Page 53 - The Way to the Top

Barbara CORCORAN

Chairman and Founder of The Corcoran Group Real Estate

JANUARY 1991, NEW YORK CITY

“Where’s the kitchen?” I asked as the superintendent opened the door to

yet another dreadful apartment.

“This one doesn’t have one,” he said, “but the pipes are all there.”

I had already scheduled the sales meeting to announce the closing of my
business when a big developer called and asked that I appraise a group of
eighty-eight apartments in six buildings that he and his financial partners
owned on the Upper East and West Sides. The apartments had languished

on the market for three years and were leftovers from the go-go years
when the real estate market did a jackknife dive and ended with a splat.

The developer, Bernie Mendik, and his investment partner, Equitable
Insurance, had a $50 million underlying mortgage on the buildings,

leaving each apartment’s monthly maintenance charge 40 percent higher
than the rest of the market. The high maintenance, along with the
difficulty buyers were having in finding financing, made the apartments
virtually impossible to sell.

I looked at the white-tile, white tub, white-sinked bathroom badly in

need of caulking. “At least there’s a bathroom. It’s lovely!” I commented,
and closed the door.

Finding buyers for these apartments would be no easy feat. Prices had
plummeted 40 percent since the stock market crashed in ’87 and every