Zygi Wilf

Zygi Wilf

Zygmunt "Zygi" Wilf (born April 22, 1950 in Germany) is the principal owner of the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL.

Biography

Wilf's parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Wilf, are both Holocaust survivors in Poland.^[1] The Wilf family imigrated to the United States from Europe in the early 1950s and settled in New Jersey. After a brief stint as used car salesmen, Joseph and his brother Harry Wilf began purchasing apartment buildings and renting units. Eventually, the brothers began building single-family homes and founded Garden Homes. A successful real estate developer, his two main family-run businesses, Garden Homes and Garden Commercial Properties, have constructed some 25,000 homes in 39 states across the country since 1955; the two entities and their subsidiaries own and manage 25 million square feet in retail and business property.^[2]

Zygi Wilf attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, earning a bachelor's degree in economics and later graduated from New York Law School in Manhattan. After working as an attorney, Wilf joined the family business and became head of one of the company's subsidies, Garden Commercial Properties. Wilf has grown the company from four shopping centers in Northern New Jersey to over a hundred properties, including several large malls. In addition to the commercial properties, the Garden companies also own 30,000 apartment units around the country.

In 2005, Wilf purchased the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings from Red McCombs for $600 million, outbidding a group led by Reggie Fowler, who would have been the league's first African American owner, if his bid had succeeded.^[3]

References

Donate to Wikimedia