State of the Valley & Tri-Cities

Larry Green is Senior Vice President US Development for Westfield LLC. He has worked for the company since 1993 in various capacities in Australia and across the United States. Today he oversees Westfield’s Development activities in greater Los Angeles, Northern California, San Diego and Seattle. Larry has played an important role in many of the company’s portfolio acquisitions and landmark developments, including: Centermark & TrizecHahn Acquisitions, the redevelopment of Westfield Valley Fair, Westfield Topanga, Westfield San Francisco Centre, Westfield Century City, Westfield Roseville Galleria, Westfield Culver City and The Village at Westfield Topanga. Larry graduated from the University of Southern California in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and earning letters for his role on the men’s Water Polo team. He is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has been an active participant in a variety of charitable organizations and LA public schools. Today he serves on the Board of Directors of Southern California Special Olympics, LA Sports & Entertainment Commission, LA Chamber of Commerce and the US Maccabiah Games. Larry remains an avid sportsman and in 2008 won a gold medal in the men’s open division Water Polo competition at the 11th Pan American Maccabi Games, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Larry is married to Tina Green, a Northern California native, and has a 15 year old daughter.

Jim is the National Head of Retail Investments and Retail Capital Markets for Lincoln Property Company, and co-founder of the retail investment firm, Paragon Commercial Group, Lincoln’s west coast retail investment partner. Jim began his career as a real estate and finance attorney with Latham & Watkins LLP where he represented developers, equity investors and lenders in capital structuring, acquisitions, dispositions, leasing and entitlements throughout the United States. Jim co-founded Paragon in 2009 to capitalize on retail real estate investment opportunities resulting from the GFC market dislocation. Since that time, Jim has been honored by the Urban Land Institute as one of the “Top 40 Under 40” land use and real estate professionals in the United States, by the Los Angeles Business Journal as one of the top 5 retail real estate professionals in Los Angeles, and twice recognized by the Los Angeles Times as a Commercial Real Estate Visionary. Jim currently serves in various industry leadership capacities including the Executive Committee of the Southern Methodist University Folsom Institute for Real Estate, Policy Advisory Board for the Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics at UC Berkeley, Executive Committee Board of the USC Gould School of Law Real Estate Law and Business Forum, immediate past Chairman of the Urban Land Institute's Small Scale Development Council, and lecturer at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and the UC Berkeley Masters of Real Estate programs. Jim’s civic involvements include his current service as a Planning Commissioner for the City of Manhattan Beach, California, as well as a founding donor and advisor to the SMU Real Estate Impact Fund, a student-driven investment vehicle focused on impact investing in underserved communities.

Kent Handleman oversees all leasing activity for LPC West Los Angeles. With over 28 years of transactional experience encompassing over 10 million square feet of space, he manages a portfolio with 4+ million square feet of office projects, and represents ownerships that include LPC West partnerships, associated capital partners, and third-party owners throughout the South Bay, Playa Vista, Culver City, Santa Monica, downtown Los Angeles, Tri-Cities, and the San Fernando Valley. Prior to joining LPC West, Kent led leasing efforts for Thomas Properties Group in Southern California. This included City National Plaza, a 2.6-million square foot premier office complex in downtown Los Angeles, where he successfully leased approximately 2 million square feet as the project was repositioned in the market. Prior to this, Kent worked at CBRE where he represented tenants and landlords in the leasing, disposition and/or marketing of commercial office property. Kent’s tenure in the industry began in real estate acquisitions and financial analysis for a pension fund advisor. After completing his MBA at the USC Marshall School of Business, he joined MetLife Real Estate Investments and, in addition to hotel and multi-family projects, he oversaw leasing and asset management for a 3.5-million square foot office building portfolio, with 2.5 million square feet in downtown Los Angeles. In his capacity as an asset manager, Kent also directed property management, and was responsible for business/investment decisions regarding these office, hotel, and multi-family projects as owner’s representative.

Ireland’s loss was Southern California’s gain. The co-founder of our company is the garrulous Irishman John Parker. On the surface, he is an easy-going gentleman. On the job, he is all business. John Parker co-founded Parker Brown, Inc. in 1994 with Scott Brown. The two set the “get the job done” tone for the company’s construction operations and corporate management. Leaving Ireland for the U.S. in 1989, John owned and operated John Parker Building Ltd., a residential remodeling firm. After relocating his family to Los Angeles, John was the construction manager at a Los Angeles area commercial construction company until the inception of Parker Brown, Inc. in 1994. John and Scott are personally involved in every project that Parker Brown, Inc. is awarded. They provide oversight from the job site or from the corporate office, and, in a lot of cases, from both. John is deeply involved in the communities he serves. He is the past president of the Canoga Park/West Hills Chamber of Commerce, former president of the Canoga Park Improvement Association, a past member of the Oversight Committee on the Bond Program of Pierce College, and executive vice president of the Women’s Odyssey, a residential drug and alcohol recovery program. Currently, he is a commissioner serving on the Los Angeles County Building Rehabilitation & Appeals Board, and is presently the president of the United Chamber of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley.

As Vice President of Operations, Vanessa oversees Inventory Management and Customer Support, including the creation, maintenance, and automation of Truss’s listing inventory. Prior to joining Truss, Vanessa was on the investment team at GEM Realty Capital and Landmark Partners. Most recently, she was the Director of Corporate Development at Uptake, a venture-backed industrial IoT company, where she oversaw M&A and Strategic Partnerships. Vanessa has a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

With more than a decade of experience in representing investment clients in the multi-family markets of the sprawling San Fernando Valley and the Tri-Cities markets of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena, and, in the process, has consistently won top producer honors. His most recent achievements include: 2017 & 2018 Everest Club Top 10% Producer of Colliers Brokerage in North America and the recipient of Max Green’s 2017 & 2018 Top Producers Award. Earlier in his professional career, Ghobadi owned and operated a hospitality and transport company with more than 50 employees whose success provided him with invaluable business acumen and gave him a running start when he decided to change careers in 2006, the year he began his commercial real estate career. Just 12 months later in 2007, he won “Rookie of the Year” honors and has never looked back. Ghobadi, who is fluent in three languages – English, Swedish and Farsi – continued to win top sales awards despite the economic downturn of The Great Recession of 2008, until it ended five years later in 2012. It was during this five-year period that he won top sales honors despite the severe economic downtown. After continuing to climb the brokerage ranks at his previous firm, he held progressively more senior brokerage and management positions, including Director of Special Asset Services, where he specialized in the disposition of distressed and REO properties. His lengthy experience first as a business owner and now as a senior investment broker, including stints at two other brokerage firms, along with his ability to fluently speak three languages in the polyglot markets that comprise so much of the Los Angeles Basin, has allowed him to create and maintain a loyal, ethnically diverse following of clients from a variety of backgrounds.

Chris Tourtellotte serves as a Managing Director of LaTerra. Chris is responsible for overseeing the Development group, sourcing and closing new acquisitions, sourcing debt and equity for LaTerra’s projects, and growing LaTerra’s apartment and mixed use development platform, which currently includes over 3,000 apartment units either under construction or in the pipeline. Prior to joining LaTerra, Mr. Tourtellotte spent 7 years at Prudential Global Investment Management (PGIM), a global real estate private equity investment fund manager with over $50 billion of gross assets under management. Most recently at PGIM, Mr. Tourtellotte held the position of Director, overseeing all development activity west of the Mississippi River with over 20 development deals at a total cost basis greater than $1 billion. Prior to Mr. Tourtellotte’s role overseeing West Coast development, he spent 5 years on the West Coast acquisitions team where he worked on closing over $1 billion in acquisitions across all property types (multifamily, office, retail, industrial, and hotels) and all layers of the capital stack (senior debt, subordinate debt, preferred equity and equity). Chris co-founded SnowGlobe Music Festival, which was ultimately acquired by MTV. SnowGlobe is a world-renowned annual music festival (featuring the largest musical acts in the world) drawing over 50,000 attendees over the three day event. Mr. Tourtellotte was responsible for raising the capital, and structuring and negotiating the investment documents prior to the inaugural 2011 festival. Mr. Tourtellotte was selected for Real Estate forum’s 50 under 40 list. Mr. Tourtellotte holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration (Cum Laude) with a double concentration (Finance & Accounting) and a minor in Real Property Development from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

As president of each of the Adept companies, Patrick leads each team with over 30 years of design, technical, construction, and development expertise. Patrick is a civil engineering graduate from the University of Southern California with nearly 30 years’ experience administrating and managing construction development projects totaling more than $300 million nationally, including apartment buildings, mixed-use developments, retail centers, office buildings, and public works projects. His oversight ensures we provide fully integrated planning, programming, full service architecture, engineering, construction management and contracting services. In addition, Patrick has served as Chairman of Old Pasadena Management District, Chair of the Economic Development Committee and is a past member of the Engineering Contractor Association. He is also an accomplished free-style skier and supports the Western U.S. Regional Offices Finance Committee of Homenetmen, an athletic youth organization.

Adrian is responsible for sourcing, analyzing, due diligence, and negotiating new investment opportunities including real estate acquisitions and equity co-investment. Adrian also fosters and grows CEI's network of lenders, equity partners, and brokers. In Los Angeles, Adrian is focused on the acquisition of land for development, multi-family value-add, retail/office for repositioning; and equity co-investment with local sponsors. Nationally, Adrian is responsible for identifying and qualifying sponsors who require co-investment capital.

Natalie has over 25 combined years of experience as a Senior Managing Director and real estate Brokerage Professional with the CBRE, Inc. Specializing in Office Properties with extensive experience in leasing, investment sales, and ground up developments, Natalie focuses her efforts on representing owners and corporate and office tenants throughout the Tri-Cities markets of Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank and throughout the San Gabriel Valley. For 13 years, Natalie was an integral part of the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire’s office market growth. Her involvement within the commercial real estate community and the Cities and 3 Counties that make up these Regions, positioned her well in 2008 and for the next 6 years, to oversee two of the largest Regions in the U.S. as its Senior Managing Director. Charged with growing and overseeing over 200 sales professionals and staff in the Inland Empire and the Los Angeles North Regions, Natalie’s insight into and approach to the market in which she now represents Landlords, Tenants, Buyers and Sellers has been expanded through her leadership roles and balcony perspective. Natalie’s multi-faceted background, process-driven approach, commitment to the industry, Regional reach, and strong relationships, enable her to provide the highest level of service to her clients, with the strongest of business and work ethics, knowledge and experience.