Ben Shaoul | |
---|---|
Born | March 7, 1977 |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | real estate developer |
Known for | co-founder of Magnum Real Estate Group |
Spouse | Megan Walsh |
Children | four |
Parent(s) | Minoo Shaoul Abraham Shaoul |
Ben Shaoul is a New York City-based real estate owner and developer. [1] [2] [3] He is the president of Magnum Real Estate Group, a residential real estate development and management company headquartered in New York City. [2] [4] Shaoul is best known as a prominent developer in the Manhattan borough of New York City. [1] [2]
Shaoul was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City to an Iranian Jewish family, [1] the son of Abraham and Minoo Shaoul. [5] His father ran an antiques business. [1] He grew up in Great Neck, New York. [1] [2] He briefly attended community college but dropped out at the age of 19. [1]
After he left school, he interned for a summer with a New York-based developer run by the Ohebshalom family, (also of Persian Jewish heritage). [1] [2] He oversaw the renovation of his father's property and later took out a mortgage on the building. [1] [2] In 1998, he and his parents co-founded Magnum Real Estate Group. [6] In 1999, Shaoul used the proceeds from that mortgage to buy his first property, which was located on Mott Street in Nolita. [1] [7] Shaoul purchases buildings that have not been renovated for a long time and renovates them, and then increases the rent. [1] He primarily focuses on the East Village has added luxury apartments on top existing buildings. [1]
In 2013, Shaoul and Magnum Real Estate Group opened Bloom62, a luxury apartment building located in the East Village. [4] [8] Shaoul and Westbrook Partners sold a jointly-held investment portfolio of 17 properties for $130 million to Jared Kushner in February of that year. [9] He later partnered with SL Green Realty to acquire properties in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. [10] Shaoul also began developing a dormitory for the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan [8] [9] [11] and ventured into Tribeca where he purchased the top 22 floors of the 32 story art-deco Verizon Building for conversion to condominiums. [12] [13] In July 2014, he purchased the 199-unit Post Toscana on the Upper East Side and the 138-unit Post Luminaria in Kips Bay for $270 million to convert into condominiums. Both buildings have soon-to-expire tax abatements thereafter exempting them from rent stabilization rules. [14]
Shaoul has acquired and sold over 100 properties to include everything from the renovation of thousands of apartments to a $500M condominium conversion. [15] [16]
Shaoul is married to Megan Walsh Shaoul. [2] They have three children: Henry, Piper, and Mayer. [2] He has been criticized for contributing to the decline of rent-regulated apartments in the East Village. [1] He was labeled "Sledgehammer Shaoul" after confronting tenants in a building he purchased and being photographed with construction workers holding sledgehammers and crowbars. [1] In 2014, he was sued by his parents for using the proceeds from the refinancing of co-owned assets to fund his development projects. [5] [6] The dispute was later resolved. [17]