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Inman •

Inside Trump's historic $95M mansion deal, 10 years later

In interviews with Florida real estate professionals, including at least one involved in the 2008 sale, agents characterized Trump’s blockbuster deal as simply par for the course in the years leading up to the financial collapse, when appreciation rates climbed at a historic clip and the housing market in Palm Beach and elsewhere in South Florida was like the Wild West.Jim Weix, a South Florida Realtor, recalled a period at the peak of the housing bubble more than a decade ago when even the man...
Adweek •

Fast Chat: Edward Burns

I absolutely love it. I had sort of a blessing in that my most successful film, critically and commercially, was The Brothers McMullen, which I made for $25,000 with a three-man crew and nonprofessional actors. Quite honestly, I didn’t know how to make films. I was learning how to act on the fly. And, so, I’ve always viewed that as like having a secret weapon. It’s a hard business getting independent films made and even harder making them with the studios.

I absolutely love it. I had sort of a...
The New York Times •

Seamen’s Institute to Sell Its Building and Leave Manhattan (Published 2010)

In the early years of the Seamen’s Church Institute, sailors arriving from the Atlantic would congregate for prayer in floating chapel barges anchored in Lower Manhattan. The institute replaced the chapels with a pair of hotels on South and State Streets, where in 1913 seamen paid 25 cents for a room.But after 176 years in the South Street Seaport area the institute, whose mission had gone well beyond its original incarnation as a maritime ministry, was leaving New York, officials said last week...
The New York Times •

North Jersey Finds Popularity as Home for Data Centers (Published 2010)

The boxy three-story building at 5851 Westside Avenue in North Bergen, N.J., attracts as much attention from passing motorists as a cornfield by the side of an interstate in Iowa.No signs proclaim its occupant, and its generic off-white facade and empty parking lot offer few clues as to what prompted developers to rehab the 163,000-square-foot structure in 2008, after it had sat vacant for about a decade. It is only after passing through a thicket of security checkpoints that the facility’s iden...
SPIN •

Sex, Shrugs & Rock’n’Roll at Woodie Awards

In the opening moments of last night’s mtvU Woodie Awards at NYC’s Roseland Ballroom, a co-ed octet of Matt & Kim back-up singers slowly peeled away shirts, argyle socks and, finally, skinny jeans during a bombastic, arm-swinging performance of “Lessons Learned.” The apparel was hurled with careless abandon into a packed crowd of hoodies and high heels until all that remained was a jiggling toe-tap of mismatched skivvies and Matt Johnson’s low-drone keyboard fuzz.

Of course it was staged — and...
SPIN •

Q&A: Michael McDonald on Grizzly Bear Collabo

If you think about it, yacht-rock legend Michael McDonald and the eminently mellow Grizzly Bear aren’t really that far apart musically. Still, the news that the former Doobie Brother was asked by the Brooklyn critical darlings to lay down an alternate lead vocal track for their single “While You Wait for the Others” had a few folks scratching their heads. The 57-year-old “Yah Mo B There” growler sat down with SPIN.com to explain:
How did you and Grizzly Bear hook up?A mutual friend set us up....
New York Daily News •

DYING TO LIVE IN B’KLYN. LUXURY DIGS OFFER VISTA OF GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY

THE VIEW IS to die for.
New Yorkers with a zest for life – and $1 million to spend – are dying to move into a luxury condo building with a killer view of Green-Wood Cemetery and its 560,000 permanent residents.
About a third of the condos at the ritzy “Simone” in Windsor Terrace overlook the cemetery and some of its famous graves – artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, editor Horace Greeley and political titan William (Boss) Tweed.
“A lot of people haven’t said anything about the cemetery,” said...

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The Modern Sale •

THE TYRANNY OF CRM IS OVER — The Modern Sale

The once high tide of customer relationship management software is facing its ebb. According to a 2015 study by Forrester Research, 52 percent of Salesforce customers surveyed in a poll reported that the “high cost of ownership over time” ranked chiefly among a litany of problems associated with the San Francisco–based company’s Sales Cloud module. Meanwhile, 43 percent of those polled warned they would “renegotiate our contract with Salesforce when it comes up for renewal,” and another 8 percent said they would shift to a different service.
Inman •

Inside Trump's historic $95M mansion deal, 10 years later

In interviews with Florida real estate professionals, including at least one involved in the 2008 sale, agents characterized Trump’s blockbuster deal as simply par for the course in the years leading up to the financial collapse, when appreciation rates climbed at a historic clip and the housing market in Palm Beach and elsewhere in South Florida was like the Wild West.Jim Weix, a South Florida Realtor, recalled a period at the peak of the housing bubble more than a decade ago when even the man...
The Modern Sale •

THE INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT — The Modern Sale

For decades, vendors like Salesforce, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP have sought to illuminate the sales process by offering CRM software under the premise that logging sales activity would improve outcomes. Producing revenue was viewed as a manufacturing process that, if broken into stages, could be managed to grow revenue. The fundamental flaw in assuming that all buyers shared a similar process is the primary reason why not one of those multi-billion technology companies have been able to demonstrate the correlation between using CRM and growing revenue, according to Messer. “Unlike in other areas, technology applied to B2B sales has reduced productivity or hasn’t increased revenue, even after billions have been spent.”
Adweek •

Talent Takes the F Train

When is an advertising agency not an advertising agency? What is a shop that makes ads, but isn’t principally interested in selling products? Actually, in addition to ads, it often makes documentaries, Web series, builds sites and apps, and pitches reality shows. Still, it’s not just a production house, nor necessarily an interactive agency. It’s a new game run by entrepreneurs who are focused on tools and technology. And they’re doing it in a world far removed from Manhattan and its corporate m...
New York Daily News •

HOMELESS RULE AT THE ‘BAT CAVE’

A LONG-VACANT building has been taken over by homeless squatters from across the country – smack in the middle of some of Brooklyn’s priciest real estate, the Daily News has learned.
Dozens of kids from California, Long Island, Queens and a hodgepodge of Midwestern states call the red-brick, graffiti-stained building near the Gowanus Canal home.
“It’s like a dorm,” said Sasha, 18, who ran away from her Long Island City, Queens, home four years ago to live in the labyrinthine Bat Cave, jus...
New York Daily News •

BACK TO THE FUCHSIA. Paint job frosts B’klyn neighbors

A BROOKLYN homeowner has given his multimillion-dollar Park Slope brownstone a fresh coat of hot-pink paint – and that’s got outraged neighbors seeing red.
“It’s just over the top,” said Riva Rosenfield, 67, who lives directly across the street from Bernie Henry’s pink palace on Garfield Place.
“It’s not my favorite color,” added Thad Russell, 41, who lives two blocks away. “I guess it’s nice to see diversity, but I’m glad there aren’t more of them.
”
Corcoran real estate broker Paul Zu...
New York Daily News •

‘MOONSTRUCK’ LOVERS: $5M WILL BUY THE HOUSE

THE BROOKLYN BROWNSTONE immortalized in the Oscar-winning movie “Moonstruck” is up for sale – but the merely romantic need not apply.
The elegant, four-story home in Brooklyn Heights is being offered for a cool $5 million.
Prospective buyers are already lining up to see the house at Cranberry and Willow Sts., which Cher’s Loretta Castorini called home.
Edward and Francesca Rullman, owners since 1959, decided it was time to sell the 177-year-old home, said Corcoran broker Elliott Lokitz,...
Adweek •

Fast Chat: Gavin McInnes

You’re in charge of [advertising agency] Rooster’s branded entertainment, among other creative duties. It sounds like you’ve retained the voice you had at Vice magazine. Rooster hasn’t restricted you? I haven’t changed at all. It’s the opposite. I’ve always been telling stories. I do it more with video now than I did in the past, but I’m still writing the exact same things I’ve always written. After I left Vice I thought, “What the fuck am I going to do with my life?” I box at Church Street Box...
Adweek •

Not So Funny Money

While hosting friends at his Montreal home, Sri Lankan-born Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana struck upon a novel idea for a website. Similar to the grand epiphany that inspired Facebook, the revelation came several six-packs into what would become a very boozy night. But unlike Mark Zuckerberg, who reportedly created his social network in retaliation against an ex-girlfriend, it was Karl Marx’s treatise on capitalism that fueled their imaginations while scrolling, yes, their friends’ Facebook pages...
The New York Times •

North Jersey Finds Popularity as Home for Data Centers (Published 2010)

The boxy three-story building at 5851 Westside Avenue in North Bergen, N.J., attracts as much attention from passing motorists as a cornfield by the side of an interstate in Iowa.No signs proclaim its occupant, and its generic off-white facade and empty parking lot offer few clues as to what prompted developers to rehab the 163,000-square-foot structure in 2008, after it had sat vacant for about a decade. It is only after passing through a thicket of security checkpoints that the facility’s iden...
New York Daily News •

A HOUSE DIVIDED. Judge OKs wall for splittin’ spouses

IT’S THE “WAR OF the Roses,” Brooklyn-style.
A judge has ordered a soon-to-be divorced couple to live unhappily ever after in the Borough Park home they shared for 18 years – by having a wall built smack dab in the middle of their dining room.
Millionaire sweater manufacturer Simon Taub was granted permission during divorce proceedings in August to divide the home with sheetrock walls, so he wouldn’t have to relinquish it to wife, Chana Taub.
Simon, 57, would have his own kitchen, bedro...