Kushner Companies LLC is an American

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

in the

New York City metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...

. The company's biggest presence is in the

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

residential market. A study published in December 2017 by ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

'' indicated that Kushner Companies owns a stake in over 60 buildings in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Major holdings in the city include the

Puck Building __FORCETOC__ The Puck Building is a historic building located in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It occupies the block bounded by Lafayette, Houston, Mulberry and Jersey Streets. An example of the German Rundbogenstil style o ...

and the retail space at 229 West 43rd Street, as well as

666 Fifth Avenue 660 Fifth Avenue (formerly 666 Fifth Avenue and the Tishman Building) is a 41-story office building on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The office tower was ...

until its 2018 sale. The company's headquarters were relocated to the GM Building Manhattan in 2020.

History

In 1985,

Charles Kushner Charles Kushner (born May 16, 1954) is an American real estate developer, former federal inmate, and disbarred former attorney. He founded Kushner Companies in 1985. In 2005, he was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, a ...

founded Kushner Companies with his father,

Joseph Kushner Joseph Kushner (maiden name, né Berkowitz; 10 October 1922 – 5 October 1985) was a Belarusian-born American real estate investor and developer. At the end of his career, he owned over 4,000 apartments, houses, and properties. Biography Kushne ...

. In 2005, Charles Kushner was convicted of

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

and

witness tampering Witness tampering is the act of attempting to improperly influence, alter or prevent the testimony of witnesses within criminal or civil proceedings. Witness tampering and reprisals against witnesses in organized crime cases have been a difficul ...

, and served time in federal prison. As a result, he handed over the management of the company to his son

Jared Kushner Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He served as a senior advisor to 45th U.S. president Donald Trump, his father-in-law. Since leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a pri ...

. Kushner Companies has received multiple loans from

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

’s

Bank Hapoalim Bank Hapoalim ( he, בנק הפועלים lit. ''The Workers' Bank'') is one of Israel's largest banks. History The bank was established in 1921 by the ''Histadrut'', the Israeli trade union congress (lit. "General Federation of Laborers in the ...

. Kushner Companies "received a roughly $30 million investment from

Menora Mivtachim Menora Mivtachim is an Israeli insurance company that is publicly traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. History The company was founded in 1935 as General Liability Office and changed its name to Menora Mivtachim Holdings in 2006. It is headquar ...

" in 2017. It was spent on "a

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

development". In 2017, Nicole Kushner Meyer joined her brother Josh in Kushner Companies, serving as a principal. Meyer was criticized for mentioning her brother's White House position during investor presentations she gave in China when soliciting $150 million for

1 Journal Square 1 Journal Square is a skyscraper complex at Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey proposed by the Kushner Companies. The initial version consisted of two towers with roughly 3,000 residential units and 160,000 square feet of commercial space, ...

in Jersey City, causing her to cancel the rest of her roadshow appearances. In another dispute involving 1 Journal Square, the company is attempting to get $113,659 from the city to cover legal expenses. According to an August 2017 article in Bloomberg, the company was facing an increasingly "distressed situation" at the time. Over the previous few years, family members had sought substantial overseas investment to deal with "troubled finances". In the 2010s, developers such as the Kushner Companies widely used the

EB-5 visa The United States EB-5 visa, ''employment-based fifth preference category'' or ''EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program'', created in 1990 by the Immigration Act of 1990, provides a method for eligible Immigrant investor programs, immigrant investo ...

to fuel a "high-end US residential boom". In May 2017, Trump renewed the visa program in his first major piece of legislation. That September, the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

's office subpoenaed the Kushner Companies over the use of the EB-5 visa program to fund developments. In December 2017, the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five counties in New York State: the four Long Island counties of Nassau, S ...

subpoenaed

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

records pertaining to Kushner Companies. ''The New York Times'' reported in May 2019 that anti-money laundering specialists in the bank detected what appeared to be suspicious transactions involving entities controlled by Donald Trump and Jared Kushner, for which they recommended filing

suspicious activity report In financial regulation, a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) or Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) is a report made by a financial institution about suspicious or potentially suspicious activity. The criteria to decide when a report must be ma ...

s with the

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terr ...

of the Treasury Department, but bank executives rejected the recommendations. One specialist noted money moving from Kushner Companies to Russian individuals and flagged it in part because of the bank's previous involvement in a Russian money laundering scheme. In 2020, ProPublica and WNYC reported that Kushner Companies received "a near-record sum" from government-backed lender

Freddie Mac The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), commonly known as Freddie Mac, is a publicly traded, government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

Acquisitions

In 2003,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

and Kushner Properties announced that the university had signed a 15-year lease for three floors, comprising of contiguous space, in the historic

, 295

Lafayette Street Lafayette Street is a major north-south street in New York City's Lower Manhattan. It originates at the intersection of Reade Street and Centre Street, one block north of Chambers Street. The one-way street then successively runs through Chi ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

SoHo Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

neighborhood. In December 2006, the company announced plans to buy

for $1.8 billion, the biggest deal to date for an individual building in New York City history. In early 2007, Kushner bought the building for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1.8 billion, the highest price ever paid for a single office building in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

.Elkies, Lauren (November 1, 2007)
"The Closing: Charles Kushner"
. '' The Real Deal''. Retrieved September 28, 2011.Bagli, Charles V. (December 7, 2006)
"A Big Deal, Even in Manhattan: A Tower Goes for $1.8 Billion"
. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Retrieved November 12, 2007. Four years later, rising debt forced Kushner to hand over 49.5% of the ownership of 666 Fifth Avenue to Vornado. Kushner had planned to demolish the existing structure and build one twice the size; Vornado's

Steven Roth Steven Roth (born 1941) is an American real estate investor, the founder and chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, the largest commercial landlord in New York City. He is also co-founder and managing general partner of Interstate Properties, and chai ...

stated that this will not happen. The building, which represented significant debt for the company was leased in 2018. Kushner since shifted focus from his

real estate operations to the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

market. In July 2007, the Kushner Companies sold 17,500 apartments in the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New York, valued at $2 billion. Before that sale, the Companies had employed approximately 800 people. In August 2011, representatives from the Kushner Companies made a presentation to the

Perth Amboy Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy has a Hispanic majority population. In the 2010 census, th ...

Redevelopment Agency proposing a scaled-back design concept for the Landings at Harborside, a residential development set to be built along the city's waterfront, and allowing rental housing instead of owner-occupied units as originally planned. The plan, which would have saved two historic

buildings, was endorsed by Mayor

Wilda Diaz Wilda Diaz (born Wilda Soto; September 14, 1964) was an American politician and former Mayor of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. She was elected in May 2008, defeating incumbent Joseph Vas by a 58% to 42% margin.Adarlo, Sharon (May 14, 2008)"Perth Amboy ...

, quoted as saying, "Too many sites have been torn down. Let's restore them and use them for other purposes." She further said that Kushner sketched a concept for the courthouse that was incorporated into the redesign.Russell, Suzanne (September 16, 2011)
"Perth Amboy's Landings at Harborside project takes new direction"
''

Home News Tribune The ''Central New Jersey Home News Tribune'' is a Daily newspaper serving Middlesex County, New Jersey. The paper has an average daily weekday circulation of about 49,000. The newspaper is the result of the 1995 merger of ''The Home News'' of ...

''. On July 5, 2013, Kushner Companies signed an agreement to purchase a five-building complex in

Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south, an ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, formerly used by

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...

, for $340 million. The building is 95% owned by

CIM Group CIM Group invests in commercial property on behalf of large institutions such as pensions. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned $29.2 billion worth of commercial property. History The company was founded in 1994 by Shaul Kuba, Richard Ress ...

. In 2016, Kushner Companies opened

Trump Bay Street 65 Bay Street is a 50-story apartment tower, originally named Trump Bay Street after Donald Trump and located at 65 Bay Street in Jersey City, New Jersey. It is located adjacent to the Trump Plaza (Jersey City), Trump Plaza apartment tower, which w ...

, a luxury 53-story apartment tower in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. The Kushners partnered with a company linked to

Beny Steinmetz Beny Steinmetz ( he, בני שטיינמץ; born 2 April 1956) is an Israeli businessman and entrepreneur, with a focus in the mining and energy sectors, while being also active in the real estate and diamond-mining industries. Beny Steinmetz is ...

on the $250 million project, which was financed through a $30 million cash investment by the Kushners and $190 million in loans, including a $140 million construction loan from

CIT Group CIT Group (CIT), a subsidiary of First Citizens BancShares, is an American financial services company. It provides financing, including factoring, cash management, treasury management, mortgage loans, Small Business Administration loans, l ...

and $50 million of investments from Chinese nationals purchasing EB-5 visas. By June 2017, the building had reached half occupancy and was valued at up to $360 million, leading the Kushners to seek $250 million in

refinancing Refinancing is the replacement of an existing debt obligation with another debt obligation under a different term and interest rate. The terms and conditions of refinancing may vary widely by country, province, or state, based on several economic ...

. Jared Kushner retained his interest in the building after becoming senior advisor to President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

, his father-in-law. The company also owns properties in

Long Branch, New Jersey Long Branch is a beachside City (New Jersey), city in Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, the city's population was 30,719,< ...

as well as nearby

Monmouth Mall Monmouth Mall is an enclosed split level shopping center in Eatontown, New Jersey located on the corner of the intersection of NJ 35, NJ 36, and Wyckoff Road ( Route 547). It is owned Kushner Companies and managed by Westminster Management. Th ...

, which Kushner acquired when it fully purchased the non-management

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with

Vornado Realty Trust Vornado Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust formed in Maryland in 1982, with its primary office in New York City. The company invests in office buildings and street retail in Manhattan. Investments Notable properties owned by the ...

that owned the mall.

Controversies

In 2017, Nicole Kushner Meyer joined her brother Josh in Kushner Companies, serving as a principal. Meyer was criticized for mentioning her brother's White House position during investor presentations she gave in China when soliciting $150 million for

in Jersey City, causing her to cancel the rest of her roadshow appearances. In another dispute involving 1 Journal Square, the company is attempting to get $113,659 from the city to cover legal expenses. According to Bloomberg, the company is facing an increasingly "distressed situation". Over the last few years, family members have sought substantial overseas investment to deal with "troubled finances". In the 2010s, developers such as the Kushner Companies widely used the

to fuel a "high-end US residential boom". In May 2017, Trump renewed the visa program in his first major piece of legislation. That September, the

's office subpoenaed the Kushner Companies over the use of the EB-5 visa program to fund developments. In December 2017, the

subpoenaed

Freddie Mac The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), commonly known as Freddie Mac, is a publicly traded, government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Companies based in Manhattan Privately held companies based in New York City Real estate companies of the United States Real estate companies established in 1985 Kushner family 1985 establishments in New York (state) 1985 establishments in the United States Companies established in 1985

History

Controversies

See also

References

External links