Weekly News (August 2, 2017)

1. Robbery in ‘Trio’ condo on 12^th Street in Palisades Park, NJ 

• Around 11:20pm on 7/26 (Wed), Gunman followed Korean resident in the elevator
• Right after Korean woman left elevator at 3^rd level, gunman asked the bag and fled
• Korean resident was concentrated on cell phone and did not noticed suspicious approach
• Trio condo is with 24 HR doorman

2. Super Spa/Sauna in K-town, Manhattan

• ‘K-town Sauna’: 3 ~ 4th Floor inside City Bank Building at 32^nd
• 15,000 SF, 300 customer capacity. 24 hour operation / Cost: $7.5 Million
• ‘Aqua Bar’ at 4^th Floor for swimming suit / Pool party (30 customer capacity)
• Entrance fee: $50 ($10 addition for overnight)
• Owner: JongDuk Jung – experienced with Spa / Sauna business for 30 years)

3. NYC City Council and Zoning Board approved zoning variance in Midtown 

• Midtown in Manhattan about 6000 SF (78 blocks) will be good for new high rise buildings
• East 39^th Street ~ 57^th Street / 2^nd Ave ~ 5^th Ave
• Approval requested since Mayor Bloomberg era → Approved 5 years later
• Currently at least 16 development projects on going
• 6.5 Million SF office space / 28,000 permanent job and 23,000 construction worker job will be created

4. Super Mixed Use building in Hunters Point in Long Island City

• 5 Ac / $925 Million – developed by TF Cornerstone
• 2 Places : 1) 5-40 44^th Drive 2) 4-99 44^th Drive
• 1000 rental units (25% →Low income units. Median rent: $2,814) / 40,000 SF Office spaces / 19,000 SF retail spaces / 80,000 SF Elementary school, 10,000 SF Industrial spaces
• 2 Buildings will be up : 50 story and 60 story
• Will be completed in 2022

5. Tappan Zee Bridge becomes ‘Mario Cuomo’ bridge

• Newly named Mario Cuomo bridge opens partially from 8/25
• New bridge → 96 FT wide / Total cost: $39 Million
• Tappan Zee bridge was built in 1955

6. Foreign Buyers increased sharply

• According to NAR, residential RE purchasing by foreigners between 4/2016  ~ 3/2017 is $153 Billion → 49% Up CMT to year ago
• Mainly, in FL, CA, TX → 46% of US
• In NJ, Foreign buyers → 4%
• Chines buyers → #1 ( $31.7 Billion) / Canadian buyers → $19 Billion ($8.9 Billion last year)

7. US Economy growth speeds up

• 2^nd QT GDP growth → 2.6% (Almost double of 1QT growth: 1.4%).
• Trump admin forecasted 4%
• Consumer spending (70% of GDP total) Growth Contribution is #1 → 8% Growth
• Investment → 5.2% Growth, Export increase due to weak dollar

8. NJ State will try to use ‘Textalyzer’ after NY State

• Developed by Israel company/ Used like Breath Analyzer for drunken driver test
• Plucked into driver’s cell phone for 1 minute right after accident → analyze text, email, internet use, etc. were used right before accident
• According to NJ Police, 87,821 tickets issued for cell phone use in 2014 → 1668 accident related cell phone use

9. Marijuana farm in Secaucus, NJ 

• NJ State approved Harmony Foundation to grow Marijuana for medical use
• 10,000 SF in Secaucus – Meadowland Parkway → Capable of 4000 patients / mom use
• NJ passed the law in 2009 → Currently 13,200 patients in NJ
• Price: $500 / Oz → Most expensive in US
• Tax income to the State → $300 Million annually

10. NJ State got #2 in Public School system in US

• According to WalletHub, use 17 criteria to analyze nationwide public system →
  MA #1(Quality #1, Safety #1 → Score 78.16)
  NJ: #2 (Quality #2, Safety: #15 → Score: 69.92)
  NY: #26 (Quality #20, Safety #32 → Score:52.52)
• NH: #3, Wisconsin #4, Vermont #5
• Louisiana : Lowest