Five partners bring complementary skill sets to Graycliff Capital
What do five real estate experts who have very different skill sets do when they meet and find out they get along and share the same values? They create a company together and start tackling the rehab of “tired” apartment complexes to give them a fresh look.
Graycliff Capital Partners is comprised of five partners who each bring a unique area of expertise to the company. Don Spalding, who leads acquisitions, was an investment banker for LaSalle Bank in Chicago. Paul Aiesi, a Furman grad who had been CIO of TIC Properties, now handles operations. Andrew Reiken, who worked with Spaulding at LaSalle Bank and also spent eight years at Goldman Sachs, is in charge of capital markets. Taylor Davis, also a Furman graduate, oversees all the property management and also serves as president of NHE, a Greenville real estate firm that’s been around since 1969. Will McCauley, president of Greenville-based Creative Builders, serves as general contractor.
“It started off as two guys in Chicago who had great ideas and went from one great idea to another great idea,” said Spalding.
“We’ve tried to create a unique platform that’s different from what others are doing in the Upstate and across the region,” said Aiesi. “That’s to take existing principals and companies in their respective fields and put them under one banner called Graycliff Capital.”
“Each partner has their own business expertise that they bring to the investment process,” said Spalding. “Not only does it help achieve the synergies, but it helps achieve the value-add proposition that we provide.”
The team says they are able to draw from their in-depth local experience to identify “high-value, high-quality locations.” They refer to their partnership as “the three legs of the stool” – capital markets, real estate operations and construction management.
“Some companies may have one or two of those, but I don’t think there’s another firm [in Greenville] that combines all of those under one roof,” said Aiesi.
“And we don’t get surprised,” added Spalding. “We do complete due diligence on the front end. Through each partner we’re able to bring value to each project.”
The firm’s forte is to find multifamily properties and rehab them to provide more value for their investors. They look for opportunities on the outskirts of the main center of the markets they enter.
“We don’t create value going where others already are,” said Spaulding.
Each partner votes on the deal and one “no” vote will kill the deal. “It takes five yes votes to buy any property,” Spaulding said.
McCauley said the team is “not chasing a market; we’re chasing opportunities.”
“We like best a C property in a B location or a B property in an A location,” said Davis.
Graycliff typically targets properties with $5 million to $25 million in assets and rehabs about eight to12 properties per year.
The company upgrades the properties with “a light to moderate rehab, including upgrades and amenities such as clubhouses and dog parks, and inside the apartments with new lighting, hardware – a fresh, clean look,” Davis said.
Since the company was founded in 2010, Graycliff Capital Partners has successfully completed more than $100 million in real estate investments in the Southeast.
Projects in the Upstate include Azalea Hill Apartments at Verdae and the Addison Townhomes in Greenville, East Ridge and Park Square Apartments in Spartanburg and the Villas at Lawson Creek in Boiling Springs.
“We believe in this market. It’s one of the best corridors in the country and is often overlooked by some of the bigger firms,” Aiesi said.
