Ryan Serhant has made his name as a real estate tycoon, as seen in Owning Manhattan. Netflix’s newest real estate reality show focuses on the many agents at Serhant’s New York brokerage, including Jade Shenker, who was seemingly born to a real estate dynasty.
Unlike most of Serhant’s other agents who sell homes and rent out apartments, Shenker wants to make her name in commercial real estate. She made a good first impression by using her socialite connections to hold an Anna Delvey art show at one of her listings and then selling the building very quickly.
However, Shenker’s lofty real estate aspirations started with her family. In the second episode of the series, she claims that her father was one of the first people to invest in New York’s East Village. Here’s everything you need to know about Shenker’s mysterious investor dad.
Jade’s Family Connection To NYC Real Estate
Shenker’s father Marc was born into real estate, and passed on his passion to his daughter. In a Change.org petition, Shenker said that her great-grandfather Sol was a New York landlord, and her father Marc took over his operations in the 1970s, expanding the family business by buying several residential buildings in the East Village.
“Purchasing 7 back to back buildings between Avenue A and B, Marc made it his mission to cater to artists, musicians, and the theater crowd,” she wrote. According to Shenker, he allocated units specifically to struggling performers and often gave them free rent so they didn’t have to give up their dreams, apparently making fans out of actors like Steve Buscemi and Andy Kaufman.
Now, Shenker is starting to build on her family’s legacy by selling buildings of her own, but her roots are still planted in the East Village. According to her Serhant bio, she’s still “an active member of the East Village block association,” as her family still owns property in the neighborhood.
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