CINCINNATI—Phillips Edison-ARC Shopping Center REIT Inc. has hired industry veteran Devin I. Murphy as its chief financial officer, treasurer and secretary. Murphy has over 25 years of experience with real estate investment banking and will work closely with Jeffrey Edison, co-chairman of the board and chief executive officer; John Bessey, co-president and chief investment officer; and R. Mark Addy, co-president and chief operating officer

“He complements Phillips Edison-ARC, which is dedicated to building a diverse portfolio of top-performing grocery-anchored shopping centers throughout the United States,” says Edison. “Devin's proven ability to successfully manage the strategic and financial requirements as a trusted advisor to many of the world's largest real estate companies expands the capabilities of the company as we continue to execute our investment objectives.”

Phillips Edison-ARC has been quite active lately. Early this year, GlobeSt.com reported that they had reached over $400 million in acquisitions. Subsequent purchases include Lutz Lake Crossing, a 64,986-square-foot shopping center in Lutz, located approximately 15 miles north of Tampa. In the same deal, the REIT also acquired Publix at Seven Hills, a 72,590-square-foot shopping center located in Spring Hill, Florida. In addition, the trust recently bought a portfolio of three retail assets in Tallahassee, Columbia, SC, and Houston. As of May 30, 2013, Phillips Edison-ARC owned, directly or indirectly through a joint venture in which it has a controlling interest, and managed a retail portfolio with 40 grocery-anchored shopping centers totaling 3,946,929-square-feet.

Prior to joining Phillips Edison-ARC, Murphy was vice chairman of investment banking at Morgan Stanley. He began his real estate career in 1986 as an associate in the real estate group at Morgan Stanley and subsequently held a number of senior positions. He was co-head of U.S. Real Estate Investment Banking and head of the private capital markets group, which raised more than $5 billion of equity capital under his leadership. He also served for 10 years on the Investment Committee of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds, which invested over $6.5 billion of equity capital during his tenure.

In 2004, Mr. Murphy joined Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. as global head of real estate investment banking. He led a team of more than 100 professionals in eight offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Under his management, the DB team executed more than 500 separate transactions on behalf of clients representing total transaction volume exceeding $400 billion.  Significant transactions included the sale of Hilton International Hotels in 2005, and the Blackstone Group's acquisitions of Carr America Realty in 2006, and Equity Office Properties and the Hilton Hotels Corporation in 2007.

Prior to rejoining Morgan Stanley in 2009, Mr. Murphy became a managing partner of Coventry Real Estate Advisors, a private equity firm that sponsors a series of institutional investment funds that acquire and develop retail properties.