From left: Kara and Stephen Ross at a benefit for the Everglades Foundation at the Breakers in Palm Beach; Larry and Klara Silverstein, with their daughter Lisa and son-in-law Tal Kerret, at the New York Philharmonic (credit: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg News)

From the December issue: The holiday season is upon us, and New York’s society scenesters are busy with glittering galas and luncheons. Real estate moguls are no strangers to these events, and clusters of the industry’s biggest players can be seen at almost every party.

“People from the real estate world really do make a splash,” said Amanda Gordon, the social columnist for Bloomberg News. “The business is all about relationships, so they thrive at events where they can develop relationships that may bear fruit later, or celebrate those [relationships] that have worked out really well for them.” [more]

Richard LeFrak

The LeFrak Organization will redevelop a 13-story office tower in Rego Park into 108 luxury rental apartments, according to the Wall Street Journal. The project marks a return for the developer to the city, where it said it would no longer build because of the rising costs of construction. In fact, it’s the company’s first project in the city in 28 years.

The office building was constructed 50 years ago by LeFrak Organization CEO Richard LeFrak’s father, Samuel LeFrak, during a time when the developer was building housing geared towards the middle-income residents of the borough, most notably nearby LeFrak City. [more]

Top row from left: Solow Building Owner Sheldon Solow, Boston Properties Chairman Mort Zuckerman, LeFrak Organization Chairman Richard LeFrak, investor John Paulson; Bottom row from left: Donald Trump, Tishman Speyer Chairman Jerry Speyer, Blackstone Group Founder Stephen Schwarzman, Red Apple Group CEO John Catsimatidis and Related Companies Founder Stephen Ross

Of the 63 New York City residents to make Forbes new list of the 400 richest people in America at least 13 are closely tied to the real estate industry. For example, the third richest New Yorker, right after businessman David Koch and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is John Paulson, who made billions betting against the housing market right before the crash. He’s the 17th richest person in the country, according to Forbes, with a net worth of $15.5 billion.

The 60th richest American is New York City real estate magnate Richard LeFrak, who is worth $5 billion thanks in part to the large housing developments he owns. He’s 10th among city residents. [more]

Richard LeFrak, head of the LeFrak Organization that owns some 25,000 apartments across the country, including the large apartment complex in Queens known as LeFrak City, appeared on CNBC this morning to discuss the current real estate market (see video above). LeFrak said the commercial real estate market has almost fully rebounded from the downturn, thanks to the cheap interest rates set by the Federal Reserve System. In fact, LeFrak said “trophy properties” in the commercial sector are “fully priced” and are so expensive they “may even be on the edge of another bubble.” [more]

Top row, from left: Stephen Ross, Leonard Stern, Richard LeFrak. Bottom row, from left: Donald Trump, Steven Ross, Mort Zuckerman.

With a net worth of $22 billion, David Koch, executive vice president of consumer products conglomerate Koch Industries, is the richest man in New York, beating out the $18.1 billion Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who’s runner-up for that title, and the $16 billion hedge fund king John Paulson, in third. But according to Forbes’ 2011 list of the world’s billionaires, New York is home to a whopping 68 individuals with net worths in the 10- and 11-digit range, and naturally, many of them made their fortunes in New York City real estate (see The Real Deal’s November 2010 cover story, “Billionaire’s real estate club”). Click here for the latest list of the industry’s richest. TRD
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From the November issue: The nine New York City real estate titans that earned ink on this year’s Forbes 400 list have a combined worth of nearly $21 billion, a sum surpassing the GDP of dozens of sovereign countries. Together, they control hundreds of millions of square feet of real estate the world over — and their collective portfolio includes several newspapers, magazines, at least one cable channel, an NFL franchise and a small fleet of private jets.
To be sure, all nine members of the Forbes list have shown extreme generosity over the years, and their names dot the city’s landscape, from the LeFrak Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital to the Leonard Stern Business School and the Sheldon Solow Library at New York University.
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From left: Sam Zell, Richard LeFrak, Stephen Ross, Jerry Speyer and John Catsimatidis

Real estate bigwigs Sam Zell, Richard LeFrak and his family and Stephen Ross cracked Forbes’ annua [more]

Vornado Realty Trust is “nervously bullish” on the city’s commercial real estate market, Steven Roth, the REIT’s chairman, told CNBC’s Squawk Box today. Roth said that while he believes the market bottom has already passed, and transaction volume is “ticking up a great deal,” he is still keeping some office space in his portfolio off the market until rents recover. Meanwhile, Richard LeFrak of the LeFrak Organization noted that the commercial leasing landscape has morphed over the past decade to accommodate the growth of large hedge funds.

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Richard LeFrak, president of the LeFrak Organization, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box recently with Tom Flexner, global head of Citigroup Real Estate, to discuss opportunities in the commercial real estate market. LeFrak, who cited the billions of investment dollars on the market sidelines, asked Flexner how private capital can invest in real estate at a time when no one seems willing to take a loss on their distressed assets. “It’s really a function of distressed sellers rather than distressed assets,” Flexner said. “The number one way that private capital can get into the real estate sector is to lower their return requirements.”

From left: Richard LeFrak, Karen LeFrak, Michael Bronson, chief of roint replacement at Mount Sinai, Rick Friedberg, Francine LeFrak, Peter May, Evan Flatow, chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics at Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai Medical Center recently celebrated its new Joint Replacement Center at 5 East 98th Street, where construction was completed in the second week of December. The 5,000-square-foot space, which takes up half of the building’s seventh floor, was formerly occupied by the Department of Ophthalmology, now located in the Annenberg Pavilion at 1468 Madison Avenue. Also unveiled at last month’s reception was the new Samuel and Ethel LeFrak Center for Patient Education, housed within the joint replacement unit. The LeFrak family donated an undisclosed amount to create its eponymous center, complete with HDTV monitors to display post-surgical information and videos, and was on hand at the reception to celebrate the new space. TRD [more]