Principals
Pacific Star Capital owes its success to the hard work of its employees and principals. Pacific Star Capital has personnel in several states fulfilling a variety of acquisition, management and leasing roles. The resumes of its three active principals are set forth below.
Aria Mehrabi, Ph.D. – Principal
Aria Mehrabi is a principal of Pacific Star Capital (PSC). He co-founded the Real Estate Investment Fund with Ethan Penner and David Walker, investing in retail and office properties across the United States. Aria has over 16 years of operating experience in real estate. Currently, Dr. Mehrabi is focused on acquiring distressed assets and debt portfolio acquisitions in retail and industrial sectors in the Sunbelt. Aria began his career in commercial real estate, as Vice President of Acquisitions for an opportunity fund, RPD Catalyst, where he conducted acquisitions in commercial real estate deals, including stabilized and value added office and industrial projects in 20 different markets across the US. Prior to RPD, Dr. Mehrabi worked privately in the residential multi-family sector and developed and sold multiple housing tracts and a portfolio of condo projects in Southern California. Prior to joining the real estate industry, Aria worked as a risk consultant to the RAND Corporation and also lectured on international economics at Georgetown University. His op-eds and articles have appeared in the International Herald Tribune and other major publications. An advocate for women's empowerment and security, Aria founded the Banu Foundation to support grass-roots organizations in the developing world devoted to such cause. He has been an annual contributor to the Protection Project of Johns Hopkins, an organization devoted to halting the practice of female trafficking across the world. Aria received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), with a focus in economics, studying international monetary theory. He received his Masters in Real Estate Development from The University of Southern California (USC), and his BA degree from The University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, serves on the Leadership Council of the New America Foundation and also serves on the Executive Board of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at USC. Dr. Mehrabi also holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
David S. Walker – Principal
David began his real estate career 12 years ago in the structured finance side of the business. In 1994, David joined Nomura Securities in New York and subsequently moved to Los Angeles to co-head the Western Region loan origination effort where he went on to originate in excess of $5 billion in debt and equity investments over a 5-year period. David subsequently went on to establish the Los Angeles office of CDC Mortgage Capital where he helped to position CDC as an innovator in the CMBS market. In 2002, after 3 years at CDC, David moved to Bear Stearns in Los Angeles where he became Managing Director and group head for large loan originations of the Los Angeles office, responsible for originating over $1 billion in debt per year for 2 consecutive years. In 2004, David moved to the principal-side of real estate and founded Pacific Star Capital, a Los Angeles-based shopping center owner/operator, with over $200 million of shopping center located in assets in 5 states. In 2007, David stepped away from the day-to-day operation of Pacific Star to become president of JRK Birchmont Advisors and its $203 million private equity fund, Birchmont Capital Partners I. In his capacity as president of the fund division, David was responsible for leading a team that invested in 13 separate real estate investments ranging from multifamily to office properties, worth an estimated $1 billion. David recently returned to Pacific Star to rejoin with co-founder Aria Mehrabi in the daily operation of Pacific Star Capital and its various investments. David holds a BSM from Tulane University in New Orleans.
Bradley Black – Principal, Investments
Brad Black brings over 18 years of capital markets, real estate finance and development experience to Pacific Star Capital. In his role of Managing Partner of Investments, Brad is responsible for identifying and pursuing real estate opportunities in debt and loan portfolios, as well as other value added investments. From 2000 to 2007 Brad was a Director in the Real Estate Capital Markets group at Wachovia Securities where he was involved in originating both fixed and floating rate debt, mezzanine and joint venture equity investments on commercial property. Brad was involved in the successful closing of transactions totaling over $5 billion and specialized in the more complicated, highly structured transactions. From 1993 to 2000, Brad worked at George Smith Partners, Inc. a boutique real estate investment banking firm based in Los Angeles, California, where Brad assisted clients in the analysis of the most beneficial capital structure for the financing of commercial real estate assets. Prior to that, Brad was a trader and advisor for Capital Management, AG a foreign exchange trading and advisory firm headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. Brad was responsible for developing and managing short to medium term positions in the spot currency market for the Maverick Investment Fund, an offshore based fund with managed assets over $40 million. Mr. Black graduated with a MBA with a concentration in real estate finance from Columbia University and also holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.
Brett C. Wood – Executive Vice President
Brett Wood leads the management team responsible for property management and day-to-day operations of the company’s real estate holdings. Brett joined Pacific Star Capital after sixteen years with Robertson Properties Group (“RPG”). Primarily, Brett was responsible for leasing and property management for RPG’s extensive commercial portfolio consisting of approximately five million square feet of gross leasable area across eight (8) states. The portfolio included office buildings, grocery anchored centers, big box anchored and lifestyle centers. Prior to Robertson Properties Group, Brett was with Decurion Corporation for an additional eleven years. Brett is a member of Building Owners and Management Association, Urban Land Institute, Institute of Real Estate Management, and International Council of Shopping Centers. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Entertainment District and on the Board of Directors of the Central Hollywood Coalition. A native of Los Angeles, Brett graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in History.
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