Rachel Loeb, the former head of New York City Economic Development Corp., has joined 118-year-old Benenson Capital Partners, a private real estate developer and investment firm, as its chief investment officer.

At Benenson, Loeb, who was already a real estate developer before previously leading NYCEDC as president and chief executive, will co-lead the New York-based company’s development, investment, asset management and construction strategies as the private real estate firm “repositions” its portfolio “for the future,” Benenson, billed as one of the oldest U.S. real estate companies, said in a statement.

Founded in 1905 and controlled by three generations of the Benenson family, the private firm’s portfolio spans more than 110 retail, multifamily, industrial, office and hospitality properties as well as undeveloped land in 27 states throughout the United States and Canada.

“Our portfolio has many opportunities in locations such as Boston, New York, Denver and Bellevue, Washington,” Benenson’s Chief Operating Officer Richard Kessler said in the statement.

With two decades of real estate and economic development experience and a “proven track record” in the private and public sectors, Loeb, as head of the NYCEDC with $10 billion plus in capital budget, helped start the city’s “post-pandemic economic recovery plan that led to historic investments in life sciences [and] offshore wind,” Benenson said.

Loeb also created the city’s business development unit that won the competition for Amazon’s second headquarters, before the tech giant dropped the plan amid local opposition, and negotiated the retention of the JetBlue headquarters in Long Island City.

Prior to joining NYCEDC, she was a real estate developer and created or bought more than $1.5 billion of mixed-use properties and over 3,000 units of mixed-income housing across the northeast, Benenson said, adding she’s worked for privately held companies as well as at public real estate investment trust AvalonBay.

Her career began in Vietnam working on the country’s first master-planned community, Benenson said.