WHEREFORE ART THOU BUILDINGS?

Excessive demand and a low supply of buildings for sale has caused values to rise sharply and cap rates to fall 75 to 100 bps in the past two months, we learned at Massey Knakal’s Q1 breakfast in its Madison Avenue offices yesterday. Here's chairman Bob Knakal with the firm’s Michael DeCheser, Brendan Gotch, Garrett Thelander, and James Nelson (the only one brave enough to go without a jacket... fortune favors the bold, James). Investors sniffing around include families, high-net-worth individuals, institutional capital, foreigners, and first-time New York buyers—but there are hardly any buildings for them, since potential sellers don’t know what they’ll do with the money once their assets sell. Overall, Q1 performed at modest levels, on par with Q4 ‘11: “It was disappointingly not better,” Bob says. What’s encouraging: the average price of buildings sold was $12.6M, even higher than the peak (and in ‘09, $4.3M).
Massey Knakal’s borough gurus of (clockwise, from top) Jeffrey Shalom, Tom Donovan, Karl Brumback, and Rob Shapiro swear they didn’t organize this photo by suit and shirt color (we're on a fashion kick today), although multifamily strength coordinated nicely in all the submarkets. The best performing submarket outside of Manhattan (which saw 191 buildings sell for $5.7B) was Northern Manhattan, but Brooklyn won for best in recovery. (Sounds like the Westminster Submarket Show.) The breakdown:
  • Queens – 67 buildings at $189M

  • Brooklyn – 189 buildings at $683M

  • Bronx – 66 buildings at $150M

  • Northern Manhattan – 34 buildings at $155M

Continue reading this story with a free account

Log in or register
Sign up for more articles like this
Subscribe to Bisnow's London Newsletters
Related Stories

Texas Flips Blue, Putting Data Center Boom On Notice

Hynes Vows To Bring Property Tax Stability As New Cook County Assessor

Donalds Makes History With Win For Florida Governor, Voters OK Property Tax Amendment

Penta And Staycity Team Up For £230M Farringdon Aparthotel

Supertall Assemblage Comes Together At Long-Vacant Midtown Site: The N.Y. Deal Sheet

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Rewrite Underwriting Standards For NYC's Rent Freeze

Brookfield And QIA Invest Initial £2.5B In UK Data Centre Project

Banks Are Manhattan's Latest Hot Retail Tenant

The Geo Group To Reopen 2,329-Bed Immigration Facility In Texas

What's At Stake For CRE In Tuesday's U.S. Midterm

UK Budget Risks Deterring Sovereign Wealth Funds From Real Estate

RXR Marketing Executive Lauren Maturo Dies At 32