Mohamed Hadid

Mohamed Anwar Hadid (Arabic: محمد حديد; born 6 November 1948)[5][6] is a Jordanian-American real estate developer of Palestinian origin. He is known for building luxury hotels and mansions, mainly in the Bel Air neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills in Los Angeles County, California.

Mohamed Hadid
Born (1948-11-06) 6 November 1948
CitizenshipJordan[1]
United States[1]
Alma materNorth Carolina State University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
OccupationReal estate developer
Years activeLate 1970s–present
Known forDeveloping mansions in Bel Air and Beverly Hills
Net worthUS $100–200 million[2][3][4]
Spouse(s)Mary Butler (div. 1992)
(m. 1994; div. 2000)
Partner(s)Shiva Safai (2014–2019)
Children5; including Gigi and Bella
Websitehttp://www.mohamedhadid.com/

Early life

Mohamed Anwar Hadid is a Palestinian[7][8][9] born in Nazareth[1] in November 1948 to a Muslim family. He is the son of Anwar Mohamed Hadid (September 15, 1918[10] May 12, 1989[11]) and his wife Khairiah (née Daher; March 15, 1925 October 1, 2008).[12] Through his mother he claims descent from Daher Al Omer, Prince of Nazareth and the Sheik of Galilee.[13][14] Hadid has two brothers and five sisters.[11]

Along with his family, he fled Palestine during the 1948 Palestinian exodus (Nakba). In 2015, Hadid said that "We became refugees to Syria and we lost our home in Safad to a Jewish family that we sheltered... Strange thing. That I and my family would do it again."[15]

His father studied at a Jerusalem teachers' college and attended a university in Syria to study law, before working in land settlement for the British authorities and teaching English at a teachers' college in Mandatory Palestine. In 1948, he moved to Syria and joined the United States Information Agency and the Voice of America. He and his family lived in Damascus, Tunisia, and Greece before moving to Washington, D.C., as Anwar had a job at the VOA headquarters there, when Mohamed was 14, and spent the rest of his career there with VOA and USIA as a writer, editor and translator.[11][13][16]

Hadid attended North Carolina State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1]

Career

Among his early ventures was a company that exported equipment to the Middle East.[6][17] He started his career restoring and reselling classic cars in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., before moving to Greece, where he opened a nightclub on an island, and with the profits, started developing real estate back in the United States.[18]

In the 1980s, much of his financial clout came from the SAAR Foundation, a Herndon-based foundation with Saudi roots. The foundation was a 50–50 partner in many of Hadid's ventures.[17] In the late 1980s, he faced at least 30 lawsuits from creditors and banks claiming he had not fulfilled various financial obligations.[19] He paid $150 million for the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Washington and New York. He also converted a Houston hotel into a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and developed a Ritz-Carlton resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. He outmaneuvered Donald Trump, paid $42.9 million for several choice parcels in Aspen and announced plans for a 292-room Ritz resort.[17][19]

In 1992, a settlement was reached in a lawsuit by Riggs Bank against Columbia First Bank Chairman Melvin Lenkin, a Hadid partner in a Washington, D.C., construction project that involved a loan on which Hadid defaulted. Following the settlement Hadid closed his local office, lost his McLean home to foreclosure, and left the Washington area.[20]

He developed Le Belvedere, a mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles,[21] that sold for $50 million in 2010. In 2012, he developed The Crescent Palace, a 48,000-square-foot home on an acre plot next door to the Beverly Hills Hotel, which he listed for sale at $58 million.[22]

Shortly after Hadid received approval for the construction of a mansion in Bel Air, the Bel Air Homeowners Alliance, chaired by Fred Rosen, was formed to oppose it.[21] In January 2015, Nancy Walton Laurie, an heiress to the Walmart fortune and a Bel Air resident, filed a lawsuit through her company, LW Partnership, against Hadid.[23] Laurie accused Hadid of damaging the roots of a eucalyptus tree on her property with a retaining wall he built next to her house.[23]

In December 2015, the Los Angeles city council voted to pursue criminal charges over a claim that Hadid violated local zoning laws. The council alleged he built his house contrary to multiple planning orders and made it twice the permitted size.[24][25] In May 2017, Hadid pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges stemming from mansion-construction issues for which he did not receive city approval, and was sentenced that July to community service and fines.[26][27]

In July 2017, he was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, summoned to return $14,191 to the City of Los Angeles in damages, and fined $3,000.[28] He was also given a three-year probation period to ensure the property would comply with existing regulations, or he would face a 180-day jail sentence.[28]

Athletic career

Hadid competed in the demonstration sport of speed skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics, representing Jordan. He was 43 years old at the time. Hadid was encouraged to participate by his friend, Austrian Olympic skier Franz Weber. Hadid was the only member of the Jordanian delegation,[1] and remains the only person to have represented Jordan in the Winter Olympics.[29][30]

Television appearances

Hadid has appeared on the TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, as the ex-husband of Yolanda Hadid.[22] He has also appeared on Shahs of Sunset,[21] and Second Wives Club on E! with his fiancée Shiva Safai in 2017.[31]

Personal life

Hadid's first marriage was with Mary Butler, with whom he had two daughters, Alana Hadid and Marielle Hadid. He and Butler ended their marriage in 1992.[32][33]

From 1994 until their divorce in 2000, he was married to the Dutch model Yolanda Hadid, née Van den Herik.[34] They had three children, who all became models: Gigi (born 1995), Bella (born 1996),[33] and Anwar (born 1999).[35]

In 2014, Hadid was engaged to Shiva Safai, a model and businesswoman. She was born in Iran and raised in Norway, and at age 19, moved to Los Angeles with her family.[36] Safai, who is 33 years his junior, began to appear in E! reality show, Second Wives Club in 2017.[37][38] As of December 2019, Hadid and Safai had split, and she was now in a relationship with Niels Houweling.[39]

Hadid is a dual Jordanian-American citizen.[1] He does not consider himself a devout Muslim,[14] but has never drunk alcohol, although he does have a 5,000-bottle wine cellar, including some from his own Beverly Hills winery.[18]

References

  1. Janofsky, Michael (20 December 1991). "Olympics; Construction Was Slow, So . . ". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016. While it would have been ideal to ski for the United States, his adoptive country, he knew that making its Olympic team would be virtually impossible. Instead, taking advantage of his dual citizenship, he petitioned the Jordan Olympic Committee, and Jordanian officials approved.
  2. Corinthios, Aurelie (2015). "Yolanda and David Foster Divorce: What's at Stake?". People. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  3. Gajewski, Ryan (22 January 2013). "Who Is Mohamed Hadid, the Ex-Husband of Real Housewives' Yolanda Foster — And How Much Did She Get in Their Divorce?". Wetpaint. Archived from the original on 18 June 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  4. Siegel, Melissa (11 December 2015). "Gigi Hadid's Father's Net Worth Is Sky High, But Yolanda Foster's Ex, Mohamed, Faces Money Problems And Legal Action (PHOTOS)". Hollywood Take. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  5. "Happy birthday Mohamed Hadid..." Yolanda H. Foster verified Facebook page. 6 November 2013. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  6. Jaffe, Harry (1 March 1988). "Unmasking the Mysterious Mohamed Hadid". Regardie's. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015. Note: Source gives birthplace as "Nazareth, Palestine".
  7. "The face that launched a thousand tweets". Archived from the original on 10 January 2015.
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  10. "Anwar M. Hadid, in the U.S., Social Security Death Index, 19352014". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  11. "Col. Homan, Veteran of 3 Wars, Dies". The Washington Post. 14 May 1989. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  12. "Hadid, Khairia". The Washington Post. 3 October 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
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  16. Warren Walsh, Sharon; Hilzenrath, David S. (24 April 1989). "Who is Mohamed Hadid?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  17. Walsh, Sharon Warren; Hilzenrath, David S. "Who is Mohamed Hadid?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  18. Farameh, Patrice (1 July 2008). "Hadid's Modern Masterpiece: Mohamed Hadid". Haute Living. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2015. Even though he has never indulged in alcohol in his life, his 5,000-bottle wine cellar is filled with the best French and Californian wines. Not only does his collection consist of a diverse range of premium wines from local vineyards such as Summerland Winery, but it also includes bottles from his very own winery in Beverly Hills.
  19. Salmon, Jacqueline L. "Hard Times for Developer Mohamed Hadid". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  20. Hilzenrath, David S. (4 August 1992). "Riggs Settlement with Lenkin Gives it Cash, Pledge, Building". The Washington Post. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  21. Halderman, Peter (5 December 2014). "In Los Angeles, a Nimby Battle Pits Millionaires vs. Billionaires". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 May 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  22. Brennan, Morgan (28 June 2012). "Celebrity Developer Mohamed Hadid Asking $58 Million For Crescent Palace". Forbes. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
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  28. Lopez, Matt (21 July 2017). "Hadid Fined, Sentenced To Community Service – But No Jail Time – Over Bel-Air Mansion" (PDF). The Beverly Hills Courier. pp. 1, 19. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
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  35. Frank, Julia (25 September 2015). "Gigi and Bella Hadid's younger brother Anwar is a model too". Vogue. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2016. 16-year-old Anwar Hadid...
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