Case Study

This case study is an excellent example of how different types of parties can be brought together in a large scale transaction and how the original energy of those early meetings can be lost over time. I imagine that when Anthony Athanas was purchasing those old piers back in the 1960s many, if not all, of his colleagues, friends, and family members told him that he was off his rocker. I’m sure Athanas was looking at this land as his family’s ticket to financial prosperity and somewhat of a legacy that he could leave to his descendants for years and years to come. One of the items I wish the case would have divulged is the amount of money that Athanas had invested in the properties. For me this information would have given an insight to his net worth and how much he had riding on this investment. I assume it was substantial given his actions later in the process. Twenty years later Athanas’ dreams came true and all those naysayers were more than likely green with envy. The amount of pride Athanas’ had in his investment at that moment had to have been insurmountable. Being approached by a big time real estate development company and their extremely wealthy client, Hyatt Corporation, must have made Athanas feel larger than life and made him feel like something he isn’t, which is a developer himself. The case doesn’t give much insight into whether Athanas had any representation or anyone consulting him throughout the process. From the beginning, I saw this as matchup similar to David and Goliath. Athanas was 69 during the early stages of the negotiations which at that time was considered an old man and he had exceeded the life expectancy for someone born during the early 1900s. Given the history of the similar project in New York, Battery Park City, it’s hard to believe that Athanas could have possibly thought this would be a smooth and quick process. The Battery Park City timeline should have given him a glimpse of how onerous the approval system is