Roy Stillman of Stillman Development International: 5 Questions

As is so often the case in real estate, Roy Stillman, founder and president of Stillman Development International, first got the itch to join the industry as he grew up watching his father make his mark in the business. 

Stillman spent about 15 years working with his family in their development business, but in 2000, he wanted to do something different. He decided it was time to go out on his own, so he founded Stillman Development International with the intention of developing some of the most architecturally and artistically appealing projects on the market. 

Some of those developments include the Schumacher, a seven-story luxury condominium building at 36 Bleeker Street in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, and the Metropolitan, a 32-story condo property at 181 East 90th Street on the Upper East Side. The Metropolitan was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Philip Johnson. Stillman even traveled to Italy to hand select the marble that would be used in the Metropolitan. 

Commercial Observer caught up with Stillman in early May to learn more about the firm and discuss some of its projects, including the Atlantic Club Residences, a luxury development at 390 Ocean Avenue North in Long Branch, N.J., that is currently under construction. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Commercial Observer: How has your family influenced your career in development?

Roy Stillman: I’ve been doing this really all my life. My father is a retired real estate developer, and so I was genuinely on construction sites from 5 years old. I worked my way up from every task on a construction site, from pushing a wheelbarrow to driving a tower crane, and everything in between.

I have the privilege of bringing a lot of experience to my projects, both in terms of how things are built and assembled, to how they’re planned, designed, engineered and marketed. I have my hands in really every aspect of a project, from start to finish.

How would you define Stillman Development International and its mission?

We are real estate developers. We work mostly in the United States and are currently in the early stages of a couple of projects outside of the country. We also work with partners from all over the world. Right now, our current projects are in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

I founded the company in 2000, when I wanted to branch out to do some larger high-rise work. And so the debut project that we had with Finland Development International was a project with the first Pritzker Prize-winning architect named Philip Johnson, where I did a tower on the Upper East Side called the Metropolitan. Our firm is known for artistic work frequently with leading design figures. 

We’ve also worked with Pritzker Prize winner I.M. Pei on a project called the Centurion, and then did another very large job with Michael Graves, who was just a step under Pritzker Prize, and Morris Adjmi, who may win one soon.

Our projects are known to be iconic pieces of art, and the medium is a building.  

What are some of the projects you have in the works right now?

We do all types of real estate, with the exception of office. We’ve done hotel, industrial, residential and retail. Currently we have some large industrial work going on in Connecticut, as well as some mixed-use, retail and residential work. We’re also preservation experts. What I love about these projects is that every one is different, and every one brings a whole different set of challenges. 

I always learn something from each project, and at the end of the project, I’m always a little bit better at my job, because I’ve experienced some very tough challenges and worked with really smart people to solve them, and you feel a little more confident every time going on to the next job. 

What are you most proud of right now?

The Atlantic Club Residences in New Jersey is the most meaningful project of my career, only to be outdone by the next one. I’ve brought all of my history and my passion to it, and I think it’s an absolute masterpiece. I’m extremely, extremely proud of the Atlanta Club Residences. I think that it’s a new platinum standard for residential design, construction and lifestyle in the state.

We started construction last year and we are going to be delivering in 2027. 

What makes the Atlantic Club Residences special?

I can answer that in terms of amenities, and I can answer that in artistry.

I cannot imagine that there’s another project in the state that has as many amenities as the Atlantic Club Residences. Our chief amenity is certainly the fact that we are nearly 4 acres on the ocean. It’s the sound of the ocean, the scent of the salt air coming off by the wind, and the feeling of the wind on your body. Out of 132 homes, 128 of them have direct or partial ocean views, only four don’t. And so everybody really gets to participate in that chief amenity. 

In the more traditional sense of the word, our amenities include a swimming pool and a pool deck and fire pits and barbecues. We have an amazing gym and a coliseum-style tiered cycling studio. The key thing here is that we have amenities for every generation.

You can start out in the children’s play room and then move on to the virtual reality gaming center, and when you get too old for that, then there is the sports simulator room, and there’s a music practice room. We have a cinema, a yoga room, locker rooms, a business center, a private party room, a grand lounge, a wine tasting room, and a pet spa.

The idea here is that we’ve designed a country club which sits inside a condominium. 

Another special thing about the Atlantic Club Residences is the artistry. So there’s just no way that there’s ever been a project in the state or anywhere near that has brought in this level of artistry, and the lobby is the crown jewel of it. 

The design of the lobby was inspired by the flagship Chanel in Paris. In fact, we have two artists that worked on the Chanel stores throughout the world. One is a textile master out of Colombia and the other one is a glass artist out of Paris. Their work is predominantly featured in the lobby and is otherworldly in artistic impression.

The layering and the opulence and the colors are things that people just have never been exposed to in the region. One of the best pieces of feedback from the sales gallery was somebody said to our broker, “Hold on, wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me that I get to live here?”

The idea is that regular consumers don’t have access to levels of professionals and artists, but we do, and we’re able to provide things that they could never get on their own, even with an unlimited budget.

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.