Trump, Imelda and New York real estate

I chanced on an article about a Wu Xiaohui. Who is Wu Xiaohui, the chairman of Anbang Insurance and what has he to do with Imelda and the Philippines?

“He is reportedly the grandson in law of Deng Xiaoping, Wu is said to be separated from Deng Xiaoping's granddaughter. Wu is engaged in negotiation with Donald Trump’s closest aide and confidante, his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, married to Trump’s favorite daughter, Ivanka, in a real-estate joint venture to jointly develop a piece of trophy real estate in NYC Manhattan - 666 Park Avenue, NYC.

The Kushners are a prominent Jewish billionaire family known to have amassed a hugh real estate portfolio in NYC. Jared Kushner's father was a convicted felon, went to jail for two years for tax evasion, and was prosecuted by NJ Governor Chris Christie when he was a federal prosecutor.

This is explosive stuff which weaves into the malodorous relationships among China’s privileged red aristocracy-nobility and guanxi politics and how this is raising serious concerns about Donald Trump’s equally malodorous trails as a real estate wheeler-dealer in NYC Manhattan.

The Chinese from Wenzhou, of which Wu Xiaohui is from, are known as “the Jews of China.” They are all over Europe as trans-national migrants and traders.

When a Wenzhou-ren and a NYC Jew get together and start doing business together, watch out. Who will ultimately be the screwer and who is be the screwee? Or will they screw each other?”

What has that got to do with Imelda?

Here it is from my book “The Verdict” which is about her trial in New York. I was spokesman for government.

“But soon, buying real estate in the US would no longer be for personal use, but to build a portfolio of prime properties in Manhattan.

She loved New York’s premier shopping and business district where she indulged her desires for all that money could buy. Among the buildings included in the New York Trial were the Crown Building at 730 Fifth Avenue, The Herald Center at One Herald Square, 40 Wall Street, and 200 Madison Avenue, all in Manhattan.

One of the skyscrapers was once called The Trump Building in the name of the luxury real estate developer Donald Trump.

Imelda was fixated with one building that would aptly symbolize how far she had gone in the world – the Crown Building.

“Next to the Helmsley Building straddling Park Avenue and the Chrysler Building, this building has the best roof in midtown and its gilded ornamentation and nighttime illumination have made it the glittering “crown” of midtown that sits regally in a throne made and framed by its neighboring and looming skyscrapers.

The developer, a philanthropist who made a fortune in zinc and real estate, called the building “The Tower of Trade.” “In the last analysis, whoever will not shop on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street will not shop anywhere,” Heckscher mused.

The developer, whose grandson and namesake was the New York City Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Commissioner in the Lindsay Administration, maintained that his Fifth Avenue corner “will always be the most valuable and coveted.” So why doesn't the building have a great and large lobby at the international center of the world?

The ultimate in New York living is to have a palatial home in an exclusive condominium. But one has to pass the scrutiny of the other residents who decide who they will allow to live in the building. One such exclusive cooperative of apartments was 660 Park Avenue.

Imelda fancied the one owned by the philanthropist Leslie Samuel because it was furnished with a magnificent collection of rare 17th and 18th century English paintings, furniture, and pottery. She wanted to buy the triplex apartment and its contents lock, stock, and barrel but the co-op board members rejected her application for security reasons. It was made known to the residents that Imelda would have bought it at any price to be accepted as a resident of 660 Park Avenue.

The 12-story building had only 11 apartments so each was as sumptuous as a palatial home. It was built in 1927 in Italian Renaissance-style. An article written by Carter B. Horsley tells us why:

Imelda’s obsession for this building was only known to a few. It was not until the trial in New York that the importance of buying into the block became known. The real estate agent testified at the trial that one evening Imelda made an odd request to see the condominium. With her was George Hamilton whom she had brought along to see 660 Park Avenue and impress him that she was buying it.

The building had an interesting history. It has a spectacular maisonnette but it had a separate address – 666 Park Avenue – an address enough to raise eyebrows among superstitious New Yorkers, 666 being said to be the mark of the devil. But I don’t think that posed a problem to those who lived in the exclusive Park Avenue building.

This was not Leslie Samuels’s apartment, but the building and the 666 maisonnette with its history was enough to excite Imelda with the role she wanted to play in New York.

The building’s history symbolized what it means to be wealthy and powerful in New York. The 666 apartment had a provenance worthy of Imelda. It was designed for Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt II: Virginia “Birdie” Graham Fair, daughter of James Graham Fair. Fair was a mining magnate who opened the Comstock Lode of silver in Nevada who later became a US Senator.

It was then sold to Seton Porter, a founder of the National Distillers Corporation and husband of Fredericka V. Berwind, a daughter of a coal magnate.

Imelda would have been in the right company had she been allowed to buy into 660 Park Avenue.  In his book Park Avenue, Street of Dreams, James Trager writes that Mrs. Porter was once called “the most beautiful woman in Philadelphia.”

It would have been the perfect home for Imelda as the most beautiful First Lady of the Philippines. Unfortunately, she was not accepted to buy in to the very exclusive apartment building. Here was another blow to her ego.

Disappointed with the rejection of the tenants of 660 Park Avenue, Imelda would refurbish the Philippine Embassy townhouse on 5th Avenue and make her own 660 Park Avenue. It would be furnished with the Leslie Samuel collection of antiques and paintings. Once it was built and furnished to her taste, she would throw sumptuous dinners there for her friends.