Who

Boymelgreen is the CEO of the Brooklyn-based development group Leviev Boymelgreen, which builds and renovates luxury apartment buildings.

Backstory

In 1969, the Israeli-born, Lubavitch-Jewish Boymelgreen moved to America to study at a New York yeshiva. He eventually pursued a series of disparate occupations: He worked at a diamond mine in Brazil, opened a Jewish bookstore, Eichler's (which became one of the largest purveyors of Judaica in the area), and founded an asbestos-removal business. It was real estate, though, that put him on the map. In the mid-'90s, Boymelgreen started developing unremarkable low-rise buildings in Brooklyn; he moved onto more high profile—and high-end projects—after linking up with Israeli diamond billionaire Lev Leviev in late 2001. (They met on a Lubavitcher-sponsored cruise from Miami to the Caribbean.) With Leviev, who runs a diamond conglomerate called Africa-Israel Investments, Boymelgreen founded Leviev Boymelgreen, although the two have since split.

Of note

Boymelgreen has been one of the most prolific developers in Manhattan in recent years. In 2006, he constructed 20 Pine, an Armani-appointed condo tower that opened to great fuss. (Friend and fellow Israeli Michael Shvo was 20 Pine's marketer.) Other glossy residential buildings the partnership have developed in Manhattan include 88 Leonard, 60 Spring, 14 Wall, Downtown by Philippe Starck, and River Lofts, which is now home to Gwyneth Paltrow. In Brooklyn—where his developments tend to be more institutional-looking and considerably less sexy—Boymelgreen's projects have included Beacon Tower, Park Slope Gardens, and Novo Park Slope. And he and Leviev expanded outside the New York market, too, erecting condo towers in Miami, Las Vegas, and Toronto.

Boymelgreen and Leviev dissolved their partnership in late 2006, reportedly because of lingering acrimony over losses they incurred in several Miami developments. Per the terms of the split, Leviev took control of 23 Wall Street, 88 Leonard, and the pair's Miami and Las Vegas properties, while Boymelgreen was given exclusive ownership of five of their New York properties, including Atlantic Court in Brooklyn. (The two also continue to own several properties jointly.)

Boymelgreen has since teamed up with a new colossally rich Israeli business partner, Nochi Dankner, the chairman of one of Israel's largest banks, IDB, and his expansion plans have grown grander. He partnered with Danker to take control of the Israel-based real estate firm Azorim, which owns 15,000 apartments in Israel, a handful of malls and hotels (like the Sheraton franchise in Israel), and is also now developing about half a billion dollars worth of real estate on the outskirts of New Delhi. In New York, the biggest Boymelgreen project in the works is Gowanus Village, an Enrique Norten-designed development which will gentrify the area around the Gowanus Canal.

Drama

You can't develop a building in Brooklyn without pissing off hordes of people—see Bruce Ratner and Joseph Sitt—but Boymelgreen is especially controversial. Since he rarely hires union workers to build his buildings, labor rights activists and union workers themselves have repeatedly picketed his construction sites. There's now an anti-Boymelgreen website, shayaiscoming.com, devoted to warning the uninitiated about Boymelgreen's past labor abuses and otherwise monitoring the bearded builder. Another non-fan of Boymelgreen's is fellow controversy-prone Brooklyn developer David Walentas. To sabotage Boymelgreen's development 57 Front, Walentas threatened to build a large sculpture/eyesore right next to it.

On the side

With Meyer Eichler—with whom he founded Eichler's in the '80s—in late 2005 Boymelgreen started a bank, Liberty Pointe. Two Brooklyn outposts of the bank, which is geared toward ultra-Orthodox Jews (it closes early on Friday afternoons), are in the works. He also took control of a small, publicly-traded Israeli technology public company, Gambit Communications and Computers, renaming it Boymelgreen, which he's since used as a vehicle to finance some of his real estate acquisitions.

True story

Boymelgreen played a pivotal role in 1991's Crown Heights riots. Driving home through Brooklyn, he was the first person to chance upon a just-stabbed Yankel Rosenbaum, whose death shortly afterward would become one of the most infamous chapters in the riots.

Personal

Boymelgreen has eight children, six of whom work at his company. He lives in Crown Heights.