AAO Property Group provides boutique real estate advisory services across complex, distressed, and execution-challenged situations — across every asset class, at every stage of the capital stack.
We specialize in solving challenges that others cannot — leveraging creativity, rigorous financial discipline, and a nationwide network of relationships. Quality over quantity: senior-level focus on every engagement.
Workouts, restructurings, loan sales, ground lease disputes, and distressed acquisitions and dispositions.
Equity placement, bridge and permanent financing, recapitalizations, and tax credit integration including LIHTC and NMTC.
Triage of stalled development projects, P3 structuring support, and independent advisory to mayors, councils, and public boards.
Buy-side and sell-side representation, JV participation, complex negotiations, due diligence, and asset repositioning.
Turnaround strategies, value-add repositioning, operational efficiency, and lender/borrower alignment through workout situations.
Complex ground-up developments, historic asset repositioning, adaptive reuse, and public-private partnership guidance.
If the situation is complex, distressed, or stalled — at any stage, in any asset class — we want to hear about it.
Start a ConversationA boutique real estate advisory firm built on the principle that quality engagement produces better outcomes than volume.
Meet Our Principals ↓AAO Property Group is a boutique real estate advisory firm providing senior-level advisory services across complex, distressed, and execution-challenged situations spanning single family, multifamily, office, retail, hospitality, mixed-use, land, and public-private real estate.
With over 50 years of combined experience, our principals bring deep expertise across investment, development, asset management, and capital structuring. We work with owners, lenders, investors, operating partners, institutions, municipalities, and advisory firms across the real estate ecosystem.
Our philosophy is "quality over quantity" — we take on a select number of engagements to ensure senior-level focus, innovative thinking, and outstanding execution for each client.
Our principals lead every engagement personally. No hand-offs to junior staff. No black-box advice. Clients receive direct access to 50+ years of combined experience on every mandate.
We apply deep financial discipline — rigorous underwriting, clear-eyed assessment, and structured advisory processes that produce defensible, actionable recommendations.
Experience across every major property type means we bring flexible solutions — not a single-asset playbook applied to every situation regardless of fit.
Engagements may be advisory-only or principal-based depending on client objectives and transaction structure. We can advise, execute, or co-invest.
Over 50 years of combined experience across institutional real estate, capital markets, credit, community development, and finance. Every client works directly with our principals — both of whom bring distinct and complementary depth to every engagement.
Ryan Johnson brings 20 years of experience across institutional real estate, community development, capital markets, and entrepreneurship. Over his career he has been involved in over $5 billion in real estate transactions spanning portfolio management, acquisitions, dispositions, development, financing, and asset management — across affordable housing, institutional retail, office, industrial, and mixed-use asset classes. He brings that breadth to every AAO engagement.
Garfield Johnson has more than 35 years of experience in credit, risk, finance, and banking. He brings institutional capital markets depth to every AAO engagement — with a career spanning regulatory oversight, global risk management, structured finance, and business development at some of the world's most prominent financial institutions.
AAO is asset-class agnostic by design — with concentrated expertise in distressed and special situations wherever they arise in the real estate ecosystem.
Workouts and loan restructurings, distressed acquisitions and dispositions, ground lease disputes and terminations, loan sales and note purchases, and receivership and asset stabilization.
Equity placement and JV structuring, bridge, construction, and permanent financing, recapitalizations and partner buyouts, and tax credit integration including LIHTC, NMTC, and Historic Tax Credits.
Triage of stalled development projects, P3 structuring and developer evaluation, disposition strategy for public assets, and independent advisory to mayors, councils, and public boards.
Buy-side and sell-side representation, joint venture structuring and negotiation, complex due diligence and asset positioning, and distressed portfolio strategy.
Turnaround and stabilization strategies, value-add repositioning and execution, operational efficiency and collections normalization, and lender/borrower alignment and workout support.
Complex ground-up and redevelopment guidance, historic asset repositioning, adaptive reuse structuring and execution, construction crisis and contractor disputes, and funding gap resolution.
Every engagement begins with a clear-eyed assessment of the asset, capital stack, and stakeholder positions. We identify the core problem and the realistic path to resolution — quickly and honestly.
No vague retainers. No open-ended engagements. We define scope, timeline, fee structure, and outcomes before we begin.
Engagements may be structured as advisory-only or principal-based — including as a co-GP, operating partner, or executive hire — depending on client objectives and transaction structure.
We work across all real estate asset types wherever complexity, distress, or execution challenges require experienced leadership.
Within our asset-agnostic advisory practice, two verticals represent the deepest concentration of hands-on transaction and operational experience.
We review every inquiry personally. If the situation is complex, distressed, or stalled — we want to hear about it.
Every inquiry is reviewed directly by Ryan or Garfield Johnson. We respond to every message — typically within one business day.