The office space in 666 Fifth Avenue is an unlikely candidate for traditional refinancing since it’s probably not worth as much as the mortgage, which exceeds $1 billion. That has forced Jared Kushner and his family to get creative.
Days after the election in “a private dining room of the restaurant La Chine at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan” Jared Kushner met with Wu Xiaohui, the chairman of Anbang Insurance Group, a mysterious Chinese company with links to the Chinese government.
A few months later, in March 2017, word of a potential deal between Anbang and the Kushner company leaked. The deal was “unusually favorable” to Kushner. It would have bought out Vornado, provided hundreds of millions in cash to Kushner, paid off most of the mortgage and embraced Kushner’s vision to tear down the building and replace it with a new $4 billion tower that would convert the office space to residences. The deal eventually fell through, amid rising concerns about a conflict of interest.
The Intercept reported that Kushner’s father met with Qatar’s finance minister, Ali Sharif al-Emadi, in New York last April. They pitched a $1 billion investment to renovate the struggling tower. The Qataris rejected the pitch because they did not believe they’d ever be able to recover their investment. Soon thereafter, the Trump administration supported an economic blockade of the country by Saudi Arabia.
“Here’s a question for you: If they had given Kushner the money, would there have been a blockade? I don’t think so,” a financial analyst opined to the New Yorker. NBC News reported that “Qatari government officials visiting the U.S. in late January and early February considered turning over to Mueller what they believe is evidence of efforts by their country’s Persian Gulf neighbors in coordination with Kushner to hurt their country.”
The office space in 666 Fifth Avenue is an unlikely candidate for traditional refinancing since it’s probably not worth as much as the mortgage, which exceeds $1 billion. That has forced Jared Kushner and his family to get creative.
Days after the election in “a private dining room of the restaurant La Chine at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan” Jared Kushner met with Wu Xiaohui, the chairman of Anbang Insurance Group, a mysterious Chinese company with links to the Chinese government.
A few months later, in March 2017, word of a potential deal between Anbang and the Kushner company leaked. The deal was “unusually favorable” to Kushner. It would have bought out Vornado, provided hundreds of millions in cash to Kushner, paid off most of the mortgage and embraced Kushner’s vision to tear down the building and replace it with a new $4 billion tower that would convert the office space to residences. The deal eventually fell through, amid rising concerns about a conflict of interest.
The Intercept reported that Kushner’s father met with Qatar’s finance minister, Ali Sharif al-Emadi, in New York last April. They pitched a $1 billion investment to renovate the struggling tower. The Qataris rejected the pitch because they did not believe they’d ever be able to recover their investment. Soon thereafter, the Trump administration supported an economic blockade of the country by Saudi Arabia.
“Here’s a question for you: If they had given Kushner the money, would there have been a blockade? I don’t think so,” a financial analyst opined to the New Yorker. NBC News reported that “Qatari government officials visiting the U.S. in late January and early February considered turning over to Mueller what they believe is evidence of efforts by their country’s Persian Gulf neighbors in coordination with Kushner to hurt their country.”
https://thinkprogress.org/the-kushners-mysterious-1-2-billion-bailout-92f6c12de50c/