Real Estate in 2021 and Beyond: Trends from the Pandemic

Andrew Van Tuyle is senior managing director of Investments with BH Properties in Los Angeles and has been active in the acquisition, disposition, finance, brokerage and management of commercial real estate for more than 20 years. He oversees the Value Add and Bankruptcy divisions of the company, and is responsible for identifying potential acquisitions, stalking-horse bids, debtor-in possession financing and other related opportunities.

Mr. Van Tuyle has handled the closing of more than $3 billion in transactions in over 20 states and has expertise in all major asset classes of real estate. He previously worked in private equity, finance, brokerage and syndication with various groups in Los Angeles.

Mr. Van Tuyle was named one of Real Estate Southern California’s “Top 40 under 40” real estate professionals and was chosen by Commercial Property News as a “Star to Watch” in the commercial real estate community. He received his Bachelor’s degree in accountancy from the University of San Diego.

Larissa Gotguelf is a managing director in the Corporate Finance and Restructuring practice of FTI Consulting, Inc. in Los Angeles. She has more than 20 years of experience in restructuring, commercial real estate, business strategy and operations consulting.

Ms. Gotguelf has provided transaction and advisory services in consulting, restructuring and litigation settings to real estate investors, developers, lenders, corporate real estate users, CMBS investors and loan servicers. She also has extensive experience in real estate leasing and negotiations, acquisition and disposition (including ? 363 and other court-approved sales), site selection, corporate finance, and business strategy and portfolio analysis. In recent years, Ms. Gotguelf has been working for the receiver appointed by the federal court for Aequitas Capital, a failed investment management firm that had operated a Ponzi scheme. She has played a critical role in the operations of the estate, monetization of the assets, and the settlement of legal actions brought against Aequitas entities by CFPB and multiple state attorneys general, and she has spearheaded the claims-resolution and distribution plan design and implementation.

Ms. Gotguelf received her undergraduate degree in construction engineering from Moscow State Engineering University and her M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University.

Paul R. Glassman is a shareholder with Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, P.C. in Santa Monica Calif., where he chairs the firm’s Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring Group. His practice focuses on complex corporate and municipal reorganizations, workouts, financings, distressed M&A and related litigation, with particular emphasis in the municipal, media/technology, real estate, health care and retail sectors. He has represented numerous debtors, secured creditors, committees, bidders and landlords in various high-profile real estate and hotel cases.

Mr. Glassman’s experience spans a number of landmark bankruptcy cases, including the City of San Bernardino, Calif., chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy case (lead debtor’s counsel), the Orange County, Calif., chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy case (lead counsel for the official subcommittee of Orange County Cities and the City of Irvine and later the County), and a number of significant out-of-court restructurings, including a major apartment portfolio (lead counsel for a BlackRock fund as creditor) and of a major hotel REIT (lead counsel for the debtor). He has lectured extensively and authored numerous articles in various leading publications, including the Business Lawyer, the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, the ABI Journal, The Norton Bankruptcy Advisor and the Thomson Reuters Aspatore publication.

Mr. Glassman received his B.A. magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa and his M.A. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was a member of its law review. He clerked for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer of the Central District of California from 1978-79.

Brian L. Davidoff is chair of the Bankruptcy Practice Group at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP in Los Angeles and has provided reorganization and bankruptcy counsel for more than 30 years. He frequently acts as general counsel to both distressed and thriving businesses, advising them on their business growth, financings and M&A activity.

Mr. Davidoff represents business debtors in reorganization plans, filing their bankruptcy cases and assisting in their decisions of whether to reorganize or liquidate. He has also represented lenders who have defaulted loans, buyers of assets from bankruptcy, indenture trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees, and equity securityholders’ and bondholders committees, as well as foreign representatives in ancillary proceedings.

Mr. Davidoff is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification, and is a member of ABI’s Board of Directors. He also is a member of the Business Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum, and has been actively involved in several bar organizations, including having served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, past president of the Westwood Bar Association, and past president of the California Organization of Small Bars. Additionally, he served on the Partnerships Committee of the Business Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and as its trustee, was a member of the Bankruptcy Rules Committee, and was a member of the Bankruptcy Subcommittee of the Business Law section of the State Bar of California.

Mr. Davidoff is ranked in Chambers USA, is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America, and also has been selected as a Super Lawyer for many years, including previously having been selected as one of the Top 100 California attorneys. A frequent writer and speaker, he received his law degree from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa in 1978 and his LL.M. from the University of Miami in 1982.

Gary M. Tenzer is a co-founding principal of George Smith Partners, Inc. in Los Angeles and has more than 38 years of experience in originating, structuring, underwriting and placing sophisticated real estate financing transactions. He has been personally involved in the placement of more than $10 billion of real estate financing throughout the country in construction loans, permanent debt and joint venture equity for residential, multifamily, retail, office, commercial, industrial, mixed-use, congregate care, hospitality, land development, large-scale community development and special-purpose properties with debt and equity financing as large as $240 million. Financing sources have included Wall Street conduits (CMBS), state and federally chartered commercial banks, insurance companies, pension funds, credit companies, hedge funds and opportunity funds, domestic and offshore equity funds, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA/HUD.

Mr. Tenzer also has had extensive experience as an expert witness and litigation consultant. He has been involved in more than 300 real estate litigation matters, representing both plaintiffs and defendants, and has testified over 100 times in state and federal courts at both jury and bench trials. In 2002, he was appointed the real estate financing advisor to a $2 billion Taft Hartley Pension Fund.

Mr. Tenzer has been a frequent lecturer at UCLA and the University of Southern California in their undergraduate and graduate real estate finance classes, and he annually serves as a mentor in USC’s Master of Real Estate Development program. He serves on the advisory board for the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, is licensed as a California real estate broker, and is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the Real Estate Cabinet of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.

Mr. Tenzer received his A.B. in economics in 1976 from the University of California at Berkeley, and his M.B.A. in 1978 and M.S.B.A. in 1979 from the University of Southern California.