22 August 2010 www.TheRealDeal.

com
PHOTOGRAPH FOR THE REAL DEAL BY MAX DWORKIN

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A 1950s ad for Sunoco car wax features Weisbrods wife, Jody Adams, who was a child model and actress. Today shes a New York family court judge in Manhattan.

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A New York Times photo inadvertently caught Weisbrod enjoying a 2006 Mets game. Fortunately, I told everybody here I would be at the game and not at my grandmothers funeral, he joked.

our decades ago, printing presses rumbled in the neighborhood now known as Hudson Square. But when they shut down, the Lower Manhattan neighborhood needed a new identity. So today, keyboards clack in the areas lofts at media companies like New York magazine and Penguin books. Credit for that change belongs, at least partially, to Carl Weisbrod, the outgoing president of Trinity Real Estate, who lured tenants with asking rents of about $40 a foot, well below Midtown rates. Today, Trinitys 16 buildings are 85 percent occupied, including 75 Varick Street, which is home to Weisbrods office. Weisbrod, 65, will be stepping down in January after a six-year run. He hasnt said yet if he has another neighborhood remake in his future. B y C.J. H ugHes

A bicycle water bottle. He created a storage room at 75 Varick for 27 bikes, which he said has helped attract tenants, especially young media companies. On a recent afternoon, there were 18 bikes stored there.

As a board member of New York City Outward Bound, a program that takes students on wilderness trips, Weisbrod also frequently camps himself, including trips to Alaska with Arthur Levitt, the former SEC chairman. He and Levitt became friendly in 1990, when both worked for New York Citys Economic Development Corporation, Weisbrod as president and Levitt as chairman.

A model of a Cuban fighter plane was a gift from his wife, who has traveled there. I stare at it so I can remember to go to Cuba someday.

Last summer, Weisbrod launched Hudson Square Connection, a business improvement district. In 1995, he also created the similar Downtown Alliance. This design book inspired the alliance to create morelively street guides to landmarks.

A 1980 tombstone marks a deal between the Koch administration and whats today known as the Empire State Development Corp., to clean up Times Square. At the time, Weisbrod was working for the mayors office.

Weisbrod was president of the Downtown Alliance on Sept. 11. A colleague took this photo of him standing amid debris on Washington Street.

Among Hudson Squares most prized tenants, Weisbrod said, is radio station WNYC, which traded a cramped Municipal Building office for a three-floor, 75,000-square-foot space. It was really a great deal for all of us, he said.

When he was president of the citys Economic Development Corporation, he got the U.S. Tennis Association to pick up the tab for Arthur Ashe Stadium. This was probably my best deal, said Weisbrod, whos seated here in 1993 with thenmayor David Dinkins.