Moishe Mana

Moishe Mana (Hebrew: משה מאנה; born 1956) is an American billionaire businessman and real estate developer.^[2] Originally from Israel, Mana emigrated to the US in 1983, where he founded his first business, Moishe's Moving Systems.^[1]

He went on to start further businesses including: GRM Document Management, the country's third largest document storage business;^[2] Milk Studios, a media and entertainment conglomerate; and Mana Contemporary, an art center and property developments in Miami.

Moishe grew up in the Hatikva neighborhood of Tel Aviv, the second of five children in a poor family.^[3] His parents were Iraqi-born immigrants who worked in various businesses, including real estate.^[3] After serving as an intelligence officer in the IDF,^[4] he studied law at Tel Aviv University for a year before leaving to pursue business in the private sector.^[3][4]

Moishe moved to New York City in 1983 with little money.^[5][3][4] He slept on park benches, and his first job was as a dishwasher in Greenwich Village.^[6] He transitioned into the construction industry, where a short-on-cash employer allowed him the use of the company van at night in lieu of wages.^[6] In a widely reported NYC "Rags to Riches" story, Moishe saved enough money to buy his own van.^[5][1] Realizing that anyone with a van and a strong back could start a moving company in 1980s New York, Moishe quickly began hiring other Israeli immigrants, and was able to swiftly undercut his competition.^[5] Within six years his company was one of the city's top residential movers.^[7] It eventually evolved into Moishe's Moving Logistics.

By the late 1980s Moishe's Moving Logistics had become the largest moving company in the tri-state area. As the company grew, Moishe began purchasing warehouse space and offering storage solutions. By 1998, he had amassed more than 1.5 million square feet of commercial real estate.^[8] Today, Moishe owns a conglomerate of fifteen companies including Moishe's Guarantee Asset Management,^[9] Mana Fine Arts, Moishe's Guarantee Wine Storage,^[10] GRM Information Management,^[11] Moishe's Self Storage, and MANA Common (New Jersey, Chicago, Wynwood, and Downtown Miami).

Mana launched GRM Information Management in 1986, and it became the third largest document and digital storage company in the US, with additional branches in China and Latin America.^[11][12] It was the first document storage company to utilize barcodes in its warehouses.^[13] In 2011, the former CEO of Emptoris, Avner Schneur, took charge of GRM.^[12]

In 1995, Mana began to focus on the Meatpacking District of New York City, which was then an underdeveloped part of Manhattan.^[1] Fashion entrepreneur Mazdack Rassi convinced him to convert one of his mini storage facilities into an event and office space, and he created MILK Studios.^[14]

Mana opened MILK Studios branch in Los Angeles, and went on to start a number of related companies including MILK Agency,^[15] a brand development outfit; Velem,^[16] a post production studio; Milk Makeup;^[17] and House Casting.^[18] The NYC location also operates MILK Gallery, an art space.^[3]

By the late 2000s Mana had become a contemporary art collector and questioned how art was collected, stored, and managed in cloistered facilities.^[19]

In 2009, Mana and his long-time business partner Eugene Lemay began assembling over two million square feet of empty warehouses in Jersey City, New Jersey for the purposes of disrupting the art storage market.^[20][21] He then converted this assemblage into an arts community called Mana Contemporary.^[22] With services, spaces, and programming for artists, collectors, curators, performers, students and community, MANA Contemporary includes artist studios, living space, creative, photography, fashion, exhibition spaces, and storage.^[21][23]

Mana set his sights on developing an arts community in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. He launched MANA Contemporary in Chicago which housed dozens of artists studios, exhibition spaces, classrooms, a central cafe, a library, and more. The Pilsen cultural complex is composed of the 450,000 square foot building plus additional land marked for residential and commercial development.^[24]

In 2009, Moishe Mana decided to invest in transforming Miami from a tourist destination into a diversified city with art, fashion, technology, and a global trading hub that connects South America, the Far East, and North America.^[25][26]

Mana began laying the groundwork for a business and art complex in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, Florida by purchasing acres and acres of underused warehouses and vacant lots.^[27] Among his purchases were a former free trade zone.^[28] The assemblage, MANA Wynwood,^[29] accommodates productions from feature films and television shows to events and trade shows, doubling as a convention center or concert venue, hosting art openings, fashion shows, block parties, and the monthly ritual that became a cultural touchstone in the area: the Wynwood Art Walk.^[30] As Mana's presence in the area helped shape an artistic renaissance, the neighborhood changed, evolving into a hipster mecca dotted with street murals and boutique businesses.^[31][32]

Taking advantage of Miami's unique zoning laws which allow anyone who owns more than nine contiguous acres of property to apply for a special zoning district, one of Mana's plans was to renovate the existing building and create a collaborative community where residents can live, work, and play in over 5,000 micro-units. The strategy is in furtherance of his belief that investing in people's talents and passion is infinitely more rewarding than being a mere landlord, leading him to invest in numerous startups in multiple industries.^{[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]} The plan also represents an addition of sorely needed middle income housing for a city suffering from a housing crisis.^[45]

Mana has vocally opposed Donald Trump.^[46] During Trump's campaign for the office of the presidency, Mana offered to donate first one million, then two million dollars to the charity of Trump's choice in exchange for the presidential candidate making his tax returns public.^{[47][48][49][50]}

The September before Trump's election, a naked statue of him appeared atop one of Mana's Wynwood offices.^{[51][52][53][54]} The statue was subsequently stolen and returned, albeit headless.^{[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]}

Mana also commissioned a large mural of then-candidate Trump which luridly depicted the developer-turned-politician as The Joker from The Dark Knight.^[63] The mural was modified after the election by the original artists to remove Trump's likeness.^[64]

Mana donated $10 million to Florida International University's CARTA (College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts) Program.^[65] The gift is $2.5 million in cash and an in-kind donation of 15,000 square feet of studio and classroom space at MANA Wynwood.^[66]