The New Kings of New York

by Adam Piore, Stuart Elliott (Editor), Hiten Samtani (Editor)

The blood sport that is New York real estate is rife with billion-dollar feuds. There’s a story behind every eye-popping apartment sale and audacious new development in New York City, and many of those stories involve the uber-wealthy behaving badly.


THE NEW KINGS OF NEW Renegades, Moguls, Gamblers and the Remaking of the World’s Most Famous Skyline charts the extraordinary transformation of America’s greatest city from a near-bankrupt urban combat zone into the land of Billionaires’ Row and Hudson Yards—a luxury playground for the global 1 percent—and provides an inside look at the bombastic personalities behind the biggest real estate deals of this century.

The first two decades of the 21st century were a giddy, hyperbolic era of dizzying highs and deep, dark lows. The headlines told the the world's biggest (and most disastrous) real estate transaction, the largest private development in U.S. history, the largest condo conversion in the history of the world, a commercial real estate nuclear winter, a $200 million penthouse sale, the world's most expensive office skyscraper, the tallest condo ever built. And then there was the pandemic of 2020: 95 percent of Manhattan’s office space sat empty, retail stores were boarded up, and restaurants went belly-up. Yet somehow, New York, and its world-famous real estate market, rose again.

Written by award-winning journalist Adam Piore and brought to you by the country's most authoritative real estate publication, The Real Deal, THE NEW KINGS OF NEW YORK offers a behind-the-scenes picture of what it’s like to operate at the highest levels of the industry, and what it took to pull off skyline-transforming deals. Featuring never-before-reported accounts from the larger-than-life characters at the top of the real estate food chain, it's a tale of chutzpah, greed and city-defining vision.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Finance, Urban Studies

380 pages, Hardcover

Published May 24, 2022

About the author

Adam Piore is an award-winning journalist based in New York. A former editor and correspondent for Newsweek Magazine, his narrative features have appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, GQ, Discover Magazine, Mother Jones, Playboy, Scientific American, the Atavist, BusinessWeek and many others. He is currently a contributing editor at Popular Science and Discover Magazines.

Reviews

[Jonathan Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read if you’re a real estate industry type or you obsess with it which is most people. A treasure-trove of not so flattering detail that made me appreciate the interviewing skills of the author.

[Fred Cheyunski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impactful Builders and Building - Having read a few books earlier (e.g. see my reviews of David’s “Modern New York,” and Clarke’s “Billionaire’s Row”), I wanted to update my understanding about NYC and its direction. The book seems to confirm the trend indicated by Currid-Halkett’s “The Warhol Economy” (see my review) that the aspects that have made the City great are being “squeezed out” as new construction geared for the high income and ultra rich have raised the urban cost of living beyond the means of average people. While mentioning such results, the book concentrates more on the how builders and buildings having these effects proceeded and came into being.

More specifically, the book’s contents consist of an Introduction, 38 chapters in 3 Parts, followed by a chapter on ‘Defining the Future of New York” and an Epilogue: Macklowe and the Wedding Present. Namely, there is Part 1: (1) Come East, Young Cricket: Harry Macklowe and the Education of Kent Swig, (2) You Are Not to Talk, Young Man: The Rise of Steve Ross, (3) Unto the Sons: The Zeckendorfs and 515 Park, (4) I, Columbus: The Time Warner Center Site, (5) A Second Gilded Age: 515 Park, 48 Wall, and the Promise of 15 CPW, and (6) The Rubble: 9/11 and Its Aftermath. Then comes Part 2: (7) Swig Goes Big: A Downtown Buying Spree for the Ages, (8) The Time Warner Effect: The Mailing of Manhattan, (9) The Full Monty 15 CPW, the First Super-Condo, (10) The Push for a "New" New York: Doctoroff's Olympic Dreams, (11) Right Side of the Tracks: The High Line Effect, (12) Mogul Mania: Cashing In on the Resi Boom, (13) Mr. Downtown Goes Uptown: Swig and the Sheffield, (14) "The Mama of All Residential Offerings:” Stay Town, (15) Miracle on the Hudson: The Chance to Develop a Megasite, (16) Could You Spare $1 Billion? -Macklowe's EOP Play, (17) Marching to His Own Tune: Swig's Risky Game, (18) Stood Up on Prom Night: Hudson Yards Heartbreak, (19) Harry's Reckoning: Macklowe Loses His Shirt, (20) Ice Ice Baby: Swig and the Ice Bucket Incident, (21) High Tide: Lehman Collapses and Takes Real Estate with It, and (22) Class Warfare: Troubles at Stuy Town. Finally, Part 3 follows with (23) Diamond in the Rough: Gary Barnett and One57, (24) If You Love Something, Let It Go: A Second Chance at Hudson Yards, (25) How to Steal a Building in Broad Daylight: Fortress and the Sheffield, (26) "From Russia with Love" Meets "Crazy Rich Asians:" Foreign Money Invasion, (27) City Within a City: The Hudson Yards Masterplan, (28) Redefining Rich: The Rise of Billionaires' Row, (29) Family Feud: Mentor to Tormentor, (30) Exit Stage Left: From Technocrat to Progressive, (31) West Side Story: Hudson Yards Takes Shape, (32) Ill-Gotten Gains: The Money Laundering Question, (33) Three Amigos in a Room: Shelly Silver Goes Down, (34) Piper Paid: Swig Steps into the Sunlight, (35) The Everything Store Checks Out: Amazon Dumps NYC, (36) Big Bird Comes Home to Roost: The Hudson Yards Backlash, (37) The Rent Riot: Tenants Strike Back, and (38) Killing the Golden Goose? - Defining the Future of New York. There is also an Epilogue: Macklowe and the Wedding Present as well as Acknowledgments.

Aspects that stood out for me were remarks on places visited and familiar to me in NYC during the years covered as well as the periodic comments regarding what such developments have meant for the City. For instance, it was fascinating to learn of the back story regarding Columbus Circle, 15 Central Park West and other occurrences modifying the character of the Upper West Side, not to mention the advent of “Billionaires Row” and the “Super Talls” on 57th Street (also see my review of Clarke’s book).

From the events described (see Chapters above and pg. 11), “Many had begun to feel that the gritty, artsy, egalitarian New York City they identified with was slipping away.” After the Bloomberg and DeBlasio administrations into that of Adams, tech infusions and misstarts, political powershifts, the Covid Pandemic, residence and office migration and remote work, conditions left some asking (pg., 386), “Even assuming the city recovered some of its economic bustle, would it go back to the pro-development days of the first two decades?” Such quotes harden back to books such as Egger’s “The Every” and cause one to wonder what a course that involves what Kim and Mauborgne describe in their book “Beyond Disruption” (see my reviews) might mean as an alternative.

Among the book’s drawbacks are the references and the desire for more attention to the implications of zoning changes and the numerous high end building projects completed. For starters there is no index nor notes to check items or for further inquiry into the various topics covered. Footnotes through out the book give sources for a number of assertions and quotes along the way, but one has to go through the text to find them again for review. Secondly, while the foibles of the various real estate developers make for an interesting read, it is the consequences of their efforts that have a long-term effect and impact the NYC future. To that end, I had hoped for more discussion in this regard.

Despite my reservations, “The New Kings of New York” provides a helpful account of the major building efforts in Manhattan and it’s surrounds that have altered the NYC trajectory during the first quarter of the 21st Century.

[John Cohen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having the meanest thoughts about the writers and readers of this book. It's not fair, and I know that. This was bought for me as a Christmas present from my godmother, who I love very much. I read it (ok, I read half of it) in anticipation of her visit, but then I got COVID, so all bets are off. This book is poo poo stinky farts. It's the synthetic scribbles of the most knowledgeable New York real estate writer. Are you impressed? Neither was I. I am sure that sweet Adam Piore is a lovely man, and he doesn't deserve this wrath, but someone has to pay for this en-masse wasting of the few precious moments I have on this matchless earth. Come for your favorite business major's musings on his favorite subject, real estate. Stay for the most brain-rattlingly dull stories about how billionaire X did what had never been done before and made more money off his lots of money. In the intro, the book pump fakes like it will be a condemnation of the uber-rich's disintegration of culture and life in New York for the pleasure and benefit of the 1%. Still, then it just goes on to tell the vapidest stories about a carousel of "scions," "moguls," and "ball busters." 4.29 on Goodreads? Come back to earth. Again, I am sorry, everyone, this was nobody's fault.

[Scott Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work looks at the real estate moguls and power players in New York City from the 1990s to today. Given the major renovations and updates to buildings and structures, there is more of a tale to tell than most might expect. This work dives into those stories. There are arrogant, wealthy men who have the power and money to be “kings”, but they are caught up in the ups and downs of the market and the world like everyone else. From 9/11 to the Great Recession, this work shows how these men tried to overcome their errors, maximize their successes and make New York what it is today.

While there are some fun, gossipy type stories, there is way more emphasis on financial and legal dealings, topics that are not always that interesting to read. This is geared more toward those with interest in those areas, and New York in particular. Otherwise, an okay read, but not one that will leave most wanting to read more.

[その人 · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of 2000s NYC real estate market that focuses on individual actors - personally felt like a lot of concepts and themes are from another era (Chinese and Russian buyers, everyone trying to pile into office) but was interesting enough as a sort of good-to-know history

The book felt a bit like reading piled up newspaper articles in a sense that you learn a lot of random factoids that you did not know but is not ‘deep’ in a sense that it offers original analysis or offers new perspectives and can turn into a pretty repetitive cycle of this developer x is a scion of another developer y and he was a daring guy who built z and/or ended up losing his shirt

[Grace Oakey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fueled by an array of valuable interviews allowing gleams into anecdotes from behind the scenes of some of New York's most consequential real estate projects over the decades, Piore succeeded in delivering a thorough overview of NYC real estate's evolution that touches on the most important projects. While the complete lack of cohesion from each chapter to the next created a choppiness that would be offputting to many, this also made the book more digestible for me from a learning perspective (although this really would have been valuable if the book just had an index in the back!)

[Unsolicitedadvice7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading this excellent book that chronicles NYC real estate moguls and their quest to build some of the best high end luxury residences and developments in the World.
For me, this book followed my reading of Billionaires Row which is a similar tome. Together these books make for a great review of all that goes into developing real estate masterpieces on a NYC scale!
The characters discussed here are larger than life but all too human. You follow them from the highest highs to the lowest lows and everything in between. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in real estate and/or NYC. Enjoy!

[Robby Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

- unbelievable NYC book to learn about how the current skyline was built.
- Feel like I now understand and appreciate some of the more famous office and apartment buildings in Manhattan.
- The RE scene was always something I didn’t know much about so I enjoyed learning about the bigger players and how some of their careers were made.
- would absolutely recommend to people interested in Real Estate, Finance and NYC.

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic foray into the heads of the top developers in New York City from the late 70s through the Great Recession. NYC is it’s own unique animal in the real estate world, and this book reads more like a thriller than it does a business story. Even those not interested in commercial real estate will enjoy it.

[Julia Soleymani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for my real estate development class. Thought it was interesting to learn abt since it’s all buildings I grew up going to in NYC, and hearing the stories / trends / people behind it was cool. Also was funny to read since some of the names of the people I’m acc friends w their kids from living in the city.

[Bobby Wuertz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read for anyone who has an appreciation for the NYC skyline. The first two decades of the 21st century was a roller coaster of a development period. Fortunes made and lost and very unique individuals were amongst this group of developers and capital.

[Dilip Massand · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rapid fire tale of the Real Estate industry in Manhattan over the last 20 years. Filled with ambitious egos, financial daring, apocalyptic crashes and phoenix-like risings and social and class battles. Just another working day in our hometown..😉

[Mark Gulley · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Is Too Much Not Nearly Enough

Familiar, though still tiresome, story of boom and bust. I’m looking forward to a sequel, written by either Piore or another writer, for the Mayor Adams era.

[Katherine Kappelmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lover of NYC, this was a fascinating read about the development of NYC in the 1990s and the making of the current skyline. The levels of corruption and wealth that go into places like Billionaire's Row are honestly a bit depressing, even if it makes for an interesting read.

[Jeff]

Absolutely fantastic read about NYC real estate

All the characters of NYC politics and real estate are in this book. It's a riveting story of a unique city. I couldn't put it down.

[Raúl Sánchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si eres desarrollador es un gran libro para leer , aunque no lo leas es una gran historia de todos esos rascacielos de NY.

[Stefan Todorovic · Rating 1 out of 5]

0.5/5.

Horrible. Never ever buying a financial book ever again. Don’t usually sell books but might consider on this case.

[Mark Chanatry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would’ve worked much better as an article.

[Dao Le · Rating 2 out of 5]

The materials sure had the potential for a Barbarians at the Gate for the real estate industry, but it fell woefully short of that expectation. Read like a bunch of articles from a financial newsletter put together without coherent structure or storyline; doesn’t mean that some stories are not uninteresting, but overall I can do without them.

[Jillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

coworker recommendation, low on specifics, tons of projects mentioned rapid fire, breathless coverage of how smart, prophetic, bold these rich white dudes are

[Pamela Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

A study n heady wealth and glut

The haves are winning in New York. It's a far cry from what our founding fathers had in mind. An excellent read and an education all on one.

[Zachary Neugut · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book had potential as a "Barbarians at the Gate" for NYC real estate and failed miserably. First the positives of the books, the author clearly has an enthusiasm for real estate and had access to some great interviews, allowing for a ton of interesting anecdotes, whether it be Steve Ross getting fired from his job for saying "F you" to his boss, or whether it be a physical altercation Kent Swig got into with a business partner. Additionally, this book highlighted a few key developments in NYC that transformed the city that were very interesting, such as how the neighborhood around Lincoln Square changed with the TWC development. Third, there were definitely a decent amount of financial nuggets that people in the industry would find interesting, whether it be how many millions people invested/made/lost on certain deals, how much things sold for on a per square foot basis, or what the pref rate was on certain mezz loans/pref pieces. In terms of what I viewed lacking, I have a bunch of minor quibbles, but to me the real problem was that there was no thesis/thread to this book at all, but instead each chapter sort of functioned as a stand-alone chapter that would better suffice as a magazine article, causing there to be 30ish disjoint chapters. A few of these chapters would have functioned well even as standalone chapters (such as everything involving the Zeckendorfs as well as Kent Swig's Sheffield deal), but then there were a bunch of filler chapters (Olympics, High Line, foreign condo investors) that not only were boring, but didn't further the plot because there is no thread to the book. This, paired along with an extremely juvenile writing style, caused me to essentially walk away from the book with a slightly better understanding of how specific parts of NYC developed, as well as a few interesting anecdotes, and not much else. As a potential next "Barbarians at the Gate" it failed miserably, however; if you are in real estate it is definitely worth a cursory skim, if not just to admire the repeated brilliance of Fortress.

[Sabrina Ljesnjanin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75. Very good! I was not the demographic in mind when this was being written so kudos Adam sir because I still really liked it.