The Real Deal’s final issue of 2024 will be online tomorrow and going out in hard copy to subscribers soon.
The issue’s cover shows President-elect Donald Trump in a familiar pose, we’ll leave the rest to your imagination.
The 47th president made his name as a real estate player. Big wigs from the industry surround him, but they don’t bend him to their will.
So far, Trump has announced a few of them for administration jobs: Steve Witkoff for special envoy to the Middle East and Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce. Our story explores the bigger open question: will Trump back in office be good for real estate? He could cut taxes and give breaks to developers in Opportunity Zones, or his policies could drive up construction costs and even lead to increased mortgage rates.
Whatever their feelings about the presidency, most developers, property owners and brokers end up living by local policies, not federal priorities. TRD reporters from across the regions created a cheat sheet for readers in California, Florida, Illinois and New York looking to see how any successful ballot measures, new mayors or apparently moderate district attorneys might speed up housing production, affect valuations, allow development or otherwise shape local plans.
Those who make real estate their life’s work don’t appear out of nowhere. Some are born into the business, like the scions of Great Neck — a Long Island community where an unlikely number of magnates live. In its wealthiest neighborhood, Kings Point, Persian Jewish families like the Namdars, the Zars and the Damaghis live their lives in community, attending the same synagogues and riding the Long Island Rail Road into Manhattan together on weekday mornings. The commitment to staying close-knit extends to their work, and these real estate deal-makers turn to one another to buy, sell and broker.
But if you’re not from a real estate family, you may have to study finance and design to break into the industry. The Master of Science in Real Estate Development at Columbia University’s architecture school has long been the place to go for that degree — Marc Holliday of SL Green is an alumnus and endowed a professorship there. But there is battle raging at the school over its curriculum and outlook on private real estate development — specifically whether it is, well, evil.
On the residential beat, Douglas Elliman’s West Coast operations are caught up in several lawsuits, even as the brokerage fights skirmishes on other fronts: the drama of the Alexander brothers and the departure of chairman Howard Lorber.
Subscribers, check back tomorrow, December 2, for the issue!