Sam Zell

Sam Zell built his career as the "Grave Dancer" — a nickname he proudly adopted for his strategy of buying distressed real estate assets at deep discounts from desperate sellers. He founded Equity Group Investments and created several major REITs including Equity Office Properties (commercial) and Equity Residential (apartments). His most famous transaction was selling Equity Office Properties to Blackstone for $39 billion in February 2007 — timing the peak of the commercial real estate market almost perfectly. He then made a controversial acquisition of Tribune Company (the newspaper and media company) in 2007, which subsequently went bankrupt — demonstrating that his timing in media was less fortunate. He passed away in May 2023. His book "Am I Being Too Subtle?" documented his investment philosophy.