About Black River Partners

David Adams is the principal of Fluid Capital Management, LLC and co-manager of Black River Partners. A Chicago native, Mr. Adams graduated cum laude from Indiana University in 1987 with a B.S. in Accounting. After graduation he returned to Chicago and began working for Deloitte Haskins & Sells. In 1988, Mr. Adams joined the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to become an apprentice financial trader going on to trade interest rate derivative futures as a market maker for over 15 years.

In 2004, Mr. Adams moved to Florida to start a proprietary trading group. He retired from trading in 2010 and has been investing in real estate and small private equity deals. In April 2013, Mr. Adams joined Black River Partners to help analyze deal flow, and was quickly promoted to manager.

Alexander Ruiz is one of the managers of Prestige Florida Fund Partners. He is also the Chief Operations Officer of The Prestige and Pacifica Companies and has worked with them and their affiliates for nearly two decades. His efforts have been instrumental to their success and continued growth.

Previously, Mr. Ruiz was the Director of Finance and was responsible for coordinating the financing of over $2 billion in acquisitions of diverse real estate transactions and over $1.2 billion in loans. He has also coordinated equity and institutional mezzanine capital transactions totaling over $500 million. Additionally, Mr. Ruiz has been responsible for the management of all lender relationships with lenders such as Credit Suisse, FNMA, FHLMC, Citigroup Global Markets, UBS and many other local financial institutions. He has been trusted with the task of creating numerous community development districts and issuing public bond offerings.

Since April of 2009, Mr. Ruiz has overseen The Prestige & Pacifica Companies and all its affiliates, specifically Pacifica Homes and EZ 2 Own, which were the leading single-family distressed acquisition and resale companies in Florida with total sales nearing $175 million. As of 2010, The Prestige Companies have been among the largest privately held apartment holding companies in South Florida with over $300 million under ownership and management. Since 2012, Mr. Ruiz has been a manager and advisory board member with Black River Partners, a diversified real estate investment fund that has transacted well over $250 million in deals.

Mr. Ruiz holds an MBA and graduate degree certificate in Finance and International Business from the University of Miami and is an honors and magna cum laude graduate from Florida International University with a B.A. in Political Science. He has also served on numerous non-profit and governmental boards such as Kristi House and the City of Hialeah Personnel Board.

Luis Arrizurieta has over 25 years of experience with numerous business ventures ranging from real estate to family office operations. His experience spans from financial reporting, capital raising, capital structuring (including tax-efficient investing strategies), operational aspects of real estate development and construction to the management of real estate operating companies.

Mr. Arrizurieta’s work began at BDO Seidman, the sixth largest international consultancy firm providing assurance, tax, financial and advisory services to publicly traded and privately held companies. He rose to the rank of audit manager where his work involved industries such as real estate, financial services, retail, manufacturing and waste disposal. This work included interaction with Latin American divisions of US based enterprises.

In 1994, Mr. Arrizurieta became Controller of the family owned and vertically integrated real estate organization Adler Group. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to Chief Financial Officer and within twelve years was directly involved in the organization’s expansion from 2 million SF of industrial and office real estate projects to over 8 million SF. He was instrumental in the acquisition, financing, capital structuring and overall management of the organization that eventually owned and managed over $400 million of real estate assets in the South East US.

In 2006, Mr. Arrizurieta joined the Kislak Organization as Chief Financial Officer. He joined the organization to prepare it for growth with the inclusion of institutional capital. He oversaw all financial aspects of the organization that included over 3,500 multi-family units throughout the US, along with a brokerage operation in New Jersey and property management operations that oversaw the multi-family portfolio.

In 2008, Mr. Arrizurieta formed Grupo Larrizur to provide consulting services that included real estate underwriting, mergers and acquisitions, business recapitalization, strategic planning and overall business development to corporate and individual clients. Concurrently with the formation of Grupo Larrizur, he joined forces with his brother Jorge L. Arrizurieta to form Arrizurieta & Associates LLC, which focuses on providing a wide range of business consulting services to numerous clients in South Florida and Latin America.

As of 2013, Mr. Arrizurieta has been dedicated to managing the investments of Black River Partners, a real estate debt fund focused on South Florida real estate ventures that currently manages over $41 million of diversified real estate debt placements with various real estate developers in South and Central Florida.

Mr. Arrizurieta is a Certified Public Accountant. He graduated from Florida International University with a B.A. in Accounting and has been an active member of various community business associations, including the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, while placing an emphasis on business development in Latin America.

Serving as special counsel to Black River Partners is attorney Alejandro Vilarello. Mr. Vilarello has more than 30 years of legal experience including extensive experience in litigation, local government law, land use, zoning, condominium law and construction law. His firm specializes in real estate closings and title work with a focus on corporate law, zoning, land use, as well as business litigation.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Vilarello was a shareholder in Akerman Senterfitt’s land use and governmental relations practice and served as City Attorney for the City of Miami. He played an integral part in transforming Miami into a world-class city after its resurgence from the brink of bankruptcy a few years prior. From 1998 to 2004, Mr. Vilarello served as legal counsel to elected and administrative officials, as well as supervised a staff of over 30 lawyers.

In 1990, Mr. Vilarello became the City Attorney for the City of Hialeah, a position he held for eight years and was responsible for providing legal analysis and advice to elected officials, department and division heads. He also supervised the city’s Risk Management Department.

Mr. Vilarello first joined the City of Miami in 1983 as an Assistant City Attorney and rose to Chief of the Litigation Division in 1990. In that capacity he was responsible for defending all lawsuits filed against the City of Miami, its employees and its public officials.

Mr. Vilarello received his B.A. from the University of South Florida and his Juris Doctor Degree from Gonzaga University School of Law.