HFO Pumps Up Portland Office

The apartment-investment firm HFO Investment Real Estate has added two staff positions and one broker. Already the largest apartment-only commercial real estate brokerage in Oregon and SW Washington, the company’s expansion is a reflection of the company’s goal to constantly improve the HFO experience coupled with the growth in apartment development.

Recently added are Spencer Marona, Managing Director and Lee Fehrenbacher, Analyst. Meanwhile, Jack Stephens has been promoted to Broker, bringing the number of licensed brokers in the office to nine—its high water mark.

Spencer Marona, Managing Director, joins HFO in a newly-created position.  Marona has spent his career working for titans of commercial real estate and commerce in the Pacific Northwest. He is a driven organizational leader with a successful track record of helping teams implement their strategic vision. He will manage the firm’s goal of constantly improving the client’s brand experience. Marona has worked with winning teams since college, where he was a player and assistant coach for the Washington Huskies. As an athlete, he played in the 2001 Rose Bowl and four NCAA Bowl Games. Marona graduated with a degree in Humanities from the University of Washington.

Lee Fehrenbacher, Analyst, is new to the brokerage side of real estate but not the industry. Prior to joining HFO, he was a reporter for the Daily Journal of Commerce, where he wrote hundreds of articles on Portland's real estate market. After nearly three years of full-time research, Fehrenbacher has a virtually encyclopedic knowledge of the apartment development pipeline, and an intuitive understanding of the economic drivers behind each project. A native of Portland, he grew up in Sacramento and earned a B.A. in English at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

Jack Stephens, Broker. HFO recruited Stephens from a national commercial real estate firm in 2013. Having grown up in NE Portland, he draws upon his first-hand knowledge of the metro area to educate clients on the region and the sub-markets within it. His thirst for knowledge and avid attention to detail make him highly valuable in analyzing the ever-changing financial landscape of multifamily investments. Stephens earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Oregon.