Jeffrey Epstein’s secret deal with Andrew Farkas, Rudin family to sell FiDi office tower: Daily digest

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The We Company is planning to go public as soon as September. The $47 billion flexible-office provider is in talks for a sizable debt facility that would give a boost to its initial public offering. [WSJ]

All is not well in Jimmy Buffett’s famously laid-back Margaritaville. Newmark Knight Frank is suing the restaurant and hotel chain for breach of contract, claiming that it purposefully froze the brokerage out of its deal for a major development at 560 Seventh Avenue. Sharif El-Gamal is co-developing the Times Square project with brothers chip and Andrew Weiss. [TRD]

Jeffrey Epstein and Andrew Farkas (Credit: Getty Images and Island Capital Group)

Jeffrey Epstein has been a quiet investor in Andrew Farkas’ Caribbean port since 2007. Just a year after abuse allegations against Epstein made headlines, Farkas, whose family built Alexander’s department store, reportedly made Epstein a silent partner in a small marina on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The new connection opened Epstein to New York’s business and political elite. [Bloomberg]

Robert K. Futterman (Credit: Getty Images)

Robert K. Futterman was arrested for the second time in two weeks. He was taken into custody Tuesday in connection with a crash that seriously injured a mother and young child in the Hamptons. The former head of his eponymous retail brokerage, RKF, was unceremoniously fired in May after erratic behavior at company events. He was arrested following a boating accident a week earlier. [TRD]

Realogy’s market cap and stock jumped 19 percent Tuesday after it announced a homebuying partnership with Amazon. It is welcome news for the brokerage conglomerate, whose market cap dropped below $1 billion for the first time this year. It is now trading at $705 million. [TRD]

Despite the words of their family patriarch, the Rudins have sold. Joseph Chetrit and his family are in contract to buy the Rudin family’s office building at 1 Whitehall Street for $182 million. It is reportedly being sold to settle estate taxes linked to the death of Jack Rudin, the family patriarch who died in 2016. A Cushman & Wakefield team led by Adam Spies and Doug Harmon brokered the deal on behalf of the Rudins.  [NYP]

Carta, a valuation software firm, is moving to One World Trade. The 36,000-square-foot space on the 81st floor pencils out to $82 a square foot. The San Francisco-based firm had previously bid for the floor above, but lost out last month to another tenant. It will move from its location at 515 Greenwich Street. [NYP]

Proptech entrepreneur Ari Teman is facing bank fraud charges. The founder of door-entry system GateGuard, and SubletSpy, a service to aide landlords in identifying illegal Airbnb rentals, was arrested this month after allegedly depositing 27 counterfeited checks totaling $297,000 at a bank branch in South Florida. He has denied all charges. [TRD]

Online retailer Moda Operandi has signed an 83,685-square-foot lease with L&L Holding Company at 195 Broadway. It is moving from Jack Resnick & Sons 315 Hudson Street, where Google is expanding its footprint as part of its Hudson Square campus. [CO]

FROM THE CITY’S RECORDS:

Commercial sales:
Blue Sky Real Estate Services & Development bought 3060 Broadway in Morningside Heights for $47 million. CGA Mortgage Capital provided $51.93 million in financing for the acquisition. [ACRIS 1,2]

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia bought four commercial condos at 886 United Nations Plaza in Midtown East for $59.2 million. [ACRIS]

Residential sales
An anonymous buyer acquired a sponsored unit at 220 Central Park South on the Upper West Side for $14.6 million. [ACRIS]

Financing:
F&T Group refinanced its Tangram South residential development at 136-20 38th Avenue in Flushing with a $163 million mortgage from Shanghai Commercial Bank. [ACRIS]

Compiled by David Jeans