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New York Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Monroe Milstein, Burlington Coat Factory Founder, Dies at 98
Monroe Milstein, who turned a $75,000 investment in a derelict New Jersey garment plant into the nation's third-largest discount retailer, Burlington Coat Factory — which he would sell in 2006 for more than $2 billion — died on May 9 at his home in Bal Harbour, Fla. He was 98. The cause was complications of dementia, his grandson Samuel Milstein said. Mr. Milstein's career was not quite a rags-to-riches story, unless the word 'rags' is synonymous with garment center merchandise in general. In 1972, he and his wife, Henrietta Milstein, ventured her savings as a Long Island teacher and transformed a former factory in Burlington, N.J., which they had bought for $675,000, into a mecca for busloads of frugal customers. They lured their patrons from the Philadelphia metropolitan area and beyond to buy marked-down designer and brand-name coats for women and, later, linens, men's wear, baby clothes and shoes. By the time they had divested themselves of their family-run company, it was operating 367 stores in 42 states and had recorded sales of $3.2 billion annually. The Milsteins sold their shares for $1.3 billion. 'I'm a very average fella,' Mr. Milstein said on his 80th birthday. 'I got lucky.' The Burlington Coat Factory — which was not affiliated with the fabric maker Burlington Industries — thrived by placing large orders for merchandise directly from manufacturers, for department stores' unsold seasonal items and for other surplus products, and then selling the goods at a 20 to 60 percent discount from retail prices. 'Manufacturers love to sell to us because we move merchandise and don't make demands,' Mr. Milstein told New Jersey Business magazine in 1987. 'The only problem comes about when they're threatened by other retail accounts who don't want to compete against off-pricers like us.' Monroe Gerald Milstein (he changed his middle name to Gary when he was in college) was born on Jan. 14, 1927, in the Bronx. His father, Abe, who was born in Russia, founded Amherst Fashions, a wholesaler. His mother, Ann (Isaacs) Milstein, helped out when her son started his own business. When Monroe was 11, the family moved to Manhattan. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and earned a bachelor's degree in business from New York University in 1946. In 1949, he married Henrietta Haas, an elementary-school teacher who fled the Holocaust in Europe when she was 9 and went on to develop Burlington's children's division; she died in 2001. In addition to his grandson Samuel, his survivors include three sons from that marriage, Lazer, Andrew and Stephen Milstein; his wife, Judith (Kirshenbaum) Milstein, whom he married in 2003; five other grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. (His sister, Barbara Beyda, and two of his children died earlier.) In 1946, Mr. Milstein joined his father's wholesale coat and jacket business in Manhattan's garment district. He was also selling retail on Saturdays, so successfully that his wife persuaded him, against his father's advice, to withdraw her savings to buy the former Burlington factory, which had housed a failing business on the Delaware River in suburban Philadelphia that made and sold dresses for Jonathan Logan. The Milsteins opened their first store in the building, in an area that would become a hub for factory outlets. Their second store, which opened in 1975, was in Copiague, N.Y., on Long Island, and overseen by their son Lazer, who as an Orthodox Jew kept it closed on Saturdays. The store flourished on Sundays, when few other retailers were open. Another store, on Park Place in Lower Manhattan — the company's first in that borough — was in the news when sections of landing gear and fuselage tore through the roof and several floors after terrorists crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. According to family lore, Mr. Milstein was once renovating a former furniture store in Pine Brook, N.J., when a demolition company presented an exorbitant estimate for razing a wall. He spotted a highway crew working nearby; they agreed to knock down the wall for two cases of beer. The company had philanthropic partnerships with a number of charitable organizations, including the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Warm Coats and Warm Hearts Drive, and WomenHeart, which supports women with heart disease. Mr. Milstein was chairman, chief executive and president of the Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation, a no-frills operation (for a long time he rode to work by bus), until he retired in 2005. His sons were executives of the company, which had the third most outlets in the country, behind TJX, which operates T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, and Ross Stores. The family took the firm public in 1983 and sold it to Bain Capital, an investment firm, in 2006. Mr. Milstein was well regarded by his former employees. Judy Grassi, who worked for Burlington for 31 years, recalled on the obituary website Dignity Memorial that Mr. Milstein liked to say, 'If you like your job, it's not work.' Another former colleague, Cheryl Resnick, recalled on the same site: 'We all were using technology to place our buys; Monroe went by his gut.'
Miami Herald
08-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Did your favorite South Florida billionaire make Forbes world's richest list?
The Forbes annual list of more than 3,000 global billionaires includes 50 people from South Florida. Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties each can boast bragging rights of having the most billionaires — 23 apiece — while Broward notches four on the 2025 list released in April. The edge? Give it to Miami-Dade for featuring two in the Top 40 of highest net worth, with Indian Creek's Jeff Bezos — Amazon founder, Miami Palmetto Senior High Class of 1982 and Miami Herald Silver Knight winner for science — ranking at No. 3. He is just behind Tesla/Space X's Elon Musk and Meta's Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at No. 1 and 2, respectively. Ken Griffin, the Daytona Beach-born financier behind Citadel who moved his headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022 , ranked No. 35. The highest-ranked Palm Beach County billionaire among the world's Top 40 was Interactive Brokers' asset trading platform's Thomas Peterffy at No. 27. Among Broward's four to make the list, philanthropist Elisabeth DeLuca, widow of Subway co-founder Fred DeLuca, and her family rank No. 344. Newcomers include Ukraine-born Leonid Radvinsky, owner of OnlyFans, who, at 42, is South Florida's youngest billionaire in South Florida, according to the South Florida Business Journal. The collective net worth of the 50 South Floridians was $580.4 billion – nearly 20% more than 2024's list of local billionaires ($487.9 billion), the outlet reported. South Florida list Miami-Dade ▪ No. 3 Jeff Bezos: $215 billion, 61, Indian Creek Village, ▪ No. 35 Ken Griffin: $42.3 billion, 56, Miami, Citadel, a hedge fund, securities brokerage. ▪ No. 274 Josh Harris: $9.9 billion, 60, Miami Beach, Apollo Global Management, private equity. ▪ No. 280: Orlando Bravo: $9.8 billion, 54, Miami Beach, Thoma Bravo, private equity. ▪ No. 343: Micky Arison: $8.7 billion, 75, Bal Harbour, chairman Carnival Corporation cruise line and Miami Heat owner. ▪ No. 540 Sami Mnaymneh: $6.4 billion, 63, Miami Beach, H.I.G. Capital, private equity. ▪ No. 597 Rakesh Gangwal: $5.9 billion, 71, Miami, InterGlobe Aviation. ▪ No. 673 William Berkley: $5.3 billion, 78, Miami's Coconut Grove, W. R. Berkley, insurance. ▪ No. 734 Peter Cancro: $4.9 billion, 67, Miami, Jersey Mike's Subs. ▪ No. 767 Herbert Wertheim: $4.7 billion, 85, Coral Gables, Brain Power Inc., an optical lens and sunglasses manufacturer. ▪ No. 789 Carl Icahn: $4.6 billion, 89, Indian Creek Village, Icahn Enterprises, holding company. ▪ No. 929 Daniel Och: $3.9 billion, 64, Miami Beach, Willoughby Capital, growth equity family office. ▪ No. 948 Leonid Radvinsky: $3.8 billion, 42, Miami, OnlyFans content subscription-based platform. ▪ No. 1,045 Norman Braman: $3.5 billion, 92, Miami, Braman Motorcars. ▪ No. 1,305. Barry Sternlicht: $2.8 billion, 64, Miami, Starwood Capital Group, private equity. ▪ No. 1,533. Scot French: $2.3 billion, 54, Bal Harbour, HPS Investment Partners, private equity. ▪ No. 1,573. Leonard Abess: $2.3 billion, 76, Miami, City National Bank of Florida. ▪ No. 1,688: Jorge Mas: $2.1 billion, 62, Miami, MasTec, construction. ▪ No. 1,763: Marcelo Claure: $2 billion, 54, Miami Beach, Claure Group, private equity and venture capital. ▪ No. 1,850 Itzhak Ezratti and family: $1.9 billion, 72, Indian Creek Village, GL Homes. ▪ No. 2,019 Jorge Pérez: $1.7 billion, 75, Miami, Related Group. ▪ No. 2,019 Albert Nahmad: $1.7 billion, 84, Coral Gables, Watsco air conditioning parts company. ▪ No. 2,933 Jeffrey Soffer: $1 billion, 57, Aventura, Fontainebleau Development and Turnberry Associates. Broward ▪ No. 344 Elisabeth DeLuca and family: $8.6 billion, 77, Pompano Beach, Subway. ▪ No. 364 Igor Olenicoff: $8.3 billion, 82, Lighthouse Point, Olen Properties. ▪ No. 767 Rajiv Jain: $4.7 billion, 57, Fort Lauderdale, GQG Partners, hedge fund. ▪ No. 948 Nick Caporella: $3.8 billion, 89, Plantation, National Beverage. Palm Beach ▪ No. 27 Thomas Peterffy: $57.3 billion, 80, Palm Beach, Interactive Brokers. ▪ No. 95. David Tepper: $21.3 billion, 67, Palm Beach, Appaloosa Management and owner of NFL's Carolina Panthers. ▪ No. 111 Stephen Ross: $18.4 billion, 84, Palm Beach, Related Ross and Miami Dolphins owner. ▪ No. 199 (tie). J. Christopher Reyes: $12 billion, 71, Jupiter, Reyes Holdings, food distribution. ▪ No. 199. (tie). Jude Reyes: $12 billion, 69, Palm Beach, Reyes Holdings. ▪ No. 380 Paul Tudor Jones, II.: $8.1 billion, 70, Palm Beach, Tudor Investment Corp. ▪ No. 390 Jeff Greene: $7.9 billion, 70, Palm Beach, Florida Sunshine Investments, real estate. ▪ No. 418 Terrence Pegula: $7.6 billion, 74, Boca Raton, East Resources natural gas company and owner of NFL's Buffalo Sabres. ▪ No. 498 Dirk Ziff: $6.2 billion, 61, North Palm Beach, Ziff Capital Partners. ▪ No. 581. James Clark: $6 billion, 81, Palm Beach, Netscape, technology. ▪ No. 639 John Henry: $5.5 billion, 75, Boca Raton, Boston Globe and Fenway Sports Group. ▪ No. 688 Russ Weiner: $5.2 billion, 54, Delray Beach, Rockstar energy drinks. ▪ No. 700 President Donald J. Trump: $5.1 billion, 78, ownerships include Mar-a-Lago, Trump Organization, Trump Media & Technology Group. ▪ No. 734 Isaac Perlmutter: $4.9 billion, 82, Palm Beach, Marvel Entertainment. ▪ No. 751 Charles B. Johnson: $4.8 billion, 92, Palm Beach, Franklin Templeton Investments. ▪ No. 979 Steve Wynn: $3.7 billion, 83, Palm Beach, Wynn Resorts. ▪ No. 1,045 Robert Johnson: $3.5 billion, 77, Palm Beach, Johnson & Johnson, NFL's New York Jets. ▪ No. 1,045 Michael Jordan: $3.5 billion, 62, Jupiter, NBA's Charlotte Hornets. ▪ No. 1,072 C. Dean Metropoulos: $3.4 billion, 78, Palm Beach, Metropoulos & Co. private equity. ▪ No. 1,072 William Wrigley Jr.: $3.4 billion, 61, North Palm Beach, Wrigley Management, Inc. ▪ No. 1,219 Robert Sands: $3 billion, 66, Delray Beach, Constellation Brands (alcohol) ▪ No. 1,850 Terry Taylor: $1.9 billion, 74, Palm Beach, Automotive Management Services car dealers. ▪ No. 1,968 Christopher Ruddy: $1.8 billion, 60, West Palm Beach, Newsmax Media.
