Magic Johnson and Boston are two opposites on the basketball court. Being a legend in purple and gold, those that wear the green and silver are his eternal rivals. But considering the real estate opportunities in and around Boston, it made financial sense for the Los Angeles superstar to invest in the city.
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Johnson and his partner K. Robert Turner had raised $271.7 million for investments in urban real estate, almost exclusively in the Massachusetts area. Urban housing was a big need in 2006, and it needed to be affordable at that. The area had some of the biggest names in terms of education, but housing was an issue.
Through Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, a venture started and backed by the basketball superstar, focused precisely on this issue. Just before the housing bubble was about to burst, Johnson and his partner were investing heavily to make sure they had good units to sell. 146 units to be precise.
The units were sprawled over a lavish 1.9-acre site which was once a factory. Magic Johnson may have competitors in Boston, but money is green from the South West to the Northeast.
Magic Johnson has many more investments that made him worth 600 million dollars
125 Starbucks franchises, stocks in the Lakers, investments in the Dodgers, and housing are just a few of the things that Magic built his empire on. Few basketball players get to build their net worth through their salaries. And considering Magic came from an era where salaries couldn’t match today’s payouts, his net worth is staggering.
Despite being the best player on the roster, Magic got paid peanuts compared to today’s men. The lowest guaranteed contract this year could go toe-to-toe with some of his best payouts. But despite all that, Johnson will go down as one of the wealthiest men ever—all because of the right mindset.
He splurged—but only after building a corpus. Fans and the general public think that money should be spent as soon as they get it. Wrong. Pay your bills, invest in your future self, and then you think about buying stuff you don’t need.
Real Estate and Sports Franchises – the backbone of the North East
Some of the country’s most famous franchises and education institutions are up North. MIT, NYU, The Knicks, and the Celtics to name a few. Magic saw the opportunity to invest and jumped right in. The housing units were not his first rodeo in Boston, since he already had the bid to develop 8 acres in Roxbury.
His partner came out and said they were not in the business of regentrification – but also not in the business of high-end clientele. Magic knew the moolah was in the middle ground and sunk his teeth right into the pie Boston had to offer.
