Above and Beyond

I CAN DO THAT!

With White Plains, New York, as one of his most recent sites, Louis Cappelli successfully builds just about anywhere he sets his eyes on.

BY J. LOUISE LARSON

WHEN Louis Cappelli looks at a vacant urban core or broken city hub, he doesn’t see what most people see. In a few short years, Donald Trump’s most recent partner has almost single-handedly transformed the skyline along the Long Island Sound with plans for some of the tallest structures between New York and Boston. “I’m shocked nobody else did it—the other guys were asleep at the switch,” he says. “I pay attention. When I drive my car in a city, I’m not just gazing out the front of the car daydreaming, I’m looking at what’s there. If I see something and I like it, I come back and figure out how I could do that.”

Cappelli can sum up his view of the aging landscape of downtown White Plains in one word: “Jewel.” A former shopping mecca, downtown White Plains had the highest vacancy rate in the world. The nail in the coffin was when the first suburban storefront in the Macy’s chain left for mall land, leaving a windowless white elephant and a gaping vacancy the size of a city block.

As president and owner of the Valhalla, New York-based Cappelli Enterprises Inc. and subsidiary companies, Cappelli—a Notre Dame engineering grad who cut his teeth on the contracting business working with his father—saw downtown White Plains as a diamond in the rough. “It really was, in retrospect, not the gigantic risk everyone was talking about, because the infrastructure and ‘location, location, location’ were there,” he says. “Westchester County is virtually the richest county on the planet, so you also had great demographics. It’s 32 minutes to Grand Central Station.”

Today, Cappelli Enterprises is being hailed as the catalyst for billions of dollars in Westchester County development between 2000 to 2010. That includes City Center at White Plains, a $320 million, 1,100,000-square-foot retail complex with two adjoining 35-story residential towers. Currently under construction is Renaissance Square, a $400 million, 890,000-square-foot project, which will combine a Ritz-Carlton hotel, condo-hotel suites, luxury homes, office space and retail space in two glass-enclosed towers.

Also in the mix are collaborations with Donald Trump, including Trump Tower at City Center, the first luxury high-rise residential tower in Westchester County. The duo also has a project— Trump Plaza—in the works, in nearby New Rochelle.

Capelli’s friend for more than a decade, Trump introduced Cappelli to his wife, the former TV and film actress Kylie Travis, now a talented designer who also helps with the extensive charity efforts of the Louis R. Cappelli Foundation for at-risk youth. His children also are active in the family business, including Bryan, his son from his first marriage, who works on the project approval side, and his daughter Caroline.

Bill Mooney, president of the Westchester County Association, the largest business owner membership organization in the area, sings Cappelli’s praises. “In concert with the mayor, he’s done a magnificent job remapping that whole city,” Mooney says. “He’s a real visionary. In my judgment he sees things different from the rest of us. He’s relentless; he sees something we don’t see, and he makes it come alive. Most of us are dreamers; he gets it done.”

If you ask Cappelli how to achieve business success, he’ll tell you to think less about what you want. “Walk into negotiations with a completely open mind, with a goal of getting something accomplished,” he says. “Listen to everyone, then try to figure a way to compromise.”

THE ART OF NEGOTIATION

• KNOW WHAT THE OTHER PARTY WANTS

A developer with a neighboring project was planning to put up a tower that would rival a Cappelli project. The solution? He got the neighbor to promise not to go above a specified height in exchange for a choice piece of land. “Have an idea of what is troubling the other side before you go into a place. Know what the other side’s major hang-up is, what the other side needs or is looking for,” he says.

• CREATE CONSENSUS

Look for ways for everyone at the table to get something they want. “You walk away from every negotiation after you’ve made a deal and pretty much everyone got something out of it that they want—otherwise there’d be litigation and a judge would decide,” he says.

• BE CREDIBLE

The deal with Donald Trump to build a tower in White Plains was forged over a golf game. Cappelli’s key to getting others to buy in? “I think I’m credible. I’ve been fortunate to be successful, and people know when we undertake something, it’s usually well thought out, with a good chance of success.”