Bernard Spitzer - Biography

Bernard Spitzer (born 1924) is an American real estate developer and philanthropist in New York City who built several landmark buildings around the city including The Corinthian which was the largest individual apartment building in New York City when it was built. Spitzer is father of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. In 2008 he has an estimated net worth of $500 million.

Early life

Spitzer's parents, Morris and Molly, moved from Poland to New York's Lower East Side after World War I. They operated a print shop. Bernard received an engineering degree from City College of New York in 1943 at the age of 18. He successfully competed with Jerry Stiller for the hand of Anne Goldhaber, whom they courted in the Catskills.

Spitzer initially tried his hand at civil engineering but turned instead to real estate development.

Real estate developer

Among the buildings Spitzer has built are:

• 1020 Park Avenue (1962), 20 floors
• 1050 Fifth Avenue (1958)
• 200 Central Park South (1963) - A 35 story building at Seventh Avenue and Central Park that is noted for its curved walls and a driveway that angles across the front of the building (other buildings along Central Park South are square)
• 210 Central Park South (1966), a 24 story building next door
• 985 Fifth Avenue (1968), a 25-story building on the site of the Isaac Vail Brokaw Mansion
• 220 East 72nd Street (1974), a 28-story building—the first five of which are occupied by Marymount Manhattan College (where Anne taught)
• 800 Fifth Avenue (1978), a 34 story building at 61st Street
• The Corinthian (New York) (1988), a 1 million sf, 57 story, building occupying an entire block between 37th and 38th on First Avenue
• 150 East 57th Street (2000), a 34-story building

Additionally, Spitzer has purchased several prominent commercial office buildings over the years, including:

• 730 Fifth Avenue (The Crown Building), New York City, acquired in 1991 for $95 million.
• 2001 K Street, NW, Washington, D.C. acquired in 2001 for $95 million.
• 1615 L Street, NW, Washington, D.C. acquired in 2009 for $180 million.

Philanthropies

• Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History
• Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair in Political Science at City University of New York
• Anne and Bernard Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of City University of New York

Father of the governor

Spitzer played a major role in the childhood and the rise to power of his son Eliot, the future New York Governor. According to biographers, during a game of Monopoly between father and son, the elder Spitzer would order his seven or eight year-old son, Eliot, to sell him a piece of property, which, later in the game, the future governor could not afford. In this way the father taught his son: "Never defer to authority."

Spitzer provided an apartment to Eliot rent-free at 985 Fifth Avenue (which Bernard built). Bernard paid a gift tax. Rent from the apartment buildings in the Spitzer empire provides most of the more than $1 million income that Spitzer had reported in 2006.

To support Eliot's foray into politics, Bernard made a loan to his son of $5 million during the first two campaigns and by paying him $200,000 a year. At the time of the writing of this article, the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust donated at least $140,000 to organizations led by political allies.

In 2007 Governor Spitzer appointed Dale Hemmerdinger president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Before being confirmed for that position, Hemmerdinger had to resign from the all-white, mostly Jewish Harmonie Club. It was then revealed that Bernard had been a member of the club for more than 30 years.

Also in August 2007, Republican strategist Roger Stone was accused of leaving this message on Bernard's office answering machine during the "Troopergate" scandal in which Eliot was accused of using state troopers to spy on Joseph Bruno:

This is a message for Bernard Spitzer. You will be subpoenaed to testify before the Senate committee on investigations on your shady campaign loans. You will be compelled by the Senate sergeant at arms. If you resist this subpoena, you will be arrested and brought to Albany.

And there‘s not a goddamn thing your phony, psycho, piece-of-shit son can do about it.

Bernie, your phony loans are about to catch up with you. You will be forced to tell the truth. And the fact that your son's a pathological liar will be known to all."

Stone initially denied involvement but eventually resigned as a consultant to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, at the request of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.