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701 West 135th Street

In a very gutsy bit of speculation, Pete Skyllas, a plumbing business owner who bought this 2,300-square-foot, triangle-shaped building in 2003, renovated it as a home for three eateries in hopes that the Columbia University development just to the south will create a market for high-end restaurants. It's a remarkably desolate area and most of the existing nearby residents aren't exactly regular patrons of high-end fare. While waiting for the Columbia expansion to reach full bloom, he is hoping to attract a meatpacking-district type of crowd. With gentrification in the area, he may be on the leading edge of a nice trend and in the long run he may look like a genius. But he may need quite a bit of cash to survive for the interim. (reference).

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