Roundtable with Josh Rahmani (Co-Founder & Partner) and Ebi Khalili (Co-Founder & CIO) of Empire Capital Holdings (Professional Level)

Ebi Khalili is a founding partner and Chief Investment Officer of Empire Capital Holdings. He has actively participated in over $4 billion of real estate transactions in either a principal or advisory capacity.

Khalili first worked in the real estate mortgage industry at Franklin First Financial in Long Island and founded the investment sales brokerage Venture Capital Properties with Josh Rahmani at the age of 20. The duo went on to found Empire Capital Holdings in 2011. He has been active in the New York real estate markets since 2003 and has a talent for identifying value-add opportunities across all asset classes.

Khalili’s responsibilities include sourcing investment opportunities, monitoring broader market conditions, overseeing the asset management team and maintaining relationships with the firm’s investors. He has also played an integral role in training the origination team. He is one of the decision makers on pricing, leasing, acquisitions, and operations.

Mr. Khalili is extraordinarily well connected in the industry with an extensive network of owners, brokers, and private investors. He is a member of the New York Economic Club and currently resides in Long Island with his wife and three children.

Arash “Josh” Rahmani is the co-founder of several companies spanning real estate, private equity, hospitality, technology, and retail. He is a seasoned professional with vast knowledge of markets and a superior track record as a dealmaker and leader.

Rahmani has extensive experience structuring transactions involving capital markets, investment sales, acquisitions, recapitalizations, joint ventures, and financing institutional grade assets. He has 18 years of executive experience in project management, developing, executing and completing business plans, as well as corporate governance, acquisitions and restructuring.

He is one the members of Empire’s investment committee. His responsibilities include oversight over underwriting of target acquisitions, forming a business plan for projects and the capitalization of each asset. He oversees the acquisition and due diligence process in the duration of each investment’s cycle as well as property management, and construction execution.

He is a partner at Empire Capital Holdings, Empire Hospitality, Think Empire, and VCPRE. Over the course of his career, he has structured more than $4 billion in transactions and $850 million in sponsored acquisitions partnering with many investors, including family offices and financial institutions.

Josh is a member at the Economic Club of New York.

Josh began his career in his first semester in college at Adelphi University where he got his real estate license in 2004. By end of his second semester in university, he arranged for the sale of over $100,000,000 in properties and acquired his first three properties that year. Josh and his partner then moved their office to Manhattan and went on to negotiate a series of high-profile deals over the next 5 years before starting Empire Capital Holdings.