1327 Northwest Third Avenue with Burke Construction CEO Anthony Burke and Boston Capital CEO Jack Manning (Google Maps)

A developer and general contractor’s fight over a $28 million affordable housing complex in Miami’s Overtown — including whether the project is even complete — is playing out in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

St. John Plaza Apartments LLC — tied to Boston-based multifamily investor Boston Capital Corp., the local nonprofit St. John Community Development Corp. and real estate developer and financier Jim Watson — sued the general contractor of the apartment complex at 1327 Northwest Third Avenue in July, according to court filings.

Attorneys for the parties did not respond to requests for comment.

St. John CDC executive director Eric Haynes

St John Plaza Apartments, a two-building project, aimed to bring 90 affordable housing units of up to three bedrooms to the neighborhood. It also promised about 8,500 square feet of commercial space, a daycare center, computer lab and a playground. Construction was set to finish in October 2017, according to an unrelated request for proposal filed by a separate Boston Capital and Watson partnership.

Instead, according to the developer’s lawsuit, Doral-based contractor Burke Construction delayed the project by almost two years. The developer accuses Burke of failing to supply enough proper materials and skilled workers for the project and failing to incorporate the daycare into its construction.

The developer seeks $3 million from Burke to put toward correcting what the developer describes as an unfinished project, according to the suit.

Yet, the property is offering efficiency and one-bedroom units for monthly rents of $916 and $958, respectively, with immediate move-in, according to a property manager.

Burke Construction sued the developer in August, alleging wrongful termination of contract and withholding payments, despite the two buildings of the apartment complex receiving temporary certificates of occupancy in June and July. The developer canceled inspections for the daycare in August, according to Burke’s lawsuit.

The general contractor seeks more than $1 million owed on its $17 million contract and attorney fees.

The developer allegedly sent Burke a notice to terminate its contract in July, but Burke CFO David Martinez “was out of town and was not aware of the letter” until the next month, according to the suit. The developer’s missed payments have led to further litigation, the suit states.

“The failure to make payment has resulted in numerous lawsuits brought by subcontractors and material suppliers who provided services and materials to the project that [St John Plaza] is using but has not paid for,” according to Burke’s lawsuit.

Burke alleges that the developer and its consultants caused the initial construction delays. Plans for the daycare were incomplete when Burke signed the contract in March 2016, it alleges. The apartment complex received a notice of commencement that July, but more permit delays kept Burke from starting construction until December, according to the suit.

Indeed, Burke’s apprehensions about the project came across in a July 2017 letter included in Burke’s lawsuit. The project had already seen nine months of delays by that time, according to the letter.

According to the 2017 unrelated Boston Capital RFP, St. John Plaza Apartments’ financing sources included tax-exempt bond financing, low-income housing tax credit equity from Florida Housing Finance Corp., a county surtax loan, a fixed-rate forward permanent loan from Greystone and $10 million from the Southeast Overtown/Park West Community Redevelopment Agency.

The Affiliated Housing Impact Fund LP also invested $12.6 million in the project, according to an August report by the Fort Lauderdale-based real estate developer and investor.

Overtown has attracted developer interest this year. In May, the Miami-Dade County Commission granted Housing Trust Group a ground lease for a 10.4-acre property, which houses two existing public housing projects that the developer would redevelop: Rainbow Village Apartments and Gwen Cherry 23C. And a company tied to Michael Simkins purchased more than a dozen parcels in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood from the Southeast Overtown/Park West Community Redevelopment Agency in March.

St. John Plaza is not the only Overtown project to end up in court recently. Michael Swerdlow’s planned Block 55 Target-anchored mixed-use project is the subject of a court battle brought by three entities tied to developer Don Peebles.

The post Overtown affordable housing complex delays lead to legal battle appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Adam Henick, Stefano Santoro, and Brandon Charnas

New York-based Current Real Estate Advisors is opening an office in Miami.

The social media-focused commercial real estate brokerage, founded and led by Brandon Charnas and Adam Henick, hired Miami broker Stefano Santoro to lead the new office as managing partner, The Real Deal has learned.

Charnas, who is married to Arielle Charnas, a social media influencer and fashion designer, said there is “huge demand” from landlords and tenants for the firm’s services.

Current Real Estate uses its social media following – about 19,400 on Instagram – for marketing to and polling its followers. Both Charnas and Henick said the firm’s approach on social media will “pay dividends” in the Miami market.

The firm is finalizing a lease for its Miami office at an as-yet undisclosed building in Wynwood, Henick said. It will focus on retail and office leasing and investment sales in Wynwood, Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and other markets, according to a release.

Hospitality magnate Scott Sartiano, who is planning to open his private social club Zero Bond at 0 Bond Street in New York, tapped Current Real Estate to find a location for Zero Bond in Miami, Charnas said. Current rebranded and leased 0 Bond.

In Miami, Santoro and Current Real Estate are taking over retail leasing of 10,000 square feet at the Oasis in Wynwood, a Spotify-anchored mixed-use project at 2335 North Miami Avenue, Charnas said.

Santoro was previously with Apex Capital Realty and Dwntwn Realty Advisors. He worked on deals that included the Urbanica Beach Hotel in Miami Beach and a Wynwood assemblage that L&L Holding Company and Carpe Real Estate Partners are under contract to purchase.

Current Real Estate plans to hire more brokers in Miami, Henick said. While Henick is staying in New York, Charnas confirmed that he and his wife are looking for a temporary rental as they prepare to open the Miami office. One of the buildings they’ve looked at is Alex Sapir’s Arte by Antonio Citterio in Surfside.

Henick and Charnas are optimistic about a return to normalcy in both New York and South Florida. Henick said that once there is a vaccine, “life will come back to normal, and we want to be ahead of the curve on that.”

“We’re not letting the virus get in the way of our overall strategy,” he said.

The post Instagram ready: Current Real Estate Advisors expands to Miami appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

The special servicing rate has increased each month since the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, and clocked a 55 basis point increase to 10.04 percent in August (iStock)

The delinquency rate for CMBS loans has fallen for two consecutive months. Save the party supplies for later, though, because there is still no reason to celebrate.

Many CMBS lenders have offered forbearance to struggling borrowers during the downturn. When loans enter forbearance, their status is changed to “current” from “delinquent,” even if the borrower cannot pay on time. Given the surge in such arrangements, the delinquency rate does not reflect commercial real estate distress as well as it once did.

The better metric now, according to a report from CMBS data firm Trepp, is the share of loans being handled by special servicers – the companies that borrowers turn to when they need loan relief. And the special servicing rate has increased each month since the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States. It jumped to 10.04 percent in August from 9.49 percent in July.

Hotel and retail loans have driven the rise. Half of all loans transferred to special servicers in August were backed by hotel properties and one-third by retail properties. Twenty-five percent of all hotel CMBS loans and about 17 percent of all retail CMBS loans were being handled by special servicers by the end of August.

Transfers of loans backed by retail properties to special servicing have not slowed in September. Brookfield Property Partners’ high-end Tyson Galleria mall in McClean, Virginia, was transferred to a special servicing last week after Brookfield fell behind on payments for $282M in outstanding debt.

The post CMBS delinquencies fell, but hold the applause appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Gov. DeSantis (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Bar and brewery owners can drink to this: Florida will allow bars and breweries to reopen beginning on Monday at a reduced capacity.

But the order, announced on Thursday evening, only applies to counties that have entered phase 2 of the state’s reopening, which excludes Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Palm Beach County entered phase two on Tuesday, and Broward Mayor Dale Holness on Wednesday said his county is likely headed in the same direction. But bars and breweries will remain closed in Palm Beach County, according to a statement from the county.

Because Palm Beach entered phase two incrementally, bars will remain closed until another county order is issued, the statement reads.

Bars and breweries in other counties in phase 2 will be able to operate at 50 percent indoor capacity.

Bar owners were shut down statewide on June 26 by an emergency order from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. It applied to all businesses in which 50 percent of their gross revenue comes from the sale of alcoholic beverages. Restaurants with 50 percent or less of their gross revenue derived from the sale of on-premise alcoholic beverages were allowed to continue operating.

Bars and breweries throughout the state have been struggling to survive. And in Miami-Dade, it may take much longer before they’re allowed to reopen. At a virtual press conference earlier this week, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he doesn’t expect bars and nightclubs to reopen until there is a vaccine.

In Miami-Dade, indoor dining was allowed to resume at 50 percent occupancy nearly two weeks ago.

The post Drink up: Bars can reopen Monday in Florida — but not in South Florida appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

The rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped 7 percentage points for the week ending September 10, reaching 2.86 percent. (iStock)

Mortgage rates sank to an all-time low — again.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped .07 percentage points for the week ending Sept. 10, reaching 2.86 percent — a new low since Freddie Mac began conducting the survey in 1971. This time last year, the mortgage rates averaged 3.56 percent. Fifteen-year mortgages declined, too, to an average of 2.37, while five-year mortgages were up 18 percentage points to 3.11.

(Source: GlobalNewswire)

Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said a late summer slowdown in the economic recovery was to thank for the low mortgage rates, but that might not hold through the fall, when a lack of supply could drive up prices and deter homebuyers.

“These low rates have ignited robust purchase demand activity, which is up 25 percent from a year ago and has been growing at double digit rates for four consecutive months,” said Khater. “However, heading into the fall it will be difficult to sustain the growth momentum in purchases because the lack of supply is already exhibiting a constraint on sales activity.”

The survey covers only conventional mortgages, where borrowers have excellent credit and make a 20 percent down payment. Jumbo loans, which are typically reserved for luxury homes which exceed the federal housing agency purchase price limit, are not included.

Since the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark rate in mid-March, and later signaled the rate would stay low for the long haul, mortgage rates have reached historic lows — although not as low as expected. The gap between the 10-year treasury yield and the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate is at its widest since 2008.

Still, the historically low mortgage rates have led to a frenzy of homebuying, and even a rebound for timber real estate investment trusts, responding to the higher demand for lumber. The average home price also broke the $300,000 mark for the first time in July.

Existing home sales were up 24.7 percent in July, according to the National Association of Realtors, after two consecutive months of gains.

The post Mortgage rates notch new low appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Elin Nordegren, Russell Weiner, and 12520 Seminole Beach Road (Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images, Michael Bezjian/WireImage, and Google Maps)

Swedish model Elin Nordegren, ex-wife of golfer Tiger Woods, sold her North Palm Beach mansion to Rockstar Energy Drink founder Russell Weiner for $28.6 million.

Property records show Nordegren sold the 23,000-square-foot estate at 12520 Seminole Beach Road to Weiner, the billionaire founder of his energy drink company. Weiner is worth $3.7 billion, according to Forbes.

The property hit the market in 2018 for $49.5 million with Cristina Condon and Todd Peter of Sotheby’s International Realty. It was relisted in November at $44.5 million, according to Zillow.

Peter also represented the buyer. Sotheby’s declined to comment on the deal.

Nordegren built the North Palm Beach mansion in 2014, after paying $12.25 million for the property in 2011 and tearing down its nearly 18,000-square-foot home. She purchased the property following her much-publicized $100 million divorce from the golfer. She has two children with Woods, to whom she was married for six years.

The mansion has 11 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms and three half-baths. It features rooms with retractable glass walls, a roof deck, wine cellar, theater, two kitchens and a gym. Along with a pool, the home has 200 feet of ocean frontage, a putting green and a basketball/pickleball court. A separate guest house includes two separate apartments, each with a kitchen and living room.

Dozens of luxury homes along the waterfront in Palm Beach County have sold in recent months. Luxury rentals are also on fire, with wealthy people fleeing dense and high-tax markets such as New York.

The post Tiger Woods’ ex-wife sells North Palm Beach mansion for $29M appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

29 Star Island Drive, Paul Cejas and Loren Schlachet (Credit: Tamargo/Getty Images, and Google Maps)

Former U.S. ambassador Paul Cejas sold his waterfront Star Island mansion to a private equity investor for $20.1 million.

Cejas, chairman and CEO of PLC Investments and former ambassador to Belgium under President Bill Clinton, sold the property at 29 Star Island Drive in Miami Beach to Loren Schlachet, property records show. Cejas also owns a unit at Faena House in Miami Beach.

Schlachet is managing partner of the Riverside Company, a New York-based investment firm, and he co-founded and leads the Riverside Micro-Cap Fund. He previously worked at Claremont Capital Corp. and TCW Capital, according to his bio.

The six-bedroom, 9,935-square-foot Star Island estate was on the market for $24.9 million with Jill Hertzberg of the Jills Zeder Team at Coldwell Banker. Hertzberg represented the buyer and seller, according to Realtor.com.

The property features domed detailed ceilings with skylights and arched windows and doors, a chef’s kitchen, master suite with a rooftop terrace, gardens, summer kitchen, dock and pool, the listing shows.

Cejas paid $14.3 million for the mansion in 2012, records show. It was built in 2000 on a 40,000-square-foot lot. Cejas purchased it from shoe designer Donald J. Pliner and his wife, Lisa.

A number of sales have closed on Star Island in recent months. Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin paid $37 million for a double-lot at 11 and 12 Star Island Drive. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez spent $32.5 million to acquire the mansion at 13 Star Island Drive.

Some deals are still in the works. The waterfront property at 46 Star Island Drive, which is asking nearly $40 million with listing broker Dora Puig, is under contract, according to Realtor.com.

The post Paul Cejas sells Star Island mansion to private equity investor for $20M appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

212 Spyglass Lane & Carlos Gavidia (Realtor, Instagram/Carlos_E_Gavidia)

Carlos E. Gavidia, the organizer of the “Trumptilla” boat parade, sold his waterfront Jupiter home for $5.7 million.

Gavidia and his wife, Laura, sold their five-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom house at 212 Spyglass Lane to the James F. Mooney Jr. Trust, according to records.

James “Jim” Mooney III, a managing director at Boston-based hedge fund Baupost Group LLC, had sold his house at 116 Victory Drive in Jupiter earlier this month, using the James F. Mooney Jr. Trust, as well.

His new purchase, the 7,364-square-foot house in the Admirals Cove community, features a pool, a dock and 120 feet of water frontage. Bruce Frank with The Sheehan Agency represented Gavidia, while Dick Capozzi of Admirals Cove Realty Co. represented the buyer.

The home has been on and off the market in recent years. It was listed for $6.3 million in 2017, and relisted in May of this year at $6 million.

Gavidia paid $3 million for the house in 2012, records show. It was built in 1993.

Gavidia, who was previously CEO and president of Direct Connect LLC, a provider of electronic payment processing solutions, organized the President Trump boat parade in May, after his Trump-wrapped boat garnered attention.

According to Gavidia’s LinkedIn page, he has since been hired as a committee member of the Trump Victory Finance Committee.

Last month, Gavidia was charged with issuing a written threat to kill or do bodily injury after an altercation with a resident of Admirals Cove, tied to Gavidia’s support of President Trump, according to the Palm Beach Post.

The Palm Beach market has not slowed down during the pandemic. This month, a spec home in Palm Beach sold for $6 million; and Christoper A. Sinclair, the former CEO and executive chairman at Mattel, and his wife, Margaret, bought a house for $9.9 million.

The post “Trumptilla” organizer sells waterfront Jupiter home for $6M appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

1100 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami

Amid local mandates for face masks, a Miami real estate agent faces eviction from a downtown condo tower for allegedly appearing maskless in the common areas.

The Marquis Miami Condominium Association filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court last month against unit owner Optibase Real Estate Miami and its tenant, Jalal Abuimweis. The 67-story, 292-unit luxury high-rise at 1100 Biscayne Boulevard bills itself as the fifth tallest building in Miami.

The association considers Abuimweis’ behavior a “nuisance” that could hurt other tenants. “The other residents of the condominium, including those who are elderly or immunocompromised, should be able to use the common elements without Tenant violating local health ordinances,” according to the lawsuit.

Attorneys for the condo association did not return a request for comment, nor did Optibase representatives. Optibase is a publicly traded Israel-based real estate investor with properties and interests in Switzerland, Texas, Philadelphia, Miami and Chicago, according to its website.

Abuimweis said he was not aware of the lawsuit and had to speak with his lawyer.

According to documents attached to the lawsuit, Abuimweis signed a lease for Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30 of this year. He pays $3,650 a month for unit 4108.

Abuimweis posts regularly to several social media accounts, where he proclaims himself “The King of Miami Real Estate,” a slogan he has trademarked. He has an Instagram account of 6,000 posts and 26,000 followers, plus a YouTube account with 1,000 subscribers. State records show he has a current but inactive real estate agent’s license that expires at the end of the year.

His videos include information on real estate and self-help advice. In multiple videos and posts, he does not wear a mask while out in public. In some videos, he refers to the global pandemic as a “scamdemic.” Florida does not have a statewide mask rule, but Miami-Dade County and some cities, including Miami, do. Miami imposes a fine of at least $50 for those who refuse to wear a mask in public spaces.

A previous tenant in Abuimweis’ condo also faced eviction. The association accused him of bringing a naked woman through the common areas and allegedly harassing the property manager. That tenant voluntarily moved out last year, according to court filings. That tenant paid $3,750 a month for his unit.

Listings on the Marquis’ website shows condos for sale from $545,000 for a one-bedroom, up to $9.9 million for four bedrooms in 8,000 square feet. Former New England Patriots tight end Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski closed on a condo at Marquis Miami last year for $1.7 million.

Rents range from $3,500 for a 1,557-square-foot two-bedroom, to $6,995 for a three-bedroom, 2,888-square-foot unit, according to the tower’s website.

The Marquis’ condo association is no stranger to the court system. Last year, it filed a lawsuit for an alleged violation of the building’s ban on daily and weekly rentals.

Management at the Marquis previously told The Real Deal it took steps early on to protect health during the pandemic, including purchasing about 22,000 masks and thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer.

At least one other case of potential eviction over not wearing a face mask has popped up in the U.S., in Montana. The website for the attorney general for Washington, D.C., explicitly states that apartment tenants must wear masks indoors and stay six feet from others who are not in their household. The Hawaii Public Housing Authority passed rules to mandate mask-wearing in the common areas of public housing, with eviction possible after two warnings.

Florida currently has a ban on the final action of residential foreclosures and evictions that lasts through October. The order only applies to residential properties, and it does not cover tenants whose leases expired or any other non-payment that is not attributable to the coronavirus pandemic.

The state faces a deluge of residential evictions and foreclosures once the stay is lifted, similar to the cluttered court dockets seen in the last recession. Judges will likely be overwhelmed with cases, experts say.

The post Marquis vs. ‘The King of Miami Real Estate’: Condo tower seeks to evict agent for not wearing face mask appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Miami-Dade and Broward counties will enter phase two of reopening on Monday, but that doesn’t mean bars and nightclubs can open in South Florida.

The move into phase two allows in-person schooling to begin in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, but does not force students to attend classes in person.

For Miami-Dade County, new openings won’t be announced until a later date. Mayor Carlos Gimenez said his administration will look at what businesses can reopen in the next phase. Businesses such as movie theaters and bowling alleys have remained closed, and Gimenez reiterated that the county will not be reopening bars and nightclubs next week.

In a separate press conference, Broward County Mayor Dale Holness said that Broward was already allowing some business in phase two to operate, including movie theaters, and he emphasized that the move “doesn’t mean we stop utilizing face masks and social distancing.”

Palm Beach County entered the second phase of the state’s reopening on Tuesday, and is doing so on an incremental basis.

The state has been loosening restrictions as the positivity rate declines in Florida. Next week, bars and breweries will be allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity statewide, with the exception of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The post DeSantis moves Miami-Dade, Broward counties into phase two appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Brookfield’s Brian Kingston (iStock)

Brookfield Asset Management is looking to shed a self-storage portfolio that spans 23 states.

The Canadian asset manager — the parent of Brookfield Property Partners — is looking for private suitors in order to offload Simply Self Storage for $1.3 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Brookfield purchased the storage company in 2016 and more than doubled its footprint from 90 locations to over 200 in two years. In 2018, it sold off a $1.3 billion portion of the company to a joint venture between National Storage Affiliates Trust and an affiliate of Heitman Capital Management.

Now, Simply Self Storage operates more than 120 locations across 23 states including Texas, Florida, New York and California.

Brookfield has also increased its investment in Simply Self Storage by more than twofold after its acquisition, Bloomberg reported, citing a 2019 investor presentation. [Bloomberg] — Georgia Kromrei

The post Brookfield looks to shed self-storage portfolio for $1.3B appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

This week, TRD viewers were looking back on a few favorite videos. From the opening of Hudson Yards to peeking inside the Robert A.M. Stern Architects workshop to exploring the 10 oldest apartment buildings in NYC, these were our top 5 videos on YouTube.

The 10 oldest surviving apartment buildings in NYC

Long before housing options ran the gamut from ground floor studio apartments to and skyrise penthouses, there were only two type of NYC apartment: townhouses and tenements. Way back in 1870 the first apartment buildings were built on 18th Street–where Blackstone’s StuyTown is today. A few buildings from that period still stand, including the Chelsea Hotel and The Dakota. Check them all out in the video above.

Inside the workshop of Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Robert A.M. Stern Architects has built some of the most visible buildings in NYC–from 220 Central Park South to One Museum Mile to 30 Park Place–but few get to see inside their workshop. Back in 2016, TRD went inside to learn about their hive mind philosophy, the architects’ drink of choice, and, of course, how they shape skylines for years to come. Check in out in this video.

Hudson Yards Opening Ceremony

Ah, Hudson Yards pre-Covid. So hopeful. Viewers revisited the 2019 opening ceremony, which featured a slew of special guests (including, oddly, Big Bird). Hudson Yards is still making our headlines as the retail and office sectors struggle, but you can watch this video for a look back to a happier time in HY.

Everything you need to know about Opportunity Zones

Opportunity Zones are still a hot topic in real estate. With a recent executive order looking to move federal agencies into OZs, some of our viewers looked back on this explainer video to understand just how the program works. Find out for yourself above.

Million Dollar Listing Q&A | TRD Forum

MLDNY may not be back yet, but real estate reality TV fans tuned in to this Q&A to relive some favorite moments. Back in 2015 we had stars Fredrik Eklund, Ryan Serhant, and Luis Ortiz join us at our showcase where they laid out the business behind the Bravo hit. Relive the panel here. (Psst: you can also check out Eklund when he joins us on TRD Talks Live Wednesday, September 23rd. Register here.

The post Five vintage videos TRD viewers loved this week appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Shaquille O’Neal circa 1996 and the Orlando estate (Getty; Estate courtesy Sotheby’s)

NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal has listed his Shaq-sized mansion outside Orlando for $19.5 million.

It’s the second time the four-acre lakefront estate has been on the market since 2018, when O’Neal asked $28 million for the property, according to Variety. Later that year he cut the ask to $21.9 million.

Shaq bought the then-23,000-square-foot mansion in 1993 during his rookie year in the NBA with the Orlando Magic.
He expanded the Neo-colonial mansion to an even larger 35,000 square feet. It now has 12 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a 6,000-square-foot indoor basketball court, and a garage with parking for 17 vehicles.

One of the family rooms is home to the front section of a big rig truck with O’Neal’s nickname, “Diesel,” painted across the bumper, according to Variety.

The oversized circular bed in the 1,000-square-foot suite features the Superman logo, which O’Neal has identified with over the years. The logo shows up plenty of other places around the house.

There’s also a smoking room with a walk-in humidor and an Egyptian-themed room with a triangular saltwater fish tank.
Out back there’s a 95-foot-long swimming pool and an outdoor kitchen. The property has 700 feet of lake frontage and a two-slip private boat dock.

In the last three years, O’Neal has purchased homes outside Atlanta and in Los Angeles’ Bell Canyon. The latter is also on the market, currently asking $2.3 million. [Variety] — Dennis Lynch

The post Shaq lists Shaq-sized Orlando estate for $20M appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Singapore (iStock)

Singapore’s residential market rebounded in the second quarter, reversing a sharp downturn brought on by the pandemic.

The recovery accelerated in June as new sales hit 998 units, nearly doubling the total from the month before, according to World Property Journal, citing data from real estate consulting firm Edmund Tie.

The trend kept going into the third quarter, as July figures reached 1,080 home sales, the highest number since November 2019, according to the report. Pricing, however, was relatively flat. Sales prices rose 0.3 percent in the second quarter, compared to Q1. Singaporeans accounted for 80 percent of condominiums sales, up from 77 percent in the first quarter.

Lam Chern Woon of Edmund Tie said the turnaround “could be attributed to the pent-up demand,” and “swift fiscal and monetary interventions by the government to bolster the economy.”

Those include some property tax rebates implemented by the government, along with policies meant to reduce pressure on buyers from taxes and debt.

Buyers appeared to be conservative in their purchases in the second quarter — transactions for properties under $1 million increased five percentage points quarter-over-quarter. More buyers showed a preference for properties over 500 square feet. [WPJ] — Dennis Lynch

The post Singapore’s housing market storms back appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Douglas Durst and a rendering of the project (Getty, DRWC)

The Durst Organization’s $2.2 billion riverfront redevelopment plan in Philadelphia has beaten out a competing proposal by the Philadelphia 76ers to build a new stadium.

The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation approved Durst’s 12-tower project on the Penn’s Landing property, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Durst redevelopment project includes a total 3.5 million square feet of new mixed-use space. The north site will include 1,800 residential units and 94,000 square feet of office space. It will also have a supermarket, a preschool, and other retail space.

The south site will have six smaller towers with 550 residential units and 26,500 square feet of commercial space.

The development is planned in phases over nine years.

Durst’s was the only bid of the four — including the 76ers — that did not require some sort of tax break or public subsidy, according to the report. That appeared to contribute heavily to the selection.

The 76ers valued their development plan at $4 billion, but it required a large tax break. It included a 19,000-seat arena, high-rise towers with retail and restaurants, a public school, apartments, medical offices, and a park. [Inquirer] — Dennis Lynch 

The post Durst’s $2B Philly waterfront redevelopment project approved appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

The world’s tallest tower, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, became the centerpiece of an over-the-top gender reveal party for a local influencer couple. (Credit: Anas and Asala Marwah via YouTube)

A Dubai-based influencer couple wanted the world to see the gender of their unborn baby, and what better way to do that than on the side of the world’s tallest tower.

Anas and Asala Marwah learned the sex of their second child when “It’s a boy!” was projected on the side of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, according to the National.

The couple said they didn’t know the child’s gender before the big reveal, and said the doctor’s confirmation was handed directly to the people organizing the light show.

The video was posted on their YouTube channel on Tuesday and has been watched more than 13 million times.

It’s unclear who paid for the reveal, but the couple included the hashtags #MyDubai and #ThankYouEmaar in the description. The first hashtag was created by the city’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. The latter referenced the Burj Khalifa’s owner, Emaar Properties.

The timing of the video was somewhat awkward — Tuesday also brought reports that fireworks at a gender reveal party in California’s San Bernardino County sparked a fire that had burned at least 10,000 acres.

Jenna Karvunidis, a blogger credited with starting the gender reveal party trend, took to Facebook following reports of the California incident to implore people to stop hosting them, according to CNN.

“Stop having these stupid parties. For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid’s penis,” she wrote. “No one cares but you.” [The National] — Dennis Lynch 

The post High above sky, Burj Khalifa light show reveals baby’s gender appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

The apartment complex (CBRE)

The U.S. government has agreed to sell a compound in a prime Hong Kong neighborhood to local developer Hang Lung Properties for $332 million.

The 26-unit property served as residences for local consulate staff. Hang Lung Properties plans to redevelop it with luxury detached houses, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The complex totals 95,000 square feet and the sale price is considered a major discount for the area. Prices for Hong Kong properties across sectors have been trending downward over the last year as a result of sustained civil unrest in the territory and the coronavirus pandemic.

With the property offering 47,400 square feet of floor area available for redevelopment, the sale price comes out to around $7,000 per square foot. That’s more than a third less than what developer China Resources Land paid per square foot for a comparable, neighboring property in 2018.

News broke in June that the property was on the market. At the time, the U.S. State Department said the sale was part of a wider reinvestment push.

A State Department spokesperson said the sale “will not affect our presence, staffing, or operations in any way,” according to the Journal. Some of the proceeds from the sale will be reinvested into other U.S.-owned properties in Hong Kong.

The U.S. and China have clashed over the latter’s increased political involvement in the historically independent territory.

The sale is expected to close by the end of the year. Hang Lung said that in total the firm would invest about $516 million into the property, including the cost of acquisition. It hopes to complete the redevelopment by 2024. [WSJ] — Dennis Lynch 

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Demi Lovato (Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Demi Lovato is off to the San Fernando Valley.

The actor and musician paid $7 million for an 8,500-square-foot home in Studio City, according to Variety. The two-story property has six bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

Lovato sold her larger Hollywood Hills mansion in June for $8.25 million. She had put it on the market in 2018 for $9.5 million.

The Studio City house is new construction and done in the modern farmhouse style that has recently become popular. It has all the features one can expect with the price tag.

The kitchen has top-of-the line appliances and a huge island. There’s a large walk-in closet, a wine cellar and a plush home theater. There’s also a sizable gym.

While the property spans less than an acre, it uses the space well. A short gated driveway leads to a two-car garage and a longer gated driveway leads to a subterranean parking for up to four vehicles.

Both the dining room and the living room open up to the backyard via floor-to-ceiling glass doors. The backyard has a trellis-covered dining area, lounge, fire pit, pool, bar and a small lawn. At the end of the yard is a pool house.

The home’s security system and audio/visual equipment is also hooked to a smart home system, according to Variety. [NYP] — Dennis Lynch 

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Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg with a rendering of the Farley Post Office redevelopment and Google’s Sundar Pichai with a rendering of St. John’s Terminal (Getty; COOKFOX Architects; VNO) 

Facebook grew its New York footprint gradually at first, occupying 55,000 feet at 335 Madison Ave and then 100,000 square feet at 770 Broadway prior to 2014. The company had fewer than 6,500 employees then, and its stock was trading below its IPO price.

By 2017, Facebook’s share price had tripled, the company recorded $40.6 billion in revenue and Mark Zuckerberg’s online empire had 1,000 employees working in Manhattan alone — just 4 percent of its 25,000 total staff.

The social network’s real estate ambitions quickly grew from there. In the past year, Facebook has inked office lease deals for more than 1.5 million square feet at Hudson Yards and 730,000 feet at Vornado Realty Trust’s Farley Post Office redevelopment in Midtown.

The Farley deal was disclosed in early August; just a few months after Zuckerberg announced plans to move half of his company’s 48,000 employees to permanent remote work over the next five years.

But Facebook’s rapid expansion into Manhattan’s office market, its new work-from-home policy, and publicly available data all suggest the company’s demand for new office space will likely be a fraction of what it would have been without Covid-19. The same goes for its rival Google, which has been on an office expansion tear for years. And while Amazon’s future is less scripted, with the e-commerce giant’s HQ2 long behind it, a piecemeal approach to new offices is safer until the pandemic ends.

Facebook is currently worth over $750 billion. Google, which steadily purchased its vast expanse of office space, is valued at more than a $1 trillion. Amazon is up to $1.5 trillion. The market cap of each has more than doubled since 2017. IBM by comparison, which is also seeking office space in the city, has lost value since then and is valued at just over $100 billion.

The irony is that “companies which are growing fastest need office space the least,” said Dror Poleg, the author of “Rethinking Real Estate.”

“Landlords miss the office most,” he argued, because it’s the product they sell.

The pandemic has made that more true now than ever, as Facebook, Google and Amazon are allowing all of their employees to work remotely until at least July 2021.

Even after Amazon announced its purchase of the Lord & Taylor building from WeWork for $1.1 billion, with plans to use the 630,000 square feet of space for 600 new workers, Poleg questioned the deal’s significance.

“Who cares?” he asked. “We’re excited that Amazon is filling a building they already bought? It seems like landlord-fueled spin. Why aren’t they [completely] filling the building?”

So far this year, Amazon’s valuation has increased 79 percent; one of its shares costs $3,400.

The long haul

Landlords had a big reason to celebrate when 2019 marked the third straight year that tech office leasing in Manhattan surpassed 3 million square feet and the biggest year for tech leasing on record, per CBRE.

By this summer, the tech industry’s “Big Three” were committed to well over 8 million square feet in total, with Facebook reaching 3 million square feet by itself — an amount that was always going to be a stretch for the social network.

Mayor Bill de Blasio touted in August that the company will soon employ 10,000 people in the city, calling its deal with Vornado at the Farley Building “the first major new lease for the post-Covid era” despite it being negotiated in 2019.

As of last year, the social media giant employed about 3,000 people in Manhattan.

In addition to its six floors and sole roof access at 770 Broadway — Facebook’s current New York City headquarters — the company’s Hudson Yards and Farley Building office leases yield enough space for 14,000 workers, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment about its hiring timeline, or whether the company would consolidate its office space in the city, now spread across six buildings.

A spokesperson for Google told TRD that the company has no plans to sell its New York City office buildings, which now span more than 3.5 million square feet.

But the spokesperson also said Google, which employs about 10,000 people in the city, plans to take a more conservative approach to hiring across the board.

Google’s largest building purchase closed in 2010, when its share price first broke $300. The company acquired just over 2 million square feet at 111 8th Avenue. In 2018, the same year it bought the Chelsea Market building for a near-record $2.4 billion, Google’s share price was consistently above $1,000.

Today, one share of Google stock is worth more than $1,500.

Google is currently preparing a 1.7 million-square-foot New York campus with lease agreements at 315 and 345 Hudson Street, and a signed letter of intent at 550 Washington Street. The west side deals bring its total office space to more than 5.2 million square feet.

Supply and demand

When too much supply meets too little demand, the sublease market tends to become more active, serving as a bellwether for the real estate industry as companies look to offload their surplus space.

Heidi Learner, CBRE’s head of real assets research, said she expects a 15 to 20 percent increase in the supply of sublease space between the second and third quarter and a 10 to 15 percent rise in the availability of direct lease space in the same period.

“There is currently a structural drop in office demand not seen in past recessions,” said Learner, who added that the financial services industry, a juggernaut of the office market, may find working from home more onerous due to strict industry compliance rules.

More than six months after the pandemic began, less than 10 percent of employees in Midtown and FiDi have returned to their offices, according to a late-May survey by the Partnership for New York City, a leading business group.

“We’re in a period of price discovery now,” said Michael Soto, a research director at the Savills, who called uncertainty in the urban office market a worrying trend. “There will be landlords who might realize, wow, occupancy rates are down, and we might not cover debt service on our building.”

If prices in the urban office market soften, investors will have to cope with more modest financial returns, said Sharon Zukin, a CUNY sociology professor and author of “The Innovation Complex.”

“Even venture capitalists think the rent they pay is too damn high,” Zukin added.

Seismic shifts

At the same time, bigger changes in the country’s leasing office markets are on the horizon, Poleg noted.

“Two shifts that Covid will create in cities are that people will spend less time in the office, and they will want their offices to be closer to home,” he noted.

Providers of flexible office space from WeWork to Hana, a CBRE subsidiary, see business opportunity in partnering with tenants as well as landlords. Georgia Collins, Hana’s vice president of global client strategy, said the flex-space company will help firms manage their excess space, and team up with developers who desire flex-space providers as a pre-lease tenant.

Collins expects flex spaces to become more popular near people’s homes. “You can’t work from home forever if you have three roommates,” she said.

That may also come down to the tech industry’s remote work policies, which will heavily depend on public safety and the economics of office space.

Of course, the country’s biggest tech companies can afford to be optimistic. Facebook was sitting on more than $54 billion in cash at the end of last year, Amazon had $55 billion, and Google disclosed it had more than $119 billion.

A fire sale of Google- or Amazon-owned real estate, or an attempt by Facebook to ditch its leased office space, is unlikely.

But a handful of tech giants may only go so far for the city’s office market.

“It’s good that companies like Facebook feel confident,” Soto said, “but they can’t support the entire market. There is only so much Facebook, Amazon, and Google to go around.”

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Shoppes of Coral Way (Google Maps)

A South Florida investor is looking to sell a CVS and Office Depot-anchored shopping center along Coral Way in Miami.

Rajen Properties, tied to investor Arnold Wax, is listing the Shoppes of Coral Way at 2690 Southwest 22nd Street for $24.2 million. Marcus & Millichap has the listing for the 48,993-square-foot shopping strip, which takes up an entire block.

The more than 3-acre property, on the southeast corner of Coral Way and Southwest 27th Avenue, was developed in 1995. Five of the seven tenants have occupied space since it opened, according to a press release.

Wax has invested in commercial and residential real estate throughout South Florida. Records show Rajen Properties paid $21 million for the Coral Way property in 2015.

The property is zoned for up to five stories of mixed-use development. Kirk Olson of Marcus & Millichap said the CVS Pharmacy is the region’s best performing, and that both anchors have performed well during the pandemic.

A CVS and drive-thru bank sold in Margate earlier this month for $7 million. Another CVS-leased building in Hialeah sold in July for $11 million. In recent months, two Walgreens locations in Lauderdale Lakes and North Palm Beach sold for $8.1 million and $6.9 million, respectively.

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