helghast
June 13th, 2008, 03:29 AM
NEW YORK // For many New Yorkers, reports that Abu Dhabi investors are hammering out a deal to purchase the Chrysler Building, one of their most beloved skyscrapers, came as a surprise blow to urban pride.
Residents treasure the tower’s svelte contours and decorative gargoyles, awarding the edifice a place in popular imagination and an appearance in the opening credits of the television show Sex and the City.
But for fast-talking stockbroker, Franco Zappone, who has worked in the 77-storey tower for the past five years, there is nothing to fear from the Abu Dhabi Investment Council’s proposed buy-out.
“Sure, they could be buying it now – but we will get it back,” said the 40 year old, puffing on a cigarette beside the building’s art deco doorway. “This is one of the most important buildings in New York. It rose up during the Great Depression and people died while it was built.”
For Mr Zappone, the rumoured purchase of an US$800 million (Dh2.94bn) stake in the Chrysler Building by an Arab sovereign wealth fund only marks a temporary glitch in America’s economic hegemony.
“The Japanese tried the same thing in the 1980s, buying up half of Manhattan. But they had to sell it all off when their economy went to pieces,” Mr Zappone said. “Now the Abu Dhabi family is going to buy it, but the same thing will happen to them.
“All their money comes from oil – but that will run out. Then we’ll buy the building back for cheaper than before.”
On Wednesday, The New York Post, a tabloid newspaper, shocked city dwellers with its splash headline “Chrysler Building on the Block” and a story that told of the “the latest trophy being coveted by sovereign wealth funds” of Arabia.
The news followed reports this week that Kuwait and Qatar investment authorities had joined a $2.8bn deal to buy the General Motors Building, the most expensive building in the United States.
Some New Yorkers have been touchy about Arabs buying landmarks since 2006, when Jumeirah, the Dubai-based hotelier, added Essex House on Central Park South to its portfolio. Others suggest Arab-phobia dates back to Sept 11.
Reports that the family-run Italian Sorgente Group has entered advanced talks to gain the lion’s share of the Flatiron Building, one of New York’s oldest skyscrapers, further dented metropolitan machismo.
But the Chrysler Building has special significance, voted as the second most popular New York skyscraper after the Empire State Building in last year’s survey of beloved buildings by the American Institute of Architects.
Designed by William van Allen, the tower became the world’s tallest building on completion in 1930 thanks to the covert addition of a 56-metre spire during the final stages – a similar tactic to that employed by Emaar, whose planners remain tight-lipped about Burj Dubai’s target height.
Residents laud the Chrysler Building’s decorative cladding and curvaceous crown in a metropolis dominated by right-angled towerblocks, a stylistic masterpiece composed of 3,826,000 bricks, 20,961 tonnes of structured steel and 391,881 rivets.
In the movie Spider-Man, the mourning comic book hero perched atop a Chrysler Building gargoyle. The edifice was pounded by meteors in Armageddon, and featured on the cover of Meat Loaf’s 1993 album Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, complete with a demonic bat clinging to the top floors.
After the sale story broke, political chat websites filled with angry Americans bemoaning “landmarks being sold right, left and center” and demanding “OUR government to start acting like OUR government and put a total stop” to foreign buyouts.
Racist blog writers even suggested the Chrysler Building was being purchased by “Muslim terrorists” who would now have the opportunity to “make the building fall in any direction they want”.
Michael Miscione, the official Borough Historian of Manhattan, takes a longer view, celebrating the skyscraper – together with the fact that it will remain at the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue whoever holds the deeds.
“Without a doubt, the Chrysler Building is a great and glorious New York icon; but as for who owns it or who will own it, I’ll leave that to the contemporary real estate moguls and politicians,” Mr Miscione said. “These things transfer title all the time – there is nothing new about it.”
Angry New Yorkers should perhaps direct their ire towards financial officials, including Brookly McLaughlin, the spokesman for the treasury department, who celebrates such skyscraper sales because “foreign investment makes our economy stronger, creates jobs and benefits communities around the country. We encourage nations around the world to invest.”
During a whirlwind Gulf tour this month, Henry Paulson, the treasury secretary, met with GCC investors, proffered his hat and delivered a simple message: “We need the sovereign wealth funds.”
Eckart Woertz, programme manager for the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, said Abu Dhabi investors would likely target such “trophy assets” as the Chrysler Building, but said such purchases were primarily driven by financial necessities of both the UAE and the United States.
“The US is spending more than they produce so they need somebody to lend them money, and the Gulf countries are producing more than they consume – so they are able to lend them,” Mr Woertz said. “That’s basically the deal.”
Benefiting from ever-rising oil prices, Abu Dhabi is “stacking up money for future generations, pension obligations and state programmes”, investing abroad for long-term security and to avoid fanning the flames of Gulf inflation.
Khaleeji investors take advantage of depreciating stocks, bonds and property in the United States, and give Americans much-needed cash injections “to finance their deficit”, the analyst said.
Back in midtown Manhattan, Eric Allen, 42, from Oklahoma, is admiring the Edward Trumbull mural that decorates the ceiling of the Chrysler Building’s marble-clad foyer.
Mr Allen hails the 319-metre tall edifice as New York’s “most beautiful building” and laments the “loss of pride” resulting from a “relative decline in [US] geopolitical power”.
But the lawyer maintains that Abu Dhabi’s purchase is simply a “way of recycling oil money”, with cash windfalls from overpriced petrol circling through the Middle East before “coming right back here” as investment.
Like Mr Zappone, Mr Allen compares the current Arab influx to rampant Japanese investment during the 1980s. “They came and went. As the economy improved, we bought the assets back,” he said.
Americans have comically defined a national trait of being smart dealers: selling products for $10, and buying them back when the price has dropped to $5. As such, the memory of Japan’s humbling is repeatedly referenced to Arabia’s rising star.
But while the Japanese borrowed money to purchase stocks and property at record high prices, the Arabs are doing the opposite: using excess cash to buy on the cheap. With this savvier investment invasion, it remains to be seen whether America will again have the last laugh.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080612/PAGETHREE/595884181/-1/NEWS
Residents treasure the tower’s svelte contours and decorative gargoyles, awarding the edifice a place in popular imagination and an appearance in the opening credits of the television show Sex and the City.
But for fast-talking stockbroker, Franco Zappone, who has worked in the 77-storey tower for the past five years, there is nothing to fear from the Abu Dhabi Investment Council’s proposed buy-out.
“Sure, they could be buying it now – but we will get it back,” said the 40 year old, puffing on a cigarette beside the building’s art deco doorway. “This is one of the most important buildings in New York. It rose up during the Great Depression and people died while it was built.”
For Mr Zappone, the rumoured purchase of an US$800 million (Dh2.94bn) stake in the Chrysler Building by an Arab sovereign wealth fund only marks a temporary glitch in America’s economic hegemony.
“The Japanese tried the same thing in the 1980s, buying up half of Manhattan. But they had to sell it all off when their economy went to pieces,” Mr Zappone said. “Now the Abu Dhabi family is going to buy it, but the same thing will happen to them.
“All their money comes from oil – but that will run out. Then we’ll buy the building back for cheaper than before.”
On Wednesday, The New York Post, a tabloid newspaper, shocked city dwellers with its splash headline “Chrysler Building on the Block” and a story that told of the “the latest trophy being coveted by sovereign wealth funds” of Arabia.
The news followed reports this week that Kuwait and Qatar investment authorities had joined a $2.8bn deal to buy the General Motors Building, the most expensive building in the United States.
Some New Yorkers have been touchy about Arabs buying landmarks since 2006, when Jumeirah, the Dubai-based hotelier, added Essex House on Central Park South to its portfolio. Others suggest Arab-phobia dates back to Sept 11.
Reports that the family-run Italian Sorgente Group has entered advanced talks to gain the lion’s share of the Flatiron Building, one of New York’s oldest skyscrapers, further dented metropolitan machismo.
But the Chrysler Building has special significance, voted as the second most popular New York skyscraper after the Empire State Building in last year’s survey of beloved buildings by the American Institute of Architects.
Designed by William van Allen, the tower became the world’s tallest building on completion in 1930 thanks to the covert addition of a 56-metre spire during the final stages – a similar tactic to that employed by Emaar, whose planners remain tight-lipped about Burj Dubai’s target height.
Residents laud the Chrysler Building’s decorative cladding and curvaceous crown in a metropolis dominated by right-angled towerblocks, a stylistic masterpiece composed of 3,826,000 bricks, 20,961 tonnes of structured steel and 391,881 rivets.
In the movie Spider-Man, the mourning comic book hero perched atop a Chrysler Building gargoyle. The edifice was pounded by meteors in Armageddon, and featured on the cover of Meat Loaf’s 1993 album Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, complete with a demonic bat clinging to the top floors.
After the sale story broke, political chat websites filled with angry Americans bemoaning “landmarks being sold right, left and center” and demanding “OUR government to start acting like OUR government and put a total stop” to foreign buyouts.
Racist blog writers even suggested the Chrysler Building was being purchased by “Muslim terrorists” who would now have the opportunity to “make the building fall in any direction they want”.
Michael Miscione, the official Borough Historian of Manhattan, takes a longer view, celebrating the skyscraper – together with the fact that it will remain at the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue whoever holds the deeds.
“Without a doubt, the Chrysler Building is a great and glorious New York icon; but as for who owns it or who will own it, I’ll leave that to the contemporary real estate moguls and politicians,” Mr Miscione said. “These things transfer title all the time – there is nothing new about it.”
Angry New Yorkers should perhaps direct their ire towards financial officials, including Brookly McLaughlin, the spokesman for the treasury department, who celebrates such skyscraper sales because “foreign investment makes our economy stronger, creates jobs and benefits communities around the country. We encourage nations around the world to invest.”
During a whirlwind Gulf tour this month, Henry Paulson, the treasury secretary, met with GCC investors, proffered his hat and delivered a simple message: “We need the sovereign wealth funds.”
Eckart Woertz, programme manager for the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, said Abu Dhabi investors would likely target such “trophy assets” as the Chrysler Building, but said such purchases were primarily driven by financial necessities of both the UAE and the United States.
“The US is spending more than they produce so they need somebody to lend them money, and the Gulf countries are producing more than they consume – so they are able to lend them,” Mr Woertz said. “That’s basically the deal.”
Benefiting from ever-rising oil prices, Abu Dhabi is “stacking up money for future generations, pension obligations and state programmes”, investing abroad for long-term security and to avoid fanning the flames of Gulf inflation.
Khaleeji investors take advantage of depreciating stocks, bonds and property in the United States, and give Americans much-needed cash injections “to finance their deficit”, the analyst said.
Back in midtown Manhattan, Eric Allen, 42, from Oklahoma, is admiring the Edward Trumbull mural that decorates the ceiling of the Chrysler Building’s marble-clad foyer.
Mr Allen hails the 319-metre tall edifice as New York’s “most beautiful building” and laments the “loss of pride” resulting from a “relative decline in [US] geopolitical power”.
But the lawyer maintains that Abu Dhabi’s purchase is simply a “way of recycling oil money”, with cash windfalls from overpriced petrol circling through the Middle East before “coming right back here” as investment.
Like Mr Zappone, Mr Allen compares the current Arab influx to rampant Japanese investment during the 1980s. “They came and went. As the economy improved, we bought the assets back,” he said.
Americans have comically defined a national trait of being smart dealers: selling products for $10, and buying them back when the price has dropped to $5. As such, the memory of Japan’s humbling is repeatedly referenced to Arabia’s rising star.
But while the Japanese borrowed money to purchase stocks and property at record high prices, the Arabs are doing the opposite: using excess cash to buy on the cheap. With this savvier investment invasion, it remains to be seen whether America will again have the last laugh.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080612/PAGETHREE/595884181/-1/NEWS