Colorado Real Estate Symposium: Opportunity Amidst Uncertainty

Michael P. Kercheval is the Executive Director of the Real Estate Center at the Leeds School of Business of the University of Colorado Boulder. As the Center’s Executive Director, Mike manages and promotes the important relationships between the real estate industry and the academic community through a number of initiatives focusing on business education preparedness, career development and mentoring, and advancement of industry best practices. 

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.

Jason Schmidt is a Managing Director with more than 20 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry.  He focuses on both retail and office investment advisory transactions in Denver and the Rocky Mountain region and co-leads HFF Denver’s office private client/middle market investment advisory team.  Throughout his career, he has closed more than $1 billion in transactions for a variety of institutional investors, REITs and private buyers, including AEW, Blackstone, Evergreen Devco, Inc., Franklin Street, Piedmont Realty Trust, Weingarten Realty and Westwood Financial.

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.

Mr. Hurwitz provides strategic, executive, and operational oversight for the portfolio companies owned by Raider Hill's clients as well as acquisition and retail advisory services for all investment activity. Prior to Raider Hill, Mr. Hurwitz held a variety of positions in the retail and real estate sectors dating back to 1986. Most recently, during a 16-year tenure at DDR Corp, Mr. Hurwitz led numerous departments beginning with leasing and development in 1999 and culminating with the responsibility of reviving the company in the post-recession era as CEO commencing in 2010. Mr. Hurwitz also served as interim CEO of Brixmor Property Group from February through May 2016.

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.

Valerie Richardson has over 35 years of experience in retail real estate, working for brands such as Trammell Crow Company, Ann Taylor, Barnes & Noble and most recently, The Container Store, where she has led the real estate team for 19 years. An active industry participant and advocate, Ms. Richardson was elected Chairman of the ICSC for the 2018-2019 term, after having served on the Board of Trustees since 2004. She was the first ICSC Chairman to come to the post from an active retail company.

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 Colicchio occupies a unique space in the hospitality industry. As a New York-based attorney, Phil has represented over forty different James Beard Foundation Award Winning Chefs, Restaurateurs, Beverage Professionals, Service Professionals, Restaurant Designers, and Authors. He was a pioneer in the Las Vegas restaurant boom, representing both the renowned chef and hotel-casino communities in negotiating long-term restaurant management and licensing contracts.

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.

John Ward is 505Design’s President/Managing Partner and has over 30 years of experience in the design industry orchestrating the development, overall conceptual approach, brand positioning, and project direction for a wide range of national and international projects. In addition to his work on projects, His office is in Boulder. John focuses his efforts on business development and operations. John works closely with Clients in evaluating markets and developing strategies that create unique brand positioning of real estate to maximize value through differentiation in the trade area and increased market demand.

René M. Daniels is Director of Leasing for Starwood Retail Partners. Her office is in Longmont, CO. René is a creative, results-driven, shopping center leasing executive with 20+ years of diverse industry experience. She has built a solid professional reputation through hard work and personal dedication, and is the embodiment of the highest level of business ethics and performance standards. Ms. Daniels is an established industry veteran who holds the distinction of being 1 of only a handful of members of the ICSC worldwide to hold all five industry designations including the CRX (Certified Retail Executive), CLS (Certified Leasing Specialist), CSM (Certified Shopping Center Manager), CMD (Certified Marketing Director), and the CDP (Certified Design, Development and Construction Professional). For ICSC, she has served on the CDP Professional Development Committee, and has served as an instructor for the ICSC Education Department.

In her role as Director of Leasing at General Growth Properties, she demonstrated an ability to establish and maintain sound business relationships with top national tenants. Her previous positions have honed her skills in all aspects of shopping center leasing, management, development and marketing. Ms. Daniels graduated with honors from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s Degree in Management (Magna Cum Laude), and a bachelor’s Degree in Psychology (Cum Laude). She received a master’s in Business Administration, also from the University of Utah.

Mike Fogarty is the Founder and CEO of Choice Market located in downtown Denver. Choice, which opened in October 2017, is an omnichannel convenience store which combines the operating hours, transaction times, and store size of the traditional c-store with the product selection of a natural grocery and fast casual restaurant. 

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.

J. Todd Neel oversees site selection, construction, studio layout and design of every Sola Salon Studios location. He is also responsible for managing the overall financials, operations and franchisee support at the corporate level. Todd knows the Sola Salon Studios business inside and out—not only on the corporate level but also as a 50% franchisee owner in three Sola Locations in Indianapolis.

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.

Raan Parton is Creative Director (Partner) for Apolis. He oversees all branding and creative strategy for Apolis. He also takes care of product development with regard to design, fabric sourcing, and fit. Raan holds a BA in organizational communications from Point Loma University. Raan enjoys spending time with his wife Lindsay, cycling and surfing.

Richard Morgan is a Senior Vice President and senior relationship banker for Academy Bank in Denver responsible for growing the Bank's real estate investor and developer clientele and expanding the loan portfolio to include assets secured by commercial real estate.  For the past twenty years, he has been a commercial real estate banker in the Denver metro business community and is credited with closing over $1 Billion in commercial construction and term financings during this time.  He is an active member of NAIOP-Colorado, a two-time Committee Chair of the award winning NAIOP Real Estate Challenge Competition, and the current Chair of the University of Colorado Real Estate Center’s International Advisory Board.  Mr. Morgan graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a BA in Economics, and later received an MBA in Finance and Real Estate from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Sean Campbell is a passionate entrepreneur, real estate developer, community builder and former Wall Street executive with a strong background in finance, real estate, media, and business development. Campbell spent twelve years in New York’s financial community before following his passion to create, develop, and fund new business ventures.

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.

Tom Kiler serves as Managing Director for EDENS, where he oversees the acquisition, development and operations of EDENS’ properties within the Denver, Houston, Dallas and Austin markets.

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 Robinson is the Chief Investment Officer, leading all debt and equity transactions and directing asset management activities. Jenny originally joined Continuum’s finance department in 2005 where she has worked on sourcing debt and equity for nearly all Continuum’s development projects to date as well as underwriting new project opportunities. In her current capacity, Jenny has overseen the debt and equity raises for several hundred of million dollars of Continuum’s current pipeline of projects.

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.

Duncan Walker is a Senior Director of Asset Management for Invesco Real Estate (IRE). In this role, he oversees the commercial portfolio of IRE investments in the Denver and Miami/South Florida markets.

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 Christopher is Managing Principal of SRS Real Estate Partners in Denver. He joined SRS Real Estate Partners in 2018 as senior vice president and co-market leader in the Denver office. Erik has experience on both the client and service provider side, making him an incredible resource to clients as he has a strong understanding of their needs in the changing retail environment. He shares leadership responsibilities for the Denver office with Tony Pierangeli.

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.