For Mark Epstein, there’s no escaping the darkish shadow solid by his brother Jeffrey. There’s simply an opportunity to maintain plugging alongside along with his actual property profession whereas Jeffrey stays a high information story seven years after his loss of life in a Brooklyn jail cell.
Mark started his time as an actual property investor within the early Nineteen Nineties, however the Brooklyn-raised artist-turned-property maven lived an entrepreneurial life, in accordance with the Wall Avenue Journal. Companies included silk-screen T-shirt firm Izmo, constitution and leasing firm Atelier Enterprises, Epstein Acquisitions (dissolved in 2015) and a modeling and expertise company.
Mark’s publicly identified holdings are restricted, probably obscured behind untraceable shell firms. He has a 27,000-square-foot workplace constructing at 30 Vandam Avenue in Midtown South and far of a condominium constructing on the Higher East Aspect the place Jeffrey housed alleged victims. In 1993, the New York Instances reported Mark owned 4 co-op properties within the metropolis, comprising almost 500 models.
Since he’s saved a lot of his actual property dealing — and private life — near the vest, every of his strikes is magnified.
Final week, Mark listed a 60,000-square-foot workplace constructing at 515 Greenwich Avenue in Hudson Sq., which is absolutely occupied and will reportedly reel in $75 million, in accordance with Crain’s.
The property’s major enchantment is its potential, as zoning permits as much as 151,000 sq. ft of improvement — greater than double as we speak’s dimension — permitting for a doable residential conversion.
The extent of Mark’s lively actual property portfolio past the workplace constructing is unclear. So is the supply of Mark’s wealth, similar to his brother’s.
Within the fall earlier than Jeffrey’s arrest and loss of life, Mark and a co-owner donated a luxurious yacht beforehand valued at $1 million to a nonprofit, the Marine Science and Nautical Coaching Academy in Charleston, in accordance with the Wall Street Journal.
Previous to that, he donated lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} to Cooper Union, the place he’s an alum and served as chair of the board of trustees for greater than a half-decade earlier than resigning in 2015.
He additionally confronted a $67,000 tax lien on the time of the yacht donation. Mark declined to debate his funds with the Journal on the time.
Mark has by no means been in a position to shake the ties to his brother. In 2019, Crain’s reported on a Harlem constitution college submitting supplies to the State College of New York associating Mark Epstein’s Ossa Properties with Jeffrey Epstein’s J. Epstein & Co. These supplies included reference to an Ossa government who concurrently labored on the asset administration agency.
Defiant, Mark mentioned there was “no enterprise relationship between these entities.”
He’s been extra forthcoming about Jeffrey’s use of models on the 301 East 66th Avenue condominium advanced, owned by Ossa. Jeffrey allegedly housed underaged women on the models; Mark acquired the constructing within the early Nineteen Nineties from Victoria’s Secret scion Les Wexner, utilizing a tip from Jeffrey.
“I don’t reside in that constructing, I don’t monitor who makes use of these flats,” Mark mentioned in 2019. As of 2024, he nonetheless owned at the least 150 models on the property, in accordance with Curbed, and his ex-wife nonetheless has a images studio in a kind of models.
He finally used his Florida house as collateral for Jeffrey’s bail bond following his arrest in July of that 12 months. That condominium was valued at solely $100,000, in accordance with the Wall Avenue Journal.
His bail request was denied, although, and Jeffrey was discovered lifeless in his jail cell a month later, the place he was awaiting trial on costs of intercourse trafficking.
Earlier than Donald Trump signed a invoice to launch the Epstein recordsdata this fall, Mark pushed again towards a number of of the claims made by the president, in accordance with Realtor.com, together with the declare that Trump kicked Jeffrey out of Mar-a-Lago as a result of he was a “sick pervert.”
Mark additionally claimed Trump had spoken to Jeffrey after the 2016 election, disputing a declare the 2 had not spoken since 2004.
“They had been good mates, all people round knew that,” Mark mentioned to CNN’s Erin Burnett.
Learn extra
Jeffrey Epstein’s brother seeks to sell five-story office building
Documents highlight Jeffrey Epstein’s real estate rolodex
These are Jeffrey Epstein’s real estate ties to his brother Mark
