Amstar holdings dot U.S. map: national investor calls shots from Denver.

• Author: Skiles, Wesley
• Position: Amstar Group owns properties in various geographic regions of America, including headquarter in Denver, Colorado

Amstar Group's properties are literally all over the map, not only geographically but in terms of investment diversity. There's the 94-year-old Georgian Terrace Hotel in Atlanta, the swank SunBurst Hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., office buildings in Baltimore, Philadelphia and San Diego, and multifamily housing in Oregon, Texas and Washington, to name just a few of the firm's 29 commercial properties.

That scattered geographic mix is precisely why this privately owned national real estate investment and development company chose Denver as its headquarters when it formed back in 1987.

Amstar's principals initially were drawn to the Mile High City because one of the company's first properties was in Aurora, but they quickly realized Denver's merit as a headquarters. Its location near the center of the country made it ideal for traveling to other national markets and for tending to properties in the East, West and South with equal ease.

Since its launch 18 years ago, Amstar has acquired and developed 75 properties worth approximately $2 billion across the country. While it has focused primarily on apartment, hotel and office properties--including the 25-story Independence Plaza in Lower Downtown Denver--the company recently reintroduced retail and industrial properties to its portfolio.

"We look for off-market transactions, and we're backed by a lot of capital allowing us to find good real estate opportunities and act quickly," said Gabe Finke, general partner and CEO of Amstar. Finke, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard, joined Amstar as CEO in mid-2003 after a stint with The Carlyle Group, a $16 billion private equity firm in Washington, D.C., where he was a principal in Carlyle's real estate fund. Before that, he was a senior vice president of Prologis, the Denver-based industrial real estate...