Sarah Korein

Sarah Korein, who acquired some of the choicest real estate in Manhattan through bare-knuckle tactics cloaked by grandmotherly charm, died in November 1998 at the North Division of Beth Israel Medical Center. She was 93 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was congestive heart failure, said her daughter, Elysabeth Kleinhans, a lawyer who manages the real estate business with other family members. At her death, her properties -- either land alone or both land and building -- included Lever House, the modernist landmark at 390 Park Avenue, between 53d and 54th Streets; the old Equitable Building, 120 Broadway, between Cedar and Pine Streets, a tower so gargantuan that it inspired New York's first zoning law in 1916, and One Penn Plaza on Seventh Avenue, between 33d and 34th Streets, the fifth-largest office building in the city. She also owned the Delmonico Hotel, 502 Park Avenue, at 59th Street; the Swiss Center, 606 Fifth Avenue, at 49th Street, and two apartment towers on Central Park South, Nos. 220 and 240, overlooking Columbus Circle. The family will not estimate the size and value of her portfolio, and not only because owners are customarily loath to disclose such things (tax assessors read the newspapers). Rather, Mrs. Korein held a variety of positions with any number of partners, making it difficult to apportion her share. Whatever the bottom line, there was no question that she was wealthy and tough -- a ''great realtor,'' in the words of Leona Helmsley, perhaps the only figure to whom she might immediately be likened. Sarah Rabinowitz was born in Germany and reared in Palestine, where she met Isidor Korein, a Hungarian engineer who arrived there after World War I. They married and immigrated to the United States in 1923. In 1931, for $6,000, the Koreins bought a six-story apartment house in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn -- not as an investment but so that family members would have a place to live rent free. After WWII and against her husband's wishes, Mrs. Korein pursued investment in Manhattan, beginning with 715 Park Avenue, an apartment building on the southeast corner of 70th Street. In time, she advised Francis Cardinal Spellman, the Archbishop of New York, on real estate, her children said. Besides her children Elysabeth Kleinhans and Dr. Julius Korein, both of Manhattan, Mrs. Korein is survived by her sister, Esther Kessler of Naples, Fla.; four grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.