By Joshua Burd
Saxum Real Estate has announced five new hires to help support the firm’s ongoing growth in New Jersey and nationally.
The Summit-based investment and development firm in recent months has added Lee Samuelson as general counsel and chief compliance officer, Jennifer Van Blarcom as architecture and design manager and Chris Vitiello as senior accountant. The new hires also include Sunny Shah as an acquisitions associate and Dan Servidio as development coordinator, as the company executes on a pipeline with more than $750 million in total capitalization.
Samuelson, a former partner at Holland & Knight and Hogan Lovells, leads Saxum in the creation of its joint ventures, as well as other transactional and legal matters, according to a news release. He advises leadership on structural, business and other issues, negotiates with opposing counsel, drafts documentation and perform due diligence.
“Lee brings decades of experience to Saxum with the ability to analyze risk critically by leveraging his extensive legal background across multiple asset classes and sophisticated investment structures,” said Anthony Rinaldi, the firm’s founder and managing principal. “His experience and expertise will play a critical role in Saxum’s continued expansion.”
The company, which now has a team of 20, has new offices in Austin, Texas, and Philadelphia. In her new role, Van Blarcom will oversee the architecture and design of all projects in its portfolio and will play an instrumental role in developing the Saxum brand alongside the leadership team.
“Jennifer is a highly talented professional who adds a multifaceted skillset to Saxum’s growing development team by streamlining design and processes with a creative mindset to elevate Saxum’s brand on a national level,” Rinaldi said.
The firm also noted that Vitiello will play an integral role in Saxum’s operations, reporting and internal control functions. With experience in both public and private accounting sectors, he will streamline communication between Saxum’s accounting and property management teams.
Chad DeBolt, its director of investments, noted that the firm “continues to streamline and refine reporting, management and risk processes across our growing portfolio.” Vitiello will be central to that effort, he said.
As an acquisitions associate, Shah will manage the underwriting, due diligence, financing and closing activities for Saxum’s acquisition and joint venture opportunities, the news release said. The firm touted his real estate experience in a range of asset classes including office, multifamily, industrial, retail, hotel and life sciences.
“Sunny brings multiple years of institutional experience to Saxum’s team following a prior acquisitions role at one of the largest publicly traded domestic mortgage REIT, Rinaldi said, noting that he valued more than $8 billion of institutional-quality real estate assets.
Servidio, meantime, will contribute to predevelopment, development and construction coordination processes along with assisting the acquisitions team with preliminary budgeting and underwriting. He honed his skillset at highly accredited general contracting firms in the New York metropolitan area while directly working on multiple landmark projects.
“Dan delivers a critical skillset to Saxum’s development team with a focus on limiting pricing risk and optimizing processes at the earliest stages of the investment and development process,” DeBolt said.
