Masters of Moments #20: Glenn Alba - Founder & CEO of Opterra Capital
Opterra Capital is real estate investment sponsor and operating partner, capital markets advisor, and asset manager with significant experience in all sectors of commercial real estate. Founded by Glenn Alba, a former Managing Director at Blackstone with over 23 years experience in real estate, Opterra Capital seeks to leverage this expertise towards value-add acquisition and proactive investment management to deliver attractive, risk-adjusted returns.
Opterra’s core investment strategies focus on both value-add (opportunistic) and stabilized, income-oriented assets in the hospitality, office and multi-family sectors. Our approach seeks to capitalize on mid-market opportunities in the $25 -150 million range in the United States, Canada, and the Carribean. Our investment strategy is strongly influenced by our deep asset management experience to identify the proper capital repositioning, cost reduction and operating leverage opportunities inherent in each asset to maximize returns to investors.
On this episode, Jake & Glenn discuss:
- Glenn's experience at Blackstone and it's influence on starting Opterra
- How they evaluate deals
- The 'no-assholes' policy
- Developing an asset management platform
- Acquisitions
Links:
Connect & Invest with Jake:
Follow Jake on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jwurzak
Take the Hospitality Investing Masterclass: https://learn.jakewurzak.com/
Learn How to Invest with DoveHill: https://bit.ly/3yg8Pwo
Timecodes:
(00:01:01) Glenn’s career at Blackstone and the decision to leave
(00:06:39) Rolling the Blackstone mentality into Opterra
(00:08:09) Glenn on falling in love with Hospitality
(00:09:57) How Blackstone shaped Glenn’s Investment Perspective
(00:13:02) How Opterra evaluates deals
(00:16:54) Opterra’s capital strategy
(00:19:15) Converting Office into a Luxury Hotel
(00:23:49) Structuring a business to be focused on doing what you want to do
(00:26:35) The ‘no-assholes’ policy
(00:32:46) Post-Pandemic approach to doing deals
(00:34:29) Qualities behind great RE investors and asset managers
(00:39:01) Developing an asset management platform
(00:44:11) Implementing processes at Opterra
(00:49:19) Acquisitions processes
(00:57:49) Areas in Hospitality ripe for disruption
(01:04:56) How have the past 3 years informed your decisions for the next 5 years?
(01:09:58) How do you know when to sell?
(01:15:32) What’s your favorite hotel?