New York City and Long Island Engineer/Home Inspections

Grace Industries, a major player in construction and rehabilitation projects, has bought a 17,500-square-foot office/flex building on Commercial Street in Plainview for $2.35 million. The company is expanding and relocating from its Whitestone location, where it leases about 10,000 square feet. Scott Berfas, Chuck Tabone and Dan Gazzola from Newmark Knight Frank in Melville represented the seller, [...]

The head of Long Island's largest real estate organization said the anemic housing market won't improve until the job market does. Prompted by lower July home sales, Joseph Mottola, chief executive of the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, said, "Only after the employment picture begins to brighten will a stronger demand for housing be restored." MLSLI [...]

A group of environmental and open space advocates will rally in front of Brookhaven Town Hall on Tuesday to challenge the legitimacy of the town's efforts to preserve the Carmans River and call for a building moratorium in its watershed area. Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, said there are 42 [...]

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust said Monday it has agreed to sell stakes in several power centers to Cedar Shopping Centers Inc. for $168 million. Under terms of the deal, the real estate investment trust agreed to sell its full stake in five power centers for $134 million. The power centers amount to 936,000 square feet [...]

Port Washington-based retail property owner Cedar Shopping Centers Inc. said Monday its joint venture is buying seven shopping centers for $200 million from Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. The joint venture with Canadian RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust will acquire five properties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia for $134 million and RioCan will own an [...]

You would think Marc Beige has enough on his plate. Already the head of the world's largest costume maker, the affable 61-year-old finds himself leading a mini-empire in commercial real estate. Beige's rapidly expanding firm, Richmond Hill-based Rubie's Costume Co., recently bought two Melville buildings that once housed ADP, growing its real estate holdings to more than [...]

The Intercontinental Hotels Group opened its first hotel on Long Island this week. IHG's new boutique brand, Hotel Indigo, replaces the former Best Western at 1830 West Main Street in Riverhead, just steps from the entrance to the Tanger Outlet Center. The former 100-room Best Western was recently converted into a suave inn by Garden City-based [...]

After a couple of lawsuits, a building moratorium and a weakened housing market, Hauppauge-based Northwind just broke ground on its 43-unit townhouse community on Liberty Avenue just north of Cedar Hill Cemetery. The fate of the Village Vistas site overlooking Port Jefferson Harbor was decided last month by a state Supreme Court's ruling against the group [...]

Government-controlled mortgage buyer Freddie Mac is asking for $1.8 billion in additional federal aid after posting a larger loss in the second quarter. Freddie Mac said Monday it lost $6 billion, or $1.85 per share, in the April-to-June period. That takes into account $1.3 billion in dividends paid to the Treasury Department. It compares with a [...]

BRT Realty Trust, a Great Neck-based real estate investment trust, posted $3 million in losses this quarter, up from the $1.35 million it posted in losses in the first quarter. Losses declined, however, as compared to the second quarter of last year, when they totaled $5.2 million, according to a press release distributed by the company. BRT [...]

A business relationship that turned sour, combined with a decline in tourism and lack of available financing, has led to the bankruptcy court sale of three Hamptons hotels - the Bentley, the Atlantic and the Capri - the former home of the posh Pink Elephant nightclub. The mortgage lender on the properties, a commercial mortgage holding [...]

The Hempstead Industrial Development Agency and Jericho-based Metropolitan Realty Associates have signed an agreement that will cut taxes for 10 years on the developer's newly acquired building at 711 Stewart Ave. in Garden City. The result is a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program aimed at attracting tenants to the struggling 335,000-square-foot building, which is [...]

Smoothie King is now pouring its brand of nutritional fruit smoothie on Long Island. The New Orleans-based chain founded in 1973 just opened its first Island location at 225 Glen Cove Road in Carle Place and the company wants to roll out another 30 stores throughout the region. Jayson Siano, vice president of CB Richard Ellis in [...]

Port Washington's Cedar Shopping Centers Inc. said Tuesday its joint venture with RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust completed its purchase of a Pennsylvania shopping center for $53 million. The deal was funded by a $30 million loan from New York Life Insurance Co. and $5 million from an existing secured revolving credit facility belonging to Cedar. Exeter [...]

Garden City-based Treeline Companies has sold one of its Brooklyn office buildings for $33 million. Midtown Equities Group was the buyer of the five-story, 87,000-square-foot property at 205 Montague Street once known as the Brooklyn Savings Bank building. The landmark was also the site where Jackie Robinson signed his first contract with Major League Baseball with [...]

Long Island's monthly home sales slid again in July, according to preliminary numbers from a real estate online data system. There were about 1,690 homes put into sales contracts in Nassau and Suffolk counties last month, which reflects a 20 percent drop from the 2,112 contracted in July 2009. The number of July 2010 sales was also [...]

Advisors Asset Management, a financial services firm, will lease 4,900 square feet of office space at 48 South Service Road in Melville.     Advisors Asset plans to relocate its operations to the built-to-suit space before the end of summer. The CB Richard Ellis team of Vincent LaManna and Dan Brandel arranged the long term lease on behalf of [...]

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Great Neck-based One Liberty Properties acquired three Wendy's restaurant locations in Pennsylvania for $3.84 million in a sale/leaseback transaction.  The lease is for an initial 20 year term with a nine year renewal option. The unnamed seller is a franchisee and operator of more than 100 Wendy's restaurants, according to a company statement. One Liberty [...]

U.S. military veterans who become real estate brokers can get a 25 percent discount on the franchise investment fee for a RE/MAX office in New York, the company said in a statement Monday. The franchise discount will be in effect for the next year, but may be extended. It's being offered to honorably discharged veterans of [...]

Construction spending edged up in June but all the strength came from the government. Private sector activity in both housing and nonresidential projects fell. Construction spending rose 0.1 percent in June, the Commerce Department reported Monday. While that was better than the decline economists had forecast, the government sharply revised down its estimate of activity in [...]