3rd Annual Titans of Real Estate Conference Preview: Howard and Michael Milstein. (3 min)

The Cornell Baker Program in Real Estate is excited to have Howard Milstein, A&S ’73, and son, Michael Milstein, A&S ’11, both of Milstein Properties, as panelists of the Cornell 3rd Annual Titans of Real Estate conference to discuss family business leadership.  Milstein Properties, a real estate investment firm based in Manhattan, has been family owned for four generations and is currently chaired by Howard Milstein.  The company has acquired more than 50,000 apartments, 20 million square feet of office space, and 8,000 hotel rooms.  Howard Milstein is also Chairman of the merchant bank FriedbergMilstein, and Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of New York Private Bank & Trust and its operating bank, Emigrant Bank (the country’s largest privately-owned family-run bank) ¹.

Howard Milstein is an entrepreneur and innovator, leading successful businesses across a range of sectors, including real estate, banking, hospitality, marketing, finance, and technology.  In his career, he played an instrumental role in reviving the New York City theatre district with the development of the Milford Plaza Hotel, challenged a cable monopoly when he created Liberty Cable, spearheaded a reform and reorganization of the building management business, and built Douglas Elliman into the city’s leading management and sales brokerage firm.  Central to the initiatives he leads are the objectives of improving global health, national security, learning and economic prosperity. He is particularly active in the fields of medical research and healthcare delivery and also dedicates time and significant support to higher education, disaster relief, the arts, communal giving, and law enforcement and counterterrorism programs ².

His son, Michael Milstein, active in Milstein properties is also active in a business called Grand Central Tech, an accelerator that nurtures tech startups by providing below market rents to its Urban Tech Hub tenants.  The business is operated in a family owned building across from Grand Central Station.  Through his involvement, Grand Central Tech keeps expanding.  Demand for the service is high with more applications than current supply can accommodate.  Part of Grand Central Tech’s model is that once graduated, successful applicants must rent out space in a Milstein property ³.

Howard and Michael are son and grandson, respectively, of the legendary businessman and philanthropist Paul Milstein.  Cornell recently received a $20 million gift from the Milstein family to launch the new Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity, a collaboration between the College of Arts and Sciences and Cornell Tech to pioneer a new approach for developing 21st century leaders and innovators.  The program bridges two campuses to deliver a unique multidisciplinary curriculum to a cohort of 100 students with the potential to be extraordinary leaders – combining an outstanding liberal arts and sciences education from Cornell University, access to the thinking and network of Cornell Tech from the start of their university careers, and a strong community of peers ⁴.

At the Titans Real Estate Conference, the Milsteins will discuss multi-generational family leadership in the real estate industry.  The audience will learn about these unique working relationships and the demands placed on rising successors of the family business ⁵.