Joseph Sitt

Founder, Chairman and CEO Thor Equities Group

Last Reviewed: September 24, 2026

Executive Summary

Joseph Sitt is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Thor Equities, a New York real estate investment and development firm he started in 1986 while a student at New York University. Thor reports a property portfolio of $20 billion and a development pipeline of more than 50 million square feet, with holdings across the United States, European gateway cities including London, Paris, Madrid and Milan, and Latin America. Its current emphasis is on emerging asset classes — logistics, life sciences, technology and creative offices, and data centres in Texas, Ohio, Georgia and Europe. He also chairs Thor Urbana in Mexico and the Global Gateway Alliance, and earlier founded the Ashley Stewart retail chain.

Career Highlights

• Founded Thor Equities in 1986; the company now reports a $20 billion portfolio and a development pipeline of more than 50 million square feet.
• Chairman of Thor Urbana, which Thor describes as the largest developer in Mexico, with an 18 million square foot pipeline.
• Chairman and Managing Principal of Thor Urban Property Funds, an investment vehicle for pension funds, endowments and foundations, and CEO of Thor Retail Advisors.
• Founded Ashley Stewart in 1991 and grew it to more than 380 stores before divesting his interest in 2000 to focus on Thor.
• Chairman of the Global Gateway Alliance.

Professional Journey

Sitt founded Thor Equities while at New York University. He has said he named it after the comic-book Thor, the character who protected the planet from monsters destroying its buildings, which fitted his idea of being a protector of cities. Thor’s first acquisition was a property on East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx, and in 1988 it completed its first ground-up development, a 380,000 square foot logistics building in New Jersey.

Retail ran alongside real estate for his first decade and a half. In 1991 he founded Ashley Stewart, a fashion brand for urban women, named after Laura Ashley and Martha Stewart, and grew it to more than 380 stores. In 2000 he divested his interest to concentrate on Thor. The retail experience carried over: Thor Retail Advisors, founded in 2009 with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris, advises on brand and retail strategy, and Thor’s timeline also records brand ventures including Madhappy in 2017 and Brunch in 2020.

Thor grew from New York retail property into an international owner and developer. Its timeline records the purchase of London’s Burlington Arcade in 2010, a Mexico strategy launched in 2012, 65 Champs-Élysées in Paris in 2013 and its first Italian property in Milan in 2015. It launched a dedicated life science platform in 2016 and a logistics platform in 2017, beginning with a ground-up development at 280 Richards in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and it has since moved into data centres.

Thor describes itself as a vertically integrated platform covering transaction structuring, asset and property management, leasing and development. Sitt chairs Thor Urbana, its Mexican development arm, and Thor Urban Property Funds, and is also chairman of the Global Gateway Alliance. Thor is headquartered in New York, with offices in London, Paris, Madrid, Mexico City, San Francisco and Miami. In 2026 he has been making a contrarian case for office property in cities with AI-driven demand, predicting that New York will soon face a shortage of space.

Education

New York University

He attended New York University and founded Thor while a student there. No degree or graduation year was verified.