Aaron Elstein

1 week ago | crainsnewyork.com | Aaron Elstein

Savvy coffee aficionados in Washington Heights head to El Panadero at the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and West 179th Street. The Dominican bakery’s cafe con leche is made with a dark Caribbean roast, but what makes it really special is milk poured piping-hot from an urn, plus a heaping teaspoon or two of sugar. Shortly after 2 p.m. Monday there was a line of customers awaiting their afternoon fix. “We sell these 24 hours a day,” a barista said Monday. “How many coffees do we serve?

1 week ago | crainsnewyork.com | Aaron Elstein

The owner of seven budget hotels in Manhattan has reached a deal to refinance the properties but had to put up a hefty down payment to do so. Mack Real Estate Group acquired the hotels, which include the Holiday Inn Express Times Square, Hampton Inn Madison Square Garden and Holiday Inn Wall Street, out of foreclosure four years ago. Their prior owner, a joint venture between China’s Cindat Capital Management and Hersha Hospitality, had defaulted on a $300 million mortgage, according to CoStar.

1 week ago | crainsnewyork.com | Aaron Elstein

SL Green reckons its chances of securing a casino license for Times Square have greatly improved since rival Related Cos. abandoned its quest last month to build one in Hudson Yards. SL Green’s odds of winning one of the three downstate licenses are “dramatically better and pretty good,” Chief Financial Officer Matt DiLiberto told an audience of institutional investors last week, according to the event’s host.

2 weeks ago | crainsnewyork.com | Aaron Elstein

Running short on time before the June 24 mayoral primary and buoyed by a New York Times panel deciding he is the best choice to lead the city, City Comptroller Brad Lander took the fight to the frontrunner by attacking Andrew Cuomo in the final debate Thursday night among the six leading Democratic candidates.

2 weeks ago | crainsnewyork.com | Aaron Elstein

By Aaron Elstein June 12, 2025 Combative and secretive real estate billionaire Ben Ashkenazy, who owns The Plaza hotel and the former Barneys flagship on Madison Avenue, among dozens of other trophy properties coast to coast, is gearing up for what he sees as a generational buying opportunity. The owner of 15 million square feet of prime commercial buildings is ready to buy new properties using a $750 million pool he’s raised with his own money and funds from longtime investors.