Born to a
Jewish family in
Cleveland, Stark is a graduate of
Hawken School (1969), the
University of Rochester (B.A. 1975), and
Case Western Reserve University School of Law (J.D. 1978). He is a member of the Ohio Bar. He started developing real estate in 1974. In 1990, he developed the Promenade of Westlake, one of the first strip malls that featured upscale tenants, expensive finishes, and a $1 million landscaped center. In 2004, he developed the $450 million
Crocker Park in
Westlake, Ohio which mixes residential apartments with retail stores, restaurants and parks. Crocker Park was modeled on
Mizner Park in
Boca Raton, Florida. In 2010, Stark approached singer-songwriter
Yehudah Katz to reinterpret and record some poetry he had written. This resulted in an album called
Biladecha Lo Avo ("I'm Not Going Without You"). Produced by Gilad Vital of
Shotei Hanevuah, the album received positive reviews and airplay in Israel and was played on
El Al flights. He purchased the land in September 2014 for $26 million. The project won unanimous approval from the Cleveland Planning Commission in November 2014. The tower would be the 4th tallest building in the city. Stark also invests real estate and donates to charities in Israel. He headed an investor group that invested over $3 billion in a new university town in
Safed,
Israel that included a medical school affiliated with
Bar-Ilan University. In October 2011, Israel's fifth medical school opened in Safed, housed in a renovated historic building in the center of town that was once a branch of
Hadassah Hospital. ==Personal life==