Brodsky Organization's Nathan Brodsky dies.

Nathan "Jon" Brodsky, founder of the Brodsky Organization, whose deeply engrained work ethic helped him carve a niche for his family in the market, passed away July 27, at 89 years old.

Drawing inspiration from English families who held onto leaseholds for properties for centuries, Brodsky fulfilled his biggest hope for his business, simply by keeping it in the family. The Brodsky Organization--which is now run by several generations of Brodsky's, including his son Daniel Brodsky and his grandchildren J. Dean Amro and Alexander Brodsky.

"Anytime we sold a property, my father would be upset," said his son Daniel Brodsky. "The idea of continuity was very important to him. The business was his way of ensuring that his family would always be taken care of, not just now, but that was his way of taking care of future generations as well."

The Brodsky Organization now manages over 50 buildings, containing about 7,000 apartments, in Manhattan. These include West End Towers containing 1000 apartments and the South Park Towers containing 500 apartments.

A child of the Great Depression, Brodsky modeled himself after his own father, Morris Brodsky, an immigrant and tailor from Odessa, Russia while growing up in one of the boarding houses his father owned in Hells Kitchen.

Shoveling coal and cleaning apartments taught him the modest practices that would define him in later years, when he chose to continue to create middle income housing, rather than concentrating primarily on high end ultra luxury properties, like many of his peers.

After serving in the Armed Forces during World War II, Brodsky returned to New York and married Shirley, whom he had met a few years earlier at a Peace rally. They were married for 68 years. Together they had 2 children, 6 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.

Brodsky held tight to his business roots as well. Though the landmarked buildings he first purchased in the West Village during the 1940's and 1950's were just a fraction of his later portfolio, he had a particular affection for them. He first secured these buildings with self liquidating mortgages, and often spoke of how much pride he felt each time he brought the balance of each properties mortgage down to zero and the building became what he referred to as "depression proof." Throughout the later part of his career he still visited these buildings on a weekly basis, and often when long term tenants moved out, to assess remodeling needs.

He loved that neighborhood and spent much of his free time down there, strolling the streets with Shirley.

Brodsky's groundbreaking work converting old residential hotels built just before the depression that were on the verge of bankruptcy into contemporary apartments in the late 1970's helped him create a new niche in the market. The Brodsky Organization still manages these buildings--the Croyden, the Fifth Avenue Hotel, the Beaux Arts, and the Alamac--which contain 2,300 apartments.

West End Towers were among the five buildings the Brodsky Organization built that defined a new way of doing business.

The buildings were built during the recession of the early 1990's when the housing market was in a slump, by pushing for changes in the 80/20 Tax-Exempt Finance Program that extended tax abatement rates and allowed for the rebounding of these projects in the city.

80/20 projects give tax breaks for developers who rent 20 percent of their buildings at rates below market value.

He was an avid cello player and enthusiast. Though he was only about 40-years-old when he first picked up the instrument, he was deeply committed to playing. Shirley was a pianist and together they held weekly recitals at their house.

Brodsky was the President of the Center Symphony, an amateur orchestra, and participated in concerts at a Lexington Avenue church.

His foundation purchased instruments for low-income school children, and he endowed a seat in the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center that cellist Qiang Tu currently occupies.