When Chelsea FC spanked Champions League winners PSG in the Club World Cup final Sunday, civilians lavished attention on quiet assassin Cole Palmer’s brace and gaffer Enzo Maresca’s dream debut season. CRE junkies, however, might have skipped the pitch and looked to the director’s box, for one of the champions of the evening is also one of the industry’s more audacious players. ⚽

Since ‘22, the soccer powerhouse has been part-owned by Jonathan Goldstein, co-founder of Cain International. Backed by some of the biggest names in global capital, the firm’s taking on skyline-defining projects in Miami and Los Angeles and just struck a deal for a colorful asset in New York – it’s buying the former Trump Soho from CIM for $175M+, per Bloomberg, w/ an eye on repositioning the 391- 🔑 hotel. (The property has a helluva history & an even better cast of characters, from Alex Sapir to Ivanka Trump to Felix Sater – see here & here; lender CIM foreclosed on it in ‘14)

An Ilford lad who grew up a fan of Chelsea rival Spurs, Goldstein earned a rep as a hotshot lawyer (across the pond, they call them “solicitors”) in London, turning his firm Olswang into a go-to CRE shop. Then came the call of the wild: In ‘07, Goldstein, by then Olswang’s CEO, exited to become the right-hand-man for a key client, property mogul Gerald Ronson. In ‘14, he did a brief stint at Guggenheim before founding Cain as a JV w/ 2 other Guggenheimers, Todd Boehly & Henry Silverman (who left soon after to form 54 Madison Partners); Guggenheim agreed to back the firm. Boehly, best known as the founder of investment firm Eldridge, is Cain’s majority owner, w/ Goldstein as CEO.

Having called his home country the UK “uninvestable” in ‘22, the Brit has been pushing deeper into the US, where Witkoff Group alum Eric Poretsky oversees his equity business (On the debt site, Cain partnered w/ insurer Security Benefit to pick up a $1.2B construction loan book from PacWest in ‘23.) In ‘22, Cain, along w/ the Saudi state vehicle PIF, announced a $900M investment into Vlad Doronin’s Aman in ‘22; Aman is also backed by another Gulf SWF, Mubadala, and Cain & Mubadala are partnering on a luxury resi venture. Aman is slated to operate the hospitality section of Cain’s 17.5-acre LA megaproject One Beverly Hills, which is looking to craft an epic $5B+ financing package from a cocktail of banks, debt funds, insurance cos and others (REIT VICI has a $300M mezz position here).

And then there’s Miami, Cain’s most active market. Partnering w/ Doronin’s other vehicle OKO, Cain smashed it on 830 Brickell, often re to as Miami’s only real trophy office building. Cain/OKO also developed the 249-unit Missoni Baia, and Cain recently repositioned the Delano Miami Beach. Much more to come, for sure.

“I hang out with the boys at night and I get up with the men in the morning” Eric Adams famously said. And on Wednesday night, the boys included some of New York real estate’s blue bloods. The NYC mayor, shaken but not stirred by a corruption scandal that saw him leave the Democratic party, has seen his quest for reelection resurrected by the against-all-odds victory of Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary. Aghast at the prospect of a Mamdani mayoralty, CRE bigwigs are throwing their considerable wealth & clout behind Adams, and he’s cashing in: The Adams campaign raised over $1M in a single night at a fundraiser thrown by SL Green boss Marc Holliday at One Madison, per Bloomberg. Also in attendance: Related boss Jeff Blau, who just pulled off a de-risking masterstroke at Hudson Yards w/ Adams’ help; the Moinian Group’s Joe Moinian; and Dr. Phil.

We broke down CRE’s “retreat & resist” strategy to deal w/ Mamdani last week on the pod

Also recommend checking out this NYMag read on the 3-way jockeying to defeat Mamdani, and this Odd Lots sit-down w/ Kathy Wylde on where the business community is at.

When Brookfield pulled out of a deal to buy the NPL on SF office tower 101 Mission this spring, ING had to scramble for a new buyer for the bad debt. And now it’s found one: Paul Singer’s Elliott Investment Management, which is making waves nationally through both debt & equity plays. It just closed on the $93M sr. note, per the SF Business Times, though it’s unclear at what discount. Vanbarton, which bought the 21-story tower for $163M ($775/ 🦶) in ‘18, is expected to be wiped in any deal.

Elliott’s other recent CRE moves of interest: It is the equity on RXR’s pending billion-dollar buy of NYC’s 590 Madison, as The Promote reported. It bought Nuveen’s 701 Brickell office tower for $443M ($650 / 🦶 ) late last year in partnership w/ Mukong Cho’s Morning Calm. And it’s the capital behind Adi Chugh’s debt fund Tyko, which has done $5B+ in debt deals over the past year.

A penny stock company is trying to reinvent itself as a major mixed-use developer – what could go wrong? Ricardo Haynes’ Webstar Technology Group is touting a $650M hospitality project (w/ a timeshare component, natch) in Commerce, Georgia, as well as a $1.2B resort in Downtown Atlanta (partially financed through crypto tokens, natch). That’s the setup, and the punchline does not disappoint: Per a terrific new Bisnow dive, there’s v little there there - no permit filings, botched land deals, fantastical track records, messy SEC disclosures. Our favorite detail: the Commerce project touts both indoor & outdoor water parks, but according to the Banks County Commission Chairman, “we don’t have the water for it.” 🛝 🌊

City officials in Commerce have never communicated w/ Webstar, per the article, nor have those in Atlanta. The firm, which was previously a software ⌨ co. and also acquired a cannabis penny stock firm 🌿, pivoted to development last year. It has been selling over-the-counter shares, and claims it will “leverage blockchain tokenization” 🛑 for its developments to give investors “secure, transparent, and efficient avenues to participate.” One SEC vet sees things differently. “It’s your classic pump and dump,” Lynn Turner, formerly the agency’s chief accountant, told Bisnow. “Unfortunately, it sounds like criminal activity.”