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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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BILLIONAIRES' ROW

Katherine Clarke

Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic race to Build the Word's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers

This is a juicy narrative, one that reveals some powerful truths about how wealth and power operate, and chronicles the ambition, greed, and hubris behind the most expensive real estate in the world - the new Manhattan megatowers known as Billionaires' Row.
To look south from Central Park 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.

The saga of BILLIONAIRES' ROW epitomizes the "new Gilded Age" of twenty-first-century wealth. Behind the blue-tinted façade 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. Some have never even bothered to visit, and it's merely a place to park their money.

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. We are also treated to cameos by Donald Trump and Paul Manafort. The result is a real-life drama - one part Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, one part thrilling business narrative, and perfect for readers of Vicky Ward's Liar's Ball, Sheelah Kolhatkar's Black Edge, and Shawn Levy's The Castle on Sunset.

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.
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Book

Published 2023-06-13 by Currency

Book

Published 2023-06-13 by Currency

Comments

An immersive crash course in high-end real estate, Kathy Clarke's Billionaires' Row turns the latest New York City skyscrapers - known as super-talls - into symbols of the unchecked ambitions, egomania, and greed of both those who build them and those who can afford to live above it all. To rewrite Oscar Wilde, Even up as high as the stars, you're barely out of the gutter.

Billionaires' Row takes the reader on an in-depth journey into the machinations that built the Manhattan skyline and the colorful characters whose ego and daring has redefined twenty-first century New York. In her deeply researched account, Katherine Clarke expertly traces several key developers as they- through cajoling, manipulation, and lavish spending - meticulously amass large swaths of Midtown to construct towers that have come to symbolize unprecedented feats of human engineering, as well as the hubris and chutzpah of real estate men. Part investigation, part biography, this book is a study of how wealth and ambition trumps all when it comes to the Big Apple.

Amazon has named Billionaires' Row one of their best books of June! Read more...

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 in one of the world's most iconic cities. Billionaires' Row is deeply informative, delightfully entertaining, and addictively readable. I loved it!

Billionaires' Row lifts the curtain on the opaque world of ultra-luxury real estate and New York's new generation of supertall skyscrapers. As entertaining as it is educational, this book offers a captivating portrait of the powerful mix of ego, money and competition that - a century after the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings - continues to transform the city's skyline.

BILLIONAIRES' ROW is named to the SABEW Best in Business Book Awards shortlist!

Kathy Clarke has aced the luxury real estate beat at the Wall Street Journal with stories that pry open the lives of the rich and powerful. In Billionaires' Row, she has accomplished a far greater feat with a deeply reported, remarkable tale of the financial bubble that remade the New York skyline. She chronicles a race to the sky among ego-rich developers, one that resulted in a street of super-luxury slim towers, dashed dreams, and meager profits. This book is thrilling, incisive, and a lot of fun to read.

Billionaires' Row is 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.