Lee Turns Relationships Into Off-Market Retail Deals

Daniel Lee, vice president of investments at Paragon Commercial Group, has made relationships the center of his investment strategy. He uses them to find retail properties before they reach the open market.

Lee joined the El Segundo, California-based retail real estate firm in 2022 as an investment manager. He was promoted to his current role in January. Paragon acquires, develops and manages neighborhood and community shopping centers, focusing on value-add and tenant-driven projects.

Lee handles deals from sourcing and underwriting through closing. He also manages Paragon’s relationships with lenders, investors and institutional capital partners. His work has focused on growing Paragon’s West Coast portfolio through acquisitions, portfolio management and efforts to increase revenue. He also looks for opportunities created by shifting capital markets.

His most prominent project is a $79 million acquisition of a West Coast retail property with an institutional equity partner. Lee is the project lead. He oversees asset management, capital improvements and leasing, and serves as the main contact for both the equity partner and the lender.

Under his oversight, the team completed a $10 million renovation on time and on budget. Occupancy rose from 79% at acquisition to 98% leased within 18 months, and Paragon says the property met every milestone in its business plan.

Lee is also working on a separate transaction worth more than $100 million with an institutional investment partner, which would add another West Coast retail asset to Paragon’s portfolio. He led underwriting and due diligence, managed negotiations with intermediaries and helped structure the deal. Paragon says the structure limits downside risk for the partnership while giving the seller timely liquidity.

Off-market sourcing is central to Lee’s approach. In 2026, he sourced two off-market retail acquisitions totaling more than $18 million in tightly held submarkets.

On one recent off-market purchase, due diligence turned up several property and operational discrepancies that differed from the seller’s initial representations. Facing a compressed closing timeline, Lee led an independent verification process and renegotiated directly with the seller. The deal closed on schedule. According to Paragon, the renegotiation secured seller credits after closing, protected the partnership’s cost basis and preserved favorable debt terms.

Lee also formalized Paragon’s portfolio review process. It now tracks each property’s occupancy, net operating income growth, how new lease rates compare with market rents, and compliance with debt covenants. The system is designed to flag risks early and guide capital allocation.

Lee believes the next generation of alternative investing will combine proprietary access with active value creation. The best investors, he says, will build the relationships and market intelligence needed to find deals others cannot see.

Before Paragon, Lee worked in real estate private equity in Los Angeles, managing operations and capital for grocery-anchored retail centers across the country. He was also a finance manager at a women’s apparel company and a construction manager for commercial properties in New York.

He earned an MBA and a master’s degree in real estate development from the University of Southern California in 2021. He also holds a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, where he focused on economics, art history and Latin American studies. Lee is class captain for his USC real estate cohort and lectures in USC’s MBA program. He has been a member of ICSC, the global trade group for shopping centers, for more than seven years.