Miami female entrepreneur gives people option to pool together to invest in commercial real estate
Miami saw the birth of a real estate crowdfunding business in May. Since then, the female financier and entrepreneur behind it have introduced hundreds of investors to an array of property investment opportunities in South Florida.
School of Whales’ co-founder and CEO Andrea Petersen, 37, started her financial technology and commercial real estate investment fund with Daniel Pena-Giraldi, 45, the chief operating officer. She brings her finance background, and Pena-Giraldi draws from his real estate experience, particularly directing Miami’s construction and development company Stambul.
The single mother of two formulated her business plan after her father died. It came from what Petersen described as an “aha” moment, after talking to a girlfriend who encouraged her to meditate and try yoga. Petersen struggled with a sustainable routine, before eventually landing on a schedule that worked — starting the day with 20 minutes of yoga and five minutes of meditation after hopping out of the shower.
‘’ ’See how hard it is for you to meditate,’ ” Petersen, a Coconut Grove resident, remembered her friend saying. ‘’ ’That’s how finance is for me.’ ”
Soon, Petersen landed on the idea for a company that would educate people about financial literacy and allow them to partake in investments. A play on words, the business name School of Whales refers to a school of fish traveling together and whales hinges on what Wall Street financiers call a big-time investor.
“Let’s get together,” Petersen said, “and become whales.”
School of Whales accepts investors with as little as $500 to place in a blind investment fund supporting local real estate projects. The average investment is $3,000, Petersen said, and the company is approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to manage up to $50 million. The firm has 700 people that created an account on its web page, but Petersen declined to comment how many of them have invested.
One part of its business model includes investing in historic buildings developers find ripe to gut and adapt for a new use. For example, School of Whales is teaming with Stambul on redeveloping an old drugstore site in downtown Miami.
Stambul acquired the 50,000-square-foot, five-story building in 2018 for $19.75 million. When it was built in 1936, the Walgreens drugstore in Miami was only the third Walgreens location in the U.S. and the largest. Slated to open by the end of March, Julia and Henry’s will deliver an Al Capone-inspired speakeasy, food hall and office space.
School of Whales is considering investing in two other Stambul projects: the residential Republic Tower in downtown Miami and The Dale Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.
Petersen, a Caracas native, fell into finance in 2006 after her first job at Commercebank in Miami — now Amerant Bank — after graduating from Tufts University outside of Boston. She later completed a master’s degree in business administration in 2010 at the University of Miami.
After leaving Commercebank in 2012, she worked with Norman Cooper, founder and president of Cooper Precision Companies, which owns and invests in companies involved in oil and gas, energy storage, hospitality and real estate across North America and South America. Cooper mentored Petersen and she learned much about entrepreneurship and management from him.
Her business career happened by chance, Petersen said. It started with her knack for budgeting, inspired by her father who stressed financial responsibility.
“He was incredibly big on spending as an investment,” she said. “It was all about value more than anything else.”
Today, she looks for value in the projects that her firm selects as an investment. She mulls over the effect a certain development may have on the surrounding community and how to show the project’s significance to potential School of Whales investors.
“Our mission is to really connect with our investors and have them connect with the impact of the projects,” Petersen said. “We want them to have the same benefits and access to information that ‘big time’ investors have which is why we offer them tours of the property and monthly updates on the progress of their property.”
The Miami Herald spoke with Petersen about the MIami-area real estate scene and its contribution to a successful launch of School of Whales.
Q: Your business could have invested in anything. Why real estate?
A: South Florida was a natural market for us. School of Whales is a business born in Miami and this is a market we know well. There are a plethora of opportunities in commercial real estate that we know will have positive impact in the community. We feel this is the best way to kick-start the business, really staying true to what we set out to do: connect investors who otherwise do not have the opportunity to invest in commercial real estate to developers who are doing out-of-the-box projects that are positively affecting their communities.
Q: One focus of School of Whales is investing in redevelopments projects involving historic or vacated spaces. Why?
A: Often developers stick to traditional and cookie cutter projects that have a tried and true formula to obtain financing from banks. However, there are a lot of developers with creative ideas that have a hard time completing their projects because they do not fit the traditional bank underwriting checklists. These projects can be just as, or often more, lucrative than a traditional high-rise building, but they take know-how and effort. This extra effort usually results in projects that provide the best use for a property and a community.
Q: Women remain a minority in the financial industry. How did you overcome gender bias and how has that shaped you as a leader?
A: The biggest obstacle I faced was fighting the urge to make myself smaller versus the men in the room, because that was what I felt was expected. It often was not just what I felt, but actually what was expected. In terms of providing opinions, I’ve been in numerous meetings at the start when people assumed I was someone’s assistant.
When I had my son Martin in 2012, I pushed myself. I’ve always worked very hard and it was hard to accept that I’m going to take maternity leave. It changed my notion to always stay the latest at work and prove myself, because I deserved the place where I was. To have that confidence, that was a big turning point. At School of Whales, we offer maternity leave — 12 weeks for mothers and four weeks for fathers. I believe that’s such an important component of recognizing that balance.
Q: School of Whales is your first business. What led you to this moment?
A: School of Whales was first dreamed up in 2018 but didn’t start until this year. I had never launched a business but my business partner, Daniel, started a construction and remodeling firm in Miami two decades ago. He has since been the developer behind several projects, including the Langford Hotel in downtown Miami. This brings an essential know-how component to our investment consideration process, in addition to my financial background. Daniel and I first became partners when we invested in the brand expansion of Pubbelly Sushi, a Japanese and Latin-inspired restaurant with locations across Miami. This experience gave me the confidence to know I could lead a business.
Q: What’s next?
A: We are continuing to grow our platform and heavily focus on its educational component, and the transparency of financial information. This is a pillar of our brand and we are committed to not deviating from that, as we are certain that this is how we can provide the most value to our investors. Also, we are working on partnerships with the University of Miami Herbert Business School for a guest lecture series and, hopefully, other institutions. As far as projects, we have a few in our pipeline, also in South Florida, that we will reveal once they are approved and we are ready to invest.
