Alexander Halpern

Alex Halpern, Founding Managing Partner and Head of Hospitality, is responsible for the oversight of the Firm’s investment activities, as well as the management of the Firm’s hospitality investments. Mr. Halpern is an active member of the Watermark Lodging Trust Board as well as the BHI Residential Board, two of the Firm’s first investment operating platforms.

Prior to joining Ascendant Capital Partners at the time of its founding, Mr. Halpern was a Senior Vice President, Participating Member, and Capital Markets Lead at Highgate Capital Investment and its affiliate Highgate Hotels, the largest investor-operator of hospitality assets within North American gateway markets.

Mr. Halpern joined Highgate in 2009 as the first investment professional in New York City, and during his 10-year tenure, executed in excess of $9 billion worth of hospitality, office and retail investments across key North American and Western European Geographies. In addition to his lead on balance-sheet investments of the business, Mr. Halpern spent extensive time curating and sourcing off-shore capital relationships to participate in Highgate’s portfolio transactions, executing more than $650 million worth of off-shore capital transactions and spearheaded the architecture of a Joint Venture subsidiary with ICONIQ Capital Management for the development of a standalone, Alternative Accommodations property-investment and operating business.

While at Highgate, Mr. Halpern was involved in more than $400 million of ground-up and adaptive re-use projects, including a mixed-use ground-up development at 140 West 42nd Street in New York’s Time Square, the adaptive re-use of the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City, and the ~$125 million redevelopment of the ‘Alohilani Waikiki Beach.

Prior to joining Highgate, Mr. Halpern was a Senior Analyst at Merrill Lynch in its real estate investment banking division from 2007-2009, where he focused primarily on corporate real estate merger and acquisitions as well as defense advisory work in the hospitality, retail, and strip center spaces.

Mr. Halpern earned a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, graduating with high distinction.