Like “The Son Of A Mill Worker,” But Better!

The city is abuzz over news that a one-time cabby Tamir “Tom” Sapir is buying the $40 million Duke-Semans Mansion on Fifth Avenue. Today the Post investigates his amazing ascent from rags to riches:

After moving to Israel himself for awhile, Sapir decided to take his chances at fortune in America, originally landing in a small, close-knit Jewish community in Louisville, Ky.

His first job was driving a bus for senior citizens.

There was a special perk in it for the young, Russian-speaking immigrant.

“While I was driving, they taught me how to speak English,” Sapir said.

He picked up odd jobs where he could to beef up his income, collecting garbage and even hauling around a pal’s hammers and nails when needed.

Ten months later, with some savings in his pocket, he moved his family to New York City.

While Sapir’s first home with Russian-born wife Bella was their 108th Street apartment, his second home became a city cab.

“I drudged from early morning until late at night, sleeping nights at airports to be in when the first planeload of passengers arrived — actually, they would awake me by tugging at my clothes, ‘Wake up, man!'” the tycoon recalled in a recently published interview of his early days as a struggling driver.

But within six months, he said, he had made enough to buy a coveted cab medallion — and eventually began pulling in $300 to $400 a day.

If I’m not mistaken, medallions are pretty expensive*. And is it just me or are there some big CV gaps between owning a fledgling electronics store and becoming a billionaire real estate mogul? You be the judge:

He wound up using his medallion as collateral on a $10,000 bank loan to become partners in an electronics store on Broadway near Madison Square Park.

The move was dicey, but it paid off.

Realizing that he had a potential gold mine in technology-starved Russian tourists, immigrants and visiting government big shots, Sapir lured them to the store by the hundreds daily.

He then took the money to gain a hand in oil contracts in Russia, and from there began investing in Manhattan real estate. His first purchase was a condo at 5 E. 22nd St. in 1985 — just around the corner from his shop — for $324,500.

He went on to acquire properties everywhere from Madison Avenue, Park Place and Fifth Avenue.

“Oil contracts.” What a country!

*See more about the economics of the medallion system at “Villain or Bogeyman? New York’s Taxi Medallion System”, which notes that cabbies took in on an average of $64 a day in 1986; medallions seem to have cost about $100,000 then.