Antares downfall: how a real estate empire crashed and burned - Connecticut POST
They bought up real estate in Greenwich and Stamford like they were playing Monopoly.
They built backcountry spec houses the size of big-box stores, sat behind home plate at Yankee Stadium, and partied like rock stars with black metal American Express cards.
But Antares Investment Partners had a darker side. The same alpha male executives who loved the trappings of superwealth also risked hundreds of millions in investors' money on overleveraged, underperforming deals and tapped financiers who lined up to provide cash, never looking closely enough to see the cracks in the high-flying company's facade.
"I said to myself, 'This is going to end badly,'" said Matthew Allen, 37, an asset manager who worked for Antares from September 2006 until he was laid off in October 2007.....
.....Said Frank Farricker, a Greenwich real estate broker and member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, "It's a freakin' disaster." In the eye of the storm were James Cabrera and Joseph Beninati, the firm's founding partners, whose mercurial rise to success, insatiable appetite for real estate, oft-described "cowboy" attitude and penchant for the good life rubbed many they encountered the wrong way...... ...."The money was just too easy," said Charles Mallory, managing general partner of Stamford-based Clearview Investment Management and majority owner of the Delamar Greenwich Harbor hotel...
08/01/09 - 08/11/09 Blogger Chris Fountain discovers that Greenwich Time Reporter Niel Vidgor lacks the journalistic balls to report the truth
Central Middle School students who get sent to the principal's office when classes resume on Sept. 2 will encounter a different face. Carol Walsh, who recently gave school officials notice that she Read More »
Orchestra to play at Wednesday concert The Wednesday Night Concert Series concludes with the Bob Button Orchestra performing from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park. Read More »
Through the first six months of this year, the state's housing market was about 20 percent smaller than last year's, as sales and prices continued to lag 2008. Read More »
Scene "¦ Greenwich resident and renowned musician/composer Rob Mathes made a surprise appearance on NBC's "Today Show" with Kathie Lee and Hoda Kotb in honor of Kathie Lee Gifford's 56th Read More »
Quote Of The Week "At 6:45 a.m., I don't see how it's 'pedestrian friendly' to walk in the dark across the Post Road." Gina Marino, an Eastern Middle School parent, expressing her safety concerns Read More »
The town health department is facing challenges in sharing information with the community and recruiting volunteers for vaccination clinics after last month's closure of the Community Health Read More »