Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal, and the Battle for an American Icon

by Mitchell Pacelle

Book Overview

The world's most famous skyscraper, the Empire State Building is an icon as immediately recognizable as the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, or the Taj Mahal; and for some of the world's most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471403946
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.2" x 6.2"

Customer Reviews

Tycoons Amuck -- A Fascinating, Sordid Story

The Empire State Building has become once again, by heinous means, the tallest of buildings to grace the scraper laden skies of New York. Of course, it never had been eclipsed in the hearts of New Yorkers or Americans. The building will always be a classic. "It had the almost magical capacity to fill people with wonder and joy, even jaded Manhattanites long since deadened to the scale and brawn of the city." It has been hit by an airplane, back in 1945, an accidental strike that did comparatively minimal damage, but even if it were somehow to vanish, there are photos, brass paperweights, and even _King Kong_ to keep the talismanic building in our consciousness. It is a huge and spectacularly good looking building, erected by tycoons of huge ego. It was also owned and run by tycoons of huge ego, and their amazingly messy story is told in _Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal, and the Battle for an American Icon_ (Wiley) by Mitchell Pacelle. It has to be said that Pacelle does not make the financial ins and outs completely clear. Teams of lawyers couldn't do that, but it doesn't matter. Throughout the confusing story, what comes out clearest are the personalities, some deeply flawed, of the millionaires and billionaires clawing to get control of a status property. It is a shocking soap opera in many ways, and full of spicy gossip. Hideki Yokoi, a ruthless and unprincipled real estate baron, picked up the Empire State Building as part of a trophy hunting spree including French chateaux and English castles. He went to jail because of the deaths of people who burned in his hotel in Tokyo. His illegitimate daughter Kiiko Nakahara was his proxy buyer for a trophy hunting spree that included the building as well as various chateaux and castles. When his boom went bust, she insisted the Empire State Building had been his personal gift to her, creating a rift from her father and his other children. She formed a partnership with Donald Trump, with the idea that he could make the dated interiors of the building into upscale condominiums and offices for the elite. But the biggest part of acting like an owner of the building was Trump's increased ability to pester his nemesis, Leona Helmsley, who owned most of the lease to it. He called her "a disgrace to humanity," a "vicious, horrible woman," and a "living nightmare." Leona clearly deserved much of her reputation. She was foul-mouthed, constantly angry, and wildly intemperate in tongue-lashings to employees over minor infractions. She also got her licks in against Trump: "I wouldn't believe him if his tongue were notarized."This unsavory crew, scrambling for finance and status, and trashing friendships and family ties all along the way, make a hugely entertaining spectacle. It is sordid, but Pacelle is a business reporter for _The Wall Street Journal_, not a gossip columnist; one gets the idea that he himself is dismayed by the lack of business ethics which he has to report. The confus

Buildings Replace Paintings

When Japan was enjoying the height of its economy members of their super rich went on buying sprees that will remain legendary for both their scope and their questionable judgment. For a time landmarks and trophy properties were being purchased by Japanese investors from the beaches of Hawaii to downtown Manhattan. There was a certain unease expressed by some in this country that too much was being sold to a handful of foreign investors. For those who followed most of these acquisitions the only aspect that was more spectacular than the absurd prices that were paid, was the speed with which the buildings were either abandoned in bankruptcy procedures, or sold back to American owners for a fraction of what had been paid a few short years earlier.Rockefeller Center was a 1.4 billion dollar loss to creditors; Pebble Beach Golf Course was taken back by banks and resold for approximately 50 cents on the dollar. Beachfront hotels in Hawaii fell into disrepair as the economy in Japan crumbled when their stock market fell some 44 percent almost overnight, and has still come nowhere near to recovering. The other willingness to spend without any regard for value was on art, primarily that of the great impressionists. The market both simultaneously hit its high and began dying in the three days one Tokyo businessman paid almost 80 million for a Van Gough, and then set the all time record for a painting a day later when buying a Renoir for 82.5 million. Both paintings were repossessed by the auction houses that sold them for non-payment, so whether they truly set records is open to debate. Even the third highest amount paid for a painting, some 50+ million, again a Van Gough, which was bought by an Australian, was again repossessed for failure to pay, and eventually sold to The Getty Museum in California for a number rumored to be half what it brought at auction.Until I read, "Empire", by Mitchell Pacelle I thought that the "enthusiasm" that drove these purchases had ended, not unlike the dot.com hysteria our markets created and then destroyed. However Mr. Yokoi was to carry through the 1990's the same financially unjustifiable buying that his countrymen had been destroyed by earlier. In the process he and two other family members spent time in jail, and ultimately his unusual family was left in the same devastated state as the financial assets he once held.Placing a value on the baseball that was the 70th homerun ball is purely subjective. The same case can be made for art; a given piece is worth what a given individual will pay on a given day. Real estate, especially commercial real estate has very defined methodologies for determining value, for determining the return a buyer or buyers are willing to accept. Oversimplified, an entity that is buying a piece of real estate is buying the income that it is producing, and what it is reasonably expected to produce in a definable future. When an investor makes a purchase the return expected and the risk taken ar

I kept waiting for Moe...

Man, I loved this craaazy book. New Yorkers, I take my dusty Bubba Gump Seafood hat off to ya'll. EMPIRE was the greatest mix of ego,pathos, and unbridled greed I ever read. If the book had gone to an editor as fiction A lot of changes would have been suggested because the truth is stranger than fiction. I kept waiting for The Three Stooges to show up boinking heads and poking eyes as bumbling real estate salesmen. Wonderful.

A Must Read

I am an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal, and I've been reading articles by Mitch Pacelle for some time. Some of the most interesting articles have been about the Empire State Building. For me, the older story revolving around the origins of the building and the skyscraper wars is as interesting as the cut-throat battle between the big guys in real estate such as Donald Trump, Leona Helmsley and Peter Malkin. This book will not disappoint any serious nonfiction reader with the highest standards. I found the legal battles particularly engrossing as well as the relationship between the odd Renoir and the bizarre Yokoi.

I can't believe I read this book like a novel!

I couldn't put this book down until I found out who really owned the Empire State Building. The fighting, bickering, backstabbing amongst the rich is always something I enjoy reading. I really wanted to know why people were fighting for ownership of this building. The book does a real good job of detailing the court proceedings, and real estate lingo which sometimes made my eyes glaze over but I enjoyed the flow of the book of keeping the story moving from character to character and believe me, there are many of them here including Donald Trump, Leona Helmsley, Hideki Yokoi, and Peter Malkin. So this is what people do when they have too much time on their hands.