First Capital Real Estate Trust Hires Malik Franklin as CFO

First Capital Real Estate Trust Inc., a non-traded REIT formerly known as United Realty Trust, appointed Malik Franklin to serve as chief financial officer of the company and its advisor.

Franklin replaces Roger Leibowitz who recently resigned from the firm. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, his resignation was not due to any disagreement with the company.

Malik Franklin previously served as a managing director and partner at Northbridge Partners, an investment, advisory, brokerage services firm, where he was the lead underwriter for asset acquisitions, provided investment advisory and commercial brokerage services for clients and managed many of the firm’s equity capital partnerships. He also served as a managing partner at OakBrook LLC, an investment and development firm focused on multifamily projects in Oakland, CA. Franklin received his master’s degree in business from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in 2005 and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics from Dartmouth College in 1995.

First Capital Real Estate Trust was founded by New York real estate developer Jacob Frydman, but was purchased by First Capital Real Estate Investments late last year. As part of the deal, Suneet Singal replaced Frydman as chief executive officer and secretary of the company and the advisor, and as chairman of the board.

First Capital Real Estate Investments LLC is a vertically integrated company working in the following capacities: finance structuring (debt and equity), real estate acquisition, land development, construction of both residential and commercial, retail operations and asset reposition to stabilization.