After getting pummeled by Compass’ aggressive recruiting, Realogy Holdings says its rival is letting up.

Four months after filing a wide-ranging lawsuit accusing Compass of “predatory” poaching, Realogy CEO Ryan Schneider described a dramatic drop in Compass’ hiring.

During an earnings call, Schneider said the firm’s “recruiting intensity” in October was down almost 50 percent from September and 67 percent from August, according to Realogy’s calculations. “Something changed in the ecosystem and I think it’s the investor focus on profitability,” he said, in a thinly-veiled reference to SoftBank, one of Compass’ key backers.

Since 2012, Compass’ aggressive hiring of top agents from rival firms has stung competitors — particularly Realogy, which has battled to recruit and retain agents and keep commission splits down amid the heavy competition. “This is by far the biggest change in the competitive environment to our benefit that I have seen in the last two years,” Schneider said.

But in the wake of WeWork’s bungled IPO, investors are increasingly asking questions about the valuations of startups backed by the Japanese conglomerate and its $100 billion Vision Fund. This week, the Vision Fund posted a $9 billion operating loss in the first quarter, its first quarterly loss since 2016.

“My own investment judgement was really bad,” CEO Masayoshi Son said at a Tokyo news conference.

Like other SoftBank-backed companies, Compass has sought to distance itself from WeWork. “It is hard to draw any parallels between our businesses,” CFO Kristen Ankerbrandt wrote in a memo to Compass staff days after WeWork’s suspended IPO.

Compass declined to comment on current recruiting efforts, though it’s clear the company hasn’t stopped recruiting altogether. The New York-based firm currently has 14,000 agents in 250 offices around the country.

Over the summer, L.A. agent Chris Cortazzo — who was Coldwell Banker’s No. 1 agent — took his 16-person team to Compass. In New York, Charlie Attias and Rachel Glazer joined Compass from the Corcoran Group and Brown Harris Stevens, respectively. Just this week, Hamptons agents Cee Scott Brown and Jack Pearson joined Compass from the Corcoran Group.

But Compass stopped entering new markets in January to focus on building a deeper presence in existing markets, CEO Robert Reffkin told The Real Deal during an October interview.

“We didn’t try to conquer the world,” he said. “We are focused on depth over breadth.”

For the past few months, Realogy and Compass have been waging war in the courtroom, after Realogy accused its rival of “predatory” poaching and illicit business practices.

“We don’t do a lot of whale hunting… We don’t pay seven-figure bonuses,” Schneider said Thursday. “We’re in the business of recruiting profitable agents. We’re not out making negative offers to agents just to bring in volume.”

During the third quarter, Realogy reported that its agent headcount rose 1 percent during the third quarter and 3 percent year to date. “We’re seizing the moment,” Schneider said.

The post Has Compass eased recruiting? appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

Jamie Duran is the president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Southern California. She oversees more than 4,500 agents and 200 employees spread across 58 offices in the region. A self-proclaimed “Valley Girl,” Duran grew up in Studio City before attending California State University, Northridge. At 19, she started dabbling in real estate, flipping homes with her father. Since then, she’s worked in almost every aspect of the industry in her three-decade-long career at Coldwell. Earlier this year, she was named one of the most influential women in residential real estate by Swanepoel Power 200. But her brokerage has had its share of challenges recently, with parent company Realogy’s stock price hitting record lows and a handful of local star brokers moving to other firms.

As Coldwell forges ahead, Duran talks future plans for the brokerage in L.A., in an interview that has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How did you get involved with real estate? I studied business at Cal State Northridge and got interested in it then. My dad also had a great idea for me to get my license so we could start flipping homes. He had done some seminar and came to me and said, “I know all the tricks of the trade now. If you get your license, we’ll start flipping homes.” And we did and did really well.

What happened next? Him, being an entrepreneur, flipped the switch one day and started a wine business. I helped him run his business and started real estate at the same time.

How long did you flip homes for? Two years. I was at Jon Douglas Co., flipping homes, then realized at that point that to really make money in the business, you really should be selling as well. So I started doing both.

When did you make the switch to management? I was tapped on the shoulder to do some training in the office. I became very good at that, so I became the training director, then regional training director. One thing led to another. At the time that I was tapped to be a manager, I was actually starting a family and it just seemed not as crazy — I thought — as selling real estate. It was just as crazy.

You were recently promoted to president. How has your day-to-day changed since taking that position? Mostly the mileage on my car. It’s a bigger span, and people often ask, “How do you possibly fit all this in a day?” I don’t watch television. I do enjoy social media, but I also don’t stay on all day long. It’s about time management.

You’re one of four women in a local leadership role at NRT [which owns Coldwell Banker]. What’s that like? It’s so strange being in this position because I don’t look at the diversity of our company or our industry until somebody points it out. What I do notice is that when I have an opening for the leadership roles, we don’t get as many [females] coming to us. That’s what drives me crazy. We don’t have enough of those women coming forward and putting their hands up to say, “I can do that job.”

You’ve been with the same company for three decades. Would you advise young agents to do that today? I think every company is different for everyone. I really believe in a big, solid company with a big, solid brand because I believe it offers the most, not just for the agents, but to the consumer.

Coldwell has lost some big agents recently, including top agents such as Chris Cortazzo and Ginger Glass to Compass. Why is that? I think everyone has a reason for moving that is more personal than it has to do with the company. My biggest question when people make a move is, “Is that in the best interest of your own client?” If it was just for personal reasons, for whatever those reasons are, I get that. But is it really in the best interest for the client?

Is there anything Coldwell is doing to mitigate the loss of talent? What we are doing and continue to do is to provide a really good environment for our agents. But you’re going to have attrition. There’s competition out there, and it’s healthy. We just want to attract the people that understand our value proposition and want to be with us. If they don’t want to or don’t get it, that’s OK too.

We have seen the traditional brokerage model upended recently, with tech-driven startups and online brokerages in the mix. Does Coldwell ever feel as though it is behind in this regard? I feel that the Coldwell brand is traditional but extremely innovative. We’re always challenging our resources and our own tools and pushing the next best thing internally. Sometimes that takes a little bit longer than companies that go out there and deliver. I’m OK with being a little slower to execution and making sure that we have it done right.

In the summer, TRD reported that Coldwell was considering consolidating both of its offices in Beverly Hills into the larger “North Office.” Are there any updates? We are continuing on our path to unifying our offices. We hope to do it by the end of the year.

You’d mentioned it was because of the noisy Metro rail construction nearby. Was cost-cutting also a factor? I wish. We are not out of that lease yet, so we are going to have to sublease. We’re going to be spending a lot of money in the environment, so there’s a lot of expenses. I’m not looking forward to any huge savings.

Sales in L.A. are slowing. Does that scare you? It doesn’t scare me as a leader. I know that if anybody can weather the storm, we have the biggest umbrella. You have to tweak things and make sure that you are doing all the right things as a business owner. Sometimes that means spending money in a different way.

What’s it like overseeing 4,500 agents and three kids? Four kids if you count my husband. Thankfully, my kids are older and they can take care of themselves a bit more. It really has been a joint effort, and you have to have that support both at home and [work.] It is not a one-man show or a one-woman show. It is definitely a team effort.

I’ve heard you’re into morning affirmations. Can you share any of those? There’s a book called “The Miracle Morning” that I stumbled upon. It’s a few minutes of my day in the morning of gratitude, affirmation and serious quiet meditation. It’s just about making sure that “I am strong, I am healthy, I am happy and I’m going to have a great day.” Taking five minutes of white space in your head is so important. I should probably have more, but I’m happy to get the five minutes.

The post The Closing: Coldwell Banker’s Jamie Duran appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

Amid the state’s deepening housing crisis, there now comes a push for more development in coastal communities instead of inland communities.

The Southern California Association of Governments approved a measure Thursday for additional housing along the coast, according to the Los Angeles Times. It could spur local governments to zone for more growth than they would have otherwise done.

Neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Orange counties will have to accommodate more than 1 million new houses in the next decade which is more than triple what Riverside and San Bernardino counties will need to handle, according to the Times.

Supporters of more coastal housing said they wanted to build more homes near jobs and transit centers to meet demand and lower long commutes. Opponents of the plan said housing costs are already expensive along the coast, and there is not very much vacant land.

“This is a moment of our growing up,” L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti told the Times. “I understand the fear where people are like: ‘No, just keep [housing] out, and maybe my traffic won’t get worse.’ Well, we’ve tried that for three decades, and it’s failed. This is a new beginning.” [LAT] — Eddie Small

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New York–based real estate data firm Reonomy has raised another $60 million.

The company, which provides information on close to 50 million properties across the U.S., said Thursday that Canadian firm Georgian Partners had led the series D funding round. The venture investment arms of major banks Citi and Wells Fargo also joined the round, as did existing investor Sapphire Ventures.

The firm, which was launched in 2013 by Rich Sarkis, has now raised $128 million in total. A $30 million funding round last year was backed by SoftBank Group and Bain Capital Ventures.

Sarkis said his firm had seen “a lot of traction” in the past 12 months from large financial institutions, which led to Citi Ventures and the Wells Fargo entity joining the funding round.

The company said it would use the new funding to double down on its machine-learning capabilities, which can help it merge splintered property data sets from across the country. This year, the firm has announced a series of partnerships with property data firms, including Black Knight and CoreLogic.

The funding would also be used to scale to other markets, including Canada and the U.K., the company said.

The post Real estate data firm Reonomy hauls in $60M appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

UPDATED Friday November 8, 2019, 10:49 a.m.: Side businesses may be coming to Realtor.com.

The site’s parent company Move Inc. will be moving into offering “adjacencies,” such as mortgages, as the overhaul of Realtor.com’s lead generation platform continues, said News Corporation’s CEO Robert Thomson in an earnings call Thursday. News Corp. owns Move.

“We are not entering the house-flipping, distressed-sale business, but want to offer vendors as many potential purchasers as possible,” he explained. “The more competition for a house, the higher the price for the seller.”

Thomson’s announcement comes a year after Move acquired lead-generation startup OpCity for $210 million last year. OpCity’s model began rolling out on Realtor.com this year with two changes that concerned some agents: The startup vets leads before passing them on to agents and collects a referral fee.

News Corp. CFO Susan Panuccio said on the call that the rationale behind last year’s OpCity deal was to increase revenue and provide a chance for Move to add “auxiliary revenues of different services.”

Move’s reported quarterly revenues increased 4 percent year over year to $123 million from $118 million in the same period last year.

The conglomerate’s intention to add businesses to its digital real estate services offerings comes as its looking to sell other subsidiaries as part of a “simplification” process. But Thomson is bullish on Realtor.com’s chances and the U.S. housing market as a whole.

“We have reason to be optimistic of its prospects thanks to signs of improving health in the U.S. housing market,” he said. “Existing home sales are on the rise, and there has been rapid audience growth at Realtor.com.”

Realtor.com’s unique visitors on web and mobile sites increased 18 percent from the prior year to about 71 million, according to the company’s internal data. For reference, Comscore claims Zillow Group has about 24 million unique visitors — a fact Thomson noted in the call, referring to Zillow by name.

“We’re in the very early stage of this evolution of the digital real estate market in the United States,” he said, noting that News Corp. expects to see Move’s financial results accelerate later in the company’s fiscal 2020 year. “Both short, medium, and long term, we believe that Realtor.com is a tremendous property.”

Correction: In the sixth paragraph, Move Inc.’s revenues for the previous year’s quarter was originally cited as $188 million; in fact, the company reported revenues of $118 million.

Write to Erin Hudson at ekh@therealdeal.com

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When developer Richard Lewis closed on $21 million for a condo in Emaar Properties’ Beverly West this July, the dwelling came with notable accoutrements –gym, concierge service, spa, business center, and, obviously, access to an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Such amenities are becoming the norm in a growing L.A. luxury condo market.

For decades, high-end real estate in the city has been defined by privacy and space, the better for movie stars and Kardashians to retreat here. But luxury condos are becoming more of a presence, and the market is beginning to adopt an identity distinct from New York City and other vertical luxury hotspots.

“People are very private in L.A., but it is a changing place and people want to be closer to the energy here,” said Douglas Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund, who moved to L.A. from New York City this summer and stars in Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing New York.”

Research by The Real Deal plus interviews with brokers active in the condo market reveal that certain amenities such as outdoor pools, fitness centers, security, and valets are almost standard when it comes to top-shelf product. But other high-end bells and whistles – like concierge service or perhaps pet salons – may not play as well on the West Coast.

“You don’t need a front-desk person to book the table you want at a restaurant,” noted Josh Greer, an agent at Hilton & Hyland. “You already have an assistant who does that.”

Swim or sink

For condos asking $2 million and up, “a pool is a must,” said Greer. “It’s a nonstarter if you don’t have a pool.”

TRD’s analysis of the 10 biggest condo sales in L.A. County in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2019 bears this out. Nine out of 10 of these transactions, ranging between $9.8 million and $21 million, involved a building with a pool. (The one that didn’t, an 8,000-square-foot pad at 535 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, overlooks the beach, and it did come with green space described in the listing as a “zen garden.”)

Another amenity that’s considered essential is security, particularly as many buyers at these price points are public figures flocking to condos in West Hollywood, Downtown, and Santa Monica from more secluded L.A. neighborhoods like Brentwood and Bel Air.

Seven out of the 10 analyzed buys featured 24/7 security. “If you are not on our list to get in the building, I don’t care who you are – you are not getting into the building, period,” said Bill Simpson, one of the listing agents on Lewis’ Beverly West condo.

Nine of the top 10 buys analyzed had fitness centers. “We’re very wellness and lifestyle-focused in L.A.,” said Jim Jacobson, an agent at Elliman. “Amenities can often include yoga studios and perhaps cycling classes.”

The final – practically mandatory – perk are ways – plural – to deal with the condo owners’ cars.

Seven of the top 10 deals featured a valet service at the building. Also, while luxury condos in New York have about one parking space per unit, L.A. units often have six, according to Compass’ Jennifer Mulberg. (Miami may take the cake in this particular category, with some buildings there offering specialized car elevators.)

Plus, buildings including the Seychelle in Santa Monica are adding charging stations for Tesla and other electric vehicles.

“There is a trend in my listings toward everything being self-sustaining and green,” Mulberg said.

Perks of the future

The small vertical luxury market in L.A. relative to the city’s wealth is part of larger, historic issues relating to residential development restrictions. However, city laws have changed in recent years to encourage housing density, and one consequence is that relaxed building and fire codes enabled more rooftop additions.

“In the old days, you couldn’t build anything on your rooftop,” Simpson said. “But that’s changing.”

As such, new product increasingly incorporates rooftop swimming pools, screening rooms, and other amenities.

“I recently listed a penthouse condo with a private rooftop tennis court, which is pretty rare,” said Compass’ Sally Forster Jones, referring to the Grand in Westwood, which was built in 1980, with the court added by the previous owner of the penthouse property, who Jones did not identify.

Another feature of the future may be the condo as a social hub.

Aaron Kirman of Compass described projects including the Fairmont in Century City, developed by Woodridge Capital Partners, that have in-building celebrity chefs, bars, and even clubs.

“It seems like more of today’s buyers are looking for a total lifestyle curation,” Kirman said.

Brokers are still divided over one amenity: the need for pet grooming.

Freer of Hilton & Hyland argues that facilities for washing and grooming pets are more of a thing in New York, where dogs and cats have less room to roam (and shed).

Mulberg of Compass, however, believes a pet grooming salon will soon become part of the “white-glove service condo owners expect.”

The post Amenity insanity in LA luxe condo market appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

In an effort to become a one-stop shop for home buying and selling, Zillow is testing a closing-services platform in an undisclosed number of markets.

The new platform will work in tandem with the company’s buying and selling platform, Zillow Offers, with a goal to improve the economics of each home sale or purchase, according to Inman. Zillow lost an average of $4,826 on each home sale in the third quarter, after interest expenses — up from $2,916 in the second quarter.

“These are very early days and small numbers, but we are encouraged by the early consumer signals we’ve received that reinforce the value of bundling multiple services around each transaction,” Zillow CEO Rich Barton said on an earnings call.

Zillow Offers added eight new markets in the third quarter and plans to launch in Los Angeles. It reported a net loss of $64.6 million before interest, tax and other considerations.

Barton said the business was still in the early stages of development, beginning with building a national footprint.

“Phase two is about getting depth in these markets and figuring out how to roll out software and systems and process such that we can get gain leverage on the unit economic costs,” he said.

[Inman] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan

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A joint venture of Rockwood Capital and Artisan Realty Partners teamed up to buy another North Hollywood office complex from Swift Real Estate Partners.

For the latest deal, the duo paid $30 million for 4640 Lankershim Boulevard in the NoHo Arts District. That works out to $406 per square foot for the 74,000-square-foot building that is nearly fully leased. Tenants include marketing and entertainment firm Herzog & Co., and Hollywood Home Health Services.

Kevin Shannon and his team at Newmark Knight Frank represented Swift and announced the deal for the 37-year-old building. North Hollywood, along with Burbank and Hollywood have experienced “tremendous rental rate acceleration,” Shannon said in a statement.

This is the second complex that Rockwood Capital and Artisan Realty have bought from the San Francisco-based Swift in the last two months.

In August 2019, they paid $121.25 million for Academy Tower, about a mile away at 5200 Lankershim Boulevard. That deal penciled out to $520 per square foot for the two-building, 175,000-square-foot property. That made it one of the priciest real estate deals in NoHo.

Office properties in North Hollywood have been in high demand in recent months. In May, New York Life Real Estate Investors paid $102.5 million for 5161 Lankershim Boulevard. Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners sold the 205,000-square-foot building.

San Francisco-based Swift has been an active player in L.A. real estate. Last year, the company paid $170 million for a three-building office complex in media and tech-heavy El Segundo.

The post Rockwood and Artisan make another NoHo office play appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

Shareholder litigation against WeWork’s major players has begun.

Co-founder Adam Neumann, SoftBank head Masayoshi Son and board members of the embattled office-space company were sued this week by a minority shareholder who accuses them of self-dealing and unjustly enriching themselves.

The complaint, by former WeWork employee Natalie Sojka, targets SoftBank’s $9 billion takeover of the company, and says the Tokyo-based conglomerate increased its stake in the company to 80 percent from 29 percent through a “fire sale.” It also skewers a $1.7 billion package SoftBank provided to Neumann.

A spokesperson for WeWork called the suit “meritless.” A spokesperson for SoftBank did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a representative for Neumann.

WeWork’s valuation plummeted to $8 billion from $47 billion as its plans to go public during the fall fell apart. SoftBank, its largest investor, agreed to provide $9 billion to buy out shareholders and provide WeWork with enough capital to stave off bankruptcy.

As part of SoftBank’s bailout, founder Adam Neumann was paid almost $1 billion for his stake in the company and received a $185 million consulting fee. SoftBank also settled his $500 million debt with JPMorgan and other banks.

Since Neumann’s departure the office-space company has installed a new chairman, Marcelo Claure, a SoftBank executive and the former CEO of Sprint. Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, two WeWork executives who worked under Neumann, are running the company as co-CEOs.

Most board members who have faced scrutiny for perceived corporate governance abuses also remain at the company. Some were named as defendants in the shareholder lawsuit, including Steve Langman, John Zhao, Ronald Fisher, Lewis Frankfort, Mark Schwartz and Bruce Dunlevie.

The plaintiff worked as an executive assistant and team lead at the company in San Francisco, leaving in September. She now works as an executive assistant to the CEO of financial firm SoFi, according to her LinkedIn page. Sojka’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Sojka’s complaint, which is seeking class-action status and was filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco County, claims that WeWork attracted talented employees by offering them stock options that they were led to believe would spike in value once WeWork went public.

Instead, the suit alleges, WeWork’s major shareholders breached their fiduciary duty and forced the company to pull its IPO plans. While minority shareholders lost the value of their stock options, the majority investors engaged in self-dealing to protect their own interests, the complaint alleges. Reuters first reported on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit caps a tumultuous week for Softbank. After posting operating losses of $6.5 billion for the third quarter Wednesday, the firm’s stock dropped almost 4 percent. Son, SoftBank’s CEO, told news reporters in Tokyo that his “own investment judgement was really bad,” and that “I regret it in many ways.”

In the meantime, WeWork employees await to hear news of layoffs, which could hit as much as a third of the company’s 12,000 employees. This week 150 signed a letter to management that called for workers to be treated “humanely.”

“We don’t want to be defined by the scandals, the corruption, and the greed exhibited by the company’s leadership,” wrote the employees, who call themselves the WeWorkers Coalition, according to the New York Times.

Other legal offensives have been launched against those with ties to the company. Last month a former executive assistant to Neumann sued him and other WeWork executives for gender discrimination last month, alleging that she was targeted and harassed for being pregnant.

The post WeWork execs face first lawsuit over botched IPO appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

Starwood Property Trust’s CEO Barry Sternlicht sees an economic slowdown in the near future as the country faces a new presidential election.

“I’ve never seen an election as long as I have been alive as polarizing,” Sternlicht told analysts on the company’s third quarter earnings call Friday. “Ross Perot Jr. was a billionaire and probably not the greatest candidate, and he got 19 percent of the electorate… The country needs someone in the middle. Sorry I am being political on an earnings call.”

Concerns about the election didn’t affect Miami Beach-based Starwood’s results, however, as third quarter earnings aligned with analysts’ expectations of 49 cents a share. Net income was $140.4 million, up 66 percent from $84.5 million in the same period of 2018, reflecting increased interest income on loans outstanding.

During the third quarter, Starwood made a number of large loans, including a $300 million loan for a 3.4 million-square-foot mixed-use, waterfront property in Washington D.C. It also made a $250 million mortgage for the construction of 79 residential units and a 50-key five-star hotel in London.

The company’s total revenue from commercial and residential lending grew 3.3 percent to $163.8 million in the third quarter from $158.6 million in the third quarter of 2018. Demand for lending was propelled by lower interest rates and spurred by the firm’s international growth, Sternlicht said. Forty-four percent of its commercial loans were international.

Analysts on the call eagerly awaited news about the company’s loan for WeWork’s purchase of Lord & Taylor’s Fifth Avenue flagship for $850 million. WeWork financed the deal with a $900 million loan from JPMorgan Chase, Starwood Property Trust and a third offshore lender.

WeWork’s real estate assets have come into question after the company’s valuation tanked from $47 billion to $8 billion and SoftBank agreed to a cash injection.

Sternlicht said WeWork “can’t walk away from the asset. Its a 15-year corporate guarantee. At this point, it is their single largest credit liability on their balance sheet. They can sublet or sell the building.”

Sternlicht said the company has been approached to buy its note on the building. “We have been noodling on whether or not we want to do that,” he said.

Last quarter, Starwood saw earnings fall by nearly a third as the company wrote down losses from struggling malls.

“I don’t see any way that the economy won’t slow,” Sterlicht told analysts on the third quarter earnings call. He admitted that hotels and retail properties throughout the country are still struggling, but said Starwood is seeing growing demand for multifamily properties, especially in Florida.

Starwood Property Trust’s shares rose 0.33 percent to $24.27 at 1:35 p.m.

The post Barry Sternlicht is eyeing an economic slowdown appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

Santa Barbara

Home prices held steady at summer’s end in Santa Barbara, with an August median just about matching August 2018’s median of $1.29 million, according to Fidelity National Title’s analysis of data from the county recorder’s office. However, the number of residential sales slid 13 percent compared to last year. “While the appreciation rate along the South Coast has softened and multiple offers are possible, lately they have become few and far between,” Compass broker Stan Tabler wrote in an analysis of the Fidelity data: “Generally, there is much more inventory available in the higher price ranges than in the lower ranges.”

The priciest sale recorded in the county in August was a Montecito estate that closed for $12 million. The exclusive enclave, which is home to house flippers Ellen DeGeneres and Portia di Rossi as well as other celebrities, had a median sales price of $4.2 million that month, according to the Fidelity data.

Other noteworthy transactions include the pending sale of the one-time home of the late singer George Michael. The 4,800-square-foot residence in the city of Santa Barbara was listed for just under $6 million through Compass with listing agents Kirk G. Hodson and Jon-Ryan Schlobohm.

Over in the city of Goleta, a 132-room hotel on the former site of Santa Barbara Motorsports and the Good Earth Restaurant is in the planning stages, with the project going before the Goleta Design Review Board in late August. Santa Barbara-based architecture firm Cearnal Collective is designing the project.

San Diego county

There are reasons to be cheerful for those with their eyes trained on the San Diego residential market. September single-family home sales were up 10 percent compared to the same month last year, and condos and townhouses were up 6.6 percent over the same period, according to statistics compiled through the San Diego MLS by the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors. Median prices for single-family homes hovered at around $643,000, slightly lower than the same period in 2018.

The county’s priciest sale in September was a 4,200-square-foot beachfront property in Coronado that closed for $23 million.

Bustling San Diego will get some more rental inventory soon. A 30,000-square-foot property in San Diego’s East Village, owned by the Salvation Army, was sold to developer Liberty National in a September deal brokered by Cushman & Wakefield. The property is completes a block totaling just over 60,000 square feet that Liberty had previously acquired. Ultimately, the Park and Broadway project is expected to hold 640 residential units and 16,485 square feet of commercial space. Cushman & Wakefield’s Tim Winslow said the East Village has been viewed as the last major development opportunity for downtown. “We have seen some of the most astute developers, including Liberty National, getting a strong foothold into the neighborhood,” he said.

Ventura county

Though it was initially listed for a whopping $85 million, a Thousand Oaks estate that closed for $35 million still shattered the sales record for the county. The 33-acre home was sold by former Legendary Pictures chief executive Thomas Tull and his wife, Alba, to an undisclosed buyer. The spread includes a 32,000-square-foot French chateau-style home. Jordan Cohen of Re/Max Olson & Associates represented the Tulls; the same firm’s Bryan Bumbarger repped the buyer.

The town will soon get another employment hub. A joint venture between Los Angeles-based HATCHspaces and Chicago-based Singerman Real Estate acquired a 160,980-square-foot campus with plans to develop it into a collection of life science facilities. The property was previously owned by Harbor Associates.

Over in Moorpark, plans have been filed for a sprawling 755-unit residential development that will include a 6-acre public park. Developer Comstock Homes’ Hitch Ranch project is proposed for a 277-acre site that was previously used for dry farming. Comstock plans to include manufactured slopes, new roadways and water retention basins in the project. 

In the county at large, retail rents have remained relatively constant. Monthly retail rents were $2.22 per square foot on average, up 1.2 percent over the previous year, according to a third-quarter report from CoStar. However, new tenants are pushing for improvement money, “and landlords have been more willing to give [it] to maintain the rental rates and the capitalized value of the property,” according to Matthew May, president of May Realty Advisors of Sherman Oaks.

Residential prices were also largely unchanged. The average price of a home in Ventura for July 2019 was $595,000, the same as 2018, according to CoreLogic. However, the number of sales increased by 6.2 percent year over year.

Island Empire

Amid a “slightly sluggish” housing market, the median sales price for homes in the Inland Empire was up 2.5 percent in August compared to the same month last year, said Mark Dowling, chief executive officer of the Inland Valleys Association of Realtors. But August’s pending sales were up 16.6 percent over the same month in 2018. Riverside saw the highest number of transactions, with more than $163 million worth of sales that month.

On the multifamily front, a 178-unit residential community in Riverside, Canyon Crest Views, was sold by Klingbeil Capital Management to an undisclosed buyer in a $53.5 million deal that closed in August. The property had been owned since 1996 by San Francisco-based Klingbeil, which purchased it for $12.8 million. Two-bedroom units at the property currently rent for approximately $2,300. According to Berkadia, which represented Klingbeil, the new owner will complete renovations and update amenities. 

Over in Moreno Valley, Irvine real estate investment firm 4G Ventures sold a 304-unit multifamily community for an undisclosed amount to a New York-based real estate investment firm. The property, which features firepits, a pool and whirlpool spa, is close to Riverside University Hospital and Kaiser Medical Center. One-bedroom units there start at $1,440.

In retail news, Swedish home goods giant Ikea announced it will open a 330,000-square-foot store in Ontario, joining other Southern California locations in Covina, Burbank, Carson, San Diego and Costa Mesa.

The post What’s driving home sales outside of LA County appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

A Los Angeles City Councilmember who sought to burnish a reputation as an outsider who would not take real estate developer money is…returning real estate developer money.

Challengers of Councilmember David Ryu argue he broke his promise to not take donations from developers, an integral part of his first election bid and a central issue during his time in office, according to the L.A. Times.

Opponents identified donations from entities linked to Little Tokyo Galleria developer Dae Yong Lee and the investment company First Serrano Apartment LLC.

“What’s the point of a pledge to not take money from a few developers if the real estate industry, including many developers, is still propping you up?” said candidate Nithya Raman, who promised to refuse donations from “people involved in the real estate industry in Los Angeles.”

Ryu said he’s making good on his promise to refuse developer dollars, but that some of those donations slipped through the cracks. He said he welcomed “anyone and everybody from the press and the community to help me identify errors,” and would refund a dozen donations.

Ryu and two City Council colleagues introduced a bill to ban Councilmembers from taking donations from active developers in 2017, but it failed to move forward until earlier this year after a scandal broke involving donations made to organizations associated with Councilmember Jose Huizar.

Ryu told The Real Deal in August that a ban would help build trust with voters that he called “almost non-existent.”

Ryu’s campaign will not refund other donations that challengers have criticized, including some from architects and land use consultants who help guide developers through the city approvals process. His donation policy applies to developers with “active projects” or those who regularly work in the city.

Challenger Sarah Kate Levy said that wasn’t enough because all developers who don’t meet that criteria will at some point or another have a project under consideration at City Hall. [LAT] – Dennis Lynch

The post Under the (RE)influence: Councilman’s campaign funds scrutinized appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

UPDATED 11:15 a.m., Nov. 11: The National Association of Realtors’ board approved a controversial policy that could drastically cut down on pocket listings, a popular practice in the world of luxe real estate.

A roughly 120-member NAR committee overwhelmingly approved the Clear Cooperation Policy on Saturday morning, sending it to the organization’s Executive Committee for consideration, according to Inman. On Monday, NAR’s board passed the policy 729-70.

The policy would require brokers to submit a listing to the Multiple Listings Service within one business day of marketing a property to the public. NAR argues it will help make the business more transparent.

Bright MLS Chair Jon Coile said pocket listings undermine the “social contract” that Realtors have with each other. Other supporters say it will help the NAR compete with off-MLS services popping up across the country.

Pocket listings are popular in the higher stratas of residential markets in top-tier cities such as New York, L.A., and Miami for a few reasons. They help obscure ownership and listings for high-profile clients and allow agents to be more flexible with asking prices.

They can be extremely lucrative for agents who have them because they essentially cut out outside agents. Those agents often end up representing both parties in deals.

The proposed policy has a cutout allowing brokers to make a listing an office exclusive and keep it off the MLS and platforms that aggregate from the MLS, including Redfin and Zillow, which could alleviate concerns for celebrity clients.

Last year, Pacific Union International launched an online platform that acts as a pre-MLS listing service. Pacific Union properties go on that platform with limited information starting when an agent signs on to represent a seller until it hits the MLS, which can take up to 10 days or so. Pacific Union says that lets agents gauge interest before listings start to accrue “days on the market.” In 2017, The Agency broker Christopher Dyson partnered with the firm’s CEO Mauricio Umansky and “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” stars James Harris and David Parnes on a new online platform dubbed “The Pocket Listing Service,” or ThePLS.com, which allows brokers to share and search nationally for off-market properties.

The NAR vote suggests there is strong support for such a policy. If approved by the Executive Committee, the measure would go to NAR’s board of directors for final approval, according to Inman. The policy would come into effect January 1, 2020. [Inman] – Dennis Lynch

The post NAR approves pocket listings killer appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

GPI Companies has the money needed to fully transform its portion of the former Westside Pavillion into a 230,000-square-foot mixed-use office space.

The Los Angeles-based developer told The Real Deal Monday that it closed on $120 million in construction financing from ACORE Capital for West End, a redevelopment of the former Macy’s department store.

Construction of West End is underway and is projected to wrap up in early 2021.

In total, GPI says it is investing more than $180 million into West End.

Hudson Pacific Properties and Macerich are converting another large block of the former mall into a 584,000-square-foot office space that will be entirely occupied by Google. HPP and Macerich have dubbed their portion of the West LA site “One Westside.”

Though the projects are separate, the developers are sharing a 1,500-space parking garage that GPI bought. GPI purchased the Macy’s and garage for $50 million at auction in 2017.

GPI has tapped Del Amo Construction and ARB/Primoris to handle construction, with HLW and Walter P. Moore & Associates as principal architects. JLL arranged for the construction financing and serves as the exclusive leasing agent for GPI.

JLL’s Kevin MacKenzie, Greg Brown, Jeff Sause and Peter Thompson brokered the financing. Their colleagues Carl Muhlstein and Josh Wrobel are handling leasing at West End.

The post GPI scores $120M construction loan for Westside Pavilion appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

After the dramatic ouster of former CEO Adam Neumann, WeWork may have found a new leader.

The company is in talks with T-Mobile US Inc. chief executive John Legere to take over the position, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The office-sharing startup’s parent company — We Company — is reportedly looking for someone who can right the ship after the firm’s failed IPO attempt led to Neumann’s resignation and SoftBank’s bailout of the company.

The saga led to WeWork’s valuation plunging to about $8 billion from $47 billion.

WeWork executives Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham have led the company as a team since September.

Legere, 61, has run T-Mobile for the past six years and is credited with turning around the company’s fortunes by attracting a large volume of customers from competitors, and instigating a $26 billion takeover of Sprint. Known for his brash and outspoken style, he has labeled rivals “Dumb and Dumber” on Twitter. [WSJ] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan

The post WeWork reportedly in talks to hire T-Mobile exec as CEO appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

The streaming wars’ latest skirmish came in October when Apple announced it would produce the World War II series “Masters of the Air” in-house at the company’s Apple  TV+ studio in Culver City.

Hollywood saw the news as proof that Apple is joining Netflix and Amazon Studios as streaming’s biggest threats to film studios, and that it would be foolish to bet against Apple, what with its $1 trillion-plus valuation.

“Apple is ready for takeoff,” the Hollywood Reporter gushed.

But Apple TV+ is also the most acute example of an issue affecting streaming giants, and perhaps the future of Los Angeles’ world-famous entertainment business: a lack of space.

Developers — most prominently Hackman Capital, Hudson Pacific Properties and Lincoln Property Company — have delivered on massive tenant improvements in order to get Netflix, Amazon and Apple to lease their L.A. buildings, transforming the city’s office market. 

“We have the benefit of being the clear No. 1 entertainment capital of the world, and that’s not going to change,” said Michael Hackman, founder and CEO of Hackman Capital, which fully leased its Culver Studios to Amazon and paid $750 million for the 25-acre CBS Television City campus in December.

Despite a flurry of blockbuster lease deals, the A-list streamers still have far less space to make content in the city compared to the old-line studios they increasingly compete against. Even though developers are scrambling to repurpose space to accommodate them, their sheer appetites will likely lead them to look outside L.A. for the real estate they need. And there’s little room to grow. L.A. County soundstage space is at 92 percent capacity, according to Film LA.

“When it comes to property,” said Michael Soto, a researcher at Transwestern, “the legacy studios basically have a 100-year head start.”

Streamers jet into LA

Once upon a time, the Los Gatos, California-headquartered Netflix had a friendly relationship with the major studio players, such as Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, Paramount and recent Disney acquisition Fox. 

That started to shift in 2013 when Netflix premiered its much-acclaimed original series “House of Cards.”

Netflix “realized that if they owned original content and their own distribution path via streaming, they can achieve greater independence and competitiveness,” said Gene Del Vecchio, a marketing professor at the USC Marshall School of Business. Also, original programming meant decreased reliance on licensing content made by studios, Del Vecchio said.

But to make its own content, Netflix needed space close to actors, directors and screenwriters, not to mention grips, sound engineers and costume designers.

In other words, Netflix had to get serious about L.A. 

In 2017, the company dispensed with its modest satellite office in Beverly Hills and moved into Hollywood, renting out 418,000 square feet of studio space at the Sunset Bronson lot from Hudson Pacific Properties. A year later, Netflix extended its lease at Sunset Bronson until 2031. The company simultaneously rented out Epic, a 13-story, 328,000-square-foot building across the street from Sunset Bronson, another lease that runs through 2031, and another parcel owned by Hudson Pacific.

Netflix wasn’t done. Last November, it executed a 12-year lease with Kilroy Realty Corporation for 355,000 square feet of space on Vine Street in Hollywood. It then leased a further 170,000 square feet, including Hollywood studio real estate owned by Lincoln Property Company.

When the dust had settled, Netflix had leased approximately 1.6 million square feet of Hollywood space. (The company also added to their space by setting up a 60,000-square-foot studio in Burbank this October.) Meanwhile, Amazon and Apple were similarly reshaping Culver City.

Last year, in a bid to ramp up its Prime video originals, Amazon moved production centers from Santa Monica to the fabled Culver Studios, filming site of both “Citizen Kane” and “Gone with the Wind.”

Hackman Capital leased the property to Amazon, and the Westside L.A. developer is expanding the studio to 721,000 square feet, an undertaking mostly financed by $620 million in Deutsche Bank loans.

“I sincerely believe their real estate acumen because everything they did on the warehouse side really proved to be ahead of the curve,” Hackman said of Amazon. “They figured out very quickly that they had to have their own studio lot, and when they know what they want, they make it happen.”

Lincoln Property Company, meanwhile, announced in March 2018 it had leased 128,000 square feet of studio and office space in Culver City to Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple’s new streaming service. 

The streamers’ moves helped spur a “building boom in Culver City,” said Kevin Klowden, executive director at the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica-based economics think tank.

“Streamers have joined — and even dominate — the studio leasing market,” said JLL’s Carl Muhlstein.

Space race

But the soundstages and office spaces leased by Netflix, Amazon and Apple don’t compare to what the studios own.

Take Paramount.

Show business observers knock the 107-year-old, Hollywood-based company for routinely placing last among studios in worldwide box office revenue and lagging in production. Paramount is scheduled to release 13 movies by the end of 2019, while Netflix is set to produce 90 films.

When it comes to land, though, the tables are turned.

The Paramount lot will reach 4.1 million square feet once a $700 million, 1.4 million-square-foot expansion is completed.

The story of Paramount v. Netflix in Hollywood is similar to the dynamic in Culver City.

A 20-minute walk from the Apple TV+ studio along Washington Boulevard leads to the 2 million-square-foot Sony Pictures lot, also dating from 107 years ago. The other, even bigger studios — Disney, Warner Bros. and Universal — own millions of square feet in office and soundstage space across Burbank and Studio City.

Disney also has the Santa Monica soundstage space used by Hulu, of which it has full control following a deal with Comcast.

Disney, Warner, and Universal are all set to start their own streaming platforms within the year.

Is the space disparity of great concern for streamers? Maybe not, since real estate since content providers lend and borrow real estate.

“You see Paramount trucks on the Disney lot, and Disney trucks on the Paramount lot,” Muhlstein said, a practice that the studios may extend by leasing lot space to streamers.

But the land issue may also prompt streamers to have a wandering eye. “Netflix is making the majority of its films outside Los Angeles,” Klowden noted.

What streamers want

Streamers are not eager to discuss their real estate needs. Netflix declined comment, and messages left with Apple and Amazon were not returned.

Developers and real estate agents were also loath to talk, lest they break the militant NDAs signed with the companies. (As one  agent put it: “On background, Amazon is a very private company.”)

Sources close to Netflix did disclose that personnel in Los Angeles, not Los Gatos, make its local real estate decisions. The L.A. team includes Matt Tevenan, the company’s vice president of real estate and workplace production, and Ty Warren, vice president of physical production.

General patterns can be pieced together, in terms of what Tevenan, Warren and other streamer decision-makers look for. 

“Streamers and tech companies in general prefer to invest in their core business,” said Craig Coan, a real estate attorney at Greenberg Glusker. “L.A. real estate is very expensive to buy, and I think you would rather invest capital in creating content than real estate.”

Streamers, though, are unafraid to throw money toward tenant improvements.

“Because of the volume of activity they have to create for a global audience, it doesn’t work with the traditional ‘network’ schedule … of hey, I have a show, I’ve got a pilot, I’m going to see how it goes, then I’m going to run it for a certain amount of months per year and do a year-to-year deal,” said Bill Humphrey of Hudson Pacific, the point person for Netflix’s lease at the Sunset Bronson studio. 

“They are able to lease a number of stages and associated production office space, knowing that they are going to have a continuation of the content going on in those spaces and facilities on an ongoing basis for many years,” he added.

The investment could be for soundstages — which require high ceilings, specific acoustics and lots and lots of parking. Money could also go toward designing office spaces replete with the sofas and Ping-Pong tables tech companies are known for.

Humphrey believes that his firm has an edge, given its concentration of Hollywood properties. “Creative people I talk to say Hollywood is central, because you’ve got studios and the lot production in the Valley — in Burbank especially. You’ve got Paramount down the street and you’ve got Fox and Sony toward Culver City.”

Also toward Culver City is the Amazon-occupied Culver Studios, which Hackman Capital purchased for $85 million in 2014 with an eye toward the streamers and their increasing demand for space.

Hackman said the streamers have “unique and very specific” requirements, including 40- to 50-foot ceiling height, wardrobe space, room to build set designs, and other physical compartments.

Such environments can triple rents, Coan said.

It also means lease agreements of 12 to 14 years. That’s double the typical lease agreements for soundstage space.

“These leases are longer than usual, probably because of the magnitude of the improvements,” Coan said.

While the streamers take great care with their leases, where they lease is less important.

Why Hollywood and Culver City emerged as streaming hubs is “simply because of availability,” Coan said.

“Culver City is generally going through a process of redevelopment,” said Matthew Ball, the former head of strategy at Amazon Studios and now a venture capitalist in the media space. “It is less hyperdeveloped than Santa Monica or Venice.”

What the future holds

Entertainment and real estate market experts alike portrayed Netflix, Amazon, and Apple as consummate real estate pragmatists, companies that are not animated by any grand vision or belief in the primacy of a particular locale.   

“Studio space demand has escalated, but I don’t think there is a drastically different change in where shows are made,” said Ball.

The former Amazon executive gave the example of a show that’s made in New York state one year, learns its soundstage is to be occupied by another show and then sets up shop in Vancouver for the next year.

L.A. figures into the streamers’ equation as the most important market, Klowden said, but also one with drawbacks.

Lack of space is the biggest disadvantage, but L.A. also has more expensive labor and less generous tax credits than states including Georgia and New Mexico.

The same October 2018 week that Netflix announced its Epic building lease, the company said it would accept $14.5 million in state and local tax credits to build a production space in Albuquerque.

Netflix also announced plans for 260,000 square feet of office and soundstage space in New York City this April.

The streamers’ flexibility about location leaves developers unsure how much more to build, though they are moving ahead full steam on a few projects.

Last August, in partnership with New York investment firm Square Mile Capital Management, Hackman Capital purchased the $650 million Manhattan Beach Studios, which can be used for content creation.

And buoyed by its lease deals with Apple and Netflix, Lincoln Property announced construction of 320,000- and 150,000-square-foot buildings in Culver City, which the developer plans to lease out to entertainment and tech companies.

Developers could get creative in finding more space. “Abandoned shopping centers are arguably a resource,” Coan said. “You could convert an old Sears into a soundstage.”

Other L.A. neighborhoods, like Atwater Village and El Segundo, and perhaps Netflix’s Burbank move indicate a foray into the valley. The question is what developers can move quickly enough to satisfy streamers’ ravenous but specific real estate appetite. “These streamers,” Coan said, “are looking for space everywhere.”

The post Netflix and … filled: Streamers are gobbling up remaining space in LA, but how much is left to go around? appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

Jeffrey Yohai, former son-in-law of Paul Manafort, was sentenced Friday to more than nine years in prison for running two fraud schemes centered around developing high-end Los Angeles real estate.

Yohai stole more than $6 million from investors with the understanding that money would be used to build spec homes in some of L.A.’s priciest neighborhoods, only to use it for personal expenses. U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. was sharply critical of Yohai’s actions at his sentencing, saying he “has an evil mind,” according to WeHoville.

The 37-year-old West Hollywood resident pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in early 2018 and was arrested on a similar charge while he awaited sentencing. The scheme began to unravel in 2016 after a New York-based photographer sued him for allegedly scamming him out of $3 million.

Later that year he defaulted on loans for four L.A. properties, including a home on Stradella Road in Bel Air and a spec project in the Bird Streets.

Manafort, whose daughter Jessica divorced Yohai in 2017, lent $2.7 million to acquire the property on Stradella Road. A judge slapped Yohai with an injunction for renting out that property as a party house around the time he pled guilty in early 2018. The plea deal included an agreement to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Prosecutors said Yohai also sold bogus passes to the Coachella Music & Arts Festival, pawned expensive music gear that he didn’t own, and scammed recovering addicts through a “sober living” home he set up in L.A., according to Politico.

Yohai’s attorneys sought a five-year prison term. He was also ordered to pay $6.7 million in restitution and serve three years of supervised release after his prison term. [WeHoville] – Dennis Lynch 

The post Jeffrey Yohai gets 9 years for real estate schemes appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

Swift Real Estate Partners has made another value-add office play in Southern California.

The West Coast real estate investor just closed on a three-building office complex in Pasadena from PGIM Real Estate for $193 million, according to a news release from commercial brokerage JLL, which brokered the sale. Swift financed the purchase with a $160 million acquisition loan from Nuveen Real Estate.

The properties, collectively known as “The Pasadena Collection,” span 517,000 square feet and are just 68 percent occupied, putting the deal at roughly $373 a square foot. The new owner is likely to renovate the properties and find new tenants to fill the space.

The complex consists of a 146,000 square-foot building located at 790 East Colorado Blvd., a 212,000 square-foot building at 155 North Lake Ave., and a 159,000 square-foot building at 35 North Lake Ave.

This is the first transaction to be completed on behalf of Swift’s recently raised $500M Fund III, which is focused on investments in Northern California, Southern California and the Pacific Northwest.

San Francisco-based Swift has been an especially active player in L.A. real estate of late.

Last week, Swift sold a North Hollywood office complex to a joint venture of Rockwood Capital and Artisan Realty Partners. The duo paid $30 million for 4640 Lankershim Boulevard in the NoHo Arts District.

In August, Rockwood Capital and Artisan Realty paid Swift $121.25 million for Academy Tower, about a mile away at 5200 Lankershim Boulevard. That deal penciled out to $520 per square foot for the two-building, 175,000-square-foot property. That made it one of the priciest real estate deals in NoHo.

Last year, the Swift paid $170 million for a three-building office complex in media and tech-heavy El Segundo.

The JLL capital markets team that represented PGIM was led by Michael Leggett, Andrew Harper and Matt McRoskey. The JLL team that arranged the financing for Swift Realty was led by Paul Brindley, Todd Sugimoto, Jeff Sause and Steven Paskover.

The Swift-PGIM deal went into contract before JLL merged with HFF in July, the brokerage said.

The post Swift pays $193M for Pasadena office portfolio appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

It’s great to learn from others’ mistakes, but sometimes you have to make them yourself to truly get it.

We launched The Real Deal’s Los Angeles edition in 2016 with an ambitious mandate: to become the publication of record for the city’s real estate industry, delivering to our readers the smartest and most well-reported coverage on the market and the key players shaping it. We hired a talented editorial team and driven salespeople, and immediately made a dent: TRD became where an investor, developer, financier or broker could find insights on the real forces shaping their business, and our events became hives of dealmaking and knowledge-sharing.

But, in hindsight, we didn’t give the L.A. market the attention and resources it demands — and deserves. We tried to run the operation from our home base in New York, and didn’t invest nearly enough in developing the editorial and business-side infrastructure to consistently deliver to the standards of excellence we’ve always prided ourselves on.

That ends now. We are throwing ourselves full tilt into this market, making a big bet on our L.A. newsroom and putting together a first-class local sales and marketing team to grow our presence here. I’ve traded my pea coats in for a car, and made the move out here to be our new Associate Publisher, overseeing operations in L.A. and the California region. We’ve brought in two veterans of the Los Angeles Business Journal, Matthew Blake and Pat Maio, to anchor our coverage here, and will be hiring more talent in the coming months to broaden our reporting on the market. I hope you’ll notice more nuanced, insider stories, breaking news, more original research and signature rankings and a whole host of other platforms through which we will share our journalism, from intimate fireside chats with key players to flagship conferences.

I’d also like to inform readers and advertisers about the power and reach of our digital platform: Quantcast ranked TheRealDeal.com #1 among U.S. websites with the wealthiest audience, and we also made its list of the top 1,000 most-visited websites in the country. That’s a vast, plugged-in audience of professionals that is highly targeted and fiercely loyal.

Exhibit A of this new era is the magazine you’re reading now, helmed by editor Heidi Patalano, which dives deep into the most important issues shaping L.A.’s market today: the streaming giants’ obsessive quest for land that’s not theirs for the taking; a city beginning (just barely) to open its eyes to vertical living; and how the perils of billions of dollars in venture capital are jolting both the office space and brokerage landscapes.

I’d like to thank you for your support and guidance so far, and invite you to keep the dialogue going. L.A. is a challenge and a half to get right. But that’s what makes it so fun.

The post Publisher’s note: A confession of Noo Yawk hubris appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.

The Address is expanding addresses from tony Malibu, Newport Beach, and Agoura Hills to the grittier Long Beach.

The Ventura-based brokerage is putting the finishing touches on a 10,000-square-foot corporate headquarters set to open in Agoura Hills next month. And Troy Palmquist, founder of the firm, said that Andy Dane Carter will be its first agent at the Long Beach outpost.

Carter, the host of an eponymous podcast who has amassed a notable Instagram following, was formerly an independent agent in Long Beach. He said he will be the first of 10 to 12 hires based out of Long Beach.

“You can get a $3 million oceanside property here that would be $13 million to $14 million elsewhere in LA County,” Carter said.

Palmquist said that his new hire “lives and breathes Long Beach,” a luxury market with “attainable, undervalued waterfront living.”

“It used to be a place where you jumped on the ship to Catalina Island, but it’s now becoming more of a destination,” Palmquist said.

Palmquist started The Address in 2017 after five years at Maxim Properties. He struck out on his own, he said, at first because he needed the change of pace after starting a family.

The firm was a bit of a novelty at the start, advertising to prospective homebuyers its “hand-poured coffee” and “cup of kombucha” at the Ventura locale.

“I wanted people to not feel intimidated by the real estate experience,” Palmquist said, explaining the brokerage’s beverage offerings.

Palmquist declined to discuss The Address’s financials, but he did say the firm has grown from a solo shop to about 50 agents.

Its growth has included absorbing 15 agents from the Malibu boutique 4 Malibu two months ago. Palmquist also plucked former Coldwell Banker branch manager Kary Lindgren to run The Address’s Newport Beach office, after Coldwell’s Huntington Beach office shut down.

The post Next address for The Address? Long Beach appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.