Loja Group

About Loja

Loja Group LLC, wholly owns Loja Real Estate, LLC. Loja Real Estate, LLC is a real estate management and operations company formed to acquire retail real estate assets throughout the United States on behalf of investors, building on the respective 30-year operating and performance track records of Katherine Burr in institutional fund management and Thomas Engberg in commercial retail real estate investment.

Loja is a team of multidisciplinary professionals who enjoy the challenges and rewards of hard work, creative problem solving and exceeding the goals and expectations of colleagues and collaborators. Loja believes individuals—its team and those outside the company—are the true assets of the business. The success of Loja builds on the team’s history of excellence.

Katherine Harvey Burr, CEO, Loja Group

Katherine Burr has more than 30 years experience in global fund management in multiple asset classes in various currency and interest rate environments. Since mid-2005, she has served as CEO and Investment Advisor to the Harvey Family Office. Prior to that, Ms. Burr was Director (1989-2011), EVP (1989-1991), President/CEO (1992-2002), and Chairman (1992-2011) of Hanseatic Group, Inc, a top-performing SEC and CFTC-registered quantitative fund manager that uses pattern recognition to trade securities, futures, and currencies for global institutional investors. Ms. Burr directed strategy, operations, and marketing at the Hanseatic companies, raising over $600 million from institutional investors. Ms. Burr handled the 1992 acquisition of Hanseatic by Cragnotti and Partners, an Amsterdam-based billion dollar private equity firm. Ms. Burr also managed the internal spin-out of Hanseatic Management Services, Inc., a woman-owned institutional fund manager. Ms. Burr has a B.A. in Modern Languages from Colorado State University (1970) and an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico (1973), where she was a Ph.D. Candidate in Nonlinear Systems Theory and a National Science Foundation Fellow (1972-1974). Ms. Burr also holds an MBA from the University of New Mexico (1989), specializing in the trans-industrial use of Japanese management techniques.

Thomas K. Engberg, CEO, Loja Real Estate

Thomas Engberg is a 30 year veteran of the real estate business with a focus on investment in and operation of shopping centers in the Western US. Prior to joining Loja, Mr. Engberg was Executive Vice President of Capital & Counties USA, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty International PLC, a large London-based shopping center REIT. Mr. Engberg was recruited by Capital & Counties to build and staff a shopping center development and redevelopment program throughout the Western U.S. before Liberty decided to exit the U.S. development business in the fall of 2008. During the 10 years preceding his time at Capital & Counties, Mr. Engberg served as Senior Vice President of Regency Centers Corporation where he was in charge of investments for the Northern California region. While at Regency, Mr. Engberg built a team that acquired and developed over 3.8 million square feet (sq. ft.) of retail space representing some $800 million in value. Prior to joining Regency, Mr. Engberg was a principal in his own shopping center investment and development company, Douglas Thomas Properties. Mr. Engberg was the Northern California State Director for the International Council of Shopping Centers and has served on various committees of that organization including Program and Governmental Affairs. He is presently Vice Chairman of the Board of the California Business Properties Association, a coalition of real estate and business groups that seeks to protect real estate and businesses interests in Sacramento. Mr. Engberg is a founding member of The Belden Club, a San Francisco-based real estate organization, and is a member of the Urban Land Institute. Mr. Engberg is a 1977 graduate of the University of California, Davis with a degree in Economics.

Ricardo Amaro, COO, Loja Group

Mr. Amaro has over thirteen years experience in fund management operations, investment, accounting, and marketing. Prior to joining Loja, Mr. Amaro spent five years in Mozambique, as a consultant specializing in institutional fundraising and management for private-sector agricultural projects funded by global development institutions such as the International Finance Corporation and the European Union. Prior to moving to Mozambique, Mr. Amaro worked in Brazil for Banco Brascan, a Brazilian-Canadian investment bank, where he was involved with trade finance, opening and maintaining credit lines, fundraising, hedge and swap operations, foreign exchange and loans and structured deals. Before joining Brascan, Mr. Amaro was one of the founders of Nortia Investment Club, a student-managed initiative that traded stocks on the São Paulo Stock Exchange with institutional support from the Brazilian Institute of Capital Markets (IBMEC). He is fluent in Portuguese and English.

Scott Franklin, Executive VP, Asset Management, Loja Real Estate

Mr. Franklin has been in commercial real estate for over 23 years. Before joining Loja, Mr. Franklin was Senior Vice President of Capital & Counties USA, Inc. Prior to that, Mr. Franklin was Vice President, Investments and Development of Regency Centers Northern California office. Regency Centers is the leading national owner, operator, and developer of grocery-anchored and community shopping centers in the U.S. Mr. Franklin was responsible for identifying development opportunities for neighborhood, mixed-use projects and community shopping centers in the Northern CA market, and for expediting and assuring project completion according to specifications and schedule. Prior to joining Regency, Mr. Franklin was one of the original 10 employees for online grocer Webvan, in charge of all real estate and development requirements (distribution centers) for the initial rollout plan of 26 markets to be deployed nationwide in 3 years. He also directed internal project management teams along with a 50-man Bechtel Construction program management team. Prior to Webvan, Mr. Franklin worked for the in-house real estate departments of national retailers Starbucks, Blockbuster and Bruegger’s Bagels, overseeing site selection and construction in Northern California, Hawaii, and Nevada. Mr. Franklin began his career at Donahue Schriber in leasing and development. Mr. Franklin holds a B.A. from UCLA and was a member of three Rose Bowl Championship football teams.

Scott Kyman, Senior VP, Acquisitions, Loja Real Estate

Mr. Kyman has been involved in commercial real estate for over 15 years. Before joining Loja, Mr. Kyman was Senior Manager of Investments at Regency Centers, where he was a project leader on their development team. Prior to joining the Investments team, he was head of Investment Services of the Northern California and Pacific Northwest at Regency, where he managed a team of analysts that underwrote $500m annually in acquisition, disposition and development projects. Prior to joining Regency, Mr. Kyman was Financial Analyst in the Asset Management group at American Realty Advisors. Mr. Kyman is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a degree in Urban Planning and Development. Mr. Kyman also is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited professional and a member of the United States Green Building Council.

Devi Gill, Director of Accounting, Loja Group

Ms. Gill has worked in the accounting industry for over fifteen years. Before joining Loja, Ms. Gill was a manager for the public accounting firm Burr, Pilger and Mayer, Inc in their Private Company Services Group. There she worked in various areas of accounting including real estate, professional services, and start-ups. Prior to joining BPM, Ms. Gill was a property administrator for Equity Office Properties, at The One Market building in San Francisco. Ms. Gill has a Bachelors of Art from the University of California, Santa Cruz specializing in photography. She is a graduate of Golden Gate University with a Masters of Accountancy and a Certified Public Accountant.

Michael Greene, Real Estate Counsel

Michael Greene has over 20 years experience in complex corporate real estate matters, having been a partner in the Real Estate and Finance Groups at Bingham McCutchen before founding a boutique real estate and land use firm, Diablo Real Estate Group, P.C., in 2007. Mr. Greene specializes in real estate, finance, land use and construction, representing developers, institutional investors and other companies with significant real estate holdings on a broad range of sophisticated projects. Mike served as outside contract counsel for the State of California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPers) for many years, and has also represented (or currently represents) clients such as Stanford University, DivcoWest, Catellus/ProLogis, The Pacific-10 Conference, and USAA Real Estate Company, He has facility in the formation and operation of acquisition and development vehicles, acquisitions, dispositions, land use entitlement, finance, leasing, and construction. As a result, Mr. Greene can head up complex transactions and devise innovative approaches that effectively balance the parties’ business, legal and practical objectives in a manner that helps strengthen the parties’ professional relationships. Mr. Greene’s representative clients also include Catholic Healthcare West, the San Francisco Giants, Golden Gate University, Chiron Corporation, Hyundai Electronics, St. Joseph Health System, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Shea Properties, Centex Homes, The Morongo Band of Mission Indians, Shapell Industries and numerous high net worth individuals and family offices. Mr. Greene has a B.A. from the University of Southern California (1978) and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law (1987).