(post by Dee) Have you been wondering what happened to Eliot? The disgraced ex-governor of New York, Elliot Spitzer, has found a new gig. Well, sort of… He and his loaded real estate investor dad, Bernard Spitzer, have purchased 420,000 s/f office building in Washington, DC for $180 million. Located at 1615 L Street, the property comes with a $138 million mortgage that Spitzer’s will assume from the previous owner, Broadway Partners. Smart move in a tight mortgage market! Apparently, the deal took a year to materialize because the mortgage had been securitized long ago and Wachovia was only a servicer of 1615 L St at this point. Once the untangling was done, the market was in a downfall. But the lawyer representing Spitzer, Jeff Moerdler from law firm of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo said there was never talk of backing out, even after the market tumbled, even if some estimated the value of the building to perhaps half of the price today. He said: “Bernie Spitzer is from the old school, when he shakes hands he doesn’t play game. He has a long view, it’s now a family business with Eliot involved. He’s not buying buildings that have a three to seven year investment horizon.” Good for him, because unlike slick Bubba Clinton, Spitzer would have had a harder time finding public speaking gigs or charitable roles after his sex adventures.

So the old New York real estate families slowly will come back to the forefront. There is a real prospect of acquiring cheap real estate in the next year or two, and those firms that have cash on hand, and are not heavily leveraged, are rumored to put together game plans to grab some properties. Like in the old days.

Moerdler said that Eliot has thrown himself completely into real estate. And that father and son “are both having a fun time working together”. Good thing, because I don’t think old man Bernie and Client #9 would have been able to enjoy Emperors Club VIP escorts together.