Posted by Geri in commercial real estate, General, In The News, Long Island, New York, News, Real Estate, Uncategorized.
With another huge real estate portfolio on the block, Morris Sosnow’s estate has offered up 400,000 square feet of commercial space, most of it in Long Island’s Nassau County. This was certainly the year of the mega deal in New York, with the $5.4 billion sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village so recently consummated. Though hardly in the same class, this promises to be another interesting transaction. If I were to venture a guess, I’d bet the going price is higher than $80-100 million suggested for the commercial properties. Being sold also are close to 600 co-op units, most of them in Queens.
Some of the space to be sold is Birchwood Plaza North and South, sitting on the periphery of the affluent community of Birchwood Park East in Jericho. With a relatively new Whole Foods Market, having replaced an aging Waldbaums as an anchor store and a sizable Marshall’s occupying space at the other end, this is some prime real estate.
For more of the story, read Dawn Wotapka Hardesty’s article in Long Island Business News.
Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, family, General, Home, In The News, Long Island, New York, News, Real Estate, Uncategorized.
It may come as a surprise to some, but certainly not to me. As reported by Newsday, the December issue of Self magazine ranked Long Island third, right after Honolulu and Portland, Maine as one of the healthiest places in which women can thrive.
“Surprised? Don’t be, said Sara Austin, the magazine’s news director. Nassau and Suffolk’s low rates of crime, unemployment and suicide and its population of highly educated and affluent residents helped boost the rating.”
A long time resident of Long Island, one of the first things that struck me as I searched for a home was the comfort women seemed to have in their environment. Many times as I trolled the area I saw women alone, jogging at ten o’clock at night. I remember thinking at the time that their obvious lack of fear was a good indicator of a safe place in which to bring up my son. I’ve never regretted my choice to make Long Island my home and I’ve spent a lot of years helping other people do the same.
Posted by Geri in Dogs, family, feelings, General, Home, In The News, Long Island, News, Pets, Uncategorized.
There had to be divine intervention for two miracle pups rescued by Little Shelter on Long Island. Magic and Merlin, three week old mixed breed puppies born with severely cleft palates would have had no chance at survival without the intervention of the caring people at Little Shelter, one of the island’s oldest no kill facilities.
As so often happens when good samaritans hear about the plight of others, there was an outpouring of offers of assistance. They came from far and wide and included Plastic Surgeons, Veterinarians and the public at large. Reported in Newsday, they’re waiting for the dogs to be old enough for the first of multiple surgeries to set them on the path of hopefully long and happy lives. They will remain in my prayers.
Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, Entertainment, Estates, Home, In The News, Long Island, New York, Real Estate, Selling Your Home, Uncategorized.
An endlessly entertaining voyeuristic activity is taking a peek into the lives of the rich and famous. There is a huge chasm between those who count their pennies, saving up to buy a little piece of the American dream and the moneyed minority trading acreage for numbers that boggle the mind of the masses. The players in this week’s multimillion dollar game are:
The Dolan family which controls Cablevision, Madison Square Garden, The New York Knicks and Rangers having listed a 10,000 square foot, waterfront home in Centre Island for $13.5 million. If the price seems steep, think of what you get — a visually stunning newly constructed home (2005) with 7 bedrooms, 7 full and 2 half baths and 7 fireplaces on over 6 acres. Spellbinding views framed by a charming gazebo add to the ambiance of an already abundantly appointed home.
On the other end of the spectrum is the famous Connecticut plastic surgeon who plead guilty to tax evasion. His $15.5 million waterfront home is in tony Wesport Connecticut.
For more of the story on these and film producer Brian Grazer’s home in Los Angeles, take a look at this article.
Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, Changing Market, Home, In The News, Marketing, NAR, National Association of Realtors, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Selling Your Home.
There is so much discussion in the press and the blogosphere about NAR’s decision to start an ad campaign in order to counteract some of the doomsayers’ predictions of a precipitous fall in real estate prices. Short on memory or steeped in drama, the media at first having denied the existence of a bubble, then backtracking and announcing it and their subsequent take on the “burst,” blasted the airwaves with a defeatist scenario. The last time I checked, none of us had a working crystal ball. If we did, I suspect we’d pick the winning lottery numbers or the next Microsoft and not waste our time in the business of selling or reporting on real estate.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan announced in mid-2005 that “at a minimum, there’s a little ‘froth’ (in the U.S. housing market) … it’s hard not to see that there are a lot of local bubbles.” President Bush said of the U.S. housing boom in early 2006 “If houses get too expensive, people will stop buying them … Economies should cycle,” and cycle they do. The problem with all the prognosticating about a crash or hard landing for the real estate market is the probability of it becoming a self fulfilling prophesy. Say anything often enough and people start to believe it, especially if it comes from a “credible” source.
It’s understandable then that the National Association of Realtors would take a stand on behalf of its constituency and attempt to counteract the negative press and stampeding mentality of those paid to publish bad news.
Posted by Geri in Google, In The News, Internet, JotSpot, News, social networking, wiki.
With barely time to sit back and take a breath, Google’s done it again. Their latest acquisition, in the Web 2.0 realm is a company called JotSpot, a wiki application they can integrate into their growing menu of social networking services.
Started in 2004 by Excite’s co-founders Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer, JotSpot has evolved into a ” pioneering do-it-yourself application publishing” that “enables anyone to create, publish, and share collaborative and personalized wiki applications.” Geared toward small business customers, the Google acquisition will open the doors to a much broader based audience.
Does anyone else wonder what effect all of this will have on Microsoft?
Posted by Geri in Assisted Living, family, General, In The News, Long Island, New York, Senior Housing.
Chartwell Senior Housing REIT, with it’s announced transactions today having a total value of approximately $850 million when completed would make it Canada’s number one operator of senior housing facilities.
What makes this significant to Long Islanders is the proposed acquisition of the five properties under The Bristal umbrella. These upscale senior assisted living facilities, opened between 2001 to 2006, attend to the physical needs of an aging population while celebrating their independence of spirit. Each of the communities from the north to the south shores of Nassau County have their own personality and style.
Posted by Geri in Entertainment, General, Google, In The News, Internet, social networking, Uncategorized, Video Sharing, YouTube.
The two young men who launched YouTube just over a year ago are no doubt dancing in the streets. There’s nothing like a $1.65 billion dollar deal to get your heart beating just a little bit faster. Google’s all stock purchase of the wildly successful video site is a headline to the competition that it is in the game of video sharing in earnest and it’s in to win. In question at the moment is how to position those advertising dollars without risking a backlash due to some questionable content on YouTube.
Google will also have to deal with the possibility of lawsuits engendered by allegations of copyright infringement. As a start up, YouTube was a far less enticing target, but with Google’s deep pockets new lawsuits just might start springing up.
Whatever wrinkles need ironing out, the powers that be at Google seem to have an unerring eye when it comes to rounding out it’s online services while generating significant income to fund it’s growth.
For those of us in the real estate industry, YouTube might provide a viable option for online video presentations.
Posted by Geri in General, In The News, New York, News, Uncategorized.
New Yorkers are resilient, but we’re also skittish after 9/11, so when the first reports of a plane crashing into an apartment building on Manhattan’s upper east side started to fill the airwaves, we were frightened. Could it happen again? How vulnerable as a city and a nation are we?
Thoughts flooded my brain as I listened, second hand, to a conversation one of my co workers was having with her husband. “Oh no,” she gasped, turning to tell us about the crash. “Not again!” was my first thought. Needing more information, we tried to access the news media, first on a television and when that failed, on the computer.
Early reports were sketchy but clearly showed a hit on what turned out to be the 40th floor of a residential building on East 72nd Street, scattering debris onto the street below, and sending smoke and flames billowing up into an overcast sky. Logic suggested it was not a terrorist attack (the first thought in the minds of many) because of it’s location, but we needed proof.
It would be hours before we knew the true nature of the tragedy. Yankee pitcher, Cory Lidle with barely 75 hours of experience under his belt had taken off from Teterboro airport in New Jersey at 2:30 on what appeared to be a sightseeing flight around Manhattan. A short 12 minutes later a call came in to 911 reporting the crash into the Belaire. As of this moment nobody knows what went wrong, but in the midst of this incomprehensible event, there is the incredible good fortune that nobody in the building or on the street below was killed.
To all those mourning the loss of the 34 year old Cory Lidle, our prayers are with you.
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