Cycle-tested real estate, built on conviction.
40|M is the principal real estate platform of Stephen Hutto — investing, developing, partnering as Co-GP, and advising across multifamily, commercial, hospitality, and land, with a credit-first discipline honed through every part of the cycle since 2008.
A principal's discipline applied across the full real estate cycle.
The name marks 40th & Madison Avenue — the Manhattan corner where the firm's founder began in real estate private equity.
Founded in 2008, 40|M invests its own and its partners' capital, develops and repositions assets, and structures the debt and equity that makes transactions work. The firm was built in the teeth of one downturn and has been sharpened through the markets since — an orientation that favors durable basis, conservative leverage, and asset-level underwriting over financial engineering.
Today 40|M operates as a focused, principal-led platform. It acquires and develops directly, partners as co-general partner with sponsors and operators, and provides capital-markets and advisory services to owners, lenders, and developers who value institutional execution without institutional bureaucracy.
Five ways 40|M creates value.
One principal, one point of accountability — across the disciplines that move a deal from thesis to realized return.
Acquisition & repositioning
Disciplined acquisition of undervalued, mispriced, and special-situation assets — underwritten at the property level, financed conservatively, and repositioned to a higher and more durable cash flow.
Ground-up & value-add
Development and redevelopment from entitlement through stabilization, drawing on a record that spans office, life science, multifamily, retail, mixed-use, and land.
Co-general partnerships
Partnering alongside sponsors and operators as co-GP — contributing capital, structuring, credit, and hands-on execution to strengthen a transaction and align every party to the outcome.
Debt & equity structuring
Sourcing and structuring senior debt, mezzanine, and joint-venture equity; recapitalizations and drop-downs; and REIT / UPREIT structures designed to be financeable and straightforward to administer.
Strategic advisory
Advising owners, lenders, and developers on structuring, repositioning, and execution — bringing a sponsor's perspective and a credit-first lens to complex situations.
Owned, operated, and invested across the built environment.
A breadth of asset classes underwritten with the same store-level discipline.
Multifamily
Value-add and boutique repositioning of apartment communities.
Office
CBD and gateway office, including life-science conversions.
Retail
Mixed-use, anchored, and high-street retail leasing and development.
Self-Storage
Acquisition and development of storage assets.
Manufactured Housing
Manufactured-home communities and land-lease parks.
Hotel & Restaurant
Hospitality assets across lodging and food & beverage.
Horizontal Development
Entitlement and horizontal land development for delivery.
Ground Leases
Ground-lease structuring and standardization — the subject of the firm's white paper.
Net Lease & REITs
Net-lease structures and public-REIT formation (see Arkline Group).
A career of record-setting outcomes.
Selected results led or directed by the firm's principal across his career and prior institutional platforms.
Figures reflect transactions led or directed by Stephen Hutto across roles at Gemdale USA, AvalonBay, JPI, McCaffery Interests, Goldman Sachs / Archon Group, and 40|M.
350 Bush
~400,000 SF pre-leased to Twitch (Amazon), Atlassian & Publicis.
Aperture Del Mar
~640,000 SF speculative campus leased in its entirety to a public life-science tenant.
Deluxe
70,000 SF, 100% leased to Netflix; sold at record pricing.
The Market Common
~400,000 SF retail, ~91% pre-leased prior to construction financing.
The Mercantile
Initiated one of downtown Dallas's largest redevelopments; secured record-setting TIF proceeds.
222 Dexter / Skyglass
335 residential units plus 8,000 SF retail; delivered 2024.
Stephen Hutto
A cycle-tested real estate investor, developer, and operator who has been involved in well over $20 billion of transactions across office, life science, multifamily, retail, and mixed-use assets nationwide.
Before concentrating on 40|M, Stephen served as Chief Investment Officer and Co-President of Gemdale USA, directing national acquisition, development, and capital-markets strategy across high-barrier coastal markets and life sciences. Earlier roles include Vice President of Development at JPI and Director of Retail Mixed-Use at AvalonBay Communities [NYSE: AVB], where he roughly tripled his division's NOI and value in about 18 months. He began his career as a multifamily analyst at Goldman Sachs / Archon Group.
Stephen also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Arkline Group, the institutional investment platform and external manager of the planned Tortue REIT. He is a respected academic voice in real estate, having taught or lectured at Harvard, Columbia, and Pepperdine.
His white paper, "The Standardization of Ground Leases: Old Asset / New Paradigm," reframes the ground lease as an institutional, fee-simple-like asset class — one strand of a body of thought leadership spanning distressed-asset recovery and the built environment.
Education
- Harvard — AMDP, Real Estate (Peiser Finance Award)
- Columbia — M.S., Real Estate Development
- Texas Tech — BBA, Finance
Credentials
- CCIM · TREC Broker
- ULI Development Certificate
- ICSC CDP · NAIOP Advanced RE Finance
Focus
- Acquisitions & capital markets
- Development & repositioning
- JV / Co-GP & REIT structuring
Academic
- Adjunct & lecturer — Harvard
- RE private equity — Columbia
- Fred Sands Institute — Pepperdine
40|M & Arkline Group
Stephen Hutto also serves as CEO of Arkline Group — the institutional real estate investment platform and external manager of the planned Tortue REIT. Where 40|M is the principal and advisory vehicle, Arkline carries the firm's institutional fund and net-lease mandates.
Start a conversation.
For investment, development, Co-GP, capital-markets, or advisory inquiries.
- Office
- Dallas, Texas
- Principal
- Stephen Hutto, Founder & CEO
- in/steve-hutto
Inquiries are received directly by the principal. Expect a prompt, personal reply.