Laurent Morali and Nicole Kushner Meyer

The wheels of fortune — and real estate — may grind up and down, but Kushner Companies knows how to operate in any type of cycle. 

In the last few years, that’s meant focusing almost exclusively on multifamily development (with some mixed-use thrown in) concentrated primarily in South Florida and New Jersey, in addition to managing its existing portfolio of apartments throughout the country. 

That’s not to say the company’s projects aren’t varied. Since the beginning of 2024, Kushner Companies topped out the first 64-story tower of One Journal Square in Jersey City; scored approval for a luxury residential building in Surfside, Fla.; broke ground on the 300-unit Pier Village in Long Branch, N.J.; delivered the 393-unit 2000 Biscayne in Miami; and broke ground on the mammoth Monmouth Mall redevelopment in Monmouth, N.J. 

When complete, the Monmouth Mall project will include 1,000 apartments across three communities, with a center green connecting them, plus a public retail plaza anchored by Whole Foods. The plan is to downsize the existing mall and “de-mall” what remains, transforming some of it to an outdoor shopping center, said Laurent Morali.

That’s on top of the more than 1,000 units the firm delivered in 2023, including The Wynd 27 and Wynd 28 complexes in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood with 264 units combined, and 600 total units in East Hanover and Rutherford, N.J.

Of course, development requires financing, and Kushner is actively engaged in securing financing for the second phase of One Journal Square — which is already under construction — and other projects. In addition, the company has sold off some of its New York holdings and several lots near the Brightline train station in Fort Lauderdale, leaving them debt free on a third lot nearby, where they plan to build another rental. 

The company does have a Dumbo office portfolio that needs to be refinanced, but Morali is in the process of extending that $480 million, which is expected to close imminently. Likewise, they are scheduled to have closed on $315 million in construction financing by the time Commercial Observer’s Power 100 appears. They’re also in the market for new opportunities and have begun dipping their toes back into acquisitions, with one deal under contract at the time of publication and another $150 million multifamily project that closed this spring in Washington, D.C. 

“We’re very opportunistic and creative, so where there’s opportunity we figure it out,” said Nicole Kushner Meyer. (Full disclosure: Meyer is married to Joseph Meyer, chairman of CO owner Observer Media.)