There are two types of quintessential New York developers: members of powerful dynasties and those on their way to becoming them.
It’s true that the private equity CEOs and executives at the big publicly traded REITs wield enormous power. But at the end of the day they’re mere suits compared to the swagger that can only come from having no shareholders to answer to.
Earlier this year The Real Deal published its top 100 most influential people in New York real estate. In it, the shifting dynamics and lasting legacies of these families more clearly came to light.
Multi-generational families like the Rudins, Dursts and Millsteins trace their origins back to the early 1900s when their founders immigrated from Europe.
Meanwhile, some of the newer families to rank among NYC’s elite hailed from the Middle East or North Africa, transferring their skills in textiles or trade into real estate.
Old money
New York’s old-line dynasties are written into the city’s history books. But that doesn’t mean they’re content to sit around and collect dust.
Take the Rudins. The family earned the same iconic status as the New Year’s ball drop and alligators in the sewers when Lew Rudin rallied his fellow building owners in the 1970s to help the city avert a financial crisis.
And now a new generation is busy working to tackle the problem of empty office buildings and a housing shortage.
Samantha Rudin Earls and Michael Rudin — Lew’s grandchildren — were named co-CEOs of the four-generation family business in 2023. Among their major projects are a handful of office-to-residential conversions.
They teamed up with Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft Management and Silverstein Properties to turn the 30-story office building at 55 Broad Street that the family first developed in the 1960s into 571 apartments. After getting their feet wet in the conversion game, they decided to convert their building at 845 Third Avenue into 411 units. And they’re reportedly considering a conversion at their 355 Lexington Avenue.
Speaking of Silverstein, Larry finally took a major step in his quarter-century quest to redevelop the World Trade Center site earlier this year when he inked a deal with American Express for 2 World Trade Center.
The company, which Lisa Silverstein took over as CEO in 2023, will work as a for-fee developer on the 55-story, 2 million square foot project for American Express, which purchased the leasehold in the deal.
The Silversteins are among a handful of multi-generational families that are putting fresher faces forward.
The Gural family recently launched a new development arm to be helmed by Brian Steinwurtzel, nephew of Jeff Gural.
Steinwurtzel’s been busy in recent years working to help steady GFP Real Estate’s office portfolio. Now, with GFP Development, he’ll look for new building opportunities in New York and New Jersey.
Among GFP’s recent projects is the condo-conversion of the landmark Flatiron Building, which recently put a full-floor unit asking $58.5 million into contract.
The Gurals are working on the conversion with another prominent family: the Brodskys. In recent years Daniel Brodsky — who for a long time stood at the top of the city’s social scene as the longtime chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art — has been handing over control to the next generation.
His nephew, Dean Amro, and two sons have been spearheading new projects, including rental developments in Brooklyn and a new $500 million lending platform.
New Money
New York City’s rags-to-riches story is built into the city’s lore. Nothing personifies that tale better than the city’s real estate industry. The business requires little to no formal education. Rather it rewards hustle, street smarts and a great deal of chutzpah. Today, the Horatio Alger story still exists, but with a new twist.
Among the most impressive members of the new money list is Gary Barnett. Born Gershon Swiatycki on the Lower East Side, Barnett began his business career in the diamond industry in Belgium before seeking to diversify into U.S. real estate in the 1990s.
Barnett went all out. His firm Extell Development, constructed some of the city’s tallest residential structures, including two on Billionaire’s Row, the 1,000-foot-tall One 57, and the 1,550-foot-tall Central Park Tower.
Barnett, now in his 70s, keeps his foot on the gas pedal. Extell filed plans to construct an 86-story, supertall on the Upper West Side on the former Disney/ABC campus. Extell is also quietly assembling a portfolio around Park Avenue near Central Synagogue with yet-to-be-disclosed plans.
Barnett’s vision is to go vertical, building fear-inducing skyscrapers throughout Manhattan. Others on the new money list built their wealth through acquisitions, transferring skills in trading and numbers into real estate. Two of the most successful to do it are Joseph Chetrit and Joseph Moinian.
After moving to the U.S. at 17, Moinian made his money in women’s apparel. He parlayed a fortune in textiles into real estate, buying his first office building in 1982 at 450/460 Park Avenue. Moinian, in his early 70s, still has his eyes on a treasured site in Hudson Yards. Plans have stalled for years on the $3 billion office project with BXP, but the developers secured a refinance last year with a $108 million loan.
Joseph Chetrit has a similar story. His father ran a textile import-export business in Morocco.
Joseph arrived in the U.S. at 17 to expand the textile business and dabbled in real estate, acquiring warehouses. But Chetrit, along with his brother Meyer, turned the Chetrit Group into a powerhouse, unafraid to buy the city’s biggest and most storied properties, such as the Sony building, the Chelsea Hotel and the Daily News building. But Chetrit’s old school back-of-the-napkin approach to business is coming under strain, losing properties such as the Hotel Bossert to foreclosure and their Hotel Carter in Times Square has been scheduled for auction.
Chetrit wants to leave his mark on the NYC skyline. The company has plans to build a two-tower 1,300-unit residential development in Manhattan’s Two Bridges.
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