Jona Goldrich, Polish-born American real estate developer and philanthropist, Died at 88

  Business

Jona Goldrich (a.k.a. Jona Goldreich) was born on September 11, 1927, in Lviv, Poland (now Ukraine) and died on June 26, 2016.

He was a Polish-born American real estate developer and philanthropist.

During the late 1920s, he emigrated to Israel in the midst of World War II, where he served in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and worked for a labour union.

By the 1950s, he emigrated to the United States, and he became a real estate developer and investor in Los Angeles County.

He was a Holocaust survivor, he supported Jewish causes in Israel and the United States.

He began his career as a window screen installer in Los Angeles.

During 1954, he founded Active Cleaning & Maintenance, a company focusing on cleaning up construction sites.

As of 1957, he developed an apartment building in North Hollywood.

During 1978, his company “was fined $5,000 […] for filing false payroll forms with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”

The company went bankrupt a few years later.

Then, later, he co-founded a real estate development and management company known as Goldrich & Kest Industries with Sol B. Kest, a Holocaust survivor.

They owned hotels in Tenderloin, San Francisco.

Along Sheldon Appel, they redeveloped the former General Motors plant in South Gate in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, they also turned land near the Long Beach Airport into offices and retail spaces.

Along with Nathan Shapell, they developed some buildings in the Bunker Hill area of Downtown Los Angeles, including Promenade Towers, Grand Promenade and the California Plaza.

Moreover, they owned Kings Villages, a low-income housing project in Pasadena which they later sold to Thomas Pottmeyer.

Also, they owned Green Hotel, a retirement home also located in Pasadena, and a government-subsidized retirement home in Santa Monica.

He appointed as the Chairman of the Western Region of the American Friends of Tel Aviv University (TAU) and on the Board of Governors of TAU.

Doretta Goldrich was his wife, they, together they had two daughters.

He resided in Beverly Hills, California.

Jona Goldrich passed away at 88 yrs old.