Page 64 - 2

T HINK B IG

them on the idea of checkerboarding their space. Onassis would
lease the top floor. Riklis would lease the floor below. Then Onassis
would lease the next lower floor until the each had the amount of
space they wanted. It was a cumbersome solution but they bought it
and Arthur Cohen’s vision became reality. This is the kind of creative
problem solving successful real estate investors need to learn to do.
As it turned out, the project needed more creative approaches to
challenges and opportunities that arose. Olympic Tower was the first
mixed-use building of its type in New York City. Cohen took advan-
tage of a statute that permitted a larger building if a public area was
provided on the street level. (I helped Trump do the same thing years
later in Trump Tower, described in Chapter 5.) Cohen also filed for
the benefits of 421a, a statute that gave favorable tax treatment for a
new building built on undeveloped land. (Again Trump would do the
same thing for Trump Tower.)
While Olympic Tower was being constructed, the concept of con-
dominium ownership was gaining popularity. The idea of owning a
unit rather than renting one under a lease from a cooperative corpo-
ration had merit since the unit would be taxed separately, could be
easily mortgaged or sold, and would be entitled to the tax treatment
available to real estate owners. One day, Arthur Cohen called me and
said, “George, I’d like to turn Olympic Tower into a mixed-use con-
dominium, can it be done?” I said, “Arthur, I never heard of such a
thing, but let me check it out and see what I can come up with.” I
paid a visit to the New York City Building Department to see if there
was any prohibition to such a building. I was told there is no statute
either permitting it or prohibiting it, and they would review any
building plans that were submitted. Since the state attorney general’s
office must approve any condominium plan or cooperative plan, I
had the partner in my firm that handles such plans find out from his
contact with the attorney general’s office whether a mixed-use
condominium plan would be acceptable. He reported back that
none had ever been filed but there was no prohibition for a mixed-
use building but any condominium on leased land was prohibited.
(Continued)

41