As the city's real estate market tries to recoup losses in the pandemic's aftermath, exceedingly rare opportunities for building purchases will sprout up, says the owner of the Empire State Building. "The crisis created by the capital dislocation, rising rates and heavy near-term market maturities will create a once-in-a-lifetime — once-in-a-generation — opportunity to buy into certain New York City assets," Empire State Realty Trust CEO Tony Malkin said on the firm's first quarter earnings call. "And we have begun to see cracks." Malkin did not get specific about what distressed properties hi ..read more

Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune plunged $20 billion as shares of Meta Platforms tumbled, allowing Tesla’s Elon Musk to cement his status as the world’s third-richest billionaire. Meta shares fell as much as 16% Thursday in New York after the social media company said second-quarter sales were likely to come in below estimates. Zuckerberg’s one-day drop in net worth is the fourth-largest ever related to a stock move among those in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with his fortune now at $155 billion. Musk, 52, gained $400 million in wealth to $178 billion as Tesla stock continued its post-earnings r ..read more

Prada seems to have tied up some loose ends in Midtown. The Italian fashion giant has bought a storefront space on West 56th Street to complement the blockbuster $822 million pickup it completed on Fifth Avenue at the end of last year. The new site, which is tucked inside the Crown Building, the hotel-and-condo redevelopment project from Aman Resorts, sold for $12.6 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Thursday. There's some ambiguity about the seller of the property, which sits in a glass-walled wing of the Crown. On the deed the seller is listed as the developer Br ..read more

General contractor Hely Duarte is considering laying off half his workers because New York City’s transit system is halting most capital projects as its legal battle with New Jersey over congestion pricing lingers on.  The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s subways, buses and commuter rail lines, has said that because of the litigation it can only commit to a quarter of the $12 billion it had planned to contract out this year to repair and update the aging system. The delay has reverberated down to small businesses — including those like Duarte’s that are owned b ..read more

Leases Finance firm inks deal in Midtown  Address: 675 Third Ave., Manhattan Landlord: The Durst Organization Tenant: Elite Financial Solutions Lease size: 5,007 square feet Asset type: Office Brokers: Cushman & Wakefield’s Haley Templeton, Adam Ardise, Stephen Bellwood, Lei-Lani Keelan and Rachel Rosenfeld represented the tenant. Thomas Bow, Ashlea Aaron and Bailey Caliban represented the landlord in-house. Sales Fashion house picks up a third Midtown berth  Address: 730 Fifth Ave., Manhattan  Seller: Wharton Properties and Brookfield Buyer: Prada Group Sale price: $12 ..read more

U.S. economic growth slid to an almost two-year low last quarter while inflation jumped to uncomfortable levels, interrupting a run of strong demand and muted price pressures that had fueled optimism for a soft landing. Gross domestic product increased at a 1.6% annualized rate, below all economists’ forecasts, the government’s initial estimate showed. The economy’s main growth engine — personal spending — rose at a slower-than-forecast 2.5% pace. A wider trade deficit subtracted the most from growth since 2022. A closely watched measure of underlying inflation advanced at a greater-than-expec ..read more

Prada seems to have tied up some loose ends in Midtown. The Italian fashion giant has bought a storefront space on West 56th Street to complement the blockbuster $822 million pickup it completed on Fifth Avenue at the end of last year. The new site, which is tucked inside the Crown Building, the hotel-and-condo redevelopment project from Aman Resorts, sold for $12.6 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Thursday. There's some ambiguity about the seller of the property, which sits in a glass-walled wing of the Crown. On the deed the seller is listed as the developer Br ..read more

Last year’s collapse of a Lower Manhattan parking garage, which killed one person and sparked fears of similar risks at the city’s thousands of other garages, was not caused by an overloading of cars, the city’s Buildings Commissioner said Thursday in response to lawmakers’ questions about the integrity of the city’s structures. The new finding appears to contradict comments made by some city officials in the hours after the April 2023 collapse of the 98-year-old garage at 57 Ann St., when the fire department and the city’s emergency management commissioner both pointed to the dozens of cars c ..read more

Rudin is parting ways with one of its office buildings in the Financial District, an extremely rare sale for the prominent, family-run real estate firm. The company is selling 80 Pine St. to Bushburg, a Brooklyn-focused developer based in Penn Plaza, for $160 million, according to sources familiar with the transaction. Eastdil Secured's Gary Phillips and Will Silverman brokered the deal. They and Rudin declined to comment on it, and Bushburg did not respond to a request for comment by press time. Rudin has owned the 40-story, 1.2 million-square-foot property since it was developed in 1960 and ..read more

The duo behind a trendy Brooklyn spa is not only looking to expand its footprint but now also wants to tear down an iconic water tower that sits atop the building next door to make room for a new rooftop pool—much to the chagrin of neighbors. Business partners Jason Goodman and Travis Talmadge first launched Bathhouse—a spa, restaurant and wellness space—at 103 N. 10th St. in Williamsburg in 2019. They opened their second location earlier this year, at 14 W. 22nd St. in the Flatiron District. And now they're moving full steam ahead with plans to expand the Williamsburg location into an adjacen ..read more