Word: zeckendorfs
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Like a character in an oldtime western serial, Real Estate Tycoon William Zeckendorf has ridden his ailing corporate steed, Webb & Knapp, Inc., through a series of cliffhanging adventures and crises. Somehow he has managed to avert disaster each time with an ingenious plan or a daring, last-minute rescue. Last week Bill Zeckendorf, 59, found himself in the worst trouble of his spectacular career. With no rescue in the script this time, the end seemed finally in sight for a saga that has endlessly fascinated and amazed the business world...
...Manhattan's Marine Midland Trust Co., trustee for $4,298,200 in Webb & Knapp debenture bonds, petitioned the courts for reorganization of the company under the Bankruptcy Act. Besieged by a growing army of creditors and unable for once to raise the money to pay them off, Bill Zeckendorf last week agreed in federal court to join rather than fight Marine Midland's petition, promised to cooperate in reorganizing Webb & Knapp's $69.7 million complex. The SEC lifted its ban on trading in Webb & Knapp stock, but an American Stock Exchange ban still stands...
Under the Bankruptcy Act, control of Webb & Knapp will be taken from Zeckendorf and given to a court-appointed trustee. He will consult with Zeckendorf, analyze the company's problems and sell unproductive properties, hoping to make the company profitable again and pay off its debts. If the untangling reveals no hope of salvage, the trustee could recommend that the company be liquidated. "We have always managed to avert bankruptcy," says Bill Zeckendorf, "and we could have come up with something this time too. But what can you do when you're hit on the head...
Better Alive than Dead. It was a sorry pass for Bill Zeckendorf, the onetime office-building manager who joined Webb & Knapp in 1938, bought control and built it from a small conservative firm into a freewheeling real estate empire, the world's largest. In 1959, its banner year, Webb & Knapp had assets of nearly $300 million, owned hotels, office buildings, shopping centers, housing developments and valuable parcels of land in 17 states and Canada...
Last week, with $1,250,000 cash and $7,250,000 in mortgages, the pair bought Fifth Avenue's Gotham Hotel from Gotham Realty Co. and its operating lease from hard-pressed William Zeckendorf. They already own the Chrysler Building, the second tallest in the U.S., as well as the Stanhope and Gramercy Park Hotels, the Columbia Pictures Building, and dozens of lesser office buildings, apartments and restaurants. Altogether, they hold title to 450 pieces of real estate, the most important of which are owned by their Wellington Associates...