Kurt Altvater

Biography

Kurt Altvater is the Senior Vice President of the National Loan and Portfolio Sale Advisors of CBRE Capital Markets.  He has over forty years of experience in commercial real estate and participated in the placement of more than $23 billion in loan and property sales at CBRE.  Kurt has been a leading sales professional and received CRBE’s National Teamwork Award multiple times.

After graduating from LAEP at Utah State, Kurt spent two years as an architectural designer and planner in San Francisco.  The turning point in his career happened while working for John Portman, the author of “Architect as Developer,” at Embarcadero Center.  There Kurt learned that the client holds a key role in any project and the importance of balancing aesthetic as well as economic goals.  His experience as a project manager in development reaffirmed that the best possible outcomes resulted from collaborative team-oriented process involving designers, planners, users, contractors, and capital partners.

While working in the banking industry, Kurt executed over $1 billion in property loans with a concentration in loans secured by hotel and retail properties. During the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s, he noticed that Darwinian economics often prevailed and only the strongest projects survived.  He also observed that the balance of good design and good economics often resulted in the best outcomes.  After spending eleven years at investment banks making real estate loans sold on Wall Street (CMBS) he transitioned to CBRE to advise lenders on the sales of property loans since 2008.

Kurt serves on the LAEP Advancement Board.  Since 2015, he has supported students by offering his design, development, and finance expertise for the intercollegiate Utah Real Estate Challenge and promotes the qualifications of LAEP students to the Wasatch Front real estate investment community.