Meet one of our new analysts, Ryan Alperstein!

Ryan Alperstein is one of U3’s newest analysts, but has been a fan of their work for a long time. A Baltimore native and recent graduate from the University of Maryland – a U3 client – Ryan plans to put his background in finance and interest in the built environment to good use in the firm’s growing New York office.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

How long have you been on the team?
As of four days ago [laughs]. I started training on Monday. We are in Philadelphia this week and next week, then I will be in the New York office full time.

How did you come to U3 Advisors?
I’m from Baltimore, Maryland, and went to the University of Maryland. I was a finance major, and once I began my job search, I truly focused on real estate finance, but I was looking for more than that – I wanted a well rounded experience and to learn a variety of new skill sets. I was interested in being a part of a collaborative team that would provide the opportunity to communicate with different professionals in fields all throughout the industry.

Where did your interest in real estate come from?
With real estate, you’ve got a physical building – you can see it, literally, from the ground up. [laughs] As a finance major, being able to apply my base financial knowledge into a physical asset is what influenced me to break into the industry.

How do you look forward to putting that to work at U3?
Their focus on higher education is what stood out to me. U3 does a lot of work with the University of Maryland and it was fascinating to see, over time, how their developments progressed. As a student, I was able to watch the campus being built up without even knowing that was U3’s work at the time.

Right now, I’m working on real estate financial modeling coursework. I have also trained with InDesign on how to pull together different data points in order to convey our thinking to different institutions.

There really is a team environment here. People are always sitting in our office common areas, and they have always been available for any questions. I know I will benefit from that and that everyone here will assist me in learning and progressing as I begin my career at U3.