Bring on Torre Verre, The Drake and 225 West 57th!
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...-mansions.html
Russian Billionaires Buy in U.S. as Mansions Lure Wealth
By John Gittelsohn and Oshrat Carmiel - Aug 3, 2011 12:29 PM ET .
Roustam Tariko, billionaire owner of Russian Standard Bank and Russian Standard Vodka, completed the most expensive home purchase in Miami Beach since 2006 when he bought a $25.5 million estate on Star Island in April. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Vladislav Doronin, chairman of Moscow-based real estate developer Capital Group, paid $16 million in 2009 for the Star Island home previously owned by Shaquille O’Neal, the now-retired professional basketball player....
“In Russia, it’s a status thing now,” Jorge Uribe, a real estate agent with One Sotheby’s International Realty Inc. in Coral Gables, Florida, said in a telephone interview. “If you’re wealthy and you say you have a place in Miami, it’s like saying back in the old days, ‘I own a place in Ibiza or Monaco.’ It’s a cocktail conversation thing.”