Douglas Eisenberg

Eisenberg could have amassed a huge portfolio the old-fashioned way — by inheriting it. Instead he left his father’s firm at 40 and started A&E from scratch in 2011 with John Arrillaga Jr., another real estate scion.

They famously began with one Brooklyn building and by 2017 were among the city’s five largest multifamily firms with more than 12,000 units across 200 properties. The Real Deal estimated their value then at $3 billion, a figure that has likely dropped since the state took a hatchet to the asset class with the 2019 rent stabilization law.

That made A&E’s primary strategy of buying and improving run-down, rent-stabilized buildings especially difficult, by severely limiting rent increases that had historically paid for renovations.

For example, in 2015 it spent $201 million to buy the decrepit, 1,229-unit Riverton housing complex in Harlem, agreeing to keep 975 affordable for 30 years and to spend $40 million on improvements in exchange for $100 million in city tax breaks. Lenders had foreclosed on the previous owner.

A year ago, Wells Fargo filed a pre-foreclosure action when A&E didn’t immediately repay a matured, $506 million CMBS loan backing a 3,500-unit portfolio including Riverton. But Eisenberg held on, a sign that his properties were not rendered hopelessly overleveraged by the rent law, Covid, and spikes in interest rates, operating expenses and rent arrears.

These challenges might explain why Eisenberg returned as CEO in 2023 after handing the reins to James Patchett for two years. He insists he loves the job and has no plans to give it up again.

— Erik Engquist