Posted Nov 17, 2020, 10:44 PM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 52,855
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https://www.crainsnewyork.com/commer...eloper-dies-92
Solow, billionaire real estate developer, dies at 92
Bloomberg
November 17, 2020
Quote:
Sheldon Solow, a Brooklyn-born college drop-out who became a real estate billionaire by developing architecturally distinctive high-rise buildings in Manhattan, has died. He was 92.
He died Tuesday at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York after a month-long battle with lymphoma, according to Mia Fonssagrives Solow, his wife of 48 years.
Solow was best known for the 50-story office tower at 9 West 57th Street in Manhattan. A black building with upwardly sloped glass sides, it offered unbroken views of Central Park and was marked with a large red sculpture in the form of the number 9 on the sidewalk in front of its main entrance. The skyscraper’s tenants include hedge funds, private equity firms and luxury goods giant Chanel.
The property developer’s holdings included more than 2,000 apartments in New York City. Beginning in the early 2000s, Solow also began purchasing lots along the East River near the United Nations building, paying more than $600 million for a 9-acre site in 2000. He took until 2016 to break ground on the first building of a planned complex — a black 42-story residence at 685 First Ave. designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier.
He amassed a net worth of $3.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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Quote:
Assembling a site
In the 1960s, while marketing a luxury apartment complex on the Upper East Side, he got a suggestion from a broker to assemble a multi-lot site on West 57th Street. After considering a high-rise residence, he changed plans to an office tower to compete with the new, trend-setting white marble GM Building.
Acquiring enough land was the key obstacle. To keep his plan secret, Solow bought the first parcel in 1965, using a dummy company registered to his sister. It took Solow, then a well-tailored bachelor who drove a Rolls Royce, five years and $12 million to acquire the needed 61,800 square feet.
“There were 14 buildings,” he said about his acquisition plan. “All someone would have to do is come in, take one, and that would be that.”
The building, which cost about $40 million to construct, opened with 1.5 million square feet of office space.
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