The Reuben brothers aren’t yet widely known in New York real estate circles, but soon they will be.
Simon and David Reuben — a pair of UK-based billionaires who were born in India to Iraqi Jews and immigrated to London when they were teenagers — have been quietly scooping up properties across New York City during the pandemic as they amass one of the world’s biggest real-estate portfolios.
In December, the siblings paid $150 million to buy the bankrupt the Surrey Hotel — a 95-year-old icon of the Upper East Side that housed celebrity chef Daniel Boulud’s Café Boulud. In May 2020, they paid SL Green $170 million for the retail condo at 609 Fifth Ave. across the street from Saks