Mark Heffron, Will Murphy, Alex Samoylovich

The trio behind CEDARst went big in 2025, buying a Fulton Market development site and a $122 million apartment building on Michigan Avenue, in partnership with Kayne Anderson.

They built their platform on ground-up multifamily, adaptive reuse and Opportunity Zone projects across high-growth urban markets. Murphy, the firm’s CEO and managing partner, has steered CEDARst through more than $3 billion in transactions, while Samoylovich oversees capital markets and sourcing and Heffron leads design, construction and execution.

CEDARst scaled quickly during the OZ era, delivering projects in San Diego, Miami and Las Vegas and leaning into complex capital stacks that rewarded speed and risk.

But the reset hit hard. In 2024, CEDARst faced mounting pressure tied to roughly $116 million in multifamily debt, underscoring how rising rates and stalled refinancing windows exposed OZ-era leverage.

The firm bounced back, ironing out the financial issues to get back onto a deal streak. In late 2025, the firm bought a housing complex in the Logan Square area from CRG to mark the first major transaction inside a newly created zone where tenants have the right of first refusal to buy apartment buildings.