President Trump (Credit: Getty Images)

From the New York website: In the weeks and months after Nov. 8, Donald Trump’s door always seemed open. Old friends and celebrities walked in and out of his namesake tower in Manhattan or hobnobbed with him at his New Jersey golf course – and so did real estate executives. Howard Lorber, Jonathan Gray, Thomas Barrack, the Hinneberg family (owners of 40 Wall Street), and others landed meetings with the president-elect, soon to be the most powerful man in the world.

“Initially it seemed Trump was very willing to meet with people” one lobbyist told The Real Deal, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “Someone actually made the comment to me that the president-elect met with more people than de Blasio in three years.” 

Many real estate bigwigs may have believed they’d have similar access to the West Wing as they did at Trump Tower, and perhaps hoped to replicate the kind of sway they hold in Albany. When Greenberg Traurig publicly disclosed in January the institutions it is lobbying on behalf of Related Companies, the law firm, apart from naming the usual suspects of the Senate and House of Representatives, added the White House to its list for the first time since 2015.

But so far, the industry hasn’t got its day in the sun it hoped for. Preoccupied with border control, foreign policy and a constant feud with judges and journalists, White House staffers have been reluctant to meet with real estate executive and lobbyists, sources say. And if New York’s real estate kingpins and their lobbyists are lining up to see the president and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, they sure are being discreet.

“I don’t see them very often,” said Jonathan McCollum, director of federal government affairs at the Davidoff, Hutcher & Citron law firm in Washington. “It seems like they would have these pre-existing relationships with Trump and some of his closest advisers,” McCollum said, “and if they are talking regularly, it’s certainly been kept quiet.”

Most of the facetime seems to happen at Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s regular trips to his 128-room private club in Palm Beach have raised concerns over inappropriate levels of access to the president, and real estate developers such as Lorber, Richard LeFrak, Bruce Toll and the South Florida mogul Jeff Greene are all said to be frequent visitors. LeFrak, who is advising the president on infrastructure, told the New York Times that during a February visit to Mar-a-Lago, Trump directly asked him if he would like to build the Mexican border wall, and Toll told the paper that although he had discussed the economy with the president, it was never his own personal business or that of any specific Toll Brothers project.

Steve Witkoff, another developer pal of Trump’s, insists he’s not discussing his personal business interests either.

“Friends don’t lobby,” Witkoff said, “and I’m a friend of the president.”

“I’ve spent time with the president,” Witkoff added, “I do not talk about the real estate business.”

As for Kushner, who holds the title of Senior White House Adviser, he is still keeping ties to parts of his family’s expanding real estate empire. Some who know him say he has made himself unavailable to the property bigwigs in New York.

“He [Kushner] has completely removed himself from everything,” said Nicholas Mastroianni, the head of U.S. Immigration Fund, a major EB-5 regional center that arranged $50 million in foreign capital (likely mostly Chinese money) for Kushner’s Trump Bay Street tower in Jersey City. “We had a farewell meeting in January where he made his position very clear, which is that he’s working for the president and he’s going to be in the White House and he’s not going to get entangled in any specific issues, especially EB-5. He will not meet about EB-5 under any circumstances.”

A spokesperson for the White House told TRD Kushner would recuse himself from “any particular matter concerning the EB-5 program.”

Greenberg Traurig and Related, who are both lobbying for an extension of the EB-5 investor visa program, declined to comment.

The fact that right-wing ideologues Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller play a dominant role in policymaking hasn’t made things easier. “How many [real estate] people do you know that actually know Bannon and have a relationship with Breitbart?” the lobbyist said. To the dismay of some in the industry, this isn’t Kushner’s White House.

Since taking office, Trump has met openly with leaders of other industries, including titans of finance such as Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwarzman and JP Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon. He shared with them his frustration that Dodd-Frank regulations were making it difficult for his “friends” to get loans. In February, Trump and members of his cabinet held a “listening session” with 24 CEOs of American manufacturing companies, including Ford Motors. Nothing of that sort has happened yet for real estate.

“We have not been able to speak to them,” Mastroianni said of the administration in a February interview. “They don’t want to interact on anything, any policy at all.”

If a similar sit-down were planned for leaders of the real estate industry, a likely candidate to arrange it might be the Real Estate Roundtable, a body of 17 national trade associations that has close ties to the top brass at the Real Estate Board of New York (a group, it should be noted, that Trump has never been part of). The Roundtable’s President and CEO, Jeffrey DeBoer, anticipates that once issues that more directly affect real estate, such as tax reform and financial deregulation, move up the White House’s agenda, “then we [real estate] will become more high profile.”

“I would anticipate that any president or any person involved significantly in the policy making process would want to meet with all the industries affected by the policies, so I would expect there would be meetings with the manufacturing industry and the airline industry and the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry and the real estate industry,” DeBoer added. “I would expect that in the natural course of business such a meeting would happen and I’d be a little surprised if it didn’t.”

As for the Trump White House being difficult to access, DeBoer says that has not been his experience. “To the extent that we have felt that it was timely and necessary to communicate on an aspect of an issue with the administration, we’ve experienced nothing unusual,” he said.

For now, Mar-A-Lago, dubbed by some as the “Southern White House,” seems the best bet for a well-connected developer trying to catch the currently health care-focused  president’s attention, one-on-one. One former lawmaker described it thus: “If you know the president, and you’re seeing him on the golf course or you’re playing basketball with him… then you’re not going to have a 10-second conversation with him, you might have a five-minute conversation in which you can really explain the issue, get him excited about it or interested, and if he knows you really well, he might say ‘you really care about this issue and I like you and you’re my pal or you’ve contributed $2 million,’ and then respond. But the number of people who are going to be able to have that kind of contact with the president is usually small.”

The house on Arroyo Boulevard (Credit: Zillow)

A Pasadena estate once owned by newspaper mogul Philip Chandler is back on the block.

Developer Huang Kangjing listed the renovated English manor for $12 million, more than double the $5.8 million he paid in 2012, The Real Deal has learned.

Huang, who heads China-based LVGEM Group, bought the 1915-built Tudor residence in an all-cash deal for his son, who was a student at the University of Southern California at the time.

The property once served as the venue for a bridal party for Herbert Hoover’s granddaughter, according to a previous report by L.A. Weekly.

The 8,100-square-foot home, designed by L.A. architect Stiles O. Clements, had not been renovated since 1931 and was in dire need of repairs when Huang purchased it. The swimming pool wasn’t functional, the upstairs plumbing leaked and the stove hadn’t been replaced since the early 1900s.The property didn’t even have air conditioning.

Neighbors, worried that the new owner might raze the house and build anew, petitioned for historic landmark status. The Huangs supported the the historic and cultural designation.

Agents familiar with the property said a renovation might double its value.

The seven-bedroom home’s one-year makeover was the work of 26 different designers, according to its listing materials. The newly imagined compound features a separate bathhouse, a tennis court, a badminton court, a greenhouse, a wine cellar and a separate carriage house.

Grace Hsiung of Bobohomes Realty has the listing. She could not immediately be reached for comment.

Huang’s LVGEM Group is a construction conglomerate based in Shenzhen. Before he made his fortune, the fisherman’s son was a day laborer and lived in temporary barracks, according to L.A. Weekly.

(Getty Images)

From the New York website: Imagine going to trial only to find out that your high-powered lawyer is also working for the person you are suing. Now, imagine buying an apartment and finding out your broker is also getting money from the seller. In New York and Los Angeles real estate, that’s not just acceptable but perfectly common. Should it be?

The two scenarios aren’t that different. In both cases you, the client, pay someone to represent you to the best of their abilities. And in both cases the person you’re paying is also getting paid by someone whose ideal outcome may be very different from yours.

The issue has gained more urgency in recent months. Amid a slowing market, some developers have begun offering incentives for brokers. Extell Development, for example, will pay 50 percent of a commission up-front to brokers who bring in clients at three new condo projects. And at 252 East 57th Street, World Wide Group is offering brokers 4 percent commission, including 1 percent up-front.

These incentives implicitly bank on the premise that a broker can steer clients into a certain building if offered the right incentives. But if a broker gets her client into a condo that offers her an extra sweetener, did she do it because it’s genuinely the best option or because she gets greater commissions there than at a project that might be better suited for the buyer? Is she just working for the buyer, or also a little bit for the seller now, too?

These incentive schemes cause more harm than good, said Andrew Heiberger, CEO of Town Residential. “I think it puts the buyer or renter at odds with their broker because it takes away the impartiality that a broker is supposed to have,” he said. “I think (developers) are better off passing the savings on to the buyers.”

Michael Graves, a broker at Douglas Elliman, countered that these incentives are “totally fine” as long as they are publicly disclosed and buyers know about them.

Cases like Extell’s One Manhattan Square are still fairly rare, but another potential source of conflict is prevalent: brokers who officially represent both buyer and seller (or renter and landlord) in a deal.

A buyer wants to pay the lowest possible price and be able to weigh several options. The seller wants the highest possible price and make sure the buyer signs on the dotted line before looking at competitive product. If a broker represents both, that’s a conflict of interest – which is why states like Connecticut and Vermont have banned the practice, according to Robert von Ancken, who chairs Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Landauer Valuation & Advisory. In November, the California Supreme Court ruled that when an agent representing a seller is working for the same firm as the agent representing the buyer, they become an “associate licensee” and must properly investigate and disclose all important information related to the transaction.

New York does require brokers to disclose whom they represent. But that merely makes the conflict of interest more transparent, it doesn’t eliminate it. Should it do more?

Leonard Steinberg, president of Compass, doesn’t think so. “I think some agents who are held to the highest ethical standards are perfectly capable of representing both buyer and seller in a negotiation and transaction,” he said. “The key is the ethical standards and honesty.”

Heiberger said that conflicts of interest can arise. “I definitely see the value to being represented exclusively by a buy-side broker,” he said. But he also argued that the practice shouldn’t be forced on the industry by law. It would be better, he said, if clients press for exclusive representation themselves.

That won’t happen unless clients are aware of the conflict of interest and know there are ways around it. The residential brokerage business doesn’t address these issues.They could look to how commercial brokerages operate for guidance.

Brokerages like Savills Studley, which prides itself on only representing tenants in leasing deals, and Singer & Bassuk, which refuses to work for two sides in a finance deal, use “No Conflicts” as a marketing tool. If tenants hear Studley’s pitch and still decide to go with someone else – fine. But they are more likely to be aware of potential conflicts of interest and how they could result in a worse deal for them.

Stricter rules may not be popular with brokers, but they help make an industry more honest. Consider the appraisal business. Until 1990, appraisers were paid by property owners, von Ancken said. That created the potential for conflicts of interest: Appraisers are meant to value a property accurately, but they may feel pressure to arrive at a higher valuation if they want repeat business.

Since 1990, appraisers are hired by banks. But problems remained. In the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, single-family-home appraisers, feeling pressure from loan originators who wanted high valuations to issue bigger loans and get bigger commissions, frequently overvalued properties. The practice contributed to the housing bubble.

The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 introduced new rules and guidelines meant to ensure accurate appraisals. Today, few would accuse Manhattan’s appraisers of overvaluing properties. On the contrary: appraisals have consistently been far more conservative than market prices.

It took a financial meltdown for the appraisal industry to really tackle its conflict of interest problem. It shouldn’t take another one for brokers to do the same.

Asend rendering (Gehry Partners, Kilograph via JLL)

NSB Associates has tapped JLL to lease Ascend, its $50 million Frank Gehry-designed creative office development in El Segundo, the brokerage said.

The 80,000-square-foot project, which is the sixth building in a campus surrounded by former Xerox facilities, is slated for completion by the end of the year.

JLL’s Mike McRoskey, Blake Searles, Evan Moran and Jason Fine are heading the leasing effort.

Asking rents are not public, but new creative buildings in El Segundo average about $3.25 per square foot a month, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A rendering of Ascend’s interior (Gehry Partners, Kilograph via JLL)

Unlike Gehry’s more dramatic endeavors, such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles, the design of Ascend is consistent with other creative offices in the area — and its unassuming nature is intentional, the Times said.

“It’s not architectural in the sense that you are making an architectural statement,” Gehry said in a video on the project’s website. “It is really creating an environment that energizes and promotes interactivity in a less formal way.”

The building will have one differentiating design feature, however. It will effectively be raised up on stilts, allowing for 280 parking spaces at ground level underneath the building. The development also includes 16,000 square feet of outdoor patios.

Ascend is the first project Gehry has designed for his longtime friend Larry Field, the founder of Beverly Hills-based NSB.

The architect has been on a hot streak in recent months. He’s also designing the controversial Grand Avenue Project Downtown and 8150 Sunset in Hollywood.

Donald Trump and Janet Yellen (Credit: Getty Images)

From the New York website: A possible change to appraisal requirements could help small-business borrowers, but hurt appraisers.

U.S. bank regulators may increase the commercial loan threshold for requiring appraisals from $250,000 to $400,000, Bloomberg reported. The change could make it easier for small-business owners to secure financing and also ease costs since appraisal fees are typically well over $2,000.

The Independent Community Bankers of America called for an even higher threshold of $500,000 last year, saying that a change was needed “to reflect the rising costs of real estate particularly in many urban markets.” The minimum for residential real estate would remain at $250,000.

President Donald Trump met with community bankers last week to discuss possible ways to clear lending obstacles. Regulators haven’t changed the appraisal threshold in more than two decades.

“It hasn’t been raised since 1994, so this adjustment really amounts to a correction,” Rod Alba, senior vice president for real estate finance at the American Bankers Association, told Bloomberg.

At the same time, the change could put a lot of appraisers out of work. Karen Mann, an appraiser who works in California, said appraisals are the best way to measure a property’s worth.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know by not having somebody go out and inspect the property,” she said. [Bloomberg] — Kathryn Brenzel 

Reza Ghobadi and Tia Jones

Sperry Commercial Global Affiliates has a fresh poach: Jimmy Chai is jumping ship from Cushman & Wakefield to be Sperry’s new managing director in its Koreatown office.

Chai was a director for 9 years at Cushman, where he amassed over $500 million in transactions, Sperry said in an announcement Monday. He specialized in leased investments, landlord and tenant representation, and land development.

Multifamily brokerage Stepp Commercial hired Tia Jones from the Ritz-Carlton at L.A. Live to be its latest associate, the firm announced Monday. In her new position, Jones will focus on multifamily investment sales in Hollywood and West Hollywood. At the Ritz, she worked in property management, financial analysis, transaction coordination and leasing.

Colliers recently hired Reza Ghobadi to lead its multifamily and mixed-use investments in the San Fernando Valley, Pasadena, Glendale, and Burbank. He will focus on helping the brokerage to expand in those submarkets.

Ghobadi joins Colliers after forming and leaving his own consulting firm, according to a Colliers spokesperson. Before striking out on his own, Ghobadi worked for Marcus & Millichap and Keller Williams Commercial.

Andrew Christian and his Beachwood Canyon home (Andrewchristian.com, Redfin)

A Beachwood Canyon estate owned by men’s underwear designer Andrew Christian has hit the the market for $4.2 million.

Much like the typical buyer of Christian’s risque boxers and briefs, the house has exhibitionism written all over it. The 3,000-square-foot estate, which hugs the hillside, is constructed of three stacked cubes with walls made of glass, and a shower in one of the 2.5 bathrooms is backed by a full-height window.

Christian bought the three-bedroom house five years ago for $2.56 million, Variety reported. His business partner, Jeff White, is also listed as an owner, property records show.

The bells and whistles of the property include heated polished concrete floors; a powder room with an onyx pedestal sink; a wrap-around terrace with a built-in fire pit; and a Japanese soaking tub. [Variety] — Hannah Miet

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Larry Flynt and the site of the Lucky Lady Casino at 1045 West Rosecrans Avenue

The city of Gardena took a reluctant bet when it approved porn mogul Larry Flynt’s latest casino project, but it looks like the odds may be in its favor after all.

Flynt plans to unveil a $5 million renovation of the 50,000-square-foot former Normandie Casino Saturday, after installing new chandeliers, furniture, and carpeting, the Los Angeles Times reported. He’s renamed the venue the Lucky Lady Casino and festooned it with a new neon sign depicting a half-dressed woman swinging her bare leg, the paper said.

But the renovation marks only the beginning of Flynt’s designs for the site. He wants to invest more than $60 million to build additional retail and office space on 12.5 acres around the casino, he said.

The plans appear to have won over Gardena officials, who were previously at odds with Flynn over tax breaks for the project.

“I personally believe this will be a shot in the arm for the street,” Gardena City Manager Mitchell Lansdell told the Times.

The casino, which operates 60 tables and employs about 400 people, has seen its business pick up by 10 percent since the new owner took over, according to Flynt’s executive vice president of gaming operations Thomas Candy.

But the deal almost didn’t happen.

The Gardena city council backtracked on a no-strings-attached tax break for the project last summer, which led Flynt to briefly shut down the casino in protest. After two days, Flynt and the city were able to reach an agreement in which Flynt will pay 12 percent of his monthly gross gaming revenue at both the Lucky Lady and the Hustler Casino, which he operates less than a mile away. [LAT] — Cathaleen Chen

Leonard Steinberg and Compass’s new Collections feature

From the New York website: Compass wants to build the Pinterest of real estate.

Its new feature, known as “Collections,” allows consumers to create their own version of the Pinterest pin board for properties they’re interested in, said Leonard Steinberg, president of the firm.

Homebuyers and their agents can organize the properties they’re eyeing in one place and discuss them via a commenting tool. They can also share availability and pricing changes on the board and invite friends and family to weigh in on apartments by posting their opinions on each listing.

In some ways, the Collections feature is the first major public test of Compass’ tech chops. While much of the 1,400-agent company’s reported $1 billion-plus value is said to lie in its technology, most of those offerings have been agent-facing thus far.

Compass agents have already been using the feature for several months behind the scenes with existing clients, but it is now open to the public. Steinberg it “the industry’s answer to the modern way people like to shop.”

“Collections helps the homebuyer feel in control of the process and makes searching for or selling a home less cumbersome and more enjoyable,” he said. “Everyone loves a good mood board.”

The brokerage also hopes the feature will become a strong marketing tool, since agents can create public boards to share with potential clients and on social media.

Deryck Whibley and his home on Varden Street

Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley sold his Sherman Oaks digs for $2.05 million, following the release of the band’s first album in five years.

The pop punk rocker first listed the Spanish-style home last year for just under $2.8 million. He bought the 4,800-square-foot residence for $1.7 million in 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Nicki LaPorta and Karen Crystal of Ewing Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing. Cheryl Kessler of Kessler Realty represented the buyer.

The five-bedroom, six-bathroom property features vaulted ceilings and a two-story foyer. In the backyard, there’s a patio and a pool with spa.

Sum 41, which Whibley helped form in 1996, released its sixth album last year. Its best known for hits such as “In Too Deep” and “Fat Lip.” [LAT] — Cathaleen Chen

11768 Ellice Street (Credit: Partners Trust)

A Texas luxury car dealer just sold his Malibu residence for $15.9 million.

Ron Heller, who operates car showrooms in San Juan, Texas, bought the 7,200-square-foot oceanfront abode for $13 million in 2014, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

Meanwhile, he’s building a custom home in the neighborhood, according to his listing agent, Madison Hildebrand of Partners Trust.

Located on Ellice Street, the single-story home sits on one acre and contains five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and two half-baths. It features dual master suites and a 3,200-square-foot courtyard with lounge areas, a wood-burning fireplace, and an infinity pool. The house was built in 2013, according to marketing materials. [LABJ] — Cathaleen Chen

Jared Kushner, The Guardian’s Lee Glendinning and Dumbo Heights (Credit: Kushner/LIVWRK/RFR)

From the New York website: The Guardian’s U.S. office decided against moving to an office building in Brooklyn owned by Kushner Companies because journalists feared they could be spied on.

The company planned to move from a WeWork space in Manhattan to another in Brooklyn’s Dumbo Heights  neighborhood located in an office complex owned by Kushner, LIVWRK and RFR Realty, BuzzFeed reported. Though Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior advisor to President Trump, resigned as CEO of the company and divested interest in several of the company’s holdings, reporters were wary about how sources would react to the move.

Reporters were especially concerned that a whistleblower of the caliber of Edward Snowden might not feel safe revealing information to the Guardian in a building with ties to one of the president’s most trusted advisers, sources told Buzzfeed.

The Guardian now plans to move to another office in Midtown in May (with a source telling Buzzfeed that staffers weren’t enamored with the idea of commuting to Dumbo anyway). A spokesperson for the Guardian said the company reversed course after learning of Kushner’s connection to the Brooklyn building. [BuzzFeed] — Kathryn Brenzel 

Main floor at 939 Studio, John Kennamann (939 Studio/LinkedIn)

The Oakland warehouse fire that killed 36 people at the Ghost Ship artist colony is having an impact on commercial spaces in Los Angeles.

Think Tank Gallery in the Fashion District was once home to 17 artists but all of them moved out following citations from city officials, which were part of an increased effort to ensure all properties are permitted for their uses. Now, the future of the gallery is uncertain, L.A. Weekly reported.

The gallery was illegally housing artists inside its warehouse space at 939 Maple Avenue and city officials finally cracked down on the building owners this year.

Jacob Patterson, Think Tank Gallery’s executive director, maintained the building was safe, especially compared with similar spaces in the city. And unlike Oakland’s Ghost Ship, its warehouse does have sprinklers, exit signs and fire extinguishers.

Owner John Kennamann hired a land-use management company to obtain a certificate of occupancy when the building was first cited in October 2015, but found the process difficult and expensive, according to L.A. Weekly.

The gallery was cited a second time early this year and the property owners had until February 13 to acquire a certificate of occupancy or have residents removed under threat of a criminal charges. All of the artists moved out by the end of the month.

Think Tank said it will need to raise its event prices to help pay off the sublease now that it is resident-free. Kennamann has converted the building into an event-only space under the name 939 Studio but is still unsure whether it will be enough to keep the company in business. It currently has 6,500 square feet of event space. As for Think Tank, it doesn’t have a physical space but is now a “roadshow,” according to its website.

More crackdowns are likely to follow since L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer assembled a warehouse task force along with building safety officials following the Oakland fire to aggressively monitor illegal-use commercial spaces. [LAW] — Subrina Hudson

Jodie Poirier (via CBRE)

Jodie Poirier is now the managing director of CBRE’s South Bay operations. She stepped into the role in February after two years as a director in the company’s advisory and transaction services occupier business, where she pursued large, often complex, occupier assignments throughout the U.S.

A graduate of Cornell University, Poirier earned her master’s degree in real estate development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then made her way through the ranks at JLL, Colliers International and the Davis Cos. before landing at CBRE. There, her team of three collectively won $83 million in business.

In her new role, she will focus on the South Bay area, which covers the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, along with approximately 31.7 million square feet in the office sector and 220 million square feet in the industrial market. Poirier will oversee the 145 people involved in CBRE’s spectrum of service offerings — including advisory and transactions, capital markets and enterprise facilities management — across all lines of business, including office, industrial, retail and multifamily.

On the eve of her promotion, she sat down with The Real Deal to discuss South Bay’s challenges and the experiences that led her to a career in real estate.

What does your new role look like?
I’m responsible for running and growing our business in South Bay. On any given day, I strategize with our professionals on an upcoming pitch and bring in the right resources across CBRE. I also may meet with a team to go over their business plan, have lunch with a client, review monthly financials with our director of operations or connect our team with another market to support outbound business. Some days, I may attend a kick-off meeting for a new assignment. Overall, I’m building our brand in this market.

What are your hobbies?  
I played Division I college tennis at Cornell University all four years. I also ran the Boston Marathon with my mom last year and raised $15,000 the Boys and Girls Club.

What is happening right now in the South Bay?
There’s a large industrial market here and it’s very tight. There’s a lack of space, making it a sub 1 percent vacancy [in the fourth quarter of 2016, the industrial market had a vacancy rate of 0.8 percent]. E-commerce and third party logistics are seeing a lot of activity, which could be bolstered by space coming from new construction. More than 1 million square feet of new construction were delivered in the fourth quarter of 2016, with nearly 1 million more under construction. The Brickyard, for example, in Compton, has about a half-million square feet of Class A industrial space for lease that’s 10 miles from the ports and 7 miles from LAX. [Poirier’s team is leasing the property].

How quickly are properties selling right now?
Industrial and infill are getting picked up very quickly. As for office and retail, El Segundo, with its proximity to the beach and airport, is attracting more interest [In the fourth quarter of 2016, the office market still had a 15 percent vacancy rate]. There is more retail and there are more amenities with an emerging work-live-play environment. It used to be that if you were going down Rosecrans Avenue, there were limited retail and dining opportunities. Now more have popped up. It’s changing the vibe of this area, which is great. Especially because our office is right here, too.

What was your first job in L.A.?
My first job in Los Angeles was during the summer after my freshman year in college. I interned in production on “Baywatch”. After a year in Ithaca, New York, I thought going to Malibu and Santa Monica would be a pretty good way to spend the summer. I worked on a lot in Playa Vista and we went off-site to film at Will Rogers State Beach in Santa Monica. The editors took me under their wing. I took scripts and summarized them into one-line continuity scripts, ran scripts to actors and actresses houses and took equipment from the studio to the set. I’d been on a Nickelodeon TV show when I was in middle school, called “Hey Dude”, and at the time, I thought I’d go into production.

Any other jobs before real estate?
The summer after I graduated from Cornell, I sold educational books door to door. You see it all. I was chased off a property with a rifle on the Fourth of July. Chickens came through a broken screen door in a single-wide trailer while I was on the floor giving a demo. I was bitten by a dog; I still have the scar. It truly taught me the fundamentals. I knew then that I wanted to be in sales.

The Century condo and Sam Nazarian (via Douglas Elliman, sbe)

A family trust connected to Los Angeles hotelier Sam Nazarian has sold its 6,080-square-foot penthouse in Related’s posh 24-story Century building for $15.2 million, or $2,500 a square foot, The Real Deal has learned.

The identity of the buyer, which sources said is an American family relocating from Santa Monica, was not immediately clear.

A trust tied to Qualcomm co-founder Younes Nazarian and his wife, Soraya Nazarian, bought the condo for $10 million in 2012. Their children — Sam, David, Sharon and Shulamit Nazarian — were added to the deed in 2016, records show.

The three-bedroom, five-bedroom condominium atop the 42-story Robert A.M. Stern-designed project at 1 W Century Drive has interiors by Joan Behnke, according to the listing.

The family oversaw the design of the unit, which features a built-in buffet area, said Michelle Oliver of Douglas Elliman, who represented the buyer. It also includes a great room that is massive by condominium standards — 1,850 square feet, according to the listing.

Drew Fenton of Hilton & Hyland was the listing agent.

The Nazarians’ pad has been on and off the market since 2014, when Coldwell Banker listed it for $19.5 million. It was relisted for just shy of $18 million in 2015 and subsequently removed from the market.

When Hilton & Hyland took over the listing in September 2016, they priced it for just under $17 million, then chopped the price to below $16 million earlier this year, Zillow shows.

Sky-high condo prices have become more commonplace in L.A. since Candy Spelling shelled out almost $35 million for her two-story condo in the Century in 2010, smashing records and fueling the rise of aspirational pricing. Just last week, Ariadne Getty, granddaughter of J. Paul Getty and an heir to his $5 billion oil empire, relisted her condo at Beverly Hills’ Montage for $24.5 million, or $4,320 per square foot.

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Elon Musk and his first Bel Air mansion on Chalon Road

He may have yet to colonize Mars, but Elon Musk is certainly conquering Bel Air.

The SpaceX founder bought a still under construction spec house for $24.25 million in an off-market deal, Variety reported. It’s the fifth property he’s purchased in the area in recent years. 

Musk began amassing his collection of homes above the Bel Air Country Club in 2012 with the acquisition of a 1.7-acre estate, for which he paid $17 million. The 20,200-square-foot mansion contains seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, four half-baths, a two-story library, a 1,000-bottle wine cellar and a home theater.

The following year, the Tesla CEO spent $6.75 million on a 2,700-square-foot ranch-style house next door and converted it into a private school for his kids and the kids of his friends to have a non-traditional education.

In the summer of 2015, he bought two more properties a few houses away — a $20 million contemporary house and a $4.3 million ranch-style home.

The $70.3 million worth of homes are not contiguous, so an assemblage seems unlikely in the short-term.

Musk reportedly does not own property in the Bay Area, despite his interests in Silicon Valley. [Variety] — Cathaleen Chen

A rendering of 666 Fifth Avenue (Click to enlarge)
(Credit: Kushner Companies/Zaha Hadid Architects via WSJ)

From the New York website: Kushner Companies has a whole bag of tricks it’s been keeping secret for its planned conversion of the office tower at 666 Fifth Avenue into a mixed-use luxury destination.

Bloomberg, citing investor documents, reported last week that the redevelopment would be valued at $7.2 billion when completed. But Kushner Companies believes that the number could even hit $12 billion, sources familiar with the plans confirmed to the Wall Street Journal Tuesday. The newspaper also reported that Anbang Insurance’s involvement in the project is far more tenuous than was stated in the Bloomberg report.

The rebuild plan, Kushner Companies confirmed to the Journal, includes tearing out the building’s steel frame and adding an additional 40 floors, a process that could take until 2025 to complete. Current zoning allows them to build a 1.45 million-square-foot tower as-of-right. The rendering for the plan designed by the late Zaha Hadid reveals a 1,400-foot skyscraper that seems more synonymous with the skylines of oil-rich states in the Middle East and Eastern Europe than contemporary Midtown.

To increase the building’s value and revenue potential, Kushner would devote 11 stories in the tower to a hotel and quadruple the retail space. The residential portion of the building would total 464,000 square feet, and Kushner Companies said they expect condos to sell for around $6,000 a square foot, a fair amount below the average at the other 1,400-foot-tall residential development, 432 Park, where 33 past sales have averaged $7,774 per square foot, according to StreetEasy. (A source told The Real Deal last week, however, that for the math to work under even the $7.2 billion plan, condos at 666 Fifth would have to sell north of $9,000 a square foot.)

Another planned for 666 Fifth is the name itself. Kushner Companies plans to take the opportunity to shed the building’s devil-tinged 666 address for a new one — 660 Fifth Avenue.

If the Kushners went full-tilt with the $12 billion plan, it would leave them with a 20-percent stake in the finished project, the company confirmed to the newspaper. Demolition could start as soon as 2019.

To do all of this, current office tenants would have to be bought out of their leases, $1.15 billion in outstanding debt would need to be refinanced and Vornado Realty Trust, which holds a stake in the building and owns most of the retail space, would need to be bought out. Anbang was reported earlier this month to be in talks with Kushner Companies to provide more than $1 billion in equity to the project. Anbang, however, has denied any such investment plans.

Though Senior White House Adviser Jared Kushner has resigned from Kushner Companies and announced the sale of his stake in 666 Fifth to a family-operated trust, his father Charlie is said to be the one currently courting investors. Despite the management shake-up, ethics experts worry that a deal with Anbang or another large Chinese investor would be a thinly-veiled attempt at buying influence with the Trump administration.

When talks with Anbang were first reported, The Real Deal picked apart the known details and cast doubt on the likelihood that a deal with Anbang would close. The $4 billion construction loan Anbang would reportedly seek would be unprecedented for a single U.S. real estate project. [WSJ] — Will Parker

From left: Edward Roski, Jr., Rick Caruso, and Donald Bren

No California real estate player landed a top 10 spot on Forbes’ latest billionaires list, but developers with projects on the West Coast held prominent ground.

The richest real estate mogul in the world, in 18th place, is Wang Jianlin of the Wanda Group. Wanda’s U.S. subsidiary is behind the $1.2 billion One Beverly Hills project. With an estimated fortune of $31.3 billion, Jianlin is China’s richest man, and beyond real estate, his company is known for its holdings in entertainment.

The richest real estate mogul in the United States is much closer to home. Donald Bren, of Irvine, California, came in at No. 66. The head of Irvine Company, which boasts ownership of over 115 million square feet of property, was worth an estimated $15.2 billion as of Wednesday.

Next up in California, at No. 224 in the world, is John Sobrato of Sobrato Development Companies. The San Francisco-based developer is worth an estimated $6.4 billion, and owns 7.5 million square feet of commercial space in Silicon Valley.

In 324th place, Edward Roski, Jr. has a fortune estimated at $4.9 billion. His Majestic Realty Company has a portfolio of over 76 million square feet of commercial real estate in Los Angeles, Denver, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. Also a minority owner of the Lakers, Roski played a major role in the development of the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

Rick Caruso, the developer behind the Grove, came in at No. 474 with an estimated $3.8 billion fortune. He’s followed by landlord Donald Sterling, the controversial former owner of the L.A. Clippers, with a $3.5 billion fortune in 544th place. Bay Area developers Jay Paul and Richard Peery tie for 814th place, each worth $2.5 billion.

East Coast notables who made the list include Blackstone Group’s CEO Stephen Schwarzman, at 112 with a $11.7 billion net worth, Stephen Ross at 186 with $7.4 billion, and Richard LeFrak at 219 with $6.5 billion. [Forbes] — Cathaleen Chen