Happy Property

La Belle Vie, a mammoth Bel-Air residence built in 1993 for philanthropist Iris Cantor by her husband, Bernard Gerald Cantor, has sold for $40 million, public records show. The sale is one of the highest this year in Los Angeles County.

The mansion had been marketed at $53 million since 2009. It was designed to house the Cantors’ extensive art collections.

The 35,000 square feet of living space include a three-story entry hall, a formal library, a media room, a gym, a billiards room, a beauty salon, three kitchens, 12 fireplaces, nine bedrooms, 21 bathrooms and a staff wing.

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I recently got a call from a reporter in Arkansas who was writing an article about their hometown department store icon, Dillard’s. The reporter asked me about the much publicized REIT that was announced early in 2011. He caught me off guard and I had to admit I really did not have any news to report on the current status. After the call I got busy and researched the matter and wanted to share my findings with GLG News readers.

After searching all the media sites I could find going back to shortly after the Dillard announcement about their planned REIT, I could find not one word about their progress or lack thereof. O

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South Florida home prices fell for the ninth consecutive month in April, falling to a new 5-year low, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller 20-city housing index released Tuesday.

Home prices in the Miami metropolitan area — which includes Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — fell 0.2 percent between March and April, after shedding 0.8 percent the month before.

From April 2010 to April 2011, home prices fell 5.6 percent, according to the index. The index tracks repeat sales of existing homes and does not include condos — which make up more than half of South Florida home sales. Sales captured in Tuesday’s report reflect contracts signed in February and March.

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WASHINGTON, DC
Colliers Hires Team to Launch National Govt Services Practice
On the heels of a major expansion in the District and Northern Virginia unveiled last week, Colliers International announced Wednesday it has launched a government services practice group and hired three commercial real estate veterans to lead it.

The team headed by Kurt Stout, Charles Dilks, and Keith Lavey, who join Colliers from Grubb & Ellis along with three other associates, will provide consulting and contracting services nationally to government agencies. Find more info…

Washington • Home prices in most major U.S. cities are rising for the first time in eight months, boosted by an annual wave of spring buying. Analysts cautioned that the increases may be temporary and don’t signal a rebound for the depressed home market.

Prices rose in 13 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index, according to the April report released Tuesday. The sharpest increases were in Washington, D.C. The next-largest were in San Francisco, Atlanta and Seattle. (Salt Lake City is not in the index.)

The index covers metro areas that together make up about 50 percent of U.S. households. It me

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