By Matt Chaban 11/27/12 7:42pm

Best Laid Plans

Park Avenue promenade.

Pedestrians at the Gates: Pathway Plan for Park Avenue Could Turn Class Into Mass

“Nobody on Park Avenue walks,” Michael Shvo said last month, standing near the back of the Drill Hall inside the Park Avenue Armory.

The Fund for Park Avenue was hosting a private cocktail reception to honor donors to its annual holiday tree-lighting drive, a signature project that dates back to 1949.

Mr. Shvo, the 40-year-old retired real estate glitz guru, was among the few dozen guests at the reception. Wearing a white dress shirt with black top-stitching unbuttoned past his clavicle, he was talking about a recent art transaction with a fellow developer when The Observer interrupted them to ask about the future of Park Avenue. Maybe there was room on it for a pedestrian pathway down the middle, so we could all enjoy the malls? Read More

By Tom Acitelli 9/06/11 8:14pm

Our City Since

The Fresh Direct fridge goes here.

Glass Action: The Condo Since 9/11

One winter evening in 2006, host Martin Bashir’s voice intoned over the opening of Nightline: “Meet the brash, young real estate assassin, selling lavish dream apartments to clients with money to burn.”

The TV screen bled to an earnest-looking Michael Shvo. “When you see a photo of the New York skyline,” the 32-year-old informed us, “these are buildings I made happen.”

And what made Mr. Shvo happen? Read More

By Max Abelson 4/21/09 11:51pm

20 Pine: The Conniption

“I would be a fool to sit here and tell you we didn’t have challenges,” the well-tanned real estate marketing guru Michael Shvo said Sunday, April 19, from Dubai. It was a few days after he had last seen the nearly completed, long-delayed mega-condo 20 Pine: The Collection. “Unfortunately, the problems we faced here were Read More

By Max Abelson 2/11/09 12:00am

Dolly Lenz Falls to Earth

On Feb. 12, after seas of silk-scarved, shiny-shoed, power-suited real estate brokers shuffle into the Pierre’s ballroom, the colossal real estate brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman will name its broker of the year. Just as it’s been since Dottie Herman and Howard Lorber bought the company in 2003, and as it will be until the day Read More

By Oliver Haydock 12/09/08 8:56pm

How High, FiDi?

“In the next few years you are not going to see many conversion projects in the Financial District,” Michael Shvo, the ubiquitous and masterful real estate marketer, said.

Mr. Shvo was referencing the vanishing trend of converting hard-to-fill office towers into luxurious new condos in the Financial District—something that has been Read More