A $2 billion deal puts press-shy retail investor in the New York City spotlight. : Already this year, billionaire retail mogul Jeff Sutton has sold four prime retail properties for just under $2 billion. Famously reclusive, Sutton (who declined to be interviewed by The Post for this story), the founder of Wharton Properties, is perhaps the city’s most powerful investor in retail buildings in Manhattan with roughly 120 properties. For decades, he had been a net buyer and rarely a seller.