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Geoffrey Palmer (real estate developer)

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Geoff Palmer
Born
Geoffrey Harrison Palmer

(1950-05-11) May 11, 1950 (age 74)
Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Colorado, Boulder, Pepperdine University
OccupationReal estate developer
SpouseAnne Emerich
Children1

Geoffrey Harrison Palmer[1] (born May 11, 1950)[2][3] is an American billionaire real estate developer and major political donor to the Republican Party.

Early life and education

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Palmer is the son of architect and developer Daniel Saxon Palmer, who was born as Dan Weissinger in Budapest, Hungary, in 1920.[4][5] He is of Jewish descent.[6] He was raised in Malibu, California.[7] Palmer attended Santa Monica College before transferring to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he earned a degree in finance.[8] Palmer then earned a juris doctor from Pepperdine School of Law.[8]

Career

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After clerking for a California superior court judge, Palmer decided to pursue real estate development of multifamily housing instead of law as a profession, founding GH Palmer Associates in 1978.[8] Palmer opened his first major development in Santa Clarita, California in 1985.[7] During the 1990s, Palmer focused on building more than 2000 market-rate housing in downtown Los Angeles and its suburbs.[9]

In 2001, Palmer completed the 632-unit Medici, the first of a series of downtown Italian-inspired apartment blocks situated beside freeways,[10][11] which coincided with a revival of downtown Los Angeles.[12] Other buildings in the "Renaissance Collection" built by Palmer include the Orsini, Visconti, Piero, Da Vinci, and Lorenzo.[11]

In 2006, Palmer applied for the Piero II, a mixed-use project, and requested that the City waive the affordable housing requirements.[13] The City denied the waiver and Palmer sued it (Palmer/Sixth Street Properties LP v. City of Los Angeles), claiming the City's affordable housing zoning requirements in the Central City West specific plan violated the Costa-Hawkins Act.[14] In 2009, the California Court of Appeal ruled that "as applied to Palmer's proposed project, the affordable housing ordinance conflicts with and is preempted by the vacancy decontrol provisions of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act."[14]

The City later sued Palmer for negligence after another development, the Da Vinci, intentionally set fire by an arsonist currently in jail, damaged the adjacent freeway and a nearby city government building, eventually settling the case for $400,000.[15]

Palmer's most recent building, Broadway Palace Apartments, was completed in early 2017. Broadway Palace Apartments is designed in the Beaux-Arts style with a plaster and cast concrete ground level and top story, separated from the terracotta brick middle stories by string courses[clarification needed], moldings and changes in materials. Notable features include arched openings along the top story, dentils, brackets, pilasters and capitals. The facade fenestration and articulation resembles the historic 1920s-era buildings located on Broadway but different enough to appear new.

Palmer has clashed with local government officials and activists, in part due to criticism of the style of his apartment buildings.[11][16] Councilman Ed Reyes also criticized Palmer for the accidental destruction of an 1887 Victorian-style building.[11] In 2015, Eddie Kim of the Los Angeles Downtown News described Palmer as both the "most prolific" and "most controversial" developer in downtown Los Angeles.[17]

Palmer, a strong opponent of mandatory affordable housing requirements for real estate development, appears in the Paradise Papers in connection with a Bermuda offshore company to hold the registration for his private jet, which is done for security and maintenance reasons, yet he still pays the required California assesses property taxes on aircraft, which Bermuda does not.[18]

Palmer is worth an estimated US$3 billion.[19]

Political activities

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In 1991, Palmer paid an administrative $30,000 fine after being accused of money-laundering campaign contributions in order to prevent the incorporation of Santa Clarita.[7] Palmer donated $500,000 to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, and $2 million to Rebuilding America Now political action committee (PAC) during Donald Trump's presidential campaign.[7] Palmer has also donated to American Crossroads, the Republican National Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee.[7] GH Palmer & Associates contributed $5,005,400 to the 2016 Trump campaign.[20] On September 17, 2019, Palmer hosted a fundraiser with President Trump at Palmer's home.[21]

In 2020, Palmer was selected by President Trump to participate in the Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups. Palmer was a major financier of the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, contributing $1.2 million to the campaign to recall Gavin Newsom and supporting radio host Larry Elder to replace him.[22][23]

Personal life

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Palmer is married to Anne Emerich, who was born in Paris, and they have a son.[24][25] In 2016, Palmer and his family were living in Burton E. Green's former residence in Beverly Hills, California, with another property in Saint-Tropez, France.[24] Palmer plays competitive polo.[26]

Philanthropy

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He is a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He is a contributor to the Pepperdine School of Law and has endowed The Geoffrey H. Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ "Geoffrey Harrison Palmer Profile | Beverly Hills, CA Lawyer | Martindale.com". www.martindale.com.
  2. ^ "Arson at Geoffrey Palmer's Da Vinci apartments in Los Angeles, California : Indybay". September 29, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-09-29.
  3. ^ "Geoffrey Harrison Palmer, Born 05/11/1950 in California | CaliforniaBirthIndex.org". www.californiabirthindex.org.
  4. ^ Artsy, Avishay (17 February 2016). "How architect William Krisel built a desert oasis". KRCW. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  5. ^ Noland, Claire (29 January 2007). "Dan Saxon Palmer, 86; architect of 1950s' Modernist tract homes". LA Times. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  6. ^ Dreier, Peter (September 19, 2016). "Trump Mega-Donor Geoff Palmer Is Also LA's Most Controversial Developer". The American Prospect. The elder Palmer was born Dan Weissinger in Hungary in 1920, but gave himself a more WASPish-sounding name, apparently to avoid the stigma of being identified as Jewish.
  7. ^ a b c d e Tinoco, Matt (4 August 2016). "Trump's Los Angeles Money Man". Politico. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  8. ^ a b c Gibson, Rick (Spring 2006). "Los Angeles Renaissance" (PDF). Pepperdine People. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  9. ^ "Court Rules L.A. Inclusionary Housing Mandate Violates State Law". www.cp-dr.com.
  10. ^ Newman, Morris (4 June 2000). "Apartments, Finally, for Downtown Los Angeles". New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  11. ^ a b c d Zahniser, David; Vincent, Roger (8 December 2014). "Geoffrey Palmer seen as both downtown L.A. trailblazer, steamroller". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  12. ^ Anderton, Frances (25 January 2001). "Swank Plans In Skid Row Los Angeles". New York Times. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  13. ^ CP&DR. "Court Rules L.A. Inclusionary Housing Mandate Violates State Law". www.cp-dr.com. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  14. ^ a b "FindLaw's California Court of Appeal case and opinions". Findlaw. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  15. ^ Bianca Barragan (June 6, 2017). "City settles suit with developer Geoff Palmer over burned DaVinci complex for $400K: Hundreds of fire department windows shattered and the heat-melted city computers". Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  16. ^ Adrian Glick Kudler (November 25, 2014). "7 Awful Stories About the Man Destroying Downtown LA". Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  17. ^ Kim, Eddie (23 October 2015). "Geoff Palmer Speaks Out". Los Angeles Downtown News. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  18. ^ Geoffrey Palmer's Offshore Story, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 5 November 2017
  19. ^ Carroll, Rory (July 22, 2016). "Meet Donald Trump's biggest donor (he also loves to build walls)". The Guardian. Retrieved August 22, 2016. Palmer, estimated to be worth $3bn, is not well known in donor circles and has not previously made donations of that size, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the donation.
  20. ^ A 501tax-exempt, OpenSecrets; NW, charitable organization 1300 L. St; Washington, Suite 200; info, DC 20005 telelphone857-0044. "Top Contributors, federal election data for Donald Trump, 2016 cycle". OpenSecrets.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ "Geoff Palmer Hosting Trump Reelection Fundraiser Beverly Hills Home". 17 September 2019.
  22. ^ Christopher, Ben (May 26, 2021). "Who's bankrolling the Newsom recall campaigns?". CalMatters.
  23. ^ Choma, Russ (August 27, 2021). "Who's Funding the California Recall Fight? It's Not the People". Mother Jones.
  24. ^ a b Haldeman, Peter (March 31, 2005). "Affinity for Opulence: Paying Tribute to a Founder of Beverly Hills With a Remake of His Former Estate". Architectural Digest. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
  25. ^ "LACMA Appoints Nicole Avant, Anne Emerich Palmer, Ryan Seacrest, and Ann Ziff to Its Board of Trustees" (PDF). Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  26. ^ Stovall, Susan (August 2010). "Polo on the French Riviera @ St. Tropez Polo Club". Polozone.com. Retrieved August 22, 2016. From California Geoff Palmer had his Antelope shirts on his team with another winter California player, Caroline Anier(2), and Martin Garrahan(7) and Fati Reynot (6) rounding out his team. Both in the International Cup and the Open de Gassin, Geoff Palmer was the leading amateur scorer – one game making 7 goals. Fergus Gould, another Southern California import, is the head umpire for the season.
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