Ruby Tuesday introduced plans to close 185 of its restaurants (Ildar Sagdejev via Wikipedia Commons)

Yet another chain is seeking bankruptcy protection after the pandemic decimated its business.

The restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, introducing with it plans to close 185 locations, USA Today reports. The filing will leave the franchise with 236 operating restaurants.

The company hopes to stay in business, saying in a statement that it had “reached an understanding with its secured lenders to support its restructuring.”

“This announcement does not mean ‘Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday’ but ‘Hello, to a stronger Ruby Tuesday’,” CEO Shawn Lederman said in a statement on the company’s website.

Sit-down restaurants have been battered by a pandemic that shut down restaurants completely, putting a halt to indoor dining for months in some areas.

But Ruby Tuesday was facing headwinds long before. In court filings, Lederman noted that the chain was challenged by increasing competition from fast-food and fast-casual companies, reduced traffic to its mall-based locations and the rise of new food delivery options.

[USA Today] — Sasha Jones

The post Ruby Tuesday will close 185 restaurants appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Kolter’s Bobby Julien and a rendering of the project (Kobi Karp)

Kolter Urban got the green light to develop 3000 Alhambra, a high-rise oceanside condominium development in Fort Lauderdale.

City commissioners on Tuesday gave final approval to a rezoning and site plan for the project at 3000 Alhambra Street that developer Kolter Urban dramatically redesigned. They voted 5-0 to approve a two-building, 26-story development with 215 units. Kolter executives were unavailable for comment.

Kolter Urban, part of Delray Beach-based Kolter Group, also plans to build retail-store and restaurant space spanning 5,150 square feet, along with 497 parking spaces, including 120 public parking spaces. The project architect is Miami-based Kobi Karp.

Commissioners also voted unanimously to change the zoning of the development site from A-1-A Beachfront Area District to Planned Development District, to raise the maximum building height from 240 feet to 300 feet. The height of the redesigned 3000 Alhambra development is 299 feet and five inches.

The original 18-story, 310-unit design drew criticism from condo owners in the central beach area of Fort Lauderdale who complained that 3000 Alhambra would block “view corridors” from street level to the ocean.

The revised site plan has two buildings instead of one, as initially proposed, and it has 95 fewer condo units and 8,000 fewer square feet of retail and restaurant space than the original site plan, which Kolter submitted to the city government in March 2018. The revised site plan sets the two condo buildings about 68 feet apart and includes about 48,400 square feet of public open space on the ground level of the property.

“No one liked” the original site plan, Fort Lauderdale Vice Mayor Steven Glassman said at a meeting of commissioners on Sept. 15, when they initially voted in favor of the rezoning and revised site plan for 3000 Alhambra, located in the city district Glassman represents.

The original site plan “had a lot of massing. It was very square and fat,” Stephanie Toothaker, an attorney for Kolter, said at the city commission meeting on Sept. 15. “We ‘skinnied up’ the buildings,” she said.

The 2.6-acre site is between North Birch Road and State Road A1A. Kolter acquired it in exchange for property near the historic Bonnet House in a 2017 swap with the Fort Lauderdale government.

“The intent of the land swap was to relocate more intense development away from the historic Bonnet House property and to provide parking in the North Beach area, which was deemed a significant need for the area,” according to a staff report by the Fort Lauderdale Planning and Zoning Board. The board unanimously approved Kolter’s proposed rezoning and site plan revisions on July 15.

The post Kolter wins approval for oceanside Fort Lauderdale condo development appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

1753 North View Drive and 1771 North View Drive (Credit: Google Maps)

Two adjacent waterfront properties on Miami Beach’s Sunset Islands sold to the same buyer for $44.5 million, and one of the houses previously belonged to Enrique Iglesias.

Property records show philanthropists Israel and Tania Lapciuc sold 1753 North View Drive to the Sunset Island Land Trust for $28.5 million, and Spanish Rose LLC sold 1771 North View Drive to the same trust for $16 million.

The combined sales mark one of the largest in recent months in Miami Beach, a market that has been flooded with New Yorkers and buyers from other high-tax states.

The larger property at 1753 North View Drive includes an eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 10,158-square-foot mansion. The Lapciucs have owned the property since 1978, when they paid $600,000 for the home, originally built in 1938, records show.

Spanish Rose, led by former Formula One racer and spec home developer Eddie Irvine, sold the nine-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 5,285-square-foot home next door at 1771 North View Drive.

Iglesias owned the property in the early 2000s, and sold it to Marc Puleo, the founder and former CEO of 1-800 PetMeds. Puleo then sold it to the Irvine-led LLC a year ago for $13 million. It was built in 1937, according to records.

It was most recently on the market with Reinis Cirulis of Sir Realty LLC.

Together, the Sunset Island I lots total more than 1.7 acres.

Nearby on Sunset Island III, architect Kobi Karp sold the property at 1420 West 23rd Street to spec home developer Todd Michael Glaser and Rony Seikaly, who plan to list the completed home for nearly $18 million.

In August, Randy Frankel, the co-owner of the Tampa Bay Rays, and his wife Barbara paid $14.4 million for the spec home at 1635 West 22nd Street on Sunset Island IV. Glaser and Seikaly sold that property.

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364 Golden Beach Drive & Moshe Manoah (Realtor)

Moshe Manoah, co-founder and principal of the real estate investment firm Crown Holdings Group bought a waterfront Golden Beach home for $5.3 million.

Records show Manoah and his wife, Nava, purchased the home at 364 Golden Beach Drive from Joseph L. Saka, a trustee of the 364 Golden Beach Land Trust.

Atlanta-based Crown Holdings is a real estate group that acquires and develops commercial and residential real estate in the Southeast, according to its website.

The Manoah family recently sold a Fort Lauderdale home for $6.1 million.

Alan Eskenazi Bone with Miles Goldstein Real Estate had the Golden Beach listing.

Records show 364 Golden Beach Land Trust purchased the home in 2015, the same year it was built, for $4.6 million.

The house was first listed in February at $6.9 million. The price dropped to $6.375 million four months later. It sold for $1.075 million or 17 percent less than the last asking price.

The 5,363-square-foot home has six bedrooms, six-and-a-half bathrooms, 75 feet of water frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway and a pool.

Golden Beach, a small oceanfront town north of Sunny Isles Beach, has been home to Tommy Hilfiger, photographer Bruce Weber, Tom Joyner and Ricky Martin. In June, the house at 125 Ocean Boulevard sold for $7.2 million.

In August, the Golden Beach mansion of late real estate developer Sidney Levy, at 577 Ocean Boulevard, hit the market for $23.95 million.

The post Real estate honcho buys waterfront Golden Beach home for $5M appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Carl Liebert and Gary Keller (Courtesy of Keller Williams, iStock)

Gary Keller is stepping down from his post as CEO of Keller Williams while the brokerage undergoes a broader corporate restructuring.

Keller, who co-founded the national franchise firm in 1983 with Joe Williams, has been the CEO since 2019, when he took over from John Davis. At that point Keller had been out of the C-suite for more than two decades, and was serving as chairman of Keller Williams’ board of directors.

He will now serve as executive chairman of the board, according to a company release. In an email to company executives Wednesday, Keller said stepping down was a goal he’d been “working toward for many months” and it would allow him “the opportunity to get back to my passion — placing my focus on the vision for our industry.”

In the email, Keller said Josh Team was assuming all his former duties and responsibilities, but not the title of CEO. Keller Williams Realty will no longer have a CEO, and Team will continue in the role of president.

The changes reflect a restructuring of the company, primarily due to the founding of a holding company, KWx, which will represent all of its affiliates and subsidiaries, including Keller Williams Realty, and its mortgage and home insurance businesses.

KWx, however, will have a CEO. Carl Liebert, a seasoned executive and former naval officer, will assume the role. Keller will be the executive chairman of KWx as well as Keller Williams.

Over his career, Liebert’s been in the C-suite at bank USAA, Home Depot, General Electric and was the CEO of 24-Hour Fitness from 2006 to 2013. In August 2019, Liebert was fired from his role as the CEO of automotive retailer AutoNation after only four months on the job. At the time, AutoNation’s executive chairman Mike Jackson told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that Liebert was “not a good fit.”

Keller called Liebert’s track record of managing “customer-driven transformations” and retail strategy in “perfect alignment” with the next phase of the company’s growth.

In a statement, Liebert said working alongside Keller was “a compelling opportunity.”

As a privately-held company, Keller Williams voluntarily reports select financials each quarter. In the second quarter, when many parts of the country were in lockdown due to the pandemic, sales volume and inventory plunged. But Team maintained that the company “outpaced the industry” in terms of closed transactions.

Sales volume for the quarter was $85.3 billion, down 15 percent year over year. As of the end of Q2, Keller Williams had nearly 11,000 agents internationally.

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Cushman’s Brett White and Newmark’s Barry Gosin (Getty)

Newmark Group recently rejected a takeover offer from rival Cushman & Wakefield.

Newmark was not interested in the deal, in part because Cushman carries a high debt load, sources with knowledge of the offer told Bloomberg News. Cushman has about $3.8 billion in debt, which is larger than its market capitalization of roughly $2.6 billion.

“Cushman & Wakefield has certainly benefited from ongoing consolidation as a leader in our industry, but we won’t comment on this, or any, market rumor,” Cushman spokesperson Brad Kreiger told Bloomberg in a statement.

Representatives from Newmark did not respond to the publication’s requests.

Although talks between Newmark and Cushman appear to have fallen off, they show an interest for more consolidation in the commercial real estate services sector. Last year, JLL acquired HFF for $2 billion.

The current incarnation of Cushman is the result of private equity firm TPG Capital buying the brokerage in 2015 for $2 billion and combining it with the brokerage Cassidy Turley before taking the new firm public in 2018. [Bloomberg News] — Rich Bockmann

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Yonel Devico and Jean-Marc Orlando of Lakeport Capital (LinkedIn)

As an increasing number of borrowers skip their mortgage payments, opportunistic investors have been on the lookout for distressed loans sold off at discount prices.

A new venture intends to acquire up to $175 million in delinquent loans on properties across the country, particularly in New York City and Miami. The funding will start with a commitment of $25 million.

Real estate investment firm Lakeport Capital will acquire non-performing loan portfolios on condos and single-family homes. Lakeport will receive most of its funding from a “division of one of the top 50 global banks,” which will serve as its venture partner. Financial technology platform Finitive matched the bank with Lakeport. Neither Lakeport nor Finitive would identify the bank.

The venture will focus on condo loans on existing properties and on buildings in development, said Yonel Devico, Lakeport co-founder.

“The condo market in both New York and Miami is pretty bad,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “There is a lot of inventory and it’s not selling.”

In particular, Devico pointed to distressed mortgages on luxury condos that foreign buyers had scooped up. Some of those buyers put down hefty deposits on units in Miami or New York, then ran into financial trouble and had to take out bridge loans to pay the remainder of the purchase price. These loans are now in default, Devico said.

Devico previously worked at Société Générale’s equity derivatives group in Paris. Jean-Marc Orlando, Lakeport’s other co-founder, is a former BNP Paribas executive.

Finitive is led by founder and CEO Jon Barlow.

The venture intends to buy the loans from banks, nonbank lenders, hedge funds and private credit funds that want to push the mortgages off their balance sheets.

“Some lenders and banks are having issues in other parts of their business like corporate debt and commercial real estate debt, and sometimes they need to unload good assets at a discount to cover losses,” he said.

The venture is seeking to buy defaulted mortgages at a loan-to-value ratio of no more than 70 percent. Lakeport will then work with homeowners to help them catch up with payments and refinancing to remain in their homes.

The announcement comes at a time when many borrowers have fallen deeper into debt. Residential mortgages that were at least 90-day delinquent increased to 3.72 percent in the second quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That was the highest rate in a decade.

During the last recession, opportunistic investors were able to scoop up luxury condos in cities like Miami for pennies on the dollar. Now, there is a similar sentiment among some industry pros. But because buyers generally have to put down higher deposits on condos, the level of distress isn’t as great, developers contend.

Investment firms like Churchill Real Estate started raising money last year to buy distressed debt focusing on condo and retail projects. Churchill also recently secured $2 billion to provide debt on residential real estate, with banks having backed away from lending due to market distress.

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Jorge Perez, Mario Procida, and Lewis Swezy (Credit: Sergi Alexander/Getty Images)

Miami-Dade County approved short-term leases that will enable three developers — the Related Group, Centennial Management Corp. and Procida Development Group — to redevelop county-owned affordable housing projects in south Miami-Dade.

Approving short-term, 11-month leases, during a commission meeting on Tuesday, was the first step of a longer process under the federal government’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program. Once a developer has established site control and financing, a decades-long lease will be executed.

Miami-Dade aims to redevelop 7,718 housing units under the RAD program. In the case of the three South Miami-Dade projects, the three developers will include hundreds of mixed-income apartments with affordable housing units.

5949 Southwest 68th Street (Credit: Google Maps)

RUDG LLC, which is affiliated with the Miami-based Related Group, beat four other competitors for the right to turn the 58-unit South Miami Gardens at 5949 Southwest 68th Street into a 480-unit facility with 58 apartments earmarked as affordable.

11351 Southwest 216th Street (Credit: Google Maps)

Centennial Management Corp., based in Miami Lakes, beat out two rivals with its plan to transform the 289-unit Arthur Mays Villas at 11351 Southwest 216th Street with a 672-unit project that includes 289 affordable units.

1501 Southwest 6th Street (Credit: Google Maps)

Procida Development Group of New York was unopposed in its bid to rebuild the 150-unit Homestead Gardens at 1501 Southwest 6th Street into a 300-unit building with 150 affordable units.

A pair of aging affordable housing projects in Perrine were going to be awarded to Miami-based Atlantic Pacific Communities, but that was delayed after its competitor, Miami-based Pinnacle, filed a bid protest.

Pinnacle claimed its bid to redevelop Perrine Gardens and Perrine Villas was sunk by the low scoring from a single member of the selection committee.

Pinnacle’s lobbyist, Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a former county commissioner, claimed that Pinnacle’s concept, which was not included in the county commission agenda, was superior and would have netted between $12 million and $14 million more in revenue for Miami-Dade than Atlantic Pacific’s. Pinnacle’s proposal also included a “homeownership component” that would help “take people out of poverty,” Diaz de la Portilla added.

Atlantic Pacific planned to build a pair of mixed-income rental projects totaling between 758 and 918 apartments, with 178 units designated as affordable, once it obtained a 75-year-lease with the county. The firm was also going to pay the county a lump sum of $10,000 per unit, 10 percent of its revenue from the project, and $1,700 a month to the county’s Public Housing & Community Development department during construction.

Built in 1975, the 13.5-acre Perrine Gardens currently has 158 affordable units in several low-rise buildings. The 37-year-old Perrine Villas, which is 3,200 feet away from Perrine Gardens, has 20 units on a 2-acre site at 10000 West Jessamine Street. It’s also a half-mile away from a county-owned parcel where Atlantic Pacific wants to build Quayle Roost Transit Village, consisting of 500 units, including 140 affordable units.

Atlantic Pacific’s lobbyist, Miguel de Grandy, told commissioners that Pinnacle only complained about the scoring process of the selection committee “after the game is played and the players have left the field.” He insisted there’s no evidence that a single-member of the selection committee changed the total scoring in which it earned the most points. “Pinnacle had to find an issue where none existed to build its house of cards, but like any house of cards it falls when the winds of actual facts [blow,]” de Grandy said.

Staffers from the county’s Internal Services Department and Public Housing & Community Development also said they found no evidence that Pinnacle’s bid was killed by a single selection member’s scoring. Namita Uppal, the county’s chief procurement officer, said after she eliminated the highest and lowest scores, Atlantic Pacific’s proposal still won.

Still, Pinnacle co-founder and partner Dave Deutch asked county commissioners to either award the contract to his company, or refer the bid to the county’s housing committee on Oct. 20.

In the end, the decision on what to do next was deferred to the area’s district commissioner, Dennis Moss. “I am sitting here smiling because we have two outstanding organizations that are fighting over the [right to develop] some of our public housing units in Miami-Dade County,” Moss said. The commissioner then suggested that a “hearing examiner listen to the evidence of both sides of the aisle.” Under county ordinance, a hearing manager can be someone affiliated with the American Arbitration Association or among a “list of private attorneys.”

This week, Pinnacle secured $30.8 million of financing to build an affordable housing development for seniors, called Cannery Row at Redlands Crossing, at 14380 Southwest 216th Street in south Miami-Dade County.

The post Miami-Dade approves three affordable housing redevelopment projects for south Dade appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

The DoubleTree at 10250 Northwest 19th Street and Larry Beame (Credit: Google Maps)

The owner of the 150-room DoubleTree in Doral sued the architect of the hotel, alleging design defects that cost millions of dollars in fixes and delays.

Hospitality Doral LLC, which owns the six-story hotel at 10250 Northwest 19th Street in Doral, sued Beame Architectural Partnership last week in Miami-Dade Circuit Court for $3.7 million.

Though the hotel opened in February 2019, the owner alleges that Beame Architectural breached the contract and was neglectful with several parts of the hotel’s design. The $26 million project was originally supposed to wrap construction in summer 2017, according to the suit.

Michael Kurzman, an attorney for the plaintiff, told The Real Deal that the architect made major design errors with the hotel’s HVAC system and didn’t make fixes until construction was mostly done. He said his client is open to mediation.

Beame Architectural President Larry Beame, now a principal at RSP Architects, said in an email that Beame Architectural Partnership does not comment on pending claims or litigation.

“We deny the allegations and look forward to resolving the matter on the merits in due course,” Beame said.

According to court documents, Beame erred in designing the hotel’s HVAC system, creating a potentially life-threatening issue where smoke from a hotel room could enter a corridor used as an evacuation route. The architectural firm had to redesign the project for two separate HVAC systems for corridors and rooms, delaying the project and increasing costs.

The firm also failed to reject contractor work that didn’t meet contract requirements, according to the lawsuit. The hotel owner allegedly incurred $1 million in construction cost overruns and operational losses of $2.7 million.

The hotel’s ownership entity is led by Rafael Mendible and Salvador Frazzetta, managing partners of American Opportunity Regional Center, a Miami-based EB-5 investments services firm. The two men are also senior partners of Bringabout, a Miami-based risk consultancy.

American Opportunity Regional Center partnered with Driftwood Hospitality Management to develop the hotel. The two bought the vacant 2.8-acre site for $3.44 million in 2016 and secured a $16 million loan to help finance the project, including $10 million from EB-5 investors.

Beame Architectural Partnership, established in 1992, was acquired in 2019 by Minneapolis based-RSP Architects. Beame Architectural has planned and designed more than 100 million square feet of urban and regional shopping centers, mixed-use communities, hotels, offices and residential multifamily developments on five continents and the Caribbean, according to a press release for RSP’s acquisition. Past Beame projects include Dolphin Mall and Downtown Doral.

Among other recent lawsuits in South Florida alleging design or construction defects, the Faena House condo association sued the developer, general contractor and subcontractors for a laundry list of alleged construction defects at the 17-story luxury condo tower.

The post Doral DoubleTree owner sues architect for $4M, alleging design errors appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Thomas Lauria and Heinrich Von Hanau, with Fisher Island

Plans for a new luxury condominium tower and a new single-family home development on Fisher Island would eliminate a third ferry landing used for emergencies, according to a recently filed lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

Homeowners Thomas Lauria, Jeff Horowitz and George Pearlman are suing developer Fisher Island Holdings, two related entities and the Fisher Island Community Association. The plaintiffs, who are elected board members of the association, are seeking to void a settlement agreement reached over the summer that paved the way for Fisher Island Holdings to obtain approvals last month from Miami-Dade County for the two projects.

The developer, led by Heinrich Von Hanau, plans to build a 57-unit, 10-story condominium at 6 Fisher Island Drive, and 12 single-family homes at 68 Fisher Island Drive. The projects, designed by Kobi Karp, are to be built on 14.7 acres of land currently used for one of Fisher Island’s three ferry landings, which are the primary way to enter and exit the island, according to Lauria, a partner with the law firm White & Case. For the lawsuit, Lauria and his fellow plaintiffs are represented by Bilzin Sumberg.

Fisher Island, one of the most expensive ZIP codes in the U.S., is accessible only by boat or ferry. The entrance fee for an equity membership at the Fisher Island Club is $250,000, and provides access to the island’s private marina, golf course, spa, restaurants, school and retail.

“Out of left field, the club, the community association and the developer made a deal to eliminate the emergency exit off the island,” Lauria said. “There was no study done and [the settlement] was done under the cover of darkness.”

Lawyers for Fisher Island Holdings and the community association did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit alleges the community association and the developer reached a settlement agreement on June 5 to end previous lawsuits filed against Fisher Island Holdings. As part of the deal, Fisher Island Holdings is relinquishing control of the two main ferry landings to the community association, as well as making a $2.5 million cash payment.

In exchange, the community association agreed to fully support Fisher Island Holdings’ zoning applications that went before the county commission on Sept. 24.

Lauria said the lawsuit won’t override the county’s approvals of the two projects, but if the settlement agreement is voided, Fisher Island Holdings would not be able to build on the third ferry landing site.

“If they are contractually prohibited from doing it, they can’t do it,” Lauria said. “But I am very disappointed with the county commission. They had no interest in hearing from island residents.”

The lawsuit also accuses community association president and CEO Roberto Sosa of ignoring the three plaintiffs’ requests to hold a meeting with the nine-member Fisher Island Community Association’s board of directors, which is made up of five people appointed by the developer, one appointed by the club and three members elected by Fisher Island homeowners.

The lawsuit alleges that Sosa repeatedly stifled requests for a meeting by claiming that some board members were out of town. “To this day we have not been able to get the community association to hold a board meeting,” Lauria said. “Eliminating the emergency exit off the island is a serious life safety issue. Imagine if there is a hurricane or some sort of disaster and the main ferry ramp goes down. How are we going to get people off the island?”

Von Hanau recently completed the luxury Fisher Island condo buildings Palazzo Del Sol and Palazzo Della Luna. The companies bankrolling the projects are owned by Valmore Trust, the beneficiaries of which are Inna Gudavadze — a businesswoman from the country of Georgia and the widow of one of Georgia’s wealthiest men, Arkady “Badri” Patarkatsishvili — and her daughters Liana Zhmotova and Iya Patarkatsishvili.

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Victor Ballestas and Wrecker’s Cay

Integra Investments is moving forward with its plans to build Wrecker’s Cay Apartments, the largest workforce housing project to be built in the Florida Keys in more than 50 years.

Miami-based Integra, led by developer Victor Ballestas, recently secured approval from Monroe County for the 280-unit development on Stock Island near Key West. Ballestas said the project could break ground by the end of the year or in the first quarter of next year, and be delivered in the middle of 2022.

Unlike most affordable housing, Integra will not be using low-income housing tax credits and instead will be able to sell development rights for market-rate units to help lower the cost of building the project. The firm also has a letter of intent from a bank for construction financing, which will account for 65 percent to 70 percent of the total cost.

“We sort of figured out a way in the Keys to build affordable housing without using tax credits,” Ballestas said.

Integra assembled the 9-acre development site between December 2017 and April 2018 for $14 million. The properties are: 6325 First Street, 6125 Second Street and 5700 Laurel Avenue on Stock Island.

Wrecker’s Cay will have 70 low income units, 98 medium income units, and 112 moderate income units, according to a press release.

The project is expected to help fill a major need for affordable and workforce housing in the Keys. That need has grown since Hurricane Irma damaged the housing stock about three years ago and more recently due to the impact of the pandemic. Nearly 1,200 homes were destroyed by Irma and nearly 3,000 homes suffered major damage out of 55,000 homes in Monroe, according to the county.

Two years ago, then-Gov. Rick Scott approved a plan to build up to 1,300 new workforce housing units in the Keys.

The post Integra scores approval for waterfront workforce housing project in Florida Keys appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

Manhattan District attorney Cyrus Vance Jr and President Donald Trump (Getty; iStock)

The saga of whether the public will ever get to see Donald Trump’s tax returns just got a little bit more interesting.

A federal appeals panel ruled Wednesday that the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., can obtain Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns under a subpoena, rejecting the president’s argument that the probe amounted to political harassment.

“None of the president’s allegations, taken together or separately, are sufficient to raise a plausible inference that the subpoena was issued out of malice or an intent to harass,” wrote the panel, presiding in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Should Trump appeal the decision, as he is expected to do, the case will head to the Supreme Court, according to the New York Times.

The decision is the latest setback for Trump in his long-standing fight with Vance’s office over the release of documents.

Last August, New York prosecutors issued a subpoena for eight years of Trump’s tax returns and other records, indicating the possibility of a wider criminal investigation. Since then, the dispute has gone through several courts, with Trump’s arguments repeatedly knocked back.

In July, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s argument of immunity, but allowed him to challenge the subpoena on its scope. The lower court’s rejection of that effort reflects the possibility that the district attorney will look at Trump’s real estate transactions for possible wrongdoing.

A New York Times investigation revealed last month that the president had paid just $750 in taxes in 2016 and again in 2017. But the newspaper did not publish Trump’s returns. [NYT] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan

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Redaptive CEO Arvin Vohra (LinkedIn; iStock)

A San Francisco-based startup that helps building owners make their properties more energy efficient has raised $156.5 million.

Founded in 2015, Redaptive Inc. targets big businesses and offers to help green-ify their office locations by installing systems and equipment that the startup owns but the client has the option to buy, according to Bloomberg News.

The latest funding round, which boosts Redaptive’s total raise to more than $181 million, was led by CarVal Investors LP. Existing investors, including CBRE Group, also took part.

“What we’d like to get to is overseeing the entire utility experience and energy experience for these customers and take them down the glide path to carbon neutrality, while making it economic,” Redaptive CEO Arvin Vohra told Bloomberg News.

Redaptive isn’t the only firm that wants to help building owners go green: Earlier this year, Fifth Wall Ventures launched a building sustainability fund with the goal of helping landlords reduce their emissions.

Developers and building owners may need more assistance with retrofitting their properties for energy efficiency as cities look to reduce their carbon footprints. In 2019, New York passed Local Law 97, which puts strict caps on emissions from buildings larger than 25,000 square feet. Building owners are also required to display energy efficiency grades.

[Bloomberg News] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan

The post Startup that helps building owners cut carbon footprint raises $157M appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

An aerial view of the property (Credit: Google Maps)

Palm Beach County officials will consider a zoning change request on Friday that would allow a mixed-use project of up to 348 multifamily units and nearly 27,000 square feet of commercial development on land currently used as agricultural and equestrian in the central part of the county.

The application for the proposed development, called Polo Gardens, comes from three LLCs managed by Sheldon Rubin for property at 8450 Lake Worth Road, between Lake Worth and Wellington. The agent for the application is JMorton Planning and Landscape Architecture.

Almost 9 acres of land are currently zoned for “residential, transitional” with proposed future land use of “commercial high with underlying two units per acre.” Almost 17 acres of the land are currently zoned for “planned unit development” with proposed future land use of “medium residential, five units per acre.”

If Rubin’s land is rezoned, it would allow for up to 378 units as opposed to 103 units currently allowed. Under future land use rules, Rubin could theoretically build 423 residential units in the future, according to the application.

Staffers want to cap the number of future units at 284. Staffers also recommend requiring the developers to make a quarter of the units workforce housing, and limit the building heights to three stories, according to the application.

While Rubin seeks only 27,000 square feet of commercial space right now, he is allowed a maximum of 146,000 square feet.

The Palm Beach Planning Commission is scheduled to vote on the application at its Friday meeting.

Approval would move 16.97 acres of land from Pulte Homes’ Fields at Gulf Stream Polo to the proposed Polo Gardens. Rubin would dedicate 18.4 percent of units to workforce housing, according to the proposal.

Rubin acquired the land from various owners, including Pulte, starting in 2014, spending at least $7 million, according to records.

Pulte’s Fields at Gulf Stream Polo, which is under construction, offers townhomes and single-family homes starting at $351,000, with models up to four bathrooms, according to an online listing.

Among other proposed developments in Palm Beach County, a mixed-use project with a 158-bed, 117,000-square-foot adult living facility in Boynton Beach scored a $27 million construction loan in April. And an apartment complex on part of the Boca Dunes Golf & Country Club, developed by The Richman Group, scored a $57.4 million construction loan, also in April.

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Donald Burns and 1021 North Ocean Boulevard (Twitter, Realtor)

Former MagicJack Chairman Donald Burns sold his longtime Palm Beach estate for $28 million.

Burns sold the six-bedroom, 8.5-bathroom mansion at 1021 North Ocean Boulevard to 21 Palms LLC, a Delaware entity. The buyer financed the deal with an $18.3 million loan from UBS Bank, records show. Attorney Robert Sorgini signed the loan on behalf of the buyer.

Burns, who leads his own philanthropic foundation, chaired MagicJack’s board from 2010 to 2017. He’s also the former president and CEO of Telco Communications Group, and led Telco through its IPO before selling the company to Excel Communications for $1 billion in 1997, according to his LinkedIn.

He bought the 10,214-square-foot Palm Beach home in 1998 for nearly $4 million through a trust, records show.

The Bermuda-style estate was built in 1949. The property includes 100 feet of ocean frontage.

Burns sought approval in 2016 from the Palm Beach Architectural Commission to replace the mansion with a modern-style home, but was denied, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. He filed a lawsuit that is now in federal appeals court in Atlanta.

The property hit the market in June with Jim McCann of Premier Estate Properties for $34 million, but was later removed from the Multiple Listing Service.

Next door, the then-teardown at 980 North Ocean Boulevard sold for $28.7 million last year, also to a Delaware LLC. That property has since been knocked down.

The pandemic has fueled a stream of high-end home sales over the past six months. In September, new signed contracts for single-family homes in Palm Beach County grew nearly 62 percent, year-over-year, to 489 contracts.

Last month, billionaire businessman Jude Reyes sold his waterfront mansion in North Palm Beach for $19.2 million.

In July, pulmonologist Dr. Norman Traverse sold his ocean-to-lake mansion at 1744 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach to a Delaware LLC for more than $51 million.

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Leonard Boord & Phillip M. Jaffe & Ocean Tower Two in Key Biscayne (Credit: Google Maps)

The co-founder and chairman of the cryptocurrency asset company Intotheblock sold his condo at Ocean Tower Two in Key Biscayne for $5.8 million.

Records show Leonard Boord sold the 5,207-square-foot oceanfront condo at 791 Crandon Boulevard to ASAP 908 LLC, a Minnesota limited liability company managed by Phillip M. Jaffe, principal and CEO of Provident Real Estate Ventures.

Jaffe co-founded the Plymouth, Minnesota-based firm in 2013. It acquires and operates commercial real estate, according to its website.

The Key Biscayne condo hit the market in February at $6 million. Carlos Coto of One Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing. Douglas Kinsley with Fortune International Realty Key Biscayne represented Jaffe.

Boord bought unit 908 at Ocean Tower Two for $5.6 million in 2014, records show.

The four-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath unit has a library, staff quarters and four garage spaces, according to the listing.

Along with serving as chairman of Miami-based Intotheblock, Boord currently holds many other positions. He is the founder and partner at Miami-based investment firm Slon Capital, the vice chair of the board of directors of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority and was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to the FIU Board of Trustees in January, according to his Linkedin.

This sale was the most expensive condo trade in Miami-Dade during the final week of October. Other Key Biscayne sales this year include the former Burger King CEO selling his waterfront home for $8.2 million, and the wife of the late founder of a Boston investment management firm selling her waterfront home for $8.6 million.

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Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky (Getty; iStock)

You’ve got to spend money to make money, right?

That could be Airbnb’s mantra after burning through a reported $1.2 billion in the year leading up to its initial public offering.

Journalists at The Information obtained financial documents that offer new insight into the company’s position between mid 2019 and mid 2020. The publication’s report this week shows that most of the $1.2 billion was wiped away in the first quarter of 2020, as Airbnb was weathering the collapse of global travel and a barrage of refund requests from guests and hosts.

The company bolstered its cash reserves in April when it raised $1 billion in equity and debt — at 11 percent interest — in a funding round led by Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners. It raised another $1 billion in debt, again with high interest, later that month.

As it tried to stabilize, Airbnb’s revenues were in a nose dive, dropping 72 percent in the second quarter, the report said. To cut costs, the company laid off almost 2,000 staff and slashed spending on advertising and product development.

Still, the company went through $850 million in the first half of the year, according to The Information, including a $114 million restructuring fee.

The company also reported a $53 million non-cash investment impairment charge. As The Real Deal reported, several of the companies Airbnb invested in, including Lyric, Oyo and Zeus Living, have struggled financially since the pandemic hit.

Airbnb, which is expected to go public in December, is hoping its sharp uptick in bookings in recent months convinces investors that its business model is both resilient and sustainable.

According to Reuters, the company is looking to raise $3 billion for a valuation of $30 billion.

[The Information] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan

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Blackstone’s Jonathan Grey and Stephen Schwarzman (Getty, iStock)

The Blackstone Group is planning to open an office in South Florida, as the region’s economic boosters work to attract financial and investment firms.

The New York-based private equity giant plans to hire about 215 employees, most of whom will be back-office technology workers, according to Bloomberg. The news comes as the Miami-Dade County Commission approved a resolution on Thursday that would provide up to $650,000 in incentives over a 10-year period to attract an unnamed investment firm, which sources confirmed is Blackstone.

The company plans to pay the Miami employees an average of $200,000 a year. Called “Confidential Project Sunshine” in county documents, it’s expected to generate more than $910,000 over the 10-year period.

The company would invest up to $25 million in the new office, and is seeking up to 50,000 square feet in downtown Miami or Brickell, the documents show.

The bidding process for Amazon’s second headquarters in 2018 propelled business leaders in South Florida to recruit more out-of-state companies to set up shop in the Miami area. Florida’s lack of state income tax has long made it an attractive option for New York-based firms.

Blackstone would be joining billionaires Carl Icahn, Barry Sternlicht and David Tepper who have all opened operations in South Florida over the past few years.

Icahn Enterprises is the most recent to do so, opening a 23,500-square-foot penthouse office in Sunny Isles Beach in August. Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group moved to Miami Beach in recent years and is building a new headquarters there, and Tepper’s Appaloosa Management opened an office in Miami Beach in 2016.

The federal tax overhaul in 2017, which limited the ability of taxpayers to deduct state and local taxes (SALT) from their income, was a major catalyst in bringing more high net-worth individuals, and now their companies, to South Florida, experts have said.

The number of S.E.C.-registered investment advisors based in downtown Miami nearly doubled from 2014 to 2019, according to a report from the Miami Downtown Development Authority and the analytics firm Convergence. The report found that the amount of reported assets under management grew by 61 percent over that period, up to more than $75 billion.

[Bloomberg] – Katherine Kallergis 

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National retailers such as Chico’s, Men’s Wearhouse and Gold’s Gym paid 86 percent of their September rent (Getty)

While national chains still face financial woes, there are some signs of recovery within the retail sector — particularly in categories such as gyms and clothing stores.

National retailers paid 86 percent of their September rent, according to the latest Datex Property Solutions report. That’s about 10 percent below what they paid in 2019, but slightly above last month’s 83 percent.

“Month by month, we’ve been digging ourselves out of this hole we found ourselves in in April,” Datex Property Solutions CEO Mark Sigal said.

The major chains included in the survey all have a minimum gross monthly rent of $250,000, or lease 10 or more locations. The report does not account for any rent relief provided to the retailers by their landlords.

Among the categories making a comeback are apparel, where retailers were able to pay 77 percent of rent, and fitness, where retailers paid 65 percent. Those categories have lagged behind in prior reports.

Gold’s Gym paid 53 percent of its September rent, which was a 137 percent increase over what it paid in August. Men’s Wearhouse paid 82 percent of its September rent, a 355 percent increase from what it was able to pay in August, when its parent company filed for bankruptcy.

While the majority of retailers increased rent payments, a few floundered. Regal Cinemas stopped paying rent completely after paying 37 percent of August rent. The chain recently announced that it would temporarily suspend its U.S. operations.

On the whole, movie theaters paid under 10 percent of their September rent, compared to 43 percent in August.

Pier One also dropped 27 percent, from 90 to 66 percent. The home furnishing and decor company announced in May that it would liquidate its assets.

The latest report also includes a breakdown of sales per square foot. Although many retailers have struggled to return to pre-pandemic levels, some are seeing sales surpass that of a normal year. HomeGoods, for example, surged 128 percent from $248 to $564 in that category. Sporting goods stores are also up 52 percent, from $167 to $255.

Additionally, the report includes occupancy costs for each category, nearly all of which have seen increases. Department stores in particular have suffered, with costs rising from nearly 4 percent in 2019 to 17 percent in September — a change of 375 percent.

“Rent ends up eating up your gross margins,” Sigal said. “And so when you bring in occupancy costs, [it] reveals real instances where operators are seeing fundamental changes in their business.”

Even though retailers have been doing better, the coming months will heavily impact rent collections, according to Sigal. The results will be dependent on a few factors: another federal stimulus package, rent relief expiration, potential lockdowns throughout the country and the seasonal impact on outdoor activities.

“We keep turning over the next card, the next card and so far, the cards have been generally better each month than the prior month,” Sigal said. “But there are multiple variables that introduce risk.”

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From left: David Parnes, James Harris, Tracy Tutor, Josh Flagg, Josh Altman, and Hiten Samtani

Despite a pandemic, fractious election season and wildfires still burning across California, state Los Angeles luxury real estate brokers say business is booming.

“We’re all winners here,” declared Josh Altman of Douglas Elliman, during Wednesday’s TRD Talks Live discussion. The panel included fellow “Million Dollar Listing” cast members James Harris and David Parnes of The Agency, Josh Flagg of Rodeo Realty and Tracy Tutor, also of Elliman. TRD Associate Publisher Hiten Samtani moderated.

“I’ve had the most deals in escrow I’ve ever had in my entire career,” Altman added. “I know a lot of people are killing it right now.”

“The market is hot,” said Harris, who is advising clients to list their homes now, despite the uncertainty of the times.

Their words are not mere hyperbole. The number of closed home sales in the Los Angeles luxury market — defined as deals above $2 million — shot up 192 percent in July 2020 compared to the same time last year, according to a recent report from Elliman and Miller Samuel.

The ensuing two months have seen a consistent uptick in luxury deals. In September, closed sales over $2 million jumped 63 percent year-over-year to 418 deals.

The jump in luxury home sales comes amid growing evidence that the economic downturn has had little effect on the rich – according to a new report by Wealth-X, the richest North Americans have recovered most of their pre-pandemic wealth.

Flagg suggested buyers are “bored” from staying in their homes for months on end. Parnes added that homeowners are choosing the “lifestyle” of Los Angeles over New York.

Along with luxury houses and mansions, high-end condos sales have also surged in L.A. Condo deals of more than $1 million doubled year-over-year, but the panelists — whose focus is on single-family homes — insisted that market is a dead end.

“Condos are a horrible investment no matter what,” Flagg said. “You’re buying air rights and a view” but you’re not “buying land.”

Flagg also expressed his displeasure for spec mansion developer Scott Gillen’s “Malibu Series,” a portfolio of 13 luxury properties in Beverly Hills; Tutor at one time had been the listing agent. The homes were on the market for a combined $500 million.

“I don’t think those houses are attractive,” Flagg said.

“There are elements,” Tutor allowed, “that don’t stand out.”

Most on the panel also pilloried the National Association of Realtors’ recent ban of pocket listings, which are homes marketed for sale but not placed on the Multiple Listing Service.

“I love pocket listings,” said Altman, who called the ban “completely damaging” to celebrity clients.

Whether the agents were skirting or completely disregarding the ban remains unclear. But Parnes, whose brokerage started Pocket Listings Service that is soon to relaunch, called the MLS a “monopoly.”

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