Patrick Marino has built his career on seeing what others miss. As Chairman and CEO of M Group Companies, Marino has spent more than two decades proving that overlooked opportunities—whether a distressed debt portfolio, an underperforming property, or even a podcasting startup—can become engines of growth with the right vision and execution.
Patrick Marino did not go up in a straight line. He began in the complex, often cutthroat world of distressed debt, where one profits by uncovering the latent value in assets that most investors have abandoned. That is where he honed his strategy as a “value-add investor.”
“Early on, I trained myself to see value where others hadn’t,” Marino states. “That’s still the objective—for me, for my company, and for our investors.”
This philosophy led him through real estate investments from industrial properties, multifamily housing, retail complexes, aviation properties, and brownfields. M Group diversified over the years into an investment platform with activity in more than 15 states.
Perhaps Patrick Marino’s most defining move in recent years has been co-founding RentylCore, a build-to-rent and multifamily platform focused on high-growth markets in the Southeast. In an era when affordability and flexibility dominate the housing conversation, Marino bet that tenants would gravitate toward thoughtfully designed communities offering amenities, stability, and convenience.
The wager has been rewarded. RentylCore’s portfolio has surpassed $1 billion in asset value, with little resident turnover. “These communities are built for the way that people really want to live,” Marino says. “That’s why we’re experiencing such high retention.”
But Patrick Marino’s story isn’t just about real estate. In recent years, he has stepped into a seemingly unrelated industry—media—by co-founding Action Park Media alongside Entourage actor and director Kevin Connolly.
On the surface, the jump from real estate to content production seems disjointed. But Marino views it as an extension of his value-add mindset. “It’s the same skill set at its essence,” he states. “You’re matching strategy, partnership, and capital with opportunities that can scale.”
Action Park Media has already established itself in premium content, churning out well-known podcasts such as Victory: The Podcast and No Gruffs Given. Its multi-year agreement with PodcastOne provided a measure of stability in a competitive field, while a new alignment with the Pro Football Hall of Fame suggests ambitions far beyond podcasting. Connolly deals with the creative aspect; Marino with strategy and growth. Together, they’ve created an enterprise that merges Hollywood storytelling with astute business planning.
Marino’s professional life has been defined by economic cycles that compelled him to be flexible. He attributes downturns to instructing him on when to change course and when to remain disciplined. It is the same flexibility that has enabled him to sit across two quite divergent industries while utilizing a similar investment prism.
Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, Marino still grows M Group’s portfolio while building Action Park Media. He also makes his voice heard as a speaker and is involved with various charity work. If there’s a common thread to his story, it’s the belief that opportunity is everywhere—you just have to look hard enough. Distressed loans, billion-dollar real estate portfolios, suburban build-to-rent developments, Hollywood recording studios—Patrick Marino has made his career on that principle—and shows no signs of letting up.
