Welcome to the second presidency of Donald J. Trump.
This is our first issue post-election, so let’s do a rundown of where things landed in terms of the real estate industry.
First, is Trump in office going to be good for real estate?
Trump’s tariffs will likely lead to more inflation, and mortgage rates edged up after the election, crimping the residential market. That’s not great. But this is a developer-in-chief, after all, and if he makes expected tax cuts, that could help the industry.
The Opportunity Zone program Trump pushed during his first term is another policy to keep an eye on: It gives tax breaks to projects in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Trump’s appointment to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner, worked as part of a council that promoted the zones during the first Trump administration, so that could be a possible boon for the industry.
Not surprisingly, some of Trump’s other appointments have come from real estate, among them developer Steve Witkoff (as special envoy to the Middle East, a page out of the Jared Kushner playbook) and Newmark chair Howard Lutnick (as commerce secretary). We take a look at Trump’s brain trust on page 24.
But the biggest local story of the election was out on the West Coast, where voters chose moderates over far left progressives in a number of races, including for San Francisco mayor and Los Angeles District Attorney, an important law-and-order position. Voters want a tougher stance on crime and homelessness issues. Real estate took those as wins.
Finally, in New York, the mayor (even though he is indicted), watched his signature plan to build more housing sail through the City Council. The City of Yes made it past all the major hurdles, another boon for builders.
The irony is that Kamala Harris’s campaign to build 3 million new homes in the U.S. helped create buzz around building housing, and that got the far-left more supportive of development in general (despite the fact that real estate developers are viewed as bad guys). That said, local politics could still move further left in general as a reaction against Trump being back in the Oval Office (see page 26).
So while it is completely unclear what a Trump presidency will bring, there is a lot happening in real estate’s favor right now.
Elsewhere in the issue we have a story on Great Neck, the Long Island enclave where a ton of real estate’s big players live or grew up. Back in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s day, that’s where part of “The Great Gatsby” was set, and today well-connected Persian entrepreneurs call it home — we get at the special sauce for why this community has spawned so many real estate machers in a story on page 32.
Another story in the issue examines the culture wars and woke-ism through a real estate prism. We tell the story of a battle over the real estate curriculum and leadership at Columbia University’s real estate program, where many big players have cut their teeth (if they weren’t born into the business in places like Great Neck). See page 42.
Meanwhile, there is more drama surrounding Douglas Elliman — not the Alexander brothers’ alleged assaults during their time at the brokerage, nor the more recent departure of chairman Howard Lorber — but this time lawsuits surrounding the brokerage’s West Coast operations. Check out our story on page 28.
Finally, we explore the investors taking advantage of the current dislocations in the market, and the weakness of the office sector in particular. Adi Chugh’s TYKO Capital has emerged as one of real estate’s biggest lenders, with no plans of slowing down (see page 46). And retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. (worth some $400 million himself) has been on a surprising big-dollar tear in New York and Miami. We break down his investment strategy on page 44. His nickname is “Money,” for good reason.
Enjoy the issue!