Blackstone’s decision to partner with Jansson was like Lloyds of London moving to the US and deciding to go into business with a bankrupt farmer.
黑石集团与詹森合作的决定,就像伦敦的劳埃德银行搬到美国,决定与一个破产的农民做生意一样离奇。
“Sometimes, initially, when we start making investments in a certain location, we will rely on third parties as partners because they may have other clients, too,” Seppala said.
塞帕拉说:“有时候,最初,当我们开始在某个地方进行投资时,我们会依赖第三方作为合作伙伴,因为他们可能也有其他客户。”
Jansson had skills that Blackstone needed. For one, it was looking for old properties that could be renovated.
詹森拥有黑石集团所需的技能。比如,寻找可以翻新的老房子。
Few knew the market better than Jansson. He was unrelenting, with a preference for working 18-hour days.
很少有人比詹森更了解这个市场。他毫不松懈,有每天工作18个小时的偏好。
Yet in a country where people have a deep aversion to anyone who appears to be getting too big for their boots, Jansson made enemies wherever he went.
然而,在一个人们对任何妄自尊大者都深恶痛绝的国家,詹森走到哪里都会树敌。
“I could remember his face from the financial crisis. I was like, what is he doing here?” said one resident in a housing development that Jansson visited when trying to buy it on Blackstone’s behalf.
“我还记得他在金融危机中的样子。我那时就想,他在这里做什么? ” 一个住房开发项目的居民说。当时,詹森代表黑石集团试图收购这个开发项目拜访了他。
Blackstone was not the only investor to have bought and renovated apartments in Copenhagen with the aim of raising the rent. Nor was it the largest.
黑石集团并不是哥本哈根唯一一家为提高租金购买并翻新公寓的投资者。而且也不是最大的投资者。
Measured by the value of its buildings in 2021, it came 23rd on a list of private landlords in Copenhagen’s housing market. (PFA, Denmark’s largest commercial pension fund, took first place.)
以2021年的建筑价值衡量,这家公司在哥本哈根住房市场的私人房东名单中排名第23位。(丹麦最大的商业养老基金PFA排名第一。)
Although it increased the rent on the apartments it renovated, the amount that people paid in old apartments was so low to begin with that these new tenancies were still cheaper than renting an equivalent flat in a new apartment block.
尽管黑石集团提高了翻新公寓的租金,但人们在旧公寓中支付的租金从一开始就很低,以至于这些新租约仍然比在新公寓楼租一套同等公寓便宜。
(Owing to legislation passed in the 90s to encourage new homebuilding, there are fewer regulations governing rental homes built after 1992.)
(由于上世纪90年代通过了鼓励新建住房的立法,针对1992年以后建造的租赁住房的法规较少。)
Even so, Blackstone had two major problems.
即便如此,黑石集团仍面临两个主要问题。
It was an American firm eroding the stock of cheap housing, and it had partnered with a businessman who hurtled through the city like obnoxious startup founder. Certain acquisitions became particularly notorious.
这是一家侵蚀廉价住房存量的美国公司,它的合作伙伴是一位如同可憎的初创公司创始人一样满城跑的商人。某些收购交易变得尤其臭名昭著。
Holckenhus, a fin-de-siecle apartment block originally designed as cheap housing for artists in the centre of town, was dubbed the “crown jewel” of Blackstone’s portfolio.
霍尔肯豪斯是一座具有19世纪末期特征的的公寓楼,最初是为市中心的艺术家设计的廉价住宅,被称为黑石集团系列投资中的“皇冠之珠”。
In the spring of 2019, workmen ripped out the building’s original stained glass windows and replaced its light fittings, giving the effect of a cheap conference centre.
2019年春天,工人们拆除了建筑原有的彩色玻璃窗,更换了灯具,营造出廉价会议中心的效果。
(Blackstone said it had to replace the windows to improve the sustainability of the building.)
(黑石集团表示,为了提高这栋大楼的可持续性,公司不得不更换窗户。)
The company also applied for planning permission to build penthouse flats in artists’ attic studios; in Blackstone-speak, such conversions create “additionality”. (It later cancelled this plan.)
该公司还申请了在艺术家的阁楼工作室建造顶层豪华套间的规划许可; 用黑石集团的话说,这种改建创造了“附加价值”。(该公司后来取消了这一规划。)
Meanwhile, at a block in Vesterbro, an affluent area in the city centre, more than one resident said they had seen workmen employed by 360 North taking away belongings from their shared loft in sacks.
与此同时,在市中心的一个富裕地区,韦斯特布罗的一个街区,不止一名居民表示,他们看到360 North雇佣的工人用麻袋从他们共用的阁楼里拿走财物。
In an email to tenants, 360 North said these items had been “lost”.
在给租户的一封电子邮件中,360 North表示,这些物品已经“丢失”。