ABoston race to Properties’the top unlikely NYC’snew sky-soaring CEO residential towerstakes are one-upping the each other atreins an unprecedented pace, butApril 01,can 2013 it continue? OctoberBy Guelda 01, Voien 2015 By Rich Bockmann he line of succession at Boston Properties, the $18 bil- lionfew realy today’s estate standards, investment Harry trust, Macklowe’s seemed clear Metropolitan to the real development marketing specialist Nancy Packes. “It’s a whole TestateTower industry: on West 57th When Street Mortimer seems quaint.Zuckerman stepped new genre of height and luxury.” down as CEO,The early surely 1980s-era the firm’s building president stands would 716 take feet over.tall; its Butresale Zuckerman condos announced trade at prices his resignationaround $1,500 last monthto $2,000 and Tall, rich and thin Bperhis squarereplacement foot. But is not when Doug the Linde, spire toppedthe son out of his there longtime in 1982, New York City’s latest supertall spires are not only tall, they are itfriend set a andrecord business as the partner,tallest residential Ed Linde, tower who diedin the in city. 2010. also far more slender than their predecessors. Instead,Today, the Macklowe 75-year-old still ownsZuckerman a piece andof the the city’s company tallest board The ever-shrinking amount of development space in apartmentwent outside building, Boston but Properties it’s at 432 for Park its newAvenue, top andleader it stands — to Manhattan has prompted developers to piece together postage- almostthe financial twice as world.tall. In addition, the most expensive penthouse stamp-sized sites and then pack on air rights that allow them to thereTheir is under choice: contract Owen for Thomas, $95 million 51, who — or has roughly headed $11,500 Lehman build higher. perBrothers square Holdings foot. for the last year, successfully unraveling From an engineering standpoint, a building is considered manyIn a of game the bankruptof construction investment one-upmanship, bank’s real developers estate assets, are “slender” if it has a width-to-height ratio of 1 to 10, meaning surpassingafter nearly each a quarter-century other at an unprecedented of top jobs clip at toMorgan build the Stanley. next it rises 10 feet for every foot of width at its base. Today’s greatOn April “supertall” 2, Thomas residential started building a three-year — a term stint the withChicago-based Boston supertall towers, however, are testing the limits of width-to- Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat reserves for towers of height ratios. Properties as CEO and board member. Zuckerman, perhaps at least 984 feet. Macklowe’s 432 Park, for example, has a 1 to 15 ratio. JDS bestAn known example as publisherof this race of to the the New top: YorkAt 1,396 Daily feet News, high, will 432 stay on as chairman until at least 2015, presumably to shep- Development and Property Market Group’s 111 West 57th Street Park overtook Extell Development’s 1,004-foot-tall One57 is pushing the envelope even further, with a ratio of 1:23, which earlierherd the this transition. year. But Extell is now on track to reclaim the title. “Linde seemed to be being groomed for [the CEO] role,” will make it the world’s skinniest tower when it opens in 2018 at Extell’s latest “supertall” building, dubbed Central Park Tower, 1,418 feet. (Highcliff Apartments in Hong Kong is currently the issaid scheduled Alexander to top Goldfarb, out at 1,550 an analyst feet in at2019. investment What’s more, bank theSan - Owen Thomas, the incoming CEO of Boston Properties planet’s skinniest residential tower with a ratio of 1:20.) towerdler O’Neill will reportedly + Partners. have a record $4.4 billion sellout. TheHowever, current Zuckerman real estate said cycle the is choiceon pace to to bring produce in fresh as FreshBy comparison, face the World Trade Center’s original North Tower, manyblood record-tallwas part of residential a plan to recreate buildings the as trio the of previous leadership eight that whichWhile soared Thomas 1,368 is feeta fresh high, face had ona ratio the ofREIT less than scene, 1:7 therebecause is itno decades.had existed when he, Ed Linde and Doug Linde ran the firm haddoubt a big that broad he base,knows as thereal Skyscraper estate from Museum the financing has noted. end. together.But with He a saidhistoric he was number attracted of über-luxury to Thomas’s condos “easy-going on the Today’sHis first slender job at towers Morgan are notStanley, just alteringin 1987, the was look with of thethe real market,style,” which and sources he felt ofmade foreign him capital an ideal in Chinamember and of elsewhere the trium - skyline,estate group they are within also relying the investment on more sophisticated banking division. engineering By showingvirate. volatility, industry observers are increasingly tossing along1995, with he had high-tech jumped features up to managinglike sound attenuation,director of thehigh-speed firm’s the “Weword did “frothy” not do around this casually,” these days Zuckerman in discussions told aboutThe Real the elevatorsreal estate and investing wind turbines. business. And from 2000 to 2008, he led NewDeal. York luxury market. Morgan“Slender Stanley towers Real require Estate special Fund. measures Next, Thomasto counteract wore the two That raises the question: Will this trend of building supertall Neither Thomas nor Doug Linde could comment for this exaggeratedhats — CEO forces of Morgan of wind Stanley on the vertical Asia and cantilever,” chairman according and CEO luxury apartment towers start slowing anytime soon? Developer to a New York Skyscraper Museum exhibit. “This can include Ianstory. Bruce Eichner — whose CitySpire tower became the city’s of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing. By the time he left “The team-oriented approach is very much a part of the additionalthe company structures in 2011, to hestiffen was thechairman building of or Mitsubishi various types UFJ of tallest apartment building when it surpassed Macklowe’s Metro dampers to counteract sway.” towerculture in atthe Boston late 1980s Properties,” — says yes. said Michael Knott, an analyst Morgan Stanley Securities, a large Japanese investment bank at commercial real estate research firm Green Street Advisors. HeThat is even sway a doesformer not chairmanseem to be of impacting the Pension the buyers,Real Estate who are “I don’t think you’ll see another 1,000-foot building in the plunking down eight- or sometimes even nine-figure prices for immediateFor the future,”REIT, insiders Eichner told said. TRD, “Right “slow now and it would steady be wins very the Association, a trade group. these units. They seem to be more concerned about views and challengingrace.” But they because noted lenders that Thomas are very isconcerned used to a about quicker the pace And Thomas, with a mechanical engineering degree from absorptionand short-term at the deals, high end.” the hallmarks of corporate investing. exoticthe University bathtub marbles. of Virginia and an M.B.A. from Harvard Busi- WhileSo now Eichner the question may be is: right What, about if anything, future construction, will change ness“The School, people has who been are described buying in asthese “cerebral buildings and are understated,” generally byunder The Thomas’sReal Deal ’sleadership? count, there are at least 20 New York livingthough in analystsor have bought are concerned in tall buildings that he before,” still might said Sothebymake deals CityThe projects answer at mayleast be 900 found feet bytall looking that are at either how heunder ran opera- International’stoo fast for Boston Nikki Properties,Field. known for its long view of the constructiontions at Lehman or in and the Morganplanning Stanley. stages today. Of that batch, marketField —added even that among buyers’ REITs. attorneys review condo-offering plans 14 are“Everyone 1,000 feet wants or taller. to learn more about Owen,” Goldfarb withThe information company on is sway-preventingregarded as a smart, dampers. yet careful Plus, she player said, said.“Never “He isbefore very havenew towe the seen street.” anything like this,” said new “Thethat hasview assets far outweighs like the iconicany concern GM Building about height.” and Boston’s Puzzle pieces Assembling the puzzle pieces for these sky-high residential buildings is another equally complicated challenge and often requires collecting multiple sites (sometimes dozens) along with air rights. Not only does that process require adroit negotiating skills, but it also takes serious patience. Barnett, for example, spent 15 years assembling the site for One57, originally starting with a plan for a 300,000-square-foot building. But as the market rose, so did his aspirations. The final product was nearly three times what he had originally planned. “There may be great rewards to New York real estate but you have to have the vision and the patience and the legs to put it together and figure it out,” said Michael Sillerman, co-chair of the land use department at the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, who along with colleague Paul Selver has worked on many of the 57th Street-area sites. “It’s a very sophisticated game to figure out how to get all the pieces.” He added: “It’s no accident. You look at the cast of characters who end up doing these. These very tall buildings only resulted from the resourcefulness and expertise of sophisticated builders who put these assemblages together.” Barnett, who is widely considered an assemblage master, began negotiating to buy the site for his next supertall, Central Park Tower at 217 West 57th Street, around 2003. The complicated land-grab included nearly a dozen different transactions. Meanwhile, Vornado Realty Trust spent a decade assembling the site where it is building the 950-foot-tall 220 Central Park South.