New History for Old

In the roaring '203 Roosevelt Field, only 20 miles from Manhattan's Times Square, was America's "Cradle of Aviation." There one rainy dawn in May, 1927, Charles Augustus Lindbergh took off for Paris; within the next 40 days Clarence Chamberlin set out for Berlin and Richard Evelyn Byrd took off for the Continent, landing in the French surf. Roosevelt saw Wiley Post and Harold Gatty fly off in the Winnie Mae one June day in 1931, return eight days, 15 hours, 51 minutes later, having set a new round-the-world mark; seven years later Douglas Corrigan roared away for "California," wound up at Baldonnel Airfield, Dublin, and went down in history as "Wrong Way Corrigan." Then five years ago, Roosevelt's history-making days seemed over; housing developments were going up all around it, and it was closed.

But the fantastic growth of the surrounding population--the very situation that led to the closing of Roosevelt Field --set the promotional and moneymaking gears of Real-Estate Tycoon William Zeckendorf to whirring. Why not build an integrated shopping, office and industrial center to cash in on the growth? Last week, unlike many a Zeckendorf production, this one was actually nearing completion.

Roosevelt Field's 370 acres will have the world's largest shopping center (1.387,000 sq. ft. of retail selling space), an office center (50 acres) and an industrial center (123 acres). More than 1,000,000 sq. ft. of industrial space has already been built and is being used by such firms as American Bosch Arma, Pepsi-Cola Bottling, Sperry Rand Marine Division, Graybar Electric.

R. H. Macy & Co. will open its largest branch on Aug. 22, a two-story building with 300,000 sq. ft. of selling space. Nine one-story buildings, housing no stores from Buster Brown Shoes to Woolworth's, will open in September. Underground will run an air-conditioned concourse. Outside there will be parking space for 17,000 cars. Total cost: more than $50 million.

Zeckendorf's project has an impressive economic base. Nassau County, the fastest growing New York City suburb, increased its population 140% between 1940 and 1954. Today the shopping center estimates: 1) a potential market of 1,300,000 (1,600,000 by 1960) inside a ten-mile radius; 2) 37,000 customers for its stores on ordinary shopping days, 57,000 on pre-Christmas peak days; 3) $80 million in gross retail sales its first operating year.

With $33 million in loans from banks and insurance companies, the project has already paid off handsomely for Zeckendorf. In 1950 his realty firm, Webb & Knapp, put up $1,500,000 to buy a 60% interest in Roosevelt Field Inc., paying an average $9 a share. By last year the shares hit $45 on the American Stock Exchange and were split 3 for 1.

*Zeckendorf does not live in burgeoning Nassau County. Besides an eight-room Manhattan apartment, he has a 7O-acre waterfront estate in Greenwich, Conn., where he has moved more than a million cubic yards of earth to change the shoreline, installed a null swimming pool, and dredged out a ^2-acre fresh-water lake for bass. Last week he bought a twelve-room, $27,000 Greenwich house, Y$ mile from his estate, just to house his servants.

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