After receiving his
J.D. degree, Jeffries began his career as a lawyer in the
Southfield, Michigan, law firm of Keywell & Rosenfeld.
General Atlantic Jeffries met Philip Aarons, who was chairing the New York City Public Development Corporation at that time and the two worked on housing developments in Staten Island. Throughout the 1980s, he and Aarons constructed subsidized low-income housing in
Manhattan and
Brooklyn. Jeffries then stepped in to take over the project, but his superiors at
General Atlantic thought the deal was infeasible. As a result, Jeffries and Aarons departed
General Atlantic and were given the right to proceed with their transaction from the company. Jeffries and Aarons, joined by Philip Lovett, started their own real estate firm, Millennium Partners, in 1990.
Millennium Partners Millennium won the backing of
Goldman Sachs and
American Broadcasting Company offered them a $13 million reduction in the $105 million purchase price for the land. Eager to keep the deal alive, Jeffries came up with $1 million of his own money to secure the agreement. By 1991, he secured financial commitments from
Sony (whose space later was sold to
Loews Theater),
LA Fitness,
Gap Inc.,
United States Postal Service, as well as
J.P. Morgan & Co. as future tenants of
Millennium Tower. Those protests later helped set new zoning laws in the district. According to
Michael Gross, author of
House of Outrageous Fortune, the children of real estate developer
William Zeckendorf later used Jeffries' pioneering formula in developing
15 Central Park West as their family was investors in the
Millennium Tower as well. Among the cities is
San Francisco, where he developed the
Millennium Tower, controversial for its sinking foundations and tilting problems, and
Four Seasons Hotel, San Francisco. In addition to the under construction
Winthrop Center, he has helped develop
Millennium Tower,
Millennium Place, and owned the historic
Ritz-Carlton Hotel in
Boston. In Miami, he spearheaded the development of the
Four Seasons Hotel Miami, which was the tallest building in the city from 2003 to 2017. In Washington, DC, he helped the development of
The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C. as well as
The Ritz-Carlton, Georgetown. Through Millennium Partners, he owns the
Hotel St. Moritz, which he developed into The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, as well as condominiums and led to a turnaround of its status, attracting prominent tenants such as
Jean-Marie Messier,
Sidney Kimmel,
Larry Ellison, and
Mitchell Rales. Jeffries' condo in the building, purchased in 2002, was the highest-priced in the New York real estate market when it was sold in 2012. == Philanthropy ==