Robert G. Sacks of Fort Lee, N.J., an iconic Hudson County real estate entrepreneur, passed away suddenly on Saturday, July 24, 2010. Mr. Sacks is survived by his son, George Sacks, and daughter-in-law, Mary M. Sacks of Boca Raton, Fla.; his daughter, Catherine Sacks of Riverside, Conn.; four grandchildren, Christopher Sacks, Mary Grace Sacks, Julia Mannarino, and Catherine Mannarino; five sisters, Evelyn Fisher of Whiting, N.J., Ethel Holt of Whiting, N.J., Lillian Parseghian of Bricktown, N.J., Florence Taylor and brother-in-law, Edward Taylor, of Sparta, N.J., and Carol Gall and brother-in-law, Robert Gall, of Budd Lake, N.J.; 11 nieces and nephews, and his long-term friend, Alice Chirichella, vice president of Sacks Realty Co. Funeral services were held on Monday, July 26, 2010, at McLaughlin Funeral Home in Jersey City, N.J., in a private service conducted by the Rev. Jonathan Willis of St. John's Lutheran Church, followed by a burial at North Arlington Cemetery, accompanied by an honor guard from the U.S. Army. In remembrance of Robert Sacks, donations can be made to Deborah Hospital of Browns Mill, N.J., or the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Born and raised in Jersey City, Mr. Sacks served his country during World War II as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. After World War II, he joined his father, George Sacks Sr., in the family real estate business. Mr. Sacks succeeded his father as president of Sacks Realty Co. in the mid-1950s. He built a full service real estate organization that sold tens of thousands of homes, land development sites, and investment and industrial properties. During the late 1960s and 1970s, Sacks Realty was one of the oldest (est. in 1924) and largest full service residential and commercial real estate organizations in New Jersey, employing over 70 people. In addition, Mr. Sacks constructed hundreds of homes and multiple-dwelling buildings throughout Jersey City, Bayonne, Union City, Ridgewood, Bloomfield and Montclair, N.J., as well as several hundred garden apartment units in Enfield, Conn. In the early 1980s, the Sacks organization acquired their first apartment complex for condominium conversion in Fort Lee, N.J., successfully selling all 37 units in record time. In the late 1980s, the Sacks organization purchased the St. John's Apartments, comprising 829 units in three high-rise apartment buildings, located three blocks from Journal Square in Jersey City. Mr. Sacks successfully converted these apartment buildings to condominiums in the second largest condo conversion in the State of New Jersey. Sacks Realty Co. is headquartered in Jersey City and currently maintains offices in one of the high-rise buildings and conducts apartment rentals, condominium sales, home sales, and development efforts from that location. The Sacks organization recently embarked upon a residential construction and development venture and acquired various land parcels for the construction of new two-family homes, condominiums and mid-rise apartment buildings. Mr. Sacks' son, George Sacks II, succeeds his father as president of the company.
Published in Star-Ledger on August 1, 2010