Newsday from New York, New York • 34

Phone items to (212) 251-6800 Fax (212) 696-0487 MANHATTAN NEIGHBORHOODS Faces of Abe Hirschfeld Visionary 'sees beyond the horizon' By Molly Gordy STAFF WRITER million to $500 million. And his trendy Vertical Club, more than a decade after opening, is still one of the city's hottest health clubs. "Abe Hirschfeld has an unpolished mind, but it's a brilliant mind," says Ziporah, his wife of 48 years. "He sees beyond the horizon." He also makes powerful enemies. In 1986, Gov.

Mario Cuomo spent imposing sums of money and fought a bitter court battle to get Hirschfeld thrown off the ballot for lieutenant governor, saying, "I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving the state if Abe Hirschfeld were lieutenant governor." Then-Mayor Edward I. Koch seconded that emotion with: "I wouldn't feel comfortable if Mario Cuomo left the room!" In 1976, Hirschfeld Hanging out with Abe Hirschfeld is like inhaling second-hand smoke from an opium pipe. Hour by hour, it gets harder and harder to distinguish reality from fantasy. The 73-year-old multimillionaire moved back to Manhattan this fall after five years in Miami Beach, where he garnered only 1,600 votes for mayor and recently was forced to liquidate his beachfront Castle Hotel at a $20-million loss. A certain licking of wounds would seem to be in order.

But, no! Theatrical producer Abe discloses he is in "serious, heavy negotiations" to bring a revival of the '60s musical "Hair" to Broadway, and introduce an unprecedented ninth performance each week exclusively for schoolchildren. Real estate developer Abe is announcing his proposal to move the United Nations across town to a site five times larger along the Hudson River. Coincidentally, he owns a 20 percent interest in the site. And political visionary Abe (his favorite role) is putting the finishing touches on two detailed plans: One would upgrade the subway system while lowering the fare, and the other would eradicate the drug the city, the nation and the world, with 100 percent guaranteed success!" His ideas may seem outlandish. But some of his longshots have become wildly successful.

This sparsely educated Polish-Israeli immigrant has singlehandedly built an empire out of parking garages that have been valued at anywhere from $100 million to $500 million. he notes that every other man at the benefit where he debuted the jacket last month wore traditional black-tie. "You had to pay $5,000 to be there," he says, chortling, "and I was the only one not dressed like the waiters!" Abe in his hotel facing Pennsylvania Station, explaining how he got his start in business running a factory in British Palestine. Coated in a foreign accent thick as fur, it sounds like he says he made "cars" for land mines. After three fruitless repetitions, he gives up and spells the unpronounceable word.

It's "parts." "You should take my he says, unabashed. What does he teach? "Broken English!" in his Fifth Avenue Newsday Richard Lee Abe Hirschfeld imitates art as he stands in front of a drawing of himself. spat in the face of state Democratic feld of corruption. leader Manley Steingut for refusing "When people say to back him for U.S. Senate.

tive things about Abe Last year, he spat in the face of doesn't bother me, Miami Herald reporter Bonnie Wes- don't know Abe ton because he disliked the paper's says. "I know Abe coverage of his feud with Miami a good man. He's not Beach officials. a And in 1977, he locked Dorothy She pauses. Green, a New York City environmen- seem as if he's lying." tal official, in his office and threat- "But it's the way he ened, screaming, to keep her hostage until she issued one of his parking garages a clean-air permit.

She sued him for lawful imprisonment, CLOSEUP and they settled out of court. Hirschfeld neither disputes nor repents any of this, noting only that a less honest man, in similar circumstances, might have tried to bribe Green. She has confirmed that he didn't. And there is no record, in a long, feisty and publicity-hungry career, of anyone accusing Hirsch- apartment overlooking Wollman skating rink, which people think of unofficially Trump skating rink, after the oper who renovated it. Present company thinks of the Hirschfeld rink, since, he fides, it was really his idea to get Donald to rescue it for the city as his new renovated office apartment buildings have handedly revitalized 1.

Lower or write negaHirschfeld, it because they Hirschfeld," Ziporah Hirschfeld. "He's a thief. He's not hattan 2. Jackson Heights, Queens, Her claim is borne 3. Union City, N.J., 4.

Miami Beach out by extended expo- and. well, you get the picture. sure. A recent afternoon "People dislike Abe Hirschfeld bespent falling through cause they are jealous of Abe Hirschthe Hirschfeld looking feld," Ziporah says with a shrug. "Sometimes it may Another pause.

really sees the glass included: Abe in his real estate development office, showing off the flowercovered tuxedo that, as one gossip column recently sniped, "makes him look like a "Did you read that nice compliment about me?" he asks, beaming. Without a trace of embarrassment, "When something doesn't turn out well for him, he turns right around and does something else As always, she refers to him by both his names kind of like the Eiffel Tower. That Parisian landmark, once reviled as an architectural eyesore, has made an indelible if gaudy mark on the landscape, and is made of cast iron. Newsday Richard Lee "Hirschfeld invades the romantic scene of the boy and girl sculpture in his Fifth Avenue apartment. the many as the develit as conThe just and singleMan- MIN XHOA AVOSMEN 'AVOSUNHL FEBRUARY.