Robert L. Stark (born 1951) is an American real estate developer and founder and chief executive officer of Stark Enterprises.

Biography

Born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

familyArutz Sheva: "Real Estate Developer Robert Stark Joins Yehudah Katz on New CD - Developer Bob Stark is back in Israel not just for real estate, but also to promote his new album with Yehudah Katz of Reva L'Sheva fame" By Ben Bresky
March 17, 2011 in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, Stark is a graduate of

Hawken School Hawken School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school in Northeast Ohio. Hawken currently has two main campuses, the Lower and Middle Schools in Lyndhurst and the Upper School in Chester Township, plus a third, an ur ...

(1969), the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

(B.A. 1975), and

Case Western Reserve University School of Law Case Western Reserve University School of Law is the law school of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the first schools accredited by the American Bar Association. It is a member of the Association of American Law Sc ...

(J.D. 1978).Stark Enterprises: About US - Robert Stark
retrieved August 22, 2015 He is a member of the Ohio Bar.Cleveland State University School of Urban Affairs: "ROBERT L. STARK - President and Chief Executive Officer, Robert L. Stark Enterprises"
retrieved August 22, 2015 He started developing real estate in 1974. In 1990, he developed the Promenade of Westlake, one of the first strip malls that featured upscale tenants, expensive finishes, and a $1 million landscaped center.
2003 In 2004, he developed the $450 million Crocker Park in

Westlake, Ohio Westlake is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is a suburb located west of downtown Cleveland. The population was 34,228 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History The area now known as the city of Westlake was first ...

which mixes residential apartments with retail stores, restaurants and parks. Crocker Park was modeled on

Mizner Park Mizner Park is a high-end shopping, residential, and entertainment district located in the affluent downtown neighborhood of Boca Raton, Florida. The district consists of a collection of high-end shops and restaurants with luxury apartments buil ...

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 97,422 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and it ranked as the 23rd-largest city in Florida in 2022. Many people with a Boca Raton Address, ...

. He also redeveloped the Strip in

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in Stark County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, eighth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 70,872 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Canton–Massillo ...

(which relocated the center of real estate activity from the downtown to the suburbs) and Eton Chagrin Boulevard (formerly Eton on Chagrin) in Woodmere, Ohio. In 2010, Stark approached singer-songwriter

Yehudah Katz Yehudah Katz () is an American-born Israeli singer, songwriter, producer, arranger, and activist. He first rose to fame as the lead singer of seminal Jewish rock band Reva L'Sheva. As a solo artist, he has released three albums and performed w ...

to reinterpret and record some poetry he had written. This resulted in an album called ''Biladecha Lo Avo'' ("I'm Not Going Without You"). Produced by Gilad Vital of

Shotei Hanevuah Shotei Ha'nevua (), or The Fools of Prophecy, was an Israeli musical group selected as Israel's "Band of the Year" in 2005. The band described its music as a fusion of dub with hip-hop and dance music, with an eastern Mediterranean flavor. The ...

, the album received positive reviews and airplay in Israel and was played on

El Al EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd. (), trading as EL AL (, "Upwards", "To the Skies", or "Skywards", stylized as ELAL; ) is the flag carrier of Israel. Since its inaugural flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv in September 1948, the airline has grown to serve ...

flights. In November 2014, Stark proposed to build a $300 million, 54-story 650-foot office, entertainment, residential, retail, and hotel complex that will be located in downtown

Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex 200px, Logo for the Gateway Sports Complex The Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex is an entertainment complex located in downtown area of Cleveland, Ohio. It opened in 1994 and is owned by the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County and ...

District named

NuCLEus Nucleus (: nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucleu ...

. He purchased the land in September 2014 for $26 million. The project won unanimous approval from the Cleveland Planning Commission in November 2014. The tower would be the 4th tallest building in the city. Stark also invests real estate and donates to charities in Israel. He headed an investor group that invested over $3 billion in a new university town in

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

that included a medical school affiliated with

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

.Jewish Telegraph Agency: "American real estate mogul will build a university town near Safed, including a medical school"
December 17, 2007 In October 2011, Israel's fifth medical school opened in Safed, housed in a renovated historic building in the center of town that was once a branch of

Hadassah Hospital Hadassah Medical Center () is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem (one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus) as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology ...

.Haaretz: "New medical school opened in Safed" by Lior Dattel
October 30, 2011

Personal life

Stark is married and has four children. He practices

Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Torah, Written and Oral Torah, Oral, as literally revelation, revealed by God in Ju ...

. He is a past president of Fuchs Mizrachi School, the founder of the Safed Foundation, and a vice president of Young Israel of Cleveland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, Robert L. American Orthodox Jews American businesspeople in real estate 1951 births Businesspeople from Ohio Living people