Jeffrey Feil

Feil was born to a Jewish family, the only son of Gertrude (née Cohen)[1] and Louis Feil.[2] His father first worked in the fur business before investing into real estate in the 1950s.[3] He took a conservative approach using minimal debt and re-invested his profits which enabled him to grow his portfolio steadily and to survive the inevitable downturns.[4] His father's motto was "take care of your buildings and your buildings will take care of you."[4] Feil was raised in Rockville Centre, New York.[3] He has three sisters: Marilyn Barry (born 1938), Judith Jaffe (born 1940), and Carole Feil (born 1944).[3] Feil graduated with a B.S. from the University of Cincinnati and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.[5]

In 1978, he joined The Feil Organization and after his father retired in 1988, he was running the organization.[4] His brother-in-law Stanley Barry, helped to manage the New York portfolio; his nephews, Justin and Eric Derfner, also worked for the Feil Organization.[3] In 1999, his father died with an estate estimated at $250 million.[3] In 2002, Feil was a founding partner of RCG Longview, a real estate financing company, separate from the Feil Organization.[5][6] RCG Longview and the Feil Organization, would often partner together to complete transactions.

In 2004, he was an investor in a group that purchased the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago for $840 million with partners Joseph Moinian, Joseph Chetrit, and Lloyd Goldman, eventually changing the name to the Willis Tower in 2009.[7] After the real estate crash of 2008–2009, and backed by the real estate held by the Feil Organization, he made several large and lucrative purchases.[3] In 2009, he partnered with Lloyd Goldman and Stanley Chera to purchase for $117 million the retail space in The St. Regis Hotel; in 2012, they sold it for $380 million.[3] Also in 2009, he partnered with George Comfort & Sons to purchase One Worldwide Plaza for $590 million after developer Harry Macklowe turned the property over to his lenders after the real estate crash (Macklowe had paid $1.74 billion for it in 2008); in 2013, they sold 49% of the building to RXR Realty, LLC for $600 million.[8] In 2010, he co-developed Bakery Square in Pittsburgh.

As of 2013, the Feil Organization owns or manages over $7 billion in real estate spread over nine states[3] including the Fred F. French Building and the General Electric Building.[3]

In 2011, Feil donated $3 million to the South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, New York to build a cancer center. The center was renamed The Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center at South Nassau Communities Hospital.[9] Feil serves as a trustee for the Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medicine; Yeshiva University, and Brooklyn Law School.[5] He also serves on the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York and is president of the Feil Family Foundation.[5] In 2013, Feil donated $28 million to establish the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College.[10] Also in 2013, Feil and his wife Lee donated $5 million to the Peconic Bay Medical Center to open an ambulatory care campus in Manorville, New York. It will be named The Gertrude and Louis Feil Campus for Ambulatory Care.[11][12]

Feil lives with his wife Eileen "Lee" Feil in Remsenburg, New York.[11] After his mother's death in 2006, his three sisters accused him of withholding distributions from their father's estate. The matters within the family ended in 2017 when a settlement was reached within the family.[13][14][15]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/real-estate-empire-survives-brutal-family-battle-1494932405