By Andy B. Mayfair
The Wilpon family knows real estate (some would say better than they know baseball). And so the family that owns and is reportedly trying to sell their majority stake in major league baseball’s New York Mets wants to share its knowledge.
Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon “has been quietly building a business that will keep him in sports for years to come,” according to therealdeal.com. “For a decade, the 58-year-old has been running a separate company that develops stadiums, complexes, and other related real estate for a fee from sports teams and leagues, according to Bloomberg.”
“Sterling Project Development, an offshoot of the family real estate business Sterling Equities, is working the Green Bay Packers and the New York Islanders to develop their respective mixed-use stadium complexes. SPD is also consulting with Major League Soccer to develop stadiums and has made deals to develop new headquarters for the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball in Manhattan,” therealdeal.com added. “The firm, which Wilpon runs with his childhood friend Richard Browne, is also working on traditional real estate projects — investment firm Square Mile Capital has hired SPD to advise on a 75-story skyscraper in Chicago and a warehouse project in the Bronx.”
The Wilpons should be Big Apple royalty, but for some reason that honor has eluded them. “The legacy of this New York real estate family’s stewardship of its beloved team, the New York Mets, ended up reflecting many aspects of the family itself. There were periods of success, but also dysfunction, intense rivalries among relatives and a financial crisis that, for a time, threatened much of what the family had built,” wrote David Waldstein, Kevin Draper and James Wagner in the pages of the New York Times.
“At their best, the Wilpons, self-made multimillionaires from the city’s outer boroughs, shined as generous philanthropists who occasionally broke the bank for a star player,” the trio continued. “At their worst, they were a squabbling, disorganized clan with a baseball team that fans saw as inept and thrifty, and functioning as a vanity play for the family scion, Fred Wilpon, and his eldest son, Jeff, who has overseen a team with mostly disappointing results since 2002.”
Indeed, Sports Illustrated seemed to capture the family’s aura recently when it noted, “Financial problems always seem to find the Wilpons. Even after reportedly recovering from the Bernie Madoff Scandal are now linked to losing $120M over the last two seasons. Surprised? I didn’t think so.”
