Empire Group of Companies, one of the leading residential and commercial real estate developers in the Southwest, announces surpassing $1 billion in equity raised through independent broker dealer and registered investment advisor (RIA) communities. This milestone underscores Empire’s significant growth and impact in the real estate investment sector since launching its first retail fund in 2009.
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Launched during the depths of the Great Recession by partners Richard Felker, Randy Grudzinski and Geoffrey Jacobs, Empire Group’s initial retail fund strategy focused on acquiring single-family foreclosures at steep discounts and converting them into rental properties. By 2012, the firm had become the largest single-family landlord in Arizona through a series of distressed housing funds. Over the past 15 years, Empire has sponsored more than 42 retail programs encompassing 45 development individual projects or asset pools.
Today, Empire Group has established partnerships with over 25 broker dealers and numerous RIAs, reflecting its strong industry relationships and investor confidence. In 2025 alone, the company expects to distribute over 12,000 investor K-1s, each representing a unique investment in an Empire-sponsored program.
“My partners and I are beyond grateful for our broker dealer and RIA partners. For the past 15 years, more than 400 individual investment advisors, and thousands of their valuable clients, have placed their trust in us as stewards of their real estate investment dollars. This is a social contract that we will never take for granted nor treat lightly,” said Randy Grudzinski, partner at the Empire Group.
Empire Group has also played a key role in shaping the Arizona real estate landscape. The company developed The Stewart, a 19-story and first purpose-built Class A high-rise in Downtown Phoenix, and Aspire Fillmore (now Ave Sky), which was awarded “2024 Multifamily Project of the Year” by NAIOP, the nation’s largest commercial real estate trade association. Additionally, the firm was recognized by the Phoenix Business Journal as the fourth-largest commercial developer in the Phoenix-metro area.
As a pioneer in the build-to-rent (BTR) sector, Empire’s 22 BTR projects encompass over 5,200 units across four states, positioning the company among the top five national developers in the industry. With a record supply of multifamily inventory, a slowdown in new permits, and strong economic and population growth in targeted submarkets, Empire anticipates multiple successful liquidity events in the next two to three years and continued innovative and lucrative opportunities for its investors.
In addition to Class A high-rise multifamily and build-to-rent projects, Empire also develops self storage, retail and land deals.
