Hearthstone is devoted exclusively to investing institutional capital in residential development. Hearthstone was the first, and today is the largest, institutional investment manager in the country that is dedicated to the residential building industry.

At the time Hearthstone was formed in 1992, homebuilders across the United States were suffering from a shortage of capital resulting from changes in federal laws affecting the banking industry and from a loss of investor confidence in real estate. Hearthstone was organized in response to this capital shortage and in recognition of the long-term investment opportunity that single-family homebuilding presents for institutional investors.

Hearthstone manages funds for numerous public and private pension plans, university endowments, Fortune 100 companies and large private trusts. Hearthstone invests these funds in homebuilding and residential lot development projects throughout the United States.

Hearthstone now has more than $11 billion committed to the home building industry, financing more than 450 communities in 80 markets in 25 states representing 40 builders and nearly 90,000 homes and lots. Offices are located in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Chicago.



James Z. Pugash - Founder

Hearthstone's founder and chairman James Z. Pugash passed away in September 2006 from pancreatic cancer. Born in Buffalo, New York in 1951, Mr.. Pugash received his undergraduate degree in economics from Yale College, where he was research assistant to James Tobin, Nobel Laureate in economics. He graduated from the Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Environmental Law Review. He earned a masters degree from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

During the early 1990s, Mr.. Pugash pioneered the concept of using pension fund money to finance moderately priced, for-profit housing in the U.S. Under Mr. Pugash's leadership, Hearthstone became the first, and today remains the largest institutional equity investor committed to residential development projects in the United States.

Pugash was a member of the Mortgage Roundtable of the National Association of Homebuilders, the Policy Advisory Board to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and the Real Estate Advisory Board of the University of California at Berkeley. He served on the Construction Industry Dispute Resolution Task Force of the California State Senate, the Special Advisory Committee to the California State Senate on the Orange County Bankruptcy and the New Haven Investment Committee of Yale University.

In 1999, Hearthstone became the lead sponsor of the Hearthstone BUILDER Humanitarian Award, given annually to homebuilders who have made significant contributions to non-profit community service. Mr. Pugash was founding chairman of the Homebuilding Community Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting charitable giving by members of the homebuilding industry. He was also on the Board of Jazz Aspen Snowmass, a Board Member for Homes for Working Families and a member of the Yale University Endowment Campaign Committee.

During the last decade, Mr. Pugash along with his wife Stephanie became more actively involved in charitable causes. Pugash was an accomplished pianist and his love of music inspired him to found Sonoma Jazz + and serve as Chairman of the Board. Sonoma Jazz + is a world class annual festival of music, food, and wine in California's Wine Country, raising funds to support education and health related organizations. Mr. Pugash’s most recent philanthropic project was focused on affordable housing initiatives.