Word on the Street

Written by Bernard Klein, Co-Founder Blooming Sky

The king of ride share isn't into apartment sharing. Travis Kalanick, co-founder of Uber, just purchased the crown jewel penthouse atop Renzo Piano's 565 Broome Street for $36.5M. Let's hope Uber investors don't catch him calling a Lyft.

Have foreign investors with $900K to spare? We'll that's $400K more than they would have needed to invest same time last year to qualify for the elusive EB-5 cash-for-visa program. Some might argue it's a small price to pay for pursuit for the American dream.

Happened to have received the 421g tax abatement and charged market rent? Big mistake. A ruling favoring the of tenants in 50 Murray and 90 West stated because of the tax benefit, apartments should have remained rent stabilized. Many investors are excited for the WeWork IPO. Wish the same could be said for landlords. While some in the industry have simply voiced concern, one landlord has recently sued WeWork for using legalese to shift liabilities. Sneaky accounting or business as usual? You be the judge.

When your development company goes belly up, there's always mortgage financing. Brookland Capital's Boaz Gilad didn't exactly leave the development scene quietly, igniting investor panic with his company's inability to make debt payments and forcing the sale of numerous in-progress developments. He's now VP at FM Home Loans.

The US-China trade war isn't killing the real estate sector, at least not in the public markets. Real estate stocks have outperformed the indices over the past month, but skeptics will argue that local real estate markets like NYC haven't exactly seen a similar rally.

And lastly to top things out, we have a public service announcement. Sometimes you have to go... just put the blinds down...or else. Just ask former Yankees slugger A-Rod, who got photographed in his former $17.5M throne at 432 Park Ave. This won't happen again. The apartment was recently sold.