Amanda Burden

As Amanda Burden’s decade-plus reign as planning commissioner begins to wind down, New York’s real estate watchers are already looking ahead to her potential successors, Crain’s reported.

Early successors include two ex-city planners: Vishaan Chakrabarti; Columbia University’s Center for Urban Real Estate director and a SHoP Architects partner; and Regina Myer, president of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Another hopeful is Anna Levin, a City Planning Commission member and former community board chairwoman.

Chakrabarti is likely to support residential rezoning in neighborhoods like Long Island City and the South Bronx. His Columbia center is set to release a report soon that is expected to point to a need for 300,000 residential units as the city takes in an expected 1 million new residents by 2030.

Levin, with her community board background, would be expected to keep residents’ concerns in mind as the city grows.

Myer has earned praise for her work at Brooklyn Bridge Park, but drew the ire of unions for building without them.

Burden has said she doesn’t plan to stay on after Mayor Michael Bloomberg leaves office at the end of the year.  [Crain's] –TRD

From left: Fredrik Eklund, John Gomes and the interior of 20 Greene Street

1. Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes of Douglas Elliman sold unit 6A at 20 Greene Street for $9,600,000.

From left: Valerie Sherman of Sotheby’s International and 730 Park Avenue

2. Valerie Sherman of Sotheby’s International sold unit 3A at 730 Park Avenue for $8,170,000.

From left: C.B. Whyte, Robin von Raab and 1220 Park Avenue

3. C.B. Whyte and Robin von Raab of Stribling & Associates sold unit 15B at 1220 Park Avenue for $8,000,000.

From left: Judith Furgiuele and 151 East 85th Street

4. Judith Furgiuele of Brown Harris Stevens sold unit PHG at 151 East 85th Street for $7,425,000.

From left: Vickey Barron, Ryan Fitzpatrick and 323 West 19th Street

5. Vickey Barron and Ryan Fitzpatrick of CORE sold 323 West 19th Street for $7,180,000.

Sources: StreetEasy and The Real Deal. Footnotes: Data is for closed deals filed with the city this week through Friday. The chart only includes sellers’ brokers, because buyers’ brokers’ names are not available in city data or listings. The data does not include deals in contract. To obtain broker information, listing information was compared with sales records filed with the city. Only deals where an individual broker and address can be identified are included. As a result, private sales, listings where an address has not been provided and new development sales by a sales center are not included.

From left: Barry Gosin, Joe Lhota and Anthony Weiner

Joseph Lhota may be a relative newcomer to the New York City mayoral race, but in the last two months he has captured the lion’s share of real estate contributions, beating out rivals Christine Quinn, Bill de Blasio and others for industry donations, a review of the latest city campaign finance records show.

In the most recent filing period, Lhota captured $47,475 from more than 100 donors from the real estate industry, including Barry Gosin, CEO of commercial brokerage Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, and Alex Goldstein of residential owner Samson Management, who each gave the maximum $4,950 to his campaign.

By contrast, City Council Speaker Quinn — who has raised more funds than any other candidate — drummed up just under $20,000 and Public Advocate de Blasio raised a mere $12,730 from real estate donors in the same period.

The period covers March 12 through May 11, and the filing deadline was May 15. The Real Deal looked at contributions from individuals who identified themselves as members of the real estate industry, as well as those who work at development, title insurance, architecture, construction or brokerage firms but did not specify their line of work in filings, as well the immediate families of well-known industry players.

A Republican, Lhota resigned as chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in preparation for launching his bid in January.

Despite his recent ability to open real estate’s purse strings, he trails far behind other mayoral hopefuls when it comes to overall dollars raised. Lhota has taken in about $97,000 from real estate-related firms since he began accepting contributions this year, about 7 percent of his total of $1.3 million.

Along with Newmark’s Gosin, top contributors to the Lhota campaign include Robert Billingsley, a vice chairman at Cassidy Turley, and Adam Rose, co-president of Rose Associates.

Meanwhile, Quinn, a Democrat, has reaped $1.2 million through more than 1,000 individual contributions from the real estate industry since 2007. Real estate represents about 17 percent of the $7 million she has raised.

Last month, Anthony Malkin, who is part of a family that controls the Empire State Building and is president of W&M Properties, wrote a $4,600 check to Quinn, the records show.

Bill Thompson, a Democrat and former City Comptroller, has also pulled in donations from major industry players. Overall, he raked in just over $395,000 in real estate-related contributions, or 12 percent of his $3.3 million haul, since he started collecting donations in 2011.

Earlier this month, Eastdil Secured Chairman Benjamin Lambert and Jonathan Tisch, chairman of the Loews Corp., each gave his campaign the maximum contribution of $4,950.

Haim, Stanley and Isaac Chera each gave $3,750 to Thompson this month. Between those contributions and an earlier donation, their firm, Crown Acquisitions, has donated a total of $12,250.

Glenwood Management, led by president Leonard Litwin, gave a combined $14,850 to Thompson, all in 2012. One year earlier, three individuals from H.J. Kalikow & Co., led by Peter Kalikow, gave a combined $14,850.

Eight executives from SL Green Realty gave Thompson a total of $6,400 since the campaign’s inception, through eight contributions of $800 each, in March 2013.

Former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is expected to formally enter the race next week, pulled in more than $1 million from real estate professionals and related industries between 2007 and 2009, including $21,000 from executives at Vornado Realty Trust, for a total of $4.8 million, or 25 percent of his donations.

Weiner also snagged maximum $4,950 contributions from the wives of top developers, including Ben Ashkenazy’s wife Debra, Haim Binstock’s wife Gallya and Hal Fetner’s wife and three children. Weiner has not received any additional contributions since then.

City Comptroller John Liu has received about $185,000 from real estate-related individuals since he started taking donations in late 2010, only about 5.5 percent of his total of $3.3 million.

Liu received major donations from construction companies, such as $4,500 from an executive at J.T. Hwang Enterprises in Flushing, and $8,300 from two professionals at Goode Realty in Bushwick. Liu also accepted significant donations from employees of hotels in the city.

Sam Chang, CEO of McSam Hotel Group, and seven other employees at the firm, each gave Liu $800 for a total of $6,400 in 2011.

De Blasio has raised nearly $250,000 in real estate-related contributions. Arthur Zeckendorf, co-chairman of Terra Holdings, gave a maximum gift in February. Other top contributors were Victor Elmaleh, of World-Wide Holdings.

De Blasio’s large real estate contributions nearly halted in the most recent filing period, although Neil Goldmacher, a vice chairman at Newmark, donated $2,500 in April, the campaign board’s website shows. De Blasio’s total real estate contributions come to only about 6 percent of his entire campaign income of $3.9 million.

Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich, Conn. (Credit: David Ogilvy & Associates)

1. Greenwich, Conn., house asking $190 million could be priciest in U.S. [WSJ]
2. Tenant advocate blasts Anthony Weiner in letter [NYP]
3. Renovated UES co-op penthouse at 50 East 89th Street once owned by Tommy Tune asks $14 million [NYO]
4. Public space randomly opens near Holland Tunnel in Lower Manhattan[WSJ]
5. LES co-op uses massive natural gas boiler to heat 2,700 apartments [NYDN]
6. Claim of drop in new apartment buildings may be unfounded[CNBC]
7. Strathmore condos in Harlem begin showing [BuzzBuzzHome]
8. Old-fashioned burger restaurant opens on Lenox Avenue[DNAinfo]
9. Recent college grads return to New York roots [NYT]
10. NYC residents oppose artist’s photos taken through apartment windows [Business Insider]
11. Connecticut Cottages & Gardens backs restoration of local landmarks [Editor At Large]
12. Frank Lloyd Wright homes on the market have ups and downs [WSJ]

TRD will be covering all the highlights of this year’s ICSC REcon event in Las Vegas

The International Council of Shopping Centers’ RECon event kicks off on Sunday, and The Real Deal will be on hand to cover all the panels, parties, networking and, most importantly, dealmaking that are the hallmarks of the annual global retail convention.

This year’s conference, held in Las Vegas from May 19 to May 22, is expected to be the biggest one since the 2008 real estate bust, drawing more than 33,000 real estate professionals, 1,000 exhibitors and 1,000 companies.

Watch this space starting Sunday for live reporting from the convention floor, and don’t forget to follow @trdny on Twitter for up-to-the-minute dispatches.

From left: Adam Pincus, Katherine Clarke

Reporters Adam Pincus and Katherine Clarke will be in attendance. Email them with any tips or questions. Adam is at ap@therealdeal.com and Kathy is at kc@therealdeal.com.

And in case you missed it, check out TRD’s essential guide to ICSC here.

The answer appears to be yes, and last week two federal agencies — the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — were asked to investigate why. The reality is this: The credit reporting system now in place does not have a separate code that distinguishes a short sale from a foreclosure.

Yet there are crucial differences between the two.

In a short sale, the bank approves the sale of the house to a new buyer at a mutually acceptable price. Any unpaid remaining loan balance not covered by the sale proceeds may then be either partially or fully forgiven. The bank is an active participant throughout the process, negotiating for a higher price and higher repayment of principal from the original borrower.

In a foreclosure, the bank is essentially left holding the bag. The owners walk away at some point or live in the property rent-free until they’re evicted. Frequently there is damage to the house left by the departing owners, sometimes extensive. There is little or no cooperation between them and the bank.

Both transactions are serious, negative credit events for the borrower. After all, the mortgage wasn’t fully repaid. But the financial losses generated by a foreclosure typically are more severe for the lender than a short sale. Not only are there extended periods of nonpayment by the borrower but there are also substantial property management expenses, renovation costs, local property taxes and insurance while the house is being readied for resale. In some parts of the country, the average time to complete a foreclosure has exceeded two years.

The nation’s major sources of mortgage financing — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration — all recognize the differences between short sales and foreclosures in their underwriting policies regarding new mortgages. Fannie Mae generally won’t approve a new mortgage application by borrowers with a foreclosure on their credit report for up to seven years, but will consider lending to people who were involved in short sales — and who otherwise qualify in terms of recent credit behavior and available down payment — in as little as two years.

But if short sales routinely show up in credit reports coded as foreclosures, borrowers who might be capable to qualify for a new mortgage two or three years after a short sale find themselves shut out of the market.

George Albright, who completed a short sale on his home in New Port Richey, Fla., in 2010, has been trying for months to get through the hoops for a Fannie Mae conventional mortgage. According to his mortgage broker, Pam Marron, Albright has a solid 720 FICO credit score, 20 percent down payment cash and more than adequate monthly income and reserves for a new home. But he keeps getting rejected because his credit report indicates a foreclosure, not a short sale.

That’s not unusual, Marron said, since there is no specific code to identify short sales. In a highly automated and strict underwriting environment, lenders go by the codes, according to Marron, harming creditworthy applicants like Albright.

“I did my time,” Albright said in an interview. “I’m ready to move on,” but because of the inadequacy of current credit reporting practices “I’m still paying more for rent than I’d be paying on a new mortgage.”

Following a Capitol Hill hearing May 7 on credit reporting issues, Senator Bill Nelson, D-Fla., sent requests to both the FTC and the CFPB to investigate what he called the “disturbing practice” of misidentifying short sales, and to “penalize responsible parties in the mortgage- and credit-reporting industries, if they don’t fix this coding problem within 90 days.”

Nelson said real estate industry data indicate that there have been 2.2 million short sales nationwide during the past several years. Consumers who opted for a short-sale route rather than a more costly foreclosure are now being blocked from “re-entry into the housing market,” he said, thereby “stifling economic recovery for all homeowners.”

Officials of the main trade group for the credit reporting industry, the Consumer Data Industry Association, were not available for comment on Nelson’s short-sales complaint to the federal agencies.

Kenneth R. Harney is a syndicated real estate columnist.

Ronn Torossian and 1166 Avenue of the Americas

Communications firm 5W Public Relations has taken a 38,166-square-foot space at Minskoff Equities’ 1166 Avenue of the Americas, the company’s CEO, Ronn Torossian, told The Real Deal today.

“Our employees and clients are already asking about a Thanksgiving day parade party now that the Macy’s parade goes down Sixth Avenue,” Torossian said.

5W PR sublet the entire fourth floor in the 44-story, 1.5 million-square-foot building from investment management firm D.E. Shaw & Co. The deal runs until February 2017, and asking rents for the space were $46. CBRE’s Roger Griswold brokered the deal, but declined to comment.

5W PR left a 24,000-square-foot space at Vornado Realty Trust’s 888 Seventh Avenue, where it was subleasing from software company SunGard.

“Thankfully, the entire public relations industry continues to grow and we need a larger footprint than we had at 888,” Torossian said.

Jared Solomon, a Vornado associate involved in leasing at the 841,000-square-foot building, said that since it was a sublease, Vornado had no involvement in the move and could not speak to future plans for the space.

D.E. Shaw currently leases 237,450 square feet at the Minskoff Equities building, according to CoStar.

“Since we moved onto three new floors in 2011, we have been relocating staff to the new floors and gradually releasing our older floors,” a spokesman for D.E. Shaw said.

The deal, which closed in March, is one of the largest sublease deals struck this year, according to data from commercial real estate firm Cassidy Turley. In February, the Clinton Global Initiative signed a sublease with Hearst for 30,000 square feet on the 42nd floor of 1271 Avenue of the Americas, as The Real Deal reported.

Other major tenants at 1166 Avenue of the Americas include Advance Publications, a media company that owns Condé Nast and leases 160,960 square feet of space at the property.

David Frankel, Department of Finance Commissioner

ACRIS is getting a makeover. The New York City Department of Finance is updating the Automated City Register Information System, which tracks public real estate records filed throughout the city — including deeds, mortgages and liens — with new functions and additional data.

The maintenance work for the update, which has shut down ACRIS, began yesterday afternoon and will continue until Monday morning.

The new version’s enhancement include, most notably, a document search exclusively for co-op units, a search that will distinguish if a mortgage is being recorded as a refinancing or not, and a document search by date range across all boroughs, according to the department’s website.

Starting in July, real estate professionals will be able to submit property documents electronically.

Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, echoed the sentiments of many ACRIS users by noting the database’s functionality and accuracy — but surmised there was still room for improvement.

“I certainly would love to have a friendlier user interface,” Miller said. “I don’t think anybody looking at it would argue with me.”

A bigger problem with ACRIS, he continued, is its “consistency of information” in terms of late postings for co-op data, for example.

Representatives for the DOF were not immediately available for comment.

Carnegie Hill

The old calculus of buying versus renting hinges on a host of personal factors, not least of which is the investment cost. In New York City, an average home buyer needs to spend 6.1 years in a chosen dwelling to recoup the cost of purchasing that unit, according to new figures from Zillow. 

Depending on how long a resident wants to live in a given home, that time investment could tip the scales toward one option or the other. Of course, the break-even point varies widely across neighborhoods.

The three neighborhoods with the lengthiest time investments are Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill and the West Village and Brooklyn’s Manhattan Beach. Average residents need to stay in their purchased homes for 11.9 years, 10.6 years and 10.2 years, respectively, to break even.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Parkchester section of the Bronx ranks as the neighborhood with the shortest break-even point — 2.5 years — followed closely by the Bronx’s Melrose and Belmont, which have respective break-even times of 3.2 and 3.4 years.

Meanwhile, for both the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side, the time is just shy of 9 years. In the hot Chelsea market, it would take 6.7 years to recoup the costs. –Zachary Kussin

Council member Dickens and the two Harlem buildings in debt

The city plans to auction off liens on two Harlem apartment buildings partly owned by City Council member Inez Dickens, the New York Daily News reported. The two properties — 2153 and 2155 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard — are $48,375 behind in payments.

Dickens inherited a 50 percent ownership in the properties from her late father, Council member Lloyd Dickens. Despite her stake in the buildings, she has no role in their management, a spokesperson told the Daily News.

“The council member is not engaged in any way with the real estate side,” the spokesperson told the paper. “Her family actually manages that … she doesn’t draw a salary from the real estate business.”

The buildings are located in between West 127th and West 128th streets.

This is not the first time the family has fallen behind in payments. Inez Dickens and her family two years ago owed $41,277 in back taxes on four Harlem properties — one of which is currently in debt — that she paid off. [NYDN] –Zachary Kussin