Observer » Sterling Equities Inc.

Related and the Wilpons Team Up for Willets Point Pitch

Matt Chaban — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:45:05 -0400

Hey, neighbor. (NYC EDC)

While some people are hoping—futilely, perhaps—for a high-tech college at Willets Point, the official RFP is also cranking along, with applications due at the end of September. Crain's now has word of a handful of the developers competing to redevelop the Iron Triangle, and one looks to be a hit, if it weren't already facing a few strikes.

The Related Companies has teamed up with Sterling Equities, which is controlled by Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, to submit a proposal to redevelop the 12.75 acres included in the project's first phase, the sources said. Silverstein Properties, which is building three towers at the World Trade Center site, also threw its hat into the ring. None of the firms would comment. A real estate source said Sterling had teamed up on bids with more than one firm.

If you build it, they will come. (NYC EDC)

Another firm know to have submitted a bid is the Flushing-based (favorites?) TDC Development. Of the 29 firms that were preapproved, Crain's reports Westfield Group, the Richman Group of New York, Edward J. Minskoff Equities and Hamlin Ventures did not submit bids, though it was not clear how many others had.

This is only the first of three phases, which includes housing and retail but not a planned convention center. Given CitiField's proximity across the street, it makes sense the Wilpons would want in on the project, and they made the smart move of teaming up with Related, which seems to often win favor with city officials. Whether the Mets owners' current embroiling with the Bernie Madoff scandal will hurt the development team's chances remains to be seen.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Trade Secrets! ‘Wealthy Family’ Buys Devonshire Retail Space

William Alden — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:22:59 -0400

The retail space on the ground floor of the Devonshire House, a prewar Greenwich Village beauty at 28 East 10^th Street, has changed hands for $10.35 million. The buyer, according to broker Eric Anton, is "a very wealthy family here in New York."

Eastern Consolidated represented the seller and, according to a release, "procured" the buyer, whose identity is "undisclosed." Mr. Anton and Ron Solarz, both executive managing directors at Eastern Consolidated, worked with vice chairman Brian Ezratty and senior director Deborah Gutoff to broker the deal.

The 8,426-square-foot retail space is all leased up, and the new owner doesn't plan on making any drastic changes. "It's a pure investment," Mr. Solarz said. The storefronts, which Ms. Gutoff called "local," include Devonshire Optical, University Floral Design, Sunshine Cleaners, La Petite Coquette and Bagel Bob's.

The seller was a partnership between the Cheshire Group and Sterling Equities, which together bought the building in December 2007, "a couple days before Christmas," Mr. Anton said. Cheshire and Sterling converted the upstairs residential portion of the building from rentals to condos, which have been selling for an average of $1,850 a square foot.

Messrs. Solarz and Anton wouldn't give the buyer's identity, but Mr. Anton said it's "one of the large New York real estate families." Mr. Solarz added that the family has "a lot of experience in real estate." Tantalizing!

walden@observer.com

Tuesday: The Deuce, The Heights, The Almost-Trendy Trash

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 08:30:00 -0400

The 26-year transformation of Times Square is finally over. New Jersey's SJP will spend $1 billion on a 40-story office building at 42nd and Eighth, thus filling the last block of "the 13-acre Times Square redevelopment district". The Times says The Deuce--a former land of "pimps and drug dealers"--is gone. And it only took 47 lawsuits to get this building going! Also: can you spell "speculative" without "spec?" (New York Times)

Brooklyn Heights Death Watch: Thanks to Sterling Equities, the group behind the NY Mets, 40 luxury condos are headed for Love Lane. The real tragedy is that the development will jeopardize a mass of "highly coveted paid parking spaces," forcing 400 cars onto the crowded streets. Goodbye, lovely Lane, goodbye. (NY Daily News)

Where does the 13,500 daily tons of waste from New York building renovations go? Not anywhere in New York, because our landfills were saturated in March 2001. Instead of hauling waste out-of-state, an Astoria group named Build It Green! wants you to give them your reusable detritus. It's not a sexy job, but it's certanly "almost trendy." (City Limits)

If a new shoe store goes up in Soho, does it make a sound? For the next decade, Te Casan will fill 7,500 square feet on West Broadway with "limited collections from seven emerging shoe designers around the world." At $200 per square foot, will each Norwegian and South African pump run at a clean $100 each? One can hope. (Crain's)

If only downtown real estate were as perfect. The MTA is buying out 140 small businesses in order to clear space for the Fulton Street Transit Hub. Whether or not local owners are forced to pay steep moving taxes and city finance fees (which they may have to), the Fulton folks will have to be out by the first week of September. Thanks, MTA! (NY1)

- Max Abelson