Colleague Spotlight: Roger Puerto, Principal with GA Group Real Estate

Puerto's professional inspiration is rooted in the conviction that value is multifaceted in real estate. He learned early in his career that when you can gain informational advantage and capitalize on the dislocation, it creates profound results. This philosophy has led his team to become a national leader in handling distressed and transitional big box retail assets.

The continuing evolution of department store and big box real estate is the trend that currently excites him most. This transformation is fundamentally reshaping malls and shopping centers across the country.

"The adaptive reuse of department store/big box real estate is something we are passionate about solving. Our group has probably sold and valued more department store real estate than any team in the country."

He notes that their "bottoms up approach" to valuing these large, often vacant, spaces has created significant value for clients. This passion for adaptive reuse is a key focus, keeping the team at the forefront of the industry.

Puerto's expertise is forged in the fire of major retail restructurings. Since 2016, his group has been involved in every major department store bankruptcy and/or take-private.

His pivotal experience stems from his time at an investment fund, where the fund was the 2nd largest shareholder of Sears Holdings. He created the real estate valuation framework that eventually evolved into the sales process for the company—a framework he oversaw as the Head of Real Estate Transactions before Sears filed for bankruptcy. This background is a testament to his ability to blend financial analysis, valuation, and transactional execution in highly distressed environments.

In such complex settings, Puerto champions simplicity: "If you can't pitch your idea on a postcard, it's probably too complicated." This framework, learned at the investment fund, helps cut through the noise. He also stresses the importance of patience, as some deals that prove most rewarding take years to develop.

Puerto challenges a common misunderstanding about his field: that appraisals are the only thing that matters when it comes to valuation. In distressed and transforming real estate, a simple appraisal often misses the nuanced and future-oriented value creation opportunities he and his team specialize in finding.

To stay current, the team focuses heavily on research to maintain an informational advantage, tracking bankruptcies, distress, and earnings reports for key retailers. Furthermore, Puerto emphasizes the value of networking and being present—prioritizing in-person interaction over virtual meetings to cultivate critical industry relationships.

Looking ahead, Puerto is focused on several high-profile projects, including the refinancing of a major department store chain's real estate portfolio and creating value on the excess real estate for a recently acquired retailer.

While professional pursuits are demanding, his personal life influences his approach. As a father of three, he humorously notes that negotiating with his children is "a lot harder than most counterparties I have to deal with." This grounding perspective underpins his unique professional mindset: a love for thorough research—exhausting all avenues on a project—which makes him a relied-upon asset for his team and clients as they navigate an industry that is still, in his view, only starting to scratch the surface of its potential.