User:Dustynyfeathers/sandbox

New York City Real Estate Families are families and partnerships that have developed New York City office buildings and residences since the late 19th century and early 1900s, although most of the more prominent families were active mainly since the 1950s and 1960s, and were most influential in the 1970s. They have been described as "royalty" in New York City. They have been compared to the oil barons in Texas. The families tend to shun publicity. These families built apartment buildings, commercial spaces, and other institutions, and with their growing wealth, they've endowed cultural and other philanthropic organizations. Many members of these families have also served in the political mainstream, by holding appointed offices and donating to politicians. What sets these families apart mainly is that they buy real estate, but do not sell it. They tend to have low levels of debt. And they do a few projects at a time, rather than larger "binge" projects. The top seven families in commercial real estate had about 41 million square feet in 2010. The real estate families of New York are prominent players in a $90B real estate market. They're surnames include, Tishman, Rudin, Rose, Durst, Fisher, Resnick. The list does not include Trump or Helmsley.