Joseph Sitt

Sitt turned a clothing store for plus-sized Black women into a retail empire, and that retail empire into a real estate fortune.

Sitt, a lifelong Brooklynite, was born into a Syrian Jewish family on Coney Island. He founded womenswear brand Ashley Stewart in 1991, but sold his stake in 2000 to go all-in on real estate. 

Thor Equities, the real estate and global investment firm he founded in 1986, now has more than $20 billion in assets under management. That includes a portfolio of New York City retail locations, office buildings, hotels, and residential buildings and international holdings on famed streets like Paris’ Champs-Élysées and London’s Oxford Street. 

That doesn’t mean Sitt has batted 1.000. He’s taken losses on Madison Avenue. Lenders snatched back two SoHo retail properties in 2024, and Blackstone filed a foreclosure suit against another in 2025. 

The most stinging defeat was likely the one in his own backyard: Thor partnered with Saratoga Casino Holdings and the Chickasaw Nation on a bid for one of New York State’s three downstate casino licenses with grand plans of bringing a huge casino project to Coney Island. But the plans were vehemently opposed by locals, and the bid didn’t make it past committee approval.