The Bullard Houses Negotiation
Role: The Buyer’s representative, a senior partner at Jones & Jones, a leading real estate firm of Gotham City
Client: Absentia Limited, a corporation owned by a Bahamian blind trust, which is controlled by the Conrad Milton Hotel Group, which is a public company that owns/operates 83 luxury hotels world-wide
Target: Bullard House Properties
General Information:
• Gotham City is 800k regional commerce and shipping center of the greater Gotham area, which has about 3.2m people
• Gotham houses built in 1884 and dominated for about 50 years, leading the financial and political structures of Gotham
• A symbol of power and privelage
• Located on Bay Drive in Gotham City in between of the financial district and historic section
• Gotham is a regional Commerce and Shipping Center
• 1950s: led to the decline of Gotham, brought an end in the demand for upscale housing in the Gotham district
• Age of buildings, narrow streets, and the wholesale abandonment by the middle and upper classes = downward spiral into crime and poverty
• air conditioning may the bay drive breeze superfluous
Seller Information: Downtown, Inc.
• Formed eight years ago by Bullard family descendents
• They bought it to revamp/revive the property by rezoning it, clearing out the low income tenants, and turning it into a high rise condo development
• plan was to prepare the property and sell it to a condominium developer
Current Situation for seller and the Gotham property:
• Predictions of a downtown resurgence proved correct
• now a chic area, historic area almost completely regentrified - filled with remodeled brownstones, gourmet restaurants, and trendy boutiques
• Have removed/signed relocation agreement with all tenants
• Problem: anti condo legislation and tenants rights rules have hindered Downtown’s pre-condo clearance plan
• Taxes have proved expensive, and electricity/heating costs of empty building is almost as...