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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has snatched up a number of high-ticket properties in Miami’s Indian Creek Village in the last couple of years, staking his claim in the gated, man-made barrier island.

First, he bought a $68 million 2.8-acre property around August of 2023. Next, was a $79 million, 19,000-square-foot estate next door. This year, he bought a third property for $90 million on the island that is aptly nicknamed “billionaire bunker.”

But after negotiations were through and Bezos’ identity was made public, the homeseller of the $79 million property was not thrilled, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The seller is now suing Douglas Elliman, which double-ended the transaction, for misleading him about the buyer’s identity while allowing him to accept an offer for $6 million less than the asking price from someone whose net worth is currently just shy of $200 billion, according to Forbes.

The seller of the property was Leo Kryss, co-founder of Brazilian toy and electronics company Tectoy. He originally bought the home for $28 million in 2014 via T.A.M. Investments, records show. In May of 2023, he put the seven-bedroom home on the market for $85 million.

By June 2023, Bezos had bought the $68 million property next door to Kryss’ listing. When Kryss then received the $79 million offer, he asked his agent at Douglas Elliman if Bezos was the potential buyer.

According to a complaint filed in the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County, Jay Parker, who serves as CEO of Elliman’s Florida region, told Kryss on a phone call that the buyer was not Bezos. He also said the buyer was unwilling to pay any more than $79 million. With this knowledge, Kryss accepted the offer, a 7.1 percent discount from the asking price. After closing, however, Kryss learned that the buyer was actually an entity tied to Bezos.

Kryss is suing Elliman for the $6 million he feels he should have received in the sale, knowing that Bezos could afford it. Kryss claims in the complaint that “it was highly material to his negotiations and his decision on the ultimate sales price … to know whether Bezos was … attempting to anonymously acquire the home in order to assemble it with the adjoining property.”

Douglas Elliman received a 4 percent commission, or more than $3 million on the deal, with agents Dina Goldentayer, Danilo Tavares and Celine Klepach representing the seller and buyer. The brokerage declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Kryss’ lawyer, Dana Clayton of Akerman, said in a statement, “Douglas Elliman failed to fulfill their duties to our client … They knew or should have known who the ultimate beneficial purchaser was and misrepresented that very important fact to our client.”

Parker emailed Kryss after closing to say that he had not known the buyer’s identity. In fact, he said he was misled himself into thinking that the property would be going to the family of Indian Creek Village Mayor Benny Klepach, who runs duty-free airport shops across the country.

An added complication to the case is that Klepach’s daughter, Celine Klepach, had signed onto Elliman a few weeks before closing and received a portion of the sale’s commission, according to the complaint. According to Douglas Elliman’s Miami office, Celine Klepach left the firm a few weeks ago.

The younger Klepach told The WSJ, “I wasn’t involved in the deal.” Her lawyer, Isaac Mitrani, told the news outlet she “did absolutely nothing wrong.”

It is common practice for high-net-worth individuals and celebrities to try and prevent their identities from becoming public during a real estate transaction through the use of shell companies or anonymous LLCs. The U.S. Treasury Department recently finalized new rules for reporting transaction details on all-cash residential real estate sales — including identities of sellers behind nameless shell companies — to help curb money laundering.

Bezos announced in February of 2023 that he would be relocating from Seattle, where he first launched Amazon, to Miami. On Indian Creek Island, Bezos joins other billionaires like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Tom Brady, and Carl Icahn.

Update: This story was updated to clarify the Douglas Elliman agents involved in the transaction.

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REA Group’s bid to buy the United Kingdom’s largest real estate portal, Rightmove, has failed.

Last week, the Sydney-based News Corp subsidiary announced plans to purchase Rightmove for $7.32 billion in a cash-and-stock takeover proposal. REA Group said the deal would strengthen both brands’ positions as the leading residential real estate portals in their respective markets by providing Rightmove with the capital and technical capabilities needed to accelerate its growth.

“REA sees a transformational opportunity to apply its globally leading capabilities and expertise to enhance customer and consumer value across the combined portfolio and to create a global and diversified digital property company, with number 1 positions in Australia and the UK,” the company said in a statement on Sept. 3.

Despite the offer exceeding Rightmove’s market cap of $7.1 billion, the portal’s board of directors said REA Group’s proposal was  “wholly opportunistic” and “fundamentally undervalued” the company.

“The Board of Rightmove notes the announcement from REA Group Ltd (“REA”) and confirms that it received an unsolicited, non-binding, and highly conditional proposal from REA regarding a possible cash and shares offer to acquire the entire issued and issued ordinary share capital of Rightmove (the “Proposal”),” the board said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. “The Board carefully considered the Proposal, together with its financial advisers, and concluded that it was wholly opportunistic and fundamentally undervalued Rightmove and its future prospects.”

“Accordingly, the Board unanimously rejected the Proposal on 10 September 2024,” they added. “Rightmove shareholders should take no action in respect of the Proposal. This announcement is being made without the agreement or approval of REA. There can be no certainty that any offer will be made nor as to the terms on which any offer may be made.”

Rightmove’s (OTCMKTS: RTMVY) stocks increased 20 percent in the days after REA Group’s proposal hit the news and have continued to rise, reaching a one-year high of $17.60 per share on Sept. 11.

Although Rightmove seems to have slammed the door on the acquisition, UK real estate leader Chris Watkins told Property Industry Eye the rejection may push REA Group to make a more aggressive move —  a real possibility as News Corp looks to up the ante on its competition with CoStar Group, which purchased Rightmove rival OnTheMarket for about $126 million in December.

“While Rightmove’s board has just turned down a [$7.32 billion] bid from Australia’s REA Group, stating that the offer fundamentally undervalued the company’s future potential, could this rejection play into REA’s hands for a more aggressive move?” Watkins said. “Could REA’s initial bid have been a strategic step, knowing it would be rejected, to pave the way for a potential hostile takeover? With Rightmove shareholders now in the spotlight, REA could return with a direct offer to them — bypassing the board altogether.

“Hostile takeovers mean they don’t have to pay the premium that friendly takeovers have to pay. Either way, estate Agents need to be aware,” he added.

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The increasing demand for affordable housing in New York has raised questions about converting part of a proposed life-science workspace into residential units, but city officials have deemed the plan unviable, The Real Deal reported on Tuesday.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is planning to redevelop eastern Manhattan’s Kips Bay neighborhood — located between East 23rd and East 34th Street — into the Science Park and Research Campus (SPARC), a 2.19 million-square-foot hub for life sciences, healthcare and academic spaces.

Life-science workspaces are labs or workspaces housed in biotech or pharmaceutical buildings, designed to support research and development.

Located at Hunter College’s Brookdale Campus, the SPARC site will support innovation in the life-sciences sector, capitalizing on Kips Bay’s proximity to major medical institutions like NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and New York University (NYU), home to more than 44,000 jobs in science and healthcare.

During a recent hearing, City Council candidate Ben Wetzler proposed incorporating housing into the SPARC project. However, NYCEDC’s Adam Grossman Meagher responded that the focus on job creation outweighs the possibility of adding residential units.

“Space is limited, and we have to make choices,” he said, emphasizing the need for jobs to support affordable housing.

While Mayor Eric Adams has introduced initiatives like the “24-in-24” plan to advance affordable housing on public land, according to The Real Deal, the city is prioritizing the SPARC project for its potential to generate 3,100 permanent jobs and deliver a projected $42 billion economic impact over the next 30 years.

A COVID-era boom in life-science workspaces, accelerated by remote work trends during the pandemic, led developers to convert traditional office spaces into labs, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Since 2020, over 59 million square feet of new life-science spaces have been added nationwide, with another 19.1 million square feet in the pipeline. This represents a significant jump compared to the pre-pandemic average of 3.7 million square feet added annually, according to real estate firm JLL.

Post-pandemic, however, cities like San Diego, South San Francisco and Boston have seen increased vacancies due to cooling demand, driven by high interest rates and economic uncertainty, per CBRE Group.

Despite the softening demand for life-science spaces in some areas, New York City is proceeding with the SPARC Kips Bay project to address critical needs in the life sciences and healthcare sectors.

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Barcelona-based computer vision software firm Restb.ai expanded its reach to 17 new multiple listing services in New York, Rhode Island, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Minnesota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, California and British Columbia during the first half of the year, growing its reach to more than 720,000 MLS members across the U.S. and Canada.

Dominik Pogorzelski | Credit: LinkedIn

“Hundreds of thousands of real estate agents and brokers can now leverage the magic of Restb.ai computer vision to create richer and more complete property listings,” Restb.ai General Manager Dominik Pogorzelski said in a prepared statement. “This new tech they are deploying will help sellers sell homes faster and help buyers better find the home that matches their personal needs, wants, and desires.”

Founded in 2015, Restb.ai enables agents to add listings to the MLS quickly through artificial intelligence and computer vision models that glean key property information from photos and generate descriptions within seconds.

The computer vision models can identify interior room types and detect features such as marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, high ceilings, stone fireplaces, and hardwood flooring. For the exterior, the computer models can identify outdoor features including in-ground pools, decks, patios and firepits.

After identifying all of the home’s key features, Restb.ai generates listing descriptions, image captioning, and alt-text/metadata in more than 50 languages. Agents can manually edit the captions and descriptions, or use Restb.ai to adjust the text with several preset writing tones, including descriptive, playful, standard, professional and simple.

In a phone call with Inman, Pogorzelski said Restb.ai’s expansion has been partially fueled by its relationship with  CoreLogic, ICE (formally Black Knight), Rapattoni, FBS, dynaConnections, and several other key vendors who’ve been able to showcase the benefits of Restb.ai’s tech.

“We have a lot of these partnerships where our technology is already integrated or being integrated,” he said. “So, oftentimes, it’s a joint effort with our partners to obviously kind of showcase the benefits MLSs and their members get by adopting this AI technology, which is increased efficiency, better data completeness, better compliance for the MLSs.”

Pogorzelski said feedback from Restb.ai’s newest cohort of MLSs has been “largely positive” as agents continue to push past their initial concerns about integrating AI into their businesses.

“As [with] any new technology, there are always a group of people who are a bit more hesitant to change. You’ll have the early adopters and you’ll have the late adopters,” he said. “It’s the same way when Google comes out with a new interface on Gmail; some people will get frustrated and prefer things to be the old way, even though the new way is better, faster and more efficient.”

With this in mind, Pogorzelski said Restb.ai has been laser-focused on distributing communication kits and hosting training sessions that help enthusiastic and hesitant adopters alike navigate the platform with greater ease. These kits and sessions, he said, have been key to not only helping agents understand Restb.ai but also the ins and outs of how AI and computer vision work.

Nathan Brannen, Restb.ai CPO

“It’s been great to show that there’s a face behind the AI, and there are humans who are helping to make this as accurate, as fast, as helpful as possible,” he said, while noting Restb.ai’s team does weekly updates to the more than 20 models it utilizes. “A lot is running under the hood to make everything work right … and make everything on top look seamless and as smooth as possible.”

Now that Restb.ai has reached a milestone of 50 MLSs across the U.S. and Canada, the team is working hard to keep the momentum going. Although Pogorzelski declined to share a specific goal — “I don’t want to jinx it or speak out of turn,” he said —  he and Chief Product Officer Nathan Brannen said the industry will be seeing much more of Restb.ai as they continue to improve the platform.

“By deploying these cutting-edge solutions, they are elevating industry efficiency. And this is just the early stages of AI with more exciting — and valuable improvements — to come,” Brannen said in a written statement. “MLSs are among the first to bring practical and valuable AI-powered solutions en masse to real estate professionals.”

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James Earl Jones, the actor whose iconic voice gave life to roles like Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise and Mufasa in The Lion King, passed away at the age of 93 on Monday.

Far away from the lights and stars of Hollywood, however, Jones found a home more than 50 years ago when the actor stumbled across a small town in Dutchess County, New York, called Pawling.

Over time, Jones acquired 10 neighboring properties in the village, which is located in the Hudson Valley, according to property records. It is not clear if he built additional houses on any of the parcels while he owned them.

Jones was born in the small town of Arkabutla, Mississippi, and after his parents abandoned him at a young age, was raised in Michigan by a racist grandmother while he struggled with a stutter. That did not stop Jones from ultimately developing a prodigious acting career that spanned stage, TV and film. By the time he visited Dutchess County around 1970 with a friend, he was well-known for roles like Jack Jefferson in The Great White Hope, in which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Although Jones did not win the Oscar for The Great White Hope, he did receive a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars in 2011, which helped him gain EGOT status, the moniker given to creatives who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.

Jones reportedly was traveling to look for a home for his friend, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal. Instead, Jones was the one who ended up putting down roots in the area.

“I liked it,” he told the Journal in 2012. “Big trees … they were big enough to hug.”

Jones seems to have acquired the various properties gradually over time, according to Realtor.com records. One was purchased in 1993 at the low price tag of $16,500, while another two were purchased the following year for $177,500 and $108,000. In 2000, Jones bought another property for $320,000.

The actor reportedly became very involved in the community while he lived there, helping to fundraise for his son Flynn’s alma mater, the Poughkeepsie Day School, and lending a hand to community theater events, like a playwrights’ festival.

Pawling is about 80 miles north of New York City and only about five miles west of the Connecticut border. The median asking price of homes in Pawling is $700,000 and the median sales price is $440,000, according to Realtor.com.

The town lies in close proximity to lakes, hiking trails and plenty of green space, but also has a train station and a small downtown with restaurants, cafes, book shops and other amenities.

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