Pacific Oak REIT Replaces Board and CEO With Wind-Down Specialist
Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT’s entire board resigned and its chief executive departed within a single week this month, as the nontraded real estate investment trust installed a restructuring specialist with no prior real estate background to lead its wind-down.
Four board members – Laurent Degryse, William Petak, Keith Hall, and Peter McMillan III – resigned June 15, with a fifth director, Kenneth Yee, departing three days later. Hall had served as the REIT’s chief executive.
On June 18, the company appointed Bradley Scher as chairman, director, president, and chief executive officer. The company also notified Brian Ragsdale, its chief financial officer, that his contract would not be renewed; Ragsdale will remain CFO through Aug. 11, 2026.
Scher, 65, is the founder and managing member of Ocean Ridge Capital Advisors, a financial consulting firm he established in 2002. The company said his prior roles have included chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief restructuring officer, plan administrator, and liquidating trustee, with a focus on “companies experiencing financial challenges.” Before founding Ocean Ridge, Scher managed more than $1 billion in a special situations fund at PPM America and previously worked in special loans at TIAA-CREF’s investing arm and in private placements at The Travelers.
Scher holds a Master of Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance, both from Yeshiva University.
Pacific Oak REIT entered into an engagement letter with Ocean Ridge, compensating Scher at $5,000 per month for his role as president and CEO and $7,500 per month for his service as chairman and director.
The leadership overhaul arrives five months after the REIT’s independent directors unanimously recommended a wind-down in January 2026, terminating its advisory agreement with Pacific Oak Capital Advisors and overhauling its management structure. That move itself followed the REIT’s engagement of Robert A. Stanger & Co. in November 2025 to explore strategic alternatives amid mounting financial pressure, including Israeli bond obligations and heavily distressed office holdings.
Earlier this month, AltsWire reported that the REIT completed a debt arrangement with the Israeli bondholders of its BVI subsidiary, restructuring more than NIS 975 million in outstanding bonds to a single balloon maturity of June 30, 2028, and triggering a mandatory schedule of 150 property sales that will define the distressed nontraded REIT’s path to wind-down.
The REIT’s financial condition has been deteriorating for more than a year. As of the second quarter of 2025, the company reported substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern, with $512.8 million in debt obligations coming due within a year. Its office portfolio – approximately 72% of total assets, spread across roughly 3.2 million rentable square feet – was 66% occupied as of September 2024.
Scher’s appointment signals the REIT has moved from exploring options to executing a wind-down.
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