The Cayre brothers built their fortune on disco, animated films, video games and, eventually, real estate.
These ventures have at least one thing in common: They show the family’s knack for tapping into trends, timing an investment at the height of interest — and exiting when the party is over.
One branch of the family’s foray into members-only clubs in Manhattan appears to be the latest example. The company, Midtown Equities, bought Soho House in 2012 and invested in the transformation of the Battery Maritime Building into Casa Cipriani in 2018. It is now in the process of opening another venue in the former Spice Market building at 403 West 13th Street in the Meatpacking District.
The families of three Cayre brothers, Joseph, Kenneth and Stanley, each run their own real estate companies, and though the brothers retired their disco record label in the 1980s, it is easier to find information on that business than on the inner workings of their current enterprises.
That, it seems, is by design. The family rarely talks to the press, and various members declined to speak for this story, citing a longstanding policy.
But if what you do speaks louder than what you say, the Cayres’ dealings are worth some close analysis. While flying under the radar, the family collectively has amassed a sizable portfolio of retail, office, residential and self-storage properties, as well as the members-only clubs. They give to campaigns and host charity events. Members of the family were among Gov. Kathy Hochul’s biggest supporters in the real estate industry during the 2022 election campaign, but they have also supported local candidates over the years.
Leveling up
The Cayre brothers got their start working in their father’s souvenir store in Miami Beach in the 1950s. In a 2008 interview with The Real Deal, Joseph Cayre said his job was necessary to keep the family afloat financially.
He attributed his later success to that experience.
“You would sell a lot of stuff, but you were really selling yourself,” he said.
After a few other business ventures, including factories that made pantyhose and eight-track cassette tapes, the brothers founded Salsoul Records in 1974. The label, whose name is a portmanteau of “salsa” and “soul,” released the first commercially available 12-inch “disco disc.”
“You would sell a lot of stuff, but you were really selling yourself.”
The brothers went on to run GoodTimes Entertainment, a home video company that distributed titles in the public domain, less generously referred to as “mockbusters.” In GoodTimes’ version of “The Little Mermaid,” an aquatic princess, Lena, sets her sights on Prince Stefan.
Disney called such knockoffs “parasite products” and unsuccessfully sued the company in the early ’90s over its packaging of “Aladdin.” At the time, Joseph Cayre acknowledged the benefits of timing their release of public domain titles as Disney rolled out its major releases.
“If they spent so much money to create a big to-do,” he told the New York Times, “what better time to put it out? And it being a public domain vehicle, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
The company also distributed celebrity workout videos, including the self-explanatory (but worth looking up) “Marky Mark: Focus, Fitness” and “Fabio Fitness.”
GoodTimes also launched a video game subsidiary, GT Interactive, which went public in 1995 off the strength of popular titles like first-person shooter game Doom, Mortal Kombat III, Total Annihilation and Deer Hunter. The company, which specialized in PC games, was hit hard by the advent of home game consoles. Infogrames Entertainment acquired it in 1999.
By that time, the brothers were formalizing their real estate holdings.
It can be difficult to map the Cayres’ property companies to the various branches of the family, especially since different groups frequently partner on projects, but here’s the substance of it: Joseph Cayre founded development and investment firm Midtown Equities in 2000. He works with his sons Michael and Jack. His sons Steven and Daniel run separate businesses, and daughter Grace, while involved in several deals, is not a partner at Midtown.
The company has built a portfolio of retail, residential, office and hospitality properties in New York, Miami and beyond. It invested in the World Trade Center development alongside Silverstein Properties and Goldman Sachs and co-developed a 26-acre mixed-use development in Miami, dubbed Midtown Miami.
Casa Cayre, Chez Cayre
Midtown Equities is investing in members-only clubs — a trend that has made headlines, in part because Mayor Eric Adams frequents Zero Bond, an exclusive club in Noho.
To build Casa Cipriani, Midtown Equities helped overhaul the Battery Maritime Building, a Beaux-Arts ferry terminal constructed in 1909, taking a 30 percent equity stake in the project in 2018 and partnering with Centaur Properties and Cipriani.
The terminal is now home to a private club, hotel, luxe event space, spa and restaurant. Richie Akiva, dubbed the “King of New York Nightlife” by Forbes, seemed to approve of the result. He held his annual Met Gala after-party at the club this year.
A picture from the Moonlight Gala held at Casa Cipriani in December, which was held to raise money for victims of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, shows Michael Cayre posing next to the mayor. (The families run a few charitable foundations focused on supporting Jewish causes and organizations.) Adams has also had campaign fundraisers there.
For the next venue, Midtown teamed up with chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten to open the venue on West 13th, a private supper club called Chez Margaux. The goal there is to combine “the elegance of Paris in the 1930s” and “London’s renowned nightlife culture,” Eater reported.
“I think they’ve done a fantastic job of identifying iconic properties,” said Zack Bates, a consultant on private clubs who’s based in Los Angeles. “Them moving into the hospitality space is a reflection of them changing with the times and identifying trends that have longevity.”
Midtown Equities is an active buyer and seller of buildings beyond the club projects. In April, the firm went into contract to sell a site at 205 Montague Street in Brooklyn first put up for sale in 2015.
The buyer, Landau Properties, plans to build a 47-story residential tower to replace the current six-story office and retail building.
Putting money where their mouth is
In recent years, some members of the family have become more active in city and state politics, mostly in the form of campaign donations.
Joseph Cayre, his wife, Trina, and their son Jack in 2020 and 2023 gave tens of thousands of dollars to political action committees formed by lobbyist Jeffrey Leb. The PAC backed moderate City Council candidates and targeted far-left challengers, and the communications it sent out focused on public safety. Judging only by these donations, this group of Cayres seems intent on keeping the left in power in New York City — but also keeping its left flank in check.
“I think they’ve done a fantastic job of identifying iconic properties. Them moving into the hospitality space is a reflection of them changing with the times, and identifying trends that have longevity.”
Various members of the family contributed to Hochul’s campaign for governor in 2022. Joseph and Trina, along with their sons Michael and Jack and their wives, each gave the maximum amount permitted at the time, $69,700.
Kenneth, Stanley and their families donated to Hochul’s challenger Lee Zeldin, each giving no more than $5,000.
Some members of the family, including Michael, have contributed to Adams’ legal defense fund, which was formed last year after federal authorities raided the home of one of the mayor’s top aides as part of an investigation into campaign fundraising, according to the New York Times. The donations may not be permitted because the families have business before the city, as first reported by the website Hell Gate. The city code bars people with business dealings with the city, as well as their spouses, from making such contributions.
Retail long game
Stanley and his sons Amin, David and (a different) Jack run an apparel company, the Cayre Group. His youngest son, Bobby Cayre, founded Aurora Capital Associates in 2001, initially focusing on “high street” retail. The company is one of the biggest landlords in the Meatpacking District and Soho and has more recently gravitated toward developing ground-up boutique office and retail, as well as residential. Last year the company teamed up with John Ellis Real Estate to reposition an office and retail building at 24 Ninth Avenue.
The company also secured a 13,000-square-foot lease with French fashion house Saint Laurent on Gansevoort Row, a nine-building retail strip between Greenwich and Washington streets in the neighborhood, capitalizing on the retail market’s unexpected rise from the dead.
Kenneth has Cayre Equities, which he started in 2003 and runs with his sons Nathan and Jack, managing retail and self-storage properties, operating the latter through Treasure Island Storage.
Developer Eli Weiss, who has worked on industrial deals with Cayre Equities in the past, described Kenneth as one of the hardest-working people he’s ever met. He said the octogenarian is still very hands-on when it comes to his business.
“The guy doesn’t miss a detail,” he said. “He’s one of the people you meet in your career and think, “I wish to be such a class act when I get to that age.’”
When Hurricane Sandy sent art galleries and storage facilities flocking across the Hudson River to Jersey City and Newark, Kenneth wanted to focus on bringing these investments back to New York, according to a 2014 application to New York City for a tax break for an art storage facility in Harlem.
The application describes Kenneth as “an artist at heart,” a callback to the brothers’ eclectic early business ventures that, even in small ways, inform what they build and buy today.
The note, though vague, is about as vivid a description of a Cayre family member as exists in the record. As for what the real estate holdings and political contributions say, in sum: public safety is good, self-storage has a place in a portfolio, retail is coming back and wealthy New Yorkers need social spots to call their own.