Meatpacking District, now a retail and tourist destination cemented by last year’s relocation of the Whitney Museum, continues to be reshaped due to rising commercial rents and consequently, rising retail availability rate. Cushman & Wakefield reported the neighborhood’s availability rate at 22.2 percent during the second quarter of 2016 — a 3.9 percentage point increase from the same time last year and a 5.2 percentage point increase from 2013.
Citing climbing costs, Hogs and Heifers, an iconic biker bar on …
by Riccardo Ravasini The company of Douglas Durst — the younger brother of infamous Robert Durst — is in talks to buy a large development site at 1800 Park Ave. at 125th Street from Bruce Eichner, who dug a foundation but wasn’t able to put up a planned apartment project. The corner is across the street from the Harlem Metro North station. A Durst purchase would be a game-changer for East Harlem.
by Riccardo Ravasini 
In New York, where more than 3,500 new luxury apartments are hitting the market this year, developers now have to work much harder for a sale. As a result, they are leaning on different sales tactics like offering limited price discounts, gift cards, parties for brokers or creating two units from one, to create momentum at their projects.
For example, in Soho at 10 Sullivan St., an 8,400-square-foot penthouse listed at $45 million was sliced into two smaller units. Neither …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
While neighborhoods like Wynwood, Brickell and Midtown have grown in popularity, Lincoln Road has become stale for many locals and tourists. City of Miami seems to agree, and as a result, commissioned a renowned landscape architecture firm to dream up a new vision for the mall.
Last year, James Corner Field Operations presented a lush reimagination of the public space, featuring redesigned planters with seating carved out along the edges, a reorganization of cafe tables toward the center to create …
by Riccardo Ravasini Miami-Dade County’s market continued its steady pace during the second week of August, with a handful of multimillion dollar deals. At the top of the list was a unit at Beach House 8, Ugo Colombo and Valerio Morabito’s newly built boutique condo project in Mid-Beach. Unit 600, a four-bathroom unit spanning a whole floor and measuring 3,783 square feet, sold for $7.5 million to a European businessperson. The price breaks down to $1,982 per square foot.
Coming in second place …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
With supply outpacing demand for luxury rentals, price growth is nominal and landlords are increasingly shelling out concessions to renters in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The median rental price hit $3,450, a mere 0.9 percent year-over-year increase.
In Manhattan, the share of new leases with landlord concessions in July was more than double seen at the same time last year, according to Miller Samuels latest market report. Nearly 11 percent of the new leases (versus 5.3 percent in July 2015) provided …
by Riccardo Ravasini