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Who

Futterman's name is in the window of virtually every empty storefront in the city. His company, Robert K. Futterman & Associates, is the largest independent retail agency in New York.

Backstory

A University of Maryland dropout, Futterman enjoyed a brief career as an ice cream man in Zuma Beach, California before moving to New York and joining retail-leasing firm Garrick-Aug in 1983. Starting out as a $250/week canvasser (translation: he walked the streets looking for empty storefronts), he quickly became a top producer, vying with then-colleague Faith Hope Consolo for No. 1 position. After building his rep—and serving as the go-to retail agent to Donald Trump and other real estate barons—in 1998 Futterman hung out his own shingle. Although his company started out tiny, it's grown considerably and now boasts 75 brokers in its New York office alone, with a growing presence in the Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Miami markets. His main competitors are Jeff Winick's Winick Realty Group and Bruce Sinder's Sinvin realty, as well as the retail brokerages at conglomerates CBRE, Cushman and Wakefield, Newmark Knight Frank, and Prudential Douglas Elliman, which is run by Faith Hope Consolo.

Of note

When a national chain is looking for primo New York real estate to sell their wares, Futterman is often one of the first people they call. His firm has repped Diesel, Barnes & Noble, Sephora, H&M, the Gap, Trader Joe's, Bed Bath & Beyond, and French Connection. Plenty of big developers have tapped Futterman to fill their storefronts, too: Over the years, Futterman has hunted down tenants for the likes of Gary Barnett, Edward Minskoff, Paul Milstein, Steve Witkoff, Harry Macklowe, Steve Roth, Joseph Sitt, Jerry Speyer, Aby Rosen, Louis Dubin, and Bruce Ratner. His standout deals include leasing all the retail space at the renovated Grand Central Station and brokering the deal to place Apple in its glass-cubed flagship store on Fifth Avenue. But his biggest project in recent years was leasing all 347,000-square-feet of retail space at the Time Warner Center, bringing in tenants like Williams Sonoma, Hugo Boss, and Whole Foods on behalf of co-developers Stephen Ross and Bill Mack. These days, Futterman's busy working on behalf of Miki Naftali and Elad to lease the 160,000 square feet of retail space in the renovated Plaza Hotel.

Upcoming

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has hired Futterman to serve as a consultant on the estimated 500,000-square-feet of retail space planned for the new World Trade Center; that he was chosen to consult on the project suggests Futterman might also get to lease the space once it's actually complete. He's looking to expand his business overseas these days, too, particularly to construction-crazed Dubai.

True story

Spookily, Futterman is New York's second real estate kingpin named Robert Futterman. The first one—to whom Futterman isn't even related—choked to death on a piece of meat in 1961. The living Futterman uses his middle initial, K, to distinguish himself from the dead one.

Personal

The divorced Futterman paid $3.15 million for a three-bedroom, three-bath condo in West 15 Street's Porter House in April 2006. (The seller was Us Weekly editor Janice Min.) He also owns a house in Greenwich and an apartment in the Chelsea Mercantile building.