Yanky Schorr was born and raised in Pikesville, where he still lives today, and recently has become a major driving force in helping to revitalize the community through his work as director of operations at Tide Reality Capital, a real estate firm.
Over the last several months, Schorr and Tide have been involved in a revitalization project for the Reisterstown Plaza. Schorr is trying to use his experience growing up in the area to add new energy and excitement to the community.
Schorr, a member of Suburban Orthodox Congregation and Chabad Israeli Center, has been involved in the community for years through his work at The Associated, the JCC of Greater Baltimore and various Baltimore neighborhood community associations.
What was your upbringing like in the Baltimore area and how has that impacted you?
As they say, “You’re not from Baltimore until you were born here.” I was born at Sinai Hospital, and I am privileged to now serve on the board of Sinai Hospital. I grew up in a home that was committed to Jewish engagement, Jewish identity and, most importantly, Jewish education. My mother has been director of education at Beth Tfiloh for the last 38 years and laid the groundwork for everything that I consider to be the focus of being involved in community.
What are some other things you’re involved in?
I’ve been involved with The Associated for 12 years, and currently serve both the board of directors and the board of governors. I sit on the board of the JCC. I am the incoming vice chair of The Associated real estate committee that oversees all The Associated’s real estate.
I’m a founding board member of CHAI Lifeline, which is a local organization. It’s part of a greater national organization taking care of children with cancer and terminal illnesses. I’ve been involved in the CCBC Connects Partners Program. I currently a co-chair of the leadership society at LifeBridge Health. I was also a previous participant and chair of the Leadership Council at The Associated, and I am privileged to host a series for The Associated called “Mensches in Cars Getting Coffee,” where we interview awardees annually with The Associated.
Can you describe the importance of finding time to give back to the community?
We believe in giving with all three of our Ts; our time, our talent and our treasure. We believe that it’s a responsibility to give generously in all three. What we do on a global platform in terms of Tide and our business is we’re very focused on giving back to the communities in which we own [property]. We’ve been very active in the Glen Oaks Community Association, in the Glen Neighborhood Association. We try to get very active where we own so we’re not just investors coming in, but we are stakeholders in the communities.
Can you talk about some of the work you do in the greater Baltimore community?
Growing up Baltimore, there’s a unique interplay between the Jewish community and the greater Baltimore community. And I will give props to Andrew Cushnir, the new CEO of The Associated, for making a tremendous priority of his tenure to be about really connecting the greater Baltimore community.
I had the honor of running the first-ever multiracial, multifaith Seder that The Associated has held; we had over 80 folks. Two-thirds of them were not Jewish. And being able to be the light to [all] nations that we hope the Jewish people are, in a real way, is not just a calling, but it’s something that I think is integral to those of us that spend our time in the greater world.
What are you doing with the Reisterstown Plaza?
This is the first time the plaza is back in local ownership in 20 years. So myself and my business partner, Aaron Loeb, grew up within blocks of the plaza, going there as kids. To us, we saw it coming apart at the seams under nonlocal ownership and the opportunity to buy it was something very unique and dear to us.
We also knew we could easily tap into what the community needed, and the first thing we did before we even purchased the property was reach out to community stakeholders.
As far as physical upgrades, we are modernizing the main entrance, adding some retail storefront and refreshing the entire façade.
In addition, we have partnered with the Baltimore Tree Trust in the largest public-private partnership in their history, to plant over 140 trees on the property. Next up, we’ll be focusing on re-envisioning the interior mall portion. We expect all these efforts to really boost the profile of the property and ultimately to give it more of a town center feel.
How has your lived experience in the region helped with the revitalization project?
[One example was] we, together with a local non-profit partner, held the largest ever pre-Passover giveaways for educators and school employees. Over 850 families were able to get Passover goods in a single day distribution. Given the breadth of the asset and what we have to offer, we were able to give them space to logistically store and distribute those items. We are hoping to figure out what the other needs are in the community that we can help facilitate.
When you have your ear to the ground, and you can talk to anyone form a neighbor to a non-profit to the local legislators you can figure out the needs and see how you can step in. It’s been tremendous for us and very rewarding.
