BOSTON–Berkeley Investments, a vertically integrated, full-service real estate investment and development company, announced that it has hired Morgan Pierson as Director of Development and Samara Kaufman as Senior Vice President of Finance.
“With these two recent hires, Berkeley Investments is strategically expanding our management team to execute on our pipeline of development and investment opportunities in and around Boston,” says Young Park, President of Berkeley Investments. “Despite the highly competitive real estate landscape, we remain bullish on Boston’s future growth and continue to build a talented team that’s well positioned to grow Berkeley’s portfolio of successful commercial and residential properties.”
In his new role, Pierson is responsible for managing new development projects in New England and expanding development and investment opportunities for Berkeley. In particular, he’ll focus on advancing the company’s project at 176 Lincoln Street in Allston, currently the site of a large building that sat vacant for nearly twenty years. Harvard University, owner of the property, recently selected Berkeley Investments to redevelop the site under a long-term ground lease.
“Morgan brings significant experience in the greater Boston market to his role at Berkeley, having permitted developments on Western Avenue and Beacon Street in the Allston/Brighton neighborhoods, an important area of focus for us presently,” says Young Park, President of Berkeley Investments.
Most recently, Pierson served as Director of Development for Greystar, an international development, investment and management firm based in Charleston, SC. He joined Greystar from The Mount Vernon Company, where he was Vice-President overseeing the company’s hotel, commercial and mixed-use developments in Boston. He has an MSRED (Masters of Science in Real Estate Development) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a member of NAIOP and the Urban Land Institute (ULI.)
Kaufman recently joined Berkeley as well and is responsible for oversight of the investment and financial operations of the company. In this capacity, she directs the capital markets strategy which includes the origination and execution of all project finance, including debt and equity, as well as asset sales and other capital market transactions.
Prior to joining Berkeley, she served as Director of Investments at Guggenheim Real Estate, a real estate private equity firm, where she was responsible for the origination, acquisition and overall investment performance of a commercial real estate portfolio valued in excess of $750 million. During her twelve years at Guggenheim, Kaufman held roles that included acquisitions, finance, asset management, portfolio management and development oversight.
Additionally, she was responsible for the acquisition and investment performance of the firm’s specialty asset classes including self-storage and mezzanine loan portfolios. She has spent most of her career in real estate investment management, working for companies including AEW Capital Management, TA Associates Realty and National Development. She began her career in the audit and consulting groups at KMPG and holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. She is an active member of ULI as part of the Boston Market Council.
