A collection of Jerusalem properties that boast not just a
steep price tag and spectacular view but a little notoriety will soon be put up
for sale.
They belong to the estate of Guma Aguiar, the Brazilian
multi-millionaire and philanthropist who went missing in June a year ago after
heading out to sea in his motorboat off the coast of Florida. The boat was
later found without any sign of Aguiar, who left behind a tangle of lawsuits
and a family in turmoil.
Among his Jerusalem properties being put on the block are an
Old City apartment overlooking the Western Wall and his main Jerusalem residence
in the neighborhood of Yemin Moshe. While the properties going on sale are
valued in the tens of millions of shekels, they are only asmall portion of the
close to 30 that he owned in Israel's capital. The properties are apparently
being sold in order to cover the debts of Aguiar and family members, which were
revealed after his disappearance.
Under Israeli law, the moment Aguiar was declared a missing
person his property was transferred into the hands of the Justice Ministry’s Administrator
General, which is now guardian of the properties.
The sales are being overseen by attorneys Meir Heller and
Ephraim Abramson, who were appointed a year ago by the Jerusalem District Court
as representatives of the Administrator General.
The most intriguing property is Aguiar's apartment on
Hatamid Street in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter overlooking the Kotel. Aguiar
took pridein this apartment and said he intended to donate it to the Chabad
Lubavitch Hasidic movement to serve as a center for learning. In an interview with
TheMarker, Aguiar said he would not sell the apartment even if he were offered
one billion shekels, but it will fetch less than that.
Anappraiser hired by the
property’s two managers valued the apartment at NIS 15 million. Its 106.5
square meters include a living room, eatingarea, two bedrooms, two bathrooms
and a balcony that faces the Western Wall.
“There has been a great deal of interest in this property,
and we’ve already received many inquiries about it from the realtor offices in Jerusalem,” said Heller. Tours of the apartment will be
offered to prospective buyers in the coming days, he said.
Aguiar's personal residence on Yemin Moshe's Hatikva Street,
opposite the Old City walls, was originally two separate duplex homes. The
house has 430 square meters of floor space spread across three stories.
Its
yard has a jacuzzi and a fish pond. The home's appraised value is NIS 15
million, but it could be redivided and each home sold separately for as much as
NIS 8 million each.
The managers of Aguiar's Israeli estate are also selling two
additional houses he owned in Yemin Moshe, one on Hatikva Street and the other
on Malki Street. Both have generated much interest, primarily by realtors
representing foreign buyers, said Heller. Over the next two weeks thosewith
serious offers will be invited to make their bids.
Brazilian-born, Aguiar grew up in the United States in an
evangelical Christian family. His mother was a Jewish convert to Christianity
and hehimself converted to Judaism in his twenties. Through the company Leor
Energy, which he co-founded with his uncle, Aguiar acquired the biggest stake
in Texas' Deep Bossier, a field with the largest reserves of natural gas found
in the United States in recent years. In 2007 they sold it for $2.55 billion.
In Israel, Aguiar was best known for his investments in the
Jerusalem sports teams Beitar (soccer) and Hapoel (basketball) as well as hisdonations
to many charitable causes. At the same time, he had a reputation for making
eccentric claims, including a plan to build the ThirdTemple. In 2010, he was
forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital after claiming to have traveled to
Gaza to free then captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
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