Chutzpah

I do not typically view this column as an outlet for obituaries. However, this time I will make an exception to reflect on Paul Reichmann, who was the chief strategist and architect of Olympia & York. Reichmann died last Friday, and we lost one of the great developers of all time. 

I grew-up in the real estate business in New York City in the ’70s, when iconic family businesses that built the office and apartment high-rise buildings were working on their second generation of leadership such as the Rudins, the Resnicks, the Dursts, Tishman-Speyer, and many more. One name that emerged that decade was Paul Reichmann and his company, Olympia & York, who entered Manhattan from north of the border in Canada.