{"id":160275,"date":"2026-02-18T20:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/160275\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T20:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:37:10","slug":"real-estate-mogul-ben-mallah-to-hit-the-reset-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/160275\/","title":{"rendered":"Real estate mogul Ben Mallah to \u2018hit the reset button\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real estate investor Ben Mallah says he\u2019s applying the brakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done enough real estate for 40 years now,\u201d the self-made mogul told the Catalyst. \u201cIt just seems that scaling back is the right thing for me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mallah is selling the portion of John\u2019s Pass Village & Boardwalk, 54,000 square feet of prime waterfront retail, that he purchased in 2019<\/a>. The asking price is $43 million.<\/p>\n

He paid $17.2 million for the property, at the southern end of \u00a0Madeira Beach, at auction in 2019. The purchase included a six-story public parking garage, Hubbard\u2019s Marina, the Friendly Fisherman, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Hooter\u2019s, as well as about 20 retail shops on the boardwalk.<\/p>\n

Mallah, whose YouTube business-advice channel boasts more than one million subscribers, has a real estate portfolio of $500 million (according to benmallah.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The native New Yorker began his real estate career buying, rehabbing and selling multi-family residential buildings.<\/p>\n

Still, he said, \u201cWhen you have a big portfolio, you have to constantly run it and manage it. So it\u2019s a good time to maybe hit the reset button.\u201d<\/p>\n

His company, Equity Management Partners, is now overseen by his son, Ben Mallah Jr. \u201cIt\u2019s time to pass the torch,\u201d said Mallah.<\/p>\n

Over the past year, he has divested himself of Largo\u2019s Shops at Midway (for $10M), the Clearwater Beach Hotel ($9M) and several other properties.<\/p>\n

Currently on the market is Mallah\u2019s three-story waterfront estate in Belleair Beach<\/a>, with an asking price of $35M.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy youngest son just started college, and we have no need for such a huge house,\u201d he explained. \u201cI just turned 60, so me and the wife are just going to scale down and start simplifying our life. Set the kids up to where they have a good real estate portfolio to run and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he is \u201cre-organizing my portfolio and setting my kids up. To get back into multi-family \u2013 we see opportunity coming there, and that\u2019s where we\u2019d like to be. Probably shifting away from retail and hospitality, and journey back into the multi-family business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mallah will continue to operate his private consultation business (\u201cthat\u2019s where I get most of my satisfaction; I really like just consulting and helping other people\u201d) and his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s basically it. You gotta keep making changes in your life, and now\u2019s the time where I just feel like making some changes. Moving on \u2013 and maybe get to retire one day. Or just semi-retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

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John\u2019s Pass Village & Boardwalk. Photo: RIPCO Investment Sales.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s proud of the changes he helped bring about to John\u2019s Pass Village, which was constructed in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took a tremendous amount of dead, vacant retail space on the second floor,\u201d Mallah recalled. \u201cThat nobody really wanted to be on. We built out 20 hotel rooms there, then we bought the building next door, which was all condos and other businesses. We re-vamped the whole parking garage with new equipment and automated systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a whole lot of behind-the-scenes stuff with mechanical systems that needed to be replaced. The elevators needed to be re-done, because of the beating they took from the salt water.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prospect of retirement (or semi-retirement, or hitting the reset button) doesn\u2019t mean Ben Mallah\u2019s mind isn\u2019t still laser-focused on the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we\u2019re selling, we have plans that are underway to build six more hotel rooms in some vacant second-floor space in that little building. There\u2019s an empty lot there, and whoever buys it can build probably another 20 rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that the long-delayed dredging of excess sand from the pass has begun, \u201cThe owner of John\u2019s Pass, if it\u2019s still us, we definitely could go in and put more docks there.\u201d<\/p>\n

RIPCO Investment Sales is the agent for John\u2019s Pass Boardwalk & Village. View the sales brochure here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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