David Werner (real estate investor)

Last updated
David Werner
Born1953or1954(age 69–70)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationReal estate investor
Known forFounder of David Werner Real Estate

David Werner (born c. 1953) is an American real estate investor and founder of David Werner Real Estate.

Contents

Biography

Werner was born to an Orthodox Jewish family, the son of Holocaust survivors, and raised in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. [1]

Werner started his career as an accountant and then began to invest in real estate with partners from his community in Brooklyn. [1] After bidding on a building that was being sold by the estate of real estate investor Sylvan Lawrence, he found out that he had the right to seek a price reduction but instead committed to the transaction as he had given his word. [1] In 1997, he was rewarded for his integrity by Lawrence's heirs who gave him first rights to a portfolio of four buildings which Werner purchased for $387.5 million and sold his interest for a $7.5 million profit. [1] As one of the buildings (111 Eighth Avenue) was later sold to Google for $1.8 billion, Werner changed his investment strategy and started holding a higher interest (typically 10%) for a longer period. [1] Werner is considered a real estate syndicator following the model pioneered by Harry Helmsley meaning that he makes a bid for a property putting down a large nonrefundable cash down payment and then goes to his investor network to raise the additional money to close the transaction and secure a fee. [2] From 2000 to 2014, Werner purchased $10.6 billion in real estate including the 2003 purchase of 11 Madison Avenue for $673 million. [1] In 2012, Werner partnered with Brooklyn real estate investor Joel Schreiber and purchased One Court Square for $481 million in Long Island City, Queens from Stephen L. Green's SL Green and JPMorgan Asset Management. [3] In 2014, with $2.4 billion in purchases, he was the single largest purchaser of real estate in New York City [1] which included the $1.5 billion purchase of 5 Times Square from Allan V. Rose's AVR Realty and the $900 million purchase of the Socony–Mobil Building from Hiro Real Estate. [2] His long time investment partner is Mark Karasick who will own and manage the property while Werner earns a transaction fee and maintains his minority interest. [1] In 2019, he acquired a 30% interest in 237 Park Avenue from Scott Rechler's RXR Realty and Walton Street Capital. [4] In 2023, Werner acquired The Bridge at Collegeville, a 1.9 million SF office and life-science campus in Collegeville, PA. [5] He subsequently renewed the anchor tenant Dow for a 15-year term in what was described as the largest lease in the Philadelphia market in over a decade. [6]

Personal life

Werner lives in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn with his wife. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackstone Inc.</span> American alternative investment company

Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate across the globe. Blackstone is also active in credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, secondaries, growth equity, and insurance solutions. As of May 2024, Blackstone has more than US$1 trillion in total assets under management, making it the largest alternative investment firm globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GGP Inc.</span> U.S. real estate company

GGP Inc. was an American commercial real estate company and the second-largest shopping mall operator in the United States. It was founded by brothers Martin, Matthew and Maurice Bucksbaum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1954, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, from 2000. It was subject to the largest real estate bankruptcy in American history at the time of its filing in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vornado Realty Trust</span> American real estate investment trust

Vornado Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust formed in Maryland in 1982, with its primary office in New York City. The company invests in office buildings and street retail in Manhattan.

Stephen Barry Siegel is the Chairman of Global Brokerage at CBRE, the world's largest commercial real estate services company.

SL Green Realty Corp. is a real estate investment trust that primarily invests in office buildings and shopping centers in New York City. As of December 31, 2019, the company owned 43 properties comprising 14,438,964 square feet, and is reported to be "New York City’s largest office landlord".

Adam C. Hochfelder is an American real estate executive who co-founded the real estate firm Max Capital in 1996, with members of the powerful Kalikow real estate family. At its peak, Max Capital had ownership or management stakes in 8,000,000 square feet (740,000 m2) of space, including the Helmsley Building and the Conde Nast Building. His portfolio was valued at as much as $2.7 billion at its peak. Some of the nation's largest institutions invested side by side with Hochfelder including JP Morgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Fidelity. He bought out N. Richard Kalikow from his partnership because of a soured relationship in 2002. Hochfelder paid Kalikow $35 million, of which $18 million was Hochfelder's own money, and he borrowed $17 million from banks to help finance the buyout of Kalikow. Some of the loans were collateralized in a manner inconsistent with reporting regulations. Hochfelder voluntarily paid back all of the money to complete the transaction. Due to NYS regulations, he was obligated to serve 14 months in a NYS program. Hochfelder is known as the "Wharton Whiz Kid" for his ability to financially structure and acquire some of NYC's largest properties which helped him generate multimillion-dollar deals. Currently, Hochfelder is the Managing Director of Real Estate Acquisitions & Development at Merchants Hospitality.

Liquid Realty Partners was a private equity real estate firm that invested indirectly in commercial property by acquiring interests in existing real estate funds, partnerships, joint ventures, separate accounts, unit trusts and other private investment vehicles in the private equity secondary market.

Rubin "Rubie" Schron is a New York City real estate investor, philanthropist, Torah scholar, and the founder of Cammeby's International Group. In 2013, Schron made an unsuccessful offer to buy the Empire State Building for $2 billion. In 2003, an investment group led by Schron paid $705.6 million for a portfolio of about 6,000 outer-borough apartments from Donald Trump. Schron, who practices Orthodox Judaism, has eight children and 50 grandchildren. He and his family reside in Brooklyn.

Steven Roth is an American real estate investor, the founder and chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, the largest commercial landlord in New York City. He is also co-founder and managing general partner of Interstate Properties, and chairman and chief executive officer of Alexander's.

Joseph Chetrit is an American real estate investor and developer and founder of the Chetrit Group.

Jeff Sutton is an American billionaire real estate developer and the founder of Wharton Properties. In December 2023, his net worth was estimated at $2.3 billion by Forbes.

Jeffrey Feil is a New York-based real estate developer and president and CEO of The Feil Organization.

David Bistricer is a New York-based real estate developer and the founder and principal of Clipper Equity. His firm focuses on the conversion of non-residential buildings to residential uses. One of Bistricer's latest ventures, in partnership with Chetrit Group, is the transformation of the shuttered four-building Cabrini Medical Center at 220 and 230 East 20th Street and 215 and 225 East 19th Street into a residential a condo project, Gramercy Square, with 223 units. The Woods Bagot-designed development features a different style for each property: a modern, a prewar, a boutique and a tower building. It also has about 38,000 square feet of amenities including a 75' sky-lit pool, a gym, a theater, a meditation room exclusively programmed by MNDFL and a wine cellar. And there's ample green space with a courtyard, a greenhouse and landscaping around the buildings.

Charles Ben Dayan is an American real estate developer, the founder of Bonjour Capital and co-founder of Bonjour Jeans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">32 Old Slip</span> Office skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

32 Old Slip, also known as One Financial Square, is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Completed in 1987, the building has 36 floors and stands at 575 ft 0 in (175.26 m). 32 Old Slip was designed by the firm of Edward Durell Stone Associates for developer Howard Ronson and his firm HRO International. It is home to various office tenants, including a Convene convention center and the New York Regional Office of the United States Census Bureau. The ground floor houses the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Engine Company 4 and Ladder Company 15.

RXR Realty is a vertically integrated real estate and infrastructure owner, investor, operator, and developer headquartered in New York City. The firm’s portfolio of commercial, residential, multifamily, infrastructure, and logistics projects includes 91 commercial real estate properties and investments held across the country as of 2023. RXR is a privately held company that employs around 450 professionals with experience in operations, real estate development, construction, investment, and asset management.

Welltower Inc. is a real estate investment trust that invests in healthcare infrastructure. It is ranked 583rd on the Fortune 500. As of December 31, 2022, the company had investments in approximately 3,000 properties, all of which were in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CIM Group</span>

CIM Group invests in commercial property on behalf of large institutions such as pensions. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned $29.2 billion worth of commercial property.

Joel Schreiber is a British-born American real estate developer, investor, and founder of Waterbridge Capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5 Times Square</span> Office skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

5 Times Square is a 38-story office skyscraper at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located on the western sidewalk of Seventh Avenue between 41st and 42nd Street, the building measures 575 feet (175 m) tall. The building was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) and developed by Boston Properties for Ernst & Young (EY). The site is owned by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, though David Werner and RXR Realty have a long-term leasehold on the building.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Levitt, David M. (November 10, 2014). "T-Shirt-Toting Brooklynite Is NYC's Top Property Buyer". Bloomberg News . Werner, 60, is a religious man who almost never gives interviews. His determination to keep a low profile is derived from the Jewish notion of "ein hora," literally "evil eye" in Yiddish, according to two people close to him
  2. 1 2 Geiger, Daniel (June 23, 2014). "One-man buying machine bids unrefusable prices". Crain's New York Business .
  3. ↑ Putzier, Konrad (December 1, 2017). "The story of WeWork's mysterious first investor". The Real Deal.
  4. ↑ Bockmann, Rich (January 23, 2019). "RXR and Walton Street Capital near deal to sell 237 Park Ave stake to David Werner". The Real Deal .
  5. ↑ Cunningham, Cathy (August 16, 2023). "Starwood, BMO Lend $95M on David Werner's Pfizer Life Sciences Campus Acquisition". Commercial Observer.
  6. ↑ Heschmeyer, Mark (January 16, 2024). "Dow Signs What May Be Philadelphia Market's Largest Office Lease in More Than a Decade". CoStar.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.