Ian Griffis

Ian Griffis is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Griffis Residential, a Denver-based apartment investment fund manager and property operator with approximately 8,000 units under management. Mr. Griffis is Co-CEO of the company and is a member of the Investment Committee. Mr. Griffis has structured real estate investments for over 35 years. Investing in his first project during his senior year at Colorado College in 1985, Mr. Griffis initially invested in and developed student housing. With the onset of the RTC crisis in 1989, Mr. Griffis expanded the management operation to assist owners in surviving the largest collapse of financial institutions since the Great Depression. An operations-focused investment culture remains and is a key factor in above benchmark returns – no investor in a Griffis project has ever lost a dollar. In the 1990s, Mr. Griffis led the expansion into projects in Phoenix, Denver, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Following the sale of the predecessor company, Griffis/Blessing, to co-founder Buck Blessing, Mr. Griffis formed its fund business in 2004 through Griffis Group of Companies with partner David Birnbaum, and shortly thereafter Tom Barta. Griffis Residential currently manages a series of six closed-end value-add funds and an open-ended core fund for a client base of institutions and high-net-worth individuals. Griffis Residential communities are currently located in Seattle, Portland, Long Beach, San Diego, Denver, and Austin. Mr. Griffis has a strong interest in conservation and has implemented: four conservation easements; the assemblage and creation of a public 800-acre public park; the preservation of an archeological site and section of the historic Cherokee Trail for which he was awarded the Friends of The Oregon Trail Award. Together with David Birnbaum and Tom Barta, he is a founding board member of Griffis Residential Gives, a not-for-profit formed to address personal distress and the contributing causes to homelessness. Mr. Griffis is a former Trustee of Colorado College and the Fountain Valley School. He is a member of the Casa Serena Society as well as the William Jackson Palmer Society at Colorado College. Mr. Griffis holds a B.A. from Colorado College.