Not Without a Sense of Irony

A few days back, I wrote of the UN considering to withhold doing any more business with an Israeli businessman Lev Leviev, because he was busy building housing in the West Bank.

Well, the craziness at the UN hasn't stopped Leviev from going after bigger fish or flashing the cash.

His company, Africa-Israel Investments, bought the old New York Times building (not the new Renzo Piano designed building that two idiots free climbed last week) for $525 million and has been on a buying spree.

Before the paper moved to its Renzo Piano-designed skyscraper on Eighth Avenue, the New York Times called 229 West 43rd Street home for 95 years or so. When the Times moved out, the building was purchased by Lev Leviev's Africa-Israel Investments for a staggering $525 million. The company had been on a landmark buying spree, also picking up Madison Avenue's clocktower and part of the Upper West Side's Apthorp. Unlike those buildings, the Times building is not going condo. In September, following a $175 million gut renovation, the 16-story building will reopen to commercial tenants as the Times Square Building.