Who

Paul Milstein is the patriarch of the fabulously wealthy, fabulously strife-ridden Milstein real estate and banking family. His son is Howard Milstein.

Backstory

Milstein's father Morris started a Bronx flooring company in 1919, and Paul and his older brother Seymour both began their careers working for the family business. The company, Circle Floor, was responsible for laying the floors at such landmarks as Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center, the World Trade Center, and the United Nations. Paul and Seymour later expanded the business by branching out into ceilings, before turning to real estate development in the '60s. Over the course of three decades, with Paul acting as the brash wheeler-dealer and Seymour the quiet diplomat, the duo constructed Liberty Court, One Lincoln Plaza, the Claridge House, the Dorchester Towers, and the 29-story Bank of America Plaza at 335 Madison. They also acquired property, such as the 1,300-plus room Milford Plaza Hotel, and dabbled in the real estate brokerage business, purchasing Douglas Elliman in 1989 before selling it for $85 million to Andrew Farkas's Insignia in 1999.

Of note

The Milsteins eventually controlled about 3 million square feet of office space and 8,000 apartments in the city, as well as the Emigrant Savings Bank. And for the first 70 or so years of their lives, Paul and Seymour had a harmonious business and personal relationship. But beginning in the'90s, the family was torn apart by bitter accusations, a conflict fueled, observers say, by the brothers' failure to come up with a plan of succession. Paul's son, Howard, and Seymour's son, Philip—who were onetime tennis partners—began battling over the family's assets; the feud later intensified after Seymour accused Howard of being a megalomaniac while Paul accused Philip of being incompetent.

Relations reached a nadir in 2001 when the Seymour branch of the family (Seymour, Philip, and Connie) sued Paul's progeny (Paul, Howard, and Edward) over the proposed sale of the Milford Plaza Hotel. Seymour died the same year, and in 2003 the warring sides reached a peace treaty of sorts: Emigrant was purchased by Paul and his children, and the family's real estate holdings were divided into two parts.

Keeping score

In 2008 Forbes pegged the Milstein family's worth at $5.0 billion.

Pet causes

Like most billionaire real estate moguls, Milstein has forked over a good deal of money to various New York institutions over the years. As such, you'll find the Irma and Paul Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life at the Natural History Museum ($15 million), where a life-sized blue whale famously hangs; the Milstein Hospital Building at Columbia Presbyterian ($25 million); and the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia Business School ($5 million). Other beneficiaries include Cornell (they gave $10 million in 1994) and the New York Public Library.

Personal

Paul has four children with his wife, Irma: Howard Milstein (the former owner of the New York Islanders), Edward Milstein, Roslyn Meyer, and Barbara Zalaznick. Paul and Irma live in Scarsdale.