We’re thrilled to announce The Real Deal’s Future City 2019, an exclusive two-day opportunity for a group of 200 C-level executives in the fields of development, tech, construction, law, design and finance to network with and learn from the top minds and biggest dealmakers in the country. The event will take place Jan. 27-29, 2019 at the brand-new Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas.

The industry is changing at a faster pace than ever before as a result of new technology, new sources of funding, new regulations and new attitudes. Top thought leaders will be hosting workshops enabling an understanding of these seismic shifts at a high-level, as well as their practical day-to-day applications.

We’ve put together a series of educational seminars for attendees to choose from each day on topics including:

• Deciphering Opportunity Zones: Digging into the tax & legal implications
• Construction innovations changing the development landscape
• Alternative finance options, from hedge funds to the Israeli bond market
• Property management tech that works
• Development impact of co-working, co-living and the larger sharing economy
• How to get on the venture capital train

In addition to 20-plus learning sessions, there will be additional programming to facilitate networking including golf, fitness activities, group meals and keynote speeches, cocktail events and plenty of other entertainment.

Confirmed attendees and session leaders include: Don Peebles, Michael Stern, Louise Sunshine, Ryan Serhant, Bruce Mosler, Sharif El-Gamal, Michael Shah, Young Woo, Bob Knakal and more.

If you are VP level or higher, please email bahamas@TheRealDeal.com for details. Space is limited and subject to approval.

Condo sales picked up in Miami-Dade last week following a sharp decline the previous week.

The county recorded 132 closings for a total of $39.8 million, up from the previous week’s 80 closings totaling $24.2 million. Condos last week sold for an average price of about $301,700 or about $275 per square foot.

The priciest deal took place at Hidden Bay Condominiums in Aventura. The seven-bedroom unit sold for $2.7 million. At 7,000 square feet the price breaks down to about $386 per square foot. Denise Rubin had the listing for unit 3500. Peter Ancona brought the buyer.

The second most expensive condo sale was the $1.6 million sale of unit 15A at the Balmoral in Bal Harbour. The unit sold for $807 per square foot after 33 days on the market. Eva Bouhadana had the listing and Eyal Golan represented the buyer.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 sales from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1. Click on the map for more information:

Most expensive

Hidden Bay, Aventura | #3500 | 127 days on market | $2.7M | $385 psf | Listing agent: Denise Rubin | Buyer’s agent: Peter Ancona

Least expensive

Two Midtown, Miami | #H2301 | 28 days on market | $685k | $434 psf | Listing agent: Alex Miranda | Buyer’s agent: Daniel Antoine

Most days on market

Jade Beach, Sunny Isles Beach | #2602 | 401 days on market | $1.3M | $879 psf | Listing agent: Luciana Laprida | Buyer’s agent: Americo Dagostini

Fewest days on market

Two Midtown, Miami | #H2301 | 28 days on market | $685k | $434 psf | Listing agent: Alex Miranda | Buyer’s agent: Daniel Antoine

Four Seasons Residences at The Surf Club and Neil Bluhm

Billionaire real estate and casino tycoon Neil Bluhm has been revealed as the owner of a penthouse at the Four Seasons Residences at The Surf Club in Surfside.

Bluhm took out a $10 million mortgage on Penthouse 5 at the luxury condo and hotel development, according to property records. Bank of America is the lender.

The Chicago real estate mogul owns a number of trophy properties in the Windy City, including the 900 North Michigan skyscraper. He co-founded JMP Realty and is a managing director of Walton Street Capital, a private equity real estate investment firm based at 900 North Michigan.

Bluhm’s Surf Club Miami Penthouse LLC paid $20.4 million for the four-bedroom, 6,671-square-foot unit in Surfside in September.

Fort Partners, led by Nadim Ashi, completed the luxury beachfront development last year. It includes a 72-room hotel, a Le Sirenuse restaurant and a Thomas Keller restaurant. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier — earlier this year accused of sexual harassment — and Kobi Karp designed the Surfside project, restoring the original Henry Firestone Club.

Theory co-founder and CEO Andrew Rosen and South Florida auto dealer Alan Potamkin are among Bluhm’s neighbors in the Four Seasons-branded complex.

KLA Elementary School with Roberto Ortega and Candy Ortega

UPDATED, Dec. 4, 3:30 p.m. KLA Elementary School in Miami just scored a $18.7 million loan as the school plans to build a new campus near Brickell.

The Miami-based private school secured the loan from FirstBank Florida, the Florida arm of FirstBank Puerto Rico, property records show. The new school will be built on three properties just west of I-95.

KLA is planning to build the 90,480-square-foot private school at 375 Southwest 15th Road, and 1131 and 1109 Southwest Fourth Avenue, according to property records. It paid $6.2 million for the properties, which have two apartment complexes, in February.

Candy and Roberto Ortega and a group of investors and educators founded KLA Schools in 2008. The owners began franchising in 2010 and there are now 15 franchisees. It’s based in Brickell at 600 Southwest First Avenue.

Construction for the 450-student school will begin in the first quarter of 2019 and is expected to take up to 16 months to complete. Ortega said he wanted to create an urban and modern setting and was inspired by schools in New York City.

Last week, another private school made big news in South Florida. The Avenues: The World School is planning to open at the former Archbishop Curley Notre-Dame High School site in Little Haiti. New York-based Avenues is an exclusive private school where tuition costs are over $54,000 per year, according to its website.

Palm Beach Commons and Michael Norman

The Palm Beach Commons strip mall next to Palm Beach International Airport just traded hands for $8.6 million.

Records show an entity led by Michael Norman of the Schaumburg, Illinois-based commercial real estate firm Crossroads Partners and Josh Simon of Jupiter-based FLF Holdings purchased the 73,000-square-foot property at 1300 North Military Trail.

The seller is Flying Colors Group, which is led by Robert “Bob” Wolfenden. The company specializes in commercial real estate as well as other businesses, according to its website.

Palm Beach Commons was built in 1978 on a 6.7 acre lot on the southeast corner of Military Trail and Cherry Road. It’s currently leased to tenants including Family Dollar and a shoe and accessory store called Shoe Haul.

The property previously sold for $7.5 million in 2004, records show.

Norman and Simon have also teamed together to build a business park in Jupiter. The partners paid $11 million for the 59-acre site in 2016. It sits just east of I-95, along Indiantown Road and on both sides of Island Way.

Rendering of the penthouse at Eighty Seven Park

A penthouse at the Renzo Piano-designed Eighty Seven Park in North Beach is hitting the market for $68 million, which could set a record in Miami-Dade if it sells at or near its asking price.

The two-story penthouse, with 12,410 square feet of interior space and 18,247 square feet of outdoor terraces, will feature six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a service suite, a private gym and home theater and a rooftop terrace with two 45-foot long infinity pools, summer kitchens and an outdoor theater, according to a release.

When it sells, it could set a new record for residential sales in the county, blowing past the $60 million purchase by billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin of two penthouses at Faena House in 2015.

Terra is developing the 66-unit, 18-story condo building at 8701 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach along with its partners, Bizzi & Partners Development, New Valley and Pacific Eagle. Douglas Elliman is handling sales of the building, which is expected to be delivered next year. Buyers include tennis pro Novak Djokovic.

Other features of the penthouse include a putting green and a Turkish hammam, and a design package by RDAI with furnishings by Hermes, Giorgetti, and Christopher Delcourt.

Last year, Terra and its partners closed on additional financing, boosting their loan from Singapore’s United Overseas Bank Limited to $155 million.

The tower will feature an underground parking garage, a gym/spa and a rooftop terrace. Rena Dumas Architecture Intérieure and WEST 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture are also working on the project’s design.

Terra purchased the property, which was the site of the former Howard Johnson Dezerland Hotel, from Sunny Isles Beach developer Michael Dezer for $65 million in 2013. That hotel, which was originally known as the Biltmore Terrace, was built in the early 1950s and demolished in 2015.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the penthouse listing.

Real estate and art converge this week, as developers, brokerages and architects capitalize on the well-heeled crowd descending on Miami to boost the visibility of their luxury projects.

Brokerage firms are sponsoring art fairs, condo projects are hosting lavish parties and exhibits, architects and designers are holding book signings, and museums are offering art-studded VIP soirees during Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Week — all geared to lure the artsy set.

Christie’s International Real Estate, along with EWM Realty International, is a marquee sponsor of Art Miami and its sister event, CONTEXT Art Miami, for the eighth consecutive year.  Christie’s and its affiliates will host an interactive booth at the main entrance of Art Miami, displaying luxury residential properties from around the world.

Art Miami’s works on display will include Peter Anton’s CHOCO TOWER, a 10-foot tall sculpture of five chocolates stacked on top of each other that weighs more than 1,000 pounds. Made from painted aluminum, the sculpture will be on display at Stuttgart-based Galerie von Braunbehrens’s booth, part of an edition of three works, each painted in different colors.

The developers of the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sunny Isles Beach, which just topped off, will be the official sponsor of the 17th annual ArtNexus Party in Wynwood. Developed by Fortune International Group and Château Group, The Ritz-Carlton Residences will be hosting the VIP lounge during the party, with a scale model of the condo tower.

The event will also unveil Uruguayan artist Pablo Atchugarry sculpture for the exterior of the project’s Oceanside tower. Atchugarry will debut a sketch of his piece, and guests will celebrate the opening of his family gallery in Wynwood, the Atchugarry Art Center.

Acqualina Resort & Spa’s AQ Bar is hosting an event on Thursday, in partnership with Fine Art Mia. AQ bar will be adorned with a collection of original contemporary masterpieces by famous American artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring and Jeff Koons and British contemporary artist Damien Hirst. Among them: Liz by Andy Warhol painted in 1964 and Alfred Hitchcock from 1983 and Damien Hirst’s Mickey in blue glitter from 2016.

Art Basel show partner Douglas Elliman is hosting a series of events, beginning with a property showcase in the Collectors Lounge of the art fair. Elliman is working with Artefacto, which is furnishing the New York brokerage’s new development gallery, and including a virtual reality presentation of new developments.

Elliman is also hosting a tour of “architecturally significant” new projects currently on the market in Miami Beach for Elliman and Knight Frank agents in town. On Thursday, the company is unveiling its fifth annual Elliman Magazine Art Issue at 1 Hotel & Homes South Beach.

Italian architect Antonio Citterio will be giving a talk at Design Miami on Wednesday with the home and design editor of Departures, discussing luxury architecture and design. Citterio is designing Arte, a 12-story, 16-unit condo building in Surfside being developed by Alex Sapir.

Arte is also placing an art installation through Sunday featuring a video by Sophia Hanover and Stuart Parr projected onto the building at 8995 Collins Avenue. And on Thursday, Sapir, Özlem Önal and Giovanni Fasciano are also hosting a private cocktail party with previously unseen art by Australian designer Marc Newson.

Cervera Real Estate is sponsoring Red Dot Miami and Spectrum Miami for the second year in a row. Cervera’s hosting “The Art of Living” collection at Red Dot Miami, beginning with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday and ending on Sunday at Mana Wynwood. The collection will showcase some of Cervera’s exclusive projects, including Aston Martin Residences Miami, Aria on the Bay and Elysee Miami.

Oppenheim Architecture’s Ilona Oppenheim and the Related Group’s Jorge Pérez on Tuesday evening will celebrate their new book “Island in the Light,” which features 35 artists and 30 writers celebrating contemporary Cuban art, music and literature.

TRA Publishing is launching the book at a private event at Two Park Grove, a luxury condo building developed by Pérez and David Martin’s Terra. Cuban musician Pavel Urkiza will compose original scores inspired by the book’s selection.

In Edgewater, Pérez is unveiling the Paraiso District, a group of condo towers the Related Group recently completed. Artists Santiago Parra, Omar Barquet and Pablo Atchugarry will be at the event on Friday morning. Pérez and his wife, Darlene, are also hosting an invitation-only private breakfast and stroll through their art collection at his home in Coconut Grove this week.

The Bass Museum in Miami Beach is hosting a VIP reception Wednesday to celebrate the opening of The Haas Brothers: Ferngully during Miami Art Week. Also on view, Paola Pivi: Art with a view and Aaron Curry: Tune Yer Head.

In addition to hosting a number of offshoot art events and fairs in Wynwood and downtown Miami, real estate investor and developer Moishe Mana is having a birthday bash at his Wynwood complex on Tuesday. Mana and InList are hosting the party, starting at 9 p.m. and ending at 4 a.m. Lance Bass will MC the event, which is featuring performances by Cedric Gervais and others.

Nearby, broker and developer Tony Cho will have a pop-up experience at the Wynwood Gateway building called “Ignition.” The event, on Thursday evening, will feature artwork by Olivia Steele, Tyler Goldflower, J. Margulis and Dino Urpi in rooms of an on-site hotel, which will then be listed on Airbnb. The event will benefit the nonprofit Path of the Panther.

The nonprofit Berkowitz Contemporary Foundation is hosting a preview party for its new art-inspired building in Edgewater, where the foundation will showcase its art collection.

The project, designed by Rene Gonzalez Architects, will display Richard Serra’s “Passage of Time,” a 218-foot-long sculpture that will be installed in the courtyard. The 45,000-square-foot building was designed to incorporate an 80-foot-tall light installation by James Turrell’s “Aten Reign.” The building is slated to be completed in 2023.

Gonzalez also designed Sotheby’s (RED) Auction exhibition. Artist Theaster Gates and architect Sir David Adjaye are hosting an event Wednesday in the Moore Building in the Miami Design District, which will auction works of art by Jeff Koons, Pierre Jeanneret, Zaha Hadid and more, with proceeds benefiting the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and the Rebuild Foundation.

On Friday, Valli Art Gallery is hosting a private event in Miami Beach’s Star Island. Valli Art Gallery is collaborating with Techrin Hijazi of William Raveis Real Estate to showcase post-war and contemporary Italian art aboard a 140-foot luxury yacht docked at 44 Star Island Drive. The estate is on the market for $18.4 million. The event will be hosted by Italy’s Radio 105.

Swire Properties’ Brickell City Centre is hosting its annual all-female art fair, free to the public, from Thursday through Sunday. Featured works were curated and produced by Anthony Spinello in partnership with Swire Properties. Artists include Hank Willis Thomas, Emily Shur and Genevieve Gaignard.

CASACOR Miami is also being held at Brickell City Centre for the second straight year. The visual design exhibition, a partnership between Swire Properties and COSENTINO CASACO, features architecture, interior and landscaping design exhibits.

Miami is getting a rare look inside the world of Banksy at the planned site of the Magic City Innovation District. The Little Haiti site just opened an exhibit with over 80 original works by the artist. The Art of Banksy is curated by Steve Lazarides, Banksy’s former business partner, and displays the world’s largest collection of the artist’s works, including the “Balloon Girl” and the “Flag Wall.”

Lexus held a kickoff cocktail for Design Miami at Le Sirenuse at Fort Partner’s Four Seasons Residences at The Surf Club on Monday, unveiling its luxury crossover vehicle, LF-1 Limitless, designed by Japanese architect Socha Ichikawa. Lexus is the official automotive partner of Design Miami.

Last week, even before Art Basel, some developers began celebrating art and design. Jade Signature in Sunny Isles Beach’s developers Edgardo and Cristina Defortuna held a book signing of Pierre Yves Rochon’s Interior Splendor. Rochon designed the common areas of Jade Signature, including the lobby, library, and Club Room, and also designed the interiors of London’s Savoy, the Four Seasons George V in Paris and the Waldorf Astoria, now under construction in New York.

Toll Brothers CEO Doug Yearley and Pierhouse at 90 Furman Street in Brooklyn (Credit: Toll Brothers)

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers reeled in a record $7.14 billion in revenue for the year, but a recent drop in new-home orders, particularly in California, put a damper on earnings.

In yet another sign of how soft the high-end market has become, the company said contracts dipped 13 percent to 1,715 during the fourth quarter. That represented $1.5 billion worth of new homes, a 15 percent decline from the prior year. Toll announced earnings Tuesday; its fourth quarter ended Oct. 31.

The impact was most acute in California, which has been hurt by rising prices over the past few years and fewer foreign buyers, CEO Doug Yearley said during an earnings call. He said rising interest rates was a contributor to slowing sales nationwide. Although Toll sold an average of 10.4 homes in California during 2017’s fourth quarter, the number dropped to 5.8 in 2018’s fourth quarter.

“We sold 10-plus homes per quarter [last year] and we knew that wasn’t a number that could be continued,” Yearley said.

The dip in Toll’s overall contract activity came after an otherwise strong year in which the company reported the highest revenue and contract value in its 51-year history. Net income was the highest in a decade, the company said.

Toll ended fiscal 2018 with $1 billion on its balance sheet, and Yearley said it would continue to be “conservative and thoughtful on land buying.” But he said Toll is still bullish on the market’s long-term prospects. “It just doesn’t feel like a slowdown that will have a long duration,” he said during the call, citing strong fundamentals like job growth and the overall economy.

Asked to weigh in on the impact of Amazon’s second headquarters — which will be located in Virginia and Long Island City — he said: “We’re not in Long Island City, but we’re looking.”

For the full year, Toll’s net income rose 40 percent to $748.2 million. Total revenue was $7.14 billion — up 23 percent from fiscal 2017. Although contracts dipped late in the year, Toll said it inked contracts for 8,519 homes in fiscal 2018, a 4 percent increase. The value of those contracts was $7.6 billion, up 11 percent.

Toll’s stock slid 9.2 percent on Tuesday morning to $30.25 per share, before rallying slightly to close at $32.99. The stock price is down around 30 percent from the start of the year, when it was trading just over $48 per share. By comparison, the S&P 500 is down 28 percent, according to Bloomberg.

“Millennial moochers” are on the rise, according to Zumper.

Los Angeles is often billed as a place where young people can start a new life and leave behind their past. One thing a chunk of millennials seem to be holding onto: part of their parents’ bank accounts to help pay the rent.

Some 12 percent of renters in Los Angeles get help with their rent from mom and dad, one of the highest percentages in the country, according to a new survey by rental platform Zumper. That means that parents chip in $170 each month for rent based on the median rent among respondents nationwide.

Ten percent of renters in Chicago get some help from mom and dad, while only 8 percent of New Yorkers and 5 percent of San Francisco renters surveyed are mooching off their parents.

With the escalating cost of the country’s largest cities such as L.A. and New York, the issue of how much renters are leaning on their families for support has become a much-studied topic. Zumper, which surveyed 5,339 renters across the country with a median age of 34, found that the level of reliance by “millennial moochers,” in particular, is worsening.

Zumper cited California overall as the most extreme state in the country, since it had the most amount of cities — four — on the list of places where parental assistance was highest. Nearby, Long Beach, with 14 percent, has an even higher percentage of moochers than Los Angeles.

Overall, 8 percent of renters surveyed by Zumper said they got rent help from their parents. Around three in four respondents were women and just over half had some college education. Median annual income was $58,000.

Detroit, which is among the least-affluent big cities in the country, led the country in moochers with 24 percent. Austin, Texas, came in second place at 23 percent.

L.A. and New York are consistently among the most expensive rental markets in the country. After years of solid rent growth, increases have started to slow in recent months around the country, a welcome sign of relief for renters.

But L.A. respondents to the survey pay 39 percent of their income on rent, compared to 30 percent of New Yorkers surveyed.

Zumper also found that more people are living with their parents, a situation that is particularly acute among the youngest renters. The percentage of renters 18 to 24 years still sleeping at mom and dad’s place old jumped to 24 percent, up from 17 percent in 2017.

Clockwise from bottom left: Bridge Point Riverbend, 5400 Northwest 161st Street and Seneca Industrial Park

ShipMonk first to lease at Bridge Point Riverbend in Fort Lauderdale

Logistics company ShipMonk is moving to Bridge Point Riverbend, a new 221,542-square-foot industrial building in Fort Lauderdale.

The 170,447-square-foot long-term lease brings occupancy to 77 percent at the industrial development, which will be completed later this month. ShipMonk will move out of its 90,000-square-foot headquarters in Deerfield Beach by the second quarter of 2019.

Bridge Point Riverbend, at 201 Northwest 22nd Avenue, is being developed by Bridge Development Partners, Akard Street Partners, Banner Oak Capital Partners and Elion Partners. It’s near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades.

Next door developer Dev Motwani plans to build a three-story, 130,700-square-foot self-storage facility, with about 8,000 square feet of retail.

Seneca Industrial Park fully leased

Seneca Industrial Park, an 885,000-square-foot distribution and warehouse park located in Pembroke Park, just secured 98,117 square feet of leases.

Best Buy Company took the remaining 27,256 square feet. Best Buy was represented by Craig Fetherston of the Shopping Center Group.

Transportation and logistics company Ryder also renewed its 70,861-square-foot lease at Seneca Industrial Park. Tom O’Loughlin of CBRE represented Ryder.

Transwestern’s Thomas Kresse, Ben Eisenberg, Walter Byrd and Carlos Gaviria represented the landlord, an affiliate of the investment management arm of TIAA, Nuveen Investments. TIAA-CREF purchased Nuveen for $6.25 billion in 2014.

Universal Chilling moves HQ to Miami Gardens

Universal Chilling Systems just moved from Hialeah into an 11,200-square-foot warehouse at 5400 Northwest 161st Street in Miami Gardens.

The company provides cooling solutions for chemical processing, pharmaceutical, food and beverage and other industries.

Jordan Todd of International Sales Group and Raydel Enriquez of Vivo Real Estate Group represented the tenant. Mike Waite of the Easton Group represented the landlord, Seagis Property Group

Stuart Elliott

There is so much venture capital money flowing into private real estate firms these days that you would be forgiven for turning money-colored green with envy.

Take Opendoor, a tech company that allows for automated home buying and selling. The venture capitalists who’ve bet on the startup have valued it at $2 billion, based on a miniscule $10 million in annual revenue. 

Or WeWork, which is now reportedly worth $45 billion. Compare that to the public Blackstone Group, which has more than 20 times the amount of property and has an astounding track record of profitability, but is valued at $7 billion less. (Oh, and WeWork is losing more than $1 billion a year.)

As reporter E.B. Solomont writes in our cover story this month, some observers warn that the astronomical valuations these private VC-backed companies are achieving today are an unrealistic fantasy that could come back to bite investors.

This disconnect becomes even more clear when you look at how public companies are being valued. More than a third of VC-backed companies that went public this year saw their valuations plummet, according to an analysis by TRD. 

Publicly traded companies like Zillow get their feet held to the fire for their real-time performance. The Seattle-based listings giant was rebuked by the markets last month, losing $2 billion in value overnight, bringing its market cap down to $6.5 billion, after a disappointing earnings report.

But private companies can spin stories about their growth with zero transparency.

And coming from leaders like WeWork’s Adam Neumann and Compass’ Robert Reffkin, it can seem expansion is limitless and the wealth they are able to create nearly unlimited. It becomes about the salesmanship.

“You can sell stories in the private market much longer without having to face the accountability of a liquid public market,” said Rett Wallace of Triton Research, which analyzes pre-IPO companies.

Selling the sizzle is nothing new, of course.

One of the best novels about financial speculation is “The Way We Live Now,” by Anthony Trollope. The tycoon at the center of this 19th-century story is Augustus Melmotte, a charming investor in railway bonds promising riches to London’s aristocrats, who clamor to put their money with him despite the somewhat opaque nature of his enterprise. 

I was reminded of the book this weekend when a friend (who started his own business) told me, “Companies are worth what someone claims they are worth.” It echoed a quote from the book that “there are men who take other men at the price those other men put upon themselves.”

Will VC-backed companies like WeWork deliver the goods? At best, the $45 billion valuation of WeWork is a kind of promise of what the fully built-out company will look like down the road. At worst, it’s akin to a delusional projection. Time (and the public market, if there is an IPO) will sort out the rest. Check out the story on page 36.

Elsewhere in the issue, we have a piece on how CEO pay is rising at public companies despite poor stock performance. As reporter Konrad Putzier writes, “there’s a growing belief, with REITs especially, that CEOs shouldn’t be punished or rewarded based on investor moods, which often fluctuate, but instead on the company’s operational performance.” See the story on page 74.

We’ve also got a story on the top retail brokerage firms amid a (finally) improving retail market (page 72); a look at the winners and losers in Long Island City following Amazon’s earth-shattering announcement (page 32); and an examination of the mighty National Association of Realtors, which has 1.3 million members but is being threatened by tech disruption — though who isn’t these days (see page 44).

Finally, check out our Closing interview with developer Jerry Wolkoff on page 130. It’s rather salty and expletive-laden, but I guess that’s what working 60 years in the real estate business does to you.

Enjoy the issue.

Village Shoppes on 441, Jacob Khotoveli

JBL Asset Management just bought a Burlington-anchored shopping center in Royal Palm Beach for $20.6 million.

The shopping center at 10109 Southern Boulevard was foreclosed upon in 2016, and taken over by CW Capital, which services at-risk and troubled loans. The Centre on 441 LLC initially purchased the 30.1 acre-property in 2007 for $38 million before it was foreclosed upon by creditors.

The shopping center was built in 1990 and also features a Planet Fitness and U.S. Postal Office. The property sits right off Southern Boulevard and North State Road 7.

Hollywood-based JBL Asset Management, led by Jacob Khotoveli, owns and manages more than 2 million square feet of shopping centers across the country, according to its website.

While many retailers are struggling to make money and large chains such as Toys “R” Us have filed for bankruptcy, some real estate investors are seeing buying opportunities. Palm Beach-based Sterling Organization and other have set up funds to buy some of these distressed retail shopping centers and Class B properties throughout the country.

1645 Northwest 107th Avenue and Randy Benderson

Benderson Development Company is creating a niche: It just bought another former Toys “R” Us store this week.

Property records show an entity tied to the company paid $8.5 million for a location in Doral. The 44,542-square-foot building at 1645 Northwest 107th Avenue traded hands for $191 per square foot.

The property spans 4 acres and sits just west of Miami International Mall. Records show Toys “R” Us paid $2.6 million for the site in 1983, which is the same year it was built.

One Investment Group’s Alex Rich is handling sales for an adjacent 20,270-square-foot building on the east side of the property. The former Babies “R” Us store is on the market to buy or lease, with rents asking about $20 per square foot plus triple net, Rich said.

Benderson has been busy scooping up shuttered Toys “R” Us buildings. Just this week it paid $6.5 million for a former Toy “R” Us building in Palm Beach Gardens.

Earlier this year, it made one of the highest offers for a Toys “R” Us store when it outbid Federal Realty with a $15.6 million offer to acquire a store in Emeryville, California. It has since leased the space to the French sporting goods retailer Decathlon Group, according to its website.

The firm has also picked up a former Toys “R” Us store in North Miami Beach for $1.5 million and another in Amherst, New York, for $110,000.

Properties in the Doral area have been trading recently. Last week, San Ignacio University purchased a vacant plot of land nearby for $8.9 million. The week prior to that, Simon Property Group sold 8.4 acres of land next to its Miami International Mall for $8.2 million.

Rendering of CitizenM at Miami Worldcenter

CitizenM is moving forward with plans for what could be its first Miami hotel.

The Dutch hotel chain is seeking a building permit for a hotel at 955 South Miami Avenue, on the site of Perricone’s Marketplace & Café in Brickell. Steven J. Perricone sold the property to citizenM last year for $16.2 million. The deal was part of a sale-leaseback agreement with the hotel company, a Perricone’s spokesperson said at the time.

The building permit reveals new details about the project, including the estimated cost. The 252-key hotel would span about 160,000 square feet and cost nearly $46 million to build. It will be 19 stories and 253 feet tall.

Perricone said last year that he has a five-year lease on the property, and could open a restaurant as part of the new development.

Hotel developer and operator citizenM has built a majority of its hotels in Europe, and has projects in New York as well as others planned in Miami Beach and at Miami Worldcenter.

In August, citizenM said it would buy a plot of land at Worldcenter, along Northeast Second Avenue between Seventh and Eighth streets in downtown Miami, for a 12-story, 348-key hotel.

The California National Guard conducts search and clearing operations in Paradise following the Camp Fire. (Credit: California National Guard on Flickr)

The fires that devastated Northern California stand to worsen the housing crisis, as they’ve burned homes faster than developers are able to build them.

The Camp Fire alone destroyed 21,000 homes across six counties, or roughly 85 percent of the new housing that’s been built across those counties in the last decade, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“We had a housing crisis prior to the fires,” Bob Raymer, a senior engineer with the California Building Industry Association, told the Times. “This only exacerbated the crisis. I can’t even put a measure on it. Just wow.”

Residents will likely find themselves paying a construction premium because of increased costs for raw materials and labor. Communities not affected by the fires could be hurt if the state diverts funding allocated for low-income and homeless housing to help fire-affected communities rebuild.

Damage from the Woolsey Fire that burned in northwest L.A. County and Ventura County is now estimated at around $5 billion, much of that in damage to homes and private property. In Malibu, which sustained $1.6 billion in damage to single-family homes, local officials are preparing a package of measures to help locals rebuild. That includes easing zoning restrictions and hiring private contractors to beef up the planning department to hasten the pace of construction. [LAT] – Dennis Lynch 

Rendering of Sunset Park (Credit: Domo Architecture and Design)

Deco Capital Group secured key approvals from two Miami Beach boards over the past week and is moving forward with its plans for a scaled-back development in the Sunset Harbour neighborhood.

Bradley Colmer, managing principal of Deco Capital, said the developer has all the city approvals it needs now that it got the OK from the planning and design review boards, but it’s still facing opposition from the nearby Beach Towing Services, which is appealing the project’s approval.

RWN Real Estate Partners, a New York-based private equity firm backed by billionaire Marc Rowan, is a majority partner in the project.

As planned, Sunset Park would be a roughly 67,000-square-foot mixed-use retail and residential development at 1733-1769 Purdy Avenue and 1730 Bay Road. Domo Architecture and Design is designing the project, which includes 20,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space with two larger restaurant spaces, two cafes, and four traditional retail units.

Rendering of Sunset Park (Credit: Domo Architecture and Design)

The five-story building would have one level of parking above that, plus three stories of condos. The condos would be between 2,900 square feet and 3,700 square feet.

Construction could begin next year, but Colmer said he expects that it will begin in 2020.

In 2015, the developer withdrew its height increase request after it was unable to reach agreements with residents living at the adjacent Lofts at South Beach Condominium and with Beach Towing, which holds a deed restriction that it said prevented parking on property previously owned by the towing company.

Colmer called Beach Towing a “bad faith actor” and said he expects its appeals will run their course.

Previous versions of the project were taller. In 2017, Miami Beach commissioners voted down an ordinance that would have increased the height for the development, known then as Sunset Harbour Residences, to 90 feet from 50 feet.

The developer picked up another piece of the assemblage earlier this year, paying $3.53 million for the Bay Road site, which allowed the developer to redesign plans for the project.

Jill Hertzberg, Jill Eber and Kevin Tomlinson

The Jills versus Kevin Tomlinson saga got the glossy treatment this week with a sprawling story offering a few new details on the case that centered around accusations of manipulation of the Multiple Listing Service.

As those in South Florida real estate already know, former One Sotheby’s International Realty agent Kevin Tomlinson was sentenced in August to extended probation and banned from the industry for trying to extort Coldwell Banker agents Jill Hertzberg and Jill Eber. Tomlinson had accused the top agents of having manipulated the MLS, trying to make homes on the market more attractive to potential buyers.

Tomlinson told Vanity Fair he plans to appeal the judge’s ban from working in the real estate industry. “I know of a cocaine dealer who got his license back within three months of getting out of prison,” he said.

The story also includes some other choice quotes.

On making it as a real estate agent in Miami, Tomlinson said: “If you are on your game and know your shit, it is easy as hell and fun as fuck.”

Tomlinson and Hertzberg had two different accounts for a meeting they had more than three years ago. Tomlinson, who cited his previously “flirty relationship” with Hertzberg, told Vanity Fair that during a meeting in July 2015, she escorted Tomlinson into her bedroom, where she laid across her bed “on her stomach with her feet in the air.”

Esther Percal, an EWM Realty International agent who has supported Tomlinson, testified that, “I thought the Jills were going to fuck him.”

Hertzberg, meanwhile, told the magazine that while sitting at her desk, Tomlinson threatened to ruin her career and that of her children. “This entire thing, this [Miami Association of Realtors] complaint, everything you did, you did this for money?” she asked him. “This is all about money? He said, ‘Yes, sister.’ Like, ‘You dumb shit.’” [Vanity Fair] – Katherine Kallergis

St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort (Credit: Wikipedia)

A penthouse owner in the luxurious St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort in Miami Beach says something stinks.

Andre Diamond, also known as Andres Diamontopoulos, a businessman from Montreal, is suing, alleging that he had to vacate his North Tower penthouse after chemicals used in insulation around the building’s pipes caused a “highly nauseating, repulsive, and repugnant odor” to fill his unit.

Diamond filed suit in a Miami-Dade Circuit Court against Marriott International and Seldar Miami Holding, LLC on Tuesday. Marriott International currently manages the property and Seldar Miami Holding, which is a subsidiary of Qatari-based Al Rayyan Tourism Investment Company, owns the condo-hotel. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Rendering of Avenir and Landstar Development Group’s Rosa Schechter

The developers of the massive Avenir development in Palm Beach Gardens want out of workforce housing – and they’re willing to pay for it.

Landstar Development Group is proposing to pay the city of Palm Beach Gardens $10 million to opt out of a previous 2016 agreement that assured the project would include workforce housing, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Under the previous agreement, the developer would dedicate 250 townhouses priced as workforce housing.

The new proposal states that the city would use $5 million for a comprehensive workforce housing program and $5 million for improvements at the Burns Road Recreation Center. It goes before the city council later this week.

Construction is already underway at the 4,763-acre site of the mixed-use development. Avenir was designed to include 1.8 million square feet of office space, 400,000 square feet of commercial space, 200,000 square feet of medical offices, a 300-room hotel, and a public park.

Avenir also will encompass 3,900 homes, including 960 for people 55 and older. [Palm Beach Post] – Amanda Rabines

Rendering of the Estates at Acqualina, Jules Trump (Credit: The Closing)

The Trump Group is offering a limited number of brokers’ clients the chance to peruse floor plans and pre-opening prices for The Estates at Acqualina’s north tower in Sunny Isles Beach. The catch: A prospective buyer must pay a $100,000 refundable deposit to get on the list.

Developer Jules Trump said he is limiting the offer to brokers his firm has dealt with before, and will cap the reservations at 15.

A buyer can use the deposit toward the cost of the unit, which Trump said will be offered at a discount to the select few. “It will be pre-opening prices, which are better than pre-construction prices,” he said, declining to provide the prices.

Units at The Estates at Acqualina south tower, which is now 70 percent pre-sold, range from $4.2 million to $35 million. Units will range from 2,917 square feet to 9,000 square feet, and from three to seven bedrooms. The project will also feature three single-family homes. Completion is expected in late 2020.

Construction is underway on both 50-story towers of the $1.6 billion project at 17901 Collins Avenue. In October, Trump signed a $600 million contract with Coastal Construction to complete both towers and the amenity villa of The Estates at Acqualina, ranking as the largest contract for a condominium project in South Florida.

Trump, (no relation to the president) said the marketing maneuver is geared to offer an advantage to loyal brokers, and isn’t a show of desperation amid a slow market for condo sales. The $100,000 refundable deposit will mean only serious buyers will apply.

“We appreciate those brokers who have been supportive and we’d rather see their clients get great deals, hence the idea,” he said.

Trump said November pre-sales numbers totaled $50 million at the south tower. Eight units sold, at prices ranging from $3.1 million to $12 million. The buyers included three from Florida, two from Mexico, one each from Argentina and Spain and one from a European country Trump declined to name.

The development will feature common areas created by Karl Lagerfeld.

The Estates at Acqualina will also include 50,000 square feet of amenities including a spa and fitness center with a boxing ring, an ice-skating rink, bowling lanes, movie theater, golfing and Formula One simulators, a speakeasy and cigar lounge. A restaurant is expected to be announced early next year.