a true rags to riches story...

[dgmodel]

$40 Million Buys Ex-Cabby His Own Corner of 5th Avenue

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By MOTOKO RICH and WILLIAM NEUMAN
Published: January 10, 2006
A former cabdriver who struck it rich in Russian oil and went on to invest in Manhattan real estate has signed a contract to buy a Fifth Avenue mansion for $40 million.

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Vincent Laforet for The New York Times
The Duke Semans mansion, at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, in August.


Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Tamir Sapir got rich on Russian oil and Manhattan real estate.
Tamir Sapir, who immigrated to the United States 30 years ago, said he signed a contract on Friday to buy the house, known as the Duke Semans mansion. He said the sellers, relatives of the late tobacco heiress Doris Duke, signed the contract yesterday.

The price for the 1901 Beaux-Arts confection on the corner of 82nd Street opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the highest ever paid for a Manhattan town house, though it is less than the original asking price of $50 million.

The 1901 mansion gained attention when it came on the market last spring because of its provenance and price tag. "I don't know if it's a bargain or not, but it looks like it's a bargain," said Mr. Sapir, 58, who owns the Art Deco office tower at 11 Madison Avenue and the building on lower Broadway where the Metropolitan Transportation Authority leases space for its downtown headquarters. Mr. Sapir is perhaps best known for a dispute that he had with the transportation authority as the building was being renovated. The dispute spawned a series of lawsuits that later were settled.

A collector of European ivory, Mr. Sapir said he planned to use the bottom five floors of the mansion as a gallery to showcase his pieces, mostly sculpture, which he said he had amassed over the past 20 years. He is considering moving into the penthouse on the sixth and seventh floors with his companion, Elena Bonomareva, and their 2-year-old daughter.

Mr. Sapir, who lives in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and owns a 12-acre estate in Kings Point on Long Island, said he was attracted to the mansion by its location and its history. He had already considered installing his ivory collection in the office tower on Madison Avenue, he said, but the mansion's proximity to the Met and the Guggenheim Museum made him decide "this is the right location for me."

Mr. Sapir said that he had toured the property twice over a period of about three months. The house, which has landmark designation, has 11 marble fireplaces, three elevators, gold-leaf trimmed fixtures, a sweeping brass-and-wrought-iron staircase and a mansard roof. It is one of a few remaining single-family residences on a part of Fifth Avenue that once was known as Millionaire's Row.

A tenant currently leases the penthouse, but Mr. Sapir is considering moving in after the lease expires. He said that he would keep the work on the bottom five floors "simple," demolishing some walls, and installing gallery lighting and display cases. He said he planned to invite friends who collect Fabergé eggs and paintings to exhibit their collections as well.

The musician Lenny Kravitz had been interested in the property, which came on the market last May, but he was never able to work out a deal. About 40 prospective buyers toured the mansion, which houses a doctor's office in the basement.

The Duke family hired Paula Del Nunzio and Shirley Mueller at Brown Harris Stevens and Sharon Baum at the Corcoran Group to handle the sale.

Ms. Del Nunzio said the family had "a stronger than usual interest in what happened" to the mansion after it was sold. "They were very pleased with the idea that it would be devoted to an artistic purpose," she said. "They thought that was quite a wonderful use for it." The previous highest price for a town house, based on records filed with the city, was $31.25 million, for the Academy of the Sciences mansion on East 63rd Street off Fifth Avenue, sold in September.

But neither is the highest price paid for a residence in Manhattan. Last fall, Daniel S. Loeb, who runs the Third Point hedge fund, signed a contract to buy a $45 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West, a condo building designed by the architect Robert A. M. Stern that is being built on the site of the old Mayflower Hotel.

Mr. Sapir said he was not worried about reports of softening in the Manhattan real estate market. "Look, there is now lots of money there," he said. "If you're not going to put money in real estate, where else?"

A refugee from Georgia, in the former Soviet Union, he left with a wave of immigrants in 1973. Mr. Sapir lived in Israel, Germany and Louisville, Ky., before arriving in New York in 1976.

After three years as a cabdriver, he opened an electronics store at 200 Fifth Avenue near Madison Square Park where he often sold products to visiting Russian diplomats. His relationship with one customer, a Soviet oil minister, he said, enabled him to begin selling fertilizer, and eventually, oil contracts, in Europe.

In the early 1990's, Mr. Sapir decided to invest in New York real estate, buying a building downtown, on John Street, for $2.2 million and selling it a year later for nearly three times that. Since then, he has bought several other buildings in Manhattan.

Mr. Sapir said that as soon as the sale of the Duke Semans mansion closes, he plans to hire contractors and a curator to organize his collection of ivory pieces, which he said would be a "headache" to count. "I'm going to do everything possible to rush it," he said. "I want to enjoy myself when I can display this 20 years of hard work."



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/ny...10mansion.html

[Orisha]

Wow! What a great role model.

[Felix_Leiter]

i read about that this morning.. his fiancee is hot

[dgmodel]

Originally Posted by Orisha

Wow! What a great role model.

seriously... the man came here with nothing and after twenty years inked the highest (residential) real-estate deal in nyc...

[Orisha]

Originally Posted by dgmodel

seriously... the man came here with nothing and after twenty years inked the highest (residential) real-estate deal in nyc...

I was thinking when I first read this: When anyone I know complains they aren't getting a fair break or that that can't succeed, I'm making them read this story. Then I'm gonna bust their balls about it.

I truly believe you can accomplish anything if you really want it bad enough.

well...except for being a singer..I'd prob clear the room! LOL