Chicago real estate mogul Sam Zell, who earned a multibillion-dollar fortune and a reputation as a “tomb dancer” for his ability to revive moribund properties, has died.
Zell died at home on Thursday due to complications from a recent illness, according to Equity Group Investments, a company he founded in 1968.
In a statement, the company said: “Sam Zell was a self-taught visionary entrepreneur.
“He has launched and grown hundreds of businesses over his 60+ year career and created countless jobs.
“While his investments have spanned industries across the globe, he has been most widely recognized for his pivotal role in creating the modern real estate investment trust, which today represents a more than $4 trillion industry. .”
Zell, pictured here in 2014, on the Fox Business Show ‘Opening Bell with Maria Bartiromo’
Pictured: Zell walks on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 2007, following a meeting with Senate Democratic leaders.
Zell had amassed a net worth of $5.3 billion according to Forbes. Photographed here in 2017
Bearded and outspoken, Zell reveled in challenging conventional wisdom.
He had a golden touch with real estate and started managing apartment buildings as a college student.
By the time he reached his 70s, he had amassed an estimated fortune of $3.8 billion.
Zell sold Equity Office, the office tower company he spent three decades building, to Blackstone Group for $39 billion in 2007.
It was the largest private equity deal in history and Zell personally raised $1 billion.
A month later, he struck another deal that ultimately tarnished his image: the acquisition of the struggling Tribune Co. for $13 billion.
Tribune filed for bankruptcy a year later during the global financial crisis after advertising revenue plummeted as more readers began to get their news online.
Zell dubbed the acquisition a “deal from hell.”
A year later, the media giant filed for bankruptcy due to the acquisition.
Real estate was his trademark, but as he noted in an interview shortly before he struck the ill-fated Tribune deal, it only made up around 25% of his holdings.
Zell took over Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in a deal he later said was a “deal from hell”.
Zell, pictured here, in his Chicago office in September 1997
He is survived by his wife Helen, three children and nine grandchildren.
In a statement released by his company, they said Zell had died following a recent illness.
Zell was born in Highland Park, Illinois in September 1941, four months after his immigrant parents arrived in the United States.
Zell’s parents had fled Poland before the Nazi invasion.
His father was a wholesale jeweler who successfully dabbled in real estate investing and the stock market.
Young Zell took pictures at his 8th grade prom and sold them, then proceeded to buy Playboy magazines in downtown Chicago and resell them to classmates at Hebrew School in suburbs for a 200% increase.
His first successes in real estate came while he was a student at the University of Michigan.
After managing the apartment building where he lived in exchange for free rent, he moved on to managing other properties, eventually incorporating an apartment management business and then reselling it.
After working briefly at a Chicago law firm, he teamed up with his Ann Arbor fraternity brother Robert Lurie and they began acquiring struggling properties from developers bogged down by high interest rates. high interest.
This practice continued through the recession of the mid-1970s, with great success.
He then co-founded the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in 1999 with Lurie’s widow, Ann.
A huge fan of motorbikes, he is pictured here with Zell’s Angels Motorcycle Club
As a youngster, he reportedly sold Playboy magazines and sold them to classmates for a 200% markup.
Zell’s reputation grew, and in 1976 the contrarian investor spoke of his penchant for spotting and pursuing opportunities in an article he titled “The Grave Dancer.” The nickname stuck.
After the savings and loans crisis of the 1980s, Zell went on a real estate buying spree. He also encouraged institutional investors to pool their money for commercial real estate in the early 1990s when he was lagging behind.
Zell liked risk, both in his business dealings and in his personal life. He once admitted riding his motorcycle as fast as 145 mph while traveling through the South American pampas.
His love of motorcycles led him to form a band called Zell’s Angels, consisting mostly of business magnate friends who would ride with him around the world. He was an avid skier, racquetball player, paintball enthusiast, and sports fan over the years, with appearances in the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox.
Zell was fiercely protective of his personal life. Reports say he married at least three times and had three children. He maintained homes in Chicago and Southern California.
Zell is survived by his wife, Helen; his sister Julie Baskes and her husband, Roger Baskes; his sister Leah Zell; his three children, Kellie Zell and son-in-law Scott Peppet, Matthew Zell and JoAnn Zell; and her nine grandchildren.
Scott Peppet, Chairman of Chai Trust Company and son-in-law of Sam, said: “Sam lived his life testing his limits and helping those around him do the same.
“He was a self-taught entrepreneur, a creator and industry leader, a brilliant negotiator, a generous philanthropist and the head of a family he loved and fiercely protected.
“He had an unabashed passion for life, a brilliant mind, an infectious spirit and a deep sense of civic responsibility and personal loyalty. He will be terribly missed by all who loved and learned from him.
