AST Development, a New Jersey-based boutique real estate development and financing company, announces it has rebranded as AST. The rebrand marks the next phase in the company’s evolution as a leader in building and enhancing value across asset class and locations, creating unique opportunities for positive, long-term change in local communities. With the new brand identity, AST has also launched a new website to further demonstrate its full suite of in-house real estate capabilities.
As AST, the company will align its ground-up development and value-add capabilities with its two subsidiaries – AST Financial and AST Realty – to create a truly fully integrated real estate development, financing and realty platform.
“We have been guided by an unwavering commitment to bringing transformative development projects to local communities for over 35 years,” said Robert J. D’Anton, Founder and President of AST. “While the development and acquisition of commercial real estate for our own portfolio will always be the core of our work, our ongoing diversification has enabled us to better leverage our experience to help our partners find success as well. Through our new identity, we are now able to unite all our services under one umbrella and better capitalize on value creation opportunities in an increasingly complex commercial real estate marketplace.”
Powered by its independent ownership, AST’s development arm leverages a “builder-first” approach to capitalize on opportunistic ground-up development and acquisition opportunities throughout the northeastern and southeastern United States. In the three-plus decades since its founding, AST has been responsible for in excess of $1 billion in development and investment activity across several asset classes. In addition, AST’s experience and success working with municipalities and community leaders provide unparalleled expertise in collaboratively designing and delivering projects that stand the test of time and reflect the needs of the local community.
Aiming to capitalize on its knowledge of the development process and the complex financing needs of today’s builder community, AST launched AST Financial in 2015. AST Financial is a fully integrated lending platform that extends construction and bridge financing, along with preferred equity, through direct-to-lender capital programs developed by builders for builders. Since its inception, AST Financial has provided financing valued at over $250 million to help builders bring their projects to life.
Working in conjunction with AST Financial, AST Realty is a unique residential brokerage model that offers the builder community comprehensive and cutting-edge brokerage services designed to add value at every stage of the process. AST Realty leverages AST’s deep development and financing expertise to meet the speed and demands of the marketplace through an on-the-ground presence in its target markets, access to creative financing solutions, value engineering services and tailored marketing campaigns.
“Our expertise in development, finance and realty has enabled us to serve as a trusted real estate partner for some of the most successful transformative projects in the region,” said Shane Soranno, Director at AST. “We look forward to building upon our success as we enter into this exciting next phase of our company’s growth.”
To learn more about AST, please visit its new website at www.ast-re.com.
