Developer Takes Stake in Political Magazine

WASHINGTON, DC-Michael Alter, president of the Skokie, IL-based Alter Group, is part of a group of investors buying The New Republic, a locally based political magazine. The investor group, which also includes editor-in-chief Martin Peretz, is purchasing the magazine from New York financiers Roger Hertog and Michael Steinhardt, and CanWest Media Works International.

Alter is hardly the first real estate developer to branch into a different industry sector; indeed sports and entertainment–and on a more limited basis, media–is a favored alternative business endeavor for many commercial real estate executives. Alter, for instance, is also owner of the Chicago Sky, a WNBA team. He cited a long-standing relationship with Peretz as one of the factors behind the investment in New Republic.”I’ve known Marty Peretz for over 25 years,” he says in a prepared statement, “As a professor of social studies, he was an enormous influence and helped me to form my own world view.” Alter was not available to comment to GlobeSt.com in time for publication.

The Alter Group has five vertically integrated affiliate companies for healthcare facility development, construction, office and industrial brokerage and property management. This year, the company has four million square feet under development.