After Morgan Stanley (MS) took a beating from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, one would think the firm’s global co-chief of real estate investment might have second thoughts about making any real estate investments of his own. But not only did K.S. Kalsi (a.k.a. Sonny) and his wife pay $14.6 million for a fifth-floor condo at 15 Central Park West, according to city records, he took out two different mortgages–one for $1 million and the other for $8 million–on the apartment.
Plus the Kalsis bought an $860,000 "suite" downstairs.
In December, Morgan Stanley posted its first quarterly loss in the firm’s 72-year history and wrote down $9.4 billion in assets linked to subprime mortgage-backed securities. Morgan CEO John J. Mack must have borne the brunt of the blame–he only took home $800,000 in 2007 compared to $40 million the previous year.
Mr. Kalsi’s bonus package must have been a bit weightier.
There are no other Morgan Stanley folks living in 15 CPW that we know of, though William Kourakos, who defected from the firm in the 1990’s, lives on the 11th floor.
