Floyd Mayweather’s real estate investments seem exaggerated

Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. won his nickname by collecting more than a billion dollars during an illustrious boxing career and spending big for creative clothes, palatal houses and ultra-expert sports.

More recently, the 48 -year -old retirement champion has sought to resume as a budding business tycoon, with alcohol interests, nutritional supplements, clothing and, increasingly, commercial real estate.

At the end of February, Mayweather announced its biggest agreement to date, the purchase of a sprawling portfolio of 62 rental buildings in Upper Manhattan.

“All the buildings belong to me, I have no partner,” proclaimed Mayweather in a video published on his Instagram account which also included a slideshow of him with certain buildings. “And all the retail trade below, on my buildings, all belong to me. Guess what? You can do the same. It is a question of making power movements.”

Mayweather posted that his real estate investment company, Vada Properties, paid $ 402 million for properties.

However, the daring claims of the boxer do not seem to correspond to reality. One month after Mayweather’s announcement, none of the buildings has changed hands, according to New York property files, which are generally updated in the days following a sale, several experts said. An agreement to sell the properties in Mayweather does not seem imminent.

The NYC Housing Partnership, a non-profit group which is a partner in the majority of properties to help them qualify for tax lounges and subsidies and preserve the affordability of the portfolio apartments, said a spokesperson that he had not been alerted.

“The housing partnership has not been advised by any sale, waiting sales or change of property,” said the spokesperson. “Generally, the partnership would be informed of the transfer and would be a party to the transfer. This did not happen.”

A person directly involved in the agreement with Mayweather said that Mayweather had bought a small minority participation in the portfolio, with options to extend this participation over time or acquire buildings in their entirety. It is not clear if Mayweather will exercise these options. The person asked to remain anonymous to talk about a confidential arrangement with Mayweather.

“Floyd Mayweather continues to be a reliable partner and an excellent affordable housing ambassador,” said a spokesperson for Black Spruce Management, the real estate company who owns the majority of portfolio buildings in a statement. “To date, Mayweather has fulfilled all its obligations.”

Meyer Orbach, the director general of the Orbach group, a company that has the remaining handle of portfolio buildings, according to public archives, has not answered several calls and emails.

Asked about the acquisition, Ayal Frist, the CEO of Vada Properties, the Real Estate Company of Mayweather, corrected a man during a telephone call which presented himself as James McNair, a framework involved in Mayweather commercial companies.

The voice of man, however, was clearly different from the existing recordings of McNair.

The person insisted that Mayweather had acquired the portfolio, but refused to discuss the details of the transaction on the file. He said Mayweather had lived in affordable accommodation when he was a child and had been attracted to properties, in part, because they include apartments regulated by the rent.

“He thought it was so cool because: I give back to the community and I make money,” said the person. “And once it clicks in his head, he’s like, I want to buy everything.”

McNair did not respond to calls and SMS.

Mayweather lawyers did not respond to requests for comments.

New York skyscrapers

The agreement is one of the many important real estate investments that Mayweather has praised.

A fortuitous meeting over ten years ago seems to have helped Mayweather to establish high links in commercial real estate.

During a Knicks match, Mayweather seated next to Jeff Sutton, a large owner of the retail space in Manhattan, and Andrew Mathias, who was then a senior manager of the large sales owner SL Green. The men struck and developed a friendship, according to two people who were present at this introduction. The two ended up Mayweather advice on real estate investments.

In an interview with Podcast in 2022, Mayweather said that during his boxing career, with the help of his former manager Al Haymon and “My Jewish friends and my white friends”, he initially invested $ 5 million in commercial real estate and began to bring $ 50,000 per month – an impressive 12% return.

He suggested during this interview that he had held a participation in One Vanderbilt, a Manhattan office tower 1,400 feet high controlled by SL Green.

“I am part of this project,” said Mayweather, who is wrongly adding that the skyscraper is “the highest building in New York”.

The man who spoke with Business Insider claiming to be James McNair said that Mayweather had invested $ 88 million in around 20 loans that SL Green had been from the city’s commercial properties. He said the company has lent money in the form of a mezzanine debt, a higher type of interest sometimes used in real estate investments.

“It was a great opportunity for them to earn money for Floyd, for whom they have a lot of respect,” said the person. “And at the same time, it was also a good marketing opportunity for SL Green to be associated with him.”

Alexendra Zarchy, spokesperson for SL Green, said in an email: “We do not start questions about individual investors.”

SL Green has not disclosed investments with Mayweather in public documents. The company, which is public, generally announces important transactions involving the sale of ownership participations in its assets.

During an investor call in December 2014, Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green, presented Mayweather as “someone who was a big fan of the company, probably has actions”, according to a transcription of the call by AlphaSense.

“You are the right team, SL Green,” replied Mayweather.

Mayweather recently said that she had invested an undefeised sum in 601W companies, office owner, according to a report. A call to a 601W senior executive has not been returned.

He announced last year that he had bought a participation in a portfolio of luxury rental apartments belonging to Black Spruce Management and to the Orbach group – The owners of the Uptown Manhattan portfolio.

On his property website, Mayweather lists 1196 Avenue of the Americas among his assets. The property of the building, a three -storey property in the Diamond district of Manhattan, filled with retail tenants in the jewelry sector, was not sold either, according to the property files.

“It hasn’t closed yet,” said the man who claimed to be McNair.

A close friend with a checkered past

Mayweather has credited another leader – one of a less famous past – to have propelled his business career.

“A close friend, Jona Rehnitz, a great guy, a big person, helped me a lot,” said Mayweather in a recent interview on Fox News to promote a new line of sport supplement.

Rechnitz pleaded guilty and witnessed the government in a federal criminal corruption case against Norman Seabrook, then head of the correction agents, a union which represents prison guards in New York.

Rechnitz admitted to having delivered a bridge pot in Seabrook, who then placed $ 20 million in pension money of the correction agents he controlled in a coverage fund managed by a friend of Rechnitz. Nineteen million dollars in funds were then lost in the investment. Rechnitz was sentenced to the Federal Court to pay a return to the Union and reported about $ 1.2 million, according to his lawyer. Seabrook was sentenced in 2019 and sentenced to 58 months in prison. He served less than two years before being released.

Rechnitz’s conviction was canceled in 2023 when a court of appeal concluded that the judge in the case had a conflict of interest. He should be sentenced in June.