Bernard Spitzer (born 1924) is a 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.^[1]

Early life

Spitzer's parents moved from Austria 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^[2] 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. ^[3]

Real estate developer

Among the buildings Bernard has built are:

• 3131 Grand Concourse (1958), a 12-story building in the Bedford Park area of the Bronx^[4]
• 1020 Park Avenue (1962), 20 floors^[5]
• 1050 Fifth Avenue (1963)
• 200 Central Park South (1963) - A 35 story building at Seventh Avenue and Central Park that is noted for its curved walls and a drive way that angles across the front of the building (other buildings along Central Park South are square)^[6]
• 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 seven of which are occupied by Marymount Manhattan College (where Anne taught)^[7]
• 800 Fifth Avenue (1978), a 34 story building at 61st Street
• The Corinthian (1988), a 57 story, building occupying an entire block ^[6]between 37th and 38th on First Avenue
• William P. Rogers Building (2000), an 11-story building in Washington, DC.^[6]
• 150 East 57th Street (2000), a 34-story building^[6]

Philanthropies

• Bernard and Anne Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History^[8]
• Bernard and Anne Spitzer Chair in Political Science at City University of New York

Father of the governor

Spitzer played a major role in the life of his son Eliot, the future New York Governor, both as a child and during his rise to power.

According to biographers during a game of Monopoly between father and son when the future governor was seven or eight, the elder Spitzer ordered the future governor to sell him a piece of property. When Eliot later landed on the property, he couldn't afford the rent and thus been taught "Never defer to authority."^[9]

Spitzer provided an apartment to Eliot rent free at 985 Fifth Avenue (which Bernard built). Bernard paid a gift tax.^[10] Rent from the apartment buildings in the Spitzer empire provides most of the more than $1 million income that Spitzer had reported in 2006.^[1]

Bernard was to bankroll Eliot's foray into politics loaning him $5 million in the first two campaigns and paying him $200,000 a year. The Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust has donated at least $140,000 to organizations led by political allies.^[11]

In 2007 Governor Spitzer appointed Dale Hemmerdinger to be president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Before being confirmed, 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.^[12]

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.^[13]

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.

References