Whittle School

[Anonymous]

I wish Whittle would hire someone smarter to post on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish I cared enough to show up for the meetings and ask the very same questions. How awkward and nefarious sounding. I’m certain that this ends with unhappy parents and probably some folks in cuffs and stripes. Just not sure if it’s a Ponzi scheme, some kind of foreign intervention, a Chris Whittle self-enrichment gig or, more likely, all of the above. Can’t wait for Alex Gibney to do a documentary.

+1

[Anonymous]

Make that +2. Exactly.

[Anonymous]

If it's a Ponzi scheme, why would they invest so much money on buying the property and building a structure???

[Anonymous]

Did they buy it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That link is interesting but doesn't really address who is financing the $185M in renovation. To be clear, the article puts a valuation of $110M on the real estate but says that Whittle is putting $185M into renovating it (which seems preposterous).

No rational investor seeking financial return is going to put up $185M for a school renovation. It's absurd. Again, near as I can tell, they don't even own the building. So if they don't pay their rent, they lose the money. There is no way that the building landlords ponied up $185M in tenant improvement money.

The money absolutely had to come from someone motivated by something other than a financial return and that has the deepest of deep pockets. Hard to see this as someone other than a nation state or quasi-government investment arm.

The PP’s point about lack of financial motivation is an interesting one.. I also cannot get my head around the math unless the investors / nation state backers / quasi government investment arms care little about financial returns...

Rental rates in the Georgetown area average between $46 and $54 per sq/ft (https://www.squarefoot.com/dc/washington/office-space)! Given the size of the building, that implies well over $30 million a year to the landlord, and that’s before expenses for faculty, staff, electricity, transportation, catering, recreation. It will take a lot of undiscounted tuition paying kids or financial backers who are content to keep pouring money in to to cover those kinds of expenses

Outrageously overpriced things usually can be explained by money laundering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That link is interesting but doesn't really address who is financing the $185M in renovation. To be clear, the article puts a valuation of $110M on the real estate but says that Whittle is putting $185M into renovating it (which seems preposterous).

No rational investor seeking financial return is going to put up $185M for a school renovation. It's absurd. Again, near as I can tell, they don't even own the building. So if they don't pay their rent, they lose the money. There is no way that the building landlords ponied up $185M in tenant improvement money.

The money absolutely had to come from someone motivated by something other than a financial return and that has the deepest of deep pockets. Hard to see this as someone other than a nation state or quasi-government investment arm.

The PP’s point about lack of financial motivation is an interesting one.. I also cannot get my head around the math unless the investors / nation state backers / quasi government investment arms care little about financial returns...

Rental rates in the Georgetown area average between $46 and $54 per sq/ft (https://www.squarefoot.com/dc/washington/office-space)! Given the size of the building, that implies well over $30 million a year to the landlord, and that’s before expenses for faculty, staff, electricity, transportation, catering, recreation. It will take a lot of undiscounted tuition paying kids or financial backers who are content to keep pouring money in to to cover those kinds of expenses

Outrageously overpriced things usually can be explained by money laundering.

Troll

[Anonymous]

It will be interesting when the BASIS money and Whittle money are connected. This is pure conjecture but certainly seems like a Chinese investment strategy to have a toehold in DC schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be interested to learn how they plan to get 2,500 students at that price. Especially if they only have a thousand in the NYC avenues school. What was the planned number there?

500 will be boarding students (I guess from China, and there are plenty of Chinese students looking to come to American school) but 2,000 is still a ton for an unproven expensive school in an area with a ton of school options already.

Ha. All Chinese?? There are kids coming from all over the world. Maybe 1-2 from China right now. They have a school in China already. In 2020 there were about 30 boarding students, which was very cozy and warm. Please stop with the gossip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just learned the school is incorporated in the Cayman Islands! It's like an Enron school.

Have you checked out the tax status of all your favorite brands, even beyond tech companies? [eye roll] It's for profit. Maybe worry about Amazon, Google, Facebook, Walnart, McDonalds, etc. paying living wages and actual corporate taxes before whining about something that is completely normal in international organizations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be interested to learn how they plan to get 2,500 students at that price. Especially if they only have a thousand in the NYC avenues school. What was the planned number there?

500 will be boarding students (I guess from China, and there are plenty of Chinese students looking to come to American school) but 2,000 is still a ton for an unproven expensive school in an area with a ton of school options already.

Ha. All Chinese?? There are kids coming from all over the world. Maybe 1-2 from China right now. They have a school in China already. In 2020 there were about 30 boarding students, which was very cozy and warm. Please stop with the gossip.

That hot gossip is 3 years old, champ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That link is interesting but doesn't really address who is financing the $185M in renovation. To be clear, the article puts a valuation of $110M on the real estate but says that Whittle is putting $185M into renovating it (which seems preposterous).

No rational investor seeking financial return is going to put up $185M for a school renovation. It's absurd. Again, near as I can tell, they don't even own the building. So if they don't pay their rent, they lose the money. There is no way that the building landlords ponied up $185M in tenant improvement money.

The money absolutely had to come from someone motivated by something other than a financial return and that has the deepest of deep pockets. Hard to see this as someone other than a nation state or quasi-government investment arm.

The PP’s point about lack of financial motivation is an interesting one.. I also cannot get my head around the math unless the investors / nation state backers / quasi government investment arms care little about financial returns...

Rental rates in the Georgetown area average between $46 and $54 per sq/ft (https://www.squarefoot.com/dc/washington/office-space)! Given the size of the building, that implies well over $30 million a year to the landlord, and that’s before expenses for faculty, staff, electricity, transportation, catering, recreation. It will take a lot of undiscounted tuition paying kids or financial backers who are content to keep pouring money in to to cover those kinds of expenses

Outrageously overpriced things usually can be explained by money laundering.

Troll

Disagree as much as you want, but ths is in fact usually pretty true. The other option is that executives have set up a scheme to defraud their investors through kick-backs. But certainly there is fraud involved. The only counter argument that this is all above board is the cost that DCPS paid to renovate the Ellington School. However, since it is DCPS fraud, kick-backs and corruption cannot be ruled out there either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That link is interesting but doesn't really address who is financing the $185M in renovation. To be clear, the article puts a valuation of $110M on the real estate but says that Whittle is putting $185M into renovating it (which seems preposterous).

No rational investor seeking financial return is going to put up $185M for a school renovation. It's absurd. Again, near as I can tell, they don't even own the building. So if they don't pay their rent, they lose the money. There is no way that the building landlords ponied up $185M in tenant improvement money.

The money absolutely had to come from someone motivated by something other than a financial return and that has the deepest of deep pockets. Hard to see this as someone other than a nation state or quasi-government investment arm.

The PP’s point about lack of financial motivation is an interesting one.. I also cannot get my head around the math unless the investors / nation state backers / quasi government investment arms care little about financial returns...

Rental rates in the Georgetown area average between $46 and $54 per sq/ft (https://www.squarefoot.com/dc/washington/office-space)! Given the size of the building, that implies well over $30 million a year to the landlord, and that’s before expenses for faculty, staff, electricity, transportation, catering, recreation. It will take a lot of undiscounted tuition paying kids or financial backers who are content to keep pouring money in to to cover those kinds of expenses

Again - eye roll. Washington DC is so provincial and backwards. The least sophisticated and business-minded "capital" I have ever lived in. All businesses program in losses for the first 5 years - at least. Stop with the xenophobia. If you want your kids to survive, they will need to get used to other countries running the show as clearly the domination of the US is over....