1540 Broadway: How 1000 Men And Women Worked Around The Clock For Five Years And Managed To Lose $200 Milion Building A Skyscrap

Synopsis

In 1987 real estate developer Bruce Eichner began plans to build a new skyscraper at 1540 Broadway in midtown Manhattan. In the real estate boom of the mid-1980s, the project held much promise - and equal amounts of risk, for 1540 would be a pioneer in Times Square, an area businesses were still wary of, even though it was slated for massive redevelopment. In this book, Jerry Adler, who was at Eichner's side from the beginning, gives the reader a look at how a project of this magnitude is accomplished, and how money, art, passion, politics and machinery coalesce to make a building happen. Every major event and meeting is presented - from the assembing of the financing and the groundbreaking for the foundation, to the drawing boards of the architects and the meetings with the union contractors and City Hall. All the major players are presented, including Eichner himself, his in-house team, the builders, the bankers and the demolition crews. The fateful day came in 1990 when the building stood complete, but empty - an expensive symbol of the times.