Former Ny Governor Moving Fast as Executor of Father’s Estate

Reviewed by Attorney Kim Hegwood Published January 22, 2016

The Real Deal reports in “Eliot Spitzer has started splitting up late father’s empire,” that the Spitzer family fortune, with a portfolio of prime Manhattan real estate, is being divided up by former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, as the executor of his late father’s will.

The $500 million estate transferred ownership of the properties the elder Spitzer acquired, according to property records recently filed with the city. Spitzer, now an active developer, put a sizable stake of 1050 Fifth Avenue—a 20-story, 90-unit rental building his father developed in 1960—into the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, along with shares of 30 co-op units. The trust has been a big patron of organizations such as the Public Theater and City College. Bernard Spitzer stipulated in his will that about $250 million of his wealth should be left to charity.

Spitzer also transferred interests in properties—including the $88 million Hudson Yards development site that Spitzer Engineering bought in 2013—to his siblings and himself. He also put another development bought for $165 million in February by the family business into a charitable trust set up for his mother.

Spitzer Engineering has been selling some of the company’s top properties, such as the Crown Building, which went for a record-setting $1.78 billion in April.

Reference: The Real Deal (December 18, 2015) “Eliot Spitzer has started splitting up late father’s empire”