UPTOWN — Memorial services for Jay Michael, a prominent real-estate developer who focused on bringing old Uptown buildings back to life, will be held Tuesday.
At 12 p.m. Tuesday, services will be held at Northbrook Community Synagogue, 2548 Jasper Ct. in Northbrook. The burial will take place at 3 p.m. at West Lawn Cemetery, 7801 W. Montrose Ave. in Norridge, according to a press release from Cedar Street.
"Jay [Michael] was a visionary in the truest sense of the word; he only saw possibility and he was steadfast in bringing his ideas to life. Jay led by example, fighting feverishly each and every day for all of the things in this world that he wanted to improve," the company said via the release.
Shiva will be held from 4-9 p.m. Tuesday at Chabad Wilmette, 2904 Old Glenview Rd. in Wilmette. The ritual will continue Wednesday and Thursday from 4-9 p.m. at Merion, 1611 Chicago Ave. in Evanston.
Michael, the co-founder of Cedar Street Companies, died Friday after a year-long battle with stage four lymphoma. Michael, who was raised in Skokie with his two brothers, founded Cedar Street in his early twenties with his childhood friend Alex Samoylovich.
"As the co-founder of CEDARst, he was constantly bucking real estate and design conventions, religiously following only his intuition as he developed new and better ways to live. After all, Jay wasn’t merely developing real estate, he was creating spaces that fostered community and platforms for creative spirits to thrive," the company said.
FLATS Chicago and Cedar Street have redeveloped countless properties, some of them distressed, and transformed them into trendy housing. The process has not gone unopposed, as affordable housing advocates have protested against his developments and once, even at Michael's own house.
Michael wrote about his battle with cancer for "Splash" magazine in mid 2015, detailing how he was diagnosed with "stage 4 non-Hodgkin diffuse large B cell lymphoma, an aggressive and late-stage cancer of the lymph nodes and the blood" at age 34.
"Jay approached his fight against cancer in the same way that he tackled everything else, with perseverance, humor, and more than a little chutzpah. This week the world lost Jay Michael, but Jay did not lose to the disease. As he said many times, upon his diagnosis he made a decisive choice to live. This past year was the year that he embraced living the hardest, which was the truest testament to his character," the company said.
For more information on Jay Michael click here.
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