Younan Company

Younan Company

Younan Company began as Younan Properties in 2002, founded by Zaya Younan in Los Angeles. The firm expanded beyond real estate into a diversified holding structure, formalized under the Younan Company banner. A private, self-capitalized group, it does not publicly disclose total assets under management but states that it has acquired and managed over $5 billion in commercial real estate and corporate assets since inception. The firm's strategy centers on acquiring distressed, underperforming, and value-add assets in commercial real estate and middle-market operating companies. In real estate, Younan targets office, industrial, and retail properties predominantly in Texas, Arizona, California, and Illinois, where it has completed large-scale acquisitions such as the former ExxonMobil campus in Irving, Texas and a portfolio of office towers in Chicago's East Loop. The private equity arm extends the same turnaround logic to operating businesses, including luxury brands, hospitality, and manufacturing entities. The firm operates on a direct, control-oriented investment model, avoiding fund structures in favor of proprietary capital and selective co-investment partnerships. The firm maintains its headquarters in Woodland Hills, California, with additional regional offices in Dallas and Chicago to support property management and asset operations. Zaya Younan remains the sole controlling principal and public face of the enterprise. The firm's portfolio at various points has included luxury golf clubs, a French crystal manufacturer, and a pipeline inspection company — each acquired through opportunistic, off-market negotiations. In January 2024, Younan Company sold a 1.2 million-square-foot office campus in Irving, Texas to a joint venture led by Darby Investments, marking a significant liquidity event in its real estate portfolio (per GlobeSt, January 2024). The firm's philanthropic activities flow through the Younan Foundation, which supports children's health initiatives. Younan Company operates outside the institutional fund model common among private equity peers. It deploys its own balance sheet and that of its principal, which eliminates external LP pressure on hold periods and allows multi-year turnaround strategies on complex real estate assets. This permanent-capital architecture — a single-principal vehicle acquiring both property and companies — gives it a structural flexibility rare among middle-market asset managers calibrated to fund lifecycles.