Israeli Capital in New York Real Estate

By Olam Editorial · Edited Jul 7, 2026

Part of: The Communities That Built Israeli Industry · Israeli Capital Abroad

Manhattan has been the single largest foreign destination for Israeli private real estate capital for twenty years. The visible top of the market — trophy residential, supertall condominium, hotel conversion — was built substantially by Israeli-controlled or Israeli-partnered platforms. Underneath it, a Tel Aviv bond market that issued the equivalent of tens of billions of shekels against US property portfolios materially widened the channel by which Israeli capital touched New York property, well beyond direct ownership.

This is the roster.

Global Holdings — Eyal Ofer

Eyal Ofer’s Global Holdings is the largest single Israeli-origin owner of New York trophy real estate. Sunday Times Rich List 2026 estimates the Ofer family fortune at $33.6 billion, anchored between Zodiac Group shipping and OG Group / Global Holdings property. Manhattan portfolio has included 50 United Nations Plaza, Upper West Side residential anchored historically by 200 Riverside Boulevard, and participation in 15 Central Park West — the ~$2 billion Robert A.M. Stern-designed condominium sellout that reset the Manhattan luxury benchmark in 2008. Global Holdings also anchors One Park Drive on London’s Canary Wharf and 432 Park Avenue exposure. Long-hold thesis. Among the largest single private owners of Manhattan luxury residential.

Elad Group — Yitzhak Tshuva

Yitzhak Tshuva’s 2004 acquisition of the Plaza Hotel through Elad Properties, in partnership with Kingdom Holding of Saudi Arabia, at $675 million, was the defining hospitality transaction of the decade. The subsequent mixed-use conversion — luxury condominiums, hotel condominiums, retail, restored public rooms — became the template that later luxury hotel conversions across Manhattan followed. Elad also developed the Related-adjacent Manhattan pipeline through the 2000s and 2010s. Tshuva’s later divestments changed the platform’s New York footprint but not its historical significance. Delek Group, Tshuva’s Israeli operating anchor, sits behind the Tamar and Leviathan offshore gas fields.

Extell Development — Gary Barnett

Gary Barnett, born David Tzvi Barnett, founded Extell Development Company after years operating in the Antwerp diamond trade. Extell is one of the most prolific developers of Manhattan supertall towers in the modern era. Anchor projects: One57 (2014, ~$3 billion sellout), the Central Park Tower at 217 West 57th Street (completed 2020, ~1,550 feet, tallest primarily residential building in the world, ~$4 billion sellout), the International Gem Tower in the Diamond District, and a long pipeline across Billionaires’ Row and downtown Manhattan. Extell also issued TASE-listed bonds against portions of its US portfolio through the 2010s.

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. Anchor project: The XI twin-tower High Line development, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group. The platform was restructured following financial pressure in the 2020–2022 cycle; portfolio positions were sold or transferred to new sponsors. The historical footprint remains one of the most significant of the last 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 11 Madison position was subsequently sold to SL Green in 2015 at approximately $2.6 billion — at the time one of the highest prices ever paid for a single US office asset. 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. The platform has built out one of the most active Israeli-led residential development pipelines across Manhattan and Brooklyn over the past decade — Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Chelsea, and the Brooklyn ground-up condominium market.

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. Anchor project: the One Wall Street conversion — the ~$1.5 billion redevelopment of the Irving Trust building from office to luxury residential, at 566 units the largest office-to-residential conversion ever completed in New York. Downtown Manhattan portfolio positions extend across mixed-use and retail.

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 — a common pattern across the Israeli-American operating class.

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 $1.6 billion. 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

Witkoff Group — Steven Witkoff

Steven Witkoff founded the Witkoff Group in 1997 and built one of the most active Israeli-American development platforms in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. Anchor project: 111 Murray Street. Witkoff also holds a substantial Miami hospitality and condominium pipeline. In 2025 he was appointed U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, which reshaped the platform’s operating profile.

RFR Holding — Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs

Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs founded RFR Holding in 1991. Trophy portfolio has included the Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue (Mies van der Rohe, 1958), 285 Madison Avenue, Lever House, and one of the most significant private contemporary art collections in the United States. German-Israeli founding partners.

Boymelgreen Developers — Shaya Boymelgreen

Shaya Boymelgreen built one of the earlier waves of Israeli-American Brooklyn ground-up development across the 2000s, later partnering with Africa-Israel Investments (Lev Leviev) on Manhattan and Brooklyn conversions. Platform has been through multiple restructurings; historical footprint remains significant to the Brooklyn condominium market.

Chera family — Crown Acquisitions

The Chera family, Syrian-Jewish New York, operates Crown Acquisitions with anchor Fifth Avenue retail positions and a controlling stake in Trinity Place Holdings. Multi-generational commercial retail platform with deep integration into the Syrian-Jewish community operating network described in The Suttons and the Quiet Dynasties.

Lightstone Group — David Lichtenstein

David Lichtenstein founded the Lightstone Group in 1988. Portfolio spans hospitality, residential development, retail, and industrial across the US. Extended Stay Hotels chain acquisition and subsequent restructuring is the defining Lightstone transaction. Israeli-American, Orthodox operating principal class.

Tessler Developments — Tessler family

Yitzchak Tessler and family built Tessler Developments into an active Manhattan and Miami condominium platform. Anchor projects: 172 Madison Avenue, Marquand at 11 East 68th Street, and a Miami residential pipeline.

HAP Investments — Amir Hasid

Amir Hasid founded HAP Investments as an Israeli-anchored New York residential developer with substantial Harlem and Upper Manhattan pipeline. Platform has issued TASE-listed bonds against its US portfolio.

Meridian Capital — Ralph Herzka

Meridian Capital Group, founded by Ralph Herzka, is the largest independent commercial real estate mortgage broker in the United States. The platform is the primary conduit between Israeli capital pools and US property lending, having originated hundreds of billions of dollars in transaction volume over the past two decades. Meridian is the flow layer that most Israeli-controlled New York property capital transits.

Related-Israel corridor

Related Companies, the Ross-founded platform behind Hudson Yards, operates deep transaction and capital relationships with Israeli institutional investors and issued TASE-listed bonds through a dedicated vehicle in the 2010s. Related is not an Israeli-controlled platform, but its Israeli capital corridor is one of the largest in the market.

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, Ben Ashkenazy at Ashkenazy Acquisition, Joel Wiener at Pinnacle Group, Zamir Equities, 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.

The Tel Aviv bond market channel

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 Stock Exchange bond market as a financing channel. US real estate sponsors — some Israeli-family-controlled, many Jewish-American operating outside any Israeli family structure — issued shekel-denominated bonds against US property portfolios through TASE-listed special-purpose vehicles. The structure exploited a pricing differential: US mid-market commercial credit was trading at meaningfully wider spreads than comparable Israeli institutional credit, and Israeli pension funds and insurance company investment mandates were hungry for yield.

The peak years were 2013–2019. Cumulative issuance against US property portfolios ran to roughly ₪30–40 billion across two dozen issuers. Named issuers included Extell, Related Companies (via a dedicated vehicle), the Chetrit Group, Delshah Capital, Sharan Investments, All Year Management (Yoel Goldman), HAP Investments, Gindi Capital, and multiple Chetrit-adjacent SPVs. Nakash-family holdings issued through separate vehicles.

The structure was controversial in cycles, particularly when the 2020–2022 US commercial real estate stress forced defaults across the All Year Management, Delshah, and related issuers. TASE responded with tightened disclosure requirements. The channel remains open and functional; issuance has resumed at more selective volumes through 2024 and 2025.

The current cycle

The post-2022 interest rate environment 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.

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↗ Companions: The Suttons and the Quiet Dynasties · The Nakash Dynasty · Deal, New Jersey · The Communities That Built Israeli Industry · The Builders.