Posted by Leonard Steinberg on March 23, 2011 Overheard tonight at a little gathering in a swell penthouse overlooking all of Manhattan, amidst dramatic lightening and ice/hail….A 3-unit combination apartment st THE PLAZA has gone to contract for around $ 48million….and a rather swell pad at TIME WARNER has gone to contract for around $… [Read More]
MANHATTAN COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE LOOKS STRONG
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on January 8, 2011 Robert Knakal of Massey Knakal, a leading brokerage for smaller commercial buildings, just reported that Commercial real estate market conditions continue to exert upward pressure on value as an acute supply/demand imbalance leaves thousand of active buyers fighting over relatively few available properties. Coupled with an extraordinarily… [Read More]
EATALY: MANHATTANS NEW FOOD COURT
Yesterday I visited EATALY for the first time, the new food emporium of Mario Batali…..what an experience! The line at the front door was the reminiscent of Studio 54: who would be chic enough to get past that velvet rope from a line stretched around onto 5th Avenue? I had to negotiate hard, explaining a… [Read More]
BIRTH RATE DIPS, GDP DIPS, DOW DIPS, CONFIDENCE DIPS…
The USA may indeed be following another European trend: The birth rate has dipped due to the recession according to a report on Yahoo news. This is an alarming trend: While reducing population that may require welfare, it is usually the more educated , wealthier citizens who cut back on family size thus reducing the… [Read More]
IMAGINE ALL NEW YORK WITH THESE AWNINGS….AND…..
Imagine these awnings (or a version thereof) attached to all sunny sides of buildings in Manhattan where the awnings not only provide cover from the sun and rain, but also produce power…..what about small solar panels or wind turbines that you plug in just like a small appliance?…..that’s the promise of a Seattle, Washington-based start-up… [Read More]
MAYBE NOW WE KNOW WHY RUSH MOVED FROM NEW YORK?
So you felt sluggish through the Summer heat because of the heat? Think again. A city Department of Health study on summer air quality released yesterday showed a troubling finding: Even quieter neighborhoods that don’t have New York’s infamous crowds, traffic and skyscrapers suffer from high levels of smog…..and this bad air quality contributes greatly… [Read More]
THE FUTURE OF FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC?
While politicians bury their heads in the sand and focus on pointing fingers for blame, building mosques and Bristol Palin, the single largest problem our economy is dealing with is still housing. Until we have a solid plan in place to clean up the housing mess and a solidly revised plan for the future of financing housing, the… [Read More]
MANHATTAN INFLATION, MTA-style
Anyone worried about inflation going away in New York, and worse, turning into deflation (the talk du jour), should look to the MTA for some relief. In a recent audit, astounding abuse of the overtime pay system is revealed. This is on top of the absurd retirement policies they have in place. An example: The audit… [Read More]
NEW YORK HAS THE MOST MILLIONAIRES, BUT….
In to-days Wall Street Journal, a tally is made of the number of millionaires (those with at least $ 1million in investable assets) in the major cities of the US: New York ranks #1, and has almost as many millionaires as Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco…combined! The number grew almost 19% in 2009. BUT, $ 1million… [Read More]
THE ROLLER COASTER DECADE – LUXURLETTER EDITORIAL
THE ROLLER COASTER DECADE It is becoming increasingly apparent that we live in turbulent times: the see-sawing we are experiencing in markets (and life in general) appear more acute and exaggerated these days, and I fear we have entered a decade of constant ups and downs. With every bit of good news that emerges, so… [Read More]