Company With Qatari Ties May Save Floundering Kushner Flagship Property

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 6: A Kushner Companies logo is visible near an entrance to the Kushner Companies' flagship property 666 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, March 6, 2018 in New York City. Kushner Companies, run b... NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 6: A Kushner Companies logo is visible near an entrance to the Kushner Companies' flagship property 666 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, March 6, 2018 in New York City. Kushner Companies, run by the family of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, has been trying to raise funds for their $1.2 billion dollar mortgage on the building that is due in February 2019. The Kushners bought the property for $1.8 billion in 2006. Many real estate analysts say that they Kushners vastly overpaid for the property. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s family’s financially troubled property, 666 Fifth Avenue in New York, is close to being saved by a Canadian company with direct ties to the Qatari government, according to a Thursday New York Times report.

The company, Brookfield Properties, is heavily invested in by the Qatar Investment Authority, the second largest investor behind Brookfield’s parent company, per the New York Times. If the deal goes through, Brookfield would reportedly take over the leasing and operations of the building, with plans on the docket for aesthetic changes and elevator installation.

The Times report does not disclose any prices being negotiated as part of the deal. The property is financially drowning after the Kushners bought it over a decade ago for $1.8 billion. It is reportedly only producing half of the annual mortgage, and large swaths of the building sit empty.

This deal would not be the first time Kushner Companies flirted with Qatari financial sources to salvage the property—in 2016, the family was reportedly negotiating a deal with a Qatari billionaire as well as Anbang, a Chinese company. That deal fell apart after being torpedoed by criticism about Jared Kushner’s mixing of his personal business and political role.

Per the Times, this new deal could stir up similar concerns, especially in the wake of Kushner’s loss of his security clearance due to the concern that foreign agents could manipulate him through his business interests.

Kushner resigned as chief executive of his family’s company when he joined the White House, but he reportedly still owns large stakes in the company. According to the New York Times, he gave up his stake in the midtown property by selling it into a trust controlled by his mother.

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  1. And miraculously the Qatar blockade by Saudi Arabia and UAE will be lifted right away.

    In Mexico all the thievery by politicians happens on the last year in office of a President, I guess the Trump crew figures that Trump can be kicked out anytime so all the dirty business has to be done ASAP.

  2. They got their kleptocracy in Moscow – as well as Moscow on the Hudson.

  3. Avatar for caltg caltg says:

    Yet another example of PAY TO PLAY!

    And Trump complained that pay to play was something Hillary did and should be locked up for.

  4. The only thing more egregious than the bald-faced thievery of the Trump Crime Family is the willful blindness of the GOP caucus in Congress to this shit. And the only thing worse than the spineless cowardice of the GOP caucus is this story’s headline. A flounder is a fish. A flounder struggling to keep its head above water would be foundering.

  5. More foreign funds funneled to a Trump administration member.

    And another witch found.

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