Who

Rose is the head of real estate development firm the Georgetown Group, a longtime supporter of the arts, and Mr. Candice Bergen.

Backstory

Native New Yorker Rose started his career as a lawyer and accountant before building his real estate reputation as the president of Arlen Realty and Development in the early '70s. (Concurrently, he also ran the company's Korvette discount store subsidiary.) In 1977 he left to found his own firm, the Georgetown Group, which eventually took control of some five million square feet of commercial and residential properties around the country, including 141 Fifth and 880 Broadway here in New York, by the '80s. (At the time Georgetown was just as famous for a project it failed to build: a new Madison Square Garden.)

By the early '90s, Rose had parlayed his real estate fortune into influence on the city's philanthropic circuit. Named chairman of the New York Public Library in 1990, he oversaw a renovation of the Main Reading Room, a rehabilitation of the Fifth Avenue building, and the redevelopment of Bryant Park. In 1995, he relinquished his seat to care for his then-terminally ill first-wife; he returned to the scene in 2000 when he was named chairman of the Lincoln Center redevelopment project. He held the position for just a year before resigning abruptly in October 2001, frustrated with the fractious squabbling that was holding up the project. (He left on particularly acrimonious terms with the notoriously difficult Joe Volpe, then the director of the Metropolitan Opera.) Rose continues to run the Georgetown Group, although he's substantially less prolific than he used to be. His only major project in recent years was the development of a Frank Gehry-designed headquarters for Barry Diller's IAC on the western edge of Chelsea.

Personal

Rose and Candice Bergen tied the knot in 2000, several years after both had lost their previous spouses to cancer. Marshall had two kids, Wendi and Andrew, with his first wife Jill. These days Rose and Bergen live at 1040 Fifth Avenue. Rose also owns a cottage-style home on Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton and an estate in Los Angeles.

Family ties

Rose originally had nothing to do with rival real estate firm Rose Associates. But the two families were tied together in 1996 when Marshall's daughter, Wendi Rose, married Daniel Rose's son, Joseph Rose. Complicating things even further, Joseph joined his father-in-law as a partner at the Georgetown Group in 2002.