An Abu Dhabi investment fund has bought a 75% share of the Chrysler Building. I notice that it was a German company (albeit a subsidiary of an Atlanta firm) that did the selling.I know such things are nothing to worry about. Foreign owners of American properties are not a novelty, and not inherently threatening. Twenty-five years ago the Japanese seemed to be snapping up all the real estate in the country.
But the Chrysler Building, and the Arabs… I mean, well, jeez…
From ANSAmed:
Abu Dhabi Fund Buys Chrysler Building- - - - - - - - -
New York, July 10 — One of Manhattan’s favourite symbols, the Chrysler Building, the 320-metre high Art Deco masterpiece designed by architect William Van Alen and inaugurated in 1930, ended up under the control of a sovereign fund of the Gulf.
The weak dollar, the stable New York real estate market and most of all the expensive oil (with the American who pays around four dollars per gallon, a true nightmare for the USA) which is filling up its strongboxes, have seduced the Abu Dhabi Investment Council. It is the richest in the world and several months ago intervened to save ailing Citigroup with an investment of USD 7.5 billion.
As the New York Post anticipated last month (and as other sources also confirmed later) the fund of the emirate has paid USD 800 million for a 75% stake. The offer was for the stake held by TMW Immobillien, the German subsidiary of an investment fund from Atlanta, Georgia.
Chrysler Building’s previous owners also included Fondo Michelangelo, specialised in real estate and belonging to Italian group Sorgente, with a 27.5% of the controlling stake. Now the remaining 25% remains in the hands of the U.S. real estate giant Tishman Speyer which also managers the skyscraper.
Hat tip: insubria.
7 comments:
Ah, the Great Japanese Real Estate Menace of the 1980's. Noted seer, sage, and all around guru Michael Crichton wrote the seminal fictional best-seller on the subject, RISING SUN, which was published just about the time the Japanese real estate bubble burst. It really makes me want to follow Crichton's jeremiads disputing global warming that he issuing these days ...
And as for the Great Arab Real Estate Menace of the present day, the solution is not to bomb Arabia and take over their oil fields, the solution is to find alternative energy sources (or stop using energy neelessly) and dry up their source of cash.
Given the non-productivity of their land and the non-productivity of their culture, the riches of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and the other oil sheikhs will dry up eventually and their nations will revert to sand-filled hellholes. The only question is, WHEN?
If we continue to consume their petroleum in ever-rising quantities and at ever-rising prices, then it won't be until the oil runs out, probably at least 50 years. But if we do something to stop our oil addiction now, and petroleum becomes a limited-use mineral just like copper or iron or tin, then it will happen a lot sooner.
Buried in this somewhere is material for a really sick joke about how to avoid having airliners crash into your skyscraper.
"Given the non-productivity of their land and the non-productivity of their culture, the riches of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and the other oil sheikhs will dry up eventually and their nations will revert to sand-filled hellholes. The only question is, WHEN?"
That is why they are massively buying land in more fertile lands in Africa and Asia....:))
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JF20Ak01.html
I think the difference here is that it's now Islamic property. It's forever part of the umma and I doubt the Arabs genuinely consider it subject to infidel law.
I remember a 80s movie that had japenese flags all over Los Angeles, its setting...as a joke about how japan was buying America.
Have they applied for planning permission to mount the islamic cresent on top yet?art deco and medieval should be quite a mix.
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