The Sky's the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan

This is a great read - especially if you've never really understood what the big deal about co-ops v. condos is or even just don't know the difference. The gossipy tidbits in the middle make it interesting, yet it is still fact-filled. Steven Gaines did a great job with this work!

New York real estate is sizzling hot, holding some of the most expensive condos and offices in the country: Author/editor Steven Gaines reveals the behind-the-scenes deals and influences of big-ticket properties in Manhattan in The Sky's The Limit: Passion And Property In Manhattan. From secret rules of co-op boards which limit who can buy and live in their establishments to elite buildings which have turned away some of the biggest celebrities, this is a fascinating history of Manhattan real estate - fascinating even for those with no New York connections.

Real estate seems to be the number one topic at dinner and cocktail parties. Everyone has a story about how incredibly real estate prices have risen and how someone has made a killing. Nowhere is this phenomenon more over the top than in Manhattan. Steven Gaines is an investigative journalist who, in a previous work has examined the mansions and millionaires of the Hamptons, now focuses on the exclusive world of Manhattan co-ops. According to Gaines, the "good buildings" and the "best addresses" run along Fifth and Park Avenues. One such good building is located at 820 Fifth Avenue. Gaines tells us that everyone was shocked when the board of the co-op approved Tommy Hilfiger. Its not that he didn't have the $100 million liquid assets needed to qualify, but the fact that he designed baggy gansta rap clothing. Gaines gossipy anecodotes are told mainly from the point of view of some of the carriage trade brokers that do the deals. Many of the brokers are very hard-working and much more sensible than their clients. Dolly Lenz, for example, was the highest earning broker for Prudential out of a sales force of 58,000 nationwide. Not only does she work in the rarified atmosphere of Manhattan co-ops, she also has the distinction of having sold the most expensive house in the New York.(Burnt Point in the Hamptons was sold to the CEO of Kinray for $45 million.) Working seven days a week and the ability to thumb-type 80 words per minute on her Blackberrry, she still finds time to have dinner with, say, Bruce Willis or Barbara Streisand. Another good story, had to do with the San Remo building, possibly one of the most exclusive buildings in Manhattan. Steven Jobs of Apple Computer bought the top two floors of the North Tower and spent five years and $15 million renovating it. The other tenants were so frustrated by the renovation that they brought action limiting the amount of time renovations could take. Jobs lost interest in the building and offered it to Bono of U2 for the cost of the renovation. Bono, smelling a bargain, snapped it up. Gaines is very good at analyzing the social distinctions between the different buildings and neighborhoods and the people who inhabit them. Although it may not add much to the sum total of human knowledge, it does entertain and give insight into the otherworldly ordeals of the super rich.

Among the many excesses that New York City can claim is one of the most rediculous real estate systems in the world. The sub-title of this book says a lot, there is a passion in the real estate business in Manhattan. In a space of only a few square miles the rich (sometimes famous, sometimes not) have created a strange sub-culture that exists just like others around the city. The difference here is that these people are the people you would expect to be secure in their lives, not filled with petty gossip and rivalries. But that's not the case. A good bit of the book is about the co-op board who has the right to accept or reject a new prospective purchaser. For instance no attractive divorced women need apply, the wives of the existing tennants don't want their husbands riding in the elevators with them. Likewise, no single men, we, after all, don't want gays in our building. I was surprised to read a lot of this. I would have thought that the civil rights legislation would have prevented such actions. But perhaps that was only to be applied in the South. Very interesing side of the housing market.

I approached this book with indifference. But by page three, I was a convert, and engrossed in this vuyeuristic story of opulence and property on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, an area the contains the greatest concentration of personal wealth on Earth. I never knew the names behind these social register families, the newly-rich strivers, the surnames who raise most of the funds for New York's cultural institutions, and the re-branded real estate brokers who serve these super rich co-op owners. Gaines throws in the juicy stories of how Nixon was rejected by buildings, how Vanderbilt sued for entry into a GB (Good Building), how Streisand got stuck with her place for years, and how the powerful and wealthy are brought low by dictatorial co-op boards. There are stories of well positioned board packages, the mistakes of wearing the wrong clothes or being a pretty divorcee at board interviews, and how one should say that they love dogs if the board president is the largest funder of the ASPCA. Gaines uses the story of Tommy Hilfiger and his "board package" to show the evolution of upper east side real estate - namely the acceptance of some "garmentos" in to the best good buildings. Of course, when Hilfiger finally got a place, his divorce forced the apartment to be flipped (and flipped again.) When people say a book a juicy, this is the sort of book they mean. It is hard to put down, and it illuminates a world few of us will ever experiences.