Team Bios

Travis Pacoe has been continuously involved in real estate since 1990 and has both brokered and invested in nearly every property type, including apartment projects, retail and industrial real estate. Travis is responsible for origination of potential transactions; negotiation of transaction terms; marketing oversight; and due diligence oversight.

Travis’ completed transactions total in excess of $1.1 billion, including properties valued in excess of $825 million that he has acquired as an investor and general partner through various partnerships he has formed. He has been an active principal in the acquisition of multifamily and commercial real estate since 1994 and as an owner has extensive experience in the management of multifamily and commercial properties.

Travis brings his extensive history as a principal investor to bear in completing every property purchase, including extensive transaction management experience, negotiation of relevant documentation and effective navigation through all due diligence matters; accurate valuation of many property types in numerous regions or submarkets; and origination and structuring of a wide variety of financing instruments.

Travis has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a dual emphasis in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics and Finance from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, CA, class of 1991.

Ron Abta has over 15 years of residential real estate experience, having completed in excess of $1B in transactions as both a broker and investor. He brings multifamily management and remodeling experience to the team, having actively overseen the maintenance, renovation, and financing of multi-unit apartment units and residential properties throughout his career. Ron is responsible for investor relations, marketing oversight, and general transaction management for acquisitions and financing.

He has been involved in the structuring and management of numerous real estate general partnerships. He has also been involved in almost every type of residential purchase over his career, whether it be multifamily assets, tenancy-in-common interests, or single family dwellings. He brings a wide breadth of experience to the team as both an investor, as well as operator of multifamily properties. He has consistently managed to completion a very high number of transactions annually for many years.

He has intimate knowledge of the financing side of real estate transactions, having worked as a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley and as a product manager at iOwn.com, one of the first internet mortgage brokers (acquired by CitiMortgage). He holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Economics with a minor in Business Administration at University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, CA, class of 1993, as well as a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Stanford, CA, class of 1999.

Chi is our Marketing Coordinator who is responsible for developing and executing our marketing strategy on market outreach. Chi helps make sure that our potential customers are increasingly more aware of the Polaris brand and all of its properties on the market. Chi has great project management skills and consistently deliver high quality results on schedule. She also works as our in-house Photographer and Graphics Designer to create original designs and templates for our property websites and marketing brochures.

Chi was originally from Vietnam. She has studied and worked in 3 different countries over the past few years. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Global Marketing from University of Huddersfield, UK in 2013. And in 2015, she graduated from Hult University, San Francisco with a master’s degree in International Marketing. She speaks Vietnamese and English.

Brian Genden is a seasoned real estate professional with over 16 years of in-depth leadership in asset and portfolio management, underwriting, valuations, due diligence, affordable and senior housing, budgeting, investor relations, business plans, and financial analysis across the multifamily, storage, office, and hospitality industry.  He has overseen large multifamily portfolios throughout the United States giving him a wide range of market exposure.

Brian is responsible for all Asset Management functions for Polaris Real Estate’s multifamily equity positions including oversight of third party property management, strategic revenue building and expense savings initiatives, investor & lender liaison, reporting, budgeting, cash forecasting, due diligence, and acquisition & disposition analysis.

Brian holds an MBA from Texas A&M University-Commerce and a BBA in Finance from Texas State University.  He holds an active Texas Real Estate salesperson license where he lives in Plano, Texas.

Lisa is our financial controller, she comes to Polaris with an extensive career of over 25 years of Accounting in Real Estate, both commercial and residential. She has worked for top development and management companies in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in Class A office, Light Industrial, Retail, Single Family Homes, and Multi-Family Apartments with portfolios of over a million square feet.

Lisa has built strong relationships with partners, investors, accountancy firms, bank, and lender representatives. Lisa’s vast knowledge includes acquisitions and dispositions, development, value-added properties, CAM reconciliations, loan draws, entitlements, property taxes, insurance, HR and forensic accounting. Lisa is committed to a high level of accuracy; she is an analytical thinker and has a strong work ethic.

Lisa received her accounting education from MTI Business College and has been a Notary for 20 years. Lisa is family-oriented, is a worldwide traveler and is generous with her time, helping others and giving back to her community.

James Hetherington joined Polaris Real Estate as Legal Counsel in 2022. With over thirty years of experience as a trial attorney and a partner at a San Francisco litigation firm for fourteen years, James has worked with insurers and insureds to resolve complex litigation matters in a variety of practice areas, including negligence, premises liability, employment, construction, personal injury and contractual claims.

James brings his extensive experience in handling legal disputes to Polaris as our Legal Counsel to address and resolve claims, assess risk, control losses and mitigate exposure.

James obtained a BA in English from California State University/Northridge, and a J.D. from the University of Arizona College of Law. He has been a member of the California bar since 1990. James is on the Board of a local open space conservatory in San Francisco and is an avid runner and musician.

Austin Paul joined the Polaris team as a Financial Analyst in 2022 to assist in portfolio management. Austin is responsible for updating and creating financial models to evaluate both existing and potential assets, analyzing property operations’ financial data to provide forecasting support, creation of property level investment reports and presentations, and study of broad level business and economic trends.

Austin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with a minor in U.S history from Occidental College, CA, class of 2020. His major’s area of focus was U.S. macroeconomic policy and history.