Faith Hope Consolo (Credit: Getty Images, iStock)

She positioned herself as a child of privilege, a product of the right schools and someone very much at home in the tony world of luxury New York City real estate.

But in reality, Faith Hope Consolo grew up on a dead-end street in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay, born to a father with an extensive criminal background and a mother who was a hairdresser, according to the New York Times. And Consolo, who chaired Douglas Elliman’s retail division until her death in 2018 and brought top global brands to the city’s real estate market, fiercely guarded those secrets from nearly everyone in her life, including her close friends and business partners.

Her father was not a real estate executive who died when she was a toddler but a serial swindler who lived to 94 and did time in a federal penitentiary in Kansas and at Alcatraz for gambling, armed robbery and dealing heroin, the Times reported. Her mother was not an acclaimed child psychiatrist as Consolo claimed, but a hairdresser at a Downtown Brooklyn department store.

She also claimed that she had started both a modeling agency and an interior design business on the West Coast in the 1970s. The newspaper could find no records to corroborate that.

Joseph Aquino, Consolo’s longtime business partner at Elliman, never knew the truth about his “work wife” — including that the two grew up just blocks from each other and that Consolo attended the school of the church where Aquino had his confirmation.

In 2016, Aquino and Consolo got into a bitter legal dispute over what he claimed was her lavish spending.  (The suit was settled.) And throughout her career, Consolo was dogged by accusations from competitors that she was addicted to the press and often took credit for others’ deals.

The Times was alerted to the fabrication by a childhood friend of the late broker.

Although Consolo’s pedigree was fake, many of her achievements were real: She brokered deals for top international brands such as Cartier, Zara and Louis Vuitton, and represented landlords such as Harry Helmsley, Larry Silverstein and Donald Trump.

“She really changed the retail marketplace,” Rudin Management’s Bill Rudin told the newspaper. “Her street smarts and entrepreneurial spirit and flair — even the way she dressed and communicated — attracted an amazing clientele, some of the great international brands, to New York.” [NYT] — Georgia Kromrei

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A rendering of the Tampa Bay Rays’ plans for a new ballpark in Tampa’s historic Ybor City (Credit: iStock, WJCT)

Banks may soon have the incentive they need to sink huge amounts of money into Opportunity Zones, the controversial Trump administration tax abatement program that has seen tepid investment levels to date.

The federal government plans to give commercial banks credit for issuing loans in low-income communities as part of a larger reform to a 1970s-era law called the Community Reinvestment Act. This is the first direct regulatory incentive for banks to lend in Opportunity Zones and could be a game-changer for the program, according to some experts.

“CRA is a big motivator for inter-activities at banks,” said Steve Glickman, one of the architects of the Opportunity Zone initiative, which gives massive tax deferments and tax breaks to those who invest in projects in designated low-income neighborhoods across the country. “They are going to have institutional interest in all of this.”

Glickman, who founded and runs Opportunity Zone consultancy firm Develop LLC, said that the reformation of the CRA and the recent finalization of the program’s rules should spur banks to direct investor money into qualifying projects. Banks own asset management arms could begin to deploy more money into Opportunity Zones as well, he said.

For banks, lending in Opportunity Zones would allow them to fulfill elements of a government mandate that they lend in poor communities.

Although many bankers and developers believe the combination of expected CRA reforms and finalized Opportunity Zone regulations could lead to substantial investment in poor communities, finance watchdogs are wary about the types of projects that qualify.

What is the CRA why it matters

The CRA was crafted in 1977 under President Jimmy Carter and was designed to incentivize banks to lend in low income communities and prevent redlining, or the practice of not lending to minority communities.

A poor rating on the CRA can prevent a bank from opening new branches or completing a merger. It also invites heavier scrutiny from regulators if a bank has a bad rating.

But some bankers argue the law is out of date, especially in the age of digital banking and the lack of brick and mortar branches. Under a more banker-friendly Trump administration, two regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the FDIC, are now looking to revamp the rule and change how the CRA looks at geographic areas where the banks take in deposits. The regulators are also looking to combine Opportunity Zones into the CRA rules under a proposal released by the OCC and the FDIC.

This inclusion of Opportunity Zones in the revamp, however, has also drawn the most criticism from those who are skeptical of the proposed CRA changes.

One section of the proposed regulation mentions that banks can receive credit for lending to athletic facilities in Opportunity Zones. In other words, a bank could potentially receive credit on their CRA exam for financing the proposal to build the Tampa Bay Rays stadium in Ybor City, Florida, that was estimated to cost nearly $900 million.

“The Baltimore Ravens Stadium would qualify as a credit. We have got to look at the large scale projects that might not have localized community impact,” said Nikitra Bailey, the executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending.

Giving credit to sports stadiums in Opportunity Zone projects amplifies the argument of critics who claim that the program is effectively a tax break for wealthy developers masquerading as a benefit for the poor. Critics have pointed to Richard LeFrak’s $4 billion mixed-use project Sole Mia in an Opportunity Zone in North Miami as well as Kushner Companies plans to build a 1,100 unit-luxury apartment building in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood.

Opportunity Zones developers have largely focused on building projects in gentrifying areas and in projects that were already planned before the Opportunity Zone legislation was released. The Department of Housing and Urban Development under Sec. Ben Carson said the agency is giving preferences on certain credits for developers who build affordable housing in Opportunity Zones. But so far, large-scale investment in affordable development in these areas has yet to materialize.

Lending in the land of OZ

The Opportunity Zone program became the arguably most talked about program in the real estate world over the last two years. Tucked away in President Trump’s tax plan, it offers developers and investors the ability to defer or forgo paying capital gains taxes for investment in one of the more than 8,700 federal Opportunity Zones across the country. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin even said it could result in $100 billion in private investment.

Despite the hype, investor interest in hasn’t quite materialized.

Many funds have had trouble raising capital. Of a sampling of 103 Opportunity Zone funds that sought to raise $22.7 billion, only $3 billion was raised, according to an October report by accounting firm Novogradac & Co. One notable pullback is Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital, which first sought to raise $3 billion, but is now seeking just $300 million.

But there are signs that the finalization of program rules has already contributed to an uptick in investment. At least $2.3 billion was put into Opportunity Zone Funds between early December through early January, according to a survey from Novogradac, a 51 percent increase over the prior month. (It should be noted that investors had to commit their capital by the end of 2019 to receive the full benefit of the program, which is likely a bigger reason for the increase in investment.)

Brett Forman of Trez Forman, a nonbank lender based out of Boynton Beach, said he is skeptical of some of the proposed projects in Opportunity Zones. So far, some of the borrowers that have approached him are less experienced in real estate development and are sometimes ones that wouldn’t be able to land bank financing.

“They think that a nonbank lender will jump on it,” said Forman.

Avra Jain, a Miami-based Opportunity Zone developer, however, has previously told The Real Deal that the program makes financing for certain projects more accessible, such as her group’s 15-story office building in Miami’s Midtown neighborhood.

Shane Neman, who purchased a cold-storage facility in an Opportunity Zone in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, said he is now considering refinancing the property. Neman said the property’s position in an Opportunity Zone makes it more attractive for getting financing from lenders.

“I even have private lenders and funds that are coming to me with loans that are beating the terms of regional banks, which usually give the best deals,” said Neman.

Some banks have already started investing in Opportunity Zones themselves, such as PNC Bank which has established an Opportunity Zone fund to invest in affordable housing, economic development and revitalization projects. In July, the bank provided $15 million in funding to repurpose a vacant, nearly century-old office building into workforce housing in downtown Birmingham, Alabama.

There’s also Woodforest National Bank, of Woodlands, Texas, partnered with a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and a commercial real estate group to create a $20 million Opportunity Zone fund.

John Hope Bryant, an entrepreneur and the founder of the economic empowerment nonprofit Operation HOPE has been pushing for CRA reform. He recently went on a five-city tour over the summer with Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting to discuss potential changes. Bryant said that adding Opportunity Zones to the CRA modernization can only help encourage lending in low-income communities.

“You are creating a magnet and pointing capital and equity there and saying, ‘Go and invest there.’”

Have something to say about Opportunity Zones? You can reach Keith Larsen at kl@therealdeal.com

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Greystar’s Bob Faith, The Mile (Credit: BuzzBuzzHome)

Greystar Real Estate Partners sold the luxury apartment development The Mile near Coral Gables for $40 million.

Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystar sold the 120-unit building at 3622 Southwest 22nd Street in Miami for $333,333 per unit, records show. Miami-based Acumen Real Estate purchased the property.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Robert Given, Troy Ballard, Zachary Sackley, Calum Weaver and James Quinn listed the property in September.

Monogram Residential Trust, which Greystar acquired in 2017, had paid $48 million for the site and three nearby properties in 2015, records show.

Built in 2016, The Mile totals 234,992 square feet, records show. It sits on a 0.87-acre lot.

The Mile includes 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, a resort-style pool, deck, gym, lounge, and a gated parking garage. 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, Cushman & Wakefield said in September.

Greystar is one of the most active multifamily investors in South Florida and nationally, completing more than $14 billion of rental housing projects in the United States. In July, Greystar Real Estate Partners sold a 214-unit apartment development near Lake Worth Beach for $47.8 million.

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

Acumen Real Estate owns the 149-unit The Fountains at Delray Beach and the 208-unit apartment complex Sunset Gardens in Southwest Miami-Dade County.

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Chris “Birdman” Andersen and William Meyersohn (Credit: Getty Images)

Former Miami Heat player Chris “Birdman” Andersen finally sold his Pinecrest home, The Real Deal has learned.

Andersen, who played for the Heat between 2013 and 2016, sold the six-bedroom, six-bathroom house at 5826 Southwest 107th Street for $2 million, a steep discount off the original asking price.

The now-retired player paid $1.89 million for the 6,513-square-foot home in 2013. In 2016, he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, and a year later listed the house for $4.55 million. He eventually lowered the price down to $2.25 million in September 2019, according to Realtor.com.

Brown Harris Stevens Miami’s William Meyersohn took over the listing last year. He represented the buyer and seller in the deal, which closed on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for Brown Harris Stevens Miami.

The 0.9-acre property features a lighted tennis/basketball court, a patio, gazebo and pool. The house includes a chef’s kitchen, 10-foot ceilings, a family room with a fireplace, and a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment above the two-car garage.

Last year, the Heat’s former star player, Dwyane Wade, listed his home at 5980 North Bay Road in Miami Beach for $32.5 million after retiring from the NBA.

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Charles Cohen, Design Center of the Americas

Design Center of the Americas, the high-end showroom in Dania Beach, avoided foreclosure after Cohen Brothers Realty Corp. reached a financial settlement with its lender.

The lawsuit ends a long, drawn-out legal battle over the property’s debt, and puts to rest a $172.9 million foreclosure lawsuit from Wells Fargo, acting as a trustee for lender GE Commercial Mortgage Corp.

Property records show that a company tied to Fortress Investment refinanced the mortgage for $112 million on Friday.

“DCOTA’s mortgage has been successfully refinanced and all foreclosure litigation has been withdrawn and settled,” Charles Cohen of Cohen Brothers Realty Corp. said in a statement. Cohen remains 100 percent owner of the property, according to a release.

The 782,986-square-foot property at 1855 Griffin Road was built in 1985. Originally geared to high-end designers, architects and decorators, the property converted much of its design center space to office property, leasing 100,000 square feet for the headquarters of online pet retailer Chewy.com.

But the property has struggled to attract other tenants. It was only 64 percent occupied in the third quarter of 2018, the financial data provider Trepp reported. A spokesperson for said the property is now 80 percent occupied.

In June, an appraisal of the property was cut by more than half from $250.35 million to $115 million.

As occupancy remained low, the property faced challenges with its two loans. In December, an $86.5 million loan was marked delinquent, according to Trepp. Then in February, a second loan of $86.5 million was marked delinquent.

DCOTA’s troubles with its debt date back to 2012, when a note went into special servicing and terms of the loan had to be modified. The loan’s interest rate was lowered and its maturity date was extended for a two-year term that ended in August 2017. It was then later extended until March 2019.

New York-based Cohen Brothers Realty Corp. is a commercial real estate development and management firm with a portfolio of over 12 million square feet of office towers and design center buildings. Its portfolio includes Manhattan’s renowned Decoration & Design Building, Southern California’s Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood and Decorative Center Houston.

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Susan Gale and the South Beach hotels

A Miami Beach investor is looking to sell two boutique hotels he owns in South Beach.

Scott Weinberg of Azco Realty owns Hotel La Flora at 1238 Collins Avenue and Hotel Impala at 1228 Collins Avenue, property records show. Both are now on the market with Susan Gale of One Sotheby’s International Realty for a combined $23.5 million, or $490,000 per room, according to a spokesperson.

Weinberg’s 1238 Collins Ave Corp. paid $1 million for the three-story, 31-room Hotel La Flora in 1997. His Azco Investments LLC paid $4.5 million for the 17-room, two-story Hotel Impala in 2016, records show.

The 15,000-square-foot Hotel La Flora building was built in 1924 on a 7,000-square-foot lot. A buyer could increase the room count to 45 rooms, the building’s original unit count, Gale said. The building includes a lobby bar and cafe, and the property comes with a liquor license.

The second hotel has 14 guest rooms and three suites, and a courtyard garden. Spiga Ristorante Italiano is a tenant of Hotel Impala. The 8,414-square-foot building was originally built in 1931, also on a 7,000-square-foot lot. The property’s zoning allows for an additional 5,000 square feet of development.

Spiga pays about $150,000 a year in rent, Gale said.

The hotels can also be sold independently. Gale said the seller has owned hotels for nearly 30 years, and these are his last two properties in Miami Beach. “The story is that he’s been doing it for a long time, like many other sellers, and he is ready to move on in his life,” Gale said.

Gale’s other listings include the two hotels at 1320 Ocean Drive and 1435 Collins Avenue for a combined $42 million.

In October, SMS Lodging listed the 29-room hotel at 336 Collins Avenue with the expectation that it could sell for nearly $9 million, or about $300,000 per key. That property is on the market with CBRE.

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Mayor Bill de Blasio, 40 Wall Street, and President Donald Trump (Credit: Getty Images, 40 Wall St. via the Trump Organization)

The Trump Organization blasted the New York City mayor for saying his probe of the company turned up evidence of a possible crime.

Following a news report late last year that President Donald Trump’s development firm reported different income figures to lenders and the government for the same real estate, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched an investigation. The mayor said Friday that some of his administration’s findings had been referred to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance for possible criminal prosecution.

A spokesperson for the Trump Organization lashed back Monday, saying the mayor is the “last person to be pointing fingers,” given the “rash of investigations” against the mayor’s presidential campaign, which ended in September. (Previous fundraising efforts by de Blasio were also scrutinized by Vance and federal prosecutors, resulting in harsh criticism but no charges.)

“The allegations are unfounded and clearly motivated by politics,” the Trump spokesperson said in a statement to The Real Deal.

The mayor’s office followed up with its own barb.

“President Trump is a con artist and his refusal to release his tax returns says more than enough about what he is trying to hide,” Freddi Goldstein, the mayor’s press secretary, said in a statement.

In October, ProPublica and WNYC reported that the Trump Organization had reported lower income figures at some of its buildings to the Department of Finance, which oversees property taxes, than it did to potential lenders.

The ProPublica-WNYC report cited experts that suggested the practice used at the Trump Organization’s 40 Wall Street could amount to fraud.

On Friday, de Blasio said during an interview with WNYC that “at least one piece of what was found was serious enough to be referred to the D.A.” A person familiar with the probe said it was passed on to Vance in November.

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said the office does not confirm investigations, and declined to comment further.

Landlords of all sizes challenge their property assessments in an effort to lower their real estate taxes, including by arguing that they do not produce as much income as the assessment assumes. Reporting robust income to lenders can entice them to provide larger loans to the property owner. In the case of a discrepancy between the two income numbers, prosecutors could evaluate whether there was an attempt to defraud either the government or the lenders.

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Jeffrey Dagowitz, Ophir Sternberg and 100 21st Street (Credit: Getty Images, Google Maps)

In the biggest hotel sale in Miami Beach so far this year, partners Lionheart Capital and Actium Development Co. sold the Seagull Hotel Miami Beach for $120 million, The Real Deal has learned.

JHG Holdings Miami Owner LLC, a joint venture between Lionheart, led by Ophir Sternberg, and hotelier Jeffrey Dagowitz’s Actium, sold the waterfront hotel to BHI Miami Limited, according to sources. The Delaware entity is led by Nabil Kobeissi, records show.

The hotel at 100 21st Street traded two years after Lionheart and Dagowitz bought it at auction for $31.1 million.

The $120 million price tag for the 172-room South Beach equates to about $698,000 per key. It was built in 1948, records show. Sources said it will be redeveloped into a luxury hotel.

The Lionheart and Dagowitz joint venture had purchased the 1.23-acre property in December 2017 in a deal that included a ground lease that expires in 2049. The court-ordered sale followed litigation among the property’s seven previous partners.

The waterfront site is across a parking lot from the W South Beach and next to the Setai Miami Beach. Records show BHI made a loan to the sellers in September as a precursor to the deal.

BHI’s Kobeissi, who is also CEO of Blue Horizon Advisors of London, could not be reached for comment. Sternberg declined to comment and Dagowitz did not immediately respond to a message left at Actium.

Dagowitz is the founder of New York-based JHG Holdings, and has been responsible for the acquisition, development and financing of luxury hospitality real estate valued at more than $1 billion, according to Actium’s website. In 2017, he bought 83,000 square feet of air rights in New York’s Chelsea, assembling a development site with 243,000 buildable square feet.

Miami-based Lionheart Capital, along with Elliott Management Corp., recently completed the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach, a luxury condo project in Mid-Beach.

Other hotels have recently sold for high prices in Miami Beach. Last year, Michael Shvo and his partners bought three neighboring hotels on Collins Avenue in South Beach, with plans for a 200-foot-tall residential project. In February, they bought the 83-room Raleigh Hotel for $103 million, or $1.24 million per key, from Tommy Hilfiger and the Dogus Group. The group later purchased the Richmond and South Seas hotels for nearly $88 million and $52 million, respectively.

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Harbourside at Hidden Harbour is a mixed-use development with about 300 residential units next to a canal in Pompano Beach.

Many of South Florida’s finest waterfront homes have sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean or the Intracoastal Waterway, the inland waterway along the East Coast. Farther down the food chain of waterfront homes are those along South Florida’s lakes and rivers. Canals, however, rarely serve as the focal point of real estate developments in the tri-county area. These artificial waterways protect South Florida from flooding but also can stink, turn brown and draw mosquitos — or worse.

“If they’re connected to other waterways, you could have alligator problems at certain times of year,” said Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based real estate consultant. Still, “there’s a premium placed on water views in Florida,” he said. And as land availability dwindles in South Florida, the lowly canal is getting more love, especially in Broward County, where several developments on canal-front sites are underway — each within easy boating distance of the Intracoastal.

Canal-front projects are part of a broader trend toward urban infill development, according to Mitash Kripalani, a South Florida broker for Colliers International. “I see more and more people looking to go after land zoned for industrial or marina and get them upzoned for residential … You’re seeing more urban infill as land becomes scarcer,” he said.

Redevelopment along South Florida canals may become more common in the decades ahead if sea level rise persists as predicted, said Dan Kodsi, one of the developers behind the Paramount Fort Lauderdale and Paramount Miami Worldcenter condominium projects.

“You’re going to see some development along canals. It’s just inevitable,” Kodsi said. “Over the next 40 or 50 years, there’s probably going to be some low-lying areas where you’re going to have to knock down the older homes that are below flood level and build new homes that are above flood level.”

The Broward Riviera?

The canal-side project furthest along in Broward County is Las Olas Walk, a 456-unit apartment development now rising around the Himmarshee Canal in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The developer, Orlando-based ZOM Living, expects to finish construction of the two-building, eight-story project next summer. Amenities will include a courtyard along the canal and a shop with kayaks, paddleboards and life jackets for those who want to navigate the waterway, which connects to the New River and the Intracoastal. At least 150 of the apartments will have views of the canal from a U-shaped building. Monthly rents will range from $1,900 to $4,800, and tenants will pay an undetermined premium for apartments with a view of the canal, said ZOM Living CEO Greg West.

“We are basically surrounding the canal on two sides,” said Tom Brink, vice president of CallisonRTKL, the architecture firm that designed Las Olas Walk. The old canal needed a $2 million rehab. It was built as a stormwater relief valve in the oldest commercial section of downtown Fort Lauderdale, the Himmarshee Historic District. When Las Olas Walk development began, the canal “wasn’t very pleasant,” Brink said. “At various times, it was muddy and didn’t always smell good.”

The site didn’t come cheap, despite the original condition of the canal. ZOM paid $33 million in January 2018 for the 17-acre development site — a prime downtown location near a popular dining and shopping area along Las Olas Boulevard.

For developers, canal-front prices are more affordable in the seaside suburbs of Fort Lauderdale, where some see opportunity in redeveloping marine-related commercial property.

In Pompano Beach, for example, a marina owner is co-developing Harbourside at Hidden Harbour, a mixed-use complex designed for about 300 residential units and about 65,000 square feet of commercial space on a canal-front site just east of Federal Highway. Construction could start sometime next year, said James Sturner, who owns the development site and an adjacent marina, Aquamarina Hidden Harbor, which will continue to operate there. The development would replace a boatyard and other commercial properties.

Sturner paid about $16 million in 2008 for 9 acres including the canal-front development site and his adjacent marina business, which he built and opened in 2009. Seth Platt of LSN Partners, a consultant Sturner retained, said Sturner started the mixed-use project after city officials suggested it, seeking greater exposure for a canal largely hidden from public view.

“They wanted to see this type of development there … a mixed-use development with a view corridor looking down the canal, activating the waterfront,” Platt said.

Canal developments on the horizon

In Dania Beach, a recent rezoning could spark residential redevelopment of an entire city block along a canal, starting with an eight-story, 302-unit rental apartment building. Miami-based developer Asi Cymbal proposed the rezoning on behalf of all four property owners on the 11-acre block, which includes several marine-themed businesses.

Cymbal has a contract with one of the property owners to buy a vacant 2.4-acre site across the street from New York-based Kimco Realty’s 102-acre Dania Pointe mixed-use development. There, Cymbal plans to build a 302-unit multifamily project. The other three owners are boating-related companies that may eventually take advantage of the rezoning and sell their properties for residential redevelopment, Cymbal said. “They have been looking at other waterfront properties for their businesses that are in less expensive industrial zones,” he said.

Monthly rents are expected to range from $1,195 for studios to $2,575 for three-bedroom apartments. Half of the apartments will have views of the canal and command premium rents. The canal itself is in “great shape,” said Cymbal, who expects to spend $500,000 to beautify areas along its edge.

Dania Pointe’s proximity is the main reason Cymbal chose the development site at 150 South Bryan Road, but he also plans to make the most of the canal-front location. His unnamed apartment building will offer rental boats and docking space to tenants and the general public through a membership-based boat club. In addition to beautifying the canal, he said,“We’ll also make sure there’s great visibility to the canal for our tenants. There’s going to be a pedestrian pass in the back and a new dock that we’ll install.”

Kimco, for its part, may feature a now-obscure canal as it redevelops its aging Oakwood Plaza shopping center in Hollywood, located just south of Dania Pointe. Paul Puma, president of the southern region at Kimco, said, “I would consider the canal to be an amenity for Oakwood.”

The post Broward developments test the appeal of living canal-side appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Alex Zylberglait of Marcus & Millichap and 2020 Northeast 163rd street

An Argentine investor bought a North Miami Beach office building in an Opportunity Zone for $6 million.

2020 Office Nmb LLC, managed by Ezequiel Schmuckler, bought the building at 2020 Northeast 163rd Street. Office 2020 LLC, managed by Alejandro Araujo, sold the property.

The three-story office building totals 31,145 square feet, equating to a sale price of $192 per square foot, records show. The building could be redeveloped into a mixed-use project up to 20 stories or 255 feet high with more than 300 residential units. It sits on 1.34 acres of land.

Alex Zylberglait of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller in the deal.

Zylberglait said the buyer purchased the property for the steady cash flow along with the building’s redevelopment potential. The office building is 94.24 percent occupied with only 1,402 square feet of available space, according to a listing on LoopNet. The furniture company Veneta Cucine occupies most of the first floor.

The building was last sold for $4.2 million in 2008, records show. It was built in 1968.

North Miami Beach has seen much more mixed-used development over the past few years after the city allowed for more residential development.

In 2018, the North Miami Beach City Commission approved a 2.5-million-square-foot mixed-use project to be built on an 18-acre property known as the TECO Gas Site.

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The Real Deal is preparing the 15th edition of its Data Book, the most comprehensive collection of information on the New York–area real estate market. Included in the 2020 Data Book will be a ranking of Manhattan’s top residential brokerages, Brooklyn’s most active developers, the city’s biggest real estate loans of the year and more!

With data pulled, vetted and analyzed on all major aspects of the industry, the Data Book provides vital information for top dealmakers and for those who are looking to understand the ever-changing New York City real estate market. Jam packed with statistics, market overviews and rankings, the Data Book serves as a reference point for the current year and years past.

The Data Book will arrive with the February issue of The Real Deal.

Until then, check out last year’s data book here.

For editorial inquiries, email News@TheRealDeal.com. To learn more about marketing opportunities in our Data Book, please call (212) 254-7400 or email Advertising@TheRealDeal.com.

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Brightline president Patrick Goddard and Park-Line Miami (Credit: iStock)

Brightline’s apartment towers have arrived at Virgin MiamiCentral.

Park-Line Miami, at 100 Northwest Sixth Street in Overtown, is part of the mixed-use development that is home to MiamiCentral. The project adds two 30-story towers with a combined 816 luxury apartments to the project, and the Greater Downtown Miami multifamily market overall.

Leasing begins this month with rents starting at $1,900 a month, according to a press release. The Bozzuto Group’s Bozzuto Management Company, led by president Stephanie Williams, will manage the rentals. The buildings have studio apartments, and one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

The towers sit on top of Brightline’s rail platform at MiamiCentral. Amenities include a 2-acre amenity deck, pool and Jacuzzi, cabanas and day beds, a lap pool, an outdoor movie theater, a 3,500-square-foot gym, and a running track. The buildings also have outdoor dining areas with grills, a dog park and a pet spa, a business center, club room and bike storage.

Late last year, after Suffolk Construction Co. and others reached a multimillion-dollar settlement over construction issues at MiamiCentral, Suffolk filed a lawsuit against two subsidiaries of FECI, alleging the development group failed to give Suffolk an extension and increase the construction budget for the apartment towers, despite weather delays.

Brightline, which is expected to rebrand as Virgin Trains USA later this year, began operating its train service between Miami and West Palm Beach in 2018, when it opened three mixed-use stations in Miami, downtown Fort Lauderdale and West Palm. Brightline’s parent, Florida East Coast Industries, is backed by the private equity firm Fortress Investment Group. The rail service is expected to expand to Orlando, as well as make additional stops in Aventura and Boca Raton.

Last year, FECI sold the office portion of MiamiCentral for $159.4 million to Shorenstein. The deal included the ground-floor retail space, two office buildings and parking at the project.

MiamiCentral also includes a food hall.

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Condo sales in Miami took a tumble in the first full week of January, but were led by a pricey resale at the Four Seasons Residences at The Surf Club.

A total of 73 condos sold for $41 million last week, compared to 92 units that sold for a combined $51.4 million the previous week.  Condos last week sold for an average price of about $561,000 or $337 per square foot.

At The Surf Club, records show Barry Weisfeld, managing member and chairman of the Strategic Vision Group, an investment management firm, sold his 5,822-square-foot, five-bedroom unit to Sheryl Salter of the Salter Family Trust for $12.65 million, or nearly $2,200 per square foot. Jill Hertzberg represented the seller, while Oren Alexander brought the buyer. Unit 821 in the north tower was on the market for 730 days before it sold.

The second priciest sale was the $4.3 million closing of Jade Signature unit 4903. The three-bedroom, 3,260-square-foot unit was listed for 48 days before selling for $1,319 per square foot. The listing agents were Sandra Chartouni, Rita Collins, and Fabia Castro, and the buyer’s agent was Karina Marx.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 sales from Jan. 5 to Jan. 11. Click on the map for more information:

Most expensive
Surf Club Four Seasons #N-821 | 730 days on market | $12.65M | $2,173 psf | Listing agent: Jill Hertzberg | Buyer’s agent: Oren Alexander

Least expensive
Brickell House #3403 | 353 days on market | $552K | $513 psf | Listing agent: Jill Penman | Buyer’s agent: Sebastian Acosta

Most days on market
Surf Club Four Seasons #N-821 | 730 days on market | $12.65M | $2,173 psf | Listing agent: Jill Hertzberg | Buyer’s agent: Oren Alexander

Fewest days on market
Jade Signature #4903 | 48 days on market | $4.3M | $1,319 psf | Listing agent: Rita Collins | Buyer’s agent: Karina Marx

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Aaron Kirman (Credit: Getty Images)

Los Angeles luxury agent Aaron Kirman has chosen to accept this mission: He must sell a $13.9 million “sandwich box” beach house that has been on the market for 1,000 days with zero offers. Its owner got the house as part of her divorce settlement and she is motivated to sell, but has cycled through three listings brokers before settling on Kirman. If he succeeds, the commission is a cool $347,500.

That’s the setup for the first episode of CNBC’s new real estate-focused reality show, “Listing Impossible,” which premiers Wednesday.

It follows Compass star broker Kirman as he tries to sell luxury homes in the L.A. area that have languished on the market. The show is timely, with some of the West Coast’s most expensive homes sitting for months, and as spec developers scramble to find buyers amid the softening market.

The show was actually first announced a year ago — it was supposed to air in May 2019 — as part of a package of real estate-focused programming that would occupy CNBC’s Thursday night lineup. It follows in the footsteps of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing” shows that have propelled the careers of celebrity brokers like Ryan Serhant and Fredrik Eklund.

The First 7: The Cold Box on the Beach from CNBC.

In the seven-minute preview for the first episode of “Listing Impossible,” Kirman’s 60-plus-person team is pictured in their Beverly Hills office. The camera does quick cuts to one agent on her computer — dog in lap — then another deep in a forehead stress rub, and another bouncing on a mini trampoline, hands and head pointed to the ceiling. The luxury real estate world is no leisurely cruise along PCH, people.

After driving his Porsche convertible to the Dana Point beach house listing with agent Neyshia Go, Kirman sits down with the owner and doesn’t pull any punches. He calls her furniture “hideous,” and refers to one of the bedrooms as a “sex dungeon.”

“Everything is wrong with this room,” he tells her.

At one point, Kirman highlights how deck chairs are facing into the neighbor’s master bedroom and scolds his client: “You lost your $13 million moment on this.”

Kirman, one of the biggest brokers in L.A., placed fifth in The Real Deal’s 2019 ranking with more than $260 million sell-side deals. But he has also faced his share of troubled listings, including the infamous Mountain of Beverly Hills. That 157-acre parcel was asking $1 billion when Kirman first listed it in 2018. It finally sold in August in a foreclosure auction for $100,000.

Write to Erin Hudson at ekh@therealdeal.com

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11300 Northwest 25 Street and Telefonica CEO José María Álvarez-Pallete López (Credit: Google Maps)

Telefonica sold its data center in Doral for $44 million, amid booming demand for such real estate.

Telefonica sold the 153,000-square-foot property at 11300 Northwest 25th Street for $288 per square foot, records show. Daytona US Partnership LP, which lists its address in Madrid, Spain, bought the property.

Telefonica is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company, also headquartered in Madrid. The company’ largest commercial presence in the United States is in Miami, where it operates the data center that provides cloud and security services, according to its website.

The building was constructed in 2001, records show. It sits on a 4.3-acre lot. The property was last purchased for $24.6 million in 2004. The South Florida Business Journal first reported the news.

Interest for data center real estate is growing due to the increasing demand for data storage and driverless vehicles, artificial intelligence and other technological advances that require more power supply.

Investors are betting on this new demand. In 2018, an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management agreed to buy a data center portfolio from AT&T Communications for $1.1 billion. Last year, Google announced it plans to spend more than $13 billion in data centers and offices across the U.S.

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Town & Country Crossing in Town & Country, MO; The Crossroads in Royal Palm Beach, FL; and Mission Bay Plaze in Boca Raton, FL

While mall landlords have struggled to stay ahead of a challenging retail environment, owners of a less glamorous type of American shopping center have maintained modest growth. And now, even foreign investors are interested.

Real estate investment trusts that own open-air strip centers have seen their share prices rise by 7.7 percent over the past year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from FactSet. While that trails overall stock market growth by a significant margin, it’s still far better than mall REITs, which declined 20.2 percent over the same time span.

The open layout and more mundane tenant mix of strip centers have proven to be an advantage at a time when more specialized retailers are increasingly moving online.

“Retailers want their stores in the line of sight when people are dropping the kids off, or going to the gym,” RPT Realty CEO Brian Harper told the Journal. New York-based RPT owns 48 open-air or grocery-anchored shopping centers across 13 states.

In December, RPT created a $244 million joint venture with GIC — Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund — for a portfolio of five open-air shopping centers in Florida, Missouri and Michigan.

While mall operators generally aim to attract customers who will browse the property’s stores for at least an hour, strip centers — which are generally smaller and more locally-oriented — offer services like groceries, gyms and dentist offices that can keep shoppers coming back on a regular basis. Analysts say this makes them more resistant to competition from e-commerce, as well as to the risk of a recession. [WSJ] — Kevin Sun

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The Sapir Organization’s Alex Sapir (Credit: Getty Images and iStock)

The Sapir Organization has a leak problem – and not the kind you find in shoddy condo buildings.

A legal assistant employed by one of Sapir’s subsidiaries has allegedly been hoarding trade secrets that competitors could use to undercut Alex Sapir’s real estate empire, a new lawsuit claims.

Patricia Lemanski, who’s worked for Sapir’s SFM Realty Corp. since 2011, allegedly sent “countless files, agreements and other trade secret and confidential information” to her personal Gmail account, according to a Federal lawsuit SFM filed against Lemanski in New York’s Southern District last week.

Those documents include business contact information, operating agreements, leases, vendor agreements, loan agreements and other info on Sapir’s operations that others could use to gain an unfair competitive advantage against the company, the lawsuit claims.

Some of the documents could even be considered “inside information” under the securities laws of Israel, where the Sapir Corp. is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock exchange, according to the complaint.

Representatives Lemanski and Sapir did not immediately respond to requests for comment

While the lawsuit doesn’t name any specific competitors that Lemanski could leak information to, Sapir is asking the court to grant a temporary restraining order preventing her from sharing any sensitive documents.

And while Lemanski worked as paralegal for the company, Sapir claims she didn’t work directly on any of the documents she emailed to her personal account – an apparent effort to get ahead of an argument claiming she had a justifiable reason for stockpiling the trade secrets.

“There is no possible legitimate reason [Lemanski] could have to forward these documents to her personal email account,” the lawsuit claims.

The Sapir Organization and Tel Aviv-listed Sapir Corp. are run by Alex Sapir, son of self-made billionaire real estate mogul Tamir Sapir.

Sapir office properties like the 28-story building it’s headquartered in at 261 Madison Avenue and hospitality assets like the NoMo SoHo hotel.

He is also developing the 16-unit Arte residential condominium in the town of Surfside north of Miami Beach.

Sapir Corp. last year was looking to sell a Murray Hill development site at 218 Madison Avenue where it had planned a residential condo building.

Sapir’s stock price in Tel Aviv fell about 18 percent at the end of the year when the company reported a loss of more than $5 million in the third quarter.

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Rendering of Missoni Baia with a concrete truck and Vlad Doronin (Credit: Getty Images and iStock)

Two months after scoring a construction loan, the developers of Missoni Baia will begin a 12-hour, 1,700-ton concrete pour for the condo tower’s base.

The concrete pour starts at 7 a.m. on Wednesday and will end at 7 p.m. Nearly 300 trucks working in groups of 30 or 40 will deliver and pour roughly 2,600 cubic yards of concrete for the project. Ant Yapi/Civic Joint Venture LLC is the general contractor handling the pour, according to a spokesperson.

Billionaire Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group, Oleg Baybakov’s OB Group and Cain International are developing the 57-story, 249-unit building at 777 Northeast 26th Terrace in Edgewater. In November, they scored a $243.3 million construction loan from Security Benefit Life Insurance Corporation for the project.

The concrete pour will create the bottom mat foundation of Missoni Baia, which will be used to support the vertical building structure, including columns, walls and the elevator shaft, according to a release. Construction has been underway on the project and the seven-story parking garage has topped off.

Missoni Baia will also include an amenities deck with a flow-through pool deck, cabanas, an Olympic-sized pool, plunge pools, children’s areas, and an elevated tennis court. Units are priced from the $500,000s and up, and range from one to five bedrooms, and from 775 square feet to 3,788 square feet.

Missoni Baia is being designed by New York-based Asymptote Architecture, led by Hani Rashid and Lise Ann Couture, a firm known for such projects as the Yas Hotel Abu Dhabi that straddles a Formula One racetrack. Interiors will be designed by Paris Forino, and Enea Garden Design is handling the landscaping.

The building is expected to be delivered by the middle of 2021.

OKO Group’s other South Florida projects include Una Residences, a condo building planned for Brickell, the office tower 830 Brickell, and an Aman-branded hotel and condo project at 3425 Collins Avenue in the Faena District.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham and the Hudson Yards development (Credit: Getty Images, iStock)

EB-5, the federal visa program that helped fund development projects like the massive Hudson Yards in New York, has been fading recently and on the ropes, a result of fraud and its own popularity. But it still has supporters, and they are now looking to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Chuck Schumer and other powerful elected officials to help ease newly-passed rules, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The rules took effect in November, and were meant to crackdown on abuse and pull the 30-year-old program into the 21st century.

Sen. Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Schumer of New York are its co-sponsors; its sponsor is Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota. The bill would lower the minimum amount that foreign investors have to pour into some projects in order to receive a green card. It would also allow some investors to stay in the U.S. as they wait for their visas, according to the Journal.

EB-5 allows foreign investors the ability to obtain a green card in exchange for investing and creating jobs in the U.S. Developers latched onto the program as a way to obtain cheap financing for ground-up construction, but investor demand has waned due to visa backlogs and fraud and misuse in the program.

Under the new EB-5 regulations, investment requirements rose to $900,000 from $500,000 for a project in a low employment zone, which are known as targeted employment areas. The investment amounts also climbed to $1.8 million from $1 million in all other areas.

The new rules also prohibit developers from what had become a common practice of tacking on a sliver of a targeted employment area to a project that is in a wealthier area in order to qualify for the lower amount.

But opponents of the new rules say that it will discourage investment and ultimately cut down on development. A Florida regional center recently went to federal court to seek in order to halt enforcement, alleging the new rules violate the U.S. Constitution, were not property reviewed for potential fallout and would end up killing his business.

Nicholas Mastroianni II, chief executive of U.S. Immigration Fund — an EB-5 regional center — gave Graham a $5,000 campaign contribution in September and Aaron Grau of the EB-5 trade group Invest in the USA, donated $2,000 to the senator, according to the Journal, citing the Center for Responsive Politics. [WSJ] — Keith Larsen

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Shaun Osher, CORE CEO (Credit: Getty Images and iStock)

Boutique residential brokerage CORE is heading to the beaches of South Florida, where competition continues to grow fiercer.

The brokerage, which is 50 percent owned by Related Companies, is expanding into new markets including Florida, CORE’s founder and CEO Shaun Osher confirmed.

He said that the expansion has been in the works for about five years and was prompted after the firm won several new development projects outside New York City.

Hints of CORE’s new ventures began appearing on Osher’s personal Instagram account in October when he posted a photo of himself during a site visit in Miami along with the caption “What’s behind door No. 1? We’ll show you soon.”

A month later, another not-so-subtle post on Osher’s account told followers that CORE was working on a project in New Jersey. And in early January, CORE announced that it would be producing quarterly reports on Miami’s new development market.

Though Osher was tight-lipped on details, he said CORE’s services would be consistent with the firm’s offerings in New York City.

“We’ve waited for the right opportunities. We’re not a company that’s all things to everyone,” he said.

Osher declined to elaborate on forthcoming projects, clients and new markets. He also declined to say if CORE would hire agents and staff those new markets, or if offices had yet been established. He said he would announce more details about the expansion later this quarter.

CORE is among the better-known boutique Manhattan brokerages that specialize in selling luxury condo product. CORE was ranked ninth on The Real Deal’s annual brokerage ranking in 2019, with nearly $450 million in closed sales in Manhattan.

The move comes amid a softening luxury market and an outflow of wealthy residents and real estate investors, often to lower-tax states such as Florida. But Osher denied CORE’s expansion is motivated by these conditions.

“We’ve been approached over the course of the past five years by developers, national developers,” he said. “It wasn’t necessarily a byproduct of people moving in and out of the city of New York.”

It’s a crowded new development marketing field in South Florida. New York rival Douglas Elliman already has a strong foothold in the market, and One Sotheby’s International Realty and Fortune International Group are among the new dev top firms. Venture-backed Compass, Brown Harris Stevens and the Corcoran Group are also vying for a piece of the action, but haven’t achieved that level kind of volume.

Write to Erin Hudson at ekh@therealdeal.com

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