Elie Hirschfeld Answers Questions: Children, Personal Life, and Creative Interests

As the president and CEO of Hirschfeld Properties, Elie Hirschfeld has been in the New York City development scene for over twenty years. His late father was Abe Hirschfeld, parking garage titan, and Elie has arguable earned an even greater legacy in his own right. Elie Hirschfeld's leadership of Hirschfeld Properties has led to such landmark properties as the historic Hotel Pennsylvania, the innovative Manhattan Mall, and New York's first open-air garage. Professional life is not his only passion: Elie is a triathlete, a dedicated philanthropist, an avid supporter of theater (he's been a Tony Awards voter since 1996) and fine art, and a family man (Elie Hirschfeld has five children). Below are Elie's answers to a few questions on his personal life and interests, as originally told to The Real Deal.

Birthday: Christmas Day, 1949. "It's the best. I feel like the whole world is celebrating with me."

Home: "I have a home in Kings Point, on Long Island. I just did a significant renovation, now complete, of an old Tudor-style home on an acre and a half. It was about a three year effort. It's nine bedrooms, and regrettably, eleven bathrooms and an outdoor shower. I know- it's too many bathrooms."

Personal properties: "I had a home in Manhattan at 1067 Fifth Avenue - I still own that home. It's a co-op."

Children: "I have five children: Daniella is 29 and lives in Boston; David is 26 and lives in Las Vegas; Benjamin is 12; Jonathan is 11; and Matthew is 10."

On the East Hampton home: "I'm halfhearted about the sale. I love the home. Sometimes I am hoping it reaches my price and sometimes I hope it doesn't. It's still listed for $25 million. I've received offers close, but not close enough."

On his business strategy: "We're looking at assets in the metro area and at various locations in the city. There's nothing to announce right now, but we are seeking to make acquisitions... And we've made some purchases, in fact."
"I'm doing a small renovation of 218 East 79th Street. It'll be a luxury rental in a two-family townhouse - one duplex, one triplex. We're working with Linda Gottlieb at Prudential Douglas Elliman on pricing right now. We acquired it three years ago and had in mind to develop a high-rise there but we put that on hold. The market is difficult for that right now. I can preserve the property this way and hold it for a ten to twelve year term. Maybe we'll end up acquiring more property around it."

On plans to demolish the Hotel Pennsylvania and build a skyscraper over the site: "I have mixed emotions. The old hotel is a fantastically important landmark to New York City. IT's hard for us to appreciate today that it was once one of the world's most luxurious hotels, but it was when it was built in 1919. It has a great deal of history. On the other hand, the new plan is also quite remarkable."

On his athleticism and training schedule: "In the winter, I bike indoors or swim. Running - I just go out on the roads. Last month, I did an Ironman, which is a very long triathlon, in Israel, so I was training 15 to 20 hours a week. Now, I'm relaxing a bit, so I'm training, let's say, half of that. But I'll build up again soon because I'm going to be doing a half-Ironman in June with my daughter, and I signed up to do the Paris Triathlon in July. I've done 75 plus triathlons in my lifetime, and of course many marathons."

On one of his wins: "On June 10, 2006 at the Montauk Triathlon, I are in first in my age group - over 55."

On being a Tony Awards voter (he's voted every year since 1996): "You can get nominated from a certain amount of involvement with the theater community. I've made some investments in the theater. I probably see 25 shows a year."

A few theater recommendations from Elie Hirschfeld: A View from the Bridge was excellent. Memphis - I thought it was just wonderful.

Wisdom he learned from his father, Abe Hirschfeld: "I think I made a very smart decision in my life to find a very smart partner. Dad worked on sort of, all-instinct. He couldn't sometimes even explain why he made decisions to me, he just made them. I value that sense of instinctively knowing what to do, but I'm different. I take more time, which is not always better at all. I work sometimes at being more instinctive in my decision-making."



(Elie Hirschfeld prefers not to comment on his net worth.)

For further reading, see the source article, from The Real Deal: https://therealdeal.com/2010/03/04/elie-hirschfeld-personal-elie-hirschfeld-children