Zeckendorf: The autobiograpy of the man who played a real-life game of Monopoly and won the largest real estate empire in history.

by William Zeckendorf

Not since the days of the Louisiana Purchase has America seen any bigger real estate transactions than those executed by William Zeckendorf, the derring-do head of Webb & Knapp. Figuring with supersonic speed and an uncanny flair for making money, the flamboyant impresario bought and sold property, remodeled whole sections of New York, Denver, Washington, Montreal and Dallas, and moved the UN, the capital of the world, to New York. At the peak of his power, William Zeckendorf was a man with the Midas touch in an age of computers. From his windowless teakwood igloo office set in a white marble lobby, William Zeckendorf played a real-life game of Monopoly and won the largest real estate empire in the world - so large, in fact, that Wall Street tottered when he went bankrupt. And bankrupt he was, but never in spirit. An autobiography bursting with vitality, enthusiasm and financial know-how, Mr. Zeckendorf reveals himself as a visionary whose creativeness and sense of adventure are matched only by his unalloyed joy at being able to successfully juggle a dozen incredibly complicated transactions at once. The spectacular Mr. Zeckendorf, who has fished for piranhas in South America and sold ships to the Greeks at profit, comes to life in this autobiography. You will not want to miss meeting him.

Genres: Biography, Business, Autobiography, Nonfiction, Finance, History, Biography Memoir

348 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

William Zeckendorf, Sr. was a prominent American real estate developer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...

Reviews

[Marwan Elnakeeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Zeckendorf is my most favorite character since I had started reading his autobiography. I never thought an autobiography by a real estate tycoon could have been so much of an engrossing page turner. I originally picked up the book as a recommendation by the diligent Amazon algorithms and what sucked me in was the Robert Moses eulogy of Zeckendorf at the beginning of the book. I couldn't put the book down. The life of this self-made man was so awe-inspiring to me. He achieved so much in his lifetime he literally sets the bar so high. 


The whole book reads like a period thriller from the perspective of an insider in the much entangled world of pure business: real estate, power brokers, influencer economists and political players and dynasties of old wealth. The whole thing is set against the backdrop of financial transactions in an exclusive club of wealthy elite that cause the flow of billions of dollars of money investments. Zeckendor's core competencies are his deep experience in deal making which makes him see a future moves ahead of time. On top of that it's his ability to see all the angles and possibilities of added value and his uncanny way of navigating the financial system to finance his endeavors in a way that create tiers and multiples of added value and profits for himself and his business partners.


William Zeckendorf is so funny and his jovial character is vividly obvious through the narration of his life story, if I was not simply smiling I was laughing out loud at times. He discussed his mistakes and poor judgments with open frankness as someone who knows that in order to make your mark in the world you must accept your defeats with grace and move on to fight another battle. I finished the book holding so much respect for the man and his life. This was a man who knew how to live and he made the best out of it.



I seriously cannot get enough of his autobiography. The man is hilariously funny. The thing that gets to me though is how much he has accomplished and the pace and speed of his progression through the world of high end elite business moguls and tycoons. Being a member of an exclusive club of well deserved status based on serious hard work and street smarts meeting book smarts meting natural talent meeting being in the proper circumstances to start off on the correct path towards something that is going to allow for a grand future. I am literally running through the words in this books with mental breathlessness. He was unstoppable for multiple decades. His ingenuity in creating value and knowing how to evaluate assets was something extraordinary. His ability to climb up the top of the highest mountain as he has explained it makes the vew from the top magnificent and makes all sorts of possibilities visible from an outstanding vantage point. I'm really inspired by his example and his being such a force of nature. I believe I will be going through this book a second time. Learning about how he managed to leverage his skills in deal-making into several other projets unrelating to real estate was something of an eye opener. His integration of other businesses related to his core business in his expansion and the proliferation of his business deals across the continent was also bewildering. This man deserves so much recognition and to fall upon his autobiography by means of the Amazon Algorithm makes me seriously thankful for AI in the 21st century. This book is so awe-inspiring and makes me think of endless possibilities.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is probably only of interest to people, who are interested in real estate and the dealings in properties and buildings. There is so much talk about mortgages, leases, bonds, debentures - you're either the target audience or you're not.
From today's point of view, it's strange to read for what small dollar amounts entire Manhatten buildings changed owners (most of the action in this book takes place in the 1950s).

- A negative: There are many, many pages of describing some architecture project's layout. Urban planning sites in Washington D.C. got so dry, I actually skimmed some pages. It's probably a waste of time for sb. 60 years later to read all this stuff.

There are interesting anecdotes about when Zeckendorf met Howard Hughes, Frank Lloyd Wright, David Rockefeller and even Cuban dictator Batista.

And here are some choice lines from the book:

"The next stop was the emergency ward of the hospital, where this fierce old man, refusing an anesthetic (he already had enough in him), sat on the operating table swinging his legs and singing bawdy songs as the intern stitched his scalp."

"Jeff, you know we are the biggest dealers in slightly used bank quarters in America; we take them in like secondhand cars."

"I find it is not logic but emotions, sometimes carefully rationalized to resemble logic, that more often than not decide most issues."

"Tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"Well! That's kind of short notice."
"I asked you if you were serious last time, so this is not short notice."

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book from a truly strategic thinker. Very interesting to see how Zeckendorf's career developed and how he was able to pull various parties together to make a deal happen. It's also a window into a very interesting and bygone era of history. Such a shame that it is now out of print and difficult to find.

[Bobby Wuertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing career in Real Estate. Interesting person who knew a lot of interesting people but it was a book that i could put down and was not eager to pick back up again.

[Fedjablpula · Rating 2 out of 5]

Do ove knjige sam dosao citajuci Sam Zella. On je naveo da je njegov uzor bio Zeckendorf i tako sam pronasao ovu knjigu.

Zeckendorf je taj koji je dao konture danasnjem New Yorku, Torontu, Detroitu i jos dosta gradova. Covjek koji se i stvarnom zivotu igrao igre monopola.

Prvo je vodio prodaje za velike igrace i dosao do vlastitog kapitala kroz provizije da bi onda i sam krenuo u vlastite projekte.

Fantasticne vizije, on je poceo sa ogromnim, visokim zgradama za korporacije.

On je zadrzao world trading centar u NY.
Wall street zadrzao na njegovom mjestu i doveo tamo sve poznate banke.

Hoteli.

Na kraju je krahirao jer je imao previse velikih projekata otvorenih u isto vrijeme, a u isto to vrijeme je bila kriza u hotelima, a hoteli kada ne rade dovoljnim kapacitetima gube mnogo novca jako brzo, kao sto i donose kad rade punim kapacitetima.

[Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars with some good takeaways but not as engaging as hoped for.

The secret to any great project is to keep it moving. Keep it from losing momentum. Page 6

Everybody knew there was going to be a fight. I was frightened, but there was nothing to do about it. I took off my coat and started running down the stairs at my enemy. My seeming eagerness must have startled him, for 1 noticed that he wilted just a bit. The fact is, I was expecting to get knocked down and was rushing in to get it over with, but when I saw him flinch, I gained new courage. He gave up after one or two punches.
This minor incident was soon forgotten by almost everyone but me; it taught me a lesson that later applied in business every bit as much as it did in a high-school playground: If you show hesitancy or fear, you may already be half-defeated. If you put on a bold front, and fight with everything you have, you can win. Moreover, once you have won a few battles, you are usually left alone: in the jungle, no animal thoughtlessly attacks the lion. Page 19-20.

I’m glad I experienced running the Monte Carlo, but I feel about it the way a man does with eight daughters. He wouldn’t take 1 million for one of them or give two cents for an additional one. Page 90.

Just as a man living in a mountain valley sees and is closely aware of only a few of the nearest great peaks above him, so, too, is it with a man comfortably settled at some modest elevation in our own society. If he begins to climb, however, he will soon notice from his new perspective that there are actually a great many peaks on all sides around him. What's more, once he has reached a high enough altitude, he will discover something else. He will see that many of the greatest peaks interconnected by high ridges or narrow plateaus-are, at this new level, readily accessible each one to the other. The temptation to keep moving on this high ground can be irresistible. The importance to me of being on the heights was that in an hour I could achieve what previously would have taken a year or more of effort to perform. Otherwise I found the dwellers on the heights little different from their less advantageously placed brethren.
There is a selection process which sees to it that a significant number of upper-level people are smarter, more aggressive, and in some ways more self-assured than the average, but a good many dwellers on the heights got there entirely by accident. They were born there. Others, like lowland birds blown far up a mountain by a sudden storm, found themselves at heights they never expected to reach but which they managed to adapt to. I did find numbers of tough, strong men who had worked their way up from the very bottom, but most they reached. had started out from a place within hailing distance of the height. Since it is generally pleasant to be rich, famous, powerful and influential, the great majority of people, who achieve some promi. nence have a profound interest in maintaining, if not improving, their position. To these ends they sometimes join with and at other times ruthlessly undercut their fellows. Since there are some quite precipitous slopes and occasional ice slides on the various routes to and about the heights, most people there are at core conservative and very much against anyone in any way disturbing their perch or their surroundings I found it possible to join their ranks without discon. moding or unsettling them, for one way to succeed is by aiding and supporting the position of others through new or ingenious ideas or projects. This usefulness to others is in large part the reason for my own success, though there were times when we quite consciously upset other groups for our own and quite often for their own good. Page 106.

When Zeckendorf developed Court House Square in Denver there were three department stores fairly far away and he needed to have a traffic driver that would change people’s walking patterns. He approached a number of local and national department stores and no one wanted to come. Instead of getting too discouraged, he bought on of the local stores, signed a lease at court house square, then sold it again. Page 122

I had them test-core the fill for sand and gravel that we might use for our concrete and for the prefabricated mosaic surface of our build. ings. It turned out that if we used our own material, we could save one million dollars in construction costs. This meant excavating would really cost only two million, while at the same time opening up an enormous space beneath the plaza for a profitable garage. Thus demonstrating the difference between an engineer and an entrepreneur, I told them to excavate, but since we were in Rocky Mountain gold country, over an old creek bed, I also had them test their core samples for gold. If they found gold, we could run it through a sluice while washing off the fill for its sand and gravel. They did find gold. We announced discovery of a small gold-bearing stratum of sand under the square, and this brought on a two- or three-day furor that mus have had the old-time miners roaring in their graves. In all, we got fifty which Marion had a duplicate cast from. I use these now as cufflinks thousand dollars or so from our "mine," and I got one good nugget, and am no longer sure which is the original. Page 124

*****My biggest takeaway from the book is the Hawaiian technique as explained here:
Standing out in the sun, in my bare feet and shorts I thought enviously about how an investment banker acquiring a ten-million-dollar industrial corporation has a much easier time of it than a real-estate man buying a ten-million-dollar building. The investment banker can divide and sell the ownership and rights in a corporation in a great many ways, a piece at a time. For instance, he can sell first-mortgage bonds to an insurance company, at the prime rate of interest. He could also offer debentures, which, though they take a second position to the bonds, offer a higher rate of interest in compensation. For investors interested in a speculative fillip (in case the company does very well), there are convertible debentures that can be turned into common stock. He can issue preferred shares (convertible or straight), which tend to be especially attractive to corporate investors, because preferred dividends passing from one corporation to another are taxed only seven percent. Finally, there is the common stock, the basic equity of a corporation, but the availability of capital does not stop there; there are also bank loans, accounts receivable (which may be financed with a factor), warrants to buy stock, and various other ways to draw investment capital into a corporation. In fact, investment bankers have over the generations invented as many ways of catering to investors as there are investors with particular personal needs, whims, or tax requirements.
While hauling in an empty line from the Hawaiian seaside, it occurred to me that if an investment banker did not have all these ways to reach various kinds of investors, he would be in just as difficult a Position as I was with 1 Park Avenue. If he had to sell a corporation in toto, to one buyer, an investment banker would not get nearly as much money as he did by dividing it up for special customers... the lucky This kind of thinking was not really getting me anywhere; I Pulled back with my rod and cast way out into the water again. Then an idea came to me: "Why can't we break the property up, just the way an investment banker does?"
With a corporate financial structure as my model, I began mentally to divide up I Park Avenue to see how and at what price the building might appeal to various kinds of investors. As the pieces and the arithmetic began to dovetail, I forgot my fishing or even where I was until I suddenly realized I was standing on a Hawaiian beach, in water up to my ankles, with a useless rod and reel in my hands. I went into the house, and in the course of two hours on the telephone I began to make the first application of what was to become known in the trade as the Hawaiian Technique.
In practice, because it involves a long chain of interconnected events and multiple side branches, the Hawaiian Technique can become as complex as some of the long molecule chains chemists work with and link together to concoct new products. In essence, however, like most good ideas, it is simple. I determined how it could work, in the case of 1 Park Avenue, which earned one million dollars in rentals a year and had a ten-million-dollar price tag on it.
Though most homeowners don't think of it this way, a major urban property breaks naturally into two parts- the land, and a lease which gives you a right to the use of the land. A building usually comes with this lease, but as the basic leaseholder and building owner you can alter, tear down, or rebuild on your site in any way you want-as long as you pay your ground rent for the land.
Now, considering only the land, I determined that $250,000 of the total million-dollar income of the property should go to the ground rent. This ground rent, since it must be paid before any other expenses, is the safest of all possible incomes to the property. Capitalized at the rate of five percent, therefore, the ground should be worth five million dollars. I could try to find a buyer directly at this price, or I might do something else: since ground income is so sure, a mortgage on the ground (which would have first call on the already ultrasafe ground rent) would be even more secure. I should have little trouble finding an insurance company or pension fund willing to take a four-percent return for such a safe risk and could therefore sell them a mortgage on the ground for three million dollars which would eat up $120,000 of the land's total income. The remaining $130,000 of income capitalized at the rate of 6½ percent would be worth two million, and for this sum I would sell the land to an institutional or individual investor.
The land mortgagor and land owner would be our equivalent of a corporation's bond and debenture holders, and at this point, having first mortgaged and then sold off our land, we would have five million dollars, plus a building and, of course, a basic lease giving us undis. turbed use of the property.
The earnings on this property, after payment of ground rent, would be one million dollars, minus $250,000, or $750,000. The job now was to properly fraction and sell this leasehold and its income so as to attract particular buyers. What I did, basically, was to create two leases, an inner (or sandwich) lease, and outer (or operating) lease.
Whoever purchased the operating lease would, in effect, be the manager of the building. He would solicit tenants and collect rents. He would get one million dollars in income, pay $750,000 in rent, and keep $250,000 for himself. The holder of the inner lease would, in effect, be the owner of the building. He would get $750,000 in rent, pay $250,000 to the owner of the land, and keep $500,000 for himself.
Before selling the inner lease and its $500,000 income, however, 1 could readily mortgage it with a leasehold first mortgage of 6½ percent for four million dollars. The mortgage payments on this would come to $270,000 per year plus two percent or $80,000 per year for amortiza-tion. This would leave $500,000 minus $350,000, or $150,000, to the building owner. Capitalizing this $150,000 at an attractive six percent, I would readily find a buyer for 2.5 million dollars. Thus the inner lease would bring me four million dollars when mortgaged, plus 2.5 million when sold.
As for the operating lease, with its $250,000 income, we could, at a seven-percent return to investors, get a price of almost 3.6 millon dollars. If we provided the financing, by taking back a mortgage, it might be even higher, but holding things as is (in this simplified case), it turns out we have arranged to: (1) sell and mortgage the land (fos five million dollars), (2) sell and mortgage the inner lease (for 6,5 million dollars), and (3) sell an operating lease (for 3.6 million dollars).
All for a grand total of 15.1 million dollars on a purchase price to us of ten million. In this profitably fractioned property, the holder of the operating costs were fixed (at $750,000), was in a position not unlike that of a common stockholder. He was relatively secure against inflation, and if he could increase sales or rentals, his income would rise phenomenally; a ten-percent rise in rentals, for instance, would give him a forty-percent rise in incomed
The building owner, or innerlease holder, would be in a cash position much like that of a preferred stockholder, with fixed income but with tax advantages even better than those available to corporations that pay only seven percent of their preferred dividends. This, because the building owner can write off the annual depreciation of the building against his cash income from the structure. What with the accelerated depreciation, such investors would be able to pocket their $230,000 income with no tax—and to garner extra tax credits against other income-until such time, of course, as yearly depreciation on the building began to equal amortization payments. At this point the individual owner would likely want to sell his interest in the building (paying only twenty-five percent in capital gains if he sold at a profit), to wind up with an excellent net return.
These, as with a great many other tax possibilities that we realized for investors, were perfectly legal and well within the concepts and spirit of the law as it existed then. They also led to much new legisla-tion, however, because the Internal Revenue Service, upset about the amount of money they were not getting, instituted new rulings to plug the new holes we had discovered.
The example of property-fractioning I have given above is a simplified one. In an actual case there might be quite a number of individual variations and many more investors. For instance, in an inner (or sand-wich) lease, aside from the first mortgage we might create a two-million-dollar second mortgage, this second mortgage to pay interest but no amortization, till the first mortgage had been paid off. Or we might create a dormant mortgage which did not pay anything for tventy-five years. Only after the first mortgage was paid would this dormant mortgage take over, but then, as a first mortgage, it would acquire full value. One might be able to sell such a mortgage for, say, $750,000 to a man who wants to give it to his children twenty-five years hence. Similarly, the operating (or outer) lease, instead of being sold out. right, might be mortgaged, broken into subleases or subsubleases, hedged against various possibilities, and sold to as many as ten or
twelve different investors.
The Hawaiian Technique was so flexible that it became a very powerful tool which often could make two plus two equal to four plus one plus two plus more. I was not the first one to package real-estate deals for particular customers or to use a sale-and-leaseback technique (L, for one, had been doing just such things since the 1930's), but this was the first time anyone consciously and deliberately fractioned a great property off beforehand in order to tap many markets at once.
We used the technique with 1407 Broadway, with West Thirty-fouth Street, with the Graybar Building, and with just about every other one of our major properties. The Hawaiian Technique, because it er-mitted us to anticipate and make early use of the future earnings of our properties, became the principal tool of Webb & Knapp expansion.
And, as the technique spread and was adapted by others, it brought a new liquidity and flexibility to real-estate financing in general. ******* Page 144-148

The last time I saw Howard Hughes, he had already surrounded himself with the phalanx of competent, honest, and thoroughly humorless young Mormons who served as the gate-keepers, errand boys, and contact men. Through them he wards off and deals with much of the rest of the world. Page 155

Since we had only $25M of our own money and fifty million promised from Metropolitan Life, we were twenty. five million short of our project cost estimates, but I gave the go-ahead signal. My observation has always been that after a certain key point You must move ahead as if a project were assured-in order to assure it-because if you wait around for all the pieces of the puzzle to fit before closing a deal, you can wait forever. Counting on our own abilities and the evident worth of the project to bring in the additional capital we needed , we let the first construction contracts. Page 179

For all my technically trained and talented young helpers, I was principal troubleshooter for Webb & Knapp and would not have it any other way. Financing and building a great project is a bit like building a road through mountain country; around every bend there is a surprise, and a great part of the excitement and interest in a development, aside from its conception, lies in the challenge of finding new ways around the many difficulties that crop up. In Montreal we had a fair sampling of every minor and major form of dificulty that a great project can encounter, some of which I shall now detail. Page 183

In matters great as in matters small, around the world as in Montreal, I find it is not logic but emotions, sometimes carefully rationalized to resemble logic, that more often than not decide most issues. Page 186

The trouble was that the law concentrated only on housing. It takes much more than the razing of slums and putting up of clean new apartments to revitalize a great area stricken with a combination of social and economic ills: revitalizing parts of a city's core calls for a change in is human chemistry. The best way to achieve this is through new or better land use (as happened in Montreal). Housing can, and in mot instances should be, a key part of this change, but you also have to create supporting commercial and aesthetic elements in the area or have them already available nearby, otherwise your housing will eventually succumb to the decay around it. 203

There is a great exchange on pages 238-241 about the roles of developers and financiers in determining architecture. Basically, in order to have good architecture people have to be willing to take a risk.

If Irving has crossed a bridge in their own minds and were planning to go uptown, I could offer them the properties at a fire-sale price and not get a nibble. But when they began bidding $7.5M, I knew they had crossed a different type of bridge; they were not going uptown, I knew then they would have to pay the nine million or change their policy, and $1.5M was not enough to force a change in that kind of policy; 1.5M in the total land cost might have constituted five percent of the total cost of a new building and I felt this was pretty good ground on which to stand pat. I stood my ground, and we got nine million. The negotiators for the Irving Trust handled themselves beautifully. In that sense it was a classic series of negotiations, but after a certain point they knew and I knew what the land was worth to them, and we settled at a worthwhile figure; land values are only a relatively small portion of the total cost of a new structure. Page 271

Meanwhile, on another flank, the coming of the jet age was indeed changing American travel patterns, but not at first in the ways some of us had anticipated. The jets brought much more travel business to key American cities. I think they were a background factor in the continued growth of New York as the corporate capital of America.
But the jets, because they were so fast, actually cut back a bit, at first, on New York's hotel business. It turned out a businessman could fly in from Chicago or St. Louis, do his business, and fly back home in the same day instead of staying in New York overnight. Page 296.

[Nataliya Stelmakh · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second favorite after 'Steve Jobs' by Isaacson. Unlike 'Snowball' about Buffet, which vaguely describes how he actually went from A to B, but concentrates on his path from B to Z; this book is a very detailed & captivating timeline of all major deals Zeckendorf did. During his first year as a real estate broker he hasn't made a single deal, but then mastered the art of finding good assets, syndicating & leveraging their purchase, upgrading their use, adding value & then reselling at a great profit. Exactly how Jeff Sutton built his $3B retail empire.

Not all Zeckendorf's ventures were immediately successful, like buying horse riding school on Upper West Side with a vision to sell to a TV studio, so they ended buying lots of oats to run the school; in some years selling to ABS with a great profit. Many interesting facts like Park Avenue being created to hide railroad tracks going to Grand Central, Zeckendorf selling a huge site for UN headquarters in just 14 days etc. A must read for any entrepreneur or a person involved in real estate. Extremely engaging & educating book!

[Franklyn Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something to take away from Zeckendorf's story. His encounter with Robert Moses and Henry Claws makes me think how much of a constant clash between important financial/power figures he had in his life to get what he wanted for Webb & Knapp. Only reason why I mention these two is because I've read Robert Moses' story and will read Henry Clews' book next.

The beginning was somewhat hard to follow because I couldn't imagine someone in NYC buying property to own the land and selling it to an entity or leasing it to an entity over a certain amount of years. His thousands of dollars that he dealt with is definitely worth a million today. And the millions he worked with, are worth billions today. How he was able to secure that level of funding especially during WW2. It was a web of confusion at the start. Then I started to follow along with his goal here. To secure land to build for the United Nations, a mall in Canada, Spyro's City Century project, Denver's courthouse..... he was responsible for these builds and improved on city development. These were like trophies for him and I understood where this was coming from. Eventually he wanted to dip his toes into owning a hotel in his name. Quite similar to the Hilton or Trump. Yet, the game for hotels might not have been the right time for him. There may be other factors that I am not too clear of here but he had the confidence and creativity to muscle through these deals. Much like the one in Havana and Montreal.

Zeckendorf was a good read.

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

- To be greedy is actually to be less greedy: Zeckendorf's downfall, as himself puts it, was due to the fact that his company was investing in too many things at once. And when the condition was good, he flourished, but when the condition went back, his house of cards collapsed within 3 years. It's utterly important to constantly prepare for the bad years during boom times (and you can buy things at discount during the bad years) - always have cash!

- And as Zeckendorf himself put it at the beginning of the book, families like the Astors who owned property outright can weather any storm, or as Peter Lynch put it, "a company can't file bankruptcy when it doesn't have any debt"

- During the depression Era, seller are far more interested in casual cash than mortgages (cash is king). On the other hand, banks have a lot on their balance sheet, and are looking for anything that's fundamentally solid. Zeckendorf's major takeaway was that real estate is about serving people's needs

- Crowded, popular doesn't mean profitable

- Wealth doesn't last through generations

- People are not rational, rather, they move in herds: even crappy Astor properties became a hot cake when people see them as an Astor property

- Pay no attention to the background, rather, pay attention to the truth: after the depression is over, vast majority of people still think depression is here and will last forever. Which enables Zeckendorf to expand massively at a steep discount

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for real estate professionals (and a great one regardless of what you do).

Zeckendorf created city-defining projects across the United States over four decades, from Denver's courthouse square to L'enfant Plaza. His exploits have to be read to be believed: when he couldn't get a department store anchor, he bought a department store chain, signed a lease with himself, then resold it.

The big dreams, the creativity (particularly in finance), the inevitable fights with the public that happen when you try to make cities better - it's all here. What a life. What a character. What a story.

[Michael Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read This! One of the best real estate stories I've ever read.

Amazing insight in to the deals that helped shape the landscapes of cities. Unique viewpoint that can only be shared from a place of experience. Zeckendorf needs to be an audiobook. Highly recommend for anyone in building, development, construction, real estate, or entrepreneurship!

[Denny Troncoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about one of the biggest real estate speculators in the USA. He built an excellent portfolio. This is one style to invest in real estate with. It is not my preferred one. The book contains excellent stories of deals being done. It also contains numerous strategies for investing. Highly recommend.

[Chuck Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

insightful read

This autobiographical tale takes you thru the many deals of William Zeckendorf. Even though it takes place during the 1940s through the 1960s Mr Zenkendorf descriptions of the ups and downs of real estate makes a dry subject interesting and the reader can still find applications to today. It is very much a raise, fall, and rebirth telling of his businesses life.

[josh khalili · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story of the rise and fall of one of real estate’s legendary entrepreneurs, Zeckendorf. He was a huge developer and broker across NY, LA, DC, Denver, and more, with city-defining urban redevelopment projects. Many lessons to be learned around real estate investing and downside management

[Alex Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A drag of a read

Wandering and lacking cohesiveness it is the self-told pompous version of a real estate empire built by other people's money that collapsed. The last chapter should have been the best, but he couldn't even tell the story. Seemingly no broader life lessons were learned.

[steven b. kalafer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew? Bill Zeckendorf changed New York City FORVER!

This book is an overlooked and forgotten GEM. A complete Real Estate " Master Class". Should be read by today's Moguls as they will experience and learn,
the "Tree's don't always grow to Sky"!

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

All over the place

I can see why he lost everything, there was no focus and it came through in the writing. Very scrambled. It was interesting to hear the background of key real estate spots but this book was hard to follow. I wish it were better.

[Moewells100 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heck of a man

Heck of a man and quite the story. Great writing style as well. That said, at times he went too much into the weeds on minor details etc. Good book for anyone interested in real estate development or biography

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was Ok- needed to continue story re: bankruptcy and continued working life although he died a few years after book came out.. for a guy who was married 4 times he left out a lot about his personal life so I don’t think we got a total an accurate picture of the actual man

[Giulio Gilardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy deserved his wealth. Highly innovative, risk taker and knew what his target audience (investors and people who would use his developments) wanted.
Last part of the book is very illuminating on risk management. Basically, when it rains, it pours.

[Campbell PRENTISS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was recommended this book by one of the older guys in the office at work.

Great read. Very interesting autobiography that details the real estate boom of the 40s-60s in post ww2 America.
Niche topic but worth the read if curious.

[Mark Nessing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting, bogged down a little towards the end.

[robert p. warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read.

Intelligently written and a truly engrossing autobiography written by a towering and outstanding person of the highest integrity and a true visionary.

[Luis Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The job is to decide what projects to take on and get to work"

[Adam Crawshaw]

Great Property Development

Great book on deal making & moving the ball forward. Very interesting historical account of property development in different areas of North America.

[Nithila Talgaswatte · Rating 5 out of 5]

SPECTACULAR read! I learnt so much about real estate, history and honestly about life from this book! Can't recommend it enough!

[Navdeep Pundhir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars just for two pages in the book; rest is just an average story of a fabulous man

[Gregory Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

solid read but dragged some.

Enjoyed this book and its narrative but found it dragged in some places. Sometimes hard to follow the sequence, it was an overall good read.

[Adam Foulad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an amazing man with great ideas. He just flew too close to the sun and unfortunately lost it all. Visionary and trailblazer though more than any developer I've read of before.

[bhavya kapoor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big picture:
Autobiography of an American real estate tycoon
Full of ups and down, triumph and despair
Transactions not only require strategic thinking but also the ability to get many diverse motivations (political, economic, finance, legal) together

Review
My real estate friends may find it more interesting
Learning: don’t spread yourself too thin, there should be a point when u stop and introspect