Can Celebs Help Sell Miami Condos?

Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez are creating a buzz yet again, buying a condominium at Related Group’s Icon Brickell project. This report from the Daily Business Review, a fellow ALM publication, has all the details.

The singing/acting couple signed a contract on a unit this week, but an actual sale has yet to be recorded in Miami-Dade County records. Anthony, who took a tour of Icon Brickell with Related Group chief Jorge Perez, tells People magazine: “When we are through decorating the condo, it will be one of the sexiest places in town.”

How’s This for Tenant Leverage

Sunrise-based Pet Supermarket Inc. believes it has the upper hand, or paw, lately when it comes to negotiating with retail landlords. At a recent networking event held by the International Council of Shopping Centers in Hollywood, one executive with the 115-store chain admitted that the downturn has been good for tenant leverage.

“We make offers for reduced rent and if the landlord doesn’t accept, we close stores,” Becky Smith, Pet’s real estate director, said in remarks covered by Daily Business Review, our Incisive Media kindred paper. She noted that she has never seen the tide turn so quickly in tenants’ favor in her three decades in the business.

Collecting on Busted Condo Deals

On top of the prospects of more units selling in Florida, albeit at discounted prices, multifamily condominium brokers here got another bit of good news this week: An appellate court in Miami says they can collect commissions from condo deals that failed to close.

According to our sister publication Daily Business Review, the 3rd District Court of Appeal gave Lonestar Alternative Solutions the green light to go after Leviev-Boymelgreen Soleil Developers to collect commissions owed to Lonestar since 2005. The amount of the commissions is not known.