New memoir by CBRE’s Stephen Siegel an – Business News
Most books by real estate executives, even legendary ones, are usually tedious affairs of curiosity primarily to their households and pals. That’s not the case with “From the Bronx to the Boardroom: Lessons from a Life in Commercial Real Estate” by CBRE world brokerage head Stephen B. Siegel. (Regalo Press.)
The glowing memoir, written with Laura Rowley, is an anecdotal romp by means of Siegel’s dealmaking profession.
The amusing and typically emotional episodes play out in opposition to the backdrop of the business brokerage world’s evolution from the times when a desktop “wheel the size of a gristmill” contained playing cards on “every building in New York” to the 21 Century’s computerized knowledge bases.
CBRE world brokerage head Stephen B. Siegel negotiated game-changing leases and property gross sales Downtown, in Times Square and Hudson Yards, and for purchasers together with Related Companies, Vornado and Larry Silverstein.
Siegel, 80, relates a colourful Bronx boyhood when bullies made him really feel like “the skinny kid who got sand kicked in his face” till he realized to combat back (he nonetheless has a scar on his hand from when he broke a window whereas bloodying his opponent’s nostril).
He began at Cushman & Wakefield at age 17 and went on to finally turn into its CEO.
He was later lured by his buddy Edward S. Gordon to his highly effective brokerage ESG, which later merged with Insignia and advanced into right now’s world powerhouse CBRE.
Along the best way, Siegel negotiated game-changing leases and property gross sales Downtown, in Times Square and Hudson Yards, and for purchasers together with Related Companies, Vornado and Larry Silverstein.
He writes of Donald Trump, for whom Siegel negotiated a large Gucci lease at Trump Tower, “He believed everything he said . . . ‘The Apprentice’ was number one in the ratings, when it was number fifty. But none of it was deceptive to him; in his mind, it was the truth.”
As Siegel realized the worldwide ropes, he made a few cultural fake pax. He twice offended Hong Kong purchasers with inappropriate items — a Tiffany clock that advised “time running out” to an ageing landlord and 5 pizzas at a assembly the place they had been considered an insult to Chinese food. Remarkably, he obtained the deal executed every time.
The glowing memoir, written with Laura Rowley, is an anecdotal romp by means of Siegel’s dealmaking profession.
Siegel movingly recounts his engineer spouse Wendy’s 2011 analysis of acute myeloid leukemia, an ordeal that included stem cell and lung transplants and repeated hospitalizations — none of which has dimmed her zeal for all times.
He brings to life characters from David Rockefeller, who purchased a large chunk of Cushman, to Paul McCartney whom he encountered on a Lexington Avenue sidewalk.
But the e book’s essential character is New York City, “which always comes back” from crises and the place “even the most severe disruption is temporary.”
