Table of Contents

Prologue. PART ONE: SKY'S THE LIMIT. 1. The Deal and the Deception. 2. Reaching for the Sky. 3. Trophy Hunting. 4. Yokoi's Secret. 5. Yokoi Meets His Match. 6. Old Guard, New World. 7. East Meets West. PART TWO: TOWER OF DISCORD. 8. Who Owns the Empire State Building? 9. Trumps' Broadside. 10. The French Front. 11. Fall of the House of Harry. 12. Sibling Rivalry. 13. Behind Bars. 14. A Meeting with Daddy. 15. Yokoi's Last Stand. 16. Heirs. 17. Donald's Endgame. Epilogue. Source Notes. Acknowledgments. Index.

About the Author

MITCHELL PACELLE is an award-winning journalist who has covered business for The Wall Street Journal over the past eleven years. He won the New York Press Club's 1999 Business Reporting Award, was a finalist for UCLA's Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, and was part of the team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the collapse of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund.

Reviews

If you thought King Kong was the only monster who has laid claim to the Empire State Building, guess again. This highly entertaining, well-researched volume about the all-out, high-stakes battle in the 1980s and '90s over ownership and control of one of Manhattan's premier edifices is a cross between great business writing and even greater gossip. Built in 1929, the Empire State Building was bought in 1961 by Henry Helmsley and Lawrence Wein, who quickly resold it but retained a 114-year lease. When the Helmsley empire began to crack in the late 1980s (wife Leona went to jail for tax fraud), the building was nearly bought by jailed Japanese investor Hideki Yokoi, who used his illegitimate daughter, Kiiko Nakahara, and her husband, Jean-Paul Renoir, as fronts. When that deal fell through, Nakahara and Renoir secretly bought the building themselves, entering a deal with Donald Trump to try to shake the Helmsley lease. After Nakahara and Renoir were jailed in France in 1996 for the alleged theft of real estate, Trump and Leona Helmsley entered into a gigantic legal and public relations battle for control of the building. Pacelle, who writes for the Wall Street Journal, is scrupulous in detailing the legal angles and how shifts in world economy and U.S. business both affected and were affected by all this skullduggery. He also has great fun with the bizarre cast of characters, who plot and connive against one another in what reads like a cross between film noir and a Harold Robbins novel. In the end, though, the Empire State Building remains a beauty, not destroyed by these beasts. (Nov.) Forecast: Expect solid sales in the Empire State and among real estate mavens, boosted by an excerpt in the Wall St. Journal. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Although New York City's Empire State Building is no longer the tallest building in the world, it unquestionably stands tall in the hearts and minds of the legions of tourists who flock to it each day. How did this building enter the realm of pop-culture iconography? Empire, a much-needed chronicle of the most famous skyscraper in the world, answers that question and more. Pacelle, who covered the recent ownership struggle for the building in the Wall Street Journal, describes its allure, indicating how it has become the ultimate prize in the commercial real estate ownership sweepstakes, possibly in the world. An eccentric Japanese billionaire, Hideki Yokoi, and various members of his extended family feature prominently in the scenario, but the cast of characters also includes such real estate tycoons as Donald Trump and Leona Helmsley. Although the story (and litigation trail) can get a bit complicated, it's vividly told and often gripping, evoking the best and worst in all of the participants. More history of the building and a clearer ownership schematic would have been helpful, but Pacelle clearly delivers the goods. Highly recommended for larger public libraries. Richard Drezen, Washington Post, New York City Bureau Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.