By Janon Fisher 1/17/12 2:30pm

REBNY2012

Howard Rubenstein. (Illustration by Joao Maio Pinto)

Howard Rubenstein: Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Recipient

Manhattan real estate moguls talk about his “Solomonic wisdom,” according to The New York Times.

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called him the “dean of damage control.” His public relations firm, Rubenstein Associates, once simultaneously represented both Leona Helmsley and Donald Trump.

So it’s no exaggeration to say that nothing of importance happens in New York City without somehow involving Howard J. Rubenstein. Read More

By Emily Witt 6/09/11 4:01pm

Cats and Dogs

Leona Helmsley

In Memoriam: Trouble Helmsley

What will they say of you now, Trouble!

Dead upon your gilded pillow

The millions they did double

But this Maltese they could not save.

So go then, Trouble, to the Elysian doggy fields,

Where bones are thrown,

(The Queen of Mean awaits you there alone.)

And only the little people pay taxes,

And it’s Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 10/14/09 8:25pm

Leona Helmsley Trust Sheds Two Manhattan Properties

The estate holding the assets of the one-time hotelier and reputed Queen of Mean Leona Helmsley sold two properties on Manhattan’s East Side on Oct. 1, according to city records.

The properties in question are a ground-floor 4,178-square-foot retail condominium at 760 Third Avenue and the nearby 144 East 48th Street, a 114,500-square-foot apartment building Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 6/16/09 9:36pm

Exorcising Leona From the Helmsley Hotel She Made Famous

The New York Helmsley Hotel, that 775-room inn trapped in a design hell of 1980s Greed-Is-Good glamour, is getting a face-lift, one to obliterate many of the fingerprints of the late Queen of Mean herself, Leona Helmsley.

While you still can, walk through the revolving doors of 212 East 42nd Street and step into the Read More

By Tom Acitelli 8/29/07 3:35pm

The Late Leona’s Dog Will Live Large [UPDATED]

Leona Helmsley left her dog Trouble $12 million. The real estate mogul's will, which became public on Tuesday, stipulates that Helmsley's brother Alvin Rosenthal is to care for the white Maltese–until it dies and is buried alongside Helmsley in a Bronx mausoleum.

Mr. Rosenthal, for his part, got millions from his late sister, and two Read More

By Mark Wellborn 8/20/07 2:40pm

Leona Helmsley, ‘Queen of Mean,’ Dies at 87

Leona Helmsley died of heart failure today at her Greenwich, Conn., summer home at age 87, according to her longtime publicist Howard Rubenstein.

Helmsley and her husband Harry, whom she married in 1972, amassed a New York City real estate empire that eventually included the Empire State Building, Tudor City and 230 Park Read More