After an extended hiatus spent collecting art, the former Douglas Elliman superbroker turned marketing guru Michael Shvo is back with a new attitude. But in his recent reincarnation as a developer, Shvo is taking a calmer approach to business.
Known in the pre-recession boom days for his slogan “Let’s Shvo,” a sales office he kept open 24 hours a day, and handling more investment properties than he could count, Shvo is now taking it slower, focusing on a few select investments.
“I used to have to work to live. Now, I can live and enjoy the work,” Shvo told the New York Times.
Shvo recently paid a record $23.5 million, or $850 per square foot, for a former Getty gas station in West Chelsea, which he plans to redevelop with a partner. And at 100 Varick Street, a half-acre assemblage between Broome and Watts streets, Shvo is working with Erez Itzhaki of the Keystone Group to develop a 30-story condominium that he hopes will complete more than $800 million in sales. And perhaps most ambitiously, he is putting together a deal for a 100-story tower near Central Park in Midtown, according to the Times.
But while he may be handling fewer deals with more concentration, he has maintained some of his old charisma, telling the Times that “some people say that I’m difficult and my answer to that is that it isn’t about being difficult. It is about perfection. Do something and do it to the fullest, with no flaws, or don’t do it at all.” [NYT] –Christopher Cameron