It’s a short workweek for some, but that certainly doesn’t mean any less action for RXR. It has not one but two pieces of news to announce. 

The firm has promoted Whitney Arcaro to chief operating officer of RXR’s residential business and also hired Gerard Norcia to lead the residential business unit, Commercial Observer can first report. 

Norcia, a 20-year industry veteran, joins RXR from Olmstead Properties, where he served as CEO for the past 13 months, and before that as an EVP of portfolio management at Southern Land Company for three years. There, he led the company’s $4 billion residential and mixed-use platform across Northeast, Sun Belt and Western markets. At RXR, Norcia will work alongside Arcaro to spearhead the continued growth of RXR’s expanding residential business — across investment, development, asset management and capital solutions — nationally. 

While RXR may be headquartered in New York City, its residential investment and development activities reach far beyond the Big Apple. With a firm-wide focus on what RXR CEO Scott Rechler refers to as “eds, meds and well-led” areas — a theory that prioritizes investment in areas with leading education and health care options, public investment and a business-friendly climate — its  residential business has expanded to 11 gateway markets in total so far, in states such as Arizona, Florida, Colorado, California and North Carolina.

“For years, we have invested behind a clear thesis: Go where talent, employers and public investment are converging,” Rechler said in a statement. “As we scale that strategy nationally, Gerard brings the investment discipline, market perspective and leadership experience to help us expand our residential business and deliver strong outcomes for our investors and partners.” 

Today, that strategy comprises a $5 billion residential operating portfolio with more than 8,000 units, a residential development pipeline of 2,800 units, and more than $2 billion in structured residential transactions in the past 30 months alone. 

Prior to his time at Olmstead, Norcia led portfolio strategy and asset management for J.P. Morgan’s Global Real Assets platform for close to a decade with a focus on the Northeast, and it’s there — in the early 2010s — that his path first crossed with RXR. The two firms were joint venture partners on one property, and J.P. Morgan, together with AXA Financial, sold RXR 1285 Avenue of the Americas in 2016.

“This has been a long time coming, and I’m thrilled to be here,” Norcia said. “It was a really special day when Scott and the other RXR partners reached out about the open position.” 

Of Arcaro — who previously served as chief revenue officer for the residential business — Norcia said, “She is one of the most intelligent,  ownership-driven investors that I’ve worked with. She cares, she asks the next question, and she very much wants to win as a team. We’ve known each other for about five weeks, but it’s been a really great experience and I’m excited for what’s next.” 

Scaling the residential business will be Norcia’s goal, as will setting strategic direction for the firm’s activity, from identifying new markets for investment — of which he said there are several — to  development and expansion opportunities within them. He’ll also oversee the life cycle of new investments from cradle to grave, from shovels in the ground through to stabilization and financing to asset management and eventually disposition.

The firm’s growing residential portfolio is already humming along impressively, and includes Veridia, a 1,100-acre, master-planned, mixed-use community in Apex, N.C.; Arden at Garvies Point, a boutique luxury rental development currently underway in Glen Cove, N.Y.; and AVE Station House in Denver, a 301-unit residential community in the city’s RiNo Arts District. 

Veridia is an example of a residential opportunity that ticks all the boxes for RXR’s residential strategy, Norcia said. 

“We don’t just want to buy a single building, we want scale,” Norcia said. “With Veridia, we have close ties with Wake Technical Community College, we have a 225-acre children’s hospital — so that that checks the meds box — and we want to be in a pro-business community or have a relationship with the community or the town that allows us to create these walkable and complete communities within the markets we target.”  

Ultimately, RXR will be bringing all of its capabilities to bear as its residential business enters its next chapter with Arcaro and Norcia at the helm. The firm is busy assessing potential opportunities, from structured equity to traditional joint venture development, or true common equity acquisitions.

“Because of the diversity of our investors and long-standing tenure within multifamily, and how adept the acquisitions team and the partners are at RXR, it allows us to learn about a deal quickly and then present an equity solution that is really tailored to a specific deal,” Norcia said. “It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ mentality at RXR. We’re owners, we’re operators, we’re developers, and we want to try to find that unique angle or a unique way to step into a deal and create value for our investors.” 

RXR President Michael Maturo stressed that the firm has been growing its residential business for a decade now, starting in New York-area markets. 

“Bringing in an executive of Gerard’s caliber, who has invested across the country and managed a fully built-out residential business, will support the next evolution of our growth,” Maturo said. “With Gerard leading the residential business and Whitney Arcaro in charge of operations, we have the team in place to continue our growth initiatives on a national scale.”

Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.com.