Vanilla Ice talks to The Real Deal about his real estate career

Van Winkle’s new show, “The Vanilla Ice Project,” highlights a budding real estate empire

Vanilla Ice

From the South Florida website: In the early 1990s, Robert Van Winkle, a.k.a. Vanilla Ice, took the music world by storm with his album, “To The Extreme,” and “Ice Ice Baby,” the first hip-hop single to be number one on Billboard. But Vanilla Ice also has an extensive history in real estate, beginning with a series of smart purchases around the country in his late teens, and now a broad house flipping and remodeling empire. Now, Vanilla Ice, 42, has a new show premiering on the DIY Network this fall, “The Vanilla Ice Project,” on which he and his team of remodelers completely gut and renovate a foreclosed Wellington mansion. He also has created Car Lofts in Delray Beach, a new garage-condo hybrid concept, with garages on the first floor and loft apartments on the second, something he envisions as a national franchise. Wellington resident Van Winkle, whose record with British band Jedward rose to number one in the United Kingdom, talked to The Real Deal about his investment history, how he got into house flipping and his real estate future. [more]