Weekly News (October 31, 2018)
1. “Kimchi Mama” in Palisades Park Grand Opening
- Opened on 10/27 at 280 Broad Ave. (Former “Lune”)
- They had run a successful store in Fair Lawn for 3 years
- 2 story /total 150 seats and private room with 25- 60 seats
- Hours: 11am- 10pm. Korean dishes, BBQ, ice cream, home made cake, coffee served
2. The builder, Fred Daibes (61) in Edgewater indicted by Federal Grand Jury
- He and CFO of Daibes Enterprises were charged for conspiracy of circumvent lending limits set by Mariner’s bank
- He was a founder of the Mariner’s bank/ Daibes Enterprises built several large development including St. Moritz (100 Daibes Court) which was sold at $120M in 2014 and 3 months later he was beaten and robbed in his apartment in the building
- They issued a false certification describing profitability of 2 gas stations and pledged as collateral after purchasing gas stations from Daibes
- Other charges to misapply bank funds
- If convicted, they will be facing 5 year in prison and $250K fine for conspiracy and false entries. Also they will be facing 30 year I prison and $1M fine for misapplying bank funds and making false entries to deceive a financial institution and FDIC
3. Korean owner purchased a building (TGIF) in Time Square, Manhattan
- According to Real Deal, “The Montague-Lee Limited Partnership” (Owner, E.K Lee) purchased the building in Time Square at $22.5M
- 147-149 West 46th st. /total 10,900sf /tenants: TGIF, Michiko Rehearsal Studio, Music instrument store
- He owns other buildings: Citibank building (22 W 32nd st), Manhattan H mart building (38 W 32nd st), former Seoul Garden building (34 W 32nd St)
4. Chinese investor purchased an apartment building with warehouse at $10.25M
- 28-08, 28-10 38th Ave. LIC
- 2 x 3 story apartment buildings (35,000sf) and warehouse (13,000sf)
- Purchase price is $500K higher than listing price
- Buyer is iCross Fund
5. Flatbush, Brooklyn is troubled with bedbugs problem
- 18 complaints reported out of 1000 household for 5 years
- 17 complaints in East Harlem (Morrisaina, Tremont, Wakefield in Bronx → same level)
- NYC issued 2,033 bedbugs tickets till 8/31 2018 (2,938 tickets in 2016)
6. 71 year historical Liquor store in Queens owned by Korean
- Biggest Liquor store in Queens,”Leiser’s Wine & Liquor” ( 41-30 162nd st.)
- Buyer: 162 Sanford LLC (Korean owned developer)
- Building and store (business) at $12M. (lot size: 10,000sf: basement and 1st floor, parking)
- Liquor store opened in 1947 → running by 3 generations/ holds 4500 kinds of liquor items
7. RE Market in Dallas, TX next year looks bright
- According to “Real Deal”, PWC and ULI (Urban Land Institute) reported Dallas is ranked #1 as Hot RE market of the year (Dallas was ranked #5 last year)
- Dallas is good for younger population influx (140,000 last year), new high-tech start-ups
- Ranking #2 is Brooklyn → price went up already, but still space for growth
- #3: Raleigh /Durham NC, #4: Orlando, FL
- #32: Manhattan, NY. #27: Queens/Bronx/Staten Island
- Chicago is ranked #49 (7 level dropped from last year, 30 level dropped from 2 year ago)
- In general, NE and South look good, Mid-North and West look not good
- The report has been for 40 years (2400 professionals interviewed for 79 areas)
8. Korean Foreign Students grew to 96,000 in 2017
- According to SEVIS, Korean students increased by 17% from last year ago (71,206) to 95,701
- Korean students showed visible decrease for last 3 years (70,000 level in 2016)
- #1 → Chines students: 481,106 / #2 → India: 249,763 / #3 → Korean students
- 9th-12th graders : Chinese → 45,573 / Korean → 6,842.
- STEM area OPT: India → 50,507 / Chinese → 21,705 / Korean → 1,670
- Companies for STEM OPT students: Amazon (2,393), Google (1,143), Intel (1,139)
- Total foreign student (F-1 visa) in US → 1,591,070
9. Why truly is house inventory low?
- During 10 years of recovery, for first 5 years, RE market for most of area were recovered ← many investors purchased and turned to rental houses from 2013
- According to Redfin, new listing s reduced by 30% in 2013 ← REO properties reduced sharply. Biggest drop in San Jose, Denver, Phoenix, etc
- Investors purchased and made them to rental housesà 46% inventory reduction in major 23 cities (reason is high rent income for investors)
- If rent starts going down, large numbers of house can be on the market
- RE market recovery from 2012 is not because of US economy recovery and natural increased demand, but because of price increase due to imbalance of supply and demand
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