As Eagle Property Capital’s first employee in 2013, Mariana Robina has set the bar high. Robina started her career with EPC in Miami as an associate, and, in less than a year, she became vice president. The enthusiastic executive believes her experience and interests prior to joining the real estate investment manager prepared her for her upward career trajectory.
From a young age in Mexico, she was introduced to the real estate industry through her family. She earned her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering before falling into investments and eventually development at MIRA Cos., an affiliate of Black Creek Group in Mexico City. There she was responsible for underwriting and conducting due diligence of urban mixed-use community development ventures of more than $500 million.
“I got into multifamily because of my ability to raise my hand fastest when there was a project,” she laughs. “At MIRA, I volunteered to take on a project to further analyze opportunity to develop multifamily in Mexico, which is a young asset class there. I had to understand the asset class as it is here, then do the market research to develop a financial model to analyze opportunities in Mexico.”
With a good grasp of the fundamentals, Robina went to Babson College in Boston for her MBA, where she took multifamily real estate classes while further developing ideas and her financial model. “When I found this opportunity at EPC, it was natural as if it was waiting for me,” Robina says. “I believe if things are for you, they are there for a reason.”
Just the Start
In her first four years at EPC, Robina laid the foundation for the exponential growth that the company is experiencing today. In 2015, she co-founded EPC’s property management firm, Vidalta. By 2018, Robina was promoted to senior vice president of investments and finance. Today, she is over acquisitions, due diligence, portfolio management, structuring, accounting/financial control, and investor relations.
“I like that you see distinct stages of a project even if you are not doing the developing. If you do an acquisition, you can see the acquisition, then the implementation of the repositioning strategy, and then a successful disposition. For me, it’s a very tangible business, and that’s what I like,” she explains. “The additional kicker is that we get to make an impact in the lives of so many families.”
In her almost nine years at EPC, Robina has been responsible for the acquisition of close to $1 billion in 35 multifamily assets and has originated more than $650 million in mortgage financing. She has been instrumental in deploying over $480 million in investor equity through six investment vehicles. Robina also secured the first institutional equity commitment for EPC for over $40 million and has secured equity investments from UHNW and family offices in Mexico and Latin America of over $20 million. For these achievements, she has been named Multifamily Executive’s 2022 Rising Star.
“EPC would not be where it is today without Mariana’s vision, investment knowledge, and ability to cultivate long-term, trusting relationships with our investors, vendors, and employees,” says Gerardo Mahuad, co-founder and managing principal of EPC. “She has a rare combination of financial expertise and people skills that has contributed to EPC’s accomplishment.”
Robina says that one of her bigger achievements is launching EPC’s fifth investment fund. “I was part of everything from structuring the fund to fundraising to the investment side to now making sure that the strategies are implemented. We launched this fund alongside a leading Mexican private equity firm, Promecap. We were aiming for an initial goal of $100 million in commitment for the initial closing, and we were able to exceed that, raising $140 million of equity commitments. We have more that $200 million in equity commitments, which will present an investment capacity of over $600 million.
“We are not a typical fund, because we have already invested around $170 million of the $200 million. We have a very diversified portfolio with 2,400 units within three cities and eight properties, which is a very solid base to start a fund. It will allow us to better fundraise in the months to come to achieve our goal of $400 million.”
The fund has several unique aspects—one being the different channels Robina’s team created as feeder funds to allow them to secure investments from various parts of the world. “Most of our investors come from Latin America; however, they can have their money in a bank in Switzerland or Canada,” Robina explains. “By creating this architecture of entities, it has helped them bring their money into the U.S. for investment, which is one of our biggest achievements and an even bigger differentiator for our investors.”
Value and Opportunity
Understanding that the key to growing the firm is fundraising, Robina continues to expand its investor network. “Our goal for investors is to give them a good experience. No matter how big or how small an investor is, we want to treat them equally and be as personalized and transparent as possible. I credit our achievements to the close relationships we have with all our investors,” Robina shares.
The same goes for employees of Vidalta and the residents of the over 5,000 units it manages. Centered around Hispanic communities, Vidalta offers programs “that support our residents’ long-term social and financial well-being,” Robina says. “We have worked to develop programs so that people can sometimes learn English as a second language, but also Spanish as a second language because that is something we can do differently. We have also implemented credit programs so that if residents do well in paying rent, we report to the credit bureau so they can start building credit. Typically, most of the workforce residents do not have a strong credit score or are very new to it.”
As Robina moves forward, she aims to ensure scalability in other geographies. EPC also plans to expand into other multi-family segments while launching new investment vehicles. “I think there’s much more to come,” she smiles.
When speaking on what prepared her for her career, it goes back to sports. She reflects, “The biggest teacher in life is sports—whatever you practice. Every time you lose, or start swimming and lose your goggles, you need to keep going. It does not matter what happens, close or open your eyes, and keep going.”
