Ed Hannon, Chief Operating Officer, Castle Lanterra Properties
Ed Hannon is chief operating officer of Suffern, NY-based Castle Lanterra Properties (CLP), a privately held multifamily property investment and asset management company with holdings throughout the U.S. In this role, Ed oversees CLP’s non-investment-related activities, including corporate policies and procedures, corporate governance, risk management, regulatory compliance, human resources and information technology.
He brings 30-plus years of experience as an investment professional to CLP and possesses a deep understanding of investment and operational best practices. Most recently, Ed was chief operating officer of Quest Global Advisors. Prior to Quest, he was head of Hedge Fund Manager Selection at Stamos Capital Partners.
Previously, Ed was head of Risk Management for Royal Bank of Canada’s Alternative Assets Group, and global head of Hedge Fund Manager Selection for Merrill Lynch’s $20 billion Hedge Access Platform. He began his career as a fixed income portfolio manager at Nomura Securities in Tokyo, Japan. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from The Pennsylvania State University and is a CFA Charterholder.
What made you decide to get into real estate investment management? How long have you been at it?
I spent the early part of my career in Tokyo, where I focused on fixed income investments as a portfolio manager and trader. I returned to the U.S. to focus on portfolio manager selection and management, primarily in alternative investments, at Merrill Lynch and Stamos Capital Partners.
My decision to become involved in commercial real estate was driven by my belief that it offers investors a good deal of control over outcomes. A good asset manager can make financing and capital improvement decisions that can significantly enhance a property’s value, and in turn, investor returns. That’s the appeal of real assets that you can touch and feel.
What was the motivation behind your decision to join Castle Lanterra?
I was very impressed with what founder and CEO Elie Rieder built here. He offers investors the opportunity to access the firm’s investment acumen that his family developed and refined over several generations. The team is very strong, both on the investment side and operationally, and I particularly like Elie’s vision for future growth. I feel it is very thoughtful, measured and attainable.
What are the hottest areas for property management and development right now?
The best opportunities are in the high growth markets favored by millennials, such as Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon and Denver, Colorado. These markets have excellent underlying fundamentals that support long-term growth, but also give us the optionality of potentially exiting each investment with a shorter horizon while still achieving outsized returns.
At the property level, energy efficiency is a significant driver. We’ve made improvements there, earning significant cost reductions that boost NOI. Our industry continues to adopt many “smart home” systems from this rapidly advancing field.
What is an important real estate risk management issue that you are dealing with today?
The most significant issue for us is to maintain a disciplined approach to selecting potential investments. We see many deals, but few that play strongly to our value-enhancement strengths. In this increasingly competitive space, it’s important for us to maintain a disciplined and prudent approach to ensure that every deal we pursue meets our investment criteria.
What’s your most interesting project?
We have a property in Denver, Regatta Sloan’s Lake, that we acquired late last year. It’s the centerpiece of 19-acre master planned community that will have restaurants, a movie theater, shops and more. We have a restaurant on site with a strong local following (with another restaurant coming soon) and lots of “lifestyle” amenities—co-working spaces, bike repair facilities, even kayaking at an adjacent lake. It is a true “live, work, play” environment.
If you had to work in a city other than New York, where would it be?
I would probably return to Tokyo, where I spent a good portion of my early career, met my wife and started our family together. It’s a dynamic and vibrant city that is divided into many neighborhoods, each with its own character, and many fond memories for me.
Ed Hannon, COO
Castle Lanterra Properties, LLC
One Executive Blvd., Suite 204
Suffern, NY 10901
212-201-8055
ehannon@castlelanterra.com
http://castlelanterra.com
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