Oh hold me back from worshiping at the altar of Philly developers. How on earth did we ever exist before they made their money?
What’s got the fur up on my back (not literally-cat analogy- I'm not Flordo the bear down the street- the fur on his back would rise up but I digress) on this damp ass Sunday morning? An article on the Inquirer website (my friends have too much time on their hands and keep e-mailing me stuff )
One thing clear from the article and it’s prominence is that folks are sucking up to new paper ownership and potential investor group members.
So there is this ginourmous article on that guy who builds on old factory sites or whatever: O’Neill. Don’t know the man. Never paid much attention to yet another philly Trump kinda guy, there seem to be so many. But this article is such a fluff piece that I can’t shut my yap about it.
It is offensive. He’s not the second coming of Christ for Christ’s sake....he BUILDS things. He’s one man. Apparently he loves to build big huge tall things where there aren’t big huge tall things. How do I, a mere mortal relate to this? Sheesh, I actually have to work for my Manolos. REALLY hard. So it's like a splurge...anyway,I'm not that Inga lady. Hope he paid his PR guy or gal a really big bonus.
So I read the article. A lot of it focuses on some tower being built in charming Newport Rhode Island. I’ve spent time in Newport, so I know where the site is. Ok, it’s better than a decrepit factory building, but why so urban looking? People go to places like Newport to escape urbanism....
It’s cool that this guy is so self made, and frightening that he’s like one of the largest employers in Newport, and probably around here too. But he’s a developer, not god. Where are the articles on the slowing housing and condominium market? Where are the articles on the simple economics of this area? As in who lives on credit cards versus real money? The working poor inPhilly? Why can’t Philly get big businesses to stay? Who is going to live in all these new buildings in Philly that aren’t sold out no matter what some shark or a realtor tells you ? ( I was told that recently on a little tour of a new building a friend was looking at. As soon as they infer jump now or you’ll be left out, it is time to look at the next building. )
Whatever, read the article and decide for yourselves. At least this guy seems to give back to his communities - you can’t say that about most of them...last question? How long will this post stay up before someone has a coniption about it? Here’s an excerpt and link:
Philadelphia Inquirer/
Expanding His Horizons
By Henry J. Holcomb
Inquirer Staff Writer
NEWPORT, R.I. - Philadelphia real estate developer J. Brian O'Neill spotted customers he didn't know on the way to a lunch with Mikhail Gorbachev.
"Join us," O'Neill said to Richard and Laurie Kulbieda, new members of the private club that O'Neill bought last July. Kulbieda, executive vice president of Key Bank in White Plains, N.Y., protested that he wasn't dressed properly.
...The scene offers a glimpse at how O'Neill has made friends and charmed investors on his way to becoming one of Philadelphia's most successful real estate entrepreneurs. At 47, he has a track record of creating value out of real estate with issues that add too much risk for others. Now, he is expanding to Newport County, a seaport known for its yacht builders and multimillion-dollar summer homes built for the Astors, the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts.
"He made us feel very welcome," Rich Kulbieda said of the lunch with O'Neill. Later, O'Neill showed a different side, blistering his staff for changing the table arrangement for the evening's banquet. He stalked the tent in a profanity-laced tirade over how far some customers would be from Gorbachev.
O'Neill, who often talks about how he never finished high school, attributes his success to getting up earlier and working harder than most....
His goal is to become the nation's best and biggest developer of both super-luxury and affordable housing.
If he sounds cocky at times, O'Neill insists that he is not. He keeps a huge model of the Titanic in his Newport home....A short time later his temper flared over plans for illuminating his future condo tower on Narragansett Bay, next to his Carnegie Abbey Club. "You can't see it! I'm not going to spend $125 million on a building and hide it," he told a meeting of architects and lighting consultants.
The experts countered that people don't want light shining in their condos. "I've put 500 art lights in this house," O'Neill roared back. "I can light up a dime and leave the area around it dark. Are you lighting experts or not?"
The lighting plan for the base of the building triggered another explosion: "Those lights look like sex toys... people nickname buildings. I'm not going to build a vibrator building!"
