The Real Deal New York

Colonial House Inn at 318 West 22nd Street and Mel Cheren, former owner of the inn

Leonard Franzblau, founder of the Pioneer Supermarkets chain and a stakeholder in residential rental brokerage Manhattan Apartments, has sold the Colonial House Inn in Chelsea for $4 million, according to property records filed Tuesday.

The 20-room bed and breakfast was founded by the late music mogul and gay rights activist Mel Cheren, who opened up his brownstone at 318 West 22nd Street, between Eighth and Ninth avenues, to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis in 1982, and then transformed the building into an inn three years later. [more]

Andrew Stone, head of Petra, and the Jasper at 114 East 32nd Street

Real estate investment firm Petra Capital Management, which took control of an unfinished Ismael Leyva-designed condominium conversion in Murray Hill in October, has found a buyer for the property, the Jasper at 114 East 32nd Street, sources with knowledge of the deal told The Real Deal today.

Petra, which loaned $95 million to developer and Harch Group founder Harry Jeremias for the Jasper in 2007 and later filed to foreclose when Jeremias defaulted, signed a contract with a purchaser who was “not local,” one source said, while another speculated that the buyer was a Turkish company seeking to convert the property to an extended stay hotel. The sale price is $55 million, the source said. [more]

The Coney Island boardwalk

More details on One Lincoln Plaza’s pet policy, and its possible contributions to dog owner’s suicide. Owner of Steve’s Grill House on Coney Island boardwalk vows to take whole building with him when he leaves. Trump says Romney can beat Obama. Courtney Love moves out of West 10th Street townhouse she allegedly set on fire. Rossrock head paid 102 percent of his taxable income despite the fact that he could carry the interest. Finally, Newt Gingrich says “elites” ride the subways in Manhattan. Read these stories and more after the jump.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's Malibu home sold for $12 million.

From the February issue: Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie sold their Malibu home in December for $12 million to Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, according to People magazine. The 4,100-square-foot spread, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, consists of two separate houses, a pool and a tennis court. The top floor of the beachfront mansion was designed for Pitt and Jolie by environmentally conscious architect Christopher Sorensen. What could drag the glamorous Jolie-Pitts away from all this? According to the Daily Mail, Jolie recently surprised Pitt by purchasing him a waterfall near L.A. Pitt, an architecture buff, is planning to build an ambitious house over the falls in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Pitt and Jolie also own homes in Hollywood, New Orleans, the Valpolicella region of Northern Italy and the South of France. DeGeneres and De Rossi, meanwhile, put their 12,000-square-foot Beverly Hills home on the market this fall for $49 million. [more]

A rendering of 19 Park Place

Construction of a new 21-story residential condominium building at 19 Park Place is slated to begin in the next few weeks, according to the Tribeca Citizen. The site, on the north side of Park Place between Church Street and Broadway, is being developed by ABN Realty, with a design by architect Ismael Leyva. Work on the “sliver” building — so called for its narrow façade that measures just 25 feet wide – is expected to continue through 2013. [Tribeca Citizen]

Ofer Yardeni, managing partner at Stonehenge

Stonehenge Partners has hired commercial leasing pro Luciana Francese as director of retail leasing, the company said today. Francese, who was previously director of leasing at G&S Investors, will oversee the company’s commercial portfolio, which consists of over 750,000 square feet of retail, office and garage space in Manhattan.

Francese has a “great reputation and track record in successfully repositioning commercial properties,” said Ofer Yardeni, a managing partner of Stonehenge. “She will help us maximize the value of the commercial component of our portfolio.” [more]

From left: Lloyd Goldman, president of BLDG, and 888 Lexington Avenue

Property owner Lloyd Goldman is on a bit of a roll. He’s closed on or in contract to buy at least three small retail properties over the last four months in Manhattan and says there are more to come.

Most recently Goldman, president of BLDG Management, which is one of the major commercial owners in the city, acquired the two-story commercial property at 888 Lexington Avenue on the corner of 65th Street Jan. 24 for $13.25 million from Allen Rosenberg’s struggling Alrose Group, city property records published yesterday show. [more]

Downtown Miami

From the South Florida website: Sao Paulo. Caracas. Mexico City. Toronto. Buyers from cities like those have been driving Miami’s residential market since the worst of the condominium bust. And although it was largely overshadowed in the foreign buyer shuffle, New York City residents are heading back to Florida with money in hand.

“[New York buyers] are very, very real and very active,” said Phil Spiegelman, principal of brokerage ISG. “It’s tangible, and it’s happening at properties across the board.” [more]

Francis O'Shea (top), Jed Garfield (bottom) and 20 East 64th Street

Francis O’Shea, an agent at Leslie J. Garfield & Co., has left the boutique brokerage for a sales and business development position at Wind Analytics, a start-up that develops software to assess the effectiveness of wind power sites, The Real Deal has learned.

“I guess being a real estate broker for the rest of my life just wasn’t for me,” said O’Shea, who officially left the firm in December. “There’s certainly an opportunity to make a lot of money in that business, but there [are] lot of things that the real estate brokerage industry just didn’t offer me as a career option.” [more]