Jacob Chetrit, a partner in one of New York’s largest real estate families, has passed away. He was 69, according to an employee at Chetrit Group who declined to say where he died or the cause.
Jacob worked alongside brothers Joseph, Meyer and Juda Chetrit at a firm that owned or owns the Sony Building in Midtown, the Chelsea Hotel, 26 Broadway, apartment buildings on the Upper East Side, plus retail properties on the Upper West Side and in SoHo. In 2004 the Chetrits led a group that acquired Chicago’s Sears Tower for $840 million, renamed it Willis Tower, and sold what is now the nation’s second-tallest office building in 2015 to Blackstone Group for $1.3 billion.
“Chetrit buys and sells for profit, rather than with the goal of amassing a real estate empire,” the New York Times said in a 2013 article about Joseph, who is now 67 years old.
Around 2011, Jacob and Juda had a disagreement with their two other brothers and launched their own firm, Chetrit Organization, which was headed by Jacob, according to industry newsletter Real Estate Alert. Chetrit Organization owns properties such as 1 Whitehall St. The other company, Chetrit Group, by 2022 owned 14 million square feet of commercial space nationally, according to credit-rating agency KBRA. Joseph and Meyer ran Chetrit Group after the split. Chetrit Organization manages some Chetrit Group-owned properties, including two retail and office buildings at 427 and 459 Broadway in SoHo.
Jacob’s death was first reported by The Real Deal, which said a funeral was planned for yesterday in Jerusalem.
The Chetrits have roots in Morocco. Joseph Chetrit arrived in the U.S. in the late 1980s and worked in the garment business. It isn’t clear when Jacob arrived, but the family began investing in Manhattan warehouses and capitalized on the downturn of the early ‘90s to acquire real estate at discounted prices. City records show Jacob Chetrit and a partner acquired 1185 Sixth Ave. for $111 million and sold the building two years later to Scott Rechler’s firm for $321 million.
In the fall of 2019 Jacob Chetrit agreed to acquire the former New York Daily News building on East 42nd Street from SL Green for $815 million. The deal collapsed the following year after the pandemic hit and Deutsche Bank withdrew financing.
Today, the Chetrits are dealing with the problems afflicting many commercial property owners. On Friday, KBRA said the $117 million mortgage hasn’t been paid for nearly a year at buildings at 427 and 459 Broadway. The properties’ appraised value has fallen to $62 million.
