Rockwood Capital
Rockwood Capital is a real estate investment firm with offices in New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, Los Angeles, CA and Seoul, Korea. Rockwood provides debt and equity capital for core, core-plus, value-add and special situation real estate investment opportunities.
Real Estate Specialization
| Multifamily |
| Office |
| Retail |
| Hotels |
| Data Centers |
Investment Type
| Pref/Mezz equity |
| JV partnership |
| Acquisition/Fee Simple |
| Debt |
| Multi-property portfolios |
Investment Style
| Core |
| Core+ |
| Value-add |
| Opportunistic |
| Development |
Antonio Larino
Mr. Lariño, based in White Plains, has 17 years of experience in real estate spanning mergers, acquisitions, capital markets and asset management and leads Rockwood's hotel investments. Mr. Lariño has completed numerous transactions in the office, retail and lodging sectors, with the latter being his area of focus. Prior to joining Rockwood, Mr. Lariño was a Managing Director with Westmont Hospitality where he oversaw one of Westmont's largest portfolio companies consisting of 11 luxury hotels with over 6,000 rooms in the United States and Canada. From 2001 to 2008, Mr. Lariño held various positions at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, most recently as Senior Vice President of Americas Development, where he led the growth of Starwood's Westin, Sheraton and Le Meridien brands in North America and Latin America. Mr. Lariño also served as Starwood's Senior Vice President of International Investments and Vice President of Corporate Development. Prior to joining Starwood, Mr. Lariño was a Vice President of Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, where he completed merger & acquisition and financing transactions on behalf of clients across all property types. Mr. Lariño holds a Bachelor of Arts from New York University and a Masters of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Tyson Skillings
- 1 310 228 6253
- tskillings@rockwoodcap.com
Mr. Skillings, based in Los Angeles, is a Partner of Rockwood and has 16 years of experience in the real estate industry. Mr. Skillings serves on various portfolio management and investment committees, as well as the firm's finance, budgeting and operations committee and the new business and investor strategy committee. Mr. Skillings is responsible for co-heading portfolio and asset management along with Mr. Kaye. Mr. Skillings is the portfolio manager of Funds VI and VIII and therefore has overall responsibility for the portfolio management initiatives with respect to such funds, including fund and asset management, fund and asset capitalization, and disposition activities. Prior to becoming a portfolio manager, Mr. Skillings was responsible for originating, structuring and underwriting new investment opportunities and managing Rockwood's assets in the western United States. Prior to re-joining Rockwood in 2006 to help open Rockwood's Los Angeles office, Mr. Skillings was a principal in a boutique real estate development company where he focused on the acquisition of retail and mixed-use properties in Southern California. Prior to that, Mr. Skillings worked in Rockwood's San Francisco office where he was responsible for the asset management and disposition of office, retail, light industrial and land assets on the West Coast. Before joining Rockwood, Mr. Skillings worked at EY Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group. Mr. Skillings received a Bachelor of Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters of Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California. Mr. Skillings is a member of Urban Land Institute, International Council of Shopping Centers and NAIOP.
Dwight Arnesen
Mr. Arnesen leads the firm's east coast acquisitions, based in New York. Prior to this change, Mr. Arnesen was responsible for the Portfolio and Asset Management group, based in New York. Mr. Arnesen has 30 years of experience in the real estate industry. Prior to joining Rockwood, Mr. Arnesen held senior roles in both acquisitions and asset management. Mr. Arnesen was most recently a Managing Director of Acquisitions in North America at JER Partners as well as interim head of Asset Management for JER's European funds, where he leveraged his earlier experience of workouts and restructuring on numerous troubled assets. Prior to JER, he was a Managing Director and co-Head of US Acquisitions at Starwood Capital Group Global LLC. Before joining Starwood, he was a Principal at JPMorgan Partners FKA Chase Capital Partners and a senior officer in the Real Estate Workout Group of Chemical Bank/Chase Manhattan Bank for 11 years. Mr. Arnesen is a member of the NY State Bar Association, the ULI and the ICSC and has spoken on numerous real estate panels. Mr. Arnesen received his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. from Washington and Lee University.
Edmond Kavounas
Mr. Kavounas, based in San Francisco, is Chairman and one of the founders of Rockwood. Mr. Kavounas has 41 years of experience in the real estate industry and serves on all of Rockwood's investment committees, Rockwood's investment strategy and research committee and Rockwood's new business and investor strategy committee. Mr. Kavounas serves on the board of directors of Mill Creek Residential Trust, a portfolio company of one of Rockwood's separate account clients. Mr. Kavounas was President and CEO of Rockwood from its inception in 1995 until 2010. As the firm's Chairman, Mr. Kavounas now works with Rockwood's Co-Managing Partners and the other Principals to guide the execution of Rockwood's real estate and corporate strategy. Mr. Kavounas also helps to strengthen Rockwood's relationships with investors, business partners, and other leaders in the real estate industry. From 1980 to 1995, Mr. Kavounas was co-founder and partner of Sullivan Smith & Kavounas, a real estate investment advisor; Director and Executive Vice President of Competrol Real Estate Limited, a private real estate investment company; and co-founder and co-manager of RAR/CREL, a real estate investment partnership between Competrol Real Estate Limited ("CREL"), and Rockefeller & Associates Realty ("RAR") formed to invest in U.S. real estate. CREL and RAR/CREL invested in office buildings, residential and mixed use projects pursuing value add and opportunistic strategies. From 1973 to 1980, Mr. Kavounas held various executive positions with Mobil Corporation's real estate development subsidiary, Mobil Land Development Company. During this time MLDC acquired, planned, developed, managed and marketed several large scale mixed use suburban core developments: Reston, Virginia; "Redwood Shores", Redwood City, California; "Windward", Atlanta, Georgia; and "Stonegate", Denver, Colorado; and also a resort development, "Sailfish Point", Stuart, Florida. Mr. Kavounas is active in numerous industry organizations. Mr. Kavounas is a member of the Urban Land Institute; the Pension Real Estate Association; the Real Estate Roundtable; Cornell University Real Estate Council; Real Estate Board of New York; and serves on the Board of the Woodstock Resort Corporation Holdings. Mr. Kavounas is a member of the American Bar Association and is a member of the New York and California Bar. Mr. Kavounas received his Juris Doctor from Fordham Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Cornell University.
Joel Mayer
Mr. Mayer, based in Los Angeles, has over 25 years of experience as a real estate investment professional and leads the firm's retail real estate investments. Prior to joining Rockwood, Mr. Mayer was a Director at BlackRock Realty. While at BlackRock, Mr. Mayer worked on their Retail Opportunity Fund and was responsible for sourcing new investments, identifying and structuring transactions with joint venture partners and directing development and redevelopment activities for new acquisitions. For four years prior to joining BlackRock, Mr. Mayer was Senior Vice President of Real Estate and Development for California Pizza Kitchen ("CPK") with responsibility for the national expansion of CPK overseeing site selection, lease negotiations and the development of approximately 45 new restaurants. Prior to CPK, Mr. Mayer was Senior Vice President of Madison Marquette where he directed leasing and portfolio management of their western region. Mr. Mayer joined Madison Marquette in 1998 in conjunction with Madison Marquette's acquisition of Farallon Retail Services where he was a partner. Mr. Mayer received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Michigan. Mr. Mayer is a member of the Urban Land Institute, where he is a member of the Commercial Retail Development (Blue Flight) and is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers.
Joel Moody
Mr. Moody, based in Los Angeles, has 21 years of experience as a real estate investment professional and heads up the firm's residential real estate investments nationally as well as office investments on the West Coast. Prior to joining Rockwood, Mr. Moody spent seven years at Investcorp, initially as a Principal in its New York City office and later as a Managing Director in the company's Los Angeles office that he relocated to open. While at Investcorp, Mr. Moody oversaw a large and diverse portfolio of assets and directed the sale of approximately 25 properties. Mr. Moody played a significant leadership role within Investcorp's real estate group, handling numerous internal management functions while in New York City and later assuming office oversight and business development responsibilities upon opening the Los Angeles office. Earlier in his career, Mr. Moody worked in an asset management capacity for a number of leading real estate investment management firms in New York City, including MetroNexus (a Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund company), J.P. Morgan, The O'Connor Group, Eastdil, and The Yarmouth Group. Mr. Moody began his career as a financial analyst in the real estate investment banking group at Merrill Lynch. Mr. Moody received a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and a Masters of Arts in Economics from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Carleton College.
Niraj Shah
Mr. Smith, based in San Francisco, is one of the founders of Rockwood and has 46 years of experience in the real estate industry. Mr. Smith serves on the firm's investment strategy and research committee. From 1995 to 2005, Mr. Smith was Chairman of Rockwood and responsible for the firm's real estate strategy, including the selection of markets, projects and partners and the timing of acquisitions and sales. From 1980 to 1995, Mr. Smith served as Director and Executive Vice President of Competrol Real Estate Limited, a private real estate investment company, partner and co-founder of Sullivan Smith & Kavounas, a real estate investment advisor, and co-manager of RAR/CREL. Mr. Smith also advised on Olayan real estate investment in the U.K., New Zealand and Australia. Mr. Smith was previously with Mobil where he served as President of Redwood Shores in California and Chairman of Reston Land Corporation in Virginia. While with Mobil, Mr. Smith also advised on projects in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, including Mei Foo in Hong Hong. In addition, Mr. Smith previously worked with Grosvenor on development projects in England and Canada. Mr. Smith received his BSC degree from the University of London in Urban Estate Management and is a member of the Urban Land Institute.
Peter Falco
- 1 914 287 8850
- pfalco@rockwoodcap.com
Mr. Falco, based in White Plains, is a Co-Managing Partner and one of the founders of Rockwood. Mr. Falco has 34 years of experience in the real estate industry that began with land use planning and development and evolved into the investment and management facets of the business. Mr. Falco serves on various portfolio management and investment committees, as well as on Rockwood's new business and investor strategy committee (as chairman) and finance, budgeting and operations committee. Mr. Falco previously served as the head of Rockwood's Capital Markets team and as Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Falco has overall responsibility for co-managing Rockwood with Mr. Schmidt, with a particular focus on portfolio and asset management, investor relations and business development. In the past, Mr. Falco has led the firm's capital markets group (including both debt and equity) and the portfolio management team. From 1988 to 1995, Mr. Falco was a Vice President of Planning with Trafalgar House Property, Inc., a commercial real estate investor and merchant builder. At Trafalgar House, Mr. Falco was primarily responsible for pre-acquisition feasibility studies; due diligence and environmental clearance; site planning and engineering; and project entitlement for the firm's commercial developments, which included four major office/research and development projects totaling more than 8 million square feet. From 1978 to 1988, Mr. Falco was a Senior Planning Director of a nationally recognized environmental consulting firm, specializing in environmental regulation and project/development entitlement. Mr. Falco received his Bachelor of Science from Rutgers University and a Masters of Forestry & Environmental Studies from Yale University. Mr. Falco is a full member of the Urban Land Institute, where he is a member of the Urban Development/Mixed-Use Council, as well as PREA, InRev and the Alternative Investment Forum.
Peter Kaye
Mr. Kaye, based in San Francisco, is a Partner of Rockwood and has 18 years of experience in the real estate industry. Mr. Kaye serves on various portfolio management and investment committees, as well as on the personnel, staffing and compensation committee and investment strategy and research committee. Mr. Kaye serves on the board of directors of Mill Creek Residential Trust, a portfolio company of one of Rockwood's separate account clients. Mr. Kaye is responsible for co-heading portfolio and asset management along with Mr. Skillings. Mr. Kaye is the portfolio manager of Funds V and VII and therefore has overall responsibility for the portfolio management initiatives with respect to such funds, including fund and asset management, fund and asset capitalization, and disposition activities. In addition, Mr. Kaye has responsibility for the performance of Rockwood's separate account investments. Prior to becoming a portfolio manager, Mr. Kaye was responsible for originating, structuring and underwriting new investment opportunities and managing Rockwood's assets for the western United States. Prior to joining Rockwood in 2002, Mr. Kaye held various positions in acquisitions, originations and asset management and completed transactions for both debt and equity nationwide. Mr. Kaye previously worked in the acquisitions group at SSR Realty Advisors in San Francisco, where he was involved in the acquisition and development of several commercial and residential projects on the West Coast. From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Kaye worked at GE Capital Real Estate where he was involved in the acquisition and financing of office, retail, hotel and multifamily assets nationwide. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Kaye was a project manager for Clark Construction Group, a national commercial general contractor based in Washington, D.C., where he managed construction of several stadium projects and office buildings in the D.C. metro area. Mr. Kaye is an active member of the Urban Land Institute. Mr. Kaye received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University and a Masters of Business Administration from Boston University.
Robert Gray
Mr. Gray, based in San Francisco, is a Partner and one of the founders of Rockwood. Mr. Gray has 25 years of experience in the real estate industry. Mr. Gray serves on various investment committees as well as on Rockwood's investment strategy and research committee (as chairman) and personnel, staffing and compensation committee. Mr. Gray has overall responsibility for managing Rockwood's acquisition activities, including personnel located in the firm's three offices. Mr. Gray's specific responsibilities include overseeing the selection of markets, projects and partners, and the negotiation and structuring of transactions. As chairman of Rockwood's investment strategy and research committee, Mr. Gray plays in key role in the development of the firm's real estate investment strategy. Prior to the formation of Rockwood, Mr. Gray worked with Bechtel Investments (now known as the Fremont Group) where he was responsible for originating and underwriting new real estate investment opportunities in the western United States and handling general asset management of Bechtel's real estate portfolio. He also spent time with Standard Realty and Development (a subsidiary of Union Pacific Realty), where his responsibilities included management of industrial and land development projects and portfolio management of the western U.S. region. Mr. Gray received a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California in Berkeley, CA. Mr. Gray is a member of the Urban Land Institute, Pension Real Estate Association, the International Council of Shopping Centers, Fisher Center at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford Real Estate Council, Lambda Alpha International, as well as various other industry organizations.