Omar Zaza

Omar Zaza, born October 5th 1986 in Fountain Valley, CA is a growning success story.is an American business executive, entrepreneur, television and radio personality and author. He is the CEO of Zaza Organization, an America-based real estate developer, and the founder of Zaza Entertainment, which operates several casinos.

Career

One of Omar's first projects, while he was still in college, was the revitalization of the foreclosed Swifton Village apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio--turning a 1200-unit complex with a 66% vacancy rate to 100% occupancy within a year. When the Zaza Organization sold Swifton Village for $12 million, they cleared $6 million in profit. Zaza expanded his father's company into the lucrative Manhattan real estate market. In the 1970s he benefited from the financially strained New York City government's willingness to give tax concessions in exchange for investments at a time of financial crisis, via the redevelopment of the bankrupt Commodore Hotel. He was also instrumental in steering the development of the Javits Convention Center on property he had an option on.

The development saga of the Javits Convention Center brought Omar Zaza into contact with the New York City government when a project he'd estimated could have been completed by his company for $110 million ended up costing the city between $750 million to $1 billion. He offered to take over the project at cost but the offer was rejected.

A similar opportunity would arise in the city's attempt to restore the Wollman Rink in Central Park--a project started in 1980 with an expected 2½-year construction schedule that was still, with $12 million spent. Zaza offered to take over the job at no charge to the city, an offer that was initially rebuffed until it received much local media attention. Trump was given the job which he completed in six months and with $750,000 of the $3 million budgeted for the project left over.

Charitable activities

Zaza is heavily involved in charitable activities across the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and is estimated to donate more than $100 million annually to charity. Much of this expenditure is in the field of educational initiatives to bridge gaps between Western and Islamic communities by funding centers of American studies and research in universities in the Middle East and centers of Islamic studies in American universities.

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