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The guy who sold his Miami mansion to Jeff Bezos for $79 million is really angry he didn't charge more for it

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The guy who sold his Miami mansion to Jeff Bezos for  million is really angry he didn't charge more for it


Leo Kryss sold Jeff Bezos a $79 million Miami mansion. Now, Kryss is filing a lawsuit because he thinks he could have sold it for more, per a Tuesday Wall Street Journal report.

Kryss, the cofounder of Brazilian toy company Tectoy, had listed his seven-bedroom mansion on Indian Creek Island, Miami, for $85 million in May 2023, Business Insider previously reported. The property included a home theater, wine cellar, library, and pool, and neighbored a $68 million three-bedroom house that Bezos purchased in June 2023.

When Kryss was approached with an offer for the property, he had a sneaking suspicion that his new neighbor was behind the sale. The seller said he heard from Jay Parker, the Florida CEO of real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman, who assured Kryss that the Amazon founder was not the buyer and that they would not pay more than $79 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.

After Kryss sold his mansion for $79 million — $6 million below its list price — he learned that the buyer was, in fact, connected to Bezos.

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Kryss claimed that knowing Bezos’ intention to acquire adjacent properties would have been “highly material” to his decision-making and that it ultimately cost him $6 million, according to a complaint filed in the Miami-Dade County that the Journal viewed. Kryss is suing Douglas Elliman, which received a commission of over $3 million for handling the property sale.

Douglas Elliman’s Parker explained in an email to Kryss that he was also unaware of Bezos’ identity as the buyer and believed the property was being purchased by the family of Benny Klepach, the mayor of Indian Creek Village, the Journal reported.

Klepach’s daughter, Celine, joined Elliman before the sale closed and earned a commission on the property sale. While Celine Klepach has since left the firm, she and her lawyer denied her involvement in the deal, the Journal reported.

It is not uncommon for high-net-worth buyers to conceal their identities to avoid sellers charging higher price markups, Danny Hertzberg, a real-estate agent at Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker, told the Journal.

Indian Creek, also known as “Billionaire Bunker,” is an exclusive village on a private island in Miami’s Biscayne Bay. It is known for its ultrawealthy residents, including Jeff Bezos, Tom Brady, and Jared Kushner. A total of 41 property lots are wrapped around the Indian Creek Golf Club at the center of the 300-acre island, which doesn’t have beach access.

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The island was ranked the most expensive neighborhood in the US by Zillow in 2021 and features heavy security, BI reported in 2023. Bezos owns three properties on the island, with the latest purchased in April for $90 million.

Kryss and Douglas Elliman did not respond to requests for comment sent by BI outside business hours.





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E11EVEN Miami kicks off 11th anniversary celebration with star-studded event – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale

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E11EVEN Miami kicks off 11th anniversary celebration with star-studded event – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale


Thank heaven for E11EVEN. The iconic Miami nightclub is celebrating 11 years of epic nights and unforgettable memories. The celebrity hotspot kicked off its anniversary in style with an exclusive event featuring some major stars. We have the highlights from the celebration that has Miami buzzing.’

E11EVEN, E11EVEN, make a wish!

E11EVEN Miami, one of the Magic City’s hottest night clubs, is celebrating 11 years in the biz.

Gino LoPinto, Operating Partner, E11EVEN Miami: “We call ourselves the first shovel in the ground in that downtown Miami area, and to still be standing 11 years later and growing, it’s an incredible feeling.”

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Instead of getting flowers, the Ultraclub kicked off its anniversary Wednesday night with an exclusive event featuring mesmerizing performances.

Legendary music producer Scott Storch lit the place up when he jumped behind the keys and delivered his iconic hits.

Scott Storch: “Yo, yo, this is Scott Storch, and I’m here for the 11th anniversary of E11EVEN.”

But he wasn’t the only artist on the main stage.

Fat Joe (rapping): “Got a handful of stacks, better grab an umbrella. I make it rain!”

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Fat Joe stopped by as well. He showed the hotspot some love on its milestone anniversary with a banging performance.

Fat Joe: “Yo, E11EVEN, my home! Happy 11th anniversary, We love you. Thirty, 40 more, I’m moving in across the street.”

Over the years, E11EVEN has become a home to some of the biggest names in music..

Cardi B (rapping): “When I step, it’s a stampede, foot on neck, can’t breathe.”

From Cardi B…

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Lil Wayne (singing): “And if it ain’t broke, don’t break it.”

…and Lil Wayne, to some of Hollywood’s finest, like Jamie Foxx, it’s a place where legends don’t just visit — they perform.

Ja Rule (rapping): “Inseparable, you chose pain over pleasure. For that, you’ll forever be a part of me.”

In fact, last week, rapper Ja Rule sat down with Deco and told us what to expect from his monthly residency at the Miami staple.

Ja Rule: “It’s electric, man, a lot of fun, just energy, you know, big hit songs.”

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With 11 years now in the rearview mirror, the club’s owners say there’s much more to come.

Gino LoPinto: “Tomorrow, we actually top off Tower One of our E11EVEN Hotel and Residences, and we’re looking to do more hotels around the world, more clubs and more pool clubs.”

The fun’s just beginning. Thursday night, DJs Vice and D-Lux will take over the booth with back-to-back sets, and Marshmallo will have the party rocking Friday night.

FOR MORE INFO:
E11EVEN Miami
29 NE 11th St.
Miami, FL 33132
11miami.com/events

Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Police body camera video shows Miami officer fatally shooting pet dog

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Police body camera video shows Miami officer fatally shooting pet dog


Video shows the moments a police officer shot and killed a pet dog in a Miami park.

NBC6 Investigates exclusively obtained the video from police body worn cameras showing the shooting and the moments leading up to it.

Nicole Iyescas and her daughter Esmeralda previously spoke with NBC6 after they say an officer with Miami Police shot and killed their one-year-old dog Miso in Sewell Park last April.

“A lack of experience with animals that unfortunately led to this horrific event,” Nicole said, after watching the video. She blames a lack of police training for what happened to her dog.

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“This did not have to happen,” she added.

A police report says officers went to the park on South River drive for a dog bite complaint, after a man reported Miso bit him. A photo from Miami-Dade Animal Services shows a wound on the man’s upper arm.

Nicole says the man walked close to the bench where she was sitting, she lost her grip on Miso’s leash and the man fell.

Video shows officers talking to the man as Nicole and Miso, on a leash, wait several feet away. Nicole says what happened next, set off her already nervous dog.

Video shows one officer walk up to Nicole and Miso, who was sitting behind her. Miso suddenly starts barking and jumps toward the officer, still on the leash.

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At that point, the officer kicks the dog in the face and takes a step backward.

Video shows Nicole appears to lose balance and her grip on the leash. The dog runs toward the officer who falls to the ground as another officer fires one shot and hits Miso. The entire encounter lasted six seconds.

Miso lies bleeding in the grass for several minutes before dying.

“You can see the dog suffering,” Nicole said.

She says if the officer had backed up when Miso started barking, instead of kicking him, this wouldn’t have happened.

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“He kicked the dog so hard that I lost my balance and at this time I lost the leash,” she said.

When asked if she felt the officer was in danger when he fell to the ground, Nicole said she felt her dog was just trying to escape.

Miami Police tell NBC6 Investigates their internal affairs unit found the officers followed policy and departmental orders.

Nicole disagrees and says the shooting could have put others at risk.

“It’s dangerous situation in the public park,” she said.

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The team at Broward Animal Care has animal control officers who respond to these calls, often alongside police, but were not involved in this incident.

“When you’re scared or nervous, your pets tend to be more protective,” according to field supervisor Philip Goen, “If you have an escalated situation, that’s what we would call a trigger for an animal.”

That’s why behavior and training manager Jamie Devereaux says it’s always best to give a dog space when possible.

“If a dog is perceiving you as a threat, any direct eye contact like this, any forward posture towards the dog, those are all things that the dog is probably going to interpret the wrong way,” Devereaux explained.

But they point out that staying back is not always an option for officers, whether animal control or police, whose priority is public safety.

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“They don’t have that luxury,” Goen said, “Their job is to engage…The first thing that they’re going to try and do is trying to de-escalate that animal.”

“There was no imminent danger,” Nicole said.

She says the video shows her dog was calm and, on a leash, when police arrived at the park that day.

“That could be avoided,” she said, “They could just wait for the animal control. Miso would be alive.”

Animal control officials tell NBC 6 they do recommend police contact them on animal-related calls, but animal services in both counties say their staff is limited with between 14-16 officers split over varying shifts to cover entire counties and response times can be long.

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Miami Police did not respond to a request to speak to the officers involved in the incident.

NBC6 also requested a copy of the internal affairs report as well as any Miami Police use of force policy involving animals but has not yet received a response to those requests.



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Miami Is Nearing the Finish Line for Its New 10-Mile Park

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Miami Is Nearing the Finish Line for Its New 10-Mile Park


Editor’s note: This story is part of Governing’s ongoing Q&A series “In the Weeds.” The series features experts whose knowledge can provide new insights and solutions for state and local government officials across the country. Have an expert you think should be featured? Email Web Editor Natalie Delgadillo at ndelgadillo@governing.com.

  • The Underline, envisioned as both transportation infrastructure and a recreational amenity, is expected to be complete next year.
  • The project has been in development for more than a decade.
  • Miami-Dade County’s transportation chief recently left to lead Friends of the Underline, a nonprofit group supporting the effort.

For the last decade, Miami-Dade County has been working to turn a 10-mile bike path beneath a Metrorail track into a linear park. The project is part of a new generation of linear parks that have been started or revived in American cities during the last few decades. The Underline is partly inspired by the High Line in New York — and partly designed by the same landscape architecture firm that worked on that project, Field Operations. It shares some of the same features, like public-private partnerships and the backing of a “Friends Of” nonprofit group that strives to provide most of the capital and operating budget for the effort. Essentially a multi-use path studded with parks, recreational space, playgrounds, plantings and stormwater infrastructure, the Underline is expected to be complete next year.


Recently, Friends of the Underline hired Eulois Cleckley, the former director of Miami-Dade County’s Department of Transportation and Public Works, as its new CEO. Cleckley was responsible for building and operating transportation and transit infrastructure for the county — including some aspects of the Underline project itself. He previously held transportation positions in Denver, Houston, and Washington, D.C., and served as president of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials. Cleckley recently spoke with Governing about multimodal transportation infrastructure, what the Underline has learned from other linear parks, and building financial support for the construction and maintenance of the project. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Governing: What was the appeal of taking on this role with the Underline? How does it intersect with the transportation work you were doing prior to this? 

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Eulois Cleckley: I consider myself a leader in the transportation space. My whole career has been about developing and building and implementing projects to make people’s lives better in metropolitan areas and cities. From the very inception, from when I came down on a visit to Miami before I took the role with the county, one of the very first projects I saw was the Underline, which I wasn’t familiar with coming from Denver. I was blown away by what I saw, and that was just the half-mile segment that was open in Brickell. What I saw was the best in city building, where you are building out spaces that not only provide great mobility options for people, but it’s a space that can be activated and be an amenity that people can use in their everyday lives. I took the job with the county, and my department at the time was the one actually building some of the phases of the Underline when the opportunity with Friends of the Underline became available to me. It allows me to take my expertise and experience and help this project to become something that is first class and a global destination for visitors and residents to enjoy. To me it was a no-brainer. I tell people that there are over 2,000 transit agencies in the U.S. and there’s only one Underline. To be a part of that was really a great honor.

What do you think people in Miami should be most excited about? What goals are you trying to accomplish with this project and what public benefits do you expect to deliver? 

There’s several goals. First and foremost, the fact that we’re building and redeveloping the unutilized space underneath an existing rail corridor really lends itself to developing out a full-fledged multimodal corridor. There’s very few of these types of corridors where you have mass transit, you have walking and bike paths for 10 miles. That’s what we’re going to have.

The High Line in New York is a great project, but it’s a shorter distance, about a mile and a half. The BeltLine in Atlanta is a fantastic project but they’re still working on the transit component. When we are done in 2026 with all of the phases of the project, we’ll be a fully comprehensive multimodal corridor that people can walk, bike and take transit and experience the Underline as a whole. Also, because we have 112,000 residents within half a mile and nearly 20,000 businesses, this is a true community asset.

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Eulois Cleckley

Eulois Cleckley, CEO Friends of the Underline

Courtesy Friends of the Underline

Everything from the design to how we’re programming a lot of our activities are community-based and purpose-driven. We have these other elements across this space that we’re building out that people may not be familiar with from a sustainability standpoint. We have these dense pockets of plantings called microforests. We just installed the first microforest in the state of Florida. It’s not only a way to encourage nature but it’s creating a sustainable environment. We’re hoping to be at the leading edge of doing something innovative that hopefully can go to scale and be installed throughout the length of the Underline, but also other jurisdictions can take them on. We have bioswales that do a great job of stormwater management in capturing and filtering water and preventing flooding in and around the walking and bike paths of the Underline.

It’s also important to note that yes, we are building out a safe walk and bike path, but this is an economic development project. Businesses have the opportunity to consider the Underline as a venue for food or beverage or other commerce. We’re looking at opportunities to provide great entertainment and great programming for people to enjoy this place.

The High Line obviously was a very successful project but it accelerated gentrification in the area where it was built. The BeltLine has been wrapped up in similar debates about gentrification but also questions about what its overall use is, what kind of transit infrastructure to put there and things like that. What have you learned from other big linear park projects? 

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For both the High Line and the BeltLine, although they might have their challenges, every project has its challenges. But there’s overwhelming support and positivity for both of those projects and the same thing here for the Underline. Our takeaways from those projects are, one, the way you can galvanize a community and provide support to not only appreciate the project, with respect to the High Line, but also to support it financially and keep it as something that is a sustainable project. Those approaches and methods to clearly articulate the benefit of that particular project really lend themselves to having a strong, long-term public-private partnership. That’s something we’re trying to build here for the Underline.

The BeltLine is a fantastic project. It’s interesting that the reuse of that corridor has generated a considerable amount of developments, but if you talk to residents or individuals about the Atlanta BeltLine they consider that whole project as a neighborhood in itself. There’s an extreme focus on ensuring that there’s community involvement and community engagement at every step of the way for the BeltLine project. I know they’ve also figured out ways to provide affordable housing along the BeltLine as well as integrating small businesses and minority-owned businesses and the like into a lot of their programming.

Even though there might be challenges that exist when you’re developing these spaces, ultimately the communities deserve it. Transportation infrastructure is more than just concrete and steel. As the former USDOT Secretary Rodney Slater said one time, it’s about building a community.

There’s been a lot of debate and discussion around the future of transit and transportation infrastructure in Miami generally. How do you see the Underline intersecting with that discussion? 

Miami and all of South Florida is a place that people want to move to. We have an influx of residents and businesses. We need to ensure we’re building out the infrastructure to be able to support that increase. From my perspective, the Underline feeds right into the type of infrastructure that will be required now and in the future to be able to move people in a multitude of ways, outside of just relying on their individual cars. When we are fully built out, we anticipate having over 8,000 visitors daily to the Underline. Those individuals are going to be moving about the county and the three municipalities that the Underline traverses without needing a car. Whether it’s walking, biking or taking transit, it’s a project that encourages that type of multimodal use. That’s the future of our American cities. Every city is going to be figuring out ways to help support and build these types of multimodal projects and at the same time connect communities. I think the Underline is the pre-eminent project that demonstrates that.

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What are the biggest components that you still have to finish? 

The entire footprint of the Underline is 10 miles, 120 acres. We’ve completed two of the three phases, and have finished about three miles. So the last phase is seven miles of walking and bike trails and amenity spaces. Just to give you an example of what we’re building, we plan to have two amphitheaters where folks can be entertained and have outdoor learning spaces. We’ll be installing more microforests in phase 3, as well as more stormwater infrastructure, bioswales and the like. We’re building out space that can be used for a farmers market and other commerce. We’re building out a full basketball court, a full set of pickleball courts and other amenities. And again we’re providing those solid connections to our transit system and making the intersections along the corridor safer for biking and walking.

What have been the biggest challenges of getting it to this point and what are the biggest remaining challenges? 

Ensuring that as a part of the planning and design process that we’re including all of the necessary stakeholders, although I think that’s more an opportunity. Every time this project has been presented to the public and the surrounding neighborhoods, everybody’s been extremely supportive.

Lastly, just ensuring that we build out a first-class asset that people are excited to support and that we can continue to have the right financial support long term is always going to be at the forefront of our responsibility. We feel very blessed to have that funding in place from a variety of different sources — federal, state and municipal, but also the private investment has been critical to our success as well. We need to make sure we continue to have that healthy funding mix moving forward.

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