Podcast | Are AI Agents RE Agents’ Best Partners? With Breezy CEO James Harris
James Harris, former luxury‑home broker and TV personality, launched Breezy, an AI‑driven platform that automates the administrative tasks that consume real‑estate agents’ time. The startup closed a $10 million pre‑seed round led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Fifth Wall, DST Global and other investors. Harris leverages more than $6 billion in closed sales to shape a product aimed at boosting agent efficiency and data‑centric workflows. The recent podcast explores how AI agents can complement, rather than replace, human brokers in the next few years.
Affinius Capital Provides $120M Refi for San Diego Luxury Multifamily Complex
AAA Management secured a $120 million loan from Affinius Capital to refinance Elowen, a 302‑unit luxury multifamily tower in San Diego’s Kearny Mesa submarket. The property, which opened in 2026, offers studios through three‑bedroom units with rents ranging from $2,632 to...
Targo Capital Partners Buys 185 East Houston Street, Part of $81M Portfolio
Targo Capital Partners acquired 185 East Houston Street for $30.8 million, adding a six‑story, 31‑unit building to a broader $81 million portfolio of seven Lower Manhattan prewar residential properties bought from S&H Equities. The combined assets total 125 units and include occupied...
Olmstead Buys 19 West 44th Street From Savanna at a 45% Haircut
Olmstead Properties, together with its new investment platform Vertex, acquired the 302,000‑square‑foot 19 West 44th Street office tower in Midtown Manhattan for an estimated $108 million, a roughly 45 percent discount to the $195 million price Savanna paid in 2017. The deal was financed with...
CSC Real Estate Acquires Three Medical Properties on Upper East Side for $70M
CSC Real Estate acquired three Upper East Side properties—including a 127,000‑sq‑ft medical office at 210 East 86th Street and adjacent retail spaces—for an estimated $70 million. The buyer aims to transform the site into a premier medical office destination amid a tight...
Dwight Capital Lends $66M of HUD Debt on Texas Luxury Apartments Project
Dwight Capital closed a $66 million HUD 221(d)(4) construction loan for Martin Inderman Development’s luxury multifamily project, The Lariat at Abilene, in central Texas. The 312‑unit development will span 13 three‑story garden‑style buildings on a 13‑acre site and feature upscale amenities...
Law Firm London Fischer, Nonprofit Adapt Community Network Ink Deals on Maiden Lane
London Fischer, a personal injury law firm, renewed its 58,164‑square‑foot lease at 59 Maiden Lane in Manhattan’s Financial District. At the same time, Adapt Community Network, a nonprofit serving people with disabilities, signed a 54,651‑square‑foot lease at 80 Maiden Lane, relocating within the building....
NewMark Merrill’s Future San Bernardino County Shopping Hub Signs 11 Tenants
NewMark Merrill Companies, together with World Premier Investments and RY Properties, secured 11 additional tenants for the Desert Sky Plaza II shopping center in Victorville, California, before construction begins. The 30‑acre, 297,363‑square‑foot project is now about 85% pre‑leased, featuring anchors...
New York State Decides to Speed Up A Lot of Environmental Reviews
Governor Kathy Hochul signed two budget bills on May 27 that exempt new infill housing and certain public‑infrastructure projects from New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). The reforms aim to cut months‑long environmental reviews that have added roughly...
Eastern Bank Provides $39M Bridge Loan for Worcester, Mass., 55-Plus Community
Eastern Bank has extended a $39 million bridge loan to United Group for The Arbella at Bramble Hill, a 123‑unit active‑adult community in Worcester, Massachusetts. The financing will retire existing construction debt and fund the final phases of the project. JLL...
SoJo Spa Owner Buys Office and Retail Building at 893 Broadway for $31M
SoJo Spa Club owner Hyun Jun An bought 893 Broadway in Manhattan’s Flatiron District for $31 million, using a $20 million loan from Bank of Hope. The five‑story mixed‑use building, previously owned by RCLCO Fund Advisors and L3 Capital, was acquired through...
Derby Copeland Capital Provides $54 Million Refi for Lexington Avenue Condo
Derby Copeland Capital has provided a $54 million refinancing for 660 Lexington Avenue, a 19‑story, 31‑unit condominium in Midtown East Manhattan. The loan replaces an existing debt on the property, which Rybak Development and BK Developers acquired for $24.4 million in 2021....
REITs Poised For Growth, but Geopolitical Risks Are Wildcard: Nareit Panelists
The NAREIT REITweek 2026 conference highlighted a 14% year‑to‑date gain for the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index, outpacing the broader market by roughly 400 basis points. Panelists debated the impact of the Iran‑related energy shock, with Morgan Stanley forecasting...
Tenant Screening Firm Findigs Raises $32M Series C Round
Findigs, an AI‑driven tenant‑screening platform, closed a $32 million Series C round, bringing its total capital to $80 million. The funding, led by RPM Ventures, will accelerate product development, expand market reach, and deepen capabilities in affordable‑housing workflows such as LIHTC and Section 8....
Design and Preconstruction Startup LightTable Raises $22M Series A
LightTable, an AI‑driven design and preconstruction risk‑reduction platform, announced a $22 million Series A financing round. The round was led by Innovation Endeavors with participation from Blackhorn Ventures, DivcoWest, 9Yards Capital and existing backers. The capital will be used to scale its...
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass On Fast-Tracking Housing and Reviving Downtown
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass highlighted a suite of reforms aimed at easing the city’s housing shortage and reviving downtown. She reported fast‑tracking 42,000 affordable units, with 6,000 under construction, and expanding adaptive‑reuse zoning citywide to convert office towers into...
Patrick Southern of Serhant: 5 Questions
Patrick Southern, a two‑decade Jersey City real‑estate veteran, joined Serhant in 2025 after a career spanning mom‑and‑pop firms, an Australian‑backed brokerage, and Coldwell Banker. He closed 376 contracts last year—roughly one deal per day—by leveraging disciplined lead generation and a...
Behind Blackstone’s Newfound Commitment to Finance Home Construction
Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies announced a homebuilder lending platform that will finance the construction of more than 50,000 for‑sale single‑family homes each year, tapping its $78 billion real‑estate debt platform and partner Brio Homebuilder Solutions. The initiative seeks to narrow...
New York City’s Latest Affordable Housing Construction Moves Are a Great Start
Mayor Zohran Mamdani launched the SPEED (Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development) initiative, establishing a task force on his first day in office to overhaul New York City’s affordable‑housing approval process. The newly released SPEED report outlines reforms that could...
Prominent Landlord Sandy Sigal On the Lasting Premium in Retail
Sandy Sigal, founder of NewMark Merrill, oversees more than 110 shopping centers valued at over $3 billion across California, Colorado and Illinois. He says capital is flooding into retail properties while new construction remains scarce, driving rent growth and pushing foot...
PNC Bank Refis West Village Apartment Building With $404M Loan
Rockrose Development secured a $404 million agency‑debt loan from PNC Bank to refinance its landmarked 666 Greenwich Street property, known as the Archive, in Manhattan’s West Village. The loan will be sold to Freddie Mac, providing agency‑backed financing for the 472‑unit luxury...
Rezonings Are Now Driving Land Development in New York City
New York City’s development market has shifted from pure location premiums to treating zoning entitlements as a distinct asset class. Recent neighborhood rezoning efforts—such as in Gowanus, Jamaica, and Long Island City—have unlocked tens of thousands of multifamily units, with...
Benefit Street Partners Provides $82M Refi for Sarasota County Multifamily
Benefit Street Partners has provided an $82.1 million three‑year loan, with two one‑year extension options, to refinance Render Legacy Trail, a newly delivered 450‑unit multifamily community in Sarasota County, Florida. The debt was arranged by Berkadia and backed by a joint venture between...
Speaker Spotlight: Adam Greene of RXR
Adam Greene, Executive Vice President of Development at RXR, outlined the firm’s three‑pronged strategy for New York City’s real estate at the Future of New York Forum: expand housing through new builds and office‑to‑residential conversions, reinvest in premium office assets,...
A Big Retail Tenant Kept Saying No. Then AI Closed the Deal.
Artificial intelligence is now closing commercial‑real‑estate leases, as demonstrated at the ICSC conference. NewMark Merrill’s CEO Sandy Sigal described using a large‑language model to rank prospective tenants, generate pitch decks, and advise acquisition decisions. The AI‑driven workflow helped convert a...
ATG Entertainment Expands to 19K SF at GFP’s 630 Ninth Avenue
New York landlord GFP Real Estate announced three lease deals totaling 24,815 sq ft at its 630 Ninth Avenue building. ATG Entertainment, a leading UK theater group, signed a long‑term extension that doubles its fifth‑floor space to 19,380 sq ft. Video production firm CRC...
What Mayor Mamdani’s New Housing Plan Misses
Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposes a plan to create or preserve 400,000 housing units in New York City over the next decade, but the article argues the strategy overlooks rising operating costs and restrictive policies that erode both new construction and...
Rialto Capital Refis Philly Industrial Property With $119M Loan
Rialto Capital has provided a $118.5 million floating‑rate, interest‑only loan to refinance a newly built 759,460‑sq‑ft logistics warehouse at 5000 Richmond Street in Philadelphia. The loan backs a joint venture between Elion Partners and Kadima Industrial Partners, which completed construction in...
TA Realty Buys Back Miami Warehouse Campus for $48M
TA Realty repurchased the 178,521‑square‑foot Webster Business Park near Miami International Airport for $47.6 million, roughly $267 per square foot. The Boston‑based firm originally owned the 7.8‑acre campus from 2005 to 2016, selling it for $16.6 million before AEW Capital bought it...
Tanger’s Justin Stein On Leveraging Data and Gnoshes to Grow a Retail Portfolio
Tanger, the Greensboro‑based REIT that operates 41 open‑air outlet and lifestyle centers, posted 97% occupancy and 3.4 million square feet of leases signed over the trailing 12 months in Q1 2026. The company raised its 2026 guidance after record leasing volume and...
$300 a Square Foot for a Manhattan Office Is Losing Its Shock Value
The $300‑per‑square‑foot rent ceiling that once shocked Manhattan’s office market is fading as new record deals emerge. In April 2026, 9 West 57th Street leased 5,063 sq ft on its 50th floor for $340 per square foot, the highest confirmed price to date. CBRE...
Bridge Investment Group Lends $40M on Tampa Apartments Buy
Bridge Investment Group closed a $39.7 million acquisition loan for a joint venture between Yale Capital Group and developer Daryl Hagler. The financing enabled the purchase of two northeast Tampa multifamily assets—Rivertree Landing Apartments (228 units) and Puritan Place Apartment Homes...
Hudson Square Is Winning the 2026 Office Market
Hudson Square is emerging as Manhattan’s hottest office submarket as the city‑wide supply of premium space dwindles. With a 19.4% availability rate in Midtown South Q1 2026, the area attracted marquee leases from PayPal, Notion, RadicalMedia and Tennr, and may soon...
Dutch Investor Pays $110M For New Rental in Aventura, Fla.
Dutch investment firm Breevest acquired the Avida Aventura multifamily complex in Aventura, Florida for $110 million, marking its first South Florida purchase. The eight‑story, 266‑unit building sits across from the Aventura Mall and was completed in 2024 by Fifield Companies, which...
Peachtree Group Provides $32M Construction Loan for Alabama Hotel
Peachtree Group originated a $32.36 million, three‑year construction loan— with two optional 12‑month extensions— for Spandrel Development Partners' 154‑room AC Hotel by Marriott in Huntsville, Alabama. The hotel will sit on a 4.67‑acre parcel inside Cummings Research Park, part of the...
Arbor Realty Trust Lends $125M on Chicago Apartments Acquisition
Arbor Realty Trust funded a $125.3 million acquisition loan for R.I.G. Capital’s purchase of the Pavilion Apartments complex near Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. The transaction finances a $167 million deal, representing a 75 percent loan‑to‑cost ratio. The 1,115‑unit, five‑building property sits on 18.1 acres, is...
Peachtree Supplies $45M C-PACE Loan for Florida Senior Housing Project
The Fellowship Family secured a $44.5 million, 30‑year C‑PACE loan from Peachtree Group to develop the 205‑unit Fellowship Wildlight senior‑housing community in Yulee, Florida. The 285,613‑sq‑ft project will include independent living, assisted living and memory‑care units and is slated for completion...
Benchmark Buys Upper West Side Apartment Building From Heller for $42M
Benchmark Real Estate Group purchased the 90‑unit, 15‑story prewar building at 698 West End Avenue for $42 million, marking its second transaction with the Heller Organization in less than a year. The Upper West Side property, built in 1925, offers one‑bedroom...
AI Marketing Platform Hightouch Takes 18K SF at 275 Seventh Avenue
Hightouch, a data‑and‑AI marketing platform, signed an 18,000‑square‑foot lease for the entire 21st floor of 275 Seventh Avenue in Midtown South. The deal, brokered by Tishman Real Estate Services and CBRE, replaces the company’s smaller offices and places it among other...
Tech Firm Profound Inks 30K-SF Deal at GFP’s 5-9 Union Square West
Profound, a marketing intelligence platform founded in 2024, has signed a lease for 30,000 square feet at GFP Real Estate’s 5‑9 Union Square West. The deal, priced at $75 per square foot, occupies two full floors of the historic Spingler...
Industrial Realty Group, Sachem Capital Merge to Form $3.4B Industrial REIT
Industrial Realty Group (IRG) and Sachem Capital are merging to create IRG Realty Trust, a publicly traded REIT valued at roughly $3.4 billion. IRG will contribute about half of its 200 industrial assets, forming a portfolio of 98 properties worth $2.9 billion...
Law Firm Fox Rothschild Moving to Another Related Ross Building in West Palm
Law firm Fox Rothschild is relocating from the Phillips Point complex to a new 17,250‑square‑foot lease at the under‑construction 15 CityPlace tower in downtown West Palm Beach. The 10‑year lease keeps the firm within the Related Ross portfolio, which is investing heavily in the...
Hyatt in SoCal’s Inland Empire Secures $104M to Finance Upgrades
National Core closed on a $103.6 million tax‑exempt bond package to fund a major renovation of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Ontario, California. The financing blends $77.1 million in hotel revenue bonds with $26.5 million in C‑PACE clean‑energy bonds, underwritten by J.P. Morgan...
Forest Development’s Peter Baytarian: 5 Questions
Forest Development’s founder Peter Baytarian completed the two‑tower Nautilus 220 in Lake Park, Florida, selling 90% of its 330 luxury units at $620,000 to $4.3 million—prices roughly three times higher than older condos nearby. The project survived a four‑year rezoning, pandemic‑induced...
Core Spaces Secures $1.64B Fundraise for Student Housing Development, Investment
Core Spaces, a Chicago‑based real‑estate firm, closed its fourth student‑housing fund with $1.64 billion in capital, surpassing its $1 billion target. The pure‑play fund will invest exclusively in development projects at large, flagship public universities. Since 2010 the company’s portfolio has expanded...
UBS Refis Chelsea Office Building With $161M Loan
Vornado Realty Trust and Aurora Capital Associates secured a $161 million interest‑only loan from UBS to refinance their 194,000‑square‑foot office and retail asset at 61 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The building, known as the Yext Building, houses a 143,000‑sq‑ft...
Stephen Ross Pays $55M for Downtown West Palm Beach Dev Site to Build Condo
Stephen Ross’s firm Related Ross purchased a 2.6‑acre downtown West Palm Beach block for $55 million, planning a 100‑130 unit condo tower. The land, previously assembled for $27.2 million by a joint venture of three developers, was bought outright, indicating Ross’s confidence...
Affinius, Axonic Provide $43M Construction Loan for Sarasota Multifamily Complex
Allen Morris Company secured a $43 million construction loan from Affinius Capital and Axonic Capital to fund the second phase of the Bayside North luxury multifamily project in downtown Sarasota. The financing will support 81 high‑end units, eight guest suites and...
Vornado, Stellar Finalize Plans to Add 976 Residential Units to Independence Plaza
Vornado Realty Trust and Stellar Management have finalized a plan to add 976 residential units to Independence Plaza in Tribeca, including a new 72‑story tower and three smaller buildings. The proposal leverages the city’s Universal Affordability Preference, offering either 251...
Realterm Acquires Bronx IOS Site at 935 Garrison Avenue
Realterm, a transportation‑focused investment manager, announced the purchase of 935 Garrison Avenue, a one‑acre industrial outdoor storage (IOS) site in the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood. The property, which includes a 9,400‑square‑foot maintenance building with three drive‑in bays, is the firm’s...