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Arthur G. Cohen

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Arthur G. Cohen
Born
Arthur George Cohen

(1930-04-23)April 23, 1930
Brooklyn, New York, US
DiedAugust 9, 2014(2014-08-09) (aged 84)
Kings Point, New York, US
EducationUniversity of Miami
New York Law School
OccupationReal estate developer
Known forCo-founder of Arlen Realty & Development Corporation
SpouseKaren Bassine
Children5

Arthur George Cohen (April 23, 1930 – August 9, 2014) was an American businessman and real estate developer in New York City.[1]

Early life and education

Cohen was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Frances (née Kostick) and Louis D. Cohen.[2][3] He received a BA from the University of Miami and a JD from the New York Law School.[4]

Career

Arlen Realty & Development Corporation

Cohen became involved in real estate through founding Arlen Realty & Development Corporation with Arthur N. Levien in 1959.[5]

Serving as Arlen's chairman, Cohen began by developing suburban shopping centers throughout the country, and in 1971 he purchased the national discount retail chain E.J. Korvette. By 1975 Arlen owned and managed over 42,000,000 square feet (3,900,000 m2) of shopping centers, and was the largest publicly traded REIT in the nation. [6] Beginning in 1967, Arlen partnered with Donald Soffer's Turnberry Associates in developing the City of Aventura, Florida.[7] In 1975, Arlen partnered with Aristotle Onassis to build Olympic Tower on Fifth Avenue.[8]

Other prominent Arlen buildings included their corporate headquarters 888 7th Avenue,[9] 1500 Broadway and 1501 Broadway in Times Square,[10] 1166 Avenue of the Americas, 800 Third Avenue, 100 Wall Street, and the Westyard Building at 450 West 33rd Street.

Additional Investments

In addition to Arlen, Cohen continued to invest in real estate, lodging, restaurants, aviation, and manufacturing industries.[11] Some projects include the development of the David Childs designed Worldwide Plaza[12] and the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Times Square with William Zeckendorf Jr.,[13] the Peninsula Hotel in New York City,[14] the Hotel Pennsylvania,[15] the Whitehall Building in Battery Park,[16] Fifth Avenue Tower, The Taft Hotel and Manhattan Mall.[17]

Alongside real estate investor Jeff Gural, Cohen was also a partner with David Walentas in the 1979 acquisition of two million square feet of industrial buildings in Dumbo, Brooklyn.[18]

Partnership with Ian Schrager

Cohen partnered with hotelier Ian Schrager in creating some of the first boutique hotels in New York City at a time in which Schrager had much difficulty attracting more conventional sources of financing.[19] The partnership resulted in the acquisition and renovation of hotels such as the Philippe Starck-designed Royalton Hotel[20] and Paramount Hotel,[21] as well as the Barbizon Hotel.[22]

Partnership with Paul Manafort and Brad Zackson

In June 2008 through CMZ Ventures LLC also spelled ZMC, Cohen and his wife through their control of Vulcan Properties entered into partnership with both Paul Manafort through Manafort's XXX LLC founded on June 8, 2008, and Brad Zackson through Zackson's Barbara Ann Holdings LLC.[23][24][25][a] ZMC with only $500 million was intended to form both a United States real estate fund and an international real estate fund that would be able to leverage $15 billion while ZMC contributed 10% of the equity and a third party would have 90% of the equity and control of ZMC.[26] Its investments in the global real estate fund would have a three to five year outlook.[26] A major investment of CMZ[b] was expected to be the Drake Hotel in New York City. On June 30, 2008, Manafort along with Oleg Deripaska and Rick Gates through their Cayman Islands registered Pericles Emerging Market Partners planned to invest $56 million in CMZ.[24][27] Gates had spoken to two of Deripaska's associates after which Gates told Manafort "to lock the other financing elements and then come back to him for the final piece of investment."[28] In late 2008, CMZ's interest in the Drake Hotel ended because of lack of enough financial backing although Dmitro Firtash had arranged over $100 million in financing.[23][24][27][29][30] Later, in December 2011, Yulia Tymoshenko alleged that CMZ was a front for the interests of Dmitro Firtash, his Group DF, and Semion Mogilevich, who has links to Russian, Ukrainian, and Hungarian mafia,[31][32] which intended to place money in pro Russia, pro Kremlin, and pro Putin interests through money laundering in New York real estate investments.[23][29][30][33][34] In a 30 July 2014 interview with the FBI, Manafort explained that Pericles Investments LLC and CMZ were intended for investment purposes associated with Deripaska and Firtash.[35][36]

Corporate involvement

Cohen was a director of Citicorp (now part of Citigroup NYSE: C),the Home Title Division of the Chicago Title Insurance Company (now part of Fidelity National Financial NYSE:FNF), and the John Hancock Mutual Fund.[37] He was on the board of directors and been part of the ownership group for the 1988 leveraged buyout of Braniff Airlines[38] as well as for the 1989 lLeveraged buyout of national restaurant chain Houlihan's and Darryl's.[39]

Philanthropy

Cohen was a former trustee of Brandeis University, New York Law School, Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He received the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award, was named the man of the year by the Anti-Defamation League, and was a member of the Special Mission to Israel under Golda Meir and special envoy to aid underprivileged nations under Lyndon B. Johnson. Cohen received an honorary degree from Long Island University.[37]

Personal life and death

Cohen was married to Karen Bassine from Great Neck, New York. They had five daughters: Lauren Reddington, Susan Siegel, Debra Duran, Rochelle Rosenberg and Kathy Horowitz.[40] Cohen died on August 9, 2014, in Kings Point, New York. He was 84.[40]

Notes

  1. ^ Brad S. Zackson was a former manager and fixer for Fred Trump's Trump Organization who ran his own investment and brokerage firm Dynamic Group after leaving the Trump Organization when Fred Trump "aged out."[23][24]
  2. ^ CMZ was an abbreviation of "C" for Cohen, "M" for Manafort, and "Z" for Zackson.[23][24]

References

  1. ^ "State-By-State List of Forbes 400 Richest Americans With PM – Forbes Richest, BJT". Associated Press.
  2. ^ "Deaths – Cohen, Frances Kostick". The New York Times. August 27, 2002.
  3. ^ "Jewish Seminary Honors 2". The New York Times. June 14, 1972. Two New York business and Jewish community leaders were honored yesterday.........Meshulum Riklis, chairman and president of the Rapid American Corporation, and Arthur G Cohen, president of the Arlen Realty and Development Corporation, received the Eternal Light Medal of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
  4. ^ "Arthur G. Cohen". Brandeis University.
  5. ^ Shockley, Jay (December 16, 2008). "Society House of the American Society of Civil Engineers" (PDF). Landmarks Preservation Commission. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  6. ^ Martin, Douglas (August 14, 2014). "Arthur G. Cohen, Real Estate Developer, Is Dead at 84". New York Times. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  7. ^ Vitale, Joe. "Family & Fortune: Aventura was dreamed up by Donald Soffer. He built it and they came, by the thousands. Now his children are fighting to protect it". Archived from the original on 2013-01-18.
  8. ^ "Olympic Tower, a Premiere New York Condo". Archived from the original on 2012-11-02. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  9. ^ "888 7th Avenue Emporis". Archived from the original on October 21, 2012.
  10. ^ Kramer, Michael (1974). Howard Samuels O.T.B Payoff. New York Magazine.
  11. ^ "Contrarian Capital Management". Archived from the original on 2013-03-06. Retrieved 2013-03-17.
  12. ^ "William Zeckendorf". 18 December 2007.
  13. ^ Dunlap, David W. (July 6, 1988). "From Dust of Demolition, a New Times Square Rises". The New York Times.
  14. ^ "The Peninsula Hotel, New York". 15 December 2011.
  15. ^ "Statler Hotels - Hotel Pennsylvania".
  16. ^ Dunlap, David W. (January 6, 1991). "Commercial Property: City Leases; Financial District Slump Sets Up Some Good Deals". The New York Times.
  17. ^ "New Partnership With Arthur G. Cohen – Project on Track to Become Premier Shopping and Entertainment Destination".
  18. ^ Video on YouTube
  19. ^ Bagli, Charles V. (July 19, 1998). "A Hotelier for Jaded Boomers". The New York Times.
  20. ^ Slesin, Suzanne (September 29, 1988). "At 90, a Dowager of a Hotel Turns Into a Witty Sylph". The New York Times.
  21. ^ Slesin, Suzanne (December 14, 1989). "A Hotel Where Magic and Humor Reside". The New York Times.
  22. ^ "Barbizon Hotel Sold To Developers". The New York Times. August 31, 1988.
  23. ^ a b c d e Markay, Lachlan (March 31, 2016). "Lawsuit: Trump Aide Funneled Mob-Linked Ukrainian Oligarch's Fortune into U.S. Real Estate: Suit dismissed in 2014 highlighted financial activities of former Yanukovych adviser Paul Manafort". The Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  24. ^ a b c d e Clarke, Katherine; Parker, Will (August 31, 2017). "Meet Paul Manafort's real estate fixer: Brad Zackson is a Fred Trump protégé with a checkered past and an appetite for fanciful deals". The Real Deal. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  25. ^ Kusisto, Laura (June 7, 2011). "Unmasking Three Mismatched Heavies Who Won and Lost the Drake: A Bush confidence man, a once-powerful developer and a scrappy broker tried to take Manhattan during the boom. First mistake: They went after the Drake". New York Observer. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  26. ^ a b Manafort, Paul (August 25, 2008). "CMZ Vision Statement" (PDF). CMZ Ventures Global Real Estate Fund. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  27. ^ a b "Manafort Chronology" (PDF). Judicial Watch. June 18, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  28. ^ Eckel, Mike; Miller, Christopher (September 22, 2017). "The Metals Magnate And Manafort: A Kremlin Confidant Is Drawn Into The Trump Investigation". Radio Free Europe. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  29. ^ a b Winter, Tom; Dilanian, Ken (August 18, 2016). "Donald Trump Aide Paul Manafort Scrutinized for Russian Business Ties: Paul Manafort was a key player in proposed deals with two Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, one a Putin ally with alleged mob ties". NBC News. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  30. ^ a b Winter, Tom (July 26, 2017). "U.S. DOJ: Ex-Manafort Associate Firtash Is Top-Tier Comrade of Russian Mobsters: In a new filing federal prosecutors call Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash an "upper-echelon" associate of Russian organized crime". NBC News. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  31. ^ SÁLING, GERGŐ (January 29, 2008). "Mindenkit palira vesz Szeva bácsi" [Uncle Seva takes everyone to the palm]. Origo.hu (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  32. ^ Найем, Мустафа (Nayyem, Mustafa) (May 8, 2015). "Дело Фирташа. Часть 4: Тени Cемена Могилевича" [The Firtash case. Part 4: Shadows of Semen Mogilevich]. argumentua.com (in Russian). Retrieved July 13, 2021 – via Ukrayinska Pravda.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  33. ^ "Civ. No. 11-02794 (RJS) YULIA TYMOSHENKO and JOHN DOES 1 through 50, on behalf of themselves and all of those similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. DMYTRO FIRTASH a/k/a DMITRY FIRTASH, SEMYON MOGILEVICH, ROSUKRENERGO AG, GROUP DF, GROUP DF LIMITED, GROUP DF FINANCE LIMITED, GROUP DF REAL ESTATE, NADRA BANK, CENTRAGAS HOLDING AG, CMZ VENTURES, LLC, KALLISTA INVESTMENTS LLC a/k/a CALISTER INVESTMENTS LLC, THE DYNAMIC GROUP a/k/a THE DYNAMIC FUND, BARBARA ANN HOLDINGS LLC, VULCAN PROPERTIES, INC., BRAD S. ZACKSON, PAUL J. MANAFORT, YURIY BOYKO, VALERIY KHOROSHKOVSKY, VIKTOR PSHONKA, RENAT KUZMIN, OLEKSANDR NECHVOGLOD and LILIA FROLOVA and JOHN DOES 1 through 100, Defendants. (AMENDED COMPLAINT)" (PDF). UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. December 19, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 29, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2021 – via The Washington Free Beacon.
  34. ^ Ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Hits Oil Co. With US Suit
  35. ^ "Interview of Paul Manafort" (PDF). FBI. September 2, 2014. p. 3, 5. Retrieved August 10, 2021 – via Justthenews.com.
  36. ^ Horwitz, Jeff; Danilova, Maria (July 2, 2018). "Russian charged with Trump's ex-campaign chief is key figure". boston.com. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
  37. ^ a b "Brandeis University".
  38. ^ "Group Acquires Braniff in Buyout; Appoints Former Piedmont Executives". Associated Press.
  39. ^ "About Darryl's!".
  40. ^ a b Martin, Douglas (August 15, 2014). "Arthur G. Cohen, Real Estate Developer, Is Dead at 84". The New York Times. p. B8. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
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