Gil Dezer (Photos by Sonya Revell)

Ride the elevator along with swimsuit-clad hotel guests to the 31st floor of Trump International Beach Resort and you’ll find the headquarters of Dezer Development. Hidden within the full-floor suite at 18001 Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach is a winding staircase that leads to the adjoining lairs of Gil Dezer, 44, and his father Michael Dezer, 78.

With a large patio from which he can watch his towers rise, Gil’s office is partly a testament to the company’s history of development in South Florida and partly a shrine to Donald Trump.

For nearly two decades, Dezer Development has helped transform the oceanfront on Collins Avenue, often creating towers that carry the Trump name through licensing agreements. Among Dezer’s projects are the Trump Grande, consisting of Trump International, Trump Palace and Trump Royale; Trump Towers I, II and III; and Porsche Design Tower.

The company is currently focusing on finishing Residences by Armani/Casa, which it is developing with the Related Group and Rockpoint Group. The 56-story condo tower is expected to be completed in November. Dezer is also redeveloping the Intracoastal Mall in North Miami Beach, which could be a decade-long project, he said. It is zoned for 2,000 residences and 600,000 square feet of retail.

And other projects are on the horizon. Dezer Development owns four other oceanfront sites on Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach that it plans to redevelop, including the Travelodge Monaco Beach Resort and the Days Hotel by Wyndham Thunderbird Beach Resort.

“We’re probably the only developer in town that can keep going for the next 25 years without buying anything else,” Dezer said.

Here are some of Dezer’s favorite — and kitschiest — items in his office.

Toy tanks

Dezer and his colleagues play with the remote controlled tanks, shooting each other with lasers. “If we have an argument, we settle it with tanks,” he said.

Concrete pump

The miniature concrete pump was given to Dezer as a memento by C&C Concrete Pumping. Dezer uses the company’s pumps for all its projects.

Monopoly – Dezer Florida Edition

The game was given to Dezer many years ago by Matthew Mark, the company’s former general manager in New York who has since passed away, so it holds special significance, Dezer said.

Shovels
The shovels, mounted above the door to Dezer’s office, were used for the groundbreakings of Ocean Grande, in July 2000; Ocean IV, in October 2004; and Porsche Design Tower, in April 2013.

Donald Trump doll

The doll, a likeness of a suit-wearing Trump, was given to Dezer while Trump was on “The Apprentice.” When you push a button on its back, it speaks.

Fragrances

Dezer has bottles of Donald Trump: The Fragrance and Porsche Design Fragrance. He sometimes spritzes himself “before a meeting, if you need to smell good,” he said.

A collage of photos from Miss Universe from 2002

When Dezer first started working with Trump, the now-president invited him to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to attend the Miss Universe pageant.

Letter from Trump

The February 2002 letter to Michael Dezer from Trump has a handwritten postscript that says, “Gil will be a great success.”

Wells Fargo stagecoach

In 2011, amid the recession, Dezer Development paid off a $275 million mortgage from Wells Fargo for Trump Towers. Dezer had asked for a life-size stagecoach for his father’s car museum. “They said this is the consolation prize,” he said.

Rendering of Aston Martin Residences

About 1,400 truckloads with more than 14,000 cubic yards of concrete will fill the foundation of Aston Martin Residences in downtown Miami this weekend.

Coastal Construction is handling the 36-hour continuous pour at the site at 300 Biscayne Boulevard Way. It’s expected to be the biggest concrete pour in Miami, surpassing others at about 13,000 cubic yards of concrete, like Paramount Miami Worldcenter in 2016 and Residences by Armani/Casa in 2017.

The steel piles at the 818-foot Aston Martin Residences will run 15 feet deep. The piling was completed in December, according to a fact sheet about the tower.

G&G Business Developments is developing the 66-story, 391-unit luxury condo tower. Coastal’s construction contract exceeds $400 million, according to Sean Murphy, co-president of Coastal.

The construction site at 300 Biscayne Boulevard Way

Cervera Real Estate is handling sales and marketing of the tower’s units, which range in price from $750,000 to $50 million for the penthouse. Presales are currently at about 50 percent, Alicia Cervera Lamadrid said.

A four-story, 42,275-square-foot amenity section will include a chef’s kitchen, infinity pool, gym, virtual golf, two theaters, a full-service spa and more.

The developer secured a $200 million construction loan from Brazilian lender Itaú BBA International in November.

Coastal Construction will go vertical on the project shortly after the concrete pour is completed, and the building is expected to be delivered in 2022, according to a release.

Murphy said that the location of the site and its proximity to the Brickell bridge will mean that boom trucks, which typically surround the entire construction mat, will be offsite.

The pour will start at about 10 p.m. on Friday and continue through until Sunday, likely around noon, Murphy said.

From left: CEO David Weinreb and Chairman Bill Ackman

Development firm Howard Hughes Corporation is exploring a possible sale as its struggle to close a “significant gap” between its share price and it net asset value, CEO David Weinreb said, according to Reuters.

The Dallas-based firm has hired Centerview Partners to also consider other options, which include creating a spinoff or joint venture group, recapitalizing, or selling the company entirely, Reuters reported. The review is expected to be complete by the end of summer. Howard Hughes was formed as a spinoff of the former General Growth Properties in 2010.

Shares of the company jumped 35 percent when news broke that it was mulling a sale. The company, whose chairman is activist investor Bill Ackman, had seen its stock fall in recent years from a high in 2014.

The firm is dealing with backlash over a parking lot it purchased in New York City, which may be contaminated. Howard Hughes had clashed with residents there before over a discarded proposal to build a 50-story hotel and condominium on the waterfront, and changing plans for a parklike roof.

The company is also working on massive projects throughout the country. In Chicago, the firm teamed up with Riverside Investment & Development in leasing out a 1.4-million-square-foot office tower. It is also working on the 60-acre Ward Village development in Honolulu that calls for 4,500 residential units and 1 million square feet of commercial space.

Howard Hughes was also involved in two of the largest development site sales in New York in 2018. [Reuters] — Gregory Cornfield

Connect with The Real Deal on Facebook for breaking news, original videos, fun facts and more!

Mayor Francis Suarez

The Miami City Commission approved the use of bond money to fund five affordable and workforce housing projects in the city.

The commission gave the green light on Thursday to use $7.15 million of the initial $58.7 million portion of the Miami Forever Bond. Voters approved the $400 million bond in November 2017 to fund sea level rise and flood prevention, public roadway improvements and park upgrades. In all, $100 million of the bond proceeds will be set aside for affordable housing.

Developers are expected to invest roughly $180 million in the five projects, which include the third phase of Liberty Square, the Related Group’s redevelopment of the Liberty City complex. In all, the projects total more than 500 units. The city reviewed 29 applications for the funding after issuing a request for proposals in February.

The $7.15 million will also fund these developments in Little Havana, Coconut Grove and Allapattah:

• MJ LH 337 NW 11 Ave, led by Juan de la Puerta and Michael Esser, at 337 Northwest 11th Avenue in Little Havana.
• Platform 3750 LLC, tied to the Hollywood-based Cornerstone Group, at 3750 South Dixie Highway in Coconut Grove. Initial plans called for an eight- and five-story building with 192 workforce and market-rate apartments, 20,200 square feet of retail space, and 30,070 square feet of office space.
• Related’s The Gallery at River Parc LLC. Previously submitted plans called for a 150-unit building at 750 Northwest 13th Avenue and a 168-unit building at 800 Northwest 13th Avenue in Little Havana.
• Vineyard Villas LLC in Allapattah.

The city recently passed an ordinance that new developments in the Arts & Entertainment District north of downtown Miami that are seeking density and floor lot ratio bonuses must include workforce or affordable housing.

Miami is among the country’s most expensive housing markets. According to a report released this week by RentHop, Miami ranked No. 2 as the priciest city to own a home in the U.S. The average home price is $510,000 with estimated monthly mortgage and taxes totaling nearly $2,500 a month, RentHop found.

Miami-Dade County also has big plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into affordable housing over the next 10 years, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez told Bloomberg.

From left: Rendering of Magic City Innovation District with Guy Laliberte, Neil Fairman and Tony Cho

It took five public hearings in front of the Miami City Commission, each lasting several hours and featuring vociferous opposition, but the developers of the Magic City Innovation District finally got approval for their $1 billion mixed-use project in Little Haiti.

At about 1 a.m. on Friday morning, the commission approved Magic City’s special area plan 3-0 on second reading during another heated discussion that began late Thursday night.

Amid a parade of residents pleading with commissioners Keon Hardemon, Willy Gort and Manolo Reyes to reject Magic City, one of the project’s original partners, Tony Cho, insisted the development would be a boon for Little Haiti’s population, of which close to half lives in poverty.

“The original mission and intention of Magic City was to create a regenerative and sustainable community project,” Cho said. “I am committed to seeing the area revitalized in a responsible way … We are working with a group of well-intentioned developers.”

In 2016, Cho joined forces with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Robert Zangrillo to create Magic City, which would entail a 30,000-square-foot studio, a 15,000-square-foot innovation center for start-ups and co-working tenants, retail spaces, and 2,670 apartments in buildings up to 25 stories tall. The mixed-use project would be built on 15 acres between Northeast 60th and 64th streets and Northeast Second Avenue to the railroad tracks.

Magic City is named after a former mobile home park that was located on some of the land. Last month, the owner of Magic City Casino filed a trademark lawsuit over the naming rights of Magic City.

In the three years since, the development team has gone through a radical transformation. In 2017, Cirque du Soleil partner Guy Laliberte came on board as a minority partner, as well as to oversee the creation of a pop-up experience with local retail and food and beverage tenants. Shortly after, Neil Fairman’s Plaza Equity Partners joined the partnership to manage the development through the rezoning, permitting and construction process. Laliberte and Plaza each own a 25 percent stake in Magic City, according to an ownership matrix. Cho owns 15 percent.

Zangrillo formed MCD Dragon Miami, an entity that owns 35 percent of the project. But in late March, he removed himself as manager of MCD Dragon, another shell company that owns 54.2 percent of MCD Dragon Miami, in the wake of his federal indictment for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud – charges that are unrelated to Magic City. Zangrillo was ensnared in a nationwide college admissions scandal in which he allegedly paid $250,000 in bribes to get one of his daughters accepted into the University of Southern California.

New York developer Zachary Vella, whose companies have built a dozen mixed-use and condo projects in Tribeca and the Lower East Side, as well as in Southern California, replaced Zanngrillo as manager of MCD Dragon, according to letters sent to city commissioners.

To accomplish their vision, Magic City’s developers submitted a proposed special area plan that would change the zoning on more than 70 percent of the development site from industrial to commercial uses, as well as allow 25-story buildings. During Thursday’s meeting, Miami Planning Director Francisco Garcia said under the current zoning, developers could only build industrial warehouses roughly 10 stories tall. “While Miami was an area with thriving industrial uses, that reality no longer exists,” Garcia said.

Still, the project faced a major hurdle in overcoming organized opposition by Little Haiti activists, preservationists and residents who fear Magic City, along with other proposed major projects in Little Haiti, will gentrify the neighborhood and displace its immigrant community.

Along the way, the developers acquiesced to demands from Hardemon, the commissioner whose district includes Magic City, to contribute $31 million to the newly created Little Haiti Revitalization Trust for community improvements and affordable housing in the neighborhood. Magic City’s principals also agreed to provide $250,000 for a college scholarship fund benefitting Little Haiti residents.

Clockwise from top left: Doral View and Town Fontainebleau Lakes, Alister Boca Raton, Luma West Palm, Glen Apartments, Avana Cypress Creek Apartments

Doral View and Town Fontainebleau Lakes – Blackstone Group | $209M

Blackstone Group paid $208.75 million for a pair of neighboring apartment complexes in Doral, marking the largest multifamily deal in South Florida so far this year.

The Related Group and Rockpoint Group sold 720 units, split between Doral View at 901 Northwest 97th Avenue and Town Fontainebleau Lakes at 1062 Northwest 87th Avenue. Blackstone paid about $290,000 per apartment.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Robert Given, Troy Ballard, Zachary Sackley, James Quinn and Neal Victor represented Related and Rockpoint, according to a release.

The garden-style communities, which sit on 33 acres just south of the Dolphin Expressway, were built in 2014 and 2016 and are 95 percent leased, Cushman said. They hit the market in February.

Alister Boca Raton – American Landmark | $92M

American Landmark paid $91.5 million for a 448-unit apartment complex in Boca Raton.

American Landmark purchased Alister Boca Raton at 10235 Boca Entrada Boulevard for $204,000 per unit, according to a press release. A joint venture between Mill Creek Residential and AIG sold the community.

The apartments were built between 1986 and 1988 and offer one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Rents range from $1,299 to $2,127, according to Apartments.com.

Luma West Palm – Charles Scardina Jr. | $67M

South Florida developer Charles Scardina Jr. sold a new apartment complex to a Salt Lake City firm for nearly $67 million.

Scardina’s Luma at West Palm Beach LLC sold Luma West Palm Apartments at 7130 Okeechobee Boulevard to CC West Palm Beach LLC, which is tied to Cottonwood Residential.

The deal breaks down to about $273,000 per apartment. Luma was built on a 10.2-acre site west of the Florida Turnpike in 2018. Florida Community Bank provided the $35.6 million construction loan for the project.

Cottonwood Communities, a real estate investment trust, announced the deal was under contract in April. The development includes a heated pool with cabanas, fitness center, 5,500-square-foot clubroom, business center and dog park.

Glen Apartments – Bar Invest Group | $59M

Bar Invest Group paid $59 million for a 405-unit apartment complex in Lauderhill as it expands its multifamily portfolio in South Florida.

A company tied to Turner Multifamily Impact Fund sold the Glen Apartments at 2360 Northwest 56 Avenue for nearly $146,000 per unit, records show.

Santa Monica, California-based Turner bought the complex in 2015 for $44.8 million, records show. It was built in 1988. Apartments range from one to three bedrooms with monthly rents from ‎$983 to $1,485, according to Apartmentfinder.com.

Eaton Vance Management – Avana Cypress Creek Apartments | $46M

Greystar sold a North Lauderdale apartment complex to Eaton Vance Management for $46 million.

The Charleston, South Carolina-based company sold the 220-unit Avana Cypress Creek Apartments at 1700 South State Road 7 for $209,000 per unit, records show.

The complex has one- to three-bedroom apartments, with monthly rents ranging from $1,472 to $2,372, according to Apartments.com.

The property sits right off the Florida Turnpike, close to the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. Greystar bought the complex for $36.5 million in 2014, according to records. It was built in 2009.

From left: Simon Property Group David Simon, Forever 21 CEO Do Won Chang, and Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt (Credit: Getty Images)

Forever 21 is another major retailer attempting to fend off the woes of the retail industry. But its executives remain split on how to chart a path forward.

While billionaire co-founder Do Won Chang wants to keep the company’s ownership intact, some breakaway executives have approached the retailer’s landlords, including Brookfield Asset Management and Simon Property Group, for investment in the company, Bloomberg reported.

The move is part of ongoing talks of a debt-restructuring at the company, as other retailers have been impacted by the rise of online sellers. It has caused a rift among the company’s leadership, with some executives standing by Chang, and his desire to hold onto ownership, and others who reportedly approached the landlords.

However, Forever 21 disputed Bloomberg’s reporting, and said that while it had discussed rent terms with its landlords, it had not raised the possibility of an investment stake.

“While Forever 21’s policy is not to comment on speculations, we feel it’s important to refute these rumors, which are categorically incorrect,” the company said in a statement to the outlet.

The retailer, which opened its first store in Los Angeles in 1984, now has more than 800 locations in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. It reportedly makes up for 2 percent of Brookfield’s annual minimum l rent revenue. That figure is at 1.4 percent for Simon Property Group. [Bloomberg] — David Jeans 

Michael Adler and a rendering of Miami Riverside Center

A deal by the Adler Group to redevelop the city of Miami-owned Miami Riverside Center won narrow approval by commissioners, despite criticism tied to the developer building a new city administrative building.

The Miami City Commission voted 3-2 on Thursday to approve the 99-year lease agreement with Lancelot Miami River LLC to replace the 27-year-old building at 444 Southwest Second Avenue. The new project will have four towers with a mix of residential, office and hotel uses, as well as roughly 37,000 square feet of retail and a parking garage with a minimum of 1,000 spaces. The project’s footprint would also include land owned by another Adler affiliate at 230 Southwest Third Street, where the developer is proposing to build the city’s new headquarters.

As part of the approval, the city plans to issue $150 million in bonds to finance the construction of its new office building, which includes a 4 percent developer’s fee.

Lancelot, whose president is Michael Adler, agreed to pay the city $3.6 million in annual rent or 3 percent of its annual gross revenues, whichever is greater. The rent would increase annually by 1.5 percent in the sixth year, and Lancelot has an option to buy the property for about $70 million. The city would also get a 2 percent fee from any condos Lancelot develops and sells.

The broad terms of the deal were approved by 64 percent of Miami voters in November, but the ballot language did not include anything about issuing $150 million in bonds — a new wrinkle that led commissioners Joe Carrollo and Manolo Reyes to criticize and vote against the agreement.

“The Marlins [stadium] was a bad deal for the city and this is a bad deal for the city,” Carollo said. “No one is going to change my mind about it.”

Carollo and Reyes weren’t alone in their opposition. During the discussion, Eric Zichella, a lobbyist who chairs the city’s citizen finance committee, told commissioners that taxpayers would be on the hook for the bond payments should Lancelot not complete the project due to a market downturn, for instance. The finance committee voted 3-1 to recommend denial of the lease agreement.

“The city is taking a risk in selling bonds well before the developer has any obligation to perform,” Zichella said. “And the concern is about potential disruptions to the marketplace.”

Zichella said the city would be better protected by selling the bonds after the developer completes the city administration building. Daniel Rotenberg, director of Miami’s real estate and asset management office, said since the finance committee hearing, city officials included protections in the event of a “market deviation.” “We listened to what [Zichella] said,” Rotenberg said.

Following the commission’s vote, Greenberg Traurig attorneys for Lancelot said in a statement that the developer expects to begin construction of the project’s first phase in the fourth quarter of 2020 and that the entire development will take five to seven years to complete. The first phase will include the city’s new office building to minimize any disruption to municipal services, said Ryan D. Bailine, one of two Greenberg Traurig shareholders representing Lancelot.

Chase branch at 6916 Collins Avenue with Jose Sasson and Roberto Susi of Axiom Capital Advisors

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?

Amid a surge of redevelopment in North Beach, J.P. Morgan bought its Chase bank branch to ensure its ongoing presence, The Real Deal has learned.

J.P. Morgan paid $8.45 million in an off-market deal for the branch building at 6916 Collins Avenue, said Roberto Susi, principal of Axiom Capital Advisors, who represented the seller, along with Axiom’s Jose Sasson.

The seller is Bayrock Investment Co., based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The 5,756-square-foot branch and parking are on a 37,500-square-foot lot. The building, built in 2013, sold for $1,468 per square foot and the land for $225 per square foot.

Susi said J.P. Morgan wanted to buy the leased branch to keep it for its own use so the property would not end up in the hands of a developer. The branch, on the west side of Collins Avenue, is near a new Publix and across from oceanfront condo developments L’Atelier Residences and the Carillon Hotel and Residences.

“It’s an up-and-coming market that is experiencing tremendous growth from a development standpoint,” Susi said.

North Beach is seeing increased interest from developers, amid voters’ and the city of Miami Beach’s approval of upzoning. Property owners are now able to build twice as much as they were previously allowed in the North Beach Town Center District, which mainly consists of retail plazas, vacant lots and apartment buildings between Indian Creek Drive, Dickens Avenue, 72nd Street, Collins Avenue and 69th Street.

Among the developments planned is Silvia Coltrane and her partners’ mixed-use hotel and condo project at 72nd Street and Collins Avenue.

Earlier this week, the Miami Beach City Commission gave the green light to a land deal that will allow developers Alex Blavatnik and Sandor Scher to build 110 hotel rooms on Ocean Terrace in North Beach, in exchange for a $15 million park near the oceanfront.

One Thousand Museum with Zaha Hadid

One Thousand Museum Residences, the Zaha Hadid-designed skyscraper in downtown Miami, received its temporary certificate of occupancy and will begin closings as early as next week, the developers announced on Friday.

Developers Louis Birdman, Gilberto Bomeny, Gregg Covin and Kevin Venger, along with the late Zaha Hadid, broke ground on the 62-story, 84-unit luxury condo tower at 1000 Biscayne Boulevard in December 2014.

The developers recently tapped Lotus Capital Partners to arrange a $331 million condo inventory loan for the building, according to an email obtained by The Real Deal. Offers were due in mid-June.

The building, Hadid’s first and final residential project in the western hemisphere, is known for its exoskeleton, which incorporates 4,800 precast panels made in Dubai and shipped to Miami. The complicated construction was featured on PBS’ “Impossible Builds” series.

Hadid was known for her sinuous, curvaceous designs that pushed the limits of building shapes. The Pritzker Prize-winning architect died in Miami Beach in 2016, after suffering a heart attack while being treated for bronchitis.

The tower is at least 60 percent sold, according to multiple reports. Harvey Daniels of One Sotheby’s International Realty is the sales director. Half-floor units start at $5.8 million and full-floor residences go up to more than $24 million. Artefacto, B&B Italia, Roche Bobois, Meridiani, Luxury Living Group and Morada Haute Furniture Design are completing the interiors of some units, according to a release.

Plaza Construction was the general contractor.

One Thousand Museum will include a rooftop helipad, a wellness center with a gym and yoga facilities, relaxation pods and spa rooms, a sky lounge, a bank vault, a multimedia theater, an off-site beach club and 8 Juice Bar by Raw Republic.

(Credit: iStock)

Office rents across the U.S. are ticking up.

The average asking rent in May for office buildings over 50,000 square feet in size rose 0.4 percent compared to the previous three-month period, coming in at $36.33, according to data firm Yardi Matrix’s recent national report, covered by Connect Commercial Real Estate.

The growth stems from solid demand thanks to a healthy job market. But the slowness of the growth comes from employers’ selectivity about their office space needs. The average national vacancy rate, 13.7 percent, didn’t budge over the same timeframe, according to Yardi.

However, some cities saw much larger spikes in their average asking rents.

In Brooklyn, there was a 10 percent boost in May, which was followed by Houston and San Francisco (3.8 percent) and Orlando (3.1 percent), according to Yardi. Brooklyn also has the highest percentage of its stock under construction — 15.8 percent.

Manhattan saw an average asking rent increase of 0.7 percent. That counters what happened in the borough a year-and-a-half ago, when another report from Colliers International found that average asking rents slid 0.7 percent.

Manhattan also has 20.8 million square feet of space in the pipeline, the most in the country, according to Yardi. Though that looks like a lot, the market likely can absorb it, the report found. In 2018, Manhattan had a record-breaking year for office leasing.

Miami trailed Manhattan, with asking rents in that city rising 0.6 percent. Los Angeles’ figure fell more in line with the national average increase, a bump of just 0.3 percent.

Chicago was one metro where asking rents dipped by 0.3 percent.

One red flag is the 173 million square feet of office product being built across the country. But that construction is confined mostly to cities that need extra or newer office space, according to Yardi. [Connect] — Mary Diduch 

From left: Ellen DeGeneres and her home and Jerry Perenchio and the Chartwell Estate

The end of June provided some movement in the market, as celebrities in Malibu and Beverly Hills were able to close deals for homes priced below $20 million. In keeping with the broader luxury market trend, uber-pricey Chartwell Estate continued to linger on the market, prompting another wave of discounts.

Serial home flipper Ellen DeGeneres is back at it again. This week, the talk show host put her oceanfront home in Carpinteria on the market for $24 million. That’s about 30 percent more than what she and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, paid for the pad less than two years ago. The main residence spans 6,860 square feet with three bedrooms and five bathrooms. There’s also a multi-level guest house, as well as a tennis court. It was previously owned by Los Angeles developer Robert F. Maguire III.

Another $50 million was lobbed off the list price of late billionaire Jerry Perenchio’s estate. Once listed at $350 million, the property is now on the market for $195 million. That makes it the most expensive home on the market for sale in L.A. County. Known as the Chartwell Estate, the 10-acre spread features a 25,000-square-foot main house, 75-foot swimming pool and tennis court. Before he died in 2017, Perenchio was the CEO of Univision.

Stavros Niarchos III, heir of a Greek shipping mogul, has paid $15 million to acquire the home directly behind his, Variety reported. The 8,200-square-foot home sits on a 1.3-acre lot, and includes four bedrooms and seven baths. The sellers were Herb and Beverly Gelfand, who originally listed the home for $22 million. Niarchos, who once dated Paris Hilton, bought a Richard Neutra-designed pad on an adjacent lot for $12.8 million in 2011. It’s possible he’ll try to create one massive estate out of the two Beverly Hills properties.

Over in Malibu, Kevin Durant has found a straight shooter willing to buy his pad. The NBA champion’s home sold for $12.2 million, roughly the same price he paid for it last year. The oceanfront home spans 5,100 square feet. There are four bedrooms, six bathrooms, a home theater, media room and elevator. Durant is expected to opt out of his contract with the Golden State Warriors by the end of the month.

[video_embed][/video_embed]
Michael Shvo doesn’t believe in Los Angeles — he believes in Beverly Hills.

Why wouldn’t he? At the end of last spring, he and his partners dished out $130 million for 9200 Wilshire Boulevard. The plan is to develop a 300,000-square-foot complex with 54 luxury residential units and 6,000 square feet of retail space. Shvo said at The Real Deal‘s 12th annual showcase that construction is starting within months.

Besides that, Shvo has a couple projects in New York, like at 685 Fifth Avenue, where he is converting offices into residential condos. What else does he have planned? Where else does he want to build? Watch the above video to find answers and just why he’s so keen on what he’s already up to.

Text by Matthew Corkins 

From left: Stonehenge NYC’s Ofer Yardeni, Alex Rodriguez, and Modlin Group CEO Adam Modlin (Credit: Getty Images)

Alex Rodriguez is in a New York City real estate state of mind.

The former Yankees slugger plans to buy apartment buildings — big and small — as well as condos.

Rodriguez’s A-Rod Corp. is partnering with Stonehenge NYC’s Ofer Yardeni and Adam Modlin, the New York Post reported.

Modlin has carved out a niche with celebrities, including Billy Joel, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. The founder and CEO of the Modlin Group ranked No. 15 in TRD’s New York 2019 residential brokerage rankings with $127 million in closed sell-side Manhattan sales, up nearly 53 percent from 2017. The broker plans to recruit a new team for his brokerage in 2019.

Rodriguez partnered with Barbara Corcoran on the purchase of an apartment building downtown, in what was believed to be the start of a venture, the Post reported.

Corcoran said the new arrangement makes sense, though she hopes Rodriguez will continue to partner with her. Rodríguez indicated that the drive for the switch was his desire for larger NYC properties. The focus will be on areas like Chelsea, and the partnership with Stonehenge may include leasing apartments with luxury finishes, with an eye toward elite lifestyles.

This not the retired Yankee’s first foray into real estate investment: Rodríguez’ Monument Capital Management, based in Miami, closed its first multi-family fund in April with $21 million, and launched a $50 million fund that will focus on workforce housing. He and his now fiancee, Jennifer Lopez, also just sold their 4,000-square-foot apartment at Macklowe Properties’ 432 Park Avenue for $15.75 million. [NYP] — Georgia Kromrei

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry and an aerial view of Frogmore Cottage (Credit: Getty Images, Google Maps)

Let the whinging commence! British taxpayers may have been dismayed to learn that they covered the cost of rebuilding the royal home of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex paid for furnishings, fixtures and fittings at their residence near Windsor Castle, called Frogmore Cottage. But the $3.06 million project at Frogmore also turned five properties into a single house for the royal couple and their infant son, Archie.

The cost of the project was included in the royal family accounts released Tuesday, showing that British taxpayers covered $85.2 million of monarchy costs in the 2018-2019 fiscal year — a whopping 41 percent more than in the previous year.

The main reason for the increased spending on the monarchy was the rising cost of a 10-year renovation of Buckingham Palace in London, which began after a Treasury report determined that the structure of the palace was vulnerable to catastrophic failure.

According to Michael Stevens, who oversees the royal family accounts as keeper of the Privy Purse, the Frogmore property “had not been the subject of work for some years and had already been earmarked for renovation.”

Graham Smith, a spokesman for Republic, an anti-monarchy group, questioned the multi-million cost of the Frogmore project at a time when public services lack funding.

The Sovereign Grant, which funds Queen Elizabeth II and covers the official expenses of her household, totals $104 million — and equates to $1.58 per UK citizen. The royal family had 3,200 official engagements in 2018-19. [Page Six] – Mike Seemuth

Safe Harbor Equity is raising $200 million to buy distressed real estate loans (Credit: iStock)

A Miami-based private equity firm is doubling its fundraising goal to $200 million to buy up distressed commercial real estate loans.

Safe Harbor Equity founder, Ralph Serrano, said recent European and Asian fundraising tours revealed investors are eager to contribute to a distressed commercial real estate debt fund. Accordingly, despite having not yet raised the initial target of $100 million, the firm is “scaling it up to $200 million,” he told Forbes.

While commercial development in South Florida is currently healthy, Serrano is still confident now is still a good time to start the fund, especially as foreclosures increase in the area.

One recent foreclosure was initiated by Madison Realty Capital over $40.6 million of allegedly delinquent construction debt for Costa Hollywood Beach Resort, a new 326-unit condo-hotel in Hollywood.

Besides Safe Harbor Equity. London-based Cheyne Capital and New York City-based Churchill Real Estate Holdings are among the private equity firms looking to profit from the distressed loans.

Churchill started a $200 million fund dedicated to debt on failed condo developments and struggling retail properties. Cheyne, on the other hand, raised $1.1 billion for a fund that will acquire distressed loans from European banks that want to shrink their loan portfolios to comply with new regulatory and accounting standards. [Forbes] – Mike Seemuth

Terry Allen Kramer and 1295 South Ocean Boulevard (Credit: Getty Images)

An oceanfront Palm Beach estate sold for more than $110 million, according to sources, marking the most expensive single-family home sale in the tony town.

The late Broadway producer, Terry Allen Kramer, who died in May, owned the 13-bedroom compound at 1295 South Ocean Boulevard. It hit the market in October for $135 million, and went under contract in recent weeks. Sources confirmed to The Real Deal that the sale closed on Friday. The Palm Beach Daily News first reported the closing. The identity of the buyer was not immediately clear.

The more than $110 million deal beats the previous record for a residential sale, when now-President Trump sold the estate at 515 North County Road to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million in 2008. Rybolovlev split the lot into three and has been selling them off.

Gary Pohrer, Ashley McIntosh, Lisa Wilkinson, Cara McClure and Adam McPherson of Douglas Elliman were listing Kramer’s mansion. Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates Inc. represented the buyer. Elliman and Moens declined to comment on the deal.

Kramer, a Tony award-winning producer and fixture in the Palm Beach social scene, paid $4 million for the property in 1993, and built the mansion two years later, records show.

The 37,516-square-foot estate, completed in 1996 by architect Jeff Smith, features wrought-iron gates flanked by elephant sculptures and a two-story entrance foyer with 25-foot ceilings, a five-car garage, boat dock, fitness center, movie theater and gaming area.
Known as La Follia, the property also has 210 feet of direct water frontage, 2 acres of green space and a private boat dock, according to the listing.

Casino resort magnate Steve Wynn made an offer on the property that Kramer turned down before her death, but is not believed to be the buyer. The deal has not yet been recorded in property records.

Booking.com CEO Glenn Fogel and Expedia CEO Mark Okerstrom (Credit: iStock)

Resort fees, mandatory extra fees that often don’t appear in search results and that travelers sometimes only discover at checkout, have been on the rise in recent years as hotels face economic pressures on multiple fronts. And online booking platforms are now responding.

Booking.com shook up the industry last month by announcing it would start charging hotels commissions on such fees, reclaiming what it views as its fair share of the revenue it generates for them. Competitor Expedia this week announced that it would be taking a different tack: Instead of taking a cut itself, it would start downgrading hotels that charge such fees in its search results.

“Booking’s unilateral and, frankly, blunt move is pretty typical of their playbook with hotels,” Expedia Lodging Partner Services President Cyril Ranque told travel trade publication Skift. “This is simply not how Expedia Group conceives the partnership we want to have with the lodging industry.”

The two platforms’ approaches strike at the two main reasons that these fees exist at all: To avoid paying more commissions to intermediaries, and to boost hotels’ position in search results by reducing the up-front room rate. Hotels might now have to give up one benefit or the other.

The changes come at a time when hoteliers have increasingly turned toward resort fees as a way of boosting asset value, despite claims that it is anti-consumer in nature.

“As you get later in the cycle, [investors] end up really sharpening their pencils to make deals work and when they do that, they sometimes end up cannibalizing themselves,” HVS president and CEO Stephen Rushmore Jr. said this month at NYU’s annual hospitality conference. [Skift] — Kevin Sun

Rick Pitino and his mansion (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Luxhunters)

Legendary basketball coach Rick Pitino is taking a shot at renting his South Florida mansion for $90,000 a month.

Pitino also has tried in recent years to sell his 9,700-square-foot home on Indian Creek Island, just north of Miami Beach.

Now available for $23.9 million, down from his $25.9 million asking price in 2016, his is the only residence on exclusive Indian Creek Island listed for sale or rent.

The 1.2-acre estate has 118 feet of water frontage, a resort-style swimming pool and pool lounge, and an outdoor kitchen. It also comes with an expansive boat dock and a four-car garage.

The Mediterranean-style house has eight bedrooms and 10.5 bathrooms. It was enlarged and remodeled in 2016.

Interior features include living rooms on both the first and second floors, a chef’s kitchen, formal dining room and family room. A gym and a master suite with an office are upstairs.

Pitino, 66, sold another South Florida home in Bal Harbour for $3.3 million in 2017 after initially listing it for $4.15 million.

His career as a college basketball coach ended in 2017 when the University of Louisville fired him after an investigation into bribery of recruited players. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Pitino might someday find a coaching job in the National Basketball Association. He has coached two NBA teams, the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics. [Realtor.com] – Mike Seemuth