Jared’s White House Move ‘Crushed’ Kushners’ Deal For Troubled Manhattan Tower

By Daniel J. Solomon September 14, 2017

Jared Kushner’s new gig at the White House has stymied his family’s effort to find a partner to redevelop their money-pit office tower headquarters in midtown Manhattan, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Kushner Companies, the family-owned real estate firm, has been coming up short in finding a business willing to work together to transform the Fifth Avenue skyscraper into a taller and more profitable mixed-use commercial and residential building.

Jared Kushner’s appointment as White House senior adviser has also scared potential investors – afraid they might get caught up in conflict of interest scrutiny. Before the election, the company had been talks with Russian and Chinese firms – arrangements that fell through in the aftermath of a Trump victory.

“They were crushed by this,” Thomas Barrack, a family friend and billionaire, told the Washington Post. “Just about completely chilled the market, and [potential investors] just said, ‘No way — can’t be associated with any appearances of conflict of interest,’ even though there was none.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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