Manhattan, especially recently, has been a breeding ground for development, with the most notable developers clamoring at the opportunity to snatch up a prime piece of real estate and build the next “it” tower. In the last eighteen months alone, there have been fifty-five new luxury developments in Manhattan, representing approximately 5,600 units. To give
I’m sure the vast majority know that the primary purpose of bridge loans are to act as short-term, temporary financing between the acquisition and/or development of a property and a permanent loan. Bridge loans are short-term loans that by definition are not the type of loan product or origination source, but the use of the
The retail investment sector is ready to burst, and investment sales brokers agree that there has been a clear rise in requests for suitable retail investment properties. One major driving force behind retail acquisition is the re-born availability to finance large acquisitions of not only single properties but large portfolios of retail-heavy assets. Banks are
To those who may not have thought of this option prior, there are some distinct advantages for real estate investors to allocating real estate owned into an IRA. Real estate is tangible, thus, you have strategic control over the management of the properties and which properties are purchased for the account. My personal favorite advantage
Manhattan, NY Members of Baruch College’s alumni community have banded together to create the college’s first real estate alumni club. The goal of the group is to “create, maintain and support a community of Real Estate Alumni of Baruch College and Newman Real Estate Institute.” At their first official board meeting on March 1st, the
What are your predictions for commercial real estate in 2012? 2012 will be defined by how well the European markets will manage to sort out their liquidity crises. We are heading for an election year and that brings more uncertainty to an already volatile market. Expect market like New York, D.C. and San Francisco to
In the midst of the global predicament comes another hurdle for hoteliers to jump over; hotel construction financing has become increasingly difficult to achieve. While financing for the purchase or refinancing of strong hotel properties in New York remains strong, private funding for construction or redevelopment has been quite stringent. Hospitality financing groups have been
With Senior Lenders more conservative than in past years, bankers have been opening their doors to non-traditional alternatives to the fill the void in capital stack for qualified borrowers with well-positioned assets. It seems the stars have aligned for mezz lenders; a rapid increase in development in and around the boroughs, as well as a
Pool table manufacturer Blatt Billiards has sold its six-story building at 809 Broadway, according to property records. The buyer, a syndicate of Israeli investors using the name 809 Broadway Holding LLC, paid $24 million for the building, which is between 11th and 12th Streets. The deal closed on February 13 and was recorded with the
Lee Silpe (27) Berko & Associates, COO and Partner At Berko and Associates, Lee Silpe wears many hats. As the chief operating officer, he oversees the operations for the whole office, consisting of 22 associates, analysts and support staff. He is also a director at the company, leading a team of the firm’s top agents.
Long Island City, NY Joe Berko and Michael Korine of Berko & Associates along with Madison Realty Capital (MRC) completed a $27 million first mortgage loan to recapitalize on the Paper Factory Hotel at 37-06 36th St., which will open later this month. The borrower purchased the six-story 103,000 s/f warehouse in 2012 and turned
Early this year, the outlook appeared grim for the owners of 280 Park Ave. Vacancy rates were ballooning, and cash reserves were dwindling. But Broadway Partners and Investcorp Real Estate Group still had to service huge debt they’d taken on when they bought the 1.2 million-square-foot, two-tower property at the height of the market in
Joe Berko was on a visit to Brazil when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008. “I was watching CNN and I knew: This is it. Something big just happened,” he recalled. When he returned to the U.S., he found a financial system that had gone into cardiac arrest. Berko’s promising, three-year-old investment
One aspect of the current cycle of recovery in the commercial real estate market is the continual increase in the cost of construction, a facet of the process that most do not think of when deliberating their next project in the midst of the development boom. The costs of materials and labor have increased as
Joe Berko and Michael Korine of Berko & Associates recently completed a $27 million first mortgage loan to recapitalize on the Paper Factory Hotel al 37-06 36th Street in Long Island City, The borrower purchased the six-story 103,000-square-foot Long Island City warehouse in 2012 and turned the former paper factory and industrial property into a
The Real Deal – Madison Realty Capital continues to make moves in Queens, with the real estate investment firm on the verge of closing on a five-parcel assemblage in Woodside for around $31 million, sources told The Real Deal. The assemblage — located on a block bound by Queens Boulevard, 47th Avenue and 69th and
There are multiple billions worth of new developments on one Manhattan block alone, each setting new, unique records and each requiring new, creative ways to finance them. Before the crash, CMBS was a popular source of debt, totaling $230 billion in activity in 2007. Those days are gone. In the past two years, EB-5 has
After a run-up in pricing that even some of the industry’s most bullish observers find head spinning, Manhattan’s luxury retail market is starting to show cracks, and that could put its most active lenders on the line. Big banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and France’s Crédit Agricole, as well as
NYREJ – Berko & Associates has closed on the sale of two connected four-story, loft office buildings located at 201-209 46th St. on the corner of 2nd Ave. in the Sunset Park neighborhood. The property sold for $15.5 million, at $290 per s/f above grade, a record for the area, suggesting a still-healthy appetite within
The New York Yankees are seeking to become the latest professional sports club in the region to take advantage of record-low interest rates to lower borrowing costs by refinancing about $1 billion of bonds issued to build the team’s new stadium. The refinancing by the Yankees, who are second-to-last place in their division, was disclosed