Elie Hirschfeld is the president of Hirschfeld Properties LLC, a New York City real estate developer, philanthropist, art collector, and theatrical producer. Born in New York City on December 25, 1949, Hirschfeld has spent more than four decades developing Manhattan hotels, residential towers, retail centers, and parking facilities, with aggregate real estate activity valued in the billions of dollars.
The son of New York real estate developer Abraham Hirschfeld, Elie Hirschfeld built on the family business through what is now a multi-discipline operating model spanning real estate, philanthropy, fine art, Broadway, and competitive endurance sport.
On this page
- How did Elie Hirschfeld start his real estate career?
- What properties has Hirschfeld Properties developed?
- What is the strategy behind Hirschfeld's parking portfolio?
- What is Park.com?
- What philanthropic and civic roles does Hirschfeld hold?
- What does Hirschfeld collect and produce on Broadway?
- What is Hirschfeld's athletic record?
- Frequently asked questions
How Did Elie Hirschfeld Start His Real Estate Career?
Hirschfeld received his undergraduate degree from Brown University, where he graduated phi beta kappa, magna cum laude, and president of his class. He earned his law degree from New York University School of Law.
Before joining the family business, Hirschfeld practiced as a real estate attorney at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, focusing on real estate, financing, and banking law. He joined Hirschfeld Properties in 1976. His first project was the construction of the Empire State Building parking garage on 33rd Street, the start of a career that would shape parts of the Manhattan skyline.
That early path, attorney first, operator second, shaped how Hirschfeld approached every deal that followed. A developer who has negotiated financing and banking law from the other side of the table tends to structure transactions differently than one who learned the business purely through operations, and that legal grounding shows up across the decades of acquisitions, joint ventures, and government leases that followed.
What Properties Has Hirschfeld Properties Developed?
As president of Hirschfeld Properties, Hirschfeld has directed the development or ownership of a portfolio of notable New York City properties, including The Grand Sutton, the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Park Avenue Court, The Gotham, the Sutton Collection, Exchange Tower, the redevelopment of the historic Hotel Pennsylvania, the Sports Club/LA Building, Manhattan Mall at Herald Square, and New York's first open-air parking garage.
| Property / Deal | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Grand Sutton | Residential | Manhattan tower |
| Crowne Plaza Hotel | Hotel | Manhattan |
| Hotel Pennsylvania | Hotel / redevelopment | Historic property |
| Manhattan Mall at Herald Square | Retail | Mixed-use |
| DEA Headquarters Lease | Government lease | 4th largest NYC lease by size, 2014 |
Hirschfeld Properties has collaborated with the Zeckendorf Organization, the Donald Trump Organization, Silverstein Properties, Empire Realty Group, Belz Enterprises of Memphis, and Simon Property Group. Hirschfeld led the redevelopment of the US Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Manhattan, a lease that ranked as the fourth largest by size in New York City in 2014. In 2016, he purchased a 40-unit mixed-use building in Yorkville for $23 million and a 7,058-square-foot triplex penthouse at the Marquand for $37.5 million.
What Is the Strategy Behind Hirschfeld's Parking Portfolio?
Hirschfeld's career began with a parking garage, and parking has remained a consistent thread through decades of otherwise diverse real estate activity. New York's open-air and structured parking facilities occupy some of the most valuable land in the city, land that a developer with patience can eventually redevelop into hotels, residential towers, or mixed-use retail once market conditions favor a higher use. That pattern, entering a property through a parking operation and later redeveloping it, or building parking into a project's foundation as recurring cash flow, appears across multiple Hirschfeld Properties developments and now extends into Park.com's digital ambitions in the same sector.
What Is Park.com?
Hirschfeld is leading the creation of Park.com, which the firm describes as the world's largest digital parking infrastructure, a platform built to compete in the $100 billion global parking market. The project extends the Hirschfeld franchise from physical real estate into digital infrastructure, applying the same scarcity-of-land logic that built the physical parking portfolio to a software and marketplace layer instead of a deed.
What Philanthropic and Civic Roles Does Hirschfeld Hold?
Hirschfeld established the Hirschfeld Family Foundation, focused on education, healthcare, athletics, and Jewish causes. He serves as trustee emeritus of Brown University and Long Island University, director of the US Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and trustee of multiple New York City hospitals including Beth Israel, St. Luke's, and Roosevelt.
In 2016, Hirschfeld and his wife Sarah gave Brown University a $3.5 million gift to renovate the Judaic Studies building, which Brown subsequently renamed the Elie Hirschfeld Building. In 2019, President Donald Trump appointed Hirschfeld to the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.
What Does Hirschfeld Collect and Produce on Broadway?
The Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld Art Collection includes works by Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Christo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Norman Rockwell, Mark Rothko, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring, including Haring's Radiant Baby, acquired in 2017. Hirschfeld has donated 130 New York City-themed works to the New-York Historical Society.
Hirschfeld is a Tony Award voting member of the Broadway League and has produced or co-produced David Mamet's Oleanna, The Fantasticks, Flashdance, Equus, and Passing Strange, which earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical.
What Is Hirschfeld's Athletic Record?
Hirschfeld is a competitive endurance athlete who has completed more than 100 triathlons, 11 marathons, and 3 Ironman competitions, including the 2012 New York City Ironman Triathlon at age 62. He placed fourth in his age group at the AJ Bell London Triathlon. The endurance discipline mirrors the patience visible in his real estate career: both the parking-to-redevelopment pattern and a multi-decade triathlon habit reward the same willingness to keep showing up long after a faster competitor or a faster developer would have moved on.
Frequently Asked Questions
What company does Elie Hirschfeld run?
Elie Hirschfeld is president of Hirschfeld Properties LLC, a New York City real estate development firm he joined in 1976.
What is Elie Hirschfeld's newest project?
Hirschfeld is building Park.com, a digital parking infrastructure platform aimed at the $100 billion global parking market.
What art does Elie Hirschfeld collect?
The Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld Art Collection includes works by Calder, Chagall, O'Keeffe, Rothko, Warhol, and Haring.
Elie Hirschfeld represents a New York operator who connected an inherited real estate legacy to a modern, multi-discipline platform spanning hotels, residential, retail, parking, and digital infrastructure, while extending into philanthropy, art collecting, and Broadway production. Related founder profiles on this site: Brian Gefter on building a global hospitality brand, and Michael Cammarata on building and exiting a consumer wellness brand.
Ronn Torossian is the founder and chairman of 5W AI Communications, the AI Communications Firm. He is the publisher of Everything-PR and the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.