Pier Sixty-Six Hotel & Marina and Tavistock president Jim Zboril

Billionaire Joseph Lewis’ Tavistock Development Company is one step closer to envisioning his plans for the historic Pier Sixty-Six property in Fort Lauderdale.

On Tuesday, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission approved a 15-year development agreement for the 22-acre Pier Sixty-Six Hotel & Marina at 2300 and 2301 Southeast 17th Street and its neighboring Sails Hotel Marina & Shops, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Tavistock worked with the city to rework the agreement, which now calls for up to 575 residential units, fewer than the 750 initially proposed. The Orlando-based developer removed language regarding plans for commercial space and a community development district. Also as part of the agreement, the commission recognized Pier Sixty-Six and The Sails as one property.

Tavistock has until January to submit site plans for the development, which will include renovating the hotel and submitting it for historic designation, and building a connection between both properties under the Southeast 17th Street bridge.

The firm spent $187 million acquiring on both properties in 2016 and 2017.

In March, three new city commissioners who ran on “smart growth” platforms were sworn into office, signaling a major shift in how the city will approach future development.  [Sun Sentinel] – Amanda Rabines

1833 W 24th St in Sunset Island 3

UPDATED July 11, 4:38 p.m.: A French businessman just bought a waterfront Sunset Islands home for $6.4 million.

BLM Investments LLC, led by Donald Lawson, sold the 7,140-square-foot home at 1833 West 24 Street on Sunset Island III of Miami Beach to Parcours Invest LLC, led by Alain Zagury, records show. The home was previously listed for nearly $8.5 million in 2015.

The five-bedroom, seven-and-a-half bathroom house has 75 feet of water frontage, a dock, green space and a heated pool. The two-story home was built in 1985.

The seller was represented by One Sotheby’s International Realty’s Albert Justo and Mirce Curkoski. The buyer was represented by Brigitte Lina Lombari of Keller Williams Elite Properties.

Justo said the buyer plans to do some work to update the aesthetics of the home.

Zagury is the chairman of the supervisory board of Modelabs SA, a French mobile phone company, according to Bloomberg. He received a $6.4 million loan from New Wave Loans Residential LLC to purchase the property, records show.

BLM Investments LLC previously bought the property in 2005 for $4.5 million.

The Sunset Islands are home to many famous celebrities, including MLB Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, who listed his 9,000-square-foot waterfront home for $18.5 million in December of last year.

NAR CEO Bob Goldberg and theRealtor Building at 430 North Michigan Avenue (Credit: NAR)

The National Association of Realtors is planning a $45 million expansion and renovation of its Magnificent Mile headquarters, just two months after raising members’ annual dues by 25 percent.

The project will include an 18,000-square-foot glass-enclosed office and conference center atop the 12-story Realtor Building at 430 North Michigan Avenue, association CEO Bob Goldberg told Crain’s.

One Development, which is the design and development arm of GNP Realty Partners, will spearhead the project for the NAR, and it will also include new elevators and lobby, along with infrastructure upgrades.

The Realtor Building is fully occupied, primarily by real estate trade groups. It was built in 1962 and was 10 stories; two floors were added in 1991.

The 13th-floor addition will include a 25-seat rotunda board room with views of the skyline, One Development president John Gagliardo told Crain’s. New offices will provide more work space for tenants in the future and allow current tenants to have temporary offices while One Development renovates floor by floor from the top of the building down.

Work on the new top floor is expected to start in the fall and be completed in a year, with floor-by-floor renovations to follow.

The NAR headquarters sits on a stretch of Michigan Avenue set to see a flurry of activity in the coming years as Golub & Company and CIM Group plan a massive overhaul of the former Tribune Tower complex, which would include construction of Chicago’s second-tallest building.

Next door, billionaire Joe Mansueto recently closed on a $255 million deal to buy the iconic Wrigley Bulding.

In May, the association raised annual dues 25 percent, from $120 to $150, to go with the extra annual fee of $35 for NAR’s advertising campaign.

NAR hadn’t raised dues since 2012, when members were asked to pay an additional $40. Some $17 of the increase was to be dedicated to upping the group’s political activity spending and the remaining $13 was to help pay for a transaction management platform, zipLogix. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien

2458 National Drive in Brooklyn and an illustration of a person on beach chair

It might be difficult to fathom, but the price of living next to a body of water is becoming more affordable, a new report has found.

Since 2012, when waterfront premiums reached a high of 54 percent in the second quarter, costs have dropped to a 36 percent premium in the first quarter of this year, according to Bloomberg. Citing a Zillow report, the current premium is even lower than the 1996 average of 41 percent.

In Miami-Fort Lauderdale, the premium is 38 percent.

The price drop has been attributed to homebuyers fear of living near water, largely due to “catastrophic hurricanes, climate change” and “people’s changing tastes.” The Zillow report also pointed to a “tremendous bounceback in non-waterfront homes since the housing bust.”

However, in New York, developers have been flooding the areas hit by Superstorm Sandy. StreetEasy pointed to an “explosion” of new buildings in waterfront neighborhoods like Red Hook and Belle Harbor in Queens. A report last year found that 27 residential developments were built in Red Hook since 2012. [Bloomberg] — David Jeans 

Scott Robins, Craig Robins and Philip Levine

Gubernatorial candidate and real estate investor Philip Levine built his fortune thanks in part to a well-known Miami real estate family.

Levine, a former mayor of Miami Beach and one of the leading Democrats running for governor of Florida, met Design District developer Craig Robins at the University of Michigan where they were roommates. In the mid-1990s, Robins’ father Jerry Robins agreed to become a silent partner of OnBoard Media, which Levine sold in 2000 to LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy for an undisclosed amount.

Levine has invested millions of dollars in Miami neighborhoods with Scott Robins, CEO of Scott Robins Companies and brother of Craig Robins, according to the Miami Herald’s review of court and corporate filings and interviews. Those investments provided Levine with more than $1.4 million in 2017, which the newspaper said is his biggest source of income outside of his leisure companies.

Levine owns more than $100 million in real estate in Miami, Miami Beach, Okeechobee and New York. He and Scott Robins are trying to sell a retail portfolio in Sunset Harbour that is expected to fetch $70 million or more.

In the Democratic primary, Levine is running against fellow real estate developer Jeff Greene, Chris King of Winter Park, former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.

Greene, who joined the race late in June, previously said he could spend $100 million of his own money to fund his campaign.  [Miami Herald] – Katherine Kallergis

7720 Abbott Avenue and Freshwater Group’s Freddy Sayegh (Credit: Freshwater Group)

UPDATED July 11, 7 p.m.: The Freshwater Group is adding a batch of Miami Beach apartment buildings to its South Florida portfolio.

Freshwater Group partner Joseph Sayegh said the firm is under contract to buy a rental complex consisting of three adjacent, two-story buildings at 7710, 7720 and 7700 Abbott Avenue for $5.6 million.

The rental project features 36 units and is currently owned by City M Abbot LLC, a company managed by Blas Zaccaro, records show. The company spent about $3.3 million acquiring the buildings in 2010 and 2011.

Two of the multifamily buildings were built in 1940 and the other was built in 1957. The buildings are made up of 24 one-bedroom apartments and 12 studio apartments with rents ranging from $950 per month to $1,050 per month. It is 100 percent occupied.

Previous ownership had renovated the buildings by replacing its windows, updating its rooms and improving its exterior facade, Sayegh said.

Tim Schneider from Brown Harris Stevens has the listing. One Sotheby’s International Realty’s Zalmy Shapiro is representing Freshwater Group.

This will be the seventh property the company has bought since launching about a year ago. The Miami Beach purchase would bring its portfolio to 400 multifamily units.

The real estate private equity firm, based in Brooklyn, is led by Alfred Sayegh and Solomon Gadeh as well as Joseph Sayegh. The principals also manage some properties purchased by the private equity investment firm Burke Leighton, where they previously worked.

Freshwater Group has also been active in North Miami Beach and Hialeah.

Foreclosures are starting to rise (Credit: iStock)

Almost a decade after home foreclosures skyrocketed during the financial crisis, they are starting to rise again in some of the country’s hottest real estate markets. And loosening lending standards may be among the reasons, according to one expert.

Twenty two states posted increases in new foreclosure filings in the first six months of 2018, compared to the same period last year, according to a new report by Attom Data Solutions.

Overall, from January to June, foreclosure starts nationwide fell 8 percent to 191,914, compared to the first half of 2017, according to the report, released Thursday.

The total number of U.S. homes with existing foreclosure filings in the first six months of the year, 362,275, was down about 15 percent from the same period last year. That is defined as default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions. At its peak, there were 1.6 million foreclosure filings nationwide in the first six months 2010.

In Los Angeles, foreclosure starts increased 9 percent on a year-over-year basis — from January to June — and 39 percent on a quarterly basis — from April to June.

South Florida, meanwhile, is also starting to show an uptick in new foreclosure filings, increasing 49 percent on a quarterly basis, but remaining steady year-over-year, according to the report.

The news was better in New York and Chicago’s metro areas, where foreclosure starts declined by 19 percent in Chicago and 18 percent in New York on a year-over-year basis.

Daren Blomquist, with Attom Data Solutions, said the data suggests that foreclosures are rising amid a gradual easing of lending standards that started in 2014.

“We are starting to see some early signs of risks in the current housing boom,” Blomquist said. “The pendulum is starting to swing back toward loose lending.”

On the other hand, he said the data also shows some positive signs. One is that the average amount of time it takes to foreclose on a property is decreasing.

Properties foreclosed in the second quarter of 2018 took an average of 720 days, down from 883 days in the second quarter of 2017. It’s the shortest average foreclosure timeline since the third quarter of 2016. Blomquist said this means that there are “not a bunch of bad loans that are in the foreclosure pipeline.”

Nationwide, 0.27 percent of all housing units, or one in every 370, had a foreclosure filing in the first six months of 2018, according to the report.

Foreclosure activity in the second quarter of 2018 was significantly below pre-recession levels in 121 of the 219 metro areas analyzed in the report. This includes Los Angeles (56 percent below); Chicago (25 percent below); Dallas-Fort Worth (75 percent below); Houston (37 percent below); and Miami (55 percent below).

Money comes and money goes, but who wouldn’t want a little more of it? For most of us, the grass is always greener. When it comes to the world’s wealthiest, the grass is fortunately very green.

That being said, The Real Deal took a look at the top five richest people in U.S. real estate, according to Forbes’ billionaires’ list.

Warehouse space (Credit: MaxPixel)

Warehouse space is at its tightest level since the first dot-com boom, and it’s driving tons of business.

The second quarter saw availability fall to 7.2 percent, the lowest level since 2000, as demand continues to outpace supply, according to CBRE data first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Availability has now dropped for a record 32 straight quarters.

Experts largely attribute the fall-off to growing demand for space as e-commerce grows. That’s prompting some owners to expand the scope of their operations, including by adding so-called last-mile delivery operations to their properties.

The demand is driving prices to record highs, particularly for distribution centers in urban areas. Los Angeles’ South Bay submarket, an industrial hub near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and Los Angeles International Airport, is seeing rental and sale prices for Class B properties rise to Class A levels as tenants and investors jostle to get a foot in the door.

The average price per square foot in New York has grown as by as much as 81 percent in some areas. Nationally, industrial sales volume by dollar amount has doubled since 2012, according to data from PwC and the Urban Land Institute.

The tight warehouse market has produced strong returns for industrial real estate investment trusts. Last year returns for REITs were 24 percent, higher than the single-digit returns in other sectors.

Blackstone has taken notice and spent more than $10 billion buying industrial REITs and properties, including a $7.6 billion purchase of Gramercy Property Trust.

But not everyone is hot on industrial. Sam Zell, the notorious doomsayer, vulgar septuagenarian, and Equity International founder, thinks that developers are building too much and that it will outpace demand.  [WSJ] — Dennis Lynch

A suburban neighborhood (Credit: Pixabay)

Homeowners have more equity than ever before — but are still hesitant to borrow against it.

As home prices have appreciated, Americans have more than $5.8 trillion in equity, double the level in 2011, Bloomberg reported. But they aren’t tapping into it due in part to rising interest rates and reluctance stemming from the mortgage crisis.

“There’s a long-memory issue,” Dan Alpert, managing partner at Westwood Capital, told Bloomberg. “People got caught with home equity lines last time.”

But banks are encouraging consumers to take more risks. Lenders increased spending on direct-mail for home equity products by 30 percent in the first quarter versus a year earlier, the report said.

Borrowing against a home is cheaper, in terms of interest rates, compared with credit cards or unsecured personal loans. And, as owners stay in their homes longer, that may nudge them to borrow against the equity, the report said.

In recent years, new home equity lending has been picking up. Lenders are making roughly 98 percent more home equity loans and related lines of credit than during the recession in 2009. Still, the amount of home equity lines outstanding has fallen as borrowers pay down debt from the last decade. Bank executives it may take another year for new lending to surpass paydown of the older debt, according to Bloomberg.

The growth in home equity is being driven by increases in home values and selling prices, tight inventories of houses for sale, and paydowns of principal on existing mortgages. Affluent homeowners have various options to tap into that, including cash-out refinancing. [Bloomberg] — Meenal Vamburkar

Rendering of the Celino and Ricardo Tabet (Credit: Optimum Development USA)

UPDATED July 12, 6:40 p.m.: Ricardo Tabet’s Optimum Development USA just secured $52 million in financing for the renovation and expansion of the former Park Central Hotel on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach.

BB&T is providing the financing, which takes over a previous $40 million loan and adds a new $12 million mortgage. Optimum has been working on the redevelopment since at least 2014, when it broke ground on the project at 640 Ocean Drive.

Optimum paid a combined $51 million for the Art Deco hotel in 2013, which includes nearly 300 feet of frontage on the touristy street. At the time, the property consisted of Park Central, the Imperial Hotel, the Healthcote Apartments and vacant land. Goldman Properties was the seller.

Optimum also owns property in North Beach and Brickell, as well as at 600 Collins Avenue. Optimum could not immediately be reached for comment.

The owner of the nearby Betsy Hotel recently completed a renovation and expansion of that Art Deco property at 1440 Ocean Drive. Architect Allan Shulman worked on the project, which included adding an “orb” that connects the Betsy’s buildings.

The Real Deal is pleased to announce that we will be hosting this year’s golf outing at The Muttontown Club in East Norwich, New York. Muttontown is a beautiful private country club available exclusively to members and their guests and offers the perfect setting for meeting and mingling with NYC’s real estate elites.

The day will include breakfast, a shotgun start and cocktails and meals, including a semi-formal dinner.

For the first time ever, a portion of the proceeds from this year’s event will benefit Make-A-Wish, which creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.

Be sure to mark your calendars and start planning your foursomes!

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Golf@TheRealDeal.com or call 212.260.1332.

Porsche Design unit 3605 and listing agent Marc Hameroff

A wealthy Polish investor is looking to sell his unit at Porsche Design Tower with an auction house after trying his hand at the flooded luxury condo market.

AD Royale, a company controlled by Dariusz Robert Wojdyga and his wife Agnieszka Gasior, owns the three-bedroom, 4,794-square-foot unit on the 36th floor of the Sunny Isles Beach condo tower, at 18555 Collins Avenue. The couple is working with their listing agent, Marc Hameroff of Engel & Völkers Miami, and Concierge Auctions is holding the auction July 27 to July 31 to sell unit 3605. There is no reserve.

Wojdyga sold his stake in the Polish beverage company Hoopa for 230 million Polish Zlotys in 2008, according to the publication Business Polska. Today that equates to more than $64 million. Wojdyga also has a stake in Opera TFI, an investment manager, Polish travel website Wakacje.pl and baby products company EcoWipes, also based in Poland, the publication said.

The Porsche Design unit hit the market in October for $8.9 million. The couple paid $6.7 million for the condo in March 2017.

“I think that to shake up the market because there’s so much inventory out there we have to do something to stand out,” Hameroff said. “In a very short period of time … You’re creating urgency.”

Hameroff said the unit has not been lived in and it was only recently completed with Interiors by Steven G. Features include a designer kitchen with Miele appliances and motorized cabinets, a master bathroom with a stone spa bath and Dornbracht fixtures, according to a press release.

Dezer Development completed the 132-unit, 60-story tower in November 2016. The building is known for its “Dezervator,” a patented car elevator that takes residents up to their units in their cars. A number of owners have tried to flip their units since closing on them less than two years ago.

George Gleason, CEO of Bank of the Ozarks (Credit: Max Pixel)

Bank of the Ozarks stock fell Thursday morning after the Arkansas bank suggested during a conference call that its real estate lending growth could slow down, following its release of strong earnings late Wednesday.

The Little Rock-based bank’s CEO, George Gleason, said during the call that pricing is getting more competitive for real estate lending and the flow of quality deals has slowed.

The remarks are significant for the larger real estate lending landscape since Bank of the Ozarks is one of the most active construction lenders in the country. In New York, Los Angeles and Miami, the bank is ranked as one of the largest construction lenders, according to research by The Real Deal.

Despite the stock decline (down 9 percent to $41.85 as of 2:30 p.m.), the bank reported an increase in net income, deposits and overall lending. Net income increased 26.8 percent in the second quarter to $114.8 million on a year-over-year basis, in line with analysts expectations. Total loans, including purchased loans, increased to $16.8 billion at June 30, 2018, a 10.4 percent increase from $15.2 billion at June 30, 2017.

In addition, the bank’s ratio of nonperforming loans, or loans 30 days or more past due as a percent of total loans, decreased to 0.10 percent at June 30 compared to 0.11 percent at June 30, 2017.

As Bank of the Ozarks has grown its loan portfolio, some analysts have expressed concern over whether the bank’s condo lending is sustainable during a down cycle. The bank has said it is a conservative lender with low leverage and is always the sole senior secured lender.

Next week, Bank of the Ozarks will change its name to a more geographic ambiguous name Bank OZK to highlight its evolution in recent decades “from an Arkansas community bank into a much larger regional bank with nationwide lending businesses.”

Six Miami-Dade County Commissioners are recommending that a 25,000-square-foot park on Flagler Street be the sole site for a new Miami-Dade Civic Courthouse.

The unanimous vote came Tuesday morning during a chairman’s policy council meeting held in county chambers. The site item will come before the full 13-member county commission on July 24.

County officials have been attempting to find a way to partner with a private developer to construct a new 600,000-square-foot civil courthouse in Miami’s downtown area ever since Miami-Dade voters rejected a $390 million bond issue in 2014. Lawyers and judges insist that the current Miami-Dade County Courthouse at 79 West Flagler Street, built in 1928, is essentially an unsafe building with loose plaster, mold infestations, crummy plumbing, and lead-contaminated drinking water.

However, there’s been disagreement over how the county should go about selecting a development team to build the new courthouse or where it should be located. On June 5, over the objections of Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, the county commission decided to throw out a P3 “two-step” bidding process and issue a brand new open bidding method that was advocated by one of the bidders, a development team lead by Florida East Coast Industries. FECI is the parent company of the Brightline train system and developer of MiamiCentral, a 3-million-square-foot, mixed-use project that will include apartments, retail, offices, and a pair of train stations.

Gimenez had also tried to throw out FECI’s unsolicited bid to construct a new courthouse in exchange for $26 million a year for the next 35 years, only to be overruled by the county commission.

Tuesday’s vote, which took less than five minutes, was yet another victory for the FECI-led team which has long advocated that the new courthouse be built on Cultural Center Plaza Park, located just west of the Flagler Courthouse and east of the Metrorail tracks and the Cultural Center Plaza. The Cultural Center Plaza is home to the HistoryMiami museum and Miami-Dade’s main library.

Previously, Gimenez advocated a 42,000-square-foot site by the new Miami Children’s Courthouse at 155 Northwest Third Street. Gimenez claimed the county would save $6.3 million building at the Children’s Courthouse site since it was essentially vacant (it’s now a surface parking lot) and already environmentally remediated.

However, Flagler business owners, the Downtown Development Authority, and lawyer groups like the Cuban American Bar Association insisted on the Flagler site.

Commissioner Sally Heyman thinks the site near the Miami Children’s Courthouse should be reserved for a future facility that can provide services for children and families. Heyman also felt that a new courthouse belongs “right here on Flagler” since it’s a “central draw for the community.”

“It further defines us as a big player in a big city in a big county,” Heyman added.

During the meeting, the mayor’s office didn’t voice any objection to Flagler being the sole site. Instead, Deputy Mayor Edward Marquiz just urged a decision. “A selection of a site is critical for us to move forward judiciously,” he told commissioners.

Eugene Stearns, FECI’s lobbyist, said the debate over where to build the new courthouse “is over” and that Gimenez has “seen the writing on the wall.”

Besides FECI, four other development teams have submitted proposals to build a new courthouse: Fengate Capital Management, the Plenary Group, Sacyr Infrastructure USA, and M-S-E Judicial Partners. A new RFP (request for proposals) will be issued in 30 days. A separate bid will be issued for developers interested in buying and redeveloping the current historically designated courthouse.

The incomplete Las Olas Ocean Resort on Seabreeze Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale

The owners of an unfinished hotel in Fort Lauderdale Beach secured a stalking horse bidder for $38.6 million, potentially paving the way for an auction in August.

In January, Bancorp Bank filed a foreclosure suit against 550 Seabreeze Development LLC and JAWOF 515 Seabreeze LLC, alleging default on a mortgage loan with an unpaid principal balance of $36.9 million. And last month, the developer filed a motion in bankruptcy court to establish procedures for the sale and auction of the property, scheduled for Aug. 15.

550 Seabreeze never finished building the Las Olas Ocean Resort, designed as a 12-story hotel with 136 rooms plus a four-story parking garage with 268 spaces and a restaurant measuring 12,000 square feet. It’s about 70 percent completed, attorney Glenn Moses of Genovese Joblove & Battista said. Moses and Paul Battista are representing the developer.

This week, 550 Seabreeze entered into an agreement with MHF Properties VI LLC, an affiliate of Magna Hospitality Group, to buy the unfinished Las Olas Ocean Resort, Moses said. Magna deposited $1.93 million into a trust account set up by the developer’s attorneys. A judge must approve Magna’s bid by July 18.

Following the August auction, 550 Seabreeze will ask the court to approve the sale to the highest and best bidder. As the stalking horse bidder, Magna would receive a $500,000 break-up fee if it is outbid. The buyer would close on the property free and clear of any liens and claims on the property.

Moses said the property has garnered significant interest from developers, whom he declined to name. The next bidder would have to offer at least $39.2 million to cover the break-up fee and the required $100,000 increments.

550 Seabreeze Development LLC purchased the property in 2003, a deed shows. The developers at one point sought EB-5 investors, raising at least $30 million from 60 EB-5 investors through December 2015. The foreclosure suit filed by Bancorp earlier this year alleges that the entities failed to finish the resort by the planned March 2017 completion date, failed to make its December 2017 loan payment, and made unapproved changes to its project budget in violation of the loan agreement.

Juan Julia and renderings of AxelBeach Miami (Credit: Iñigo Hernández Tofé)

Axel Hotels, which focuses on the LGBTQ community, is opening its first location in the U.S. in South Beach.

Axelbeach Miami will open at the former site of Hall South Beach at 1500 Collins Avenue by the end of the year, said Axel Hotels founder and president Juan Julià. It will mark the Barcelona-based company’s eighth flagged property and the only one outside Europe.

“We’ve been looking for different locations in the United States, and my preferences were Miami and New York, as I prefer the East Coast rather than the West Coast,” Julià said. “These cities are the more well known and very connected to Europe and South America, and worldwide.”

Spanish conglomerate Grup Peralada, through its affiliate Inverama USA Corp., paid $58.2 million or $357,000 per room for the 163-key, former Hall hotel in January. Barcelona-based Grup Peralada is owned by the Suqué-Mateu family, and has hotels and casinos as well as wine and other businesses under its umbrella.

Rockwood Capital sold the hotel to Grup Peralada, after paying $34.5 million for the property, including the historic 123-room Haddon Hall — built in 1940 and designed by famed architect L. Murray Dixon — and the adjacent 45-unit Camden Apartments in Miami Beach in 2013. The investment firm renovated the 1.4-acre property and re-opened it all as a hotel in 2015.

The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board on Tuesday approved some modifications of the 1.4-acre property, which runs from Collins Avenue to Washington Avenue. Among them, the hotel can place signage on its Collins Avenue facade, add an opening in its lobby and relocate an outside bar from the south side of the property to the north side under a large ficus tree, said architect Jason Hagopian, managing principal of the TSAO Design Group, who spoke during the meeting.

Julià said the hotel plans to spend about $1 million on the modifications. The property owners will also invest an undisclosed amount for plumbing and structural improvements. Axel Hotels’ Barcelona-based architect Iñigo Hernández Tofé is overseeing the project.

Julià founded Axel Hotels 15 years ago, with a desire to launch a hotel aimed at the LGBTQ community. Today the brand operates two hotels in Barcelona, two in Berlin, and one, each, in Madrid, Ibiza and the Canary Islands. The hotel considers itself “hetero-friendly,” with about 20 percent to 30 percent of its guests heterosexual, Julià said.

Axelbeach Miami’s amenities will include a pool, gym, spa and sauna with massage rooms, restaurant and bar. The average daily rate is expected to be $200.

Left to right: Michael Cohen, Howard Lorber, and Steve Witkoff with 111 Murray Street (Credit: Getty Images)

His friends were telling reporters just last month that federal investigations were “bankrupting” him, but legal fees haven’t held Michael Cohen back from buying a $6.7 million luxury condominium in Manhattan.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen in April closed on a unit at Witkoff Group, Fisher Brothers and New Valley’s 111 Murray Street skyscraper in Tribeca.

President Trump’s campaign had been covering Cohen’s legal fees regarding the Russia collusion investigation, but the former personal attorney to the president has been on his own dealing with inquiries by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, an investigation with focuses that include payments made to a pornographic actress who alleges she had an affair with Trump. Meanwhile, Cohen’s taxi business has almost certainly taken a huge hit as medallion prices have faltered with the rise of ridesharing.

Despite this, Cohen, who sold a home at Trump World Tower for $3.3 million last year, evidently has cash to burn. To finance the new 19th-floor, 2,700-square-foot apartment, he’s relying on a mortgage from the new building’s developers, Steve Witkoff and Howard Lorber, who are both close confidants of and regular donors to Trump. The Journal reported they will provide Cohen a $3.5 million mortgage. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District’s current investigation into Cohen is said to include possible bank fraud.

The Journal also reported that Cohen was on the clock to make the purchase happen as to avoid a “tax event” stemming from the Trump World Tower sale. The need to roll over the proceeds from the sale into a new purchase is part of the protocol for completing a 1031 exchange, a tax loophole that allows investors to defer taxes on real estate sales by quickly reinvesting the funds into a new asset. 1031 exchanges, however, are not legal for primary residences and can only be used for investment properties.
Though he’s lately been living at the Loews’ Regency Hotel in Manhattan, Cohen’s primary home is at 502 Park Avenue, which he recently put up as collateral against outstanding taxi business-related debts. [WSJ] —Will Parker 

MLS stadium rendering, Francis Suarez and David Beckham

A whirlwind week for the Mas brothers and David Beckham – which included accusations of backroom deals with city officials and intentionally withholding details – ended with a game delay.

The Mas-Beckham group is seeking a referendum on the November ballot asking Miami residents to approve or deny a no-bid lease agreement that would allow the group to redevelop the city-owned Melreese Golf Course and surrounding park complex into a massive $1 billion mixed-use project anchored by a 25,000-seat stadium that will be home to the partners’ MLS franchise. For that to happen, Beckham and his partners need approval from the Miami City Commission.

Instead, city commissioners voted 5-0 to defer their decision until a special meeting on Wednesday, July 18 in which they hope to hammer out the proposed ballot language. A chief complaint among commissioners was the lack of time they had to digest the proposal.

“I was driven [to run for city commissioner] by a dream to bring transparency to the city of Miami,” Commissioner Manolo Reyes said. “This is not that. I have heard more from the Miami Herald than from our city manager. I agree that we should let the people decide, but we have a process. There is no transparency. We have been getting things piecemeal.”

Up until last month, Beckham, the Mas brothers and other investors, including Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, appeared committed to building their MLS stadium on an Overtown site that includes land owned by Miami-Dade County. However, that deal has been held up in litigation after longtime Miami activist Bruce Matheson sued Miami-Dade, alleging the county violated state law when it agreed to a no-bid deal with Beckham and his partners.

But Jorge Mas, who along with his brother joined the partnership in December, said he was never sold on the Overtown site, arguing it would not benefit the residents of that neighborhood. As recently as late June, the Miami MLS partnership was working with city officials to present the Melreese proposal to the city commission to get it on the November ballot.

In the days leading up to the July 12 city commission meeting, parks activists, city watchdogs and Melreese users mounted vociferous opposition to letting Beckham and his partners commandeer the 150-acre golf course complex, which also includes a country club, tennis courts, baseball fields and a children’s water park. It is located near Miami International Airport and the Miami Intermodal Center.

On Wednesday, soccer supporters appeared outnumbered by opponents, including dozens of children wearing orange T-shirts who participate in the First Tee youth golf program at Melreese. With city hall at over capacity by 2:30 p.m., the fire marshal denied entry to more than 100 people. Police officers holding assault rifles stood guard by the entrance. To accommodate those left outside, City Commission Chairman Keon Hardemon instructed speakers to leave the chambers once they finished their comments.

Even Beckham picked up on the animosity against his latest attempt to find a stadium site.

“It’s been a long time since I walked into a room and people didn’t smile at me,” Beckham said when he addressed the commission. “It is not a nice feeling. I hope today you realize what we are trying to do for your city. I hope you realize we are good people and we are trying to do the right thing.”

Beckham and his partners are proposing to completely revamp Melreese into a soccer mecca designed by Arquitectonica. In addition to the stadium, the proposed Miami Freedom Park will feature 600,000 square feet of space for retail and restaurants, 400,000 square feet of office space, thousands of parking spaces, more than 700 hotel rooms, and 23 soccer fields on roughly 23 acres of green space.

In exchange, Jorge Mas said the project will invest $20 million in park improvements and pay the city fair market rent for the land, which the partnership group is estimating at $3.6 million annually. Mas also displayed a chart showing Miami Freedom Park would generate $5.8 million in tax revenue to the city, $11 million in tax revenues to Miami-Dade County, and $20 million in sales tax revenue to the state of Florida. He reiterated his partnership will not seek any taxpayer funds or financial assistance to build the stadium and all its accoutrements.

“This project will require zero public dollars,” Mas said. “We don’t want a subsidy. We don’t want a giveaway. We don’t want absolutely anything. … I want the voters to decide. I want every single voice in the city of Miami to make this decision.”

Neighborhood activist and opponent Grace Solaressaid the city would be subsidizing billionaires by providing them with a sweetheart deal for city-owned land. “$20 million is petty cash for this group,” Solares said. “$20 million will look quite appealing and enticing when it is actually a mockery of the electorate. We find it highly offensive.”

Another dissenter, Miami River Commission Chairman Horacio Stuart Aguirre, accused the Mas brothers and Beckham of disguising a real estate transaction as a stadium deal. “Today you are being asked to consider the ransacking of this great park and the surrounding neighborhood,” Aguirre said. “This is not about soccer at all. This is about a major real estate development.”

A luxury home (Credit: Pixabay)

Home sales of $1 million or more are on the rise in the U.S.

A new report from Realtor.com found that homes selling for $1 million or more were up 25 percent in April year over year.

That represented the largest jump in four years. The study tracked 91 counties around the country, and identified the luxury segment in each market, considered the top 5 percent of home sales.

While the number of million-dollar listings that have sold is up, those properties were being purchased quicker, as well.

The amount of time that homes in those 91 markets remained on the market was on average 105 days, down seven days compared to last year. Around two-thirds of the 91 luxury markets saw inventory moving quicker than a year ago.

More than a dozen markets across the country saw the entry-level luxury price go up by double digits year over year.

Manhattan, which has among the priciest homes in the country, has seen stagnation in luxury sales. But the borough is largely responsible for the city’s average luxury sales price of $3.6 million, according to a recent report by Christie’s International Real Estate.

In neighboring Queens, where the high-end home market is far smaller, luxury segment prices have been on the rise. They were up nearly 16 percent year of over, to an average of $1.26 million.

Meanwhile, in Northern California, prices were up between 9.8 and 13.2 percent. The fastest-growing luxury market in the country was Sarasota, Florida, with a 19.7 percent price increase.

Some parts of New Jersey also saw double-digit price increases.