Sheldon Henry Solow was born in Brooklyn on July 20, 1928. His father Isaac was a bricklayer before becoming a small-time builder. His mother Jennie was a homemaker.
He studied engineering and architecture at New York University before dropping out in 1949. The following year, Solow and his father got a government-insured loan to build a 72-family apartment building in Far Rockaway that his father named Sheldon Gardens, according to the New York Times. Solow moved on to develop homes in Long Island and a shopping center. In 1962, at the age of 34, he moved his office to 410 Park Avenue in Manhattan.
In the 1960s, while marketing a luxury apartment complex on the Upper East Side, he got a suggestion from a broker to assemble a multilot site on West 57th Street. After considering a high-rise residence, he changed plans to an office tower to compete with the new, trend-setting white marble GM Building.
Acquiring enough land was the key obstacle. To keep his plan secret, Solow bought the first parcel in 1965, using a dummy company registered to his sister. It took Solow, then a well-tailored bachelor who drove a Rolls Royce, five years and $12 million to acquire the needed 61,800 square feet.
“There were 14 buildings,” he said about his acquisition plan. “All someone would have to do is come in, take one, and that would be that.”
The building, which cost about $40 million to construct, opened with 1.5 million square feet of office space.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.