You’ve worked with a bevy of renowned architects, including Helmut Jahn. Are there any that you consider a favorite to work with?
They’re all my favorites. I really find that there’s a lot about each of them that make them unique, and yet they’ve all achieved a level of success for the reasons that make them unique. It’s great to work with different people on different projects. It’s challenging and refreshing and involving, and the results speak for themselves.
With the Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield office building in Manhattan, you successfully leased what was a vacant 1 million-square-foot tower. How were you able to pull that off?
We turned it into a multi-tenanted building. We have a number of buildings that we purchased that were corporate headquarters that had never been occupied by multiple tenants. One was the Swiss Bank Tower, which became 623 Fifth Avenue; 622 Third Avenue; 333 Westchester Avenue in White Plains, which we redid with Philip Johnson’s help. We bought that from Philip Morris. It had been General Food’s headquarters.
So we’ve done this a number of times. We do it by figuring out how to make the building work for more than one tenant and yet take advantage of all the great infrastructure. So each has a different architectural style and each are, we think, among the best buildings in their class and location.
You were the executive producer on the film Frozen River and the author of the 1985 movie-related trivia book TriviaMania. Any new film projects under way?
I have some ideas for some things I’m working on. I’m looking at a few things. Nothing I can talk about today, but it’s an area that continues to interest me. And I think that I’ll get into a project in the next few months and we’ll see where that goes. It might not be a production deal. It might be on the distribution side.
What’s the last good movie you saw?
You know something? I don’t remember. That’s how long it’s been. I think I’ve been disappointed a lot lately.
What about last year’s Oscar contenders? Anything?
There were a few. What about you? What did you like?
The Hurt Locker was O.K..
I didn’t like it. I really didn’t care for it. I liked District 9. That was provocative. I really like movies that challenge me. Just like work. I like being challenged.
jsederstrom@observer.com
