Real Estate Roundup 3.11.20

Real Estate Roundup:

Office leasing

• AbleTo has expanded its space at Ray Yadidi’s 320 West 37th Street. The digital behavioral health care platform signed a seven-year lease for 19,358 SF on the entire fourth and fifth floors of the 15-story building. Asking rent in the deal was in the $60s per SF. (CO)

Politics

• Brokers will still be able to charge tenants fees on apartment rentals until at least June… Attorney General Letitia James’ office filed a request granted on Friday to extend its deadline to respond to the real estate industry’s lawsuit against the brokers’ fee ban. The extension keeps a temporary restraining order, which blocked the implementation of the ban, until both parties meet back in court on June 12. (CO)

• A bitterly controversial proposal to expand Brooklyn’s Industry City got a boost on Monday when Borough President Eric Adams conditionally approved most of the plan’s major elements and left open the door to approving the rest. (NYPost)

Other news

• Hotel owners with heavy debt loads are grappling with the prospect the industry could fall into a tailspin from the spread of the coronavirus, leading to a potential uptick in defaults. The U.S. hotel industry overall had about $300 billion of mortgage debt as of the third quarter of last year, up 7.8% from a year earlier and 14.2% from two years earlier. In New York City, where a supply glut has pressured room rates and weighed on hotel revenue, at least 21 mortgages backed by hotels were on a watch list for potential default as of February. (WSJ)

• Real-estate stocks and utilities joined in the latest market rout, showing that even traditional havens that should benefit from lower yields aren’t safe amid a panicked sell-off. (Bloomberg) 

• Ronald Dickerman’s Madison International Realty has closed on its latest private equity fund: a $1.2 billion vehicle aimed at properties in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. Good timing! (TRD)Pimco (AKA Pacific Investment Management Co.) is taking over management of Allianz Real Estate, forming a combined unit with $100 billion in assets. Pimco parent Allianz Group has a more-than $79 billion real estate portfolio in Europe, the U.S. and Asia-Pacific region. (Bloomberg)