Colorado Real Estate Symposium: Opportunity Amidst Uncertainty

Prior to joining the Center, Mike served as President and CEO of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the world’s largest commercial real estate trade association, for sixteen years.  Under his tenure, Mike dramatically expanded the association’s professional education, advocacy, research, and networking activities and doubled ICSC’s global membership to over 70,000 across more than 100 countries.

Prior to ICSC, Mike spent thirteen years as a portfolio manager and real estate investment banker in New York, at Equitable Real Estate Investment Management and its successor companies, the final three years working in Latin America as CEO of Lend Lease Latin American Realty Advisors. Earlier in his career, Mike was a senior economist with Equitable Life Assurance Society, taught Urban Economics at Columbia University in New York and worked in the 1980’s as a staff economist on the Colorado Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Growth Management. 

A Colorado native and Boettcher Scholar, Mike holds a master’s degree and PhD (ABD) in economics from Columbia University and graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a triple major in economics, political science and international affairs.

Mr. Schmidt joined the firm in January 2019 from JLL’s Capital Markets Group, where he was an executive vice president responsible for the disposition of office, retail and industrial buildings in the region.  He has a wide range of experience in the industry and has held positions at Signature Equities, Pace Properties, Cushman Wakefield and Cassidy Turley.  Mr. Schmidt has been recognized as a “Heavy Hitter” by the Denver Business Journal and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Business Administration from Drake University as well as a Master of Real Estate and Construction Management from the University of Denver.

Professionally, Mr. Hurwitz is a member of the Board of Directors of Brixmor Property Group and retailer Diamonds Direct. Additionally, Mr. Hurwitz serves as an advisor to the Board of Directors of EDENS and is currently Chairman of ICSC. Mr. Hurwitz also previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of GGP, serving as Lead Director, NAREIT Executive Board of Governors, and Governance Committee, in addition to the Board of Directors of DDR Corp., CubeSmart, Sonae Sierra Brasil, SA, and Boscov’s Department Store, Inc. He is a frequent speaker at real estate industry functions and has repeatedly been a guest discussing retail and real estate trends on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business.

Mr. Hurwitz will talk about the state of the commercial real estate industry from his perspective and give the audience a sense where he thinks the retail industry is going as it undergoes a major transformation.

In this informative and entertaining session, Phil Colicchio — Executive Managing Director of Colicchio Consulting, a Division of Cushman & Wakefield, and a nationally recognized expert in the food and beverage sector — will explore the trends driving the food hall craze and its ongoing evolution as the movement matures.  Cushman & Wakefield has published multiple reports on the topic over the last few years—spotting the trend when it first largely isolated to Manhattan and a handful of denser tourism and/or transportation-oriented developments around the nation.  In this session, Colicchio will explore what is driving the trend from the consumer, restaurateur, operator and landlord perspective, as well as share an analyst’s perspective on what makes for a successful project (and what doesn’t) and how the proliferation of food halls is driving a reinvention of the concept already.

Phil now brings that experience and those relationships to the hotel and commercial real estate development sector through CC, which focuses its efforts on advising its clients on the identification, selection, and engagement of well known high-quality food and beverage operators. CC also advises the professional sports, mega yacht and large-scale music festival industries on food and beverage partnerships.

A graduate of Seton Hall University and Villanova Law School, Phil is an Adjunct Professor of Professional Studies at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and collaborated with CIA faculty in establishing the school’s first Intrapreneurship Program for undergraduate students. He is also a member of the Auburn University Hotel and Restaurant Management Program Advisory Board in Auburn, AL, is a Director of the Heritage Radio Network in Brooklyn, NY and is a Governor’s Appointee to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Prior to Choice, Mike served as Senior Category Manager at Danone, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of natural and organic products, where he oversaw a $200M portfolio of plastic packaging contracts. He and his team were responsible for the sourcing, contracting, cost reduction and supplier performance activities for all plastic packaging in North America. Prior to Danone, Mike worked within the supply chain function at several other Fortune 500 companies including Johns Manville, Newmont Mining and Charter Communications.

Mike received his undergraduate degree from Penn State University in Supply Chain and Information Systems, and went on to obtain his MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

As the first employee hired by Sola co-founders Stratton and Matt in 2005, Todd was struck by the power of Sola from the very beginning. "Early on, stylists cried tears of joy when they signed up for a studio. They were excited to open their own business, and after several stylists cried out of joy (or exhaustion of where they were at), I knew this was something big."
As a member of the Sola team since the opening of the first Sola location in Denver, Todd has been a part of the development of the company every step along the way. His considerable knowledge of the Sola experience and his meaningful relationships with the franchisee community are invaluable to the continued growth and success of the Sola brand.
Before joining Sola, Todd spent six years as the co-director of acquisitions for Affordable Residential Communities, where he managed seven acquisition teams and completed the purchase of $1.5 billion in real estate assets. His extensive experience includes managing acquisitions for Aramark and working as a senior auditor and certified public accountant.

Campbell is one of the co-founders and co-developers of INDUSTRY, Denver’s premier shared workplace for the technology, creative, and digital business communities. INDUSTRY won the 2014 Historic Denver Award for Preservation, the Greenway Foundation’s Award for Best New Development 2014, the 2015 Mayor’s Design Award, and the 2017 ULI Impact Award for Innovation. 

His vision for founding FORMATIV was to creating a boutique firm centered around transformative, urban projects and catalytic business ventures. Currently, FORMATIV is developing the new World Trade Center Denver complex as well as an adaptive-reuse development and a for-sale condominium project in Denver’s River North (RiNo) neighborhood.

A graduate from the University of Maryland, Campbell is on the Board of Directors of the Denver Athletic Club, 10.10.10., The Denver Zoo, Prime Health , House of Genius, and the Advisory Board of Blackstone Entrepreneurial Network. Campbell lives in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood with his wife, Kimberly.

From 2006-2014, Kiler was a Vice President of Development with EDENS in its Washington, DC office, where he led the day-to-day development responsibilities of Mosaic, a 31-acre, two million SF neighborhood in Fairfax, VA. Kiler and the Mosaic team transformed the community from a dilapidated movie theater, salvage yards and disjointed parking lots into walkable streets, parks, an arthouse movie theater, local restaurants and shops, tech office and housing for more than 1,200 residents.

From 2014-2016, Kiler was a Senior Development Manager with Continuum Partners LLC, a mixed-used development firm based in Denver, CO, where he led the entitlement, planning and sale of multifamily residential connected to the Yorktown Center Mall in suburban Chicago, as well as development capacities on the 9th & Colorado redevelopment in Denver.

Kiler graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University and a Master of Business Administration, with a concentration in Real Estate, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a LEED AP with the U.S. Green Building Council and an active member in the Downtown Denver Partnership, Urban Land Institute and The Nature Conservancy.

Jenny currently sits on the board of Craig Hospital, a $130 million asset community bank, and takes an active role with several real estate industry organizations. She is heavily involved with the University of Colorado Real Estate Center, ULI, the Downtown Denver Partnership program, and CREW, being twice nominated for the Woman of Influence award in 2015 and 2017.

Jenny began her career in real estate with Principal Financial Group, as a commercial mortgage underwriter.  She graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in finance and accounting and went on to complete a master’s degree in finance and real estate from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Mr. Walker joined Invesco in 1999. Prior to joining IRE, he was a vice president of Asset Management with Lend Lease Real Estate Investments (formerly Equitable Real Estate) and was responsible for a portfolio of office and industrial properties in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Colorado. Mr. Walker began his commercial real estate experience including brokerage, appraisal, development, and mortgage servicing and asset management in 1983. Mr. Walker earned a BS degree in business management from Tulane University.

Erik has more than 24 years of experience in commercial real estate, most recently as a founding partner and principal of DHLC Retail Advisors and broker at David Hicks & Lampert. There, he provided real estate consulting services to retailers across the U.S. including market strategy and implementation for new concepts and expansion programs of growing retailers. Erik has worked with landlords including DDR, PREIT, QIC, Oliver McMillan, Inventrust, and Starwood Retail on the leasing of existing retail assets, redevelopments, and new development/pre-development market analysis. Throughout his career, Erik has implemented national portfolio leasing and expansion strategies for many developers and tenants across the country. Prior to that, Erik worked with Gap, Inc., where he was responsible for all corporate brand real estate transactions in Central and South New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia.

Erik is a graduate of Towson University in Towson, Md. He is a member of ICSC and has worked as both an instructor and roundtable leader for their School of Professional Development. He has worked with various charities over the years, such as Philadelphia Cares, Hands on Baltimore, and the United Way. In his free time he enjoys music, travel, skiing, cycling, and the beautiful outdoor playground of Colorado.