# Kushner Companies **Kushner Companies** is the real-estate firm founded in 1985 by [[Charles Kushner]] and run by [[Jared Kushner]] until he joined the White House in January 2017. Its debt-laden Manhattan tower, 666 Fifth Avenue, was bailed out in 2018 by a firm partly owned by Qatar's sovereign fund while Jared held a foreign-policy portfolio in the White House. ## 666 Fifth Avenue In January 2007 the company paid $1.8 billion for 666 Fifth Avenue — then the highest price ever paid for a single U.S. office building — financed with $50 million in equity and $1.75 billion in debt. At the end of 2011 Vornado Realty Trust bought 49.5% for $80 million and assumed half the debt, with part of the senior loan restructured into a "hope note." Between July 2016 and March 2017 the company negotiated with China's Anbang Insurance; the reported $400 million deal collapsed after Bloomberg reported it, and Anbang denied involvement. In February 2018 Kushner agreed to buy out Vornado's stake for $120 million. ## The Brookfield lease In August 2018 [[Brookfield Asset Management]]'s property arm took a 99-year lease on the building, prepaying roughly $1.1–1.3 billion (Commercial Observer and Wikipedia differ). The senior mortgage was repaid and the $300 million hope note written off. The Qatar Investment Authority owned about 9% of Brookfield Property Partners — a stake in the investor, not in the building — and denied interest in the deal. The building has since been redeveloped as 660 Fifth Avenue. ## Since Laurent Morali has been president since June 2016. Charles Kushner was pardoned on December 23, 2020 and confirmed as U.S. ambassador to France on May 19, 2025. The company's 2026 status is not verified. ## RWKB angle 666 Fifth is the model case of debt-driven [[Conflict of Interest]] in the first Trump term: a family balance sheet in distress while a family member conducted diplomacy with the governments able to relieve it. Compare [[Affinity Partners]] and the December 2016 Kushner meeting with [[Vnesheconombank]]'s chairman. ## See Also - [[Jared Kushner]] - [[Charles Kushner]] - [[Qatar]]