The private firm, Tishman Speyer Properties (TSP), shook the commercial properties
world earlier this year when, teamed with its partner, the Crown family of Chicago,
it became the dark horse victor in the battle to purchase Rockefeller Center.
Tishman Speyer, which owned 5 percent of the complex, jumped in with a last-minute
offer that trumped bids by Fisher Brothers Realty of New York, Equity Office
Properties in Chicago, and Saddlebrook, NJ-based Vornado Realty. The bid? $1.85
billion.
Founded in 1978 by Robert Tishman and Jerry Speyer, the company's leadership
was drawn from Tishman Realty & Construction Co. Inc. It operates from its
headquarters in New York City and from 16 TSP offices worldwide, including offices
in Frankfurt, Berlin, London, Paris, Kraków, Warsaw, and São Paulo,
as well as nine other offices in the United States.
The company has developed or acquired a portfolio of over 36.4 million square
feet of constructed area valued at over $10 billion. In addition to well-known
developments of high-rise office buildings in major urban locations, TSP also
creates mixed-use, retail, residential, and entertainment centers, as well as
mid- and low-rise office buildings.
Besides its recent Rockefeller Center acquisition, Tishman Speyer controls
a number of "trophy assets" in the United States, including the Chrysler
Building and 666 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan and the MGM Plaza in Los Angeles. Many
of these buildings and their respective tenants have enjoyed the fruits of TSP's
redevelopment programs, which bring technology and other building services to
state-of-the-art standards while restoring the structures' architecture to their
original splendor.
