February 7th, 2025 at 3am
At least 22 plots of over 100 acres have been changing hands since 2021 within and around the Whisper Pines area in Joshua Tree National Park, raising concerns among neighbors about potential development. Here are some public records and other sources revealed about the owner:
– Two parcels were purchased by Peter Nawara of Greenwich, Connecticut. He is a former employee of real estate investment company Starwood Capital Group and a managing partner of Darkhorse Tactical Investments at Greenwich.
– One parcel was purchased by Darkhorse partner John Woodruff and partner Saheer Mathrani.
– One parcel was purchased by Sahil Abbi, co-founder of a company called Wetstone. It describes itself as a development platform for the undersea mineral value chain. Abbi and Mathrani were previously partners at Gasp, a creative studio and incubator based in New York.
The remaining lots were purchased by 17 Delaware-based limited liability companies (LLCs) with links to Darkhorse Partners, family or business associates. These:
– Seven of the LLCs list mailing addresses in Greenwich, Connecticut. Property owned by Nawara, his wife and LLC. The real estate listing shows this as a six-bedroom, 8,540 square feet estate.
– Two of the LLCs that provided Nawara’s address to Nawara’s assessors were before ruled in 2022 by Sofia Canabos.
-The other two LLCs who provided Nawara speech to the evaluators have filed a trust deed signed by John R. Seriare on behalf of LLCS.
– Three LLCs were listed as home addresses in Greenwich, Connecticut. This was previously owned by Woodruff and his then wife.
– Two LLCS provided addresses for Penthouse Condominiums in Brooklyn. This is owned by yet another LLC, but Matrani also provided it as a mailing address when he purchased the property of Whisper Pines in his name.
– One LLC provided the mailing address for the Four Seasons Surf Club residence in Surfside, Florida. This was previously owned by former Wework CEO Sandeep Mathrani. The County Land Use Services Department, which LLC says it owns the property purchased.
– Four LLCS provided mailing addresses for penthouse condos within the Miami Beach Edition hotel owned by Richard Pesin. Pesin was the president and COO of Castle Point LLC, a Miami company managed by Sandeep Mathrani, which dissolved in October 2024.
– One of the LLCs that provided Pesin addresses to evaluators is a Chicago home owned primarily by Liz Holland, CEO and legal counsel of Absell Associates, a private real estate company that redevelops shopping centres.
In 2023, the Netherlands signed a document from the County Land Use Services Department, stating that it owns the property purchased by the LLC. The Netherlands previously served as Sandeep Mathrani on the International Council of Shopping Centres’ Board of Directors and also served as the Public Records Nation, a registered agent for Castle Point LLC. She did not return a call seeking comment.
Research by Scott Wilson, Alex Wigglesworth and Lila Saidman.
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