Rudy Returns to Rape & Pillage NYC Again

Now this is a scary thought. Just when you thought we were free of him, Rudy "Two Fists" Giuliani's gonna sink his fangs into our terra, making in nota so firma.
Giuliani Firm Plans Real Estate Investment Fund
By MARC SANTORA
Published: July 20, 2008
Entering the real estate market at a time of profound turmoil, Rudolph W. Giuliani’s company is planning an investment fund based on commercial and residential properties in New York and Washington, members of the venture said last week.
The fund is Mr. Giuliani’s first formal foray into the real estate world and represents the continuing diversification of his business, Giuliani Partners, a management and consulting company he founded shortly after leaving City Hall in 2002.
In addition to his business efforts, Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, continues to be active on the political front. This week he will be raising money for his federal political action committee, Solutions America, a senior aide said. He will also announce the creation of a state committee geared at helping Republicans retain their tenuous control of the State Senate. The creation of the state committee was reported on Saturday by The New York Post.
Despite rumors that Mr. Giuliani is considering a run for governor, the aide said, he has made no decisions about re-entering politics. [So why’s he raising money and creating a federal political action committee?]
[...] Over the last year, as Mr. Giuliani competed in the Republican primary for president, he was largely absent from his company, and it shrank both in staff and in client base.
“It is fair to say that his running did have an impact on the business at the time,” said Anthony V. Carbonetti, a managing director at Giuliani Partners. “Now that Rudy is back full time, we see a great resurgence and feel very confident that we are getting back to where we were before the run.”
[...] The real estate investment fund, like the other operations, will be something of a boutique shop. Mr. Giuliani’s company is going to form a partnership with Berman Enterprises, a family-owned company based in Rockville, Md., said Jeffrey E. Berman, one of the company’s partners.
They hope to raise $500 million to $750 million from investors to buy real estate, mainly in New York and Washington, with Berman Enterprises responsible for raising at least 10 percent of the capital.
The minimum threshold for an investor to take part in the fund, which will formally be called the Berman Enterprises Opportunity Fund, will be $25 million, Mr. Berman said. [You can buy a lot of bagels and pizza with that kinda money!]
[...] “When we decided to put the fund together in my family, the money we wanted to go for was overseas money, and Rudy has a lot of traction overseas,” he said.
Mr. Giuliani’s firm has done significant amounts of business overseas, advising clients in countries from the Middle East to East Asia. In addition, Mr. Giuliani’s law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, has an office in Kazakhstan. [That’s our Rudy. Mr. Jet Set, always at the place to be seen!]
[...] At Giuliani Partners, the real estate investment fund will be overseen by Mr. Carbonetti and Geoffrey N. Hess, another managing partner with experience in real estate.
Mr. Carbonetti said the firm had helped broker occasional real estate deals in the past. For example, when Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were put up for sale in 2006, the government of Qatar submitted a bid through Mr. Giuliani’s firm. But the country was ultimately unsuccessful in acquiring the property, which sold for $5.4 billion.
[...] Mr. Carbonetti said he was aware that should Mr. Giuliani choose to run for public office in the future, his business connections would be closely scrutinized, as they had been in the presidential campaign. But he said he saw little possibility of conflicts growing out of the fund.
[...] Mr. Carbonetti said the fund would look for undervalued properties in prime neighborhoods. The company believes the current turmoil in the market, with banks hesitant to extend loans and prices falling, presents an opportunity for investors with large amounts of cash at their disposal, Mr. Berman said.
The real estate markets in Washington and New York City have some significant differences, Mr. Berman said. The market for office space in Washington has proved resilient, he said, in large part because the federal government always needs space, while New York has been buoyed by international investment and has not seen as sharp a downturn in its housing market. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/nyregion/20rudy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin