SL Green’s CIO David Schonbraun to Depart After Nearly Two Decades
By Celia Young May 13, 2021 4:01 pm
reprintsSL Green Realty Corp.’s chief investment officer, David Schonbraun, will leave the company in the second quarter of 2021, SL Green announced Thursday.
It’s unclear what Schobraun’s plans are after spending nearly two decades at the company, The Real Deal first reported. A source familiar with the exit told Commercial Observer that the industry vet “is around for a while longer, then taking some time off.”
SL Green appointed Brett Herschenfeld, Robert Schiffer and Harrison Sitomer to oversee its 2021 investment strategy.
“It has been an incredible opportunity to lead SL Green’s investments team and work with Marc [Holliday] and Andrew [Mathias] over the last 19 years,” Schonbraun said in a statement. “The time is right for me to pursue new challenges in today’s evolving commercial real estate landscape.”
Schonbraun’s departure comes after co-chief investment officer, Isaac Zion, left the firm last year, as CO previously reported.
As CIO, Schonbraun was charged with keeping the real estate investment trust’s debt business to a tidy 10 percent of its assets. After Zion’s departure, he worked with then-managing directors Herchenfeld and Schiffer to manage SL Green’s day-to-day operations.
SL Green’s investment strategy has focused in recent years on selling off assets to fund stock buybacks and its development pipeline. The company gave no indication of when it plans to get back into investing on either the debt or equity side, which was part of Schonbraun’s purview.
“[Schonbraun] has been an integral member of SL Green for nearly two decades, helping to grow the company, overseeing the debt and preferred equity platform, and helping spearhead our industry-leading investment strategy,” Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green, said in a statement. “His dedication has brought great value across the firm, and we thank him for his years of service. From all of us at SL Green, we wish him well as he pursues new opportunities.”