Advisors Real Estate Asset Services, a Sacramento, California-area real estate firm that advises investors and landlords across the product type spectrum, has brought on board a slate of veteran advisers, developers, brokers and asset managers as the company expands across the West.
AREAS Founding Partner Rob Cord said the firm is formally bringing on a diverse handful of real estate experts who have already been working for the firm in a more informal capacity.
"After working with each of these CRE specialists over the years, we have formalized our partnership through AREAS to pursue more opportunities through this expansion of expertise and geography, Cord told CoStar News in a statement.
AREAS helps source capital for real estate investors and aids in the redevelopment of commercial, residential, retail, and mixed-use properties. It has developers, asset and property managers and marketers who help clients evaluate operations and investments in properties from small multifamily buildings to strip malls to downtown office buildings.
Cord said the firm seeks to “bring a more tailored approach to both institutional and private clients" by adding executives who bring “broad strength across all facets of commercial real estate," including acquisitions, property management, entitlements and finance.
Partner and Chief Operating Officer Julie Blank has spent 25 years focusing on multifamily real estate across half a dozen states. As president of Southern California-based Point Blank Consulting, she has worked on ground-up projects as well as renovation and repositioning on behalf of companies including New Standard Equities, Carmel Partners and Greystar.
Partner and Senior Vice President Michael Foley joins the team to lead operations, brokerage, and management services in Southern California and the Northwest. He previously oversaw retail and office development at the Point Ruston Waterfront Development, a $1.4 billion mixed-use village in Tacoma, Washington. He has worked for companies in the U.S. and Mexico, including as a partner at Mexico Retail Properties, where he helped launch the company’s first 11 shopping centers.
Jeffrey Steinberg, another partner at the firm, is an expert in developing solutions during market downturns for major corporate property owners, entrepreneurs, financial institutions and the public sector. As Denver, Colorado’s first real estate director in 2009, he helped the city leverage its real estate portfolio to help cover a budget shortfall, according to the release.
Finally, Partner Stewart Kaye leads the firm’s capital markets division. Previously he was director of asset management and capital markets at New Standard Equities, where he oversaw a portfolio of more than 1,000 homes in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.
The post-pandemic landscape has enabled a new wave of real estate investors, as institutional and private equity buyers have pulled back and owner-users have pounced on the once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire real estate at deep discounts across the country, with sale prices down 50% over the past two years. Meanwhile, officials in states like California that desperately need more housing have passed a slew of measures that aim to remove barriers and encourage multifamily developments.