A New York landlord is learning the hard way that you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure after his former business partner and girlfriend filed a lawsuit against him seeking $500,000 for breaches of contract and restitution.
The suit, raised by Douglas Elliman agent Vesna Todorov out of Palm Beach, alleges that her ex-lover Michael Speiser kept her on the hook for years as he promised to leave his wife for her and used her to make real estate deals in South Florida.
Speiser and Todorov met in New York around May 2010, according to the suit, filed earlier this week in New York Supreme Court. The landlord and interior designer quickly hit it off and began dating, despite Spieser being married with children.
The two even began living together full-time in a Palm Beach apartment, while Speiser continually delayed his promises to divorce his wife. Todorov, who was not working at the time, became restless and wanted to start earning her own income, according to the suit.
Speiser proposed they begin investing in real estate together: Todorov would earn her Realtor’s license and identify properties for them to invest in, and Speiser would fund the transactions.
As part of the agreement, she was to get a commission from the purchase as well as a piece of whatever the property sold for when they flipped it, according to the suit, first reported by the New York Daily News.
With Tadorov as his broker, Speiser bought a $1.775 million unit at 350 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach and a flashy $3.7 million unit at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Miami.
The suit alleges that Speiser later pocketed part of Tadorov’s $37,800 commission for the Palm Beach unit and told her she wouldn’t get anything when the Ritz-Carlton unit was eventually sold.
On top of that, Speiser picked up a new broker girlfriend when Todorov left for a few weeks in 2014. He kicked her out of his properties and refused to return all of her belongings, the suit alleges.
As Miami-Dade County’s condo market shows signs of slowing due in part to a stronger dollar, an out-of-state developer envisions a pair of new condo towers with more than 550 units combined as a key component for a proposed $160 million mixed-use project in Coral Gables.
The latest condo project proposed for the Coral Gables area — a wealthy suburb of local residents and foreign investors — is the Gables Station complex slated to be developed on a 4.3-acre site located on the north side of the 200 block of South Dixie Highway near the upscale Shops At Merrick Park retail center, according to city of Coral Gables records.
“The applicant is proposing a mixed-use residential/hotel/retail project, which will be composed of three towers with a maximum height of 155 feet with about 168 hotel units totaling 111,583 square feet, 554 luxury condominium residences and 87,900 square feet of retail space,” according to the cover letter included with the developer’s application to the city of Coral Gables.
To build the project as proposed, the prospective developer — a “contract purchaser” based in Minnesota called NP International USA LLC with Charles D. Nolan and Brent Reynolds — is seeking a number of revisions to current land-use and zoning regulations, according to government records.
Currently, the owner of record of the proposed development site is a Coconut Grove-based corporation called Gables Station LLC with Jeffrey L. Berkowitz that had previously announced plans to build a retail-and-parking facility with 330,000 square feet after acquiring the land in 2005, according to government records.
With this newest project, the Coral Gables area now has 17 new condo buildings with nearly 1,400 units announced in South Florida since this current cycle began in 2011, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com as of Monday. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)
The total number of new Coral Gables units for this cycle would have been even higher if not for earlier decisions by unrelated developers to revise the original plans of the proposed Collection Residences project with 126 units and the Antilla Coral Gables project with 32 units.
To date, developers have revised plans to build nearly 20 new condo buildings with nearly 2,900 units since 2011. Most of the units in question were to be developed in Miami-Dade, according to the data.
Overall, South Florida developers have already completed 57 new condo buildings with more than 4,300 units in the coastal tri-county South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. An additional 129 new condo buildings with more than 12,900 units are currently under construction in South Florida.
A combined 233 new condo buildings with nearly 33,000 units — about 66 percent of the total tri-county pipeline — are currently in the planning or presale phase of development in South Florida.
In the Coral Gables market, no new condo buildings have been completed to date during this cycle.
A trio of new condo buildings with a combined 265 units are currently under construction in the Coral Gables market as of Monday.
An additional 14 new condo buildings — including the newly announced Gables Station project — with more than 1,120 units are currently in the planning and presale phase of development in Coral Gables, according to the data.
The combination of announced units that are in the planning or presale phase of development represent more than 80 percent of the total number of condos in the pipeline for the Coral Gables market during this cycle.
The Coral Gables market ranks as South Florida’s ninth most active preconstruction condo market based on announced units.
On the resale front, buyers acquired 275 condo units last year for an average of nearly 23 transactions monthly, according to data from the Southeast Florida MLXchange.
Based on the 2015 resale statistics, the Coral Gables condo resale market currently has about 6.7 months of supply of units available for purchase.
A balanced market is considered to have about six months of resale supply available for purchase. More months of condo resale supply suggests a buyer’s market, and less months indicates a seller’s market.
While the supply of condo units is encouraging, the average resale transaction price per square foot in Coral Gables was unchanged at $320 in 2015, just as it was in the previous year of 2014, according to the data.
Currently, the average asking price for a condo resale unit available for purchase is $431 per square foot, according to the data.
West Palm Beach agreed to sell the site of its former city hall to developer Navarro Lowery for a mixed-used project anchored by an AC Hotel.The city commission approved the $11.5 million sales contract on Jan. 4 for the 2.3-acre site at 200 2nd Street, which has a water view. The deal also includes $1.5 million in tax increment repayments over five years plus a $1 million construction incentive through the city’s community reinvestment agency. The city agreed to approve the 410,000-square-foot project within 60 days of it being submitted.Meanwhile, the CRA will lease the neighboring waterfront site to Navarro Lowery for a restaurant and open space.The deals can close once development approvals are in place.
The development plan calls for a 180-room AC by Marriott Hotel, 6,500 square feet of meeting rooms, a rooftop bar and pool deck, 295 units for either live-work apartments or office suites, and 36,000 square feet of retail, including the 5,000-square-foot restaurant overlooking the water. It would have a 416-space parking garage.
Navarro Lowery, led by Frank E. Navarro, plans to transfer the hotel ownership to Concord Hospitality, according to city documents
While Palm Beach’s biggest firms have significantly less agents than those in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, their hooks remain the same: competitive commission splits, technology and in-house tools and training.
The Real Deal ranked real estate firms in Palm Beach County by the number of actively licensed agents and spoke to executives about recruiting strategies, commissions and top sales for the year.
Here are the top five:
#1 Keyes Company | 526 agents
Keyes has 11 offices and four satellites in Palm Beach County, president Mike Pappas said. The family-owned and operated firm targets a mix of newly licensed and experienced agents. Keyes is on track to reach $4.3 billion in sales this year, and hires more than 1,100 agents a year statewide.
While most of its agents are in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Keyes leads the ranking in Palm Beach. The brokerage also has an in-house corporate relocation program, based in West Palm Beach.
Keyes has recently refinished or relocated up to eight offices in Palm Beach County. “We think facilities still matter,” Pappas said.
Steve Reibel, vice president of recruiting, previously said that commission splits between the agent and company vary from 60 percent to nearly 90 percent, “pending the level of production.”
Pappas has said the firm is “very aggression on splits.”
#2 Coldwell Banker | 466 agents
Coldwell Banker has 10 offices in Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Jupiter Beach, Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens, West Palm Beach and Boynton Beach.
Duff Rubin, regional senior vice president, would not disclose the company’s commission split policy but said, “We as a company try to be more of a value-proposition brokerage,” including Coldwell Banker’s tools, management and support. “Commission splits are typically based on production. You’re only as good as your production,” he said.
The top sale in Palm Beach County was a single-family home at 600 Northeast Fifith Avenue in Boca Raton. Jonathan Postma had the listing for the property, which sold for $8.3 million.
Rich Fleischer, regional vice president of Coldwell Banker east central region of Florida, said sales are split evenly between condos and single-family homes. “We do not focus solely on one type of property or one specific price point. Our overall goal is to ensure that the customer has the best real estate experience possible, regardless of property type,” Fleischer said.
The company hires about 225 agents, a mix of experienced and newly licensed, in the county on an annual basis.
#3 Illustrated Properties | 435 agents
Illustrated Properties has 23 offices in Florida. The firm offers online marketing tools, a lead generation program, training classes and mentoring programs, according to its website.
The company also provides in-house marketing.
Debbie Zuloaga, director of recruiting, could not be reached for comment.
#4 ERA Home Run Real Estate | 373 agents
Home Run Real Estate hires about 50 agents a year, owner Debbie Smith said. The company has three offices in Palm Beach, including Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach and Lake Worth.
Smith said she doesn’t pay for recruiting, and that ERA’s technology brings the majority of her agents. Home Run offers services like a seller security program, a Palm Beach County auction department and a Zap platform for its agents. Smith also provides a real estate boot camp, which takes agents from contract to closing.
Home Run, which was founded in 2003 and affiliated with ERA in July, does not charge its agents monthly fees. Smith would not disclose its commission split policy. It’s closed about $200 million in transactions this year, Smith said.
#5 United Realty Group | 356 agents
United Realty Group offers 100 percent commissions with a flat per-transaction fee. The firm has four branches in Palm Beach County, according to Melanie Brownell, director of recruitment. It hires on average 20 agents a month.
The majority of sales in the county come from single-family homes, she said.
United Realty, which is in the tri-county area and Orlando, doesn’t charge its agents desk or franchise fees or provide training. It offers a 100 percent commission with a $299 transaction fee.
Year-to-date, United Realty has $810.3 million in sales. The firm has 13 offices with two additional locations opening early next year. Top sales this year include a commercial sale in West Palm Beach in August for $4.8 million.
Actress Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello will showcase the splendor of The Breakers when they celebrate their wedding at the famed Palm Beach resort Sunday evening.
Originally built in Palm Beach by railroad mogul Henry Flagler in 1896, the current version of The Breakers was erected in 1926 in a mix of different Italian Renaissance styles.
Long a venue for charity balls and galas, The Breakers is well suited for big events like the wedding of Vergara, the highest-paid television actress, according to Forbes magazine.
Vergara presumably can afford the pricier accommodations at The Breakers.
The Imperial Suite, for example, is a 1,700-square-foot apartment with its own kitchen, living room and dining area, available for $4,250 per night.
The top two floors of The Breakers comprise the new Flagler Club, a luxurious hotel-within-a-hotel with a dedicated staff, private lounge and terrace. Suites at the Flagler Club start $2,800 per night and require a three-night minimum purchase.
The Mediterranean ballroom, the most beautiful ballroom at The Breakers, is frequently the backdrop for big weddings, featuring large chandeliers and 15-foot windows with views of the Atlantic Ocean.
Spacious, Beautiful 1BR/1BA laminate floors,move in condition,lovely plantation shutters, back splash and tile counters on kitchen accordion hurricane shutters on sliding door The building directly on the intercostal ,24 hour doorman, gorgeous social room, newly renovated gym, heated pool located directly on the intercostal, look no further.
Find your listing .. Visit Our Sites USA Lending And Realty .. and The World For Sale
Visit Our Site For “Your full service mortgage and loan pros” … USA Lending Inc
To Search in Arabic .. Please Visit Istithmar USA
To Search in Spanish … Please visit propiedad para laventa
Visit the Miami Bright Education Foundation pages and read About it and its articles ….
Contact Emile Ur-cousin Farah
phone: (305) 754-1000
Email: farah@theworldforsale.net
For More information FOLLOW this steps :Investor-Commercial Users
Contact Nader Farah
Nader sells Miami
Nader is an expert
Nader Farah knows real estate
Nader knows more than anyone
Call Nader for all your real estate needs
Nader is the king of real estate
No one sells like Nader
Read More:
U.S. COMMERCIAL SERVICE
United States insurance companies
The top 10 commercial construction companies
CB&I
Whiting-Turner
Jacobs
KBR, Inc.
Skanska
PCL Construction Enterprises
Bechtel Corp
Fluor Corp
Kiewit
Turner Construction
Elegant yet understated, this stunning one story, waterfront residence has close access to Intracoastal with no fixed bridges. Comfortable north-south exposure on spacious lot of .38 acres. Located in highly desirable Maheu Estates, this property has 100 feet of waterfront with dock of 80 feet and 12,000 lb. boat lift.
OCEAN DRIVE’S NEWEST ADDRESS.
Costa Hollywood is nestled in the heart of Hollywood Beach, just steps from the expansive coastline. Centrally positioned between Miami and Palm Beach, Hollywood Beach offers guests a chance to indulge in sun and sand while providing iconic shopping, dining and entertainment scenes all within Costa Hollywood.
Building Features
Links For the world:
5 OF THE BEST LANDMARKS: BEIJING
List of tallest buildings in Beijing
Spanish Empire
The Rise of Russia and the ‘End of the World’
The formation of rises in Rio de Janeiro [Brazil]
beirutterraces
1338 Mina El Hosn
Pinwheel
land mark
3beirut
List of tallest buildings in Dubai
Casa Costa is located between Palm Beach and Boca Raton on the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway. Offering spacious one, two and three bedroom residences, Casa Costa features expansive views of the Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic Ocean.
All residences include upscale detailing and finishes, including floor-to-ceiling windows, island kitchens, custom Italian cabinetry, granite countertops and private balconies.
Located on the Intercoastal waterway in Palm Beach County only a short drive from Delray to the south and West Palm to the north.
Building Amenities
Residence Features
Sales of apartment properties totaled a record $2.8 billion in South Florida last year, according to CBRE’s multifamily market update, as new residents flocked to the area and people continued to shift from homeownership to rentals.
Developers and other real estate professionals think the trend will continue for now, though things could get overheated in the future, especially at the top end of the market. “There’s been a lot of chatter about a bubble, but for the next two years things look fine,” Don Ginsburg, CEO of Realty Master Advisors in Fort Lauderdale, said.
As for the population numbers, South Florida’s population rose by 361,000, or 6.5 percent in the last five years. And Nielsen estimates the population will increase another 377,670, or 6.4 percent, over the next five years. Meanwhile, the national homeownership rate slid to 63.7 percent in the third quarter of 2015, near a 30-year low. “Those factors are fueling demand,” Ginsburg said.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a slam dunk for everyone, says Nader Salour, a principal at Cypress Realty of Florida, a multifamily developer based in Jupiter. “Developers need to be very careful both where they build and building a project with the right style,” he said.
Cypress just opened the first phase of its $120 million Loftin Place apartment project at 805 North Olive Avenue in West Palm Beach. “The quality of finishes and amenities are very different at Loftin and nicer than rental projects even 10 years ago,” Salour said. That’s what people demand from a project on the northern edge of downtown West Palm Beach, he said.
The good news for multifamily developers is that people of all ages are interested in apartments — from millennials who can’t afford to buy a home yet to empty-nest baby boomers who are looking to return to urban areas. “We have people of all ages in Loftin, not just 25 to 35,” Salour said. “The universe of potential users is far greater than the last 10 to 20 years.”
Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach, sees risk on the horizon. “If rental rates get so high that the vast majority of the population can’t afford available units, there is a chance we’re getting into bubble territory,” he said. Effective rents rose 5.8 percent in Miami-Dade County last year, following a 4.8 percent increase in 2014, leaving the average rent at $1,197 a month, or $1.44 per square foot, according to CBRE.
“Probably 35 percent of renters in South Florida are paying more than 50 percent of their income, and 28 percent is a good number,” McCabe said. “The vast majority of new units are Class A. Maybe 5 percent are affordable units.” So the top end may be turning into a bubble, he said. “Low-priced units if anything are underdeveloped.”
Costs are a problem, McCabe and others say. Land costs, construction material costs and labor costs are soaring, they say. That makes developers reluctant to take on affordable housing projects. Salour feels the problem first hand. “Usually the rule of the jungle applies, and developers won’t overpay” for a property, he said. “If developers do overpay, then they are forced to build expensive projects, and the market may not be there for that price.”