A new batch of efficiency units can be found in luxury buildings, as developers seek ways to add value for high-end buyers while keeping a lid on their owns costs.
Unlike the sprawling trophy apartments that have hit the market in the past few years, tighter-cut units at buildings like 15 Leonard Street, the Charles at 1355 First Avenue, the Rudin family’s Greenwich Lane and others offer more value per square foot for buyers, brokers said.
At 15 Leonard Street, …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
A Queens-based developer who bought a prime Long Island City site for $8 million three years ago flipped the property for nearly six times that amount.
Developer Steve Cheung closed earlier this month on the $46.3 million sale of the site at 29-37 41st Avenue in the Queens Plaza section of Long Island City.
The buyer is an unidentified institutional investor. The site has a buildable square footage of roughly 205,000 square feet and comes with approvals for a 30-story …
by Riccardo Ravasini Foreigners invested more than $600 million in outer-borough real estate through the first half of the year, the most ever, according to data from Real Capital Analytics. Brooklyn received the vast majority of that speculation.
Still it’s easier to find investors from abroad for Manhattan, less so for Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens. But those areas have great fundamentals.
These days, average rents in Brooklyn are basically at Manhattan levels, and there seems to be no ceiling in sight for …
by Riccardo Ravasini According to an October 20 report in state-run China Economic Weekly, Miami is being cited as the future mecca for Chinese home buyers and real estate investors. Miami homes cost only 40 percent of those in Beijing, the report argues. The only reason Chinese buyers have overlooked Miami in the past is that Chinese buyers and investors simply didn’t associate Miami with real estate in the same way that they do San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. The tide …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
In other news, South Floria developer Swire Properties Inc., announced this week the launch of Rise, one of two luxury condominium towers in Brickell City Centre — a new $1.5 billion dollar master-planned mixed-use urban development in the heart of Miami’s Brickell district. Reach is Brickell City Centre’s first luxury condominium tower.
Some of the high-end amenities in Rise include: a half-acre outdoor deck, a spa area with blow-out bar and nail salon, fitness center, library, poolside café service, children’s …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
Developers are starting to trickle north, but Miami remains the prime location in South Florida for new condo construction.
Miami-Dade County represents nearly 75 percent of the 278 condo towers totaling more than 38,150 units proposed, planned or under construction in South Florida through Sept. 15, according to Cranespotters.com. Scores of new projects were announced during the typically slow summer season. And new investors like Argentina’s Coto family made substantial investments in vacant land with future development in mind. The …
by Riccardo Ravasini