Real Estate Mavericks on 9/11, In Their Own Words

This week, New York City — and the nation — paused to reflect on the tragic events of September 11, which unfolded 25 years ago.

Over the years, many in real estate have discussed their memories of that infamous day and its aftermath.

Here’s a selection of those recollections.

Steve Witkoff, in The Real Deal’s book “The New Kings of New York,” by Adam Piore:

Witkoff rushed up to the Bronx to collect his children from the Riverdale School. Soon after returning home, he got a call from Bo Dietl and Mike Ciravolo, two old friends who were retired NYPD detectives. They suggested heading Downtown to help, which is how Witkoff ended up standing on a piece of mangled steel, on a rope line until 5 a.m. the next morning, holding the end of a long cord tied around the belly of a firefighter with a flesh-sniffing dog digging through the rubble of the massive pile of debris, searching for survivors.

After that exhausting night on the pile, Witkoff walked into the ornate lobby of his $146 million trophy [the Woolworth Building], with its cathedral-like ceilings, bronze fixtures and elaborate glass mosaics, and was surprised to find exhausted firefighters, police officers and other first responders stretched out on virtually every inch of available floor space. Their clothes were covered in ash, and their hands were raw from digging through the rubble, he recalled, which made for a shocking tableau set against the marble floors and rich red carpeting of the tower.

Witkoff was so moved, he walked an American flag up to the top of the skyscraper — the elevators were out — and raised it. He moved a generator in, vowing to keep the building open no matter what. For the next 30 days, the building served as a staging area, and slept much of the 10th Precinct and first responders from other areas.

Mary Ann Tighe, current CEO of CBRE’s New York and Tri-state region and an influential player in the post-Sept. 11 rehabilitation of Downtown, told TRD she saw Larry Silverstein by chance the evening of the attacks.

I believed, from the terrible moment of 9/11 on, that it was a singular moment of opportunity for the city after this immense tragedy. … I ran into [Silverstein] — he was about to go into a place to have dinner, and I ran into him on the street on the Upper East Side. We were standing in front of each other and I began to cry. And he put his arms around me and said, “Sweetheart, we’re gonna rebuild.” This is 6 o’clock on the night of 9/11… I’d like to think so much of my positive response to it has been as a consequence of that moment.

And John Santora, now CEO of WeWork, who was the head of global construction management at Cushman & Wakefield at the time of the attacks. At a TRD Salon Series in 2025, Santora explained that many people he worked with at the towers were inside them that day.

It’s a story I haven’t told much, but Arthur Moranti called me — I was on a conference call, Arthur was our CEO then — and he said, “A plane just hit the Trade Center, call Larry and see if you can help.” … Obviously I can’t get anybody from Larry’s office on the phone. So we then saw what happened and 10 or 12 of us jumped on the subway to go down to help. And you know, we were in that subway thinking like, “Alright so how do we rebuild this?” and all that, and all those conversations are going on. And when we came out the first tower had fallen.

There are many more stories, unsurprising as every New Yorker has a tale of where they were that day. Read more of them here.

Here’s what else is going on in New York real estate this week:

SL Green selling Soho building for $226M

SL Green agreed to sell 110 Greene Street in SoHo to the Natora Group for $226 million.

The transaction is part of SL Green’s broader strategy to sell $2.5 billion worth of real estate in response to higher interest rates.

Natora Group is funding the acquisition of the retail-and-office building through a 1031 exchange using proceeds from a separate sale of industrial assets to the Blackstone Group.

Clipper Equity sells luxury Williamsburg apartments for $123M

Clipper Equity sold the Casa Hope apartment building in Williamsburg for $122.5 million. The buyer is Eric Mann’s Mann Group.

The building, which contains 70 percent market-rate rentals and 30 percent regulated affordable rentals, still has more than 30 years left on its property tax break.

Extell finalizes $1.3B loan for Times Square supertall

Extell Development finalized $1.25 billion in construction financing for “The Torch,” a Times Square supertall project, including an $1.1 billion construction loan led by JPMorgan and a $150 million mezzanine loan.

The 60-story development at 740 Eighth Avenue is two-thirds complete and will feature a 1,800-room hotel, 130,000 square feet of advertising space and a 250-foot amusement ride.

The developer expects an annual stabilized net operating income of $250 million to $270 million and does not plan to raise additional equity to complete the project.

Black Spruce stuck in Floyd Mayweather, Jona Rechnitz’s legal spat

Josh Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management is withholding distributions from its Manhattan rental portfolio to Floyd Mayweather’s Vada Properties due to an ongoing legal battle between the boxer and his former adviser, Jona Rechnitz.

Black Spruce petitioned a New York state court to determine if it can legally hold the funds, as Rechnitz and his partners are simultaneously claiming entitlement to 20 percent of those same distributions.

The situation complicates Mayweather’s 2024-2025 investments with the firm, as the boxer continues to pursue fraud allegations against Rechnitz.

What StreetEasy’s Experts update means for Compass, NYC agents

And finally, StreetEasy updated its Experts program to ban agents from brokerages that control 20 percent or more of the program’s market share, specifically impacting Compass, Corcoran and Sotheby’s International.

The update is a retaliatory move against Compass, following the brokerage’s recent push to have agents pull listings from StreetEasy, which the platform’s general manager described as “artificial scarcity” and “gatekeeping.”

Industry leaders expect this change to hinder recruitment and retention at these large brokerages, as agents — particularly newer ones who rely on the program for leads — may be incentivized to move to smaller, eligible boutique firms.