<![CDATA[Byron Trott and Michael Dell’s firm has struck a deal with the federal government for the Old Post Office. Leaseholder BDT & MSD Partners acquired the land and building at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., from the General Services Administration for $80 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company — already the owner of a $285 million note and buyer of the leasing rights for $100 million at a foreclosure auction — essentially adds to the value of the holding. That should come in handy for BDT & MSD, which does not plan to be a long-term […] This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story. ]]>
<![CDATA[Manhattan’s Financial District has become the office-to-residential conversion capital of New York City, as thousands of new units have entered the pipeline over the last few years. Kings Capital, a New York City-based real estate investment and development firm, has submitted an application to convert 61 Gold Street, a 17-story vacant office building previously home […]]]>
<![CDATA[Comedian-turned-media mogul Byron Allen dropped over $90 million on the Aspen ultra-luxury market.  The “Comics Unleashed” host purchased a 1.7-acre estate at 76 Placer Lane on Red Mountain, often known as “Billionaire’s Mountain,” for $91.3 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The seller was an entity tied to ProCaps Laboratories founder Andrew Lessman, who acquired the property in 2007 for $10.5 million. The home has 10 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms across 13,400 square feet.  The Allen Media Group founder sold his previous Aspen property two years ago in a $60 million off-market deal, more than double the $27 million he […] This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story. ]]>
<![CDATA[The Shirley Aninias School (SAS), a private special education program for children, has signed the largest lease to date at a Financial District office building. SAS, which was founded in 2022 and provides academics and therapies for neurodiverse students ages 4 to 13, inked a 15-year deal for 23,000 square feet across the second and […]]]>
<![CDATA[Employment litigation firm Jones Jones is relocating within Manhattan’s Financial District. The tenant signed a 10-year, nine-month lease spanning 5,311 square feet on part of the seventh floor of Gaedeke Group’s 44 Wall Street, according to tenant broker Lee & Associates NYC. Lee & Associates did not disclose the asking rent for the space, but […]]]>
<![CDATA[The nation’s biggest homebuilders are facing a reckoning over alleged construction defects, as costly lawsuits pile up from homeowners claiming their newly built houses are literally falling apart. Builders including D.R. Horton, Lennar and PulteGroup have seen legal liabilities surge in recent years as defect litigation spreads across markets, the Wall Street Journal reported. The claims range from cracked foundations and mold infestations to improperly installed roofs and failing ventilation systems.  Homeowners say the issues stem from an industry that prioritized speed and margins during the pandemic-era housing boom, leaning heavily on subcontractors while facing labor shortages and rising materials […] This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story. ]]>
<![CDATA[Wall Street is crowding into a corner of real estate’s private credit market that shares key features with the one that’s landed Blue Owl in recent headlines. Fortress Investment Group, Benefit Street Partners, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Rithm Capital have all recently launched non-traded mortgage REITs to capitalize on demand for private credit. The semi-liquid vehicles raise money from wealthy investors to finance real estate loans, bringing structures that have become increasingly common in corporate private credit into the commercial real estate market. Newcomers have established themselves rapidly; seven of the top 10 non-traded private credit REITs in terms of […] This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story. ]]>
<![CDATA[Elon Musk plans to go where no data center has gone before: space. Musk’s SpaceX and Google are discussing a rocket launch deal that could serve both companies as they seek to put data centers into orbit, the Wall Street Journal reported. Google is also negotiating with other rocket launch companies. Both aspire to put data centers into space, a technology entirely unproven. Nevertheless, it’s one Musk has talked about to investors as a SpaceX IPO looms. SpaceX filed an application with regulators this year to launch up to 1 million satellites to support its orbital data centers. Anthropic expressed […] This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story. ]]>
<![CDATA[The controversial warehouse detention center plan instituted by former Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem is drawing scrutiny from the agency’s own inspector general. The DHS inspector general initiated a probe into the $38 billion program, the Wall Street Journal reported. The inspector general is expected to audit all of the warehouse purchases by the agency during Noem’s stewardship of DHS. The agency pulled approximately $38 billion in funding for the program from Congress through the One Big Beautiful Bill. So far, the agency appears to have spent $1 billion purchasing nine facilities for detention centers. Immigration and Customs […] This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story. ]]>
<![CDATA[The Durst Organization’s One World Trade Center is on trend, according to W Magazine. The American fashion and culture publication signed a long-term, 12,456-square-foot lease on the 46th floor of the 104-story Financial District office tower for its new headquarters, according to tenant broker Avison Young. W Magazine, founded in 1972, is currently helmed by […]]]>
The ideal candidate for office-to-residential conversion - by Robert Khodadadian A perfect example of overcoming these challenges is the conversion of 180 Water St. in lower Manhattan. Originally built in 1971 as an office building, it was transformed into residential apartments in 2017. The building’s large open floors, with windowless cores extending up to 72 ft., seemed unsuitable for residential use at first. However, the architect devised a creative solution: carving out a 1,200 s/f courtyard in the building’s center. This allowed for apartments along both the exterior walls and the new inner courtyard, optimizing natural light while staying compliant with residential codes. To offset the loss of floor space, the developer added four new floors and amenities on the rooftop, maintaining the floor area ratio (FAR) without expanding the building’s footprint. While the 180 Water St. conversion was a success, it’s not easily replicable. Zoning restrictions in many districts make such projects difficult, and financial costs can be steep. To make office-to-residential conversions more viable, changes to zoning regulations and the Multiple Dwelling Law (MDL) are necessary. Eliminating the FAR cap and allowing newer buildings to qualify for conversion would open up more opportunities. Additionally, financial incentives like tax abatements and subsidies are essential to make these projects financially feasible for developers.
A perfect example of overcoming these challenges is the conversion of 180 Water St. in lower Manhattan. Originally built in 1971 as an office building, it was transformed into residential apartments in 2017. The building’s large open floors, with windowless cores extending up to 72 ft., seemed unsuitable for residential use at first. However, the architect devised a creative solution: carving out a 1,200 s/f courtyard in the building’s center. This allowed for apartments along both the exterior walls and the new inner courtyard, optimizing natural light while staying compliant with residential codes. To offset the loss of floor space, the developer added four new floors and amenities on the rooftop, maintaining the floor area ratio (FAR) without expanding the building’s footprint.
While the 180 Water St. conversion was a success, it’s not easily replicable. Zoning restrictions in many districts make such projects difficult, and financial costs can be steep. To make office-to-residential conversions more viable, changes to zoning regulations and the Multiple Dwelling Law (MDL) are necessary. Eliminating the FAR cap and allowing newer buildings to qualify for conversion would open up more opportunities. Additionally, financial incentives like tax abatements and subsidies are essential to make these projects financially feasible for developers.
The exclusive listing myth: Why Manhattan’s biggest deals don’t need gatekeepers - by Robert Khodadadian
Robert Khodadadian
Last month, a 26-story office tower in Manhattan’s Financial District closed for $105 million. The building had traded nearly a decade earlier for $225 million, after which the sellers poured another $70 million into gut renovations. By any traditional calculation, they were staring at a catastrophic loss nearly $200 million evaporated into the New York skyline.
But here is what nobody wrote about: the deal didn’t happen through an exclusive listing. There was no glossy offering memorandum, no controlled auction, and no six-month “process.” The building at 101 Greenwich St. never hit a listing platform; it sold because someone reached the right buyer, the one person who looked at a distressed office tower and saw what others didn’t. The buyer, Idan Ofer, partnered with Nathan Berman of Metro Loft, who has converted more than eight million s/f of office space into residential
Last month, a 26-story office tower in Manhattan's Financial District closed for $105 million. The building had traded nearly a decade earlier for $225 million, after which the sellers poured another $70 million into gut renovations. By any traditional calculation, they were staring at a catastrophic loss nearly $200 million evaporated into the New York skyline.
But here is what nobody wrote about: the deal didn’t happen through an exclusive listing. There was no glossy offering memorandum, no controlled auction, and no six-month “process.” The building at 101 Greenwich Street never hit a listing platform; it sold because someone reached the right buyer, the one person who looked at a distressed office tower and saw what others didn’t. The buyer, Idan Ofer, partnered with Nathan Berman of Metro Loft, who has converted more than 8 million square feet of office space into residential.
The deal closed because the right buyer was found, a fact that challenges how the commercial real estate industry has operated for decades.
The unstated truth about $100+ million transactions is that finding a buyer is not difficult. Manhattan is drowning in capital; sovereign wealth funds maintain permanent teams in Midtown, and family offices move with conviction. In 2023, foreign investors accounted for over 32% of New York City investment activity the highest level since 2019 with Manhattan attracting nearly 20% of all foreign capital flowing into U.S. commercial real estate.
Access is not the scarce resource. Assets are. So, if finding buyers isn’t the challenge, what is? Finding the right buyer.
The Cupid Problem - Think about what this actually means. One investor looks at a building and sees a nightmare: deferred maintenance, difficult tenants, a location that doesn’t fit their portfolio, or a capital structure that doesn’t pencil. They will lowball or walk away entirely. Another investor looks at the exact same building and sees gold. They see the bones of a residential conversion, the corner lot that makes an assemblage possible, or the ground lease that fits perfectly into their tax strategy. They see the neighborhood five years from now instead of today. The building didn’t change; the buyer’s vision did.
This is why commercial real estate at the highest level isn’t really about “selling” at all. It’s about matchmaking. Call it the "Cupid problem": your job isn’t to convince someone to love what you’re selling. Your job is to find the person who already loves it.
The moment you find that match, the market speaks for itself regarding pricing. In Manhattan, at $100+ million and above, there is a beautiful and brutal reality that strips away the noise: nobody steals anything, and nobody overpays. The market speaks, but what the market says depends entirely on who is listening.
The Gatekeeper Incentive - Now bring this back to exclusive listings. If the whole game is finding the perfect match the one buyer who sees your building the way you need them to see it so what does an exclusive listing actually do? It restricts who gets to look.
Often, an exclusive broker may choose a buyer not because they are the strongest candidate or willing to pay the most, but because the broker can finance the deal internally or plans to resell it within their own network. These incentives can quietly shape the outcome.
This isn’t about running a "cattle call" or blasting every investor on earth with an offering memorandum that is the opposite of what sophisticated sellers need. It is about reach without noise, access without chaos, and discretion without restriction. It is about making sure that when the market speaks, everyone who should hear the question actually hears it.
The exclusive model doesn’t just fail to find the right buyer. It’s structurally designed to prevent finding the right buyer. That’s not a bug for the brokerages running exclusives it’s a feature.
Here is the part nobody in the industry wants to discuss openly: when a brokerage controls a listing exclusively, they control who sees it. They control the narrative, the timeline, and the flow of information. They determine which buyers get a seat at the table and which never know the opportunity exists. Crucially, when that same brokerage brings an internal buyer, they often earn double the compensation. Even witho
The exclusive listing myth: Why Manhattan’s biggest deals don’t need gatekeepers - by Robert Khodadadian
Last month, a 26-story office tower in Manhattan’s Financial District closed for $105 million. The building had traded nearly a decade earlier for $225 million, after which the sellers poured another $70 million into gut renovations. By any traditional calculation, they were staring at a catastrophic loss nearly $200 million evaporated into the New York skyline.
But here is what nobody wrote about: the deal didn’t happen through an exclusive listing. There was no glossy offering memorandum, no controlled auction, and no six-month “process.” The building at 101 Greenwich St. never hit a listing platform; it sold because someone reached the right buyer, the one person who looked at a distressed office tower and saw what others didn’t. The buyer, Idan Ofer, partnered with Nathan Berman of Metro Loft, who has converted more than eight million s/f of office space into residential.
The deal closed because the right buyer was found, a fact that challenges how the commercial real estate industry has operated for decades.
The unstated truth about $100+ million transactions is that finding a buyer is not difficult. Manhattan is drowning in capital; sovereign wealth funds maintain permanent teams in Midtown, and family offices move with conviction. In 2023, foreign investors accounted for over 32% of New York City investment activity the highest level since 2019 with Manhattan attracting nearly 20% of all foreign capital flowing into U.S. commercial real estate.
Access is not the scarce resource. Assets are. So, if finding buyers isn’t the challenge, what is? Finding the right buyer.
