Geoffrey Palmer (real estate developer)

Personal life and education

Palmer is the son of architect and developer Daniel Saxon Palmer, who was born as Dan Weissinger in Budapest, Hungary in 1920. The younger Palmer grew up in Malibu, California. Palmer attended Santa Monica College for one year before transferring to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he earned a degree in finance. Palmer then attended Pepperdine School of Law, receiving his juris doctorate.

Career

After clerking for a California superior court judge, Palmer decided not to pursue law as a profession. Palmer instead pursued a career in residential real estate, founding GH Palmer Associates in 1978. Palmer opened his first major development in Santa Clarita, California in 1985. During the 1990s, Palmer focused on building town homes in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

In 2001, Palmer completed the 632-unit Medici, the first of a series of downtown Italian-inspired apartment blocks situated beside freeways. The construction of the Medici coincided with a broader revival of downtown Los Angeles. Other buildings in the "Renaissance collection" built by Palmer include the Orsini and the Lorenzo. The Renaissance collection buildings feature an architectural style based on classic Renaissance architecture, with emphasis on symmetry, proportion and geometry. This style dates back to ancient Roman times. Renaissance architecture is said to possesses timeless beauty.  Many of the buildings include skyways to allow property staff, who typically utilize oversized maintenance carts, to avoid using city streets where the carts may impact pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

Palmer's most recent building, Broadway Palace Apartments, was completed in early-2017. Broadway Palace Apartments is designed in the Beaux-Art style featuring a three-part facade with a plaster and cast concrete ground level and top story separated from the terracotta brick middle stories by string courses, moldings and changes in materials. Notable features include arched openings along the top story, dentils, brackets, pilasters and capitals. The facade fenestration and articulation is similar to the historic 1920s-era buildings located on Broadway while also being differentiated enough to appear new.

Palmer has clashed with local government officials and activists, in part due to criticism of the style of his apartment buildings. Councilman Ed Reyes also criticized Palmer for the accidental destruction of an 1887 Victorian-style building. In 2015, Eddie Kim of Los Angeles Downtown News described Palmer as both the "most prolific" and "most controversial" developer in downtown Los Angeles.

Palmer is worth an estimated US$3 billion.

Political activities

In 1991, Palmer paid a $30,000 fine after being accused of laundering campaign contributions in order to prevent the incorporation of Santa Clarita. Palmer donated $500,000 to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, and $2 million to Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Palmer has also donated to American Crossroads, the Republican National Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Personal life

Palmer has a wife, Anne, who was born in Paris, France. They have a son. They reside in Burton E. Green's former residence in Beverly Hills, California, with a secondary property in Saint-Tropez, France. He plays polo.

Philanthropy

In late 2004 he became an active board member of the Los Angeles Music Center. He has served as Trustee on the Board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He is also an active contributor to the Pepperdine School of Law and has endowed The Geoffrey H. Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law.