Douglas Durst | |
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| Born | December 19, 1944 New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | Real estate developer |
| Known for | President of the Durst Organization |
| Spouse | Susanne Durst (m. 1967) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | Seymour Durst Bernice Herstein |
| Relatives | Robert Durst (brother) Joseph Durst (grandfather) |
Douglas Durst (born December 19, 1944) is an American real estate investor and developer. He has been the president of The Durst Organization since 1992.
Durst was born in New York City in 1944 [1] to a Jewish family, the son of Bernice (née Herstein) and Seymour Durst. He is the younger brother of convicted murderer Robert Durst.
Durst's paternal grandfather, Joseph Durst, a penniless immigrant tailor from Austria Hungary, eventually became a very successful real estate manager and developer founding The Durst Organization in 1915. His father, Seymour, became head of the family business in 1974 upon Joseph's death. Douglas's mother died when he was a child, in a fall from the roof of the family's three-story house; the exact circumstances were never clarified. [2] [3]
Douglas graduated from the Fieldston School in 1962 and the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. He attended New York University's Urban Studies program for two years and then joined the family business then run by his father and two uncles, Roy and David. [1]
Douglas took over the Durst Organization in 1992 upon his father's retirement. He presided over the development of several major buildings in New York City:
Durst is a director of the Real Estate Board of New York. [1] Durst is known for emphasizing density and sustainability in his projects. [5]
Located on 14th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan, the New School university center was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and developed by The Durst Organization. The building is designed to LEED Gold standards. [6]
In 2010, the Durst Organization bid on and won the right to invest $100 million in the One World Trade Center development becoming a co-developer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. [7]
The contract negotiated between the Port Authority and the Durst Organization specifies that the Durst Organization will receive a $15 million fee and a percentage of "base building changes that result in net economic benefit to the project." The specifics of the signed contract give Durst 75 percent of savings up to $24 million and stepping down thereafter (to 50 percent, 25 percent and 15 percent) as the savings increased. Durst had offered to work for a fixed $35 million fee, but the Port chose the incentive fee arrangement. Significant changes to the building have been made since his joining of the project. [7]
In May 2010, Douglas Durst, former Vice President Al Gore, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially opened the Bank of America Tower. It was the first high-rise commercial tower to receive LEED platinum rating in the United States. The 55 story, 2.1 million square foot building located on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street was designed by Cookfox Architects. [8]
In June 2009, a group of banks provided Bank of America and Durst Organization $1.28 billion to refinance the building. Bank of America provided half of the loan. The other parts came from New York Mellon Corp., Wells Fargo, Westdeutsche Immobilien Bank, and Helaba Bank. [9]
In the early 2000s, architect Bjarke Ingels met Durst when he was in Copenhagen with his wife, Susanne, a native of Denmark. He visited Ingels' studio in February 2010. [10]
In spring 2010, Durst Fetner Residential commissioned Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to bring a new residential typology to Manhattan. In 2011, BIG opened an office in New York to supervise VIA's development and construction. [11] Completed in 2016, VIA 57 West is a 709-unit, four sided, pyramid shaped tower of apartments on West Fifty-seventh Street. [10] [12]
Durst is a director of The New School, The Trust for Public Land, Project for Public Spaces, and the Roundabout Theatre Company. He is a trustee of the Old York Foundation, which was established by his father, to help educate people about the history and ongoing problems of New York City. [1] Durst is also a prominent environmentalist and operates one of the largest organic farms in New York State. [1]
In 1987, Durst purchased a piece of land from Ray McEnroe, the owner of an organic farm in Dutchess County, New York, some 100 miles north of Manhattan. He purchased the land to dispose of his horses' manure in an environmentally friendly way. [13] Durst later partnered with McEnroe, and now the farm is 500 acres, and among the top 25% of organic farms in the United States. [14]
In 1967, he married Susanne Durst, a Danish national whom he met in Denmark after college. [15] [16]
They have three children: [1]
Douglas Durst suffered a severe leg injury in 1972 when a coal-fired water heater exploded in a Newfoundland house where he was then living with his wife and young family. "I should've died there," Durst would later tell The New York Times. "It changed my whole outlook on life. I had to get more serious about what I was doing", he said, moving back to the family real estate business following months of recuperation. After suffering more than four decades of pain, despite many years of surgery, part of Durst's lower right leg was amputated in 2015. He walks today with the help of a prosthesis. [22]
Douglas and his brother Robert had a contentious childhood. As children, they were both put in therapy to help resolve their differences. [23] When they became adults, both eventually worked in the family business. As oldest brother, Robert believed he would be the natural successor to his father as the leader of the Durst Organization. When their father Seymour chose Douglas over him in 1992, Robert estranged himself from his entire family and in 2006 sued for his share of the Durst family trust. A $65 million settlement was reached that divested Robert of all future share of the Durst family wealth. In 2001, Robert Durst was charged with murdering a neighbor and dismembering his body in Galveston, Texas. Pleading self-defense, he was acquitted of the murder charge. [3] Douglas was interviewed by The New York Times in January 2015, and was quoted as saying about Robert: "There's no doubt in my mind that if he had the opportunity to kill me, he would." [24]
Douglas Durst told The New York Times in December 2015 that he believed, until 2001, in his brother's innocence regarding Kathleen McCormack Durst's "disappearance" in 1982. Contrary to his brother's assertions to the documentary filmmakers of The Jinx , he was never privy to his father's meetings with a lawyer and private detective tasked with investigating Kathleen's disappearance. [22] "I'm going to be a witness in Los Angeles" for the prosecution of his brother for the murder of Susan Berman, whom investigators believe Durst murdered because she knew details of Robert's role in his wife Kathleen's death, "so they don't want me to talk too much about anything after 2001", Douglas Durst said. On June 28, 2021, Douglas Durst appeared in court as a witness for the prosecution in the Susan Berman murder trial, saying he was not happy to testify against his brother and only appeared under threat of subpoena. He said Robert's wife Kathie told him she was going to seek a divorce from Robert. Robert told him and his wife that Kathie had vanished a couple of days after he put her on a train to New York City from their lakeside house in Westchester County, and that was the last time he saw her. "His tone was very neutral," Douglas Durst said. "There was no great anxiety in his tone. It seemed a little strange.” Douglas said growing up as children his brother Robert "Treated me miserably. He would fight with me at every chance. He would embarrass me." Douglas said Robert would "like to murder me”, and he had not spoken to Robert since 1999. [25] Robert died in prison in January 2022. [26] [27]
4 Times Square is a 48-story skyscraper at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located at 1472 Broadway, between 42nd and 43rd Streets, the building measures 809 ft (247 m) tall to its roof and 1,118 ft (341 m) tall to its antenna. The building was designed by Fox & Fowle and developed by the Durst Organization. 4 Times Square, and the Bank of America Tower to the east, occupy an entire city block.
The Bank of America Tower, also known as 1 Bryant Park, is a 55-story skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is located at 1111 Avenue of the Americas between 42nd and 43rd Streets, diagonally opposite Bryant Park. The building was designed by Cookfox and Adamson Associates, and it was developed by the Durst Organization for Bank of America. With a height of 1,200 feet (370 m), the Bank of America Tower is the eighth tallest building in New York City and the tenth tallest building in the United States as of 2022.
ChaShaMa is a non-profit arts organization based in New York City. ChaShaMa nurtures artists by transforming unused property into affordable work and presentation space.
Robert Alan Durst was an American real estate heir and convicted murderer. The conviction is now vacated due to California law. The eldest son of New York City real estate magnate Seymour Durst, he garnered attention as a suspect in the unsolved 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack; the 2000 murder of his longtime friend, Susan Berman; and the 2001 killing of his neighbor, Morris Black. Acquitted of murdering Black in 2003, Durst did not face further legal action until his participation in the 2015 documentary miniseries The Jinx led to him being charged with Berman's murder. Durst was convicted of the murder in 2021 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. He was charged with McCormack's murder shortly after his sentencing, but died in 2022 before a trial could begin.
One World Trade Center, also known as One WTC and Freedom Tower, is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the United States, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the seventh-tallest in the world. The supertall structure has the same name as the North Tower of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The new skyscraper stands on the northwest corner of the 16-acre (6.5 ha) World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center. It is bounded by West Street to the west, Vesey Street to the north, Fulton Street to the south, and Washington Street to the east.
Bjarke Bundgaard Ingels is a Danish architect, founder and creative partner of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).
All Good Things is a 2010 American mystery/crime romantic drama film directed by Andrew Jarecki and written by Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling. Inspired by the life of Robert Durst, it stars Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, and Frank Langella. Gosling portrays the wealthy son of a New York real estate tycoon (Langella) who develops a disturbing relationship with his wife (Dunst) and becomes suspected of a series of murders, as well as his wife's unsolved disappearance.
Seymour Bernard Durst was an American real estate investor and developer. He created the National Debt Clock.
Bjarke Ingels Group, often referred to as BIG, is a Copenhagen, New York City, London, Barcelona, Shenzhen, Oslo and Los Angeles-based group of architects and designers operating within the fields of architecture, product and landscape design, engineering and planning. The office is currently involved in a large number of projects throughout Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. As of 2023, the company employs 700+ people.
TheDurst Organization is one of the oldest family-run commercial and residential real estate companies in New York City. Established in 1915, the company is owned and operated by the third generation of the Durst family. Durst is the owner, manager, and builder of 13 million square feet of premier Manhattan office towers. The Durst residential portfolio has 3,400 units across 3 million square feet. Durst is recognized as a world leader in the development of high-performance and environmentally advanced buildings where people live, work, and thrive. It is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). Forbes magazine estimates the Durst family fortune at $8.1 billion.
VIA 57 West is a residential building located at 625 West 57th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. The pyramid shaped tower block or "tetrahedron", designed by the Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), rises 467 ft (142 m) and is 35-stories tall.
2 World Trade Center is a skyscraper being developed as part of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It will replace the original 2 World Trade Center, which was completed as part of the first World Trade Center in 1973 and subsequently destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001, and it will occupy the position of the original 5 World Trade Center. The foundation work was completed in 2013, though no construction has taken place since.
The Twin Towers II was a proposed twin-towered skyscraper complex which would have been located at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan, New York City. The proposed complex would have replaced the former Twin Towers of the World Trade Center destroyed in the September 11 attacks, restoring the skyline of the city to its former state. The main design for the proposed complex would feature new landmark twin towers, nearly identical to the originals designed by Minoru Yamasaki, though it would feature 115 stories—5 floors taller than the originals, among other differences. Beside the towers, an above-ground memorial would have occupied the footprints of the original towers. The new site would also have featured three 12-story buildings, replacing the original 3, 4 and 5 World Trade Center. The complex was designed and developed by American architect Herbert Belton and American engineer Kenneth Gardner.
Joseph Durst was an American real estate developer, founder of the Durst Organization, and patriarch of the Durst family.
Benjamin Winter Sr. was a real estate developer in New York City and founder of Winter Incorporated. Winter served as president of the American Federation of Polish Jews.
The Jinx is an American true crime documentary television series about New York real estate heir Robert Durst, a convicted murderer. The first season, subtitled The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, debuted on HBO on February 8, 2015, and it consists of six episodes.
Sven is a residential building located at 29-59 Northern Boulevard in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York City. At 762 feet (232 m) tall, Sven is the third-tallest building in Queens behind Skyline Tower and The Orchard, as well as one of the tallest buildings in New York City outside of Manhattan.
The Spiral, also known as 66 Hudson Boulevard, is a 66-floor, 1,031-foot (314 m) skyscraper with 2.85 million square feet (265,000 m2), on 34th Street between Hudson Boulevard and Tenth Avenue in Hudson Yards, Manhattan, New York City. It was developed by Tishman Speyer, constructed by Turner Construction, and opened in 2023.
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HFZ Capital Group is a real estate development and investment company based in New York City. Ziel Feldman founded HFZ in 2005 and is chairman. As of 2019, HFZ managed more than $10 billion worth of development.
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