"I first learned that at 13, after losing a basketball game bet to family friend Alan Horwitz, founder of Campus Apartments. My loss landed me in the glamorous role of cleaning his real-estate office every Saturday. What began as punishment turned into a curiosity about the business, and soon thereafter, I invested $2,000 of my bar mitzvah money into one of Campus Apartments' Philadelphia properties."
"But that's exactly why I chose a different route. Instead of filing for an IPO, I partnered with a sovereign wealth fund and a well-known real-estate investor to create the largest joint venture the student housing sector had ever seen. It was a risky move, but it gave us long-term capital without the pressure of meeting short-term financial goals. That choice allowed us to remain agile and invest strategically in graduate, faculty, and mixed-use housing while our competitors were constrained by public-market demands."
At 13, losing a basketball bet led to cleaning a real-estate office each Saturday and an early $2,000 investment in a Philadelphia student housing property. Over forty years, Campus Apartments became one of the nation's largest private student housing companies with more than $2 billion in assets across 18 states. Core lessons emphasize people, patience, and perspective over sales or spreadsheets. In the mid-2000s, the company declined an IPO and formed a joint venture with a sovereign wealth fund and a major investor to secure long-term capital. That structure avoided short-term public-market pressures, enabled strategic investments in graduate, faculty, and mixed-use housing, and preserved operational agility while competitors were constrained. Nontraditional, calculated risks positioned the company for long-term success.
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