🗞️ The troubled dealings at the root of Brandon Miller’s real estate company | Inside the October 2024 Issue

Inside the latest issue of The Real Deal Oct 02, 2024 [View in Browser]( [Share](   [Magazine Cover Image]( The circumstances are getting better for real estate, and it’s not just because of lower interest rates. We are in a more pro-housing environment than in the past. In her platform, Vice President Kamala Harris focuses on building 3 million new homes to ease the affordable housing crunch. Presidential candidates don’t often talk about housing that much, so it is creating a buzz. New York state passed new incentives for developers this spring. And in the city, the Adams administration is pushing the City of Yes plan, which will update zoning requirements and spur building. Even far-left politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are writing editorials in the New York Times about the need to build more housing, albeit through a new federal agency, which seems impractical — something that wouldn’t have happened a year or two ago. California too is pulling out the stops to build. Last month Governor Newsom signed more than 30 bills aimed at spurring housing. And San Francisco, whose business district was hardest hit by Covid effects, appears poised to elect more moderate politicians who will aggressively combat high office vacancies and safety and homelessness concerns, a step in the right direction. Now here is the bad part: the indictment of New York’s Mayor Eric Adams last month. Adams, now facing federal corruption charges, is pro-housing and pro-business. How much of his agenda will be undermined by the turmoil surrounding his administration? The real estate industry has supported the mayor, but it’s worth asking if that was a devil’s bargain. He was pro-real estate, but at what cost? Real estate may have looked the other way all along, when what appeared to be a fast-and-loose approach to the job showed up in everything from Adams’ selection of appointees to his love of nightlife. We’ll see if the mayor hangs in there until the next election in 2025, but for the real estate industry, there aren’t a ton of palatable alternatives. Candidates like Brad Lander, current city comptroller, are not exactly beloved by real estate (see [the Closing interview](). Hopefully, the City of Yes won’t become the City of Mess. It’s not like New York doesn’t have other cities nipping at its heels. The city arguably lost ground to other parts of the country during Covid. And New York’s dominance when it comes to the finance sector isn’t a given. Just take a look at “[Y’All Street](,” Dallas’s answer to Wall Street, where a ton of new building is being planned for the likes of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. It’s not just the mayor who has problems. Distress in the market turns into personal distress, too. In our cover story this month, reporters Elizabeth Cryan and Jess Hardin piece together how high-flying, risk-loving [developers deal with disaster](. Faced with adversity, some developers “bluff and borrow their way through the low points; others collapse, disappear,” they write. Last November, Los Angeles multifamily developer Artem Tepler died by suicide after a string of bad deals that he personally guaranteed. New York developer [Brandon Miller took his own life]( in July. Both “were reminders of the sometimes debilitating stress of the job,” Cryan and Hardin write. But it doesn’t have to be that way. For developer Eric Brody, who had to hand back the keys to an Upper East Side condo project during the Covid years, the low point kicked off a journey that involved personal growth — even if it was a tough path. “The biggest thing that I learned when I was in the MMA fight of my life getting the shit kicked out of me is that it’s really a personal experience,” he said. Brody learned to “sit within his discomfort” and feel grateful for the food on the table and roof over his head, he said. For developer Josh Schuster, who faced defaults and lawsuits over his projects, the biggest regret was not asking for support sooner. “People need to know that it’s OK to ask for help,” he said, “especially when dark thoughts enter your head.” Enjoy the [issue](. Editor's Note Stuart Elliott Editor-in-Chief & CEO   If you’re interested in receiving future magazine issues in print, sign up for our [annual subscription](. Save $20 OFF with promo code: MAG20 [SUBSCRIBE NOW](   Inside the family feud of the multibillion-dollar Sol Goldman empire As Sol Goldman’s loved ones sat shiva for him in late 1987, the matter of who would lead his vast empire loomed as large as the Chrysler Building. Goldman, widely acknowledged as the most successful real estate investor of his time, had spoken with each of his four adult children about his will, which named his youngest daughter Jane and her brother Allan as co-executors of his estate. In the 35 years following Sol’s death, the Goldman family maintained a quiet — if delicate — prosperity. The adamantly private family has avoided the limelight that comes with running one of New York’s largest real estate portfolios. (These things are tough to put a figure on, but it’s been said to be worth anywhere from $4 billion to $16 billion.) But that peace was shattered two and a half years ago when Allan died at age 78 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. Since then, his 33-year-old son, Steven, and Allan's sister Amy have challenged Jane’s control of the family business in a bitter affair their attorneys likened to a real-life version of the HBO show “Succession.” [READ MORE](   [Image]( How high-flying, risk-loving real estate executives deal with disaster Josh Schuster’s phone was blowing up. Six of his development projects were sidelined by the pandemic. Work at a Second Avenue development stopped due to Covid closures, leaving a gaping hole in the ground. Schuster applied for a special permit to lay the foundation, then was shut down again by the Department of Buildings. Defaults were mounting. Schuster faced several lawsuits, and his company, Silverback, was falling apart. Missed phone calls and voicemails buzzed in from investors, lenders, lawyers, contractors and other people looking to get paid. Schuster had to get a second phone to handle personal calls. Young and blinded by ambition, Schuster maintained an image of success long after the reality had crumbled.   [Image]( Tides’ turnaround strategy: total transparency Sean Kia and Ryan Andrade took the stage at the Beverly Wilshire last month and dumped out a bag of Tides Equities’ dirty laundry. Some of it the audience had smelled before. There were the sweeping capital calls last summer, the dozens of lifeline loan modifications, the more than $1 billion in floating-rate debt on the verge of default and, most pressingly, the foreclosures shrinking Tides’ multifamily empire. But the Tides guys, fresh-faced and well-prepped, didn’t show up to self-flagellate over old news. Especially not before a home crowd. The Los Angeles-based principals were there to do business and, somewhat surprisingly, that meant copping to their mistakes.   [Image]( LA’s top contractors find work in sleepy market Ryan Hekmat has a personal saying scrawled in big, bold letters across his office wall: “Build the best quality of product. Build faster than anyone can. Build at the cheapest price that anyone could ever build.” “I am so often saying we can never sacrifice one for the other. You have to be all three,” said Hekmat, co-founder and co-managing partner of Bedrock Properties, which acquires, operates, develops and constructs mostly multifamily and office under its Uncommon Developers and Uncommon Builders subsidiaries. Apparently by paying close attention to this motto, Uncommon Builders rose from No. 18 last year to No. 5 on The Real Deal’s ranking of the top 10 general contractors by project size, with 15 permits totaling 1.1 million square feet.   [Image]( How Goldentayer’s game won her a top spot in Miami luxury real estate Dina Goldentayer sits at the apex of ultra-luxury real estate in Miami. She has closed deals involving billionaire Jeff Bezos, tennis pro Caroline Wozniacki and former celebrity couple Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner. Her sales volume has exceeded $2 billion annually since 2021, and at Douglas Elliman, she’s been the firm’s No. 1 individual agent for two years running. At the center of her ascent is an image, crafted carefully on social media. Goldentayer, 42, has more than 100,000 followers on her Instagram account, @goldendina. Online, Goldentayer is direct, playful and inviting, sometimes even silly. These are qualities she possesses in real life, too. She dresses up for themed video shoots and offers glimpses of her family life. But social media is a projection.   [Image]( Uptown Dallas’ $1B transformation into Y’all Street Unlike Wall Street, Y’all Street began as an idea. A cheeky signifier for Dallas-Fort Worth’s rising prominence in the financial world. Maybe even a counterweight to New York City supremacy. The moniker was first used in a 1998 Texas Monthly article about the success of Texas stocks, but it was reclaimed to describe Dallas’ growing financial power around 2016. Today, the Metroplex is dotted with sprawling campuses for companies compelled enough by the state’s business-friendliness and lower cost of living to make the move to Texas.   [The Closing: Brad Lander]( INTERVIEWS WITH REAL ESTATE TITANS [Image]( The City Comptroller and 2025 mayoral hopeful on running without real estate industry support and the legal scandal engulfing the current administration   City Comptroller Brad Lander bought a two-bedroom co-op in Park Slope Brooklyn in the 1990s for $125,000, the kind of home ownership opportunity that has disappeared from the city, especially the tree-lined streets of brownstone Brooklyn. Home ownership is a key part of Lander’s housing platform as he vies to unseat Mayor Eric Adams in 2025. He’s also putting forth social housing models, including limited equity cooperatives, and he has a strategy he thinks will help the city build more housing — helping New Yorkers “see themselves,” in growth. Hours after news broke on Sept. 25 that Adams had been indicted on five federal corruption charges, Lander called for the mayor to step down and offered his help to the public. “At this urgent moment, the city’s leaders must focus on how we can best enable steady governance so that New York City can move forward and thrive,” he wrote on X. “As the comptroller of the city, I will do everything I can to help ensure this happens.” Though he has pushed legislation that promotes nonprofit housing development, Lander says the housing shortage should also be addressed through private development and more social housing options. [Read full story here →]( [FULL ISSUE HERE]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [YouTube]( [Share]( | [Manage Newsletters]( | [Unsubscribe](list=Subscribers + Engaged) | [Privacy Policy]( | [Subscribe]( | [Advertise]( The Real Deal 450 West 31st Street, New York, NY 10001 ©2024 TheRealDeal. All rights reserved. [View Online](