Wall St bonuses to impact real estate market
Unbelieva-bull spending spree
BY ELIZABETH LAZAROWITZ
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
The extraordinarily huge bonuses being paid across Wall Street won't just benefit top investment bankers and traders - the entire city will enjoy a payday.
A day after Goldman Sachs revealed it would be paying their staff $16.5 billion in bonuses, the Daily News visited businesses across the city to gauge the effect of the spend, spend, spend mentality.
"The only time I saw something like [this] was in the 1980s, when the world was insane," said BMW of Manhattan President Jeff Falk.
Wall Streeters - like one over the summer who bought a $90,000 convertible off the showroom floor so he could drive it to the Hamptons that day - are feeling much more comfortable about spending, he said.
The downtown BMW showroom is already buzzing with customers checking out cars in anticipation of the life-changing checks, with other major Wall Street powerhouses expected in the coming days to disclose fabulous payout plans similar to Goldman's.
"You can feel it when things are going well down here," said Sean O'Sullivan, who sells golf equipment in lower Manhattan at The World of Golf. "Guys are traveling and playing a lot of golf."
While customers can get a full set of clubs for as little as $300, O'Sullivan, 41, of Manhattan, has customers willing to pay $3,500 for top of the line clubs from Callaway, Ping or TaylorMade.
And practically a stone's throw across the Hudson River at the swank Bayonne Golf Club, membership applications are flowing in, said club secretary Jim Coady.
Touting itself as accessible from Manhattan by private yacht and helicopter for those who don't want to bother with highway traffic, the club requires a $200,000 deposit and $10,000 in yearly dues.
"There's definitely a benefit from the financial success of Wall Street," Coady said.
While it's easy to be envious, a city resident getting a $25 million bonus can also expect a massive income tax bill. The city tax bite alone would total an estimated $900,000, said city Office of Management and Budget spokesman Raymond Orlando.
With Greg Wilson, Lore Croghan and Phyllis Furman
Huge Wall St. bonuses pay off for whole city
At the Cartier store on Fifth Ave., one Wall Streeter recently snapped up diamond earrings for his wife. Each was a hefty 2%BD-carat stone surrounded by tiny pave diamonds.
"I know she's going to love them," saleswoman Cynthia Fiske said. "They were just stunning."
Their price tag was stunning, as well: $75,000.
Repeat clients are trading up and "buying bigger," she said. "After 9/11, it was really a climb to get back up," said Fiske, who has worked at Cartier for nine years and lives in Manhattan. "It's like the business is back."
Wall Street's gold rush is already paying dividends for high-end New York caterers like Great Performances.
In the past month alone, the chic party producer has been pulling off 20 to 25 parties a week for financial firms, not to mention private events for partners and managers.
One brokerage firm agreed to the hefty price of $450 a head to toast its managers with $200 bottles of wine, a raw bar with clams and oysters, caviar and grass-fed beef. "They're all looking for trendy, elegant and chic," said company President Dean Martinus.
Wall Street's bonanza "is great news for Great Performances and for the industry," the company's CEO, Liz Neumark, said. "We think 2007 will be our strongest year in a long time," with one-third of the business coming from the financial world, Neumark said.
This could finally be the time real estate broker Joseph Bongiovanni has enough cash for a down payment on a Cape Cod cottage he has dreamed of buying for a decade.
Wall Street bonus babies have been pouring into the sales office of the Onyx Chelsea condo development, which he is marketing. One investment banker came to an open house and signed a contract on a $2.65 million penthouse the next day.
Bongiovanni, 41, of Manhattan, doesn't have much time to actually spend his money right now. He's working up to 12-hour days, six or seven days a week. Before the bonus frenzy began, he was putting in eight-hour days, five days a week.
But he's not complaining. Far from it. "Honestly, it is exhilarating," he said.
Mona Vijolan, 27, of Glendale, Queens, tends bar at Nebraska Beef, a Stone St. steakhouse in the shadow of the Goldman Sachs building. Lately, brokers haven't blinked at the $63 price when ordering "The Stockbroker," a hunk of aged prime rib served with a half-pound lobster tail.
"This is the month for bonuses and when the market's been good, our customers are even more generous than usual," said Vijolan, who's married and has a 4-year-old daughter. "This year has been great," she said, adding that $100 tips are commonplace.
BY ELIZABETH LAZAROWITZ
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
The extraordinarily huge bonuses being paid across Wall Street won't just benefit top investment bankers and traders - the entire city will enjoy a payday.
A day after Goldman Sachs revealed it would be paying their staff $16.5 billion in bonuses, the Daily News visited businesses across the city to gauge the effect of the spend, spend, spend mentality.
"The only time I saw something like [this] was in the 1980s, when the world was insane," said BMW of Manhattan President Jeff Falk.
Wall Streeters - like one over the summer who bought a $90,000 convertible off the showroom floor so he could drive it to the Hamptons that day - are feeling much more comfortable about spending, he said.
The downtown BMW showroom is already buzzing with customers checking out cars in anticipation of the life-changing checks, with other major Wall Street powerhouses expected in the coming days to disclose fabulous payout plans similar to Goldman's.
"You can feel it when things are going well down here," said Sean O'Sullivan, who sells golf equipment in lower Manhattan at The World of Golf. "Guys are traveling and playing a lot of golf."
While customers can get a full set of clubs for as little as $300, O'Sullivan, 41, of Manhattan, has customers willing to pay $3,500 for top of the line clubs from Callaway, Ping or TaylorMade.
And practically a stone's throw across the Hudson River at the swank Bayonne Golf Club, membership applications are flowing in, said club secretary Jim Coady.
Touting itself as accessible from Manhattan by private yacht and helicopter for those who don't want to bother with highway traffic, the club requires a $200,000 deposit and $10,000 in yearly dues.
"There's definitely a benefit from the financial success of Wall Street," Coady said.
While it's easy to be envious, a city resident getting a $25 million bonus can also expect a massive income tax bill. The city tax bite alone would total an estimated $900,000, said city Office of Management and Budget spokesman Raymond Orlando.
With Greg Wilson, Lore Croghan and Phyllis Furman
Huge Wall St. bonuses pay off for whole city
At the Cartier store on Fifth Ave., one Wall Streeter recently snapped up diamond earrings for his wife. Each was a hefty 2%BD-carat stone surrounded by tiny pave diamonds.
"I know she's going to love them," saleswoman Cynthia Fiske said. "They were just stunning."
Their price tag was stunning, as well: $75,000.
Repeat clients are trading up and "buying bigger," she said. "After 9/11, it was really a climb to get back up," said Fiske, who has worked at Cartier for nine years and lives in Manhattan. "It's like the business is back."
Wall Street's gold rush is already paying dividends for high-end New York caterers like Great Performances.
In the past month alone, the chic party producer has been pulling off 20 to 25 parties a week for financial firms, not to mention private events for partners and managers.
One brokerage firm agreed to the hefty price of $450 a head to toast its managers with $200 bottles of wine, a raw bar with clams and oysters, caviar and grass-fed beef. "They're all looking for trendy, elegant and chic," said company President Dean Martinus.
Wall Street's bonanza "is great news for Great Performances and for the industry," the company's CEO, Liz Neumark, said. "We think 2007 will be our strongest year in a long time," with one-third of the business coming from the financial world, Neumark said.
This could finally be the time real estate broker Joseph Bongiovanni has enough cash for a down payment on a Cape Cod cottage he has dreamed of buying for a decade.
Wall Street bonus babies have been pouring into the sales office of the Onyx Chelsea condo development, which he is marketing. One investment banker came to an open house and signed a contract on a $2.65 million penthouse the next day.
Bongiovanni, 41, of Manhattan, doesn't have much time to actually spend his money right now. He's working up to 12-hour days, six or seven days a week. Before the bonus frenzy began, he was putting in eight-hour days, five days a week.
But he's not complaining. Far from it. "Honestly, it is exhilarating," he said.
Mona Vijolan, 27, of Glendale, Queens, tends bar at Nebraska Beef, a Stone St. steakhouse in the shadow of the Goldman Sachs building. Lately, brokers haven't blinked at the $63 price when ordering "The Stockbroker," a hunk of aged prime rib served with a half-pound lobster tail.
"This is the month for bonuses and when the market's been good, our customers are even more generous than usual," said Vijolan, who's married and has a 4-year-old daughter. "This year has been great," she said, adding that $100 tips are commonplace.
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