Meet the Team

Brian Plunkett serves as the Partnership’s Senior Portfolio Manager, and is the architect behind AmericaVest’s core investment strategy. Mr. Plunkett has over 24 years of experience with real estate investments. For the past 10 years, Brian Plunkett has been the Fund Manager of more than 50 individual real estate backed investment funds. He has been responsible for sourcing, pricing and trading whole mortgage loans as well as micro securitizations, and the generation of property and asset tracking database, purchase contracts, sales contracts, servicing contracts and overall day-to-day business operations of these funds.

Mr. Plunkett began his real estate career as a sales manager for Realty Marketing, a real estate firm specializing in the leasing, management, acquisition and disposition of commercial and residential real estate. Following his role at Realty Marketing, Brian Plunkett became a licensed real estate consultant providing services to Sheldon Good & Company, the nation’s largest real estate marketing firm. In this role, Mr. Plunkett proposed and won an assignment to conduct a tri-state scattered site real estate auction for a major financial institution in New York State.

Following his work for Sheldon Good & Company, Mr. Plunkett started Broad Financial Services, Inc., a real estate investment firm. The Broad Financial Services purchased and sold a variety of real estate related assets, including direct investments in real estate as well as mortgage loans. Subsequently, Mr. Plunkett founded Universal Portfolio Buyer’s Inc. II, a real estate investment firm that specialized in the purchase and liquidation of residential homes and mortgages.

Most recently, Brian Plunkett co-founded and served as Executive Vice President of American Residential Equities, Inc. American Residential Equity is an investment company specializing in acquiring, managing, and liquidating undervalued first mortgage loans.

Mr. Damigella has nearly 25 years experience in finance and real estate, and is a Managing Director and registered principal with AmericaVest Financial. He is also a co-managing member of AmericaVest Capital Management, LLC, the General Partner of AmericaVest Partners, LP. During most of the first 10 years of his career, Mr. Damigella was a vice president for Lehman Brothers. His experience with investments and investment management has earned him a variety of distinguished service awards as a member of both the Chairman’s Council and Director’s Council while employed at Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Damigella has worked with several New York Stock Exchange Member firms. His background in Wealth Management and Planning, and Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) has allowed him to create financial solutions for individuals, businesses and institutions alike.

In addition to his involvement with AmericaVest, Bob Damigella is currently a Managing Director with First American Capital and Trading, a FINRA, NYSEArca member broker/dealer. Prior to his current position, Mr. Damigella spent nearly 2 years with Legend Merchant Group as a Senior Managing Director; and the previous 6 years with Janney Montgomery Scott as Senior Vice President. He also held positions as a Senior Vice President of Gruntal and Co. Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts, and Raymond James Financial in Florida.

Mr., Damigella was a member of the BASF (Builders Association of South Florida) from 2002-2005 where he was the Chair of the Communications, member of the Executive Committee, a member of the Board of Directors and Second Vice President elect of the association. He was also a recipient of the BASF’s President Award in 2003 for his contributions to the association. Since 1944, BASF has represented South Florida’s building industry by maintaining high standards in building through service to their membership and the general public. BASF members are dedicated to fulfilling the “American Dream” of affordable home ownership for everyone. BASF membership includes affiliation with the National Association of Home Builders, the world’s largest association with 235,000 member firms; and the 20,000 member Florida Home Builders Association, the voice of our industry statewide.

Mr. Garcia has been in the finance and real estate industry since 1982 and is currently a Managing Director- Partner with AmericaVest Financial, LLC, as well as a Co-Managing Member in AmericaVest Capital Management, LLC.  Mr. Garcia was formerly employed as a Senior Vice President by Legend Merchant Group, an NASD, FINRA, NYSEArca member brokerage firm.

In 1985, Mr. Garcia joined Glickenhaus & Co, a fixed income firm based in New York, where he distributed fixed income investments to institutions and high net worth individuals. He went on and became a member of Gruntal & Co's Fixed Institutional Group where, in addition to growing his client base, he gained in-depth knowledge of credit and cash flow analysis.

Mr. Garcia's experience with institutions and his bilingual skills earned him a position as Director of Latin Trading at Garban Securities LLC in New York, where his group traded American Depository Receipts with Latin American banks, insurance companies, and local brokerage firms.

Nelson Garcia has hands-on experience in the real estate through a family-owned real estate management company, where he dealt with aspects of the business including tenant relations and the buying and selling of property. Mr. Garcia earned his B.S. in Finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.