Arun Bhatia builds castles in the air!
Yes, this New York based developer actually builds large scale luxury homes in the sky. Few people can walk through Manhattan and point to tall skyscrapers and say, “That’s my signature” but Bhatia is the mastermind behind several upscale residential buildings. Along with other buildings that the Arun Bhatia Development Corporation manages, he has built over 20 projects worth over $ 600 million.
The Capri, The Strand, The Dunhill, The Whitney, The Park East, and The Chelsea Regent are some of the multimillion dollar buildings which provide homes to over 2000 people. He has also rehabilitated a landmark residential project in Philadelphia.
The National Association of Home Builders awarded the Strand its Gold Award for the best project of the year in 1989.
His latest development, the condominiums at 139 Wooster Street in SoHo are a synonym for elegant comfort. These condominiums are in the historic cast iron district, and have soaring 11-foot-high ceilings and expansive floor-to-ceiling windows, and feature private outdoor space; the penthouses have rooftop terraces with kitchenettes and a provision for hot tubs.
The building fronts both Wooster Street and West Broadway, and has a tranquil Zen garden. In addition to the residents-only garden, the building also includes a 24-hour doorman/concierge and a fitness studio with state-of-the-art equipment.
The Mumbai native, who came to the US with just $10,000 in 1977, has been building luxury condominiums in New York for over three decades and that’s no surprise – developing homes runs in his blood. He is the son of well-known Bombay developer Ishwar Bhatia who was responsible for a lot of the homes in the city built in newly-independent India. The senior Bhatia was a developer in Karachi in the 1940’s and after partition in 1947, the family had fled to Bombay as refugees and started with practically nothing. The homes that Ishwar Bhatia built were for the middle-class.
Arun remembers going with his father as a child to work sites across Bombay “Every Sunday since the age of four I accompanied my father to the construction sites and once I was 12 or 13, during vacation I used to work with him, watching him in action,” he says. “I was given every kind of responsibility you can think of – from interacting with the laborers to accompanying my father to meet heads of banks.”
“Even though I only got a chance to work with him during summer breaks when I was in college and then I came to the US and did not formally work with him, I think I learnt a lot from him during my formative years,” says Bhatia. “There are things I learnt from my Dad which I still put in practice every day.”
Bhatia, who graduated in civil engineering in Bombay, got a master’s degree in real estate at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His was hands-on training in the school of hard knocks, learning the trade on the job, from scouting for land to dealing with brokers, architects and engineers. He says, “I’m basically like a music conductor, because I’ve to keep all these hundred different people sort of in line, make sure they are all working toward the same goal within the same time frame.”
Competitive pricing and aggressive marketing are his mantras, and many of the condominiums are sold before they hit the market. As he points out there are big risks in the real estate field, especially in an expensive market like New York. He is a one man show and generally does not get involved with other investors for as he points out, “It’s very difficult to run a development project unless one person has the authority. You’re making split second decisions every day and so a project cannot be built by a committee.”
Interestingly, for someone who caters to the wealthy with luxury apartments, he also has a hand in developing high-rise student residences in collaboration with universities. The Capri sold the first 31 floors to Marymount Manhattan College for student housing. The luxury Chelsea Regent accommodates 201 students from The New School. A student dormitory being built for The New School will have 648 beds and has a value of $ 140 million, and another with a 1000 units has a value of $250 million.
Once again, in these two ventures other floors are reserved for luxury apartments for private buyers. He is currently working on the conversion of a 12 storey existing building which he acquired from a hospital and is transforming it into luxury rental apartments. The building is on hip lower east side on 15th street and 2nd Avenue. Half of the proposed 140 apartments have park views and the other half face the landscaped gardens of the building itself in the rear of the building. The building will have its own garage and a resident only Lounge, fitness center and Library/Media room.
The other project which combines dormitories with luxury apartments is in the planning stage on the Upper East Side and the 70’s. It will have two mid rise towers of 14 and 18 stories, with a total of 250 Luxury rental apartments with east river views and amenities like half basketball court, children’s activity centre, endless pool, resident’s lounge with media room and library.
As Bhatia continues to make an imprint in Manhattan’s highly competitive dog eat dog real estate world, he always remembers his father’s principles: Do not borrow more just because people are throwing money at you, because in real estate things go in cycles and you may be in at the wrong end when they want their money back; Your reputation is the most important asset you have, with customers, lenders and contractors; Don’t burn bridges as you may need them to go back to the same people when all other roads are blocked.
Thirty years later Arun Bhatia is still living and working by his father’s philosophy, coupled with his own adventurous nature and persistence. He believes in quality – and his buildings are doing the talking for him. He says, “Yes, there are days when you tell yourself this is a tough business. But the answer is that the rewards are good if you work hard – and if it were easy everyone would do it.”
© Lavina Melwani
