Michael Shvo, Master of the Fucking Universe

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It was almost three years ago to the day when New York magazine dropped the definitive feature on renegade real estate marketer Michael Shvo, and now—with gossipy accounts of mass employee exoduses turning up in Page Six, and with his eponymous firm nearing a major international expansion— the Observer's Chris Shott dives back into the mind of the madman to figure out the status of the Shvoniverse. No one has personified the Manhattan real estate bubble better than Shvo, with his legendary and lavish development launch parties, and it's these current uncertain times that give the story a waning-days-of-the-empire kind of feel. And, as per anything dealing with Shvo, it's an absolute must-read. The guy still has plenty of enemies, like those who smirk about his inability to sell out buildings:

“You could get a monkey to sell for less money,” said Mr. Gerringer of Douglas Elliman. “Literally, for less dollars per square foot anybody should be able to sell anything related to decent product anywhere in Manhattan south of 96th Street for under $1,000 a foot on average. That shouldn’t be a hard thing to do. But he seems to have a hard time doing it.”

Yes, but would a monkey look as good in a $3,000 suit?
· Gordon Gekko Goes Global [NYO]
· Construction Watch: FiDi's W Has Good Wood [Curbed]
· Shvo Picking Up Beaver's Sloppy Seconds? [Curbed]

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