Real estate stocks have ticked up this week, weathering a downward trending S&P 500 and the extraordinary news that the House Speaker had opened a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The Real Deal analyzed a cross section of 28 real estate stocks — a mix of real estate investment trusts, research firms and brokerages — and found that the prices rose just over 1 percent on average since Monday’s market open. That’s about on par with the Real Estate Select Sector SDPR Fund, an index heavily weighted toward the industry.

Among TRD’s sample, the strongest performer this week was brokerage RE/MAX Holdings, whose stock price so far this week has risen almost 8.2 percent to close at $30.82 on Thursday. The weakest performer was Marriott International. The hotel chain’s stock closed at $121.67 on Thursday, a nearly 3.6 percent fall from its Monday opening price.

Meanwhile, the S&P dipped about 0.2 percent, continuing its downward track from last week.

But a Thursday morning tweet that Trump sent, warning that “the markets would crash” should an impeachment inquiry take place, did not happen. That followed Tuesday’s decision by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to open a formal impeachment inquiry into the revelation of a whistleblower complaint that was filed in August. It accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Now back to real estate: As for REITs, they so far have been outperforming the market overall. For the week through Wednesday, U.S. equity REITs bumped up less than half a percent.

And so far this year, U.S. equity REITs have seen returns up 20.64 percent this year — thanks to the strongest-performing sector, manufactured homes — compared to just 4.48 percent for the S&P. That’s according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The industry’s uptick this week marks a slight reversal for real estate stocks, which last week took a dip after the Federal Reserve formalized its anticipated second interest rate cut of the year.

Today’s roster of WeWork departures includes Granit Gjonbalaj, the company’s head of real estate development.

Gjonbalaj, who oversaw real estate operations including design, construction, project management and development, signalled his intent to resign earlier this week, people familiar with the matter told The Real Deal. He is currently negotiating his exit package.

Gjonbalaj said in a statement that he was proud and honored to have worked at WeWork and was confident the firm would do well going forward.

“When I joined the company, it had approximately 2 million square feet of space, a number that is now at over 50 million square feet in almost every corner of the world,” he said.

WeWork declined to comment.

His departure follows that of vice chairman Michael Gross, VP of operations and special projects Zvika Shachar, and director of development Roni Bahar, which TRD reported Thursday.

Reports Thursday stated that 20 people aligned with former CEO Adam Neumann would be leaving the company. However, two people disputed that Gjonbalaj was among those seen to be associated with Neumann, and he was leaving the company on his own terms.

“Granit was never seen as one of Adam’s yes men,” one WeWork source said.

Gjonbalaj joined the company in 2015, after leaving his family’s construction firm, UA Builders, which was a longtime vendor of WeWork’s.

This story will be updated.

UPDATED September 20, 1:04 p.m. Though the football season has only just begun, diehard fans know where they’re going to be come Feb. 2, 2020: watching the Super Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Those wanting to travel in style should have some deep pockets: A Super Bowl LIV package for a one-bedroom overlooking the beach at 1 Hotel South Beach will run them $13,963 a night, according to Five Star Luxury Travel, a Miami Beach-based brokerage specializing in listing and managing rental units at high-end condo-hotels. At the same property, a four-bedroom penthouse with ocean views throughout the unit is priced at $62,577 a night during the days around the big game.

Yet Five Star Luxury Travel owner Jennifer Restrepo insists Super Bowl spectators who might rent those accommodations are getting a bargain. “Our prices are 10 percent to 30 percent lower than if you book directly with the hotel,” Restrepo said. “And most of the five-star resorts on the beach are completely booked for Super Bowl.”

Indeed, according to travel booking site Expedia, a penthouse at 1 Hotel South Beach is going for $119,642 a night between Jan. 30 and Feb. 3, 2020 — the four-day weekend that includes Super Bowl Sunday. Elsewhere on the property, a unit identical to the one Five Star is listing for $14,272 was listed for $71,750 on Expedia. And one- and two-bedroom suites are completely sold out.

As Miami prepares to host the NFL’s premier event for the 11th time — the most for any host city — the local hotel and short-term rental sectors are banking on game-day-related bookings producing astronomical revenue. Realtors like Restrepo said luxury stays will significantly surpass average prices visitors pay during high-season, week-long events such as Art Basel and the South Beach Food and Wine Festival.  “For those, you are looking at an average daily rate in the $3,000s,” she said. “Where it has jumped to for Super Bowl is pretty extraordinary.”

Super Bowl prices are more than double the nightly rates between Dec. 2 and 6, the week of Art Basel, when the “ultra penthouse” at 1 Hotel South Beach goes for $52,624 a night and a three-bedroom suite with an ocean view goes for $15,536 a night, according to Expedia.

The big bump

Just how much cash might the game rake in for hospitality? The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau is projecting that hotels alone will see an $11.4 million increase during the four-day Super Bowl weekend compared to the same period in 2019. Luxury hotels and resorts such as Faena Hotel Miami Beach, the Setai, St. Regis Bal Harbour, Four Seasons at the Surf Club, Fontainebleau Miami Beach, Mandarin Oriental, JW Marriott Marquis and Kimpton Epic Hotel are completely booked. Meanwhile, rooms at three- and four-star lodges, hotels and hostels in downtown Miami and Miami Beach range from $354 to more than $1,000 a night.

The hotel industry is still in a boom cycle, said Rich Lillis, Boca Raton-based national director of Colliers International’s hotels group (see our analysis of the hotel market on page 56). “When we have an event like this, the demand goes off the charts,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons why investors show great interest in South Florida’s hotel sector … It fits into their macro thinking.”

Super Bowl visitors typically stay for a week, and in some cases two weeks, so hotels will be more selective in making rooms available, Lillis added. “They won’t take a single-night person if they can get someone else for two weeks into a room,” he said.

In the short-term luxury rental market, pricing will be even higher than for the 2010 Super Bowl, the last time it was held in Miami, as the number of homes available for rent in Miami Beach and surrounding coastal communities has shrunk in the past nine years, said Bill Hernandez, half of the Bill and Bryan Team at Douglas Elliman. He said homeowners in Miami Beach neighborhoods that don’t allow short-term rentals have stopped listing their homes with brokers and online platforms such as Airbnb. As a result, property owners in areas where the city allows short-term rentals, such as along Collins Avenue where the Setai,  W Miami Beach and 1 Hotel South Beach are located, can charge a premium daily rate — about 50 to 75 percent more than what they would normally charge. Prices are even higher in single-family neighborhoods such as a small unincorporated section of the Venetian Islands, Hernandez added.

“Those that can do it are charging crazy numbers like $100,000 to $120,000 per week for mansions,” Hernandez said. “The folks who would spend this type of money are big-money CEOs and sports franchise owners and executives.”

Bryan Sereny, Hernandez’s partner at Douglas Elliman, said Super Bowl attendees seeking a posh house with at least 7,000 square feet can expect to pay $50,000 to $60,000 a night.

“That’s what people are paying for an 8,000-square-foot house in the Hamptons at the top of the market during the summer,” Sereny said. “As we get a little closer to the game, you could get more of a premium. Super Bowl is definitely the next level.”

The lowest rate Restrepo is offering for Super Bowl LIV is $10,252 for a one-bedroom unit with an ocean view. Two- and three-bedroom condos start at $18,793 and $34,873 a night, respectively (as of Sept. 15). The packages require a minimum four-night stay and include transportation to and from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens via a limo or SUV, concierge services, daily massages and in-suite dining. For some perspective, the maintenance cost for a one-bedroom unit at 1 Hotel South Beach is $19,200 a year, Restrepo said.

While Five Star Luxury Travel has received a couple of dozen inquiries, the firm has not yet booked any of the 1 Hotel South Beach units it advertises, Restrepo said. “It is pretty far in advance for these reservations,” she said. “We don’t anticipate to book them for another few weeks.”

Restrepo, Hernandez and Sereny said that while most luxury hotels in Miami and Miami Beach are officially filled up, the bookings are made by travel companies that resell the rooms to Super Bowl consumers who may have not yet finalized their plans. Super-high-end clients tend to make their travel plans two to three months in advance, they added.

Still, Restrepo said her clients — some of whom are football celebrities who own 1 Hotel units — are confident they will rent their condos at such exorbitant prices. “These are high-net-worth individuals whose 1 Hotel units are their third or fourth homes,” she said. “They only come to town a handful of times a year. It is amazing to have an investment home that can make this much income in one week.”

The other guys

Brokers Restrepo, Hernandez and Sereny are competing with sports tourism companies that buy large blocks of hotel rooms with packages similar to what Five Star Luxury Travel offers, but that also include access to VIP parties with former and current NFL stars and seats at the actual game. For instance, White Plains, New York-based On Location Experiences has base packages starting at $24,390 per person, which includes tickets to lower-level and club seats at Hard Rock Stadium and a minimum three-night stay at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. A hotel spokesperson declined to comment regarding Super Bowl room rates and prices were not available on travel websites, since the hotel is fully booked for the four-day weekend.

Kyle Kinnett, owner of Indianapolis-based Bullseye Event Group, said his firm has packages starting at $6,000 for upper-level seats, VIP access to an NFL players’ tailgate party and stays at either the SLS Brickell, Fontainebleau Miami Beach, Viceroy or Mandarin Oriental. “We started contacting hotels two years ago,” said Kinnett. “It is harder to find hotel rooms than Super Bowl tickets.”

He said he’s seeing more interest in Super Bowl LIV because it’s in Miami. “You have a beach and you have an ocean,” Kinnett said. “Miami is a destination. My most popular package in Miami is a four-night stay. For Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, it was a three-night package.”

Hotel operators prefer to work with companies like Bullseye because of the convenience of dealing with a single client, Kinnett said. “I tell them, would you rather sell me 50 rooms at an escalated rate and deal with one person writing you a check, or do you want to deal with dozens of individuals complaining about rates being too high, etc.?”

Kinnett declined to discuss the hotel room rates he secured.

As short-term rental brokers duke it out with the sports travel firms, business travel hotel operators and owners are seeking out deals with the NFL to house league executives, employees, vendors and contractors. Related Group Chief Operating Officer Matthew Allen, who is Miami-Dade co-chair of the Super Bowl LIV Host Committee, said roughly 17,000 rooms with minimum three-night stays between Miami-Dade and Broward have been blocked off for the NFL and related entities.

The league designated the InterContinental in downtown Miami as its headquarters hotel during the big game. The hotel, which has 653 guest rooms and more than 101,000 square feet of exhibition space, connects to the baywalk along Bayfront Park that will host the week-long NFL Experience. In Broward, the committee designated the Diplomat Beach Resort Hollywood as a host property because of its 1,000 guest rooms and 209,000 square feet of meeting space, Allen said.

Ryan Shear, a managing partner with Property Markets Group, said his firm is in preliminary discussions with the Miami Dolphins and the NFL to house personnel in its X Miami Apartments project at 230 Northeast Fourth Street in downtown Miami.

“We don’t have anything specific yet, but we do know there is a massive need for housing for the NFL,” Shear said. “For us, it’s beneficial in every sense of the word to promote our building during Super Bowl.”

Shear said he couldn’t comment on how much the firm would charge the NFL per room, and InterContinental Miami’s general manager, Robert Hill, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment about room rates for the Super Bowl.

In Miami Beach, the Hampton Inn at the Continental, a 100-key hotel at 4000 Collins Avenue set to open in the fall, snagged a contract with the NFL to block off 85 rooms for staffers from the league’s consumer products division, said Todd Benson, a partner with Boca Raton-based Pebb Capital, which co-owns the property with Duncan Hillsley Capital.

“The NFL has done deals with Hampton Inn before, so that is one advantage we had,” Benson said. “Plus, the NFL is getting a new hotel in a central location. We were a very attractive option for them.”

Anticipating they would vie for an NFL housing contract, the hotel’s management team did not place the corresponding dates for Super Bowl week into any hotel booking systems. “Those dates were excluded so we could be able to work on something like this,” Benson said. “If we had allowed reservations during Super Bowl week, we would not have stood a chance.”

This article has amended to reflect that Bill Hernandez of Douglas Elliman estimated the cost of renting Miami Beach mansions to be $100,000 to $120,000 per week rather than per day. 

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up Los Angeles’ biggest real estate news. We update this page in real time, starting at 9 a.m. PT. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com

This page was last updated at 9 a.m. PT

President Trump is asked to open a federal site as a homeless shelter. The request came from Councilman David Ryu, who wrote a letter to Trump, requesting access to an empty lot at 5161 Sepulveda Boulevard in Sherman Oaks for the construction of a temporary bridge shelter. The U.S. Army Reserve did not cooperate with an earlier effort to study the feasibility of the site. [LADN]

City Planning Commission OKs mixed-use complex in Sawtelle. The Santa Monica-Barrington Apartments would include a Whole Foods supermarket and 180 apartments on a 2.6-acre site. 20 of the units would be set aside for “very low-income” renters. The approval sends the project to the City Council. [Urbanize]

Housing costs prompt Californians to consider leaving. About half of registered voters in the state have considered leaving California, according to a new poll released by the University of California, Berkeley. The share of young voters who considered leaving the state because of housing costs was higher. [LAT]

An 84-unit apartment project in Pico-Union will rise. The four-story building would include balconies and a rooftop deck. The units are to be a mix of studio and one-bedroom apartments. Goodson Real Estate is the developer. [Urbanize]

NBA star Paul George buys Pacific Palisades home. George already owns a home in Hidden Hills, but he’s reportedly shelled out $16 million for a home from DeAndre Jordan, a former Clipper now with the Brooklyn Nets. George was traded to the Clippers two months ago. [TRD]

San Pedro lot may add to the city’s growing multifamily pipeline. An individual named Mitchel Lindsay filed plans for the 56-unit development on 9th Street. An LLC tied to Lindsay bought the 8,100-square-foot lot in December for $2 million. It’s one of several small-lot multifamily projects underway in the South Bay community. [TRD]

Former Omega Cinema Props building to become creative offices. Plans call for at least 55,000 square feet of creative office space on a property across from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, as well as an adaptive reuse of a neighboring property. [TRD]

WeWork is putting the brakes on all new lease agreements. Sources familiar with the matter say the SoftBank-backed office space-leasing company — among the largest tenants in New York City and London — appears to be bleeding out ahead of its IPO. [FT]

WeWork’s parent company bought 14 venture-backed startups since 2014. That far outpaces Twitter, who bought just 9 in the same period. According to sources familiar with the matter, the We Company is now trying to shed some of those acquisitions, many of which were purchased with stocks — leaving some investors feeling stuck holding the bag. [WSJ]

Mortgage lenders are using new tactics to retain borrowers. Some major banks are rolling out “loan mods,” allowing borrowers to modify mortgages at better terms. Unlike federal programs during the recession offering assistance to homeowners in foreclosure, these programs are intended for buyers who have no trouble paying back the loan. [WSJ]

Meet the new heads of WeWork. After WeWork CEO Adam Neumann stepped down earlier this week, the company’s CFO Artie Minson and vice chairman Sebastian Gunningham stepped in as co-CEO’s to right the ship. [TRD]

FROM THE CITY’S RECORDS:
A 69-unit mixed-use complex is planned at 3600 W. Stocker Street near the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza mall. An entity called Echo Heights LLC filed for the project on Thursday. A half dozen units would be reserved for “very low-income” renters. [LADCP]

Pacific breeze and beaches be damned: Californians say the high cost of housing has them thinking about an exit strategy.

Around half of registered voters said they have considered leaving the state, with the most common reason cited is the high cost of housing, according to a University of California Berkeley poll, conducted for the Los Angeles Times.

The housing crunch is real across the state and is especially acute in Los Angeles, where the average sale price of a home continues to creep upward, setting a new record practically every month.

Young voters responding to the poll were more likely than other age groups to say that high housing costs made them consider a move out of state. They’re also the most likely to actually pull the trigger and leave, according to the Times.

Renters in L.A. are also feeling the heat. Rents continue to rise in the metro area, although growth has slowed considerably over the last year.

L.A. County is short more than half a million units considered affordable to renters in federally defined “low-income” brackets. More than 58 percent of those households spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

The state has responded with legislation to cap annual rent increases statewide in the form of AB 1482, which is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. Developers disagree. They argue that lawmakers must make it cheaper to build in order to allow them to construct enough affordable units. Last month, the state released a study that backed that up and suggested local lawmakers cut down on construction fees to spur development. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch

White homeowners control a disproportionately high percentage of property across the country, and the discrepancy between population and ownership is widest in New York.

In the New York metro area, white homeowners make up about 47 percent of the population but own close to 70 percent of homes, according to a new report by Lending Tree. That 22% gap was the most nationwide.

Other metro areas across the country also had significant gaps between the percentage of the white population in a city and the percentage of home ownership in that city.

In Los Angeles, the gap was 17.8 percent, in Miami it was 17.6 percent and in Chicago it was 16.9 percent.

Nationwide, the report found the gap was about 14 percent.

People who identify as white make up an average of 59 percent of the population in 50 U.S. cities, but own 73 percent of owner-occupied homes in those areas.

The findings were the result of a survey of over 11 million households using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey.

Meanwhile, homebuilders and real estate brokers have been increasingly relying on first-time Hispanic buyers, since housing demand has slowed down considerably due to the rising costs of single-family homes.

Last year, a different report found New York to have the fourth-highest level of residential segregation in the country. Also last year, a group of Council members passed a bill that requires the city’s affordable housing plan to actively address racial segregation.

“I’m really frustrated but also worried about home ownership,” City Councilman Donovan Richards, who sponsored the measure, said on Friday. “The city is not focusing enough in this area,” he said, noting that the majority of political effort is focused on affordable rentals. Richards spoke just before attending an affordable housing conference, “Black and Latinx Homeownership: Steps to Closing the Homeownership Gap.”

But expanding affordable housing doesn’t necessarily translate into a more diverse city. An analysis this spring showed that affordable housing lotteries perpetuated racial segregation by favoring households who live in the same neighborhood as the building.

Black homeowners’ are seeing their property values shrink. Last year, a study from Brookings Institution and Gallup reported the consistent undervaluation of homes in majority black neighborhoods. That finding equates to a $156 billion loss for African-American homeowners.

“There’s no easy fix,” Richards said. “Systematically, there’s so many things that we have to address.”

Write to Erin Hudson at ekh@therealdeal.com

Gov. Gavin Newsom still hasn’t signed the statewide rent control bill, but there’s one piece of housing legislation that has gotten his approval. It would both seek to incrementally address Los Angeles and the rest of the state’s growing homeless problem while also boosting landlord income.

On Thursday, the governor made law a measure that would let tenants provide temporary housing for friends or family who are at risk of homelessness, while also letting landlords raise the rent on those units. Assembly Bill 1188 was one of a flurry of measures aimed at addressing the region’s homeless crisis.

The bill does not specify how much rent can be raised, just that it “shall be consistent with any applicable rent stabilization law or regulation.” It will not apply to any federally-funded low-income housing.

AB 1188 was touted as a solution to limit the number of California residents who slip into homelessness. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and California Apartment Association were among its supporters.

Under the bill, landlords and existing tenants will also be allowed to evict the at-risk person on short notice.

In addition to AB 1188, Newsom also signed bills easing some of the regulatory restrictions on building homeless shelters. He still has not signed the state’s rent control bill, AB 1482. The measure, which he is expected to sign, limits landlords to annual rent increases of up to 5 percent plus inflation and imposes stricter limits on evictions.

In the not too distant future, college athletes playing at top-tier schools may be hitting the open houses as hard as they hit the gym.

Earlier this month, the State Legislature unanimously passed a bill — over the NCAA’s objection — to allow college athletes to earn money from their names, likenesses and images. If Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the “Fair Pay to Play Act” — which would take effect in 2023 — California would become the first state in the nation to allow college athletes to get paid.

And its impact could be enormous, with California’s college athletes for the first time being offered lucrative endorsement deals and sponsorships.

It could mean that some would have enough money to do the first thing many players do when they sign their first professional contract: Buy a home.

For real estate agents, the bill could also create a pipeline of newly-minted millionaire clients. Los Angeles alone is home to two of the top college athletic programs in the nation, the University of Southern California and UCLA.

Kofi Nartey, Compass’ sports and entertainment division director — and former college football player — supports the bill but admits it will present a new set of challenges.

“I think it’s good for college athletes to be able to make money from their likeness and the brand they are building in the same way that the universities have for years,” he said.

Buying a first home is an exciting prospect for college athletes — and their agents — but it comes with considerations those students and their schools haven’t previously had to tackle.
Nartey, who was a wide receiver at the University of California at Berkeley, admits the stakes are higher when working with younger athletes.

“We have a built-in responsibility because we are dealing with the largest financial decision of most people’s lives,” he said. “There’s an increased responsibility when you are dealing with someone who’s come into a lot of money very quickly.”

Gregory Piechota, a Compass agent who’s represented pro athletes in L.A. purchases, said it’s important to make sure everyone on a client’s team is on board with a purchase. That could be a financial manager, a sports agent, and family members.

“There are agents who will say that whatever the client wants they’ll make it happen, but from deals I’ve done, what helped me keep clients is making sure everyone’s on the same page,” he said.

Hilton & Hyland agent Justin Hunchel offers a little preview for prospective buyers. Because athletes move frequently, he advises they “buy something that’s going to be easier to get rid of versus something that is very specific” to their taste. Sometimes that’s easier said than done.

“For someone who comes into a lot of money like that, there can be a tendency to go through it rather quickly,” Hunchel said. “So you try to advise them as best you can, but there’s only so much you can do in those situations.”

Nartey added that he’s had to “tell clients not to spend as much as they wanted to spend. When you haven’t renewed a contract, there’s no reason to spend that much.” Nartey’s client list has included Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, former Lakers player and current L.A. Sparks head coach Derek Fisher, among others.

Nartey said that universities, which have been staunchly opposed to the bill, should “build out the infrastructure to support these younger athletes.” That could mean a mandatory training on wealth management, similar to the “Rookie Transition Program” available for incoming N.F.L. players.

SB 206 does not require schools to provide that counseling or training. It’s mostly focused on barring schools and the NCAA from disqualifying student athletes who receive compensation in some way for their likeness, image, and names.

The issue of allowing college athletes has been debated within the NCAA since at least the 1980s, but the country’s dominant collegiate sports association has fiercely fought the idea and continues to do so.

In a letter sent to Newsom earlier this month, the NCAA argued that the bill was unconstitutional and would give California schools an “unfair recruiting advantage” over schools in states without such a law.

“This bill would remove that essential element of fairness and equal treatment that forms the bedrock of college sport,” the letter said, according to the L.A. Times.

Piechota said he’s noticed that top tier players themselves are better preparing themselves for the pressures of life as a professional athlete. He said they’re “smarter” with their money than athletes typically were in the past.

More young athletes are interested in investment properties and quiet neighborhoods away from the high-profile areas like the Hollywood Hills and West Hollywood, where there are more distractions, he said.

Compass agent Elana Fullmer, whose husband, Brad, spent a couple of seasons with Angels during his 10-year baseball career, called L.A. a great place for a young player to buy.

“What’s a safer or better way to build wealth than to buy property in L.A.?” she said.

Still, being able to spot a good investment deal requires expertise and some finesse.

When asked if he had any advice for young athletes looking to buy homes either for personal or investment purposes, Nartey was concise: “Call me.”

Here are some real estate events worth attending next week.

Host: Bisnow
Date: Oct. 2
Time: 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Bisnow is hosting its SoCal Student Housing & Higher Education Summit at the LA Grand Hotel Downtown, 333 South Figueroa Street from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. This event will feature networking opportunities, along with discussions on how the industry is adapting to future development needs in student housing. Speakers include Scott Gale of the Ventus Group and Julie Skolnicki of Greystar.

Host: Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles
Date: Oct. 2
Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles is holding its Apartment Buildings Conference & Expo at Pasadena Convention Center, 300 East Green Street from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Come to this event to discuss fair housing issues and safety protocols. Rusty Tweed of TFS Properties and Kari Negri of Sky Properties will be among the speakers at the event.

To search for future industry events or browse past ones, click here. And to submit more industry events, please reach out to events@therealdeal.com.

For the first time this season, rain fell on Los Angeles this week and brought with it some notable celebrity listings and sales. Candy Spelling put up her estate — Vanna, too — and the newest Los Angeles Clipper, Paul George, paid $16 million for a Pacific Palisades pad.

Spelling put her Malibu home on the market for the first time in nearly five decades. The $23 million listing comes roughly two months after her former home, the Spelling Manor, shattered records in L.A. County. Spelling is now selling her Costa Mesa Beach property, which spans 8,000 square feet and includes 81 feet of ocean frontage. She and her late husband, TV executive Aaron Spelling, bought the property in the early 1970s and later combined it with the house next door. It boasts seven bedrooms.

George has found a new home, beyond the Los Angeles Clippers arena. The star NBA player paid $16 million to acquire the onetime home of former Clipper DeAndre Jordan. The most recent seller, however, was hedge fund manager Curtis Macnguyen. Located in the Pacific Palisades, the 10,000-square-foot pad features a half-court basketball court, putting green and an elevator. There’s seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms overall. George also owns a 16,000-square-foot pad in Hidden Hills, which he bought for $7.4 million.

A 15,000-square-foot mansion tied to Vanna White, the longtime co-host of hit TV show “Wheel of Fortune,” re-listed at a discount this week. The Beverly Park estate is on the market for $38 million, down from an original $47.5 million in 2017. It has eight bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and a wine cellar. Though the property remains in White’s name, she hasn’t lived there since she and her ex-husband George Santo Pietro divorced in 2002.

In Brentwood, Tobey Maguire is still trying to sell an empty plot of dirt. The one acre of land is now up for grabs for nearly $12 million, down from $14.3 million last year. The “Spiderman” actor bought the spread for $10 million in 2008, but has never built anything on it. Prior, it was the site of a John Byers-designed home, once owned by actress Greta Garbo and filmmaker H.C. Potter. [LAT]

WeWork is officially pulling its public offering.

The firm’s co-CEOs, Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, said in a statement that WeWork “decided to postpone our IPO to focus on our core business.”

“We have every intention to operate WeWork as a public company and look forward to revisiting the public equity markets in the future,” the statement said.

Last month, the firm’s S-1 filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission set off a firestorm among investors and observers after it laid bare the company’s precarious financial position, including the fact that its growing losses were double revenue. It also included information about questionable loans and transactions with its charismatic CEO Adam Neumann.

As scrutiny mounted, the company’s largest investor, Japan-based SoftBank and its founder Masayoshi Son lobbied to oust Neumann — ending a tight bond between the two men that had fueled WeWork’s phenomenal growth. Neumann stepped down as CEO last week, and now serves as non-executive chairman of the company.

Monday’s disclosure  provides no clearer guidance on WeWork’s future. The company initially planned to raise at least $9 billion in the IPO — including a $6 billion debt deal backed by multiple banks — which would have offset its mounting losses for years to come.

But without that cash infusion, the company is set to run out of money by next spring. It has at least $47 billion in outstanding lease commitments to landlords over the next 10 to 15 years.

Other reports in recent days suggest the company is in talks with multiple private investors to raise more capital, but few details are known.

Nearly five years after Equity Residential proposed a 428-unit tower in Downtown Los Angeles, new renderings show the project is slightly scaled back. They also signal the development may be back on track.

Like many recent large residential developments in Downtown L.A., the 31-story tower — dubbed 4th and Hill — is a podium design. In addition to the apartments, plans also call for 5,610 square feet of ground floor retail space, according to Urbanize, which first reported on the updated design.

The renderings are part of the city’s newly-published environmental study of the project. Equity has cut down the number of stories of parking at the base of the tower to four from nine as first planned in 2015.

TCA Architects’ glass and steel design calls for a swimming pool atop the building’s podium and an amenity deck above the tower. The architecture firm anticipates a 2022 completion date.

The first version of the project was 33 stories and encountered fierce opposition from residentis and owners of neighboring buildings, who argued that the tower was too big for the surrounding area.

Equity circulated a petition urging city officials to approve the project. It accused developer David Gray and residents of Gray’s nearby building of organizing the opposition because the 4th and Hill tower would block its view.

The 4th and Hill project would replace a parking lot and is near the site of the planned $1.2 billion Angel’s Landing project. A development team of MacFarlane Partners, Claridge Properties, and the Peebles Corporation is in the middle of the environmental review process for that massive complex. [Urbanize] — Dennis Lynch

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up Los Angeles’ biggest real estate news. We update this page in real time, starting at 9 a.m. PT. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com

This page was last updated at 9 a.m. PT

Capitol Records CEO unloads Beverly Hills Post Office manse at big profit. Steve Barnett sold the 7,000-square-foot home for $17 million, nearly twice what he paid for it seven years ago. New York financier Rob Rosner bought the property in an off-market sale. The neoclassical Spanish-style home was built in 2001 and has four bedrooms and seven bathrooms. [Variety]

Pan Am Equities’ Glassell Park project earns ire of L.A. River activists. The 419-unit Casita Lofts project is planned at the entrance of the future 18-acre Bowtie State Park along the L.A. River. While supporters of the project say the project would provide much-needed housing and could revitalize a largely industrial area, opponents say it could block access and commercialize the entrance to a public space. [LAT]

City of L.A. approves $20 million in affordable housing bonds for two projects. One development is in East Hollywood and the other in Sawtelle, and combined they have 113 units of permanent supportive housing. Thomas Safran & Associates is behind the Sawtelle project and Affirmed Housing Group is developing the East Hollywood complex. [Urbanize]

“Fair Pay to Play Act” could mean create a house-buying pipeline of college athletes. SB-206, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law on Monday, allows college athletes to make money off endorsements, meaning some top stars at universities like USC and UCLA could find themselves shopping for a new home. Real estate agents stand to benefit, but say the measure also presents challenges. [TRD]

SoftBank is bringing on Sprint’s former CEO to help turn around WeWork. SoftBank head Masayoshi Son has asked Marcelo Claure to take a more hands-on role at the company after the recent ouster of co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann. His exact role has not been specified, but he would focus on opportunities to cut costs and increase revenues. Senior WeWork executives Sebastian Gunningham and Artie Minson have been appointed co-CEOs of the company. [Bloomberg]

Newsom signs bill to let people house friends at risk of homelessness. AB-1188 lets people move at-risk friends and family into their units. Their landlord can then raise their rents. Both the landlord and the original tenant can evict the person on short-notice. The bill is meant to provide some flexibility for people at risk of homelessness. [TRD]

Forever 21 has filed for bankruptcy. It has landed $75 million in new capital from TPG Sixth Street Partners and $275 million in financing from lenders with JPMorgan Chase as the agent. The store had been one of the largest mall tenants still standing, so the filing could spell trouble for major mall owners like Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners. It plans to close up to 350 stores overall but will keep operating its website and hundreds of stores in the United States. [Bloomberg, NYT]

Blackstone is buying Colony Capital’s national warehouse portfolio for $5.9 billion. The portfolio spans 60 million square feet across 465 warehouses in 26 markets. Areas of strong concentration include northern New Jersey, California, Florida, Dallas and Atlanta. [TRD]

Blackstone is doubling down on its e-commerce bet with another multibillion dollar industrial portfolio deal.

The company is buying Colony Capital’s national warehouse portfolio for $5.9 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Blackstone also struck a deal in June to buy a similar portfolio from GLP for $18.7 billion, although it has already started to sell portions of that portfolio.

The portfolio Colony sold to Blackstone spans 60 million square feet across 465 warehouses in 26 markets. Areas of strong concentration include northern New Jersey, California, Florida, Dallas and Atlanta.

Tom Barrack’s Colony has been aiming to transition away from traditional real estate holdings and toward investments in digital infrastructure and real estate like cell phone towers and data centers. It’s aiming to sell up to 90 percent of its $20 billion real estate portfolio by the end of 2021.

Activity in the industrial sector has skyrocketed as e-commerce giants like Amazon continue to eat up more and more space to store the goods people buy online, and Blackstone has so far been one of the most aggressive players.

“We are seeing accelerating demand for warehouse space in dense population centers, as goods move online and retailers and consumers alike seek faster delivery times,” Blackstone executive Nadeem Meghji told the Journal. [WSJ] — Eddie Small

A battle is heating up over the future of a development site along the Los Angeles River in Glassell Park.

Pan Am Equities wants to build its 419-unit Casita Lofts  complex on a parcel at the entrance to the future 18-acre Bowtie State Park. Local organizations are feuding over concerns it would commercialize the park area and fuel gentrification in the vulnerable location, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Over my dead body will we see 419 apartment units go up at the entrance to a state park we fought so long and hard for,” said Julia Meltzer, founder of Clockshop, according to the Times. The group is an arts organization that runs programs at the park and has acted as a steward for the last couple decades.

The city hasn’t approved Pan Am’s project, but it has the support of the local City Councilman, Gil Cedillo, who said the developer would clean up the site and provide a welcomibng entrance to the park at no cost to the city.

Cedillo also said the project provides much-needed housing for the region, although he acknowledged that the 35 units Pan Am wants to reserve for low-income renters was not enough. By some counts, L.A. County is short half a million affordable units.

Besides her concerns that it would fuel market-rate development and gentrification in the area, Meltzer said it would set a dangerous precedent by allowing a private developer to profit from public planning and investment in the site, according to the Times. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch

Mobile homes are no longer just a necessity for the poor. They’ve increasingly become a must-have for some of the world’s richest private equity players.

A 2016 investor pitch from manufactured housing owner and operator RHP Properties boasted that its portfolio of 33,000 lots — stretching across seven states — had “low cash flow volatility and steady year-over-year rent increases” as well as minimal capital expenditures.

The pitch apparently worked on Brookfield Asset Management, which has poured billions of dollars into trailer park sites in the past few years.

The Canadian private equity giant bought a portfolio of manufactured home sites in 13 states from Colony NorthStar for $2 billion that May. The deal included the acquisition of a joint venture backing RHP’s sites, a Brookfield spokesperson confirmed to The Real Deal.

Brookfield, which has more than $350 billion in assets, now owns 130-plus mobile home communities, making it one of the one of the largest manufactured housing investors in the U.S. RHP declined to comment for this story.

The immobility of so many mobile and manufactured homes has caught the attention of private equity firms in a big way. With most low-income renters unable to quickly up and move their properties, institutional real estate investors increasingly see that as a surefire bet — especially in a major downturn.

Douglas Danny, a Marcus & Millichap broker who specializes in manufactured housing sites, called them one of the safest assets in a recession. “From 2008 to 2012, there was no effect whatsoever on manufactured housing,” he said. “Now the new buyer coming into the space is the institutional buyer.”

And a who’s who of global investment giants have poured more than $4 billion into the market in the past four years: Brookfield, Blackstone Group, Apollo Global Management and the Carlyle Group have all snapped up, or flipped, trailer parks in that time.

Janet Sallander, a commercial real estate appraiser at Cushman & Wakefield, said mobile homes have become the “default working-class housing.”

“It simply produces better returns compared to other asset classes,” Sallander said.

Mobile home economics

Due to zoning restrictions and the high cost of land in many areas, there are just 6,250 mobile home parks in the U.S., according to a 2019 Cushman & Wakefield report.

Individual plots are rented out to tenants who purchase their own homes. And unlike aging apartment buildings in more heavily regulated housing markets, owners of these lots only need to provide utilities, while residents are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of their homes.

Blackstone made its first bet on manufactured housing last year when it bought a $172 million portfolio of 5,200 lots from Ontario-based Tricon Capital Group. Other major players — including the Carlyle Group and Sam Zell’s Equity LifeStyle Properties — are snapping up manufactured home communities, with one analyst calling it “the most recession-proof housing stock in existence,” as TRD previously reported.

“A lot of investors are buying big complexes, if they can find them,” said PJ Mikolajewski, president of Ideal Manufactured Homes and a California Manufactured Housing Institute board member. “And as soon as they buy them, they jack the rents up.”

For Alberto Calvillo, a lifelong construction worker who recently moved his family to a site owned by RHP in Bohemia, New York, it was the most affordable option after he was priced out of another mobile home park in nearby Commack.

Calvillo said he now pays $1,000 a month to rent the land where his 900-square-foot house sits. His extended family gathered at the single-wide home, decked out with custom-fitted green and orange panels, on a Sunday afternoon in September.

“This isn’t a mobile home,” Calvillo said with a laugh as he pointed out the obvious lack of wheels, the custom wraparound deck he built and the new concrete foundation. “I’m going to stay here until I die.”

The average cost of moving such a home is $5,000 if the home has wheels to begin with, according to a 2019 report from the national community group MHAction. So when owners of manufactured homes are priced out, they often need to sell their homes at a loss and are replaced by new homeowner-tenants without any big losses for the site’s owner. The result is a low turnover rate and extremely stable revenues.

“If you have the right underwriting, you can increase rent 5 percent each year,” said Marcus & Millichap’s Danny. “Within three to five years, you’ve gone from a 3 or 4 to a 6 [percent] and the park has gone up in value.”

Documents from Florida-based Sunrise Capital Investment — which cite “superior risk-adjusted returns for investors” — give an inside look at the upsides for those in the business.

Manufactured housing is a “recession-resistant” asset class with low turnover that allows for “consistent rent increases,” the pitch to investors reviewed by TRD notes.

“Demand for our product actually increases as the economy tightens.”

Bullish bets

Carlyle, one of the country’s largest private equity firms, made a splash in 2015 when it bought a manufactured home community in Silicon Valley for $152 million.

Tenants in the area soon complained of exorbitant rent hikes and a deterioration in management responsiveness — sparking new calls for statewide rent control in California. The D.C.-based investment group recently flipped the complex, selling it to Chicago-based Hometown America for $237.4 million this August, according to California property records.

Carlyle did not respond to requests for comment.

The rush of private equity into manufactured homes has also attracted the ire of U.S. senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who in May wrote stern letters to Brookfield’s Bruce Flatt, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Apollo’s Leon Black and Carlyle’s co-CEOs.

“Unable to afford moving, and unable to sell their manufactured homes, some residents report that they are forced to choose between ‘paying for increase[ed] housing costs … or abandoning their homes,’” her letter reads.

One publication called it a Dodd-Frank moment for manufactured home communities, but Blackstone was unfazed. Wayne Berman, the firm’s head of global government affairs, said in his response to Warren that Blackstone hoped to “raise the bar for customer service within an industry that has not always historically provided a high-quality resident experience.”

“Although we’re a tiny part of the overall market, [we’re] dedicated to professional management, capital investment and resident service,” Matthew Anderson, a Blackstone spokesperson, said in a statement to TRD.

Brookfield is “highly attuned” to the fact that the asset class can include lower-income populations, according to the company, which outlined steps the firm has taken to ensure affordability.

In other cases, though, bullish investment strategies have quickly backfired. At one manufactured housing complex in Akron, New York, which Sunrise Capital purchased for under $4 million in 2017, the firm raised rents to $525 from $280 and cut the 122-lot site’s employee payroll by $30,000, sparking an outcry from tenants.

After the residents organized an eight-month rent strike against their new landlord, the complex was placed into a receivership and the investment firm ceded control to the tenants. Representatives for Sunrise Capital declined to comment.

But those bad bets have yet to deter aggressive investors on the whole, industry sources say.

“It could cost [up to] $10,000 to move a home, depending on how big it is,” Rob Ybarra, a debt and equity broker at CBRE based in Las Vegas, noted. “But if you raise rents 25 or 50 bucks — are you going to pick up and go somewhere else? Probably not.

“That’s one of the really big reasons that people like this property type,” Ybarra added. “It’s a captured audience.”

The five priciest home listings in Los Angeles County last week totaled $118 million, and include two properties in Malibu’s Carbon Beach, two in Brentwood and one in Beverly Hills.

The most expensive is a Mediterranean-style manse in Brentwood, which is listed for $38 million and was designed by Oscar Shamamian of Ferguson & Shamamian architects.

The list came out to nearly half the $223 million total from the top five the week before. That number was padded by developer Gala Asher, who relisted a $110 million massive Wallingford Estate in Beverly Hills.

The data and information was from the Multiple Listings Service and Redfin from Sept. 24-30.

334 S. Burlingame Avenue | Brentwood | $38M
This large three-story Mediterranean-style mansion spans nearly 14,400 square feet and was designed by architect Oscar Shamamian. The main house has six bedrooms and 11 bathrooms and there is also a guest house on the 1.3-acre lot. The landscaped backyard includes a large trellis-covered patio area, a pool, and gardens. The home was built in 2010. Elisabeth Halstead with Berkshire Hathaway has the listing.

22102 Pacific Coast Highway | Malibu | $23.8M
This listing is another Mediterranean-style home, but in a much different setting. The 3,800-square-foot home sits on the Pacific Ocean in Malibu’s Carbon Beach area, also called “Billionaire’s Row.” The first floor emphasizes the beach views with large doorways leading to a back patio and its 60 feet of beach frontage. The interiors have exposed wood ceiling beams and arched doorways in keeping with its Mediterranean styling. There’s also a guest cottage. Chris Cortazzo and Bruce Mibach with Compass have the listing.

21536 Pacific Coast Highway | Malibu | $23M
Less than a mile east, Candy Spelling has listed her Malibu beach house with 81 feet of frontage. Just two months ago, Spelling’s former 123-room estate in Beverly Hills sold for a record $120 million. While it’s no Spelling Manor, the 8,200-square-foot home on Carbon Beach is nothing to scoff at. It has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms and nearly covers the entire lot. A large back deck area and large windows overlook the Pacific. The interiors have limestone flooring and exposed beam ceilings, as well as a maid’s room and a large kitchen. Chris Cortazzo with Compass and Joyce Rey with Coldwell Banker have the listing.

820 N. Roxbury Drive | Beverly Hills | $18M
This Spanish-style home dates from 1927 and rivals modern mansions in size. The home spans 9,200 square feet and has high ceilings, dark wood floors and exposed beams. The home is built around a large brick courtyard. The backyard has a modern swimming pool and a guest house. Kurt Rappaport with Westside Estate Agency has the listing.

12921 Marlboro Street | Brentwood | $15.5M
Built in 2001, this 9,700-square-foot Traditional home has dark wood floors, a massive kitchen, a home theater room, and a gym. The half-acre lot is lined with tall hedges for privacy. The landscaped backyard also has a pool and a guesthouse. There are five bedrooms and nine bathrooms, as well as a three-car garage.

Los Angeles’ stock of elaborate and pricey spec mansions aren’t selling like they used to, but scratch one off the list.

A 24,000-square-foot home in Beverly Hills Post Office built by developer Max J. Fowles-Pazdro and London & Regional Properties sold for $43 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

That’s just $3.5 million below its initial asking price when it hit the market in April. Fowles-Pazdro said the buyer looked at the home about a half dozen times.

“A couple of years ago, you would have buyers in with an offer on the table on day one,” he told the Journal. “Buyers are now much more diligent.”

The eight-bedroom home’s most notable interior features are its high ceilings, clean geometric lines, and marble finishings. There is a home theater room, a library, and a wine cellar. There are also interior courtyards throughout.

Sales at the top end of the market slowed earlier this year.

While prices continue to climb, there aren’t many corresponding closings. In the second quarter, the median sales price for luxury single-family homes was down 7 percent from an already slow first quarter and time on market rose 16 percent to 94 days, according to a Douglas Elliman report. [WSJ] — Dennis Lynch

California’s landmark student athlete compensation bill has now been signed into law, and while the NCAA has strong objections, one very high profile athlete is making his feelings known.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the “Fair Pay to Play Act” into law on Monday, and marked the occasion with an appearance on L.A. Lakers superstar LeBron James’ HBO show, “The Shop.”

The new law — which will allow college athletes to earn money from their names, likenesses and images — could also have a major impact on California’s real estate industry by creating a new pipeline of young millionaires in the home buying market. Several Los Angeles real estate agents said they support the measure, though it also presents a unique set of challenges.

The new law, which will take effect in 2023, “is going to initiate dozens of other states to introduce similar legislation,” Newsom said at a signing ceremony on James’ show. “It’s going to change college sports for the better by finally having the interests of the athletes on par with the interests of the institutions. Now we’re rebalancing that power.”

James was able to join the NBA without being required to spend a year in college, as most young athletes must now do. He has been a vocal critic of NCAA rules prohibiting student athletes from profiting off their likenesses, measures that many see as exploitative.

The Pac-12 Conference has spoken out against the bill, raising the concern that members California State University, Stanford, UCLA and USC could lose their NCAA membership as a result.

“Our universities have led important student-athlete reform over the past years,” the conference said in a statement, “but firmly believe all reforms must treat our student-athletes as students pursuing an education, and not as professional athletes.” [WaPo] — Kevin Sun

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up Los Angeles’ biggest real estate news. We update this page in real time, starting at 9 a.m. PT. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com

This page was last updated at 9 a.m. PT

L.A. County taps developer for Arts District mixed-use project. Last year, the county released a request for proposals to replace an aging Department of Public Social Services office and redevelop a neighboring property. Now, the county has chosen Sawtelle-based Urban Offerings as the developer OfficeUntitled as its architectural partner. The project is expected to include around 200,000 square feet of office space — along with 40,000 square feet for the DPSS — affordable housing for artists, and ground-floor commercial space. [Curbed]

Airbnb asks L.A. to postpone November deadline for short-term rental ordinance. The home-sharing giant says it needs more time to put together a system to share with the city information on its rentals. The city’s ordinance requires that platforms share information about listings to help enforce new rules, including L.A.’s cap on the number of days someone can rent out a unit. A Planning Department spokesperson said the city is “prepared to enforce the ordinance” on Nov. 1. [LAT]

Survey says, Californians want cannabis shops. Roughly two-thirds of state residents say that legalizing the sale of recreational marijuana has been a good thing for California and say they want their cities to permit pot shops. Currently, city governments are left to decide whether to permit shops, although there’s a proposal at the state level to force the hand of some cities who refuse to do so in the face of public support. [LAT]

Opportunity Zone-focused businesses will get office campus in Florence. Developer SoLa Impact’s Beehive project is planned with 100,000 square feet of office space across five acres. Some of the space will be available at discounted rents to nonprofits and local groups serving the area, and focusing on the federal tax incentive plan. [LABJ]

Battle heats up over Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Mall redevelopment. Neighbors of the aging mall are organizing to fight Capri Capital Partners’ ambitious redevelopment plans for the mall, which includes over 900 condominiums, office space, and a 400-key hotel. Critics say it will fuel gentrification of the historically black community. The main force behind the effort, the Crenshaw Subway Coalition, has organized meetings to discuss other development projects in the area. [Curbed]

Max Fowles-Pazdro sells spec mansion after five months on the market. The 24,000-square-foot Beverly Hills Post Office home has eight bedrooms, interior courtyards, and a wine cellar. The home listed in April for $46.5 million and sold for slightly less. Fowles-Pazdro developed the home together with London & Regional Properties. [TRD]

CoStar is set to acquire hotel data giant STR. The real estate data behemoth, which has focused on the office, industrial, retail and multifamily markets, will be acquiring STR for $450 million in cash, the companies announced Tuesday. STR’s data covers metrics such as revenue and occupancy for more than 65,000 hotels in 180 countries. The Tennessee-based firm began marketing itself for sale earlier this year. [WSJ]

The oil price spike could mean “stagflation” is just around the corner. Rising oil prices resulting from last month’s attack on Saudi oil fields, combined with a slowing economy, could easily lead to the Federal Reserve’s nightmare scenario of stagflation, observers say, and additional trade shocks could make things worse. Such concerns are set to make Fed decisions surrounding further rate cuts even more difficult. [CNN]

Insurance tech startup Rhino has raised $21M in Series A funding — and wants to tackle the housing crisis. The startup aims to reduce the upfront costs of homebuying by replacing traditional cash security deposits with low cost insurance. Additionally, Rhino says that it “will be sharing the proposal with 2020 Presidential campaigns on both sides of the aisle.” [Press Release]