The Real Deal’s July 2022 issue is live for subscribers and slated to hit your doorstep soon.
This month, we have a plethora of profiles perfect for beach reading — six of them, to be exact.
The TRD profile may be the pièce de résistance of our coverage, in terms of garnering both awards and page views, but more importantly offering both in-depth, comprehensive looks at the lives and histories behind the real estate industry’s household names.
Our cover story this month is on the storied but famously press-shy Ben Ashkenazy. He may have been born in Israel, but read his junior high yearbook and you’ll see a preteen who liked “girls, waterskiing, [and] MTV.”
What could be more American?
Well, perhaps the fact that the 12-year-old immigrant would grow up to become a billionaire with over 15 million square feet of real estate to his name.
Ashkenazy takes no prisoners. In 2018, he nearly doubled the rent on the beloved Barney’s on Madison Avenue, to which many attribute its closure. Now he’s embroiled in a three-way lawsuit involving the feds over Union Station in Washington, D.C.
The recent entanglement is just one of the many contentious moments in Ashkenazy’s career. But his success is largely owed to his aggressive, guns-blazing approach to investment and development, which you can read all about here.
Have you heard of Corinne Verdery? Most people hadn’t, at least until L.A. retail magnate and mayoral contender Rick Caruso tapped her as his heir apparent. A profile on Verdery looks at the relationship between Caruso and the “marvelously talented real estate executive” to whom, if elected, he plans to entrust his company.
Also in this month’s issue is a look at the companies who made lofty pledges to promote diversity and inclusion after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police. Just how much of an impact can anti-bias training courses and hiring initiatives make? Our story attempts to assess some of the progress.
On the data side, we have a ranking of the busiest bees in New York City development over the past year. It’s hard to stay busy, what with inflation and the rising costs of construction — and all that red tape doesn’t help. Read our story to find out which firms have filed plans for the most square footage across the five boroughs in the last 12 months.
The July issue ends with The Closing — this month, we sit down with Meredith Marshall. Marshall is a co-founder of BRP Companies, now one of the city’s biggest developers, and he opens up about his Caribbean heritage, sage advice from his father and the simple pleasure of donning a Yankees hat and just driving around town.
Subscribe today for access to all of these stories and more, and read the new issue here.