Inner voice leads Mann to success in his field.

Twenty-four years ago, Maurice Mann made his first foray into Manhattan real estate when he purchased a building he said "spoke" to him.

He paid $86,000 for 241 Central Park North in what was then a gritty, depressed neighborhood of cinderblock buildings and run-down stores. Today, it's the proud owner of the swanky moniker, Manhattan Valley, and is the final frontier for luxury city real estate as spiraling prices still make it cheaper than the Lower Upper West Side.

After some initial hard work--Mann was "down in the boiler rooms myself some days," he turned the building around and today its tenants are proud to call it home.

241 CPN has also turned into a tidy investment for Mann, who has gone on to amass a half-billion dollar portfolio of real estate assets that his company, Mann Realty Associates owns, develops and manages.

"Buildings talk to me," Mann said. "When I look at a building, it says 'Buy me.' It might need a lot of money, but if it feels right to me, I'm going to turn it around and, in a few years, it'll do terrific."

"That's where I get the pleasure [in my work], in seeing the creativity and seeing a building that's been neglected and being able to give it a new life--it's a wonderful feeling. You are benefiting the tenants, increasing housing stock, fulfilling some civic obligations, not just being hard-nosed about the bottom line."

Indeed, Mann's creativity in turning around distressed properties has earned him the recognition of the Real Estate Board of New York, which honored him with its Most Ingenious Deal of the Year award in 2000.

He was given the award in recognition of his work on a 46-story luxury apartment building at 38th Street and Sixth Avenue, built just two years after a devastating fire destroyed two neighboring buildings, leaving the tenants homeless.

He was instrumental in vacating 30 commercial tenants for the developer and he and an associate broker spearheaded the development of the high rise.

Mann recalled, "We assembled a couple of buildings adjacent to the site of the fire and relocated the commercial tenants, purchased the air rights to adjoining buildings and created a unique situation where the partner who owned the buildings went in on a joint venture arrangement with a developer who built buildings.

"The way we put the deal together, how it was structured, and the fact that we did in two years what would normally take five or six, was what was recognized [by REBNY].

"I am very myopic--let's get it done. As long as my instincts tell me it's going to land on its feet, I keep moving."

Indeed, he has been moving at a steady pace since turning his back on his original, and highly successful, career path.

Mann launched a surgical hair replacement company after graduating with an MBA from Harvard Business School.

"I had a surgical hair replacement company which, within two years, grew from two to 50 employees. After 15 years, I decided it was time to pursue my dream. I had always loved architecture, construction and design and felt that real estate covered every factor of the business, from negotiations to finance to design, construction, psychology and marketing."

"That's what makes it so fascinating--there's not a day goes by that I don't continue to learn something new about this industry."

He attended classes at NYU to get his brokers license and took property management classes as he built up his business.

In the booming 80s, he sought out other investors and bought buildings in Manhattan and Washington Heights, all the time increasing his bottom line and growing his staff. Mann Realty was also involved in several major community housing projects, including the total renovation of buildings in partnership with the Community Preservation Corp. in Harlem's Sugar Hill.

The firm built a reputation for recapturing rent-regulated apartments. In one case where a 30-unit building was believed to house illegal tenants, Mann recaptured a total of 21 apartments, increasing the rent roll from $120,000 to $750,000.

Once a property is recaptured, Mann prides himself in completing top class renovations.

"We go in and gut renovate and reconfigure the layouts of apartments in accordance with today's needs. I walk through and see how I would want to live, what I would like to see in this apartment."

Although now in a position to enjoy more spare time at his homes in Manhattan, East Hampton and Florida, Mann's passion for the trade has him juggling philanthropic commitments with such organizations as Direct Effect, an AIDS group, arranging speaking engagements at trade events and a trying to fit in a teaching position at NYU.

But as long as the city's buildings continue to speak to him, Mann intends to continue to grow his business.

"In 24 years, I only had one building that I ever lost. It was in the Bronx, an area I don't know well. I didn't want to invest, but the size of the building caught my emotions. It was 900 rsf and looked like a diamond in the rough.

"It turned out to be a piece of glass. It took two years and cost me $1 million, but the day I sold it, I went out to celebrate. I felt that even that was an accomplishment, to get rid of it. I was feeding the building a lot of money, but there was no way the income was going to cover the expenses."

While the mistake proved costly, Mann's less aggressive investment tactics saved him from a bigger fall.

He predicts some may suffer if the current overheated market experiences a setback, but isn't too concerned about a downturn in the market.

"As long as you are not over-leveraged and have decent long-term mortgages with fixed rates, you will ride it out and it will all come back higher, as it has shown historically.

"Other investments are volatile, but you have to trust the brick--if you don't, you shouldn't be in this business."