Granola Goofballs Make $$, Not War

New York Post/June 4, 2006
By Philip Recchia

Ganas' roots might be Haight-Ashbury, but its operation is strictly Wall Street.

New York City's only commune not only controls millions of dollars in Staten Island real estate, but a thriving chain of shops there - and a Chelsea co-op.

And its most lucrative venture may have been an upstate dude ranch once partly controlled by famed rock promoter Bill Graham that recently sold for a profit of $800,000.

Ganas does business as Everything Goes, a corporation often called Everything Goes Realty. Its commune comprises 10 Victorian houses valued at more than $4 million. Each property was bought outright, leaving no mortgages to stunt the nature-lovers' growth.

Ditto its four Everything Goes shops in the St. George district. Three of them - EG Clothing, EG Furniture and EG Gallery - sell secondhand goods. Set designers from flicks like "You've Got Mail" have picked up props there. The fourth is a book café.

Those properties are worth more than $550,000.

Ganas also owns an 18th-floor co-op on West 28th Street.

Then there's the Arrowhead Ranch in Parksville, in the Catskills, which Ganas bought in 1996 for $162,500. It had previously been owned by an entrepreneur who, despite help from Graham, failed to make it a successful concert venue. Two years ago, Ganas sold the ranch for $1 million - to a Yeshiva rabbinical camp.