William Zeckendorf

“Zeckendorf viewed assets as a sum of parts, so he could increase the value of the whole. Various parts were more valuable to different buyers, so Zeckendorf would maximize the value of his holdings overall, in effect making one plus one equal three. He calcula…”

“And the one Sam Zell told me that I had to read one that Sam Zell talks about in his autobiography that he read when he was a young man. He's actually around 30 years old when he read this book. And that book is Zeckendorf, the autobiography of the man who pla…”

“For example, one Park Avenue in Manhattan, which the marketplace had valued at ten million dollars, was ultimately worth fifteen million in Zeckendorf's hands. He calculated everything separately. The building's title, the land, the leases, the individual mort…”

“In my judgment, a property is, if in my judgment, a property is worth the asking price, I see no reason to try for less. A lot of shrewd dealers think this is foolish, but I notice that others tend to lose more business and to poison relationships by trying to…”

“Your job in life is to get in a great business and then stay there. And Charlie's point here is like, I could tell you that advice. You're just not going to do it. It's so hard to build a wonderful business. You're not going to be assaulted from the outside. M…”

“I'm offering you four hundred and fifty million. Will you take it? No. Howard, what do you want? I won't tell you. Howard, take it or leave it, five hundred million. He said, I'll leave it.”

“The theory had to do with breaking up a property into various components, which is what Sam Dell just told us, right? Its ground leasehold, its fee position, its operating leasehold, and a residual position, and seeking out various investors for each.”

“The Ritz Hotel, Which cost twenty-five million dollars to build, sold for 725,000 dollars, and it had a 100,000 dollars worth of liquor in it at the time.”

“The secret of any great project is to keep it moving. Keep it from losing momentum.”