground]
5. Antiques Garage is no more [Vanishing New York]
6. Crown Heights real estate, then and now [6sqft]
7. Brooklyn Bridge Corp explains why that condo is blocking your view [Gothamist]

— Claire Moses

From left: Julie Clapp, Brian Rehling and Melissa Cohn

From the January issue: Most observers last year predicted that interest rates would rise in 2014 as the Federal Reserve removed its stimulus, but the exact opposite happened. Rates are lower now than they were at the beginning of last year, offering borrowers even cheaper capital.[more]

From left: 508 West 24th Street and 151 West 21st Street in Chelsea, 255 Columbia Street in Cobble Hill

Chelsea was the most active Manhattan neighborhood for new development sales in the fourth quarter of 2014, while Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill were Brooklyn’s top new development sellers, according to a new report from residential brokerage MNS. 

(credit: MNS)

Chelsea saw 58 sponsor units sell in the fourth quarter, up from 20 units in the third quarter. The surge was led by activity at Alfa Development’s 151 West 21st Street and Cary Tamarkin’s 508 West 24th Street. Sales in Chelsea accounted for 22 percent of all Manhattan new development sales, according to MNS.

(credit: MNS)

In Brooklyn, the busiest new development neighborhoods were Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill with 10 units sold, boosted by deals at HPI Development’s 255 Columbia Street. These sales accounted for 27 percent of new development sales in Brooklyn. Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill also saw Brooklyn’s biggest increase in per-square-foot prices in the third quarter.

In Manhattan, price-per-square-foot of new units was up 18.6 percent year-over-year to $1,746, though median sales price was down 1.7 percent to $1,807,393 . In Brooklyn, price-per-square-foot was up 12.3 percent to $882 and median sales price was up 32 percent to $1,028,432.

A rendering of the plans for 886 Dahill Road

A Brooklyn development team that went through the slog of the city’s ULURP process and came out the other end is listing its shovel-ready, 171-unit Borough Park development site for $38 million. But some red tape still trails behind.

Brothers Edward and Martin Wydra are looking for a buyer for their site at 886 Dahill Road in Borough Park, which comes with plans pre-approved by the city and a design drawn up by architect Karl Fischer for a 314,000 square-foot, mixed-use building.

“You could be in the ground immediately,” said Sean Kelly, who along with a team of colleagues at CPEX Real Estate is marketing the site for $38 million.

The Wydra brothers, who were behind the Gretsch Building condo conversion in Williamsburg, bought the 1.5-acre site on the far side of Prospect Park for $25.3 million in 2007, property records show. This is the second time the brothers are listing the property, having previously put it on the market two years ago asking $33 million.

The site was originally zoned for manufacturing use, and the Wydras soon embarked on the bumpy, months-long rezoning procedure known as the City Uniform Land Use Review Process. Ultimately, the city put certain restrictions on the project.

The original proposal called for a 12-story building with more than 70,000 square feet of retail. Through coordination with Brooklyn officials and local civic groups, however, the Wydras agreed to scale the project back dramatically. The revised plan called for 10 stories with 3,328 square feet of retail.

The owners also agreed to accept a restrictive declaration on the property that requires any prospective buyer to conform to a particular distribution for the building’s units. The Wydras said they would appoint 36 percent of the units four-bedrooms, 23 percent three-bedrooms, 21 percent two-bedrooms, 12 percent five-bedrooms and 8 percent one-bedrooms. There is some leeway for an owner to alter any array by up to 14 percent.

The agreement also sets minimum sizes for the units, ranging from 700 square feet for a one bedroom to 1,900 square feet for a five-bedroom apartment.

The Wydra’s property sits next to a shopping center owned by developer Abe Lesser, who is planning to build a 128-unit apartment building nearby.

83 Skyline Drive in Morristown, N.J.

Economists have argued over the housing preferences of millennials – people born in the 1980s and 1990s. But a new survey shows that the bulk of millennials have their sights set on single-family suburban homes.

The survey, released Wednesday by the National Association of Home Builders, was based on responses from 1,506 people born since 1977. Of the respondents, two out of three said they want to live in the suburbs, while 24 percent prefer rural homes. About ten percent would prefer to live in a city center. One of the main reasons millennials prefer the suburbs is there is more space, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Millennials’ preferences have implications for almost every industry. The age group, estimated at between 70 and 80 million people, is the biggest population bulge since baby boomers.

The polling data could be skewed, however. The results were based on respondents who had first answered that they had either purchased a home in the last three years or intend to within the next three years. This is a limited group, given that the homeownership rate for heads of households under 35 was only 36 percent in the third quarter of 2014. That’s the lowest rate since the U.S. Department of Commerce started tracking the statistic in 1994.

Ironstate Development will open a waterfront development in Staten Island this year that aims to attract millennials. In October, The Real Deal reported on a swelling millennial populating in Kansas City. [WSJ] – Tess Hofmann

From left: Avenue D and L+M Development’s Ron Moelis

L+M Development Partners is planning a new, 12-story building in Alphabet City.

L+M bought the site at 79 Avenue D in 2014 for $12.5 million. The building will include 108 residential units, spread across 88,170 square feet, according to Department of Buildings permits cited by New York YIMBY. The project also includes 7,868 square feet of commercial space.

The size of the units will likely average about 800 square feet, according to the website.

The building — located across from the Jacob Riis Houses — spans most of the block on Avenue D between East 6th and East 7th streets. The developer has yet to file demolition permits for the existing structure at the location. [NY YIMBY] — Claire Moses

From left: Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Brookdale Hospital in Brownsville

State officials are considering construction of a new medical facility in Brooklyn that could replace the borough’s struggling Brookdale Hospital.

Following Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address yesterday, outgoing budget director Bob Megna floated the idea of a new Brooklyn hospital. 

“I think it’s pretty clear that a new hospital is required,” Megna said. “We’re still working on the details of how that would work in the context of our overall health care plan and we’ve kind of reserved $700 million for that.”

The funds have been set aside for hospital capital construction in east or central Brooklyn, Capital New York reported.

“We probably wouldn’t fully finance the hospital,” Megna said. “We’d have to have partners that would be part of that process. I think we’re still working on it, but the possibility is there that we’d build a new hospital.”

Brookdale has millions in debt and recent reports indicate the hospital is close to bankruptcy, according to the website. The hospital mainly serves the Brownsville and East New York communities.

A group of Brooklyn multifamily investors purchased four buildings from Brookdale in November. Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital closed last year and was purchased by Fortis Property Group for $240 million. [Capital NY] – Tess Hofmann

Rendering of Red Hook Innovation Studios

Developer Est4te Four, which has steadily been buying up the Red Hook waterfront with several acquisitions over the past few years, released additional renderings of its planned office complex in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

The Italian developer closed on its $16 million purchase of 62 Ferris Street in December and also bought 202 Coffey Street for $11.8 million several years ago — two parcels that will be part of the office complex, according to Brownstoner. The facility, dubbed Red Hook Innovation Studios, is envisioned as a haven for creative businesses, with office space totaling 1.1 million square feet and a waterfront promenade included in the plans. See more renderings below.

The architect is NBBJ.

Est4te Four is also the developer of 160 Imlay, a Red Hook residential conversion. [Brownstoner] – Tess Hofmann

From left: Peter Hennessy, Chris Helgesen, Joseph Swingle, 277 Park Avenue (credit: CoStar) and 1271 Sixth Avenue

Less than three weeks after an affiliate of DTZ Investment Holdings acquired Cassidy Turley, the London-based commercial firm is slimming down its work force. DTZ laid off 45 employees nationwide Friday, including as many as nine brokers in New York, The Real Deal has learned.

The “vast majority” of the New York staffers laid off were from DTZ, not from Cassidy Turley, sources said.

A spokesperson for DTZ declined to comment about the staff reductions, or identify employees affected. But a source close to the situation said the layoffs were not a cost-cutting measure.

On Dec. 31, DTZ closed on the purchase of Cassidy Turley for $557 million, according to sources. The combined brokerage firm has more than 28,000 employees globally and revenues of approximately $2.9 billion, according to DTZ.

Robert Brennan, a 30-year industry veteran who served as executive vice president at DTZ, was among the high-level brokers in New York to receive a pink slip. Brennan did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A top commercial real estate executive who has been involved in multiple mergers – and who does not work at DTZ – said managers typically use mergers as an opportunity to remove people who are not covering their desk costs.

In the next six weeks, the two companies will consolidate at the Cassidy Turley office at 277 Park Avenue, near East 48th Street. About 200 people will work out of the 47,000-square-foot office, Peter Hennessy, president of the New York tri-state region at DTZ, told TRD.

Meanwhile, the firm will begin marketing its 23,400-square-foot office space at the Rockefeller Group’s Time-Life Building at 1271 Sixth Avenue for sublease, Hennessy said. A team led by Chris Helgesen, Chris Sterling and Dirk Hrosby is tasked with finding a sublessee. DTZ’s lease for part of the 43rd floor at the Time-Life Building is set to expire in 2017, he said.

Adam Pincus contributed reporting.

415 East 6th Street in East Village and Jody Kriss

Jody Kriss’ East River Partners plans to build three luxury condominium units on top of the Adas Yisroel Anshe Synagogue, which will receive a gut renovation as part of the project.

The 104-year-old synagogue at 415 East 6th Street in the East Village will continue to operate on the ground floor. East River paid $1.2 million for a 99-year lease on the space upstairs at the 22-foot-wide building, as previously reported.

The developer intends to pay an annual fee for the next 200 years of the synagogue’s maintenance. Construction of the condo component will include an 11-foot penthouse addition to the property. The units are expected to hit the market in the fall.

“Some people are purists and they wanted to keep the building exactly as it was,” Robert Rand of the synagogue’s board told the New York Daily News. “But that would have been tantamount to benign neglect. This was the key to survival.”

Kriss was hit with a lawsuit last year for allegedly adopting “mob tactics” to retrieve his cut of money from a development deal, as previously reported. [NYDN] — Mark Maurer

From left: Leonard Litwin, Preet Bharara and Sheldon Silver

The unnamed real estate developer cited in a criminal complaint charging Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver with corruption is most likely Glenwood Management’s Leonard Litwin.

Crain’s reported this afternoon that the complaint, in which Southern District U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara accuses Silver of using his political power to line his own pockets with millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks from law firm Goldberg & Iryami, cites an unnamed “Developer 1” who was the largest political donor on the state level since 2005.

The 100-year-old Litwin spent the most money on political donations during that time, as The Real Deal reported. Crain’s also made a connection between Litwin and the $900,000 Developer 1 paid to eight lobbying firms.

The complaint also calls out another developer, “Developer 2,” though this developer’s identity was not immediately clear. Together, 19 buildings owned by the two developers brought in more than 31 percent of Goldberg & Iryami’s revenue in 2011, according to the complaint.

From left: 301 East 21st Street in Gramercy Park, Darcy Stacom and Paul Leibowitz

The Tausik family is asking up to $200 million for a 17-story Gramercy Park apartment building known as the Petersfield.

The 185,000-square-foot building at 301 East 21st Street, also known as 362-372 Second Avenue, holds 199 apartments, Crain’s reported. The family has owned the property for nearly seven decades.

A CBRE team led by Darcy Stacom and Paul Leibowitz is marketing the building, which sources told the magazine is expected to sell for between $150 million and $200 million. [Crain's] — Mark Maurer

From left: Robert Durst and Douglas Durst

Durst Organization head Douglas Durst requested an emergency injunction against HBO in the days leading up to the network’s planned premiere of a documentary on his brother Robert.

Durst contends that the six-part documentary, “The Jinx: the Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,​” which is set to air next week, could contain footage of Robert and his second wife giving legal depositions that are sealed under a strict confidentiality order.

The order was part of an agreement between Robert and the Durst family to cut ties with the family business in exchange for a $65 million payout, the New York Post reported. The agreement also bars the family from talking to the media about the settlement.

Durst is concerned about the safety of the footage because he learned from Robert’s attorney at the time of the settlement that Robert kept the deposition tapes rather than destroying them.

Last week, Durst demanded that HBO allow him to preview the documentary in advance of its premiere.

Robert told the Post, “I’m not spending my time running around 43rd Street looking for a chance to shoot Douglas. Douglas thinks that — ever since we were little boys. The shrinks once said, ‘Your brother’s scared of you. We don’t know why.’” [NYP] – Tess Hofmann

From left: Stuart Venner and Grace Chang Venner (Credit: Cut McGill)

Stuart Venner, a Brooklyn landlord who owns several Prospect Heights properties, leased a condominium in Philadelphia to his mistress in exchange for sex, his wife claimed in a new lawsuit.

Grace Chang Venner claimed Stuart put her name on the 40-year lease of the three-story rowhouse. Stuart Venner ripped up the original agreement and had his mistress, Panadda Pratomtang, sign a second agreement last year that allowed her to live there for $1 per month until the year 2053 “in return for her providing prostitution services to Board Member, (Stuart) Venner,” the lawsuit alleged.

“The lease agreement is not based on actual consideration, but rather on sex for rent,” according to the suit cited by the Philadelphia Daily News. “This is prostitution pursuant to Pennsylvania law and an illegal contract.”

The landlord’s wife said she learned of the agreement when she was told she was property manager at the building.

Stuart Venner sent eviction notices to several mom-and-pop stores along Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights in 2013, in an effort to build an urgent care office and potentially upscale retail shops and a fitness center, as previously reported. [Philadelphia Daily News] – Mark Maurer

Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery

From the January issue: The Landmarks Preservation Commission dropped its recent plan to remove 94 structures and two historic districts from the agency’s oversight. Meanwhile, the sale of a 25,204-square-foot plot of land on West 53rd Street to the Clinton Housing Development Corp. for $1 was approved by the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services. Read about these developments and more in this month’s government briefs. [more]

Rendering of Greenwich Lane in the West Village and Michael Kors

1. Michael Kors scoops up Greenwich Lane penthouse [NYP]
2. Harrod’s now selling real estate via Oculus Rift [Daily Mail]
3. China greets world’s first 3D-printed apartment building [CNET]
4. The Met to issue $250 million in bonds for improvements [WSJ]
5. Roman Abramovich’s planned Upper East Side mansion is growing [Curbed]
6. 408-unit New Jersey luxury building destroyed by fire [NBC]

– Tess Hofmann

Current reader favorites:
1. Ex-Citi Habitats agent allegedly set fire to NYU student — and then Snapchatted it
2. Durst, Fetner split ways
3. Massey Knakal name headed for retirement
4. Half of luxury condos coming to Manhattan this year already in contract: report
5. Silver arrested for alleged payments from real estate law firm

The Alliance for Tenant Power, joined by Melissa Mark-Viverito, at an earlier rally

Tenant advocates are planning to fight to put an end to a tax abatement program that is widely used by the city’s developers.

The 421-a program, which is set to expire in June, provides tax breaks for developers who provide affordable housing as part of their newly constructed buildings.Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is planning to add and preserve a total of 200,000 affordable units in the city over ten years, has used the tax breaks as an incentive to get developers to create affordable housing.

Tenant groups, however, are saying that the program is an inefficient way to create affordable housing, according to Capital New York. They also say that while the program was effective in boosting the number of  non-market-rate units when it was created in the 1970s, today it mostly functions as a perk for wealthy developers who are creating housing for even wealthier residents.

The advocacy groups contend that the potential tax revenues that are waived through these abatements — roughly $1 billion a year — should be spent on direct subsidies such as Section 8 vouchers, according to the website.

A handful of tenant groups have organized themselves into two coalitions: the Alliance for Tenant Power and Real Affordability for All, according to the website. They are planning a rally for Tuesday. [Capital NY] – Claire Moses

From left: 285 Schermerhorn Street and Brooklyn Community Services’ interior

Nonprofit group Brooklyn Community Services and developer Louis Greco have reached an agreement to convert the organization’s seven-story building at 285 Schermerhorn Street into a residential tower.

Greco will build a 14-story tower at the site that will house 100 apartments as well as a 17,000-square-foot office condominium, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Brooklyn Community Services will own the office condo, according to the newspaper. Greco’s Second Development Services will own the apartments.

The value of the building is more than $20 million, according to the Journal. [WSJ] – Claire Moses 

From left: Edwina Sandys and her loft at 565 Broadway

From Luxury Listings NYC:  Sculptor and current Luxury Listings NYC cover star Edwina Sandys has put her home on the market, a 6,500-square-foot loft on the corner of Broadway and Prince Street in Soho. Sandys – the granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill — originally listed the full-floor duplex, located at 565 Broadway, back in September 2013 for $10.95 million, and it’s been on and off the market ever since.