New York City Real Estate Law Blog

It's an art deco giant in New York City's famed skyline. And beginning today, the Empire State Building is once again, as it has been a number of times in its more than 80-year history, the focus of real estate litigation.

Media outlets are reporting that the 102-story icon is the focus of a fight that pits a father and son team of New York real estate titans on one side, and some California investors on the other side. At stake: a $5.2 billion deal that critics say would enrich the dad-son team and put other investors at risk.

This morning, the New York Times ran an interesting article on the prices we pay to live in the greatest city in the world. The paper's economics reporter discussed the price in New York City of a pair of "sensible, unstylish walking flats" ($480), an oatmeal-raisin cookie ($4 each), a Jean-Georges chef's menu meal ($198) and so on, including the price of residential real estate in her Upper West Side neighborhood. She pays $2,500 a month in rent for a one-bedroom apartment -- no doorman.

While these prices would make many people in most parts of the country woozy, New Yorkers complain about the high cost of living here, and then pay up. The reporter's contention is that we're not paying abnormally high costs, despite those sky-high price tags. She notes that "the typical resident here pays roughly the same share of her income in rent as does her counterpart in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston, according to N.Y.U.'s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy."

Some sections of New York City's coastal areas remain battered by last year's Superstorm Sandy. As Real Estate Weekly notes, "from the Rockaways to South Street to Staten Island, a question mark hangs over the coastal communities": should efforts be made to rebuild back to pre-storm days?

The president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation said rebuilding those parts of the city is not only a way of doing the right thing for residential and commercial real estate owners, but also part of a plan to combat future storms and rising waters.

The real estate developer's fall was spectacular. In 2007, he purchased an $8 billion portfolio of nearly 700 hotels.

Two years later, he filed for bankruptcy -- an experience he describes as "humbling." Today, the native New Yorker is for the first time working on developing commercial properties in his hometown.