A fellow local blogger in Plainfield alerted me to a Fortune magazine story from several weeks ago. “The Smoldering Hedge Fund”, a three-month-long investigative story details the troubles of Greenwich, Conn.-based Plainfield Asset Management. What’s this got to do with Rahway?
P & F Management was founded in 2005 as a joint venture of Plainfield Asset Management (PAM) and Glen Fishman of Lakewood-based Fishman Real Estate Enterprises. Fishman is managing partner with Dornoch Holdings, which is owned and operated by P & F Management. Dornoch had multiple projects in the works — The Savoy (photo below), The Westbury — and bought up sever
al other properties downtown for millions at the height of the real estate boom in 2006 with plans for redevelopment. Dornoch also has a project in Plainfield.
Plainfield Asset Management once managed $5 billion but today oversees $3.3 billion, according to Fortune, and “has faced a wave of withdrawal requests, which it contained only by invoking a contract clause and refusing to let investors withdraw money.” Of the $3.3 billion, $2.7 billion represents money from investors who weren’t permitted to leave, and won’t until 2012. As the Fortune story puts it, only $560 million managed by PAM is from people who “actually want the firm to run their money.” The fund continues to charge investors management fees.
Without getting too much further into it, PAM is “fending off suits from borrowers,” according to Fortune, and its “lending practices are now being examined by the New York City’s district attorney.” I encourage you to read the Fortune story in its entirety.
How does this all affect Dornoch’s Rahway projects? It’s unclear exactly but it can’t possibly be good. I’d ask someone at Dornoch but the number to their Hillside offices has been disconnected maybe I’ll pay them a visit. [Feb. 10 UPDATE: Since this original post, I was able to get through on the phone, if only to a maze of voicemail menus and greetings. So apparently the phone is not disconnected.]
Asked about the report in Fortune, Mayor James Kennedy said he never heard of P&F Management and doesn’t know who Fishman’s partners are, while City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said he was aware of a Holland-based hedge fund backing Dornoch.
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It doesn't look good for Dornoch. Once they turn off the phones…Same thing happened with Diversified Communities at Riverwalk.
"Asked about the report in Fortune, Mayor James Kennedy said he never heard of P&F Management and doesn't know who Fishman's partners are …"And if you believe that, let's meet for drinks at KC Jazz and discuss a bridge I might be willing to sell you …
Hey everyone, no need to worry. The steel skeleton has now been inducted into Mayor Kennedy's art program. It represents failure by a mayor after selling out his town. And coming soon to the art program….the broken stairs at the train station.
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Glad my feed reader was able to cache that post before Mark removed it. I'm still not sure how I feel about moderating the posts, no matter how offensive. they may be to some.Sure, we got the hatemongers everywhere who would rather blame certain groups for their own problems, but it does make me feel even better about my decision to leave Rahway. …in favor of a town that isn't anti-swing.
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Anti-swing? Swing music? Swing club?I'm still not sure how I feel about moderating posts either. I'd venture a guess that I can count on both hands how many times I've removed a post in the 2+ years doing this.I'm open to letting most everything slide but it was inappropriate. The comment could have been more, I'll say, eloquent. You didn't have to go all Mel Gibson.
Neither. I was carrying that over from the earlier "eye candy" post – Swings of the playground nature. Great picture by the way – you managed to capture that corridor between Main and River Place parking lot at a moment where no one was urinating on one of the walls.I guess being of the Jewish faith (and probably one of the 6 Jewish families that live(d) in Rahway), I kind of get used to the idea of most people having a strong dislike towards "us people".But it's true…we do own the media.
Mark, how does this latest Dornoch news fit in with the ordinance that was voted on at the last city council meeting, where the city will purchase the Rahway Center Partnership Bldg. from the Partnership in some sort of agreement with Dornoch?
The Partnership had an agreement with Dornoch to have Dornoch buy the property but hasn't paid its share of the mortgage and taxes and so defaulted on said agreement. The city will buy it from RCP, take over the agreement, and essentially put it back on the market.
AGAIN I wouldn't believe a word out of Glen Fishmans mouth if it came notarized. Welcome to the 21st Century Fishman, karma baby.