hollywood billionaire

Chapter 441: Eat the marrow and know the taste
"Let's start with the one closest to us."

Han Yi picked up the stack of information related to the W Hotel in West Hollywood from the tea table and began to review it carefully.

As his business empire continues to expand, the number of projects that Han Yi needs to advance funds for, or for which it is difficult to see immediate results after investing, and for which he is unable to obtain memorandum cashback rewards, has begun to increase gradually.

To give an example, Sony Pictures' $1.3 million slate deal will not see initial returns until at least this time next year.

"Jumanji", "Blade Runner 2049", "Hotel Transylvania 3", "The Emoji Movie", and "Venom". The nearest one will be released on July 7 next year, while the farthest one will be released on October 28, 2018.

Another example is the Shrine Music Festival, which will be held in Miami next March. The first batch of artists' deposits will be paid in the middle of this month. Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Eminem, Snoop Dogg... It's not a huge sum of money, but it's not a small amount for Han Live.

There is also the Classic Music Festival co-organized with Apple Music, the Musical.ly acquisition that Joshua Kushner is helping him to push forward, the music copyright fund that will soon have Lionel Richie as its mascot and spokesperson, and Bruce Escovitz's Red Light Artist Management Company...

Among the many dazzling projects, Han Yi is certain that he will be able to see immediate returns from some of them, such as the copyright fund that is about to be registered in London.

The movies he invested in were still in the post-production stage and were considered products that were still being polished. The actual effect could only be seen after they were officially released. However, the music copyrights that Han Yi wanted to acquire were all popular classics that had been popular in the music scene for decades and continuously generated revenue. They were essentially no different from Klimt's paintings.

Buy it and get a reward.

But even so, Han Yi could not ignore one fact - with so many projects being launched at the same time, with a total size of well into the nine digits, the funds he could allocate were already stretched to the limit.

Even if we delay the payment period, it is impossible to meet the funding needs of all projects at the same time.

The most important thing is that he cannot rest for even a moment. If he wants to catch up with Universal, Sony and Warner and become one of the four major music groups, if he wants to reserve as many music copyrights as possible before the wave comes, if he wants to fulfill the ambitions he has made in his life, he must increase his investment layer by layer.

Therefore, he needs more cashback channels and more money to win this battle.

And these projects between him and Jordan Bromley are his way of replenishing his ammunition.

Think about it and do the math.

CEP-III's $3.99 million was established at Han Live, and after the successful Mad City Music Festival, $3.1236 million had been spent, leaving $8664 million.

The purchase of the G650ER cost $7000 million, and the cash back was $1.26 million. Of the $1.26 million, $9792.18 was used to buy TV numbers, which is worth 9000 million euros, and the remaining $2807.82 is lying in the memorandum without being withdrawn.

In Europe, TV cashed back 1.44 million euros, spent 2000 million euros on the purchase of Passalacqua, and gave a reward of 2000 million euros, which meant that there was still 1.44 million euros left intact.

Add to that the $3329.6 million reward from Xiaoru and Yuzhen for the two gifts in Las Vegas, the remaining $1064.3 million in cash in the Chase account, and the $3 million that can only be withdrawn from the wealth management account in March next year. Han Yi currently has only $1.33 million in funds to allocate...

Hey... that's not right, how come there is still 4.48 million in cash? !
This money can never be spent no matter how much you spend it?

Ahem...wait for him to stroke it...

And slow!

Do you think $4.48 million sounds like a lot?
Don’t forget, a Klimt painting costs $1.5 million!
What, you said I want cash back for the paintings?

Uh… to give another example, there are several music festivals next year, and the production costs of each one are almost the same as Mad City.

What? You said the total is less than half of $400 million? And the box office revenue of Mad City has not yet gone through the settlement process. There are cash back rewards after the cash flow back. Even without the rewards, the profits earned are enough for Han Live to snowball?
...Let's take another example. The music copyright he wants to buy, just for Stevie Nicks, is estimated to cost $100 million!
Well, it seems like this can also be cashed back...

This……

Forget it, I can’t think of any other plausible reasons!

Stop pretending, get real, he just wants to buy things, just wants to spend money!
After several shocking lavish spendings, Han Yi, who has tasted the sweetness of it, has become increasingly addicted to this indescribable pleasure of consumption.

You know, since his rebirth, every purchase he made was of a dimension that was difficult for ordinary people to understand, or even imagine.

A villa at 864 Stradella Road sold for $3950 million, ranking fourth in the Los Angeles real estate market this year, behind only Barbra Streisand's Mon Rêve, Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion, and the historic landmark Allwood Estate in Holmby Hills.

If only new homes with no transaction records are counted, 864 Stradella Road ranks first.

The $57 million sale of a penthouse at One79#3450 ranked 2016th among all properties sold in the greater New York area in 432, and was also the largest transaction at One57 in a year when the Manhattan luxury market was dominated by Park Avenue. This allowed the ultra-luxury apartment building, which was completely overshadowed by its competitor four blocks away, to finally hold its head high and no longer be regarded by the industry as a yesterday's news that no one cares about due to the impact of new products.

Although it was $2200 million cheaper than the original owner Kola Aluko's hanger, fully demonstrating the instability of these pencil buildings on Billionaires' Row to the newcomers, in any case, Han Yi's transaction, through the deliberate guidance of newspapers and media and developers, has revitalized the secondary market of One57, and buyers and sellers on other floors have finally found a balance between value preservation and capital preservation. In October 2016, Chinese buyer Liu Yiqian bought a One10 apartment 2350 floors lower than Han Yi for $17 million, which was $57 million cheaper than the price paid by the seller in 2014.

As the year draws to a close, it is said that there are more idle billionaires who are considering whether to buy One57 assets at the bottom of the wave. For example, Malcolm Healy, a British kitchenware tycoon, is offering a price of $5850 million for a unit. As a client of Ryan Serhant, Healy noticed the news about Han Yi and sent the manager of the trust fund to contact Serhant to view the house.

To this day, there is a thank-you letter from Gary Barnett, the founder of Extell Development, in the study room of One57#79. Han Yi also owes a private dinner that he promised the other party but doesn't know when he will be able to attend.

A Gulfstream G650ER, $7000 million. The change of ownership of the world's first delivered G650ER has injected a shot of adrenaline into the sluggish private jet trading market this year.

Second-hand market data for private jets is almost never made public, and the exact price of each transaction is impossible to verify. After all, few billionaires are willing to make their extravagant personal lives public. But one does not need to refer to other transaction prices to know that the $7000 million price tag has already put this G10ER, currently numbered N650AH, at the top of the private jet market.

After all, there is no private jet in the world that is more luxurious and expensive than the G650ER.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Bill Gates all bought this model and paid this price.

If you want to go a step further, you can customize large commercial aircraft such as Boeing 747, 787, or Airbus A340, A380, which has gone beyond the definition and scope of private aircraft.

Finally, the TV superyacht that was recently acquired for 9000 million euros was undoubtedly the No. yacht transaction of the year that shocked the entire industry.

Since 1865, among the private yachts still in service around the world, only 198 have a hull length of more than 75 meters, meeting the standard of "super yachts".

The TV, which cost 9000 million euros, has a hull length of 78.5 meters. Based on this data alone, it ranks 168th.

Han Yi, who had been reborn less than a year ago, entered one of the clubs with the most stringent standards in the world just through this transaction.

A super yacht club with only 198 seats.

Considering that many billionaires own two or more superyachts, the club's actual membership may be less than 150.

In 2016, the total population of the earth was 74.91 billion.

This means that the chance of a random sample of the population owning a superyacht is about one in 50 million.

What concept?

The probability of a person being struck by lightning in a year is one in 286,000.

Let me ask you, facing this ultimate experience of being the chosen one, who could remain unmoved?

Every expenditure is setting a new record.

Every consumption is writing new history.

More importantly, this is not the truly beautiful part of Han Yixin’s life.

The most mysterious thing about this adventure of starting over again is that he is given a cashback mechanism that determines the reward multiples based on the intensity of positive emotions.

The more you spend, the more you earn.

As long as the consumption is in line with your wishes, every transaction will represent a crazy increase in wealth.

Such a gift can only be described as a miracle.

Five loaves and two fish, nothing more than that.

He is the Child of God, the Messiah of money, and the Anointed One of capital.

He is Lillian Bettencourt and Paul Getty, the glorious past of both, and the future that even they can hardly foresee.

Give him enough time and he will have everything and control everything.

This is not an argument, it is a fact.

No one can beat a perpetual motion machine that can print infinite money.

Therefore, beneath the seemingly humble and introverted exterior, Han Yi's inner ambition and desire are being driven by such thoughts and are growing uncontrollably.

He loves pop music, so he wants to dominate the entire record industry.

He appreciated the classics, so he wanted to have every No. 1 single since Tin Pan Alley.

He loves the thrilling experience that live performances bring to the audience, so screw you, Live Nation, it's time to change the boss in this industry.

Just seeing the potential of Passalacqua to become a top resort hotel, he couldn't wait to plant his flag in another completely unfamiliar field.

After standing on David Rubinstein's shoulders and appreciating the vast horizon, he felt that he could also become the red sun that burns the capital market.

Feeling their brave and passionate love, he was so moved that he could hardly control himself. On the one hand, he put on a hypocritical mask of pain and entanglement, on the other hand, he was complacent in his heart, doing...

"Tell me more about how this deal came about, Jordan."

He didn't dare to think any further, didn't dare to analyze further, for fear that if he went half an inch deeper, he would see a monster devoured by greed. Han Yi forced himself to pull his thoughts back and turned his attention back to the document in front of him, only to realize that he hadn't even finished reading the first paragraph.

“Why would the current owner want to sell such a core asset in a prime location?”

The W Hotel is located in the undisputed core area of ​​Hollywood, at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard.

This house number may sound unfamiliar to those who don't often visit Los Angeles, but its neighbors are almost known to everyone around the world.

Across the street is the most influential theater on the West Coast, the Pantages Theater.

Walk left for two minutes and you will reach the starting point of the Avenue of Stars, which leads directly to the Chinese Theater, where the Oscars are held.

Two minutes up the stairs is the Capitol Records Building, a symbol of the American music industry.

Two minutes down the road is Sunset Boulevard, which is lined with nightclubs.

The film industry and the music industry, flashy adult entertainment and elegant drama... day and night, evil and good, all converge at this intersection where the W Hotel is located.

Han Yi visited here for the first time on Halloween in 2013, half a year before he met Xu Yiru.

At that time, he drove two or three classmates to the Pantages Theater to watch "The Book of Mormon" which was touring in Los Angeles.

When the blue Ford Kuga slowly drove into the parking lot diagonally opposite the Pantages Theater, they were shocked by the scene before them - hundreds of monsters and goblins in strange costumes were using this as their base, radiating out in all directions and pouring into the nightclubs along Sunset Boulevard like a tide.

He had just parked the car and turned off the engine, and before he could open the door, several sexy and hot succubi floated before Han Yi's eyes.

They have pretty faces, and they wear rave outfits that don't even cover their buttocks and are too revealing to be used as erotic lingerie. They proudly show off their well-proportioned long legs without a trace of fat, and their dizzying array of mountains.

The succubi laughed and talked as they passed by an elderly couple who also came to watch the musical. The couple did not react at all, no disgust, no surprise, and no curiosity. They hurriedly passed through each other's world without any concern. Only the old man's slightly stiff walking posture and the rolling Adam's apple on his neck after he passed completely sideways revealed the true throbbing hidden in his heart.

At that time, Han Yi and his classmates were impressed by the bizarreness of the capitalist world and the abrupt yet appropriate fusion of two cultures.

But thinking back now, Han Yi could only recall the most naked thought in his mind.

Where are they going?

Where will they return to?

Who are they gonna fuck tonight?

And why can't that man be me?

Naked and dirty thoughts are the most real thoughts that every man fights in his brain every day.

Han Yi clearly remembered that he was ashamed of the thought that occupied his mind, and forced his eyes to move away from their buttocks and float towards the night sky.

At this moment, the first image he saw was the blood-red sign hanging high under the bright moon and among the stars.

W.

Since then, the W Hotel in Hollywood has left a deep impression on him.

This hotel stores the city's most primitive desires, spurting blood, and beating pulses.

And now, he'll have the chance to become the caretaker of those desires... and the master of the Los Angeles night.

People would be like him at that time, looking up in countless sleepless nights, and entrusting their unspeakable emotions and throbbing to the sign, making the blood-red W even more dazzling and more enchanting.

"There are two developers for this project, Legacy Partners in Foster City, California, and Gatehouse Capital Group in Dallas. You should be familiar with Legacy Partners, which has dozens of completed real estate projects throughout the greater Los Angeles area. There are no villas, all of them are multi-family apartment communities."

"Is there anything I've heard of?"

"1600 Vine? It's right next to the W Hotel."

"Ah, 1600 Vine." Han Yi still remembers the huge sign. "Then they have quite a few landmark projects in Hollywood."

“In fact, 1600 Vine and W Hotel were originally a real estate development project.”

"A project?" Han Yi was a little confused.

"That's right." Jordan nodded. "You may not have noticed it. Of course, few people living in Los Angeles would notice it either. The W Hotel is actually a building on top of a subway station. The Los Angeles Red Line subway passes through here, and the entrance to the Hollywood/Vine station is right next to the hotel's main entrance."

"So what you mean is..." Han Yi's eyes gradually widened, "W Hotel and 1600 Vine...are actually part of the subway station TOD project?"

"Correct."

"Haha, my... Oh my God." Han Yi seemed to have heard a huge joke. "Los Angeles is also following others to build TOD? Does anyone take their subway?"

"Still... a little human." Jordan chuckled along with Han Yi. He also felt that it was unreasonable for Los Angeles to try to learn from other cities to implement TOD.

“For example, along the convention line that passes by your school, many people will park in the parking lot at La Cienega Station and take the subway to Memorial Stadium to watch the Trojans’ game.”

"That's because our games are all held in the afternoon, and there aren't many other attractions with a lot of traffic near the Memorial Stadium. It's no problem to go to the game at three o'clock and take the subway back to La Cienega to pick up the car at six o'clock." Han Yi seriously discussed the difference between the Convention Line and the Red Line with Jordan, "But think about it, which parents would take their children to Hollywood to watch movies or go shopping on weekends by subway? If you were a girl, would you take the subway to a nightclub on Sunset Boulevard at night and then take the subway back?"

"No." Jordan smiled and shook his head, "Because the Los Angeles subway closes before twelve o'clock."

"So, I don't know why they built TOD. Even tourists know that it is inconvenient and dangerous to come to Los Angeles without public transportation. Moreover, people who can afford to stay at the W Hotel will not hold their noses and go to the subway station full of urine smell."

"These arguments are persuasive, but they cannot change the fact that this TOD project was planned in the early 2010st century, completed and opened to the public in ."

"I'm not trying to change anything, I'm just trying to show how stupid it is," Han Yi shrugged and joked, "Showing you that I've become a good Los Angeles resident who keeps complaining about the public transportation system."

"You are already the best Los Angeles resident... I don't think there are many people who contribute more to the city's tax revenue than you do."

Jordan responded to Han Yi's words with a joke and quickly got back to the point.

"The Hollywood/Vine TOD is a key urban renewal project jointly promoted by the Los Angeles City Government, the Los Angeles Community Renewal Authority, and the Los Angeles Metro. It is also the most important TOD project of all the Los Angeles Metro. This is because other stations that can be built with TOD do not have the geographical advantages of Hollywood/Vine. For example, Wilshire/Vermont, where the Red Line and the Purple Line intersect, is located in Koreatown and has only built a community complex with 449 apartments and 35000 square feet of retail business."

"Is it the one opposite The Vermont?" Han Yi was very familiar with the so-called "TOD". The subway station and apartment building were located opposite The Vermont where Xu Yiru lived. There was a Chase Bank and several small retail stores.

It looks ordinary during the day, but once night falls, it is directly occupied by homeless people. They use the subway station as their base, and the surrounding one or two blocks are full of chaos.

"Yes, it's there." Jordan gave an affirmative answer. "Los Angeles is too big and too scattered, and there is no regional commercial center to speak of, so most of the planned TODs are very simple, like Wilshire/Vermont, which is completely different from the TOD in Tokyo. This is the case with Wilshire/Wiltern and Westlake/MacArthur Park on the Red and Purple Lines, as well as Del Mar Station on the Gold Line."

"Therefore, the city of Los Angeles and the Metro Corporation have high hopes for the Hollywood/Vine site, and they must make it a landmark that represents the urban style of Los Angeles in the new century. During the public bidding, the six landowners clearly required that this TOD must not only have modern apartments and convenient retail formats, but also must include a high-quality shopping center and a five-star hotel."

"Wait a minute." Han Yi frowned, "Six land owners?"

"Take a look at the 'original ownership' on page three," Jordan reminded Han Yi, "This entire plot of land is held by six different institutions. The brown area belongs to the Taft Building that has been there since 1923. The smallest yellow area belongs to a Santa Monica company called Kitro. The purple area belongs to the Schilling Trust, the pink area belongs to the Clark Trust, the dark blue area belongs to HJT, and this large piece of cyan is the land owned by the Los Angeles Metro Company."

"Is this plot of land still owned by these six families?" Han Yi rubbed his swollen brows. "If the division of ownership is still so complicated, let's just skip it."

"Not anymore. As the largest landowner of this plot of land, Los Angeles Metro coordinated with the other five... no, it should be said that four owners, and sold it as a whole to the winning bidder, except for the Taft Building, which is a historic building and cannot be moved. The developer has no interest in taking it over."

"I see." Han Yi thought for a moment and nodded slightly. "According to what you said, it should be Legacy Partners, which is more influential in Los Angeles, that got the land first. Their main goal is to operate apartment buildings and retail formats here, but they have to face the mandatory regulations that require the construction of a five-star hotel. In order to meet the requirements of the bid, they lack experience and brought in Gatehouse Capital Group... If I'm not mistaken, Gatehouse's main investment direction should be five-star hotel properties, right?"

"You just shortened our meeting by... I don't know, at least 15 minutes." Jordan glanced at his watch pretentiously and praised, "Although I have said it a hundred times, I will continue to say it... It is a pleasure to talk business with a smart person like you, Yi."

"That's right. The total investment for the entire TOD is $305 million, and it must include 143 five-star hotel rooms, 375 single apartments, 200 family apartments, ground-floor retail space and a shopping mall, with a total area of ​​more than million square feet. Legacy Partners can't afford such a large sum of money, and has no experience in operating and managing five-star hotels, so they brought in Gatehouse Capital Group in Dallas, which has been working with Starwood. The W in Dallas, the W in San Diego, the W in Silicon Valley, and many Aloft hotels in North America are all properties owned by Gatehouse."

“And then they jointly financed and developed it, with Legacy Partners doing the apartment portion and Gatehouse doing the hotel portion.”

"Bill Rosken, Los Angeles Planning Commissioner and founder of Rosken Van Cleef & Arpels, is responsible for the design," Jordan added.

“This is truly a great example of public-private partnership.”

Han Yi made a light-hearted joke. In his own country, these power-for-money transactions are taboos that cannot be put on the table, but in the United States, they are public information that can be displayed openly.

A planning specialist hired by the government uses his own architectural firm to take design orders on the land he has planned?
What a public-private partnership.

"What about the division of ownership?"

"The land and the property above it are jointly owned by Legacy Partners and Gatehouse, both the apartments and the hotel. Legacy Partners has invested more and holds a larger share."

“Is it a profitable business?”

"It's very profitable. In the first few years after opening, the 305 rooms of the W Hotel were almost fully booked every day, which is much higher than the average hotel occupancy rate of 73.6% in the greater Hollywood area. The vacancy rate of 1600 Vine Apartments has also remained below 3% all year round. Every room that becomes available is rented out. It is a very stable cash cow."

"Then why did they sell the W?"

"In fact, from the very beginning, Legacy Partners wanted to sell their share of the W Hotel. Legacy Partners is a very conservative company. It has been engaged in the multi-family community apartment business since 1968 and has never touched other formats. In addition, the operating costs of hotels are much higher than those of multi-family community apartments, and the expected mid- and long-term income is not as stable as that of high-end apartments. Therefore, Legacy Partners has always wanted to cash out this asset, take the money and leave, and only retain the share of 1600 Vine. However, the Los Angeles City Government requires the winning company to hold the property for at least five years, so it was not until 2015 that Legacy Partners began to look for buyers in the trading market, but until now, no suitable investors have appeared."

"From what you said, it's only Legacy Partners that wants to sell the W Hotel?" Han Yi has been rubbing his brows since a few minutes ago. "Gatehouse still wants to continue holding their shares?"

"Yes, this is also a major reason why many investors have withdrawn."

Jordan Bromley pursed his lips, thinking about the most appropriate words.

"Gatehouse Capital Group also agreed to sell the entire ownership of W Hotel together with Legacy Partners, but their requirement is..."

“The acquirer would have to form a new real estate investment trust with them.”

(End of this chapter)