The Real Deal New York

Ben Ashkenazy is the chief executive, chairman, and founder of Ashkenazy Acquisition, a New York City-based firm that invests in retail and office real estate and says it has a portfolio of over 100 buildings worth $7 billion in total.

Ashkenazy, who grew up in Lawrence, Long Island, founded his namesake firm in 1987. Ashkenazy focuses on the management operations side of the business, Ashkenazy President Michael Alpert told the New York Times in 2012.

The firm's portfolio now includes 660 Madison, which is occupied by the luxury department store Barneys New York, and many other retail condominiums in shopping districts throughout Manhattan. Ben's father, Izzy Ashkenazy, is a businessman also involved in real estate. Ben Ashkenazy made his first acquisition at 17, then continued investing and never made it to college.

He told the New York Daily News in 2001 he was attending night classes at Adelphi University, a private, nonsectarian university in Nassau County, and was six credits shy of graduating. Ashkenazy Acquisition also owns 656 Sixth Avenue, an erstwhile church that housed the Limelight nightclub.