Feed

Leona Helmsley

By Janon Fisher 1/17 2:30pm

REBNY2012

Howard Rubenstein. (Illustration by Joao Maio Pinto)

Howard Rubenstein: Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Recipient

Manhattan real estate moguls talk about his “Solomonic wisdom,” according to The New York Times.

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called him the “dean of damage control.” His public relations firm, Rubenstein Associates, once simultaneously represented both Leona Helmsley and Donald Trump.

So it’s no exaggeration to say that nothing of importance happens in New York City without somehow involving Howard J. Rubenstein.

Read More

1 By Emily Witt 6/09/11 4:01pm

Cats and Dogs

Leona Helmsley

In Memoriam: Trouble Helmsley

  What will they say of you now, Trouble! Dead upon your gilded pillow The millions they did double But this Maltese they could not save.   So go then, Trouble, to the Elysian doggy fields, Where bones are thrown, (The Queen of Mean awaits you there alone.) And only the little people pay taxes, Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 1/22/10 9:23pm

Swig Shutters Helmsley Spear Brokerage

Kent Swig is shutting down the Helmsley Spear brokerage, according to a broker who attended a Friday meeting at about 3 p.m., at which the announcement was made.

Steven Kerschenbaum, executive vice president of Swig Equities, Mr. Swig's property investment and management firm, made the announcement, while Mr. Swig toyed with his PDA, according to our source.

"What really bothers me, really bothers me, is Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 8:25pm

Leona Helmsley Trust Sheds Two Manhattan Properties

The estate holding the assets of the one-time hotelier and reputed Queen of Mean Leona Helmsley sold two properties on Manhattan's East Side on Oct. 1, according to city records.

The properties in question are a ground-floor 4,178-square-foot retail condominium at 760 Third Avenue and the nearby 144 East 48th Street, a 114,500-square-foot apartment building between Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 6/16/09 9:36pm

Exorcising Leona From the Helmsley Hotel She Made Famous

The New York Helmsley Hotel, that 775-room inn trapped in a design hell of 1980s Greed-Is-Good glamour, is getting a face-lift, one to obliterate many of the fingerprints of the late Queen of Mean herself, Leona Helmsley.

While you still can, walk through the revolving doors of 212 East 42nd Street and step into the hotel’s Read More

By Tom Acitelli 8/29/07 3:35pm

The Late Leona’s Dog Will Live Large [UPDATED]

Leona Helmsley left her dog Trouble $12 million. The real estate mogul's will, which became public on Tuesday, stipulates that Helmsley's brother Alvin Rosenthal is to care for the white Maltese--until it dies and is buried alongside Helmsley in a Bronx mausoleum.

Mr. Rosenthal, for his part, got millions from his late sister, and two Read More

By Tom McGeveran 8/23/07 1:19pm

Leona’s ‘Rattlesnake’ Eulogizes the ‘Queen of Mean’

The reports are in from the funeral of Leona Helmsley, which was attended by about 150 people--an invite-only crowd of colleagues, employees and family members. It's no surprise this was not like lying in state; the so-called 'Queen of Mean' was the sworn enemy of many in New York's real-estate elite, not least of all Read More

By Mark Wellborn 8/20/07 2:40pm

Leona Helmsley, ‘Queen of Mean,’ Dies at 87

Leona Helmsley died of heart failure today at her Greenwich, Conn., summer home at age 87, according to her longtime publicist Howard Rubenstein.

Helmsley and her husband Harry, whom she married in 1972, amassed a New York City real estate empire that eventually included the Empire State Building, Tudor City and 230 Park Avenue. Read More

By Staff 3/13/06 8:56am

Greenwich In a Snit

In a part of Greenwich where giant mansions are the rule, locals seem to want to set a limit: With plans calling for almost 39,000 square feet in the main building, plus an 1,165-square-foot pool house, the home that Joseph M. Jacobs, a 53-year-old hedge fund manager, wants to build for his family on Read More

By Simon Doonan 1/27/03 12:00am

Hey, Renée–Where’s the Funeral? Undertaker Chic at Golden Globes

I can't help myself. After all, I'm only human. Like any right-thinkin' New Yorker, I am hopelessly caught in the thrall of hell-raising hotelier Leona Helmsley. Especially after last week's Leathergate down at the Manhattan Supreme Court.

Who amongst us was not riveted by the torrent of sordidrevelations that poured forth duringthegay-biastrial, wherein La Helmsley Read More