China Evergrande Group, whose $300 billion of liabilities make it the world’s most indebted developer, tried to reassure investors that it’s still hard at work as it missed its second offshore bond interest payment in a week. At least three local Evergrande offices posted time-stamped photos of workers at construction sites on social media, according to Insider.The Pearl River Delta office posted photos from Sept. 24 and said it would deliver on time 20 local
US office investment market remains well below 2019 levels
The U.S. office investment market has yet to recover from the pandemic, as sales volume remains well below 2019 levels. The dollar volume of investment sales transactions across the top 30 markets totaled $28 billion in July. That was 45 percent below the July 2019 amount of $39.5 billion, according to Reonomy figures first reported by Commercial Observer. Comparing volume in Q2 2021 and Q2 2019, some metro markets appear to be recovering — total
Former Venezuelan oil exec sentenced in $1B money laundering scheme
A former executive with Venezuela’s state-run oil company was sentenced to two years and four months in prison in connection with an alleged $1.2 billion money laundering scheme linked to South Florida real estate. Abraham Edgardo Ortega, who was executive director of financial planning at PDVSA, admitted he accepted more than $12 million in bribes for his role, which allowed other Venezuelans who were charged to embezzle from the company, the Miami Herald reported. Prosecutors
US warehouse boom attracts foreign investors
It’s not just massive firms like Blackstone Group and Prologis that are throwing billions of dollars at warehouses — foreign investors are also pouring money into the booming industrial sector. Investment firms from France, Germany and South Korea are among those that have recently inked big deals for industrial properties, according to the Wall Street Journal. That comes even as overall foreign investment into U.S. real estate has plummeted due to the pandemic. Real Capital
Brooklyn Heights Association’s Survey for the Future of Montague Street
Dear Neighbors – Two things you need to do this weekend:1. Fill out Brooklyn Heights Association’s community survey to add your voice for the future of Montague Street.2. Read Mary Frost’s (as always) rich and fascinating report in the Eagle on the history of Montague Street retail, and the many reasons for its past and current struggles. Mary digs deep to uncover the issues that go far beyond the obvious, and interviews longtime retailers who offer their frank assessments. A notable quote from Tony Bates, owner of Bentley’s Shoes: “Shopping online …
Permanently Closed: Brooklyn Heights Businesses Lost To The Pandemic
Seven months into the pandemic, most of our local small businesses are hanging on. With pure grit and ingenuity, restaurants turned parking spots into dining spaces, and retail stores went online until their doors could open again. Tragically, not all of the businesses survived the long shutdown, not to mention the loss of tourists and nearly half of the residents who left town for months. Here, we memorialize the Brooklyn Heights businesses that permanently closed since March 2020.Jack the Horse Tavern (66 Hicks St.)JtH Next Door (66 Hicks St.)Five Guys (138 Montague St.)Amy’s Bread (72 Clark St.)Chocolate Works (110 Montague St.)The…
World’s last Blockbuster for rent on Airbnb
The last remaining Blockbuster video store in the world is getting a new lease on life. Airbnb is turning the Bend, Oregon, store into a nostalgia-themed rental, according to NBC News. It is listed for three one-night stays in September for the low cost of $4 — a penny more than the video store’s rental fee. The store will be stocked with “all the movies your heart could desire,” according to a
Housing Works Thrift Shops Coming Back to Montague St.!
Who says there’s no good news anymore? The tip came from a friend and neighbor via text tonight.Housing Works is coming back to Montague St.!You may recall, to the dismay of the entire neighborhood, Housing Works closed shop at the location on Montague off Henry St. in March 2017, and was replaced by Halstead Real Estate. Housing Works will now move into the location that Halstead vacated at 150 Montague St., next to Francesca’s. The best switcheroo imaginable!We no longer have to trek to Park Slope to donate gently-used items to help fund Housing Works’ invaluable support of the homeless and people living with HIV. Or to find that like-new, stunning, mid-century sofa you never thought you needed, but really do…
Goodbye, Teresa’s?
Thanks to reader AbbeyK we have a link to a real estate ad that lists 80 Montague Street, Teresa’s Restaurant, as for lease. If it is leased to a new tenant, your correspondent may have to go far afield – Greenpoint?; East Village? – to get his tripe soup and kielbasa fix. Moreover, Brooklyn’s elite will have to find a new power breakfast spot. And what could afford the $18K/month rent the ad asks? Applebee’s? The Cheesecake Factory? The Olive Garden? God help us.Say it ain’t so!
Vacant Retail Spaces: Why? What, If Anything, Can Be Done?
You would have to have been in Brooklyn Heights for over five years to remember when the last tenant, Starbucks, moved out of 112 Montague Street (photo) to a smaller space a block away. Since then, apart from being used as storage space for Lassen & Hennigs next door, the space has lain fallow. While there are no similar long-term vacancies on Montague (well; there’s the Bossert, which is not quite vacant because of a few holdover tenants, but that’s another story), there are others not far away.Why? Greedy landlords? Bricks-and-mortar retail is dying because …
After 137 years, this landmark church finally got a building permit
The city of Barcelona has finally issued a building permit for La Sagrada Família, an architectural landmark in the Spanish city that has been under construction since 1882. The city licensed a committee to finish the construction of the Roman Catholic basilica and charge a fee of 4.6 million euros ($5.2 million), CNN reported. License fee proceeds will fund efforts to soften the local impact of the church’s global appeal: 4.5 million people a year …
New York Times Notes Transformation of Montague Street
In Sunday’s New York Times Metropolitan Section, Ginia Bellafante’s Big City column has the title “The Empty Storefront Crisis and the End of the American Dream”. She begins by telling the story of Sam I-Rumi, proprietor of Pet’s Emporium on Montague Street (photo, by C. Scales), who immigrated to New York in 1980 at the age of eighteen. After nine years here he opened his store on Montague; its survival for thirty years makes Ms. Bellafante describe it, and him, as “the hardiest plant in the most unforgiving weather.”Of Montague Street as a whole, Ms. Bellafante writes:“Once the prime shopping artery of an…
Bye for Meow, Clark Pet
Early Monday afternoon, this text message (which I’ve edited for clarity) hit my phone:Dear valued customers,This is Mike, the owner of Clark Pet. Due to the very high rent of Clark Pet store, the store is moving to DUMBO, to my giant big branch store named Pet Promise located at 140 Plymouth St. under the Manhattan Bridge. The store is doing full service grooming, boarding, cat sitting, etc. To book a grooming appointment or to have free delivery, you can call or text 347 – 247 – 4963.By early Tuesday evening, the store at 57 Clark Street was virtually empty, and Mike was both overseeing and participating in the major clean-up and moving operation.“The new store is huge!” …
Friend of a Farmer Building On the Market for $3.85 million
Cushman and Wakefield have been retained to coordinate the sale of 76 Montague Street, the two-story building most recently home of Friend of a Farmer.The building will be delivered vacant and could be developed as retail or residential.According to the listing, “76 Montague Street is an incredible opportunity for investors, developers, and users alike to secure an asset with significant upside in Brooklyn’s most affluent neighborhood.”More details here.Massey/Knakel photo from listing.
Will Hell Freeze Over? Bossert Said to Have “Soft Opening” in August
Brownstoner reports that the Bossert Hotel, at Montague and Hicks streets, may have a “soft opening” in August, followed by a “hard opening” in September. The owners have applied for a liquor license, in which they have disclosed these details:The liquor license will cover a restaurant on the ground floor and a bar in the lobby (which will have live piano music), two ballrooms (used for weddings and other events) and a bar on the 14th floor that has both indoor and outdoor …
Long shadow of Toys “R” Us closure boosts competitors, leaves toymakers reeling
Toymakers are struggling to stay afloat in a world without Toys “R” Us. Mattel saw its annual sales fall by 8 percent last year, according to The Associated Press. Hasbro had a 12 percent drop in sales, as the sudden absence of Toys “R” Us stores made it harder to find shelves for their products. Competing retailers like Target, Walmart and Party City all expanded their toy offerings since last spring, when Toys “R” Us …
Why South Africa’s construction industry is on shaky ground
A South Africa construction group is calling on the government to intervene following a series of recent episodes in which $1.8 billion worth of building projects have been disrupted by armed groups around the country. A letter from the South African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors, a lobbying group, to the country’s finance minister, Tito Mboweni, details the incidents and their impact on investor confidence and the country’s construction industry, which has seen a flight …
Two more retail tenants sign on at Macklowe’s 432 Park
UPDATED March 16, 2019, 9:21p.m.: The massive photo portrait of Harry Macklowe and his new wife isn’t the only new thing at 432 Park Avenue. At a panel at 92Y’s third annual City of Tomorrow summit, Cushman & Wakefield’s executive vice chairman Joanne Podell revealed that two more tenants had signed leases at the 130,000-square-foot commercial component of Macklowe’s luxury condominium tower. New York Post columnist Steve Cuozzo was making a larger point about how […
Grand Canyon to Return to Montague Street
Those of you who, like me, miss Grand Canyon’s superb burgers are in for a treat. While the “Restaurant For Lease” sign remains above the former Armando’s site at 143 Montague (see photo by your correspondent taken this evening), the Commercial Observer reports that the restaurant’s owner, who kept open another Grand Canyon in Park Slope, has taken that space and will return to Montague. It will be right next door to Grand Canyon’s old location, now occupied by B.Good.The one downside to this, although it was probably foreordained by Armando’s closing, is that we will lose the Armando’s sign with
Hudson Yards’ tax breaks are bigger than Amazon’s would have been
Over a period of more than 10 years, government tax breaks and incentives to support Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group’s development of Hudson Yards total about $6 billion. That’s double the package of tax breaks and incentives Amazon’s Long Island City campus was trying to secure before the company scrapped its plans, the New York Times reports. Related Hudson Yards’ president L. Jay Cross told the publication the 28-acre complex that contains 13 buildings …
What the trade of this luxury hotel brand means for the hospitality industry
In what is thought to be the first deal of its kind, Best Western has acquired European indie hotel chain, WorldHotels. The global hotel industry has been going through big changes in recent years, as online booking and homesharing cracked open new opportunities for independent hotels. In response, large hotel chains have launched dozens of “soft brands”, semi-independent collections of hotels that can offer differentiated experiences to travelers. This week, Best Western upped the ante …
Goodbye, Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable? Also 192 Montague, AKA 200 Montague, to be Razed for Residential?
For some years now my wife and I have patronized Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable, at 181 Atlantic Avenue, a few doors west of Sahadi’s, for fresh produce at reasonable prices. It appears this may be coming to an end soon. According to Brooklyn Community Board 2, the agenda for its Land Use Committee meeting to be held at 6:00 PM tomorrow, Wednesday, February 20 at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Dibner Building, Room LC400, 5 Metrotech Center (on the north side of the Metrotech Commons) includes this item:181 Atlantic Avenue — Brooklyn Heights Historic District — Application is to demolish the existing, …
The cost of natural disasters last year? $91B
Natural disasters caused $91 billion in damage to the United States last year, a federal government study has found. Amid growing global concern for climate change, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration analyzed the aftermath of 14 natural disasters that occurred during 2018, and found that it was the fourth most costly year on record for such events, as reported by CNBC. The most devastating events were the California wildfires, Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas …
This is the world’s “money-laundering paradise”
Everything’s bigger in Dubai. Home to the world’s tallest building since 2010, the emirate’s real estate industry could also be one of the world’s largest money laundromats. Transparency International, the anti-corruption group behind the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), has now joined the chorus of voices decrying the city-state’s weak regulations and lax enforcement, according to Forbes. With the release of its latest CPI results, Transparency International singled out Dubai for special