‘He was virtually New York’s indispensable man’
John Zuccotti was deputy mayor, realty CEO
John Zuccotti, a former New York City deputy mayor and chairman of global operations for Brookfield Asset Management Inc. who oversaw landmark Manhattan properties including the World Financial Center, has died. He was 78.
He died Nov. 19, said Ashley Baldev, a spokeswoman at the New York law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. No other details were provided. He lived in Brooklyn, New York.
In a career spanning more than five decades, Zuccotti held key leadership positions in commercial real estate and New York City government, according to a biography provided by Baldev. He oversaw the World Financial Center development in Lower Manhattan from 1990 to 1997 as CEO of the U.S. unit of Torontobased Olympia & York.
Zuccotti also served as first deputy mayor under Mayor Abraham Beame from 1975 through 1977. After serving on the city planning commission for two years, Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed him chairman of the panel in 1973.
“No one has rushed to more municipal fires in this time of crisis than John Zuccotti,” the New York Times said in a June 1977 editorial. “As first deputy mayor, he was virtually New York’s indispensable man.”
Three years later, Zuccotti was described in a Times article as “a formidable behind-the-scenes figure in the world of the city’s power elite.”
“John left an indelible mark on our city.
WILLIAM C. RUDIN CEO OF RUDIN MANAGEMENT CO.
A public square owned by Brookfield Property Partners LP, a division of Toronto-based Brookfield, across from the unit’s 1 Liberty Plaza tower in Lower Manhattan, was named for Zuccotti. Brookfield is Canada’s largest alternative investment company.
“John left an indelible mark on our city,” William C. Rudin, CEO of Rudin Management Co., a family-owned New York property company, said in an emailed statement. “He will be remembered as one of New York City’s greats.”
The U.S. arm of Olympia & York emerged from bankruptcy in 1996 as World Financial Properties Inc., controlled by Brookfield Properties Corp. of Toronto, today’s Brookfield Property Partners. Brookfield renamed the World Financial Center as Brookfield Place.
John Eugene Zuccotti was born June 23, 1937, in Manhattan to Angelo and Gemma Zuccotti. He graduated from Princeton University in New Jersey in 1959 and received his law degree from Yale University in New Haven, Conn., in 1963.
Zuccotti and his wife, the former Susan Sessions, had three children and eight grandchildren.