The Denver Disruption:
Future of CRE Tech

Tribe was founded out of a desire to be and do better. Not being limited to real estate development, but as thought leaders, stewards of the built environment and as fellow tribe members. My native American roots have shown me that being part of a team, a Tribe, generates stronger results, better ideas and problem solving, and it is far more fun than trying to work alone. The foundation of my career was built in the design world as a landscape architect, focused on luxury resort projects. It is here that I learned from the best, about the importance of delivering positive and memorable customer experiences to stand out from the competition and drive loyalty. For over a decade now, I have been focused on exceeding customers’ expectations in commercial development, what we now refer to as experiential development. Though these projects were rewarding, both personally and financially, I was very aware of an underserved, yet powerful, stakeholder --- the employee-- the very people who can make a brand come alive for your customers. I started asking- How do we create exceptional experiences for not only customers or visitors, but also the employees, perhaps the most critical constituency? I believe that the brand of a company or project is not separate from the culture, and that brand should drive every decision from design and development to recruiting and onboarding. Employee engagement, recruiting and retention are issues for every business regardless of industry. Creating brand loyalty starts from within. If you have passionate, engaged and loyal Tribe members the likelihood of success on any real estate development project is exponentially greater. The mission for Tribe is to create compelling spaces not just for visitors, but for everyone the space touches. The goal is that everyone becomes a brand ambassador, or better yet, a member of the Tribe!

A graduate of University of Utah, and Salt Lake City native, Marinos spent much of his youth in the Western United States focusing his time on action sports, media, and events. After graduating, he landed in the Dominican Republic managing the world’s first action sports-based Hotel, Extreme Hotels. Redeveloping the hotel’s programming sparked his entrepreneurial spirit, love of real estate, and passion for developing experiences and ecosystems. A real estate developer for the past six plus years, Marinos has co-founded, co-developed, and managed multiple, city-shaping projects in Denver, Colorado. Battery621 is a 30,000 square foot collaborative office space that won the 2012 CBCA Workspace of the Year Award, 2013 Top Ten Small Business Workspaces, 2014 Denver Business Journal’s “Top 5 Tech Spaces in Colorado.” INDUSTRY is a 9.5-acre site that has won the 2014 Historic Denver Award for Preservation and the 2015 Mayor’s Design Award. The INDUSTRY site includes a 153,000 square foot collaborative office space that houses many of Denver’s top companies including the corporate offices for UBER, Core Power Yoga, Booyah, and Cloud Elements. Marinos joined Sean Campbell in 2016 to form FORMATIV, the lead developer for the new World Trade Center Denver Development as well as LOT Twenty Eight, an adaptive reuse project on 28th & Blake St in RiNo. Marinos, his wife Hadley, and daughters, Tatum and Presley, live in Denver’s Berkley neighborhood.

Carl Koelbel is currently working at Koelbel & Company where he carries on a three-generation tradition of real estate development in the Denver Metro area. His primary focus is on development of land currently held by the firm as well as identifying and securing future development opportunities. Additionally, he started the Koelbel Urban Homes division which focuses on developing for-sale, infill homes. He also works extensively developing affordable housing in Colorado. In just over 9 years Koelbel and Company will have delivered close to 700 units of affordable housing in nine different projects with more to come. He also manages major projects for Koelbel including the Catalyst office building along Brighton Blvd. and the redevelopment of Regatta Plaza in Aurora. Carl received his Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Real Estate and Finance from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Before receiving his M.B.A., he was a Research Associate at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C. At U.L.I. he assisted the Senior Resident Fellows in various research projects with a focus on infrastructure and its effect on land use patterns. He has a B.A. in Economics and International Relations from the University of Southern California and is an avid skier, golfer, and tennis player. He is always thankful of the support of his wife Fallon and three children, Harper, Reagan, and Presley.

Taking everything previously understood about the “hotel restaurant”—stale concepts comprised of generalized menus, occupying lobbies across America—and flipping that on its head, Peter Karpinski innovated and reconstructed the common lodging amenity in launching Denver-based company, Sage Restaurant Group, in 2005. “Hospitality is much more than merely serving somebody,” he says, highlighting the heartfelt philosophy that drives his bold vision. “It distills down to creating memorable moments and stirring genuine emotions in everything we do.” As co-founder of Sage Restaurant Group—a subset of Sage Hospitality, in which he also serves as a partner. Karpinski develops and manages independent hotel-adjacent restaurants, elevating the drinking and dining scene in often-overlooked markets. With a degree in hospitality administration from Cornell University, Karpinski took on the scene as a food and beverage director with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts as well as director of restaurants for Caesar’s Palace. He joined Sage Hospitality in 2005 to co-found Sage Restaurant Group after a successful stint in Philadelphia leading corporate operations for Starr Restaurant Organization. Karpinski applied his innovative spirit to help Sage open community-minded restaurants that raise the caliber of hotel dining, including The Corner Office in Denver; Kachina Southwestern Grill in Denver and Westminster; Mercat a la Planxa in Chicago; The Original Dinerant in Portland, OR; Hello Betty Fish House in Oceanside, CA; Urban Farmer Steakhouse in Portland, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Denver; Departure Restaurant + Lounge in Portland and Denver; and most recently, The Emporium Kitchen and Wine Market in Fort Collins, CO and Savannah, GA. With a similar approach, he also has a hand in new hospitality mixed- use developments and investments. The goal, be it a restaurant or hotel, remains to bring sophisticated, eclectic, yet approachable cuisine and experiences to neighborhoods with emerging reputations, raising the profile of the destination while offering culture and opportunities to locals and visitors alike. The thought leader has earned numerous recognitions for his groundbreaking work, including Food & Wine’s “40 Big Food Thinkers Under 40” in 2011; publications such as Forbes and Restaurant Hospitality, among others, have also taken note of his talents. Karpinski resides with his family in Colorado, where they enjoy taking advantage of the abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation.

Heather Paduck is Chief Financial Officer at Northwood and is based in our Denver office. Mrs. Paduck has responsibility for all financial activities including financial reporting, accounting, tax, treasury and compliance. Prior to joining Northwood Investors, Mrs. Paduck was Chief Financial Officer of Pembroke Real Estate, a Fidelity Investments subsidiary based in Boston which manages over 7.5 million square feet in direct real estate investments in the United States, Europe and Asia/Pacific across the office, multi-family and retail sectors. During her tenure at Pembroke, Mrs. Paduck managed a global team located in Boston, London, Stockholm, and Tokyo, helping to more than double the portfolio since 2007. Heather was responsible for the finance, accounting and treasury functions within the managed portfolio, including capital structure planning and evaluation of tax, accounting and governance issues related to new transactions. In addition, she was responsible for financial planning and analysis, as well as accounting, operational and technology initiatives for Pembroke’s global offices. Mrs. Paduck moved to Pembroke from the parent company of Fidelity which she joined in 2003 as a Director of Corporate Accounting for FMR LLC. Prior to joining Fidelity, Heather spent six years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Chicago and Boston offices, managing financial statement audits for public and private real estate companies. Mrs. Paduck received a B.S. in Accounting and International Business from Indiana University and her M.B.A. in Finance at the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University.

Jarrett Wendt serves as Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Initiatives for Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Company (PESCO), a division of Panasonic Corporation of North America. The company provides comprehensive solutions directly to clients in two major areas: Eco Solutions, comprised of commercial-scale solar and energy efficiency systems and Audio-Visual (AV) Solutions, comprised of large-scale audio-visual solutions for major sports and entertainment clients. Jarrett is charged with leading Panasonic’s Smart Cities initiative CityNOW leveraging the strengths of Panasonic’s tremendous history in smart and sustainable solutions, including solar, battery storage, micro-grids, traffic and mobility solutions, healthcare, and more. He also leads corporate partnerships for Panasonic providing large-scale solutions across AVC’s global portfolio. Jarrett joined Panasonic August, 2015. Prior to joining Panasonic, Jarrett spent 8 years as President and CEO of CPI International, a leading analytical and life science manufacturer. He grew CPI’s global business by successfully launching markets in over 40 countries. While as CPI, he attained 12 patents, and presented before the US EPA gaining two EPA approvals for Colitag ™, a novel drinking water test that detects e. coli and coliforms. He secured global OEM contract manufacturing partnerships with Thermo-Fisher, Agilent, Spectro, PerkinElmer, and Horiba while growing CPI’s vertically integrated capabilities. Prior to his role at CPI, Jarrett found and served as President of JMG, an entertainment and media company focused on global distribution of music and motion pictures. Jarrett holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Colorado Boulder. He currently resides in Colorado with his wife and son.

Mr. Cope has over 15 years of experience in the multifamily industry, being responsible for the acquisition, asset management, and disposition of over $2 billion of apartments during that time. Prior to Sagebrush, Mr. Cope was the Vice President of Multifamily for Apartment Capital Solutions, the multifamily division of Real Capital Solutions, based out of Louisville, Colorado. Mr. Cope oversaw the strategic direction and execution of over $400M in assets, consisting of 12 properties with 3,400 apartment units, and an additional 6 properties and 1,000 units under development. He specializes in distressed and value-add opportunities including REOs, note purchases, and ground up or redevelopment throughout the US. Prior to his position at Real Capital Solutions, Mr. Cope worked for the multifamily REIT Apartment Investment and Management Company (AIMCO) based in Denver, Colorado. He was responsible for sourcing and closing transactions throughout the Eastern U.S., with concentration in high barrier-to-entry markets. Prior to joining AIMCO, Mr. Cope was Regional Property Supervisor for a large third-party management company that was later purchased by Riverstone Residential.

Daniel is responsible for the vision, design, entitlements and execution of new and existing real estate developments, and strategic positioning of all real estate assets. Previously, Daniel was the Senior Principal and Practice Leader for the Stantec Buildings and ViBE groups in Colorado, where he oversaw the vision, design and execution for multiple life sciences and healthcare facilities, mixed-use developments, sports and entertainment districts, arenas, urban districts, shopping experiences, nationally and in over 15 countries. He has over 20 years of experience in visioning, planning, urban design, architecture, interior design, branding and graphic design, environmental graphics and wayfinding, sustainable design, and placemaking. Daniel earned a Master of Architecture and Healthcare Design from Texas A&M University. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree in from the Instituto Superior de Arquitectura in Mexico City, and the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel. He serves on the Colorado University LEEDS Real Estate Center International Advisory Board, the ULI’s RETL Council, and the Better Boulder Board of Directors. For Daniel, delivering captivating, relevant, sustainable, and exceptionally unique projects is the status quo. He designs and develops places where people elect to spend their time. He finds connections and meaning; creating beautiful design, focused on the experience.

Seth Snyder, born and raised in Denver, was the second employee to join the Austin based Contract Simply team. With a background in production homebuilding and later spending several years with a technology venture capital firm, he recognized the massive opportunity to bring technology to developers and construction lenders. Having met over a thousand companies while in the venture world, it was immediately clear that Contract Simply had the right team, technology and timing to bring the best solution for Construction Finance Management to market.