Robert Knakal

The story was reported by Max Abelson, Eliot Brown and Dana Rubinstein; and written by Ms. Rubinstein.

New York's real estate community doesn't just love Mayor Bloomberg. It lurves him. And it's greeting the news of his third-term bid accordingly.

A sampling:

"Love him," said developer and landlord Alex Sapir. "Let's keep him forever."

"It's the best news I've heard in years," said residential superbroker Michelle Kleier, president and chairman of Gumley Haft Kleier.

"I can't think of anyone who's done more for New York... in my lifetime," said Howard Lorber, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman owner.

"I think he's the greatest mayor we've ever had," said Douglas Durst, of the Durst Organization. Mr. Durst even thinks President Bush should call Mr. Bloomberg down to Washington to "straighten out the financial mess."

"I think the country needs him more than the city does," he said.

Thirty-something Dumbo developer Jed Walentas called Mr. Bloomberg, "the best mayor New York has had - certainly in my lifetime."

And Donald Trump said he begs the mayor ("Michael," to him) to run whenever they meet.

"Any time I see Michael I say, please run," Mr. Trump said. "I don't want to get into the details, but any time I see him. I think it's very important."

So what gives? Why all the love for Massachusetts' own, Michael Bloomberg?  read more »

"For every buyer there is a seller, so the amounts lost would zero out and no party would gain an advantage. We would just get to reset the clock. This is as fair as things can be made, given where we are. What is causing the panic in the markets right now is the realization that the losers have insufficient money to pay the winners. The domino effect of multiple collapses cannot be stemmed by any government, even by running the printing press overtime. The only solution is to wipe the underlying derivatives off the books and ensure these bets are never made again by creating laws to send those who make them in the future to jail." ["Bob Knakal Will Not BS You About the Wall Street Crisis"]

Massey Knakal chairman Bob Knakal prefaces his latest commentary thusly:

Now I know that some of you will jump down my throat and accuse me of wearing my rose colored glasses and laying some broker BS on you just based on the title of this installment. So let me first acknowledge that, looking at the financial sector as a whole, we are in troubled times and in unchartered territory. Our entire “free market” philosophy is being challenged, 158 year old fi nancial giants are going bankrupt and the Government has seized the country’s largest insurance company. Inflation is high, credit is tight, mortgage delinquencies are rising, foreclosures are rapidly increasing, consumer spending is slowing, consumer confi dence is in the toilet and people are liquidating money market accounts based upon fear and these accounts have always generally been considered as good as cash.

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Channeling Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, Massey Knakal chairman Robert Knakal in his weekly commentary ran down the benefits of a voracious Street when it comes to real estate investment. Taking us back, Mr. Knakal lays out how the stock crises of the past two decades (the dot-com bust, Enron, WorldCom, subprime-backed securities) have spurred a healthier appetite for investment in the bricks-and-mortar tangibility of real estate.

Investors, now more than ever, want to understand what they are investing in. Real estate is so transparent. It is so easy to understand. The income is what the income is, as are the condition of the property and the operating expenses.

Who would’ve thunk that statements Barack Obama made in April would have repercussions in the New York investment sales market in August?

Building owners, fearful that a Democratic administration will raise capital gains taxes (or that a Republican one will do the same, given the proven flexibility of John McCain on myriad issues), are putting their buildings on the market so that they can sell them before Jan. 1. That’s the date at which any midyear ’09 tax hike would likely apply retroactively.

Here’s what unsettled them. On April 16, during the Democratic debate in Philly, ABC moderator Charles Gibson sternly queried Senator Obama about his former promise not to raise capital gains taxes higher than 28 percent—the top rate under Bill Clinton.  read more »

Robert Knakal, chairman of investment sales brokerage Massey Knakal, spells out in a recent interview how rising oil prices are affecting building sales in New York City:

Right now we are seeing, for the fi rst time since drilling began in the 1850’s, prices climbing for 7 consecutive years. When we are underwriting apartment buildings now, we can no longer rely on last year’s fuel bills to forecast next year fuel expense. We are underwriting using today’s price to account for the significant increases we have seen. Not too long ago fuel was $750 per unit and today it can be as much as $2,000 per unit.

The rest of the interview, done through the brokerage, can be found here (PDF). And my colleague Dana Rubinstein sat down with Mr. Knakal in June.

Robert Knakal, the chairman of investment-sales brokerage Massey Knakal, wrote in his March "Message from the Chairman" that the volume of property and property-portfolio sales in New York will drop "approximately 20% in 2008."

Why?

"... 2007 will be remembered as the year we started to pay for the Fed keeping interest rates too low for too long."  read more »

On Thursday morning, The Real Estate got a press release from Bob Knakal, the well-named half of Massey Knakal:

Please dispose of all the old headshots you have of our chairman, Robert Knakal, and use this one from here on out. We've seen his headshot from seven years ago pop up recently so please, use this one!

But before we say goodbye to the past, we wanted to run through his glorious aesthetic evolution, from the late 1990's through today.