Hilton Grand Vacations has Purchased a Timeshare Hotel in Midtown

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According to Commercial Observer, Hilton Grand Vacations paid $136 million to buy a 161-key timeshare hotel in Midtown Manhattan from private equity firm 54 Madison Partners. The troubled property, located at 12 East 48th St., was first constructed by developer Hidrock Realty just before the pandemic. Hilton Grand Vacations is the most recent in a long line of different owners. Hidrock was unable to “substantially complete” the 31-story hotel before the end of 2019; 54 Madison Partners provided mezzanine debt; and Midland National Life Insurance served as the senior lender. 54 Madison Partners later used this information to claim that Hidrock had defaulted on the loan in January 2020. Later that year, it took control of the property. The Hilton-operated The Central at 5th hotel opened its doors in the summer of 2021 with rooms starting at $350 per night. With the acquisition of the hotel from 54 Madison Partners, Hilton Grand Vacations has acquired its fifth timeshare hotel, a deal that enables owners to stay for a specific amount of time each year by purchasing a share in the property.

Latest Consumer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

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The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.5 percent in January on a
seasonally adjusted basis, after increasing 0.1 percent in December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 6.4 percent before seasonal adjustment. The index for shelter was by far the largest contributor to the monthly all items increase, accounting for nearly half of the monthly all items increase, with the indexes for food, gasoline, and natural gas also contributing. The food index increased 0.5 percent over the month with the food at home index rising 0.4 percent. The energy index increased 2.0 percent over the month as all major energy component indexes rose over the month. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.4 percent in January. Categories which increased in January include the shelter, motor vehicle insurance, recreation, apparel, and household furnishings and operations indexes. The indexes for used cars and trucks, medical care, and airline fares were among those that decreased over the month. The all-items index increased 6.4 percent for the 12 months ending January; this was the smallest 12-month increase since the period ending October 2021. The all items less food and energy index rose 5.6 percent over the last 12 months, its smallest 12-month increase since December 2021. The energy index increased 8.7 percent for the 12 months ending January, and the food index increased 10.1 percent over the last year.

Second Legal Dispensary Opens Tuesday in Union Square

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From NBC, New York:

The dispensary will be the state’s first to open owned by a New Yorker “with a cannabis conviction or a close relative of someone with one” The second legal dispensary opens in New York City on Tuesday, and the governor says its the first pot shop run by someone “previously criminalized by cannabis prohibition. “The 144 Blecker Street location of Smacked LLC is set to open the following week after a nearly month-long “soft” opening in Greenwich Village. Doors should open at 10:00 a.m. The first legal dispensary opened last month off Broadway in Manhattan after three dozen businesses received the first round of marijuana retail licenses. For the first round of licenses, New York only granted some nonprofit organizations and applicants with prior marijuana convictions or their relatives. With the assistance of the Bronx Cannabis Hub and the New York Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund, Roland Conner is launching Smacked LLC with his wife and son.. “I am so excited to become a part of history as the first individual to open a legal cannabis dispensary in New York City. Given my experience with cannabis, I never could have imagined that I would be opening a store like this,” Conner said in a statement. “But this is not just about me and my family. This is about everyone who was harmed by the draconian drug laws of the past. New York’s commitment to righting those wrongs through the law is inspiring. I am proof of that commitment because I’m standing here today,” he added. Conner’s shop opening is part of the state’s “Pop-up” program to help stores receive an initial capital boost before a permanent opening down the road. “As with some other initial dispensaries to be supported by the Fund, this will provide licensees the opportunity to open on a short-term basis to fast-track sales and start generating capital for their businesses, after which they will close for final construction and then re-open on a long-term basis,” the governor’s office said Thursday.

A Sharp Increase in Reports of Young Children Sickened by Edibles with More Legal Weed On the corner of Broadway and Astor Place, the first recreational marijuana dispensary in New York opened its doors on December 28. It signaled the long-awaited start of one of the nation’s most lucrative marijuana industries. And there will be more. Another dispensary called “Union Square Travel Agency” has an opening date set. It will debut in a former Chase Bank building close to the Union Square subway stop. On February 13th, a soft opening is scheduled. The Doe Fund, which offers housing, career training, and counseling to marginalized people living in NYC, will receive 51% of the proceeds. In March 2021, marijuana use for recreational purposes became legal in New York.

Ceiling Collapses in Bed-Stuy NYCHA Building

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A NYCHA building’s ceiling collapses in Bed-Stuy.

Bed-Stuy residents criticized NYCHA on Saturday for failing to stop a leak that led to a portion of the building’s ceiling collapsing this week. On Wednesday night, Marlene Ritter, a resident of a NYCHA building on Willoughby Avenue, claims she was in bed when she heard a loud crash. She claims to have witnessed a portion of her apartment’s ceiling collapse. “This is sickening, the smell is horrible…I’m embarrassed,” said Ritter. The building’s tenants claim that no repairs have been made since the ceiling collapsed on Wednesday and that they have been without heat or hot water ever since.

New McDonald’s Opening in Times Square

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McDonald’s has signed a lease at the former Duane Reade location on the northwest corner of West 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue at 681 Eight Avenue. The store is currently being built out. This new location is across the street from the Five Below and Target stores on West 4McDonald’s Moves into Former Duane Reade at W. 42nd and Eighth Avenue.

Latest Information on CPI and Employment from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Starting with January 2023 data, the BLS plans to update weights annually for the Consumer Price Index based on a single calendar year of data, using consumer expenditure data from 2021. This reflects a change from prior practice of updating weights biennially using two years of expenditure data.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Indexes are available for the U.S. and various geographic areas. Average price data for select utility, automotive fuel, and food items are also available. Payroll employment increased by 517,000 in January 2023.

In December, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers decreased 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 6.5 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.3 percent in December (SA); up 5.7 percent over the year (NSA).

Consumer prices for all items rose 6.5 percent from December 2021 to December 2022. Food prices increased 10.4 percent, reflecting an 11.8-percent increase in prices for food at home and an 8.3-percent increase in prices for food away from home.

All-Time High Set for Rents in Manhattan in January 2023

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January saw an all-time high for Manhattan rents. As a result of a robust job market and a shortage of available apartments, Manhattan’s median rents increased in January, setting a new record. According to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel, the median rental price in January increased 15% to $4,097 from the year prior. This was the highest monthly figure ever. In Manhattan, the median monthly rent increased by 13% to $5,142 in January 2022. Following record increases in late last year, analysts and real estate specialists had predicted that rents would begin to decline in January. But despite a slowing economy and well-publicized layoffs in finance and technology, Manhattan’s rental market is still in high demand. According to Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, a real estate appraisal and research firm, “We’re not seeing rents fall in any appreciable way.” In reality, they are merely moving sideways. According to analysts, a healthy job market is what primarily drives Manhattan’s rental market. Despite headline-grabbing layoffs at major tech firms and Wall Street banks, New York’s overall job market and wage growth are still strong. More employees might be returning to the city as more people go back to work. New leases increased 9% in January 2022 compared to January 2022 and by 8% over December, indicating that despite high rents, tenants are still willing to pay them. At the same time, despite growth, there are not a lot of apartments available. According to Miller, the vacancy rate, or percentage of apartments available for rent, was 2.5% last month, which is lower than the 3% rate that is more typical for Manhattan.

The rental strength is “a tale of two cities,” according to Joshua Young, executive vice president and managing director of sales and leasing at Brown Harris Stevens. According to him, there is a high demand for brand-new, top-notch rentals that are entering the market in desirable areas, which is resulting in a shortage of luxury apartments. While they wait for the price of apartments to drop, an increasing number of prospective apartment buyers are choosing to rent. They are waiting for rental prices to decrease, he said. They don’t want to be the ones who pay too much for a house that will be worth less in a year. Since many prospective buyers of luxury properties opt to rent, there is a particularly high demand for rentals in this category. According to Miller, there were bidding wars over nearly one in five luxury rentals in January. Analysts predict that rents won’t decrease much, if at all, in the upcoming months unless the job market and economy slow down. In terms of the rental market, “I think 2023 will be just as strong as 2022,” Young said.

Source: CNBC

90-year-old owner of Ray’s East Village Candy Store beaten by Two Suspects

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As reported by the NY Post, according to police and sources on Saturday, two men were detained in connection with the vicious assault and attempted robbery of the elderly owner of Ray’s Candy Shop in the East Village. The sadistic assault on Ray Alvarez, 90, whose injuries were so severe he now needs to eat through a straw, he told The Post, led to the arrest of Luis Peroza, 39, and Gerald Barth, 55. According to the sources, Barth and Peroza, who are both from the East Village, are thought to have gone on a rampage through the area and damaged Alvarez’ Avenue A store as part of their crimes. According to sources, Barth, who is no stranger to law enforcement, was detained on Wednesday in connection with the attempted robbery of Alvarez as well as a separate robbery. The NYPD reported that Peroza was arrested and charged with assault on Friday, hours before he was led from the 9th Precinct stationhouse on East 5th Street. The tough store owner can only eat through a straw after the attack broke bones in his face and dislocated his jaw. If there had been more police officers in the area, he railed, the beating would never have taken place.

40 Wall Street May be Under “Lender Watch”

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Trump’s coveted 40 Wall Street is under “lender watch” due to declining income, according to a report  Bloomberg reported on Friday that Donald Trump’s heavily mortgaged skyscraper at 40 Wall Street is under “lender watch” due to declining revenue and rising expenses.

According to a monthly filing on the building’s remaining $126.5 million mortgage, the vacancy rate at the 72-story building, which is Trump’s most valuable property, increased to nearly 18% in the third quarter of last year, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, costs are said to have increased 11% since the mortgage’s inception in 2015.  Trump has frequently boasted about the 1995-purchased structure, which was valued at $540 million in 2015.

Long-term declines in high-rise office leasing in Manhattan were made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, when many businesses shut down and employees of those that survived were forced to work from home.

According to the filing, Wells Fargo, which is servicing the mortgage on 40 Wall Street, “has reached out to the borrower for a status of leasing developments” and the strategies for enhancing the performance of the asset according to Bloomberg.

40 Wall Street (Wikipedia)

City Recommends Conversion to Underused Offices to Apartments in Central Business Districts

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From NYC.gov:

Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force of Mayor Adams Unveils Recommendations to Convert Underused Offices into Homes builds on the initiatives of the Adams administration to revitalize central business districts and increase the supply of housing Including 11 Specific Recommendations Office conversions could provide homes for as many as 40,000 New Yorkers over the course of the next ten years if recommendations are put in place alongside existing regulations. 

The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, today unveiled suggestions made by a task force organized by the city to encourage the conversion of vacant office space into new housing for New Yorkers. The New York City Office Adaptive Reuse Study, created by the Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force and headed by Dan Garodnick, Director of the Department of City Planning (DCP) in New York City, offers 11 specific recommendations that would alter state statutes and local zoning regulations in an effort to apply the most flexible conversion regulations to an additional 136 million square feet of office space, or roughly the same amount of space as the entire city of Philadelphia. With these recommendations in place and the current city and state regulations, office conversions could potentially create as many as 20,000 homes in the next decade, enough to house up to 40,000 New Yorkers, even though property owners will decide whether to convert their buildings.

“With this study, we have a roadmap to deliver on a vision for a more vibrant, resilient, prosperous, and affordable city,” said Mayor Adams. “The need for housing is desperate, and the opportunity offered by underused office space is clear — we know what we need to do. These concrete reforms would clear red tape and create the incentives to create the housing we need for New Yorkers at all income levels. I want to thank the members of the task force for helping to chart the course, and I look forward to working with them and our partners in city and state government to deliver these much-needed reforms.” “Enabling more offices to convert to housing will help us bring back our commercial districts while also addressing our housing supply crisis,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer. “The recommendations in this report will set us on the path to achieving these critical goals, and I look forward to partnering with our colleagues in Albany and the City Council to ‘Get Stuff Built.’” The study outlines a path forward to deliver on goals outlined in “‘New’ New York: Making New York Work for Everyone,” an action plan released in December by Mayor Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul — including reimagining the city’s commercial districts as vibrant 24/7 destinations, making Midtown Manhattan and other business districts more mixed-use and flexible, and expanding the city’s supply of housing. It also builds on Mayor Adams’ “Get Stuff Built,” “City of Yes,” and “Housing Our Neighbors” plans, which include significant steps to tackle the city’s severe housing shortage. Increasing opportunities to repurpose underused office space for housing and other uses is critical to achieving those goals. “After every crisis, New York City reinvents itself, which is why it is so important for our codes and regulations to stay flexible. The Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force recommendations will help us meet the moment and rise to each new challenge with a built environment that is as dynamic and diverse as New Yorkers themselves,” said Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz. “

To solve our housing shortage, we need every tool possible. Our administration’s housing blueprint, Housing Our Neighbors, calls for leveraging zoning to encourage more affordable and supportive housing citywide, helping families access new neighborhoods with amenities, jobs, and schools close by, which every New Yorker deserves.” “Our ability to remain a global leader in a rapidly evolving and changing economy will depend on our ability to adapt,” said DCP Director and City Planning Commission Chair Garodnick. “Working closely with the City Council and our colleagues in Albany, we will build clear rules and set this city up for success.” Implementing the task force’s recommendations would extend the most flexible conversion regulations to an additional 136 million square feet of office space — roughly the amount of office space in the entire city of Philadelphia. Credit: New York City Mayor’s Office The Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force was convened by the Adams administration in July 2022 following Local Law 43, sponsored by New York City Councilmember Justin Brannan.The task force’s recommendations include: These recommended reforms would be implemented via changes to state law and regulatory changes through a city zoning text amendment.The task force included 12 members with a wide range of experience in architecture, development, economics, finance, law, and advocacy: “From designing the street grid to rebuilding after 9/11, New York City exists in a constant state of evolution and aspiration.

Today, our commercial office buildings offer the opportunity to meet the changing needs of the city, including the critical need for housing,” said HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. “The recommendations from the Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force aim to ensure the city’s built environment keeps us thriving as a city of opportunity.” “It is essential for New York City to be adaptive to the changing needs and dynamics of New Yorkers in this post-pandemic era,” said NYCEDC President and CEO Andrew Kimball. “The recommendations laid out in this report build off those put forth in the ‘Making New York Work for Everyone’ action plan to reimagine 24/7 commercial districts across New York City. These proposals are designed to aid in the transformation of single-use commercial hubs into mixed-use, live-work environments and are necessary to building a more vibrant and inclusive economy for all New Yorkers.” “Outdated regulations that no longer serve their intended purpose are a roadblock to solving some of the most intractable challenges the city is facing today,” said Acting DOB Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik, P.E. “The necessary changes to the New York State Multiple Dwelling Law and the city’s Zoning Resolution recommended in this study will finally give property owners a pathway to convert their empty office buildings into the housing this city desperately needs. I applaud the task force on their commonsense recommendations to reduce red tape and streamline the conversion process.” “Successfully addressing our city’s dire housing crisis requires creative solutions, and the Council is proud to have passed legislation to create this task force to advance important recommendations for converting underused office space into new housing,” said New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. “Our recovery from the pandemic requires employing concrete tools, flexibility, and thoughtful strategies to create homes for New Yorkers and strengthen our central commercial districts. I look forward to working with the administration and our state partners to confront the housing shortage, ensuring that New York remains an affordable place to live, work, and raise a family for all.”

Borough President Mark Levine. “The task force’s recommendations will help unlock opportunities to turn underutilized office buildings into housing we badly need. I look forward to working with the mayor and Chair Garodnick as we find innovative ways to build more housing and create healthier, more vibrant neighborhoods across the city.” “New York needs to be able to adapt to fully recover from the pandemic and the changes it brought to our society,” said New York City Council Majority Leader Keith Powers. “There is incredible potential in turning unused office space into ways to address our housing crisis and more. I am grateful for the recommendations of this task force and look forward to continuing to partner on our economic recovery.” “New York City is lagging other municipalities in converting office space to housing. That’s why it is so important to take bold steps, right now.” said New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher. “Our housing shortage poses an existential crisis to New York’s future. I want to thank Mayor Adams and Chair Garodnick for this forward-thinking work.”

Media Contact pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov(212) 788-2958