Ben Shaoul is a

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

-based real estate owner and developer. He is the president of Magnum Real Estate Group, a residential real estate development and management company headquartered in New York City. Shaoul is best known as a prominent developer in the

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borough of New York City.

Early life

Shaoul was born in

Forest Hills, Queens Forest Hills is a neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast and Flushing ...

, New York City to an Iranian Jewish family, the son of Abraham and Minoo Shaoul. His father ran an antiques business. He grew up in

Great Neck, New York Great Neck is a region contained within Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York, on Long Island, which covers a peninsula on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore and includes nine incorporated villages, among th ...

. He briefly attended community college but dropped out at the age of 19.

Career

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). He oversaw the renovation of his father's property and later took out a mortgage on the building. In 1998, he and his parents co-founded Magnum Real Estate Group. In 1999, Shaoul used the proceeds from that mortgage to buy his first property, which was located on

Mott Street Mott Street () is a narrow but busy thoroughfare that runs in a north–south direction in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. It is regarded as Chinatown, Manhattan, Chinatown's unofficial "Main Street". Mott Stre ...

in Nolita. Shaoul purchases buildings that have not been renovated for a long time and renovates them, and then increases the rent. He primarily focuses on the East Village has added luxury apartments on top existing buildings. In 2013, Shaoul and Magnum Real Estate Group opened Bloom62, a luxury apartment building located in the East Village. Shaoul and Westbrook Partners sold a jointly-held investment portfolio of 17 properties for $130 million to Jared Kushner in February of that year. He later partnered with SL Green Realty to acquire properties in

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. It was an independe ...

. Shaoul also began developing a dormitory for the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

and ventured into

Tribeca Tribeca ( ), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Str ...

where he purchased the top 22 floors of the 32 story art-deco Verizon Building for conversion to condominiums. In July 2014, he purchased the 199-unit Post Toscana on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

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. Shaoul has acquired and sold over 100 properties to include everything from the renovation of thousands of apartments to a $500M condominium conversion.

Personal life

Shaoul is married to Megan Walsh Shaoul. They have three children: Henry, Piper, and Mayer. He has been criticized for contributing to the decline of rent-regulated apartments in the East Village. He was labeled "Sledgehammer Shaoul" after confronting tenants in a building he purchased and being photographed with construction workers holding sledgehammers and crowbars. In 2014, he was sued by his parents for using the proceeds from the refinancing of co-owned assets to fund his development projects. The dispute was later resolved.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaoul, Ben American businesspeople in real estate American people of Iranian-Jewish descent 20th-century American Jews 1977 births Living people Businesspeople from Queens, New York People from Queens, New York 21st-century American Jews