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David Von Spreckelsen
D
avid Von Spreckelsen, the president of Toll Brothers City Living, moved to New York City in 1985 to take a job as an assistant buyer at Lord & Taylor. The Pennsylvania native and University of Richmond grad then went back to school to get an MBA from Columbia University and later a degree in urban planning. In 1993, he joined the city’s Economic Development Corporation, where he worked with big-named real estate players like Donald Trump and Tishman Speyer. In 2004, after a few other jobs, he came across a New York Times classified ad that led to his first Toll Brothers gig — director of acquisition and development for New York City and Long Island. He launched the division solo out of an office space on Livingston Street in Brooklyn. Ten years later, he’s overseen over $1 billion worth of residential projects in the city, including Northside Piers in Williamsburg and 205 Water Street in Dumbo. Toll is also quickly selling out the under-construction Pierhouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park and constructing two other condos at 400 Park Avenue South and 110 Park Avenue. Last month, Von Spreckelsen showed TRD around his new Lower Manhattan office. By Julie Strickland
Book
Mayoral mugs
Fidel photo:
Von Spreckelsen always has a book with him
Von Spreckelsen’s father-in-law went to law school with Fidel
for subway rides between meetings. “I’m
Castro, and “is one of the few Cuban-Americans I know who is
often on the subway with co-workers, and
still somewhat supportive of him,” he
they try to talk to me,” he said. “I just
said. “This has been in hiding during
say, ‘No. I’m not going to talk.’” He is
the Bloomberg years,” he said about this
residential
currently reading “The Wapshot
photo of his father-in-law with Castro
complex along the Gowanus
Chronicle,” a novel about an
and Che Guevara, “but now with the
Canal, then-Council Member de
eccentric family living in
new mayor I thought I could take it out
Blasio took up the cause. “It wasn’t
a Massachusetts fishing
because, you know, he’s a revolutionary.”
Unlike many other developers in the city, Von Spreckelsen is a big supporter of Mayor Bill de Blasio and got these mugs from the
mayor’s
inauguration. A few years back, when Toll wanted to develop a
now-dead
the most popular political move,” Von Spreckelsen said.
David Letterman Before joining Toll Brothers in 2004, Von Spreckelsen worked for about a year and a half in corporate real estate for CBS. When he left, colleagues had David Letterman sign a T-shirt as a farewell gift.
village.
Bondi Beach
400 Park Avenue South
This photograph of Bondi Beach is a memento of a trip Von Spreckelsen
Toll
took with his wife and three kids to
Equity Residential at the Christian de
Australia last Christmas. “This was
Portzamparc–designed 400 Park Avenue
definitely the longest trip we took with
South, which topped out at 40 stories late
the kids,” he said, noting that they’ve
last year. The top 18 floors will contain
also been to Italy, France, Spain,
Toll’s 81 condos, with prices ranging from
Germany, the Caribbean and Mexico.
$1 million to over $10 million. The lower
Brothers
is
partnering
with
floors will house Equity’s 269 luxury rentals.
Basketball trophy An avid basketball fan and player, Von Spreckelsen won this trophy in a 1997 Urban Professional League game. The trophy holds sentimental value because the team’s star player, Kenny Caldwell, was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. “He was like our LeBron James,” Von Spreckelsen said.
Knicks photo: A lifelong New York Knicks fan, Von Spreckelsen keeps a photo of the legendary 1969– 70 championship team in his office, as well as a ball from the 1972–1973 season, the last time the Knicks won the finals. The ball is signed by Hall of Famers Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe, who were on that championship team.
Pierhouse Rendering A rendering of Toll Brothers’ 108-unit Pierhouse in Brooklyn
World Cup Brooklyn
Bridge Park, which will also include a 193-room hotel. The project
Von Spreckelsen lived in the East Village for about three months
is slated for completion in 2015. So far, 45 units have sold, with
when he first moved to New York, but has lived in Brooklyn ever
prices ranging from just under $1 million to $8 million.
since. He and his family currently call Boerum Hill home.
Von Spreckelsen, whose father is German, has been rooting for Germany in the World Cup. The developer, who coaches all three of his daughters’ soccer teams, likes to watch games at the Loreley, a German restaurant and biergarten on the Lower East Side.
22 July 2014 www.TheRealDeal.com
PHOTOGRAPH OF David Von Spreckelsen FOR THE REAL DEAL BY Briana Heard