 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(September 2024) |
Steve Witkoff | |
|---|---|
 Witkoff speaking at a White House Opioids Summit in 2018 | |
| Born | Steven Charles Witkoff March 15, 1957 New York City, U.S. |
| Education | Hofstra University (BA, JD) |
| Known for | Founder of the Witkoff Group |
| Spouse | Lauren Rappoport |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | witkoff |
Steven Charles Witkoff (born March 15, 1957) [1] is an American real estate investor, landlord, and founder of the Witkoff Group.
Witkoff was born to a Jewish family in the Bronx and raised in Baldwin Harbor, New York [2] and Old Westbury, New York, [3] the son of Martin and Lois Witkoff. His father was a manufacturer of ladies' coats in New York City. [1] [4] He earned a J.D. from Hofstra University. After school he worked for the real estate law firm Dreyer & Traub, where one of his clients was Donald Trump. [2]
In 1985, he partnered with fellow Dreyer & Traub attorney Laurence Gluck and founded Stellar Management (the name Stellar is derived from Steve and Larry) and purchased cheap buildings in Washington Heights, Manhattan. [2] [5] He accumulated a small portfolio of buildings and in 1995, he expanded into lower Manhattan, buying several cheap office buildings. [2] In 1996, he was able to secure financing from Credit Suisse First Boston for the purchase of 33 Maiden Lane, a 27-story tower designed by Philip Johnson. A close relationship with Credit Suisse First Boston soon developed and Witkoff was able to purchase additional properties—typically using very little of his own money—including the landmark News Building. [2]
In 1998, he and partner Rubin Schron purchased the Woolworth Building for $137.5 million, [1] and he expanded his portfolio to include real estate purchases in Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia. In 1998, the planned IPO of his company was canceled due to the collapse of the real estate market, and Witkoff and Gluck dissolved their partnership with Gluck taking the residential properties and Witkoff the office buildings. Witkoff founded the Witkoff Group and expanded into residential construction and rehab. [2]
In April 2019, Witkoff announced that the Drew's opening would be pushed back to the second quarter of 2022 to allow more certainty about his construction project. The property was previously scheduled to open in late 2020. [6] which planned to open it as The Drew Las Vegas in 2022. However, construction stopped in March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nevada. In February 2021, Soffer bought back the project through his company Fontainebleau Development, with Koch Real Estate Investments as a partner. Soffer reinstated the original name of the project, with construction resuming in November 2021. The project was developed at a cost of $3.7 billion, making it the second most-expensive resort in Las Vegas. The Fontainebleau opened on December 13, 2023, and includes a 173,000 sq ft (16,100 m2; 4.0 acres) casino and 3,644 hotel rooms.
In July 2024, Witkoff gave a speech on night four of the Republican National Convention. In his speech, he spoke about his close friendship with former U.S. President Donald Trump. [7]
On September 15, 2024, Witkoff was playing golf with Trump at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when a suspected assassination on Trump was attempted. Secret Service officers fired at the gunman, who fled the scene in a vehicle and was later apprehended in Martin County, Florida. [8]
Witkoff lives on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. [1] In 1987, he married Lauren Rappoport. [4] They have three sons. [1] In 2011, their son Andrew died of an OxyContin overdose at the now-closed Sunset Plaza Drive sober living facility in California. [9]
The Woolworth Building is a 792-foot-tall (241 m) residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1929, and remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the United States as of 2024.
The New York Observer was a weekly newspaper established in 1987. In 2016, it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper Observer. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainment and publishing industries.
George H. Ross is a former executive vice president and senior counsel of the Trump Organization. He is perhaps best known as one of Donald Trump's two advisors on the NBC reality television program The Apprentice, along with Carolyn Kepcher. On the program, Ross monitored the progress of the contestants and assisted Trump in determining who should be "fired".
The Trump Organization is an American privately-owned conglomerate owned by Donald Trump. It serves as the holding company for all of Trump's business ventures and investments, with around 250 of its affiliates and subsidiaries using the Trump name. Donald Trump joined the organization in 1968, began leading it in 1971, renamed it around 1973, and handed off its leadership to his children in 2017 after he won the 2016 United States presidential election.
The Fontainebleau Miami Beach, also known as Fontainebleau Hotel, is a hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Designed by Morris Lapidus, the luxury hotel opened in 1954. In 2007, the Fontainebleau Hotel was ranked ninety-third in the American Institute of Architects list of "America's Favorite Architecture". On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter ranked the Fontainebleau first on its list of "Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places".
The Fontainebleau Las Vegas is a resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Fontainebleau Development and is a sister property to Fontainebleau Miami Beach, and sits on the 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) site previously occupied by the El Rancho Hotel and Casino and the Algiers Hotel. Ownership and development has changed several times since the project was announced in May 2005. It was originally proposed by developer Fontainebleau Resorts, owned by Jeff Soffer.
The Toy Center, also known as the International Toy Center, is a complex of buildings in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York City, that for many years was a hub for toy manufacturers and distributors in the United States. It includes two buildings located between 23rd Street and 25th Street across from Madison Square, where Fifth Avenue and Broadway cross. The American International Toy Fair, the industry's major annual trade show, is held annually in February at both the Toy Center and the Javits Center on 34th Street. The building also serves as the corporate headquarters of luxury retailer Tiffany & Co.
Sharif El-Gamal is an American real estate developer. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of Soho Properties, a Manhattan-based real estate company. El-Gamal came to international attention in 2010 for his role in the development of Park51, a planned Islamic community center and prayer space to be located about two blocks away from the World Trade Center site.
Soho Properties is an American, New York City-based real estate investment and development firm. It was founded by Sharif El-Gamal in 2003.
Arthur George Cohen was an American businessman and real estate developer in New York City.
Gary Barnett is an American businessman. He is the president and founder of Extell Development Company, a real estate development firm involved in residential, commercial and hospitality properties, including several high-profile buildings in Manhattan, New York.
Rubin "Rubie" Schron is a New York City real estate investor, philanthropist, 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.
The Park Lane Hotel is a luxury hotel at 36 Central Park South, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Constructed in 1971, the hotel was designed by Emery Roth & Sons for real estate developer Harry Helmsley. The hotel operates under the ownership of Steve Witkoff's real estate investment firm, the Witkoff Group. A supertall skyscraper has been planned for the site, though that has been placed on hold.
Laurence Gluck was an American businessman, investor, and lawyer. He was based in New York who was the founder of the real estate company Stellar Management.
Donald Soffer is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is a real estate developer who developed Florida swampland into what was to become the city of Aventura, Florida.
Donald Trump began his career as a businessman at his father's real estate company, Trump Management, which he later renamed the Trump Organization. He expanded its business to Manhattan, where his father's financial and political backing enabled him to do his first deals, demolishing and renovating landmark buildings. After overextending himself and narrowly escaping personal bankruptcy in the late 1990s, Trump entered various businesses that did not require capital funding, including licensing his name to lodging and golf course enterprises around the world. Building on his public persona in the New York tabloid press, he later starred in the reality TV show The Apprentice.
The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire is a 2000 biographical book written by Gwenda Blair, an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, about three generations of the Trump family, starting with Friedrich Trump (1869–1918) who immigrated to the United States in 1885 from Kingdom of Bavaria, then Fred Trump (1905–1999), and finally Donald Trump. It was first published by Simon & Schuster in 2000 and reprinted in 2015 with a new title, The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President and a new preface.
520 Fifth Avenue is a mixed-use supertall building under construction at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building occupies the former site of three structures. Rabina is developing the building, and architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox designed the structure and serves as architect of record. The interior design is by Charles & Co.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
