Amanda Gray.
Amanda Gray, 26
Associate at Invesco
Amanda Gray decided on commercial real estate as a career while attending college at the University of Southern California. The passion that people already in the field displayed impressed her, and a round of interviews at Wells Fargo for a summer internship cemented that impression.
“I immediately hit it off with the rep from the real estate group, and started working in their San Francisco office that summer,” Gray told CO.
Now, nearly two and half years into her tenure with Invesco — where she’s a key member of the investment firm’s acquisitions team, with particular responsibilities in underwriting and financing — the New York-based Gray said she still feels the same draw to the field.
“Tangibility is a phrase everyone uses when describing what they love about real estate, but it really is true,” she said. “It is exciting to walk through the city seeing all the deals you’ve worked on, and being part of the construction process — seeing a pile of dirt transform into a brand-new building is definitely something special.”
The major deals that Gray has been involved with at Invesco have included the $1.2 billion purchase in mid-2019 with L+M Development Partners of 2,800 apartments in East Harlem, the largest multifamily deal in New York City that year. She has also worked on underwriting deals involving 110 William Street, 370 Lexington Avenue and Brooklyn’s 1000 Dean Street.
Gray is also using the pandemic interruption to refocus on the existing portfolio she is involved with — and to stake out distressed assets and new areas of the market for action once things finally return to normal.
“Invesco has been using this time to get smart on some of the non-traditional sectors, such as manufactured housing and data centers,” she said. “So, hopefully, we can put that research to work in 2021.”
