Who

Adell heads up Adellco, a major real estate developer in Chelsea.

Backstory

More than 30 years ago, Adell's father Leonard Adell—a tailor turned real estate investor—started buying up parcels in the flower district, a warehouse-filled stretch of the West 20s that had historically housed wholesale flower businesses, manufacturing plants, and little else. For two decades, Adell and his father repeatedly petitioned the city to rezone the grim industrial neighborhood as residential. In 1995, they finally got their wish: The city changed the zoning status of 5 million square feet on 6th Avenue between 23rd Street and 31st Street. Since then, Adell has been busily constructing residential towers in the neighborhood.

Of note

In 2001, Adell opened the doors of his first development, The Capitol, a mixed-use tower on West 26th with 255 rentals and ground-floor retail, built in conjunction with Steve Witkoff. (Before Adell and Witkoff got their hands on it, The Capitol was a decades-old racquet club.) He followed up with The Aston, a 267-unit, Costas Kondylis-designed building on Sixth Avenue and 27th Street—and then unloaded the property for a tidy $195 million in 2004. Most recently, he developed the Kondylis-designed Remy, a 32-story glass condo tower on West 28th Street. Adell is also working on a 340-unit rental building in Long Island City.

Board game

Adell is on the board of the red beret-donning Guardian Angels, the vigilante group founded by radio personality Curtis Sliwa.

Personal

Adell and his wife, Julie, live in Greenwich, not far from Adellco's headquarters. He also has a pied a terre at the Capitol.