It’s been a difficult year for retailers, and things may get worse before they get better: The number of bankruptcy filings by retailers this year could outpace those filed in the wake of the Great Recession. As of Sept. 29, nearly 30 retailers filed for bankruptcy, leading to almost 6,000 store closures, according to a biannual bankruptcy report from BDO International, a financial services firm. That’s on pace to beat 2010, when 48 retailers filed for bankruptcy. But this year has already...

Janno Lieber kicked off the year eager to get started on an unprecedented $54 billion worth of capital projects for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. That’s all in jeopardy now, according to Lieber, the MTA’s president of construction and development, as the authority’s revenue has plummeted in the pandemic. “We may have to cannibalize the capital program in order to keep the lights on to feed the operating budget, just so we can continue to operate the trains and buses and commuter...

Manhattan’s office market continues to slump. In the third quarter, deals were inked for 4.81 million square feet of office space, just half of what was leased during the same time last year. That brought the year’s total to 14.81 million square feet, also down 50 percent from the same period in 2019, according to Colliers International’s quarterly market report. If the pace of leasing continues for the rest of the year, leasing volume in 2020 would be the lowest this century, according to...

Manhattan’s office real estate market weakened in August as leasing volume was down 21 percent from a year ago while the availability rate hit a seven-year high, according to a monthly market report by Colliers International. Manhattan’s availability rate in August jumped by 0.8 percentage points from July to 11.8 percent, the highest since 2013. The rate is 2.1 percentage points higher than a year ago. The spike resulted partly from net sublet availability increasing by 1.31 million square...

The average size of the top 10 outer-borough loans in September was significantly smaller compared to previous months. The largest deal was $65 million, which would have barely made it into the top 10 of The Real Deal’s pre-pandemic rankings. That loan was issued for a last-mile facility in the South Bronx — industrial is one of the few sectors that has fared well in the current downturn. Also on the list are several smaller loans for multifamily housing, and a $58 million loan for the...