The deadly shooting in a Midtown skyscraper on Monday evening dealt an especially painful blow to New York City’s commercial real estate community.
Two of the four victims worked in real estate: Wesley Lepatner, the 43-year-old CEO of a large Blackstone real estate fund, and Julia Hyman, a young associate at Rudin Management, a commercial landlord that owns the tower where the shooting took place.
The setting — a notable skyscraper along Park Avenue — also hit close to home. As a premier office building in one of the top office districts in the nation, the site of the violence has raised unsettling questions among real estate professionals about how to better protect tenants. While no one can fully defend against someone bent on violence (Monday’s gunman appeared prepared to die), conversations are already underway in an industry now mourning two of its own.
Dispatches From The Front 