Quote:Normally I agree with you, but on his point, I (don?t) beg to differ.

Twenty-two years ago, Sam Lafrak had the balls, finance, and insight to develop a rundown, abandoned, and potentially viable waterfront property across from Manhattan. His foresight (despite lack of architectural interest, proper use of green space, and lack of desire to give back to the rest of Jersey City) started an economical snowball that has continued to this day.

So to dismiss the impetus (Lafrak) of today?s growth in JC is disingenuous and lacks a knowledge of our ?fair city?s? present day history?the local economic nightmare that we are in is not a result of Lafrak?s ?value relative to NYC?S? pioneering, despite his faults.

Quote:

Jersey City Gold Coast ! - Now thats funny.

The only ones doing well are the financial intitutions that have hundreds of cheap ass apartments they use for their overseas staff to lease when they work for them.

Basically the 'JC Gold Coast' has been a nightmare for developers with profit expectations dropping with no opportunity to recoup (increase the rent) from tenants or they will remain empty and the Banks ever increasing pressure for their money.

This is one of the reasons we have stories like this in the papers - non of us really care about the Lefrak Corp and this article is more self-promotion and back-hand way of selling their 'luxury' condo's that are everything but luxury!

Next generation

Sunday, November 16, 2008
BY IAN T. SHEARN
Newhouse News Service

When it came time to assume the family's real estate empire, the LeFrak brothers never suffered the diffidence that often accompanies hand-me-down success.

Reverent to what four generations had accomplished before them, Harrison, 36, and Jamie, 30, still under the watchful eye of their father, are poised to make their own mark with the multibillion-dollar family store.

"My brother and I were blessed with a great opportunity," Jamie said in a recent interview. "We didn't have to dig ditches to get ahead."

Once a strictly New York City enterprise, providing affordable apartments for a post-World War II working class, the two-century-old LeFrak Organization now tends to serve a higher demographic. It holds a commanding presence along Jersey City's Gold Coast, and is sizing up pricey development deals in Beverly Hills and London.

"We have found our best property investments are those where the properties are occupied by and surrounded by highly educated professionals," Harrison said. "That is our key demographic."

The foundation of the family's hugely successful business model is the fact that generation No. 5 still owns -- and manages -- properties built by their grandfather and great-grandfather. This steady stream of income makes the LeFraks much less reliant on bank financing than most of the real estate world.

"We hate building condos," Jamie said, "though sometimes we have to."

The LeFrak philosophy has two key components: Don't over-leverage yourself and move big projects in bite-size pieces.

Essentially, Jamie said, "Every time we go up to the plate, we bunt."

Their father, Richard LeFrak, remains at the helm of the family business, but his two sons are completely engaged.

How did he prepare them? The elder LeFrak chooses to quote his own father: "Throw a lease in their crib, and hope they read it."

THE BEGINNING
It all started with Aaron LeFrak, who came to Brooklyn from France with his son, Harry, in the late 19th century. Aaron was a glazier, which Harry later turned into a window factory, and soon began a small building business, selling homes to a growing immigrant population. By the 1940s, Harry was a landlord with an almost 3-million-square-foot portfolio of homes he built, all in Brooklyn and Queens.

But it was Harry's son, Sam, as flamboyant as he was driven, who crystallized the LeFrak business model and became New York City's most prolific post-World War II residential developer.

"By the force of his will and the modernization of the American banking system, he was able to keep many of his buildings," Jamie said. His mantra, repeated by his grandsons today, was: "The purpose of the business is to perpetuate the business."

Richard LeFrak recalls his father as saying: "After you've gone through the pregnancy, why would you give the baby up?"

With a loyal, exclusive work crew and a trusted blueprint, Sam became proficient with his signature building -- the six-story brick apartment house, which housed a burgeoning middle-class populace in Brooklyn and Queens.

But his first project of scale came in the 1960s with LeFrak City, a community of 5,000 affordable apartments and 2 million square feet of retail on 42 acres adjacent to Forest Hills, Queens. The family's first Manhattan office project came in 1969 with the erection of a 900,000-square-foot building on West 57th Street. That cost about $60 per square foot to build, where today, it would be at least 10 times that amount.

In the early 1980s, the LeFrak Organization was the initial developer of the 92-acre Battery Park City in Manhattan, constructing the first 1,700 luxury apartments, known as Gateway.

"We learned New Urbanism by trial and error," Harrison said.

Asked if New Jersey, and America, is truly serious about reclaiming its cities, Richard answered without emotion: "It better be."

Smart growth, and improved mass transportation, is in Richard's mind a no-brainer. And he is encouraged to see it starting to take shape in public policy.

But he deadpanned: "You can never underestimate the incompetence of government. No matter how low you estimate them, they always seem to go lower.'

NEW GROUND
The LeFraks' first foray into New Jersey was in 1972 in Franklin Township, an apartment complex the family still owns and recently renovated.

The last New York LeFrak project was in 1986, as the family turned much of its energy and capital to the Gold Coast across the river. Of course, the coast was far from gold at that time.

But grandfather Sam LeFrak fell in love with 400 acres of abandoned railyards, warehouses and derelict piers there during his first visit. They bought the beleaguered site in 1983, with the first building going up two years later -- and with it, an upscale development movement on the Jersey City waterfront.

"He was excited with the size of the canvas on which he could paint." Jamie said. "My father, at the time, was surprised at how much energy he expended in his 60s on that project."

Jamie's grandfather lived to see Newport through to the halfway mark before suffering a stroke and dying in 2003.

In his obituary, the New York Times quoted him as saying: "I gave the people what they wanted, at a price they could afford to pay. I took them out of public housing, out of the ghettos."

Since then, Newport has become a self-contained mini-city, the largest new waterfront community in the United States. It includes more than 4,600 apartments in 10 residential high-rises, 5 million square feet of office space in eight towers, a 190-room hotel, two private schools and 2 million square feet of retail.

The LeFrak Organization has thus far invested more than $2.5 billion in the development.

Over the past 20 years, Jersey City has grown from almost no Class A office space to the 12th-largest Class A market in the United States.

Construction continues.

Recently finished is the 438-unit Shore Condominium Residences, which comprise two towers, one 24 stories and the other 34. Next door, the Aquablu, a 31-story steel and glass tower atop a masonry base, is under construction and will include 363 rental apartments, A second hotel, the 22-story, 429-room Newport Westin Jersey City, is rising next to the Newport Mall.

With a hint of amusement, Jamie pointed out the family has been in New Jersey in a very big way for 25 years, but is still viewed by some as some kind of capitalist interloper.

"We still get accused of being New York carpetbaggers," he said.

LOOKING AHEAD
Both LeFrak brothers said they plan on having children to keep the LeFrak legacy moving into the future in what they think will become a much more diversified and international business.

The company already has a significant energy business, traditional and otherwise, and has drilled a significant number of onshore oil and gas wells in the continental United States. Since the 1980s, the LeFrak Organization has been an active investor in fixed income and equity securities as well as currencies and commodities. Additionally, the firm has provided strategic capital to entrepreneurs and specific strategic private investments

As for the division of labor between the two brothers, each said it simply depends on who's available. And there are no apparent signs of any sibling rivalry.

"We're totally cool with each other," Jamie said.

Added Harrison: "Everybody fights with their brother once in a while."