"King for Corners"

In "New York's Architectural Holdouts" (Dover Publications, 1996), architect and historian Andrew Alpern and developer Seymour Durst (known for the National Debt Clock, among other things) describe the type of "holdouts" they've encountered:

"Most pathetic is the frightened holdout. The woman who has lived in the same place for fifty years and is panicked by the idea of being uprooted ... the successful restaurateur who is afraid of failure at a new location ...

Then there is the greedy holdout who thinks that every developer controls a purse of unlimited depth and that no price is too high to demand. This rapaciousness is likely to kill a project, or it may leave this owner's property high and dry while development goes on all around.

There is a very small group of real estate people who are professional holdouts. One of the first was Alfred King, who bought small corner buildings on blocks he felt were ripe for development. ...While his price would be high, he didn't haggle. His price was firm, and if you were willing to pay it, you go the deed. He was known as "King for Corners", and he would occasionally paint his name of the side of his buildings by way of advertising.

Finally there is the foolish holdout. Motivated by spite, by a need to defy anyone in a position of ... authority ... or by sheer cussedness, this sort of holdout is perhaps the most difficult to deal with because he cannot be reached with reason." [from pg. 1]