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Speaker 1: Well, we're looking for Steve Cuzo. We'll find him. We'll

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Speaker 1: track him down. The snow is coming. It's going to

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Speaker 1: begin after midnight on Saturday, could be as early as

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Speaker 1: one am, more likely around three or four am on

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Speaker 1: Saturday night. So we'll start when you wake up Sunday.

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Speaker 1: It'll be snowing. It'll continue all day long, all day,

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Speaker 1: just won't stop, and it'll go overnight Sunday night into Monday.

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Speaker 1: Might stop Monday morning, but then come back just a

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Speaker 1: little Monday afternoon, and then by the time it's all over,

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Speaker 1: expect six to eight inches. There's various models. One model

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Speaker 1: shows four inches, one shows twelve, but most of them

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Speaker 1: showing six to eight inches. So it'll be a mess. Hey,

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Speaker 1: Steve Cuzo is the great columnist New York Post. Nobody

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Speaker 1: better on real estate, restaurants and what's going on in

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Speaker 1: New York. Steve Cuzo, how you doing morning.

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Speaker 2: I can't wait for this blizzard because I have a

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Speaker 2: secret source mark that tells me there's going to be

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Speaker 2: no inches.

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Speaker 1: Well, I don't know who that source is.

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Speaker 2: It's another one of these overhyped phenomena, you know, I

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Speaker 2: don't know.

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Speaker 1: It looks like from our best weather people, it's locked

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Speaker 1: in at this point.

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Speaker 3: It's not gonna I know, I know, I know. Here

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Speaker 3: we go.

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Speaker 1: Hey, hey, Yeah, from what I can see from your

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Speaker 1: columns you're reporting and everything else I can see in here,

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Speaker 1: Manhattan real estate is booming. Is that really the.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's yeah, it's not.

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Speaker 2: It's the whole city, but especially Manhattan's a phenomenon. You know,

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Speaker 2: last night, I don't know if you were there, Mark,

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Speaker 2: but it was a Real Estate Board of New York's

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Speaker 2: annual gala event, biggest party in real estate, and at

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Speaker 2: the it was at the Waldorf Astoria, and which was

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Speaker 2: a great thing because they for one year they didn't

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Speaker 2: do it because of COVID. Then three years was at

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Speaker 2: this event space on the far West Side and no,

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Speaker 2: but he wanted to go to And so now it's

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Speaker 2: back in full.

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Speaker 3: Force at the Waldorf for the first time.

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Speaker 2: And you know, the Waldorf is the new Waldorf is

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Speaker 2: quite spectacular.

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Speaker 3: And it was a party. It was a.

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Speaker 2: Celebration, had all these real estate people, both commercial and residential,

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Speaker 2: having a blast, and they were well dressed and it

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Speaker 2: really felt like a celebration. That said, you know, when

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Speaker 2: I worried about Trump, when I worried about Mamdani, when

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Speaker 2: I worried about you know whatever, Greenland.

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Speaker 3: We had a great year and they did.

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Speaker 2: You know, there were a record number of excuse me,

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Speaker 2: commercial market which I cover, leasing was over the moon

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Speaker 2: building sales, which had really lagged behind the leasing improvement

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Speaker 2: over the since the end of the pandemic. And last

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Speaker 2: year it was like eleven billion dollars of investment sales,

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Speaker 2: which means that's the term for sales of buildings and

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Speaker 2: selling office buildings. First time in five years there was

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Speaker 2: a sale for over a billion dollars five ninety Park

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Speaker 2: Avenue on Madison Avenue.

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Speaker 3: So real estate is doing phenomenally well.

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Speaker 2: The only thing I don't believe is doing as well

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Speaker 2: as they say is retail. You know, I get tired

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Speaker 2: of reading all these wonderful surveys by all the brokerages,

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Speaker 2: by the Business Improvement districts, by the Real Estate Board

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Speaker 2: of New York itself about how you know, record retail

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Speaker 2: leasing this that, And I walk around and I see

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Speaker 2: gazillions of empty stores. But you know, it's a matter

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Speaker 2: of it.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of nuance, but that real estate, real

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Speaker 1: estate stuff that's not a factor of Mandani or leadership.

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Speaker 1: That's just not retail diying.

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Speaker 3: No, no, no.

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Speaker 2: Also residential sales. This is not my field of expertise,

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Speaker 2: as you know, but from everything I'm told and everything

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Speaker 2: I read in the Post and elsewhere, a great year

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Speaker 2: for the residential market. Super high sales of luxury condos

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Speaker 2: and co ops. Co ops mounted a real rally after

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Speaker 2: a couple of years of playing second fiddle to condos.

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Speaker 2: A lot of people don't want co ops anymore, but

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Speaker 2: they bounce back to So yeah, it's a hell of

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Speaker 2: a good sign for the city as a whole, no

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Speaker 2: matter what happens on the social front. You know, all

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Speaker 2: the problems with the schools, which Mondani is only likely

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Speaker 2: to make worse.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, it was. It was a banner year.

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Speaker 1: One of those jentas is yelling everybody's leaving New York.

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Speaker 1: It's not true. It's not true, of course not.

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Speaker 3: It's never been true. And in the past.

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Speaker 2: I remember when when Trump got elected people everybody was

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Speaker 2: leaving the country, remember that one. Yeah, and then when

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Speaker 2: he got re elected there was there was nobody left

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Speaker 2: to leap because everybody had already left.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, these things look, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, we've got to sell papers. Broadcast media has to

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Speaker 2: attract the viewers. Uh. Social media just has to make

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Speaker 2: a lot of noise whenever they can. So yeah, I

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Speaker 2: don't have any good feelings whatsoever about Mumbani, and yet

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Speaker 2: I think that commercial real estate especially is oblivious to this.

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Speaker 2: The only thing that could be harmful is if the governor,

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Speaker 2: you know, caves in and gives in too Mumdanni's pipe

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Speaker 2: dream of raising taxes on corporations and everything. She wouldn't

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Speaker 2: do that this year because she's up for reelection, but

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Speaker 2: next year the following year could be a problem. But

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Speaker 2: commercial real estate is so strong. It's the driver of

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Speaker 2: the New York economy, not just the city but the state,

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Speaker 2: and it's a power behind the entire national economy. Real

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Speaker 2: Estate taxes from real estate contribute more to the city

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Speaker 2: treasury than any other than anything else, more than Wall Street,

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Speaker 2: for example.

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Speaker 3: Most people don't know that, but it's a fact.

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Speaker 1: So when you see stores closed, wait where you read

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Speaker 1: about Sacks going bankrupt? This the only reason for that

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Speaker 1: is online shopping has nothing to do with New York.

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Speaker 2: Right, well, it has, it's online shopping is a factor.

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Speaker 2: But you notice that Bloomingdale's is doing fine, Macy's is

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Speaker 2: doing fine, nord Stimer is having no problem. In the

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Speaker 2: case of sax Global, the parent company which includes Sacks

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Speaker 2: and Nieman Marcus, which they stupidly bought about a year

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Speaker 2: and a half ago, and Bergdorf Goodman, the only Burgdorf

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Speaker 2: Goodman in the world is right here in New York

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Speaker 2: on Fifth Avenue, that was a lot of mismanagement and

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Speaker 2: a lot of needless over expansion.

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Speaker 3: And you know, retail is not my forte.

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Speaker 2: But I do know I'm very skeptical of all large

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Speaker 2: sized mergers and acquisitions because inevitably any merger or acquisition

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Speaker 2: UH saddles the company with enormous debt, and they basically

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Speaker 2: served to. I mean, they can have their you know,

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Speaker 2: good consequences as well. But I believe that I remember

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Speaker 2: aol time Warner, Yes upon a time, All they do

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Speaker 2: is saddle the company with debt and they and they

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Speaker 2: enrich all the excuse me, all the inside players, corporate executives,

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Speaker 2: investment bankers, lawyers, accountants, consultants, at the expense.

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Speaker 3: Of everybody else.

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Speaker 2: Anyway, in the case of Sacks, the stores aren't going

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Speaker 2: to close. I mean they are going to close a

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Speaker 2: few stores outside of New York. Yes, but it looks

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Speaker 2: like they're on their way to restructuring. They're getting a

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Speaker 2: cash or liquidity infusion, and presumably life and business will

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Speaker 2: go on here as it did in the past, at

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Speaker 2: least from the consumer's point of view. If you go

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Speaker 2: to Sacks right now, they're stretching the merchandise. You can

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Speaker 2: see it on the shelves, but because they weren't paying

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Speaker 2: their vendors.

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Speaker 3: But I think that's going to change.

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Speaker 1: Hey, Steve Kisser, there's a lot of skyscrapers going up.

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Speaker 1: I mean one hundred stories, seventy story, sixty stories, They're

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Speaker 1: going up all over the place, fifty seventh Street, Park Avenue, Madison.

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Speaker 1: So can we handle all that extra traffic here?

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Speaker 3: You mean do you mean crowding? Mark? What do you people?

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Speaker 1: Cars?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: New York has always been overcrowded. I say the more

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Speaker 2: overcrowding the better. It's it means life, it means people

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Speaker 2: spending money. It's what makes the city exciting, why people

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Speaker 2: want to come here, where they want to be here.

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Speaker 2: So over the Christmas holidays, you know, my office is

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Speaker 2: two blocks away from the Rockefeller Center Tree and I

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Speaker 2: hated every minute of it, of the six weeks between

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Speaker 2: roughly Thanksgiving and you know, right after New Year's and

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Speaker 2: because you couldn't move on the streets. I couldn't literally

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Speaker 2: couldn't get into the subway right next door to my

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Speaker 2: building because I had to fight my way through crowds.

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Speaker 2: And yet that's a selfish concern. The bigger picture is

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Speaker 2: that it's it's life, it's energy, and it's commitment, and

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Speaker 2: it's world for New York City.

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Speaker 3: So I'm all, I'm all for that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you got a lot of hot new restaurants that

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Speaker 1: are I mean, have we ever had this many jam

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Speaker 1: peck restaurants in New York?

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Speaker 3: I don't know.

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Speaker 2: It depends the good restaurants, the important restaurants, the ones

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Speaker 2: that are backed by big money. I think I'd never

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Speaker 2: done better. There's a squeeze in the middle and at

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Speaker 2: the lower end. You know, everybody's oh the rent is

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Speaker 2: too high. All that rent has always been too high.

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Speaker 2: But every Basically, what it comes down to is every

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Speaker 2: place that I go, which is by no means you know,

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Speaker 2: the the the the only the elite restaurants, as you

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Speaker 2: might think.

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Speaker 3: I go to all kinds of restaurants. It's hard to

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Speaker 3: get a table anywhere. And this is January.

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Speaker 2: January is traditionally the worst month for restaurants in New York.

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Speaker 2: I mean, in the past you could have gotten seats

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Speaker 2: at when Noble is in its original location and the

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Speaker 2: hottest restaurant in like the country. You could eat usually

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Speaker 2: get tables at Noble the week of from the month

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Speaker 2: of January.

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Speaker 3: That's not true anymore.

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Speaker 2: And I've been to excuse me, NIKEiD restaurants like Lusardi's

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Speaker 2: on First Second Avenue the other night and they're all packed.

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Speaker 3: And this is it was about twelve degrees out. So

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Speaker 3: what does that say.

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Speaker 1: Well, that's good. New York is booming. That's good to hear.

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Speaker 1: You should read Steve Cuso's columns. All his columns are

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Speaker 1: up on the New York Post website. You can read

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Speaker 1: them all there, and he writes great stuff. Steve Cuso,

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Speaker 1: New York Post. Steve, thanks for being with us.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Mark, always a great time.

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Speaker 1: All right, take care. So that's all good news. New

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Speaker 1: York booming. Don't listen to these people about everybody leaving.

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Speaker 1: It's busier than ever in New York. Hey, don't forget

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Speaker 1: if you're a podcast listener, you know, if you want

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Speaker 1: to hear this show, you can listen live ten to noon.

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Speaker 1: But if you want, you could hear the show anytime

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Speaker 1: of the day or night, anytime you want to look

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Speaker 1: the show. Get the podcast wherever you get podcasts. And

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Speaker 1: if you're a podcast listener on the weekend, there's an

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Speaker 1: extra show. There's a bonus segment that wasn't on the air,

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Speaker 1: just for the podcast listeners. And again, you can hear

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Speaker 1: this show any place you get podcasts, any podcast app iHeart, Apple, Spotify,

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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. So be listening, and no

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Speaker 1: forget coming up at noon, Buck and Clay, they're just

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Speaker 1: ahead on seven to ten. Woir