SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | OCTOBER 10, 2021
BUSINESS 25
Business
Scottsdale.org l
@ScottsdaleProgress
/ScottsdaleProgress
Spared the platter, orange lobster finds loving home BY ALEX GALLAGHER Progress Staff Writer
Optima Camelview Village is stunning complex built by Optima, which prides itself on being “a design-driven real estate development firm rooted in the modernist tradition.” (Johnathon De Young/Special to the Progress)
High-end Scottsdale penthouse can cost a buyer a bit of coin BY J. GRABER Progress Staff Writer
F
or sale: Professionally decorated and furnished, 1,463-square-foot penthouse with amazing views within walking distance to Fashion Square and Old Town. Features: hardwood floors, ceiling-tofloor windows, gourmet kitchen with marble counter tops and quiet balcony. Cost: Not necessarily one red cent of hard currency. Instead of cold hard cash, it can set you back roughly 47 bitcoins, or about 683 ethereum. The ultra-luxurious unit is one of four condos for sale in the Optima Camelview Village by Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty with an option for paying in cryptocurrency. “The seller realizes bitcoin, ethereum
and digital assets, in general, are becoming a mainstream asset class,” said Johnathon De Young, a Realtor with Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty. “And it seems only appropriate for a substantial investment group to begin dipping its toes in what is likely some of the greatest financial innovation of our lifetime,” he added. Bitcoin and ethereum are two of the most prevalent forms of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency can be thought of as digital dollars. It only exists virtually with no central issuing or regulating agency backing it. Its value is not based on anything other than its scarcity, which is protected solely by cryptography. Of course, you can pay with traditional money, if you insist on living in the dark ages, but that route will cost you
see CONDO page 26
I
t had been a normal day for the kitchen staff at Nobu, an upscale Japanese restaurant located in the Scottsdale Fashion Square. Three hours before opening one day late last month, the Nobu staff had just begun unloading a shipment of seafood. While sifting through a sea of brownish-red lobsters, the staff stumbled upon something they had never seen before: An orange lobster. The staff almost immediately took a step back from their regular operations to gawk at the crustacean’s rare color. Nobu Executive Chef Carl Murray moved the rare lobster into a container and stored it in the restau- Erika Shen, an animal care specialist at OdySea rant’s walk-in cooler until he could Aquarium is caring for a rare orange lobster found by kitchen staff at the Fashion Square figure out what to do. The next day, Murray called Ody- restaurant Nobu. (Courtesy of OdySea Aquarium) Sea. been out of water, Shen began the accli“I said ‘let’s call the aquarium’ out of curiosity and the aquarium was gracious mation process to get it ready for closer enough to come by and pick it up,” he said. observation. “We were initially blown away by the fact “We had heard stories about other restauthat it was bright orange, but we did fear rants saving a lobster so we figured we that it was out of water,” she said. would go ahead and see what we had. Only Shen panicked when she realized acafter the fact, we learned it was a pretty climation could take up to 90 minutes, special lobster.” so she did some research and discovered Upon hearing the news about Nobu’s these lobsters can be out of water for up to “catch,” Erika Shen, an OdySea animal care 48-hours. specialist, grabbed a cooler and bubbler Shen and other staff also discovered that and rushed to the restaurant. only about one in every 30 million Maine Staff swaddled it in a moist towel and lobsters are orange. Shen headed back to work. They also found out that the lobster could By the time she arrived, the news had reach a century in age, grow to over three spread around the aquarium and a crowd of employees congregated around her. Unsure of how long the creature had see LOBSTER page 27
