ElmTree Funds

ElmTree’s relationships with investment grade tenants, developers, and corporate advisors allow us to quickly uncover off-market opportunities. Our expertise in commercial real estate development, capital markets and internal asset management enables us to optimize risk-adjusted returns for our commercial real estate investors. ElmTree has been customizing solutions for developers in the form of joint-venture equity, mezzanine financing, and forward commitments to purchase the property upon completion. If the deal fits our methodical underwriting criteria, ElmTree will work closely with the developer to create a win/win solution for both parties.

Real Estate Specialization
Office
Industrial
Health Care
Net Lease
Investment Type
Pref/Mezz equity
JV partnership
Investment Style
Development
Typical Deal Size
$10,000,000 - $50,000,000
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Managing Principal, Founder

James Koman

Mr. Koman is the founder and a Managing Principal of ElmTree Funds, LLC with 33 years of experience in the real estate industry. As Managing Principal of ElmTree Funds, Mr. Koman oversees all aspects of its business activities, including acquisition, management and disposition of the company’s assets. Mr. Koman provides the strategic vision of the Investment Committee which is responsible for reviewing and approving all potential projects and ongoing investment activity. As a founder, Mr. Koman leads the organization to ensure the quality of each investment fulfills the maximum potential returns for investors and aligns with ElmTree’s strategy. Through affiliated operations, Mr. Koman has established a series of joint venture and business relationships encompassing over $3.6 billion of net lease and other real estate assets. Mr. Koman sits on the Boards of Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, The Logos School and Verifi, Inc. Mr. Koman is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR), National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), and has participated on the panels for ULI, the St. Louis RCGA, and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). Mr. Koman was recently featured as one of the Net Lease Real Estate Icons in the Real Estate Forum. Mr. Koman holds an AB degree in Economics from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An entrepreneur by nature, Mr. Koman has built a vast array of contacts and strategic relationships with investors, developers, lenders and overall active members of the real estate community.

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Managing Prinipal and Chief Investment Officer

Joe Yiu

Joseph Yiu is the Managing Principal of ElmTree Funds, LLC and serves on the Fund’s Investment Committee. As Managing Principal, Mr. Yiu oversees all facets of the business including marketing, strategy, acquisitions, dispositions, research, and fund raising. Providing key expertise in the Fund’s acquisitions, Mr. Yiu spends most of his time branding ElmTree’s National Built-to-Suit Program to regional developers, Tenant Representatives, and Fortune 500 corporations. Mr. Yiu has over 14 years of real estate experience and has acquired, advised, and financed over $4.0 billion dollars of single tenant properties. Previously, Mr. Yiu was the Chief Investment Officer of Equity Capital Management (“ECM”), a real estate private equity fund investing in net lease properties. Yiu was instrumental in ECM’s initial public offering (ECM Realty Trust) in 2011 and subsequently sold the portfolio to Realty Income Trust (“O”) for $550 million. As Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Norseman Group, a mezzanine lender in the single tenant marketplace, Yiu financed and advised on over $1.5 billion dollars of net lease properties. Yiu is currently a member of the Penn Club of NY, Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center, Zell-Lurie Real Estate Mentor Program, International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), NAIOP’s E-Commerce Forum, and Advisory Council for Marcus & Millichap’s Institutional Property Advisor’s Division. In 2002, Mr. Yiu published the “The Irony in Investing in Tenant Improvements in Leased Space” in the Journal of Corporate Real Estate; and again in 2004, he published “Single Tenant Net Lease Guidelines” in Briefings in Real Estate Finance. In 2013, Mr. Yiu was featured in Real Estate Forum as one of the top 45 under 40 in the industry. Mr. Yiu holds a BS in Real Estate and Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Chief Investment Officer

David Piasecki

David Piasecki is Chief Investment Officer of ElmTree Funds. He is responsible for all aspects of setting investment policy, overseeing the underwriting of new acquisitions and monitoring the portfolio for adherence to policy and allocation targets. Mr. Piasecki was initially hired in 2014 to be Chief Operating Officer, overseeing all day-to-day aspects of the Funds business including accounting, asset management and transaction review. In both capacities, Mr. Piasecki sits on the 4-person Investment Committee. Mr. Piasecki has a 40+ year history of investment experience ranging from equipment finance, asset based finance and with the last 30 years allocated solely to commercial real estate finance. He has experience in all aspects of real estate finance, including acquisitions, investment analysis, capital markets and dispositions. He has direct experience for over $4.5 billion of transactions including acquisitions, finance and dispositions. During this time, Mr. Piasecki’s focus has been on net leased corporate real estate transactions. Mr. Piasecki was SVP/Real Estate Division Risk Management for Greyhound Financial, a subsidiary of then Fortune 100 Greyhound Corporation. He served as SVP/Corporate Real Estate at UTF. He was a co-founder of Mesirow Realty Sale-Leaseback and later the Senior Managing Director of Highland Equity Group in Atlanta. From 2007 thru 2013 he was engaged as Senior Managing Director of Inflection Point Acquisition Group, a small boutique private equity shop engaged in acquisition and repositioning of small private companies. Mr. Piasecki is often a speaker at various industry conferences and has been published as a writer for the Monitor Journal of Asset Based Finance, The Journal of Corporate Real Estate Finance and the Real Estate Forum. He was awarded a BA from Saint Louis University with Areas of Concentration in History and Economics.

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Executive Vice President of Operations

Greg Murphy

Greg Murphy is the Executive Vice President of Operations for ElmTree Funds, LLC. In this capacity, Mr. Murphy oversees the operations of the company and participates in setting the strategic direction of the company, funds and growth. Mr. Murphy has over 25 years of real estate industry experience in the public and private arenas covering all facets of the business including portfolio and asset management, acquisitions, dispositions, development, leasing, joint venture structuring and stakeholder management. Previously, Mr. Murphy was the Executive Vice President of Aeroterm, the largest third-party owner and manager of on-airport industrial and aviation-oriented properties in the U.S. Mr. Murphy’s responsibilities included oversight of the relationship with its joint venture partner, CalPERS, including the Annual Investment Plan, operational objectives, strategic initiatives and recommendations, portfolio performance and reporting. Mr. Murphy was also responsible for the executive leadership and performance of the company’s southern and western U.S. portfolio and management company. Throughout his career, Mr. Murphy’s transactional volume exceeds $4 billion including acquisitions, dispositions, recapitalizations and leasing of industrial and office assets. Mr. Murphy has significant experience in supply chain logistics and has participated on several committees at the national level of SIOR, the Air Cargo committee at ACI – North America and served on local non-profit boards within his community. Mr. Murphy graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was a full-scholarship athlete and was nominated as Big East athlete of the decade. Mr. Murphy also received his MBA in Finance from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.

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Vice President

Dan Mcever

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Vice President

Brian Boehm

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Senior Asset Manager

Stephen Baxter

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Controller

Kerry Gawrych

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Legal Counsel

Joseph Hietpas

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Administrative Assistant

Kathy Althoff

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Staff Accountant

Karen Gerling

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Managing Principal

Joseph Yiu

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Senior Vice President Finance

James Koman

Geographical Area
Mapped Location