Team
People Behind Sphinx Group
Seasoned Executive Team
Robert C. Farmer,
Jr. – Founder
Robert C. Farmer, Jr. is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sphinx Group, Inc. and Sphinx Hospitality, Inc. Since mid-2001, Mr. Farmer has been responsible for overseeing is overall operating activities and strategic direction, including new business development, capital procurement, and community sector/public sector support formulation of Sphinx. His responsibilities for Sphinx Group and SHI are to guide the direction of the firm, develop business, deal-make with respect to both the assets acquired and developed/re-developed, and ensure that the return expectations by the partner constituencies are met and exceeded.
Sphinx Group and Mr. Farmer have enjoyed a 20-year affiliation with the UrbanAmerica Group of Companies (www.urbanamericainc.com), one of the nation’s pre-eminent scaled urban real estate investment companies with whom he, through Sphinx Group, has consulted since 2001 and with whom they have directly partnered on UA projects since 2016. Overseeing all development activities of UrbanAmerica, Mr. Farmer is a partner on multiple master development projects on nearly 50-acres and totaling $400 million in development costs.
Mr. Farmer is a featured speaker on urban redevelopment for the Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project, and at New School University’s Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy’s Reality Check Conference, both in New York City, and the National Faith-Based Empowerment Coalition’s Opportunity Zone Conference in Washington, DC,
Mr. Farmer’s professional experience spans both the finance and commercial development. With respect to finance, Mr. Farmer held various management positions during an 11-year career in community economic development and commercial banking including senior management positions with both First Union National Bank, now Wells Fargo, PNC Bank, NA and Summit Bankcorp (now Bank of America). Furthermore, he was both the Executive Director of North Philadelphia Financial Partnership and remained as a Board Member and Loan Committee Chair after his departure. He has structured in excess of $500 million in commercial transactions during his career.
With respect to the commercial real estate development, Mr. Farmer oversaw all aspects of the development/re-development of numerous community development projects. Sample projects include the conversion of the former Asher Candy factory into a 50,000 square-foot mixed-use commercial development in Philadelphia, PA; the conversion of a former Delta Airlines Operations building into a 215,000 square-foot faith-based headquarters in Atlanta, GA; and the ground-up completion of a 37,200 square-foot supermarket-anchored retail development in a food desert in Pittsburgh, PA.
Some organizations that have recognized Mr. Farmer’s Community Economic Development expertise include his being a Community Development Bank Operating Committee member for Pennsylvania’s Department of Community Economic Development (DCED), Board Member of San Francisco-based The Development Fund, Founding Member and former Board Member of West Philadelphia Financial Services Institution, and Advisory Board member of Cherry Hill-based TerraNova Investments, LLC. He is a 1989 graduate from the University of Pittsburgh’s Johnstown Campus, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics, concentrating in Finance.
Nate Alizé Allison is a talented business professional and entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience and knowledge of technology, entrepreneurship, and commercial real estate. He currently serves as Co-founder and Portfolio Manager of Sphinx Hospitality, Inc., a real estate investment and hotel operating company, and is Co-founder and COO of Pranos.ai, an innovative Silicon Valley-based outdoor publishing platform for consumer generated content. Prior to founding Sphinx Hospitality and Pranos.ai, Alizé was a Business Development Executive at the Y-Combinator (S 2018) tech start-up, Grabb-it, Inc, and a Principal at T3 Advisors, a global commercial real estate tenant rep advisory firm for technology, life science and venture capital companies based in Palo Alto, CA.
Prior to joining T3 Advisors, Alizé was Founder and CEO of Hadley Real Estate, a boutique commercial real estate company with a focus on real estate development and construction, transactional brokerage services, and private equity investment opportunities. Over the course of his career Alizé has completed over $3.7 billion in commercial real estate and M&A transactions, which includes nine years serving as a Director of Development for Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust where he spearheaded the development of the company’s ground-up power centers and redevelopment of regional malls including the Monroe Marketplace in Monroe Township (Selinsgrove), PA and the $200 million redevelopment of the Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, NJ. Alizé began his business career at Lehman Brothers Inc. in their New York and Tokyo offices, most recently serving as an Associate Global Real Estate Controller.
Alizé received a Bachelor of Science and Economics in Real Estate and Finance from the Wharton School of Business in 1999 where he was distinguished as a Martin Bucksbaum Fellow by the faculty of the Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center. Alizé is also a graduate of DiversForce on Board’s governance program sponsored by The Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, which provides training necessary to achieve greater effectiveness as organizational leaders while making a social impact in nonprofit organizations and public agencies, boards, and commissions in 2019.
Nate Alize Allison,
Co-Founder, SHI
Al Warrington,
Co-Founder, SHIAl Warrington has been in the leisure, time share and land development industry since 1970. In 1972 he became Vice President of Caribbean International Corporation, an entity with numerous resorts in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Fort Lauderdale and Las Vegas that helped create the vacation ownership industry in the United States. He directly supervised the development and marketing phases of the company. Al also served as Vice President of Land Resources Group, developers of Lehigh Acres, Rotonda, Pacific Palisades and other similar developments. He directed the complete marketing and sales operation and assisted in the development of Resort World, the Flagship Resort of Atlantic City and Star Island Resort and Country Club in Miami, FL.
Al also served on various Civic and ARDA advisory boards. In addition, Al oversaw the complete registration, administration and the development of sales and marketing of the Legends Resort and Country Club. Presently Al consults and provides financing and marketing guidance to commercial real estate companies, the hospitality industry, the renewable energy industry (Volt Energy, Washington DC: Volt-energy.com, Director) and major resort projects.
A select listing of the resort, country club and related development projects that Al has managed are listed below:
- Caribbean Beach Club in Puerto Rico
- The Harbour Club in Charlotte Amalia. St. Thomas US VI
- The Lauderdale Beach Club, Fort Lauderdale Florida
- The Jockey Club, Las Vegas Nevada
- Lehigh Resort Club, Lehigh Florida
- Resort World, Kissimmee Florida
- The Spas at Resort World, Kissimmee Florida
- The Oaks at Resort World, Kissimmee, Florida
- Lake Buena Vista Centre, Orlando Florida
- The Brigantine Inn, Brigantine (Atlantic City), New Jersey
- The Flagship Resort, Atlantic City New Jersey
- The Legends Resort (Seasons), New Jersey
- Crystal Beach Club, Miami Beach, Florida
- Holiday Inn, 21st and Collins, Miami Beach, Florida
Al graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus with a B.B.A in business administration and economics. On a continued education schedule, Al completed post-graduate business administration classes at Howard University in Washington DC and his JD at the University of Pennsylvania.
Richmond S. McCoy is a nationally recognized real estate executive with over 30 years of diverse real estate transaction-development and asset management experience. Mr. McCoy has consummated more than $6 billion in transactions. He has raised more than $780MM of institutional equity from public pension funds, banks, and insurance companies that was leveraged to over $2.0 billion in real estate investments nationwide, and he led efforts in working with the US Treasury in the CDFI Fund to deploy $267 million dollars’ worth of tax credit investments. Mr. McCoy has invested in housing, office, retail, industrial and hospitality along with master planned communities both nationally and internationally. Included in the many awards bestowed upon UrbanAmerica under his leadership was the 2012 Developer of the Year award by Hilton Worldwide for the conversion of the 1,100-key Doubletree at Seaworld Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida.
Prior to co-founding the UrbanAmerica group of companies, Mr. McCoy was Founding Partner and Principal of three other firms specializing in real estate brokerage, asset management and development. Mr. McCoy has forged many ongoing partnerships with numerous faith-based and community development organizations nationwide as well.
A founding member, past board member and currently Chairman Emeritus of Real Estate Executive Council (REEC), Mr. McCoy is a frequent expert panelist for the public and private pension fund industry. He speaks as an economic development/CRA Compliance expert to an audience of US-based banks including serving as a panelist for the Federal Reserve Bank. He also is a speaker in urban market conferences such as: Information Management Network (IMN), Pension Real Estate Association (PREA), Opal Financial, National Association of Realtors, and Novogradac’s New Markets Tax Credits.
He has been recognized by many organizations for his exemplary achievements and leadership, including Hilton Worldwide’s Developer of the Year, and JPMorgan Chase’s Real Estate & Construction Industry Group’s Supplier of the Year. His media appearances include being featured on the cover of Fortune Magazine, as well as on CNN, MSNBC, Fox Business News and CNN International, among others.
Mr. McCoy attended Fordham University in New York City, and is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Destiny Bible College in Tampa, Florida in recognition of his extensive contribution to religious organizations in the area of real estate and finance. He currently resides in Miami, Florida.
