Background
Schron grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in an Orthodox Jewish family.
Schron grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in an Orthodox Jewish family.
Schron continued with the family business purchasing several buildings in the Bronx. In 1967, he founded the real estate investment company Cammeby’s International Group. Typically partnering in all his transactions, Schron steadily grew the business.
In 2007, Cammeby"s was managing over $1 billion in assets.
Significant transactions include:
In 2003, he purchased 6,000 outer borough apartments from Donald Trump. In 2007, he sold 4,000 Mitchell-Lama apartments for $940 million to Urban American Management and its private equity partner, City Investment Fund.
In 2011, he sold the Lionel Hampton Houses in Harlem to real estate investor Israel Weinberger for $32.5 million. In 2013, he made an unsuccessful bid for the Empire State Building.
In 2013, he purchased the Monterey, a 521 unit apartment tower, for $250 million from The Related Companies.
Nursing home investments
In 2003, the bankrupt Integrated Health Services (renamed SavaSeniorCare) was purchased and in 2004, Mariner Health Care was purchased. Schron financed the entire transaction. They split each company into two entities: a real estate company which would hold the real property (run by Schron).
And an operating company that would run the nursing homes (run by Grunstein and a banker named Murray Foreman).
The operating company would make lease payments to the real estate company. In 2006, whistleblower Adam B. Resnick filed a lawsuit under the False Claims Acting against nursing home pharmaceutical supplier Omnicare and Schron"s two nursing home chains, Mariner Health Care and SavaSeniorCare alleging that the two nursing home chains solicited kickbacks from Omnicare in exchange for 15-year contracts to utilize Omnicare"s pharmacy service.
In December 2008, the United States. Department of Justice joined the lawsuit. In November 2010, Omnicare, denying any wrongdoing, settled by paying $19.8 million to the federal government.
In February 2010, Mariner and SavaSeniorCare paid $14 million to settle their part in the alleged fraud.
The partnership deteriorated after Schron was told by Grunstein that he could not raise rent payments even while interest rates were rising. A lawsuit resulted and Schron countersued to exercise a $100 million option to purchase the nursing home side of the business. Schron, represented by attorney Andrew J. Levander, prevailed and in 2012, he took full control of the two nursing home companies with a combined $1.4 billion in revenues.