Our History

Kenneth A. Picerne grew up in the family business, Picerne Real Estate Group, founded in 1925 by his grandfather, Romeo Picerne.  Picerne Real Estate Group became one of the top ten and the largest family owned multifamily developers in the United States. 

After graduation from Yale University, Ken spent a decade leading a major expansion of his family’s company into the Sunbelt United States. Ken served as the Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for the development of over 12,000 apartment units.

In 1988, Ken created The Picerne Group to invest in the Southern California multifamily market. The Picerne Group worked with municipalities to create affordable multifamily housing and develop institutional quality apartment communities, accumulating a portfolio of over 5,000 multifamily units. The Picerne Group also acquired raw land and secured government approvals to develop several thousand apartment units, ultimately selling the undeveloped land for an attractive return.

In 1999, The Picerne Group formed Picerne Capital to focus on non-performing loan portfolio investments and real estate owned properties. Operating in Japan as Kings Capital, Picerne Capital was a significant buyer, manager and seller of non-performing loan portfolios from various Japanese banks.  Kings Capital established itself in Japan as one of the most active investors in the non-performing loan field.

Since 2003, The Picerne Group has focused on harvesting its portfolio and developing an exceptionally liquid and flexible investment position.  Anticipating a major correction of assets, The Picerne Group has built an experienced investment team to focus on new market opportunities in the current period of economic distress.