Brookfield Place office complex, owned by Brookfield Asset Management
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MANHATTAN: FROM INDIANS TO THE ENGLISH
Real Estate Kings
The company's key assets are the Brookfield Place office complex and the One Liberty Plaza skyscraper. In second place is SL Green Realty Corp., whose properties include the Graybar Building and One Astor Plaza. Next are Vornado Realty Trust and Tishman Speyer.
Many properties in New York are owned by family companies that earn income from rent or construction. According to The Real Deal, the top ten dynasties include families with surnames Tishman (Tishman Speyer), Rudin (Rudin Management), Durst (Durst Organization), Malkin (Malkin Holdings), Fisher (Fisher Brothers), LeFrak (LeFrak Organization), Resnick (Jack Resnick & Sons), Milstein (Milstein Properties), Rose (Rose Associates), and Zeckendorf (Zeckendorf Realty). The business of these companies has been run by at least three generations of New Yorkers.
Among family firms, Tishman Speyer holds the most real estate – one and a half million square meters worth a total of $568 million. In second place is Rudin Management (1.3 million square meters; $315 million). Among the properties owned by the firms are famous buildings and major projects. For example, the Malkin family owns the Empire State Building skyscraper, featured in the film "King Kong," while Tishman Speyer owns the Chrysler Building skyscraper and Rockefeller Center. Richard LeFrak is the owner of LeFrak City, the largest residential complex with five thousand apartments in Queens.
Private companies also own apartment buildings. According to CityRealty, the largest owners include Bettina Equities, Brodsky Organization (42 buildings each), Equity Residential (35 buildings), Glenwood Management (25 buildings), and Rose Associates (24 buildings).
Cooperatives
According to Tranio, 80 percent of housing on the Manhattan market are cooperatives. Cooperatives are apartments where, upon purchase, one acquires not the apartment itself but a share in the corporation that owns the building or the building and the land on which it is built. Most residential cooperative buildings own the land on which they are built. But some of them lease the land.
Several dozen cooperative buildings stand on leased plots, including the former Stanhope Hotel on Fifth Avenue and The Mark Hotel on East 77th Street. Land in Manhattan is constantly appreciating, and to avoid overpaying for rent and rising maintenance fees, some corporations that own cooperatives buy back the plots. In this case, the residents themselves pay for the land in proportion to the value of their apartments.
For example, the 39-story residential building Trump Plaza was built in the 1980s by Donald Trump. The landowner, Donald Ruth, at that time refused to sell the plot to the developer. After ownership passed to Ruth's son, it was decided to make concessions and sell the land. In November 2014, the Trump Plaza cooperative signed a contract to purchase 0.2 hectares for $185 million.
Each resident received a bill for about one million dollars. The developer of the project, Donald Trump, owns two apartments in this building. His bill came to three million dollars. Some residents, lacking such funds, were forced to put their apartments up for sale. In one case, the cost of the land share ($900,000) exceeded the cost of the apartment ($800,000). Most residents nevertheless supported the decision to buy the land: maintenance fees are $2,860 per month, and after the land purchase, expenses will decrease by 18 percent.
State Ownership
Many properties in New York are state-owned. For example, most parks, many playgrounds, bridges, vacant lots, as well as LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports – all belong to "Uncle Sam."
Social housing is also owned by government agencies. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) builds such housing and rents out more than 200,000 apartments in about 300 projects in New York.
Interestingly, in Manhattan there is "big land" that belongs not only to Americans. This refers to the complex of buildings that house the UN headquarters. The buildings are located in the eastern part of Manhattan between 42nd and 48th Streets, First Avenue and the East River. The plot inside this square occupies about 73,000 square meters. The land on which the institutions are located belongs to all members of the United Nations.