The Real Deal’s June 2022 issue is live for subscribers and slated to hit your doorstep early this month.
Our cover story profiles enigmatic developer Joseph Chetrit. Hailing from Casablanca, the Chetrit Group founder has “a penchant for megadeals,” but not for media coverage. Chetrit does not do interviews, but this month, a family member spoke with TRD contributor (and “The New Kings of New York” author) Adam Piore about the man the New York Observer called “the most mysterious bigshot in New York real estate.”
Chetrit may prefer to “deal in the shadows” out of modesty, but he’s got his own ways of letting you know he means business. The man from Morocco, who once rode a motorcycle painted like an American flag, has no problem pulling up his checking account balance on his phone to show sellers he’s serious. In the early days, the Chetrit family bought buildings the way folks buy furniture: cold-calling virtual strangers and telling them they’d like to buy insert-building-here, then showing up to their office unannounced to follow up.
If the Silicon Valley way is to “move fast and break things,” then the Chetrit way is “move fast, but not too loud.” Our profile digs into the quiet persistence, radical candor and deftly deployed “charm and chutzpah” that has made Joseph Chetrit the elusive success he is today.
Across the country, we also have businessman, philanthropist, and Los Angeles Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff, who sat with TRD reporter Isabella Farr for an in-depth Q&A. Soboroff got his start in real estate out of sheer necessity in 1966, when a crazy college roommate left him with no choice but to sublease his dorm because he “had to get the hell out of there.” Soboroff dishes on everything from “boring” developers to his vision for L.A. and the playground head injury that got him into politics.
This month’s issue also includes the first installment of our special summer coverage on the Hamptons. Thanks to helicopters, pickleball courts, and the ever-surging cost of living, rich East Hamptonites are fed up and priced out. North Fork locals have similar complaints as outside investors inject millions into the once-sleepy enclave.
Inventory exceeding demand isn’t driving prices up just in the Hamptons — read about America’s “emerging trade-up gap” that has the previously red-hot residential sector showing signs of slowing, a trend that could spell consequences for any industry exposed to the housing market. Could 3D-printed homes, like the ones being manufactured in Texas, help solve the nation’s housing shortage?
Find out about all this and more in our first summer issue of 2022. Stay cool, subscribe today and read the new issue here.