A Bid for Superpower

With the possible exception of fine food, there is nothing that William Zeckendorf likes better than fine property. As boss and only stockholder of Manhattan's Webb & Knapp, Inc., he controls a gross $100 million in real estate. Through Webb & Knapp, 250-lb. Bill Zeckendorf has such varied holdings as 50,000 square feet on San Francisco's fashionable Nob Hill, a huge tract in Los Angeles, a jail in Boise, Idaho, Denver's Courthouse Square and sizable holdings in Manhattan. No deal is too big for Zeckendorf; it was he who assembled the land for the present site of the United Nations in Manhattan, and sold it to John D. Rockefeller Jr. at a $2,000,000 profit (TIME, Dec. 23, 1946).

New Boss. Last week Bill Zeckendorf announced one of the most complicated deals in his spectacular career. "It may sound quixotic at first," said he, "but it makes sense." The deal is with American Superpower Corp., a small investment trust specializing in utility stocks. Under it--subject to approval by Superpower's stockholders and the SEC--Zeckendorf will swap all his Webb & Knapp stock for 60% voting control in Superpower. He will get nearly 12,000,000 shares of common (some of it still to be issued) with a par value of 10-c-, plus a million shares of new junior preferred with a par value of $25--all of which he figures to be worth about $37 million. Webb & Knapp will either merge with Superpower or remain as a subsidiary--and Bill Zeckendorf will run the new company.

Through the deal, Zeckendorf will get control of a big chunk of new capital. Since Superpower is traded on the New York Curb Exchange, the new corporation (which will probably be called Webb & Knapp Corp.) will be in a better position to raise more capital, and Zeckendorf's own stock will be more marketable. The new corporation might sell its utility holdings and concentrate on real estate.

New Ideas. Bill Zeckendorf has plenty of grandiose schemes to keep the company busy. On his Los Angeles site, which he bought for $3,000,000, he envisions a huge shopping and residential center; his Boise jail will be replaced by a store building; for San Francisco's Nob Hill, he has plans for a $2,500,000 modernistic apartment house; for Manhattan's Herald Square, next door to Macy's and Gimbels, he plans a $5,000,000 shopping center with the biggest Woolworth store in the U.S.

When & if any of these plans will be completed is another matter. Many of Zeckendorf's big dreams (e.g., a 144-block airport in mid-Manhattan, a $50 million super-shopping center on Long Island) have never left the drawing boards; building restrictions are now cramping his style. But Zeckendorf hopes to start at least the Manhattan shopping center soon. A few years ago, Zeckendorf used to say: "I like to make grapefruit out of lemons." Since then, his ideas have expanded somewhat. Says he nowadays: "I like to make bananas out of peanuts."

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