A Booming Real Estate Market Gives Harry Macklowe the Last Laugh

A Booming Real Estate Market Gives Harry Macklowe the Last Laugh [Manhattan]

When Harry Macklowe, the scion of one of New York’s most prominent real estate families, paid $1.4 billion in September 2003 for the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th streets, people laughed at what seemed like an outrageous price.

While just three years ago the idea that a New York City office building could be worth more than $1 billion seemed preposterous, today real estate experts say the very same building could be worth more than $3 billion.

Last week’s announcement that Tishman Speyer’s office building at 666 Fifth Ave. would sell to the Kushner Companies for a record-setting $1.8 billion, or roughly $1,200 a square foot, is the latest symbol of New York’s dynamic real estate market, and provides further evidence that Mr. Macklowe’s big gamble on the GM Building has paid off.

The 50-story trophy property lies in the center of Midtown Manhattan, overlooking the Plaza Hotel building and Central Park. Built in 1968, the GM Building is considered to be one of the members of the city’s exclusive “country club,” a group of upscale office buildings with desirable addresses that attract the richest tenants, such as hedge funds, and charge the highest rents.

Bellina the queen of Bonita real estate market [South Florida]

Bellina the queen of Bonita real estate market [South Florida]

When Susie Bellina arrived in Bonita Springs in 1979, she never envisioned that this pit stop between Naples and Fort Myers would one day become such a real estate hot spot.

“I came down for a visit and I remember that Bonita Springs was this quaint little place with homes really spread out,” said Bellina. “It was completely different than it is today.”

Fresh out of college and armed with a master’s degree in biology from Montclair State College, Bellina came from New Jersey to stay with her parents.

In sleepy, little Bonita Springs, Bellina had no idea how she was going to put her degree to work.

Buying before selling backfires for this couple [Southern California]

Buying before selling backfires for this couple [Southern California]

When Laurian Rhodes and her husband, Sluggo, bought their first house 2 1/2 years ago, they did everything right, according to real estate protocol.

Veteran punk rockers, Laurian, 36, and Sluggo, 47, aren’t what would be characterized as the new San Francisco buyers — upscale professionals with fat paychecks. Together they own and run a picture-framing franchise on Lombard Street, and Sluggo performs with his band, the Grannies. But having just given birth to a baby daughter, Laurian was eager to do the right thing for her family’s stability.

“We’d lived in a big, rent-controlled apartment in Noe Valley for 10 years, but I thought, ‘We have to get into the market,’ ” she recalls. “There was this sense of urgency. It seemed like the smart thing to do.”

So they took what at the time seemed to be a relatively risk-free path. They bought a single-family home (not a more risky condo or TIC) in an affordable but up-and-coming neighborhood — the Excelsior district.

Deals, Deals, Deals (and a Great Year for REITs)

Deals, Deals, Deals (and a Great Year for REITs)

Wall Street has managed to post some pretty impressive gains in 2006. But again, the market for real estate investment trusts has beaten most stocks, as large investors pumped reams of capital into companies with large holdings of commercial property and, in some cases, gobbled up entire portfolios in private deals.

REIT mergers and acquisitions, in fact, have reached record levels this year. Some 22 transactions with a total value of $102.8 billion (including the assumption of debt) have been announced according to the research company SNL Financial, compared with 11 deals valued at $28.8 billion for all of last year and a total of $92 billion in transactions for the last six years combined.

Women Unafraid of Condo Commitment [New York]

Women Unafraid of Condo Commitment [New York]

David Wslentas — a Brooklyn developer solidly entrenched in the testosterone-dominated real estate world — is having a hard time making sense of the streams of women passing through his sales office at 110 Livingston Street in downtown Brooklyn.

In the last five months, single women spent more than $30 million out of the $100 million or so in sales in the 299-unit condominium. In fact, single women bought 72 of the first 165 apartments sold. Spending by these women far surpassed that of single men, who accounted for $19 million. Married couples accounted for about $45 million in sales, and investors $5 million.

Mr. Walentas has done so well that he has been able to raise his prices twice. He also sees more married women writing the $60,000-to-$100,000 deposit checks. “It’s the women’s checks,” he said. “It’s not like a dual account — Joe and Suzy. It’s Suzy. I’m amazed.”

Home sale victims tell of bounced checks from Harrison lawyer [New York]

Home sale victims tell of bounced checks from Harrison lawyer [New York]

Lizette Santiago worked two jobs for a dozen years to pay the mortgage on her Queens home. The 41-year-old single mom used her earnings as a bookkeeper and waitress to build up equity in her Woodhaven home.

She put her house on the market earlier this year, looking to reap the rewards of her hard work as she settled her family permanently in Orlando, Fla.

She found a buyer and closed last month on the $678,400 sale. Her $286,000 mortgage was supposed to be paid off by funds from the buyer’s side. Santiago got three checks totaling more than $323,000 at the Nov. 17 closing from the buyer’s law firm, Bellettieri, Fonte and Laudonio, P.C.

But the checks to Santiago bounced, she said. The $286,000 check to her mortgage company bounced. The check to her lawyer bounced. Law enforcement sources said Anthony Bellettieri, the founding partner of the Harrison-based law firm, is being investigated in the theft of funds from clients’ escrow accounts.