Within New York City real estate circles, Idan Ofer has long been “the other” uber-wealthy billionaire Ofer brother. But Israel’s richest man has recently been making a name for himself turning old office buildings into apartments.
Idan is the younger brother of Eyal Ofer, whose Global Holdings has long been an investor in New York real estate and owns properties like 1250 Broadway and 99 Park Avenue.
But over the past year Idan, 70, appears to be making his first foray into Big Apple real estate. The founder of Quantum Pacific has partnered to transform four Manhattan buildings into at least 1,400 rentals — and his dealmaking doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
Their father was Sammy Ofer, a Romanian who immigrated to Israel and built a shipping empire in the 1960s with a fleet of tankers and cruise liners. When he died in 2011 at the age of 89, Sammy had a reported net worth of $10.3 billion.
His life wasn’t without controversy. The Ofers were one of about 20 families who controlled a quarter of Israel’s publicly listed companies, and were criticized for being a part of the country’s powerful elite.
The family was also dogged by allegations that it did business with Iran. After their father died, the brothers split up the family business by dividing the assets and picking out of a hat as their mother watched.
“We literally reached in and grabbed an envelope,” Idan told Bloomberg in a rare interview in 2017. “And that’s it. It was peaceful, no drama.”
Eyal got stakes in Israel’s Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, a portfolio of global real estate and a stake in Royal Caribbean Cruises.
Idan came away with control of Israel’s largest public holding company and investments in several tech companies.
The older brother had a knack for real estate and grew his portfolio. But Idan had said real estate didn’t really interest him and instead focused on areas like power plants and the automotive sector.
He’s also big into sports, with stakes in the Spanish soccer team Atletico de Madrid and the Portuguese soccer club FC Famalicao. Last week his company bought a Spanish-based sailing team for an estimated $60 million.
Despite his early aversions to property, Idan has placed some big real estate bets in the past year.
Last year he teamed up with Metro Loft Management’s Nathan Berman on 767 Third Avenue, an office building they’re converting into 337 apartments. They’re also converting 101 Greenwich Street into 614 units and last week went into contract to buy 1 Whitehall Street for $100 million.
Berman told The Real Deal he expects more deals in the pipeline with Quantum, highlighting “their ability to move decisively, make smart decisions and have the wherewithal to do many more of these.”
Idan’s foray into real estate is even crossing paths with his brother’s partners.
Eyal teamed up with the Rudin family in 2011 to convert the former St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village into condos. And now, Idan is partnering with Rudin on converting the office building at 845 Third Avenue into 411 apartments.
Idan told Bloomberg in 2017 — a time when his brother was proving more successful at business — that tracking his portfolio didn’t interest him.
“But I’m used to it,” said Idan, whose net worth Forbes pegs at $35.5 billion, slightly edging out his brother by about $1 billion. “And I’m not a speculator. Having a background in shipping makes me comfortable with cyclical things.”
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