Paul Brenneke

Paul Brenneke is a Portland-based real estate and alternative-investment entrepreneur best known as a founding partner of Sortis Capital. Public speaker materials say he has more than 30 years of commercial real estate experience and has been involved in the acquisition and development of more than $1 billion of properties across the Western U.S.

Before Sortis, Brenneke was CEO of Avalon Holdings LLC, a Portland commercial and residential real estate development firm. Avalon developed the Avalon Hotel & Spa in Portland and was involved in the 1 Hotel & Residences project in downtown Seattle, a partnership with Starwood Capital Group that was later consolidated by Starwood in 2008.

In 2008, Brenneke started a loan acquisition and disposition platform as a counter-cyclical complement to his development activity. Speaker materials state that platform, together with a related lending and servicing business, was acquired in 2017 and became the foundation for Sortis Holdings and the Sortis Income Fund.

Outside real estate and finance, he is described as an active investor in the technology community and an active board member at medZERO and Arrive. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Portland with a major in Business Administration and a minor in Computer Science.

• Sortis Capital’s core strategy is private, diversified real estate investing, including senior loans collateralized by real estate, private REIT exposure, opportunity-zone projects, and short-term real estate bridge lending.
• The Sortis Income Fund focuses on senior real-estate-collateralized loans in the U.S., with emphasis on Western U.S. markets, no leverage, and borrowers underserved by traditional banks.
• Sortis private lending targets complicated or distressed commercial real estate deals, including bridge, development, rehab, bankruptcy, and debtor-in-possession financing; the firm says there is “no ‘box’ your deal must fit into.”
• Through Sortis private equity activity, the focus is consumer-facing companies across products, hospitality, and real estate, with an emphasis on protecting principal, economic growth, and community resiliency.
• Brenneke’s public comments around Rudy’s Barbershop emphasize preserving distinctive small-to-mid-sized businesses with strong customer experience and founder/cultural identity.
• In technology, his known activity is selective rather than fund-style: medZERO is a fintech/healthcare benefits company he helped fund and is associated with as a co-founder/board member.