From the small electronics store he owned many years ago on the western side of Madison Square Park, Russian immigrant Tamir Sapir could look up and see the 30-story art deco building at 11 Madison Avenue. It would have never occurred to him that one day he would buy the building for $675 million.
The 2.2 million-square-foot office tower, an icon of the Midtown South skyline, was home to Credit Suisse First Boston, and existed in what must have seemed like a far away and rarified world for the former cab driver. That was before Sapir, a 55-year-old with a strong accent, got involved in Manhattan real estate a dozen years ago. Read the full story from the March 2004 issue here.