When New York City real estate insiders are not making deals or putting up buildings, they are reading books about making deals or putting up buildings. The Real Deal conducted an informal survey of industry members’ favorite books. Portraits of master builders, stories about the city’s iconic buildings and marketing books topped their lists.
Samuel Lindenbaum
counsel, land use group, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
What is your favorite book about New York City real estate?
My favorite book is Robert A. Caro’s “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York.” It’s a fascinating biography of the master builder who was the single most powerful man of his time and who had more to do with building 20th century New York than anyone else. The book should have been called “The Rise of New York.”
Do you have a runner-up?
My runner-up is Daniel Okrent’s “Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center.” It is a compelling story of the assemblage and construction of New York’s most iconic complex.
Frederick Peters
president, Warburg Realty Partnership
What is your favorite book about New York City real estate?
The book I have the most affection for is called “Apartments for the Affluent” by Andrew Alpern. It analyzes the history of the apartment, with some attention to different types of floor plans, and has pages and pages of floor plans with astute architectural observations about the evolution of the way people live, and how those changes are reflected in the way apartments were and are constructed. I discovered it in my mid-20s and more than almost any other single factor, it is responsible for the detour I took from my first career in music into the real estate business.
Barry Hersh
associate director, the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute, Baruch College, City University of New York
What is your favorite book about New York City real estate?
My favorite book is Jerry Adler’s “High Rise: How 1,000 Men and Women Worked Around the Clock for Five Years and Lost $200 Million Building a Skyscraper.” It is a cautionary tale of what can and does go wrong in real estate, which is especially important after the latest boom.
Do you have a runner-up?
Kate Asher’s “The Works” is a new, in-depth look at the infrastructure and systems of New York and what makes the real estate viable here. Also, Barbara Corcoran’s “Use What You’ve Got.” I actually liked the 40 or so pages at the end where she talks about actually operating a brokerage firm the best. The stories about her life, especially her mother, are sweet but not insightful.
Jeff Levine
president, Douglaston Development
What is your favorite book about New York City real estate?
“Skyscraper Dreams” by Tom Shachtman. It is the story of the great real estate dynasties of New York.
Why?
It recounts how development in New York evolved from [direct, all-cash] investment by the great robber barons like the Astors and the Rockefellers to reach the next level through immigrants like the Rose and Rudin families, who brought the concept of financing properties to the fore by raising money from investors. It recounts how real estate development evolved over the past 150 years in New York City.
Do you have a runner-up?
“The Fifties” by David Halberstam. It’s a great historical book of the 20th century. I think it was the most dynamic period in the economic history of the United States. The postwar boom led to all kinds of changes to how we live in the U.S. My favorite portion is about Kemmons Wilson, who was a builder in the Memphis area. He built Holiday Inns on the highways, with reasonable rooms and food available, which lessened the need for travelers to go into town. He saw a change and took advantage of it. Seeing an opportunity and taking advantage of it is what capitalism is all about.
Dolly Lenz
vice chairman, Prudential Douglas Elliman
What is your favorite book about New York City real estate?
“Why We Want You to Be Rich” by Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump. Without a doubt that is my favorite.
Why?
It is not directly about real estate but it really is, because it is about how you get assets in real estate and real estate being a vehicle that makes many, many people rich. One of the major ways is it talks about the common-sense things that most people overlook as they fly through life. It focuses on what you should be doing to get ahead.
Do you have a runner-up or any other notables?
I loved “740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building,” by Michael Gross, because it is a snapshot into high-end New York, and “High Rise Low Down” by Denise LeFrak Calicchio, Eunice David and Kathryn Livingston. I skipped through the Denise LeFrak book, which is a book of vignettes and stories that are very cute.
Michael Shvo
president, Shvo Marketing
What is your favorite book about New York City real estate?
I don’t have a favorite real estate book, but I do have a favorite marketing book, “Trading Up,” by Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske. It taught me more about marketing real estate than any traditional real estate book ever could.
Do you have a runner-up?
One of my current reads is “Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant,” by W. Chan Kim and Ren e Mauborgne. It’s simultaneously enlightening and validating.