Joshua Schwalbe Founder and Managing Principal
Mr. Schwalbe is an investment and management professional with over 20 years of commercial real estate experience, including acquisitions, asset management, advisory, and brokerage. Before co-founding Maple Hill Real Estate Investors with Saul Scherl, Mr. Schwalbe was a Senior Vice President at Atlantic Creek Real Estate Partners (“ACREP”), a fully discretionary real estate private equity fund with offices in New York, NY, and Palm Beach, FL.
Excellence From Experience
As a senior member of its acquisitions team, Mr. Schwalbe underwrote and analyzed more than $10 billion of investment opportunities. He helped the firm acquire 17 assets totaling over $625 million, comprising approximately 3,800 multifamily units and over 500,000 square feet of office and self-storage space.
While at ACREP, Mr. Schwalbe managed and developed strong relationships with a large network of close to 3,000 real estate professionals, including operators, owners, brokers, developers, institutional investors, lenders, fund operators, and attorneys to maintain a pipeline of deal flow.
Background
Prior to joining ACREP, Mr. Schwalbe oversaw acquisitions at Blackpoint Partners ("Blackpoint"), a NY-based real estate owner/operator. He was responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and managing value-add investments in office, multifamily, retail, and hotel assets nationwide. Mr. Schwalbe and Mr. Scherl worked together at Blackpoint for over five years. Before joining Blackpoint, Mr.Schwalbe was a Vice President at Savills LLC ("Savills"), where he focused on debt and equity capital raising transactions and advisory assignments.
Before joining Savills, Mr. Schwalbe worked as an Associate Vice President at DTZ Rockwood, focusing on investment sales, joint venture equity raises, and advisory assignments.
Prior experience includes working as an associate at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and then at Credit Suisse First Boston, where he worked in the equity research department and covered the REIT sector. In this capacity, Mr. Schwalbe valued real estate companies, analyzed market trends, and authored in-depth company and industry reports.
Education & Current Ties
Mr. Schwalbe graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Economics and History from Brandeis University and holds an M.B.A degree in Real Estate and Finance from Columbia Business School. Mr. Schwalbe is an Advisory Board Member of Crestlight Capital, an owner/operator of office assets in the Southeast and Midwest.
He is also an active Member of PREF, ICSC, NYPEN, the Columbia Business School Alumni Network, and the AIPAC real estate division.
Alex Finkelstein Associate
Alex Finkelstein joined Maple Hill Real Estate Investors in 2021 and serves as an Associate on the Acquisitions and Asset Management team. Alex is responsible for the sourcing, analysis, and underwriting of prospective acquisitions across all asset classes. Alex’s responsibilities include generating business opportunities, financial modeling, due diligence, market research, and post-acquisition asset management. Furthermore, Alex interacts and interfaces with the greater brokerage and investment community.
Prior to joining Maple Hill Real Estate Investors, Alex worked on the Acquisitions team at Treetop Companies, a private equity real estate investment firm located in Northern New Jersey. In that role, Alex managed the acquisition and purchase of multifamily market rate, affordable housing, and industrial warehouse properties. Additionally, Alex also handled the refinancing and disposition of existing properties.
Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yeshiva University.
Saul Scherl Founder and Principal
Mr. Scherl has over 30 years of residential, office, retail, hospitality and mixed-use real estate experience. In addition to co-founding Maple Hill Real Estate Investors with Joshua Schwalbe, who he has known and worked with for almost 20 years, Mr. Scherl serves as the President of the New York Tri-State region for The Howard Hughes Corporation since 2015. In this capacity Mr. Scherl is responsible for overseeing the company’s New York Tri-State Region that most notably included the renovation of the Seaport District. The Seaport project alone has Mr. Scherl responsible for over $1.5 billion of renovations and capital improvements, primarily consisting of retail and residential.
Prior to joining The Howard Hughes Corporation, Mr. Scherl was a Principal at Blackpoint Partners, where he managed the company’s real estate assets, as well as mergers and acquisitions. At Blackpoint, Mr. Scherl and Mr. Schwalbe worked together for more than five years investing in office, retail and residential opportunities throughout the East Coast and Puerto Rico. In addition, while at Blackpoint Partners, Mr. Scherl served as a consultant for several larger banks in Puerto Rico, restructuring over $1.0 billion of distressed real estate.
Diverse Real Estate Background
Prior to forming Blackpoint, Mr. Scherl served as a Managing Director at Loeb Partners Realty, where he was primarily responsible for coordinating the restructuring and management of several non-performing loans, and the acquisition of several new investments. Prior to joining Loeb, Mr. Scherl was with Nomura Asset Capital, where he was directly responsible for the development of several large retail and hospitality projects (in excess of $1.5 billion). Following Nomura’s decision to exit real estate financing and development, Mr. Scherl was selected by senior management to coordinate the liquidation of the company’s multi-billion-dollar real estate portfolio.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Scherl was an associate with the law firms of Piper Rudnick and Shaw Pittman, where he practiced real estate development and financing law. Prior to law, Mr. Scherl was a certified public accountant with Arthur Young & Company, where he worked primarily on MacAndrews & Forbes.
Mr. Scherl’s career paths and experiences have provided him involvement in a broad range of acquisitions, dispositions, redevelopments and financings for real estate properties throughout the United States.
Education & Current Engagements
Mr. Scherl graduated from Emory University with a B.B.A. in Accounting and received his J.D. from The George Washington University School of Law. Mr. Scherl currently serves on the Advisory Board of Downtown Magazine in New York and is the Board Co-Chair of the Chabad of Puerto Rico. He also previously served as the President of the New Jersey chapter of The Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces.