Washington, DC — Tishman Speyer announced that Nikita Rao has joined the firm as managing director, head of US residential. In this role she will lead the firm’s expanding US residential portfolio and pipeline, including Tishman Speyer’s market rate, workforce and affordable assets in the US.
Rao, who will be based in Washington DC and work under senior managing director and head of US acquisitions Paul Galiano, brings more than two decades of experience as a real estate investor focused primarily on multifamily housing.
In her new role, Rao will direct strategy and efforts for acquiring and operating assets and development sites. She will collaborate with Tishman Speyer’s deep bench of regional leadership, acquisition and operations teams.
Rao joins Tishman Speyer during a period of significant growth across the firm’s national and international residential platform. Today, Tishman Speyer has approximately 10,000 units in its residential development pipeline.
Over the past year alone, Tishman Speyer has added 1,100 units across three residential communities in Boston, Atlanta and Chicago. During this same period, Tishman Speyer has commenced construction on approximately 2,300 rental units in mixed-use projects in the Boston, New York City, Washington, DC and Los Angeles regions and won two major residential asset management mandates in Germany. In addition to its geographic diversity, Tishman Speyer’s multifamily acquisitions and developments are designed to serve residents across the income spectrum – from affordable and workforce housing to luxury market-rate rentals.
“Our residential business is a key component of our growth and diversification strategy,” said Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer. “Nikita’s expertise and leadership will help accelerate this expansion and differentiate our residential platform. She will ensure that we continue to deliver high-quality product to the market and meet the evolving needs of our customers, partners and investors.”
Rao comes to Tishman Speyer from Nuveen Real Estate where she launched and oversaw the firm’s U.S. Cities Multifamily Fund, an open-ended housing vehicle. Rao’s responsibilities for the Fund, which outperformed its target benchmark for all time periods, included strategy, acquisitions, dispositions, asset management, financing, capital raising, investor communications and presentations, ESG implementation and marketing.
Prior to Nuveen, Rao was a Senior Vice President at Federal Capital Partners where she spent a decade in multifamily asset management and led development and portfolio management for a series of value-add multifamily funds. She also worked in asset management at The Carlyle Group.