Stephen L. Green

Stephen L. Green (born 1938) is founder and Chairman of SL Green Realty Corp., which claims to be Manhattan’s largest owner of office buildings.

Early life and education

Green lived in Bensonhurst until he was ten and then moved to Long Island, first to Elmont, New York and later Great Neck, New York. His father was a lawyer and apartment landlord while his mother was a public school teacher. His parents were both Republicans. He has one brother, seven years his junior, former New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.

Green received a BA from Hartwick College in 1959. He also obtained his JD from Boston College Law School in 1962. Green worked as an attorney for several years before starting an import-export firm specializing in the sale of hair products from Asia. He later sold that business and started a travel company that chartered airliners and sold ski vacations in the American West and Europe. Giving this up, invested in waterfront property in Siesta Key, Florida and developed real estate, but eventually returned to New York City, where he started investing in loft buildings.

Career

In 1980, Green formed SL Green Properties, Inc. His strategy was to buy Class B office buildings, invest some money to redo their lobbies, facades and add other amenities and then raise the rents closer to Class A levels as older tenants moved out. This strategy was successful and SL Green Realty Corp. went public in 1997 trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock ticker of SLG. The company was the first REIT to be focused solely on Manhattan office properties. According to the SL Green Realty Corp. website, the company has investment interests in 77 Manhattan office buildings comprising nearly 40 million square feet of space.

In 2007 he bought Air America radio network and appointed his brother Mark as President.

Personal life

Green is married to Nancy Peck who runs Nancy Peck & Co, an interior design company. He has three sons, Daniel, Gary, and Scott Green. Nancy has a son, Jonathan Peck.

Being of Jewish descent, Green participated in the 1985 and 1989 Maccabiah Games in Israel, winning a bronze medal in squash in 1985. He endows the SL Green National Open Squash Championships for U.S. Squash.

Philanthropy

Green made the lead gift toward fundraising efforts for the $9 million, 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) SL Green StreetSquash Center on West 115th Street in Harlem, which opened in 2008.