Andre Balazs and the Raleigh Hotel

From the South Florida Web site: Brilla Group, the Miami-based real estate private equity firm, and Chicago-based real estate investment company AJ Captial Partners have joined forces to acquire Andre Balazs’ Raleigh Hotel, the South Beach landmark, in an all-cash transaction estimated at $30 million. The New York hotelier had previously announced plans to sell the property, which was designed by Murray Dixon and remodeled in 2004, explaining that he wanted to focus on his Standard chain, which has branches in New York and Los Angeles. Raleigh’s new owners plan to keep the hotel fully operational throughout the transition and to explore repositioning the property in the long-term. TRD [more]

Developer Michael Samuel doesn’t hesitate to say he likes building in
Miami better than other cities. Before coming to South Florida,
Samuel’s portfolio included projects in New York City, San Francisco
and Baltimore.
“I like building in Miami better because there are more opportunities
and it’s ahead of the rest of the country in design,” he said. “As a
developer in New York City, you’re very limited in what you can build
and every time you went for a project, before this crisis, there were a
hundred people behind you.”
Samuel, principal of Miami-based Samuel & Co., which built the $2.3
billion Midtown Miami mixed-use project along with New York-based real
estate investment firm Midtown Equities of New York, got his start in
Brooklyn, where he grew up, collecting rent payments from tenants at
properties his father owned. He went into construction, then property
management, investment and consulting. Development was the next logical
step, he said. Comments

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