Our Team
Management Team
Joseph Bramante
Joseph Bramante
CEO
As CEO of TriArc Real Estate Partners, the best part of Joseph Bramante’s day is showing investors how to create more time to enjoy life by building passive income streams which can fund unpaid vacations and accelerate retirement. The metric by which he measures his success is the number of people he’s helped achieve early retirement.
Joseph came from a family of modest means, but with academic scholarships, student loans, and income earned as a tow boat deckhand during summer and holiday breaks, he managed to put himself through college. He graduated Cum Laude from Louisiana Tech University with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.After college, Joseph was a business team lead at ExxonMobil on the company’s highest profile project where he managed cost for $1B in material logistics, housing, and infrastructure contracts for the over $22B initiative. He received the Project Recognition Award for exceptional performance in two consecutive years, and while highly paid, he never had time to enjoy the financial rewards of the job. He worked 60+ hours a week, as did all his managers, and he could see the wear and tear on their faces. Vacation seemed an unattainable goal although he could certainly afford one.
He landed in the multifamily real estate industry by accident. ExxonMobil transferred Joseph from Houston to Papua New Guinea where his project was based. Living in a compound with his managers and little to do besides work, he learned many of them were investing in real estate. It was 2010, just two years after the US housing market collapsed, and foreclosures were everywhere. Joseph’s interest was piqued. With a 4.0 college GPA in mathematics, he had always been a numbers guy. He developed a spreadsheet and estimated he would need a loan for $3M to buy 80 rental houses over a two-year period. Bank after bank laughed as he tried to secure a loan from the other side of the world to finance the acquisitions, but one lender said, “Why don’t you buy an 80-unit apartment complex instead?” Joseph knew nothing about multifamily real estate, so to learn, he read numerous best sellers on multifamily investing. The potential to rapidly increase a property’s value independent of its neighbors was attractive, and in 2011, he purchased his first multifamily property, sight unseen, while still living in Papua New Guinea. It was supposed to be a private investment, but it morphed into a business.
Six months later, he was back in Houston with his property at 25% vacancy and four units under renovation when he was notified the insurance he’d purchased was a scam, his property had asbestos, and his job at ExxonMobil was being eliminated. The next day, he paid for a membership at a local real estate education club where he met his partners, Carrie Breneman and Deborah Newsome. The club advised Joseph to sell his property and take a loss. Instead, he and his partners leased it down to zero, executed a massive $30k/unit renovation, and then leased it back up. It was the most stressful nine months of Joseph’s life, but it was the right decision, as it paid out over a 200% return. In 2013, they partnered and acquired three more multifamily properties, spent $5K to $30k per unit on renovations, and increased net operating income (NOI) across all by over 80%. In 2016, they rebranded under the name TriArc, establishing the foundation on which to build a wholly integrated multifamily investment company with the goal of acquiring over 20,000 units in the next 10 years.
Joseph loves working with the amazing TriArc team to breathe new life into flailing communities. He’s currently working toward a Certified Commercial Investment Member designation (held by less than 1% of commercial real estate professionals) through CCIM Institute, and he’s also a member of the Houston Apartment Association (HAA) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
Growing up in a single parent household with a mom struggling to support the family as a waitress, Joseph was no stranger to low-income housing. His family moved from apartment to apartment throughout southern Louisiana, and Joseph counts it a miracle he survived childhood given the safety issues in the run-down properties where he once lived. By providing affordable housing that’s clean, safe, and well-maintained while helping investors grow their wealth, Joseph is “improving lives through multifamily” of people from all walks of life. It’s a position he never expected to be in, and he’s incredibly grateful.
Carrie Breneman
Carrie Breneman
PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS
Carrie Breneman, president of operations and co-founder of TriArc Real Estate Partners, boasts an impressive career with over 30 years of experience in the multifamily real estate industry. While involved in all aspects of the business, her primary focus is the day-to-day operations of apartment communities, both owned and third-party. Among her many contributions, Carrie has been instrumental in the success of TriArc’s portfolio from providing critical input on underwriting to masterfully executing the business plan to producing accurate and detailed reporting throughout operations. Having lived in Houston most of her life, Carrie understands the local market better than most. Her vast experience and knowledge make her a vital resource ensuring company targets are met during the underwriting and acquisition of new properties.
Carrie’s career began as a part-time leasing consultant for the Dallas apartment community where she once lived. After moving to Houston, she stuck with the business learning everything she could about property management “boots on the ground” (before the internet) with a little help from the Dewey Decimal System and the Encyclopedia Britannica. She progressed through the ranks from assistant manager to regional vice-president managing 5,000- to 11,000-unit portfolios along the way. In her first management position at Southwest Property Trust, Carrie received the prestigious President’s Award for exceptional property performance for three consecutive years.
The industry has been a great fit, supplying endless opportunity to use her gift of service, which brings Carrie great joy. As the senior regional manager at Lincoln Property Company, one of her most memorable projects was working with sponsors Arcon and Goldman Sachs on the 15-property repositioning project in Greenspoint. In addition to managing the day-to-day operations of 5,000 units, she interfaced with the renovations team that was spending $5,000 – $25,000 per unit while working with a PR firm to change the reputation of the entire submarket. In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison flooded 2,000 units in the portfolio she managed, and Carrie and her colleagues worked countless hours to rapidly relocate residents, rebuild, and lease the units back up, achieving stabilized occupancy in record time.
Over the course of her career, Carrie has navigated the industry through periods of prosperity and economic downturn. When the housing market collapsed in 2008, she worked with lenders, servicing agents, and venders to mitigate financial impacts. After Hurricanes Ike and Katrina and numerous floods in the Houston area, she collaborated with officials on disaster recovery. Positions at multiple property management companies created diverse opportunities for Carrie to develop expertise in repositioning properties, new construction lease up, and renovations from minor interior upgrades to complete exterior and interior rehabilitations. She’s managed as many as 15 properties at a time from all classes, A to D, in both primary and tertiary markets while directing over 60 employees. She’s also able to see a deal from multiple points of view: resident, employee, and investor. All this adds up to an unparalleled versatility to address almost any multi-family issue and a unique perspective from which to assess new opportunities for TriArc and third-party owners.
In 2012, Carrie opened her own third-party property management company, Kindred Residential, with Deborah Newsome and Cindy Cannon, and together, they grew it to over 2,000 units in two years. Kindred filled a void in an industry where most third-party property management companies offered only a fixed set of services whether multifamily owners needed them or not. In its first year of business, Joseph Bramante hired the company to manage his 26-unit property, and four years and many deals later, when Carrie and Joseph merged their two companies to form TriArc, Carrie brought with her the same core value: the business should work for the client, and not the other way around.
After hours, Carrie serves the community through her church and other ministries. She was a preschool coordinator at Champion Forest Baptist Church for five years and is on the board of directors and the building committee of one not-for-profit and the prayer team of another. Carrie is also a member of the Houston Apartment Association, as well as the Corpus Christi Apartment Association.
Deborah Newsome
Deborah Newsome
VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS
TriArc Real Estate Partners co-founder and vice president of operations Deborah Newsome is known for being a straight-shooter. In addition to overseeing all aspects of third-party-owned property operations, Deborah is responsible for overseeing and growing the company’s portfolio in Corpus Christi. Dedicated to personally directing new business, she relocated to the city in January 2019. Most of Deborah’s clients are real estate investors with full-time jobs seeking to best position themselves for retirement. Each has unique property management goals, and the diverse expectations can be a real challenge. The due diligence process is an excellent tool to help clients understand property performance issues. By analyzing local market trends, comparable sales, and actions taken by the previous management company, Deborah can assess a property’s true potential and generate a plan to increase net operating income. It’s a skill that’s enabled her to routinely improve performance on challenging properties.
She’s been in the industry since 1990. El Campo, the small town where she grew up, offered limited opportunities after high school. Uncertain about what she wanted to do with her life, Deborah followed a friend to Austin. The friend worked as a part-time leasing consultant at the residential community where they lived, and Deborah took over the position after she changed jobs. In less than a year, a full-time position opened at her employer’s second property, located in Houston, and Deborah transferred to be closer to family.
Looking back, “leasing agent” was one of Deborah’s favorite roles. Residents were so excited when they picked up their keys and helping people find a home was immensely satisfying. Everyone had a story – single moms, college students — and Deborah loved making sure all were well-cared for.
Before co-founding Kindred Residential in 2012 and TriArc in 2016, Deborah advanced her career accepting positions of increasing responsibility at top real estate firms including Lincoln Property Company, Fairfield Residential, Sentinel Real Estate, and Gables Residential. She has completed numerous large renovations and new construction lease ups. As a senior business manager at Lincoln, she simultaneously directed a $3.5M renovation on a 168-unit class A property and $1.5m renovation on a 96-unit townhome community, gutting each unit, executing improvements, and completing what would typically be a two- or three-year project in only 18 months. She increased overall monthly rent by $350/unit and was recognized with the prestigious Golden Medallion award for her achievement. Deborah’s diverse background and experience spans property classes (A++ to D-) and styles (garden to high-rise).
Deborah is a member of both the Houston and Corpus Christi Apartment Associations. She holds a Texas real estate license and is an Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) Certified Property Manager (CPM) candidate.
Cindy Cannon
Cindy Cannon
ACCOUNTING MANAGER
Cindy works hard as our accounting manager, bringing more than twenty years of experience in multi-family management and training to TriArc Real Estate Partners. Currently, she leads our property accounting team while managing our finances, accounts payable, budgeting, forecasting, and implementation of accounting systems for our portfolio.
Cindy’s experience in the real estate industry has awarded her prestigious accolades, including being named Property Manager of the Year, as well as being given the Gold Medallion award —- the most prestigious award of a previous employer. As a member of the Houston Apartment Association, Corpus Christi Apartment Association, and the Texas Apartment Association, Cindy is dedicated to providing top-level care and customer service to each of our clients while remaining up-to-date on industry standards.
According to Cindy, she loves working in the real estate industry because of the family feel of both her coworkers and industry peers. Each day, the TriArc Real Estate Partners team develops close ties with new professionals and experts, allowing every moment to be a learning opportunity. She enjoys taking a task from the start and seeing it to fruition while solving challenges that arise along the way. Work with Cindy and the rest of the TriArc Real Estate Partners team by getting in touch with us today.