Baltimore's Restaurant & Retail Summit

Mr. Bell is a former Retail Architect with over 16 years’ experience in real estate development. He has been the project architect for over 1.5 million square feet of retail space throughout Maryland, D.C., Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Chris is currently responsible for identifying development and acquisition opportunities for Hekemian & Co. in the Mid-Atlantic region, securing development entitlements and project approvals, and preparing the initial project development budget and financial projections. Education: B.E.D.A, North Carolina State University B. Arch (Graduate Degree), North Carolina State University M.B.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Brad founded the Jabber Five Real Estate Group in 2006 and is responsible for the strategic decisions necessary to effectuate a successful transaction. Brad dedicates his time to identifying and underwriting prospective acquisitions and dispositions. He also actively seeks to cultivate and foster new and existing relationships with well respected participants within the capital stack. Prior to the creation of Jabber Five, Brad worked from 2004-2006 at LNR Property Corporation in Miami Beach as a Loan Asset Manager. There, he managed a portfolio of performing and non-performing securitized loans. In two years, Brad resolved over 120 loans with an aggregate loan balance of approximately $1 billion. From 2002-2004, Brad worked as an Associate at The Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group in New York City where he structured senior and mezzanine debt as well as joint-venture equity. He participated in over $500 million of real estate financings including acquisitions, recapitalizations, joint-venture equity arrangements and note sales. From 1999-2001, Brad worked as an Acquisitions Analyst at Equity One, Inc., one of the largest retail REITs in the country. At Equity One, Brad was involved in the acquisition of two REITs with an aggregate portfolio of over 50 grocery-anchored shopping centers valued at approximately $450 million at that time. Brad holds a Master of Science in Real Estate Finance from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts from The University of Michigan and is a licensed real estate broker in the State of Maryland. Brad is an active member of the Baltimore Angels, the Mount Vernon Belvedere Association, the Charles Street Development Corporation and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Scott Slosson serves as Chief Operating Officer for 28 Walker Development, a Baltimore based development company with a focus on smart urban infill development. 28 Walker Development is best known for its transformational redevelopments of former industrial sites into thriving commercial destinations including McHenry Row, Canton Crossing and the Collective at Canton. As Chief Operating Officer, Slosson oversees all aspects of development and asset management for 28 Walker Development. In Slosson’ s 13 years of development experience, he has been involved in the development and management of more than $450,000,000 of commercial development in Baltimore City. Slosson received his B.S from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland College Park. He later earned an MSRE from Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.

Mallory Staley credits growing up on her grandparents’ farm in Frederick, Maryland as the inspiration to her culinary/ hospitality journey. Since being a teenager, Mallory has worked in every restaurant role from server, host, pastry chef and manager in many of the top establishments in New York City, Washington, DC, Atlantic City, and Baltimore. At seventeen years of age, she left home to study at the French Culinary Institute where she excelled in pastry arts. Upon graduation, she refined her culinary and hospitality skills working alongside some of the top chefs in New York City at such restaurants as Hearth, Lever House and The Plaza Hotel. And accolades followed her culinary journey: When she was affiliated with the Lever House it won “Best New Restaurant” by the James Beard Foundation and when she was the Executive Pastry Chef at The Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room, she was honored to present the dessert course at the James Beard House, not just once, but several times. Mallory also served as executive pastry chef for restaurant 1789 in Georgetown and Revel Hotel and Resort in Atlantic City before returning to Maryland to combine her back-of-the-house knowledge to managing the front-of-the-house at two of Baltimore’s favorite establishments: Sotta Sopra and Ouzo Bay. In 2015, Mallory joined with Linda Brown Rivelis & Steven Rivelis to form The Pincus Restaurant Group. As co-owner, she immediately began working to help create and launch The Elephant in 2016 and serves as its General Manager. In 2017, she added to her portfolio when The Pincus Restaurant Group acquired Sascha’s catering and she became its Catering Director. The Elephant – recognized as one of “Baltimore’s Top Fine Dining Restaurants” – is located in an iconic 1850’s mid-town mansion adorned with decorative arts by Tiffany, De Forrest, Waterford, and Rinehart in Baltimore’s historic Mt Vernon neighborhood at 924 N. Charles Street, just 2 blocks north of the [original] Washington Monument. Sascha’s – one of Maryland’s premier boutique caterers for over 25 years – specializes in the creation of wow-worth events at various venues throughout the region. The Elephant serves globally-inspired cuisine Tuesdays to Saturdays starting at 5:00 pm with last seating at 10:00 pm, and Sunday Supper starting at 3:00 pm with last seating at 8:00 pm. Upstairs @ The Elephant – the speakeasy-styled bar and lounge – serves global street foods and handcrafted classic and creative cocktails at the second floor’s 32’ white Marble Bar, in the Chandelier Lounge, and in the Tiffany Billiard Room on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays starting at 5:00 pm with last pour at midnight. Live jazz with no cover is served up on Thursday nights. Valet parking is available. Mallory Staley can be reached at Staley@TheElephantBaltimore.com or Staley@Saschas.com

The question “What do you do for a living?” is usually one of those safe introductory questions people ask when they first meet. When Stuart responds it elicits a wide variety of reactions from the incredulous to the fascinated. After experiencing the sport some years ago while visiting friends in Toronto, Stuart was taken by the some of the key aspects of the experience. Rather than being tough, physical and masculine as many people assume the experience he had was highly social and inclusive. There are not many people who are skilled at axe throwing when they first come in so everyone starts at the same level. Opening any new business is always a risk and one of the greatest fears owners have is will customers like my concept as much as I do. Add to that one that people at first glance quickly assume is inherently unsafe. In opening an axe throwing business we not only had to educate the market that we existed but also that it was a real thing. Yes you can come to a warehouse, have a few beers and compete with your friends at axe throwing. And yes it is safe and you will have a great time doing it. A key success of the business has been around developing our staff and how they engage with our customers. As you would expect none of the staff had any prior experience as an axe thrower so we had to look at what sort of characteristics were key to them being successful. One thing Stuart and the other partners in the business identified early on was that we had to allow our staff to bring their own personalities into the experience and we had to have them work with us together to develop business. Since opening the first Urban Axes in Philadelphia in 2016, Stuart and the team has since opened in Austin and Baltimore with multiple sites planned for the rest of 2018 and 2019.

With more than 20 years of experience as an architect and designer, Dustin Watson, has overseen projects ranging from small retail repositioning projects to shopping malls, town centers, large scale urban mixed-use development, high rises, and resort destinations worldwide. He is best known for creating dense, richly detailed, sustainable, mixed-use environments, streetscapes, and neighborhoods with layers of texture, designed to work together to create a true experience and a memorable sense of place. As the founder of inPLACE Design, he is passionate about designing spaces that are both memorable and engaging. Tackling some of the largest, most prestigious planning and mixed-use retail assignments worldwide, Watson’s work spans the globe to include projects from the Ridgmar Mall redevelopment in Fort Worth Texas, Wayward Smokehouse/Curious Oyster in White Marsh Maryland, and the award-winning project Royal Venya Resort in Bali Indonesia. He works closely with developers who understand the importance great places have on the value of their assets. As a global expert who is passionate about designing spaces that are both experiential and inspiring, he is a frequent speaker at top industry conferences and contributing author for numerous trade publications. Additionally, Watson is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the American Institute of Architects, and serves on the board of the Neighborhood Design Center.