13. Scott Rechler

His presence in any deal adds automatic cache. Rechler had already gained prominence in the development community at the helm of family-owned Reckson Associates. Then he broke with the family business to develop RexCorp, which is now RXR and is mostly known locally for the Lighthouse Development Corporation. Whatever the corporate name of the day is, he is clearly the heavy in any room on Long Island. If the economy and the real estate business weren’t tough enough, Rechler has come up against perhaps his greatest foe: inertia. Big ideas on LI encounter big opposition. The true test of his power will be whether he is able to get any of the massive smart growth development projects to come to fruition. But this is precisely his source of power… if he can’t do it, we’re doomed.