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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.