Image of Shy via the Downtown News
The Los Angeles Business Journal serves up a big serving of Barry Shy in an extensive profile of the downtown developer. Some of the more interesting facts gleaned from the article:
--He’s working on getting entitlements for SB Omega, a 40-story tower that would rise next to SB Tower on Spring Street, but given the economy, there’s no start date.
---There's the immigrant angle: He changed his last name from Shitrit to Shy, and the developer, who is 5' "4, says his relatively short height is one of things that has driven him to succeed: “For a woman to be short it is not really that big of a deal; for men, being short – it’s a bummer,” he said. “Short men are discriminated against as much as a woman being way overweight.”
---Michael Ross, a Grubb & Ellis Co. broker who has worked Shy, is one of those who supports the controversial developer:“He’s one of the people who has brought people to downtown. He’s built a product that’s affordable.
---The Office of Historic Resources says during the building of SB Spring, historic features of a conference room were destroyed. “In 2006, Shy’s workers removed ceiling and wall paneling from the room, according to Ken Bernstein, Historic Resources manager. The work was done despite the building’s location inside the historic Spring Street district, which is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.”
--There is a round-up of the lawsuits against Shy, as well as allegations of mortgage fraud.
---Where's Waldo? Err, Waldette. More on his famous lion mural: "The SB Tower mural features a hidden, special touch, an ode to his fiancée, Rosani Stephens, who requested the painting feature a lioness. In one corner, a large, regal lion and his lioness serenely look out across a lake."
· Cornering Downtown [LABJ]
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