Real estate developer M. Chasanoff, 78, dies

Longtime real estate developer Michael Chasanoff was best known for constructing a complex of buildings in Jericho known as the "boat buildings" in the late 1970s that were considered the largest in Nassau County at the time.

He was a visionary, said his son, Stephen Chasanoff of Manhattan, realizing that during that time, when Long Island was coming loose from the grips of a recession, there was a need for more prominent and luxurious suburban office space.

"They were first-class office buildings," said Stephen Chasanoff, "known as the premier office space in the last few decades."

Michael Chasanoff, of Centre Island, died Friday of cancer. He was 78.

Chasanoff and his brother, Allan Chasanoff of Manhattan, started the firm Chasanoff Properties in the late '60s, beginning with single-family homes. The brothers soon moved to commercial building development.

In 1978, the firm unveiled its biggest and most successful project, One and Two Jericho Plaza, a 650,000-square-foot complex with an unusual architectural design - a mirrored wall resembling a ship's bow. It featured restaurants and fitness clubs, which were not common in office buildings on Long Island at the time, he said.

Son of the late Hanna and Harris Chasanoff, Michael Chasanoff grew up in Far Rockaway, and graduated from Yale University. In 1955, he married Judith Perlberg, a Smith College graduate. The couple raised three children in Hewlett, where they lived for 30 years. The couple then moved to Centre Island, where the avid sailor loved to fish and cruise in Oyster Bay Harbor.

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Chasanoff was also a standardbred and thoroughbred horse owner, including one that won Trotter of the Year in 1979 from the U.S. Trotting Association, said his son.

Chasanoff sat on numerous boards, most notably as a commissioner for the Port Authority for the past 10 years after his appointment by Gov. George Pataki.

In the late 1970s, Chasanoff was a volunteer baseball coach at Lawrence-Woodmere Academy, where his sons attended school for about five years, said Stephen Chasanoff.

But his biggest commitment was to family and friendships, said his son. "He was a wonderful father and grandfather," Stephen Chasanoff said. "And a generous friend and adviser to many, many people."

In addition to his wife and son, Chasanoff is survived by his two other children, Nancy Butler of Laurel Hollow and Robert Chasanoff of Locust Valley, and six grandchildren.

A funeral will be held at 11:45 a.m. Monday at Riverside Memorial Chapel, 180 W. 76 St., Manhattan. The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, contributions be sent to the Mount Sinai Medical Center of New York.