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About northpond

A Seasoned Investor & Operator

Northpond Partners is a real estate investment firm focused on identifying underutilized retail and mixed-use assets. We concentrate in supply constrained markets and reposition the properties to attract a broad range of potential tenants.

We seek assets that can be adapted to a wide variety of uses; increasing the ability to capture market demand.

Our team

Entrepreneurial Culture +
Institutional Foundation

One of Northpond’s continuous efforts is to build a cohesive team with a common goal and belief. We are proud of the varied skills our team has, with experiences encompassing development, asset management, zoning, entitlement, leasing, fund management, and finance.

We pride ourselves in shared values and integrity, a core tenant of which is to treat individuals with equal respect and dignity. As a company we are making a commitment to learn, listen, and educate ourselves as it relates to social injustice, inequalities and inherent biases. We have the ability and responsibility to drive positive change via our work and can do such through our projects, charitable giving and community engagement efforts.

Sam ankin

Managing Principal

Phil Slovitt

Managing Principal

Mitch Malone

Director of Finance and Accounting

Jeff Merriam

Director of Investments & Asset Management

Kate Knuth

Vice President of Asset Management

Kirstey Lein

Vice President of Investments

Rachel Gould

Senior Associate

Michael Nachtsheim

Senior Analyst

Caterina Jacobs

Analyst

Megan Gilmore

Operations & HR Manager

Let Our Investments Speak For Us

Check out our portfolio of investments

View Portfolio

Sam Ankin Co-Founder & Managing Principal of Northpond Partners.

Sam’s primary responsibilities involve sourcing and structuring new investment opportunities, and he also serves as a member of the Investment Committee. Mr. Ankin was also a founding partner of Shiner Capital Partners, LLC, an entity that sponsored SCP Realty Fund I, LP and SCP Realty Fund II, LP. Since 2007, Mr. Ankin has led or supported the identification and analysis of more than 1,500 investment opportunities and through his leadership, he has closed on over 50 investments with a gross asset value in excess of $600,000,000. 

Prior to Shiner Capital, Mr. Ankin served as Development and Acquisition Manager for Shiner Group, where he was responsible for land and asset acquisitions, as well as coordinating the development of retail, office and mixed-use projects in the Chicagoland area and the Carolinas. At Shiner Group, Mr. Ankin led or supported the development of more than 12 projects consisting of approximately 1,000,000 square feet of commercial space. Before joining Shiner Group, Mr. Ankin worked at LaSalle Bank, most recently in the commercial real estate group.

Mr. Ankin graduated from the Real Estate Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Granger School of Business with Academic Distinction. Mr. Ankin is a member of the ICSC Foundation Board of Directors, the National ICSC Next Generation Leadership Board (past chair) and is a member of the ULI Small Scale Development Product Council. He also formally sat on the Board of Advisors of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and is an Executive Board member of The Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation. A native of the Chicagoland area, he currently resides in suburban Chicago with his wife Erin and their two children.

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Phil Slovitt >

Phil Slovitt Co-Founder & Managing Principal of Northpond Partners.

Phil’s responsibilities include investment strategy, capital formation, risk management, and portfolio management. He is also a member of the Investment Committee. He was also a founding partner of Shiner Capital Partners, LLC, an entity that sponsored SCP Realty Fund I, LP and SCP Realty Fund II, LP. Mr. Slovitt successfully led Shiner Capital as it made 35 investments and procured project level financing equating to approximately $200 million. 

Mr. Slovitt previously worked at Morgan Stanley’s Chicago office in its U.S. Real Estate Investing Group. While at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Slovitt’s responsibilities included the underwriting, due diligence and closing of more than $1 billion in real estate investments on behalf of Morgan Stanley-sponsored funds and separate account clients. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Slovitt worked for Crow Holdings in Dallas, Texas. During his time at Crow Holdings, Mr. Slovitt primarily worked on the acquisition and asset management of retail, office and industrial properties totaling more than $350 million in value.

Mr. Slovitt graduated from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University with a BBA in Real Estate Finance. He is actively involved with the Illinois Junior Golf Association and the American Junior Golf Association through their ACE Grant scholarship programs. Mr. Slovitt is a Council Member of the Real Estate Finance and Investment Center at the University of Texas at Austin. He currently resides with his wife Emily and three children in suburban Chicago.

< Sam Ankin

Mitch Malone >

Mitch Malone, CPA is Northpond's Director of Finance and Accounting, and is responsible for managing and maintaining controls designed to mitigate risk and measure property performance and enhance the accuracy of financial reporting.

Mitch joined Northpond in 2019. Mitch was a finance manager at Heitman LLC for over 6 years. There, he oversaw the financial reporting, valuation process, annual audits and fund performance for their value-add, closed-end fund series. His responsibilities at Northpond includes financial reporting, portfolio performance and management of annual audits and tax processes.  

Prior to joining Heitman, Mitch worked for NAI Hiffman Asset Management for two years where he was responsible for the property accounting and reporting for various asset classes including retail, industrial and office.

Mitch graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a BA in Accounting. He holds an active CPA license and is registered with the State of Illinois.

< Phil Slovitt

Jeff Merriam >

Jeff Merriam, CFA is Director of Investments & Asset Management at Northpond Partners.

Jeff joined Northpond Partners in Jan of 2020. Most recently Jeff was a
Manager on the Asset Management team at Starwood Retail Partners where he was responsible for a portfolio of regional mall and lifestyle centers valued at over $1.3Bn. His primary responsibilities included strategic planning and execution, investor reporting, forecasting and property valuation, and the oversight of capital market, development, disposition, and leasing activity.

Prior to joining Starwood Retail Partners, Jeff was at Schafer Richardson for three years where he worked on over $300M in acquisitions and developments across multiple property types, including multi-family and creative office.

Jeff graduated from the University of Richmond with a BA in Economics and International Studies, and a Minor in Mathematics. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

< Mitch Malone

Kate Knuth >

Kate Knuth is Northpond's Vice President of Asset Management

Kate joined Northpond August 2022. Her experience includes managing a combined 10MM SQ FT of commercial retail real estate over 15 years, leading multidivisional teams responsible for operations, construction, lease administration, accounting, short-term leasing, tenant coordination, budgeting, accounts payable/receivable, forecasting, capital improvements, project bidding, tenant legal proceedings, and tenant communication.

As the founder of Creative Compass Consulting, Kate specialized in supporting her clients via interim leadership management. With her expertise in malls and large retail properties, she provided contracted leadership for multiple shopping centers across the country, supporting teams through management transitions. As a consultant, Kate also provided Special Project support for corporate clients. Her experience includes establishing standard property management procedures that mitigated risk for approximately $1.3B in property assets and leading the development of an online company intranet, complimenting the project by composing and deploying training modules for +30 properties involving+240 field team members. Before forming her consulting company, Kate’s tenure included management of four super regional retail assets with Westfield, CBL, and Starwood Retail Partners.

Within the aviation industry, as Director of Strategy and Development for the retail programs at O’Hare and Midway International Airports, Kate oversaw the tenant design review team, tenant construction, and all retail marketing efforts. She also contributed to the Midway Redevelopment RFP valued at $96MM. Her team completed approximately $10MM of tenant redevelopment in a 12month period. In 2016, Airport Council International-North America awarded Kate’s team top national marketing honors.

Kate graduated from Missouri State University with a BA in Organizational Communication. She is a licensed Commercial Real Estate Broker in IL and a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers. Kate currently resides in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and two daughters

< Jeff Merriam

Kirstey Lein >

Kirstey Lein is Vice President of Investments at Northpond Partners

Kirstey joined Northpond Partners in October 2021. Previously, she worked at JLL as a Retail Investment Sales Analyst, where she was responsible for complex financial modeling of commercial real estate transactions, prepared and oversaw the preparation of investment packages for Chicago’s retail investment sales team, mentored junior analysts, and spearheaded the Summer 2020 Intern Committee.

Prior to joining JLL, Kirstey was at Starwood Retail Partners, first as a Leadership Rotation Associate, and then as National Portfolio Leasing Associate. At Starwood Retail, she facilitated package leasing deals for National tenants across the entire Starwood portfolio, canvassed new markets to identify emerging concepts, and assisted in the relationship management and retention efforts for existing tenants.

Kirstey graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BBA in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics and Marketing.

She’s a Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Associate (WREAA) member, and enjoys volunteering with Project Destined and Chicago Scholars.

< Kate Knuth

Rachel Gould >

Rachel Gould is a Senior Associate at Northpond Partners

Rachel joined Northpond in March of 2022. Prior to Northpond, she was with CBRE for five years as an analyst on the National Retail Partners investment sales team where she was responsible for financial and analytical consulting, due diligence coordination, and performing thorough review and analyses for a range of project-specific information and data sets. She also assisted in the preparation of the team’s various marketing materials.

Rachel graduated from the University of Missouri in the Spring of 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Real Estate. While at Mizzou, she interned prior to her senior year as a loan underwriter at Dougherty Mortgage (now Colliers Mortgage) in Minneapolis. She enjoys spending time with friends and family outside of work by exploring the Chicago restaurant scene or traveling to different cities.

< Kirstey Lein

Michael Nachtsheim >

Michael Nachtsheim, CPA is Analyst, Finance and Accounting at Northpond Partners

Michael joined Northpond in the Fall of 2021. Prior to then, Michael worked at Ernst & Young in the Assurance group serving clients in the Real Estate, Hospitality, and Construction sectors. His responsibilities included assessing acquisitions & dispositions, evaluating fair market valuation analysis, and applying data analytics.

Michael graduated from the University of Missouri with a BS and MS in Accountancy. He is a licensed CPA in the state of Illinois. In his free time, Michael enjoys traveling, running, and spending time outdoors.

< Rachel Gould

Caterina Jacobs >

Caterina Jacobs is an Analyst at Northpond

Caterina joined Northpond in July 2022, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BBA in Finance, Investment, and Banking & Real Estate and Urban Land Economics. She served as Investment Intern at Northpond in the summer of 2021, and as HR Intern at Drybar prior.

Caterina was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Laguna Beach, California. Having just moved to Chicago, she’s excited to explore the different neighborhoods and Chicago restaurants.

< Michael Nachtsheim

Megan Gilmore >

Megan Gilmore is responsible for Northpond’s operations and administration.

Megan joined Northpond in April 2021. Ms. Gilmore previously worked as Office Manager of Tandem Construction, Development, and Architecture, where she oversaw day-to-day office operations, as well as managed aspects of onboarding, accounts payable, property management tasks, and social media management. Prior to Tandem, she was Administrative Assistant with Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum for 3 years, where she provided administrative support to the Director of Operations and the growing team.

Megan graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato with a BS in Theatre Arts, and has enjoyed being a part of the vibrant Chicago performing arts community since she made the move in 2014.

< Caterina Jacobs

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