Real Estate Firm Focuses on Distressed Property

MULTIFAMILY: Vintage Prefers Small Apartment Buildings in Good Neighborhoods

By Ray Huard

October 9, 2025

ENCINITAS – Two friends with backgrounds in commercial real estate have given up careers as executives in a large investment firm to form their own boutique property company – Vintage Real Estate Partners.

Coleman Cox and Alex Pascale met while they worked for RedHill Realty Investors in San Diego.

Cox was CFO and executive managing director for portfolio management at RedHill and Pascale was managing director of RedHill’s Investment Group.

At RedHill, the duo work on apartment building acquisitions and sales throughout the West totaling about $1 billion and oversaw a portfolio of about 4,000 units, according to Cox.
“We were investing in $50-million-plus apartment buildings across the U.S.” Cox said.
In their new role, Cox and Pascale focus on acquiring small apartment buildings and renovating them.

The Plan: Renovate and Hold for the Long-Term

“Our background was very different from what we’re doing now,” Cox said. “These are generally heavy value-add apartment projects where we are taking some of the most dilapidated buildings in great areas of San Diego and renovating the properties down to the studs.”

As Vintage Real Estate Partners, “We plan to own and hold these properties for long periods of time, so we don’t cut corners,” Cox said, adding new plumbing lines, sewer lines, electrical wiring, roof, windows, flooring, cabinets, countertops and appliances.

“We’re trying to buy from mom-and-pop owners with mom-and-pop brokers,” Cox said.
The name of the firm, Vintage Real Estate Partners, reflects the company’s investments in older buildings, Pascale said.

“We have this really tacky tagline, Like a Fine Vintage Wine, Our Investments Get Better in Time,” Pascale said. “We are long-term investors. That’s kind of what we’re pointing to in the tagline.”

Focusing on Two Sun Belt Regions

Unlike their previous employer, Cox said that he and Pascale will confine their company’s work to San Diego County and Phoenix – San Diego because it’s a market they know and the city where they grew up and Phoenix because they have relatives there.

Pascale is a Cathedral Catholic High School graduate and Cox is a graduate of Point Loma High School.

“San Diego has a pretty good track record in rent growth and value appreciation,” Cox said. “That’s a dynamic of San Diego we really like and want to continue to invest in.”

Their first project was a North Park building at 3104 Meade Ave.

“North Park attracts a certain kind of person who wants to be in a walkable neighborhood, maybe a little bit of a hipster,” Cox said. “North Park very much has that trendy, hipster kind of vibe.”

The company is also working on an apartment project in Vista.

“The condition of both these properties was kind of like the old adage, ‘the worst property on a good street,’” Pascale said. “The buildings themselves were in tough condition. There was a lot of deferred maintenance that needed to be done.”

Starting out, Pascale said that they hope to close three to five deals a year.

“We’re in the first inning of starting this business,” Pascale said. “We need to grow it over the next 10 years.”

Vintage Real Estate Partners
FOUNDED: 2023
Co-founders: Coleman Cox and Alex Pascale
Headquarters: Encinitas
Business: Real estate investment
Employees: 2
Contact: 619-886-3225
Website: vintagerep.com
Notable: Vintage Real Estate Partners was founded by two friends with a background in commercial real estate

Ray Huard

https://www.sdbj.com/real-estate/real-estate-firm-focuses-on-distressed-property/

By Coleman Cox

November 13, 2024

At Vintage we currently cover 3 markets: San Diego, Phoenix, and Orange County. Across these markets, we generally see 25+ new multifamily acquisition investment opportunities per week that fit our deal size parameters (roughly $3M – $30M total capitalization) – some on-market, some poorly marketed, some off-market. In this post I’ll walk through the different layers to our review process of an acquisition opportunity and what we focus on in each layer.

The first layer is a more subjective pre-screen focused on location, guidance price-per-unit and price-per-square-foot, and the “story”. The goal of this first layer is to decide: (i) move on to next step and underwrite, or (ii) pass and spend no further time.

• Location is always filter #1: we use a pipeline software called TermSheet that allows us to visualize all opportunities on a map. Each point on the map is linked to all of the underlying data we have collected including the source of the information, which allows us to efficiently hit each of our pre-screen items all at once – a plug for TermSheet which has been an awesome pipeline software solution for us. This pre-screen is all about identifying an immediate “pass” because it is in location we’re not comfortable with. Everything else moves on to the next filter with varying degrees of excitement / prioritization based on the submarkets and micro-locations we like best.
• Filter #2 and #3 happen simultaneously (guidance pricing and story): A combination of price-per-unit and price-per-square foot alongside our knowledge of the rents achievable in the submarkets we cover gives us an initial sense of how compelling the opportunity is going to be. There are certain locations we like so much that we will commit to underwriting every deal that we see, regardless of how unrealistic guidance pricing is. The “story” we’re referring to here is related to who the seller is, why they’re selling, and how the opportunity came to us (fully marketed, under-marketed, off-market, who brought us the deal, etc.). There are certain stories that are more compelling than others: less sophisticated sellers/listing agents, under-marketed or off market opportunities, a seller that has some external motivation to sell, etc. These situations will also push us towards underwriting an opportunity regardless of the guidance pricing.

Once an opportunity moves on to the next layer of review, we need to be able to quickly analyze the opportunity and assess what price we’d be willing to pay for the asset to generate a sufficient return for our investors.

The price we’re willing to pay for an asset has nothing to do with the guidance pricing provided to us by the broker or seller.

There are a lot of important underwriting metrics to review when evaluating an opportunity that can be complex, time consuming, and highly “assumption-driven” (i.e., very dependent on forward looking assumptions that are outside of our control such as interest rates, future cap rates, rent growth, among others). Our north star return metric that we use to price assets is un-trended unlevered stabilized cash yield. Let’s break this down a bit:

• Un-trended: meaning this metric does not include any forward-looking assumptions for rent growth or expense growth. We are simply focused on rents that are achievable today, and our knowledge of the cost to run these properties today.
• Unlevered: this metric does not include the impact of leverage. We are in the business of buying and paying for real estate and the associated future cash flows. We are not in the business of paying for “good” debt.
• Stabilized: meaning after completion of the business plan – whether that be capturing operational upside, or completing a CapEx plan to improve the asset / units. We are generally targeting assets that are not currently running at their optimal state, allowing us to pay less for the asset and create the value ourselves.
• Cash yield: What is the total amount of Day 1 capital needed to fund the asset as the denominator (this includes purchase price, capital expenditures, closing costs, working capital needed to operate the asset, sponsor fees, etc.). And what is the true free-cash-flow of the asset as the numerator (this includes all operating expenses as well as non-operating expenses such as year-end tax and accounting fees, CapEx reserves, and any ongoing sponsor fees).

We like this metric for a few key reasons: (i) there is absolutely nothing hiding here – any up-front or ongoing source and use of cash is captured; (ii) it is based on real-time data that we can reasonably predict (i.e., excludes forward looking interest rate estimates, growth estimates, or exit pricing assumptions); (iii) it is consistent and easily comparable over time – every deal we underwrite now becomes a datapoint for future use; and especially for this part of the review process, (iv) because we can calculate it very quickly – generally within ~30 minutes we can complete a “back-of-the-napkin” underwriting that calculates the price we’ll pay for the asset to generate appropriate yield for our investors.

At this point in the process, depending on the subjective components of Layer #1 and our price-point in Layer #2, we will either (i) work with our broker or seller rep to explain our “back-of-the-napkin” pricing and discuss whether it will be worthwhile to sharpen our pencil and dig in further, or (ii) pass on the opportunity.

Once we elect to dig in further, it is generally because we like the opportunity and believe we have a real chance of acquiring it at our desired price point. This is when we’ll begin to invest a lot of time in fully understanding the opportunity and organizing the appropriate materials to explain the opportunity to our investor base: (i) qualitative deal memo, (ii) Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model, (iii) Rent comps, (iv) Sales comps, at a minimum. The DCF model will incorporate many other important return metrics and safety metrics that are not included in our back-of-the-napkin model, that include the impact of future growth, exit assumptions, financing assumptions, etc. Some of these more important metrics are highlighted below:

• Return metrics:
  • Un-trended unlevered cash yield
  • Trended unlevered cash yield
  • Cash-on-cash return
  • IRR
  • Equity multiple
• Safety metrics:
  • Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR)
  • Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio
  • Appreciation CAGR

This process allows us to be efficient with our time while covering a lot of volume with a lean team. I’m a firm believer that in order to identify a great investment opportunity, you must have seen a significant amount of other similar opportunities. In the last ~12 months, we’ve seen ~1,000 deals, underwritten ~350 deals, offered on ~10 deals, and closed 1 deal. Finding great deals is not easy – it takes hard work and efficient processes and systems to ensure you uncover the best opportunities available in your markets for your investors.

Real Estate Firm Focuses on Distressed Property

MULTIFAMILY: Vintage Prefers Small Apartment Buildings in Good Neighborhoods

By Ray Huard

October 9, 2025

ENCINITAS – Two friends with backgrounds in commercial real estate have given up careers as executives in a large investment firm to form their own boutique property company – Vintage Real Estate Partners.

Coleman Cox and Alex Pascale met while they worked for RedHill Realty Investors in San Diego.

Cox was CFO and executive managing director for portfolio management at RedHill and Pascale was managing director of RedHill’s Investment Group.

At RedHill, the duo work on apartment building acquisitions and sales throughout the West totaling about $1 billion and oversaw a portfolio of about 4,000 units, according to Cox.
“We were investing in $50-million-plus apartment buildings across the U.S.” Cox said.
In their new role, Cox and Pascale focus on acquiring small apartment buildings and renovating them.

The Plan: Renovate and Hold for the Long-Term

“Our background was very different from what we’re doing now,” Cox said. “These are generally heavy value-add apartment projects where we are taking some of the most dilapidated buildings in great areas of San Diego and renovating the properties down to the studs.”

As Vintage Real Estate Partners, “We plan to own and hold these properties for long periods of time, so we don’t cut corners,” Cox said, adding new plumbing lines, sewer lines, electrical wiring, roof, windows, flooring, cabinets, countertops and appliances.

“We’re trying to buy from mom-and-pop owners with mom-and-pop brokers,” Cox said.
The name of the firm, Vintage Real Estate Partners, reflects the company’s investments in older buildings, Pascale said.

“We have this really tacky tagline, Like a Fine Vintage Wine, Our Investments Get Better in Time,” Pascale said. “We are long-term investors. That’s kind of what we’re pointing to in the tagline.”

Focusing on Two Sun Belt Regions

Unlike their previous employer, Cox said that he and Pascale will confine their company’s work to San Diego County and Phoenix – San Diego because it’s a market they know and the city where they grew up and Phoenix because they have relatives there.

Pascale is a Cathedral Catholic High School graduate and Cox is a graduate of Point Loma High School.

“San Diego has a pretty good track record in rent growth and value appreciation,” Cox said. “That’s a dynamic of San Diego we really like and want to continue to invest in.”

Their first project was a North Park building at 3104 Meade Ave.

“North Park attracts a certain kind of person who wants to be in a walkable neighborhood, maybe a little bit of a hipster,” Cox said. “North Park very much has that trendy, hipster kind of vibe.”

The company is also working on an apartment project in Vista.

“The condition of both these properties was kind of like the old adage, ‘the worst property on a good street,’” Pascale said. “The buildings themselves were in tough condition. There was a lot of deferred maintenance that needed to be done.”

Starting out, Pascale said that they hope to close three to five deals a year.

“We’re in the first inning of starting this business,” Pascale said. “We need to grow it over the next 10 years.”

Vintage Real Estate Partners
FOUNDED: 2023
Co-founders: Coleman Cox and Alex Pascale
Headquarters: Encinitas
Business: Real estate investment
Employees: 2
Contact: 619-886-3225
Website: vintagerep.com
Notable: Vintage Real Estate Partners was founded by two friends with a background in commercial real estate

Ray Huard

https://www.sdbj.com/real-estate/real-estate-firm-focuses-on-distressed-property/

From baseball diamond to mountain peaks, Coleman Cox tackles grueling trail run

San Diego multifamily investor runs up big hills to build mental toughness

Coleman Cox completed a 16-mile run up the Santa Monica Mountains. (Coleman Cox)

https://product.costar.com/home/news/805901842

By Coleman Cox

May 22, 2024

After accomplishing priority #1 of broker awareness and relationships*, and with deal flow starting to hit our inbox, the next steps were (i) ensuring we had reliable partners to execute alongside, and (ii) solidifying general underwriting assumptions. Acquiring a property without a reliable team of vetted partners to execute alongside is suicide. And identifying great investments without a large dataset of consistently underwritten comparable opportunities is impossible.

*Side note – to state the obvious, all strong relationships take work; a single conversation with a broker to get on their radar does not mean that box is checked and complete – regular communication, in-person meetings, quick and transparent deal feedback, etc. is required to stay top-of-mind and ensure you see all of the right opportunities.

Our next priority was identifying a third-party PM partner. From our broker conversations we had a list of ~12 potential partners, some more highly recommended than others. Our strategy was to have a ~30 minute introductory call with every group – building a relationship, asking a few key screening questions, and requesting a handful of anonymized P&L’s for stabilized sub-institutional product in their portfolio (this would be key for underwriting). While it is a large time investment (especially if you multiply this by the amount of markets you are covering), it was very valuable to us in narrowing our top 3-4 property manager options, and also collating a significant dataset of P&L data to analyze on a per-unit and percentage-of-revenue basis to convert into our base case OpEx assumptions. These 30-minute intro conversations, plus a data request to assess timeliness of response, control over data, and professionalism of the deliverable, was more than enough information for us to easily narrow down our partner options.

For our top 3-4 property manager options, we curated an interview question list covering a handful of items in each of the following key topics: (i) Overall / General Items, (ii) Staffing, (iii) Software and Systems, (iv) Operations / Leasing, (v) Maintenance, (vi) Reporting, and (vii) the Management agreement. The conversations took anywhere from 60-90 minutes and for an unprepared interviewee could be considered overwhelming. The information gathered during these calls was important in assessing our potential partners, but equally important was seeing the reaction and response to such a comprehensive question list and setting the tone for the level of detail and professionalism we expect out of a partner.

With our preferred partner emerging out of these conversations, we asked for references and to speak with additional team members we’d be working with in the company (operations / maintenance / accounting) and formalized the relationship. The systematic approach we took from a blank canvas, without the time pressure of a deal was refreshing, and quite frankly new to me. I had come from a world where property manager selection was very deal-driven and typically made in haste during a closing process when there are 100 other things going on. And made based primarily on the business development experience with the acquisition team, which is not always representative of the operations team responsible for executing. With our more focused approach and long-term mindset, we feel very comfortable and aligned with our property management partner when the time comes to execute on a business plan.

We started down a similar path for general contractors, having intro conversations with a handful of recommendations received from the brokers and property managers we interviewed. Frankly, we did not find the process to be as effective in gathering useful information about their operation. We pivoted a bit to focus more on relationship building and assessing their experience in working on the types of projects we were targeting. The reality was we needed to walk a property with them during due diligence, see the team they brought and how comprehensive their assessment was – are they order-takers only or do they have ideas of their own for efficient construction / design, how quickly can they provide an estimate for the requested renovation work during a quick due diligence period and what level of detail is included, etc.

While not as efficient as having this information beforehand, we found this really could not be replicated without the specifics and time pressure of an actual deal. To be candid, this led to some surprises on the cost and timeline front (some positive, most negative) of our first deal under contract. We ultimately canceled the contract on this first deal as a result of CapEx expansion – primarily attributable to relying on inaccurate information provided by the Seller, but also partially attributable to some naïve CapEx assumptions – mistakes that will not be made again, and led to a strong understanding of our base case CapEx assumptions going forward. Assumptions we were able to rely on to get our first deal under contract and executed shortly thereafter, and alongside a team that had separated themselves from the rest of the groups we had given a shot.

When you’re playing a long-term game with as many moving pieces as real estate, it is inevitable that mistakes will be made. The great operators have the acumen, structure, and processes in place to never make the same mistake twice.

Our hope is this walkthrough of how we ramped our real estate infrastructure (selfishly) adds credibility to the mindset and rigor we apply to every area of our business for future potential partners and (unselfishly) provides some education or semblance of a roadmap to those considering entering the space as peers.