Manhattan real estate feels benefit from Europe's financial crisis as city becomes a money haven for Russians with cash to protect
On the west side of Manhattan, a strange sight greets the tourists and natives who happen to be walking, running or cycling by Pier 90. Pearly and serene amid the beeping and bustle of highway traffic, a 536ft, bulletproof yacht called the Eclipse has been anchored in the freezing water of the Hudson for over a month. It is the world's largest yacht, owned by Roman Abramovich, a secretive Russian oligarch whose net worth, at Forbes' last count, was about $10.2bn.
It's no coincidence that Abramovich's glistening ship is anchored in New York. The city has been a haven for wealthy Russians for at least three years, as oligarchs and demi-oligarchs moored their money far away from the political whims of Vladimir Putin or the growing fiscal fiasco of the eurozone. "In Russia, whether you're friendly with the government is a very important thing, and that changes like the wind changes," said David Newman, a partner with Day Pitney who has represented the ex-wife of former potash magnate Dmitry Rybolovlev in a prominent divorce case. Evidence of Russian wealth has been everywhere.
"They have boats, they have cars; you go buy a plane for $40m, it's not a big deal any more," said Newman. Rybolovlev's 2012 acquisition of an $88m Central Park apartment once owned by Citigroup chief Sandy Weill still stands as one of the biggest real estate deals in New York history, and a soaring example of Russian influence and ostentation in high-end New York real estate. "How many Maybachs can you have, how many Maseratis can you have?" Newman recently learned of an extravagantly priced crocodile-skin T-shirt for sale. "I thought right away, 'there's going to be a Russian at Hermes buying that $100,000 t-shirt."
The shirt is still sitting in the Hermes store. As Newman notes, Russians have sought assets that stick around a little longer. The wealthiest Russians knew months ago that the Cypriot economy was failing and hurried their money out into other investments.
The European crisis has forced more and more money out of the bank accounts of wealthy Russians in Cyprus and elsewhere and into the US. "This past year, we've been seeing a shift in investments in the United States as a result of the financial state of the European Union," said Ed Mermelstein, a New York real estate lawyer who advises wealthy Russians.
The meltdown of the Cypriot financial system came as no surprise to well-connected, wealthy Russians, who bundled some of their money to the United States. "Many of our clients had a heads-up on this issue," said Mermelstein. "Cyprus had started having the conversations about what it was intending, and that's been going on for half a year."
That's why some wealthy Russians seemed insulted by the insinuation that the collapse of the Cypriot banking system this week caught them by surprise. Cypriot banks were suffering "substantial outflows" for weeks before the meltdown, according to the country's finance minister, Michael Sarris.
Igor Zyuzin, a Russian oligarch, nearly bit off a reporter's head when asked whether his finances would suffer from the debacle in Cyprus. "You must be out of your mind!" Zyuzin reportedly barked.
He wasn't the only one who had hustled most of his money out. Gennady Timchenko, the head of commodity trading firm Gunvor, only had a "few hundred thousand euros" in Cypriot banks, he boasted to a Swiss newspaper. Alfa Capital Holdings, a Cyprus-based investment firm owned by Russians, informed visitors to its website that its subsidiaries "are not and will not be affected by any levy on deposits imposed by the Government of Cyprus."
The financial woes of Cyprus may have become the blessings of New York. Large chunks of Russian cash started falling into the New York real estate market – larger, that is, than usual. Wealthy Russians haven't just been buying apartments as individual investments; according to investment bankers, lawyers and wealth advisers, over the past six months to a year – as the eurozone crisis intensified with elections in Greece and Italy as well as the debacle in Cyprus – those Russians have been looking to build real estate. Lawyers and advisers have been making construction loans and sinking money into the concrete foundations of the big real estate developments in Manhattan as well as other centers of east coast glamor, including Miami.
Mermelstein's Russian clients are making no secret of their glee at having avoided the bulk of the Cypriot fiasco, which would have taken up to 40% of their deposits from bank accounts there. Six months ago, Mermelstein said, one of his Russian clients took a few million dollars from his bank account in Cyprus and made a loan to a real-estate project in New York. After Cyprus announced an overnight bank raid into the deposits of rich customers, "he was happy the loan came out of Cyprus and doesn't have to go back any time soon." Such investments, ranging in size from $5m to $25m, have "gone up substantially" according to Mermelstein.
Part of the reason wealthy Russians are attracted to real estate developments in New York is that few investments in other assets are making any money. With interest rates at a record low, savings accounts aren't paying much interest, and assets like art and cars often depreciate in value. As a result, wealthy Russians have been stepping into the market that, as any beleaguered Manhattan resident will tell you, always seem to go up: New York real estate. So Russians – their names obscured, their involvement shadowy – have been signing deals as financing partners on big commercial real-estate buildings – including everything from shopping malls to hotels to high-end condos – to provide financing that banks cannot or will not. While banks may have once asked for only 20% of a project's value in cash, now they are asking for 50%, Mermelstein said. "That differential is made up by foreign investors," he says, and they're not always Russians. One beneficiary of such a deal, according to sources in New York real estate, is One57, the luxury high-rise that has booked over $1bn in sales.
The estimates of the investments are always anecdotal. Russians, especially in real estate, tend to work through investment funds and private companies, creating a warren of paperwork and almost no access to their names on public documents. "They have very closed mouths and keep a very small circle of people," said Newman. "They are very wary of outsiders and it's difficult to get information. In terms of their advisers, they hold them close to the vest." As Cyprus has found it, it's not easy to track exactly where Russian money is going. Cyprus's central bank estimated Russian deposits at a mere €10bn maximum, while Moody's said Russian businesses alone probably held €19bn in the bank.
The anecdotes, however, are growing. In Miami, wealthy Russians have caught up with South American tycoons that have traditionally dominated the property market. Investment banker Denny St Romain at Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets says his team is getting a call a week from wealthy CEOs or ex-CEOs who want to invest in real estate. The investors usually work with an operator, an experienced real estate hand. What is notable is the size of the investments: "We've seen a couple of deals go down at $100m, and on average $40m and $50m," St Romain said. The Russian investors rarely team up with others.
Still, while many wealthy Russians pulled some of their money out, there are still billions belonging to "the little guy", or mini-oligarchs, or those who left Russia to escape the financial prying of Putin's government. That's the money that, ultimately, will help fund Cyprus's bailout.
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