Neighborhood Series: The Arts District

Lorena is a seasoned real estate broker serving clients in retail, hospitality, creative office and investment sales. Formerly a top producer in her role of Vice President at Jones Lang LaSalle in Southern California, Lorena formed URBANLIME Real Estate, a boutique consulting and brokerage firm based out of Downtown Los Angeles specializing in investment sales and leasing of urban properties in the Los Angeles area. Over the years, Lorena has developed a strong network of national and independent retailers, fashion, creative and tech companies and has established solid relationships with regional and institutional landlords that have resulted in successful transactions ranging from retail, industrial and office leasing to investment and owner-user sales.

Lia Tatevosian is currently Vice President, Operations Manager for Swinerton, with oversight of the Aviation, Civic, Special Projects, Seismic/Adaptive Reuse and Entertainment markets for Swinerton’s Orange County and Los Angeles Division. She is responsible for an annual revenue of $550Mil for 2017 and 550 employees and growing. Lia is a 22-year veteran with Swinerton, having started her career with them as a Project Engineer in 1996 and working her way up through project management and estimating. Prior to working for Swinerton, Lia spent 2 years as a Junior Estimator working for an LA general contractor in Silver Lake, CA where she discovered her passion for construction. Lia has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis. She lives in Glendale, CA and has three children, Mara (17), Luca (15) and Ella (9). In her spare time, Lia coaches a high school age girl’s basketball traveling team, enjoys watching her son play basketball, going to music concerts and the movies. Lia is one of the co-founders of Women in Construction Operations (WiOPS) and served on their Southern California board for 5 years. She also serves on the Architecture Construction Engineering (ACE) Los Angeles Chapter board helping high school students become exposed to the ACE disciplines and leading them in the right direction, finding scholarships and internships in their desired fields. Lia is also one of the newest members of the Architecture and Design (A+D) Museum board in Los Angeles, whose mission is to celebrate and promote an awareness in progressive architecture and design in everyday life through exhibits, educational programs and public outreach.. Lastly, Lia serves on the Swinerton Foundation board, which helps build sustainable cities and neighborhoods by partnering with community-focused non-profit organizations to support health, social services, cultural, education, and environmental programs that benefit all members of the community. The Swinerton Foundation also serves as a catalyst to encourage and expand the philanthropic endeavors of Swinerton Incorporated and its affiliates' employees and has raised and donated millions of dollars to non-profit groups and organizations since its inception in 2002.

A proud L.A. native, Cheyanne Sauter has been a nonprofit professional for over 20 years. Her true calling lies in working with and supporting artists, and in July 2013 Cheyanne joined Art Share L.A. as an Interim Director to revitalize the nonprofit. In two years, she developed a programmatic model that supported 200 visual & performing artists annually. Today, Art Share L.A. has a staff of six and offers diverse programming that engages hundreds of emerging artists to create, exhibit, and share their work with thousands of art lovers annually. In 2017, Cheyanne was named Pioneering Woman of the Year by Council District 14, Jose Huizar's office. She currently sits on the boards of the Los Angeles River and Business Association (LARABA) and the Arts District Business Improvement District (ADLA).

As the Downtown Los Angeles Alliance's Executive Director, Nicholas ‘Nick’ Griffin spearheads the organization’s efforts to attract new businesses, retailers, investors and residents to what has grown to become one of the nation’s most dynamic urban centers. Hailed the “next great American City,” by GQ Magazine, Downtown LA has experienced unprecedented growth over the past 16-years, in large part due to the efforts of the DTLA Alliance's economic development team. Prior to the DTLA Alliance, Nick spent more than 25 years in business development in the real estate, media/entertainment and technology industries. For the previous 10 years, Nick was a leading commercial leasing and sales broker in New York City, where he was responsible for more than $100M in transactions. Prior to his rise in real estate, Nick spent a decade as a marketing and sales executive in the creative media and technology industries. Nick is a graduate of UCLA and holds an MBA from Ohio State University.

Perry Pound is the Founder and CEO of Cambridge Pacific Ventures, a real estate and green technology investment firm focused on solving the housing crisis and the climate crisis. Cambridge Pacific invests in the creation of sustainable, innovative, mixed-use, transit-oriented housing communities. While beginning his career in politics and government, Perry developed his affinity for smart growth as a way to preserve open space, reduce pollution, and create a better quality of life for residents. Perry has to-date, developed more than 5,000 homes in 30 communities, and created more than 5,000 jobs. Prior to founding his own company, Mr. Pound opened the Greystar Southern California Development Division and transformed Greystar into the LA market leader. Perry sourced, negotiated, acquired, financed, and developed a $1.5+ Billion pipeline of ten new developments totaling approximately 2,500 new multifamily housing units. Prior to Greystar, Mr. Pound led the Southern California acquisition and development efforts for Alliance Residential, JPI, BRE Properties, and The Olson Company, for a total investment of an additional $1 billion. Mr. Pound received a Masters in International Finance from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and completed his second year in Real Estate Finance and Development at Harvard Business School. He received his B.A., cum laude, from Pepperdine University, where he was Student Body President. Mr. Pound currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine Business School, a mentor for real estate technology accelerator Moderne Ventures, and a member of the Urban Land Institute, the National Multi Housing Council, and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

Brad Cox serves as Senior Managing Director for Trammell Crow Company where his primary focus is raising capital, setting investment strategy, creating deal flow, and overseeing the day-to-day activities for the Los Angeles Business Unit. Trammell Crow Company is a 69-year national development company, a wholly owned subsidiary of CBRE, with offices in 16 cities across the United States. The Los Angeles division portfolio currently includes $1.8B of in process development including 200 acres of industrial development in Santa Clarita, Irwindale and Compton; 400,000 SF Office Building for LA County Department of Mental Health Services; 50,000 SF Medical Office Building for MLK Hospital; and over 4,000 multifamily units in Downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena, Hollywood, North Hollywood and Bakersfield. Prior to joining Trammell Crow Company, Brad was Senior Managing Director of the Southern California region for Cushman & Wakefield that included six offices and 135 brokers. His career experience has included the development, marketing and leasing activities of real estate portfolios totaling in excess of 10M SF for institutional and entrepreneurial owners in Southern California. Prior to Cushman & Wakefield, past development and leasing experience includes the 1.2M SF Westwood Gateway project in West Los Angeles, the 600,000 SF 550 South Hope Street Office Building and the repositioning of the 1.2M SF 55 story 333 South Hope Street building in downtown Los Angeles on behalf of, Bren Investment Properties, The Koll Company and MetLife.

Tony heads Fairfield’s western asset management division, overseeing stabilized, acquisition and redevelopment assets in California, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Washington. He is responsible for the overall portfolio oversight and property strategic planning including establishment of long- and short-term investment goals, financial projections, operations performance and implementation of investment strategies. He joined Fairfield in 2015 as part of the merger with Associated Estates (AEC) and has over 25 years of experience in real estate. Prior to Fairfield/AEC, Tony served as senior vice president of investments at Equity Residential (EQR). There he was responsible for the business activities of a 26,000-unit apartment and mixed-use portfolio throughout the southwestern United States with an emphasis on acquisitions, asset management and asset repositioning. Tony received his undergraduate degrees from Wichita State cum laude and his MBA from Oklahoma University.

John Zanetos is a Executive Vice President in the Los Angeles office of CBRE. The world’s largest real estate services firm. John’s track record with tenants and landlords has enabled him to complete a multitude of complex transactions across the United States. Major transactions have included lease acquisitions and space dispositions for Fortune 500 Companies, multi-market relocations, strategic development, advance lease renewals and occupancy cost reduction strategies. John’s primary focus is representing firms with operations in Southern California, devising creative real estate solutions and providing advice during transaction negotiations. John has received numerous CBRE recognition awards. In 2016, John successfully completed the two largest lease transactions in Greater Los Angeles including a 250,000 RSF lease with Warner Music Group and a 240,000 RSF lease with City National Bank. In addition to representing clients within the acquisition and disposition of their lease space, John advises some of the largest institutional investors of real estate on the marketing and leasing of their assets.