LEADERSHIP

While attending NYU Peter founded a technology company at the age of 19 with successful operations in over 8 countries servicing customers globally. At 28 he then began investing in real estate and formed an asset based lending company. As his next venture Peter took the helm of Western Beef's Florida division as President. After 14 months in Florida, he turned around the division and eventually became President and CEO of Cactus Holdings Inc., the parent company for 
Western Beef Supermarkets. 

As CEO of Cactus Holdings, Peter III oversaw operations of several divisions employing over 3000 people with sales exceeding $500 million annually. Western Beef Supermarkets, the retail division, consisted of 29 supermarkets with a diverse ethnic variety predominantly servicing the Hispanic, Caribbean, African American, and West Indian communities with locations in New York, New Jersey, and Florida. National Food Distributors, the wholesale division, a meat and produce 
wholesale company servicing over 1000 supermarkets in the tri sate area. Additional divisions include Junior’s Food outlets, a discount grocery food outlet and Awesome Transportation, a trucking company. Divisions created under Peter III and the Cactus Holdings umbrella include, Millennium Food Group, a food brokerage and brand development company, Cactus Agency, an insurance consulting and brokerage agency as well as security, food commodity trading, and South Eastern wholesale divisions. Peter III also created for Cactus Holdings a real estate development venture, design firm, and real estate management division, Property Management of New York, managing over 50 properties, as well as real estate ownership of over 2 million square feet. 

During Peter’s 10-year role as CEO of Cactus Holdings he led the company to record earnings, significant increases in asset value, positioned the company as the dominant Ethnic food retailer in NYC, developed the Western Beef Market small footprint concept, developed and launched 22 consumer brands and acquired 19 properties. He also entered into several real estate projects and Joint Ventures ranging from large market rate multifamily development, self-storage, student housing, affordable housing, commercial rehabilitations, industrial Warehousing, Cold Storage, and more. He set a course for the company to be a real estate machine with a clear path to create a 10 figure + valuation for his shareholders. As part of the plan he formed a commercial leasing company, Booth Capital, executing dozens of leases with National tenants for the Cactus portfolio as well as third party landlords and also synergistic tenant rep. 

Peter’s passion has always been creating value by seeing opportunities not only as an investor but also as an operator with a vision of what can be not what’s existing. Now with years of multifaceted experience under his belt, a style of hands on Management, staying calm under pressure, and precise planning Peter has set his sights on his biggest venture yet, Cactus Asset Management. 

Peter III formed the Castellana Foundation which is a charitable organization that gives back to the community with a focus on helping those he felt need it the most, the ethnic inner city neighborhoods of NYC. Peter is a long time NYC resident where he lives with his wife and son Peter IV.

Peter F. Castellana III

Andrew J. Castellana is a CPA and is a Principal of Cactus AM. 

Having been first the Corporate Controller and then CFO of Cactus Holdings/Western Beef Retail Inc. for over six years, Mr. Castellana is a high impact financial executive with strong track record in strategic, financial and operating leadership with companies in diverse industries.

He joined Cactus Holdings as the Corporate Controller, where he effectively streamlined the retail accounting, inventory methods and gross profit system. Also, in conjunction with IT, he worked to develop a Key Performance Indicator App (KPI) for the retail operations team, which enabled them to have their financial information at their fingertips. 

As CFO, Andrew oversaw all financials, technology and administrative areas of Cactus Holdings. His expertise ranges from large bank transactions, credit facilities and real estate financing. Additionally, he oversaw wholesale, retail and all real estate acquisitions from the beginning underwriting process to closing. Andrews performance in the real estate division of Cactus Holdings soon led him to become co-founder of Cactus Asset Management; which focuses exclusively on supermarket based and distressed properties.

He is an extremely solutions driven executive with well tested overall business judgment. His consistent success in improving operations, expanding markets, strengthening financial controls and growing profitability and shareholder value, solidifies him as a valuable asset to the Cactus AM Team.  

Mr. Castellana earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in Accounting from Adelphi University. In addition to being an active member of the State Board of Accountancy for New York State.