The Future of Boston Suburbs

Patrick is the Founder and Managing Partner of Caste Capital, a Boston-based alternative investment management company established in 2021. With over 10 years of institutional commercial real estate experience, he has participated in more than $1.5 billion of real estate transactions. Caste Capital is currently involved in a joint venture to develop 132 housing units in Nubian Square, and in December 2023, the firm was awarded, in partnership with Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), the rights to redevelop the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library into a mixed-use project featuring a new two-story library and 119 income-restricted housing units. Before founding Caste Capital, Patrick served as Vice President at Davis, a Boston-based real estate private equity firm, where he was responsible for developing, implementing, and executing leasing strategies for key assets, and participating in the creation and oversight of asset-level business plans during the full investment life cycle. He began his career at Boston Properties (BXP), working on the in-house leasing team that managed the firm's Boston regional portfolio of approximately 15.5 million square feet of Class A office, retail, and life science space. Patrick is actively involved in the real estate industry, serving as a Board Director and Executive Committee member for the Greater Boston Real Estate Board - Commercial Brokers Association and as a member of the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC). In 2022, he was named a Builders of Color Coalition Affordable Housing Developer Fellow. Committed to philanthropy in Boston, Patrick serves as a board member and former board Chair of METCO Inc. and as a Board Advisor for Boston Harbor Now. He holds a B.S. in Economics & Information Design/Corporate Communication from Bentley University. In 2012, Patrick co-founded 1PERCENT GALLERY, demonstrating his entrepreneurial spirit early in his career.

As Director of Research | U.S. Capital Markets, Aaron is responsible for all aspects of research within the Capital Markets platform. He synthesizes and interprets a variety of data and information to stay ahead of trends that put our clients in an optimal position to make informed decisions. Additionally, he has led Colliers’ national research on Life Sciences. At the same time, he promotes the Colliers brand via best-in-class research reports, weekly insight posts, thought leadership, and contributions to numerous panels, media outlets, and industry events.

Michael is a principal owner of his firm, The Procopio Companies, and currently holds the position of Vice President of Development. The Procopio Companies is a family development and construction management firm founded in 1950, and active throughout southern New England. Michael is third generation and joined the firm full time in 2003, working both in the field and on the sales team, and later as a project manager and project executive on the construction side of the firm. Michael became a principal in the firm in 2016 through a partial buyout of generation two, as the firm moved from the luxury single-family market to the class-a multifamily construction and development sectors. He is currently responsible for leading the development team through all aspects of large-scale residential & commercial developments, including underwriting and delivery, acquisitions and disposition, approvals and permitting, capital management, strategic planning and sales across a portfolio of companies. Since 2008, he has led the development of over $250 million in residential and mixed-use projects across eastern Massachusetts. Michael serves on the Board of Directors of Spectrum Health Systems, a $100 million behavioral health and addiction recovery non-profit, as well as on the Board of Directors of the Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce.

Michael DiMella is a nationally recognized leader in the real estate industry. For his innovative real estate sales & marketing skills and strategic thinking, he was chosen to receive the prestigious 30 Under 30 Realtors in America award from Realtor Magazine. He is also frequently cited in local and national news publications, like The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Magazine, and Banker & Tradesman for his insight and perspective on the Boston real estate market. Michael has a strong educational background in Economics/Econometrics, in which he earned a Master’s Degree from Boston University (where he was also a member of the nationally ranked BU Terrier ice hockey team). Honed through education and years of empirical research, his ability to use sound statistical analysis to spot trends in the housing market and make investment recommendations is especially prized by clients. See our Boston real estate blog for examples of his market research. Michael is a leader in the real estate industry and is currently serving as President of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. He has served on the Board of Directors at the Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB), the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR), and the National Association of Realtors (NAR). At NAR, he also Co-Chaired the 2011 National Association of Realtors Conference & Expo. Besides the “30 Under 30″ recognition, Michael has won awards for both leadership and for marketing. He was selected as a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Future Leader and has won the Massachusetts Association of Realtors Website Design Contest for best company website. Michael is also a Principal of IGNITION Residential, an interdisciplinary multifamily development advisory and marketing firm; and Charlesgate Property Management, a full service apartment and condo association property management firm. He lives in Boston’s South End, enjoys outdoor sports like sailing, skiing, and scuba diving in his spare time and definitely has a few strong opinions about cooking and eating great food…just ask him!

Jon Martin serves as a managing director in Newmark Knight Frank’s Boston office, where he specializes in urban retail agency leasing and tenant representation, particularly site selection strategy, repositioning and curation of downtown mixed-use properties. Jon has 15 years of retail and restaurant leasing experience. He is currently spearheading the leasing of more than 30 assets in downtown Boston, on behalf of landlords that include Boston Properties, Clarion, EQ Office, Gazit Horizons, Gerding Edlen, ICONIQ, Invesco, Lincoln Property Co., McWhinney, Nuveen, Oxford Properties, Pembroke, Related Beal, Rockwood, Synergy Investments and UDR. Jon’s clients also include prominent retail brands. Most recently, he successfully represented Patagonia in a lease for their Harvard Square flagship location, which opened in January 2020. Other retail clients include digitally native brands such as Serena & Lily, Brideside and Rudsak, which opened their first Boston-area stores in 2019. Jon also represents well-known restaurant brands Barcelona Wine Bar, Bartaco, Cameron Mitchell Restaurant Group, Dig Inn, Intelligentsia, Peet’s Coffee and Quality Branded. Over the past five years, Jon has completed some of the largest flagship retail and restaurant transactions in the Boston area, including Patina Restaurant Group’s 21,000-square-foot food hall and 14,000- square-foot Banner’s Kitchen & Tap restaurant at the Hub on Causeway; the restructuring of Niketown’s 30,000-square-foot lease at 200 Newbury Street; Capital Grille’s 13,000-square-foot restaurant at the Hynes Convention Center; Ocean Prime’s 12,000-square-foot restaurant in the Seaport District; AT&T’s 10,000-square-foot Back Bay location on Boylston Street; TD Ameritrade’s downtown flagship at 50 Post Office Square; and E*Trade’s flagship branch in Downtown Crossing. Currently, Jon is finishing up the leasing of more than 25,000 square feet of retail space to By Chloe, Coldwell Banker, Core Power Yoga and Tatte Bakery on three levels at 399 Boylston Street in the Back Bay. In the Seaport, Jon is responsible for the lease-up of Thomson Place’s retail, a 60,000-square-foot brick-and-beam historic rehab project, highlighted by the recent opening of New England’s first One King’s Lane location and the district’s first supermarket, Trader Joe’s. In the Ink Block neighborhood of the South End, Jon represents UDR’s 600-unit luxury apartment project, where he has leased more than 35,000 square feet of retail to CVS, JPMorgan Chase, Loyal Companion, Shore Leave, and Tatte Bakery. Jon is also responsible for the Boston office’s restaurant leasing platform. In this capacity, he currently represents some of the premier local restaurant groups in the region, highlighted by COJE Management Group, owners of Yvonne’s (Downtown Crossing); Mariel (Post Office Square); Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar (Back Bay, Seaport, Washington DC); and Ruka (Downtown Crossing). Recently, he secured Seaport production and tap room space for two of New England’s leading craft beer brands, Trillium Brewing Company (16,000 square feet) and Lord Hobo Brewing Co. (10,000 square feet). With respect to entertainment, he secured the Bowery Group’s first Boston-area location, a 15,000- square-foot, 500-plus-person capacity music venue in Harvard Square called The Sinclair and last year, he secured more than 21,000 square feet for Six String Grill & Stage, a venue with 1,000-person capacity and is located at the entrance of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

In his 12 years of experience, Aksel has worked on many project types, including historic preservation, residential, commercial, industrial, offices, religious, educational, and museums. After many years involved in various community and industry organizations, Aksel has developed a talent for building trusting relationships with clients, consultants, and co-workers. His breadth of knowledge allows him to bring a unique perspective to every project. With an eye for detail and architectural design principles, Aksel ensures that every project is one of which clients and designers can be proud.

Chuck Hurchalla is the president of Evolution Sustainability Group. He has over 30 years of experience in the deregulated energy markets, including natural gas, electricity and petroleum products. He is considered a subject matter expert on hedging strategies and the fundamental and technical drivers of movements in the energy markets, including renewable products. In addition, he has been instrumental in helping clients develop comprehensive energy management solutions that meet or exceed energy efficiency and sustainability goals.