Kirkwood Capital Advisors, K.K. (KCA) provides real estate services to investors focusing on the Japanese market. These include: commercial mortgage brokerage, independent asset origination, principal investing and other advisory services. Our team is made up of experienced real estate finance professionals and investment bankers with a long history of success in Japan.
Steve Sombrero - President
Mr. Sombrero is the President of Kirkwood Capital Advisors. Throughout his career, he has worked as in international business consultant to many Fortune 500 companies and Asia based conglomerates. He has been actively involved in real estate since 1987 and has worked on a variety of assignments, brokered several notable real estate transactions including multi-tenant residential projects , shopping centers, commercial office buildings and resort hotels.
From 1998 to 2000 , he represented the Government of Guam as a special liaison to the office of the Guam Economic Development Authority. His most significant transactions include the development of a master plan for a 100 –acreAmerican –style shopping mall in Japan, the joint venture development of the 600 room Guam Outrigger Hotel , the acquisition of the 124,000 square foot Pacific Guardian Library building in Honolulu by Alexander and Baldwin , the sale of Kauai`s Valley House , the setting for the world renown movie , Jurassic Park and the brokerage of Japan`s Don Quijote flagship location in Honolulu , Hawaii.
Mr. Sombrero received his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Hawaii`s Executive MBA program.
Tim Kirkwood - Chairman
Tim Kirkwood founded KCA in 2005. In the short period since its inception, he has built KCA into a leading resource for debt and equity placement in Japan. Mr. Kirkwood is primarily engaged in growing the company and its lender relationships, as well as originating and structuring transactions.
Mr. Kirkwood has a proven track record delivering exceptional results in the real estate arena. Formerly, he was the Head of International Corporate Finance with Shinsei Bank, originating over $1 billion in debt supporting virtually every class of commercial asset and structured product. Prior to Shinsei, he was a Director at Deutsche Bank in Tokyo in DB¹s Global Credit Product Group and an original member of DB¹s CMBS team. Prior to coming back to Japan, Mr. Kirkwood was based in Bangkok with SPO Partners, a San Francisco-based Private Equity Group and was with Wasserstein Perella in New York and Hong Kong in the mid-nineties.
Mr. Kirkwood is a graduate of The University of Texas, is fluent in Japanese and currently resides in Tokyo with his wife and five children. He is active in a variety of industry associations and is a dedicated fly fisherman, golfer, skier, and tennis player.
Kelly Miyashita - Managing Director
Kelly Miyashita began his real estate career in 1982 as a runner for Cushman Realty Corporation in Los Angeles, California. Eventually, he worked his way up from runner to Market Analyst, and later to Manager of Real Estate Consulting and Tenant Representation. He helped to open up new Cushman offices throughout Southern California.
Following this experience, in 1990 he joined Mitsui Fudosan USA’s award-winning office development management team as a leasing and marketing specialist, working closely with Mitsui’s development partners in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. In 1995, he joined Archon Group (formerly JE Robert Companies) in Los Angeles as an Asset Manager, overseeing a large volume of assets that were acquired by Goldman Sachs-related investment funds.
In April of 1998, he was asked by Goldman Sachs to come to Tokyo to supervise the takeover and management of its first major property investment in Japan, the Yamato Life Insurance headquarters building. He was the first member of Goldman Sachs Realty Japan Limited (GSRJL) and also was actively involved in the early stages of the establishment of MSK loan investment management and other asset management businesses.
Kelly later left GSRJL to join Sanno Capital, a privately held investment firm based in California as Managing Director of Japan. In this capacity, he was in charge of managing and liquidating bulk NPL portfolios purchased from major Japanese banking institutions.
In 2006, Kelly joined Kirkwood Capital Advisors in his current role as Managing Director, focusing on brokerage opportunities and special situations. Kelly graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, majoring in Finance and Real Estate.
Jonathan Kirkwood - Vice President Investor Relations
Mr. Kirkwood’s primary responsibilities include the origination and growth of offshore investor relationships, coordination of investment activities in KCA’s brokerage platform, and the development of KCA’s hospitality initiatives.
Mr. Kirkwood joined KCA in 2008 after having spent seven years in property development with a concentration on the hospitality industry.
Mr. Kirkwood’s previous job, as Director of Strategic Planning for Shawnee Holding, Inc., incorporated budget preparation, financial forecasting, and the supervision of operations for one of the premier golf and ski resorts in the United States – the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort in Pennsylvania. He oversaw more than two hundred employees, and coordinated the transformation of the host property from three to four star status.
Mr. Kirkwood attended the Pennsylvania State University, then New York University, where he received his BFA from the Tisch School. Mr. Kirkwood speaks Thai, is a member of the Tillinghast Association, and is an avid guitarist.
Denisa Kobayashi - Senior Associate Investor Relations / Research
Ms. Kobayashi`s responsibilities include origination and growth of offshore investor relationships, handling first line communications between the company and institutional investors, hedge funds and pension funds, including shareholder relations, both domestic and international, real estate and economic research reporting and coordination of investment reporting and activities, research and analysis of potential new investors relating to KCA`s current business segments.
Ms. Kobayashi has over 9 years experience in real estate investment banking : research, project management, financial / economic data analysis, and investor reporting. During her time with Goldman Sachs Realty and Colliers International she acquired extensive experience in investor reporting, real-estate and loan valuations, market research reports and formulated comprehensive industry and company investment reports reflecting current market trends and projection updates for submission to domestic and international clients.
Ms. Kobayashi is multilingual and holds a BA in Asian Studies focusing on Japanese and certificates in economic/international marketing/finance.
Ms. Kobayashi is a big supporter of NGOs associations attending on a regular basis seminars carrying out help for children and refugees in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Hideo Nomura - Advisor
Mr. Nomura is in charge of developing and managing relationships with domestic (Japanese) real estate and development companies, utilizing his extensive past experience and relationships.
Mr. Nomura began his career with Mitsui & Co. (Mitsui Bussan) steel division, and advised on the expansion of a nationally owned steel plant in New Zealand where he managed and monitored the procurements from large Japanese construction and electrical companies. Thereafter, he went independent and formed Nomura Hitchcock K.K., a development advisory for real estate in Oceania and the west coast of the U.S. The company won the Golden Nugget Award from the Real Estate Association of America for single family residential developments in the Marina del Rey area. In addition, he has participated as a principal in condo conversions in San Diego, and in the development and management of the Hanalei Bay Resort in Kauai, Hawaii.
Mr. Nomura graduated from the Business Department of Keio University, and also took an MBA course at Menlo College, Santa Clara University in California.
Harold Graves - Vice President Strategy / Advisory
Mr. Graves is responsible for project-based advisory and analytics at KCA, primarily focused on Portfolio Management for the Japan-America Bridge Fund.
From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Graves was a member of Credit Suisse’s Real Estate Capital Markets (RECP) Group in Tokyo, primarily responsible for property underwriting and debt securitization. Mr. Graves also has extensive experience in commercial real estate brokerage throughout Japan in his role with the Ambrose Capital division of Credit Suisse during the same period. During his tenure at Credit Suisse, Mr. Graves was involved in over $1 billion in cumulative securitization and brokerage transactions.
Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Mr. Graves began his career in New York with Nomura Securities International and its subsidiary Capital Company of America as both an underwriter of all major property types and asset manager of unsecuritized first mortgages, mezzanine debt, and preferred equity investments.
Mr. Graves is a graduate of Colby College and is fluent in Japanese.
Satomi Takabayashi - Senior Associate
Ms. Takabayashi is a licensed real estate agent and handles coordination with investors and analysis of potential deals. She specializes in residential properties. She has worked several major Japanese developers. Ms. Takabayashi graduated from Hokkaido Bunkyo University, where she majored in architecture and interior design.
Warren Wadoud - Senior Advisor
Mr. Wadud joins our team as a retail leasing specialist and market entry advisor.In 2005, Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. retained Mr. Wadud as the primary leasing agent in New York for their Tokyo Midtown complex. As a part of that project, Mr. Wadud both secured prime commercial space and formulated the Japan entry strategy for Union Square Hospitality Group, New York’s top F&B operator.He also arranged the lease for Nirvana Restaurant, another popular New York brand, in the same complex.In 2009, Mr. Wadud worked on the leasing for a key commercial space owned by Japan Railway East.Mr. Wadud successfully introduced New York’s Bubby’s Pie Company as the tenant, and also handled the license agreement negotiations between Bubby’s and their Japanese operating partner.
Mr. Wadud has served on the international franchise advisory board of Au Bon Pain, a leading east coast fast casual café chain.He was also a retail market analyst and advisor to the Japan External Trade Organization.Mr. Wadud holds a BA in international political studies and a certificate in branding and marketing management from New York University.He is fluent in both Spanish and Japanese and is a graduate of the Japanese Language Program at Keio University.He is also a licensed real estate salesperson in the state of New York.