From left: 639, 590 and 530 Fifth Avenue in Midtown and Joe Sitt

Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities is looking to sell a handful of office and retail properties on Fifth Avenue.

The developer is marketing 693 and 590 Fifth Avenue, along with the retail portion of 530 Fifth Avenue, which it owns in a join venture with Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty and General Growth Properties, a mall-focused real estate investment trust, Bloomberg reported.

Sitt’s firm bought the 101,000-square-foot 693 Fifth Avenue, home to a Valentino location, in 2010, for $142 million. It picked up the 82,000-square-foot 590 Fifth Avenue, which houses the NBA store, for $90 million in 2007.

Thor and its partners bought the 500,000-square-foot office and retail tower at 530 Fifth Avenue for $595 million in 2014. Only the building’s 100,000-square-foot retail portion is currently on offer.

The sales come amid murmurs of a slowdown in the commercial real estate market. The Blackstone Group’s Jonathan Gray said last week that returns on investment in the sector were falling, hit by international volatility and tighter lending. [Bloomberg] – Ariel Stulberg

From left: Convene’s Kenneth Clark and 114 West 47th Street in Midtown

Convene, an event venue hosting company, inked a lease for 36,000 square feet at Durst Organization’s 114 West 47th Street in Midtown.

The firm’s flagship will have its own lobby and address at 117 West 46th Street.

Convene will use the ground, second and lower levels, which has capacity to hold 500 people, for events.

The space features stage lighting, digital signage, high speed Wifi, and audio and video technology, the New York Post reported.

Asking rent for office space at the 25-story, 565,000-square-foot building was $68 per square foot. Asking rent was $200 per square foot for the ground floor, the Post reported.

According to its website, Convene also leases space at 32 Old Slip, 237 Park Avenue, 101 Park Avenue, 810 Seventh Avenue and 730 Third Avenue. It also has locations in Washington, D.C.

CBRE’s Jared Freede, Rocco Laginestra and Michael Wellen represented Convene in the deal. Tom Bow and Rocco Romeo represented Durst in-house. [NYP, 4th] — Dusica Sue Malesevic

From left: Christopher Lehane, Assembly Member Francisco Moya talking to a crowd at an Airbnb protest in the state capitol building, and Airbnb’s founders Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk and Brian Chesky (credit: Danielle Levitt/August)

From the March issue: If there was ever a clear sign that things had gotten ugly for Airbnb in New York, it might have been last October, during a City Council hearing on a proposal to raise fines against illegal hotel operators. What began as a quarrel over the vagaries of the law devolved into a nasty political exchange over Airbnb’s role in the local economy and what it means to share New York City’s most prized commodity — real estate. [more]

Letitia James

The city settled a federal lawsuit filed by elderly and disabled tenants who said they lost their rent subsidy after family members died. It agreed to pay $130,000 for legal fees and damages to 10 plaintiffs, whose ages ranged from 27 to 95.

In 2014, the Department of Finance, which oversees the rent freeze program, enacted a rule that tenants have 60 days to reapply for the program after the person receiving the benefit died.

Prior to this rule, family members had up to six months to apply, the New York Times reported.

The rent freeze program includes the Senior Citizens Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE), which halts rent hikes for seniors in rent-regulated units, and the Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE).

Last June, the tenants along with Public Advocate Letitia James, filed a lawsuit to challenge the new rule and for alleged rent overcharges, Gothamist reported.

One of the plaintiffs, Qiao Xiao, said her rent increased from $523 to up to $790 after her husband died in 2014, according to Gothamist. Qiao Xiao He and two other plaintiffs died before the suit concluded. Their portion of the settlement, which amounts to $5,000 and $6,000 per tenant, will go to their estates, Gothamist reported.

The city will pay $75,000 for the tenants’ legal fees.

Despite pushback, James has used lawsuits as a means to push the city for change. Following the passage of a state law in December, relatives again have six months to apply.

Nearly 80,000 seniors who qualify for the rental assistance program have not signed up. [NYT and Gothamist] — Dusica Sue Malesevic

From left: Donald Trump (Credit: Michael Vadon via Wikipedia), Trump Palace and Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann is breaking up with Donald Trump … well, his building anyway.

In 2007, Olbermann, a commentator and newscaster, bought a 2,100-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment at the Trump Palace at 200 East 69th Street for $4.2 million. Two years later, he purchased a second apartment in the 275-unit, 57-story condominium building on the Upper East Side for $849,000.

But now, in a very public split that includes a vitriol-filled opinion piece in the Washington Post, Olbermann says he is moving out of one of the buildings “slathered in equal portions with gratuitous gold and the name ‘Trump.’ “

“I’m getting out because of the degree to which the very name ‘Trump’ has degraded the public discourse and the nation itself,” Olbermann wrote. “I can’t hear, or see, or say that name any longer without spitting. Frankly, I’m running out of Trump spit.”

Olbermann said his time at Trump Palace was largely happy, but a “PG-rated cartoon character” with “Oompa Loompa makeup” has coarsened politics to the point that it’s worse than his “Worst Persons in the World” list.

It doesn’t appear the condo has been listed yet. [Washington Post] — Dusica Sue Malesevic

198 Johnson Avenue in East Williamsburg (inset, from left: Martin Nussbaum and David Schwartz)

UPDATED, 1:05 p.m., March 9: Slate Property Group, one of Brooklyn’s most prolific residential developers, is planning a new 117-unit mixed-use building in the rapidly transforming East Williamsburg, according to permit applications filed Monday with the Department of Buildings.

The new seven-story, 100,000-square-foot rental building at 198 Johnson Avenue will occupy the block between Humboldt Street and Bushwick Avenue, rising adjacent to an existing three-story, 82-unit Section 8 residential building on the property.

In addition to more than 92,000 square feet of residential space, the development will include just over 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and a 2,300-square-foot rooftop outdoor recreation space for tenants, according to the filing.

The building is set to hold six ground-floor apartments, 20 units on the second floor, 21 apartments on each of the third through fifth floors, another 20 units on the sixth floor and eight units on the top, seventh floor.

Representatives from Slate confirmed the plans, noting that the new structure would not be replacing the existing Section 8 building at 198 Johnson Avenue. The development firm, led by David Schwartz and Martin Nussbaum, will be ground leasing the property from the current owner, Martin Shnay’s Lindsay Bushwick Associates.

Aufgang Architects, the project’s architect of record, did not return requests for comment. Midtown-based Slate and Suffern, N.Y.-based Aufgang are also teaming on a nearby 20-unit residential building at 83 Bushwick Place.

Slate also recently teamed with Adam America Real Estate and Chinese development giant China Vanke to acquire a vacant 150,000-square-foot building on the Lower East Side for $116 million, with the goal of converting the 118-year-old structure into 100 luxury condo units. The three partners are currently working together on a planned 33-story condo tower in Downtown Brooklyn.

New York buyers are in blue and all other investment is in red. (Credit: Mika Mattingly)

New York investors interested in Miami are making a beeline for one square mile in Downtown.

Over the past two years, New Yorkers have spent at least $586.5 million on property concentrated between the Miami River to Northeast Sixth Street and east of I-95 to Biscayne Bayin, according to research done by Mika Mattingly, a broker with Sterling Equity Commercial.

In total, New York buyers acquired at least 1.28 million square feet of buildings and at least 1.1 million square feet of land in the area, Mattingly’s research shows, representing about 56 percent of investment in that area.

The area is in the beginning stages of a renaissance. A $13 million improvement plan for Flagler Street is underway, which will include expanded sidewalks, more trees, new benches and bicycle racks. The beautification project broke ground earlier this year and has installed drainage structures and pedestrian signage, according to a weekly update released on Monday.

Moishe Mana represented roughly 30 percent, or about $170 million, of the New York investment, according to a list of sales Mattingly provided, which was then verified by TRD. Mana, of New York and New Jersey, has been in Miami since 2010 assembling property in Wynwood and in downtown Miami. He has spent at least $200 million on properties in the Downtown Miami area, with plans for retail and residential redevelopments, according to county records and a recent TRD profile.

The map also includes properties purchased by New York-based Edens Investment Trust, Ashkenazy Acquisition, Brickman and KAR Properties. Last week, Brickman closed on the Courthouse Tower at 44 West Flagler Street for $27.5 million.

Lawrence Yun and the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle (credit: Björn Söderqvist/Flickr)

Real estate buyers from countries such as China, Russia, Canada and Brazil have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into New York real estate over the last few years, but evidence is mounting that that flow is slowing down.Foreign demand for U.S. properties is set to diminish, under pressure from high prices and a strong dollar, according to the National Association of Realtors, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Prices for high-end properties have risen steadily since around 2012 when the real estate market hit bottom, recently rising to record highs, partly fueled by the influx of foreign investment.

The strong dollar has made properties in cities such as New York, Miami and Los Angeles, where foreign buying has been concentrated, significantly more expensive. Median prices for existing homes in the U.S. have risen by 67 percent for Brazilian buyers over the past year, for example, the Journal reported, citing NAR. Prices have climbed 27 percent for Canadian buyers — and 14 percent for Chinese buyers.

Chinese demand is likely to diminish less severely than other countries’, NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun told the Journal, because while Chinese economic growth has slowed over the last year or two, the country’s GDP is nonetheless expanding at about 6 percent a year.

NAR determines the level of foreign demand by surveying real estate brokers across the country. The results of this year’s survey will be released in early summer. [WSJ] – Ariel Stulberg

38-70 12th Street in Long Island City via Google Maps

Flushing-based development firm Ampiera Group wants to bring a 139-key hotel to Long Island City.

The 16-story building at 38-70 12th Street will rise 162 feet, according to a permit application filed with the Department of Buildings Wednesday.

The ground floor of the new 80,400-square-foot hotel will feature some type of restaurant and an office area, the filing shows.

There will be 10 rooms on the second floor, and 11 on each of the third through 15th floors, according to the filing. Another eating and drinking establishment is planned for the top floor.

My Architect PC is serving as the architect of record. Ampiera declined to comment.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, the firm, led by Alex Lau, is also building a 36-unit condominium building at 24-12 42nd Road and a 32-unit rental at 42-50 27th Street. Last year, Ampiera purchased a vacant, six-story office building at at 90-75 Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica for $17.5 million.

165-25 147th Avenue in Jamaica (credit: Rochlin Organization)

Wanted: Buyers near flyers. GTJ REIT is shopping not one but two seven-acre sites near both international airports in Queens, The Real Deal has learned.

In addition to Budget Rent a Car-occupied parcels south of LaGuardia, the Long Island-based real estate investment trust hopes to sell the MTA bus depot just north of John F. Kennedy Airport in Jamaica, according to marketing materials.

The 6.8-acre site at 165-25 147th Avenue holds a 151,000-square-foot, two-part structure. A one-story industrial building and a two-story office property are attached. There are also 143 bus storage spaces and 25 parking spots.

Sources said the site is expected to sell for about $140 million.

Given the City of New York’s long-term triple net lease on the site, development is not an option in the near future. The earliest possible expiration of the lease is 2027. But if the city were to take advantage of two 14-year options, the lease could expire as late as 2054.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority, the largest transit network in the U.S., has subleased the site as a bus terminal since the early 2000s.
Under the city’s agreement, GTJ sees close to a zero percent return, sources said. That would change after the lease expires.

The annual rent income is currently $3.38 million, the documents show. There have been 10 percent rent increases every five years.

Sources said the REIT is seeking to capitalize on the value of both assets.

Meanwhile, the GTI’s seven-acre site at 23-85 87th Street and 25-27 87th Street is being marketed as a development opportunity, as Avis’ lease is expiring in 2023. That site is zoned for both residential and commercial.

The Rochlin Organization’s Bruce Nelson, Austin Mandell and Adam Rochlin are marketing the Jamaica site on behalf of the REIT. The brokers declined to comment, while GTJ could not be reached.

Rob Speyer with Tishman Speyer’s development site across from the Jacob Javits Center

Tishman Speyer completed the assemblage of its second development site in Hudson Yards, where the company plans to build a 1.3-million-square-foot office tower across from the Jacob Javits Center.

The developer announced Wednesday that it had acquired a small property with a footprint of roughly 7,400 square feet at 550 West 37th Street for an undisclosed price. Property records show the seller to be the Chiaia family of Clifton, New Jersey, who could not be reached for comment.

Tishman said it closed on the purchase this month along with the acquisition of a property at 434-444 Eleventh Avenue from the Imperatore family, previously reported to be about $185 million.

The company plans to build a 1.3-million-square-foot office tower with retail on the site between 37th and 38th streets along Eleventh Avenue.

It’s the second tower Tishman has planned for the Hudson Yards neighborhood. The company last month revealed plans for its Bjarke Ingels-designed, 2.85-million-square-foot tower at 34th Street and 10th Avenue, dubbed “The Spiral.” The firm received a 25-year tax abatement worth $170 million for that project, and is also seeking financing by pre-leasing about 30 percent of the tower.

CEO Rob Speyer said in prepared remarks that Tishman Speyer’s plans to develop more than 4 million square feet of commercial space in the neighborhood affirms the company’s belief that “Manhattan’s far west side is well on its way to becoming the world’s most modern, dynamic and sustainable urban neighborhood.”

In its November issue, The Real Deal looked at which tenants signed and how much space remained available at The Related Companies’ Hudson Yards site.

Clockwise from top left: the Centurion, floor plan for combo unit at Carnegie Park, the Eldorado and the Atelier

Why buy one apartment when you can own two?

That’s the tactic some developers are employing to lure buyers to a crop of combination units that have hit the market in recent weeks. Though apartment mashups are not new, they’re being positioned as a value play for potential buyers amid softening at the upper levels of Manhattan’s residential market.

“The market is dominated by apartments that are $10 million-plus and I don’t think people want to spend that kind of money,” said Sherry Tobak, head of sales at Carnegie Park, Related Companies’ 277-unit condo conversion on the Upper East Side. The developer recently listed three sprawling combination apartments for under $5 million at the building. One is a three-bedroom, measuring 1,576 square feet, asking $2.925 million. Another is a five-bedroom spanning 2,500 square feet, which is asking $4.985 million.

Carnegie Park

“We’re able to offer value that doesn’t exist in other buildings to cater to the demand for larger homes, with price tags under $3 million for three bedrooms and under $5 million for five bedrooms, which is just not seen in this area,” said Tobak, who said the building’s blended average price per foot is $1,600. That’s below the $2,210 per foot average price that new condos commanded during the fourth quarter, according to real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel.

Overall, Manhattan’s residential market has seen softening at the top in recent months. The number of contracts signed on residential properties $10 million and up dropped 16 percent in 2015, according to Olshan Realty.

Miller Samuel president Jonathan Miller said that by his rough estimate, apartment combinations accounted for 4.6 percent of sales during the fourth quarter, up from 2.9 percent a year earlier. “It’s consistent with the market narrative, which is ‘I need more space, but I need something affordable,’” he said, noting that developers like Related are smart to offer buyers a “value play” by cobbling together larger homes.

Since sales launched in January 2015, Related has created 34 combination homes at Carnegie Park, including three penthouses. The developer has sold 27 of those units, and will soon list the penthouses, with prices ranging from $4.795 million to $7.15 million.

“If I could build 10 more [combo units],” she said, “I would.”

At the Centurion, a 47-unit condominium at 33 West 56th Street, developers Antonio Development and Stillman Development International are re-listing two 16th-floor penthouses as a full-floor unit with a price tag of $9.6 million. When combined, Penthouses D and E — previously asking $4.95 million and $4.9 million, respectively – will measure 3,338 square feet.

The Centurion and I.M. Pei

Building marketer Thomas Guss, founder of New York Residence, said a full-floor unit one floor up sold for $14 million this past November. “After the floor above sold, it made much more sense to sell them as a combination,” he said. “When you have a comparable [that sold] for $14 million and you can buy the same space for $9.6 million, there’s still money on the table.”

Guss said he’d received multiple offers for the individual apartments over the years. But combining the apartments at the I.M. Pei-designed building always proved to be problematic since the units were connected by a hallway leading to a common terrace. “People didn’t want two-thirds of the floor,” he said. In December 2015, Guss said he convinced the building’s board to make the hallway space and terrace available for purchase, too. (If sold, proceeds will fund a new rooftop terrace for other residents to use.)

The trend isn’t limited to new development. At the historic Eldorado at 300 Central Park West, agent Royce Pinkwater of Pinkwater Select is marketing a two-bedroom unit for $5.2 million. A key selling point? The owner has full architectural plans to combine the unit with Bruce Willis’ former pad located one floor up, a three-bedroom pad with an asking price of $12.9 million. The combination unit at the co-op would measure about 5,000 square feet.

Joseph Moinian

At the Atelier, the Moinian Group’s 478-unit condominium at 635 West 42nd Street, several units have been cobbled together as demand has picked up for larger spreads, according to board manager Daniel Neiditch of River2River Realty. “We had demand from families who were priced out of Chelsea,” he said.

The combinations range from a three-bedroom apartment listed for $2.6 million to a mammoth $50 million unit that’s spread over five floors. The $50 million home was configured from six units and Neiditch said it’s set up to be a “townhouse in the sky.”

Also on the market is a duplex asking $22.5 million, which was cobbled together from four units.

The building also has an $85 million apartment on the market at the property. To further entice buyers, the unit comes with a $1 million yacht, two Rolls Royce Phantoms and $2 million in credits to renovate the unit.

Several owners at the Atelier recently filed a $100 million lawsuit against Moininan, alleging that the firm is preventing them from accessing the building’s amenities, a claim the developer said is meritless.

Francis Greenburger

After his mentally ill son, Morgan, was convicted of arson four years ago, Time Equities chair and CEO Francis Greenburger experienced firsthand the futility of finding a treatment alternative to sending Morgan to prison. “A fool’s errand,” he described the process.

It motivated the developer to establish the Greenburger Center for Social and Criminal Justice — an advocacy organization aimed at developing incarceration alternatives for mentally ill people who commit serious crimes. Now, the organization is eyeing its first treatment center in the Bronx.

The Greenburger Center acquired two neighboring houses in the Bronx for $2.3 million this January with the goal of establishing such an incarceration alternative for mentally ill convicts. Greenburger is aiming for a public-private partnership to develop the center, which would allow 16 patients to receive extensive treatment instead of doing time in prison.

Setting up a six-year pilot program for the center is estimated to cost $12 million, with the Time Equities founder pledging a quarter of the funds himself.

“We think our program will be successful because there will be lower recidivism rates,” Greenburger told the Journal. “We are trying to create something that will cost less and produce better results.” [WSJ] – Rey Mashayekhi

(credit: Knight Frank and CityRealty)

Growth for New York City luxury property values is slowing, according to the latest Knight Frank report. In Manhattan, the average sales price remained unchanged at the start of the year. Check out more from March’s residential sales overview and wealth ranking in our roundup of the past week’s real estate market reports.

Residential 

Wealth Report: Douglas Elliman and Knight Frank

New York City’s luxury values grew 2.4 percent in 2015, far less compared to Vancouver, Sydney and Shanghai, which saw growth in the double digits. The city ranked 39th behind San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles and Boston. Read the full report here.

March 2016 residential sales: CityRealty

Manhattan’s average sales price for condo and co-ops remained unchanged at $2.1 million in January, while sales were down from the prior month. Read the full report here.

March 2016 absorption report: Brown Harris Stevens

Manhattan’s absorption rate is tightening. The average rate for condos and co-ops fell to 3.6 months in February from 3.9 months during the same period last year. Read the full report here.

Manhattan luxury contracts: Feb. 22- 28: Olshan Realty

In the first two months of the year, 150 contracts were signed for Manhattan homes priced $4 million and above, compared to 214 signed during the same period last year. Only 21 contracts were signed during the last week of February, including an apartment at 1050 Fifth Avenue, which had an asking price of $16.5 million. Read the full report here.

March 2016 national rents: Zumper

The median rent for one-bedroom apartments in New York City rose 1.9 percent in February to $3,280. In comparison, rent prices in San Francisco jumped 2.6 percent to $3,590. Read the full report here.

New York City evictions: New York Times

Evictions across the city fell 18 percent last year from 26,857 in 2014 to 21,988 in 2015. The city’s eviction rate is at its lowest since 2005. Read the full story here.

Underwater home mortgages: Center for NYC Neighborhoods

A disproportionate number of black homeowners in southeast Queens owe more on their mortgages than their property is worth. Black homeowners in the Bronx are also more likely to have underwater mortgages. See the full map here.

To view more market reports, check out the new TRData page.

Built FAR of lots in landmarked and non-landmarked areas in New York City (credit: NYU Furman Center)

There’s been a lot of discussion in recent months about the city’s landmarking process and the impact it has on housing stock and development. A new study, however, has found that landmarked districts in New York are just as dense and built-out as nearby areas that have not received the designation.

About 3.5 percent of New York City properties are protected by landmarks law, according to the study by the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. The analysis found that 27 percent of Manhattan properties are protected.

The report found that landmarked areas have significantly fewer rent-regulated apartments compared to the rest of the city and are populated by households that tend to be wealthier, more educated and white, according to Crain’s.

More than half of apartments in landmarked districts citywide are market-rate units, the study found, compared to only 30 percent in areas not designated historic.

But the study also noted that landmarked districts aren’t any less dense than non-landmarked areas, and are in fact built up to roughly the same density than adjacent neighborhoods that aren’t landmarked.

“We hope these findings offer a useful snapshot of the nature of historic preservation in New York City,” Furman Center faculty director Ingrid Gould Ellen said in a statement. [Crain’s] – Rey Mashayekhi

Paul Wolf and renderings of 100 Barrow Street

It may sound like the plot of Dan Brown’s next novel, but this story involving religious organizations, ritual meetings and ancient crypts is actually a tale of a real estate deal.

Working on behalf of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, broker Paul Wolf negotiated a 99-year ground lease on the church’s West Village campus with Toll Brothers City Living. The deal will see the church reap around $800 million over the lease term.

Wolf’s recounting of the deal, titled “The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields: Designing a Road Map for the Next 100 Years,” is one of nine lease transactions up for the Real Estate Board of New York’s “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Award.”

REBNY will announce the winners April 12, and in the run-up to the event The Real Deal is reviewing a number of the submissions to give readers an inside look at how some of the city’s trickiest deals are done. (They include David Ash’s retail condo for Zara, Athur Mirante’s NBPA office lease and Rob Martin’s space swap for Assured Guaranty.)

Wolf, a principal at Denham Wolf, a brokerage that specializes in working with nonprofits, started working on the deal back in 2007, when the church brought him on to help the institution secure its financial footing by leveraging its real estate holdings.

Founded in 1820, the church owns a full city block between Hudson, Barrow, Christopher and Greenwich streets.

On top of the global recession that delayed any deal, there were a number of challenges to overcome, one being the Episcopal church’s organizational structure. In the church, the parish’s policy and financial matters are handled by a group of elected lay people known as the vestry, who serve limited terms.

That means that the leadership was turning over amid the negotiations.

“This arrangement has the benefit of facilitating fresh ideas, but it can also hinder successful decision-making for projects with durations that exceed leaders’ terms,” Wolf wrote in his submission.

To overcome this hurdle, Wolfe worked with the institution’s leaders to set up an ad-hoc planning committee that would provide continuity over the course of negotations.

Another challenge was to find what Wolfe described as an “optimal” solution rather than a “maximal” one: a deal that would provide the church with solid cash flow but also accommodate its closely affiliated school.

The Saint Luke’s School had long been a program operated by the church, but when it became an independent institution in 2012, the church leadership thought about bringing a rent-paying tenant into the educational space.

The team realized the school could afford to pay rent, but that would require an expansion.

“There was no obvious way to fund an expansion without the church and school agreeing to a long-term lease for the school,” Wolf wrote.

The solution: Working with his colleague Stephen Powers, Wolf negotiated a below-market, 49-year ground lease between the school and the church, a deal that helped the school raise $20 million to invest in a 20,000-square-foot expansion.

The lease included community space for the church’s programs and conflict-resolution components requiring church and school leaders to meet regularly, which they elected to do weekly over coffee.

The next step was to find a developer. In 2013 Wolf engaged the architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle to assess the site’s zoning, infrastructure and landmark issues. It was essential to find a developer who would take an “archeologically sensitive approach” to the campus, Wolf said, particularly when it came to the church’s crypts.

Wolf then issued a request for proposals and selected Toll Brothers. The developer agreed to accommodate the church by covering soft costs until the lease was signed, and assented to rent escalations and multiple resets that Wolfe said mitigated nearly all of the church’s financial risk in the deal.

Toll is developing a 75,000-square-foot residential building at site, known as 100 Barrow Street.

“In many ways, Toll Brothers acquired significant risk by participating in this project,” Wolf wrote. “In exchange, they have the opportunity to build new residences in an incredibly desirable neighborhood, which rarely sees the opportunity for new construction.”

From left: WeWork co-founders Miguel McKelvey and Adam Neumann

UPDATED, 11:08 p.m., March 9:  Co-working space giant WeWork has raised $430 million in its latest funding round, giving the company a valuation of $16 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Beijing-based private-equity firm Hony Capital Ltd. and Legend Holdings, its parent company, led the financing round, WeWork CEO Adam Neumann said in a blog post Wednesday.

“Not only does WeWork have one of the largest addressable markets I have ever seen, but the quality of its execution and fit for the Chinese culture is unparalleled,” Hony Capital CEO John Zhao said in the same post. “Our investment in WeWork is both strategic and obvious.”

As part of the round, WeWork has authorized the sale of up to $780 million in two series of convertible preferred shares, both of which are priced at just over $50.19 a piece, Fortune reported.

That share price represents a nearly 53 percent jump from the company’s previous sale of convertible preferred stock last summer, at which time the company was valued at $10 billion.

Last month, it emerged that WeWork’s valuation had jumped to $15 billion after Fidelity Investments reported that its shares in the company had appreciated significantly over the fourth quarter of 2015.

If WeWork were a publicly-traded company, the $16 billion valuation would make it the third-most-valuable publicly traded office landlord, the Journal noted. Boston Properties chair Mort Zuckerman happens to be a major investor in WeWork. [Fortune and WSJ]– Rey Mashayekhi and Hiten Samtani 

Correction: Due to conflicting news reports, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated WeWork’s valuation. It is $16 billion. 

Aliza Avital-Caplan (credit: Larry Ford)

From the March issue: Aliza Avital-Caplan, the under-the-radar broker who runs Emerald Equities NYC, has handled some of the largest multifamily investment sales deals in the city. In 2015, the 39-year-old Israeli native and her three-person team racked up $720 million in transactions, including the 24-building Caiola portfolio that Fairstead Capital and Blackstone Group bought for a massive $690 million.

Avital-Caplan, a one-time personal trainer for the Israeli Defense Force, moved to the city in 1999 with plans of being a professional dancer. But to pay the rent, she became a “Coyote Ugly”-esque bartender: “I brought in more cash than anyone else.” [more]

The apartment at 322 West 57th Street; Lydia Hearst (credit: Twitter)

From Luxury Listings NYC: Lydia Hearst-Shaw, the great-granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst and the daughter of Patty Hearst, has sold her condo at the Sheffield at 322 West 57th Street for $2.45 million, according to property records filed with the city. The buyer was the Wendy Rowinsky Revocable Trust. Brian Lewis of Halstead had the listing (and yes, he did make his signature, slightly ridiculous, listing video for it). [more]

Rendering of 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg (credit: Heritage Equity Partners) (inset: Toby Moskovits)

The 480,000-square-foot commercial and industrial building planned for 25 Kent Avenue has hit a snag.

Community Board 1 struck down a request from developers Heritage Equity Partners and Philadelphia-based Rubenstein Partners to seek a special permit to change zoning rules in part of Williamsburg’s industrial zone, DNAinfo reported. The zoning change would allow the developers to double the size of their planned building and dedicate most of the extra space to commercial use. As it stands, current zoning dictates that the extra area would need to be used for community facilities. If granted the additional commercial space, the developers would need to set aside some space in the eight-story building for light manufacturing use.

Board members expressed concern that the zoning modifications could open the floodgates for developers with less attractive proposals than that planned for 25 Kent. An attorney for the developers disagreed, telling the website that other developers would also need to seek a special permit. The board members said that more restrictions were needed to make sure that the manufacturing space was kept affordable and used as intended, the website reported.

“This is going to affect us for the rest of our lives,” said the board’s chair, Dealice Fuller.

The next public hearing on the zoning changes is set for March 21. [DNAinfo] — Kathryn Brenzel