Last week there was a major blaze at the Set, the ultra-luxe apartment building in Hudson Yards owned by Related Companies, the firm of billionaire Miami Dolphins owner and development god Stephen Ross.
Now Page Six hears that the 44-story building’s general manager has been sootcanned after management copped to problems with the way that it communicated with the well-heeled residents during the crisis.
The ultra-luxe tower is owned by Dolphins owner, Steve RossGetty Images00:0 Execs have described the building as “a five-star hotel crossed with a luxury rental crossed with a techy workplace,” and,according to the New Yorker magazine, it offers amenities including “communal desks, Zoom rooms, concierges, housekeeping, I.V. drips, after-work drinks, fridge stocking and dry cleaning” plus a pool deck “for DJ parties.”
But last week the place caught the eyes of New Yorkers not so much for its envelope-pushing perks as the massive column of thick black smoke rising from its roof.
Apparently a fire started around 11am Thursday during maintenance on the building’s cooling tower. It was handled speedily, nobody was injured and we’re told that the building suffered no “residual damage.” According to ABC Eyewitness News, around 80 firefighters were on the scene.
It’s part of the buzzy West Side development.AFP via Getty Images
But one resident told us that the building didn’t bother to mention the latest daring amenity — a pop-up rooftop conflagration — to residents.
“There were no alarms, [at least] on the lower floor,” said one resident, who told us they found out about the fire only because they “noticed everyone in the windows [of the building across the street] looking up and pointing.”
Even the group chat was spreading the hot goss before the building got around to making an announcement. “People were texting us that a building in on fire in Hudson Yards,” said our infernal insider, “and we are like, ‘We know — we are in it!“
The building’s general manager has a been fired after the building acknowledged that it “fell short” with communication during the crisis.Google Maps
We’re told that the protocol in high-rises is for people to stay in their apartments unless the fire is directly affecting the unit they’re in, so residents wouldn’t have been encouraged to leave even if there had been an alarm.
Ross — who owns the Miami Dolphins and has a net worth of some $10 billion — also built the famed Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle and the Gehry-designed Grand LA, and he has been at the forefront of the Hudson Yards development.
New York City is at risk of power shortfalls starting in the summer of 2033 as rising electricity demand butts up against a shrinking supply of fossil-fired generation, the state grid operator said on Thursday.
Statewide, the trend of shutting power plants faster than bringing on clean new supply at the same time electricity use surges from the electrification of buildings and transportation, along with data centers and chip manufacturers, is threatening the grid's reliability, the New York Independent System Operator said.
Starting in summer 2033, New York City could suffer a power deficit by as much as 17 megawatts for one hour and 97 MW for three hours in summer 2034 during peak demand, NYISO said in its biennial reliability report. Power deficits can lead to blackouts or forced electricity conservation.
Bringing on new power generation, increasing energy efficiency and completing transmission line projects could thwart any shortfalls, NYISO said.
New U.S. transmission lines, however, are often delayed by permitting and lawsuits.
If planned transmission projects, including the Champlain Hudson Power Express, don't enter service on time, the country's most populous city could see shortfalls as early as 2026, the report says.
The 340-mile (545-km) Champlain transmission project, which would bring 1,250 megawatts of electricity generated from Canadian hydropower to New York City, is scheduled to enter service in the spring of 2026.
A projected switch in the long-held pattern of peaking electricity in the summer to the winter, as more heating systems in buildings turn electric, also raises reliability concerns, the group said.
As projected for election week, the U.S. hotel industry reported negative year-over-year performance comparisons, according to CoStar’s latest data through 9 November. ...
3-9 November 2024 (percentage change from comparable week in 2023):
• Occupancy: 62.6% (-3.5%) • Average daily rate (ADR): US$156.11 (-0.1%) • Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$97.73 (-3.5%) emphasis added
The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average.
Click on graph for larger image.
The red line is for 2024, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2023. Dashed purple is for 2018, the record year for hotel occupancy.
The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is above both last year and the median rate for the period 2000 through 2023 (Blue) - and will likely finish mostly unchanged year-over-year.
Note: Y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the seasonal change.
The 4-week average of the occupancy rate has peaked for the fall business travel season and will decline seasonally through the holidays.
Housing market data fromRedfinshows that US asking rents were flat in October, rising marginally by .2% year-over-year to $1,619. For two years, rents have remained flat nationwide following a massive boom during Covid, sparked by low interest rates and domestic migration trends. Now, in cities like Austin, Texas, rents are sliding due to a surge in new supply and reduced demand.
Drilling down into Austin's rental data, Nick Gerli, CEO and founder of the real estate analytics firm Reventure Consulting, shared on X a concerning breakdown of the local rental market downturn that could have landlords in the metro area deeply spooked.
Let's begin with Gerli's tweet...
The Austin, TX rental market is collapsing before our eyes.
With the median apartment rent dropping 15% over the last 2+ years.
The vacancies have skyrocketed. Rental concessions are everywhere.
Rents are now only 9.8% higher than pre-pandemic. Meaning that many Austin landlords are losing money, as property taxes, insurance, and interest costs are way higher.
(This is a harsh lesson on the boom/bust cycle in real estate for many developers and investors who bought into Austin during the boom. Read more below to see how this happened.)
Austin's rental vacancy rate has exploded to a seven-year high:
You can see this reality expressed in vacancy rate statistics from Apartment list.
At the height of the pandemic in Sept 2021, Austin's rental vacancy rate was only 3.9%. Now it's 9.5% The highest level going back 7 years.
Gerli pointed out landlords in Austin are under severe pressure:
With so many vacant apartments, and rents that are still overpriced, landlords have no choice but to cut the rent to put heads in beds. Especially on lease-up projects. Which often deliver 200-400 units vacant all at once. This is exerting massive downward pressure on the rental market.
This is very good news for renters. He said:
Gerli explained that in 2025, Austin will continue to have an apartment supply issue, which means lower rents.
Gerli speculates...
He cited Reventure App data showing that home prices in Austin were once 50% overvalued. That figure now stands at around 12%.
Gerli concludes by forecasting a possible bottom forming in Austin's housing market sometime in 2025
US banks added to credit reserves in the first half of 2024 to protect against further losses from commercial real estate and some consumer loans, the Federal Reserve said in its twice-yearly supervision and regulation report Friday.
The delinquency rate for CRE loans has increased to its highest level in a decade, the Fed noted, jumping to 11% at the large banks in the second quarter of 2024.
Americans spend billions of dollars each year on Amazon purchases for their homes, but a new wave of shoppers are now turning to the online retail giant for the homes themselves—little houses that start at just $10,000 each.
With the median house price in the U.S. now at $424,950, many people feel that the American dream of owning their own property is an impossible feat.
Enter Amazon’s DIY tiny homes—compact properties that can be assembled in less than a day and cost a fraction of the average house or apartment.
Some of those who have already purchased one of the diminutive dwellings have been showcasing the process on social media, revealing the truth about what it takes to put them together and how comfortable they really are.
One social media user and proud Amazon homebuyer, Nathan Graham, was full of praise for his new property, which he purchased online for just $38,999.
Graham, who is known as Unspeakable online, shared a video of himself unboxing his new abode, voicing his shock at how “legit” the home looked when he first opened it up.
“There’s a whole bathroom! And a shower!” he and his friends exclaim as they tour the property, before expanding it out to its full size, revealing that the home essentially just “unfolds” and clips into shape.
With the median house price in the U.S. now at $424,950, many individuals say that purchasing their own property, let alone the American dream, is dead.@Unspeakable/TikTok
“I’ve never folded a house together,” he notes, before adding: “This thing is so easy to build, you just unfold it. It didn’t come with instructions, and we built it.”
Another influencer, Jeffrey Bryant, 23, from Los Angeles, also took the Amazon property plunge, to the tune of $26,000, explaining that he worked with one of the company’s specialists to procure several “upgrades” to the home, including two free couches.
Just like Graham’s home, Bryant’s tiny abode also came complete with a working bathroom that features a toilet and shower.
He notes that the ceilings are “very low” but adds that, on the whole, he’s thrilled with his new dwelling.
“I’m 23 years old, and I just bought a house off Amazon!” he marvels.
He added in an interview with the New York Post: “People my age are told that we can’t afford to purchase homes, but I’m proof that it is possible.”
While it may seem like a novel concept to purchase a house online from Amazon, real estate salesperson Douglas Bendt, of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in New York City, says otherwise.
“This concept is really quite old,” he notes.
“Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold kit homes from its catalog in the early 1900s.”
Amazon’s DIY tiny homes that can be assembled in less than a day are also cheaper than the average house or apartment, as social media user and proud Amazon homebuyer Nathan Graham bought his property for $38,999.Amazon
Be smart before you ‘add to cart’
Before you hit “buy now” on an Amazon house, it’s crucial to do your homework—and lots of it.
New York broker Nikki Beauchamp, of Sotheby’s International Realty, says she would have some major concerns if a client was going to do this—namely “zoning, where to put it, and— most importantly—quality of construction.”
However, real estate agent Chantay Bridges, of EXP Realty in Los Angeles says, “Depending on the circumstances, I may not be opposed to the idea. I have a client who loves tiny homes, and it’s her dream to purchase one.”
Before making your tiny-home dream come true, doing your due diligence is critical, particularly when it comes to figuring out where exactly you are going to build your new property.
“Check the zoning laws, as it could be challenging to obtain permits and licenses even if you already have the land,” advises Bridges.
Influencer Jeffrey Bryant, 23, from Los Angeles, California, also divulged on the Amazon DIY splurge and made his purchase for one at $26,000.Amazon
“You don’t want to purchase a tiny house only to find out your city does not allow them or has extremely tight restrictions.”
Connecting into the city’s sewage and water system could be another big hurdle, according to Sam Fitz-Simon, a real estate agent with Compass in Danville, CA.
He advises meeting with your local planning and development department—as well as checking into insurance and financing—before adding one of these home kits to your cart.
Others warn that you should only consider purchasing from reputable sellers whose listings have legitimate reviews.
If you’ve done all your research and still want to have your “home, sweet, home” delivered by Amazon Prime, take a gander at these five houses that are only a click away—and all priced at less than $50,000.
This unique dwelling is described as a “space capsule cabin house hotel, designed for modern living at its finest” that “has a lifespan of more than 50-60 years.”
The one-bedroom unit is 40 feet long, with wall-to-wall windows.
It conveniently comes prewired for electricity and plumbing.
