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<p><em>Robert Ivan “Bob” Shapiro</em> was born in New York City on July 11, 1936. His father was a doctor, and he always wanted Bob to be a doctor too. However, Bob decided to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point. After four years at a military prep school and a year at Brown University, Bob entered West Point in July 1955 as a member of the Class of 1959. At West Point, Bob was a member of the Jewish Choir for four years and was actively involved in track, fencing, pistol marksmanship and bridge.</p>
<p>Upon graduation Bob received an honorable discharge from the Army and returned to New York City to attend Columbia’s Graduate School of Business, where he received his MBA in 1961. He then entered the New York City real estate business. In 1964, Bob founded City Center Real Estate, which ultimately specialized in land assemblage. For Bob, the art of land assemblage was an enjoyable challenge much like a high stake’s poker game combined with the skill of playing three-dimensional tic-tac-toe. To play the game you need multiple disciplines comprised of zoning, architecture, legislative rights, entitlements, financial engineering and negotiating skills. He was very good at it and very successful. His first sale was a Trinity Church property that had been owned by the church since 1697 and it became the initial residential conversion for the Tribeca section of New York. Other seminal projects included the post-9/11 redevelopment of downtown Manhattan, the transformation of Hudson Yards, the rezoning of the Broadway and Eighth Ave corridor, and the gentrification of Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. For his endeavors, the Real Estate Board of New York selected one of his transactions as being the “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year.” Earlier in his career, the Board had also named him “Young Real Estate Man of the Year.”</p>
<p>Over the years he represented most of New York City’s major developers and, in some cases, became their partner. As well as being a prominent expert in land assemblages, he was known as “The Sky King of Air Rights” for his sale and acquisition of such rights. He will be best remembered in the real estate industry as a mentor and friend who always had time to help anyone who asked. He also gave back to the city he loved. His public service and charitable work were outstanding. For example, he arranged for the donation of a 90-unit senior living center for St. Malachy’s Church-The Actors’ Chapel in Times Square, which is where the Bing Crosby movie Going My Way was filmed. He was able to reposition the real estate holdings of the College of Podiatric Medicine of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital to increase their endowment by $40 million. In recognition of this, they awarded Bob an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Bob said he finally became a doctor, which would have made his dad proud.</p>
<p>Except for a two-year period in 1982-83 when he was a senior vice president for Merrill Lynch Commercial Real Estate Services, Bob worked for his company, City Center Real Estate. During some of this time Pete Keogh, a West Point classmate, worked with him. In addition to his real estate work, Bob was involved in many other activities. He was an adjunct professor at New York University’s Real Estate School. He was the moderator of the Larry Silverstein Lecture Series and vice president of the Realty Foundation of New York, where he was in charge of their financial grants program. Along the way he became involved in the restaurant business, as a partner in a very popular theater district restaurant called Thalia.</p>
<p>Bob got married in 1962 to Nancy, and they had two children: a girl, Bettina, and a boy, Tom. They had five grandchildren whom Bob and Nancy adored and whom they took with them on many trips. In early 2019 Bob suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. However, his iron will and hard work allowed him to recover sufficiently so he could attend his 60th class reunion at West Point in May. He continued to recover throughout 2019 to the point that he and his wife, Nancy, embarked on a world cruise in January 2020. Unfortunately, after only one week he was forced to disembark in Costa Rica, where he died. His body was returned to New York and, after a funeral service at Temple Emanu-El, Bob was buried at Temple Israel Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. </p>
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