Sun Communities, Inc. has appointed Robert A. Garechana as executive vice president and chief financial officer, the Southfield, Michigan based real estate investment trust announced on 25 August 2026. The appointment took effect on 8 September 2026.
Sun Communities is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SUI and owns, operates or holds an interest in manufactured housing and recreational vehicle communities. As of 30 June 2026 the trust reported a portfolio of 455 developed properties comprising approximately 156,130 developed sites across the United States and Canada, making it one of the larger owners of manufactured housing and RV real estate in North America.
Garechana, who is known professionally as Bob, joins from Equity Residential, the New York Stock Exchange listed multifamily REIT, where he had served as executive vice president and chief investment officer since 2025. He was chief financial officer of Equity Residential from September 2018 to 2025 and served on that company's executive and investment committees during that period. Before taking the finance chief role he was treasurer of Equity Residential from 2008 to 2018. He joined the business in 2004 and moved through roles of increasing responsibility across its finance organisation, giving him more than two decades of experience inside listed real estate.
The move is a return to the chief financial officer seat rather than a step into unfamiliar territory. It also carries him from apartments into manufactured housing and recreational vehicle communities, two residential property types with different demand drivers, different capital intensity and a different tenant relationship, since Sun leases sites as well as homes.
Garechana takes over from Fernando Castro-Caratini as part of an orderly transition. Castro-Caratini is moving to an advisory role with the company and said he looked forward to supporting Garechana and the team to help ensure a smooth handover, describing his own tenure in the role as a privilege and pointing to what the finance team had accomplished together.
Charles Young, chief executive officer of Sun Communities, said the incoming finance chief brings deep finance and capital markets experience that will help advance strategic priorities including disciplined capital allocation, operational optimisation, and ongoing financial system improvement and investment. Garechana said Sun has a differentiated manufactured housing and RV platform and that he was looking forward to partnering with Young and the team to advance the company's strategic and financial goals for team members, shareholders, residents and guests.
The brief set out by the company is commercially specific. Disciplined capital allocation matters for a REIT of this size because growth is funded through a mix of equity issuance, unsecured debt, secured property financing and asset recycling, and the cost of each of those channels moves with rates and with the equity market's view of the sector. A finance chief who spent a decade as treasurer of a large listed landlord before running its balance sheet is being hired in part for that capital markets access.
Operational optimisation and financial system improvement point at the other half of the job. Sun operates a large, geographically dispersed estate of communities, and the quality of site level reporting, forecasting and underwriting determines how quickly management can judge which assets to keep, which to reposition and which to sell. Investors in the listed REIT sector price that discipline directly, through the multiple applied to earnings and through the spread demanded on new debt.
The appointment also gives the finance function continuity of coverage through an advisory handover rather than an abrupt exit, which reduces execution risk around reporting cycles, lender relationships and the guidance the company issues to the market.
