Starrett Corporation, formerly known as Starrett Brothers, Inc. and Starrett Brothers and Eken, is a real estate development and construction firm known for having built the Empire State Building,

Stuyvesant Town Stuyvesant may refer to: People * Peter Stuyvesant (1592–1672), the last governor of New Netherland * Peter Gerard Stuyvesant (1778–1847), lawyer, landowner and philanthropist. * Rutherfurd Stuyvesant (1843–1909), socialite and land develope ...

, Starrett City and

Trump Tower Trump Tower is a 58-story, mixed-use skyscraper at 721–725 Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, between East 56th and 57th Streets. The building contains the headquarters for the Trump Organization, as well ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

History

Founded in 1922 and incorporated in Dover, Delaware, in February 1929, the company's initial capitalization was 1,500,000 shares of stock of no par value. Incorporators were Alfred G. Mueller, Alfred W. Boser, and Atlee W. Estarbrook, of

. With its subsidiaries the business had a total capitalization of approximately $40,000,000. Starrett Corporation acquired all of the

capital stock A corporation's share capital, commonly referred to as capital stock in the United States, is the portion of a corporation's equity that has been derived by the issue of shares in the corporation to a shareholder, usually for cash. "Share capi ...

of Starrett Brothers, a building company. Starrett Corporation was involved in construction and financing of buildings in the major urban centers of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Paul Starrett Paul Starrett (1866–1957) was an American builder. In 1883, he graduated from Lake Forest Academy, an elite boarding school for boys which was part of the Lake Forest, Illinois, educational experiment. His brothers also graduated from this institu ...

became chairman of the board and William A. Starrett served as president and a director. In 1963,

Robert Olnick The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

became president and shifted the focus to building low and middle income housing which did not require financing as they were funded by the government.Funding Universe: Starrett Corporation"
retrieved May 26, 2017 In 1970, Henry Benach purchased a quarter of the company's stock and became president. He renamed the company Starrett Housing Corporation. In 1977, Starrett purchased H.R.H. Construction (founded by Saul Horowitz in 1925) which became a subsidiary. In 1978, Starrett acquired Levitt Corporation (founded by

Abraham Levitt Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews ...

in 1938) from the ITT Corporation. In 1995, the company was renamed Starrett Corporation. In June 1997, Jacob Frydman, attempted to purchase the company for $84 million, $12.25 per share, after reaching an agreement with brothers

Paul Milstein Paul Milstein (May 12, 1922 – August 9, 2010) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist. Early life and education Milstein was born to a Jewish family Seymour Milstein Seymour Milstein (July 21, 1920 – October 2, 2001) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist. Early life and education Milstein was born to Jewish family Henry Benach Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

who owned 19% of Starrett's shares."Investor to Pay $80.4 Million To Buy Starrett Corporation"
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', June 27, 1997, pg. B5. In October 1997 Mr. Paul Milstein, Chairman of Starrett announced that the company was being sold to affiliates of Manhattan-based Lawrence Ruben Co., Blackacre Capital Group, Amroc Investments and

Argent Ventures Argent Ventures, LLC. is a privately held real estate company based in New York City that most notably owned the land under Grand Central Terminal and the land around of Metro-North Railroad railway tracks in the New York City metropolitan area f ...

. A few months after the closing of the acquisition of Starrett by Lawrence Ruben Co., Blackacre Capital Group, Amroc Investments and

, the company announced that Joel Simon, a former executive of Olympia & York Companies (U.S.A.), will become its new chief executive office"Starrett gets new leader"
''

'', April 14, 1998.

Subsidiaries

One subsidiary, the Starrett Building Company of

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, erected the steel girders on the National Parking Garage in Chicago, in 1929.''Starrett Corporation'', Wall Street Journal, December 16, 1929, pg. 12. Two other subsidiaries were the Starrett Investing Corporation and the Wall and Hanover Streets Realty Company. The latter subsidiary owned the thirty-five story

Wall and Hanover Building 63 Wall Street, originally the Wall and Hanover Building, is a 37-story skyscraper on Wall Street in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1929, it was designed by Delano & Aldrich as the headquarters of Brown Brother ...

at 59 ''-'' 63 Wall Street, Manhattan. Starrett Corporation's subsidiaries also include the Levitt Corporation, which built

tract housing Tract housing is a type of housing development in which multiple similar houses are built on a tract (area) of land that is subdivided into smaller lots. Tract housing developments are found in suburb developments that were modeled on the " Levi ...

following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. More recently the company maintained a successful home building business in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

References

{{Authority control Companies based in New York City Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1929 Cultural history of New York City Real estate companies established in 1929 1929 establishments in New York (state)