BY DUSICA SUE MALESVIC
John Zuccotti, a real estate investor who played a large role in Lower Manhattan’s development before and after 9/11, died on Nov. 19 at the age of 78.
John Zuccotti, 1937–2015
Zuccotti was chairman of global operations at Brookfield Properties and passed away following a brief illness that was not specified, according to the company.
He spent much of his life in public service. Zuccotti was first appointed to the city’s Planning Commission in 1971 and was made chairman by Mayor John Lindsay two years later.
Zuccotti then served as deputy mayor for the next two years under Mayor Abraham Beame. He told this paper three years ago that in the mid-1970s, “there was no promise of Battery Park City ever being built.”
He added, “I believe that Battery Park City is the greatest urban development project of the latter part of the 20th century.”
“There has been no better steward for the advancement and rebirth of Lower Manhattan,” said Dennis Mehiel, chairman of the Battery Park City Authority. “John’s passing leaves a large void here at Battery Park City and in our entire Downtown community. His presence, graciousness, dedication and particularly his leadership, will be sorely missed.”
Zuccotti later served as chairman of Gov. Hugh L. Carey’s World Trade Center task force.
From 1990 to 1997, he was the chief executive officer of Olympia & York, which developed the World Financial Center, now Brookfield Place. But he never left public service behind and served on the boards of both the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center and National September 11th Memorial Museum.
World Trade Center Developer Larry A. Silverstein said, “John was a great friend and cherished colleague in the real estate industry, as well as one of the great civic leaders of New York City history. Everyone who cares about Lower Manhattan owes him a great deal for what he did to help the neighborhood recover in the aftermath of 9/11.”
President of the Alliance for Downtown New York Jessica Lappin recalled Zuccotti as “a unique visionary and one-of-a-kind civic champion.”
Mayor de Blasio called him and “honest broker” to whom he often turned for advice in balancing public and private interests.
In 2006, the privately owned Downtown plaza Liberty Plaza Park was renamed Zuccotti Park in his honor.
But Community Board 1 chairwoman Catherine McVay Hughes said that the entire neighborhood of Downtown can be seen as a monument to Zuccotti’s achievements.
“As the Chairman of Brookfield and at critical downtown institutions like the board of the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, every where you look, you will see something that he has touched and helped build,” she said. “His name will always be associated with the rebirth of Lower Manhattan.”
The son of an Italian immigrant, Zuccotti went to Princeton University and then Yale Law School, and was also an officer in the U.S. Army.
He survived by his wife Susan, three children and eight grandchildren.
