NEWNEW YORKYORK Fisher’s Focus An Interview with Kenneth Fisher, Partner, Fisher Brothers, and Chairman and Chief Executive Offi cer, Fisher House Foundation EDITORS’ NOTE Ken Fisher is re- New York City is still very attrac- How critical has philanthropy been for sponsible for managing, marketing, tive as an investment. you and how did the military focus come and leasing a portfolio of more than From the tenant side, we see about? six million square feet of Fisher movement between buildings but not Philanthropy is important to us. People Brothers-owned Class A real estate a lot of tenants coming into the city. forget the military is a subculture and that the in midtown Manhattan. He is Co- We need to aggressively promote the way that service people get injured isn’t just in Chairman of the Intrepid Museum city as a good place to do business, battle. Their service doesn’t mean they don’t Foundation and a member of the not just a place to invest in the real deal with the same things that affect the civilian Real Estate Board of New York’s estate. sector, like illness and substance abuse. Board of Governors Executive Is the size and scale of what The need for what we do has never been Committee. Fisher also sits on the you do well-known? greater, but our number-one mantra is, “Bring board of The Association for the Our focus has always been on to light the plight of the military family.” With Help of Retarded Children, The Kenneth Fisher serving tenants, but now the brand Fallen Heroes, we have tried to provide education Jackie Robinson Foundation, and becomes important because we have about that plight and develop facilities for those The General Command & Staff College at Ft. partners, and we’re looking to expand our port- mentally injured by war. The Intrepid is where Leavenworth. folio by developing again. we started; it’s designed to educate people. We The same principles established at our offer a great STEM program, but people also COMPANY BRIEF Fisher Brothers (fi sherbrothers. founding are still in place, but this business learn about the roots of freedom on an asset com) was founded in 1915 by Martin Fisher, needed to be brought into the 21st century, so that paid for its role with a lot of blood. who was joined by brothers Larry and Zachary we’re refreshing the Fisher brand. How challenging is it to keep up with Fisher. Over the next several decades, Sixty-fi ve percent of the inventory in this the need? Fisher Brothers built residential properties in town is now 50 years or older, so we have to One can only do so much. Our hope is Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Riverdale, compete with new projects being built and with that the government will hold up its end of Mount Vernon, and later Manhattan. Fisher the other real estate entities that have put a lot the bargain. One in four service people have Brothers began putting up commercial build- of money into their portfolios. mental issues that are associated with longer ings in the mid-’50s. Midtown tower construc- Will a large percentage of the popula- deployment, and the percentage of suicides tion and ownership rose to exceed eight million tion be priced out of this market? by veterans has outpaced the civilian sector. square feet of Class A office space. Fisher Under the last administration, there was a Vietnam veterans affected by Agent Orange Brothers rewrote its business plan in the mid- good deal of affordable housing developed and are coming back into the system with men- ’70s, adopting a new strategy that called for programs like 80/20 generated tax incentives to tal issues they have carried around for years. selling off its residential properties while con- provide affordable housing within a building, We will do what we have to in order to keep tinuing to develop and manage commercial which is still in place our foundations vibrant and meaningful. Fisher real estate investments, and diversifying its in- While the current administration has made House is building six houses this year that al- vestment portfolio into non-real estate sectors. affordable housing one of its platforms, the low the families of injured warriors to be close With the decision to capitalize on the fi rm’s ca- inclusionary housing aspect calls for it to be to them. pabilities as a builder and manager, the part- within the same district as the building that We’re going to team up with Prince Harry nership formed Plaza Construction in 1986 you’re developing, and we’re building in for the Invictus Games, which are interna- and Sandhurst Associates in 1992 to provide trendy areas. So it’s not that easy or affordable tional wounded-warrior games. We deal with onsite management for other building owners. to develop the inclusionary housing when we these veterans and their families when they Fisher Brothers has emerged as a highly pay top market dollar for it, and then have to are at their worst. We played a role in their diversified financial investment force. Assets put the money into it to make it affordable recovery and now they will get together on an currently under management exceed $6 bil- housing. international stage. Since we already have a lion, with a substantial portion strategically The city still has the outer boroughs presence in Britain, it’s a natural progression invested in a broad spectrum of fi nancial mar- where, for the same amount of money that you for us. We still have our mission, but now kets and ventures, including opportunistic over- have used for the inclusionary housing in a we will branch out, since this is our 25th an- night investments in treasuries and repos, as trendy district, you could probably build three niversary year. well as building refi nancing and construction times as much. The cost of living in Manhattan The Fallen Heroes fund is doing what it loans. Today, the fi rm is led by partners Arnold, is different that the cost of living in the outer can – building satellite centers for traumatic Kenneth, Steven, and Winston Fisher, and each boroughs. brain injury and post-traumatic stress. The most assumes primary responsibility for a different It’s less about building enclaves than about compelling thing about what we do is that we aspect of the business. keeping affordable housing in the conscious- have been able to elevate the public/private ness and keeping the middle class in New York partnership into a viable solution to a great num- Has full economic recovery taken place in City, which is critical to the economy and to ber of unmet needs that are only growing as New York City and is it sustainable? New York as a whole. budget cuts grow.• 126 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. VOLUME 37, NUMBER 4.