Amherst Names David Schwarz to Lead Commercial Real Estate Strategies

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Amherst Group (together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, "Amherst" or "the Company"), a vertically integrated real estate investment, development, and operating firm, has named David Schwarz as Head of Commercial Real Estate Strategies. Schwarz will lead the expansion of Amherst's commercial real estate ("CRE") business by further developing the existing credit business and leveraging Amherst's industry-leading expertise to launch new products and business segments across both real estate debt and equity. He will also be responsible for managing the firm’s private commercial real estate strategies. Schwarz joins Amherst from Colony Capital Inc. (now DigitalBridge Group Inc.), most recently serving as Managing Director and Head of Colony's expansive Hospitality Platform.

"We have tremendous ambitions at Amherst, and a key component to diversifying our platform and achieving our goals is broadening our commercial real estate footprint," commented Sean Dobson, Chief Executive Officer of Amherst. "With strong performance history, a core CRE team with a tenured track record, and a deep bench of strategic partners, the Company is primed for significant expansion. David's leadership capabilities and breadth of experience across investment strategies will help us catalyze this next important growth phase for Amherst and our stakeholders."

Schwarz brings to Amherst extensive investment experience in commercial real estate. During his decade-long tenure at Colony Capital, Schwarz oversaw all functions of the hospitality business, including acquisitions and management of the 245-property portfolio. Previously at Colony, Schwarz led investment activities for the firm's series of opportunistic credit funds focused on distressed real estate opportunities. Earlier in his career, Schwarz served as a Principal at Warburg Pincus and previously worked at the Carlyle Group.

"I'm incredibly excited to join such a fast-growing platform and help guide Amherst's evolution within the commercial real estate industry," Schwarz said. "Amherst is committed to expanding into new businesses beyond its existing residential and credit platforms and has proven its ability to execute on innovative strategies. Market shifts are creating new opportunities across the entire real estate landscape, and Amherst's vertically integrated platform will allow it to capitalize on these opportunities and provide differentiated investment solutions to its investors and partners."

Amherst's commercial real estate lending strategy originates first-lien mortgages on transitional properties across office, retail, multifamily, industrial, mixed-use, and hotel sectors. Amherst's vertically integrated platform is driven by a regimented credit process, quantitative modeling, and a seasoned investment team with deep experience sourcing, underwriting, closing, and asset managing loans throughout different market cycles.

About Amherst
Amherst is on a mission to transform the way real estate is owned, financed, and managed. Amherst leverages its proprietary data, analytics, technology, and decades of experience to seek solutions for a fragmented, slow-to-evolve real estate ecosystem and to materially improve the experience for residents, buyers, sellers, communities, and investors. Today Amherst has over 900 employees and $10.9 billion in assets under management.*

Over the last decade, Amherst has scaled its platform to become one of the most expansive providers of high-quality, affordable single-family homes in dozens of communities across the United States. Built on a long tradition of working with residents to promote housing stability, Amherst has acquired and leased more than 40,000 homes, renovated over 34,000 homes, and manages existing leases across 28 markets (30 cities) in the United States. The firm delivers customized, stabilized, cash-flowing portfolios of assets to its investors, wrapped in the ongoing services required to manage, own, and finance the asset, including property management, portfolio management, and a full capital markets team. In addition to its single-family rental platform, Amherst's debt business pursues two distinct credit strategies: a mortgage-backed securities portfolio and commercial real estate portfolio focused on transitional lending. Over its 27-year history, Amherst has developed a deep bench of research and technology talent and leverages data and analytics at every stage of the asset lifecycle to improve operations, preserve long-term value for investors, and deliver a superior experience for the more than 181,000 residents the firm has served. 

*As of June 30, 2021

SOURCE Amherst Group