Item: Historic Isle of Manhattan to Close Pending Luxury Development Deal Joining other victims of the current wave of closures due to escalating rents, the island of Manhattan will shutter its doors by the end of the year to make way for a luxury residence development project, the details of which remain unclear. The New York real estate market is the premier destination for the global elite, mostly Chinese, Russian, Saudi and African ultra-wealthy investors looking to park, disguise, or launder their excess cash through byzantine networks of shell trusts and pop-up LLCs. The sudden, controversial closure of Manhattan reflects changes in the global real estate broker industry, whose practitioners might have once retained some shred of human dignity in the knowledge of assisting local citizens with acquiring homes, apartments, and helping to develop diverse, productive tax-paying communities, but now act as little more than portfolio diversification consultants for rich foreign speculators, and are able to move properties quickly with as little as a phone call or email recommendation. Like it or not, sham LLC entities set up by secretive overseas bankers on behalf of absentee oligarchs who we never meet or speak to are whats driving the local real estate market now, said Antonio Griezbahl, of Phukov & Dye Properties Management. That, and Subway Sandwich shops. For hundreds of years, Manhattan has been one of the countrys most popular destinations for generations of businessmen, restaurateurs, actors, musicians, designers, and artists, and has been immortalized in countless films, songs, books and artworks. Longtime patrons of the city viewed the announcement of its closure with a combination of chagrin and resignation. Tenants of the city are expected to vacate the premises by the end of September.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 02:33:55 +0000
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