October 02, 2015 10:16AM
By Konrad Putzier

UPDATED, Oct. 2, 11:10 a.m.: The Dalian Wanda Group, China’s largest commercial real estate developer, is closing its New York office by November 30 and will run its U.S. operations from Beijing.

Wanda occupied a small office at RXR Realty’s and Blackstone Group’s 1330 Sixth Avenue. It wasn’t immediately clear why the Beijing-based company is leaving the Big Apple, or whether the step has any impact on its investments here.

Sean Muellers, Wanda’s chief U.S. representative, will leave the firm after three years at the end of November, according to an email sent out to colleagues and business partners, a copy of which TRD obtained. “Due to a corporate reorganization, Wanda’s New York Representative Office will be closing by November 30th,” Muellers wrote. “Please note that all US investment activity going forward will be managed directly from Beijing.”

In 2012, Wanda bought the AMC movie theater chain for $2.6 billion. Last year, it announced a $1.2 billion mixed-use development in Beverly Hills and acquired a development site in Chicago with plans to develop a $900 million mixed-use tower.

Unlike rival Chinese developers like Greenland Holdings, China Vanke or Soho China, Wanda has no stake in major New York real estate projects. In 2013, Reuters reported that the firm wanted to build a $1 billion hotel in Manhattan, but the plans apparently never came to fruition. Sources told TRD that Wanda was recently looking to buy hotel development sites in major U.S. cities, including New York.

Wanda has $85.6 billion in assets under management and is owned by China’s richest man, Wang Jianlin. Like other major Chinese developers, the firm was hit by the recent slump in the Chinese housing market. In June it announced a “strategic alliance” with China Vanke.

Wanda and Vanke “have been disciplined,” Borja Sierra, U.S. head of capital markets at Savills Studley, told TRD in June. “They’ve said no to a lot of opportunities. They don’t only want to have an asset. They want to buy the right place.”

Dalian Wanda Group could not be reached for comment.

In the third quarter, the median Manhattan sale price was about $1 million.

By Joe Aruta

Over the past three months, Manhattan homes flew off the shelves at a record pace and price.

On average, listings were snatched up in 73 days, according to a third-quarter market report released Thursday by appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The report found that the amount of time it took to sell all of the inventory at the current pace, called the absorption rate, was roughly half of the amount of time compared with the past decade’s average.

“Basically, the market is clearing twice as fast as it normally would,” said Jonathan Miller, head of Miller Samuel. That quick turnaround time is largely due to tight inventory and robust demand.

The increased appetite for apartments is also behind the increase in average price per square foot to $1,497 for the quarter, another record.

Mr. Miller’s report was released along with a slew of others that, while arriving at slightly different numbers, all recorded the median Manhattan sale price at about $1 million, up approximately 10% from  last year. In fact, one report by residential brokerage Compass said that the median price had, for the first time ever, exceeded $1 million.

However, Compass also reported that sales volume fell to 3,929 transactions, about 10% fewer than last year. That dip can be attributed to the lack of apartments on the market.

“We expect prices to continue to increase and inventory to remain in short supply,” the report noted.

The high-end of the market was relatively flat, with the median price of luxury homes, which the Miller Samuel report defined as apartments topping $3.6 million, increasing by 10% over last year. Sales volume for these pricey pads increased by roughly the same amount. On the other hand, these apartments sat on the market for roughly double the amount of time compared with the overall Manhattan market.

Meanwhile the median price of new developments shot up  25% over last year to about $2 million, and according to Frederick Peters, head of Warburg Realty, more newly constructed units are  on the way. “There is always a fall market, but this one has been unusually well populated,” he said.