Despite having amassed a real estate portfolio that spans about 16 million square feet nationwide, the Chetrit family has managed to maintain an incredibly low public profile. With roots in Morocco, the family has built two real estate companies, the Chetrit Group and the Chetrit Organization, although they once functioned as a united front. Some of their collective most prominent properties through the years have included the Chelsea Hotel and the Sony Building in Manhattan, and the Sears Tower in Chicago, which they famously renamed Willis Tower. However, the companies appear to have racked up a large amount of debt in recent years.
Notable holdings
The Chetrits are unique in the industry in that they have bought and sold some of their largest assets within several years time — many in the early aughts — rather than holding on to them in perpetuity. They also operate two different real estate firms, both using the family name, often making it difficult to determine which owns what. The Chetrit Group is headquartered at 512 Seventh Ave., and the Chetrit Organization is based at 1384 Broadway.
The family’s joint portfolio, at least in New York, includes everything from residential to retail, in nearly every corner of the city. In 2002, for example, Jacob Chetrit acquired the office building at 1185 Sixth Ave. with a partner for $111 million before selling it two years later for $321 million. Just a couple of years later, in 2004, the family was part of a group of investors that acquired the Windy City’s famous Sears Tower for $840 million, renamed it Willis Tower and then sold it to the Blackstone Group in 2015 for $1.3 billion. In 2011 the Chetrits purchased the Chelsea Hotel for $80 million and sold it two years later after their plans to convert it into luxury apartments never came to fruition.
In their current portfolio, at least eight properties are, or were recently, at risk of being lost to foreclosure. The Hotel Bossert, at 98 Montague St. in Brooklyn Heights, was sold back to the lender last month. The family is also in danger of losing the Hotel Carter at 250 W. 43rd St. in Times Square. Lender Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies alleged in court papers earlier this year that members of the Chetrit family owe a total of $223 million for three mezzanine loans secured by the now-shuttered inn. They are also at risk of losing 404 Fifth Ave., which the family bought in 1998 for $16 million. It once served as a family office, and lender Blackstone sued the Chetrits earlier this year for allegedly defaulting on a $65 million loan.
Origin story
The family patriarch, Joseph Chetrit, arrived in the U.S. in the late 1980s. He worked in the garment business before he and his family, including his older brother, Jacob, and younger brothers, Meyer and Juda — whose arrival time in New York is unclear — began seizing on discounted real estate in the early ’90s. The four of them worked alongside one another until around 2011, when a disagreement split them apart, and they formed two separate companies.
Key players
Joseph and Meyer Chetrit run the Chetrit Group, whose portfolio spans 14 million square feet of commercial space nationally, according to the credit-rating agency KBRA. The Chetrit Organization, which was started by Jacob and Juda Chetrit around the time of the family’s faction in 2011, owns 2 million square feet nationally. Other family members include Eli, Abraham and Isaac Chetrit, but their relation to the four brothers — Jacob, Joseph, Juda and Meyer — is unclear. Jacob died in early January at age 69.
Plot twist
The family’s business dealings often overlap. The Chetrit Organization, for example, manages 427 and 459 Broadway, two retail and office buildings in SoHo that are owned by the Chetrit Group.
In the news
The family doesn’t often garner headlines — apart from in recent months over foreclosure attempts — or speak to the press. The few articles that try to understand their storied history or family tree have yet to include an actual quote from anyone in the Chetrit bloodline. In profiles over the years, Joseph has been called “mysterious,” “secretive” and “enigmatic.”
In 2019 the Chetrits did make news when they almost acquired a piece of newspaper history. The family agreed to buy the former New York Daily News Building on East 42nd Street from SL Green for $815 million, but the deal collapsed the following year after the pandemic hit and Deutsche Bank withdrew financing, Crain’s previously reported.
Jacob Chetrit’s death was also reported by some real estate outlets earlier this year, but even then his family offered up very little. They declined to say where or how he died, just that he was to be buried in Jerusalem.
