Shaping the Skyline: The World According to Real Estate Visionary Julien Studley

274 Pages·2004·0.83 MB·English

by  Peter Hellman

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Shaping the Skyline
The World According to Real Estate
Visionary Julien Studley
P H
ETER ELLMAN
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Shaping the Skyline
The World According to Real Estate
Visionary Julien Studley
P H
ETER ELLMAN
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ffirs_hellman.qxd6/29/043:49PMPageii
Copyright © 2004 by Peter Hellman. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hellman, Peter, 1943-
Shaping the skyline: the world according to real estate visionary Julien Studley/
Peter Hellman.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-471-65766-2 (cloth)
1. Studley Inc.—History. 2. Studley, Julien J. 3. Real estate agents—New York
(State)—New York—Biography. I. Title.
HD277.J85H46 2004
333.33′092—dc22
2004003668
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Foreword v
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Deals 9
Chapter 2 Early Years 45
Chapter 3 Army Days 63
Chapter 4 Starting Studley 77
Chapter 5 Assemblage 91
Chapter 6 Last Day of the Downtown Office 115
Chapter 7 Winter Trips, Summer Outings 127
Chapter 8 Newseum Goes to Washington 151
Chapter 9 Teaming 173
Chapter 10 Big to Small, Except for the Money 199
Chapter 11 People Broker 223
Epilogue 241
Sources 245
Index 247
iii
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Foreword
By Bob Kerrey
J
ulien and I became friends in 1999 when I was serving in
the United States Senate. He introduced himself after I
spoketo a business and education task force on which he
was serving. During the time I was preparing myself for a re-
election campaign Julien called to ask me if I would help
him think of some unconventional candidates to lead a uni-
versity in New York City called the New School. I had never
heard of the school, but after he gave me some details, I did
as he asked.
Then, for the next few days I couldn’t shake the idea that
maybe Julien was thinking about me for this position. When
I called to ask, he said he was but he wanted me to reach that
conclusion first. That is Julien at his poker-playing best. He
waited for me to play my hand and at that point the game
was over. Today, I am leading the university that is Julien’s
higher education love.
v
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vi FOREWORD
The story of Julien Studley’s half century of business suc-
cess is an especially moving example of an immigrant who
used the freedom of his adopted nation to great benefit. But
this is also the story of the bloody twentieth century, a trau-
matic era that comes into focus when the details of Julien’s
life are learned.
Julien was 12 years old and living safely with his family in
Brussels, Belgium, on September 1, 1939, when Germany
invaded Poland, provoking a declaration of war by France
and England. The Armistice, which signaled the end of the
Great War on November 11, 1918, and the peace treaty of
Versailles that was completed the following summer, became
little more than a two-decade-long interruption in the fight-
ing, a word we use too often to describe a horror too terrible
to face directly.
Residents of Brussels, who remembered the Great War
had begun with the German invasion of Belgium in August
1914, were not complacent. They knew that odds favored a
second such attack. With the German army massed and
preparing for the assault that began on May 10, 1940, and
ended 18 days later with the French and English retreating
to Dunkirk, France, Julien’s family moved to the relative
safety of Nice, France.
For Americans, whose historical myth includes the un-
qualified rescue of Europe during the Second World War,
Julien’s life is an unpleasant reminder that we almost waited
too long. That fall, as the German army continued its march
into France a presidential election was taking place in the
United States. And both of our candidates for President,
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Foreword vii
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Wendell Wilkie, were strongly
opposed to the United States breaking its neutrality.
After the election President Roosevelt, with Wilkie’s strong
support, began the Lend-Lease program that gave England
a chance to successfully defend itself. However, it was not
enough to save Julien’s family. In 1941 the Nazi danger sent
them to flee once more. This time they went to Cuba be-
cause they could not get a visa to the United States. Our neu-
trality did not end until the day after the December 7th
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when Germany declared
war on us.
T
he Studleys came to New York in 1943. He became inter-
ested in real estate almost immediately, credits the New
School for giving him his education, joined the Army where
an association with men who had graduated from all the best
schools gave him confidence he could succeed against all
competition, and started Studley Real Estate in 1954. Fifty
years later the name has become a trademark denoting qual-
ity, integrity, and service.
What he built and did during that time is the subject of
this book. So, too, is the way that he did it. Julien Studley has
never forgotten to be grateful. Somewhere he learned that
the best decisions are made after listening to everyone else
speak instead of making everyone listen to you. Somehow, he
has managed to be guided by two apparently incompatible
habits: the energetic determination to finish what he starts
and the outwardly calm demeanor of an expert poker player.
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viii FOREWORD
Julien Studley never misplaced his curiosity in the lives of
others nor does he conveniently reduce life to the numeri-
cal necessity of an actuary. “How are you doing?” is among
his favorite questions, in a manner and mood that lets you
know this is not a perfunctory interrogation. It is in the
answer to this question that Julien keeps rediscovering a
good reason for optimism and hope.
Biographical Note on Bob Kerrey
Prior to becoming president of the New School University in
2001, Bob Kerrey represented Nebraska for 12 years in the
United States Senate. Before that, he served as Nebraska’s
governor for four years. In February 2004, Kerrey was
appointed by Tom Daschle to a bipartisan commission
charged with studying the intelligence failures that preceded
the attacks of 9/11.
Educated in pharmacy at the University of Nebraska, Bob
Kerrey served three years in the United States Navy during
the Vietnam War. He was awarded the Congressional Medal
of Honor. He is the author of When I Was a Young Man: A
Memoir, published in 2000 by Harcourt Books. Kerrey is mar-
ried to Sarah Paley. The couple have a young son, Henry,
who was born September 10, 2001. Kerrey’s children from a
previous marriage are named Ben and Lindsey.