George Gowen

George Gowen went into the commercial real estate business in 1984, starting as an industrial sale and leasing broker at Jackson Cross Company. Since becoming a partner at Avir Corporation in the early 90’s, his roles have included acquisitions dispositions, analysis, debt origination and the full range of asset management, leasing and property management.Starting in 2005 and continuing through 2016, Avir Realty Group, LLC has acted as acquisitions advisor and asset manager to Penguin Real Estate Investors, LP. Penguin has acquired $50m of fully leased office and industrial buildings, in addition to commercial land parcels that are leased long term to credit tenants. Mr. Gowen’s roles include sourcing the acquired assets, negotiating contracts, debt acquisition, due diligence, financial modeling and analysis, hiring brokers and property managers and subsequent asset management.Mr. Gowen, joined Avir Corporation as Vice President of Acquisitions and partner in 1994. During the ensuing years, the Avir team grew the Industrial Portfolio, to 1.2 msf. During 2003 – 2013, they sold most of the portfolio, returning significant capital to investors. In 2008 Penguin RE purchased 701 Pencader from Avir with Mr. Gowen as managing partner. In 2016 Penguin sold the asset to Pencader Industrial, LLC and Mr. Gowen did an Equity Tenant in Common transfer to the new entity to remain a managing partner. In 2017 Avir completed the expansion and renewal of the UCP tenancy to the entire 152ksf building for a very long term lease. Pencader Industrial, LLC is asset managed by Sovereign Property Management.In 1998, George Gowen started Avir Realty Group, LLC, the consulting and brokerage affiliate of Avir Corporation. Avir has represented Allstom, DuPont, Ryder, Accugenix, Infoguard, Faro Pharmaceutical and Sardo and Sons. These assignments covered the full range of corporate real estate work. Proficient in financial modeling and analysis, Mr. Gowen has also supervised construction from ground up development through minor tenant improvements.

Mr. Gowen was a Vice President, with Jackson-Cross, in the Wilmington and Philadelphia offices from 1984 to 1998, a capacity in which he served many clients, including, GM, RREEF, Invesco, DuPont, Equitable, The Franklin Mint, USF&G, Hanson PLC, Mass Mutual, IKEA, SAP, PepsiCo, Hewlett Packard and Keebler. He is a graduate of Penn State, University Park with a degree in Economics, and attended the University of Paris. He holds real estate licenses in Delaware, and Pennsylvania and resides with his family in Chester County.

OUR TEAM

Ivan Stern

Ivan Stern founded Avir Corporation in 1967 to provide scientific and engineering consulting services to government and industry. Starting in 1973, he changed Avir’s focus to investment and development of commercial and residential real estate. Since then, the firm acquired and developed 22 properties for a total investment of $117 million.

Richard F. Smith, Jr.

Acquisitions, Sales and Leasing

Richard F. Smith, Jr., principal of Avir Realty Group, Inc. of Pennsylvania, has served multi-market corporate clients in the North American marketplace from a base in suburban Philadelphia for 17 years. Recently, Mr. Smith has represented national clients in 23 states with over one million SF of transactions.