Yet another quality post from you...Thank You.
I dont agree that the rebuilding of World Trade Center was well done, and a huge part of that was lack of leadership at the top, to include Bloomberg,...but as we both know I know who you are, and you are the expert....plus I have never caught you lying....just wrong.
Bloomberg had as much to do with the planning and redevelopment of the Trade Center, as Giuliani. Nothing but sound bytes. Same with Andy Cuomo. The site is owned by the Port Authority of NY and NJ, but the 99 year land lease is entirely in the hand of Silverstein Properties, and that is where and with whom all decisions were resolved, with exception of safety recommendations from the NYFD. The real obstacles and time consumers were the insurance companies with their litigation, in the end costing them more, and politicians with their hands out as Larry Silverstein publicly and privately smacked them down. 16 unions attempted to shakedown the construction, 16 union leaders were tied to mobsters and did time for extortion, fraud, racketeering and so on in Federal prisons doing hard time.
I've had the pleasure of sitting down to lunch with Larry more than a few times, at the B'Nai Brith Real Estate Lodge, as a guest of different members. He's a physically small man, unassuming, and charming. Started out as a real estate salesman renting apartments in Forest Hills Queen on the same block where I later had my offices. By then his main office was a mile away in the main commercial area of Forest Hills, on a prime corner where he owned the block, and had a bank on the first floor as his anchor tenant, while his everyday office was in Manhattan in Tribecca before it was called Tribecca. His first hand knowledge base was up there with the best, Durst, Helmsley and the rest who rebuilt Manhattan. Unlike Elliot Spitzer's father and many others, these guys quietly told the wise guys where to get off, and the same with the politicians. None of them ever backed down from a fight with any of the clowns, and they did not lose. Yet, they were all humble and generous, not just with money but their time for those starting out, no matter how small or ethnic background. Larry still has his house in Forest Hills Gardens, a few blocks from his office which is still operating. And a two block walk to the Long Island Railroad station which he still uses to commute to Manhattan. No chauffeured limousine or huge 4 wheeler. He drives a 20 some odd year old Buick and wears off the rack suits, shirts from Macy's, gifted ugly ties. He dotes on his wife and grandchildren, as he should. Married for more than 50 years. The Trade Center is his. I always laughed when I read in the papers, of Larry showing up two or three hours late for meetings with Bloomberg, the mayor, and then leaving after 15 minutes, excusing himself with "I've work to do." There would be photos in the papers the next day, Bloomberg standing with his mouth hanging open.
BTW, Durst had the most interesting operating philosophy, "Never buy a building you can't walk to in 15 minutes or less from your home." He owned every major Broadway theater building, and most of the Times Square important properties. Now in the hands of his sons and daughters except for Fred, who will soon be going on trial for murder in California. His siblings bought him out after their father passed. He terrified them. None of Durst's competitors believed he would succeed. Now those theaters are major cash cows, as are all the buildings he acquired in midtown. Those former SRO's now boutique hotels.
Men like Fred, Sant Chatwal, when Koch declared a moratorium on SRO conversions to co-ops and condos, bought them for a pittance, returning to their former glory as top class hotels per their certificates of occupancy. They gentrified before it was a common practice and fashionable, building empires. Learning from Harry Helmsley. Harry did it with old office buildings, abandoned apartment buildings, blocks of tenements he tore down, turning them into A class buildings. Cashing out by refinancing, and then investing in more buildings. Chase Bank's hidden source of recurring income. Harry and Larry Hilton learned from Freedman Roth Realty where they both started as salesmen, the oldest and longest running real estate brokerage in the city until Jesse Roth passed, and the company dissolved. Jesse's daughter Robyn married a good friend of mine, a then young architect I still work with tho we are both now old. They live in grandeur in Muttontown, on an estate inherited from her mother's family, the Rothchilds. Robyn was Andy Warhol's landlord and sponsor back in the day. She turned the Chelsea Hotel into party central after shows at her Mercer Arts Center in Soho. Great times at the time. The Mercer Arts Center went up in flames, a devastating fire, and is now part of NYU's expansion. The Chelsea Hotel, now a very, very expensive and exclusive condominium.
