Deconstruct

Wynwood was once best known for warehouses, murals and street art. Today, it’s attracting billions of dollars from some of the wealthiest investors in Miami.

The Real Deal’s Iman Elshahawi joins Hannah Kramer and Lilah Burke to unpack the neighborhood’s rapid evolution following Ken Griffin’s $1.1 billion purchase of part of the Mana Wynwood portfolio. They discuss the arrival of major office, residential and retail projects; investments tied to Amazon, Adam Neumann and other tech billionaires; and the zoning changes that helped turn Wynwood into one of Miami’s hottest development markets.

They also look at what could hold the neighborhood back — including a 36 percent Class A office vacancy rate and some surprisingly significant transportation and infrastructure gaps.

Later, Hannah and Lilah examine how New York’s pied-à-terre tax is complicating multimillion-dollar divorces, the latest twists in a New York real estate family dispute, Floyd Mayweather’s dropped lawsuit against Jona Rechnitz and a $47 million arbitration involving Michael Stern, Silverstein and the Brooklyn Tower.

Could Sunnyside Yard finally become one of New York City’s next great mega-developments?

This week on Deconstruct, The Real Deal’s Lilah Burke and guest co-host Jake Indursky speak with New York Building Congress President and CEO Carlo Scissura about the decades-old dream of building a new neighborhood over the Sunnyside rail yard in Queens.

The proposal could create roughly 12,000 homes, but first New York would need to construct a platform over the active rail yard at a cost measured in the tens of billions of dollars. Scissura explains why the engineering may actually be the easy part — and why bringing together the federal government, New York State, City Hall, the MTA, Amtrak, local elected officials and the surrounding community could prove far more complicated. He also discusses lessons from Hudson Yards and Pacific Park, how long a project of this scale could take and why early community involvement matters.

Later, Indursky explains the real estate paradox behind Brooklyn and Queens’ so-called “Commie Corridor”: neighborhoods that have produced enormous amounts of private housing while increasingly supporting politicians skeptical of the real estate industry.

Plus, the latest on Marty Burger’s return to dealmaking, Mitchell Kossoff’s release from prison and the upcoming sentencing of the Alexander brothers.

The multifamily syndicator boom promised everyday investors a piece of the real estate gold rush. Then interest rates rose — and some of the biggest players began to unravel.

This week on Deconstruct, The Real Deal’s Texas Bureau Chief Jess Hardin joins Hannah Kramer and Lilah Burke to explain the rise and fall of S2 Capital and its founder, Scott Everett. Once one of the fastest-growing private companies in the country, S2 amassed a massive apartment portfolio as Everett became one of the most recognizable figures of the real estate syndication boom.

Now, investors have seen equity wiped out, properties have faced foreclosure and S2 has pursued a series of increasingly complicated strategies to keep parts of its portfolio alive. Jess takes us inside the financial fallout — and describes what she found when she visited an S2 apartment complex in Dallas.

Plus, Hannah and Lilah discuss the still-unopened Chobani House in Manhattan, the Ritz-Carlton residences coming to Brooklyn Heights, the Trump Organization’s latest international branding deal and the approaching sentencing of the Alexander brothers.

This week on Deconstruct, The Real Deal columnist Erik Engquist joins Hannah Kramer and Lilah Burke to explain why renovating New York City’s aging apartment buildings has become increasingly difficult.

Engquist breaks down the complicated web of rules surrounding substantial rehabilitation, rent stabilization, good cause eviction and demolition — and why he argues that current housing policy can leave owners with little incentive to undertake major renovations. What happens when aging buildings need substantial investment, but the economics of fixing them no longer pencil out?

Plus, Hannah and Lilah dig into one of Miami’s biggest potential real estate deals: Citadel founder Ken Griffin is rumored to be pursuing Moishe Mana’s roughly 30-acre Wynwood portfolio for between $700 million and $1 billion, potentially setting the stage for a massive tech and AI campus.

Also this week: Charles Cohen plots a South Florida comeback, Hackman Capital loses the $160 million Sony campus in Culver City, and the hosts look back at the real estate industry’s stories from September 11.

New York’s luxury rental market is reaching astonishing new heights. SERHANT broker Peter Zaitzeff joins Deconstruct to explain who is paying as much as $150,000 a month for homes in Brooklyn and Manhattan, why tech and finance wealth is fueling demand, and how the city’s severe inventory shortage could push rents even higher.

Zaitzeff also argues that the luxury market does not exist in isolation: Record-breaking deals at the top can influence asking rents across the city, making an already expensive housing market even less affordable.

Later in the episode, hosts Hannah Kramer and Lilah Burke examine dramatic new depositions from developers Meyer and Joseph Chetrit, who are facing more than $160 million in personal judgments. The testimony depicts a real estate empire that has run out of money — although lenders may question whether the brothers are overstating their financial distress.

Plus, Florida considers a proposal that could eventually eliminate property taxes for homesteaded homes, and former New York governor Eliot Spitzer gets approval to advance his Fifth Avenue condo project after suing the state.

Data centers have quickly become one of commercial real estate’s hottest — and most capital-intensive — asset classes. This week, Hannah Kramer and Lilah Burke talk with Colliers data center expert Raul Saavedra about what’s driving the boom, how AI has accelerated demand and why the scale of new projects is creating major challenges around power, financing and community opposition.

Saavedra takes us inside the increasingly complicated process of getting a data center deal done, as campuses grow from tens of megawatts to hundreds and project costs climb from millions into the billions.

Then, Hannah and Lilah dig into some of the biggest real estate stories of the week: Compass’ push to pull listings from StreetEasy and embrace private marketing, S2 Capital founder Scott Everett’s latest effort to keep his multifamily empire alive, and the transformation of Hollywood real estate as studios, landlords and developers chase the $70 billion creator economy.

A massive fraud case at one of Florida’s largest homeowners associations exposed just how vulnerable HOAs can be to bad actors.

On this episode of Deconstruct, The Real Deal’s Hannah Kramer and Lilah Burke talk with South Florida reporter Lidia Dinkova about the scandal at the Hammocks, a sprawling Miami-Dade community with more than 18,000 residents. Prosecutors accused former board members of diverting roughly $2 million through bogus vendors and kickbacks, while residents say they spent years trying to sound the alarm. The case ultimately helped spur sweeping changes to Florida’s HOA laws — but experts and residents say fraud remains a serious problem.

Plus, Hannah breaks down the long-running battle over Manhattan’s Elizabeth Street Garden and what its preservation means for New York City’s struggle to build affordable housing. The hosts also look at which real estate heavyweights are putting money behind candidates in California’s governor’s race, New York City’s latest record rents and a bizarre Miami lawsuit involving a 100-year-old oak tree, a spec home developer and allegedly forged signatures.

Consumers need to trust their real estate agents — but as more agents work the market than ever before, stories of bad behavior ranging from unfair dealmaking to sexual harrasment abound. In this episode of Deconstruct, Compass agent and American Real Estate Association (ARA) founder Jason Haber joins Lilah Burke and Hannah Kramer of The Real Deal to break down what’s broken in residential brokerage and how to fix it.

We get into:

In the second half of the episode, we turn to two huge real estate stories:

If you work in residential brokerage, follow housing policy, or just want to understand why trust in real estate is so low — and what real reform could look like — this episode is for you.

Listen to Deconstruct from The Real Deal every Monday for deep dives on real estate, politics, and power.

A summer camp empire that owns roughly 30 camps across the U.S. raised nearly $200 million from Israeli bondholders—and then spiraled into bankruptcy just months later. Reporter Keith Larsen joins Deconstruct to unpack one of the strangest real estate-adjacent stories of the year, including a controversial $34 million transfer, aggressive lenders, and what happens next for camp operators, investors and families.

Plus, Hannah Kramer and Lilah Burke discuss how wellness culture is transforming real estate, from Hamptons luxury homes packed with saunas and cold plunges to the rapid expansion of luxury gyms and wellness-focused retail.

They also break down RXR's effort to sell Manhattan's iconic Helmsley Building, a major brokerage shakeup involving Christie's International Real Estate affiliates, and the closely watched manslaughter trial of Miami broker George Pino.

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping real estate — from buyers using ChatGPT to challenge brokers, to AI startups transforming the office market.

On this episode of Deconstruct, Hannah Kramer and Lilah Burke break down The Real Deal's latest reporting on AI's impact on residential and commercial real estate. They discuss how buyers and sellers are using AI during negotiations, why office landlords are chasing AI tenants, and whether artificial intelligence could fundamentally alter demand for office space.

Plus: Hannah argues that the era of Billionaires' Row may be coming to an end as developers behind projects like 432 Park Avenue and 111 West 57th Street face financial and legal challenges.

Also discussed: