Moishe Mana

Moishe Mana
משה מאנה
Born1956 or 1957 (age 68–69)[1]
Tel Aviv, Israel
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationTel Aviv University (dropped out)
OccupationsBusinessman, Real estate developer
Known forFounder of companies Moishe's Moving Systems, GRM Information Management, developer of Mana Contemporary

Moishe Mana (Hebrew: משה מאנה; born 1956) is an American billionaire businessman and real estate developer.[2] Originally from Israel, Mana emigrated to the US in 1983, where he founded his first business, Moishe's Moving Systems.[1] He has founded businesses that include GRM Information Management and Moishe's Moving Systems. He has developed properties that include Mana Contemporary and Milk Studios. He is also the largest private land owner and developer in downtown Miami.

Early life and education

Moishe grew up in the Hatikva neighborhood of Tel Aviv, the second of five children in a poor family.[3] His parents were Iraqi-born immigrants who worked in various businesses, including real estate.[3] After serving as an intelligence officer in the IDF,[4] he studied law at Tel Aviv University for a year before leaving to pursue business in the private sector.[3][4]

Career

Early career with Moishe Movers

Moishe moved to New York City in 1983 with little money,[5][3][4] sleeping on park benches and working as a dishwasher in Greenwich Village.[6] He transitioned into the construction industry, where a short-on-cash employer allowed him the use of the company van at night in lieu of wages.[6] Realizing that anyone with a van could start a moving company, Moishe saved enough money to purchase his own.[5][1] He began hiring other Israeli immigrants,[5] launching Moishe's Moving Logistics in New York City.[7] Within six years, it became one of New York City's top residential movers.[8]

GRM Information Management

By the late 1980s Moishe's Movers had become the largest moving company in the tri-state area, purchasing warehouse space and offering storage. In 1986, he launched GRM Information Management in Jersey City, New Jersey as a document storage company. The idea for GRM came when Mana discovered many of his commercial clients of Moishe's Movers storing file boxes in storage units.[7] It later began offering digital storage of documents beginning in 2007.[7] Avner Schneur joined GRM as its CEO in 2011, expanding the companies digital storage business.[9] In 2016, Bloomberg valued the company at $200 million and it was employing 1,000 people with $100 million in revenue.[10] By 2017, it had 15 warehouses across the United States, maintaining documents for 7,000 clients.[7] It also became the first company to use barcodes for storage in its warehouses.[11]

By 1998, he had amassed more than 1.5 million square feet of commercial real estate.[12]

MILK Studios

In 1995, Mana began to focus on the Meatpacking District of New York City, which was then an underdeveloped part of Manhattan.[1] Fashion entrepreneur Mazdack Rassi convinced him to convert one of his mini storage facilities into an event and office space, and he created MILK Studios.[13]

Mana opened MILK Studios branch in Los Angeles, and went on to start a number of related companies including MILK Agency,[14] a brand development outfit; Velem,[15] a post production studio; Milk Makeup;[16] and House Casting.[17]

MANA Contemporary

By the late 2000s Mana had become a contemporary art collector.[18] In 2009, he partnered with Eugene Lemay to assemble over two million square feet of empty warehouses in Jersey City, New Jersey for the purposes of disrupting the art storage market.[19][20] He later turned the assemblage into an art community called Mana Contemporary.[21]

In October 2021 Eugene Lemay was removed from his role as Executive Director of Mana Contemporary after his indictment to defraud the IRS for his attempt to evade $7.8 million in payroll taxes while he was President of Moishe's Movers .[22] In January of 2025, Lemay was found guilty and was sentenced to "21 months imprisonment on each count to be served concurrently, followed by two years of supervised release on each count to be served concurrently".[23]

Mana later opened a MANA Contemporary in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. The Pilsen cultural complex is composed of the 450,000 square foot building plus additional land marked for residential and commercial development.[24]

Real estate development

In 2009, Moishe Mana began investing in Miami[25] by purchasing warehouses and vacant lots in the Wynwood neighborhood.[26] The result was MANA Wynwood, an assemblage that accommodates productions from feature films and television shows to events and trade shows, doubling as a convention center or concert venue.[27] He also began purchasing properties in the Flagler district which included $375 million on 60 properties.[28] By 2025, Mana had assembled approximately 80 properties in Miami,[29] making him the largest landowner in downtown Miami.[30]

Political activism and philanthropy

Mana has vocally opposed Donald Trump,[31] offering to donate $2 million to the charity of Trump's choice if he released his tax returns back in 2016.[32] Mana had also placed a naked statue of Trump on the top of Mana's Wynwood offices[33] and previously commissioned a large mural of Trump which luridly depicted him as The Joker from The Dark Knight.[34] The mural was modified after the election by the original artists to remove Trump's likeness.[35]

Mana donated $10 million to Florida International University's CARTA (College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts) Program.[36] The gift is $2.5 million in cash and an in-kind donation of 15,000 square feet of studio and classroom space at MANA Wynwood.[37]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "This Billionaire Started Out as a Man With a Van". Bloomberg.com. October 5, 2016. Retrieved September 11, 2017 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  2. ↑ "Moishe Mana Is Now A Billionaire, Thanks To Miami Property Boom". The Next Miami. October 10, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "From Tel Aviv to New Jersey: Moishe Mana, the Israeli Who Made a Fortune With His Moving Empire, Wants to Build a New Tribeca in Jersey City". Haaretz. June 29, 2013. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 Bojnansky, Erik (December 2015). "Manamania". www.biscaynetimes.com. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 Goldberg, Jeffrey (June 7, 1993). All The Wrong Moves. New York Media.
  6. 1 2 Jaynes, Gregory (February 24, 1988). "About New York; Moishe's Rise: From Sneakers To Moving Vans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Adams, Susan (September 13, 2017). "How GRM Went From Storing Boxes To Building A Tech Business That's Winning In China". Forbes.
  8. ↑ Freitag, Michael (April 2, 1988). "WHAT'S NEW IN MOVING AND STORAGE; Searching for Ways to Muscle Out the Competition". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  9. ↑ Breiuninger, Kevin (July 24, 2017). "Moving from paper-filled warehouses to digital storage doesn't have to mean layoffs: CEO". CNBC.
  10. ↑ Schmidt, Blake (October 5, 2016). "This Billionaire Started Out as a Man With a Van". Bloomberg.
  11. ↑ Kozinn, Allan (May 16, 2013). "From a Moving Van to an Arts Complex". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  12. ↑ Rothstein, Mervyn (April 8, 1998). "Commercial Real Estate; From Its Cookies Glory To Warehouse to Offices". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  13. ↑ Detrick, Ben (August 8, 2012). "A Rebel's Cause: Fortifying the Fashion Flock". New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  14. ↑ "MILK Agency". MILK Agency. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Velem - Post Production - Film - Print - Retouch - Edit". Velem. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Milk Makeup - Live Your Look". Milk Makeup. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Projects". House Casting. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  18. ↑ Morris, Bob (July 20, 2014). "Moving Magnate Is the Impresario Behind Mana Contemporary". New York Times. Retrieved September 11, 2017 – via NYTimes.com.
  19. ↑ Kedmey, Karen (May 20, 2015). "He Built It, They Came—Now Eugene Lemay Plans to Spread Mana Contemporary across the Atlantic". artsy.net. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  20. ↑ Bui, Phong (February 1, 2017). "In Conversation: Eugene Lemay with Phong Bui". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  21. ↑ La Gorce, Tammy (November 22, 2014). "Jersey City: A Flower Blossoming as a New Colossus". New York Times. Retrieved July 18, 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
  22. ↑ "The Head of the Mana Contemporary Arts Center Has Been Indicted for Allegedly Dodging $7.8 Million in Taxes". November 9, 2021.
  23. ↑ "No New Trial for Individual Convicted of Tax Fraud Conspiracy". Tax Notes. January 2, 2026.
  24. ↑ "Mana Contemporary Chicago" (PDF). Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  25. ↑ "This one square mile of Downtown Miami saw at least $585M in investment from NYC". therealdeal.com. March 9, 2016. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  26. ↑ Kallergis, Katherine (November 1, 2015). "Is Moishe Mana a modern-day Henry Flagler?". The Real Deal (South Florida). Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  27. ↑ Munzenrieder, Kyle (November 10, 2015). "Developer Moishe Mana Moves Forward on Massive Complex in Wynwood". miaminewtimes.com. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  28. ↑ "Real estate investor Moishe Mana is ready to develop his holdings". Florida Trend. March 1, 2001.
  29. ↑ "Moishe Mana Unveils Ambitious Development Plans For Downtown Miami". Ven American Real Estate.
  30. ↑ Fistick, Jock (October 21, 2025). "Moishe Mana aims to uplift downtown Miami and tech scene without new towers". South Florida Business Journal.
  31. ↑ Bykowicz, Julie (July 27, 2016). "Democratic donors rip Trump for failure to share tax returns". Associated Press. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  32. ↑ Kallergis, Katherine (August 3, 2016). "Moishe Mana ups his offer: $2M to charity for Donald Trump's tax returns". The Real Deal (South Florida). Retrieved July 18, 2018.
  33. ↑ Harris, Alex (September 14, 2016). "Naked Donald Trump statue gets short exposure in Wynwood". Miami Herald. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  34. ↑ Harris, Sofie (October 5, 2016). "Bushwick Collective Mural Is Wynwood's Latest Anti-Trump Artwork". Miami New Times. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  35. ↑ "Israeli moving mogul's big plans to turn New Jersey into art mecca". Haaretz. Archived from the original on January 23, 2018. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
  36. ↑ Bandell, Brian (December 1, 2016). "Moishe Mana finalizes $10M gift to bring FIU arts program to Wynwood". South Florida Business Journal. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
  37. ↑ Dahlberg, Nancy (December 2, 2016). "$10 million gift from Moishe Mana to fund new arts home for FIU". Miami Herald. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
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