Sam Lefrak: Enjoying The Last Laugh

It's a little distracting. Disconcerting, even. Here's Sam LeFrak, looking for all the world like a reincarnation of W.C. Fields, proclaiming loudly why so many real estate developers bit the dust in the 1980s--the "Decade of Swine," as he calls it. And over his shoulder, grinning her toothy grin, is Barbra Streisand in life-size cutout. You've just been ushered into LeFrak's office through a doorway crowned with an enormous moose head ("Shot it right through the brain," LeFrak says). On the wall to the left you can't help noticing a framed set of gleaming shark's teeth. As the billionaire barks out opinion after opinion, you listen politely. But inside, a thought is gnawing at you: "How," you wonder, "can I take this guy seriously?"

It's hard not to. Samuel Jayson LeFrak, 74, has long been known as an eccentric blowhard who built an empire slapping up apartment buildings for the Joe Sixpack set. (It's estimated that 1 in every 16 New Yorkers lives in aLeFrak-built apartment.) But as one of the worst real estate slumps in history wipes out developers like a hurricane, the Lefrak Organization is holding its own. "Sam LeFrak is one of the few developers the banks will still lend money to," says Peter Cohen, a consultant to Republic National Bank of New York. Echoes Frank Lourenso, executive vice-president at Chemical Bank: "Sam's business is strong and very, very liquid."