Team

Over 100 years of combined experience in investing in, acquiring, structuring, managing, and disposing of real estate assets.

 

David C. Friedman
Founder

David founded Ella Valley Capital in 2014. He brings over 30 years of experience in global commercial real estate debt and equity investments, including acquisitions, financings, and restructurings. His experience extends across opportunistic, value-add, and core real estate investments in many asset classes, including hotels, office buildings, parking, storage, retail, and residential real estate. Since founding Ella Valley, David has invested on behalf of, asset managed, and counseled numerous family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and multi-generational real estate families with respect to their real estate portfolios.

  • Prior to founding Ella Valley, David was a Managing Director, Co-Head of Asset Management, and General Counsel for Marathon Real Estate, the global real estate equity and debt platforms for Marathon Asset Management. At Marathon, David managed a real estate portfolio that included parking garages, residential units, and office buildings and oversaw ground-up development, conversion of residential rental units to condominiums, renovation and repositioning of office buildings, as well as many other projects around the continental U.S. and abroad. He joined Marathon in 2005 from Proskauer, where he was an attorney in the firm's real estate department for 12 years representing institutional lenders, developers, equity sponsors, and special servicers in connection with acquisitions, sales, financings, workouts, debt and equity structuring, restructurings, and dispositions. David holds a B.A. from Cornell University and a J.D. from New York Law School.

J. Fostin Cotchen

Fostin joined Ella Valley Capital in 2017, bringing over 15 years of experience in real estate around the world. At Ella Valley, he specializes in asset management, financing, underwriting, structuring, and reporting. Before joining Ella Valley, Fostin worked for Corridor Holdings Corp., a Manhattan-based real estate developer and advisor to several multinational best-in-class developers and investors. Prior to that, he was a Vice President at Walton Asset Management, a real estate investment manager and developer with $4 billion in real estate under management across the U.S. and Canada, where he established three real estate funds totaling more than $380 million in equity capital.

  • Fostin also worked in real estate private equity in Europe for nine years, where he worked on acquisitions across Europe and the U.S.. His specialties include real estate valuation, financial modeling, acquisition underwriting, real estate asset management, and investment reporting. Fostin holds a B.A. in Economics and Slavic Languages with honors from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management at Yale University.

Burt Miller

Burt has over 30 years of experience in the real estate industry, with expertise in new business development, acquisitions, capital markets, and project oversight. Burt began his career as a tenant represenation office leasing broker at Murray Hill Properties in New York City. In 2004, he co-founded KMG Partners, a platform to execute real estate investments and developments, creating condominiums, office, and retail assets and acquiring and executing value-add strategies with multifamily properties in New York, Florida, and Texas.

  • Over the course of his career, Burt secured over $600 million in equity and debt financing from partners like J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Silverpeak Real Estate Partners, Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, Marathon Asset Management, Urdang, and Petra Capital. Burt’s experience also includes the acquisition and development of numerous residential communities in Central and Western North Dakota; assisting in the launch of boutique capital markets group, ABS Altman Warwick; and, most recently, working as a senior executive with a boutique ground-up residential development company. Burt holds a B.S. in Business from the University of Maryland.

Scott Murphy

Scott brings over 30 years of commercial real estate experience in the United States and Latin America. At Ella Valley, Scott specializes in asset management and property investment, including industrial, office, retail, multi-family, mixed-use development, and land for development. Prior to joining Ella Valley Investments, Scott was a principal/investor structuring real estate syndications with institutional and private equity investors in the United States and Latin America. His responsibilities included market evaluations, sourcing property acquisitions, securing investor equity, property underwriting, financing, asset management, business plan execution, and investor reporting.

  • Scott was a Regional Director in charge of leasing and acquisitions for Prentiss Properties Trust in Los Angeles and the Senior Vice President in charge of leasing for Insignia Commercial Group on the West Coast. He began his professional career in public accounting at Arthur Andersen & Company in Los Angeles. Scott graduated from California State University, Northridge, with a B.S. in Accounting and completed the Executive Management Development Program at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Jennifer D. Rowland

Jennifer has over 12 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, with a diverse background in asset management, property management, leasing, acquisitions, and dispositions. Before joining Ella Valley Investments in 2022, Jennifer was Director of Operations for SB Management/Black Equities Group, a real estate investment and operating company based in Beverly Hills, California. Prior to that, Jennifer was a multi-location franchise owner and operator of an IT training company. Jennifer holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is a licensed Real Estate Broker within the State of California.

Jeff Bernstein

Jeff specializes in providing financial services to property owners, high-net-worth individuals, and the construction and development industry. In addition to his work with Ella Valley, he is the Managing Principal of Five Points Management Inc., where he focuses on property management, bookkeeping, cost analysis, financial reporting, and requisition requests to lenders and equity partners. He has previously provided these services to firms such as Morse Diesel International, LWC Inc., Adell Corp, and Ohayon & Desarno Associates, supporting over $750 million in real estate development.

  • Earlier in his career, Jeff was a senior cost analyst and assistant controller at Forest City Ratner Companies, where he supported the development of more than $1 billion in real estate across the New York metro area. He also held roles at Zeckendorf Co., Inc. and Dime Savings Bank. Jeff holds a B.S. in Finance and Business Administration with a minor in Economics from Long Island University/C.W. Post and a diploma from the NYU Real Estate Institute.

Brian Brown

Brian is a Certified Public Accountant, having earned his CPA designation from New York State in 1983. He began his career at a small Long Island CPA firm before joining Marks Shron & Company, where he specialized in real estate within their Audit and Tax practice and rose to the position of Manager.

  • In 1987, Brian joined Forest City Ratner Companies, a division of Forest City Enterprises, as Controller. During his tenure, he played a key role in major projects including the $1 billion MetroTech Center development in downtown Brooklyn and ultimately served as Chief Financial Officer. In 1995, he left Forest City to launch his own CPA firm, which he operated until 2022 when he sold the firm and joined Ella Valley. Brian holds a B.S. in Accounting from St. John’s University.

Ashley Salk

Ashley is the Executive Assistant to the Founder, playing a key role in day-to-day operations at Ella Valley. Previously, she worked at Prelude Ventures, a climate tech venture capital firm in San Francisco, where she supported a team of investors focused on early-stage climate solutions. Her work there spanned administration, operations, and event planning. Earlier in her career, Ashley was an Office Coordinator at ICONIQ Capital. Ashley holds a B.A. in English from The University of California, Berkeley.

 

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