Word: zeckendorfs
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...Schine holdings, worth an estimated $150 million, brought the value of Wien and Helmsley's coast-to-coast collection up close to $900 million, three times that of the spread controlled by William Zeckendorf at his apogee six years ago. Says Helmsley: "We know of no private investors whose holdings are larger than ours...
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...
...company also picked up some problems along the way. Instead of sticking to acquiring existing real estate with a minimum of cash and a maximum of imaginative borrowing, Zeckendorf pushed Webb & Knapp into such unfamiliar enterprises as hotel management, urban renewal and building construction. By 1960, he had $500 million in construction projects under way. When costs began to skyrocket beyond his original estimates, Zeckendorf was unable to pay them. He began mortgaging his assets, borrowed money at excessive interest rates, some higher than 20%. He answered his critics by saying: "I'd rather be alive at 18% than...
Fast Financial Footwork. Since 1959, when his debts reached a staggering $104 million, Zeckendorf has kept Webb & Knapp alive by fast financial footwork. The company lost $19.6 million in 1962, $32.3 million in 1963. Zeckendorf has lost or sold all of his hotels, one to Goldman & DiLorenzo, partners in a fast-rising real estate firm (TIME, March 12) that has bought other Zeckendorf buildings and is thriving on Webb & Knapp's decline. He also launched a number of money-raising operations. This year, in a complicated series of transactions based on the sale of a promising and diversified company...