A Macher's Mystery Death & Murdoch Mission Control

The Mystery Death of a Macher

On Tuesday, OKO Group’s Aman New York heralded the $66M sale of a luxury condo that the developer says sets a new high-water mark for Manhattan pricing, at north of $11,000 a foot. On Thursday, the same property was the scene of a much darker headline: a man in his early 30s shot & killed himself in one of its swanky hotel rooms.

“Emergency services were called and responded to an incident in a room involving a guest,” the hotel said in a statement, declining to comment further.

That guest, The Promote has learned, was real estate investor Mendy Steiner, a Brooklyn-based multifamily dealmaker who controlled over 3K units nationally through various entities, some on which he used an alias, Andreas. News of Steiner’s death spread rapidly in the frum community, first through the Whatsapp groups and later through the Orthodox publications.

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Steiner (Cont.)

Steiner, whose body was attended to at the scene by nonprofit Misaskim, was laid to rest Thursday night at an Orthodox chapel in Brooklyn. It’s unclear exactly how big Steiner’s empire was, given his tendency to use multiple holdcos and names – one clear tie appears to be Aven Realty, which according to Apartments.com controls nearly 3,300 units across 10 cities. Steiner has also popped up in press mentions in Hollywood, Florida, where he was subject to foreclosure actions, and in Baltimore.

Almost immediately after we learned of the death Thursday, people started sending through an explosive Rockland County lawsuit, in which real estate attorney Mark Nussbaum, Steiner’s longtime associate, is named as a defendant. The suit, brought by nursing-home investor Jacob Sod (Crestview 360), alleges that Nussbaum, who’s connected to a web of in-the-news dealmakers such as Shaya Prager and Aron Puretz, failed to return $15M in escrow capital by an agreed-upon date. Multiple sources active in the community said the rapid-fire action taken by Sod – the Jan. 8 suit was filed less than 24h after Nussbaum allegedly reneged on the deadline – is important context to understand Steiner – we’ll learn more about what that means in the coming days. (TRD also reported Friday on a 2nd Nussbaum lawsuit, alleging fraudulent transfers over a Florida deal)

More: I’d urge you to read our special ed. on the extreme pressures of the CRE business - and how those pressures can contribute to irreversible decisions

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call/ text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the US, or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Go here for resources outside the US.

Ownership Shuffle at Murdoch Mission Control

Scott Rechler is now co-landlord to perhaps the most influential media conglomerate in the Western world: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. & Fox 🦊 Rechler’s RXR bought a 49% stake in 1211 Ave of the Americas from Ivanhoé Cambridge (CRE arm of bigwig Quebec pension fund Caisse), per Bloomberg. RXR will run the 2M sf tower, give it a $300M+ glow-up and co-pilot financing talks w/ lenders – the tower’s $1B in debt comes due this summer.

Murdochworld occupies 55% of the tower, and is staying put through 2042. One big void to fill, however, is Ropes & Gray 💼, which is exiting its 300K sf digs in favor of the nearby RXR-owned 1285 Sixth.

“Other deals we’ve done, LPs just wanted to get away from office,” Rechler told the publication. But Ivanhoé opting to stay in the tower “shows some real conviction about where the New York market is going.” The deal was done at an undisclosed valuation, but we’d bet it’s at a steep discount to the $1.8B+ valuation at which Ivanhoé took full control of the building back in ‘16. Another nugget: The deal was advised upon by Newmark’s Harmon & Spies (usual suspects), but also Strategic Capital’s Henry Winterstern… who? Some archives-diving reveals a certain Henry Winterstern who is a film financier, who once ran a firm, CDP Capital Entertainment, backed by… the Caisse. 🥁 

We can safely say that the conversation around 1211 would be a lot different if Murdoch hadn’t pulled the plug in ‘16 on a decision to relocate to Larry Silverstein’s 2 WTC, an eleventh-hour about-face that sent Larry back to the drawing board – 8Y on, he’s still trying to get an anchor tenant to swipe right so he can get the damn thing built.

Fire & Brimstone

We’re still in the thick of a horrific series of L.A.-area fires that has so far left 10 people dead and over 9K properties damaged/destroyed, and I’d encourage you to ignore the Twitterati on this and follow established outlets who have reported on this kind of stuff before – whatever your politics, on things like this they are your best bet despite their flaws. Covering this kind of thing is way beyond the scope of this publication, so just wanted to extract a couple of CRE-related nuggets:

• Developer Rick Caruso, who was bested in the mayoral race by Karen Bass, is pulling no punches in his criticism of her response: “There's no water coming out of the fire hydrants. This is an absolute mismanagement by the city," Caruso said. 🧯 His Palisades Village development, which includes the Bay Theater, has mostly emerged unscathed, even as nearby properties got incinerated. How? Private firefighters that he deployed.

• CRE investor Keith Wasserman of Gelt (who I know) faced the wrath of the “eat the rich” Twitter mob when on Tuesday night, he asked if anyone could hook him up w/ private firefighters to protect his Palisades home. The grossly vitriolic online response to what was admittedly a tone-deaf query resurfaced debates about class & privilege in times of extreme duress.

• Black Lion’s Robert Rivani lost a Malibu mansion in the blaze, and went Full Metal Jacket on lawmakers for what he perceived as gross incompetence. “Wtfffff is wrong with you people, where does all the tax money go? Oh that’s right corrupt politicians !!!!!”

Quickies

• 🎥 3 takeaways from the Blackstone-Norges lovefest 

• Camber (Rick Gropper) closes $845M East New York Mitchell-Lama megadeal – seller was RY Management (Robert Vaccarello)

• Phase 3/Bain JV lands $484M Brookfield debt package for Bay Area lifesci complex 🧪

• America has a glut of higher-end apartments 🏗️ 

• Buoyed by record leasing deals, office developers plan new top-shelf projects (See also: Single-Malt Buildings 🥃 )

• Fisher Bros score record Nevada C-PACE loan ($108M) for Vegas entertainment complex 🎲 

• CRE-CLO issuance expected to double to $17B+ 

Unquotable Quotes

The Promote @ CREFC

🌴 I’ll be posting up around the Loews Miami Beach starting Sunday eve, likely until Wed. If you’re around and fancy a chat, just reply to this email and we’ll make it happen. Also, please invite me to all the good stuff. #LongMiami #LongHugs