In our world we are extremely fortunate to have people that are real long term visionaries. As I mentioned earlier, Elizabeth Stribling is one of them, having seen the potential future of a huge abandoned warehouse building in Brooklyn on the East River well before many others did. This week we lost a great visionary, the creator of CHELSEA MARKET, Irwin Cohen. 

 

To those who have not visited this neighborhood landmark, it is a massive 1.2 million square foot building in West Chelsea near the Meatpacking District of Manhattan that once was a wasteland of abandoned buildings, hookers, drug dealers and some rather fun/crazy nightclubs too. Opened in 1997 well before West Chelsea became a hot neighborhood, it houses a trend setting food court and offices and studios above with the Highline Park cutting through it on the West Side. The entire building was sold in 2018 to GOOGLE for a mere $2.4 billion. 

 

This is just another example of (calculated) risk taking by long term visionaries who take on big projects that help alter the course of entire neighborhoods and cities and the lives of those who live in and visit them. Long term thinking in the real estate sphere is the one common denominator most who have achieved success share.