Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks

Between the Bricks (R)
is the soul of real estate, NY & politics.
@nypost @trdny @commobserver

Just reclaimed @LoisWeiss
(but now need followers back )

[Lois Weiss @LoisWeiss]

@CBRE economist Matt Mowell says commercial bidder pools are getting "shallow." Also says high interest rates but less yield compression

[Lois Weiss @LoisWeiss]

More office buildings being torn down than being built says Matt Mowell of CBRE at NAREE2026
but prime offices are driving the economy.

[Lois Weiss @LoisWeiss]

At NAREE2026, National Association of Realtors @nardotrealtor and others pushing for an increase - perhaps a doubling -- in capital gains that can be sheltered by a home sale, arguing that the current $500k for a couple and $250k for a single person - maybe a widow - is not enough given inflation of homes, say Lawrence Yun, economist for NAR and Selma Hepp, economist for @cotality

[Lois Weiss @LoisWeiss]

"People see themselves as a brand," says Anson Kwok of Pinnacle International at NAREE2026. That's a reason why someone who drives a Bentley, for instance, wants to co-brand, and may buy in Miami's Bentley Residences.

[New York Post @nypost]

NYC mansion asking record $85M finds a buyer - as the ultra-wealthy flock to these homes of rare scale https://t.co/JPgs5OplK1

[Lois Weiss @LoisWeiss]

At NAREE2026, Kevin Mahoney of PMG, who developed Steinway Tower at 111 W. 57th St. in NYC, said of the 60-foot wide shkyscraper that tops out at 1,423 feet, "Architecturally, it was a marvel. Financially, it was a disaster."

[Lois Weiss @LoisWeiss]

This is really sad, especially coming from a girl who was involved and presumably loved horses.
But also a flashback to Olympic skating star Nancy Kerrigan getting attacked in 1994.

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

@WestHarlm @profstonge Time to find a case with the circumstances that fits what SCOTUS requested.

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

Government is supposed to help law abiding taxpayers. Not squatters who drain us mentally and financially.

[Fox News Politics @foxnewspolitics]

A Brooklyn landlord says he's trapped in a legal battle with a '9-year-squatter' over unpaid rent — and it's already drained his daughter's college fund. Thomas Diana estimates he's owed up to $325,000 while New York courts keep adjourning the case. The saga now stretches into its 10th year after another delay this April.

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

Simpson Thacher finally signed a lease for 916ksf with Gary Barnett for the lower portion of the 1.6msf 570 Fifth Avenue. Both the lease size and the building have grown since initial reports.

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

My story>
Property taxes go up when you boost the budget - and most won't go up 9% now, but bigger issue is that only one DOZEN, 1-3 family homes 🏠were added
to NYC's supply and a paltry 16,241 Class 2 apartments.
The newer 485 and 467 incentives were barely in place. Those that warned it was taking too long to replace 421-a because there would be a big lag in supply should have bet on Polymarket.
Lots of past mayoral bragging about a pipeline of properties but they are still in the pipeline. And that stupid 99-unit rule did not bulk it up where it matters.

[Commercial Observer @commobserver]

NYC Property Taxes Expected to Rise as Values Inch Upward https://t.co/WF2g4c9S3H

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

@hitsamty Absolutely! Skip a day reading the Promote and you are way behind the news!

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

Related & partners Abu
Dhabi Investment Authority and Mack Real Estate want to sell the trophy retail "mall" Shops at Columbus at the Deutsche Bank Center in Manhattan through Newmark. Bids for 351ksf 95% leased expected at $450M to $500M has Whole Foods, Equinox plus restaurants Per Se and Masa, Bad Roman, Twin Tails, Momofuku and retailers Aritzia, Madwell, Williams Sonoma. etc.
via Real Estate Alert

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

Columbia Property Trust gets NBCUniversal spinoff to extend temp space.

[Commercial Observer @commobserver]

Media Company Versant Expands to 250K SF at Former NY Times Building https://t.co/tUfTZscVsi

[Lois Weiss @LoisWeiss]

https://t.co/NsshXE62TW

[Floridian Development @FloridianDev]

🧵Citadel’s Miami HQ Loses Supertall Status in Shift to Nearly All Office Space

Updated plans for Citadel's New HQ have been revealed today, and multiple changes have been made.

For one, office space in the tower expanded from 1.485m SF to 1.642m SF, killing hotel space.

1/5

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

Important legislation to help get rental housing built across the country.

[Barrett Linburg @DallasAptGP]

As a country, we have spent decades subsidizing housing demand and done little to reward supply.

The mortgage deduction. Down payment grants. Tax-free profit when you sell.

Demand went up. Supply hasn't kept up.

The country is short about 3.7 million homes. The wave of new apartments that cooled rents is running out. Starts are falling. The buildings that held the line are leasing up with nothing behind them. When they fill, rents climb again.

So why don't builders build more?

Part of the answer hides in the tax code.

Develop a new apartment building and you write the cost off over 27.5 years. A thin slice each year for almost three decades.

A dollar deducted today beats a dollar deducted in 2050. Money has a time value. Inflation eats the late write-offs. So the long timeline raises the after-tax cost of building and drops the return. Marginal deals fall below the line where a lender will fund them. High rates make it worse.

This month four members of the House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill to change that.

Two Democrats. Two Republicans.

It rewards building apartments. No new agency. No appropriation. Not even a subsidy.

The "Rental Housing Investment Act" moves the write-off forward.

Build a new apartment and you can deduct up to $150,000 per unit the year it opens. For income-restricted units the figure rises to $250,000. The deduction caps at what the building cost. It covers new construction, not existing buildings, and you have to be the first owner.

Put these numbers on a real development project.

We just finished a 76-unit project in the Cedars, south of downtown Dallas. Cost about $19.8 million. Under today's rules, a cost segregation study got us a $4.3 million write-off in year one. Under this bill, the next one like it throws off about $11.4 million.

That is a first-year deduction worth more than all the cash equity in the deal.

That swing is the point. A bigger deduction up front lifts the after-tax return. A deal that might today be a few points short of penciling now clears the bar. The housing gets built.

Do that across the country and more buildings pencil. More buildings mean more apartments. More apartments hold rents down.

Now the objection.

The first reaction is that this is a deficit bomb. It is not, and here is why.

The first-year deduction cuts the building's basis by the same amount. Less basis means smaller deductions in every year that follows. Sell the building or pull it out of the rental market inside ten years and the law claws the benefit back. For the affordable tier that window runs fifteen years. The break rewards housing that stays housing.

So the true ten-year cost is a fraction of the headline number. Treasury fronts the deduction to get the building up, then takes most of it back over the life of the asset.

And the idea is not new.

In 2025 Congress restored full first-year expensing for business assets. For the first time it let companies write off some building structures in year one, the ones used in domestic manufacturing. The principle is settled law. This bill points it at a narrow, capped slice of housing.

That is why both parties can sign it.

🔴 The supply-side gets a tax cut that builds something you can stand in front of. No new agency. No grant contest.

🔵 The housing-first side gets more supply, including units working families can afford, without waiting on a capped tax-credit pipeline.

We spent decades learning how to make people want a home.

We forgot how to make it pay to build one.

This remembers.

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 HOLY CRAP! Ugandan Mayor Mamdani is INFURIATING his own residents after announcing city-run grocery stores that cost $30 MILLION to build, and are immune from property taxes and utilities

REAL grocery store owners are panicking and livid, saying Mamdani is destroying them AND JOBS:

"There's no way we can be open. If I lose 30 percent, I'm in trouble. I won't be able to pay the rent. I won't be able to pay the workers. And I don't want to lose the whole thing, whatever it's cost me, 45 years working all my life to lose it because, you know, I'm going to be fighting against someone who was spending our all money!!"

Pure devastation is coming if this plan isn't shot down!

This 3rd world scammer proves he's an utter failure again.

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

Used to live right above in 300 Mercer St.

[evgrieve @evgrieve]

Say goodbye to another old-school NYC diner. Ownership of the Cozy Soup 'n' Burger on Broadway at Astor Place announced that the 54-year-old diner is closing on June 21. The reasons: Rising costs and declining business.

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

@aussieflya I guess you can sell them in the parking lot but not before you board the bus when they hand them to you!

[Lois Weiss: Between the Bricks @BetweenBricks]

https://t.co/vdpR4c3cES

Starting 10 am Monday, May 26, 2026
Sign up 1x a day for 6 days.
Only for NYC residents -
winners buy 1 or 2 tix for $50 each
and will need to prove residency
with tickets only given AT the free bus to stadium.

[New York Post @nypost]

Mamdani announces 1,000 $50 World Cup tickets for New Yorkers https://t.co/AiWZoA1yyT