Richard L. Kramer

Richard L. Kramer is an experienced investor and financial advisor who has been closely involved with the acquisition, financing and ownership of many private companies. Mr. Kramer is Chairman of the Board of Republic Holdings Corporation, a private holding company whose primary focus is the ownership, control and management of investment, real estate and venture capital companies. Mr. Kramer has been a managing general partner, co-managing partner or general partner of over 75 real estate partnerships. He has more than 30 years of experience in the acquisition, development and management of over $4 billion dollars in real estate projects throughout the country, as well as the strategic management and ownership of various investment companies.

By way of background and history Mr. Kramer and his co-principals have developed approximately 23,000,000 square feet of real estate, representing an investment at cost of over $4 billion dollars. These projects include the completed 500,000 square foot, $300MM Phase I of the Portals, principally occupied by the Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA), and the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), in addition to the 600,000 square foot, $300MM headquarters for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as part of the 3MM square foot $1 billion dollar Portals project, including the World Class Five Star Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Affiliated partnerships under Mr. Kramer’s control are the largest owners of prime land in the District of Columbia, which includes over 2MM square feet of premier to be developed commercial projects, 1MM of which was completed in 2007 (representing an investment of over $500MM) of Class A office buildings in the Portals Project and Republic Square. Mr. Kramer also has a number of active projects in Washington, D.C., San Jose and San Francisco, California and has specialized in private/public sector projects and partnerships over the last 30 years.

In addition to the Portals and Republic Square, Mr. Kramer has been involved in the development or re-development of a wide range of commercial properties in Greater Washington, D.C. with an aggregate market value in excess of $1 billion, including Georgetown Park, an historic Victorian shopping mall with 128 residential units; Washington Harbour, a 441,000 square foot mixed-use development including office space, retail shops and restaurants, and 36 luxury condominiums located on the Potomac River in Georgetown; the United States Postal Service General Mail Facility, a 660,000 square foot postal facility; Market Square, a 686,000 square foot office and retail space mixed-use development that includes 220 of the most sought after condominium residences in Washington, D.C (which sold in 2009 for over $600MM or $900 a square foot, which is a record breaker for Washington, D.C. and one of the largest sales in the United States that year).

Mr. Kramer was co-owner, Executive Vice President and Vice Chairman of Western Development Corporation, or WDC, a real estate development company. WDC was the developer of several specialty shopping center projects with an aggregate market value in excess of $1 billion, including Potomac Mills in Northern Virginia; Franklin Mills in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Sawgrass Mills in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Gurnee Mills in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Kramer was the Managing Co-General Partner with respect to these projects, which aggregated over 7 million square feet of development.

In August 2002, Mr. Kramer formed an exclusive multi-hundred million dollar fund effort called RKB Washington Property Fund I L.P. (KB I) with Kleinwort Benson/Dresdner Bank to invest in U.S. real estate. The first Fund purchased 21 office buildings in the Washington area aggregating over 2MM square feet at a cost in excess of $500MM with returns to the investors of over 12% payable quarterly. In December 2005 these properties were part of a “roll up” into a public REIT, which was sold in October 2007 for over $900MM. Additionally, Republic Land LLC, of which Mr. Kramer is Chairman, has experience in large-scale residential and mixed-use projects, including existing and current proposed developments of over 7,000 prime residential units and condominiums in DC, and Virginia. Mr. Kramer’s Republic Urban Properties company specializes in major urban mixed-use projects in the San Francisco Bay area. Current projects include a 5.25 acre transit oriented sustainable development that was awarded by the Valley Transportation Agency and will be located next to a planned (and funded) light rail station in San Jose, and Meridian, a 218 unit apartment project in San Jose, California, among other projects.

Mr. Kramer has served on the New York Administrative Committee for Fleet Bank (Bank of America), as a Director in Young Audiences of America, Council Member of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Member of the Kennedy Center and was formerly on the Board of The Institute of Classical Architecture, among many other charitable, civic, cultural and social organizations, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, in addition to various food program organizations around the country and in the New York Metropolitan area. Mr. Kramer and his family were proud sponsors of the American Ballet Theatre at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2004-2005 performance season as well as the 2006 and 2007 Spring Gala at Lincoln Center in New York.