This month in real estate history

1908: New Mutual Alliance building brings high finance to the LES The Mutual Alliance Trust Company’s third office building officially opened for business in the Lower East Side 111 years ago this month, the New York Times reported. The  firm’s new outpost reportedly heralded the banking industry’s arrival in a neighborhood known more for its impoverished tenements than wealth management. The six-story building on Grand Street, designed by architect John Hamilton, cost the company $175,000 to […]

source https://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/this-month-in-real-estate-history-135/#new_tab

Inside the HTC’s fight to unionize a small hotel in Gowanus, and what it says about the union’s future

The New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council (HTC) is riding high these days. A few months after securing a City Council vote to restrict Airbnb in the city, New York’s largest hotel union received more good news last month when the Council voted to put a damper on hotel development in light manufacturing zones, where a growing number of the city’s hotels are built. Despite these recent successes, HTC still has an Achilles’ heel […]

source https://therealdeal.com/2019/01/31/inside-the-htcs-fight-to-unionize-a-small-hotel-in-gowanus-and-what-it-says-about-the-unions-future/

The city’s multifamily market saw increases across the board in 2018

New York’s multifamily market may have almost died in 2017, but the optimism brokers had about a rebound in 2018 proved to be well founded. The market saw year-over-year increases by every metric, and dollar volume hit a two-year high thanks to a strong increase in institutional sales, according to a report from Ariel Property Advisors. Overall, the city saw $11.1 billion in multifamily sales across 473 deals and 896 buildings last year. Compared to 2017, […]

source https://therealdeal.com/2019/01/30/the-citys-multifamily-market-saw-increases-across-the-board-in-2018/

Googlers call for company to become a more socially conscious real estate buyer

A resolution from Google shareholders and employees calls on the company to reform multiple aspects of the way it does business, including doing more to address the displacement of poorer residents in areas where it buys real estate. The resolution also calls for Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to address racial and gender diversity and criticizes the way contract staffers are treated, according to Bloomberg. It says Alphabet has responded inadequately to key demands that workers […]

source https://therealdeal.com/2019/01/30/googlers-call-for-company-to-become-a-more-socially-conscious-real-estate-buyer/

Deloitte fined by Malaysian government over 1MDB scandal

Professional services firm Deloitte is the latest global company to be embroiled in the scandal that depleted Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund. The UK-based firm was fined $535,000 Wednesday by the Malaysian government after it allegedly failed to report irregularities found in audits of companies linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund, according to the Financial Times. The fund, which was established under Malaysia’s previous prime minister Najib Razak, has come under scrutiny under the new […]

source https://therealdeal.com/2019/01/30/deloitte-fined-by-malaysian-government-over-1mdb-scandal/

Sen. Julia Salazar’s new eviction bill is the first step toward Universal Rent Control

Brooklyn State Senator Julia Salazar, who creamed an incumbent Democrat on the way to winning a seat in Albany last summer, submitted her first housing bill on Wednesday, in a move that would pave the way for “universal rent control” in New York State. The bill, a proposed reform of the state’s “good cause” eviction laws, would prevent tenants in nearly any market-rate apartment in New York from being evicted for not paying an “unconscionable” […]

source https://therealdeal.com/2019/01/30/sen-julia-salazars-new-eviction-bill-is-the-first-step-toward-universal-rent-control/

Westchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: MGM inks $850M Yonkers casino and raceway deal, architecture firm HLW heads to Stamford … & more

MGM Resorts closes on $850M Yonkers casino, raceway buy Eight months after announcing its purchase of the Empire City Casino and Yonkers Raceway, Las Vegas-based hospitality and entertainment giant MGM Resorts has finalized the terms of its $850 million acquisition, LoHud reported. News of the closing came a day after New York State Gaming Commission’s board signed off on the gaming and horse racing licenses that MGM needed for the purchase to go through, according […]

source https://therealdeal.com/2019/01/30/westchester-fairfield-cheat-sheet-mgm-inks-850m-yonkers-casino-and-raceway-deal-architecture-firm-hlw-heads-to-stamford-more/