Photograph Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Every day Beast/Getty
Armed with a large warfare chest from his late father—the pugnacious billionaire Sheldon Solow—Stefan Soloviev is vying to carve his personal identify into the brutal enterprise of New York Metropolis actual property.
This week, Soloviev, 47, publicly touted what is maybe his most audacious gambit: a proposal to nab considered one of three forthcoming on line casino licenses in New York, with a bid that encompasses a ferris wheel, lodge, and four-acre park.
The deliberate web site, close to the United Nations on the east facet of Manhattan, “is one of the best location that anybody in Manhattan has by far,” Soloviev advised The Every day Beast, swaggering the way in which builders do.
Rounding out the pitch, which may safe him a massively profitable stream of playing income, is an enticement for socially minded New Yorkers: a so-called “democracy museum” that can show segments of the Berlin Wall. The museum can be “devoted solely to the promotion of freedom of press, human rights, civil rights, [and] justice,” defined Soloviev Group CEO Michael Hershman, talking by cellphone from the generally repressive nation of Qatar, the place he was attending the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The New York State Gaming Fee wouldn’t touch upon Soloviev’s proposal. One member of the state’s Gaming Facility Location Board, Vicki Been, advised The Every day Beast that purposes haven't formally opened, which means that at this level, Soloviev and his rivals are primarily vying for public consideration.
Proposals from different events, together with in Occasions Sq., Coney Island, and billionaire Stephen Ross’ Hudson Yards, are additionally on the desk, with others absolutely to come back. Bloomberg beforehand reported on the existence of Soloviev’s pitch.
Marc Edelman, an skilled in gaming legislation on the Zicklin Faculty of Enterprise at Baruch Faculty, stated the state’s choice might merely hinge on which internet sites will generate essentially the most tax income. He additionally expressed doubt that neighborhoods close to the U.N. may deal with a large inflow of crowds.
“One may moderately query whether or not putting a on line casino in any a part of Manhattan aside from maybe Occasions Sq. can be creating extra chaos and hurt to the neighborhood than profit,” he stated.
John Wolohan, professor of sports activities legislation at Syracuse College, was barely extra optimistic. Whereas he known as Manhattan a “laborious pitch,” owing partly to excessive land prices, he famous that a on line casino “could possibly be seen as a golden alternative to convey extra individuals to the town” within the wake of the pandemic.
Soloviev inherited his dad’s affinity for creating wealth and shutting offers. “I’ve traded commodities since I used to be a child,” he stated. “I began with forex, moved into metals, and finally discovered my approach into grains.” Later, he traveled to Wichita, Kansas, to purchase grain in the course of the summer time, which he held till winter, when costs had been larger.
At age 17, Soloviev began working along with his dad, at first merely parking automobiles. He enrolled on the College of Rhode Island within the early Nineteen Nineties earlier than transferring nearer to dwelling “to attempt to play faculty soccer at St. John’s.” Whereas there, Soloviev joined the household enterprise full-time.
The household reunion proved short-lived. Soloviev and his father had “a falling out,” he recalled. Soloviev doubled down on his agriculture play, shopping for large swaths of land for as little as $250 per acre in Kansas, and finally in New Mexico, Colorado, and elsewhere. (In 2018, Land Report listed him because the Thirty third-biggest farmland proprietor in America, with greater than 325,000 acres.)
It’s straightforward to think about why the daddy and son clashed. Solow was infamously combative. As soon as, he went to warfare in opposition to a former good friend who had repaid a $7 million mortgage sooner than anticipated, which meant fewer years of curiosity funds for the businessman. Solow took the matter to courtroom. If that weren’t sufficient, he reportedly tried to humiliate his outdated pal by printing advertisements associated to the good friend’s chapter in each The New York Occasions and New York Publish.
A choose described Solow’s conduct on the time as “cheesy, shabby, base, low, malicious, petty, nasty, unsavory,” in line with The Occasions. The billionaire misplaced the battle.
Solow—who at his peak, in 2019, was value $5.2 billion—was “a troublesome cookie,” acknowledged Hershman, who has recognized the household for many years. That was true each in private and enterprise issues. When a tenant would strategy Solow to ask for one thing, Hershman stated, “the primary reply you’d get is ‘no.’”
However over time, Soloviev managed to patch issues up along with his dad, and he returned to the true property dynasty. His father stored a good grip on the crown jewel of his portfolio, the Solow Constructing on West 57th Avenue, whereas Soloviev managed the residential property.
After Solow’s dying, the Soloviev Group remained a household affair. Stefan chairs the board, whereas his sons Quintin and Hayden function government vice chairman and vice chairman, respectively.
Even from his base in New York, Soloviev hasn’t given up his pastoral desires. He travels west roughly each three weeks to work on Crossroads Agriculture, the farming firm he based in 1999 and is constructing into an agriculture big that vegetation, transports, and sells its personal crops.
Within the quick time period, nevertheless, the on line casino pitch is prone to garner extra consideration. For the time being, the Soloviev Group has approval just for a extra standard development plan on the positioning: a 1.2 million square-foot industrial constructing and three residential towers, Soloviev stated.
Talking to The Every day Beast, he downplayed that proposal as simply “extra buildings.” The true alternative, he continued, lies with the huge leisure complicated. Soloviev stated he couldn’t forecast how a lot income the on line casino would usher in, although Hershman claimed the undertaking would create over 2,000 jobs and generate not less than $100 million in new taxes for the town.
It’s an enormous play, one that might assist Soloviev cement a definite public identification, which might be useful now that he’s attracted a number of the identical destructive consideration that shadowed his father. In December, Soloviev and his teenage son misplaced what seemed to be a frivolous lawsuit they filed after the son was allegedly bullied on a faculty journey. (The swimsuit is underneath attraction.)
Quickly after, in January, Insider printed an extended exposé depicting Soloviev as “erratic and hot-tempered,” that includes the memorable anecdote of a nanny descending a laundry chute to keep away from his wrath. (“I’m profitable at all the pieces that I do,” Soloviev advised the outlet, referring to each his private and professional lives. “And if I wasn’t, I'd change.”)
Hershman complimented his boss, describing Soloviev as much more philanthropic than Solow and praising his softer contact with tenants. In April, he famous, the Soloviev Basis introduced a $1 million donation to assist Ukrainians impacted by the warfare.
For his half, Soloviev insisted to The Every day Beast that he has nothing left to show, no want to tell apart himself from his dad.
“For eight years, I didn't take a cent from him,” he stated. “‘I established my very own legacy.”