UPDATE 1-Gramercy Capital names Foley COO, Roche CFO

(Recasts first sentence, adds COO and CFO background, adds information about American Financial Realty acquisition)

NEW YORK, April 17 (Reuters) - Gramercy Capital Corp GKK.N, a real estate financing and property owner, said on Thursday it has promoted Robert Foley to chief operating officer, succeeding Hugh Hall, who has left the company to "pursue other opportunities."

The company also named John Roche to the post of chief financial officer to succeed Foley. The changes are effective immediately, said New York-based Gramercy.

Foley, a former co-director at Goldman Sachs & Co.'s (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) real estate mezzanine and high-yield lending programs, joined Gramercy as CFO when it was launched in 2004.

The management shuffle comes about three weeks after Gramercy closed on its acquisition of American Financial Realty Trust, an owner of corner properties leased primarily to banks and financial companies. Gramercy acquired the company for about $1.1 billion plus the assumption of $1.2 billion debt.

Roche, the new CFO, has a history of overseeing retail real estate. From 2000 to 2007, he was CFO of New Plan Excel Realty Trust, an owner and operating of more than 450 shopping neighborhood shopping centers. While at New Plan, Roche oversaw the issuance of $2 billion of debt and equity and worked on the acquisitions and sales of more than $5 billion, and $700 million of redevelopment projects.

Roche left New Plan when the company was sold to Australia's Centro Properties Group (CNP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research).

Real estate owner SL Green Realty Corp SLG.N owns and manages Gramercy Capital and owns about 22 percent of the company.

The purchase of American Financial transformed Gramercy Capital from primarily a specialty finance company, which has been hobbled by the credit crunch, into a diversified real estate company with commercial real estate finance and net lease property arms.

Prior to the close of the acquisition, Gramercy sold 54 non-core properties, totaling $221.5 million. The company plans to sell another 99 none-core properties. (Reporting by Ilaina Jonas, editing by Phil Berlowitz)