Neil Shekhter, a prominent Los Angeles landlord who founded WS Communities and NMS Properties, died on Saturday, Nov. 23, according to a statement from his family.
“Neil filled our lives and the lives of everyone around him with love, humor, curiosity and never-ending energy,” a statement from Shekhter’s family read.
The family was not available for further comment and the cause of death is unknown. A representative from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said there is currently no record of Shekhter’s death.
Shekhter, who was in his early 60s, emigrated to the U.S. from the former Soviet Union in his teens. He went from being a taxi driver to heading companies that had a total portfolio of 2,400 apartments throughout Los Angeles County. He entered the United States as a refugee, fleeing antisemitism in what is now Ukraine. He started thinking of a career in real estate while working at a Los Angeles store owned by two Holocaust survivors.
“They told me that they owned an apartment building and that the building provided a nice source of income for them. That was my first thought about being in real estate,” he said in a Real Deal interview from 2020.
Shekhter founded NMS in 1988 and focused on acquiring and improving poorly performing multifamily assets. In 2017, his three sons, Alan, Alexander and Adam Shekhter, founded affiliate company WS Communities.
At its peak, Shekhter’s portfolio included land in Santa Monica that fetched more than $18 million an acre from investment firm Tishman Speyer. His financial fortunes had changed course recently. Earlier this year, WS Communities surrendered control of more than half of its portfolio to lenders.