In The Real Deal‘s “The New Kings of New York,” journalist Adam Piore details the cast of deep-pocketed characters behind the city’s biggest real estate deals over the last 20 years.
In addition to filling the insider’s account of the “blood sport” that is New York City real estate, some of those characters joined friends of Piore and The Real Deal for a 100-strong gathering near Union Square Tuesday night to celebrate the book’s release earlier that day.
The key to making the book interesting for any reader was finding good characters in the billion-dollar deals, Piore said, a piece of advice he learned from “The Big Short” and “Moneyball” author Michael Lewis. Developers Kent Swig and Stephen Ross are among the book’s notable voices.
“It’s all about the characters,” Piore said. “If you have good characters, the reader will follow you anywhere.”
TRD’s editor-in-chief Stuart Elliott and associate publisher Hiten Samtani served as editors on the project, which took five years to complete.
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Elliott said “The New Kings of New York” is a book that any reader, regardless of their connection to the world of real estate, will want to pick up.
“If you’re a deal junkie like many of our readers are, you’re going to love this book,” Elliott said. “If you’re a more general reader, it tells the tale of this city over the last 20 years and this evolution where New York really became a playground for the one percent.”
TRD publisher Amir Korangy called the party the “exclamation point” on the project.
“We thought it was so important to capture this part of New York City’s history,” Korangy said. “There’s never been development like this in New York City’s history and there’s all these new players who created this and made this happen.”
“The New Kings of New York” is now available for purchase.