The New York City real estate community took notice when news broke in late January about MaryAnne Gilmartin’s expected promotion to CEO of Forest City Ratner.

While women — including the Corcoran Group’s Pamela Liebman, Douglas Elliman’s Dottie Herman, Eastern Consolidated’s Daun Paris and CBRE Group’s Mary Ann Tighe — hold key leadership positions in the city’s residential and commercial brokerage worlds, New York still has very few female developers or development firm heads.

“If you think about how traditional [deals have been done], it’s through relationships—an old boys’ network,” said Brittany Bragg, the chief operating officer of Crown Acquisitions.

One reason for that is a lack of female mentors in the traditionally male-dominated field of development, she said. And many developers start out in construction — another industry that has historically attracted few women.

But Gilmartin and a wave of other powerhouse women are dismantling this long-standing boys’ club. From veterans like Amy Rose of Rose Associates to newcomers like Bragg, female executives are beginning to break new barriers in the development arena.

Development “is a tremendous opportunity for talented women,” said Laurie Golub, HFZ Capital Group’s general counsel and COO. “The glass ceiling is only there if you look for it.”

This month, The Real Deal talked to some of the most influential women in the New York City development and commercial investment world to find out how they got where they are and what challenges they’ve faced along the way.

Wendy Silverstein: Executive vice president and cohead of acquisitions and capital markets, Vornado Realty Trust

With a portfolio of over 100 million square feet, Vornado is one of the country’s largest owners and managers of commercial real estate. And Wendy Silverstein has been a head honcho there for nearly 15 years.

Silverstein (who is not related to real estate mogul Larry Silverstein) told TRD she met Vornado CEO Steven Roth while working in the real estate group at Citibank in the 1990s and eventually joined him at Vornado.

As Vornado’s cohead of acquisitions and capital markets, Silverstein’s specialty is negotiating the debt and equity elements of deals.

In one especially profitable deal she spearheaded, Vornado and four other partners in 2010 recapitalized the struggling LNR Property, one of the largest commercial loan servicers in the country. The four partners invested a total of $417 million in LNR, with Vornado contributing $116 million and retaining a 26.2 percent stake in the company. The servicer was sold in January to Starwood Property as part of a $1.05 billion deal, netting “a substantial profit” for Vornado, Silverstein said.

(Vornado said in a statement it expects to receive net proceeds of $241 million from the transaction.)

Cushman & Wakefield’s Nat Rockett said she is “very well respected.”

“She’s a very smart person [who] knows her business very well,” he said.

Amy Rose: Co-president, Rose Associates

Amy Rose may be copresident of Rose Associates, her family’s property management and development company, but she had to work her way up.

Rose Associates was founded 88 years ago by Amy’s great-uncle, David Rose, and grandfather, Samuel Rose. Amy spent her childhood visiting the company’s leasing offices with her father Elihu, who is now Rose Associates’ vice chairman. She also interned in the company’s co-op and condo department while in college at the University of Michigan.

But Elihu “had a firm belief that if you came to work here, you had to have a real job,” Amy recalled. So when she graduated, she was hired by the company as an assistant project manager in construction. Twenty-four years later, she heads the firm with her cousin, copresident Adam Rose.

Amy oversees the company’s leasing, property management, development and marketing. Adam, lately, has been managing Rose Associates’ 70 Pine Street development. Rose acquired 70 Pine Street (American International Group’s former headquarters) in August from Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft Management and is reportedly converting the 66-story building into some 1,000 rental apartments.

As for Amy, she said of herself, “The thing I’m most proud of in my career [is] working on those ground-up development projects that shape the New York skyline.”

Indeed, she’s been heavily involved in the development of the Larstrand — a 181-unit, 20-story rental development at 227 West 77th Street. Construction began there after Rose Associates received a $125 million construction loan in October 2011. Rose reportedly plans to charge between $80 and $90 per square foot for market-rate units, while 37 of the units will be designated as affordable housing.

Laurie Golub: General counsel and COO, HFZ Capital Group

Laurie Golub was a child when she was first exposed to the world of real estate, attending showings with her mom, a real estate agent in Westchester County.

But after graduating from Boston University, Golub went on to law school at New York University. It was while she was working on real estate deals as a corporate attorney at law firm Morrison Cohen that her interest in development began in earnest. So she took a job as associate general counsel at Forest City Ratner.

While there, Golub led negotiations for the $400 million deal for the naming rights of the Barclays Center. She worked closely with Gilmartin, who oversaw the project (see related story, “MaryAnne’s moment”).

Golub then moved to Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel, where she was general counsel and managing director of business affairs. She was tasked with paring down debt at major properties such as the 589,617-square-foot former New York Times building at 229 West 43rd Street, the 267,000-square-foot Clock Tower at 5 Madison Avenue (which was formerly occupied by Metropolitan Life Insurance) and the Miami Marquis at 1100 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami.

“Those were hugely complex deals,” Golub said. Indeed, the former New York Times Building became a “poster child of the recession,” she noted, after Africa Israel paid a stunning $525 million for it in 2007, then saw its value plummet during the downturn. The company planned to convert the property, but instead ended up selling and leasing portions of the building.

In May, Golub jumped to Ziel Feldman’s development and investment firm HFZ Capital Group, where she is working on about 15 projects in various stages of development. In January, HFZ purchased the prewar rental building the Chatsworth at 344 West 72nd Street for $150 million.

The company is planning an “ambitious renovation” of the historic property, according to a statement released by Eastern Consolidated, which represented the seller, Chatsworth Realty, in the transaction.

HFZ also recently acquired an office building at 11 Beach Street in Tribeca, which it’s planning to convert into residences.

Feldman described Golub as an “integral part of the company.”

He hired her because of her “ability and knowledge of the law with respect to acquisitions and real estate,” he said. “She presents a very good face for the company.”

Veronica Hackett: Chief development manager, Lightstone Group

Veronica “Ronne” Hackett is perhaps best known as cofounder of the Clarett Group, a well-known Manhattan development firm that ceased operations in 2011.

Now, however, she is chief development manager at the Lightstone Group, where she is overseeing the firm’s high-profile 770-unit rental development overlooking the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

Hackett, who declined to comment for this story, reportedly got her start in real estate in 1970 at Citibank’s real estate group.

After stints at Chemical Bank and development firm Park Tower Realty, she and the late Neil Klarfeld, Park Tower’s executive vice president, struck out on their own, founding the Clarett Group in 2000. The company is known for projects such as the Brooklyner, a 491-unit rental building at 111 Lawrence Street in Brooklyn, which is currently the tallest building in the borough.

But the firm ran into trouble during the economic downturn with projects such as the Forté at 230 Ashland Place in Downtown Brooklyn. The 108-unit condo development was only 37 percent sold in August 2009 when the Clarett Group handed control of the project over to Eurohypo bank.

Clarett dissolved in March 2011. Immediately before the firm ceased operations, Hackett moved to Brookfield Office Properties, where she served as head of U.S. development and worked on the company’s 5.4 million-square-foot Manhattan West mixed-use development near Hudson Yards on the Far West Side.

She started at Lightstone in 2012. The firm’s 770-unit development — located on Bond Street in Gowanus — has made headlines recently because of its proximity to the polluted canal, which has sparked objections from local politicians and residents.

Notwithstanding Clarett’s troubles during the real estate downturn, Hackett is “outstanding” and “a straight shooter,” said Adelaide Polsinelli, a senior director at Eastern Consolidated, who worked with Hackett while she was at Clarett.

“Her contributions were really significant,” Polsinelli said.

Melissa Pianko: Executive vice president of development, Gotham Organization

Melissa Pianko is spearheading the Gotham Organization’s four-building Gotham West rental project on the Far West Side, which is reportedly the largest-ever affordable housing project undertaken in New York City by a private developer.

When completed, the $520 million, 1,240-unit complex, which is slated to begin leasing this summer, will span almost an entire city block — from 10th to 11th avenues, between West 44th and West 45th streets.

Pianko has overseen Gotham West since it was a “piece of dirt,” starting with securing a $530 million construction loan from Wells Fargo at a time when “no one was lending any money for anything in New York,” she recalled.

Pianko, who has an M.B.A. from Stanford University, started her career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, first in municipal finance and then in real estate investment banking. But Pianko, who had taken architecture courses in college, found that she really wanted to be on the developer’s side of the table.

David Picket, Gotham’s president, said he hired Pianko as a junior “numbers person” in 2005. Her rise through the company’s ranks since then is largely the result of her own initiative, he said, noting that she asked to be the point person on the Gotham West project. At the time, the project was not at the top of the firm’s priority list.

“It might have fallen between the cracks if it wasn’t for her persistence,” Picket said.

Pianko is “a force of nature,” he added. “She’s an unbelievable multitasker. She’s very good at the empirical skills, the analytical skills and the people skills. She’s the total package.”

For her part, Pianko said she loves development because “every step along the way is different.

“With Gotham West, [I got to] dip my toe in the pond with all sorts of different things,” she said, including the design issues involved in building what she describes as a “little city,” and the “many layers of [city] regulations” that affect a project of such a large scale.

Leslie Wohlman Himmel: Managing partner, Himmel + Meringoff Properties

Leslie Wohlman Himmel is the cofounder of real estate investment firm Himmel + Meringoff Properties, which owns more than 2 million square feet of commercial real estate in the New York City area valued at more than $500 million.

Himmel and longtime business partner Stephen Meringoff started the company in 1985. Himmel said the two met in a class at New York University on a day when late real estate titan Harry Helmsley was a guest speaker. In what was perhaps a sign of the times, when Himmel asked Helmsley what his greatest accomplishment was, he replied: “What are you doing later tonight?” Nonetheless, Meringoff was impressed by Himmel’s moxie, and the two became business partners a short time later.

Himmel + Meringoff owns about 20 buildings in Manhattan, including the 170,000-square-foot office building 729 Seventh Avenue and the 97,000-square-foot 411 Lafayette Street. Himmel focuses on finding financing and acquisition opportunities for the company, while Meringoff manages leasing, construction and renovation. But Himmel said when it comes to negotiating the purchase of a new building, financing purchase contracts and any legal aspects, she and Meringoff always work together.

Recently, the two sold the 108,000-square-foot office building 158 West 27th Street for a reported $57.5 million — more than double the $25 million they paid for it in 2010.

However, Himmel said they are generally “reluctant sellers,” and prefer to hold onto their properties more long-term.

In the 28 years since Himmel and Meringoff have been partners, the two “have never had a harsh word,” Meringoff said. “She’s absolutely the best partner you can have.”

Brittany Bragg: COO, Crown Acquisitions

Up-and-coming development executive Brittany Bragg, 30, was hired as COO at Crown Acquisitions three years ago.

The young executive had previously worked as Acadia Realty Trust’s director of acquisitions, where she said she found “phenomenal mentors” in Acadia’s CEO Kenneth Bernstein and executive vice president Joel Braun.

Like many real estate development firms in New York, Crown is a male-dominated, family-owned business, headed by founder Stanley Chera and his three sons. Sometimes it’s just “me and 50- and 60-year-old guys having scotch and cigars,” said Bragg, who is the only nonfamily executive at the 32-person company.

But she said it’s a credit to the Cheras that they were willing to take a chance on an outsider. “There aren’t a lot of third-generation family businesses that take in a twentysomething-year-old woman and value what they can bring,” she said.

Crown’s managing principal, Haim Chera, said the family worked with Bragg on a transaction while she was at Acadia. Although the deal never went through, Chera said, they were impressed with her. While their initial instinct was to not hire outside the family, he said, “for us, chemistry is a big thing, and we saw chemistry with her early on.”

Bragg’s responsibilities at the firm have grown over time. Initially, she said, she worked on the equity and fundraising side, but now she’s negotiating the financing of major acquisitions such as Crown’s recent deal to purchase a 49.9 percent stake in the Olympic Tower complex, a group of four buildings on Fifth Avenue reportedly valued at $1 billion.

Bragg played an “invaluable role” in getting the deal done, Chera said.

Raizy Haas: Senior vice president of project management and development, Extell Development

Extell Development is currently one of the most active development firms in New York City, and sources said Haas is instrumental to operations at the firm, spearheading high-profile projects such as new construction condos the Lucida, the Orion, Altair (both 18 and 20) and Ariel (both East and West).

Up until the mid-2000s, in fact, Haas oversaw all of Extell’s day-to-day development work, according to attorney Paul Selver of the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, who frequently works with Extell.

Haas is “easily one of the smartest people I work with,” Selver said.

Haas could not be reached for comment, but Extell spokesperson George Arzt told TRD that she led Extell’s $750 million 34-story, 748,000-square-foot International Gem Tower project from start to finish.

Of all of Haas’s projects, “Gem Tower stands out because it was a very insular [deal], and there were a lot of challenges getting the city, state and federal government involved,” Arzt said.

Reportedly raised in a Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn — where she still lives with her husband and children — Haas was hired as a property manager in the Diamond District after graduating from high school. That’s where she met Extell founder Gary Barnett, who worked in the diamond business himself before transitioning into real estate. He was impressed with her knowledge of real estate and hired her in 1998.

Michele Kleier of residential brokerage firm Kleier Residential has worked with Haas while marketing apartments at Extell projects like the Lucida.

“[Extell’s] very fortunate to have her,” Kleier said. “She gets very involved and comes up with good ideas and strategies. There’s nobody in development I’d rather have lunch with than Raizy.”

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Manhattan apartment prices held steady in the first quarter of 2013, while inventory continued to plummet dramatically during the same period, according to a quarterly market report released today by Douglas Elliman.

The average sales price in the quarter was $1.35 million, rising just 1 percent year-over-year, the report says. Overall, 2,457 units were sold in the first quarter of 2013, up 6.3 percent from the first quarter of 2012 when 2,311 units sold, according to the report.

The median sales price increased 5.9 percent year-over-year, to $820,555, marking the highest such increase since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, with the exception of two quarters in 2010 that were skewed by the federal home buyer tax credit, said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel and the author of the Elliman report.

“This is what happens when you take both hands and choke off supply by the throat,” Miller said.

Indeed, Manhattan inventory fell 34.4 percent year-over-year to 4,960 units from 7,560; quarter-over-quarter, inventory increased by 4.4 percent. But in the luxury market — representing the priciest 10 percent of properties — inventory was down just 15.4 percent to 1,025 units, and up 7.6 percent quarter-over-quarter, according to the Elliman report.

Meanwhile, the absorption rate — the number of months it would take to sell all the homes currently on the market — fell 37.8 percent year-over-year to 6.1 months, the report says. Units spent an average of 132 days on the market, going 13.2 percent quicker than they did in the same period last year.

Miller deemed the market’s unusual behavior — where tight credit was actually causing housing prices to rise — a “precovery,” rather than a recovery.

“You’re stimulating interest in the market, and the hope is that in the next couple of years, there’s a soft handoff between this artificial environment and real economic improvement,” he said.

Halstead Property’s first quarter report, meanwhile, shows that the average price of a Manhattan apartment fell 16 percent year-over-year to $1.25 million. The median sales price decreased just 5 percent last year, the report says.

The large drop in price, said Halstead’s president Diane Ramirez, was an “aberration” triggered by the so-called fiscal cliff, which led to a flurry of deals in the last quarter of 2012.

“Many sales artificially closed in Q4 of 2012 when they really would have closed in the first quarter of 2013,” Ramirez said.

The decline in high-end activity was most evident in the co-op market, the report states, where the average price fell 22 percent year-over-year, largely due to a 31 percent drop in the average price for three-bedroom and larger co-ops.

Ramirez predicted a solid year ahead, with a renaissance of the resale market — “which was dead in the water because everyone was sitting tight,” she said — and an increase in overall sales. A lack of inventory, however, would “continue to be a story,” she said.

Hall Willkie, president of residential sales at Brown Harris Stevens, which uses the same data as sister brokerage Halstead, said in the report that with low interest rates, a strong economy and a decline in inventory, “we continue to see a healthy level of activity with well-priced homes selling quickly.”

The Corcoran Group’s data showed a 24 percent increase in the number of signed contracts compared to the prior year quarter, underscoring the “exceptional sales momentum” of the last three months and representing the strongest sales performance of any first quarter since 2007.

And StreetEasy data reveal that there were 3,066 new contracts in the first quarter of 2013, a 15 percent year-over-year increase and an 18.4 percent quarter-over-quarter increase.

Apartment prices in new developments rose 12.5 percent year-over-year to $1.92 million, or $1,332 per square foot, according to the Elliman report. New development units spent an average of 131 days on the market, going 52.9 percent quicker than they did in the same period last year.

“We’re looking at more projects coming up,” Miller said, “but they are generally targeting the top 10 percent of the market.”

SEE ALSO: An Unfinished Penthouse In Manhattan Is Selling For $60 Million

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Filing taxes for the first time?

Or maybe this is the year you vow to be smart about your returns. Either way, here is all you need to know when filing your taxes this year and what you need to know going forward.

Commonly missed deductions

Most people take the standardized deduction, but accountants warn that it might make sense to file itemized deductions. For the 2012 tax year, the standardized deduction is $5,950 for a single person, $8,700 for head of household and $11,900 for a married couple filing jointly. Commonly forgotten deductions, according to the IRS, include:

• Out-of-pocket charitable expenses. Giving to your church, donating to the school bake sale, offering goods to the Salvation Army and buying raffle tickets for your local community center can all be written off—even if you pay with singles out of your pocket. Be sure to get receipts for donations totaling more than $250. (Get $10 offTurboTax Deluxe software with TurboTax sales.)

• Job-hunting expenses. Itemize any money paid for résumés, traveling to interviews (including meals, if you had to stay overnight for an interview, and 55.5 cents per mile if you drove your own car, plus tolls and parking), advertising yourself and paying staffing and head-hunting fees.

• Mortgage interest points. Did you take advantage of the record-low interest rates and refinance in the past couple of years? You can write off any prepaid interest points as they are paid over the terms of the loan. (Through April 30, get $25 off in-store tax preparation services at Jackson-Hewitt.)

You can’t pay your tax bill
It can seem like a nightmare: Your accountant completes your tax returns and finds that there will be no return at all. Your bill is bigger than your savings account. What do you do?

• File by April 15. If you’re worried about what you might owe, ask your accountant to file an extension on your behalf. This can push back payments until October. Late filing—without an extension—will cost you up to 5 percent of the total amount owed for every month you’re late. Ouch! (At least you can save on the filing itself though: Get 50 percent off Liberty Tax preparation services at participating offices with Liberty Tax coupons.)

• You really can’t pay. If you don’t expect to come up with what you owe, ask for a payment plan. In the past couple of years, the IRS has offered its Fresh Start program to help self-employed people and small business owners contend with unpaid tax bills of up to $50,000. Others can expect to pay late-payment penalties of 0.5 percent per month—up to 25 percent of total due—up until all back taxes are settled, as long as you work out a plan with the government. Plus, you will owe 3 percent interest for the period your taxes are late. That’s a lot, but it’s less than most credit card offers. (Get 30 percent off H&R Block tax software with H&R Block coupons.)

• Call up the IRS. Or have your accountant call for you and negotiate a lower bill. Be prepared to file many extra forms and do a lot of haggling. Consider hiring a tax settlement company that will negotiate a lower back-tax bill on your behalf, but exercise caution, as some such services have been found to conduct fraudulent practices in recent years.

Smart ways to spend your refund
Getting a refund? Yay you! For tax year 2011, the average refund was about $3,000. Think critically about whatever windfall you get (no matter that it was your money all along!) and invest in ways to make it pay you back.

• Invest in your retirement. Any funds you contribute to your 401(k) plan before April 15 are deductible right off the top of your income. Sweet! Also awesome: Contributing to a Roth IRA isn’t deductible, but any funds you withdraw from it in retirement are not taxed. Starting in 2013, the limits have been raised. You can now contribute $17,500 to a 401(k) and $5,500 to a Roth IRA. (Save $20 on Quicken personal finance software withQuicken coupons.)

• Hire a financial planner. For a few hundred dollars, this professional can help you set goals, get you out of debt, come up with a savings and investing strategy and help you accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime. Open a TD Ameritrade account with at least $5,000 and access the broker’s financial experts to help create a financial plan.

• Invest in greening your home. Replace a refrigerator from the ’70s with an energy-efficient model and save $200 per year on your power bill. Or hire a company to conduct an energy audit and suggest ways to make your home more efficient. These can run around $300.

New for the new year

Get up-to-speed now on how the next tax laws impact you. A few highlights:

• You’re less likely to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The exemption threshold for married couples is projected to be bumped up to $80,750 (from $78,750) for married couples filing jointly and $51,900 (from $50,600) for single or head-of-household filers.

• Earned income tax credits were increased in some instances for the 2013 tax year. Check out this IRS site for details, but the maximum adjusted gross income is now $46,227 for couples with at least three kids.

• Payroll taxes are higher for 2013. The tax returned to 6.2% from 4.2%.

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Greenpoint has received a lot of attention lately for its role as the setting for the HBO mega-hit-series “Girls.”

That exposure, brokers say, has boosted the neighborhood’s rental market.

“We get more and more calls there for rentals every day,” said David Behin of the brokerage MNS.

And while the twenty-something crowd at Grumpy’s Café — the Meserole Avenue hangout featured on the show — probably can’t afford to buy real estate, the Greenpoint residential sales market is also seeing an uptick.

Sometimes referred to as “Little Poland” due to its large population of Polish immigrants, Greenpoint’s housing stock is composed mostly of low-rise brownstones and attached single-family houses. The area has virtually no co-ops, noted Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel.

Along with Williamsburg, the Greenpoint waterfront was rezoned in 2005 from industrial to mixed-use, but the downturn halted much of the planned residential development there. Now that the economy is improving, however, a slew of new residential buildings are popping up, including two massive rental projects: Park Tower Group’s 5,000-unit Greenpoint Landing and a 210-unit project by the Domain Companies. The two are the first large-scale residential projects in Greenpoint since the rezoning.

Plans for two other large residential developments — one by the Chetrit Group and another by Red Sky Capital — have not been made public, and neither developer returned calls for comment.

The neighborhood also has nearly a dozen boutique condo buildings on the market or in the works. And the units in those projects are selling quickly amid high demand and low inventory, said David Maundrell, president of the brokerage aptsandlofts.com, which is marketing several new buildings in the neighborhood, including 145 McGuinness Boulevard, 287-299 McGuinness Boulevard, 141 Dupont Street and 98 Clay Street.

Prices are on the rise, too.

The average price per square foot for a Greenpoint condo was $739 in the fourth quarter of 2012, jumping 22.2 percent from $605 per square foot in the same quarter of 2011, according to data from Miller Samuel. The average condo sales price, meanwhile, grew slightly to $610,048 in the fourth quarter, up from $601,070 in the same period of the previous year.

Meanwhile, rents in existing buildings are skyrocketing, brokers said.

Bram Lefevere, vice president with brokerage Miron Properties, estimated that Greenpoint rents increased by more than 30 percent in 2012, and said he expects a similar increase in 2013.

“A decent two-bedroom two years ago rented for $1,900,” Lefevere said. “Last year, it went up to $2,400, and this year it’s going to be $2,800.”

Still, Greenpoint’s lack of subway access will likely limit price growth.

It currently takes two subways or a ferry to get to Manhattan, and many area residents walk over the Pulaski Bridge to Long Island City to catch the 7 subway line, Behin said.

The city is looking into adding stops to the G line, but for now, “Greenpoint is getting rents of $45 to $50 a foot, and I think landlords would get 20 to 25 percent more if you had better transportation,” Behin said.

Check out some new properties in Greenpoint at The Real Deal >

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The city will be putting out more requests for proposals for micro-apartment sites, the New York Observer reported.

“We are considering RFPs for two or three micro-unit developments later this year,” a Department of Housing Preservation and Development spokesman told The Observer after a lunch hosted by the Citizens Housing Planning Council Thursday.

“We’re in the process of vetting a number of city-owned sites, and RFP guidelines will be tailored to the chosen sites.” 

The announcement comes a few months after Monadnock Development, Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation and nARCHITECTS won the city’s adAPT NYC contest and were selected to build micro-apartments at a city-owned site in Kips Bay.

The 10-story complex, located at 335 East 27th Street, will feature 55 apartments – 40 percent of them affordable — ranging in size from 250 to 370 square feet.

Real estate insiders have been asking whether developing micro-apartments is financially feasible, as The Real Deal previously reported. [NYO]

SEE ALSO: 12 Space-Saving Items That Are Perfect For A 'Micro Apartment'

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The uniquely-coiffed real estate mogul Donald Trump had barely a hair out of place as he testified in court today, explaining that ALM Unlimited, a New York City-based licensing firm, was not entitled to any commissions from a 2003 deal involving his branded clothing line.

ALM has alleged that it arranged a deal between Trump and apparel giant PVH, formerly known as Phillips-Van Heusen, earning a 22.5 percent commission on royalties to start with and later a 10 percent commission on royalties received from the sale of shirts and neck ties. But Trump improperly stopped payments to the company in 2008, ALM alleged.

The line brought in more than $3.2 million in royalties between 2005 and 2007, according to ALM.

Trump, who was instructed by the judge to keep his answers concise, seemed to fight the urge to speak at length at the hearing, which was held today in a Manhattan, N.Y. state court.

While he acknowledged in court that ALM made the initial introduction to PVH, his attorneys have said the company’s role was insubstantial. Indeed, in a bizarre stroke, Trump gave Regis Philbin some of the credit for the relationship, since the former television host had recommended PVH to him.

“The 22 percent is referring to the monies they said they were going to bring in but they didn’t bring in,” Trump told the court.

Trump also admitted that his company paid ALM a considerable sum in commissions between 2004 and 2008 — a total of $300,000, according to ALM — but he maintained that the checks were sent incorrectly, despite his signing off on them. It was “physically impossible” for him to thoroughly review every invoice and check that crossed his desk, he repeatedly told the court.

“Mr. Trump signs thousands of checks every week,” Alan Garten, an attorney for Trump, told The Real Deal. “There’s no reason [these checks] would have stood out.”

When asked what ALM was entitled to, Garten said, “Legally, nothing.”

The contract allowed for commission payments, he said, but only if ALM met certain criteria, which it did not. Trump was still willing to pay a smaller commission based on the introduction, but the parties could not agree on terms, Garten said.

Jay Itkowitz, an attorney for ALM, was puzzled that Trump could have mistakenly approved so many checks.

“It’s strange that [this is] the head of an organization who, once a week during the television season, fires someone for doing something wrong or not meeting standards,” he said, referring to Trump’s show “The Apprentice.”

“His position in this case is that his accounting department and his trusted employees presented him with checks that were reviewed at various levels and he signed them,” Itkowitz said. “Now he’s saying it’s all a big mistake. Ultimately, whether that’s a big mistake is going to be decided by a jury.”

A New York State Supreme Court judge ordered the case to trial earlier in January, after the parties failed to come to a settlement. Garten said a settlement at this stage would be very unlikely.

Trump’s testimony will continue on Monday.

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Across New York City, hotels have been popping up like post-recession beacons of an improving economy.

But the area around 29th Street in Manhattan has seen an especially noticeable transformation.

Just a few years ago, the street was mostly limited to retailers selling an inexpensive hodgepodge of goods and discount clothes. Now there are nearly a dozen hotels clustered on and around 29th Street, including the trendy Ace Hotel, which opened in 2009.

It was followed in 2011 by a sister property, the NoMad Hotel. On 29th Street and Park Avenue, the 249-room Gansevoort Park Avenue opened in 2010. The Eventi hotel, at the corner of 29th and Sixth Avenue, launched the same year. And developer John Lam has plans for two more hotels on Broadway between 29th and 30th streets.

Twenty-ninth Street, especially the area between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, “is all high-end boutique hotels,” said Joe Long, chief investment officer for Kimpton Hotels, which manages the Eventi. “They all helped each other and legitimized the neighborhood as a credible hotel destination.”

The area also now has a smattering of lower-priced chain offerings, from a Hilton Garden Inn to a Holiday Inn. And more hotels are on their way.

In the last 14 months, “we’ve probably received a dozen to two dozen requests” for hotel construction financing in Midtown South, said Ayush Kapahi, a partner at HKS Capital Partners.

Ace in the hole

Twenty-Ninth Street has gotten a lot of buzz in the last few years for its trendy transformation. But in many ways, the still-gritty neighborhood is an unlikely place for a hotel hot spot.

As surrounding neighborhoods gentrified in recent decades, the Garment District didn’t see much change, in part because much of the area was zoned for commercial and manufacturing rather than residential, brokers said.

“Because of those limitations on zoning, you didn’t necessarily have the run-up in price that you would have had with residential,” said John Fox, a senior vice president at PKF Consulting USA, which specializes in hospitality. “The area overall had much more of a loft and manufacturing feel to it.”

But especially after the economic crisis depressed prices, the area offered a number of affordable parcels ripe for hotel development, industry insiders said. Plus, there were properties available for developers to snap up. “There were a number of assets in the area and a number of vacant lots and garages that had the ability to be developed at a price basis that allowed the developers to go in and have the economics make sense,” Kapahi said.

For example, Lam closed in November on a $16 million deal to purchase 1227 Broadway, a site with over 50,000 buildable square feet. Lam, who bought 1205 Broadway and 1225 Broadway in 2011 for $72 million, now owns the entire block, where he’s planning to build two hotels with a total of 650 to 700 rooms. The first three floors will be devoted to retail, while the fourth floor will house the lobby, restaurants and an open deck, according to Joseph Yi, vice president at the Lam Group. The company is still in discussions with potential brands to partner with on the hotels, Yi said, but is planning to follow the boutique and lifestyle models of the Ace and the NoMad.

Yi said the firm was interested in the Broadway site because the price — less than $300 per buildable square foot — was about 10 percent lower than in nearby neighborhoods.

“The price point in this area was a little bit better than some of the more highly sought-after markets, like in the Times Square area and in the 40s and 50s,” Yi said. “For the amount of frontage we have on Broadway, I think we executed this well below market.”

Prices have increased somewhat since the Lam Group made its purchases, brokers said: Land in the area now goes for $300 to $400 per buildable square foot, depending on the specific location. Yi said the Lam Group has recently been offered as much as $450 a foot for the Broadway site, but it isn’t interested in selling.

In 2012, land on and around 29th Street sold for an average of $360 per buildable square foot, roughly double 2009’s prices, according to data from investment sales firm Eastern Consolidated.

Meanwhile, hotels on 29th Street can charge guests up to $700 to $800 a night, depending on the season, according to Kapahi. While New Yorkers may not view 29th Street as über-trendy, tourists tend to be less discerning between neighborhoods, industry insiders said, as long as they are centrally located, with easy transit access to city attractions.

“Tourists don’t necessarily know that it’s much different from Madison Square Garden or even Times Square,” said Fox. For them, “Manhattan is Manhattan.”

Plus, when it came to attracting the young and stylish clientele of the Ace Hotel, “it almost helped to have a gritty neighborhood,” said Steven Hurwitz, executive vice president of GFI Development Company, which developed the Ace and the NoMad. “That demographic wants to be in a cool spot and a place that feels undiscovered.”

The landmarked 1904 building that is now the Ace Hotel is owned by LGF Enterprises, part of Lillian Goldman Family Foundation (see related Sol Goldman story). In 2007, GFI paid $40 million for a long-term lease of the building, a price Hurwitz said “was appropriate for an undiscovered neighborhood.”

With laptops in hand, young tech types now flock to the Ace lobby, where it’s often difficult to find a spare seat (or plug) most afternoons. Stumptown Coffee Roasters and the Breslin Bar & Dining Room, which occupy retail space off the lobby, also helped establish the hotel as a destination.

Shifting economics

Now that these hip and stylish hotels have set up shop in the area, they’re driving further development.

The NoMad — which has a higher-end, older clientele than the Ace — has benefited from the Ace’s pioneering efforts, Hurwitz said.

“The NoMad was the right product to open on the heels of change,” said Hurwitz. “It would have been harder to open first.”

Meanwhile, the Eventi opened in the spring of 2010, with an aesthetic Kimpton’s Long calls “playful” and “masculine.” Developer DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners bought the site — formerly a vacant lot — in 2005 for over $132 million, according to city property records. Rates in the nearly 300-room hotel range from $350 to $600 a night, depending on the time of year.

But the economics that helped drive the 29th Street hotel boom are shifting. Now that the area is more established, deals are tougher to come by.

“It’s definitely become pricier; there’s no question,” Hurwitz said.

Yi said the Lam Group is looking for a new site in the area, but only if the price is right.

“I think the market has gone completely upside down in the area now,” said Yi. “A lot of the owners are asking numbers above what [they] should be in that location.”

GFI, too, would build another hotel in the area if it found the right property at the right price, Hurwitz said.

“We’re out looking,” he said, but “we haven’t found anything that makes sense for us.”

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If the Hamptons real estate market celebrated the end of last year with a boom — as high-end homebuyers rushed to complete deals before capital gains tax rates spiked at the start of 2013 — then the last three months must have felt like a hangover.

Home sales and prices in the tony enclave plummeted in the first quarter of this year, according to reports released today by the area’s largest residential brokerages.

“We had this mad rush at the end of the year and that poached first quarter activity largely in the high-end of the market,” said Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel.

The average sale price dropped 29.4 percent, to $1.22 million from $1.72 million, compared to the same period in 2012, according to Douglas Elliman’s quarterly report, compiled by Miller. The average price of a Hamptons home in the fourth quarter of 2012 was $2.13 million, or 91 percent less than the previous quarter.

Average prices dropped in all Hamptons markets except for Bridgehampton, according to Brown Harris Stevens’ report. In Bridgehampton, prices increased 29.1 percent year-over-year to $2.13 million from $1.65 million, the report says.

The village of East Hampton posted the biggest year-over-year price decline, according to the Corcoran Group’s report. The average sale price for a home in East Hampton declined 76 percent year-over-year, to $1.41 million from $5.8 million, Corcoran’s report says.

Despite the price drops, the number of transactions increased 20.9 percent year-over-year, to 347 sales from 287 sales, Elliman’s report shows. The growth is the result of an increase in demand coupled with low mortgage rates, Miller said. However, since the previous quarter, the number of transactions fell 34.4 percent, to 347 from 529.

“The biggest characteristic in the market is actually what happened in the fourth quarter versus the first quarter,” he added. “The impact was quite profound on the East End.”

Indeed, the rush to complete transactions before the Jan. 1 deadline absorbed sales that normally would have closed in the first quarter, according to Brown Harris Stevens’ report. Some 239 sales closed during the first quarter of 2013 — 13 percent fewer than the first quarter of 2012, the report says.

In Manhattan and Brooklyn, a similar pre-fiscal cliff rush has meant “chronically low”inventory levels, as well as prices that have stayed steady. However, inventory hasn’t fallen nearly as far year-over-year in the Hamptons, Miller noted, declining only 4.9 percent, to 1,437 listings from 1,511 listings.

That said, the second quarter is “shaping up to be more consistent with seasonal trends,” Miller said, noting the increased activity he is seeing now.

Ernie Cervi, a managing executive director at Corcoran’s Bridgehampton’s office, noted that his agents have been busy in recent months.

“This is our season,” Cervi said. “This is when we’re the busiest.”

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Brokers with inflated business titles are now prohibited by state regulators from identifying themselves by titles that they haven’t actually received, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to a letter sent Friday by New York’s Department of State to the Real Estate Board of New York, brokers using titles such as vice president or executive vice president may no longer use them unless they have actually been appointed to those positions. In many cases, brokers were arbitrarily using those titles, and the letter termed their actions “dishonest” and “misleading.”

“Agents [are] prohibited from falsely advertising that they hold such a position within the brokerage,” according to the letter written by Whitney Clark, an attorney with the department.

REBNY’s legal counsel Neil Garfinkel told the Journal that the letter was drafted in response to an earlier inquiry by the board. “It is an opinion that affects the industry in a widespread way,” he said. “I’d say there are many, many brokers this affects.”

“I think there are some agents who are going to be upset but, at the end of the day, the law is the law,” he added.

Some brokers have expressed their disappointment with the decision. “A title to a broker is very important,” one brokerage spokesman told the Journal. “Even though they’re not voting titles, it designates a sort of level of achievement. How would you present yourself in the industry without a title?” [WSJ]

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The three buildings at the World Trade Center site have massive vacancies, and with over 5 million square feet of space in the complex on or due to hit the market, landlords are racing to secure tenants at the $14 billion development, Crain’s reported.

No office lease has been signed at the site since publishing giant Condé Nast took 1.2 million square feet at 1 World Trade Center two years ago. At the time, the deal was hailed as a sign of the area’s hot office prospects, but the site has since been unable to compete.

Time Warner, the biggest tenant currently shopping for Manhattan space, has set its sights on Hudson Yards, and has already spoken with several developers to ink a potentially 1.3 million-square-foot deal.

And Jones Day, which many real estate players believed would become the anchor tenant at the stillborn 3 World Trade Center, is instead close to a 400,000-square-foot-deal at nearby Brookfield Place.

“It’s definitely disappointing,” Christopher Ward, former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center site, told Crain’s. “Jones Day should have been the deal that 3 World Trade Center landed.”

The situation has led to a duel between developers to lock in tenants.

“There’s only one 1 World Trade Center,” Douglas Durst, chief executive of the Durst Organization, which co-owns the 3.5 million-square-foot tower with the Port Authority, told the Journal. “Those who want to be in the best building will come here.”

But Silverstein Properties, which is behind the 75-story, 2.5 million-square-foot 4 WTC, is confident that the building would be a better bet. “We have a building that’s going to feel like a tower on Park Avenue,” Janno Lieber, president of Silverstein’s World Trade Center Properties, told Crain’s. [Crain’s]

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Mired in an economic crisis, Portugal is selling off its assets, including an eight-room co-op at the Dakota at 1 West 72nd Street that the country has owned for 40-plus years, according to the New York Post.

John Burger and Guida De Carvalhosa had the listing, while Jason Haber, the founder of Rubicon Property, represented the buyer.

The asking price was $12.95 million, though it was purchased for $250,000 in 1971, the Post said.

The Upper West Side apartment, used for formal parties hosted by ambassadors, features three fireplaces and a 12-foot ceiling on the Dakota’s seventh floor.

In March, a three-bedroom unit at the Dakota went into contract, after several price slashes, for $11 million, a far cry from its listing price of $19.5 million. [NYP] 

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The architectural cause célèbre of the past few weeks has surely been the fate of the former American Folk Art Museum, which opened in 2001 and was designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

Located at 45 West 53rd Street, the unoccupied building sits on land that the Museum of Modern Art has purchased in order to expand even further toward Sixth Avenue.

When MoMA announced its plans to raze the structure, many in the architectural community were up in arms.

Just this week, the New York Times’s architecture critic, Michael Kimmelman, gave full-throated expression to this conviction in a front page story headlined, “Defending a Scrap of Soul Against MoMA.”

For some, the clash between this tiny building and the corporate museum next door recalls the battle between David and Goliath — if not a meeting of Bambi and Godzilla.

Obviously the building must, in the name of architecture itself, be preserved! (Let me say in passing that it never ceases to amaze me how admirably high-minded New Yorkers are when it comes to other people’s property.)

Perhaps you saw, a few days back, the video of that “ice tsunami” on a lake in Minnesota that bizarrely crept from the water onto the land, mercilessly crushing any structure in its path. A perfect metaphor, it would seem, for the relentless westward expansion of MoMA.

And yet, MoMA may have a soul after all. Before announcing the demise of the Folk Art Museum, the museum’s director, Glenn Lowry — doubtless concerned about a possible public relations disaster — personally visited Williams and Tsien to hold their hands and help them through the difficult days ahead.

In the interests of balance, however, I offer up this slightly more nuanced assessment of the building in question: Tear it down!

The façade, which frankly plagiarizes Christian de Portzamparc’s overrated LVMH Tower at 19 East 57th Street, is an ugly brown mediocrity that, from the day it opened, was as dysfunctional as it was ungainly. Occupying a tiny site originally meant for a row house, its interior was all circulation core — elevators and stairs — and almost no space for galleries. And in order to pull off the clumsy, value-engineered façade, the architects and the museum shut out almost all of the natural light that might have entered the space.

Following the outcry over the planned demolition, MoMA floated the idea that it will leave the building intact. This would surely be the worst possible solution. Not only would it leave standing a building that never was and never will be a functioning space for a museum or anything else. It would also gall the pedestrian with two examples of bad architecture: the structure in question and whatever is destined to rise up around it.

Neutered and hobbled by this misplaced respect, the new building would have to preserve a poorly designed and poorly executed structure that should never have been built in the first place.

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The families of Chinese real estate developer Zhang Xin and Brazilian banking magnate Moise Safra paid $1.4 billion for a 40 percent stake in the General Motors building, the Wall Street Journal reported.

This values the building at 767 Fifth Avenue at roughly $3.4 billion, making it the country’s most valuable office property.

Relatives of Zhang – who is the founder and chief executive officer of Beijing megadeveloper Soho China – and the Safra family’s New York-based investment arm M. Safra & Co. bought the stake in the 50-story, 2 million-square-foot property through an entity called Sungate Trust, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.

The sellers were Goldman Sachs Group's U.S. Real Estate Opportunities Fund, which invests on behalf of the sovereign wealth funds of Kuwait and Qatar; and Dubai-based private equity firm Meraas Capital, the source told Bloomberg News. The sale closed May 31, the source added.

The building – which takes up a full block between Fifth and Madison Avenues and 58th and 59th Street — houses an Apple store at street level. The deal — which follows Crown Acquisitions and Highgate Holdings’ $1.3 billion purchase of 650 Madison Avenue from the Carlyle Group — comes at a time when investors looking for yield have been paying top dollar for high-end office properties, causing values to escalate faster than rents and occupancy.

CBRE Group’s Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan handled the transaction. Boston Properties retains a 60 percent stake in the building and isn’t looking to sell, according to the Journal. [WSJ and Bloomberg News]

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The last remaining sponsor unit at 200 11th Avenue in West Chelsea, which was listed last year for $12.9 million, is slated to make its return to the market in September with a mammoth price tag of up to $23 million, The Real Deal has learned.

Between now and September, the 3,248-square-foot penthouse condominium, famed for its en suite sky car garage, which allows the owner to park their car at the entry level to their penthouse residence, will undergo a major makeover spearheaded by Dutch architecture firm MVRDV.

When it comes online, the unit, known as Penthouse 1, will be marketed by Ryan Serhant of Nest Seekers International, according to marketing materials sent to The Real Deal by a spokesperson for the firm.

MVRDV — known for designing offbeat projects such as the Balancing Barn, a seesaw-like cantilevered holiday home in England — will add a “sky vault” centerpiece to the three-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom apartment, a Nest Seekers spokesperson said. The spokesperson would not disclose further details about the “sky vault,” saying only that it would be constructed at MVRDV’s headquarters in Rotterdam and then transported to the city for installation in the apartment.

Leonard Steinberg and Herve Senequier of Douglas Elliman last listed the terraced penthouse last year for $12.9 million, according to StreetEasy. While the property appears to have changed hands twice since 2007 — for $7.6 million in 2009 and $11 million in 2012 — those transactions were sponsorship partner buyouts as opposed to purchases by end users, Steinberg confirmed. The unit is now owned entirely by developer Young Woo & Associates, records indicate.

“One partner bought the other partner’s stake,” Steinberg said.

The building, at the corner of West 24th Street, was designed by Selldorf Architects and developed by Young Woo; it launched sales in 2007. Designer Domenico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana bought two penthouse units at the property for a combined $29 million in 2009, it was previously reported. He paid $4,672 per square foot for one of those units.

If the “sky vault” penthouse sells for its new asking price of $7,000 per square foot, it would set a record for West Chelsea.

Serhant declined to comment on the property’s hefty price tag and Steinberg said he had “no idea” what kind of sales price the apartment could command. The record price per square foot ever paid for an apartment in New York City was the more than $13,000 a square foot, or $88 million, paid for an apartment owned by banking magnate Sanford Weill at 15 Central Park West in 2011.

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Dolly Lenz, Douglas Elliman’s perpetually top-ranked luxury sales broker, is leaving the firm after a 14-year tenure, The Real Deal has learned.

Lenz was not immediately available for comment on the reason for her departure. Elliman declined to comment.

For years, Lenz and fellow power broker Carrie Chiang of the Corcoran Group battled for the top spot on TRD‘s list of top Manhattan listing agents.

Lenz eventually withdrew from her company’s own competition in 2011 in order to allow other brokers a chance to contend. Instead, she received a newly created Stratosphere award. This year, the brokerage’s top honor was awarded to Brazilian broker Marcos Cohen.

“Dolly’s production and transaction volume speaks for itself over the course of her career as a top producing broker,” said Andrew Heiberger, CEO of residential brokerage Town Residential, of Lenz’s departure. “She is probably pursuing an opportunity where she can leverage her brand, but this is just an outsider’s opinion.”

Kathy Braddock, co-founder of Rutenberg Realty, said Lenz’s departure might mean more of a loss to Elliman from a brand perspective than from a financial point of view. Lenz has recently made several television appearances, including on a one-off CNBC show entitled “Secret Lives of the Super Rich: Mega Homes,” in which she talked about calculating multi-million dollar price tags, six-figure commissions and told real estate war stories.

“I don’t know what [commission] split she’s on,” Braddock said, “but I don’t know if it’s such a monetary thing. [Her listings and connections] give them visibility.”

On his blog, fellow Elliman star broker Leonard Steinberg addressed whispers that Lenz might be set to start her own firm.

“Rumor has it she will be following the footsteps of brokers such as Michael Shvo, Shaun Osher and Wendy Maitland to start her own brokerage firm,” Steinberg said, referring to the independent broker, the CEO of Core and one of Town’s early hires, respectively. “The departure does not come as much of a shock to the industry: the rumor mill has been whispering of Dolly’s departure for some time.”

While Lenz had been consistently the top-producing broker at Elliman for years, Steinberg said her dominance had been somewhat “eroded” more recently by the rise of brokers like Shvo, now a developer, and Elliman star Raphael De Niro.

Still, if Lenz were to open her own company, she’d have a following with which to do so, sources said.

“[Her departure] is surprising but it’s not super shocking,” said top-producing broker Richard Nassimi of the Corcoran Group. “I don’t think she left Douglas Elliman because of Douglas Elliman. She is a name. She could open the Lenz Real Estate Group tomorrow and people would follow her.”

Braddock said it’s not unusual for a top-level broker to get itchy feet after a lengthy stint at one firm. Brokers “max out at a certain time,” she said.

Lenz has worked with celebrities like acting duo Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith as well as rocker Billy Joel and designer Karl Lagerfeld.

She is currently listing a $95 million penthouse at the Sherry Netherland at 781 Fifth Avenue and a three-bedroom residence at 116 East 61st Street, which is asking $12.49 million, according to her Elliman profile page, which has not yet been removed.

Lenz has not been seen around the office in recent months and did not attend the company’s annual awards ceremony earlier this year, according to sources within the firm. Her assistant, Nicholas Polihros, has also departed the firm, they said.

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In the eyes of city assessors, the so-called market value of Goldman Sachs’ headquarters in Battery Park City has dropped by $176 million, or 26.7 percent, to $511.7 million — the sharpest reduction of any Manhattan office building this year. (See chart above.)

The market value is one of the numbers the city Department of Finance uses to calculate an owner’s annual property tax bill. It is generally only a fraction of what the building would sell for on the open market.

Yet, unlike other Lower Manhattan properties that suffered damage from Hurricane Sandy, Goldman’s 200 West Street did not face a reduction due to an inherent loss in value to the building. The 2 million-square-foot, 43-story tower built four years ago notoriously remained like a fortress during the storm.

Instead, the city slashed the value for the upcoming fiscal year because it compared 200 West to similar buildings in Lower Manhattan — rather than in Midtown, as it has done in the past — to assess the value. Typically, Lower Manhattan office properties are not worth as much as their peers in Midtown.

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance was not immediately available to explain the reason for the change. A spokesperson for Goldman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Other Lower Manhattan office towers also saw steep cuts, according to a review by The Real Deal of the department’s final tax rolls, published late last month.

Among them were 32 Old Slip, owned by Boston-based private equity firm Beacon Capital Partners, and three towers belonging to Toronto-based Brookfield Office Properties: 1 Liberty Plaza, 4 Brookfield Place and 1 New York Plaza.

TRD reviewed tax records for Manhattan office buildings larger than 350,000 square feet south of Chambers Street, and ranked 10 buildings with the greatest dollar reductions in market value for the upcoming tax year, which runs from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014.

Goldman’s headquarters and Brookfield’s 4 Brookfield Place are on Battery Park City Authority land, meaning the companies do not pay property taxes to the city. Instead, they make payments in lieu of taxes, known as PILOTS, to the authority. The payments are based on the city’s valuations.

The cut in 200 West’s market value will lower Goldman’s payments, assuming tax rates remain the same, Matthew Monahan, a spokesperson for the Battery Park City Authority, said. It was not immediately clear what the annual impact would be on the payments.

“Reductions in the city’s Department of Finance assessed value of properties within Battery Park City generally would lower PILOT revenues if the tax rates remain constant,” Monahan said.

Beacon’s 36-story 32 Old Slip saw its market value slide by $65.7 million, or 21.6 percent. The next highest decline was Brookfield’s 1 Liberty Plaza, falling $63.8 million, or 9.7 percent, and its 4 Brookfield Place, declining by $39.6 million, or 9.3 percent.

The next group of properties was impacted by Hurricane Sandy. The city chopped the value of the German investment fund RREEF’s 17 State Street by $21.1 million, or 14.2 percent; Brookfield’s 1 New York Plaza by $20.8 million or 4.4 percent; and the commercial condominium building managed and partially owned by Time Equities at 125 Maiden Lane by $20.3 million, or 28.6 percent.

The last three properties were 180 Water Street, owned by Melohn Properties, which saw a $13.5 million decline in value, amounting to 14.4 percent; Jack Resnick & Sons’ 199 Water Street, which was cut by $10.3 million, or 4.7 percent; and Savanna Partners’ 80 Broad Street, which lost $8.1 million in market value in the city’s eyes, or 13.2 percent.

Brookfield and a spokesperson for Resnick declined to comment. The other landlords did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Film producer Megan Ellison, the daughter of billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison, has purchased a $2.8 million apartment at the Police Building in Lower Manhattan, according to On-Line Residential.

Ellison, whose production and distribution company Annapurna Pictures, produced director Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar-nominated epic “Zero Dark Thirty,” bought the penthouse at the former New York Police Department headquarters at 240 Centre Street in a deal that closed two weeks ago.

The Corcoran Group’s Tom Cooper and Elizabeth LaGrua represented Ellison in the deal, while brothers Pini Azulay and Arik Azulay of the newly-created boutique real estate firm the Azulay Group represented the California-based seller. The brothers were at real estate firm NOVO when the deal closed.

Pini Azulay told The Real Deal that Ellison had viewed the property only once before submitting an offer just one hour later by phone. The property had come on the market five days earlier with a $2.9 million price tag. Ellison, also based in California, will use the property as a pied-à-terre when she is in town.

“She knew what she was looking for,” Pini Azulay said. “She was looking for something very unique and you’re not going to find any other apartment like this in New York.”

Cooper and LaGrua declined to comment.

Indeed, the apartment, formerly the radio room of the police headquarters, which dates back to 1907, has some interesting features, including a partially domed ceiling supported by exposed steel arches. The 1,750-square-foot spread has one bedroom and one bathroom, according to the listing.

Ellison’s father is the CEO of software company Oracle and is one of the richest men in the world, according to recent reports.

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A piece of legislation that would permit the licensing of hostels in the city is slowly snaking its way through City Council, the New York Observer reported.

The new law is part of an effort to correct the damage wrought by a 2010 bill — later crystallized into New York’s illegal hotel law — aimed at snuffing out short-term single-room occupancy residences and illegal multiple-dwelling lodgings that also wreaked havoc on the city’s hostel industry.

Resulting hostel closings cost the city $150 million and more than 200,000 tourists every year, according to some studies’ estimates.

Jerry Kremer, a former New York State assemblyman and founder of Empire Government Strategies, is behind the bill, which Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Christine Quinn also support.

The measure calls for setting up an independent office within the city Business Integrity Commission for licensed hostels, defined as “class B multiple dwellings providing food, lodging and other services to travelers.” A hostel unit, by the law’s definition, sleeps four to eight guests and does not permit stays of more than 29 days.

The push to develop hostels in New York City comes alongside a growing trend towards funky boutique hotels and hostels, such as the New York Freehand location proposed by Sydell Group in May. The developer purchased three parcels on Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, a neighborhood pegged as a potential hostel hotspot, for $10 million last year.

“The city is very underserved by affordable options for the youth and budget traveler, and this is not good for the culture of the city or for the economy,” Andrew Zobler, founder and chief executive of the Sydell Group, told the Observer. [NYO] –Julie Strickland

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In the peach- and white-veined marble lobby of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, tourists can shop for items from Donald Trump’s clothing line and buy his best-selling book, “Trump: the Art of the Deal.”

In the Trump Organization’s offices on the 26th floor, the walls are decorated with images of “The Apprentice” star on the covers of magazines, from Esquire to Playboy.

And at the top of the building lies Trump’s personal residence, a gold- and marble-clad Louis XIV–style penthouse spread over three floors, where the 67-year-old real estate developer lives with his wife Melania, a former model, and their seven-year-old son, Barron (a child who is reportedly swabbed with caviar-enhanced moisturizer each night before bed).

It’s easy to see how life behind those gold-plated doors could lead to an inflated sense of self, and even in an industry full of billionaires, the outspoken Trump is known for his ego.

An example of his trademark bravado: In an interview at Trump Tower last month, Trump told The Real Deal that he’s only interested in acquiring one-of-a-kind, über-luxury properties.

“Unless it’s going to be iconic, I have no interest,” he said. “The word ‘trophy’ is not even good enough.”

In addition, he said: “I would not be surprised if my cash position was stronger than anyone in the [real estate] industry.”

But many are skeptical of such claims of grandiose wealth, and over the years, the question of Trump’s actual net worth has become a controversial one. Trump has accused both Forbes magazine and “TrumpNation” author Timothy O’Brien of under-estimating his wealth. (He filed a defamation suit in 2006 against O’Brien, who had estimated Trump’s net worth at between $150 and $250 million, claiming that the assertions in his book were inaccurate and had cost the Trump Organization deals. The suit was eventually dismissed.)

Among the most outspoken skeptics of Trump’s claims are those in the New York City real estate industry, who note that he no longer owns many property assets here. Trump is well known for building Trump Tower, of course, and for developing a number of residential high-rises, such as Trump Park Avenue at 502 Park Avenue and Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza, from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. But most of those properties have long since been sold to individual unit owners. And Trump hasn’t bought or developed any New York City buildings in recent years.

Meanwhile, a Trump Organization spokesperson confirmed that Trump also no longer owns the properties he inherited from his late father, Fred, who started the family real estate business in outer-borough neighborhoods like Coney Island, Sheepshead Bay and Flushing. The Trump Organization sold most of those buildings in 2004, according to a spokesperson.

“Donald Trump is not a major player in New York City real estate,” said Jordan Barowitz, director of external affairs at the Durst Organization. “My guess is [that he owns] about 1.5 million square feet total. For comparison, the Durst Organization owns 13 million square feet in Manhattan.” (In fact, Trump owns more than 2 million square feet of commercial space in New York City.) Or as Michael T. Cohen, president of the tri-state region at Colliers International, put it: “Trump casts a very large image on the real estate scene considering that he only has [a few large] assets.”

But others noted that Trump has an asset most developers don’t: fame.

“Consumers know his name,” said fellow billionaire and New York real estate titan Richard LeFrak. “That’s what sets him apart.”

And Trump has an uncanny knack for parlaying that fame into various money-making opportunities.

Trump “understands people,” said Steve Roth, chairman of real estate giant Vornado Realty Trust. “He understands what they want to buy, and what they don’t want to buy.”

The Trump Organization concedes that there’s an air of mystery surrounding its portfolio, which includes core real estate assets in New York and internationally as well as an array of unrelated enterprises, such as the Miss Universe pageant and “The Apprentice” television franchise. Much of the confusion stems from the fact that Trump frequently licenses his name to products — and buildings — he has not developed and does not own, such as the hotel and condominium Trump Soho in Manhattan and the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Dubai.

Forbes’ most recent assessment put Trump’s total net worth at $3.2 billion, but the Trump Organization said the true figure, including the value of the Trump brand, is around $8.6 billion. In an attempt to prove it, the company provided TRD with a 2012 financial report prepared for Trump by his accountant, WeiserMazars, a major national firm. The report puts Trump’s total net worth at approximately $4.56 billion, including $1.38 billion worth of New York City commercial real estate; $351.55 million in New York residential properties; $1.57 billion in golf courses, resorts and related facilities across the world; and $823 million in interests in joint ventures. He also has some $451.7 million in debt and other commitments, plus personal cash and marketable securities in the amount of $169.7 million, according to WeiserMazars. In addition, and most controversially, the company said it believes the Trump brand is worth some $4 billion.

Using the WeiserMazars report and public records, as well as information provided by industry sources, TRD has inventoried Trump’s most significant real estate assets. The Trump Organization declined to provide the net operating income or the estimated dollar value of any of its individual properties to The Real Deal. The WeiserMazars report didn’t provide values for each individual asset, but instead grouped assets into categories and then provided figures for those categories. (As a sidenote, several assets straddled different categories.) Finally, we also asked industry insiders to estimate what individual assets are worth. Read on for a closer look.

The Trump Brand
Trump’s estimated value: $4 billion

n the Trump Organization’s eyes, its most valuable asset is the Trump name itself. For decades, Donald Trump has diligently cultivated his brand, and he’s now a TV star in his own right due to the ongoing success of “The Apprentice,” which is now in its 13th season.

It’s not all theoretical. Trump has found numerous ways to monetize his brand. Most notably, he’s licensed his name to no less than 17 different kinds of products, from clothing and perfume to vodka and mattresses, as well as glassy high-rise towers as far afield as Istanbul and the Philippines.

At projects such as the Trump Soho hotel/condominium at 246 Spring Street (developed by a partnership between the Bayrock Group and New York City developer Tamir Sapir) Trump is paid for the use of his name, but does not invest any of his own capital. Trump sometimes manages these projects, as he did in the case of Trump Soho, and always takes a licensing fee of $5 to $10 million, according to news reports. In some cases, he also takes a portion of potential future sales at the building.

Trump’s most recent licensing deal, announced last month, is for a hotel and condo tower in downtown Vancouver.

Terms of the agreements made with the developers of Trump-branded properties vary, and the Trump Organization declined to provide details of all the specific arrangements. But the company did say it has some $74.14 million worth of real estate licensing deals. And publicly available court records reveal that Trump pocketed more than $3.2 million in royalties for his clothing line, which is sold at Macy’s, between 2005 and 2007.

Sources agreed that these licensing deals are likely very profitable.

“If you can make licensing deals work, it’s a beautiful thing,” said developer Izak Senbahar of New York–based Alexico Group, which is currently developing the condo 56 Leonard, which will be the tallest building in Tribeca. “You’re not taking the risk, you’re only giving your name and taking a fee plus upside.”

He added: “You have to give [Trump] credit for creating such a brand. Who else can go to Panama City or Istanbul and license their name that way?”

LeFrak compared the licensing deals to “going to the box office and taking [a share of] the gross.”

“He’s using something he has to his best advantage,” LeFrak said. “It’s very clever what he’s been able to do.”

But Trump has faced criticism for these licensing deals, which have occasionally landed him in legal trouble with buyers. In 2011, for instance, buyers at three separate Trump-branded properties, including the Trump International Hotel and Tower Fort Lauderdale, sued the mogul for allegedly misleading them into believing he was the developer and later pulling his name from the projects once they went belly-up. The Trump Organizations denies those claims. Some of those lawsuits, however, are still ongoing.

And Trump has not put his name on a U.S. property since his Soho project began construction in 2007, leading some branding experts to speculate that it no longer holds the same weight it once did in the U.S.

James Fox, CEO of the strategy firm Red Peak Branding, which does work for large companies such as Intel and American Express, said the Trump Organization’s brand estimate of $4 billion “seems like a very high number given that, certainly in the U.S., his brand has been in pretty steady decline.”

The Trump brand likely had the most cachet in the 1980s and 1990s, he said, when “American capitalism was on the rise, and he was its poster boy. He acted kind of like a rock star, with beautiful women and beautiful cars. People aspired towards that, because all of culture was moving in that direction.”

Since the recession, however, American consumers are gravitating towards more humble, “authentic” brands, Fox said. In part, he said, that’s why Trump has started targeting consumers in other markets, which are more susceptible to what he called “the Trump idea of materialistic success.”

“All developing markets go through a period of conspicuous consumption,” Fox said. “There’s an emerging middle class, and people want to show and wear the wealth.” In response, Trump told The Real Deal that while he was “hot” in the 1980s, he was only “hotter” now, thanks in part to “The Apprentice.” The reason he does not do so many licensing deals in the U.S., he said, is because the economy is weak here and he’s focused on buying assets rather than licensing his name.

And the Trump Organization stands by its estimate of $4 billion for the brand, which came from a valuation the company commissioned six years ago from the brand strategy firm Predictiv. Predictiv pegged the value of Trump’s brand at $3 billion, and the Trump Organization estimated that it has increased to $4 billion since then.

Jon Low, a partner at Predictiv, said his analysis found that Trump-branded projects generally commanded prices and rents between 9 and 17 percent above the average for the areas in which they’re located.

“There are people who will pay a premium to stay at a Trump-branded property, even when other accommodations are available at a lower price,” Low said.

Office buildings and residential real estate
Trump’s estimated value: $2.9 billion

Donald Trump started out as a real estate developer, and property holdings do make up the lion’s share of his holdings (aside from his brand). The Trump Organization said it has a total of $2.9 billion worth of commercial and residential real estate. In addition to more than $74 million in real estate licensing deals, that includes $1.38 billion in New York City commercial buildings, $351.55 million in New York residential buildings and $823.3 million worth of real estate in joint ventures.

According to TRD’s research, however, these estimates may be slightly high. For example, while the Trump Organization values its combined interests in Trump Tower, Niketown, 40 Wall Street, 1290 Sixth Avenue and 555 California Street, located in San Francisco, at some $2.13 billion, industry experts said the total is likely closer to $1.86 billion.

Commercial real estate

Trump’s best-known — and likely most valuable — commercial real estate asset is his headquarters, Trump Tower, a 68-story mixed-use tower at 725 Fifth Avenue. The building, which is now 100 percent leased, was developed by a partnership of Trump and the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States in 1983, but Trump now has full control of the commercial and retail components of the tower, records show.

Robert Von Ancken, chairman of Landauer Appraisal Services, a division of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, estimated the total value of Trump Tower’s commercial and retail spaces at $460 million. The Trump Organization said the building was refinanced for $100 million in August 2012, allowing Trump to take a cash distribution of over $73 million. The loan, with an interest rate of 4.2 percent, matures in 2022.

Another one of Trump’s major commercial assets is 40 Wall Street, a 1.3 million-square-foot office building where Trump has had the leasehold since 1995. Michael Cohen, in-house counsel at the Trump Organization, said the mogul had paid $1 million for the leasehold; other reports say $10 million.

Either way, the value of the leasehold has increased exponentially since Trump bought it; experts said it’s now worth $350 to $400 million. And the pre-tax net operating income at the building as of 2011 was $20.89 million, according to the Department of Finance, while expenses totaled $14.4 million. However, Trump has a $160 million mortgage attached to the property with an interest rate of 5.71 percent, according to WeiserMazars.

Tenants in the building include Countrywide Insurance, Walgreens/Duane Reade and the American Precious Metals Exchange. Industry insiders said that due to generous tenant incentives, some tenants are paying as little as $30 per square foot, despite official asking rents of roughly $50 a foot. Trump’s son Donald Trump, Jr., who heads commercial leasing at the property, told TRD that some tenants in the lower portions of the building are paying in the $30s per square foot but the overall average for the building is between $40 and $60 a foot.

Trump also has the leasehold at the Niketown building at 6 East 57th Street. The eight-story retail building, which abuts Trump tower, is the national flagship of sports brand Nike.

Von Ancken said Trump’s leasehold is likely worth some $200 million, taking into consideration the fact that Nike’s lease in the building expires in 2017. While there does not appear to be a mortgage on the property, the building serves as collateral for bonds held by Trump to the tune of $46.4 million, according to WeiserMazars.

Trump acquired the last two significant pieces of his commercial real estate holdings, 1290 Sixth Avenue and San Francisco’s 555 California Street, in an unusual way: through a property swap.

It all started in 1994, when Trump was facing foreclosure on the Riverside South residential high-rises he’d developed on Manhattan’s far West Side. He sold a majority interest in the buildings to a consortium of Hong Kong investors, who then made a deal to swap the properties with Extell Development and the Carlyle Group in exchange for 1290 Sixth Avenue and 555 California Street. Trump objected to the exchange, thinking it undervalued the Riverside South properties, but as a minority owner, he had no legal way to stop it. His name still adorns many of the Riverside South properties, for which he also has a management contract.

Today, Trump owns a 30 percent stake in both 1290 Sixth Avenue and 555 California Street. A 43-story trophy office tower, 1290 Sixth is worth $1.5 billion, Von Ancken said, with Trump’s stake worth around $450 million (without considering taxes or liabilities).

And 555 California Street, a 2 million-square-foot building with tenants such as Microsoft and AXA Equitable, would likely sell for around $800 per foot, or $1.36 billion, San Francisco brokers said. That makes Trump’s interest worth in excess of $400 million.

Residential real estate

The Trump Organization values its holdings in New York City residential properties at more than $350 million, according to WeiserMazars. But just as in commercial real estate, industry experts said that figure may be too high.

For example, Trump in 1995 paid $7.5 million for a 213-acre estate just outside the town of Bedford in Westchester County. Called Seven Springs, the property features a 13-bedroom mansion, but is also zoned to allow for the construction of 13 additional homes at the site.

Local brokers put the property’s value at around $40 million, noting that Westchester County’s highest-ever home price was the December sale of the 100-acre Devonshire estate for $21 million. The Trump Organization declined to give a specific figure but it said it believes the estate is worth more than seven times that, based on the projected cash flow it would derive from the sale of the 13 properties on the site.

Trump originally planned to build a golf club on the site, but revised those plans in the face of opposition from local authorities. The company has no immediate plans to build the houses, the company said, but may bring in a third party to develop them eventually. A mortgage on the property has an outstanding balance of $7.52 million, according to WeiserMazars.

Another significant part of Trump’s residential portfolio is the plethora of New York residential high-rises with the Trump name. There’s Trump Park Avenue, Trump World Tower, Trump Palace on East 69th Street, Trump Parc at 106 Central Park South, Trump Parc East at 100 Central Park South, Trump Plaza on 61st Street and Trump International Hotel & Tower at 1 Central Park West.

Upon seeing these buildings, passersby could be forgiven for thinking that Trump owns a huge swath of New York City. But most of the apartments in the properties are no longer owned by Trump: The majority are co-ops and condos that have long since sold out.

Trump does still own 23 apartments at Trump Park Avenue, which he rents for rates as high as $100,000 per month, and 19 units at Trump Parc.

And he also maintains ownership of most of the commercial and retail spaces in the buildings bearing his name. At Trump International, for example, Trump manages the hotel and condo portions of the building and owns the commercial elements of the property, including a garage facility and retail space, which currently houses the restaurant Jean Georges. Trump also retains rights to the rooftops of most of his buildings and leases the spaces to cell network providers such as Verizon for a fee.

The Trump Organization does have some debt on these properties, including a $22.2 million loan on the developer’s interest in Trump Park Avenue and an $8.3 million loan related to the commercial and retained residential portions of Trump Plaza.

Another major contributor to Trump’s wealth are his sprawling personal homes, each worth millions. Most significant of these is his personal apartment at Trump Tower. Occupying the 66th to 68th floors of the building, the triplex penthouse is decorated in diamond, 24-carat gold and marble, and features an interior fountain and a massive Italianate-style painting on the ceilings. Asked by The Real Deal what the apartment might be worth, Trump said only that if he were to put the property up for sale, it would most certainly be the priciest apartment on the market in New York City.

Douglas Elliman Chairman Howard Lorber estimated that the unit could sell for upwards of $100 million if it came on the market today, thanks to its location on Fifth Avenue and its likely appeal to foreign investors.

Trump’s other homes include a Beverly Hills mansion on Rodeo Drive. Lee Ziff, a Beverly Hills broker with Keller Williams, told TRD that the house is likely worth $8.5 to $10 million, though he said he has not seen the inside.

But the mogul also owns residential properties as investments rather than vacation spots. For example, he owns two private houses in Palm Beach, Fla., adjacent to his Mar-a-Lago country club. The houses, which are 4,643 square feet and 1,950 square feet, according to real estate website Zillow.com, are worth around $6.5 million and $3 million, estimated Jonathan Harris, an agent at Valore Group Real Estate in Palm Beach.

And a slick business maneuver recently allowed him to nab a major residential asset for a major discount: the 2,000-acre Kluge estate in Charlottesville, Va.

Formerly owned by media billionaire John Kluge and his wife, Patricia, the property features a 23,000-square-foot mansion but is also a functioning commercial winery and vineyard.

Facing default following her husband’s death, Patricia Kluge put the estate on the market for $100 million about four years ago. Her lender, Bank of America, seized the property before she could unload it.

Trump bought the property out of foreclosure in 2011, paying only $7.9 million for the vineyard, winery and its equipment, and the land surrounding the house; those assets alone were valued by the bank at $60 million.

The 45-room mansion, meanwhile, was on the market for $16 million. In a bid to get it for far less, Trump let the property’s grounds become overgrown so they’d be unappealing to buyers. Eventually, he convinced the bank to sell him the house — for just $6.5 million. Ultimately, Trump paid a total $14.4 million for the entire property, now known as Trump Vineyard Estates and managed by Eric Trump.

Resorts, country clubs and golf courses
Trump’s estimated value: $1.57 billion

In recent years, Trump has invested heavily in “lifestyle properties” such as golf courses, resorts and country clubs. He owns at least 13 golf courses across the globe, including the 1,200-acre Trump International Golf Links in Scotland.

Putting a dollar figure on the value of these assets is tricky, however, because many of them come with development rights or the potential for other uses. The Trump Organization values its combined interests in these club facilities and related lifestyle properties at roughly $1.57 billion, according to WeiserMazars.

Among the most valuable of these assets is the Doral Resort & Spa in South Florida, which Trump bought out of bankruptcy for $150 million last year in another fire sale acquisition. The 800-acre property includes five golf courses, 700 hotel rooms, meeting and conference space, a 50,000-square-foot spa and an extensive retail component. Based on current prices in the Miami area, where land has been trading at close to $20 per square foot, real estate experts said the current value of the land alone at Doral could exceed $1 billion. Trump has a $125 million loan on the property, according to WeiserMazars.

Another significant holding is the oceanfront Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles at Palos Verdes, where Trump has development rights to build 75 homes adjacent to the course. Trump told The Real Deal that he’d already sold five of the lots for up to $5 million apiece but was not actively looking to sell more.

At Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, Trump has rights to develop 87 luxury condos. Sixteen of those have already sold for $1.5 million to $2.45 million, according to the Trump Organization, which said it has no immediate plans to build the remaining properties.

While golf courses seem to be one of Trump’s primary interests right now, he also has interests in other kinds of lifestyle properties. For example, in Florida he owns the Mar-a-Lago country club, a 17-acre property with a 20,000-square-foot ballroom, which has played host to celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Celine Dion and Oprah. Commercial real estate brokers said it was difficult to determine a value for such an idiosyncratic asset, for which there are few comparables. Taking a stab, Harris said the property could ask as much as $250 million if it came on the market today.

Some of the properties in this category haven’t always been positive additions to Trump’s balance sheet.

In Nevada, Trump owns a 50 percent interest in Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, which he developed alongside real estate and casino mogul Phil Ruffin. Originally designed as a condominium, the property now operates primarily as a hotel; when it opened in 2008, the units sold rapidly but buyers couldn’t close once the crisis hit. Trump and Ruffin ended up high and dry with 900 units they couldn’t sell, Ruffin told The Real Deal.

“It was negative for a while,” Ruffin said in a phone interview last month. “Without the [Trump] brand, we probably would have let it go.”

Trump and Ruffin are close to closing a deal for 300 of the building’s units with a division of Hilton, which will use them as timeshare properties, Ruffin said. Hilton will pay around $100 million, he said. Ruffin said the deal would eradicate most of the partnership’s debt on the building, and that he and Trump will then be left with between 500 and 600 units, which will continue to be operated as a hotel.

And in Atlantic City, a portfolio of properties along the boardwalk that bear the Trump name are the source of the widespread misconception that Trump at one point went personally bankrupt.

Trump bought the portfolio, now known as Trump Taj Mahal Hotel & Casino, in 1987. The property’s ownership entity, Trump Entertainment Resorts, filed for bankruptcy four times between 1991 and 2009. After the first bankruptcy, the company went public and Trump began reducing his stake in it, from 36.6 percent in 1991 to just 5 percent today, the Trump Organization said. He is also no longer chairman of the company’s board.

Entertainment and other assets
Trump’s estimated value: $317.6 million

Trump also owns a wide variety of other enterprises outside the realm of real estate. For example, the real estate magnate owns the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants, which the Trump Organization said are collectively worth a total of $15 million.

In addition, he owns a talent and modeling agency, Trump Model Management, and 50 percent of the value of the rights to “The Apprentice,” which he shares with producer Mark Burnett and on which he’s been focusing much of his time and attention of late. He also owns several airplanes, including a Boeing 757 and a Cessna Citation X.

But regardless of how many planes or buildings he has, Trump has made one thing clear over the years, which accounts for a significant portion of his wealth: he knows how to stay in the spotlight.

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Not content to simply break the record for the tallest residential tower in New York City, the developers of 432 Park Avenue are seeking to further capitalize on the project’s height.

Macklowe Properties and California-based CIM Group, which are jointly developing the luxury condominiums, want to slice the top-floor penthouse into two units atop the 1,396-foot-tall building, according to plans filed with the New York Attorney General’s office.

Additionally, the developers plan to cut the number of apartments to 125 units from 141 units, while increasing the total sale price to $2.892 billion from $2.875 billion, the plans show.

Macklowe and CIM filed the proposed amendment June 20, as developers are required to do when revising an offering plan. The AG’s office is currently reviewing the proposed revision — the seventh amendment to a plan first approved in July 2012, and the most recent since this past April.

The new 96th floor unit has an offering price of $95 million, while the 95th floor unit has a price tag of $85 million. It’s possible that the new penthouse is already spoken for, since an unidentified buyer reportedly signed a $95 million contract in May for the top penthouse.

The overall height of the Rafael Vinoly-designed tower, which is still under construction, remains the same — albeit with an additional floor. The total amount of residential space will grow to 412,637 square feet, up from 405,190 square feet in the April filing, the latest amendment reveals.

The developers created the new 96th floor by apparently using extra high ceilings in the former 95th floor unit.

“The addition of floor slabs within Residential Unit 95 has created a new floor 96… making Residential Unit 95 single height,” the filings said.

The new unit 96 received its floor area from two units on the 45th floor, which will now be used for mechanical purposes, the filing says.

The developers have two methods for counting floors: “construction,” which is the true number of stories, and “marketing,” which is the number associated with the apartments being sold. For example, there is no 13th floor. Currently, 432 Park Avenue is slated to have 84 construction floors; the top floor for marketing purposes is 101, according to the most recent offering plan. But the amendment shows 85 construction floors and identifies the top marketing floor as 102.

The developers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition, the plans reveal for the first time that the upper nine apartments — floors 85, 86, 88 and 91 through 96 — will have wood-burning (as well as gas) fireplaces, a rarity in new high-rise construction.

The plan calls for other creative adjustments to the building, including removing floors 72, 82 and 87. That gives double-height ceilings to the two apartments each on floors 71 and 81, and the five-bedroom floor-through unit on the 86th floor, priced at $73.5 million.

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