Andrew M Kaplan

Andrew M. Kaplan is the Founding Principal of PacVentures, Inc., a privately held commercial real estate investment firm headquartered in San Diego, California. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard College, followed by a Juris Doctorate from Boalt Hall School of Law and an MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business, both at the University of California, Berkeley.

Kaplan began his career as a transaction attorney focused on real estate, developing hands-on experience across the full deal lifecycle — entitlement, development, leasing, acquisition, and disposition of real property. He is a licensed California real estate broker and has taught Real Estate Planning as an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Through PacVentures, Kaplan leads a team that has been investing in commercial real estate since 1995. The firm pursues value-add opportunities across property types and geographies in the Southwest, taking an owner-operator, hands-on approach to acquisitions and development. The team includes principal Kevin A. Wechter (a real estate lawyer and former CRE investment banker), an Austin presence via Joe Simmons, and partner Michael Bennan (formerly a principal at Trammell Crow Company).

It is worth noting for founders and analysts: despite being categorized as an "angel investor / seed" in some aggregated databases, Kaplan's documented activity is entirely in direct commercial real estate — there is no public record of him making startup seed investments.

• Invests directly in value-add commercial real estate — acquisition, development, leasing, and disposition — rather than passive or minority startup positions
• Property types: industrial, retail, office, self-storage, hotel, residential, and real estate debt instruments
• Geography: concentrated in the Southwestern U.S., with a demonstrated conviction in South Texas / Brownsville industrial driven by U.S.–Mexico cross-border trade
• Track record–driven: ~$300M in assets acquired since 1995, ~$150M under management, signaling a disciplined, long-hold operator model
• In his own words on the Brownsville thesis: *"We have seen a recent surge in rents within our existing Brownsville portfolio, and, with healthy fundamentals and an extended trade agreement between the U.S. and Mexico, we do not see any reason why this trend shouldn't continue."*