Content area
Full Text
Last summer, Francis Greenburger and his partner became the doubles tennis champs at their Westhampton tennis club, beating out a team that included a top-ranked player.
"I just hit balls all through the downturn," says the developer. "It kept me sane."
The down years also had their effect on his real estate game. One of the largest co-op converters of the Eighties, Mr. Greenburger went bust when the business collapsed. But now, the 47-year-old chairman of Time Equities Inc. is back.
Once again, he's riding the trend du jour in residential real estate. This time around, that means converting lagging downtown office buildings to residential use.
Over the past year, Mr. Greenburger and his partners have spent some $20 million snapping up four downtown properties for conversion to roughly 100 apartments. While far-larger projects by Rockrose Development Corp., Crescent Heights Investments and World Wide Holdings representing thousands of apartments are just getting under way, Mr. Greenburger already has rented 16 units in his first two projects: 47 West St. and 56 Beaver St., the site of the famed Delmonico's restaurant.
"It's one of those times," Mr. Greeburger says, "when things are as good as you think they are."
But in the scramble for downtown projects, Mr. Greenburger still lacks a large, recognizable conversion. And as prices...