New York’s leading real estate families have always been experimenters and innovators.
Whether it was the Rudin family pioneering the idea of wiring older buildings to support high-tech communications a decade ago, or the Tishmans pioneering construction management in the 1950s, they have often led the way.
It’s a small group, this club. Along with the Rudins and Tishmans, families like the Dursts, Roses, Fishers, Resnicks and a few others constitute the ancient tribal order of New York real estate – the families who began buying buildings at the dawn of the 20th century.
Today, they are reshaping the city, even if they carefully avoid the headlines sought by other, flashier developers.
Like their forefathers, they are planning to remake the city – particularly Downtown- in new and innovative ways, with the Tishmans and Dursts seeking to change the city through green, environmentally-sensitive building, and the Rudins through high-tech infrastructure.
Tishman Realty & Construction Corp. built the first World Trade Center, and it’s entirely possible they might be building what goes in its place. The company is currently building 7 World Trade Center for Larry Silverstein, the World Trade Center leaseholder, and a project for Verizon at 140 West St. at Ground Zero.
It’s also likely that whatever will be built at the World Trade Center site will be a green building, with New York Gov. George Pataki referring to the possibility in a speech several weeks ago. Pataki developed a green tax credit that went into effect in 2001, and Battery Park City, right next door, requires buildings be constructed according to environmentally friendly guidelines.
For Dan Tishman, that would be just fine. Tishman is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Tishman Realty & Construction Corp., and a member of the fourth generation of the real estate family that began when immigrant founder Julius Tishman started building tenements in 1898 in New York. The Tishmans were among the biggest builders in Manhattan by the 1920s. In the 1970s, family members split up, with John Tishman, Dan’s father, starting the construction company he still runs.
In addition to building Chicago’s John Hancock Center, Madison Square Garden, and EPCOT Center, to name a few, John is regarded as an innovator who pioneered the field of construction management and created numerous energy (and money) saving products that became the industry standard. One device developed in the 1970s was like an early version of the “The Clapper”, able to automatically turn on and off lights in office buildings, to cut back on the normal practice of keeping them on all night.
“All along, we’ve had the ability to experiment ourselves as a company,” said Dan. “It gives us an advantage in the marketplace.”
Dan, 48, is no less an innovator than his father, and has already made it clear he plans to make his mark in the area of green building. Working under the Dursts, the Tishmans constructed what is widely regarded as the country’s first environmentally-green high-rise office tower, the Conde Nast building at 4 Times Square, completed in 1999. The Tishmans also constructed the Rudin family’s Reuters Building at 3 Times Square, another green project. Dan also helped draft the green tax credit in 2001.
Now, the family company is set to work on the next Durst project, which Dan said will be even more environmentally sensitive. The Durst Organization, led by Douglas Durst, plans to build a $1 billion, 57-story tower on West 42nd Street that will serve as New York headquarters for the Bank of America, once he obtains a few remaining parcels at the site.
“If that happens, we will be the builders,” said Dan, who attended a planning retreat late last month for the project. “It will likely strive to be much better than 4 Times Square. There have been tremendous changes [in green building] since that project went up.”
Like the Tishmans, the Rudins will also likely have a large part to play in Downtown redevelopment. The family began its foray into real estate 70 years ago, when Samuel Rudin began developing residential properties before buying his first office building in 1955. The Rudins were well known for never selling an office building that they built, and the portfolio grew to 40 buildings valued at $2 billion, including 16 office towers in Manhattan. Sam’s son Lewis, who died in 2001, was one of the city’s biggest boosters and a behind-the-scenes power in helping the city through the fiscal crises in the 1970s and early 1990s.
Though not in the least tech-savvy, according to his son, William, Lewis saw where the city was headed, and set Rudin Management on course to become a pioneer in the wiring of older buildings to support high-tech communications. The decision was sealed when Lewis read a newspaper story about a high-tech company considering a move to Manhattan.
“He was actually partially blind,” said William, 47, who became president of the company in 1993. “He couldn’t see but he had tremendous vision. His vision told him that for lower Manhattan and the entire city this was a unique opportunity.”
The Rudins went on to transform 55 Broad St. into one of the world’s first totally wired buildings in the mid-1990s, with features like video-conferencing, and wireless phone and computer networks two years before Wi-Fi standards had even been developed. The company then completed four other “smart” buildings, including 32 Sixth Ave. and the Reuters Building at 3 Times Square. (Paradoxically, however, the company doesn’t even have a central company Web site, only sites for its individual buildings.)
Now, the company is helping lead the way in rebuilding telecommunications Downtown.
Many businesses in Lower Manhattan were shocked when they lost their telecommunications after the Sept. 11 attack. Most thought they had sufficient carrier backup, so that if they lost one carrier, another would keep them in touch. But it didn’t turn out that way.
“What people thought they had on Sept. 10, was very much different from what they discovered they had on Sept. 11,” said John J. Gilbert, chief operating officer for Rudin Management. “What many companies had was three or four carriers, but they were all on the same pipe.” When the one pipe was gone, communications went down with no backup.
Understanding the importance of not letting that happen again, Gilbert chaired a telecommunications users group formed by the Federal Reserve Board, REBNY and other groups, which spelled out the need for a backup wireless system.
A wireless system that can beam data from one building to another through a ray-gun shaped device, using high frequency radio waves, is in the works. What will be constructed are wireless hubs that will be able to beam signals and communicate with “any building within its line of sight,” according to Gilbert. The city currently has a RFP (request for proposal) out for a company to build the system.
William is philosophical about the innovations his family has made. “I’m very lucky. I represent the third generation. I’m very fortunate that I had my father around for a long time and my uncle is still here.”
William is joined by sister Beth Rudin DeWoody and other family members, Madeline Rudin and Eric Rudin, as part of the third generation working at the company. The fourth generation is still in school.
“They were forward thinking people in their time and made sure their buildings had a competitive edge,” William said of the previous generations. “But at that period of time, it was central air conditioning and bigger closets, or intercoms in the apartment, and more modern appliances. We just took that forward.”
Dan Tishman said taking things forward in constructing the first green skyscraper in the nation was a wholly collaborative effort with the Dursts. Jody (Jonathan) Durst, co-president of the Durst Organization, is another strong advocate of green building and a member of a dynasty that got its start back in 1915 under immigrant Joseph Durst. “The core team of the Dursts and [architect] Bob Fox and myself were devoted to making it as green as we could,” within limits acceptable to the developer, Dan said.
Since the Conde Nast building – which was adapted for solar panels, an air delivery system that provides 50 percent more fresh air than the average building, and a network of recycling chutes that serve the whole building – was built, there are now established benchmark standards in place for green high-rise buildings. New technologies and the deregulation of the utility industry have also helped the green building cause.
Dan, who graduated from liberal Evergreen College in Washington State and worked as a teacher and contractor in Maine before joining the family firm, is both a continuation of his father’s ideas and something different. “I have my own ideas,” he said.
He’s fully aware green building is generally not considered cost-effective (“people might pay a tiny, tiny premium to be in a better building, but nothing more than that”), but he said there has been progress over the last ten years. He expects change, eventually, through government mandates, and rising energy costs.
He said he partly agrees with a statement once made by Douglas Durst that a developer needs to see 30 years into the future when putting up a building.
“I wouldn’t disagree with Douglas,” he said. “It’s a six to eight year process to get a project done. But you are also building in real time. You can’t be too far-thinking or you might put yourself out of the market.”