Mr. Sapir (pronounced suh-PEER), 52, left the Soviet Union in 1973 with a wave of Jewish immigrants. He landed in New York in 1976, where he drove a cab for three years before borrowing $10,000 against his taxi medallion to open a small electronics store. The store, at 200 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron neighborhood, became a wholesale outlet for Soviet diplomats, K.G.B. agents and Politburo members. The contacts Mr. Sapir made in New York proved a boon when the Soviet Union collapsed. By the early 1990's, Mr. Sapir said, he was trading container loads of consumer electronics for multimillion-dollar oil contracts. ''He cultivated people who came to the U.S. looking for a friendly person with whom they could deal,'' said Peter Pettibone, who was a lawyer for the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council, which is defunct. Mr. Sapir emerged on the New York real estate scene in 1994 with a pile of cash, eager to buy in a market devastated by a recession and corporate layoffs. He bought 2 Broadway a year later for $20.5 million. By 1999, the property was worth more than $200 million. ''The guy made some brilliant real estate investments,'' said Darcy Stacom, a real estate broker at Cushman & Wakefield who sold Mr. Sapir four buildings in the mid-1990's. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/09/nyregion/brass-knuckles-over-2-broadway-mta-landlord-are-fighting-it-over-rent.html
История Тамира Сапира из 2000:
Mr. Sapir (pronounced suh-PEER), 52, left the Soviet Union in 1973 with a wave of Jewish immigrants. He landed in New York in 1976, where he drove a cab for three years before borrowing $10,000 against his taxi medallion to open a small electronics store. The store, at 200 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron neighborhood, became a wholesale outlet for Soviet diplomats, K.G.B. agents and Politburo members.
The contacts Mr. Sapir made in New York proved a boon when the Soviet Union collapsed. By the early 1990's, Mr. Sapir said, he was trading container loads of consumer electronics for multimillion-dollar oil contracts.
''He cultivated people who came to the U.S. looking for a friendly person with whom they could deal,'' said Peter Pettibone, who was a lawyer for the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council, which is defunct.
Mr. Sapir emerged on the New York real estate scene in 1994 with a pile of cash, eager to buy in a market devastated by a recession and corporate layoffs. He bought 2 Broadway a year later for $20.5 million. By 1999, the property was worth more than $200 million.
''The guy made some brilliant real estate investments,'' said Darcy Stacom, a real estate broker at Cushman & Wakefield who sold Mr. Sapir four buildings in the mid-1990's.
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/09/nyregion/brass-knuckles-over-2-broadway-mta-landlord-are-fighting-it-over-rent.html
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