The Real Deal New York

From the April issue: Whatever befalls beleaguered landlord and developer Harry Macklowe and his property empire, his travails are part of a long line of epic busts in New York City real estate. As he and others before him demonstrate, even Gotham’s biggest builders fall from time to time. When they do fall, they generally follow the Macklowe model: A developer builds or buys a trophy property, pledges it as collateral, becomes overextended and the entire empire topples. “That paradigm happens often,” said Tom Shachtman, author of “Skyscraper Dreams: The Great Real Estate Dynasties of New York,” adding, “The bigger you are, the more collaterized you are.” Well-known busts include Rockefeller Center Properties, which was forced to file for bankruptcy in the 1990s when it was owned by the Japanese-based Mitsubishi Estate Company, and Donald Trump, whose entertainment company emerged from bankruptcy in 2005.