David Nagel

President and Chief Executive Officer, Decron Properties

David Nagel is moving his pieces around the chessboard in the West. The president and CEO of the family-owned real estate development and investment firm Decron Properties made a significant push into the Phoenix market during the pandemic and more recently sought to cash out of the Los Angeles market. All told the firm has been busy.

Nagel assumed leadership of the Los Angeles-based company in 1988, following in the footsteps of his father, Jack Nagel, a Holocaust survivor who founded the company in 1955. 

Decron has expanded its portfolio to include over 10,000 apartment units and approximately 1.5 million square feet of office and retail space across California, Washington and Arizona. 

Displeased with new transfer taxes and the inability to hike rents, in January 2024 Decron sold four properties in Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks for a combined $212 million. Decron quickly used some of the proceeds to buy in San Diego. “We’re looking to buy real estate that is not regulated,” Nagel said. 

In 2021, Decron acquired 1,482 units in the Phoenix MSA. That year was the firm’s most active in its 30-year history, with the acquisition of six assets for $570 million, far ahead of the company’s previous record of  $345 million in acquisitions in 2018.