Kushner Companies value soars to $2.9b

Kushner Companies’ total worth has nearly tripled since 2016, following Donald Trump’s rise to power and Jared Kushner’s high-profile position in the White House.

The company has reached a valuation of $2.9 billion, up from a $1 billion worth eight years ago, Forbes reported. The company’s value has now outstripped that of Trump’s real estate empire, which is worth $2.2 billion.

While Jared Kushner served as a senior advisor to his father-in-law in Washington D.C., Kushner Companies was fighting battles on multiple fronts.

In Manhattan, they faced $1.2 billion in debt, coming due in 2019, on a 50.5 percent stake in 666 Fifth Avenue, a 41-story Midtown office building.

In New Jersey, the Kushner family’s home state, the company was forced to file a lawsuit against Jersey City and its Mayor, alleging that development on a luxury apartment complex in Journal Square had stalled out due to “political animus.”

The firm also faced possible investigations into the influence of Chinese and Qatari investors, which they forcefully denied.

Six years later, Kushner Companies has put those issues to bed. Investigations into international influence never got off the ground, and the firm has finished construction on one of its two 64-story towers in Jersey City. The firm sold a 99-year lease on 666 Fifth Avenue, now rebranded as 660 Fifth Avenue in 2018, resolving its debt issues.

The Kushners have also turned their attention to new deals. A 420-unit apartment building in Miami completed construction in October. Also this month, OpenAI agreed to pay $140 per square foot for half of the office space at the Kushner’s famed Puck Building in lower Manhattan, a huge jump from the $31 per square foot paid by previous tenant New York University, a person familiar with the lease told the outlet.

As a whole, the Kushner family’s net worth has jumped to an estimated $7.1 billion from $1.8 billion in 2016. The new sum includes Kushner Companies holdings and ownership stakes in eight personal properties worth at least $100 million, and Jared and younger brother Josh Kushner’s investment firms.

In addition to his 20 percent stake in the family firm, Jared Kushner owns Affinity Partners, a private equity firm backed by Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund and worth at least $900 million.

Thrive Capital, Josh Kushner’s venture capital firm, has an estimated valuation of $3.5 billion, thanks to early investments in Instagram, Spotify, and OpenAI. The youngest Kushner brother also owns a $40 million apartment in the Puck building, where OpenAI and Thrive are also headquartered, along with property in Miami and Malibu.

Charles Kushner and his wife Seryl own 20 percent of Kushner Companies, with the rest divided evenly among the couple’s four children, Jared, Josh, Dara and Nicole.

Since Nicole Kushner’s promotion to president of the company in 2021, the empire turned to investing heavily in the south, hedging its bets against interest rate hikes and financing much of its Southern acquisitions with government backed debt, taking advantage of fixed low interest rates from the pandemic.

The company is also making plays in South Florida, where Jared, Josh, and the elder Kushner’s have homes. Moralli and Kushner bought land when prices were lower and sold some off when prices surged for a profit. They have developed more than 500 luxury apartments in two buildings on the land it retained, partnering with local firms like Block Capital Group.

Whichever candidate emerges victorious in next week’s election, the family’s real estate fortunes are poised to keep rising, as rising rents and falling interest rates make it easier to sell off high value assets and more cost-effective to develop new properties.