National market report

Commercial and residential real estate news from around the U.S.

A rendering of an apartment listed for $55 million in Miami
A rendering of an apartment listed for $55 million in Miami

Miami

A penthouse at the Trump Group’s under-construction Mansions at Acqualina development hit the market last month for $55 million, becoming one of the most expensive condos for sale in the U.S. and the most expensive condo on the market in Miami, the Miami Herald reported. Michael Goldstein of Acqualina Realty has the listing for the so-called Palazzo D’Oro, a 15,000-square-foot duplex with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. The unit, furnished by Fendi Casa, has a pool overlooking the ocean, stadium-style movie theater, 25-foot waterfall, wine cellar and 5,000-square-foot outdoor terrace. According to the listings website Movoto, Miami’s median condo asking price was $275,900 last month. That’s up 35 percent from the same time in 2012. The city has an inventory of 2,820 condos, an 18 percent drop from the same month of last year.

 

Minneapolis

The Twin Cities’ suburban office market is still struggling in the wake of the recession, the Star Tribune reported last month. The vacancy rate in the Southwest Metro suburban office market only improved marginally in 2012, falling to 17.2 percent from 17.7 percent in 2011, according to figures from Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq. Several large chunks of office space remain available, such as the former offices of  Delta Air Lines and Blue Cross Blue Shield in Eagan, Alliant Techsystems in Eden Prairie and State Farm Insurance in Woodbury. Best Buy is planning to sublease about 200,000 square feet of its corporate campus in Richfield, and Supervalu plans to vacate more than 150,000 square feet of its office space in Chanhassen this year. The former Lockheed Martin office complex in Eagan, meanwhile, is now slated to become a lifestyle shopping center. But commercial brokers said there are signs the office market is beginning to improve. “You’re starting to see companies renewing [leases] for longer terms like five years,” said Mark Stevens, an associate vice president at Cassidy Turley. “For the past three years, people were asking for one-year, even six-month renewals because they were so uncertain about the future.”

 

Malibu

Billionaire investment manager Howard Marks sold his 9.5-acre Malibu estate to a Russian couple for roughly $75 million, the Wall Street Journal reported last month. The deal is the most expensive sale on record in Malibu and is among the highest price ever paid in the U.S. for a single-family house. The eight-bedroom home, which had been quietly shopped for around $125 million but was never officially listed, is one of the largest pieces of oceanfront property in Malibu. In addition to the 15,000-square-foot main house, the property contains two guesthouses, a gym and a swimming pool. Marks, chairman of Los Angeles–based Oaktree Capital Management, and his wife Nancy completed a renovation of the property in 2008 with Michael Smith, the designer who redid the White House Oval Office a few years ago. Fred Bernstein of Westside Estate Agency represented the sellers, who bought the home in 2002 for $31 million.

 

Iowa

Along with a group of investors, Baseball Hall-of-Famer Wade Boggs has  purchased the Iowa baseball field and farmhouse immortalized in the movie “Field of Dreams,” the New York Daily News reported. The group, dubbed Go the Distance Baseball LLC, paid $3.4 million to buy the famous 193-acre farm from the family that had owned it. The original listing price for the Dyersville property two years ago was $5.4 million. The new owners plan to construct a youth baseball and softball complex on the site while preserving the farmhouse and other parts of the property featured in the movie. Construction is slated to begin later this year.

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Los Angeles 

Psy

South Korean musician Psy, of “Gangnam Style” fame, closed on a Westwood condo for $1.2 million, the Los Angeles Times reported. The two-bedroom is located in Blair House, a high-rise development in the Wilshire Corridor neighborhood of Los Angeles and has a saltwater swimming pool and a tennis court. Jane Siegal and Holly Davis of Coldwell Banker had the listing.

 

Nashville 

Carrie Underwood’s former home in Franklin, Tenn.

Country music star Carrie Underwood sold her modest home in the Nashville suburb of Franklin for $372,500, ABC News reported. The “American Idol” winner purchased the 2,956-square-foot custom home for $384,000 in 2005, according to CMT News. But Underwood and her husband, Mike Fisher, bought a 400-acre plot of land in Nashville in 2011 for $3.2 million, where they reportedly plan to build their dream home.

Pacific Palisade 

Singer Rihanna bought a Pacific Palisades home for $12 million, AOL reported. The house, which measures 11,000 square feet, comes with a pool and 6,000-square-foot garden. According to Curbed.com, the seven-bedroom home was built in 2010.