Real estate seems to be the number one topic at dinner and cocktail parties. Everyone has a story about how incredibly real estate prices have risen and how someone has made a killing. Nowhere is this phenomenon more over the top than in Manhattan.
Steven Gaines is an investigative journalist who, in a previous work has examined the mansions and millionaires of the Hamptons, now focuses on the exclusive world of Manhattan co-ops.
According to Gaines, the "good buildings" and the "best addresses" run along Fifth and Park Avenues. One such good building is located at 820 Fifth Avenue. Gaines tells us that everyone was shocked when the board of the co-op approved Tommy Hilfiger. Its not that he didn't have the $100 million liquid assets needed to qualify, but the fact that he designed baggy gansta rap clothing.
Gaines gossipy anecodotes are told mainly from the point of view of some of the carriage trade brokers that do the deals. Many of the brokers are very hard-working and much more sensible than their clients.
Dolly Lenz, for example, was the highest earning broker for Prudential out of a sales force of 58,000 nationwide. Not only does she work in the rarified atmosphere of Manhattan co-ops, she also has the distinction of having sold the most expensive house in the New York.(Burnt Point in the Hamptons was sold to the CEO of Kinray for $45 million.) Working seven days a week and the ability to thumb-type 80 words per minute on her Blackberrry, she still finds time to have dinner with, say, Bruce Willis or Barbara Streisand.
Another good story, had to do with the San Remo building, possibly one of the most exclusive buildings in Manhattan. Steven Jobs of Apple Computer bought the top two floors of the North Tower and spent five years and $15 million renovating it. The other tenants were so frustrated by the renovation that they brought action limiting the amount of time renovations could take. Jobs lost interest in the building and offered it to Bono of U2 for the cost of the renovation. Bono, smelling a bargain, snapped it up.
Gaines is very good at analyzing the social distinctions between the different buildings and neighborhoods and the people who inhabit them. Although it may not add much to the sum total of human knowledge, it does entertain and give insight into the otherworldly ordeals of the super rich.