“Emanuele identified a real estate niche market amongst his fellow models who had moved to Milan”
At the age of 18, Emanuele Fiore, left Torino, Italy for Milan to start what would be a very successful modeling career, and he did just that and more.
While in Milan, Emanuele identified a real estate niche market amongst his fellow models who had moved to Milan from around the World to try their luck in the Fashion Capital. Emanuele started a real estate agency chain “CASA IN” handling rentals and sales throughout Italy as well as partnering with other agencies throughout Europe.
Having traveled the world for work as a model, Emanuele established a very strong and successful network in the fashion world, celebrities, politicians, and business leaders who are keen to be in the New York Real Estate market.
Being fluent in 4 languages, Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Emanuele has successfully par-laid that international experience into a discerning NY real estate career. Emanuele now with over 10 years of experience in the USA real estate market, can guide you through notable condominiums, cooperatives, and townhouses. He has worked with private individuals and developers to identify a townhouse for purchase, renovation, and resale at significant profits in addition to working with individuals to identify townhouses as long-term homes.
He is adaptive to client needs, discreet, and known for his careful negotiations on their behalf.
DOWNTOWN had the opportunity to interview Emanuele Fiore
DTM: What do you like most about being a broker in New York City?
EF: Being a broker in New York City, is probably the most difficult and competitive city in the world.. a good thing is that the price point of real estate is high compared to everywhere else, so once the hard work is done and the deal is sealed, the commission is worth the immense effort. I very much like being a broker here in New York, the properties are spectacular!
EF: Unit 56 at 23 East 22nd Street in Flatiron entered contract this week, with the last asking price of $16,995,000. Built-in 2009, this gut-renovated condo spans 3,310 square feet with 4 beds and 3 full baths. It features a 360-degree park, river, and city views, a private foyer with a south-facing view, a primary suite with an en-suite bathroom and walk-in closet, hardwood floors, and much more. The building provides a full-time doorman and concierge, a state-of-the-art fitness center, an indoor pool, a steam room, a parlor room, and many other amenities.
Compass – Unit 56 at 23 East 22nd Street
Also signed this week was Unit 36B at 15 Central Park West on the Upper West Side, with the last asking price of $15,250,000. Built-in 2007, this condo spans 2,367 square feet with 2 beds and 2 full baths. It features unobstructed park views, floor-to-ceiling windows, custom white rift oak shelving and storage throughout, a paneled wall that accommodates a gas fireplace, an open eat-in kitchen with high-end appliances, a west-facing primary suite with an en-suite bathroom, and much more. The building provides a large fitness center, a lap pool, a private restaurant/catering, and many other amenities.
Unit 36B at 15 Central Park West
Looking for the perfect broker, while finding just the right home, look no further!
Emanuele Fiore Licensed Real Estate Salesperson M: 516.653.8279 efiore@compass.com
Larry Silverstein has spent a lifetime shaping the New York City skyline. He isn’t done yet.
Photography by Andrew Matusik
“BUY CORNERS,” Larry Silverstein replies without hesitation when asked what the most important lesson is that his father Harry taught him about the real-estate business. “If you buy a corner, you have frontages on at least two streets, right? And if you get lucky enough to be able to buy a block front, that gives you even more possibility.” Trained as a classical pianist, Harry had struggled to provide for the family during the Great Depression, eventually becoming a commercial real-estate broker to make ends meet.
Curious about the business, Larry went to work for his dad after graduating from N.Y.U. in 1952. “Something that hit me very early on,” he recalls, “is that I wanted to own something. I wanted to be an owner.” Lacking cash for a down payment, the Silverstein father-son duo took a page from Harry Helmsley and Lawrence Wien’s playbook, scraping together a syndicate of investors to buy their first property, a shabby industrial loft building on East 23rd Street, in 1957. It may not have been a corner property, but they made it work by converting it to office space and leasing it out to white-collar firms. “It was sink or swim,” Larry says of their first venture. “Failure was not an option.”
Silverstein, who turned 90 in May, still reports to the office almost every day, invariably dressed to the nines in a double-breasted suit with a colorful tie and matching pocket square, dispensing friendly salutations to everyone he passes along the way. But behind the elegance and old-school charm, the Brooklyn grit and street smarts remain. “It was not a very luxurious existence,” he recalls of his upbringing on the top floor of a six-story walkup in Bed-Stuy, “which wasn’t nearly as trendy of a place as it is today.”
THE REBUILDING
That Brooklyn grit would come in handy when it came to rebuilding the World Trade Center. When Silverstein acquired the Twin Towers in July 2001, he could never have imagined that within months they’d be gone—and he’d be stuck with a 99-year lease that obligated him to continue paying the Port Authority, which owns the site, $10 million a month in ground rent. The lease also stipulated that he rebuild all the office and retail space that had been destroyed on 9/11.
To make matters worse, quite a few of the two dozen companies that had insured the towers—to the tune of $3.5 billion—were refusing to pay Silverstein’s claims. It took five years of litigation and the intervention of New York governor Eliot Spitzer to finally move the needle. “I called him, and I said I can’t collect,” recalls Silverstein. “So, he brought them all to New York and told them, ‘The courts have found that these are your obligations, so if you don’t pay, you’re never gonna do business again in the state of New York.’” In May 2007, they finally agreed to pay Silverstein the $2 billion he was still owed, marking the single biggest insurance settlement in history. A tidy sum indeed, but still not nearly enough to fully rebuild the Trade Center.
STARCHITECT LIFE: Prtizker-prize winning architects Fumihiko Maki, Lord Norman Foster, and Lord Richard Rogers, with Silverstein, in front of an architectural model of the World Trade Center campus. Maki designed 4 WTC, Foster’s 2 WTC is expected to begin soon, and Rogers designed 3 WTC. (Photo credit Joe Woolhead)
Despite the many professional battles, Silverstein says it was the “naysayers” who personally affected him the most. “The negative voices kept telling me I would never succeed,” he says. “No one will ever come down here. No one will ever rent space. Why are you wasting your time?” Yet he remained determined to rebuild. Not for personal gain—he stood to make little money from the effort and was already well beyond retirement age—but because otherwise would signal defeat. “If you don’t rebuild it, then the terrorists have won, right? I absolutely couldn’t let that happen.” When pressed if there was ever a point at which he doubted that rebuilding office towers adjacent hallowed ground was the right thing to do, his answer is immediate and unequivocal: “Never.”
“[Downtown is] young, it’s vibrant, it’s enormously exciting. Should add ten years to our lives.”
OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Silverstein at the opening of 3 World Trade Center in 2018, with CEO Marty Burger, President Tal Kerret, daughter Lisa, son Roger, and architect Richard Paul. Photograph by Joe Woolhead.
Roger, Lisa, Klara, Larry, and Lenny Boxer pose with the ceremonial keys to the World Trade Center on July 24, 2001.
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
“When we bought the Twin Towers, this place was a ghost town,” Silverstein recalls. “After six o’clock, you could roll a bowling ball down Wall Street or any place you wanted.” But after watching the neighborhood evolve after 9/11—and after more than 30 years in the same Park Avenue apartment—Larry and his wife of 65 years, Klara, decided it was time for a change.
“Something that hit me very early on is that I wanted to own something. I wanted to be an owner.”
Larry Silverstein poses with the children of some of Silverstein Properties’ employees during “Take our daughters and sons to work day ” in 2013.
So, in 2018 they moved into a penthouse at 30 Park Place, one of his developments. The 82-story tower, designed by Robert A. M. Stern to look as if it could have been built a century ago, opened in 2016 and includes residences atop a Four Seasons hotel. “If you look far enough,” Silverstein jokes about the view from his 80th-floor terrace, “you can see the curvature of the earth.”
“Two things really tipped the scale in favor of moving down here,” he explains. “Number one: my grandson said, ‘Poppy, if you move down here, I’ll show you how to go to work by skateboard every morning. It’s two blocks, downhill, piece of cake.’” Number two was
the rejuvenated neighborhood. “It’s young, it’s vibrant, it’s enormously exciting. Should add ten years to our lives.” Downtown’s residential population has more than tripled since 9/11, and according to Silverstein, the area now has the highest work-live ratio in the country: 27 percent.
That ratio will soon tilt even more residential. Last February, the Port Authority awarded Silverstein—in partnership with Brookfield Properties and two other firms—the rights to build 5 World Trade Center on the site where the plagued Deutsche Bank building once stood. The sleek 900-foot-tall tower, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, will feature more than 1,300 residential units, a quarter of which will be set aside for households earning less than 50 percent of the neighborhood’s median income.
While significant obstacles to groundbreaking remain, so does Silverstein’s trademark eternal optimism. Not only will the new tower be a model of energy efficiency and sustainability, he says, but “the firms that take office space at the new World Trade Center will be able to house their employees in the same campus if they want to, which is pretty damn unique, right?”
PRESERVING HISTORY
LOVE STORY: Larry and Klara Silverstein in the lobby of 4 World Trade Center.
Silverstein’s earliest memory of downtown is of the “extremely tall, very impressive buildings.” Little did he know he’d one day own one of them, 120 Broadway. Known as the Equitable Building, it became the biggest—if not the tallest— skyscraper in the world when it opened in 1915, occupying an entire city block between Cedar and Pine streets. It was so big that it spawned the city’s 1916 Zoning Resolution, which limited new construction to a percentage of lot size to ensure at least a modicum of sunlight could reach the surrounding canyons.
When Silverstein bought the landmarked building in 1980, many of its historic details had been neglected, if not concealed outright. “The previous owner had no feeling, no sensitivity to the importance of historic landmarks,” he recalls. “They hung acoustical drop ceilings without any kind of architectural detail at all. Added fluorescent lights and so forth. It was dreadful.” So, Silverstein immediately set about renovating it, carefully restoring such original details as the terra-cotta window frames and the lobby’s Tennessee-pink-marble floor, and vaulted, coffered ceiling with carved rosettes. “It makes such a difference,” he says. “Tenants appreciate what a detailed restoration can produce.”
ART & COMMERCE
Something tenants also appreciate, Silverstein says, is art. When he opened the original Seven World Trade Center, in 1987, he immediately realized he had a big problem on his hands. “I looked at the lobby, and I said to myself, I’ve gone crazy.” He explains that he had “fallen in love with” a particular carmen-red granite he’d personally selected from a Finnish quarry for the building’s façade.
But he didn’t stop there. “The entrance to the building? Carmen-red granite. The toilets? Carmen-red granite. The elevators? Carmen-red granite. Everything! Carmen-red granite. The place looked like a mausoleum.” He called Klara in a panic and asked her to come down and have a look for herself, hoping maybe she wouldn’t think it was all that bad. “One look around and she said, ‘You know what? Looks like a mausoleum.’”
They agreed the lobby could use some art to spruce it up, so they set about scouring the city for contemporary works large enough to adequately cover all that carmen-red granite. One of their first purchases was a fourteen-by- six-foot Roy Lichtenstein entablature. Works
by Frank Stella, Ross Bleckner, and Alexander Calder soon followed. “We ended up collecting a whole realm of first-class contemporary art,” he says. “That taught me something, that is art has a huge impact on people’s attitude towards buildings, a very positive attitude. It made an enormous difference.”
“We ended up collecting a whole realm of first-class contemporary art. Art has a huge impact on people’s attitudes towards buildings.”
AT HOME: Larry Silverstein at the piano.
Larry with his wife Klara, in their apartment atop the Robert A.M. Stern designed 30 Park Place.
“Whether I’m still around or not, the Trade Center will be done. And what we will have put back is vastly superior, not just in terms of quality or architectural design. The parks, the neighborhood-totally transformed.”
Art plays a bigger role than ever in and around the new World Trade Center campus. Not only are there remarkable lobby installations, like Jenny Holzer’s “For 7 World Trade” and Kozo Nishino’s “Sky Memory,” Silverstein even hired street artists Stickymonger, Ben Angotti, and BoogieRez to paint the corrugated metal walls that sheathe the base of what will eventually become 2 World Trade Center, now an entrance to the transit hub.
BACK TO WORK
“There’s been no shortage of naysayers all over again,” Silverstein replies when asked if he sees parallels between post-9/11 and post-pandemic downtown. “New York is done, finished. No one’s ever coming back. The office buildings are gonna be vacant. Fold up the tent and steal away into the night.” Not surprisingly, he’s as sanguine as he was after 9/11 about the potential for recovery after covid. “Will it be 100% back to the way it was? No, I don’t think so. But people will come back. Of course. It’s gonna happen. So much comes out of talking together around the water cooler.”
And what does he think downtown will look like in another 10 years? “Well, whether I’m still around or not, the Trade Center will
be done,” he says. “And what we will have put back is vastly superior, not just in terms of quality or architectural design. The parks, the neighborhood—totally transformed.”
“Buy corners” may have been the best professional lesson Harry Silverstein imparted to his son, but it’s this bit of wisdom that endures: “Whatever you do in your life, be truthful with people,” Harry told him. “And never equivocate.” Impeccable advice for an age where truth has become all too relative. DT
If you have a crawl space under your Roanoke home, one thing you must ensure is that it is looked after and properly maintained. If you fail to do this, it could lead to all manner of serious issues around your home, and this could end up causing a lot of costly and stressful problems. If your crawl space becomes damaged, you need to look atprofessional crawl space repair services to get the issues sorted out. You can also turn to them to provide protection for this space in the form of encapsulation.
Whether you turn to professionals to have repairs completed or for encapsulation and protection, one thing you must do is to ensure you find the ideal company for your needs. While yourbudget is important when making your choice, making the right decision is about far more than just money if you want to ensure the job is completed to high standards and your crawl space and home are properly protected. In this article, we will offer some tips to help you to find the right provider.
How Can You Make the Decision Easier?
There are lots of ways to make your decision easier when it comes to finding a suitable crawl space repair company. Some of the key points to keep in mind are:
Getting Personal Recommendations
One of the things to consider is whether you can get personal recommendations from people you knowand trust. This is an ideal way to find the perfect provider, and it means you can benefit from greater peace of mind as well as the experience of someone you are close to. Of course, you might not know anyone who has had crawl space work carried out at their home, in which case you could turn to platforms such as social media to ask for recommendations from your online friends and acquaintances.
Checking the Experiences of Others
Another thing you need to consider is looking at the experiences of other people, even those you do not personally know. One of the things that you can do is to look at reviews that have been left by other homeowners online, as this can give you more of an idea of the experiences of others who have used the same provider. Make sure you check a range of reviews to get a better idea of what to expect, how reliable the provider is, and what the quality of work is like.
Looking at Expertise Levels
You should also take some time to look at expertise levels, and you can find out a lot of information from the provider’s own website. This includes information such as years in operation, any special accreditations and memberships, and relevant qualifications and certifications. You can even view images of past projects to see what sort of work they have carried out.
By looking at all of these things, you can make a more informed choice when it comes to choosing a suitable provider.
VMCASA was founded in 2012 by real estate industry veteran and NYU Schack alum Viviana Addo. The former properties and finance executive has a decade of practical, global assets and investment experience to complement her scholarship on the international real estate front.
Receiving her education from the vanguard of the business, Addo holds a Master’s degree in Real Estate Finance and Investment from New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate (2019). Viviana is equipped with expert education and a passion for providing honest, sustainable listings for buyers and investors worldwide.
Downtown had a chance to catch up for a Q&A with this powerhouse woman, founder of VMCASA Viviana Addo.
DTM: Tell me a bit more about VMCASA and how you got started in this new business venture and why?
VA: I started VMCASA to offer a fresh and holistic solution to real estate investment. We are committed to creating an honorable legacy of transparency, outside-the-box thinking, inclusion, and sustainability in the real estate industry.
DTM: What did you do before VMCASA?
VA: I started my career in industrial design as a junior furniture and lighting designer. From there I moved on to the fashion industry in operations. I studied Business Management at Baruch College and obtained my Masters at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. After college, I started working for Cushman and Wakefield as an asset services associate where I managed the New York Presbyterian real estate portfolio.
DTM: What was your foray into real estate investment?
VA: I have always loved the arts and architecture, as well as finance and investment. I interned and worked in both industries. It was then that I discovered that real estate was the perfect mix of both worlds. I found that real estate also offered the opportunity to give back to the communities in a way that was special to me.
DTM: Where do you live?
VA: Downtown Manhattan in Battery Park City.
DTM: What do love about the area you reside in?
VA: I love the spirit of Downtown Manhattan. Forever cool, inspiring views, and there are always people from all over the world coming here! The new and old worlds are constantly colliding here—which creates such a vibrant culture.
DTM: Do you have a family, and if so, what is their favorite thing to do in your neighborhood?
VA: Yes. My family and I love Battery Park City, we love all the parks along the Hudson River, and its views.
DTM: How did you spend Mother’s Day 2021?
VA: I had an amazing surprise Mother’s Day Brunch with my husband and daughter at STK. Lovely food, space, music, and, of course—company!
Viviana Addo VMCASA
DTM: Do you think there are any common misconceptions about property investment?
VA: Yes. The key one being—that the options are limited. There are so many ways to invest in real estate. A limited partnership, shares on a REIT, or digital shares—just to name a few.
DTM: can anyone be a property owner?
VA: Yes—all it ever takes is a little bit of vision and the right advice.
DTM: Who in your industry is your mentor?
VA: I’ve had so many over the years. The biggest influences on me have been Betty Castro from Cushman & Wakefield, she really opened my eyes to the industry. And of course, my professor Manish Srivastava at my alma mater over at NYU. There are also colleagues within the industry, whose careers can serve as great mentorship roles— like Mary Ann Tighe from CBRE.
DTM: What do you think are some of the most important aspects of being successful in your industry?
VA: A client-oriented vision to find value. Resilience to stick it through. And a true love for the craft. Ultimately I feel the passion to serve these communities is what drives long-term success within the industry.
DTM: Do you foresee a resurgence in buying in NYC, and will high home prices and high demand continue/or go back to being a trend in the future?
VA: I absolutely see a resurgence in buying in NYC. No other city provides a sense of inspiration, freedom, and opportunity as the capital of the world.
DTM: When you say VMCASA has global assets, what does this mean?
VA: I mean our digital assets. In 2021 I founded a media division to VMCASA called Growing Cities. The platform currently owns and produces international podcasts featuring some of the most interesting minds and voices in global real estate.
We have recorded 20 episodes that are streaming on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Play as well as at the website www.growingcities.com. We recently were awarded a 2021 Creative Muse Award for the podcast and are in conversations with sponsors to grow this digital asset to reach more listeners in more cities around the world.
DTM: What is the difference between what you do and the everyday real estate broker, or high-end brokers like Ryan Serhant and Fredrik Eklund?
VA: I respect what Ryan Serhant and Fredrik Eklund do and I am a big fan of their work. Being a broker is just one part of my capability. I am a well-rounded real estate professional with real estate analysts and asset management experience.
I can see the big picture, and work at the institutional level in real estate. I am also very committed to giving back to the City of New York and my global community by raising awareness about sustainability in the built environment on my podcast Growing Cities.
DTM: Where do you hope VMCASA will be in 5 then 10 years from now?
VA: We would by then have created an array of memorable transactions that bring value to the lives of our clients. Our goal by then is to be one of the leading real estate consulting companies in New York and one of the premier investment sales companies in Colombia.
DTM: How is your industry toward women, and can women take the lead?
VA: In residential real estate, there are many successful female real estate professionals and valuable opportunities. However, within commercial real estate, there is a lack of opportunity for women and even more for women of color where we only make up 3% of the industry. I had to create my own opportunities since the barrier of entry to the industry (investment sales, and asset management) is so artificially high.
There is an even smaller percentage of women who make it to positions of leadership. That is a constant struggle for women in every industry and real estate is just showing signs of being open to inclusion.
That is one of the reasons why I joined forces with other women in real estate by becoming a member of CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) New York. I am a member of the diversity and inclusion committee. I hope to inspire a new generation of real estate professionals to be pioneers, to think big, to lift others, and to leave a legacy for the community they serve.
Viviana Addo VMCASA
DTM: What book are you reading right now, and why?
VA: I am finishing Becoming by Michele Obama, and the Second Sex by Simon de Beauvoir. I chose them to inspire me to be resilient, and to break barriers.
DTM: As much as we hate to keep bringing it up, how did COVID affect your industry/and personal business?
VA: First, I would like to thank all the first responders and hospital workers in New York City and cities across the country and the world. Our industry was greatly slowed down. However, it was an opportunity to reinvent the previous approach the industry had. I am currently starting an exciting opportunity with a portfolio focused on the workforce and affordable real estate.
This is a segment of the industry, I anticipate will be very busy in the years to come, and one that allows me and the team to contribute to rebuilding New York post-Covid-19.
is a testament to human connection, and 77 Greenwich, one of the newest luxury residential towers rising into the NYC skyline, offers the ultimate perch from which to behold the bustling streets and beautiful vistas that surround it. Standing at the intersection of Battery Park City, Tribeca, and the Financial District, the building will seamlessly incorporate retail, educational, and residential uses, thanks to the unparalleled vision of two design luminaries: FXCollaborative and Deborah Berke Partners.
Together, the two firms have created a soaring, 500-foot, 42-story, environmentally sustainable haven with a stepped-glass curtain wall façade that offers each of its 90 condominiums stunning views of New York Harbor or the Hudson River. The distinctive shape, irregular against the NY street grid, is elongated to expand the view from each condo, while giving the appearance that the building has been stretched thin.
The ground-floor lobby is designed with dark granite floors and bleached mahogany walls and ceiling baffles, while the residential floors are filled with natural light. Every hallway and the heart of each condo is lit by large windows that reveal the sky and let sunlight in. “As you come up into the building,” says Stephen Brockman, Partner, and LEED AP at Deborah Berke Partners, “you start to ascend into the sky.”
The residences,
which range from one to four bedrooms, were designed by Deborah Berke Partners with clean lines and light colors, to highlight the open living areas and panoramic, floor-to-ceiling windows. 77 Greenwich is meant to act as a refuge, a serene respite from the busy day-to-day of the city far below.
77 Greenwich Living Room
The tower
was also designed to encourage a sense of community. Each floor has only a few condos, allowing residents to get to know their neighbors. Shared amenity spaces on the 41st and 42nd floors feature a catering kitchen, a private dining area, and a children’s activity room. There is also a 3,600-ft rooftop garden, a “meditation deck,” and a double-height fitness center, as well as a built-in dog park which is located on a lower floor. Even the apartment interiors were devised for families and gatherings: The living rooms, kitchens, and dining rooms are all in one open space. “It really is this communal, active environment,” says Brockman.
77 Greenwich Roofdeck
The 8-story cast-stone base of the building –
which incorporates an-1810 landmarked rowhouse, the Robert and Anne Dickey House— will also house a new public elementary school, a promising sign for the neighborhood. “I think it’s a telling story,” says Stephan Dallendorfer, partner at FXCollaborative, “that SCA (New York City School Construction Authority) sees that there’s a demand for schools down in the area, gravitating to a family-oriented neighborhood.” The retail spaces will also be located on the building’s ground level and lower floors.
the exclusive sales and marketing agency for the residential portion of the tower believes that the residences will be “exceptionally well-received” in the marketplace. “Our targeted clientele is singles and professional couples, with a big walk-to-work aspect,” she says. “But we’re also targeting young families based on how downtown is growing as a residential destination—and by virtue of the size of our apartments.”
Work on 77 Greenwich should be completed sometime in 2020, but condo sales have already begun. “It feels ready to occupied,” says Brockman. “We spent a lot of time and effort to design something that feels special.”
November 12th: Downtown Magazine hosted, Brokers, buyers, personalities, and press gathered at 17 State Street for the Premiere Showing for 77 Greenwich, a luxury tower rising out of Tribeca. The event, which took place in a fully furnished model apartment, also featured a scale model of the building. Representatives of Trinity Place Holdings gave a presentation, showing off the final product to interested parties.
Guests were treated to hors d’oeuvres and desserts from Ladurée off of their new vegan menu, as well as a delicious white wine from Oceano. One lucky attendee, Cristy Kaur from Merrill Lynch, won a door prize, a $700.00 hair makeover from NYC Fashion Hair Stylist David Cotteblanche.
77 Greenwich will be a 500 ft tall, 42-story, environmentally sustainable haven with a stepped-glass curtain wall facade that offers each of its 90 condominiums stunning views of New York Harbor or the Hudson River. Besides the 14-floor elementary school, the tower will feature a raised outdoor dog park, a 3,600-ft rooftop garden, as well as shared amenity spaces on in the 41st and 42nd floors, including a catering kitchen, a private dining area, and children’s activity room.
