Equity Residential announced that Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Alexander Brackenridge will transition to executive vice president of investments and retire at the end of 2025, according to a news release.
Executive Vice President and CFO Robert A. Garechana will assume the role of executive vice president and chief investment officer. Garechana, who joined in 2004, has served as its CFO and a member of its executive and investment committees since September 2018.
“Bob has proven himself to be a talented and dynamic leader and we look forward to him continuing to advance our capital allocation strategy alongside the rest of our experienced investments team,” Mark J. Parrell, EQR’s president and CEO, said in the news release.
Bret D. McLeod will join the Chicago-based REIT, the nation’s fifth-largest apartment owner, in July as executive vice president of finance and assume the role of CFO on Aug. 7. McLeod currently serves as executive vice president and CFO of Great Wolf Resorts.
Prior to Great Wolf, McLeod served as CFO for Citycon, a publicly listed owner of Nordic shopping centers, and spent nearly 15 years at Host Hotels & Resorts, serving most recently as senior vice president, treasurer, head of strategy and investor relations.
“Bret brings a wealth of skills and experiences from outside the residential space to our Company and we look forward to him leading our finance team and advancing transformational initiatives across the company,” Parrell said in the news release.
Brackenridge joined the Chicago-based REIT in 1993 and has served as CIO since September 2020.
“I have been fortunate to call Alec a colleague and a friend for more than two decades,” Parrell said in the news release. “We are tremendously grateful to him for his many contributions to Equity Residential’s success and wish him the very best in his retirement.”
EQR is making changes to its investment team as it sees an opportunity to add properties in its expansion Sun Belt markets. In May, the firm announced that it agreed to purchase eight properties, totaling 2,064 units, in Atlanta for $535 million.
“We think our best opportunity [versus buying back stock and developing] continues to be investing in existing assets in these primary acquisition markets of Dallas, Denver and Atlanta,” Parrell said on EQR’s earnings call in late April. “We’re still interested in Austin, but there’s such a glut of supply, it’s probably a little bit later for us to complete our portfolio there.”
EQR is the second major apartment REIT to announce a CFO hire in the past week. On July 23, UDR, the country’s 15th-largest apartment owner, hired Dave Bragg as its new CFO. Bragg succeeds Joe Fisher, who was appointed chief investment officer in January in addition to his responsibilities as the REIT’s president.
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