Stellar Management

The founding partnership: two lawyers, one firm

Stellar Management began in 1985, when Laurence “Larry” Gluck and Steve Witkoff — two real-estate lawyers at the New York firm Dreyer & Traub — left the practice of law to buy and run property of their own (Bisnow). Gluck’s career had started in aviation litigation before he moved into real-estate law at Dreyer & Traub, where he met some of the industry’s prominent figures, including Peter Kalikow, Donald Zucker, and Donald Trump (Bisnow).

The partnership’s first moves were modest, scrappy New York deals. Gluck’s first acquisition was 540 Henry St. in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood; after he and Witkoff bought and flipped 915 Post Ave. in Inwood, the pair formally founded Stellar and acquired 156 William St. in Manhattan’s Financial District for $5.5 million (Bisnow).

The 1997 split: office versus residential

Twelve years in, the partners divided the firm along asset-class lines. Witkoff and Gluck dissolved their partnership in 1997, when Witkoff began to focus more heavily on office properties and Gluck on multifamily housing (Bisnow). Witkoff took the office buildings and founded his own firm, the Witkoff Group, while Gluck kept the residential portfolio under the Stellar Management name and ran it himself for the next three decades (The Real Deal).

The split defined the firm’s identity from then on. Under Gluck, Stellar grew into one of New York City’s largest owners of residential property while retaining a significant commercial footprint: at the time of Gluck’s death the firm held more than 1 million square feet of retail, 12,000 apartments, and 2 million square feet of office space across 100 buildings, with another 1 million square feet of developments underway (Bisnow). The firm’s own website in 2026 put the current figure at more than 13,000 apartments and about 3 million square feet of office and retail space under management, primarily in New York City (Commercial Observer).

The portfolio’s signature properties

Three holdings show the range of what Gluck built after the split. The firm’s signature residential asset is the 695-unit luxury apartment building Yorkshire Towers on the Upper East Side (Bisnow). On the commercial side, Stellar owns the 170,000-square-foot office tower at 220 Fifth Ave. (Bisnow). And its crown jewel is the two-building One SoHo Square mixed-use property, which was valued at nearly $1.4 billion when Stellar refinanced the building’s mortgage for $900 million in 2021, according to Morningstar Credit data (Bisnow).

One SoHo Square has a detailed paper trail. Stellar acquired the property in 2012 for $200 million before spending $268 million on renovations of the prewar buildings, including the installation of a 19-story glass elevator tower between them (The Real Deal).

Controversies under Gluck

Stellar’s growth was not without friction with tenants and regulators. The firm “has been at the center of controversy over the last 15 years, facing accusations of illegally deregulating rent-stabilized units and buying Mitchell-Lama properties to profit when affordability periods expired,” as The Real Deal reported, via Bisnow’s obituary coverage (Bisnow).

The 2024 succession and 2026 debt stress

Gluck was diagnosed with ALS in 2013 and ran the firm through the illness for more than a decade; he died in June 2024 at age 71, 11 years after the diagnosis (The Real Deal; Bisnow). He was survived by his wife, Sandra, and his three daughters, Amanda, Dana, and Heather (Bisnow).

For nearly 40 years the company had been run by Gluck, who founded the firm in 1985, and after his death Sandra Gluck — along with eldest daughter Amanda — oversaw the firm’s investments, management, and operations (Commercial Observer). That family stewardship was a bridge to professional succession: in March 2026, Stellar named Matthew Lembo and Ryan Jackson as co-CEOs, succeeding Gluck (Commercial Observer). Lembo and Jackson had been the firm’s managing partners and worked there since 2008 and 2009, respectively, and were described by the company as having “played pivotal roles in shaping Stellar’s strategic direction” (Commercial Observer).

The new leadership inherited a balance sheet under pressure. In January 2026, shareholders of a $400 million mortgage backing the Columbus Square shopping center — co-owned with the Chetrit Organization, stretching from West 97th to West 100th Street on Columbus Avenue — filed a lawsuit seeking to foreclose after ownership began missing its monthly $1.9 million debt payments in August (The Real Deal). Ownership allegedly owes $370 million, including more than $7 million in interest and late charges; the 270,000-square-foot center is anchored by Whole Foods and Target, and the debt had already been in special servicing at least twice, including once in late 2023 after pandemic-era tenant distress (The Real Deal).

Then in September 2026, the $800 million mortgage on One SoHo Square was sent to special servicing at the landlord’s request, allowing Stellar to “explore a potential extension or other consensual modification,” according to Morningstar Credit Analytics data reported by Crain’s (The Real Deal). In the prior four years the vacancy rate at the 800,000-square-foot property had doubled to 14 percent, and cash flow was running well below projections (The Real Deal). One of the largest tenants, Flatiron Health — which occupies 28 percent of the property — may be positioning for an exit, already offering sublet space within its 225,000-square-foot holding (The Real Deal). Other tenants include Warby Parker, MAC Cosmetics, Aetna, and Trader Joe’s; another $120 million in mezzanine debt sits on the property, with the main mortgage still two years from coming due (The Real Deal).

One recent bright spot: Stellar sold, along with City Urban Realty, an apartment building at 260 Water Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn, to Hubb NYC Properties for $20.3 million (Commercial Observer).

What this profile does not claim

It does not assert the popular “Stellar” = “Ste”ve + “Lar”ry name-origin story, which appears only in encyclopedia leads without a citable independent source. It does not give early portfolio peak figures, Riverton Houses details, or the Mitchell-Lama purchase playbook beyond the deregulation accusations as reported, because those rest on lead-only material. It does not claim any resolution of the Columbus Square foreclosure suit or the One SoHo Square servicing — both are reported as snapshots from January and September 2026. It does not state current employee counts or assets under management, which no full-read source verified.