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A city program created in 2010 to entice investors to build on contaminated old industrial sites has been blazingly successful in the last 18 months.
Real eState
What Summer Slowdown? Manhattan Real Estate Expected To Stay Hot As Weekly New Listings Dip – Forbes
New York City homebuyers expecting to find less competition this summer may be in for a shock. The Manhattan summer buying season is shaping up to be one of the most active in recent memory, according to a new report from real estate data provider UrbanDigs.
Traditionally, the summer months bring warm weather and a general slowdown to Manhattan’s real estate market; however, a combination of low inventory and high competition has resulted in an increase of contracts signed weekly compared with the past several years.
A decline in the number of weekly new listings in Manhattan is expected to continue through the … [+]
UrbanDigs
UrbanDigs co-founder John Walkup sums up the market activity, which began heating up in Q4 2020 before reaching a peak towards the end of spring. “The number of contracts signed on a weekly basis is far outpacing what we’d expect during a typical year — and it’s a trend that stretches back to at least the beginning of April. With that, this summer may see less of a slowdown and more of a continuation of the record-breaking Manhattan market.”
After seeing a spike in contracts signed from April through May, the weekly average held steady at about 300 or more signed through June—the highest activity level seen in the past five years. During the first week of July 2021, there were about 275 contracts signed, which eclipsed the previous five-year high of about 180 contracts signed in 2017.
Despite a decline in weekly new listings, the number of weekly active contracts signed have … [+]
UrbanDigs
For new active listings, the numbers tell a different story. During the first week of July, there were a little over 200 new listings, or about 50% less than there were during the same period in 2020, UrbanDigs data shows. The year-over-year decline in new listings coming to market is expected to continue through summer.
Compared to other major markets in the U.S., Walkup says Manhattan’s market was slow to recover but saw “a breakneck pace for deal activity starting mid-Winter.” “Like other metro markets, though, the peak level of activity was record-breaking,” he adds.
Located in Carnegie Hill, this light-filled two-bedroom at 1088 Park Avenue is listed for $2.65 … [+]
Warburg Realty
Despite increased activity and less inventory, prime properties at various price points are entering the market daily. In the Carnegie Hill neighborhood, this classic six-room apartment in one of Park Avenue’s premier buildings is listed for $2.65 million. The two-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom residence featured a light-filled living room with a wood-burning fireplace, a grand dining room and a windowed kitchen with ample cabinet space. A south-facing window with a view down Park Avenue is another perk.
In the $2.8-million range is this three-bedroom Lenox Hill apartment at 156 East 79th Street.
Warburg Realty
At about $2.8 million, residential options include this Lenox Hill apartment in a classic Schwartz & Gross-designed building. Reconfigured to feature an extra bedroom or family room, the seven-room (formerly eight-room) residence features a flexible layout, 10-foot-high ceilings, beautiful hardwood floors and a glass-enclosed den/library that sits off the living room.
A long entrance gallery, 9-foot-high-ceilings and hardwood floors highlight this Carnegie Hill … [+]
Warburg Realty
Priced at $3.2 million, this Park Avenue residence in Carnegie Hill pairs well-proportioned rooms (including a 31-foot-long entrance gallery) with 9-foot-plus-high ceilings, hardwood floors, and oversized windows. The 2,300-square-foot floor plan also comes with ample closet space and a storage bin within the pet-friendly building.
Once owned by artist Leroy Neiman, this Lincoln Square duplex with original details and a modern … [+]
Warburg Realty
In Lincoln Square’s legendary Hotel des Artistes, a south-facing duplex once owned by pop artist Leroy Neiman is for sale at $4.25 million. Meticulously restored and enhanced, the prewar residence combines original details such as a plaster ceiling and a stained glass entry window with a modern chef’s kitchen and two generous bedrooms. In the main living area, which stretches some 30 feet long, picture windows take in a side view of Central Park.
Located within the exclusive Kiska building at 353 Central Park West, this full-floor condominium … [+]
Warburg Realty
Prices creep even higher on the Upper West Side, where this full-floor condominium inside the boutique Kiska building is listed for about $8 million. A key-locked elevator is used to access the four-bedroom, three-bathroom residence, which features an enhanced kitchen, an open dining area and sweeping skyline and Central Park treetop views.
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Real eState
Boutique Ottawa real estate firms find freedom in doing business their own way – Ottawa Business Journal
After more than a decade in commercial real estate, John Zinati had settled into a comfortable career as a leasing manager at a well-known locally owned Ottawa firm and could have simply counted down the days until retirement.
Instead, he chose a different path. In 2016, he launched Zinati Realty, a boutique brokerage that serves mainly owners and landlords in the office, retail and industrial sectors.
Since then, Zinati has brought on two more brokers and is looking to expand his team further as the industry slowly works its way toward a post-pandemic future. Looking back on his decision to leave the security of an established firm for the uncertainty of life as an entrepreneur, he has no regrets.
“I was just faced with too many limitations, so I made the decision to go out on my own,” Zinati explains.
“Being nimble and quick and working closely with these owners to get their spaces filled or get their buildings sold is really rewarding.”
Zinati is one of a growing number of local real estate executives who’ve left comfortable, secure jobs at established big-name companies to start their own brokerages and advisory firms.
Many of these owner-brokers point to the freedom of being able to make their own decisions and do their own deals without having to answer to corporate bosses as a major factor in making the leap.
“I think commercial real estate brokerage in the boutique setting is one of the last few places where you can just earn more with a little bit more elbow grease,” says Darren Fleming, the CEO of Real Strategy Advisors. “There’s so much upside.”
Before launching his own firm, Fleming spent seven years as managing director of Cresa’s Ottawa office. His lengthy real estate resume also includes four years as a sales representative at Colliers International and a one-year stint as a leasing agent with Montreal-based developer Canderel.
In 2016, Fleming sold his shares in Cresa, left the company and enrolled in the Executive MBA program at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management.
The following year, he launched Real Strategy Advisors, which provides advisory and brokerage services to office tenants in the tech, professional services and not-for-profit sectors.
He’s never looked back. Too often, Fleming says, strict corporate policies at bigger firms put entrepreneurial-minded brokers in a straightjacket. He points to an example from early in his career, when an employer told him he was storing too much sales data on a company server.
“I think I’m addicted to being an entrepreneur and being my own boss,” Fleming says. “Are there days when you wish someone would sign off on payroll other than you? Yeah, but it’s worth it in the end.”
KOBLE thriving
Graeme Webster is a partner at Ottawa’s KOBLE Commercial Real Estate, a firm that brokers mainly off-market and unlisted office and industrial transactions for buyers such as entrepreneurs and well-heeled professionals looking to build up their investment portfolios.
He and fellow partner Marc Morin founded KOBLE seven and a half years ago after cutting their teeth for more than a decade at large, well-established firms. Webster says he thrives on the feeling of satisfaction he gets from navigating clients through deals that can set them up for retirement or attain assets that can be passed on to future generations.
“Our focus is to help people establish that family legacy,” he says. “Real estate is really just the tool to allow them to do that.”
Now at six employees, KOBLE recently brought Ottawa commercial real estate veteran Richard Getz on board as a senior adviser. The firm is also looking to hire someone to oversee its business operations as it continues to expand.
Webster says that despite the overall uncertainty facing the industry at the moment, KOBLE is thriving. The firm has more deals in its pipeline than at any other time in its history, a development he attributes largely to the city’s reputation for being a safe haven in times of economic turmoil.
“It’s a place where when there’s volatility, people want to jump in (the market),” he explains.
Real eState
Boutique Ottawa real estate firms find freedom in doing business their own way – Ottawa Business Journal
After more than a decade in commercial real estate, John Zinati had settled into a comfortable career as a leasing manager at a well-known locally owned Ottawa firm and could have simply counted down the days until retirement.
Instead, he chose a different path. In 2016, he launched Zinati Realty, a boutique brokerage that serves mainly owners and landlords in the office, retail and industrial sectors.
Since then, Zinati has brought on two more brokers and is looking to expand his team further as the industry slowly works its way toward a post-pandemic future. Looking back on his decision to leave the security of an established firm for the uncertainty of life as an entrepreneur, he has no regrets.
“I was just faced with too many limitations, so I made the decision to go out on my own,” Zinati explains.
“Being nimble and quick and working closely with these owners to get their spaces filled or get their buildings sold is really rewarding.”
Zinati is one of a growing number of local real estate executives who’ve left comfortable, secure jobs at established big-name companies to start their own brokerages and advisory firms.
Many of these owner-brokers point to the freedom of being able to make their own decisions and do their own deals without having to answer to corporate bosses as a major factor in making the leap.
“I think commercial real estate brokerage in the boutique setting is one of the last few places where you can just earn more with a little bit more elbow grease,” says Darren Fleming, the CEO of Real Strategy Advisors. “There’s so much upside.”
Before launching his own firm, Fleming spent seven years as managing director of Cresa’s Ottawa office. His lengthy real estate resume also includes four years as a sales representative at Colliers International and a one-year stint as a leasing agent with Montreal-based developer Canderel.
In 2016, Fleming sold his shares in Cresa, left the company and enrolled in the Executive MBA program at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management.
The following year, he launched Real Strategy Advisors, which provides advisory and brokerage services to office tenants in the tech, professional services and not-for-profit sectors.
He’s never looked back. Too often, Fleming says, strict corporate policies at bigger firms put entrepreneurial-minded brokers in a straightjacket. He points to an example from early in his career, when an employer told him he was storing too much sales data on a company server.
“I think I’m addicted to being an entrepreneur and being my own boss,” Fleming says. “Are there days when you wish someone would sign off on payroll other than you? Yeah, but it’s worth it in the end.”
KOBLE thriving
Graeme Webster is a partner at Ottawa’s KOBLE Commercial Real Estate, a firm that brokers mainly off-market and unlisted office and industrial transactions for buyers such as entrepreneurs and well-heeled professionals looking to build up their investment portfolios.
He and fellow partner Marc Morin founded KOBLE seven and a half years ago after cutting their teeth for more than a decade at large, well-established firms. Webster says he thrives on the feeling of satisfaction he gets from navigating clients through deals that can set them up for retirement or attain assets that can be passed on to future generations.
“Our focus is to help people establish that family legacy,” he says. “Real estate is really just the tool to allow them to do that.”
Now at six employees, KOBLE recently brought Ottawa commercial real estate veteran Richard Getz on board as a senior adviser. The firm is also looking to hire someone to oversee its business operations as it continues to expand.
Webster says that despite the overall uncertainty facing the industry at the moment, KOBLE is thriving. The firm has more deals in its pipeline than at any other time in its history, a development he attributes largely to the city’s reputation for being a safe haven in times of economic turmoil.
“It’s a place where when there’s volatility, people want to jump in (the market),” he explains.
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In its first six years, uptake on the Brownfield Redevelopment Community Improvement Plan was tepid — just four approvals for grants to help investigate possible contamination and tax breaks to compensate for the considerable costs of cleanup. Things sped up in the next four years with 23 approvals. And since January 2020, interest has kicked into high gear with 15 approvals. The increased interest has been driven by the attractiveness of the incentives and the red-hot demand for housing, says Greg Atkinson, a senior City of Windsor planner who has administered the program since its inception.
“When I put the numbers together I was quite impressed,” he said Wednesday, referring to a recent report on the program’s success and suggested tweaks. Normally, such a review happens after five years but there wasn’t enough data available due to the low initial uptake.
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“We’ve got that now,” said Atkinson, referring to the 42 total approvals — most of which happened in the last few years — to spur new projects on these usually vacant properties contaminated by years of use as factories, dry cleaners, fuel depots, landfills and gas stations.
City council has so far approved $13.2 million in incentives to drive redevelopment of derelict old properties. The result is private sector investment to the tune of $182.7 million and a rise in the assessed value of the properties totaling $216.2 million.
“Just doing quick math, it’s close to $14 in private investment for every public dollar in incentives,” Atkinson said. “So value for money, this community improvement plan (one of several created by the city in recent years) is really performing well.”
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A study conducted in 2009 identified 137 brownfield properties on 559 acres that had sat unused for many years. “Historically, there has been little interest in redeveloping brownfield sites due to the uncertainty surrounding the extent of contamination and the potential cost of cleanup,” Atkinson’s report said.
Mayor Drew Dilkens said the CIP was designed to change that.
“With the combination of the program and a hot real estate market, we’re seeing a lot of action,” he said, explaining that developers are looking everywhere — including these brownfields — for places to build.
“Having this program … is really instrumental in seeing some of the more difficult land activated in an improved way.”
The first application was approved back in 2012, for redevelopment of a long-abandoned gas station at Dougall Avenue and West Grand Boulevard. Andre and Hoda Abouasli used the grants available to help clean up contamination before building an attractive commercial building. The project served as a visible example of what the CIP can do to transform eyesores throughout the city, Atkinson said.
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The projects since have ranged from modest to major. The biggest by far was for up to $12.5 million in incentives to help with the cleanup of the former GM Trim plant on Lauzon Road so that Farhi Holdings could proceed with a massive $250-million residential development that’s one of the biggest in the city’s history. A cleanup costing $6.5 million to remove contaminated soil and remove the footings and concrete from the former building cleared the way for the project, which is well underway.
Other big projects approved recently approved include: $3 million in incentives for the 123-unit Graffiti residential/commercial project at 1200 University Avenue West; $457,700 for an 81-unit apartment project on Argyle Road, formerly the site of a pharmaceutical plant destroyed in a 2018 fire; and $579,185 for a project to build a 24-unit residential building at 840 Wyandotte St. E., formerly a commercial building destroyed in a 2016 fire.
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And in June, a committee of council endorsed a CIP application to help with the $81,600 cleanup of an 11-acre former industrial site bounded by Walker Road, Edna Street, St. Luke Road and Richmond Street. The owner, the Sood family, has a plan to build three five-storey towers with 62 units each, plus 90 two-storey townhouses. It’s a development that Atkinson believes will help link up Walkerville and Ford City, which for decades have been separated by industrial wasteland.
The CIP provides grants for 50 per cent of the cost of studies to see how feasible it is to redevelop a brownfield and study what it would cost to clean it up. Those are cheques the city writes in the range of $7,500 to $25,000. The CIP can also reduce development charges by 60 per cent. But the biggest incentives by far are the Brownfields Property Tax Assistance and Brownfield Rehabilitation Grant
programs, which provide annual grants to offset either 70 or 100 per cent of the tax increases that occur after a brownfield site is redeveloped into something more valuable, like an apartment building. The grants are paid out for 10 or 13 years and can end up saving developers many thousands of dollars — after the projects are built.
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“The whole premise is the city is not collecting a lot of tax revenue, in some cases almost nothing, from these properties that are negatively impacting their neighbourhoods,” said Atkinson. “So forgoing some of that tax revenue, over a 10-year grant period, is a low price to pay for a redevelopment where you might get 50 dwelling units where you had vacant land before.”
If all 42 of the approvals proceed, the result will be 962 new dwelling units on 119.2 acres of brownfields. Based on a metric from a 2003 national round table, that would prevent 512 acres of greenfield from being developed, according to Atkinson’s report. In addition, the spinoff effect of $182.7 million in private investment is $694 million invested into the economy.
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