Some New Yorkers are saying “aloha!” to island paradise as the coronavirus shutters the city.
Broker Michael Bolla just moved two long term clients — a couple in their 50s who work in the entertainment industry — out of their $8 million home in Midtown and into $20,000-a-month two-bedroom in Maui.
Bolla, of Sotheby’s International Realty, found the Hawaiian home and arranged for their special coronavirus-escape flights to the island for his clients.
The real estate agent is now in Maui himself, and is getting his broker’s license there. As a broker during New York’s COVID-19 outbreak, “you are doing everything you can to help people figure out their lives,” he says.
“Many of my clients are now in their 60s and 70s. They understand that they are not going back to life as usual any time soon,” he adds. “The number of deaths in New York [has been] heartbreaking. The realization of how much our lives have changed and the fear of who else we will lose is scary.”
