By Sarah Trefethen
Aurora Capital Associates today confirmed it has entered into a joint-venture agreement with JEMB Realty Corp. to market and dispose of the majority of the leasehold interests of the fashion retailer Daffy’s, which JEMB purchased out of bankruptcy.

Real Estate Weekly first reported Aurora’s plans to acquire the Daffy’s portfolio on August 1.

By Sarah Trefethen
Andres Escobar is hard to categorize, and that’s the way he likes it.

The Columbian-born Canadian designer has made his mark on the city, from Chelsea condos to Upper West Side rentals and a Brooklyn hotel.

Escobar shuns the idea of a signature style, preferring to fit his designs to the client — or the neighborhood.

Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has arranged the sale of the Art & Design Building at 1059 Third Ave. in Midtown Manhattan for $31.5 million or $1,416 ppsf, setting a new price per square foot record for East Midtown commercial real estate. The sale was an all-cash transaction.
Tanya Siegeal and Kailin Zhu, investment specialists in the firm’s Manhattan office, represented the seller. J.D. Parker, vice president and regional manager of the Manhattan office and the firm’s broker of record for New York State, also assisted in closing the transaction. The …

By Al Barbarino
Brooklyn rents have risen sharply over the past year. Williamsburg wasn’t spared. Nor was Greenpoint. But despite sharp rent increases in both neighborhoods, the latter remains an equitable alternative to its chicer and more expensive southerly neighbor.

Year-over-year rents grew more than 22 percent in Williamsburg and 18 percent in Greenpoint, July data from real estate firm MNS shows. But average rents for studio, one and two-bedroom apartment in Williamsburg, at $3,364, are still nearly 29 percent higher than the average Greenpoint rent of roughly $2,613.

UGL Limited today (Wednesday) announced that its property services business, comprised of UGL Services(including the Unicco, Equis and Premas operations) and DTZ, will be united under a single global brand:
Since 5 December 2011, when UGL acquired the trading operations of global real estate services company DTZ Holdings plc, the two companies have co‐branded as UGL Services and DTZ.  The acquisition of DTZ has transformed UGL’s property services business into one of the world’s largest, integrated end‐to‐end providers of property services, operating across all key geographic regions with annual revenue of $2.0 …

Former El Ad president Yosi Manor has followed Miki Naftali out the door  to join him at his eponymous firm.
The Naftali Group announced yesterday (Wednesday) Manor  was joining the development firm as chief financial officer  and managing member.
Naftali, chairman and CEO of The Naftali Group, which  recently celebrated its one-year anniversary said, “We are excited about the addition of Yosi to The Naftali Group and believe that he will be a major asset to our team. We look forward to the expertise and industry savvy that he brings to the …

Two big apartment financing deals with Kushner Companies helped lead Investors Bank to a record month in lending.
Bank president and CEO Kevin Cummings said six of the largest commercial real estate (CRE) lending transactions completed by Investors Bank in June have a combined value of over $116 million.
Two of the June CRE transactions were closed with Kushner  as it continued its recent apartment buying spree with the purchase of 338-units in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. Investment Bank arranged $42 million in financing for those deals.
The remaining loans went to finance properties …

By Al Barbarino

The U.S. CMBS delinquency rate has declined for the first time since February, the latest report from TREPP shows.

After five consecutive months of increases, including three months that set all-time records, the rate fell 21 basis points, from 10.34 in July to 10.13 percent — the largest one-month drop since November 2011.

By Al Barbarino

Bryant Park took the top spot in a new study from CBRE that determined property value increases for buildings that border five of the city’s major parks.

“Premiums on the Park” studied properties adjacent to five Manhattan parks that have undergone significant improvements in recent years — Battery Park, Bryant Park, The High Line, Hudson River Park and Madison Square Park.

By Sarah Trefethen

New York’s representatives to the United States Senate and House of Representatives early last month introduced a pair of bills intended to exempt condominiums from the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, or ILSA.

After the market crash of 2008, federal courts ruled that the 1969 law protected purchasers who had signed contracts to purchase condominiums prior to their construction, only to see both their own financing and the funding for the construction project dry up.

Supporters say the change will protect developers from buyer’s remorse. But some question if the outdated consumer protections should be removed without any new rules to take their place.