{"id":1004663734,"date":"2023-05-18T07:44:59","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T15:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004663734"},"modified":"2023-05-21T23:57:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T07:57:17","slug":"sam-zell-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/sam-zell-dies-at-81\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Zell Dies at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1004431960\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2020\/05\/zelly.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1004431960\" data-attachment-id=\"1004431960\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/covid-19-trends-of-the-week-5-8-2020\/zelly\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2020\/05\/zelly.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"400,342\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"zelly\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Sam Zell has died at 81. Image courtesy of Equity Group Investments&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2020\/05\/zelly.jpg?w=400\" class=\"wp-image-1004431960 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2020\/05\/zelly.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2020\/05\/zelly.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2020\/05\/zelly.jpg?resize=300,257 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1004431960\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam Zell has died at 81. <em>Image courtesy of Equity Group Investments<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sam Zell, the founder and chairman of <strong>Equity Group Investments<\/strong> who launched numerous companies in a career spanning more than six decades, has died at 81.<\/p>\n<p>A central figure in creating the modern REIT, which today represents a $4 trillion industry, Zell was born in Chicago, the son of Jewish immigrants who had fled Nazi-occupied Poland. He managed student housing apartments as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan and went on to found Equity Group in Chicago in 1968.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1990s, Zell launched a series of REITs, including <strong>Equity Residential<\/strong>, one of the largest apartment REITs ever formed, <strong>Equity LifeStyle Properties<\/strong> and <strong>Equity Office Properties Trust<\/strong>, which became the first REIT included in the S&amp;P 500 when it was sold for $39 billion in 1997 in the largest leveraged buyout up to that time. In 1999, Zell formed <strong>Equity International<\/strong> to invest in emerging international markets. He&nbsp;took over <strong>CommonWealth REIT<\/strong> in 2014, renaming the firm <strong>Equity Commonwealth<\/strong>.&nbsp;Zell&#8217;s strategy of being an active buyer during some of the industry&#8217;s worst downturns earned him the nickname, &#8220;the grave dancer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Although he was best known for his impact on commercial real estate, his holdings spanned a remarkably diverse array of industries, including transportation, energy, infrastructure, logistics, manufacturing, agribusiness and health care.<\/p>\n<p>As chairman of wire and cable provider <strong>Anixter International<\/strong> for over three decades, Zell shepherded the company\u2019s $4.5 billion sale in 2020. He was also chairman of energy-from-waste company <strong>Covanta Holding Corporation<\/strong> and media holding company <strong>Jacor Communications<\/strong>, among others.<\/p>\n<p>Zell is survived by his wife, Helen, his three children and nine grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Central to the creation of the REIT, the modern-day rainmaker was easily one of the era\u2019s most influential real estate entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3154,"featured_media":1004431960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21808,21742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004663734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-latest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - 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