John Salustri's Page

So Larry Silverstein says he’s the most frustrated man in the world. So he tells 60 minutes—and so he told me at RealShare New York last year. For those of us who work in the neighborhood, it didn’t take a TV report to underscore his frustration.Nearly a decade after the attacks, the bathtub still looks more like it did when the debris was first cleared out than it does any master-planned forward-looking complex. And with…See More

Well, if now is the time to buy, as one insider tells me, some folks seem to be stepping up to the plate. They are offshore players, however.This same insider tells me that 2009 will end with a fizzle; sales volume will log in 25% lower than any time since 1984.Equity, risk and target assets. That's what we need to bring the market back. A doubling of activity seems a bit optimistic from where I sit. But any activity will…See More

Well, if now is the time to buy, as one insider tells me, some folks seem to be stepping up to the plate. They are offshore players, however.This same insider tells me that 2009 will end with a fizzle; sales volume will log in 25% lower than any time since 1984.Equity, risk and target assets. That's what we need to bring the market back. A doubling of activity seems a bit optimistic from where I sit. But any activity will…See More

Ok. Ok. I'll relent. A bit. I'm seeing an increasing number of signs pointing to the recovery, right here in my own backyard--commercial real estate. Not to say it's here yet. I'm not crazy. But a flurry of deals--which could simply be a year-end bounce--and, more important in a way, increasing talk about how the recovery will play out in real estate leads one to believe that maybe, just maybe, we've…See More

GlobeSt blogger Jonathan Miller hit another one out of the park this year with the latest edition of Emerging Trends--the annual PriceWaterhouseCoopers/ULI opus that pegs the outlook for commercial real estate.Of course, its publication wasn't greeted with grand cheering, given the news it delivered--news we already know and are tired of…See More

GlobeSt blogger Jonathan Miller hit another one out of the park this year with the latest edition of Emerging Trends--the annual PriceWaterhouseCoopers/ULI opus that pegs the outlook for commercial real estate.Of course, its publication wasn't greeted with grand cheering, given the news it delivered--news we already know and are tired of…See More

Property values are still falling--by some estimates, they're 40% lower than they were--and we've just crossed the magic 10% in official unemployment (unofficial measures push it higher still). The Real Estate Roundtable just released its quarterly Sentiment Survey and sentiments are, as you would imagine, in the dumpster.But let's focus on good news--and yes it's there, though nothing to hang a major…See More

Property values are still falling--by some estimates, they're 40% lower than they were--and we've just crossed the magic 10% in official unemployment (unofficial measures push it higher still). The Real Estate Roundtable just released its quarterly Sentiment Survey and sentiments are, as you would imagine, in the dumpster.But let's focus on good news--and yes it's there, though nothing to hang a major…See More

Hits to the market that is. The fifth largest Chapter 11 move in US history came over the weekend with CIT filing. And garnering less press but no less unnerving, the FDIC has seized nine banks operated by FBOP Corp. (http://www.globest.com)This amid news--from our pals at Real Capital Analytics--that real estate distress actually slowed in September. But, as they are quick to point out, slowing doesn't…See More

Do not go passively into that recessionary night (woah!).I love to hear stories of winners and those who are not willing to bemoan the lousy economy. The hotel market can serve as the poster child for distress with its plummeting vacancies--taking revenues with them--and yet there are those out there who are looking around the wreckage with the idea of plotting a response rather than moan the loss.What was that line from the Shawshank Redemption? Get busy living or get busy dying. Get to work,…See More

We've grown accustomed to having our news by the instant. (GlobeSt.com's success is based largely on that premise.) You can Google a topic and get thousands of different takes on it--valid and not. Choose your sources wisely and you're surfing the web like a pro, living the dream of the information age; unwisely, and you'll be led down a path of inaccuracy or bias parading as responsible commentary—the evils of citizen journalism.Every blip in the economic condition--whether it’s a miniscule…See More

Despite citywide job losses, Brooklyn is faring fairly well, with actual job increases, owing in large part to a preponderance of hot markets--health, education and social services.Question is, will that be enough to float the real estate sector? Some 300 people convened two weeks ago at our inaugural RealShare Distressed…See More

. . . The commercial real estate market seems frozen in a bad time. Despite what the economy is doing--or what half of the pundits are saying it is doing (The other half, of course, is saying that it is doing the opposite)--the trail of pain still unfolds before us, and issues such as how to turn the grief into opportunity; quantifying the amount of distress that is to come; where the opportunities are and how to navigate the post-give-away world of lending…See More

There was, when I was a lad, a Sid Caesar skit I recall (Is he ever dating himself now!) wherein he played a goofy inventor. He had just finished building a monstrosity of a horseless carriage and when he cranked it up, it shook and whined and smoked and growled and hopped maybe six inches before it died. "It moved!" Caesar yelled as if the contraption had wings.And there in a nutshell you have our current economy. AG Spanos' announcement of an 1800-acre development in Stockton, CA is great…See More

Look, I'll take any good news on the market I can get, and I'm happy that Ben Bernanke sees a recovery in his crystal ball. I've said before in this space that I'm no economist, but seems to me that if your market is hurting or you're out of a job or you can't find lending money, it doesn't matter what anyone believes. Our GlobeSt.com poll last week revealed that only 28% of our readership thinks a recovery is…See More

. . . Or maybe it's just the power of good, solid reporting. Yes, I'm blowing GlobeSt.com's horn here, but we reported on Monday that we'd see a rash of IPOs coming down the pike as funds, REITs and other entities go public to gain dollars for deals. Today, the good people of Hines prove us right.See More

There's an important lesson to be learned in the news that New York's Graybar Building just landed a $145 million refi. Talk of a potential recovery aside, there's still room -- and capital -- for quality deals. Hats off here to SL Green, Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman and TIAA-CREFF. (Click here for more details.)Have you heard of a similar success? Let me know!See More