Priscilla Presley has sold her longtime Beverly Hills mansion for $13 million, four months on the market.

The widow of Elvis Presley listed the 9,000-square-foot Spanish-style home for $16 million in August. It was the first time the property hit the market in 45 years, according to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported on the sale.

The closing followed an October price cut to $14.5 million.

The mansion has seven bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms, including a main suite with a private terrace. The interiors keep with the Spanish-style theme and include exposed beams and arched doorways.

It was built in 1951, and sits on about an acre of manicured lawns, gardens and patios. There is also a pool and tennis court in the backyard.
Jonah Wilson with Hilton & Hyland represented Presley in the deal. Peter Zimble and Dan Beder with Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyer, who was not named.

Last year, Presley sold her Brentwood home after just 10 days on the market for $3.8 million, or $150,000 above her asking price.

Presley was married to Elvis Presley for six years from 1967 to 1973. In the 1980s she had a five-year run on the soap opera “Dallas” and appeared in three “Naked Gun” films.

Elvis and Priscella Presley amassed a number of properties around the L.A. area. Those included a home the couple bought in 1967, which sold last March to Harry Morton, son of Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morton, for $25.5 million. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch

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Co-living startup Ollie has been scooped up by a well-funded rival, after the pandemic took a toll on the industry.

Starcity, based in San Francisco, acquired Ollie’s technology, assets and management contracts, reported Commercial Observer. Key executives, including president Gregg Christiansen, will join Starcity.

Terms were not disclosed, but the deal boosts Starcity’s portfolio to 1,500 units with 3,000 more in development. It also gives Starcity access to Ollie’s roommate-matching and amenities programs. “They have tech that matched our roadmap,” Starcity founder and CEO Jon Dishotsky told CO.

Founded in 2016, San Francisco-based Starcity has raised $50 million from investors. In April, it nabbed a $30 million Series B from Peak State Ventures, Reshape and Y Combinator.

Ollie was started in 2013 by brothers Andrew and Chris Bledsoe, who raised a total of $15 million, according to Crunchbase. Investors included the Moinian Group and Texas Employees Retirement System and Justin Mateen, co-founder of Tinder.

In New York, Ollie also partnered with Simon Baron Development and managed some apartments at its Alta tower in Long Island City.

Earlier this year, the Bledsoes left their roles at the firm and Christiansen, a board member, stepped in to lead the company. In July, he said occupancy was down significantly since the onset of the pandemic.

Beyond the tech assets, Ollie increases Starcity’s footprint. “We’re very strong on the West Coast, we’re growing in Europe, but don’t have anything on the East Coast,” Dishotsky said.
He said demand, after plunging earlier this year, is back to pre-Covid levels.

The Starcity CEO added that co-living isn’t just a “lifestyle layer,” but provides great returns to landlords and affordable housing to tenants.
[CO] — E.B. Solomont

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Barneys will be back in Manhattan early next year.

The luxury department store brand and legendary retailer will open a location in a Saks Fifth Avenue flagship on the fifth floor of 611 Fifth Avenue, Bloomberg reported.

Barneys filed for bankruptcy last year and was bought by Authentic Brands Group and B. Riley for about $270 million in November 2019.

“We would have liked to have it open by now,” Jamie Salter, CEO of Authentic Brands, said during a conference Wednesday. The opening was delayed by the pandemic.

Fred’s, the restaurant within Barneys, will also be making a return in 2021, although details have yet been released.

Barneys will also open a small standalone shop in Greenwich, Connecticut.

[Bloomberg] — Sasha Jones

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Now comes the even tougher part.

The Los Angeles City Council approved Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s $1 billion Promenade 2035 development project after four years of intense review.

The project, which encompasses 34 acres, will redevelop the Westfield Promenade mall in Warner Center. Unibail announced the news Wednesday.

“These challenging times make it even more critical to support continued investment in our city,” Unibail’s Kim Brewer, senior vice president of development, said in a statement. The project, she added, “is a model of how the city, community and businesses can come together to create a shared vision.”

The massive Promenade plan consists of 1,400 residential units, two hotels with a combined 572 rooms, 731,500 square feet of office space, 280,000 square feet of retail and a 7,500-seat sports arena.

Unibail said it plans to break ground within two years and work in phases, according to the L.A. Times.

Westfield proposed the project in 2016, three years after the city rezoned Warner Center for more dense mixed-use development. Unibail then acquired Westfield in late 2017 for $16 billion.

The firm claims that the project will create 9,700 permanent jobs after completion and generate $17.2 million in annual tax revenue for the city.

The development was reworked a handful of times during the review process, sometimes after vocal opposition from residents.

Last July, the capacity of the stadium was cut in half, after locals raised concerns about traffic, crowds and crime.

Not long after that, a community group appealed the project on the grounds that it lacked affordable housing.

Unibail in February agreed to set aside 150 units of housing.

The project had strong support from local City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who called it a “game-changing development for the West Valley.” Blumenfield added that “our housing affordability crisis will only be solved by building affordable units, and this project includes the very first affordable housing in Warner Center.”

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Los Angeles County’s three-week ban on outdoor dining is being put to the test.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant denied the California Restaurant Association’s call to overturn the measure, but he ordered county lawyers return in a week with clearer reasons to justify the ban. The Los Angeles Times first reported the judge’s move.

“What, if any, risk/benefit analysis was conducted by defendants prior to the restaurant closure order,” the judge asked the county, according to a court filing Wednesday night. The Public Health Department is expected to provide that information.

The judge also said the county must provide information on mortality rates traced to outdoor dining, and why the county issued a ban that goes beyond state prohibitions on restaurants.

L.A. County’s outdoor dining ban went into effect Nov. 24, as Covid infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the area surged. They have continued to rise, and on Wednesday night, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a modified stay-at-home order.

The county’s outdoor dining ban has faced unusually fierce backlash from restaurants that have invested in protective gear, heat lamps and other materials to create attractive and comfortable outdoor dining areas.

The retail and restaurant industry has made it a rallying cry that the Covid spike is from social gatherings between households, not from businesses that have followed pandemic safety guidelines.

Restaurant landlords and tenants are also balking at restrictions to their business, absent further stimulus relief. This week the county announced it will provide a $5.6 million aid package to restaurants hard-hit by Covid. The funding excludes the city of Los Angeles and Pasadena.

Pasadena, which has its own public health officer, has ignored the county’s outdoor dining ban. Beverly Hills, which does not have a public health officer and is bound by county guidelines, issued a resolution against the ban, and cities including West Covina and Whittier have also voiced their displeasure.

The County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 last week to maintain the ban.

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Long Island City is getting what developers say will be the nation’s biggest office building designed to passive house standards.

JNY Capital and United Hoisting Company will build their 425,000-square-foot spec office at 38-42 12th Street to the eco-friendly standards, the developers told The Real Deal.

First developed in Germany, passive house specifications require buildings to use ultra-low levels of energy, usually through the use of insulation systems that require less heating and cooling.

The $175 million development, dubbed the Oasis, will have solar panels, a green-roof system and a high efficiency mechanical system, among other features.

“We have created an eco-conscious building that offers a safer and healthier office environment for workers to return to and a benchmark for sustainability and innovation,” said JNY vice president Moshe Pinsky, who added the project is expected to break ground in the first half of next year.

New York City already has passive house projects at the Cornell Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island and in Harlem. Prior to the Oasis, the country’s largest planned passive house office was a 233,000-square-foot project at 310 N. Sangamon in Chicago.

New York’s City Council has been pushing the real estate industry to adopt green measures at existing buildings. In 2019, the council passed the Climate Mobilization Act, which fines developers who do not lower greenhouse gas emissions on properties larger than 25,000 square feet. But landlords are now worried that hospital-grade filters needed because of the pandemic will make it more difficult to meet the targets under Local Law 97.

Buildings accounted for an estimated 67 percent of the city’s emissions in 2015, according to a report from 2017.

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Apple is biting off more of Culver City.

The tech giant has snagged a square block of office and warehouse properties in a deal with Venice Pacific Investments that is valued at $162 million, sources confirmed. The property transaction closed Nov. 13. CoStar first reported the story and described the deal as a recapitalization.

It involves five properties next to the office building Apple already leases.

The deal opens the possibility for Apple to redevelop the large site.

The square block of properties include: flex office space at 8771 Washington Boulevard, storefront and office space at 8876-8888 Venice Boulevard, and warehouse and storage space at 8825 National Boulevard, sources close to the deal confirmed. Two other properties in the deal include 8829 and 8833 National Boulevard, according to CoStar.

According to PropertyShark, each address traces back to Pacific Investment Associates, and lists its owner as William Feldman. He is also listed under Venice Pacific Investments with the same addresses. A message left with Feldman was not returned.

Representatives for Apple did not return requests for comment.

Eastdil Secured brokered the deal. The company declined comment.

The properties are next to the 128,000-square-foot office that Apple agreed to lease at 8777 Washington Boulevard in early 2018, from Clarion Partners and Lincoln Property.

Like other tech giants that have launched streaming services, Apple has spent the past two years scrambling to find space in Los Angeles. Companies like Netflix, Amazon and Apple itself have leased much of that space.

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Blackstone is doubling down on logistics with its acquisition of a $358 million warehouse portfolio.

The asset manager bought 13 properties from Iron Mountain, which will lease back the properties in California, northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Bloomberg reported. The portfolio totals 2.1 million square feet, adding to Blackstone’s existing warehouse portfolio, which was approximately 800 million square feet in February 2020.

The sale represents the latest logistics deal for Blackstone continues to strengthen its holdings in the sector, which has performed well in the pandemic. Last year, the firm dropped $19 billion on a massive industrial portfolio, and it’s continued its investments in the sector throughout the pandemic.

“Fundamentally, this transaction to us is about buying great real estate in very strong industrial markets,” Nadeem Meghji, Blackstone’s head of real estate in the Americas, told Bloomberg. “First and foremost, we’re focused on location and asset quality. We believe these are good assets to own.”

The demand for e-commerce has risen steeply in recent months, continuing a trend that existed long before many Americans were sitting at home. Other investors have shown increased interest in the sector, too. KKR is currently in talks to purchase an $800 million portfolio of warehouses in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas and Chicago.

[Bloomberg] — Georgia Kromrei

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When real estate agent Alexander Zakharin downloaded TikTok in February, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

Zakharin, a broker at GZB Realty in Manhattan, knew that the short-form video app had a rapidly growing audience. He was willing to give anything a try to grow his business and figured, at the very least, it could be a place to organize apartment tour videos.

But on a platform where 60 percent of users are between the ages of 16 and 24, would there be an appetite for real estate content?

Turns out, the answer is yes.

“Within three weeks, I had 1.4 million views on one video,” Zakharin said. The apartment, a one-bedroom loft near Union Square that was listed for $1.25 million, probably isn’t within most Gen Z-ers’ budgets. But still, he said, “it took off like crazy.”

Those views eventually translated into dollar signs: By August, Zakharin had rented three apartments to clients who found him on TikTok, all young professionals who were recent college grads.

He’s not alone. Real estate agents are increasingly turning to TikTok as a generator for leads. The app, owned by the Chinese technology firm ByteDance, has 100 million monthly users in the U.S., most of whom are there for dance trends and funny videos. But because of the way TikTok works — the “For You” section serves up videos based on users’ likes, shares and other interactions — agents’ videos have the potential to spread beyond their followers, reaching users who have previously liked or interacted with apartment content. 

“People have an impression that it’s not serious,” said Cash Jordan, a broker at Union Square Property Management who has 280,000 TikTok followers. “But users don’t see it as a joke.”

Jordan started using TikTok in December 2019, initially to upload videos from a recent trip to Japan.  But he soon began using it for real estate content and ramped his account up in April when the pandemic forced him to take his business virtual. He’s since created over 600 videos, including apartment tours, neighborhood reviews and tips for renters. Jordan said he’s initiated thousands of leads from  the app as well as sponsorship opportunities.

Agents on TikTok said that renters tend to be in their early- to mid-20s, and are often looking for their first New York City apartment. Those clients would have traditionally found a broker through a listings site like StreetEasy; now, they might see an apartment while scrolling through the app.

And while eye-catching videos will get eyeballs, the videos that generate the most interest from renters are more accessible. A one-bedroom on the Lower East Side renting for under $2,000 per month would do especially well on the app, Jordan said..

Doing business on TikTok has two notable benefits for agents: low overhead and stronger client relationships. The app allows agents to increase exposure for their listings without high-end production costs or extra fees, such as those charged by sites like StreetEasy.

“Even one lead and one deal that converts is a significant return on my time,” said Brad Galazka, an agent at Nest Seekers International.

When Galazka started using TikTok, he would create videos using photos he already had in his camera roll or content he previously uploaded to other social media sites. The app allows users to easily add music and filters to videos, so Galazka would add effects that were already trending. A video that he spent five minutes creating could get more than 445,000 views — and most importantly, it was free.

Agents also say relationships with clients from TikTok are markedly different. Apartment hunters show up having done their homework not just on the listing but on the agents themselves. Jordan said that the parents of a college-aged renter reached out to share that they felt more comfortable working with him because, through his TikTok videos, they felt like they already knew him.

“If a client is coming to view your listing from a website, they’re coming to see that apartment,” Zakharin said. “If they’re coming because they saw your video on TikTok, they’re coming to see you.”

And even though TikTok’s primary audience is likely not in the market to buy a home, surprises still happen. 

“The age demographic on TikTok isn’t buying $1 million or $2 million apartments,” Galazka said. “But those kids can turn out to have massive reach — their parents, their friends’ parents, the circle of connections just continues to grow.”

This summer, Galazka had an older client in Connecticut reach out to him about a luxury listing he posted on TikTok because the client’s 17-year-old daughter had shown him the video.

There is one wrinkle in TikTok’s newfound popularity among real estate agents. In August, President Donald Trump published an executive order banning downloads of TikTok and WeChat, another Chinese social networking site, over national security concerns.

ByteDance agreed to sell 20 percent of the company to Walmart and Oracle, and in October, a Pennsylvania judge granted a temporary injunction against restrictions on the app. The Commerce Department recently said it will not enforce a TikTok ban, but its long-term future remains uncertain.

But even if TikTok disappears, short-form videos in real estate are here to stay.

“Half of my business is now from social media,” said Zakharin, who has 50,000 followers on TikTok. “Wherever you have a following, you have the opportunity to monetize.” 

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UPDATED, Dec. 4, 2:05 p.m.: Don Peebles is looking to sell his sprawling Coral Gables estate for nearly $15 million.

The developer previously listed the property for sale in 2017, asking nearly $13 million.

He and his wife, Katrina, tapped Jill Eber and Judy Zeder of The Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker to list the two-story, 15,688-square-foot mansion at 11501 Old Cutler Road, according to a press release. The 2.9-acre property, called “Casa Arboles,” which translates to house of trees, features a canopy of 88 oak trees.

The mansion includes 10 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and two half-bathrooms, a chef’s kitchen, two offices, a gym, a “boardroom” with a marble fireplace and 10-seat movie theater. It also has a full-house generator, four garages, a pool and tennis court, a main suite, and a private tower guest suite with its own living room, dining area, kitchenette and balcony.

“Katrina and I will be able to travel a bit more, so we want to uncomplicate our lives,” Peebles said about selling the Coral Gables estate, which is fully staffed. “We bought it as a place to raise our children.”

Architect Ramon Pacheco renovated the Mediterranean Revival home along with interior design from Katrina Peebles’ KLP Interiors.

The couple paid $5.45 million for the property in 2004 and put millions into renovating it.

Peebles said he and his wife own two homes in Wellington, which Katrina’s interior design firm renovated. The couple has one property on the market and will keep the other. They’re spending more time in Wellington because their daughter is an equestrian.

Property records show the couple paid $1.8 million in February for a home in Wellington, which is now on the market for $4.4 million.

Peebles heads the New York and Washington, D.C.-based Peebles Corporation. Peebles announced last year that he was renovating the Bath Club in Miami Beach to reopen as a social membership club following the $6 million renovation. The buyer of his house would also receive a complimentary membership to the club.

The Bath Club is set to open in January and is in the process of selecting its founding members, Peebles said.

Since founding his firm in the early 1980s, Peebles has built out a portfolio that totals $6 billion and spans more than 7 million square feet in Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and other cities. Last year, he announced that his company is launching a $500 million fund to invest in minority and women developers.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new Covid rules that would restrict in-person shopping, travel and other activities in areas where local health services are increasingly strained.

The rules would take effect in a region, such as Southern California, 24 hours after intensive care unit bed capacity falls below 15 percent availability, according to the Los Angeles Times. No region has crossed that threshold yet.

If that does happen, retail businesses will be limited to 20 percent of capacity indoors. Some businesses will have to shutter completely, including hair and nail salons and wineries, along with playgrounds, zoos, museums, and aquariums. Restaurants will be limited to takeout only.

Those restrictions are meant to be in place for at least 21 days, but could last longer — state officials will reopen those businesses and activities based on the four-week projection of ICU capacity in the affected region.

There has been an average of around 15,000 new cases of Covid-19 per day statewide over the last week, according to the Times. Hospitalizations have tripled over the last month and an average of 67 people have died each day over the last week, a 60 percent increase from mid-November.

The L.A. area is one of the most heavily affected. L.A. County and the City of L.A. have issued stay-at-home orders in the last week. The state put a 10 p.m. curfew in place two weeks ago. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch

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The U.S. economy added just 245,000 jobs in November, down from an adjusted gain of 6100,000 in October, representing the slowest month of growth in six months.

“The pace of improvement is clearly slowing in the face of an uptick in the intensity of Covid-19 cases,” said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Certain segments of the economy, particularly in-person service sector jobs, are going to be slower to come back from this environment.”

But a handful of real estate sectors, namely construction and warehousing, reported gains amid an otherwise bleak period.

Construction gained 27,000 jobs last month, according to figures from the Department of Labor, spurred in part by strong demand from homebuyers that has lifted builder confidence.

“A notable bright spot was the gain in construction jobs in the residential sector, another sign that the strong housing market continues to lead the overall economy,” said Fratantoni.

On the industrial side, warehousing and storage accounted for 37,000 positions as e-commerce continued making gains. Transportation and warehousing added 145,000 jobs. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar retailers struggled, posting losses of 35,000 jobs.

Other real estate sectors that have adjusted to the pandemic saw job gains in November, although they were muted by a tepid economy overall.

The leisure and hospitality sector gained 31,000 jobs last month, but the industry employs 3.4 million fewer people than it did in February. There was an increase in financial service jobs specific to real estate, with 10,000 positions.

The number of people unemployed for more than 27 consecutive weeks rose by 385,000 to 3.9 million last month, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of the total unemployment figures.

The rate of unemployment fell two-tenths of a percent to 6.7 in November, suggesting that some of the unemployed have stopped looking for jobs.

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A company tied to Six Peak Capital filed plans for a 110-unit apartment building in Westlake.

The eight-story project would rise at 2859-2883 Francis Avenue, a few blocks from MacArthur Park, records show. It would replace four small apartment buildings that appeared to be vacant as of this spring.

The development site is about two-thirds of an acre. The developer paid $7.8 million for the property in February of this year, according to property records.

New York-based Six Peak Capital invests in co-living properties in the U.S., according to its website. The firm did not immediately return a call for comment.

Six Peak has invested in co-living firm Common and last year hired Cushman & Wakefield to raise $1 billion in debt and equity to fund an expansion.

The developer for the Francis Avenue project is seeking entitlements through the city’s Transit Oriented Communities program. The program allows developers to exceed existing zoning limits on height, density, as well as use other entitlements in exchange for setting aside a percentage of units at below market-rate rents. In this case, the developer is requesting a density bonus and reductions in open spaces.

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A Torrance developer pleaded guilty to his role in a campaign donation scheme that sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to committees supporting eight Los Angeles politicians — including Mayor Eric Garcetti — while the developer’s multifamily development project was under review.

Samuel Leung, 70, admitted to a felony conspiracy count, saying he reimbursed campaign donors from January 2009 through February 2015 for contributions made to politicians while his 352-unit Sea Breeze project in Harbor Gateway neighborhood was under review at City Hall, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Leung was sentenced to 5 years probation and must complete 500 hours of community service. He faced a maximum sentence of nearly 5 years in prison, according to the Times. Leung also agreed to pay an undetermined sum in restitution to the city, and has put $2.5 million in an escrow account while the city Ethics Commissions determines the amount of restitution he owes.

The guilty plea comes the same week that a federal grand jury indicted two real estate developers, their companies and a former L.A. deputy mayor on racketeering charges in connection with the pay-to-play scandal centered on former City Councilman Jose Huizar.

In the Leung case, the L.A. County district attorney’s office said he illegally donated “hundreds of thousands of dollars to the campaigns of eight local politicians that led to the approval” of the Sea Breeze project.

A 2016 Times investigation found that more than 100 people linked to Leung donated a collective $600,000 to local elected officials. The district attorney’s office said Leung recruited these people to make the donations and “reimbursed many of the donors’ contributions.”

It is illegal under California law to contribute money to a political campaign using someone else’s name.
The Times interviewed 12 people who were allegedly part of the scheme and all but one denied any contributions or said they didn’t remember making any donations related to Leung. One person said Leung reimbursed her for at least one donation.

The Sea Breeze project was rejected by the Planning Commission. Garcetti moved to overrule their decision, and the project was approved in early 2015, according to the report. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch

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Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin has purchased another property on Star Island, likely completing his assemblage there, The Real Deal has learned.

Griffin acquired 10 Star Island Drive for $25 million, according to sources. A deed for the transaction shows Star West Property LLC sold 10 Star Island Drive to Florida Way Charter LLC, a Delaware company.

All told, Griffin has likely spent about $95 million on the Star Island properties. A company tied to the Citadel founder and CEO paid $37 million for the double lot at 11 and 12 Star Island Drive in August. He’s also reportedly the buyer of 13 Star Island Drive, which was previously linked to Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez. That deal closed for $32.5 million.

The Star Island assemblage isn’t the first for Griffin in South Florida: He’s spent more than $350 million on land in Palm Beach, on top of the $60 million he paid for two penthouses at Faena House. His Chicago-based hedge fund began operating a temporary trading room in Palm Beach at the start of the pandemic, and Griffin, a Daytona Beach native, has donated tens of millions of dollars to the expansion and renovation of the Norton Museum of Art in nearby West Palm Beach.

Griffin, who’s worth about $15 billion, owns some of the most expensive residential properties around the world, including in Manhattan, Chicago and London. In 2019, he closed on a $240 million apartment at New York City’s 220 Central Park South, breaking the record for the most expensive residential transaction recorded in the U.S.

The ultra-luxury single-family home market has been incredibly active in Miami Beach and Palm Beach in recent months. On Star Island alone, former U.S. ambassador Paul Cejas sold his waterfront mansion to a private equity investor for $20.1 million in September, and the mansion at 14 Star Island Drive closed for $24 million.

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Hotel chain Extended Stay America has managed to outperform other lodging companies in what’s been an awful year for the industry.

While lodging companies including Extended Stay have generally underperformed the broader market, the firm has managed to stay profitable this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Extended Stay’s revenue over the last nine months is down 16 percent from the same period last year. Marriott International reported a 46 percent decline in revenue between those periods. Choice Hotels International and Wyndham Hotels And Resorts have also seen larger declines than Extended Stay.

Revenue per available room, a key metric for lodging companies, was up in all three months of the third quarter at Extended Stay properties.

Extended Stay is the only chain that focuses entirely on long-term stays. Part of its relative stability could be attributed to shifting demand for longer stays at hotels.

The company has also seen continued demand for business travel. Typical sources of such business — such as government and retail workers — are down, but the company has seen a boost in demand from the warehousing, logistics, construction and temporary medicine sectors.

The industry’s average occupancy nationwide is under 50 percent and the situation has become dire enough at some companies that lenders are selling their mortgages — or trying to, at least.

Hotels across the country have laid off workers and cut costs in other ways. Extended Stay, though, has not done any layoffs related to the pandemic.

[WSJ] — Dennis Lynch

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The Hilton family is looking to part with a Holmby Hills estate that has been in the family for 60 years.
Rick Hilton listed the 15,000-square-foot property for $75 million, according to Forbes. Co-founder of Hilton & Hyland, he is also the son of the late W. Barron Hilton.

When he was 12, Rick Hilton and his family moved into the 2.5-acre Brooklawn Estate, according to the report. His father — son of and eventual successor to Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton — bought the home in 1961 and lived there until his death last year.

“It’s emotional, no doubt,” Hilton said. “But we have so many fond memories and it’s time to move on.”
Not surprisingly, Hilton & Hyland has the listing, with Rick Hilton and his son Barron N. Hilton as listing agents. The younger Hilton joined his father’s brokerage two years ago.

The Hilton family was the second owner of the estate. The original owner was Jacob Paley, who commissioned architect Paul R. Williams to design the house in the 1930s. Work was completed in 1935 at a cost of $100,000, or roughly $1.8 million today.
The 12-bedroom mansion includes several large entertaining rooms as well as a wood-paneled study with a desk handed down through family members by Conrad Hilton.

The backyard is centered around a manicured lawn and lined with hedges and garden features. There’s also a tennis court and a pool house. The large pool has ornate flooring made of thousands of hand-painted tiles with a mosaic depicting the 12 astrological signs, designed by Williams. [Forbes] — Dennis Lynch

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It takes a bit more work to move residential units in New York City these days and agents are upping their marketing game on social media.

Some prospective buyers could be hesitant to see units in person unless it jumps out at them amid the pandemic, according to Bloomberg News. Agents are looking to get eyeballs on units where potential buyers spend a lot of their time.

Enter the social media influencer.

“We’re seeing that social media has played quite a big role in home-shopping, said StreetEasy economist Nancy Wu. The platform recently launched a TikTok account featuring home tours.

“[Buyers] trust these influencers, that’s what it comes down to,” said Compass sales director Christine Blackburn.

Blackburn partnered with three Instagram influencers to decorate units at 111 Montgomery, a Crown Heights condo developed by CIM Group and LIVWRK. Those partners shared photos of those decorated units with their hundreds of thousands of followers.

The marketing team at AvalonBay’s Park Loggia condo partnered with influencers Hunter Vought and Adam Gonon, the co-founders of the menswear website Gentleman’s Creative (which has nearly 300,000 Instagram followers) to advertise units at the Upper West Side building. They posted photos of themselves playing pool in a common area and overlooking the city from a balcony.

The phenomenon is more prevalent in New York than some other cities, partly because the city has a higher share of first-time homebuyers — i.e. ones that are younger and more digital-savvy — than other cities. Los Angeles agent Ari Shafar said “the audience is not the same” in his city, and that local buyers still rely primarily on traditional shopping methods. [Bloomberg News] — Dennis Lynch 

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The pandemic has decimated much of the retail industry, but some businesses that have weathered the storm are now shopping for properties and new leases at deep discounts.

Property owners have been feeling the economic pressure, and are offloading space for a fraction of the pre-pandemic price and offering lease incentives, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Home furnishing company Safavieh recently paid $20 million for Taubman Centers’ Stamford Town Center. The Connecticut mall was appraised at $64 million last year — when it hit the market — but has lost some of its biggest tenants, including H&M and Apple.

Falling retail property prices are no surprise: Foot traffic in stores on Black Friday, typically the busiest retail day of the year, was about half of what it was last year.

But not all brick-and-mortar businesses are struggling. Brokers say owners of large groceries, furniture, and discount goods stores have fared well, and have become among the most active property shoppers.

Home Depot plans to relocate a basement store on Manhattan’s Upper East Side to a four-story location occupied by Bed Bath & Beyond, which won’t renew its lease as part of a wider downsizing.

Sever Garcia moved his accessories and travel items store from Downtown Brooklyn to Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, the Journal reported. Usually among the priciest square footage in New York, his new landlord offered three months of free rent and other incentives, he said.

Garcia said he also received offers from landlords in SoHo and out in Long Island, who have offered as much as six months of rent based on a percentage of sales. [WSJ] — Dennis Lynch

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A Fellowship of celebrities and literary fans is hoping to preserve the Oxford country home that J.R.R. Tolkien once called home.

The 1920s home hit the market last year, but the campaign — dubbed Project Northmoor, after the road on which the house sits — launched on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. The group wants to turn the property into a literary center and museum dedicated to the beloved author.

Those involved include Ian McKellen, John Rhys-Davies and Martin Freeman, who appeared in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of Tolkien’s most famous works.

The roughly 3,500-square-foot home sits about 60 miles northeast of London, and has six bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms. Tolkien lived there with his family from 1930 to 1947, and wrote “The Hobbit” and most of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy in that time. He taught at nearby Oxford University.

It was originally asking $6 million, and recently was discounted to $5.3 million. But the brokerage listing the property, Breckon & Breckon, has taken the home off the market in order to give the group more time to raise funds.

The current owners bought the home in 2004 for 1.6 million pounds. It was listed as a Grade 2 building, a government designation that it was “of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve it.”

Such a designation can ward off buyers who want to renovate. Julia Golding, who is one of Project Northmoor’s leaders, said the home “has the character of a 1920’s house.”
“Inside it’s very comfortable,” she told the Times. “It doesn’t feel like a professorial house.”

The group hopes to raise $6 million, and use the $700,000 left over after the purchase for renovations, start-up costs associated with establishing a charity and developing literary programs.

[NYT] — Dennis Lynch

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