If you waded through the tech whiz kids, media moguls and billionaire hedge funders on the Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people, you may have spotted a few familiar faces (and one particularly bronzed face) from the New York real estate industry.
Behind the story:
Stephen Ross
Jeff Sutton
Sam Zell
Richard LeFrak
Leonard Stern
Jerry Speyer
Sheldon Solow
Donald Trump
Though they haven’t earned, say, $62 billion like Warren Buffett, these New York estate powerhouses still made their mark on Forbes’ annual list. Related Cos. CEO Stephen Ross was the highest-ranked New York City-based bigwig, with a net worth of $6.7 billion. Developer Richard LeFrak was the only other titan to crack the top 100, where he was ranked just eight spots behind Ross at 79th, with a net worth of $6.1 billion.
And despite declaring a net worth exceeding $10 billion, Forbes pegged the fortune of developer-turned-presidential-candidate Donald Trump at a more modest $4.5 billion. Speculation about The Donald’s wealth predates his presidential run — an analysis of Trump’s assets by The Real Deal in June 2013 found experts estimating his net worth at around $8 billion.
For a look at the other city real estate players who landed on the Forbes 400 list, watch the video above or on The Real Deal’s YouTube page. — Kerry Barger
Video created by Uldis Dirnens.