Posted on November 23, 2010 by Leonard Steinberg. Because I have nothing better to do, the other day I decided to punch in the exact items of my shopping list to the FRESH DIRECT site that I had just purchased at Trader Joe’s on Sixth Avenue: the results were astonishing. Fresh Direct was about 50%… [Read More]
MARKETAINMENT – THE UNREALITY OF REALITY
Posted by: Leonard Steinberg, 11/21/2010 Have you noticed how markets have been reduced to entertainment in recent years? Did it start with Donald Trump who once upon a time was just a serious (seriously!)developer that morphed into a reality TV star? When did we ever think that picking stocks could be akin to a Wheel… [Read More]
SUPERIOR INK HOUSTON ROCKETS PENTHOUSE SELLS FOR (KINDA)RECORD
The penthouse at the Superior Ink building in Greenwich Village, New York, owned by Houston Rockets owner, Leslie Alexander, has sold for a record $ 31,5million according to the Wall Street Journal. But is it a record for Downtown? Yes and no. The quadruplex combination penthouse at 200 Eleventh Avenue sold for around $ 33… [Read More]
E.T. is the new I.T.
Did you know that the waste produced from burning coal can be re-used to create portland cement? Did you know that a incandescent light fixture replaced with a LED light fixture saves about 80% of energy consumption. So while the world seeks some miraculous new source of energy, the rest of the world has discovered… [Read More]
DEAR UNCLE SAM…..
Warren Buffet’s thank you note in the op-ed piece of this morning’s New York Times, prompted us to write our own letter. While not a thank you note, it does infer gratitude of sorts: Dear Uncle Sam: We second most of the points made by Mr. Buffet, but would like to add a few of… [Read More]
BABY BOOMER BUDGET CUTS
News headlines are overwhelmed with talk about how to cut the deficit. The tone before the election is noticeably different to the tone after the election as the practical realities of balancing the budget surface. On of the very biggest areas of spending is entitlements, and right now we are entering a significant milestone: The… [Read More]
TWEET NOTHINGS!
I just returned from a Real Estate Conference that addressed the future, existing technology, and new technology, and how all this will impact our lives as real estate brokers. About 500 people attended. So here I am blogging…. The most annoying aspect of this conference was the strong encouragement of that recent phenomenon called TWITTER…. [Read More]
$ 10,000+ PER SQUARE FOOT HITS NEW YORK MARKET AT 15 CENTRAL PARK WEST
The elusive $ 10,000/square foot price has been reached in Manhattan with the sale of the Zeckendorf’s penthouse at 15 Central Park West. The $ 40million sale of their penthouse marks a turning point in the history of New York real estate pricing. “We have by-passed The Gilded Age, and entered THE PLATINUM AGE,” says… [Read More]
FOREIGN BUYERS + SAFE BET BUYS FUEL ART BUYING
Two trends emerged in this weeks art auctions that are a reflection of the luxury buyer: Firstly, the bulk of ‘big-bucks-buyers’ were from foreign lands (obviously using foreign currencies to capitalize on the weak dollar). The reality is the big new money is being made in many countries besides the USA. The second trend is… [Read More]
IS THERE REAL LUXURY? OR IS IT JUST A BIG CON?
In this morning’s Financial Times, Aswath Damodaran, the NYU business school professorwho moonlights as the guy who teaches Goldman Sachs trainees about how to value companies, said he defined luxury as an industry that has figured out how to leave people feeling good about being suckered. He also said you can’t value luxury; it’s in the… [Read More]