Do Buy Phoenix
Laying the groundwork for Middle Eastern investments in Phoenix
Mayor Phil Gordon seems to think Phoenix is just the place for the wealthy Arab emirate of Dubai to invest.
According to the daily, Dubai officials plan to watch the Super Bowl and meet with local business leaders and elected officials.
The Greater Phoenix Economic Council is hosting a delegation of government and business leaders from Dubai this weekend. The delegation includes Mohammed Bin Ali Alabbar, chairman of real-estate giant Emaar Properties, and Richard Rodriguez, who oversees Emaar’s developments in the United Arab Emirates.
“We would like Dubai’s center of the universe in the United States to be Phoenix,” said Barry Broome, GPEC’s president and CEO.
Dubai is one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, and is moving to expand its investment in the United States.
Gordon visited the United Arab Emirates Embassy during his trip to Washington last month to introduce himself and make the case for Phoenix.
“We need to take advantage of every opportunity and not blink,” Gordon said. “In today’s world, I think that means establishing direct relationships with countries and cities.”
Huh?
According to the International Herald Tribune, Dubai royals have been investing heavily in American trophy properties. For example, Istithmar, the Dubai government’s investment arm, picked up the Helmsley Building, which straddles Park Avenue near Grand Central Terminal, for $740 million in 2005. In 2007, it sold the property to Goldman Sachs and Monday Properties for $1.15 billion.
“There’s no question that off-shore investors buy what they know - they want a postcard they can bring home,” said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics, a New York real estate research company.
“What if the Chinese start buying hard assets instead of T-bills?” Fasulo wondered aloud, referring to U.S. Treasury bills.
February 3, 2008 at 5:26 pm
What insanity! Phil Gordon says, “We need to take advantage of every opportunity and not blink.” Hey, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m more than ready to blink What’s going on here? Remember the Dubai Ports deal a year or so ago, when President Bush wanted to turn control of all of America’s ports over to this wealthy Arab nation, with close ties to “our friends” the Saudis? The racket raised by US citizens caused him to rethink that foolish plan. Is September 11, 2001 such a hazy memory, that we act like nitwits for a buck? I call this selling Phoenix to the highest bidder, and wining and dining them to ensure its certainty.
February 3, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Have we lost both our minds and our backbone? Phil Gordon is a sellout dope, but what about the rest of us?
February 3, 2008 at 9:04 pm
By bits and pieces, whether selling out to the highest bidder or opening the floodgates to Mexico, we are losing our country.
February 3, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Phil Gordon is going to sell us out–one way or another, Elizabeth.
February 4, 2008 at 4:24 am
As George Will said in his column yesterday, foreign investments like this are a great idea. Kudos to Mayor Gordon for being so foresighted.
March 6, 2008 at 1:15 am
Find out more about Alabbar and Emaar here - http://www.kippreport.com/personalityuserpagenewcombined.php?id=2
April 27, 2008 at 5:39 am
Every nationality and ethnic group represented here (Dubai) has its reputation. There are jokes about Lebanese women and their plastic surgeons, arrogant Iranians, the boozing British, the difficult Indians—and the Germans, who supposedly haggle over every taxi fare.
June 9, 2008 at 8:06 am
I WORKED FOR ALABBAR FOR 5 YEARS, and recently resigned as CEO of one of his companies.
I have visited Phoenix with him repeatedly, his private aircraft’s tail number is VP-BEN and its a global express registered in the Bahamas so that he can hide the travel bills from Emaars shareholders. Which he also ripped off, to the tune of $400M in a deal in Egypt.
He’s the most arrogant, worst chip-on-the-shoulder, leader you’ll ever meet. For all the responsibility he has, which he wrongly thinks of as power, to get a decision on anything out of him you have to call a battery of far too beautiful to be functional assistants (although I must say that some of them are super hard working) and it will probably take 6-8 months to get an answer. He the kind of guy who skips board meetings to play golf.
Selling anything to this man is like tying yourself to a snail, he can’t decisions, he’s never available, he great at talking the talk but pathetic at walking the walk. He has no respect for people, people in Dubai no longer respect him thats why he’s in places like phoenix. He actually believes what his PR agents publish about him.
About the super-bowl he has no clue what the game is about, he was invited to my house once to watch a game and he arrived early so I could tell him how it works so that when Mr.know-it-all speaks he know’s it all. A great leader listens, after listening, makes up his mind, makes one killer point, gives direction and leaves people to achieve their full potential. Not this guy, he talks doesn’t listen, his points are often fuzzy and incomprehensible, he gives directions not direction, and if it works he takes credit for it. All this guy has is money in cash, but thats not what america is all about, its about ideas, which are always more valuable than all the money in the world. The idea is the capital, the rest is just money. So what’s the big idea Mr.Alabbar? or is it just money your bring?
His son went to college in san diego, he’s obsessed with the number 8, he spends most of his lime between LA and Vegas these days. Definateley the wrong stuff, always happy to take credit for other people’s work.
I got a seven figure settlement so the name here is not real, everything else is.