Children of Depression

Everybody had heard of Manhattan's Empire State Building by the time Builders Pierre S. du Pont and John J. Raskob opened it in 1931. Nobody had heard of an obscure young University of Michigan student named Roger L. Stevens. But the Empire State and Stevens had one thing in common: depression dogged them both. It forced Stevens out of college in his first year, to take a filling-station job in Detroit. It left Empire State's 2,158,000 sq. ft. of offices only partly filled for nine years, and the 102-story building stayed long in the red.

Both Empire State and Stevens whipped their depression jinx. By World War II, Empire State was jammed to the rafters. When Raskob, who owned 44% of the stock, died last October, his confidence in U.S. growth had been vindicated: Empire State was one of the world's most profitable buildings, grossing $10 million a year, netting close to half that.

Bargain Hunter. Roger Stevens had also come up in the world from a $12-a-week greasemonkey, and later a Ford assembly-line worker. He became a real-estate operator. He got his start by spotting good real-estate buys, earning finder's fees by locating people with the money to buy them. His knack for untangling complicated business deals so impressed two wealthy Detroiters--Banker Alfred R. Clancy Jr., 43, and Hotelman Ben Tobin, 45--that the three became partners.

Last week, depression's children got together. Ex-Greasemonkey Stevens, 41, signed a deal for himself and partners to buy control of Empire State from John Raskob's estate and family. Stevens and partners will pay $25 million for control of the building, valued at $50 million, only slightly less than its original cost.

They plunked down $1,000,000 in cash to seal the deal, have six months to complete the financing, probably by insurance companies and banks. They have also offered to buy the 36% of the stock held by Raskob's relatives (thus own 80% of the shares). Besides becoming the landlords of many a U.S. corporate giant (Du Pont, American Viscose, Burlington Mills, Textron and others), they will also collect $600,000 a year from six TV and FM stations. The stations expect to start broadcasting in July from a new 222-ft. TV tower atop the Empire State.

It was not the Michigan triumvirate's first invasion of New York. Their Realty Associates Securities Corp. already has extensive New York holdings, including 43% of Manhattan's 2,000 room Hotel Taft, and the second biggest interest in Manhattan's Bing & Bing, realty firm which owns an equal share of the Taft. In Chicago, they have an interest in the old Boston Store building, have launched a new $10 million suburban shopping center. Tobin, on his own, controls Cleveland's Hotel Hollenden, Florida's Hollywood Beach Hotel; while Stevens owns half of Cleveland's Hotel Bolton Square, Florida's Belleview Biltmore in Belleair.

Bargain Bought. Stevens, who still lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., also finds time to produce plays, backed Twelfth Night on Broadway in 1949. With Glancy and Tobin, he is helping back two current hits, Darkness at Noon and The Rose Tattoo. Last month he was elected a member of the Playwrights' Company, will be business manager for two forthcoming plays.

In clinching the Empire State deal, Stevens did not forget his old knack of picking up finder's fees. He not only acted as principal, but as one of the three brokers, stood to collect $166,000 for himself in broker's fees. Says hardheaded Roger Stevens: "We didn't buy it because it's the world's tallest building but because it looked like a cheap piece of real estate."

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