Assets Built to Endure
foun·da·tion·al / foun-ˈdā-sh(ə-)nəl / adj.
serving as the base, groundwork, or fundamental starting point from which everything else develops or is built.
Foundational Real Estate is a privately held investment firm established in early 2025 that identifies, acquires and operates prime core plus and value-add retail and mixed-use properties in markets where culture, commerce, and community converge. Current target markets include New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Our Approach
Deliberate at Every Stage
Our approach is to leverage long-standing local market relationships in target markets with owners, landlord and tenant leasing representatives, investment sales brokers, and local and national tenants to identify undermanaged or undercapitalized assets overlooked by institutional investors. Target assets often feature asset-level or submarket driven dislocation and offer outsized returns without the pressures of stringent time horizons or dilutive fee structures typically found in today's GP/LP operating agreements.
Foundational Real Estate was built on the belief that the best real estate portfolios aren't bought and sold over mandated hold periods with excessive debt to maximize IRRs or a promote, or to generate overly-punitive, operator-friendly asset management fees — they're cultivated over time by building lasting relationships, acquiring thoughtfully, and asset managing meticulously to maximize value over time with patience, prudence and discipline.
Market Identification
We target emerging and established submarkets/shopping corridors with demonstrable tenant demand, low vacancy, high barriers to entry, exceptional vehicular and foot traffic, strong demographics, and above average rent growth potential over the near- to medium-term.
Asset Selection
We target undermanaged and undercapitalized properties often overlooked by institutional investors with irreplaceable locations in high traffic corridors featuring flexible floorplans that naturally lend themselves to today's tenants.
Tenant Curation
We seek to create a sense of place for our tenants and their customers by driving co-tenancy that complements the street and surrounding retailers.
Stewardship
Properties are managed with the care of a long-term owner, enhancing asset quality and tenant relationships for the entire life of the asset.
Portfolio
Properties That Define Their Streets
Our current holdings and target investments share common themes: they exhibit characteristics including, but not limited to, downside risk protection coupled with outsized upside return potential, irreplaceable locations within high barrier to entry submarkets featuring exceptional demographics, and complementary co-tenancy that will drive local, regional and national tenant interest. Creating a "sense of place" where sophisticated "mom-and-pop" shops can thrive alongside established brands is critical to ensuring customer loyalty, tenant success, and meaningful co-tenancy that sets our assets apart from the competition in these dense and highly competitive urban submarkets.
Los Angeles, California
7708–7716 Melrose Avenue
Three single-story commercial buildings totaling approximately 5,860 sq ft of retail space, demised into five tenant suites, plus a rooftop billboard.
Los Angeles, California
7718–7726 Melrose Avenue
One single-story commercial building on the hard corner, totaling approximately 6,460 sq ft of retail space demised into two tenant suites.
Chicago, Illinois
1012 W. Randolph Street
A four-story mixed-use building on Randolph Street in Chicago's Fulton Market District, featuring ground-floor retail and three loft-style residential units above.
About
Matthew
Schreiber
Matthew Schreiber is the Founder and Principal of Foundational Real Estate, a private commercial real estate investment firm based in Los Angeles. Foundational Real Estate is focused on acquiring high-quality retail and mixed-use assets in America's most culturally significant urban corridors. Schreiber's 20+ year investment career has spanned the hospitality, retail and mixed-use sectors, investing/advising on behalf of Public and Private REITs, Private Equity, High-Net-Worth Individuals and Family Offices, Pension Funds, and Pension Fund Advisors.
Schreiber grew up in a real estate family with seven siblings in the Chicago area, attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and spent several years in the Washington, D.C. area between longer career stops in Chicago. He currently resides in the Los Angeles area with his (very patient) wife of almost twenty years and three beautiful children. He is an aspiring surfer, a terrible golfer, and an avid Chicago sports fan.
Contact
Let's Build Together
Whether you're interested in leasing space, exploring acquisition opportunities, or simply learning more about our portfolio, we'd welcome the conversation.