Billionaire Real Estate Investor Sam Zell Dies

Sam Zell, the real estate investor who amassed an empire of apartment buildings, offices and mobile homes, and who earned the nickname “the grave dancer” for his ability to swoop up distressed real estate for a song, died Thursday. He was 81.

His death was announced by Equity Residential, the multifamily REIT he founded. 

Zell caught the entrepreneurial bug young, selling Playboy magazines in the Chicago suburbs at the age of 12. He broke into real estate in college, managing apartments for a landlord. 

“We got another building and another and another,” he told The Real Deal in 2017. “Eventually, we started buying some, too.”