Spotlight: KBS Realty Advisors and the KBS REIT Program

The Newport Beach firm built a separate adviser and broker-dealer in the mid-2000s to offer individual investors the strategy it ran for pension and sovereign wealth clients, through seven public non-traded REITs.

November 3, 2026

KBS is a Newport Beach, California, commercial real estate investor that has run two businesses side by side since the mid-2000s: an institutional advisory practice for pension plans, endowments and sovereign wealth funds, and a family of public non-traded REITs sold to individual investors through financial advisors. The firm describes itself as both a private equity real estate company and an SEC-registered investment adviser, and says it and its affiliates have completed more than $45.9 billion in transactional activity since 1992.

Three entities behind the KBS REITs

KBS Realty Advisors, founded in 1992 by Peter Bren and Charles J. Schreiber Jr., is the original entity. According to KBS Capital Markets Group, KBS Capital Advisors was formed in 2004 as the exclusive advisor to the KBS non-traded REITs, which the firm says were designed to give individual investors access to the same types of real estate it buys for its institutional clients. KBS Capital Markets Group, a FINRA-member broker-dealer formed in early 2006, distributed the REITs only through investment professionals. The first, KBS Real Estate Investment Trust, opened its public offering in January 2006.

KBS Capital Markets Group lists what each program raised:

• KBS REIT I: $1.7 billion
• KBS REIT II: $1.8 billion
• KBS REIT III: $1.7 billion
• KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT: $561 million
• KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT II: $265 million
• KBS Legacy Partners Apartment REIT: $191 million
• KBS Growth & Income REIT: $77 million

Management of the two Strategic Opportunity REITs moved to Pacific Oak Capital Advisors in 2019. The firm reports assets under management across KBS-affiliated companies of more than $4.8 billion as of June 30, 2025.

A U.S. office REIT listed in Singapore

In July 2019, KBS REIT III sold 11 office properties into Prime US REIT, which listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange with a $1.2 billion appraised portfolio. Its sponsor, KBS Asia Partners, counts KBS founding members among its shareholders. KBS credits CEO Marc DeLuca with work on two Singapore IPOs and the U.S. debt financings tied to them.

Financing run in house

According to a February 2026 GlobeSt profile that KBS republishes on its site, the firm executed more than $9.5 billion in financing and interest-rate hedging over the prior three years across owned and client-managed assets, including 26 rate hedges totaling $2.19 billion. Named deals include an $802.9 million refinancing of office assets in Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, Emeryville, San Jose and Plano, a $550 million term loan and revolving facility for a Singapore REIT, and $120 million for a three-property Utah and Texas portfolio held for a sovereign wealth fund. The finance team, led by executive vice president Robert Durand, handles revolving lines, construction loans, syndications and portfolio workouts.

Leadership

In January 2022, KBS named DeLuca CEO, and Schreiber, CEO for 23 years, became president and chairman. DeLuca kept his role as Eastern regional president and chairs the investment committee that approves every new KBS investment. The same announcement created the firm's first CFO position, filled by Jeff Waldvogel, and set up an executive committee. Giovanni Cordoves is Western regional president. The KBS website lists KBS Income Plus as the firm's current offering.

How KBS defines quality in commercial real estate

A September 2026 KBS insights piece argues that flight to quality in commercial real estate no longer tracks labels such as Class A. The firm writes that quality now means durable cash flow and occupancy, and applies that by sector: dominant and grocery-anchored retail centers, well-located workforce housing over luxury apartments that lean on concessions, multi-tenant infill industrial near population centers over large distribution buildings, and office buildings with demonstrated leasing momentum. In the same piece, Durand says the larger risk lies in execution at the asset level rather than in the capital markets, and that a sponsor needs to understand demand in a market down to the individual street corner.