Hudson Yards is 28 acres built on top of running trains. We had to construct a platform over an active rail yard before laying a single brick. Nobody else wanted to touch it. That is exactly why we did.
I started with $10,000 and built affordable housing that nobody else wanted to build. Now I build neighborhoods. The principle is the same — find what other people will not do and do it better.
Anyone can build a building. The hard part is building a place — somewhere people want to live, work, eat, exercise, and spend their time. That is what Related does. We build places.
I gave $378 million to the University of Michigan because that school changed my life. I was a kid from Detroit who did not know what he wanted to do. Michigan showed me what was possible.
I bought the Dolphins for $1.1 billion and people said I overpaid. The franchise is now worth over $6 billion. Real estate taught me to buy assets that appreciate. An NFL team is just real estate with a scoreboard.
My tax law background is the single biggest advantage I have had in real estate. Every great deal is a tax deal. If you do not understand the tax code, you are leaving half the profit on the table.