Israeli Capital in New York Real Estate
The Israeli operators behind New York's Israeli-controlled real estate. Ofer, Tshuva, Barnett, Feldman, Sapir, Naftali, Gindi, Falic, Gottesman — and the deeper roster The Olam will profile.
Manhattan has been a magnet for Israeli capital for two decades. The single largest Israeli-origin owner of New York trophy real estate is Eyal Ofer's Global Holdings, whose portfolio includes 50 United Nations Plaza and significant Upper West Side residential anchored historically by 200 Riverside Boulevard. Behind Ofer sits a dense network of Israeli families that has reshaped how foreign capital enters New York property.
What follows is a roster, not an exhaustive profile of any single operator. The Olam will cover the major Israeli-controlled platforms in dedicated pieces.
Global Holdings — Eyal Ofer
Operates with a long-hold orientation and an explicit trophy-asset thesis. Portfolio has included 50 United Nations Plaza, Upper West Side residential anchored by 200 Riverside Boulevard, and participation in 15 Central Park West through related vehicles. Among the largest single private owners of Manhattan luxury residential.
Elad Group — Yitzhak Tshuva
Yitzhak Tshuva's 2004 purchase of the Plaza Hotel through Elad Properties, in partnership with Kingdom Holding of Saudi Arabia, at six hundred and seventy-five million dollars, was one of the defining hospitality transactions of the decade. The subsequent conversion to mixed-use became a template. Tshuva's later divestments have changed the platform's New York footprint but not its historical significance.
Extell Development — Gary Barnett
Gary Barnett, born David Tzvi Barnett, founded Extell Development Company after years operating in the Antwerp diamond trade and is one of the most prolific Israeli-American developers of Manhattan supertall towers. The One57 tower, the Central Park Tower at 217 West 57th Street completed in 2020 as one of the tallest residential buildings in the world, the International Gem Tower in the Diamond District, and a long pipeline of luxury and mixed-use Manhattan projects anchor the platform.
HFZ Capital Group — Ziel Feldman
Ziel Feldman, an Israeli-American developer, built HFZ Capital Group into one of the most active Manhattan development platforms across the 2010s, including the XI twin-tower High Line project. The platform has been restructured following financial pressure, but the historical footprint remains one of the most significant of the recent cycle.
Sapir Organization — Sapir family
Tamir Sapir, a Georgian-Israeli oil trader turned real estate developer, founded the Sapir Organization with anchor positions on lower Broadway and a 2006 partnership stake in the 11 Madison Avenue Credit Suisse tower. The platform has been continued by his son Alex Sapir, including high-end Miami development.
Naftali Group — Miki Naftali
Miki Naftali, the former Chief Executive of Elad Group during the Plaza Hotel era, founded the Naftali Group independently in 2011 and has built one of the most active Israeli-led platforms in Manhattan and Brooklyn residential development across the past decade.
Gindi family
Anchored in the Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn with deep operational and personal connections to Israel, the Gindi family operates Century 21 Stores and a major real estate platform including the One Wall Street conversion to luxury residential and significant downtown Manhattan holdings.
Falic family
The Falic family of Duty Free Americas operates a New York and Miami real estate platform alongside its core travel retail business. The family is also one of the most consistent funders of philanthropic and political activity connecting the United States to Israel.
Noam Gottesman and TOMS Capital
Noam Gottesman, born in Israel, co-founded GLG Partners in 1995 and sold it to Man Group in 2010 at approximately one point six billion dollars. He subsequently established TOMS Capital with active New York and London real estate and investment positions. Gottesman represents a meaningful and relatively quiet stream of Israeli-origin financial capital deployed into New York property.
The deeper roster
Several other Israeli-origin operators of meaningful Manhattan and Brooklyn footprint deserve dedicated coverage and will receive it. The Witkoff Group under Steven Witkoff; Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs at RFR Holding; the Boymelgreen platform built across multiple cycles; the Chera family at Crown Acquisitions and Trinity Place Holdings; Or Ariav and BLDG Management; the Lightstone Group under David Lichtenstein; the Tessler family at Tessler Developments; the Kushner Companies' overlap with Israeli capital partners; the Meridian Capital lending platform under Ralph Herzka; and a broader bench of Israeli-American developers active in Brooklyn ground-up development and outer-borough conversion work.
Each of the above will be profiled in subsequent Olam coverage. The platforms differ in scale, asset class focus and capital structure. The thread that runs through all of them is the same — Israeli origin or deep Israeli capital partnership, long-hold orientation, opportunistic posture during distressed cycles.
Adjacent Jewish-American operators
Several major New York Jewish real estate families operate independently of Israeli capital structures but transact constantly with Israeli investors and lenders. Joseph Chetrit and the Chetrit Group, Joseph Sitt at Thor Equities, Charles Cohen at Cohen Brothers Realty, Joseph Moinian at the Moinian Group, Larry Silverstein at Silverstein Properties, and the broader Sephardic and Persian Jewish real estate networks represent the operating ecosystem into which Israeli capital most often deploys. The boundary between the two pools is in practice porous.
Tel Aviv bond market financing
A defining feature of the Israeli presence in New York real estate over the past fifteen years has been the use of the Tel Aviv bond market as a financing channel. US real estate developers, many Jewish-American but operating outside any Israeli family structure, have issued shekel-denominated bonds against US property portfolios to take advantage of pricing differentials between New York and Tel Aviv credit markets. The structure has been controversial in cycles, particularly when defaults occurred. It has materially expanded the channels by which Israeli capital touches New York property well beyond direct ownership.
The current cycle
The post-2022 interest rate environment has reset valuations across New York commercial real estate. Israeli family capital, less leveraged than the typical US private equity sponsor and operating with longer horizons, is positioned as an opportunistic buyer in select asset classes — trophy residential, mixed-use, and stabilised multifamily in particular. The next round of acquisitions is being executed quietly. New York is, and is likely to remain, the single largest foreign destination for Israeli private real estate capital.
