Granit Gjonbalaj (Credit: LinkedIn)

Today’s roster of WeWork departures include Granit Gjonbalaj, the company’s head of real estate development.

Gjonbalaj, who oversaw real estate operations including design, construction, project management and development, signalled his intent to resign earlier this week, people familiar with the matter told The Real Deal. He is currently negotiating his exit package.

Gjonbalaj said in a statement that he was proud and honored to have worked at WeWork and was confident the firm would do well going forward.

“When I joined the company, it had approximately 2 million square feet of space, a number that is now at over 50 million square feet in almost every corner of the world,” he said.

WeWork declined to comment.

His departure follows that of vice chairman Michael Gross, VP of operations and special projects Zvika Shachar, and director of development Roni Bahar, which TRD reported Thursday.

Reports Thursday stated that 20 people aligned with former CEO Adam Neumann would be leaving the company. However, two people disputed that Gjonbalaj was among those seen to be associated with Neumann, and he was leaving the company on his own terms.

“Granit was never seen as one of Adam’s yes men,” one WeWork source said.

Gjonbalaj joined the company in 2015, after leaving his family’s construction firm, UA Builders, which was a longtime vendor of WeWork’s.

This story will be updated.

3055 North Miami Avenue and Alex Vadia (Credit: Midtown Opportunities, TAMZ)

The former site of Walmart in Midtown Miami sold for $26.4 million to a neighboring Midtown developer, after years of contentious litigation from residents who opposed a superstore.

Walmart sold the 4.6-acre site at 3055 North Miami Ave for $131 per square foot to Midtown Opportunities, led by Alex Vadia, according to a press release. The developer could bring an organic grocer and indoor and outdoor retailers to the site, the release said.

The sale means that Walmart will no longer build a controversial 203,000-square-foot supercenter on the Midtown site. Walmart first received approvals for the store in 2013, and purchased the site in 2014. The plan, however, drew protests and litigation from community activists, led by Grant Stern, who said Walmart would bring too much traffic to the area and violated zoning ordinances.

Midtown Opportunities now owns about 5.5 acres of contiguous land on the site. Zoning allows the developer to build from 24 stories to 36 stories.

Richard A. Perez and Shawn S. Amuia of Holland & Knight in Miami represented Midtown
Opportunities in the deal.

Midtown Opportunities is also partnering with Magellan Development Group to develop Midtown 6, a 32-story, mixed-use building projected to open in 2020.

Next week brings another group of real estate events:

Host: CREW Fort Lauderdale
Date: Oct. 2
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

CREW Fort Lauderdale is holding its Breakfast with the Mayors event at the Tower Club, 100 Southeast Third Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Attend to hear a discussion between Mayor Dean J. Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale, Mayor Rex Hardin of Pompano Beach, and Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rogers of Boca Raton.

Host: ULI Southeast Florida/Caribbean
Date: Oct. 2
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m

ULI Southeast Florida/Caribbean is hosting its Networking Happy Hour at Gulf Stream Brewing Company in Fort Lauderdale, 1105 Northeast 13th Street, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Come to this event to enjoy an evening of drinks while connecting with professionals from the real estate and land use industries.

To search for future industry events or browse past ones, click here. And to submit more industry events, please reach out to events@therealdeal.com.

Manny Machado and Chad Carroll with 20 Tahiti Beach Island Road (Credit: Getty Images and Douglas Elliman)

Baseball player and Miami native Manny Machado scored a mansion in his hometown.

Manny Machado, third baseman and shortstop for the San Diego Padres, is the buyer of 20 Tahiti Beach Island Road in Coral Gables, property records reveal. He paid $11.3 million for the waterfront home.

Machado, of Hialeah, has the world’s fifth largest sports contract. He signed the 10-year, $300 million deal earlier this year.

Miami cardiologist James Margolis and his wife Marja Paulina Margolis sold the 8,305-square-foot, six-bedroom mansion for about half the original asking price. The home sits on nearly 1 acre of land with 121 feet of water frontage, a 90-foot dock and boat lift, a pool, Jacuzzi, floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights.

Chad Carroll of Douglas Elliman represented the sellers, while Yvette Rivero of Rockway Realty brought the buyer. The property originally hit the market in 2016 for nearly $22 million with Judy Zeder, who was with EWM Realty International at the time.

Both Carroll and Rivero declined to comment on the buyer’s identity.

Margolis was the first cardiologist in the southeastern United States to perform an angioplasty, according to his LinkedIn page. He and his wife bought the waterfront property in 1990 for $1.11 million and developed it in 1994.

The exclusive Coral Gables island of Tahiti Beach includes three tennis courts and a private beach. The gated community is home to hedge fund manager Bruce Berkowitz, pharmaceutical executive Neil Flanzraich and Dr. Kira Flanzraich, and coffee heir Jose Souto.

Last year, former NFL linebacker and Super Bowl winner Jonathan Vilma sold his waterfront Tahiti Beach estate for $14.4 million, a 22 percent discount off the ask.

From left: Dwyane Wade, Nick Bosa, Venus and Serena Williams, and Mike Piazza (Credit: Getty Images, iStock)

“South Florida by the numbers” is a web feature that catalogs the most notable, quirky and surprising real estate statistics.

We do love our sports here at South Florida by the numbers headquarters. And September is an especially fun time of the year: the Marlins are winding down, the Dolphins and Hurricanes have just gotten started, and the Heat and Panthers check into the game next month. With that in mind, we are eternally fascinated by news about local celebrity athletes and their Miami real estate skills. Who will dunk on the competition this season, and who will get sacked? Let’s explore in this month’s “South Florida by the numbers.”

$32.5 million: Initial asking price for Heat legend Dwyane Wade’s 14,000 square foot North Bay Road estate in Miami Beach, just listed this month. Wade originally purchased the house in 2010 for $10.46 million. [TRD]

More than 15,000: Number of apartment units in the portfolio of the corporate umbrella firm led by former Yankees slugger, ESPN analyst, and J-Lo fiancé Alex Rodriguez. The company focuses on value-add multifamily real estate in secondary markets across the country, and will soon be moving from Coral Gables to Coconut Grove. [TRD]

3,800: Interior square footage of Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer Mike Piazza’s new unit at the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach. The former Met (and Marlin — for only five games) paid $5.6 million for the three-bedroom unit, and $585,000 for a one-bedroom “guest suite” elsewhere in the building. [MansionGlobal]

$2.3 million: Purchase price for Venus and Serena Williams’ Palm Beach Gardens mansion, which they built in 2000, and sold in March. Last year, Serena also sold a 2.4-acre vacant lot in Jupiter for $6 million, having purchased the land for $4.12 million. [TRD]

57: Once completed, number of stories at Missoni Baia in Edgewater, where Argentine soccer star Joaquin Correa put a condo under contract earlier this year. He will be joined by Colombian soccer star Miguel Borja, a player with the Brazilian club Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras. [TRD]

49(ers): NFL team of South Florida native (and 2019 second overall draft pick) Nick Bosa, who recently purchased a $1.24 million unit at 30 Thirty North Ocean in Ft. Lauderdale. The defensive lineman played four years at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, and joined his older brother Joey in the NFL this season. [SunSentinel]

This column is produced by the Master Brokers Forum, a network of South Florida’s elite real estate professionals where membership is by invitation only and based on outstanding production, as well as ethical and professional behavior.

Joseph Maas of TMT Properties and 190 Congress Park Drive (Credit: Google Maps)

TMT Properties bought two office properties in Delray Beach for $10.1 million, a year after buying an adjacent building.

Coral Springs-based TMT Properties purchased the two 30,000-square-foot Class B buildings at 190 and 200 Congress Park Drive for $168 per square foot, according to TMT Properties. The seller is Parkview Properties.

The purchase was part of a 1031 exchange, according to Joseph Maas general manager of TMT Properties.

Watershed Treatment Programs, which occupies about 20,000 square feet as one of the largest tenants at the office buildings, recently announced that it is laying off more than 200 employees and will liquidate its assets.

Watershed, an addiction treatment center, is still paying rent as it winds down its operations, according to Maas. He said the departure of Watershed allowed the group to buy the property at a discount.

Other tenants at the office properties are largely medical firms, law firms and accounting firms, Maas said.

TMT plans to paint some of the buildings and make some minor aesthetic changes, but does not expect any major renovations.

In September 2018, TMT purchased the office property at 220 Congress Park Drive for $4.5 million. Maas said the most recent acquisition means the firm is also taking over management of the Congress Park Association.

In 2018, TMT Properties bought a large shopping center in Boca Raton at 11401 West Palmetto Park Road for $18.5 million.

Delray Beach is one of the hottest markets for new development in Palm Beach County. Pebb Capital recently paid $40 million to acquire the Midtown Delray Beach mixed-use site on Atlantic Avenue. It could include 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 90,000 square feet of office space, and about 100,000 square feet of residential units or hotel space.

New York City Councilman Donovan Richards sponsored legislation that now requires the city’s affordable housing plan to actively address racial segregation. (Credit: Getty Images and iStock)

White homeowners control a disproportionately high percentage of property across the country, and the discrepancy between population and ownership is widest in New York.

In the New York metro area, white homeowners make up about 47 percent of the population but own close to 70 percent of homes, according to a new report by Lending Tree. That 22% gap was the most nationwide.

Other metro areas across the country also had significant gaps between the percentage of the white population in a city and the percentage of home ownership in that city.

In Los Angeles, the gap was 17.8 percent, in Miami it was 17.6 percent and in Chicago it was 16.9 percent.

Nationwide, the report found the gap was about 14 percent.

People who identify as white make up an average of 59 percent of the population in 50 U.S. cities, but own 73 percent of owner-occupied homes in those areas.

The findings were the result of a survey of over 11 million households using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey.

Meanwhile, homebuilders and real estate brokers have been increasingly relying on first-time Hispanic buyers, since housing demand has slowed down considerably due to the rising costs of single-family homes.

Last year, a different report found New York to have the fourth-highest level of residential segregation in the country. Also last year, a group of Council members passed a bill that requires the city’s affordable housing plan to actively address racial segregation.

“I’m really frustrated but also worried about home ownership,” City Councilman Donovan Richards, who sponsored the measure, said on Friday. “The city is not focusing enough in this area,” he said, noting that the majority of political effort is focused on affordable rentals. Richards spoke just before attending an affordable housing conference, “Black and Latinx Homeownership: Steps to Closing the Homeownership Gap.”

But expanding affordable housing doesn’t necessarily translate into a more diverse city. An analysis this spring showed that affordable housing lotteries perpetuated racial segregation by favoring households who live in the same neighborhood as the building.

Black homeowners’ are seeing their property values shrink. Last year, a study from Brookings Institution and Gallup reported the consistent undervaluation of homes in majority black neighborhoods. That finding equates to a $156 billion loss for African-American homeowners.

“There’s no easy fix,” Richards said. “Systematically, there’s so many things that we have to address.”

Write to Erin Hudson at ekh@therealdeal.com

Julian Cohen with the property

Spec home developer Felix Cohen purchased two vacant lots on Miami Beach’s North Bay Road for $13.5 million, with plans to build a new estate with his son Julian Cohen.

Cohen bought the combined 36,143 square-foot-property at 5830–5840 North Bay Road for $373 per square foot, records show. The property features 200 feet of deep water frontage.

NBR5840 LP, a Delaware Company with a London address, sold the property. NBR5840 LP bought the combined property in September 2018 for $13.85 million, meaning it sold at a slight loss.

Julian Cohen of The Jills Zeder Group represented the buyer, according to a press release. He is also a co-developer of the project.

Felix Cohen is a Miami Beach spec home developer who co-developed 3 Indian Creek Road that sold for $47 million in 2012, marking a record sale that year.

North Bay Road has become one of the most desirable streets for ultra-wealthy buyers. Earlier this month, spec home builders Brett Palos and Bart Reines sold a waterfront home at 5712 North Bay Road for $16 million.

In August, hotelier Keith Menin paid just over $12 million for the eight-bedroom, nearly 15,000-square-foot mansion at 2318 North Bay Road.

Also in August, a California buyer purchased a waterfront mansion and lot on North Bay Road for a combined $35.4 million, marking a record sale in Miami Beach this year.

(Illustration by Andrew Colin Beck)

Mobile homes are no longer just a necessity for the poor. They’ve increasingly become a must-have for some of the world’s richest private equity players.

A 2016 investor pitch from manufactured housing owner and operator RHP Properties boasted that its portfolio of 33,000 lots — stretching across seven states — had “low cash flow volatility and steady year-over-year rent increases” as well as minimal capital expenditures.

The pitch apparently worked on Brookfield Asset Management, which has poured billions of dollars into trailer park sites in the past few years.

The Canadian private equity giant bought a portfolio of manufactured home sites in 13 states from Colony NorthStar for $2 billion that May. The deal included the acquisition of a joint venture backing RHP’s sites, a Brookfield spokesperson confirmed to The Real Deal.

Brookfield, which has more than $350 billion in assets, now owns 130-plus mobile home communities, making it one of the one of the largest manufactured housing investors in the U.S. RHP declined to comment for this story.

The immobility of so many mobile and manufactured homes has caught the attention of private equity firms in a big way. With most low-income renters unable to quickly up and move their properties, institutional real estate investors increasingly see that as a surefire bet — especially in a major downturn.

Douglas Danny, a Marcus & Millichap broker who specializes in manufactured housing sites, called them one of the safest assets in a recession. “From 2008 to 2012, there was no effect whatsoever on manufactured housing,” he said. “Now the new buyer coming into the space is the institutional buyer.”

And a who’s who of global investment giants have poured more than $4 billion into the market in the past four years: Brookfield, Blackstone Group, Apollo Global Management and the Carlyle Group have all snapped up, or flipped, trailer parks in that time.

Janet Sallander, a commercial real estate appraiser at Cushman & Wakefield, said mobile homes have become the “default working-class housing.”

“It simply produces better returns compared to other asset classes,” Sallander said.

Mobile home economics

Due to zoning restrictions and the high cost of land in many areas, there are just 6,250 mobile home parks in the U.S., according to a 2019 Cushman & Wakefield report.

Individual plots are rented out to tenants who purchase their own homes. And unlike aging apartment buildings in more heavily regulated housing markets, owners of these lots only need to provide utilities, while residents are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of their homes.

Blackstone made its first bet on manufactured housing last year when it bought a $172 million portfolio of 5,200 lots from Ontario-based Tricon Capital Group. Other major players — including the Carlyle Group and Sam Zell’s Equity LifeStyle Properties — are snapping up manufactured home communities, with one analyst calling it “the most recession-proof housing stock in existence,” as TRD previously reported.

“A lot of investors are buying big complexes, if they can find them,” said PJ Mikolajewski, president of Ideal Manufactured Homes and a California Manufactured Housing Institute board member. “And as soon as they buy them, they jack the rents up.”

For Alberto Calvillo, a lifelong construction worker who recently moved his family to a site owned by RHP in Bohemia, New York, it was the most affordable option after he was priced out of another mobile home park in nearby Commack.

Calvillo said he now pays $1,000 a month to rent the land where his 900-square-foot house sits. His extended family gathered at the single-wide home, decked out with custom-fitted green and orange panels, on a Sunday afternoon in September.

“This isn’t a mobile home,” Calvillo said with a laugh as he pointed out the obvious lack of wheels, the custom wraparound deck he built and the new concrete foundation. “I’m going to stay here until I die.”

The average cost of moving such a home is $5,000 if the home has wheels to begin with, according to a 2019 report from the national community group MHAction. So when owners of manufactured homes are priced out, they often need to sell their homes at a loss and are replaced by new homeowner-tenants without any big losses for the site’s owner. The result is a low turnover rate and extremely stable revenues.

“If you have the right underwriting, you can increase rent 5 percent each year,” said Marcus & Millichap’s Danny. “Within three to five years, you’ve gone from a 3 or 4 to a 6 [percent] and the park has gone up in value.”

Documents from Florida-based Sunrise Capital Investment — which cite “superior risk-adjusted returns for investors” — give an inside look at the upsides for those in the business.

Manufactured housing is a “recession-resistant” asset class with low turnover that allows for “consistent rent increases,” the pitch to investors reviewed by TRD notes.

“Demand for our product actually increases as the economy tightens.”

Bullish bets

Carlyle, one of the country’s largest private equity firms, made a splash in 2015 when it bought a manufactured home community in Silicon Valley for $152 million.

Tenants in the area soon complained of exorbitant rent hikes and a deterioration in management responsiveness — sparking new calls for statewide rent control in California. The D.C.-based investment group recently flipped the complex, selling it to Chicago-based Hometown America for $237.4 million this August, according to California property records.

Carlyle did not respond to requests for comment.

The rush of private equity into manufactured homes has also attracted the ire of U.S. senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who in May wrote stern letters to Brookfield’s Bruce Flatt, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Apollo’s Leon Black and Carlyle’s co-CEOs.

“Unable to afford moving, and unable to sell their manufactured homes, some residents report that they are forced to choose between ‘paying for increase[ed] housing costs … or abandoning their homes,’” her letter reads.

One publication called it a Dodd-Frank moment for manufactured home communities, but Blackstone was unfazed. Wayne Berman, the firm’s head of global government affairs, said in his response to Warren that Blackstone hoped to “raise the bar for customer service within an industry that has not always historically provided a high-quality resident experience.”

“Although we’re a tiny part of the overall market, [we’re] dedicated to professional management, capital investment and resident service,” Matthew Anderson, a Blackstone spokesperson, said in a statement to TRD.

Brookfield is “highly attuned” to the fact that the asset class can include lower-income populations, according to the company, which outlined steps the firm has taken to ensure affordability.

In other cases, though, bullish investment strategies have quickly backfired. At one manufactured housing complex in Akron, New York, which Sunrise Capital purchased for under $4 million in 2017, the firm raised rents to $525 from $280 and cut the 122-lot site’s employee payroll by $30,000, sparking an outcry from tenants.

After the residents organized an eight-month rent strike against their new landlord, the complex was placed into a receivership and the investment firm ceded control to the tenants. Representatives for Sunrise Capital declined to comment.

But those bad bets have yet to deter aggressive investors on the whole, industry sources say.

“It could cost [up to] $10,000 to move a home, depending on how big it is,” Rob Ybarra, a debt and equity broker at CBRE based in Las Vegas, noted. “But if you raise rents 25 or 50 bucks — are you going to pick up and go somewhere else? Probably not.

“That’s one of the really big reasons that people like this property type,” Ybarra added. “It’s a captured audience.”

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up South Florida’s biggest real estate news, from breaking news and scoops to announcements and deals. We update this page throughout the day. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com

This page was last updated at 9 a.m.

The Galbut family and developer Matis Cohen are proposing a 22-story tower in North Beach. The project, called 72nd and Park, will be reviewed by the Miami Beach Design Review Board on Wednesday. Arquitectonica is designing the project, with 283 multifamily units, about 12,500 square feet of retail and restaurant space, amenities and parking. It would have 125 micro units, smaller than 550 square feet. [SFBJ]

Broward’s “taxi king” and real estate investor Jesse Gaddis died at 87. Gaddis created the Yellow Cab company in Broward in the early 1960s, and later invested in real estate development and lending, among other industries, according to the Sun Sentinel. He was among the first investors in the Flagler Village neighborhood of downtown Fort Lauderdale. Gaddis died on Friday of cancer. [Sun Sentinel]

(Illustration by Andrew Colin Beck)

How mobile homes became a billion-dollar, recession-proof industry. The immobility of most mobile and manufactured homes has caught the attention of private equity firms in a big way. With most low-income renters unable to quickly up and move their properties, institutional real estate investors increasingly see that as a surefire bet — especially in a major downturn. [TRD]

Compiled by Katherine Kallergis

The Mile, Robert Given and Troy Ballard

A luxury apartment development near Coral Gables is hitting the market, and it could sell for more than $40 million, based on recent sales.

Greystar tapped Cushman & Wakefield to list the 120-unit building at 3622 Southwest 22nd Street without an asking price. Listing broker Robert Given said that comparable properties have sold for about $350,000 per unit. That would put the price at $42 million.

Given, Troy Ballard, Zachary Sackley, Calum Weaver and James Quinn of Cushman are all listing the property.

Monogram Residential Trust, which Greystar acquired in 2017, paid $48 million, or $400,000 per unit, for The Mile at the end of 2015.

The Mile also includes 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, a resort-style pool, deck, gym, lounge, and a gated parking garage, according to a release.

Ballard said that rents average $2,200 a month, or $2.50 per square foot, at the building. Units average just under 900 square feet, and the building is about 95 percent occupied.

The multifamily market has remained strong in South Florida, and Given said that there’s significant demand for properties from domestic and offshore buyers.

He said family funds from New York and California are looking to park their money in South Florida’s multifamily market, driven in part by the tax benefits and the new rent control legislation in both states.

“That capital is coming from so many different directions – domestic institutions, buyers from New York and California,” Given said. “If you move to Orlando or Tampa, you’re not going to see that type of activity. The population trends here are stronger, more robust.”

Earlier this year, NexPoint Residential paid $322 million for a 1,520-unit multifamily property in Pembroke Pines, which marked the largest multifamily sale in South Florida this year.

College athletes could soon be allowed to make money on endorsement deals in the state of California (Credit: Getty Images and iStock)

In the not too distant future, college athletes playing at top-tier schools may be hitting the open houses as hard as they hit the gym.

Earlier this month, the State Legislature unanimously passed a bill — over the NCAA’s objection — to allow college athletes to earn money from their names, likenesses and images. If Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the “Fair Pay to Play Act” — which would take effect in 2023 — California would become the first state in the nation to allow college athletes to get paid.

And its impact could be enormous, with California’s college athletes for the first time being offered lucrative endorsement deals and sponsorships.

It could mean that some would have enough money to do the first thing many players do when they sign their first professional contract: Buy a home.

For real estate agents, the bill could also create a pipeline of newly-minted millionaire clients. Los Angeles alone is home to two of the top college athletic programs in the nation, the University of Southern California and UCLA.

Kofi Nartey, Compass’ sports and entertainment division director — and former college football player — supports the bill but admits it will present a new set of challenges.

“I think it’s good for college athletes to be able to make money from their likeness and the brand they are building in the same way that the universities have for years,” he said.

Buying a first home is an exciting prospect for college athletes — and their agents — but it comes with considerations those students and their schools haven’t previously had to tackle.
Nartey, who was a wide receiver at the University of California at Berkeley, admits the stakes are higher when working with younger athletes.

“We have a built-in responsibility because we are dealing with the largest financial decision of most people’s lives,” he said. “There’s an increased responsibility when you are dealing with someone who’s come into a lot of money very quickly.”

Gregory Piechota, a Compass agent who’s represented pro athletes in L.A. purchases, said it’s important to make sure everyone on a client’s team is on board with a purchase. That could be a financial manager, a sports agent, and family members.

“There are agents who will say that whatever the client wants they’ll make it happen, but from deals I’ve done, what helped me keep clients is making sure everyone’s on the same page,” he said.

Hilton & Hyland agent Justin Hunchel offers a little preview for prospective buyers. Because athletes move frequently, he advises they “buy something that’s going to be easier to get rid of versus something that is very specific” to their taste. Sometimes that’s easier said than done.

“For someone who comes into a lot of money like that, there can be a tendency to go through it rather quickly,” Hunchel said. “So you try to advise them as best you can, but there’s only so much you can do in those situations.”

Nartey added that he’s had to “tell clients not to spend as much as they wanted to spend. When you haven’t renewed a contract, there’s no reason to spend that much.” Nartey’s client list has included Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, former Lakers player and current L.A. Sparks head coach Derek Fisher, among others.

Nartey said that universities, which have been staunchly opposed to the bill, should “build out the infrastructure to support these younger athletes.” That could mean a mandatory training on wealth management, similar to the “Rookie Transition Program” available for incoming N.F.L. players.

SB 206 does not require schools to provide that counseling or training. It’s mostly focused on barring schools and the NCAA from disqualifying student athletes who receive compensation in some way for their likeness, image, and names.

The issue of allowing college athletes has been debated within the NCAA since at least the 1980s, but the country’s dominant collegiate sports association has fiercely fought the idea and continues to do so.

In a letter sent to Newsom earlier this month, the NCAA argued that the bill was unconstitutional and would give California schools an “unfair recruiting advantage” over schools in states without such a law.

“This bill would remove that essential element of fairness and equal treatment that forms the bedrock of college sport,” the letter said, according to the L.A. Times.

Piechota said he’s noticed that top-tier players themselves are better preparing for the pressures of life as a professional athlete. He said they’re “smarter” with their money than athletes typically were in the past.

More young athletes are interested in investment properties and quiet neighborhoods away from the high-profile areas like the Hollywood Hills and West Hollywood, where there are more distractions, he said.

Compass agent Elana Fullmer, whose husband, Brad, spent a couple of seasons with Angels during his 10-year baseball career, called L.A. a great place for a young player to buy.

“What’s a safer or better way to build wealth than to buy property in L.A.?” she said.

Still, being able to spot a good investment deal requires expertise and some finesse.

When asked if he had any advice for young athletes looking to buy homes either for personal or investment purposes, Nartey was concise: “Call me.”

WeWork co-CEO Artie Minson (Credit: Getty Images)

WeWork is officially pulling it public offering.

The firm’s co-CEOs, Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, said in a statement that WeWork “decided to postpone our IPO to focus on our core business.”

“We have every intention to operate WeWork as a public company and look forward to revisiting the public equity markets in the future,” the statement said.

Sebastian Gunningham

Last month, the firm’s S-1 filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission set off a firestorm among investors and observers after it laid bare the company’s precarious financial position, including the fact that its growing losses were double revenue. It also included information about questionable loans and transactions with its charismatic CEO Adam Neumann.

As scrutiny mounted, the company’s largest investor, Japan-based SoftBank and its founder Masayoshi Son lobbied to oust Neumann — ending a tight bond between the two men that had fueled WeWork’s phenomenal growth. Neumann stepped down as CEO last week, and now serves as non-executive chairman of the company.

Monday’s disclosure  provides no clearer guidance on WeWork’s future. The company initially planned to raise at least $9 billion in the IPO — including a $6 billion debt deal backed by multiple banks — which would have offset its mounting losses for years to come.

But without that cash infusion, the company is set to run out of money by next spring. It has at least $47 billion in outstanding lease commitments to landlords over the next 10 to 15 years.

Other reports in recent days suggest the company is in talks with multiple private investors to raise more capital, but few details are known.

IMC Equity Group CEO Yoram Izhak, and 1800 Northwest 66 Avenue (Credit: Google Maps)

IMC Equity Group bought two industrial buildings in Plantation from Cofe Properties for $10.5 million, adding to growing interest in the sector in Broward County.

The North Miami-based real estate investment firm bought the two buildings totaling 99,110 square feet at 1700 Northwest 66th Avenue and 1800 Northwest 66 Avenue for $106 per square foot, records show.

The properties were built in 1979 and last traded for $8.9 million in 2012, records show.

The industrial market remains one of South Florida’s best performing asset classes. In the second quarter of 2019, vacancy rates in Broward County were at 4.1 percent, according to a report by Colliers International South Florida.

IMC Equity has been actively buying retail properties in South Florida. In December, the investment firm bought a 250,000-square-foot shopping center in Margate called Peppertree Plaza for $45.5 million. In May, it bought the Flea Market USA property in the West Little River neighborhood of Miami for $13.5 million, where it plans to build a mixed-use project.

Led by Yoram Izhak, IMC Equity now has a portfolio valued at more than $1 billion, according to its website.

Blackstone’s Jonathan Gray (Credit: Getty Images and Wikipedia)

Blackstone is doubling down on its e-commerce bet with another multibillion dollar industrial portfolio deal.

The company is buying Colony Capital’s national warehouse portfolio for $5.9 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Blackstone also struck a deal in June to buy a similar portfolio from GLP for $18.7 billion, although it has already started to sell portions of that portfolio.

The portfolio Colony sold to Blackstone spans 60 million square feet across 465 warehouses in 26 markets. Areas of strong concentration include northern New Jersey, California, Florida, Dallas and Atlanta.

Tom Barrack’s Colony has been aiming to transition away from traditional real estate holdings and toward investments in digital infrastructure and real estate like cell phone towers and data centers. It’s aiming to sell up to 90 percent of its $20 billion real estate portfolio by the end of 2021.

Activity in the industrial sector has skyrocketed as e-commerce giants like Amazon continue to eat up more and more space to store the goods people buy online, and Blackstone has so far been one of the most aggressive players.

“We are seeing accelerating demand for warehouse space in dense population centers, as goods move online and retailers and consumers alike seek faster delivery times,” Blackstone executive Nadeem Meghji told the Journal. [WSJ] — Eddie Small

Miami’s condo sales held steady last week.

A total of 125 condos sold for $49 million in Miami-Dade County last week, which is relatively stable compared to the 126 units sold for a combined $45 million the previous week. Condos last week sold for an average price of about $395,000 or $283 per square foot.

The top 10 closings included the $2.8 million sale of a unit at Park Grove, a luxury condo development from Terra and the Related Group in Coconut Grove.

At the top of the list was the $4.35 million sale of unit 7643 at 7643 Fisher Island Drive. The three-bedroom, 2,861-square-foot unit sold for $1,520 per square foot after 265 days on the market. Karla Abaunza was the listing agent, and Saddy Abaunza represented the buyer.

The second most expensive condo closing was the $4 million sale of unit 605 at Jade Signature. The 3,465-square-foot, four-bedroom unit sold to Brazilian buyers, according to a spokesperson for the project. It traded as a furnished unit, and includes an 881-square-foot terrace. The unit sold for $1,154 per square foot after 545 days on the market. The listing agent was Sandra Chartouni, and the buyer’s agent was Cinthia Cantarello.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 sales from Sept. 22 to Sept. 28. Click on the map for more information:

Most expensive
Fisher Island #7643 | 265 days on market | $4.35M | $1,520 psf | Listing agent: Karla Abaunza | Buyer’s agent: Saddy Abaunza

Least expensive
Sands Condo #4D | 372 days on market | $870K | $581 psf | Listing agent: Joan McCaughan | Buyer’s agent: Frederique Leforestier

Most days on market
Jade Signature #605 | 545 days on market | $4M | $1,154 psf | Listing agent: Sandra Chartouni | Buyer’s agent: Cinthia Cantarello

Fewest days on market
Bristol Tower Condo #2101 | 23 days on market | $1.7M | $550 psf | Listing agent: Kari Madera | Buyer’s agent: Rocio Granados

ABC Carpet & Home

The Naples-based Collier family is replacing the former ABC Carpet & Home store in Delray Beach with an upscale storage and maintenance club for car collectors.

Family-owned Collier Land Holdings Limited has started building a facility called Collier Car Club inside the former ABC Carpet & Home store on Congress Avenue – well known for its exterior mural, a faux architectural finish visible from I-95. The store closed last year.

Collier Land Holdings successfully proposed rezoning the 4.8-acre location of the 58,250-square-foot former store at 777 South Congress Avenue. The city commission rezoned the property in March from “mixed residential, office and commercial” to “special activities district.”

Redwood City, California-based DPR Construction, a commercial general contractor, has posted no-trespassing signs bearing its name at the fenced-off development site on Congress Avenue, about one mile south of West Atlantic Avenue. DPR spokeswoman Beth Hernandez said in an email that her company wasn’t authorized to discuss the project.

Collier executive Frank Givens did not respond to requests for comment. But at a Delray Beach city commission meeting in March, Givens described the membership-based Collier Car Club as much more than a storage facility where valuable vehicles sit idle.

Collier Car Club will be “a gold-standard storage facility that keeps members’ cars ready to go with battery care, tire monitoring, start-and-run [service], as well as troubleshooting and diagnostic assistance,” Givens told Delray Beach commissioners at their March 12 meeting.

“We believe that our members should be connected to each other. We feel it’s the secret sauce to creating that community,” Givens said at the March 12 city commission meeting, describing the Delray Beach location of Collier Car Club as the first of many. “Collier Car Clubs will be the first nationwide network of premium car-working spaces, a dedicated facility where meaningful car owners can come together to teach, learn and tell their stories.”

The Collier family has an extensive automotive history. Baron Collier, for whom Collier County is named, made the family fortune in advertising and went on to become one of Florida’s largest landowners in the pre-World War II era. His sons are credited with introducing sport car racing in the United States during the 1930s.

The patriarch’s grandson Miles Collier is a former race car driver who founded the not-for-profit Revs Institute, a museum and library in Naples where his personal collection of 100-plus cars is stored and maintained. His automotive acquisitions since the late 1980s have included “the first Ferrari racing car ever sold in the United States and one of only six Bugatti Royales ever produced,” according to the institute’s website.

A rendering of the project

Renderings of the planned Collier Car Club in Delray Beach show a building with a sleek exterior – absent the rust-colored exterior mural that depicts architecture in the Flatiron area of New York City. The mural has adorned the exterior since 1998, when the New York-based owner of ABC Carpet & Home bought the building, originally built in 1979 as a warehouse and distribution center for Kraft Foods.

“The new design not only removes the mural but [also] removes a pole-mounted electrical transformer and buries unsightly electrical lines serving the building,” project architect Robert Carlson, principal and design leader of DLR Group, said at the March 12 commission meeting.

Less than three weeks after that city commission meeting, Archean Capital LLC, co-managed by Miles Collier and Parker Collier, bought the former ABC Carpet & Home property for $7.8 million, according to Palm Beach County property records.

Lennar’s Stuart Miller and a rendering of a Sierra Ranch home

Lennar Corp. closed on an 89-acre development site in Davie for $18.6 million where it plans to build the home community Sierra Ranch.

Amzak International, led by David Schack, sold the property at 1950 South Hiatus Road to the Miami-based homebuilder, records show. Lennar secured $10 million in seller financing for the site.

Lennar was under contract to purchase the land as it was going through the approvals process to be able to build 79 single-family homes on the Sierra Ranch site. The company paid $235,000 per home site.

The property is west of Nova Southeastern University and south of I-595. It last sold in 2012 for $2.3 million.

The development will include a lake, preserve area and park. The homes will be one and two stories tall with five model options.

Lennar, one of the most aggressive land buyers among homebuilders, has been acquiring land in western Palm Beach and Broward counties, as well as in south Miami-Dade — all places where land is less expensive.

In August, the company paid $22.1 million for roughly 85 acres in Homestead that are zoned for 770 residences, including 117 single-family homes.

In May, Lennar purchased 309 townhome sites in Riviera Beach for $19.2 million.

Meanwhile, a number of indicators are pointing to a slowdown in the housing market.

While Lennar’s profit, revenue and home deliveries rose in the second quarter thanks to lower mortgage rates and strong incentives offered to homebuyers, the homebuilder also reported that tariffs on Chinese goods are costing the company an average of about $500 per home.

Rendering of SLS Resort Residence & Marina Hallandale Beach, Ari Pearl, Sam Nazarian and Faisal Ashraf 

Developer Ari Pearl closed on a $100 million loan to develop the first phase of a major mixed-use project in Hallandale Beach, The Real Deal has learned.

Pearl’s PPG Development and Michael Herman’s Premium Capital secured the financing from the Related Cos.’ Related Fund Management, said Faisal Ashraf, managing partner of Lotus Capital Partners. Lotus arranged the financing, which has a five-year term. Construction will begin soon, he said.

The financing will be used to build the 250-unit branded luxury apartment component of SLS Resort Residence & Marina Hallandale Beach, a $220 million development planned for the 127-acre Diplomat Golf & Tennis Club site at 501 Diplomat Parkway. Kobi Karp is the architect.

In November, the developers unveiled the project, which will also include 290 hotel rooms with 50 hotel-condo units, a Katsuya restaurant and S Bar, a mixology lounge and an in-house restaurant. It will also feature an 18-hole championship golf course with 8 acres of lakes, a 10-court tennis complex and a 48-slip marina. Professional golfer Greg Norman is designing the course.

Sam Nazarian’s SBE will manage the hotel. Last year, AccorHotels closed on a 50 percent stake in SBE for $125 million.

The apartments will be in a 26-story tower that’s expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to a release.

Ashraf said he is working on arranging financing for the next phase of the Hallandale Beach project. His firm recently arranged a $100 million acquisition loan for Michael Shvo’s hotel purchases in South Beach, and has also worked on major financing deals in Boca Raton and Miami since it expanded to South Florida two years ago.

Pearl’s Maltese Diplomat Owner LLC paid $43.25 million for the Hallandale Beach property in May 2018. The seller was a partnership led by Louis Birdman, which planned a $450 million redevelopment of the golf club.

Hallandale Beach is the first Broward city north of Miami-Dade, sandwiched between Hollywood and Sunny Isles Beach.

Developers, including homebuilders like Lennar Corp. and Toll Brothers, are increasingly buying up golf courses around the country as the supply of land and golf’s popularity both continue to shrink.

Foreground: Former Alderman Danny Solis, Alderman Ed Burke. Background: The Old Post Office and a rendering of “The 78” development project (Credit: Facebook, Wikipedia, Google Maps)

The major corruption scandal that has unfolded in Chicago over the past year reveals how powerful real estate figures can become tied-up in the city’s second-to-none corruption record.

In January, Alderman Ed Burke (14th Ward) was charged with bribing and extorting developers to win business for his property tax law firm. This came out of a yearslong FBI investigation into the connection between city politicians and real estate figures throughout the city. The findings, as told through court documents, exposed the two sectors entangled in a web of bribery, extortion and conflicts of interest.

In a study released less than a month after Burke was charged, the University of Illinois at Chicago found Chicago was the most corrupt city in America. Over the past 10 years alone, there have been several scandals that echo the patterns of corruption between real estate figures and politicians found in the most recent FBI investigation. Here are some of the biggest:

Ed Burke/Charles Cui/601W Companies

In May, Burke, the property tax attorney and 74-year-old kingmaker who headed the City Council Finance Committee, was indicted on 19 charges of extortion, racketeering and bribery. He was accused of trying to coerce developers into hiring his law firm in exchange for granting construction permits and approving their projects. He stepped down as committee chair in the face of the scandal, but was reelected as Alderman in February.

Developer and immigration attorney Charles Cui, who is also facing charges, allegedly bribed Burke. After the city denied a permit for a portion of his The Point at Six Corners retail complex in the heart of the city, Cui allegedly promised to bring work to Burke’s law firm in exchange for his help on approvals. The approval included a $2 million award in Tax Increment Financing funding for the complex. The case against Cui is ongoing. The City Council approved updated plans for The Point at Six Corners earlier in September.

Burke also allegedly approved 601W Companies’ West Loop redevelopment project The Old Post Office, after pressuring the company into using his property tax firm. 601W Companies had been seeking $18 million in TIF funding and a property tax break from Cook County, but in the beginning had resisted working with Burke. Finally, the New York developer relented and its project was approved by Burke’s committee in September 2018, and the full council a few days later. 601W is cooperating with the probe, and has publicly said it is a victim of Burke’s corrupt solicitation. In the months since the indictment, the West Loop office has since signed on a slew of new tenants to fat lease deals, including Uber.

Danny Solis/Brian Hynes/Fred Latsko/Cacciatore family

While former Alderman Danny Solis, who was head of the City Council Zoning Committee, was wearing a wire to help the FBI bring charges against Burke, he was also an actor his own public corruption scandal. The scandal also ensnared developers the Cacciatore family and Fred Latsko, as well as lobbyist Brian Hynes, court documents revealed.

Hynes, a powerful Chicago real estate attorney, allegedly did Solis favors in exchange for his support on his clients’ development projects, according to court documents. In addition to the $30,000 Hynes donated to Solis’ company in 2011, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, he also arranged meetings between Solis and powerful developers whose projects would later pass with Solis’ approval.

Hynes once coordinated a meeting between Solis and developer Fred Latsko about a project that would later be approved by the Council. Solis also stayed at Latsko’s 180-acre Indiana farm for a weekend for free. Solis provided Latsko support over the years, according to court documents. Solis’ operatives also allegedly solicited the Cacciatore family, which owns property in his ward, for campaign donations in exchange for his aid in lowering their business’ water bill by $1 million. Solis, Hynes and Latsko have not been charged with a crime.

Calvin Boender/Isaac Carothers

In 2010, former Alderman Isaac Carothers and developer Calvin Boender were both charged with fraud and bribery. That followed an FBI investigation that found Boender allegedly paid $40,000 toward Carother’s home improvements, in exchange for Carothers’ support of zoning changes in 2006.

After allegedly buying Carothers’ support, Boender allegedly tried to wager that support for the project with powerful members of the Planning and Zoning Department. When the Department decided against making the entire lot open for commercial and residential development, Boender and Carothers met at a compromise — 10 acres of the lot could be developed for residential use and 15 acres could be developed for commercial use. This new zoning was passed.

Boender eventually sold the land — which is now home to a movie theater and residence — for almost double what he paid for it, according to The Chicago Reader. Boender personally profited nearly $3 million after the sale from the zoning change, according to FBI documents. Boender is still in the real estate business and now works primarily in agricultural real estate.

Tony Rezko/Rod Blagojevich

In one of the most famous recent corruption scandals, real estate developer Tony Rezko was one of several indictments to come out of the Rod Blagojevich trials in 2008. A political operative, fundraiser and businessman, Rezko was charged with 16 counts of fraud and bribery in 2008 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His most notable ties were to disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, along with former President Barack Obama. Court documents from Blagojevich’s trial showed that Rezko had donated over $1.3 million to Blagojevich’s campaigns. He recommended business associates to the then-governor and used his influence to demand hefty favors. Rezko also was fundraiser for Obama. The Obamas bought their family’s Chicago home from Rezko a few years before he was charged. Rezko was released from prison in 2015. Recently, he has become a part of his son’s business, DAC Developments, and will be involved in the firm’s latest project – a 24-story hotel on the North Side, according to Crain’s.

Department of Building and Zoning

In 2008, an FBI investigation found widespread corruption in the city Department of Building and Zoning, according to a University of Illinois at Chicago report. The investigation ended in indictments for 23 city officials. Most involved inspectors who were bribed to falsify inspection documents. Also indicted after the investigation was developer Dumitru Curescu, who was accused of over $10,000 worth of bribes and Beny Garneata, who was allegedly a key figure in a bribe-for-permit scheme.