Sharif El-Gamal (born December 23, 1973) is an American real estate developer. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of Soho Properties, a Manhattan-based real estate company. El-Gamal came to international attention in 2010 for his role in the development of Park51, a planned Islamic community center and prayer space to be located about two blocks away from the World Trade Center site. Biography El-Gamal was born in Brooklyn, New York to an Egyptian Muslim father and a Roman Catholic mother of Polish descent on December 23, 1973. He lived in Brooklyn until age 9 when his mother died. He then followed his father to Liberia and Egypt where he attended the Schutz American School. El-Gamal returned to the United States for college, enrolling in various New York universities but eventually dropping out when he decided to stop pursuing formal education. Real estate El-Gamal first entered real estate in the late 1990s as a residential sales broker but within his first year transitioned to commercial real estate sales. In 2002 he received his real estate broker's license. According to the company's website, El-Gamal founded his real estate company Soho Properties in 2003 in order "to focus on commercial real estate capital markets, advisory and retail leasing." El-Gamal's partners in the business are his brother, Sammy El-Gamal, and Nour Mousa. In 2007, El-Gamal bought a six apartments building in the Harlem and Washington Heights neighborhoods of Manhattan. He managed additional properties in Chelsea and Harlem. In July 2009, Soho Properties purchased property at 45–47 Park Place, located adjacent to the World Trade Center site. In November 2009, Soho Properties purchased a 12-story office building located at 31 West 27th Street for $45.7 million. El-Gamal said, "We just bought it for the income. It's got great long-term leases, and the financing was really attractive. We have five years at a very attractive interest rate, and it's probably the best B building in this submarket." Soho Properties purchased it from the Witkoff Group, which had purchased the building in 2006 for $31.5 million. Soho Properties sold the property to the San Francisco-based Walnut Hill Group in 2012 for $65 million. In February 2014, El-Gamal announced a partnership to build a new home for the 83-year-old Garment Center Synagogue in Manhattan, as part of a 29-story retail center and hotel at 560 Seventh Avenue. El-Gamal said, "We're in the process of buying one