🗞️ Behind the unraveling of Nir Meir | Inside the April 2024 Issue

Inside the latest issue of The Real Deal Apr 01, 2024 [View in Browser]( [Share](   [Magazine Cover Image]( Instructed by God, Moses led his people to the promised land. The commandments of God were shared on tablets of stone that Moses brought down from the mountain. Fast-forward two millennia, and you’ll find a cast of similarly named characters in a very different setting. You’ve got Moses Kagan (@moseskagan) and The Real Estate God (@TheRealEstateG6). Instead of stone tablets, there is X, formerly known as Twitter. Most importantly, you’ve got the hashtag #RETwit, used to spread gossip, news and insight about commercial real estate in a brand-new way. Kagan is one of the founding fathers of [#RETwit](, and The Real Estate God is its most notable anonymous account (because God is unknowable, I guess), with 114,000 followers. Commercial real estate has been a bunch of dullards when it comes to social media. Many still see social media as “new,” even though it’s been popular for 20 years. The panache that residential brokers — some of whom are reality TV stars, to be fair — bring to Instagram was lacking in this part of the industry. Most of what comes out of the commercial real estate world has been canned press releases, self-serving opinion columns or dry market reports. That is starting to change, thankfully. Broker Bob Knakal broke news of his firing from JLL on X recently. StripMallGuy (the most well-known account in the community) shares inside dirt on problematic tenant types. Others write about shifts in the market the press might not have picked up on yet (hard to believe, since we know everything … ), post gripes about NIMBYs or offer career advice. #RETwit is informal and a breath of fresh air and has continued to grow in size and influence since the hashtag was born. It’s informal and a breath of fresh air and has continued to grow in size and influence since the hashtag was born three years ago. Maybe not quite as revelatory as biblical days, but important to the industry. Check out [our story on the stars of #RETwit](. Our cover story this month deals with slightly darker subject matter — think Judas-type betrayal, if you want to continue the biblical analogies. In “Real Estate’s Rasputin,” senior reporter Keith Larsen chronicles the [unraveling of developer Nir Meir](, who is now behind bars at Rikers Island, awaiting trial for allegedly masterminding a multiyear $86 million fraud. Meir was sitting atop a condo empire with Ziel Feldman, as half of the duo leading the development firm HFZ. But the pair lost their flagship $2 billion condo development on the High Line, the XI, in the biggest developer implosion of the Covid era. It would be several years before Meir’s alleged scheme would come to light, part of a pattern of obfuscation and lies that Larsen experienced first-hand in covering him. In the meantime, Meir was seen everywhere, partying in Miami, his home base before being extradited to New York in February. He owned Porsches, an Aston Martin and multiple Mercedes. One month, he spent over $200,000 on wine. It went beyond the usual real estate fraud, observers allege. “To hear Feldman tell it, Meir is not just a bad guy — he’s a sociopath. His act at the office all those years wasn’t just real estate swagger. Meir could read emotions and put people under a spell,” Larsen writes. Those caught in his web, including his wife, who has filed for divorce, felt fooled and betrayed and “are now trying to understand how he played it, and why.” [Here’s]( the fascinating story. Next, anyone with a savior complex should read our stories about social housing and 3D-printed homes. Both, their supporters maintain, can save the (real estate) world. [Social housing’s premise]( is that the government shouldn’t just legislate or incentivize badly needed housing — it should just build the homes itself. The company Icon, a VC darling, thinks its machines can solve the housing crisis with [3D-printed homes](. Last but not least, there is our look at the [winners and losers in the historic NAR commission settlement]( last month. And our [annual ranking of the top New York resi brokers]( has new No. 1s this year. Enjoy the issue, and Godspeed. Editor's Note Stuart Elliott Editor-in-Chief & CEO   If you’re interested in receiving future magazine issues in print, sign up for our [annual subscription](. Save $20 OFF with promo code: MAG20 [SUBSCRIBE NOW](   [Behind the unraveling of Nir Meir]( The story of Meir’s fall from grace is so wild, it’s reached outside the industry grapevine. Within the real estate world, it’s become a morbid fascination for many — you think he couldn’t fall any further or lie any harder, and then he does. He’s now behind bars at Rikers Island, awaiting trial for allegedly masterminding a multiyear, $86 million fraud. The charges include grand larceny, tax fraud, falsifying business records and money laundering. Yet until the law caught up with him in February, you still might have run into him at Carbone. [READ MORE](   [Image]( [The winners and losers in NAR’s historic settlement]( When news of the National Association of Realtors’ $418 million settlement of the antitrust case Sitzer/Burnett came out in March, the update set off more questions than answers. The trade group’s agreement, which includes key rule changes to commission sharing guidelines, could result in the biggest such changes from the industry’s top trade group. If approved, it is set to shift the status quo for real estate agents, brokerages and other major players. Now that the dust has started to settle, The Real Deal mapped out the state of play.   [Image]( [Meet the stars of #RETwit]( If there’s one thing all real estate players love, it’s X. The platform formerly known as Twitter has become a way for brokers, developers and even billionaires to share advice, score leads and close deals. Some have amassed tens or hundreds of thousands of followers. The Real Deal reached out to some of #RETwit’s most prominent participants to ask why they started posting on X and what they get out of it.   [Image]( [How Dan Brodsky’s reputation and status secured the Flatiron building]( For all his achievements, Dan Brodsky has remained relatively low-key, especially compared to public-facing contemporaries like Donald Trump and Larry Silverstein. That has so far left the story untold of how he created a kind of aura around the Brodsky name over the past five decades — using his deep pockets, cunning dealmaking and the right connections to amass the kind of power that money alone can’t buy.   [Image]( [Ranking NYC’s top residential brokers]( Last year threw residential real estate into chaos. It started with economic headwinds and a dry inventory pipeline that slowed transactions. The second half of the year brought tepid earnings for top brokerages and a bombshell antitrust verdict that is poised to change the fundamentals of broker commission rules. But New York City’s top brokers kept busy, and through millions of dollars of deals came more change.   [Image]( [“Day of reckoning”: South Florida multifamily Investors feel sting of rising interest rates, insurance]( Across South Florida, investors swooped in on the boom of 2021 and 2022, paying peak prices for apartments, believing that record rent hikes and demand would shield against debt woes. Yet, now even well-leased complexes are facing increasing costs, lowering cash flow and potentially putting the kibosh on dreams of a windfall.   [The Closing: Lew Horne]( INTERVIEWS WITH REAL ESTATE TITANS [Image]( Los Angeles’s CBRE head on getting into the business, his friendship with Rick Caruso and the transfer tax.   Lew Horne thought he was going to run a pet store business. Then, he thought he’d sell computerized systems to wholesale grocers. Neither panned out. Instead, Horne runs CBRE’s operations across Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire, leading advisory services, property and project management and capital markets teams. He is a CBRE lifer, having joined the firm, one of the largest commercial real estate companies in the world and one of the most prominent in Southern California, as an industrial broker in the San Fernando Valley in 1984. Sitting in a new CBRE office in a high-rise overlooking Century City, Horne sees his role as more than advising real estate clients and managing brokers. He is trying to preserve the future. [Read full story here →]( [FULL ISSUE HERE]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [YouTube]( [Share]( | [Manage Newsletters]( | [Unsubscribe](list=Subscribers + Engaged) | [Privacy Policy]( | [Subscribe]( | [Advertise]( The Real Deal 450 West 31st Street, New York, NY 10001 ©2024 TheRealDeal. All rights reserved. [View Online](