About the Book
"A fly-on-the-wall account of the ferocious ambition, greed, and financial one-upmanship behind the most expensive real estate in the world: the new Manhattan megatowers known as Billionaires' Row -- from a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal. To look south from Central Park these days is to gaze upon a physical manifestation of tens of billions of dollars in global wealth: a series of soaring spires dotting the skyline from Park Avenue to Broadway. Known as Billionaires' Row, these slender high-rise condos have transformed the skyline of New York City almost in stealth, thanks to the city's developer-friendly policies and a seemingly endless gush of cash from tech, finance, and moguls from Russia, China, and the Middle East. In just a few years, the cutthroat real estate impresarios behind these "supertalls" turned what was once a rundown strip of Midtown into the most expensive street on Earth. Most of us, however, will never be invited inside these gargantuan towers. The saga of Billionaires' Row epitomizes the "new Gilded Age" of twenty-first-century wealth. Behind the blue-tinted faðcade of One57, you might see financier Bill Ackman riding in an elevator to his $91.5 million apartment with computer legend Michael Dell, who paid $100.47 million for his. One block over, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin shattered records with his $238 million home at 220 Central Park South, the imposing limestone tower where the musician Sting also purchased a penthouse of his own. Most owners, however, remain shrouded in mystery. For some, these monuments to wealth are a place simply to park money; they have never bothered to visit. In Billionaires' Row, Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Clarke reveals the riveting inside story of how a group of New York's most legendary developers went toe-to-toe with renegade upstarts in an ego-fueled race to build the tallest and most luxurious skyscrapers the world has ever known-and to burnish their legacies in the process. The result is a real-life drama complete with broken partnerships, broken marriages, lawsuits, and, for a few, triumph"--
Book Synopsis
A "thrilling" (Financial Times) fly-on-the-wall account of the ferocious ambition, greed, and one-upmanship behind the most expensive real estate in the world: the new Manhattan megatowers known as Billionaires' Row--from a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal
"Deeply informative, delightfully entertaining, and addictively readable."--Diana B. Henriques, bestselling author of The Wizard of Lies
A CEO Magazine Best Book of the Year - Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award
To look south and skyward from Central Park these days is to gaze upon a physical manifestation of tens of billions of dollars in global wealth: a series of soaring spires stretching from Park Avenue to Broadway. Known as Billionaires' Row, this set of slender high-rise residences has transformed the skyline of New York City, thanks to developer-friendly policies and a seemingly endless gush of cash from tech, finance, and foreign oligarchs. And chances are most of us will never be invited to step inside.
In Billionaires' Row, Katherine Clarke reveals the captivating story of how, in just a few years, the ruthless real-estate impresarios behind these "supertalls" lining 57th Street turned what was once a run-down strip of Midtown into the most exclusive street on Earth, as legendary Trump-era veterans went toe-to-toe with hungry upstart developers in an ego-fueled "race to the sky." Based on far-reaching access to real estate's power players, Clarke's account brings readers inside one of the world's most cutthroat industries, showing how a combination of ferocious ambition and relentless salesmanship has created a new market of $100 million apartments for the world's one-percenters--units to live in or, sometimes, just places to stash their cash.
Filled with eye-popping stories that bring the new era of extreme wealth inequality into vivid relief, Billionaires' Row is a juicy, gimlet-eyed account of the genius, greed, and financial one-upmanship behind the most expensive real estate in the world--a stranger-than-fiction saga of broken partnerships, broken marriages, lawsuits, and, for a few, fleeting triumph.
Review Quotes
"Some years hence, anthropologists or aliens will look to a half-dozen spindly towers that rise improbably high above the southern edge of New York's Central Park when trying to understand this particular age of hyper-wealth. In the meantime, the rest of us can consult Billionaires' Row, Katherine Clarke's thrilling chronicle of those towers and the people who built them."--Financial Times
"Based upon extensive accounts from New York's power brokers, this fast-paced narrative cracks open the cutthroat world of $100 million apartments for the global one-percenters."--Robb Report
"A rollicking account . . . The Wild West has nothing on the cowboy builders, bankers, and buyers who populate Clarke's tale. . . . Engrossing."--Air Mail
"Katherine Clarke knows the world of real estate down to the ground--indeed, down to the bedrock! But she carries that knowledge lightly as she describes the swashbuckling egos, the daredevil deals, and the tsunami of wealth that are imposing skyline-shaping changes on one of the world's most iconic cities. I loved this book."--Diana B. Henriques, bestselling author of The Wizard of Lies
"A necessary book about how not to build a city . . . Katherine Clarke has the rare ability to make you understand both the personalities and the numbers behind our modern Towers of Babel along 57th Street; the result is a coolly devastating portrait of the game of greed and ego that has permanently scarred the skyline--and the psyche--of New York."--Thomas Dyja, author of New York, New York, New York
"Thrilling, incisive, and a lot of fun to read."--Eliot Brown, bestselling co-author of The Cult of We
"A captivating portrait of the powerful mix of ego, money, and competition that--a century after the construction of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings--continues to transform the city's skyline."--Kate Ascher, professor, Columbia University, and author of The Heights
"This book is a study of how wealth and ambition trump all when it comes to the Big Apple."--Julie Satow, author of The Plaza
"To rewrite Oscar Wilde, even as high as the stars, you're barely out of the gutter."--Michael Gross, bestselling author of 740 Park
About the Author
Katherine Clarke is a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she covers the high-end real estate market across the United States. Previously, she wrote for the New York Daily News and The Real Deal.
