Miami Beach approves zoning change allowing for Aman tower

Miami Beach commissioners approved a zoning change that would allow billionaire developers Vlad Doronin and Len Blavatnik to build their Aman-branded tower. Commissioners Steven Meiner and Micky Steinberg voted against the Faena district overlay ordinance on second reading, which will allow the developers to build a 250-foot tall tower, up from the previously…

Miami-Dade approves three affordable housing redevelopment projects for south Dade

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…

Miami Beach raises red flags over county’s monorail push

Miami-Dade County officials may soon take the next step toward developing a “mass-transit solution” in Miami Beach, but city administrators have some concerns.  According to a memo to be addressed by Miami Beach commissioners today (10/15), county commissioners will consider on Oct. 20 legislation that would approve a two-step interim agreement with a…

Residents Fight Developer’s Takeover Of Miami Beach Marina, Monty’s Raw Bar

Despite Miami Beach’s reputation for sun, sand and cocktails, there’s hardly any place in the city where visitors can enjoy a waterfront view and a single-digit-priced drink, because most of its 7.69 square miles have been taken over by upscale restaurants and hotels or private, luxury condos. At Monty’s Raw Bar, though, one can still sit under a thatched roof and get a…

How Wynwood Became ‘Absolutely The Coolest Neighborhood In The Country’

Jessica Goldman Srebnick, CEO of Goldman Properties, remembered how her developer father, the late Tony Goldman, led the revitalization of New York’s SoHo in the 1970s, Miami Beach in the 1990s and the Center City District of Philadelphia. “And we came to this little wonderful neighborhood called Wynwood in 2005,” she said during a Bisnow Wynwood webinar…

Federal Realty Defaults On $61 Million Loan Backed By Miami’s Shops At Sunset Place

Federal Realty Investment Trust is in default on a $61M mortgage backed by an outdoor mall in South Miami. The publicly traded real estate investment trust owns The Shops at Sunset Place in a joint venture, which last year announced a major redevelopment plan for the property, which has struggled with vacancies for years. This year, the coronavirus pandemic…

Coral Rock Scores $54 Million Loan for Hialeah Project

Coral Rock Development Group has secured $53.5 million in construction financing for the residential segment of Pura Vida Hialeah, a nine-acre mixed-use project in Hialeah, Fla. Principal Real Estate Investors acted as the lender. The residential development will comprise three eight-story towers offering a total of 260 units, ranging from studio to three-bedroom…

Chart: Another Strong Month for Miami-Dade Commercial Real Estate Sales ~ September 2020 MLS

Embedded above is the chart for the trailing two years, specifically the period from October 2018 to September 2020, of closed sales of Miami-Dade commercial property, both improved commercial property (with buildings) and vacant commercial land, recorded in the Miami MLS. September 2020 was, again, a strong month, only a bit off from sales in August, which had…

The Slow Drip Folly of Holding Highest and Best Use Maxed Out Vacant Land

Save me from the pain of witnessing foregone monetization. A vacant land owner, where the property that has seemingly topped out its HABU (highest and best use) potential, is forgoing potential income from reinvestment of potential sales proceeds (of the vacant land) for no apparent benefit. In other words, if HABU is topped out, there is not a higher value HABU to…

Last Chance for Miami Wilds Water Park?

Next week is the last chance for the current iteration of the Miami-Dade County Commission to vote on the controversial Miami Wilds water park — but the development is receiving more and more opposition from conservationists and politicians. The nonprofit Bat Conservation International recently released the results of a 2019 ecological survey that…

Industrial Development Site In Doral Sells For Record Price

Brokers negotiated the sale of Doral Center Development Land, a pristine parcel in highly sought-after Doral, Florida, located at 10751 Northwest 25th Street. The broker acting as exclusive representative sold the land, which totals 162,325 square feet (3.72 acres), for $6,000,000 or $37 per square foot. The Seller, REMS Group, and its principals are family friends of;;;

We Company reverts name back to WeWork

In a throwback to a more innocent time — before anyone knew Adam Neumann packed a cereal box full of marijuana onto his private jet — the WeCompany is changing its name back to WeWork. The move is an attempt to return the company to its office-sharing roots, according to an internal memo cited by Reuters. “We want to be strategic. We want to be innovative.

Hudson’s Bay, Simon Property Group hit with $846M foreclosure lawsuit

Wilmington Trust is suing a joint venture between Simon Property Group and Hudson’s Bay Company for allegedly failing to make mortgage payments. Ten Saks Fifth Avenue and 24 Lord & Taylor locations are named in the lawsuit, which was filed earlier this month in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The lawsuit…

Deauville Beach Resort loses court battle tied to $400K judgment

The Deauville Beach Resort’s (6701 Collins Ave)management company and a Miami attorney engaged in a “sham” court petition to transfer assets so the firm could avoid paying a six-figure judgment, according to a recent ruling by Miami-Dade Judge Michael Hanzman. Hanzman dismissed a 2018 petition filed by lawyer Felix Caceres seeking an assignment for the…

New South Beach image and rules on drawing board

“Anything goes” might have once been a slogan for South Beach promoters, but Miami Beach commissioners agree that the area known as the Mixed Use Entertainment District needs a new image – and some ground rules.  Hawking, lewd behavior, “quality of life” related offenses, misuse of vehicles such as scooters and loud noise are some of the issues they…

Highways nightmare stalls massive NW Miami-Dade American Dream Mall

Delays in the completion of freeway interchanges that will provide access to American Dream Miami, a mammoth entertainment and retail complex to rise in Northwest Miami-Dade, could push back the opening for about a year. “Our development agreement stipulates that the interchanges have to be in place before we can open, so we are tied to that,” said Miguel Diaz…

Quarter-billion dollar cruise industry bailout floated

As the US cruise industry enters its seventh month of inactivity due to Covid-19, Miami-Dade is eyeing a plan that could forgive more than a quarter-billion dollars that cruise lines would otherwise have paid PortMiami. A worst-case scenario in which cruise lines remain docked for two-plus years would see the port lose $271.5 million and be forced to…

Casino Giant Genting’s massive transit deal stalls bus terminal

Plans for a temporary bus terminal that would unlock a 3½-year-old joint development project are still on hold – and could possibly be canceled – as Miami-Dade considers a massive transit offering from Malaysian casino giant Genting. The makeshift station was to have served Metrobus riders while Genting subsidiary Resorts World Miami developed a new Omni…

Miami speeds to resolve Virginia Key Marina bid battle

With new players in the mix, the Miami City Commission has called for a special meeting next month to discuss the future of Virginia Key Marina. At last week’s virtual meeting, commissioners voted to hold a special meeting Nov. 16 to discuss, and potentially act on, the marina’s ongoing solicitation dispute.  The city administration asked for the commission to defer the…

Downtown Miami observation wheel prepares to roll

While plans were originally to have its grand opening back in March, downtown Miami’s observation wheel will soon be up and running for Bayside Marketplace visitors, operators say. Towering 176 feet over downtown’s skyline, the new observation wheel might open at the end of this month, said Charlene Leavitt of Skyviews Miami, the tourist attraction…

Midtown Miami development site in foreclosure hits the market

3601 North Miami Avenue with Francisco Arocha The developer of the planned Triptych project that straddles the border between Midtown Miami and the Design District is listing the site for sale. HES Group, which is facing foreclosure from its lender, is looking to sell or find a joint venture partner for the 1-acre property at 3601 North Miami Avenue, said Francisco…

Here are the South Florida real estate players who donated to candidates in 2020

As the presidential election nears, The Real Deal examined top South Florida real estate players’ political donations this year, and found they largely skewed in one direction. A number of developers supported Republican candidates and causes, including Craig Robins, Stuart Miller and Russell Galbut. Related Group developer Jorge Pérez and real…

Spirit Halloween reawakens to cannibalize stores

Autumn is a time for falling leaves, pumpkin pie and Spirit Halloween reappearing to take up unoccupied space in strip malls and commercial corridors. This year, even as trick-or-treating becomes an unknown, there are more Spirit Halloween locations to go around. The company has opened more than 1,400 storefronts nationwide, an increase from last year,

Investors heat up cold storage market

Investors are increasingly turning to the cold storage sector, which showed surprising resilience through the first few months of the pandemic. Lineage Logistics, the world’s largest landlord of temperature-controlled storage, pulled in $1.6 billion in a fundraising round that ended last month, according to the Wall Street Journal. Americold Realty Trust, the only…

Dollar General launches new brand targeting affluent customers

Dollar General is launching a new brand aimed at higher-income earners — and keeping the focus away from the “dollar” in its name. The new brand, Popshelf, will still sell inexpensive products in its stores, with most items priced at $5 or less, the Wall Street Journal reported. But the stores will carry fewer Dollar General staples (like food) and more nonconsumable…

Fewer than half of holiday shoppers will hit the mall this year

In a typical year, the holidays are peak season for malls — but this isn’t a typical year, and shopping centers that have already been hurt by the pandemic will continue to feel the economic crunch in the leadup to the holiday shopping season. Only 45 percent of shoppers plan to visit a mall to do some or all of their holiday shopping, down from 64 percent last year…

Target-anchored mixed-use project planned for North Beach advances

Aria Mehrabi and renderings of the projects Part of Aria Mehrabi’s planned development for North Beach got the OK to move onto permitting this week. And Miami Beach officials will review more of his plans in November. The Miami Beach Design Review Board on Tuesday gave the green light to the planned 12-story tower with 170 residential units anchored by a 25,000…

Now Microsoft is joining work from home forever club

Microsoft is joining the ranks of Facebook, Twitter, Zillow and other companies that have developed permanent work from home options for their employees. The tech giant unveiled “hybrid workplace” guidance that permits employees to work from home for less than 50 percent of their working week, or receive manager approval for permanent remote…

Southland Mall’s troubled $65M CMBS loan for sale

A $65 million CMBS loan on Southland Mall in Cutler Bay is being shopped, after its former owner defaulted on it earlier this year. JLL is marketing the loan, which is tied to the 990,000-square-foot indoor mall at 20505 South Dixie Highway. The mall’s former owner, Investcorp, defaulted in April and handed the keys over to its CMBS lenders this summer. The mall is…

How the COVID-19 Economy Impacts Property Improvements & Customized Offices

The changing tenant-improvement landscape due to COVID-19 Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was common for tenants in “Class A” buildings to ask for significant improvements to office space as a part of their real estate lease. In essence, this practice allows companies to obtain a highly-customized office as part of their agreement.  The owners of…

Retail rent collection has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels

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…

Blackstone to open office in South Florida

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…

Integra scores approval for waterfront workforce housing project in Florida Keys

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…

Doral DoubleTree owner sues architect for $4M, alleging design errors

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…

Crust to Expand With Takeaway Concept

Klime and Anita Kovaceski are expanding into the carry-out business. The husband-wife team behind Crust will open a new takeout concept and market they’ve dubbed Crust2go. “We always had the idea for carry-out as a bigger component to Crust in the backburner,” Kovaceski tells New Times. “But COVID-19 has changed the way people eat and do things to the point…

Hollywood Publix with boat dock advances

Hollywood is another step closer to landing a rare Publix grocery store with a boat dock. The Hollywood Planning & Development Board approved plans and modifications for a 30,000-square-foot supermarket at 3100 South Ocean Drive during the board’s meeting Tuesday. The store still needs approval from the city commission. It would be the second Publix with…

Fort Lauderdale developers score $92M bridge loan for rental tower

4 West Las Olas Fort Lauderdale developers Scott Bodenweber and Tom Vogel scored $92 million in bridge financing for a newly completed apartment tower in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Benefit Street Partners Realty Trust, a New York-based mortgage real estate investment trust, provided senior debt of $76 million, while West Palm Beach-based…

DHL signs 201,399 SF long-term renewal at Prologis Miami Commerce Center

Transwestern Real Estate Services (TRS) announces its South Florida industrial team has secured a long-term lease renewal for DHL Global Forwarding, which occupies the 201,399-square-foot Prologis Miami Commerce Center at 1801 NW 82nd Ave. Transwestern Managing Director Thomas Kresse negotiated the transaction on behalf of owner Prologis.

Doral DoubleTree owner sues architect for $4M, alleging design errors

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///

Miami-Dade approves three affordable housing redevelopment projects for south Dade

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…

JV looks to buy up to $175M in distressed resi loans, with focus on NY, Miami

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…

Ruby Tuesday will close 185 restaurants

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…

Jungle Island hotel squeezes past a city board

The plan to construct a hotel in Jungle Island park on Watson Island moved forward last week after it met criticism from some members of Miami’s Urban Development Review Board. It took three tries to get a motion passed recommending approval, including several recommended changes. Jungle Island is operated by a private company at 1111 Parrot Jungle Trail, on…

As economy returns, Miami-Dade commissioners might stay away from county hall

Returning to County Hall won’t be simple for the Miami-Dade commissioners, as safety, capacity and cost obstacles could prolong virtual meetings even as the local economy reopens. “Our biggest challenge is [the] amount of space for elected officials at the dais,” Internal Service Director Tara Smith said during a special meeting on Covid-19 last week. “We can…”

Movie theaters welcome back public with private rentals

By creating safe environments for patrons, local movie theaters are slowly reopening and welcoming back the public with private screenings and facility rentals. An option that has always been offered, theater rentals are becoming the new way to enjoy the big-screen experience in a comfortable atmosphere among close friends and family members. “Since closing…”

Lester Sola: Pilots county’s airports toward $5 billion capital investment

When Lester Sola began working for Miami-Dade 28 years ago, his first post was in the county Aviation Department. Twenty-eight years and a variety of other county jobs later, he leads the department, overseeing the operations and growth of four general aviation airports and Miami International Airport (MIA), the county’s top economic engine, which together generate…

Pablo Cejas adds to downtown Coral Gables assemblage

Pablo Cejas, Bill Kerdyk, and 147 Alhambra Circle Coral Gables property owner and broker Bill Kerdyk Jr. sold a downtown office building on Alhambra Circle for $5.3 million. Kerdyk’s Alhambra Circle Investments LLC sold the 12,000-square-foot office building at 147 Alhambra Circle in Coral Gables to Pablo Cejas of Aquarius Capital, property records show.

Pinnacle scores $31M for south Miami-Dade senior affordable housing development

Pinnacle secured $30.8 million of financing to build an affordable housing development for seniors in south Miami-Dade County. Citibank provided $22.1 million through the purchase of 9 percent tax credits and also lent Pinnacle $4.3 million for the 112-unit rental project, Cannery Row at Redlands Crossing. Miami-Dade County also contributed a $3.5 million…

Hotels pivot to office space to stanch losses

Hotels across the country are pivoting to become offices as a way to survive the pandemic. In New York, the 607-room InterContinental Times Square was transformed into housing for doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients in the spring. Then it started to offer rooms as offices. And now the hotel will offer office space on a suite-by-suite basis, according to the…

Airbnb slams door on Halloween-night rentals

Airbnb banned one-night rentals over the upcoming Halloween weekend in an effort to prevent parties — and thus, possible outbreaks of the coronavirus. The home-sharing company announced that it will bar one-night rentals on Oct. 30 and 31 to “protect our hosts and the communities they live in,” according to Business Insider. In order to rent a place over…

Tony Robbins buys West Palm Beach warehouse for production studio

A company tied to motivational speaker and author Tony Robbins bought a West Palm Beach warehouse with plans to build a production studio, The Real Deal has learned. The buyer, Ohio Resources LLC, tied to Anthony Robbins Companies, paid $4.4 million for the 28,000-square-foot warehouse at 2951 Electronics Way, according to a press release. A deed for the sale…

Fifth Wall targets $118M raise for European proptech fund

Fifth Wall, the venture capital firm that’s backed Opendoor, States Title and Industrious, is looking overseas for its next hit. The Los Angeles-based firm is currently raising a $118 million European fund to invest in proptech startups. Although the fund is not yet closed, investors so far include the real estate arm of BNP Paribas, the French bank; Pontos, a Finnish…

Menin plans major expansion of Bodega Taqueria

Jared Galbut, Bodega Taqueria Menin Hospitality is growing its Bodega brand. The company, led by Jared Galbut and Keith Menin, is planning to open Bodega Taquerias throughout the state and in South Florida, including a new location in North Beach and another at a new project under construction in downtown Miami, Galbut said. Overall, Menin’s goal is…

Black-owned firms to launch first affordable-housing REIT

Two of the largest minority-owned real estate investment firms in the country are teaming up to launch what they say is the first public real estate company dedicated to affordable housing. California-based investor Avanath Capital Management and San Francisco’s MacFarlane Partners filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to…

Lights out: Regal Cinemas to suspend operations

Cineworld, the owner of the Regal Cinemas movie theater chain, will suspend operations at its locations across the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported. The announcement to temporarily close 500 theaters came after a wave of postponements of big-budget Hollywood movies, including the new James Bond film “No Time to Die.” “We are like a…”

Construction honcho pays $17M for Kendall office buildings

The head of a South Florida construction firm paid $16.8 million for a pair of adjacent office buildings in Miami’s Kendall neighborhood. Companies managed by Dan Azel of Andale Group bought the buildings at 8900 Southwest 107th Avenue and 10700 Southwest 88th Street, records show. The second building’s address is also noted as 10700 North Kendall Drive.

Most unemployment measures are declining… : …while long-term unemployment is still rising

Many of us follow the unemployment rate closely, even more so since the pandemic began. But there are many definitions of unemployment, which depend on how people are attached to the labor force. To learn more, see this earlier blog post and this conversational account of unemployment measures. Today’s FRED graph shows the recent evolution of 6 measures…

$2.2T House stimulus package would ban evictions for 12 months

Many renters in the U.S. are protected from evictions through the end of the year, and a stimulus package that passed in the house could extend those protections further. The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package last week that includes a full-year ban on eviction foreclosure filings over nonpayment, according to Bloomberg…

Lincoln Road landlord seeks $32M following court victory over Walgreens

Richard Chera of Crown Acquisitions, 947 Lincoln Road rendering A company tied to New York City real estate mogul Richard Chera is looking to collect nearly $32 million from Walgreens after the pharmacy chain lost a civil lawsuit over a Lincoln Road store that never opened. On Sept. 22, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas granted summary judgment…

CBD investor sells Hialeah Gardens development site for $5M

The head of a truck parts company acquired a development site at Shoma Commercial Park in Hialeah Gardens. Tundidor & Partners 13391 LLC, led by James Tundidor, sold the 3.7-acre site at 13391 West Okeechobee Road to Jaime Villamizar of Miami Star Truck Parts for $5.1 million. It comes with approved plans for a 39,500-square-foot building with a 25 bay retail…

Coral Rock lands construction loan on Hialeah project

Michael Wohl and a rendering of the project Coral Rock Development Group has snagged a $53.5 million construction loan for the 260-unit residential portion of its mixed-use project in Hialeah. Principal Real Estate Investors provided the debt, according to a release. The project, dubbed Pura Vida Hialeah, will consist of three eight-story buildings and about…

Leisure and hospitality gain 318K jobs in September as economic growth lags

The leisure and hospitality industry led employment gains in September with 318,000 jobs added to the economy, trouncing the industry’s August performance of 174,000 jobs. Food and beverage establishments accounted for more than half the industry’s growth last month, with 200,000 jobs returning last month. The U.S. economy added…

Housing demand sent construction spending up in August

Spending on construction, particularly in the housing sector, plowed ahead in August. Money flowing into construction projects ticked up to $1.4 trillion seasonally adjusted last month, a year-over-year increase of 2.5 percent, according to the Census Bureau’s monthly report on construction work done on new and existing structures across public and private sectors.

Designer-crafted floral-centric murals are headed to Miracle Mile

Contracts and planning details are being finalized for the installation of four art murals along Miracle Mile in Coral Gables. The fall economic development programming, which is aiming to debut mid-to-late November, is promised to bring a whole new pedestrian experience for visitors and residents. The city’s Economic Development Department is…

Here’s why President Trump loves depreciation

A day after the New York Times reported Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and $750 again the following year, the president took to his favorite medium to deny the claims. “I paid many millions of dollars in taxes, but was entitled, like everyone else, to depreciation & tax credits,” Trump said on Twitter in response…

Fisher Island developer scores approval for residential projects on exclusive island

Heinrich Von Hanau Fisher Island developer Heinrich Von Hanau received approvals for two residential projects on the exclusive island. Miami-Dade County officials recently approved zoning changes to allow for a 57-unit, 10-story condominium building at 6 Fisher Island Drive and 12 single-family homes at 68 Fisher Island Drive. The new projects would bring the total…

PPP loan forgiveness to begin within the coming week: SBA

More than 96,000 requests for Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness have been submitted to the Small Business Administration since early August, but none were approved — but that’s about to change. The Treasury Department said that PPP requests will start to be approved and paid late this week or early next, the Wall Street Journal reported.

RedSky, JZ sell Wynwood assemblage at discount for $26M

A partnership between RedSky Capital and JZ Capital Partners sold an assemblage of land in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood for $26 million, less than the price they paid four years ago. RedSky, a Brooklyn-based real estate company, and Manhattan-based investment firm JZ sold the development site to SV 2700 Owner LLC. The LLC shares an address…

Florida allows eviction moratorium to expire

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will allow the state’s ban on residential foreclosures and evictions to expire Oct. 1. DeSantis announced the ban, which only applied to the final action of foreclosures and evictions, would not be renewed, citing the Centers for Disease Control’s mandated federal eviction ban. The CDC’s order is in effect through the end of December…

JPMorgan wants to invest $700M building rentals in Sun Belt states

Wall Street landlords aren’t going anywhere — except maybe down South. The asset management arm of JPMorgan Chase wants to raise a $700 million fund focused on developing single-family and multifamily rental properties in Sun Belt cities, Bloomberg reported, citing an investor presentation. “Read Developers bet big on build-for-rent in these…”

Principal Real Estate Investors Provides $53.5M Construction Loan for Apartment Complex in Metro Miami

Principal Real Estate Investors has provided a $53.5 million construction loan for the residential portion of Pura Vida Hialeah. The borrower, Coral Rock Development Group, is developing the property, which also features 40,000 square feet of adjacent retail space. The apartment community, dubbed The Residences at Pura Vida, will feature 260 units spanning…

Miami Beach Trying To Shed Hard-Partying Reputation, But Businesses Are Pushing Back

Miami Beach is a paradox. Before the coronavirus, it had seen a record number of tourists and booming prices for real estate. But it has also been suffering from a reputation for rowdy behavior — stoked by viral videos of a woman twerking on a cop’s ATV, a “stripper cat fight” and a brawl outside a club, with shots fired — that politicians say is concentrated around the…

Air Force offers county new airport site at Homestead

Miami-Dade is working on multiple deals to build out its general aviation airports and is “closer than ever” to an agreement for a new one at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Aviation Director Lester Sola said. Commissioners Oct. 6 are to decide whether to direct Mayor Carlos Giménez to “expeditiously” pursue a contract with the Air Force so that the county…

Miami Heat minority owner pays $20 million for Sweetwater Best Buy

As the Miami Heat eye a potential NBA championship, one of the team’s original partners has reason to celebrate early. Raanan Katz’s real estate company RK Centers paid $20.4 million for a 4.2-acre property leased to Best Buy at 10760 Northwest 17th Street in Sweetwater, near Dolphin Mall and Miami International Mall. The 46,000-square-foot building is home to…

On Eve Of NBA Finals, Miami Heat Player Scores Development Win

This week, Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem will be trying to rack up victories against the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. Last week, he scored a different sort of win: His company is moving forward with a $36M housing development. Haslem Housing Venture LLC… at 2035 North Miami Avenue. The proposal listed partners Haslem Housing Ventures and…

CTO Realty Growth Acquires Shopping Center in Metro Miami for $21 Million

CTO Realty Growth has acquired Westland Gateway, a 108,000-square-foot shopping center in Hialeah, for $21 million. Aldi, dd’s Discount, Ross Dress for Less and Bed Bath & Beyond occupy the property. Westland Gateway is located at 1460 W. 49th Street, 15 miles northwest of downtown Miami. Daytona Beach, Fla.-based CTO Realty purchased the asset through a 1031…

Miami developer Metronomic files for bankruptcy

Metronomic Holdings, a South Florida-based developer led by Ricky Trinidad, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month. The Coral Gables-based real estate firm listed more than $87 million in debts, according to documents filed in the Southern District of Florida. Metronomic has commercial, residential and student housing projects…

50% of Miami International Airport passengers likely to return in 2020

In April, amid coronavirus-driven shutdowns, passenger movements at Miami International Airport (MIA) plummeted. Four months later, as international travel strictures loosen, they’ve begun to rebound. But there’ still a long way to go, said Aviation Director Lester Sola. “By the time the year is over, we’ll probably have it 50% of the volume we had last year…”

Miami Marine Stadium renovation contract nears

The long-awaited restoration of Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key is one major step closer to reality, according to the city’s Office of Capital Improvements. City staff delivered a status report on the multi-million-dollar project at a virtual meeting of the Virginia Key Advisory Board on Sept. 22. The project is near completion of the permitting process, and…

County set to corner South Dade transit

As construction for “Gold Standard” bus rapid transit on the South Dade Transitway gears up, Miami-Dade aims to clinch the use of 850 parking spaces on the line’s penultimate stop. Commissioners are to consider a parking deal with Homestead Oct. 6, roughly a month after they OK’d a $368 million contract for construction of stations, roadway and intersection…

Landlords eye taking cut of retailers’ online sales as rent

As shopping habits shift toward the digital, some property owners think demanding a portion of retail tenants’ online sales is only fair. (iStock) Landlords are familiar with percentage rent — taking a portion of retail tenants’ in-store sales — but now, some are thinking of bringing online sales into the mix. As shopping habits shift towards the digital, some property…

As Florida Reopens, Brokers Confident Retail Closures Will Be Filled

Despite the fact that COVID-19 is still spreading in Florida — a tracking group’s dashboard reported 3,266 new cases and 106 deaths on Tuesday — and warnings from health officials that there could be a resurgence in cases this fall, Florida has mostly reopened under political and economic pressures. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed an executive order bringing…

Lawsuit seeking class action status accuses Grant Cardone of misleading investors

Grant Cardone Real estate crowdfunding guru Grant Cardone is facing allegations that he’s misled thousands of investors across the country by falsely promising them annual returns of at least 15 percent and other incentives that never materialized. Fresh off their acquisition of a waterfront Fort Lauderdale apartment complex, Cardone and his…

Retail bankruptcies on pace to rival 2010: report

It’s been a difficult year for retailers, and things may get worse before they get better: The number of bankruptcy filings by retailers this year could outpace those filed in the wake of the Great Recession. As of Sept. 29, nearly 30 retailers filed for bankruptcy, leading to almost 6,000 store closures, according to a biannual bankruptcy report from BDO International, a…

Medical co-working space operator ShareMD buys Miami medical campus

An owner and operator of medical co-working space bought a medical office campus in Miami from a company with ties to Florida’s former lieutenant governor. Alpharetta, Georgia-based ShareMD bought the three-building, 10-acre property at 7400, 7500 and 7800 Southwest 87th Avenue, according to a press release. The company declined to provide the…

ShareMD Buys Miami Medical Office Campus

ShareMD has acquired a three-building, 177,358-square-foot medical office campus in Miami. Ideal Management and FIP Realty Services worked on behalf of the buyer. Starwood Mortgage Capital provided acquisition financing, which PSRS arranged. Pan American Group is the former owner of at least one of the three properties that traded, Yardi Matrix data shows…

Greenberg Traurig Assists ShareMD in $89 Million Financing of Medical Office Building Portfolio with Starwood Mortgage Capital

A team of Greenberg Traurig, P. A. attorneys led by Miami Real Estate Practice Shareholder Danielle Gonzalez, represented long-time client ShareMD in its financing of a medical office building portfolio with Starwood Mortgage Capital. The $89 million loan transaction closed on September 25. The portfolio consists of eight medical office properties…

ShareMD Acquires Three-Building Medical Office Campus in Miami to Add to Their Growing Healthcare Portfolio

ShareMD, a healthcare real estate and physician practice solution company with corporate office in Alpharetta, Georgia, has closed escrow on a three-building, 177,358 sq. ft. medical office campus atop ten acres in Miami, “We’re excited to continue ShareMD’s growth in the healthcare facility sector with this acquisition,” said ShareMD’s Chairman and CEO, John…”

Colony deal puts Highgate among biggest hotel owners

Highgate’s deal to purchase a $2.8 billion portfolio of hotels from Colony Capital will catapult the company into the upper ranks of the nation’s largest hotel owners. The privately held hospitality firm, launched in 1988 by brothers Mahmood and Mehdi Khimji, will have the fifth-largest portfolio in the country when it finalizes its deal with Colony, which is…

Top developers Gil Dezer, Jon Paul Perez on their reasons for doubling down in South Florida market

For some Miami developers, the last few months have provided an opportunity to “double down.” “Our affordable division is extremely active,” Jon Paul Pérez, executive vice president of Related Group, said during The Real Deal’s latest episode of Coffee Talks. Pérez noted that Related has broken ground on three projects in the last 45 days. Another…

Will real estate take the stage at Trump-Biden debate?

The first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden airs tonight, and will focus on the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, racial unrest and the candidates’ records among other preselected topics. But given Trump and Biden’s shared penchant for off-the-cuff remarks, will they stay entirely on topic or will eviction bans…

Biden vs. Trump: What’s at stake for real estate?

Joe Biden and Donald Trump Biden’s $775B ‘caring economy’ plan would kill 1031 exchanges Joe Biden went after one of the real estate industry’s favorite tax benefits last month. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee proposed his “caring economy” plan to  fund a child- and elderly-care spending platform, in part by closing a loophole used by many…

Miami investor buys Hialeah apartments for $13 million

A Miami investor paid $13 million for a multifamily property in Hialeah. Antonio Hernandez, an electrical contractor who owns nearly a dozen properties in the Miami area, purchased the 66-unit Hilton Estates buildings at 6365 West 24th Avenue. The seller is Hilton Estates of Hialeah IV, led by Tomas Betancourt Jr. The deal breaks down to $197,000 per unit.

The Fed discusses different effects COVID is having on rates of hotels versus casino hotels

The FRED Blog recently discussed the large reductions in travel related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today we expand that analysis to include a specific aspect of travel: hotel stays. The graph above shows producer price index (PPI) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that measure price changes from the perspective of the seller. Percent changes in prices from…

Troubled commercial properties see values fall 27%: report

Commercial properties such as hotels and malls may have lost as much as a quarter of their value as the pandemic devastated the retail and hospitality businesses, along with other sectors. The value of the collateral for commercial mortgage-backed securities has been written down by 27 percent on average when properties get into trouble, the Financial Times…

Distressed US Commercial Real Estate Lost 27 Pct Of Value, Wells Fargo Figures Show

Many U.S. commercial properties have lost 25 percent or more of their value as the impact of the coronavirus has taken its toll on hotels, malls and other nonresidential buildings. The Financial Times (FT) reported the evidence of the losses can be seen in the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market from appraisals. As a result, it raises questions…

Neiman Marcus exits bankruptcy $4 billion lighter

Neiman Marcus has emerged from bankruptcy just four and a half months after it entered the Chapter 11 restructuring process. The court-led process erased $4 billion in debt that the distressed retailer was holding, along with $200 million in annual interest payments, Reuters reported. The Dallas-based company now has $1.25 billion in debt, down from $5.1 billion.

Opportunity Zone rule change seeks to entice foreign investors

Potential changes to the rules for Opportunity Zones could soon allow some foreign investors to reap major tax benefits from the program. The Internal Revenue Service is considering new rules pertaining to foreign investors’ ability to defer capital gains in the Opportunity Zones program. The new regulations could be released in December, according to the White House…

DeSantis says restaurants in Florida can operate at up to 100% capacity

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state would be moving into the third phase of reopening, allowing for up to 100 percent capacity at restaurants. The announcement, made in St. Petersburg, left municipalities and restaurateurs in South Florida scrambling to determine how the order will impact them. DeSantis said the state will guarantee restaurants can…

Hunt Real Estate Capital Provides $27 Million Fannie Mae Loan to Refinance a Newly-Built Multifamily Community in Hialeah, FL

Hunt Real Estate Capital, a division of ORIX Real Estate Capital, announced that it has provided a $27 million Fannie Mae DUS® Conventional Multifamily loan to refinance construction debt for Las Vistas at Amelia, a 174-unit apartment community in Miami-Dade county. Built in 2020, Las Vistas at Amelia is a workforce housing community designed to attract…

CorePoint Lodging sells Deerfield Beach La Quinta for $6M

Hotel real estate investment trust CorePoint Lodging sold a La Quinta in Deerfield Beach for $5.7 million. CorePoint, a spin-off of the La Quinta hotel brand, sold the 79-room hotel via CPLG Wellesley Properties LLC. Property records show the buyer is Shree Sai Properties LLC, managed by Ketankumar “Ketan” K. Patel. The hotel, at 100 Southwest 12th Avenue…

Fortune International Group buys waterfront Pompano Beach site for $28M

Fortune International Group is the latest developer to bet on the Pompano Beach market. The Miami-based development firm, led by Edgardo Defortuna, paid $27.5 million for the 4.6-acre site at 1380 South Ocean Boulevard, the company announced Wednesday. Fortune is planning to build two high-end condo towers on the oceanfront and Intracoastal-front…

Dev Motwani buys Fort Lauderdale dev site for $14M

Developer Dev Motwani bought a development site in Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village for $14 million. A Merrimac Ventures affiliate closed on the properties at 317 North Federal Highway and 515 Northeast Third Street, property records show. J & C Fox Family LLC and Joel Fox Inc., tied to Joel and Camille Fox, sold the buildings. They’ve owned the land since at least…

Investment firm tied to Baltimore Ravens owner buys South Florida car dealerships for $61M

The family office of two Maryland billionaires paid a total of $60.5 million for car dealerships in Margate and Tamarac owned by Arrigo Automotive Group. A company tied to Hanover, Maryland-based Redwood Capital Investments paid $34.5 million for the Tamarac Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram dealership at 5901 Madison Avenue in Tamarac.

DiVosta family sells Palm Beach Gardens office towers for $80M

The Palm Beach Gardens office towers Investors Nader Shalom and Babak Ebrahimzadeh paid $80 million for the DiVosta Towers in Palm Beach Gardens, marking one of the biggest office sales to close in recent months. The DiVosta family sold the two 11-story Class A Towers at 3825 to 3835 PGA Boulevard to Gatsby Enterprises and Master Mind, according to a press…

Dezer’s 30-acre megaproject in North Miami Beach gets first approval

A nearly 30-acre mixed-use development that would bring luxury condo towers, a harbor and public promenade secured a key approval from the city of North Miami Beach. Developer Gil Dezer’s plan to transform the Intracoastal Mall will return to the North Miami City Commission next month, after commissioners voted to pass zoning amendments and a…

Miami Multifamily Report – Summer 2020

Miami ended 2019 on a high note; In a study by financial advice website SmartAsset, the metro ranked fourth out of 500 U.S. cities ranked for economic growth. Miami joined the nation’s top “boomtowns” thanks to its gross domestic product and business growth, job creation and population change. However, rents started to moderate in late 2019 and early 2020.

South Florida construction starts rose in August

August construction starts rose in South Florida South Florida construction starts were up in August, according to a recently released report. Total construction starts for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties totaled $904.1 million, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, a Hamilton, New Jersey-based construction data analytics firm. That’s about 46…

10 Questions Your Litigator May Ask about Your Post-Covid Commercial Lease

Much has been written about commercial real estate in a post-Covid world. As real estate users consider how Covid will change their space needs, they should also consider what provisions will serve them in future lease-related litigation. Of course, every commercial lease is different, but there are provisions that most leases do or should have. Here are 10 questions your…

Magellan Housing and Miami Heat star Udonis Haslem to build Wynwood apartment project on city-owned land

Coral Gables-based Magellan Housing and its celebrity partner, Miami Heat star Udonis Haslem, scored a slam dunk with Miami’s Omni Community Redevelopment Agency. Miami city commissioners — acting as the agency’s board of directors — on Thursday approved a proposal submitted by the partnership to build a 12-story, mixed-use apartment project in the…

Colony sells most of its hotel biz to Highgate in $2.8B deal

Tom Barrack’s Colony Capital is selling the majority of its beleaguered hotel business to private investor Highgate Hotels in a deal valuing the properties at $2.8 billion. It’s the largest shakeup the hospitality sector has seen since being decimated by the pandemic. The publicly traded Colony signed an agreement to sell six of its seven hotel portfolios to Highgate for $67.5…

Builder involved in deadly FIU bridge collapse sues for $15M, alleges design firm botched review

The contractor behind the Florida International University bridge that collapsed in March 2018, killing six and injuring 10, filed a lawsuit seeking $15 million from the company responsible for reviewing the bridge’s design before its construction. The plaintiff and builder of the $14.2 million bridge at Southwest 109th Avenue and Southwest Eighth Street, Miami-based…

Report: Office market won’t return to glory until 2025

The office market won’t reach pre-Covid levels until 2025, a brokerage report has found. The analysis by Cushman and Wakefield predicts that office vacancies across the world will continue upward, reaching 15.6 percent in 2022, Bloomberg reported. About 95.8 million square feet of space will become vacant in the next two years. Before the coronavirus…

Kitchen And Bath Supplier Plans New 95,000 SF Warehouse And Distribution Center In Doral

Panda Kitchens has purchased a 28,800-square-foot industrial building located at 7800 NW 34 Street in Doral for $6,500,000 with plans to build a new 95,000 square foot warehouse and distribution center. The property is situated on one of the largest assemblages of industrial land, encompassing 4.20 acres, or 182,937 square feet, within the…

Brookfield and Namdar plan to hand over keys to struggling malls

Some mall owners have given up trying to revive their struggling malls and pay off their debt payments and are now seeking to hand over the keys to their servicers. Brookfield Properties and Namdar Realty are separately requesting they be allowed to give up their J.C. Penney-anchored malls to special servicers to avoid loan foreclosure, according to Trepp. The…

It’Sugar files for bankruptcy protection after sales sour

A Deerfield Beach-based candy chain is the latest retailer to file for bankruptcy protection due to Covid-19. It’Sugar, with about 100 candy stores in mostly tourist markets, has $500,000 in cash, with $6.2 million of secured debt and $10.4 million of unsecured liabilities, including unpaid rent, according to a press release. The company reported losses before…

Red South Beach signs $5 million lease for new space & other Miami restaurant news

Red South Beach Red South Beach is moving on from its Washington Avenue location of the last 10 years, but it’s not going too far. Chef and owner Peter Vauthy signed a 10-year, $4.5 million lease for the restaurant space at 801 South Pointe Drive, he told The Real Deal. The new location includes 6,000 square feet of indoor space and 3,000 square feet of,,,

Blackstone assembles biggest real estate debt fund ever

Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies’ Jonathan Pollack (Blackstone; iStock) PTA moms can look to Blackstone for fundraising inspiration. The giant firm gathered $8 billion for a property debt fund born last year and closed this month, making it the largest real estate credit fund ever raised. That’s thanks to low interest rates and the potential for high returns during the…

Hotel industry is in trouble and more lenders want out

As hotels across the U.S. continue to suffer — average occupancy is just under 50 percent — an increasing number of lenders are scrambling to sell their mortgages. Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies has hired Cushman & Wakefield to sell mortgages totalling $500 million tied to the Times Square Hotel in Manhattan and two St. Regis hotels in Washington…

Wynwood streetscape plan gets a thumb’s-up

A proposed vision for greener and more pedestrian-friendly streets in Wynwood is a step closer to being realized. The Planning, Zoning and Appeals board recommended approval of the Wynwood Streetscape Master Plan on Sept. 16. It sets guidelines that would dictate the build-out of Wynwood streets. The master plan focuses on increasing pedestrianism…

Famed Ocean Drive might become Ocean Walk

Pedestrians first, bicyclists and transit second, personal vehicles last is the mantra for officials looking to revamp transportation in Miami Beach’s Entertainment District. A permanently pedestrianized Ocean Drive was featured in a game plan that transportation staff presented at a city committee workshop last week.  The goal of such a makeover…

Common raises $50M, eyes housing for remote workers

With its eye on housing for remote workers, co-living startup Common has raised $50 million in new funding. The Series D was led by Kinnevik with participation from existing investors Maveron, 8VC and Norwest Venture Partners, CEO Brad Hargreaves wrote in a blog post Tuesday. The round brings Common’s total funding to more than $113 million at a time when…

Leaked bank documents show South Florida real estate’s alleged ties to money laundering

A group of South Florida property owners’ alleged ties to global money laundering are revealed in newly leaked bank documents. A family who owns a home worth more than $2 million in the Jockey Circle neighborhood in Davie and a man accused of buying an $850,000 Tudor cottage in Davie with drug money are among the property owners emerging from a trove…

Kitchen and bath supplier pays $7M for Doral land for distribution center

A kitchen and bath supplier paid $6.5 million for 4.2 acres of industrial land in Doral, with plans to build a distribution center. Panda Kitchen & Bath bought the property at 7800 Northwest 34th Street, according to a press release. The sale comes to $35.53 per square foot for about 183,000 square feet of land. The asking price was $8 million, according to an offering…

How do companies decide who should return to offices first? It’s tricky

Companies are relying on surveys and other data points to determine who will come back to offices first. (iStock) Companies are starting to bring employees back to offices after months of working from home, but deciding who should come back first is tricky — so firms are relying on surveys, apps and other tech to guide staffing decisions. International Business…

“That was a business decision”: Why real estate execs are backing Trump — or backing away

Sotheby’s International Realty broker Nikki Field was leading sales at Kushner Companies’ Puck Penthouses in Manhattan when, in 2016, the Kushners raised the idea of the brokerage getting involved in a fundraiser for Donald Trump’s presidential bid. Sotheby’s said it couldn’t because it was prohibited from donating to political campaigns…

Movie theaters might not come back after all

The release of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” was expected to be a return to some semblance of pre-coronavirus normalcy for movie theaters, but the industry might have a longer road ahead than some thought. Around 68 percent of movie theaters across the U.S. were open for the film’s debut over Labor Day weekend, but it made just $9.8 million over that weekend…

Firms dangle big bucks to lure employees out of big cities

In an increasingly work-from-home world, those with the means have also been moving out of big cities in favor of roomier, perhaps more suburban confines. Now, electronic payment company Stripe is offering employees $20,000 if they move out of cities including San Francisco, New York and Seattle, according to Bloomberg. But even that comes at a price.

Miami-Dade police said pre-Covid evictions could resume. Then came mayor’s stop order

The Miami-Dade Police Department announced on Thursday that pre-pandemic evictions could resume. But by the end of the day, county Mayor Carlos Gimenez had reversed the decision, causing confusion among landlords and tenants. Coronavirus-related evictions have been on hold in Florida for several months. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ two previous orders…

More multifamily may be coming to Overtown

Kelly Kite and 690 Northwest 13th Street (Google Maps) A landowner Miami’s Overtown neighborhood seeks city approval to turn a former chemical site into a multifamily or mixed-use development. Attorney Ines Marrero has applied for a zoning change on the site at 690 Northwest 13th Street on behalf of the landowner, a company tied to Vero Beach-based…

South Beach office building inks lease for record $92 psf

119 Washington Avenue Miami Beach Investment management firm J. Goldman & Co. signed a lease expansion at a South Beach office building for $92 per square foot, reportedly a record for South Florida. The company inked an eight-year lease for 3,318 square feet at the Yukon at 119 Washington Avenue. The six-story Class A office building is being…

British billionaires invest in Jeffrey Soffer’s Turnberry resort in Aventura

Jeffrey Soffer, Brett Mufson, David and Simon Reuben Reuben Brothers acquired a 25 percent stake in Jeffrey Soffer’s JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa. The private equity and investment firm, led by British billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben, is partnering with Jeffrey Soffer’s Fontainebleau Development on other investments as well…

Off Lease Only sells two South Florida locations for $50M

Off Lease Only, the used car dealership, sold its Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach locations in a $50 million deal. Records show Off Lease Only Real Estate Holdings LLC sold both properties to Spirit Realty L.P. The Fort Lauderdale site at 827 South SR 7 sold for $27.5 million, and the West Palm property at 1200 South Congress Avenue sold for $22 million. Dallas…

Deutsche Bank: Employees can stay home until mid-2021

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing and Deutsche Bank’s Manhattan headquarters at 60 Wall Street (Getty) Employees at Deutsche Bank won’t have to replace sweats with suits any time soon. The German lender notified staff in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut this week that they can keep working from home until next July, according to Bloomberg.

Estate Companies plans Soleste apartments in North Miami Beach

Estate Companies received approval for a waterfront 23-story apartment tower in North Miami Beach. The tower, dubbed Soleste NoMi, will have 367 units, 2,708 square feet of commercial space and 655 parking spaces. It will be on almost two acres at 16395 Biscayne Boulevard. Estate Companies expects to break ground toward the end of the year on the 686,000…

Landlords lost about $9B in rental payments last quarter: report

Almost 11 million households were behind on rent or mortgage payments during the first three months of the pandemic. Nearly 6 million of those households were renters, who reported either missing, delaying or paying reduced rent during the second quarter of the year, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Just over 5 million households…

Aman tower planned for Faena Versailles site in Miami Beach advances

Billionaire developers Vlad Doronin and Len Blavatnik secured initial approval for a zoning change that will allow them to build a 250-foot Aman-branded tower in Miami Beach. Despite considerable opposition for the proposed zoning, Miami Beach commissioners on Wednesday voted to pass the ordinance on first reading, sending it to the Miami Beach Historic…

Shvo to hell: Inside the ugly dispute between Michael Shvo and partner pal

Michael Shvo’s rule-breaking had finally caught up with him. The controversial broker-turned-developer was sidelined on more than $2 billion worth of Manhattan condos when he pleaded guilty to evading $1.5 million in taxes in 2018. But just when it looked like Shvo was persona non grata to any major investors and lenders, he surprised everyone. His…

Where real estate’s investment giants stand on Biden vs. Trump

Private equity and other major investment firms have donated more to Joe Biden than President Donald Trump so far this election cycle, campaign filings show, despite the potential for higher taxes. And while some companies with a heavy focus on real estate have been keeping hush on their candidate of choice, at least one firm is bucking that trend. The…

Amazon’s plan for massive warehouse heats up Homestead industrial market

Rendering of the project About two months after Amazon secured approval for what could be its largest distribution warehouse yet in South Florida, commissioners will vote on whether to approve a second e-commerce development on Homestead-Miami Speedway land. Homestead’s Planning & Zoning Board approved plans Tuesday for a 145,000-square-foot…

Amazon to open 1,000 warehouses in the suburbs

Amazon is moving to the ’burbs. The e-commerce giant plans to open 1,000 warehouses in suburbs and cities across the U.S., according to Bloomberg. The expansion will allow the company to quicken deliveries as it competes with rivals such as Walmart. Although other efforts, such as hiring 175,000 new workers, have already sped up Amazon shipments, the company is…

Investment Management Firm Expands Lease in Miami Beach, Breaking Florida’s Rental Rate Record Per Square Foot

J. Goldman & Co. LLP, an independent investment management firm, has signed an eight-year lease for 3,318 square feet of office space and a 700-square-foot covered terrace at The Yukon Miami at 119 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach. J. Goldman, which already leases 1,223 square feet on the fourth floor of the Class A office building, broke Florida’s per square foot…

Miami Commercial Real Estate Sales to List Price Ratio Recovers from July’s Slight Dip ~ August 2020 MLS

After dipping a touch, just enough to make some market players wonder what it might mean, the sales to list price ratio as reported by the Miami MLS, rebounded right back to around 92%, very much in line with where is has generally been for the past few years. This ratio has held up well since coronavirus emerged. That this measure continues to stay steady overall…

University of Miami sells land for Walmart-anchored project

Ram Realty bought land north of Zoo Miami for $9.6 million, for a mixed-use development under construction anchored by Walmart. Palm Beach Gardens-based Ram bought the site at 15601 Southwest 127th Avenue from the University of Miami, according to records. The development has been known by the names Coral Reef Commons, as well as Botanical. Retail…

The CDC Says Indoor Dining Is Risky. Miami Restaurants Are Scrambling to Adapt

When the managers at All Day cafe convened for their weekly meeting on March 11, co-owner Camila Ramos could sense that major changes were afoot in the food-and-beverage industry. Although it was 24 hours before the mayor of Miami-Dade County declared a state of emergency, Ramos and her team began hatching plans for what to do if cases of the coronavirus…

Years in the making, $425M mixed-use Miami River development opens

The massive mixed-use River Landing Shops & Residences development along the Miami River opened after years in the making, while other projects in the area remain on hold. The retail, multifamily and office River Landing project was completed earlier this year, but the owner, H&R Real Estate Investment Trust, held off on a grand opening due to the pandemic.

H&R REIT, Urban-X Open First Wave of Tenants at $452M River Landing Development in Miami

Toronto-based H&R REIT and Coral Gables, Fla.-based Urban-X Group have welcomed the first tenants to open at River Landing Shops & Residences in Miami, the first phase of the $452 million River Landing mixed-use development. The first tenants opening beginning this week include Hobby Lobby, Burlington, Publix, Five Below, Chase Bank and AT&T. Ross Dress…

Quiet dorms and distress storms: Student housing sector takes hit

Stay-at-home orders and virtual classes have asked serious questions of the once-booming market for student housing. (Photo: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via Getty) A few days into classes in August, students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were in panic mode. Covid-19 cases were breaking out in dorm rooms and frat houses at the…

Miami-Dade puts new airport in Homestead onto agenda

After years of negotiating, it’s time to make a deal to use Homestead Air Reserve Base land for Miami-Dade County aviation purposes, according to Commissioner Dennis Moss. Commissioners are to decide Oct. 6 whether to OK his resolution to direct Mayor Carlos Giménez to “expeditiously effectuate a joint use agreement with the United States of America to allow…

Idle arts center stages may become recording studios

With live and in-person performing arts productions at a halt, Cultural arts organizations are finding ways to put large empty theater stages to good use while fundraising initiatives continue. Doing everything possible to move forward and keep facilities operational, performing arts centers are consistently looking for permits, funds and grants to keep them afloat…

Beyond beetles and bats, is Miami Wilds deal best for us?

With Miami-Dade unemployment highest in 80 years and our visitor industry hurting as never before, a long-sought attraction that would add 300-plus jobs would seem heaven sent. Miami Wilds might be just that. But you can’t tell that from its press clippings. As a committee last week recommended a lease for the water park beside Zoo Miami for a full…

Flywheel Sports files for liquidation bankruptcy

Flywheel Sports and its affiliates have filed for bankruptcy, joining a list of fitness studio operators crushed by the coronavirus. The spin-cycle studio brand’s Chapter 7 filing would lead to liquidation of its assets. The documents were filed late Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Read more Dead weight: New York Sports Clubs owner files for…

Cushman partners with Industrious in bid to bring the office back

Cushman & Wakefield is betting big on co-working, even as millions of Americans have yet to return to the office amid the pandemic-imposed remote work revolution. The firm has teamed up with startup Industrious to help provide flex-office space for companies and individuals outside the corporate environment, according to the Wall Street Journal. The co…

South Florida by the numbers: Miami Heat back in the spotlight

“South Florida by the numbers” is a web feature that catalogs the most notable, quirky and surprising real estate statistics. Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and crackling racial tension, the Miami Heat find themselves back in the spotlight this month, with their first trip to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals since 2014. September…

The Compelling Math of Owning vs. Renting Commercial Property for Businesses

I find buyers commonly debating total monthly cash outlay to own versus that of renting in year one. Though I admire the cash-is-king disciple of this, I would submit that the projected net cost to own compared to that of renting is so attractive that is offsets they typically small differences in cash outlay at inception. After all, the difference, over time, tends to be…

Early economic effects from “safer at home” practices : What Census data from the Quarterly Services Survey can show us

Social distancing and “safer at home” practices have been in effect for many months now, so what do the data show us so far? These protective measures have had widespread effects across the economy; but some industries were affected much more quickly, as behavioral changes predated any official stay-at-home directives. Our first example is transportation revenue…

Developers buy land, score $25M loan for Target-anchored mixed-use project in Overtown

Michael Swerdlow and his partners’ planned Target-anchored, mixed-use development in Overtown is moving ahead, despite ongoing litigation. The developers, including Swerdlow Group, SJM and Alben Duffie, closed on the land for the mixed-use development at 249 Northwest Sixth Street in Miami, and scored $25 million to finance the purchase, according to a release.

“Anything and everything is negotiable”: Incentives for condo buyers mount in Miami

In early March, Residences by Armani/Casa’s developers hosted a blowout opening party, featuring a Giorgio Armani fashion show, a performance by Pitbull, and a fireworks display over the beachfront pool deck of the high-rise condo. Agents offered tours of the Sunny Isles Beach tower’s units and amenity spaces. Some attendees wore ball gowns, and the drinks flowed.

Amazon to open 100 more distribution centers this month

Amazon is riding the online-shopping boom brought on by the pandemic. The e-commerce giant plans to open 100 facilities, including fulfillment centers, delivery stations and sorting centers, in September, the Wall Street Journal reported. That’s on top of more than 75 others opened this year in the U.S. and Canada.

South Beach dev site with multifamily, retail hits market

A development site in the Flamingo/Lummus neighborhood of South Beach hit the market, and could sell for at least the mid-$30 million range, according to the listing brokerage. The site includes seven multifamily and retail buildings on 1.4 acres at the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and 16th Street in Miami Beach. It includes 98 apartments and about…

Authentic Brands in talks to join J.C. Penney takeover

Authentic Brands, one of the most active bidders on bankrupt retail, is joining a deal to take over J.C. Penney. The New York-based brand management company is reportedly in discussions with Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Group to participate in their plan to rescue J.C. Penney, according to Business Insider…

DeSantis moves Miami-Dade, Broward counties into phase two

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…

Mortgage rates notch new low

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…

Drink up: Bars can reopen Monday in the Florida Keys — but not in rest of South Florida

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. Bars and breweries in other counties in phase 2 will…

CMBS delinquencies fell, but hold the applause

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…

Lender acquires TooJay’s out of bankruptcy

Florida restaurant chain TooJay’s Deli is emerging from bankruptcy with a new owner. The West Palm Beach-based deli filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April as a result of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which forced restaurants to shut their indoor dining rooms down temporarily. When it filed for bankruptcy, the company had 28 locations.

Real estate donors backing Biden over Trump

As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on real estate, industry donors are siding with Joe Biden over President Donald Trump, records show. They have so far given $17.1 million to the former vice president’s campaign and political action committees backing him, and $15.6 million to Trump, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research…

Estate Companies scores $36M construction loan for Soleste Spring Gardens

The Estate Companies scored a $36 million construction loan for an eight-story apartment complex in Miami’s Health District. Bank OZK provided the financing for Soleste Spring Gardens at 1033 Spring Garden Road in Miami, according to a press release. The 240-unit complex will offer studios, one- and two-bedrooms from 400 square feet to 1,100 square feet…

JPMorgan is calling employees back to the office

JPMorgan is heading back to the office. The bank, one of New York City’s largest employers, told senior employees in the sales and trading division that they and their teams are to return to the office by Sept. 21, the Wall Street Journal reported. By directing employees to return after months of working from home, JPMorgan’s message is clear: It’s safe to head back…

Bad breakup? Developer Vlad Doronin sues ex Naomi Campbell

Real estate developer Vlad Doronin is suing his ex-girlfriend, supermodel Naomi Campbell, for millions of dollars. Doronin, who develops projects in South Florida and New York, filed a summons in New York County Supreme Court on Friday. He alleges that Campbell wrongfully refused to repay loans that Doronin made to her and failed to return personal property valued…

Century 21 Stores files for bankruptcy, blames insurers

Century 21 Stores is the latest retailer to file for bankruptcy, and it blames insurance providers for its collapse. The New York-based off-price retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday and announced it will wind down operations to close its 13 stores across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida. The company said it was forced to file for…

Remote work threatens cash flows for office REITs

The rise of remote work puts cash flows for U.S. office real estate investment trusts at risk in the near and long term, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings. Trepidation about the future of the U.S. economy has led companies to sign fewer and shorter leases, which hurts cash flows for office REITs in the near future. Moreover, the broader shift toward…

What is Going to Happen with Rent Payments?

The economic impacts of COVID-19 won’t be fully measured for quite some time, but one thing is clear: many commercial real estate owners aren’t receiving rental payments from tenants. Even as communities reopen, numerous restaurants, personal-service providers, and retailers don’t do enough business to pay their bills. Restaurants operating at 25% of…

Trump’s fair housing repeal roils multifamily developers

This summer, President Donald Trump put low-income residents on notice: The suburbs would be off-limits to them. His administration repealed an Obama-era rule known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing — a moment amplified by a series of tweets from the president declaring victory for suburbs across the country. “I am happy to inform all of the people…

America’s Largest Landlord To Make $550 Million Bet On Trailer Parks

A decade ago, Blackstone Group Inc. became America’s largest landlord, purchasing tens of thousands of single-family homes during the foreclosure crisis. Now the private equity firm has spotted the next big opportunity as the virus-induced recession crushes the working poor, that is, betting on mobile-home parks.

Behind a Former South Miami Mayor’s Idea For Real Estate Climate ‘Restoration Bonds’

Politicians and developers in South Florida love to cheerlead about how great the region is, often brushing off concerns about climate change to instead talk about beautiful beaches and tax advantages. But Philip Stoddard, a Florida International University biology professor and the former mayor of South Miami, has a darker take. “My biggest concern is…”

Luxury Esgewater Condo Association Sues Airbnb While Platform Cracks Down On Parties

The condominium association of a luxury tower in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood has filed a civil lawsuit against Airbnb, and several additional lawsuits against Airbnb hosts, over short-term rentals at the property. Transient renters have led to problems including a shootout in an elevator and increased costs for security, maintenance and insurance…

South Florida Shutts Attorney Martha Rabbitt Comments on Commercial Real Estate Deals during COVID-19

Four South Florida attorneys discussed the impact of COVID-19 on commercial real estate deals in an article titled “Wuhan, Florida: COVID-19 Slashes Commercial Real Estate Deals in Stricken South Florida,” published by the Daily Business Review. South Florida commercial real estate deals have decreased in sales and dollar value. “Lenders are being cautious…”

Michael Shvo’s proposed Miami Beach tower gets haircut and approval

The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board approved developer Michael Shvo’s plans to add a residential tower behind the landmark Raleigh Hotel. But that tower won’t be 200 feet tall, as Shvo had proposed. Instead, following community outcry and a passionate plea from board chairman Jack Finglass during a meeting on Tuesday, the board shortened the…

Miami Beach’s Historic Preservation Board Approves $750M Mixed-Use Redevelopment Project

The Historic Preservation Board (HPB) of the City of Miami Beach has approved the three-acre master plan for the redevelopment of the historic Raleigh, South Seas and Richmond hotels. Real estate owner and developer Michael Shvo plans to fully restore the three properties and unify them as one site to be operated as a luxury hotel and condominium building.

Banyan Capital buys Doral office towers for $43M

A company with ties to Miami-based Banyan Street Capital bought a Doral office complex for $43 million, marking a discount from its last purchase price four years ago. The real estate investment firm bought the twin office buildings near the intersection of Northwest 36th Street and Northwest 87th Avenue, along with some adjacent properties, according to records.

Homestead Among Cities In At Least 25 States Vying for Headquarters Of U.S. Space Command

Space Force got all the attention when President Donald Trump announced it in June 2019, but there’s another federal military agency that was announced last year: U.S. Space Command. Whereas Space Force is a brand-new agency that will be part of the Air Force (like the Marine Corps is a part of the Navy) and have wide latitude, Space Command is technically a…

Miami Beach Trophy Building Signs Record-Breaking Office Lease

The Yukon Miami, a class-A commercial office building at 119 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach’s affluent South of Fifth neighborhood, has shattered office leasing records in Florida despite the Covid-19 pandemic and economically-challenging times – as reported by The Company Real Estate and The Global Consulting Organization. J. Goldman & Co., LLP, an…

Chart: Miami-Dade Commercial Property Sales Reach Highest Level of Year ~ August 2020 MLS

Looking at the chart of two year trailing closed sales of Miami-Dade commercial properties, both improved and vacant land, thus for the period from September 2018 to August 2020, sales reached the highest level of this year. Given that COVID really began to impact markets in February, these numbers thus could be said to exceed pre-pandemic levels. It must be…

Starwood loses control of US mall portfolio

It’s over for Starwood Capital Group’s U.S. mall portfolio. The real estate investment firm lost control of seven shopping centers after defaulting on Israeli bonds earlier this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. A ratings downgrade on the debt triggered a clause that allows bondholders to take control of the properties. Six parties — including Starwood…

J.C. Penney saved by Simon and Brookfield

J.C. Penney is saved. The retailer will be acquired by mall operators Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners, avoiding liquidation. Simon and Brookfield will pay about $300 million in cash and assume $500 million in debt to buy J.C. Penney, according to the New York Times. Some of the stores and distribution facilities will be divided into two property…

Market-rate rent payments sink to lowest level since start of pandemic

September rent payments for market-rate apartments nationwide fell, the largest drop since the pandemic began in March. A survey of 11.4 million market-rate units found 76.4 percent of those households made a rent payment in the first week of September. It marked a 4.8 percent-point drop from the same time last year, representing 552,796 fewer households…

Miami-Dade mayor: Bars and nightclubs won’t reopen until there’s a vaccine

Bars, nightclubs and movie theaters will remain closed in Miami-Dade County, though some outside activities can restart, and the curfew has been extended an extra hour. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced that more outdoor activities will be allowed beginning next week, two weeks after indoor dining was allowed to resume. Zoo Miami and Jungle…

Sign of the times: Developers want to add industrial to redevelopment of Pompano casino

Two companies redeveloping the 232-acre Isle Casino property in Pompano Beach want to make a pandemic-based pivot to industrial space and shrink the office component. Cordish Companies and Caesars Entertainment want to change the zoning and approved land use for Isle Casino so they can include 1.5 million square feet of industrial space in their mixed-use…

Miami Beach, minus 80,000 Art Basel visitors, vows to save Art Week

The cancellation of Art Basel will cost the City of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County millions in lost tax revenue and economic activity, but officials are working to ensure that some form of Art Week will still take place. Art Basel was scheduled for Dec. 3-6 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, but organizers announced Sept. 2 that it would be cancelled due to Covid-19…

Brew pub with shipping container on top targets historic building

One of downtown’s most historic staples, the Alfred I. duPont Building, could soon be home to a microbrewery and brewpub that would boast a cantilevered shipping container. The City of Miami’s virtual Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board heard plans last week for the 11,000-square-foot brew hub that would also feature an outdoor beer garden built atop the…

Series of snags adds four months to Miami-Dade courthouse construction

More than half a year after breaking ground, the builders of the new civic courthouse in downtown Miami have hit several snags that have added at least four months to the project’s timeline. A July report from Plenary Justice Miami, the development team behind the courthouse project, notes several setbacks that have pushed back the building’s opening from…

Miami River condo association alleges $10M in defects: lawsuit

The condo association for a Miami River project is suing a group of developers and subcontractors, alleging $10 million in design and construction defects. Terrazas Riverpark Village Condominium Association filed suit last month in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against more than 80 parties. The association alleges that unit owners only discovered the…

Miami Wilds water park near zoo flows toward county deal

A long-sought deal for a water park beside Zoo Miami is near, with terms between Miami-Dade and developers awaiting signatures. A county commission committee Friday is to review a lease with Miami Wilds LLC, the team behind Miami Wilds park, hotel and retail spanning 27.5 acres near the zoo and two museums. If it advances, the lease is subject to a…

250-truck concrete pour key step on I-395, Signature Bridge project

A parade of 250 trucks pouring concrete in a 12-hour span later this month will mark the next big step as the Florida Department of Transportation and the Archer Western – de Moya Group Joint Venture continue to make good progress on the I-395/SR 836/I-95 Design-Build Project. “Work continues around-the-clock on all three project corridors,” said Oscar Gonzalez III…

Retail rent payments inch back toward normal in August

A report shows major retailers paid 83 percent of August rent (iStock, Andy C via Wikipedia Commons) Retail landlords can celebrate as rent collections are slowly but surely returning to normal levels after months of lackluster payments. Major chains paid 83 percent of August rent, a new record, and only 14 percent below the nearly 97 percent that they paid during the…

Wall Street calls BS on apartment landlords’ rosy projections

Wall Street isn’t buying the rosy rent and occupancy predictions that many apartment landlords have been offering up. (iStock) Many apartment landlords across the U.S. maintain that tenants are paying rent, that occupancy remains high and all is going well. Understandably, investors are skeptical, according to the Wall Street Journal. The FTSE Nareit Equity…

Mondrian South Beach unit owners sue condo association and companies tied to Russell Galbut, alleging securities fraud

Russell Galbut, Mondrian South Beach A group of unit owners at the Mondrian South Beach sued the condo association and companies tied to developer Russell Galbut, alleging securities fraud. Fifty-one unit owners are each seeking $600,000, for a total of $30.6 million. They allege that a group of entities raised assessments and special assessments for…

David Martin’s Miami Beach Marina proposal heads to voters in November

David Martin and a rendering of the project Voters will decide if developer David Martin can redevelop the Miami Beach Marina into a high-rise, mixed-use tower. The Miami Beach City Commission on Wednesday agreed to send the proposal to a referendum in November. Martin’s Terra is proposing a tower of up to 385 feet in height, or about 38 stories tall.

Office is out, school is in: Co-working operators try to lure students into workspace

Laura Kozelouzek, CEO of Quest Workspaces, and a Quest classroom Office is out, but school is in session. Quest Workspaces, a co-working operator with 12 locations in Florida and New York, is turning some of its enclosed office space into small pods where groups of students can gather for virtual learning. The move comes as many school districts are opting to forgo…

Record-breaking surge in Covid cases spells trouble for South Florida’s hotel market

Jeffrey Soffer’s iconic Fontainebleau Miami Beach was among the first of the city’s hotels to reopen on June 1, after the majority were shut down for the entire month of May. The sponsors of the 1,500-room oceanfront resort — whose hallways have been graced by Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball, and more recently, Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian West — spent hundreds…

Hot commodity: Investors bet on mobile home parks

As returns fade and uncertainty reigns in traditional commercial real estate sectors, investors are moving money into mobile home parks. More than $800 million worth of mobile home parks traded during the second quarter, according to Bloomberg. That’s 23 percent more than the volume sold in the second quarter of 2019. Meanwhile, total commercial trades declined 68…

Retail adds nearly 250K jobs in August

The retail sector added nearly a quarter-million jobs in August, notching the highest growth among private industries. General merchandising stores added 116,000 workers, while automobile and appliance sales each added about 20,000 positions. (Related: Fifth Wall’s Brendan Wallace on the need for a retail bailout) Overall, the American economy continued its recovery…

CRE is doing better in cities where tech dominates

In smaller U.S. metros, big tech can mean the difference between boom and bust for commercial real estate. That’s according to a recent report from the commercial mortgage-backed securities data provider Trepp, which tallied the top secondary metro areas using several key industry metrics. Trepp ranked those markets by average occupancy rate, CMBS loan delinquency…

Developers land loan for Dania Beach multifamily project

Merrimac Ventures brought on another developer and secured a $4.7 million loan, with plans to bring an eight-story, mixed-use multifamily project to Dania Beach. Fort Lauderdale-based Merrimac is now joined by Miami-based high-end apartment developer The Estate Companies. The 340-unit project, at 4 North Federal Highway, has been renamed Soleste…

TikTok, Clarice: Why the government’s moves against Chinese firms could hurt real estate

Trump’s crackdown on TikTok and WeChat could further chill Chinese investment in U.S. real estate. Daniel Chang’s phone wouldn’t stop lighting up. It was the night of Aug. 6, shortly after President Trump signed an executive order banning the ubiquitous Chinese social media platform WeChat. Chang, a prominent broker at Sotheby’s International Realty…

Saks Fifth Avenue countersues Bal Harbour Shops for defamation

Saks Fifth Avenue is striking back at Bal Harbour Shops for attempting to evict the luxury retailer over alleged missed rent payments. On Tuesday, the department store chain countersued Bal Harbour Shops and Matthew Whitman Lazenby, president and CEO of Bal Harbour Shops’ owner Whitman Family Development, for defamation, breach of contract…

Nearly 70% of CEOs expect to downsize offices: KPMG

The pandemic has drastically changed the way CEOs around the globe see the future of work. More than two-thirds said they may reduce their office footprint in the coming years, according to a recent survey. Out of 315 CEOs answering the survey published in KPMG’s “2020 CEO Outlook: Covid-19 Special Edition,” 69 percent checked the “We will be downsizing office…”

The pandemic’s impact on North American GDP: Checking on the neighbors

An earlier FRED Blog post discussed the global scale of the ongoing pandemic. Today, we focus on some recent GDP values in North America, comparing inflation-adjusted growth for Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The data shown in this FRED graph are from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which uses the label…

As stocks rally, real estate investors try to pick winners

Stocks have surged as the government and Federal Reserve has acted to stabilize corporate debt and sustain consumer demand. But returns for real estate investors have ranged from robust to wretched. Major U.S. indices climbed during August, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reaching record highs Wednesday despite a slower than expected comeback in the labor market.

Landlords and tenants blast CDC eviction ban

Jaime Cain, a real estate attorney in Rochester, New York, nabbed one of the first court dates for a pre-Covid eviction as trials slowly picked up after a months-long shutdown. But just two days before the scheduled conference, the federal government may have dashed those plans. “Is it still happening? Is it canceled? I don’t know,” Cain said of her day in court. Washington’s…

Simon Property Group livestreams merchandise in new partnership

Simon Property Group is going virtual. The nation’s largest mall operator is partnering with ShopShops, a livestream shopping app, according to the app’s founder and CEO, Liyia Wu. Read more Simon’s rent collection inches up in Q2 while profits plummet Rent relief for retailers is expiring. Now what? Mall owner CBL Properties nears bankruptcy “With experience and…

Miami Company Introduces ‘Virtual Coworking’

For people skittish about signing full-term office leases, coworking was supposed to be a flexible solution. Now, with an airborne pathogen complicating all aspects of life, people are even skittish about coworking. A number of coworking operators are experimenting with their formats. CommonDesk is offering virtual memberships for $75 to $150 that offer…

CVS, drive-thru bank in Margate fetch $7M

A CVS pharmacy and adjacent drive-thru bank building in Margate sold for $7 million. A company connected to Aleksandr and Ekaterina Dolganov of Osprey bought the properties near the intersection of State Road 7 and Coconut Creek Parkway, according to records. The seller — a company tied to Lawrence A. Freeman of Boca Raton — paid $6.85 million for the…

Developer plans multifamily project in Dania Beach

A rendering of the project A developer plans a 79-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail space in west Dania Beach. A vacant restaurant will be demolished to make way for the market-rate multifamily development to be called Griffin Living. It will be built on about 2 acres along the south side of Griffin Road, west of I-95. Dania Beach commissioners greenlighted the…

Redwood JV Lands Financing for Opa-Locka 112-Unit Townhome Project

A gated lakefront townhome project that will offer affordable homes received a $19 million construction loan. Redwood National Properties, an affiliate of BAS Holdings Investments LLC, alongside its joint venture partner Winston Capital Partners LLC, received the financing from City National Bank of Florida. DWNTWN Realty Advisors’ Andrew Kurnit…

Beige Book: Pandemic Continues to Shape Southeast Economy

The latest summary of economic conditions in the Southeast paints a mixed picture, with the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying mitigation measures heavily influencing the region’s economy. In the labor market, for example, conditions improved as some firms rehired laid-off employees, according to the Federal Reserve’s August Beige Book summary. Yet…

Businesses Organize To Push Brightline Expansion With 5 New Stops In Miami-Dade

The eastern side of Miami-Dade County has long been starved for commuter rail, but a private-public partnership could finally bring service to five neighborhoods between Aventura and downtown, including North Miami, the Upper East Side and Wynwood. The administration of outgoing County Mayor Carlos Gimenez has been negotiating with private train…

South Dade seeks formal Metrorail-ready program

When Miami-Dade’s transportation board voted to upgrade the South Dade Transitway with bus rapid transit (BRT), Metrorail advocates were assured that when ridership gets high enough, the corridor will be converted to rail. Now they want it in writing. County commissioners Monday passed a resolution by Dennis Moss cosponsored by Esteban “Steve” Bovo, Daniella…

To fill vacant stores, Lincoln Road seeks pop-up businesses

Cultural institutions and new retail shops may find temporary homes on Lincoln Road this winter, as the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District is hoping to bring in a series of pop-ups to boost business and fill vacancies.  The improvement district’s executive committee has unanimously voted to support and promote pop-ups during the…

Macy’s to open smaller stores, bigger fulfillment centers

Who ever said bigger is better? Macy’s has unveiled a plan to open smaller, off-mall stores and fulfillment centers, while consolidating its current locations. “Everything on the digital agenda has been accelerated,” CEO Jeff Gennette said on the retailer’s second quarter earnings call Wednesday. The department store’s flagships have been hit hard by the pandemic as…

Art Basel cancels Miami Beach fair in December

Art Basel Miami Beach is canceled this year, delivering an economic blow to South Florida hotels, restaurants, stores and other venues. The renowned art fair takes place each year in early December at the Miami Beach Convention Center, but will not be held this year due to the pandemic, Switzerland-based Art Basel announced on Wednesday. The annual fair…

Developers land $19M construction loan for Opa-locka affordable housing

A joint venture closed on a $19 million construction loan for a $26 million Opa-locka development geared toward affordable housing. Redwood National Properties, a subsidiary of BAS Holdings Investments, in a joint venture with Winston Capital Partners, paid $5 million for a 10-acre site at 1719 Northwest 143rd Street within the existing Mirage at Sailboat Cove…

Lakefront Miami International Commercial Center Industrial Property Trades

A 7,143 square feet light industrial property at 7961 NW 14th Street has sold for $1,455,000, $203.70 per square foot. Situated on a 21,593 square feet / half acre lot backing up to a scenic lake, the building offers a class B+ office environment with a water view aside its workhorse warehouse area. The office area features a lesser square footage second floor overlooking the…

Coronavirus-Resistant Offices May Have An Advantage In The Market

Jonathon Yormak, founder and managing principal of East End Capital, was in the middle of renovating a more than 100-year-old, 120K SF office building in New York when the coronavirus hit. He’d already decided to completely overhaul the air and ventilation system in the building. “It’s only a 26-story building, so it wasn’t so big as to make it impossible, but we…”

Coral Gables looks at how to fund city hall upgrade

Coral Gables city commissioners are still debating whether funds from selling a municipal parking lot should be allocated toward a general park trust.  Vice Mayor Vince Lago proposed half of the potential fund proceeds from the parking lot, on the northwest corner of University Drive and Pisano Avenue, should go into a park trust to continue acquisitions of…

Accessibility to historic Vizcaya under microscope

In March, just before the pandemic prompted closures and stay-at-home orders in South Florida, residents from Gran Via Apartments, an elderly housing community in Outer Westchester, took a trip to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. Once they got there, they ran into a multitude accessibility issues.  The floors of the estate, built nearly a century ago…

Lincoln Road seeks to cut back renovation plans

The Lincoln Road District Master Plan, which aims to revitalize the iconic Miami Beach shopping and entertainment street, may be redrafted to allow for less disruptive construction as local businesses recover from the economic impacts of the coronavirus.  Tim Schmand, executive director of the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District, told Miami Today…

Michael Davey: Key Biscayne mayor targets infrastructure, shoreline work

The next two years will be pivotal for the Key Biscayne, both in addressing issues that need fixing, from infrastructure and shoreline preservation projects to helping residents and businesses rebound from the pandemic. Mayor Michael Davey knows how important his second and final two-year term will be, but if engagement from the community is any indication…

Restaurants’ more palatable menu: 50% indoors plus on-street dining

Restaurant owners are breathing a sigh of relief after getting the OK to welcome more patrons back with indoor dining and still take advantage of closed portions of streets as an outdoor dining option.  Miami-Dade County restaurants are once again allowed to invite people for indoor dining at 50% capacity, along with the expanded outdoor dining permit option…

Evictions banned through December for most US tenants

The Trump administration today announced sweeping eviction protections in light of the health crisis. The public health order, a draft of which the Centers for Disease Control posted Tuesday afternoon, will halt evictions from Sept. 4 through the end of the year for tenants who qualify. To be eligible, tenants must file a form to their landlord declaring they cannot…

Miami Beach Senior Housing to Undergo $78M Rehab

Council Towers Senior Apartment Homes, a two-building, 250-unit, age-restricted affordable housing community in Miami Beach, Fla., will undergo a $78 million redevelopment thanks to a financing package including a $30 million construction loan under the HUD 221(d)(4) program provided by Greystone. The HUD-insured loan was originated by Greystone Senior…

Greystone Provides HUD-Insured Construction Financing as part of $78 Million Affordable Housing Development Project for Seniors

Greystone, a leading national commercial real estate finance firm, has provided a $30 million construction loan under the HUD 221(d)(4) program for the $78 million redevelopment of Council Towers Senior Apartment Homes, an age-restricted affordable housing community located in Miami Beach, FL. The transaction was originated by Jon Morales, Senior Vice…

Why Saks Fifth Avenue Is Suing Bal Harbour Shops

The legal battle between Saks Fifth Avenue and Bal Harbour Shops is heating up. Today in the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, the high-end department store filed a lawsuit against Bal Harbour Shops and Matthew Whitman Lazenby, president and CEO of Whitman Family Development, which owns the mall, over statements that allegedly breached the…

25% of U.S. malls are expected to shut within 5 years. Giving them a new life won’t be easy

Coresight Research estimates 25% of America’s roughly 1,000 malls will close over the next three to five years. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated a demise that was already underway. “Just because retail space has gone vacant or remained fallow does not mean that it is automatically a good candidate for repurposing into industrial space,” Moody’s Analytics…

Working from home saved Americans $90 billion in commuting costs: analysis

During the pandemic, many companies implemented a work-from-home policy to comply with local rules and to keep their employees safe. The policy — which has rocked the office real estate market — has also resulted in huge savings on commuting costs: Americans collectively saved $90 billion by not commuting by car in the months since the pandemic…

South Florida multifamily sales fell 50% in first half of year: report

Multifamily sales declined 50 percent during the first half of the year, according to a mid-year report and forecast by Cushman & Wakefield. Total sales volume for 2020 could also fall by half, compared to last year, as the economic effects of Covid-19 linger, the report shows. Ninety-one multifamily projects sold in South Florida during the first six months of…

J.C. Penney’s lenders could take it over, liquidate assets

J.C. Penney’s lenders are preparing to take control of the struggling retailer after discussions with its bidders have hit a dead end, Bloomberg News reported. J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy May 15 and has since been in talks with large mall and retail operators, including Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners. But those discussions have reached…

Flood of retail evictions expected as courts reopen

For months, retail landlords have been negotiating lease modification and rent breaks with tenants. But talks that reached a stalemate may soon end in litigation. A wave of retail evictions among big tenants and small businesses is expected to flood in as courts reopen and eviction moratoriums across the country expire, according to the Wall Street…

Facebook exec expresses confidence in office real estate

The future of office properties has been in question since the pandemic emptied out Manhattan. But Brian Rosenthal, a senior executive at Facebook, told Business Insider that having a physical space in New York is critical for the social media giant. “So much of what we do is collaborative,” Rosenthal said. “[Software is] like writing a book together where all the…

Dogfish Head to take over Concrete Beach social hall in Wynwood

Concrete Beach Brewery Concrete Beach Brewery closed the doors to its Wynwood social hall for good. The brewery, which opened its 11,000-square-foot space in 2015, announced the permanent closure on its social media accounts, citing the “unprecedented global crisis.” Concrete Beach is part of A&S Brewing Collaborative, an independent subsidiary of the…

Report shows how much commercial real estate has fallen

The economic toll on commercial real estate shows no signs of abating as the health crisis lingers. Indexes for office, retail and lodging properties were all lower in July than they were a year ago, according to analytics firm Real Capital Analytics, Bloomberg reported. Deals were also down, with transaction volume across all sectors plunging 69 percent to $14…

Developers score $22M construction loan for Westchester senior living and medical office project

Alberto J. Pérez, Juan Carlos Mas, and a rendering of the project A group of developers scored a $22 million construction loan for a mixed-development in Miami’s Westchester neighborhood that will include a medical office building and senior living facility. Commercial real estate developers AJP Ventures and Mas Group, along with equity partner OCTA, expect to…

Fed signals low rates are here to stay

The Federal Reserve has shifted its strategy for setting interest rates, allowing inflation to rise higher than previous targets. The change codifies what the Federal Reserve has been practicing for the past 18 months, and signals that interest rates will remain low, the Wall Street Journal reported. As the Federal Reserve allows inflation to rise above 2 percent, the target…

AIMCO Acquires Miami Apartment Tower

AIMCO has acquired Hamilton on the Bay, a community located in the Edgewater neighborhood of downtown Miami. The sale was facilitated by the Hussami Rockson Group of Marcus & Millichap, which represented the seller, SunTrust Community Capital, and procured the buyer. The price was $89.6 million, which was a portfolio sale that included Hamilton on the…

Sale of 28-Story Waterfront Apartment Complex in Miami Arranged

Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of Hamilton on the Bay, a 28-story, 275-unit apartment complex in Miami. The property, which backs up to Biscayne Bay, is situated at 555 34th St., four miles north of downtown Miami. Built in 1985, the property offers studio to four-bedroom floor plans. Communal amenities include a dog park, fitness center, bike storage…

Thor Equities sues to evict Stefano Ricci from Miami Design District

Thor Equities is seeking to evict luxury fashion retailer Stefano Ricci from its store in Miami’s Design District. The New York-based real estate firm alleges the luxury retailer owes more than $133,000 in rent at 118-120 Northeast 39th Street, according to a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court last week. Stefano Ricci’s lawyers fired back, filing a…

Behind Miami’s Largest Upcoming Office Project, 830 Brickell

The office landscape is currently going through one of the biggest transformations in recent history, as property managers and developers alike are making significant adjustments for offering tenants a safe and healthy environment. Recent development data showed improved construction activity in the summer, but with the economy expecting…

Two Roads Development lists Elysee sales center for $6M

The sales center, David Restainer and Reid Boren Two Roads Development is taking a different path with its sales gallery for Elysee Miami, a luxury condo project under construction in Edgewater. The developer had planned to lease out or sell the commercial condo, which has been used as Elysee’s sales center, to a restaurant. Then the pandemic hit. The 5,481-square-foot…

Class B malls face collapse as retail bankruptcies pile up

Second-tier malls are at increasing risk of collapse as retail bankruptcies and store closures add up across the country. The category of malls — known in the industry as Class B — are in a vulnerable middle ground: more secure than their Class C and D counterparts but not as safe as high-end, Class A malls, which are considered likely to make it out of the…

Black-led banks combine, focused on multifamily housing

Two banks have merged to form the country’s largest Black-led lender. The combination of Broadway Federal Bank in Los Angeles and City First Bank in Washington will focus on multifamily affordable housing, the New York Times reported. “We need to scale up our impact,” said City First CEO Brian E. Argrett, who will lead the new lender of the same name.

South Florida construction starts show short-term recovery in July

South Florida construction starts showed a monthly recovery in July, but were still a far cry from life before Covid-19, according to a recently released report. In July, total construction starts for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties totaled $619.1 million, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, a Hamilton, New Jersey-based commercial construction project…

Rent relief for retailers is expiring. Now what?

With millions of U.S. stores remaining shuttered, property owners have handed out billions of dollars of rent relief. In recent earnings calls, some landlords gave hints as to who got tentative relief and how these negotiations went down. Simon Property Group’s David Simon alluded to the mall owner abating rent for thousands of local retailers during…

These multifamily, Miami among, and office markets are more vulnerable to Covid distress

Since the early days of the coronavirus crisis, distressed real estate investors have been gearing up for the opportunity to scoop up assets at rock-bottom prices. So far, even in the hard-hit hospitality and retail sectors, deals have been slow to materialize as buyers and sellers continue to wait each other out. Signs of distress in the office and multifamily…

Wood Partners Lands $86M Refi for Miami Tower

Wood Partners, the developer behind the Miami luxury tower Yard 8, has secured a $86.3 million refinancing loan from Asia Capital Real Estate. The Atlanta-based owner, developer and manager will use the first mortgage loan to place permanent financing on the Class A multifamily property. Completed in May 2019, the 387-unit community is located in…

SBA Disaster Assistance for May 2020 Flood that affected City of Doral

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is offering low-interest disaster loans in response to the May 26th & 27th flood that affected several areas including the City of Doral. Businesses of all sizes, Private Non-Profit organizations, Homeowners and Renters and with physical or economic damages stemming from this disaster, are encouraged NOT to wait for…

Motley Fool: Here’s Why Warehouses Will Be a Good Investment in the Near Future

The retail apocalypse was a major concern before the COVID-19 outbreak took hold. In 2019, an estimated 9,500 stores went out of business, according to Coresight Research. But now, a lot of major retailers are making plans to close stores as the effects of the pandemic rear their ugly head. According to the company, bankrupt retailer J.C. Penney…

Lauderdale Lakes affordable housing complex fetches $17M

Affordable housing developer the Cornerstone Group sold a 246-unit Lauderdale Lakes apartment complex for $16.9 million. Peak Capital Partners, a Provo, Utah-based affordable housing owner and manager, bought the St. Croix Apartments complex at 4075 to 4201 Northwest 34th Street, according to records. The price comes out to $68,699 a unit.

Jenco Properties pays $68M for Flagler Village apartments

Apartment giant AMLI Residential sold a rental complex in Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village for $67.5 million. Chicago-based AMLI sold the 218-unit development at 450 Northeast Fifth Street to two affiliates of Jenco Properties, a Hialeah-based property management firm, records show. The deal breaks down to $310,000 per unit. The companies tied to Jenco…

Seagram scion pays $38M for West Palm affordable housing

A company tied to a member of Seagram’s Bronfman family bought a 264-unit, waterfront West Palm Beach affordable housing community for $38 million. Malibu Bay Preservation Limited, the buyer of the Malibu Bay Apartments at 750 Malibu Bay Drive, is managed by Jeremy Bronfman, a partner and founder of investment group Lincoln Avenue Capital…

Despite mounting opposition, Miami Beach board endorses taller Aman tower

Developers Vlad Doronin and Len Blavatnik can now go to the Miami Beach City Commission with proposed legislation that would allow them to build a 250-foot tall tower on the site of the Versailles building in the Faena District. The billionaire developers face mounting opposition from nearby residents, including a number of fellow billionaires at Faena House, an ultra-luxury…

Miami Beach board rejects Mast Capital’s plan to build 12-story tower

Miami Beach’s Planning Board unanimously rejected Mast Capital CEO Camilo Miguel Jr.’s request for zoning changes that he needs to build a 12-story condo tower beside the Julia Tuttle Causeway. The project, now called Alton Bay, at 4000 Alton Road in Mid-Beach, is actually smaller than the concept the developer presented to Miami Beach’s Land Use Committee…

Asia Capital Real Estate Provides $86.3M Refinancing Loan for Apartment Complex in Midtown Miami

Asia Capital Real Estate (ACRE) has provided an $86.3 million refinancing loan for Yard 8, a 387-unit apartment complex in Midtown Miami at 2901 NE 1st Avenue. Borrower Wood Partners will use the permanent financing to refinance the construction loan. The Atlanta-based developer opened Yard 8 in May 2019. Daniel Jacobs of ACRE originated the loan on behalf…

Moss Construction Completes University of Miami Development

Moss Construction has completed Lakeside Village, a $134 million student housing project at the University of Miami. Arquitectonica served as the architect for the development. Moss is also slated to manage the property. The 569,441-square-foot development comprises 25 seven-story, interconnected buildings. The 1,115-bed project includes classrooms…

Moss Construction Completes $134M University of Miami Lakeside Village Student Housing Property

Moss Construction has delivered University of Miami Lakeside Village, a $134 million, 1,115-bed student housing community on the University of Miami campus. The 569,441-square-foot, seven-story project features 25 interconnected buildings and several outdoor spaces. The property offers classrooms, music rooms, study areas, recreation rooms, a 200-seat…

Retail’s Flexibility, Versatility in Pandemic Times

The $424.8 million River Landing Shops & Residences project along the Miami River, west of downtown Miami is currently one of the largest mixed-use developments in South Florida. Upon completion, the 2.2 million-square-foot modern urban lifestyle property will offer 345,000 square feet of commercial space—including 25,500 square feet of waterfront dining…

Apartment giant Aimco buys waterfront Hamilton on the Bay tower in Edgewater

A company affiliated with the Arison family sold Hamilton on the Bay, a large waterfront apartment building in Edgewater, to investor Aimco, The Real Deal has learned. Carnival Cruise Line founder Ted Arison built the 28-story apartment building in 1984, and the property, which includes three parcels and a total of 275 units, hit the market last year unpriced. It was…

Miracle Mile to get four murals to stimulate economy

Coral Gables residents and visitors will soon have a new backdrop to photograph and post on social media with the year-long installations of four art murals along Miracle Mile. Presented by the city’s Economic Development Department during Tuesday’s city commission meeting, commissioners voted 5-0 approval of four murals on Miracle Mile to boost…

Miami Hotels see visitor uptick as they market safety

Miami-Dade’s hotels have undeniably taken a hit, but with Covid cases plateauing for the moment they are seeing an incremental, if small, uptick in business and focusing on marketing safety measures, local experts say. “We welcome you to Miami but please, please behave in a responsible way,” said Rolando Aedo, chief operating officer of the Greater Miami…

Felonious CPA Seeks Millions In Lawsuits Involving Developers Jorge Perez, Stephen Ross

While President Donald Trump is fighting efforts to bring his tax returns and financial history into the light, there’s another real estate billionaire whose taxes are wanted in court: Miami “condo king” Jorge Perez, the founder, chairman and CEO of Related Group. As part of two civil lawsuits he filed in Florida’s 11th Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County, Ronald Katz…

Team produces package to battle pandemic economic slide

An advisory team tasked with developing ideas to help Miami-Dade emerge from economic peril caused by the coronavirus pandemic has delivered a score of recommendations. For now, most of those recommendations remain ideas, but each has been designed to be actionable, said Beacon Council CEO Albert Finney, chairman of the Covid-19 Economic Recovery…

President Trump seeks to move federal agencies into Opportunity Zones

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to push federal agencies to move into Opportunity Zones as he continues to promote the program as a key part of his re-election campaign. The president’s order will direct some federal agencies such as the Department of Labor and Department of Housing and Urban Development to look outside of city…

Concessions stand: Wary of another shutdown, retail landlords sweeten pot for tenants

Some retail landlords are offering additional concessions to tenants in case the government mandates another Covid-related shutdown. Landlords are including language in new leases that allows retail tenants to defer part of their rent if the government requires store closures, according to the Wall Street Journal. Many insurance policies did not cover pandemic…

Restaurants can reopen their dining rooms in Miami-Dade starting next week

Restaurant dining rooms in Miami-Dade County can reopen beginning on Monday, more than a month after restaurants were ordered to close indoor seating due to spiking coronavirus cases. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said restaurants will be able to operate at 50 percent capacity indoors, as long as tables are spaced at least six feet apart with a…

A few big-box stores now account for 29% of US sales

Despite fears of decreased spending amid the pandemic, big-box stores — plus Amazon — raked in the cash last quarter. Walmart, Amazon, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Costco accounted for 29.1 percent of all U.S. retail sales in the second quarter, up from 25.6 percent a year ago, the Wall Street Journal reported. That’s a 14 percent increase in market share.

Bondholders approve Sapir Corp debt restructuring

Sapir Corp’s Israeli bondholders have decided that it’s a good idea to give the development firm a few more years to pay off its debt, given current economic uncertainty caused by coronavirus. In a Monday vote, investors in Sapir Corp.’s $44 million bond series overwhelmingly approved of the company’s proposal to push back the maturity date from 2022 to 2025.

Wood Partners lands $86M refi for Midtown Miami apartments

Multifamily developer Wood Partners sewed up $86.3 million in refinancing for its 387-unit apartment complex in Midtown Miami. Asia Capital Real Estate provided the first mortgage from its latest debt fund, with a loan-to-value ratio of 57.5 percent, according to a release from the company. The term of the loan is five years, inclusive of extension options. The…

Here are the landlords benefiting from Amazon’s tech workforce expansion

Amazon recently announced plans to expand its tech workforce at the 660,000-square-foot Lord & Taylor building it recently bought in New York, and in five other cities across the country. Amazon has inked leases totaling about 270,000 square feet in those office buildings in Dallas, Denver, Detroit, San Diego, and Tempe, Arizona. Here is a rundown on Amazon’s…

Flower Firm Renews 93,000-SF Industrial Lease At Westpointe Business Park In Doral

Transwestern has arranged a 92,579-square-foot lease renewal at Westpointe Business Park, a three-building industrial facility totaling 260,000 square feet in Doral. Managing Director Thomas Kresse, Executive Managing Directors Walter Byrd and Ben Eisenberg and Vice President Carlos Gaviria brokered the deal on behalf of the landlord, Clarion…

Italian restaurateur lists Sunset Juice Cafe property for $24M

The owner of Sunset Juice Cafe and other restaurants in Miami Beach wants to sell his Sunset Harbour property for $24 million. The corner building, at 1920 Alton Road, is home to the Sunset Juice Cafe, Rosinella Market and Anatomy Gym. Restaurateur Tonino Doino, who owns both Sunset Juice and Rosinella, is listing it with Brown Harris Stevens Miami, led by Phil…

Bal Harbour Shops seeks to give Saks Fifth Avenue the boot

Matthew Whitman Lazenby and Bal Harbour Shops One of South Florida’s longest running retail marriages could be headed for a bitter breakup. For nearly 45 years, Saks Fifth Avenue has anchored Bal Harbour Shops, helping transform the shopping center into one of the most exclusive luxury retail destinations in the world. Now, mall owner Whitman…

Real estate investors raise billions while skipping debt payments

In the real estate investment world, being delinquent on debt doesn’t mean investors have run out of money. They are likely to be cutting losses to shift funds into something more lucrative. Colony Capital, for example, stopped making payments on many of its hotel bonds when the pandemic hit, while raising at least $6 billion to invest in properties such as cell towers and…

How Carl Icahn and others made a killing shorting malls

The pandemic has devastated brick-and-mortar retail, but some investors profited handsomely by betting on shopping malls’ misfortune. Among them is Carl Icahn, one of the country’s best-known investors, who took a calculated risk that malls would suffer. Read more Investors who shorted malls stand to make out big Party’s over: Neiman Marcus to close its…

39K SF Hialeah Warehouse Trades

An industrial team announced the successful sale of the 39,000 SF warehouse facility at 595 E 10th Avenue in Hialeah, Florida. The seller, 595 Realty Corp, was represented by Patrick McBride, Esq. and Edward Redlich, SIOR, CCIM. CarSafe Storage purchased the warehouse for $3,350,000. The property was extensively marketed for lease prior to the seller testing…

Europe tops United States in commercial real estate deal volume

The U.S. property market is no longer on top. For the first time since 2017, Europe saw more commercial real estate deals than the U.S. America saw $19 billion less in property trades above $10 million than Europe during the second quarter, Bloomberg reported, citing data from Real Capital Analytics.

Cast away: Boatmaker Invincible sells Opa-locka warehouses for $11M

The founder of a high-performance saltwater fishing boat manufacturer sold three warehouses in Opa-locka for $11.4 million. Alex Lipworth, who founded Opa-locka-based Invincible Boat Co. in 2006, sold the warehouses at 13185 Northwest 47th Avenue, 13050 Northwest 47th Avenue, and 4700 Northwest 132nd Street, according to a press release. The warehouses…

US hotel occupancy hits highest point since mid-March

As travelers throughout the U.S. try to make the most of a surreal summer, hotel occupancy has slowly improved, and has finally hit the 50 percent mark for the first time since mid-March. While overall occupancy has risen for 17 of the last 18 weeks, growth in demand has slowed, according to the latest occupancy rate from industry tracker STR. Occupancy is also about…

Mall of America, behind on mortgage, fights foreclosure

The country’s biggest shopping mall is trying to stave off foreclosure after falling months behind on its $1.4 billion mortgage. Triple Five Group, which owns the Mall of America, has entered into a cash-management agreement with a special servicer, CWCapital Asset Management, according to the Star Tribune. Canada-based Triple Five began to…

Wiped out: Firm says stakes in Brooklyn, Miami projects now worthless

The private equity firm behind a $1 billion real estate portfolio in Brooklyn and Miami said its investments in two big projects have been wiped out — and one critic is blaming a pair of 20-somethings who were trusted with the company checkbook. JZ Capital Partners recently wrote down to zero its stakes on a Downtown Brooklyn development site and a portfolio of…

Miami Beach to allow short-term rentals in condos, hotels

The city of Miami Beach loosened its restrictions on short-term rentals, more than a month after banning them, as the coronavirus positivity rate falls in South Florida. The city will allow such rentals to operate in condo buildings and hotels beginning on Saturday, Aug. 22. The positivity rate declined to 9.7 percent on Wednesday. In Miami-Dade County, hotels…

Duke Realty Inks 161,000 SF Lease Deal At New Logistics Facility In Medley

The South Florida office of Duke Realty has signed a prelease with a distributor of technology products for 160,793 square feet in a new 221,984-square-foot logistics building in Medley. The building is one of two logistics facilities planned on the 34.92 acre site, which will be known as Miami 27 Business Park. The tenant, which…

Wayne M. Boich Announces Approved 16,000 sq ft Mixed-Use Building in Miami Beach

The City of Miami Beach has approved entrepreneur Wayne M. Boich and Boich Companies plans for a mixed-use building in Sunset Harbour. Construction on the five-story project, located at 1910 Alton Road, will begin immediately. “We at Boich Companies are not only looking forward to developing this project in one of Miami Beach’s most vibrant…”

SunTrust Equity Funding closes on Amazon-leased site at Palm Beach Park of Commerce

SunTrust Equity Funding paid $21.8 million for land leased to Amazon, property records show. An affiliate of TPA Group sold the 100-acre site within the Palm Beach Park of Commerce to AZ Palm Beach FL Landlord LLC, which is tied to SunTrust Equity Funding. Included in the deed is the mention of a lease with the e-commerce giant Amazon. A spokesperson…

Restoration 1 franchise founder buys North Lauderdale office and retail center for $6M

The founder of a restoration franchise that helps with damage from water, fire and other disasters bought a North Lauderdale office and retail center for $6.3 million. A company tied to Andor Kovacs bought the center, called Jefferson Square Plaza, at 6041-6047 Kimberly Boulevard, records show. The 53,000-square-foot center is on about 5 acres of land, with four…

Fifteen Group Proposes Mixed-Use Project On Plantation Office Site

The developer is seeking site plan approval for 442 residential units in three buildings totaling 444,168 square feet, 150,000 square feet of offices, and a 2,500-square-foot retail building, which would likely be a drive-thru fast-food restaurant. The project would have 1,326 parking spaces, including a 238,739-square-foot garage.

Addiction treatment firm Banyan buys Pompano Beach office tower for $6M

An entity tied to a drug and alcohol addiction treatment provider bought an empty office building in Pompano Beach sold for $5.9 million. Banyan Corporate Center LLC, which shares an address with Banyan Treatment Centers, bought The Tower at Avery Place, formerly called Atlantic Tower, at 225 North Federal Highway, records show. Built in 1973, the eight-story…

Convenience be gone: Sunrise suspends small store developments that pose “food desert” threat

Sunrise Imposes Moratorium To Avoid “Food Desert” Threat Convenience stores must stay away from Sunrise, a city apparently at risk of not having enough grocery stores serving fresh food. The city commission last week enacted a one-year moratorium on the development of what it calls “small box discount stores” that are 16,000 square feet or smaller and…

Related Urban Kicks Off $106M Allapattah Redevelopment

Related Group and Miami-Dade County have broken ground on Three Round Towers B&C/Brisas del Este, a $106 million affordable housing redevelopment project in the Allapattah neighborhood. The 383-unit Opportunity Zone project will draw on federal, state and county funds for the rehabilitation of two existing towers and the creation of an adjacent…

Duke Realty Leases 72% Of Yet-To-Be-Built Medley Facility

In another sign that industrial real estate is running strong despite the coronavirus, Duke Realty has already leased up 72% of a new industrial facility in Medley that it hasn’t even started building yet. The news came Tuesday as Duke announced it signed a pre-lease with a tech products distributor to take up 161K SF at a 35-acre site off U.S. 27 that is being…

Hilton and CGI plan $500M fund to acquire distressed hotels

Hilton and a Miami-based partner are planning to launch a $500 million fund to invest in distressed hotels in North America and the Caribbean, The Real Deal has learned. The hotel giant is partnering with private equity firm CGI Merchant Group to acquire about 20 properties in the next few years, said Raoul Thomas, founder and CEO of CGI Merchant Group. The venture…

Mall owner CBL Properties nears bankruptcy

Suffocating under retailers’ inability to pay rent and more than $3 billion in debt, CBL Properties is on its way toward declaring bankruptcy. The company announced that it reached an agreement with some of its creditors to hand control to holders of its unsecured notes and that it is negotiating with senior lenders and others who haven’t yet signed onto…

Tech deals give hope to shaky office market

Amazon and Facebook both made major commitments in the past two weeks to a New York City office market with an uncertain future. But that shot in the arm belies the fact that many companies are still in wait-and-see mode. “A lot of tenants are punting on the whole topic and saying they’re going to continue working remotely,” said Grant Greenspan, head of…

Another drugstore sells: Lauderdale Lakes Walgreens flips for $8M

A Walgreens in Lauderdale Lakes, last purchased in April, changed hands again. Real estate investor and developer Ricardo Carozzi bought the Walgreens-leased property at 3099 North State Road 7 for $8.1 million, according to records. He made the purchase through an entity he co-manages along with Daniela and Nara Carozzi. The seller was a company…

Authentic Brands raises $600 million for retail acquisitions

Authentic Brands Group is on the acquisition hunt, after bolstering its war chest by $600 million. CEO Jamie Salter said the cash injection from BlackRock, General Atlantic and Leonard Green & Partners now brings the apparel licensing firm’s total cash up to $1 billion, according to CNBC. Salter said he’s looking to use that to buy up struggling retailers. Authentic has…

92K SF Doral Industrial Lease Brokered

Transwestern has arranged a 92,579-square-foot lease renewal at Westpointe Business Park, a three-building industrial facility totaling 260,000 square feet in Doral, Fla. Managing Director Thomas Kresse, Executive Managing Directors Walter Byrd and Ben Eisenberg and Vice President Carlos Gaviria brokered the deal on behalf of the landlord…

Aircraft Maintenance Company Triples Footprint, Inks 81,000 SF Lease Deal

Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) announced an 81,250-square-foot lease for Aerotech Ops at Pan American North Business Park, owned by Link Logistics Real Estate. NKF’s Executive Managing Director Steve Medwin and Nick Wigoda along with Associate John Mejia represented the landlord in the transaction. Aerotech Ops (ATOPS) is an organization that primarily…

Target will open 27 new stores as Q2 sales soar

The pandemic has dealt a crushing blow to countless retailers, but for behemoths like Amazon, Walmart and Target it has brought outsized profits. Target said it expects to open 27 new stores between now and the end of the year, part of a rosy second quarter earnings report it released Wednesday. The big-box retailer’s net income soared to…

North Beach Residents Petition to Stop Development of Byron Carlyle Theater

North Beach residents are petitioning against a developer’s proposal to build micro-size apartments at the historic Byron Carlyle Theater, which was most recently home to O Cinema. The petition, which has more than 500 signatures, asks the City of Miami Beach to reject a proposal that would give the theater to a developer to build the apartments. An August 3 letter…

Are office landlords turning a corner or rolling over?

Empty room in a building Office landlords and leasing agents breathed a sigh of relief this month when Facebook inked a massive lease deal at Manhattan’s landmark Farley Post Office building. The deal with Vornado Realty Trust for 730,000 square feet at the $1 billion-plus redevelopment — which includes new commercial space and the expansion of Penn Station…

Annie Lord: Leads Miami Homes For All to increase our housing stock

Housing in Miami-Dade County is expensive, burdening Miamians across the county. Among entities trying to make Miami more affordable is Miami Housing for All, founded in 1985, which strives for everyone in the county to have safe, stable housing and prevent homelessness.   Annie Lord, the executive director, earlier led the South Florida Community Development…

Office is out, school is in: Co-working operators try to lure students into workspace

Laura Kozelouzek, CEO of Quest Workspaces, and a Quest classroom Office is out, but school is in session. Quest Workspaces, a co-working operator with 12 locations in Florida and New York, is turning some of its enclosed office space into small pods where groups of students can gather for virtual learning. The move comes as many school districts are opting to forgo…

Florida Law Keeps Developers From Having To Subsidize Affordable Housing

Affordable housing has long been a crisis issue in Florida, which leads the nation in housing unaffordability. One study by Apartment List shows that 56.5% of renters spend 30% or more of their income on housing. The state fund for affordable housing gets raided by the state legislature year after year, its monies diverted to other issues. So, throughout the state, local…

130-Foot-Tall, High-Tech Marina Coming To Fort Lauderdale

Boating is so popular in South Florida that marinas are getting more dense, just like multifamily buildings. With dockage in short supply, boaters often keep their boats stored on top of one another in dry dock facilities, but top concerns are whether slips are big enough, whether facilities are hurricane-proof, and whether boaters can get their boat down without hassle when…

A ‘New Normal’ for Offices

Stuart Elliott Remember when August was the time of year when the news cycle slowed, there weren’t that many big stories, people were on vacation, and there was the expectation that life would return to its regular rhythm in the fall? Like everything else this year, you can throw those rules out the window. Because we have been living inside the pandemic bubble for…

Amazon plans office expansion in six US cities

Amazon is planning to expand its offices in six major U.S. cities, just weeks after announcing plans to double down on its fulfillment centers and warehouses. The tech giant plans to add new hubs in New York, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Detroit and Dallas, which will bring about 3,500 corporate jobs, the company announced on Tuesday, according to the…

August brings no sign of the rent apocalypse

Tenants across the country are largely still paying rent despite high unemployment and waning government aid, a new report found. About 87 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by Aug. 13, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Rent Payment Tracker. That was only a 2-point drop from the same period…

Superblue, Miami’s First Experiential Art Space, is Coming to Allapattah

If you’re an art lover, you may be feeling a little blue these past months. With the Miami art scene, like many other major art cities, including Art Basel, relying on virtual exhibitions, a seasoned New York Art gallery has the solution to your art blues — and it’s called Superblue and it’s coming to Miami this December. So, what is Superblue? Many people aren’t always…

Not your father’s distress: Down market could be opportunity of a lifetime or a big letdown

As the coronavirus pandemic bore down on the economy, veteran investor Tom Barrack emerged as one of the loudest voices urging a lifeline for the real estate industry. Barrack, the head of Colony Capital and a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, penned a series of much-discussed blog posts and took to the airwaves, warning that the real estate industry…

Drugstores in demand: Pembroke Pines Walgreens flips for $9M

The owner of a Pembroke Pines store leased to Walgreens flipped it for $9 million, just a few months after purchasing it. DS Pembroke Pines Florida Landlord, tied to SunTrust Funding, sold the 15,458-square-foot property at 18410 West Pines Boulevard for $582 per square foot, records show. West Pines EDN RE LLC, led by Enzo Dalmazzo, the CEO of the…

Walker & Dunlop Provides $67M HUD Construction Loan for Shoma Village Apartments in Hialeah

Walker & Dunlop has provided a $67 million HUD construction loan for Shoma Village Apartments, a 304-unit multifamily community that will be located in Hialeah. The borrower was locally based developer Shoma Group. Shoma Village Apartments will include 11,625 square feet of retail space fronting Hialeah Drive, about 15 miles northwest of downtown…

South Florida Property Receives $67 Million Construction Loan via Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it structured $67,211,400 in financing for the construction of Shoma Village Apartments, a Class A mixed-use property with 304 apartment units and 11,625 square feet of retail. Located in Hialeah, Florida, just 15 miles northwest of Miami, the local area is experiencing a significant uptick in real estate investment.

North Beach’s Ocean House apartments hit the market for $50M

One of Miami Beach’s largest apartment complexes is hitting the market with a target price of $50 million. Miami-based developer and investor Ytech is listing Ocean House, a 186-unit garden-style multifamily property at 7790 Tatum Waterway Drive in Miami Beach’s North Beach area. Cushman & Wakefield’s Calum Weaver, Robert Given, Zachary Sackley…

Florida Streamlines Requirements for Lease Execution

Florida’s Governor signs into law HB 469, which streamlines the execution of Florida real property leases by eliminating all statutory witness requirements. On June 27, 2020, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law House Bill 469 (HB 469), which amends Section 689.01 of the Florida Statutes, eliminating the requirement for two subscribing witnesses to…

Taurus pays $31M for Civica Center, adjacent building in Miami’s Health District

A shopping center in Miami’s Health District changed hands from one Boston-based private equity firm to another, with plans for a major facelift. Taurus Investment Holdings paid a combined $30.5 million for Civica Center, a two-story, 47,000-square-foot retail center at 1050 Northwest 14th Street and an adjacent 4,200-square-foot building, according to a press…

AMC theaters to reopen next week, but not in New York

AMC theaters will reopen more than 100 of its movie theaters on Aug. 20, with another 300 the following two weeks, according to Newsday. None of those theaters will be in New York, however. The state, where less than 1 percent of coronavirus tests are coming back positive, has indefinitely pushed back the reopening of movie theaters, along with gyms and…

Blackstone snags eight industrial properties in Miami-Dade

Blackstone bought eight industrial properties in Miami-Dade County from Elion Partners as part of a $93.5 million portfolio deal in South Florida. Blackstone’s purchases include properties at 16200 Northwest 49th Avenue and 16100 Northwest 49th Avenue in Hialeah for $11.7 million. The investment firm also bought a warehouse at 7425 Northwest 79th Street…

Developer completes $225M Paseo de la Riviera mixed-use project

Paseo de la Riviera and Brent Reynolds The developer of Paseo de la Riviera in Coral Gables opened the hotel component last week, completing the mixed-use project that has been in the works for about five years. Nolan Reynolds International, led by CEO and managing partner Brent Reynolds, decided to open ahead of the University of Miami’s fall semester that…

Miami’s Bar Invest pays $56M for West Palm apartments

Jonathan Shechtman from Axonic and Herve Barbera from Bar, with 4860 Sandstone Lane Miami real estate investment firm Bar Invest Group bought a 300-unit garden-style apartment community in West Palm Beach for $56.2 million. The apartments, known as Visions at Willow, at 4860 Sand Stone Lane, include 17 two- and three-story buildings with a mix of one- to two…

Bloomingdale’s sued for $2.5 million in missed rent

Bloomingdale’s is getting into some heat with its landlord. The famed retailer began skipping rent payments in April and now owes nearly $2.5 million on its outlet at 2085 Broadway, the landlord alleges in a lawsuit. The lease for the store states Bloomingdale’s will pay the Stahl Organization $437,500 of fixed rent plus a percentage sales. Stahl is also suing its parent…

Richman plans senior housing on Allapattah Opportunity Zone property

The Richman Group is planning a senior housing development in Allapattah. Richman, a major multifamily developer, is planning a 105-unit building for the site at 2137 Northwest 36th Street, and 3629 and 3645 Northwest 21st Court in Miami, according to MSP Group, which brokered the sale of the 0.7-acre assemblage.

Simon, Brookfield in talks to buy bankrupt J.C. Penney

Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners are reportedly in advanced talks about buying J.C. Penney’s retail business. J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy in May and said it would close 242 stores. Simon and Brookfield — two of the retailer’s biggest landlords — are now competing against other bidders to acquire the retail operations, and the Wall…

The Looming Legal Challenges of COVID-19

COVID-19 has come to mean many things to many people, from a global public health crisis to a logistical nightmare to a political hot potato. It has also presented a new set of legal challenges. With lockdowns, re-openings, and a hodgepodge of rules, business owners are worried about lawsuits related to exposure, workplace health and safety, termination, and…

How Two U.S. Religious Aid Workers, Miami Commercial Property Investors, May Have Helped Launder Millions

In the early 1990s, Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber traveled to Ukraine as Jewish humanitarian volunteers as the country gained its independence and ended Soviet restrictions on religion. Korf was still a teenager just out of a rabbinical institute when he arrived in 1991. His friend Laber, whom he met at a religious school in Detroit, came a few years later. When…

Carson, Rubio To Celebrate Groundbreaking Of Biggest OZ Project In Miami-Dade

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio and others are expected to be on-site in Allapattah Thursday to celebrate a groundbreaking at Three Round Towers, a low-income housing complex that is undergoing a renovation. The $106M redevelopment project is the largest qualified opportunity zone affordable housing project in the…

The Estate Cos. Acquires Former Ramada Inn in Hialeah for $15.3 Million

The Estate Cos. has acquired a former Ramada Inn in Hialeah for $15.3 million. The non-operational hotel was originally built in 1970 with expansions completed in 1973, 1979 and 1988. The property offers 258 rooms and sits on five acres at 1950 W. 49th Street, 15 miles northwest of downtown Miami. Camilo Niño, Ricardo Uribe and Alen Hernandez of…

Former 258 Key Ramada Hotel Trades for $15 Million in Hialeah

The Estate Cos., a developer of luxury multi-family communities in South Florida, has acquired a site occupied by a 258-key, former Ramada Hotel in Hialeah, Fla., for $15.3 million. The company financed the purchase with an $11.5 million acquisition loan arranged by LV Lending. The seller is a joint venture between Urban Commons and several other investors, according…

Estate Companies buys shuttered Hialeah Ramada for $15M

Jeff Ardizon and Robert Suris with 950 West 49th Street, Hialeah High-end apartment developer The Estate Companies bought a former Ramada Inn in Hialeah. The developer paid $15.25 million for the 5-acre property at 1950 West 49th Street. Estate Companies principal Jeffrey Ardizon declined to comment on what the firm is planning to build, but said it will be…

Aviation Company Triples Industrial Space With Move To Medley Facility

In a further sign that industrial real estate is as strong as ever, even amid a pandemic, an aerospace company has tripled its footprint at a Medley site. Aerotech Ops, an aircraft maintenance and repair company, has signed an 81K SF lease at Pan American North Business Park, located at 10733 NW 123rd Street in Medley, owned by Link Logistics Real Estate, Newmark…

Chart: Miami-Dade Commercial Property Sales Within Normal Range ~ July 2020 MLS

In this month’s chart of three year trailing sales of Miami-Dade commercial properties tracking, for the period from August 2018 to July 2020, sales of both improved and vacant land, it is evident that the level is holding within a normal range. This “holding pattern” follows a brief dip in April and May as the coronavirus pandemic had just begun. The Miami Multiple Listing…

Top 10 Office Projects Under Construction in Miami

Despite the pandemic’s severe impact on Florida, real estate development in Miami forged ahead. As of July, the metro’s office pipeline included 18 projects totaling more than 3.7 million square feet, Yardi Matrix data shows. Most of the upcoming projects are mixed-use and transit-oriented, while two of them—included in the list below—are headquarters developments.

Mixed-Use Development Amid Coronavirus: A Case Study in Aventura

The project—a 10-story complex consisting of 25,000 square feet of office condominiums, a 30,000-square-foot gourmet marketplace and food hall, and 160 independent- and assisted-living units—already had construction financing in place and 40 percent of its office condominiums presold. “At that point, we couldn’t stop,” Rieber said. “I had paid $20 million for the…

Construction Tops Off at Miami Luxury Tower

Developers of a 360-unit luxury rental tower in Miami have topped off construction at the 18-story project, marking the first large-scale real estate development to rise in an opportunity zone in the city. The Estate Cos. and PTM Partners are co-developing Soleste Grand Central, a residential community situated in the heart of downtown Miami on NW 8th Street.

Cooper City gives nod to Monterra development makeover

Plans for the remaining vacant land at Monterra, a 500-acre gated community in Cooper City, are pivoting from a grocery-anchored shopping center to a smaller retail hub, age-restricted apartments, and a corporate headquarters. The city commission Tuesday gave initial approval to rezoning and variances that would allow developer Diversified…

Demand For Hotels Is Flattening As Hotel Owners Burn Through Millions In Cash Reserves

Major U.S. hotel companies lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the spring as they gradually reopened hotels this summer to low demand, and their leaders expect there could be a long road back to profitability. The hotel industry, by job losses and debt defaults, has been the hardest hit by the pandemic. The biggest owners and operators of hotels have revealed a…

Airbnb’s Q2 revenue falls by almost 70%

Airbnb’s revenue fell by a reported 67 percent in the second quarter, as the startup weathered the fallout from a halt in global travel. The company’s quarterly revenue plunged to $335 million — down from more than $1 billion in the same period last year, according to Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the matter. By contrast, Airbnb generated $842…

Miami Named a Top 5 Florida Market for Self Storage Development

Miami’s self storage market has been benefiting from the market’s diversifying economy and rapidly expanding housing stock. Although the metro started to feel the effects of the coronavirus outbreak, self storage development has not yet been visibly affected. Year-to-date, five storage facilities encompassing a total of 582,562 square feet came online in…

Scoundrels of the skyline: Charles Bagli on the most colorful characters in the real estate biz

When Charles Bagli first started poking into the businesses and lives of New York’s real estate elite more than three decades ago, he made his ground rules clear. “As a former Catholic boy, I make a distinction between sins of omission and sins of commission,” he would tell the likes of Harry Helmsley, Donald Trump and…

Discount retailer Stein Mart files for bankruptcy, plans to close most stores

Off-price retailer Stein Mart is the latest brick-and-mortar chain to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Jacksonville, Florida-based chain plans to close “a significant portion, if not all” of the 281 stores it operates across 30 states, according to a press release. The publicly traded company, founded in the early 1900s, will continue to operate its business in the…

Developer Rishi Kapoor lands approval for mixed-use co-living project in South Beach

Rendering of the project and Rishi Kapoor Developer Rishi Kapoor is a step closer to bringing his Urbin Retreat concept to South Beach. Kapoor and his partners won the unanimous endorsement of the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board Tuesday afternoon for a mixed-use co-living and hotel development on Washington Avenue. Unless the decision is appealed…

Miami Beach board again delays vote on Michael Shvo’s proposed tower near Raleigh Hotel

New York real estate developer Michael Shvo’s proposal to build a 200-foot-tall tower beside three Art Deco hotels was continued yet again by Miami Beach’s Historic Preservation Board. Tuesday’s unanimous vote to continue the item to Sept. 8 came after four hours of discussion, during which three board members expressed concern about the tower’s massing, height…

$11.7 Million Sale of Naranja Lakes Retail Property Trades

TSCG has negotiated the $11.7 million sale of Naranja Lakes Shopping Center, a 90,450-square-foot, grocery-anchored retail property in Naranja. The property was 95 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including Winn-Dixie, Family Dollar and La Colonia Medical Center. The asset is situated at the intersection of U.S. Highway 1 and Naranja Lakes Blvd…

Simon, Authentic Brands to buy Brooks Brothers

Brooks Brothers has found its white knight in mall giant Simon Property Group and apparel licensing firm, Authentic Brands Group. A venture between the two companies, known as Sparc Group, has agreed to buy the retailer for $325 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. Brooks Brothers will close 75 of its 200 stores as part of the deal.

Winn-Dixie-anchored shopping center sells for $14 million

A Miami Gardens shopping center anchored by a Winn-Dixie supermarket sold for $14.5 million. A company affiliated with Smithtown, N.Y.-based Island Associates purchased the 94,000-square-foot retail center at 17237 Northwest 27th Avenue, according to records. The seller, a company associated with Peleg Group, had paid $8.2 million for the center in 2013.

Fear and loathing in a pandemic: Insurers battle business interruption claims

As a Las Vegas casino owner, Phil Ruffin is used to taking risks. But this time the odds seem stacked against the billionaire mogul. For months, slot machines sat empty across the Vegas strip, while hotel conference rooms laid bare. And Ruffin’s Circus Circus Hotel & Casino — perhaps best known as the scene of a drug induced bender in Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and…”

Legal Magic: Turning Real Property Foreclosures Into Uniform Commercial Code Sales

Remedies for defaults under loans secured by real property varies on a state-by­-state basis. In the eastern part of the country, enforcement is mostly by mortgage foreclosure. In the western states, there are enforcement proceedings by way of a deed of trust. There is a spectrum of debtor protections afforded to borrowers depending on the state involved.

Business bankruptcy rise of 54% may be artificially low

Business bankruptcy filings are on the rise in South Florida as Covid-19 takes its toll on the economy, but government aid programs may be holding these numbers back from what they might otherwise be.  Multiple high-profile businesses have already filed this year including Neiman Marcus, Lord and Taylor and 24 Hour Fitness, and these cases may well be…

Despite pandemic, financial jobs rock solid

For many in Miami-Dade, money is tight and employment tentative amid a lingering global pandemic now in its fifth month. But while some industries have seen steep declines in workforce rolls, one sector has thus far remained largely immune from the crisis’ effects. Miami-Dade’s unemployment rate was 11.5% as of June, the last month for which there…

9,000 applicants force United Way to hit pause on pandemic fund

A flood of 9,000 applications in two days quickly caused the United Way of Miami-Dade to stop accepting more as it distributes $20 million in federal funds for those hammered by the pandemic. Applications are to reopen in several weeks once the initial flood is dealt with in first-come, first-served funding. The county days before had chosen the United Way for the…

Maritime jobs vacant as companies hunt skilled workers

While unemployment is rife in many industries due to the upheavals of Covid-19, maritime jobs continue to go unfilled for lack of skilled employees. In fact, said Horacio Stuart Aguirre, chair of the Miami River Commission, the pandemic may even be contributing to demand. “In the past six weeks I have visited four boatyards,” he said, “and yacht…”

Macerich posts $27M loss; CEO says physical retail here to stay

Macerich CEO Thomas O’Hern and Santa Monica Place mall Mall landlord Macerich posted a $26.7 million net income loss in the second quarter as the Santa Monica-based firm continues its struggle to collect rent across its portfolio. The dismal quarter compared to Macerich’s profit of $13.9 million over the same period in 2019. At its earnings call on Tuesday, the retail…

Here’s the real estate record for Kamala Harris

While serving as California attorney general, Kamala Harris could have gone after Steve Mnuchin for alleged mortgage fraud at his company, OneWest, but didn’t. OneWest foreclosed on more than 36,000 California homeowners in the years following the Great Recession. Harris’ office conducted a preliminary investigation, and deputy attorneys general…

Blackstone pays $46M for Broward industrial properties

An affiliate of Blackstone bought several industrial properties in Broward County from Elion Partners for $46 million. The warehouses are spread between Weston, Coral Springs and Pompano Beach, records show. Elion had paid about $35 million in total for the properties in 2018 and 2019. The sale includes three warehouses at 1800-1880 North Commerce Parkway…

Marriott claims Covid-induced crisis for hotels has bottomed out

Marriott International believes the hotel industry believes the worst is over, so it’s halting its relief measures for hotel owners’ bills and forging ahead with new development. While announcing the hotel company’s second quarter earnings on Monday, CEO and president Arne Sorenson acknowledged the cataclysmic effect the coronavirus pandemic has had…

Vornado will install facial recognition tech in all its buildings

After testing facial recognition technology on users for years, Facebook will soon have to decide whether to opt in or out of facial recognition for its own employees in New York. Vornado Realty Trust, which has operated face-reading systems at a handful of properties for the past five years, now plans to expand the technology across its entire portfolio, Business Insider…

J. Crew said it was bankrupt. Then its landlords forked over $130M

Bankrupt retailer J. Crew is saving $130 million in rent. The retailer, which has 492 stores including Madewell and outlet locations, has negotiated about $70 million in concessions this year and about $60 million next year from its landlords, according to Retail Dive. That includes waivers and rent deferrals, as long as sales are in line with…

Consumption of goods and services during the COVID-19 recession : Some shirts, some shoes, but a lot less service

First, some background on the line graphs shown above and below: The zero “date” is the start of a recession. The x-axis “periods” are the number of months after the start date. And the data are from the BEA’s Personal Income and Outlay survey. Now, what do they show? The main revelation is that real personal consumption expenditures on services have decreased…

The last mile: Amazon in talks with Simon to convert bankrupt megastores into fulfillment centers

Amazon may soon take over the spaces of bankrupt retailers it has left in the dust. The e-commerce giant is in talks with mall owner Simon Property Group to turn anchor stores into distribution hubs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Read more Amazon doubles down on fulfillment centers How Amazon became the leasing king of e-commerce The main target…

TRD Insights: Gentrification happening fastest in least affordable cities

Want to identify the chief culprit behind gentrification in your neighborhood? Look no further than your city’s housing supply — or lack thereof. Metro areas with less affordable housing disproportionately drive high-income home buyers to lower-income neighborhoods, according to recent analysis from the Urban Institute, Washington-based nonpartisan…

Chart: Miami Commercial Real Estate Sales to List Price Ratio Dips in July ~ MLS

The sales to list price ratio as reported by the Miami MLS, after having held up well as coronavirus hit, reached its lowest level in a number of years for properties classified as commercial/industrial with prices from $1 million to $10 million. That this ratio held up so well as-if-no…

Brightline ends partnership with Virgin Trains in South Florida

Brightline and Virgin Trains are headed on different tracks and have ended their partnership agreement in South Florida. The commuter train service will go back to using the name Brightline, it said in its monthly revenue and ridership report. Brightline had been operating as Virgin Trains USA, and was expected to complete the rebranding by this summer. The rail service…

Billionaire Charles Cohen proposes 338-foot tall office tower in West Palm

Billionaire developer Charles Cohen submitted new plans for a Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects-designed office tower in West Palm Beach. The plans reveal a proposal for West Palm Point, a 338-foot-tall tower with 23 floors of office space and a 10-floor parking garage, topped with a reflecting pool and landscaped deck. The late César Pelli’s architecture firm, which designed…

National retail chains paid 80% of July rent, a Covid high

An increasing number of retailers are finding their rent is no longer too damn high. Major retail chains paid 80 percent of their July rent, by far the highest amount in months, according to a new report from Datex Property Solutions. But despite that positive indicator, many retailers are still skipping rent payments, a distressing sign for landlords. The latest rent…

Industrial development, rents and leasing stable in South Florida, but uncertainty remains: panel

Jason Tenenbaum of Prologis, Stephanie Rodriguez of Duke Realty and Ross Giglio of Terrano Realty The industrial sector, a bright spot in South Florida’s real estate market, is seeing shifting strategies, experts say. Some developers, like Duke Realty, are launching new projects, while slowing down in other parts of the country. In mid-March, as the pandemic was…

Bank OZK seeks to foreclose on David Edelstein’s Lincoln Road buildings

Bank OZK is seeking to foreclose on a Lincoln Road property owned by developer David Edelstein. The Little Rock, Arkansas-based bank, one of the most aggressive commercial real estate lenders in the country, is looking to collect on the $12.8 million that’s allegedly remaining on the loan, plus fees and interest, for the buildings at 918 and 920 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach.

Hospitality, retail led job gains in July

The hospitality, leisure and retail sectors led job gains in July, with unemployment levels improving slightly overall. Payroll employment rose by 1.8 million in July and the unemployment rate declined to 10.2 percent, following a high of 14.7 percent in April, according to Department of Labor figures released Friday. Still, 16.3 million Americans remain jobless…

U.S. trade during COVID-19 : Imports and exports have plummeted differently

The recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has included a precipitous decline in U.S. trade: The FRED graph above shows that both imports and exports have declined more than 20% relative to a year ago. This decline may not be too surprising, given that international trade flows are usually more volatile than domestic economic activity. Large changes in economic…

“We’re not crying in our milk”: Hilton eyes new hotels despite $432M loss in Q2

Hilton Worldwide Holdings pressed on with developing new hotels despite heavy losses last quarter. The hotel giant opened 60 hotels with 6,800 new rooms last quarter despite reporting a net loss of $432 million in the second quarter. That’s down almost 66 percent from its net income of $261 million during the same period 2019. Still, the company grew its pipeline by 11…

Brookfield Property’s retail tenants paid 34% of rent in Q2

Brookfield Property Partners’ Brian Kingston Brookfield Property Partners collected just 34 percent of rent across its retail portfolio in the second quarter, helping drive another sharp decline in earnings this year. Its office holdings also took a hit. The real estate arm of Brookfield Asset Management reported a net loss of $1.5 billion from April through June…

TRD Insights: What #WFH could mean for office and resi costs in tech hubs

With many tech companies open to long-term remote work for their employees, questions are being asked about how that will impact the office and residential markets in hubs of tech talent. (iStock) The technology industry accounted for over a fifth of major leasing activity nationwide in 2019, making it the biggest driver of the office market in the U.S. In hubs…

Simon strikes back at the Gap with $107M lawsuit

Call it a retail rumble, with Simon Property Group in one corner and its largest national tenant in the other. The largest shopping mall landlord has filed another lawsuit against the Gap. This one accuses the retailer of “taking opportunistic advantage” of the pandemic to avoid paying $107 million in overdue rent, even though some of its stores have reopened…

Blue Jay Trucking Inks 40,000-SF Lease Deal In Relo To Medley

Agora Real Estate Group President and Commercial Advisor Elias G. Patsalos, CCIM, recently represented the tenant in a long-term, 40,000-square-foot lease at Lakeview Industrial Center, located at 8005 NW 80th Street in Medley. Patsalos represented Blue Jay Trucking in the direct deal with the landlord, Gamma Delta Corp. “This deal was particularly…

Potential CRE Property Improvements To Adapt To COVID-19

In addition to everything else we can blame on COVID-19, the pandemic has altered what’s important in commercial real estate. Not long ago, landscaping, security, and lighting were among the key elements to increase property values, and often ranked high on the list of tenant wishes. But with the pandemic and re-openings, the most significant concern is the…