Craig Berger
After spending more than a decade on Wall Street, Craig Berger was searching for a more positive and meaningful way to contribute his skills, talents, and experience to the world. In 2015, his journey brought him full time to world of real estate, and today Craig is the founder and CEO of Avid Realty Partners, a successful commercial real estate investment firm.
Avid Realty Partners is focused on acquiring and improving multifamily apartment properties in targeted growth markets like Texas and Florida. They also have owned some Hotel and Net Lease assets as well. Typically they acquire existing, value-add properties, though occasionally also pursue new development opportunities as well.
As Founder and CEO, Craig leads an experienced and skilled team that identifies and sources new projects, underwrites and analyzes these assets, performs all due diligence on potential properties, arranges debt and equity finance, oversees the renovations work performed, manages or asset manages these properties, is ultimately responsible for the overall financial performance of these properties, and deals with related taxes, compliance and investor relations activities. Through the firm’s hard work, Avid Realty Partners typically delivers robust investment returns averaging 14-18% annually over length of the project, and creates improved quality of life metric for their on-property customers and tenants.
Under Craig’s direction, Avid Realty Partners has been steadily growing their real estate portfolio for the past five years. Craig explains that in addition to strong investment returns, the real estate business allows him to offer great things for his customers and tenants, “We are able to acquire a property and upgrade it. We renovate interiors and upgrade apartments to create better homes for people, and we also and add amenities like pool cabanas, an upgraded fitness center, or a new dog park. As a result, we ultimately bring the community and tenants together.” Craig adds, “We are not solely focused on high end apartments, we focus on working class people including teachers, police officers, retail workers, restaurant workers – people who simply want to live comfortably and affordably.”
Prior to his career in real estate, Craig spent over ten years as a top equity research analyst and a managing director for FBR Capital Markets, and at Smith Barney Citigroup as well. He also gained operational, strategic and management experience working at Intel Corp. in their corporate finance group, and he was a tech startup consultant and financial advisor for THIRSTIE.com. Craig earned a master’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Texas at Austin.
Craig Berger, CFA CPA: Founder & CEO
Avid Realty Partners
14 E 33rd Street #7s
New York, NY 10016