Even as Michael Shvo hunts for a recap of the Raleigh in Miami Beach, a firm that’s been the equity on many notable condo projects has made its own move. Nahla Capital, the Genghis Hadi-led joint that’s backed by Middle Eastern money, has won a bidding process to buy the property for $275M, per Business Insider. Shvo has a ROFR that allows him to match Nahla’s bid, per the publication, though he’d have to find the cash to pay off his partners who want out & figure out his debt.

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The debt stack here is fascinating: BH3 holds the mezz, sources familiar w/ the matter told The Promote in June, w/ Related in for a 🍕 . The sr. loan is held by JVP Management (John Illuzzi, Van Nguyen, Anthony Pizonnia Shaskus), sources said. When we reported on the recap efforts in June, the finalists in the mix were a Middle Eastern fund, the Reuben Brothers, and a 3rd unID’d group. The Raleigh has a 60-key hotel (Rosewood is the current 🎏 ) and 40 condos, w/ pricing blending at $5,800 / 🦶

A bit on Nahla: Founded by Carlyle vet Hadi in ‘14, it’s been the equity on a number of prominent boutique luxury condo projects across the country, from Miki Naftali’s 221 West 77th St to Sumaida + Khurana’s 152 Elizabeth to GPI’s Rosewood Residences in Beverly Hills. More recently, it’s been putting its cash behind Naftali alum Victor Sigoura, whose Legion Investment Group is developing a 22-story UES condo w/ just 26 units. The lender on that one, to make this all a bit tastier, is also JVP.

Ripper of a read in Bloomberg on the spring exit of QTS founder Chad Williams, 4Y after Blackstone swallowed up the data center giant in a $10B take-private. Blackstone’s since positioned QTS as its lens into the AI boom, and has invested billions into QTS’ global expansion. Its desire for hypergrowth, however, clashed w/ Williams’ vision for the firm, and the two sides also tussled over how future gains from QTS-scouted sites would be handled. In the end, there was only room for the Blackstone way, and Williams was bought out of his firm – a $3B exit for him. QTS vets David Robey & Tag Greason were named co-CEOS.

There were cultural differences, too. On one side, a mega money-manager whose top lieutenants dream in the patois of risk-adjusted returns and “secular tailwinds.” On the other, a scrappy entrepreneur and devout Christian who began meetings w/ prayer and once had a Seventh-day Adventist minister bless a NoVa data center at inauguration. Williams’ hands-on approach also conflicted w/ Blackstone’s desire for extreme speed & urgency on expansions, and his reservations about how Blackstone was allocating the upside on the dev pipeline messed w/ its ability to tap the entire BX capital machine.

This bit really hits: The shift atop QTS also highlights the kind of push-and-pull going on at the 21,000 companies private equity bankrolls across the US. The priorities of people who start and scale businesses are not always aligned with the buyout shops who snap them up. And while becoming part of an empire the size of Blackstone’s confers advantages, it also brings with it a new set of motivations.

In the era of AUM Gobbling ™, something to really think about.

See also: Dons of Data Centers, The Promote’s rundown of the key players
Bonus: Deconstructing data center megadeals w/ DigitalBridge’s Marc Ganzi

We explored the immediate CRE aftermath of Zohran Mamdani’s shock victory on the pod earlier this month, breaking down the “retreat/resist” 🥷 stance adopted by some of the industry’s big names. Now, Odd Lots has a terrific chat w/ landlord/broker/NYC CRE insider Ben Carlos Thypin that’s a useful departure from the “Zohran BAD!” 👻 rhetoric we’re generally seeing in the trades & mainstream press. Thypin makes a few key points wrt industry sentiment

Why does large-scale real estate development continue to hold irrational allure for so many strivers, even though on a risk-reward basis it’s an absolutely batshit profession? It’s because of stories like Donald Soffer’s: A man sees swampy wetlands in the Miami MSA and imagines something more, a haven for the well-heeled w/ zero legacy issues besides marsh. In partnership w/ his dad Harry & Arthur G. Cohen, he buys 785 acres for $6M, and remarks that developing it would be an adventure (i.e. Aventura). W/ Gov. Claude Kirk (a self-described “tree-shaking son of a bitch”) throwing his weight behind them, the Soffers are able to fully realize the Aventura development, which becomes the foundation of the Turnberry empire, today a multibillion-dollar enterprise spanning hotels, luxury condos, retail and resorts. Soffer died Sunday at the ripe age of 92, unquestionably part of the pantheon of South Florida city-shapers such as Tibor Hollo (died ‘24). Fun trivia: Soffer also owned the 83-foot-yacht Monkey Business, which torpedoed the promising political career of Gary Hart and was a see-and-be-seen hotspot for the likes of Elizabeth Taylor & James Caan.