Luxury real estate tycoon Michael Shvo, dressed all in black and typing on his iPhone while simultaneously holding an in-person conversation, hardly seems given to gestures of quiet fantasy. “Until October, this was an empty lot,” Shvo said recently, walking me through his 25,200 square foot outdoor exhibit. Flanking the construction site where Shvo is renovating the Raleigh Hotel, which he bought last February for $103 million, the Lalanne at Raleigh Gardens is a notably whimsical endeavor from a developer whose $6.2 billion real estate portfolio includes the upcoming Mandarin Oriental residences at 685 Fifth Avenue in New York and 9200 Wilshire in Beverly Hills.

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