NEW YORK CITY—Victor Elmaleh, chairman and founding partner of World Wide Group, died earlier this week at the age of 95.
Elmaleh was considered a renaissance man with wide ranging talents, knowledge and accomplishments. Real estate legend, champion athlete, philanthropist, musician and more are some of the words family, colleagues, friends and peers use to describe him.
Born in Morocco in 1918, Victor came to the US as a child and went on to attend Brooklyn College. He studied piano and music, but changed his field of study and transferred to the University of Virginia, where he earned a degree in architecture.?
Elmaleh worked in the field until the late 1940's. In 1954, with the support of his father, Raphael H. Elmaleh, along with Frank and Arthur Stanton, he launched World-Wide Volkswagen; which became the first Volkswagen distributor in the US and grew to include Porsche and Audi.
The company expanded its focus to include residential, hospitality, office, and specialty retail buildings, renaming the corporation World Wide Group. Elmaleh and his partners brought over $7 billion of real estate development to the United States, including such projects as the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, Worldwide Plaza on Manhattan's West Side, City Lights in Long Island City, 71 Broadway, 255 E. 74th St., and 300 E. 55th St.
Most recently, Elmaleh was working on World-Wide's 700 foot tall condominium tower located at 252 E. 57th St. and its 421-unit luxury rental building in Long Island City.??
He is survived by his wife and two sons: Niko, an EVP of World-Wide, and Antonio, an author. Memorial contribution may be made to Career Transition for Dancers or Concert Artists Guild.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
