Gary M. Tenzer

Gary M. Tenzer is Managing Director & Principal of George Smith Partners, Inc., (“GSP”). George Smith, the firm’s eponymous founder, hand-picked Tenzer to join him in 1979. Throughout the evolution of the firm, Tenzer has upheld Smith’s values and played a significant role in building the firm to its national prominence in the real estate industry. He has been personally involved in the placement of over $10 billion of real estate financing throughout the country. Presently, the firm is owned by Tenzer and six co-principals.

Tenzer brings more than 40 years of expertise in originating, structuring, and underwriting sophisticated real estate financing transactions, with properties reaching $250 million in debt and equity financing. He elevates the team through his insight and innovative financing for residential, multifamily, retail, office, commercial, industrial, mixed-use, congregate care, hospitality, land development, large-scale community development and special purpose properties.

Tenzer brings significant intellectual prowess as an expert witness, providing testimony on more than 300 real estate litigation matters in federal and state courts, nationwide. His real-world experience in real estate finance, feasibility, standards and practices and transaction matters make him more credible as a witness and much sought after as a expert.

Tenzer was appointed as the interest rate expert in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of General Growth Properties, Inc. (“GGP”) in 2009, the second-largest mall owner in the country, and included 158 of its 200 U.S. malls. Tenzer’s reputation also attracted The Operating Engineers Pension Trust, a $2 billion Taft Hartley Pension Fund, where he served as the Trust’s real estate financing advisor.

Tenzer previously served as a member of the board of directors of a NYSE-listed national developer of active-adult communities, as well as a director of a federally chartered commercial bank on both the bank’s loan and credit policy committees. In 2012 and 2013, he served as co-chair of the Crocker Symposium on Real Estate and the Law, jointly sponsored by the LA County Bar and the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate where he is a member of the advisory board.

He is a frequent guest lecturer on real estate and real estate finance at the UCLA Anderson School of Management as well as both the graduate and undergraduate programs at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business as well as a frequent panel moderator at real estate conferneces.

Tenzer holds a bachelor’s degree in economics with an emphasis in Urban Land Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. He earned an M.B.A. in both finance and entrepreneurship and venture management, as well as an M.S.B.A. in real estate finance from the University of Southern California.