Griffin Capital Corp
Griffin Capital Corporation ("Griffin Capital"), is a privately-held, Los Angeles headquartered investment and management company with a 19-year track record sponsoring real estate investment vehicles and managing institutional capital. Led by senior executives, each with more than two decades of real estate experience who have collectively closed transactions representing over $16 billion in value, Griffin Capital and affiliates have acquired or constructed over 29 million square feet of space since 1995, and currently own, manage, sponsor and/or co-sponsor an institutional-quality portfolio of approximately 27 million square feet located in 32 states and 1 million square feet located in the United Kingdom, representing approximately $5.2 billion in asset value. Griffin Capital is the sponsor of Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc. (the "Essential Asset REIT"), a publicly-registered, non-traded real estate investment trust focused on providing individual investors dependable monthly income through the ownership of a diversified portfolio of 'business essential' office and industrial properties net leased on a long term basis to creditworthy corporate tenants. The Essential Asset REIT currently owns office and industrial distribution properties totaling approximately 11.0 million rentable square feet representing total REIT capitalization exceeding $1.8 billion. Griffin Capital, along with American Healthcare Investors, LLC, is also the co-sponsor of Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II, Inc., and Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III, Inc., publicly-registered, non-traded real estate investment trusts. Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II currently owns in excess of $2.9 billion in assets, based on purchase price, comprised of a diverse portfolio of medical office buildings, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and senior housing facilities located throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III seeks to raise up to $1.9 billion in equity in order to build a diverse portfolio of healthcare-related assets. Griffin Capital periodically makes IRS Section 1031 tax-deferred investment opportunities available to individual investors under a Delaware Statutory Trust ("DST") structure. - See more at: http://www.griffincapital.com/about-griffin-capital#sthash.AnkNMnfw.dpuf
Real Estate Specialization
| Multifamily |
| Office |
| Industrial |
| Mixed-use |
Investment Type
| JV partnership |
| Acquisition/Fee Simple |
| Securities |
Investment Style
| Value-add |
| Opportunistic |
| Development |
Typical Deal Size
| $10,000,000 - $50,000,000 |
Kevin Shields
Mr. Shields founded Griffin Capital in 1995, serves as the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and is based in the firm's headquarters in Los Angeles, CA. Griffin Capital is the advisor to two public, non-listed real estate investment trusts: Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc., of which Mr. Shields is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II, Inc., for which Mr. Shields serves as a special member of the Board of Directors and member of the Investment Committee. Mr. Shields is also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Griffin Capital Securities, Inc., a FINRA-registered broker-dealer and the dealer-manager for both REITs to which Griffin Capital is an advisor. CAREER SUMMARY Before founding Griffin, Mr. Shields was a Senior Vice President and head of the Structured Real Estate Finance Group at Jefferies & Company, Inc. in Los Angeles and a Vice President in the Real Estate Finance Department of Salomon Brothers Inc. in both New York and Los Angeles. Over the course of his 30-year real estate and investment-banking career, Mr. Shields has structured and closed over 200 transactions totaling in excess of $8 billion of real estate acquisitions, financings and dispositions. EDUCATION Juris Doctorate, University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law Masters of Business Administration, Haas Graduate School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, graduated Summa Cum Laude with Beta Gamma Sigma distinction Bachelors of Science Business Administration, Haas Undergraduate School of Business, University of California, graduated Phi Beta Kappa distinction PROFESSIONAL LICENSES FINRA Securities Licenses: Series 7, 63, 24 and 27 California Real Estate Broker Member, California Bar Association (Inactive) INDUSTRY ACTIVITIES Chair-Elect of Board of Directors, Investment Program Association (IPA) Executive Member, Public Non-Listed REIT Council, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts Policy Advisory Board Member, Fisher Center for Real Estate Council Member, Urban Land Institute Guest Lecturer, Haas Graduate School of Business, University of California at Berkeley PERSONAL Married, father of four and resident of Manhattan Beach, California - See more at: http://www.griffincapital.com/about-griffin-capital/executive-management/kevin-a-shields#sthash.P4XHgepq.dpuf
Michael Escalante
Mr. Escalante is the Chief Investment Officer of Griffin Capital and is responsible for overseeing all acquisition and disposition activities of the firm. CAREER SUMMARY Mr. Escalante has been a prominent player in North American institutional property acquisition and asset management since 1987. With 26 years of real estate related investment experience, he has been responsible for completing approximately $6 billion of commercial real estate transactions throughout the Western United States. Prior to joining Griffin in June 2006, Mr. Escalante served eight years at Trizec Properties, Inc., one of the largest publicly traded U.S. office REITs, with his final position being Executive Vice President - Capital Transactions and Portfolio Management. While at Trizec, Mr. Escalante was directly responsible for all capital transaction activity for the Western U.S., which included the acquisition of such prominent office projects as: Bank of America Plaza, Ernst & Young Plaza, and Landmark Square in Los Angeles, California; One Concord Center in Northern California; Dallas Gallerias in Dallas, Texas and Metropolitan Square in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to joining Trizec, Mr. Escalante was employed for approximately 10 years in various acquisitions, asset management and portfolio management positions with The Yarmouth Group, an international investment advisor. Prominent acquisitions during his tenure at The Yarmouth Group included Murdock Plaza in Westwood, California and the mixed-use projects of Symphony Towers in San Diego, California and Tabor Center in Denver, Colorado. EDUCATION MBA, University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management BS, University of Santa Clara PERSONAL Married, father of two daughters; resident of South Pasadena, CA INDUSTRY ACTIVITIES Full member of the Urban Land Institute and active in many civic organizations. - See more at: http://www.griffincapital.com/about-griffin-capital/executive-management/michael-j-escalante#sthash.acCUsLzq.dpuf
Joseph Miller
Mr. Miller is the Chief Financial Officer of Griffin Capital Corporation, and is responsible for the accounting, finance, systems, and human resources functions of the firm. CAREER SUMMARY Mr. Miller is a Certified Public Accountant in California, with a combined 22 years of real estate experience in public accounting and real estate investment firms. Mr. Miller came to Griffin Capital from PS Business Parks, a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust, where he served as Senior Vice President of Business Operations. In this position he was responsible for the financial operations of the real estate portfolio, policies and procedures of the organization, and systems. Mr. Miller started his six year tenure with PS Business Parks as Vice President and Corporate Controller, where he was responsible for SEC filings, property level accounting, and all financial reporting. Mr. Miller was also with Maguire Properties (formerly Maguire Partners) as the Corporate Controller. At Maguire he was responsible for the accounting operation, treasury function, and systems. Prior to joining Maguire, Mr. Miller was with Ernst & Young, LLP where he was an audit Manager. In this role, Mr. Miller was responsible for attestation engagements for financial services and real estate companies. In this position he also worked on initial public offering teams for real estate investment companies going public. Mr. Miller also worked with KPMG LLP, where he became a certified public accountant. EDUCATION MBA, University of Southern California BS, Business Administration, Accounting, California State University, Northridge - See more at: http://www.griffincapital.com/about-griffin-capital/executive-management/joseph-e-miller#sthash.SsQlTX7W.dpuf
Mary Higgins
Ms. Higgins is the firm's General Counsel and is based in the firm's Chicago office. CAREER SUMMARY Prior to joining Griffin, Ms. Higgins was a partner at the law firm of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP in Chicago, Illinois. Ms. Higgins has been Griffin's primary real estate transaction counsel for more than eight years and she worked together with Griffin's principals on nearly all of the firm's acquisition, due diligence, leasing, financing and disposition activities during that time period. Ms. Higgins has over 28 years of experience representing both public and private real estate owners, tenants and investors in commercial real estate matters, including development, leasing, acquisitions, dispositions, and securitized and non-securitized financings. Representative transactions include sales and dispositions of regional malls, including some of the premiere regional malls in the nation; sale of a golf course in an UPREIT structure; a $38 million credit tenant loan transaction; acquisition of various Florida office properties for a $150 million office property equity fund; representation of the ground lessor in a subordinated tenant development ground lease and a $350 million property roll up. Ms. Higgins has extensive experience in commercial leasing issues, including office, retail and industrial properties (including multi-state industrial sale/leasebacks) and is the author of the chapter entitled "Due Diligence on Commercial Leases" in the Real Estate Transactions volume published by the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education. She assists the Chicago Economic Community Development Law Project by training volunteer attorneys to provide legal services to participants in the CHA "Choose To Own" program. She is a mentor in the Harold Eisenberg Foundation mentoring program and is a mediator certified through the Center for Conflict Resolution, Chicago, Illinois. EDUCATION JD, DePaul University College of Law BS, Legal Administration, Mallinckrodt College (now part of Loyola University) - See more at: http://www.griffincapital.com/about-griffin-capital/executive-management/mary-p-higgins#sthash.MXM04Vag.dpuf
Julie Treinen
Ms. Treinen is the Managing Director of Asset Management and is responsible for all of the firm's asset management activities. CAREER SUMMARY Before joining Griffin in 2004, Ms. Treinen was a Vice President at Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, Inc., a Hartford-based, SEC-registered real estate investment and advisory firm with $4.6 billion of assets under management. During her five years at Cornerstone, Ms. Treinen managed the acquisition diligence of approximately 1.2 million square feet of existing assets totaling $238 million, the development of five apartment joint venture projects totaling $152 million, and the disposition of five properties totaling $125 million. Ms. Treinen was also the senior asset manager for a $400 million portfolio of office, industrial and apartment investments, and her responsibilities included developing ownership and value maximization strategies, implementing capital programs, establishing and coordinating budgets, and both selecting and reviewing third party leasing and property management teams. Prior to joining Cornerstone, Ms. Treinen was Director, Field Production at Northwestern Mutual Life in Newport Beach. During her three years at Northwestern, Ms. Treinen initiated, negotiated, and closed three development projects totaling over $100 million and three mortgage originations totaling over $100 million, and acquired four existing assets totaling over $50 million. Prior to joining Northwestern, Ms. Treinen was a Vice President at Prudential Realty Group in Los Angeles.Over the course of her seven year tenure at Prudential, Ms. Treinen originated over $235 million in new commercial mortgage loans, structured and negotiated problem loan workouts, note sale and foreclosures totaling over $140 million and managed a portfolio of office, industrial and apartment investments totaling approximately $500 million. Prior to attending graduate school, Ms. Treinen worked at GM Hughes Electronics as Head of Finance and at Deloitte, Haskins & Sells as a Senior Accountant in the Audit Department. EDUCATION MBA, University of California at Berkeley, Graduate School of Business BA, Economics, University of California at Los Angeles - See more at: http://www.griffincapital.com/about-griffin-capital/executive-management/julie-a-treinen#sthash.1fTbDSZO.dpuf
David Rupert
Mr. Rupert is the President of Griffin Capital Corporation and is involved in all aspects of the firm's activities. CAREER SUMMARY Mr. Rupert's 31 years of commercial real estate and finance experience includes over $5 billion of transaction volume on four continents. Mr. Rupert served as Chief Operating Officer of Griffin from 2000-2008 and left to pursue two entrepreneurial opportunities (co-heading an opportunistic hotel fund in partnership with The Olympia Companies, an 800-employee hotel owner-operator, and serving as partner in a private equity firm focused on hotel and multifamily residential development in Eastern Europe) before rejoining the firm as President in 2010. Mr. Rupert and Mr. Shields met while working together at Salomon Brothers (now Citi) in New York in the mid 1980's. Mr. Rupert worked at Salomon for a decade and served in various capacities, including the head of REIT underwriting, and provided advice, raised debt and equity capital and provided brokerage and other services for leading public and private real estate institutions and entrepreneurs. EDUCATION MBA, Harvard Business School BA, Cornell University PERSONAL Married, father of four; resident of Greenwich, Connecticut INDUSTRY ACTIVITIES Chair, Non-traded REIT Committee, Investment Program Association (IPA) Co-Chairman, Real Estate Advisory Board to Cornell University Endowment Fund Founding Board Member, Cornell's Baker Program in Real Estate (2-year master's degree) Guest Lecturer, Cornell University President and Board Chairman, Harvard Business School Real Estate Alumni Association - See more at: http://www.griffincapital.com/about-griffin-capital/executive-management/david-c-rupert#sthash.w9QG3OAL.dpuf
Don Pescara
Mr. Pescara serves as Griffin's Managing Director, heads the firm's Chicago office, is a member of the Investment Committee, and assists in equity capital raising. CAREER SUMMARY Mr. Pescara's 20-year real estate career includes more than $500 million of transactions. His career began in 1985 at Cushman & Wakefield where he became a successful broker of office and industrial properties and was promoted to the Financial Services Group where he focused on institutional property sales and acquisitions. In 1990, Mr. Pescara joined Republic Realty Mortgage (now GMAC) as a Vice President of Production where he established an institutional sales force and developed relationships with various lending institutions including Mass Mutual, New York Life and Met Life. Mr. Pescara joined CB Commercial as a Regional Director in their Mortgage Banking Group in 1993 where his responsibilities included placement of debt on behalf of their exclusive conduit relationship with Merrill Lynch, representation of CB Commercial's Real Estate Mortgage Fund, and broker training for the Midwest region. Mr. Pescara's relationships with CB's top broker colleagues and trainee graduates continue today and lead to extensive acquisition opportunities. Mr. Pescara joined Cohen Financial, a leading financial services firm headquartered in Chicago, in 1996 as a Senior Director. Mr. Pescara joined Griffin Capital in 1997 when Griffin acquired an asset he was selling. Mr. Pescara's clients have included some of the largest and most active institutional investors and lenders including ABB, Computer Associates, Prudential, Household International, Oaktree Capital, and ITW. While at Griffin, Mr. Pescara's responsibilities have focused on sourcing acquisitions directly from corporations, institutions, and from the brokerage community. EDUCATION BA, Economics and Finance, University of Illinois SECURITIES LICENSES Series 63 PERSONAL Married, three children; resident of Hinsdale, IL - See more at: http://www.griffincapital.com/about-griffin-capital/executive-management/don-g-pescara#sthash.z2DZHQ8o.dpuf
Jennifer Nahas
- +1 949 270 9332
- jnahas@griffincapital.com
Max Kaminsky
Andrea Brown
Zachary Forman
Ivy Madden
- +1 310 469 6115
- imadden@griffincapital.com
Elisabeth Lockerby
- +1 310 469 6190
- elockerby@griffincapital.com
Maria Chen
Dustin Zachmeyer
Liz Cook
- +1 310 469 6173
- lcook@griffincapital.com