By: Lois Weiss

Investors are continuing their love affair with city office buildings. Whenever a price per foot is reached, there’s always someone from somewhere in the world ready to pay more.

Take 230 Park Avenue, for example. For one reason or another, the prince of Dubai took a shine to the former Helmsley Building, which straddles Park Avenue at 46th Street and is topped with a golden cupola. Therefore, his representative, in the form of Island Capital Group’s Andrew Farkas, approached Robert Bass about selling it, sources said. Bass thought it was a great idea, but decided to hire the Queen of Skyscrapers, Darcy Stacom, and her partner Bill Shanahan of CB Richard Ellis, to market the property widely. The first round of bids came in tightly grouped in the mid-$600 million range, so they went to the second round for best and final offers. By all accounts, the Prince simply dug $705 million out of his oil-rich-emirate’s deep pockets, and beat out all comers. The deal closed in November.

At the very same time, the prince, aka His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, also purchased the Essex House Hotel, dropping a mere $1.2 billion in the city that never sleeps.

Farkas and his Island Capital Group have been advising His Highness for several years. The prince is the creative force behind some of Dubai’s most spectacular real estate projects, since his Maktoum family owns most of the land in and around Dubai, and most residents rent their homes from the family.

But even the prince recognized that not everyone wants to pay cash. So Island Capital helped set up a commercial mortgage-backed securities market in Dubai so that people could buy buildings and/or luxury condominiums and take out loans, and the loans could be sold in the world market. While we here in the States take this all for granted along with our apple pies, there are still many countries that don’t have simple mortgage systems, deeds, or title insurance in place. Farkas formed Island Capital Group after successfully merging Insignia into CB Richard Ellis, creating the largest real estate services firm in the world. About a year ago, Farkas hosted a gathering to introduce the prince and his development company, Nakheel, to developers and investors who might be interested in building in Dubai. Istithmar, a subsidiary of Nakheel, now also owns a quarter of Farkas’s Island Global Yachting; the firm will provide design, development, and management services to all of the Nakheel marina properties and developments in Dubai, and is now expected to create 40,000 boat slips. Istithmar is also an investor in Yacht Haven Grande, the Island Capital Group’s marina facility and world-class development project in St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands.

One of the folks introduced to the price by Farkas was Donald J. Trump, who has since announced he will build 17 towers in Dubai. We expect that within five years, Dubai will become the second (or fifth) home for many world travelers as well as a luxurious playground for the rich, rivaling Monaco and the French Riviera.

All the Dubai projects are unbelievably spectacular. First, the price started re-creating the business sections of the city and has begun construction on Burj Dubai (which means Tower Dubai), an iconic sail-shaped project that could end up as the world’s tallest building. Then he concocted numerous waterfront projects based on a simple idea: If the waterfront is the most expensive property, and you don’t think you have enough of it, just make more.

Remember when Westhampton lost dozens of homes in a nor’easter, and the government sent out a ship to pump sand back to the mainland? Now picture similar ships pumping sand out of the Gulf of Arabia and creating dozens of islands, some of which become so big they can host miles of roadways and hundreds of buildings, including huge skyscrapers.

The islands are being created along two themes, one of which is based on a “palm” design, featuring a main street that serves as a huge “trunk,” and at the end of it, lots of “fronds” of land separated by waterways (which will make it so much easier to pilot my sailboat into a marina in front of my condo or mansion). To ensure that waves created by passing yachts don’t damage or wash away the shoreline, the projects are bolstered by protective crescents of barrier islands. Trump has agreed to construct his first project in the middle of the trunk on the Palm Jumeirah, the smallest of three Palm projects. The 50-story Palm Trump International Hotel & Tower is designed as a tremendous golden lotus. A second building, Trump Plaza & Marina Residences, will be constructed on the portion of the trunk farthest from the shore. The area closest to the mainland, dubbed the Golden Mile, will have over 750 apartments, which are already sold, as well as 220 shops and restaurants. “The Palm has been conceived and built on one premise-that of creating the eighth wonder of the world,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of Nakheel, when he unveiled a design for the bridge connecting the Palm Jumeirah to the mainland. This bridge incorporates statues of the seven ancient wonders of the world into its design. A Japanese company has already been awarded a $390 million contract to create a monorail for Nakheel.

Another Dubai entity, Dubai International Capital, is buying the Doncasters Group, a UK engineering company, from the Royal Bank of Scotland for $1.23 billion. Dubai International, under the state-owned Dubai Holding, also bought Britain’s Tussauds Group, owner of Madame Tussauds, last year. As Dubai’s government is currently stable and its leader very creative, the enormity and scope of the projects is attracting worldwide speculators. We found a two-bedroom unit on the 15th floor of one of the Golden Mile non-Trump buildings already for sale online for $517,000-and it won’t even be ready until the end of this year. There are similar units up for grabs on many other websites. A residency visa comes with a purchase, just in case you want to relocate. Oh, and none of the units appear to have hear, which also makes me wonder if the oil magnates understand what it’s like to live in a freezing apartment during a New England winter. Trump will also be doing development on some of the new artificial Dubai islands in a much larger project known as the World. The World is comprised of 300 small isles of five to 20 acres each, which are further grouped into the shape of the continents of the earth. It is here that Michael Jackson has already allegedly purchased an island (though at press time, that couldn’t be confirmed-it’s not like they have their land records online, like New York City does). As of this past December, Jackson was still holed up in nearby Bahrain, where an additional 13 artificial islands are being created. Call the Durrat Al Bahrain, the flowerlike series of islands billed as the “most perfect pearl” will host hotels, restaurants, shops, and gold courses. Nearby Qatar is also creating a new island, dubbed the Pearl of the Gulf.

Just remember, the Prince of Dubai may be seeking your bucks, but he’s also putting his into New York City real estate.