Mr “Goldneck”, a fake “Bentley” and a factory up on Dracula’s hill (Part 1)

Part 1

(to read part 2, click here)

"Another client for a major industrial property to buy? What happened?" I am in Romania since 2004 and there were periods of months when I did not have any request for major industrial projects out of Bucharest. And that moment I found myself having two! My colleagues were ready to kill me, as the papers we received by the owners were… crap. We had plenty of extra work to do, before we would have been able to decide if a property was suitable for what we were searching for. "Mister Ilias, you like to complicate your life" one of them told me. "Not only mine, when we have to work for clients, yours as well" I confirmed…

My "salvation: Mr "Goldneck"

Yes, everything is up for sale nowadays. But do you have any idea about how difficult it is to find 5 serious properties, when you search for something in specific? After having rejected about 25 – 30 cases, we had remained just with 3 interesting offers which we checked and prepared for one of the two clients. And he would come in 2 days, together with his team of experts. While I was wondering where else to search, the phone rang: "Mister Ilias, someone

here says he has exactly what we need". I left my office and almost ran to one of our conference rooms…

I was quite excited but I cooled down immediately. My colleague introduced me to a lovely gentleman. James Bond had to fight with "Goldfinger" back in the '60s and I found in front of me a new collaborator, the… "Goldneck" (or "Goldhand"). He didn't stand up to shake my hand, I guess his 4 – 5 golden necklaces (visible from his shirt with open buttons) were heavy enough and prevented him from many moves. Tall, over 1.80 meters, short cut hair, "American marine soldier" type. dressed with rather dirty clothes, but carrying a jewelry store on him. "I am your salvation" he set the rules of our discussion…

"I have what you need. If you are serious, be fast and take it"

"I beg your pardon?" "You can not hear? Your colleague here told me that you want a property to buy and I have the absolutely perfect one for you". "We need a large surface suitable to construct a new factory, from scratch. We also need utilities, approvals etc". "Relax, relax" he lowered the tone of his voice (probably using a secret ancient technique of hypnotizing…) "I told you I have the perfect property" he repeated and took a piece of paper. Pablo Picasso should not fear of him as opponent painter… he was drawing even worse than me! "This is the new road. This is the intersection. This is our land. Here you have the utilities".

"Why your land does not have opening to this road, but it is redrawn some meters from it?" "It has, it has, you will see. I thought you had the eye of the expert, can't you visualize the big picture?" his voice became again soft. He looked at me in a way that I guess he considers powerful, moving his eyebrows and partially closing his eyes. "I know it from somewhere" I thought. "What is the price here?" "Gold does not have a price. If you have a golden property, you simply take it. If you don't have money, you stay home and watch television".  I was trying to find out more, but I only received verbal guarantees that everything is how we want it to be. Then he stopped the discussion, as all "macho" men would do: "I have what you need. If you are serious, be fast and take it". "We don't suggest properties to clients just like this, I will come to see it before I meet with them and present it".

"I don't do it for money, I am a dealmaker"

Our discussion ended with mutual oaths… I would definitely travel to see the property, while he would definitely send me all the papers we asked (and my colleague submitted the list). He stood up and walked to the door. All the millions of transactions he (said he) had concluded, plus the… kilos of gold carrying on him and the natural "toupee" that many successful business legends have (as he probably reads at "Libertatea" or "Can Can") really exhausted this distinguished gentleman. He was walking like he was incredibly bored, of absolutely everything. Before leaving, he looked deep at my eyes and threatened me: "I don't do it for money, I am a dealmaker by nature. You'd better not lose my time, if you don't have the money guaranteed". "The only guaranteed things in life are dead and Jesus Christ's return, but if the property is what we are searching for, we will do our best to conclude the deal".

My colleague was smiling: "Will you really meet him?" "Why not? I will go to present to the clients the other 3 properties we have. Before they arrive, I will see this one too and if it makes sense and he has all papers with him, I will inform them". "In papers the land looks good". "In papers. We will see also how it looks in reality too…"

Tomorrow the end of the story:

A fake "Bentley"

The "central" location

"The utilities"

The hill of Dracula