Notable Commercial Real Estate Figures Who Died in 2024 and Early 2025

The real estate industry lost some trailblazers since 2024’s Power 100, starting with architect Jeffrey Beers in March of last year.

Beers, who died from cancer at 67, was most notable for designing spaces for high-profile clientele such as Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club in Manhattan’s Flatiron District as well as restaurants for Gordon Ramsay in Las Vegas and Daniel Boulud on the Upper East Side.

Stellar Management founder Laurence “Larry” Gluck died in June due to complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Gluck led Stellar for 40 years, growing it to 13,000 apartments and about 3 million square feet of office and retail space under management.

In July, Real Estate Equities Corporation principal Brandon Miller died at 43. In 2004, Miller joined his father Michael Miller’s firm, which Michael founded in 1978, and which developed over 20 million square feet.

Jacob Chetrit, an owner of the Chetrit Organization, died in January 2025. Chetrit built his own firm in the 2010s from a branch of his brothers’ company the Chetrit Group, and its portfolio came to include the Financial District’s 1 Whitehall Street and SoHo’s 428 Broadway. 

In February, Olshan Properties founder Morton Olshan died at age 99. He was remembered for starting the development, acquisition and management firm — originally called Mall Properties — in 1967, and growing its total portfolio to 23 million square feet across the U.S. Olshan was particularly active in ownership in the Bronx. That included something beyond bricks and mortar: He was a part owner of the New York Yankees starting in 2000.

Also in February, The Georgetown Company founder Marshall Rose died of Parkinson’s disease at 88. He was credited with helping revitalize the New York Public Library’s hub as well as the adjacent Bryant Park area.

David Childs, the mind behind the designs of 1 World Trade Center, Deutsche Bank Center (formerly Time Warner Center) and other buildings, died in March at 83 due to complications from Lewy body dementia. His legacy was defined by his work helping Silverstein Properties with a tasteful redevelopment of the site where thousands died on Sept. 11, 2001, work that fellow Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architect Kenneth Lewis said helped earn Childs the descriptor of “the most humanist of architects.”

Lastly, Earle Altman, founder of ABS Partners Real Estate, died at 93 on May 1. Altman had a 40-year career at Helmsley Spear, where he managed its sales and leasing divisions before co-founding ABS in 1999 with Gregg Schenker, Peter Burack and Steven Hornstock, building its national portfolio to 102 buildings and more than 14 million square feet.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.