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Mohamed Hadid

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For the Iraqi minister, see Mohammed Hadid.

Mohamed Hadid
Born
Mohamed Anwar Hadid

(1948-11-06) November 6, 1948 (age 75)
Nazareth (now Israel)
NationalityPalestinian[1]
Citizenship
  • United States
  • Jordan[2]
Alma mater
OccupationReal estate developer
Years activeLate 1970s – present
Known forDeveloping mansions in Bel Air and Beverly Hills, California
Spouses
  • Mary Butler
    ​
    (div. 1992)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1994; div. 2000)​
PartnerShiva Safai (2014–2019)
Children5, including Gigi and Bella
Websitemohamedhadid.com

Mohamed Anwar Hadid (/həˈdiːd/ hə-DEED; Arabic: محمد أنور حديد; born (1948-11-06)November 6, 1948)[3] is an American real estate developer. He is known for building luxury hotels and mansions, mainly in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles and the city of Beverly Hills, California. He is the father of models Gigi and Bella Hadid.

Early life

Hadid was born into a Palestinian Muslim family[4][5][6] in 1948[7] in Nazareth.[2] He is the son of Anwar Mohamed Hadid (1918[8]–1989[9]) and his wife Khairiah Hadid (née Daher; 1925–2008),[10] and has two brothers and five sisters.[9] Through his mother, Hadid claims descent from Dahir al-Umar, an 18th-century Arab ruler of northern Palestine.[11][12]

Due to the 1947–1949 Palestine War, Hadid and his family fled to Lebanon as part of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, ultimately settling in Syria. In 1989, Hadid stated his father left because he "did not want the family to live under the Israeli occupation."[13] In 2015, Hadid stated in a post on Instagram: "...[W]e became refugees to Syria and we lost our home in Safad to a Jewish family that we sheltered when they were refugees from Poland on the ship that was sailing from country to country and no one would take them... they were our guest for 2 years till they made us refugees and they kicked us out of our own home."[14]

His father studied at a teachers' college in Jerusalem and attended a university[which?] in Syria to study law, before working in land settlement for the British authorities and teaching English at a teachers' college in Mandatory Palestine. In 1948, the family moved to Syria, and Hadid's father joined the United States Information Agency (USIA) and Voice of America (VOA). Hadid and his family lived in Damascus, Tunisia and Greece before moving to Washington, D.C. when he was 14 years old, as his father had a job at the VOA headquarters there and spent the rest of his career there with VOA and USIA as a writer, editor and translator.[9][11][15]

Hadid graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia, where he was the only Arab student, before attending North Carolina State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[15][16][2]

Career

Among his early ventures was a company that exported equipment to the Middle East.[7][17] He started his career restoring and reselling classic cars in the Georgetown neighbourhood of Washington, D.C., before moving to Greece, where he opened a nightclub on an island, and with the profits, started developing real estate in the United States.[18]

In the 1980s, much of his financial clout came from the SAAR Foundation, a Herndon-based foundation with Saudi roots. The foundation was a 50–50 partner in many of Hadid's ventures.[17] In the late 1980s, he faced at least 30 lawsuits from creditors and banks claiming he had not fulfilled various financial obligations.[19] He paid $150 million for the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Washington and New York. He also converted a Houston hotel into a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and developed a Ritz-Carlton resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. He outmaneuvered Donald Trump, paying $42.9 million for several choice parcels in Aspen and announcing plans for a 292-room Ritz resort.[17][19]

In 1992, a settlement was reached in a lawsuit by Riggs Bank against Columbia First Bank Chairman Melvin Lenkin, a Hadid partner in a Washington, D.C., construction project that involved a loan on which Hadid defaulted. Following the settlement Hadid closed his local office, lost his McLean home to foreclosure, and left the Washington area.[20]

He developed Le Belvedere, a mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles,[21] that sold for $50 million in 2010. In 2012, he developed The Crescent Palace, a 48,000-square-foot home on an acre plot next door to the Beverly Hills Hotel, which he listed for sale at $58 million.[22]

Estate on Strada Vecchia Road

Shortly after Hadid received approval for the construction of a mansion in Bel Air, the Bel Air Homeowners Alliance, chaired by Fred Rosen, was formed to oppose it.[21] In January 2015, Nancy Walton Laurie, an heiress to the Walmart fortune and a Bel Air resident, filed a lawsuit through her company, LW Partnership, against Hadid.[23] Laurie accused Hadid of damaging the roots of a eucalyptus tree on her property with a retaining wall he built next to her house.[23]

In December 2015, the Los Angeles city council voted to pursue criminal charges over a claim that Hadid violated local zoning laws. The council alleged he built his house contrary to multiple planning orders and made it twice the permitted size.[24][25] In May 2017, Hadid pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges stemming from mansion-construction issues for which he did not receive city approval, and was sentenced that July to community service and fines.[26][27]

In July 2017, he was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, summoned to return $14,191 to the City of Los Angeles in damages, and fined $3,000.[28] He was also given a three-year probation period to ensure the property would comply with existing regulations, or he would face a 180-day jail sentence.[28]

A 2018 civil lawsuit filed by multiple neighbors resulted in Hadid being made to pay a reward of $3 million. In 2019, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Craig D. Karlan ordered the demolition of the 30,000 sq ft (2,800 m2) structure, declaring that it put neighbors at, "legitimate risk of suffering damage and harm to their home." The property was offloaded by Hadid in an auction, with the winning bidder paying $5 million.[29]

Athletic career

Hadid competed in the demonstration sport of speed skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics, representing Jordan. He was 43 years old at the time. Hadid was encouraged to participate by his friend, Austrian Olympic skier Franz Weber. Hadid was the only member of the Jordanian delegation,[2] and remains the only person to have represented Jordan in the Winter Olympics.[30][31]

Television appearances

Hadid has appeared on the TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, as the ex-husband of Yolanda Hadid.[22] He has also appeared on Shahs of Sunset,[21] and Second Wives Club on E! with his fiancée Shiva Safai in 2017.[32]

Personal life

Hadid's first marriage was with Mary Butler, with whom he had two daughters, Alana Hadid and Marielle Hadid. He and Butler ended their marriage in 1992.[33][34]

From 1994 until their divorce in 2000, he was married to the Dutch model Yolanda Hadid, née Van den Herik.[35] They had three children, who all became models: Gigi (born 1995), Bella (born 1996),[34] and Anwar (born 1999).[36]

In 2014, Hadid was engaged to Shiva Safai, a model and businesswoman. She was born in Iran and raised in Norway, and at age 19, moved to Los Angeles with her family.[37] Safai, who is 33 years his junior, began to appear in E! reality show, Second Wives Club in 2017.[38][39] As of December 2019, Hadid and Safai had split.[40]

Hadid is a dual Jordanian-American citizen.[2] He does not consider himself a devout Muslim but does not drink or smoke and fasts during Ramadan.[12] He has never drunk alcohol, although he does have a 5,000-bottle wine cellar, including some from his own Beverly Hills winery.[18]

References

  1. ^ Hadid sisters donate $1m to Palestinian aid effort,BBC
  2. ^ a b c d e Janofsky, Michael (December 20, 1991). "Olympics; Construction Was Slow, So ..." The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 1, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2016. While it would have been ideal to ski for the United States, his adoptive country, he knew that making its Olympic team would be virtually impossible. Instead, taking advantage of his dual citizenship, he petitioned the Jordan Olympic Committee, and Jordanian officials approved.
  3. ^ "Happy birthday Mohamed Hadid..." Yolanda H. Foster verified Facebook page. November 6, 2013. Archived from the original on January 31, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
  4. ^ "The face that launched a thousand tweets". Al-Jazeera. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.
  5. ^ Palestine Square blog (January 15, 2016). "The Meaning of Gigi Hadid's "Half-Palestinian"-Ness". Institute for Palestine Studies. Archived from the original on August 5, 2016.
  6. ^ "10 world-famous celebs you didn't know were of Arab origin". Al-Arabiya. January 19, 2016. Archived from the original on September 7, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  7. ^ a b Jaffe, Harry (March 1, 1988). "Unmasking the Mysterious Mohamed Hadid". Regardie's. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2015..
  8. ^ "Anwar M. Hadid, in the U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014". Ancestry.com. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
  9. ^ a b c "Col. Homan, Veteran of 3 Wars, Dies". The Washington Post. May 14, 1989. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  10. ^ "Hadid, Khairia". The Washington Post. October 3, 2008. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
  11. ^ a b Tully, Shawn; Blank, J. B. (July 31, 1989). "The Big Moneymen of Palestine Inc". Fortune. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  12. ^ a b "The Radar People Surreal Estate Developer". ANGE – Angelo. Modern Luxury. August 2010. Archived from the original on June 22, 2016. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  13. ^ Walsh, Sharron; Hilzenrath, David (April 24, 1989). "Who is Mohamed Hadid?". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 30, 2023. Hadid was an infant when his family left Palestine. His father, Anwar Hadid, said he did not want the family 'to live under the Israeli occupation.' The parents walked for two nights to reach the Lebanese border -- with Hadid's mother carrying her oldest son. The family finally settled in Damascus, where Anwar Hadid went to work as a translator for Voice of America and traveled widely.
  14. ^ "Not the only 'proud Palestinian' in the family–Gigi Hadid's father details refugee history in Syria". Mondoweiss. December 31, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  15. ^ a b Warren Walsh, Sharon; Hilzenrath, David S. (April 24, 1989). "Who is Mohamed Hadid?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  16. ^ Remsen, Nick (March 29, 2015). "Gigi Hadid's Home: A Multi-Million Dollar Mansion | Style.com/Arabia". Vogue Man Arabia. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  17. ^ a b c Walsh, Sharon Warren; Hilzenrath, David S. "Who is Mohamed Hadid?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  18. ^ a b Farameh, Patrice (July 1, 2008). "Hadid's Modern Masterpiece: Mohamed Hadid". Haute Living. Archived from the original on February 19, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2015. Even though he has never indulged in alcohol in his life, his 5,000-bottle wine cellar is filled with the best French and Californian wines. Not only does his collection consist of a diverse range of premium wines from local vineyards such as Summerland Winery, but it also includes bottles from his very own winery in Beverly Hills.
  19. ^ a b Salmon, Jacqueline L. "Hard Times for Developer Mohamed Hadid". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  20. ^ Hilzenrath, David S. (August 4, 1992). "Riggs Settlement with Lenkin Gives it Cash, Pledge, Building". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  21. ^ a b c Halderman, Peter (December 5, 2014). "In Los Angeles, a Nimby Battle Pits Millionaires vs. Billionaires". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 4, 2015. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  22. ^ a b Brennan, Morgan (June 28, 2012). "Celebrity Developer Mohamed Hadid Asking $58 Million For Crescent Palace". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  23. ^ a b Lopez, Matt (January 23, 2015). "Wal-Mart Heiress Seeks Damages From Bel Air's 901 Strada Vecchia" (PDF). The Beverly Hills Courier. California. pp. 1, 11. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 22, 2015.
  24. ^ Tait, Robert (December 19, 2015). "Bad airs in Bel-Air over house dubbed 'the starship enterprise'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on December 19, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  25. ^ Lopez, Matt (December 1, 2014). "Did 901 Strada Vecchia In Bel-Air Violate Stop Work Order With Weekend Construction Work?". The Beverly Hills Courier. California. Archived from the original on August 13, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  26. ^ Reyes, Emily Alpert; Smith, Dakota (July 20, 2017). "Bel-Air mega-mansion developer Mohamed Hadid sentenced with community service, fines". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 21, 2017. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  27. ^ Reyes, Emily Alpert (May 30, 2017). "Celebrity developer pleads no contest to Bel-Air mega-mansion charges. But what happens to the 30,000-square-foot estate?". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 10, 2017. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  28. ^ a b Lopez, Matt (July 21, 2017). "Hadid Fined, Sentenced To Community Service – But No Jail Time – Over Bel-Air Mansion" (PDF). The Beverly Hills Courier. pp. 1, 19. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  29. ^ Dado, Natasha (February 17, 2022). "Photos Show Demolition of Mohamed Hadid's Controversial Bel-Air Mega-Mansion Underway". People Magazine. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  30. ^ Walsh, Sharon (December 21, 1991). "Snow Folling: Mo Knows Skiing". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 19, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
  31. ^ Rosenfeld, Laura (August 5, 2016). "You're Not Going to Believe Which Bravoleb Was an Olympian". Bravo TV Official Site. Archived from the original on April 27, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
  32. ^ Nolasco, Stephanie (May 4, 2017). "'Second Wives Club' star Shiva Safai talks 33-year age gap with her man, dishes on Gigi and Bella Hadid". Fox News. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  33. ^ Romano, Lois (May 21, 1992). "The reliable source". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  34. ^ a b Watson, Sheridan (October 14, 2014). "The Foster-Hadids Are The Best Family On Earth". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  35. ^ Corriston, Michele (February 17, 2016). "Yolanda Drops 'Foster' as Divorce Proceeds, Takes Ex-Husband's Name Again". People. Archived from the original on February 18, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  36. ^ Frank, Julia (September 25, 2015). "Gigi and Bella Hadid's younger brother Anwar is a model too". Vogue. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2016. 16-year-old Anwar Hadid...
  37. ^ "Interview and Photoshoot with Shiva Safai". NaludaMagazine.com. January 1, 2015. Archived from the original on January 23, 2016. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  38. ^ "Shiva Safai from Second Wives Club: Meet the Cast". E! News. n.d. Archived from the original on March 30, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2017.
  39. ^ Nolasco, Stephanie (May 4, 2017). "'Second Wives Club' star Shiva Safai talks 33-year age gap with her man, dishes on Gigi and Bella Hadid". Fox News. Archived from the original on June 15, 2017. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  40. ^ Sahadeo, Andy (December 3, 2019). "Shiva Safai confirms split from Mohamed Hadid as she shares photo with new boyfriend". Fox News. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
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