Bert Wolstein

Wolstein was born to a Jewish family on February 23, 1927, in East Cleveland, Ohio, to Joseph and Sarah (née Lipson) Wolstein. He had an older sister, Malvene. Both his parents were immigrants from the Russian Empire. His father had been born in Minsk, and emigrated to the United States in 1903. Fluent in Yiddish, he was an actor in Yiddish theater for 15 years before taking a job as a fabric cutter for Printz Bierderman Co. and later Keller Kohn Co. His mother was also born in Minsk, and emigrated to the United States in 1904. She worked in clerical jobs for the General Accounting Office and for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

The Wolsteins lived in a very small home with another family in East Cleveland. When Wolstein was 12 years old, they moved into a duplex in adjacent Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The family was poor, and the onset of the Great Depression worsened their financial condition. Wolstein went to work at a young age, and held down a series of jobs while attending local public school: Selling copies of the Cleveland Press newspaper, stocking shelves and working as a cashier at his aunt's store, working as a soda jerk at various local drugstores, selling hot dogs and soft drinks at League Park (a baseball stadium in Cleveland), cleaning home furnaces, shoveling snow from driveways, and selling Christmas trees. He was enterprising, and once made money by selling cold soft drinks from his toy wagon to construction workers building new homes across the street from where he lived. The hard work did not leave him embittered. Even as a boy and young teenager, Wolstein saw hardship as a means of gaining valuable work experienced. The Depression left a profound impact on him. "Iris and I never forgot where we came from," Wolstein said in 2003. "We were Depression babies, and no matter how much we have or the rare experiences we have encountered along the way, our roots will always be in Cleveland's old Jewish working class neighborhood, Tuscora Road."

Wolstein was educated at Parkwood and Boulevard elementary schools and Roosevelt Junior High School. He graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1945, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He was trained as a pharmacist's mate, and was discharged in 1946 as part of the downsizing of U.S. armed forces. Still debating what to do with his life, Wolstein enrolled in the accounting program at Cleveland College, an adult education institution jointly operated by Western Reserve University and Case School of Applied Science, paying for his education by working part-time coordinating subcontractors for a local building firm. The firm was owned by Harold I. Shur, his future father-in-law. In 1949, Wolstein enrolled at the Cleveland–Marshall Law School, an independent JD-granting institution which had formed in 1946. He attended classes at night while working full-time for Kalamazoo Appliances, Harold Shur's home heating and air conditioning business.

Wolstein graduated cum laude and seventh in his class from Cleveland-Marshall in 1953, and passed the bar exam that same year.

Early real estate development

Wolstein began his business career working in real estate development rather than the law. His wife's family owned L&J Development, a Cleveland-area home builder. Wolstein went to work for the company, and assisted with the development of several suburban housing projects. Wolstein helped build his first shopping center, the Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted, Ohio, during his tenure with the firm. In 1959, Wolstein returned to the practice of law while continuing to work in real estate. He formed several construction firms with Wilbur J. Horwitz, his personal insurance agent and owner of a local insurance company. Wolstein oversaw the firm's legal business while his partner ran the construction side of things. The firm struggled at first, and incurred heavy debts in order to raise the capital to build the houses it sold. In 1964, one of Wolstein's firms, Scott Construction, received a $725,000 loan ($2,900,000 in 2025 dollars) to build a 350-home development in Twinsburg, Ohio. Wolstein named the development Heritage Hill. The project was so financially successful that Wolstein closed his law practice and began concentrating solely on real estate.

Developers Diversified

In 1965, Wolstein partnered with Hannan Construction Co. and incorporated a new company, Developers Diversified, with the goal of constructing retail shopping centers. Wolstein reached an agreement with Kmart to provide the anchor tenant for his shopping malls. The first Kmart-centered mall opened in 1967. Wolstein set a goal of constructing five malls, but his business proved so successful that within 15 years he'd built 150 shopping centers nationwide. By 1980, Developers Diversified had constructed one in six Kmart stores, and was Kmart's second-largest development partner. Developers Diversified ended its relationship with Kmart in 1980, but continued to build shopping malls around large anchor tenants such as Home Depot, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart.

In 1981, Wolstein formed Diversified Equities, an investment company, with his son, Scott Wolstein, and businessman Jim Schoff.

In December 1992, Developers Diversified filed to become a publicly held real estate investment trust (REIT). The move was prompted by a nationwide credit contraction that had severely limited Developers Diversified's ability to engage in new projects. The company, now known as Developers Diversified Realty Corp. (DDRC), went public in February, listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The firm sold 9.2 million shares, raising $202 million ($450,200,000 in 2025 dollars). It was the second-largest public offering of common stock ever offered by a newly formed REIT. Wolstein became chairman of the board of directors of the new company, while Scott Wolstein became its chief executive officer. Diversified Equities merged with Developers Diversified in 1993.

Wolstein retired from DDRC in February 1997. Having spent most of his life as a freewheeling maverick who operated on hunches and personal relationships, he had become frustrated having to subordinate his decisions to those of a board of directors and stockholders (many of whom had no experience in real estate development). Wolstein retained about 2 million of the firm's 25 million shares, worth about $70 million ($140,400,000 in 2025 dollars), and was given the title of Chairman Emeritus. At the time of his departure, DDRC was the 15th largest shopping center owner in the nation.

Since childhood, Wolstein had been nicknamed "Bart" by his family and friends, but as early as 1948, he used the name "Bert" in public as well.

In 1946, Wolstein was playing touch football in Cain Park in Cleveland Heights when the ball landed at the feet of Iris Shur. The couple fell immediately in love, and married on September 11, 1948. The couple had two children: Cheryl (born June 19, 1950) and Scott (June 24, 1952 – May 26, 2022).

Death

Wolstein suffered from a recurrence of cancer throughout his life. A cancerous tumor was removed from his back when he was in his late 20s. In 2000, he underwent operations to remove a cancerous prostate, a cancerous cyst on his neck, and a cancerous thyroid. The cancer recurred a short time later, and had metastasized. He died of a heart attack on May 17, 2004, at Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. At the time of his death, DDRC owned 400 shopping centers in 44 states, and was the fourth-largest shopping center developer in the nation.

He was buried at Mayfield Cemetery in Cleveland Heights.

Wolstein was a frequent supporter of a number charities and nonprofit organizations throughout the greater Cleveland area for most of his life.

One of Wolstein's first major gifts came in 1997, when he and his wife, Iris Wolstein, donated $750,000 ($1,500,000 in 2025 dollars) to United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Cleveland. The organization used the money to finish a new rehabilitation and workshop center, which it named the Bart and Iris Wolstein Building.

The Wolsteins made a $1.5 million ($2,800,000 in 2025 dollars) donation in 2000 to renovate the three-story bell tower at Ohio State University. The renovated facility, renamed the Iris S. and Bert L. Wolstein Football Center, contained new locker rooms, a media center, and recruitment center.

The Wolsteins donated $100,000 ($182,000 in 2025 dollars) to the Cleveland–Marshall College of Law in 2001, which helped to fund scholarships for needy law students and to assist the law school in paying architectural fees for a much-needed renovation.

In 2002, the Wolsteins donated $1 million ($1,800,000 in 2025 dollars) to renovate Sycamore Hall at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. The structure was renamed Iris S. and Bert L. Wolstein Hall in their honor. The donation allowed the management school to divert resources to the establishment of a new undergraduate program which emphasized entrepreneurship over mathematical models of business management. The Wolsteins also donated $1.5 million ($2,700,000 in 2025 dollars) to endow a professorship at Weatherhead. The combined gift was the largest gifts received by either the school or the parent university in recent years.

In January 2003, the Wolsteins donated $25 million ($43,800,000 in 2025 dollars) to both University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University to enable the construction of a joint medical research building. The 320,000-square-foot (30,000 m2), six-story building contained laboratory and office space for 900 biomedical researchers and a 28,000-cage mouse research facility. The structure was named the Iris S. and Bert L. Wolstein Research Building in their honor.

In January 2004, The Chronicle of Philanthropy listed the Wolsteins as one of the 60 most generous donors in the nation for 2003.