John Paulson, who bought Steinway & Sons for $512 million six years ago, is looking to sell it on for $1 billion.
But first, he stripping out some assets, including the 11-acre lot in Queens where pianos used to be made before the manufacture migrated to China.
Read here.
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Can integrity be expected of someone who made his fortune with credit default swaps?
That’s not at all what the article says. What is says is that the pianos are still being built on that site and in Hamburg. The reference to China was as a possible buyer, not a builder. Only part of the facilities, which are not used for building pianos, would be sold to De Niro’s group.
Exactly:
“This land is excess property that was not being used for the production of our pianos,” a Steinway spokesman told The Post. “Steinway has built the world’s finest pianos on this site since the early 1870s and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
The above blogpost needs to be corrected.
The Steinway factory is just a short walk from where I live and the last time I checked it was still in use making pianos. They have also traditionally offered a free – and exhaustive – tour one day during the summer, when the factory is on its summer break. Anyone nearby and/or interested should check out their website for the upcoming tour. You get to see where every part of the piano is fabricated and put together. All construction is by hand and I think the only aspect that isn’t by hand are the digital-aided cutting tools that can measure accurately with more reliability than any human can. As an aside, the entire facility has no air conditioning so that the wood won’t be adversely affected by steep changes in humidity. So, you should dress in cool clothing for the tour.
Not quite free. It’s 20 bucks. But that includes a stainless steel, branded water bottle.
They can probably sacrifice space because sales have dropped so much.
And you believe that?
Hedge Fund owner. Says it all, really.
Sooner or later, Steinway will have to move it’s remaining manufacturing to either a less expensive locale in the US, or move to China. The parcel of real estate it’s sitting on is worth more than the company, and New York desperately needs the land so some developer can build more luxury housing for the 1%.
It could be me, but isn’t John Paulson precisely the sort of person the world could do without,?
It’s not just you. Paulson thinks the pedals on a Steinway are the clutch, brake, and accelerator.
This may be a bit off track of the article, but: buying a new piano – Steinway or otherwise – is just like buying a new car. The value drops like a rock as soon as it is driven off the lot.
Advice to prospective piano buyers: get friendly with a reliable (and I mean RELIABLE) piano technician and, with his/her advice, look around for a good sounding pre-owned piano in good mechanical shape.
There are many of them out there. Steinways, Baldwins, Yamahas, Mason & Hamlins, Bluthners, Bechsteins. You just have to keep looking for the one that suits you.
Get educated about the used piano market and be patient.
Good luck!
What a scumbag.