LeFrak, one of New York City’s prolific rental landlords, has appointed a non-family member to its C-suite, marking a historic departure for the real estate dynasty.
Adam Silfen, a 20-year veteran of the firm, will take the role of president and chief operating officer — positions newly created for the 49-year-old, who previously ran acquisitions and capital markets.
Silfen is the first non-LeFrak to join the company’s office of the chairman in its 120-year history, the firm said.
Silfen steps into the spotlight as LeFrak’s succession plans are in focus.
Richard LeFrak, nearing 80, became chief executive officer when his father Sam LeFrak died in 2003. Richard LeFrak is still heading the firm; though, he cast off the CEO moniker at some point in recent years. A spokesperson said the firm doesn’t use the CEO title.
The sitting patriarch is executive chairman, the spokesperson said, and plans to eventually pass leadership on to his sons, Jamie and Harrison LeFrak — together, vice chairman.
The company’s spokesperson insisted that appointing Silfen as president and COO to a company previously operating without either role does not signal a shift in that plan.
Rather, LeFrak needs more leadership as it prepares to beef up its residential holdings and stretch into the Southeast.
“We’ve grown significantly over the past twenty years and need more senior hands on deck,” Richard LeFrak said in a statement. “I’ve watched Adam evolve into a top-notch executive and I’m very pleased he is joining my sons and me.”
Less than two years ago, Richard LeFrak, who has Parkinson’s disease, said he was preparing to pass the torch.
“I am going to be 78 years old, there is a time when you have to take a step back,” LeFrak told the Jersey Journal in May 2023. “The next generation has to have the experiences of making decisions and living with what they do.”
But then — he stayed put.
The same day The Jersey Journal reported Richard LeFrak’s projected move, the developer spoke with The Real Deal publisher Amir Korangy at the Jersey City Summit real estate event where he made no mention of the proposed shift. At the time, TRD reported that LeFrak remained CEO.
The patriarch did, however, characterize LeFrak’s sprawling waterfront development in Jersey City as “a family legacy, not my personal legacy,” at the event and told The Jersey Journal that his sons would go on to lead the family business.
Over more than a century, LeFrak has grown from an affordable housing developer to a national owner of luxury properties. The company currently has 1,500 residential apartments under development, the firm said, and land in New Jersey and Florida slotted for 16,000 rental apartments.
“If you build it, they will come,” was a favorite phrase of Sam LeFrak.
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