Denver's Investment, Development & New Construction Forum

Clayton McCaffery leads and is responsible for the identification and coordination of strategic acquisitions in alignment with the company’s goals. With a real estate career spanning more than 21 years, Mr. McCaffery previously led the firm’s leasing and development teams for more than 15 years; prior experience included tenant and landlord representation work with Mid-America Real Estate Group in Chicago and Liberty Greenfield in Denver. He is a licensed real estate broker in Illinois, Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Clayton holds an MBA in Real Estate and Finance from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a B.A. from Colgate University.

As a Senior Vice President, Kevin oversees United Properties’ development and investment business in Colorado. He has more than 30 years experience in the development, acquisition, financing and disposition of more than 500 properties representing nearly $2 billion in value. CURRENT PROJECTS • INOVA Dry Creek The first speculative building of its type in 15 years, INOVA Dry Creek will offer nearly 695,000 sq. ft. of office, industrial and multi-family uses. • Enterprise Business Center Comprised of three phases and seven buildings, EBC will total 2 million sq. ft. at completion. EBC Phase I was awarded NAIOP’s 2014 Industrial Development of the Year. • 61 Inverness An 87,000 sq. ft. offi ce building acquired below replacement cost, extensively renovated and retenanted. EDUCATION Kevin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and a Master of Business Administration in real estate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT Kevin is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Rocky Mountain Human Services. He is a board member and 2016 President of the Colorado Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP) and the University of Colorado Real Estate Council.

David Kersh is the Executive Director of the Carpenters/Contractors Cooperation Committee (C/CCC), a non-profit organization comprised of signatory contractors and the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters. For over 19 years, Mr. Kersh has been at the forefront of regional efforts to promote the creation of good paying jobs, fair competition and high quality construction industry standards. He is actively engaged in the areas of land use entitlement, labor compliance, economic development, transportation and contracting policies, where he has focused on ensuring that construction projects are built by top-quality contractors who generate good paying middle class jobs and rewarding training opportunities. Mr. Kersh graduated with a degree in History from UC Santa Barbara and completed additional studies in Madrid, Spain. Born in Lima, Peru, he lives in Culver City with his wife Pilar and his teenage children.

Allan Bliesmer, DBIA, Vice President and Plains District Manager, a graduate of Colorado State University, began his career with Hensel Phelps in 1991 and rose through the ranks to become Manager of Work Procurement before being appointed the Vice President and Plains District Manager.

Michael Salzman is a Vice President of Loan Production at Essex Financial Group. He has extensive capital market experience, rooted in his wealth management background with both Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Since joining Essex in 2012, Michael has arranged over $500 million in commercial real estate debt. He has experience with a wide variety of income- producing property types, including ground-up multi-family construction. He has also been particularly active in financing retail properties across the country. Michael received his B.A. In Business Administration from the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business.

CHRISTOPHER FIEGEN is the founder and managing partner of Grass Lake Capital. He has spent the past twenty years working in corporate finance and private equity investment management, with particular experience in the capitalization and operation of real estate-related companies. Previously, he was with Equity International, a leading investment firm focused on property companies outside of the United States. After joining the firm at its inception in 1997, he held several leadership positions during its subsequent growth and evolution over the following fifteen years including Chief Financial Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Portfolio Officer. In addition to being a member of the firm's internal Investment Committee and a board director of its portfolio companies, he also served as a provisional CEO/CFO for many of its early-stage investments. The portfolio included several private homebuilding companies, some of which became significant market leaders and were ultimately publicly-listed. While with Equity International, he also managed all capital raising activities and investor relationships, successfully organizing and investing more than $2 billion of equity across a series of five sequential opportunity funds. Chris graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelors of Business Administration in 1990. --

Aimee Martin leads the origination of new investment opportunities for Isles Ranch Partners in Texas and other markets throughout the central and eastern regions of the United States. Prior to Isles Ranch, Aimee was a Vice President at Rockpoint Group, where she was responsible for originations and asset management across a variety of Rockpoint’s residential land investments, including Rockpoint Finance Fund. Prior to joining Rockpoint in 2006, she served as Director of Land Finance at Meritage Homes Corporation and Director of Project Finance at Terrabrook, a national land development company owned by Westbrook Partners. Aimee began her career at Windsor Companies, a developer of multifamily and hotel properties based in Dallas. Aimee received a BS from Pepperdine University. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute, serves on a national product council and co-chairs the Ambassador Committee for ULI's North Texas chapter. Aimee is based in IRP's Dallas Office.

Mr. Rollins is a Managing Principal and Co-Founder of JCR. Mr. Rollins is responsible for the oversight of the firm, as well as the development and execution of its investments strategies. From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Rollins was a Managing Director at GMAC Commercial Mortgage, where he oversaw a balance sheet platform that provided bridge loans, mezzanine loans and participating debt for middle market commercial real estate sponsors. After founding the group, Mr. Rollins grew it to approximately $1.6 billion of investments and over 180 transactions, making it one of the most successful platforms at GMAC. Prior to GMAC, Mr. Rollins was the President and Founder of Eastern Realty Corporation, an “RTC-era” real estate investment company. Eastern Realty acquired distressed assets from the RTC, banks and savings and loans, in a variety of asset classes throughout the country. Mr. Rollins oversaw the assets’ acquisition and disposition, which included debt restructurings, bankruptcy and development as well as note and property sales. Early in his career, Mr. Rollins worked as a real estate lender for banks in Washington, D.C. and was Director of Finance for a public homebuilder. Mr. Rollins actively supports financial education and is a frequent guest lecturer and presenter at universities and professional symposia. Additionally, Mr. Rollins has published a real estate finance manual, titled Commercial Real Estate Uncovered: A Handbook for Real Estate Finance and Investments, and is a regular contributor to industry and national publications. Mr. Rollins holds an MBA, specializing in Finance, from George Washington University and a BS in Finance and Marketing from Virginia Tech.

Ryan joined Avanti in 2013 as an acquisitions officer. He has over 10 years of experience in land acquisition and development in several Florida markets, with a primary focus on residential planned communities. In addition to homebuilders, he has worked with retail, office, and industrial builders and developers. Most recently, Ryan was a development manager with Lamm & Company Partners, a commercial general contractor and development firm. Prior to Lamm, he was an officer with Leeds Holdings Southeast, a privately held real estate development firm. He has also worked in finance, in Chicago for Bank One's Commercial Banking Group, and in New York for Banco Santander's securities group. Ryan received a BA in economics and history from the University of Michigan.

Rick Mandell provides equity placement consulting services to private equity funds which specialize in real estate. He finds local operating partners for and deals which comport with the specific value creation strategies that his clients have across asset types and geographies.