The origins of Tishman Construction Corporation are not unlike the humble beginnings of many small businesses started by European immigrants in the late 19th Century. And while it’s not unheard of to still see some of those businesses in existence today, you’d be hard-pressed to find one of them that has remained family-owned while making as big an impact on the New York region as Julius Tishman & Sons.
Started in 1898, three years after Julius Tishman moved his family from Poland to New York, the business was borne out of a desire he had to work for himself, rather than executing someone else’s vision. Having worked for three years as an employee at a Lower East Side mercantile, Julius scraped together enough money to buy the tenement building in which he lived with his family. He shortly began acquiring residential properties along the Hudson River and soon he had the ability to renovate and lease and finance them on his own.