Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley
Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley
Harry B. Helmsley
Leona M. Helmsley
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Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley were titans of the real estate and hotel industries, and were generous benefactors of charitable causes. Both grew up in economically lower class families in New York City. Harry Helmsley began a career in real estate in 1925 as an errand-boy, then broker, then partner, and then the owner of a real estate firm that later became known as Helmsley-Spear, Inc. At its peak, Helmsley-Spear employed more than 13,000 people and leased and managed over 100 million square feet of commercial, office, and manufacturing space. Mr. Helmsley hired his future wife, Leona, away from another brokerage firm she had been working for after a career as a model. She became a senior vice president of one of Mr. Helmsley's brokerage affiliates, Brown Harris Stevens, prior to becoming Mrs. Helmsley.
Harry and Leona Helmsley owned, developed, and operated an unparalled empire of real estate and hotel properties, and were the gold standard of real estate and hotel entrepreneurship. Their portfolio included many of the most spectacular and iconic properties in New York City: The Empire State Building, The Lincoln Building, 230 Park Avenue ("The Helmsley Building"), 120 Broadway, 140 Broadway, The Graybar Building, The Flatiron Building, Park West Village, 1 Penn Plaza, 22 Cortlandt Street, 10 Hanover Square, The Starett Lehigh Building, and many others. The Helmsleys' New York hotels were also trophy properties: The Helmsley Park Lane Hotel, The New York Helmsley, The New York Palace, The St. Moritz, and The Helmsley Carlton House. And their real estate empire extended far beyond New York-- to the magnificent waterfront Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel in Sarasota, Florida, the 3,483-unit Parkmerced apartment complex with a shopping center in San Francisco, and the 17 Harley Hotels and many dozens of other office, commercial, and residential properties throughout the United States.
The Helmsleys' unbridled generosity matched the breadth of their exceptional real estate holdings. Among their innumerable charitable donations were major gifts to the Alzheimers Association; The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, NJ; NCC of Churches of Christ-USA; Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths; American Red Cross of Greater New York ($5 million for Hurricane Katrina victims); Greenwich Hospital; the New York Police and Fire Widows' & Children's Benefit Fund ($5 million for 9/11 heroes); Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International ($2.5 million); and countless others.
As part of their focus in the areas of health and medical care, the Helmsleys contributed approximately $71 million to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center during their lifetimes, enabling the hospital's medical and research teams to substantially augment activities in several areas of medicine, including cardiovascular disease, rehabilitation medicine, and digestive diseases. Leona Helmsley's last major donation, made in the summer of 2006, was a gift of $25 million to establish a comprehensive center for digestive diseases at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Center for Colon and Rectal Surgery offers diagnostic services along with medical and surgical treatment for patients suffering from gastrointestinal diseases, and facilitates collaborations among specialists in digestive diseases with the aim of developing effective new treatments.
Consistent with their longstanding philanthropic commitment, nearly all of the Helmsleys' fortune was ultimately bequeathed, through Mrs. Helmsley's will, to The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, to be disbursed by the trustees for charitable purposes. The Helmsleys' imprint on New York City was broad, deep, and indelible. The impact of their charitable legacy will immeasurably enhance the lives of future generations.