Looking for a gift for your favorite commercial property manager? A new book by bestselling author Vicky Ward recounts the rise, fall and rise again of New York City’s iconic General Motors Building.
Ward recently was interviewed by National Mortgage Professional Magazine, to discuss her new book, “The Liar’s Ball: The Extraordinary Saga of How One Building Broke the World’s Toughest Tycoons.” According to the magazine, the 50-story GM Building located at Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets “has created enough tumult and drama to warrant its own soap opera.”
Completed in 1968 on the former site of the famous Savoy-Plaza Hotel, the new building was “extremely controversial” from the start, Ward said, and its value slowly declined. “A poorly maintained sunken plaza at the front of the building became an eyesore that rarely attracted foot traffic, while prime lobby space devoted to a General Motors dealership was a waste of prime real estate,” the article noted.
Under Donald Trump, who bought the building in 1998 and added his name to it, “the building was very well run,” Ward said. Trump was “very passionate about detail.” He also raised rents to over $100 per square foot, making it the highest-priced commercial property in New York.
Five years later he sold the property to developer Harry Macklowe for a then-record $1.4 billion. In 2006, Apple opened its all-glass retail outlet in the refurbished sunken plaza space, which quickly became the company’s flagship location. Macklowe sold the building just five years later for double what he paid for it. Today, the building is controlled by Boston Properties, Chinese business executive Zhang Xin and Brazil’s Safra Group.
Not every commercial property is as famous, or as valuable, as the GM Building, but
“The building’s story offers plenty of lessons about property management.”
, especially its difficult early years and its revival under Trump.
Of course, few property developers and managers have the flair for marketing – and self-promotion – that The Donald has. But that doesn’t mean you can’t manage your property in the same world-class fashion, which you can with SKYLINE Property Management software.
SKYLINE is both a dynamic lease management and accounting system. In addition to tracking and maintaining critical property, unit and tenant data, SKYLINE tracks rental charges, payments, vacancies, receivables and deposits. Property owners and managers quickly gain complete control over all property, portfolio and cash management and reporting functions.
SKYLINE supports a versatile database and reporting system that stores all critical information and provides concise financial, operational and custom reports. You can also easily import and export data from your favorite spreadsheet and word processing programs.
The Comprehensive Tenant Relations Management (TRM) module helps you track, manage and report on all past, current and future tenant activity. Automatic Alerts let you know about due dates, charges or maintenance by email or when you log on.
Anton strategizes with you to build your SKYLINE system based on your precise needs so you are able to make measurable improvements across all areas of operations. Then we further protect your investment by backing you with over 25 years of real estate experience, expert training – either virtual or on-site – and efficient support.
Anton’s commercial property management solutions are designed to help you control costs and improve cash flow, gain critical insight with specialized analytics and reporting tools, increase bottom-line profits and property performance, and exceed tenant expectations.