Due to low prices and the relative weakness of the dollar, international buyers continue to identify the U.S. as a desirable place to own property and make a profitable investment.
According to the National Association of Realtors 2012 Profile of International Home Buying Activity, total residential international sales in the U.S. for the past year ending March 2012 equaled $82.5 billion, up from $66.4 billion in 2011.
Total international sales were evenly split between non-resident foreigners and recent immigrants.
The survey asked Realtors to report their international business activity within the U.S. …

By Al Barbarino

Harbor Group International has sold 4 New York Plaza for $270 million – a whopping $163 million more than what the Norfolk, Virginia- based real estate investor paid for it in 2010 – to Edge Fund Advisors, city records show.

Edge purchased the roughly 1.1-million-square-foot, 22-story, Downtown office tower in partnership with HSBC Alternative Investments Limited, amid optimism of a Downtown rebirth that is being fueled in large part by the rise of One World Trade Center.

By Sarah Trefethen

A development site across the street from the AirTrain station in Queens is available for sale through the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, according to a Request for Proposals issued Friday by the GJDC and the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

The issuers are looking for a “catalytic project to revitalize downtown Jamaica,” according to Andrew Manshell, executive vice president of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation. Manshell said he hopes to see a full-service hotel and conference space, food service facilities, and possibly housing on the site.

By Al Barbarino
Today’s equity and debt markets face a level of intensified scrutiny that was all but absent during the peak of the market, industry leaders say.
Speakers at Bisnow’s 2nd Annual investment Summit at the New York City Bar Association in Midtown last week (Thursday) said that while the industry is showing some signs of a rebound, albeit a lumpy one, managers and lenders are seeking an unprecedented amount of control over deals.
“People are looking to cover themselves to make sure they don’t get screwed,” said Michael May, senior managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald, which has closed 100 financings worth $1.5 billion. “One of the biggest changes that we’ve seen is a heightened focus on guaranteed situations,” especially on development deals.

By Sarah Trefethen

Just over 10 years ago, in January of 2002, Nassau County was short on the cash needed to maintain its various properties, from courthouses to administrative office. Then-County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi set out to consolidate the county’s holdings, devising a plan that included the sale of a 25-acre parcel in Garden City, a village of just over 21,000 residents in central Long Island.

That decision set of a chain of events that is still playing out in court, where Garden City officials face allegations that racial discrimination caused them to disallow the development of multi-family rental buildings on the site. The case is expected to go to trial in district court this summer.

These cases highlights some of the challenge that have faced both developers who want to target young, elderly and blue-collar residents in suburban New York, and policymakers who seek to bring racial and economic diversity to some of the area’s whitest, most affluent communities.

“Everyone’s for affordable housing until you select a location,” said James Britz, senior vice president of the Long Island Housing Partnership.

By Al Barbarino

For 22 years Danny Cohen worked as a commodities trader on New York City’s trading floors – from the World Trade Center to the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Cohen, who joined Citi Habitats in May, executed up to $25 million in cotton trades through his company, Dack Futures, on any given day.

For four long hours, he bumped against competing traders, deep in the “pit,” to get the best deals for customers, employing an array of nods, hand signals, shouts – and a few friendly shoves along the way. It was “controlled chaos,” where every second mattered, Cohen said.

By Sarah Trefethen

Last week’s announcement that the Seattle-based department store Nordstrom will open a flagship store between Broadway and 7th Avenue will bring a new, western anchor to the 57th Street retail corridor.

The store, to fill 285,000 s/f in a new development by Extell Development Company on 57th Street, is expected to open in 2018.

“We’re not too close to competitors but we’re not too far away from customers,” said Derek Trulson, international director with Jones Lang LaSalle, who represented Nordstrom in the deal. “Effectively we’ll be the only luxury department store on the West Side, which is fantastic, and we’re on 57th Street so you’re really allowing yourself to connect to the East Side shopper through that corridor.”