Mr. Garrett’s 20-year career in the commercial real estate industry has been dedicated to a wide spectrum of disciplines, which include commercial real estate law, commercial real estate finance, real estate development, portfolio management and investor relations.
Following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1989, Mr. Garrett joined the New York City-based law firm of Thacher Proffitt & Wood as an associate in the real estate law group. Mr. Garrett’s practice focused primarily on representing national lending institutions and real estate investors in connection with commercial mortgage financings and securitizations, the sale and purchase of performing and non-performing real estate loans, real property acquisitions and dispositions, and commercial mortgage loan restructurings and workouts.
In 1994, Mr. Garrett became a member of the real estate finance group of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (“DLJ”). During his tenure at DLJ, Mr. Garrett’s senior level responsibilities included establishing, organizing and growing the firm’s commercial mortgage loan securitization business. Mr. Garrett’s specific responsibilities included establishing CMBS program guidelines, structuring individual mortgage loans and credit facilities, negotiating loan documentation, and coordinating with rating agencies and the mortgage trading desk in the creation and sale of CMBS. In addition to his transaction responsibilities at DLJ, Mr. Garrett’s management responsibilities included the firm’s mortgage origination offices in Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Connecticut and New York City. Mr. Garrett’s management responsibilities included establishing operating and origination budgets, developing and implementing marketing strategies and building client relationships with real estate principals and mortgage brokers.
Mr. Garrett transitioned to the real estate investment and asset management business in 2002 when he joined TVO North America, a multifamily owner/operator, as President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Garrett’s primary missions at TVO North America included broadening the business lines of the company while leveraging off the core competencies of the platform, expanding the company’s institutional and private investor pool, creating more efficient processes and systems within the company’s operations, and managing the acquisition and disposition activities related to the company’s portfolio.
Mr. Garrett received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma. Mr. Garrett is also a member of the New York, Oklahoma and Cherokee Nation Bar Associations, as well as the Urban Land Institute, the National Multi Housing Conference and the Young Presidents’ Organization.
Dean Pentikis has over 17 years of experience in commercial real estate. His diverse career includes commercial banking, real estate consulting, investment banking and private equity. Mr. Pentikis began his career and received credit training at Bank of New York. While at Bank of New York, he focused on managing a portfolio that included restructurings, construction loans and in the later years new originations.
After leaving Bank of New York, he participated in the early development stages of the commercial mortgage back securities industry while at various positions at Deloitte & Touche Real Estate Consulting Group, Nomura Asset Capital and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Also, during this time, he developed a process to analyze, model and recommend acquisition pricing for the General Partnership interests in distressed limited partnerships. Further he continued his career originating, underwriting, and documenting mortgages for inclusion in Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities issuances.
For the period 1999 through 2008 Mr. Pentikis was employed at Apollo Real Estate Advisors. Becoming a partner in 2002, he played a key role in many equity transactions and was responsible for many of the early transactions in Apollo’s structured debt business. Mr. Pentikis was the Head of Apollo’s Los Angeles office starting in 2006 and had primary responsibility for all equity and debt transactions in the western US.
At Apollo Real Estate Advisors, Mr. Pentikis lead multiple debt and equity transactions and played material roles in many others. In addition to his role in equity and debt investment, Mr. Pentikis had asset management responsibilities for portfolio of originated deals and legacy projects with total capitalization in excess of $2.5 billion. Early in his career at Apollo Mr. Pentikis had oversight responsibilities for the day-to-day management of Funds with over $3 billion of equity and total assets in excess of $12 billion.
Mr. Pentikis has a B.S. in Economics from James Madison University and is a member of the Executive Board of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
Jennifer Keith began her career in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group at Deutsche Bank Securities (“Deutsche Bank”) in 2001 where she focused on corporate finance, M&A and strategic advisory services for a diverse array of clients including foreign and domestic institutional investors, REITs, private equity funds and financial institutions.
In 2003, Ms. Keith left Deutsche Bank to form Arch Street Capital Advisors (“Arch Street Capital”), a start-up, investment platform focused exclusively on Shari’a compliant investments in real estate. As an Associate at Arch Street Capital, Ms. Keith played an integral role in the acquisition underwriting and execution, financing of investments under the complex legal structures required by Shari’a restrictions, project management, interfacing with joint venture partners and investors and the management of the company operations. While at Arch Street Capital, Ms. Keith participated in the acquisition and asset management of over $1.0 billion in real estate.
Following Arch Street Capital, Ms. Keith joined Apollo Real Estate Advisors (“Apollo”) in 2006, where she was responsible for sourcing, negotiating and executing new investments for all Apollo fund platforms, including opportunistic, value-added, development and debt opportunities across all real estate product types. As an Associate, Ms. Keith evaluated over $4.0 billion in equity and debt investments through the construction of complex financial models, analysis of market fundamentals and identification of optimal debt financing and partnership structures. As a Vice President, Ms. Keith had responsibilities for over $2.0 billion in assets and functioned as the project manager on a $1 billion mixed-use project; successfully completing a two year environmental impact study for over 1 million square feet of entitlements. Additionally, Ms. Keith managed the repositioning of a 1,000+ unit, 25 building, $80 million urban multifamily portfolio.
Ms. Keith received a B.A. in Economics and German Literature from the University of Virginia and a Master in Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California. Ms. Keith is a member of the Executive Committee for the Urban Land Institute - Los Angeles District.