Lerner is the owner of Lerner Enterprises, a Rockville, Maryland-based real estate development and investment company. His closely held properties include about 20 office buildings as well as apartment complexes, hotels and retail centers. His family also controls the Washington Nationals, a Major League Baseball team.
Ted Lerner's net worth of $5.89B can buy ...
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The majority of Lerner's fortune is derived from his family's sole ownership of Lerner Enterprises, a closely held Rockville, Maryland-based real estate development company.
The combined net asset value of Lerner's real estate holdings is determined based on occupancy rates, rent per square foot and capitalization rates. These rates have been aggregated using data compiled by Real Capital Analytics, a commercial property database, and four real estate consultancy and brokerage companies: Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, JLL and Colliers International. Each property has been individually valued.
The billionaire also owns the Washington Nationals professional baseball team with his family. It's valued based on a April 2022 analysis by valuation experts Sportico.
Jaclyn Cohen, a spokesperson for Lerner Enterprises, didn't respond to requests for comment on the net worth calculation.
Ted Lerner was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Washington D.C in 1925. His parents, Mayer and Ethel, immigrated to the U.S in the 1920s. He served as a typist in the U.S. Army after finishing high school and, following the end of WWII, enrolled at George Washington University, where he graduated with a law degree in 1949.
Lerner borrowed $250 from his wife in 1952 to start a real estate company. Over the next six decades, he expanded the business from a single apartment building into one of the largest closely held real estate development companies in the U.S. Early projects included the shopping mall and office developments at Tysons Corner, Virginia, in the 1950s and 1960s, and developments such as Washington Square in Washington D.C., and the Chelsea Piers in New York. He bought the Washington Nationals professional baseball team for $450 million in 2006.
In 2015, Lerner was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Urban Land Institute for his contributions for his contributions to the community and charitable giving.