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By Matt Chaban 12/06/12 11:21am

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Mr. Flood. (MTA/Flickr)

Joe Lhota Calls Bill Rudin “an Exemplary Leader”

It’s beginning to feel a bit like the letters section of the New York Review of Books around here.

Yesterday morning, The Observer published a post highlighting another outlet’s revelation that developer and civic leader Bill Rudin was somewhat pleased that the Hugh Carey Brooklyn Battery Tunnel had flooded, thereby protecting some of his buildings downtown. (Some experts agree that the tunnels should actually be designed to do exactly that.)

Unexpectedly, Mr. Rudin’s office sent a statement from him to The Observer in the afternoon, speaking generally about the need to plan for the future, but not directly addressing the issue of the tunnel or MTA Chief Joe Lhota, who had told Capital New York, “I wasn’t particularly pleased with the comment.” Now, unbidden, The Observer has received a statement from Mr. Lhota that praises Mr. Rudin. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5:38pm

Machers

11 Photos

Dan Doctoroff, Still Scheming

Dan Doctoroff Still Has Big Plans―Like Moving the Javits to Sunnyside Yards

It has been five years since Dan Doctoroff reported to City Hall  for work, but the former deputy mayor and current CEO of Bloomberg LP still finds time to think up interesting, even outrageous visions for the city. Well, they would be crazy if they did not have a habit of getting built. After all, so many developments that came out of Mr. Doctoroff’s unsuccessful bid to draw the Olympics to the five boroughs have since been realized regardless, from Atlantic Yards to Hudson Yards to Hunters Point South, the No. 7 extension, water taxis—the list goes on and on.

These success suggest that even though Mr. Doctoroff is no longer in command, might it still be possible to see a gondola stretch across the East River between Lower Manhattan, Governors Island and Brooklyn? Or a light rail line running the entire length of the waterfront from Astoria in Queens to Brooklyn’s Red Hook? Or, most audacious of all, tearing down the Javits convention center and moving it to yet another decked-over rail yard, this time in Sunnyside, where it would be surrounded by apartment and hotel towers and a sizable retail complex? Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/03/12 1:36pm

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Video

He's Stiller got it. (YouTube)

Rich Marin’s Star Turn: Watch the Short Movie the Ferris Wheel Banker Wrote for HBO

A last-minute phone call from a source revealed an exciting tidbit about the man behind the world’s largest ferris wheel, Rich Marin. While Mr. Marin may have come to fame (or infamy) for blogging about movies as the Bear Stearns division he ran imploded, he is unapologetic about his love of cinema—so much so he even relaunched his movie blog last year. “I decided you can’t pretend to be who you’re not,” he said. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/02/12 10:30pm

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(Victor Juhasz)

The Ups and Downs of Rich Marin, the Ex-Banker Building the World’s Biggest Ferris Wheel

Rich Marin is big. For more than three decades, he dominated Wall Street, creating some of the industry’s most exotic investments, making billions for his clients, and millions for himself. One of his minions blew a hole in the side of Bankers Trust, a firm Mr. Marin helped transform into a derivatives powerhouse, and still he held on for the ride, becoming the youngest managing director ever at the bank. It all came crashing down five years ago, when the hedge funds he oversaw at Bear Stearns imploded. The rest of the world followed within the year. But there was Mr. Marin, standing amid the wreckage, helping rescue an overzealous Israeli diamond magnate who had plowed $3 billion into prime U.S. real estate just as the frothing market froze over. He rescued the firm, only to be unceremoniously fired two years to the day after he joined.

Now Rich Marin wants to build the world’s largest ferris wheel—in Staten Island, naturally—and the mayor just gave him his blessing.

Did we mention he is big? At the announcement of the project last Thursday, Mr. Marin absolutely dwarfed Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Chuck Schumer, along with the other dignitaries gathered at the ferry terminal. But despite his imposing size—he stands 6-foot-5 and is built like an offensive lineman—Mr. Marin is probably one of the gentlest people on the Street. Were he a real bear, rather than having worked for one, Mr. Marin would be not a grizzly but a teddy. This may help explain his turbulent career. Read More

By Kim Velsey 9/11/12 10:00am

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this is the man

Ukrainian Oligarch Alexander Rovt Would Prefer To Be Called A Carpathian Billionaire

We learned a lot in the Businessweek profile on Alexander Rovt, the Ukrainian fertilizer billionaire who’s been making huge, all-cash investments into American real estate lately (he spent $303 million to acquire a majority stake in the Banker’s Trust building this April). Mr. Rovt should not be confused with Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who spent $88 million on a penthouse at 15 CPW. Read More

By Matt Chaban 9/10/12 1:07pm

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V is for vegetables, not victory, in 2013. (TRD)

He’s Not Running, But John Catsimatidis Wonders If Christine Quinn Is ‘Tough Enough’ to Be Mayor

John Catsimatidis sat down with The Real Deal to talk about just how great Downtown Brooklyn is (who knew?!) and while that topic dominates the discussion, the real estate rag couldn’t help but bring up next year’s mayoral elections. After all, the grocery store magnate and billionaire developer has been bandied about as a possible Republican candidate in the race to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg. While he may no longer be interested in that job, he’s not sure the woman widely considered the most-pro-business candidate in the pack of potential Bloomberg successors is ready for it either. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/08/12 10:15am

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Fulton Mall

General Brooklyn: Baghdad Big Tucker Reed Tackles Downtown, Giving Businesses Their Marching Orders

When Tucker Reed finally stepped up to the lectern inside the new BAM Fisher Building on a Thursday morning at the end of July, the crowd could barely handle any more news about just how stupendous Downtown Brooklyn was, is and will be.

Karen Brooks Hopkins, entering her fourth decade at BAM, welcomed the crowd into the brightly lit practice space on the third floor of the two-month-old red brick theater, tucked in behind BAM’s original performance hall. This would be the linchpin of the latest, greatest cultural district in the city. Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn borough president and cheerleader-in-chief for 11 years now, warmed up the crowd with his typical act. “Everywhere you look, things are looking up in Downtown Brooklyn,” he barked. This was, is, will be the center of the universe.

Next came State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, whose grandmother grew up on Albany Street in Crown Heights. He had made sure to wear his Brooklyn lapel pin, a gift Mr. Markowitz bestows on everyone he meets. Though he was a Long Island guy, Mr. DiNapoli was an adopted son of this former outer borough, at least for the day, for the good news he was bringing: economic growth in Downtown Brooklyn had outpaced the rest of the city over the past decade, according to a new report prepared by the comptroller’s office. This was, is, will be an economic powerhouse.

On the same streets where Jay-Z had once slung crack (and would soon be headlining the Barclays Center he ostensibly helped build), legitimate businesses had replaced illicit ones, and they were thriving. Thousands of new residents had moved in, filling the striking and unspectacular condo-turned-rental-in-the-downturn towers along Flatbush Avenue. National brands including H&M, Sephora, Target and Shake Shack were replacing the pawn shops and cellphone outlets on the Fulton Mall.

It’s not your bubbe’s Brooklyn anymore. It’s Tucker Reed’s. Read More

By Matt Chaban 7/30/12 7:04pm

Machers

Stick to your back yard. (Durst Organization)

Durst in China: Development Is for Locavores

Leonine developer Douglas Durst might not be quite the public presence than his father Seymour once was—a regular in the letters to the editor column and on local talk shows, among other outlets for his restless mind—yet he still very much knows his way around a podium. Last week, he found himself in China, talking about New York, and he even seems to admit that the one investment his firm recently made just across the Formosa Strait might not have been its best.

“My experience is almost completely New York centric,” Mr. Durst said at the China Alliance’s US-China Investment Summit: Focus On New York Real Estate in Shenzen. “Our one experience outside of New York convinced us to stay in New York. Real Estate is always local.”

He also, naturally, talked about his kids—it’s now a fourth generation business!—and how building sustainably not only provides better buildings, and thus better income, for them, but also a better world. There was talk of 4 Times Square and 1 Bryant Park, but nothing about the widely anticipated, mildly concerning West 57th Street pyramid. The full speech is below. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/30/12 12:05pm

Machers

The new towers. (Wikimedia, TRD)

Threesome! Larry Silverstein Planning Another Super-Tall Apartment Tower on the Far West Side

The boom is back on the Far West Side.

In addition to the Related Companies and Brookfield’s work at Hudson Yards, and now Extell’s reappearance on the scene, Larry Silverstein is moving forward with a new 60-story residential tower on West 40th Street, according to The Real Deal. It will be on the same block as Mr. Silverstein’s twinned Silver Towers, which also rise to 60 stories, which should make for an interesting trio on the skyline. Read More