Silverstein Properties

Who it is

Silverstein Properties is the family-run New York developer founded by Larry Silverstein, best known for rebuilding the World Trade Center after 9/11. Larry brought in Related alum Marty Burger in 2010 to institutionalize the firm; Burger became co-CEO in 2011 and sole CEO three years later. In 2023, as The Promote tells it, family won out. Burger was terminated and Larry's daughter Lisa Silverstein was named CEO.

The firm's signature saga closed a big chapter in February 2026, when American Express agreed to be the sole owner and occupant of the 55-story, roughly 2M sf 2 World Trade Center. Silverstein stays on as a fee developer rather than landlord. The deal followed a decade of false starts: Murdoch's 2015 walkaway, failed anchor hunts, and a $3.7B bid for a federal rail-infrastructure loan that the firm dropped. CBRE's Mary Ann Tighe represented Silverstein.

Beyond the WTC, the firm has been rotating its portfolio. With Nathan Berman's Metro Loft it announced a $1.5B office-to-residential fund in 2023, bought Rudin's 55 Broad for $173M and converted it into 571 rentals, and in 2025 sought more than $500M for the project. It agreed to sell 1177 Avenue of the Americas to Norges for $571M, well below the $1B-plus it and CalSTRS paid in 2007. It sold at least part of its life-science JV stake with Taconic to Affinius. Its credit arm, led by Shawn Katz, ranked No. 15 on PERE's 2025 debt-fundraising list at $4.2B. That arm held the senior and mezzanine debt on JDS's Brooklyn Tower in 2024 and started a UCC foreclosure over a reported mezz default before both sides agreed to talk. Its Manhattan casino bid was rejected at the committee stage in 2025.