WOW!
Original valuation and asking price was US$45 million if memory serves me right.
That is quite a discount to the buyers.
This was supposed to be Baninter's new magnificent offices before the bottom fell out, including a rooftop helicopter pad for the big boss.
What about the "Listin Diario" are they ever going to pay up the 100% loan for the purchase they got from Baninter and it is currently being run by Ramoncito's dad?
They should make it a free newspaper since we the people paid for it.
"No peace for the wicked"

I hope you guys brought enough oil to run the "plantas" you no how reliable our electrical service is!

Typical,

The Venezuelan Govt. cant keep up with social spending at home because of the price of oil, but can buy an office building in the DR.---Priceless

G,

I bet if you look deeper the price reduction might be to pay off some of the petrocaribe debt.

Venezuelan got this for free (140 a barrel oil payment). No one will be able to trace where the payment came from or went.

Once again, the only thing Dominicans are transparent about is their corruption.

ain't that the truth!!!!!!

The communists are coming! The communists are coming!! The communists are coming!!!

Josean, you should realllllllly get some piece of ass men, you look like you haven't had any action in years.

Geez, get a freakin' grip.

"some piece of ass men"

Its "man," now you see why EDUCATION is a priority!

Socialism brings huge benefits. Everything including office blocks is half price.
http://www.eturbonews.com/6762/ve....rency-tourists-grab-cheap-dollars
Office block will make excellent HQ for Venez worldwide exploration endeveours.
S.

abc200,

"Socialism brings huge benefits. Everything including office blocks is half price."

Yeah, right! Along with forfeiture of civil rights, dictatorship and general lack of respect from balance of civilized world.
Long live capitalism and free enterprise and the rules of supply and demand. This concept is validated by unquestionable success of most prosperous nations in world. Even communist China has seen it fit to emulate much of this system, and has been materially recompensed for such audacious undertaking.

Throughout the World governments are nationaiising.
http://www.reuters.com/article/ma....News/idAFN2332957920090123?rpc=44
S.

It is a beautiful building that has been empty all these years. I am glad someone bought it.

This will benefit a lot of buisnesses close to it and create some jobs as well.

abc,

Everything is nationalized in China, yet they are having same problems [Sunday 25Jan09 New York Times] and worse as free world, so nationalization is not exactly the answer.

Jander,
I will go along with your optimism for now.

a very smart business decision.we had interest in buying this property in 2006,but offered a lower price.in todays economic climate this is a very smart move in selling the property.honestly,i cant see how this building will be a good investment. the numbers just dont make sense

Yes, big public spending intitiatives are also needed. For example DR could join with Brazil or China to start a space program and build some missiles. Also set up agricultural universities.seperate from general universities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Agricultural_University
S.

abc,

Can't make sense of your last comment. Can't decide as to whether you are being serious or facetious. Hope is latter, for how could a country having problems running a mundane metro aspire to initiate a space program. My God, they can't even afford a radar system to detect and interdict drug smugglers!

texasshoe
Are there any real investigative reporters out there?
I have to agree with 2001DUCK and this whole purchase seems fishy to me.
But they also said that they rented the building to Sol de seguros and the rest to Orange Telecom.
Somebody investigate the purchasers, they say they are a major Venezuelan bank.
The name of the buyer is David Frías, from Banco Canarias, of Venezuela.
http://www.crmz.com/Report/ReportPreview.asp?BusinessId=9485818

hopefully it is more Cisneros than Chavez

G.

I looked at the Bank and of course there is no mention of the investment in the DR. Which in itself is not unusual since holdings of this nature would normally only appear in year end statement for investors. And it could be that the bank only acted on the behalf of some major investors. Cisneros, while it has the wherewithall to do this, this type of investment is not in line with normal type of investments for the group. http://www.cisneros.com/Home , I also found nothing in canvassing the "in-country" Venezuelan newspapers. At this point it could be just too early to find out who the actual purchaser is. But the selling price for a prime piece of real estate such as this does seem a little suspect.

Tex thanks for your diligence ...keep us posted

Metro seems to have been built in a reasonable time and service has been demonstrated. Space research, in conjunction with another country could be done in the new Cyberpark.
http://www.summitcircuit.com/cyberpark.html
India and China have great pride in their space programs and they are insperational for young people in those countries to 'reach for the stars'.
Maybe a small observatory on Pico Duarte?
Agricultural colleges are important in food production and reaching self-sufficiency - entirely possible in the DR.
S.

a very small observatory .....are you paying wanker

US$37 million !!!!

texasshoe
"La venta de este inmueble se produjo antes de que la Oficina de Custodia de Bienes Incautados traspasara a la Comisión de Liquidación de Baninter".
Sale was made by the central bank before giving up the authority to the Baninter liquidation commission.
Sale is suspect as price for the building in 2004 was US$45 million. Terms of sale are important
since they could have been very generous and accommodating "like an offer that can't be refused". Since the numbers don't make sense to an investor searching for better returns.
Also purchasing bank could be posing as a front for the real investor that wanted to remain anonymous, possibly a political figure in Venezuela and/or Dominican Republic.
This brings up the question of provenance of the moneys, as you know they are many currency restrictions in place in Venezuela for exporting capital.

G.

The board of currency divisas ( CADIVI ) has placed extreme measures in place in Venezuela going back to 2002 and recently tightened them again making it almost impossible to get a purchase of that magnatude done above board by a private investor. Although it could probably be done by a group of investors that are based outside of Venezuela but in the long run it would be a negative cash flow transaction. If they had the dollars in hand to go through a Venezuelan the exchange would be at the official rate and would be compounded by the transfer fees for that size of a transaction from the US (for example) to Venezual to the DR. There are other manners for currency transfers which the government has not shut down and probably can or will not as it would severely isolate the already crippled economy. I will offer the following as an example;

Cont.

You guys ARE investigative reporters. (texashoe and generous).
What is next?
Keep up the good work.

In the Caracas Stock exchange say you buy gold futures or stocks in a company that have foreign investment such as Movistar, Ditech. You then sell your shares or future contracts on the existing home based stock market for the companies (Spain -Movistar, or France-Ditech) your profit or cash out is paid to you in Euros or Dollars in your investment account at the brokerage house of choice and you have in effect skirted the CADIVI requirements. But once again why would you do that only to send the money back to Venezuela? There are banks in operation in Venezuela like Banco Mercantil which have US branches and they are Swiss owned, but transfers between the two are heavily controlled as well. In short, this has the signature of a Venz. government purchase on it and I would bet the price reduction it to reduce the debt owed to Petrocaribe since Venz. has just changed the structure of interest and payment terms to its' members.
Only a thought, not big on conspiracy

texasshoe
Purchasers could have holdings in foreign currencies out of Venezuela like some groups
that have interests globally such as the Cisneros, Mendozas, and a few others.
The terms of the sale have to be disclosed as they are the key to unravelling the mystery surrounding this sale.
No investor in his right mind would pay $37 million US dollars up front for a real estate investment in the DR that has been sitting vacant with no takers for 5 years, unless:
1. He got a sweet deal with soft financing.
2. Money comes from dubious sources and needed dry cleaning. Which would be extremely hard to believe since the sale is conducted by the central bank, one of the country's most reputable institutions.
3. As you suggested building was given to Venezuela as payment to the Petro Caribe debt. Or something
related to that debt that we don't have all the details.

If the numbers don't make sense as far as investment versus projected rental income then sale is questionable.

2001Duck has it right, it wasn't such a great buy considering the markets today.

Glad they bought it and it is back on the tax and rent rolls maybe! Lets see how the corruption shakes out first.

One more thing it was reported that a few floors (4) have already some takers for them.
Renting four floors out of twenty one available and having the others vacant in a stressed office space market in the city brings up more questions as well.
The public just needs more transparency instead of being spoon fed partial information that could very well turn into an iceberg and create another tsunami of doubts for the government's credibility.

People who live in glass houses ( or towers ) should not throw stones - you need to feed the office zombies.
S.

G.,

Could be, but for me it does not add up. Cisneros (Venevision, media, and others), the Mendozas are huge beverage and food manufactures (Grupo Polar, Mavesa, they bottle for Coke AND Pepsi). To choose between the two it would have to be Cisneros since he is global and has holdings in other countries and ease of cash access but like I stated earlier it does not fit into his companies portfolio, ( of course I could be totally wrong).

Like you mention a sweet deal with soft finiancing but 37 million is still a lot of cash. I am sure there are lots of weathly Venezuelans outside of Venz. that may or may not want to invest in office property but with most of them having their in country assets frozen would they want to spend that kind of capitol at this point and time?

G.

While not an expert in office space rental, I have rented my share. From speaking to people in the business it is a fairly dog eat dog type of business and margins of profit are not very wide and there are huge maintenance issues as well as communal lighting bills and groundskeeping that are an ongoing drain on the ROI. Four rented floors probably does not even pay for security services when all of the other expenses are taken into account.

jus reckons education is important - so do I hence discussion. Some floors, if not in use could be converted to a multi cropping vertical farm.
http://www.verticalfarm.com/
S.

World economy will boom once the US McMansions are all repossessed demolished/converted and many American leave for friendlier climes. This is a very astute investment with perfect timing.
Many World corporations such as the French Orange ( France Telecom ) will find the cost of doing business in the DR attractive and the time difference to major markets not great. SD is now a major city in the region with a Metro. The French like metros - they have the only unmanned metro trains in the World!
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime
S..

Note: Banco Canarias is not the Venezuelan State..is not Hugo Chavez. For some reason "pundits" on both sides of some arguement that I am not even sure what is seem to confuse Venezuelan investors, business people, money, or what have you with Hugo Chavez.

Maldito,

If you have read the posts, I never stated or equated the firm Banco Canarias with the State of Venezuela or with Chavez. The theme is that with such strict monetary controls placed upon the banking industry by the government no one individual could have the authority to have that kind of funds released without knowledge and permission of the Govt. or that the government of Venezuela purchased the building by utilizing the bank at a reduced price to negate some of the debt the DR has in PetroCaribe.

MalditoGringo
If you are not "even sure what is", you need to concentrate better on what you read before posting such "confused" thoughts.

glomarexplorer offers us that socialism brings in its luggage "dictatorship". would glomar care to give us a list of scandinavian dictators?

Dreads,
"Communism was originally envisioned by Marx and Engels as the last stages of their socialist revolution" [http://www.romm.org/soc_com.html].
There really is a very thin line between socialism and communism [dictatorship!]. I guess if you look at life from the DR perspective, particularly in light of the gov't you enjoy, anything would be preferable. But I hardly think that the Scandinavian example is one we would like to emulate, especially a free market capitalist like me. They have a failed system with people languishing around "just having enough" and paying nearly 50 % of income in taxes-those who work!
Man, life without ambition and accomplishments just isn't worth living........long live capitalism and free market economics!

glomar, please. be careful when you equate communism with dictatorship. one is an economic process (communism), the other is a system of government (dictatorship). your portrayal is that they are mutually exclusive, as a matter of econo-political theory. how then do you explain dictators in capitalist states, such as the Duvaliers? and, are you asserting that people in communist states have no ambition, and accomplish nothing? am i to extract from your postulate that cubans have no ambition, and have accomplished nothing in the last 50 years? i have no quarrel with your admiration for the "free market"; now, will you explain it to me?

by the way, scandinavia has people just languishing around? what about the millions of americans languishing around with no job, no house, no health care, and no employment on the horizon?

Dreads,

"how then do you explain dictators in capitalist states, such as the Duvaliers? "

Haiti a capitalistic state? You just can't be serious! By the way, that is precisely the type of system you could wind up with when populace is unarmed and unable to rise up again a dictatorial and useless gov't.

USSR: "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics". They coined the acronym and meant it, not me.

Dreads,
From Sweeden, authored by leftist economist:
"Sweden's enormous, hidden unemployment rate
How reliable is the official Swedish statistic that 5.4% of Swedes are unemployed? Every single day, one in every 20 employed Swedes is "out sick". That, as bizarre as it sounds, is just the tip of the iceberg: one of Sweden's leading leftist economists has broken through the blue line to tell the truth. True Swedish unemployment is in the range of an obscene 20-25%. So much for the Socialist paradise. Full employment is a pipe dream when you give people incentives not to work, and disincentives to work. "

again, glomar, you are confusing capitalism and democracy. Haiti was , and still is, a capitalist state. if you dismiss that idea, disprove it. it might not be wealthy, but it is capitalist, nonetheless. still is, too. you have to stop confusing communism with dictatorship, and capitalism with democracy. economic arrangements, and government configuration,are two different things.

Dreads,

Fact is that situation in Haiti is undefinable. You probably had something similar to what existed in DR for a long time and still exists now, with gov't owning sugar mills, electric plants and distribution, ports, transportation, etc. Those are aspects more closely associated with socialism than capitalism, as latter has as its fundamental tenets private ownership and free enterprise. Former, on the other hand, champions state control.
Dictatorships can exist in any system ruled by force, where the people are either unwilling or unable to fight it and right it. Period.
One thing for sure, however, communism is inherently dictatorial.

Good topics!

Swedes seem to have it figured out, just lacking serotonin.




http://www.namyth.com/SocialismWORKS!/index.php?sw=Sweden

This income tax, 55% of the Gross National Product, the highest income tax in the world, is also coupled with sales taxes, property taxes, and other excise taxes and tariffs. The Swedish sales tax, a "value added tax", ranges to 22.5% of items sold, on various goods including most foods. The total ownership of public goods by the Swedish government is roughly 64%, closing in on 70%, once you include all these other forms of taxation. That is not including government-owned means of production, which control about a full quarter of Swedish productivity

.

and your point is? what do the citizens get for all this taxation? the government does not just confiscate money, and pocket it. people have free education, health care, wonderful infrastructure, etc. there are no legions of homeless people, who have no safety nets, and no health care. they have that system because they see society as a collective, not an array of economic warriors, all striving to take all. i hope that the economic downturn does not affect you guys; then you will understand what it means to be a victim of muscular capitalism.

I think that glomar hasn't heard about the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile or the one of the military junta in Brazil, dreads, and those two countries are as capitalistic, dog-eat-dog as they come, the former being the world leader on the copper market while the latter is the one on the sugar one.

you see, Mr Lautaro, some people reflexively equate capitalism with democracy, and socialism with dictatorship.

That's a foolish assumption at the best of times. Only people that haven't enough grasp about the world's economic history would fail to realize that, if something, capitalism has been the more dictatorship-friendly system out there, specially when the empires that have paid lip service to democracy (the UK and the US) have, in the practice, operated by Thomas Hobbes' maxim of only allowing democracy to flourish on the imperial homeland while promoting the use of the boots and bayonets on the rest of the world. As Teddy Roosevelt would say "and empire doesn't have friends, but allies, to be discarded and replaced when the time comes" or "talk softly while carrying a big stick".

Mostly with automation there is not enough 'work' to go round. The best idea is to share. Longer hollidays, earlier retirement, shorter working week etc.
S.

wanker you are a loafing socialist with a historic tradition of sitting on your @ss watching other people work

Yes, it's good to watch machines producing things! But DR needs more tourism and other countries should copy France with 7 weeks per year typical hilidays and 35 hour week. So support the march of progress! Not the turds who run Companies and exploit workers!

Texas;

You said it...first post; and I quote "Typical,

The Venezuelan Govt. cant keep up with social spending at home because of the price of oil, but can buy an office building in the DR..."

Vuelvo yo....Canarias Bank is what the article says...NOT "Venezuelan Govt."

Second, you elude to my very point in your next three or so posts. That exactly where the $$ actually comes from is uncertain. Just because a Dominican newspaper says that the moon is green does not necesarily mean that my dog shits seashells. (although many that contribute to these posts seem to follow that logic...I guess I am just not quite that perceptive.)

Rule of thumb, my friends:

If you saw it first in a Dominican newspaper, and then you saw it translated in DT, take a close look at the "facts" and "data" and feel confident that they are about 95% incorrect.

Maldito
What is your point? Your dog s.its seashells? or the moon is green?

My point is that my dog shits green seashells on the moon....dammit Generoso....can't you read ? lol ;-)

maldito
OK I get it now.

It will prove a good invstment as American businessmen will find good French food too expenisve in the USA whereas tariffs are lower in the DR.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28907462?GT1=43001
Pehaps cheese smuggling will take off with DR as staging post. Must be good for business!
A good socialist occupation assisting French farmers and lovers of cheese in the US!
S.