Ramat was the chairman/CEO of Arisa Industries Inc., a multinational apparel maker among whose owned and licensed brands are Members Only, Perry Ellis and Fubu, as well as Hunt Club for JC Penney and Jacqueline Smith for Kmart. Ramat is no stranger to real estate however, having earlier been a principal of New York-based Ramyork Properties, a developer and owner of high-rise residential properties. Earlier, he was a principal of United Restaurant Corp., which held national franchise rights for Beefsteak Charlie's, and was a vice president at Landall Corp., a publicly traded real estate development firm.
The rest of top management remains in place, led by chairman Charles Kushner and managing partners and vice chairmen Richard Stadtmauer and Jeffrey Freireich. Ramat has been given the task of focusing on strategic planning to keep the company on its recent growth curve, including stretching its geographic reach.
With a couple of major acquisitions in the past two years, most notably its pick-up of WNY Group, Kushner has bumped its residential holdings up to 22,000 apartment units owned and managed, according to Freireich. The company also manages more than three million sf of office, industrial and retail space, with total ownership interests in more than six million sf in seven states.
The firm's construction division, Westminster Communities, meanwhile, currently has 40 projects in various stages of approval and development. Mostly in New Jersey and New York, they range from single-family luxury homes and active adult communities, to urban mixed-use redevelopments and apartment complexes, according to Freireich.
"When the opportunity arose to join the company, the timing was right for me to get back to my roots in real estate," says Ramat.
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