Rory Gardner

Rory Gardner is Managing Director and President of Pacific Urban Investors, a Palo Alto–based multifamily real estate investment and operating firm founded in 1998 (an affiliate lineage tied to the Marcus & Millichap Company). Gardner joined the firm in 1999 as an Acquisitions/Due Diligence Analyst and rose through the organization over two decades, holding roles including Acquisition Manager, Acquisition Director, Southern California Partner, Enterprise Partner, Chief Investment Officer, and most recently Chief Operating Officer before being named President effective July 1, 2020.

Before Pacific Urban, Gardner worked as a Corporate Finance Associate at the Marcus & Millichap Company and earlier held a position with the investment banking firm Morgan Stanley. Across his career he has been responsible for the acquisition and disposition of billions of dollars of multifamily properties — figures cited by the firm have grown from over $3 billion at his appointment to more than $6–7 billion as the platform has scaled.

As President, Gardner oversees Pacific's day-to-day operations, its acquisition and disposition activity, and the firm's overall strategic direction. Under his leadership the platform has expanded well beyond its West Coast roots into Eastern and Sun Belt markets, growing to more than 20,000 apartment homes and over $8.6 billion in assets under management. The firm reports having acquired 257 communities totaling roughly 45,000 apartment homes with $13.7 billion in cumulative transaction volume since inception.

Gardner holds a BS from Babson College and an MBA from the University of Miami.

• Exclusively multifamily. Pacific invests only in apartment communities, combining institutional capital with partner co-investment; the firm helped pioneer institutional-grade investment in "vintage" (older) multifamily assets.
• Three strategies across the yield spectrum: Core (stabilized, 2017+ vintage), Vintage Core (1970–2016 vintage), and Vintage Value-Add (1960+ properties needing capital improvements).
• Check size / deal size: target transactions of roughly $40M–$200M, with a stated preference for properties built from 1970 onward.
• Market selection is research-driven. PUI uses a "highly disciplined proprietary research-based investment approach" to choose markets, favoring job-centric urban and suburban, high-barrier-to-entry MSAs.
• Local sourcing model. The firm operates a network of local offices with dedicated investment and asset-management professionals to source, acquire, and operate communities in-market rather than remotely.
• Discretionary vehicles. Recently launched a discretionary investment vehicle targeting Class A core and core-plus opportunities (first deployed in the Milpitas "Ascend"/The Harlowe acquisition).