Ian Michael Klein, now Head of Development at Rabina, wanted to work in the real estate industry right from the start. His father, a commercial real estate broker, initially only partially understood Klein's inclination towards architecture, as he primarily reduced this field to square metres. For Klein, however, architecture represented a much broader discipline.
After studying architecture at Cornell University in 2005, the 43-year-old aimed to enter real estate development. He admits that his initial understanding of it was somewhat naive. "I tried to get a job in real estate development, but nobody wanted to hire me," he reported. "I approached developers, and they said, 'Well, you're an architect,' and I replied, 'No, I'm a real estate professional,' to which they said, 'This paper says you're an architect.' So, it took a while for me to get into development." Finally, Klein found a position with a small architectural firm that also engaged in real estate development, which introduced him to the business side of the industry.
Major Projects in New York City
In 2010, after completing his master's degree in Architecture and Urban Design at Harvard University, Klein worked as a Senior Project Manager at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) under the Bloomberg administration. There, he was part of a team that structured public-private transactions across the city. His role was to help the administration decide which projects should be built in specific areas and to find suitable developers for them.
During his time at the NYCEDC, Klein was involved in several major projects. These included a new office building for the United Nations, created by restructuring leases on city land, the transformation of the area next to Citi Field in Willets Point, and the relocation of the Fulton Fish Market from Lower Manhattan to Hunts Point in the Bronx. He describes this period as a profoundly New York experience, as 80 percent of his team consisted of native New Yorkers. "You work on large-scale, transformative projects in the city you grew up in, and all by definition are very complex transactions, as anything the city touches is complex and large scale."
Challenges of Existing Building Developments
In 2012, Klein moved to Macklowe Properties to work for the renowned developer Harry Macklowe. He seized this opportunity with full commitment. While the core team at Macklowe worked on the ultra-luxury residential skyscraper 432 Park Avenue on Billionaires’ Row, Klein managed all other projects. He was heavily involved in operational implementation, which proved to be extremely valuable. He commends the company for its ethos, work ethic, and commitment to quality and processes, and Harry Macklowe himself as exceptionally intelligent.
Two of Klein’s projects at Macklowe were condominium conversions — 737 Park Avenue and 150 East 72nd Street. He described these as "notoriously difficult" due to working with older, existing buildings and their infrastructure, as well as tenant issues. "It challenges you daily to react to new circumstances and conditions," Klein explained. "You discover things during the process and operate a building while you are renovating it. You have to consider every single inch of the space, unlike a new build where every structural element is exactly where you want it to be."
The costs of conversion projects pose another challenge. "When you do a condominium conversion, you're buying a very, very expensive property, and you're paying interest on the entire amount from day one," said Klein. "Typically, in a new build, the land is not as expensive as the construction, so interest increases as you spend money on construction. In condo conversions, the land and the existing building are typically far more expensive than the improvements, and you're borrowing money on that from day one. So, you have virtually no pre-construction period, and it's very expensive." Miscalculations in costs can represent an enormous risk for such projects.
Klein now brings the insights gained at Macklowe and from these projects to his position at Rabina, where he is responsible for all of the company's development activities and project execution. Mickey Rabina, founder and chairman of Rabina, expressed his appreciation for Klein’s versatile abilities: "Ian is an unusual mix of talents. He possesses excellent design taste and vision, is detail-oriented, can manage the complexity of building a super-tall skyscraper, and has good business acumen. Rarely have I seen such a pronounced talent for both the right and left brain in one person."
