Real estate honcho Stanley Chera died Saturday after a nearly month-long battle with the coronavirus.
The 78-year-old developer, who introduced his pal President Trump at last fall’s Veterans Day Parade, had been rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital in late March from his summer home near Deal, New Jersey, as the coronavirus pandemic grew, as The Post first reported.
Trump had advised his longtime friend to decamp to Deal, where many Syrian Jewish families have large homes on the Atlantic Ocean, saying it would be “safer” than New York City, real estate sources said. But it was too late. Both he and his wife, Frieda — known as “Cookie” — came down with the illness, though she recovered.
“I have some friends that are unbelievably sick. We thought they were going in for a mild stay. And, in one case, he’s unconscious — in a coma. And you say, ‘How did that happen?’” Trump said of Chera at a recent White House briefing.
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Born in Brooklyn, Chera went from working in his father Isaac’s small store to buying the building next door and growing a real estate dynasty worth billions. Later, he became a Republican donor backing another real estate scion, his friend Trump, in his presidential bid.
Chera is survived by his three sons, Richard and Isaac, who run their father’s Crown Acquisitions, and Chaim, who joined Vornado Realty Trust after Crown and the Qatar Investment Authority bought stakes, a retail portfolio valued at $5.6 billion. There are also numerous grandchildren.
Crown is now an investor in some World Trade Center buildings and the owner of numerous Brooklyn and Manhattan retail assets, including the Fulton Mall, stores in the base of Olympic Tower and the St. Regis Hotel. The Vornado stake includes stores Crown previously owned at the base of 666 Fifth Ave. when that building was owned and operated by the Kushner family, including Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Chera and his wife were also major donors to many health and humanitarian causes.
