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An oceanfront estate in Southampton, listed at $150 million, stands as the priciest home for sale in the Hamptons — and is struggling to move off the market.
The compound, called La Dune, draws from a tiny pool of of buyers, likely billionaires, and has been on and off the market since 2016.
The estate spans more than four acres, across two adjacent lots with two homes, two swimming pools and a sunken tennis court.

An oceanfront estate in Southampton, listed at $150 million, stands as the priciest home for sale in the Hamptons — and is struggling to move off the market.
The compound, called La Dune, is likely to be used as a summer home and draws from a tiny pool of buyers, probably billionaires, who could afford to foot the bill. Even in the Hamptons, $100-million-plus sales are few and far between.

La Dune, named after the sandy dune it sits behind, spans about four acres, across two adjacent lots with two homes, two swimming pools and a sunken tennis court.
It hasn’t been easy to find a buyer for the sprawling compound, which includes a classic Hamptons-style shingled main residence, originally built more than 100 years ago, and a second home on the adjacent lot, built in the early 2000s.

The pair of beachfront homes with two pools and a tennis court in the foreground of the photo are the La Dune estate.
Liam Gifkins

“This house is the furthest thing from a tear down, but if the house wasn’t here, this lot alone, each one of them would be worth $50 million,” listing agent Shawn Elliott of Nest Seekers told CNBC.
And Elliott promises La Dune’s price isn’t just designed to grab headlines.
“I believe this is, 100%, a very realistic price point to attract buyers in this market place,” said Elliott, who co-lists the home with Geoff Gifkins. 

Aerial view of the La Dune estate from over the ocean.
Liam Gifkins

The estate is situated on 400-plus feet of super-prime beachfront along Gin Lane, sometimes referred to as “billionaire’s beach.” It’s one of the most exclusive strips of white sand in the world.
“In real estate we always know it’s location, location, location, that’s not a cliche,” Elliot said. “You are truly on the 50 yard line of nothing but wealth.”
Back in 2016 La Dune’s owner, art magazine publisher and collector Louise Blouin, put the estate on the market with Sotheby’s International at an asking price of $140 million. At the time, there were no takers.
Over the years, the residence has been listed as a summer rental. This year a one-month stay would set you back $1.2 million. 

The main home’s third-floor primary suite delivers impressive ocean views.
Liam Gifkins

Since 2016, the home’s been on and off the market, and Blouin has reportedly faced a potential foreclosure and bankruptcy court proceedings to maintain control of the compound. 
She re-listed La Dune in August with a new brokerage firm and raised the ask to $150 million.
If the team at Nest Seekers gets anywhere near what their client wants for the compound, it will break an all-time record in the Hamptons.

A living room in the main residence.
Liam Gifkins

According to public records analyzed by Jonathan Miller, president of the real estate appraisal and consulting company Miller Samuel, only five compounds have ever sold for more than $100 million in the Hamptons. 
The all-time record is still held by the 2014 sale of three separate but contiguous lots spanning 16 acres located at 60-64 Further Lane in East Hampton that traded for $137 million.  
The two most recent 9-figure deals, according to public records, were both in Water Mill, a hamlet also in the Town of Southampton about two miles east of La Dune.

The 42-acre Fordune estate sold in 2021 for a record-breaking $105 million.

First came the mega-sale of a 42-acre, 20,000-square-foot oceanfront estate known as Fordune, located at 90 Jule Pond Drive. The former Ford family estate was originally listed for $175 million in 2017 and sat on the market for almost four years before selling for $105 million in 2021, a 40% discount but still an all-time record for single-lot properties in the Hamptons.

In 2022, an even bigger sale eclipsed that one in the quiet off-market purchase of 70 Cobb Road, recorded at $118 million. That compound which sits on a creek, not the ocean, was comprised of four contiguous lots spanning about 21 acres. The sale included two homes that together delivered more than 32,000 square feet of living space. The mega-deal remains the Hamptons’ second-highest sale of all time.

The Atlantic ocean offers a stunning backdrop for a pair of mansions for sale on Gin Lane in Southampton.
Liam Gifkins

Here’s a closer look at the latest compound vying for a spot among the short list of summer homes that have sold for over $100 million:

A sitting room in La Dune’s family home.
Liam Gifkins

The La Dune compound spans four acres with 21,000 square feet of living space across two homes, according to the listing.

Gravel drive leading to the main house at 376 Gin Lane.
Liam Gifkins

The four-story main residence, located at 366 Gin Lane, is more than 11,000 square feet.

The second residence at the La Dune estate includes its own swimming pool.
Liam Gifkins

The three-story second home at 376 Gin Lane, which owner Blouin refers to as the “family home,” is more than 9,600 square feet.

One of the primary suites on the second floor of the family home.
Liam Gifkins

The pair of mansions includes a total of 19 bedrooms and 16 baths.

Library in the estate’s second residence
Liam Gifkins

The lowest level of the so-called family home includes a gym, steam room, bar, billiards room and home theater.

Home theatre.
Liam Gifkins

The family kitchen in the main residence is one of several kitchens across the estate.
Liam Gifkins

There are several kitchens on the estate including a large staff kitchen for catering events on the first floor of the main house. There’s also a more modest family kitchen, one floor above it.

The main home’s swimming pool is flanked by two bars and white collumns.
Liam Gifkins

Blouin told CNBC she’s selling her Hamptons home in part because she and her children spend most of their time in Europe — not in Southampton.

Deck and stairway leading to a 400 ft stretch of sand on Southampton’s exclusive beachfront.
Liam Gifkins

According to public records, property taxes across both lots that form the La Dune compound total almost $130,000 per year.

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Rivian has three months to reach a goal of producing 25,000 vehicles in 2022.
Through the end of September, it had made fewer than 15,000 — but Q3 was its best quarter yet.
Wall Street likes the company’s chances.

A Rivian R1T truck body lowered onto a chassis in the assembly line at the Rivian electric vehicle plant in Normal, Illinois. Georgia is giving the company $1.5 billion in subsidies to bring a new $5 billion EV plant to the southern state.
Brian Cassella | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive told investors in March that it will produce 25,000 vehicles in 2022. It has three months and a seemingly tall order to get there.
Through the end of September, Rivian had built just 14,317 electric vehicles — meaning that it will have to build about 10,700 more between now and the end of December to deliver on its promise to investors.

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Rivian is confident it can meet its goal. The company has reiterated that guidance several times since March, most recently on Monday when it announced its third-quarter production total.
Wall Street isn’t too concerned, either. As several analysts noted this week, Rivian just had its best quarter for production yet, with 7,363 EVs built between July and September. That’s more than it built in the entire first half of 2022, thanks to a second shift of workers added during the quarter — and thanks to management’s efforts to mitigate the supply-chain woes that Rivian faced earlier in the year.
The company’s stock is off 65% this year, underperforming broader market losses.
Rivian has been ramping up production at its Illinois factory at a relatively steady pace since early this year. So, while supply-chain factors could still complicate its efforts, its third-quarter result seems to put its full-year target in range, analysts say.
In a Monday evening note, Canaccord Genuity’s George Gianarikas pointed out that Rivian’s production rate has gone from an average of about 78 vehicles per week in the fourth quarter of 2021 to about 566 per week in the third quarter of 2022.

It’ll have to ramp up further, to an average of about 822 per week between now and the end of the year, to make its full-year goal.
“We estimate this is achievable,” Gianarikas wrote. Gianarikas rates Rivian’s stock as a “buy,” with a price target of $61. Rivian currently trades for about $35 per share.
Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas, in a short note Tuesday, wrote that while it’s possible that Rivian’s production will come in “slightly below” its guidance, if it makes “anywhere near” 25,000 vehicles for the year, that bodes well for its plan to make about 50,000 vehicles in 2023.
Jonas has an “overweight” rating on Rivian, with a price target of $60.
The bigger concern, according to RBC’s Joseph Spak, is Rivian’s 2023 targets. In a Monday night note, Spak wrote that 25,000 vehicles this year is “still feasible,” but Rivian’s plan to roll out new electric motors and revamped battery packs next year could introduce new production snags.
Spak has an “outperform” rating on Rivian’s stock, with a price target of $62.
Still, there are no guarantees that Rivian will meet its goal, or get close. The company has already cut its 2022 production guidance once, in March, when it said that ongoing global supply chain issues would limit its full-year production to 25,000 instead of the 50,000 investors had been expecting.
As recently as August CEO RJ Scaringe said Rivian was still working through supply chain constraints, and automakers continue to cite shortages of raw materials such as lithium and cobalt that are needed for battery production.
Rivian is expected to report its third-quarter financial results — and to provide additional color on the status of its production ramp — in early November.

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A fugitive charged with an audacious $35 million financial fraud was arrested in San Diego after days on the lam, authorities said.
Justin Costello allegedly falsely claimed to investors that he was a hedge fund billionaire, a Harvard MBA, and a special forces veteran who had been twice wounded in Iraq.
Costello is accused by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission of swindling thousands of investors.
As part of the alleged fraud he touted his purported efforts to build a cannabis conglomerate, authorities said.

Arrows pointing outwards

Source: FBI

A fugitive charged with an audacious $35 million fraud — in which he allegedly told investors he was a hedge fund billionaire, a Harvard MBA and a special forces veteran who had been twice wounded in Iraq — was arrested by an FBI SWAT team in California after days on the lam, authorities said Wednesday.
Las Vegas resident Justin Costello, 42, is accused by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission of swindling thousands of investors and others as part of a complex scam that touted his purported efforts to build a cannabis conglomerate, among other things.

One of his companies, Pacific Banking Corp., provided banking services to three marijuana companies. Authorities said he also used it to divert at least $3.6 million to himself and other firms he owned.
They also say that he engaged in a scheme that cost more than 7,500 investors about $25 million by making false claims about plans by one of his own companies to purchase 10 other firms.
Another 29 investors lost $6 million after investing directly with Costello based on his false representations, prosecutors said.
Costello, who also had a residence in La Jolla, California, used about $42,000 of investors’ money for costs associated with his wedding to Katrina Rosseini, prosecutors said.
A video of that wedding reviewed by CNBC shows both a cake and an ice sculpture boasting the James Bond movie logo of the numbers “007” over a semi-automatic pistol and a belly-dancing performance by Rosseini, who is not charged in the cases against her husband.

“Mr. Costello allegedly told many tall tales to convince victims to invest millions of dollars — money he then used for his own benefit,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown of the Western District of Washington, in a statement.
“In a complex scheme involving shell companies, penny stocks, and financial services for marijuana businesses, Mr. Costello used Twitter, press releases, securities filings, and claims of great wealth to paint a picture of fabulous financial success,” Brown said.
“In truth that picture was a mirage,” he said.
An attorney for Costello did not respond to a request for comment.

Source: FBI

Costello, who previously lived in Bellevue, Washington, had agreed through his lawyer to surrender last Thursday to the FBI office in San Diego after being informed he had been indicted on criminal charges by a grand jury in federal court in Washington state a day earlier, law enforcement officials told CNBC. The complaint accuses him of 22 counts of wire fraud and three counts of securities fraud in the case.
But Costello never showed up as promised at that FBI office that day, officials said.
On the same day, the SEC charged Costello and an alleged co-conspirator, David Ferraro, in a civil lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors and of using Twitter to promote penny stocks without disclosing their own sales of the stocks as prices rose.
As in the federal indictment, the SEC accuses Costello of fraudulent conduct in connection with two publicly traded companies he previously controlled, Hempstract and GRN Holding Corp.
The SEC said in one instance, Costello sold a married couple $1.8 million in stock at a more than 9,000% markup to its price.
Ferraro, a 44-year-old Radford, Virginia, resident who was not charged in the criminal indictment with Costello, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

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Ferraro is accused of using the Twitter account with the handle @computerbux, which had almost 10,000 followers in late 2019, in the scheme.
Soon after Costello failed to surrender Thursday, the FBI issued a “Wanted” poster featuring Costello, noting he was a fugitive.
“He may be traveling with his wife, Katrina Rosseini, who is not a fugitive,” said that poster, which included multiple photos of Costello, some of which included Rosseini.
The poster noted that the couple might be traveling with their small dog, named Harry.
On Tuesday night, Costello was arrested by an FBI SWAT team in El Cajon, California, in San Diego County, according to Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
On Wednesday morning, Costello was taken to a hospital after complaining of health issues, Langlie said.
It is not yet known when he will make his first appearance in federal court in California.
The apprehension of Costello was welcome news to Steven Selna, an Oakland, California, lawyer whose client, CCSAC Inc., was one of the three cannabis companies allegedly swindled by Costello.
CCSAC has a pending lawsuit against Costello and his companies in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California over his failure, despite claims to the contrary, to pay $2.2 million in taxes to the state of California on CCSAC’s behalf from its account at Pacific Banking Corp.
Selna told CNBC that Costello was holding at least $2.9 million that belongs to CCSAC, which he said has a major presence in California through retail and distribution operations. The firm, which plans to expand to the East Coast in 2023, believes its monetary loss from Costello may be as high as $5 million.
The criminal indictment against Costello accuses him of fraudulently diverting $300,000 of CCSAC’s money deposited with Pacific Banking to purchase shares in a publicly traded shell company in 2019 for the purposes of ultimately completing a reverse merger with Costello’s then privately held company, GRN Holding Corp.
GRN’s shares became publicly traded as a result of that merger.
GRN Holding’s most recent SEC filing says Costello resigned as CEO of the company in April, the same month that he sold 144 million shares of GRN Holding to its current CEO for $140,000.
The indictment also says that at various times during Costello’s alleged schemes, he described another company he ran, GRN Funds LLC, as having more than $1 billion under management, and $600 million under deposit.
That claim was not true, the complaint says.
According to the indictment, a judge in the civil case filed against Costello by CCSAC last month ordered him to declare under the penalty of perjury the name of the financial institution and other details about the account where the balance of CCSAC’s funds was being held.
Costello submitted a sworn declaration saying that at least $2.9 million in CCSAC’s funds were being held in a credit union in Tacoma, Washington, in the name of GRN Funds LLC, the indictment notes.
But contrary to that claim, the GRN Funds checking account at the credit union “has a balance of $15.35 as of September 9, 2022,” the indictment said.
“All we’re interested in is getting our client’s money back,” said Selna, CCSAC’s attorney. “If it facilitates that it’s a good thing,” he said, referring to Costello’s arrest.
Selna also said that Costello, in dealings with CCSAC, “certainly presented himself as being highly successful in this industry, and that he would protect our client’s money. And that wasn’t true.”
The indictment says that when Costello solicited funds from investors, he made false claims that included saying he graduated from the University of Minnesota and had a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard.
He also claimed to have served two tours in Iraq as a member of the special forces and been shot twice, leaving shrapnel in his leg, the complaint says.

Source: FBI

Costello also falsely said “he was a billionaire,” “he managed money for wealthy individuals, including a Saudi sheikh,” and “he had 14 years of experience on Wall Street,” the indictment said.
“None of that is true,” a press release by U.S. Attorney Brown’s office said.
The indictment says that in 2019, when an online article questioned Costello’s statements about his education, he had GRN Holding Corp. issue an 8-K filing with the SEC which stated that Costello “was a graduate of Winona State University with a degree in Public Administration who attended Harvard University but did not graduate.”
“This statement was also misleading,” the indictment said. It noted that “Costello only took one course in Harvard’s continuing education program.”
That same year, Costello had GRN Holdings issue a press release stating it had nonbinding letters of intent to acquire at least 10 companies, and that in the following months it issued 10 press releases announcing the completion of due diligence for each company, the indictment said.
Filings by GRN Holding with the SEC also reflected those claims.
But “GRN Holding Corporation never completed the acquisitions of the companies, even though Justin Costello was an affiliate, shareholder, owner, or manager of each company,” the indictment said.
“Most of the companies were instead acquired by Renewal Fuels Inc., another [over-the-counter market-]traded company controlled by Justin Costello.”
And contrary to Costello’s claims to investors in GRN Holdings, “the companies had little or no revenue or assets,” the indictment said.
Between July 2019 and May 2021 “over 7,500 investors purchased and sold GRN Holding Corporate stock while Justin Costello was making, and continuing to be made, the material misrepresentations concerning GRN Holding,” the indictment said.
“Collectively these investors lost approximately $25 million.”

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SpaceX launched four people to the International Space Station from Florida on Wednesday.
Known as Crew-5, the mission for NASA will bring the group up to the ISS for a six-month stay in orbit.
The mission is SpaceX’s fifth operational crew launch for NASA to date and the company’s eighth human spaceflight in just over two years.

SpaceX launched four people to the International Space Station from Florida on Wednesday, as Elon Musk’s company keeps up a steady pace of crewed missions.
Known as Crew-5, the mission for NASA will bring the group up to the ISS for a six-month stay in orbit. The mission is SpaceX’s fifth operational crew launch for NASA to date, and the company’s eighth human spaceflight in just over two years.

“That was a smooth ride uphill,” NASA astronaut and Crew-5 commander Nicole Mann said after the spacecraft reached orbit, adding that “you got three rookies that are pretty happy to be floating in space right now.”
Crew-5 got off the ground shortly after noon ET, beginning an estimated 29-hour journey to dock with the ISS. The mission brings the number of astronauts SpaceX has launched to 30, including both government and private missions, since its first crewed launch in May 2020.

Left to right: Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, NASA astronaut Josh Cassada, NASA astronaut Nicole Mann, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata arrive ahead of the launch of the SpaceX Crew-5 mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 5, 2022.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images

SpaceX launched the astronauts in its Crew Dragon capsule called Endurance, on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. Both the rocket and capsule are reusable.
Endurance is flying to space for a second time – having flown the Crew-3 mission to and from the ISS in the past year.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule stands on Pad-39A in preparation for a mission to carry four crew members to the International Space Station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, October 4, 2022.
Joe Skipper | Reuters

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Ford is increasing the entry-level price of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup by $5,000 for the 2023 model year due to rising costs and supply chain issues.
The starting price of the 2023 Lightning Pro model will be $51,974 – up nearly 11% and a 30% increase from the truck’s $39,974 price in May 2021.
Current retail order holders and commercial and government customers with a scheduled order will not be impacted by the price increase, the company said.

Ford F-150 Lightning pickup trucks are shown at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center on April 26, 2022 in Dearborn, Michigan. 
Bill Pugliano | Getty Images

DETROIT — Ford Motor is increasing the starting price of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup by $5,000 for the 2023 model year, citing rising costs and supply chain issues.
The new price of the 2023 Lightning Pro, an entry-level model meant for commercial and business customers, will be $51,974 — up nearly 11% from previous pricing and a 30% increase from the original $39,974 price in May 2021.

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13 hours ago

In an emailed statement, Ford said it is adjusting the price “due to ongoing supply chain constraints, rising material costs and other market factors. We will continue to monitor pricing across the model year.”

Current retail order holders and commercial and government customers with a scheduled order will be unaffected by the price increase, the company said.
Ford made waves when it announced the starting price for the Lightning would be about $40,000, making it more affordable than many EVs on the market. Wall Street praised the vehicle, and it was a major boost for the company at that time, as investors were concentrating on EV start-ups.
But critical raw material costs such as cobalt, nickel and lithium have more than doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from AlixPartners this summer.
The cost increases and other supply chain problems, which Ford estimated would result in $1 billion in unexpected costs during the third quarter, have forced automakers to increase EV prices to retain profits.

Less than two months ago, Ford announced price increases of between $6,000 and $8,500 on the Lightning, depending on the model.
The starting prices for the 2023 F-150 Lightning will now range from about $52,000 to $97,000, up from roughly $40,000 to $92,000 for the 2022 model year. Prices exclude taxes and shipping and delivery costs.

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The deal is on! Isn’t it? With Elon Musk’s courtship of Twitter, it is hard to know. In April the world’s richest man agreed to join the social network’s board, only to change his mind a week later. He then signed a deal to buy the company, but within days was tweeting insults at its leaders. In July he said the deal was off, prompting Twitter to sue. On October 3rd he said he would buy it after all.Does Mr Musk mean it this time? Markets think so: Twitter’s shares leapt from $43 to $52, just shy of Mr Musk’s offer of $54.20. Twitter shareholders had already okayed the takeover and antitrust regulators see no problem, so the acquisition could close within days.If it does, Twitter will have won the world’s highest-stakes game of chicken. Mr Musk claimed he was backing out because Twitter had more “bots”, or fake users, than it had disclosed (it denies this). But he surely regretted spending $44bn on a company whose value by July had fallen below $30bn, amid a rout of tech stocks. Many thought Twitter might offer Mr Musk a discount, to avoid fighting him in court. Instead it is Mr Musk who has blinked.His case looked doomed: the bots argument was always thin. And whereas Mr Musk might have hoped to pay only a termination fee of $1bn, the judge repeatedly sided with Twitter in pre-trial hearings, raising expectations that she would order Mr Musk to cough up the full $44bn should he lose.He might have rolled the dice, but the trial’s discovery process was proving damaging. On September 28th the court released 33 pages of cringe-worthy text messages between the magnate and his business pals. “You have my sword,” promised Jason Calacanis, a would-be Twitter investor, quoting “The Lord of the Rings”. “Put me in the game coach!”If dodging the trial solves one problem for Mr Musk, owning Twitter will present others. Advertising, Twitter’s revenue source, has been hit by war in Europe and broken supply chains in Asia. Twitter’s staff mistrust Mr Musk and will like him even less when he starts slashing costs. He will need a new chief executive after a public spat with the incumbent, Parag Agrawal, one of few to emerge from the debacle with his reputation intact.Trouble is brewing in Washington, too. On October 3rd the Supreme Court said it would hear two cases about social media. One, against Google’s YouTube, seeks to make tech platforms responsible for the content their algorithms recommend. The other, against Twitter, argues that platforms abet terrorism by hosting sympathetic material. Either case could destroy the way Twitter and other social networks operate. Mr Musk has all this to look forward to—and for only $44bn. More

Ukraine has joined Spain and Portugal in their bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
The proposal was backed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The three countries face a competing bid from Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia and a bid from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile.

Soccer Football – Carabao Cup Final – Chelsea v Liverpool – Wembley Stadium, London, Britain – February 27, 2022 Liverpool fan with the big screen in the background in support of Ukraine before the match Action Images via Reuters/John Sibley TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
John Sibley Reuters

Ukraine has joined Spain and Portugal in their bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
The partnership between the three countries was confirmed by leaders of the countries’ three soccer federations at UEFA headquarters Wednesday.

“This is the dream of millions of Ukrainian fans. The dream of people who survived the horrors of war or are still in the occupied territories, over which the Ukrainian flag will surely fly soon,” said Andriy Pavelko, president of Ukraine’s soccer federation, at a news conference Wednesday.
He said the move was sanctioned by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine has been under full-scale invasion by Russia since February.
Details were not given on how many games would be held in Ukraine, or in which cities, but the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv hosted the finals of the 2012 European Championship and the 2018 Champions League.
“Now it’s not the Iberian bid, it’s the European bid,” Spain’s soccer federation president, Luis Rubiales, said at the news conference, according to the Associated Press. “Together we represent the power of transformation football has in society.”
Spain and Portugal previously announced their joint bid in June 2021. The new bid faces competition from a collaboration between Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia, and a South American bid between Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile.
FIFA will vote to choose the host in 2024.

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New York Comic Con begins Thursday at the Javits Center and is set to run through Sunday.
The convention is expected to draw 200,000 visitors. Last year, Covid restrictions kept turnout at 150,000.
DC Comics will give fans a heavy dose of Harley Quinn, among others, while Marvel is going to showcase Spider-Man and Black Panther.

Cosplayers dressed in Mandalorian armor and Black Widow pose for a photo during Day 4 of New York Comic Con 2021 at Jacob Javits Center on October 10, 2021 in New York City. (
Bryan Bedder | Getty Images

NEW YORK — New York Comic Con isn’t quite what it was before the pandemic. But it’s getting there.
The four-day event, which begins Thursday morning at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, is expected to feature guests from across the pop culture spectrum, including “Dune” and “Star Wars” star Oscar Isaac, “Outlander” author Diana Gabaldon and celebrity couple Ice T and Coco.

About 200,000 visitors are expected to attend the convention, where they’ll catch screenings and panels, and rub elbows with the artists and writers behind their favorite characters. That’s a big boost from last year, when Covid restrictions kept the capacity reduced to 150,000 people, and higher than the 130,000 people typically drawn to San Diego Comic-Con each summer. But it’s still a way off from the approximately 250,000 fans who attended the New York event in 2019.
ReedPop, the company that owns New York Comic Con, is fine with being conservative two years after the coronavirus forced organizers to make the event entirely virtual. The virus is still around, so Covid masks will still be required at all times indoors this year, although fans won’t need to present proof of vaccination. The event used to include happenings at the nearby Hammerstein Ballroom and Madison Square Garden, but now it’s mainly confined to the sprawling Javits Center.
“We don’t feel the need to push,” said Lance Fensterman, president of ReedPop.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s DC Comics is looking to make a big splash with several experiences, including a truck on Friday that will give away breakfast sandwiches, cupcakes and swag to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Harley Quinn, the clownish antihero known from the Batman and Suicide Squad comics, shows and movies.

Margot Robbie stars as Harley Quinn in Warner Bros. “Birds of Prey.”
Warner Bros.

Disney’s Marvel will be out in full force, too, with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” promos and events to mark Spider-Man’s 60th anniversary. “We love being a part of these events,” said Brian Crosby, director of themed entertainment development at Marvel. “That’s in our DNA.”

ReedPop, which represents a relatively tiny corner of global conglomerate RELX’s empire, is still learning — and recovering — from Covid. It now operates live pop culture events in just three countries — the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia — after licensing the intellectual property for several other events in Europe and Asia to third parties. “We will go back when the time is right,” Fensterman said.
Revenue for live events hasn’t quite bounced back, either: Fensterman said it’s about 70% of what it was before the pandemic, in relative terms. ReedPop doesn’t disclose revenue in dollar figures. It also had to lay off about 30% of its live events staff, he said. Overall, ReedPop has about 160 employees, compared with the roughly 190 it had before Covid.
But, Fensterman noted, the company’s digital business did grow, particularly as it bought video game channels on YouTube and websites including the U.K.’s Gamer Network. ReedPop is about three years into a five- to six-year effort to integrate its live and digital businesses, he said. That means more QR codes to connect in-person fans with online features and streams to give fans who couldn’t make it a chance to get in on the buzz.
That’s especially important as major brands such as DC and Marvel also expand their digital reach. The two longtime funny-book rivals, who have been pillars of fan conventions for years, have had to adapt, as well.
“The silver lining, if there is one, is that it gives us an opportunity to think about all the different ways to get our fans excited,” said Anne DePies, senior vice president and general manager at DC. “Be flexible, be fluid.”

Women in costume pose together at the 2021 New York Comic Con,at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., October 7, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters

New York Comic Con also comes as DC and Marvel establish more direct pathways to fans. Disney has its D23 Expo and Star Wars Celebration events. This week, DC will hold a separate event featuring creative chief Jim Lee and other talent a few blocks away from the Javits Center at Hudson Yards.
But there isn’t much incentive for the major players to bail on conventions run by third parties. Fensterman, the ReedPop president, said his company has a license to exclusively produce Marvel merchandise sold at conventions, including San Diego Comic-Con, which is operated by a nonprofit.
Marvel also likes returning to New York, where it was founded and many of its heroes live, from the depths of Daredevil’s Hell’s Kitchen to the heights of Avengers Tower. “It’s kind of our home turf,” Crosby said.
DC, which also claims New York heritage, isn’t budging, either.
“I don’t see us going alone any time soon,” DePies said.

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