Joshua Benaim is a leading real estate investor and entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Aria, an award-winning real estate company whose mission is to humanize the experience of living in our great cities. He is also an operatic baritone who has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera and performed widely across the United States.
Benaim founded Aria in 2009 to create a different kind of values-driven real estate company, one that would marry value investment philosophy with traditional real estate principles of location, scarcity and beauty. Since then, it has cultivated an expertise in next generation multifamily housing and is currently developing more than 1,500 affordable luxury and mixed-income apartments in neighborhoods across the United States.
Prior to founding Aria, Benaim was a Managing Principal at Square Mile Capital Management LLC, where he focused on the New York, Washington, DC, South Florida and San Francisco markets. Benaim began his career at Credit Suisse First Boston in the Mergers & Acquisitions group and subsequently Principal Transactions.
Benaim also has a passion for mentoring the next generation of real estate talent. He served as Co-Chair of the Harvard Business School Real Estate Alumni Association during the initial development of that organization, and as an advisor to Professor Arthur Segel in the creation of HBS’s first online real estate course. He recently partnered with Project Destined to help foster the next generation of real estate developers. He received his A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard University and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.
About Aria Development Group & Aria Living
Aria brings a unique philosophy and passion to multifamily investing, development and management, rooted in humanistic values and a willingness to “think different.” Benaim credits much of the inspiration for his vision to growing up in New York City and the creativity and dynamism of the urban experience. He has also sought to infuse Aria’s real estate developments with a meaningful multi-sensory experience by marshaling some of the poetry, passion, and historical authenticity he found in opera. To learn more about Aria, please visit ariadevelopmentgroup.com and arialiving.com.