In 1992, Yitzhak Tshuva founded El Ad Holdings (also known as El Ad Group) which manages the majority of his real estate transactions in North America.[4] In the mid 1990s, El Ad Group purchased thousands of residential and commercial properties in New York and Florida, and in the Canadian cities of Toronto and Montreal. It also purchased thousands of rental properties on the west coast of the United States. In 2004, El Ad Group purchased the Plaza Hotel in New York City for $675mn from the Saudi investor, Al-Waleed bin Talal.[2] El Ad Group sold 182 residential apartments prior to the hotel's renewed opening in 2008.