Savanna Investment Management
Savanna is a New York City-based real estate private equity firm and asset management company that pursues real estate equity and debt investments. Founded in 1992, Savanna has invested more than $2.1 billion in total capital across 19.3 million square feet of real property in multiple asset classes. Since inception, Savanna has consistently achieved risk-adjusted returns at all points in the market cycle by targeting and investing in real estate in the Northeast Corridor. In 2006, we took our track record of investing as a fiduciary for institutional partners and raised Savanna Real Estate Fund I, LP, a discretionary institutional real estate private equity fund. As part of our investment strategy, we now invest exclusively through our private equity fund platform. As a well-established New York City real estate firm, our active and entrepreneurial culture allows us to adapt as market cycles shift, keeping an eye towards new opportunities to create value and achieve superior risk-adjusted returns within our portfolio. Our belief in a hands-on approach to real estate—both in the office and in the field—is the same now as it was at inception.
Real Estate Specialization
| Multifamily |
| Office |
| Industrial |
| Retail |
Investment Type
| JV partnership |
| Acquisition/Fee Simple |
Investment Style
| Value-add |
| Development |
Typical Deal Size
| > $50,000,000 |
Christopher Schlank
Mr. Schlank is a Founder and Managing Partner of Savanna. At Savanna, Mr. Schlank sits on the Investment Committee and is in charge of construction and redevelopment and shares responsibilities for asset management, sales and marketing and acquisitions. Mr. Schlank has overseen the acquisition and redevelopment of over 57 real estate assets, comprising over 17.3 million square feet of space and $3.8 billion of total capitalization, including raw land development sites, apartments, office buildings, industrial to residential conversions, retail and warehouse/distribution properties. Prior to founding Savanna, Mr. Schlank was a project manager for the Westside Federation for Senior Housing, a New York-based developer of low-income housing. Mr. Schlank received an MS in Real Estate Development from the Columbia School of Architecture and a BA in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Schlank is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Columbia University where he teaches a seminar in Real Estate Finance to graduate students in the Columbia Architecture School’s Real Estate Master’s Degree Program.
Kevin Hoo
Mr. Hoo is a Vice President at Savanna where he is responsible for acquisitions and managing assets in Savanna’s portfolio. Mr. Hoo oversees and coordinates development, leasing and repositioning of Savanna properties and also sources, underwrites and structures acquisition and development opportunities. Prior to joining Savanna, Mr. Hoo was a Director at Tishman Speyer in New York where he began in the Emerging Markets group (focused on China and India), initially managing acquisition and development opportunities and subsequently added oversight of design and construction elements to that role. Mr. Hoo later transitioned into the New York Acquisitions and Development group and finally the Commercial Leasing and Sales group, with a specific focus on Rockefeller Center and 200 Park Avenue. Prior to Tishman Speyer, Mr. Hoo was an Associate Director in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group at UBS AG in Sydney, Australia, where he was responsible for M&A and capital market transactions for REIT clients. Mr. Hoo received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Commerce (with honors) and Bachelor of Law (with honors) from the University of Queensland.
Nicholas Bienstock
Mr. Bienstock is the Co-Managing Partner of Savanna. At Savanna, Mr. Bienstock has developed relationships with institutional lenders, third-party capital partners, and fund investors as well as identified acquisitions and structured transactions. Mr. Bienstock has worked on the acquisition, financing, redevelopment, restructuring and sale of over $4 billion of real estate throughout the United States. Mr. Bienstock sits on the Investment Committee and supervises the ongoing marketing and leasing of Savanna’s investments. Prior to joining Savanna in 1999, Mr. Bienstock worked at Capital Trust, Inc. in New York where he worked on a wide variety of real estate principal investment and advisory transactions, including the purchase of equity interests in various properties, the negotiation and structuring of mezzanine loans, single asset and portfolio sales, asset management, debt and equity private placements and REIT IPO advisory work. Prior to Capital Trust, Mr. Bienstock worked for Chemical Bank’s Real Estate Investment Banking Group. Mr. Bienstock received an MBA from the Columbia Business School, an MS in Real Estate Development from the Columbia School of Architecture and a BA from Harvard College where he graduated cum laude. Mr. Bienstock has served as an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Columbia University where he taught case studies in Real Estate Finance to graduate students in the Columbia Architecture School’s Real Estate Master’s Degree Program and at the Columbia Business School. Mr. Bienstock also serves on the Advisory Board of The Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at The Columbia Business School, and on the Board of Trustees at The Brearley School, where his daughter attends school.
Rachael Mallory