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Brooklyn Nine-Nine Celebrates Its Revival at Raucous Comic-Con Panel — Watch
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The highlight of this year's Comic-Con is quite easy. I had the honor of moderating this year's "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" panel, which was a celebration of the show's revival on NBC after having been canceled by Fox. The cast came ready to play, and I knew the audience was ready to go the second I asked them for a "NINE NINE!"
Here's who participated:
o Luke Del Tredici (WRITER)
o Dan Goor (EP)
o Andy Samberg (JAKE PERALTA)
o Melissa Fumero (AMY SANTIAGO)
o Terry Crews (TERRY JEFFORDS)
o Stephanie Beatriz (ROSA DIAZ)
o Joe Lo Truglio (CHARLES BOYLE)
o Chelsea Peretti (GINA LINETTI)
o Dirk Blocker (HITCHCOCK)
o Joel McKinnon Miller (SCULLY)
NBC has uploaded the entire panel, watch below!
And a quick shot from the stage:
Here are LA County’s top 5 retail sales of January
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Here are LA County’s top 5 retail sales of January
Combined, they amounted to $80M
From left: 1408 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica and 6501 San Fernando Road (Credit: LoopNet and Google Maps)
The new year has already started off stronger than the tail end of 2018, when the most expensive retail sale amounted to $46.4 million.
In January, the five most-expensive retail sales combined to $80.8 million, a little less than double the total from December. The priciest deals spanned from Santa Monica to Claremont, with the most expensive one taking place on busy Third Street Promenade.
Data was compiled from property records on Property Shark.
1408 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica | $24.5 million
Blatteis & Schnur, Inc., a real estate firm based in Century City, paid $24.5 million to acquire a three-story building at 1408 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. The sellers were tied to a trust controlled by Arno and Adelheid Roscher, records show. They had owned the property since at least 2005. Spanning 17,000 square feet, the property includes office space over retail. The deal closed Jan. 24.
2. 6501 San Fernando Road, Glendale | $16.5 million
Super King Markets, acting through an LLC, purchased a 51,000-square-foot retail plaza in Glendale for $16.5 million. Sikouhi Malkhassian and Varoush Ferkassian, also behind an LLC, sold the property at 6501 San Fernando Road. It was anchored by Golden Farms Market, an international supermarket, before the store closed earlier this year. Super King already has a few locations in L.A. County, including one near Atwater Village.
3. 5935 West Pico Boulevard, Mid-City | $14.1 million
Amoroso Companies sold a vacant shopping center in Mid-City, less than a year after it filed plans requesting approvals to build a mixed-use project on site. The company sold the 25,800-square-foot lot to Cityview, an investment management and development firm, for $14.1 million. In May 2018, Amoroso, which is based in Calabasas, filed plans to build 123 units at the property. It’s unclear whether the deal, which closed Jan. 16, includes entitlements for the mixed-use project.
4. 2209 East Baseline Road, Claremont | $13.8 million
AEW Capital Management, based in Downtown Los Angeles, purchased a shopping plaza in Claremont for $13.8 million. The retail center, located at 2209 East Baseline Road, includes a Jersey Mikes, UPS store and dry cleaners. The sellers were LStar Ventures, a privately held real estate firm based in North Carolina. The firm owned the property since 2014, when it paid $2.8 million for it.
5. 1875 West 190th Street, Torrance | $12 million
Sares-Regis unloaded a 20,000-square-foot lot at 1875 West 190th Street in Torrance for $12 million. The buyers, CalBay Development and Investments, are based in the South Bay and focus on developing retail properties. Records show the property was once part of Toyota’s sprawling campus in Torrance, which Sares-Regis bought in 2017 for $270 million. The real estate firm has since shed some of those holdings, including the neighboring property at 2050 West 190th Street.
Source: https://therealdeal.com/la/2019/02/22/204432/
Almost Too Sober: On the Appeal of Stoicism
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OCTOBER 30, 2018
SOME OF US want to be rock stars or rocket scientists when we grow up, while others want to be actors or athletes. Marcus Aurelius, though, wanted to grow up to be a Stoic. That, at least, is the impression Marguerite Yourcenar gives us in her novel Memoirs of Hadrian. This brilliant reimagining of the Roman imperial period is cast as a letter written by the dying Hadrian to the teenage Marcus Aurelius he has chosen to succeed him. While Hadrian admires his “dear Mark,” he also chides him. He was, Hadrian recalls, an “almost too sober little boy” who had grown into a young man a tad too zealous in his practice of “the mortifications of the Stoics.”
What would Hadrian — or, at least, Yourcenar’s Hadrian — have made of our current craze with Stoicism? While it is too late for many of us to grow up to become Stoics, more than a few of us want to finish up as Stoics. Princeton University Press’s new edition of Epictetus’s Encheiridion and selected Discourses, titled How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life, is the latest entry in a wave of works, both popular and scholarly, on Stoicism. Massimo Pigliucci’s How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life and Donald Robertson’s Stoicism and the Art of Happiness are fresh additions to the former category, while A. A. Long’s classic Stoic Studies and Pierre Hadot’s La citadelle intérieure: Introduction aux Pensées de Marc Aurèle are notable examples of the latter category.
How to Be Free seeks to bridge the worlds of both kinds of readers. Translated and introduced by Long, a renowned scholar of Stoicism and classics professor at UC Berkeley, the work presents the Greek text and English translation on facing pages. While the original text is, well, Greek to me, Long’s translation is sharp and straightforward — qualities always associated with Epictetus’s teachings. Like Socrates, Epictetus did not write down his words; it is thanks to his student Arrian — who became one of Hadrian’s closest aides — that we have the Encheiridion (or “handbook”) and Discourses. But whereas, in Plato’s writings, Socrates often serves as a proxy for his student’s own philosophical agenda, Arrian’s transcription of this freed slave’s words seems free of invention.
Most important, Socrates and Epictetus — though separated by more than four centuries — are alike in the coherence between their convictions and actions. One of the few, and certainly best known (if not substantiated) of episodes we have from Epictetus’s life occurred when he was still a slave. In a fit of rage, his master began to twist his leg. In a calm voice, the slave warned him that the leg would break. The master, ignoring the warning, broke Epictetus’s leg, prompting the maimed man to declare in an even voice: “Did I not tell you it would break?”
It is not clear whether Epictetus’s lameness was a result of his master’s inhumanity or, more prosaically, the consequence of arthritis. What is clear, though, is that Epictetus’s experience as a slave shaped his philosophy. The term philosophy now generally brings to mind an academic discipline, whose practitioners publish peer-reviewed journal articles and academic monographs that reexamine questions ranging from epistemology and ontology to linguistics and metaphysics or, more broadly, reassess the history of their profession. As anyone familiar with this world can report, its language and concerns are often difficult and demanding. This is not, by itself, a problem: readers of Joyce and Woolf, Dickinson and Faulkner, treasure the moments of luminous truths and insights these writers conjure in their difficult and demanding works.
But I am not alone, I suspect, in thinking that academic philosophers, with a few important exceptions, are mostly wanting when it comes to lasting truths or insights. All too often their present world seems light-years distant from the world in which I live and for which I would welcome the wisdom their profession supposedly offers. As Hadot declared in a series of interviews with the American philosopher Arnold Davidson: “The historian of philosophy must cede her place to the philosopher — the philosopher who must always remain alive within the historian of philosophy. This final task will consist in asking oneself, with unflinching candor, the decisive question: ‘What is it to philosophize?’”
In his revelatory writings on ancient Greek and Roman schools of philosophy, Hadot argues that it is not what passes for philosophizing nowadays. Rather than offering, as do modern philosophy departments, a smorgasbord of courses in various sub-disciplines, the ancient philosophical schools offered what Hadot calls “spiritual exercises” — namely, the means to change the way you saw the world and the power to change your very self.
While there was no shortage of such schools — Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics, Platonists, and Aristotelians all had their shingles out — they all promised not only to inform their students about a particular philosophy, but also to transform them by it. In this sense, a novice’s choice of a particular school was existential. The urgency of, say, Albert Camus’s voice in The Myth of Sisyphus — no one, he reminds us, “ever died for the ontological argument” — had been sounded more than two millennia earlier by the Roman statesman, writer, and philosopher Seneca. Berating those philosophers who busied themselves batting around theoretical questions, he roared: “There is no time for playing around […] You have promised to bring help to the shipwrecked, the imprisoned, the sick, the needy, to those whose heads are under the poised axe […] What are you doing?”
As we learn from the Encheiridion, Epictetus was not one for playing around. He warned his students:
Do you suppose you can go in for philosophy and eat and drink just as you do now or get angry and irritated in the same way? You are going to have to go without sleep, work really hard, stay away from friends and family, be disrespected by a young slave, get mocked by people in the street, and come off worse in rank, office, or courtroom, everywhere in fact.
For Epictetus, Stoicism was not a pastime, but instead it was a set of rigorous practices. With the goal of rebooting one’s life, it is far more demanding, at least from a practical perspective, than the more recondite philosophical schools that have followed. If the Stoics had recruiters, they would have warned that philosophy is the hardest job we’ll ever love.
In both its original Hellenistic and subsequent Roman iterations, Stoicism fastened onto reason’s decisive role in our lives. The compass of our rational faculties allows women and men — Stoicism, along with Epicureanism, was exceptional in its refusal to relegate women to an inferior position — to navigate a world in which we are carried aloft by vast and immovable forces. We cannot master these circumstances, but we can master our attitude toward them. These happenings, for Stoics, are identified mostly as “things indifferent” — namely, events and facts that, in and of themselves, are neither intrinsically bad nor good.
Things indifferent cover those things we tend to care about, but on further reflection reveal themselves to be inconsequential, like the color of my car or the color of my skin. But, more provocatively, things indifferent also cover my social or legal status. What if my skin color condemns me to a life of slavery? As a former slave, Epictetus’s answer is blunt: physical enslavement, as anyone who has attained Stoic wisdom knows, is a thing indifferent. The Stoic knows she must “remove goodness and badness from the things not up to us and ascribe it only to the things that are up to us.” Nearly everything that is external to us — the world’s unfolding warp and woof — is not up to us, but instead to nature.
Crucially, what is up to us is our outlook. By dint of our reason, we can grasp and assent to the way of the world. Though it requires a lifetime of effort to scale these philosophical heights, once I scramble to the summit I will see that mere material and physical things cannot breach what Marcus Aurelius calls the “inner fortress” of my self. And it is within that fortress, whether I am a senator or slave, rich or poor, a centurion or courtesan, that I cultivate what the Stoics called ataraxia, or serenity.
That Stoicism held such great appeal for a certain class of Romans is hardly surprising. Not only did it reflect and reinforce the battery of values, or mos maiorum, that defined the life of a proper thinking Roman, but it also provided a modicum of agency and freedom in a world of imperial domination. Equally unsurprising is that Stoicism now enjoys a revival with a certain class of Americans. In our world of institutional bureaucratization, social fragmentation, and political polarization, the therapeutic promise of Stoicism holds much attraction. It is telling, in this regard, that the founders of cognitive behavioral therapy like Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck were deeply influenced by the ancient Stoics.
Yet there is darkness at the heart of Stoicism — a darkness that, in Yourcenar’s novel, Hadrian glimpses. While he admires the example set by Epictetus — the crippled old man, Hadrian reports, seemed to “enjoy a liberty which was almost divine” — the emperor tells Marcus Aurelius that he nevertheless refuses to embrace either the man or his philosophy. Epictetus, Hadrian muses, “gave up too many things, and I had been quick to observe that nothing was more dangerously easy for me than mere renunciation.” The emperor is on to something. The reach of Stoic renunciation, unflinchingly acknowledged by Epictetus, is much further than most of us would ever wish to go. In one of his prosaic similes, he compares the Stoic’s life to a voyage on a ship commanded by nature. Just as a voyager on a real sea voyage might disembark at a port to gather “a little shellfish and vegetable,” he must be prepared to drop these things and return to the ship at a moment’s notice. So, too, on the ship of life, the Stoic, during a port of call, might gather “a little wife and child.” Ah, but don’t treasure these souvenirs, for “if the captain calls you, run to the boat and leave all those things without even turning around.”
In the Encheiridion, Epictetus — a childless bachelor, mind you — multiplies such examples. Should I want my wife and children to live, not to mention flourish, he lectures me for being “silly” because I want things to be up to me that are not up to me. Should one of my children or wife die, I must never say “I have lost” them. They were never mine in the first place, which is why I should instead say that they have been returned. Classicists like Martha Nussbaum and Richard Sorabji rightly question the consequences and costs of Stoic renunciation. Not only is it good to have attachments to those we love, but it is also necessary; without these attachments, we might enjoy greater security and even serenity, but we would also experience less humanity. We would be, quite simply, less human.
There are other big questions raised by this small handbook. Does not Stoicism, which tells us that economic, political, and social issues are things indifferent, thus encourage forms of political resignation? Is there not the danger that Stoics, in the wide swath they cut with the blade of things indifferent, are in fact conspiring with forms of slavery we could and should resist? Is it really silly to wish with all your heart that your children not only survive you, but flourish as well? Once you put down Epictetus, you might wish to ask yourself whether you side with Hadrian, who accepted his own vulnerability and mourned the loss of his beloved Antinous, or “dear Mark,” who sought to evince his vulnerability by instead loving mere humanity.
¤
Robert Zaretsky teaches in the Honors College at the University of Houston. He is the author of numerous books and articles on French intellectual history. His new book, Catherine & Diderot: An Empress, A Philosopher and the Fate of the Enlightenment, will be published this winter by Harvard University Press.
Source: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/almost-too-sober-on-the-appeal-of-stoicism/
Lakers buscan comenzar el 2019 con el pie derecho
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EL SEGUNDO – La travesía hacia a los playoffs no se detiene.
Tras darle descanso al plantel el lunes, Luke Walton y los Lakers volvieron al trabajo formal el 1 de enero de cara al duelo ante Oklahoma City Thunder.
El entrenador de los laguneros sabe que se les viene el equipo con la mejor defensa de la NBA (99.9 puntos permitidos cada 100 posesiones) – un conjunto con el que además comparten el tercer puesto en la tabla de ofensivas más rápidas de la NBA.
Walton reconoció que el triunfo del domingo ante Sacramento fue un alivio para el equipo, pero que todavía queda mucho trabajo por delante.
“Fue bueno para nosotros”, aseguró. “Sabemos que fue un juego y una linda victoria, pero ahora se trata de reenfocarnos y mejorar. Hicimos muchas cosas desprolijas en ese juego, y fuimos afortunados de poder ganarlo, pero hay muchas cosas que podríamos y deberíamos hacer mejor. Cosas que hicimos mejor en realidad cuando jugamos en Sacramento. Debemos limpiar eso porque se viene un equipo realmente bueno”.
El entrenador señaló la transición defensiva como un área en la que han mermado su producción en los últimos partidos – acusando una mezcla de exceso de agresividad y lapsos energéticos.
“No es solo esfuerzo, también es los muchachos atacando el tablero ofensivo”, indicó. “Le damos un poco más de luz verde a algunos y no a otros, pero no puede ser imprudente. Si no tienes una línea directa a la bola, debes regresar”.
Por su parte, Lance Stephenson confesó que la adaptación a la vida sin LeBron James no fue fácil al comienzo, pero que el proceso va en la dirección correcta.
“Fue definitivamente difícil”, opinó. “Nuestro mejor jugador está fuera, y ahí es cuando debemos unirnos y hacer las jugadas pequeñas, y comunicarnos más.
Tenemos grandes zapatos que llenar. Creo que estamos haciendo un buen trabajo hasta ahora y debemos seguir adelante”.
El veterano apuntó que extrañan la voz y el liderazgo de James, pero que esto pondrá a prueba a los otros miembros importantes del plantel.
“Es difícil porque te falta tu líder”, dijo. “Necesitamos eso porque necesitamos que los jóvenes sepan que quizás algún día no lo tengamos. Tenemos que hablar más fuerte y practicarlo y repetirlo”.
Eso claramente no es un problema para Stephenson, quien se considera entre los que más hablan del equipo. El escolta contó que en las prácticas él es de los que más retan a sus compañeros, con JaVale McGee y Rajon Rondo completando el podio. Entre los jóvenes, Josh Hart lleva la batuta, y el objetivo de los veteranos es que Lonzo Ball se sume más a los intercambios.
“Estamos tratando de que Lonzo le hable un poco de basura a la gente pero está haciendo un buen trabajo”, avisó.
Stephenson también se mostró orgulloso por las mejoras en su tiro de larga distancia. El oriundo de Brooklyn está disparando 40.2 por ciento en triples esta temporada tras promediar 28.9 con Indiana en 2017-18. La clave es simple:
“Disparar mucho, disparar a velocidad de juego, disparar saltando derecho”, contó. “Mi entrenador de tiro está haciendo un gran trabajo. Jesse (Mermuys, entrenador asistente) me empuja todos los días, hace que llegue temprano y me quede hasta tarde. Está haciendo un gran trabajo con eso”.
Source: https://www.nba.com/lakers/news/espanol/190101piederecho
Wells Fargo alleges Related Companies’ SoFla project gave misleading information to appraiser tied to $150M loan
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Wells Fargo alleges CityPlace gave misleading information to appraiser tied to $150M loan
CityPlace recently reached an agreement with its lenders to refinance the loan
Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan and a rendering of CityPlace (Credit: Getty Images)
The long-running dispute between Related Companies’ CityPlace in West Palm Beach and its lenders over a $150 million loan just took another turn this month.
Wells Fargo, a trustee for CityPlace’s lender Credit Suisse Commercial Mortgage, is alleging that CityPlace’s appraisal for its loan was based on misleading and inaccurate information given to its appraiser in a counterclaim filed in a Palm Beach County Circuit Court on Jan. 2.
CityPlace allegedly concealed information to Cushman & Wakefield regarding the likelihood of a zoning change that would allow CityPlace to build a 21-story apartment complex at the site of the former Macy’s department store at CityPlace property, according to the lawsuit. This caused Cushman & Wakefield to give CityPlace an appraisal of $120 million, $35 million less than what it should have been, according to Wells Fargo.
The Palm Beach Post first reported the news. CityPlace declined to comment. An attorney for Wells Fargo also declined comment.
A few weeks ago CityPlace finally reached an agreement with its lenders to refinance the $150 million loan, avoiding the possibility of foreclosure.
Wells Fargo is now seeking a new appraisal.
Related Companies is already redeveloping Rosemary Street as part of the CityPlace project. The Rosemary Avenue project will add covered outdoor seating, landscaping, more shade and new lighting.
In 2011, CityPlace was previously hit with a foreclosure action, but Related was able to negotiate an extension on the loan and keep the property. In 2016, Trepp, a commercial research company, showed that CityPlace’s two loans from commercial-mortgage backed securities were in default.
Source: https://therealdeal.com/miami/2019/01/11/wells-fargo-alleges-cityplace-gave-misleading-information-to-appraiser-tied-to-150m-loan/
Fritz Coleman in “Defying Gravity” at Sierra Madre Playhouse May 6
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Fritz Coleman, from Defying GravityEveryone once in a while I get a press release that sells out before I can even post it. This is for a second show on Saturday May 6. Act Fast as Fritz is fall out funny and sells out fast in this venue.
Fritz’s show is a hilarious look at life on the far side of 50 and one not to be missed.
The press release teaser: Fritz Coleman Returns to SMP – Again!! – Again!!! – Thanks to a gratifying response to our last E-Blast, Fritz will give a SECOND performance Saturday, May 6 at 6:30pm. of his expanded version of DEFYING GRAVITY, a humorous look at the far side of 50. Yes, we all have to face that sooner or later, and Fritz is bound to share some insights that make it fun, funny, and familiar. We all know Fritz as that nice NBC weatherman who has been appearing in our living rooms seemingly for ever; we’ve watched him grow up. Join us for this playhouse fun-raiser, an evening of wit and laughter, followed by a wine ‘n cheese meet ‘n greet in the lobby.
Tickets HERE or by calling the Sierra Madre Playhouse direct at 626-355-4318. Note groups of 10 or more can get a 20% discount
Source: http://blogging.la/2017/04/28/fritz-coleman-in-defying-gravity-at-sierra-madre-playhouse-may-6/
Fashion in the news: Brexit, industry challenges & fashion week stress
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Every Friday, FashionUnited selects the most interesting reads about the fashion industry published across US and international news outlets. Here’s what you may have missed this week:
What’s next for Brexit?
This week has been chaotic for UK politics, to say the least. British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit Plan suffered an historic defeat in Parliament on Tuesday, leaving many to wonder what her plan B will be considering the deadline to leave the European Union is March 29. A no-deal Brexit would be disastrous for the British economy, as all existing trade deals would disappear, forcing companies to pay to trade with the EU. For those looking to understand what can happen next, the New York Times has listed all the possibilities. The National Public Radio has also published an interesting article answering the most frequently asked questions about the situation, including “why is Theresa May still in office?” and “what is the possibility of a second referendum?”. Finally, if you want to know how a no-deal Brexit would impact the fashion industry especifically, Vogue asked 6 London-based designers what Brexit means for them.
It’s time to talk about mental health in fashion
Fashion professionals are particularly prone to developing mental illnesses due to the fast-paced, high-stakes, competitive nature of the industry. But the issue is frequently swept under the rug, perhaps in order not to compromise the glamorous image that sustains the business. Luckily, some prominent names are already taking upon themselves to open up a conversation. This week, Highsnobiety asked several professionals, including a journalist, a model, a buyer, a designer and a social media influencer, to talk about how fashion week takes a toll on their mental health. “I don’t think I’ve ever not been worn down, both physically and mentally, by the end of fashion week”, said fashion editor Em Odesser. “Without fail, I’ll have a panic attack either the night before or the morning of my first show”. Read the article in full here.
The big issues facing the fashion industry in 2019
The fashion industry is going through major transformations in recent years, and 2019 will not be any less challenging. This week, Forbes magazine listed the biggest issues facing fashion, including forced and trafficked labor, technology and sustainability.
Want to stay up to date about the latest developments in the fashion industry? Sign for FashionUnited’s newsletter!
Picture: Avaaz on Flickr, public domain
Source: https://fashionunited.com/news/fashion/fashion-in-the-news-brexit-industry-challenges-fashion-week-stress/2019011825672
Venezuela opposition leader spurs renewed interest among SoFla real estate investors amid turmoil
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Venezuela opposition leader spurs renewed interest among SoFla real estate investors amid turmoil
Miami brokers and other industry pros say change in the country's regime could benefit Venezuela — and South Florida — real estate markets
Nicolas Maduro and Juan Guaido (Credit: Wikipedia and Google Maps)
UPDATED, Feb. 21, 4:10 p.m.: As Venezuela descended into economic turmoil in recent years, real estate values plummeted and investors looked elsewhere, including to South Florida. Eventually, that too dried up, as the government’s grip tightened and the country grew more isolated. Now, as Venezuela’s opposition leader vies for control amid a humanitarian crisis, some of those investors are turning their attention back to the country, sensing or hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel.
Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido — backed by the U.S. and dozens of other countries — “has invigorated a lot of interest in Venezuela,” said Craig Studnicky, principal and owner of ISG. “A lot of Venezuelans [in South Florida] are lining up to do cheap real estate deals in Venezuela.”
Vicky Fulop, senior counsel in the Miami office of Holland & Knight, said her Venezuelan friends who listed their homes for sale before leaving the country in recent years, hadn’t gotten any offers — until recently. In the last few weeks, she said, “the brokers have been calling them like crazy.” The real estate movement, she said, “has been incredible in the last two weeks.”
A change in Venezuela’s regime could benefit the country’s real estate market and eventually bring Venezuelan buyers back to Miami, local industry pros said.
But now, most Venezuelans struggle to pay for basic items as inflation soars. On Friday, President Nicolas Maduro shut the border to Brazil and said he may also close the border to Colombia to block incoming aid.
Over the last three years, more than 3 million people have fled the country, according to United Nations estimates. Over the same period, foreign investment from South America into the U.S. has largely dropped off.
Between 2012 and 2015, condo buyers from Venezuela represented roughly 25 percent of Latin American real estate sales in Miami, Studnicky said. Now, that figure is essentially down to 1 percent, he said.
Several brokers say it will be a long time before Venezuelan nationals are again buying real estate in Miami.
Sergio Pintos, who works for ISG and Property Markets Group, believes it will be another two to three years before the country begins to improve. Most of the major real estate brokers left Venezuela in recent years, he said, and are no longer doing business in their home country or in Miami. Even if conditions improve quickly, most Venezuelans don’t have enough wealth to buy property, and those who do, he said, have ties to the Maduro government.
But Fulop, who was born and raised in Venezuela, is more optimistic. Once the oil and gas sector reactivates, she said, real estate, hospitality and other industries will follow. Despite the chaos, Fulop added, property values are already rising. Fulop is now part of a new group at her firm, made up of 20 partners working with clients with interests in Venezuela. The group’s expertise lies in real estate and hospitality, sanctions and trade, corporate and tax, international disputes and energy and natural resources.
“Even though people left in massive numbers, they always kept a foot firmly grounded in Venezuela. They kept their businesses, they kept their residences,” she said. Those who remained and who have the means, “will definitely be at the forefront when things change and pick up.”
Alicia Cervera of Cervera Real Estate expects that a change in government would create wealth in Venezuela that would eventually arrive in Miami. Most wealthy Venezuelans have already moved their money out of their home country, she said. And while some are still buying in Miami, Cervera said, the number is not “as much as we would like to see.”
But like other Latin American countries that faced political and economic instability, and whose investors returned to South Florida, Cervera said the same will happen in Venezuela.
“Colombia is back, Brazil is back, Mexico is here. … The bottom line is that Miami tends to win when there’s a good turn in the politics and Miami tends to win when there’s a problem,” Cervera said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Vicky Fulop’s name.
Source: https://therealdeal.com/miami/2019/02/22/venezuela-opposition-leader-spurs-renewed-interest-among-sofla-real-estate-investors-amid-turmoil/
Chargers beat Seahawks 25-17, improve to 6-2 for season
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SEATTLE --
Philip Rivers made his 200th consecutive start and kept the Los Angeles Chargers surging at the midpoint of the season, surviving a late rally by Seattle's Russell Wilson.Rivers threw for 228 yards and two touchdowns, Melvin Gordon added 113 yards rushing and the Chargers won their fifth straight with a 25-17 win over the Seahawks on Sunday.
Rivers threw touchdown passes of 12 yards to Tyrell Williams and 30 yards to Mike Williams, and let the Chargers defense stymie Russell Wilson until the final minutes. Seattle had won four of five following a 0-2 start.
Desmond King provided the deciding points for Los Angeles (6-2) by stepping in front of Wilson's pass for David Moore and returning it 42 yards for a touchdown with 6:44 remaining to give the Chargers a 25-10 lead.
Wilson managed to make the final minutes nervous for Los Angeles.
Wilson hit Nick Vannett on a 6-yard TD with 1:50 remaining to cut the Chargers' lead to one score. Seattle got the ball back with 1:24 left at its own 22 and after two completions and a roughing the passer penalty on Melvin Ingram, the Seahawks were at the Chargers 44 with 50 seconds left. Wilson scrambled for 16 yards to the Chargers 28 and, after a spike, Seattle had 30 seconds left.
Seattle (4-4) got a break when Michael Davis was called for pass interference in the end zone on the final play of regulation against Tyler Lockett, putting the ball at the 1 for an untimed down. Seattle's J.R. Sweezy was called for false start backing the play up to the 6, and Wilson's final attempt for David Moore in the back of the end zone was partially tipped by Jahleel Addae and fell incomplete.
Wilson was 26 of 39 for 235 yards, and threw a 10-yard TD pass to Jaron Brown on Seattle's opening drive.
Rivers became the fourth quarterback in league history to start 200 straight games, joining Brett Favre, Eli Manning and Peyton Manning. Favre started an NFL-record 297 straight times in the regular season. This wasn't like his 2010 performance in Seattle when Rivers threw for 455 yards, but he made key throws at important times, especially in the first half. The Chargers averaged 10 yards per play in the first half and scored touchdowns on three of their five possessions, the last one taking just 55 seconds to find the end zone on a 30-yard catch-and-run by Mike Williams.
Gordon averaged 7.1 yards per carry and ran through huge holes in the second half. His 34-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter gave him 34 TDs in his past 36 games after going scoreless in his first 14 games.
Seattle also didn't have answers for Keenan Allen, who had 124 yards on six receptions.
(Copyright ©2018 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Source: https://abc7.com/sports/chargers-beat-seahawks-25-17-improve-to-6-2-for-season/4618398/
City Century’s $1B Olympia project clears LA Planning Commission
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City Century’s $1B Olympia project clears LA Planning Commission
Mixed-use complex is one of a handful of megaprojects underway in South Park
Shenglong Group Chairman Yi Lin and a rendering of Olympia
City Century has cleared the first hurdle to building its $1 billion mixed-use Olympia project in South Park.
The Los Angeles City Planning Commission approved Olympia on Thursday, sending it to the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee, Urbanize reported. If approved by the committee, it would go to the full City Council for a final vote.
The project at 1001 W. Olympic Boulevard would feature three towers on a podium.
The largest would be a 65-story tower with 1,000 hotel rooms and 20,000 square feet of retail space. It would be joined by a 53-story tower and a 43-story tower with a total of 879 apartments, and an additional 20,000 square feet of retail space between them.
There would be 163,000 square feet of open space and other amenities.
City Century wants to wrap the majority of the podium with digital signage, much like the Circa project, and the nearby Fig+Pico project. The developers of Oceanwide Plaza are also planning large LED signs, but work has stopped on that project.
City Century is an American affiliate of the Chinese development firm Shenglong Group. It first proposed the Olympia project in 2016 with a different configuration. It reconfigured the project in 2017, adding the 1,000-room hotel. [Urbanize] — Dennis Lynch
Source: https://therealdeal.com/la/2019/02/15/city-centurys-1b-olympia-project-clears-la-planning-commission/
