The Power 100: The Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate

It was a year power rushed away. Since our last list, in May 2008, New York devolved from a city of infinite victory and possibility to one of survival and recrimination. The new list turns on that.

Toward the top are money men (emphasis on men—only 12 women on the list), and New York’s firmly established surnames, those likeliest to withstand the recession: the Macks, Milsteins, Feils, Fishers, Malkins, Roses and Walentases all debut. And others from 2008 advance Frogger-like: Rob Speyer shot up 64 spots, Richard LeFrak up 46, Bill Rudin 21.

Astride the pinnacle, however, stands someone whose surname goes back not even two generations in the U.S. President Obama’s administration finds itself at the true helm of the American economy and, to a large extent, then, at that of the real estate markets.

It is no longer the invisible hand in charge, but one quite visible and caked in red, white and help!

Other government leaders make the list—Mayor Bloomberg stays in the top five and Governor Paterson goes top 10—but it’s the finance men who, well, power the Power 100. At least one-tenth of the names are those whose main job could be considered lending capital or arranging hefty loans, including Joe Ficalora and Sam Giarrusso, regional bank heavies who probably, in any other year, would’ve been surprised to find themselves on the list.

Two more notes: There are 122 names total in the 100 spots (62 names are new, 39 from last year were scuppered). Like the industry’s topmost, the list remains paler than a Gold Coast co-op board and more phallocentric than a commercial real estate C-suite: The list is over 95 percent white males. There’s nothing we can do about that.

(Click here for results of our online polls asking you who should make the list.)