Webb and Knapp was a

real estate development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw Real Estate, land and the sale of developed land or parcels ...

firm. The company is most famous for developing the

Roosevelt Airfield Roosevelt Field is a former airport, located east-southeast of Mineola, Long Island, New York. Originally called the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome, or sometimes Hempstead Plains field or the Garden City Aerodrome, it was a training field (Hazel ...

, which was the launching site of the

transatlantic flight A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Central America, or South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing air ...

s of

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

and

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...

. It was also the firm at which famed architect

I. M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

first worked, from 1948 to 1956.

History

The company was founded in 1922 by Robert C. Knapp and W. Seward Webb.

William Zeckendorf William Zeckendorf Sr. (June 30, 1905 – September 30, 1976) was a prominent American real estate developer. Through his development company Webb and Knapp — for which he began working in 1938 and which he purchased in 1949 — he developed a ...

joined the firm in 1938 and acquired it in 1949. In the 1960s, the company filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

protection and Roosevelt Airfield was sold to

Corporate Property Investors Corporate Property Investors was a real estate investment trust that built several notable shopping centers, including Lenox Square in Atlanta, the Burlington Mall in Massachusetts, and Roosevelt Field Mall in New York. History CPI was founded in ...

. The company at that time had total assets of about $21,500,00 and total liabilities of about $60 million, plus contingent tax liabilities of $29,400,000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webb And Knapp Real estate companies of the United States Defunct real estate companies of the United States