Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Being honored by the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty on a beautiful August day is important enough to pull one’s children out of camp in East Hampton.
That was the conclusion of a principal of a real estate development firm, the Atlantic Development Group, Peter Fine, who yesterday received the council’s Man of the Year award in the presence of his three children, Sarah, 11, Robby, 8, and Katie, 6, as well as his wife, Elizabeth (who bore the responsibility of rounding up the brood for the day), and his mother, Betty.
Mr. Fine’s getting the award was also important enough to draw dozens of politicians to Tavern on the Green, including the presidents of the Bronx and Brooklyn, Adolfo Carrión and Marty Markowitz, respectively; the Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver; and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who represents parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Mr. Fine, who grew up in public housing in Queens and whose father was a cab driver, worked in social services at the Metropolitan Council before going into real estate. His company, which he founded in 1996 with Marc Altheim, whom he had met while working at the council, has built more than 50 apartment houses with affordable units. This fall, the company starts construction on a project for Boricua College on 161st Street and Third Avenue in the Bronx.
Mr. Fine’s responsibilities in the community include serving on the board of the UJA-Federation of New York, the Educational Alliance, the Hispanic Federation, and the Rodeph Sholom School.
Mr. Altheim served as the chairman of the event, and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo gave the keynote speech.
“Today’s lunch is not your garden variety fund-raising event. There’s a unique undertone in the room that speaks to Peter’s munificence and the way we do business,’ Mr. Altheim said.
Mr. Cuomo noted the harmony between the council’s objective to help the poor and Mr. Fine’s personal and professional goals.
“This is who he is, where he comes from, what he believes in, and what he has done all his life,” Mr. Cuomo said of the honoree.
The chairwoman of the Metropolitan Council summed up the sentiment in the room. “Peter is always doing the right thing,” Merryl Tisch said.
Among those who helped honor Mr. Fine were the executive director of the Boro Park Jewish Community Council, Yichiel Kaufman, and its chairman, Yussi Rieder; a senior vice president of the Battery Park City Authority, Wilson Kimball; the executive director of Nash Family Foundation, Judith Ginsberg; the chief of staff for Mr. Silver, Judy Rapfogel, who is also the wife of the Metropolitan Council’s executive director, William Rapfogel; the commissioner of the community affairs unit in the mayor’soffice, Nazli Parvizi, and Mrs. Tisch’s mother, Sylvia Hiat.
