Once upon a time, developers craved trophy properties like The Plaza Hotel.
A series of uber-rich players bought and sold the hotel from the 1980s on. Often they didn’t do well financially with the deals, but still feathered their crowns.
Miki Naftali, then of El Ad Properties, bought the prize. After closing in 2004, he led a condo conversion marketed to buyers who also had a taste for trophies.
But after Naftali went out on his own following the financial crisis, luxury got a little quieter. As Rich Bockmann and Keith Larsen write in their profile of the developer, he went for and achieved silver- and bronze-medal projects for years, building small-ish condos in good neighborhoods that felt like old New York (Robert A.M. Stern designs, often) but had all the amenities of new builds. Demand never seemed to let up.
Now, a decade and a half into running his own shop, Naftali has picked up a development site for a record price per square foot for land. The building at 800 Fifth Avenue, a couple blocks up from The Plaza, is an unloved rental tower in a prime location. Naftali paid $810 million and is planning condos. If Naftali gets it right, he’ll etch his name beside the city’s real estate legends — names like Durst, Rudin and Silverstein.
This issue kicks off the year with others at or near the top of their game.
Michael Liebowitz, almost a year into leading Douglas Elliman, didn’t come from the real estate world but he’s about the most insider-y outsider you could imagine, having done insurance for developers and partnering on a project with Russell Galbut. But he’s been a CEO before, and in this month’s Closing interview, he talks about finding his footing at a company in transition, figuring out how to get agents to trust him and trying to find time in a 24-7 job to meditate and play padel. Read it here.
If Naftali gets it right, he’ll etch his name besidethe city’s real estate legends.
Luxury condo buildings also seem impenetrable these days. With so many buyers able and ready to snap up units, top brokers now skip the loud marketing campaigns. Instead, they engage with what could be described as the quietest, most exclusive games of telephone. Read Jake Indursky on the trend and why it’s working.
In a more specific niche, Ivan Friedman’s at the top of the game of grabbing discounts on retail leases for chain stores in malls. The stores he fights for tend to survive, but when they pay lower rents, they can put the health of mall real estate in jeopardy. In his first magazine feature, Chris Neely, who joined The Real Deal this fall, writes an entertaining profile of the guy sometimes known as “the Bond villain” of mall leases.
The issue also honors leading real estate industry players who died in the past 12 months. That includes our tributes to Frank Gehry and Stern, whose recent deaths put their contributions front and center.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani won the campaign game decisively, but now he has to govern. In the lead-up to taking office, he held fast to his slogans, from freezing rent to raising taxes, and shared the names of appointees who’ll affect the industry. Real estate will be watching Mamdani’s first days in office, especially if he makes early moves on property tax overhauls or gains support on his tax plans from Gov. Kathy Hochul now that she’s no longer facing fiery Rep. Elise Stefanik in the election (centrist Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman looks to be the sole Republican opponent). Read about what may happen in stories from Kathryn Brenzel and Sheridan Wall.
Elsewhere in the issue, Kari Hamanaka dives into the rebuild data one year after fires burned in the Palisades, Altadena and Malibu. Here’s that story.
Alena Botros profiles FivePoint Holdings, a Lennar spinoff that once seemed uniquely able to develop communities in populous parts of California but which has gotten stuck in a very muddy situation in San Francisco.
And Jess Hardin investigates Jon Venetos, whose finance background originally seemed sophisticated enough that his firm, Lurin Capital, could succeed where younger, more blustery syndicators failed on value-add multifamily in the Sun Belt. Then came the foreclosures, plus allegations of fraud. Hardin describes the fall from grace and explains what might happen next.
It’s a new year, and there will be plenty more to cover. Happy 2026! Enjoy the issue!