Why Uplight Partners Exists

Founding Story

Why Uplight Exists

I started Uplight because I want my generation to be able to buy a home and raise a family in the Bay Area.

I was tired of being priced out — not because there wasn't enough land, but because of policy red tape and a decades-long drought in new home construction. The problem wasn't the Bay Area itself. The problem was what we'd stopped building inside it.

I also wanted a home that wasn't being built.

I didn't want to give up my walkable neighborhood, but I couldn't afford a luxury custom home where I already lived. What I wanted was infill development — the small-scale, walkable, neighborhood-integrated kind of housing that fits inside existing communities rather than expanding at their edges. Homes built for people who want to stay, not just for people who can pay anything to do so.

Jeff Dougherty

Founder, Uplight Partners

Jeff Dougherty is the founder of Uplight Partners, where he is primarily responsible for sourcing and executing the firm's investment strategies.

Prior to founding Uplight, Jeff spent a decade in real estate private equity and capital markets. He was most recently a Vice President of Investments at The Roxborough Group, a real estate private equity firm that has raised approximately $900 million of institutional equity, where he was responsible for sourcing, executing, and managing investments across all product types.

Before Roxborough, Jeff held positions at Merlone Geier Partners, a firm that has raised $4.5 billion of institutional equity, where he evaluated development, capital investment, and leasing opportunities across a 100+ asset mixed-use and retail portfolio.

Jeff began his career at Eastdil Secured, a global real estate investment bank, where he underwrote and marketed over $10 billion of office, retail, and hotel transactions across the West Coast.