Michael Stern

Michael Stern not only is building what will be the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere when it is completed, but he is turning the construction industry on its head in the process. The Long Island native's 60-foot-wide, more than quarter-mile-high Steinway Tower on West 57th Street is just the latest of his projects that observers said couldn't be done--in this case because he is planning to use nonunion labor on the complex job. "We are always trying to push the envelope," said Mr. Stern, a father of two young children. Case in point: A few years ago, his idea to clad part of the wildly successful Chelsea Art Deco conversion Walker Tower in decorative metal was so out-there that he couldn't find a manufacturer up to the job. He ended up doing it in-house, and made a pretty penny from it. Mr. Stern started his real estate firm, JDS Development, in 2002 after cutting his teeth as a project manager in Miami. The company now has $3 billion worth of projects in its 2015 pipeline.