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New York Times: Flipping a Coin, Dividing an Empire
Read the New York Times article - 10/31/09.
Compared with property breakups of some other New York real estate families — often long, messy affairs replete with blood feuds, lawsuits and ugly recriminations — the Elghanayan brothers’ split has been relatively swift, smooth and secretive. The Milstein family fought for a decade over control of a $5 billion fortune that included hotels, apartment buildings and a bank. The wrestling match over the billion-dollar estate of the land speculator Sol Goldman lasted seven years. And who can forget the squabbling over Harry B. Helmsley’s $8 billion empire, part of which eventually went to his wife’s poodle?
The Elghanayan brothers didn’t slap one another with lawsuits. And there were no vicious industry rumors, or anonymous mudslinging in the gossip columns, about the fate of this very private family that ran the Rockrose Development Corporation, one of the city’s largest developers of residential buildings.
“A lot of the families have had very unpleasant break-ups,” said Daniel Brodsky, a developer and a close friend of Tom Elghanayan. “They managed to do it in a very civilized way."
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